HANSON — The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Aug. 20 hired Muncipal Resources Inc., (MRI), a recruiting service out of Meredith, N.H., to help with the search for Hanson’s new town administrator.

A second bidding firm GovHR USA of Northbrook, Ill., was not considered because of the firm’s distance and because it did not send a representative to the meeting to meet with the board.

MRI’s President and CEO Alan S. Gould and team member Reginald “Buzz” Stapscynski briefed Selectmen on their services and the type of search they will conduct.

“I don’t like surprises,” Gould said of the thoroughness of their background investigations. “We don’t get surprised.”

MRI has done personnel searches in Massachusetts communities from Lexington and Acton to Hanover, Dighton and Carver.

“I don’t think there’s anybody better in New England,” Gould said. “We know who’s available. We know who’s out there looking.”

He complimented the board for the straightforward request for proposal drafted to guide Hanson’s town administrator search.

MRI does everything from drafting and posting the ad to a comprehensive background check.

Gould, a retired police chief, described the background check as one involving a complete financial work-up, driving records and employment history and conducts pre-interviews with candidates, as well as department heads, citizens and any search committees used in hiring communities.

“We wouldn’t put anyone in front of you that we wouldn’t hire,” he said.

While Hanson is not using a search committee this time out, selectmen expressed interest in meetings between MRI and department heads and interested residents.

“We’ve had some lively discussions at senior centers after lunch,” said Stapscynski. “And we ask what are the challenges [to towns]. What’s important here? And we’ll hear traffic, we’ll hear residential growth, we want more commercial development or parks and playgrounds, and that’s good for us. Doing the search of the next town administrator, we’ll have a good idea of the fit.”

Essay questions are filled out by applicants and early-round telephone interviews are conducted with at least two MRI representatives on the phone, Gould said.

“Every community has challenges and we can find candidates that have dealt with them,” he said. One of the last questions they ask is whether they will find any embarrassing information when they Google an applicant’s name.

“We’ve already done that,” he said. “We’ve got two or three pages [at hand] sometimes of any time they’ve appeared in the press, any issues that are out there.”

Selectman Kenny Mitchell noted that compensation has become an issue with previous town administrators and asked when MRI would discuss that issue with the board.

“Where do we need to be to be on an average and get that right?” he said.

Gould said Hanson probably needs to be a little above the salary it now offers.

“We would want to get you to a salary that could be competitive,” he said. “We always like to post a salary range with the top number you could possibly offer.”

During phone interviews, MRI finds out information about candidates that includes their salary worth.

“I don’t want you to fall in love with a candidate and not be able to shoulder the cost,” Gould said. “At the same time we want candidates to know the value of the opportunity here.”

Gould said he usually comes back to select boards with three-to-four final candidates, with three being ideal.

Interim Town Administrator Meredith Marini asked how long the process would take in view of her pending retirement plans in December.

“2019?” Gould asked with a laugh.

He estimated, seriously, that final candidates should be available in 60 days with background investigations taking two to three weeks followed by contract negotiations.

“I would hope it would be Dec. 1,” Gould said.

Selectmen Chairman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett also said GovHR’s price was too high and she was not convinced they offered a better or even comparable product.

BROCKTON — After several lengthy delays, former contractor Matthew Will, 38, of Pembroke, who once ran 5-Star Discount Roofing in Halifax, was arraigned on the fifth try before Judge Gregg Pasquale Wednesday, July 17, at Plymouth Superior Court, Brockton.

Court officials, prosecutors, or corrections officials have offered no explanation for the numerous delays in Will’s Superior Court arraignment.  Will was arrested at his Pembroke home on Thursday, May 9, after law enforcement sent in dogs to convince Will to surrender, more than two months earlier.

When police attempted to execute the search warrant at the Pembroke home, according to sources close to the investigation, Will hid in his attic. After several attempts to negotiate with him, Zane said law enforcement officials sent dogs into the attic to extricate him, sources say was for their own protection. Will wrestled with the dogs, eventually falling through his attic ceiling and injuring himself.

He appeared in the arraignment courtroom in Brockton before Judge Pasquale in the prisoners’ dock shackled and wearing jail garb, with a sling around his arm. Tilden argued that Will had been seriously injured at the time of his arrest, and Zane did not disagree, but Pasquale pointedly said to her, “Well, he shouldn’t have resisted arrest,” to which she smiled and redirected her argument.

Will has been held at a state-run hospital in a Department of Corrections prison ward at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain, Boston, almost continuously since he was taken into custody May 9. His attorney said his family, including his partner, Tina Bowles, and his mother, who both attended the arraignment, have not been able to visit him there according to Tilden.

Tilden did not detail Will’s injuries, nor have they been made public. She said that his family is struggling financially and psychologically without him and is being forced out of their home.

Zane said investigators did not find any money in the Pembroke house when it was searched but did find packed suitcases that would appear to allow Will to live “off the grid.” He also said that Will had ties to two states, with property in New Hampshire and Maine.

The former roofer, who Plymouth County prosecutors say allegedly stole over $250,000 from more than 50 mostly elderly or otherwise vulnerable victims across the region over about 18 months, has been indicted on 18 mostly financial-related criminal charges. The alleged victims so far known to investigators are from Duxbury, East Bridgewater, Falmouth, Hanson, Kingston, Middleboro, Easton, Pembroke, Plympton, Rockland and Wareham.

Assistant District Attorney Zane emphasized that some of the alleged victims, many concentrated at the Oak Point 55+ community in Middleboro, gave Will their life savings to do emergency repairs to their homes, which he allegedly partially completed or did not complete at all. Some alleged victims gave Will several hundred dollars where others lost tens of thousands of dollars, Zane said.

Police made attempts to arrest Will in Central Massachusetts and into Rhode Island on default warrants resulting in two separate high speed-chases.  Police reports indicate those chases were called off because some of Will’s children were in his car. Rockland Police arrested him May 4 after Zane said Will took a ride-sharing service from Rhode Island to Rockland.

For unknown reasons, according to Zane, Will was next transported by Rockland Police to Hingham District Court which has jurisdiction over the Town of Rockland, but where Will had no open warrants.

There, over the course of only a few minutes, according to audio of the hearing, a judge who was not told of Will’s recent high-speed chases by the Rockland Police prosecutor released him on personal recognizance.

The Hingham Court judge did order Will’s common-law wife, Tina Bowles, to drive him to Wareham District Court to deal with open warrants before that court closed at 4:30 p.m., according to the recording.

Will’s attorney, Plymouth-based Charlotte Tilden, says Will fell ill, called the clerk’s office in Hingham letting them know and has a doctor’s note to prove it. Prosecutors say Will failed to appear in Wareham District Court, which prompted them to apply for the search warrant that was executed May 9 on his Furnace Colony Drive, Pembroke, family home.

Will pleaded not guilty to all 18 charges and is being held on $75,000 bail.

HANSON — The Board of Selectmen have begun the process of hiring a new town administrator, voting on Tuesday, July 9 to post the position and the process by which they will select that person.

Interim Town Administrator Meredith Marini has advised Selectmen she is not interested in being appointed to the job full time.

Board members have expressed an interest in reviewing the job description, and Selectmen Chairman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett asked the board how they would like to approach the selection process. Marini said the Town Administrator Act will be the main guide for the type of candidate the town might seek.

“Once it’s posted, how do we want to go about whittling down to the candidates that we want to interview?” she said. Options included a selection committee, hiring an outside consulting firm — which has been done in the past, or including a group of citizens involved in the process.

Selectmen agreed to the consultant option, but Selectman Jim Hickey expressed a desire to be part of the process.

“I will go with it,” Selectman Wes Blauss said of a consultant. “I have become so totally cynical … this is a revolving door. We have had zero continuity. I can count six town administrators, plus an interim in 12 years — it’s just been so fast. We keep nobody.”

Blauss declined to discuss the kind of candidate he is looking for at this point, but did say the town keeps going around on the same track, hiring the “same basic person” who is gone after two years.

The last search was the first one in which the town used a consulting service, Marini said.

“One of the things that we’ve got to do is raise the salary,” said Selectman Kenny Mitchell.

“I’m not blaming the search committees,” Marini said. “It’s what you get for candidates, it’s a shallow pool that you’re working from.”

“You think it’s because of the salary?” FitzGerald-Kemmett asked.

“I think it is,” Marini replied. “And we’ve created our own problem now. [Applicants are] like, ‘Hanson? How many people have they had in the last so many years? What’s going on in Hanson?’”

Marini has looked to consulting firms listed in the Beacon Hill Beacon newsletter as well as reaching out to her counterparts in other communities to ask what firms they may have used.

FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested labor counsel Clifford & Kenny could be asked to conduct a comparative study of salaries in area communities. Marini said she had asked them to do just that, and that the firm will be supplying that information.

East Bridgewater, for example posted a position recently at a salary of $140,000. Hanson currently pays $122,000.

“That was a little concerning, particularly since it’s a very similar town in terms of size and demographics,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

During the last town administrator search, an independent consulting firm was hired to work with a search committee in conducting preliminary vetting of applicants, providing three finalists for Selectmen to interview.

Marini said the process is totally up to the board.

“I like the idea of a [consulting] company,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “What I would like is some department head feedback and involvement. I don’t know what that looks like, but I just know that I think it’s critical for our department heads … to be able to reflect that they have asked the questions and gotten a comfort level.”

She suggested that one option is to have a Selectmen’s meeting include an opportunity for department heads to ask questions of some candidates.

Marini explained that the board would set parameters of experience and other concerns for the consultant to use as a guide in reducing the applicant pool.

“My personal opinion is you need somebody who’s done the job before,” Marini said. “You can’t get somebody who is fresh out … unless they are exceptional. They need to know what the processes are.”

She reminded the board of her own plans for retirement.

“You’re going to have a new person in the executive assistant’s position and finding your way around is going to be difficult if you are just starting out,” Marini said. “By increasing salary, you may get some people who have been in other communities and, just through the dynamics of the political environment have decided to go someplace else, but I think the salary has a lot to do with it.”

In other business, Selectmen voted to change a design aspect of a portion of the Maquan Street/Route 14 rehabilitation project after MassDOT expressed concerns over a boardwalk plan the board had approved to streamline the construction time and lower cost. The board had previously opted for the other option presented to them — a retaining wall along a 250-foot portion of the road as it passes Maquan Pond.

“They are classifying [the boardwalk] as a bridge,” according to Town Planner Deborah Pettey in a letter to Selectmen. “That would mean it would have to be registered as a state bridge. It would also mean that we would have to hire a bridge engineer. Most likely [it would] add approximately $100,000 to the cost of the project and approximately nine months to the timeline.”

James Fitzgerald of engineering firm Environmental Partners explained the classification and options available to the board.

“There was a slight difference in improvements in terms of environmental impacts as far as going over the wetland [via a boardwalk] as opposed to putting in a retaining wall,” said Fitzgerald, who also mentioned that the board had preferred the aesthetics of a boardwalk, which was aimed at providing foot and bicycle access.

Maintenance would have been more costly for a boardwalk. As a bridge, the state would assign the boardwalk a bridge number and it would be under state inspection guidelines and authority for repairs, but may or may not allocate funds for any needed repairs.

“In our opinion, it makes much more sense at this point to go back to the retaining wall concept,” Fitzgerald said.

“Can we circle back to the absurdity of the bridge thing?” FitzGerald-Kemmett asked. “There are bridges failing all over Massachusetts and somehow this little 250-foot thing [is a bridge]. … I don’t think anybody felt extremely passionate one way or the other, but I think, aesthetically, we kind of favored the boardwalk.”

The retaining wall would require further discussion about where a wetlands replication area would be done to mitigate impact on the pond by the construction project.

HANSON — The Board of Selectmen has emphasized to residents that a separation agreement with former Town Administrator Michael McCue was the result of “thoughtful and careful deliberation” as details of the agreement were made public last week.

In the agreement, made June 18 during an executive session and released seven days later, McCue voluntarily submitted his irrevocable resignation, effective, Monday, July 1.

The severance package includes two months’ pay, or $19,941 and four weeks; accrued vacation pay, or $11,044.22 for a total of $30,985.68.

McCue agreed to waive his contractual percentage payment increase for fiscal 2020 under his contract agreement, being paid instead based on the pay rate for fiscal 2019.

The town agreed to pay McCue’s health insurance premium under the COBRA program for three months between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31, 2019. If McCue seeks unemployment benefits, the town would not oppose such claims. He could receive another $35,958 in unemployment if he opts to do so.

“The Board would like to make clear that the decision to enter into this agreement came only after the Board engaged in thoughtful and careful deliberation — weighing of the costs of a lengthy investigation, coupled with the continuing costs of paying Mr. McCue while on leave and the costs of the defense of any potential litigation — should the Town determine that a negative employment action against Mr. McCue was warranted against the cost of entering into a settlement agreement in an expeditious manner,” Selectmen stated Saturday, June 29 through labor counsel Maura Gallagher of Clifford & Kenny LLP in Pembroke. “The Board concluded that, on balance, the latter option (a settlement agreement) was in the best interests of the Town. An investigation could have taken numerous weeks, if not months to complete, at significant investigative and legal costs to the Town.

“During that time Mr. McCue would have been paid by the Town, but would not have performed services for the Town,” Gallagher stated. In addition, the Town would have had to pay an interim town administrator to perform his job functions in his absence. This agreement permits the Town to move forward immediately. In addition to the costs outlined above, the opportunity to begin a new chapter with an excellent interim town administrator in place and start the search for a permanent town administrator, has value to the Town and its personnel that is not easily quantified — but is, in the view of the Board, of tremendous importance nonetheless.”

WHITMAN — Selectmen on Wednesday, June 19 voted 4-0 to approve a new contract with Town Administrator Frank Lynam. Selectman Randy LaMattina was absent.

In Lynam’s new contract, a three-year agreement running from July 1, 2019-2022, includes the 1-percent increase voted by Town Meeting. Future increases, however, will be negotiated with the Board of Selectmen.

“It should be noted that the contract that is presented tonight does not contain more benefits than the previous one, but rather has pulled back some of the benefits that are currently available to me,” Lynam said.

“It should be noted that our town administrator has taken the lead on reducing contractual burden to the town,” Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski said. “Hopefully, this contract becomes a model for future contracts.”

The contract has been posted on the town website.

Selectmen also discussed the budget and timeline for the anticipated fall Town Meeting. Lynam said he has discussed with the Collins Center its assistance in preparing a capital plan. He sent a list of the fiscal 2019 appropriations to the Collins Center after the books were closed Monday, June 17 so those figures could be incorporated in the outline being prepared for budgeting capital projects and needs in fiscal 2021.

“The bigger task we will have for both the Selectmen and the Finance [Committee], and the town departments is zeroing in on a defining plan for the future,” Lynam said.

A Proposition 2 ½ to increase the financial baseline for funding operations and capital needs would require more precision, he argued.

Selectmen agreed that a committee, made up of one or two Selectmen, one or two members of the Finance Committee, and representatives of the larger departments including at least one School Committee member and School District personnel, need to come together to begin a plan for how appropriations would be presented in October.

“It’s one thing to say we need to raise money, but we need to show people what that means and how it’s going to be utilized,” Lynam said. “We need to do it now.”

The makeup of the budget committee will be voted on at the next meeting of the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, July 9.

Assistant Town Administrator Lisa Green has been asked to develop an outline of current budget numbers and the need to increase the levy in preparation for those meetings.

“It can’t be a small group of people fashioning a plan without the public having an opportunity to be informed about what they’re doing,” said Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski. “That’s a lot to do in the summertime, but it has to be done.”

In other business, Lynam reported that the DPW Commissioners have engaged Environmental Partners Group to assess the condition of a sewer pipe — installed in 1984 and planned to last 30 to 40 years — which is the subject of major concerns.

Over the next month or two the commissioners will be researching the permitting process for repairing or replacing the pipe.

“This is going to be an expensive project,” Lynam said. “We don’t have numbers now.”

But Lynam said, at minimum, installing a parallel PVC pipe and abandoning the old pipe could cost more than $8 million. More information is coming, but Lynam said he expects it to be a part of any capital plan.

Selectmen voted 3-1, with Selectman Dan Salvucci voting against to change real estate and personal tax bills — changing to mailing two, double remittance personal property bills instead of four separate bills and to increase the demand fee from $10 to $15 for bills on outstanding debts issued by the Treasuer/Collector in the next fiscal year.

Payment deadlines do not change. The plan is expected to save the town about $5,200 in postage costs and most mortgages are escrowed and paid automatically.

Salvucci’s concern was that seniors might misplace the second bill and return envelope in the mailings.

WHITMAN — It was almost 8 p.m., Monday, June 17 before Whitman’s continuation of its Town Meeting — slated for 7:30 p.m. — could begin the work of completing the work started on Monday, May 6. A quorum of 150 voters was required for the tree special Town Meeting articles on the warrant.

By 8 p.m., 172 voters had signed in to complete work on the warrant.

The Town Meeting was adjourned to this week to allow residents to vote on a debt exclusion on Saturday, May 18 to remove the new police station and Town Hall/fire station renovations from the levy limit, freeing up funds for the articles voted on this week. The measure freed up free cash for other town needs.

That ballot question was narrowly approved.

Town Administrator Frank Lynam said there were $668,799 in appropriations sought.

Some residents, however, questioned the wisdom of voting on the remaining articles at all.

“I’d like people take a moment to think about the process that we’ve evolved over time and the process that the policies suggest that we follow,” said Forest Street resident Shawn Kain. “Right now, we don’t have a capital plan. The policy in place says that there should be a capital plan.”

He said the town is not currently following the policy.

“I think, for us to go forward with a number of these articles is just — it undermines the process,” Kain said. “If we sacrifice in a small way in the short term — the next couple months — and hold off on funding these articles, with the exception of safety … I really think we should hold off on funding these articles until we have a five-year capital plan in place.”

Kain argued that such a plan would enable the town to forecast it’s finances to give definitive indication of whether the town should spend or save.

Lynam countered that he had said repeatedly in meetings before the Board of Selectmen that the Collins Center at UMass, Boston had been contracted last fall to work on just such a capital plan.

“The process for doing that involved analyzing our capital spending for the last 10 years, our current requests and the capital requests that have been submitted over the last year,” he said. “They total about 70 items and, not counting the DPW, around $15 million.”

Lynam said the capital plan the town is developing won’t be available for another couple of months, when the process is expected to be completed. He said the policy to which Kain referred, allows Town Meeting to act and that all the requests before Town Meeting Monday, “have been capital requests for a number of years and we are, to some degree, clearing the board with some of them.”

He also stressed that a number of articles were also being passed over in an effort to “put them in the queue for prioritization.”

“I don’t know what failing to act on these requests would accomplish,” Lynam said.

Retired educator Mary Fox of 565 Washington St., questioned several school-related articles, including one for a motorized physical education curtain for the Whitman Middle School gym.

She said that, when she taught on Long Island, N.Y., a neighboring district was sued when a child was fatally injured by such a device.

“It would allow us to run two classes concurrently in the gymnasium so we’d be able to separate them,” said School Committee member Fred Small, noting the mechanical curtain is the type now recommended. “If it wasn’t safe, we would not do it.”

Fox pressed for information on who would control the curtain and where the switch is located.

“Everything’s safe until it’s not,” she said.

Small said a switch like the one being sought would likely be key-operated and under the control of school personnel.

“I have the utmost confidence,” he said. “No one wants to see a child get hurt. We would be sure that it was safe.”

The article was approved.

Another question raised over school-related articles centered on why the Finance Committee recommended not to pass an article to repair the access road at WHRHS, when Hanson Town Meeting approved it.

“Speaking for the majority of the Finance Committee, the discussion centered on the condition of Whitman’s roads and although, this is a project that needs to be done, the Finance Committee feels this is something that can be re-addressed at a later date,” said FinCom Chairman Richard Anderson.

Toward the conclusion of the meeting, the remote voting devices did not all function properly and a standing count was taken on an article regarding the resurfacing of the track at WHRHS. The article was approved when 142 yes votes — with a two-thirds margin needed — were counted.