Dukes County Commission
Minutes
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
5 p.m.
Dukes County Administration Building
9 Airport Road, Edgartown, MA
Commissioner Present: Carlene Gatting, Tristan Israel, Melinda Loberg, Lenny Jason.
County Staff present: Russell Smith – County Manager, Noreen Mavro-Flanders – Treasurer, Martina Thornton – Ex. Assistant to County Manager.
Other present: Nancy Phillips – Let’s Move MV, Oceana Rames – Chairman of the Dukes County Health Council, Thomas Mayhew of MVTV.
1. Meeting was called to order at 5:10 PM
2. GASBY – Noreen Mavro Flanders
Noreen presented them with the final Declaration of the Trust. The only change from the prior draft is on page 9 in Section 5.2 fourth line “The Board shall designate a secretary and a treasurer who need not be a member of the Board. Any treasurer designated by the Board shall be bonded and shall be entitled to compensation as the Board determines…” The trustees are appointed by each unit that joins the trust. The trustees elect the board, investment committee. If everybody joins there will be 16 members. Noreen explained that GASBY (Government Accounting Standards Board) requires us to recognize the liabilities we promised to the employees upon retirement (health insurance at certain level, life insurance etc.). This liability does not go away when the employee leaves once vested in the system. At this time there is no
requirement to fund the liability of other post employment benefits other then retirement itself. It will be however required at one point and some entities started to put money aside for it and invest it. GASBY requires that if money is put aside for this it is put in an irrevocable trust. There will be better return on the investment if all these moneys from all island entities are combined in one pool trust. We filed legislation to allow it and the legislation passed as Chapter 149 under the Acts of 2010. It is specific to Dukes County only. There need to be two entities to start the trust and the rest will join under agreement. On November 1st there is a joint meeting to put the trust into operation at 7pm at the MV Regional High School.
Tristan/Melinda moved to approve the Declaration of Trust as presented and sign it. Discussion: Melinda asked what role would County have in administration of the trust. Noreen said County will then appoint a trustee who will then decide who will be appointed to manager the funds etc. Tristan asked if it would be a conflict of interest to appoint a person who is part of the system. Noreen said no, but it would be conflict if the same person is appointed by two different members. So voted. All in favor.
3. County Manager’s Report
Courthouse – With the money we had for fixing the roof we also repaired damage inside the building done by the water and took care of the mold issue. The only thing left to do is the gutters and we have $17K in the account. We received the CPA money to replace the windows and have a verbal ok from the DCAM to use the rest of the money for additional improvements on the building. He is working with the architect on specification and assessing each window to see what level of work is needed. Carlene asked when that will be done. Russell said as soon as he gets approval to spend the money, which happened yesterday.
Veterans’ services on the Island – The County commissioners’ letter to Providence VA was responded to by Mr. Burney (letter included in the folder). They will not be able to sign the same agreement with the hospital as their internal rules changed. Carlene quoted the letter stating that they are willing to meet with the hospital to work on a new contract and different processing than what was in place under the prior agreement. The VA issued a fact sheet and $125 fee based card to island veterans. Russell said Lori from Delahunt’s office also communicated with the VA. MV Hospital is willing to sign a new contract and did not deny care to anyone. Carlene said that the veterans get the care but then get the bill, which they can not afford. Tristan asked for a timeframe when this will be resolved. Melinda asked if
the MV Hospital needs authorization from Partners to sign the contract. Carlene said she believes yes. Noreen said that there is no excuse not to have a contract with the hospital as this is not the only hospital VA partners with across the world. Carlene would like to send a letter back co-signed by MV Hospital (she will talk to Tim Walsh) that they are ready to sign a new contract. We also received a letter back from Sen. Brown and shall involve him as well as Sen. Kerry. Russell said that he asked Mr. Bennett to come to him with any individual cases where veterans have issues because of this. Russell will follow up on this.
CDL licensing – through the efforts of Rep. Madden and the Registry of Motor Vehicles starting today there is a option to take the CDL license test on the island and people interested should go to the Registry of Motor Vehicles to start the paperwork.
Tribe/County road work – Work is under way at Lobsterville Road (county road) to put in treatment basins to protect the cranberry bogs above Lighthouse Road. The Tribe got the money to do this through federal grants. We developed the specifications and put it out to bid. One proposal was received and put under advisement.
Congressman Delahunt is coming to the island on Friday October 22nd with the Farm Service Agency and will host a forum at 11 am about federal grants available for farming and aquaculture. Invitation included in the folder. Lenny suggested alerting Warren Doty
There will be a thank-you party for Sen. O’Leary and Rep. Delahunt on Saturday October 23rd 4-5.30pm at the New Agricultural Hall. Public is invited.
Let’s Move MV – asked Health Council if they could apply for grants as a sub-committee of the Health Council. The Health Council agreed. They address underage obesity (info in folder) and are not a non-profit organization. They would like the County to administer the grants they receive. Tristan/Melinda moved for the County to be administrative fiscal agent of the grants applied for and received by Let’s Move MV. Discussion: Lenny asked if they are for-profit if that is appropriate. Carlene suggested waiting until they come to make the presentation. Tristan withdrew his motion.
Tristan asked what is the progress on issue with putting other regional organizations under the county umbrella like the Center 4 Living. Russell said he has information from the county counsel regarding the non-profits and providing the county functions through contractors versus employees.
Noreen asked if the commissioners would like to discuss the DOR report. She and Martina put comments together and presented it to the commissioners. Tristan supported inviting the DOR people back and discussing it with them. Carlene said that the DOR’s position is that if we already are doing some of the recommendations we should check it off the list and move on. Lenny would like to send them letter, let them know that their report is not factually correct and request a final revised report. Carlene said that once we get the revised report we can provide it to the County Advisory Board and ask them if they would like to sit on a review committee. She asked all county commissioners to give their comments to Noreen as soon as possible and asked Noreen to send the final comments to all commissioners before it goes out.
Nancy Phillips from Let’s Move MV joined the meeting. She said it is not a 501(c) 3 as they started this summer. They had a kick-off festival under the auspices of the Oak Bluffs Park and Recreation Association. They would like to be island wide. She presented their ideas (promoting healthy eating habits and lifestyle) to the Health Council and they voted to support their efforts and create a sub-committee for this cause. They would like to use the County as fiscal agent and grant administrator. Carlene asked if we administer any grants for the Health Council. Noreen said absolutely – all grants to Vineyard Health Care Access Program and for Youth Task Force. The only way these programs can apply for grants is under the County’s tax ID and signed by County Manager. The people providing services funded by the grants work
under a contract.
*Oceana Rames, Chairman of the Dukes County Health Council joined the meeting.
Tristan/Melinda moved to allow the Let’s Move MV to apply for grants as part of the County and the County to administer these grants. So voted. All in favor.
Noreen asked that Nancy get a copy of the County Grant Policy from Martina. Martina asked Nancy to provide her with list of people that will be on the committee to provide them with materials as required by the state ethics laws and open meeting laws. Nancy said that the Mass Municipal Association had their annual meeting on January 21 and 22 and one of the workshops is Healthy Communities and Let’s Move program. They will be applying for the hospital Community Health grant. Oceana said there was a chronic disease committee, which vanished, so they are happy they were able to create this new one that will be addressing some of the health issues.
Noreen provided commissioners with quarterly reports.
The question was raised if we have to advertise for the position of a Trustee on the OPEB Trust. Martina said that if the commissioners decide they want to appoint someone from the board, they do not have to advertise. If they want a candidate at large, then they will have to advertise. Tristan agreed. Russell said he will look at the Charter and find out. Martina asked if she should advertise for an appointee to the Retirement Board as Roger Wey is not a County Commissioner anymore.
Adjournment:
Lenny/Melinda moved to adjourn the meeting at 6:15 p.m. All in favor.
Respectfully Submitted by:
______________________________
JOSEPH E. SOLLITTO JR., Clerk of the Courts
Documents presented at the meeting and part of the official records:
- Agenda
- Draft Declaration of trust of the Dukes County Pooled Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) Trust Fund (with revisions from 11/7 and 12/9/2010)
- Letter from William J. Burney, Medical Center Director regarding the veteran’s care on Martha’s Vineyard.
- Invitation to Farm Service Agency Forum on MV hosted by U.S. Rep. Delahunt
- Let’s Move MV – Statement of Intent & Letter to County Manager
- Quarterly revenue & expense budget report from the Treasurer
- Quarterly profit & loss report from the Integrated Pest Management Program
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