More Debate About Town Employee Bonuses Dominates Somers Meeting

SOMERS, CT — Discussion about the controversial awarding of salary increases and bonuses to numerous town employees in late June continued at a Board of Selectmen meeting Thursday, with voices rising and selectmen cutting each other off on several occasions.

About a half hour was spent debating the policy, or lack thereof, concerning criteria for salary adjustments and performance bonuses. The situation manifested in a June 25 memo from First Selectman Bud Knorr to the finance department, instructing that 31 employees be awarded bonuses totaling $32,000. The biggest bonus was $3,000 to Knorr himself.

At a July 16 meeting, Selectman Tim Potrikus contended the bonuses were paid without being authorized by the full board. He also expressed his opinion that elected officials should not have been included in the bonus plan during tough fiscal times, and was also concerned about transparency.

On July 27 at a Board of Finance meeting, board member Bill Meier brought up his own concerns about transparency, sparking a 15-minute discussion between the board, Knorr and chief financial officer Michael Marinaccio. Meier also questioned whether Knorr's actions constituted a conflict of interest. Knorr responded he had mailed a check for $3,000 back to the town, and board member Joe Tolisano subsequently accused Meier of being "on a witch hunt."

The following day, Knorr issued an apology to the residents of Somers regarding his "lapse in judgment" in awarding the bonuses without approval from the full Board of Selectmen.

At Thursday's meeting, Marinaccio stated, "I went into our employee handbook, updated in Jan. 2017, under item 6:4 Salary Administration. It states, 'employee compensation is administered in accordance with the town's salary administration program.' I have searched far and wide in the finance department's files and find no such program."

Potrikus said, "I have no argument with regular salaries being adjusted; my issue is with elected officials. Residents didn't get to vote on the budget this year due to the governor's orders. To award raises to elected officials just seems out of whack to me, especially lacking a discussion with the three of us being part of the decision."

Selectman Tim Keeney echoed Potrikus' views about transparency.

"I think it needs to go beyond just elected officials," Keeney said. "The problem is the way this was handled, and everyone keeps talking about transparency. What's ironic is two selectmen were in the dark when it came to pay raises and bonuses for town employees and elected officials. I would like to see the Board of Selectmen involved in something like a performance review board. I think one of the big problems this year, with the pandemic and the uncertainty in many households in this town, the town went ahead and gave salary increases and bonuses to a great many of our town employees at a time when many of them probably weren't working full time."

Knorr retorted, "That's not true," to which Keeney replied, "That's the perception." Knorr answered, "I set the record straight. These people worked remotely from home. I was in here every day and town operations didn't stop because they were working from home, so I don't buy it that people weren't doing their jobs."

Keeney said, "Somehow you've got to get beyond the perception and show that you've got a system in place that holds people accountable for what they're supposed to be doing, what the performance has been and what the recommendations are of their supervisors in a formal review done on each employee."

"I set up a performance appraisal system, which should be the basis for fair evaluation," Knorr responded. "Here are your objectives, here are your goals, how did you meet them."

Marinaccio interjected the first selectman and town clerk are the only two paid town employees who are elected officials, and therefore should be subject to a board of review.

"We're in finance, we'll pay them whatever you tell us to pay them," Marinaccio said. "We have no input in any of that."

Keeney quickly responded, "That's the problem, the board of selectmen doesn't have any input either, except for the first selectman who happens to be making all the decisions based on recommendations through people that report directly to him, and who he's giving bonuses to. The optics of that are not good."

Potrikus chided Marinaccio for not questioning the memo from Knorr, seeing it was not from the full board of selectmen. Keeney reiterated, "It's an optics problem and an ethics problem," to which Knorr quickly fired back, "It's not an ethics problem. Nothing illegal was done here."

Keeney mentioned the town clerk was not among the 31 employees awarded bonuses.

"You have this friction with the town clerk and it's perceived to be a personal vendetta," Keeney stated, which was countered by Knorr saying, "I'm not getting involved in a personnel discussion about a certain individual."

At Knorr's suggestion, Marinaccio will analyze the salary administration policies of other similar towns and create a template for a policy for the next meeting.

The complete Aug. 6 Board of Selectmen meeting may be viewed below; the salary administration discussion begins around the 1:27:00 mark.

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