okay folks Let's uh let's call the order here the uh the April meeting of the town of Newbury Human Resources board it is the 402 on Monday the 29th and present arean dle Mark lechman John Ferrar Anthony Antico Lyn PE hello everybody I would imagine that Chief Fisher should be joining us momentarily I believe that uh she's on her way so let's kick off and hope she'll be here shortly to join us first order of vises is to approve the minutes of Prior meetings we have three sets of minutes to review uh in order the first is the the minutes of the meeting of 226 has everyone got that in front of them yep there were two edits to my attention um that I've changed on my original copy um on the item number four uh third line from the bottom PTY Fisher reported that a full-time dispatcher will be moving to part-time Duty not due thank you and then under this number seven um the first line the policy requires all employees and board members who access Town own technology not who access to town so we've removed the two and those those edits have been made okay okay Frank I think two would have been fine too little minutes yeah makes sense so okay I respect the I respect the edits you looking at Tony now other than those well has everyone had an opportunity to review the minutes of that particular meeting February 26th yes yes thank you any other edits that folks are aware of that are required see no hands raised is there a motion to approve the minutes motion second second any discussion all in favor of accepting the minutes of the February 26 meeting say I I unanimous thank you uh in order uh let's look at the February 26 subcommittee minutes again thank you Diane for the prep on this has everyone had a chance to read through those minutes yes yes did anyone catch anything that required editing seeing no hands is there a motion to approve the minutes of the February 26th subcommittee meeting so move is there a second second any discussion seeing none all in favor of accepting the minutes of the February 26 meeting say I I I unanimous thank you again and finally the minutes of the March 25th HR board meeting again thank you Diane uh any edits so it was brought to my attention that Patty fiser was not at that meeting so I edited that and I believe it was Lynn pey who made the motion at the end to adjourn so those edits have been made okay thank you very much Ian any other edits that uh weire astion seeing none is there a motion to approve so moved is there a second second any discussion seeing none all in favor of accepting the minutes of the March 25th 2024 meeting say I I unanimous thank you again I appreciate your diligence of getting all these toour in advance that takes care of the meeting minutes next order of BU is employee issues let's turn to Diane hopefully Patty will be along shortly and she can tell us what might be happening in the PD nothing's been brought to my attention okay we'll hold on uh PD you know my guess is at this point perhaps Chief Fisher may have been detained unavoidably but we'll see what happens there so okay no employee issues assess uh Personnel actions and job vacancies I know there's been a flry of activity over the last couple months and I know last month you reported some good news in terms of uh new stock dates and new hires anything else to report there this month um so with the vacancy that I announced last month in the DPW with Darren sandor retiring Tim Tolman who's been with the town has moved into the foreman position that was effective on March 25th great um I have hired a assistant treasure collector who will be starting on Monday the 6th um she comes to us from the Salem School District um working in the payroll department uh she is a new Byfield resident and will be joining us as the assistant treas collector on Monday very excited about that good luck with that I think she'll be a great addition I believe there was one new full-time fireman who was hired to fill the open vacancy there and they started on April 1st thank you can I just go back to DPW for a second you said it Tim Tolman yes who's moved up to Forman yes is there a Domo effect there I mean was he in in some sort of a supervisory role that somebody else will bump into or so he was a truck driver equipment operator but based on his um tenure he moved into that position and we had previously hired I think it was reported at the last meeting Justin Crosby who was a new DPW hire for us so that completes the so it doesn't require another back fill so we so we filled the the vacant position knowing that we were going to move somebody into the working for okay um as far as any vacancies we currently have two openings at the library um both are associate uh positions one is in circulation and one is in the um children's Department um we've had two people leave one left for a position in Boston working for a private um I believe a school and we had another person who left uh or is leaving so we have two vacancies there for their part-time positions less than 19 hours um um and I believe I've received some emails recently that they look like they've got a a pool of candidates and they'll be making some hires great thank you questions no uh agenda right number five workplace issues ethics issues discrimination issues I'm not aware of anything that uh that has crept up that requires attention uh for probably the 88 third consecutive month that's a good thing but nonetheless we always like to make sure that there's nothing uh boiling under the surface at any Town facilities and happy to report that that is still the case so uh safety issues again something we typically turn to Chief fishop far but uh in her absence anything in town hall that you're aware of nothing that's from brought nothing new with Town Hall relative to co or no no no new protols following CBC guidance okay I have you seen anything change um no so well actually yes I'm sorry um so it has come out in the communication that um masks are required for patient facing situations only so that's good through BH okay that's the entire yep system yep okay yeah so that so anah Jakes and yep okay exit so if you're if you're patient facing yes you're required to wear a mask yes do you think that that's just strictly Co or do you think it's also virus coals I mean all these other things that we're seeing or do you think it's just a a preventative yeah it's crazy isn't it you see these um videos you know we have training videos and things um of um you know maybe um in a health care setting a doctor in a patient and things and there's no masks you know there's not really a lot of infection um control in place you know like hand washing things like that you just think oh my gosh you know how long ago was that yeah so um let's see so I'll do a quick search while we're um talking I'm just curious when you say patient facing is that specific to the hospital setting or would it include doctor's offices that are in the campus so let me let me pull it up I might not be able to get it right now and if I can't get it right now because I'm on kind of another um I'm curious and again it's not specific to town hall obviously have a town of newy but nonetheless if this is a you know if this is something that's trending in healthcare it's quite possible that it's going to extend into the municipal world or the the corop world so it's always good to know in advance you know what's new happening and you know might be coming our way I've had two visits one to the VA and bford and one to new reports urgent care and both times the PMS were wearing masks okay you know what I will um I will pull this up P rather U yeah I'm like what's a PM but I just went with it if you become ill in the afternoon when I find it I will um okay thank you I will forward the information along okay appreciate it and again as always if Lyn forwards it there there will be no communication among board members no deliberations just a thank you for passing it along yeah okay uh all right safety issues that's other business the only other thing that we've been chewing on of the last month or so and which is still yet to be finalized is the the compensation study update um just as a reminder as a board we had uh determined that it was would in fact be in in the interest of the T ofie to get a better sense of of where we sit Visa V uh other municipalities especially those close to us especially those of similar size and structure to us um you know we're not predisposed one way or the other in terms of what it's going to tell us but nonetheless it's you know it's probably time because it's been many years since uh we've done anything like this and as Diana's mentioned because of a the lack of information available through MMA Diane used to get that data regularly from different towns uh you know compensation ranges for different positions but unfortunately that's no longer available that's kind of going away in the dinosaur I think um and so uh what we're left with is a need to get good quality data uh the hope is that the end game will be that we're in really good shape that that you know competitively uh the town and nuuy pays what it needs to pay and and uh there's Equity involved among the you know the employee population and that we're competitive at least but we don't know that uh and so the time has come and and Tracy's agreed that uh that it's it's a worthwhile Endeavor and so she is in the process of of collecting competitive DS bids you know per per um Mass General law we're not quite there yet uh you know between town meeting tomorrow night uh Town election coming up uh I know she's has a vacation time recently um priorities sh FC year end fiscal year end right priorities are such that uh that this is not at the top of the Heap but she has committed that it will be by the time we meet next month so hopefully uh Tracy will be able to join us at our next meeting and tell us about what the competitive bid process looks like um what the cost of the survey will be the time frame My Hope Is that uh it will be really worthwhile for us and it'll give us some really good data to work off of so questions thoughts thoughts um I'm glad we're getting bids on it on a vendor y yeah it's required I know we had somebody come forward or we've reached out to one company but I think it requires three competitive competitive bids good yep good that's good as is with many of our requ you know it's required sure yeah yep yeah that's that's a standard requirement so who will review those bids and choose um a vendor to go with uh we haven't discussed that I I would hope that Tracy would enlist Us in that process to perhaps our next meeting I will effort that talking to her we have haven't discussed you know what it's going to look like once the bids come in but I would think that you know because she's has asked us to provide input throughout the process I would think that she would continue to do that and you know we can look at the vendors we can look at their history we can look at uh at uh what kind of similar work they've done in this in this general area check references if need be you know do all the things that you would do before you make a decision uh and not entirely based on the arithmetic meth but but on the quality of the proposal and the depth right not these are not all proposals are equal and these these uh compensation ly you may be very well aware of this these compensation uh survey consulting firms are I I'm sure they have different methodologies but you know they all do relative the same thing so my guess is the the pricing will be you know I I can't imagine enormous swings in price but again like any else you you you get what you pay for and so we'll see how comprehensive they are how detailed they are um how much work has to be done and then we'll I assume discuss it at our next meeting and hopefully make a decision yeah I imagine the rfps would be um the guidelines would be strict enough so that the bids that we get are going to be similar you know and not like way off you know this is what this one's proposing you know the proposal is for this and this is different so you know it's always interesting to open up those bids right yeah sometimes it's it's apples and oranges you know some firms are more comprehensive than others uh in in what they do but again we shouldn't presuppose that so let's let's see what happens uh you know between now and then and hopefully I'll get from Tracy what that competitive bid processes look like and get it to the rest of the board well in advance of our meeting so that we can study the the information and and make an informed decision you know have our questions ready so forth and so on so you have an opportunity to see that RFB no no no but uh Tracy is a veteran of RS I'm quite sure it's exactly as it should be so okay anything else on the uh on the compensation study okay uh let me throw it open here I'm not aware of any other the business that we need to conduct today but uh let me ask other folks anything on people's minds busy time iny fiscal year in yeah time meeting tomorrow election in 3 weeks two and a half weeks two weeks from tomorrow I guess right yeah so busy stuff no other I I don't have a message from Patty so I don't know she must have I'm sure she's been detained but we have a quorum so no problem so I um a quick followup on the mask um so I had somebody send it to me but um I guess I don't have enough um internet you know capability here that I can pull it up so I will again I'll send it it to you all oh wait a second here it is yeah the little circle going round and round and around oh no that's yeah it was a different one that came through anyway I'll forward it along this group yeah I mean Pat Uh Patty would be the one that would Chief Fisher would know you know if there was anything coming down the so okay all right so one last thing and that is to set the time of our next meeting uh that happens to be Memorial Day Monday May 27th is in fact Memorial Day uh so sorry I won't be here uh so uh let me let me throw over the options we could for one month we could move on meeting till the next day assuming the room is available uh we could do may the 28th we could do it the prior week or the following week I will not be here from like Friday to Wednesday of Memorial Memorial Weekend okay um all right so given that you know who knows other people may have long weekend plan so perhaps Tuesday the 28th may not be the best day any suggestions as to whether you'd like to do it the week before or the week after I would propose the June is it June 3rd which is the following Monday June 3rd is the following Monday y to maybe give an additional week for the compensation information to come in I think the week before might be too soon just to give her an extra week um that would be my June 3rd only if we can have birthday cake okay cuz that's my birthday Julie noted 39 again oh my gosh so we will we will make sure that's in the minutes June 3rd with the amendment that it includes a birthday party vanilla vanilla whatever whatever okay um how do folks feel about June the 3rd is that a calendar date that works as I'm now is fine all right let's do uh June the 3rd Monday 4 pm. the only thing I'll ask is I know that draws even a little bit close at the end of fiscal year fiscal year R the end of June right is that a concern for you at all or are you going to be out straight or I mean okay June 3rd June 4th June 5th okay okay h j board meeting on Monday June 2nd 2022 June 3D I'm sorry Jun 3rd 3 June 3rd right okay thank you all any other business to discuss hands is there a motion to adjourn I'll make the motion second second any discussion about that motion to adjourn no we have adjourn