Town Manager Musante (right), SB Chair Alisa Brewer (left)
Tonight the long awaited evaluation of the Town Manager by the 5 member elected Select Board on his progress with 15 goals in various areas of responsibility showed interesting criticism from the two most experienced members of our executive branch -- Chair Alisa Brewer and Jim Wald.
Ms. Brewer gave Mr. Musante "unsatisfactory" a total of nine times (out of possible 44) while Mr. Wald checked it off five times.
Brewer and Wald were in unanimous agreement in response to goal #5, "Relationship With the Select Board" by giving him "unsatisfactory" to the same five of eight statements. Ouch!
Brewer and Wald checked off "unsatisfactory" to 5 of 8 statements
In fact the other three SB members did not issue a single "unsatisfactory" out of all 44 response statements.
Last week 13 current and former Regional School officials evaluated Superintendent Maria Geryk, currently the highest paid town employee ($158,000), on a bevy of criteria but only a single "unsatisfactory" was issued.
The Select Board will meet again before the end of the month in Executive Session to make Mr. Musante a contract offer and presumably a raise from his current $150,000 salary.
So it will be interesting to see -- especially with this surprising number of "unsatisfactory" scores -- if he gets the 5.5% raise necessary to make him the highest paid employee in town.
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Although statement G should probably include Blogs, Facebook and Twitter
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Selectman Jim Wald reacts to media coverage (and my title) on his blog
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He's the only town manager that doesn't talk to employees or show up to contract negotitations.
ReplyDeleteRefreshing, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, I was a tad surprised.
ReplyDeleteLarry, can you publish the other ten pages of this report? I want to know how each select person voted in the other categories too.
ReplyDeleteHe will still get a substantial raise….while others in town will not
ReplyDeleteAnon 11:19 AM
ReplyDeleteI did. In the lead paragraph click on "15 goals" (highlighted in white).
didn't he recently get a huge raise? If so, what would warrant a such a big raise of 5.5%, seems like 3% would be typical.
ReplyDeleteThe employees of the town hate him, and rightfully so. He never gets out and actually talks to the town employees. He is too scared to show up at the fire department, police department, or DPW. Instead he hides in his cave. He is, for not wanting to use more harsh language on this blog, a scumbag.
ReplyDeleteHe should get no more than 2% like everyone else. He also got the benefit of Harvard.
ReplyDeleteThe Gazette mentions a dpw analyst, how does one create such a high paying position without select board approval? What does that position do? I'm betting thetes more to it than meets the eye.
People like anons 8:32 and 1:15 are exactly the reason we need a soft-spoken, level-headed non-activist (i.e. John Musante) in charge of day-to-day operations. Who gives a shit if he isn't personally talking to all the town employees? I want Musante to have his eye on operations and the checkbook, not stroking the already-inflated egos of department heads.
ReplyDeleteI am on one of our 52-town-committees and deal with John frequently. He keeps things on an even keel and provides stability despite high turnover rates in town meeting and on the select board. He is held publicly accountable for what he does. (Of course, if we could get Ron Swanson, that would even better.)
Not all stories are created equal.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a big deal.
Rich Morse
That's what LBJ supporters said when he "only" won the NH primary by 49% to 42% over Eugene McCarthy.
ReplyDeleteI see Ms. Brewer wore her best t-shirt.
ReplyDeleteThat's her default Town Meeting t-shirt. Photo was taken back in May.
ReplyDeleteMass governor makes about $152K and oversees a total budget of $46 billion and manages 136,000 employees.
ReplyDelete"The employees of the town hate him, and rightfully so...He is, for not wanting to use more harsh language on this blog, a scumbag."
ReplyDeleteReally? They should fire you. Shut up and do your job and be lucky to have one with your bad attitude.
Nope, he's right, 25 years I've work for the Town and never met the man. You would think at the picnic or holiday party He could at least walk around and introduce himself.
ReplyDeleteAnd did you go up to him and introduce yourself? Look in the mirror. Stop blaming someone else.
ReplyDeleteHello 6:31
ReplyDeleteOf your 25 years, John has been town manager for the last 8. He can't be faulted for the 17 years before that.
Maybe "management by walking around" isn't his strength. He has many other strengths, though, including not drawing attention to himself.
Thank you for your service to the Town.
11:50
Thanks, you are correct, he wasn't the TM, but he was the finance Director.
DeleteAnon 4:07,
ReplyDeleteI do my job and work hard at what I do, if there was a reason to be fired I am sure they would have years ago, yet I'm still working. Do you know all the things the TM doesn't do to help the employees? I don't think you do. So maybe YOU should shut up because you have no clue about what you are talking about. So I say, the town manager is still, a scumbag.
Hello 1:30pm
ReplyDeleteI hope you're not the new economic development director
I think we're extremely lucky to have Mr. Musante overseeing the operations and budget of our town. If there are improvements that can be made in terms of employee and Select Board relations, great, put them in the evaluation and establish them as goals for the coming year. My understanding is that town employees as well as town committee members and residents are welcome and encouraged to fill out evaluation forms. I'm wondering if the obviously disenchanted commenters above availed themselves of that opportunity and, if so, where their opinions show up in the summary document. I'm also curious whether there were prior managers that set a better example in terms of employee relations. If there was a particular template that worked it would be good to lay it out there as an example to aspire to.
ReplyDeleteI did, as did most everyone else in the department.
DeleteSorry, but every interaction I've had with him, and I've had many, have been positive. I can't believe a town employee would use such a tasteless word. You are an embarrassment.
ReplyDeleteYou don't seem to understand the idea of insubordination.
ReplyDeleteHeard employees in Portage MI would gladly give you Lawrence Shaffer back.
ReplyDeleteA lot of employees did not give the town manager favorable ratings, yet no one in the public will ever hear of them because the select board and town would not want that getting out. I would bet that there are more town employees that hate him than actually like him. Giving him a raise is not going to help relations either. As far as calling him a scumbag, maybe that employee is right and he really is. I have heard enough bad things about the man to agree. Maybe the town manger needs to get out and talk to his employees like these individuals who post on here say. Maybe its time to move to a mayoral system?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI would just like to assure everyone that the Select Board indeed reads each and every submission to the Town Manager's evaluation file with great care.
If anything, we would like to hear more from more people.
One problem, as we noted in our discussions last week, was that the response rate from Town employees has tended to be low. When that is the case, it is more difficult to tell how representative any given response--positive or critical--is. The more responses we get, the better for all concerned.
Jim, you see these posts on here and now see that there are a lot of employees that are unhappy. I am sure that you read the evaluations that were not positive. Maybe there is a lot that the select board is missing and not seeing.
ReplyDeleteI believe the manager has done a super job especially in terms of his focus on public safety.
ReplyDeleteSarcasm, sir, will get you nowhere.
ReplyDeleteYes, Anon. 7:35
ReplyDeleteObviously, we tend to see mainly department heads or higher administrators interacting with the Town Manager, so we don't have personal experience of what goes on at other levels: that's why we would like even more forms filled out--so we can see the real patterns.
But several of us have consistently called attention to the problem.
The relevant part of this year's official evaluation memo reads:
"In an organization of this size all permanent employees should feel you have an interest in their work and in their personal contribution to the success of our community. We are not sure what to make of admittedly imprecise annual indicators,
including a small sample size, that some staff in some departments continue to feel deeply disrespected, but we are especially concerned that despite years of similar comments, you have apparently made no express efforts to increase or improve communication to address these feelings. No matter how good the morale is in some departments, it cannot make up for the apparent pockets of unhappiness elsewhere. We look forward to reports of how strategies developed and steps taken to address these concerns are working.
"You have shared with us at every Select Board meeting that the Town’s accomplishments are due to the combined efforts of various teams of dedicated staff, usually by name. We encourage you to find additional ways to make this clear to those who continue to express that frustration on their staff questionnaires. We would also like to hear more about your implementation of good ideas offered by staff at all levels."
If there are things we are still not seeing, please help us to see them. We want to do right by everyone.
Mr. Wald, could you to tell us if some staff in one department in particular seems to be feeling disrespected more than others, or are the pockets of unhappiness spread equally among departments? Did any evaluations from staff tie their feeling of being disrespected to Town Manager's budgetary decisions?
ReplyDeleteMoney is not the key to happiness. Feeling disrespected comes from being treated poorly. Budget aside, there are many employees, in all departments, that feel that the way the TM treats people is second rate. There obviously is a bigger problem that average Amherst citizens don't see or care to see.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, 12:35. It is a good one.
ReplyDeleteThe answer is a bit complicated: legally, the Select Board's individual and group evaluations are part of the public record, whereas employee comments are classified as part of the personnel record, and therefore private.
However, if you click through the link to the individual Select Board evaluations, you may in places see some comments that deal with those specifics.
Jim
Mr. Wald,
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting on here about this issue. Obviously you see that there is a great issue here that needs to be addressed. I hope that you are able to share this with the other members of the SB.
Anonymous August 20, 2015 at 9:56 PM said...
ReplyDeleteI did (call him a scumbag), as did most everyone else in the department."
Anon 9:56 which is the department?
ReplyDeleteSeems more like one or two very disgruntled individuals with attitude problems, I don't see any specifics or any town employees commenting here. "most everyone else in the department" does that include your department head?
Is the use of the word "scumbag" related to some employees' Union affiliation? (anti-union scumbag" etc.)
It would appear that it is just a name that was given to him by these people. Your probably just reading too much into it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think so. There are at least a couple town employees who are rabidly pro-union and they've been vocal in the past about their dissatisfaction with the TM's budgetary decisions. It's a common form of intimidation within the unions to call people scabs and scumbags and I think that's what they meant. PS it's the union members who intimidate and name call and threaten that have given labor unions their bad rep, in part, and they are terrible for morale. I think we have a serious problem.
ReplyDelete