Janosa tells Meredith Selectboard he's not right fit to lead planning, development

MEREDITH — The town’s human resources and special projects director, Chris Janosa, told the selectboard Monday he is not the right fit to lead the newly implemented planning and development department.

“In my opinion, the planning and development department needs a department head that is fluid, knowledgeable, and experienced in planning and development,” Janosa said. “That is not me. I can handle the management piece of it, but they need further guidance related to their specific duties.”

Janosa recommended he and Town Manager Judie Milner return to the board with a new plan.

Selectboard member Jeanie Forrester asked Janosa what he'd been doing to manage the department. Janosa said he could handle day-to-day personnel management involving hiring, supervising the office, scheduling, and performance evaluations.

“But, I can’t answer their questions when they relate to planning and development,” Janosa said. “I just don’t have that knowledge. It’s not my background.”

Forrester said it sounds like he's doing his human resources functions, as far as hiring and performance evaluations. Janosa said it also includes sitting in on interviews and making hiring decisions.

“Judie and I interviewed the admin, and the ultimate decision on that came to me,” Janosa said. “Normally, that wouldn’t be the case. It would be the department head over at that department.”

Janosa said, personnel-wise, the fulltime “planner 1” position which was filled internally left the administrative assistant position open. That position was filled on March 2, but the employee has since resigned, effective July 1.

“Recruitment for her back-fill has begun,” Janosa said.

Forrester also questioned what Janosa meant about making a new plan with Milner. She said the original idea was to have a six-month pilot. She asked if he would have a plan at the next meeting.

“I can have a plan for you at the next meeting, for sure,” Janosa said.

Janosa had started with an update about the planning and development department since he took over leading it in January. He wanted to give a “high-level overview” of what has been going on, and future plans.

The decision to restructure what was then called “community development” was made at the Dec. 8, 2025 selectboard meeting, and a pilot plan was implemented Jan. 1, which changed the name to “planning and development.” It also named Janosa director of the department.

Janosa and Milner relocated their offices to the Town Hall annex in January. That same month, Janosa and Milner met with a group of business owners and developers to discuss issues they had encountered with the planning and development department.

“Things that had affected projects that they were working on moving forward, or trying to move forward,” Janosa said.

Janosa said the majority of issues were with the conservation commission and fire department, and Milner will be following up with Fire Chief Ken Jones. He also met with Scott Powell, chair of the conservation commission.

“Specifically, about the 30-day timeline they have to get their information into the [zoning board of adjustment], and about any requests they have,” Janosa said. “They were directly reaching out to applicants. That will no longer happen. That will come through the planning and development department, and one of the staff there will make the determination of, A, if it is valid, and, B, they’ll be reaching out.”

Following the meeting with business owners — which included Janosa, Milner and six others — those who attended reached out to the town saying they felt misled about the meeting’s agenda. Janosa said they stated they wished they hadn’t attended.

“That was kind of interesting that that happened,” Janosa said.

Forrester asked who selected the attendees, and why they would think they were misled. Janosa deferred questions to Milner, who he said set up the meeting.

“Actually, this group of individuals reached out to me to have a meeting,” Milner said. “After the meeting — and I don’t want to name individuals, this is a group of citizens who came in — after the meeting, I got a lot of feedback of, ‘Oh.’ I think during the meeting it became very clear to both of us that the complaint was not so much about community development, but more about how long it took the conservation commission to get things through.”

Milner also said the concern was the conservation commission didn’t go through the planning department, as well as the fire department coming up with things which could have been addressed earlier, not to hinder the progress of “getting these things to a 'yes' faster.”

“So, after the meeting, several people came to the realization that maybe it should have been a different type of meeting about those things, and reached out to me, which I thought was very nice, to reach out to me, and let me know that,” Milner said.

Forrester said she didn’t understand the situation.

“It sounds like you had a different agenda than what their agenda was,” Forrester said. “I don’t understand how they could be misled.”

Milner said the people they met with went in thinking they were complaining about the community development department, but she thought it “became clear” they were actually just the bearers of bad news from other entities.

“They kind of wished they came into the meeting knowing that they were complaining about a different department,” Milner said.

Janosa said he and Milner met with Tom Girard, ZBA chair, and let him know about discussions with the conservation commission. Janosa said the ZBA had not received any complaints, and Milner had received several emails and calls complimenting the department.

Selectboard member Mike Pelczar said there was a long conversation about this reorganization before implementing the pilot, and community development was the strongest area to reassess and refigure.

“At that Dec. 8 meeting, we talked about several things,” Pelczar said. “The audit came back to us that we didn’t need a community director, Meredith was too small, but what we all realized that we needed some type of a department head that was going to be pretty much a micromanager to see what the staff really needed.”

He inquired about whether Janosa was on top of the employees about where they are going, what their appointments, and what they are working on.

“No, I mean, I don’t know what they’re doing,” Janosa said. “I can’t micromanage something when I don’t understand it.”

The short-term rental program has continued to make progress, he said, and the senior planner has received new applications for licenses and special exceptions. Janosa added the Short-Term Rental Committee is reconvening to evaluate implementing the licensing program. There have been 25 short-term rental special exceptions from the ZBA.

Janosa said if he doesn’t understand the process for zoning and planning, and short-term rentals, it is tough to manage.

“So they’re not able to come to you with any of the problems, so I guess, why wasn’t this discussed in January, and made a different move before we went down this road?” Pelczar asked. “I asked about assessment, and you said you have to go over there and assess to see what we need. No disrespect, you’re a great HR, and I understand this isn’t your wheelhouse, but we really wanted someone in charge of the day to day.

“The way it got set up is not the way I thought we talked about it in December, I guess is what I’m saying. It sounds like you’re going to come back with a Plan B.”

Janosa said he wasn’t part of the process in December, and said Milner presented four options, and this was the plan selected.

“I was the one chosen to go in there, but I’m telling you now, after six months, I just don’t feel it is the right fit,” Janosa said.

The selectboard is next scheduled to meet Monday, July 13.