East Longmeadow selectmen appoint fifth health agent in eight months

Date: 2/19/2015

EAST?LONGMEADOW – The Board of Selectmen recently appointed Lois Luniewicz as the town’s part-time health agent. She is the fifth part-time health agent the board has appointed in eight months for the same position.

Selectman William Gorman, who is also chairman of the Board of Health, told Reminder Publications Luniewicz was the only person qualified for the position out of 14 applicants. She is being paid $30 per hour and working 18 hours a week.

“As a selectmen, I’ve been through five health agents all for the same reason,” he added. “They get something better that pays more and they leave and the ones we get are out of town, most of them. The last lady [Dawn Toon] was from Sturbridge and she ended up getting a job at [the University of Massachusetts].” 

Toon received $22 an hour for 15 hours a week, he noted.

“With 18 hours, all we can do is put out the fires,” Gorman said. “We don’t go out for the public, for the tax payer, and do what we’re supposed to be doing. If people get sick over something and we didn’t inspect it, the town could get sued.” 

Gorman said he has been “battling with the other selectmen” over the pay rate for the part-time health agent position, which initially was $15 an hour.

“They’re all knowledgeable and the ones we’ve had have all had their credentials, but the thing is, that’s not enough money to keep them here,” he added. “We need people that have credentials and those are Massachusetts state laws. I can’t just get any schmuck off the street because they want a job.”
    Board of Selectmen Chair Paul Federici said at the board’s Feb. 3 meeting that the health agent issue  has been an “eternal struggle.” 

He added, “We all know that we need a full-time health agent. We all know what the pay should be.”

The board is also hoping to hire a full-time health agent for 37.5 hours a week, pending an article for the position is added to the Annual Town Meeting warrant and subsequently if residents choose to vote in favor of any potential article, Gorman said.

“We should definitively have a full-time health agent because if anything for the taxpayers and the public, you go into these restaurants and places [and] if you don’t inspect them then they go back to their old habits,” he added.

Luniewicz stated during her interview at the board’s Feb. 3 meeting that she would only be able to work two days a week for nine hours each day. She began working last week. She retired from the town of Grafton, where she worked for a decade.

“After a year of working on my house and doing some other things, I felt that I really wanted to get back into public health after being away from it,” she said. “But I don’t want to give away my retirement. For that reason, because of Massachusetts General Law, I am restricted to 18 hours a week.”

Luniewicz also lives an hour and a half from East Longmeadow and works on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

“Of course, I understand that things come up,” she added. “There are emergencies that happen. Not only would I also be available by phone, text, and email, but if the situation arose and you really needed me, I would be here. I would just take me a little while to get here. And to be honest with you, in the 10 years that I worked in Grafton, I only had to go out on perhaps two [emergency] calls.” 

When she left Grafton she was earning “close to $33 an hour” and was a salaried employee. She also received travel pay. During the interview she considered the wage of $22 an hour to be “pretty low.”

The board agreed to pay Grafton $30 an hour from funds in the fiscal year 2015 budget.

Luniewicz said she could likely work until the Annual Town Meeting in May, at which point the town might decide to hire a full-time health agent.

“I also want you to be aware that there are other part-time positions that I've applied for,” she added. “There’s no guarantee I’ll be invited in for an interview. There’s no guarantee that I’ll be offered a position, but in the event that that were to happen, I would certainly try to give you as much notice as possible [and] work with the two communities so that I don’t leave you hanging, so that I can satisfy them as well.”