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Employee Compensation Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes
Date: 12/5/13 at 4pm
Present: Muriel Lazzarini, Daniel Moriarty, Mickey Jervas, Gareth Backhaus and Maynard Forbes
Fiona DeRis arrived at 4:30
Absent: Melissa Noe, Larry Klein and Chris Tryon
- The minutes from 11/7/13 were approved.
- Muriel inquired as to how the attendance on the wages and benefits subcommittee has been; Maynard reported that it’s been good and bad. There was one meeting that only he was present at and generally out of 5 members they are averaging 3. Muriel felt this was a problem – Maynard stated that it is difficult to get everyone together at the same time.
- The wages and benefits subcommittee reported on their progress:
- The committee agreed to further investigate positions (such as the Assessor’s Clerk) that are being paid salary when in fact it may legally have to be paid hourly. This position used to be hourly and was changed to salary but was never officially voted on at an Assessor’s meeting.
- The subcommittee has completed a review of all the full time positions and the part time officers and plans to continue working on the rest of the part time positions.
- The subcommittee passed out their recommendations which were as follows:
- Highway Department: For the first 3 positions the subcommittee is recommending a 2% cost of living and a 2% raise as there hasn’t been a raise in several years and there was one year when there wasn’t any increase. The fourth position will remain as is with no increase. Mickey questioned if there were any ceilings for these positions; there aren’t currently any ceilings on any positions within the town. Some members felt that it isn’t conceivable to put a cap on any salaries as the situations aren’t static and prices continue to rise all around you. It was argued that it isn’t likely an employee would stay in a position for several years at the same salary. Dan argued that in the non-municipal world, salary caps are typically reserved for high level management positions.
- The Police Chief and Sergeant positions included the 2nd ½ of the proposed increase from last year as well as a 2% cost of living increase. They are recommending that the part time officers be increased from $15.29/hr (which is one of the lowest rates around) to $17.29/hr which would put Monterey in the middle of surrounding towns. Police details are not paid for through the town budget, they are paid for through the contracting hiring the detail officer.
- The subcommittee is recommending a 2% cost of living and 2% raise for the Executive Secretary. This would keep Monterey in the middle when comparing surrounding towns.
- The subcommittee felt it was important to recognize that the town is financially is a good position in part because of its dedicated employees and it’s important to continue to treat and pay them well to keep Monterey at the level of service they are used to getting. It was agreed all around that “you get what you pay for”.
- The committee addressed the proposed $1,000 increase by the Select Board for the additional education the Director of Operations received and the additional work the Executive Secretary and Treasurer have taken on; they felt that since there isn’t an existing, official policy or procedure addressed in our handbook yet it’s difficult to start throwing around figures that aren’t based on specific criteria. It was also noted that it isn’t clear how many positions could/would be eligible for something like this.
- The committee will review these recommendations as well as the most recent surrounding town comparison.
- The Committee continued to review the job descriptions for the Assessor’s Clerk, Library Assistant, Town Accountant, Lifeguards, Principal Assessor and Board of Assessors. It was agreed that we should be more general rather than picky when reviewing and commenting on these. Fiona inquired as to when the current job descriptions where created and by whom. It was agreed that once the job descriptions have all been finalized a date will be added.
- The committee discussed again how it would be possible to perform evaluations without the written documents being public. It was noted that any documents submitted at a public meeting are public documents. The bigger issue is that anything said or written about job performance would be public and not necessarily true as sometimes the person or persons performing the evaluation don’t have direct knowledge of the job performance on a regular basis of the person being evaluated. The Select Board feels comfortable continuing the process of speaking with employees (good or bad) on an individual basis when the need arises.
- Maynard inquired as to how some of the job descriptions we are reviewing have appointing authorities other than the Select Board; it was his understanding that the only official appointing authority within town is the Select Board. Muriel will look into this.
- Due to the holiday the Committee will meet next on Thursday, January 9th at 4pm instead of Thursday, January 2nd at 4pm. This will be an important meeting that all members should try their best to attend.
Adjourned: 4:50pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Executive Secretary
Via audio recording
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