SOUTHAMPTON — Southampton may have a permanent town administrator by the end of the year.
The position was posted on the Massachusetts Municipal Association website on Friday. Over the summer, a search committee made up of town officials, including the police chief and highway superintendent, and residents has worked with the Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management out of the University of Massachusetts Boston to create a job description and profile.
The consulting firm was hired using $5,000 from free cash at the January special Town Meeting, and $5,000 from reserve funds in June.
The town’s fiscal 2018 budget lists the town administrator’s salary as $80,000, which is a significant increase from last year, which had the salary at $58,262.
Select Board Chairman Charlie Kaniecki said increasing the salary will not only make the position more competitive with executive jobs in the surrounding area, but also bring in more highly qualified and experienced applicants.
Kaniecki said the roles of the town administrator will expand. The job description states that the administrator is responsible for town affairs on a day-to-day basis. In the past, the administrator had to get permission from the Select Board before undertaking tasks such as grant applications, Kaniecki said.
The town administrator is the chief administrative officer and the chief financial officer of the town. The town administrator appoints all department heads, with confirmation by the Select Board, prepares the annual town report and maintains the town’s records.
The applicants will be narrowed down to the top three by the search committee. Preliminary evaluations of all applicants will be down by the consulting firm, Kaniecki said. He said he hopes to have a new town administrator by December.
Interim Town Administrator Robert Markel has served Southampton since November 2016 and said he will remain in the post until the town has settled on a permanent town administrator.
“I’m here until they tell me to go,” Markel said.
Markel, former mayor of Springfield and former town manager of Ipswich, has served numerous interim town administrator stints since his retirement in 2012. His message to town administrators: “You get fired, I get hired.”
Former town administrator Heather Budrewicz served from March 2014 until November 2016. She left the post to become the town administrator of Ashburnham.
Prior to hiring Budrewicz, the town went over two years without a permanent town administrator.
Caitlin Ashworth can be reached at cashworth@gazettenet.com.