WELLFLEET — Less than two weeks after Wellfleet’s harbormaster quit his post to take the same job in Provincetown, two more staff members have walked out, with one telling the Independent that political interference was behind her decision.
Interim Harbormaster Brittany Tilton and seasonal assistant David Perry both resigned on July 12, causing the deputy director of the dept. of public works, Peter Morris, to step into the job of managing operations at the harbor, with the U.S. Coast Guard and Wellfleet police and fire depts. also asked to help out.
Tilton said in a written statement that she had resigned because she felt pressured by town board and committee members and by harbor business owners, whom she would not name, to “execute their personal political agendas.” She wrote that she took issue with their demands because they did not conform to municipal and state laws.
“Standing against these efforts, I was faced with mistreatment,” Tilton added. She said this also hindered the core operations and safety of the marina and waterways.
Tilton, who declined to be interviewed, did not elaborate when asked about the specific behaviors alluded to in her statement but said she did not resign lightly.
“I care deeply for Wellfleet Harbor and want to see it flourish,” she wrote, “however I could not successfully take the lead in that mission with the political agendas and behaviors that surrounded me.”
Perry would not comment on the reasons for his resignation.
Tilton had been interim harbormaster for less than two weeks before she went to town hall and resigned on the spot. She had taken the position following the resignation of Will Sullivan, who had held the job for three years before moving to the Provincetown harbormaster’s job on July 1.
Sullivan said he saw his own move as a good career opportunity but acknowledged that problems have existed in the harbormaster’s office for years. He suggested that the town’s marina advisory committee was a source of discontent among staff members.
“I had trouble over the years with a bunch of them, and it’s really sad because the direction they want is more personal for them and not for the town,” he said. “That’s directly within the leadership of that marina advisory committee. That’s not OK for a municipality.”
Sullivan said there was “a lot of fear among people” to speak out about problems, and he praised his former colleagues for having the “courage to do that.”
Sullivan added, “Internally, you can only take so much before you’re like ‘I can’t do this to myself anymore.’ I think some of those people really need to go.”
Contradictory Reports
Sullivan said he had been told that “four or five” staff had quit the Wellfleet harbormaster’s office, but Town Administrator Tom Guerino said only Tilton and Perry had resigned. Morris said four staff members were still working in the office part-time in addition to two to three DPW employees. Retired Chatham Harbormaster Stuart Smith will take on Tilton’s job for the rest of the summer, with a permanent replacement expected to be hired by September.
Guerino told the Independent that the working relationship between town staff and marina advisory committee members had “been festering for a long time” and that during his time on the job he had heard of conflicts between staff members and the committee. “I haven’t witnessed a lot of personal benefit from the members on that committee,” he added.
According to the town’s website, the members of the marina advisory committee are chair Joseph Aberdale, vice chair David Stamatis, Edward Kane, William Barrio, Martha Wilson, and Kevin Coakley, and alternates Doug Straus and James Gray.
Guerino said that he will begin working on repairing communication lines between the advisory committee and town staff. That will include bringing the committee into the recruitment process for new staff and meeting with the chair on a regular basis. The harbormaster’s dept. has also begun work with Weston & Sampson on developing a marina master plan, a $200,000 project that was funded with free cash at the 2023 town meeting.
Regarding friction between the advisory committee and the harbormaster’s office, Guerino said he would “make sure that everyone understands that the advisory committee is simply advisory, and the direction for work to be done at the pier comes through the harbormaster or the town administrator.”
Select board chair John Wolf, who has served as a liaison to the marina advisory committee for two years, denied that the committee “browbeat” Tilton and Perry out of their jobs. “It’s not true,” said Wolf. “The committee has done nothing other than what their charge has them do.”
Wolf said that his knowledge of the situation is limited to what has occurred in public meetings. “I cannot speak to what individual members of the committee may have conveyed outside of meetings,” he said. “As a select board member, concerns were never brought to us.”
Marina advisory committee chair Joe Aberdale declined to be interviewed but wrote in a statement to the Independent that the committee has served for many years as an integral source of knowledge and guidance for marina operations. “Committee members, as is documented in the meeting recordings, have always treated the harbormaster, his staff and the public with dignity and respect with the goal of working harmoniously to achieve what is best for the marina,” Aberdale wrote.
The resignations of Sullivan and his assistants have come at a moment of relative stability in a town that has been burdened in recent years by rapid departures of staff members. In the past year, Wellfleet has lost multiple leaders in administration as well as heads of the building, health and conservation, and finance depts.
“There were a lot of positive people in Wellfleet and a lot of people who tried hard,” said Sullivan, “but some of the deterioration is incessant. It needs to be fixed. Until they do that, I don’t think there’s a positive path forward.”
