At an April 14 meeting, the town’s Compensation Committee approved a $92,000 salary for a new position managing Marblehead’s waste disposal, including the Transfer Station, curbside trash pick-up and recycling.
Public Health Director Andrew Petty, who has handled those responsibilities in the past, will now focus on public health issues.
Although there appeared to be early confusion among two members of the Board of Health Monday about the new position, the board did approve the position when it voted unanimously March 19 for its proposed fiscal 2026 budget.
BoH member Tom Massaro told the Current on Tuesday that he thought it was a “hypothetical future hire.”
On his public Facebook page, member Tom McMahon said he made a “stupid assumption” that the new position would be tabled, given cuts being made elsewhere in the town budget.
“There was a line item in our proposed budget for this position. I saw it,” he wrote. “Now I know very well that in our town’s financial environment you can give your proposed budget to the Finance Committee, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get it. This was a new line item. An ‘ask.’ If we had a budget surplus, I thought they’d discuss more whether to add that position or not based on its value compared to other department ‘asks.’”
Marblehead Finance Director Aleesha Benjamin said the Board of Health itself decided what to fund and what to cut in its budget.
“Once the town cut $182,500 from the waste budget, it was then in the hands of the Board of Health and the health director to determine what accounts would be reduced for that cut,” she said.
Terri Tauro, president of the Marblehead Municipal Employees Union, was at the April 14 meeting.
“I am extremely disturbed that in the past week alone, two new six-figure jobs (assistant director of waste management and town procurement officer) have been funded while the municipal unions will most likely be without contracts at Town Meeting,” Tauro said. “This will be two years without a COLA (cost of living adjustment) for police and MMEU, and the first year for the Fire Department.”
Tauro added, “The two new salaries, plus benefits, alone could fund a 2% increase to all three unions. Creating new departments and positions is not the behavior of a town claiming to have a $9.6 million surplus one year and be at a $1.7 million dollar deficit the next.”’
BoH Chair Helaine Hazlett said she was aware of the new position in the budget and still supports it. She said the Transfer Station has grown dramatically over the last decade and needs its own manager.
Petty agreed.
“The waste department is a very large responsibility,” he said. “We offer curbside collection for 8,000 homes weekly. We also have a very busy Transfer Station that is open six days a week.”
The Transfer Station serves about 1,300 vehicles a day, he added.
The town’s 10-year waste management contract ends next year, and the assistant director for waste will need to research and sign a new deal, which is likely to hike trash pick-up costs significantly.
The proposed fiscal 2026 budget for waste management is about $3 million. The new position, which will be posted in July, will be funded from that budget. The public health budget is about $340,000. Petty said the public health budget is woefully underfunded by state standards and should be more like $700,000.
