Town manager hired in Morristown

Raymond doesn’t start in the job until June 2, but he said in an interview this week he’s rearing to go.

“I think Morristown is a community that has so much potential,” Raymond said. “There’s development there, it’s a beautiful village, and the people there that I’ve met are incredibly passionate and caring about their community.”

According to Raymond’s employment contract, he will be paid an annual salary of $128,000 plus benefits if he chooses to take them. Per his contract, for the first six months, he will have to attend weekly meetings with current interim manager Carrie Johnson or another consultant to ease him into the job.

Johnson, who has led the town as interim manager since December, said she will be paid $80 an hour for up to eight hours a week for her continued service during that period.

Based on his experience, Raymond will start the job with the same level of annual paid leave — six weeks — as a 15-year employee.

Selectboard chair Don McDowell said the town received more than 100 resumes for the position and whittled it down to five for interviews.

“Brent clearly distinguished himself from the field based on his interpersonal skills, diverse professional experience and strong leadership skills. I think he will be a great fit for Morristown,” McDowell said, noting the initial search process was handled by a committee that included town officials and residents alike, spearheaded by St. Albans city manager with help from the Vermont League of Cities and Towns.

“The process reflected a desire for the next manager to be a stabilizing force, a consensus builder, and a strong leader,” McDowell said. "When we interviewed Brent, we felt he checked all the boxes.”

Private, public work

Raymond, who is currently employed as general manager for the Green Mountain Regional Center, said he has more than a decade of experience in the banking and finance industry, but that also included some intersection with government entities, including the Vermont municipal bond bank, during his decade-long stint at TD Banknorth, from 1999-2008.

He also served in the U.S. Air Force and worked for a couple of year for then-Congressman Peter Welch.

“I just found that, throughout my career, I find the most enjoyment when I feel like I’m providing service, especially to the state of Vermont,” he said.

He wasn’t exactly looking for a job, but when he saw the Morristown position open up, he said, “it just really called to me,” and he got excited about the prospect.

Many peoples’ resumes follow them from job to job, and Raymond’s is no different. That includes a three-year stint as executive director of the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center.

Raymond was there during one of Vermont’s biggest financial scandals in recent history, when the owners of Jay Peak Resort were accused of defrauding foreign investors of some $200 million. State officials, including him and his predecessor at the regional center, were criticized for failing to stop the scandal.

Raymond has said in news reports over the past decade that he had repeatedly recommended audits of the various EB-5 programs but was rebuffed.

“Although I recommended audits, there were reasons other people said we could not,” he said this week.

Raymond acknowledged the scandal has followed him — as have lawsuits against the state for its oversight role — but he hasn’t tried to hide that three-year span of his employment history. He said he brought up his regional center work in his interviews for the Morristown job.

He even references it in one of the bullet points on his resume: “Detected and communicated suspicious practices and financial activity to state and federal regulatory investigators and worked closely with the SEC to provide information regarding a third party’s financial impropriety.”

A new era

Last year, the surprise resignation of town administrator Eric Dodge led to something of a power vacuum in Morristown, as the selectboard dealt with turmoil both within its ranks and from a vocal group of residents displeased with the increasing budget, which voters shot down twice.

On the same day in late August that voters finally approved the budget, they also overwhelmingly voted to switch to a town manager form of government.

The 100-plus applications the town received for its first-ever town manager job opening is about 100 more than the town got for the open administrator job last summer. So paltry were the job seekers for Dodge’s replacement that police chief Jason Luneau was named interim town administrator, an assignment that lasted nearly half a year.

Raymond said he’s read news reports about the growing pains and drama that Morristown has been through in the past year — selectboard infighting, multiple town budget defeats and top administrative resignations — but that didn’t deter him from applying. He said it’s all part of a growing community.

“Just like all over the country, there are fiscal pressures, and the selectboard and the townspeople are looking for a manager that can effectively manage the human resources and financial resources of the town,” he said. “I’m not saying that it hasn’t been done in the past, but they’re looking to move into the next phase of being able to do that.”

He said he is not going to be a manager who “is sitting behind my desk.” Rather, his goals in his first few months on the job will entail getting to know the town’s employees, seeking out their opinions on things and trying to figure out the best way to make sure residents “feel like their resources are being properly utilized.” He said he sees himself as a “servant leader” whose job is to improve the town’s processes more efficient and empower employees to perform their jobs.

“My management style is I never walk into an organization and think that I have the answers,” he said. “I’m not saying that there’s any department there that needs improvement, but it’s just sort of a philosophy of mine that you can always be striving to do things better, looking for solutions or ideas about how to do things that improve the processes. Sometimes it’s the most mundane processes that can be improved.”

The only downside, he said, is he can’t start right away.

“I honestly can’t wait,” he said. “I wish June 2 was in the coming days, I’m so anxious to start.”