00:00:00,100 S1: February 27th meeting of the Wenham Selectboard at 9:02 a.m.. Um present are um, Karen Anger, Gary Cheeseman and Ben Simon on the select board, as well as Town Administrator Steve Poulos. Steve, do you want to start us off? 00:00:20,601 S2: Good. So I asked the board to meet today to, um, vote to sign a memorandum of agreement with a new finance director and town accountant. The individual's name is Ernest Jackson. Um, I pulled on. I think we got another. Yeah. No, I thought there was another, um, attendee. Um, yeah. 00:00:44,767 S3: So that was on my end. Sorry. 00:00:46,400 S2: Oh, sorry. 00:00:47,067 S3: I'm sorry. Yeah. 00:00:49,000 S2: Memorandum of agreement with the finance director, Ernest Jackson. The term would be, um, it would commence on March 23rd, 2026, and would terminate on June 30th, 2029, which is slightly over three years to align with our fiscal year cycle. Um, Ernest comes to us with about 25 years of accounting experience. He's also done a couple stints as an interim HR director at his prior company. So I think, you know, he's he's, uh, does not have any specific municipal experience. However, he does have a significant amount of, um, of financial experience both in accounting and finance side as far as modeling, uh, performance metrics, reporting, things like that. I think that he will. His personality is a good fit for the organization. His recommendations came all came back very positive. Um, very, um, likable individual. Uh, works well with others. Team player uh, definitely has, you know, a drive to promote from within and, you know, help build folks a skill set to, you know, uh, help establish our continuation planning we're working for. Um, you know, he he doesn't have municipal experience. I feel that, you know, that is, um, not a deal breaker, right? I think he's, you know, quote unquote, 80 or 90% there. It's just filling in a little nuances of mass German law. Uh, accounting is accounting kind of no matter where you go. And then mastering the law throws a few little, um, changes that he just needs to get up to speed on. So, uh, to help ensure that happens, I've built in a 12 month education plan that his employment would be contingent upon that he completes, uh, he is excited about the educational opportunities and, um, uh, fully supports and intends to complete them. So, you know, with that, I'd ask the board to sign a contract unless there's any questions or concerns, comments, anything. Gary. Oh. 00:03:04,767 S4: Yeah. Perhaps. Steve. For the public. You could go through the process that for the selection where we started, the numbers and so forth. 00:03:14,601 S2: Yeah. Good, good. Good point. Gary. So we got probably about 15 or maybe even 16 applications for this position. I want to highlight that none of them, although you know, a lot of very qualified individuals, none of them had municipal experience. So it wasn't, um, intentionally seek municipal experience, uh, not musical experience. Uh, Joe and I did bring back about 7 or 8 of them to have a kind of a smaller interview with just him and myself. We whittled that group down to four individuals who was then brought back to meet with two panels, one panel consisting of what we kind of deemed the finance team would be individuals that would be most touched by, um, him in the organization. So that included the entire finance department. Michelle McGovern and Terry Fontaine. And then we had a second panel, which was, you know, a combination of department heads that included both chiefs, the DPW director, uh, our town clerk, Diane Bucko, and Kate Mallory, land use director. And we all sat around after the interviews. And, you know, the concern of lack of municipal experience was raised. Um, you know, and I agree, but unanimously, uh, Ernest Jackson was, um, voted on to be the, the the lead candidate in the group that we interviewed. 00:04:51,267 S1: Um, any other comments from you, Gary? Are you Karen good here? 00:05:00,567 S3: I, I'm going to be honest, I'm a little worried about the lack of municipal experience. I think his predecessor, Jeff, you know. Not only was he knowledgeable, but there was a lot of three things that came up a lot of, um, just a lot of town questions that came up. And I'd hate to have someone say, I don't know, I'd have to look into that and then have things be delayed and have lack of knowledge there. And I'm extremely worried that we're accepting somebody to just fill the position because we want a position filled. Um, but we're not necessarily looking for the right people, understanding that we're not getting the the resumes coming in with the municipal experience. I don't know if that is because the annual salary base is lower than we anticipated or, you know, Wenham is just not apparently a hot spot. But I'm I'm extremely hesitant to move forward with with anything that doesn't have that. I think we have a lot of things coming down the pipeline and and to not have experience. It's a lot of money. 00:06:09,000 S1: Well, Steve, I have a question about the, um, the training, um, that you've built in over the 12 month period. Um, which I, which I think is a great idea and in my opinion, um, mitigates some of the legitimate concerns that Karen just raised about lack of municipal experience. Is that budgeted for or, um, what can you explain, like the cost of that? Is that kind of built into his contract as part of the value he's getting, or is it a separate, separately funded thing? 00:06:42,467 S2: We we budgeted for this position at $140,000. 00:06:47,968 S2: Um, the, you know, he will be at one 115 to start. It'll be 118 for fiscal 27. And and for context, Jeff was at about 135 and his contract was up. So we anticipated a renegotiation probably in the mid one 40s. Um, so the money is there for his training. Also, uh, we are, you know, essentially promoting, in effect, uh, Jen Davis in the finance office who has proved to be quite the rock star. And, you know, we'll be taking on more complex accounting. You know, and we've kind of talked about a twofold, um, uh, situation where, you know, we'll be we'll be raising her rate of pay over the next 14 months through the end of fiscal 27. Um, understanding that, you know, she will need to bring this individual up to speed and then we'll retain a portion of that as a permanent increase to her base compensation. Um, as she takes on, um, you know, additional responsibilities. I've moved her into the, um. Jeff's office. Um, Ernest will sit up with me, uh, in the the room behind my office. Um, you know, I think that it's important that he's close to the administration office so that we can work hand in hand. Um, you know, I personally, you know, again, I don't have a crystal ball, but I think that the lack of municipal experience is, you know, a little over, um, a little bit too much weight is being given to it. I feel like, you know, all these projects that are coming before the town from a finance perspective is really no different than any other organizations where they're unique to municipalities because the type of work we do. But at the end of the day, the forecast modeling, maintaining the general ledger, um, is the same, uh, and analyzing these types of projects. Uh, gap accounting is GAAP accounting and you know, the pieces that the individual would be missing is door specific reporting through the gateway, which Jen Davis is familiar with. I'm also familiar with. I was the finance director before I was a town administrator. Um, so, you know, and I feel like, you know, a we've accounted for the training and we're also paying a market rate that knows is is somewhat significantly really below the going rate for a finance director. I mean, just by way of background, you know, where I don't think the town of Wenham, I don't think ever tends to be a leader in compensation. But when you look at other communities in our in our region, you know, for example, the town of Hamilton pays a finance director, you know, almost $170,000. The town of Swampscott was hiring a finance director at $165,000 The town is at about 140, right? They're all and they all have extreme difficulty finding anyone, not only with municipal experience, but with finance experience. And I think given the size of Windham and that our hiring rate is lower than the larger communities, regardless of if we were to go back out to market, I think this is showing the market that there's not many municipal folks looking to make the move. We've been out now for, you know, almost three months and this is all we've got. The posting is still out there. And, um, you know, I think that we would see ourselves in a situation where, you know, you're either going to get somebody who's very green and municipal experience and young, which isn't a bad thing, but only has a couple of years under his or her belt coming to Windham to kind of cut his or her teeth in a leadership role, which is a training exercise. Or you have an individual who, in my opinion, has a really diverse, well-rounded background both in human resources and, you know, career's worth of knowledge. Working with people, working with numbers, um, you know, but misses a little piece of the education. Um, you know, any kind of which one? You know, I don't know if we're looking at it as less work or better, but you know which which is better. Do we do we wait, continue to go with this position open, um, and hope that someone comes up that, you know, likely won't be, you know, use like, like an Andover or a North Andover or Redding or, you know, one of these finance directors that's making 170 hundred and $80,000. Like, they're not going to present themselves and come to one of them. It's just a reality. You know, we're not going to get that, um, unicorn, so to speak. Jeff was somewhat of an anomaly, um, in that, you know, he had a unique background and had his own business and is looking to kind of come back to work for other reasons. And, you know, obviously that that didn't work out long term here. So, you know, I'm not sure what you know, what what what the what it looks like if if we weren't going to feel I feel like this individual is qualified. Um, and we'll do a good job. And I do understand that there is going to be more effort and training getting up to speed for the Massachusetts side stuff. But I came from private private finance. And, um, you know, I can say that it, you know, it isn't insurmountable. It's it's learnable. Um, it's not that complicated when you know, where, you know, kind of where you need to go. 00:12:48,567 S1: Darren. 00:12:51,100 S3: Yeah, I just want to make sure I get the gist of this so he doesn't have municipal experience. We're putting him through training to offset that, assuming he's going to do the training. We're also putting all of our onus on, um, Jen to get him up to speed. What do we do if Jen leaves? We have somebody in a position that now doesn't have a right hand person in finance. They're not qualified for the position because they have no municipal experience and they're drastically underpaid. So what happens if if that? I mean, I'd hate to go back to the town and say, we made a big mistake, but we're now locked into something. And because we didn't, you know, make the make the job a little bit more enticing for other applicants. 00:13:43,467 S1: All right. Has everyone said their piece on this? 00:13:49,501 S1: Great. Um. All right. Um, I, I agree that the ideal candidate would be one that has municipal experience, but I feel as if Steve and his team went through a comprehensive process that he explained of interviewing people and that the market has spoken, that there aren't, you know, that unicorn candidate that Steve described isn't applying in Wenham, which, after all, is the second or third smallest town in Essex County. So we're not going to be a stop along the way, necessarily, for the kind of experienced candidate that we all think would be ideal. Um, in my opinion, um, the training program and the support that both Steve and Jen, uh, would, would be giving, um, this person will be important and will, you know, is, I think, part of a pretty sound plan for, um, for the team, for the finance team. So I myself am comfortable with this, um, but happy to take any other comments or questions if anybody has anything new to say. 00:15:04,467 S1: All right. With that, I'd entertain a motion. 00:15:09,667 S4: Yeah. So, um. 00:15:14,868 S4: Do we have the names and dates? Yeah. 00:15:17,567 S2: It's, uh. Am I Sharon? Can you guys see the the screen? 00:15:20,567 S4: Yeah. There we go. 00:15:21,100 S2: So, yeah, I can highlight it. Gary Ernest Jackson is the name. And the agreement here is. 00:15:27,200 S4: Yeah. I was looking for the dates. Okay, so I move that we hire Ernest Jackson as the finance director for a period of time starting March 23rd, 2026 through June 30th, 2029. 00:15:40,501 S1: Second are we have a motion and a second, we'll take a roll call. Vote on this motion. Karen. 00:15:46,667 S3: No. 00:15:47,868 S1: Gary. 00:15:48,601 S4: Yes. 00:15:49,667 S1: And Venice. Yes. It passes 2 to 1. Thank you everybody. And I'd entertain a motion to adjourn. 00:15:57,000 S4: Move to adjourn. Second. 00:15:59,501 S1: Oh. Is there something else, Steve? 00:16:01,467 S2: Nope. No. 00:16:02,167 S1: Just. Okay. 00:16:03,100 S4: Yeah. 00:16:05,000 S1: Oh. Thank you. Not 20. Uh. Roll call. Karen. Yes. Gary? 00:16:09,300 S4: Yes. 00:16:09,868 S1: And Ben is. Yes. Thanks, everybody. Have a nice weekend. 00:16:13,601 S2: Thank you. You too. 00:16:14,567 S1: Yeah, yeah. Bye bye.