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Employee Compensation Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes
Date: 1/9/14 at 4pm
Present: Muriel Lazzarini, Daniel Moriarty, Melissa Noe, Larry Klein, Gareth Backhaus and Maynard Forbes
Absent: Fiona DeRis, Mickey Jervas and Chris Tryon
- The minutes from 12/5/13 were approved. Muriel noted that she did research Maynard’s question on who the appointing authority is for towns and the only thing she could find is that most appointing authorities are the Select Board.
- Muriel felt that our Committee needs to set suggested criteria for the part time positions in town to determine whether or not they should be paid hourly or a salary/stipend. Melissa noted that it is the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that determines whether or not a position can be salaried based on their job description and whether or not their duties dictate that they are an exempt or non-exempt employee. Most of the positions we have that are part time should be hourly. There were questions on 2 positions: the Principal Assessor and the Sanitary Inspector and why one is an independent contractor and whether the other is an employee or an independent contractor. Muriel also wants all part time employees to submit time sheets with the days and hours worked which are to be submitted to the Treasurer and
attached to the warrants for the Select Board to review when approving the payroll warrants; she is going to speak to the Select Board about instituting them.
- The salary subcommittee reported the following:
- The subcommittee has been discussing the part time appointed positions and in terms of wages compared to the surrounding towns they didn’t find any position that was way too high or way too low. In terms of recommended raises for next year the subcommittee was unsure what to recommend since we do not have an evaluation procedure and each of these appointed positions have a different supervisor. Unless there is a method of evaluating everyone in the same manner (currently some positions would have to legally be evaluated in an open meeting and others would not require this as their supervisor is not a public body) then merit raises/cost of living increases should be given across the board. Larry had concerns with giving raises across the board for longevity if a person has been performing poorly in that position. It was noted that anyone not performing their job correctly or up to par should be handled with their direct supervisor and let go if not resolved.
- The subcommittee also looked at elected positions salaries compared to the surrounding towns and found that the Select Board, Assessors and Board of Health members have had the same wage for a long time however they are about the same as surrounding towns. The Tree Warden is supposed to be keeping track for 6 months how much time he has committed to the position and sending this to the subcommittee for review. The remaining elected positions (Treasurer, Tax Collector and Town Clerk) have been sent emails from the subcommittee requesting their opinions on what they feel their job should pay and approximately how many hours they work per week; no one has responded yet.
- The subcommittee hopes to have answers on the above for next month’s meeting.
- It was also clarified that the Executive Secretary’s position according to the FLSA is non-exempt and should be paid hourly however is currently salaried.
- The committee voted unanimously (Muriel abstained as she will be considering this as a Select Board member) to recommend to the Select Board that a 2% merit and 2% COLA raise be given to the Director of Operations, Foreman and Highway 2, Executive Secretary and that Highway 3 will be level funded. It was also recommended that the remaining half of last year’s proposed increases ($5,000 for the Chief and $5,460 for the Sergeant) be given to them in addition to a 2% COLA and that the part time police officers be given a $2/hr increase. Muriel will present this to the Select Board on Monday for their review.
- The Committee agreed that the handbook subcommittee will take on reviewing and cleaning up the job descriptions to be presented to the ECAC as a whole when done.
- Muriel also asked to discuss the phrase “This includes malicious gossip and spreading rumors” which was suggested earlier to add to the harassment section of the handbook. She felt that this shouldn’t be added as it would be too difficult to determine what a rumor is and how to address it. The Committee agreed. The Committee also agreed that it is important to look into adding a code of conduct and disciplinary procedure sections to the handbook which would address scenarios for appointed and elected positions. Muriel suggested that a policy should also be created to address when an employee is separated from employment with the Town whether it be voluntary or involuntary and what they can expect with regards to accrued time off, severance, etc. It was noted that this would differ for
each employee depending on what their contract states and if they do not have a contract that specifies any of these items then it would fall under the applicable labor laws. It was also noted that the Fire Chief and Police Chief per MGL require 1 year’s written notice if they are not going to be reappointed; this is only applicable if they do not have a contract.
- The Committee discussed how the lack of attendance by 2 of the members should be handled. It was stated that one of the members has some time conflicts and it wasn’t clear why the other member has not been in attendance. The Committee is also open to adding any other interested residents to the Committee. It was also determined that the “malicious rumor” that the Committee is self-serving because it has 3 employee representatives on the committee was indeed misinformation as there are more residents on the Committee than employees and the Committee itself is only advisory, they have no powers or authorities to make any changes without Select Board approval.
- The next meeting will be on February 6th at 4pm.
Adjourned: 4:45pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Executive Secretary
Via audio recording
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