Concord City Manager Tom Aspell has requested a three-month sabbatical from work, and and said he’ll use the time to contemplate his retirement.
Aspell, who is in his sixties, is wrapping up year three of his five-year contract, set to expire at the end of June 2028. When that contract was negotiated, he signaled to city councilors that he expected to work another three to five years, he said in an interview this week.
“We’re at the three-year point,” he said. “I’m going to decide what I want to do going forward and report back after three months and say, ‘here’s my plans.'”
This sabbatical would begin on July 20 – exactly a week after city councilors finalize his non-public annual evaluation and set his raise for next year. Aspell would return to work in October. Aspell’s current take-home is nearly $250,000, and his countract gives him the opportunity to take a three-month paid sabbatical every three years. Before accounting for a 2027 fiscal year pay increase, he’ll make more than $60,000 while he’s away.
As of this past April, Aspell has been manager for 20 years. He started as manager on an interim basis in October of 2005 and was hired permanently in the spring of 2006. He has worked for the city since 1998.
No definite plans are in place for who would serve as acting manager during his leave, Aspell said Thursday, but it would likely be one of the city’s two deputy managers, Brian LeBrun and Matt Walsh.
This acting manager would oversee the city’s nearly 500 employees, though late summer is typically a quieter period in city governance, following the passage of the budget.
Aspell has never taken a leave like this before, he said, but his contract has long included a sabbatical allowance.
Aspell also gets seven weeks of vacation time per year, and can accrue up to 90 days, or 18 weeks, of unused time, which will be paid out when he retires.
The council must approve a sabbatical, and is expected to do so at its meeting on Monday night, following a determination of his performance and pay.
Each year, the council evaluates Aspell’s job performance in non-public session. Per city charter, after this review, the group states only whether his performance is “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory.”
The manager then gets a raise of between two and five percent at the council’s discretion. Last year, councilors settled on 3%.
His contract notes a base pay for the past year of about $223,000, but his overall take-home for the July-July fiscal year comes in closer to $250,000. During the 2025 calendar year, his overall pay was about $243,000, not including contributions to his two pension funds.
