| Joanne Cole and Debra Smith |
Since starting in Town Hall in early May, new town manager Christine Landes has hit the ground running. She was immediately faced with several staff positions to fill, a municipal election that resulted in three new select board members, winding down the fiscal year, the launch of the charter commission, and more.
We sat down with her the morning after the inaugural meeting of the charter commission, which she attended and had helped organize. The meeting had wrapped up for Landes around 9 pm, and she had a 45-minute drive home after that. Now here she was, back in the office in the morning, her phone pinging with text messages and emails. Offered a bit of sympathy for the short night and quick turnaround, Landes replied without hesitation, “I don’t ask anything of staff that I won’t do myself.”
Landes hadn’t planned on a career in municipal government. The career found her. She says she had always imagined working in banking, following in family footsteps. And banking is where she started, rising rapidly, but then Landes swerved, in search of more family-friendly hours. Living in Warren at the time, Landes took a flyer on the town clerk position there, imagining she’d return to the financial world after a few years.
Her first year as Warren town clerk was “horrendous,” Landes says. But because municipal life is cyclical, “after a learning year,” she says, “it clicked.” She followed her military spouse to Florida and worked as a tax collector there, while also collecting stories about how Florida does local government (it’s not like Maine). Her husband’s retirement from the military brought the pair back to Maine.
In the two decades that followed, Landes took classes at UMaine while she worked her way up the municipal ladder, completing degrees in public administration. On returning to the state, she first joined the Veazie clerk’s office, then became deputy clerk in Brewer. The leap of a next step “to see what’s out there” took Landes to Bethel and the opportunity to become a town manager. She was manager there for about four years, before accepting an offer to be city manager in Gardiner, closer to family and a welcome change from quiet Bethel.
Transitions to New Gloucester. Three years and another master’s degree later, Landes is in New Gloucester. Asked why she chose New Gloucester after more than twenty years’ experience across Maine, Landes said, “I think I can do some good here.” She did her homework before accepting the position. She said she was aware of staff turnover and what she called “issues in contention,” but considered the challenges to be problem-solving opportunities. One immediate challenge: filling five open positions in a challenging job market. The opportunity? As with any new hires, she said, to help them “be successful and want to stay.”
Landes imagines her transition into the manager role here taking about a year. Becoming familiar with local processes and past practice, working with a budget she didn’t develop, and getting to know a new staff and new select board are all in the mix. One idea she’s already started is to bring new select board members with her to different departments to see their work firsthand. One new board member has already taken up the opportunity. Landes also plans a goal-setting session with the full board to plan and prioritize the work ahead.
Something Landes has already noticed and admired here? New Gloucester residents’ commitment to serving on boards and committees. She said New Gloucester has “the best volunteering” she’s seen, with “so many statements of interest” in serving on boards and committees, despite the long hours involved. The charter commission, she noted, is undertaking a long process with members agreeing to meet every other week. Landes also particularly commended those who recently sought spots on the planning board, given that the work involved “is a lot to ask.”
Management and communication. As town manager, Landes oversees a staff of more than 50 full- and part-time employees. She speaks in terms of “the team” and sees everyone’s success as interconnected. “They can’t do their job without me, and I can’t do my job without them,” she says. So that everyone knows what’s going on in other departments, she and department leaders will all meet together. That, in turn, will help in identifying issues to take to the select board.
Landes values transparency and keeping the community informed. She says, “I’m going to tell you the truth.” Faithful select board meeting-watchers noticed right away Landes’ report on the town’s budget during her first official meeting. Since then, templates for effective workflow and follow-up, Robert’s Rules, and detailed updates have followed. She may also bring her own past practices to New Gloucester to communicate with citizens. In Bethel she wrote newspaper articles, and in Gardiner she prepared bulleted lists “to keep the community up to speed.”
Another idea involves asking departments to prepare monthly reports to be included in select board agenda packets, where residents can access them directly. The town website is also on Landes’ radar. It’s outdated, she says, but looking into options will likely have to wait until winter at the earliest.
Landes’ door is open. In a statement when she was first hired, Landes said she’d always had an open-door policy: “I welcome anyone to come and discuss concerns, bring forth suggestions, and relay compliments regarding town business or issues.” In our conversation, she added that even when the issues or concerns residents raise turn out not to be in her power to solve, being recognized and acknowledged matters in itself to residents. “Most people just want to be heard,” Landes said.
Budgets and economic development. Landes mentioned the challenge of starting off with a budget she didn’t prepare and is already looking ahead. She described her approach to developing a budget with a goal of providing the same level of services to taxpayers at the same or reduced cost compared with the current year. She’ll meet with department heads to discuss their requests and the “why” behind them, and then document the rationale. Landes has typically prepared a powerpoint presentation outlining all budget changes up or down by a set amount—perhaps $1000 or $5000—along with the justification for the change.
As Landes considers the fiscal year just concluded, she commented that increased state revenue-sharing was key for Maine municipalities, including New Gloucester. On the horizon are questions about how to use the more than $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act payments coming to the town – a welcome budget question to tackle.
Asked about economic development in New Gloucester, particularly given the contrast with Gardiner—about the same population as New Gloucester but with a downtown district and broader business base—Landes said the goal is to “find that balance of what works in this community.” She sees “opportunities here to grow,” including for existing businesses to expand as well as building on events and activities that already draw people to town. The recently approved comprehensive plan is in her view “a guiding document” for the community. The task ahead is to “build on its generalizations,” working in tandem with the next town planner and with support from the select board “to bring the vision to fruition.”
Collaboration and connection. Forging connections and collaboration is important to Landes. As manager, Landes is already partnering on projects with counterparts in Gray, plans to meet regularly with school district leaders, is talking with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s department, and is joining in the work of the Greater Portland Council of Governments. More collaborations are in the works.
Landes has also been a leader and made valuable connections at the state level, serving on the executive committee of the Maine Municipal Association and as its current past president. The MMA role clearly has had significant personal and professional meaning for Landes. It was a chance to “be an inspiration” to others in the realm of municipal affairs, she said, and to build a network useful for matters like budget forecasting and knowing what the legislature is up to. Already, New Gloucester select board meeting-watchers have heard Landes speak about the town manager listserv take on topical issues and what new policies MMA might generate.
As our conversation wrapped up, we asked what was next on Landes’ to-do list for the day. Working on FEMA reimbursement paperwork to be sent to Louisiana, she said, adding that she can make a plan for the day, but inevitably “something else will come up.”
To Landes, the fact that ‘something else will come up’ isn’t a drawback; it’s the draw. The variety of tasks and challenges in the town manager role, and its ongoing opportunities to serve others, clearly energize her. “This is my passion,” she said. As she settles into her new responsibilities, Christine Landes’ hope that she’ll “do some good” in New Gloucester is one residents share.
