Still no decision on health benefits

KENT — For the third Board of Selectmen’s meeting in a row, on Tuesday, Feb. 2, the selectmen debated whether or not Tax Collector and Sewer Commission Clerk Deborah Devaux should get insurance benefits.

And by the end of the meeting, the selectmen still had not come to a decision.

Devaux is expected to work 24 hours a week as the town’s tax collector and 10 hours a week as the Sewer Commission’s clerk

In January 2008, the previous Board of Selectmen amended the town’s personnel policy to specifically allow Devaux to have the same health insurance benefits as full-time employees, as long as she works a combined total of 30 hours a week at her two positions.

At last month’s selectmen’s meeting, the selectmen and several town officials and residents got into a contentious debate over whether or not Devaux should keep her benefits.

The tone was calmer at this month’s selectmen’s meeting, with only the three selectmen discussing how to resolve the issue.

First Selectman Bruce Adams told the board that there are five possible options the selectmen can choose from.

The board could make the tax collector into a full-time employee; create a full-time accounts receivable position that would combine both Devaux’s part-time positions into one; increase the tax collector’s salary and allow her to buy into an insurance plan at her own expense; make the tax collector an elected position; or outsource the tax collector’s position entirely.

Selectman George Jacobsen said that making the tax collector into a full-time position would be the “simplest and most straight forward� option and made a motion for the change. However, only Adams voted for that plan. Karren Garrity and Jacobsen both voted against it.

Garrity then suggested that the town’s Policy and Procedure Committee should review the personnel policy that relates to Devaux, and make a recommendation to the selectmen on what action to take.

“We don’t even have a proper definition of an employee, an elected official or an appointed position [in the policy],� Garrity said. “Sometimes appointed and elected can be interchanged, and sometimes elected and hired can be interchanged. We want the opportunity to define what those are and how the policy can come together. And the committee is willing to take on that task.�

However, Adams told Garrity that the committee’s task is to review existing policies and identify their shortcomings and not make policy decisions.

Eventually, the selectmen decided to make a special committee of three members to review the policy.

The committee would be made up of one selectman, one member of the Board of Finance and one resident.

“I don’t think that this should take six months,� Jacobsen said. “I think a group of three people could resolve the issue.�

Adams said he would get a committee in place within two weeks.