 |
Employee Compensation Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes
Date: 9/7/12 at 10am
Present: Larry Klein, Daniel Moriarity, Muriel Lazzarini, Mickey Jervas, Maynard Forbes and Melissa Noe
Absent: Gareth Backhaus
- The minutes from 7/31/12 were approved as written.
- Muriel provided a list of suggested division of studies for the group to tackle in smaller groups which included:
- Legal items: contacting attorney’s regarding their cost and availability, helping us to decipher the town bylaws and MGL with regards to retirees and retirement, legal issues and requirements with regards to part time employees and elected officials and benefits and finally employee contracts.
- Employee Handbook & Policies: Reviewing the current and suggested editions
- Preparing for the January/February FY14 budget meetings which will include: reviewing/updating and creating job descriptions, salary comparisons/entry level salaries, benefit comparisons and developing a matrix for total compensation packages with a “true” value of salaries and benefits and
- Misc: Merit reviews and policy reviews for part timers.
- It was decided that Maynard and Muriel will begin work on the legal items listed above, Mickey, Muriel and Melissa will start on the employee handbook and policies and Maynard, Larry and Dan will begin on the budget preparations. When Gareth returns he will be asked to sign up for a group or two as well.
- The Committee reviewed the job descriptions currently on file for the Assessing Dept., Highway Dept., Inter-Departmental Secretary, Inspectional Services, Town Accountant and Police Dept. Maynard stated that the Fire Dept. is working on theirs and Muriel has drafted a Select Board one which she needs the other Board members to review and comment on.
- The job descriptions that still need to be created are for the Health Agent, BOH members, Tax Collector, Treasurer and Town Clerk.
- There was some discussion on the Library Trustees hesitancy to provide a copy of the library positions job descriptions to the Committee. Mickey, who is a Library Trustee, did not feel it needed to be made public since the Town/Select Board are not the supervisors for the Library, the Trustees are. It was noted that their budget is approved by town meeting and therefore it is public information and by law needs to made available to anyone requesting a copy and that Section 15 of our Town Bylaws states that the Town voted to have a salary commission to look into the wages and write job descriptions whether appointed or elected. It was also noted that any employees of the Library while they may report legally to the Trustees (who do not currently have a job description on file) cannot be paid unless the Select Board
approves it on the weekly payroll warrant. Transparency is all the Committee is looking for; we are not trying to interfere with the autonomy or the integrity of the current system or chain of command.
- Mickey suggested that all the job descriptions should be written in the same template and suggested that the Building Inspector’s was an acceptable format/template.
- Larry suggested that the descriptions should have salary ranges in them so that someone applying for a position will know how much it pays and what kind of advancement it allows if the applicant has the necessary experience/education. Maynard noted that because Monterey is such a small town advancement is limited and most of the positions are single person positions with the exception of the Police Department. Larry feels this is an incentive to employees if they can see that they will be compensated and can advance in the future.
- It was suggested that we need to focus on future policies but was also noted that prior to doing that the problems, holes and inconsistencies in our current policies should be looked at and corrected specifically part timers and benefits and conflicting items in our bylaws.
- Mickey inquired as to why all of the full time job descriptions (specifically the Town Hall and Highway positions) listed hours as Monday – Friday when (in her opinion) working for the town is a 24/7 job. Larry noted that the supervisor of each individual should determine the hours for the position not this committee. Melissa will add the administrative and clerk hours to the salary comparison so that when comparing Monterey to the surrounding towns this can also be taken into consideration.
- All agreed that the towns we compare Monterey to should be in the surrounding area/same labor pool and that it is very difficult to compare positions apples to apples are the “same” job in one town may not have the same duties and/or hours in another town. The current comparison that was created several years ago is updated every year.
- Entry level salaries need to be determined. Dan has an older version from a salary committee years ago that he will try to find and update. Larry asked (since his salary experiences have been in the private world, not municipal) if it was customary to have salary increases based on longevity, merit or both. It was clarified that there is not a standard across towns and ultimately the final numbers have to be approved at town meeting. Currently there is no system for determining what our employee’s raises are based on; it currently is on the whim of the Finance Committee and Select Board.
- Contracts were briefly discussed and Melissa pointed out that MGL Chapter 41 Section 108N and supporting articles on the MMMA website allow for her position to have a contract. It was also noted that the Police Chief has a contract and most surrounding Highway Departments have contracts.
- It was suggested to review our current warrant setup and look at shortening and modernizing the budget article to be by department versus by individual.
- The Committee will meet next on Friday, September 21st at 10am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary
| |
