Pooler: Brookline "Big Enough to be Interesting"

As Sandy Pooler sees it, his job has always been about making good ideas actually happen – something that's not always easy to do.

"It's one thing to have good ideas, but you have to be able to implement them through budgets," the former Newton administrator said in an interview with Brookline Patch earlier this week.

Pooler is one of four finalists vying for the job of town administrator in Brookline, and the only one to give interviews with the press to date. Julian M. Suso, the current town manager of Framingham, and Melvin A. Kleckner, the outgoing town manager of Winchester, have both declined to be interviewed, and Patch Brookline has been unable to contact the fourth candidate, former Maryland planning administrator Oscar S. Rodriguez.

And even Pooler declined to answer questions related to policy, politics or even his favorite restaurant in town.

"I want to give the selectmen a chance to interview me first," he said.

The four men, including Pooler, will appear before the Board of Selectmen for public interviews later this month. Selectmen have solicited input from department heads and various appointed chairs, but are unlikely to allow questions from the public during the hearing.

As Brookline's chief executive, the town administrator is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the town and the performance of its personnel. The position was held by Richard Kelliher for 15 years until his retirement on July 2, and has been filled temporarily by Sean Cronin, the former deputy town administrator.

And like both Cronin and Kelliher, Pooler would be coming to Brookline after a long municipal carreer in the town's neighbor to the west, Newton. Pooler worked for the city for a total of 11 years, first as chief administrative officer and later as chief operating officer, and left last year after his longtime boss, former Mayor David Cohen, left office.

Coming to Brookline would mean working for a much smaller government for Pooler. Newton has around 88,000 residents and an operating budget of more than $333 million, for example, while Brookline has about 57,000 residents and an operating budget of closer to $189 million.

But, Pooler said, Brookline is still "big enough to be interesting."

"Brookline has a lot of opportunities," he said. "Sure it has its challenges, like any place, but it's got a lot going on."

Pooler now lives near Davis Square in Somerville, but he spent the first few years of his childhood on Buswell Street near the Brookline border. Though not yet 5 at the time, Pooler remembers walking up to Coolidge Corner for ice cream and playing in a park – he can't remember which – in the nearby Cottage Farms neighborhood.

After getting his law degree from the University of California in 1988, Pooler worked briefly as a clerk for a federal judge before landing a job with David Cohen, who was then serving as a state representative on Beacon Hill. Pooler left the State House in 1998 to get a masters degree at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, not knowing he'd be working with Cohen again, within a year, this time at Newton City Hall.

Municipal government turned out to be a good fit for Pooler.

"It's very real," he said. "It touches so many aspects of people's lives – the schools, the public safety, the culture institutions, like libraries and senior centers."

But working as an unelected town administrator in Brookline, Pooler would presumably avoid some of the political maneuvering that came with working for an elected administration at his last job. But if Pooler sees that as a perk of the job, he wouldn't say so, waving off any questions about the political nature of either job.

Pooler is also no stranger to the players in Brookline town government. In addition to sharing the same former employer with Deputy Town Administrator Sean Cronin and Finance Director Steve Cerillo, who also came from Newton City Hall, Pooler has worked with a number of Brookline officials as president of the Massachusetts Government Finance Officers Association and through his work with the Massachusetts Municipal Association.

Knowing what he does about the town, Pooler said he'd have no misgivings about working here.

"It's a great community – it's got a long history of being well run," he said. "Rich Kelliher really set a terrific example."