In Some Towns, Officials Get Pay For Paperwork
POMFRET — As of the latest draft, the town’s administrative assistant position, which a Selectboard member held ever since it was created in 2012, was not listed in Pomfret’s 2014-2015 budget.
“The administrative assistant position is done as of the 31st of December and I don’t see any reason, unless there’s another Irene coming along, to have an administrative assistant,” said Selectboard member Neil Lamson last week.
Lamson was hired by the town to be the administrative assistant in 2012 to take care of FEMA paperwork required after Tropical Storm Irene. His position was budgeted for $9,000 this year, and he was paid about $6,750, according to the 2014 draft budget. Last year, Lamson was paid a salary of $2,985 and incurred $3,478 worth of expenses as the administrative assistant.
“We had all that FEMA stuff that had to be done and the Selectboard thought it would be good to get somebody to be able to do that,” said Lamson after the meeting. “That was me and I did it and it’s done and all the FEMA work with Irene is closed.”
As administrative assistant, Lamson was the custodian of the minutes and dealt with all the extra paperwork in town. Lamson worked about 40 hours a week for five months was paid a rate of $17 per hour.
To perform his duties, the Selectboard unanimously approved the purchase of a $2,400 Dell laptop computer for Lamson, according to the town’s minutes from July 18, 2012. The Selectboard also approved a cell phone for the administrative assistant when it established the position, according to the minutes.
Lamson said that the Selectboard had not discussed what would happen with the cell phone or laptop, but he said the items might go to the listers or to “anybody else in town government.”
No town in Windsor County is alike when it comes to assigning and deciding pay for administrative duties.
In Reading, those duties are assigned to the Selectboard chair — the Reading chair receives a $1,000 stipend and the two other Selectboard members receive $800. Bridgewater works under a similar structure, with all members receiving a $1,000 stipend, with no extra pay for administrative work.
In West Windsor, the town has a full-time administrator that’s paid $18 per hour to handle paperwork. Select Board members in West Windsor, meanwhile, receive a stipend of $1,000 each. Without the administrative position, Select Board member Tom Kenyon said it would have been “almost impossible” to get through the mountain of paperwork caused by Tropical Storm Irene.
In Killington, Selectboard members are paid a stipend ($1,000), like in Woodstock, where Village Trustees and town Selectboard members are paid $750. But those towns defer day-to-day spending decisions and administrative duties to a town or village manager.
Only one other town, Barnard, pays its Selectboard member extra for handling administrative work.
Barnard Selectboard chair Tom Morse is paid $9 an hour as a Selectman, $15 per hour as an administrative assistant and $20 an hour as an employee of the highway department. He also works at the town’s transfer station and put in extra hours filing paperwork for associated with Tropical Storm Irene damage. The town paid Morse $9,793.50 for his work in the last fiscal year.
“I can see the possibility of conflict, but we try to be careful to do our business at public meetings,” Morse said.
Morse said he goes out of his way to establish authority in each job he does for the town.
“When I work for highway, I make it very clear to road foreman that he’s the boss,” he said.
Morse says he uses his old Mac truck to haul materials for the town, because it’s six times bigger than the town truck. He says he puts in about 15 hours a week for the town. During Irene, he averaged more than 20 hours on town business.
“The work has to get done and he gets it done,” said Town Clerk Diane Rainey. “We get a very good deal.”
But would Morse still do the administrative work if he wasn’t paid for it?
“The answer is yes and no, I served for many, many years at $8 an hour, it’s not about the money, I serve because I want to give something back,” Morse said. “I’m happy to do that, but not at 15 hours a week of administrative work and running a solid waste facility.
“I’m not hearing any grudging comments about how we get stuff done for the Town of Barnard,” Morse said.
At Pomfret’s Selectboard meeting last week, residents commended Lamson for his efforts with FEMA.
“You deserve the accolade of the town,” Sherman Kent said.
Selectboard member Mark Warner explained in an email that the town wouldn’t have been able to fare as well as it did during that time if it hadn’t been for Lamson. However, Warner had hesitations about doingaway with the administrative assistant position all together.
“My primary concern? (Neil) is essentially doing the job of a town manager, administrative assistant, road commissioner, Selectboard member, and jack of all trades,” said Warner in the email. “When he gets tired of doing all these things, the town will need to fill his shoes. How do we do that?”
Warner says the duties Lamson undertakes, can’t and shouldn’t be given to other positions in town, such as the Town Clerk, Town Treasurer and other Selectboard members because of the workload those positions already have.
“Adding more duties will only serve to slow local government down even more,” Warner wrote. “The administrative assistant is not bloat. The town received more than they are aware of, at rock bottom prices.”
Although the Pomfret Selectboard members never made a decision at their meeting, Lamson was confident the extra work could be done without pay.
“Small town government works with volunteers, basically, and the volunteer that is capable and has the time of doing the particular job that needs to be done steps up to the plate,” he said