At a recent meeting of the Personnel Board, Library Director Mary Wilson and a handful of library staff and trustees sharply criticized proposed town personnel policy changes dealing with issues ranging from health and retirement benefits to who has the authority to close the library during snowstorms.
Wilson and other employees contended that a number of the changes, including the elimination of the town’s contribution to deferred compensation retirement plans, singled out nonunion town employees for cuts in benefits. In addition to library workers, the policy changes would affect town employees not covered by collective bargaining agreements, including some Town Hall staff. The town administrator and others who are covered by individual contracts would not be affected.
Compensation cut?
The library personnel at times confronted Town Administrator Tim Bragan and Assistant Town Administrator and Human Resources Director Marie Sobalvarro over the changes. “We feel we are being targeted for a compensation cut,” Lisa Gagnon, head reference librarian, said.
The policy changes are intended to reduce rising health-care and other retirement costs to the town, simplify administrative procedures, and clarify authority for approval of such things as paid time off and the closing of town buildings, according to documents provided by the town administrators.
Personnel Board Chairman Victor Normand said the board will schedule another meeting to take action regarding the policy changes. But at least some of the changes appear to have already been put into effect via the authority of the Board of Selectmen last March.
In March 2014, the BOS adopted a memorandum listing a number of personnel policy changes the town intended to make to reduce a growing projected liability for retiree health benefits, also known as “other post-employment benefits,” or OPEB. Those changes include the elimination of some benefits for the surviving spouses of deceased town employees—a change that was criticized by the library personnel last week.
At a Special Town Meeting in October, some of the planned personnel policy changes were described in a warrant article as “clarifications” to the town’s bylaws and were characterized during the meeting by BOS Chairman Stu Sklar as “minor.” The article received no discussion at the STM, which was called primarily to discuss planned renovations to the Town Hall building.
New authority for BOS
According to a recent document prepared by Bragan, the October STM gave authority to the BOS to develop policies regarding paid time off, holidays, bereavement leave, military leave, court leave, unpaid leave, overtime, and other employment benefits.
A second document prepared by Sobalvarro noted that the STM also eliminated the town match for deferred compensation plans. For the past 25 years, the town has matched some of the deferred compensation (similar to a 401k) for people who have worked for Harvard more than five years. The town’s contribution rises gradually up to 50 percent for employees with more than 20 years’ service. The total cost to the town recently has been about $5,000 a year. Sobalvarro said in an email this week that the elimination of the town match was not final, however, and must be approved by the Personnel Board and then the BOS.
During last week’s meeting, Gagnon maintained that the deferred compensation plan was to give town employees the same benefits school employees have. “Is parity no longer a concern?” Gagnon asked.
In a prepared statement, Chris Frechette, a library trustee, maintained that while many of the library staff members have advanced degrees, “They are among the lowest paid professionals in town. So why are we taking away a benefit in a growing economy where the job market is dramatically improving?” he asked. The document prepared by Sobalvarro stated that Harvard is the only town in the state that matches employee contributions to deferred compensation plans. She wrote, “It doesn’t make sense to tie [the town’s matching contribution] to years of service.” In addition, Sobalvarro stated that “the logistical work to calculate the match requires time from both the treasurer and assistant treasurer.”
Changes to spousal benefits
During last week’s meeting, Wilson also criticized the elimination of the town payment of 75 percent of the premium for health insurance to spouses of deceased town employees. The change, she said, “will have a negative impact on people close to the edge.”
Sobalvarro responded that many towns do not offer health insurance to spouses of deceased retirees. The expectation now, she said, is that a spouse can apply for Medicare benefits. She acknowledged that the new policy applies only to nonunion town employees.
Wilson and the library staff and trustees also criticized Bragan’s proposal to give himself the authority to decide if the library should close in severe weather, as he can for other town buildings. The proposed policy would affect all employees except police, fire, and public works employees. The policy states that when the town administrator has not ordered buildings closed, employees who did not report to work would have their absence count against their accrued paid time off balance.
Deciding when to close
Bragan’s proposal would remove Wilson’s authority to determine whether the library should stay open during severe weather. In a prepared statement, Frechette said the Library Board of Trustees has delegated the authority to close the library in emergencies to Wilson “and strongly support … her decisions in this area. She is the most qualified person to make the call for the library.”
According to Bragan, the reason for giving the town administrator the authority to close the library and other town buildings was to improve consistency “across departments” and give town residents “clarity regarding what’s open and what’s closed during severe weather and other unexpected emergencies.”
In his statement, Frechette maintained that there are “several options to inform citizens about emergency closings, none of which require the town administrator to actually make the decisions currently afforded to the director of the library.”
The Personnel Board will consider several other changes as well:
- The proposed addition of a town payment for life insurance and disability insurance for town employees working more than 20 hours a week.
- A reduction in continuing health benefits from 90 to 30 days to town employees who lose their jobs. Sobalvarro said in an email that this does not involve an “operational change.”
