Why is Everybody Leaving Londonderry?

Over the past year, the Town of Londonderry has lost a town manager, a community development director, two senior affairs directors, a fire chief and now a town clerk as well.

On Monday night, it was announced that Meg Seymour is resigning as town clerk just three months after she was re-elected.

Her resignation comes a month after Stacy Thrall stepped down as senior affairs director only three months after accepting the position. Thrall had replaced Kimberly Bean, who resigned in December to take another job.

Fire Chief Kevin MacCaffrie retired in February, and Community Development Director Andre Garron resigned in October to take a position with the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension.

All of those departures came after Town Manager David Caron's resignation last July. Police Chief William Hart has served as acting town manager since then, as the council continues to interview candidates to fill the position on a permanent basis.

It's a lot of turnover at the top for a town of about 24,000 residents.

The question is whether there is a point at which the loss of all that institutional knowledge begins to hurt the town. Hart doesn't think so.

"Anytime you have a loss of long-serving high quality employees, it poses a challenge to any organization," he said. "But it's precisely those times that give us the most opportunity to succeed."

For example, Hart said the departure of Chief MacCaffrie gave Darren O'Brien an opportunity to step into the role as acting chief.

"I think Acting Chief O'Brien is doing an outstanding job, and has really been able to connect with the union and improve morale and work well with the council, and so that's a plus," Hart said. "It's not like he hasn't been here for the better part of three decades."

Similarly, while he said the loss of Garron was difficult, it allowed the town to restructure the Planning and Community Development Department and outsource much of its community development work.

"Do I think the loss of respected professional leaders is tough? Yes. But do I think it provides the town of Londonderry, because of the staff it has, the opportunity to grow, and another opportunity to pursue excellence? I do."

Speaking specifically of Seymour's departure, Hart said the town attorney is looking into the proper method of appointing a replacement.

"My understanding is a properly appointed deputy can succeed the town clerk," he said. "It depends on whether the person is simply a town clerk or both tax collector and town clerk. We're just looking to make sure our ducks are in a row."

In Londonderry's case, Seymour was elected to fill both roles. So Hart said it's possible the Town Council will have to appoint Seymour's replacement instead of having the deputy clerk ascend to the position.