By Carol Britton Meyer

A seven-member committee comprised of town officials and two citizens was created this week to work with the consultant searching for Hull’s next town manager.

The search committee and Community Paradigm Associates will identify and interview the semifinalist candidates for the position, which will be vacated by Philip Lemnios when he retires at the end of June. The committee will recommend finalists to the board.

Membership on the committee will consists of two select board members and one each from the advisory board and school committee, a department head to be named by the other department heads, and two members of the community.

Select board member Irwin Nesoff and Greg Grey and advisory board member Patricia Cormier were appointed by the select board this week, in part because their terms are not expiring – which means they will definitely be on the board throughout the process – and because of their experience on search committees or hiring personnel in their current or past jobs.

Select board acting Chair Donna Pursel is running for re-election, and board member Domenico Sestito is not seeking another term.

“I know what it means to be a director of a large organization, which the new town manager would be,” Nesoff said.

Grey, who owns his own business, said he believes his experience “is good for this [search committee] position.”

Lemnios will reach out to the school committee to ask for a representative to join the panel.

A citizen’s application with information about the qualifications the board is looking for will be posted and advertised in the March 30 edition of the Times, with an April 10 deadline for applications, Pursel said. “The applications will be reviewed the following week,” she said.

The town manager position was recently posted on various websites and a brochure was prepared by the consultants, with an application deadline of April 12.

Paradigm will then review the applications and “will forward their first batch of recommendations to the search committee within 10 days after the closing of the application process,” Pursel said.

Although the list of semifinalists will not be made public, according to Lemnios, “the finalists’ names will become public … after which the board will proceed with the selection process.”

Besides interviewing the finalists, the select board also may visit the communities where the finalists served in municipal government positions to talk with town officials and other people in the community “to do some subtle reconnaissance,” Lemnios said. “It’s also not uncommon to give the finalists a 10-cent tour of the community – not a community forum – give them a sandwich, and have a conversation,” he said.