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Date: 8/17/2021
HADLEY – The Finance Committee discussed the potential financial impacts of the resignation of Conservation Commission staffer Janice Stone, during which Town Administrator Carolyn Brennan also highlighted the staffing struggles in other departments.
Stone, who was a part-time town employee recently resigned after the Select Board, citing “customer service” concerns, opted not to reappoint former Conservation Commission Chair Paulette Kudzeba and removed member Steve Simkowicz while reducing the size of the commission from seven to five. Stone’s was one of three related resignations as two other board members, Toni-Lyn Morelli and James Hafner, also turned in letters.
Kudzeba recently filed an open meeting law violation complaint related to the Select Board’s decision.
Finance Committee Chair Amy Fyden said a concern about the issue had been brought to her attention and she had conversations with Brennan and Treasurer Linda Sanderson and because it was a topic of concern, she indicated she wanted to offer an opportunity for discussion during the committee’s meeting.
Stone’s pay rate was one area of concern in filling that particular position.
“Right now, we’re just in the exploring phase but I don’t know the financial impact because I don’t know if we would be able to get someone at Janice’s level at what we were paying her,” Brennan said, noting Stone started around 2007 with a pay rate of $20 an hour while working 10 hours a month and never received a raise. “That’s going to be impossible to find, I can tell you that. So every day we are looking at different options.”
Addressing the town’s struggles in managing workloads in Stone’s absence, Brennan said it was a struggle.
“I can say at this point right now, the biggest consequence and the challenge is the impact on staff as far as – you can’t just let a department like that not have the support they need, so we’ve been trying to provide a lot of support to the board members of Conservation and [acting Chair] Gary [Pelissier] in particular,” Brennan said. “Janice, as you know, was probably one of the best agents in the state – definitely, as far as I know, in Western Mass. and Hampshire County. One of the best, most knowledgeable person. So, that was a huge loss.”
Brennan credited Stone with being “very helpful” in leaving information and guidance for town staff who are filling in, but admitted, “We all know, we’ve left jobs before, you can’t leave all that’s in your head and it’s going to take time to replace.” Brennan also noted in the meeting that without Stone, there is not an employee regularly available to take and accept applications, ask follow-up questions and set up the commission’s meetings, admitting, “the bench strength in town for administrative support is very weak.” Stone coordinated and posted the Conservation Commission’s most recent meeting on Aug. 10 before vacating her position.
Brennan also cautioned that filling a conservation agent position can be a significant challenge.
“If you were to look around at area communities, especially ones our size, to try to fill that position is extremely difficult,” she said. “You’re going to see that across the board. It’s one of the concerns for municipalities – replacing municipal positions is getting harder and harder, especially in the finance area. But this in particular, conservation, is very difficult. It’s also difficult for a small town to look appealing for just a part-time position.”
Brennan said she has been assessing the needs of Town Hall and identified other departments facing staffing difficulties. In one area, she said, a department had two new employees in what she called “crucial positions” with little training. She said these issues tend to impact one another within the confines of the town’s operations.
Brennan said she met with Planning Board Clerk Bill Dwyer and with the Human Resources Director Edward O’Connor as well as Stone before her departure to discuss administrative concerns of the Planning Board and the Community Preservation Act (CPA) Committee that are similar to those currently faced by the Conservation Commission.
“The positive is we’re looking at this as an opportunity now – is there a position we could create that could help support Planning, CPA and Conservation as well as it’s just been very evident that there’s administrative support within the departments to do minutes?” Brennan said, adding that “almost every department is behind in minutes, some for a long period of time.”
Brennan also pointed a reorganization of the Department of Public Works (DPW) when an employee left and another position was reduced from full-time to part-time as another instance in which support for a department has deteriorated. The person in the part-time position has also since left, leaving the town with a full-time temporary employee while Sanderson’s assistant is also working part-time to assist the DPW.
Brennan said she included the other departments in her report because “it’s an ever-changing scenario” but she indicated her belief that she and Sanderson could develop solutions to improve support for several departments. She said while nothing has been brought to the Select Board, Brennan has had conversations with Fyden and Sanderson to identify the monetary resources available to fill in employment and support gaps.
“What we were kind of touching on when we were talking with Amy is with the number of boards that are looking for part time help, seeing if we can integrate that into this position in Town Hall which would provide a full-time job for someone and they would be able to provide the assistance of doing the minutes for these meetings. The basic clerical is definitely something we think we could cover that way, pulling together funding from the various departments that have some money for some part-time [work],” Sanderson said, adding they were also contemplating approaching the CPA Committee about using CPA monies to fund their portion of the support for this position.
As part of the continuing conversation, Fyden stressed these were important conversations for future planning that extend beyond the Conservation Commission. “I know it’s been hard because with the pandemic we have been so tight, but we want to think about some of these things because if one person leaves, in this particular case they didn’t reappoint, but what if someone passed away, what if something happened to someone? We need to have plans in place. Let’s use the Planning Board as an example. If we lose the Planning Board, we’re in big trouble, so we’re going to have to make some plans and we’re going to have to think about stepping up down the road to some of these committees that are so important like this and having some support because this is what happens to us. It ends up costing us when a volunteer leaves.”
Sanderson said in reply, “I agree, Amy, that there are a lot of boards that are doing work that will not be replaced by the next set of volunteers. We are seeing that as there is a turnover of volunteers on various boards … That’s why we have broadened the discussion in the last couple of weeks beyond the immediate issue with Conservation and looking for support for other boards. There are plenty of other boards where all of the information is in the back of a truck or in a basement or in a dining room … We want to start providing better support initially and then when you provide the support, you have the information.”
Sanderson also admitted a major hurdle that remains as they explore options is finding a solution for the more advanced support Stone previously provided to the Conservation Commission. The town’s most immediate need, Brennan stressed, remained the Conservation Commission vacancy and finding someone who could perform more than clerical duties in either a temporary or permanent capacity.
“We don’t know how far Conservation can go with just clerical support because there are so many implications of their decisions and so many rules and regulations and reporting to the state and incorporating the state’s regulations with the town’s bylaws,” Sanderson said. “These are things that anyone who has been on [the Conservation Commission] for a while, they have acquired this base of knowledge over time. We now need to make other plans.”
Brennan said she had coordinated a conference call with a conservation agent in Wilbraham who assists towns “who are kind of going through transitions like this” or cannot fill a vacancy on a per diem basis. In addition to her position in Hadley, Brennan is a member of Wilbraham’s Board of Selectmen. Sanderson also said internal training was a possible option, but that might require an adjustment to the budget.
She added the situation with the Conservation Commission may also require the assistance of legal counsel, which would present an additional expense. She explained Stone’s experience and expertise often prevented the need for that expense previously.
Fyden asked about the possibility of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission providing support, to which Brennan replied that it was Stone’s recommendation that the town should find someone with a singular focus on Hadley. Fyden called the PVPC “a nice backup to have” to which Brennan agreed.
Committee member Valerie Hood also asked if those who issued resignations would return if the Select Board reconsidered its decision. Brennan said she has conversations with those individuals and initially they were open to the possibility, but said she could not answer that now.
Hood continued, “As a small business owner, I understand the urge when you see a problem, you just want to fix it in the most efficient manner possible. But it seems to me that the fix has cause so much greater problem than just the customer service problem we had before. So I’m wondering if there’s some way we can kind of reset and start from zero again and maybe think of some other solutions to the customer service problem that don’t interrupt our projects on Route 9 and put at risk our ability to piggyback the new plumbing with the work that can be done on Route 9.”
Brennan said, “Based on what I’m seeing at their meetings, I don’t think they’re going to change their mind.” She also said the Massachusetts Department of Transportation work on Route 9 would move forward.
In other budget discussion, Sanderson told the Finance Committee that while total figures were not yet available, in terms of budget, the results exceeded expectations. However, she also noted those expectations had been lowered as a result of the pandemic.
“Under all of the circumstances, the town has done very well, stepping up to what they needed to do in this past year,” she said, adding now may be a time to consider, for example, replenishing the Other Post Employment Benefits Fund or stabilization funds with the anticipated increase in available free cash. “I would love to have Finance Committee to work with when we have those year end reports.”
She also said the town should receive an additional $500,000 to $600,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding this week, but she admitted the town has yet to receive quality advice on how to best use the money.
“On the other hand, we also have a few years to use this money, so we have some options here to maybe settle in and wait and see. I think we need to commit the money by some time in 2026 and we have to have it spend by some point in 2027,” she said. “So we have some time. We can gather the money; we can make some good plans. We should have plenty of good money from making some capital plans and that’s also work we should get going on in the fall. A certain amount of it can be used for revenue replacement – probably less of it than we were anticipating. I think we actually will have come out ahead and that’s what we’ll have to look at again too.”