Cohasset selectmen want Town Manager Michael Milanoski to stay until 2015
Cohasset selectmen say they want Acting Town Manager Michael Milanoski to stay three more years, in hopes of providing some continuity to the affluent seaside community that has seen four top executives in the past two years.
“We need the stability,’’ said the board’s chairman, Paul Carlson. “We have a very talented guy running the town; let’s keep him.’’
In his first job as a town manager, Milanoski took over on an emergency basis in February, when the Board of Selectmen suspended and later fired Michael Coughlin after just six months in the post. Exacerbating the turmoil in local government, Cohasset’s police chief, Mark DeLuca, is on paid administrative leave, under investigation for complaints filed by the town’s police union.
Carlson said the board on Aug. 21 signaled its intention to extend Milanoski’s contract, which expires next June 30, by two years. The 4-to-1 vote was taken in executive session, Carlson said, and the board will take an official vote after the contract details are ironed out.
Carlson acknowledged that some in town question why the board isn’t going the traditional route of a public search for a new town manager, especially since the consultant who did the last search offered to conduct another one at no cost.
“We are not required to do a search,’’ Carlson said. “And based on town managers I have worked with, it would be hard to replace Michael with anybody better.’’
Former selectwoman Karen Quigley disagrees with Carlson’s assessment of Milanoski.
“A lot of people in town don’t think he is doing a great job,’’ she said. “And people are kind of outraged that the Board of Selectmen has gone ahead and handpicked someone.’’
Quigley questioned the legality of the contract extension, noting that town bylaws prohibit anyone who had served on an appointed board from being named town manager for at least a year.
Milanoski chaired the appointed Governance Committee before he stepped into the town manager spot.
In response, Carlson said, “Michael is being offered a new contract as acting town manager.’’
The board member who cast the lone vote against extending Milanoski’s contract, Selectwoman Martha Gjesteby, also said she is concerned by the decision to forgo a public search for a new town manager.
Gjesteby said she also is worried that Milanoski has sued to get back his job as head of the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority, from which he was fired in 2009.
Milanoski alleged the decision was political, and both the state Civil Service Commission and a Superior Court judge have agreed, describing the firing as “in bad faith’’ and ordering the city to reinstate him and pay him back wages.
The Civil Service Commission
made its ruling in June 2011, and a Bristol Superior Court judge upheld the ruling
this July. The board of the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority voted last month to appeal
.
Milanoski said he couldn’t comment on the Attleboro matter because it is in litigation. He also would not comment on a contract extension in Cohasset, except to say he took the town manager position because “I care about this community I live in.’’
Carlson said he had no concerns that Milanoski would leave his Cohasset post for his old position in Attleboro. “I think it is highly unlikely that he would go back to a job from which he was fired, particularly if he has a good job here,’’ Carlson said.
Cohasset’s history of revolving town managers began in 2004, when Mark Haddad resigned after allegations of sexual harassment.
His replacement, William Griffin, left in the fall of 2010, as did the town’s finance director. Shortly afterward, an independent audit revealed serious shortcomings in Cohasset’s financial record keeping, which had led to large deficits in the Water Department.
A retired town manager, Steve Lombard, filled in on an interim basis while Milanoski chaired the Town Manager Search Committee that worked with a consultant to winnow down a list of 80 applicants. When selectmen chose Coughlin in the summer of 2011, they said they wanted a town manager who would shake things up.
While town employees praised Coughlin for team-building and decisiveness, his style led to conflicts with some of the volunteer boards in town, particularly the water commissioners, and, finally, a rift with selectmen.
Milanoski took the job on a temporary, unpaid basis after selectmen placed Coughlin on paid administrative leave in February.
After two weeks, the board paid Milanoski to continue on a weekly basis, then signed a contract for him to stay until next June. The annual salary is approximately $130,000.
In a review of Milanoski’s six months as acting town manager, selectmen gave him high marks for his communication with town boards, and his progress toward improving the town’s finances and accounting procedures.
Still, Milanoski hasn’t completely avoided controversy.
DeLuca, the police chief, alleged in May that Milanoski had interfered in an internal police investigation, but selectmen in June cleared Milanoski of the allegations.
“This is not an easy job,’’ Milanoski said in an interview. “It’s about how you create a well-run governmental body that lives within its means and provides the services people expect. I want to make [town government] more transparent and more effective.
“And now we have all the board working together; there’s no more fighting. That’s what makes it exciting as well,’’ Milanoski said.
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