Water and sewer staff urge Personnel Board to fix handbook overtime language; review paused for rewrite

The Town of Concord Personnel Board on July 8 paused action on a proposed employee handbook change after water and sewer staff warned the draft would shift longstanding overtime pay and could lead to departures.

Darren LeFlam, the town’s water and sewer superintendent, told the board the division routinely responds to emergency callouts and that a move to compute overtime only after 40 hours in a week — rather than after eight hours in a day — would reduce pay for many multi-hour holiday and overnight responses. “If this were to pass away, it looks now, I’m afraid it would quickly lead to a crisis in town,” LeFlam said, asking the board for time to propose alternative language.

HR identified the proposed wording as aligning with PPP 43 and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); staff said the handbook draft added a definition of “hours worked” that excludes paid leave and therefore would change how some overtime is calculated. Jess, the assistant town manager and director of HR, told the board the intent was not to take the benefit away from the water and sewer crew and that the draft had been presented to senior leadership groups earlier in the year. Jess said HR had placed a temporary placeholder in section 3.3 noting the section is “under development.”

Both elected and longtime former employees pressed for a simple fix. Paul McComb, who said he worked for the town’s police department for about 30 years, described the change as an “unforced error” and urged restored language that preserves the established practice for operational crews. “When you mess something up, admit it, and then you move on,” McComb said.

Board members cited two related concerns: retention and the need for data. Erin, the HR staff member who presented turnover metrics, reported a year-to-date turnover of 7.25% and a projected annual rate of 14.5%, and noted time-to-fill averages for June of 79 days to offer and 111 days to start. Those metrics framed members’ caution about altering pay practices that employees cited as a retention factor.

Rather than vote on the handbook that evening, the Personnel Board agreed to pause and requested HR (Jess) to return with revised language — and for the water and sewer team to submit suggested wording — at the next meeting. The board asked HR to consider options including specialty handbook language for that division or a side agreement that preserves the existing overtime calculation for water and sewer employees.

The board also flagged several other handbook sections for further work, including license and continuing-education language, paid-leave sequencing, recall/standby wording and workplace training. No change to the handbook was adopted on July 8; the board set a one-month review timeline and scheduled follow-up at its next meeting.