By Dylan Marsh
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT — In the search for the newest City Manager, the Claremont City Council has recently voted to extend a conditional offer of employment to Ocatavian “Yoshi” Manale.
Manale will begin as the newest City Manager on October 3,2022, pending a standard background check for the position. The position will offer an annual salary of $130,000.
The vote to offer the contract to Manale was decided unanimously by city council members. Members of the city council interviewed four other candidates that were sent to them from Municipal Resources Inc, and deemed them to be “great candidates, but not the right fit,” according to Mayor Dale Girard. The city had set up through their contract with MRI, a checklist of prerequisites for the incoming city manager. Some of these checklist items included five to seven years of experience, a masters degree, and having worked in a community equal size or larger. According to multiple members of the city council, who conducted the interviews privately, Manale was certainly the best fit for the city.
Finding someone to fill the position has been difficult in the past for council, particularly due to a clause in the town charter that states the City Manager must live in Claremont. It is due to this clause that the current, and former city managers, John Bohenko and John MacLean respectively, were interim city managers. Manale does not currently live in Claremont, but intends to move to the city in October.
“We were all really impressed. The council was all on the same page as far as hiring him. We all felt really comfortable talking with him and working with him and he was really receptive to questions and feedback and open to talking with us,” said city councilor Matt Mooshian. What really spoke to me was that Yoshi is a strong project manager. He at times perhaps had led things a bit quickly for some folks but at a time where Claremont is looking to step forward and make a leap into a new chapter, we think he can really steward that and manage the projects we have going on.”
Manale comes to Claremont after departing from Brattleboro, Vermont, as their Town Manager. He recently gave a letter of resignation in May stating that his final day would be June 3rd. In his letter of resignation, he cited that “the prominence of this position creates drawbacks for me to fulfill the duties of the job most efficiently. I am not the right fit for this position.” He also noted that, “The smallest community I worked in was almost five times that of [Brattleboro].The larger populations afforded me anonymity that I did not appreciate until now.”
Manale also faced criticism from residents of Brattleboro after ending a roughly 60 year working relationship with Rescue Inc, the EMS service provider for the town. Disagreements over the contract led Manale to make the decision to have Rescue Inc stop accepting service calls and they would instead be taken by Golden Cross Ambulance Inc, based out of Claremont.
As to Manale leaving Brattleboro, members of city council couldn’t speak to the conversation that was had during the closed door interview process, but they believe that Manales answers to their questions regarding his departure left them feeling confident. “Everyone of us on the council read everything that came out about that. That question was talked about, and we were comfortable that it shouldn’t be an issue. He’s excited to get out and meet the community, “ Girard said of Manale’s departure as Brattleboro Town Manager.
Manale not only served as the Vermont town’s Manager, but also as Deputy Mayor for the town of Trenton, New Jersey. He also served in the office of New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio and Township Administrator for Bloomfield, New Jersey. He received his Master of Public Administration degree from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Manale is currently out of the country and was not available for comment at the time this article was written.
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