Concord City Manager Tom Aspell announced Tuesday that he plans to retire at the end of January after 21 years in the role and just over 28 years at City Hall.
“Concord is my home and I am most proud to call it so,” Aspell said in a written statement released by the city. “Being part of Concord for these last 28 years, through all of the changes and progress, has been truly rewarding to me and I am most grateful for having had the opportunity to serve.”
Aspell took a six-week sabbatical running through the end of August, during which time he told the Concord City Council he would make a plan for his retirement.
The announcement stated that Aspell would work with fellow city leaders to prepare for the transition and that the city council would make a plan for finding Aspell’s successor at an unspecified future meeting.
“On behalf of the City Council, I want to recognize Mr. Aspell’s extraordinary contributions and tenure with the City of Concord, his stewardship of the community, and the positive, lasting impacts he has made,” Mayor Byron Champlin said in a statement. The hiring process, he noted, would be “advanced carefully.”
The city has two deputy city manager positions: one overseeing finance, including the budget, assessing and special funds, and the other overseeing community development — a broad term that includes planning and zoning. One of those two positions is open following the retirement of Brian LeBrun, who served as acting manager while Aspell was on leave.
Two vacancies at the top means replacing the longtime manager will prove pivotal for the city council and for the city’s direction in the coming years.
Aspell’s retirement would be effective January 31, according to the city’s announcement.
Aspell, originally from Lowell, Mass., began his career as the town planner in Londonderry, helping to implement new regulations and plans during a period of rapid growth. He also, from the municipal side of things, helped steer the construction of the Manchester airport. He also spent a few years as the director of planning and economic development in Haverill, Mass., before coming to Concord in 1998 under a similar title. He rose to the assistant city manager position in 2001.
Aspell, now in his mid-sixties, assumed the position on an interim basis in 2005 and was formally tapped in April 2006, succeeding Duncan Ballantine.
According to Monitor reporting from the time, peers in other cities and local residents praised Aspell as driven and dedicated yet also responsive and accessible. Then, as now, City Hall was looking for ways to reduce red tape in its relationship with developers.
Aspell’s tenure most notably included a celebrated makeover of the city’s downtown and the construction of a new community center on the Heights.
Both of those projects, noted former longtime mayor Jim Bouley, were initially rejected by the city council for being too expensive.
More than the accomplishment of any one project, Bouley said, “he had a long term vision for the city and he was very good at staying focused on it.”
Bouley, who served his entire sixteen-year tenure as mayor with Aspell as manager, also pointed to a quality of Aspell’s that the public may not notice.
“He had a good eye for hiring,” Bouley said. From LeBrun to longtime City Clerk Janice Bonenfant to Human Services Director Karen Emis-Williams, “he surrounded himself with really talented people.”
Bouley added that, prior to the last few decades, most city managers would stay for a handful of years.
“It says a lot about him and his character that he served almost 30 years in the city of Concord,” he said.
That long tenure made him one of the highest-paid public employees in the state. City Councilors gave him a broadly positive review and a 2.5% raise in July.
