SOUTHWICK — After the chair of the Parks and Recreation Commission made an impassioned plea to have the commission’s director’s salary increased during a Select Board meeting last Thursday, it was decided to come up with a “commensurate” salary after a reevaluation of the position’s responsibilities and duties.
“We think her pay is undervalued for what she does for the town,” said Parks and Recreation Chair David DeiDolori about Cara Cartello, who has been serving the commission’s program director for several years.
He, with the support of the Parks and Recreation Commission, wanted to bump the director’s salary up from $29.38, which begins on July 1, to $32.82. The director works 20 hours a week.
DeiDolori went through all the responsibilities the director has, which includes hiring and managing the grounds crews at Whalley Park, and open and closing Town Beach and hiring and certifying the lifeguards and done it with the salary of an assistant director.
“She is basically the entire staff,” he said.
He also said replacing her would be a challenge for the town.
“If she’s gone, we’re pretty much stuck with everything … and I think we’d be looking at [hiring a full-time director] to do this,” he said.
Select Board member Jason Perron immediately defended Cartello.
“I’ve never heard a bad word about Cara … nothing but great. When you got good people, the last thing you want to do is chase them away. You have my support,” Perron said.
Select Board member Diane Gale asked DeiDolori what the director’s responsibilities are.
DeiDolori listed the responsibilities he had spoken to before and added scheduling the athletic fields at Whalley Park.
Parks and Recreation Commissioner John Whalley III then asked to speak.
“Cara is spectacular. Those were some dark times when you sent someone in to take [her] job … it was awful,” Whalley III said.
Whalley’s “dark times” started in 2022, when the Select Board and Finance Committee decided to combine the director of the Council on Aging with the Parks and Recreation director.
Last year, the Select Board decided that combining the two positions had been a mistake, which board member Douglas Moglin confirmed at Thursday’s meeting.
After the person who held the combined positions left at the beginning of last year, Cartello was named the Recreation Department’s director and Lisa Anderson was named the COA director.
Whalley III continued: “I’ve been in business a little while and if you have someone that good, you better pay them what they’re worth or you’re going to lose them,” Whalley III said, adding, “It’s as simple as that. She’s a spectacular administrator … don’t mess this up.”
Moglin asked DeiDolori if the commission had money in the budget for the increase.
He answered that the commission had not asked for additional funding this year and was basing it on the $34,000 that was approved in last year’s budget.
Chief Administrative Officer Nicole Parker said Cartello was already going to see a $5 raise, a 26% increase, this year because she hadn’t gotten the standard 3% raise all town employees have gotten since 2021, but the salary bump requested by the commission amounted to a 56% increase.
Parker also said considered the director’s job as “seasonal.”
“There’s not really anything going on in the winter … albeit it’s busy, I don’t see it being the value of $32.83,” Parker said.
DeiDolori challenged Parker.
“I kinda of object that you’re saying it’s not a year-round position,” he said.
He said that Whalley Park runs until the first of December and in January the director starts hiring people for the next summer.
“We don’t open [Whalley Park] on March 30 and everything is ready to go … It takes a while,” DeiDolori said, adding that it’s the “same at Town Beach.”
He also said that after looking at other recreation departments in comparable towns, which Parker provided, none of the directors were responsible for hiring and supervising employees, unlike Cartello. It’s usually the DPW or the town building and grounds department.
“I figure that’s worth something,” DeiDolori said about Cartello’s current management responsibilities.
Parker pointed out that other town employees would like to see a 54% raise.
“Everyone deserves a lot more that the town gives them,” she said.
DeiDolori countered that the Parks and Recreation Department had “evolved.”
Whally III then said the Cartello had been underpaid since he began his tenure on the commission.
“You started at a point that was unrealistic,” Whalley III said about Cartello salary when first hired.
Gale then wanted to know if the director’s job description reflected the director’s current activities.
DeiDolori said he had sent Parker sent the director’s job duties, but not its description.
Later he defended the Parks and Recreation Department’s budget.
“For what we’re doing for the amount of money that we’re giving, the town is really benefiting from it,” he said, which prompted Moglin to speak up.
“I’m going to 100% agree,” he said, adding he had “floated” the idea to hire additional staff for Parks and Recreation, but it didn’t get a lot of “traction,” and had the same feedback when he proposed having Town Meeting authorizing a home rule petition to allow the DPW to oversee the department.
Moglin then said there could be a “happy medium.”
“How about we come up with a job description and figure out the pay that is commensurate?” he said, later agreeing with Whalley III that if Cartello was to leave, it would be expensive to get someone of her “caliber.”
Moglin said the issue should get worked out in the next few weeks and start with the director’s job description.
DeiDolori asked how.
Moglin said to work with Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Nadine Cignoni, and then the commission can meet with the board to come to an agreement.
