By Patrick Adrian Staff Writer
CLAREMONT — Former interim City Manager John MacLean will return to Claremont to provide professional development services for City Manager Ed Morris, as directed by the Claremont City Council this week.
The Claremont City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to contract MacLean through Municipal Resources Inc., a New England municipal services provider based in Portsmouth, to work with Morris to help “broaden Mr. Morris’s skills as a chief executive officer,” according to Mayor Charlene Lovett.
“A lot is happening in the city of Claremont and the council wanted to give Mr. Morris the benefit of John MacLean’s expertise as a seasoned city manager,” Lovett told the Eagle Times. “Mr. MacLean has worked in Claremont and knows the community. His combined expertise and knowledge of the city will accelerate Mr. Morris’s growth as a city manager.”
MacLean, a former city manager of Keene with more than 50 years of municipal service, took over as Claremont’s interim city manager in January 2019, replacing former City Manager Ryan McNutt. The city council, by a 7-2 vote, fired McNutt on Jan. 3, 2019.
Yet this new hiring of Municipal Resources Inc. may likely raise public eyebrows, given the remembrance of McNutt.
The council similarly hired Municipal Resources Inc. in October 2018 to work with McNutt to improve his communication with the council and the public. At the time, Assistant Mayor Allen Damren called the decision to hire counseling services “a worthwhile investment.”
Just 10 weeks later the council fired McNutt. Councilor Nicholas Koloski, voting in the minority against McNutt’s firing, accused the council of not providing McNutt reasonable time to demonstrate improvement.
In regard to the present plan, Morris said he sees this as “a great opportunity” to strengthen his skills and expertise to best move the city forward.
Morris, hired in July 2019, only had a few years of related experience before becoming Claremont’s city manager. He previously served three years as the town manager of Weathersfield, Vermont, which has a population of just over 2,800 people. Prior to that, Morris had interned for one year as the assistant to the city manager in Jerome, Idaho, a city with a population of 10,890 in 2010.
Before his career in municipal administration, Morris spent 16 years as a career firefighter in the city of Twin Falls, Idaho. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration, concentration in Finance, from Colorado Technical University and a Master of Public Affairs degree from the University of Missouri’s Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs.
While the council keeps its performance discussions with Morris to closed, non-public sessions, some councillors have periodically conveyed frustration toward Morris when not receiving requested information or operational changes taking longer to implement than councillors felt reasonable.
In recent years the Claremont City Council has actively sought to increase its input and level of inquiry into the city’s departmental operations, beyond strictly budgetary matters. Last year, the city council passed a directive to dictate the allowable color for public works trucks, despite Morris saying the desired color would cost more and take longer for vehicle orders to arrive.
The contract with MacLean will cost approximately $6,500 and is expected to run until Oct. 26. According to Morris, MacLean will also have meetings with the city council during the contracted period.
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