Powers A Finalist For Town Manager In Foxboro

HARWICH – Town Administrator Joseph Powers is looking for a new job.

Powers is one of five finalists for the town manager’s position in the town of Foxboro. He is scheduled to be interviewed for the position by that town’s select board on Thursday evening.

Powers’ three-year contract as Harwich town administrator is due to expire on June 30. Over the past several weeks the select board has met in executive session on several occasions to discuss negotiation of his contract. Under the town administrator’s contract, the select board is required in the next several weeks to inform Powers whether it plans to issue him a new contract.

In 2021 Powers was a finalist for the town administrator’s position in Yarmouth, but the selectmen there chose Robert L. Whritenour instead.

According to the Sun Chronicle in Attleboro, the Foxboro screening committee put forward four finalists for the position. There were objections from the select board that the acting town manager, Paige Duncan, was not among the candidates. The select board voted 4-1 to make Duncan the fifth finalist.

The other four candidates are Thomas Guerino, executive director of the Greenfield Housing Authority and a former longtime town administrator in Bourne; Scott Lambaise, town administrator in Abington; Christopher Senior, town manager in Cohasset, who was a finalist in the search to fill the town manager position in Foxboro a year ago; and Powers, who is identified as town administrator in Harwich and a former longtime public official in Braintree.

Powers and Guerino have faced off before as two of four finalists for the Harwich town administrator’s position in 2020. Powers was serving as the interim town administrator at that time, after the departure of town administrator Christopher Clark. Selectmen at first could not obtain the super-majority vote required by the charter to appoint any one of the four finalists. The board ultimately agreed to appoint Powers as interim town administrator for a year. In January 2021 Powers was named town administrator.

Foxboro is a community of close to 19,000 residents with an operating budget of $93 million. It has a AAA bond rating, and its legislative branch is open town meeting, similar to Harwich.

The annual salary for the position is listed in the job posting at $205,000.

The interviews for the five finalists were scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

Powers did not respond to The Chronicle’s requests for comment on this story.