Date: 9/20/2023
BELCHERTOWN — The Select Board met on Sept. 11 to continue an ongoing conversation about reviewing its municipal government organization chart.
Human Resources Director Joanne Misiaszek met with the Select Board at its July 10 meeting to present an update on the job description review and scope of work/budget.
She presented three options for the Select Board to choose from to look at benefits, salaries and job descriptions of town employees.
Select Board member Jen Turner said she would first like to see an organizational development review done first that looks at all the jobs that are in place to make sure Belchertown has the right organizational structure.
Misiaszek has been working with Town Administrator Steve Williams along with Select Board member Lesa Lessard Pearson to figure out a way to review the organizational chart of Belchertown’s municipal government.
Pearson said that the group has put together a rough draft for a request for proposal with a scope of work that includes everything they want accomplished.
The assessment would include a high level review and more detailed review of each position in town.
The only departments that Pearson did not include in the review for now were the Fire and Police departments, Veteran Services and Human Resources.
She added, “We know we have a $1.8 million structural deficit. Will this review remove the structural deficit? I don’t know but what I do know is that if we don’t take a good hard look at ourselves right now in municipal government and see if we can find ways in which we might be more efficient and effective and take a look at the job descriptions and take a look at the overall organization.”
The board mentioned how long an RFP process could take and discussed the idea of a second route.
Williams added that the town has had conversations with the Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management.
According to its website, the Collins Center “is dedicated to improving efficiency, effectiveness, governance and accountability at all levels of government, with a particular focus on state and local government.”
According to Williams, an advantage of using the Collins Center is it will help secure grants to cover some of the costs of the project.
“I think the biggest advantage is that we can move quickly, and we will probably get a better result with having a more interactive relationship and a very strict contract. At the moment what we are hearing from them still doesn’t meet what we are asking from them, but we are getting there,” Williams said.
Williams said if the town decides to work with the Collins Center, they will not have to go through the RFP process.
Turner added, “I think this is so long overdue and I just want to get it done with the fastest and quickest way to get to the end goal of this project. For me it is worth it. I have looked at [the Collins Center] website and they cover everything we are looking to do.”
The board eventually agreed that they would like to have Williams, Pearson and Misiaszek perfect a description of the work they would like to get done and work with the Collins Center.
Select Board Chair Ed Boscher added, “The Collins Center, this is the work they do. It’s not like hiring who has never done this before. They have done it many, many times. I have seen pieces of their work from other communities, they do a good job. I think faster is only in terms of faster than the RFP process.”
Pearson and Williams alluded to the fact that they would like to start this project soon and get it done before Belchertown Public Schools’ new Jabish Brook Middle School project starts costing the town money.
Pearson said, “I think as a board, we need to take responsibility for doing that kind of self-reflection before we make that proposal, especially considering that there may be a special assessment by the schools to cover the new school.”
Williams added, “The other thing we are really trying to do is look at the town in detail before we are presenting this new school concept to the taxpayers which will probably be next fall. We really want to have this report behind us by then so we can say we looked at things because there are going to be a lot of questions about the increased tax burden.”
Select Board member Peg Louraine mentioned the fact of how this process can negatively affect the morale and attitude of town employees who fear they may lose their job.
Pearson said, “Having been through this process as an individual in three different organizations, I completely understand the fear. I am going to assure you the idea here is not to willy-nilly remove positions. The idea here is to look at what is a very real deficient and what the resources we have are and look at how we might streamline it. That might not involve cutting positions. That is why we are having someone outside of us give their evaluation.”