Town Clerk/Tax Collector gets her raise

Meeting in special session yesterday afternoon, selectmen voted unanimously to increase the salary of Town Clerk/Tax Collector Jane Goss by seven percent, reaffirming their position taken on March 16.

The decision to revisit the issue came about following a written complaint from former selectman Evelyn Auger, who questioned the legal authority of the board of selectmen to increase Goss's salary.

According to Auger, as an elected official Goss's salary is not subject to, nor can it be increased or decreased by selectmen. Instead, the salary must, in accordance with statute, be set by the town at its annual meeting.

Selectmen voted on March 16 to increase the salaries of all town employees by seven percent following a decision by voters at town meeting to boost the salaries of the police department by that amount.

Selectmen had negotiated with all of the town's department heads to hold wage increases to no more than two-percent, but Police Chief Mark Barton, citing concerns about his ability to recruit and retain officers without offering a larger hike in pay, opted to take the matter to the voters.

When voters approved his request, selectmen followed the next week with an across-the-board raise, saying that it was only fair to treat all employees the same.

But following Auger's complaint, selectmen consulted legal counsel — including the town's attorney and an attorney with the Local Government Center. Both concluded that Auger's position was correct and that since Goss is an elected official and not an employee working under the selectmen, the board had exceeded its authority by raising her pay.

"I can't disregard what two lawyers have advised the board — that we can't raise the salary of the Town Clerk/Tax Collector," selectman Andrew Livernois said, hinting that he favored reversing the March 16 vote.

Selectman Guy Giunta agreed. "When have we not taken the advice of the attorneys?" he asked.

That brought a retort from several town residents present for the meeting, including former selectman Peter Dascoulias, who recalled a number of occasions when the Board of Selectmen acted against the advice of counsel, including in the waterfront property case.

For Goss, however, the issue was one of fairness. Noting that selectmen had often set her pay, she pointed out that in effect, selectmen cut her pay this year when they denied her request for a four-percent increase in her budget — ordering her instead to hold the increase to two percent.

"It's not fair," Goss told selectmen. "You approved the increase and now you're going to turn around and take it back. What right do you have to cut my salary if you don't have a right to increase it."

Armed with an opinion from Don Borror, the auditor with the N.H. Department of Revenue Administration who audits Sanbornton that suggested that selectmen do have the right to authorize expenditures, Goss suggested that if the selectmen can't approve a pay raise, they can't order a pay cut.

Planning Board member Helmut Busack appeared to agree. "The Town Clerk/Tax Collector us autonomous," he pointed out.

A similar view expressed by Town Administrator Bruce Kneuer, who offered that one possible solution to the dilemma was to treat the Town Clerk/Tax Collector in a fashion similar to how the library is treated — the money is appropriated, but selectmen have no control over how it's spent. Instead, the library board makes those decisions.

Dascoulias seemed to seize on that train of thought, recommending that the board be creative in looking at ways to accommodate the pay raise already approved. "You're saying why this can't be done," he said. "Have you looked at other ways the salary can be increased?"

Among those in attendance, Goss clearly had a sympathetic ear, attesting to her popularity in the town. Even selectmen conceded that if the matter were to be put to a vote at town meeting, Goss would likely prevail.

And Goss did not hesitate to express her displeasure. "This is going to be a real hot potato," she warned, assuring selectmen that should they reverse their vote of March 16 she'd be asking for town-paid counsel.

"It's not about the money," she said. "It's about the principle. It's because I know who's behind this and she's been after me for four years."

For Wells, the decision was clearly a tough one, but she ultimately decided to uphold the board's earlier vote. "In a difficult spot you can't go wrong making a decision based on compassion," she observed.

Liverois looked at it from a more practical perspective. "Trying to undo it would be worse than upholding what we've already done," he said, in deciding to join Wells and Giunta in upholding their earlier decision.

But while the matter seems resolved at least for this year, selectmen indicated that in the future the Town Clerk/Tax Collector's salary would appear on the Town Warrant as a separate article.

"We want to make sure we do it right," Wells said.