MARION — The Marion Town Administrator Screening Committee met for the first time March 1 to start the process of sifting through 39 applications for Marion’s Town Administrator position.

The committee’s first action was to appoint Judy Rosbe chair and Elise Frangos as clerk for the committee.

Bernie Lynch with Community Paradigm Associates, the consultant that Marion hired to help expedite the search process, said that he had spoken with department heads and ridden around town with Norm Hills, head of the Board of Selectmen to learn about the issues that are important to Marion.

He explained that the group had “a good batch of resumes.”

But he described the market right now as “a tough market”, because of a lot of retirements in administrative positions. He stated that of the 250 or so towns in Massachusetts, about 106 have had some sort of turnover in a town administrator or town manager position in the last year.

Committee member Jim Ryba raised the possibility of having a regionalized Town Manager. “Money-wise, it makes sense,” Ryba said.

However Selectman and committee member Randy Parker countered this idea.

“With the sitting Town Administrator, his days are full and his nights are full. It would be hard to add another town,”   Parker said.

The board also brought up a high-level problem that it had noticed across a few resumes: applicants who bounced from position to position.

At first board members speculated that frequent position changes would negatively impact applicants.

However Lynch added that sometimes administrators only stay in a year because they are seeking a better position which, is no indication of ineptness.

The committee will work to narrow down six to eight people to talk to, and then narrow down to three or so candidates for the Board of Selectmen to speak with after interviews.