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1 [Enter Post Title Here] Prudential Committee Present: Marcel Dumont, John Haran, Joe Sylvia The Chairman called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm on December 29, 2015 at Fire District 1 Present: Members of the Fire District and Brad Ellis Executive Session with Brad Ellis to go over contract for Fire Chief The chairman brought up the issue of insurance and mentioned Mayflower Insurance, which is the same carrier that district 3 uses. He then informed the committee that it was Christmas week and there was no one in the office to talk to us and they would not be back until January 3 rd. He continued by saying that the Mayflower group would have to vote to accept us and that could take weeks. He then said he would look into Blue Cross/Blue Shield and suggested Brad Ellis do the same. Joe Sylvia asked where the money would come from, the chairman replied that it came out of support of the District, but it also could be a separate line item. Attorney Savastano suggested we talk to John Foster and that we get it right going forward and he also said it has to come from the right funding source. Marcel Dumont asked Brad Ellis if he checked into insurance and he said yes he had and Cobra was available to him and Blue Cross was available at the same cost as Mayflower. Attorney Savastano said Mayflower may be cheaper than if you went out and purchased it on your own because of their group bargaining power. Brad Ellis told the committee that Milton paid 80% of his insurance, he paid 20% and the total that Milton paid each month was $2, He also said that the results of his Hazmat physical will be sent directly to the Prudential Committee. The chairman then asked the committee if they wanted to go over the contract and start on page one. They said yes. Attorney Savastano said there were things you talked about that are not in the contract such as evaluation of firefighters and objectives and goals. He suggested that the performance goals and objectives be attached as an exhibit to the contract and be reviewed during an evaluation period. The question came up as to how you deal with people that do not show up for a incident. Brad Ellis explained that he was in a situation where his pager was not with him since he was out jogging and he stopped to help someone and missed a Hazmat call. Once again he said you have to assess the situation. Attorney Savastano brought up the issue of mass exodus and how we would handle it. The Chairman said that the question from a previous meeting was who

2 would be responsible if the numbers went down. Brad said he would first investigate and proceed from there. Marcel Dumont said the chief would bring in individuals once a year unless it was a guy who wasn t showing up at all. Marcel Dumont said we have SOP s of the department, rules and regulations of the department which should be reviewed by the new chief. Joe Sylvia said they should be reviewed and guys should have physicals every five years, some guys condition deteriorated, some ain t certified and they should be interviewed each one individually. Joe Sylvia also said some guys have bad tickers. Marcel Dumont then said, I know when I was Chief there were letters in the files, notes from interviews in the files, and I know a lot of that paperwork was destroyed. Attorney Savastano said someone should look at the rules and regulations and it would be up to the new chief to work on them with the help of his officers. Marcel Dumont said that a former chief got paperwork from other departments and put his name on it and then said when he was chief, he wrote the ones for this department. Attorney Savastano said the new chief is not bound by the former rules and regulations and can write his own. Marcel Dumont said they have to be approved by the Prudential Committee. Brad Ellis then said one would have to look at what works now, what doesn t work and then make adjustments. Attorney Savastano said under the special act, you can write your own rules. The chairman then said he would like to see attached to the contract the duties of the chief and the qualifications of the chief attached to the contract so people down the road can see what we did and where we were coming from. Attorney Savastano said that he has done this in the past as an exhibit and that we can reference them in the contract. The chairman pointed out that the one year probationary term was not in the contract. Marcel Dumont asked if we could do that, attorney Savastano said yes you can. He then asked if we were going to have standards to be determined that they meet. Attorney Savastano also said if both parties can opt out, it becomes a one year contract and after one year you would have to renegotiate. Marcel Dumont said the Prudential Committee is supposed to review the chief once a year like we talked about with the firefighters. Committee agreed to put that language in. Attorney Savastano then said the committee has to decide on the length of the contract. He went on to say you could give a 1 to 5 year contract and if you gave a one year contract, it made no sense to have a probationary period; probationary period should be same length as initial contract. Attorney Savastano then said you tell me what you want. Joe Silvia said he was thinking of a three year contract, because it is going to take him awhile to get this place straightened out. Marcel Dumont said the first year will be

3 bedlam. Brad was asked jokingly if he still wanted the job and he said yes. He continued by saying he took fire prevention where there was nothing and developed and built it. Marcel Dumont questioned the one year probationary period and said we have just cause. Attorney Savastano said just cause is a pretty high standard. Probationary period, only fair to put in goals and objectives that will be helpful in the evaluation. Marcel Dumont asked what your definition of a probationary period. Attorney Savastano said the evaluation in the probationary period is less than the cause standard. He also said if the committee doesn t agree with how someone is doing the job, that is not just cause. He then said he would show us examples from other positions for guidance. He also said the contract should end on the fiscal year. Marcel Dumont said the fiscal year makes sense because that s when the appropriations are available. The chairman said that we should have goals and objectives that both parties know of ahead of time and mutually agree on. The committee started talking about a three year 6 months contract so it could run with the fiscal year. Marcel Dumont made a motion for a 3 ½ year contract, it was seconded by Joe Sylvia and voted 2 to 1 with the chairman voting no and saying he only wanted a three year contract. Attorney Savastano said you can tie raises to meeting goals and objectives in evaluations. Now the committee started talking about compensation and the chairman pointed out it is $77,000 this year and next year subject to appropriation. Attorney Savastano said there is money left in the Chief s account that maybe could be used by Jeff Costa and Jake Bettencourt to help with the transition. Marcel Dumont said he would help and we wouldn t have to pay him. Next item was vacation leave. The chairman pointed out that he voted against giving Chief Judson his vacation because he was here 37 years part time. The chairman went on to say he is looking out for the taxpayers. Marcel Dumont said we are in better shape than the town. John Haran said the reason we are better than the town is that we only have to pay the unfunded liabilities for one employee. John Haran then proposed 2 weeks to start and three weeks after five years. Joe Sylvia proposed two weeks to start and three weeks after three years. Brad Ellis said he now has 5 weeks and understood two weeks were going to be offered and asked if he could use the first week from the first 6 months during the first full year. The question came up as to how much vacation time can we rolled over? Joe Sylvia asked how Judson and Alcadinho had every Friday off. Marcel Dumont said they were using comp time because we do not pay for overtime. Brad Ellis will be allowed to roll over the first week. The question of flextime and comp time came up and it was explained that the chief would not be paid overtime, buy compensated with flex

4 time/comp time at the rate of 1 ½ hrs for every 1 hr. The committee said he can only rollover two weeks vacation time and cannot roll that unused time over again to the following year. The committee then brought up the subject of sick days. John Haran informed the committee that we were using the town formula of 1 ¼ days per month for a total of 15 days. Attorney Savastano asked how many days should be allowed to be rolled over and Brad Ellis asked for the whole fifteen days. Marcel Dumont said we are not set up to pay at the end of a contract for sick days; not appropriated for it. Marcel Dumont made a motion to allow the full 15 days to rollover and it was seconded by Joe Sylvia and voted unanimously. Attorney Savastano said he would write it so it could be used for family sick leave and asked Brad Ellis if he could supply that language to him which he agreed to do. Brad Ellis said he is getting 1 ½ days now but the 1 ¼ days would be good. The committee voted 3-0 to approve the rollover of all unused sick days with no pay out at the end of the contract. All parties agreed to the listed days for Holidays. Next item was bereavement leave. Joe Sylvia made a motion to accept the same bereavement policy that Judson had which was 4 days for immediate family and one day for distant relatives. Marcel Dumont seconded the motion which was passed unanimously. Next item was personal days. Three days was voted on unanimously and agreed to by Brad Ellis. The Chairman brought up the retirement issue and informed Brad Ellis that our plan was with the Bristol County system. Brad Ellis said he could transfer his plan from Milton to that plan. The chairman informed Brad Ellis he would be reimbursed for all out of pocket expenses incurred while performing for the district. Next was the allowance for clothing. The committee agreed to give $1,200 in the first 6 months for uniforms and $500 each year after per the contract. Recertification; Brad Ellis informed the committee that he is certified as a Basic EMS and just got his recertification, which will entitle him to a additional payment of $500. The chairman asked how much it costs to recertify and Brad Ellis said about $145 and has to be done every two years. The chairman asked if our drug screening program was up and running. Marcel Dumont said it is not up and running yet. The chairman then said that it looks like Attorney Savastano will have to rewrite the contract and we will look into Mayflower and Blue Cross and Brad Ellis will also look into Blue Cross. Attorney Savastano again reminded the committee to come up with some goals and objectives. The question of training and drills came up and Marcel Dumont said you have to get paid for mandatory drills and meetings. Joe Sylvia said we didn t discuss salary and asked if we were going to go up on it and present it on the warrants. Attorney Savastano said he liked contracts to start on July first. Brad

5 Ellis said before he can write up any goals and objectives, he has to see what s in place. Joe Sylvia said everyone in District 2 has to show up for training and the Chief picks one week a month to pay and no one knows ahead of time which week he will choose. He went on to say if you don t show up for drills in District 2, you re off the department and when I was on this department, I didn t get paid for drills and if you were on the department you wanted to be a member. Attorney Savastano said you can negotiate now and Marcel Dumont said we should get it into a reasonable range and he didn t think it was there now. The chairman asked Marcel Dumont if we attracted any qualified candidates with the $77,000. Marcel Dumont agreed we had. Marcel Dumont said Brad Ellis had back up and asked him what he is now making. Brad replied he will be making $103,000 this year. The chairman then asked why are you coming here. Brad Ellis replied it looked attractive and it could be $100,000 and its open to negotiations. Attorney Savastano if you negotiate in the future you are negotiating a new contract and it is now that you negotiate for raises that are subject to the annual meeting appropriations. Joe Sylvia said we will try to get him $100,000 for the next round. The chairman informed the committee and Brad Ellis that he is prepared to make his statement to the crowd and I will bring the crowd and he said he was going to fill the room. The chairman said that this is no reflection on you Brad. The chairman said the $77,000 figure was not a bad number for what this job requires and will point out what other chiefs make. The Chairman also said he is going to paint a picture for the crowd. He went on to say that he will tell the crowd the man just got here at $77,000 and now they want to give him $100,000 because he got it someplace else. Marcel Dumont said the chairman was wrong. Joe Sylvia said we give out $10,000 in longevity pay and no other department in the country does that and you are going to worry about $97,000. He went on to say some of the guys got paid and haven t been here and pointed out Dave Brough who spent more time at another district. The chairman informed Joe Sylvia that we only gave the chief the criteria and that the chief made the final decision. Brad Ellis said he knew what the chief made and that it was more than here. Joe Sylvia said the chief in District 2 did half the work. Brad Ellis said the chief in district 2 gets $81,000 and change and the chief in District 3 gets $120,000. Brad Ellis said we have to look at fairness and if I was sitting on that side of the table and looking to get someone in here qualified and bring people up thru the ranks. Brad went on to say there are three different districts with three different levels of work and the district that does the least amount of work gets paid more than this district. Brad Ellis said he could close up the papers right now

6 and say thank you very much, I m employed right now at that amount of money in between what those two are making. Marcel Dumont made a motion to put the second year salary at $100,000 and it was seconded by Joe Sylvia. That motion was voted 2 to 1 with the Chairman voting against. The chairman said it s going to be a good fight, I m not going to give up and I m going to fill the room. Marcel Dumont said the only reason you are doing this is because you want to be selectman. Joe Sylvia said Tony from the garage will pull a lot of votes. Joe Sylvia said were going to see a lot of people here that don t have a clue as to what s going on and Marcel Dumont agreed with him by saying they were asking What are we voting on? Joe Sylvia said sometimes we have a meeting and not enough people show up so we have to call people; nobody cares. He went on to say you have to call people and knock on doors and you have to know big people in a little town. Joe Sylvia said he would make a motion to give him 100% health insurance all day long because were under paying him right now. Marcel Dumont said we have to find out what prices are and go from there, have to wait and find out what figures are. The item of what to put in for salary the second year came up again and Marcel made the motion to give him $100,000 the second year and it was seconded by Joe Sylvia. Attorney Savastano said this is bizarre and that he has never done anything like this before. It was voted 2 to 1, with the chairman voting against it. Brad Ellis came up with his idea; $85 the first year, $90 the second year and $95 the third year, going up incrementally. He went on to say he s attracted to the job and not asking for $100,000. Marcel Dumont said, if that s what you want, I don t have a problem with that. Brad Ellis said it s moving in a positive direction and that I m attracted to this job and wants to be here. The chairman then said the chief in District 2 repairs the trucks and repairs the building. Marcel Dumont then said that the chief in District 2 is a mechanic and that s why he s not a chief. He also said you don t hire a chief to be a maintenance man on the trucks. Then chairman said he is the Chief over there. Joe Sylvia said he does that because they have no money to do that and does it on his own free will. Joe Sylvia said it will be less than a dollar per thousand to man a truck here 24/7, peanuts on the dollar. Marcel Dumont said it would be in the thirties. The chairman said that we pay around $17,000 a year for retirement; district 3 pays over $108,000 a year. The Chairman said it s going to be a beauty on the floor this year. Marcel Dumont said he won t be here. Both Joe Sylvia and John Haran said there will be several people running for the open seat on the committee this spring. Marcel Dumont said that Troy Decouto is going to run for the prudential

7 committee, someone who stole from the station. Joe Silvia said he has a lot of people pulling for him. He also said he s got signs already. Adjourn A motion was made by committee member Marcel Dumont and seconded by committee member Joe Sylvia to adjourn. It was voted unanimously to adjourn.

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