PERSONNEL & ADMINISTRATION

Tuesday, January 21, 2025 - 10:00 AM

Meg Wood, Chairperson

JoePete Wilson, Vice-Chairperson

Chairwoman Wood called this Personnel Meeting to order at 10:00 am with the following Supervisors in attendance: Matthew Brassard, Chris Clark, Robin DeLoria, Shaun Gillilland, Ken Hughes, Charlie Harrington, Steve McNally, Cathleen Reusser, Matt Stanley, Ike Tyler, Joe Pete Wilson, Margaret Wood and Mark Wright.  Clayton Barber, Derek Doty, James Monty, Favor Smith and Davina Thurston were excused. 

Department Heads present:  James Dougan, Judy Garrison, Mary McGowan, Dan Manning, Jennifer Mascarenas, Michael Mascarenas and Jack Moulton.

Also present:  William Tansey.

News media: None present.

WOOD: Good morning everyone.  This is the personnel and administration meeting and the first person up is Jennifer Mascarenas.

J.MASCARENAS:  Good morning. I have my monthly report and I do have the updated vacancy list. I believe we are at 59 vacant positions as of the end of December.

WOOD: Alright does anyone have any questions?  Any remarks?  Jenn you and I spoke a little bit about the recruitment and retention portion of the committee and I spoke with a couple of members of the committee and since a lot of issues have been taken care of we seem to be in agreement that we will resuscitate meetings as needed at this point and if you need anything you will let us know.

MASCARENAS: If I could just add one thing, this is kind of anecdotal you know we’ve been working a lot on this for a long time and the board in particular doesn’t see the end product right we move onto something else and that’s just the way our world works. I can tell you starting next Monday and I don’t want to jinx it but we have an individual that is going to return to county employment somebody who is highly skilled that left employment at the county probably year and a half ago and went to the State because the pay was better, the opportunity was better and those types of things. Well that individual is coming back. Some of the things we did contractually and added the addition of benefits that would stick with that individual when they return so it’s a really good story and it’s a real good win for Jim to get an individual back that’s really high skilled.  It just speaks to the things we are doing and the board is allowing us to do has really made a difference so just so you know.

TYLER: What position Michael?

MASCARENAS:  It’s in the buildings and grounds department again somebody that was with us for an awful long time so it couldn’t come at a better time to be quite honest when we are struggling for experience to get somebody back that really knows our system well and I’m really happy.

MCNALLY: Same rate of pay as he left?

MASCARENAS: Yeah that’s the nice part. There’s a difference in our contract that wouldn’t of allowed you to do that if you had left over a year we negotiated that differently and this year anybody that would returns because we were trying attract that forty something year old demographic who was real difficult for them to jump ship with retirement and health insurance and all those rules that were in place before so yeah, they’ll come back and they will return to levels and benefit prior to them leaving so we’ll look at their original anniversary date and they’ll get time off based on that. Their pay will be based on that etc. it’s a good thing and it’s helpful so just something good to know.

WOOD: That’s great.  Anymore comments for Jen?  Thank you very much. Judy –

GARRISON: Good morning. I just submitted a monthly report. I do not have anything in addition to that unless anyone has any questions for me?

WOOD: Any questions? Any remarks?  This is fast.  Okay, thank you Judy. Mr. Manning.

MANNING: I just have a few things.  I would ask for a resolution authorizing the county Chairman or County Manager to execute a municipal solid waste tipping contract with the County of Franklin Solid Waste Management Authority. This is a contract that we execute every basically five years. It is for the tipping fees at that landfill where we bring all of our solid waste and our construction demolition debris from the various transfer stations. The prior contract of the tipping fee was $45 per ton that was back in 2019, with a $1.00 escalator for every year during that five year term so as of the end of 2024 we were paying $50 a ton. The solid waste authority came back and asked for $54 a ton which was a market increase from the $50, with Jim’s help we looked it over the figures and we proposed a $51 a ton which is in keeping with the old contract with an additional $1.00 increase every year so this contract starts out $51 a ton for 2025, we’ll go through the end of 2029, each anniversary date of January will be an increase so in 2026, it will be $52, $53, $54 up until you get to 2029 so I would ask for that resolution.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE TIPPING FEE CONTRACT FOR FIVE (5) YEARS WITH THE COUNTY OF FRANKLIN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY.  Reusser, Wright

WOOD:  Any questions? Any remarks? 

HUGHES: I’m not on this committee but is Franklin County going to be open more than five years?

MANNING: As far as I know.

HUGHES: Just because I thought there was a timeline on their ability to –

MASCARENAS: They work on permits I believe it was extended. I believe they received permission based on some of the information we provide them being our landfill that extended the life of that landfill that allowed new cells to open.

HUGHES: Oh it’s based on permit and not an actual space?

MASCARENAS: Yes it’s based on permitting and landfill space and all that stuff so indefinitely no this is going to happen every handful of years that the permit is due.

HUGHES: I just thought they were going to run out of space.  Thank you.

WOOD: Any other questions?  No more questions. All in favor, any opposed – carried.

MANNING: Okay another contract matter.  Tyler Technologies they take care of our Munis System which is basically and Mike can probably fill in the blanks on this it handles all of our billing, invoices coordinates everything, it coordinates some of our contracts, it’s a very complicated system and it took quite a while to implement and they aren’t going away we need them and they need us so this is a contract for one year with one year automatic renewals if we don’t terminate within sixty days of the expiration of the prior year in writing generally I don’t like these clauses but in this case it is proper and for all the application services and they do things like analytics, human resources, payrolls, management, contract management, capital asset management, project and grants accounting, purchasing, cash management whatever that is, budgeting, accounts payable, accounts receivable and the total for this year 2025, is $132,214.00 so I would ask for a resolution authorizing the County Chairman and/or the County Manager to execute this contract with Tyler Technologies for the one year period in an amount of $132,214 with discretion granted to them should this not be a 100% accurate figure which I believe it is, to deviate one way or another not more than 10%.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A ONE-YEAR CONTRACT WITH TYLER TECHNOLOGIES FOR ANALYTICS SERVICES IN THE MUNIS SYSTEM, IN THE AMOUNT OF $132,214.00.  Wright, DeLoria

WOOD:  Any questions? Any remarks?  All in favor, any opposed – resolution passes.

MANNING: One more there are the public defender I believe and the conflict defender who represent all of our indigent people use Brooks Investigation LLC as an investigator to investigate various things, various cases and matters that arise with them we currently have a contract with Brooks Investigations for the public defender and at least the conflict defender at a $99.00 per hour retainer and $75.00 for any additional investigator with Brooks for a one year period but this particular contract would be for the assigned counsel program so you have the public defender has them, the conflict defender has them now the conflict defender administrator Leah Burke has had a couple of Assigned Counsel attorneys requesting investigation services so this in the assigned counsel budget where we receive the funds from ILS and so I would ask for a resolution authorizing the County Manager and/or County Chairman to sign a contract with Brooks Investigation LLC for this year ending December 2025 at those rates of $99.00 an hour and $75.00 an hour with mileage at the IRS rate.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A ONE-YEAR CONTRACT WITH BROOKS INVESTIGATIONS, LLC., FOR ASSIGNED COUNSEL PROGRAM SERVICES AT $99.00 PER HOUR AND $75.00 PER HOUR WITH MILEAGE AT THE IRS RATE, WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM INDIGENT LEGAL SERVICES GRANT. Wright, DeLoria

WOOD:  Any questions? Any remarks?  All in favor, any opposed – motion carries.

MANNING: And that’s all I have unless there is questions?

WOOD:  Okay anything that needs to be brought up by the board?

REUSSER: I would like to offer a resolution acknowledging and congratulating John “Jack” Hanby on serving as Deputy Fire Coordinator and Investigator from 1984 to 2024.  Jack was one of the first trained fire investigators here in Essex County and has retired this past year and has faithfully served us all these years.

WOOD: Thank you that is very impressive.

RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING AND CONGRATULATING JOHN “JACK” HANBY UPON HIS RETIREMENT AS AN ESSEX COUNTY DEPUTY FIRE COORDINATOR AND INVESTIGATOR FOR FORTY (40) YEARS.  Reusser, unanimous

WOOD: Anything else to come before this committee?  Nothing? Great, thank you. We’re done.

            As there was no further discussion to come before this Personnel and Administration committee it was adjourned at 10:15 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Judith Garrison, Clerk

Board of Supervisors