KENT—The Board of Selectmen Tuesday night decided on a process for administering the $12,500 fund designated for raises for non-union town employees.
The fund was suggested last fall by a newly elected First Selectman Marty Lindenmayer, who wanted to establish a new procedure for granting salary increases, rewarding longevity and initiative. Under the new system, a set scale of salary increases will reward how long the worker has been employed; the second part of the process includes a self-evaluation by the employee and suggestions about how job performance can be improved.
Lindenmayer said he is looking for a process that “is more formulaic and less subjective.”
The employees have already been granted a 3 percent cost of living increase through the budget.
The board decided that longevity increases for this year should be $200 for employees who have worked for the town for five to 10 year; $400 for 11 to 20 years, and $600 for those with 21 or more years. The longevity awards would consume about half of the $12,500.
There has been resistance to the change by some Town Hall employees, with some declaring off the record that they would not participate.
“I just want them to tell me how they can do their jobs better. It could be something like new training,” Lindenmayer told his board. “If you don’t have a lot of experience, you should be doing that.”
Lindenmayer explained that employees could get credit for improvements they made over the past two years. “If you’ve already made improvements and you don’t have one this year, it would not be fair not to consider that,” he said.
“My job will be to work with the employees. “The hard part will be saying, ‘You get 2 percent this year when someone else gets 4 percent,” he said following the meeting.
Lindenmayer will conduct the reviews of department heads, while the department heads will review their assistants. They will be guided by a Performance Objectives and Appraisal Review Forms that ask them to rate their job knowledge, work demeanor, initiative, collaboration, judgment and leadership
In discussing how to administer raises, Selectman Lynn Mellis Worthington suggested that that employees get a set increase each year, with a complete review of market structure every three years.
“We have great people,” Lindemayer said, “and we have to recognize the people we do have.”
He said he plans two weeks to complete the reviews with evaluations to be complete in November.
