HADLEY — Town Administrator Carolyn Brennan is receiving high grades from Select Board members and municipal employees for her work ethic and respect for her colleagues in the first comprehensive performance review since she was hired in late summer 2020.

While board members suggested Brennan improve communication by informing them sooner on topics such as budgetary matters and other initiatives and provide more background knowledge when she has it, the largely positive evaluation offered few criticisms.

“Thank you, town administrator,” said Select Board Chairwoman Jane Nevinsmith as the review was presented by Human Resources Director Jen Trovato at the board’s Feb. 15 meeting.

“Good job,” added board member Randy Izer.

Brennan said she was expecting a scary experience, but appreciated the evaluation process. “It’s way better than I thought it would be,” Brennan said. “This is really helpful.”

Trovato explained that the “360 review” allowed department heads and bboard and committee members to anonymously offer rankings and comments, and for the Select Board to publicly rank Brennan’s skills on a scale of 1 to 5 and respond to several open-ended questions. Trovato said this is a more well-rounded way to look at how Brennan is doing.

“Between both the Select Board and department heads, the overall strengths for Carolyn were her professionalism and her ethics,” Trovato said. “Hard working, trustworthy and putting the town’s needs first came up numerous times across both sets of reviews, and advocating and championing the staff.”

The Select Board rated Brennan in nine main categories, including decision-making, communication, planning, leadership/supervision, and ethics. Each category included some subcategories, as well.

Brennan’s highest marks from the board came in the personal development subcategories of taking her responsibility seriously, working hard and having a positive approach to the position, and the leadership subcategory of appreciating a job well done and recognizing outstanding employees.

Her lowest marks from the board came in the leadership subcategory of honestly, fairly, objectively and regularly evaluating staff, and the communication subcategory of keeping the governing body well informed with concise and written communication.

Aside from leadership, with a 3.5 rating, Brennan scored at 4 or above in the other eight Select Board categories.

“As far as I’m concerned, I would have given you a five on everything,” said board member Joyce Chunglo.

Chunglo said communication by Brennan is important, but that the board should not be micromanaging the town administrator. “The administrator’s job is the toughest one in the town,” Chunglo said.

Izer said he sympathizes with the challenges. “You spend a lot of your time putting out fires, and you have to decide which fire needs to go,” Izer said.

Of the 17 surveys sent to department heads and boards, 11 were returned. Trovato said those, too, were positive.

“The main thing that was noted was that Carolyn treats everyone with fairness and respect, she respects confidentiality, she involves people in the decisions that involve their department and that she’s very supportive,” Trovato said.

A few specific complaints came up, such as some staff contending Brenna is not supportive of remote work, though Brennan said it was uncertain where this came from, as she doesn’t recall any requests that were denied.

Torvato said there was a lot of repetition in the comments. “People were definitely on the same page,” Trovato said.

Select Board member Molly Keegan complimented Trovato and Nevinsmith for putting together a review with good formatting that presented concise scores and comments. “Thank you for thinking through all that, just from the process standpoint,” Keegan said.

“This was probably the easiest (review),” said Chunglo, who began her tenure on the Select Board 20 years ago and has participated in many town administrator reviews.

Board member Amy Parsons said she liked being able to offer honest comments and appreciated that the review involved everyone Brennan interacts with every day.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.]]>