Town of Littleton Town Administrator Selection Committee

37 Shattuck Street, Littleton, MA 01460

Chase Gerbig, Chairman
Gary Wilson, Vice Chairman
Anita Harding, Secretary
Mike Fontanella, Member
Timothy Goddard, Member

MEMOR ANDUM

DATE: JANUARY 9, 2019

TO: BOARD OF SELECTMEN, PAUL GLAVEY, CHAIRMAN
FROM: TOWN ADMINISTRATOR SELECTION COMMITTEE
RE: TOWN ADMINISTRATOR CANDIDATE EVALUATION PROCESS

On July 23, 2018 Town Administrator Keith Bergman notified the Board of Selectmen (“BoS”) that he
was retiring from public administration, with his last day as Littleton’s Town Administrator on November
2, 2018. The BoS subsequently began the process to select his replacement. As required by Town
Code Chapter 3 §2, the BoS established the Town Administrator Selection Committee (“TASC”) and
requested appointments to TASC from the boards and committees described below, with the final
appointment occurring on August 27, 2018.

TASC’s mission, as specified in Town Code Chapter 3 §2(2) is to fulfill the first phase of the hiring
process by “submit[ting] more than one candidate to the BoS.” This memorandum describes the
process by which TASC fulfilled that mandate and concludes with naming the three finalists TASC
submits to the BoS for consideration of the position of Town Administrator.

TASC was composed of the following five members:

Name Role (Town Code, Ch. 3 §1 Appointed By

Chase Gerbig Member of the BoS Board of Selectmen
Gary Wilson Member of the Finance Committee Finance Committee
Mike Fontanella Member of the School Committee School Committee
Anita Harding Member of the Personnel Committee1 Personnel Board
Timothy Goddard Member at Large with Municipal Board of Selectmen
Management Experience2

TASC followed the Town of Littleton Hiring Policy and used the rating documents within that policy to
objectively evaluate the candidates. TASC was assisted by Ann Essman, Assistant Treasurer / HR
Administrator. Diane Crory, the Town Clerk, provided guidance on Open Meeting Law, particularly as
it pertains to executive sessions. TASC hired Ryan Strategies, Inc. (“Ryan Strategies”) to support

1
The Town Bylaw describes the Personnel Board as the “Personnel Committee”
2
Mr. Goddard is a Littleton resident, the Littleton Town Moderator, and the Town Administrator of Carlisle, MA

www.littletonma.org
 Town of Littleton Town Administrator Selection Committee
37 Shattuck Street, Littleton, MA 01460
Chase Gerbig, Chairman
Gary Wilson, Vice Chairman
Anita Harding, Secretary
Mike Fontanella, Member
Timothy Goddard, Member

TASC through the process, including but not limited to assisting with recruitment efforts,
communications with applicants, and candidate practical assessment. 3 TASC retained full control of
applicant information, candidate evaluation process, candidate selection for interviews, determination
of finalists, and all other steps involved in the evaluation process.

While the Town Code is highly prescriptive with respect to TASC’s composition, it is silent on the
methodology TASC should use to evaluate candidates and select finalists. Furthermore, the Town
Administrator (TA) job description (Attachment 1) identifies the role of the TA and minimum
qualifications, but the job description doesn’t adequately capture the totality of the individual best suited
for the position of TA, including that person’s knowledge, experience, skills, and abilities, and how those
attributes should be aligned with Littleton’s current and expected future needs. Therefore, TASC’s first
objective was to establish the criteria against which candidates would be evaluated. TASC took the
following steps to build a profile of the ideal TA:

• TASC met with three Chief Administrative Officers to understand their respective roles in the
communities they serve and what, in their opinion, makes an excellent Town Administrator:
o Keith Bergman, Littleton Town Administrator (at the time of the meeting)4
o John Petrin, Burlington Town Administrator
o Paul Cohen, Chelmsford Town Manager
• Ryan Strategies met privately with all interested department heads to understand their
perspectives on the role of the TA and Littleton’s needs. Ryan Strategies prepared a
memorandum summarizing the findings of the department head meetings (Attachment 3).
• TASC met in open session with all interested department heads to further understand their
perspectives on the role of the TA and Littleton’s needs.
• Ryan Strategies met privately with all interested members of the BoS5 to understand the “skill
set, style and experience the Board of Selectmen would like their next Town Administrator
to possess.” Ryan Strategies prepared a memorandum summarizing the findings of the BoS
meetings (Attachment 4).
• TASC met jointly with the BoS in open session to discuss the hiring and evaluation process.

3
With TASC’s permission Ryan Strategies, Inc. subcontracted some activities to Groux-White Consulting LLC. Ryan
Strategies, Inc. and Groux-White Consulting LLC are collectively referred to as Ryan Strategies in this memorandum
because TASC contracted with Ryan Strategies, Inc.
4
TASC prepared a summary of ideal candidate attributes based on Mr. Bergman’s meeting and intimate
knowledge of Littleton’s needs. The summary is provided as Attachment 2.
5
BoS member and TASC chairman Chase Gerbig elected not to meet with Ryan Strategies in this context, believing
that he was already afforded significant input into the process as a member of TASC.

www.littletonma.org
 Town of Littleton
Town Administrator Selection Committee
37 Shattuck Street, Littleton, MA 01460
Chase Gerbig, Chairman
Gary Wilson, Vice Chairman
Anita Harding, Secretary
Mike Fontanella, Member
Timothy Goddard, Member

• TASC posted a standing agenda item for approximately four meetings for public input. One
member of the public provided input.

TASC aggregated the information from all of the above sources as well as input from each TASC
member to develop a profile of the ideal candidate’s knowledge, experience, skills and abilities. TASC
also prepared an Executive Search Summary (Attachment 5) and an Employment Announcement
(Attachment 6) to advertise the position. The position was posted in advertisements in International
City/County Management Association (“ICMA”), Massachusetts Municipal Association (“MMA”), and
Maine and New Hampshire Municipal Associations beginning on October 5, 2018. Ryan Strategies
also utilized their network to recruit applicants.

TASC received 25 applications for the position, most of whom were sufficient to be considered for the
position. TASC evaluated the resumes and selected nine candidates to interview. Two candidates
selected for an interview withdrew from consideration before interviews were completed because one
was hired as a TA by another community and the other decided to make a “career change” out of public
administration. TASC interviewed seven candidates on November 28, 2018 and December 1, 2018.

Tim Goddard, the TASC member appointed by the BoS to fulfill the role of a member with “Municipal
Management Experience,” was only able to participate in the candidate evaluation process through
screening of resumes and selecting candidates to be interviewed. Tim is a member of the
Massachusetts Municipal Managers Association and their code of ethics prohibited him from evaluating
fellow managers in the interview process and making recommendations to the BoS.

Candidate interviews consisted of 8 questions (Attachment 7). The questions were written by TASC
to be multi-layered, giving candidates the opportunity to expand upon their answers in many directions,
and also show us their ability to provide clear and concise answers. Candidates were provided with
the questions approximately 15 minutes prior to their interview to compose their thoughts and determine
how they would like to address each topic. All candidates received the same set of questions. TASC
asked follow-up questions as necessary.

Of the seven interviewees, TASC selected five candidates to proceed to a series of practical
assessment exercises conducted on December 22, 2018. One candidate withdrew after the interview
and TASC chose not to retain the other. The practical exercises consisted of the following tasks (with
candidate responses as attachments):

• Written Exercise 1 – Analyze the status of the Town’s space needs assessment, assess where
the Town is in the planning cycle, propose a plan for the Town to proceed with addressing space

www.littletonma.org
 Town of Littleton Town Administrator Selection Committee
37 Shattuck Street, Littleton, MA 01460
Chase Gerbig, Chairman
Gary Wilson, Vice Chairman
Anita Harding, Secretary
Mike Fontanella, Member
Timothy Goddard, Member

needs without any communities feeling disenfranchised (Attachment 8). Candidates were
provided with this assessment prompt three days in advance.
• Written Exercise 2 – Develop a written plan to lead town department heads through the
development of a comprehensive municipal government communication strategy (Attachment
9). Candidates were provided no advance notice of the prompt and were provided
approximately two hours to complete the exercise.
• Leaderless Group Exercise – Participate in a working group of a regional professional
association to discuss and make recommendations regarding Other Post Employment Benefits
(“OPEB”) reform.6 Candidates were provided with approximately 15 minutes to prepare.
• Keynote Speech Exercise – Introduce yourself to a local community group and describe your
management philosophy (Attachment 10). Candidates were provided with approximately one
day to prepare their remarks.

Three TASC members attended the practical assessments in person and one TASC member reviewed
videos of all exercises. The four TASC members involved in the practical assessment were all provided
with the videos and written assignments for individual evaluation. Finally, Ryan Associates prepared a
summary memorandum of candidate performance during the practical assessment (Attachment 117).
The five TA candidates were ranked in bands: Exceeds Qualifications, Meets Qualifications, and
Minimally Qualified.

TASC met on January 2, 2019 to review the practical assessments and determine finalists for the TA
position. Based on the knowledge, experience, skills, and abilities of the candidates, as measured
through the various candidate evaluation processes, TASC recommends the three following candidates
to the BoS for consideration as Littleton’s next Town Administrator (in alphabetical order):

1. Kellie Hebert, currently Town Administrator in Topsfield, MA

2. Nina Nazarian, currently Town Administrator in Princeton, MA

3. Steven Sadwick, currently Assistant Town Manager in Tewksbury, MA

TASC voted 4-0 with respect to each finalist.

6
The group exercise video includes all five candidates that participated in the exercise. Not all candidates are
named as finalists. To protect the confidentiality of those candidates that were not retained as finalists the BoS
will not be provided with a video of the group exercise.
7
All candidates that participated in the practical assessment were evaluated by Ryan Associates. The names of the
two candidates TASC evaluated that were not selected as finalists have been redacted to fulfill TASC’s commitment
to keep candidate’s participation in our process confidential unless they are named as finalists.

www.littletonma.org
 Town of Littleton
Town Administrator Selection Committee
37 Shattuck Street, Littleton, MA 01460
Chase Gerbig, Chairman
Gary Wilson, Vice Chairman
Anita Harding, Secretary
Mike Fontanella, Member
Timothy Goddard, Member

Each candidate’s cover letter and resume are included as Attachment 12.

Each candidate was informed of their finalist status on January 2, 2019 by TASC. TASC committed to
maintaining their confidentiality until today, January 9, 2019, to allow each candidate the chance to
inform their respective Boards of Selectmen that they will be named a finalist for Littleton’s position. All
candidates have confirmed with TASC that they are willing to be named as finalists.

We firmly believe that the BoS has three excellent candidates to consider and they represent the most
likely candidates to succeed in Littleton. Regardless of who is selected to fill the position, TASC expects
that the Town of Littleton will be well-served by a qualified, capable candidate with a high degree of
integrity and professionalism who will assist the BoS with the pursuit and achievement of Town
priorities.

Naming of the finalists concludes TASC’s scope of work. It is now the BoS’s opportunity, in accordance
with Town Code, Chapter 3 §2, to (a) conduct final interviews as required; (b) appoint a candidate to
the position by majority vote; (c) or, send back to TASC with directions for further action. TASC
members are available, as requested, to discuss TASC’s process and provide points of clarification.
However, TASC (or its individual members) will not publicly or privately rank finalists for the BoS as all
three finalists have been determined to meet the qualifications for the position.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve the Town of Littleton in this matter.

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