Personnel Board Reclassifies Police Assistant to Grade E

Other Committee · Meeting of August 3, 2026

Deerfield Personnel Board votes 3-0-1 to reclassify a vacant police staff assistant job from grade C to grade E. Town Administrator Chris Dunn and the town's police chief told the board the position, which handles a roughly $50,000 biweekly payroll and up to $1 million in annual police detail billing, has been under-classified for years. The vote followed weeks of debate over removing gendered "matron" language covering detainee cell-monitoring duties, which town counsel ordered stripped from the description.

"So a matron to me is not typically gendered as a female," the chief said. Member Holly Lankowski abstained, saying she'd received scoring materials only 90 minutes before the meeting and did not "feel comfortable affirming or denying this rating." Separately, Dunn told the board Selectboard administrative assistant Pat Martin, in the job more than 20 years, is resigning effective Friday.

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Source: the Other Committee meeting of August 3, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.