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Brentwood Select Board debates pay-scale step plan and townwide COLA policy
Summary
Select Board members discussed a draft five-level step pay scale for police and fire, and a community proposal to adopt an annual COLA tied to the Social Security adjustment; no formal adoption occurred and the board signaled the item would be considered as a warrant article for town meeting.
Select Board members considered a draft pay-scale matrix for police and fire and a proposed townwide cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) policy during the meeting, but did not adopt either plan.
The draft, circulated to the board and prepared after meetings with department chiefs, lays out years-of-service steps on one axis and certification levels on the other and includes a predetermined COLA that would be added to a step-0 employee and then populate the matrix. The presenter described the document as “very much a draft and an initial document, and in no way set in any sort of stone.”
Board members and members of the public raised questions about merit, budget constraints and the scope of the proposal. One Select Board member said the step program would still require a satisfactory annual review for an employee to advance: “If they pass their annual review,” the member said, they would move to the next step. Another board member expressed concern the plan could “guarantee” salary increases that might be difficult to fund given an incoming tax cap.
Public commenters pressed both sides. Janice Wiers, speaking from the library’s perspective, contrasted municipal budgeting with private-sector pay negotiations and said municipal employees have fewer negotiation avenues. Jim Hasher, chair of the Brentwood Cemetery Trustees, defended the town’s use of performance-appraisal forms, saying trustees used the form to calculate merit increases for a cemetery employee. Laura Hejet, a resident of Mohawk Lane, warned the board against committing to guaranteed raises on behalf of future boards and said managers should decide raises based on annual budget facts.
Board members discussed scope: the presenter said the matrix was “just for police and fire” for this year and that police accepted the five-level structure while fire asked for possible additional granularity. The presenter also said the COLA proposal under discussion would be tied to the federal Social Security COLA for the year.
The board did not vote to adopt a pay scale or to enact a townwide COLA policy at the meeting. A board member indicated the proposal could be placed on the warrant for the March town meeting for voters to decide: “This will go in front of the taxpayers in March, and they can decide if they want us to do this or not.” The board also discussed seeking legal advice about whether a warrant article could legally bind future boards on multi-year guaranteed raises.
Key unresolved items include whether the step matrix will be expanded for fire department grading, whether the policy will be extended beyond police and fire, and legal limits on adopting guaranteed multi-year raises. The board agreed to continue discussion and to present the idea to the public and to town meeting if the board proceeds.
The discussion was part of the board’s broader review of budget preparation under a new tax-cap environment and will be revisited as departments and the board refine budget targets.
