Debate Continues Over Pay For Medford's Chief People Officer

MEDFORD, MA — Members of the city council and the mayor's chief of staff failed to make headway on the pay classification of the chief people officer position, as the two sides butted heads over how that employee, Neil Osborne, has been compensated while performing dual roles.

Nina Nazarian, interim chief of staff for Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, said Osborne has been performing the duties of both the chief people officer, or head of human resources, and a diversity director since January 2020. The two roles were separated in the budget at the request of the city council, and the mayor wants to move forward with posting the diversity director job opening.

But before that can happen, the city has to resolve Osborne's pay classification, Nazarian said.

Osborne has been getting paid $113,724, which is in the range of compensation for the human resources director in many neighboring towns, but has been performing two jobs. He is currently in a pay classification level of CAF 19, one of the higher compensation ranges in the city.

Councilor George Scarpelli took issue with Osborne's pay remaining the same, and paying another person equally, despite the duties being separated.

"How are you going to take away half that person's job duties, and keep paying them at that rate?" Scarpelli asked.

Much of the meeting focused on the process by which Osborne was being compensated at a CAF 19 level, something the council never approved. Councilors repeatedly pointed to an opinion by City Solicitor Kim Scanlon, issued in April, that the administration is not authorized to pay employees outside the established salary ranges in the CAF ordinance without the approval of the city council.

"The major concern I have here is the spending and how when we have an opinion from the city solicitor indicating you can't do this, that it continues on for so long," Councilor Adam Knight said.

Nazarian brought a copy of the opinion, where Scanlon elaborated that she could not rule on whether the role could be classified CAF 19 if the council did not approve that specific level.

Nazarian said she would be open to negotiating the salary inside of the CAF 19 level, which has five pay steps. The current compensation is at the fourth step, while Council President Richard Caraviello suggested both sides could compromise by bringing it down to the second.

"I don't think it's the right thing to do to take compensation away from an employee, but perhaps we could go to a salary within CAF 19 and revisit it at a later time," she said, suggesting the third step of CAF 19.

Knight and Councilor Michael Marks were the most vocal critics of the mayor's request, accusing her administration of openly violating city ordinance and flouting the solicitor's ruling. They reiterated that they had no issue with the diversity director position, or Osborne's character and job performance, but felt City Hall was overstepping.

"I'd like to find out why the administration chose not to follow the solicitors opinion and decided to pay someone out of a position in a CAF that did not exist and continued to do so until today," Marks said.

Councilors Nicole Morell and Zac Bears were in favor of approving the compensation level, acknowledging that both sides appeared to be at an impasse.

"Do my fellow councilors expect the person in this position to pay back wages?" Morell asked. "I just don't understand what resolution is being sought."

Bears cautioned against setting a dangerous precedent as the city establishes CAF levels for positions that were previously unclassified.

"I believe we approved a CAF change over the summer for a job that wasn't in the CAF," Bears said. "If we go down that road, are we saying they have to pay back money?"

Knight said human resources was a special case because of how the duties and compensation were altered without the council's input.

"By this rationale, what could happen is the acting chief of staff could be called the acting chief of staff and director of everything pretty in Medford, and the mayor says she's going to be at CAF 22, and wait for the council to approve it," he quipped.

The council voted 7-0 to reconvene on the matter in 14 days.