Selectmen Chairman Edward Maia said he hopes to have a permanent replacement hired by February.
Gretchen E. Neggers MONSON - Letters of interest will be accepted until Sept. 20 from town employees who are interested in taking on town administrator duties on an interim, part-time basis now that Town Administrator Gretchen E. Neggers is retiring.
Selectmen unanimously voted at their Tuesday meeting to move forward with a part-time, interim administrator from within the town's departments. The board will review applications at its next meeting on Sept. 24.
The board also will hear proposals from two consulting firms at that meeting, and will decide its next course of action regarding a permanent replacement for Neggers.
The board discussed options that included hiring an outside firm to conduct the search, or appoint a search committee comprised of residents. Neggers' last day of work is Nov. 25.
Consultant proposals were submitted by the Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, MMA Consulting Group of Plymouth, and Municipal Resources of Meredith, N.H., but selectmen are only inviting MMA and Municipal Resources to the meeting, as the Collins Center already is involved with the regional emergency dispatch issue.
Neggers said she is trying not to start "any big projects, but they just happen."
Some of the ongoing and more involved projects she is working on include the reuse of Monson Developmental Center, Monson's status as a surrounding community to the proposed Mohegan Sun casino project in Palmer, the new Town Building-Police Station project and union negotiations with police and town employees.
Neggers said she has passed much of the Town Building project work to town planner, Daniel Laroche, also the disaster recovery manager.
Selectmen Chairman Edward A. Maia said he wants interested employees to detail how they can include town administrator duties into their current position, and their requested stipend for taking on the extra work.
While Maia said he was not in favor of hiring a consultant, Selectmen Edward S. Harrison and Richard M. Smith said they were interested in hiring a firm to do the search.
Harrison said he would spend $10,000 or $11,000 on a consultant.
Said Smith, "I don't know if I feel confident enough to do it ourselves." Smith said he would consider hiring a consultant or appointing search committee, but is leaning toward using a consultant.
Neggers said the consultant fee could come from the gifts to the town account, which has $36,000.
"You may decide, geez who wants to listen to them for the next three months, we'll just do it ourselves . . . Sit down and talk to them and get a real feel for the process and then you'll be able to move forward," Neggers said.
Maia said after that he hopes to have a permanent town administrator hired by February.