By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — The Town Council would like to expedite the process of selecting a new Town Administrator to replace Stephen P. Maio, who will be retiring in July. At this week’s meeting they discussed the timing and logistics of selecting an executive search firm and appointing a local search committee to help with the process.
At their Feb. 10 meeting, the Town Council asked Maio to solicit quotes from interested executive search firms, but at last Monday’s meeting, Maio asked the Council for some guidance regarding timing and dates.
Councilor Jonathan Chines suggested a timetable whereby the executive search firms would come in and present to the Town Council on March 24, with the council deciding which search firm to use their April 14 meeting.
Town Councilor John Carney was wary of starting the process before the April 22 Town Election, fearing that it could become a political issue.
Councilor Douglas Butler thought that it would be possible to get quotes from interested search firms sooner than the timetable suggested by Chines.
Dombroski agreed with speeding up the process and didn’t see it becoming a political issue since at this time the board would be just deciding on a search firm, not actual Town Administrator candidates. He suggested that the Town Council could review the search firms at their March 10 meeting.
Councilor Robert Vincent wondered about the local selection committee and whether that would be appointed by the current Town Council or the new Town Council after the Town Election.
Chines suggested waiting until after the election to appoint a selection committee. That would allow the Town Council to get feedback from the executive search firm on best practices related to forming a local search committee.
But Dombroski noted that under Chines’ timeline, that meant that the Town Council wouldn’t get that guidance until the April 28 Town Council meeting. The local screening committee would not get appointed until May. Then that committee would have to decide on meeting dates, likely delaying candidate interviews until June.
Butler didn’t see the need to get advice from the executive search firm on how to compose a screening committee. He said the Town Council should decide what the screening committee will look like.
“We should get moving on this,” he said. He wondered if the board could wait until March 24 to meet with the search firms and then select the firm the same night. That would give Maio more time to assemble the quotes from interested search firms without delaying the selection process.
Maio liked that idea.
Dombroski wanted to revisit the timing of appointing a local search committee. Chines reiterated his preference to wait for advice from the search firm before appointing a local search committee.
Dombroski asked for the composition of the search committee to be placed on the March 10 meeting agenda, noting the Town Council could always defer the discussion.
Chairman Michael McLane agreed to place it on the agenda for the March 10 meeting.