The Marion Finance Committee on February 24 wrapped up its review of the Department of Public Works Fiscal Year 2022 budget after meeting with DPW Director David Willett to talk about Highway Department staffing.
Willett presented data the Fincom had requested to demonstrate how former solid-waste employees have been reallocated to other DPW tasks. Willett brought graphs showing the number of employee hours needed to complete specific tasks on an annual basis – 20,940 – juxtaposed with the 16,816 hours of current employee availability (factored with sick leave and vacation hours).
The DPW presently has 10 full-time employees, with one position vacancy and one position previously eliminated some time after solid waste was outsourced.
Willett’s data shows the hours DPW-related tasks require to complete, such as street, park, and cemetery maintenance, and reflects a fluctuation in employee hours needed, depending on the month, with employee hours available. Although the data suggest the DPW is relatively understaffed most months as opposed to overstaffed, variables such as sick leave, vacation time and unforeseen snowstorms, for example, cannot be predicted and therefore cannot give precise measurements of availability relative to work hours required in a given month.
“In summer, there are more man-hours that we need in order to complete our tasks, but we don’t have that availability,” said Willett, who hopes to avoid the use of additional seasonal employees to keep the budget scaled down, which the DPW did last year, he added. And although former solid waste workers have now been moved into cemetery maintenance and such, there is still a shortfall in available employee hours all around in the summer.
Willett asked Fincom to keep staff at 10 and revisit the matter after at least a year.
Town Administrator Jay McGrail said assessing DPW staff reallocation after the trash outsource has been a concern amongst the Board of Selectmen and Fincom. One way the DPW has increased efficiency, he said, was by transitioning Recreation Department Director Jody Dickerson into the temporary role of “interim operations manager” under the DPW umbrella, overseeing parks and recreation.
Dickerson’s task was to organize the historically separate maintenance of parks and recreation facilities and ballfields that was essentially split between DPW workers and contractors. According to McGrail, Dickerson has combined and streamlined the process, which could result in potential savings.
“To be honest, it’s been exactly what we needed,” said McGrail. “It’s worked extremely well” and added a “solid go-between” to the process and improved services, he said.
McGrail said the plan is to keep Dickerson in the interim position and possibly hire a part-time Recreation Department director this summer so Dickerson can continue to oversee the work that two different departments would otherwise have done in the past.
“It’s gone extremely well so far, and we look forward to this summer where I think that it will really show itself,” said McGrail, later adding that Dickerson’s interim DPW position is not a staff addition and Dickerson’s salary has not increased.
Fincom member Margie Baldwin, who has experience with parks and cemeteries in Marion, said, “This is very refreshing and very exciting to have Jody in charge.” She described how some Marion locations such as the Town Landing, Old Wharf, and cemeteries have been underserviced for some time. “And to have a go-to person who is a can-do is huge, so, totally it’s appreciated.”
Willett said after a few years, the DPW staffing arrangement would become clear and balance itself out. “We will find that sweet spot here soon.”
In other matters, McGrail briefed the committee on the Old Rochester Regional and Sippican School FY22 draft budgets ahead of its next meeting with school representatives. When first presented weeks ago, there was a $120,000 budget deficit, but McGrail was happy to announce that the schools have worked “to get us to the point that we now have a balanced budget.
“I do want to commend them for listening to us, hearing our concerns, and redoing their draft budgets to get to a place where we’re able to have a balanced budget in Marion with what I would say is one of the smallest increases that the town has seen in a long time overall from FY21 to FY22,” said McGrail.
Later in the meeting, Marion Selectman John Waterman brought up his desire to undertake a comprehensive study to project student population growth over the next 10 years. Fincom was discussing the school-choice program relative to ORR’s request to maintain its current level of 103 school-choice slots for the next academic year. Waterman said he had been asking for such a study for years to determine whether the school district should continue to use school choice to maintain its current student population or downsize relative to a decrease in students.
Baldwin made a disparaging remark related to the topic at Sippican School and asked the committee to consider her position as it seeks to reconcile school choice with funding for social-emotional and psychological student services. Fincom Chairman Peter Winters commented that the district has “no control over what level they (students) are coming in at,” and Waterman remarked, “We have to take whoever comes, and I think that’s a concern.”
Waterman commented that the new affordable housing development would inevitably bring up to an additional 30 students to the region, a consideration that should be included in a 10-year student-enrollment study.
The Marion Finance Committee scheduled another meeting for Wednesday, March 3, at 7:00 pm. The plan for a joint meeting with the Board of Selectmen to discuss the ORR and Sippican School budgets was postponed until Wednesday, March 10, at 7:00 pm.
Marion Finance Committee
By Jean Perry