It’s been more than six months since the town has had a full-time Department of Public Works director. The position was filled by a contract employee during the summer, but that employee’s contract was temporary, and he will be leaving in a few weeks. That will leave Harvard without a public works director as snowplow season approaches, prompting Town Administrator Dan Nason to increase the town’s hiring salary from $124,340 to a range of $135,000 to $160,000. The position was reposted at that salary in October, and three candidates were interviewed last week; Nason told the Press the interview process is ongoing.
Harvard’s attempt to hire a full-time director fell short a few months ago when the job was offered at the lower number. None of the six candidates who applied had the experience and skills the town needed. On Sept. 29, Nason attended a Personnel Board meeting to say that the salary of the previous two directors, $124,340, was not high enough to attract qualified candidates.
At that meeting, Assistant Town Administrator Dawn Dunbar presented a spreadsheet of DPW director salaries in towns comparable in population and miles of roads to maintain. It showed that Harvard’s salary fell short of the average by $3,000 and the median by $6,000. The towns of Bolton and Stow, with comparable populations and miles of roads, both pay their public works directors over $130,000.
Personnel problems add to difficulty
Nason told the board that the situation is complicated by the personnel problems that Harvard was dealing with at the DPW last winter and spring. Those problems, made public during the tenure of David Smith, who left abruptly in March, are making it more difficult to attract candidates. But he added that salary is also playing a large part. He said he was shocked to learn that the salary for the position was so low when Smith was hired, and he questioned why any qualified candidate would leave their current position to face new challenges and lose seniority to come here.
Personnel Board Chair Victor Normand said that setting the hiring salary was outside the purview of the board, which would only be involved in the decision if Nason were proposing going outside the salary range of the position, which is $119,000 to $160,000. He suggested that Nason should instead consult with the Select Board about raising the number in the job posting.
But Nason said that, as town administrator, he did not need Select Board approval, and he had come before the Personnel Board as a courtesy to let them know that the current hiring salary is too low.
Select Board member Kara Minar, who is liaison to the Personnel Board, said she was uncomfortable with advertising a number that high and told Nason she didn’t think the town had an appetite for it given the current financial picture. What would happen, she asked, if Nason negotiated a starting salary at the top end of the range?
Finance Committee liaison Noyan Kinayman said he thought FinCom would have to approve it, since the position is currently budgeted for only $124,340.
But Nason said no, setting and negotiating the starting salary (within the position’s range) is the purview of the town administrator. He added that it was not his intention to pay top dollar, but it is his job to fill the position. He said the salary is market-driven, and the market has changed since COVID-19 and not going down “anytime soon.”
A tense meeting
The tense meeting was not without its moment of levity. When Kinayman asked about the contingency plan for handling snow season if a director can’t be found, Nason quipped, “We’ll stop by your house and drop off a truck.” Following a much-needed laugh, Nason said that the contingency plan is to hire another contractor to handle snowplowing season. But it’s costly—the town was paying the previous contractor over $175 an hour. Nason said he tried to do both his job and that of the DPW director for about a week. “I was failing miserably. It’s too much responsibility for one person and it cannot be done,” he said, adding that he is still managing all the DPW projects, such as connecting Harvard’s municipal water supply to Devens and next year’s reconstruction of Ayer Road.
Normand said that while there was no need for Nason to come before the Personnel Board with this issue, the discussion was not without its benefits. He said it allowed Minar and Kinayman to give their perspectives on the matter, and it “pointed out the need to review and update the salary structures,” a project that Nason will be seeking funds for in fiscal 2027.
