Town Manager Candidate Interviews: James Boudreau

During his interview with the Board of Selectmen, James Boudreau, the current town administrator of Norwell, Mass., and one of four finalists for the Falmouth town manager position, drew some parallels between the two towns.

“Norwell is a community of neighborhoods,” Boudreau said. “Falmouth demands the same high level of services as Norwell.”

Boudreau said he was “a very informal manager, for the most part. If taxpayers want to see me, they get to walk right into my office and see me.”

Boudreau said he was familiar with the issues faced by Falmouth, though not an expert in matters like wind turbines. The most important consideration in any town issue, he said, is communication.

“All politics is local,” he said. “Make sure people are aware from day one what you’re doing. That’s a communication issue.”

Boudreau said a town manager should be “as accessible as he can be and still get the job done.”

He said constant communication with the public is also crucial in avoiding being surrounded by a “circle of a hundred,” the same people telling the town manager the same things every day.

Boudreau also emphasized the importance of issues like waste water management.

“Falmouth is a destination community,” he said. “People come to Falmouth for the natural beauty, the seacoast. If you lose those things, you’re going to be in trouble.”

Boudreau said the key to dealing with decreasing state and federal funding is “being very conservative with your budget estimates. Set the revenues early. Set the priorities. Then get everything under the cap.”

Asked how to keep Falmouth’s demographics from tilting too far to the older end of the spectrum, Boudreau cited two critical enticements for attracting younger residents.

“Jobs and schools,” he said. “You need places for them to work, and you need to have a good school system for them to put their children in.”

He said Norwell had seen success in keeping its demographics young, partially because of its significant investment in its schools.

Drawing another parallel between Norwell and Falmouth, Boudreau said, “Our schools are out beaches.”

Asked where he saw himself in five years, Boudreau said, “Here. But I do play the lottery when it gets up over 100 million. If I hit it, all bets are off.”

On a more serious note, Boudreau said that, if he were chosen as the new town manager, Falmouth could count on him staying on for the long haul. If not, he said, he would be content to stay in his current position.

“I’m not out there shopping around,” he said. “I’m very happy in Norwell. I had a Board of Selectmen meeting last night, and they all wished me bad luck” in securing the Falmouth town manager position.