The Town Administrator’s Office

Jeremy P. Stull

When a road goes unplowed or a new subdivision comes before the town, the person with the most day-to-day control over the response is appointed, not elected. Jeremy P. Stull is Mendon’s Town Administrator, hired by the five elected members of the Select Board to run the town day to day, and the board can let him go if it loses confidence in him. The town names the Town Administrator its chief administrative officer, which is a real job with real levers: he carries out the policies the Select Board sets, oversees the daily operations of general government, and answers to the board for how the town is run. Most of the departments that touch a resident’s week, the Highway Department that plows the road, the office that issues a permit, the clerk who runs the election, report up through this office. The Administrator builds the annual budget line by line, weighing what each department asks against what the town can raise, and then proposes it. That is where the what-versus-how split matters. The Select Board and Town Meeting decide what the town will do and how much it will spend; the Town Administrator decides how to do it and manages the people who carry it out. The final say on the money still belongs to Town Meeting, where every registered voter who walks in can raise a hand, so the budget this office writes is a proposal until the town votes it. For a resident, that makes the office the first door on most problems. A plan to fix a pothole, add a crosswalk, or change how a service works usually crosses the Administrator’s desk, then goes to the Select Board, and then, if it costs real money, to Town Meeting. Knowing that order is half of getting something done in Mendon.