“I enjoy town administration because it’s never boring and sometimes affords the opportunity to be innovative; that could be particularly true here,” says Islesboro’s new Town Manager Jeffrey Grossman.
When asked what attracted him to the position in Islesboro, Grossman replies, “I liked the thought that some problems which might be solved simply in other places will have a different dimension on an island; more of a challenge. I’ll know better how much of a challenge once I go through a summer here.”
Two months into his tenure, the new town manager is beginning to discover some of those differences.
In the wake of an unruly deer-hunting season, Grossman realizes that law enforcement poses particular problems on an island. “The game wardens don’t get out here much, and (the one Public Safety Officer) Fred Porter can’t do it all. We are working together to enhance the capability to deal with island issues through additional training and reserve officers for the summer season, when the population more than triples, and during hunting season. We are hoping to have the warden service train someone who either lives on island or is willing to; we need night coverage.”
Grossman is also learning about the added expense of just about everything on an island; trash removal, for example. He recently proposed the idea of single-stream recycling to the Board of Selectmen. Islesboro has a recycling rate of 20 percent (as compared to the state municipal average of 29.5 percent) and pays a tipping fee of $72 per ton, plus a significant transportation surcharge.
Grossman was unanimously appointed by the Islesboro Board of Selectmen in November from a field of 50 applicants and brings to the position an accumulated 15 years of city administration as well as a solid background in financial analyses and management. After graduating from Syracuse University with a Masters of Public Administration, Grossman served as chief administrative officer for the town of Southborough, Mass. He then established a consulting firm that assisted developers from initial feasibility assessments, through proposal creation and negotiating the regulatory process.
In 1991, ready for a change of pace and venue, Grossman moved with his wife and three children to serve as Boothbay Harbor’s town manager. His job description included superintendent of the Boothbay Water District and he obtained a $4.2 million Federal Housing Administration grant for the federally mandated water treatment plant, which, unlike proposals by previous management, was approved by the town.
Following a three-year stint as the city administrator of Westbrook, managing a $12 million budget and 224 employees, Grossman decided to try his hand at investment consulting. He formed Jaguar Capital Management, and for eight years analyzed the feasibility of investment vehicles and managed both individual and institutional investor accounts.
In 2004, Grossman was hired as town manager of South Berwick. With a $6 million municipal budget and 65 employees, he negotiated union contracts, updated policies and ordinances in accordance with federal and state statutes, initiated shared assessing services with a neighboring town and implemented a six-town state planning office grant for regional efficiency. As a way to offset higher taxes, he was the architect of a regional development authority that would have created an industrial park in the area. While the proposal was approved by the Town Council, two members were opposed. The legislation was subsequently killed in committee in the State Legislature after losing the support of the state senator from York.
In March of 2008, the same two council members, accompanied by a third, pushed for Grossman’s resignation. Although supported by 40 town employees in a letter to the council and a petition circulated by a former council member to amend the town charter so municipal officers could be recalled from office, Grossman chose to accept a buy-out package and move on rather than risk damaging his reputation.
As Grossman states, “Town managers and administrators are often hired by one group of elected officials with specific goals and agendas and then, two or three years down the line, the people who hired you are no longer on the board. The new members may have different values and philosophies and if you are not willing to forward those agendas, which are sometimes personal and not necessarily in the best interests of the town, you are not going to succeed. That’s town politics.”
Settling into his modest Islesboro rental which happens to have a spectacular water view, Grossman, now divorced, says, “I was looking at the potential quality of life here. It feels less isolated than I feared it could be; it’s a tighter-knit community than I’ve lived in before. In some places, there seemed to be people just waiting for the new administrator to trip up, but the people I’ve talked to here seem to really want this to work out well and that feels good. I also missed the proximity to the ocean when I left Boothbay Harbor and now I’m surrounded by it! At this point in my life, I wanted to be in a place where I could enjoy my time off and on. So far, it’s even better than I anticipated. And my dog likes it a lot.”
Maggy Aston is the publisher of the Islesboro Island News.