PERSONNEL BOARD
Approved Minutes
October 7, 2010
Members Present: Jennie Greene, Chair, Steve Lewenberg, Frank LoRusso, Max McCreery, Chuck Hodgkinson, Staff representative, Todd Christy, Administrative Assistant.
Public Present: Martina Mastomonico
Not Present: Tim Carroll,
Frank Fenner (Mr. Fenner was off island on Town Business)
The meeting was called to order by Ms. Greene at 8:05 AM.
The Board began their review of the job position requested by the Beach Committee for Beach Maintenance Guard. This would be a position broadly described as laborer, primarily used at the beginning of the summer beach season and again at the end of the season. Mr. Hodgkinson questioned whether this new position would reduce current staff while adding this staff person at a much lower rate. The Board agreed to table this discussion until Ms. Mastromonico arrived.
There was a brief discussion concerning the notification of the board of an injury sustained by the Tri-Town Chief. There was some question why this was brought to the board and Todd was not sure if the board reviewed employee injuries. Ms. Greene assumed that the town’s executive secretary forwarded this to Todd just for the files. The document will be filed.
This segued into further discussion concerning the Tri-Town Chief and follow-up from the last meeting of the Personnel Board where Mr. Bellinger was concerned about the process of Tri-Town Ambulance committee reviewing staff complaints. Ms. Greene attended a meeting of Tri-Town Committee and it turned out there were some issues concerning the new Chief, but none that appeared to be irresolvable. Some of the issues were miscommunication between the committee and Mr. Bellinger. It was determined that with the lack of an administrator for Tri-Town Ambulance was causing Mr. Bellinger difficulty getting all the required paperwork completed. With the hiring of Barbara Silk, this pressure should be alleviated.
(Ms. Mastromonico joined the meeting at this point) She reinforced the point that Mr. Bellinger’s job is difficult and should be eased with the hiring of Ms. Silk.
The board quickly discussed a memo dated 1998 presented to the board by Chair of the Library Trustees, Norman Freed, reinforcing the point that the trustees have appointing authority over the library director position. Ms. Greene restated that there have never been any issues with this system and the hiring of new directors has always been a very community oriented process, including selectmen and personnel board. The members have no issues with the way things have worked.
Going back to the job description of the Beach Maintenance Guard, the members now have Ms. Mastromonico present to describe what the Beach Committee is looking for in this role. There was some discussion concerning the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife letter suggesting the removal of existing snow fencing and detritus from the beach area, in an effort to protect the habitat of Piping Plovers. There were some variations on the inference of this letter and how to address the detritus on the beach. Ms. Mastromonico suggested that this proposed job position was the cheapest way for the town to remove this wash-up and snow fencing. It would only be a pre- and post season position and it would reduce the hrs of a current paid employee. Mr. McCreery suggested that in the past there had been volunteer beach clean-up days and that we
should start that up again. The Chilmark Pond Association had also sponsored Beach clean-up and Beach Dune restoration in the past. There was some discussion as to how volunteers may be supervised by staff, further reducing the cost. Ms. Mastromonico also mentioned a permit for Beach Restoration and protection of potential habitat for rare beetles and plovers through the Conservation Commission. Ms. Greene would like to have a member of the Beach Committee present at the next meeting to address the board’s questions concerning this job description.
Mr. Hodgkinson walked the board through the next steps concerning the proposed Personnel Bylaw and the changes. The proposed Personnel Bylaw would have to be approved by the Personnel Board; approved by the Selectmen; approved by Mr. Collins, counsel; reviewed at a public hearing of the Personnel Board; presented to the town at Annual Town Meeting. The presentation at Annual Town Meeting would require an executive summery of the document with the changes, including what the Massachusetts General Law requires for Personnel Bylaws. Having this summary and MA GL information may answer some of the possible questions during the ATM review.
Ms. Mastromonico was briefly questioned about Beach Committee files that had been reported to be off premise. She stated this was not the case; the files are all in town hall and always have been. Ms. Mastromonico will show Todd where all the files are and he can move the staff information files into the filing cabinet containing other employee confidential files.
The Minutes of August 26th, 2010 were approved as amended.
At the regular scheduled next meeting on October 21, 2010, Ms. Greene would like to have Library Director revised job description available for review and the revised Harbor Master job description for review.
With no other business to attend to, the meeting was adjourned at 9:10am
(The next meeting will be as planned on the 21st, yet Mr. Lewenberg may be unable to attend.)
Minutes respectfully submitted by Todd Christy, Administrative Assistant.
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