Littleton Select Board Appoints Interim Town Administrator Amid Staff Morale Crisis

LITTLETON — April 10, 2023 — Littleton Select Board appoints interim town administrator and confronts staff exodus with new conduct policy discussion. The board voted 5-0 Monday to formally appoint Ryan Ferreira as interim town administrator through August 31, 2023, at a salary matching the outgoing administrator, while also accepting a $23,558.70 donation from the dissolved Littleton Children's Fund for Parks and Recreation and approving a three-year cable TV intermunicipal agreement with Boxborough. The headline action of the evening, however, was a sprawling hour-plus discussion on a draft eight-point board conduct policy, spurred by the resignation of Finance Director Patty Moore, whose exit letter — read aloud in excerpts by Chair Matthew Rombacher — described employees who "feel incredibly marginalized" and a workplace in which "it is difficult to come to work." Rombacher said department heads told him repeatedly they had experienced "intimidation, micromanagement, interference, overreach of authority, and retaliation" from board members. Finance Committee member Brian Tower warned from the public podium that Moore's letter described impediments to budget information gathering that put the matter squarely in FinCom's purview. The board took no formal vote on the conduct policy, agreeing instead to circulate a revised draft for approval at the first post-election meeting; the annual town meeting warrant was posted for May 1 and the election warrant for May 6.