Yesterday, the Town of Southborough shared some unfortunate news. Our new Town Planner is hitting the road.
Jyothi Grama is relocating. Her husband was recruited by an NYC firm. It’s something she tells me was unexpected. She loves her job, but its an opportunity they can’t pass up.
That means that the Planning Board has to head back to the hiring table.
The board took about 6 months to fill the post after former Town Planner left in January. It took multiple rounds of applications and candidates for them to find the right fit. They hired Grama in June.
Before that, it took around four months to hire Grama’s predecessor Jennifer Burney in 2013.
The good news is, this time there seems to be plenty of notice. Grama hopes that the transition will go smoothly. She tells me that she plans to do all she can to make that happen.
The Town has already posted the job description to be filled. (For details on the opening, click here.) Meanwhile, Grama hasn’t given an official end date. Instead, she asked to be out by the end of the year.
Hopefully, this means there won’t be a repeat of issues the Planning Department had in past years.
Under-staffing has added to delays in the board’s challenge to update the Town’s zoning code. (That’s something the Town has been trying to achieve for many years now.)
And the board just announced to Town Meeting voters that Grama would be researching two new potential zoning bylaws for them. Both were meant to fix issues formerly addressed through Use Variances.
Part of staffing problems included a necessary long term leave for the department’s assistant before Burney left. That assistant, Hilary Young Carney just retired after many years of service.
Grama tells me that the new assistant will begin on November 7th. In the meantime, Carney has been pitching in part-time. And she will be helping to train her replacement.
It’s a shame Grama didn’t pass on the Town Planner job if there was the slightest hint that her husband might relocate. It’s a tedious process to find a Planner. Good luck
I do not mean to sound harsh but I am, I am truthful and a realist. Should have known not to hire transients that seek the next highest paying job. How revealing, she new it was coming, her own words. This is a job that takes a long term vision. Transients, my term, do not have the dedication to community, are not involved in our community, and preferably someone who has lived in the town for a long period of time, 10+ years. These people had been here I am told for 3 years, maybe less. I do not believe transient workers, maybe new to the community and we know who they are, are not a value to our community overall, perhaps only to the tax base (and of course they have intrinsic value always as a human being). Unless they are visible, contributing currently to Southborough, in the schools, in the community, then don’t hire another one. Its a waste of time and resources.
I don’t understand how you can say it was in her own words that she knew it was coming. Where did that come from? It is the opposite of what I wrote. “It’s something she said was unexpected.” Did you miss the “un”? Or did you see/hear this somewhere else.
According to Grama, it was unforeseen. And she is giving the Town plenty of time to find someone new. Is it unfortunate? Yes. But I think you are being unfairly harsh.
Someone asked why I had allowed these comments – believing they violated comment policy. Perhaps one did – in going to far. But this one I don’t consider a violation of policy.
I do take offense to it though. And I mistakenly assumed someone else would call you out on it. But no one really did. So, now leaving it here without responding further seems like maybe I condone the viewpoint.
I struggled on this response. I know you will take it as a personal and unfair attack. (Hmm, imagine how Ms. Grama must feel.)
But your transient euphemism is a very thinly veiled reference to something beyond some families’ career paths. I grew up in a family of “transients”. For much of my childhood we relocated every few years. When we finally came back to Southborough, I was happy to grow real roots here.
But I don’t think my white, American-born family would be part of the group you are talking about – since apparently “we know who they are”. If you aren’t talking about how people look or what countries they may have been born in – then I’m not sure how we would easily recognize these “transient workers”.
You seem to want a litmus test of commitment to our community. But you appear to want that test applied to “transient workers”. Otherwise, why didn’t you just state that after two planners leaving – the Town should consider only hiring someone who lives in Town (and has for several years) therefore has an investment in helping our town?
Personally, I don’t agree that litmus test works. There are people living in town (even some with generational roots) who made choices that many other residents have argued are hurting our town. (I can think of at least one recent controversy. But I’m sure that has always been the way. Living in town doesn’t mean you have the same priorities as your neighbors.)
Meanwhile, there are many employees of the Town and schools who live out of town but I believe work hard to do right by our community.
So, I believe the Town’s priority should again be looking to hire someone with the right skill set, experience and attitude. But if there’s any litmus test, it better be applied to everyone, not just “another one”.
Beth,
Thank you for addressing the comments in question. I can understand why you expected someone would offer criticism of the tone and assumptions made in the comments. Personally, I took many issues with the comments that were made, but I remained silent largely to not encourage what I considered to be trolling. There are some commenters on this site who consistently use so much hyperbole and frequently engage in name-calling, so much so that they undermine the remainder of their comments and I cannot take them seriously. So, I have taken to ignoring them. Maybe that gives the impression that hyperbole and name-calling are acceptable. In my mind, they are not, but in my opinion one of the best ways to de-legitimize such comments is to ignore them. I do appreciate your rebuke of the comments in this case, though. Although refusing to support trolling helps me sleep better at night, largely by not engaging in tit-for-tat ugliness, the downside of such a strategy is to remain a bystander and to tacitly approve of potentially harmful social vitriol. So, thank you for being an upstander in this case.
Well said.
My former neighbor, Mike Fuce, suggests what (I think) he claims to be a realistic approach: hire as the next Town Planner a non-“transient” – someone who has lived in Southborough for a decade or more, who has some demonstrable form of investment in the community, and who will offer a long term vision for the town. Apart from my agreement with Beth’s response to the implications of some of the language in that post, here’s another bit of data to question just how realistic such criteria will be, from the job description posted to http://www.mma.org:
“Bachelor’s degree is required; master’s degree in urban and regional land use planning is preferred. Minimum of five years of experience in municipal or environmental planning. Salary range $62,500-$87,500.”
I do not know the median household income in Southborough, but I’ve lived here for nearly thirty years, and that salary range doesn’t sound viable to me as the basis for long-term residency here. Combine that with Mike’s criteria and with the need for some specialized expertise, and the realistic pool of candidates shrinks down to … ? And I, for one, do not “know who they are” or who they might be. But I think we’ll have to cast a wider net to find our next planner,rather than a narrower one.
Removed for violation of comment policy
These types??????????
Thanks Mike
Hi Beth, There is nothing thinly veiled, what I said is very clear. Your exhaustive diatribe hit the nail on the head. I have my opinion , you have your opinion. It’s interesting how when the other side has an opinion or we want to word something the way that we want to word it , and we are on the opposite side, you and yours want to exercise your/their authority/dominion over those who you claim are doing what they are doing, hence the pot calling the kettle black. If you are offended, or the ones you claim to be concerned or offended, or someone else is offended, I say pull your pants up and wear them like a big person. The facts are the facts, if they hurt so be it, you only cripple or stagnate debate when censoring what you think or feel is inappropriate. There’s nothing in there that is insulting , if you’re a big person. A transient is a transient under no other name. They come and go when they feel and they are on to the next bigger buck they can make. I dont understand why that would hurt your feelings or anybody else’s. Thanks for pointing out all out to us are clear on. PS i’ve seen some pretty hard left of center comments from many people and I don’t see you commenting on their verbiage perhaps to be fair you should do that as well If you must referee.
[Editor’s Note: I have edited my own comment below as violating the rule of not attacking commenters – just their ideas.]
If I was censoring your bigotry, your diatribe wouldn’t have been allowed. The one I deleted was a personal attack. Nothing you have said here makes a lick of sense. You are digging your heels in that immigrants are transients by nature who don’t care about the community. They look different than the rest of us. And they deserve a different litmus test from the rest of us.
Censoring debate would have been keeping you off the blog. In truth, if your next response is as inflammatory as these were – it won’t be posted. So, if you want to share a defense with the rest of the community reading the blog – I suggest you choose your words carefully. And consider who is being immature here. There is nothing immature about being angered by racism.
So I agree with what Ira has mentioned it’s a very good overview in summation. Beth on the other hand, your sensitivity is coming through and your defensiveness. If we can’t say that certain groups of people are not invested in America the way other certain groups are then we can’t tell the truth right. The facts are the facts ma’am. That’s all I need to say. Thank you for allowing a debate in the form of public opinion in the marketplace of ideas, even when others think dissension is a form of bigotry and stoop to name calling, weather in your opinion you think it’s bigotry or not.
I am ending this comment stream. Responses are too personal. (I set a bad example myself in my passionate response earlier this morning.)
I think everyone should calm down. I am getting very nervous when we are being restricted from making statements that might or might not offend. Even negative comments should be printed. The reader may do with it what they may. This is crossing the line of free speech. That worries me.
This isn’t about the reader being offended by other points of view – it is about personal attacks on people.
I did allow these two comments as the last ones – just to end things on a more reasonable note.
This time – truly ending the comment stream.
I agree that is at best questionable when someone takes such a job knowingly will move in a short period of time but on other hand life is rarely so black and white. Also, would people want planning department to be without a planner for the entire time or with an unqualified person?
Without actual proof that Grama knew with reasonable certainty that they’ll be relocating less than a year and that she did not disclose such information, I’m simply going to accept it as a fact of life. Most people have to work for a living and I don’t believe is reasonable to ask them not to work on off chance they might relocate. Some times opportunities come from far left field and if it is right for you, you take it. As such, without actual proof of otherwise, again, I am going to give Grama the benefit of a doubt.