With the Nov. 4 Municipal Election in the rearview mirror, the transition from the administration of Mayor Greg Verga to that of Mayor-elect Paul Lundberg is kicking into high gear.
On Nov. 10, Verga’s office shared a photo on social media of him standing with Lundberg and Jack Clarke, a former Planning Board chair like Lundberg, who is managing Lundberg’s transition. They were pictured with interim Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Schlichte, Director of Communications and Constituent Services Pam Tobey and Executive Secretary to the Mayor Melissa Gilliss.
“Nice to have Mayor-elect Lundberg and Jack join us today at our weekly team meeting in the mayor’s office,” posted Verga, who lost his bid for a third term to Lundberg in a campaign focused mostly on issues.
“We are together to ensure a smooth and efficient transition,” Verga said.
On Friday, Lundberg spoke about the transition during an interview in the cafeteria at Addison Gilbert Hospital.
It was a fitting setting as Lundberg served as trustee for 10 years for Addison Gilbert and Beverly hospitals. The fourth floor of the main hospital building, the Lundberg Medical Arts Floor, is named Lundberg’s father, Robert, who practiced surgery at the hospital for 35 years.
Asked about how the city moves forward after the divisions of the election, Lundberg said he and Verga hugged and they had the get-together that Verga posted about.
“Because I mean both he and I have extensive experience in civic government and we know why we are doing this,” Lundberg said. “We are doing this to make things better for the citizens so everything he and I do together will be with that goal in mind.”
The men served together on the City Council, which Lundberg joined in January 2014. Verga at the time was serving at-large and chaired the Planning and Development Standing Committee, which was the committee Lundberg was put on in his first year.
“So I learned a lot of stuff about the technicalities of city government from him,” Lundberg said.
Lundberg said the first question he is asked is: “Who is going to be your CAO?”
“And I said, ‘I don’t know,’ because the first thing we are going to do is figure out what the CAO (chief administrative officer) does every day when they come to work in the morning. What is their job? That’s how I’ve always approached these things. So we are going to figure that out first.”
“We should be able to figure this out by the time the first of December rolls around,” Lundberg said of the hiring.
The Lundberg administration also needs to conduct a search for a new police chief as Chief Edward Conley is retiring at the year’s end.
“We are talking about starting that now,” Lundberg said. “Any good search takes a while to set it up and get the word out and do it right and make sure that you get a good job description.”
Lundberg said he was thinking about what could be ahead given the uncertainty about federal spending and budget cuts.
“Yes, that’s huge for cities and towns to think about that,” he said. “It’s quite daunting and you know the unfortunate thing about politics on a federal level it’s almost as if they give that no thought.”
The impact of the disputes on the federal level “does have a real-world impact on people who are living their lives which is what city government is all about.”
Asked if he had a sense if 2026 might bring midyear 9C cuts in the state budget, Lundberg said, “No.” State law allows the governor to make spending cuts in an emergency if there’s a revenue shortfall.
Lundberg said it’s not too soon to start thinking through that “and making sure the city of Gloucester is well-positioned to deal with it when the stuff comes and when the challenges come because they will come, no question about it.”
His administration’s plan is to meet with all the department heads one-by-one this week “and getting a sense of what their hopes and dreams are; what’s going right, what’s going, you know, just basic management stuff,” Lundberg said.
When it comes to management, Lundberg is literally someone who knows how to make the trains run on time.
The incoming mayor who holds an Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University has extensive management experience with a 40-year career in transportation.
Local government is all about customer service, he said. His mentor in the railroad industry stressed you can’t run a good customer service business without the goodwill of employees.
“Our customers are the residents, not just the voters, the residents — and they all have an expectation of having their services provided in a way that is effective and meaningful,” Lundberg said.
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714, or at eforman@northofboston.com.