Lynnfield's Maylor Moving On From Regional Retirement System

Lynnfield resident Andrew W. Maylor has announced that he is resigning, effective December 1st, from his position as chair of the Essex Regional Retirement System's board of directors.

Maylor, who has been praised for his work in helping to turn around the retirement system, has accepted a new position as town manager for North Andover. State law requires board members to be outside of the regional retirement system. Maylor is currently the town administrator of Swampscott, which is not part of that system.

The Lynnfield resident was chosen to be chairman back in March, 2010 by the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission (PERAC), and a statement released Tuesday by the system said he had "received widespread praise for his efforts to take a retirement system once viewed as a symbol of government waste and backroom dealings and transforming it into a model of transparency and good practices."

The system was reportedly placed under control of a state monitoring team early last year after a PERAC audit found 23 deficiencies, including poor record keeping and repeated violations of the Open Meeting Law. Some of the problems noted back then included large expense accounts for board members and hundreds of thousands of dollars for legal fees and consultants without a public bidding process or written contracts.

The retirement system noted in its announcement that PERAC had removed the monitoring team last month, citing "tremendous progress" made under Maylor and the new directors. For his part, Maylor was quoted as calling his service as chairman "one of the highlights of my career," while also praising fellow board members for providing "a great example of how retirement boards should be run."

The process of finding a replacement for Maylor has already begun, with the board posting an ad for his position at www.essexregional.com.