WATERVILLE — City councilors voted 5-0 Tuesday to approve a last-minute agreement between City Manager Michael Roy and City Planner Ann Beverage that would save her job, but she will work only 20 hours a week and without benefits.

Roy cut her 40-hour-a-week job to 20 hours Jan. 1 and eliminated her benefits. Beverage said Roy had told her two years ago he would cut her hours sometime in the future, but she was shocked to learn they were cut in half.

Beverage, 62, has been city planner 26 1/2 years. While Roy has authority to hire and fire employees, job changes are subject to council approval.

Roy proposed creating a full-time position for someone who would work part time in the understaffed code enforcement office and part time in the planner’s office. Beverage, he said, would train that person to do her job in preparation for when she retired. But Beverage said she has enjoyed working for the city and has no plans to retire.

Councilors on Tuesday were to have voted on changing the planner’s job description to create the new position, a move that Beverage said she feared would eliminate her job, as she would have no job description.

However, early Tuesday evening before the council meeting, Beverage said Roy approached her to propose a new situation in which she would be able to continue working 20 hours in the planner’s position with a contract, and the city would hire a full-time code enforcement assistant instead of someone who would work half time in the planner’s office and half time in the code office.

Beverage said he told her he would propose that scenario to councilors in an executive session the council was scheduled to hold before the regular council meeting Tuesday night. The purpose of that executive session was to discuss a tax abatement request, according to the council agenda.

The state’s Freedom of Access law says public officials who enter an executive, or private, session must be specific about their reasons for entering the session, and they may enter it only under certain circumstances.

When the council voted to go into executive session Tuesday night, Councilor Rosemary Winslow, D-Ward 3, cited “tax abatement request” as the reason. Council Chairman Fred Stubbert, D-Ward 1, and Karen Rancourt-Thomas, D-Ward 7, were absent from the meeting.

Audience members, including Beverage and her husband, Parker, left the room. The city’s tax collector, Linda Cote, stayed along with a man who sat beside her.

When the audience was called back to the meeting after the executive session ended, councilors hosted a community notes session and then voted 5-0 to approve a poverty abatement.

Then Roy announced that he and Beverage had sat down Tuesday afternoon and talked about the proposal to create a new planner/code position, and he was happy to report he thought they reached an agreement. Beverage, he said, would stay on as city planner in a part-time position with an annual contract, and she would retain her title and job description. A new full-time code enforcement assistant position would be created for the code enforcement office, he said.

“That was my intention all along, was to try to create efficiencies, especially in one department which I knew was understaffed,” he said.

South End resident Heather Merrow asked whether if Beverage works 20 hours a week this year, her position could be eliminated next year. She noted that, according to the city charter, the city manager, not the council, has authority to renew contracts.

“I think it would come back to the council,” Roy said, “and the way this was proposed, with our planner half time and assistant code enforcement officer, I believe in next year’s budget we can do it (for) less than what we’re currently paying today — it’s $11,000 less.”

Meanwhile, Roy said the new code enforcement position would have a job description that is similar to Code Enforcement Officer Garth Collins’ description, but the new person would work as an assistant to Collins.

Councilor Dana Bushee, D-Ward 6, said she was pleased with the proposal.

“I think this is a great way to remedy the need for the city and the code enforcement office. I’m really glad that this agreement was made.”

She also said she had spoken with Beverage and felt better knowing Beverage was happy to continue in a part-time position.

Beverage said recently that Roy never told her himself that he had cut her hours from 40 to 20 and eliminated her benefits. Instead, she learned about it in a Dec. 4 email from the city’s human resources director, she said.

Beverage said her discussion with Roy prior to Tuesday’s council meeting occurred after they had attended a meeting late in the afternoon with other city officials to discuss a traffic issue that included Spring Street Extension.

She said that after that meeting, Roy asked to speak with her.

“We went into my office and he said, ‘Somebody told me that you would be willing to work half time, with no benefits, to keep your position as planner,'” Beverage said.

Beverage, who said she has feared all along that Roy planned ultimately to eliminate her position, agreed to the 20 hours as a way to keep her job.

“Basically, we came to an agreement,” she said. “He said, ‘No way I’m putting you back to 40 hours. No way I’m putting you back to 32,'” she said. “The best I could get was 20 hours, no benefits, keep my job. He asked me how long a contract I wanted. He said, ‘Would a year contract be OK?’ I said, ‘OK if you give me notice. You didn’t give me notice last time.'”

Then Beverage said, “He said, ‘I’m going to tell them in executive session that we came to an agreement, and we’ll announce it (at the council meeting).'”

The city requires a 90-day notice be given to employees, but Beverage said she did not get that notice when her hours were cut.

Beverage said she favored hiring someone to do code enforcement work specifically instead of someone to do both that and planning work because it would serve the city better than asking someone to do both jobs.

Roy, meanwhile, has said he does not think the city planner’s job requires 40 hours of work per week.

Amy Calder — 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @AmyCalder17

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