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Committee to study municipal facilities management structure, union implications noted
Summary
Council President Tyrus requested the finance committee review how Gardner manages municipal facilities, including union status of custodial and maintenance staff, and directed administration to prepare information about current structure and comparisons with other municipalities.
Council President Tyrus said the city should examine how municipal facilities are managed after the addition of the Waterford Community Center and other changes to the city's building footprint. He asked the finance committee to review whether the current arrangement — where facility staff report to the building commissioner and most are unionized within AFSCME, with the library reporting separately — remains the best model.
City staff explained that custodial and maintenance staff are AFSCME union positions across City Hall, the senior center and the police station, except for positions assigned to the Levi Haywood Memorial Library, which are not part of the union because the public-library structure requires the city to pay library staffing and the initial union card process did not include those jobs. The building commissioner currently serves as the city's facilities director.
Committee members asked for a comparative breakdown of how other municipalities structure facilities management (for example under a facilities director, the planning department, or DPW) and requested a building-by-building inventory that lists which department or contract handles custodial and maintenance duties. The committee agreed to keep the matter on its calendar and requested an administration study of potential efficiencies and structural options.
