After an initial search didn’t yield any successful candidates, the Hudson Board of Selectmen announced that retired Town Administrator, Steve Malizia, will once again help out the town.
Originally in July, the Board of Selectmen, during a non-public meeting, approved making Chief Assessor, James Michaud, as the Acting Town Administrator for the month of September, while also approving to increase his salary by 15% while performing those duties.
The move came following the retirement of Malizia in August.
“The Board of Selectmen has named Steve Malizia as acting Town Administrator beginning Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024 until a new Town Administrator is hired,” Michaud said during the Sept. 24 Board of Selectmen meeting.
It was explained by Michaud that all of the previous candidates from the first search “have been notified that the town has not decided upon a new TA and has restarted the search.”
Michaud explained that MRI has now reviewed a number of possible candidates.
“MRI has reviewed a half dozen candidates as of last week, and they spoke to a potential applicant last week that has now applied,” Michaud said. “That one is the only viable candidate at this time, but it’s still very early, as per MRI.”
Also during the meeting, the Board of Selectmen were given an update regarding the IT Director search, along with the Town Planner search.
Michaud explained that MRI has begun posting ads for the position.
“No applicants yet, but they didn’t expect any this soon anyways. MRI is looking at their database of previous recruitments for potential candidates,” Michaud said.
For the Town Planner search, Michaud explained that they have been doing the search on its own.
“The two interviews scheduled for 9/6 did not occur as one of the candidates had accepted a position in a MA community and the other candidate stated that they were going to be out of the country, and that person has not followed up since,” Michaud wrote in a memo.
He explained that they made an inquiry to MRI “regarding any prior recent experience they have in recruiting planners, they indicated that they may place one every two years or so. MRI stated that planners are tough to recruit in as much as there are almost no “civilian” contemporary positions that would morph into a planner position well.”
“The BOS may wish to entertain a similar recruitment contract with MRI for this one as the BOS did with the IT Director search process,” Michaud said.
No decision was made during the meeting, and instead it was decided to discuss it further at the next meeting, to see how many applicants they get by paying MRI to help with its IT Director Search.
