Town Manager Libby Gibson Earns High Marks In Performance Review By Select Board

Town manager Libby Gibson earned high marks from the Select Board in a performance appraisal covering the past two years that was released this week.

"The compiled scores of the entire Select Board accurately reflect that the Town of Nantucket is well-served by Ms. Gibson as our Town Manager," Select Board chair Brooke Mohr concluded in a two-page letter presented during the board's meeting on Wednesday.

Each Select Board member participates in the appraisal, grading the town manager on 14 competencies including decision-making, supervision and leadership, public relations, and interaction with the Select Board. The evaluation includes a one-on-one meeting between the Select Board chair and the town manager to review the assessment, which took place on Feb. 20, 2025.

Mohr highlighted two areas of Gibson's performance that she felt warranted special attention.

"First, in just the last several years, Ms. Gibson has been building an exceptionally strong team of new department heads, including the Fire and Police Chiefs, Director of Health and Human Services and DPW Director" Mohr wrote. "The second major success has been the development of a culture of inter-departmental collaboration. The complexity of major capital projects, and the response to unanticipated emergencies and newly identified issues like the wind turbine incident and PFAS are far more effectively managed with the various departments working collaboratively."

The review noted two areas that are in need of improvement: the delegation of responsibilities to others, and strategic thinking and planning.

"Ms. Gibson has found it challenging to delegate responsibility to her team," Mohr wrote. "In our conversation, Ms. Gibson acknowledged this and reported that she has already reassigned some direct reports to the Assistant Town Managers. Doing so will allow her to allocate more time to big-picture strategic thinking and planning, which is another area for improvement the Board members identified."

Read Mohr's full letter by clicking here.

Gibson, who has worked for the town for nearly 30 years, received a contract extension in June 2023 that extends her employment as town manager through Sept. 30, 2025. At the time the extension and raise were granted, then-Select Board chair Dawn Hill Holdgate said the contract amendment was in line with other non-union employee pay raises recently endorsed by the board following the completion of a municipal compensation study, and will also help with succession planning for the town manager position.

The amendment boosted Gibson’s salary to $226,000 retroactive to Jan. 1, 2023, a $31,000 annual increase, or 16 percent bump, from her annual salary at the time of $195,000. The deal will ultimately pay her $250,000 in the final nine months of the contract. It also requires Gibson to give the town at least a one-year notice of her retirement from the town.

As of this week, that notice has not been made, indicating Gibson will be staying in her position of town manager beyond the end of her current contract on Sept. 30th. Asked whether the Select Board was working on a contract amendment or new contract for Gibson, Mohr said "we will be working on that soon."

While the Select Board approved Mohr's evaluation letter Wednesday without comment, member Matt Fee offered some thoughts and praise of Gibson's performance over the years following her departmental update that preceded the vote on the evaluation.

"This Libby, from five or 10 years ago to 20 years, you have built a team and done the things that - I go back to (former Select Board member) Finn (Murphy), I go back to those days and things people tried to get you to do - you have done and it is working," Fee said. "I think you should be proud of that. I think the town is well served by it. I know we all get a lot of grief and it's like nobody appreciates how much that goes on and what we have to do and put up with, especially you, but I think the efforts you've made, going off and learning about this, and all these things, is commendable. I think you're not going to be here forever and you're going to be missed. Hopefully the succession and the people you've put in place are going to be able to do that."