AMHERST — Amherst public schools’ former director of finance will soon assume the role of finance director for the town of Amherst, a position that has been mostly vacant for more than four years.
Sean Mangano has been selected to be the next finance director by Town Manager Paul Bockelman. His choice will be reviewed by the Town Council’s Town Services and Outreach Committee, and a recommendation by that committee will be made to the full Town Council for its meeting Monday.
“He’s well respected and we felt fortunate to get him,” Bockelman said Tuesday.
Mangano left the position that handles budget matters for the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District, Amherst Public Schools and Pelham Public Schools at the end of December, after working in finance for the district for nine years.
From February 2019 until his departure from the school district, Mangano was also the town’s capital projects manager, handling financial oversight of the numerous building projects being planned, including a new or renovated elementary school building, a new fire station in South Amherst, a new Department of Public Works headquarters, and a renovated and expanded Jones Library.
No one has been in the permanent finance chief position since Sanford “Sandy” Pooler left in January 2016. The work, including assisting with the development of budgets and serving as liaisons to various committees, has been handled by interim finance directors since, including Sonia Aldrich, the town comptroller, and former tax collector and treasurer Claire McGinnis.
Bockelman said it is crucial to have Mangano on the town’s finance team at this time as the budgets have to be re-created due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The municipal, schools and Jones Library budgets are expected to be adjusted in significant ways, with the Town Council delaying their due dates to June 1.
“We’re starting over in a very short time frame,” Bockelman said.
The Budget Coordinating Group, made up of town, school and library officials, will meet Thursday at 8 a.m. to begin strategizing on budget planning, though Bockelman said there are many unknowns, including just how significant a drop there will be in state aid and other sources of revenue for the town, such as excise taxes and meal and lodging taxes.
Bockelman said he is planning for several situations, none of which are positive, and “with bad being the best-case scenario.”
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
