A three-month trial period this summer changing working days and hours for Town Hall employees is the result of negotiations between the town government and unions representing workers both in Town Hall and civilians in the Police Department.
Under the plan, employees would work from 8 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and until 7 p.m. on Tuesdays, then get Friday off, Town Administrator Kathleen Buch said at a Nov. 12 Board of Selectmen meeting.
The trial period for the new hours will run from June 1 to Sept. 3, the Thursday before Labor Day. Town Hall hours now are from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
“We’ll be talking about it more with the public after the new year, but the department heads will be beginning to evaluate how they’re going to operate under that schedule so we make sure that the public gets all the services that it wants and deserves as we do this to see if it’s a feasible schedule to go forward on a permanent basis,” Buch said.
First Selectman Jayme Stevenson said: “The primary objective is to increase the level of service to the public, to provide hours of Town Hall service that are not currently provided. But to also not negatively impact services that are currently provided today.”
Some of those that we have to see how we can work them out will be, for example, building inspections on a Friday,” she said.
“The agreement calls for one building inspector to work on Fridays, Buch said.
“Tuesday nights, that one longer night, was something that was important, we felt, with so many of our residents commuting to the city. I know it doesn’t address everyone — I know one of the last trains coming in [for commuters] is at 7:30, but it should make a big difference for somebody [who] won’t need to leave work at noontime to get here before we close at 4:30.”
“Hopefully, it will be a benefit to both residents and employees,” Buch said. “We’ll see.”
Stevenson said: “It also provides some continuity Tuesday nights for the staff that has to be here for meetings. We have a lot of meetings that happen on Tuesdays. But we’ll see. We’ll give it a try. See if it works.”
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You can see the discussion from time stamps 11:13 to 15:28 on this Darien TV79 video of the Nov. 11 Board of Selectmen meeting:
Board of Selectmen 11-12-19 from Darien TV79 on Vimeo.