ORANGE — The woman who was offered the municipality’s first town manager job has withdrawn from contract negotiations, sending Orange back to the drawing board.
Stephanie Hirsch rose to the top of the applicant pool and became the Selectboard’s top choice for the newly created position, but she informed the Greenfield Recorder on Tuesday that she had removed herself from consideration.
“The appointment of a town manager is often a process with twists and turns. It didn’t work out for me, but Orange is an amazing community with so many invested and welcoming residents, leaders and volunteers,” she said. “It is a beautiful place that’s going to grow into a destination to visit and move to in the Pioneer Valley.”
Hirsch was most recently the city manager for Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She resigned from that position in April to relocate her family to Somerville before her son started high school. She had planned to live in an Orange apartment and take the commuter rail from Fitchburg to visit them. She mentioned she also has two daughters — one of them is in college, and the other is starting at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Hirsch was born and raised in Wisconsin, and lived with her family in Massachusetts for a while before everyone moved back in 2022 so she could take the Eau Claire job.
In selecting Hirsch as their top pick, Selectboard members passed over Town Administrator Matthew Fortier, who at the Aug. 26 meeting expressed gratitude for being interviewed for the new role and pledged his commitment to ensuring a smooth transition.
Attempts to reach Fortier were unsuccessful on Tuesday.
When asked about next steps on Tuesday afternoon, Selectboard Clerk Alexandre Schwanz advised that the board would be meeting later in the day. The agenda for the 5:30 p.m. meeting includes “town manager updates.”
Residents voted 155-12 at a Jan. 12 Special Town Meeting in favor of an article to adopt a town charter to change and modernize the local government’s organizational structure and operation. Six and a half months later, Gov. Maura Healey signed a bill into law that established the new form of government, and Orange’s charter took effect on July 1.
The charter’s adoption creates a strong town manager role to serve as chief administrative officer and direct day-to-day operations across most of the municipal government structure. A 10-member Town Manager Screening Committee was tasked with accepting applications and narrowing the candidate pool to recommend finalists to the Selectboard.
In addition to Hirsch and Fortier, the Selectboard also interviewed former Greenfield Mayor Roxann Wedegartner and former Hubbardston Town Administrator Nathan Boudreau.
