By Elizabeth F. McNamara

Town Manager Gayle Corrigan got a rare check from the Town Council Monday night, when they failed to approve her choice of Kristen Henrikson to serve as her “confidential assistant.” Instead, they said, the position needed to be posted.

Henrikson will fill the position on an interim basis.

Henrikson has been serving as clerk for the fire department since her surprising return to town employment last August.

The Personnel Board met before the Town Council to discuss this position and the consolidated town-school department finance positions, where resident Bill Higgins brought up the town’s failure to post these new positions and to provide job descriptions.

Corrigan said job descriptions were a work-in-progress because consolidating the town and school positions had not been done before. She said she would have job descriptions by Sept. 1.

But the confidential assistant position stood apart, caused by the departure last month of Michaela Antunes as chief of staff. The other positions are consolidated town-school posts negotiated with the school department.

According to Council President Sue Cienki, Antunes left because of budget cuts. Town Solicitor David D’Agostino said Antunes was not fired and that the Town Council approved a severance package at its meeting April 23 during executive session. He said he did not have details of the severance agreement; EG News Tuesday filed an Access to Public Records request for that information.

An error on Henrikson’s resume – she failed to note the time she left town employment (her settlement with the town in 2016 and her rehire in 2017) – was chalked up as an upload mistake. Henrikson had uploaded an old resume, Corrigan said.