HADLEY — Members of the Select Board carved out time at the end of their regular meeting Wednesday to assess the performance of longtime Town Administrator David Nixon, and he got mixed reviews about seven months before his current contract expires.
Some critiques were positive, others were not so glowing. Select Board members said they will decide in the coming weeks on whether to renew Nixon’s contract, which expires June 30, 2017. He earns a $90,137 annual salary.
“In general there were, you know, strong positive remarks … how well you know the town, how well you know what the town issues are, how you articulate it,” Select Board Chairwoman Molly Keegan said of Nixon, who is in his 12th year as town administrator. “Strength really in that day-to-day management in particular.”
Keegan started the review and hit the positives first before easing into criticism of Nixon’s job performance, which touched on communication and budgeting.
“There are some board members that don’t feel that the communication is as clear and consistent as it needs to be,” Keegan said.
She said the board plays a “significant” role in balancing the budget, but that Nixon has received some low marks from board members for his handling of budget matters. While not running a deficit, Hadley is using $472,312 in “free cash” this fiscal year to ensure a balanced $17.2 million budget.
Free cash includes revenues that exceed projections and also savings from city departments that underspent in the previous fiscal year.
“We need to balance our budget. Period,” Select Board member John Waskiewicz chimed in.
Apart fom Nixon’s five bosses on the Select Board, the review was sparsely attended with only a Gazette reporter, cable-access cameraman and Planning Board member John Mieczkowski Sr. in the room.
Each Select Board member fills out a written performance review with scores on a zero-to-3 scale with 3 being the highest score. Selectmen Joyce A. Chunglo, Gerald T. Devine and Keegan all gave high marks, all overall scores above 2. Waskiewicz gave a cumulative mark of 1.6 while Selectman Donald J. Pipczynski gave a low score of .9.
The members were cordial when explaining their assessments. Nixon sat to the side, quiet through most of the talk. In his written review, Pipczynski criticized Nixon’s interactions with the public and department heads.
“Many department heads say the TA (town administrator) expressed his ideas in a forceful manner,” Pipczynski wrote, adding that Nixon should be more of a team player.
On Thursday, Nixon responded to the criticism saying he “strives” to be a collaborative administrator but acknowledged “there’s always room for improvement.”
At the meeting, the board took a reflective turn — not necessarily addressing Nixon’s performance, but thinking out loud about the town’s current state of affairs and how its 5,000 residents aren’t always on the same page.
“Sometimes it’s not a lack of communication on his (Nixon’s) part,” Waskiewicz said. “Sometimes it’s a lack of communication throughout the whole town.”
Chunglo addressed the town’s growth in retail, and its move away from a once-quiet farming community.
“Things have turned over these number of years to the point where we’ve become more of a business,” Chunglo said. “There’s been a lot more to deal with.”
Despite giving Nixon the lowest score, Pipczynski said the board should do a better job directing the town’s administrators.
“David takes the hit all the time for what this board does,” Pipczynski said. “If we don’t give him the proper direction, we should be taking the hit, not David.”
Jack Suntrup can be reached at jsuntrup@gazettenet.com.