Fire Chief John Mauro Jr. has announced he will retire in September after 38 years on the force, and Selectmen last week started talking about the process for hiring his replacement. It’s a process that likely will be quite different from that used to hire Southborough’s police chief in 2009.
“I’m not sure the (police chief) search committee proved to be best vehicle for the process,” Selectman John Rooney said. “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
Rooney was a member of the citizen-led search committee charged with recommending finalists for the police chief position, but resigned before the finalists were selected because he said the process was flawed.
Rooney’s primary complaint at the time was that the consultant hired to assist the process was not allowed to fully participate. He said for the fire chief search, the consultant should be involved from the beginning.
Boland agreed saying that while everyone on the police chief search committee worked hard, having the consultant involved throughout would have helped the process. “I don’t know if anything would have turned out differently … but the consultant should have been involved from the get-go,” he said.
For the fire chief search, Rooney said he would not support the creation of an ad-hoc citizen committee like the one used during the police chief search. Instead, he recommended bringing in retired fire chiefs and paying them a small stipend to assist with the process.
“They know exactly what we should be looking for in a fire chief,” Rooney said. “I’m not sure citizens, myself included, would be able to add much.”
Selectman Dan Kolenda said he also would not support a citizen-based search committee, but Boland disagreed saying residents should be involved.
“I think it’s important to allow some citizen participation, but it needs to be a structured and focused charge from this board on what we’re looking for,” Boland said.
All three selectmen agreed the assessment center used to evaluate finalists in the police chief search was valuable, and said they plan to use one again.
Assistant Town Administrator Vanessa Hale said the cost of bringing in a consultant to advise the town on the hiring process, as well as to conduct an assessment center, is estimated at $7-$10K. That money was budgeted and approved by voters at Town Meeting in April.
Other than instructing Hale to issue an RFP for a consultant and assessment center, Selectmen did not make any further decisions about the hiring process at their meeting last week.
“We’re not reinventing the wheel,” Rooney said. “Let’s get a consultant on board immediately and they can advise us on the next step.”
Boland said in the end they want “the best process to find the best chief. There was a lot of tension in town when we hired the police chief. I hope this time it will be more peaceful.”
I agree with Mr. Rooney and Mr. Kolenda. The police chief process had problems which should be eliminated. Hiring a consultant and actually using the firm, with some outside input from other department chiefs is the way to go. It keeps things a bit more impartial and eliminates some of the emotions.
What’s the final stage of the process? How many candidates would be presented to the Selectmen, assuming that they will still have the final choice? In the end, there’s a need to see how much of a “fit” the candidate is for our own community. No outsider can have a sense of that. Hopefully the Selectmen would have substantial conversations with the finalists (more than one, I hope).
I also wonder if it isn’t a good idea to have someone from the department involved (maybe chosen by the people in the department.) I’m thinking about how candidates for positions in the business world are often interviewed by the people with whom and for whom they will be working. That interaction is important, even crucial, both for the candidate and the people doing the hiring.
The Selectmen would fulfill the working “for” category but I wonder how the candidate will be able to get a sense of the department she/he’d be running. The intangibles from some personal contact can make all the difference.
Choosing a department head may be the single most important and difficult thing that Selectmen do–at least in the eyes of the community, if not their own.
Whats the point of a nationwide search along with an assessment center when the results of this assessment will not translate into a top candidate being awarded the position. Save the money.
Why do you believe that we will not chose the best candidate (assuming the best one wants to work here)
Lookel southborough they already know who they want , its a big game to spent your money. Remind yourselves what happened during the last so-called fair search for a police chief. SAVE YOUR MONEY !
I think we should hire a professional to handle the whole process. Yep, there’s a business side, but firefighting requires skills and processes that the average person doesn’t understand. Plus you have an ALS ambulance service to operate. And let’s not forget all of those codes and regulations. I’m not knocking police chief Jane Moran, but the process used was flawed and the professional consultant was pushed in a corner. Skip the civilian committee and hire a pro…and listen to them!
John – I agree! The every day citizen doesn’t know the “behind the scenes” at a Fire Department, especially when it includes an EMS. Bring in other Fire Chiefs who know the system and what is required to run a department like Southborough’s. Leave it to the professionals.
I agree with Donna McDaniel that choosing a dept head is probably the most important thing a Selectperson does. That is true for any manager. A good hire is a tremendous asset and a bad hire is a source of unremitting pain.
I see no reason for cynicism about “the fix being in” for a candidate. I believe that Mr. Rooney and Mr. Kolenda have open minds on this matter. I think Mr. Boland is closer to and more protective of the employees but he was also the only Selectman to vote for the outside candidate in the Police Cheif search. So absent information to the contrary the Selectmen deserve the benefit of the doubt.
I certainly agree that we should hire someone to help the Selectmen vet the candidates and advise. The Selectmen might be well advised to hold a public hearing asking the public, including current fire dept employees to comment on what they see as important in selecting a new chief. However, I do not think that some form of committee consisting of either citizens or employees is a good idea. In the end this is the Selectmens decision and they should probably manage the process with the help of a professional advisor, the Town Admin. & Counsel.
When it comes to the end, a public interview with the finalists would be appropriate.
The skepticism toward citizens concerns me. We have a very democratic form of government, so those who have been unhappy with its outcomes seem to want to blunt the ability of citizens to have the direct voice that they disagree with.
Southborough has a long history of hiring department heads from within. I’m not sure that’s a good thing, but I don’t think outsourcing the decision to a consultant is a good way to change that. It is, however, a way to reduce the transparency of government.
I don’t think it is a skepticism towards citizens but rather a search for an effective process for vetting candidates. In the end this is the Selectmen’s decision and it is a very important decision. I believe this is a decision in which the selectmen need to involve themselves to a far greater extent in the early vetting than was done in the Police Chief search.
This is part of the challenge of the job as currently structured. The Selectman can be consumed by minutia and not have time to focus on the really important decisions that have a long term impact on our community.
I could go for a five-member board, but I’m not a fan of more power vested in a town manager.
I have to demur from the idea that the BoS was not able to be involved in the police chief search. The controversy there was that a lot of people disagreed with their decision, not that they were distracted by, say, transfer station fines (though that has to be a pain in the rear for them).
Right now, the BOS has roughly 10 direct reports. They are involved in the minutia of each dept. This is simply an untenable situation. I have spoken to several ex selectmen who each cited the massive time commitment as a major drawback.
Even though there is a modest stipend, this is effectively a volunteer position and we are abusing the people who are serving. If you want to keep the Town Admin form then you should advocate paying the BOS a meaningful wage for their services say $40k each.
Kelly brings up a good point re Southborough’s history of generally hiring police chiefs and fire chiefs from within the ranks. Perhaps this is a good time to look outside the department for new ideas, especially looking at the financial difficulties that lat ahead of us. It does seem that we, as a community, are a bit parochial when it comes to “outsiders.”
I’d like to see the selectmen provided with the very best possible candidates who can keep this town safe and run the department as efficiently as possible.
Technical qualifications matter. So do personal attributes. I don’t mean just integrity and leadership, though those are very important. Long loyalty to the community is positive too, as is knowledge of the town and its people.
Which values are more important, the technical or the personal? I don’t think there’s a blanket answer.
To arrive at an answer, for better or for worse, we use politics. That word has bad connotations, but the alternative is to build some process we can put on autopilot or to put someone in charge. Both, it seems to me, are suspicious of self-government as if it’s something we’re not grown-up enough to do. I think we are adults enough to make our own choices, even if some of those choices turn out to be controversial.
I’ve watched politics for a long time. Sometimes we make the wrong choice, sometimes the right one. We even disagree about which have been wrong and which right.
The people on the citizen’s committee who recommended Chief Moran and the Selectmen who agreed to their recommendation sincerely thought they were doing the best thing for the town. Some others disagree. That’s life.
The question is: Should we give our proxy to a consultant or should we make the decision with public involvement? I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that a consultant could better balance competing values than we could ourselves.