Orleans Braces For DPW, Finance Director Departures

ORLEANS – With the impending departure of two longtime department heads, town officials last week discussed the need for better succession planning in the coming years.

Public Works Director Tom Daley and Finance Director Cathy Doane will each leave their respective posts on Nov. 30. Doane is retiring, while Daley has accepted a position elsewhere.

Daley was hired to lead the DPW in 2013. During his tenure, he has overseen the construction of the new public works building on Giddiah Hill Road, as well as the implementation of the first and second phase of sewering downtown and in the area of Meetinghouse Pond. That also included the construction of the town’s new wastewater treatment facility, which went online in March.

In an email, Daley said he is “stepping down a bit” in his next position from a director to a project engineer. He said he “highly enjoyed” working for the town and plans to stay in Orleans as a resident.

“He came in and built a DPW department,” Town Manager Kim Newman said. “He rebuilt it, reorganized it.”

Doane has worked for 23 years in municipal finance, including the last eight years in Orleans. In an email last week, she said she intends to travel with her husband and “pursue other ventures such as nonprofit work.”

“Orleans is a wonderful community, and I am so grateful for having had the opportunity to work here,” she wrote. “It has been my pleasure to have worked with the dedicated town staff, the many boards and committees, and the numerous volunteers. With everyone’s support, we have made great strides in strengthening the town’s fiscal stability; and I believe I’m leaving this town with a strong foundation on which it can continue to build.”

Newman said the town was not prepared for the two departures, and that she needs to have “flexibility and options” for replacing retiring or departing employees moving forward. Having that flexibility, she said, will help ensure that the town is hiring the right people over the long term.

“I keep saying this, I don’t want to make decisions that I’m obligated and stuck with for the next 10 years without time to adequately look at it,” she told the select board Nov. 15. “Every week, something keeps happening in that way, and I have to find a way very quickly to be as creative as I can within the confines.”

Ron Trudeau, the DPW’s operations manager, will serve as acting director until May while a search is made for Daley’s full time successor, Newman said. Trudeau himself was set to retire in December, but agreed to put off his retirement until the transition is complete.

Newman said she hopes to have a new director in place by March, and that Trudeau can help with the transition through May, possibly sooner. Meanwhile, the town has already begun its search for a new operations manager to replace Trudeau, whose retirement she said has been in the planning for five years.

“The amount of gratitude I have for this person in this circumstance is a lot,” Newman said. “He’s a great guy for stepping up to do it, and we certainly appreciate him delaying his long planned retirement to stay here through the winter and do two jobs.”

Hiring for a new finance director, however, will require more creativity and time, Newman said. With Doane’s retirement, that leaves Town Accountant Jennifer Mince, who was hired to the job in April, as the department’s leader.

Newman said she is working out a plan with the town of Eastham to have its assistant town manager, Rich Bienvenue, help train Mince, who is new to working in municipal finance. She said that Bienvenue could also be asked to help assess the town’s current financial operations to identify the department’s future needs. That plan would ultimately need the approval of both the Orleans and Eastham select boards.

“This is not an attempt to take a person from another place,” she said. “What I need is honestly for someone to train this really talented potential person I have in this office so we can function.”

Newman did not give a timeline for hiring someone to lead the finance department, saying that process cannot be rushed.

“I really need time,” she said. “Otherwise I’m going to hire somebody, I’m going to put them in a bad situation, and it might not be what I want in six months.”

And the recent departures are just the first of several vacancies the town has in the coming months. Newman said there are 16 positions that will need to be filled between December and January.

“Most of them are vacancies,” she said. “Some of them are the new firefighters, obviously.”

That list also includes a new assistant town manager to replace Liana Surdut, who will step into the new human resources director role that was recently authorized by voters at the special town meeting in October. Newman said last week that interviews for the assistant position were to be held Monday.

Andrea Reed of the select board said Nov. 15 that the work to put a proper succession plan in place is underway.

“My money is on by spring town meeting, we will have some recommendations and actions that will be put forward,” she said. “All I can say is the work has started.”

“I think we’re all definitely supportive of what you’re doing, and sometimes those quick decisions that you need to make before a full plan is vetted and followed through,” select board chair Michael Herman said.

Kevin Galligan said the town has seen the benefits of proper succession planning in the past, namely with the retirement of former Town Clerk Cynthia May. The town promoted Kelly Darling, then assistant clerk, to May’s position. It also hired a new assistant as well as additional staff to help with elections, he said.

“So there is a model to make this work,” he said.

Newman said the town also needs to look at what the town is offering for jobs in the way of salaries. She said a compensation study will be done looking at what Orleans pays for positions relative to other towns.

Staying competitive in compensation is important not just for making new hires, but retaining employees, Newman said. That will also involve building additional funding into future town budgets.

“I know [Orleans is] behind, but so are most of the communities out here,” she said. “So if you try and look just at our neighbors, we’re not that far off.”

The changes in staffing come just months after Newman herself started as town manager in July. But she said now is the time to begin laying a foundation for town staffing well into the future.

“I’m trying to send out a flare right now to anyone who’s paying attention that we are trying to recruit a team here that’s going to be here for a bit,” she said. “We’re willing to compensate you fairly.”

Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com