EAST LONGMEADOW – At its Aug. 23 meeting, the Town Council discussed the search for new hires in key positions in Town Hall, including a human resource (HR) director, permanent town manager, and building commissioner.

Interim Town Manager Denise Menard told the council before a request for proposal (RFP) could be published the town would need to find adequate space in Town Hall for the department and should also conduct an analysis of the future department’s needs.

She added an HR director might not be hired before her four-month contract with the town expires, but she intends to get the search process underway.

Menard said town employees have told her that one of East Longmeadow’s weaknesses is not having an HR department.

Residents funded the hiring of an HR director and department in the fiscal year 2017 budget during the final Town Meeting.

“There are no personnel rules per se, is what I’ve been told,” she explained. “I found some booklets that say, ‘personnel polices,’ but they’re dated 1983 … So we do have some work ahead of us to get that together, but certainly I’m optimistic that we can get rolling on that pretty quickly to at least bring something to the council.”

Town Councilor Joseph Ford, who has a background in HR, said he would be willing to do the analytical work, which would function as a “road map” for an HR director.

“Truly, from what I’ve learned so far, we can ill afford to wait for an HR person to come in, come on board, get acclimated, and then start to figure some of these things out because there’s significant compliance [and] liability issues,” he added. “We need to mitigate as much risk as we can. There’s a significant amount of issues going on.”

Ford said he would recuse himself during the RFP process.

“I’m happy to help do this and then I’m going to have to recuse myself because [I] would be a conflict of interest and everybody that is going to ultimately come to the table are people I know and other companies,” he explained.

He added he believes town employees are doing a great job without an HR director, but noted, “We’re giving them a toothpick to dig a ditch and they somehow do it to the best of their ability.”

Ford said department heads are doing HR work already and bringing a department on board to specialize in those functions would save many town departments time and resources.

The council also discussed an advertisement for a permanent town manger, which would likely be published for 30 days starting in September.

One of the key points discussed by the council was whether the advertisement should include a residency requirement.

Town Councilor Donald Anderson suggested allowing for a residency requirement to be waived under “certain circumstances.” The rest of the council agreed with this idea.

Ford said the council’s next priority should be to appoint members to a screening committee.

Councilors agreed to discuss this topic in further detail at its next meeting. Although a vote was not taken, all councilors were in support of the screening committee consisting of five to seven members.  

The council also approved reopen the search process for a building commissioner, which was recommended by Menard after only two qualified candidates made it to the final round.

Menard said the original posting for the job was in July and reposting the position would likely yield better results due to low pools of applicants typically found during summer months.

Two additional candidates applied for the job, but were not qualified to serve in the position, she noted.

Town Council President Kevin Manley said East Longmeadow is relying upon aid from surrounding communities such as Springfield, Longmeadow, and Wilbraham in utilizing the services of their building commissioners until the town could hire its own.