Personnel Committee Minutes 4-30-19

Personnel Committee 4-30-19

RUTLAND TOWN SELECT BOARD

PERSONNEL COMMITTEE MEETING

TUESDAY APRIL 30^TH, 2019

The Personnel Committee of the Rutland Town Select Board met at 4:00 PM on Tuesday April 30^th at the Municipal Town Hall. Present was Board Chair Josh Terenzini, Board member John Paul Faignant, Town Road Commissioner Byron Hathaway, Town Clerk & Treasurer Kirsten Hathaway and Administrative Assistant Bill Sweet.

• The committee discussed establishing a conflict of interest policy.
  1. Reviewed the reason for the need of the policy, which comes from state statute.
  2. Reviewed a draft policy using a template provided by Vermont League of Cities and Towns
  3. Reviewed and discussed the language in the model policy
  4. Reviewed and discussed making changes to the language to make it town specific.
  5. Proposed changes will be made and the updated document will be reviewed at a future committee meeting.
• Reviewed information provided from Ms. Hathaway regarding a health insurance appeal which was denied by the federal government.
  1. They had previously provided the town notice of health insurance plans which should be covering 2 employees of the town, based on those individuals input on their tax returns. The decision was appealed because neither individual qualified to be covered.
  2. The matter will be forwarded to town attorney Kevin Brown for follow up.
• Discussed changing the town Designated Employee Representative with VLCT from Police Captain Ted Washburn to Administrative Assistant Bill Sweet.
  1. The committee agreed this change made sense.
  2. Bill will contact VLCT to start the process
• The committee discussed sick time and vacation time benefits.
  1. Discussed examples where use of sick time caused hourly employees work weeks to be over 40 hours.
  2. Up to 20 days can carry over year to year, with a maximum accrual of 30 days allowed per the current personnel policy.
  3. Discussed whether to allow the employee to decide how to apply it, or have the total stop and 40 hours and the balance go back to their sick time balance.
  4. The committee will recommend to the board that payouts and use of sick time will be left up to the employee.
  5. Unused benefit time that expires will not be paid out to any employee.
• Discussed changing the designation of sick time and vacation time to paid time off
  1. Faignant discussed trials in other organizations that have been done with unfavorable results
• Hathaway discussed overtime pay practices in the winter
  1. Days when the roads need to be cleared early, the shifts begin at 4AM. He would like to pay overtime from 4AM to 7AM
  2. Regular shifts would end at 12PM for that day instead of 3PM, this would be treated as a flex schedule.
  3. The committee decided to leave the decision up to department heads to determine.

 

 

There being no other business the meeting adjourned at 4:30 PM

Respectfully submitted, Bill Sweet.