In last week’s open thread, My Southborough reader John asked about the status of hiring a replacement for Fire Chief John Mauro Jr. who retired back in September.
Over the summer a committee was formed to screen candidates for the fire chief position. I asked Assistant Town Administrator Vanessa Hale, who is a member of the Fire Chief Screening Committee, for an update on their progress.
Hale said the committee has invited six applicants to take part in an all-day assessment center on November 30. Assessment centers put candidates through a series of job-related simulations, interviews and/or psychological tests that are designed to shed light on how a candidate might behave in critical areas of the job.
The names of the six applicants have not been released. Hale said the search committee will likely meet one more time after the results from the assessment center are back to determine which candidates should go before the Board of Selectmen for final interviews.
The search committee had hoped to make their recommendations on finalists sometime in November, but Hale now says the final interviews should happen the first or second week of December.
The Board of Selectmen have the final hiring authority for the fire chief position.
After reading the Town website, I noticed there was a meeting of the Fire Chief Screening Committee on December 9th. They have whittled the list down to the final 3 names they will be submitting to the Board of Selectmen. I wonder who is in the running?