Effective yesterday, January 1st, Matt Kraunelis has taken over as Acting Town Manager for the Town of Reading. During their previous December 5th Select Board meeting, the board voted 5-0 to appoint Assistant Town Manager Matt Kraunelis to replace Fidel Maltez who was named Chelsea’s new City Manager. Kraunelis previously replaced Jean Delios as Assistant Town Manager back in November of 2022.
Matt Kraunelis originally joined the town back in 2015 as Director of Administrative Services. Kraunelis attended Merrimack College and holds a Juris Doctor degree from Suffolk University Law School. In terms of his contract with Reading, details have no yet been posted online here. During the December 12th Select Board meeting though, the board did have an agenda item noted as “Executive Session to discuss details related to the appointment of Acting Town Manager”.
In terms of next steps, per the Reading Home Rule Charter, the Select Board shall appoint a new Town Manager within one hundred eighty (180) days. That process isn’t expected to take that long though as the Town Manager Screening Committee is already scheduled to meet twice this week to review resumes and consider or interview applicants. This would put the Select Board on track to make a selection as early as February with a new Town Manager taking over in March or April.
