Town Manager, Not Select Board, Has Final Say on Most Town Hires
Dec 12, 2025
SOUTHWEST HARBOR—What began as a debate over an interim code enforcement officer this week ended with a key clarification for Southwest Harbor: the select board has no oversight over hiring for non–department head positions, a responsibility that rests solely with the town manager.
That wasn’t something the town knew until this week after it consulted with the Maine Municipal Association, a non-profit organization that offers professional services to towns and cities (among other entities) in Maine.
Just like in Bar Harbor where the town council doesn’t approve police or fire department hires or many other staff positions, Southwest Harbor’s select board does not have to approve appointments for positions that aren’t department heads. This stands in sharp contrast to a town like Mount Desert where hires (and their pay rates) go before that town’s selectboard.
The Southwest Harbor board learned this during its 12-minute meeting, December 11.
The discussion and Thursday meeting stemmed from the appointment of Rebecca Albright as an interim code enforcement officer, for approximately one to two days a week, by the town manager. The position is contracted and went before the select board for its approval on December 8. The town is actively advertising for a full-time officer.
Because of concerns about Albright’s certification, the town had initially wanted to have an executive session to discuss the appointment.
However, Maine Municipal Association said that the select board had no purview over appointees so therefore could not go into executive session to discuss her appointment. The board modified the agenda and it was an open meeting.
Between Monday and Thursday, the town had also reached out to the Maine State Fire Marshall’s office, which confirmed that Albright had current valid certifications that allowed her to work as a code enforcement officer.
“I read the concerns. I did some research. I see the concerns and I also see that we pick our town manager. We trust our manager to make the right decisions and sometimes we do need to look into the decisions, but in this case it’s so short-term and hopefully somebody’s going to be hired in the next couple of weeks,” Vice Chair Chapin McFarland said, Thursday.
Albright worked in Lamoine and multiple other towns as a code enforcement officer. She was the subject of an earlier lawsuit that was dismissed and then this year there was a complaint filed against her with the Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office, which handles the certification of code enforcement officers in the state. The interim code enforcement officer is not a department head but a contracted service.
The town is currently interviewing candidates for a permanent position to replace long-serving former CEO John Larson who resigned earlier this fall and then passed away last week.
The Town of Lamoine gave Reddersen the name of its CEO, which was Albright, and did not reference concerns about her and said she was qualified. Reddersen appointed Albright as an independent contractor to perform CEO duties on December 3 and she has been a CEO for Otis since 2022, Great Pond since 1997, and Waltham from 2013. She’s served in Lamoine since 2017.
Reddersen has had a difficult time trying to find an interim CEO to support the community, she told the board and public, Monday.
“It’s a very overworked position in most towns,” McFarland said, Thursday.
Because of questions about the credentials, the board had chosen not to confirm Albright’s appointment then, preferring to meet Thursday instead.
From now on, Town Clerk Jennifer LaHaye clarified that the town won’t have the select board approve positions except for department heads, but the town manager would have complete oversight over hires. If the town wants the select board to have that oversight, it could change the town’s ordinance to allow them to do so.
The town also made a four-day work week permanent for staff. The schedule has been ongoing since earlier this year. Staff still works 40 hours. The town office is open from Monday through Thursday, from 7:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Reasons for doing so were that it prioritizes staff retention and helps staff with work-life balance. There were some worries about the office not being open on Fridays.
WARRANT COMMITTEE NEEDS MORE MEMBERS
Warrant Committee Chair Anne Trotter said the committee is looking for Southwest Harbor voters who would like to join the warrant committee.
Anyone interested can contact the town office for further information on joining.
“You don’t get paid, but you do get to hang out with a very cool bunch of folks once a week for the month of February (and a bit of March) and talk about the town budget, which is genuinely interesting,” Trotter said.
Quick note: The town’s Sustainability Committee also highlighted the town’s annual solid waste cost and recommended possible reforms on Monday. We’ll be writing about that and some other select board discussion in an upcoming separate article.
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