 We're opening. Okay. Besides what we've been chit chatting about. Public comment. Do we have any folks from out there in the. Community. Wanting to comment. All right. Reports and comments about progress, getting employee representative for the board. What's the word on that? There was suggestions last time that Paul had somebody in mind. And I don't know. Yes, Paul did. Paul did have someone in mind and he did approach him with no substantive response. So he's identified five other people and put K's logar. In charge of contacting them. That includes. Two former recreation directors, a health director, a police officer. And all former and a former director of senior services. So we have their names. And I really hope to. Next meeting give you some names as well. Okay. Good. Well. That's a little bit of progress. But we're not there yet. And the, in a minute, we're going to, well, at the end of the meeting, I guess we're going to talk about our next meeting and just for your information. If you don't know it. If you don't know it already, Melissa, often the March meeting is combined with. Before or after a townwide employees meeting. At least the, the group that we represent more or less. And. Sure. We have somebody, they have somebody. To more or less represent them on the board. And because I'm new to this position, can you tell me, is that something that we're going to be. Doing a setting up in our office and inviting you to. I actually don't know how it's done. Internally. We. It's advertised, I'm sure. The folks are no, and. The board meets the board is there. Actually, we'll, we'll decide and we definitely pause in, but on this, the last couple of years, of course, it's been on zoom. And I don't know whether we want to think about doing it in person. Again, this year. And. Again, for your information, Melissa, it's, it's really a, for me. And I think the rest of the board feels this way. It's, it's a listening session. It's, you know, what's on your minds, what's going on, what do we need to be attending to. And then Paul usually has some announcements of great interest to the folks regarding any important changes in colas or health insurance or any of the other things. And then there's lots of questions. And again, we can decide this at the end of the meeting. I think in general what we've done is we've had this, the meeting with the employees first and then sort of. That meeting is terminated and then we immediately reconvene as a personnel board meeting and may make some decisions or act on some of the things we've learned in that meeting. So. All right, let's see. So we're not quite there yet getting. An employee representative for the board. Moving down the agenda. Can we get an update on the full time non-union compensation and classification study? I think it would do in from, from RFPs or I think there's a different term for the government. But what's happening there, Melissa? Well, we've identified the company will work with and that is they have a great reputation. I've talked to a lot of different HR directors and some town managers about their work with them and they thought they did a fabulous job. And so a contract's being prepared. And I expect that work will start next month. Great. Is there a timeline, a due date? Do they want to have it done by the end of the summer or Christmas or July? They carved out a year, but I think that it's possible that it could be four and a half months. I've heard that thrown out there, but that seems a little short to me. So we're aiming for a year. Okay. And maybe I can give an update as to that timeline once, once that contract is signed and I can, we can speak about the nitty gritty of the work. Well, I hope it can be done in less than a year. And this is just my experience. I think you all may know Parkinson's law, which is work expands to fill the time available. And if a deadline is set, then people will figure out how to get busy near the end of the deadline and do it. That's the same way many of us as well. I often work as a person who has to write papers and I, I'm certain students do that when they have to write papers and prepare for exams. So, of course, we don't want any, any shortcuts to be made in doing this study. But we've had a couple of these done before, and I don't think they took anywhere near as long as a year. So Kay might be able to comment on that or even, even Paul. I'll get clarification on that timeline for you. Yeah. Colleagues, any questions or comments on this? Yeah, I have a question. Could you remind me exactly what this study will. What it focuses on. Just give, yeah, because we have so many different ways of looking at salaries and positions. So what are we looking for with. So what we're, what we're going to do is be looking at comparable. As a company. So in public municipal law and also in private for specialized positions to see, we're going to be asking many different companies and agencies, what they're paying their people, and then we're going to see where we fall on that scale. And I think our goal is to be an employer of choice. And so we want to be competitive with our wages. So in the end, it may be that we update our compensation and our classification scale so that certain positions may be classified in a different way or paid in a different class with a different range. If it's appropriate. Last time this was done was 10 years ago. And so a lot has changed during that time. So we'll see if we're competitive and if we're not, we're going to try to make ourselves more competitive. And that'll be for non units, not in the school system. Okay. Well, that's good. I'm happy to hear that you're talking about private too, because I generally the discussion is how do we compare to other towns. And that I think is holding us back from the reality. That we're, that shouldn't be the only base compared. That we compare ourselves to. So yeah, we got to be real. You want good people. They're going to, yeah, they're going to choose. Yeah. I'm going to add a little bit to what Melissa was saying. We actually did one of these just a couple of years ago for the part-time employees. And one of the drivers of that study, and I think of this as well is with the, how long did it take four years of minimum wage increases. And that was $15 an hour that has resulted in some pay compression. And so this study should take a look at that and see what adjustments might be made to be competitive. Attracting new employees being fair to employees who've been around a few years and are at higher classification or higher step levels to make sure that their amount of pay appropriately represents the experience that they bring to the job so that it's not that everybody, if you keep upping the minimum wage and don't do anything for the people one or two levels above that, then pretty soon there's not much of a difference. I think it will, it should sort of rebalance the whole pay structure system. And in that way, you know, keep us competitive and keep us, keep us fair. That's my little addition to Melissa's explanation of what we're doing here. Okay, glad that is going to start soon. And that company has been notified that they are the consultants of choice, I guess we should say. Well, I think that's what the, I can't really say for sure. Simone in procurement is working on that contract. So I don't know that she was reached out. But when I told her to go after discussing with Paul, we said we were going to go forward with that contract. She's supposed to reach out to them. So I think she's probably done that. And then that, yeah. Good. Good. This is. Slow but sure we're getting there. Meanwhile, update on the remote work policy. I think that was something else you were going to be spending a little time on Melissa. A lot of time. Yes. I put in, I put in a lot of work. I have about seven pages of a draft policy. It's not complete. It's going to take a little bit more work. And in the next month or two, I'm going to be calling together the first group to provide input into that. Which will. Involve this group and some members of leadership, I expect. Last time we were here, we spoke about whether we could do that through a. The shared drive or a one drive, I think. But I've, I think that. Due to the open meeting law. That we may have to. Maybe discuss in a special meeting or have edits sent to me when we're ready to review that. Do we have any thoughts on that? I don't know. It doesn't immediately strike me that this. Is going to be governed by an open meeting law. But I haven't thought about it. So, you know, maybe. We can give some thought because I am new to this. The open meeting law. So I would love this. Groups thought as to that process. And then again, we're not quite ready to review. So we could talk about this. For another meeting. Well, I'm sure you know this already, but the person to go with questions like go to with questions like that is Kay. Okay. Good. Okay. I'll check it needs to be. To be done. Okay. And do you know, just for my own. Edification. It is. Being able to work remotely. A hot issue these days. I know there were times. During COVID when. Some people were enabled and allowed and could perform their duties remotely. And then there were some who really, you know, had to come in. You know, given the nature of their job. Kind of had to come in. Work. And I think there were from time to time, some sparks that flew. Over who got to do one or. The other, do you know now. And all the time that you've been here. Almost two months. Almost eight weeks. Is that. Any kind of an issue or folks. You know, kind of gotten over it. I haven't heard any issues around it. I think people all expect this to come down. We're thinking in terms of. Of course, what does your position allow this to happen. For you to work remotely. But. We're thinking about. Coverage and how we can have coverage without. Providing a person an opportunity to telework. Cross training and stuff like that. So I think that prior to my time here, there was an identification of positions. That whoever made this list. That is now in the HR drive identified positions that would. Be well suited for telework and others that would not. And I think that's just the nature of the job. Sometimes it will probably be a hot topic. But I think that if we don't offer telework opportunities, then we're missing out on being a competitive employer. Yeah. Yeah. So I think I haven't heard it, but I fully expect that there might be some blowback. I am my last position. We did roll out a telework policy. And I am. Pleased to say that we didn't get the blowback. I don't know if it's because. It had been fleshed out during COVID, which positions were able to work remotely and which weren't. But I was surprised by the lack of blowback there. But we'll say I do expect we'll hear something. Okay. All right. Well. That could be something discussed at the townwide employees. Right. Meeting that is coming up soon. Moving down the agenda update on personnel procedures, manual committee. Review. Yeah. We've met twice. We're meeting bi-weekly. I think we've made like really good progress. We've had some great conversation. The way we're moving. I expect we'll be done by May. We're doing, we're taking about 10 pages a week. And. But we're delving deep into it. So. I think we're doing great. And I hope that we'll have something for you guys to review in the spring. I guess the late spring. All right. Did we, did we talk a little bit last time about what the role of the board is in this. Process. So what is the role. Yeah. In this process. I mean. Just way back when, when we were doing one of these revisions, the board was very active and initiate unit. And then we realized, well, we're not that great at it. And. So Deb Bradway formed these. This, this team that turned out to, I think, do a great job and had the side benefit of. Little bit of team building. For them, but. Do let me ask my colleagues. Do any of you actually have the current personnel procedures manual? I actually found it. I'll hear. I think that's what it looks like. I don't know. Does that look. That looks familiar. That looks great. Okay. So, and we did do a lot of. I remember. Doing a lot of tweaking. Almost meeting by meeting for quite a few months. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. They were involved. And then I think Deb saved us. From there. I would say that there. If it's not, you know, if you don't want to participate. In a meeting by meeting. Revision, we could absolutely send you, you know, the red lines copy. But also there are some provisions and terms that I would love to bring to a meeting to discuss. Because, you know, this manual predates the change of to the town council. And I just want to make sure that we are clear on the role of the personnel board and that that's accurately reflected. In the manual. That's a good point. Yep. Yep. Okay. So that work is underway. And. May is your goal for getting that done. Is that right? I think so, based on my math. Yeah. About 10 pages every two weeks. Okay. Maybe sometimes we'll, we'll. Tackle more, maybe less. But we're, I think we're going at a great pace. Now, just for my own curiosity, when that group meets our, is this an in person meeting at town hall more or less? The first meeting was in person. The second meeting was on zoom and it made more sense to do that. By video conference, because then we can look at the document share. And, and see the red lines. Right. Okay. All right. Comments from my. Board colleagues. Well, back to. Topic we were complaining about earlier. I don't know if you had arrived then or not, but that's the conflict of interest training that. Some of us. Well, me and it looks like. Tammy. Have had a great deal of personal conflict. Trying to do it. Get that system. To work. I wish Elizabeth was able to speak because I think that she has received some, I think some input on that. And some people have had issues. I was able to do it without much problem. And I thought it was much more interesting than in the past. So I got stuck in one that I had to do over and over and over again. And it wouldn't check me off. So. I got in touch with Sue. A debt. And she called the. Her contact person there and we, we managed to get over that. Is like, I had, I had done several of them and got checked off and then got. Stuck in one that just wouldn't move on. So I was able to do that. I was able to print out a new program. It's better than the previous ones, which I've done. Four or five times. Me, me too. I mean, it was a groundhog day all over again. In terms of. Of doing it. I was able to print out something like this. Which is. It just says I got the policy. I don't think it means I'm now, you know, smart enough to. I don't know what it acknowledges that you. Are engaged in the training. Okay. And there is a certificate that you've completed it, that you get at the end. Okay. But get in touch with Sue, because she's the main contact person. With the state ethics. So when you do the training, Sue will get automatic notification that it's done and she can help you troubleshoot. And then you'll also, that's, you can electronically acknowledge receipt of the summary. Of conflict of interest law, which is what that certificate is. But when you press the button electronically, Sue also gets that. Okay. So it used to be that in the past, we had to provide her the physical certificates. And I believe the conflict of interest training is due every two years. And I think the acknowledgement of receipt of the conflict of summary, the conflict of interest law summary is due every year. So Sue will just. Be sending notices and we'll send them on to you whenever there's such a requirement. And if, and we're just asking if you can try to complete that training and acknowledge the receipt. Within the next couple of months, I think. So I'll probably do a audit. In the spring, late spring. So. I will make another effort at this and I encourage my colleagues to do the same. I might suggest to myself and maybe my colleagues. Try to start doing this in a really good mood. Because that may change quickly. And if you start. In a bad mood. You're going to go downhill. Really fast. Unless this Susan can. Grease the skids for me. And help me get through it. Without. Okay. I'm just going to someone's at the door. Excuse me. Okay. All right. The main thing that says is that you need Chrome. Yeah. As your. Yeah. I'm just going to go through it. Which I've got on my. Yeah, I do too, but I got, I got stuck in one. And as I said, did it six different times. And I. Called Sue. Emailed Sue. I shall try that. Maybe that will help. Okay. I'm just taking over, I think, because the next agenda. Item is the staffing report. I don't know what the old one was like, so I have nothing to compare it to myself. Okay. Staffing report. Yes. So for the staffing report, we had four. People that. Left. One was a retired staff member. Okay. Okay. I think we're about there unless somebody else wants to join my complaining about the conflict of interest training. Yeah. I took it myself. And it's, I think it maybe took about an hour and length. I don't know what the old one was like. So I have nothing to compare it to myself. Okay. Okay. I think we're about there. I don't know what the old one was a retirement three resigned. Of the resignations. One was personal reasons. I believe there was some family things going on. And the other two just got other opportunities elsewhere that I guess they couldn't pass up. And for the new hires, we had three. Somebody at public works, the DBW electrician. And I think it was a little bit of an emergency dispatcher. Yeah. Who clearly is the replacement. For the man who retired after 35 years with the town. I hope there was a little bit of. Celebrating that long service. Absolutely. Worthy. I guess 35 years. That's, that's pretty. Yeah, that's a long time. Yes. And the others much shorter terms. In fact. One person, the patrolman only 11 months. I'm curious. Elizabeth, do you know any particulars there? From what I've heard. They may have been approached by the state police. But that's as much as I know. Okay. I can. The case that we're kind of upset when. A patrolman leaves and I know, I think Paul was really mad. A couple of years ago, because it doesn't the town pay a lot of money for their training to go to the police academy and then. Yes. Yes. And then they, they moved to some other police department. And we've put at the cost of their becoming qualified to be a policeman and. Right. Yeah, I'm not certain. I know there are academy fees. I'm not sure how that's worked out. Amongst the department. Okay. And just other positions that we're currently recruiting for. Firefighters. We've identified kind of a group of who we want to move forward with. So that will be happening hopefully in the next month or so. There's an assistant collector position. Our current assistant collectors retiring. So that position is going to be built. Soon. A customer. Assistant to, which is one of the four that left. And a senior accountant. Okay. Is Chris. Fully staffed up now more or less. We've completed interviews. There's all of the responders are full. The positions. There's the implementation project manager position. That's open. We have done interviews and send our recommendations to Paul and are just waiting for his approval of who to proceed with. But they've identified a candidate. Okay. And D E I. As all the people that are in that department, which is a pretty small department. Yeah, I believe it's just two. So I don't know if there's any other. Plans to expand that department. Okay. That's Elizabeth and whoever the other one is right. Pamela and Jennifer. I'm a young. Yeah. Okay. You're Elizabeth. Okay. Yes. Yes. All right. Any questions, comments about the staffing report? I will observe. We lost a little bit of diversity with these folks who have left. I agree. I noticed that as well. Didn't regain it any with the people we've hired. So I'm sure that's a little. Concerning, I think the town's been working real hard to. Yeah. Yeah. They're certainly making it a priority. Keep a diverse workforce. And it's a bit of a shame when we lose. Some folks that we want to be. With us. And so I hope in whatever happens with the new, with the position that you're trying to fill, I hope there's. Some diverse. Candidates and maybe some diverse appointments. So. Hello. Board members. Comments, concerns. Observation. Can we now move to a really exciting part of the agenda, which is approving the minutes of our January 18th. Meeting. They look good to me. Do I hear a motion to. Motion. Motion. Second. Any additions, corrections. Commas to insert. Punctuation points. All in favor say aye. Aye. And thank you, Elizabeth. Yes. No problem. You're welcome. Yep. So. Elizabeth is doing a great job keeping the minutes. For us. And now. We should talk about the next personnel board meeting. And I really am sorry that Paul isn't here. If we do it when regular normally scheduled, it would be Wednesday, March the 15th. And as I said at the outset. March is often then, but not always. When we have the meeting with the employees. And. And I just want to know whether that is from his perspective, a good. A good time to do it. I think we did it in March last year. But I think the year before that it might have been shut back to. April or even May. He likes to do it when there's something important to pass on. To the. Employees. Yeah. That, you know, that he would know a month later if we. You know, he would know a month later. So. Sure. We can Melissa and I can try to touch base with him to see what. He had in mind. Well, Should we pencil that in? I think we pencil it in or with the question mark that's already on the agenda. As far as I'm concerned, let's. Well. Excuse me. We could. We could still have a personnel board meeting on March the 15th. Even if the. Meeting with the town employees is going to be back back another month. So let's, you know, leave that with a question marker and pencil on your, you know, on your own. Calendars. And then we can also. Review, I'll review with. Melissa and Paul. Whether we indeed. Should even have a board meeting. That day, because once in a while. We actually say, well, you know what, there isn't a lot of hot stuff that we have to be dealing with. So let's just. Hang on. All right. So keep that on your calendars with a question mark. And. Soon. Elizabeth, as you can get some confirmation from Paul. About the. Employees being scheduled for the meeting then. Sure. Get back to us because it means the board members need to, you know, allow a little more time than we usually do for our. For our own meeting. Or it's even possible that. It's not on a Wednesday. All right. Any other topics that I didn't reasonably anticipate. 48 hours ago. Dance of our meeting. I'm kind of sorry, Paul isn't here because I was reading something in the paper today and about. The town council is thinking about going on a little retreat. And I just sort of want to. Be appreciative and sympathetic to Paul, who's just dealing with so much stuff. And I'm. You know, the. Town council meetings are. Not as boring as some of us might wish they were. I sort of picked up on that too. Yeah. Whatever can be done to help them. Be. Functional. Group. Trying to do what they would think is best and trying to be. The. Helpful and cooperative. With their colleagues. That's, I think. Seeming to be quite a challenge for us. Recently. Makes me think about all the years of. The exceptionally dysfunctional school committee. Yeah. And it flares every so often, but. There's a, you know, the state. Massachusetts. School committee. Association mask or something. Anyway. They came in and did a lot of work on. What it means to collaborate and reach consensus and how you communicate with each other. And so it was became so. Personal and ridiculous. But I do wonder if there are resources. Like, you know, anyway, our school committee. Is a highly political. Important. Governing thinking. Dialogical body. And I wonder about what. Synergies there are in the town between that body and the town council of what could be learned or gained. And I think that the work in this town includes how we collaborate. So. I just think about that. Well, I do too. And I, I often think that. All deserves a little retreat. Because he's. That's right. And all the financial stuff, the school stuff, the cost of the. New school building the cost of the track. And not to mention L I B R A R Y. Right. Cost of that. And I guess they've shaved some dollars off of that. Or was that the new school that I think they. Maybe both. Yeah. And that's my view. I believe what I watch those meetings and what I'm left with is a concern that people are not. Going to want to get involved in town government or town. Because there's just. And that's the same for the school committee. It's just, it's people don't want to put themselves out there because they're going to get it. It's ridiculous. It's totally. We've never seen Amherst in this way before for so many reasons. It's so bad. Yeah. Yeah. Too bad. All right. Well, thanks, Tony, for bringing that up. Well, yeah, sure. I think I'll just go do my conflict of interest now to feel better. Okay. Thanks everybody. Okay, thanks. All right. Thank you. Bye bye. Take care. Paul, he was dearly missed. Yeah. Don't be afraid of meeting with a personnel board, please. All right. See you all soon. Bye bye. Bye bye.