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Human Resources Board of Chilmark
October 6, 2016 APPROVED MINUTES
Present: Jennie Greene, Chair, Steve Lewenberg, Bruce Golden, Jim Malkin, Selectmen’s Representative, Brian Cioffi, Staff Representative
Not present:Max McCreery, Steven Flanders
Public/ Board or Comm. Members: Janet Weidner, Board of Library Trustees Chair
Staff: Jennifer Christy, Admin. Asst., Ebba Hierta, Library Director, Melanie Becker, Treasurer, Ellen Biskis, Accountant
Meeting called to order at 8:03AM
- Classification & Compensation Study:
- Ms. Greene reviewed the study submitted by Vineyard Tax Matters on September 12, 2016. She noted the Executive Secretary in Chilmark appears to be the lowest compensated of the provided information.
- The Board members discussed the correct procedure for evaluating the information provided in the study.
- Mr. Malkin noted the BOS will ultimately like to know where the positions land within a certain percentage range- “a zone of reasonableness.” Mr. Malkin noted the BOS will want to know if action needs to be taken and what action is recommended.
- The Board discussed whether a range of 10% or 5% is a good range to compare the low and high per hour rates. It was decided that 10% was a good idea.
- Mr. Cioffi expressed concern with various Chilmark jobs that were noted to have no comparable position. He noted that the Town of Edgartown and Town of Tisbury both have Town Administrators that are tasked with the same tasks as the Executive Secretary in Chilmark. Mr. Malkin noted the problem of identifying comparable positions has been an issue throughout the study process.
- Mr. Cioffi asked why the positions were determined to not be comparable. He inquired what the criteria is that is used to ascertain if the positions in island Towns are comparable to Chilmark’s positions. Mr. Cioffi asked for a list of the items that identify how the jobs differ and therefore are not comparable. He further noted that the information is essential in order to make a correct decision regarding comparability.
- Mr. Golden noted that the Police Chief in Oak Bluffs has to manage Circuit Avenue while the Police Chief in Chilmark does not have that kind of responsibility.
- Mr. Cioffi stated that the situation is not as simple as determining whether a Town has a higher population and/or business in certain areas. He noted that the Chiefs in each Town differ in whether they have administrative and enforcing duties, whether they have a deeper structure of support positions, whether they serve on Boards or not and other factors. Mr. Cioffi stated he had data to support the statement that when the number of employees in the police departments are compared with population size in the Towns the numbers show a similar ratio.
- Mr. Carroll noted the report is completed by an accountant and not a person who has experience in the analysis of positions. He noted the lack of comparable information provided for the Town Clerk position, a statutorily described position, as an example. He stated further that he did not think that the report could be viewed as a consultant’s report, but only as a collection of new numbers.
- Ms. Hierta noted that the Library dept. positions are comparing titles rather than the comparable jobs.
- Mr. Golden noted that the information from the department heads and supervisors, “the experts”, appears to show that the information provided is not correct and he further noted that, therefore, the use of a 10% range is not supported.
- Ms. Biskis suggested a standard deviation formula rather than a random 5% or 10%. She suggested a range that is relative to the Town’s pay scale. She clarified that all Chilmark positions are graded with steps and noted that if it is found from the study that the positions in other Towns are 2, 3, or 4 steps (or even a whole grade), for example, in general above the positions in Chilmark then that might reveal an amount that must be used that is relative to our entire pay scale.
- Ms. Becker asked for clarification of what the percentage is between the steps in each of the grades. Ms. Biskis did not know this number at that moment.
- Mr. Malkin summarized the issues with the problem before the Board in evaluating the information.
- Agreeing on the comparability of the positions is the key problem:
- HRS, Inc. gave the first assessment
- VTM gave the second assessment but the evaluation method for determining comparability is not clear
- Mr. Lewenberg requested clarification on the VTM chart and asked for an additional column on the VTM study that shows the grades and the range. It was noted that those are the numbers provided.
- Mr. Carroll noted the information missing from the document is the number of steps.
- Mr. Lewenberg suggested obtaining information from VTM the numbers for the closest comparable position to the position listed for Chilmark.
- Mr. Carroll noted that the position of Town Manager is a different form of government. The type of government that the island Towns have, according to statute, is Town Administrator/ Executive Secretary position.
- Mr. Carroll addressed the problem of evaluating the comparability of positions with the information of volume of work or the size of the Town.
- Mr. Golden noted that the grade for a position addresses the level of work that must be appropriate for the position rather than the volume of work.
- Mr. Cioffi discussed the variations in information provided by VTM and HRS, Inc. and noted that the Chilmark employees are generally underpaid.
- Mr. Malkin noted that the issue is complex and the scale of the position is an issue.
- Mr. Malkin clarified that the BOS are asking the Board for a recommendation about what to pay each of the positions.
- Mr. Lewenberg suggested the Board:
- Add up the three comparable numbers from the starting level and the three comparable numbers from the top level and get an average.
- Then do the same for each position in Chilmark
- Then, evaluate how the Chilmark positions, as a whole, compares to the comparable numbers.
- Mr. Cioffi calculated the numbers for Executive Secretary using the process Mr. Lewenberg suggested.
- Discussion occurred about this process. Mr. Golden reminded the Board of the small sample size of the comparability which presents a problem.
- Mr. Carroll asked the Board to use the numbers from the HRS, Inc. study and those collected by the two administrative assistants.
- Mr. Malkin noted that the idea of standard deviation makes sense.
- Ms. Hierta noted discrepancies in the pay ranges provided by VTM.
- Mr. Lewenberg asked the Board to consider his suggested procedure again.
- Mr. Lewenberg would like an evaluation on where Chilmark is, as a whole, statistically, compared to all other island towns as a whole.
- Mr. Golden stated that
- Ms. Weidner inquired whether the Vineyard Tax Matters could attend a meeting and describe the information.
- Mr. Golden stated he did not have enough data to compare the positions.
- Mr. Cioffi wondered whether what the
- Mr. Lewenberg stated the apparent issue:
- Do we have enough information from the study to provide an overall range of pay rates.
- Ms. Greene suggested that the Board have Kim Angell from VTM visit the Board and have the BOS attend the meeting as well.
- Mr. Carroll stated there is a missing piece to the process which is to provide the information from VTM to the department heads to provide any missing information about pay ranges and/or differences/similarities in positions. He noted this information would be then provided to the Board for a determination about whether that information is acceptable for use in the determination of the compensation range.
- Mr. Golden reiterated that the information provided by VTM is incomplete and cannot be used to evaluate and provide the correct information to the BOS.
- Ms. Hierta stated she could provide updated information for the missing information in Library positions.
- Mr. Lewenberg suggested the Board visit the BOS to state that the Board has not gotten the information they need and would like more direction.
- Mr. Malkin stated the BOS would like a recommendation from the Board and, before the Board goes to the BOS, he suggested the Board adopt the recommendation of the Executive Secretary to distribute the information to department heads for review and feedback.
- Ms. Greene asked if the Board would like to ask the department heads to provide feedback on the missing/inaccurate information on the study from VTM. The Board agreed that this is a good idea and asked Ms. Christy to please provide all information to dept. heads the current information from VTM with a request to review the information and provide feedback on the missing/inaccurate FY17 data with explanation on the information provided: the beginning step number, the ending step number (the grade range) and the numbers of steps in the compensation plan for the Town. Ms. Christy was asked to ask the department heads to provide this information to the administrative assistant by 12 NOON on Thursday, October 13, 2016 in order for Ms. Christy to provide the new information to the Board by the end of the day on
Thursday, October 13, 2016 for the Board meeting on October 14, 2016.
- The Board asked Ms. Christy schedule a meeting for Friday, October 14, 2016 to review feedback from department heads.
- Mr. Cioffi asked if the Board could establish an alternate employee representative for when the employee representative cannot attend. Ms. Greene agreed that an alternate employee representative would be a good idea.
- Mr. Carroll noted that the bylaws would need to be changed and if information about the change is sent to the BOS today, it could be on the STM warrant in December.
- Minutes:
- The minutes of August 18, 2016 were reviewed. The minutes were approved as written.
- Library Job Description Review:
- The Board reviewed the position descriptions provided by the Library Director.
- The Director provided information to the Board about the changes in the position descriptions.
- Mr. Carroll noted the issue of consistency of position descriptions town-wide.
- After discussion, it was agreed to change the wording in Library Assistant II to participate rather than complete certification training.
- Ms. Hierta agreed to provide a “red-lined” version of all the position descriptions to the Board before the next meeting.
- Ms. Greene asked for clarification regarding the referral to “librarians” in the general description of the position descriptions. She suggested the change to be made to “assisting the librarians and other library staff”
- Topics not reasonable anticipated by the Chairperson at the time of posting:
- Next Meetings:
- Review of information from the department heads for inclusion in the classification and compensation study
- Continued review of Library dept. position descriptions and grading of positions
- Review of COLA information for FY18
- Grading of position descriptions provided by Library Dept. and/or other departments
- Position description review and grading
Meeting adjourned at 9:50AM
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