Town Leadership
The Hull Town Manager’s Office
The Town Manager
Jennifer Constable
When a road goes unplowed or a permit stalls, the person with the most operational control over the response is appointed, not elected. Jennifer Constable is the Town Manager, hired by the five elected members of the Select Board, and it takes at least three of their five votes to appoint a manager to the office’s three year term, and at least three to remove one. The office is not the same as the Town Administrator most Massachusetts towns have, and the difference is written into Hull’s own charter, Chapter 8 of the Acts of 1989. The charter makes the Town Manager both the chief administrative officer and the chief financial officer of the town. She appoints all department heads, and each of those appointments takes effect on the fifteenth day after she files it with the Select Board unless the board votes by a majority to reject it, which means the board can stop a hire but cannot make one. She appoints the Treasurer and Collector outright. She is the town’s central purchasing agent, negotiates every town contract and the labor agreements behind them, builds the annual operating budget and a five year capital improvements program, and approves the warrants that pay the town’s bills. Since a 1993 amendment she has also supervised the day to day operation of the Hull Municipal Light Plant, the town owned electric utility, and that is the one piece of the job Town Meeting voted in May 2026 to ask the Legislature to move back to the elected Light 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.
| Role | Town Manager (chief administrative officer) |
|---|---|
| Selection | Appointed by the Select Board and serving at its pleasure, not elected |
| Office | Town Hall, 253 Atlantic Avenue, Hull, MA 02045 |
| Phone | 781-925-2000 |
| Website | town.hull.ma.us |
What the Town Manager Does
- Appoints the department heads. The charter gives the Town Manager the appointment, suspension and removal of all department heads, officers and employees of the town, outside the schools. A department head appointment takes effect on the fifteenth day after notice is filed with the Select Board unless the board votes by majority to reject it. The Treasurer and Collector is hers to appoint outright. This is the power a Town Administrator in most Massachusetts towns does not hold, and it is why the office is called Manager here.
- Builds the budget. As chief financial officer the Town Manager designs and prepares the annual budget, files the grant applications, controls the spending, approves the warrants that pay the town’s bills, and submits a five year capital improvements program to the Select Board each year.
- Answers to the board. The Town Manager works under the policy direction of the Select Board, which appoints her by at least three affirmative votes and can remove her the same way.
- Answers to you, at Town Meeting. The charter requires the Town Manager to attend every Town Meeting, where she may speak when recognized by the Moderator. If you are registered, you can be the one asking the question.
What the Charter Splits Between Them
Hull has been governed under a Select Board and Town Manager form since the Legislature enacted its charter, Chapter 8 of the Acts of 1989. 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 agency of the town. It appoints the Town Manager, Town Counsel, the Board of Health, the Park and Recreation Commission and most other appointed boards, it prepares every Town Meeting warrant, and the charter tells it plainly not to administer the day to day affairs of the town.
- The Town Manager runs everything the charter gives her: the departments and their heads, the budget and the town’s finances, the purchasing, the personnel system and the labor contracts. Two departments sit partly outside that line: the charter expressly keeps the Police and Fire Departments operating under the state’s strong chief statutes.
And ten offices never pass through an appointment at all. Hull voters still directly elect the Moderator, the Select Board, the School Committee, the Planning Board, the Town Clerk, the Board of Assessors, the Redevelopment Authority, the Library Trustees, the Housing Authority and the Municipal Light Board. That last one is why the May 2026 Town Meeting vote on the light plant mattered: it asked the Legislature to give an elected board back the authority a 1993 amendment had moved to the appointed manager.
Contact & Engage
- Town Hall: 253 Atlantic Avenue, Hull, MA 02045. Open Monday through Thursday, 7:45 am to 5 pm, and closed Friday.
- Town Manager’s Office: 781-925-2000.
- Report a problem: potholes, broken lights, snow and the town’s beaches go to the Department of Public Works at 781-925-0900.
- Show up: the Select Board meets every other Wednesday evening 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.