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Date: 10/12/2022
WESTFIELD — After 10 months in office, Mayor Michael McCabe said during his monthly “Mayor’s Coffee Hour” on Oct. 5 at the Greater Westfield Boys & Girls Club that Westfield’s City Hall is down to just two employment vacancies, from about 20 when he first took office.
McCabe said it took much effort and a reassessment of how city employees were being compensated, but City Hall is nearly fully staffed again for the first time in a long time. Just two positions remain open: a labor attorney and an engineering position.
“Getting these done took a lot of work and a lot of learning curves,” McCabe said.
As with just about every employer across the country over the last year, the city was struggling to hire people to many positions. McCabe and the City Council then had to evaluate how these positions were being compensated and whether they were offering enough. Though in many cases the monetary compensation for the positions did increase, McCabe said that some of the key changes were in the benefits packages the city offered with them.
“We brought things up to 2022 standards,” said McCabe.
Previously, city employees had a system for paid time off in which they would accrue time off hours over weeks or months of working. This is a common system for some employers, but McCabe said the city overhauled it entirely to bring in more candidates for the open positions. Now, as soon as their 90-day probationary period ends, employees gain access to all of their annual time off hours.
“You should not have to be in a position to be worried about getting sick without having enough hours accrued to take time off,” said McCabe. “Our legal and personnel departments have done an incredible effort in this.”
Some of the positions that were filled this year include the assistant city clerk, personnel director, inspectors, a new director of weights and measures, and a new Community Development Block Grant coordinator.
“The quality of the candidates we have is phenomenal. I am happy with the ways things have turned out, even though the process was cumbersome,” said McCabe.