By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

HARRISON — Harrison’s leader-ship has sprouted two more holes.

On the day when the Select Board looked to hire a consulting group to assist with the search for a new town manager, news broke at Friday’s special meeting that Chairman Matthew Frank and SB member Colleen Densmore had tendered their resignations.

Densmore, who was re-elected in June, left the position “immediately,” citing health reasons.

“My sincere apology to those that voted for me, entrusting me to serve the town’s best interest,” she wrote. “I find myself with a health issue that takes precedence and has to come first.”

Frank, whose term expires in 2026, said the current political, divisive environment pushed him to leave office after 13 ½ years of service.

“It has been my honor to serve on the Select Board. I have not had a personal agenda and always tried to do the best for Harrison,” he wrote. “Recently, toxic attitudes and abhorrent behavior have been poisoning our town. If my resignation will reduce the passion and allow the town to hit the ‘reset button,’ I am willing to do that because I love our town…Good luck in the future.”

Frank also resigned as a member of the Downtown Revitalization Committee and Harrison Education Options Committee.

Select Board members Phil Devlin, who served as vice chairman, along with Nathan Sessions and Debora Kane accepted the resignations “with regret.”

As to the next step, officials could leave the two Select Board seats vacant until town meeting, at which time individuals could run for the positions (what remains of the term) or a special town meeting could be scheduled.

With three people still on board, town business can still be addressed.

Meanwhile, Devlin announced that the town has hired Don Gerrish of Eaton Peabody Consulting Group of Augusta to assist with the town manager search. Feb. 4 is Cass Newell’s last day as manager. The contract is for $7,500.

Gerrish served as Brunswick’s town manager for nearly 20 years and has been involved with municipal management in Maine for over 37 years. Over the last 15 years, he has been involved in 70 manager searches in both large and small communities.

Previously, Gerrish served as an interim manager in Casco (10 months) and Windham (14 months), but has since retired from the role and focusing mainly on search assistance.

Gerrish provided the Select Board and several citizens in attendance Friday with an overview of the search process.

One of the first steps will be creation of a Help Wanted ad, as well as determining where to place the ad — in professional magazines or websites (Maine Municipal Association is free), as well as limiting the search to neighboring states like New Hampshire and Massachusetts (communities there tend to have manager forms of government), or casting a national net using the International City Managers Association. The ICMA has 12,000 members, and “anybody looking for a manager’s job anywhere would be looking on that site,” Gerrish pointed out. Posting there, however, comes at a cost.

Once in a while, Gerrish has landed a candidate from the national pool because the individual has a tie to Maine. Most candidates, Gerrish noted, come from New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

“You want somebody who understands Maine, understands you,” Gerrish said. “Once we place the ad, each week I will send an e-mail to the Select Board regarding how many applications we’ve received and how many are from Maine. I can’t get into specific because it is confidential, but I’ll keep everyone up to date on the numbers and where we’re getting them from.”

The ad will also try to “paint a picture” of what Harrison is all about, as well as population size, along with budgetary and staffing information. Another key piece is salary range. The current manager’s salary is $107,000. Towns similar in size to Harrison used ranges of $100,000 to $125,000.

After the application deadline passes, Gerrish will put all of the resumes into a booklet for the Select Board to review. Gerrish will also make some recommendations regarding candidates the Board “ought to consider to interview.”

“In the end, it’s your call who you want to interview,” he said.

Gerrish plans to reach out to existing town office staff, the Select Board and the general public as to “what are you looking for in a new town manager?”

Gerrish will hold a public meeting on Monday, Feb. 3 at 6 p.m. at the Ronald St. John Community Center. The meeting’s purpose is to gather information on what qualities, education, background and experience the next town manager should ideally have to manage Harrison.

If citizens are unable to attend, but would like to offer their comments, they can e-mail their thoughts to: dgerrish@eatonpeabody.com.

“Nothing against you folks (Select Board), but I’d like to hold the meeting. Every place I’ve been, I’ve done it. I try to make the meetings very positive. We’re moving forward, trying to look to the future of Harrison…This just gives everybody an opportunity to participate, and give some thoughts,” Gerrish said. “In the end, I put a document together which says this is what I’ve heard from everybody. It’s just a list of what people are thinking about and what they would like to see in the new town manager.”

Another question the Select Board will need to answer is will they alone interview top candidates or will others be involved?

Interviews may be in-person or via Zoom, depending upon where the candidates reside. Gerrish will also provide interview questions, but Board members can develop some too.

A second round of interviews will be done with finalists, likely two or three candidates. Gerrish will do background checks — criminal, educational and financial — and follow-up on references on those candidates who reach the second round of interviews.

“Unfortunately, the whole process of hiring managers, we’re not getting the numbers of quality candidates that we have in the past,” Gerrish noted. “It’s a busy time right now. You’re looking for a manager, so is Bridgton and Naples. We hope we can get some good candidates. If we get 15 candidates or 15 resumes, that would be good. Hopefully, three or four of them are qualified and can do the job.”

So far, Bridgton has received 13 applications for its manager vacancy, Interim Town Manager Georgiann Fleck announced Tuesday night.

Once a finalist is selected, Gerrish will assist the town in negotiating a contract.

Gerrish anticipates the search process will likely take 2 to 2 ½ months. Once a candidate accepts the position, it could be another 30 to 45 days before the individual starts work in Harrison due to giving their previous employer proper notice.

Gerrish added that the $7,500 is a flat fee.

“The fee is the fee until you hire somebody,” he said. “There may be extra costs based on advertising or if candidates come in and there’s expenses, that would be the town’s cost.”

Select Board members agreed it is important to seek input from staff and the public.

“We want to be as transparent in the process as we can,” Devlin said. “I guess we’ll look to you as to where to draw that line — the confidential aspect of the process. We want to engage the staff, we want to engage the public, but obviously, not jeopardize the process.”

Gerrish pointed out that the names of individuals applying for the manager’s job will remain confidential.

“Some communities want to have an opportunity to meet and greet with the finalists. We’ve done that in the past. The issue with that is that you lose some candidates who don’t want to have their names out there because they’re still working in communities,” Gerrish said. “Recently, I’ve lost three or four good candidates because of that.”

How that part of the process is handled must be decided early on because “it will affect whether some people will apply or not,” Gerrish added.

Select Board member Nathan Sessions asked whether one or two members of the public could take part in the second round of interviews?

“Certainly. I would caution you, it’s your decision. If the public is involved, it’s advisory to you folks because you — the Select Board — make the decision,” Gerrish said. “Anybody that sits in on an interview has to keep confidential the names of the people being interviewed.”

An issue with including one or two citizens is who does the Select Board choose?

“One community said, ‘Don, you make the decisions.’ I’m not going to make the decisions because I don’t know who these people are,” Gerrish said. “There is some work to make sure it’s confidential and everybody understands what their role is. You should decide soon because it affects our timeline, getting everybody together and scheduling meetings. The more people involved, it just takes a little more time.”

The Select Board will decide at their Feb. 6 meeting how to proceed with the manager search.