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Published January 13, 2016 in the Rutland Herald
Budget group endorses Springfield pay increase, special paving article
By Susan Smallheer
Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Budget Advisory Committee reluctantly endorsed the proposed $11 million town budget and a 4 percent wage increase for the town’s nonunionized employees, most of whom haven’t received a wage increase in five years.
The vote Monday night didn’t come easy, and it didn’t come with much enthusiasm.
Town Manager Tom Yennerell, trying to break an impasse, made an offer to eliminate a $14,000 new base radio for the town’s public works department, as well as a $2,000 cut in the Springfield Library’s postage budget, to try and offset the $25,000 needed to fund the full 4 percent wage increase.
That compromise finally won the endorsement of the budget group, which includes three former Select Board members: David Yesman, Michael Knoras and Teri Benton.
The budget group had endorsed a 2 percent increase, but when the Select Board quizzed the seven-member committee, they couldn’t voice a specific reason, but said the town should be able to find $25,000 (the cost of the disputed 2 percent wage increase). Earlier in the evening, the budget group endorsed a $400,000 special article for additional paving in town.
The budget group, which is led by Everett Hammond, had earlier endorsed a $400,000 special article for town meeting, a warning for paving, which would give the town a big boost toward paving the town’s deteriorating roads.
The proposed 2016-17 budget represents a 2.75 percent or $341,240 increase, while when the additional paving article is factored in, the increase jumps to 7.3 percent, or a total increase of $641,440.
Yennerell said that wouldn’t mean a 7.3 percent increase in taxes, since there were several one-time expenses approved last year, such as the $100,000 fund toward ridding the town of unsafe buildings.
Hammond has been one of the strongest advocates of the town putting more money into its deteriorating roads, arguing spending money now will save the town millions in the long run.
Hammond, a professional engineer, is the town of Hartford’s new deputy public works director.
But a critical comment from Select Board member George McNaughton, who said the budget committee was “screwing” the nonunionized employees, drew angry protests from the budget group, whose members told McNaughton and the other Select Board members they were insulted by his comment.
While McNaughton refused to apologize, Chairman Kristi Morris stepped in and apologized.
During the marathon four-hour meeting, Select Board member Walter Martone pointed out that Social Security statistics for New England showed an average wage increase of 1.78 percent each year during the past five years, while the average increase in the consumer price index for New England was 1.56 percent.
He said the 4 percent raise thus translated to a 0.8 percent increase a year for the past five years.
McNaughton said he was determined that the Select Board get the endorsement of the budget group, and he asked them what would satisfy them.
Yennerell said the 21 employees, many of them department heads and the second-in-command in departments, weren’t unionized and hadn’t received a pay increase in five years, unlike the town’s unionized employees.
Seven of the 21 employees received a 30 cent hourly increase last year, or 1.1 percent, Yennerell said. Those employees will receive the 4 percent increase as well, he said.
Yennerell said there are 21 nonunionized employees, 22 including himself. Yennerell said he did not budget a wage increase for himself.
Yennerell said 10 longstanding employees who currently only contribute 3 percent toward their health insurance instead of the 4 percent union employees contribute, would be bumped up to 4 percent. The manager said that change was worth about $1,500. New hires now contribute 10 percent toward their health insurance premiums.
A public hearing on the $11 million town budget, as required by the town charter, will be held Jan. 20. The Select Board will finalize the town meeting warning on Jan. 25, he said.
I can't believe they were fighting over that wage increase. 5 years in this economic climate is a long time without a raise. And having received anywhere from 1 to 2 percent myself a year during that interval, I can assure any voters that that does not completely make up for other expense increases!
ReplyDeleteWas this an attempt by the Budget Committee to discriminate against the non-union employees?
ReplyDeleteBefore I got a job that had a union, I worked for seven years at another job and got no pay raises. My dad worked for 28 years at his job and got three raises.
ReplyDeleteWhen I joined the union at my new job, I got a call one day from the Union Street school nurse (yes, we used to have a nurse at each school) that my son was sick. I told my supervisor, who was also the union steward that my son was sick, and she said, "Well, we can finish this without you. Go take care of him." I demurred, being of the old school I expected the boss would get back at me. She said, "It's in the contract. Go!" Since I was a single parent, there wasn't anybody else to take care of him. I went.
I remember the times I spent sick in a school nurse's alcove when I was a kid, lying there like so much oatmeal as the world bustled into and out of the principal's office, waiting for the bell to ring so my older sister would show up to take me home. My kid, your kid and everybody's kid deserves better than that. We suffer as a society when kids make sense of their pain by believing that nobody cares
Join a union. And support your fellow workers when their kids need them.
My husband and I own a local business and employ 12 people. Those employees don't need to belong to a union to be able to leave work for a sick child or many other things that come up during the work day. Unions assume that they need to fight for everything bringing adversity to a work place. Good people own and run businesses; most don't need to be legislated to do the right thing.
DeleteYa Chuck, that worked out really well for the machine tool industry in this town that used to thrive. How many of those businesses survived? How many of those union workers are on the dole now with their kids having been raised on foodstamps and welfare? Now they are heroin addicts. You kept taking until you destroyed the hand that fed you. Now you are doing the same thing to this country through the dole handouts.
Delete6:57, You are absolutely right, but while most businesses are small like yours, the big ones are geared to do whatever it takes to reward the CEO for enlarging the bottom line, and they don't treat their employees the way you and your husband do. Textron, Unilever and Goldman Industrial group -- not Springfield's small businesses-- put hundreds if not thousands out on our streets and took millions out of the local economy, and they are implicit in the rise of our drug problem.
Delete9:51, if you saw "The Big Short," it would give you some idea of who really destroyed Precision Valley-- and they're poised, like Unilever, to do it again-- to Hancor, to Black River Produce, to the Health Center. It wouldn't hurt to be aware of what we have to do to protect our businesses.
"Lead, follow, or get out of the way." --Ted Turner
You can't protect our businesses by making them profitable for only the employees while you destroy the businesses and the owners' capital investment.
Delete"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money." --- Margaret Thatcher
Everett Hammond was Chairman of the Budget Advisory Committee, was he the one whose appointment to the Committee was questioned by McNaughton because he was the paid consultant for the road repair planning? As I recall someone appointed to the Committee was suppose to recuse himself regarding road repair issues. Who was that?
ReplyDeleteYeah, this is a situation that bothers me tremendously, and is consistent with back door, small town politics that go on not only in Springfield, but in many other places. Having said that, I'm a Civil Engineer, and I'm in favor of spending some money on the much needed paving. A little maintenance goes a long way toward the overall good. Unfortunately the roads have been left to decay to the point that we aren't "maintaining" but in most cases completely stripping, regrading, and repaving...more money...but it will never get cheaper.
DeleteI think the Selectboard is aware of the need to raise the funds to get the maintenance done. Hammond may have disqualified himself from doing any engineering contract work on the project work if it is funded. As I understand what they are saying is that the plan which the Town approved, I think they are calling it the RMS, provided the need for $700,000.00 this year. So they put $300,000.00 in the budget and $400,000.00 in the special appropriation. The awkward part here is that I believe Hammond wrote the RMS.
DeleteAdd 2% to budget, find 2% in budget
ReplyDeleteThey got hit with all of the Union contracts settling all at once. Forguites decided to settle them just before he left, the settlements had stalled to the point that they settled on contracts for a term that was almost completely consumed by the negotiation. Then the Budget Advisory Committee balked when they came in with an equivalent sum for the non-union employees. The normal strategy is to settle with the unions first, and then give non-union employees a comparable settlement. If they do it the other way, they simply establish the floor for the union demands. But if they don't follow up with a comparable to the non-union employees there becomes a morale problem. Five years of no pay increase for the non-unions was a long stretch -- they should not have been the Budget Advisory Committee's target.
DeleteWho will engineering the paving project? Who will get paid for engineering the paving project? Watch out for a conflict of interest here. Watch out of the "good ole boys club" getting involved in the paving project !!
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, the Selectboard admonished Everett Hammond that he would need to recuse himself from the budget advisory committee discussion regarding road repair if the improvements would involve such contracts. So the Selectboard is aware of the potential issue.
Delete