By Kim Siebert MacPhail
Filling the shoes of out-going DPW Director Rich Warrington is an important, but complex, task—one that Bedford has not faced for over two decades. At Monday night’s Selectmen’s meeting, Town Manager Rick Reed—who will select the final candidate from a pool of applicants for the job—described his thinking about how to best identify Mr. Warrington’s replacement.
“From a town charter standpoint, it’s up to the Town Manager to make the appointment of the Public Works Director,” said Reed. “And then the finalist—whoever I select—is presented to the Selectmen for confirmation.
“I haven’t finalized in my own mind what I will do in terms of a process before a final choice is made,” Reed continued. “In the past, [for other high-level appointments] we have brought in people from various different sectors of the town to participate in interviewing candidates for department heads—we did that with the Police Chiefs’ appointments both times in the last 12 years, and we did something very similar with the Fire Chief’s appointment 5 years ago.
“I’m also contemplating an assessment-centered process to look at the various skills and abilities that a person in that position needs to have. We’ve used this to select our Police Chief—it’s not something that’s done all the time out there in the world for Public Works positions, but I’m thinking about that and collecting some information about setting up that kind of process. That would be after the interviews—when we’re down to [a small number of applicants].”
Reed went on to say that the job of DPW Director is a complex one and whoever is hired will lead the largest, non-school department of Town government.
“It’s a very technical [job] and generally you like to see someone with some engineering credentials in the position and [with] some past experience in municipal government,” Reed said. “The diversity of the services that are offered through the Public Works Department [is] quite broad and the needs that we have in a lot of areas are very important. Some very basic services that people often take for granted and don’t think a lot about . . . are of primary importance, . . . [like] the water and sewer systems—we need to make sure that the person has some familiarity in that particular area.”
Reed also explained that the Director of the DPW must manage a large group of people, all doing diverse work throughout the town.
“There’s a lot to take into consideration. I don’t know that there’s going to be an ideal person that meets all of everything we would like to see. We will select the person that meets the most of those categories, capitalize on [the person’s] strengths, and work to figure out how to fill in [for other areas],” Reed concluded.
Excerpted from the job posting:
Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, supervision and training for departmental personnel; organization and direction of departmental activities through division operations managers; setting goals and assessing performance, taking necessary action to improve department’s efficiency and services provided; directing road design, construction, repair and maintenance, sewer and water systems, parks, recreation areas, cemeteries, school grounds, and other department facilities utilizing in-house or outside engineering resources as needed; overseeing the care of public shade trees, proposing and implementing a long term capital projects plan for infrastructure and equipment under the department’s control; ensuring proper maintenance and timely replacement of the town-wide vehicle fleet; consulting with state, federal and other municipality officials on various Public Works matters; collaborating with other Town department heads relative to Town needs; receiving and addressing public’s service requests and concerns; assisting with labor agreement negotiation, administration and employee grievance resolution; addressing the media and performing other public relations functions; securing and administering grants; supervising monthly water/sewer billing for residential and commercial users; representing the Town on various regional governmental committees and boards; and, maintaining current knowledge of legislative and technical developments regarding Public Works.
Candidates must have knowledge of the following: engineering practices and principles; construction practices and principles; report writing and preparation; and applicable Federal, State and local laws, codes and regulations.
“There is an amazingly extensive set of qualifications listed in the job posting,” said newly- elected Selectmen Chair Bill Moonan. “Some applications have been received and the deadline is in two weeks, on March 25.”
To read the full description for the Director of Public Work’s position, please visit: https://www.town.bedford.ma.us/index.php/documents/doc_view/3296-director-of-public-works
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