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Purchasing director urges attention to long-term staff pay, announces executive coordinator promotion
Summary
Purchasing Director Cormier urged the committee to consider compensation and quality-of-life issues for long-serving municipal employees, described a promotion to create an executive coordinator role, and requested additional communications funding to support required public notices tied to property sales.
Purchasing Director Cormier told the Finance Committee on May 29 that quality-of-life and competitive compensation are driving concerns among long-serving city employees and described steps taken to restructure purchasing to improve coverage and operations.
Purchasing Director Cormier (role: Purchasing Director) read a prepared statement describing 25 years of municipal service and 12 years in the purchasing role and said that, "for the first time in 12 years I've applied and interviewed elsewhere," emphasizing staff retention concerns. He presented purchasing budget items and explained that communications funding supports legally required public notices associated with property sales under Chapter 30B procurement rules.
Key details - Staffing and compensation: Cormier said he submitted two salary columns in his request (the working-group recommended step and a smaller cost-of-living column) and that the mayor's proposal falls between those figures; he highlighted the need for an executive coordinator to assume expanded responsibilities so the department can function during absences. - Procurement and communications: Cormier asked for increased communications funding to ensure timely legal publications related to surplus property sales and other procurement notices. - Department consolidation and efficiencies: Cormier described DocuSign professional services (to speed contract execution) and other digital steps that reduced paper and workload.
Discussion and follow-up - Committee members acknowledged the personnel concerns and praised the clarity of Cormier's narrative; members noted the proposed executive coordinator and internal restructuring will improve resilience when department heads are absent. - Cormier said the proposed communications increase excludes some real-estate publication costs that appear under the mayor's account; the mayor confirmed publication costs tied to Chapter 30B sales are budgeted in the mayor's communications line.
Ending - The committee asked staff to continue reviewing compensation equity and to consider Cormier's recommendation as budget deliberations continue.
