Billerica manager says blunt comments meant to prod town

Williams said he plans to leave Billerica, where he moved less than a year ago, and retire in southern Florida in the fall. He leaves a job that paid him $135,000 a year, $250 a month for car expenses, and $4,000 to move from his last job in upstate New York.

In the interview, he said didn’t feel pressured to leave but resigned because he felt selectmen were piling on for political points. He said he was upset selectmen planned to discuss his comments at a town meeting scheduled for tonight.

“I made this decision in reaction to the events that have occurred,” Williams said. “I’m talking about the manner in how it was dealt with by people, such as the selectmen. Two wrongs don’t make a right. I always accept responsibility for my actions. I thought that was a point of courage, and a point of honesty, and integrity. And if that isn’t valued, I’m in the wrong place. I really am. I’m not going to end my career that way.”

He also defended the thrust of his comments about the 354-year-old town of 40,000 people that he made at last week's Greater Lowell Chamber of Commerce Municipal Breakfast.

“I was mainly talking about the area around the Billerica Mall, where stores are closing, roofs are leaking, and much of the property poorly kept,” Williams said. “I meant to talk about the center and the litter we don’t pick up, the deteriorating roads, things not cleaned because there aren’t enough services. I meant to talk about the need to pave roads and the poorly maintained parks, the vacant property, and the owners of them who need to do more.”

He added that some parts of town, especially the ubiquitous strip malls along Boston Road, “need substantial sprucing up.”

“They need signage,” he said. “They need their landscaping taken care of, and they need to improve their overall appearance.”

Marc T. Lombardo, chairman of the board of selectmen, said he has accepted Williams’s recent apology to selectmen and residents. But he was surprised the town manager resigned in part because of the selectmen's decision to put the matter on the agenda for tonight’s meeting.

“As a town manager, he needs to have a thick skin,” Lombardo said. “If this upset him, it’s unfortunate. But in this town, if we have issues, I want to put them out there. They should be dealt with publicly. Clarification of his comments was necessary.”

He said he hasn’t tried to persuade Williams to change his mind.

“If he doesn’t feel this is the right place for him, there’s nothing I can do to change that,'' Lombardo said. "At this point, it is what it is, and we’ll work to find a replacement. I can’t force someone to be here if he doesn’t want to be here.”

For his part, Williams reiterated his apology.

“Unfortunately, it looked like a denigration to Billerica, which it wasn’t meant to be,” he said. “It was an unfortunate choice of words, and if I had the chance to say them again, I would have never done it that way.”

David Abel can be reached at dabel@globe.com.