At last month’s town council meeting, township CFO and Clerk Kathy Berger accepted the council’s offer to become full-time township manager.
Previous manager Chris Shultz was appointed by the former council in 2011 and came on board during a difficult economic time when the town faced a $2.3 million deficit and layoffs in the police, fire and public works departments.
Shortly after his abrupt resignation in August, Councilman Chris Buoni said the council will be looking for a professional who is capable, has ideas and is willing to challenge and transform the way government works.
The council advertised for the position and received quite a few responses.
“We ultimately interviewed six people for the spot,” Mayor Charles Watson said. “And we didn’t find any of them satisfactory to be the manager of our town.”
Not long after, council decided to hire a company that specializes in finding managers for municipalities and other entities.
After going through an advertising process with this group, they received more resumes that they analyzed and narrowed to five. They then sent questionnaires to these five with the intent of going to the next step with this group.
“We then chose two from that group to hold final interviews with and did not find them as satisfactory to be the manager of our town either,” Watson said.
Early on in the process, council had conversations with Berger about becoming the township manager.
“We are very happy with the job that she is doing filling in our last manager’s shoes, and she continues to do a great job,” Watson said.
Council still thought it would be beneficial to go through with the process and make sure the best person that wanted the job was going to get the job. This would also enable time for Berger to think about potentially giving up a tenured position.
After applying much thought, she decided to take the position and forgo her current role as county CFO and clerk.
Resident Christine Balentine questioned the idea of hiring a recruiter when the town was going to hire from within.
“Why would we pay a recruiter if we were going to hire from within the office? He didn’t find her,” Balentine said. “That is a total waste of money.”
Council agreed to a flat fee with the recruiter as opposed to a commission type pay in which he would be compensated based on the candidate he brought in.
Marlene Lieber, a resident of Medford for 30 years, also thought hiring from within once again would lead down the same path of “charades that it always has,” resulting in the appointing of someone who is going to “go along to get along.”
Buoni addressed this by stating he wanted Berger to become the new manager from day one.
“A large part of the decision was hers because she was having to give up tenure, something that public employees work for, for their entire lives,” Buoni said. “She’s willing to lay that on the line because she’s extremely committed to this town.”
Council was very confident in Berger’s ability to lead the town based on her leadership, experience and love for Medford.
Council’s next task in this process is to hire a new CFO.
The next regular council meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. on June 16 at the Public Safety Building.
