DPW Director Guilford Mooring (left), Dave Ziomek (Rt) @ War Memorial Pool
Town Manager John Musante gave Dave Ziomek an early Christmas present with the announcement today that Mr. Ziomek will assume the role of Assistant Town Manager starting January 1, with a raise in pay from his current $89,126 up to $97,904, an increase of $8,778 or 9%.
Of course rank and file unions have settled for around 2%, and even the Town Manager only received a 1.5% raise back in October. Although his current pay at $142,100 will be 40% higher than his new assistant and $25,000 higher than next highest paid department heads, police and fire chiefs.
The position of Assistant Town Manager is not a new one. Michael Letcher was Assistant Town Manager from 1983 until leaving in 1991. Then Town Manager Barry Del Castilho left the position vacant for budgetary reasons, and it stayed unfilled until Musante assumed the position under Town Manager Larry Shaffer.
When Town Manager John Musante was seriously injured in a fall last year, Dave Ziomek was appointed acting Town Manager by the Select Board in an emergency meeting, and served in that role for six weeks.
Why did John Musante wait until when there would be less news coverage and less attention payed to the news in the following days to appoint David Ziomek to the new post?
ReplyDeleteSo one man's elaborate suspicion about the timing of a decision becomes reality.
ReplyDeleteNutty.
A very good man.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most trustworthy people I know.
ReplyDeleteShouldn't there be some elected body -- Selectboard or Town Meeting -- that makes hiring decisions on this level? Or at least authorizes the position?
ReplyDeleteDon't answer "but we had such a position a decade ago" -- the town had four elementary schools a decade ago and that doesn't mean that Maria G gets to go build one and staff it without some sort of approval from SOMEONE.
He is the town manager, not the mayor, and that is a point that needs to be made.
Okay, then I will let you make it.
ReplyDelete