The Rochester Select Board is recommending a higher-than-ever, cost-of-living raise for all town employees in the next fiscal year in an attempt to keep employees from leaving the town workforce.
On Monday night, the board proposed a 3-percent COLA increase for FY23, a move that in prior years yielded no more than a 2-percent raise.
“I feel it’s time to reward the employees who have not gotten what they deserve yet,” Select Board Chairman Bradford Morse said. “And we feel 3 percent is a good start.”
“This recommendation is good for employee retention,” added Town Counsel Blair Bailey. “A good move for the town.”
The move was an immediate done-deal as far as Finance Committee Chairman Kris Stoltenberg was concerned. “I’m fine with everything you’ve just said,” responded Stoltenberg, who said he will now take the recommendation back to his committee, where it will likely be approved by that panel as well. The COLA raise will become part of the FY23 budget proposal to be put before voters in the May 23 Annual Town Meeting.
“We are trying to keep up with inflation and what other communities pay,” Selectman Paul Ciaburri said in a later interview, “and show the employees we appreciate them. It’s been normally about a 2-percent raise for quite a few years now.”
“It’s because we were not keeping up with inflation’s rising costs in past years in their compensation,” Town Administrator Suzanne Szyndlar added.
In a related move Monday night, Szyndlar informed the board that a draft of the Town Meeting warrant is ready for the members’ review and that Zoning Board articles will be added to it by April 4. The Select Board’s formal warrant review will be held on April 25. The warrant will be signed on May 2 to be posted on May 3.
In a joint decision with the Board of Health, the Select Board approved lifting the mask mandate at the Council on Aging Senior Center with the condition that the boards make it easy to go back to a mask requirement later on if necessary.
The Select Board unanimously granted the COA’s request for a mask mandate at the center on Dexter Lane on December 20, 2021. Prior to that date, the COA had been posting a sign encouraging people to wear masks.
Selectman Woody Hartley urged special conditions for Monday night’s vote saying, “Who knows where we’ll be six months from now? Can we allow them to make their next decision without them coming to us?”
Bailey said the board cannot grant the COA the “unilateral authority” to change the decision on its own. The Select Board and the Board of Health agreed to make any reversal of the mask decision “subject to board ratification” at the Select Board’s next regular meeting.
In other business, the Select Board learned from Szyndlar that assessors are working to set the next fiscal year’s tax rate by October 28; Szyndlar said this means the fall Special Town Meeting will need to be held in late October as well.
The next meeting of the Rochester Select Board is scheduled for Monday, April 4, at 6:00 pm.
Rochester Select Board
By Michael J. DeCicco