Former Shelburne manager tapped for Charlotte town administrator search

The Charlotte selectboard has approved a consulting proposal by resident Lee Krohn to aid in the process of determining whether to switch to a town manager form of government — a conversation that some selectboard members said has felt like a “gun-to-the-head” situation.

Krohn retired last month as Shelburne’s town manager. He was first hired in late 2018 and recently wound down his day-to-day duties there, serving seven months as interim manager. He is a former senior planner at the Chittenden Regional Planning Commission, and previously spent 24 years in Manchester in a variety of roles, including interim town manager, planning director, zoning administrator, tree warden and E911 coordinator.

According to the proposal, Krohn will be tasked with researching applicable statutes regarding town administrators and town managers while also seeking insights, questions, and concerns from key people involved in the current conversations. He will also do a thorough review of documents while analyzing opportunities, constraints, requirements, or limitations that may flow from statutes regarding town administrators and town managers.

The selectboard will rely heavily on his thoughts and ideas regarding intermediate steps that might be available to address concerns raised, while maintaining the current governance structure, should the selectboard not find a town manager-style of government favorable.

The findings will be summarized for consideration at the July 24 selectboard meeting.

“When transitions occur, it is often appropriate to step back and take time to consider whether current practices still serve us well, or whether change may be warranted,” Krohn said in the proposal. “To date, this current context has generally been framed as a binary choice: maintain a town administrator, or switch to a town manager. However, the questions, issues and concerns may be more subtle than that, and may warrant a more thorough but timely analysis of the underlying reasons that these questions are now asked.”

Krohn will be paid a flat fee of $2,500 with payment due within 30 days of the final presentation.

The ad hoc group of residents who began circulating the petition for the switch in March have more than enough signatures to force a town-wide vote, but have chosen instead to work in conjunction with the selectboard, and have held off submitting the petition to the town clerk.

However, when the group hinted on Monday night that the petition might drop sooner rather than later, selectboard members unanimously expressed their disapproval of the group moving forward without selectboard approval.

“Wouldn’t it be better if the petition wasn’t released and the selectboard called for a special meeting?” board member Lewis Mudge asked. “I think we can all agree that’s the most advantageous outcome. I think some of the issue is that there’s this sort of gun-to-the-head type of interpretation of a petition.”

But petitioners fear that if not submitted soon, their petition could be dead.

“I think the timing is right to release the petition now,” said group member Lane Morrison. “You could actually conduct a town meeting at the end of July. So here you’d have Lee’s work done in a week or two before that. And then the vote at the end of July if you’re going to do that. It’s TA or TM. End of the story. We’re all in sync.”

But selectboard chair Jim Faulkner protested, saying, “I thought we had a plan where we were going to get Lee involved and give us the pros and cons, have that done by the of July, then we’re going to inform the public about that. Now you’re not going to inform the public?” he questioned. “That is not what we’ve been talking about. This is like right in the back door at the last minute. We have something that’s going to work, but what you’re suggesting is ‘never mind.’”

Board member Kelly Devine echoed that part of the reason the selectboard came to the point of hiring Krohn was because members felt they needed much more information regarding the potential transition.

“As I’ve said, you’re free to move forward with the petition,” she said. “I definitely won’t be supporting it.”

Town clerk Mary Mead said the suggestions by the group were “a little nasty.”

“You said one thing but you actually meant another and you’re putting the selectboard in a very uncomfortable position,” she said. “They thought that they were working with everyone to come to a decision, but, you’re doing exactly what you planned to do from the beginning and it’s not right. It’s nasty.”

Morrison said the group does want to work together with town officials, but he wants a fair chance for the several hundred people who did sign the petition.

“I have to say, we didn’t just have a clipboard on the table,” he explained. “We sat with all these people and had half-hour discussions on this. You’ve already put five to six hours in selectboard meetings on this. We’ve already delayed it 60 days. This came up March 12. This is the 90th day from when this came up.”

Morrison and other members Peter Joslin and Charlie Russell agreed they would not yet release the petition but would bring it back up in August after the selectboard has fully digested Krohn’s report.

Job postings for the town administrator position — with a disclosure about the potential to move to a town manager government — will begin being advertised this month and remain open until July 14.