The Marblehead Select Board voted unanimously Wednesday night, November 4, to appoint Kevin Harutunian, the town administrator of Topsfield, as Marblehead’s next town administrator. The appointment is conditional on a check of his references and on contract negotiations, the Marblehead Current reported from the meeting. The board went into executive session after the vote to discuss the contract. The position was posted with a salary range topping out at $215,000, according to the Current.
Harutunian would replace Thatcher Kezer, who is leaving at the end of December. The board interviewed three finalists in public for an hour each before voting.
“He’s the right person at the right time for Marblehead,” Select Board Chair Dan Fox said after the interviews, according to the Current.
Who he is
Harutunian has been Topsfield’s town administrator since December 2019, responsible for municipal operations, personnel, budgeting and procurement. Before that he was chief of staff to the mayor of Beverly from 2014 to 2019, and he worked in commercial real estate management, including at Cabot Properties and CBRE. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Saint Michael’s College and a master’s degree in business administration from Boston College. During his time in Topsfield the town won state approval of its zoning plan under the MBTA Communities Law, a requirement Marblehead met only recently after years of debate.
He brought the board a 100-day plan. “I looked at his 100-day plan, and I thought it was something that showed initiative,” board member Erin Noonan said. Member Moses Grader pointed to his energy and to the fact that he already runs a North Shore town. “He’s very responsive,” Grader said. “I think he understands the need for cultural fit.”
Asked about his leadership style, Harutunian told the board: “More important than anything else, just build trust. Do what you say you’re going to do and be present.” On stretching limited resources, he said Topsfield was among the first Massachusetts communities to buy robotic lawnmowers, which he described as “basically giant Roombas” that charge by day and mow at night, freeing staff for other work. He also described stopping by a resident’s neglected downtown property every few weeks for eight months, doughnuts in hand, until the relationship led to the site becoming a gathering spot with chairs and benches.
The other finalists
The other two candidates were Jennifer Callahan, who was town manager in Oxford from 2018 until April 2026 and served four terms in the Massachusetts House, and Clancy Main, a former Billerica town manager who is now chief financial officer of the Haverhill Public Schools, according to the Current’s earlier report on the finalists. A screening committee chaired by Noonan, with Police Chief Dennis King, Finance Committee Chair Molly Teets, Select Board member Jim Zisson and former board member Jim Nye, reviewed the applicants and recommended the three.
What he inherits: the override
The next administrator takes over a town in the first year of a three-year, $15 million Proposition 2 1/2 override. Fox presented the first quarterly report on that money on October 28, the Marblehead Weekly News reported. About $4.3 million is allocated this fiscal year, all of it on the municipal side, bringing the revised fiscal 2027 general fund budget to about $103.1 million, not counting debt service, state assessments and enterprise funds. Roughly $1.7 million, or 40 percent, restores positions and services that would otherwise have been cut; $1.1 million pays for new positions and services; $1 million goes to capital projects; and $450,000 goes to maintenance. Over the three years about $6.5 million is slated for municipal needs and $8.5 million for the schools, whose direct share begins in fiscal 2028.
Six of 16 override-funded positions were filled or covered as of October, and a candidate had been selected for information technology director. Through September 30, public safety had spent 24.7 percent of its annual budget, the schools 11.1 percent and public works and facilities 13.1 percent. The town is also without a permanent finance director. Fox has said the town intends to hire one after it reaches a contract with the new administrator, who will have a central role in that choice.
An Open Meeting Law complaint
The quarterly report came with a dispute. Resident John DiPiano filed an Open Meeting Law complaint over an October 19 session at which Kezer, Fox, School Committee Chair Kate Shmeckpeper, Teets and a school finance official reviewed the numbers before the public presentation. DiPiano argues that the override agreement among the three boards created a subcommittee whose meetings must be posted and open. Fox said the group received a verbal report and discussed how to present it, and made no decisions.
Zisson said he had expected the review to be public. “I actually thought it was gonna be an open meeting, to be honest, all along,” he said, according to the Weekly News. Board member Rossana Ferrante called it “a definition question” for town counsel. The board authorized counsel to send a formal response to DiPiano and to the attorney general, and did not decide how future quarterly reviews will be run. The next one is expected in January.
A 10-year capital plan
On November 2 the Finance Committee voted unanimously to ask the Select Board to revive the town’s Capital Planning Committee and write a 10-year capital plan, the Weekly News reported. “Free cash is not a consistent source of funds and can’t be counted on from year to year,” Teets said. This year’s capital money covers conference room work, new windows and a sprinkler system at the Mary Alley Municipal Building, police and fire building improvements, gym lighting at the Veterans and Village schools, playground shade at the Brown School and snow removal equipment. The maintenance money includes $50,000 for the rail trail. Members said the effort will need to be coordinated with the incoming administrator.
The committee also wants taxpayers warned before winter. Because the first two quarterly tax bills are estimates based on last year’s rate, the override’s full effect lands in the last two bills of fiscal 2027, and residents could mistake that jump for the annual increase.
Also before the board: Pleasant Street at the fire station
The Select Board has also approved new striping and signs on Pleasant Street at Ocean Avenue, outside the fire station, the Weekly News reported. Inbound drivers will share a single 11-foot lane for through traffic and right turns, with a 6-foot shoulder, and the sign requiring the right lane to turn right will come down. Fire Chief Jason Gilliland said drivers passing stopped traffic in the old right-turn lane have nearly hit department vehicles pulling out and at least twice have torn the nozzle off the ladder truck. Town Engineer Maggie Wheeler told the board there may be some added delay, “but it is a safety measure.” Crosswalks will be repainted in the wide-bar continental style. No date has been set for the work.
In a separate vote the board allowed temporary construction access across a town parcel off Kenneth Road for projects at 9 and 11 Kenneth Road, on the condition that the contractors replace public timber steps that were removed without permission during earlier work with granite steps, keep the public path open, and have a licensed surveyor mark the property line.
What happens next
The appointment becomes final when references are checked and a contract is signed. Kezer’s last day is at the end of December. Abbot Public Library is hosting two AARP-led workshops for residents applying for the senior property tax exemption, and the Finance Committee’s next quarterly update is due in mid-January.
