PHILLIPSTON — Kevin Flynn, formerly the town administrative assistant, now has a bigger role to fill for the town as chief administrative officer.
Selectboard Vice Chairman Terry Dymek said the board voted to approve Flynn for the position to fill a need for an individual to complete more administrative- and managerial- type duties. Previously, as the town administrative assistant, Flynn’s work focused solely on clerical work.
“For a while, we had been thinking about changing or modifying that role … times are changing, the world is more complicated, there are more rules and regulations, so we recognized we needed someone there to do more than just clerical work,” said Dymek.
To fill the position of chief administrative officer, Dymek said, the board was looking for an individual with a higher skill set, a formal education and municipal management experience. The Selectboard decided Flynn would be a perfect fit for the role.
Dymek said when the board hired Flynn last year, it recognized he had more capabilities, but the town had money to pay for a clerical-type position only.
“With the new fiscal year, we planned that he would be able to change the position and the compensation, since we’d have new funding in place,” he said.
When deciding to create the new position, Dymek said the board reached out to the town’s lawyer regarding its authority to do so.
“We are responsible for administering the town, so the board can create a position, and that is exactly what we did,” he said.
According to Flynn, he was making $22.87 per hour for his role as administrative assistant, or around $47,569 annually, and his salary for chief administrative officer is set at $75,000.
Though Flynn still works under the Selectboard, he has more decision-making power and responsibility as chief administrative officer. Some of his duties include providing professional advice to the board, administering the hiring process of town employees, along with the supervision of town employees, and preparing an annual operating budget for the town to be reviewed by the board and Finance Committee. Flynn’s responsibilities also includes writing warrant articles for the Annual Town Meeting.
“I am very excited — it is a new direction for the town,” said Flynn.
Dymek said Flynn has done a good job and has helped the town make progress in terms of policies, procedures and communication. Moving forward, he said the new position will improve town government.
“I expect things to run more efficiently,” Dymek said. “We can get things done more quickly. A lot of decisions were referred to the Selectboard to make a call, where a lot of that now isn’t required — we have Flynn to run things as he sees fit.”