Town Leadership
The Town Manager’s Office
The Town Manager
Robert Pontbriand
When a road goes unplowed or a permit stalls, the person with the most operational control over the response is appointed, not elected. Robert Pontbriand is Ayer’s Town Manager, hired by the three elected members of the Select Board, and he serves at their pleasure. The office he holds is a Town Manager, not the Town Administrator that many Massachusetts towns keep, and the difference is written into a special act of the Legislature that Ayer wrote for itself. In 2018 the town petitioned the state to convert its Town Administrator into a Town Manager and to expand the office’s authority over hiring, and the Legislature enacted that request as Chapter 79 of the Acts of 2018. Under section 1 of that act the Town Manager appoints and removes the town’s department heads, officers and employees, with two exceptions the act names outright: the employees of the School Committee and the firefighters. Before filling a department head who works under a volunteer board, the manager must consult that board first. The act also puts the operating budget on his desk to build, fixes employee pay within the limits Town Meeting sets, and requires him to attend Town Meeting and answer for what he runs. So the plan to fix a problem usually starts in this office, then goes to the board, and then to the room where every registered voter can vote it down.
| Role | Town Manager (chief administrative officer) |
|---|---|
| Selection | Appointed by the Select Board for a term of not more than three years, not elected |
| Office | Town Hall, 1 Main Street, 1st Floor, Ayer, MA 01432 |
| Phone | 978-772-8220, extension 149 |
| Website | ayer.ma.us |
What the Town Manager Does
- Appoints the department heads. Chapter 79 of the Acts of 2018 gives the Town Manager the power to appoint and remove the town’s department heads, officers and employees, except the School Committee’s employees and the town’s firefighters. This is the hiring authority a Town Administrator in many Massachusetts towns does not hold, and it is why the office is called Manager here.
- Builds the budget. Each year the Town Manager develops the operating budget under the policy direction of the Select Board, and manages the town’s day to day spending and purchasing.
- Answers to the board. The Town Manager is appointed by the Select Board, works under its policy direction, and serves at its pleasure.
- Answers to you, at Town Meeting. The act requires the Town Manager to attend Town Meeting and to answer questions about the matters he supervises. If you are registered, you can be the one asking.
What the Charter Splits Between Them
Ayer divides its town government 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 is the town’s elected policy board. It appoints the Town Manager, appoints residents to many volunteer boards and commissions, and signs the warrant that decides what Town Meeting gets to vote on.
- The Town Manager runs what the act gives him: the departments and their heads, the budget under the board’s direction, the purchasing, and the town’s personnel system, which the 2018 act moved from a separate Personnel Board to this office.
Contact & Engage
- Town Hall: 1 Main Street, Ayer, MA 01432. Main line 978-772-8220.
- Town Manager’s Office: 978-772-8220, extension 149.
- Report a problem: potholes, water and snow go to the Department of Public Works at 978-772-8220.
- Show up: the Select Board meets on the first and third Tuesday of the month at Town Hall, and the public is welcome.
Want to weigh in on a town decision? Learn how to contact your officials so they actually hear you.