Town Leadership
The Town Manager’s Office
The Town Manager
Michael A. Maresco
Abington’s chief administrative officer is hired, not elected. In January 2026 the five elected members of the Select Board appointed Michael A. Maresco as Town Manager, and he answers to that board. Before Abington he spent seven and a half years as Town Administrator in Marshfield, and before that thirty six years in state service, rising to Assistant Secretary of the Commonwealth under William F. Galvin, where he managed the budget and oversaw the Massachusetts Historical Commission. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business from Suffolk University and a master’s in public affairs from the McCormack Institute at UMass Boston.
The title matters, because in Abington it carries real appointment power. Charter section 7-12 gives the Town Manager the appointment of every person categorized as a head of department, for terms of not more than five years, and the charter says plainly that the Manager’s decision to suspend or remove a department head is final. Section 5-1 makes the Manager the appointing authority for the Chief of Police, chosen through an assessment process that uses at least three police professionals from outside Abington. Section 5-2 does the same for the Fire Chief, who then appoints everyone else in that department. Section 5-3 has the Manager appoint the Director of Public Works.
Section 4-2 sets out the rest of the job: build and submit the annual operating budget and the capital improvement program, run the town’s personnel system and its labor negotiations, purchase under chapter 30B, sign the payroll and accounts payable warrants, report to the Select Board at least quarterly on every department, and attend every Select Board meeting with the right to speak but not to vote. So the plan to fix a problem usually starts at this desk, then goes to the board, and then to the room where every registered voter can vote it up or down.
| Role | Town Manager (chief administrative officer) |
|---|---|
| Selection | Appointed by the Select Board under charter article IV, not elected |
| Appointed | January 2026 |
| Office | Town Hall, 500 Gliniewicz Way, Abington, MA 02351 |
| Phone | 781-982-2100 |
| Website | abingtonma.gov |
What the Town Manager Does
- Appoints the department heads. Charter section 7-12 gives the Town Manager the appointment of every department head, for terms of not more than five years. Those heads then appoint their own assistants and staff, with the Manager’s consent. This is the power a Town Administrator in many Massachusetts towns does not hold, and it is why the office is called Manager here.
- Appoints the chiefs. The Chief of Police and the Fire Chief are the Manager’s appointments under charter sections 5-1 and 5-2, and so is the Director of Public Works under section 5-3.
- Builds the budget. Each year the Town Manager prepares and submits the operating budget and the capital improvement program under charter article VI, signs the warrants that pay the town’s bills, and negotiates the town’s labor contracts, which the Select Board then approves.
- Answers to the board. The Town Manager is responsible to the Select Board for the management of all town affairs the charter places in the Manager’s charge, and reports to the board at least quarterly on every department and on the town’s finances.
- Answers to you, at Town Meeting. Charter section 4-2 requires the Town Manager to attend every session of Town Meeting and to answer every question addressed to the office about the warrant articles. If you are registered, you can be the one asking.
What the Charter Splits Between Them
Abington’s voters adopted this home rule charter by referendum at the Annual Town Election on April 30, 2016, and the Legislature approved it as chapter 445 of the Acts of 2016. It divides the work three ways, and the division is worth knowing before you decide whom to write to.
- Town Meeting holds the legislative power outright, which means the budget and the bylaws. Nothing in the Manager’s authority reaches that.
- The Select Board holds the executive power and is the chief policy making agency of the town. It appoints the Town Manager and Town Counsel, appoints the multiple member bodies the charter does not assign elsewhere, and it is the licensing board of the town. The same section forbids any member, or any majority of members, from getting into the day to day administration of a department.
- The Town Manager runs everything the charter gives the office: the departments and their heads, the budget, the purchasing, the personnel system and the labor contracts.
Abington keeps one power in the voters’ hands that many manager towns handed over. Charter section 3-1-1 still puts eleven bodies on the ballot, the Town Clerk among them, and section 3-8 gives the elected Library Trustees, not the Manager, the appointment of the Library Director. So the reach of this office has a written edge, and you can read exactly where it stops.
Contact & Engage
- Town Hall: 500 Gliniewicz Way, Abington, MA 02351. Open Monday to Thursday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Friday 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
- Town Manager’s Office: 781-982-2100.
- Report a problem: potholes, sewer and street work go to the Department of Public Works at 781-982-2115, and after hours to 781-878-3232.
- Show up: the Select Board typically meets at 5:00 p.m. on the second and fourth Mondays at Town Hall, and the public is welcome.
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