Acton Employee Professional Development Day

By Scott Smyers

Friday, September 18, 2026 the Town of Acton was shut down of all but essential services to provide intense professional development training. This included the Transfer Station during the critical time period leading up to renewal. Lines for renewal can be long and inconvenient, so imagine my dismay when arriving at early Friday morning with a plan to dispose of my trash and renew my sticker at a time when there was little chance of a wait. Instead of accomplishing an annual, expensive chore, the gate was closed with a flashing sign displaying CLOSED EMPLOYEE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY.

I stood at the gate in disbelief. I was stuck with large bag of garbage.

Acton Forum contacted the Town Manager to ask about the agenda, cost and what part of this event provided training specific to Professional Development intended to improve efficiency or performance?

First, the “day” is over at 1:15 pm, so maybe this is better titled Employee Professional Development HALF Day. Second, did Alisa Nicol from the Select Board include a land acknowledgment?

“The golf, lunch, and ice cream were $6,700 dollars in total. The lunch was from Tex’s BBQ. Ice Cream from West Side Creamery. We had about 150 attendees.“

Is $6,700 a lot to spend on an training event with golfing, BBQ, ice cream, and hula hooping for 150 people? Maybe. What about the cost of 150 employee salaries for one day? What are the indirect costs of shutting down so many town services for a full day? Furthermore, if we can survive one day without the services of 150 employees, could we cut down to a four day work week?

What about the Professional Development? There must have been some important training!

“Thank you for the question. The professional development component of the day was not limited to a single session. The whole event was designed to improve organizational effectiveness through educational programming, communication, wellness activities, and employee engagement opportunities. A challenge many organizations face is departments not working together effectively, which often leads to inefficiency. One reason Acton departments work so well together is that we provide opportunities like Professional Development Day that bring employees together from across departments to build professional relationships, learn how responsibilities align to strategic priorities, and share information and ideas. This event is part of our efforts to retain an engaged, informed, and effective workforce.”

To me, this response sounds like AI generated output resulting from the prompt: Help me explain a company party but make it sound like important, professional development. However, I think the last sentence references retaining their workforce is important. I’m not sure what this means, but I expect it could be unusual for a town to offer not only an extra day without work, but a catered celebration with golfing – a nice benefit.

When Town administrators, committees, and boards, ask citizens to vote for overrides they justify this request based on the high quality services they provide, their expertise, efficiency, and good judgement. Citizens need to understand how the Town prioritizes spending their professional time and our tax dollars at all times, even on Employee Professional Development Day.