Town Leadership
The Town Administrator’s Office
The Town Administrator
Derek Sullivan
When a water main breaks on Cranberry Highway or a department needs a new head, the person with the most operational control over what happens next is appointed, not elected. Derek Sullivan is Wareham’s Town Administrator. The Home Rule Charter the town adopted in 2024 makes him the chief administrative officer and sets out exactly how he gets the job and how he can lose it: it takes the agreement of four of the five Select Board members to hire a Town Administrator, the first contract runs no more than three years, and it takes four affirmative votes to start the process of removing him.
The charter also does something worth reading twice. Section 4-2 gives the Town Administrator the power to appoint and remove every officer and employee for whom the charter provides no other method, and then adds one check: when he appoints a department head or the Town Clerk, he files notice with the Select Board, and the board has fifteen days to affirm the appointment or reject it by a majority of the full board. If the board does neither, the appointment takes effect on the fifteenth day anyway. Silence is a yes. That single clause is where a great deal of the town’s real staffing power lives, and it is spelled out in a document any resident can download.
He also writes the budget. Under Article 5 the Administrator prepares and submits the proposed annual operating budget and the capital outlay program, keeps the Select Board informed about the town’s financial condition, and negotiates the town’s contracts, though labor contracts still have to be approved and executed by the Select Board. At Select Board meetings he has a voice but no vote. At Town Meeting he sits in the hall and answers questions on any warrant article under his supervision, which is the one night a year a resident can put a question directly to him in public and get an answer on the record.
| Role | Town Administrator, the chief administrative officer under the 2024 Home Rule Charter |
|---|---|
| Selection | Hired by the Select Board with the agreement of 4 of its 5 members. Full-time, under contract, not elected |
| Office | Memorial Town Hall, 54 Marion Road, Wareham, MA 02571 |
| Phone | 508-291-3100, extension 3110 |
| Also in the office | Dorene M. Allen-England, Assistant Town Administrator and Human Resources Director, extension 3119 |
| Website | wareham.gov |
What the Town Administrator Does
- Runs the departments. Police, public health, municipal maintenance, natural resources, inspectional services and the rest sit under the Administrator’s charge, and he appoints their heads subject to the Select Board’s fifteen-day review.
- Builds the budget. Each year the Administrator prepares and submits the proposed operating budget and the capital outlay program, then defends that plan before the Select Board and Town Meeting, which holds the final vote.
- Answers to the board. The Administrator is responsible to the Select Board for the proper discharge of the office, attends its meetings with a voice but no vote, and carries out the policies it sets.
- Reports to Town Meeting. Major spending and bylaws still need the vote of Town Meeting, and in Wareham that means every registered voter who walks in. The charter requires the Administrator to attend every session and answer questions on the articles he supervises.
The Administration
- Department heads are appointed by the Town Administrator, filed with the Select Board, and take effect unless the board rejects them within fifteen days. They carry out policy, from plowing snow to inspecting restaurants.
- The Town Clerk is appointed the same way. Under the 2024 charter the Clerk is no longer an elected office in Wareham.
- The Select Board is the check: it hires the Administrator by a vote of four of its five members, sets policy, holds the licensing power, and issues the warrants that put questions before Town Meeting.
- Boards and commissions, most of them appointed by the Select Board, decide questions like zoning, conservation and licensing. Committees with a legislative job, the Finance Committee among them, are filled by an appointing authority chaired by the Town Moderator.
Contact & Engage
- Memorial Town Hall: 54 Marion Road, Wareham, MA 02571.
- Town Administrator’s Office: 508-291-3100, extension 3110.
- Report a problem: potholes, plowing and street repair go to Municipal Maintenance at 508-295-5300; missed pickups go to Trash Services on the same line.
- Show up: the Select Board meets at 7 pm, generally the first and third Tuesdays, at the Multi-Service Center, 48 Marion Road, Room 520, and the public is welcome.
Want to weigh in on a town decision? Learn how to contact your officials so they actually hear you.