Lenox — Following the June 30 departure of 10-year Lenox Town Manager Christopher Ketchen and the appointment of State Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli (D – 3rd Berkshire District) to the position in the interim, Lenox’s Select Board unanimously approved to offer the office to Jay Green during the group’s October 11 meeting. The actual contract will be negotiated in executive session, and the measure was intended to select and notify a candidate.
The town’s Screening Committee prepared the list of applicants that also included Nicholas Caccamo and Maryanne Crawford. According to Chair Neal Maxymillian, however, Crawford contracted for another job before the selection was made, narrowing the field to two finalists.
Those resumes can be found here.
“So that brings us to two [who] are the most local,” Maxymillian said of the Pittsfield residents.
Although a 1991 bylaw required the town manager to live in Lenox, that regulation was loosened by an August 13 Town Meeting vote providing that the individual filling the opening must only live within Berkshire County.
Noting communication issues and the “great place” Ketchen left the town organization, Maxymillian recommended Green as being the top choice to be “fully up to speed” by the next Town Meeting this spring.
“My research has shown we want a strong leader, someone who can support management, willing to work side by side with department heads,” Board member Dave Roche said of his approval for Green. He said that Green’s department heads gave him “a thumbs up” and that he was “so impressed” by Green’s research and knowledge of Lenox’s town meetings. “Given the choice, I’d rather go with experience, solid references as opposed to an unknown,” Roche said.
Board member Ed Lane concurred, adding that Green “knew everything about the town” and that the candidate was well prepared, with assuming the new position tantamount to “a lateral move.” “It’s an easy move for him, I believe, and a good move for us,” he said.
However, Board member Max Scherff said he “was on the fence,” with both remaining candidates touting “positive attributes” but was concerned about Green expressing that he was “tired and burned out.” “[There]’s still a lot for Lenox to do, especially in the next five or six years,” he said.
Board member Marybeth Mitts agreed with Scherff, recalling Green’s interview during which the candidate said he “did 12 years’ worth of work in the last six years.”
“I’m thinking, ‘that’s what you’re walking into here,” she said of the wastewater-treatment plant update, public-safety building construction, and other local programs. Additionally for Mitts, Green’s comment regarding disliking the budget process hit home as “25 percent of the job is the budget process and working with the different departments to [define] what the priorities are, what the competing priorities are, how you judge that.”
She touted both candidates’ experience as town managers, with Green as Adams’ town manager and Caccamo as town manager of Williamsburg, a town which similarly added a new public-safety building.
“I found him to be refreshing,” Mitts said of Caccamo, “and somebody that might be another Chris [Ketchen], that might stick with us for 10 or plus years.” She also agreed that she would be okay with approving Green who has a law degree that may be helpful from time to time.
Ketchen recently assumed a position with the Commonwealth’s Division of Local Services.
