Thursday, November 25, 1999 Older Editions

Mixed reviews for Town Manager

By Rebecca Lipchitz

Town Manager Buzz Stapczynski received mixed reviews from Selectmen Monday -- praise for his choice in staff and administrative skills, and criticism for a lack of vision.

Selectmen Mary French and Brian Major offered only praise and support for Stapczynski, while Chairman John Hess and Selectmen Lori Becker and Larry Larsen sought some improvement.

At their next meeting selectmen plan to vote on whether or not to extend the Stapczynski's contract for another five years.

Larsen prefaced his comments with praise for Stapczynski as a person, and added that since he doesn't plan to run for reelection, if the board decides to seek a new town manager, Larsen himself will not be involved in the process.

Larsen said he was more dissatisfied with the way Stapczynski does things, rather than what he does. He said some board members and department heads sometimes have doubts about where the town manager stands on issues.

"His oblique, non-confrontative style was a concern," Larsen said.

Larsen interprets manager's "non-directive" style as bureaucratic and lacking vision.

"The question is, is he what we need at this time?" Larsen said. "In my view, we are in need of a builder," he said.

Becker agrees that Stapczynski does not present his vision to the town.

"Buzz has trouble saying 'no' to people," Becker said after the meeting.

In some cases, his eagerness to please is an advantage, but in the grand scheme of things, leaves department heads jockeying or discussing among themselves what the town's decisions should be, she said.

"Whose priority list are we going by?" Becker said.

Hess said he believes Stapczynski has a ideas about what the town needs, but lets others take the lead. "I think he has a vision, but I don't think he articulates it," Hess said.

Hess added that he believes this board of selectmen takes a more activist approach than those of the past, but when Larsen leaves office this spring, Hess himself will be the most senior member of the board, with just three years of experience.

"The town manager has to be able to guide us," Hess said.

Stapczynski said he would like to discuss the definition of "vision" with selectmen.

He said he thought the evaluation was fair overall, but asked to be evaluated on his accomplishments rather than his traits.

The areas in which he rated highly, such as staff choice, budget preparation and production of the CIP (Capital Improvement Plan), were well defined tasks, Stapczynski said. Areas where he received a lower rating were planning, vision and leadership.

"That's where it gets a little squishy. There needs to be some dialogue," he said.

The manager said he felt it was clear according to the Town Charter that it was selectmen's job to set policy and the town manager's job to administer those policies.

"I think I'm following the Town Charter to the letter of the law. It's almost a class edict. That battle was fought in the '70s," he said.

He adds that his vision of what the town needs is evident in the materials he produces, like the CIP, but he said he wants to discuss specifically what selectmen mean by vision.

"I guess Larry's definition of vision is broad and more expansive. He may want me to take a chance or a risk, but I'm not really a risk-taker. After all it's public money," he said after the meeting.

Hess said he agreed that the evaluation process needed more objective measures and less personal opinion.

"I felt that hampered the evaluation -- that we didn't properly define how we should measure things in advance," Hess said.

Major praised the manager for the rise of other town leaders and expansion of their departments such as public safety departments and youth services. He also credited the manager for taking the "negatives" of the high school project and "turning them into strong positives."

French asked Stapczynski for "more aggressive follow up" on some issues, hoping for a quicker response from some town departments, but praised the manager for his managerial style.

"I believe the participatory management (style) has been good for the town," she said.