FALMOUTH – Falmouth officials received an update on the hiring search for the community’s next town manager.
Principal at Groux-White Consulting Richard White provided new details on efforts to fill the job at the Select Board’s February 13 meeting.
White said that confidential interviews for the position will be starting towards the end of February, with a narrowed field of candidates anticipated after that.
“I expect a public process where the selection committee can present to the board three to four finalists sometime by mid-March, but at least in the month of March,” White said.
He said that the select board will receive a shortlist of final recommendations but that all applicant files will be made available.
Vice-Chair Onjalé Scott Price asked what the process would be if the board wanted to interview a candidate that hadn’t made it to the hiring group’s final selections.
“You may find someone on the list that you want to interview and that’s your right, and you should,” White said.
The search has led to 34 interested applicants, with 15 having current or past experience serving as chief executive officers of communities. Twenty of the applicants are from Massachusetts and several others are from New England or have ties to the area.
For outreach, White spoke with about 20 Falmouth department heads as well as 25 community leaders to gain perspective on what qualities to look for in an ideal candidate.
White also spoke with the select board on the matter and he incorporated comments from a recent public meeting.
The town’s screening committee has helped with the search process, with White stating the group has been “very thorough.”
Peter Johnson-Staub has been filling in as acting town manager since Julian Suso’s turbulent exit last year.
“It’s an incredibly important process. We need to get it right, we need to do this really well,” Board Chair Nancy Taylor said.
By Brian Engles, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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