Scarborough signs on Hall to three more years

Tom Hall

SCARBOROUGH — You might say Scarborough Town Manager Tom Hall got his Christmas present early this year.

Although Hall’s initial three-year contract was not set to expire until Dec. 31, the Town Council voted unanimously June 15 to renew his term of employment through 2014.

Hall, who relocated after 10 years as Rockland’s town manager to take Scarborough’s top job in September 2008, said after the signing that he’s quite content in his new home.

“I came here with the expectation that there was a lot of opportunity for me,” he said. “I’m right in the middle of my career and Scarborough has enough going on, and will have enough going on, to keep me going for the rest of that career, if I’m so lucky.”

The terms of Halls new contract are largely the same as his original agreement. The biggest change is the base salary, which jumps to $110,500 starting July 1. Hall’s first contract paid him $104,000 annually. The new deal eliminates the specification for a 3 percent annual pay raise and replaces it with a more general promise of a hike “at least equal to the town’s senior management staff.”

Also, deferred compensation, such as retirement benefits, are not part of the severance that must be paid to Hall should the town terminate the contract without specific cause. Hall’s severance is set for one month’s pay and deferred compensation for each year of service to the town.

However, in a sign of the council’s apparent comfort with Hall, making the possibility of having to shell out for severance seem remote, it now has until June 30 to draft his annual evaluation. The old deadline was March 2. 

“I can’t say how much myself, the Town Council and the citizen’s have benefited from Tom’s tenure,” Councilor Michael Wood said at the June 15 meeting. “I know the last three have been challenging and I really believe he met these challenges beyond, I think, many people’s expectations, and certainly my own.”