Town Leadership
The Town Manager’s Office
The Town Manager
Leon A. Gaumond, Jr.
When a road goes unplowed or a permit stalls, the person with the most operational control over the answer is appointed, not elected. Leon A. Gaumond, Jr. is Weston’s Town Manager, hired by the elected members of the Select Board under Chapter 80 of the Acts of 2001, the special act the Legislature passed to create the office. The act gives him a term of up to three years and makes him the chief administrative officer of the town, and that authority comes in three distinct kinds.
The first is over people. The Town Manager supervises every department under the Select Board’s jurisdiction, with the school department as the one large exception, and he appoints the town officers and employees the act does not assign to somebody else. For five specific positions the act splits the decision on purpose: the Town Manager recommends a candidate for Town Clerk, Police Chief, Fire Chief, Forest Warden and Director of Public Works, and the Select Board makes the appointment. Neither one can act alone. The board cannot appoint a person the manager has not recommended, and the manager cannot seat a chief the board will not confirm. Department heads who serve another town board are appointed by that board with the manager’s concurrence, and the Library Trustees appoint the library director in consultation with him.
The second is over money. The manager oversees the drafting of the town budget, approves the warrants that actually pay the town’s bills, negotiates the collective bargaining agreements with the town’s unions, and serves as the town’s chief procurement officer everywhere except the schools. None of that is the last word. The budget he drafts goes to the Select Board, the Select Board puts it on the warrant, and then it goes to a hall where any registered voter in Weston can stand up and cut a line out of it.
The third kind of authority is the one a resident can reach directly. The act requires the Town Manager to attend all town meetings unless the meeting excuses him, which makes him the person in the room whose job is to answer the question. If you are registered, you can be the person asking it. You do not vote for the Town Manager. You vote for the five people who hire him, who can end the appointment, and who sit in public with an agenda posted in advance.
| Role | Town Manager (chief administrative officer) |
|---|---|
| Selection | Appointed by the Select Board for a term of up to three years, not elected |
| Office | Town Hall, 11 Town House Road, Weston, MA 02493 |
| Phone | 781-786-5020 |
| Website | westonma.gov |
What the Office Actually Controls
- Runs the departments. Chapter 80 of the Acts of 2001 puts every department under the Select Board’s jurisdiction in the manager’s charge and lets him appoint the officers and employees the act does not assign elsewhere. The schools are the exception, and they answer to the School Committee instead.
- Recommends the chiefs. The Town Clerk, the Police Chief, the Fire Chief, the Forest Warden and the Director of Public Works are appointed by the Select Board, but only from a candidate the Town Manager recommends. That is the clearest place in Weston’s government where two offices have to agree before anything happens.
- Handles the money. The manager oversees the drafting of the town budget, approves the payment warrants, negotiates the union contracts, and is the town’s chief procurement officer outside the schools.
- Answers to you, at Town Meeting. The act requires the Town Manager to attend all town meetings unless he is excused. If you are registered, you can be the one asking the question.
What the Act Splits Between Them
Weston has run on a Select Board and Town Manager form since the Legislature passed Chapter 80 of the Acts of 2001, and the town has amended it twice: Chapter 390 of the Acts of 2006 for school buildings, and Chapter 6 of the Acts of 2009, which the voters accepted and which abolished the elected Town Clerk. The town publishes the act’s authority and responsibilities in full. It 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 appoints the Town Manager, town counsel, the multimember boards and committees under its jurisdiction, and the town’s representative to the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. It also signs the warrant that decides what Town Meeting gets to vote on.
- The Town Manager runs everything the act gives him: the departments and their staff, the budget drafting, the purchasing, the personnel policies and the labor contracts.
Here is that relationship in one visible act. Ten days after the 2026 annual town election, at its meeting of May 12, the Select Board reorganized in public. Alfred L. Aydelott moved John F. McDonald as Chair for the coming year, Anupam Sachdev seconded, and the roll call was unanimous. Sachdev then moved Aydelott as Clerk, Rebecca Mercuri seconded, and that roll call was unanimous too. The whole sequence is in the board’s approved minutes, which anyone can read.
Contact & Engage
- Town Hall: 11 Town House Road, Weston, MA 02493. Main line 781-786-5000.
- Town Manager’s Office: 781-786-5020.
- Register to vote: the Town Clerk’s counter is open Monday to Thursday 7:30am to 5:00pm and Friday 7:30am to 1:00pm, and the clerk’s line is 781-786-5010.
- Report a problem: potholes, water, snow and the town’s trees go to the Department of Public Works at 781-786-5100, 190 Boston Post Road By-pass.
- Show up: the Select Board generally meets on Tuesday evenings, in person and remotely at the same time, and the public is welcome either way.
Want to weigh in on a town decision? Learn how to contact your officials so they actually hear you.