This article was updated on Jan. 4. 2024.
WELLFLEET — Less than 19 months after taking the job of town administrator, Richard Waldo submitted his resignation to select board chair Barbara Carboni on Wednesday, Dec. 20.
Waldo’s contract requires that he give at least 90 days’ notice of his resignation, but “I respectfully ask that time be reduced to 50 days with an end date of Feb. 9,” he wrote.
The select board held an executive session on Jan. 2 to determine what Waldo’s last day should be. Board chair Barbara Carboni said the reason was “to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with nonunion personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with nonunion personnel,” which is one of the purposes for closed meetings allowed by the state’s Open Meeting Law. She added that the session was to discuss “specifically the town administrator.”
In a follow-up email, Carboni argued that “discussion of the town administrator’s request for a modification of a term in his contract” fell under the Open Meeting Law’s contract negotiation exception. She added that the decision to hold a closed meeting was approved by town counsel.
The select board will begin the process of advertising the vacancy at its next public meeting on Jan. 9, Carboni said.
Town Counsel Jared M. Collins of KP Law told the board during its public session on Jan. 2 that it is required to begin a search for an acting town administrator within two weeks of Waldo’s last day.
Board members expressed interest in appointing Assistant Town Administrator Silvio Genao as interim administrator. “We have a lot of stuff going on that really needs continuity; he’s got a good handle on what’s going on,” vice chair John Wolf said. Genao started his job on Oct. 23.
Waldo told the Independent that he has accepted an offer to become the director of public works and natural resources in Orleans. “I have a passion for public works, and I have a background in engineering,” he said. “What I have learned is that I want to be where my passion lies.”
Waldo’s starting salary in Orleans will be $173,000, he said. He was making $194,250 in Wellfleet.
Waldo said that he does not want his resignation “to reflect on the select board,” but his letter hinted at the conflicts that have plagued Wellfleet town government this year.
“This decision does not come easy,” he wrote, “but after a long discussion with my family regarding the value and importance of my physical, mental and emotional presence in the lives of our young family, I choose to resign.”
He told the Independent that working with the select board “wasn’t always a great situation” but that he was proud of his accomplishments during his short tenure.
Waldo began as town administrator on May 31, 2022. He took the place of Charlie Sumner, who served as interim administrator with Fire Chief Richard Pauley following the sudden departure of Maria Broadbent in April 2021 after just eight months on the job. Waldo was the town’s sixth town administrator in the past decade, according to a state Dept. of Revenue (DOR) financial management review presented to the town last February.
“I was hopeful that he would provide continuity and stability for some years to come,” said select board member Michael DeVasto. “I wish him the best in his future endeavors.”
Board member Ryan Curley, who was ousted as chair by his colleagues in July, told the Independent that “differences of opinion” about the town administrator were the source of conflicts on the board beginning in June.
“I’ve been expecting it,” Curley said of Waldo’s resignation. According to Curley, after Assistant Town Administrator Rebecca Roughley submitted her resignation in May, Waldo told Curley he would stay on until the town hired a new person for that job.
“That is an inaccurate statement that I feel Mr. Curley is crafting to help justify his unacceptable behavior as chair,” Waldo said. “The fact is, during his leadership most all staff wanted to leave.”
Forward Progress
In his year and a half as town administrator, Waldo oversaw the purchase of Maurice’s Campground and its continued operation. The town broke ground on the Herring River Restoration Project and secured additional funding for it. A Targeted Watershed Management Plan advanced under his leadership, including the securing of funding for a wastewater treatment plant at the planned Lawrence Hill affordable housing development.
“Most importantly,” Waldo wrote in his resignation letter, “we were able to get free cash certified.”
Wellfleet’s ledger became a rat’s nest of accounting errors under Town Administrator Dan Hoort beginning in 2018. After Hoort left the state in 2020, it was discovered that during his tenure the town had no general ledger.
The DOR would not certify the town’s free cash — unspent funds from previous years — because the town’s unreconciled cash books meant that auditors Powers & Sullivan could not provide a timely audit. The fiscal 2021 audit finally arrived last March, and after three years without access to free cash Waldo announced the certification of $4.5 million on April 21.
Waldo also managed to fill vacant positions after a slew of resignations this past spring and summer. “Progress is made through a good team,” he told the Independent. “There is a really good team here now.”
In his resignation letter, Waldo wrote, “This town is in a better place than two years ago, and I am extremely proud of what we have been able to accomplish given the circumstances that we faced.”
“We all feel that Waldo has left the town in a much better position than he found it,” Wolf told the Independent. “We have plenty of work to do, but we certainly took some major steps forward with him.”
Select Board Incivility
DeVasto said after the resignation that the select board “certainly can’t expect to retain a town administrator if board members interfere with his administrative role or undermine and disrespect him in public meetings.”
After the board’s reorganization in July, member Kathleen Bacon resigned, citing “irreconcilable differences with the board, lack of leadership, and undue stress.”
“I am not surprised about the decision, and I am supportive of it,” Bacon said of Waldo’s resignation. “At some point you have to step away for self-preservation. Rich was on the job every single day, sleeves rolled up, ready to battle it out. And every step of the way, he has had to battle.”
Bacon said that “systemic failures” of leadership have plagued the select board’s meetings. She cited “acrimony, incivility, and five-to-six-hour meetings” that precipitated a letter of complaint to the board from town staff that was made public on Dec. 5.
“Your failure to support current staff does not create a productive, attractive, or even safe work environment for potential new staff members as well as for current staff,” that letter read.
DeVasto said in an email to the Independent, “it’s incumbent on the entire board to foster a positive work environment and to work collaboratively with the town administrator to advance our objectives. Selectboard members must do a better job in the way they interact with the town administrator, staff members and the professionals we hire to carry out our projects. This is an unfortunate setback.”
Waldo expressed a similar sentiment in his resignation letter.
“The next town administrator will need tremendous and unwavering support from the select board to be put in the best position to succeed or they will undoubtedly fail,” he wrote.
“This next person is going to have to keep pushing that ball uphill,” Waldo told the Independent. “I just hope the next town administrator is supported by the select board, supported by the community, and keeps things moving in the right direction.”
