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Date: 11/9/2021
BLANDFORD – As he prepares for his new job as chief executive in a city of 38,000, Joshua Garcia says he’s proud of what he’s accomplished as chief administrator in a town of 1,200.
“It’s been an experience of a lifetime,” said Garcia, Holyoke’s mayor-elect, about his three years as town administrator in Blandford. “We all know what challenges Blandford was going through, and now it’s a shining town on the hill – it’s come a long way.”
Following his election win on Nov. 2, Garcia plans to take office in Holyoke on Nov. 15, which means Blandford will have to begin the process of finding a new town administrator. Garcia, a resident and former School Committee member in Holyoke, has been on unpaid leave from his job in Blandford while campaigning for mayor. An interim town administrator has been handling his duties.
“Wendy Foxmyn has been covering for me. She was actually Blandford’s first town administrator back in 1984. She has been the town administrator in many communities,” he said. He said the town will post the job vacancy soon.
Garcia recalled the challenges the town was facing at the start of his term, included the fallout from the arrest and conviction of a former town collector on embezzlement of town funds; an unpopular previous town administrator whose salary was almost defunded at a Town Meeting; and a mass resignation of the Police Department’s four members that made national news.
During Garcia’s time on board, the books were reconciled and audits were successfully completed; the Finance Committee was restructured; and the police were merged with their neighboring department in Chester. Garcia, who works for the elected Select Board, acknowledged that he didn’t do this by himself, but said it was important to have someone to facilitate the collaboration.
“The focus was to come up with a strategy. We had to reorganize how the town got things done on the financial side. In government, no one person is in total control, and communication is important – getting folks to understand what the problems are, the strategies to solve the problems and how you’re going to pay for it,” Garcia said.
He said once the different branches of government in the town came to a consensus on what needed to be done, they came together.
“I’m proud of the town,” he said. “They did what they needed to do to put them on a stronger path.”
Prior to taking on the job of town administrator, Garcia served as the municipal services manager for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, which is where he said his career in public service kicked off. His job was to help communities solve problems and find efficiencies.
“When I became town administrator, it was a much more practical experience. Instead of on the research side, I got to implement it,” he said.
Garcia said he expects to use much of what he learned in Blandford in his new role leading Holyoke. During the campaign for mayor, his opponent Michael Sullivan, a city councilor, said Garcia’s experience in Blandford wouldn’t translate to Holyoke because of the difference in size between the two communities.
“That’s completely false,” Garcia responded. “Whether you’re a large city or a small town, we’re all held to the same standards and regulations of Mass. General Law and the Department of Revenue.”
Garcia will be the first Hispanic person elected as mayor in Holyoke, a city that has more Puerto Rican residents per capita any place in the world outside Puerto Rico itself.
“I’m proud of the fact that I can lead in that capacity,” he said, but he hopes to serve the whole city and all its ethnic groups: “I am first and foremost a Holyoker. … We have to work together to do what we can to lift the city.”
Garcia said he found his work in the Hilltowns an eye-opening experience. Before coming to Blandford, he hadn’t realized the town’s importance to the wider region in environmental issues – such as how Blandford hosts the water supply for the whole city of Springfield.
“The Hilltowns are a very special part of the region – they have to be proud of what they offer to the greater fabric,” he said. “It was an honor being able to work there.”
Asked when Hilltown residents might see him again, Garcia did not hesitate.
“Come and visit Holyoke,” he said.