The Town Manager’s Office

What Holden’s Charter Actually Gives the Manager

Every Massachusetts town manager act is drafted on its own, so no two towns hand over the same list. Here is Holden’s, from the act the town publishes in full on its own website.

• He appoints the offices most towns elect. Section 14(c) gives the Town Manager the appointment, on merit and fitness alone, of the Town Accountant, the Town Clerk, the Town Collector, the Town Treasurer, Town Counsel, the welfare agent, the Planning Board and the Assessors, and of such other officers and employees as the work of the town requires. Read that list again. In Holden the Town Clerk and the Planning Board are appointments, not ballot lines, which is why you will not find either one on an election result sheet.
• He runs every department the charter does not give away. Section 14(a) puts the administration of all departments, commissions, boards and offices under the Manager except those elected by the voters or appointed by the Selectmen or by the Moderator. Section 14(b) lets him reorganize, consolidate or create a department and move its duties and its money.
• He builds the budget, on a deadline. Section 19 requires every board and department to file its estimates with the Manager, and requires the Manager to submit a budget to the Finance Committee on or before February 15 each year. The FY2027 budget went to the Finance Committee on February 13, 2026.
• He signs the money out. Section 16 names him the chief fiscal officer: the Town Accountant prepares the warrants and the Manager’s approval is what authorizes the Treasurer to pay them. Section 14A makes him the town’s chief procurement officer under chapter 30B, and section 17 lets him refer any bill that looks doubtful to the Selectmen, with payment held until they decide.
• He answers to the board that hired him. Section 14(e) requires him to attend every regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen, and section 14(g) requires him to keep the board advised of the needs of the town and to recommend what he thinks it should do.

What the Charter Keeps Away From Him

The same act is just as specific about where the Manager’s authority stops, and that boundary is the useful thing to know before you decide whom to write to.

• Town Meeting holds the legislative power. The budget and the bylaws are voted by the registered voters in the hall. Nothing in section 14 reaches that.
• The Selectmen appoint the Manager himself, along with the Constables, the Election Officers and the Registrars of Voters, under section 5.
• The Moderator appoints the Finance Committee under section 4, unless a town bylaw provides otherwise, which is why the committee that reviews the Manager’s budget is not his to staff.
• The schools are outside the act entirely. Section 6 says nothing in the charter affects the powers and duties of the district school committee. Holden’s schools belong to the five-town Wachusett Regional School District, and its budget is built by a Superintendent the Manager does not appoint and voted by a committee he does not sit on.

A Real Year in This Office

The FY2027 budget message is the clearest picture of what the job involves, and the Town Manager signed it himself. He projected a shortfall of about $7.5 million, of which $3.5 to $4 million was the expected increase in the Wachusett Regional School District assessment, and he wrote that the increase was “the budget’s single largest dollar amount increase by far.” Chapter 70 education aid to the district had gone from a $3.4 million annual increase in FY24 to about $700,000 in FY25 and $500,000 in FY26. Unrestricted General Government Aid to the town was at the same dollar figure Holden received in 2008.

So he proposed roughly $3.5 million in cuts, including about half the operating hours at the Gale Free Library and the Senior Center and a hiring freeze that would leave three Department of Public Works positions, three police officers and one full-time firefighter unfilled. Then he asked the Board of Selectmen to put a Proposition 2 1/2 override of about $5.5 million on the ballot, an amount he calculated would cover the whole school assessment increase and restore about $2 million of the reductions. The board put it on the warrant. On May 11, 2026 the voters passed it, 1,839 to 1,503. Every step of that sequence is a place a resident could have spoken, and the last one was open to every registered voter in town.

Contact & Engage

• Town Manager’s Office: Starbard Building, 1204 Main Street, Holden, MA 01520, 508-210-5501. Open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday 8AM to 4PM, Tuesday 8AM to 5PM, and Friday 8AM to noon.
• Report a problem: potholes, water, sewer and snow go to the Department of Public Works at 508-210-5550. Streetlights and power go to the Light Department at 508-210-5400.
• Read the budget: the town posts every budget book, with the Manager’s own transmittal letter at the front, on its Town Budget and Financial Information page.
• Show up: the Board of Selectmen meets on the first and third Monday at the Senior Center, and the public is welcome.