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LEADING LADIES
Voges has worked in her field since 1981 and came from Texas to Nantucket to become finance director nearly eight years ago. Noting that the town's general fund has grown in 15 years from $26 million to $66 million, she said one of her challenges is to prevent priorities from shifting with elections.
Voges views one of her most important roles as communication. "It's communication in many different directions, but communicating what the financial standards are and putting complicated things into language that's understandable - to be the messenger about the financial position of the town and put in place the systems and procedures to run a smooth financial operation." DEBBIE DILWORTH The Assessor's Office collects, compiles and verifies data for the valuation of all real estate and personal property. In addition, this department processes vehicle and boat excise taxes and exemptions. Total property value for FY06 was $20.6 billion, with $16.5 billion being taxable property.
"We try to be the champions of fairness to all taxpayers," said Dilworth. "Maybe the hardest thing is working with some of the long-term residents who are not wealthy and facing some pretty tough decisions about whether to sell." She views one of her greatest challenges as keeping a level head when people have tax bill issues. "No matter how good a job you do, nobody likes getting a tax bill," she said. "People think I single-handedly control the market. Dealing with people who have a sense of entitlement is tough."
"I think it's just historic. I don't think there have been any gaps between the whaling days and now," she said. "If you look at it, the men are doing the scalloping and the fishing and the carpentry. These [government] positions are ideal for women and they just do the job better. This is the Grey Lady not the Grey Man. My work is very satisfying and I like working with numbers." CATHERINE FLANAGAN STOVER The Town Clerk's Office must determine the most accurate population count possible in order for the town to receive important state and federal funding. Beyond the responsibilities of obtaining the exact vote counts at Town Meeting and elections, the office is in the midst of a comprehensive historic document restoration project. Stover is the fourth woman in a row to be elected town clerk and has held the position since she first ran for office in 1998 at the urging of H. Flint Ranney. While she lists her primary challenge as knowing how many residents Nantucket really has, another is to serve the island's growing number of non-English speaking residents trying to establish their lives here. "Being the gateway to local government is our mission," Stover said. "And to facilitate access to the democratic process, whether [they] are voting at an election or at Town Meeting or filling out the census. I'm pretty much on call seven days a week. I've married people in the delivery room, I've gone to bedsides in the hospital to notorize wills - it's a 24-hour job. This is the first time in 36 years my husband and I took a vacation because the kids are grown and there was no election this year." Noting that many town clerks are women, Stover said it is not so usual to find women in the roles of town manager or tax collector or assessor as they are here. "Women have always run Nantucket. Men may think they're the bosses, but we're the decision makers. I don't think we're given any influence at all, I think we deserve it," she said. "It has always been a women's community and I think we're genetically programed to multi-task. On Nantucket, women have a strong sense of our own abilities and we don't 'settle.' I'm very happy. I love my job. This is not a clerical position, it's really a vocation. I love the people I work with and the people in the town building. I love working with Libbyand Sarah Alger who is one of the few female moderators." PAM MERIAM Our Island Home is a 45-bed nursing home facility operated as a town department, and provides services within the structure of government regulatory definitions and the fiscal constraints of its budget projections. Meriam has been administrator since December 2001 after moving from the Cape where she worked for Cape Cod Health Care, owner of three nursing facilities. She said about half the nursing home administrators in Massachusetts are women, though most CEOs are male. "We have more regulations than nuclear power plants that we have to meet, and out here, because we have no parent operation it is up to me to keep on top of them and create all our policies and procedures," Meriam said. "I rely on a really strong peer network, but I'm almost singularly the person on the island to make sure the elders in the community get what they need. A huge role that I enjoy is being involved in admissions and going out and meeting the families. I think there are only two or three facilities in the state run by municipalities, and here the community is very supportive of us so we are able to provide a stronger level of care than some can because we have the resources to do that. We are never denied funding for equipment or education or training." Though Meriam did not have the challenge of juggling her job responsibilities around raising children, she did contend with a need to commute to the Cape every weekend when her mother became ill, then later for her husband's illness before he moved to the island. In her line of work such demands can prove difficult because a nursing home operates around the clock, seven days a week. Still, she is fulfilled in her position and pleased to be in a community that respects the abilities of women. "I also have aspirations of doing consulting work and education for up and coming administrators," she said. "If I could work in that, that would be good. It would be similar work but a whole different vein of it." JENNIFER FERREIRA The Registry of Deeds is a recording office and research library for land transactions in Nantucket County with recorded instruments including deeds, mortgages, easements, liens and subdivision plans. In FY06 there were 9,298 instruments recorded in Ferreira's office. Ferreira was elected as registrar in November 2006 but had previously served as assistant registrar for six years and an office administrative assistant for eight years. "I started at the lowest position and when Joanne (Kelley, former registrar) decided to retire it was like, 'Well, I guess I've got to go for it.'" She names maintaining an adequate budget as a primary challenge, but not the most important part of the office. "I think the most important thing we do is for the attorneys and the public to make sure the proper forms are used and proper procedure is followed." Ferreira said the Dukes County Registry on Martha's Vineyard is also mainly women as are registries in other small towns, but that bigger registries seem to be run by men and have more political overtones than the smaller offices. "It's been mostly women [in the town building] since I've been here with the exception of a couple of tax collectors who were men but they didn't last very long," she said. "I don't see myself leaving this position and hopefully I have a couple more terms when I can run and be elected to it." PAULA LEARY The Nantucket Regional Transist Authority is considered a body politic of the commonwealth and is one of 15 regional transit authorities in the state excluding the MBTA. During FY06 the NRTA, which also gets town funding, had a ridership on its fixed, seasonal routes totaling 258,474. Clients for its elder and disabled year-round reservation van service numbered just over 10,000. That year its total operating expense was $1.4 million. The shuttle service began the summer of 1995. Paula Leary, who had been a DPW administrative assistant, was hired as its manager in February 1996 and promoted to NRTA administrator as of July 1, 2000. The NRTA assumed the van service from Elder Services of Nantucket in July 2001. Leary said that besides managing her budget her greatest challenges are working with three levels of government to obtain the necessary funding to provide services desired by the community and make local public transportation the most efficient service it can be. She views her most important roles, including serving as executive vice-president of the Massachusetts Associations of Regional Transit Authorities, as offering people a transportation option and giving the elderly and disabled a means of transport that allows them to maintain quality of life. When she began with the NRTA there was only one other female administrator among the other regional offices, a number that has only grown to four in the entire state. "The transportation industry, historically, and to a certain degree still is a man's field," said Leary. "Drivers and management are mostly male. Over the years more opportunity has opened up to women. (Today) women are capable of performing jobs that 20 to 30 years ago may have been considered a man's work. Women now are more accepted in positions of importance." Leary has a five-year-old daughter. Besides her regular weekly schedule she is often called to travel for various work-related reasons and may be gone a day or more. Dealing with tugs-of-war is a necessary part of her role. "It's not just an eight to four job, and you're still a mom even though roles for women are changing in the home and the workplace," she said. "Balancing your job requirements and what's necessary to do your job with your family can be difficult at times." Leary has managed to do just that and likes what she does outside the home enough to want to continue seeking the goal of better, wider bus service to serve the island. "This fits," she said. "I love what I do. I enjoy dealing with the public and making a difference in the community. I enjoy the variety my job offers, every day is different, and it is very satisfying when it all comes together and the system works efficiently and effectively for tens of thousands of people. I have pretty much built the transit authority from its infancy to what it is today, in some cases making personal sacrifices to do that, so it makes me feel that I have a vested interest and a desire to continue in this role." KATE HAMILTON PARDEE The Visitor Services and Information Department is perhaps the first impression of Nantucket for people coming to the island for their first time, making the office important in that its work assists in creating a quality, comfortable and enjoyable experience for island newcomers and residents alike. That includes providing information on lodging and events, putting on the annual fireworks, cleaning the beaches and, though it may not seem a big deal, ensuring that public restrooms are clean and attractive. Hamilton Pardee has been director of Visitor Services for 15 years. She had been visiting the island since 1969 while working for the advertising agency Hill Holliday in Boston and New York, as well as for Murdoch Publishing and Polaroid. "When I turned 30 I didn't want to stay in New York so I decided to come here and see how things went," she said. "I read an ad for Visitor Services and thought, 'Wow, this could be a great thing for me.' I thought I could really stick around for a while, and obviously it worked. "I think it's very important that the visitor center be an integral part of the community for the residents and visitors to the island. We do outreach to our residents and visitors to give them a quality experience. The most important thing is to make people feel welcome and know what is available in the community," Hamilton Pardee added. "Restrooms are very important and that's my current project. They need to be accessible and look good. We're a beautiful community and they should reflect that." She also believes that on Nantucket people appreciate each others' lives and are respectful of one another, whether male or female. "Women have to have a lot of intelligence and emotional intelligence so they have the sensitivity to deal with sensitive situations and find a common goal," she said. "I think it's very important on Nantucket to see both sides. Most projects won't work unless you have the same goal. Here, you have the opportunity to work with different organizations and men and women, and hopefully you are all working together. If you are knowledgeable and prepared, other people are going to respect what you have to say. "I'm glad I'm here," she said. "I'm very content. Working here has become a real part of me, and it's a great feeling. I want to continue to make the visitor center one of the most friendly places on the island. I think it's important to hold up a mirror to your office and see what you need to do. I love Nantucket, and I only want the best for it." I |
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