ROCKINGHAM — Following the Joint Board meeting of April 16, and a “no confidence” vote, former town manager Tim Cullenen's termination was confirmed, and an interim manager appointed.
Finance Director and lifetime local resident Willis David “Chip” Stearns II, was appointed interim manager on April 17, when both boards approved motions to appoint Stearns for three months at a salary of $69,000.
“It's a verbal understanding of three months in the dual role of interim manager and finance director,” Stearns told The Commons.
Of note, Stearns threw his hat in the ring three weeks ago, he said, for the open Town Manager position in Westminster as well.
“The key is that if you close doors, they never open again, and every opportunity is an opportunity to better yourself,” Stearns said when asked if he planned to withdraw his bid.
Right now, Stearns will have to juggle the finance director position - which is dealing with major projects now and coming up, including the renovation to library renovation, and the Park and Ride FTA grant that needs to be done by October, as well as water and waste water projects - and the municipal manager's job.
Asked how he planned to get any sleep, he quipped, “I haven't been sleeping for years.”
But he quickly added that “it is a daunting task that I have accepted.”
According to Town Clerk Doreen Woodward, Westminster is in the process of getting the town manager selection committee set up and then quickly moving on to reviewing applications. Woodward said they have received 19 applications thus far, and “hope to be moving quite fast” getting the selection process going and completed.
Stearns, who said he has only lived in three houses his whole life - two in Saxtons River and one in Springfield - worked for New England Municipal Resource Center (NEMRC), a software accounting firm that served 20 to 25 communities in Vermont, before beginning his municipal stint in 2011.
As vice president of the company, he got out into communities all over the state. “Not leaving the state, I put about 60,000 miles on my car,” he said. “After [Tropical Storm] Irene, I could still go anywhere I wanted to,” as he knew Vermont's back roads so well.
Stearns said he has been filling in as interim manager during vacations and trips of the municipal manager, and during Cullenen's leave of absence earlier this year, so he has what he called a working knowledge of the position. He also served briefly as interim town manager prior to Cullenen's hiring.
However, he said, “a discussion needs to be had” with the hiring committee, citing the track record of the town and village in being unable to retain a town manager for durations longer than two to three years.
“It's very difficult for any one person to try to work with two different governing boards,” he said.
With his position as finance director, it will be doubly if not triply so, he said.
Stearns said in his work with NEMRC, he regularly engaged with town managers who had been in place for 20 to 30 years. “What is it about those communities, and this community where it hasn't been the case?” Stearns asked.
“It can't be the people they're hiring: It's got be a systemic problem, and I will be speaking to that whole process,” presumably when he meets to discuss any future contract with the municipality.
“It's been that way for years,” Stearns noted. “In general, it's deeper than (the constant turnover).”
“When the word on the street is mistrust in administration, you can't administer when people are constantly expecting them to be doing things wrong. In an environment where the board does not perceive trust in the administrator to the public, and with public assaults on the administrator, it's not productive. Too much time is spent talking about that than things that matter,” he said.
He described his perspective of the difficulties a municipal manager serving both Rockingham and Bellows Falls faces:
“If you can imagine, when you leave one board meeting on a Tuesday, you immediately begin to prepare for the board meeting of the opposite board the following Tuesday. You have to be on top of all things for both municipalities.” Stearns said, “There are enough differences that they have in common, and the struggles that they have with each other, that every other Tuesday, you have to present to the opposite board. It takes a lot of time.”
Stearns said, “The fact that I have been involved as (municipal) consultant for 22 {1/2} years helps. Everyone thinks things are the same in every town but they are not. The nuances are driven by political matters at a local level. The local level is the closest collaboration with the community and it either exists or it doesn't exist. The community is unable to maintain administration if there is routine failure to invest in administration and then maintain it.”
Stearns said he is used to putting in 45- to 55-hour weeks but, “With two titles, there is no way you can do it without losing your own livelihood.”
But Stearns' love of local government is rooted deeply. His father served on the Saxtons River Trustees for 25 years. And he said he's learned to apply what he describes as good old Vermont common sense to things.
“If I keep putting the round back in the gun and shooting my foot, at some point I have to look at what needs to change."