By Theresa Knapp

The talent search firm selected by the Hopedale Select Board has set forth a timeline to select a new Town Administrator by the end of March. 

At the board’s Dec. 27 meeting, John Petrin, senior associate at Community Paradigm Associates, said the firm expects to receive between 20 and 25 resumes which will likely produce “seven people that can be chosen for an initial interview.” 

He explained the process. 

“We’ll work with the board members and key department heads to understand the needs of the community once again as we did last time and create a position statement that will go out for advertising several weeks from now to search for probable candidates for the position.” 

From January to March, the firm will consult with the Select Board (together and individually), gather supporting information, create a position profile and recruitment brochure, advertise and recruit for the position, receive and review the first round of applications, assist a ‘professional panel’ to select semi-finalists, interview semi-finalists and select three or four finalists, conduct reference and background reviews, then provide a list of finalists to the Select Board to be interviewed mid-March. 

Selectperson Brian Keyes asked Petrin if the final candidates could be ranked when presented to the Select Board. 

Keyes, who was part of the process that ultimately hired the most recent Town Administrator, said he wished he had known who the search committee had chosen as its top applicants before he made his selection. 

“If I had some data points and representation from that screening committee as to who they thought the number one candidate was of the talented [final] three, that probably would have influenced - based on my respect for the people who were on that committee - my selection,” said Keyes.  

Keyes then asked, “Maybe when we get to final interviews, and let’s just say three finalists come before the board, the board interviews them and then in the midst our deliberation, a representative of that screening committee is allowed to speak to the board, maybe in the deliberation in private, as to who they would have selected?...That’s helpful information for me.” 

Petrin said Paradigm does not stack the candidates or rank them in any order. 

“When we do this what we’re trying to do is provide the board with three or four candidates who may be different in style coming in and that’s for you to make that decision based on the information you have,” said Petrin, noting the importance of the position statement which outlines what the town is looking for in the position. 

Petrin said the Board is able to speak to members of the search committee on their own, if they wish to do so. 

Petrin said the average size of the town’s search committee is typically five to seven people, preferably five. The makeup can vary and can include members of the public at large. It is a voting committee that was planned to be formed in January.