Somerville Road Commissioner Resigns

Somerville Road Commissioner Willard Pierpont submitted his resignation by email and personal letter Saturday, July 22. Pierpont cited ongoing differences with Somerville Select Board Chair Chris Johnson as the primary factor in his decision to step down.

“I am not going to be bullied,” Pierpont said. “My job was to work on behalf of the taxpayers of Somerville and I am not going to be bullied into something that is not in their best interest.”

Johnson acknowledged there were differences of opinion between Pierpont and himself, but said Pierpont was a capable and effective road commissioner during an interview Tuesday, July 25.

Johnson said he would have preferred Pierpont remain in office to oversee currently identified projects through to completion. The board is going to begin to look for a qualified successor to appoint to fill out the remainder of Pierpont’s term, Johnson said.

“We have to find somebody that is able to bring the necessary expertise and is someone we can rely on to follow through and get the work done,” Johnson said. “It’s a balance. We’re looking for experienced people and experienced people tend to be busy right now.”

Ongoing conflict between the two elected officials came to a head in the last two select board meetings on Wednesdays, July 5 and July 19, when the select board urged Pierpont to award town contracts involving more than $15,000 by a sealed bid.

Pierpont, in his fourth year as road commissioner, had awarded contracts to companies he vetted personally, based on the scope of the work and size and nature of the company.

“What I always did, I got local guys,” he said.

Pierpont said soliciting bids would only delay the awarding of contracts, and he disputed it would be more cost efficient for the town.

His strongest objection was the requirement to solicit bids for paving projects instead of selecting the least expensive offer from three proven companies Somerville has worked with in the past — Pike Industries Inc., Northeast Paving, formerly Lane Construction, and All States Asphalt, the latter of which produced the estimates that informed this year’s budget, Pierpont said.

“The paving is where you’re really going to get every kind of driveway company there is,” Pierpont said. “I just didn’t want to go down that road.”

Pierpont noted there have been no complaints about town roads he is aware of regarding timeliness, quality, or cost.

“Why would we change it,” he said. “Why? What we’re doing is working for us. I guarantee you, you ride all over this town and you ask people and they will tell you the roads have never been this good.”

Pierpont said the select board’s insistence on changing the town’s process for awarding contracts amounts to a control issue. He alleged Johnson exercises a significant degree of control over the budget committee, planning board, and town office personnel.

Pierpont was the one who identified priorities for road repair, which informed the town’s budget committee when it put the $417,156 roads budget together this spring, Johnson said.

Addressing the bulk of Pierpont’s comments, Johnson acknowledged Pierpont and said he did not always see “eye to eye” but he deferred to Pierpont’s expertise as road commissioner. He disputed the idea instituting a bid policy amounted to micromanagement

“I still feel, of course, that asserting a limit on what can be awarded for projects, above which it requires sealed bids, is part of our fiduciary responsibility,” Johnson said. “No town would let a $95,000 contract work that way. It is unfortunate he couldn’t bring himself to move that process forward.”

The $95,000 figure is the total of several smaller road repair projects, Johnson said, bundled together in part due to Pierpont’s insistence it would be more cost effective for the contractor and the town to buy materials in bulk.

Pierpont said he took personally the select board’s references to the town of Chelsea adopting a bid policy, saying he felt it called his integrity into question.

“I gave up $12,000 in salary and he fought me on that,” Pierpont said. “I gave $12,000 for three years. That’s $36,000 and then have him turn around the other night and say you don’t want it to turn into Chelsea. ‘You failed.’ That’s what I told him.”

Johnson said he meant no insult, but the town owed it to the taxpayers to obtain the best price for projects and the most fair, equitable way to do that was the sealed bid process. Johnson pointed out the town already awards the plowing and mowing contracts and sells tax acquired properties by sealed bid.

“I wasn’t accusing him of anything,” Johnson said. “I was telling him this is the way it had to be done. I think he is ready to take offense rather than take into account the situation we are in. There in people in town that want to trust Willard and not put any financial controls on what he does for work, but that is not up to us … He wants to call that micromanaging. I am just trying to assert the kind of control every other town has.”

Both Pierpont and Johnson referenced the oft-criticized Somerville Road repairs. The road was repaved by Hagar Enterprises Inc. in 2017 and reconstructed in 2018, but the town asserted the work was unsatisfactory, leading to a lengthy dispute between the parties. It was ultimately decided at the annual town meeting in June when Somerville voted opted not to pursue litigation over the issue.

Pierpont said he would not have given the project to a contractor he was not convinced had the experience and the equipment to do the work. The three companies he worked with most often were reliable contractors with proven track records, he said.

Both Johnson and Pierpont acknowledged Somerville’s position was hampered by a lack of specifications in the contract. Johnson pointed out Somerville Road repairs were part of a larger project Hagar Enterprises completed and the only part of the project that was unsatisfactory

“After all the grief we’ve been given over Somerville Road, I’d be a fool to have a $95,000 job awarded and not have better controls on that and I expected to have Willard to be leading that,” Johnson said. “It is not my job on the select board to bring personalities in … but I am not going to bend in my fiduciary responsibility to the town.”

The Somerville Select Board will next meet at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 16 at the town office.