KENT, Conn.—The Selectmen and the Parks & Rec Commission went mano a mano last week in their continuing dispute over who controls the parks and rec department’s budget. At issue is whether the department’s director can authorize mid-year raises for employees, a right the selectmen arrogate to themselves.
Matt Frasher, director of the department, with the acquiescence of the full commission, has raised salaries for its part-time seasonal workers twice. The selectmen have moved to amend the ordinance governing Parks & Recreation to prevent future mid-year raises and the commission is disputing their right to do so.
At the most recent Board of Selectmen’s meeting the selectmen reviewed a letter from Town Counsel Randy DiBella. DiBella said that the town’s ordinance clearly authorizes the commission to “determine employee compensation within the appropriations provided for in the budget. That provisions … limits salary determinations to the amounts approved in the annual budget.”
This is the case the Parks & Recreation Commission has argued. Rufus deRham, chairman of the commission, said that the pay raises have been taken from the salary line item, which it has never exceeded. “Randy is telling us we can do that,” he said.
“So, what you are saying is that you over-budgeted,” responded First Selectman Eric Epstein.
Not so, countered deRham. He said the raises have not been significant and that room in the line item was only intended to allow adjustments if necessary for such events as increases in the minimum wage. “As a commission, we were looking ahead … with the idea that if they raised the minimum wage, we could maintain and hang on to our employees.”
He said the part-time employees who help staff various programs such as Camp Kent and the After School program are predominantly high school students. “We have lost some good kids because they need to make more money,” he said. “As a commission, we asked the town to approve ‘X’ dollars, anticipating that we might have to keep our wages competitive. They are not huge wages.”
He said the authority to set compensation was part of the Selectmen-approved move to make the Parks & Recreation director exempt from the constraints of the 40-hour work week.
Epstein was not appeased. “We had this discussion during budget season when we realized you were giving mid-year raises,” he said. “We were not in favor of it and now we are discussing it again. I am not in favor of arbitrarily changing ordinances, but it appears we need to change this to prevent it happening again.”
deRham asked what is wrong with giving mid-year raises. “Without the approval of the Board of Selectmen it is not appropriate,” Epstein asserted.
Selectman Lynn Harrington argued that voters approved specific salary levels and hours, a contention deRham rejected. “They were not voting on $17.30 or $17.40 an hour,” he contended. “They are voting on line items and we are not exceeding that line item.”
Selectman Lynn Mellis Worthington noted that other department heads are exempted and do not have the authority to set salaries. deRham said that the Parks & Rec department director has always conferred with the commission about wages.
Worthington said it may be necessary to set a scale for wages that would allow for rewarding seasonal employees based on service and longevity “The only way to do that is to have the Board of Selectmen doing the hiring,” she said.
deRham , conceding nothing, said he would bring the discussion back to his commission.
