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The Winchester Select Board turned its attention during a recent meeting to establishing performance goals for town manager Christopher Senior, with members agreeing to keep the initial list modest given his short time in the role and the town’s pending financial decisions.
Senior’s employment agreement, signed Jan. 9 and running through Dec. 31, requires the board and the town manager to establish initial goals and objectives no later than Feb. 28, 2026, and further goals no later than June 30, 2026. His formal evaluation must be completed by Sept. 30. Senior began in the role Jan. 14.
The board discussed using an existing evaluation framework containing roughly 45 categories across several domains, including board support, town management, planning and organizing, communications, community relations, problem solving, financial management and personal and professional development. Members said the breadth of that framework argued for a targeted approach to setting initial goals.
“I think we need to keep the specific project goals to a couple of things and just focus on the sheer breadth of all of the board support, town management, planning, communications, problem solving, budgets and personnel,” member Paras Bhayani said.
Bhayani said he would personally prioritize categories covering board support, staff leadership and financial management, and suggested that areas where Senior scores lower in future evaluations could guide goal-setting in subsequent years.
Member Michael Bettencourt raised the importance of aligning the board’s own priorities with what it asks of Senior before holding him accountable.
“The hardest thing for a town manager is that we’re always just chasing random stuff,” Bettencourt said. “It’s a little bit unfair if we’re putting the success of something that just pops off on him, if it’s not in his goals and objectives, especially for such a short runway.”
Member Bill McGonigle said Senior’s recent start and the town’s current financial uncertainty — including a potential override election — were reasons to avoid overloading the goal-setting process. McGonigle said he wanted most of Senior’s attention focused on successfully transitioning into the role.
Chair Michelle Prior said the board should aim for goals with measurable outcomes, noting that prior evaluations had tied numbers to specific activities.
“We had some numbers tied to things,” Prior said. “You could say done or not done.”
Member Anthea Brady said some goals could focus on performance in the role itself rather than specific projects or policy priorities.
“There are ways to articulate some goals that are not project based and that are not policy priority based, and that are really based on performance in the role, in terms of ability to manage — specific contracts that are out there and making sure that time frames are met,” Brady said.
The board did not take a formal vote on any goals during the meeting, and no specific numerical targets or finalized goal language was adopted. Members and Senior agreed to extend the conversation into March, with board members submitting their priorities to Patty Mihelich, administrative coordinator in the town manager’s office, before Feb. 23.
The board set March 2 as its target to reach final decisions, and Senior was invited to weigh in on what his own goals should be before the board coalesces around final language.
Will Dowd is a Massachusetts journalist who covers municipal government and community life for Winchester News. He runs The Marblehead Independent, a reader-funded digital newsroom.
