Selectmen order salary review in light of raises

SAUGUS – The Board of Selectmen asked for a salary scale survey after they saw the town?s projected budget reflected raises for several department heads.Chairman Ellen Faiella was the first to point out that Town Manager Scott Crabtree?s Administrative Aide Sue Dunn and the principal clerk, who was not named, were both receiving raises more than the 3 percent raise that other non-collective bargaining positions were receiving. Crabtree said Dunn had taken a salary decrease in other years and that he wanted to bring her up to the same salary as Superintendent Michael Tempesta?s aide Donna McNeil. He added that Dunn had also put in overtime hours on the weekends that deserved her the $55,000 salary.Selectman Maureen Dever first asked for an “objective” outside pay scale to be used to measure what town employees should really be making according to job description and responsibilities after looking at Dunn?s raise, but the board expressed the desire for a fair scale several times as they read through the budget.Faiella asked Crabtree why the principal clerk was currently earning a salary of $45,000 when the position was budgeted by Town Meeting for $40,000.?I hired him at what I thought was the market rate,” answered Crabtree, adding that the extra $5,000 would “come out of the bottom line.”Dever said she “didn?t understand” why the clerk would make $5,000 to $6,000 more than clerks in other departments when they had been working longer in their positions, to which Crabtree responded that the clerk was “really more of an administrative aide.”In addressing other wage increases, Crabtree said they seemed large because the department heads had not been allowed more than one 3 percent increase in 11 years. “You end up so far behind the times,” he said. Crabtree also said he was concerned if Saugus did not pay their employees a comparable wage, they would go elsewhere.Economic Development Coordinator Robert Luongo was another department head earning a raise at $15,000, which Dever said “will be a conversation.” Selectman Steve Castinetti pointed out that Treasurer/Collector Wendy Hatch was earning a raise when she had received one only two years prior.Dever said she didn?t disagree that loyal people deserved the increases, but said it was “hard to justify” large raises in one budget cycle without data to support it.?When people look at this, they are going to be asking some questions,” said Faiella.Finance Committee Chairman Robert Palleschi questioned why the past year?s budget was not presented with the 2014-2015 projected budget. Hatch, who was present at the meeting, said she would not have them until the later part of next week. According to Faiella, the board must be finished with the budget by March 1.Palleschi offered to the board to “speed up” his committee?s process so the board can have more time with the budget and use last year?s numbers to make decisions once Hatch provides them.After a two-hour meeting, the board agreed to continue the budget process to another selectmen meeting.