Town of Natick - Board of Selectmen Minutes

Mr. Lemnios stated that he had a master’s degree in public administration and had served in the Peace Corps in Zaire. Since 1993 he has been the Town Manager in Hull, a community which has gone through a major renaissance. He credited the good times in the 1990’s as a major element in the revitalization, but noted that when he arrived the government and organization was in disarray and in eight years laboring with the citizens and the employees, the fiscal condition and infrastructure was turned around as well as the general sentiment. House values have doubled.

Mr. Lemnios responded that he recognized, and his career history showed, that you can’t come into these positions and stay for 2-3 years and have an expectation to have a meaningful and lasting impact on the community. You have to commit to that community for a good length of time and to him that was more than five years. He told Hull that he would be there for 7-10 years. However, at some point you have to look if you have come to the end of the rope personally or give the community the opportunity to seek another manager. He thought it was a fair expectation to look for a ten-year window.

Declining to get into any specific instances, Mr. Lemnios advised that he had circumstances in the community with employees where he had to take personnel actions. Those actions cannot be taken lightly. A termination was a severe action that affects the employee and the department. Legal counsel has to be consulted. He thought the key of

any personnel action was the documentation. He made sure the management team was involved in that action and everybody was on the same page – the department head, legal counsel and that the Board of Selectmen was aware that it was going to occur and understood the rationale and that it went through some sort of process to make sure it was a just termination. When you get into those actions, the documentation has to be tied up tight and it has to be done properly because it can represent a liability for the community.

Mr. Lemnios responded that it was probably a couple of different characteristics. He drives his staff crazy because he asks a lot of questions. He needs to understand what people are talking about and does a lot of Q&A to get the information so he understands the nuances. He tries to bring people into the process. The decisions made by a town administrator or policy established by a Board of Selectmen and implemented through a town administrator affect a lot of people in and outside the organization. Gathering information to understand those

Mr. Lemnios continued that the last piece was accountability – defining when something was going to finish. All too often a discussion was started on something and it goes on and on and there was no end point. Defining the end point at the beginning was important. People come through the front door because they want a solution. They may not understand that the solution they want may not be legally capable but if you help them understand that you were going to do whatever you could, that was an important piece to success – having an open door policy, returning calls and not being afraid to engage the people who pay you.

Mr. Lemnios responded that Hull had a downtown parking issue. It was a problem that persisted and had an impact on merchants and by default on the community. Hull has a business district that was exploring growth. A developer came into town recently and will be adding a whole block of stores and that will add to the parking problem. Mr. Lemnios said he along with the Police Chief met with the merchants and came to a temporary solution. Parking placards were issued for employees to help alleviate the problem. The Board of Selectmen control parking regulations and with the merchants and the Chief put together a program for a short-term parking solution.

Mr. Hughes inquired if Hull had a deputy town administrator, and Mr. Lemnios advised that Hull did not. Mr. Hughes then noted that one of the first important duties as town administrator in Natick was filling the deputy position and what qualities would he (Mr. Lemnios) look for and what would he expect a deputy to do.

Having been in a deputy role, Mr. Lemnios said he thought he was familiar with the nature of that position. He would need somebody with a good handle on finances, and an understanding of local government and the process of local government. One key role was to leverage the town administrator into the community and he would be looking for someone in whom he had the confidence to delegate to go to another meeting whether it was a citizens group or department head – somebody with the ability to communicate well and report back accurately and somebody who would from time-to-time step into the town administrator’s role.

Asked if he would not assign the deputy to be responsible for personnel or labor and management issues, Mr. Lemnios’ response was not necessarily. He would have to look at the candidate pool and pick a candidate with a good solid set of experience. That person may not have enough experience with labor, but have experience in another area. This was a person stepping into the position that was looking for growth opportunity and he might only have that person captured for 3-5 years and he would have to make sure to keep that job fresh to keep the person excited about coming to work. Keeping the work place as something interesting helps retain people.

task force formed to look at the community and jump-start the community. Paragon Park was an 800 pound gorilla and a large economic hole that needed to be filled. In that era a lot of different proposals were put forth and the community rejected those. The community decided to get involved in planning and he was able to enter that planning to figure out the long and mid-term objectives. Town-wide vision sessions were held, 2 charettes were held and he agreed that the Town wanted a grounds up planning process with as much public representation as possible.

Mr. Lemnios continued that it requires an intensive process in terms of time, but it pays back on the backend. A whole wide variety of objectives for the community were identified that centered on the schools, harbor planning, infrastructure, etc. and the Town has been pretty true to it. Every single board and committee was asked to adopt it as their guiding principal and it has been guiding the Town for the last ten years or so.

Mr. Lemnios noted that there were some sets of smaller planning such as the Nantasket Pier. The Town knew it could have housing there, but a whole element of the community said they don’t want housing, but want open space. The last Town Meeting had three articles to allow the Town to keep it open space. There was one restaurant on the site and one of the articles allowed the Town to give the restaurant a long-term lease. The Town owns the property. Mr. Lemnios concluded that he thought it important for the town administrator to work in concert with the Board of Selectmen to develop the insight. It wasn’t just the Board of Selectmen, but a lot of other elements. It was the community.

Mr. Lemnios responded that he had reviewed Natick’s charter and the Schools were required to submit their budget to the town administrator so there was ample time to have it discussed. It was clear from reviewing the Town Meeting warrant that the community was facing some difficult issues. Mr. Lemnios added that he has had a very collaborative relationship with the superintendent. The first few years the superintendent did not want to submit the budget as required and that required him (Mr. Lemnios) marshalling it, but now the school budget was submitted consistent with the others. He further noted that Hull just went through a very successful period of moving the schools forward and that was a collaborative effort between the Town Administrator, Board of Selectmen, and School Committee.

Mr. McKinley asked Mr. Lemnios to describe what he considered to be his most significant failure as Town Administrator, and Mr. Lemnios responded that only in the last couple of years had he been able to get some additional staff that he knew would have been helpful earlier. Hull was sharing a part-time human resources person with Hingham and sharing a MIS Director with the School Department, and he thought he should have made the case earlier for the positions. The MIS Director has been valuable in getting E-mail, etc. up and running and the Human Resources Director has been invaluable in terms of getting the record keeping consistent with federal and state standards and developing an employee handbook.

When asked what he attributed his failure to recognize that (the need of the two positions), Mr. Lemnios’ response was, ‘money’. He noted that when he got to Hull he had a secretary for 12-l/2 hours per week. One issue was where was the organization relative to the resources available and the resources weren’t available. In the mid 1990’s there was a crush of other events going on that sent this need to the back burner, but in the last several years, the MIS position has become more complicated and there have been greater demands to get the data required. Having that position was necessary. They were now in the process of developing GIS for the Assessors and that was all customer driven and having the right people on staff to help meet that demand was very important.

Mr. Lemnios noted that the charter doesn’t put it (deputy) into the Town department head level. To a great extent the deputy town administrator was an assistant within the office. The person has to have the ability to speak on behalf of the Town Administrator. Often the position doesn’t have any direct line authority and the authority for the deputy comes from the Town Administrator and people have to understand that when the deputy was speaking, they were speaking for the Town Administrator. For major positions in Hull, he pulled a team of people together to review the applications and interview. It was part of bringing someone into the organization that people were comfortable with and having some department heads involved would be wise.

Mr. Stern asked if the committee was comprised of Town employees or citizens, and Mr. Lemnios responded that for the Harbormaster he didn’t have any citizens. He had employees and a member of the Board of Selectmen, Police Chief, and Assistant Harbormaster. He included a member of the Board of Selectmen because that selection had to go to the Board of Selectmen, similar to what was done in Natick. The Board has a 15-day right to say it doesn’t want an appointment.

Having been responsible for negotiating five labor contracts, Mr. Hughes asked Mr. Lemnios to describe his experience. Mr. Lemnios responded that he had been very fortunate. He could only think of 2-3 grievances. He didn’t have labor counsel for negotiations. Typically it would be himself and the department head. For Fire it would be himself, the Chief and the Deputy. For clerical it would be himself. Now with the human resources person, he would bring that person into the mix as well.

Mr. Lemnios continued that when he arrived in Hull the Police contract was hanging out there for about l-l/2 years and that was one of the things the Board directed him to get done. There were morale issues involved and he settled that contract. He successfully communicated to the employees the fiscal conditions of the community and invited them in to see the books. The first set of contracts was 1994-1997 and he got good settlements (for the Town) in terms of wages. He made a deal with the unions that he needed to get the finances back on track before he could talk about enhancements to the contract. From reviewing Natick’s finances, he thought that was an issue that Natick was coming up against and there will need to be a lot of conversations of how to make this work for the next few years.

Mr. Ball asked if in Hull the public felt they had a right to drop in and chat with Mr. Lemnios unannounced. Mr. Lemnios’ reply was, ‘yes’. When asked how he felt about that, Mr. Lemnios responded that he didn’t mind and his wife understands it. There was a woman in town who was notorious for calling him every Saturday at 8:15 a.m. He noted that he was not shy about talking to people, and felt that talking to people was an important element of a town administrator. A town administrator was the Board of Selectmen’s representative into the community. He was the person implementing the Board’s policy and has to have the ability

Mr. Ciccariello asked Mr. Lemnios to define his approach to financial management, and Mr. Lemnios responded that it was conservative. He recognized that that was a double-edged sword, but it was better for the community because it allows the community to build reserves for when there were downturns. He also cited the need for a good and collaborative relationship with the Finance committee, and noted that he had worked with four different chairs and when Town Meeting rolls around if somebody has a question, he was the one to answer. He was designated by the School Building Committee to make the presentation on the School debt exclusion. Hull’s Town Meeting was the first Monday in May and he started the budget process the beginning of November with a first draft due back in early December. There would be reviews in December and January meeting with department heads and the month of February was largely consumed with the Finance Committee.

Mr. McKinley questioned if that was because there hadn’t been a lot of growth in Hull or was the tax levy adequate to meet the needs. Mr. Lemnios respond that there was not a lot of industrial in Hull. The town was densely populated and will be that way forever because it was a relatively small land mass. When he got to Hull, working with the Finance Committee and people interested in the finances, he got a good handle with what was going on and the budget reflected realistic revenue assumptions. They went after some outstanding taxes, looked at accounts receivables, and looked at the revenue streams. They didn’t adjust fee schedules and didn’t spend every penny. By level funding state aid (in the town’s budget), he put money aside into the stabilization fund in anticipation of the school project. Hull’s tax rate was at $12.37. He thought Hull’s financial team had done a good job at maintaining and adding services and by consolidating, they could absorb the 10% cut in state aid without cutting positions. That 10% built in for Fiscal 2003 will now be 5% or less and the money that was not spent will go into the stabilization fund and won’t be spent on something else.

As the top administrative officer of a major organization, Mr. Stern asked what trait by staff drove Mr. Lemnios up a wall. Mr. Lemnios responded that it was lack of initiative. He tells his staff that nobody comes in the door to say hello or to thank you. They come because they have a problem whether it be a pothole or they want a streetlight. The inability to show initiative or try to find a solution or recognizing that your daily bread comes from the taxpayers (drives him up a wall). A lot of times just listening to the problem satisfies the person.

In follow-up Mr. Hughes noted every year it was up to the Board of Selectmen to decide whether to split the tax rate and asked how Mr. Lemnios saw his role in that decision. Mr. Lemnios noted that the budget played a big role in what the rate would be and the other was the Assessors. The budget drives the tax rate and it was the Assessors who will come to the Board recommending a tax rate.

Mr. Hughes restated his question and asked how Mr. Lemnios would participate in the process of the Board deciding whether to split the rate. Mr. Lemnios responded that a piece of it was to have available the staff work of what the schedule would be and help the Board understand the impact and provide information on what other communities were doing. It was the Board of Selectmen’s decision and besides the staff work, impact, and advice the Town Administrator does not play a role.

Mr. Ball recalled that Mr. Lemnios had described his involvement in Hull’s override as being the spokesperson who would answer questions and worked on the committee. Mr. Ball asked if Mr. Lemnios thought it was appropriate or inappropriate for a town administrator be an outspoken proponent or opponent for an override – not responding to questions but saying in his professional opinion he believed it was in the best interest of the town – being proactive.

Mr. Lemnios responded that in late November there was a very small snippet in the ‘Boston Herald’ saying the SBAB had changed the schedule. He sat on the school building committee along with the superintendent, Board of Selectmen and School Committee and said there might be a problem for Hull because they had three schools on the list for renovation. They had structured a financing program based on a four-year reimbursement with cash flow on hand without going for the debt exclusion. With a delay in reimbursement, that would dramatically alter the plan. They called the SBAB, met with them, and asked the school building committee to call a joint meeting with the School Committee, Board of Selectmen, and building committee and he (Mr.

Lemnios) was responsible for the presentation. A determination was made to look at three avenues of approach: 1) Was it possible to delay the projects; 2) was it possible to do a $5-10M phase for the high school; 3) look at the debt exclusion. All the options were researched. An outside engineer was hired to re-examine the high school and it was determined that the Town couldn’t just stop doing something because there were handicapped access issues and the windows and the roof. That left the debt exclusion. Two public meetings were convened and there was a constant publication of what was being done. What had to be done was laid out, the cost ramifications of a $20M debt exclusion, and the impact on the homeowners. There was input back from the committee for adjustments on the schedule. They wanted the Board of Selectmen to commit funding $700,000 of the debt load and a memorandum of understanding was signed. The impact was that in years 1-2 there was no impact on the taxes and a dramatic impact on the back.

Mr. Lemnios continued that he thought the highlight of the process was that it did exactly what people want government to do – investigate and identify the problem. Solution paths were found to overcome the obstacles to keep the projects on track. Consensus on the board was built. Every board was unanimous in support (over the override). Town Meeting had 800-900 people show up in a nor’easter to get it on the ballot. It was an intense process time wise with a lot of meetings and a lot of telephone conversations. He tried to stick to presenting the facts and only the facts and not get into the scare tactics. It had to be recognized that 22% of the population in Hull was over 65 and that many people bought in Hull because it was affordable although now it was gentrifying itself. There was not a whole reservoir of deep pocket people. In conclusion Mr. Lemnios said he was proud to be able to present a compelling case without going overboard.

Mr. Lemnios responded that the organization, through the Community Development office, recognizes the importance of that element in Natick. He thought that one issue that confronts a community was smart growth. Some growth was needed to keep the residential rates in control, but the question was how to foster growth that was beneficial for the businesses and residential and that (the answer) was bringing people into the process. There had to be recognition that a vibrant business community was good for the community. The struggle in Hull was that it was 97% residential because there was no way out of that position. The burden of operating the government will continue to fall primarily on the residents. Working with collaboration with the business community was very important, and he thought by and large that the business community was understanding that today growth has to be accomplished by collaboration.

Mr. McKinley inquired as to how the Hull Board of Selectmen evaluates Mr. Lemnios’ performance. Mr. Lemnios explained that the most recent was in February and the Board sat with him and went through his significant accomplishments. His credibility with the board and community was very good and he was very fortunate to have board members who were very active in the community and very supportive.

When asked if the Board of Selectmen performs a review every year, Mr. Lemnios responded that it was not a formal review process. The Board, however, lets him know if they think he did something they don’t think makes sense. He reiterated that he was very fortunate to have a good relationship with the Board of Selectmen. The town administrator position (in Hull) began in 1988 and he was the second Hull town administrator and has had increased responsibilities placed in his hands.

areas abuts an ACEC that was jointly owned by Cohasset and he put together a deal with Cohasset and Hingham that allowed them to sewer a section of the pond and a section of Hingham. They (Cohasset and Hingham) put up significant upfront capital and that paid for the two areas that needed to be sewered and allowed the Town to access state funds because it was regional arrangement. It was a win/win. It got the remaining part of the Town sewered, got an environmental issue addressed, and got access for state funds for capital improvements.

Mr. Hughes asked Mr. Lemnios to describe his relationship with the state legislators. Mr. Lemnios told the Board that he had a very good working relationship and talked with them regularly. Hull was lucky that both were very proactive people and out in the community, and he thought they were doing a good job representing the interests of Hull.

Mr. Ball asked if Hull was becoming Gasb34 compliant, and Mr. Lemnios advised that they were in the beginning. The auditor was putting it on the radar screen and would be in the next management letter. When asked if he thought the listing and assigning of values to fixed assets would be an onerous process, Mr. Lemnios noted that Hull had a school going through renovations so there was a good start. For the other items he was going to put a process together to get accurate values. He was not sure how it was going to be addressed, but he knew it had to be addressed.

Mr. Ciccariello inquired about what strengths Mr. Lemnios would bring to Natick, and Mr. Lemnios responded that he felt it was a willingness to stay engaged in the process and stay positive. Problems need to be solved day in and day out, and it was all too easy when you hit bumps in the road to hang your head and say you don’t have a solution. It was important to keep people involved and your eye on the ball. When he was in Attleboro, there was a similar downturn to now, and he put together some programs. If there were bumps in the road, they can be overcome.

Mr. Stern asked if Mr. Lemnios had a commitment to affordable housing. Mr. Lemnios responded that it was thorny issue in Massachusetts especially with 40B activity and the reaction by communities has been mixed. Some developers have played some games. When he looked at Natick’s downtown he saw renovated buildings, prosperity and a lot of initiative to improve the community, but there had to be some recognition that there were people who lived here all their lives that helped make this possible. There had to be some ways to find some affordable housing although it was a difficult issue because land values were so high in Eastern Massachusetts and it becomes a tricky Rubics cube.

When asked by Mr. Stern what was the one thing Mr. Lemnios would want the Board to come away from tonight remembering him by, Mr. Lemnios responded that he recognized that the Board had a difficult decision to make. There were three candidates that were all similar on technical qualifications and knowledge of government in Massachusetts and he would suspect that the decision would be on fit and personality. There was a term, ‘the art of administration’, and he believed it was an art. The art was how to get people working together and he believed if the Board looked at his history, he committed himself to getting people to work toward common objectives and he thought he had been successful in doing that. He hoped the Board would recognize that they had someone with the technical skills, but more importantly the ability to connect with the public and employees to help the Board continue to improve the quality of life in Natick.

Mr. Lemnios asked how the relationship was amongst the boards on working collaboratively towards goals. Mr. McKinley responded that in general they were very good. He noted that Mr. Hughes was a 12-year member and 8 year chairman of the Finance Committee. Mr. Ciccariello was a past member of the Planning board. Mr. Stern was a past member

of the Finance Committee. Mr. Ball’s wife was a former Selectman, and he (Mr. McKinley) was a past member of the Conservation Commission. In general the Boards work well together. There was some history over the past few years of some head butting with the School Committee, but it was entirely professional and a difference of opinion. One goal of the Board and the School Committee was to turn that around this year.

Mr. Lemnios inquired as to what the Board saw as some of the big issues confronting the Town in the next 3-5 years. Mr. Hughes identified the major issues, along with many little issues, as the replacement of the trash fee recently instituted to make up a budget shortfall with a pay-as-you-throw program, and the renovation of the high school. He noted that the high school renovation had been talked about as being $42 million, but there wasn’t anybody who didn’t think it was closer to $50 million. Everybody realizes it has to be a debt exclusion plus he (Mr. Hughes) didn’t know when or if there would be consideration of an operating override.

Mr. Lemnios then inquired as to what qualities the Board was looking for in a Town Administrator, and Mr. Stern responded that he was looking for someone who had the ability to deal with complex financial issues and complex labor issues as well as the ability to build consensus. There were a lot of citizen committees and the Board has involved as many people as it could and has gotten great input.

Mr. Ciccariello stated that he was looking for a leader who works on a team concept – someone who will bring a new type of leadership to Natick and who was willing to work with department heads and other employees. He wanted someone who has respect for Town employees and staff and a strong sense of financial planning.