Town Leadership
The Town Manager’s Office
The Town Manager
Stuart B. Beckley
When a road goes unplowed or a permit stalls, the person with the most operational control over the response is appointed, not elected. Stuart B. Beckley is the Town Manager, hired by the five elected members of the Selectboard under Article 4 of the town’s Home Rule Charter, and he serves for a term fixed by contract. The charter is specific about what sits on his desk. He is the chief administrative officer of the town, directly responsible to the Selectboard. He appoints all of Ware’s department heads, subject to the board’s review, and he can suspend or remove them: the board can undo one of those decisions only with a four-member vote, which is the charter’s way of saying the staff answers to the manager first. He negotiates the town’s contracts, manages its personnel system, fixes employee compensation within what Town Meeting has appropriated, and attends every Selectboard meeting with a voice but no vote. Ware has run this way since April 9, 2007, when the voters adopted the charter at the annual town election and turned a government of many separately elected offices into one where a single appointed professional carries the day to day. The Town Clerk, for example, is appointed by the Town Manager under section 5-11 rather than elected. The budget runs on a charter clock the voters have adjusted once already: the manager issues a budget schedule before the first of December, submits the budget to the Finance Committee by the first Monday in March, and the committee returns its recommendations by the first Monday in April, a calendar the 2011 annual town election wrote into the charter itself. The accountability runs both ways in public: the Selectboard must review the Town Manager’s job performance every year, and the charter requires that review, at least in summary form, to be a public record. The same person also serves as Ware’s Director of Emergency Management. What the office cannot do is just as clear: it cannot appropriate a dollar. The budget the manager builds goes to the Selectboard, and then to the open Town Meeting at the high school auditorium, where any registered voter gets the last word.
| Role | Town Manager (chief administrative officer) |
|---|---|
| Selection | Appointed by the Selectboard for a term fixed by contract, not elected |
| Office | Town Hall, 126 Main Street, Suite I, Ware, MA 01082 |
| Phone | 413-967-9648 x100 |
| Website | townofware.com |
What the Town Manager Does
- Appoints the department heads. Charter section 4-2 gives the Town Manager the appointment of all department heads, subject to review by the Selectboard, with every appointment based on qualifications, knowledge and experience. The manager can also suspend or remove an appointee, and it takes a four-member vote of the board to reject that decision.
- Builds the budget. Each year the Town Manager prepares and submits the operating budget and a capital outlay program for the next five fiscal years, on the calendar the charter sets: a budget schedule before the first of December, the budget to the Finance Committee by the first Monday in March.
- Answers to the board. The Town Manager is directly responsible to the Selectboard, works under its policy direction, and sits in its meetings with a voice but no vote. The board must review the manager’s job performance every year, and at least a summary of that review is a public record.
- Answers to you, at Town Meeting. The town’s own description of the office ends with a duty the charter backs up: attend Town Meetings and address all concerns. The budget the manager builds is voted in a room any registered voter can stand up in.
What the Charter Splits Between Them
Ware has been governed under a Selectboard and Town Manager form since the voters adopted the Home Rule Charter at the April 9, 2007 annual town election. 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 Selectboard holds the executive power and the charter calls it the chief policy making agency. It appoints the Town Manager and the members of many town boards, it issues licenses as the Local Licensing Authority, it convenes as the Police Commissioners and the Water and Sewer Commissioners, and it signs the warrant that decides what Town Meeting gets to vote on.
- The Town Manager runs everything the charter gives the office: the departments and their heads, the budget, the personnel system, and the town’s contracts.
Here is that division in one visible act. On April 21, 2026, the same board meeting that reorganized after the town election also voted, with the Moderator’s agreement, to set the quorum for the June 8 Annual Town Meeting at 80 voters. The elected board scheduled the room; the appointed manager had built the budget the room would vote; and the room itself, once seated, answered to nobody but its own majority.
Contact & Engage
- Town Hall: 126 Main Street, Ware, MA 01082. Open Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with Wednesday by appointment.
- Town Manager’s Office: 413-967-9648 x100, with the Executive Assistant at x101.
- Report a problem: potholes, broken lights, water and snow go to the Department of Public Works at 413-967-9620.
- Show up: the Selectboard usually meets twice a month on Tuesday evenings 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.