Two apply for consultant job

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BEACON FALLS — The Board of Selectmen decided to move forward with interviews for the Economic Development Commission consultant position despite receiving little interest.

The town received two applications for the position. The new job, which is part time and has a salary of $10,000, would work with the commission on attracting more businesses to the town. The board was scheduled to interview the candidates Thursday, but the meeting was canceled and rescheduled for Monday.

The board debated during its meeting Nov. 10 whether to interview the two candidates or to advertise the position again in hopes of generating more interest.

First Selectman Christopher Bielik said it costs the town about $900 to post the ad for a $10,000 position.

“Re-advertising the position, in my opinion, is certainly not cost-effective,” Bielik said.

This is not the first time the town has been faced with an issue like this.

“We went through this with the finance manager position where we initially advertised that and we received six responses to that. It was determined by us and the members of the Finance Board that, reviewing the applicants we had, we needed a larger pool to be able to pick some successfully. I think we can see what taking a cautious approach to that resulted in because we ended up hiring two extremely qualified candidates … from that expanded pool,” Bielik said.

Selectman Dominic Sorrentino said he was concerned that $10,000 wouldn’t get the town the consultant it needs.

“I’m almost tempted to withdraw this and add more to it in the budget process next year, so it would be worth it for somebody to apply for the position,” Sorrentino said.

Selectman Peter Betkoski said the town should move forward with what it has before it makes any decision to put out another advertisement.

“Why can’t we interview the two applicants and, if you don’t feel comfortable, you don’t hire them anyway,” Betkoski said. “You don’t even know what these two candidates are about or what they can bring to the table. So I say interview them and if you don’t go forward, you don’t go forward.”

5 COMMENTS

  1. Well it has been several days since the Monday interviews were to be completed. Should we be surprised that there has not been any further report of a decision on the EDC position? Town Hall seems awfully quiet. Is there a gag order in place pending a formal announcement?

  2. Sounds like the more things change the more they stay the same. I guess next thing you know we’ll have a brother and sister on the BOS

  3. Reading all this including the comment, it is clear that the Town should delay any decision.

    Selectman Bielik makes the case that waiting proved beneficial in the case of the Finance Manger. Should we question why he is now in such a hurry to interview these two applicants? I agree that Selectman Betkoski seems much too eager to push this forward.

    Thank you Selectman Sorrentino for standing up for doing this right!

    This does not pass the smell test.

  4. Rumor has it that one of the two candidates is Selectman Peter Betkoski’s sister and former First Selectman Susan Cable. If true, Mr. Betkoski should recuse himself from the entire hiring process, particularly plugging the job in the media. Further, with all the job websites available to employers such as monster.com, there is no excuse for spending $900. on an ad. Finally, with only two candidates applying for the job, and one of them being Susan Cable, the job definitely needs to be re-advertised if the town is to proceed in that direction.