Rochester’s Personnel Board Tuesday began reviewing its bylaw language revisions under wage ranges, categories and steps within the FY25 Classification and Compensation Plan that was approved by the May 13 Annual Town Meeting.
Chairman Kristine Nash said the goal is to have all of the board’s revisions to the new Classification and Compensation Plan ready to be voted on at the fall Special Town Meeting set for October 21. None of their revisions will be formally approved until then, she said.
The main revision the board agreed to on June 18 was wording clarifying that as of July 1, Step pay increases will no longer be linked to the periodic evaluations of an employee’s job performance. Rather, they will be based on that person’s work experience.
Nash said this needs to be the new rule because the board has learned that departments in the past have inconsistently conducted these evaluations. Some have not been conducting employee evaluations at all, she said, “or just phoned them in,” she said. “And that’s a problem because evaluations used to be the basis for step increases.”
In a related issue, Nash said she will bring to the board’s next (July 1) meeting a draft memorandum updating department heads on the board’s changes to the town’s personnel bylaws. She said she has learned that within the past two years since the board began its work in October of 2022, town departments have not been kept informed as to the new bylaw regulation they will need to be following.
“None of this has been communicated to town departments,” Nash said. “It’s time to do that.” She said this memorandum will include the FY25 Classification and Compensation Plan that was approved by the May 13 Annual Town Meeting as an attachment.
The board also approved its revised job description for the position of Executive Assistant to the Select Board and the Town Administrator, and it said it will be reviewing the final candidate for that position at its July 1 meeting. This move follows upon Executive Assistant Amanda Baptiste’s resignation announcement, effective Friday, June 21.
The board’s timeline for its bylaw revisions is as follows: It will complete final review of the bylaw language by the end of July and send these revisions to the town attorney for review. It will review the attorney’s edits in August and bring the revisions to a vote at the fall Special Town Meeting.
The Personnel Board’s next meeting will be held on Monday, July 1, at 6:30 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.
Rochester Personnel Board
By Michael J. DeCicco