Seekonk’s New Town Administrator: Shawn Cadime

Seekonk’s new town administrator, Shawn Cadime, a native of Fall River, is looking forward to working with the board of selectmen, town department heads and committees to help move the town forward.

Cadime, 33, started the job on March 3 and has hit the ground running, already meeting with selectmen, town department heads, school officials, the police chief, the fire chief and becoming familiar with projects and issues in town.

“This transition hasn’t been difficult but it has been a little bit of a learning curve. I’ve been meeting with everybody and trying to identify what some of the issues are, and the projects, such as the Banna fire station and senior center. And learning everyone’s name,” Cadime said.

Cadime most recently served as City Administrator in Fall River. He held the position for 3 ½ years. He competed against about 50 candidates for the job, much like he did here in Seekonk, and says he was thrown into the fire from the start.

“I think what helped me out was my strong financial background because at the time, Fall River was having some significant financial problems. They were on the cusp of being on the receivership for the state,” Cadime said.

The first thing he tackled was the budget.

“I got hired in May and I had to put the Fiscal Year 2011 budget together in about two weeks. It was a $230 million budget,” said Cadime.

About a month into the job, Cadime found out the city had eight years of outstanding audits when the Department of Revenue called and told him he missed a deadline.

“I wasn’t even aware that we had to have three audits completed by August. I talked to the finance team and said ‘what other deadlines do we have that you haven’t told me about?” he said.

During that time, the chief financial officer, assessor and collector were let go, but Cadime managed to accomplish a great deal despite those losses.

“With all the transition, we were still able to put together a quality finance team and get eight years of outstanding audits completed within a year and a half,” Cadime said.

Cadime also reconciled cash on a monthly basis for the first time in over a decade. One of his goals was to increase the city’s bond rating, which he did. The bond rating, which hadn’t been increased for ten years, jumped from BBB to an A-.

Cadime left Fall River last December when his contract was not renewed by Mayor Will Flanagan. Cadime says it was a political move on the mayor’s part and Cadime had already applied for the position here in Seekonk.

Several members of the Fall River City Council were reportedly not happy with the mayor’s decision, according to an article in the Fall River Herald News last December.

Cadime said he was looking to move on, but wanted to find the right community.

“I wasn’t 100 percent satisfied with the direction the city was moving in. . . Even though I was unhappy about what was transpiring, I wasn’t looking to just move to any community,” Cadime said.

Cadime says he is the type of individual that likes to be challenged and he found those challenges here in Seekonk.

“I wanted a community that number one, was a place that I could stay for a long term, but still provide challenges. If I couldn’t go to another city what I wanted was to go to a community that was large enough and still offered those challenges. And Seekonk, in my opinion, offered that,” Cadime said.

He began his career in 2002 after graduating from Bryant University with a degree in Finance and Marketing. He is currently working on his MBA in Business.

Cadime took a job with State Street Bank in Quincy, MA as a Corporate Action Specialist, handling corporate financial transactions. He then became a financial analyst with General Dynamics in Taunton. He was with General Dynamics for seven years.

While at General Dynamics, he decided to run for school committee in Fall River. He was 23. He wasn’t successful the first time, but ran again in 2005 and was elected. He served five years on the school committee and was Vice-Chairman in his last term.

Then the position of City Administrator opened up and some people approached Cadime about applying for the job.

“Having the background with the school department and knowing the budget I think that really kind of put me in the front of everybody,” Cadime said.

Seekonk is much different than Fall River, but Cadime says he likes the make-up of the town and what it has to offer.

“My focus in Fall River was always financial…and there will always be a financial approach to any decisions that I make. Seekonk offers more challenges in different areas – planning, zoning, building, developing better policies and relationships amongst various boards and the board of selectmen,” Cadime said.

Cadime wants to facilitate interaction between boards by being a liaison between them. He says there is a perceived breakdown in communication between the Board of Selectmen and other boards. He also plans to work on developing a long term vision for Seekonk that includes capital improvement.

“Strategizing on a long term vision for Seekonk and doing goals and objectives - that’s the type of stuff that interests me. Then attacking that vision and implementing it,” Cadime said.

Cadime has an open door policy and a team approach to decision-making.

“When I’m making a decision I want to be able to sit down as a team and say, ‘here’s the issue, and this is what I’m thinking, what are your thoughts?’ and have people be honest with how they feel about certain things, and make a decision based on the information,” he said.

He also believes that customer service should be a priority at town hall.

“Whether it’s a resident coming in to pay taxes or a resident who has a question, I think they need to be serviced just as anybody else would want to be serviced…They are the taxpayers. They’re funding the services that we’re providing, so to me, customer service is essential,” Cadime said.

After the April election, Cadime plans to sit down with the Board of Selectmen and create goals and objectives for the town for the next few years.

“It’s very telling of the community that financially we’re in a good situation where we can support education. Now we just have to find that balance between town services/public safety and education in order to support them equally,” Cadime said.

Cadime hopes to move to Seekonk in a few years with his girlfriend and their two children, a 3 year-old daughter and 2 year-old son.

“I think the quality of life in Seekonk is second to none. It’s a unique situation where it’s a town atmosphere but you have a commercial base that is just as good, if not better than some municipalities and cities…It’s such a unique demographic. It was interesting for me,” Cadime said.