PERSONNEL BOARD
Meeting of May 6, 2010
Members Present: Jennie Greene, Chairman, Maxwell McCreery, Stephen Lewenberg, and Frank LoRusso.
Staff Present: David Norton, Fire Chief; Martina Mastromonaco, Beach Supervisor; Emily Day, Town Accountant; Dennis Jason, Harbor Master.
Unable to attend: Frank Fenner, Selectmen’s Liaison, and Chuck Hodgkinson, Staff Representative, Tim Carroll, Executive Secretary.
The meeting was called to order at 8:05 AM by the Chair.
The minutes from the previous meeting were not available and it was agreed that they will be addressed at the next meeting.
Jennie told the Board that she had requested the email list for the Personnel Evaluation Survey and had not received it and so it was not known if Chuck sent out a reminder to those who had not responded. It was agreed to put the discussion on the next agenda.
Tim Carroll asked by email that the Board not take up the issue of replacing the Receptionist/Assistant to the Executive Secretary (R/AES). It was agreed that the Selectmen should be referring any changes to the position to the PB for consideration. Further, it was agreed that Steve will be the PB overseer of the interview process. It was also suggested that Steve will meet with Tim to address the issue of what work assignments can be given to the R/AES to lighten the Executive Secretary’s work load. It was moved, seconded and voted that this will be taken up when Tim Carroll, Frank Fenner and Chuck Hodgkinson can all be present to discuss changes in the R/AES position and the possible work that can be shifted from Tim to the R/AES.
Fire Department Assistant:
Max recused himself from the discussion as Martina had trained him as an EMT and he felt that he did not think it appropriate for him to partake in the discussion. Jennie reminded the Board that at the previous meeting the vote had been to rewrite the job description to remove the requirement that the applicant for the position must be a member of the Chilmark fire department, police department, or
EMT, and to make it a preferred qualification Jennie further stated that she was remiss because she had not sent the revised job description to the Selectmen and that she will follow through with that as soon as possible. It was agreed that the position should be re-advertised.
Martina Mastromonaco stated that she did not feel that there was a need to change the job description. She then went on to discuss the fact that one of the applicants had not been rehired by the Beach Committee. She wanted to know if there was any proof of the information that has been circulated by word of mouth that the person (an applicant for the Assistant’s position) in question had been discharged. She stated that she had written up the incident report and there was nothing in the report that suggested that there had been inappropriate behavior. She stated that the position is only five hours a week, but the job requires someone with experience due to changes in software. She wanted to know why this process is going backwards.
Frank stated that PB has a problem with hiring someone who is not eligible for re-hire. The person in question has no right as they were a seasonal employee. It was pointed out that Martina could not supervise another relative, and that the Beach Committee had made the decision to not re-hire due to inappropriate behavior the previous season.
Jennie pointed out that the present job description is the only job description in Town that required an applicant to be a member of a voluntary committee in order to be considered for the position. She feels that the present job description is discriminatory.
The motion was made to re-advertise the position with the revised job description. This was seconded.
David Norton stated that the present job was approved in 2002 and it allowed hiring from within the emergency services. He has a 40 member department and he feels that whoever is hired should have knowledge of the Fire Department. He feels that such a person will have the ability to communicate during emergencies. He stated that the first ad had required the emergency service requirement but did not feel that it limited it to Chilmark emergency service employees, and that it had stated that there was a strong in house candidate. This advertisement received one applicant. The second ad had removed the in house applicant and they received two applicants. He said he needs an assistant, and does not have the time to train a new employee.
It was stated that the PB could not condone hiring someone who not been re-hired because of an incident with a member of the public during the previous summer season. Martina stated that the Chair of the Beach Committee had recommended that one of the applicants be hired for the position of Assistant to the Fire Department.
At present the BOS had agreed to hire the person in question as a temporary employee for sixty days.
The motion was called to a vote and it was voted with Max abstaining.
The question about who and when the Board should send persons to training meetings was discussed. Steve volunteered that the training he had attended about Personnel Audits was very worth while. He had planned to provide the Board with a summary of the meeting, but he was unable to provide his report due to technical difficulties. He will email the notes to the members of the Board. It was agreed that there needs to be a longer lead time for upcoming trainings and that there needs to be more information provided about what the trainings are covering.
Steve will make a presentation at the next meeting.
Dennis Jason came to the PB asking for guidance. He wants to know if he can ask staff to make repairs and run power tools when they are not busy during down times at the Harbor. It was agreed that as long as the employees are old enough to run power tools and have the skills to make repairs to docks etc. that he can ask them to do that. However, he can not ask them to make repairs that would require Massachusetts licensed repairs – for instance electrical repairs.
By-law review. It was agreed that there will be a staff meeting on June 3 to review the proposed By-law.
It was moved, seconded and voted to approve the grade and step for the Ambulance EMT position.
It was agreed to postpone the discussion about filing personnel file information until Tim can be present as this is part of his job description.
Emily Day told the Board that she was visiting various Boards to get a better view of what each committee is doing and to get a better picture of the Town government. Frank LoRusso stated that he hoped that in the future that information can be provided to the Finance Committee before the meetings so that the members have a chance to evaluate situations before the meetings. He feels that members often have to make decisions with out adequate time to understand what is being presented to them. Emily assured him that is one of her goals.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:27 AM.
It should be noted that Jennie realized that at after the meeting she had forgotten to state for the record that the Board wanted to thank Max for his dedication and hard work that he put in as Chair and she hoped that the Board will assist her as Chair.
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