DALTON, Mass. — Town Manager Tom Hutcheson told the Finance Committee on Wednesday that he is proposing a hike employee wages as a retention tool and add new positions.

 

"We did what we could with what we got [so far]. We provided modest raises and a progressive plan for future compensation with annual steps [cost of living adjustment,]" he said. "So in one way, we sort of traded off the immediate boost for a longer-term plan for substantial growth over time, which we think will help retain employees."

 

The proposal would increase the accountant and treasurers' salaries one step to $66,231 in fiscal 2024, up from $65,089, plus an additional step raise in FY25.

 

Possible additions to these pay raises include bringing the current part-time accountant assistant to full time in preparation for eventual accountant retirement. This would increase the pay for that post from $16,714 to $50,000. 

 

Hutcheson also proposed changing the assessing assistant from part time to a $20,000 20-hour benefited position in preparation for long-term staffing and re-instating the 10-hour office clerk position to assist the town manager's executive assistant in some clerical and permitting duties that would allow the assistant more time for human resources, procurement, budgeting. That post would be paid $10,400. 

 

Another option is hiring a graduate level intern for $6,000 for six months to assist in capital planning, budget analysis, and various duties. 

 

"Then thinking about, dreaming about, a graduate level intern, not really ready for it yet, but I put it down here as some addition, at some point, once we have more established idea of where we could use somebody," Hutcheson said. 

 

Finance Committee member Susan Carroll-Lombardi recommended looking into how much accountants make in the private sector to see what the competition is.

 

Hutcheson noted that there are higher-paying accountant position but Dalton is very competitive and there are benefits to working for a municipality. These include the fact that it is mission driven, community oriented, and has better benefits. 

 

Another resource that the town could consider is creating a human resource director position in the future, projected for FY25 and starting at $60,000. 

 

"There are more requirements that towns have to abide by without being paid for them. And in order to abide by best practices, my fear is, as always, liability," Hutcheson said. "[Towns] lose more money from human resources errors and there's so many laws to stay on top of, in order to have everything. I've gone back and forth with the lawyers a lot in the last year, just on HR stuff. It would be so there'll be some savings there as well."

 

The director would create and maintain a comprehensive personnel records system, handle payroll and benefits administration, and update and review the employee handbook with department heads. 

 

The would also handle performance evaluations, hiring, interviewing, terminating, contract negotiations and grievances, and investigations and disciplinary actions or mediation.

 

Hutcheson said he has been working with Westfield State University to get an undergraduate intern to help with projects in analysis, data analysis, and policy development. The hope is to have the intern start in January so they can aid on long-term budgeting and help organize the town manager files. 

 

Police Department has been working with Westfield criminal justice interns for years, Hutcheson said. The goal with this new endeavor is to prepare the students for municipal positions. 

 

"My idea is, establish relationships, get some people in, get some projects they can work on and then try to build up a pipeline in general for municipal positions. Especially the finance positions, also the administrator/manager positions," Hutcheson said. 

 

"If we rely on getting people from outside the region, we'll also be relying on people who are used to getting much higher salaries so it would be really great if we could do something more homegrown." 

 

In other business, the committee approved two transfers from reserve funds.

 

The first was in the amount of $7,500 from last year's fund to cure a FY22 deficit in the Highway Department expenditure budget and the second in the amount of $5,600 from this year's fund to the Landfill Closure Monitoring budget to cover the cost of further monitoring of gas wells at the Warren landfill due to high methane levels in one well. 

 

This would cover four more tests on a bi-weekly testing for the next couple months to see if this is an indication of something that needs further monitoring. 

 

"It's not an action level but it's kind of borderline," Hutcheson said.