2018-09-07-LHRC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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We will have Chair, Vice Chair, and Clerk elections next month when all our member seats are filled. Clerk will receive all nominations, as of this moment, Mr. Osborne & Ms. Brodner are running for Chair. Mr. Toronto is running for Vice Chair. If you are interested in an open community member seat, Mrs. Rodgers has the application and can send electronically, and you can also get it on the town website. Once complete, applications are kept on file in the Selectman's office. Member attendance review, please attend at least 50% of the meeting if you do not then BoS can act to remove. Ms. Rodgers reported that she and Kelly Axtell, acting Town Manager discussed the potential for a LHRC facilitated strategic planning session. The planning session could be during a regularly scheduled monthly meeting or during a weekday or weekend workshop. The Town Manager's Office may pay for a facilitator, food and beverages. Improving Diversity of Town Employees —Anne Grnlia-Kostos, Lexington Human Resources Director Ms. Graglia-Kostos is responsible for recruiting all town employees except for the Lexington Public Schools. This includes 300 full-time and 96 part-time individuals. At any point in time 2- 10 openings exist. Police are civil service employees and so must follow those rules for hiring. Fire is not civil service, so town process much easier: take a test, then interviewed, background checked and then position offered if all checks out. While the Town often promotes from within to increase retention and institutional knowledge, all jobs are posted on the Town website. Now job postings going out to Chairs of town citizen groups to help get the word out. Small staff, so they do not go out to job fairs, but do post to specialized job sites and associations. Hired fluent Mandarin speaker recently. There is no problem getting candidates, but the struggle is in getting a diverse pool of candidates. Question was asked about internet job sites and reaching out to schools with diverse populations, while that doesn't seem to be a current tactic, it was noted. There is a movement to explain the benefits of working for town government through Mass Municipal Association, good pension & benefits. Suggestion was made that postings be sent out to the Town Meeting Members Association Listserve. Lt. Barry spoke on police recruitment. Detective Evelyn spoke about summer camp and the explorer program which focuses on younger kids. Civil Service exam - 9 residents applied they took 4 of the residents, no minorities and no females applied. The process: take the Civil Service exam, if you pass then residents top the list followed by disabled veterans, and veterans. Applicants must pass a background check, psychological test, and physical test. Finally, applicant must attend the academy 24 weeks and then 12 weeks of field training before work. There has been some discussion within the department about getting out of civil service requirement, but that is a contractual decision. How do you fill the minority gap, especially as it seems that people don't want to be police officers today? 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE•LEXINGTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02420