Grafton now advertising for a finance director; assistant town administrator position eliminated
Grafton has been without a town accountant for the past four months and Temporary Town Administrator Carter Terenzini believes he has the fix — the position will now be called finance director, with a bump in pay grade to match the title.
The Select Board Tuesday night agreed to the change, which also involves the elimination of the assistant town administrator position. That job will be replaced, at a lesser salary range, by a management analyst and communications specialist.
“We have had difficulty attracting candidates,” Terenzini said, noting that Grafton is competing against multiple towns who are also in search of town accountants/finance directors. “We need to be competitive.”
Town Accountant Anita Patel left the position earlier this year to take on the finance director role for the Grafton schools. The assistant town administrator job is also vacant, following the resignation of Rebecca Meekins, now in a similar role in Northborough.
Terenzini suggested that duties that had belonged to Meekins involving budgeting and human resources could be slotted into other positions. The position instead could serve as an analyst, grant writer and public information specialist in charge of the town’s social media, website and press releases.
“Not only are we getting information in but we’re also getting information out and expanding public participation,” said Terenzini, who believes the town needs to do much more with communication.
Select Board member Doreen DeFazio objected to giving up an assistant town administrator since the position had value. While changing the town accountant’s title to finance director will attract better candidates, she argued that shifting away from an assistant town administrator may diminish the applicant pool.
