By David L. Campanelli
I took part in the Zoom meeting of the Warren Select Board by phone (audio only). This email is a follow up to that meeting with further information and comments. The issue addressed here is the new business item of the meeting concerning the hiring of a new person for the town road crew. This new agenda item was not published on the issued agenda for the meeting. The addition of new items on the agenda for select board is not unusual, but I suspect manipulation or mismanagement by the select board for this particular item based on prior actions concerning the road crew employment.
First, here is a brief recap of events. On March 3, 2020, at the Warren Town Meeting a budget was approved by the voters which included a full road crew (apparently five persons) as follows:
Highway Crew Salaries, $339,805.00, 4.99% increase from 2019; Benefits/Tax Withholding, $161,685.00, 19.03% increase from 2019; Director of Public Works Salary, $35,000.00, 100% increase from 2019 (new position, one-half year; full salary, $70,000 for 2021); Benefits/Tax Withholding, $23,350.00, 100% increase from 2019 (new position, one-half year).
The select board stated at the Town Meeting that they were looking for a family; thus, they included benefits for a family of four.
In mid-March, Governor Scott issued a stay-at-home order due to the COVID-19 pandemic and ordered nonessential businesses to close.
April 26, 2020, the select board terminated the employment of the road crew foreman Rae Weston. Subsequently, current road crew employee Andrew Bombard was promoted to foreman. No new hire was made or discussed publicly at that time or since till last night's meeting.
May 28, 2020, the select board held a public meeting (on Zoom) for a grievance hearing regarding terminated road crew foreman Rae Weston (Attorney Richard Cassidy). This meeting was reported in The Valley Reporter.
On June 2, 2020, at a select board meeting Andrew Cunningham stated that the results of the May 28 grievance hearing would be posted seven days after the May 28 meeting to the town website.
On June 23, 2020, at a 6 p.m. select board meeting, a new business item was discussed concerning the need to hire a new road crew employee. This new item was not included in the published agenda. The board did not vote on the hiring of a new person for the road crew. Board member Randy Graves said he was uninformed of this item prior to the meeting. The board agreed to discuss this item with the road crew foreman, Andrew Bombard. I made a two-part comment/question on the subject. First part was what happened to the new position of director of public works? The second part of the question was since the prior foreman was terminated in April it appears odd. Why did it take so long (eight weeks from April 26 to June 23)? Of course, the board chair answered with a lot of words but not really an explanation.
My impression of the select board is it was slow to act, not well-informed and appears to lack appropriate management. It was curious that board member Bob Ackland who is supposed to be responsible for the road crew did not have a lot to say. It even appeared that he was not in the meeting at one point in the discussion. Why did it take eight weeks to act on a replacement for the road crew for a budgeted position? If the select board can hire a replacement for the road crew, why are they not acting on the new position budgeted for a director of public works? Seems like it is needed based on the lack of management of the road crew recently.
Campanelli lives in Warren.
