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Lakeville officials weigh short-term and staffing options to support planning board
Summary
Select Board and town staff discussed multiple short-term and long-term options to support the planning board, including using a state contract for planning services, hiring an interim planner, recruiting a planner directly, and creating a planning and economic development coordinator position.
Select Board members and Town Administrator Andrew discussed June 2 ways to address an immediate staffing shortage in Lakeville’s planning department and plans for longer-term capacity.
Andrew outlined four concurrent approaches: use an existing state contract to solicit planning-support firms (he estimated 50 to 75 vendors on the state list), hire an interim town planner from a neighboring community on a project basis, recruit available town planner candidates directly, and create a new planning and economic development coordinator job with a job description to be ready by the next select board meeting.
"The first one is I identified a state contract for planning support services. This would kinda make a request for quotes process go by pretty quickly. I think there's probably 50 to 75 companies on that list that we could probably ask for," Andrew said. He added that a neighbor town planner from Rochester could do interim work, including night meetings on a project basis, and that the town is actively cold-calling potential candidates.
Board members urged staff to circulate materials and any job description in advance of the next meeting so the select board can make an informed recommendation. Andrew said he would bring a draft job description for the planning and economic development coordinator to the June 24 select board meeting.
No formal vote was taken; the discussion identified options and next steps for bringing additional capacity to the planning office.
