Clarksburg Grappling With Compensation Plan By Tammy Daniels, iBerkshires Staff
12:41AM / Monday, July 20, 2015 | |
 The board is revamping the town's compensation plan. |
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The Board of Selectmen are trudging through the complex issues of public employee wages.
The board had put a moratorium on step raises earlier this year in anticipation of refiguring the wage structure, specifically in how to bring the town's salaries more in line with other towns.
That decision has already cost the town one Department of Public Works employee from the three-man department, and possibly a second.
But officials hope to have a more competitive salary range, one that will reward longevity.
"We knew were going to have this discussion going forward," said Select Board member William Schrade at Wednesday's meeting. "If we want clear roads, if we want to have a police chief and police department, if we want a library, we have to put something out there ... "
"We're on a bare bones of employees so the question is should we reward the employees or do we regionalize and close the doors?"
The preliminary discussions took place over two hours on Wednesday with input from a number of employees and department heads.
While no formal votes were taken, the board did agree to further review of removing the town administrator and police chief from the salary schedule; removing part-time employees from the steps; consolidating the tax collector/treasurer posts; and limiting steps to start, year one, three, five, seven, 10, and five-year intervals up to 30.
The town administrator and police chief are by contract, although Chief Michael Williams does not currently have one, a fact the board plans to rectify.
The majority of the part-time employees (anyone 19 hours a week or less) are police, who work four to 10 hours a week and often leave for full-time jobs within a few years; the board thought putting them into the step schedule didn't make sense. They would, however, continue to receive cost of living raises; Williams also asked for discussion on wage increases for those few part-timers who have spent years with the town.
The tax collector and treasurer continue to be two separate part-time positions although the town did vote several years ago to make them appointed. The posts were combined by having one person, currently Melissa McGovern-Wandrei, do both but she is getting paid on two different schedules.
The board is tentatively looking at changing the step schedule to ensure starting-out employees are paid enough to stay, and that those who stay are properly rewarded for their experience and loyalty. The schedule currently has steps at start, six months, years one through five, and then 10, 15 and 20.
One of the most difficult issues has been anniversary dates, which Town Administrator Carl McKinney described as "cumbersome." Starting employees currently get their one-year step at the beginning of the fiscal year after one year's employ. That's meant some workers had to wait a full year before getting their step raise - someone hired on July 2 would have to wait two years to get their one-year raise.
"One of the first problems of the first problems was the anniversary date and the time frame, which I think is a huge thing," said Select Board member Linda Reardon.
Several options were discussed but McGovern-Wandrei may have cut through the Gordian knot by suggesting anyone who works six months in a fiscal year begins their anniversary on the start of the next fiscal year.
Calculating by anniversary date would be difficult, she said, because of municipal accounting.
Williams asked how employees could be sure the next board wouldn't change the rules again, pointing to examples of how the steps hadn't been followed recently.
"Once it's in the manual, it's for boards going forward to follow," said Chairman Jeffrey Levanos.
McKinney said he had enough to begin working up a framework for the board's review. The next step will be to look at the pay scale.
"We did a study of many similarly sized communities," he said. "We found what Clarksburg was paying our staff, we were the lowest of the low."
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