Town of Hampton - Lane Memorial Library

- INTERIM TOWN MANAGER’S REPORT -
In my half year of service as both Interim Town Manager and Town Attorney, I have been blessed to have
the support of an outstanding group of Department Heads, Town employees, elected officials and
volunteer heads of Boards, Commissions, and Committees. Every day I am struck by how fortunate we
are in Hampton to have personnel working in the Town’s behalf who have the experience and the
education needed to do jobs of ever increasing complexity.
“Experience Counts” is the theme of this year’s Town Report. That experience is brought to bear daily in
the public’s service, so seamlessly that it may otherwise be overlooked. My goal has been to highlight
that experience before the Budget Committee at its meetings this fall, and to provide examples to the
public in weekly Manager’s reports of that experience in action. From ambulance runs, to construction
projects, to site walks, to the processing of vehicle registrations, the skills that are drawn upon in the
Town’s behalf are legion.
The Town Manager’s closest aide is our Administrative Assistant Maureen Duffy, who received a
Professional Certificate in Multimedia Technology and a Bachelor of Management Marketing in 2001
from the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. She brings six years of administrative experience
to Hampton, along with many diverse office skills and achievements. Maureen has been with the Town
of Hampton since October of 2005.
The pages that follow in this Report are designed to fill in the details of this picture in other departments,
and I urge our citizens not merely to focus on the later pages in the Report that list Town employee
earnings, but instead to gain an appreciation from the reports that follow of how Hampton Town
government is a true success story.
Whether that story can continue on course depends a lot on whether financial tools remain available. For
the 2007 budget, the Department Heads were asked by the Selectmen to present amounts that reflect what
the departments need to continue to provide the level of service demanded of them by the public. The
Budget Committee chose a different course: to “flat line” the budget in line with the 2006 default budget.
That flat line amount would not cover the $700,000 in additional insurance costs and debt service that the
Town has no choice but to cover in 2007; and the flat line amount was $1.8 million less than the
Selectmen’s needs based budget.
The Budget Committee’s own recommendations about hiring of new personnel for the conservation
coordinator position, 4 additional firemen, and new special police officers obviously could not be
implemented if the “flat line” budget prevailed at Town Meeting. At the Deliberative Session on
February 3, 2007, by a two to one margin, the voters voted to amend operating budget Article 9 to set
forth a new, compromise figure of $24,764,301 that would enable the Budget Committee’s
recommendations to be implemented, along with other pressing needs in assessing, building, drainage,
finance, and the Library. I hope all our voters recognize the important choices they are being asked to
make for Hampton’s future, and will get out and vote on Article 9 and the rest of the ballot.
This year’s Report is dedicated to James S. Barrington, who retired on August 25, 2006 after nearly 10
years of service as Hampton’s Town Manager, and who hired the majority of those who now serve as
Department Heads.
James navigated Hampton’s ship of state through many challenges, always with honor and with an even
hand and temperament. During James’ tenure, he oversaw dramatic improvements in the Town’s
infrastructure, including the construction of the new, long overdue Police Station, the twelve plus million
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