Tewksbury Special Town Meeting Raises Senior Staff Salaries, Bars Assistant Town Manager from New Pay Plan

TEWKSBURY -- May 6, 2026, Tewksbury Special Town Meeting approves senior staff pay hikes over retention concerns, bars assistant town manager from new scale. Voters at Wednesday's special town meeting adopted an amended personnel bylaw raising salaries for five senior non-union positions after Town Manager John Curran warned that the town's finance director had already departed for higher pay elsewhere and at least three other department heads were interviewing with neighboring communities. The DPW director's salary was proposed at $176,000 against a regional average of $181,000, and the finance director position at $184,000 against an average of $183,000. A Finance Committee clarification amendment, approved 5-0 by the committee and 59-12 by standing count of voters, added explicit language stating the fiscal year 2026 pay plan would not apply to the current assistant town manager. The amended article then passed by secret ballot as required under the town's bylaws. The package includes roughly $55,000 in retroactive pay running from March 1 through June 30. Curran said a comprehensive wage study covering all union and non-union positions would be put out to bid this summer at a cost of $10,000 to $20,000, with results expected in time for the fall town meeting.