Town Leadership
The Reading Town Manager’s Office
The Town Manager
Jayne Wellman
When the plow misses your street, or a $6.5 million override question lands on your family’s ballot, the desk that work crosses first belongs to an appointed professional, not an elected official. Jayne Wellman is Reading’s Town Manager, hired and supervised by the five elected members of the Select Board, and they can let her go if they lose confidence in her. The job itself is written into the town’s history: when Reading adopted representative Town Meeting in 1944, the same reform provided for the employment of a town manager to be responsible for the day to day operations of the local government, and that is still the deal. Wellman came to the manager’s chair from inside the building: the town promoted her to Assistant Town Manager in June 2024, and today she holds the top job. What does the office actually control? The departments, first. Public works, police, fire, health, recreation, the clerk’s office, and the rest of Town Hall run under the manager’s administration, which is why a resident’s unanswered problem usually ends up in this office. The budget, second. The manager’s office assembles the town’s annual operating plan, on the scale of the $146.4 million budget Town Meeting approved for fiscal 2026, and carries it through the Select Board to the Town Meeting members who hold the final vote. And the town’s biggest questions, third. When the Select Board voted on July 28, 2026 to put a $6.5 million operational override on the November ballot, it was the town administration that stood up the information campaign around it: a dedicated town webpage, public webinars, and a question inbox at override@readingma.gov, so that voters decide with the numbers in front of them. Here is the part worth remembering: the manager answers to the board, the board answers to you, and the money answers to Town Meeting. If you want something to change in Reading, this office is where the plan gets drafted, but the yes still belongs to people you elect.
| Role | Town Manager (chief administrative officer) |
|---|---|
| Selection | Appointed by the Select Board under contract, not elected |
| Office | Town Hall, 16 Lowell Street, Reading, MA 01867 |
| Phone | 781-942-9043 |
| Website | readingma.gov |
What the Town Manager Does
- Runs the departments. Police, fire, public works, health, recreation, and the rest of Town Hall operate under the Town Manager’s administration.
- Builds the budget. Each year the manager’s office proposes how the town will spend its money, most recently an operating plan on the scale of the $146.4 million budget Town Meeting approved for fiscal 2026, then defends it before the Select Board and Town Meeting.
- Answers to the board. The Manager 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 the representative Town Meeting members elected from your precinct.
The Administration
- Department heads carry out policy day to day, from plowing snow to inspecting restaurants, and their departments report up through the Town Manager’s administration.
- The Select Board is the check: it hires and can fire the Manager, sets policy, and signs the warrants that put questions before Town Meeting.
- Boards and commissions, many of them appointed by the Select Board, decide questions like zoning, conservation, and licensing.
Contact & Engage
- Town Hall: 16 Lowell Street, Reading, MA 01867.
- Town Manager’s Office: 781-942-9043.
- Report a problem: potholes, broken lights, and missed pickups go through the service request page on the town’s own website.
- Show up: the Select Board meets at Town Hall with agendas posted in advance, and the public is welcome.
Sources
Reading Town Manager (readingma.gov) and The Reading Post, Town Manager coverage. Verified August 2026.
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