Cheshire Council on Aging Leaders Resign
CHESHIRE, Mass. — The Cheshire Council on Aging met on Tuesday to discuss its next steps following the resignation of both its chair and director.
Former Director Carole Hilderbrand and former Council Chair Gene Gebarowski resigned late last week, following a Board of Selectmen meeting discussing the council's fiscal 2023 budget. The board appointed Brenda Caufield to the position of interim coordinator following the resignations.
"It's just an unfortunate situation," said Selectmen Chair Michelle Francesconi in an interview after the meeting. "The resignations were effective immediately. But we're trying to minimize the impact that that has on the services that are being provided."
The board took issue with changes in the job description, including increasing the director's compensation and providing the director benefits. The board also questioned the legitimacy of a previous change in the job's title from coordinator to director.
Francesconi said the changes to the job description legally necessitated reposting the job. She said the board intended to discuss the issues further but did not get the chance to because of the resignations.
"We did receive two legal opinions since then that did verify that we would have to repost that job if we did what they were asking, changing the title, job description and salary to become a benefited position," she said. "We were protecting the town."
The COA had voted to change the job title from coordinator to director in April 2021. Then Town Administrator Mark Webber told the council that it needed to vote on the name change to become official.
"Mark said you can call a Council on Aging meeting. We did; the Council on Aging voted on it," said Carol Francesconi, who the council elected as its chair until April, when it will hold its annual meeting. "I notified Mark that we had done it, and I notified the chairman of the Board of Selectmen that we had to change the title, so that we felt we were covered as far as what we had done."
When asked why the Board of Selectmen did not act on the job title change in April 2021, Michelle Francesconi said she and others were not aware the position had to be appointed by the board. She explained this is why the job title has reverted to coordinator for the time being.
"I think at the time there were so many tasks that needed to get done, I just changed the title [on the website], not really thinking too much of it," she said. "But in this process of discussing the job description change, it came to our attention that the original position was under the direct supervision of the town administrator. And then, therefore, appointed by the Board of Selectmen for the position. So technically, the title change should never have happened without the permission of the Board of Selectmen."
Michelle Francesconi said the COA's budget increased substantially in only five years. While she is happy with the COA's growth in that time, Francesconi said the budget needs to fulfill the entire town's needs.
"We have one pot of money to disperse among all the town departments and committees. And how can we make this equitable, because from FY19 to this most recent request for FY23, it's almost a 400 percent increase for the Council on Aging budget in a span of five fiscal years," she said.
The council spoke highly of Gebarowski and Hilderbrand's work for the COA. Several members expressed that the council will miss Hilderbrand's expertise.
"Her outreach is incredible," said council member Mal Gwozdz, noting Hilderbrand routinely worked more than the 19 hours a week the job description entails. "She has done more than any of us probably could ever do. And you don't hear about it."
Carol Francesconi said the resignations and other related issues did not begin at last week's meeting.
"I don't think it was just from that one meeting," she said. "This is just a culmination of things that have happened in the past that ended up coming to a head at that meeting. But I don't think it's that meeting itself that caused the problems."
Gebarowski declined to comment on his resignation but said he hopes Cheshire's residents continue to take advantage of COA services. Hilderbrand also declined to comment.
Tags: COA, resignation,
