CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Two employees are switching roles as of Wednesday and a consultant is being brought in to closeout accounts in the treasurer's office. 

 

The Select Board at a special meeting on Monday afternoon voted to place Amy Cariddi in the treasurer/tax collector post and to have Darcy Feder move over to administrative assistant.

 

The board also agreed to pay Hilltown Municipal Accounting Services, lead by former North Adams Auditor David Fierro Jr., to come in two days a week to work in the treasurer's office at a cost of $75 an hour. 

 

The treasurer/tax collector has been struggling to close out fiscal 2021 and maintain the day-to-day work. The former occupant of the post had been brought in to consult but quit in mid-July. 

 

At a meeting of the Select Board several weeks ago, Feder, who had experience in banking but not municipal finance, said she had not been clear on what to do to close out the fiscal year as there were no outlines or guides to follow  in the office. 

 

Cariddi had been working with her and an agreement had been worked out for Cariddi to work eight hours on Fridays, in part as a way to straighten out overpayments made to her. 

 

Chairman Ronald Boucher said he had spoken to Fierro about allowing Cariddi to learn from the Hilltown staff.

 

"It'll work twofold, she'll be there to take care of things. But also, you need to pick her brain and [have her] give you some direction on certain things. She's there to do that," he said. 

 

"It was a tough way to start off," he said to Feder, who like Cariddi is part of a complete changeover in Town Hall staff in the past year. "So the best of both worlds ... we get to save two good people and maybe become a little strong as a unit."

 

But while the shift in jobs was agreeable to both employees, the matter of compensation became a lengthy debate. Boucher said he was not prepared to discuss wages that day and both would remain at their respective rates until Cariddi's pay could be raised at the next meeting but Select Board member Danielle Luchi didn't think that was right.

 

"Because right now the tax collector's making more than the administrative assistant," she said. "I feel that this is a bigger matter and that we have to look over the pay scale in its entirety at some point, because we can't just keep on like this."

 

Boucher agreed that the scales had to be looked at but felt that they could make the adjustment retroactively at the Aug. 25 meeting. 

 

"I think we're jumping the gun here, you can't expect me to vote on something that we don't know how much people are going to be making," Luchi responded. 

 

Town Administrator Rebecca Stone reminded the board members that the voters had given them the flexibility to start employees along the pay scale. Luchi said she didn't think the voters planned for them to raise current employees at will — Feder would be pushed up to year 15 in her new classification — but rather consider new employees. 

 

Boucher suggested putting in wages and then doing a 90 or 120 review to see if they should get a bump. Luchi said that would open the door to other workers asking why they weren't getting evaluations and merit raises. 

 

"But there's no bumps on the pay scale. There's no half steps for bumps," she said. 

 

Stone said the board should strongly consider raising the rates for the appointed positions, especially seeing what other communities are paying their treasurer/tax collectors. 

 

The two board members (Allen Arnold was absent) agreed that the pay scale needed to be completely reviewed with the Finance Committee and that Monday wasn't the day to be doing that. 

 

Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Macksey, who attended with Northern Berkshire School Union Superintendent John Franzoni, said the treasurer was one of the most important positions in the town. 

 

"You kind of need to settle that before you ask this young woman to take on these responsibilities. That's just my thought," she said. "And you need to frame everything out because this community has gotten into trouble before for not having all your ducks in a row."

 

The board voted to reset the treasurer's rate but then hit a bump when Cariddi would actually be making less money; to avoid that, the treasurer's position was changed from 32 to 40 hours a week. The administrative assistant remained at 32 hours but the work on police detail billing was shifted back to the Police Department. 

 

The treasurer will be paid at $23.84 an hour and the administrative assistant at $21.35.

 

The administrative assistant will also move upstairs and the town clerk will move downstairs.