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Personnel committee approves Erin Ragusa Katan as city collector, adds mayors extra vacation week to council referral
Summary
The Marlborough City Personnel Committee on July 14 approved Erin Ragusa Katan to serve as city collector and assistant finance director and will forward the nomination to the City Council for confirmation. The committee also agreed to add the mayors requested additional week of vacation to the referral.
The Marlborough City Personnel Committee voted July 14 to approve the mayors nomination of Erin Ragusa Katan as city collector and assistant finance director and to forward the nomination to the full City Council for confirmation. Committee members also agreed to include the mayors request for an additional week of vacation in the special order sent to council.
Ragusa Katan told the committee she is currently serving in an acting collector role in Marlborough and lives locally; she described a long municipal career handling tax collection, utility billing, debt and cash management, payroll and municipal software transitions. The mayors letter accompanying the nomination cited experience in treasurer/collector roles in communities ranging from about 3,400 to 23,000 residents and referenced prior work with budgets cited near $115,000,000.
Council President Michael Ossing noted the position in Marlborough involves a larger operation and asked about challenges moving from smaller towns to a community of roughly 41,000 residents with a roughly $226,000,000 budget. Ragusa Katan said she expects the scale will require strong counter visibility and customer service; "I have worked the counter many, many times," she said, adding that she is comfortable stepping into front-desk duties and helping residents directly.
On collections policy, Ragusa Katan described practical, day-to-day approaches used in prior offices: friendly outreach and demand notices, coordinating with assessors on abatements and removed vehicles, and providing parcel balances so residents can see all outstanding items. She said many delinquencies are resolved by direct contact and by using office workflows to check outstanding balances before issuing permits.
A motion to approve Ragusa Katan was made and carried by the committee; members then agreed to suspend the item and include the mayors request for an additional week of vacation when placing the matter on the City Council agenda. The committee adjourned at 8:02 p.m.
