PERSONNEL BOARD
Town Hall
Chilmark, MA 02535
Minutes of Meeting of June 17, 2005
Board Members Present: Lois Norton, Max McCreery, Henry Burkin, Jennie Greene. Staff Liaison Present: Polly McDowell. Selectmen’s Representative: Riggs Parker. Staff: Tom Wilson, Town Accountant.
The meeting was called to order by Jennie Greene at approximately 8:10 AM. Riggs Parker gave the Board a brief summary of the interviews for the two positions – CAS and Administrative Assistant. He stated that the two committees would be making recommendations to the BOS at the 7/21 meeting.
Tom Wilson came to the Board to get clarity on paying longevity. He feels that there is a contradiction in the By-law. Traditionally longevity has been paid at the end of the fiscal year to all that have earned it during the previous year. The by-law states that it should be paid on the anniversary. After discussion the following was agreed upon by the Board:
1. There is no provision for the Personnel Board to approve the longevity payments, and in the future they should not come to the PB. The Selectmen – the appointing authority approve the payment by virtue of signing off on the warrant.
2. There should be a separate warrant each year to pay longevity to all qualified employees.
3. All longevity payments shall be paid in the last warrant period of the fiscal year to all qualified employees until such time as the bylaw can be corrected.
The issue of the change in payroll frequency was again raised. Chuck had provided the Board with a copy of MGL that states that we need to provide 90 days notice prior to changing the frequency of the payroll. Since we have scheduled a meeting on July 21 for the department heads to review the change we will then need 90 days to provide the employees with notification. It was decided that we would have a letter prepared for the Selectmen to send out after their next meeting, August 2, explaining the change. This would mean that the first of the 26 payrolls will be made on 11/2/05.
The minutes of the meeting of May 5 were moved, seconded and approved.
The Minutes of the meeting of May 19 were moved, seconded and approved.
The minutes of the meeting of June 2 were moved, seconded and approved. Lois Norton abstained.
Max and Tom Wilson reported that the accrual meetings had gone well for the five employees from Town Hall that they had met with. Max will be contacting Tim Rich and Cathy Thompson to review the Police and Library records with the respective staffs.
There was a brief discussion about whether the Town can withhold payment due to the lack of time slips being submitted in a timely manner. It was agreed that the more persons that we can have salaried the less this will be an issue and the time slips will be more of a record of accrued time and used time.
It was agreed that we should encourage the BOS to remind staff that time slips are important and are part of the employee’s record.
The Board then reviewed Lois Norton’s notes from the talk with Jack Collins. Items discussed were lunch hours, comp time/overtime, civic duty, vehicle use, contract labor, and hourly/salary.
Lois has not completed the notes that will be submitted for the record.
The following was agreed upon by the Board: Lunch hours may be paid or may not be paid. A lunch break of one half hour is due each employee who works more than 6 hours a day. This does not have to be paid, but if it is interrupted for work it must be paid. The employee is also entitled to two 20 minute rest breaks each day one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Comp time/ over time. The Town needs to negotiate with employees to have them take comp time rather than overtime. However, comp time must be given at time and a half over forty hours per week. Comp time is allowed at the employee’s request. Seasonal employees do not qualify for comp time.
There may be times that the Town will have to budget to pay time and a half during particular busy seasons.
Civic Duty: can be decided by the Town. However, exempt employees can not be penalized for doing an ambulance run as an example. There should be a policy that is approved by the Board of Selectmen that addresses the issue of town employees answering fire and ambulance calls.
Vehicle Use: The Town needs to set policy, if we pay more than the IRS level then the amount over must be reported on a 1099, no vehicle reimbursements should be reported on a W-2 as it is not earned income.
Contract Labor does not receive overtime. If an employee works in a certain kind of work for the town and then contracts for similar work the contract work is be subject to overtime.
Hourly v. salary positions may both be non exempt positions. Salary does not determine if an employee is exempt. The Town should still track hours for exempt employees.
The Town will have to make some changes to the By-law to deal with exempt employees and the changes in the FLSA. We need to think about changing our grade and step scales to a salary scale rather than an hourly scale for year round employees. Seasonal employees already have their own pay scales.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:50 AM.
Respectfully submitted
Jennie Greene
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