Esta Knapik of Waterville and her dog Emma Lee, a 16-year-old poodle, walk June 19 near the main entrance to Waterville City Hall. Waterville officials are considering instituting a four-day work week for City Hall employees. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
WATERVILLE -- Officials are considering instituting a four-day work week for City Hall employees and extending their daily hours to 10.
Doing so would help recruit and retain good workers, give the public more opportunity to do business at City Hall before and after regular business hours and help boost employee morale.
Beyond that, being open only four days would have an environmental impact as it would decrease the number of days people drive to City Hall and reduce, by about 20%, the buildings' use of heat and utilities.
Those were some of the points City Manager Bryan Kaenrath and the city's human resources director, Bobbi-Jo Green, pitched to the City Council Tuesday night.
Kaenrath said the world has changed since the COVID pandemic, the nature of work schedules has changed as a result and many other municipalities have moved to a four-day work week. Those seeking employment are interested in that schedule or a hybrid situation where they may also work from home, he said. Waterville is losing good people to more attractive opportunities and in the last month, the city lost two very good employees in the finance and code enforcement offices to other positions that offered remote or hybrid flexibility, according to Kaenrath.
"It is exceedingly competitive out there for municipal employees," he said.
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South Portland and Gorham went to a four-day work week in 2023 and South Portland changed to a four-day week this past September.
Councilors voted 5-2 Tuesday to approve a proposed amendment to the city's personnel ordinance that would change the work week from five to four days, and they must take a second vote to finalize it. Now, City Hall is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and with the change, the hours would be 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, with employees having a half hour for lunch. The change for City Hall would not affect employees in the public works and public safety departments, which would be considered later for possible schedule changes, according to Kaenrath. While there is no hard and fast timeline for implementing a new schedule if the council approves it, the city is proposing it start Jan. 1, he said.
Councilors Ken Gagnon, D-Ward 5, and Tom McCormick, who is unenrolled and represents Ward 7, opposed the change, with Gagnon saying the proposal benefits the administration and not the public.
"I think this is a terrible idea," he said.
Gagnon argued that workers may leave city employment for reasons other than the work schedule, no one has studied why they leave, and he'd want to see a report on that before making a decision to approve a schedule change.
"I don't think that this has been well thought out," he said.
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Kaenrath said employees were surveyed for their thoughts and there was "near unanimous support and great interest and excitement to do this with our staff which is a great moral piece. There is 99.8% interest from our employees to do something like this."
The primary reason the city is looking at the change is to keep pace with the market and what Waterville's municipal peers are doing, he said.
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Councilors Thomas Klepach, D-Ward 3, Flavia DeBrito, D-Ward 2, and Brandon Gilley, D-Ward 1, said they favor the change. Klepach said the city needs top-quality personnel, which makes the city run like a top; without it, the city falls on its face.
DeBrito said she worked four days a week at a previous job and it was beneficial as she was able to schedule medical and other appointments on Fridays for her and her children. It is also crucial for people to take time for themselves in a world where mental health is on the rise, she said.
"I do see this as a way to take care of our staff, so I'm totally in favor of it," she said.
Gilley followed by saying work-life balance is important, as is being able to have a designated day for personal needs.
More and more municipalities are changing to a four-day work week, according to Kaenrath. At Waterville City Hall, Tuesday is the busiest day in terms of doing the public's business, with Monday the next busiest day and Friday, the third busiest, he said.
The towns of Oakland, Winslow, Newport, Pittsfield, Pittston and Dresden, close their town offices on Friday. Other municipalities whose offices are closed Friday include Biddeford, Bath, Sanford, Windham, Cumberland, Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth, Lisbon, Wiscasset and Belfast.
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