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Employee Compensation Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes
Date: 1/11/13 at 10am
Present: Gareth Backhaus, Muriel Lazzarini, Mickey Jervas, Maynard Forbes, Melissa Noe, Daniel Moriarity and Larry Klein
- The minutes from 11/30/12 were approved as written.
- The Committee discussed the option of recommending a two tiered system for town/employee contributions for health insurance (new hires and existing employees). The committee seemed to be in agreement on this recommendation and will discuss it further at the next meeting. This would be a recommendation to the Select Board and does not require a town meeting vote.
- Muriel reported that she has updated the Select Board on this committee’s progress and the direction we are heading. Muriel has received 24 job descriptions. Those still needed are the part time library staff and tax collector and it was suggested that we also ask the Parks Commission for lifeguard job descriptions and the Treasurer for one for the Assistant Treasurer.
- Medex & retirement: Further research is needed on this subject. MIIA has confirmed that the Medex plan the town offers to retirees is a supplemental plan and is not comparable to what individuals can purchase. MIIA has also confirmed that active employees over 65 remain on the HMO until they retire. If the retiree is over 65 and the spouse is not MIIA has confirmed that the retiree over 65 would go to Medex and the spouse under 65 would remain on the HMO. Maynard read the annual town meeting minutes from May of 2006, article 18, which stated that the town voted to accept Chapter 32B, Section 18, that all retirees who are enrolled in Medicare Part A be required to enroll, at no cost to the retiree, in a Medicare Health Benefits supplement offered by the Town. Those qualified will have ten years of
service to the Town in that system and be at least 65 years of age. M. Noe was instructed to follow up with Town Counsel on this to determine if this means that the town should be paying 100% instead of the 50% they are currently paying for retirees. Discussion ensued on how something like this falls through the cracks as well as recommendations the committee can make to the Board on which department should be handling the town’s insurance policies.
- The Committee reviewed a sample of suggested salary ranges for all the full time employees. The sample ranges presented included a starting low of 10% below current wages for each category to a high of 15% above current wages for the purpose of facilitating a discussion. Also a sample of a severely foreshortened warrant was provided, again for the purpose of initiating a discussion for the possibility of simplifying our Annual Town Meeting warrant. To provide the citizenry with all the information they will need at Annual Town Meeting it was suggested that the voters would have access to all the individual line items at the informational meeting as well as a separate printed page of them available at the Annual Tow Meeting, but with the vote occurring on just the items on the foreshortened version. It was felt that
further discussion of this would be valuable. It was discussed how helpful the salary charts of surrounding towns is in helping to establish a fair range and it was understood that other towns cannot be compared apples to apples because job descriptions vary and some towns may pay more while other towns may have better benefits. For next week we will review the suggested ranges presented today in comparison with the surrounding town salary survey and amend if necessary.
- Memorandum’s of Understanding (MoU): Multiple year MoU’s seemed to be what the employees wanted. The Committee is going to look for sample MoU’s and discuss their recommendations next week. Melissa was asked to check with Town Counsel to see if he could provide us with an appropriate template of a MOU for our use. It was suggested that when negotiating the terms of the MoU’s there should be a committee formed to do the negotiations with representation for the various parties involved. It was suggested that a lawyer should also be present for the negotiations and to review the MoU’s to be sure both parties are protected.
- The Committee discussed the need for an expense line item of their own to cover future legal questions that may arise. The general consensus was that these expenses would fall under the Select Board’s budget seeing as how this committee is an advisory committee to the Select Board, nevertheless, Dan Moriarity will check with the Finance Committee about giving us a line item in the budget for $1.00
- The Committee will meet next on 1/18/13 at 2pm.
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary
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