The City Council is set to conduct public interviews for four finalists for the City Manager position on Saturday morning at City Hall beginning at 10 a.m.
Last week, the City Manager Screening Committee presented its four finalists for the position during a special City Council meeting. Those finalists are James Duggan, Cheryl Watson Fisher, Fidel Maltez, and Michael McGovern.
Duggan is currently an undersecretary for the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation. He is the former town manager in Dracut and chief administrative officer for Gloucester.
Duggan has a master’s degree in public administration from Suffolk University and a B.A. in political science from Westfield State University.
Watson Fisher has been the city solicitor in Chelsea for the past 20 years, and has been a partner in the law firm of Galluccio and Watson since 2010. She previously served as the assistant city solicitor in Cambridge and assistant regional counsel for the Massachusetts Department of Social Services. She has a juris doctor degree from Boston College Law School and a B.A. in sociology from Wheaton College.
Maltez is currently the town manager in Reading and previously worked as the public works commissioner in Chelsea. In the private sector, Maltez has worked as an engineering manager and field engineer. He has a senior executive in state and local government certificate from Harvard University’s School of Government, a master’s degree in public policy from Tufts University, and a bachelor’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from Lafayette College.
McGovern is currently the town administrator in Shirley and was previously the assistant city manager in Lowell, the coordinator of school information and director of the school foundation for the Greater Lowell Technical High School, and director of the Northern Middlesex Tobacco Free Network for UMass-Lowell. He has a B.A. in history from UMass-Lowell and continuing educational credits from the UMass-Boston Public Administration program.
Screening Committee Chair Eugene O’Flaherty said the committee received about 30 applications for the city manager position. He said the committee used a consensus approach when selecting the candidates to move forward to the council for final interviews.
“The screening committee collectively believes that any one of these candidates will serve the city well,” said O’Flaherty. “It is now the (city) council’s job … to interview and evaluate these candidates on their qualifications and you will determine who the next city manager of Chelsea will be.”
The interviews on Saturday will be open to the public, and there will be an opportunity for public feedback both at the meeting and prior to a council meeting on Monday, Oct. 2, when the council could make a final selection.
At the end of 2022, former City Manager Thomas Ambrosino was selected as the next Court Administrator of the Trial Court in Massachusetts by the justices of the Supreme Judicial Court.
The council appointed Deputy City Manager Ned Keefe as the interim city manager soon after.
In June, the council took the interim tag off of Keefe’s position, with the understanding that he would serve until a new city manager is appointed by the council.