A special City Council subcommittee to select a screening committee for a new city manager held its first meeting Monday night.
The five councilors are tasked with selecting four residents to serve on a screening committee to interview candidates to replace former City Manager Thomas Ambrosino.
The past several weeks have seen the search process ramp up, with the appointment of the screening committee subcommittee, a citizen’s input session, and the extension of the deadline for residents to fill out a city manager search inquiry form online.
Councilor-at-Large Brian Hatleberg said the subcommittee is still seeking residents who wish to serve on the screening committee. Last week, Council President Leo Robinson appointed Eugene O’Flaherty to serve as the chair of the screening committee.
Any resident who does wish to serve should contact the Chelsea City Council at [email protected].
The screening committee will work with the UMass Boston-based Collins Center to help select a new city manager.
The Collins Center recommended that the screening committee not include city councilors to help protect the privacy of those who may wish to apply for the position.
The screening committee will interview candidates and present several finalists to the City Council for final interviews and the council’s selection of a new city manager.
“The screening committee will be responsible for interviewing for the city manager and giving us a dwindling list that we will eventually choose from,” said Councilor-at-Large and subcommittee member Damali Vidot at last week’s citizen input session. “I’m assuming at that point, as we did last time, there will be more input from the community, because that is something that I think we are advocating for is for everyone to be involved in the process.”
Vidot said the Collins Center recommended it was best the city councillors not be involved in the initial interview and screening process.
“First of all, all of us being together in the same room, it becomes public property, anything you submit, and it wouldn’t be fair to someone who doesn’t want their business out there about where they are applying, so that won’t happen,” said Vidot. “The other thing they suggested, because we asked if we could do some residents and some city councilors, and they said that puts pressure on Chelsea residents, it’s best to keep out of it, so we decided to go full resident.”
The online city manager inquiry forms can be found online at chelseama.gov, and residents have until Tuesday, March 14 to provide feedback on the qualities they would like to see in a new city manager.