After Marshfield’s Treasurer/Collector was placed on paid administrative leave, the Selectmen met to consider an appointment to an interim role.
Marshfield Town Administrator Michael Maresco says Treasurer/Collector Patrick Dello Russo is on paid administrative leave for “personal reasons,” but could not comment further on the issue. Dello Russo has served in that role for the past five years.
The Selectmen interviewed Joseph Fleming for an interim Treasurer/Collector role. He told the board he has over 20 years of professional accounting experience.
“He has the necessary educational background, he has the experience in both the private and public sector,” Maresco said of Fleming. “He’s been through many audits, he’s great with cash reconciliation, he knows how to put budgets together. He knows how to work with the Commonwealth, the DOR. He can close books, he can open books – all the necessary prerequisites that we need depending on how long we’re going to need him for.”
Fleming served in Lakeville on the Finance Committee, and worked with the town of Weymouth to assist with reconciling bank statements.
He was unanimously approved by the Selectmen to serve as the interim Treasurer/Collector.
“We’re happy to get a candidate with Joe’s experience to be able to step in and make sure that we continue moving forward. We have a lot of things going on here,” said Maresco. “We have the capital projects, which we still need to reconcile with on the expenses, we have the regular budget, we have Special Town Meeting coming up. As [Fleming] mentioned, we have to get the tax rate set, we have a classification hearing in December. All the major pieces are moving. From the Board of Selectmen’s perspective and the Town Administrator’s perspective we need someone just to step in, in the short term to make sure that we don’t miss any of the balls.”
