Board of Health Chairman Tom Philippou says that his board plans to seek advice from town counsel about further pursuing with the attorney general’s office the issue of funding for the nine-hour-per-week position of its administrative assistant, Shanna Large.
The Finance Committee recently cut funding for the position from the proposed fiscal 2011 budget, which Philippou calls a circumvention of state law.
More time will now be required to process paperwork, give approvals, do filing, and review each stage of construction. It will be a hardship.
—Tom Philippou
Philippou told the health board at its March 23 meeting that after he and board member Lorin Johnson attended the March 17 Finance Committee (FinCom) meeting to present the board’s budget proposal, they were rebuffed on future funding for the position. Philippou said he’d been notified about the FinCom decision in an e-mail the following day.
FinCom members had challenged Philippou and Johnson about the need for the administrative position, asking if the role could be covered by other Town Hall personnel. Philippou responded that the administrator has special skills and experience that were necessary to do the job. Large regularly performs work requiring knowledge of state testing requirements and innovative technologies, he said, and must follow the increasing numbers of test results of septic systems and public water supplies.
Philippou told FinCom members that BOH autonomy in personnel decisions is set forth in Mass. General Law, Title XVI: Public Health, Chapter 111: Section 27, which states, “It [the health board] may fix the salary or other compensation of such physician and its clerk and other agents and assistants.”
After Philippou and Johnson left the meeting, Finance Director Lorraine Leonard looked up the exact text of the law, and pointed out that the operative word seemed to be “may,” which suggested that the health board’s role with respect to personnel is optional.
After a lengthy discussion, the FinCom voted 4-2 not to fund the BOH budget.
Contending at the March 23 BOH meeting that the FinCom decision doesn’t make financial sense, Philippou said, “It’s not a dollars and cents issue—[the] $9,000 a year we requested for her for a year [amounts to] less than 15 cents a tax bill. … Our clerk is paid less on an hourly basis than the other two [town] secretaries, or the janitor of this building [Town Hall]. … there was no discussion [with FinCom] of her hours being excessive.”
“If you buy the argument that FinCom is not violating the law, but not funding the position, and that their two secretaries will be taking some of her responsibilities, [then] they’re circumventing the law,” asserted an angry Philippou. “We need more hours [for Large]; they need to cut back each of their clerks to allow Shanna to do her job…It’s not fiscally prudent to compromise Shanna, and have two other, more highly paid people do her job.”
According to Philippou, if funding is not restored, the board will meet its usual two times a month, but one meeting would be purely administrative, with no decision-making or contact with the public. “We will be opening mail,” he said. “More time will now be required to process paperwork, give approvals, do filing, and review each stage of construction. It will be a hardship for people.”
In January, the BOH provided FinCom with an impact statement saying that while it has shown a history of stewarding its operating funds, and “while other departments have ‘talked’ about cost control, we’ve accomplished it.” The letter goes on to say that “further reductions are not possible. This past year has required additional operating funds that were not granted, to coordinate the H1N1 planning and response. This has forced us to neglect some of our ‘housekeeping’ responsibilities and as a result we are ‘falling behind’ in these duties, causing delays and inconveniencing our taxpayers and neighbors.” The statement also says that the town will risk receiving additional funds through permit fees and increased tax revenues from building projects that are delayed for lack of adequate funding, and that the board’s function as a clearinghouse for information on food safety, vaccinations, water quality, and septic systems will be adversely affected.
Joe Hutchinson contributed to this article.