By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

    When he sat down for this interview, Brian Smith had
only been on the job for four days, but he was confident his new
position was a “good fit.” Smith is the new director of human resources
(HR) for the town of Scarborough, having just completed an 11-month
stint in a similar position at South Portland City Hall. He replaces
Tom Guter, who retired last month.

    Smith said he passed on an HR opening in his
hometown of Brunswick because it “didn’t feel right.” After developing
a professional relationship with Guter, who he got to know through a
municipal HR group that meets monthly, Smith said he applied to
Scarborough on the last day the town was accepting applications. Now he
finds himself working to become familiar with the people in a community
he referred to as unique and appealing.

      “When I came here Monday (March 19)
there was a reception for me and I met a lot of people and what I
really liked about it (was) a lot of the people that came to the
reception were not all management people,” he said. “When I talked to
them, two things became very evident to me: one was how gracious they
were in welcoming me to Scarborough and then secondly of how they
talked about their work and how much they liked working for the town.”

    Smith said, it may sound cliché, but he felt a sense
of teamwork from the very beginning. He said Brenda Clark, the
administrative assistant to the HR department, has been an integral
member of the team, acting as his guide and historian. Although Smith
is just starting to learn how the team functions, he is outlining goals
to ensure town employees can benefit from an efficient department.

    “It will be typical for me to visit the locations
outside of town hall, to go see the fire department, the police
department, and the public works department,” he said. “I have an
obligation to be visible and accessible to them where they work.”

    Smith said it is important employees not have to set aside a chunk of their day to deal with an HR issue.

    Smith said getting out into the community is an
aspect of the job he is looking forward to. His first experience in the
public sector was serving as South Portland’s human resources director.
He said there were days when he couldn’t leave the office due to the
steady flow of people knocking on his door.  Smith’s short tenure
and his resignation, along with the recent resignations of the city’s
library director and deputy tax assessor, has raised questions over
whether City Manager Ted Jankowski’s management style is causing
department heads to leave.

    “It bothers me so much when I hear about the
turmoil,” he said. “It takes away from progressing where you need to
be.”

    Smith said his reasons for leaving had more to do
with the nature of the work than an issue of clashing personalities.

    He said the seven unions in the city had him
playing  the role of chief labor negotiator rather than an HR
director. When he started, he said there were three labor contracts
that needed to be negotiated and grievances to be dealt with. He said
there were issues he wanted to address, but he felt preoccupied with
labor relations.

    Smith said his decision to leave South Portland was a difficult one.

    “I was internally doing somersaults in my stomach,”
he said. “I’ve never been in a position for that short of time.”

    The position has seen several people come and go and
during the absence of an HR director, assistant city managers have
taken on dual roles or in some cases the position has been vacant. He
said the position has been a “slippery slope” for the city.

    For twelve years, Smith was the senior director of
human resources and safety for Jordan’s Meats and he went back and
forth between the food service facility in Westbrook and the meat
processing plant in Portland until it closed in Feb. 2005. 

    “Getting things done in the public sector, from my
experience, is quite a bit slower,” he said of the transition. “You try
to peel back the onion and find all the issues and you really don’t
know until you experience it.”

    A Maine native, Smith’s first human resources job
was at Hamilton Standard, now Hamilton Sundstrand, which is a 
Connecticut subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation (UTC) that
manufactures aerospace systems for aircraft and  international
space programs. Smith said he became fascinated by jet engines and he
can speak knowledgeably on the subject.

    He had been working at Hamilton for a little over a
year, when his father became ill. Smith said “destiny struck” when he
received a call from the principal of Portland High School as he and
his wife were discussing moving back to Maine. The principal asked
Smith if he would be interested in a teaching and coaching position at
the high school. After making the move Smith, who has his teaching
certification, taught biology and coached football and baseball at the
high school. The Red Sox memorabilia in his office demonstrates he is
still a sports fan.  

    Smith’s career later circled back to the aviation
industry when Pratt and Whitney, also a subsidiary of UTC, made him “an
offer he couldn’t refuse.” When he started working in the HR department
at their North Berwick location, he said there were 50 employees and at
the time of his departure there were 2,000.

    When speaking to Smith, he conveys the sense that he
values the individual’s efforts, which subsequently make an entity
work, whether it is a company or a municipality.

    “People are the ingredient that make anything go,”
he said. “In human resources you have to be able to read people.”

    The dignity and respect that Smith said he has
already seen has convinced him that he was accurate in his assessment
of the Scarborough community.