Wellfleet Administrator Hired To Run Orleans DPW

ORLEANS – Wellfleet Town Administrator Richard Waldo has been hired as Orleans’ new public works director.

The hire was confirmed Wednesday in an email to The Chronicle from Town Manager Kim Newman.

“I think he will make an excellent addition to our team, and I look forward to working with him,” she said.

The hire marks a return to public works for Waldo, who is a licensed civil engineer by training. Before starting as town administrator in Wellfleet in 2022, he spent 10 years in Provincetown, where he was hired as deputy public works director in 2012 before becoming director in 2013. Prior to that, he spent several years working in the private sector.

“Orleans has long been considered a community that invests in their assets such as buildings, roadways, utilities, and staffing,” Waldo said in an email Dec. 21. “I look forward to joining a strong team of public servants and a supporting community.”

Four candidates were interviewed earlier this month for the public works director position, which was vacated by Tom Daley at the end of November.

Newman said Waldo’s “hands-on sewer and project management experience” in Provincetown helped him stand out from other candidates considered for the job. She said she was also impressed by Waldo’s willingness to step out of his area of expertise in public works to work as a town administrator.

Waldo submitted his letter of resignation to the Wellfleet Select Board Dec. 20. Speaking by phone the following day, he said he’s proud of the work that was done in the town under his watch. That includes breaking ground on the restoration of the Herring River, preparation of a targeted wastewater management plan and work to stabilize the town’s accounting and financial operations. The latter resulted in the town being “free cash certified,” he said.

“Being the head of a town is challenging,” he said. “You have your supporters, you have your critics. At the end of the day, you just have to make sure you’re doing the best job you can and moving the town forward in the right direction.”

But he said his time as a town administrator also reaffirmed his passion for engineering and public works.

“”I’m just ready to get back into that field,” he said. “I do have a masters in public administration as well, but I think it’s better focused on the engineering and public works skill set that I have. So I’m looking forward to getting back into that comfort zone.”

“It was a great experience,” he added. “I enjoyed it. I wouldn’t have traded anything I did. What it made me is a better manager. It made me a better public servant. I think it made me better as a leader and department head for sure.”

But he also spoke of a “toxic” culture in the town that made it a difficult environment to work in. He noted that there have been multiple town administrators in Wellfleet in the last decade, and that other positions, such as that of town accountant, have also been difficult to solidify.

“It happens everywhere,” he said. “I don’t want to say Wellfleet is unique in that fashion, but sometimes it just makes the work environment difficult, and it certainly makes it difficult to recruit people.”

In his resignation letter, Waldo urged the town to give its next administrator the support they need in order to lead the town effectively.

“The next Town Administrator will need tremendous and unwavering support from the Selectboard to be put in the best position to succeed or they will undoubtedly fail,” he wrote. “We have a young and cohesive staff and if nurtured correctly you can set them up for

years of success in Wellfleet.”

Waldo said he is finalizing dates for his departure from Wellfleet with the town’s select board, but that he tentatively expects his last day with the town to be Feb. 9. He said he hopes to start work in Orleans March 4.

That timetable meshes with the one that Newman set for naming a new director in the weeks prior to Waldo’s hire. DPW Operations Manager Ron Trudeau has been tapped to lead the department on an interim basis and help with the transition over to a new director.

“I’ve reached out to Ron and we talked about that,” he said. “And from my perspective it’s really, really appreciated and I’m sure the town management respects that too.”

Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com