Town of Johnson
Selectboard Work Session
Monday, July 6, 2009
Upstairs, Johnson Municipal Building
APPROVED
Selectboard Members present: Howard Romero, Rocky Hooper, Margo Warden, Doug Molde
Others present: Duncan Hastings; Administrator, Rosemary Audibert; Town Clerk, Steve Smith; Road Foreman; Yvonne Martin; Lister.
The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm.
Doug made a motion to appoint Howard as Vice Chair of the select board. Margo seconded. There were no other nominations. All in favor. Motion approved.
Howard stated that the first order of business was to set a tax rate. Duncan explained that Chesamore Hall was not included in the amount to be raised by taxes due to the VSC appeal and advice from the Town attorney. Duncan explained that the 1985 vote to exempt the Hall was not valid and would need to be re-voted.
Margo moved to set a tax rate of .7693. Rocky seconded. Unanimous in favor. Motion approved.
Highway wages:
Duncan briefed the board regarding where the wages were set at budget time. He handed out a budget sheet. There was a lot of discussion about this action and why the board proposed the wages they had. There was a strong sentiment that the highway employees were valued employees and that they should receive the same increase as other employees under normal circumstances. Duncan stated that there was no question that they deserved it; just that it was not budgeted and it would be a departure of the stated policy that the board instituted just a couple months ago when they developed the budget. Doug stated that the issue seemed to be a policy issue rather than a merit or monetary issue. Rocky stated the crew was doing a good job and maybe the board didn’t make the right decision at budget time. He thought they should get the same money. Margo said she agreed and would like to be able to pay 2%.
Rocky made a motion to set the Highway employees increase at 2%. Margo seconded. Action was postponed until Eric could arrive. Duncan stated that Eric would be available by phone.
Eric arrived at 8:00pm.
The Board discussed paving plan for 2009. After discussion the board decided to postpone paving until Feb or March of 2010 to see where the Town was financially.
The Board resumed discussion on wages. Eric stated that he felt the Board should hold to the budget. He reminded the Board that Highway employees had received a large increase in wages when they reduced the work week to 40 hours. The Highway Department was told then that the Board wanted to bring their wages back down to somewhere above the midpoint of average wages for similar towns this size. Steve Smith stated that he thought it was a fairness issue. If other employees got 1% he would be happy. The highway employees took a cut in pay when they went down to 40 hours and now they are getting hit again. Eric stated that they also got a good increase in pay when the 40 hour work week was imposed and they work 5 hours less for roughly the same pay. Steve agreed that the Board worked with the Highway department to lessen the pain and had been fair in the past.
After further discussion Duncan stated that Rosemary needed some sort of decision on wages tonight as we have started the new fiscal year. He suggested that the Board adopt the budgeted salaries tonight and he would come back at the regular meeting with a review and comparison of VLCT wages and salary survey, and if need be the Highway employee wages could be adjusted then.
Margo rescinded her second to increase Highway department wages. Rocky rescinded his motion to increase wages.
Eric moved to adopt the budgeted salaries and to have Duncan come back to the Board with wage comparisons at the next meeting. Doug seconded. All in favor. Motion approved.
Doug asked about the Pearl Street bridge cross walk. Steve said that the Village was going to paint a new crosswalk.
Rocky moved to adjourn. Margo seconded. Unanimous in favor.
The work session adjourned at 8:35pm.
Respectfully submitted by,
Duncan Hastings