Article Submission please:
Atkinson finds a new town administrator
By Meghan Carey
mcarey@eagletribune.com
ATKINSON — After seven months without a permanent town administrator, a former Massachusetts state representative suddenly took over the job yesterday.
Selectmen met in nonpublic session at 7:30 a.m., with Steven Angelo of East Falmouth, Mass., to complete the negotiations before finalizing their decision last night, according to Chairman Paul Sullivan. Angelo started immediately.
Selectmen began their search in February after Town Administrator Russell McAllister left to work as a local government adviser in Iraq.
The board hired Craig Kleman on an interim basis in April, but he took a similar temporary job in Plaistow in mid-July. That left Atkinson without a finalist.
Selectmen stopped talking publicly about the search at that point, and didn't announce anything until yesterday.
Sullivan said the selectmen returned to their original applicant list this summer. They interviewed two candidates and, during Angelo's interview, Sullivan said the board members all knew he was who they wanted.
"(Angelo) brings a wealth of experience and he seems to have a nice way of dealing with people," Sullivan said.
He would not say how much Angelo will earn.
"We're going to leave salary as a personnel issue," Sullivan said. "That will come up at budget time. I do think he absolutely was a good value for the money, I really do."
Angelo, 56, served as a state representative in Saugus, Malden, Lynn and Lynnfield for 20 years, and chaired the Government Regulations and the Natural Resources and Agriculture joint committees for 12 of those years.
In 2003, Saugus selectmen asked him to serve as an interim town manager. Angelo said he loved the job, and signed on as the permanent manager six months later.
He also worked as the town manager in Winchester, Conn., before spending the last couple of years as the chief operating officer for a company that ran the Massachusetts Enhanced Emissions program for motor vehicles.
Angelo said yesterday his plans for Atkinson include increasing the general fund, keeping taxes low, and being accessible to residents.
Angelo hopes to set up specific hours for residents to drop by Town Hall to discuss their concerns. Outside of those hours, Angelo said he will be accessible by phone.
Although he has lived on Cape Cod for the last few years, Angelo is familiar with the area.
His brother, Lenny, has lived in Atkinson for 30 years. He also has family from Haverhill and Lawrence, Mass. He graduated from Merrimack College.
Angelo said he will move to the area soon and that his wife and 10-year-old son will relocate here at the end of the school year.
September 16, 2008 8:24 AM
Atkinson Town Hall
The Norman Rockwellian picture of Atkinson
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13 comments:
"His plans for Atkinson, include increasing the general fund, keeping taxes low"
Does he understand that he is just a "town administrator" not a "town Manager"?
Does he understand the difference?
Do the selectmen?
Those are all SELECTMEN functions!
Selectmen want to keep his pay a personnel issue?
You Cant! Anything paid to a public employee is public information!
My concern is that he is a former politician. We don't need any more politicians in this town.
1. "Angelo said yesterday his plans for Atkinson include increasing the general fund, keeping taxes low, and being accessible to residents."
2. "We're going to leave salary as a personnel issue," Sullivan said.
WELCOME to Atkinson Mr. Angelo! There's a lot more where that came from.
I'd like to see the job description posted here. Anyone?
there is no job description, wasn't for Russ, why should there be for the new guy?
Believe me, they had to post something for applicants.
They have a job description but they also have a transparency problem.
See
City of Rochester Salaries On-Line
I believe somebody took the city to court to get this info.
I don't think your selectmen have a leg to stand on trying to deny salary information.
The town meeting minutes of March 31, 2008 contain the discussion of a Town Administrator, a taxpayer funded position. It had better be such.
Check it out!
"Atkinson Town Manager Has a Past"
http://www.atkinsontaxpayers.org/
The new town admin was brought up on ethics charges in Mass.
I'd leave Mass too....in NH they don't really distinguish between ethics and etHICKs.
Oh God, you've got to be kidding me.
He violated ethics laws by getting a drunken selectman out of trouble by calling a local police chief that was all too willing to break the law to save the drunken selectman from being charged. Great, no wonder why they hired him.
Can you believe that, with all the ethics problems we struggle with in town, the selectmen would slap the citizens in the face by hiring someone with ethics problems? Honestly, this town couldn't get any more bizarre if it was written as a book of fiction, Lord help us all...
May be the town will have a simular anonymous donation like Plaistow had when they got their new police motorcycle!
Do a Yahoo search on steven angelo falmouth and the first thing that pops up is the state ethics committee complaint finding the he violated state ethics laws, as previously noted, trying to secure preferential treatment. He can claim "innocence" because the letter says they will take no formal action and that Stevo does not "admit to the facts and law discussed."
www.mass.gov/ethics/PEL_Angelo.pdf
Now we know why he one the job. He views ethics law as mere "guidelines."
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