T o w n o f C h i l m a r k P e r s o n n e l B o a r d
Approved November 20, 2008
M i n u t e s
Thursday, November 6th, 2008
Chilmark Town Hall
8:05 am
Present: Richard Williams (Chair), Jennie Greene, Stephen Lewenberg, Max McCreery
Also Present: J.B. Riggs Parker (Selectman), Tim Carroll (Executive Secretary), Marina Lent (Personnel Board Secretary)
Absent: Susan Heilbron, Polly McDowell (Staff Liaison)
Minutes of October 16th unanimously adopted as amended
Assistant Librarian re-grade: Jennie Greene presented the result of a position re-grading she and Susan Heilbron had carried out for the Assistant Librarian position. After evaluation against standard criteria and in light of new responsibilities placed on library personnel by the Homeland Security Act, they had concluded that the position should be a grade 5, rather than a grade 4. A MOTION to regrade the Assistant Librarian position to a grade 5 on the basis of the findings of the Personnel Board’s subcommittee was UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED.
Administrator/Inspector, BOH Stephen Lewenberg presented the draft position description under which the Board of Health (BOH) is currently seeking to hire. He described the intent of the BOH to find a high-level employee who is able to do independent inspections on behalf of the Board. The BOH is aware, however, that with a limited pool of applicants they may end up having to hire someone who, while capable of becoming a full inspector, is not yet fully certified. This person would start as an Administrative Assistant and be trained into the position of higher responsibility. If the Board hires a “trainee”, provisions have already been made to subcontract the inspections to a qualified inspector while the new employee becomes certified and sufficiently experienced.
Stephen Lewenberg stated that he would ordinarily not approve of having such ambiguity in a job description, but that there was clear and reasonable justification in this case. He urged Personnel Board members to approve the job description as presented by the BOH to demonstrate our willingness to assist the hiring process, rather than telling the BOH what to do.
Richard Williams felt that approving the job description as drafted would set a bad precedent for the Town. He stated that a job description needs to describe the job that the person will be doing. This one does not contain reference to technical requirements. Jennie Greene pointed out that there are two job descriptions, one largely clerical, the other involving technical skills in the field.
Tim Carroll pointed out that the Board of Health had made every effort to accommodate the Town’s personnel policies by using approved language in three past BOH position descriptions to produce the current version.
Stephen Lewenberg suggested that the Board of Health should proceed with its search using the current draft position description. Once a person is hired, the description can be finalized to reflect either a full inspector or an Assistant trainee inspector.
Tim Carroll stated that an “inspector-in-training” would be asked to accept the position at a grade 6, rather than the grade 8 in the draft position description. He noted that the BOH had decided against hiring an Inspector and an Administrative Assistant. Nor did the Board want to hire an Administrative Assistant only, and farm out the inspections to a qualified inspector. The Board is hoping to find one person able and willing to do both.
Personnel Board members stressed that it was important to inform an applicant of the possibility that s/he may not be eligible for the grade 8 as posted in the draft job description, and to do so at the outset of the hiring process, so as to avoid the appearance of a “bait-and-switch” maneuver. Stephen Lewenberg noted that there is no legal difficulty in offering a grade lower than what is advertised if the person is not qualified to the level sought.
Richard Williams noted Stephen Lewenberg’s suggestion that the Personnel Board give provisional approval to the position description, and address any needed changes at a later date. Jennie Greene objected to this idea, and reminded members of the principal that a job description should not be written to suit a particular person, but that a person should be sought who can fulfill the requirements of the job.
Tim Carroll appealed to the Personnel Board to be considerate of the efforts of the Board of Health in producing a position description on the basis of past, already-approved descriptions. He felt it might unnecessarily confuse issues to present the BOH with a revised description at this point in the process. Selectman Riggs Parker noted that changes that do not affect the substance of the position description, but merely improve its presentation, should pose no difficulty for the BOH. Stephen Lewenberg appealed to the Personnel Board to be sensitive to the way they involve themselves in the hiring processes of other Boards, and to demonstrate that they can help, rather than hinder the process. He called for provisional approval of the position description as drafted, to be followed by reworking the job description once the
candidate has been identified. Max McCreery agreed. Richard Williams did not agree, and stated that we shouldn’t fit the job description to the person.
Stephen Lewenberg clarified that the position description will be adapted to fit one of two models: they will either find a fully-qualified inspector, who will be hired at a grade 8, or a trainee who will be initially hired at a lower level of responsibility, but will work up to full inspector level over time.
Jennie Greene offered to have amendments ready by the beginning of next week. Max McCreery counseled waiting until later in the hiring process, and Stephen Lewenberg reiterated how important it was to use the opportunity of this hiring process to work in harmony with the Board of Health and establish a positive foundation for future cooperation in the Town. Riggs Parker suggested that Jennie Greene proceed with reformatting the position description without changing its content, bringing it into conformity with other Town position descriptions. Reformatting need not be done immediately, but the final product should be consistent with other Town position descriptions.
Stephen Lewenberg suggested approving the substance of the position description today, and committing to reformatting the description to fit the Town’s format. Riggs Parker agreed, noting that good editing will improve the position description without changing it substantively.
Stephen Lewenberg MOVED that the Personnel Board, having considered the position description presented by the BOH, approves the description in substance, and will continue to assist to bring the final position description into standard Town format. Jennie Greene seconded, and the motion was UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED.
Stephen Lewenberg offered to attend the interviews on behalf of the Personnel Board.
ALS Supervisor: Richard Williams presented the position description approved by the Tri Town Ambulance Committee and noted that an ALS Supervisor has just been hired. A MOTION to approve the draft position description was UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED.
Human Resources Bylaw Draft: The Personnel Board took up consideration of draft 5, sections 1 and 2, compiled by Chuck Hodgkinson and Susan Heilbron. It was suggested that the last sentence on page 2, para.1 be reworked to apply to everyone, exempt or non-exempt, including elected officials.
It was explained that the classification plan establishes the grades assigned to the positions of Town employees, while the compensation plan determines how much compensation is paid per grade/step.
Stephen Lewenberg raised the question whether we should establish the option, which already exists for volunteer firefighters and EMTs, for volunteer Town officials to buy into the Town’s health insurance plan at 100%, giving these volunteers the benefit of the group rate without costing the Town. There was general approval of this suggestion, and Stephen Lewenberg will look into it further.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:42am.
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