Welcome! I've been in Herkimer, briefly, because it's on my route to visit some of my best friends. Somehow that gives me the idea that I know you a little better than I can from just seeing you at the public forum for town manager candidates.
It will be interesting for us to have a manager who has lived and worked in several other states. It's easy for us to slip into the comfortable delusion that we've got the best answers and point of view on every issue, so a fresh perspective will shake us up a little. Of course our current town manager came from the south, but he has been here a long time now, we've gotten to take him for granted, and he is no longer surprised by our attitudes and ways.
Here is a short list of problems I hope you can help us solve.
First, finances. Local governments are chronically underfunded by the state in Massachusetts. That's one problem where we can work with our neighbors and our legislators to make aid to cities and towns both greater and more reliable.
But we can't depend completely on other layers of government. Our own problem is made worse by having few local financial resources. More than half of our land is tax exempt, and we have a very small non-residential sector. While we are benefiting to some extent from the presence of “hidden tech” careers in spare rooms around town, we have an actual resistance to economic development. When someone brings up the need for more tax-paying businesses, someone else is likely to summon the specter of big-box retail. Often the very same people who say we need economic diversity and cooperation with the University and colleges to create jobs resist most strongly any possible development near themselves.
Similarly, any effort to assist downtown businesses, whether by adding parking, sprucing up the downtown, or other civic efforts to attract shoppers and diners, is likely to be greeted with claims that the businesses are not paying their share of taxes and assertions that they don't sell anything adults want to buy anyway.
As Town Manager, of course, you cannot fix all that, any more than our current Town Manager could. However, as a new person in town, you might have some opportunities to stimulate conversations and bring in a fresh perspective. Of course it's a delicate balance: you are being hired to manage the administration; it is the elected bodies which set the policies and must find a way to lead. Still, I hope you can skillfully guide them toward greater attention and commitment to our collective economic well-being.
My second wish is that you can help us clarify roles and work more effectively and harmoniously together. In my opinion, members of the Select Board sometimes forget that they are collectively a policy-setting board, not the managers of the town or the sole source of ideas and decisions.
For example, often it seemes they do not appropriately respect and value the work of our many boards and committees. Too often they want to overrule the recommendations those committees have made and re-do the work. Those committees do exceedingly valuable work for our town, and in the process the members become the citizen experts on the subject at hand, whether it be planning, conservation, recreation, downtown improvements, or public art. Some of their decisions about committee appointments seem very heavy handed, particularly their decision not to continue the long-standing practice of extending legal protection for committee members as "special municipal employees."
There is much talk about a supposed new “openness” in town government; from my perspective, it's more the creation of a new "in group," often at the expense of good people currently on committees. In other words, it is possible to appoint new people who have so far not served on committees without disrespecting those who have.
Worse, there have even been incidents where individual Board members thought they could direct individual town staff. While I understand that problem has decreased, I am concerned that bad habits may re-appear during the months between Mr. Del Castilho's departure and your arrival.
I imagine that these kinds of issues are not new to you. You've had a great deal of experience in varied governments. I genuinely look forward to your arrival, and wish you strength and courage, insight and energy. We can promise you that we will bring the same.