Entries RSS | Comments RSS
I got this communication from a person who wishes to remain anonymous. This is not the first time I’ve heard complaints about the top-dollar salaries Middleboro pays some of it’s department heads. . Is this person right? ….. Discuss
Middleboro
I can’t speak to whether or not our town employee salaries are too high, too low, or just right. I would have to do a lot more research before speaking to that.
However, I do find it odd that there are apparently no qualified Middleboro residents for the various positions that come open in town government. In the five years I’ve lived here, I’ve met a lot of really smart people who do fabulous things in their private sector careers. Many of those careers are good fits for the positions that are held by “outsiders” in town government.
I think the bigger question here is why don’t Middleboro residents apply for these open positions? Do they not want to be involved in their own town government? They’re making more in the private sector? Or, could it be, that they simply don’t know these positions are open and looking for qualified candidates.
If you don’t watch the Selectmen meetings – or you find yourself using those meetings as an opportunity to catch up on your nap time – you would miss the announcement that these positions need to be filled. The town web site certainly doesn’t tell anyone that positions are open. The town doesn’t use any social media or other communication vehicles to try and get the word out. In short, there is no marketing, communications or public relations plan in place to communicate with residents, or anyone else for that matter.
I don’t have time to go on the communications rant, though, so I’ll leave it with this thought: My guess is that town positions aren’t filled by qualified town residents because the town residents don’t know anything about them.
$85K is a lot of money????
I have no idea about the qualified/unqualified argument but thinking that is a lot of money for a department head is ridiculous.
As RNC Chairman Michael Steele said recently about the current administrations plans to raise taxes on the wealthy: “Trust me, after taxes, a million dollars is not a lot of money,”
$85K: Can’t say if it’s high or not. I think the poster was commenting on the relative qualifications of the hire. Police, Fire, Town Manager, School Supt, all make very good money – well over $120K and more with fantastic benefit packages.
Raises are contractual and generally outstrip (as a percentage) the yearly increase in our ability to pay for them (town revenue).
Just look at Bob Sullivan. Retiring at 58 with either a $70K or $85K pension depending on what retirement program he used. 58! With full medical benefits. That level of pension in the private sector is not possible at the contribution level Mr. Sullivan had(probably 10%). With health care factored in it’s probably more like $85-$100K.
How many of you are on track to fully retire at 58?
This is the link to the MTRB that can detail the current pension system for teachers and administrators. There are various options regarding retirement and Mr. Sullivan may or may not be eligible for a full 80% pension. Some depends upon any military service or any service time he may have purchased. His contribution depended upon when he came into the retirement system and if he participated in any early retirement programs.
In my instance my teachers pension for 15 years exceeds the payment I get for working under social security for 30 years.
The retirement system in Massachusetts as with many other states leaves a lot to be desired. Case in point – Charlie Lincoln.
Full medical? News to me and every retired teacher. My wife currently has a family plan since our daughter can be covered until age 26 and her contribution is 17.5% of the premium. I also tag on to her health care with my Medicare that costs an additional $42. Obviously it is not a free ride but gets awful close to it.
From what I gather Middleboro is competitive with other towns and also – like elsewhere – they have the discretion of having someone enter at a higher step.
I’m wrong on the medical I guess.
Recently there was a kerfuffle about raising health insurance premiums on the “retirees”. Is that all retired employees except school? Does it include PD and FD or just general government.
I don’t know
what makes sense is a required residency clause for employment
I’d also like to see raises that were A. Merit based B. Contingent on town finances
I have no problem with a town employee getting a 15% raise if they are unusually low paid, unusually high performing, and the town has the money.
bumpkin : I’m wrong on the medical I guess. Recently there was a kerfuffle about raising health insurance premiums on the “retirees”. Is that all retired employees except school? Does it include PD and FD or just general government. I don’t know
The only systems I can speak for are Attleboro and Weymouth. Both have a menu of options and costs for insurance and the rate of deduction for both towns is the same for active or retired employees. Weymouth provides a better selection at a lower cost so we opt for that town versus Attleboro.
Health benefits are a negotiable item and their cost can significantly impact retired employees if the towns or state makes any changes and they recently have.
Where the increased costs for retired employees comes into play is that Massachusetts teachers do not get a COLA. They are eligible for a 3% increase each year on the first $12,000 of their pension. This is up to the discretion of the governor and amounts to $30 per month. This represents significant loss over the years as inflation and rising medical costs degrade the pensions. SS has a COLA pegged to CPI.
As far as other public sector employees I cannot speak for them. Maybe one of your hundreds of other readers is familiar with that process.
I love seeing these different perspectives.
I do have a bit of a bee in my bonnet over town salaries and benefits. It’s great to get a well rounded discussion from all sides.
You have some information wrong. There is nothing more important for any of us than water. The new water suprentindent has a level 2 license because licenses for towns for water suprentindents go by what is state mandated for that town, for water testing and evaluating. In our town the license mandate for a water suprentindent is a class four and there is only one person in this entire town that has an active level four license. That person just retired as the water suprentindent. You would not want anyone else watching your water system on a daily basis than a level four licensed water person. It takes years of experience and classes to gain level of expertise for water testing, cross connections, grant writing for infrastructure and healthy living of the water drinkers. The level is by the town size to meet the needs of what town requires for water safety. The Bridgewater water suprentindent was hired because of his years, 32 years of water experience. Under qualified. NO. Of all the individuals that applied he was the best qualified. As for advertisements. They were placed in web sites, media, Mass Water Works Association and other associations. Our water suprentindent is not paid anywhere’s near what other towns pay. And when you consider how vital that water is you can understand why you don’t want to entrust it to just anyone. These water suprentindents have so much responsiblity on their shoulders with federal mandates, epa requirements, BOS rulings, and yearly courses that have to be taken everyone should respect them more. The water suprentindent will be taking the test for class four very soon. As far as Mr Bagas goes, he came very qualified. The new waste water suprentindent will be hired under a great deal of scrutiny. One of the reasons why they are coming from Bridgewater is because of all the budget problems in Bridgewater that has a great deal of stress on the men and also for family security and because many of the workers have been working for less hours and less pay for quite a few years now due to the budget problems.
[...] increase at the Middleboro Board of Selectmen meeting of 2/22/2010. This is partially related to my last post about Middleboro [...]
Name (required)
Mail (will not be published) (required)
Web site
Panorama Theme by Themocracy
Switch to our mobile site
Themocracy
I can’t speak to whether or not our town employee salaries are too high, too low, or just right. I would have to do a lot more research before speaking to that.
However, I do find it odd that there are apparently no qualified Middleboro residents for the various positions that come open in town government. In the five years I’ve lived here, I’ve met a lot of really smart people who do fabulous things in their private sector careers. Many of those careers are good fits for the positions that are held by “outsiders” in town government.
I think the bigger question here is why don’t Middleboro residents apply for these open positions? Do they not want to be involved in their own town government? They’re making more in the private sector? Or, could it be, that they simply don’t know these positions are open and looking for qualified candidates.
If you don’t watch the Selectmen meetings – or you find yourself using those meetings as an opportunity to catch up on your nap time – you would miss the announcement that these positions need to be filled. The town web site certainly doesn’t tell anyone that positions are open. The town doesn’t use any social media or other communication vehicles to try and get the word out. In short, there is no marketing, communications or public relations plan in place to communicate with residents, or anyone else for that matter.
I don’t have time to go on the communications rant, though, so I’ll leave it with this thought: My guess is that town positions aren’t filled by qualified town residents because the town residents don’t know anything about them.
$85K is a lot of money????
I have no idea about the qualified/unqualified argument but thinking that is a lot of money for a department head is ridiculous.
As RNC Chairman Michael Steele said recently about the current administrations plans to raise taxes on the wealthy: “Trust me, after taxes, a million dollars is not a lot of money,”
$85K: Can’t say if it’s high or not. I think the poster was commenting on the relative qualifications of the hire. Police, Fire, Town Manager, School Supt, all make very good money – well over $120K and more with fantastic benefit packages.
Raises are contractual and generally outstrip (as a percentage) the yearly increase in our ability to pay for them (town revenue).
Just look at Bob Sullivan. Retiring at 58 with either a $70K or $85K pension depending on what retirement program he used. 58! With full medical benefits. That level of pension in the private sector is not possible at the contribution level Mr. Sullivan had(probably 10%). With health care factored in it’s probably more like $85-$100K.
How many of you are on track to fully retire at 58?
This is the link to the MTRB that can detail the current pension system for teachers and administrators. There are various options regarding retirement and Mr. Sullivan may or may not be eligible for a full 80% pension. Some depends upon any military service or any service time he may have purchased. His contribution depended upon when he came into the retirement system and if he participated in any early retirement programs.
In my instance my teachers pension for 15 years exceeds the payment I get for working under social security for 30 years.
The retirement system in Massachusetts as with many other states leaves a lot to be desired. Case in point – Charlie Lincoln.
Full medical? News to me and every retired teacher. My wife currently has a family plan since our daughter can be covered until age 26 and her contribution is 17.5% of the premium. I also tag on to her health care with my Medicare that costs an additional $42. Obviously it is not a free ride but gets awful close to it.
From what I gather Middleboro is competitive with other towns and also – like elsewhere – they have the discretion of having someone enter at a higher step.
I’m wrong on the medical I guess.
Recently there was a kerfuffle about raising health insurance premiums on the “retirees”. Is that all retired employees except school? Does it include PD and FD or just general government.
I don’t know
what makes sense is a required residency clause for employment
I’d also like to see raises that were
A. Merit based
B. Contingent on town finances
I have no problem with a town employee getting a 15% raise if they are unusually low paid, unusually high performing, and the town has the money.
The only systems I can speak for are Attleboro and Weymouth. Both have a menu of options and costs for insurance and the rate of deduction for both towns is the same for active or retired employees. Weymouth provides a better selection at a lower cost so we opt for that town versus Attleboro.
Health benefits are a negotiable item and their cost can significantly impact retired employees if the towns or state makes any changes and they recently have.
Where the increased costs for retired employees comes into play is that Massachusetts teachers do not get a COLA. They are eligible for a 3% increase each year on the first $12,000 of their pension. This is up to the discretion of the governor and amounts to $30 per month. This represents significant loss over the years as inflation and rising medical costs degrade the pensions. SS has a COLA pegged to CPI.
As far as other public sector employees I cannot speak for them. Maybe one of your hundreds of other readers is familiar with that process.
I love seeing these different perspectives.
I do have a bit of a bee in my bonnet over town salaries and benefits. It’s great to get a well rounded discussion from all sides.
You have some information wrong.
There is nothing more important for any of us than water. The new water suprentindent has a level 2 license because licenses for towns for water suprentindents go by what is state mandated for that town, for water testing and evaluating. In our town the license mandate for a water suprentindent is a class four and there is only one person in this entire town that has an active level four license. That person just retired as the water suprentindent. You would not want anyone else watching your water system on a daily basis than a level four licensed water person. It takes years of experience and classes to gain level of expertise for water testing, cross connections, grant writing for infrastructure and healthy living of the water drinkers. The level is by the town size to meet the needs of what town requires for water safety.
The Bridgewater water suprentindent was hired because of his years, 32 years of water experience. Under qualified. NO. Of all the individuals that applied he was the best qualified. As for advertisements. They were placed in web sites, media, Mass Water Works Association and other associations.
Our water suprentindent is not paid anywhere’s near what other towns pay. And when you consider how vital that water is you can understand why you don’t want to entrust it to just anyone. These water suprentindents have so much responsiblity on their shoulders with federal mandates, epa requirements, BOS rulings, and yearly courses that have to be taken everyone should respect them more.
The water suprentindent will be taking the test for class four very soon.
As far as Mr Bagas goes, he came very qualified.
The new waste water suprentindent will be hired under a great deal of scrutiny.
One of the reasons why they are coming from Bridgewater is because of all the budget problems in Bridgewater that has a great deal of stress on the men and also for family security and because many of the workers have been working for less hours and less pay for quite a few years now due to the budget problems.
[...] increase at the Middleboro Board of Selectmen meeting of 2/22/2010. This is partially related to my last post about Middleboro [...]