Thompson will not serve on Town Manager Search Committee

Westborough - While the identity of the two members of the Board of Selectmen who will serve on the search committee responsible for finding the town's first/ next town manager won't be known until the board's next meeting Tuesday Aug. 19, one thing is certain: one of the two will not be Board of Selectmen Chair George Thompson.

Citing pressing personal issues, Thompson said following the board's July 30 meeting that he will not be one of the two selectmen who will serve on the 10-member search committee that will be charged with forwarding to the board the finalists to replace current Town Coordinator Henry Danis.

"I don't know who the two selectmen will be and I'm not really worried about it because whoever is selected, they will do a great job," Thompson said, "but I won't be one of them. I have some issues in my personal and professional life outside of being a member of Westborough's Board of Selectmen that will prevent me from dedicating and devoting the time necessary to serve on a search committee that is going to be as important as this one."

The board was split as to how they should decide who will serve on the search committee.

Selectman Tim Dodd said he believed that the criteria used in other appointments of selectmen to committees, sub-committees, ad-hoc committees and as liaisons to committees, also be used in this instance.

"I think the selectmen interested in serving on the Town Manager Search Committee should inform the chairman of that interest and then the board should vote on who will be its representatives," Dodd said.

Selectmen Leigh Emery agreed with Dodd that the board should vote to determine who will represent it on the search committee.

Selectman Rod Jané recommended Thompson, as chair of the Board of Selectmen, appoint the two selectmen to serve on the search committee.

Selectman Lydia Goldblatt, like Jané, believed that the chair should appoint the members who will serve, but she didn't feel strongly about it.

"I don't feel strongly one way or the other," Goldblatt said. "You might want to write the date and the time down for history's sake because this may be the first time in my life that I don't have an opinion on something."

In addition to determining the identities of the two selectmen who will serve on the search committee at the Aug. 19 meeting, the other members of the search committee will be formally introduced. Also on the Aug. 19 agenda related to the town manager search will be: who will serve as chair of the search committee; approval of the final version of the advertisement for the position; and how many finalists the search committee will be charged with bringing forward to the board for the final round of interviews, which will be done during one or more Board of Selectmen meetings.