ROCKLAND – Filling the empty positions within Rockland’s City departments is a high priority for the newly appointed City Manager.

A day after signing a five-year, $105,000 annual contract, Manager Tom Luttrell juggled his new position with that of his current title as financial director.

Luttrell didn’t throw a party or take a day off following the Wednesday, July 19, ceremony where department heads and city council members witnessed his contract signing.

Members of the council had pursued Luttrell for the manager position after the city’s search committee twice submitted but one candidate for the job.

The subsequent pursuit of Luttrell, “seemed like it would be a healing move for the city,” council member Valli Geiger said, in an email.

On July 20, the new city manager was in finance office, which will soon be home to a new financial director, once the position is posted next week.

At his desk, white receipt tape piled out of a banker’s calculator indicating work in progress for the annual city audit; its deadline moved up from December to September this year.

Meetings down the hall about the vacant assessor position vie for his time. Late afternoon, he headed to a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Main Street.

Also on his mind were the vacant positions of community economic director and code enforcement clerk.

According to Luttrell, the city manager also makes the final decision for inner-department staffing, which includes vacancies at the police department.

Yet, Luttrell remains undaunted.

“It seems to be a pretty good transition,” Luttrell said. “I know all the players, all the staff. I’ve met with a lot of the public already.”

Indeed, Luttrell has acted as city manager twice in previous years, once for about six months, the other time for a little more than a year.

“It’s funny,” he said as he recalled a conversation with Camden Town Manager Audra Caler-Bell (and Rockland’s former economic development director), about Camden’s need for a finance director. “I said, there’s got to be some people who are interested in being finance director. She said ‘no, they all turned into city managers.’”

A lot of the city work is budgeting, according to Luttrell.

“A finance background helps.”

Luttrell holds a degree in business administration. He estimates that he’s worked with the city for about 10 years, the school district for five years. Before that, he did private accounting for small businesses, as well as for the railroad in Massachusetts.

Next week, he and his fish will move down the hall.

Having returned to the city in December, Luttrell set up his aquarium in response to numerous questions of whether he planned to stay.

“Well, I set my fish tank up,” Luttrell told them. “So I’m not moving.”

Sarah Thompson can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com