MARSHFIELD — The Select Board interviewed four candidates for town administrator June 10, 14 months after the town’s last administrator resigned and six months after the Board conducted its first round of interviews.
The Select Board declined to hire a candidate from that crop in December, and in a meeting June 12, the two members could not agree on which new candidate to hire, in part because of a dispute on procedural issues.
The Board interviewed Dan Riviello, assistant town manager of Provincetown; Peter Caruso, town administrator of Millville; James Kreidler, town administrator of Townsend; and Ted Langill, acting director of municipal finance for Weymouth.
Select Board Member Eric Kelley said that the Select Board had set the due date for applications as MarchMarch 6, and a committee had extended that deadline without the Select Board’s approval. So he only considered candidates who had submitted their applications before March 6, Riviello and Kreidler.
Both Select Board members agreed that Riviello was a promising candidate but needed more experience to tackle Marshfield’s budget challenges.
For Kelley, that left Kreidler as the only option. Kelley said he was impressed with Kreidler’s interview and resume, which includes 33 years in public service in Massachusetts.
Kelley previously recommended Kreidler as an interim town administrator in April, but then-Select Board Member Stephen Darcy and the citizen committee appointed to assist with the interim town administrator search felt that it was inappropriate for Kelley to unilaterally place an interview with Kreidler on the agenda.
Select Board Chair Rick Smith disagreed that the Board should only consider candidates who submitted before the March 6 deadline. He argued that it was the power of the Board to set deadlines and hire candidates, and it was free to consider all four candidates if it chose.
“We've been without a full-time town administrator for too long. It's been a year. It's shown, unfortunately, and we need somebody good now,” Smith said. “However we got here, I still think that we have four good candidates.”
Smith identified his first choice as Langill, who serves as Weymouth’s chief of staff and acting finance director and characterized his role as equivalent to a town manager’s. He praised Langill’s fiscal conservatism and attention to detail when it comes to spending.
“You don't meet many CFO types that actually go in and approve every single expense that goes across their desk,” Smith said.
For Smith, Caruso’s robust financial experience in the private sector did not make up for his lack of municipal experience compared to the other candidates. He has been the town administrator of Millville, with a population just over 3,100, for seven years.
Kelley said that he would vote to hire Kreidler even if he were to consider all four candidates, though Smith took issue with two controversies around Kreidler’s previous municipal positions: his resignation as town administrator in Winchendon after the uncovering of a multi-million budget deficit and a disagreement over the firing of the police chief in Townsend.
“33 years, those are the two that get the big splash in the news,” Kreidler said in his opening remarks during the interview.
Kelley argued that ignoring the Select Board’s original due date would show tolerance for a citizen committee disrespecting a Board decision. “People do whatever they want and that needs to change,” he said.
With Kelley’s support behind Kreidler and Smith’s behind Langill, the Board was left at an impasse and adjourned without a vote.
“I'll just leave off with saying that I'm bummed. I think I was hoping that we might be able to find an agreement here and to really demonstrate to the community the power of collaboration on our board,” Smith said. “But I guess we still have a little ways to go.”
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