[R]UTLAND TOWN — Local Selectboard members heard the pros and cons of various forms of municipal government structures as they weigh how to move forward after firing their town administrator last month.
Retired longtime Killington Town Manager David Lewis and Jeffrey Wennberg, a former Rutland mayor and Ludlow municipal manager and current public works commissioner in Rutland, talked with the board Tuesday night about their roles and experiences.
“We’re not very far along in this process,” Josh Terenzini, Rutland Town Selectboard chair, said at the start of the meeting.
The board made no decisions Tuesday night, agreeing to do more research first.
The board fired Town Administrator Joseph Zingale last month, citing “gross misconduct” and “insubordination.” However, the board did not provide any more specifics, calling the dismissal of the more than 30-year town employee a personnel matter.
Zingale earlier this month sued the town, alleging wrongful termination.
Rather than immediately move forward with a search for a new town administrator, the board agreed to research other municipal structures, including the town manager form of government.
The powers of a town manager are defined in state statute, such as handling the hiring and firing or town employees. The authority given to a town administrator is not outlined in state statute. The ability to assign duties and tasks to a town administrator rests with a Selectboard.
Lewis, who spent more than 30 years as Killington’s town manager before retiring in 2008, told the board that no matter the form of government, it’s important that all parties work together.
“It’s a team effort no matter what you have,” he told the board.
Lewis said he believed Rutland Town, with a population of about 4,100, is large enough to justify a full-time town manager.
“You have to have a Board of Selectmen who supports and believes in the system, because if you don’t have that, you can have the best manager in the world and it won’t work,” he added. “Secondly, you have to hire a good person.”
Lewis said the town manager system he worked in allowed for a great deal of authority and responsibility for the manager’s office, with a Selectboard more involved in policy development as opposed to the day-to-day activities of a municipality.
In towns with administrative assistants or town administrators, he said, boards often take on more responsibility in the operations of a community.
Part of the difference is that there is a “statutory framework” for a town manager’s position, Lewis said.
Because that is not the case with an administrative assistant or town administrator position, he said, “they are basically what the Selectboard wants (them) to be,” he said. “The manager system, I think you more look at it like a corporation where you have a board of directors and you have a CEO.”
For example, Lewis said, town managers are responsible for the hiring and firing of town employees. “It takes it out of the political realm,” Lewis said.
Chris Kiefer-Cioffi, a Selectboard member, asked Lewis to describe the “best” part of the town manager system.
“I felt like you get a lot done,” Lewis responded, attributing that to the authority tied to the town manager’s position. “Sometimes without that, boards will talk a lot and not follow up and not have the information in front of them to make the right decision.”
Lewis cautioned that a town’s history and past practices are important to take into consideration.
“Rutland Town, certainly, might in the long run save money and have a nice efficient government with a manager system, but I’m not sure, today, Rutland Town should have a manager system,” he said. “They’ve never had one. They’ve always had a very strong Board of Selectmen system where the board has been very active.”
He added, “I think it would be extremely difficult for a manager, even a good one, to come into Rutland Town and do well. I think it will be very different and difficult for a board that’s currently here and used to how things operate to come into a manager system.”
At some point, though, he said, as a town gets larger and things become more complex, it gets more difficult for a volunteer board to manage and carry out a great deal of the day-to-day activities of a community.
Wennberg, who served 12 years as Rutland’s mayor followed by a nine-month stint as Ludlow’s municipal manager, told board members they were taking the right step by not rushing to fill a position, but instead researching all options.
“I am absolutely not going to tell you what even I think Rutland Town should do because that’s for you guys to decide,” Wennberg said.
He said as mayor in a “strong mayor” form of government, a predecessor in the position, Jack Daly, gave him a bit of advice.
“‘Jeff, just remember you can do anything you want as long as you can count to six,’” Wennberg said Daley told him, referring to the number representing a majority of the city’s Board of Aldermen. “Truer words were never uttered.”
In Rutland, the elected mayor serves as the city’s top administrator.
Wennberg did tell the board he remembered a time when the city considered exploring a move to the city manager form of government. However, he said, it never got off the ground.
“If you’ve got a good mayor, the strong mayor system (is) the greatest thing going,” he said. “If you’ve got one that’s not so good, boy, a city manager looks like that’s the way we ought to go.”
