Hasty Wants Williamstown to Do the Hard Right iberkshires.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from iberkshires.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Former Palmer Town Manger Charles Blanchard accepts interim town manager job in Williamstown
Updated Apr 14, 2021;
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His first day of work is Wednesday.
Williamstown Town Manager Jason Hoch announced in February that he would resign once an interim manager was in place.
His departure is partly related to allegedly not telling the Selectboard, in a timely manner, that a police sergeant had filed a complaint against the town’s police chief with Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
In August, Sgt. Scott McGowan then filed a federal lawsuit naming then police chief Kyle Johnson, Hoch, and the town as defendants.
The civil complaint alleged the police department “turned a blind eye to sexual assault and sex discrimination.”
Anne O Connor, who is a non-voting member of the interim chief advisory committee, told her colleagues on the Select Board that the search group has interviewed three applicants and is hoping to arrange a fourth interview. Outgoing Town Manager Jason Hoch asked the Select Board to form a search committee to make a recommendation to his office for the interim post after then-Chief Kyle Johnson resigned in December. After some initial uncertainty about the level of community interest in serving on the search committee, the town received 22 applications and appointed eight residents to the panel. O Connor said its work so far has been heartening.
Williamstown Finance Committee Reviews Town s Capital Plan iberkshires.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from iberkshires.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
That was the bottom line takeaway last week when Town Manager Jason Hoch presented the FY22 budget to the town s Finance Committee. What is unknown at this point is the size of an increase in the assessment from the Mount Greylock Regional School District. Total education outlays (which includes a much smaller assessment from McCann Tech) accounts for about 52 percent of the revenue raised by property taxes in FY21. One day after Hoch s presentation to the Fin Comm, the Mount Greylock School Committee heard from the administration that it will be proposing a budget that seeks 1.67 percent more from Williamstown in the coming fiscal year.