Tisbury’s select board unanimously voted on Wednesday to ask Joe LaCivita, the general manager of Watervliet, N.Y., to become its next town administrator.
LaCivita interviewed at Tisbury town hall, discussing his experience as an official in a city of 10,000 residents, as well as his background as a property developer.
He told the select board that he can likely start working for Tisbury within 30 to 45 days.
Tisbury’s search for a new top official comes at an important time for the town, which earlier this year unveiled its master plan for the next 10 to 20 years. The town is also looking to consolidate its town offices, and address frequent flooding at its main intersection.
While Tisbury waits to see whether LaCivita will take over, the select board appointed human resource director Pam Bennett to be town administrator starting Jan. 1, Town Clerk Hillary Conklin confirmed to The Times on Friday.
Tisbury does not currently have anyone serving its town administrator role, as town administrator Jay Grande is using earned vacation and sick time for the rest of this year, Conklin also confirmed.
The select board interviewed two finalists to replace Grande on Wednesday. Both hold positions similar to that of a town administrator — LaCivita as general manager, and candidate Sonia Alves-Viveiros, the business administrator of Edison, N.J.
LaCivita highlighted his background in town and state government as well as property development, including his work to secure a community development block grant to communities across New York State.
He also mentioned his part in coordinating townwide projects, such as the combination of Watervliet’s sewer systems. “We only have three [systems] left in our city, and we’ll be fully compliant. Because everything we put in the water, which is the Hudson River, was dirty, and we’ll be one of the cleanest cities … once I leave,” he said.
The select board also asked each candidate about town budgeting, and their successes in seeking grant funding.
LaCivita noted that in the past year, Watervliet received around $15 million in grant funding, partly due to cultivating relationships with state officials. He said that Watervliet was able to secure body cameras and license plate readers for its police with the help of state grant funding.
“You start to create those relationships with those Senate assembly members, your congressmen, because there might be money out there that we may not have tapped into,” he stated.
Affordable housing was another line of questioning, and select board members asked candidates how they would protect the town’s character from overdevelopment, a hot topic in Tisbury this year.
“I’m a big proponent of affordable housing,” LaCivita said.
He noted that property developers must be held to certain responsibilities. “I think development has a responsibility when they come asking for approvals for certain things … You hold the developer to the codes that are needed and the designs that are needed, but obviously help with the issues that are presented to us,” he said.
He also spoke to the importance of proper zoning while working for the town of Colonie, N.Y.: “As planner and economic developer, there wasn’t a day that went by where I wasn’t talking to zoning [officials] on projects. Everything starts on zoning, because when it comes to a legal challenge … if you have your project that doesn’t do the zoning properly, by the time it gets to planning, this is all gone. Now you’ve got a project before the planning board that may be compromised, if you will.”
Both candidates told the board that they valued frequent communication between municipal departments, and making themselves available to officials and residents.
“One of the things I did in the city of Watervliet that wasn’t done before was having weekly meetings with our department heads,” LaCivita said. “I found that the department heads weren’t really talking together.”
When asked what he would do in his first week as town administrator, LaCivita said that he would visit local business owners to get to know them and their concerns.
LaCivita told the board on Wednesday that his family has vacationed on Martha’s Vineyard for the past 35 years, and that he considers Tisbury a special place.
Select board chair John Cahill asked LaCivita to respond to any critics who may see him as an outsider. “People that knew you were coming … some of the comments were, ‘Huh, they’re not from Massachusetts.’ ‘They’re not from the Island,’” Cahill said. “How would you answer that?”
“If you look around the Island, I bet you would find a lot of transplants in various roles,” LaCivita replied. “I’ve heard those comments and questions, ‘Oh, you’re not from here.’ I don’t believe you have to be. It’s how you present yourself, it’s how you work with people. I think I’m a pretty easygoing guy, you know, to get things done. I think I can win over all but a few.”
Candidate Alves-Viveiros told the board that she values open communication and attending town board meetings.
When Cahill asked her how Tisbury could stay budget-conscious, after the $82 million cost of the recently completed Tisbury School as well as the looming high school construction project, Alves-Viveiros recommended pilot programs.
“I’ve been in communities where an entire rec facility was solely on pilot programming,” she said of programs in which developers contribute a portion of a project’s cost in lieu of funding from taxes.
Alves-Viveiros also told the board that she was born in Portugal and speaks Portuguese, and said that her husband has lots of Azorean family who live nearby.
Before the vote, select board member Roy Cutrer noted his initial hesitancy when presented with only two out-of-state candidates from the initial pool of 22 applicants.
“Honestly, I did not come here today thinking I was going to meet our next town administrator,” he said.
LaCivita won him over, however. “I liked his connection to the town … that says that, ‘If I’m given an opportunity, I will take it, and I will be here to see things through,’” Cutrer added.