The town of Greenfield plans to continue to pay an elected official her stipend despite a year-plus absence from the position.
Town Clerk Edith “Dee” Sleeper has been out of work with a “medical issue” since January 2018, Town Administrator Aaron Patt said Tuesday. The town paid Sleeper $10,800 for her salary last year and voted at Town Meeting earlier this month to do so again this year.
Due to her absence, salary lines associated with the Town Clerk’s office have increased by 69.5 percent since she went on medical leave. In 2017, staffing costs for the Town Clerk’s office totaled $22,000 but rose to $37,300 in the 2019 budget due to the need for part-time employees to do the work Sleeper is not there to do.
In 2018, the town budgeted an extra $5,200 to pay for a deputy Town Clerk and two municipal agents. Town Meeting on March 16 approved $18,200 this year to pay those positions.
State law says a town clerk can be removed by a select board if the town clerk has “become insane or otherwise incapacitated to discharge the duties of the office,” but Greenfield Selectmen have declined to take action to remove Sleeper.
“It’s a difficult situation, but it’s a lot more difficult for her than it is for us,” Select Board chairwoman Margo Charig Bliss said Tuesday. “We are trying to be supportive on all fronts.”
It is not currently known when Sleeper will return to work, though Charig Bliss said Sleeper has been keeping in touch with the board. Sleeper made an appearance during the election and at Town Meeting this year, Charig Bliss said.
“We continue to wish her well and wait for her return,” Charig Bliss said.
At Town Meeting, outgoing Budget Advisory Committee member John Moran asked a few questions about the Town Clerk’s budget when it was being considered. He also asked when Sleeper would be up for re-election and was told by Selectmen when her three-year term is up in 2021. The Town Clerk’s office budget was then passed with a voice vote.
But at the end of Town Meeting when voters were allowed to bring up other business, Moran made a motion to see if voters would want to discuss having Sleeper removed. The motion failed in a voice vote. Only 85 of the town’s registered voters attended Town Meeting this year.
“The Town Clerk is well respected and well liked in town,” Town Moderator Gil Bliss said Wednesday. “We’re hoping to see her back.”
Greenfield resident Abby Goen said Wednesday she feels the whole situation regarding the position is difficult due to the financial and human elements involved.
“On a purely financial level, it’s hard to know the taxes are so high. Not only are we paying her, but we are also paying part-time people,” said Goen, who attended Town Meeting. “I think most of us feel like there’s a responsibility and a desire to take care of one of our own.”
Sleeper has been Town Clerk since 2003. She was most recently re-elected to another three-year term in 2018 – a few months after she stepped away due to her medical issue.
“I don’t believe anyone knew then, and I don’t think anyone knows now,” Charig Bliss said, when asked if voters knew in 2018 that Sleeper would be out for an extended period of time.
After the board was notified of her absence last year, Charig Bliss said she reached out to the state to see how to temporarily replace Sleeper, as elected officials fall under different laws and regulations.
Charig Bliss said paying Sleeper her stipend and hiring people to replace her until she comes back is similar to the town paying health insurance and other benefits for a town employee.
Patt said the town’s tax collector stepped in for a bit and the town of Peterborough’s Town Clerk’s office took over registration services for a month or two while Greenfield advertised and trained the current staff.
“There were questions asked about the increased cost of staffing,” Budget Advisory Committee member Keith Hickey said. “I think the increases were necessary to staff the department.”
Hickey declined to comment when asked his opinion on paying additional people on top of the Town Clerk stipend, calling it a “personnel issue.”