By Mary Macedo, Neighb News Correspondent
At its meeting on Thursday, 7/26, the Fairhaven Board of Health met with Town Administrator Mark Rees to discuss Personnel Policy. The board also discussed more seating at Off the Hook Restaurant, and the progress the town is making with recycling.
A large group gathered in the Banquet Room at Town Hall as the Board of Health meeting began, mostly to show support for the request by Off the Hook to increase seating capacity. Due to all the support in the room the board decided to begin the meeting with that request.
Off the Hook is a restaurant located at West Island Marina on Goulart Memorial Drive. The initial request was to add seating up to 148, but the owners amended that request to 94, which was actually a decrease of four seats from what they were licensed for. The confusion came when it was difficult to locate the original license.
The board voted unanimously to allow the 94 seats, to the claps and cheers of supporters.
In another matter, the BOH discussed Personnel Policy and, specifically, comp time for employees in their department. The board had the issue on its agenda for several meetings, until it could get Town Administrator Mark Rees, and Human Resources Director Anne O’Brien to attend a meeting. Compensation time allows an employee to take time off equivalent to overtime worked.
Mr. Rees opened the discussion stating that everything he and Ms. O’Brien and say is completely advisory, and in the end it is whatever the Board of Health members decide.
Mr. Rees explained that some of the personnel bylaws and policies were approved and set 10 years ago and have not been updated. He said that they are in the process of updating all the Personnel policies and bylaws, and are still doing their research.
Mr. Rees explained that non-salaried employees (hourly employees) must log their hours/ clock in, but salaried employees are exempt from logging their hours. Salaried employees are trusted to work their 40 hours and work to get the job done; therefore there is no need for them to clock in. Non-salary employees log hours because they are paid by the hour.
Mr. Rees explained that one of the areas they will be working on and updating is making sure that employees are classified correctly.
The board has been questioning whether or not their Health Agent, Mary Freire-Kellogg, could use comp time when she works late at night or extra hours. But because Ms. Freire-Kellogg is a salaried employee, she does not log her hours, and comp-time is something that salary employees are exempt from.
Mr. Rees said that salary employees work the hours necessary to get the job done. He said that with the employees in other departments he does not care when they clock-in or clock-out, as long as they job is getting done and they are working their 40 hours.
Ms. O’Brien said that they trust that the employees are doing what they are supposed to be doing. She explained that if an employee works extra hours one day, another day they will work less hours to make their time of 40 hours. Ms. O’Brien explained that they trust the employees to do what they need to do and make their hours work for themselves.
Board member, Michael Silvia said that usually comp time is not in the definition of salary employee.
Ms. Freire-Kellogg explained that when she works late/extra hours and then has to cut hours another day or if she is on her lunch etc., the only person available to cover for her is Administrative Assistant Amanda Blais. Ms. Freire-Kellogg said that she just wants to make sure someone is available or in the office during business hours.
Ms. O’Brien said that if Ms. Blais or Ms. Freire-Kellogg ever need coverage the town hall has employees that could help out and cover for them.
Mr. Rees mentioned that he would have no problem helping out the Board of Health and oversee their department to help with the workload that the board, Ms. Freire-Kellogg, and Ms. Blais are taking on.
Mr. Silvia explained that the Board of Health members are volunteers and it is a lot of work to run/oversee a whole department. Mr. Silvia suggested that they have Mr. Rees help supervise their department for a little while and see how it goes.
Mr. Rees explained that with the Selectboard he also does workshops where they define the goals that they would like to achieve, and he provides resources and sub goals to help lay the groundwork to achieve those goals.
Mr. Rees said doing a workshop with the Board of Health would be a great start to see what their goals are and how they can achieve them.
BOH Chairperson Peter DeTerra said scheduling a workshop with Mr. Rees will be the next step.
Mr. Rees and Ms. O’Brien will be working on a rules and regulations document, as well as an employee handbook.
Mr. DeTerra said that he would like copies of those when they are finished.
The board did not vote on the issue of comp time for Ms. Freire-Kellogg, nor did they make a decision on asking Mr. Rees to oversee the department.
In a follow-up phone interview, Ms. Freire-Kellogg said her understanding is that the town does not formally have comp time, but that she is allowed to come in later, or leave a little earlier on a limited basis to make up for late nights, as she has been doing all along.
In another matter Ms. Freire-Kellogg said she did an inspection on the Frosty Ice Cream truck. The truck is selling frozen lemonade, which they use a scooper to serve. She said that there was no problem with that, but if the scooper falls on the ground or gets contaminated there is no place to wash it.
She said that the owner will need to use disposable scoopers or have back-up scoopers on hand just in case. The board agreed.
In another matter, Ms. Freire-Kellogg updated the board on how the recycling project is going. She said that the new employees, along with the ABC disposal truck, have been going through Fairhaven neighborhoods and grading houses on recycling and contamination, and informing the public of how to recycle.
Ms. Freire-Kellogg explained that some residents are just unsure about what can and cannot be recycled. She said she issued a public service announcement on Facebook about what can and cannot be recycled.
Some people were offended when they were graded on their recycling, but most people were receptive and wanted to fix it.
The board also approved a variance for the Hampton Inn not to provide lifeguards at the pool. Ms. Freire-Kellogg said the pool there is very safe, kids are not allowed without a guardian and patrons cannot get in without scanning a room key.
The board also approved the Fairhaven Acushnet Youth Athletics Food Establishment to serve food at Livesey Park for their games; and approved a Farmer’s Market for Emma Jean’s. •••
•••
Support local journalism, donate to the Neighb News at: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=Y6V5ARRYH689G
Click here to download the entire 8/2/18 issue: 08-02-18 WI Regatta
