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Select Board reviews personnel 'G' policies, recommends archiving some items and routing others to town manager
Summary
At a workshop the Orleans Select Board reviewed Section G personnel policies drafted by HR director Denise O'Sang, recommended archiving outdated items (including the innovation reward), and agreed to bundle the updated set for a future full meeting packet with Denise present to walk through remaining questions.
The Orleans Select Board spent the bulk of a workshop session reviewing Section G of the town’s personnel policies, the set of employment-related rules prepared by HR director Denise O'Sang. Chair opened the discussion, saying, “I think she did a great job,” and the board agreed to focus on exceptions and edits rather than reworking the whole suite.
Board members identified G9, the performance-evaluation language, as limited in scope — noting it covers evaluations for the town manager, police and fire chiefs and the director of municipal finance — and discussed adding ongoing feedback mechanisms and midyear written check-ins so evaluations are not solely annual. One member said regular check-ins could help “support them as professionals” rather than treating evaluations only as task-based reviews.
Members questioned whether G10 (department backup/assistant directors) belongs in a Select Board policy, arguing backup expectations are typically covered in job descriptions and should be handled by the town manager. Multiple speakers described G10 as a remnant of older language and suggested archiving it if the town’s hiring documents and job descriptions retain the necessary delegation.
The board also reviewed G12, an innovation-reward policy that several members described as “the idea is good” but the draft as out of date and administratively awkward for the Select Board to run. One member recommended archiving G12 and noting that the town manager’s office could administer any staff awards going forward; another suggested transferring the record to the town manager’s office for posterity with a clear note about legal compliance.
The board asked that questions and redline edits be collected and that HR director Denise O'Sang return to a future meeting to present the red-lined and clean versions of the packet. Chair said the intention is to bundle the agreed edits into a future select board meeting packet for formal consideration and vote.
Next steps: staff will assemble a redline and clean set of the Section G policies, track outstanding questions for Denise O'Sang, and place the package on a future full Select Board meeting agenda.
