Middletown general counsel urges council to reclassify two HR positions to bolster recruiting and employee-relations capacity

Greg Smith, the city's general counsel, asked the Middletown Common Council on Sept. 3 to approve two human-resources reclassifications he said are necessary to meet recruiting needs, manage employee-relations work and handle new statutory requirements.

Smith told the council that his presentation had three goals: review the office history that led to the current staffing gap, explain the proposed reclassification of a deputy director position and describe a proposed outreach-and-recruiting specialist role.

Smith said the city previously had a separate personnel department of four employees but consolidated many functions into the Office of the General Counsel after a 2013 classification review. That reorganization left a director of human resources and an HR generalist covering many duties. "We tried to pick it up in some sense with the specialist position, but it still . . . was more than we bargained for," Smith said, arguing the existing generalist job description does not reflect the higher-level recruiting and employee-relations work now being performed.

Smith detailed the practical recruiting tasks the city needs to sustain hiring: creating vacancy announcements, testing and eligibility lists, background checks and onboarding, managing interview panels, running advertising and statewide outreach. He said the current workload contributes to vacancies in critical departments such as police and fire and can increase overtime and other costs when positions remain unfilled.

On employee-relations work, Smith said duties such as conflict management, investigations, misconduct reviews and employee-wellness programs are beyond a generalist-level role and align with duties traditionally handled by a deputy director. He also cited the Police Accountability Act as an additional, largely unfunded mandate that increases HR responsibilities for drug and psychological screenings and related processes.

Smith asked the council to reclassify the incumbent performing higher-level HR functions to a deputy director and to reclassify the HR recruiting position to an outreach-and-recruiting specialist. He highlighted the outreach role's community work, saying the incumbent had participated in "over 65 events" statewide and built relationships with the NAACP, Middletown Adult Education, Middlesex Community College, the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Education and Wesleyan University to broaden the applicant pool.

Smith gave an example of the outreach role's community impact: when a job-seeker came to the city and no position was available, the incumbent (identified in the presentation as Maria) used her network to help the person find employment outside city government. "That doesn't directly affect the city workforce, but it directly affects the city workforce," Smith said, urging the council to recognize and compensate the expanded duties.

The mayor closed the HR workshop portion and the council moved to adjourn that segment. Councilwoman Blackwell made the motion and Councilwoman Nocera was noted as the second; the mayor called for a voice vote, and the workshop was declared adjourned. The meeting proceeded to the next scheduled workshop, described by the mayor as a "questions to directors" session followed by the regular council meeting.

The presentation materials and job descriptions were made available to council members and Smith said he would remain for the subsequent questions-to-directors workshop if members had follow-up questions. No formal vote on the reclassification requests was recorded during the HR workshop portion covered in the transcript.