EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow Town Council met for a regularly scheduled meeting to interview the final four candidates for the open town manager position before voting Mary McNally into the position on Dec. 18.

Before the council moved into the interview process the council chair Kathleen Hill announced that the council had to vote to give interim town manager Mary McNally an additional four months as town manager to ensure there was a smooth transition to the new town manager, because McNally’s term was set to end on Dec. 22.             “Our interim town manager was appointed on Aug. 22 and that four month window ends this coming Sunday,” Hill said. “To avoid the sticky situation of not having a manager in place while we negotiate the contract with whoever we select tonight, it allows a smooth transition over the next four months.”

The council began the meeting with a brief orientation with their consultant from Community Paradigm, the consulting firm that helped the town manager screening committee narrow the search down to the final four candidates.     Consultant Bernie Lynch then explained the process for the interviews and what questions the council would be asking the interviewees. “I urge you to read these questions as prompts, not a verbatim dialogue reading so you can attempt to have a conversation with each of the candidates,” Lynch said.

The council then quickly went through the questions and picked which ones they wanted to ask the candidates.

With the orientation process out of the way the council interviewed its first candidate, Tom Guerino. He said that this was his second time interviewing for the town manager position in East Longmeadow and added that his experience in Bourne would be a benefit to him as the Town Manager.

“I like this town, I have done a lot of research on this town. This is a town that is similar to Bourne in terms of its budget and complexity,” he said. “I think I have the experience and depth to take East Longmeadow forward.”

Council member Marilyn Richards then asked Guerino what his plans would be to encourage economic development in terms of commercial, industrial and retail investment and how to balance that with residential growth. He answered, “I would work with the planning board to look at zoning and if there is any way to use existing developments or to look into mixed use lands. But it takes a long time and one of the things I think are key is you have to have citizen input, let the citizens have a say in what they want the city to become.”

After Guerino’s interview, interim town manager Mary McNally took the floor for her interview to become the full-time town manager. McNally opened by discussing how her time as the interim town manager and interest in politics pushed her to want to become the full-time town manager in East Longmeadow. She said, “My interest in the position stems from the past four months since I was inundated to the position, and with each passing day it gets more and more interesting with the issues I have to face. I was always invested in my own community in Springfield and always had any eye on East Longmeadow.”

Councilor Donald Anderson then asked McNally what kind of work environment she would create, how to hold employees accountable and maximize their performance, and how she would set goals for individual departments. McNally responded by discussing how teamwork would be at the center of it all. She said in response, “I’m all about cooperation. My mantra is if you have a skill and can help one of your colleagues, please do so and don’t hold back. We don’t need to hold our skills back for fear that we’ll be less valuable I’m 180 degrees in the opposite direction with that.”

Following McNally’s interview, Jennifer Wolowicz stepped in front of the council for her interview. Wolowicz explained that she believes now is the time for her to take a step forward and advance her career.

“I’m at a point in my professional career and personal goals that it’s time to advance myself. I really felt who I am as a person fit what you’re looking for as a manager. Someone who’s going to bring balance, consistency and work together with the council along with the department heads and employees to make sure they have a voice,” she said.

With East Longmeadow’s ongoing issues in the Human Resources (HR) Department, Hill then asked Wolowicz how she would handle the current situation. She responded by discussing building an HR department from the ground up in South Hadley and said, “When I was hired, South Hadley didn’t have an HR department. So I walked in and I had to build it from scratch to the point I had to retrieve files from every department. It was every issue you didn’t want when you have a federal or state audit done.”

With three of the interviews out of the way, the council moved to interview the final candidate, Ron San Angelo. He said that one of the attractions that made him want to apply for the town manager position is that he already has experience as a town manager.

“I manage a town with the same population and the same kind of demographics. I’ve been managing it successfully for four and a half years and I was also the mayor of my hometown for four and a half years as well,” he said.

One of the questions Councilor Patrick Henry asked San Angelo is how he would describe his relationship with school administrators from his past work. He responded by talking about how important the relationship with the schools is for him. He said, “One of my references is in fact our school superintendent or receiver since the state’s involved with our schools. We have a great relationship and I work extensively with him. I consider the school system and the town hall as one team, I don’t look at it as two organizations.”

After the interviews, the council took a brief recess to discuss the interviews before coming back to vote to select the new town manager. Hill opened the floor for each of the councilors to have at least three minutes to talk about who they thought would be the best fit for the position along with their overall thoughts from each of the candidates.

Each councilor voiced positive support for McNally and the job she has done as the interim town manager, but Anderson explained that he was upset with how she became the interim town manager.

“I’m still p***** off in how she got the position. I’m still unhappy that her resume came in that night and that the council was told we could not interview her or the other candidate whose names were kept secret. So I’m not backing down on that today but if I had to vote today I‘d vote Mary McNally,” he said.

Hill added, “She does not have an agenda and she enjoys what she does. As it relates to the climate for the employees, it’s absolutely palpable. For the other three candidates my marks are redundant, every single one can do the job. I think the woman we have right now provides the best fit.”

The council unanimously voted to appoint Mary McNally East Longmeadow’s permanent Town Manager pending her contract negotiations with the town.

The East Longmeadow Town Council will next meet on Jan. 14.