In a significant shakeup of town agencies, Harvard Town Administrator Tim Bragan has decided to mothball a key management position and will not reappoint its current occupant.
The decision will leave vacant the position of director of economic and community development that is specified by the Harvard Charter and was adopted by the Select Board in 2018.
The current director, Chris Ryan, who has held that position since October 2018, was informed earlier this month that he will not be reappointed. Instead the town will hire a director of planning, a position that lacks the broad responsibilities for economic and community development specified by the charter, but is an available full-time position that was approved by Town Meeting in May 2018.
The changes were confirmed this week by Assistant Town Administrator Marie Sobalvarro, who is filling in for Bragan while he is away on vacation. An ad for the newly open position was posted May 11 at the websites of the Massachusetts Municipal Association and the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Planning Association. Applicants were encouraged to apply before June 1. Ryan’s last day is June 30.
The changes, once implemented, will return the organization of Town Hall to its state just prior to adoption of the town charter. Supervision of the land use board staff will be done entirely by Town Administaror Bragan. The new director of planning will report to Bragan but take direction from the Planning Board. The intent, Sobalvarro told the Press, is for the planner to “backstop” the Planning Board, providing its volunteer members with the professional expertise they need to do their work, such as the overdue revision of the town’s bylaws and support for Harvard-appropriate mutlifamily housing. In the absence of a director of economic and community development, the charter hands responsibility for those goals back to the town administrator.
Requirements for the new planning director position have also been downsized. The job requires a bachelor’s degree in planning or public policy (though a master’s degree is preferred) and three to five years municipal experience. The description calls explicitly for experience with presenting bylaws to annual town meetings “characteristic of small New England rural towns.” While the fiscal 2023 Planning Board budget includes $95,000 for an economic development director, the anticipated salary range for the planner position is $72,000 to $78,000.
No public announcement
Word of the change has made its way around town largely through word-of-mouth. Ryan said he was told of the town’s change of direction by Bragan. who hand-delivered him a letter. Sharon McCarthy, a member of the Board of Health and the now-disbanded Charter Commission, said she learned of the change at a May 10 meeting of the land use boards. Outgoing Planning Board Chair Justin Brown said he got the news then as well, and was told by Bragan there would be no public announcement. Select Board member and former Planning Board chair Erin McBee says she learned of the change secondhand from another board member.
In an email to the Press Sobalvarro wrote that Bragan reached his decision after obtaining “individual feedback” from members of the Planning Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Conservation Commission, and the Select Board liaisons to the Planning Board. The charter, she noted, assigns the town administrator full authority to make such decisions.
The change, however, was never discussed openly at a Planning Board, Select Board, or other public meeting. The first public word of the change came from Sobalvarro in her staff report to the Select Board on May 17, when she announced the job had been posted earlier that month. Her announcement drew no comment from the members who were present.
A number of former Charter Commission members have criticized the decision to leave the economic and community development position vacant—while acknowledging that the Charter empowers the town administrator to do so.
Paul Cohen, former chair of the commission, said he found the move “disheartening.” “The whole purpose of the charter was to bring direction and professionalism to the town,” he wrote in an email. “There seem to be these undercurrents from those who just seem to want to go back to the way things used to be. And I guess it’s a little disheartening because I think it’s not preparing the town for the big challenges that are coming.”
Because the position is written into the town charter, it can be altered only by a vote of town meeting, approval by the attorney general, and an affirmative vote at Town Election. McBee and Sobalvarro told the Press that conditions could change and that at some future time, the town could decide the position needed to be filled.
In an email to the Press, outgoing director Chris Ryan wrote: “It has been an honor and privilege to work in my capacity as community and economic development director for Harvard. I can say without reservation that in many ways it has been the most fulfilling and enjoyable position I have held in my career. I will greatly miss many of the people that I have worked with who contributed so much to the successes we’ve collectively accomplished together.”
He continued: “There is still much left to do, and I am confident that a very positive direction has been set and that there will be many more great achievements in the realm of planning for Harvard. As so well said by Gary Lew, ‘This is your world, shape it or someone else will.’”
