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City administrator finalists presented
with worst-case scenario
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By Michael Holtzman
Posted Apr 26, 2010 @ 08:07 PM
Last update Apr 26, 2010 @ 08:08 PM
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FALL RIVER — Mayor Will Flanagan said Monday he planned to hold interviews early this week with several finalists for city administrator to replace Adam Chapdelaine, who left April 16.
An announcement of the choice could be made by the end of this week, he said.
After reviewing 58 applications and scheduling 15 initial interviews, Flanagan and Human Resources Director Madeline Coelho said they are narrowing the field.
Flanagan said the finalists are being asked to give a 30-minute presentation for mitigating what preliminary estimates show could be a $10 million deficit in next year’s budget.
“It’s a worst-case scenario,” Flanagan said of initial state cuts proposed by the House Ways and Means Committee in Chapter 70 and local aid, coupled with higher local expenses for health care, pensions and net school spending increases.
“Present to the group what potential revenue mitigation or cost reductions you would recommend if you were hired as city administrator,” reads the letter Coelho said she’s sending to the finalists.
Along with Flanagan and Coelho, the interviewing committee includes Director of Financial Services David Grab, Auditor Kevin Almeida and Corporation Counsel Steven Torres, who’s also serving as acting city administrator.
Flanagan said he does not expect to make the finalist field public because of applicants’ current jobs and need for confidentiality. He said one is from Fall River and another from Somerset.
His goal remains hiring the replacement by early May.
He stressed wanting to hire an experienced person ready to handle the administrative and financial tasks of the upcoming budget and as his liaison to departments and the City Council.
“We don’t have time for a dress rehearsal,” Flanagan said.
The salary is listed as “commensurate with experience,” although there’s a job history.
Chapdelaine’s salary was $91,800, although an 8 percent voluntary pay cut accepted by most administrators and other municipal workers lowered it to $83,000. Two prior administrators were paid at least $100,000.
Chapdelaine, a lifelong city resident, held the job for 1½ years and worked previously for state Sen. Joan Menard, started Thursday as deputy town manager in Arlington.
E-mail Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com.
You want to know what the worst case scenario is with this entire situation?
" He said one is from Fall River and another from Somerset. "
What an absolute crock of dog puss this is going to be. Which friend of the Flanagan's campaign will it be...I wonder if it might be a certain ex-Mayor of this City, or maybe an ex City Treasurer. I have no clue who it's going to be, all I know is that there is NOT one solitary soul in this City capable of solving this City's problems. Not one. You know it and I know it.
You want to know what my first reaction was when I read this article?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
So much for world wide searches.....And I bet they will not have any experience in public finance, or only one aspect...this is going to be a "Fix is In" hackarama fest from beginning to end. So sad and so, so predictable.
The people of Fall River deserve better.
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Have to agree it seems short-sighted and needs to be looked at more closely.
ReplyDeleteI think it is shortsided of you to not think that there would be a capable candidate from within the city or one of the surrounding towns. I am not saying I agree with whomever he chooses, but to be fair how do you know the qualifications of others.
ReplyDeleteLook....I was in the business a longgggggggggg timeeeeeeeeee....I know all the qualified people capable of fixing Fall River....none of them live on the Southcoast...NONE...you need someone with many years of MA municipal management experience, from a municipal MANAGEMENT background, who knows public finance...But management first....Everyone knows this budget will not be balanced without more revenues...that's the solution...sure, you can prod it and poke it and fiddle with it, but in the end, you just plain need more money. What I am afraid is going to happen is that the Mayor is going to appoint some campaign hack or some guy who he knows who retired from the private sector who "knows how to run a business like a business"...THEY ARE THE WORST OF ALL...
ReplyDeleteThe Mayor knows what needs to be done...if he doesn't, don't re-elect him...he's got a Finance Director now, and I am deadly afraid that all that's going to happen is that this guy, who appears to be competent , is going to be set up to take the blame as Fall River does what it does best, beat the living snot out of someone from the outside for the problems it takes POLITICAL LEADERSHIP to solve, and then those politicians try to skate away untouched. It's the oldest game in this sad City..Old habits apparently die hard.
C'mon Mayor...you were on the radio talking about increasing taxes...I think you need to get square behind a prop 2 1/2 override. Be a leader, don't be a coward..LEAD, dammit! That's what your employees and citizens want and need from you....that's why you were elected. DO YOUR JOB.
I hope all those wanting decent schools and public safety employees to keep their jobs are listening....it's time this City got real and responsible and made sure you all had job security so you can educate and protect these good people who care!
BTW...I knew there was trouble as soon as I saw an MBA or MPA or a JD was not a minimum requirement. Sure, it's "desired" , but unlike WELL RUN municipalities with nearly a quarter of a billion dollars of budgets where 70% or so comes in the form of direct state aid, we will probably try to make a go of it by appointing a well know hack or personality who knows the right people in Fall River, a person with no formal training other than knowing the coffee shops in the City...things happen in this City that would be totally unacceptable anywhere else..but, hey, go ahead, be different and terrible in how you manage the City's business....you'll end up paying for it in the end....literally!
ReplyDeleteTHE MORE THINGS CHANGE.....THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME
ReplyDeleteThe school department is advertising for an assistant to the yet-to-be -hired CFO!! What a joke!!! haha Another assistant to the assistant? Why do they need yet another assistant junior business manager? That is on top of the DESE mandated CFO??? Who are they kidding? But they are asking for the person to have an MBA. And they will not be a union member, just negotiate their own individual contract. What thinks ye of this, Old Laz?
ReplyDeleteMayor's appointment will be politics as usual. Another promise slick willy will break. It's all smoke and mirrors people. I agree with Lazz. Where's the leadership?
ReplyDeleteWow...ok..let's see...thanks to you all for writing....I'll take #1 first...I know that for even mid size, well run communities ( $75 - $100 million budget), the School Business Manager, or CFO, has to have specific training and experience directly related to school business administration, filing of DOE reports and statistical documents, grant fund transactions and record keeping and purchasing. It can be an exhaustive and difficult job even after several iterations of the business cycle during the school year (like administrative things you don't normally consider, like coordinating the books and publication and supplies for the next FY on a timely basis, needing to fully understand the lead times involved and the budgeted payments that have to be made in order to stay compliant with signed contracts). Typically, these positions require an MBA, an MPA or a specialized masters in education administration and are paid at a level equivelent, or close too, a Municipal Finance Director.
ReplyDeleteIn a school department the size of Fall River, it would not surprise me at all if they want to hire an assitant to the school CFO, maybe to help coordinate the grant activity and various trust funds, petty cash accounts and purchase order review. But that would depend on the job description and the amount of data processing capability in house at the school department and to manage the cross walks to the City DP accounts and ledgers. Typically, there can be big differences between DP packages used by school departments and the City side of things, which means the reconcilliation between accounts of the two can be very tricky and must be completed on a timely and regular basis. (I told you guys I knew this stuff!)So, it all depends. There just is not a clear cut answer on this one.
Maybe a better way to look at this issue is to simply review the DOE recommendations on what the internal financial controls are at the school, and the lack, if it exists, of the type and number of REAL and Qualified middle management and clerical staff. You don't want a situation where you have to hire what amounts to an "EXOSKELETON" of qualified administration and financial management people in order to get the administrative work of the School Department done, a seperate layer of positions on the fringe that actually do the work while less qualified and political appointees do , well, not much in comparison, because they know someone. I think we all know what kind of situation we are discussing.
A clear indication of this might be clerical staff or middle managers whose response to new and recommended procedures is "Why do we have to do that, we've never done that before?" or "I hate computers, I don't want to do that, leave me my old IBM typewriter!"....That's when you know you have a problem...those folks MUST submit to change for their own good, or go! This will entail GUTS. I'll leave it at that!
in relation to commenter#2, other than the hiring of a Finance Director i find it disheqartening to say the least that most of Mayor Will Flanagan's hires have been less than arms length transactions, so to speak. That some of the lead positions are staffed with people from his campaign or his past have been hired to top slots "in the corporation" does not bother me at all, as long as they are qualifed. I mean, what's the point of running if you can't hire top assitants who will be loyal to the policy direction you profess to try to put in place. Never underestimate the power of the "shared vision" thing. It alone can produce very powerful and useful synergy, all those great minds working together to reach one goal. It's when the hiring is done only to insulate the administration for danger that it can turn somewhat paranoid and harmful. I think we saw that in practice in the guy who was Mayor just before Mayor Flanagan.
ReplyDeleteAs long as Mayor Flanagan strives to hire the most educated and qualified people for management jobs, I don'yt have a problem. If he contunues to hire past working buddies or participates willfully in ad-hoc hiring of ex-campaign contributors or workers, regardless of how they dress it up with their version of the Fall River Kabuki Theater of the absurd, than I have a problem with that. And so should you if you voted a real change in the ways things are done at City Hall! I like Will Flanagan, but will move to vote him out in a NY heartbeat if he falls into the categp0ory of "Same old, same Old"...the City of Fall River won't get another chance to do this!
not for danger...FROM danger
ReplyDeleteand the winner is... Shawn Cadime? WTF?!!!
ReplyDeleteI am not amused. I also like the way the HN screwed up the announcement, filing a story about that poor fool McCoy getting an undeserved second whack at the mini-clown pinata. This City is doomed by it's own unwarrented self love and insideous delusion. When the decision is only supported by known screwballs that haunt the pages of the HN commenters sections you have a real problem. Politics aimed at the lowest common denominator. In Fall River, that IS very low!
ReplyDelete