Paxton Select Board ratifies Birkbeck as town administrator through June 2027

Select Board · Meeting of February 10, 2026

Paxton Select Board unanimously ratifies Robert Birkbeck as permanent town administrator through June 2027. The board voted 5-0 at its February 10 meeting to approve Birkbeck's contract at approximately $118,000 annually, skipping a formal search process after town counsel confirmed the direct appointment was permissible. One board member, identified as Neil, questioned the decision, noting that Rutland recently hired a town administrator at $140,000 to $145,000 and that the board had set aside $15,000 to $18,000 for a search that was never conducted; the chair responded that the risk of losing a stabilizing leader outweighed the transparency value of a search.

The board also tabled proposed Capital Improvement Planning Committee bylaw revisions, drawn from research across 17 communities, until at least the fall special town meeting, with members citing the need to first re-engage the Collins Center for Public Management to update a 2019 municipal asset inventory that has gone without revision for six years. Earlier, Paxton Municipal Light Department representative Tara Rondo reported a $1.18 million MassCEC grant to replace the substation's 53-year-old transformer, with the town responsible for roughly $800,000 of the total cost.

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Source: the Select Board meeting of February 10, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.