Board approves DPW business‑administrator job description but leaves grade unchanged; member faults proprietary scoring tool

The Personnel Board approved an amended job description for the Department of Public Works (DPW) business administrator on Dec. 22 but the board's independent scoring of the revised description did not change the position's grade.

Bill, who presented the job description change, thanked the board for review and said the outcome highlighted a problem: "We have two positions that have the same grade where one effectively functions as a clerk and the other effectively functions as an office manager," he said. "That signals...there's a problem with your scoring."

The chair explained the board's grading process: three scorers (two personnel board members plus the assistant town administrator) score each criterion independently, the board used the highest score for each criterion when compiling a tally, and the combined total did not reach the threshold for reclassification. "There are certainly things in the job description that, if they had been worded differently, would have moved it to a 6, but that's not there," the chair said.

Vanessa told the board the scoring tool is proprietary and was provided by a prior consultant (GovHR). "We cannot release it as a public document," she said, adding the personnel director has run the independent scores with board members in previous cycles.

Bill asked the board to refrain from voting immediately so he could consider next steps; the chair said there was nothing to vote on regarding grading because the numerical result kept the grade unchanged, but the board did move and approve the amended job description itself.

The board recorded a roll‑call vote to approve the job description; one member (John) recorded an abstention on the vote to approve the job description. The chair said staff will continue to review similar requests and encouraged departments to work with personnel staff to refine job descriptions before submission.