HADLEY — On the heels of eliminating the human resources department as part of ongoing cost-cutting measures, Hadley officials are restructuring the town administrator’s office by creating an assistant town administrator position.
On March 4, the Select Board agreed to a proposal from Interim Town Administrator Michael Mason to have an assistant town administrator, a role that will be filled by Jennifer Sanders James, the town’s licensing coordinator and chief procurement officer.
“The duties alone for the town administrator are immense,” Mason said. “Adding human resources and that entire office to the town administrator office is overburdensome, and I don’t think you can expect any single person to handle those duties.”
As assistant town administrator, Sanders James will continue her current support role to the Select Board, town administrator and finance director, while taking on the human resources responsibilities that are not being outsourced. Both payroll and benefits are to be handled by a private contractor at a cost of around $60,000.
Mason explained that with the human resources department closed and Human Resources Director Lauren Wilcox being laid off as of March 13, the result of a streamlined municipal budget caused by the failed Proposition 2 1/2 tax-cap override last year, there is an operational need, as well as a need to set up the next town administrator for success.
“With all that is going on in this town right now, they’re going to need all the help they can get,” Mason said.
“Your only other option is to hire a new HR director,” Mason added.
The next permanent town administrator could be known later this month. After a failed town administrator search in 2025, Mason said he will be bringing forward a candidate, whose identity is not yet public, to the board at its March 18 meeting.
“I am confident that this would be a very positive move for Hadley,” Mason said.
In doing so, Mason said he hopes to relinquish the temporary duties he has performed since September 2024, when then Town Administrator Carolyn Brennan retired.
Mason, who is also the police chief, said doing two full-time jobs has placed significant burden on his work and personal life.
Mason said the next town administrator should be able to look at long-term plans for the town, as well as interact more often with local legislators, adding that Hadley has “city-type problems and has town-type funding.”
Due to the hiring freeze in place, no one could be hired to the assistant town administrator position from outside the organization.
Select Board Chairman Randy Izer ssaid he would support the position, noting that when David Nixon was the town administrator, starting in 2005, he was often working seven days a week, 16 hours a day, something that can’t be expected of the next town administrator.
Select Board member Molly Keegan said the new position is basically a neutral move budgetarily, funding the position through cuts elsewhere.
“This is moving between departments, it’s not a net increase to the costs,” Keegan said.
The other members supporting the position were Jane Nevinsmith and David J. Fill II, while Amy Parsons was absent.
Mason said Sanders James has been doing most of the same duties for the past year and a half, and that she was essentially the town administrator for the first six months when he was appointed to the role.
“The institutional knowledge she has specific to that office, and to this town, is unmatched,” Mason said.
In her 10th year as a town employee, Sanders James said she has been taking Massachusetts Municipal Association classes and, for the past five years, has been the only Massachusetts Certified Public Purchasing Official in town. She also has been accepted into the Suffolk Certificate in Local Government Leadership and Management program.
The creation of the new position, and Sanders James’ appointment to fill it, came despite some concerns from members of the Finance Committee at a meeting the previous day, where they informed Mason that he had presented the concept of an assistant town administrator too late for them to make a formal recommendation.
At that meeting, both Mason and Finance Director Linda Sanderson defended the importance of having it.
“You have to understand there’s more HR work than there was five years ago, there just flat out is,” Sanderson said.