Town loses Assessor Director to Beverly
Published on December 13th, 2006
STONEHAM, MA - Town Administrator Ron Florino appraised the Selectmen on Tuesday of several new positions within the municipality that he plans to replace, including the Assessor's Office Director.
According to the Town Administrator, Town Assessor Frank Golden, who appeared before the board just weeks ago to recommend a new tax rate for coming year, has become the newest department manager to depart Stoneham.
Since the summer, a number of prominent officials, including Schools' Superintendent Dr. Joseph Connelly, Schools' Assistant Superintendent Joseph Casey, Schools' Business Manager Gregory Zammuto, Police Chief Gregory O'Keefe, Town Accountant Ronald Castignetti, and Florino himself, have either retired, resigned, accepted a new job, or not had their contracts renewed.
Golden, who has reportedly agreed to become Beverly's new Assessor, joins Casey and Zammuto in leaving town. Connelly decided to retire, while O'Keefe's contract was not renewed for the upcoming year.
Florino, who submitted his own resignation last summer, will move back to the familiar post he held for 20 years as Town Accountant, with Castignetti shifting over from that post to Assistant Town Accountant and Town Auditor. Interviews for a new Town Administrator continue next Monday and Tuesday.
"The Director of Assessing position has been posted. We've lost our Assessor; he's moving to Beverly," Florino explained. "He is willing to help out for a couple days a week [until we find his replacement]."
Although the Town Administrator only updated the Selectmen on the progress to date in locating a replacement for Golden, he specifically asked for the board members' authorization to replace a vacant senior DPW engineer post.
Arguing that some sort of replacement was essential for government functions, Florino rearranged the job function, reassigning a new salary for the position that would create a net $12,000 savings for the town next year.
However, while the Selectmen were ultimately persuaded by the Town Administrator's plans, Selectmen Chair Bob Sweeney rebelled against the continued trend of loading such public works positions into the water and sewer department.
Specifically, Sweeney partially scoffed at the premise that the water and sewer revenues would account for more than 80 percent of the replacement.
According to the Selectman Chair, such a salary split accounted to no more than shifting the burden away from tax bills and onto water and sewer expenses, a source that made no difference to the residents who were forced to write a check for both charges.
"Ron, if the public works was not funded by the water and sewer and it was funded by the [general] budget, would the residents have a lower and sewer rate?" Sweeney asked rhetorically.
"Absolutely," the Town Administrator responded, while cautioning board members that another $7 million in revenues would be required to fund those functions through annual tax bills.
First-term Selectman Paul Rotondi, who has been attempting to put together a survey measuring how the town's percentage split of expenses per department compare to similar communities, directed Florino to provide him with the information from the water and sewer bills.
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