Gardiner to hold public meeting with city manager candidate on Monday

GARDINER — The top candidate in the second phase of Gardiner’s city manager search has been invited to meet with city residents Monday.

Andrew Carlton will take part in a community gathering Monday to meet and talk with city residents, according to an announcement Thursday by Gardiner Mayor Patricia Hart. The event is scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. Monday in the children’s room at the Gardiner Public Library at 152 Water St.

Andrew Carlton Contributed photo

Hart said there will be time for residents to meet the candidate, listen to his remarks about the position and ask questions.

She made the announcement following a scheduled executive session of the Gardiner City Council on Wednesday night held to discuss or consider employment.

Carlton didn’t immediately respond to a request for an interview Thursday.

Carlton has been superintendent since 2017 of the Wales-area school district, where he had been the director of curriculum, instruction and assessment. The district includes Litchfield.

The announcement of his appointment was made in March that year after Superintendent Jim Hodgkin announced his resignation. Carlton took up his expanded duties in July of that year.

Before his time as curriculum director, Carlton was the assistant principal of Oak Hill High School in Wales for three years. He also worked for a year as director of special education in Maine School Administrative District 13, which serves Moscow and Bingham.

Carlton has a master’s in education from the University of Phoenix and Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maine at Farmington.

In October 2021, city officials hosted a public meeting to introduce Christopher Ryan as a candidate. Ryan was the top candidate from a field of 12 identified in the search at that time. Following that meeting, however, Ryan — who is the director of economic and community development for Harvard, Massachusetts — withdrew from consideration.

Former Gardiner Public Library Director Anne Davis has been filling in as acting city manager for about a year, following the departure of Christine Landes in March 2021. Landes was approaching the end of her three-year contract when she resigned.

Davis had also served as interim city manager following the departure of Scott Morelli, who left Gardiner after seven years to be city manager in South Portland. She filled the position for 17 months until Landes started in August 2018.