Citing philosophical and personal differences with the town’s Select Board, New Ipswich Town Administrator Scott Butcher announced his resignation effective Friday, July 16.
Butcher said that he and the Selectmen had not been seeing eye-to-eye on certain issues for months, and after discussing the matter with the two current members Shawn Talbot and Jason Somero, they agreed that he should resign.
“I’d say over the last six to eight months, I’ve had several discussions with the Board, just kind of in the philosophy of how to manage the town and what direction they want to take it in,” Butcher said. “It just seemed like we were not in agreement in the way things should be done or the direction the town should be going in.”
These issues included how the Select Board has handled the town’s police department difficulties, as the force has struggled in the face of many retirements and resignations. To combat such intense staffing shortages, the Board should be working on budget solutions to help, Butcher said.
“I think we’re behind where we should be as far as putting a plan together and explaining it to the voters,” Butcher said.
Butcher also described “friction” between himself and the two Select Board members. He said that he suggested providing more structure and policy for the operation of the Board, suggestions that were met with resistance.
“I offered to stay on until they were able to find a replacement and they could do a proper transition,” Butcher said, but when the Select Board suggested a two-week time frame, Butcher decided that this wouldn’t be enough time to find a replacement and perform a transition, so he resigned immediately.
In finding a replacement, Butcher said that he hopes the Board looks for a town administrator with a lot of experience.
“Unfortunately, with John Veeser resigning a few weeks back, that really put us in a position where the two remaining Selectmen are very new and inexperienced with regard to municipal government and I think that is going to present some challenges for the town of New Ipswich moving forward,” Butcher said.
For his own future, Butcher hopes to look for other town administrator or town manager positions, and barring those, he said that his options are open.
“There are other opportunities out there outside of municipal government,” he said. “So we’ll see.”
Butcher previously served as town adminstrator in Wilton.