Town Leadership
The Town Administrator’s Office
The Town Administrator
Brandi J. Page
When the Town Hall roof needed replacing in 2026, six contractors sent in bids, two were incomplete, two came in over budget, and two fit. The person who opened the envelopes, checked the references, and carried a recommendation to the elected board was not on any ballot. Brandi J. Page is the Town Administrator of Otis, hired by the three elected members of the Select Board, and the town’s own description of the job is one sentence long: the Town Administrator oversees the day to day operation of the Town under the Select Board’s direction.
Unpack that sentence and you have the whole shape of power in a town this size. The Select Board decides WHAT Otis will do. The Town Administrator works out HOW, and then does it. Contracts get drafted, bids get solicited and scored, grant applications get written and chased, personnel questions get handled, and the annual budget gets assembled department by department before anyone sees a warrant article. When the board voted to award the roof to the lowest responsible bidder for 583,500 dollars, it was voting on work the administrator’s office had already done.
The office is also the town’s front door. Anyone who wants an item on a Select Board agenda emails the Town Administrator to ask for it, which means the administrator is the person a resident goes through to reach the board in the first place. Public records requests, licence applications, intermunicipal agreements like the one that gave Otis a shared animal control officer with eight neighbouring towns from July 2026: all of it moves across this desk.
What the Town Administrator cannot do is spend money nobody voted. Otis appropriated 7,111,341.74 dollars for its FY27 operating budget, and every dollar of it was approved at open Town Meeting by the registered voters who came, including 162,138.89 dollars for the Town Administrator’s own department. The administrator proposes, the Select Board reviews and puts it on the warrant, and Town Meeting has the last word. That is worth remembering when you are told that a decision has already been made: in Otis the room that decides the money is open, and any registered voter may stand up in it.
The Town Administrator serves under contract at the pleasure of the Select Board, and the board can end that contract. So the accountability chain is short and it ends with you. If you disagree with how the town is run day to day, the people to persuade are the three board members you elect, and they are the ones who hire.
| Role | Town Administrator (chief administrative officer) |
|---|---|
| Selection | Appointed by the Select Board under contract, not elected |
| Office | Otis Town Hall, 1 North Main Road, PO Box 237, Otis, MA 01253 |
| Office hours | Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM |
| Phone | (413) 269-0100 ext. 127 |
| townadmin@townofotisma.com | |
| Website | otisma.gov |
What the Office Actually Controls
- Runs the departments. Highway, maintenance, the transfer station, the light plant, the clerk’s office, the collector and treasurer, health and building inspection all report up through the Town Administrator.
- Builds the budget. Each year the Town Administrator assembles what the town proposes to spend, department by department, then defends that plan to the Finance Board, the Select Board and finally Town Meeting, which holds the deciding vote.
- Handles the paperwork that binds the town. Bids, contracts, grant applications and intermunicipal agreements are drafted and managed here before the board signs them.
- 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 Otis that means every registered voter who walks in.
The Administration
- Department heads carry out policy, from plowing the town’s 45.27 miles of road to inspecting a septic system.
- The Select Board is the check: it hires and can release the Town Administrator, sets policy, and signs the warrants that put questions before Town Meeting.
- The Finance Board, elected by the voters, reviews every department’s budget in consultation with the Select Board and advises Town Meeting on what the town can afford.
- Boards and commissions, many of them appointed by the Select Board, decide questions like zoning, conservation, and licensing.
Contact & Engage
- Town Hall: 1 North Main Road, PO Box 237, Otis, MA 01253. Open Monday to Thursday, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
- Town Administrator’s Office: (413) 269-0100 ext. 127, townadmin@townofotisma.com.
- Get on the agenda: email townadmin@townofotisma.com to ask for an item on a Select Board agenda.
- Show up: the Select Board meets the second and fourth Tuesday at 6:30 in the 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.