Two departures from Newton City Hall were announced to the City Council late Friday afternoon
Dear City Councilors:
I wanted to tell you that as of today, Transportation Director Bill Paille and Youth Services Director Jenny O’Higgins are no longer working for the City of Newton. While we are recruiting for these positions, Shane Mark will be acting as Interim Transportation Director assisted by Gloria Son, Traffic Engineer, and Youth Services activities will be overseen by Deb Youngblood, Commissioner of Health and Human Services.
While we do not discuss personnel matters, if you have questions or would like to talk, please feel free to contact me, Maureen, or the Mayor.
Dori Zaleznik, MD
Chief Administrative Officer
Very disheartening news. Bill Paille was one of Newton’s best public servants. He worked hard to bring changes, listened well to the community, and was always a pleasure to talk to. Once again, this important position is left vacant with a significant loss of institutional memory.
Yeesh, and yes I agree Adam. Too bad he couldn’t have his department properly staffed to actually do a lot more of the stuff he wanted…I did not know Jenny, so can’t comment there.
Another two bites the dust
I am sorry I didn’t get a chance to meet Jenny, but as a Ward Alderwoman I certainly worked with Bill Paille and thought he was everything one would want in a public servant – smart, thoughtful, hard-working, committed to the City, knowledgeable in his area, and last but definitely not least, patient with alderpeople and citizens (we can all be very irritating).
Agreed. I too am quite sorry to learn this about Bill. Among all the challenges he faced, the least of which was to to lose traffic engineers and then have to rehire and retrain young talent, only to see them move on again to greener pastures.
This is awful news. This City cannot hold on to the talented people it attracts; I imagine that it will, as time passes, no longer be able to attract the talent we deserve. Why? What, or who, makes working at City Hall so untenable?
Plus 1 to everything everyone has been saying about Bill Paille. With his exit, we lose a great deal of institutional memory and a true gentleman.
Among other things, Jenny o’Higgins ran the city’s summer internship program and played a pivotal role during the rash of high schools student suicides two years back.
I understand that there was a third recent exit (four when you count Jacque Goddard). Rachel Nenner-Payton, director of social services recently left City Hall as well.
At this point, the burden should be on the Mayor to prove that the current administration is not selling us short when it comes to daily operations as there is too much important work that need be done. I’m personally aware of many extraordinarily talented and proven leaders who have offered to work for our city in both volunteer and official capacities, yet these individuals never even heard back after applying. As such, I’m led to believe that we are not maximizing our potential, but I would love to be proven wrong.
That’s terrible news about Rachel leaving. The City needs more social worker hours and help, not less.
Is Newton’s turnover any worse than other cities and towns? Not sure if there’s an accurate way to find out. As said above a few times, it’s the institutional knowledge loss that’s difficult.
There is a serious problem in recruiting and retaining staff. It’s time for the BOA to take action and hold the Mayor accountable. This Mayor owes us a serious explanation as to why he needs to continually fire staff.
Jane H hit this problem on the nose. The biggest waste of business revenue or in case of municipalities, taxpayers money, is training new employees. On the other hand, if they don’t plan on filling these positions then we lose out on quality of services. Either way, we lose.