Less than a month after Fire Chief, Bo Butler, announced he would be resigning his position publicly during a Town Council meeting, Town Manager Mike Malaguti, has now given his notice and he plans to leave his post in six months or less.
This comes while the Assistant Town Manager, Kellie Caron, is still on leave and with Londonderry still looking to fill the Town Planner position.
Londonderry is now looking to fill three key positions in town.
In his letter, Malaguti said, “Pursuant to Section 4 of my employment agreement, I notify you that April 24, 2025, will be my last day as Town Manager, unless an earlier date is agreed upon or otherwise established,” Malaguti wrote in his letter. “While I believe I have enough support on the Town Council to continue my service, I have decided that clinging to a job I love would come at too great a personal cost.”
“This is the right moment for me to move on,” he added.
The fire chief’s resignation decision ultimately came down to his requirement to balance the budget, conflicting with what he thought was right, which was to have 13 firefighters per shift, after a warrant article passed in March with 70% of the vote, called for the staffing levels.
“As fire chief I have two obligations. The first obligation is to balance the budget the taxpayers provide me. The second obligation is to protect the people that provide that service to the community that expect that service,” Butler said at the Oct. 7 meeting.
Butler explained that “because the way my budget is trending right now given circumstances that are outside of my control I’m flying through those monies appropriated by the taxpayers so I’ve come to an inflection point. I have a decision to make. The decision is to cut services from 13, 12, down to 11 although the community told me they want 13, or not execute what I have to do as a fire chief because of my budget obligations.”
At the Oct. 21 Town Council meeting, many community members spoke in support of Butler and the Fire Department overall.
Despite a number of speakers expressing dissatisfaction with Butler resigning, no action was taken by the Town Council.
Former Town Councilor and the father of Bo, Jim Butler, said, “Chief Butler didn’t always follow the rules when it came to ‘what do you want me to say, what do you want me to hear’ to the Town Manager, he’s the one who’s supposedly operating in the town he wants to bring development in and you know something our fire chief spoke the truth about the hospital that wanted to go up at the airport, and you know something he didn’t like it, and there’s the politics.”
“There’s a management problem in this Town and it needs to be fixed, and it stinks from the head down,” Butler said.
Police Chief, Kim Bernard, explained that the budgetary responsibility is the sole responsibility of the department head “plain and simple” at the Oct. 21 meeting
“I blow my budget tomorrow, I’m gone, that’s the facts, it’s the way it goes, it’s the law,” Bernard said.
He added, “I had to cancel training, I had to stop a shipment of guns that we were trying to replace, I stopped hiring processes for four cops that we had in background at the time.”
Resident, Tara Myles, said she has been a supporter of the Town Council and the Administration, while others have not during the Oct. 21 meeting
“But my support is not unconditional, it is not without accountability. I support you today, because I believe you seek to do the right thing, and like me you don’t always get it right,” Myles said. “But also like me I hope when you don’t get it right you endeavor to make it right.”
In a Facebook post following the Oct. 7 meeting, Christopher A. Schofield, the President of Local 3160, which represents the Fire Department’s rank in file, wrote “This past March, the citizens of Londonderry overwhelmingly supported Warrant Article 15, which called for the addition of four firefighters, ensuring that each shift would be staffed with 13 personnel. This decision, made by the community, prioritized public safety and provided our firefighters with the necessary resources to protect the town effectively.”
“However, town leadership has chosen not to follow the wishes of the community. Instead, they have unfairly placed blame on Chief Bo Butler for circumstances outside of his control,” Schofield wrote. “The Town Manager has now mandated that Chief Butler reduce staff from 13 to 11 members per shift, despite the clear directive from the voters. They have also threatened him with disciplinary action if he does not comply.”
Malaguti thanked his staff saying “It has been a privilege to work with some of most dedicated and talented employees around.”
“Some of these employees with whom I have worked most closely, including my senior leadership team and department heads, have sustained me through difficult times. Every success of the last three years would have been impossible without the commitment of every one of our incredible employees,” Malaguti said.
Malaguti was first hired with the Town in 2018, first as a prosecutor, then as assistant town solicitor. When Kevin Smith resigned to make a run for United States Senate, he was tapped as the Acting Town Manager, before officially being hired as Town Manager.
“I set forth no list of accomplishments, leaving it to others to appraise the value of our achievements. I simply reflect on how much work we’ve done, and how far we’ve come,” Malaguti said. “I close by returning to a refrain I have sometimes used over the past three years, and which I continue to believe: The future of Londonderry is bright, and its best days lie ahead.”