© The Stoneham Independent
STONEHAM, MA - The Board of Selectmen last Thursday retained former Springfield Mayor Robert Markel, a seasoned municipal CEO with decades of leadership experience, to serve as temporary town administrator.
During a regularly scheduled meeting this week in Town Hall, the Board of Selectmen introduced the new hire to the public during an unplanned visit by the temporary town administrator, who officially begins his tenure in Stoneham this Thursday.
Markel beat out an unspecified number of other candidates vying for the temporary position. The selectmen, who voted to appoint him during a meeting in Town Hall’s second floor conference room last Thursday, did not disclose how long his employment pact will last.
Details about how much he is being compensated were also not divulged at the meeting this week, and calls placed by The Stoneham Independent to at least two selectmen for that information were not returned by presstime on Wednesday morning.
Most recently serving as the interim town manager in Templeton, Markel boasts an impressive resume, which includes serving as Springfield’s mayor, as well as a full-time town administrator in at least three small communities in Mass. and Maine.
Besides his most recent stint as town manager in Templeton, the career-long public servant also worked for a year in Northfield, another Central Mass. community, as an interim leader beginning in Nov. of 2013.
“He came in today, and I’d like the opportunity to introduce Mr. Markel,” said Board of Selectmen Chair Ann Marie O’Neill on Tuesday night. “He has a very extensive background [in leadership positions]. We’re very lucky to get him while we’re searching for a new town administrator.”
Markel is taking over the managerial reins from Town Administrator David Ragucci, whose contract is not being renewed when it expires on July 1.
The former Mayor of Everett, whose duties were being handled by Town Accountant and former Town Administrator Ron Florino, has already departed Stoneham, as he is taking vacation/leave time in advance of his contract lapsing.
According to Markel, who retired from his career as a full-time public servant in 2012, his heard about the vacancy in Stoneham just after submitting his notice to his employers in Templeton, where he as hired as interim town manager in Jan. of 2014.
“I gave my notice on June 11, and two days later, I applied for [this position]. And here I am,” he remarked. “I met today with all department heads, and I did a little walk around town.”
A long-time Springfield resident, the Notre Dame graduate, who has a doctorate in political science, served on the western mass. city’s School Committee and City Council, before being elected mayor between 1992 and 1996.
In 2001, he began a four-year stint as Norfolk’s town administrator, a position he departed in Feb. of 2005 upon being hired to manage government operations in the Town of Ipswich. He remained in that town administrator’s post until 2011, when he moved on to become town manager in Kittery, Maine.
He retired a year later.
posted by Jeff Bennett
