Updated 7/20 @ 10:48am
During an executive session at last night’s meeting of the Board of Selectmen the board in a split vote elected not to renew Town Administrator Kevin Mearn’s contract. As of today, Annmarie Fagan is the acting Town Administrator.
In what is likely to be a bit of a shock to the town and comes at a “difficult time” Chair of the Selectmen Tom Hurley confirmed that Mr. Mearn’s contract was not renewed. Bob Sweeney and Denis Keohane voted not to renew the contract, Mr. Hurley was in favor of renewing the contract. Hurley mentioned that the town has a number of ongoing issues in which Mr. Mearn was intimately involved. These include but are not limited to litigation regarding the wind turbine, a variety of contract negotiations, coordinating with the Planning Board on issues such as the Hendries development, and working to help establish the newly formed Consolidated Facilities Department.
These issues will be managed by Annmarie Fagan who will serve as interim Town Administrator until a search committee is formed to identify and recommend a permanent replacement for Mr. Mearn.
Reached via email Mr. Sweeney wrote, “The members of the Board of Selectmen are all relatively new. It seems to me that a new fresh Town Administrator will not only complement the Board but more importantly will serve the best interests of the citizens of Milton as we move forward.” Regarding his vote, Mr. Keohane echoed Sweeney, writing, “We are looking to move the town in a new direction with a fresh start.”
The Patriot Ledger reports that: “Hurley said he has checked with town counsel, who has advised the vote does not meet the requirements of the state’s open meeting law. Hurley expects that to be corrected with a vote at the board’s next week.” You can find the Ledger article here.
I think they call that in street politics: ‘ Don’t get mad; get even’.
A very sad day for the Town of Milton.
I would hope that the Board of Selectmen would reconsider their ill considered decision not to renew Kevin Mearn’s contract which I strongly believe came about because some members of the Board have no institutional memory of the battles Kevin Mearn has fought and won for this town.
I had the opportunity to work with Kevin Mearn as a member of Milton’s Broadband Monitoring Committee for over two years as the Town negotiated its new contract with Comcast.
Kevin Mearn was always a professional during those protracted negotiations with an individual who can only be described as bare knuckled street fighter Comcast sent in to negotiate its new contract.
When others may have rightfully lost patience Kevin proved to be a skilled negotiator and was able to conclude a new contract with Comcast which was the most advantageous to the community under those arduous circumstances.
It is never too late to reverse a bad and ill considered decision.
As a Milton Department head (now retired) I worked with Kevin for many years and remain convinced that Milton is fortunate to have a Town Administrator as committed and competent as him. The position of Town Administrator is complex requiring difficult decisions that are not always popular and often subject to criticism. To fire Kevin Mearn without proper notice at a Thursday night SM meeting in the middle of the summer raises serious question of the competency of our present Board of Selectmen. My thanks & respect go out to Tom Hurley for voting against this unprecedented firing. I predict that a vast majority of Town Meeting members & concerned residents will be outraged when they return from vacation and the quiet of the summer and find out Kevin was fired in this manner. This is not the Milton way of governing our Town and I sincerely hope the fair minded people of Milton will voice their outrage.
There are two facts in this case that cause an occasional observer of town government such as myself to ask, what’s wrong with this picture? First, the most successful town administrator I can recall is John Cronin. Mr. Cronin’s longevity was certainly a positive factor in his success. Longevity such as Mr. Mearn’s near forty years calls for recognition of its value, to be appreciated and protected. Second, why this story is not all about “how the two “newer” Milton Selectmen dishonored basic employee rights and violated the state’s Open Meeting Law,” amazes me. Keep Mr. Mearn, thank him for his service, for he is genuine, true and passionate about doing what’s right for everyone. He has volunteered for training courses in government to improve his knowledge in key areas. I urge residents who care about moving forward on complex town issues, protecting employee rights, and ensuring our elected officials follow the Open Meeting Law on every matter, to write to the Board of Selectmen and support Mr. Mearn’s forty year tenure with this town today. And, tell them you are disappointed they broke the law requiring public issues to be discussed and voted on in a venue that is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, and that you may not renew their contract next time.
Selectmen Sweeney & Keohane: You don’t get to use the word fresh, as in “a fresh start” and “a new fresh Town administrator” to describe your reasons for doing something that doesn’t pass the smell test.
What an outrage! Lets hope the facts come out why two selectmen have decided that its all right to make such an important decision without knowing anything about the Open Meeting law. I can’t wait to see who they appoint to lead us in a new direction-whatever that means. Hopefully Mr. Mearn will not “Go gently into the night.”
As a newer resident of Milton I have never met these Selectmen or the Administrator. I do feel however, that public officials need to be reminded that they are all part of an administrative plan. When it is time to retire they should accept it with dignity and move along so that a younger person with fresh ideas and enthusiasm can assume the office and work for the good of the town. The fact that the contract has an expiration date implies that turnover was always intended to be part of the equation. Centralizing governmental power for long periods is never good for anyone. I admired the way former Town Clerk James Mullen walked away and started his new career after a similarly long tenure.
With all due respect to Mr. Stanton,to “..move along (a long time employee) so a younger person with fresh ideas and enthusiasm can assume office..” is called age discrimination and it is against State & Federal laws. Mr. Stanton is certainly entitled to his opinion, but to support the firing of Kevin Mearn with out knowing anything about him in a way that is against the law seems a bit over the top.
Thomas well said. Though I do not know Mr. Mearn, I have had only the opportunity to meet him on a couple of occasions and appeared to be a very nice man and it is unfortunate that they did not renew his contract. After forty years with the town I am guessing he has a nice retirement package to fall back on should he decide to retire and certainly hope this does not get dragged into court at the expense of us taxpayers. I agree with your comments surrounding part of an administrative plan and not centralizing power over long periods of time. This should also apply to our elected officials by way of term limits. More representation from more people and by having term limits you remove the high barriers to entry from incumbents.
I have always found Mr. Mearn very polite and professional. The timing is very suspect. This seems personal. To Mr. Stanton’s point above, Mr. Sweeney is up for re-election in the spring!
Term limits are a mistake on the national level, and an even greater mistake on the local level. The rationale for term limits emanated from the conservative end of the political spectrum from groups like the Koch brothers funded Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation.
No elected representative serves any longer than the voters wish. States that have passed term limit laws deny themselves the opportunity to choose between a experienced legislator and a newcomer. Results over time have led to a half dozen states repealing term limits laws.
Few historians, and knowledgeable citizens, would have preferred that President Roosevelt be denied a third term in 1940 on the brink of WWII. And many Americans lament the fact that Bill Clinton did not begin his third term in January of 2001, sparing us the alternative.
The voters should decide who represents them, based on whatever number of people wish to offer themselves for consideration.
That is your opinion as everyone is entitled to one. Why I like term limits are the following;
1. Overwhelmingly, voters prefer term limits. (It’s their native commonsense!)
2. Term limits downgrades seniority, favors meritocracy.
3. Increases competition, encourages new challengers.
4. Builds a ‘citizen’ Congress, drives out career politicians.
5. Breaks ties to special interests.
6. Improves tendency to vote on principle.
7. Introduces fresh thinking, new ideas, eliminates ‘old bulls’.
8. Reduces power of staff, bureaucracy, lobbies.
9. It will create a natural reduction in wasteful federal spending.
10. Encourages lower taxes, smaller government, greater voter participation in elections.
11. There are more reasons in favor of term limits than reasons against.
12. Gets reelection rates back to near 50%, versus the current 99%. (Founders called it “rotation in office”)
The term limit debate is interesting, but is not a factor in Kevin’s firing. What are factors? How about Kevin’s job reviews from his time as Town Administrator, Police Chief, Deputy Chief,Lieutenant, Sargent and Patrolman? How about his job reviews as a DPW worker? I know Kevin never talks about his military experience, but it is important to note the honors he received from his time in Viet Nam. I am confident that you will find that every challenge Kevin has undertaken has resulted in success at the highest level. Kevin’s dedicated service to the Town cannot be ignored and swept aside. I find it hard to believe that all of a sudden Kevin is a failure as Town Administrator and the best thing for Milton is to fire him.
Yes Mr. Grogan that is my opinion. It would interesting to discuss opinions. But I’m afraid all you’ve done is cut and paste a list of ten points that exist on a number of websites favoring term limits. Many of them seem dubious at best.
Number 2 for example is clearly not the case. While term limits might downgrade seniority (as well as experience and knowledge), it might very well result in the election of a less meritorious public servant.
Number 9 is equally illogical. Just because you have term limited a representative doesn’t mean the newly elected representative will by more or less wasteful with respect to government spending. They could be either, or just have a different wasteful preference.
The same people who profess support for term limits, also vote for their own incumbents. This suggests a conflict between how they feel about other representatives and their own.
I think that John Adams, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton had it correct when it comes to term limits.
I’m interested in hearing more of the story from the Selectman about their reasoning and their decision. It’s hard to get the full picture from a short article in the paper. And I believe Mr. Mearn’s contract was complete in July some time, which may have factored into the timing. I look forward to the public forum where we can learn more.
Mr. Mathews, those were cut and paste comments and there are hundreds more, the goal is to get rid of career politicians and back to a citizen congress, my opinion. I would like to get back on topic with regards to the administrators contract not being renewed as I do not believe people logged on to read about term limits, though it is a tantalizing subject.
The reality is that Mr Mearn has been a capable administrator, working with many former selectmen. Good administrative leaders are hard to find. It is hard to understand why the two new selectmen would wish to behead the team on which they must rely.
Mr. Grogan. I know what your goal is. My goal is to have the politician people elect, and to have experienced and knowledgeable representatives.
If you wish to take some positive action you can sign the Petition To Reinstate Kevin Mearn which you can find above in a separate article. It will be forwarded to Selectmen Hurley, Sweeney and Keohane.
Mr. Yovino, I would love to sign the Petition To Reinstate Kevin Mearn. Could you please let me know how I go about doing that. Thank you and hopefully, we will have success in getting Kevin reinstated next Monday night. Thank you.
And now a petition!!!
What part of serves at the pleasure of the Board of Selectmen do you, or Kevin Mearn (who I agree is a solid man) not understand?
Where was your outrage when a previous Board of Selectmen removed David Colton? And for what?
Move on please.
Well said, Steve.
there is nothing in this story or any of these posts that explains why 2 Selectman attempted to take this action. I think the average citizen deserves an explanation of the issues and the selectmans’ positions and goals.
I agree with Karen. We deserve more of an explanation than “fresh start.”
As a 39 year employee of the town, Kevin Mearn had a reasonable expectation that his employment with the town would continue. Especially when his leadership helped guide the town quite successfully through this recession. Our property values have held quite well compared to other towns, we are in good shape financially, and we have been moving up the ladder of great places to live in Money Magazine. There has never been a hint of scandal involved with Kevin and his work ethic is outstanding.
Kevin is different from most town adminstrators in that he is not a mercenary. He grew up here and raised his own family here. David Colton, who held the position before Kevin had no vested interest in the town and a very poor understanding what his role really was. Although he had talent in certain areas, he left of his own volition to go somewhere else. He was not fired.
The way that Kevin was dismissed signals a lack of knowledge of the law, both labor law and the open meeting law. The way that they did it just bolstered any future action by the employee. The quotes of both Mr. Sweeney and Mr. Keohane further enhanced Kevin’s case. They should be more mature, and for the town’s sake, they better have better reasons than the administrator couldn’t get along with a department head. Yikes! What the majority did was part of their roles as selectman.But after 39 years, Kevin Mearn deserved better than this. There are other, more humane and smarter ways to let someone go. This really wreaks.
The “petition” is an appropriate example of our great American freedom. It would have been a waste of good tea to dump it on the lawn of Town Hall.
Unlike other communities where town administrators have been accused of acting independently of the boards of selectmen, this does not appear to be the case in Milton. What is the reason then? Was there a formal evaluation of Mr. Mearn’s performance? Have the two Selectmen who voted to not renew his contract mentioned in public forums that Mr. Mearn should go? Finally, I would like to hear Mr. Healy’s explanation of why he voted to renew Mr. Mearn’s contract and what he thinks about the two Selectmen who did not.
It’s Mr Hurley Bill!
People like Grogan and Stanton move to a Town like Milton because of the integrity that has produced such a town . The mearns(a wonderful family raised by two great people by the way),Mullens,Yovinos of this town have made it the respected town many people want to live in. The torch will be passed from these Mearns etc.as they were from Brooks etc. The calibre of these servants of the community should not be diluted by the poor judgement of a few misguided and/or misinformed individuals..
Thanks Pat.
There appears to be a “new direction for Milton” coming from two of the Selectmen, the same two that are in the process of firing Kevin Mearn (if they can figure out how to do it legally). A disturbing part of this new direction is their negative view of long time Milton residents serving in Town management positions, by the very fact that they are “Townies”.
The Quincy Ledger had a lead editorial (Friday, July 27th) with a similar point of view. The Ledger opinion is that “homegrown leadership” is very much like “..an old boy’s club..” and a better, more progressive way is to conduct “..nation wide searches for job candidates…..with fresh, dynamic ideas..”. Sounds a lot like the “..fresh new direction for Milton” argument. The problem is Quincy and Milton are distinctively different political places. We don’t have the pals of the Mayor in Milton. We have always had a very open and fair Town government and Milton has always had a vast number of very capable residents willing to serve on Committees, Boards and yes, paid management positions. While many towns have a problem even getting residents at meetings, in Milton we look around our packed Town Meeting and see participants of the highest caliber contributing their time and knowledge to best govern our fine Town. We also see many more recent Milton residents that have been encouraged and welcomed to take part in our Town government.
This is a model that has served Milton well; take a look at our past four School Superentendants, three from Milton and one from a “..nation wide search”. Our past four Town Administrators; two from Milton and two from the world beyond. Our Fire Department has always looked for its members to move up the ranks and we have a fire department second to none with the son of a former Milton Fire Chief in command.
There is no doubt that there are times that a nation wide search is appropriate for certain Milton management positions, but the Milton way that has served us for 350 years is not a problem. If there is a better place to live or a better (proven) way to run a town, I would like to know about it. What we do not need is new Selectmen who address a 350 year formula for success as a problem that needs “..a new direction..”
I have read some of Mr Larson’s comment’s . No doubt a lot of common sense, but then for others common sense is the least sense . I do believe that sometimes change is good . May be Mr Larson would consider serving on one those Board’s . I think it would bring stability. But his probably enjoying his retirement .