ATKINSON — There still are competing warrant articles on the March ballot regarding the Elderly Affairs Department, but selectmen have changed theirs.
It seems the board didn't check with the Recreation Commission before they proposed combining two part-time positions into one full-time job. Selectmen wanted voters to approve creating a single position by merging the part-time Elderly Affairs director's job with the part-time director of Recreation and Senior Programs.
But Selectman Fred Childs said the board changed the article after talking to Noriko Yoshida-Travers, director of Recreation and Senior Programs.
"We didn't talk to the people down at the Community Center before we wrote the article," he said. "Noriko said it wasn't possible to combine the two positions."
After the first draft article, Yoshida-Travers said her job already had too many responsibilities to add more.
"I don't think I can handle that workload for both positions together," she said at the time. "It would be very difficult with my hours."
Now, selectmen have drafted a new article, calling for an annual salary of $25,000 for the part-time elderly affairs job, a position now held by police Chief Philip Consentino — for $100 a year.
Selectmen also drafted a second article, calling for the department to move out of the police station and into the Atkinson Community Center. That articles carries a $1,000 price tag.
Consentino said both articles are designed to separate him from Elderly Affairs. He's been on the job since 1993.
Selectmen and Consentino have long clashed over his dual roles. There's never been a meeting of the minds over the way Consentino handles both jobs. The disagreement reached the attorney general's office a few years ago.
In 2008, the state Charitable Trust Unit found a conflict of interest with Elderly Affairs being intermingled with the police department. The finances were officially separated, but Consentino continues to operate the program out of the police department.
Selectmen want to change that and they are using an independent study of the police department to back up their proposals.
Selectmen paid Municipal Resources Inc. $5,000 last year to review the police department. One of the recommendations in MRI's report was the separation of police and elder affairs.
"That was a recommendation from the MRI report, that Elderly Affairs should be separate from the police department," Childs said. "That was our original plan and it just got pushed back."
From Consentino's perspective, it's just more of the same.
"I couldn't understand why they're creating a job for $25,000 when I'm doing the job for $100 a year," he said. "They're just trying to break up Elderly Affairs, knowing I won't take the job on a full or part-time basis because it's too much work."
That's not necessarily so, Childs said.
"We're going to have to hire someone part-time," Childs said. "That doesn't mean the chief wouldn't have the job."
Consentino said he would wash his hands of the jobif the selectmen's articles pass. Two weeks ago, he drafted a citizens petition, which also will appear on the ballot. That article calls for leaving the Elderly Affairs Department just the way it is.
The chief said he hopes voters recognize what's happening and vote against the selectmen's proposals.
Even Childs acknowledges they probably will.
"I think that people are going to vote against it," Childs said. "The chief has a petition not to do anything with Elderly Affairs and I'm sure that's the one that will pass."
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