Oxford chooses firm to conduct town manager search

OXFORD — The Commissioners of Oxford have picked a search firm to assist in its search for a new town manager.

In a two-to-one vote at a special meeting on Tuesday, the commissioners voted to use Baker Tilly’s services in its town manager search. Commissioner Tom Costigan voted against the motion.

The town has been without a town manager since Cheryl Lewis retired at the end of June. In late June, Michael Calvert was hired to fill Lewis’ role. But just three days after the commissioners announced the hire, they announced that the town and Calvert had “mutually agreed to part ways.”

Shortly after the news of Calvert’s hire, some community members expressed concerns about the town’s candidate vetting process. In July, the commission passed a resolution requiring the town to use a professional search firm in the search for a town manager.

At the meeting on Tuesday, Commission President Norm Bell said the commissioners had been conducting closed sessions in an effort to whittle down the number of search firms on their list. He said they were able to narrow it down to two companies.

“Before deciding any further, we stopped and decided we needed to do that in an open meeting,” he said.

After Commissioner Katrina Greer made the motion to choose Baker Tilly, Costigan made a motion to choose Municipal Solutions. He said he didn’t think either of the two firms were perfect, but Baker Tilly had “documented problems” with searches in a few places across the country, was the unfavorable subject of a podcast about search firms and is more expensive.

Greer responded to Costigan’s comments. She said certain information was left out of the podcast.

“Consistently this group performed,” Greer said about Baker Tilly. “That was not so with Municipal Solutions.”

Reporter Veronica Fernandez-Alvarado contributed to this article.