Town Leadership
The Sharon Town Administrator’s Office
The Town Administrator
Frederic E. Turkington, Jr.
When a water main fails on South Main Street or a road goes unplowed, the person with the most operational control over the response is appointed, not elected. Frederic E. Turkington, Jr. is the Town Administrator, hired by the five elected members of the Select Board to run Sharon day to day, and answerable to them for how it goes. He is the chief administrative officer: he supervises the department heads, shapes and presents the annual budget, and carries the town’s biggest spending requests to Town Meeting for the final vote. He works with an Assistant Town Administrator, Lauren Barnes, out of the Town Office Building at 90 South Main Street.
Watch a single Select Board meeting and the shape of the job becomes clear. On May 26, 2026 the Town Administrator sat with the board while the IT Director walked through a 250,000 dollar municipal fiber optic grant and a move to a new sharonma.gov email domain. Two weeks later the Deputy Superintendent of Public Works laid out the construction season, and the Town Engineer demonstrated a pavement management system that scores every street in town and prices the repairs. None of those were votes the Administrator cast. All of them were work his office had to line up before a board of five volunteers could decide anything about them.
That is the split worth understanding. The Select Board decides WHAT Sharon does. The Town Administrator works out HOW, and how much it costs, and in what order. And because Sharon is an open Town Meeting town, the plan he builds does not become real until a room full of registered voters says so. Your hand reaches this office in three places: at a Select Board meeting, where his work is presented in public; at Town Meeting, where his budget is voted line by line; and at the counter or the phone in Town Hall, where a resident’s problem becomes a department’s assignment.
| Role | Town Administrator (chief administrative officer) |
|---|---|
| Selection | Appointed by the Select Board, not elected |
| Office | Town Office Building, 90 South Main Street, Sharon, MA 02067 |
| Phone | 781-784-1500, extension 1160 |
| Website | sharonma.gov |
What the Town Administrator Does
- Runs the departments. Police, fire, public works, health, recreation, the library and the rest report up through the Town Administrator’s office.
- Builds the budget. Each year the office proposes how the town will spend its money, then defends that plan before the Select Board and Town Meeting, which holds the final vote. Article 14 of the 2026 Annual Town Meeting was the Fiscal Year 2027 budget, and it passed.
- 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 Sharon that means every registered voter who walks in.
The Administration
- Department heads carry out policy, from plowing snow to inspecting restaurants to running the library.
- The Select Board is the check: it hires the Town Administrator, 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. Sharon has more than thirty of them.
Contact & Engage
- Town Office Building: 90 South Main Street, Sharon, MA 02067. Open Monday through Wednesday 8 am to 5 pm, Thursday 8 am to 6 pm, and Friday 8 am to 12:30 pm.
- Town Administrator’s Office: 781-784-1500, extension 1160.
- Report a problem: potholes, broken lights, and missed pickups go to the Department of Public Works at 781-784-1525.
- Show up: the Select Board generally meets two Tuesdays a month at 7 pm, and the public comment period comes first.
Want to weigh in on a town decision? Learn how to contact your officials so they actually hear you.