City Council opposes new hire

By Owen Boss

The City Council voted on Tuesday not to pass a request from the building commissioner to hire a new building maintenance craftsman to maintain City Hall, but instead voted to refer the decision back to the finance committee. The reasons many members of city council were opposed to the request were because they were worried that they would be unable to find someone to continue the contract into the coming fiscal year and that the tasks outlined in the job description were too great for one person to handle. The recommendation to hire a building maintenance craftsman had been passed at a finance committee meeting earlier in the week and was deemed necessary because the position was left vacant after two of the previous maintenance staff members left their positions, and another retired. Mayor Mark Hawke emphasized the importance of hiring a building maintenance craftsman, because it would save the city money by enabling one worker the ability to perform more complex tasks that would have previously been outsourced to private contractors. City Councilor Joshua Cormier made it clear early at the meeting that he opposed the hiring because he had seen the negative effects of a similar hire by the school committee and also because he was worried that the contract signed would not be continued into the next fiscal year. “I think that this hiring is a nice idea,” said Mr. Cormier, “ but I will bet you dollars to doughnuts that we will never find a person to come back into this position at the salary offered, I know that we will come back and they will ask for more money for this position.” Mr. Cormier suggested that the council take additional time to find an individual who is adequately qualified and willing to work under the parameters of the contract into the following fiscal year. Councilor James Robinson said that although he understood that both the police station and city hall needed to be cleaned, he was opposed to appointing a building maintenance craftsman because the abilities listed in the job description such as replacing pipes and working on furnace motors require a level of experience that he thought was only available through outside licensed contractors. “A worker with a license is not going to be willing to work on this salary,” said Mr. Robinson. “With this job description, the guy is going to work 60 hours a week to get half of the work done, so I would like to see the outlines for the position be more specific.” Similarly, Councilor Alice Anderson, who suggested there may be a security risk when considering hiring new maintenance workers. “We have to consider that there is a lot of sensitive materials in city hall,” said Ms. Anderson. She recognized that if the decision to hire someone to maintain the many offices in city hall is made too hastily, the opportunity to screen for security risks may be overlooked. oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 1 on 4/23/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 97)