ORANGE — Another search committee for another important municipal position – treasurer – is at work in Orange, which is also looking for a permanent police chief.
The town is looking for a permanent treasurer, having formed a search committee to screen potential candidates for the job.
The screening committee, consisting of Town Administrator Gabriele Voelker, Town Accountant Gail Weiss and Human Resources representative Trish Barnes, is charged with narrowing the applicant pool to at least three finalists by March 27. Those finalists will be interviewed by the Selectboard, which has the ultimate authority to make the hire. A contract will be made with the Selectboard’s direction — a $42,000 salary was discussed.
“The treasurer’s position is very intricate,” Voelker said. “There are a thousand things that you have to remember that happen at different times of the year.”
The only dissenting vote during the Selectboard meeting that formed the search committee was that of James Cornwell, who said there could be a potential conflict of interest in having Voelker, who has served as temporary treasurer since last summer, and Weiss, who is part of the town’s “financial team,” involved in the hiring process.
“You’d be picking your replacement in one place, picking your boss in another place, and in my experience I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Cornwell said. “The treasurer would be selecting her replacement, the accountant would be selecting basically her boss — or her close associate, let’s put it that way.”
Voelker and the other Selectboard members reasoned that the three search committee members are the best qualified people to screen applicants because they know what the job entails. Also, Voelker said, the search committee is not hiring, but making recommendations to the Selectboard.
Reach David McLellan at dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268.