Long-serving Chestertown Town Manager Bill Ingersoll to Retire in June

Recent questions about Town Manager Bill Ingersoll’s plans for retirement were addressed to the Spy in search of clarification. We didn’t have to go far.

During a taped November 13 Town Council retreat session, Mayor David Foster raised the question of succession plans for town employees, including the Town Manager. Videos of both retreat session are on the town website to view.

Ingersoll, town manager for 39 years, said that although he has no immediate plans, would work with the Council whenever he retired.  “I could retire at the end of this fiscal year, I could retire at the end of the calendar year, I could retire on my mother’s birthday which is March 17th. You need to give me a little indication. If the Council is ready to reload, I’m ready to give you time to advertise.”

Mayor Foster stated that a critical factor would be overlap with a successor,

“We are blessed with your institutional memory, so I want to be sure to have an overlap, not just hiring the right person. If we can do all of that by the end of fiscal year, I think that would work,” Foster said

Ingersoll said that would be fine with him. “I think we should advertise two months in advance of talking to final applicants.

Asked for further comment, Foster told the Spy last week, that “We’re committed to a wide search including Cities Mayor organizations and other resources. It’s going to be an important search by the Mayor and Council and we will welcome constructive suggestions.”

The Mayor added that there are no other plans for a separate search committee outside of the Mayor and Council.

In a call to the Town Manager, Bill Ingersoll said that he had no additional comments and that his dialogue with Town Council remained without addendums.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. For the complete Council retreat video, go here.