Selectman Chair Wants To Remove Interim From Town Manager Title

STOUGHTON, MA — It’s been more than three months since Michael Hartman’s town manager contract expired, and if Chairman of the Board of Selectmen David Sousa gets his way, the interim town manager may have the temporary portion of his title dropped this month.

Tuesday night Sousa said he was going to add an item to the Oct. 17 selectmen agenda to consider making Steve Anastos the permanent town manager. The announcement came after a failed vote to start the process to find a new town manager.

“I’d like to put on the agenda for (Oct. 17), to make a proposal, to take the interim away from Steve Anastos and make him permanent town manager. I'll make a motion a motion right now...instead of wasting taxpayer money,” Sousa said.

"Does he get a raise?" someone yelled from the crowd.

"Maybe he doesn't get a raise. Maybe he gets his car and insurance like other people. We will discuss that when it times for a contract," Sousa replied.

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The turn of events came following an attempt from Selectman Michael Sullivan to start the process by having the board seek a request for proposals from consultants and recruiters.

“Regardless of our politics, regardless of what we think of each other...the single most important duty this body has to the Town is to appoint a town manager. A search process takes many months. A request for proposals process could take a couple of months. It's up to us to do the best thing for the Town and start that process as soon as possible,” Sullivan said.

The motion failed 2-3 with Sousa, Selectman Peter Brown, and Selectman Robert Cohn saying they preferred to not start the search until after the recall vote. Sousa said he would take it under consideration, but when pressed for an answer, he voted no.

“We just left a meeting that we talked about information that is extremely troubling that the public is going to have to learn about. I’m not going to support the hiring of a town manager in the next month or two, we have a recall,” Brown said.

Sousa said that town employees are thanking him for hiring Anastos, telling the board that workers are telling him that no one is clashing and moral his high.

Anastos has been the town manager since late July, after being appointed during a contentious six-minute meeting.

Sousa, Brown, and Cohn all face a recall election in part due to their vote to appoint an interim town manager, effectively ousting Hartman. Supports of the former town manager say that the town charter states that a town manager can't be relieved of his duties unless he is discharged by four selectmen. A Norfolk Superior judge however, said in a preliminary ruling that denied Hartman his job, said that a December 2016 3-1 vote to not renew Hartman's contract was a sufficient dismissal notice notice.

Image: File Photo