John Curran Offered Job as Tewksbury Town Manager

TEWKSBURY — The City of Tewksbury will likely have its next city manager after the Select Board voted unanimously to appoint former Billerica City Manager John Curran to the position pending contract negotiations.

Curran was one of three candidates the Select Board received from the City Manager Selection Committee and a search firm, the other two being Interim Lexington City Manager Kelly Axtell and Topsfield City Manager Kevin Harutunian, who withdrew after reaching an agreement with Topsfield.

Curran said in a phone call Thursday afternoon that he was relieved to have been chosen after being unemployed since May.

“It’s just stressful not having your future lined up. It wasn’t a very long period of time, but it felt like it to me,” Curran said.

Curran said he is “excited to go to Tewksbury,” especially because it has many structural similarities to Billerica. His predecessor, Richard Montuori, who is retiring as city administrator after 14 years, also previously served as Billerica city administrator.

“Richard has been amazing there, so I know I have big shoes to fill,” Curran said.

Curran’s term in Billerica began at about the same time as Montuori’s term in Tewksbury in early 2010. Just weeks after a close local election earlier this year, the political majority on the Billerica Select Board shifted to a group that disfavored Curran, he began a leave of absence in early May. His absence concluded in July with a job separation agreement between him and the city.

The agreement includes a clause that prohibits Curran and the Billerica Select Board from speaking negatively about each other publicly, so neither party has been able to disclose the reason for Curran’s departure after spending 14 years in office.

Prior to Curran’s tenure in Billerica, he served as city administrator of Maynard and, before that, as mayor of Woburn. With the contract negotiation process still ongoing, it is unclear when Curran will be able to start, although Montuori will remain in the role until his successor is in place.

“Since I’m not working, I can come in and start acclimatizing,” Curran said. “I look forward to getting started and working with the Select Board, city officials and the electorate.”

Curran and Axtell sat down with the Tewksbury Select Board for interviews lasting about an hour each on Oct. 9, with the board given a week after the interviews to think about its final decision. In his opening address to the council in his interview, Curran said Tewksbury was an attractive city to him because it has a history of investing in its own infrastructure.

“You’ve made a tremendous investment in infrastructure over the last 14 years, $100 million in sewer work, you built the Central School, the new high school, tons of road work has been done in the community,” Curran said in his interview. . “You are a community that wants to invest in yourself and I think that is very important.”

In a phone call Thursday afternoon, Tewksbury Select Board Chairman Patrick Holland said Curran was “the most experienced gentleman who can get to work.”

“I see him on the same level as Richard Montuori,” Holland said.

Holland praised the search committee for its work in turning 25 candidates into three finalists.

Select board member Jayne Wellman said in a call Thursday that she was familiar with Curran’s work from working as an assistant city manager in Reading and as an elected official in Tewksbury for 15 years.

“He has an excellent reputation. He does a lot in economic development, his financial management is excellent and he had a great interview and excellent references,” Wellman said. “I was very pleased with the candidates on the search committee. Kelly Axtell is also excellent. I would have felt comfortable with either of them as city manager.