Work Session

Members present: Eric Osgood, Blaine Deslisle, Franklin Hooper, Howard Romero, and Bradley Reed.

Also present: Duncan Hastings Municipal Administrator, Steve Smith, Chris Perkins, Raymond Gilchris, Bruce White, Ben Hogwood.

Eric opened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. and stated that the first item of discussion would be whether or not the Board should consider changing the work week of the highway employees from 45 hours to 40 hours. He felt the Board should at least have the discussion and weigh the pros and cons. He felt that one of the main issues was whether or not we had reached a point where hiring another employee was necessary and would be more cost effective than paying the additional overtime for the 45 hour work week.

Blaine questioned why the Board was even having this discussion as he felt the 45 hour work week saved the town from having to hire another employee and had been working well for many years. Blaine wanted to know where the idea was coming from.

Eric stated that it had come up as part of the review of the Personnel Policy and he felt it was an appropriate time to look at the issue. He stated that the defined work week was 45 hours and the expectation was that employees had to be there that amount of time.

Rocky stated that he didn't think it was mandatory that they be there 45 hours. Eric responded that it was the work week and the employee did not have the choice of working less than 45 hours under the policy.

Blaine stated that he thought the work was getting done with the 45 hour work week and he wasn't sure it would be if we went to a 40 hour week.

Eric asked Steve what he thought. Steve said in the past Willie was offered comp time which he usually took off in the summer months which sometimes made them short handed and that wasn't happening anymore.

Eric asked if we were at a point where the work load made sense to hire a fifth employee. He stated that with the 5 hours of overtime being paid now to all four employees, we were getting 20 extra hours of work for 30 hours of pay. He also stated that he did not propose to cut the hours to 40 without increasing the base pay rate of the employees so they would end up with the same take home pay at the end of the year.

Blaine stated that he thought the cost of hiring another employee and paying the benefits was not warranted at this time. He felt the occasional use of part time people and the 45 hour work week provided the needed coverage. He wasn't sure if the work week was shortened to 40 hours if there would be enough to keep a fifth person busy all the time.

Duncan asked Blaine and Steve if they thought it was feasible or possible to hire a part time employee to make up for the lost five hours and not pay the benefits.

Blaine thought that you might be able to hire someone in the winter time but that anyone worth hiring in the summer was already working.

Howard asked for clarification of whether the work could get done on a 40 hour week during the summer or did it require the 45 hours currently.

Blaine said you could do 40 hours but less would get done.

Howard asked the highway crew what their thoughts were on the idea of a 40 hour week.

Steve said their big concern was getting into a budget situation where the Board would decide to cut their overtime or regular time hours to make up for a situation where the budget was in trouble, which would reflect in their take home pay.

Eric stated that this could happen anyway with or without a 45 hour week.

Howard said that it wouldn't make sense for the Board to do that because the roads had to be maintained and the public would be all over them if they weren't.

Duncan stated that under the current 45 hour work week over 20% of the total income of the employees is from overtime hours so cutting overtime would have a large impact on the employees unless you raised their base rate of pay.

Eric polled the Board on the question of changing the work week hours. The consensus was to leave the work week at 40 hours.

Eric then stated that since the work week was going to stay at 45 hours the Board should consider compensating the employees for the hour of overtime they now lose when they took vacation, sick and holiday time.

Blaine asked why they should change that and felt it could stay the way it was.

Eric stated that he felt it was not fair to require the employees to work 45 hours for their pay and then not pay them the same amount when they took time off.

Steve stated that they used to be paid for the hour of over time but at some point the Board took it away from them.

The Board decided that it was fair to pay the overtime hour and that Duncan should modify the Policy to reflect that.

Eric informed the Board of the results of the employee meeting regarding the draft Personnel Policy and some of the concerns of the employees. He stated that the Committee was meeting again on Wed. and would bring a final draft to each Board for their approval soon. Eric asked the highway employees if they have any other concerns that they wanted to address to the Board.

Steve stated that they were pretty happy with the draft policy and appreciated the work the Board had done, which was echoed by the other employees. The highway crew left the meeting at this time.

Brad gave the Board a report on the Ambulance Service search for a location. The focus now is the VEC building on School St. and it appears that VEC will rent the space now to NEMS.

Howard informed the Board about the status of the application of GMTTC for public access TV.

Brad stated that the Power House Bridge was vandalized over the weekend and thought the Board should consider offering a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator. He made a motion to offer $100.00 reward for arrest and conviction, second by Howard, unanimous in favor. Duncan to coordinate with the Sheriff's office.

Howard made a motion to go into executive session to discuss a legal matter, second by Brad, unanimous in favor at 8:20 p.m.

Brad made motion to come out of executive Session at 8:30 p.m., second by Blaine, unanimous in favor.

Bard moved and Rocky seconded adjournment, all in favor

Adjourned at 8:32 p.m.

Next meeting June 9th

Submitted by Duncan Hastings