Are Connolly and Mary Rose the Hiring Czars of Clinton
Are Connolly and Mary Rose the Hiring Czars of Clinton – Every town Job needs to be an elected one – not appointed – Its called Democracy ” Let the People of Clinton Vote every term for the best candidates” Not the Selectman
Clinton MA Tea party
Patrick McIntyre has been the town’s elected treasurer for six years. This year, voters at the town meeting will be asked about making his job, as well as the collector and assessors, appointed. If approved, the question would then go to a ballot in 2013. If voters OK it again, it would go into effect as each elected official’s term expires.
McIntyre and the collector are both up for re-election in 2014.
While McIntyre said he understands the concept, he has not voiced his support of the proposal, despite a comment at a recent selectmen’s meeting that he and the other affected officials were in agreement.
Assessors David Baird and Dan Halloran declined comment. Baird is up in 2014, Halloran in 2013.
McIntyre said he and Collector Kathy O’Malley were brought into a meeting with the subcommittee that drafted the change, which included Town Administrator Michael Ward and selectmen Bill Connolly and Mary Rose Dickhaut.
“We were asked what we thought. We offered some of the challenges we saw,” McIntyre said. They said they needed to think about it. “At the second meeting, we said we could only support it if the language in the article guaranteed the people serving in positions would flow into the newly-appointed positions. We said we were not ready to commit to an opinion.”
McIntyre said, at the third meeting, town counsel Robert Gibbons said it was not legal to put language in that would guarantee the jobs to those serving.
“None of us stated we agreed,” McIntyre said.
While the change would take the jobs out of public politics, it would not take the jobs out of politics, McIntyre said.
“You would still need to appease three members of the board (of selectmen to get and keep the job),” he said. While Ward could have the authority to appoint, selectmen still would have the veto power.
With no guarantees that he and other people who are qualified for the position would be able to continue, McIntyre said he feels voters should turn the question down at the town meeting.
McIntyre said there certainly could be a situation where a job that takes training, like treasurer, could go to someone unqualified, whether through an election or appointment. Now, he said, qualified people are in the positions. He said that in addition to his accounting degree, he was treasurer/manager of a software company before joining the town. In the last six years, he said over $1 million in tax title land has been taken and sold by the town without displacing anyone from their homes. He said he has streamlined the payroll system and worked on improving the town’s health insurance.
He and O’Malley are both certified by the state for their jobs.
The appointing board could give the job to someone who does not have the same stake he does in the town.
“Part of the appeal of having these jobs elected is that I live in the town,” McIntyre said. “To steal a line from Warren Buffet, I have ‘skin in the game.’ My kids go to the Clinton public schools. I shop in Clinton stores. I use local merchants. I pay taxes. Someone appointed could live elsewhere and take that money elsewhere.”
