Thirty one people applied for the position and the advisory committee narrowed that to five finalists, one of whom withdrew.
EASTHAMPTON – With interviews finished, Mayor Michael A. Tautznik said he’s checking references and hopes to have a finalist for the city planner’s position soon.
The city received 31 applicants for the position held by Stuart Beckley for more than two decades. Five were selected from that pool, one, however withdrew before interviews began, the mayor said.
The mayor had an advisory committee to help in the interview process.
The finalists are Jessica Jo Allan, principal planner for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission who lives in the city. As part of her job, in her cover letter she wrote that she has provided land use planning and zoning assistance to 43 communities including the city and was facilitator of the city’s master plan process.
Paulette L. Kuzdeba, of Hadley, is currently a substitute teacher in Hadley and in Franklin County, but was a senior environmental planner with Northampton for 12 years until 2010. In her cover letter, she wrote that she has been involved in planning in both the public and private sectors for 26 years.
Lawrence B. SmithLawrence B. Smith , of Leeds, was most recently the community development director and principal planner for Westfieldbut was not reappointed by the new Mayor Daniel Knapik in November. Smith worked in that city for 12 years. He has been in municipal government for more than 30 years, according to his cover letter.
G. Jay Vinskey, of Northampton, is a lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning and for 11 years was a site planner and project manager for the Northampton-based Berkshire Design Group.
Tautznik said he was pleased with the pool and said all are qualified for the position.
The next step is checking references and determining “how do we think this person is going to fit into the community. We need to figure out if the candidate is right.” That the mayor said “makes it (the process) a little more complicated.”
He said he’s not concerned that Smith was not reappointed and said he understands that appointing new people is the prerogative of the mayor.
He also knows that Easthampton can’t look at filling the position as replacing Beckley. “We’re not going to replace Stuart. We are hiring a new planner,” he said. Beckley, who lives in Sunderland, is the new town manager in Ware.
Tautznik said he hopes to be ready to select a candidate and begin discussing terms of a contract as early as Thursday or if not next week. He doesn’t think he would have a recommendation ready for the City Council in time for its Feb. 15 meeting. The council must approve his appointment.
He said while the appointment would be for three years, they could make a temporary appointment if they were not ready to make a three-year appointment. Ideally, he said, he’d like to have a new planner working sometime in March.