by Joan Eliyesil ·
Friday, March 28, 2025
Last week’s news that Department of Public Works Director David Smith is resigning after only six months on the job took the town by surprise. But the reason Smith cited for his resignation has uncovered a potentially bigger problem—an allegedly dysfunctional department. This week the Press talked to Smith about the experiences that led to his resignation.
In his resignation letter, Smith identified three longtime members of the DPW crew as the cause of the dysfunction in the department. He said they refer to themselves as “The Breakfast Club” because of their practice of going out to breakfast most mornings to various area eateries in Bolton and Leominster. Smith said they would typically be gone for more than an hour during what was supposed to be a 15-minute morning break, exclusive of travel time. Smith believes that over the course of a year, these breakfast trips, even if averaged to three days a week, cost the town over $25,000 in wages.
He also alleged that every morning when the crew got its assignments and left the DPW to start working, these three members would watch them go and linger in the building drinking coffee. He said that frequently two of the three would then spend the day driving around in one of the department’s trucks, and the third, who runs an outside business, would spend hours parked at the high school and on his phone.
In addition, Smith said the three frequently made “vicious” derogatory comments to other DPW employees. He said the behavior of the “club” created a segregated crew, and the three would avoid spending break times in the same room with the other crew members, even using Smith’s office as a break room when he wasn’t there.
Smith, who started working here in October, said he was reluctant to address these problems during the winter because treating the roads was the priority. But, he said, by the end of January, he was sometimes having trouble locating the three during the workday, so he called a crew meeting.
In that Feb. 4 meeting, Smith said he was hoping to put an end to the “breakfast club.” His “agenda for expectations,” of which he gave the Press a copy, included no more extended coffee breaks. He also placed a limit on where employees could travel to in town vehicles while on a break— Bolton Orchards to the Ayer rotary. In addition, his expectations included everyone leaving the building for work at the same time each morning, and no more derogatory comments aimed at coworkers.
After that meeting, Smith said, the three complied with his expectations, and he has no knowledge of any extended breaks or lunches out of town since then. But, he said, that’s when retaliation against him began.
Smith alleges that on the morning of Sunday, Feb. 16, plow drivers were at the DPW to deal with icy, snowy roads, and two of the “club” members asked if they could go to a diner in Leominster for breakfast. Smith said he denied that request because the employees were earning double-time. He said the two later “blasted the new town truck with snow and ice thrown from their plows while traveling at a high rate of speed as they passed me on Depot Road.” Smith said he reported that incident to town administration in an email later that day, and in that report, he said he believed it was done intentionally as retaliation for not letting the pair go to breakfast that morning.
Four days later, Smith received an email from Allyson Mitchell, the town’s assistant town administrator and human resources director, that the two plow drivers had reported him for allowing an employee who did not hold a commercial drivers license to drive a truck on DPW property. They said they had not brought this to Smith’s attention because a representative from their union had advised them to take what the union believed to be a safety issue directly to human resources. Mitchell’s email said, “They both assured me that their notification today is not a retaliatory act.” Smith told the Press the employee had a CDL permit, and Smith was allowing him to train on the property. After receiving advice from the state police regarding the training, he posted signs to keep the public from entering the DPW lot beyond his office. He said that the pair subsequently complained to town officials that he was restricting public access to a portion of the DPW.
The Press attempted to interview one of the three employees implicated in these allegations, but Jim Durkin, legislative director of AFSCME Council 93, the council that represents the 11 full-time Harvard DPW workers, contacted the Press to say that the union had no comment to make on this matter.
Smith said he believes the DPW’s segregated work environment and the behavior of the “club” members are also contributing to the high rate of employee turnover in the department. He said one employee left a week ago, and he believes two more will leave in the next few months.
Town Administrator Dan Nason told the Press he recently became aware of “some issues with the work culture at the DPW that long pre-date the current DPW director.” He said the town is working with AFSCME to “enlist their support in addressing the source of the problem with the DPW’s culture.” He said both he and Mitchell have been supporting Smith’s efforts to address the problems.
Nason said that prior to Smith’s resignation, Mitchell initiated a “cultural assessment” as a first step to improving the situation. But, he said, after Mitchell’s interview with employees, he “received reports from employees that certain union officials discouraged employees from being forthright in speaking with the Assistant Town Administrator.” As a result, Nason said, the town has contracted with an outside human resources firm to conduct the assessment, and to examine the allegations made by Smith and against him by the DPW union stewards.
Smith said he is not hopeful that anything short of the three employees implicated in his allegations leaving the DPW will solve the department’s personnel problems. He said he worries that the other eight employees won’t be truthful in interviews because of fear of retaliation. He said the town administration keeps telling him to be patient, but working every day in what he calls a hostile environment is taking a toll on him. Smith is 61 years old and also runs a small sawmill business. He said he doesn’t need the stress or the money from this job, and even his wife is telling him to “walk away.”
Smith called Nason “the best boss/coworker that I’ve had the pleasure to work with,” and said he’s sorry to disappoint him. He also said he loves working with the department heads here, and has received positive feedback from departments and boards about his job performance. He said he would consider staying if the three employees he alleges are causing this turmoil were removed. If they are not, he said, the next director will inherit the problem. Unless the town can turn this around and Smith agrees to stay, his last day will be May 19.