The Select Board on Feb. 27 unanimously voted to name Interim Finance Director Gary Carreiro to the post on a permanent basis.

“This is a great job for you, Gary,” Select Board Chair David Tatelbaum said. “You’ve accomplished a lot and have the confidence of a lot of people in [Town Hall].”

During the meeting, Town Administrator Shawn MacInnes noted that there were three finalists for the position, but two of them withdrew prior to their public interviews with the Select Board. 

Even if the other two had stayed, he said that Carreiro was the top choice.

“Gary’s been a really excellent interim,” he said.

Carreiro was tapped as the interim budget director after his predecessor, Greg Barnes, accepted a job as town administrator for Raynham this past August.

The new director previously served as the town’s tax collector — a role he still served during the interim period. Carreiro also serves as a member of the Town of Westport’s Finance Committee.

During his interview with the Select Board, Carreiro said he’s proud of the work he and his staff have done in the past six months, especially in ensuring that the town maintains its AAA bond rating — the highest rating that can be achieved through Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.

The score denotes that the town has a strong capacity to meet its financial commitments.

“That doesn’t just happen because of one person,” he said.

The proudest achievement, he said, has been streamlining the town’s budgeting process by getting departments to get things done online rather than filing stacks of papers.

Additionally, Carreiro said he’s been sitting down with department heads in-person to help shape the budget for the coming fiscal year.

“Something like that hadn’t been done in over a decade,” said, adding that he will continue to keep this procedure for years to come.

Another improvement Carreiro hopes to implement, now that he has the permanent job, is to hire a full-time town assessor — an office he said has been empty for the past two years.

Assessors are responsible for determining full and fair cash valuations and for classifying all property located within the community as of Jan. 1 each year. Carreiro called this office the “generator” of Dartmouth’s $72 million in revenue.

Currently, he said, the town contracts the former assessor on a part-time basis — something Carreiro said is not the most ideal situation.

“He can only work so many hours,” he said. “We have to have someone permanent in the office.”

Now that Carreiro has been named director of budget and finance, this now leaves his previous office of Tax Collector open. According to the town administrator, officials are weighing their options on how to move forward.