Mayor Setti Warren sent this to Newton Aldermen today..
As of today, David Turocy will no longer be Commissioner of the Department of Public Works for the City of Newton.
I am announcing that Jim McGonagle will be Newton’s Commissioner of the Department of Public Works and will start on July 21, 2015. You can find more information about him below.
Shane Mark will be serving as the Interim Commissioner for DPW in the interim.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact myself, Maureen Lemieux or Dori Zaleznik.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Mayor Setti D. Warre
Jim McGonagle comes as a veteran Public Works professional with 27 years experience. He served 22 years with the Town of Groton CT Public Works Department before being recruited to the City of Boston as Director of Central Fleet.
Under McGonagle’s leadership, Boston has been transformed from an antiquated department to an Industry leading operation that has been included in the Top 50 fleets in the country for 2014 and 2015.
He was awarded the American Public Works Association’s (APWA) 2014 Outstanding Achievement in Public Works Award.
Currently, he serves as Chairman of the National Association of Fleet Administrators (NAFA) Sustainable Fleet Accrediation Program and was recently appointed to the APWA Technical Services Committee.
McGonagle is eager to bring his expertise and effective leadership style to the City of Newton.
Will any paving be done north of I-90 anytime soon?
I liked Dave Turocy. He returned phone calls and emails, at least. Best of luck to him.
Am I missing something here? Turocy is no longer commissioner effective immediately and there’s already a replacement? Doesn’t anyone else think that’s strange? What’s the back story? Did we know that there was a search taking place for a new director?
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times-personnel issues are confidential in both the private and public sector.
Jane,
Something is going on here and if it is different than what the Mayor says it is, we have a right too know.
I’m with Gail, something fishy going on. I never heard anything negative about Dave T. I wish him well. Isn’t it unusual he hasnt made a comment about the situation like, I am retiring to pend time with my family….”
I’m a little skeptical over this.
@Jane: Yes, personnel matters are private and I’m not asking why Dave left. (I would ask, by the way, but I know I wouldn’t get an answer.) My reason for inquiring about a back story was to see if, like I said, I missed something. Did Dave announce that he was retiring, moving on, etc.? For that matter, is he still working for the city? The announcement only says that he’s no longer director. Was there an announcement about a search for a new director? I try not to jump to conclusions about these matters; I know there’s always more to it than appears in an announcement.
I believe it is unusual to see an announcement regarding the departure of a department head and the simultaneous hiring of his replacement. I would have thought there would be a process to go through for the new hire. That’s what I’m asking.
This is Dave’s business and he has a right to privacy.
@Jane: Dave has his right to his privacy but taxpayers also have a right to know if the hire of a department head (especially a position of this magnitude) was preceded by the proper posting and hiring process. Perhaps it was. Perhaps it wasn’t. But it’s a fair question.
Go at it.
Always great to have your blessing!
Regardless of the back story, I certainly hope the new guy does something about our streets. They are in worse shape than our neighboring towns and in some cases, worse than some 3rd world countries I’ve visited. And this is not just due to the winter of 2015. This has been an ongoing problem. It seems that we have a problem with routine maintenance. And even when those repairs are made, the quality is shoddy, resulting in the same bumpy ride.
Not sure if Gail has noticed but I don’t think ONE Department Head remains since Setti took office. In fact, Setti has gone through Department Heads at a fast pace. The question here is why can’t the Mayor hold on to staff? Anyone want to comment? Maybe Tom Sheff?
It’s reasonable to wonder how or if this search was conducted without notifying the public but it does not strike me as unusual for a mayor to have hired his own team.
Any questions you might have you’d want to be directed to Mary O’Neill, formerly of the City of Boston, now recruiting manager for the City of Newton.
I’m not questioning the decision, I’m questioning the process. The mayor can hire and fire as he chooses, and people can come and go as they choose.
I directed my questions to Meaghan Maher in the mayor’s office. She’s acknowledged receiving my email but has not yet answered my questions.
I just spoke with Dori Zaleznik, the mayor’s chief administrative officer. She said that the search to replace Dave Turocy was not public but it was also not against city protocol because the city has no standard protocol for hiring department heads.
You all know, I hope, that the BOA may reject the appointment of department heads within 30 days of receiving notice of their appointment by the Mayor. It’s in the City Charter, Sec. 3-3(a). I know that the process question has already come up amongst some of my colleagues, as by tradition the board usually has a representative on the search committee for new department heads. I don’t ever remember the BOA rejecting an appointee, but if answers about the process are not forthcoming I suppose it could happen.
On a personal note, I am sad to see Dave Turocy leave. I am sadder still there was no opportunity to bid him farewell. He was always a professional and highly knowledgeable, returned emails and phone calls promptly, was willing and able to work with anyone, was unfailingly polite, and worked with me on any number of projects for my ward and constituents. He will be missed. Wherever he is and wherever he goes, I wish him only the best.
@Doug, as of today, Jayne Colino is still head of Senior Services, Elizabeth Dromey is still the head of the Assessor’s Office and John Lojek is still the Commissioner of Inspectional Services. And, of course, David Olson is still the City Clerk and David Wilkinson is still the head of the Comptroller’s Office, but they both work for the Board of Aldermen.
@Gail, Dori is correct that there is no formal protocol for hiring department heads. But some aldermen (important ones, unlike me) perceive the process followed in this case as “troubling,” to put it mildly. I am sure we will be hearing from them in the coming days and weeks.
Don’t know the details but I hope those Aldermen who were so critical of Mr. Turocy when he made the traffic changes in Newton Center will be consistent in their opinions of his performance.
Mr Turocy made the change in Newton Centre as requested by one or more Aldermen. Alderman Danberg was the primary catalyst as she was seeking to make room for additional benches which was a well meaning idea. During an appearance on Newton Newsmakers program, Mr Turocy was very gracious to engage in a discussion with local residents who put together a presentation on why the changes should be reversed.
To his credit, Mr Turocy when seeing the presentation readily admitted on the program that the change had a negative impact on traffic flow and that he would be taking steps to correct it by reverting to the previous configuration.
It is very rare to hear anything negative about Mr Turocy. On the contrary, he was unusually accessible and helpful in answering questions from anyone who asked.
I think what happened is rather obvious. I don’t think anything illegal happened, but it’s not right to David.
Tom, please explain the rather obvious to those of us who do not spend a lot of time inside city hall.
The intersection configuration change in Newton Centre was ill conceived. However, I was very impressed with how Mr. Turocy took ownership of the mistake and corrected the mistake. The cost of changing the intersection, both initially and then redoing it, was not the most wasteful money spent by the city administration. JMO.
Patrick,
I don’t spend anytime in city hall, but the timing plays out one of several ways in my mind. I want to preface this by saying I have no proof of what happened just experience as an outside observer (like all of us)
Since there was no time to have a nationwide search, one can conclude that McGonagle’s hire was before Turozy’s departure. We can also conclude that McGonagle approached the Mayor for a job while he was working for Boston OR the Mayor was doing a favor for Mayor Walsh who found McGonagle a job. (This isn’t unprecedented, the Mayor took an employee from Mayor Menino as a favor when he retired). Or, a third possibility exists and that since Megan Costello works for Mayor Walsh, she may have had something to do with the connection behind the scenes.
Nothing is illegal and he seems to have a nice resume, but I feel bad for David T.
@Tom: You had me through “one can conclude that McGonagle’s hire was before Turocy’s departure.” That’s about all we can conclude.
Dave is a class act and I am sorry to see him leaving under these circumstances. I found him to be hard working and responsive. I agree with Ted it is a shame not to have a chance to say farewell and good luck. If he reads this blog, Dave I wish you the best!
Tom, thank you for your reply. However, since you offered three somewhat disparate options, I still do no not understand the use of the phrase “rather obvious”.
There have been some city employees that have left (been removed) without a public explanation, and the residents have basically understood the positive nature of the action. Except for a comment about not paving streets north of the MA Pike, comments here have been very supportive of David.
To Jane’s point, I do not need the details, yet it would help me understand how our city government is being administered if we knew whether David left voluntarily of his own volition or was dismissed for just or unjust cause; three very different scenarios.
I don’t understand why Dave Turocy was held responsible for the Newton Centre mess. Wouldn’t that have been the responsibility of the Traffic Engineer, who, I believe, works for the Planning Dept?
In any case, Dave was and is a very nice guy, maybe too nice for a department like Newton’s DPW.
Barbara, Dave Turocy wasn’t held responsible for the traffic mess in Newton Centre. He took responsibility for it, and then he fixed it. I thought then, and now, that he was a stand up guy who was always accountable.
First to Barbara – the traffic engineer works in DPW for Dave Turocy. The Centre St/Cypress St. interesection was designed by the state to accomodate additional traffic that was expected from the development along Route 9. The design was approval by the Public Facilities Committee of the BOA.
Second – I am sorry we don’t have a chance to say thank you to Dave Turocy. I agree he was always nice, responded to emails and showed up at meetings.
I do hope our new commissioner is more visionary and more open to doing things differently. Clearly the current operating model is not working. The city is falling further behind in street maintenance, construction, bike accommodations and new sidewalks. I also hope he is a stronger leader when it comes to the craziness that surrounds the construction season and the winter snow clearance operations.
Patrick,
The obvious thing is that the city got a replacement for Dave before removing him from the position. I don’t believe that he left voluntarily.
At that point there are two ways one can go…Outside sources became proactive in finding MacGonagle the job by approaching the city OR the City was proactive in finding Dave’s replacement.
I believe outside sources (Mayor Walsh, Megan or MacGonagle) approached the city. I think it’s kind of obvious because it’s been 2 years since centre st/cypress st debacle and he’s still here (how time flies).
It seems as though Jim McGonagle’s expertise is in the area of fleet maintenance and maintenance of vehicles – a substantial stretch from running a public works department.
To Alicia’s point, will he even know about street maintenance, construction, or the newest bike accommodation standards and sidewalk standards or what complete streets mean?
I also hope he can help fill those empty Public Works positions, from the city’s website I counted 7 unfilled positions some of them seem rather important, like Parking Manager & Traffic Engineer.
@Ted & Alicia: thanks for the clarification.
It’s hard to believe all the DPW’s problems were management issues. Has the City allocated enough money to make the necessary infrastructure repairs?
Tom, thank you for your follow-up explanation. I appear to be more conservative in coming to a conclusion about what happened in this situation without more information being provided by either or both parties involved.
If I accept the low probability of David leaving voluntarily, I still believe the residents of Newton deserve to know whether this was a case of an employee being terminated for improper behavior and/or poor performance or an employee being unjustly terminated by the city administration. If the employee was terminated for just cause, then we can be thankful for the administration acting responsibly. If the employee was unjustly terminated, then we still have a problem to address.
Tom, FWIIW, I am not even sure David was fired / terminated. The mayor’s communication to the BOA simple states “As of today, David Turocy will no longer be Commissioner of the Department of Public Works for the City of Newton.”
It is now 72+ hours since that communication, and David is still listed on the city website as the Commissioner. Add this to THM’s comment about the BOA’s lack of involvement in the hiring of Jim McGonagle, and it appears Dori Zaleznik’s comment to Gail that the city has no standard protocol for hiring department heads highlights some fairly unacceptable actions (or lack thereof).
“I still believe the residents of Newton deserve to know whether this was a case of an employee being terminated for improper behavior and/or poor performance or an employee being unjustly terminated by the city administration.”
No matter what you believe or want to have happen, Patrick, personnel decisions are confidential.
The “traffic mess” in Newton Centre was more than anything else a series of political mistakes. The Aldermen first approved, then subsequently dismantled the project before the new traffic signal timing — including a much longer green to reduce backups — was implemented, so we’ll never know whether the design would have worked or not. If anyone is looking for people to blame, start with Aldermen who meddled without a full understanding of the project, including those who claim they saw it all coming, but really objected only to the modest raised crossing (which turned out to be a non-issue). To this day, many remain focused the curb changes when several other factors were at work. This subject has been discussed ad nauseum on other threads.
Barbara, although the design in question was provided by a private firm under guidance from the state, the traffic engineers do report to the DPW, not planning, and Dave Turocy did ultimately take responsibility as head of the department. Dave’s legacy includes a reversal of decades of decaying infrastructure, as well as having the courage to make modest improvements, like the bumpouts at Pelham over strenuous objections. Dave worked in a challenging environment under a lot of pressure. He was conscientious and responsive to the community. We owe him our thanks.
Patrick and Tom, there is an old Irish Pol joke that was handed down in my family from my great-grandfather, who was an alderman and the vice mayor of Newport, RI.
When entering elected office, there will be three envelopes on your desk to assist your transition. In your first term, if the public starts getting cantankerous, you open the first envelope which states, “Blame everything on your predecessor”. This is meant to calm the masses and move you into your second term of office. If the pitch forks and torches are again handed out and the public is once more beating at the door, you are to open the second envelope which states, “Blame your staff”. So you reorganize, fire a bunch of people and hopefully yet again the masses are quelled. If the public subsequently gathers once more, you open the third envelope which states, “Prepare three envelopes.”
The aldermen are informed that Mr. McGonagle will not take office until their questions about the process and why the board was kept in the dark have been answered, and they have approved his appointment.
Ted, thank you for your reply and the information that the BOA is still looking for clarification with regards to this matter. Regardless of what Jane keeps saying about personnel decisions being confidential, I, as a taxpayer, have the right to know if my city’s administrators are behaving in an ethical, proper and legal way when dealing with the city’s personnel matters. I can not rely on clarification by expecting a comment from David since there is potential that a non-disclosure could have been part of his termination as the commissioner.
BTW, it has now been 6 days since the mayor wrote his letter stating David would no longer be the commissioner as of the 23rd, and David is still listed as the commissioner on the city’s website. Is David still an employee? That is not a confidential personnel matter question.
Patrick, as of last Tuesday, Mr. Turocy is no longer an employee of the city.
Housekeeping note: One or more individuals have been attempting to post anonymous comments here that contain details related to this that are unsubstantiated. They may or may not be true but we cannot post them here given that we cannot verify them. I would suggest you may want to contact the TAB or the Globe.