By Derek McLean, Town Correspondent
It took only 16 months for Brookline's former Town Administrator, Richard Kelliher, to regain a title he had for more than 15 years.
Same title, yes, but different town: he started as Belmont's interim Town Administrator on Monday.
Most jobs allow a new employee to ease into their role on the first day. But Belmont is in the midst of budget season and preparing for a special Town Meeting in January, leaving little time for Kelliher to catch up.
His first day consisted of a 14 hour day, capped off by a Board of Selectmen meeting.
“Getting myself back into game shape and knocking off the rust and all of those kinds of things are as immediate right now as anything else,” said Kelliher.
Kelliher was hired for the job on November 7th, after Thomas Younger resigned on Oct. 31, six years into the position.
So far Kelliher’s reception amongst his co-workers at Town Hall have been nothing but welcoming and have tried to help him ease into the new role where they can. “Everybody’s been great, absolutely terrific,” he said.
Kelliher said he was told by Ralph T. Jones, Chair of the Board of Selectmen, shortly after he was appointed that there are three general areas which the board was looking for him to become involved in. The three areas included the preparation of the budget for FY13. Another was the development and handling of the warrant for Special Town Meeting. The third area, in both the interim and long term, was assisting the board with the transition to a permanent Town Administrator.
“The reality is in terms of the budget and the warrant is the staff here is moving ahead perfectly fine, so to some extent they’re just carrying me along,” he said. “There's been a lot of learning for me, involved in that.”
Kelliher said no budget in any local government is easy to handle these days. “That's where I will be spending a good deal of time in the next several weeks.”
After working a long full day, Kelliher was put right into the public eye at his first Board of Selectmen meeting. The full agenda dealt with several issues including a Special State Primary Election Warrant, the appointment of the Education Scholarship Committee, a discussion of elected officials salaries for budgetary purposes, and a discussion and vote on the site of an equipment shed at the Beech Street Center.
“It felt pretty familiar,” said Kelliher who felt the meeting went smoothly.
On a regular week, Kelliher will work part- time 20- 25 hours per week. He will hold the position through May of 2012.
Derek McLean can be reached at dbmclean1@gmail.com.
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