Contracts and costs

There have been a couple of opinion letters in the Standard Times recently addressing issues of collective bargaining. Selectman Joe Michaud wrote here and Police Brotherhood president Mr McGuire responded here. School Committeeman Phil Lenz weighed in at his blog here. Since these issues are being brought forward,...

...I will chime in as well.
On the issue of leap year overtime pay, the total amount involved is small, a few thousand dollars. As I understand it, the issue is that the additional day changes the overtime pay because of the added hours in the regular salary calculation. I feel that the issue was settled equitably by agreeing to keep the overtime compensation the same as that for a non leap year. I may have stated this incorrectly and if so, please set me straight in comments.
The biweekly payroll issue is an opportunity for the town to save money and, as I see it, does not have a significant impact on the employees. Here is the issue. Most payroll companies, like ADP for example, can do payroll for the town but they cannot do it weekly. These companies are set up to do biweekly payroll. The town could save money by having fewer employees and spending less time in processing payroll if they went to one of these outside companies. The employees would have to change the way that they budget but would get the exact same pay as they do now. Changing the payroll timing for some employees but not all employees results in higher costs since we have to maintain the current system while partially implementing the new system. So in order to make the transition, the town needs all employees to agree to the biweekly payroll at the same time. This change could be made when each contract is up for negotiation or at any time by mutual agreement. I don't know if this has been formally presented to the represented employees, but as I said, it will result in significant saving to the town and that means funds are freed up for other uses. I agree with Mr. Michaud on this one. We need to move to a biweekly payroll and there is no compelling reason not to do so.
I think Mr. Michaud understates the influence that the Select Board has with the School Committee. The Select Board, through the Executive Administrator, sets the funding for town departments. While we are limited to maintaining required net school spending, the Select Board can and does have a say in how much funding the schools get. That is a powerful tool. The Select Board is also charged with deciding to put override questions to the voters. This is another powerful tool. Last year at Select Board workshop sessions, Diane Gilbert raised reservations as to the form of the override question put forward by the school department. She wanted to propose a lower amount or break up the question into parts. Mr. Michaud and the rest of the board declined to do that. I think many now feel that Ms. Gilbert's approach may have been better. We will never know. I suspect that the Select Board may see override requests from the school department in the future. How those requests are handled will have a impact on the influence that the Select Board has on School Committee decisions.
Collective bargaining is a fact of life and, at present, I think that the benefits that have been afforded to our public employees are out of line. The town cannot continue as before and I have called for shared sacrifice by all the stakeholders in town. That includes the town employees. If there are no funds to pay workers, we will have layoffs. Another form of government won't change that fact and whether the workers have collective bargaining agreements won't change that fact. This will have to be addressed as the contract come up. The results of those negotiations will determine how the town staffs departments, whether some services are dropped, and whether some tasks are outsourced or privatized.