Newtown Hires Consultant To Assist With Search For Town Manager

NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — The Newtown Borough Council is moving forward with the search and recruitment of its first borough manager.

In a unanimous vote in October, the council hired the Meyner Center for the Study of State and Local Government to assist with the process of finding and hiring a manager to handle the day-to-day administration of the borough.

The nonprofit center based at Lafayette College in Easton will be paid $110 an hour not to exceed $8500 to provide the borough with assistance in the search and ultimate hiring of a borough manager.

This week, members of council are expected to sit down with Nicole Beckett from the Meyner Center to go over logistics and to set an application deadline.

The scope of services will include meeting with council to define the responsibilities of the position, setting the expected salary and benefit expense, establishing the recruitment and appointment procedure, scheduling the interview process, reviewing resumes, preparing interview questions, and assisting Council in negotiating terms of employment with the candidate.

“This is a very important step,” said Councilor Kris Bauman in supporting the motion. “This is, in essence, a specialized search. Unlike a lot of hires, it’s a unique position with a limited number of qualified applicants and to reach out to somebody who has worked in this area of specialization and has helped a number of other municipalities throughout the state, to me is important, especially this being our first borough manager. It’s important from our perspective to have that
guidance.”

In addition, Bauman said in order to attract the best applicants “it’s important that we present a rationale, thought-through process and to bring on the Meyner Center is going to covey to the applicants that we are just that.”

Councilor Emily Heinz added, “This is new territory for us. What I like in the proposal is that part of what they will do for us is help us in defining the responsibilities for the position. That’s extremely important,” she said. “I also agree with Kris. We need to put our best foot forward. The Meyner Center is very highly respected. The list of municipalities they have hired for is exhaustive. I also like the fact that Nicole who we will be working with is a former borough manager herself for 11 years. I’m excited about this.”

Council voted in August to amend the borough ordinance to include the position of borough manager as an option. The borough currently operates with a full-time treasurer and a full-time borough secretary with members of the unpaid borough council taking on oversight responsibilities.

For more than a decade, the council has debated the hiring of a borough manager, but it was the announced resignation in July of its longtime treasurer, Pat Ours, that brought the idea back to the table. Our's resignation is effective Nov. 1.

At a special meeting in late September, council hired Gilbert, Wilson & Hunter, LLP, to handle the borough's bookkeeping and accounting services following Ours' departure. GWH has offices on North State Street directly across the street from the borough hall and in Oswego, New York.

That move will give the borough time to conduct the search and hire a borough manager.

With more than half of Council departing at the end of the year, any votes on salary negotiations and hiring would not take place until the new council is seated in January, according to Council President Tara Grunde-McLaughlin.

Grunde-McLaughlin added that she would like to include whoever wins the November election in the interview process, which is expected prior to the new council being seated in January.

In other action in October, council granted an extension of time to the Steeple View Phase 2 Amended Preliminary and Final Plan to the end of this year.

The council also filled three openings on its planning commission created by the resignation of four of its members. The members resigned in protest over council's vote to grant conditional use approval to the Steeple View redevelopment project for shared parking.

The council approved the appoint of Scott Williams for the remainder of a four-year term through December 31, 2024; Don Hayden for the remainder of a four-year term through December 31, 2024; and Courtney Lang for the remainder of a four-year term through December 31, 2023.