By Curt Peterson
Standard Staff
The killington
select board met today to take the first action steps toward
selecting the candidate who will fill Seth Webb’s shoes as town manager.
With them were Citizen Search Committee members Gerri Russell and
Walter Findeisen, as well as Webb and Dick Horner, the interim town
manager. Webb’s last day will be Dec. 31.
Connected by Skype, Abigail
Friedman, Director of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns Municipal
Assistance Center, also participated in the meeting.
Reporting to the select board, the town manager is expected to
supervise 104 full and part-time employees, administer a $15 million
budget and oversee just about every department. Depending on education
and experience, the Select Board is offering $75,000 to $95,000 plus “an
excellent benefits package,” which is not defined.
Webb passed out packets for
everyone attending, which had been delivered to town hall by a VLCT
employee minutes before the meeting. Besides instructions and timeline
information, each packet contained complete copies of the sixty
applications for the job that VLCT has received.
“Because this is an open meeting,” Webb said, “we have to be careful not to mention any names or discuss
any individual candidate while anyone from the public or the press is
here.” Resident Charlie Holland and two reporters were the only people
not present officially, and who would be excluded from an executive
session.
In each packet was a copy of
the job description posted on the Town Website and advertised by VLCT as
part of their backroom support of killington’s
search. Highlighted in the description is the town’s fluctuating
population—811 fulltime residents, 2,500 second home owners and 15,000
visitors during ski season or for special events during the year.
“The town seeks a leader who can support its goal of becoming
Vermont’s premier resort community, offering residents a high quality
of life and tourists a memorable mountain adventure,” the document says.
In short, he or she will “Serve as the chief executive officer of the
town.”
Regarding the police
department and other town employees, the Manager will have the authority
to appoint and remove employees and “fix their salaries.”
Qualifications include a
bachelors’ degree and management experience, with advantage going to
candidates having skills and expertise involving municipal management.
The board’s next step will be to review the sixty applications and rank them on a scale of 1 to 5, 1
being the most suited for the job, and 5 the least suited. Friedman
called this “the winnowing stage.” She recommended the board try to come
up with 8-10 top candidates and five or six second-tier applicants
before they think about interviews.
“Keep in mind that many of
these applicants have filed multiple applications for jobs in several
towns, and they may accept one before you even approach them. It’s good
to have an adequate number of qualified people identified, with a small
group of back-ups,” Friedman said.
Chairman Patty McGrath
suggested a meeting late next week to review everyone’s ratings and
start to set up interviews. Findeisen and
Bianchi thought the holidays and work schedules might get in the way of
everyone reviewing the applications carefully that soon, so they agreed
to meet Dec. 17 at 1 p.m. to see how far everyone has gotten with their
rating process.
The board voted to go into
executive session so they could discuss some of the information in the
packet confidentially. As Charlie Holland was leaving he was asked
jokingly if he had applied for the job.
“No, I didn’t,” he laughed, “But I have one qualification that I think is the most important one – I live in killington full-time. I think the new manager should be required to live here too.”
Seth Webb lives in Woodstock.
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