Town Leadership
The Town Manager’s Office
The Town Manager
Kelly Sullivan Clark
When a road goes unplowed or a permit stalls, the person with the most operational control over the response is appointed, not elected. Kelly Sullivan Clark is Truro’s Town Manager, hired by the five elected members of the Select Board, and she serves at their pleasure. She is not new to the town. Clark worked as a summer counselor in Truro’s beach and recreation program starting in 1999, joined the town full time in 2008, ran that department, and was named Assistant Town Manager in 2016. When the previous manager resigned in the spring of 2025 she stepped up as Acting Town Manager, and that August the Select Board, choosing her as the lone finalist out of sixteen applicants, signed her to a three year contract as the permanent Town Manager. She holds a degree from the College of the Holy Cross and a Master of Social Work from Bridgewater State, and she is a licensed clinical social worker. What the job gives her is written into Truro’s own charter, adopted at Town Meeting on April 22, 1992. The Select Board is the appointing authority for the Town Manager, under charter sections 4-3-1 and 5-1-1, and the Town Manager is in turn the town’s appointing authority for its department heads, under charter section 5-4-2. So the plan to fix a problem usually starts here, then goes to the board, and then to the room where every registered voter can vote it down.
| Role | Town Manager (chief administrative officer) |
|---|---|
| Selection | Appointed by the Select Board and serving at its pleasure, not elected |
| Office | Town Hall, 24 Town Hall Road, Truro, MA 02666 |
| Phone | 508-349-7004 x128 |
| Website | truro-ma.gov |
What the Town Manager Does
- Appoints the department heads. Under charter section 5-4-2 the Town Manager is the town’s appointing authority for its department heads. That is why none of their names appears on a ballot, and why the Select Board holds one person, the manager, responsible for all of them.
- Runs the departments. Public works, police, fire, health, the harbor, the library and the rest report up through the manager, who directs the daily work of the town between Select Board meetings.
- Answers to the board. The Select Board is the appointing authority for the Town Manager under charter sections 4-3-1 and 5-1-1. The manager works under the board’s policy direction and serves at its pleasure.
- Builds the budget. The town budget is assembled in this office, department by department, before it goes to the Select Board and then to Town Meeting, where every registered voter present can change a line.
What the Charter Splits Between Them
Truro has been governed under a Home Rule Charter, adopted at the Annual Town Meeting of April 22, 1992, that puts a Select Board and a professional Town Manager over an open Town Meeting. The charter divides the work three ways, and the division is worth knowing before you decide whom to write to.
- Town Meeting holds the legislative power outright, which means the budget and the bylaws. Nothing in the manager’s authority reaches that.
- The Select Board is the chief policy making board. It appoints the Town Manager, appoints most of the town’s boards and committees, and signs the warrant that decides what Town Meeting gets to vote on.
- The Town Manager runs the departments and appoints their heads, assembles the budget, and carries out the daily business of the town under the board’s policy direction.
The one power the charter keeps out of every appointed hand is the biggest one. The budget the manager builds and the board reviews is not final until Town Meeting votes it, and Town Meeting can cut a line the other two rooms agreed on. The last word belongs to whoever is in that hall.
Contact & Engage
- Town Hall: 24 Town Hall Road, P.O. Box 2030, Truro, MA 02666.
- Town Manager’s Office: 508-349-7004 x128.
- Report a problem: potholes, broken lights, water and snow go to the Department of Public Works at 508-349-2140.
- Show up: the Select Board meets on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month at Town Hall, and the public is welcome.
Want to weigh in on a town decision? Learn how to contact your officials so they actually hear you.