The job description of a personnel director
At Thursday's meeting on the CPDs 'no confidence' vote, I asserted that the Council should not hire a consultant because staff should be able to address the situation. And if staff cannot address the situation, then the Council needs new staff.
My view is that the taxpayers already fund a six-figure position - personnel director. And that position should be occupied by someone who can mediate the conflict at the Police Department.
For your review, here is the job description of the Town's personnel director:
So I repeat my basic point... the Council should give the TM, for example, three months in which to mediate this conflict. If the TM needs a new personnel director, that is the TMs decision. If the TM fails to properly mediate this conflict in three months, the Council can find a new TM. And frankly, I think three months is being generous as this should have been addressed a long time ago.
Also keep in mind that this was brought to the attention of the Council in July 2009 after I asked about it... just another day at the office... failure to highlight allegations of corruption... failure to highlight the impact of development in town. This stuff gets old.
I recognize that my solution would likely slow down progress on other issues facing the Town. But I think it would've been the best course of action.
Tim White
18 comments:
THink about this a little more. Three months in the public sector is avery short time.
Tim,
You are right on; also if the town manager can't insist that the personnel manager straighten out the problem he should go first. Five figure salary for doing nothing.
Several questions.
If the Personnel Director is "responsible for labor relations, including negotiations," why was the Town Manager performing these functions (per his lengthy memo RE: CPU timeline)?
And if the Town Manager is acting as chief negotiator anyway, what's the point of paying a Personnel Director?
How much is Mr. Zullo paid by the taxpayers? And did he have any experience, prior to Cheshire, in labor management?
Even if Mr Zullo was qualified the Town manager would micro-manage anway.
6:09 you're not supposed to ask those questions! haha... j/k.
It was interesting to me though when I asked questions at last Thursday's meeting, such as:
Is the PD newsletter ongoing?
With the Chief in the room, the TM answered "believes it is since it is a periodical newsletter."
No followup from anyone else.
My point?
Total control of the "message." Speak out of line and you'll hear about it for sure.
Granted, a meeting must maintain order. But that's not what was happening at last week's meeting. Last week's meeting was about "controlling the message" IMO.
For me, the most glaring example of the unwritten prohibition on staff speaking without prior approval was a few years ago when then-Councilman Orsini asked the tax assessor about his view on a revaluation phase-in. Though a few years prior, he had opined that it was bad in his opinion... at that particular meeting the tax assessor deferred to the TM.
Why?
IMHO, no prior approval had been granted... the question was a surprise and had not been pre-approved by the TM.
It's disturbing to me to see these things.
Heck... only a week or two ago, I heard yet another of these stories. An ee spoke up and it was later made clear to that ee that such things should not be happening.
Your 100% correct. Why do we pay dept heads over $100,000 to just do the easy stuff and put everything else out to bid and thereby avoid all resposibility and any blame for bad outcomes.
Talking about $100,000 jobs, what's this about Florio hiring a totally inexperience person as a director for $120,000. I thought Florio said it was impossible to find a person that could replace Paul Calaluce, in that he performed two jobs. So, instead of even trying, the search was for two separate jobs. Florio felt it was impossible to find anyone that had the experience needed for both parts of the job.
So, now he has decided that a person, who works in realestate, without any experience in the job that he is hired for, is a great choice for half of the job at $120,000. We went form one person making $128,000 to needing two at $120,000 each and they don't need experience? I'm sorry, but I think, they interviewed 40 people when they already knew who they were going to hire and in order to hire him, they had to split the one fulltime job into 2 partime jobs that pay $120,000 each. Something doesn't sound right.
Exerpt from the
Cheshire Herald
January 18, 2009 by John Rook
"Prior to becoming superintendent, Florio did much of the work now done by Calaluce. However, board member Peter Massey suggested that the plan was still to move forward with two separate appointments."
Couldn't Florio hire one person and guide them, it would seem to be a no brainer, that could save $120,000 a year. And, why are we hiring people with no experience at top dollar? It also raises another question, what does Florio do?
Mad Taxpayer
And what makes anyone think that this guy Florio hired isn't going to be just another "yes man."
Image is everything. If you rock the boat, you'll hear about it. It isn't about the kids. It's about keeping the image of a perfect school system with perfect staff in a perfect little town.
Based on the facts as presented by Tim, the town is NOT being run any better than it was. We are STILL throwing good money after bad. The tax payers are going to pay an outside firm to do the work of a six figure in-house employee. This town needs a serious house cleaning and Zullo is the first that needs to go. Not only is he proving that he cannot do his own job, town employees refuse to talk to him. Many skip right past him and go directly to Milone knowing that SOMETHING will get done.
Time for the new council to stop acting like the old. Stop double spending our money.
The problem is that the town manager made big mistakes when he hired Zullo, Volker and Michelangelo, The new council should task Milone to clean house or resign. It is obvious that these department heads are totally in competent. Republican councilors get to work, don’t wait; we elected you overwhelmingly, because we were tired of the democratic special interest leadership.
Correction; sorry, should of been one word "Incompetent"
"The problem is that the town manager made big mistakes when he hired Zullo, Volker and Michelangelo,"
Why do we still need mall developer? Voelker helped to erode our zoning and get the W/S's mall approved. It's hard to see why we're wasting over $100,000 a year on this job when we can get a a good planner for considerably less.
It sounds like a lot of people want action and are tired of the SOS. We must give the newly elected officials a little time to get adjusted and not make rash decisions. There is a lot of baggage still around and will take time to sort it all out. Please pay attention to what is going on and voice your opinion NOW not next election. I have a question for the new BOE: How do do you approve of Mr Massey for finance chairman committee?
Massey is the last person fhat should be Finance chairman. He is strictly a union hack and spender.
Not a good move by the BOE.
Massey was appointed chair by the chairman which is Gerry Brittingham. Massey was not appointed by the BOE. In fact (this is fact) Gerry appointed Massey as finance chair even though his Rep majority was against it. In the end, Gerry chose to staff the committees as he saw fit, not as the majority saw fit.
Good leaders make tough decisions. I thank Gerry for not going with the party line. Even if you don't agree with him - you have to get the feeling that this guy really cares about things and is looking out for the school system as best he can.
The most important thing to Brittingham was that he become BOE chairman. Massey's appointment as budget chairman was a direct result of that (one hand washes the other).
Mr Massey has been Finance Chair the last four years. What has he done that has been so great? These(Dixon,Brittingham and Massey) people approved a 4.4% increase for 3 yrs. I believe that when their terms are up they will be replaced. For now let's hope that they don't "rubber stamp" everything. They should start by looking at some creating budgeting and not the same old stuff...
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