Millerton revisits personnel policy manual

MILLERTON — The village of Millerton Personnel Policy Committee met on Thursday, April 19, to discuss revisions in the personnel manual.The date of the meeting was set at the previous Village Board meeting on Monday, April 16, in which the issues regarding the village audit were discussed.Board and Committee members Yosh Schulman and Debbie Middlebrook had different visions for how the meeting would take place. They spoke about their take on the subject days after the committee meeting.Schulman had mentioned at the previous Village Board meeting that all were welcome to attend and encouraged participation.“A reasonable amount of folks came, which is good and bad because there was a bit of confusion about how they would participate. I wanted them to fully participate but Debbie felt that openness and breaking into groups wasn’t appropriate and that it didn’t meet what a committee was allowed to do,” he said.Middlebrook did not view this meeting as an appropriate venue for an open process. “It was a committee meeting that didn’t really have anything to do with the audit. Because this meeting took place at the same time as the audit, people seemed under the impression it was related to the audit, but it wasn’t,” she said.Both parties agreed that the audit was important for overhauling the village personnel policy.“What we’re putting forth is that we do want to move forward on everything, even things not in the audit. Because of that audit we want to be more proactive than we have been and that includes this project, which is something we’ve wanted to update for a while,” said Middlebrook.Schulman noted that some individuals left once they felt they could not participate.“Those who came to the meeting on Monday who had motivation for coming there wanted to direct their energies. That’s what they thought they were coming together for,” he said.Middlebrook noted that a committee made up of members of the public was something that the Village Board would have to approve.“We don’t want to lend confusion to a process that people may already feel is confusing. I thought it should proceed as a regular committee meeting, separate from the audit discussions, which will be taking place during the workshop meetings,” she said.Once the format of the meeting was settled upon, both parties began reviewing manuals from other municipalities.“Once we began looking through the manuals we started identifying areas we needed to add. Most of the ones we looked at were around 100 pages. Ours is eight. Many things have changed in the 12 years since this manual was revised,” said Schulman.Middlebrook agreed that the manual the village currently uses is very basic.“We need to get to a point where we’re more 20th century. It has been useful in the past but is very basic. It needs to be more in depth,” she said.Both parties agreed that working with an outside agency would be the best course of action.“Our takeaway was that we have too much work to do on this as individuals. We need to bring in a professional outfit to guide our endeavors,” said Schulman.“We will be suggesting an outside agency to the board to avoid anything being overlooked,” Middlebrook said.The committee is currently researching outside agencies and costs to present to the Village Board during the next regular business meeting on Monday, May 21.