Town Leadership
The Town Administrator’s Office
The Town Administrator
Deborah M. Eagan
When a road goes unplowed, a permit stalls, or the town has to decide whether it can afford a full-time fire department, the person with the most day-to-day control over the answer is appointed, not elected. Deborah M. Eagan is Rowley’s Town Administrator, hired by the five elected members of the Board of Selectmen, and she serves under a contract they can end if they lose confidence in her. She is the town’s chief administrative officer: she carries out the policies the board sets, oversees the department heads who run everything from the Highway Department to the Board of Health, and keeps the daily machinery of the town moving between meetings.
Her largest single job is the budget. Each year the Town Administrator works with the department heads and the Finance Committee to build a spending plan for the town, then presents and defends it before the Board of Selectmen and, finally, before Town Meeting, where every registered voter in the hall casts the deciding vote. When that budget needs more than Proposition 2 1/2 allows, as it did for the town’s new full-time firefighters, the administrator’s plan is also what a ballot override is asking voters to fund. She is supported by two Assistant Town Administrators, and her office is the place where a resident’s problem usually first becomes a plan. Because Rowley hands its daily operations to an appointed professional, the quickest way to move a town decision is often to reach that office first, and then to bring the question to the board and to Town Meeting, which still hold the final say.
| Role | Town Administrator (chief administrative officer) |
|---|---|
| Selection | Appointed by the Board of Selectmen under contract, not elected |
| Office | Town Hall, 139 Main Street, Rowley, MA 01969 |
| Phone | (978) 948-2705 |
| Website | townofrowley.net |
What the Town Administrator Does
- Runs the departments. Police, fire, highway, health, the library and the rest answer up to the Town Administrator, who oversees the department heads day to day.
- Builds the budget. Each year the administrator proposes how the town will spend its money, then defends that plan before the Board of Selectmen and Town Meeting, which holds the final vote.
- Answers to the board. The administrator serves at the pleasure of the elected Board of Selectmen and carries out the policies it sets.
- Reports to Town Meeting. Major spending and bylaws still need the vote of Town Meeting, and in Rowley that means every registered voter who walks in.
The Administration
- Department heads carry out policy day to day, from plowing snow to inspecting restaurants, and report up through the Town Administrator.
- The Board of Selectmen is the check: it hires and can dismiss the administrator, sets policy, and signs the warrants that put questions before Town Meeting.
- Boards and commissions, many of them appointed by the Board of Selectmen, decide questions like zoning, conservation, and licensing.
Contact & Engage
- Town Hall: 139 Main Street, Rowley, MA 01969.
- Town Administrator’s Office: (978) 948-2705.
- Report a problem: potholes, downed limbs, and plowing go to the Highway Department at (978) 948-2441.
- Show up: the Board of Selectmen meets on Monday evenings at the Town Hall Annex, and the public is welcome.
Want to weigh in on a town decision? Learn how to contact your officials so they actually hear you.