okay I'll call the meeting to order at 5:00 or 5:03 and Eastern Standard Time not for Joy first item is to approve the minutes from March I move we approve the minutes second motion made second to approve the minutes for March 11th I'll do roll call vote Joyce I Betty I Susan hi Brenda hi and myself I next item is to review and discuss the proposed draft Personnel policies and comments from department heads and the first question I'll ask did we get any department head comments just from library and the on Lyn we more or less think did we not did I maybe I think I went through but went through them there few things toar back from others kind of I think I have okay um then I guess we'll just open it up to the floor here for comments on the different sections okay mine my first comment is a general com comment we have we refer to the select court and we refer to the appointing author do we have them in the right places know they first of all we never Define appointing authority and is it possible to take a look at it when we say select board is it truly the select board or should the be appointed I don't think it's a risk the other way but there's a bunch of Select boards and I did not go through it to try and figure it out because I'm not sure I'm the best person to do that but can we Define pointing Authority and make sure we're reference in the right it I would Define the appointing authority as the elected officials that oversee that specific Department something of that nature because ultimately it's elected officials whether it be select part water Commissioners or Library trustees am I missing anything I think those are the only three elected assessor I think I said that didn't I assessors water department water Commissioners and select board three and Li Library oh Library so yes all right we have we have so we have four four elected departments that oversee employees another another aspect of this that Brian had made comment from day one was that we need to get other than the select board we need those other three departments to agree to follow these Personnel policies or either that if they're not then they've got no Personnel policy they have to come up with their own of some sort and and they can't just pick and choose well we like this idea so we're going to agree with you here but disagree with you here it's either yes or no that's the way I see it agree I agree with that it is such a way too comprehensive policy to give to the library like you're giving but yeah I agree with that yeah either have to agree or but then they have they can't just make up their own policy at a whole clock it's got to run by the town I think well I guess the Brian's point was that they don't have to they could have their own Dam Personnel policy but that's gonna be really hard and I don't think it's going to be a problem um and uh especially if we've got it written such that in the appropriate places it says the appointing board or the you know the appointing authority um so it's clear that it's inclusive of them right now um and just let's see if we just approach them and say hey we think it'd be great if you would adopt this Personnel policy we understand that you're in charge of hiring firing your own employees but we think you should have a Personnel policy we made this I think it includes you and then I don't think it's going to be a problem I think they'll just say [Music] fine so who brings it to them who have that conversation I think an interim co- toown administrator should do that did you say the word intro so um a couple things um there and I hate this word but they really can't parse what you do as a committee all right so you can't spend a year and a half doing these bylaws to treat all employees uniformly and equitably and they say no but take the colas you've been recommending for the last up te years and all the other good things that you recommend for employees and then turn around and say yeah we're not going to follow the bylaw so um so you know that's the way you sort of say this is a policy though not a bylaw right right but you you recommend what the cola is that's not a bylaw right it's not a bylaw but it's an internal policy that if push comes to shove we'll be held to in a court of law if we don't by we I mean the town of weightly if we don't follow it that's why it's like important people understand what they're agreeing to follow and why this is too fat but we're down the road it's not terrible a lot of it's reciting what's already the law so that's okay we can live with that but also everyone just has to understand I I'm such a broken record on this I'm annoying myself but um yeah I don't think we can say to library and water here here's our you know handbook for the employees of the town but carve out your own I just don't think you can do that I don't think we should I think we should sorry yeah it may be that that we don't have the authority to tell them they have to but I think they are sensible people and they will yeah we can just say it's our expectation after two years or whatever years of work and you know Europe is this committee is created by town meeting by yes it was byting yeah that I would argue to for diso that you have the forced to you know probably yeah they should just see it and say what don't you agree with we understand this is very unwieldy and long however you've hired professionals they've written WR this the law has gotten more complicated life has gotten more complicated please read it and tell us if you can't live with any of these or they don't actually match to what you're doing in the field ultimately this applies to all Town employees regardless of who the appointing authority is except for the school ex right right and you don't have is it e un no so no okay okay so yeah aside from the school but I think that's a key thing to make clear to them that we're not usurping their power we are you know applying this to all employees and we're rewriting it and updating it and asking for your input so and to Joyce's point we don't you know Joyce doesn't think there will be an issue so I think I don't either but I'm just making sure that I think maybe some some type of request needs to go out so that they're upcoming meeting when whenever we're feeling like we've prepared that final draft and we're ready for exception acceptance then we need to have each of those departments sign off at one of their open meetings that they agreed to accept and follow it and they're satisfied simple as that okay should I move on to my next point on page 19 we say that we are recommending col salaries I forget what the third one was to the finance committee for presenting recommendations to the finance committee by March 1st as long as I have been on this committee we have never been cled to March 1 what is a realistic date is there a re more realistic date that gives the finance committee enough time honestly my concern is if we don't need our deadline they can not take what we say into consideration so what is the best deadline that we should strive for like for colas we don't have the information by March or them for salaries because we need his information I almost would feel that it should somehow be tied to the time of town meeting there was a time where town meeting was in like the third week of April so that if if our if we go back to something like the third week of April our timeline of presenting it needs to be way earlier than it does this year where it's June whatever so so could we say six weeks eight weeks whatever the number prior to scheduled town meeting that's what I'm wondering yeah that's a good suggestion yeah because it sometimes takes a little while to convince Finance can be what to recommend onca so right doesn't happen first meeting or the second meeting the third meeting so yeah that like six weeks before not I mean even that's cutting it but does six weeks I mean I would love to have it now I mean to be honest even though to meetings not till June because we're still trying to figure out what our budget Gap is um is six weeks is too tight eight week oh no I'm it's hard to get it through we said eight weeks on a nor on some years if we were back at in an April time meeting we would have already had to submitted that right and we're in the we're looking for data to base the colas on and it's good to have like at least January and February's CPI numbers uh to help with that uh decision so do we have to specify a date in there we probably [Music] should say I would I mean I was thinking I mean lack of specificity probably helps you I would say something like in advance of tell or each spring or or just leave it totally firm deadlines are meant to be not met in bylaws and policies okay Mr might okay what's the harm of taking it out I mean could they could then the finance committee said well you didn't tell us by February 1st so we yeah can just say shall be present history just I'm just making a advocate here I don't know what the yeah don't let's not put let's not put because of the moving date of town meeting is metx that we need to look at in the day of town meeting which is a ke good good point we never know when town meeting is going to be fine okay um on page 23 we reference informal compensation do we need to Define it set parameters if it's easy when you're exting because my page is print differently if you could just tell me section oh okay hold on doesn't Sor like article or section [Music] what's just the subtitle a lot okay section three compensation there's a bunch okay yeah there yeah so I'm off by six pages that's helpful okay section three yeah I'm not going to keep doing this I promise okay I don't have that many that reference a specific but section c e over time time okay so we've added under authorization probably heads are responsible for the authorization overtime time andal we never say what down in section yeah that that's where where I first saw this oh what exact and this was my own ignorance what exactly is it what do we mean by it informal compensation informal compensatory it is granted to if I get this right on to exempt employees such as salaried employees whereas it's a it's an obligation to like an hourly employee where if an hourly employee works over 40 hours so this this was put into effect for instance if um the town clerk was on a salary all of a sudden or a lot of times it's been in the town administrators line item where all of a sudden the Town Administrator is absent like right now we're an intern and someone else in the department in the town has to pick up the slack and all of a sudden is working a lot more hours but there's not they're not being paid for it that would be informal compensation should we put that I thought it was pretty I think it isn't if you look at three above it's non-exempt versus exempt so I think in the number three vers fa lab standards act yeah I mean it is very possible that I missed this I just wanted to make sure again but do we ever say that informing informal Comm story applies to the [Music] exemp it's it's in the title on four it says only exempt employees are true true yeah okay okay so maybe okay I think so then two just little ones at some point we should fix the fact that there is no appendex B when we label everything and there is a note on the social media policy saying yeah we need to look into this SE 47 section B of seven computer technology internet yeah for me it's page 47 so I don't know if we're talking about finalizing the document which we don't have this he says additional research is needed to simplify this policy and what's here came from the consultant that what this what's written here came from the consultant yes definitely oh yeah okay yes it's like boiler plate soci media policy which really fit yeah we just I remember we had real issues with us were we going to ask other towns for what they do for that this was talked about early on it seems that sounds familiar but I call yeah I think I could be remembering in correctly but didn't we at some point say we don't need an IT policy because we don't it's not that we don't need it but we don't have an it we don't dep department and that was changed I looked for that I think Brian might have fixed that cuz that was partly him saying that I remember correctly this five pages of handholding and please just so yeah maybe this is I if I remember correctly I believe that was something that you agreed that the next Town Administrator would focus on yeah I think that's right that we just said let's just delete the whole thing they don't have an ID Department the law is the law on appropriate use you can't get around that yeah yeah so I thought that came out but so should we just take it out so I would argue that this is probably not the best policy but that you most certainly need a technology policy it's probably the number one reason employees are dismissed or disciplined right now for inappropriate use of town resources I don't think were going to take it out I think we were going to you guys are going to leave it as is and then um I am it and focus when when we get another the permanent Town Administrator um I do uh remember about the security the Cyber um something about Maya and they might have um something that we need to uh go by for uh cyber security um that they might have something for us um in terms of that for more um security with our technology um I just can't remember right now everything but I do know that was something that you guys discussed to push onto another so for the time being can we just flag this section as you know still in the works and because I don't know that this is going to be a deal breaker to the other appointing authorities and get them working on everything else and have them understand we are still trying and we're waiting for the New Town Administrator this needs effort but not hold everything up because Trisha is absolutely correct you need some type of it policy in place especially with security cyber security um whether it's lock a computer time you leave or something like that I think that is very important I mean in the if I could contact some other towns and get something less own well it's both owner and like mamb be pambi nothing there we understand that it's important to use social media I mean that's not employer policy that's a cut to the chase yeah exactly I would say even if we're waiting if we can't finalize until we have new town administrat let's do the homework we can get that and then if we can come AC if we can drop something is there a time getting this done since I'm so new to this I don't think I've ever heard that sure we have New Town Administrator it would be nice but almost impossible nice to have the New Town Administrator I mean it's not something that needs to be done like for town meeting it's not being voted at town meeting so it's it's whenever we get ready and feel it's to be presented to the full select court for their acceptance well so I could ask a lawyer I used to work with Bob Leonard do you know Bob Leonard from your days which I've asked him stuff since I've been on weightly because he represents he does like HR more employee stuff but anyway he sent me stuff to look at I could just ask him do you have something and you I would say you do the same your resources are probably way better than mine but I just don't think this one is the ideal wanted to use I would agree with that it seems awfully long and this is a small F but I also agree with both of you guys yeah you can't just take it out and then let it fall off the radar entirely um I'm looking at the minutes of the prior meeting from February 26 Where We R the it policy um and basically what I just said the committee agreed to involve the New Town Administrator and addressing it policy concerns and updating existing policies the evolving standard um um the committee discussed issues surrounding the absence of the IT team and the importance of access control and password protection thanks great that was it else I had a couple things that I had noticed one of the things was in under the compensation SE section K or 3 K the break periods I can't I wanted to revisit that to discuss how we left that because at one point it says the town perit employees to take two paid 10minute breaks and I know the state law says a 30 minute lunch break as long as you an employee Works longer than a six hour sh um I I don't know how as long as it's offered that's my question if it's offered is it mandated it seems like it used to be years ago you had to have a 15 minute break now I don't see anywhere there's law referencing a 15 minute break yeah somebody's working all day two 10 minute breaks in one time where the law definitely the law current law says that you have to provide you have to be provided a 30 minute one if he went longer than 6 hours but I I don't see I didn't see anywhere in there that says they have to accept that they have to they can't be denied it if someone says I want I mean if they want to work through and not aid break so they can leave after five and a half hours well their lunch the lunch does not have to be I don't think by when I read the law you have to you can work through your lunch same thing with someone here in this department in the in the town office they can they can work and eat at their desk while they're working it's not like they have to go will sit in the break room for 30 minutes and not be able to do any work but if such employee says I want a 30 minute lunch and they want to go off to leave for a half an hour that's we can't they have to be provided that isn't that covered under but the 10 minute break is in addition to a 30 minute meal break now all right might be yeah reading through this though I'm not clear on is it optional well all right yeah it is there it's and again it says at least an 8 Hour state law says six okay that are they obligated to take it can they work through their eating of lunch hour I'm just looking at yeah a lot of this is for your hourly waged employees saled employees which most folks in this building are it's mostly so that the wage employes don't get wor I mean you know what it's like when snow cloud right y I mean you know again it's even in this other section where it says meal periods are not considered working hours while if you're choosing to to eat while you're sitting at your computer they should be able in my mind work and get paid so this is really hearkens back to when people smoke so if you have employees that still smoke that's where the entitlement to a break is twice a day okay so they get a 10-minute break to smoke in addition ostensibly to a Lun hour all right so that's sort of the Genesis for that we just don't thinking those JS now because so few people but that's that's really what it's about right because I know it goes on in the next part goes on to to you know nursing mothers and laa combinations and all that stuff so which is Case by case scenario as as needed I guess I'm confused so aside from chinging it from 8 hours to 6 hours that's the law what do we to do to this I just question do we need should it still say employees are permitted to have two 10 minute breaks during a work p Just that's part of what I my question so let's think this through when we hire a new laborer and they smoke then you can say to them you're they can't smoke on the job they can't smoke on a site but they're entitled to two 10 minute breaks a day to go and have a cigarette I'm just sort of Cl that so in the absence of that then what happens serious I think we should leave it in but again that you know the question wased by I think it was an interesting a good question raised yeah all right then leave it is the only thing I would then say is to change the eight hours to six for the meal for the meal then the other thing which was just prior to that in section F of the call back pay um I remember discussing it in the um like with the police department uh when they have um like their details and stuff they have a 4our call in 4 hour minimum and I was just wondering if it would make sense to have everything uniform instead of three hours be four hours I know the state law requires three but I'm questioning in regards to the you know when an hourly employee gets called in on the holidays and things like that U most of the time it always entails good three hours anyways but um there are a few instances where an employee might get called in for a tree down where it may not take that long but at the same point in time they're having to give up what they're [Music] doing to come in to do it and like I said one thing I do know is the yeah police dep I'm not sure I see the parallel to the police department because those are scheduled ahead of time they're not being called in um during a non-scheduled work time they're agreeing in advance to and then and those are all they're all very scheduled this looks like I think section f is about things that are not scheduled things that come up Suddenly and so I don't I I I don't agree that there's an equivalence there something where where we ought to have them be the same um that's just that's all I want to say okay those are that silicon I had anyone else other than trying to remind the other department heads what did we get from the library I collect your materials is it there yeah there I think no no I printed it I didn't know I didn't know I I PL it there for you guys so You' already you Trish you answered the I did 10 minute bre question um travel for work worksh conf we always got that the way I look at it I mean that that's that's going to be a budgetary that's between the the library Commissioners it doesn't affect the that works more than hours no but the question about going to a conference are we eligible for travel expenses that's going to be based on whether the trustees say will will pay you to go do it or what's the past practice if you're allowed to go to you should be get on towntown you should be getting reimbursed from I'm not disagreeing I'm just saying that seems to be more of a apartment they would have to have money in their budget to pay for that professional development employees attending workshops and professional conferences says is but theel board is being in the best interest of 10 dependant such workshop and constit by the employee must be authorized by the employee supervisor in advance the reasonable and necessary expenses for the employee who attend the workshop or conference will be paid for from the authorizing Department budget subject I think that's it this is on my version number n under professional development page 39 it's easier for me to pass the computer around and figure out where the heck [Music] SE section five lead benefit subsection n professional development 31 in mine but 37 and 39 in mine but that gets you close get yeah [Music] answer AV [Music] all right so then other than reaching back out to the other departments for a reminder are we good on the policies yeah just on that answer Trisha that you gave the library did they actually get your answer no I wanted you to see it yeah so then we should refer them to that section end that we just looked at for the second question about reimbursement for you know conferences conference and travel expenses um so I had made some other comments that were just word smithing and stuff that I should have probably but I didn't have the time to tie them up and just send them to you there's nothing major but I think vote the whole thing I'll type them up now that I'm more acclimated to my duties and send them to you because I think when we met before I I mean this is a lot this is probably 5% of your new job so um so I'll do that and get them out to you probably this week thank you okay um next item on the agenda is the review and discuss the second draft of the FY 24 thank you for I guess my first question since I'm first looking at it is which what do we have known known changes probably was it the we development was one that I think we are looking for more information on is that I did I don't remember seeing it that was one that we were trying to reach and we were going to look at the furog or something um what you sent whatever that was yeah yeah yeah is that yeah that's it oh well it's on the B yeah but there's all links that's why I do this one the one this is the one that you sent on Wednesday I think of last week well this one no I did a supplemental one with water animal inspection and looks like you don't have it right this is what the most recent one I have from you and this yeah that's what blown up just blew it up I think this is the I did some additional stuff off the um furog one so let me go print it all right so what's is the one dated 3 updated 321 is that this is the one I printed what's that one I probably be the wrong one let me see yeah these are what well that's good that they have that there was another one that I I might have S you there were two okay I'll just awesome or if you send it I can put it up on the projector yeah otherwise joice won't be put on the projector when you actually retiring it's like a shocker to be yeah the earliest I can retire at full full benefits is in May of 25 oh so not tomorrow but so you're down the road took just over a year here aware that the the town clerk is no longer is now a satellite uh contract me do they all know that no you mean not the clerk treasure treasure collector I'm sorry um I haven't been announced but just here I mean we we made a we were in using that that was one of the ones in our comparison previously but now there then negotiated with the SL board in this contract we're being recorded right yes good to know before I ask questions the light so good at the par so that'll be good for the one of the hopes is the ice skating rink that has been being put up at the fire station will go down on the pavement oh and it will be a better scenario better setup and especially in the winter hours when it's dark at 4:30 5:00 people will be able to turn the lights on and will they be Ed dur the time the the way they operate that the lights that come on for the parking lot are only on a manual timer so that they the maximum they can be on is one hour they'll shut off on their own doesn't mean but somebody can go back and turn them reset them and turn them on again but the the good thing is that someone can't leave and have them stay on all night yeah the other lights that face towards the field and Pavilion are on two separate switches depending on what's necessary very very helpful even in many of the summer events when there's baseball games that are just finishing up and it's getting dark out or soccer season where it starts to get darker earlier it is what she was referring to she s h yes thanks I just had her do it you yeah that' be great oh thanks see that Cho x-ray oh sorry I was I was reading the salary survey here did you get the email from Trisha Joyce with the attachment there was um a an email from Trisha back in the 27th of February that has two furog uh salary surveys a regional and a municipal one Excel um I just had do another one Jo oh okay all right to your Smith emailing so so yeah there it is when I looked at this and noticed the gaps I went and I looked at the furog and it's a challenge because there's not a number of people in the Valley that have these but a separate animal inspector um but um in terms of essential functions and duties not 100% but similar just to you know again and I i' said it wasn't Apples to Apples a little apples to oranges but um and some of the towns are obviously bigger but it at least gives you some frame of reference if you're in the ballpark um for the rates um and water superintendent is just impossible really um but and Keith you know more about this than I in terms of but a cheap operator for Wastewater Treatment Plant versus a water superintendent with the licenses and things like that can be arguably somewhat comfortable correct I would say on a wage and classification plan they would be um pretty much classified along the same depending on the number of staff and size that they have of the operation so again I just did this to give you a little more information since on the uh survey that we had there were so many gaps to try to even make a meaningful stabing the do about it and then the animal inspector given that we don't have one as of July 1 um I think the information here is very compelling um in terms of why we're losing incumbent yeah I agree that you been look at the animal inspector and I mean certainly Holly and lever at 100 each is exceptionally different but even us at 460 is not in most towns the Animal Control Officers often the animal inspector as well this is only the animal inspector so if we um coupled it with the anual control officer salary the salaries are really much higher but I think I I only wanted to do that for animal inspector since we just W the sheriffs um yeah the regional right sureff that's a a budgetary discussion for the select board so the animal inspector is still going to remain it was yeah sh doesn't cover right okay and our current incumbents agreed to stay through June 30th that's courtesy okay so it will be Von as of July yes all right do we want to start with the the first one which was just discussed the community development director and we feel this new information warrants any changes previously all we had was just what weightly pays and that was it great and I'm having trouble finding that spreadsheet uh that has like our towns the one with the the the columns that doesn't fit on one screen anyway I can send that to you but do you happen have friend thanks uh well um uh like what is the number for comparison with weightly as I'm looking at the spreadsheet I just got that has you know Greenfield monteu monteu orange Deerfield and Deerfield weightly the only thing I can say is weightly is on a salary line of 53,9 n66 okay right so if I'm reading this right the rates of the other towns but we don't know how many hours a week well in some cases we do I say we're less than if I do 42 I just ran the r the average and it's 4 4187 for but these these three towns here are four three and four times the size right of um weightly and those are full-time positions where sy's not many I thought she was around 30 something I thought I thought she was full time I thought she's either 35 or 40 because she works Monday through she works suay through yeah th she works I don't know you know I'm not sure yeah I mean without knowing her hours it's tough to put that into an hourly context yeah because if if Greenfield planner is that comparable for the Comm yeah okay they're not comparable cross job category so that's why you can't just take 42 * 40 time yeah I guess we can't really weigh in until we know how many hours a week she works because again comp I'm pretty I'm pretty sure when we hired Hannah it was a full-time job what 30 it comes out to 3945 she's doing 30 hours so we you're right we need to if these are all and we're not talking 40 hours versus 10 hours how relevant is the number of hours to our calculation relevant for budgeting for finance but if we're trying to be comparable on an hourly basis do we need to consider the hours I don't know she's making 54 and she's working 20 hours a week that something we should look at that's way above average right you should be in line but that requires us to know how many hours a week the job descri yeah yeah it's hard to make a decision without knowing the number of hours and I can't believe that uh I don't know I mean I really thought it was full-time but if it's really four days a week then that's 32 right right it's a different job in it is here but I'm just doing in my head 42 * 40 time 50 or whatever the number of weeks like yeah that's I think we need to know it but she's working it's fine all right well then that's up I gu yeah we'll have to hold off on that before we can make any further discussions as far as the the water SL the water superintendent that was one of positions that the Water Commission is do on their own and did that last year after you know after we had already submitted it anyway so that one's a new point which leaves the animal inspector what we want to do with there the average of these towns including the TU at 100 is [Music] 97 that's what I get yeah but um um I think we should take out those two ones because they're really um they're aberration yeah so that brings us to 1153 um for the Community Development administrator position we advertised as a 40h hour per week in fully benefit position so I'm pretty sure it's full-time I don't know if somebody wants to confirm that but we did advertise it as that I'm yeah that's what I'm remembering but I don't know what I mean wasn't there for the hire so maybe there was some negotiation and I don't know but uh that time it's 40 hours pretty sure that's 2591 an hour that's 53 900 and that sound correct to me that 25 great sounds correct which then becomes very obvious that it's fairly low compar compared to the average these but again same point in time like the bigger communities like the M Us in the green field so we can't but we should be able to bring it up I almost say like $10 an hour but go from 2590 to 3590 it's so H the other anything else there well Orange has 33 and seems like a big jum for the town to ABB absorb we did over two years yeah and also we're talking about different jobs I'm just learning on the job here can you read what when you said what we advertised the rate out what the job description is because I'm was trying to compar Green weightly is a whole world um I'm sorry I clicked out but if you give me a moment well maybe you guys just a year she started when I started so that was back in July we advertised this yes duties include provides technical expertise to the planning board and Zoning Board um to ensure effective planning and management of development and leave development assist the planning board in the development and implmentation of amendments to the town zoning bylaws and other land use regulations engages in longrange planning activities to ensure that local plans are up to date works collaboratively with various boards and commit committees to develop and submit Grant applications independently manages Community Development projects and provides General administrative support to the Town Administrator attendance that even meetings of various boards and committees required the ideal candidate will have bachelor's degree rings and then minimum of three years for experience of municipal or equivalent and then it says that position 40 hours fully benefited and then starting annual pace 5199 and that was in March of 2023 shouldn't we talk to either the planning board or the zoning board two boards that I've never in interacted with or whoever she's primarily reporting to besides the Town Administrator guess we can't quite ask you yet but I just don't have a good handle on how big the job is in a town of 1,600 people might be just as big as in Greenfield in a different way I just don't do you have any thoughts on that given your years of Municipal and weight experience no it's certainly different I mean I I have to admit I didn't know she was working 40 hours so um but what the rate she's making now is higher than the starting average the starting range right well yes that is correct but it's translates if if she's doing the 40 hours translates to 2591 an hour wow who would she would she have directly answered to Brian before yes she's uh the assistant time technically that's the answer J Brian which we can do yeah we could we could yeah good that's a good idea is there a separate salary system they are combined position can't really compare it to Greenfield it's totally different I was the one comparing I'm just but yeah telling myself that yeah that explained why it's a 40 hour job but yeah I think a lot of what I mean uh a lot of what our assistant Town Administrator does and maybe because I don't see what the planning board and Zoning Board are doing on a daily basis has been getting us grants there's and then so when uh she's inter facing with the select board it's often uh getting our input on what uh which Grant applications we should apply for um and uh you know she goes out and finds information and brings it back and and uh sometimes recommends some grants for us to think about um but she does like all of the the real work involved in getting grants um and she does a a a her I mean part of her job is get input from um boards and committees especially the select board on grants so I mean that's the part of her job that I see the most um and I know there's other support for these boards who need a lot more technical expertise and I don't know how that compares with the planner in dear field for example I don't really know what the assistant Town Administrator in Deerfield does either um so that's yeah anyways I guess I'm trying to kind of support your point point there that uh um we might need more information and Jo can I just ask when I first came on the finance committee about three years ago and Co had just be G or was one year in and we lost our grant writer who I never met but she went to Somerville because she could work remotely and make a lot more money and that was a thing that we really rung our hands about how are we going to make up for that was that the Community Development position was that the yes that was exactly okay then yeah that's a big a broader yeah okay if a grant writing as part of it we really ought to look and make sure we're compensating fairly because we don't want to lose someone who's looking for money for us right however oh taking care of all the other crap that goes with it I mean I sorry I shouldn't use the crap word but but you know after like there's all there's been all kinds of follow through I mean the our first Community Development coordinator uh got us this great grant for solar but the new one has been having to you know deal with all the pushing it forward and uh and getting things to work and and I think last meeting asking for an extension because we're not going to get it done in time and so on so um so there's there is a lot of work there in in that and you're right we lost our first one because yeah exactly from what you said right we can't you know we're not in a position to with some Hill so yeah we want try to remain somewhat competitive and so so how do we want leave it do we want to do we just want to reach out to Brian is that where thoughts see what he has yeah I would think so because Li read Community Development no grant writer but if it's grant writer that's something we don't want to lose again if he's open to being approached with questions this is a good one for him because he would direct good all right so brings us back to the animal inspector we sort of were on that what did you if we take out those 200s and we take the average we get 11 5350 um which seems like you know Northfield and Co rain clearly are the leaders there if you want to be an animal inspector you got to move there but maybe they have more on yeah um but it puts us on par with Gil and charlot if we were to go for like 1150 or some like that um and it might we might actually it might be fair compensations basically triple if we take out the two hundreds there for Leverett and Holly which I don't really know how many animals they would have to inspect there um it was I mean but it's going to look like oh this is a 300% increase in the salary um but it's such a small salary I think that's not going to be a real issue um not just not really 300 it's like two and a half times roughly um but uh I mean if that would get us an animal inspector I think that would be a a reason able place to start it's kind of in the middle it's not jumping way to like I would imagine Deerfield has many many more animals to inspect um is the real is the right ratio 1 half which is kind of what I'm proposing I don't know but that's a place to start I mean another way to look at this and you were touching upon this choice is what do we need to do to recruit right we are competing with these numbers the same person will you know can be applying so we need to have a number that keeps us as you said in the running so I'm supporting it as well yeah do does it have to be a person who lives in town though CU if I mean maybe deerfields animal inspector would be willing for an extra I don't know 1150 to be weight Le's animal inspector too I don't know what that requirement is so I just have one correction on that Deerfield is not 2200 jarfield didn't respond it's Conway that's 2200 okay sorry okay so change the name to Conway yeah Dearfield apparently shares but they didn't report they share their animal control but they didn't report for uh animal do we know who we don't know who the sh no it says and no that's just for animal control and dog officer it says Deerfield Green Fields oh mon or all shared yeah anim not not nobody shares for animal inpector okay so then the question is does doeses the animal inspector have to reside in weight Le doubt it highly doubt it I don't see a [Music] reason which would mean in my opinion we should be able to entice one of the current anal inspectors in the neighboring communities to come do weightly for an extra 11:50 maybe right you know how how many hours is the position it's all about livestock so Wy has more livock than let's say another um and that's so it's a little more lat or intensive than the mother I was my says I well I I guess my suggestion is we we know we're going to need to probably revisit the community development director that position can we try to get some more information as to whether residency is a requirement or can we get a little more information I me if you're talking to Brian could just thr as a but I don't think re for in well then I guess the question I have is why aren't more communities sharing you know why that's it it because you don't do it every day it's not right it's just a you know very sporadic amount of it's a once a year thing where you has to come and inspect the animals at your farm I know that much [Music] yeah that's a different I mean it sounds like it sounds like Deerfield is sharing one um and I don't know I mean maybe you don't have to necessarily have a formal sharing agreement I mean this can't be a full-time job right so your field is sharing their Animal Control joice not animal inspector oh okay sorry thanks yeah so see not have the expertise on this committee to know like roughly how much more livestock is there in weightly compared to other towns um is there somebody obvious we could reach out to who some you know a farmer who has Livestock in the community and who might be able to give us some idea that's you have to go to the auction house every Tuesday because they have new animals I don't think so I think it's only for inspector responsible for quarantining any bites and it varies by Community depending on how many bars and livestock there is and they have to file the report with the state and so they have to visit all those bonds annually so if you think of the number and and file that report and must ensure that all animals domestic to go while they're tested for rabies so they're all responsible for that and um it says in the statute could be a light task or a lengthy one um because they have to also make sure they're in good health um and check tag numbers for cattle and things like that but there is no residency requirement and it's possible the the same person is working for multiple towns it's just not agreed upon between towns for sharing that you know Joe is in Conway on Tuesday and in shelburn on Thursday just making his round yeah I'm not pushing this back on Brian but if you're having a conversation or an email with him if he has one minute to spend on it might be good to get his Insight because he got both history and great talent and which is another reason why residenc is not a requirement I think we reach out to some of these neighboring communities and say we're we're up in 11 1150 roughly to to take care of our needs wonder if Lynn knows about this Christopher used to help yeah I mean Rick I just don't know what he he was doing and I just don't know what it entailed yeah l ly might might have deal with yeah or she might know the right farmer to call and just ask right about kind because the farmers have to know what's going on in the other towns and Who's got what um I mean all we really need is like if we were to ask like you know compared to Conway do we have that many animals compared to Conway compar to some of these other towns that are nearby you know yes that's kind of what we need it's a stien so the person who has the job has a career so the work was performed on the weekends it's normally done when the state book in advanced state report need to be done which is in the spring so this individual's weekends were taking up over a series of several couple months because of the volume it's done it for many many years yeah he has yeah is you know without without talking to him I mean that we have an upto-date paper trail as far as the new persons that even know where to go who what Farms who has the animals yeah I'm sure he'd be available to do all that provide all that information all right so um all right well I think we're at end of that section anybody else has any others right the next item is to review and discuss and vote an FY 25 Cola recommendations first question do we have any new dat data from any other communities Lynn added this should reflect anything that would have been out of between when s before now when updated it I think yes the ones in blue edited are the edited versions the blue no new I don't know what Lynn what were the edits that Lynn did I didn't okay I know she whatever came she updated last that's none of that CS no it was just if she got additional salary I don't think I have that Excel sheet um I said the one that you're unfolding now in front of you is that something that's what J said that was sent but it's not Cola we don't have I don't think we I don't think I've seen anything on this was just Lyn's edits that I had sent um for her request okay so because I got a you I don't have an Excel file on anything I got from you this week I sent it last week it was with the agenda right yep I sent it along with the agenda oh the the Personnel committee meeting materials email only has a word file it doesn't have yep that was a email I sent after the original email um I'm still not finding an Excel file it says personel material meeting meeting materials 4123 27th and uh Wednesday just and then there is yeah there both us it was on Wednesday 3:27 is when I sent it you should have two um the first email you should have three word documents and one Excel file the agenda the byw comments the salary survey which is what we're referring to now and then the minutes real um the salary survey I have it was from February I I've only got one email from you on last Wednesday the subject line says Personnel committee meeting materials 4124 um and it says there are two attachments but oh no oh there is found it thank you and that says updated 321 yes yes so that's I 21 got it thank you thank you for your patience that doesn't have the that does not have you don't have anything on that typically work a lot of times what we what we look at is some of the information on what other area towns are recommending um we also look at the the Northeast CPI and the New England CPI um when we first met we had I wrote down here we had the Northeast at two and a half and the New England was at two other factors are um we have been we're aware that the health insurance is seeing an 8% increase to employees um the other thing that I had pointed out and I wanted to add to the meeting which was the last time was the fact that the necessary income to afford the median house in weightly and they are that hour you know what you need to make to live in weightly and the point I wanted to drive home is that we are expecting some of our employees to reside in weightly and certainly prefer our employees to live in weightly especially like in the highway department for response time and not live a half an hour away and if they if our employees can't live in weightly I can't afford to live in weightly on what we're paying them I feel that that's is a problem there so I just wanted to point that out in our discussion on what we choose to recommend do we know what we gave last year because I seem to recall it was a few points lower than the CPI was in the end but higher than what the finance committee wanted to do so that's always the drill in my three vast years of you you are correct I didn't bring that number but it was the CPI was very high like it was almost n eight something was our our col was in the five and that was met with much resistance but I it's really hard to say without a comparison of the local towns both generally and finance comme that's however the one thing that we can look at is even though we did that high Cola it didn't put us in the situation where all of our positions were above average we were still having to make adjustments for people that are still below so it's not like by doing that it put us at the top of the pay scale that's a really so it's if we had only done a 3% last year we would have been really way behind them making a lot of adjustments oh I you are preaching to the choir but you know what the counter response to that is yeah and I'm just pointing that out as well that I didn't put us out of line yeah yeah I'm looking at the CPI uh page right here and last year around this time the CPI they they have one that includes uh all items and one that's it less food and energy and I'll just do the all items uh number for Simplicity but February 2023 was 5.9 March 2023 was 4.3 January and December and November and October all over six um so it was starting to go down um and the other discussion item they they were talking about how fur Cog wasn't doing a big uh Cola that particular year but they had done 6% the previous year so that was uh U that was part of the part of the mix but I think we had got them to three or three and a half and we realized that was as far as we were going to get them and that so that's where we stopped and I remember I remember one other thing that happened mid year last year year was the Franklin County Retirement came back to all its member communities and they did a midterm remember that Joy select board had to approve that because they realized that they needed to do a mid they did actually two poas last year yeah so I I've got the current uh numbers up here U if we're looking at the the all items the numbers are like December 2.6 January 2.5 February 2.4 uh if you take out food and energy it's 3.5 3.5 and 3.2 um and I don't know that there's a good reason to uh take away food and energy out of the cost of living it just means that those things aren't Rising as fast things like medicine and clothing and I guess other things like that is that National Regional no this is the Northeast region sorry I should have said that up front um I don't see a specific New England one I wasn't able to um find that but just there's I finding Northeast oh here we go CPI Boston cabridge Newton I think that might be the other one that we uh look at that one looks very similar um it might be a a tiny bit lower um like it's looking like uh oh here's the chart data hold on um it's more like uh 2.6 to oh these oh this isn't as up to date this only goes to January they don't have it up F than January 2024 but it's 2.0 and 3.0 instead of you know two and a little three and a little can we get information the other town right the one thing that I know both ways though I mean yeah exactly except for that I don't know what what we going to say about Paul did Paul remember him asking like a the finance committee meeting I came to somebody what they were getting for a cola and just keep in mind that you've got to remember the communities that you're you're comparing to Cola that might be also having step increases that when you I know like Deerfield pretty much everybody there is going to get a step increase on top of their Cola so that you got to you got to look at the big picture whereas because weightly doesn't doesn't have that in place at the moment we have to keep keep that in mind so if we're collecting information on calls from other towns that would be another question to ask is do is there another increase such as a step increase step increase and what the percentage in between the step well that's going to vary for every position and every step but I think it's an important point but given that you're looking at recommending five or six five positions with some more than one person in some of the positions for adjustments to the median at a minimum it makes the question of trying to get that way to class done and not having I know because some positions might be redlined and not get a cola and others would have a step and be able to deal with the position to in addition to them because if everybody's at the mid then they're making an appropriate wage for the work that they're doing and then you can really look at it through the cola right do we know where that stands with the select board as far as getting the wag and classifications study done Joyce you have no update on that right uh I I know we have to appropriate some money for it I don't know that there's going to be a special town meeting before annual town meeting um but Trisha may know more about that I know there was some of maybe having a a special town meeting but that was back in January when Brian was still with us um but I think that that's definitely something that we would have in place for next year but yeah we have to have to appropriate the money for it okay so then at the very least would that be an ATM at annual time meeting appropriation I certainly want it to be if it's unless we can get it sooner that would be nice but I don't think we're gonna get it sooner right so that's why I'm just making a note the cish writing that it gets added to tomorrow take care sorry no happy to do it all right okay so then I know the finance committee wants this wants this number how long can we you know I think CPI is 3% we were low last year at 3% I guess the high of the two CPI numbers is 3% I think we could justify 3% again um and that would still be kind of low um I don't think we find a whole lot of other towns doing more than 3% or committing to it at this point I would then say you that out there okay I would say you know with that 3% going along with the fact that the the fact that the cost of living to own a house and live in weightly is higher than a lot of the other communities around here that 3% is Justified I would go with I mean to me it's low so I would go with that if that's the consensus without getting other data which it sounds like we may not have before Town yeah to me three is the minimum yeah that's that's how I feel if we can want to make a motion then and we'll just go with that uh I make a motion to recommend a 3% Cola to the board of Select to the board of Finance finance committee oh sorry to the finance committee excuse me I'm not skipping over my own committee finance committee finance committee and the select board yeah okay all right so I have a motion made and second it to recommend at 3% Cola any other discussion if not I'll do a roll call vote Joyce hi Betty I Susan hi Brenda I and myself I okay um next item is there any any unanticipated items hearing none um our next meeting date the only thing we'll need to do is to see if we can get some more information on those two of those positions and any other department heads and finalize by yeah that's if there's any other department heads oh yeah I thought you were talking about their salary no if any other department heads respond to the to our I mean our Personnel policy I will get all the answers to your questions maybe one more [Music] meeting but almost you know the minimum of two if not three weeks out can't on the 15th but that on 22nd 22nd say 10 yes I have access to my calendar Passover I don't 29 next Mond too late the last read the pl is on the 23rd oh yes all right so we really should try to meet before that I can try to do it remotely on the 15th if that's better or another day but you have you have night meetings on only other thing that I don't know if it's a an issue wouldn't bother me but it's a holiday on holid but you can't vote oh it pat it's a state holiday so we wouldn't be able to make any votes but can't I think there's a Finance on the 14th is that right yeah so every Tuesday at night it's either select four to finance we have the 16th and the 23rd isor select board Finance begin so that go to Tuesday 16 the 17th the Wednesday I don't know that messes up7 I could do that I just work a different sh sh all right 5m 17 5:00 P p.m. 17th Joyce okay that's a Wednesday yep that's fine masss I think it's like Patriots Day or something like that okay we're done with that I'll ask for motion to adjourn soov second have a motion made in second journ Joyce I Betty hi Susan hi Brenda hi myself I all right thank you everyone thanks team