Editorial
Gray's
newest union? : The Town Employees
In
2002, under a different Council and Manager, an ad
hoc committee was formed: The Employee Compensation
Committee. This committee was charged by the Council
to research whether the town employees were underpaid
relative to other towns in the area, comprising a
competing labor pool under which Gray was losing quality,
trained employees to better-paid towns.
In Gray, there are two kinds of committees. There
are standing committees, under the Council's aegis,
comprised of a membership that has terms of office
and under which members must apply publicly and be
accepted for service after an interview.
Ad hoc committees are the second type of committee.
These committees come and go. They are usually-one-shot,
single charge committees charged with the task of
discovering the answer to one question or completing
one task. The Town Office Center Committee, the Pennell
Ad Hoc Committee, and the Comprehensive Plan Update
Committee were all committees that had a short shelf
life and were disbanded once their charge was completed.
The Employee Compensation Committee is an ad hoc committee.
In 2003 they came back to the Council and advised
them as to the salary situation (low) and recommended
a market adjustment to equalize their salaries with
counterparts in nearby towns. The Council thanked
them and took their recommendations under advisement.
The townspeople voted in a salary raise at Town Meeting.
In 2003 the committee came back and again recommended
to the Council what their compensation should be.
Their recommendations were absorbed into the town's
budget and eventually voted on at Town Meeting.
In 2004 the committee came back to the Council and
again recommended what their salary should be, a $214,795
total increase. At the Thursday, March 11 budget workshop,
the Council was going over the budget with the Manager.
The Council cut back that recommendation to $60,000
total.
During the discussion, Councilors noted to the Manager
that the compensation wasn't only salary, but was
also comprised of cost of living adjustments and health
benefits.
Manager Mitchell A. Berkowitz agreed, and said that
the "employees didn't want to put the health
benefits on the table until they knew what the Council
was going to do about their salaries."
Since when does an ad hoc committee, who completed
their charge two years ago, decide what to put on
the table and what not to put on the table? When it's
a negotiation.
The Employee Compensation Committee has completed
their charge. The Council should either:
--Disband the ad hoc committee, since it has finished
its charge.
--Formalize it into a standing committee with open
membership and defined terms of office, like every
other committee in town.
--Agree that they are negotiating with an organized
unit and call it what it seems to be, a union.
Taking
calls is part of the job
Every year during budget time, the Council decries
the lack of involvement from citizens. They plead
for people to go get the budget, educate themselves,
and give input to the council. They ask that this
input be given early in the process, not just at the
last minute at town meeting.
Tuesday night several citizens did just that. They
got the budget, went through line by line, created
their questions, and trudged down to Stimson Hall
on a snowy evening and sat for two hours at the council
meeting, asking perceptive, thoughtful and respectful
questions during the public hearing. It was a dream
come true.
At the end of the evening, during the "public
discussion of non-agenda items" portion of the
budget, Councilor Barter had a different opinion.
He thought that it was inflammatory that the newspaper
had reported the Manager had delivered a budget containing
a 25% proposed increase. He said that the council
should carefully release budget information. He was
tired of receiving calls all week from angry constituents.
I feel sorry for Councilor Barter. As an elected official,
his dream had come true…and all he could do was
complain.
