Town Leadership
The Town Administrator’s Office
The Town Administrator
Lisa Wong
When the sewer rate changes, or a plow route gets rewritten, or the town has to close a gap in its own budget, the person with the most operational control over the answer is appointed rather than elected. Lisa Wong is South Hadley’s Town Administrator, hired by the five elected members of the Selectboard, and the same five can end that contract if they lose confidence in her.
The job is the hinge between what residents ask for and what the town can actually do. The Administrator supervises the department heads, from Public Works to Public Health to Inspectional Services, and she is the one who assembles the annual budget out of every department’s request and every revenue estimate. That budget is not hers to pass. She proposes it, the Selectboard decides what goes on the warrant, and Town Meeting takes the final vote, line by line, and can cut a line the other two rooms agreed on.
You can see the shape of the job in the record of a single spring. In April 2026 the town’s voters turned down two Proposition 2 and a half override questions, one for an additional $9,000,000 and one for an additional $11,000,000. At the joint meeting of the Selectboard, the Appropriations Committee, the Capital Planning Committee and the School Committee on April 21, Wong presented one-year, two-year and three-year plans for closing the resulting gap. Two weeks later she brought the Selectboard a $75,000 imbalance she had found in the published $59,881,000 budget, laid out two ways to correct it, and said plainly that the Appropriations Committee had not yet reviewed the specific question and would need to meet again. In 2024 she ran the public hearings on the trash and sewer rates alongside the Director of Public Works.
That is the pattern of the office: gather the numbers, put the options in front of the elected boards, and carry out whichever one they choose. It also tells you where a resident’s hand goes. If your concern is how the town spends money, the Administrator’s office is where the proposal is built, the Selectboard meeting is where it gets shaped, and Town Meeting is where it is decided. All three of those rooms are open to you.
| Role | Town Administrator (chief administrative officer) |
|---|---|
| Selection | Appointed by the Selectboard under contract, not elected |
| Office | Town Hall, 116 Main Street, Room M18, South Hadley, MA 01075 |
| Phone | 413-538-5030 ext. 6136 |
| LWong@southhadleyma.gov | |
| Drop-in hours | Monday through Thursday, noon to 4 p.m., or by appointment |
| Website | southhadley.org |
What the Town Administrator Does
- Runs the departments. Public Works, Public Health, Planning, Inspectional Services, Recreation, the Council on Aging and the rest report up through the Administrator’s office.
- Builds the budget. Each year the Administrator assembles the spending plan for the town and the schools, then defends it 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 every bylaw still need the votes of the Town Meeting members elected from your precinct.
The Administration
- Assistant Town Administrator and Human Resources Director Chuck Romboletti works alongside the Administrator and sits with her at Selectboard meetings.
- Executive Assistant to Administration Kristin Maher handles the office’s scheduling and the town’s meeting logistics, including the Zoom licences boards use to meet.
- The Selectboard is the check: it hires and can release the Administrator, sets policy, and draws the warrant that decides what reaches Town Meeting.
- Boards and commissions, most of them appointed by the Selectboard, decide questions like zoning, conservation and licensing. The Appropriations Committee is the deliberate exception, and the Selectboard does not appoint it.
Contact & Engage
- Town Hall: 116 Main Street, South Hadley, MA 01075, open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
- Town Administrator’s Office: 413-538-5030 ext. 6136, Room M18.
- Report a problem: potholes, water and sewer issues, and missed pickups go to Public Works at 10 Industrial Drive, 413-538-5033 ext. 6509.
- Show up: the Selectboard meets the first and third Tuesday at 7 p.m., on Zoom and at the Senior Center, and the public is welcome.
Want to weigh in on a town decision? Learn how to contact your officials so they actually hear you.