The winning slogan of Dracut’s municipal election was, “nothing changes if nothing changes.” This is something to be remembered whenever there is a need for change. Clearly the citizens of Dracut thought there was a need.
After a decade and a half under the thumb of Selectmen DiRocco and recently under his young apprentice Alison Genest, there was a need to change direction. Genest touted the great state of economics in Dracut’s government and the need to “keep the momentum going” during her reelection campaign last year.
Days after the election, the town manager announced that the town would have a deficit in the next three years to the amount of ten million dollars as a conservative estimate. Much of this year’s election campaigning dealt with the projected shortfall and the more than looming issue of the imminent Town Manager’s retirement, although yet unannounced during the election.
The final vote brought not only a new selectman, Josh Taylor, but also the announcement by the assistant town manager’s departure for a new position in another community. This June’s town meeting heralded the retirement announcement of the town manager.
The thinking that Dracut has lost its leadership with the absence created by the departure of both the town manager and her assistant would be incorrect. The town has gained leadership with the election of Josh Taylor, replacing Joe DiRocco.
His election allows Tony Archinski and more so Heather Santiago Hutchins to blossom in their leadership roles. The exiting of the town manager and assistant is a loss of management. A management that had an asterisk suffix provided by Joe DiRocco some four years ago with the abrupt departure of then Town Manager Jim Duggan.
After Duggan’s resignation the Board of Selectmen set up a process to seek a replacement for the position of town manager. Each selectman would appoint a citizen representative to serve on a Screening Committee. There were five members in all. John Crowley, Joe Wilke, Charlie Kanavos, and Kathy Patnaude were among the appointed.
To my utter surprise, Selectwoman Dristilliaris asked me to be her appointment. I was honored to do so. The Edward J Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management from Boston was hired to facilitate the process and assist the Screening Committee.
Over the next month and a half, the committee culled through fifty-four resumes, interviewed a short list of eleven candidates, selected the four persons to forward to the Board of Selectmen as the best potential candidates for Town Manager.
All this done under executive session so the committee’s deliberations would only be released to the Board of Selectmen at the appropriate time, so there would be no undue influence over the committee members’ decision, so the identity of the candidates not chosen would remain secure.
On February 19th, 2020, a letter from the Screening Committee was sent to the Board of Selectmen presenting the selected as final candidates. I was told that DiRocco went bombastic hearing that his handpick candidate, Ann Vandal, was not in the final list.
The Good Ol’ Boy network went into overdrive to derail the process they started and somehow lost control. How could their selected appointees on the Screening Committee not pick their anointed candidate? DiRocco, Forcier, and Hughes never thought that their appointees would have more integrity than themselves, ironic. Hughes even started rumors that Vandal was never interviewed by the committee and then Vandal was never asked the same questions.
For the record, Vandal was asked the same questions in the same order, and by the same committee members as all the other candidates. Significant effort and care were exercised to remove any variables in the screening process. The Dirty Three decided to suspend the process they had started and coronate their selection, oddly without even an interview. There were only five people in a town of thirty-two thousand residents that interviewed Vandal, none of those five were on the Board of Selectmen.
Today looks more like yesterday than it does tomorrow. Change happens slowly and the more things change the more they look the same. Here we are in June of 2024 and the Selectmen are assembling a Town Manager Screening Committee with the Edward J Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management hired to facilitate.
There is not much change in the air if you judge by the selections to date: Tom Bomil a retired Dracut employee from the Board of Health, Dave Martin, and Don Plummer recent candidates for the Board of Selectman. Linda Hayes has been selected and while she has an impressive resume, she last served on the School Committee over twenty years ago and has been leading a private life since.
The last individual Selectman appointment is Alison Hughes. If that name sounds familiar, it should. She is the same Hughes that helped to scuttle the ship last time. Hughes has been selected by DiRocco’s apprentice, Alison Genest. The scenario just feels so Machiavellian. Town Hall West appears to be returning to the scene of the crime like arsonists to a conflagration. Nobody could write this as fiction and make it believable. The Screening Committee has been turned into a political football, and in Dracut it is more like Rugby: a hard-fought scrum and bloody.
And why should the citizens of Dracut, the Collins Center, or any potential applicants take this matter seriously at this point. Hughes was always in favor of hiring Vandal outright in the last process. I have serious concerns about how she spoke so disparagingly about the previous Screening Committee. You would rightfully think she has a disdain for such a procedure. At a minimum she has made false accusations of the process that make me question her veracity.
Genest has been the petulant child since the election. Her loss of the Chairmanship and stranglehold on boards and committees make me ponder if she would rather see Dracut burn in the desire to say, “I told you so.” Alison Genest may well continue to remain a poisoned pill in the manager’s search and beyond. ◊