CHESTERFIELD — Brenda Lessard, the longtime town clerk in Williamsburg, has been hired as Chesterfield’s new town administrator. Lessard intends to continue to serve as Williamsburg’s town clerk after taking over the Chesterfield post in June.
“She can fit both in in her weekly schedule,” said Chesterfield Select Board Chair Roger Fuller. “It doesn’t hurt Williamsburg in the process and it helps us out a lot.”
Lessard was hired at Monday’s Select Board meeting. Fuller said that Lessard, like the other candidates considered, was interviewed in executive session.
“The interview went really well,” Fuller said. “She knows the area.”
In addition to being town clerk in Williamsburg, Lessard was a finalist for the town administrator posittion there this year.
Lessard is set to replace Susan Labrie, who has served as town administrator in Chesterfield since 2011 and is retiring from the position on June 20.
Fuller said the three interviews were done in executive session because they were first interviews, which were also treated as final interviews. He said this was done to protect the candidates from having to reveal that they were looking for a job to their present employers.
Fuller said he reached out to Lessard after Williamsburg didn’t hire her for its town administrator job, and after he was unable to reach an agreement with a different candidate.
All negotiations past the first interviews were between Fuller and the candidates.
“It was never done in a meeting,” he said. “They all were interviewed once.”
Labrie said, via email, that the first candidate requested to have her preliminary interview done in executive session because she didn’t want her name publicized early in the process. She also said Lessard’s preliminary interview went well and that she was known to both herself and Fuller.
“With my retirement date approaching, the Select Board did not want to drag out the process,” she said “They agreed to have Mr. Fuller offer Ms. Lessard the position and begin to negotiate employment terms.”
Fuller said Lessard will be working with Labrie as “much as possible between now and then.”
“The transition is a good transition,” he said.
Labrie said, via email, that the transition with Lessard is going “very well.”
“She is great to work with and the town of Chesterfield is lucky to have her,” Labrie said. “She is learning the details quickly and is already hiting the ground running.”