Dalton Select Board Supports Town Pay Raises

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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DALTON, Mass. — The Select Board is in support of raising town salaries to be more desirable for recruitment and for retaining existing employees.
 
On Monday, the board voted to endorse a new pay plan that would cost about $58,000 to implement. The plan, which can be utilized for union and non-union employees, will be reviewed by the Finance Committee before a final decision is made in the next couple of weeks.
 
If approved, it will take effect on July 1, the start of the 2023 fiscal year.
 
Since September, consultant Carol Grandfield of Municipal Resources Inc. has been working with Town Manager Thomas Hutcheson on a study that resulted in this recommendation. The goal was to develop a pay classification system based on comparative analysis and best practices for recruitment and retention.
 
This process included interviewing all of the town's departments, which Grandfield was impressed by.
 
"You have a talented dedicated workforce," she said. "Which was very evident by the positive involvement of the employees through the process that I spoke with."
 
In the recommendation is a pay classification plan that includes 13 grade levels with all positions and a new pay plan. It also includes increased steps, or incremental salary increases, for more regular raises.
 
The proposed plan has 16 steps with a range from minimum to a maximum of 30 percent. Grandfield said the town's current seven-step system includes holding steps that sometimes take two years to get to the next level.
 
The difference between the steps in the new proposed system and what is currently in place is 1.75 percent.
 
Grandfield found that the salaries of several town positions are low and said that it is critical to increase the pay of employees who don't meet the minimum requirement. A reported 38 percent of the town's 68 employees do not meet the basic minimum in the proposed grade level. (Paperwork provided on Tuesday listed 63 employees of which 21 are recommended to have their salary increased to meet the new Step 1.)
 
The estimated cost for implementation is $57,906 based on the data provided. Thirty-eight percent of the workforce will be moved to step one to meet the minimum rate in the proposed grade level.
 
Select Board member John Boyle brought up the cost-of-living adjustment and queried the town's 2 percent increase it has provided for the past number of years. He called for a true COLA to be established and inserted into the budget.
 
The board was not able to vote on cost-of-living increases because it was not on the agenda.
 
"The way that I have structured the proposal and the accompanying piece, I'm assuming that for (fiscal year 2023,) everyone would get a 1.75 percent step because the figures in the study are for (fiscal year 2022) because those were the figures we were working with the comparable communities," Hutcheson said.
 
"So 1.75 plus to 2 percent, which is 3.75 percent. So yeah, completely up to what the Select Board wants to do, I was, in my way trying to be somewhat conservative in my proposal."
 
Select Board member Dan Esko emphasized the importance of finding other ways to save money when it comes to town spending.
 
"As the cost of employee compensation and benefits increases year over year, I would just urge town manager and elected officials to, we really need to do our due diligence to find other ways to save money to pay for these things," he said.
 
"Taxes will continue to go up for residents if we don't keep an eye on these increases and we need to be mindful of that, but I'm definitely in support of raising our wages and compensation."
 
The board will have a special joint meeting with the Finance Committee in the next week or so to discuss the proposal.
 
In other news, the board briefly discussed a proposed department reorganization for a Department of Public Works. This proposal takes the Dalton transfer station currently operated by Casella Waste Systems and puts it into the town's hands.
 
Because the agenda posted on the town's website did not detail the conversation being about the transfer station, the board was not able to talk about it at too much length deferred it to the next meeting.

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Dalton Health Dept. Develops Temporary Food Event Info Sheet

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
DALTON, Mass.—The Board of Health approved an amended version of a Temporary Food Event Informational Sheet.
 
Health Agent Agnes Witkowski and her Administrative Assistant Christina Parkington developed this information sheet to streamline the permitting process for temporary food events. 
 
Before this information sheet, Witkowski would work with event organizers to determine the vendors. Then Witkowski and Parkington would reach out to the vendors with applications and information. 
 
"There's times when we even had somebody show up as a vendor not being permitted and then they're looking for what we require. Well, this is to help organize that and to make it smoother," Witkowski said. 
 
This document will be given to the event organizer and the vendors. 
 
"I think it's just good communication, and it's helping guidelines and expectations," Witkowski said. 
 
The sheet instructs the event coordinator to provide the Board of Health with a contact list of all vendors 30 days before the event. The list must include the vendor's name, contact person, phone number, and email address.
 
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