West Seneca Town Supervisor Sheila M. Meegan vowed that there would be a needs analysis of the town’s Youth & Recreation and Senior Services departments following complaints by several residents at Monday night’s Town Board meeting about overtime pay for the leader of those departments.
Amy Carpenter, of Woodward Crescent, was among those who expressed concern over reports the town’s director of youth, recreation and senior services, Mary E. Josefiak, approved overtime payments for herself without any oversight.
“We have somebody giving themselves overtime, and it’s a salaried position. It’s totally inappropriate, and if you had somebody overseeing this, it would help,” Carpenter said.
Meegan assured residents that the self-approved overtime was no longer happening.
When asked how the town would account for the hours worked by Jolynn Keane, who was unanimously reappointed by the Town Board as a part-time coordinator of the YES/Youth Program, Meegan said the town would better account for all hourly town employees as well.
The supervisor also disputed reports in The Buffalo News about Josefiak’s salary.
“When they stated it ballooned to $61,000, the $38,000 was [for] only seven months of work, so I’d like to make a correction on that,” Meegan said.
Also, she said, Josefiak’s budgeted salary is different from the general fund budget number of $83,796, because the higher salary includes pension and health insurance costs.
Her annual salary is $77,250, Meegan said, “[but] that’s why the $83,000 is there in the budget that everyone looks at that’s online.”
Carpenter, meanwhile, suggested the town hire a head of human resources.
Meegan said she has sought the assistance of town Finance Department chief Laura Landers “to speak to both of our board members asking for their support in hiring a [human resources] person. ”

email: hmcneil@buffnews.com