CLAREMONT — The City Council has selected Weathersfield Town Manager Ed Morris to be the new city manager in Claremont.
The City Council voted unanimously to hire Morris at the end of its regular meeting on Wednesday, officials said in a news release on Friday.
Morris said Friday afternoon he will initially look to build relationships and become familiar with community members, businesses and staff and then will begin formulating a plan.
“The city is working on a lot of issues and I think it is poised to move forward,” he said.
The City Council’s employment offer is conditioned upon a background search and contract negotiations, officials said.
The council had previously approved a salary of up to $135,000 for the position.
Also on Wednesday, councilors extended the contract of Interim City Manager John MacLean to the end of October at the latest, though he could leave earlier depending on when Morris begins.
“This additional time will allow for an orderly transition and handoff of duties to a new city manager,” Assistant Mayor Allen Damren said in an email announcing the extension.
Morris, 45, came to Weathersfield in 2016 after working as a professional firefighter in Twin Falls, Idaho, for more than 16 years. He holds a Master’s of Public Affairs from the University of Missouri’s Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs.
Morris was among the more than 50 applicants to apply for the job this spring. A search committee of 11 narrowed the field down to four applicants for face-to-face interviews.
One of the four dropped out of the running and three names were submitted to the council. Damren, the search committee’s chairman, said the other two applicants were from Florida and Texas.
From his perspective, Damren said, Morris brings a wide range of experience to the position that will be valuable to the city, including union contract negotiations and municipal government.
“What impressed me was his over 16 years of experience as professional firefighter in Twin Falls (Idaho), a community of well over 40,000,” Damren said. “He was the chief negotiator and union president so he understands that.”
Morris also served as assistant to the city manager for a year in Jerome, Idaho, before coming to Weathersfield.
“He got very high marks from all the people we spoke to,” Damren said.
Damren also noted the number of search committee members and councilors who commented on Morris’ even temperament.
“It was one of the characteristics mentioned by more than half the search committee and half the council,” Damren said. “Unflappable,” was the term one councilor used, Damren said.
Kelly Murphy, chairwoman of the Weathersfield Selectboard, said in an email that when Morris was first interviewed for the position of town manager the search committee felt he was “destined for strong work and he has not disappointed.”
From the day he began work in Weathersfield, Morris challenged “us to consider new possibilities and question the status quo,” Murphy said.
“We are grateful for the structures and processes he’s put in place, but equally important, we thank him for building a very skilled and cohesive staffing team, which are all hallmarks of a great leader,” Murphy said.
In a phone interview on Friday, Murphy summed up Morris’ tenure in Weathersfield this way: “He is leaving us in a much better place (than when he arrived).”
Jerome is similar to Claremont with a number of the same challenges, including revitalizing the downtown, Morris said.
Claremont’s last city manager, Ryan McNutt, was fired in a 7-2 vote in early January. MacLean, a former Keene city manager, has been filling in on an interim basis.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@ gmail.com
