On Saturday February 12, the East Longmeadow Town Council met for over two and a half hours to interview three candidates for the position of town manager.
The town manager is in many ways an unelected mayor for the town. According to the town charter,
The Town Manager shall be the chief executive officer of the Town and be directly responsible to the Town Council for the administration of all Town affairs placed in his or her charge under this Charter.
See Article 3, Section 2.
There is almost no aspect of local government that the town manager does not have some power and control over.
Each candidate was given 45 minutes to speak with the councilors.
Below is a very brief summary of each candidate’s professional background along with a 2 to 3 minute video introduction.
Before speaking, each candidate was asked to “take a few minutes to tell [the council] about your specific interest in this position and why you think you would be successful here in East Longmeadow.”
(I can’t help but point out that not one of the councilors or the candidates wore a mask during the meeting, despite the fact that our health board has declared a state of emergency in town and imposed a mask requirement for all indoor settings. COVID is over and everyone knows it except our health board.)
Candidate 1: Stephen Lonergan
Mr. Lonergan is currently the town’s accountant and previously worked for the City of Springfield as tax collector.
Candidate 2: Ryan Quimby
East Longmeadow’s OIT director, Ryan Quimby, was the second finalist interviewed. According to Mr. Quimby, his leadership skills acquired during military service and his long history with the town make him a good candidate for town manager
Candidate 3: Scott Szczebak
Mr. Szczebak has held several jobs involving municipal management. After earning a political science degree from UMass he attended law school and went to work in government while awaiting his bar results. He has worked in Chicopee and currently is employed by the Town of Wellesley.
spartan-weekly.com 
interesting – I’d like to know who the other candidates were and also what made these 3 have the skills to move forward in the process when others I know certainly did and didn’t make it… the town council should be more forthcoming and their ‘recruiter’ is an ass
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The first two candidates (Stephen Lonegran and Ryan Quimby) already work with/for the town. So the councilors are familiar with them. I’m sure that helped get them into the final three. I don’t know about the other candidate.
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Make a public records request
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