FAIRFIELD — The Town Council is scheduled to appoint Cynthia Tuttle, the town’s tax assessor, as interim town manager as it continues to discuss hiring someone to fill the town’s top management position.
The agenda for the council meeting Wednesday evening includes an item about whether to approve an employment agreement for the town manager position, but Chairman Robert Sezak isn’t sure whether an agreement will be ready.
“We’d all like it to be a done deal this week, but I can’t promise anything,” Sezak said in an interview Tuesday afternoon. He said he would have a better idea on Wednesday morning on a timeline for hiring and appointing a new manager, Sezak said.
The council has been searching for a new town manager since August, when former manager Josh Reny announced he was leaving to take a job as assistant city manager in South Portland. The council received 18 applications from candidates who included a number from Maine but also Idaho and Alaska.
Councilors interviewed six applicants for the position earlier this month and have a preferred candidate, Sezak said.
When the agenda was created last week, it was expected that the council could vote on an agreement, but the process has “hit a couple of bumps” that were no fault of the candidate or the council, Sezak said.
It was “just some things that occurred on the way to finalization,” he said.
Sezak expects the council to appoint Tuttle as interim manager in the meantime.
In an interview Tuesday, Tuttle said she did not apply for the town manager position and was “very comfortable” in her current job as tax assessor and deputy town manager. Tuttle has worked in the Fairfield Town Office for 30 years.
Her appointment is a stop-gap measure until the council selects a permanent replacement for Reny, Tuttle said. Reny’s last official day in the Town Office was Sept. 18, but he kept working for the town on a pro-rated basis until Tuesday.
“I’m basically just picking up a month or so to keep things going,” Tuttle said.
Peter McGuire — 861-9239
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