Ragucci: Thriving on the challenge
Published on October 3rd, 2007
STONEHAM, MA - In his brief eight-month tenure in office, he's witnessed a failed $2.9 million override, hired both a new police and fire chief, watched as a $200 trash fee was imposed, and reached for several new revenue streams to help Stoneham weather its latest financial crisis.
For Town Administrator David Ragucci, sitting in Town Hall's corner office and acting as Stoneham's CEO, despite that whirlwind of activity, is just the place to be.
And with $1.4 million in free cash recently certified by the state, an October Town Meeting looming on the horizon, several union contracts still to be negotiated, and at least a $700,000 deficit forecasted for next year, Ragucci's workload certainly isn't getting any lighter soon.
Last week, The Stoneham Independent sat down with the former Mayor of Everett as he reflected on his eight-months on the job, and the direction he'd like to steer the town towards in the months ahead.
His responses are as follows:
SI: How do you like being TA so far?
Ragucci: I love the challenge of this job. I have a good group of managers, a very supportive Board of Selectmen, and a good employee base to make some improvements.
SI: Do you have any regrets?
Ragucci: Not at all. It's a great community and I thrive on the challenges. I'm very happy to be here.
SI: What surprised you about Stoneham when you first arrived?
Ragucci: I had very limited experience with or knowledge of Stoneham. It's such a nice bedroom community that's so well laid-out. You have your municipal buildings in clusters and playgrounds and parks that are centrally located to the population. Town Meeting was also a surprise to me. Obviously it was my first one and I was pleasantly surprised.
SI: In what ways did your political experience as Mayor of Everett prepare you for becoming Town Administrator in Stoneham?
Ragucci: Managing Everett, being at least twice the size of everything in Stoneham, prepared me well. What I learned there is that if you have a good staff and good people around you, it's easy to manage well. That's what I had and Everett and I have that here. I think I brought a little bit of the city in me here, in that a lot of assets in Stoneham haven't been utilized. Of course, dealing with the people and the issues, although not on the same scale as in Everett, is the same everywhere.
SI: How do you feel about the town's political currents?
Ragucci: I do find it a bit difficult, from a management point-of-view, to have employees working for some of the part-time boards in town. I'm not really used to that and it makes it a little difficult to manage sometimes. But I don't have to play politics up here. Being a manager, you don't have to worry about the politics, because you don't have to worry about getting elected. You just make the best management decision based on what's best for the town.
SI: What is Stoneham's biggest challenge?
Ragucci: The costs. The costs of operating the community. It's almost like being a retired person living on a fixed income with these levy limits. But unlike retirees, the town can find ways to reduce costs and increase revenues. But I don't want to be reaching into the pockets and pocketbooks of the townspeople to operate the town. We need to consolidate services and find other ways to raise revenue, like by leasing the DPW bays. Of course, we also need to find ways to get help from our state representatives. We need to not only explore local revenue sources, but we need to put together a state agenda and lobby for a change that's beneficial to Stoneham.
SI: What's your take on the BRMC redevelopment and the Fallon Road Home Depot proposal?
Ragucci: My approach to development is that you just can't be looking at the short-term benefits, these narrow views of short-time revenues. You need to have a three-year plan. The money that's generated from development has to be used effectively so there's long-term impacts. You can't just have one good year and then go back to where you were before. Once these two places are developed, there's not much more we can do here. So that money can't be squandered. It has to be invested so that it has multiple year benefits for Stoneham.
SI: How do you feel about the trash fee and the future of override questions:
Ragucci: I would not, nor do would I suggest that the Selectmen, support another override. The trash fee is a harsh reality. Is there a fair way to do it? Yes, I think there is. I don't think a $200 across the board fee is fair. You have senior citizens who generate one bag of trash and families who throw out five to six bags of trash. We're limited in tax dollars. There's not bloated salaries and flashy spending going on with complete disregard for the taxpayer. So I think the trash fee or some charge is the harsh reality that we live in.
SI: You've recently endorsed a pay-as-you-throw trash system. When does that decision have to be made?
Ragucci: Would I like to have it ready before April or Town Meeting? Absolutely. Will that happen? I don't know. But if we don't do something now to reduce our trash stream, Stoneham is going to be in worse shape than it was last fiscal year.
SI: There seemed to be some pressure coming from the Selectmen during the search for a new chief of police. Would you agree with that?
Ragucci: I certainly looked to the Selectmen for such an important position. After all, it is their community and they're accountable for what's going on here. There may have been different opinions on who the best candidate was, but I don't think there was any pressure. I felt satisfied in realizing that whatever decision I made, they were going to live with it. So that was certainly a burst of confidence for me.
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