The Norwich Selectboard’s choice for interim town manager will not be coming aboard, as that person accepted a different job offer. Selectboard Chair Roger Arnold made the announcement at the October 13 Selectboard meeting. No next steps were discussed.
The Selectboard Chair made the offer sometime after the Board’s approval at a special meeting on September 14. However, at the October 13 meeting, Chair Arnold said the “candidate has accepted another position and is unfortunately no longer available to to join us in Norwich,” as seen on the YouTube recording of the meeting. No other details were provided.
Norwich has been without a town manager since Herb Durfee left when his contract expired on August 31. The Selectboard decided to not renew his agreement on July 28. Also, since September 1, Director of Planning and Zoning Rod Francis has served as interim town manager.
For now, Mr. Francis will continue to serve in an interim capacity. The Selectboard did not discuss whether the Town will continue its search for a ‘permanent’ interim town manager. Selectboard Chair Arnold declined to comment on where he sees the Town going next regarding a search for an interim town manager.
If the current search schedule holds, a new Town Manager is expected to take office by February 1, 2022.
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My words at the October 13 meeting were the following: “Following a recent meeting I was authorized to send an agreement to an interim town manager candidate and I am announcing tonight that this candidate has taken another position and unfortunately no longer available to join us in Norwich. So our agreement with Rod Francis is that he will continue to serve in an interim capacity with us. Perhaps at a future agenda item we should think about ways to support the town manager’s office and the folks who are assisting us in that office. Any further comments on this? I appreciate so much everyone’s cooperation and work in this and everyone contributed to put this offer out to the candidate and it’s just unfortunate that other folks were interested in this candidate as well.”
Given that a further discussion was suggested for a future agenda item, I encouraged Mr. Katucki to send his question to selectboard@norwich.vt.us
It is time for Norwich to abandon its experiment with the Town Manager form of government, and move to hiring a town administrator to assist the Select Board with the task of governing the Town.
Norwich has had enough of town managers with their own agendas and who ignore or defy the will of the people of the Town as expressed through their duly elected representatives, the members of the Select Board.
Norwich is a small town that can no longer afford the frivolity of having a single person take over virtually all of the executive responsibilities of the Select Board. During the years we have had the Town Manager form of government, the municipal budget has soared, while the will of the citizens, except for that minority for whom the Town cannot spend enough, has been ignored.
More complete information was available to the Valley News. According to a Valley News story of 10/19: “‘[Selectboard Chair] Arnold said the goal is to land a permanent replacement to Durfee by February and that at this point, Francis is likely to continue in the interim role until then.”
https://www.vnews.com/Norwich-interim-candidate-turns-down-job-43084033