The town will lose both Town Administrator Tim Bragan and Assistant Town Administrator and Human Resources Director Marie Sobalvarro on July 1.
Sobalvarro announced this week that she is leaving to take the town administrator job in Bolton. Bragan announced his retirement at the end of February and is currently on vacation until sometime in June.
In an interview with the Press April 30, Sobalvarro said she felt disloyal to Harvard in applying for the Bolton job instead of the Harvard job. But she said she never heard anything from the Select Board encouraging her to apply for Bragan’s position, and “noncommunication is a sign.” She said that as of the morning of April 30, no one from the board had spoken to her about her departure.
Despite that, Sobalvarro said she’s excited to move into the town administrator position in Bolton. In considering the job, she said she had watched some recordings of Bolton’s Select Board meetings and was “wowed” by the interaction between board members, the questions they asked, and the commitment they displayed. “The vibe is so different at their meetings,” she said. “More old school.”
She said Bolton’s town government is highly organized, which will work well with her propensity for planning. She added that she was also impressed by the respect elected and volunteer officials had for the Town Hall staff.
Still, she said she’s sad to be leaving her job in Harvard and has become teary-eyed over the past few days while talking to staff and department heads about her departure. She said she has become close to many over her 10 years on the job and will miss working with them. She added that she really enjoys her work, particularly talking to retirees, some who are in their 90s, about their benefits. She said they usually start the conversation by asking her how she’s doing and how the weather is in Harvard, a nice change of pace from the more stressful side of her job.
Sobalvarro lives in town and said her job as human resources director gave her a unique perspective as a resident, and she’ll also miss that. “At 4 a.m., I know who’s sanding the street; I know when they were hired and what their salary is.” But being a resident had its drawbacks when she was considering applying for the Harvard job. She said she was strongly cautioned by some former Select Board members to not apply, because a resident acting as town administrator could elicit accusations of conflict of interest.
‘She made us all better in what we did’
Select Board members thanked Sobalvarro for all the work she did for the town during her time as assistant town administrator and wished her well at their April 30 meeting. Chair Rich Maiore emailed a statement to the Press: “While we’re thrilled for Marie, her dedication to the town, her steady leadership, and get it done approach will be sorely missed.”
Executive Assistant Julie Doucet told the Press, “We’re all really sad about Marie leaving,” and admitted there have been tears shed by many of the employees at Town Hall, especially those Sobalvarro was instrumental in hiring. “She made us all better in what we did,” Doucet said.
Council on Aging Director Debbie Thompson agreed with Doucet’s assessment and called Sobalvarro “the glue that helped keep all our department heads together.” She said the people who run the town departments are supportive of each other and stick together. “But, truly, we learned that behavior and the importance of us working together because of Marie’s input.” She said other department heads she’s spoken to are also very sad about Sobalvarro’s departure. She added, “I, for one, will be sobbing tonight [at the Select Board meeting] to hear her say she’s leaving.”
Thompson said she’s particularly worried about human resources, and called Sobalvarro “the genius of HR.” She said that as a group, retirees have many questions and issues, and the current staff and department heads don’t have the training to help them. Sobalvarro said administering benefits also requires constant paperwork, and she told the Select Board that, in leaving, her “grave concern is for the human resources function.”
Human resources takes up about a third of Sobalvarro’s time, she said, and the remainder of her time is typically spent on projects, such as the landfill closure, the Department of Public Works renovation, and the proposed cell tower. Operationally, she said, the combination of the two positions works well, and the job title and description will not change.
Sobalvarro told the Select Board she will post the opening for her job on the Massachusetts Municipal Association Marketplace website on May 1, with applications due by June 1. She said she is looking into temporarily contracting out benefits administration if that becomes necessary when she departs.
Challenges for a new administrator
Sobalvarro begins her new job July 1. Her immediate challenges there, she said, will be “understanding the landscape” and calming the staff as they transition from working for the previous town administrator, who was there for 15 years. “He probably recruited most of the people there,” she said.
Here in Harvard, she said some of the challenges the new town administrator will face will be trying to fill board and committee slots with committed volunteers, dealing with increasing fiscal constraints, and finding time for unexpected projects that pop up, such as the landfill closure. As for the assistant town administrator job, she said it will be important for her replacement to figure out who to turn to for technical advice when projects head into unfamiliar territory, as most of them do. She said she has relied heavily on Cindy Russo, chair of the Water Commission and former chair of the Permanent Building Committee, and on Bill Johnson for help with the cell tower project, and Marisa Steele for advice on the town fields.
Until July 1, Sobalvarro will continue in her role as acting town administrator while Bragan is taking time off. She said she’ll take a few days off “here and there,” and she will depend on Bragan to cover any issues with the Harvard-Devens water project. She said she is a bit worried that there is no defined transition plan yet, and she is hoping to get as much of a plan as she can in place before June 30.
