Federspiel going to eastern Massachusetts

MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA – The community Lenox Town Manager Gregory T. Federspiel may be moving to shares many similarities with Lenox, and its selectmen really want him to make the switch.

“We’re a small seacoast community,” said Manchester-by-the-Sea Selectman Thomas P. Kehoe in comments to The Beacon.

Manchester by-the-Sea, Mass., is located on Cape Ann in the eastern part of the state, near the city of Gloucester. The town had a population of 5,176 in the last census, which is comparable to that of Lenox. It also has an Open Town Meeting form of government as well as a five-member board of selectmen, just as Lenox does.

Economically, the two towns also share similarities. Like Lenox, Manchester-by-the-Sea has a significant summer tourism industry, mostly focused around its beaches and harbor.

“You have Tanglewood, and we have the beaches,” said Selectman Kehoe.

Manchester-by-the-Sea’s main beach is Singing Beach, which attracts thousands of visitors every weekend in the summer.

“It’s definitely a drawing card,” said Board of Selectmen Chairwoman Susan W. Thorne.

The town’s median income is about twice that of Lenox, and Manchester-by-the-Sea enjoys the distinction of being a commuter town, as it’s only a 45-50 minute train ride from Boston.

In order to find a new town administrator, the board of selectmen employed the services of Municipal Resources Inc., a company based out of Meredith, N.H.

Chairwoman Thorne said they’d had good results from Municipal Resources previously, as the company helped the town find its current police chief and fire chief.

“We started off with 80 applicants,” said Selectman Kehoe.

This number was whittled down, first to 21 and then to six. These six applicants were interviewed by a five-person citizens committee appointed by the board of selectmen and by a peer panel from Municipal Resource Inc. Both the panel and the committee recommended the same three candidates, including Town Manager Federspiel.

These three candidates were then interviewed by the Manchester-by-the-Sea Board of Selectmen, and it appears that Town Manager Federspiel made an impression: After one round of interviews, the selectmen unanimously voted to give him a conditional offer.

“The Lenox town administrator was by far the favorite of everyone on the board,” said Selectman Kehoe.

“Overall, he just felt like a very comfortable fit,” said Chairwoman Thorne.

She cited the town manager’s demeanor, managerial style and apparent willingness to end his career in Manchester-by-the-Sea as positives for her. She also said that she’d liked what she’d seen in the report the town manager had provided to Lenox Town Meeting in 2012.

“That was just a very nice report,” said Chairwoman Thorne, noting how he singled out individual staff members for praise.

She also liked that he wanted to move to the area to be nearer to family: “One of our first questions was, ‘Why would you want to come all the way from Lenox to Manchester?’”

What really seemed to recommend him to Chairwoman Thorne, however, was what she described as his inclusive, consensus-focused style as Lenox’s town manager, particularly when dealing with employees: “He had a very inclusive approach to managing the town.”

“That’s…in contract negotiations,” said Selectman Kehoe, when asked by The Beacon when a final offer might be given to Town Manager Federspiel, saying the matter would be discussed in executive session at the board’s next meeting.

“We really look forward to a successful negotiation,” said Chairwoman Thorne.

As for when Town Manager Federspiel might start as town administrator of Manchester by-the-Sea, assuming an agreement can be reached, both Selectman Kehoe and Chairwoman Thorne said they hoped he’d be assuming the position sometime in early June.

“We’re just anxious to have it all said and done and to have him in the chair,” said Chairwoman Thorne.

Posted by Bera B. Dunau on June 13, 2013. Filed under Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry