===PAGE 1=== Select Board Meeting Minutes January 14, 2025 1 Town of Lunenburg Select Board Meeting Minutes Sudolnik Conference Room, Lunenburg Public Library and via Zoom 1023 Massachusetts Ave Tuesday, January 14, 2025 Members Present: Chair Caesar Nuzzolo, Vice-Chair Michael-Ray Jeffreys, Clerk Amanda Moore, Member Tom Alonzo, and Member Renee Emkey Members Absent: None Also Present: Interim Town Manager Carter Terenzini CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Chair Caesar Nuzzolo called the meeting to order at 5:37 PM and led the Pledge of Allegiance. Chair Nuzzolo informed attendees that the meeting was being recorded and broadcast live and would be uploaded to Y ouTube after the meeting. He explained that the agenda listed topics may be discussed, but not all items may be addressed and other items not listed could be brought up as permitted by open meeting law. INTERVIEWS/APPOINTMENTS The Select Board will meet and interview the final candidates for the position of Town Manager. a. 5:35 P.M. Angeline Lopes Ellison Senior Associate John Petrin facilitated the interview: Tell us your history and your specific interest in this position and why you think you would be successful here. Candidate Ellison stated that she has been doing municipal government for about 12 years and has been working in higher education for about 18 years and was able to transfer a lot of those skills. She has spent a lot of time in different municipalities and forms of government. She has been a select board member in her town. Candidate Ellison provided the Board with her accomplishments in her recent role in Fairhaven. How would you work with the Board in understanding the vision of the Board for the Town? What do you see as your role in that process as well as setting the path for ===PAGE 2=== Select Board Meeting Minutes January 14, 2025 2 implementation? Candidate Ellison stated that she takes the Board’s vision and makes it tangible by making it successful and making it work. The Board gives her the guidance and the direction and the vision. She stated that her vision for any municipality is effectiveness, efficiency, collaboration, and building a strong team. Leadership skills are critical in this type of role. What skills and approach will you bring to the table to address this? Candidate Ellison shared that she has help leadership roles throughout her career and has been supervising people and managing projects since graduating college. Her leadership style focuses on collaboration, including bi-weekly one-on one meetings with department heads to understand their strengths and support their development. She also holds regular group meetings to foster teamwork and ensures accountability in performance. Specific to Lunenburg, in your opinion, what are the challenges and what are the opportunities? Candidate Ellison stated that challenges include staff development, building a team approach, and secession planning. She explained her experience developing a strong team. In the aspect of positivity, she stated, residents being engaged and noticed that the town has a lot of resident engagement and if hired, she would see what works effectively, what works ineffectively, and help them grow. What is the most important characteristic for effective Town Manager? Candidate Ellison identified integrity, communication, and openness as the most important qualities for an effective Town Manager. She emphasized integrity by ensuring fairness and avoiding favoritism. On communication, she stressed the importance of transparent, equal information sharing, reflecting the principle of government by and for the people. Schools are very important in Lunenburg. How do you develop that relationship with schools and the balance between schools and general government? Candidate Ellison stated that the superintendent and the Town Administrator in the municipality are the two similar positions that have no one to talk to about what they’re going through and so she thinks it's important to build trust. She explained that often times because of the way the budget system is set up for schools, there is a sense of antagonism that gets created on the municipal side and so she tries to break that and explain it. What has been your role in financial planning in your past positions as well as your financial management strategies for ensuring organizational sustainability? Candidate Ellison explained that she has always been responsible for the budget and has presented budgets at town meetings and other boards. She has experience managing deficits and level funding a budget so that no one could have an increase unless it was justified. She has experience in revenue generating, reviewing fee structure, and grants. Talk about the fiscal philosophy that you bring to the table when developing your budget. Give some examples of how you implemented that. Candidate Ellison stated that regarding philosophy, she is a strong proponent of diversity, equity, and inclusion and being able to have ===PAGE 3=== Select Board Meeting Minutes January 14, 2025 3 equity opposed to having things be equal. She has asked all department heads to start budgeting as a goal-oriented budget opposed to them just saying what they need because that is what they got every year. • Vice-Chair Michael-Ray Jeffreys asked a follow up question: What is the demographic makeup of Fairhaven? Candidate Ellison stated 98% are white and it is an aging population. • Vice-Chair Jeffreys asked Candidate Ellison to talk about the value of DEI initiatives and to talk more about how goal-oriented projects that she previously spoke about were received. Candidate Ellison stated that an initiative that came out of DEI was the collaboration of the senior center and the rec center where students would hang out with seniors. Another initiative was the senior center putting out a program where the seniors would read to the kids. She spoke about the importance of recognizing community values. Talk about your experience with building a strategy relative to capital projects and then financing and implementing of those projects. Candidate Ellison stated that she thinks it's important to have an effective and efficient process. She explained that she helped build projects such as putting police cars into capital project and free cash allocations. She spoke about town meeting allocations and having a policy that gives a certain number of years that those funds can be transferred. What are some large municipal projects that you have been involved in in getting something built or rehabbed? Candidate Ellison stated that she was involved in the Uxbridge firehouse. She was involved in the sewer treatment facility in Fairhaven. In HR today, what are the key issues that you would want to address? Candidate Ellison stated that she would want to address staff development and secession planning. She is a strong proponent in professional development which is why she has monthly meetings with department heads to understand where their skill sets are. What are the three important qualities you seek when hiring a municipal employee? Candidate Ellison stated that she has been hiring people for so long that she can inherently within a three-minute period tell who a person is and what kind of employee they would be. She seeks someone who is a team player, willing to learn, and willing to say the hard things out loud. She spoke about encouraging independent thinking but also supporting others. How do you encourage teamwork in the workplace? Candidate Ellison stated that it is inherent in her nature. She added that everything and anything we do can’t be done alone in municipal government. She explained experience redirecting staff to other department staff and encouraging teamwork and in result everyone was always supportive. ===PAGE 4=== Select Board Meeting Minutes January 14, 2025 4 • Member Tom Alonzo asked Candidate Ellison to tell them a time when she had to deal with challenges of someone not fostering teamwork. Candidate Ellison stated that because she allows for opposition, and though it is a challenge when trying to move in a direction of teamwork, those opposing thoughts have provided information that she has thought of. During one-on one meetings, she will talk about the objective and ask the individual what their opposition is. • Clerk Amanda Moore stated that in municipalities and most organizations, we talk about breaking down the silos, and asked Candidate Ellison how she addresses that downstream through the rest of the staff. Candidate Ellison stated that she does the same thing but not as intensive because she believes the department heads should manage their departments and staff. She does quarterly meetings with support staff. Without getting into specifics, what is one of the most difficult employee situations that you’ve had to deal with? What made it challenging and how did you resolve it? Candidate Ellison stated that someone violated executive session information, and she explained that it was a challenge since it was something that should not have happened and it became an issue for the municipality. She tried relocating the individual in different areas of responsibility but that did not work out, so they parted ways. • John Petrin asked in regard to the last question, would you do anything different? Candidate Ellison stated that she would. The relocation and in some aspects of a demotion created an adversarial antagonistic feeling towards herself and what she was trying to accomplish. She added that she would have had a conversation that was greyer opposed to black and white. Of everything you have learned about Lunenburg, what suggestions could you make to improve the approach the approach you could bring to economic development? Candidate Ellison stated supporting small businesses and their accomplishments and tasks. She shared experiences from Fairhaven and doing ribbon cutting for small businesses entering the community. She has done workshops with different businesses and agencies in the state government such as Mass Hire which provided grants and support for small businesses. How do you develop internal communications amongst staff within the organization of the government? Candidate Ellison responded by doing one-on ones, department head meetings, sending emails, being reachable by phone or text, having an open-door policy for both residents and staff. How do you communicate the Board’s vision and the Towns’ vision to citizens? Talk about specifics. Candidate Ellison stated that she thinks communicating out starts with the Select Board meetings and making sure everyone has accessibility to them. Use of social media to engage younger people. Candidate Ellison has used pitches to get people to Town Meeting if they were interested in learning about specific things. Candidate Ellison believes in meeting ===PAGE 5=== Select Board Meeting Minutes January 14, 2025 5 people where they are such as providing announcements on boards at the fire department in order to communicate with everyone. As a person coming into the town as new Town Manager, how do you get to know the Town and how do you build relationships as Town Manager in the community? Candidate Ellison stated that she typically sets a certain time where people can come in and meet the Town Manager. She goes to community parades. Candidate Ellison also stated that she goes to every board and committee to get to know them and presented so they got to know her. John Petrin invited Angeline to make her 5-minute presentation: • Candidate Ellison presented as if she was at Town Meeting presenting on how the budget process works John Petrin opened the discussion to questions from the board: • Member Renee Emkey stated you mentioned a $2 million deficit and asked Candidate Ellison how it happened and how she resolved it. • Member Alonzo stated every place has their own environment, and their own look and feel. He asked Candidate Ellison, being the town manager in Lunenburg would be the perfect job for you, if what? • John Petrin asked Candidate Ellison if appointed to the position, one year from now you’ve given a report to the board, what would you hope your accomplishments were to the board after your first year on the job? • Vice-Chair Jeffreys asked Candidate Ellison to talk about critical feedback she has received, particularly feedback she has not agreed with and how she managed that. John Petrin gave Candidate Ellison an opportunity for a closing statement: Candidate Ellison stated that she has showed them who she is and being receptive and that she loves the job. She is looking for a long-term home and the work that she does is long term. She will work to have the vision that they want to accomplish. b. 6:45 P.M. Jennifer Warren-Dyment Senior Associate John Petrin facilitated the interview: Tell us your history and your specific interest in this position and why you think you would be successful here. Candidate Warren-Dyment stated that she is a seasoned Town Administrator who has spent the vast majority of her career in public service. She has served at the state level working for a legislator, worked for the largest and second largest housing authorities in new England, and recently transitioned into municipal government where she found her passion. She ===PAGE 6=== Select Board Meeting Minutes January 14, 2025 6 talked about her experience in working in municipal governments that have similar size and budget to Lunenburg. How would you work with the Board in understanding the vision of the Board for the Town? What do you see as your role in that process as well as setting the path for implementation? Candidate Warren-Dyment stated that through experience she has learned that it is critical for the Select Board to outline what the policy objectives are, what the short- and long-term goals are of the community relying on the work that other boards and committees are doing. Her job is to carry out the goals and objectives and make them real. Leadership skills are critical in this type of role. What skills and approach will you bring to the table to address this? Candidate Warren-Dyment stated that she is a natural leader and a direct communicator. She is clear with folks but also a collaborator. She added there will be times that leadership will be top down and there will be directives but it's her job to encourage department heads to grow and give them the opportunities they need to highlight their voices. Candidate Warren-Dyment stated that she is very transparent and ethical and she leads with accountability and integrity. Specific to Lunenburg, in your opinion, what are the challenges and what are the opportunities? Candidate Warren-Dyment stated that the challenges she sees from an outside view include relying on folks to assist in the budget portion of the Town Meeting, issues with software, as well as others that has already been identified such as employee morale, Budget Task Force, board discord, and the future town clerk. She stated opportunities including capitalizing on community engagement, community leaders driving building projects, and that there is already a path to address employment challenges. What is the most important characteristic for effective Town Manager? Candidate Warren-Dyment answered, “honesty and transparency”. She added core values are not teachable and that it's important that somebody is going to hold public trust. With the retirement of the school superintendent and the importance of schools in a community, how do you develop that relationship with schools and the balance between schools and general government? Candidate Warren-Dyment stated that the superintendent and the Town Manager need to work very closely. Having early meetings and talking about what issues there are. She emphasized cultivating a relationship so that when the time comes for difficult budget discussions you can have open and honest dialogue and walk out as colleagues. What has been your role in financial planning in your past positions as well as your financial management strategies for ensuring organizational sustainability? Candidate Warren-Dyment stated that in her past role as a Town Administrator, she was responsible for the Town budget. She explained putting faith into department heads to explain to her, for example, the fire department budget had not grown in years, so she pushed ambulance receipts to generate more revenue which resulted in putting on three new full-time firefighters. She spoke about ===PAGE 7=== Select Board Meeting Minutes January 14, 2025 7 gaining efficiencies all year long and if there is something that wants to be achieved and it has monetary resources then you need to tie to the budget. Talk about the fiscal philosophy that you bring to the table when developing your budget. Candidate Warren-Dyment explained the importance of balancing being conservative with the budget but not starving operations. She stated in this post inflationary world, you can’t be as conservative but with that said, making sure one-time funds are put away for rainy days is also critical. She added that Lunenburg’s stabilization funds are looking good and that there is a strong commitment from the community to put away money into stabilization funds of various types and that should continue. Talk about your experience with building a strategy relative to capital projects and then financing and implementing of those projects. Candidate Warren-Dyment emphasized the importance of long-term planning and though grants can help offset design or study costs, they can’t cover everything. She supports multi-year pans and aligning new debt with the timing of old debt falling off. Candidate Warren-Dyment stated that she has not had any building construction projects, but she had a playground project that she replaced the original concept by bringing in a professional design team. From this, she learned that projects require both committee input and strong staff support. She has the knowledge of knowing when a project needs help and needs a second look. In HR today, what are the key issues that you would want to address? Candidate Warren-Dyment stated that things are always changing, so you need to stay on top of it. Having a clear set of expectations for employees, what are the policies they are operating under, what are the employee policies. She stated a big issue is fairness and consistency, and how to avoid litigation. She identified an issue of folks not sitting in positions as long and the loss of institutional knowledge due to retirement. When hiring an employee in general, what are the most important qualities you seek? Candidate Warren-Dyment stated trainability and having to expect that someone is not coming in with the full skill set but that they have the skills and ability to be trained. She looks for an employee that will fit with the culture, the team, will enhance the team with what their bringing to the table, and is committed to public service. • Member Alonzo asked what some red flags of qualities of people in an interview are. Candidate Warren-Dyment stated not doing any research on the position for which they’re applying to. As well as someone who seems they’re not going to want to fit into that segment of the organization. • Vice-Chair Jeffreys asked Candidate Warren-Dyment to talk more about her experience training and developing staff. Candidate Warren-Dyment explained giving staff the tools to do their job including putting money into their budget to allow further training. As well as sitting down with new employees and teaching them how to use ===PAGE 8=== Select Board Meeting Minutes January 14, 2025 8 platforms. Candidate Warren-Dyment spoke about creating processes that people can follow and always being available for questions. She explained a time when she created a training plan for an employee with no prior experience. How has your training as an attorney helped you move forward in this type of position? Candidate Warren-Dyment stated it has helped her in a number of ways including understanding the law, how to read the law as it applies to municipalities, following processes and procedures. She added that she was taught issue spotting, so she will often look for where the weaknesses are, where the vulnerabilities are, and to the extent possible how they can mitigate around that and avoid them. • Member Emkey asked what blind spots the candidate has coming from a law education and into municipal. Candidate Warren-Dyment stated that in law school they used the Socratic method where you are being peppered with questions, and you are expected to respond. Looking back with the Board, she treated it the same way and having to respond to every question, but she recognizes allowing the Board to communicate and not expecting herself to respond all the time. She also recognized issue spotting as coming off in a negative way. How do you encourage teamwork in the workplace? Candidate Warren-Dyment explained experiences in West Boylston of employees being siloed and not talking to one another. She stated that in order to transform and organization with the staff and the culture, it takes a lot of time and effort. It begins with getting folks talking to each other and getting department heads working together, and from there it snowballs. Without getting into specifics, what is one of the most difficult employee situations that you’ve had to deal with? What made it challenging and how did you resolve it? Candidate Warren-Dyment described a situation where an administrative assisted overstepped their role, causing communication issues with the department head and staff. She addressed the issue directly, aiming to support and reintegrate the employee by providing tools for improvement. Despite her efforts, the employee chose to leave. Candidate Warren-Dyment said that they addressed it head on and that is something that will be seen about her leadership – being direct and addressing what is going on. • Clerk Moore asked looking downstream how do you foster teamwork, communication and building morale with employees that are underneath the department heads? Candidate Warren-Dyment stated that you must figure out what is driving the employees. As for morale, figuring out why an employee is not happy, whether it is not feeling valued, not feeling heard, not feeling like they’re getting opportunities for advancements and then working on those issues. She explained times of holding events for staff and bringing groups together to show care and building relationships. ===PAGE 9=== Select Board Meeting Minutes January 14, 2025 9 Of everything you have learned about Lunenburg, what suggestions could you make to improve the approach the approach you could bring to economic development? Candidate Warren-Dyment stated that sticking with the single tax rate for a time being is critically important for economic development. Emphasis on the land used director and what they are seeing and what the regional chambers of commerce talking about. Asking what obstacles businesses are seeing when businesses are being permitted and if there are roadblocks that are unnecessary. Ribbon cutting for new businesses are successful and show care that the business is a part of the community. How do you develop internal communications amongst staff within the organization of the government? Candidate Warren-Dyment stated that she likes to hold monthly department head meetings and expect department heads to bring a lot of that information to staff as appropriate, emails, memos, flyers. How do you communicate the Board’s vision and the Town’s vision to citizens? Candidate Warren-Dyment mentioned the use of social media, repetition of communications, and tying communications to different platforms with various levels of information depending on what the platform type is. She stated that people are expecting announcements online first but that is not everyone in the community and she showed an example of a newsletter she has used in the past. John Petrin invited Candidate Warren-Dyment to make her 5-minute presentation: • Candidate Warren-Dyment presented as if she was at Town Meeting presenting on MBTA Zoning John Petrin opened the discussion to questions from the board: • Member Alonzo asked what would be the conditions in Lunenburg if you for this job that you would be the most flourishing? • Member Emkey asked Candidate Warren-Dyment, having not worked with an HR director in her last position, how do you imagine interacting with an HR director in terms of staff development and how would your roles differ? • Chair Nuzzolo asked what did you learn at West Boylston that made you a better professional and if you went back, how would you do things differently and how would you apply those lessons if you were to start in Lunenburg? • Chair Nuzzolo asked how Candidate Warren-Dyment balances leading top down and leading bottom up. • Chair Nuzzolo asked how she gets involved in the community and how she builds relationships with the public. • John Petrin asked Candidate Warren-Dyment if appointed to the position, one year from now you’ve given a report to the board, what would you hope your accomplishments were to the board after your first year on the job? ===PAGE 10=== Select Board Meeting Minutes January 14, 2025 10 John Petrin gave Candidate Warren-Dyment an opportunity for a closing statement: Candidate Warren-Dyment thanked the Board and stated that she has really gotten to know the Board and the community over the past few months. Her opinions and thoughts throughout that time have evolved and she is excited to be here. She stated that she has the skills, ability, energy, and amplitude to do this job well and would be honored for the opportunity. c. 8:00 P.M. John Woodsmall Senior Associate John Petrin facilitated the interview: Tell us your history and your specific interest in this position and why you think you would be successful here. Candidate Woodsmall has been a civil engineer since graduating from WPI. HE began in private engineering, focusing on water, sewer, and drainage projects for municipalities. He then moved to public service, working in the town of Concord’s engineering department, earning his professional engineer license, and became town engineer in Southborough. For the past 13 years, he has worked in the town of Holden. Candidate Woodsmall is interested in this position because of his broad experience with multiple departments and his passion for improving municipal operations based on his work in various towns. How would you work with the Board in understanding the vision of the Board for the Town? What do you see as your role in that process as well as setting the path for implementation? Candidate Woodsmall emphasized communication and collaboration with the Board to understand their vision and goals for the town. He sees his role as evaluation operation, making recommendations, and ensuring clear direction is communicated to department heads. Candidate Woodsmall would consult with departments before final decisions to assess impacts, then relay that feedback to the Board to help guide informed choices. Leadership skills are critical in this type of role. What skills and approach will you bring to the table to address this? Candidate Woodsmall highlighted learning leadership from experienced town managers and applying those lessons in his own approach. He values collaboration, seeks input from everyone affected by decisions, and prioritizing keeping everyone informed. He believes in mentorship and professional growth, and practices openness, honesty, and respect even when delivering difficult news. What are some challenges you see as you move from a public works director to a Town Manager? Candidate Woodsmall stated that he has a broad overview, but getting down into the weeds of some things will be eye opening and new. He will need to rely on department heads to provide their challenges, what they need and where they need to go. Candidate Woodsmall has been responsible for many funds and says he now needs to take those skills to a broader scale for the town. ===PAGE 11=== Select Board Meeting Minutes January 14, 2025 11 Specific to Lunenburg, in your opinion, what are the challenges and what are the opportunities? Candidate Woodsmall stated that housing everywhere is a big issue. He added the overall financial picture with the pressures that the school systems are seeing and keeping people from moving and ensuring they’re getting opportunities while they’re here. He states that economic development is an opportunity due to its location. Y ou mentioned you worked for some good managers in the business, what was the single most important characteristics that made them effective? Candidate Woodsmall stated being honest about what they wanted, not being micromanagers, able to trust that he has the skills to get things done without being on top of his shoulders, holding him accountable, and encouraging education. With the retirement of the school superintendent and the importance of schools in a community, how do you develop that relationship with schools and the balance between schools and general government? Candidate Woodsmall stated getting into the same room and being face to face and having frequent communications. Having discussions about what the issues are that the school system is facing and what the superintendent thinks they are going to need for resources down the line. Everyone needs to be on the same page on what the financial state of the town is. Working on at least a five-year financial plan for the town and the school system. Building a 10–20-year capital planning improvement plan for all the facilities. Talk about translating your role in a budget process that you’ve had to now supervising or being responsible for a much larger budget across various departments. Candidate Woodsmall answered by taking it one bite at a time and spending a lot of time with the finance director, town accountant, and treasurer to understand how things currently work and what their looking at in terms of new growth. In terms of departments building out their budgets, giving them a goal and then sitting down with them to understand what their operational and capital needs are. Y ou have had a lot of experience in facilities and dealing with structural components, how would you take that experience and build it into developing a capital plan here in Lunenburg? Candidate Woodsmall stated understanding what the towns borrowing limits are, what debts are on the books, what the debt payment schedule is, and where there may be opportunities for larger projects to be slotted in. As well as taking time what each departments needs are and setting up set programs. He added that you can’t live by what’s on paper so you must be able to adjust as things come up. Candidate Woodsmall provided experience with bringing in an architect to go up and down buildings and listing deficiencies. • Vice-Chair Jeffreys asked Candidate Woodsmall to talk about the process of deciding to engage an architect, what the condition of the building before was, what the condition of the buildings after was and just the overall collaboration behind the scenes. Candidate Woodsmall stated that he knew they didn’t have the skills to go into ===PAGE 12=== Select Board Meeting Minutes January 14, 2025 12 the buildings and go top to bottom. They had an architect come in and provide a list of deficiencies and recommended capital. Over the years, they have picked the projects that they knew were imminent. In HR today, what are the key issues that you would want to address? Candidate Woodsmall answered the work like balance as there is a lot of opportunities for people to do other things than just working for a town. He added that inflation has been tough and the things that people are experiencing. Making sure that you’re being respectful of everyone, and people are being treated correctly. Being open, transparent, and address issues as they come up. When hiring an employee in general, what are the three most important qualities you seek? Candidate Woodsmall seeks that they have the breadth and depth of experience for what they need them to do, if they are personable, and having resilience. How do you encourage teamwork in your organization and build that morale? Candidate Woodsmall stated that he approaches it as keeping the communication open and explaining what his philosophy is on how to deal with things such as being honest, open, treating others with respect, and giving them the common vision of where they want to go. He also holds people accountable. • Member Alonzo asked Candidate Woodsmall how he deals with people to make them accountable. Candidate Woodsmall stated by giving them specific and clear goals, guidelines and deadlines. He explains he checks in and stays on top of people because they need to understand that they have a certain goal or task to do. • Vice-Chair Jeffreys asked Candidate Woodsmall to talk about his experience measuring accountability. Do employees have individual goals? Do departments have department goals? Do you do performance reviews? Candidate Woodsmall stated that Holden lacks a formal employee review process, so the town manager relies on department heads to ensure performance standards. Based on his experience, he believes implementing an annual review process would be beneficial. What suggestions could you make to improve the approach the approach you could bring to economic development? Candidate Woodsmall suggested pursuing grants, having a solid master plan, getting involved with the Chamber of Commerce, working with the Regional Planning Agency, providing a road path for individuals wanting to start a business and being available for those individuals. How do you communicate the Board’s vision and the Town’s vision to citizens? Candidate Woodsmall emphasized the importance of timely communication, including press releases, newspaper outreach, and active used of social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. He added having coordinated, consistent messaging, sharing information regularly, and keeping the website up to date. ===PAGE 13=== Select Board Meeting Minutes January 14, 2025 13 How do you develop internal communications amongst staff within the organization of the government? Candidate Woodsmall stated email and making an effort to go to departments and talk to staff to hear break downs that you may not hear from official channels. John Petrin invited Candidate Woodsmall to make his 5-minute presentation: • Candidate Woodsmall presented a condensed version of a presentation he previously gave during a Holden town meeting on a state grant applied for the reconstruction of a street. John Petrin opened the discussion to questions from the board: • Member Alonzo stated that Candidate Woodsmall previously stated that when hiring employees, he looks for someone who has experience. He asked, since you are applying for the Town Manager and have not been a Town Manager, what would your response be to reconcile that? • Chair Nuzzolo stated that Candidate Woodsmall has more than 10 years of experience as a department head and working closely with town managers and asked how those opinions help shape your perspective and what he is bringing to the table that people who don’t have that experience wouldn’t? • Vice-Chair Jeffreys asked Candidate Woodsmall to talk about his professional boundaries and how he maintains himself in this role. • Clerk Moore stated that Lunenburg has identified staff retention, culture, and morale is something they want to improve and asked Candidate Woodsmall to talk about how he either has or would implement improvements or how he would evaluate the culture and the morale of the Town. • John Petrin asked Candidate Woodsmall what he would bring in from his previous managers that he thought was good to start this position. • Member Alonzo asked, what conditions in Lunenburg would exist to make this the perfect job for you? John Petrin gave Candidate Woodsmall an opportunity for a closing statement: Candidate Woodsmall highlighted his experience as a Public Works Director, emphasizing his understanding of municipal operations, strong management practices, and effective fiscal and planning policies. Candidate Woodsmall believes he can apply these skills on a broader scale in this role. MEETING SCHEDULE January 15, 2025, 6:00 P .M.; Bilotta Meeting Room, Town Hall Re: Town Manager Candidate Selection ADJOURN Meeting adjourned at approximately 9:15 PM. ===PAGE 14=== Select Board Meeting Minutes January 14, 2025 14 Respectfully Submitted, Lauren Menard Minute Clerk These Minutes were reviewed and approved by the Select Board on: Tuesday, September 29, 2026