Issue over social services director’s hours

KENT — A joint proposal was made and rejected at the regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, April 5. First Selectman Bruce Adams and Social Services Director Jerrilynn Tiso have been trying to find ways to adapt her hours so she can accommodate another job she recently accepted as social services director for the town of Roxbury. She was hired to work one day a week at that job but she wants to increase to two days a week. Her job in Kent is three days a week.Tiso requested that she be allowed to reduce her days in Kent to two, so she could still have one day off every week. She would have changed then from a salaried position to an hourly rate of $25 per hour, the same rate she earns in Roxbury.The idea wasn’t discussed in public until the selectmen presented their budget to the Board of Finance on Tuesday, March 29.After receiving a negative response, Adams and Tiso created a different plan: Tiso would retain her current salary (including the proposed 3.5 percent raise for all Town Hall employees in the 2011-12 fiscal year budget) and reduce the number of days she worked each week from three to two.However, the budgeted amount for the salary for social services director under this plan would remain at a three-day-per-week rate to allow for the position to be switched back to its original requirements should two days per week not work out.Tiso, as part of the compromise, also agreed to work a third day a week in Kent on an optional basis, since certain seasons are busier than others.The response at the selectmen’s meeting to Adams’ and Tiso’s proposal was overwhelmingly negative.Tiso was accused of trying to “withdraw from a commitment to a job description that is a three-day job” by Julia Samartini, who had worked on a task force that helped to change the social services director position from two to three days a week.Kent Community Fund President Catherine Bachrach expressed concern that “the reduction of hours would represent a significant step backward for the town of Kent and its citizens.”“What happens in another town can’t drive what we do here,” said Selectman Karren Garrity, to which Adams responded, “[Ms. Tiso] is not dictating anything. This was not done to accommodate her wishes to work in Roxbury. She could be helpful to the citizens of Roxbury.”Garrity also said that Tiso, if she is able to get her work done in two days instead of three, should spend the extra day doing more community outreach. Garrity and Selectman George Jacobsen voted against a motion to change Tiso’s position, and it will remain at three days a week. The selectmen’s budget now rises $5,410.01 to $2,729,338.81. This does not change the percentage increase over this year’s budget.