Sudbury’s DPW director is Select Board’s choice for town administrator

Wrapping up an intense two-month search, the Select Board voted Monday night, June 24, to offer the position of town administrator to Dan Nason of Holden. The vote was unanimous.

The vote authorizes Select Board Chair Don Ludwig to negotiate a contract with Nason and bring it to the board for approval. Ludwig told the Press he hopes Nason can step into the position in August.

Dan Nason is interviewed by the Select Board before being chosen to be Town Administrator. (Photo by John Osborn)

Nason is Sudbury’s director of public works, a position he has held for nearly eight years. He has a background in civil engineering and management and won accolades and awards for his work. The choice might seem “unconventional,” said Vice Chair SusanMary Redinger, but for her Nason “stood out.”

She was not alone. Nason was the first choice of all five members of the Select Board, “a choice that surprised a lot of us,” said Ludwig. “I don’t think any one of us on the committee initially thought a DPW person would even be considered,” he said. “But at the end of the day, the town administrator’s job is largely a management job,” said Ludwig.

Nason’s standout performance as DPW director in Sudbury and, prior to that, the towns of Northborough and Ayer, was clearly on the minds of Select Board members as they contemplated their choice. “He does have the type of experience I think Harvard is looking for at this moment, both soft and hard skills,” noted Kara Minar. “He has procurement and human resources experience. He has managed a sizable staff [33 employees] with a $6 million budget, similar in size to our existing municipal operations budget excluding schools. As an engineer, he’s managed construction of large water and highway projects, which is right in line with the experience Harvard needs at this moment.”

From DPW director to town administrator

In his letter to the search committee, Nason wrote that like town administrators, public works directors “are directly responsible for a diverse group of team members over multiple disciplines, are involved in collective bargaining … manage publicly bid complex projects, operate and oversee multiple cost centers, and prepare multiyear capital plans.”

Nason is a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute where he earned a degree in civil engineering, graduating “with distinction” in 1997. More recently he earned a certificate in local government leadership and management from the Moakley Center for Public Management at Suffolk University. He holds a patent for a stormwater control device developed while he was national engineering manager with Imbrium Systems Corporation of Worcester.

In addition to the professional experience and accomplishments listed on his three-page resume, Nason is an active participant in the civic life of Holden, his hometown. He was recently elected town moderator and chaired the Holden DPW Facility Committee that oversaw construction of a new $18.5 DPW facility that opened in 2022.

Collaborative skills

But the board was also looking for soft skills. “Collaborative” was a criterion that town employees and residents used frequently in describing the attributes they seek in Harvard’s next chief administrator. Others include “empathetic,” “respectful,” “transparent,” “accountable,” and “approachable.” These and related interpersonal and management skills were among those rated highly in an online survey developed by committee members. Sixty residents completed the survey, 35 of whom were current or former volunteer members of boards and committees. A second survey, completed by nine of Harvard’s municipal employees, had similar results. And while respondents to both surveys thought prior experience as a town administrator was important, it ranked lower.

“It’s clear the town’s looking for a transparent, collaborative town administrator who’s happy to be in the job and a true team builder,” observed Minar in prepared remarks to her colleagues Tuesday night. She said that in the two candidate interviews in which she participated she had found Nason “genuine, thoughtful, knowledgeable, engaging, and eager to learn to do more. … I believe Dan will work hard to get up to speed on being a TA [town administrator] and his overall personal management style will enable us to move forward and turn the page to Harvard’s next chapter.”

Nason was one of four finalists—three men and one woman—presented to the Select Board by the 10-member search committee chaired by Town Moderator Bill Barton after two months of arduous work. The committee first developed a job description and selection criteria, which were informed by the online survey.

The selection process

With those tools in place, the committee turned its attention to the 34 applications it had received, narrowing the list to 10, and ultimately interviewing six. Barton told the Press in a phone interview that the final list took shape in discussions during which each committee member presented their top choices. The committee conducted its interviews in the Public Safety Building over “four or five days,” according to Barton, each interview lasting up to one and a half hours, followed by discussion. The committee’s sessions generally ran from 8:30 a.m. until 2 p.m., said Barton. For the committee to have delivered its recommendations in three months was “significant,” he said. “[Members] gave up a lot of time. … People came in on vacations that they had scheduled to ensure that the process was followed through. So huge, huge applause to them all.”

In the end the committee chose to present four candidates to the Select Board for a final round of interviews. “There was a lot of discussion about those four and then, as one of our last ways to help the Select Board, we drafted the five questions [asked of each finalist],” said Barton. Those interviews were held Friday, June 21, in the Harvard Senior Center. The three-and-a-half-hour session was live-streamed on YouTube, drawing an audience of 40 viewers, according to HCTV station operator Will Hopper. School Superintendent Linda Dwight, search committee Chair Bill Barton, Executive Assistant Julie Doucet, and one resident attended in person.

A unanimous choice

Select Board Chair Ludwig told his colleagues Monday night that Sunday night had been a night of “restless sleep,” as he worried that reaching consensus might be difficult. Ludwig met with town employees Monday afternoon in a well-attended meeting at Town Hall to hear their preferences, which, he said in an email, aligned with his own. And then on Monday, said Ludwig, “the stars aligned” and Nason emerged at the top of everyone’s list.

What would Barton say to those who pushed for a professional firm to conduct the search? “I saw the yard signs,” said Barton. “I drive by quite a few.” But Harvard has huge assets, he said, professional people “who are your neighbors.” Yes, a professional group could have done similar work, he said, but it wouldn’t have its finger on the pulse of the town, “what it’s like to live and grow and raise your families here.”

“The 10 [committee members], although all of them don’t live here—all of them have invested their lives here and they are looking for the right individual for this town to flourish.”

Ludwig told the Press the Select Board hopes Nason will be able to start work in August, but negotiations have just begun. Outgoing Town Administrator Tim Bragan has agreed to remain on the job under contract until the new administrator arrives.

The Select Board and the next town administrator share a common goal: a smooth transition to new leadership in Town Hall.