Town Leadership
The Town Administrator’s Office
The Town Administrator
Sherry Patch
When a road washes out on the mountain or a new solar array is proposed off a back lane, the person with the most operational control over the town’s response is appointed, not elected. Sherry Patch is Princeton’s Town Administrator, hired by the three elected members of the Selectboard to run the town day to day, and the board can let her go if it loses confidence in her. Patch is the chief administrative officer: she appoints and supervises most department heads, shapes and presents the annual budget, and carries the town’s largest spending requests to Town Meeting for the final vote. She came to Princeton after serving as Town Administrator in Sunderland and, before that, in Hardwick, and she also holds the town’s Human Resources Officer role, handling hiring, job classification, and the collective bargaining agreements that cover town employees.
The office exists to separate two jobs that a small town could otherwise blur together. The Selectboard decides what the town should do: it sets policy, signs the warrants that put questions before Town Meeting, and answers to voters every spring. The Town Administrator decides how that policy gets carried out, from which road gets plowed first to when a department’s budget request is ready to defend in public. Patch does not set the direction and she does not vote the budget. She proposes, she manages, and she reports back to the board that hired her. For a resident, that split is the map: a question about how a service runs belongs with the Town Administrator’s office, and a demand to change the policy itself belongs with the Selectboard and, in the end, with Town Meeting, where every registered voter can stand up and vote.
| Role | Town Administrator (chief administrative officer) |
|---|---|
| Selection | Appointed by the Selectboard under contract, not elected |
| Office | Town Hall, 6 Town Hall Drive, Princeton, MA 01541 |
| Phone | 978-464-2102 |
| Website | princetonma.gov |
What the Town Administrator Does
- Runs the departments. Police, fire, the Highway Department, the Council on Aging, the library, and the rest answer to the Town Administrator, who appoints most of their leaders.
- Builds the budget. Each year the Administrator proposes how the town will spend its money, then defends that plan before the Selectboard and Town Meeting, which holds the final vote.
- Answers to the board. The Administrator serves at the pleasure of the elected Selectboard and carries out the policies it sets.
- Reports to Town Meeting. Major spending and bylaws still need the vote of Town Meeting, and in Princeton 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 Selectboard is the check: it hires and can fire the Administrator, sets policy, and signs the warrants that put questions before Town Meeting.
- Boards and commissions, many of them appointed by the Selectboard, decide questions like zoning, conservation, and licensing.
Contact & Engage
- Town Hall: 6 Town Hall Drive, Princeton, MA 01541.
- Town Administrator’s Office: 978-464-2102.
- Report a problem: potholes, washed-out roads, and downed limbs go to the Highway Department.
- Show up: the Selectboard 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.