Town Leadership
The Hanson Town Administrator’s Office
The Town Administrator
Lisa Green
When a road goes unplowed, a health inspection stalls, or the town has to decide whether it can afford another firefighter-paramedic, the person with the most operational control over the answer is appointed, not elected. Lisa Green is Hanson’s Town Administrator, hired by the five elected members of the Select Board to run the town day to day, and they can let her go if they lose faith in her. She is the chief administrative officer, the single point where the town’s departments, its budget and its Town Meeting warrant all come together.
Most of the daily machinery answers to her. She appoints and supervises department heads, from the Highway Director to the Health Agent, and she is the one who has to make the pieces fit inside the money the town actually has. Each winter and spring she builds the annual budget line by line, weighs what every department asks against what the tax base can carry, and proposes a single plan for both the town and its share of the regional schools. That plan does not become real on her say-so. She presents it to the Select Board, which reviews it and decides what reaches the warrant, and then to Town Meeting, where every registered voter in the room casts the deciding vote and can cut a line the administrator and the board both wanted.
She serves under a contract with the Select Board, not on a ballot, which is the point of the office: the town hires professional management to carry out the policies its elected board sets and its voters approve. When a Hanson resident brings a problem to Town Hall, the plan to fix it usually crosses the administrator’s desk first, then goes to the board, and then, if it costs real money, to the floor of Town Meeting.
| Role | Town Administrator (chief administrative officer) |
|---|---|
| Selection | Appointed by the Select Board under contract, not elected |
| Office | Hanson Town Hall, 542 Liberty Street, Hanson, MA 02341 |
| Phone | 781-293-2131 |
| Website | hanson-ma.gov |
What the Town Administrator Does
- Runs the departments. Police, fire, highway, health, recreation, and the rest answer to the Town Administrator, who appoints most of their leaders.
- Builds the budget. Each year the Town Administrator proposes how the town will spend its money for the town and the schools, then defends that plan before the Select Board and Town Meeting, which holds the final vote.
- Answers to the board. The Town Administrator serves at the pleasure of the elected Select Board and carries out the policies it sets.
- Reports to Town Meeting. Major spending and bylaws still need the vote of Town Meeting, and in Hanson that means every registered voter who walks in.
The Administration
- Department heads are appointed by the Town Administrator and carry out policy, from plowing snow to inspecting restaurants.
- The Select Board is the check: it hires and can fire the Town Administrator, sets policy, and signs the warrants that put questions before Town Meeting.
- Boards and commissions, many of them appointed by the Select Board, decide questions like zoning, conservation, and licensing.
Contact & Engage
- Town Hall: 542 Liberty Street, Hanson, MA 02341.
- Town Administrator’s Office: 781-293-2131.
- Report a problem: potholes, broken lights, and road hazards go to the Highway Department.
- Show up: the Select Board meets on its published calendar 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.