Blue Hill hires code enforcement officer, considers job descriptions

Town struggles to fill job full time

The Blue Hill select board members discuss hiring and job descriptions at their Oct. 20 meeting. Photo by Tricia Thomas.

By Tricia Thomas

BLUE HILL—The Blue Hill select board has hired a part-time code enforcement officer as it continues to grapple with a lack of candidates to share the job’s burgeoning responsibilities.

Zavier Alvarez, of Blue Hill, was hired by the board at its October 13 regular meeting. He will work 15 to 20 hours per week at a salary of $22 per hour. At its meeting on October 20, the board said it will continue seeking someone to either handle work that Alvarez is not able to take on, or function as a supervisor. Until then, Alvarez will report to select board member D. Scott Miller, the board said.

“We’ve hired Zavier Alvarez with an expectation of 15 to 20 hours a week, on average. My thought was that [it] is a stop-gap number of hours, appreciably less than what we need long-term,” Miller said.

Alvarez’s hire fills an opening left by the town’s previous code enforcement officer, Bryce Emerson, who left the job over the summer. After Emerson’s departure, the board retained Martin Conant, who took on the job on a temporary basis for one day a week.

In related business, the board discussed potential updates to its employee policies, drafted by select board member Amanda Woog as part of her role as human resource liaison. Changes discussed include whether probationary periods for new employees should be extended from the current 90 days to 180 days. The board also discussed whether job descriptions should be developed for each position.

With the exception of employees at the Blue Hill Consolidated School, the town employs seven people:  three full-time employees in the town office, two full-time public works employees, and two part-time employees, including Alvarez. The town has experienced a handful of staff resignations this year. In addition to Emerson, deputy clerk Michael Laundry, town administrator Julie Atwell and town clerk Sarah Lavallee each resigned their respective positions over the past several months.

Miller said he had no problem with the proposed 180-day probation period, but wanted leeway to extend probations beyond that if needed. The board has extended probations of two of its employees in the past, Miller added.

“If we do drop that [ability to extend probationary periods], we really need to do a better job of collecting and providing feedback during that period,” Miller said. “It should be relatively straightforward, but it hasn’t been getting done.”

Miller and board chair Ellen Best questioned Woog’s recommendation regarding job descriptions.

“I’m okay with job descriptions, but I don’t find them super-helpful, especially in our context. I’m not sure I would want to make it a requirement,” Miller said.

“I have a different philosophy,” Woog said. “I think it’s helpful to communicate expectations.”

Town clerk Dana Goettler, who was promoted from part-time to full-time deputy clerk last spring, suggested that the board at least consider job descriptions for employees it appoints.

“Can I make a suggestion as somebody who’s been trying to figure out what my own job description is for a couple of months now? How about [using the term] ‘select board-appointed positions?’” she said. “I figure, if I’m appointing my own deputy, then I can set what [his or] her job is, but if you’re making me town clerk, then I have nobody other than you to ask what my job description is.”

“I know that you guys currently probably don’t know everything that I have to do, because I also don’t know everything I have to do,” Goettler added. “It would be fantastic to have a document that outlines all of my areas of responsibility, and the next town clerk probably needs the same thing.”

Best said that jobs at Blue Hill’s town hall demand flexibility.

“People have to be flexible in what they’re willing to do. That’s part of coming to work in any small office,” Best said.

Goettler acknowledged that flexibility is part of her job, but added that she still would like a job description.

“A perhaps ‘not-exhaustive’ job description would be helpful. I think it’s less a matter of limiting what I do to only the things on the list and, more so, giving me and the next person to hold my position a starting list of things that they should look out for,” Goettler said.

“The problem is that we’ve seen the other side of it,” Best countered. “You, I have no doubts about at all, but I have seen people who say ‘that’s not in my job description.’”

Woog suggested that job descriptions include the phrase ‘and other duties as required’ to provide flexibility, and said she would continue working on the draft updates for further discussion. 

“I’m in favor of more rather than less communication, and at least having a job description that sets out some shared understanding of what the job looks like, knowing that it is a working document, would be helpful,” Woog said.