2022-02-28 Retirement Board Minutes

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1952 MINUTES OF THE READING RETIREMENT BOARD MEETING Monday February 28, 2022 The Reading Retirement Board held a special session meeting on February 28, 2022 in The Conference Room at 2 Haven Street, Unit 307, Reading, Massachusetts. The meeting was called to order at 9:30 A.M. by Chairman David Gentile with board members, Carol Roberts, Sharon Angstrom, John Halsey and Assistant Board Administrator Elaine Kelly. Joseph Coughlin was unable to attend. OLD BUSINESS Carol informed the Board members that at the last Board meeting on February 23, 2022, she took the recording device, used to record both the regular session and the executive session, to the IT Manager to have him extract the executive session and download them separately. Carol Roberts will prepare and record the executive minutes. The Assistant Administrator will prepare and record the regular minutes. The Chairman pointed out that the executive session minutes need to have a process that the Board goes through them; clearing and then releasing them into record. This will be put on a future agenda. Employee Handbook Carol Roberts continues to lead the effort in updating the employee handbook, with feedback from all Board members and the Retirement office staff. Carol states that the Handbook is ready to have labor counsel review it, although one has not yet been obtained. Sharon Angstrom will check with the town's Procurement officer to see if there's a dollar amount before we would be required to do an RFP, stating that this would not require a lot of time. Sharon will also contact PERAC again for additional guidance. Carol would like to gathermore information and guidance on the issue involving the 2 -week termination notice policy. She would also like labor counsel to discuss and clarify the issue of pro- rating an employee's vacation time, as Atty. Sacco states that the Board cannot do that. The Chairman asked for clarification regarding the authorizing of vacation time. The Chairman requests that the 2 Retirement employees do not take vacation at the same time, which is not a standard practice of the Retirement office. The vacation timetable for all eligible employees has been revised, updating the current number of vacation hours allotted to both Exempt and Non -Exempt employees. The Chairman wanted clarification for the following; if a holiday falls on a Friday or Saturday (nonscheduled work days) in a calendar year, the staff members will be granted an additional 9 hours of holiday time, to be taken at a later date. The Board concurred, adding that the additional hours are not to be taken simultaneously, enabling the Retirement office to remain open. The final wording is being drafted.