Replace the Town Administrator, why?
When I was first introduced to Gilford town Government, people kept asking me the same question; why do we need a Town Administrator and an Assistant Town Administrator? As I weaved my way through the process I soon learned that it was the question no one dare ask in public. This would insinuate that you are “not supportive of town employees” or causing bad morale among town employees. Every one knows these are good people and of course they are instrumental in running the town services. That sounds great but does a town this size actually need two people to do the same job that similar sized towns do with one person? I’m not convinced that this has been thoroughly investigated because, in my opinion, previous Selectmen had completely relinquished their authority to the administrators and simply supported whatever the administrators wanted. No need to disrupt “moral” or make waves. Now we have new leaders that are taking a more active role in our town’s operations. They are asking tough questions and looking for possible methods to provide quality services and reduce spending. Our newest Select Board member, Kevin Hayes, has a pretty impressive private sector resume where I’m sure he is familiar with “Lean Thinking” and “doing more with less” concepts. I’m looking forward to seeing if he can use those skills to evaluate the Administrative duties and see if they can be condensed into the one person job that all the other communities in New Hampshire have. We now have the three Selectmen that have the management experience and political will to correct this problem. As far as I’m concerned the Selectmen should drag their feet in hiring a new Administrator until they absolutely justify the need to do so.
