Town Leadership
The Town Administrator’s Office
The Town Administrator
Andrew M. Golas
When a water main goes and the road over it has to be dug up, the person with the most operational control over what happens next is appointed, not elected. Andrew M. Golas is Charlton’s Town Administrator, hired by the five elected members of the Select Board to run the town day to day, and answerable to them for it.
The town’s own description of the job is unusually specific, and it is worth reading closely, because it is a map of where a resident’s request actually travels. The Town Administrator carries out the goals and policies the Select Board sets. He manages and coordinates the town departments and their heads. He prepares the budget with the Finance Director and the Finance Committee, oversees what is spent, and manages town funds. He handles personnel and collective bargaining with the Human Resources Director. He writes and administers the town’s grant applications. He acts as Chief Procurement Officer, which means the contracts the town signs pass through his office. He represents the Select Board in dealings with other levels of government. He supports every elected and appointed board, commission and committee in town. He serves as Emergency Management Director, coordinating fire, EMS, police and the town’s CERT volunteers when a storm or a flood is bigger than any one department. And he is the Parking Clerk, which is the smallest job on the list and the one a resident is most likely to meet first.
Notice what is missing from that list: a vote. The Town Administrator does not vote on the budget he builds. Town Meeting does. He does not decide which questions Town Meeting gets to answer. The Select Board signs the warrant that decides that. What the office holds instead is the plan and the sequence. A department’s request becomes a line in his draft budget, the draft becomes the Select Board’s recommendation, and the recommendation goes to a hall full of registered voters in May. Every one of those three steps is public, and the earliest one is the cheapest place for a resident to push.
| Role | Town Administrator (chief administrative officer) |
|---|---|
| Selection | Appointed by the Select Board, not elected |
| Office | Charlton Municipal Offices, 37 Main Street, Charlton, MA 01507 |
| Phone | 508-248-2206 |
| Website | townofcharlton.net |
What the Town Administrator Controls
- Runs the departments. Police, fire, highway, health, the clerk’s office and the rest are managed and coordinated through the Town Administrator’s office.
- Builds the budget. Each year the Town Administrator works with the Finance Director and the Finance Committee on a draft, then defends that plan before the Select Board and Town Meeting, which holds the final vote.
- Answers to the board. The Town Administrator carries out the policies the elected Select Board sets, and the board is the body that hires him.
- Reports to Town Meeting. Major spending and bylaws still need the vote of Town Meeting, and in Charlton that means every registered voter who walks in.
The Administration
- Department heads carry out policy, from plowing Flint Road to inspecting a new kitchen, and they report up through the Town Administrator.
- The Select Board is the check: it hires the Town Administrator, sets policy, and signs the warrants that put questions before Town Meeting.
- The Assistant Town Administrator, Mary Devlin, staffs the Select Board office at 37 Main Street and is also the town’s Records Access Officer, which is who you ask for a public record.
- Boards and commissions, many of them appointed by the Select Board, decide questions like zoning, conservation, and licensing.
Contact & Engage
- Town Hall: Charlton Municipal Offices, 37 Main Street, Charlton, MA 01507.
- Town Administrator’s Office: 508-248-2206.
- Report a problem: potholes, drainage and snow go to the Highway Department at 100 Flint Road, 508-248-2212.
- Show up: the Select Board meets the second and fourth Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at 37 Main Street from September to May, and the public is welcome.
Want to weigh in on a town decision? Learn how to contact your officials so they actually hear you.