Statement of David A Colton

Pursuant to Chapter 4, section 4 of the Charter of the Town of

Easton, I proudly present a written statement in justification of
my tenure as Town Administrator. I believe that my tenure
speaks for itself and requires no justification. However, the
opportunity for you to review the last ten years of my service to
the town will help underscore my value to this community.
Before proceeding, please note that my accomplishments
involved many others including elected officials, board and
committee members, staff, and private residents and business
leaders. I cannot possibly give credit specifically to everyone, so
I ask your forgiveness in advance if I fail to credit your
contribution to our success.
Excellent Performance.
My tenure began in November 2006 and continues to this day to
be exemplary by any measure. In fact, in that ten-year period,
my performance has been annually evaluated by successive
Boards of Selectmen as meeting or exceeding their expectations.
Specifically, in the past five years the Selectmen have given 240
separate scores covering 10 categories. Of those 240 scores, they
rated me 141 times as having exceeded their expectations, 98
times as having met them, and only once judging that I failed to
meet expectations. The most recent evaluation was completed
less than six months ago, in August 2016. In that evaluation, the
four eligible Selectmen rated me as meeting or exceeding
expectations in the following categories: Financial, HR
Management and Labor Relations, Community Relations,
Quality of Life, Planning and Economic Development,
Infrastructure and Public Works, Town Government Efficiency
and Effectiveness, Relationships with other levels of
government, and personal and professional growth. Ten years of
excellent evaluations from 13 individual Selectmen is ample
justification of my tenure in office.
Recognized Leader.
Furthermore, my expertise has been recognized by others as
well. I am a known as a leader in human resources and labor
relations. As a member of the Massachusetts Municipal
Associations Labor and Human Resources Policy Committee, I
give input into the development of state-wide policy. As a
member of the Massachusetts Joint Labor/Management
Committee, I apply my knowledge to help others resolve labor
disputes. In Easton, I have used that expertise to negotiate
contracts with labor unions that have lowered the cost of wages
and benefits. On two occasions, we successfully reduced the
real-dollar cost of providing employee health insurance for both
the town and its employees. The rate of increase in wages for
clerical, administrative, professional and non-union employees
has been halved through my negotiating skills. Despite union
opposition, I was able to negotiate a budget-friendly educational
program for police officers. Police professionals now have an
educational incentive program that is a fraction of the cost of the
old Quinn bill. This allows us to hire and retain educated and
professional law enforcement officers and increase their
numbers.
The Towns personnel plan is complete and up-to-date, and,
after years of inactivity, the Human Resources Board is active
and making important decisions around non-union positions. In
ten years we have never been penalized or spent one minute in
court over personnel issues or labor disputes. A soon-to-be-
released report by the Collins Center documents our excellent
record of compliance with human resource standards and
practices. The responsibilities entailed in managing the human
resources of the towns 175 employees, providing benefits to
nearly 700 town and school employees, and negotiating and
implementing collective bargaining agreements with seven
bargaining units is a full-time job in other towns our size, yet it
is only one of three major areas of responsibility given the Town
Administrator under our charter. With the help of our HR
Coordinator (part-time), Mary Southworth, we have produced a
record of competence and solid achievement.
I am also a recognized leader in energy conservation and
renewable energy. In 2014 I was appointed by Governor Patrick
to represent municipalities on the Solar and Net Metering Task
Force. This task force was made up of leading energy industry,
government, and public interest group representatives and
produced a report to the Massachusetts Legislature in 2015.
Following the report, I testified before legislative committees
advocating for increased ability for communities to develop and
utilize renewable energy. Additionally, I was invited by the
Boston Green Building Council and the National Solar Power
Conference to speak on net metering last year. These efforts
(mine and others) resulted in Eastons being able to develop
rooftop solar facilities at the middle and high schools, which
will save the town $1.24M over the 20-year life of the facility.
This is in addition to our landfill solar field (among the first in
the commonwealth) that is generating 1.9 Mega Watts of
electricity and saving the Town $185,000 per year and nearly
$4.5M over the 20-year life of the facility. In all, we generate
from solar power nearly 50% of the energy we utilize as a town
government.
My advocacy in the area of renewable energy and energy
conservation arose from another of the major duties of the TA,
that of Chief Fiscal Officer. I recognized early in my tenure that
Eastons financial structure would require innovative approaches
to reducing costs without cutting services. I saw energy as a way
to do just that and moved aggressivelyfirst, by implementing
simple conservation measures in buildings such as eliminating
unnecessary office equipment, replacing lighting with lower
usage fixtures, and then by becoming the first Green Community
in Bristol County. In three Green Community grant rounds we
have been awarded a total of $618,000. Working with my
appointee, Public Works Director David Field, we converted
town street lights to energy-saving LED bulbs, implemented an
Energy Savings Plan through Ameresco, and completed the
aforementioned solar facilities. Taken together these measure
save the Town approximately $750,000 annually.
I have also become expert in historic preservation, having
formerly served as a member of the Boston Landmarks
Commission as an appointee of the late Mayor Thomas Menino.
I have used that expertise to aid the Town of Easton in many
ways. My understanding of historic tax credit programs and
preservation grants was one key to unlocking the potential of the
Shovel Works site. It has helped me understand the usefulness of
Community Preservation funding for preservation and has
assisted me in negotiating workable solutions to preservation
issues. Most recently, I used this experience to help the
developer of a historic property on Main Street reach an
agreement with the Historic Commission on the reuse of the
building.
Recently I was asked to serve as a member of the Policy
Leadership Council of the Citizens Housing and Planning
Association (CHAPA). This was in recognition of Eastons
success in developing affordable housing options for its
residents. Easton, under my stewardship, has become a state-
wide leader in innovative approaches to affordable housing
first with the establishment of the Easton Affordable Housing
Trust, which I recommended to Town Meeting in 2008. The
trust has successfully provided support to the towns effort to
reach its state mandated 10% affordability goal and be immune
from unfriendly Chapter 40B proposals. It has granted $327,000
to five income- and asset-eligible families to acquire market rate
housing which is then restricted permanently as affordable. It
has provided grants to 20 eligible homeowners to make health
and safety improvements so they can stay in the affordable home
they already own. It worked with Habitat for Humanity to create
an affordable family home on previously town-owned land. The
Trust is currently working to locate a 16-bed home for
developmentally disabled adults and on locating a site for
veterans housing similar to small developments in Chelmsford
and Westford.
At the beginning of 2011 Easton was at about 3.5% of its
required 10% affordable housing. We peaked at slightly above
10% in 2016, but fell back to 9.71% because a building at
Queset Commons has not gone forward in the required time.
However, the Town has been continuously in safe harbor from
unfriendly 40B proposals since 2011. We have done this through
competent planning and a series of public/private partnerships,
from the Queset 40R district to the nationally recognized Shovel
Works to the Avalon Easton development. In addition, these
initiatives have had economic development benefits that I will
discuss in a later section.
Fiscal Achievement.
The Town of Easton consistently ranks below the median of
comparable communities in every category of per-capita
spending. In general government spending we are consistently
dead last. We have done this by recruiting and compensating
people at the top of the profession and asking them to do more
with less. As the Towns Chief Fiscal Officer, working with our
excellent Town Accountant, we have met every challenge.
Perhaps the biggest was guiding the town through the worst
economic downturn since the Great Depression with minimal
disruption to core services, maintaining our very good credit
rating, and rebounding with strengthened public safety
departments, asset management, and services to seniors and
youth. Along with the aforementioned collective-bargaining and
energy successes, we judiciously utilized reserves to maintain
the status quo where appropriate, consolidated and reorganized
departments, ended insurance company controls on our
ambulance billing rates, initiated spending and hiring freezes,
and reduced staff without challenge or controversy. It is easy to
forget how difficult this was, but collapsing growth (new growth
averaged $841,422 for the three years prior to the recession and
$370,679 for the three years following), excise tax, and local aid
made balancing the annual budget a minefield of potential risk.
Since the Great Recession, we have worked to build services
and harden our defenses against the next downturn, first by
providing information. We initiated two annual reports to assist
with creating a shared understanding of the towns fiscal health.
The Financial Condition Report annually measures our revenues
and expenses, free cash balances, reserve position, debt
spending and rating, and pension position. Having this
information at hand is invaluable in constructing a budget for the
following fiscal year. And the Community Comparison report
measures our expenditures against a scientifically selected group
of comparable communities. This report points to potential
weaknesses in our service delivery and helps us assess
competing priorities for scarce resources. A major new asset in
our effort to provide useful information is the budget document
that was initiated and completed during a very challenging
budget season that included an override election. This document
now provides financial and operational information in traditional
numeric format, but it adds both narrative and graphic
information to aid in the laymans understanding of our budget
policy.
A second way we have improved our ability to withstand a
future economic downturn is through the adoption of a
comprehensive set of Financial Management Guidelines
outlining basic financial principles and detailing policies around
revenues and expense, contingencies and reserves, cash
management and investments, risk management, procurement,
capital planning, and financial reporting. We also adopted a fund
balance policy to mitigate financial risk from unforeseen
revenue fluctuations or unanticipated expenditures and to ensure
that our reserves will be sufficient in future years. Current
reserves are at their highest level since the Great Recession.
Emphasis on Transparency and Efficiency.
I have been an energetic advocate for transparency and
efficiency in local government, and Easton has made great
strides in these areas. We have maintained a policy of free
access to public records for many years. Until recently, most
requests were answered the same day, and no one is charged a
fee. Our website contains all manner of informationthe
Minutes on Demand feature allows easy searches for minutes,
agendas, documents, and reports. Our ground-breaking
ClearGov visual budget provides useful demographic and
financial information at the click of a mouse. Several years ago,
we initiated the Town Crier weekly electronic newsletter that
provides timely information to subscribers (for free) about
happenings in town. Residents can pay bills online, report
problems, apply for a job opening, and, through our permitting
software, most permits for individuals and businesses are
processed online, in real time including inter-departmental
reviews and payment of fees.
I initiated the use of social media in our community, which was
underutilized in the State of Massachusetts at that time. The
towns social media presence has proved to be an effective
means of distributing information effectively, particularly during
emergencies. Notably, our Facebook followers have grown from
fewer than 300 to over 3000 since I decentralized status updates
to include public safety and other department heads, including
mobile and off hour updates, five years ago.
Easton is one of the most efficient communities in
Massachusetts when compared to its peers. Our spending per-
capita is below the median per-capita spending for comparable
communities, while general government spending is last among
our neighbors and comparable communities. Departmental
consolidations and reorganizations are one tool we have used to
achieve these efficiencies. For example, the Planning,
Conservation, and Zoning areas had 5.5 budgeted employees ten
years ago. Today it has four on-budget employees and one off-
budget employee, and they do more. Whereas in 2006 the staff
supported three boards (Planning, Conservation, and Board of
Appeals), they now support eight boards and committees:
Planning, Conservation, Board of Appeals, Affordable Housing
Trust, Historic Commission, Community Preservation
Committee, Economic Development Council, and Agricultural
Commission. Recruiting, hiring, mentoring, and compensating
competent and savvy professional staff is essential to achieving
this level of efficiency. In any event, and notwithstanding the
notable failures of one, the department heads and other
professionals this town employs ought to be a great source of
pride for this community.
Creating and maintaining an efficient and effective workplace is
an ongoing process. To that end, we entered into Governor
Bakers community compact program, bringing the Department
of Revenue in to review, at no cost to taxpayers, our financial
operations. Their report recommends a consolidation of three
departments into one finance department. This is a model that
has worked well in other towns and should further enhance our
capabilities.
Enhancing the Quality of Life.
Having a safe and healthy community where people can enjoy
life is the main goal of any town government. It is also very
challenging and requires community support, public and private
sector cooperation, and a plan to meet the unique needs of the
town. Prior to my tenure, the previous Master Plan for the Town
of Easton was last completed when I was a student in Junior
High School. Being well past its prime and not looked at in
decades, it was clear that we needed to get this plan off the back-
burner. Early in my tenure, I initiated and facilitated a workshop
among community leaders to begin developing a vision for the
future of Easton. This was the spade work for the Master Plan.
Unfortunately, the Great Recession delayed taking the next step,
but, after a two-year effort, the Planning and Zoning Board
unanimously adopted Eastons comprehensive plan in 2014. The
Planning and Zoning Board, our excellent Planning Department
staff, and dozens of citizens worked with our Master Plan
Steering Committee to envision Easton in terms of
transportation and circulation, the local economy, open spaces,
parks and natural resources, culture and education, public
services and facilities, and historic resources. My most
important contribution to this effort was to insist on a 15-
member steering committee of Easton residents to ensure broad-
based input and determine their own future with the aid of
professionals. The resulting plan is a living document with a
specific action plan that our citizens and professional planners
are working to implement.
A safe and healthy community requires high quality town
services. One of the accomplishments I am most proud of is that,
through times of great financial difficulty, we did not cut
services to those who needed them most. We maintained
important services to our elders, youth, and veterans. Senior
transportation services, Meals on Wheels, social outreach, daily
programs, youth recreation, and veterans services continued
without interruption. We also managed to open the Towns first
community center, Frothingham Hall. While some called for
cutting these programs, we held firm that the well-being of these
groups was as important as traditional public safety and public
works programs. This year we are installing a full-time outreach
coordinator to replace the retiring half-time position so that
social services can be provided not only to senior citizens but
also to veterans, youth, and families. In addition, a volunteer
position working with Easton Wings of Hope has been
established to reach out to residents struggling with opioid
addiction. This is exactly the kind of healthy community work
we hoped to accomplish by integrating the Health Department
with the Council on Aging, the Recreation Department, and the
Veterans Services Department under the leadership of my
appointee, Kristin Kennedy.
Even while bolstering services, we have still enhanced public
safety and public works. The very earliest achievement of my
tenure was implementing a town-sponsored trash and recycling
collection program. Before this program came to fruition, each
homeowner was responsible for contracting individually with
private trash companies. The result was higher prices, multiple
trash trucks on neighborhood streets on various days, and no
recycling. By introducing a program to compete with the private
trash companies, we lowered the cost of this service to
customers by hundreds of dollars per year and regularized pick-
up schedules. We now have weekly recycling collection, and its
done with cleaner natural-gas-powered trucks.
The issue of understaffing in the police and fire departments was
also addressed. First and foremost, we professionalized the
public safety dispatch operation by fully staffing it, combining
police and fire dispatch, and improving training. This meant the
elimination of shifts spent by our police officers and firefighters
on the dispatch desk, increasing our frontline first-response
capabilities without hiring new personnel. When we did hire
additional personnel, we addressed firefighter/paramedics first
to ensure the capability of having two ambulances running,
improving service and relying less on mutual aid and increased
ambulance revenues. Police staffing and effectiveness was
addressed by adding to the detective bureau and hiring a Deputy
Chief. My appointees, Chiefs Gary Sullivan and Kevin
Partridge, run professional public safety organizations (our
police department is nationally accredited) that provide top-
notch services to our citizens. Chief Partridge was also tasked
with heading our emergency management operations. The
improvement in response, communication, cooperation, and
effectiveness has been universally applauded.
In the budget for FY 2018 that I was preparing before being
suspended, we were including a Deputy Fire Chief, one
firefighter/paramedic to further improve ambulance service, and
three new police officers so that we could add a juvenile
detective, re-establish a resource officer in the Southeastern
Regional High School, and improve patrol capabilities. I was
encouraged by the Board of Selectmens vote to endorse my
recommendation that the Town enter into a compact with the
Towns of Mansfield, Norton, and Foxboro to create a regional
dispatch operation. Despite this vote occurring during my
suspension, it is good to know that the Board still recognizes the
value of my initiatives. Such an operation will improve service
and save money on an annual basis.
David Field, our DPW Director and Town Engineer, has done an
outstanding job managing the Towns physical assets. Prior to
my tenure, the town had eliminated all in-house civil
engineering capabilities. When the opening occurred for DPW
Director, I changed the job to require certification as a
Massachusetts Registered Professional Engineer. This resulted
in the hiring of David Field, who epitomizes professional
integrity. With the support of Town Meeting, we have stopped
the rapid deterioration of our roadways using state-of-the-art
construction techniques and scientifically backed road surface
rating inventories to identify which roads are in in what state of
repair to maximize the efficient use of our roadway funds,
increase the useful life of our roads, and thereby save money in
the long run. We have also identified the maintenance challenges
facing each public building and increased or redirected resources
to meet these needs. Through better maintenance, the town will
forestall expensive capital improvements. Operationally our
crews are responsive and effective; they made handling historic
levels of snowfall look easy, and our Water Division is
continually recognized as among the best in the state by the
Department of Environmental Protection.
A public/private venture to create Keach Field (a first-class
outdoor recreation facility for all ages), the Shovel Town
Cultural District, the Agricultural Commission, the expansion of
the Farmers Market, Alis Playground, the opening of the
Trustees of Reservations Governor Ames Estate to the public, a
lifesaving traffic signal at the intersection of Prospect and
Foundry Streetsall of these projects are examples of the kinds
of developments that happened during my tenure in which I
played roles small and large for the betterment of the town.
Queset Gardens was not on anyones radar until I added the
requirement to the library parking lot lease that the library take
stewardship of it. It had been a forgotten, overgrown mess that
now, owing to a lot of community support, is a jewel. My
foresight got the ball rolling, and the people did the rest.
Economic Renewal.
When I was hired, the Town had just voted an operational
override. The Selectmen at that time were concerned that the
override would only last three to five years and that some
structural changes to the tax base needed to occur so that
overrides of proposition 2 wouldnt become common. The
relatively small percentage of commercial property contributing
to the tax levy was seen as a major problem. The Selectmen set a
very clear expectation that economic development was to be a
priority. It was long believed that the lack of a sanitary sewer
system was the major limiting factor in expanding the
commercial tax base, but the town had been unable to move
forward. I believe that my experience in managing and building
public infrastructure and the development of public/private
partnerships were major reasons that I was selected over the
other finalist. I feel that I have been very successful in this area.
The Downtown redevelopment is the best example of that
success, but I am confident that the town will continue to benefit
economically from my initiatives long after I retire.
Any town that wishes to build a new sewer system must
complete a Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan
(CWMP). Easton had begun that process prior to my arrival, but
it languished because the cost of construction seemed to be too
high a hill to climb. We put a plan into action that narrowed the
ambition of the previous effort by designating only certain areas
of the town to be equipped with sewers. We presented a map to
Town Meeting in 2008, which approved the sewer district for
targeted high-needs areas. I am pleased to say that after many
years of diligent work the Secretary of Environmental Affairs
approved Eastons CWMP on June 9, 2014.
It is said that much of Easton was built by the economic
powerhouse that was the Ames Shovel Company in the 19 and th

early 20 centuries. It certainly continues to have an impact,

th

providing annual funding to the town via the Ames Trust and
funding more than half of the cost to operate the Ames Free
Library. The company also has left a physical legacy in the way
of some architectural marvels. Lets not forget that Town Hall
was a gift from the Ames family. Even with that longstanding
legacy, the Shovel Works site, by 2006, had become an eyesore.
A series of owners had left it partially occupied and partially
boarded up. A developer came along who wanted to demolish
part of it, make unwise additions to the buildings that remained,
and add a large new apartment building in the center of the site.
The proposed 160-unit project had one redeeming feature: a
wastewater treatment plant approval for enough capacity to
serve the site. Since this was proposed before we had achieved
safe harbor from the provisions of 40B, it was certain to become
a long-running controversy in the town and would require
expensive opposition to fight it at the State level.
Having experience in historic preservation and in public/private
partnerships, I knew that there were developers out there who
specialized in historic preservation and reuse of sites like this.
After some outreach, I found Beacon Communities. I wont go
through the entire history of this very complex development that
resulted in a meticulously restored site with only 113 apartments
(30 affordable), a home for the Chamber of Commerce and
Cultural District Council Artists, and won the prestigious
Driehaus Award from the National Trust for Historic
Preservation. But I do want to talk about its role in the economic
revival of Main Street.
Main Street is undergoing a physical transformation that was
made possible by a decision I made when the Shovel Works
project was planned. The previous developer had proposed and
gained approval for a wastewater plant that would service 160
apartments. The successful Shovel Works project only had 113. I
decided to build the extra wastewater capacity to supply North
Easton Village including Main Street. No one liked the idea. Not
the developer or their lawyers, and certainly not the Bank of
America who was providing construction financing. They said a
public wastewater facility built by a public entity on a private
site could not be done, and they doubted our ability to produce it
on time if it could be done. We proved them wrong and
delivered the plant ahead of schedule and under budget. With
that achievement, we could go about the business of providing
sewer to homes in the village that were existing on failed septic
systems and of promoting economic development on Main
Street. In addition, we received $2M in state grants to help
reduce the cost of the sewer system, build the town parking lot,
and re-construct Main Street with new sidewalks, period
lighting, and underground utilities.
It is an irrefutable fact that no developer, no matter how rich or
how interested, would have been able to do what is being done
now without the sewer system. I worked to make that happen
against the odds, and it has led to a complete transformation of
our historic downtown.
Before Shovel Works, there was Queset Commons, a mixed
commercial and residential development being built under
Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40R. It is also subject to a
development agreement that I negotiated with the developer that
provides for the reconstruction of the intersection of Belmont
and Washington Streets, including traffic signals and pedestrian
amenities, as well as the reconstruction and expansion of the
Depot Street Fire Station. It also includes incentive payments to
the Town for providing housing. The Town has received
hundreds of thousands of dollars in such payments, along with
State grants for infrastructure work in excess of $1M. The
project also includes a wastewater plant (privately built) that
will service the development and the abutting Queset
Commercial District. Working with the Planning and Zoning
Board and staff, we developed and won Town Meeting approval
for the rezoning of this district to provide greater flexibility and
density for the development proposals that are certain to follow
the construction of the sewer system this year.
This spring will be a critical period for the success of these
efforts. Construction will begin on intersection improvements at
Roosevelt Dr. and Washington Street for better access to Queset
Commons. Construction is also slated for the Queset sewer
infrastructure. In addition, the developer is behind schedule on
constructing a commercial building on the site, so leadership to
ensure compliance with the development agreement is essential.
The latest economic initiative is the Five Corners District. This
areas growth has long been stymied by the lack of sewer
infrastructure. Over the past two years we have taken some very
concrete steps to remedy that problem. First, we identified a
source for wastewater service provision to the town in the
Mansfield, Norton, and Foxboro sewer district. The district is
currently constructing a replacement for its wastewater
treatment plant that will provide greater capacity than the three
towns need. We began negotiations with the Town of Mansfield
to sell us some of their capacity. This agreement provides for
160,000 gallons per day of capacity, making it the largest
treatment capacity we have developed so far. Concurrent to this
agreement, the Avalon Bay 290-unit apartment and townhouse
development was being planned. They would have had to
construct, maintain, and operate a private treatment plant to
service their development. We proposed an alternative.
Eliminate that cost and buy some of our Mansfield capacity.
They agreed and financed the construction of a sewer from
Mansfield into Easton to service the western edge of the Five
Corners District. In all, Avalon Bay will pay over $3M for
infrastructure and wastewater treatment capacity in an
agreement we negotiated. This is in addition to $2.6M for
general mitigation that will be earmarked for school building
construction or renovation.
This sewer unlocks vast potential for economic development in
this commercial corridor. In fact, just before being suspended, I
was in talks with a major commercial land owner regarding
development of two sites near Avalon dependent on the towns
ability to deliver sewer capacity.
Some Final Thoughts.
I have tried to give you the highlights of a ten-year tenure as
Eastons Town Administrator. I am also attaching a list of
selected accomplishments. Boiling ten years of service down to
a few pages means that some episodes are left out entirely and
that this is, by its nature, merely a summary. There are a few
themes that I think are particularly useful in considering the
present action of the Board of Selectmen. First, I recruit, hire,
mentor, and empower really good people. The Town of Easton
has professional staff that is well-educated, experienced,
certified, and respected by their peers. They are officers in their
professional associations, some of them teach and evaluate
others in their professions, and others speak at professional
conferences. The fact that the Board of Selectmen turned the
town over, with 48 hours notice, to the relatively inexperienced
Assistant Town Administrator, is shocking in its boldness but
belies the stated reason for my removal. For someone whose
conduct confirms a complete and systematic failure to
exercise any reasonable degree of supervision of a department
head he hired it is curious that the Board replaced him with
someone the Town Administrator recruited, hired, trained,
taught, mentored, and promoted, and, in doing so, heaped praise
upon him. He is certainly deserving of praise. Since I hired him
fresh from college five years ago with no municipal experience
because our vetting process revealed great potential, he has risen
to become a leader among his peers, a scholarship winning 4.0
graduate of an MPA program, certified in Massachusetts as a
Public Procurement Officer, co-chair of the Massachusetts
Municipal Association Strategic Planning Committee, and now
Acting Town Administrator. I recognized this potential long
before he was promoted to Assistant Town Administrator in
2016 and it was my skill as a manager of human resources and
his innate abilities and desire that combined to produce a
competent professional administrator.
The task of submitting bylaws to the Attorney General is but one
example of hundreds, if not thousands, of functions routinely
carried out by our employees on a daily, weekly, monthly and
annual basis. I do not minimize the importance of this task in
particular. However, the notion that I would have direct
responsibility for oversight of this task in particular ignores the
volume and complexity of the work carried out by all of our
Town departments and employees every day. I am being held to
an impractical and completely unrealistic standard of
performance if I am to be terminated for the former Town
Clerks failure to complete this one task.
The fact is that I have hired and supervised effectively dozens of
staff over my tenure. In the present case, the individual was
experienced, educated, certified and respected by his peers, yet
still failed to perform a basic part of his job. In my view, what
matters is how I handled that failure. First, I gave him numerous
opportunities to explain himself. I investigated his explanations
and found them lacking. I confronted him with my findings that
he lied to me and others over the years and attempted to cover
up his failure by blaming someone else. His response was to
continue blaming an innocent party. So I held him to account,
not simply for the failure but for the lies and cover-up. I did this
publicly and gave the Board a detailed report. I then assigned
my assistant to assume the duties of Town Clerk and instructed
him to report weekly in writing, holding nothing back. In
contrast to the former Town Clerk, my conduct and the conduct
of my staff has been completely transparent, professional, and
brimming with integrity.
This crisis, like any other, requires clear thinking, a calm
demeanor, and swift action. I exhibited those qualities (working
with Town Counsel) by quickly identifying a solution to the
failure to submit by-laws. That solution, after being endorsed by
every major board in town government, was adopted by Town
Meeting, the Massachusetts Legislature, and signed into law by
Governor Baker. Up until my suspension, the acting Town Clerk
had been submitting by-laws to the Attorney General for
approval. Since that time, I can only hope that progress has been
made.
As for doubt around development, no evidence has been
presented that any development is truly at risk. In fact, the
Attorney General recently approved Eastons zoning by-law
making any zoning related issues with development moot. Any
difficulty there may have been was only procedural in nature
and temporary. My record on economic development speaks for
itself.
Finally, my record on negotiating mitigation and development
agreements, obtaining state grants, negotiating contracts, and
enhancing, in particular, ambulance revenue is second to none.
We have generated revenue many times the amount of my
annual salary over the years. My record on keeping expenses
lower than average is clear. The by-law problem is well on its
way to being successfully resolved. Any theoretical risk was
purely speculative; on the other hand, my record on protecting
the town from risk is real.
We will present testimony and evidence at the hearing that will
show that this preliminary resolution is fraught with inaccuracies
and that there is not sufficient cause for my removal.