Near the beginning of the meeting of the Hardwick Select Board on Monday, September 15, 2025, under “New Business” item #2 on the agenda (Discussion and vote on Town Accountant position) Ms. Caggiano said:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/6ujSEA2Nkv4?t=100s
[01:40] Mr. Chair. (yes ma’am) Mr. Chair, so we um interviewed two candidates for the position. um They were both qualified. um I’m making the recommendation on uh one candidate. I have an email from our current time accountant. um After a reference check, we had a Zoom meeting with the current accountant to get her blessing. um I have an email here that is her blessing for a specific candidate. um I want to get this done soon because our current accountant with, her personal matter, um would like to stay on to train, is ready to go, to train, but you know, of course, once we give um the go-ahead. Someone’s going have to give it two week notice um and, by that time, and then training, we’re looking at at least another month um so. I would like to move ahead with this appointment. um They were both great candidates. uh This one just had more of what we were looking for. You know we’ve talked before about building a stronger financial team, and when we get later on in the agenda we’re going to go through all the financial challenges and the things that we’ve done to correct them and I think that this individual that is in your packet is going to help us get there. I think that uh this person has everything we’re looking for and then some between her procurement license, uh she’s about to get her uh Massachusetts accountant certification, um and I think she’s just a better fit after conducting the reference check, and I’m going to throw out my decade of experience in HR thinking that this person is going to be the right fit for Hardwick. They both had experience. uh The other person had fantastic experience, um and that’s not to discredit the experience. um But I do again, I have the um recommendation, also, from our current accountant and then my recommendation as well.
Notice how Ms. Caggiano never actually says which or how many references for any given candidate were checked, only that there was “a reference check” and “the reference check“.
Also the TA starts her comments with “we um interviewed two candidates for the position“. Is she speaking for the entire interview panel? In the end, no, just for herself and the current Town Accountant. The TA sure didn’t want to brief the Select Board about him.
As it turns out the TA never called any of the four references for the candidate she did not want. After being out voted 3 -1 by the interview panel to fill the position, she ignored that entirely and proceeded with vetting and presenting ONLY the candidate she chose.
