Town Leadership
The Rehoboth Town Administrator’s Office
The Town Administrator
Susan M. Pimental
On June 15, 2026 the Board of Selectmen interviewed three finalists for this job in open session, one at a time, with the room to themselves. Before the first interview Chairman Vadnais told each candidate what the work actually is: roughly 80 percent financial management and 20 percent administrative. At the end of the night the Board voted 4 to 0 to hire Susan Pimental as Town Administrator, effective July 1, 2026. That vote is the whole shape of the office. Rehoboth’s chief administrative officer is hired by five elected Selectmen, under a contract they negotiate, and she answers to them.
What the office controls is the daily machinery of a town of about 12,500 people. The Town Administrator runs the departments, and department heads bring their problems here before they become policy. She builds the annual budget line by line and defends it, first to the Board and then to the Finance Committee, which makes its own recommendation to Town Meeting. She signs off on the warrants the Board ratifies at nearly every meeting, the ones that release payroll and pay the town’s bills. When the town negotiates with a vendor, renews an insurance policy, or sets a permitting policy, the paperwork moves through this office and back to the Board for a vote in public.
Here is the split worth understanding, because it decides where your own letter should go. The Board of Selectmen decides WHAT the town does. The Town Administrator decides HOW it gets done. A question about whether the town should build something, spend something or change a rule belongs at a Monday night Board meeting or, if it costs money, at Town Meeting. A question about why a specific thing has not been done yet, a permit stalled, a policy still with Town Counsel, a program that needs staffing, belongs at this desk. The Board’s own minutes show both happening in the same room: the Town Administrator’s Report opens most meetings with exactly that kind of operational update, and the Board then votes on the policy questions that follow it.
The office is at 340 Anawan Street and it is open Monday through Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Friday morning until noon. You do not need an appointment to call it, and the phone is answered by people whose whole job is to route a resident to the right department.
| Role | Town Administrator (chief administrative officer) |
|---|---|
| Selection | Appointed by the Board of Selectmen under contract, not elected |
| Office | Town Hall, 340 Anawan Street, Rehoboth, MA 02769 |
| Phone | (508) 252-3758 Ext. 3104 |
| Website | rehobothma.gov |
What the Town Administrator Controls
- Runs the departments. Police, fire, highway, health, building, assessing, the clerk’s office and the rest all report up through this office.
- Builds the budget. Each year the Town Administrator proposes how the town will spend its money, then defends that plan to the Board of Selectmen, to the Finance Committee, and finally to Town Meeting, which holds the last vote.
- Answers to the board. The Town Administrator serves under a contract with the elected Board of Selectmen and carries out the policies it sets.
- Carries Personnel. The June 4, 2025 Annual Town Meeting voted to put full responsibility for Personnel with the Board of Selectmen, and the town directs personnel questions to this office.
- Reports to Town Meeting. Major spending and bylaws still need the vote of Town Meeting, and in Rehoboth that means every registered voter who walks in.
The Administration
- Department heads carry out policy, from plowing Anawan Street to inspecting a septic system.
- The Board of Selectmen is the check: it hires the Town Administrator, sets policy, and signs the warrants that put questions before Town Meeting.
- The Finance Committee reviews the operating budget and recommends on every article that spends money, so Town Meeting hears a second opinion before it votes.
- Boards and commissions, some elected and some appointed, decide questions like zoning, conservation, septic and licensing.
Contact & Engage
- Town Hall: 340 Anawan Street, Rehoboth, MA 02769, open Monday to Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Friday to noon.
- Town Administrator’s Office: (508) 252-3758 Ext. 1.
- Report a problem: road and plowing questions go to the Highway Department at (508) 252-3912.
- Show up: the Board of Selectmen meets Monday evenings at 7:00 p.m. at Francis Hall, and the town invites the public to attend.
Want to weigh in on a town decision? Learn how to contact your officials so they actually hear you.