ORANGE — It’s been a year of searching and debating, but, finally, the Selectboard is offering someone the town administrator job.
Gabriel Voelker of New Salem will be given a formal offer at Wednesday’s Selectboard meeting. Voelker has been acting town manager in Orange for roughly a year.
She was one of four finalists interviewed at the Selectboard meeting Wednesday. The five Selectboard members graded applicants’ answers using a point system, and Voelker was four of the members’ highest-graded candidate.
“I think we have a winner,” said Selectboard Chairman Richard Sheridan.
Voelker answered questions about communication, morale, abilities and problem-solving, as well as talking about the area.
“I am a local girl, I live seven miles from the center of town,” Voelker said.
“My family is one of the oldest families in New Salem continuously. They settled the area in the late 1700s,” Voelker added.
In addition to acting town administrator, Voelker has been the finance director and treasurer in Orange.
“I have worked in a lot of grant arenas,” Voelker said.
Voelker worked as a banker and teacher earlier in her life, and is a mother and grandmother.
“I’m bringing you a well-rounded person,” Voelker said. “And I’ve worked in government for the last 22 years.”
Voelker was not among the original three finalists selected by the Town Administrator Search Committee to be interviewed by the Selectboard, which garnered complaints from Selectboard members Ryan Mailloux and Jane Peirce.
When Police Chief Craig Lundgren — chair of the Search Committee —presented the three finalists to the Selectboard on March 21, it caused a rift.
Mailloux had asserted that Voelker has proved her commitment and abilities, and has made Orange a “significantly greater place.” He called Voelker’s initial exclusion from the list of finalists “a slap in the face.”
Mailloux had told Lundgren “integrity could not have been used” in excluding Voelker as a finalist.
Peirce also said the acting town administrator of over a year should be interviewed as a common courtesy.
However, other members disagreed, including Tom Smith, who said the Selectboard should respect the Search Committee’s choices, because the Search Committee was charged with the task of screening applicants.
The following week, Sheridan announced that he had filed complaints against Mailloux and Peirce to the State Ethics Commission, and that the commission opened investigations into whether or not Mailloux and Peirce were showing favoritism.
“It was obvious last week that the individual in question was being promoted by (Mailloux and Peirce),” Sheridan said at that meeting, revealing ethics investigations had been opened.
One of the original three finalists dropped out after being chosen. After four consecutive meetings on the subject, the Selectboard resolved disagreements and chose to interview four candidates, adding two more who were suggested by the Search Committee, who had ranked the 22 applicants they interviewed. Voelker was one of those two.
During Wednesday’s meeting and interviewing, Peirce, Mailloux, Cornwell and Smith graded Voelker the highest of the candidates. Sheridan, admittedly the “odd man out,” chose Kerrie Carnes Salwa of Clinton, economic development director in Leominster.
If Voelker does not accept the position, the Selectboard will choose from the remaining three: Carnes Salwa; Johanna Swain of Barre, the executive secretary in West Brookfield; Candace Ouillette Gaumond of Ware, the administrative assistant to the town administrator and Selectboard in Wilbraham.
Voelker was unable to be reached Thursday afternoon, but previously told the Recorder that she would love to take the position.