© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An update has been released for the Android version of the WAMC App that addresses performance issues. Please check the Google Play Store to download and update to the latest version.

Committee Recommends Town Administrator For Quarrelsome Hinsdale

Jim Levulis
/
WAMC

What appears to be the most politically divided community in Berkshire County may soon be searching for a town administrator. A committee has recommended Hinsdale task someone with managing the town of roughly 2,000.During yet another contentious Select Board meeting Wednesday, a member of Hinsdale’s Town Administrator Advisory Committee presented its report saying the town would do well to hire a full-time administrator. Shaun Galliher is on the seven-member committee. After speaking with neighboring towns, he said nearly all of them have an administrator or manager to help the Select Board, whose members typically have other commitments.

“They usually have their own jobs or their own businesses they’re trying to work,” Galliher said. “So there are limits on how much they can do. This position would be able to advise the board and help them formulate a strategy for the town and where the town needs to go.”

An annual salary of $50,000 to $65,000 was recommended. The target of constant complaints since taking office roughly two years ago, Select Chair Bonnie Conner called an administrator position a necessity.

“To schedule everything that needs to be scheduled in town and try to get a handle on all of the departments, the new rules and regulations and keep things flowing and in compliance is more than a full-time job,” Conner said. “The only way I think it’s going to get there is to get a town manager or administrator in so that they can take a handle on it.”

Conner says administrators are better able to attend informational sessions and seek grants. But, she doesn’t think such a position would stop what she calls “nitpicking” from opponents.

“No, I don’t think it will because you’re with a certain group of people that until they get their way they’re not going to be happy,” Conner said. “Rather than move forward and look at settling things and getting things done they still have an axe they want to grind.”

As has become common at the Select Board meetings — where the public comment period has been taken off the agenda — arguments quickly escalated between residents and the board. Wednesday’s involved Jim Sullivan and town moderator John Conner, the select chair’s husband.

“Are you threatening me, John?” asked Sullivan.

“No,” said John Conner.

“I would ask that you call him to order, Chair,” said Sullivan.

“Do not point at me in any aggressive manner, yelling at me,” Sullivan said. “That’s not going to happen and you can’t allow that and you need to call him to order.”

“Mr. Sullivan, one more word from you and one more outburst and I’m going to have you escorted out of here,” Select Chair Conner said.

“Are you giving me a warning?” asked Sullivan.

“Yes, I am giving you the warning,” answered Select Chair Conner.

Select Chair Conner says the board will review the committee’s report before deciding whether to pursue a town administrator. The board also discussed who would respond to open meeting law complaints, specifically one surrounding an executive session on December 2, 2014. Select Chair Conner and Selectman Bruce Marshall can be heard.

“I would make a motion that that one is directed to Mr. Marshall and Mr. Marshall answer that one,” said Conner.

“No, I won’t answer any of them,” Marshall said. “Thank you.”

“We don’t know anything about it and that one is directed to you,” answered Conner.

“I don’t know anything about it,” said Marshall.

“If you don’t want to answer it then I’m going to send a letter to the attorney general saying that you refused to answer it,” said Conner.

Sean Murphy says he made the complaint after learning that Marshall showed notes of the executive session regarding the town’s transfer station attendant position. Murphy says he had applied for the job.

“Mr. Marshall had, directly after the meeting, divulged all of the happenings that had gone on in that meeting,” Murphy said. “Thus compromising the decision-making ability of the governing body.”

Murphy says he got a copy of video from town hall showing Selectman Marshall going over the meeting notes with Angela Stetson, Bruce Stetson, who had recently been fired as transfer station attendant, and former Hinsdale police chief Nancy Daniels, whom the board fired in January 2014. Daniels says she hasn’t been in town hall except to see the current police chief since being thrown out of a meeting on November 19th.

“I’ve never known Bruce [Marshall] to do that anyway,” Daniels said. “He wouldn’t bring paperwork from an executive session out just to show the public. I don’t believe that at all. I’ve never been involved in anything like that as far as him showing stuff.”

Murphy says he had heard his name was slandered following the executive session. The Stetsons could not be reached for comment in time for broadcast. Marshall could not be reached after Wednesday’s meeting, where he agreed to answer the complaint, saying he hadn’t seen it.

The firings of Stetson and Daniels are the basis of a petition delivered to the town clerk’s office January 28th seeking to initiate a recall of Select Chair Conner.

Meanwhile, thanks to two yes votes from Conner and Selectmen Bill Goddard, the board agreed last month to appeal open meeting law citations from the Massachusetts Attorney General Office’s surrounding the board’s firing of Bruce Stetson. Marshall, a selectman for more than 30 years, voted not to appeal those violations.

Jim is WAMC’s Associate News Director and hosts WAMC's flagship news programs: Midday Magazine, Northeast Report and Northeast Report Late Edition. Email: jlevulis@wamc.org
Related Content