By Celeste Katz Marston — Celeste@concordbridge.org
Town Manager Kerry Lafleur is getting a raise following a job review in which the Select Board gave her high marks for leadership and financial savvy — but also saw some room for improvement.
By unanimous Select Board vote, Lafleur received a 2.5 percent cost of living adjustment to her base salary of $231,750 or an increase of $5,793.75. She’s also receiving a one-time 3.9 percent cash merit payment of $9,038.25.
Assistant Town Manager Jessica Porter recently presented Lafleur’s review, in which Select Board members scored Lafleur’s work on a scale of 1 to 3 in specific categories.
Three current board members — chair Mary Hartman, clerk Mark Howell, and Terri Ackerman — and former chair Henry Dane assigned scores that factored into Lafleur’s overall grade.
By the numbers
Lafleur received an overall rating of 2.29.
On achievement of 2023-24 town manager goals, Lafleur received rounded composite scores of:
- 2.18 on organizational resilience.
- 1.75 on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
- 1.96 on effective governance and communication.
- 2.21 on financial resiliency.
- 2.38 on regional and state interests.
- 1.92 on economic vitality and strategic planning.
On general leadership, financial, and other skills, she received:
- 2.75 on her work with the Select Board.
- 2.65 on leadership.
- 2.5 on management.
- 2.55 on finance.
- 2.44 on communications.
- 2.5 on personal qualities.
The town manager got glowing reviews for her managerial and finance skills as well as for integrity but earned some lower marks for “passion” and “energy,” and members urged her to delegate more work to staff.
“Kerry has assembled an excellent talented team; now she needs to set a high bar and lead them to consistently perform at the highest level,” said one unnamed reviewer. “Making time for reflecting, developing, and managing overall strategy should be Kerry’s top priority this year.”
Out in the open
Lafleur told the board that doing the review process in the open is “probably more awkward for you than it is for me, because I’ve spent about half of my career having my evaluation in a public forum.”
She credited her staff and the board for helping her reach targets and said when she herself reviewed progress toward hitting goals, “I felt that we got a lot accomplished, particularly in light of some of the unexpected challenges that were put on our plate this year.”
To that end, it was “a little bit of a disappointment to see that 50% of the goal categories came in slightly under satisfactory. [I] understand they were close,” Lafleur said. “But it’s something to help us, for me to do better in those areas moving forward.”
She also made a point of saying that although her performance review was late, there had been no prior adjustment in compensation or benefits, “even though it was allowed under the contract.”
Lafleur became town manager in 2022, having previously served as Concord’s interim town manager, finance director, and chief financial officer. Among other past municipal roles, she was previously the town manager of Lunenberg.
