Warren Town Manager excited for town's future

Kate Michaud named manager Tuesday evening, replacing Jan Reitsma

By Ted Hayes
Posted 3/23/18

On Tuesday, the Warren Town Council selected Kate …

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Warren Town Manager excited for town's future

Kate Michaud named manager Tuesday evening, replacing Jan Reitsma

Posted

On Tuesday, the Warren Town Council selected Kate Michaud as Warren’s new town manager. The former planner here in Warren, and previously in Tiverton, had been serving as interim manager since the departure late last year of former Warren Town Manager Jan Reitsma.

On Friday, she sat down to talk about the job so far, and what she sees coming down the pike in Warren: 

How did you get into planning as an avocation, and how did that lead you to today?

I always knew I wanted to be in local government in some capacity, so when I started to work in Tiverton I started pretty much right out of college, at 24. My job was as a floating clerk so I had the opportunity to work in all offices of town hall. I landed in the planning office and i loved it, so from that point forward I took every class I could take to get every opportunity i could get to learn more about the profession.

What do you like about it?

It’s always interesting, it’s never boring. It’s a real opportunity to shape the future of your community and to help the people of your community have some influence over how it’s developed. I found it to be very satisfying.

Did you ever think you would become an administrator or manager?

It had been mentioned to me by people in the past, asking me if I had an interest in management. I had always said, ‘Maybe someday.’ I think that now is the right time.

The manager’s position in Warren has been somewhat of a revolving door over the last decade. Why do you think you will excel when others haven’t lasted?

I know that I have a different temperament than maybe some of the past managers have had. I pride myself on my patience. I think that I have a stabilizing influence, and really my goal is to be a team player. I think we have a great team here and my goal is to motivate everyone to do the best work possible, and to really handle those day to day operations so that the council can do the policy work that they need to do.

Can you comment on the changed relationship between the town council and manager following the changes to the Town Charter approved by voters in 2016?

I don’t want to comment much about what the relationship was before because I don’t know a lot about it. But I do know what my role is, and my job is to handle day-to-day operations and administrative duties, and to free them up to do the policy work that they need to do. They need to think about the bigger picture and I need to handle the details. We have a very open line of communication; I’ve told them that if there’s something I’m doing that they’re not pleased with, I want to hear it. Constructive criticism is great; I don’t take it personally. It’s the kind of thing that’s going to help me do my job better, so I welcome it. And I think that’s the kind of thing that’s going to make the relationship work well. They’re going to help me with their feedback.

How is your relationship with the former manager, Jan Reitsma (who now holds the town administrator’s post in Tiverton)?

We have an excellent relationship and we remain friends and colleagues. I e-mailed with him last week. So we will definitely stay in contact and draw off of each other’s knowledge in our new roles. 

Some people have said that the political climate in Tiverton is similar to Warren, in that it can be a difficult place to work. Was Tiverton a difficult town in which to work? 

It was a challenging environment, it definitely was. At the time I don’t think the town really knew where it wanted to go, so it was a tough time. I think they’re in a better place now and I think Jan will be a great leader for them.

Are you excited that it appears that Warren does know where it wants to go?

I think Warren is on an excellent trajectory, and I’m really excited about the momentum that’s building in this town. 

Such as?

I think Main Street is poised for a resurgence, and I’ve heard from other people who are interested in moving to Main Street. We’re going to reach that tipping point where it becomes the place to be again, and I think that’s where we’re heading. I think that Water Street’s been really successful with the restaurant business. I think if Main Street can contribute with the retail and service side of things, it will be great. It’s the town’s responsibility I think to help create those connections between Main Street and Water Street, and I think that if people who visit Warren can have a full experience and realize what we have to offer, it will only get better because I think we have a lot to offer. 

Code enforcement has been a big issue with respect to the look of not just downtown Warren, but Warren as a whole. How is the new enforcement officer doing?

I think he’s already having a very positive influence. He’s taking this job on and is not just bringing the hammer down. He’s acting as an educator, telling people what the code says and helping them get into compliance. Enforcement’s really the last option. We don’t want to come down hard on people; we want to encourage them to do the right thing. And a lot of times people don’t know what it is that they’re supposed to be doing. They just aren’t aware of what the codes are. He’s helping them come into compliance. He’s been really great so far.

What are most proud of from your time in planning in Warren?

I think one of the biggest things was just helping to be a facilitator on a lot of the projects that the town has going, facilitating the coordination between the departments and the public. I think obviously the Water Street project was a very challenging project but the town has handled it well, and obviously one of my first goals is to get that project complete. But I think that the amount of public input, and the way the town interacted with the public, was pretty good. 

What’s the next step for the Water Street project? 

To get the curbing finished with the handicap ramps and to finish the sidewalks, and get the decorative lighting installed and the trees. Running along a parallel path with that will be completing the permanent patch of the trench in the road and getting that street milled and re-paved. It’s challenging because we want to keep disruption to a minimum. We don’t want to be in a situation where we’ve got work happening at north Water Street and work happening at south Water Street, and the whole thing’s a mess and everything’s shut down. That’s what we need to avoid.

What’s the current situation with Touisset residents and the wastewater issue?

I believe they’re trying to schedule a workshop within the next several weeks with that Wastewater Management District Committee to meet with the town council. That committee’s going to come in with some options and suggestions on possibly how to move forward with the whole issue, and they’ll have a dialog with the council on how to move forward. I think there’s some really bright people on that group. They’ve been working really hard to analyze the existing system that we have and look at what other communities and about what we could do better in the future, and I think this is the first step.

Do you understand some of the complaints from people in the outlying areas, that the system amounts to a sort of “taxation without representation” situation?

I absolutely understand. I can see their perspective. It’s a tough issue. It’s a tricky issue for everybody, so that’s why it’s extremely important that that group is a diverse and knowledgeable group, so they can share their expertise wit the town council and help the town council make the best decision going forward. I think they’ll have multiple recommendations and multiple options, and it’s going to be something that’s going to require a lot of discussion and a lot of different perspectives before anything gets done.

Talking about civic involvement, how will you help the government have a closer community with residents? 

I think the community is very strong in Warren. Involvement in general is great. You’ve got all the historic preservation groups, Volunteer Warren, the boards and commissions are fully stocked with volunteers who are so engaged with civic life. Attendance at meetings isn’t great (but) that’s a problem beyond Warren.  In the summer of 2016 I was allowed participate in a training at RISD. They have an executive education cooperative that goes on in the summer and it’s on using design thinking to improve civic participation. That was fantastic and I learned a lot of outside the box to make it easier to help people participate in government. And now having this town manager role I think it’d be really interesting to try to incorporate some of those techniques. 

The new website sound like it may be a good example?

We’re going live with our new website within the next few weeks. We’re training on Tuesday. As part of that system we’ll have a notification option so people can go to the website and sign up for notifications when certain pages are updated. They can get those notifications through email or text message, and I think that’s really going to help to get information out to people in a more realistic way. Realistically people aren’t going to check the website every day to see what’s new, but if they get a text, then that’s something that’s useful. So that will be rolling out pretty soon. What we did with the Water Street project it was pretty low tech. It was, ‘Hey, send me your email address and I’ll keep you updated.’ And I think it can be that low tech. The town is small enough that certainly we can engage enough with citizens. And as projects come up like that, I would like to keep that format in place where people can get onto an email list and we can just directly share information directly with them. People are busy, they may not have time to go to a meeting at 7 p.m., so we need to find other ways to get information to them and to get feedback from them. I think that’s the more challenging piece of it. 

What’s on the agenda for the day?

So today I started, met with the police chief and went over a few things, then at noon I have my first meeting with the Rhode Island City Managers’ Association. They meet monthly and it just happens to be today. And then Friday afternoons I usually spend doing my documentation and reporting for the week. I write down everything; every meeting I have, every phone call I have. I’ve done it for years. I keep notebooks on everything and at the end of the week I like to document everything. It helps me absorb what happened during the week and then get myself set up for the next week.

Anything you’d like to say?

I just want to say that it is an honor and a privilege to serve this town. I’m really excited to do whatever I can to help continue the momentum that I see building. And I really see great things ahead. When I first started working here and I would tell people I’m starting a new job in Warren, every single person I talked to would say, ‘I love Warren!’

 

Warren Town Manager Kate Michaud

Family: Husband Rob, daughter Camden, 12, and son Malcolm, 10

Residence: Tiverton since 2001

Raised: Fall River

Education: Attended Durfee High School in Fall River, then studies at University of Massachusetts/Amerhest before earning a degree from Providence College in 1998. 

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