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BY ABBY FOX Town Manager Bill Sequino has worked for the town for 20 years but he hasn’t had a contract in the past ten. At the council’s last meeting, Oct. 6, his ongoing request for a contract was resolved, when council members voted for one.
“The council felt that this was a reasonable request, given his years of service to the town,” Council President Michael Isaacs said. “We wanted to make sure that if he was to have an employment agreement, it would be reasonable from the town’s point of view. It provides for stability and transition, for performance review and standards, and it provides for health insurance co-pay, which he did not have before.” The co-pay starts this fiscal year, at five-percent and increases by five percent every year, up to 20 percent-co pay, Isaacs said. The council also put in standards for review. Sequino can be dismissed at any time. If he’s dismissed without cause, he gets six month’s severance pay, “reasonable in light of his long tenure,” Isaacs said. “We enumerated reasons for dismissal for cause and if he’s dismissed for cause, he gets no severance at all,” Isaacs went on. “That addresses an issue we’ve seen in other communities, in school committee contracts, where someone is dismissed for cause and receives a big severance payment, and that’s something we certainly did not want to happen.” Other parts of the contract involved enumerating what Sequino already has: a base salary of $119,567, 20 vacation days and 15 sick days and a town vehicle. The contract came up at last week’s candidate forum, when candidate Steve Gregson started asking questions. Gregson said “contracts benefit the individuals getting them, not the town,” that as a small business owner, he hires at will, and he sees no reason for Sequino to need a contract. “I’m angry the town signed a contract three weeks before the election,” he said. “It seems like it’s local politics at their worst. We have an election in three weeks and what would be wrong with waiting, letting the new council be sworn in and dealing with this issue then? It gives the impression of impropriety. I don’t see the point, because he didn’t have a contract before. All this does is encumber the town. There’s no benefit to the town in this contract.” Sequino didn’t go to the forum, but said the next day that it was simply a matter of finishing unfinished business. “We never concluded doing an agreement,” he said, and “I thought it would be good to finalize” the details. “Most of the things that were spelled out had been continued from year to year, but not written down anyplace. It’s been discussed for several months; it’s not anything that just came up in the last meeting.” |
