okay thank you all for coming to the March meeting of the tund human resources board let's open the meeting present are diant Mark lechman John Ferrar Anthony antio Patty fiser thank you all and joining us at the table
today for the conversation are s Sandy St shinsky from HRS thank you Sandy and Tracy b thank you Tracy I assume Lynn will be uh with us momentarily but let's let's kick off here uh Sandy in advance thank you for all of the all the effort
here to put together what looks like a comprehensive draft copy of the of the compensation uh survey as well as uh other miscellaneous information that ties maps to it uh and unless there is any uh
opening thought or question from the board let's turn it right over to okay well thank you very much um I just wanted to uh go over the um the methodology that we use for the report
and uh in general some of the findings uh that we came up with um but uh we looked at uh Gathering data from a number of uh communities in your specific area and uh those communities
are um Boxford Essex Georgetown br Hamilton if switch marac Newport Raleigh Topsfield Wenham and uh West Newberry so um we gathered um we sent
out custom surveys to all of these uh organizations and we gathered salary data and also some benefits General benefits information um and then we Quantified it you know based on um you know the the
average the 65th the 75th percentile um and we want to ensure you know we want to maintain that the ranges are consistent with the market and provide um you know an understanding of uh our proposal and ensure compliance
also with uh pay equity and and uh meepa and um and that sort of thing and it also we use our uh rating system we have a point factor rating system that we use and uh that's sort of a separate uh document
uh that that we give to the town um and the the number of um positions I believe they were uh 65 65 classified um and on page 10 you can see
the classification plan uh goes from 12 to uh 22 and we stuck with your general um structure of the men mid and Max uh which ties in nicely with any um performance system that you have or it
just helps to give some flexibility to the Departments to have uh ranges that way if you go to uh Pages 13 and 14 in the report um this is a nice summary because it it shows you uh your current
grade um and then the survey data you know how it ties into the survey data uh position title your your current minimum and maximum the number of data points that we got the men and Max average from
the market and the proposed um so we utilize the uh average uh to come up with our proposed uh ranges which is what most communities are are doing um as we're doing a number of these uh in
other places and um you know and where where there might be limited data um not to worry I mean we we use our rating system and we may use another position that's close to it in the occupational series for Benchmark uh
purposes um so the market data helps us to determine the parameters of the salary schedule whereas the rating and there's 14 factors for rating you know supervision education training uh uh you
know complexity um problem solving physical requirements Etc this um so that helps us to determine the grouping and um the classification on the classification plan and we have in the report for you the um a summary
definition of each factor on page 14 so it's a physical environment basic knowledge problem solving you know so forth experience and these are these are very typical that that's very consistent with the 10 I think we use here weing yeah so this
fit in very nicely with with what you're already cussing it's not like so different from what you're currently so it's just a little bit more delineation you know that's all so it's so it's very similar to what what you have um and
most municipalities use this type of a um system um you know I think the state uses like the hay system something like that which is totally different and um but we we have this type of system that you all use and then the um benefits
that we looked at and this was just for information we're not changing any benefits we're not recommending any benefits you know it's just informational health insurance um um and then uh you know do you have longevity
program and you know vacation days and things like that so it was just uh some limited um question questions it was what we call a limited uh survey and um we also had some uh
quantifiable um Northeast um benefits report that we're sharing with you you know just some general information uh that that you would find uh helpful for Health Care coverage paytime off benefits offered and and that sort of
thing for for government uh entities um and then we have um in the report just some Statewide what's going on with movement and the pay ranges and that sort of thing but um the the final
thing that we have is the um we did a total comp for the fire service and so we have firefighter firefighter with EMT and Fir fighter par paramedic we didn't do the on call you know so um and we
looked at total comp so the base pay has has pay you know associates degree pay holiday pay longevity 25 years clothing and cleaning and then what the total cost would be and you know and that sort
of thing so how it would um you know compare um to you you know firefighter EMT um you have a lot of those positions and a lot of firefighter par do you have just plane firefighter I don't know we
do we do yeah so you have that yeah so um more and more you know most communities have firefighter with EMT you know so we have that um and we you know this was just a sampling you know it was not um you can go a little crazy
with some of the the um this so we wanted to just give you a general um overview um but you know it seems to be you know overall you seem to be in sync with the market you know just a little bit uh of adjustment you know is is
needed um you know for the town and uh certainly if anybody Falls below the minimum of the range you want to bring them up to the minimum uh as soon as you can um and when placing people within the range they should be placed on the
closest you know they should be placed on their rate that they're currently making within the range so don't you know um if the range starts at 25 you know don't um and they're currently making 26 don't put them at 25 they should go to 26 yeah and and um you know
if you implement this uh for it's 25 data fiscal 25 data so if you implement it for 26 uh you should add some type of a a cola uh to it uh and whatever your policy is on that um so it's it's all
over the place with communities some communities uh give an annual Cola some give what's called called a wage adjustment and they include it with the performance movement so whatever your policy is on that and it's not up to us
to determine that um and um you know so you you had um something already really good to work off of so it was it was refreshing and it was uh not that difficult to kind of come up with a newer version of what you have and like
I said the rating system I think it's a better system it's a little bit more delineated and it will be easy for you and we're going to computerize all the ratings for you so you can easily rate a job so if you need to rate it you know so you don't have to do it manually or
anything like that so um and if you don't if you don't want to use our rating system and you want to go back to yours it's very applicable to this so it wouldn't be a problem you know so whichever one you want to use you have that choice um so that that's just an
overview I mean a very fast study we had limited months um and um you know it's just this group of positions um and if you want U to ask any questions on this at this point I I know you just got the
report it is still a draft and I expect that there might be some changes or some edits so um maybe maybe not but that's why I labeled a draft um so it's not uh it's not to be considered a final
and and this is our recommendation so it's not you know is just our recommendation that so you may want to tweak it well that's exactly what our assumption was walking in that that you would you would look at and look
comprehensively at how we compare and contrast yes to those communities of similar size and type around us yes and it sounds like correct me if I'm wrong it sounds like what you find is that while there may be some tweaking required we're in relatively good shape
yes that we seem to be if not Market specific at least Market adjacent to with most most of these positions and to the extent that some of them may require a little bit of of further discussion and and and decision making uh that we
pretty yeah you could always tell like the organizations that have um when they have a board or they have an HR department one or the other that and they regularly review these you can always tell you know that um things have
been well maintained over the years so this is just uh The Next Step um on top of something that was already um in best practices anyway do you know what I'm saying so yeah thank you yes Joseph
s kudos to H to HR people thank you it's a collaborative effort yes I was to say thanks to the board as well for supporting us the initiative uh let's let's open it up to uh Q&A thoughts observations questions please I
appreciate the clarity of the report um having never looked at something like this before it was really easy to kind of go through today so thank you very much for that um but that's do you have an ETA on we might be able to get that new assessment tool the rating system
the rating system rather yes oh I I can um I can have that uh doing some traveling this week but within a week I can have that to you perfect thank you yes yes I didn't already give it I don't I don't have it I mean that was that was the biggest Focus that I saw which was
you know if we're if we're if the recommendation is to morph to a different classification schedule and then also change to the schedule that you provided for all the I um just how do we do that and you're answering it by giving us the tools to
do it um yeah I'll I'll try my best to get it to you this to get it to you this week um and and you'll also have a web portal um you know for for um all the do the study documents and all the all the individual ratings and everything so
it's sort of like an archive you know and you could take what you want from it and put it on your own uh yeah so Sandy I have a question so on your um rating system um and I know we had a brief conversation about this I
didn't see any 0.1 2.3 like we have so we have like a say for example a 16.1 a 16.2 a 16.3 yours is just by grade could you speak to that because I explained why we do that yeah explain that again to me why you did it I remember I didn't
like it but your answer here's your answer so it's a subjetive well that's what she said she said it's a subjective component so if we're filling a position that is rated a 16 a one indicates that there's a
plethora of people that could apply for the job a two means that the job requires a little bit more specific training a three means that it's very specific and that the pool of candidates would be limited and you said that that's a very subjective thing so I noticed that you will you don't have
that on your rating system no we don't have it that's subjective and that's not the purpose of classify you classify um a job u based on the position not how you know like the knowledgeability
skills experience a supervision not how difficult not because of how difficult it is to fill the job so um you you know so so yeah we don't we don't get into that that I don't think it's it's appropriate yeah and it could it could
cause a pay Equity issue too you know cuz um you know how how do you determine what's you know and that can vary from year to year I mean you may have a year where there's you just like I know right now it's really hard to find a town accountant but who knows maybe you know
in five years that won't be the case and all these people coming from the federal government might be available to work you know as to accounts so um you know that so you you never um so you just don't know so it's a little bit subjective yeah and it's not necessary
you know I I wouldn't recommend that okay right yeah I think it's fair to say that's not a major component of our decision making but it's just something we we've grown accustomed to over the years especially as it relates to market conditions uh and get granted it is
subjective and but again it's not something that we hang our hats on whenever we look at the so your five categories I'll squeeze go ahead go ahead just your five categories and 14 classifications the idea of or
0.1 Point 2.3 perhaps has more to do with the fact that a lot of the positions in this very small Township a bit hybrid the job description by title is less important than the job description if that makes any
sense the title doesn't tell the story oh the title yes weot hats yes but that's where that's where the rating would come in and a job would might rate higher because of that but that has to do with the job not so much with how
difficult it is or not to recruit understood I I'm sorry I'm done strony Tony why don't you share a question okay no I I have a uh I had a
question on on on page 29 of this uh uh on list of firefighters and in top say mun municipalities and uh Newberry uh it's it maximum base is none
that means there was no maximum base of salary but then when you go down uh the botom Newberry firefighter then they have average median and then 75 yeah I I think yeah we just didn't
have that information to um uh this was the last thing we got was the uh fire service so I'll just need to plug in those okay I didn't get it and I just want to make sure um I need to verify
that uh with yeah I can you have it and there may be there may be a couple more communities that we might want to add and we we had a hard time getting data for this group I don't know Tracy if you have any inform you can share I might
have some from AAC oh that would be good yeah I think we want to add a little bit too and so yeah apologize we got to add that in for no that brings up a question I had earliest when you when you outlined all of the townships you went to what's their motivation to reply
they'll get they'll get a copy of the results they'll get all the DAT I've already had West Newbury has asked me a million times and I've already said I have to wait until I present it to you and a have so now I will share the
because it's technically public yeah so I'll share the data with them but I usually like to give it to the client first and then give it to all the other yeah thank you okay yeah and if they're engaged in negotiations this kind of data is very
valuable and it's nice to get it from an external s Source versus the people sitting at the table Yeah is so so we get a lot of responses for that reason and and it's a lot of work and you know they can't do it so they're very willing
to fill out the survey and and they get the data um and hopefully then they hire us but you know maybe they do maybe they don't so anyway page 20 through 23 20 through 23
yeah can you take the last three columns in each of those pages and explain the mathematics and the indicators what what are you telling us sure so um for a position um you um look at um okay first
you get the title then you have the new Bri's data you have the comp points that means the number of data points means the number of matches of data so that means for assessor cleric um we had
seven minimum and n maximum data points then we have the average of the of of the seven and the nine is the average and then the 65th percentile so that means um um
35% pay more and then the 75th per of Market means 25% pay more and um and then we have percent high or low um of the average
um you know and and the 65th and the now don't be alarm by some of these percentiles are high it's a variance so you know technically if it's 10 or 15% up higher low it's usually considered average um because because
it's a variance so if it says that it's like 40% low it doesn't mean you know that you add 40% so what this is telling me is that your pay scale is good at the maximum but the entries are low so we
probably made that adjustment but you know the the U maximums were not that far off so I'm assuming that most of your people probably fall within um the range but you did want to we did want to bring up the minimums to make sure that
you can hire at the appropriate uh rates and um so we typically match the um maximums and work backwards so for this study we use the average I think it would have been really expensive if we
used the 75th percentile or the 65th so we used the um the average so um but if but it's interesting because in almost every case the entry is low but the maximum is is in some cases
the maximum is is high actually you know so that's why I say you you know you you pretty much are okay you know it's I would be more worried if you're um you know so what you want to do for hiring purposes you need to have a more
realistic you know entry you know um but there does seem to be enough room uh for growth so Tracy can I ask you about that so in your recent experience looking at at the recruiting both the recruiting process
and the retention process is what what uh Sly just say bear out to you that you know if if you had to choose one area where we may need to to do some work here it's more the ability to attract folks as opposed to keep folks who were
veterans the organizations yeah I would and that was one of my observations too because um Andy was looking at 2025 data and if you recall 2024 and 2025 is when we had a significant amount of turnover
and a lot of the new hires I I think you may remember me bringing the positions to you for reclassifying them because they were so low that I I couldn't be competitive at all so even when we upgraded those
wages to the 2015 I mean 2025 level there's says we Fallen slightly below market so even with those adjusts we're still a little bit and Sandy would you say that's that's in part a function of the fact that we've been blessed with many long-term employees here even even
at at the at the lower ends if you will of the scale and that that may be one of the reasons why we perhaps haven't kept up as we should have on the lower end yeah being able to make adjustments that is sort of a a phenomenon that happens in in municipal government I think you
it's a blessing while people here it's a curse when you have when they leave it's a curse right so um so there were um yeah so you'll see that there were some that you know the minimums jumped up you know in the um but if but if somebody's
been here a long time they're going to fall within the range and near the higher end so it's really the ones that fall below the minimum you know that are going to be that yeah the function of hiring from within as
well yes and just a I would have to guess that's a large component for the town of Newbery and the idea is to be able to find the replacement as somebody moves up the line or transfers from Department one to
two yes yes yeah it's turnover it can you know you don't want turnover a lot of turnover you know if You' had had people here for a long time that's a blessing but um it it can be costly you know turnover is very expensive and um
when you add up uh all the things u in terms of advertising the training you know if they need to get certifications if uh if they if someone needs to fill in while that position is being recruited you add you know you add
everything up it um it it can be cost ly so you want to try to eliminate that and management resources taking the time necessary to get those people up to speed oh yeah the training yes distraction not a distraction but an obligation on boarding yeah on boarding
the on boarding yes oh my God y I wonder so the when you were talking I think um I've been doing you know we've been reclassifying jobs as they've come up either to be filled or in some cases when we look back and they haven't been reated in a very long time and the
job is sort of grown but Tracy I'm wondering if if some of the minimums are because when we upgrade the the ranges we're only we've only over the last 15 years just been updating them by the cola and not updating them by the market and I think that was one of the
intentions of you know 15 plus years have gone by and we haven't looked at a market adjustment we've only we've only been redoing those numbers based on what the Coler is that year and so I think that attributes some of it to the to the minimum to me oh yeah that would be yeah
you want you want to update your salary schedule if not every year at least every other year with a with a cola you know so typically what we say and again everybody has their own policy and I I but what we like to see happen if if
it's affordable is um the whole salary schedule to be updated every year and then and that has to do with the market goods and services and the CPI or what surrounding towns might be giving and then how people move from minimum to
maximum has to do with the employee could be performance could be longevity could be a special skill or certification that they get or something like that and so you get two things um happening and compounded it can be a lot
of money and I I I get that so that's why some communities of to just have a wage adjustment and they don't do the whole salary schedule every year and then within the adjustment it includes the movement it includes the cola and
performance so there's no right or wrong um but you know whatever works for you you haven't been doing it wrong but you did fall behind yeah and not only did we um only adjust
for Cola but there were a number of years where there was no Cola call only there only been one since I've been here only one since you've been here but I think there were three years in a row where there was no color adjustment at all before what do you
attribute that to just pure pure bottom line I think so it was before I got here but I I want to say 2008 n 10 oh that was oh that was a bad time rough times yeah a lot has changed since then for sure yeah 2008 is the year that we
should never talk right we never want to talk about that yet that was a tough Fe year and we also don't um have movement within the range because we're lacking the performance evaluation component so another
conversation from okay yes is it s I know you touch on this a couple C is it fair to suggest that from both an an ours work standpoint and a
benefit standpoint those are not significant factors in this it seems like we're are competitive as it relates to the benefits that weit and and as I just briefly talked about about earlier the hours are the
hours there's not a huge variation from town to town whether it's 35 hours a week or 37 hours a week it's either usually town hall is usually 35 or 37 and A2 typically you do have some that are 36 6.2 which is the end over but you
do you do but um and then and then Public Safety is usually 40 or 42 right so that's yeah so we're not we're not comparing ourselves to you know timee 30 hours a week versus 40 hours a week significant but if you're exempt it
doesn't M the hours don't matter your salary is salary right doesn't matter I was looking for one demographic element in the paper and it wasn't there or at least I didn't Discover it and that's a a measure in each of the
villages you listed of residents of employees inside the town or elsewhere the res you mean the population no the actual the the list the employee U dimension the demographics of employees for each of
those Villages do they live in those Villages or come from elsewhere and how far away commute commute oh oh I see what you're saying so do residents work for the town or do non-residents work for the that's exactly right well um and
where where do we stand uh being a rural community on on having the potential for providing that level of housing for young families to come and work in this Village as opposed to Boxford or west newbry which has more acreage more more
Village none of these places have a residency requirement so really one we have one one mhm who new for oh I'm sorry did you say our positions no none of these towns it's not like a city where cities
have you know residency requirements so they can you know they can commute you know if if I'm aware I'm aware of that the idea would just be be interesting to know uh what percentage of folks actually live in those Villages and come
to work as resid residents not as visitors yeah that's a you know I don't know we'd have to quantify that but that's an interesting question that's like a whole yeah that's but um I know one thing uh we recommend um we're
affiliated with MRI and they do searches and um we always recommend that there's no residency requirement um that would be pretty limiting yeah oh we just got rid of it yeah that town yeah it is it is but um you don't have to worry about
that but you know I know what you're saying the young people they don't you know it's not like our generation we would drive we would do whatever to get to work the young people today they don't want to to drive far you know they just don't so so that's that's a whole
other dilemma you know and intuitively I I would think that we are probably the norm in terms of the percentage of our employees that live within the boundaries of Newbery Byfield PL Island versus you know surrounding towns just
as would be the case in Salsbury or Rowley or George Don no way of quantifying that unless you really dig into all that data but it's just it just feels like I'm just thinking about our population the few I know yeah and you know we've got our share of folks that are in town and share of folks that are
in surrounding communities and then you have okay then you have call people right and uh where are they working okay so I did a study in Carlile and they were saying like well all of our people work in Boston so
if we ring a bell for a call you know they're gonna they're not g to come right so that's a whole other a whole other issue right yeah we most most of the advice that comes from our friends at the mouse
Municipal Managers Association advises that you don't work in the town that you live in or live in the town that you work in they frown upon that as a as a manager yeah well you know I get police Chiefs managers I like that I don't have
to privacy but I also like that I don't um have a pony in the game politically you know it keeps me neutral and and I like that yeah yeah it it I mean there's nothing wrong if you do live in the town
you know but there is an inherent conflict when you think about it because say you have a home and it has to be inspected right or if you have a fire if you have a police matter or I mean tax rate a tax yeah there isn't you know but you know
but then I guess the other side of it it is nice for the people to see you in town too but you know but I don't know in a in a community like new how often did they see you anyway you know I don't exactly you know so yeah true yeah well I mean the chief points
well taken it's Independence every decision made is is clean yeah I agree yeah yeah I one question on the bottom of page two that last par the second half
of the last paragraph caught my eye as needed follow-up calls were made to comparable communities sometimes it's difficult to find exact positions from other comparable communities however in general if 70% of the duties and responsibilities are the
same then the position is a good match for market analysis purposes yeah that's that's standard in this work that you did did you find that there were a few positions in luy that that sat outside of that 70% match range that
made it more difficult for you because we' talked in the past about the fact that some of our folks wear multiple hats perhaps more so than the norm in other communities I don't know I'm just wondering if that was a if that was a
challenge for you or if if most of what you saw fit within that 70% plus cat I think most fit within most fit within the 70% um the yeah I think most actually fit
within you know the only one that I can think of that might might have been accountant assistant Finance director it's kind of a combination um you bring it up on page three as well where many hats due to limited resources
in a small town yeah it is a unique quality yeah I mean but it wasn't so different that we needed to you know I mean I mean and if it was we didn't include it you know if we felt that the job was not you know um like the shellfish person is
sometimes combined with something else and you know there were some that um and you know and if you can tell by the number too I mean if the salary just doesn't look right you know and well these three right here we hats different
hats yeah all three of them yeah so so are you the Emergency Management director too and the Harbor Master and the Harbor Master yeah but your primary role is you know
public depending on what's happening with the weather but yes you know we're postal Community so Emergency Management takes up some yeah um time depending on the season but yeah it all depends on
what's going on really yeah yeah um um I'm sorry I was done on 16 17 18 um I think I understand this but just a double check anytime a particular Town only had one number that
refers for the current rate of pay as opposed to a maximum amount is that correct so yeah like box for yeah I'm looking at Boxford middle of 16 Boxford admin assistant 2750 that refers to the
current yeah compensation not not the max Without A Min yeah they they just have that's actual yeah that's an actual some of the towns reported the actual what that means is they're not implementing the range for whatever reason is it that they're
just they're just sharing the maximum or they don't have a m mid Max well in some of these places I did a study so I'm I'm a little surprised to be honest with you but I I think it may
you know sometimes I mean it was a long time ago so sometimes what happens if they don't keep up with their pay plan they may not be using the ranges so it might be misleading to give that so then they report the actual but when you I guess what I'm asking is when you
request the data yes from xtown do you request it as a could you please share the Min mid Max you do okay yes yeah we do we we actually ask for the minimum and the maximum okay and then they choose to either comply with that or just give you what they what they feel
yeah so that's too bad because that gives you some outliners it screws up the numbers a little bit Yeah well it all averages up but we have enough communities yeah most I was going to say most of them do comply yeah usually the actuals will be
a little bit higher I think than um yeah I you know that I'm I'm surprised that whenham I don't know about gland but but uh when I'm in Georgetown I'm
surprised but you know these are all little these are all little places and you know they sometimes will work within the context of you'd be surprised a lot of these little places have so many
contract employees which I'm surprised because I always thought there was only according to state law certain positions that you could have contract but I think they've expanded that now I don't know what would an example of that be sorry
um well you know you see every now and then you see things like Library director might be a contract or um inspectors inspectors yeah I mean you never used to see that used to be Police Chief Fire Chief DPW director that was
it now you see Town accountant and um well the law has changed though the modernization law maybe serer collector can in town can be yeah that's what it is I saw a lot of stiens uh listed there in other words no
numbers were given just stien where do you see that oh put a few places uh okay I'm just recalling my reading here it is this is on page page 16 yeah on the on electrical
inspector for example oh oh okay yeah that's to tell you that th that's what it is they they get a stien I don't particularly like that but that's their policy I mean um so would that
mean it's somebody else's job and then in the somebody else holds a different job and then that employee gets a stien for also doing that no so in in the case I could to the inspectors so a stien would be
comparable to the word salary so they're getting a stien for performing right we have two inspectors right now that receive a stien which is an annual amount that they'd receive it's more or less a salary but they would receive it monthly for certain duties and responsibilities and they can be called
as many times as you need them you know and they just they're not on the payroll of the town of new no they are they are they are they are why distinguish stien versus salary because they're available hours of work okay um and for that hours of
work on a monthly basis they receive a stipend or a salary yeah it's almost like being a contract you know like in a way because there's no hours you know a lot of these inspectors have other jobs they might have their own business or whatever and they do this on the side
and they say okay I'll do it for X number you know and it's it's not uncommon you know it's it's and then some places they give fees like they I've seen where in some inspectors they get a percentage of the fees fees and
that's I've seen all kinds of things in the little towns but interes um you know that that uh but some sometimes you can't find anybody you know so you have to give I don't I don't particularly like stiens to be honest with you
because especially when they get to be big stiens because then you run into the problem with flsa and are you following the rules with that so um when they get big I get a little nervous um but it is you know I'm not saying to
take it away from your inspector anything no it's just specific to those two roles and it's only two towns yeah that do it so we not among them yeah okay I mean the standards Act is Commonwealth of
mass is that what you're talking about the fs flsa Fair labor standards act yeah that is a common yeah it's actually a federal is it's okay the labor stand is
that but overall I mean reading the report and the recommendations and the findings it was I mean I I felt pretty good about the work that is being done here in Newbury we weren't that far off no it's a wonderful wonderful accounting
of of of success yeah yeah think there's a little work to do sure but uh I would agree with that I felt good reading through it and and
certainly hearing you you know verbalize the fact that generally speaking especially at the upper ends we're in again there could be some tweaking necessary but generally speaking we we've uh we're consistent with Market rates uh perhaps at the at the lower end
of our our Market is where we need to do more adjusting to be able to attract the best and the brightest but uh on balance yeah you know yeah the advantage that municipal government has is you know you give
great benefits I mean and that's that's really a um you know you have to offer yeah you have a lot to offer a pension plan and everything you know that so those are those are nice um
benefits um a lot of people in the private sector don't of course they get other things they get profit Shar remot remote work remote work yeah they used to get to find benefit
pension plans yes that died on the vine yeah so would you anticipate us moving to that new um the new rating and I could give you some training on it is that something that we're all open to is just shifting to that different rating
factor or or do we want to look at it as a I'm open to okay yeah yeah it's I just wanted to it's copywritten so it can't be changed so either take it or you don't they leave it I think you're going to like it yeah I think certainly as a
group we would appreciate being able to review it and and compare it contrast it to what is in place and sure thank you for that and the part that sticks out to me is when you say that that subjectivity of the point system that we have you know could be perceived as
something that's not fair or Equitable right that you know what I mean like that rang with me is a reason why we may want to look at at least not having that point system because we don't want to have anything that even has the appearance of not being fair or Equitable well I think I think whether
it's the the 10 factors that we use or the 14 factors that that Sandy recommends I think most of that gets washed out anyways you know when we're looking at yeah at certifications and we're looking at the degree of complexity you know
those all tend to be factors when we're looking at the marketplace the candidate pool and so yeah perhaps we're the one two and three isn't as necessary as as we've been thinking that uh you know we're
almost there anyways you know before we get to that end so Sandy what else would you need from us to finalize the report is there anything you need or if there's any changes that you want me to to make um Tracy if you happen to have any fire
department information that you could send me you said you had marac that would be helpful marac and West new oh that would be Mist that would be great if you could give me those to so we can plug it in and then of course I would need your numbers for fire fight uh the firefighter
um where is it I think we sent the um 299 yeah I'm sure we have that information The Collection bargaining agreement I think there were five five different P okay I'm sure I have that we probably just if you don't let me know and I can get it to really yeah so
that's all I I I need you know anything that um you want striked from the record or whatever yeah so that cuz I know it's the first time for you to look at it so I I know need to digest a little bit
um all right all right all right well thank you oh you're welcome thanks yeah s has been wonderful thank you so much it's always nice to DET know glad to connect yes Diana has been so helpful
children so anyway thank you thanks so much bu I know he's actually downstairs oh he's my driver thank you we'll be back in touch soon
by you met her husband no General thoughts I think it's simple and comprehensive you know like wasn't simple to do but it reads easy I like that I think it's reassuring
yeah that the turnover like we've talked about you know isn't just directly related to you know only compensation it's been for so many different reasons but um and and I also feel like after 15 years of being on this board having an
update to the classification I mean it's not far off but um and then and then the r you know having those updated as well gives us kind of like another jumping off point for the next you know three five however many years in the
future yeah for the next group the next group it's also fair to assume that you know if and when we make adjustments uh to bring us up to full
competitive um adherence with the market whether it's at the bottom middle or the top you know there are going to be those one-offs we we talk about one-offs all the time there are going to be those times when a a surrounding time a surrounding town is in desperate
need and they'll break the bank right to poach one of our best and brightest um that's real life you know it's not sure there's anything we can do about that um but I think if you look at if you look
at the statistical averages we're going to be in pretty good shape Y and uh that should hold us in good stad you know going forward whether it's on the recruiting end or the retention end so Tracy your thoughts I Echo just
exactly what you said I mean I feel much more comfortable that we're in the ranges that we should be for the most part I think probably we did um with the co induced retirements if you want to call them that and some of the regular retirements we were that
community that was probably looking to what we would consider break the bank to attract people um but it was more of a function of the fact that we were so low because people had been in those roles for 20 years 25 years so understanding that it was more resultant from that
than being not competitive um Mak me feel much better right and from and again I know this is not a budget conversation that's not our jurisdiction but the last sentence on page seven is is what hit
home for me most positions fall within the range as provided so the total cost impact is limited for implementation it's important for residents to hear it's important for select board to hear it's important for you to absolutely appreciate certainly that U you know
this is not an arm and a leg to make whatever tweaks or slight adjustments we may need right uh I'm sure that it'll go well with the time I think it works for both ends of the spectrum you know that the end of you know we're paying people
way too much or the people who were saying we're not paying nearly enough like to see that we're falling within the range right you know what I mean I think and there's data to prove that I think is very helpful no matter where you stand on kind of the spectrum right
right I remember talking to Tracy a few months ago on a different subject we were talking about percentages of operating budget that fall within you know this this category of employees and we're in good shape and we were we were right right where the you know the
percentage of the operating budget that that relates to compensation was right where it should be exactly so again another another indicator that uh you know some tweaks and M Neary but nothing needs to be blown up
right it's great great other thoughts questions she did a great job Andy yeah this is a nice word great job was well done it was an easy read really in the best poetic uh tradition easy read is a
product of hard writing she did a good job good you're here yeah okay there's no further discussion on that why don't we quickly run through our standard agenda I don't think there's much here this week so um no meeting minutes is yet from
January we'll get those uh shortly uh employee issues Chief anything to report on your end nothing to report on mine Dian Tracy anything we need to know no employee issues Personnel actions and job vacancies I
know I found a few things recently um we have three new call Firefighters we have uh we had one resignation of a dispatcher um back in uh the end of January so I think that
was after our last meeting um you want to talk about that one to he moved to for opportunity to move into a it yeah that was he went to a one-off department where there was um additional money but there was also opportunity for upward movement for him that we don't offer so
he left in with good the Town good standing in his mind um but y to better himself we also had one full-time firefighter resign U that happened on the 25th which again I think was after the last meeting and I think that position is
open um and then we have um our shellfish Constable has increased his hours um from 18 to or effective Monday effective yes today today um from 18 to 21 hours a week and we also have a new
um plan intern that's working to assist on a special project I will be um it's coming up on the season well where I will be looking for more Harbor Master helpers um we have two I believe we have two that are
returning we we really could use more um teens and they're just at the Landing um Monday you know seven days a week to help people get their boats in and out and make sure people have their um proper permits and things like that so um that will be being being posted
soon is it hiring those assistant has that been a challenge in the past or there's a good poll yeah uh no it's it's challenging um yeah it's challenging to find need voting experience I mean you you should
you have to be very careful you have to be aware of current and tides that is right there at the at the Landing you know it can be um a little bit tricky we usually have an assistant Harbor Master at least around um to assist with that but it's
just I think um finding teenage workers right now can be hard are they actually interns just learning the the craft no it's a PA it's a paid it's a paid position but have do you have an intern program that gets them ready for the
paid position other just reaching out to all the local schools and say how would you like to come to a two we exercise and and observe and consider employment next summer um or are these kids that are still
full-time in school they're they're usually yeah it's a summer it's a summer job yeah I mean I always think about growing up as a WSI instructor the internships for teaching swimming as opposed to just lifeguarding and they brought us in for two weeks for
acclamation and then you volunteered Downstream to be full-time paid WSI yeah but um this might be a man a manner of getting kids to reflect on hey there's a position next year if I take this
internship well it's really not that difficult there's really not much to intern so if they were available for an internship I would hire them um you go well let how about the American Yacht Club calling them to see
if they have um families that have children that might be interested I know they have a sailing class or Sailing Club um they might also have families that have kids that yeah cuz you have a little bit of
SCA you know to be able to help you know the boats coming in and out but your day students at Governors and the Triton kids uh how do you reach out to those two communities we we do we do share the information with them when it comes when
it comes in so but I'll add the yacht club to it as well that IDE do yeah be do they have to work with like cranes and things like that nothing they're sitting in a chair they're they're they're 17-year-old sitting in a chair you know what I mean
helping people get their Vats in and if you you go out with you know just yourself they're the other set of hands to help get you in and out so these aren't big boats and yach not on the par River not on the river little clamour boats yeah yeah the
boats you're backing up down the ramp and then getting it off your ramp into the water okay teing it until you can put Park your truck and come back down for it something less than an 18 inch draft probably so okay thank you for that Chief yeah and uh Tracy and I am
thank you um no workplace issues ethics discrimination discrimination issues that I'm aware of again thank you safety issues Chief anything to report there no Town Hall all good okay no other business to attend to
today no we'll have the uh minutes from the January meeting to attend to uh in in our next meeting which by the way this is a long month so unless anyone objects
I would suggest we meet in four weeks which would be the 31st of March that's our typical cycle every four weeks does that work for folks It's usually the fourth Monday which would be the 24th yeah I just we it out a little bit
because we're here today so so 31 reaches out another week so uh let's put in the calendars for Monday March 31st at 4 pm. thank you all for that
any other discussion Trac anything from you no good seeing none is there a motion to adjourn motion second second any discussion no we are adjourn good