By Kelly Morgan,Staff Writer

PARIS – Changes proposed for the county’s personnel policy manual were reviewed in public for the first time last week.

Work on the manual is expected to continue for at least another month, said Annalee Rosenblatt, an attorney who’s assisting the county with labor negotiations and personnel matters. Rosenblatt led a review session with county department heads and the Oxford County Commissioners.

“There are some different viewpoints here about where we are so far,” she said, alluding to disagreements over issues such as time cards and even restrictions on employees running for office against an incumbent supervisor.

Before Tuesday of last week, the commissioners had discussed these and other portions of the manual behind closed doors in executive session.

After a Feb. 15 executive session, Chairman Steve Merrill said he felt the closed sessions were appropriate. He said it was the responsibility of county Administrative Assistant Carole Mahoney to decide when things should be discussed privately or openly.

Mahoney on Tuesday was still unclear about what is considered public or private under the Maine Freedom of Access law.

According to the law, “An executive session may be held only if public discussion could be reasonably expected to cause damage to the reputation or the individual’s right to privacy would be violated.”

Salary negotiations are permitted in executive session, but even items such as e-mails sent to or exchanged by county employees and elected officials are largely considered public under the law.

After the Feb. 15 meeting, Rosenblatt admitted that many portions of the personnel policy could be discussed openly. Policies on complaint procedures, sexual harassment and keeping a drug-free workplace were among those being reviewed.

Merrill has said some of the discussion on the manual has been controversial.

On Tuesday, some discussion centered on whether time cards should be kept using an electronic system.

Many county employees today write the hours they’ve worked on their time cards without keeping track of when they have physically been in the workplace. Rosenblatt said this could be a problem.

“If there is an audit or if a particularly disgruntled employee goes to the Department of Labor and says, I was not paid for overtime … and you don’t have the specific times and the employee does, the employee wins,” she said.

Rosenblatt said she will try to prepare a final version of the personnel policy manual for the commissioners’ April 19 meeting.