During his January 5 interview with the Marion Select Board, Geoff Gorman said, “My expectation would be that I am a multiplier for the Select Board, not just a minion.” On March 1, Gorman will become that “multiplier,” replacing Jay McGrail as town administrator.
“I’m there to represent the Select Board and what their goals and strategy … their long-term strategy for the Town of Marion, are,” Gorman further explained on Monday morning during a visit to the Town House. “I’ve got to take those five-, 10-year goals and make them into bite-size chunks for the operations of the town. Tactical budget, year-long budget stuff, but also a five-year plan.
“It’s also to minimize the impact of change in leadership because, you know, with a three-person Select Board, in three years, you could have three different people. Hopefully, you can have some corporate knowledge here all the time to prevent those waves from rolling over anything: budgets, people, processes, operations, everything.”
The February 1 announcement of Gorman’s hire as new town administrator came over three weeks after the town announced that top choice Evan Lehrer has turned down the job to remain Mashpee’s town planner, along with his partnership in a cannabis business.
Gorman was not a distant second. He got Select Board member Norm Hills’ vote, and all three members said Gorman could do the job, Select Board member Toby Burr going so far as to say Gorman would be the better candidate than Lehrer over the first year of either’s hire.
“I was happy for the candidate they chose. I know him … and he was a great choice,” said Gorman of Lehrer. “I can’t say I wasn’t happy that it didn’t work out … because then they called me on the phone. I said I’d be more than happy to have a discussion, and I put the phone down and then I was like, ‘Woo-hoo!’ I was very excited, and I know the strengths and the good things I can bring to Marion and to the job. And so I’m glad it worked out that I’m able to prove to people that I was the correct choice.”
Gorman has been working in regional management for MilliporeSigma. His resignation from the international, business-to-business, life-sciences company will become effective on February 28.
The Lockheed Martin land development issue that had won Lehrer the job is something Gorman will have to learn more about, but he understands Marion as “a shorefront, intimate, small community who cares about its ocean.”
Gorman was not looking for a job where he could be a “trained circus animal” so, when he could not find his own job description at marionma.gov, he wanted to know, “What’s my swim lane?” During the discussion that ensued after Gorman got the call, he was provided “a very detailed job description. And all my questions were answered, so it’s perfect.”
From the time he was two weeks out of high school until his 2015 retirement, Gorman had spent 27 years in the Navy. He would sink his teeth into local government in Mashpee, where he served seven years on the town’s School Committee and until his hire in Marion had served a year on Mashpee’s Finance Committee.
“I really found it interesting how the public schools worked,” he told the Select Board during his January 5 interview, noting the budgeting process, the data-driven mindset and the benefit of working with teams. Mashpee School Committee’s ($26,000,000) annual budget is similar in size to Marion’s operational budget.
Gorman also founded Mashpee’s “Falcon Foundation,” the fundraising for the educational foundation occurring online as leveraged by the pandemic. Through that experience and serving on School Committee, Gorman brings grant research and writing to a town needing more of both.
“I kind of cut my teeth on writing my own grants, competitive grants, I know where to look,” he said.
On Finance Committee, he learned that “The people who know (their needs) are department heads. … Ask those hard questions early because if you don’t, they just sit there and fester.”
During his finalist interview on January 5, Gorman also referenced key Mashpee-related experiences, including a difficult breakup with the school superintendent, developing a relationship with leaders of the Wampanoag Tribe and relationships in town management.
“We built those relationships with open dialogue,” he said.
There was no more growth to be pursued in Mashpee, Gorman told the Marion Select Board. “This is a much better fit for me.”
Following Gorman’s final on-ship deployment on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, he taught at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, serving as a maritime liaison for all of the college’s Title 10 war games.
Maritime adjudication he considered “a lot of fun. The biggest skill I developed from that was the facilitation aspect of it,” he said. “These war games are sometimes international … you can’t tell them what to do, but you have to (lead) them to a common goal.”
Asked during his finalist interview by Burr if he considers himself a Type A personality, Gorman said, “I’m a blue-red, I’m a data-driven guy, but subconsciously I’m red – that’s Type A. I don’t think I’m Type A.
“One weakness that I work on is patience. I don’t typically like when people don’t do their jobs. … I don’t push people out of the way to get things done. … I find much more satisfaction working with the experts around (me) … you have to stick with decisions.”
As for serving his constituents on a daily, weekly basis, Gorman said on January 5, “There’s always a problem, and it’s always on me to help solve that problem. … If somebody asks you a question and you say, ‘I’ll get back to you,’ you get back to them. Even if you don’t have the answer.”
Now Gorman has his own answer from the Select Board, and Interim Town Administrator Judy Mooney can soon go back to wearing her primary hat as Marion’s Finance director. Not a moment too soon during the height of budget-making season.
“My wife has always told me that when a door closes, another one opens for opportunity and just keep your mindset,” said Gorman on Monday. “Everyone gets a hit to the ego when they’re not the first choice, but you know what? I was number-two out of 39? I’m very happy about that. Ultimately, I got the job, and I’m super excited for the opportunity.”
By Mick Colageo