By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer 

CASCO — The Casco town manager position will be advertised for a third time in hopes of finding a candidate who is right for the job after the most promising applicant said no. 

“Sometimes, it takes time to find the person we want and who wants this job,” Casco Board of Selectmen Chairman Tom Peaslee said.

Casco’s Interim Town Manager Don Gerrish commented on the game plan for the town manager search in 2021.

“I believe we will be going back out in January, probably the first week of January. There’s a lot going on [with the holidays in December]. It is easier to start with the New Year,” Gerrish said.

With the exception of it being a new calendar year, the town will use the same approach to get the appropriate person to apply: the same ad, the same job-search sites, the same length of time that the ad will run.  

“It will be a re-advertisement using the same ad as before,” Gerrish said.

The deadline for applicants to reply could fall in late January or early February.  

“We will do a revised timeline. We’ll give it a month’s time to be advertised, usually four weeks,” Gerrish said. “We’ll talk about it at the select board meeting.”

The Casco Board of Selectmen will make decisions about the details of re-advertising the position. The board meets again on Dec. 15.

The selectmen conducted an interview in November; and they were prepared to offer the job to the candidate, Gerrish said.   

“They were offered the job. Nothing against the town, but for personal reasons, they decided not to take it,” he said. 

Peaslee also said that the best candidate from the most recent application process decided against taking the job. 

“The person didn’t think it was a good fit for them,” Peaslee said. “It is always nice, of course, to hire someone from the first round. But that isn’t what happened.” 

The selectmen have been a bit eager to have not already hired a town manager, he said. But, board members understand the climate right now.

“I said to Don, ‘Do we need to think outside of the box?’ Don said, ‘Sometimes, you get up to the plate and you don’t get a home run right away,’” Peaslee said. “So, we are putting it back out at the first of the year for another search for a town manager.”

Gerrish can attest to Maine municipalities that have spent a few months searching for a manager. 

“It happens. I served as interim in Windham for 14 months. We went out three times. In Windham, we offered the job to good candidates and they turned it down. It happens. Sometimes you find the right person after one advertisement. Sometimes, it takes longer. It is not uncommon to have to go out (advertise) again. Getting good candidates— if we get two or three, we are doing good. It is a funny time with Covid-19 and everything that is going on.”

Peaslee agreed that the pandemic is playing a factor in the hiring process.

“The things to consider, not only are we trying to hire a town manager, but also I think everyone is trying to survive the stress of Covid-19. Certainly, Covid-19 hasn’t helped anything,” he said. “At first when we interviews, we did one that was a video interview because everyone was concerned with doing an in-person interview. That is what I mean about COVID-19 affecting things.” 

It has been three months since the former town manager stepped down. 

In June, then-Casco Town Manager Courtney O’Donnell gave her notice of resignation, stating Sept. 11 as her end date.

In July, the town hired Gerrish, a municipal consultant with Eaton Peabody to help find a new town manager. 

Gerrish recalled that it was July or August that he and the board put together the plan to try to hire someone by mid-September, knowing that it was a tight timeline.  

“In the first round, we went out and had 26 applications. We narrowed that down to seven. We narrowed that group down to three candidates. Two decided to withdraw and the selectmen decided to advertise again,” he said.  “I was hired as the interim. I started interim the second week in September. We went back out. We re-advertised. We got 13 or 14 resumes. We did the second round of interviews. We had a good candidate. In the end, the candidate didn’t take the job.”