Email sent Sunday, July 12, 2026
Good morning team,
As I prepare to head out on a family vacation, I find myself doing what I often do before stepping away from the office for a few days: thinking about where we are as an organization, what has been accomplished, what remains unfinished, and what work will be waiting when I return.
Before getting into those reflections, I want to share a piece of very good news. We are excited to welcome Chris Nemeth as Ellsworth’s next Finance Director (CFO). Chris brings an impressive mix of municipal experience, high-level financial leadership, strategic thinking, and a clear commitment to public service. He will be joining an already excellent Finance team, and I am very excited for the stability, experience, and leadership he will bring to one of the most critical functions in city government.
A special thank you goes to HR, the Finance team, and everyone involved in this recruitment process. This was a careful and thoughtful search, and I believe we found the right person for this role and for this organization.
You can learn more about Chris and his background in Amy Kenney’s Medium article here:
https://medium.com/city-of-ellsworth-maine/a-strategic-thinker-a-municipal-leader-and-a-violinist-meet-ellsworth-maines-new-chief-0c3cdf3d7412
I will be honest: there are real external stresses on our system right now. The ongoing City Council recall process and an increasingly hostile online environment directed at public employees are all taking a toll. Those pressures are intense, and I do not want to minimize them.
But I also want to say something just as clearly: internally, this has been one of the strongest stretches I have seen since joining the City of Ellsworth.
I recently read an article about the paralysis facing Bangor city government on getting at their key initiatives. Ellsworth is facing many of the same external/council pressures Bangor, but in some ways even larger growth pressures for an organization of our size. New hotels, new housing, new businesses, infrastructure needs, summer demands, and population growth are all hitting our systems at once. But the contrast is stark. Here, despite the noise, uncertainty, and pressure, this team keeps getting an incredible amount done. I look at my wall of key projects in my office and more and more get crossed out each week.
That is a credit to all of you.
Just in the past several months:
- Public Works helped deliver the opening of Courthouse Road (a road built by this team ) while still plowing, sweeping, repairing streets, supporting downtown improvements, and doing the daily work that keeps the city functioning.
- Parks and Recreation and Public Works helped get flowers blooming on Main Street, worked with the Moose Lodge to take a big chunk of the high street landscaping project off the books, and opened the splash pad on time for the first time in years. They are hard at work launching a new website with new online booking systems, implementing new work management workflow systems, and keeping up with a complaints backlog that would daunt a staff 10 times their size.
- The Deputy City Manager, Assessor, Assistant Assessor, Planning and Code, Finance, Clerk and Tax Collector’s Office, IT, and outside support are well on their way to getting tax bills prepared to go out on time, with more than 30 days before they are due and begin accruing interest. That may sound like basic government work, but it took a real feat of strength to fix a process that had been broken for too long and bring it closer to the needs of a growing city.
- Kerri and the HR team launched Team Ellsworth, our new internal employee resource hub. That SharePoint site gives employees one central place for HR updates, forms, benefits information, city news, the Ellsworth Insider archive, and other resources. It is exactly the kind of internal system-building that will make the City easier to navigate and less dependent on one-off emails.
- Police, Fire, and Dispatch continue to respond to increasing call volumes, summer pressures, and the unpredictable demands of public safety in a growing service-center city. I recently watched flames rise from across the street from City Hall and saw our Fire Department arrive within moments. It was a reminder of why having this level of professionalism and readiness matters so much.
- Administration, Finance, department heads, and staff across the organization have begun implementing a more modern procurement and contracting system. That transition caused some short-term pain, including delays with crosswalk painting and the Juniper Cemetery mowing contract. Those misses are on me for probably picking the wrong time to implement a new system. But I’m hopeful that in the future it will help make sure contracts are posted, awarded, standardized, signed, and tracked much better going forward, and make all of our lives easier.
- Department heads, completed a proper Capital Improvement Plan for the first time in years, giving us a much clearer picture of the infrastructure needs we have to prioritize. A lot of work remains to be done to fund that work and create city council alignment which Sara will be leading at the council meeting this July.
- Administration and department staff are moving forward with grants management and digital modernization work that should better position us to bring in millions of dollars for needed infrastructure upgrades.
- The Library team and Library Trustees have strengthened governance, advanced the expansion and renovation project, and secured support from our congressional delegation and City Council for a major federal grant request. We are still waiting on the final outcome, but the work has been excellent and the need remains clear.
- Economic Development has stayed focused on attainable workforce housing, business growth, and helping developers navigate how to build the housing and commercial projects this city needs. And somehow Twila also managed to create two new huge TIF districts which over the next 30 years have the potential to be game changers for how infrastructure and growth are funded in the city.
- Economic Development, Communications, Heart of Ellsworth, and state partners have helped move forward the branding, wayfinding, and tourism work that will help Ellsworth better define itself for the millions of people who pass through our city each year.
- Communications has helped tell the City’s story through social media, press releases, project updates, emergency communications, earned media, Medium articles, and the branding initiative. That work matters even more in an environment where misinformation can spread quickly and the good work of staff can go unseen.
- The Water Department moved quickly out of the former Payless Shoe Store Mall space and into temporary space at the treatment plant so that new private development could move forward with a Planet Fitness. At the same time, they are modernizing systems, onboarding strong new staff, increasing certification and training opportunities, and planning for a future $20 million-plus water treatment plant.
- HR and department managers have helped move turnover from a level that once hovered around 25 percent annually toward what appears to be a much more manageable and healthy level of churn. They have done that through better recruitment, onboarding, training, labor and non-labor support, performance reviews, and leadership development.
- The Clerk’s Office and election team managed a recount that confirmed exactly what they reported on election night, because that is the kind of election team we have. Now they are also working to administer an unprecedented recall process with neutrality, professionalism, and steadiness.
That is a remarkable list (and if I didn’t have to get back to my family now I would go on for another 3 pages). But I also want to acknowledge how hard these jobs are. Local government employees are being asked to absorb more pressure, more frustration, more misinformation, and more criticism than most people realize. And through all of that, you keep showing up to serve this community.
That is public service, and I am deeply grateful for it.
As I step away for a few days, I want to say how impressed I am with this team and grateful to work alongside you. Despite the pressures around us, the internal strength of this organization is still getting results.
Please take care of yourselves, support one another, and know that the work you are doing matters.
With much appreciation,
Charlie
