HALLOWELL — The Hallowell City Council approved Code Enforcement Officer Maureen AuCoin’s appointment as interim city manager during a special meeting Monday night at City Hall.
AuCoin, 45, is replacing the late Stefan Pakulski, who died unexpectedly March 5. The Council also authorized the city to begin a formal search for a permanent city manager, a process Mayor Mark Walker expects to take several months.
The city manager is the professional administrative head of the city and serves as tax collector, road commissioner, webmaster and public works director. Pakulski came to Hallowell in October after resigning as Readfield’s city manager in February 2015 after 12 years.
Walker said the city discussed hiring a prominent resident with managerial experience or a consultant from a firm that specializes in city management, but ultimately, promoting from within made the most sense.
“Maureen and the other people on the staff would still have to work with any new person and bring them up to speed, and we didn’t want to ask them to do that,” Walker said by telephone before the meeting. “I have confidence in Maureen and think it’s going to work.”
As city manager, Pakulski had his hand in all of the issues in Hallowell, including the Water Street reconstruction project, the Stevens School sale and the search for additional downtown parking. Walker said AuCoin will help keep the city moving forward on these issues.
“She has a working knowledge of all the major issues that are confronting the city,” Walker said. “We don’t want a delay because we have so many things in our pending file, and she can keep the ball moving.”
Walker and the several councilors expressed concern about AuCoin’s increased workload, adding the city manager’s responsibilities to the ones she has as code enforcement officer.
“In terms of keeping continuity, I have a familiarity with all of the issues going on right now,” AuCoin said. “It’s an interim position, so a lot of the daily city manager responsibilities will be handled by the committees, and a lot of the things that can wait, we will wait, but it’ll no doubt be more of a workload.”
Councilor George LaPointe recommended having weekly meetings with AuCoin to provide any assistance she may need and to ensure the city keeps moving forward. The city may hire someone part-time to help AuCoin, and there is a volunteer working in the city office each Monday.
AuCoin, who started as a part-time code enforcement officer in 2010, said she is excited about the opportunity while saddened that it came about because of Pakulski’s death. She said he was just hitting his stride in the position.
“The employees were just getting to know him and how he worked,” AuCoin said. “He was just getting a sense of what Hallowell needed, where it was headed and what had been going on in the past. He was at that point of just being on the edge of getting things rolling.”
The council went into executive session for about 50 minutes to discuss AuCoin’s compensation. When they reconvened the public part of the meeting, Walker announced that AuCoin would be appointed and confirmed at the agreed-upon terms, but those terms were not disclosed. After the meeting, Walker said AuCoin’s compensation would be made public after she signs her contract, which should be later in the week.
In the past, an interim city manager promoted from within would immediately get bumped to the pay level for the city manager, Walker said. Pakulski signed a three-year contract that would have paid him $67,028 per year when he was hired in September.
Pakulski was well liked by everyone in the city’s administration and by the council, Walker said, and his shoes will be tough to fill.
“I think everybody appreciated Stefan’s management style and what he brought to the job,” Walker said. “I have been pleased and heartened by how everyone from councilors to office staff to residents have stepped up and offered to help in any way they can to keep the city moving forward.”
Councilor Kate DuFour said the council had been thinking about the interim position since everyone got word of Pakulski’s tragic death. She thought it was important to take time to list the pros and cons for each person considered for the interim job.
“We had to take time to ensure everyone was comfortable with the decision that we made,” DuFour said. “City Hall is marching on and the council is doing what it needs to do. We’ll get through this like we always do.”
Walker served as city manager for the last seven days as specified in Hallowell’s charter. The charter said the mayor would be the acting city manager for a period of just one week, prompting the city to hold Monday’s meeting to appoint a full-time interim to the position.
Jason Pafundi — 621-5663
Twitter: @jasonpafundiKJ
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