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.