Selectmen Appoint Residents to Town Administrator Search Committee

The Burlington Board of Selectmen appointed three residents to the Town Administrator Search Committee during the meeting on Monday, Jan 9.

Two of the members will be full members of the search committee while the third will be an alternative who will attend meeting and participate but will only vote in the event that another member steps down. The three residents join to the committee. The search committee will work with the Edwards J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management, a public entity based at UMass Boston .

The two full resident members are Mark Delaney and Wendy Zarella. Resident Melissa Robinson was appointed as the alternative. A fourth resident, Rob Satyaerasad, was nominated by Selectmen Daniel Grattan but was not appointed because only three members were needed and appointments were approved in the order of the seniority of the board member who nominated them. Grattan is the newest member of the board. 

The need for the search committee came following current Town Administrator at the end of May of next year. The Selectmen voted to create a search committee made up by town representatives and residents with no current or past connections to elected office. To find the resident representatives, the board asked interested volunteers to

At last night's meeting Board of Selectmen Chair Walter Zenkin said the town received 11 responses.

"It was an incredible response," Zenkin said. "The caliber of all the residents who responded is extremely high so this won’t be an easy choice."

Alternate Melissa Robinson was the only appointed person present at the meeting. She said she was happy to be selected.

"Thank you, it looks like a nice mix of people and a good opportunity," she told the board. "I look forward to working with everyone."

The three members will join the five appointed town representatives, who are:

The five appointed members are:

• Financial: Paul Sagarino, Burlington Town Accountant
• Business/Town Meeting: David Icken, General Manager of Capital Grille
• Schools: Dr. Eric Conti, Superintendent of Schools
• Town Committee: Brad Bond, Chairman of the Ways & Means Committee
• Town Operations: John Sanchez, Superintendent of Public Works