Split vote nets raises for South Hadley employees

From the Daily Hampshire Gazette:
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By STEPHEN C. HILL
Staff Writer

Friday, September 18, 2009

SOUTH HADLEY
The six top performing town employees, all department heads, will receive a 6 percent raise this year.

Selectmen in a split vote Tuesday approved the merit pay increase plan as proposed by the Personnel Review Board. Board members Carlene Hamlin and Robert Judge objected to the plan. Hamlin voted against them because no employees other than department heads were rated by the review board to "often exceed expectations" and Judge because he is concerned about reduced town revenues in coming fiscal years.

The review board's report, based on evaluations from supervisors, rated 35 of the 69 nonunion town employees as "meeting expectations," 28 as "sometimes exceeding expectations" and six as "often exceeding expectations." Those meeting expectations will receive a 1.5 percent raise, those sometimes exceeding will receive 3.25 percent and those often exceeding expectations a 6 percent raise.

"It just doesn't send a good message to me and to the employees," said Hamlin, after learning that all those rated as often exceeding expectations are department heads. "This will breed confrontation," she said.

As a new department head after being elected Clerk/Treasurer in May, Hamlin said she knows other employees to be outstanding. Most department heads are evaluated by the town administrator and with Barry Del Castilho serving part time as the interim administrator this year, he had less opportunity to observe their performance, she said.

Department heads, therefore, "all probably had a lot of input on their evaluations," Hamlin said. When told two of the six department heads were evaluated by the elected boards that oversee them, she said "I rest my case."

Although board chairman Gregory Sheehan voted for the merit raise plan, he agreed with some of Hamlin's points. "How can a department head be a superstar without some of his staff being superstars," he said.

Judge said state aid will likely be reduced in the coming year and the current budget is not in balance because Town Meeting rejected the local option to increase meals and rooms taxes. "This is not the time to increase your wage base," Judge said.