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
M i n u t e s
Thursday July 9th, 2009
Chilmark Town Hall
8am
Present: Max McCreery (Chair), Frank Lo Russo, Jennie Greene, Chuck Hodgkinson (Staff Representative)
Also Present: J.B. Riggs Parker (Selectman representative), Tim Carroll (Executive Secretary), Ebba Hierta (Library Director), J. Norman Freed (Library Trustee), Brian Cioffi (Chief of Police), Nina Lombardi (Assistant to the BOS Office/Receptionist), Marina Lent (Personnel Board Secretary)
Absent: Stephen Lewenberg
Adoption of Minutes June 4, 2009 deferred due to lack of a quorum.
Library Seasonal Position Step Increase Ebba Hierta (Library Director) requested that the Personnel Board approve a step increase for seasonal employee Susan Johnson, who was hired in January 2009 as a temporary seasonal employee under a grant, and has been continuously employed ever since in separate jobs. The Board approved the step increase for Susan Johnson.
Hiring Police Patrolman Sean Slavin at Step 3 Chief Cioffi requested that the Board approve hiring newly-appointed Patrolman Sean Slavin at Step 3, noting that the position had been advertised with the range of steps 1-3, and that Sean Slavin has a BA degree, Police Academy training, and ten years experience, including supervisory experience. The Board approved hiring Sean Slavin at Step 3.
Proposal to merge Town Clerk position with Assistant to Office of Selectmen/Receptionist position: Max McCreery asked Chuck Hodgkinson to summarize considerations surrounding a proposal made by Assistant to the Office of the Selectmen/Receptionist Nina Lombardi to merge the 20-hour per week Town Clerk job with her current 40-hour per week position of Assistant to the Office of the Selectmen/Receptionist. (See attached memo by Chuck Hodgkinson).
Personnel Board members voiced the opinion that important features of Nina Lombardi’s job, particularly her role as Assistant to the Executive Secretary and, through him, to the Board of Selectmen, should preclude her having the time to absorb the additional duties of the Town Clerk in the same 40-hour workweek.
Nina Lombardi spoke to clarify her proposal: she saw this as an opportunity to improve the efficiency of allocation of work within the Town’s workforce. She noted that her previous workplace had had to lay off a number of employees and cover the needed functions with fewer employees. Through this process, she gained experience in seeking ways to economize on labor and fulfill a broad range of functions within one position.
She noted that she already functions as Assistant Town Clerk in Jessica Bradlee’s absence, and that she felt confident that she would be able to master the demands of the position.
Board members felt that Nina Lombardi’s exceptional energy and drive should be harnessed by giving her more tasks from the Executive Office of the Board of Selectmen, rather than by having her take on the duties of the Town Clerk.
Chuck Hodgkinson acknowledged that Nina is currently an underutilized asset, but pointed out that the Executive Director has never had an assistant of Nina’s caliber, and that a period of transition to full function is necessary. He suggested that perhaps he, in his capacity as Coordinator of Administrative Support, could work with Tim Carroll to define areas of work currently on Tim’s shoulders that Nina could begin to take on as his assistant.
Jennie Greene made a MOTION to recommend to the Board of Selectmen that Chuck be requested to work with Tim Carroll and Nina Lombardi to carve off those areas of work currently done by Tim Carroll that could be assigned to Nina Lombardi. Max McCreery added an addendum to the motion to the effect that Chuck should update the Chair of the Board of Selectmen on this process as needed. The Board unanimously approved the motion.
Town Clerk Hiring Process The Board of Selectmen will be holding a special meeting to authorize the posting of the Town Clerk vacancy. Until a new Town Clerk is hired, the functions of Town Clerk can be covered by Jessica Bradlee, Nina Lombardi, Tim Carroll and Harbor Department Administrative Assistant Ginny Jones, who has filled in for the Town Clerk on previous occasions. The Personnel Board decided that Jennie Greene will be the Personnel Board observer for the Town Clerk hiring process, and approved the proposed hiring schedule.
Resignation of Susan Heilbron from the Personnel Board Max McCreery read the appended statement into the record to commemorate Susan Heilbron’s tenure with the Personnel Board. Jennie Greene stated that it was time to discuss with the Board of Selectmen how to address issues that had led to Susan’s resignation. Frank LoRusso said it was “appalling” to lose Susan Heilbron, the “heart of the Personnel Board”, and that it was devastating to the Town.
Riggs Parker agreed that it would be best to have the Personnel Board invite the Selectmen, rather than to call for a joint meeting. He also advised the Personnel Board to focus on careful and thoughtful preparation of such a meeting and to thoroughly think through any recommendations it may wish to make. He noted that the Board of Selectmen must recognize its management responsibilities and take the problem in hand. He felt that problems highlighted by Susan’s resignation could be worked out, if the will is there on all sides, including the Selectmen, the Personnel Board and the Executive Secretary, to accept constructive changes.
Max McCreery invited Tim Carroll to add his views. Tim Carroll pointed out that his only official notification of Susan’s resignation had been via the Personnel Board agenda. He himself had not been directly contacted on this matter by Susan Heilbron, nor had he been sent her letter of resignation. Therefore, it was difficult to assess the issue. He also noted that Susan’s resignation has not been registered with the Town Clerk and is technically therefore not yet final.
Tim added that he felt great respect for Susan Heilbron’s work, and regretted her resignation. The incident which had apparently triggered her resignation, however, (a delay of a number of days in sending the final draft Human Resources Bylaw and Procedure Manual with its cover letter to attorney Jack Collins), was not sufficient provocation to explain her reaction.
Discussion ensued as to exactly what had happened. Tim Carroll reviewed the sequence of events, explaining that he and Susan had worked on Susan’s draft letter on Thursday, June 18th, following the Personnel Board meeting. Susan had taken the agreed edits to the draft letter with her to finalize the letter and e-mail it to Tim upon completion. On the following Wednesday, June 24th, Chuck handed Nina the completed packet with the instructions to have Tim sign and send it.
Jennie Greene stated categorically that this description of events “is not the information that Susan provided to us”. Jennie stated that Susan had given Tim the packet with the cover letter she had drafted using Tim’s edits, and had been aghast to find out almost a week later that the packet had not been mailed.
The packet was mailed out on Tuesday, June 30th, following the Selectmen’s meeting at which Susan chastised Tim for not having sent out the packet. Tim repeated, however, that “I don’t think the facts before us rise to the level of her resignation. There’s more to it.” He acknowledged that Susan felt tremendous frustration. He stated that he also felt great frustration with the hard work that had gone into drafting the Bylaw, working with a number of people on separate sections of the draft, which, just as it was about to be finalized, was taken over by Susan for fresh redraft, abandoning the collaborative joint efforts made up to that point, and adding another year to the process. He had discussed this with Max at
the time, and, as Max had assured him that he had no objection, Tim had sat back and let the process flow on its own.
Max stated that he felt that Susan and Chuck’s independent additional work had built on, rather than substituting for, work that had already been accomplished in the Bylaw drafting process. And the result was a document that everybody has put a tremendous amount of work into and that everybody can be proud of. He felt that Tim had not put the same support behind the process after Susan and Chuck had begun their rewrite. Max emphasized that the Board wanted Tim’s active involvement and wholehearted support.
Frank LoRusso and Jennie Greene intervened, suggesting that this discussion should be held with the Selectmen present. Max noted that there seems to have been a misunderstanding between the Personnel Board and Tim Carroll about Tim’s role in the process. He felt the Personnel Board should have a better sense of how to potentially resolve this misunderstanding before meeting with the Selectmen.
Riggs suggested that the Personnel Board hold a meeting at a special time, rather than its usual early morning meeting time, to facilitate attendance of Selectmen.
Updates of Hiring Processes Cemetery Superintendent, Tax Collector and Police Patrolman hiring processes have been completed. The policy of Personnel Board observers at hiring processes seems to have helped the Departments to achieve overall consistency and quality hiring procedures in the Town.
Chuck noted that the draft Procedure Manual contains a section on the hiring process. He asked that Board members review this carefully as it has a few changes intended to streamline the process while maintaining discipline.
Town Clerk Hiring Process Tim Carroll provided a tentative hiring schedule for the Town Clerk position.
List of Personnel Evaluations Max McCreery requested that Tim Carroll provide a comprehensive list of all employee evaluations that have been completed. Tim Carroll named some evaluations that are still outstanding, and assured the Board that the completed list would be available at its next meeting.
The Board discussed how to induce completion of the employee evaluation process through withholding of step increases of management employees who fail to complete their evaluations (as provided for in the Bylaw) when the Executive Secretary is no longer eligible for step increases, and other supervisors are volunteers, and therefore also not affected by the threat of withholding step increases.
Chuck Hodgkinson suggested that the task of following up with volunteer boards to encourage prompt completion of employee evaluations is one that could well be delegated to Nina Lombardi.
Frank LoRusso requested that all evaluations be completed by the next meeting of the Personnel Board.
The Board felt that, even where he does not have direct management or supervisory responsibilities, as with the Police Department or Harbor Department, Tim Carroll is still responsible for seeing to it that all Chilmark Town employees are evaluated by those who supervise their day-to-day work. Where he does not have authority, they felt, he must be able to persuade. Max McCreery noted that Tim Carroll should have reported to the Personnel Board in a timely manner (ie before the April deadline for completion of the evaluations) if he was encountering resistance from supervisors in completing evaluations of the employees under their authority.
Tim Carroll suggested that the Board provide him with a letter giving him the authority to ensure that evaluations are done by the deadline prior to Town Meeting every year.
Referring to the Town’s organization chart, Chuck noted that a number of Departments report directly to the Selectmen. He suggested that the Selectmen write a note to the Department heads of these Departments, instructing them the work with the Executive Secretary to have performance reviews done on all of their staff members by March 15th. He reminded the Personnel Board that Tim had organized a meeting of Department heads with Frank Fenner, then Chair of the BOS. Perhaps having instructions in writing should be tried next year.
The meeting adjourned at 9:41 am.
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