SOUTH DEERFIELD — The town’s search for a new town administrator is back to square one after negotiations with candidate Ira Brezinsky — who was offered the position by the town’s three-member Select Board — fell through.
Select Board Chairwoman Carolyn Shores Ness said negotiations with Brezinsky failed because the two parties couldn’t agree on issues including pay and benefits.
“Negotiations failed with Ira,” Shores Ness said in a statement, and that all other candidates have either withdrawn their applications or accepted positions elsewhere.
“We have a failed search. We’re disappointed and sad, but there’s nothing we can do,” she added.
Brezinsky is a current South Hadley selectman and small business owner.
According to a job posting on the town’s website, published in August, the town was willing to offer a candidate between $60,238 and $75,293 per year.
Following Brezinsky’s decision to reject the town’s offer, Shores Ness said the search process will start over in January, after the holiday season.
The search for a new town administrator began in September after interim Town Administrator Douglas Finn left for another job. Soon town officials formed a search committee and began taking applications.
Recently, the team narrowed more than 10 applicants down to four finalists: Brezinsky; former Deerfield Town Administrator Kayce Warren; Natasha Nau, former town administrator of Columbia, Conn.; and David DeManche, former Town Administrator in Carlisle, Uxbridge, and Millbury, who withdrew his application before a public interview session last month.
Following the interview, Warren decided not to pursue the job and also withdrew her application. Then, out of the two remaining candidates, the town offered the position to Brezinsky.
During negotiations with Brezinsky, Shores Ness said Nau was offered another job and isn’t available anymore.
Meanwhile, Administrative Assistant Patricia Kroll has been performing administrator duties since Wendy Foxmyn, who was previously temporarily filling the position, left late last month.
Deerfield Town Administrator posting from August by Andy Christian on Scribd
