BAR HARBOR, Feb.1, 2022 - The Town Council Tuesday night appointed finance director Sarah Gilbert as interim town manager to replace Kevin Sutherland who resigned last week.
Gilbert comes in at the height of the budgeting workshops for which she has exceptional knowledge and experience.
Gilbert has worked for the town since 2005 and has held the position of finance director since early 2021. She was appointed interim town manager by a unanimous vote Tuesday after the joint council/warrant committee workshop. Member Jeff Dobbs, who suffered a heart attack in November, is still out.
Communications coordinator Maya Caines issued a statement this week pointedly stating that the town will not use Eaton Peabody for its search for a permanent town manager.
“The Council will not be using Eaton Peabody for the Town Manager search and have reached out to the Maine Municipal Association (MMA) to work on finding a replacement.”
Eaton Peabody is the Bangor law firm which has a professional search practice. That practice was responsible for placing former town manager Cornell Knight, who retired in 2022, and Sutherland.
Recently Eaton Peabody hired Knight as a “municipal consultant,” according to its website. https://www.eatonpeabody.com/people/cornell-knight/
Eaton Peabody is also the law firm suing the tow to overturn the cap on cruise ships voted in by citizens on Nov. 8 to 1,000 visitors a day.
Every where you look in America today you see revolving doors with a near constant stream of highly paid people strolling in and out, pockets bulging with cash, and IOUs hard wired to their brain stems. Let's just hope the door marked Bar Harbor is now padlocked shut?