Personnel Board approves revised police sergeant descriptions, new town clerk job
WAYLAND — December 5, 2022 — Wayland Personnel Board elects new chair, raises experience bar for police sergeants. The board voted unanimously Monday to elect member Maryanne Peabody as chair effective Jan. 1, succeeding Debra Cohen. On a 4-0 vote with Mary Ellen Castagno abstaining, members approved revised job descriptions for administrative sergeant and detective sergeant after Acting Chief Ed Berman agreed to raise the minimum police officer experience from three years to five; the department is budgeted for six sergeants but has only three. The board also approved, 5-0, three additional vacation carryover days for 11 DPW workers, bringing them to 15 days "without precedent or prejudice." A new half-time department assistant in the town clerk's office was set at grade N3, with a full-time range of $46,218 to $60,302.
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WAYLAND — The Personnel Board on Monday elected member Maryanne Peabody as its next chair, approved revised job descriptions for two police sergeant positions and signed off on a new part-time department assistant role in the town clerk's office.
Peabody will succeed Chair Debra Cohen effective Jan. 1, 2023. The board voted unanimously to elect her after Cohen, whose one-year term as chair was ending, declined to seek another term. "I want to give somebody else the esteemed responsibility and opportunity to serve as chair," Cohen said.
The board spent much of its hour-long meeting on revised descriptions for the administrative sergeant and detective sergeant positions in the Wayland Police Department. Human resources staff member Kate Ryan told the board that the police union and the acting chief had agreed to drop language requiring two years of progressive supervisory experience as a sergeant, which would have left most current sergeants ineligible for promotion to either role.
Acting Police Chief Ed Berman joined the meeting by phone to answer questions from members. Berman said the department is budgeted for six sergeants but currently has only three, and that none of them has served as a detective. "If I did it the way it was written, I wouldn't even have anybody eligible," he said. At the board's prompting, Berman agreed to raise the minimum police officer experience for both jobs from three years to five.
The administrative sergeant description was also updated to formally include managing the police department's accreditation process, a duty Ryan said the position has long performed without it being written down. The board approved the revised descriptions 4-0, with member Mary Ellen Castagno abstaining.
On a 5-0 vote, the board approved an additional three days of vacation carryover for 11 Department of Public Works employees, bringing each worker's maximum carryover to 15 days for the calendar year. Twelve days are allowed automatically under the DPW collective bargaining agreement; the three additional days require Personnel Board approval. Members emphasized that the vote was made "without precedent or prejudice," language the board has used in recent years to push back against what Peabody and Cohen described as past assumptions that carryover requests would be rubber-stamped. Ryan said staffing shortages, including a shortfall of employees with commercial driver's licenses, continue to make it hard for DPW workers to use accrued time.
The board also voted 5-0 to approve a job description for a new half-time department assistant in the town clerk's office, and separately voted 5-0 to set the position at grade N3, with a full-time-equivalent range of $46,218 to $60,302. The position was funded at the most recent town meeting. Members amended the description to clarify a confusingly worded bullet on office security and vault access before approving it. No candidate has been hired; Ryan said the office hopes to fill the job by January.
Cohen reported that the state Attorney General's office has closed an Open Meeting Law complaint filed against the board, telling members the complainant accepted the board's response and the matter is considered closed.
Members briefly discussed whether to pursue updates to the town's personnel bylaw, including how the board's advisory role interacts with the town manager act. Peabody agreed to contact Select Board Chair Cherry Carlson to ask that the topic be placed on a future Select Board agenda. The board set its next meeting for 4 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17, before adjourning into executive session to discuss a grievance involving the New England Police Benevolent Association, Local 176.