Robert Menicocci began his tenure on July 1st, taking over for the interim town manager since spring 2021: Charlie Blanchard.
“The impressions to date are very positive," the new town manager told WAMC. "It's really exciting to get to meet some of the town folks and have an opportunity to really just kind of do a meet and greet, really hear where people's minds are at. I would also say, you know, it's, we're right in the heart of kind of summer vacation for a lot of folks. So it's kind of a nice way to enter in.”
Menicocci was previously the director of the Santa Clara County Social Services Agency in California. He steps into the Williamstown town manager role after years of turmoil in the community stemming from racial, sexual, and professional misconduct within the police department. A since settled 2020 lawsuit from former officer Scott McGowan triggered the resignation of police chief Kyle Johnson and Menicocci’s predecessor, Jason Hoch.
“In terms of what's ahead, I think, clearly there’s a desire to wrap up some of the issues that have arisen in the past," said Menicocci. "Folks here have been busy at working hard, I think to, to hear the concerns and really craft a path forward. And I'm excited just to be able to jump in and help lead, you know, lead those efforts to forge our path ahead.”
Between that scandal and the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests that fueled a national racial reckoning, Williamstown’s community has engaged in passionate debate in recent months.
“I think there's a lot of great work happening around visioning for our future, whether that's just kind of from a planning perspective, looking at issues that I think everybody's facing, but it's economics, housing, you know, all of those sorts of issues," Menicocci told WAMC. "But also, you know, thinking long and hard around our diversity, equity, inclusion efforts, and really coming up with a solid plan, you know, a consensus plan, really, where the community needs to be given its experience over the past couple years, come up with a great framework for that and start moving forward.”
One of Menicocci’s biggest tasks is to find Williamstown a new permanent police chief.
“That was an issue that I think folks felt, you know, would be best, you know, best resolved by having the new town manager address that," he said. "So essentially, we've had an interim chief, you know, acting in that role for an extended period of time. So I think for everybody, there's a desire to move forward on that. So now that I'm here, we're going to dig into those efforts.”
Michael Ziemba has served as the town’s interim chief since Johnson resigned in December 2020.
“What that will entail is, again, me taking a little bit of time to make sure I hear from all the interested parties of what they're looking for in a future chief, and really beginning to look through a meaningful way to have a productive process," said Menicocci. "And what that means to me is having an open recruitment where we do a lot of work to make sure that folks are aware of the opportunity and get a great pool of applicants that the community can have input into and move, you know, move that that issue forward and get a chief in here permanently, hopefully, very quickly.”
Menicocci says he would like to see the role filled within the next six months.
“Many things are difficult right now, recruiting is one of them, and especially recruiting for law enforcement is very challenging," he added. "So, that being said, we're going to make our best effort to move this ahead quickly, get a great qualified pool of applicants that the town can have confidence in and make the right choice. And if that does mean the process will have to take a little extra time to find that right candidate, we will do that. We're not going to rush it. But I also understand the urgency of this has been waiting for a while, so let's get on this and get it done.”
WAMC asked Menicocci about whether the town will look at making an internal hire for the permanent police chief given the long-standing misconduct issues within the department.
“It's really about always in public service having the best candidate and without prejudice as to whether you're part of part of the, our government here or, you know, an external candidate," said Menicocci. "So, there's no predisposition as to who and what and what the qualifications and where you're from matter, it's really just the best the best candidate. And that's what we'll take into account.”
