Town Leadership
The Cohasset Town Manager’s Office
The Town Manager
Michelle Leary
When a road goes unplowed or a permit stalls, the person with the most operational control over the response is appointed, not elected. Michelle Leary is Cohasset’s Town Manager, hired by the five elected members of the Select Board, and she serves at their pleasure. The office she holds is not the same as the Town Administrator most Massachusetts towns have, and the difference is written into a special act of the Legislature. Cohasset’s Town Manager Act, Chapter 34 of the Acts of 1997 as amended by Chapter 3 of the Acts of 2014, makes her both the Chief Administrative and the Chief Financial Officer. It gives her the appointment of the Police Chief, the Fire Chief and the Director of Finance, each subject to a fifteen day review in which the Select Board may vote it down, and of the town’s other department heads and staff outside the school department. The same act puts the annual operating budget and the capital plan on her desk to build, and it says the plan is developed by the Town Manager under the policy direction of the Select Board. So the plan to fix a problem usually starts here, then goes to the board, and then to the room where every registered voter can vote it down. One office it does not touch: the Town Clerk stays elected, and Cohasset voters filled that seat themselves in May 2026.
| Role | Town Manager (chief administrative officer) |
|---|---|
| Selection | Appointed by the Select Board and serving at its pleasure, not elected |
| Office | Town Hall, 41 Highland Avenue, Cohasset, MA 02025 |
| Phone | 781-383-4100 |
| Website | cohassetma.gov |
What the Town Manager Does
- Appoints the department heads. The Town Manager Act gives her the appointment of the town’s department heads and their staff. The Police Chief, the Fire Chief and the Director of Finance are hers to appoint, and those three appointments go to the Select Board for a fifteen day review in which the board may vote them down.
- Builds the budget. Each year the Town Manager prepares and submits the operating budget and the capital improvements program, approves the warrants that pay the town’s bills, and manages the town’s purchasing under state law.
- Answers to the board. The Town Manager is the agent of the Select Board, works under its policy direction, and serves at its pleasure.
- Answers to you, at Town Meeting. The budget she builds is not final until Town Meeting votes it, and Town Meeting can cut a line the Manager and the board both wanted. If you are a registered voter in Cohasset, you can be in that room.
What the Charter Splits Between Them
Cohasset has been governed under a Select Board and Town Manager form since the Legislature enacted its Town Manager Act in 1997, and the town amended it in 2014. The act 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 is the chief goal-setting and policy-making body of the town. It appoints the Town Manager, sets policy through directives the manager carries out, and signs the warrant that decides what Town Meeting gets to vote on.
- The Town Manager runs everything the act gives her: the departments and their heads, the budget, the purchasing, and the personnel policies and labor contracts.
Here is how those three fit together in practice. The Town Manager builds the plan and runs the departments, the Select Board decides the policy and holds her to it, and Town Meeting has the last word on the money. The room with the final vote is open, and if you are registered you are already a member of it.
Contact & Engage
- Town Hall: 41 Highland Avenue, Cohasset, MA 02025.
- Town Manager’s Office: 781-383-4100.
- Report a problem: potholes, broken lights, water and snow go to the Department of Public Works at 781-383-4100.
- Show up: the Select Board meets every other Tuesday evening at Willcutt Commons, 91 Sohier Street, and the public is welcome.
Want to weigh in on a town decision? Learn how to contact your officials so they actually hear you.
MassCivics last checked this page on October 14, 2026.
Sources
- Town records: Town of Cohasset, Cohasset Select Board, as of March 6, 2026.
- Town records: Town of Cohasset, Staff Directory, as of October 2026.
- Town Clerk records: Town of Cohasset, Town Clerk, as of February 23, 2026.
- Charter and bylaws: Massachusetts General Court, Acts of 2014, Chapter 3, An Act relative to the town manager in the Town of Cohasset, as of January 16, 2014.