Back to square one in Dartmouth town administrator search

The search for Dartmouth’s next town administrator continues to go on. 

At its Monday, Feb. 10 meeting, the Select Board unanimously voted to rescind its offer to candidate Bridget Almon, who is currently the director of finance in Fall River, after she rejected the town’s contract offer due to the “contract language.” 

The town has been looking to fill the position since former Town Administrator Shawn MacInnes resigned back in July 2024. The board completed interviews with four candidates in December, voting to offer the position to Almon on Dec. 16.

At the time of the vote, members expressed interest in conducting a new search. Select Board Chair Shawn McDonald said he wasn’t satisfied with the work completed by the search firm Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at UMass Boston.

Though he didn’t anticipate finding the “perfect” candidate, he wanted the board to be more confident when making its decision. 

It is currently unclear what the board’s next steps are for the search, having previously mentioned interest in starting fresh with a different search firm. According to McDonald, a request for proposal is already completed and the board will be convening within the next week to discuss what’s next.

Throughout the search, board members voiced concerns about having a quick, yet efficient process that can grant the town stability — noting the last town administrator search lasted approximately seven months, which was partially why they chose to move forward with Almon. 

Moving forward, Select Board member Christopher O’Neil suggested the board consider having labor counsel work on the town administrator contract, and all other employment contracts, in order to formulate an agreement that works for both parties. 

He said it might be easier to achieve this with someone who is more experienced in current labor issues.

Typically, town counsel handles non-union contacts while labor counsel handles those in the union. O’Neil said he was unhappy with the timeframe of the delivery of the revised contract and noted it could have been perceived as negativity toward the candidate.

“The town’s lost the opportunity to work with a qualified, knowledgeable individual,” he said. “I can only hope that when we go out to market again that we can quickly and fairly negotiate with the best candidate, who will work with the department to bring common goals for the benefit of the taxpayer and the feepayer.”

Select Board member David Tatelbaum said while he agrees this is worth discussing, he does not believe the recent negotiations should be a negative reflection of the town counsel’s performance, given all that he’s accomplished in his time with the town.

Also at Monday’s meeting, the board agreed to rescind their previous vote, which stipulated a one-year review in the three-year town administrator contract, calling for an evaluation of the employee’s performance metrics.