Community ownership, boundless energy and proactive engagement in many aspects of municipal government were keys that separated Cameron Durant from the field, as the Rochester Select Board voted on Monday to offer the Town of Fairhaven Human Resources director its job as town administrator.
“The guy from Fairhaven really impressed me,” said Select Board Chairman Brad Morse during the board’s deliberation that following successive interviews of the three finalists. “He’s not just an HR director over there, he’s been pushed into every single department to help … he seems like a quick learner.”
The three finalists for the job, Durant, New Bedford City Councilor Joseph Lopes and former Millville Select Board member Andrew Alward, conducted final interviews with the board on Monday and were all considered viable candidates for the job, as noted by Morse upon the conclusion of the interviews.
Select Board member Paul Ciaburri said he would like time to think about his selection.
Member Adam Murphy said he would prefer the board discuss its impressions of the candidates so that if they had adjourned without a selection, each member would have a better sense of a pathway to a consensus.
Calling each finalist “unique” and each with a strong point, Murphy said his focus was on “the best candidate and the best fit for the town of Rochester.”
None of the three has been a town administrator, but Murphy was impressed with “how much in a short period of time that (Durant has) educated himself on process … being exposed to a lot of issues that (Fairhaven) has had to overcome …”
Murphy continued to summarize his belief that Durant is the best fit for Rochester, at which point Ciaburri concurred and said, “I think even if I think about it, I think that’s where I’m going to land.”
With that, Ciaburri motioned that the board authorize Morse to make a conditional offer to Durant as town administrator for the Town of Rochester, pending successful negotiations and other due process such as references and background checks. Murphy seconded the motion. Morse did not hesitate to agree.
In the first (and longest) of the three finalists’ interviews, Durant boldly told the Select Board that the town’s recently redesigned website needs improvement.
“You have everything on that website, but it’s hard to find,” he said, identifying Facebook as “that one tech tool that all generations are on. … The most successful Facebook page Fairhaven has is the link to the meeting videos.” Durant is confident he can help Rochester improve its community engagement via social media and the web.
Another aspect of Durant’s appeal to the board was his engaging personality and eagerness to learn, something Murphy identified as crucial, especially given Suzanne Szyndlar’s plan to retire not only from her post as interim town administrator but at the end of June 2025, from her job as the town’s finance director.
“Municipal government is my passion,” said Durant during his interview, noting it has been a personal hobby and is now a professional pursuit. He said becoming a town administrator has been his goal for over a decade.
A member of Bishop Stang’s debate team in high school and now a father of young children, Durant said he started out as an operations manager at Amazon and Lyft. He traced his successes not to being technology or engineering inclined but because he can look at a system and determine “how we can make it better.”
Having worked for the Town of Fairhaven in the Public Works department, a permitting position, before getting his human-resources certification, he doesn’t consider himself “the most innovative” but able to get “the buy-in.”
Similarly, he is confident he can work to bring together not only Rochester’s town departments but community groups as well.
In Fairhaven’s HR department, he said he negotiated with seven unions in collective bargaining and, working with the town’s self-funded insurance system, made strides providing quality benefits, tailoring the healthcare plan to cope with the leverages of Proposition 2½ and the town’s 2½% annual tax increase.
“No one is happier in their current capacity in the town of Fairhaven … but when I saw this opportunity … larger stakes at the table, more responsibility … I couldn’t pass up,” he said.
Asked about his philosophy for handling hard conversations and conflict-resolution, Durant said he has ongoing dialogue with employees and hard conversations are a regular part of the job.
“People have choices and employees discipline themselves. Having those tough conversations are not that tough,” he said. “I’m not somebody who believes in punitive discipline; it’s about education. … are we supporting you in your field?”
With a similarly widespread array of municipal experiences, Alward served on the Select Board in Millville, a rural town in the Blackstone Valley with a population of 3,265 (2018) and measuring five square miles.
He once ordered Millville’s streetlights to be shut off so the town could meet its budget, relenting upon public protest and turning them back on.
“Andrew … very knowledgeable from a small town,” said Morse. “He faced all the issues that we’ve faced. I think he could do a great job too.”
Lopes, 50, answered every theoretical question the Select Board threw at him with examples of what he has accomplished while facing applicable situations in his job as city councilor. However relentless in his demonstration of relevant experiences, he could not match the impression that the two younger candidates made on the board with their experiences in small-town politics.
Durant’s energetic, personable approach remained evident throughout his interview. He expanded further in his answers and gave the board a strong indication that he is eager to learn from Szyndlar.
“I got the feeling that the town will respond to his personality,” said Murphy of Durant. “Between HR and finances, those are the two jobs that the candidate needs to be good. I just thought he was a good fit.”
The job became open in March when Glenn Cannon took a job serving the Town of Carver in the same capacity.
Rochester Select Board
By Mick Colageo