Meeting Minutes

Title: Compensation Committee 3^rd Meeting

Date: Friday, September 15^th , 2006

Location: Westport Island Town Office Conference Room

Subject: Compensation Committee Proposal for Salaries & Stipends

Pre-Work: Open and New Action Items

Objective: Review and approval of this meeting agenda. Review & approval of minutes from last meeting. Review information collected by each of the members (and alternates) tasks, integrate and compare data with Westport’s current salaries and stipends. Review interviews with town office staff. Decide and Approve salaries/stipends for all town employees. Determine objectives, strategies, and actions for drawing together a proposal for September 19^th.

Topic	Type			Responsibility		Time
Review agenda and approve any changes.	Discussion Consensus			All		7:00 5 Min.
Review of minutes from 09/05/06meeting; make changes and approve.	Discussion Consensus			All		7 :05 10 Min.
Present Reports from Interviews with Town Office Staff and Selectmen	Information Discussion			Presenting : Sarah Discussion : All		7 :15 35 Min
Present final results from (phone) interviews with other town employees.		Information Discussion	Presenting : Joelle Discussion : All		7 :50 10 Min
Present information on mandated positions of Maine towns.	Information Discussion			Presenting : Joelle & Dave Discuss : All		8 :00 15 Min.
Present findings on new MMA Data searches.	Information Discussion			Presenting : Richard & Dennis Discuss : All		8 :15 20 Min.
Present Data on comparable town’s municipal govt. costs.	Information Discussion			Presenting : Richard Discussion : All		8 :35 15 Min
Present Data on Costs for running the town.	Information Discussion			Presenting : Dennis Discussion : All		8 :50 10 Min
After integrating above data, determine & approve salaries/ stipends for all the town employees.	Discussion Consensus			Members		9 :00 40 Min
Determine Objectives for next meeting; Assign any Action items.	Information Discussion Consensus			All		9 :40 10 Min
Other Items	Discussion			All		9 :50 10 min
Public Comment (IF TIME ALLOWS)	Discussion			Public		10 :00 10 min
Wrap up	Information Discussion Consensus			Scribe		10 :10 10 Min.

REQUIRED: All Compensation Committee members (Including Alternates)

FACILITATOR: Dennis Dunbar

SCRIBE: Richard DeVries

Attendees:

Joelle Webber, Sarah Rhinelander, Dennis Dunbar, Dave Bertran, Richard DeVries, Tom Cromwell (until 9:15 pm)

Missing due to other pressing requirements Reggie Lee and Tom Cromwell (after 9:15 pm)

Public Attendees:

Stayed until public comment - Mort Mendes, Benjamin Crehore, Norma Dreyfus, , Carole Dunbar

Departed before public comment - Doreen Beaulieu, Carol Dunbar, Mary Ellen Barnes, Carol Spiegel, David Speigel, Mike Cromwell.

Attachments:

1. State mandated municipal positions.

oPEN aCTION iTEMS FROM PREVIOUS MEETINGS:

08/31/06 aCTION iTEMS:

1. Contact MMA to determine if they have assessed the MMA community for best practice towns. Action: R DeVries 090506 Complete: Answer No, however, ICMA.org has done some work in that area.

2. Conduct Web Site search for any information on best practice town governments. Action: D Dunbar 090506 Complete: No, however, MMA articles on “Best Practice” have been provided to the committee.

3. Develop draft performance criteria for recognizing selectmen for superior performance. Action: D Dunbar Post 09/28/06

4. Contact the Town of Westport Island office staff and review job description and tasks as part of the benchmarking criteria. Action: S Rhinelander 091206 Complete – report to be a part of the Compensation Committee report as an attachment.

5. Develop inflation factors/Cost of Living Adjustment data. . Action: D Bertran 090506 Complete: Data for State and Local governments was found on the internet and provided to the committee.

6. Assemble MMA salary data for selectmen, appointed officials, and office staff using 2005 MMA Salary Report. Action: D Dunbar and R DeVries 090506 Dunbar Presentation Complete: Pending: DeVries presentation. Not presented due to time constraints.

7. Contact appointed town officials thanking them for their service, assessing their satisfaction with their method of reimbursement, and asking them for any suggestions on changes in the future. Action: J. Webber 091506 In process: Summary report of findings to date presented. Final report due at next meeting. Complete – report to be a part of the Compensation Committee report as an attachment.

09/05/06 aCTION iTEMS:

1. Determine what positions that are a part of the Town of Westport Island municipal government are mandated positions. Action: J. Webber and Dave Bertran, 091506 Complete See Attachment 1

2. Develop the management structure of elected, appointed, mandated, standing committees, and ad hoc committees for the Town of Westport Island. Action: TBD, Post 09/28/06

3. Complete a more detailed look at the MMA data. Action: D Dunbar and R DeVries 091506 In-process: Held meeting with Jeri Holt at MMA offices on Friday, September 8, 2006. The raw data is used in developing the MMA Salary Analysis. There is no “regional factors” applied to the data. Some towns separate the data if a single person does the work in other cases multiple positions are captured under one heading. MMA does not attempt to segregate the amounts that are under one position into the fields that are included under that single position. When multiple positions are supplied with data the hours cannot be added up because one person is sometimes filling multiple positions and only the office hours are given. There is an annual Town Report competition and thus MMA has in their library many of the coastal towns we want to include in out database. Richard will go back to MMA and gather that data. Jeri Holt MMA has reserved the MMA library from 0800-1200 for Richard’s use on Tuesday, September 12, 2006.

4. Pull together data on municipal government costs for towns with total commitments + 25% of the Town of Westport Island Commitment with consideration given to student population/student costs and roads maintenance. Action: Richard DeVries, 091506 Not Complete - Data appeared flawed and needs to be redone.

5. Complete the draft list of cost items for running a town and send to committee members for concurrence of the list. Action: Dennis Dunbar, 091306

6. Review and mark-up the draft list of cost items for running a town and send to Dennis Dunbar. Action: All, 091406

7. Complete the cost items for running a town and report findings. Action: Dennis Dunbar, 091506

8. Complete the draft list of towns to be added to the database and send to committee members for concurrence of the list. Action: Richard DeVries, 091306 Complete

9. Review and mark-up the draft list of towns to be added to the database and send to Richard DeVries. Action: All, 091406 Complete only Sarah replied all others were assumed as agreeing to list as there was no response by the deadline.

10. Complete the data (as much as possible) for towns to be added to the database and report findings. Action: Richard DeVries, 091506 Not Complete - Data appeared flawed and needs to be redone.

New aCTION iTEMS:

09/15/06 aCTION iTEMS:

1. Determine from the selectmen what funds are available to accomplish extra tasks imposed by the state and legislative body. Action: Richard DeVries, 091906

2. Obtain a statement from Eugene Huskins on what duties the First Selectman carries out in support of his assessing tasks and what that would cost the town if he had to hire it done or he did it himself. Action: Richard DeVries, 091906

3. Assignments to complete summary write-ups by close of business 09/18/06:

a. Summary results of Office Staff and Selectmen interviews – Action: Sarah Rhinelander, 09/18/06

b. Summary results of Other Town of Westport Island Municipal Staff and Appointee interviews – Action: Joelle Webber, 09/18/06

c. Summary results of Inflation Factors and Cost of Living Adjustments reviews – Action: David Bertran, 09/18/06

d. Summary results of Coastal Towns Compensation reviews – Action: Dennis Dunbar and Richard DeVries, 09/18/06

e. Summary results of Town of Westport Island Municipal Government Costs Without Education and County Taxes Reviews – Action: Dennis Dunbar, 09/18/06

4. Complete Executive Summary after receiving the reports noted above. Action: Richard DeVries, 091906

5. Complete the wording of the four warrant articles using the salaries and stipends approved at the 09/15/06 meeting. Action: David Bertran, 09/18/06

Minutes:

The meeting commenced at 7:05 p.m.

The agenda was reviewed and approved.

The minutes from September 5, 2006 that were reviewed and approved.

Interviews with office staff and selectmen.

There have been a number of significant changes over the past five years, primarily from state and federal requirements. In addition, the number of requests from island citizens has dramatically increased. Many of these requests are impromptu and interrupt the ability of the office staff to complete their required work in responding to the state and federal mandates.

Dave noted that there is one community that had been reported on in the newspaper that simply ignored the state and federal mandates. Tom noted that such action will eventually result in subsidies being withdrawn from such towns. Dave also noted that request from persons requesting data that do not pay Maine income tax should be charged for request for support regarding estate or personal problems.

It was noted that the municipal agent is a DMV certified representative. Tom noted that in the past residents had traveled to a DMV site to register their vehicles. The creation of the position of municipal agent as a DMV certified representative allows a citizen to go to the local municipal office to register their vehicles. It was noted that that Dedee is a DMV certified representative and Wiscasset is the deputy municipal agent for Westport Island citizens. Richard noted that his next-door neighbor Donna had been hired by the district attorney's office to correct the problem with the national voter registration program. However, the resulting correction for entering the data in the revised database is very time consuming. Because of the input process required by the state it takes nearly 15 minutes per voter registration card to enter the data. In addition, the vehicle registration program for the state is a mess. Donna has stated that it will take nearly 4 years to correct the problems with the vehicle registration program. Meanwhile, the municipal agent must enter the data associated with vehicle registration after office hours are due to the complexity of the input process.

It was also noted that one of the intense workload activities is a change to a factoring system for assessing island properties. Ruth Nelson has been entering changed data into a database that will be available online in the town office. This will eliminate the need for pulling separate property cards when requests for information are made. Richard noted that there should be some way of recording the names of the persons requesting such data as it is personal financial information. It was also believed that the information on properties would also be available as read only files on the Westport Island web site. A question was raised as to if and how Ruth was being paid for that work. Ben Crehore was requested to inform the committee as to how such additional staff was paid. Ben stated that it came from the contingency fund. He noted that the selectmen's hands had been tied by a motion at the last town meeting that the contingency fund be only be used in emergencies.

It was noted that there is a need for technology improvements in the office. There is a need for updated computers, computer programs, and other technical assets. In addition, requests for information from the town office staff should be requested in advance by voice mail, e-mail, or written form. This will allow the office staff to assemble the data and provide the data without the multiple in-office interruptions that are now occurring.

Office Staff Supporting Data

Richard provided graphs on the salaries being paid to office staff in other coastal communities. The salaries being paid to the municipal agent and the combined administrative assistant, treasurer, and tax collector are on the flat portion of the curve and are generally in the middle one third of salaries paid. The only exception is the salary being paid to the town clerk. The Westport Island town clerk is the third lowest salary of the 31 coastal communities reporting town clerk salaries. Dennis noted that in his analysis the town clerk should have a $400 raise to be commensurate with the MMA 2004-2005 hourly average when adjusted for 2006 Cost of Living and our regional factor. Richard noted that from Sarah’s report the workload in the office has increased and continues to increase both from state and federal mandated tasks but also increased requests from some citizens. Dennis noted that there are two aspects to the task distribution. 1) Looking at any individual position like the selectmen or any of the office staff is hard because that distribution of work is different in every town. 2) Basically all towns have to do the relatively the same things. Sarah noted that the legislative body voted for extra monies for the first selectmen and in meeting other town people there are a significant number of citizens that feel he should be paid more. Dennis agreed that is the truth. Dave noted that there should not be a cost of living adjustment. Joelle noted that she could not run for selectmen with the current workload placed on our current selectmen and office staff. Dave reiterated that a cost of living adjustment is not appropriate in his opinion, he felt there should be regular adjustments but not necessarily on a yearly basis.

Richard made a motion to accept the salary adjustments proposed by Dave at the September 5, 2006 meeting. Dave and Dennis were opposed to the motion, and Richard retracted the motion. Richard revised his motion to accept the adjustments for the office staff, as proposed by Dave at the September 5, 2006 meeting thus excluding the selectmen and assessor agent adjustments from the motion. Dave seconded the motion and it was approved unanimously.

Assessor Supporting Data

Richard made a motion to apply the inflation factor salary adjustment to the Board of Assessor’s stipends and the assessor agent support cost. Dennis opposed the motion as there was a need to clarify the term "assessor agent". He noted that Jeri Holt of MMA had stated that the term “Assessor Agent” was wrongly being interpreted in many towns as being the person providing support to the certified Maine assessor agent. The term assessor agent should only be applied to the certified Maine assessor agent.

It was noted that the first selectman provides considerable of support to our assessor agent. There was a request that a statement be obtained from Eugene Huskins, our certified assessor agent, as to the savings such support provides to the town. There was an extended discussion on what the field agent support for the assessor agent entails and the cost thereof. The cost numbers ranged from $12.50 to $25. Ben Crehore was requested to comment on how the fund had been established. Ben noted that the original rate was $12.50 with the total hours allowed of up to 200 hours, resulting in a total cost of $2500. In subsequent years the 200 hour amount was removed from the warrant. Dave suggested that the adjustment factor of 3% be applied to the $12.50 number with a resulting cost of $13.50/hr.

Dennis made a motion to establish a pool of money for support of the assessor agent at $13.25 per hour with an not to exceed amount of $2750.00. Sarah second the motion and the motion was passed unanimously.

Dave noted that, according to MMA, the selectmen cannot create a job and fill that job with persons from the board of selectmen. Richard noted that on Westport Island the selectmen are also the board of assessors. In some towns there is a separate Board of Assessors. Jeri Holt of MMA had noted that having a separate Board of Assessors does not relive the selectmen of the mandated responsibility of being the final arbitrators in establishing valuations. In many of the coastal towns, the chairman of the board is given a stipend, as well as the other board members.

Compensation Committee Report Outline

The outline for the compensation committee report was reviewed. There was a heated discussion about including Reggie Lee's letter as one of their attachments to the report. Richard noted that Reggie Lee had come home from his job in the north woods to be at the tentatively scheduled meeting on September 12, 2006 that had been changed to September 15, 2006 to suit Dave's[RD1] schedule. There are no communications in the area where Reggie is working and hence he could not be contacted about the change. If we had had the meeting on September 12, 2006 as originally proposed Reggie would have presented his letter. Dennis noted that the letter, prepared for last year’s Town Meeting, was not a Compensation Committee work product and should not be included in the Committee’s report. He noted that it was a performance assessment and that the Committee agreed not to look at performance as part of it’s compensation analysis until objective criteria had been agreed to. Dave noted that Jack had noted we were not to deal with performance parameters. Dave noted that he had worked all day that day talking to Maine State officials with regards to various revenue-sharing programs and he was led to believe by the state person he talked to that George had provided the wrong information to the state because of our change in fiscal year, thus resulting in a reduction of 58% in state shared revenue dollars. Dave went on to say that he had other examples[RD2] where George had cost the town thousands of dollars and further Reggie's numbers could not be substantiated. As a resolution to the heated discussion Richard suggested that Reggie's letter be removed from the attachments on the compensation committee report outline. It was further agreed that the four warrants be added as attachment 1 to the compensation committee report outline. The write-up on "Summary results of coastal towns cost of the municipal government review" was deleted from the outline and writing assignments were assigned.

At this point Tom had to leave due to an early-morning commitment and Dennis replaced him as a committee member.

Selectmen Supporting Data

A long discussion on selectmen stipends and duties occurred at this point. Dave presented two written articles about how the positions of the board of selectmen have traditionally been honorary positions. He further suggested that if we needed additional support for the selectmen that the town should hire a full-time administrative assistant. Joelle suggested that we could possibly go to a five-member board of selectmen to spread the workload. None of those positions should be required to be a full-time position. Sarah noted that it is hard to go by the numbers from the MMA salary report as the towns vary so drastically in how they respond to the additional workload being required of them by state and federal mandated requirements. Richard noted that the committee’s coastal town database now contain 66 towns. Of those 66 towns 26 of those have town managers as of 2004. Five of those 26, also have an administrative assistant. Of those 5, two of the towns also have a secretary. Of the remaining 40 towns, 21 towns have administrative assistants. Four of those towns that have administrative assistants also have a secretary. Five out the remaining 19 towns only have a secretary. The increasing workload being put on the board of selectmen is certainly being recognized by other coastal towns.

Dennis presented his data on the selectmen stipends for the past 25 years. In 1985, the first selectmen received 3.19 times the amount the other selectmen received. In 1995, the first selectman received three times the amount of the other selectmen. Since that time, the first selectmen has been receiving 2.67 times the amount the other selectmen have received. Thus, the pattern of stipends for Westport Island selectmen have existed for over 25 years. If we were new town, or had a new Board of Selectmen, we probably would not have this situation when you look at the stipends given to selectmen in other towns. He also noted that compensation of Westport town officials was usually held constant for 4-5 years before an adjustment was made.

Dennis then presented the information he had updated from that presented at the September 5, 2006 meeting. This data summarizes the stipends being paid to various selectmen in towns in coastal Counties (Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Waldo, Knox and Hancock.) Results showed that we were nearly average in compensation of Selectmen except for the Chairman. For the Chairman (1^st Selectman in Westport’s case), Westport was about twice the average of other similar towns with similar organizations. Richard noted that it does not represent the tasks associated with the position of the board of selectmen on Westport Island. Dennis noted that each town had it’s own style of managing but all shared the same basic requirements and obligations. Dave noted that we should not be setting a precedent in establishing a cost-of-living adjustment for the board of selectmen. Sarah noted that it needs to be fair and reasonable. Dave stated that he could not justify a cost-of-living adjustment, however, the stipends should be adjusted regularly. Richard presented his graphs on selectmen salaries and total town costs. Errors in the numbers were noted by Dave and Richard was sent back to the drawing board to correct his graphs before the next meeting.

Richard made a motion to have two separate stipends and that an across-the-board stipend of $3100 should be paid to each of the board of selectmen. Dave seconded the motion and the motion was passed unanimously.

Richard made a motion that the chairman of the board should be paid a stipend of $5,300. Dennis opposed that motion and made a second motion that the chairman of the board should be paid a stipend of $5,150. Dave made a motion that the chairman of the board should be paid a stipend of $5,200. Dennis seconded the motion. Richard argued that a stipend of $5,200 was not reasonable for the current workload imposed on the first selectmen. Dave argued that the $5200 number was in keeping with the increases provided to the other two Selectmen in the previous motion. A vote was called. The motion passed unanimously.

Public Comment

The meeting was opened to the public.

Norma Dreyfus noted that other towns have their tax records, either in a book or on a computer. Dave noted that George intends to have a computer in the conference room in the near future, where individuals can access their records.

Mort Mendes noted that if he had been on the committee he would have come to the same conclusions as the committee had.

Ben Crehore noted that he was concerned about the assessing support at $13.50 an hour. He believed that the amount of $2750, would quickly be consumed, and that nothing would be going back to the town.

Carol Dunbar noted that she has experience in a town office and that cross-training is essential to eliminate having to wait to conduct business in the town office. She further stated that none of the office staff should be paid extra for doing other peoples work.

Richard reviewed his notes and action items. The committee was unanimous in their recommendations for salaries and stipends for all employees and elected officials. Dave noted that the results of the meeting would require four warrants and that that fact should be added to the minutes.

The meeting adjourned at 10:20 p.m.

Attachment 1:

State Mandated Positions

Selectmen

Board of Assessors

Animal Control Officer

E-911 Addressing Officer

Code Enforcement Officer

Health Officer

Emergency Management & Civil Defense

Road Commissioner

Signatures

Sarah Rhinelander

Richard DeVries

Joelle Webber

Dennis Dunbar

Dave Bertran

Reggie Lee

Discussion

Information