City Council, Mayor's Office Spar Over Chief People Officer Role

MEDFORD, MA — The Medford City Council rejected a request to fully fund the newly established role of chief people officer in the mayor's office.

At its Committee of the Whole meeting Aug. 17, many councilors raised questions over the level of compensation and how a candidate was selected without the job being posted.

The position is currently held by Neil Osborne, who previously served in an acting capacity as the human resources and diversity director starting in early 2020. The plan originally called for merging the two roles under the umbrella of chief people officer, but duties focusing on diversity and inclusion were reduced.

The pay, however, remained the same under the mayor's request, a point of contention for several city councilors.

"You're taking off a whole piece of that person's job responsibility, but the pay stays the same," Councilor George Scarpelli said.

The mayor asked that the position be funded at a Compensation and Classification Plan (CAF) level 19, putting it above many other department heads and on par with roles like city clerk and director of public health.

"I'm comfortable with this position being in this CAF level knowing what human resources directors are typically paid," Councilor Zac Bears, one of two councilors who voted in favor of funding, said. "It's a very major job. We have hundreds, if not thousands, of employees."

The chief people officer acts as the human resources director for all city employees, except for the Medford Public Schools, which has its own human resources department. That person has one direct report, but the mayor's chief of staff David Rodrigues pointed out that human resources interacts with and serves every city department.

"I think it's a little misleading to say because they have one direct report that somehow diminishes the compensation level," Rodrigues said.

Councilor John Falco suggested lowering the compensation to be in line with other department heads and then re-examining the pay of several positions at the same time. Councilor Michael Marks agreed that the pay was too high.

"We have department heads that are operating a multi-million dollar budget with thousands of building requests and a staff of a dozen or so people making less than someone who has one direct report, which to me, again, makes very little sense," Marks said.

He added that while he "appreciates" the effort to create a human resources department, "the city did just fine [without one] for many years."

Marks also questioned why the job opening was never posted, suggesting the role was created with a particular person in mind. Rodrigues said it is standard to post open positions, but there are times when an internal candidate has already proven to be capable.

"It was created, and then this person happened to take this position," Rodrigues said. "This position was in an acting capacity in early 2020. In this instance, it didn't seem necessary [to post the position] because we had a qualified incumbent who was doing well."

Tensions arose between Marks and Rodrigues when the former accused the chief of staff of suggesting that a workaround to the standard hiring process was to "put someone in an acting role and just have them assume that role."

The two tried talking over one another, with Marks telling Rodrigues he "had the floor."

"When you get elected someday, you'll have the floor," Marks said.

Rodrigues clarified that some employees who have worked in an acting capacity for a longer period of time "have proven themselves, so they were given the position."

At Scarpelli's request, the Council held a separate vote on the CAF level for each position on its agenda. Councilors voted 4-2 the reject fully funding the role, with Bears and Morell voting for and Marks, Falco, Scarpelli and Caraviello voting against. Councilor Knight was absent from the meeting.