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Human Resources Board of Chilmark
January 7, 2016 APPROVED MINUTES
Present: Jim Malkin, Chair, Jennie Greene, Max McCreery, Steven Flanders, Bill Rossi, Board of Selectmen Representative, Chuck Hodgkinson, HRBC Staff Representative
Not present: Stephen Lewenberg
Public/ Board or Comm. Members:
Staff: Jennifer Christy, Admin. Asst., Diana DeBlase, Receptionist & Asst. to the BOS, Ben Retmeir, TriTown Chief, Marina Lent, BOH Admin. Asst., Brian Cioffi, Chief of Police, Jonathan Klaren, Police Sergeant
Meeting called to order at 8:00AM
- TriTown Position Descriptions:
- Deputy Ambulance Chief & TriTown Paramedic
- Mr. Retmeir noted there are no significant changes to the Deputy Chief position description. Mr. Retmeir was requested to provide a document that showed the changes.
- Board of Health Position Descriptions: Administrator/ Inspector Board of Health (BOH) & Public Water System (PWS) Operator
- Ms. Lent noted the new position description for the Admin./Insp. BOH shows changes highlighted in green and red.
- Ms. Lent noted the BOH has approved the presentation of the position descriptions at this meeting but could not appear at the meeting this morning.
- Ms. Lent noted a key change is the removal of the PWS Operator duties from the Admin./Insp. Position duties. Ms. Lent noted that she is trained as a PWS operator and has been fulfilling the duties of a PWS operator. The BOH separated the duties due to the substantial increase in PWS responsibilities over the last 10-12 years. The BOH did not want the Admim./Insp. to be required to fulfill all of the duties of the PWS operator. The BOH has proposed the Admin/Insp. be responsible for basic monitoring of water systems. Ms. Lent noted she currently spent approximately 10% of her time on PWS duties.
- The Board reviewed the changes in the Admin./Insp. Position Description with Ms. Lent.
- Discussion occurred regarding the participation of Ms. Lent in outside all-island, public or private health initiatives.
- Mr. McCreery suggested the Board wait until a representative from the BOH may be present before the Board proceeds with the review of the BOH position descriptions.
- Mr. Malkin requested that the BOH position descriptions be reviewed at the next Board meeting.
- Ms. Lent stated Mr. Poole would attend that meeting.
- TriTown Position Descriptions:
- Changes : take out “Region 5” from section VI, G., OES is now OEMS.
- Ms. Greene made a motion to send the position description to the BOS with a recommendation to approve. Mr. Flanders seconded the motion. Mr. Hodgkinson asked that Mr. Retmeir add in the same information that is on the back of TriTown Paramedic position description, section VII.
- The Board voted unanimously to recommend the position description with the changes.
- Mr. Retmeir stated he would deliver the final version, as approved with changes, to Ms. Christy.
- This is a new position description that did not exist before. Mr. Retmeir detailed the differences in the Paramedic position description to the existing EMT basic position description.
- Mr. Malkin inquired whether H. is correct: 125. Mr. Retmeir stated it is correct.
- Mr. Retmeir stated the Paramedic is a higher grade than EMT.
- Mr. Flanders made a motion to recommend the position description to the BOS for approval. Ms. Greene seconded the motion. All ayes to send the position description to the BOS with a recommendation for approval.
- Chief Cioffi introduced the purpose of his visit and read the first section of an article on FLSA changes in 2016.
- Chief Cioffi briefly summarized the effect of the upcoming changes to FLSA Regulations.
- Mr. Malkin asked if Chief Cioffi would review the changes and come back to the Board with an itemized list of the changes that would occur in the Police Dept.
- Chief Cioffi agreed to provide a summary of the impact on the Chilmark Police Dept.
- Ms. Greene agreed to check the Federal Register for information about the progress of the FLSA changes.
- Mr. Malkin requested that Ms. Christy make a copy of the FLSA information and provide to Board members.
- Prior Mtg Information Correction
- Chief Cioffi noted there was information re sick time accrual and “buy back” at retirement stated at the meeting on December 3, 2015 that may have been incorrectly stated in the minutes.
- There was brief discussion regarding the differences in benefits provided to employees in the private or public sector. Mr. Flanders noted that a comparison of benefits could be done between public and private sector employees to identify if there is discrepancy or not.
- Chief Cioffi encouraged the Board to take care in determining the context within which they evaluate the compensation of Chilmark municipal employees. He stated that the Board, in recent discussions regarding sick leave benefits, for example, may compare municipal compensation/benefits with private sector compensation/benefits. He suggested this kind of comparison is not useful and that the public sector is very different from the private.
- Mr. Malkin stated his view that the Board recognizes the need to review compensation and benefits of municipal employees with other public sector, municipal positions. Mr. Malkin noted that the Board has not let the comparison of municipal compensation/benefits with private sector compensation/benefits in discussion impact the recommendations the Board has made for municipal compensation/benefits.
- Chief Cioffi played a section of the audio from the December 3, 2015 HR Board meeting. He clarified the proper practice of the use of sick time and compensation for an injury while on duty. Chief Cioffi noted he was, in 2015, hit by a motor vehicle while he was on duty at the Chilmark Road Race. He further noted the section of the law which covers police officers when injured on duty. The Town has an insurance policy to cover any costs accrued due to this section of the law. However, this section of the law does not go into effect until 5 days after the incident. Chief Cioffi noted he came back to duty before the 5 days were completed and he did not take sick time, or document it, due to the fact that sick time does not apply in this case. He was regularly compensated by the Town since it was not sick leave
or leave taken past the five days when the Town has a policy to cover the leave.
- Mr. Hodgkinson clarified the issue: a police dept. employee who is injured on the job will not utilize sick benefit time and there has been no administrative failure on the part of the Police Dept. It was stated there was no administrative failure on the part of the Police Dept. on this issue.
- Chief Cioffi noted a second clarification of information stated at a prior meeting: the police department has timesheets filed and submits a spreadsheet of the paid leave and benefit time that are used. Mr. Malkin noted the auditor is looking for a record of paid leave/benefit use for each exempt employee as well as non-exempt employees. Mr. Malkin asked if there is a record of benefit use for all police dept. employees that the auditor could review if needed. Chief Cioffi stated there are records and the auditor would have access to those records.
- Mr. Malkin stated the Board does not have an issue with the topic which appears to be an internal administrative issue.
- Classification & Compensation Study Discussion:
- Mr. Malkin summarized the events up to today re the compensation study.
- Mr. Malkin read into the record a recommendation of next steps that he has submitted for endorsement by the Board.
The Committee will charge the Chair and the Administrative Assistant to prepare an engagement letter, which will be sent to island accountancy and legal practices with a request for their interest and estimation of fee for the following:
- To meet with the Chair and the AA to receive copies of the work of HRS Inc and to review such.
- To gather any additional job descriptions necessary to compare the Chilmark positions to the other 5 island towns.
- At the completion of ATM in each town, to gather from the treasurer or accountant the wages for the positions comparable to the Chilmark positions.
- To calculate the average and the mean of the comparable positions of the 6 island towns.
- To provide the committee with an opinion based upon job descriptions, as to what positions, if any, from the 5 other towns would not be comparable to the job descriptions in Chilmark.
The AA, Town Treasurer and/or Executive Secretary will assist if requested with numbers 2 and 3 to facilitate the gathering of the data from the other towns.
This information to be completed by end of May, will be provided to the HRBC to make recommendations to the BOS.
- The Board reviewed the recommendation and discussion occurred.
- Ms. Greene noted that Northeastern University is utilized by the Town of Tisbury and might be an option to pursue.
- Mr. Hodgkinson recommended the collection of all position descriptions from island towns by visiting all Town Halls on the island to obtain and copy all the descriptions needed.
- Ms. DeBlase stated her support of the recommendation submitted by Mr. Malkin and stated her view that the review of the position descriptions needs to be done by a neutral, independent party and not by an internal body.
- Chief Cioffi noted his view that HRS, Inc. did not perform well in the comparison of the position descriptions, but he does feel that an independent body should be reviewing the information. Chief Cioffi noted his concern the study will not be completed in a timely manner.
- Mr. Malkin noted his recommendation satisfies the concerns of neutrality and schedule. An independent firm will review the position descriptions and will present their findings at a Board meeting(s). Afterward the Board will make a recommendation to the BOS.
- Mr. Hodgkinson suggested the independent consultant be given an organizational method and format. He noted this would provide clear direction on the information about comparison that the Board and Town would like obtained.
- Mr. Malkin noted he has preliminarily contacted a law and accounting firm to inquire about the possibility of implementing his recommendation. He noted their response indicated they could complete the review.
- Mr. Hodgkinson offered to provide a template of the position description comparison document. The Board accepted this offer and asked Mr. Hodgkinson to send the template to the members electronically.
- The Board agreed to proceed with the recommendation submitted by Mr. Malkin. Mr. Flanders made a motion to proceed with the recommendation. Mr. McCreery seconded the motion. All ayes.
- Mr. Hodgkinson asked that a draft brief (that would be provided to an independent party) be provided at the next meeting for review.
- Discussion re HR Bylaw proposed amendments to Section 6:
- Mr. Malkin recommended that due to the absence of Mr. Carroll that the issue be postponed to February 4, 2016.
- Correspondence was stated to have already been reviewed in the course of discussion.
- The minutes of December 3, 2015 were reviewed.
- Ms. Greene made a motion to approve the minutes with one change. The motion was seconded. The minutes were approved unanimously.
- Mr. McCreery noted, for the future, of the requirement that the department head/Board member(s) be present in order for position description review to proceed.
- The report draft was reviewed, changes were made and the report was approved with changes.
Meeting adjourned at 9:35 AM
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