Hartford
“I won’t BS you. I won’t lie to you. I won’t keep secrets,” Pullar, a 51-year-old former Army colonel, told a table surrounded by Hartford’s top administrators in a Town Hall conference room Monday morning. “There’s no reason for that.”
Pullar was hired under a three-year contract paying $130,000 annually to replace longtime Town Manager Hunter Rieseberg, whose abrupt August 2015 resignation caused the Selectboard to appoint former Fire Chief Steve Locke as an interim town manager. When Locke left to take a position as Burlington Fire Chief earlier this year, the town hired Pat MacQueen on an interim basis to fill the post working two days per week, making Pullar the fourth person to fill the office in the past 11 months.
As he presided over the first Hartford administrative meeting, an upbeat Pullar told the department heads he was aware of the recent tumult.
“When you think about the last year, what you guys have gone through, just the ups and the downs and the changes and … the board changes, you guys have done a great job with all that stuff,” he said.
While Pullar’s first day in the office marks a major step forward for the town, the period of transition isn’t over — Rieseberg’s resignation came in the midst of a yearlong stream of resignations and retirements that have left many key positions open: a person hired in May to fill the position of finance director left after only a couple of days on the job; the town is still working under an interim fire chief following Locke’s departure; the assistant tax collector left in May; and several longtime staffers in the Public Works Department are retiring.
“We’ve taken some hits,” Pullar told the department heads. “Our wastewater treatment plant, we lost a lot of years of experience when George (Packard left as plant operator after 39 years on the job).”
Before the meeting, Pullar said in an interview he looked at the openings as an opportunity.
“I’m trying to build a team that I think will work well in the environment I’m trying to create,” Pullar said. “Skills are definitely important, but so is the person. I don’t necessarily want somebody that is the stereotypical accountant in the back room with the glasses and the green visor. This person needs to be engaged and involved. That’s what I will be looking for.”
Executive Assistant Eliza LeBrun said the town staff was excited to see Pullar officially begin.
“It’s a brand new chapter in the history book,” she said. “It’s like a whole new generation starting over, which is really exciting.”
Pullar read from notes as he went through a long list of expectations with the staff; even as he explained his high standards and goals, he had a casual air, reinforced by jokes and platitudes.
Noting that he officially retired from his post as deputy director of the Installation Services Directorate at the Army’s Pentagon headquarters on Friday, Pullar commented on his outfit, a dark suit leavened by a pin in the shape of the American flag on his lapel, and a yellow tie with blue pinstripes.
“After 30 years in the Army, this is really the first day I had to dress myself,” he said. He drew another laugh with the manner in which he described his own optimism.
“I feel, if there’s a room full of horse crap, there’s probably a pony in there somewhere,” he said.
But between the jokes, Pullar made it clear that he would be very involved in the day-to-day decisions of the staff, urging them several times to keep him informed of municipal business.
“I don’t think I’m a micro-manager,” he said at one point. “Of course, nobody thinks they’re a micro-manager. … I think of myself as a micro-engager, because I do want to know what’s going on.”
He said he wanted to make sure there was a free flow of information from staff to the Selectboard.
“I think that’s where there’s a bit of a gap,” he said.
During the pre-meeting interview, Pullar said that, since he was hired in March, he has prepared for the post mainly by watching municipal meetings via CATV’s website, reading media reports, and corresponding with MacQueen. His desk was nearly covered with stacks of paper and file folders left behind by MacQueen, organized by topic.
Pullar offered tentative views on the recent controversial shooting of a dog by an off-duty Hartford police officer in Watson Dog Park.
“From an outsider’s perspective, which is what I was up until a half hour ago, I think they handled it pretty well,” he said, referencing a criminal investigation of the officer by the Vermont State Police at the behest of Hartford Police Chief Phil Kasten. “Outside entities looking at those types of internal things are good. The state police will do a good, solid investigation. … Chief Kasten is on my calendar today and I’ll get up to speed with where he sits today.”
He said that a review of the dog park’s rules by Parks and Recreation Executive Director Tad Nunez “is prudent. … We’ll see what comes.”
Since being hired, Pullar, his wife and their adult daughter have moved into a home the family has purchased in Quechee; Pullar told the staff that he is a member of the Quechee Lakes Landowners Association, a homeowners association that actively lobbies the town to advance its own interests.
Pullar asserted that he will not be biased toward Quechee.
“I don’t look in any one village,” he said. “I look across the town for the good of the town.”
In addition to his salary, Pullar’s contract provides him with an automobile, relocation reimbursement up to $4,000, four weeks of vacation, health benefits, a laptop computer, a tablet and a phone for business use.
His performance will be subject to an annual review by the Selectboard, and he is not eligible for overtime, with a requirement that he “work the hours necessary to satisfactorily perform the duties of Town Manager.”
Pullar’s most relevant work experiences are two stints as garrison commander, first from 2006 to 2009 at the Yakima Training Center in Washington state, and then from 2011 to 2013 in the White Sands Missile Range of New Mexico. In White Sands, he oversaw a $110 million budget and led a staff of more than 1,000 civilian employees to provide community services such as public works, police, fire, ambulance, transportation, parks and recreation, and a library.
A 1989 graduate of West Point Military Academy, Pullar has held various administrative positions in the Army since 2003.
Much of Pullar’s time over the next few weeks will be spent having first-time interviews with staff, elected officials, stakeholders and citizens, according to LeBrun.
On Monday, following the meeting with department heads, he had a series of consecutive one-hour meetings scheduled through 7 p.m. with Locke, various department heads and Selectboard members, and with Skip Nalette, a representative with the Lebanon-based engineering contractor Pathways Consulting.
During the rest of the week, he is scheduled to meet with other members of the staff and Selectboard, community groups and businesses.
LeBrun said future weeks will bring meetings with local town managers, former members of the Selectboard, the town moderator, more community groups and the town’s various boards and commissions.
“He’s getting the pulse of the whole town,” she said. “He’s one of those people who can talk to anybody.”
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.