Mayor-elect Ruthanne Fuller today announced several appointments to her senior staff:
- Maureen Lemieux will continue as Chief Financial Officer.
- Dana Hanson, who co-chaired Fuller’s campaign, will serve as Director of Community Engagement and Inclusion.
- Ellen Ishkanian, a journalist most recently with the Boston Globe, will serve as Director of Community Communications.
- Noah Rivkin will serve as Executive Aide to the Mayor.
The hiring process continues for a Chief Operating Officer and Citizens Assistance Officer. Mayor-Elect Fuller also said that she is seeking to hire a new City Solicitor and that Associate City Solicitor Ouida Young will serve as Acting City Solicitor in the interim.
Ruthanne,
Keep Nicole Freedman.
Thanks.
What Sean said.
Also, I’ve known Ellen Ishkanian for years and think she is a fantastic addition to our city staff.
What does a City Solicitor do?
Also is there currently a Chief Operations Officer?
Claire, a lot! It is the law department.
You can look online to see all the duties of the city solicitor’s office.
What a perfect job for the indefatigable and incredible Dana Hansen!! And congratulations to Noah Rivkin who was masterful during Ruthanne’s campaign.
Good employment decisions!
Does anyone know if this Chief Operating Officer is a newly created position. That is my impression from the linked announcement as well as a story on the Patch but it is just not entirely clear. The Path reports in part:
“As for the communications team, Auburndale resident Dana Hanson will serve as director of community engagement and inclusion. Former Boston Globe freelancer Ellen Ishkanian will be director of community communications. Iskhanian sent the press release to the Patch but did not immediately return request for comment on the duties involved in the duel roles. In the current administration, Stephanie Foner held the title of director of community engagement, sending out press releases and coordinating media events. [If I read that right one person is being replaced by two]
Fuller said she’s still looking for a chief operating officer, a position that sound similar to a post currently held by Dori Zaleznik as well as a citizens assistance officer, which is currently held by Terry Crowley.
Also as a process question: Is a new Mayor able to create new executive/management roles or does that have to go through any sort of approval process to oversee the compensation expences from City Council?
https://patch.com/massachusetts/newton/newton-mayor-elect-announces-senior-positions-her-cabinet
Dori Zaleznik is retiring, thus the search for her replacement.
@TheWholeTruth thanks for the info. I wasn’t really wondering about who is in any position or why anyone might be leaving either voluntarily or unvoluntarily. That is just to be expected when there is a change in administration.
This line from the Patch article “Iskhanian sent the press release to the Patch but did not immediately return request for comment on the duties involved in the duel roles” got me wondering about the actual roles and if they will be different, more heads, less heads (and thus more expense/less expense)
Also the article suggests that Chief Operating Officer is either a new role or maybe a merging of the roles held by Zaleznik and Crowley.
Claire, all of those positions are at the discretion of the Mayor. I’m just speculating as I haven’t talked to Mayor Fuller recently about hiring but I don’t think the jobs will overlap. For one thing, Ruthanne is very concerned about being cost efficient and wouldn’t just hire people to do the same thing. In addition, she is concerned about communicating effectively with the community so one job could handle official communications and the other handle feedback from the community.
Claire, many of your questions can be answered with a little research on the Newton website. Other things are at the discretion of the Mayor. Why not support our new mayor at least until she takes office and we see how things go. She was an effective councilor and citizen. I don’t know why she wouldn’t be the same as mayor.
@Claire, to the best of my knowledge, the CFO and the COO are positions that Mayor Warren created years ago. Maureen Lemieux has been the CFO for many years and is staying on. Dori’s retirement means this position needs to be filled….that is assuming the position will be maintained.
Marti, I wasn’t aware that asking questions was considered not supporting. I think my questions are completely reasonable. I’m also not questioning that any position is at her discretion. She is the Mayor. As a tax payer I do want to know if city government will be bigger, smaller or stay the same. Or to put it another way, I’m not concerned how she may rearrange the deck chairs, just whether she is adding any and if she is that it be completely transparent.
Claire, asking questions is fine if you’ve done your own research first. It’s easy to find the answers to most of your questions on the Newton website. Certainly about the COO and CFO. V14 welcomes questions, certainly on politics, but most of us try to find out before publicly posting them.
I think your questions about the COO being a new position and overlapping job descriptions are really a preemptive action because they are based on your assumptions that Mayor-elect Fuller might be adding positions without proper consideration. Why come from a negative presumption instead of just checking for yourself? Otherwise you wouldn’t question her reasonings without any facts to back them up.
So far her decisions have been transparent and she’s not even officially Mayor yet.
Keeping Maureen Lemieux is an outstanding decision. She has truly been one of the shinning stars of the Warren Administration. Her sound fiscal management will keep Newton on track for many years to come.
@Marti “I think your questions about the COO being a new position and overlapping job descriptions are really a preemptive action because they are based on your assumptions that Mayor-elect Fuller might be adding positions without proper consideration. Why come from a negative presumption instead of just checking for yourself? ”
You are completely out of line questioning my motives. Still unclear why asking questions is coming from a place of being negative. as I have expressed no negative assessments in my posts on this thread. I suggest you check yourself.
I am seeking to understand and V14 is a very knowledgable source of information. For example I didn’t know Dori Zaleznik was retiring until THeWholeTruth shared that information . So I will ask questions of the group as I see fit. I have looked at the Newton Website and do not see anyone with a title of Chief Operations Officer. Dori Zaleznik is listed as Chief Administrative Officer and anywhere I have ever worked those are very different roles. Perhaps it is just semantics and/or a title change. Or even a shifting of the role. The Patch article said it sounds similiar but it doesn’t specifically say it is a replacement for the CAO position
I just Googled it…
Rooney’s departure has resulted in a shake up in the administration, with Public Health Commissioner Dori Zaleznik moving into the role of chief administrative officer and Chief Financial Officer Maureen Lemieux adding the title of chief of staff to her current role. The position of COO will be eliminated because Warren said, “Rooney simply can’t be replaced.“
http://newton.wickedlocal.com/article/20140409/News/140405958
@Randy, thanks for the info!! So it sounds like it is a new old role :-). Maybe Rooney will come back!!
I wonder what they mean by “inclusion” with Dana Hanson’s role.
Really good team our Mayor-Elect is putting together. I’m excited to see her get to work.
The COO role was created in Setti’s first term. Bob Rooney held the position. After he left, the Chief Administration Officer position was created. Dori Z. has been in this position . Dori and Maureen have essentially shared the COO role
The link below has some information as to the difference betwen a CAO and COO.
http://www.armstrong-wolfe.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/COO-or-CAO-Jan-20151.pdf
Though it talks about the roles as they are in the private sector, it will give you some information. Bob Rooney held the first COO position in Newton. The Cohen administration had a CAO role and Michael Rourke held this position.
Excellent choices for the two positions that I’m familar with.
Maureen Lemieux has been so good as Chief Financial Officer that I once said only half -facetiously at a Public Hearing that if I had the chance, I would appoint her Director of the Federal Office of Management and Budget. The room erupted in spontaneous applause for the idea, not for my ability to appoint anyone to a Federal position.
Dana Hanson is exactly the right person for Community Engagement. As the driving force behind the Auburndale Community Library, she knows firsthand how important it is to replace the village based institutions that foolish city officials dispensed with and how difficult it is to do so. Her role as a Library Trustee gives her insight as to how the city-wide agencies must function in these dire days. I would suggest the city look to our neighbors to the west in Wellesley. Wellesley closed its two branch libraries, but relented and raised money to keep them going. Perhaps we can learn from Wellesley’s example.
My perhaps incorrect recollection is that the post of Chief Administrative Officer was established in the Charter and filled by the Mayors’ top assistant Michael Rourke among others and Dori Salesnick most recently. The post of Chief of Staff was added to Maureen’s portfolio fairly recently. I would hope that the new hire would serve as both CAO and Chief of Staff de facto. I certainly think Maureen should be freed of the burden of Director of Human Resources because it was too late in the Mayor’s term to recruit a suitable candidate.