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Select Board reviews personnel policy updates; keeps key protections and rejects some manager recommendations
Summary
The Select Board reviewed numerous suggested changes to the Town’s Personnel Policy from the Town Manager on May 19, including adding a public-behavior paragraph, widening recruitment notice locations, adding background checks where applicable, adjusting probation and leave language, and reaffirming Select Board purview over Library Director pay. Several Town Manager recommendations were rejected or modified.
At a May 19 special meeting, the Carrabassett Valley Select Board reviewed a broad set of proposed updates to the Town’s Personnel Policy submitted by Town Manager Garrett Corbin. The board discussed specific chapter and paragraph changes and accepted, rejected, or modified recommendations on multiple points.
Notable changes and board decisions included:
- Public behavior: Corbin added a paragraph addressing courteous interactions between staff and members of the public following a late-Friday incident; the board retained the addition and asked Corbin to manage staff coverage so employees are not left alone.
- Recruitment and appointments: The board broadened where job notices are placed beyond newspapers (adding local grocery stores and other notice locations) and restored language on annual appointment requirements that Corbin had recommended removing.
- Background checks: The board approved adding background checks where applicable (described in the minutes as "kids, cash or keys").
- Nepotism and direct reports: Corbin had proposed striking a paragraph on blood and legal relationships; the board kept the first sentence to address concerns about nepotism while emphasizing hiring the best candidate.
- Probation, removal, promotions, layoffs: The board accepted changes to extend the probationary period, accepted changes to removal procedures, and accepted edits to promotions/demotions and layoffs (including retaining language on layoffs in Chapter IV and 4-5 A).
- Wages and benefits: The Library Director’s job classification and pay had been evaluated by the library board; the Select Board agreed the Library should be considered like any other town committee and that final purview over pay resides with the Select Board. The board removed an exception sentence that had limited Select Board oversight on evaluations.
- Leave, maternity, and earned paid leave: The board rejected the manager’s recommendation to allow staff to use holiday pay while on vacation; it permitted earned paid leave to accrue during the fiscal year but declined to compensate for unused leave at year’s end or on termination. On maternity leave, the board was amenable to three months of leave for mothers and two weeks for fathers, subject to state law and later reconsideration; Corbin was asked to check applicable state requirements.
- Other items: The board struck or edited miscellaneous provisions (residency, physical examinations, receipt of gifts, outside employment beyond conflict-of-interest language, strikes paragraph removal, management rights, FOAA sentence retention, harassment policy edits, grievance procedures) as recorded in the minutes.
Corbin recommended the Select Board propose an ordinance at the June Town Meeting to authorize Select Board involvement in certain hiring decisions; the recommendation referenced Maine Title 30-A, section 2636, subsection 6.
What’s next: The board tabled the 2025 Work Plan to allow time for review and directed that the next meeting’s agenda be limited so members can review and finalize the manager’s proposed plan. An executive session on employee merit increases under 1 M.R.S.A. §405(6)(F) was tabled to the next meeting.
