Personnel Bylaw amendment proposed

The Standard- Times article today about Mr. Walkers presentation at the Select Board on Monday was pretty one sided. You can link to it here. Basically Dartmouth's executive administrator was interviewed and he doesn't think the personal contracts should be changed. Apparently Mr Walker was not asked to contribute to the article.
I thought the Chronicle article (link here) was more balanced and covered the issue that Mr. Walker was there to propose an amendment to the Personnel Bylaws.
That amendment follows with my comments in italics:

Article to Amend the Personnel Bylaws

That the town vote to amend the Dartmouth Personnel Bylaws, by the following,

This section just does the housekeeping for the terms of the now seven member board

Amend section 3 A 1 By deleting the sentence,

Terms of service shall be so arranged that the term of one member expires each year.

And inserting in its stead, the sentence.

The terms of service shall be so arranged that the term of two members expire in successive years and the term of the remaining three members expire in the third year.

This section specifies what the annual report of the Personnel Board to the Town Meeting must include. Previously the bylaw said they must report annually but did not specify what the report was to include. In recent years the report was a list of the duties, not actions of the Personnel Board

Amend section 3.B.6 by adding ,

The annual report of the Personnel Board to the town shall include:

1. a report of the number of grievances referred to the Board under section 3.B.5 of the Personnel bylaw, the department or board referring each grievance, and the ruling or finding of the board in deciding the grievance.

2. a report of any modifications or additions to the job descriptions or class specifications as maintained by the board under Section 4.C.1 and the reasons for this modification or addition.

3. a report of any new job or position titles or re-evaluation of existing job title developed under section 4.C.2, and the need for such new job title or the re-evaluation of existing job title, and the resulting grade determination for the new position or change in grade, if any, for job titles being re-evaluated.

4. a report of any change of grade for employees advancing to a higher classification where such employee starts at a higher step than prescribed under section 4.C.3 and the reasons for this special circumstance

5. a report of the number of employees in advanced in step, the number to be sorted among the Class Titles of Schedule A. Also the number of employees not advanced in step, the number to be sorted among the Class Titles of Schedule A, and the result of any appeal to the board by employees failing to be recommended for step advancement as prescribed by Section 4.C.4

6. a report of the classification of all new employees as prescribed by Section 4.C.5

7. a report of funding estimates received from department heads as prescribed in Section 4.C.6

8. a report of any request for authorization for use of vacation leave on account of sickness received from department heads as prescribed by section 5.C.3and the disposition of that request

This section implements recommendation 7 of the DOR report which can be linked to here on pg 16 The DOR recommended limiting personal contracts

Amend section 4.D by deleting,

Entire section

And inserting in its stead

Any Board, Commission, or Committee may enter into a formal written contract with an employee of the Town listed in the Schedule A Administrative/Supervisory Group. This contract shall be approved as to legal form by Counsel, signed by the employee and a quorum of the governing Board, Commission, or Committee. Such employment contract shall be the sole agreement with the employee and contain all benefits that the employee is entitled to and shall meet the following requirements.

1: Individual employment contracts with department heads or management level employees are limited in duration to one year except for the Executive Administrator, Director of Budget and Finance , and Police Chief or as specifically authorized by statute or special act of the General Court. Such contracts shall not include any provision requiring continuation of the salary or wages, benefits, and leave package or other terms of the contract beyond the annual term of the contract. Contracts shall not include an affirmative duty by the Board, Commission, or Committee to continue the terms of the contract beyond the annual term, reduce or eliminate other positions within the town, or to offer alternative appointment to another position within the town.

2: Annual individual employment contracts will be limited to the salary or wages, benefits, and leave package provided by the amount of funds appropriated by the Town Meeting, benefits provided in the General Laws, and through the lawful establishment of a salary or wage. No contract shall be made in excess of available appropriations by Town Meeting.

3: Individual employment contracts shall not include any special fringe benefit not otherwise available to other employees as prescribed in section 5

4: The Personnel Board will develop and maintain a separate classification schedule for department heads and management level employees in order to minimize inequality in wages, benefits and leave packages between employees with similar positions, length of service, and responsibilities in different departments of the town. Contracts shall conform to the grades and steps established by the Personnel Board for the Administrative/Supervisory group. Adoption of the classification schedule will be by majority vote of the Town Meeting. Upon recommendation of the Personnel Board, adjustments to, or modification of the Administrative/Supervisory classification schedule will be by majority vote of the Town Meeting.

This bylaw to take effect upon expiration of the term of individual contracts in force following the enactment of this bylaw, and adoption by Town Meeting of the Administrative/Supervisory classification schedule as recommended by the Personnel Board

I support the adoption of this bylaw. Mass General Law requires that the Select Board place on the warrant any article brought to them with the signatures of ten voters of the town. MGL link here Let's get ten signatures and get it on the warrant. What do you think? Leave your comments below
UPDATE Mr Walker stated to the Select Board that the grades and steps mentioned in the last section might be replaced with "salary ranges" BT