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Town Administrator

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(781) 741-1400

The Town of Hingham By-Law
Establishing the Position of
Town Administrator

ARTICLE 5
SELECTMEN

SECTION 1 To the extent permitted by law and except as otherwise provided by law or these bylaws, the selectmen shall have the general direction and management of the property and affairs of the town. This section shall not apply to property in the custody or use of any town department, officer, or committee. The selectmen are authorized and empowered, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 41, Section 23A, of the Massachusetts General Laws, to appoint a town administrator for a term of one or three years and to remove him at their discretion. No appointee prior to July 1, 1993 shall theretofore have held elective or appointive office within the town, or have served as a regular or special employee of the town. A town administrator appointed under the provisions of this section shall be sworn to the faithful performance of his duties. During the time he holds office he shall hold no elective town office within the town, but he may be appointed by the selectmen or, with their approval, by any other town officer, board, committee or commission, to any other town office or position consistent with his office. He shall receive such aggregate compensation, not exceeding the amount appropriated therefor, as the selectmen may determine. He shall act on behalf of the selectmen in any matter which they may assign to him relating to the administration of the affairs of the town or of any town office or department under their supervision or control, including the timely preparation of a proposed budget for the town for the ensuing fiscal year, which budget shall be submitted to the advisory committee by the selectmen pursuant to the provisions of Article 14, Section 4, of these bylaws. With the approval of the selectmen, the town administrator may assist the personnel board in the administration of the personnel bylaw and may perform such other duties as may be requested of him by any other town officer, board, committee or commission.

2009 Annual Report

I am pleased to file this first annual report since assuming my duties as Hingham Town Administrator in the spring of 2009.

The past year has been a busy and challenging time. Under the Selectmen’s leadership, the Staff and I began many projects this past year to improve the Town and assist its citizens, while simultaneously coping with the most difficult financial situation the Town has seen in many generations.

The lack of financial resources has caused all participants in Town government to examine the services we provide, and attempt to provide the same high-level of service that Hingham’s citizens have come to expect, but with fewer resources. In that respect, we have made great progress this past year in regionalizing our public safety dispatch services with the Towns of Hull, Cohasset and Norwell. We were able to secure a $3.1 million grant to complete construction and equipping of the regional dispatch center and we expect to begin operations in the second half of 2010 with substantial budgetary savings as a result.

We also examined and reorganized the Department of Public Works, the Community Planning Offices and the Administrative and Finance Offices. The result of these reorganizations was savings in excess of $200,000 with no loss in service levels, and in fact, greater efficiency in service delivery. Another cost-saving initiative was the bidding of the Town’s property/casualty insurance package in the late spring/early summer of 2009. The result was a savings of just over $100,000 in comparison to the projected increase expected for the new fiscal year.

In 2009 the Selectmen noted that economic development had slowed dramatically tracking the state of the general U.S. economy. In past years, commercial growth had been steady and had provided the Town with important new revenue each year in the form of taxes and permit fee income. With the economic downturn these revenues dropped by $1-2 million per year.

After consultation with many Town boards, committees and commissions, the Selectmen decided to begin a concentrated effort to encourage development of the remaining industrial land located in South Hingham, and to consider multi-story redevelopment of the already developed industrial park. To realize this potential, the Town partnered with the South Shore Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber generously provided the Town with an in-depth review of the area’s development potential and presented the Town with its findings late in 2009, noting that bio-medical, office space and light industrial were all businesses wishing to locate in Hingham.

To facilitate that type of development, the Town embarked on an intense effort to connect the industrial area to MWRA sewerage, as well as improve the Derby Street transportation corridor. At year’s end, we were nearly ready to submit an MWRA connection application, pending approval from the April 2010 Annual Town Meeting and we were awaiting State review of a multi-million dollar transportation improvement grant application.

The Town also partnered with AW Perry Corp. and So. Shore Hospital to permit a new three-story, 80,000 square-foot medical office building to be located in the industrial park. This building, when complete will offer the Town nearly $180,000 in permit fees and a similar amount in new annual tax revenue.

As noted, working on these and many other projects has been challenging…but also extremely rewarding as we have made remarkable progress in a very short time on so many community goals.

It has been a pleasure to serve as Hingham’s Town Administrator this past year. I am extremely fortunate to serve a Board of Selectmen that I greatly respect and truly admire, and to work with Department Heads who are each leaders in their professions. I am especially fortunate to enjoy the assistance of Betty Foley, Betty Tower, David Basler, Marilyn Harrington and Kathy Glenzel – the staff in the Selectmen/TA office. These outstanding people are consummate professionals and they make coming to work every day a real pleasure.

As I look forward to continuing with many new challenges in 2010, I will close by noting that my first year with Hingham has been a great learning experience…and the most important lesson that I have learned is that Hingham is served by many outstanding citizens and employees who unselfishly give the Town the benefit of their time, expertise and most importantly, their love of our community. The Town is blessed to have their service and I am blessed to have been allowed to serve with them. Thank-you for that privilege.

Kevin E. Paicos
Town Administrator