Alex Morse Archives - The Provincetown Independent

Alex Morse

COMBUSTION

Chief Trovato and 18 Volunteer Firefighters Quit

Former Deputy Chief Jimmy Roderick to become interim chief on July 2

By Paul Benson Jun 26, 2024

PROVINCETOWN — In two separate letters, Provincetown Fire Chief Mike Trovato and 18 members of the town’s “call,” or volunteer, fire dept. announced their intention to resign as of midnight on July 2.

Deputy Fire Chief Jimmy Roderick, left, and Fire Chief Mike Trovato at town hall in January 2023. Roderick resigned as deputy in March, but he will now become acting fire chief on July 2.

Trovato, who joined the fire dept. in 1975 and has been chief for 33 years, sent his resignation letter to town staff on June 17.

At the June 24 select board meeting, 15 volunteer firefighters led by Firemen’s Association President George Felton came to the front of the room during the public comments period and announced they would resign from the department as well, citing Town Manager Alex Morse’s effort to abolish the board of fire engineers at town meeting on April 1 and subsequent conflicts between Morse and Trovato.

“We suggest the select board and town manager take immediate steps to fix this situation, and also issue a public apology to Chief Trovato,” the letter from the 18 firefighters concluded.

Signers of the letter include nearly the entire leadership of engines 1, 2, 3, and 5, according to the call dept. roster on the town’s website.

The select board had scheduled an executive session for its July 24 meeting to discuss with Trovato “personnel issues raised within the fire dept.,” Morse told the Independent. Trovato was notified of that executive session and submitted his resignation rather than attend it, Morse said.

Trovato told the Independent that he did not want to quit, but he felt Morse did not want him to serve as chief any longer.

“I really didn’t want to retire, but when your boss tells you that you’ve ruined the department you spent 49 years to build, that you’ve created a hostile work environment, and that it would be in the best interests of the town and the fire dept. that you retire, what do you think I’m going to do, hang around?” Trovato said. “He pushed me out the door.”

Trovato said the criticisms were made during a May 2 meeting between Trovato, Morse, and Assistant Town Manager Dan Riviello.

Provincetown’s human resources director Katie Buckley helped arrange that meeting but was not present, Trovato said.

Morse and Riviello said they did not tell Trovato at that meeting that he was “ruining the department” or that it was “in the best interest of town that he retire.”

“We never used either of those phrases when meeting with the chief,” Morse told the Independent. “It’s unfortunate if that’s what he took from that conversation, but we merely raised issues brought to us to him. He was the one who said he thought it would be best if he retired.”

Those issues included a complaint from inside the department over the speed at which the town’s new full-time firefighters are being trained to assume certain duties, including driving fire engines, Trovato told the Independent.

“I know my personnel’s capabilities, and I know when someone’s ready to drive a fire truck,” Trovato said. “We were working on it.”

Riviello told the select board on May 28 that concerns about the training being afforded to full-time staff were the reason the May 2 meeting was called.

“We respect Chief Trovato and the call volunteers,” Rivello said, “but we also respect our new full-time staff and have concerns about their training.”

Meeting Fallout

The differing accounts of that May 2 meeting have contributed to the present divide.

Eighteen members of the volunteer or “call” fire dept. signed a resignation letter that Firemen’s Association President George Felton read aloud to the select board on June 24. From left: Capt. David White, Lt. Vaughn Cabral, Lt. George Felton, Firefighter Malcolm Hunter, Firefighter Mark Lambrou, Capt. Roger Martin, Lt. Jeff Notaro, Firefighter Noah Santos, Firefighter Frank Horner, Firefighter Max Cliggott-Perlt, Firefighter Jonathan Sinaiko, Firefighter James Meads Jr., Firefighter Paul Roderick, and Lt. James Richmond. Not pictured are District Chief Russell Zawaduk, Firefighter Nate Caley, Firefighter Myles Santos, and Junior Firefighter Mason Santos. (Photos by Paul Benson)

The Provincetown Firemen’s Association wrote a letter objecting to Trovato’s treatment on May 2 that was read aloud by Firefighter Malcolm Hunter at the May 28 select board meeting.

The resignation letter that Felton read to the select board on June 24 also cited the “extreme disrespect” that Trovato was shown that day.

“We believe Chief Trovato has never made the fire dept. a hostile workplace,” the resignation letter said, “and rather than go by the words of one or two members, Morse should have reached out to the department as a whole to get the opinions of everyone.”

Morse told the select board on June 24 that “there are two sides to the story. I welcomed the fire chief to stay, and today I met with former Deputy Chief Jimmy Roderick, who agreed today to come back to the department to help retain our call volunteers.”

Roderick will serve as acting fire chief beginning July 2, Morse confirmed the next day, and EMS coordinator Othaine Rance will be deputy fire chief.

Roderick and Rance will both be on the board of fire engineers, Morse told the Independent, as will “call” firefighter Capt. David Gonsalves, EMS shift supervisor Michael Anderson, and Human Resources Director Buckley.

“A lot of folks think we’re going to bring some bogeyman in from out of town and that’s going to change the entire department,” Morse told the select board on June 24. “We have the talent internally, and the volunteer firefighters who resigned today are invited to my office tomorrow to have a conversation about what they need to stay in this department.”

The Decision to Retire

In a statement posted on the town’s website on June 25, Morse wrote that “per state law, Chief Trovato would have had to retire less than a year from now.” Trovato is 69, and a special extension to the state’s mandatory retirement age for fire chiefs will expire when he turns 70 next June.

The department still has 20 career firefighter-medics, two staff people, and 27 call volunteers, Morse wrote. The firefighter-medics were hired over the last year as part of a long-term plan for a “combination department” that will include full-time staff “supported and supplemented by call volunteers,” Morse wrote.

Morse also wrote that he was disappointed in the firefighters who publicly resigned on June 24.

“Using the public comment period of a meeting to announce their retirements” was meant to scare people, Morse wrote. “While cynical, I understand that the goal of their tactics was to capture the attention of the public and instill fear throughout our community.

“It’s my job to make sure residents know that we are confident in our ability to provide the needed fire and EMS coverage as we approach peak season in Provincetown,” Morse continued.

Morse also wrote that he hoped the volunteers’ “allegiance to the town will outweigh their allegiance to one man who made the decision to retire.”

The letter from the firefighters who resigned says they believe Trovato was told to quit.

The select board did not discuss the resignations at length on June 24 as it was not on their agenda, but they did speak about it in their opening statements.

“Things will change at the fire department, they will evolve and they have to, but we need to make room for the people who have been protecting us and serving us for so long,” said select board member Erik Borg.

“Change is hard, and I was hoping this could have been a respectful process,” said board member Leslie Sandberg. “This is sad, what happened tonight.”

REPRESENTATION

Wampanoag Monument Plans Stalled but Not Forgotten

Communications broke down in 2019, but interest remains

By Paul Benson Oct 5, 2022

PROVINCETOWN — There is still no monument to the indigenous Wampanoag people in the town where the Mayflower first dropped anchor. But that doesn’t mean there won’t ever be one. “I believe there is still interest in doing something,” Town Manager Alex Morse told the Independent. “It’s just a matter of identifying the time and resources to do it.”

Brenda Haywood’s 2016 drawing of a Wampanoag proposal for a monument at Bas Relief Park. (Image courtesy Town of Provincetown)

The process of designing and commissioning a monument was initially focused on the Bas Relief Park on Bradford Street, the site of an enormous bronze sculpture that depicts the signing of the Mayflower Compact in Provincetown Harbor in 1620. Smaller markers list the people aboard the ship and the text of the Compact, but nothing at the site mentions the Native people who, when the English Separatists landed, already lived on the Outer Cape in a year-round settlement at what is now Eastham and seasonal settlements throughout the region.

The absence of a marker was becoming acutely obvious in the years leading up to 2020, when celebrations were being planned for the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s arrival. The Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum was working on a complete overhaul of its presentation of the events of 1620 during those years, according to Executive Director David Weidner. (See related story)

In September 2016, local civil rights leader and minister Brenda Haywood brought a proposal to the town from several Wampanoag cultural leaders, including three who were advising the Pilgrim Monument — Linda Coombs, Paula Peters, and Jim Peters. That proposal was for a black granite marker and garden along the sidewalk at Bradford Street, placed so that it would be indelibly present yet still not obscure the larger and higher brass sculpture behind it.

A landscape architect developed a site design in 2018, and the town held public hearings in January and March 2019. By late 2019, however, conversations between the town and the proponents had broken down.

“The parties who were participating are no longer communicating with us,” then-select board member Lise King told her fellow board members in October of that year.

People who witnessed the breakdown said it was difficult. The Wampanoag leaders did not feel respected, Weidner said. King worried aloud at select board meetings that there would not be enough votes for their design to pass. Then-select board member Cheryl Andrews suggested alternate approaches, such as a life-size sculpture at the Pilgrims’ First Landing Park in the West End rotary, but that location did not come across as an adequate substitute for the Bas Relief Park.

The select board voted to bring in a consultant to help reset the process, preferably someone with extensive experience in indigenous representation, municipal procurement law, and public art. The town received a bid from Jennifer Himmelreich, a director of the Native American Fellowship program at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. Himmelreich came with a personal recommendation from Joe Horse Capture, curator of Native American History at the Smithsonian, King said. A $12,607 contract with Himmelreich was approved at a town meeting in September 2020.

A health crisis in Himmelreich’s family forced her to turn down the contract, however. The $12,607 was never spent. In the midst of the Covid crisis, and with the 400th anniversary celebrations all canceled anyway, the problem of Wampanoag representation lost its place atop the town’s agenda.

“It’s not that it couldn’t happen,” said Michelle Jarusiewicz, the town’s housing specialist, who had been tasked with organizing stakeholder discussions around the Bas Relief restoration project and the proposed Wampanoag memorial.

The imbalance at the Bas Relief Park isn’t going away, Jarusiewicz said — the enormous monument to white colonists still has no counterpoint that acknowledges Native people.

“It got tabled, but it’s not impossible,” Jarusiewicz said. “Other communities do it. It’s just tricky.”

MONEY MATTERS

Competitive Pay Advances in Provincetown

A debate over the town manager’s performance ends with a raise

By Paul Benson Jun 15, 2022

PROVINCETOWN — The select board meeting was a study in contrasts on Monday night: a systematic overhaul of the town’s salary schedule went smoothly, while the board’s review of the town manager was a rough ride. In the end, though, in both cases, significant raises will go into effect on July 1.

The compensation study has been in the works since at least April 2021 and is meant to ensure that the town is offering adequate pay to attract and retain staff. Various town leaders, including Fire Chief Mike Trovato and former DPW Director Rich Waldo, have said that Provincetown frequently loses employees to other towns that offer higher pay.

Because of the Outer Cape’s acute housing crisis, many employees are already commuting from the Lower and Mid Cape, Waldo told the Independent, and when jobs open up in towns nearer to their homes, it’s difficult to persuade them to continue working for Provincetown.

Retired human resources executive Earl Hinton worked with the town’s staff and new Finance Director Kate Carey to develop the compensation analysis, which compared Provincetown’s pay ranges and job descriptions to those in 18 other towns in Barnstable and Plymouth counties. Their study showed that Provincetown’s staff are paid on average 10 percent less than their peers in those other towns, partly because compensation has not been systematically addressed for the last seven years.

Their report also pointed out that, of the town’s 135 permanent full-time positions, 14 are currently vacant: that is, 10 percent of the town’s full-time workforce.

“That causes additional strain,” said Carey, “because then you have people who are potentially underpaid, and they’re doing the work of all the positions that are open. I’ve been here for three and a half months, and I’ve lost two key employees, both of whom have left for 25- to 30-percent pay raises,” Carey added.

The compensation study proposed new salary ranges that begin at competitive rates and include room for wage growth. Nearly all employees — 86 percent –– would receive a salary adjustment above their expected pay increase for the fiscal year that begins on July 1.

In the aggregate, the town’s $8.8-million payroll would rise by about $440,000, or 5 percent. Adjustments to the hourly wages paid to part-time and seasonal workers could bring the total increase to between $550,000 and $600,000, Carey said. That would be a 6.8 percent increase over the town’s current payroll.

The presentation also touched on other employment benefits, including child care. The town’s free program for town workers is “an exceptional benefit” for employees with young children, said Hinton.

“There are very few employers that offer anything like this,” Hinton said. “The average cost of day care is $13,000 per year,” with in-home child care costing even more. The town also pays 70 percent of health insurance premiums for employees.

The rise of remote work opportunities means the town is now competing against not just other towns but also the state government, Carey said. Both former Town Manager David Panagore and former Health Director Morgan Clark, for example, have taken higher-paying jobs at state agencies based in Boston — though both still live on the Cape.

The select board unanimously praised the study and said they would find the money to fund the pay increases, even though they are not currently budgeted. Carey pointed out that the current vacancies are likely to generate about $300,000 in unpaid wages before they are filled, which would go more than halfway to funding the increases.

“This is refreshing,” said select board member Louise Venden of the study, adding that it represented a hoped-for “level of sophistication and professionalization of how we handle employee matters.” As for its conclusions, she said, “We need to retain and hire people who are competent to take on what is a very ambitious agenda.”

Town Manager’s Review

That ambitious agenda was at the center of the night’s main dispute, however, which boiled down to whether Town Manager Alex Morse’s first annual performance review should have been scored by the select board as “exceeds expectations” rather than “meets expectations.”

The “meets expectations” score results in a 2.5-percent merit pay increase for the next year, while an “exceeds expectations” score would lead to a 4-percent increase over the $185,000 base salary Morse started with in early 2021.

Each of the five select board members rated the town manager in 10 “performance categories” (such as professional skills and citizen relations) and against nine “objectives” (such as expand sewer system and advance climate resiliency). Who gave which scores was not made public, but there were just enough low marks in various categories that a tally of all the numbers resulted in a “meets expectations” score for Morse’s first year.

This did not appear to meet the public’s expectations. Twelve people excoriated the board for not concluding that Morse had done an exceptional job in his first year. Several referred to the years of drift under a succession of town managers — there have been six in the last 10 years — and pointed to the ambitious agenda now underway, which includes a sewer expansion, a police station, and multiple housing measures. They also noted the town’s response to the pandemic.

The select board was divided, with Louise Venden arguing that the evaluation process was flawed. Select board member Leslie Sandberg said that the terms used might need to change and that the goals might have been too specific for the purpose of an annual review.

Select board chair Dave Abramson said he thought “meets expectations” was a good grade, in his experience, and the correct one in this case. Abramson also said that if Morse had spent as much time on the town’s compensation study as he had lobbying for his scores to be changed he might have had a better result.

Morse took exception to that remark, saying he had spent many hours on the compensation study and had not asked anyone to speak about his performance. Abramson would not take it back and responded, “I’m sorry, but that is my perception.”

At that point, Venden moved to give Morse a 4-percent raise for the coming year and be done with the evaluation. Board member John Golden seconded it, and Bobby Anthony voted for it; Sandberg paused and then voted in favor. After rereading the motion for clarity, Abramson also said “aye” and made the vote unanimous.

INFLATION

Construction Costs Double at VFW Project

Town expands its ‘local contribution’ to $3 million

By Paul Benson Jun 15, 2022

PROVINCETOWN — The 65 apartments being built on the site of the former VFW building at Jerome Smith Road are now projected to cost $37.8 million, The Community Builders Inc. (TCB) told the select board on Monday. That represents a 70-percent increase from the bid price of $22.3 million, with nearly all of the increase coming from a doubling of the physical construction costs.

The two prices aren’t completely comparable because the original bid was for 57 units. After discussions with town staff, TCB added eight more, currently projected to be restricted to the 60 percent of area median income bracket.

The increase in units doesn’t appear to be the main driver of the cost increase, however. The per-unit cost was $256,000 in the original bid from 2021. The per-unit cost is now projected to be $405,000.

“These cost increases were more about these extenuating circumstances,” said TCB project manager Lindsey Gael, citing inflation in construction materials, labor costs, and interest rates. Increased financing costs were responsible for $2 million of the $15-million increase.

Gael told the board that TCB expects to offset nearly the whole increase with federal and state dollars, including upcoming state allocations from the American Rescue Plan Act. A supplemental spending bill that is currently under consideration would earmark $200 million for median-income housing projects on the Cape and Islands and in the Berkshires, Gael said.

TCB asked the town to increase its “local commitment” from $500,000 to $3 million, however, which the select board readily agreed to do. At $3 million and 65 units, the town’s contribution would be $46,000 per apartment — only slightly above recent averages.

Town Manager Alex Morse pointed out that TCB had taken on the purchase of the adjacent parcel at 55R Captain Bertie’s Way. That half-acre lot expanded the project area to 1.8 acres and allowed a fourth building to become part of the plan, increasing the overall unit count.

Gael did not disclose the purchase price of the parcel, and the transaction had not yet posted at the registry of deeds at press time — but a line in the presentation labeled “acquisition cost” gave the number $1.42 million.

“The select board encouraged town staff to pursue 55R Captain Bertie’s,” Morse said, “and that cost shifted from the town to TCB. If TCB hadn’t moved forward with that, we would have attempted to negotiate it for a similar cost.”

Gael told the board that, based on community feedback, TCB had removed the driving egress to Captain Bertie’s Way, replaced it with a pedestrian and bicycle path, and added 10 more parking spaces. “We did review this plan with the fire dept. and got their initial sign-off,” Gael said.

“You checked all the boxes,” select board member Leslie Sandberg said. “It’s really fantastic.”

“Can we start it sooner?” joked select board member John Golden.

TCB is applying for state funding in the January 2023 round, Gael said, in which case construction could begin in 2024 at the earliest.

A CHILL IN PROVINCETOWN

Blizzard Blowback for Morse

Lack of communications and warming station at issue

By Paul Benson Feb 9, 2022

PROVINCETOWN — The select board praised frontline responders for their work during the Jan. 29 blizzard but had tough questions for Town Manager Alex Morse, who they said was unreachable during much of the storm.

The blizzard hit Provincetown with hurricane-force winds, heavy snow, frigid temperatures, and a day-long power outage. According to state data, 100 percent of Provincetown was without power from 7 a.m. to about 10:15 p.m. Saturday. Several hundred properties did not get electricity back until the next morning.

At a Feb. 2 meeting, the select board and Morse praised the police, fire, and public works depts., the harbormaster’s office, and the council on aging. Town staff helped dig out generators, clear snow away from vents, rescue stranded motorists, and transport people to safer locations during the storm, according to Morse’s summary.

But the board questioned the decision not to open a warming station until 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, and it roundly criticized the communication failure on Saturday.

Between an “advisory alert” from town hall sent at 11:17 a.m. Friday and a message at 6:46 p.m. Saturday, there were no public communications from the town. Apparently, even select board members were unable to reach Morse for most of that time.

During a late October nor’easter, Emergency Management Coordinator Rex McKinsey sent out four alerts in a similar time span, but during the latest storm he sent no public messages at all.

“We were unable to contact you during the storm,” board chair David Abramson said, “and we were left, then — okay, who do we call next?”

“We should be informed about what the plan is,” said board member Louise Venden. “Nobody had any answers.”

“I acknowledge that this is unacceptable, and I take responsibility for that,” Morse said. He said he was in constant communication with the police chief and with Eversource, among others. There was no explanation of why board members could not reach Morse.

Neither did Morse’s written summary mention McKinsey or what he was doing during the storm.

“I’d like for you at the next select board meeting to give us an update,” said board member Leslie Sandberg.

Warming Station Closed

Morse told the board that preparations had been made on Friday to open a warming station at the Veterans Memorial Community Center (VMCC), including positioning of charging towers, supplies, and personal protective equipment. Travel on Saturday was so risky, however, that “we ended up pivoting to shelter in place,” Morse said. “We stand by our decision. We didn’t want to encourage residents to travel by car or even by foot. Those who did attempt to travel found themselves stranded, which required first responders to divert time and resources away from other pressing calls.”

Board members Sandberg and Bobby Anthony disagreed with Morse’s decision.

“It just takes a weight off, knowing that I can call the police department and I can preserve my insulin by going to the warming station,” said Anthony.

Sandberg said the town should proactively call the most vulnerable and offer to transport them before the storm strikes. “You have cots, you have food, and you have a place for them to ride the storm out,” she said.

Venden questioned the suitability of the VMCC in a winter storm. The building is on a hill, she noted, and neither Winslow Street nor Jerome Smith Road are “designated snow-plowing areas,” despite being the only roads to the building.

“Maybe we should think about having an alternate available,” said Venden.

Morse said the guidelines for warming stations and shelters need further airing. Barnstable County shifted to a shelter-in-place message midway through Saturday morning, Morse said, but also kept shelters open “as a last resort.”

There is a difference between shelters and warming stations, even though the terms are sometimes interchanged. Warming and charging stations are meant for short visits of a few hours, while shelters provide more comprehensive services, including meals and sleeping areas. During this storm, the nearest shelter to Provincetown was Nauset High School in Eastham, 22 miles away.

Provincetown opened the warming station at the VMCC at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. Truro, Wellfleet, and Chatham also opened warming centers Sunday morning. Only four people came to the VMCC before it closed at 4 p.m. Sunday.

The select board was more interested in the lack of options on Saturday night.

“When the sun starts to go down here and the power’s out, everybody gets a little nervous, because we know it’s going to get even colder,” said Abramson.

“People were scared, they were cold, and they were isolated,” said Sandberg. “Let’s not do that again.”

Eversource or Neversource?

Sandberg also raised the frequency of blackouts on the Outer Cape.

“The power was lost when the frail Circuit 96 caused us to be cut off from the power grid,” Morse told the board. “This circuit has been the culprit in our last four outages and is one of the main reasons they are installing the community battery in town.”

“I would like to see Eversource come in front of the select board,” Sandberg said. “It’s time for them to fix the electrical grid in this part of the state. Covid is no longer an excuse” for the delay in the battery project, she added.

Eversource did provide a generator to the Provincetown Fire Dept. when its own generator failed, Morse said.

“Power went out on their generator with voltage problems,” said Morse, “and their garage door openers also started to malfunction.”

In his report, Morse wrote, “Personnel were answering calls and trying to figure out how to make the doors work so they could close them and open them to get the apparatus out to calls.”

“The reason we’re having this meeting tonight is because what happened on Saturday can never happen again,” said Abramson.

The board asked Morse to report back on both storm preparation and communications at the next regular meeting on Monday, Feb. 14.

THE NEW MANAGER

Alex Morse Believes Connection Is What Makes Government Work

Fed up with campaigns, he’s hungry for the ‘meat and potatoes of governing’

By Paul Benson Mar 24, 2021

PROVINCETOWN — Alex Morse will have been mayor of Holyoke for just over nine years when he resigns at the end of March to take up his new job as town manager in Provincetown on April 5. His salary of $185,000 comes with a housing allowance of $15,000, according to his three-year contract.

Morse has been elected mayor four times, and first took office at the age of 22. He’s now 32. He ran a losing primary challenge for a Congressional seat last August. He told the Provincetown Select Board in his interview last month that these election campaigns were part of why he wanted to be town manager.

“I’ve done a lot of soul searching over the last six months, since losing the primary,” Morse said. “I’ve had to run for mayor four times. Every time, it’s spending time raising money, doing political things, when I really just want to govern and do what I enjoy and excel at, which is the mechanics of an urban community, the actual meat and potatoes that go into governing.”

Morse is hopeful about the job in Provincetown because “local government is where a lot of the action is,” Morse told the Independent.

Alex Morse is leaving Holyoke to become Provincetown’s town manager. He starts his new job on April 5. (Photo courtesy Alex Morse)

He learned that early on, he said. “Growing up in a place like Holyoke, it’s hard not to notice the forces at play. From pre-K through fifth grade, I went to school in the poorest neighborhood, and I was bused there. Some kids get off the bus and have a huge house to come home to, and some have not much to go home to. You’ve got a largely dead downtown, poverty and racism, empty paper mills.

“At the end of seventh grade, I heard an announcement about a group called the Holyoke Youth Commission,” he went on. “That was my introduction to civics and government.” He remembers making a “youth vision map” of changes they wanted to see. “We met with the mayor, and a lot of other organizations,” he said. “Eventually we got grant money and distributed it to other youth groups. It was a very powerful experience.”

Morse’s organizing efforts turned more personal after he came out as gay at 16, he said. He started a gay/straight alliance at his high school and partnered with a local nonprofit to organize an alternative prom for LGBTQ students in the region.

“Five hundred kids came to Holyoke for that alternative prom, and they could dress how they wanted to dress, bring who they wanted to bring, express their gender however they wanted,” said Morse. “That was the spring of 2007. A lot of older queer people were the chaperones, and I think it was almost as emotional for them as it was for the students.”

Morse was the first person in his family to go to college. “My parents grew up in public housing,” Morse told the select board at his interview. “My dad still works at the same factory he worked at 35 years ago. Where I grew up, people didn’t know how to access city government.”

Making the workings of government transparent was a theme in Morse’s interview. “I want to democratize how we make decisions, and promote debate and discussion,” Morse said. “Dissent is something I’ve always valued and encouraged.”

“If people feel disconnected from the process, it’s very difficult to achieve progress,” Morse later told the Independent. “You have to make sure residents know of the key points at which their voice is most likely to make a difference.

“Here in Holyoke, it’s not rare to do town halls on particular topics,” he added. “We’ve tried to shift the narrative from ‘you need to come to us,’ to ‘we’re going to meet people where they’re at.’ ”

Which means a question he’ll be asking early in his tenure here will be “What are those venues where people congregate? — those are the places we need to seek out and make sure there’s a two-way connection.”

Morse told the select board that his greatest achievement in Holyoke was diversifying who participates in government, who works in government, and who runs for office.

“At the end of the day what I’m most proud of is opening up the doors of city hall,” Morse said. “When I took office only 8 percent of our various boards were people of color, in a city that’s 50 percent Latino. We got that to over 40 percent. Fifty percent of our department heads are now women. People I’ve appointed to parks and rec, or to the planning board, have gone on to run for office.”

All of that, Morse believes, is the result of people feeling that they know how to get involved.

When it comes to housing, Morse told the Independent he knows “we have a lot of work ahead of us. I want to take a pretty big-picture look at the available space and figure out how do you provide affordable housing when there’s not enough land. I do have experience over the last 10 years bringing in 500 units of new housing to Holyoke, everything from public housing to affordable to market-rate. I know the ins and outs of state funding, and leveraging tax credits, and things we can do on the local level to incentivize those kinds of developments.

“It’s too early to talk about a specific plan, but I’m really excited to get to work.”