Tussle at Town Hall over tax collector's benefits

KENT— Tensions were high at the first meeting of the year of the Board of Selectmen, on Tuesday, Jan. 5, as board members debated benefits received by Tax Collector and Sewer Commission Clerk Debbie Devaux.

In January 2008, the Board of Selectmen, which was then comprised of First Selectman Ruth Epstein and selectmen Vincent LaFontan  and Bruce Adams, amended the town’s personnel policy to specifically allow Devaux to have the same health-insurance benefits as full-time employees, as long as she worked a combined total of at least 30 hours a week at both positions.

Debate over the policy during the Jan. 5 meeting became heated and emotional and no agreement was reached.

The debate involved all three members of the board, Adams (who has been first selectman since the Nov. 3 election) and selectmen Karren Garrity and George Jacobsen; Devaux; Town Clerk Darlene Brady; Sewer Commission member John Casey; Chairman of the Democratic Town Committee Tod Jones; Conservation Commission member Dennis DePaul; and Ed Epstein, husband of former First Selectman Ruth Epstein and former principal of Kent Center School.

Devaux was the first to speak, and said she has heard many strange comments and misconceptions about the situation.

“Previously, the town attorney [Jeff Sienkiewicz] ruled that the personnel policy was legal and he did not have a problem with it, even though it is combining an elected job with a Sewer Commission job,� Devaux said. “A Sewer Commission job is a quasi-town job, depending on who you talk to at what time of the day.�

She then defended herself against accusations made by Brady during the last meeting. The town clerk accused Devaux of not working the full number of hours she is required to put in.

“I do work 20 hours for the town and 10 hours for the Sewer Commission,� Devaux said. “Sometimes I do work at home, attend meetings or go to other events. As for the time cards, I sign my own time cards for the 20 hours I work as a tax collector. I am the tax collector. I have no one over my head. I am the only one in the office. I’m it, folks, so that’s why I sign them.�

Devaux said the time cards for her hours worked as Sewer Commission clerk are signed by the chairman of the commission.

Casey, who is not the chairman of the commission but has been a member since June, spoke on behalf of Devaux and the commission.

“[Devaux] does a great job for us and has never been unavailable,� Casey said. “I’m not sure why we’re still having this discussion. No one is in a position to count every hour that either she or any town employee works every week. Either we rely on the person’s integrity, or we don’t. I think she is a person of integrity, so I take her at her word. We don’t want to see this as a distraction any longer.�

Jones then spoke up and said he was concerned that Devaux will lose her health-care benefits.

“I think that everybody in this room knows that [losing benefits] puts somebody in a very vulnerable position, especially at this time in the country,� Jones said. “I would be concerned for any town official who would be in her position. I feel that the possibility of the [board] doing harm to this person on very feeble grounds is just unthinkable. What kind of message would this send to other town employees? I don’t think this will have a stimulative effect on people’s willingness to come forward and do the kind of work we ask them to do.�

Selectman Jacobsen then denied that the issue was ever about whether or not Devaux would lose her health benefits, but was instead about a town policy.

Garrity added that the debate was becoming more of a personal issue, when it was supposed to be a personnel issue.

“What we talked about last month was that there is a town policy that is not a good policy that was put into effect by the previous selectmen,� Garrity said. “This is just not good business. Yes, a lawyer said it was legal, but it is not good business.�

Adams said that he voted for the change to the personnel policy in 2008, and defended it.

“I made the motion for it and we put [the policy] in place because this is a unique situation,� Adams said. “We had to get a ruling from the town attorney that working for the Sewer Commission could be considered working for the town. That was because the Sewer Commission has always been a gray area;there were questions about whether they were independent of the town or a town entity. He ruled that yes, they were a town entity. At that point we had no choice because she qualified as a 30-hour Kent town employee.�

At this point the debate became heated, with Devaux arguing that “ . . . you can’t separate personnel with personal when there’s only one person in the department.�

“I disagree, we had to do that at Kent Center School over and over again,â€� Garrity said. “Especially when  we had to talk about eliminating a program or a classroom teacher.â€�

Garrity was a longtime chairman of the Board of Education.

“That’s different, you’re not eliminating my job!� Devaux said.

Selectman Jacobsen then reiterated his suggestion from the previous meeting, that, starting with the next fiscal year (July 1), the town could increase the salary of the tax collector so Devaux could pay for her own insurance instead of collecting health benefits from the town.

He added that the town could look into the possibility of merging both of Devaux’s positions into a “revenue collector’s� job.

“However, nobody at this table has suggested we punish [Devaux] by cutting off your benefits,� Jacobsen said. “Nobody suggested that.�

Epstein, who was sitting in the back of the room, told the board that the policy should remain in place.

“The [policy] was previously approved by the town attorney, the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance,� he said. “There is not a massive outpouring of opposition to [Devaux]. This is the work of one person who has been working on this issue and finally has a Board of Selectmen who are listening to her, as opposed to the ones who didn’t.�

Epstein compared Devaux’s situation to the way the United States Supreme Court has handled Roe v. Wade since the decision was originally made by the court in 1973.

“It was a decision that was quite unpopular in some circumstances, but [since the original decision] there have been five presidents who have appointed justices that are anti-abortion,� Epstein said. “In most cases, the court has said the decision is the law of the land, and we’re not going to change it. I think you’re on slim grounds saying that Darlene is right and Debbie is wrong.�

In response to Epstein’s comments, Brady said that she was the “least political individual in the room� and that what she said about Devaux at the previous meeting had nothing to do with politics.

“Whether [Devaux] comes in one day, or no days, that is not my responsibility,� Brady said. “I brought this to the board as a personnel policy issue. As a head of a department, if I have a part-time employee who I can potentially qualify to buy into insurance, that is one of my concerns. As a taxpayer, if a motion is made that is a budget concern, I take that on too.�

Before he excused himself in order to go to another meeting, DePaul told the board, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.�

“If you really need something to occupy your time, there are many other things that need attention,� DePaul said.

After he left, Garrity criticized DePaul and said the selectmen have every right to look at and revisit town policy.

“Just because some people may think this is boring and because some people think we’ve looked at this before, it doesn’t mean you don’t do it again,� she said.

“I am sorry that this may be tedious to some people. George and I are new to this board and there are some things we are not familiar with. If you don’t want to listen to us work it through then you can leave, like Dennis did.�

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