Three new people have been appointed to the Rochester Personnel Board since the resignation of that board’s three members just after the 2015 Annual Town Meeting, when voters rejected an article crafted by the board that would have altered the Town’s Employee Compensation Plan.
On January 4, the Rochester Board of Selectmen met with two of the new members to discuss the Personnel Board’s main task – coming up with a way to save the town money by changing the conditions of the employee step increase policy.
“We just wanted to say ‘hi,’” Board of Selectmen Chairman Richard Nunes told Alan Boling and Christopher Peck. Third member Jean Armstrong was not present.
Town Administrator Michael McCue talked of an upcoming yet-to-be-scheduled first meeting of the newly reconstituted board, which will also include Highway Department employee Harrison Harding as a non-voting employee representative.
“I already have my suggestions, my thoughts, on how things should be rewritten,” said McCue. Other duties of the board, he said, would be hearing grievances and acting as an arbitrator, collecting and reviewing employee evaluations, and deciding on the annual three-percent wage step increase for non-union employees covered under the Employee Compensation Plan.
The plan currently allows certain employees to advance a step each year based on merit, but not beyond step number 10, the maximum, which Nunes said most often takes employees only 10 years to reach.
The comp plan, said Selectman Naida Parker, was established with the intent of making employee pay competitive with other surrounding towns, because, at one time, Rochester’s compensation was significantly lower.
“That has changed, so now, not only are we competitive,” said Parker, but in many cases, she continued, Rochester’s compensation is higher. Now, she said, the suggestion is to eventually eliminate the compensation plan and simply hire all employees at a competitive rate, relying on annual cost of living pay increases instead of the steps.
Nunes recapitulated the board’s consensus that an employee compensation plan step policy should be slowed to an extent so that employees would not max-out in just 10 years. He said, on the federal level, an employee comp plan might be slowed down, for example, to every two years upon reaching step five, and then, upon reaching step seven, the remaining steps would be attainable every three years.
“So instead of maxing-out in ten years … you max-out in eighteen,” Nunes said.
Other towns’ employees of this category, pointed out Selectman Brad Morse, are unionized. “We want to avoid that if we can,” said Morse. Boling concurred.
“That’s a good thing to avoid if you can,” said Boling. “If you can keep it non-unionized, that’s better for everyone.”
The Personnel Board will meet for the first time within the next two weeks.
In other matters, McCue wants residents to know that the 2016 trash and recycling schedule has been posted to the website in several easy-to-find locations, in light of several inquiries as to when the schedule would be mailed to residents.
The board briefly discussed codifying the Town’s bylaws in anticipation of an article in an upcoming special town meeting requesting up to $10,000 to pay for the service. McCue said the Town probably would not need the entire amount, but a little contingency money is a good thing.
McCue asked selectmen to think about some questions they might want to ask residents in a pop-up survey he hopes to add to the website – questions other than the ones pertaining to the town hall annex he plans to ask. Selectmen will discuss the matter at a later date.
The next meeting of the Rochester Board of Selectmen is scheduled for January 11 at 6:30 pm at the Rochester Town Hall.
By Jean Perry
