By Carol Britton Meyer

UPDATE: Interviews for the three town manager finalists will begin on Thursday, June 15 at 5 p.m. at town hall now that the new select board has been seated. Click the link below to read their resumes.

During a brief meeting last Tuesday, June 6, the board scheduled interviews for Thursday, June 15 instead of Wednesday, June 7. This will allow the newly elected members to be part of the decision-making process, following the June 13 limited-hours voting to finalize the results of the annual town election.

Click here to read the resumes of the three town manager finalists.

Polls will be open from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Hull High School for those who did not cast ballots on May 15, when a three-alarm fire on Q Street caused detours and blocked roads for about two hours on Election Day. Voting was extended for two hours to accommodate voters, and a Plymouth Superior Court judge ordered the town to conduct additional voting hours to ensure that all votes can be cast.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Town Clerk Lori West said that after consulting with Town Counsel James Lampke and the Secretary of State’s Elections Division, she expects that the three winners in the select board race could be sworn in by June 14 in time for them to participate in the interviews the following day. While the election results have been in limbo, the select board has been operating with members “held over” from before May 15, including Domenico Sestito, who did not run for re-election, and Donna Pursel, who finished fourth in the race, as of the May 15 vote count.

At the same time, West is taking a cautious approach about the seating of new officials.

“I want to make it clear that as elections go, sometimes an unprecedented situation occurs, as we know, so we can’t guarantee with 100 percent certainty,” she said.

If all goes as expected on June 13, West would be able to administer the oath of office to the new members by that date.

“They would take office immediately [after that],” she said.

A seven-member town manager search committee worked with the consulting firm Community Paradigm Associates to interview semifinalists for the position, leading up to last week’s recommendations as the search process enters the final stage.

The finalists were chosen from a pool of 21 candidates that first was narrowed down to six before the three finalists were chosen. On June 15, the interviews will be conducted in alphabetical order – Peter Caruso, Jennifer Constable, and Thomas Guerino.

Caruso earlier served as town administrator in Millville, former Hull Select Board Chair Constable is the current assistant town administrator in Rockland, and Guerino is a former town administrator in Bourne.

Following a lengthy discussion during last week’s meeting about whether to move forward or wait until the election results are certified, members decided to interview the finalists to avoid delays.

However, with this latest news that the new board members can be sworn in before the new date of the interviews, the board unanimously decided to wait.

“We see the end is in sight,” Pursel said. “That’s good.”

Sestito wished the new board members and incumbents well “in this journey to select our next town manager. I know you will all do what’s in the best interests of the citizens of Hull.”

Pursel encouraged voters who did not cast ballots on May 15 to “get out and vote” on Tuesday and thanked the town for its patience and support throughout the challenging past few weeks. She also expressed appreciation for Lampke’s, West’s, and Lemnios’s efforts in “helping to get us to the finish line.”

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