Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito joined the Marion Board of Selectmen on Friday afternoon, October 13, in Marion to sign the 307th Community Compact in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The Community Compact, an initiative by the Governor Charlie Baker-Polito Administration in 2015, is a voluntary agreement between a municipality and the state, and the city or town agrees to implement at least one ‘best practice’ selected from a variety of areas. The best practices chosen are unique to each town and reflect an area in which improvement would be beneficial.
“Today, the Town of Marion joins the growing list of Community Compact communities by entering the focus of human resources best practice areas,” said Board of Selectmen Chairman Jody Dickerson. “Specifically, the agreement with enable to the Town to develop standardized job descriptions for all employees, and develop a thoughtful and well-reasoned classification plan for all non-union employees.
In addition, said Dickerson, “Marion will also commit to studying the Public Works activities with an eye towards making all of its component operations run more effectively to better serve the residents of our community.”
“It really is driven by the community,” said Polito. “Every compact is unique because every community is deciding what it wants to work on. And in particular, your compact is very unique because this is the first community that is studying how to reorganize its Department of Public Works in anticipation of a new superintendent coming in…and of course, to think about the job descriptions in the local government. It’s so important…”
With the Community comes grant monies available to Community Compact towns, as well as information and technology assistance with priority granted to Community Compact towns.
“Cities are critical, but a lot of the surrounding towns are, and there’s sometimes different ways that they interact with state government,” said State Representative Bill Straus. “These compacts I think are important because these agreements reflect what you say is, maybe unlike other levels of government elsewhere, we like to work together! And that’s what’s expected of us.”
“I think the true measure of our success is when the next generation sees this community as a vibrant place,” said Polito. With great schools, jobs and opportunities, and a secure environment, she said, “When you have all that together in a strong community, through that we’ll knit together a stronger state.”
By Jean Perry
