The Rochester Finance Committee Monday night transferred $7,600 from the town’s reserve account in a bid to stop Council on Aging Executive Director Eric Poulin from resigning to take on a higher-paying job in Wellesley.
Mike Cambra, vice-president of the COA Board of Directors, said Poulin has received an offer to work as the COA director in Wellesley for a salary $40,000 higher than the $72,000 he is being paid in Rochester.
Cambra said Poulin has delivered his notice that he is leaving Rochester on November 30 to start the Wellesley job on December 1. But he would reconsider leaving should the town offer him a raise to $85,000. That would require opening his contract for renegotiation, Cambra said, and using reserve funds to bolster the Council on Aging’s budget.
The Finance Committee agreed, with a motion that included town Finance Director Suzanne Szyndlar’s recommendation that $7,600 be transferred to cover the increase to the June 30 end of the fiscal year.
The panel was convinced by the strong case COA board members made for why the town should try to keep Poulin in its employ.
COA board member Marjorie Barrows said Poulin has done more for the town’s COA than any previous director, using statistics she compiled to prove it. He has written $80,000 in grants for the COA, she said. He has increased attendance at the town Senior Center every month since the pandemic that closed senior centers across the country ended, highlighted by a 1.35% increase in May of this year and a 1.44% increase in July. The Senior Center averages 44 meals and other activities in a week, Barrows said, or an average of 176 per month, not counting road trips.
“He writes his own grants, does his own accounting and budgeting,” Barrows said. “To replace him would require that type of salary anyway.”
“We’re here pleading with you to not let him go,” Cambra said.
Finance Committee Chairman Kris Stoltenberg signaled his agreement with the COA members by saying that using the reserve fund this way might set a bad precedent, except that this is what is happening elsewhere. Workers in small towns are moving to the higher salaries in larger municipalities.
Before the final approval vote, FinCom member David Arancio suggested the next Town Meeting increase the amount it places in reserve account every year for future such emergencies.
Select Board member Paul Ciaburri asked if this particular, reserve-account transfer would open the doors for other town employees who would use a job opportunity to leverage a raise. Szyndlar said the town would not have to approve a transfer.
The next meeting of the Rochester Finance Committee was not set upon adjournment.
Rochester Finance Committee
By Michael J. DeCicco