SAUGUS — With Town Manager Scott Crabtree serving in town hall’s corner office for more than a decade now, he has achieved something none of his predecessors were able to, becoming the longest-serving town manager in Saugus history.
The person closest to Crabtree’s tenure of service appears to be his predecessor, Andrew Bisignani. Bisignani served as town manager for nine years before departing to serve as town administrator in Nahant. He later pled guilty to charges of procurement fraud, destroying public records, and municipal bid rigging.
Saugus adopted the town manager form of government in 1947, and at one point had gone through 12 managers in 14 years, according to The Boston Globe. In 1983, The Daily Evening Item wrote that “frequent upheavals” in the town manager position has given the town a reputation for “instability”
At the time, Saugus was afflicted with “revolving door syndrome” as a result of the charter adopted in 1947, which created the position, The Item wrote. A study conducted around 1973 by UMass master’s degree student Brett Wilkes in 1973, who went on to serve in the Massachusetts Municipal Association, attempted to get ot the bottom of said instability.
Wilkes theorized that the instability was a result of the Selectmen failing to come to terms with the fact that the charter disempowered them.
“Many of the Board of Selectmen don’t like this loss of power and try to obtain it through their dismissal power, which becomes a power of manipulation,” Wilkes wrote.
To that end, a number of managers have been dismissed by the Selectmen throughout Saugus’s history, including Crabtree himself.
In 2014, Crabtree was fired by the Board of Selectmen, who charged him with poor communication with selectmen, the improper acceptance of a $4,300 educational incentive payment, and the unauthorized payment of $100,000 to hire a firm to investigate a selectman, among other things. But, residents later recalled four of the five members of that board, installing a new board that then voted to rehire Crabtree in March 2015.
In total, Crabtree has now served close to eleven years as town manager.
At his annual evaluation by the Board of Selectmen, where his contract was ultimately renewed through August 2027, he explained what he viewed as some of his achievements. Crabtree did not respond to written questions ahead of The Item’s press time.
Crabtree has cited his efforts to bolster the town’s financial standing as one of his chief achievements. Under his leadership, he brought the town from the brink of receivership to a AA+ bond rating from Standard and Poor’s, which later saved the town millions in the construction of a state-of-the-art Middle/High School complex.
“It’s important to understand where we’ve been, where we were, and where we are,” he said. “When I first took over, the Essex Street fire station was intermittently closed due to lack of funding, the library lost its certification, because of the lack of funding, we had layoffs, our bond rating was not very good, we had $200,000 in stabilization in the savings account, we had some contracts on the town side that were out of contract for nine years.”
Now, Crabtree said, the town is looking at constructing a third fire station, has the financial stability to pay into the Northeast Regional Vocational School project, and has millions in stabilization funds.
The town is “completely light years away from where we were,” he said, praising the work of municipal boards, the finance committee, and Town Meeting in getting the town to the place it’s in.
He also cited infrastructure upgrades, working in coordination with the Water & Sewer department, including a multimillion-dollar project to overhaul the sewer pumping station.
“This is the stuff that’s going to pay residuals in the sense of not having breakdowns … in the future,” he said.
Crabtree also cited the work the town has done to increase manpower in its public safety departments to “historic highs,” something he said he believed was important to residents.
“The important stuff is having the ability to keep moving the town forward,” he said.
Despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, Crabtree said, the town was able to avoid layoffs and disruptions in services.
One of the things he said he was “proudest of” was the ability to balance the budget this year, after the town had to employ stabilizing funds to help ensure it could pay all of its obligations, a result of decreased revenue streams during the pandemic.
“That’s really positive that we’re back on track with having no structural deficits or any other financial issues,” he said.
Looking ahead, Crabtree stressed the importance of bolstering the town’s schools, and said he wanted to see the school district become one of the best in the state. If the town is able to do so, “you would likely not be able to find a house to buy [in Saugus],” he said.
Crabtree, after the board voted unanimously to extend his contract, said he doesn’t “take this for granted.”
“I appreciate the confidence and I do appreciate this job and I will continue to work as hard as I can,” he said.