2007 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PERSONNEL BOARD
TO THE BOARD OF SELECTMEN AND THE TOWNSPEOPLE OF RANDOLPH
Your Personnel Board is once again, proud to present its annual report of its activities and accomplishments for the calendar year 2007.
The most important factor in this year, as many previous, was the serious lack of funding. We realize that all departments town wide are facing the same issues, but we are concerned that non-funding in critical areas, such as training, staffing and general expenses will have an adverse effect on all areas of our government. We will be asking Town Meeting again for additional funding in these areas.
The year was typical in requests for services from your Personnel Board and its staff. We were able to secure one low cost training session from MCAD in the area of workplace discrimination in late spring. Additional training is critical, but lack of funding is making it impossible. The Personnel Board was again rebuffed in its request for salary increases for 23 non-union employees for the second year in a row. The Finance Committee’s position is, and has been, that these increases are not necessary and have recommended no action by Town Meeting for the past several years. Your Personnel Board is extremely opposed to this unfair action.
We were called upon in several cases to decide on requests for actions such as extended sick leaves, new job titles, classification, Federal and State mandated short term leaves of absence. Additionally, we were called upon to provide assistance in the hiring process of ten positions. The Personnel Department also assumed responsibility for administering the Town’s Workers’ Compensation program and additional duties in regard to the Health Insurance program. Our participation in these negotiations helped reduce the initial proposal of a double digit premium increase to slightly over 8% with no reduction in coverage. Massachusetts Health Care Reform has placed a huge burden on employers including the Town of Randolph. A vast amount of time has been spent complying with unfunded
mandates from not only the Commonwealth, but also from the Federal Government. Hundreds of work hours are spent just complying with these mandates.
In July, the Board reorganized itself. Ms Rota was elected Chairman and Mr. Condlin was elected Vice-chairman. Ms Diamond relocated her residence and is no longer able to serve on the Board. We thank Judy for her years of service and invaluable expertise and contributions. In September, we welcomed D. Joseph Griffin to the Board. We are very excited and look forward to Mr. Griffin’s participation.
We want to remind employees and citizens alike that we are here to serve them with unqualified expertise in all areas of human resources. We take our responsibilities very seriously and look forward to every day that we can provide these services to you.
Respectfully submitted,
Jean C. Rota, Chairman
R. Neal Condlin, Vice-chairman
D. Joseph Griffin
Joseph P. McDonnell
Empetoklis L. Scleparis
Michael J. Lane, Director of Personnel
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