ORANGE – The Selectboard voted Wednesday to offer the town administrator job to Orange’s health agent and tasked two members with recommending a contract, all while hoping to close a frustrating chapter in which two previous candidates had their offers rescinded for undisclosed reasons.
Board members picked Matthew Fortier for the position after a second round of interviews with him and fellow finalist Rebecca Lisi, a former Holyoke City Councilor who ran for mayor in 2021. Fortier received affirmative votes from every Selectboard member except Richard Sheridan, who abstained because he was not present for the interviews earlier in the meeting.
“For me, it’s Matt, for sure,” member Jane Peirce, who also sits on the Orange Board of Health, told her Selectboard colleagues. “I know Matt probably better than any of you and I’ve watched him absolutely take over Board of Health operation in this town and make it spectacular. But, just based on the interviews, Matt knows exactly what he’s getting into here, and for that reason alone, I think his learning curve is less than half what Rebecca’s would be. He absolutely understands this town and how it operates and what kind of work he would be faced with and I think he’s really ready to tackle that. I know he is.”
Selectboard Chair Tom Smith and Clerk Pat Lussier will now draft a contract and board members will meet with Fortier in executive session to hammer out the finer details.
The board voted unanimously in mid-April to offer the position to Kevin Flynn before doing the same with Carter Terenzini in late May after restarting the process. Tom Smith has declined to say why the offers were rescinded. Flynn had served as the town administrator of Sandisfield, in Berkshire County, from Nov. 22, 2021, until he resigned in March 2022, due to a two-hour commute and an inability to find housing in the area, according to the Berkshire Eagle. Terenzini generated controversy as Spencer Town Administrator in 2007 when he distributed to municipal employees, Selectboard members and colleagues a memorandum in which he referred to certain people as “Maggots of Malice” and admitted to an affair with a woman he supervised. He was later removed from consideration for the town manager position in Oberlin, Ohio, when the affair and his failure to disclose it came to light, according to the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester.
Following Wednesday’s interviews, Selectboard voiced overwhelming support for picking Fortier, believing his experience in Orange has better equipped him to be town administrator. Gabriele Voelker retired from the position on March 3 but has been billing Orange for the hours she works as acting town administrator while the municipality finds a replacement.
Prior to Wednesday’s vote, Lussier said it was a difficult call between Fortier and Lisi.
“They’re both very, very qualified,” she said. “They have differing experiences, but both, I think, very … relevant to (the) town administrator position.”
Selectboard Vice Chair Andrew Smith said he favored Fortier “based on the rolling-up-your-sleeves, on-hand management experience (with) people.”
Peirce added that she considers it a handicap for Lisi that she would have to commute from Holyoke. She mentioned Orange lost Alec Wade, a highly-respected community development director, in the fall partially due to a lengthy drive to Town Hall.
Sheridan did not comment because he was not present for the second round of interviews.
During his second interview, Fortier said he would prioritize development on Daniel Shays Highway.
“There’s a lot of land there. There’s a lot of opportunities for economic development, especially commercial development, and I think that the town needs to be very careful in how we’re introducing ourselves to prospective businesses that are looking at Daniel Shays Highway, since it’s really easy to access that from Route 2,” he said. “You’re going to have developers from out east coming to town, looking at that area, and we really want to maximize the potential (of) that land. I would focus more on job creation, as opposed to just general land use for commercial (development) – getting businesses in that are going to hire people, because what that’s going to do is create secondary simulation of residential development, which would bring you into the downtown area.”
Fortier also cited the former Rodney Hunt Fontaine Inc. factory as having a great deal of potential.
Touching on a topic from the first round of interviews, Peirce asked Fortier about his management style.
“I like to try to be as open as possible, and I do like an open-door policy,” the candidate replied, adding that employees should always go to their direct supervisor instead of bypassing that person.
Fortier, who is married to Orange Assistant Town Clerk Rachael Fortier, also said he would like to see more mom-and pop shops in downtown Orange.
It was not immediately clear if Fortier would have to resign from his roles as health agent and moderator if he becomes town administrator. He ran uncontested for moderator in this year’s election and oversaw his first Annual Town Meeting last week.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.