WAKEFIELD — The Town Council is expected to vote tonight on an employment agreement with Denise Y. Casey, the person they picked as the next town administrator.
The council meeting begins at the WCAT studio behind Wakefield Memorial High at 7 p.m.
Councilors selected Casey on August 18 to succeed Stephen P. Maio, who retired on July 3 after 17 years as the town’s chief municipal manager. Casey will be the first woman to hold the position and the first who is not a Wakefield native.
The Town Council voted 6-1 to appoint Casey the position. Douglas Butler was the lone “no” vote.
Casey has been Deputy Town Manager for the town of North Andover for the last six and a half years. Prior to that she served as that town’s Assistant Town Manager. A graduate of Danvers High School, Casey holds a master’s degree in public administration, which she earned in 1998 at Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School.
Casey was named by every councilor as either their first or second choice. For six of the councilors, Liz Hartsgrove, assistant town manager in the town of Bourne, was one of their top two choices.
Councilor John Carney’s first choice was local resident Ann McGonigle Santos. But none of the other councilors named Santos as one of their top choices.
The only male finalist, Hamilton Town Manager Joseph Domelowicz, was not named by any Town Councilor as a first or second choice.
After each councilor named his top two choices, Carney made the motion to appoint Casey. Chines seconded the motion.
Butler thought Carney’s motion was “wildly premature” and floated the idea of holding another round of interviews with the top two candidates, Casey and Hartsgrove. He thought it was odd that the board would hire a chief executive after just one interview.
But other councilors felt that they had enough information to make a decision.
The board posed the question of a second round of interviews to John Petrin of Community Paradigm Associates, the executive search firm that worked with the local screening committee over the summer to winnow the 23 applicants down to the four finalists.
Petrin said that in his experience it would be “rare” to go to a second round of interviews but acknowledged that the decision was up to the Town Council.
Several Councilors said that they felt that either Casey or Hartsgrove could “hit the ground running.” Butler pointed out that for the foreseeable future Interim Town Administrator Kevin Gill will also be around for the new Town Administrator to lean on.
When the vote was called, councilors John Crisley, Brian Fox, Stacey Constas, John Carney, Jonathan Chines and Mehreen Butt voted to hire Casey. Butler was the only dissenting vote, having previously expressed his preference for Hartsgrove.
Butt then appointed Constas, Carney and Chines to a subcommittee to work on an employment contract for the new Town Administrator.
Casey’s start date will be determined once a contract is agreed to.