Employee Compensation Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes
Date: 2/7/13 at 10am
Present: Gareth Backhaus, Muriel Lazzarini, Mickey Jervas, Maynard Forbes, Melissa Noe and Daniel Moriarty
Absent: Larry Klein
- The minutes from 1/28/13 were approved as written.
- Muriel apologized to the group for her strong reaction at the last meeting to employees receiving health benefits if they are eligible to retire at 55. It has been confirmed that a full time employee who has paid into the Berkshire County Retirement System for a minimum of 20 years and is at least 55 is eligible to retire and to have at least 50% of their retiree health insurance paid by the Town. Muriel was still unhappy with this but it is legislation and cannot be changed by the Town.
- Our insurance representative confirmed that if a retiree is over 65 they go on Medex and if their spouse is under 65 they would remain on the current HMO as a single policyholder (not a family plan). He also explained that if the Town were to add a couples tier to the available options (currently only a single plan and family plan are offered) the family rate goes up as it is based on an average number of family members on that plan whereas a couple plan can only be for 2 adults.
- The Committee discussed and voted on making the following recommendations to the Select Board at the Board’s meeting on Monday:
1. Two tiered system for Town/Employee contributions to health insurance. The committee voted unanimously to recommend that the Select Board keep current eligible employees at a 90/10 split and any new eligible employees will be at an 85/15 split.
2. The committee agreed that the Select Board should explore the option of adding a couples tier to the current single and family plan options.
3. Minor corrections will be made to the handbook, everyone will review via email and a final draft copy will be presented to the Board to accept as the updated Employee Handbook.
4. Memorandum’s of Understanding: It was agreed that prior to going any further on MoU’s it is important to determine if the Select Board as a whole is going to support instituting them. If they do then an outline will be compiled showing what the employee’s would like to see addressed in a MoU. M. Noe is going to request a contract as is allowed under MGL Chapter 41 Section 108N.
5. Salary increases:
- Sergeant: Based on surrounding towns it will be the committee’s recommendation to raise the Sergeant’s pay to $51,156 and have it be a salaried position rather than hourly (which is what the surrounding towns have done and it is more cost effective). Sheffield recently hired a Sergeant at $56,000. Full-time officers (not Sergeants) in Gt. Barrington start at $49,000. The Sergeant carries more responsibility than the part time officers and has more training.
- Police Chief: Based on surrounding towns it will be the committee’s recommendation to raise the Chief’s pay to $70,500. Currently of the 8 towns used in our compensation survey our Chief is the lowest paid. A new Chief in Sheffield was hired within the last year at a starting salary of $65,000 ($5,000 more than our Chief who has been on the job for 25 years).
- The committee felt that all of the highway positions and the Inter-Departmental Secretary’s salaries were in line with the surrounding towns and therefore the recommendation is to give a 2% increase. The New England CPI was used to determine this and rounded up (NE CPI was 1.8%).
6. The committee voted to recommend that the Select Board look into making the budget portion of the warrant more consolidated in small increments over a few years.
- The committee members will attend the Select Board meeting on Monday at 9:30am to make their recommendations and answer any questions the Board might have.
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary
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