Minutes
Town of Greenfield
Greenfield Town Offices, 7 Sawmill Road Greenfield, NH
Selectboard’s Work Session Minutes
Thursday, March 17, 2016 – 5:00 PM
Selectboard: Selectwoman Margaret Charig Bliss, Selectman Stephen Atherton Jr., Selectman Robert Marshall
Staff: Town Administrator Aaron Patt,
Public:
The meeting was called to order at 5:00 PM by Town Administrator Aaron Patt.
Documents for Review/Approval
- A/P Invoices
- A/P Checks
- Selectboard Minutes
- Meeting House Rental
5:00 PM: Town Administrator – Selection of Chairperson
At 5:00 PM the Town Administrator opened the meeting in the absence of a chairperson. After brief welcoming remarks, the Administrator outlined the need for the Selectboard to vote for a new chairperson. Selectman Atherton made a motion to advance Selectwoman Charig Bliss as Chair. The motion was seconded by Selectman Marshall. On a vote of 3-0, Selectwoman Charig Bliss was elected as Chairperson of the Greenfield Selectboard. The Administrator turned the meeting over to Chair Charig Bliss.
Chairwoman Charig Bliss thanked the Board members for their support in voting her Chair, and then welcomed Selectman Bob Marshall to the Selectboard. After brief remarks, the Chair opened a discussion on the date and time of the meeting. After conversation among the Selectboard, the Chair made a motion to change the meeting time from Thursdays at 5pm to Tuesdays at 5:30pm; continuing to meet at the Town Office Meeting Room. The motion was seconded by Selectman Atherton and passed on a vote of 3-0. There was a brief discussion of the potential impact of making a change to an earlier day of the week. The Board decided to bring forward Office Manager Catherine Shaw for her appointment to include her in the conversation.
5:15 PM: Catherine Shaw, Office Manager
The Board welcomed Office Manager Catherine Shaw to the meeting. The Board discussed the change of meeting time and day with Office Manager Shaw. Mrs. Shaw said that when it’s a payroll week, the change to Tuesdays would require that she finalize everything before the meeting. She said that there are times when time cards need correcting, which requires the employee sign off on them before they are finalized. In such a case there could be an instance when the Board would have to come back and sign the payroll manifest later in the week if corrections were not finalized before the meeting time. This wasn’t expected to happen very often. The Board conferred and agreed that coming back later in the week to sign the manifest would not be an issue.
Next Mrs. Shaw explained to the Board that the Town Administrator job description that was read at Town Meeting was out of date and there were some critical things missing from the job description. Office Manager Shaw gave several examples of the omissions. She also provided examples of where the job description overlapped into areas of her expertise and control. The Chair acknowledged that the job description was from 2012 and needed updating. The Chair said that the job description was in the process of being updated and should be finalized by the Board in the near future.
6:00 PM: Selectboard Work Session – Orientation of New Selectboard Member
The Board discussed job descriptions. The Chair noted that several had been updated in 2016 and late 2015. She requested a spreadsheet showing a list of the job descriptions and their inception. The Board would look at updating the oldest descriptions this year so that all, or the majority of the job descriptions were done in 2016.
Next the Board discussed allocation of Selectboard liaison responsibilities. The Chair outlined that in the past the Selectboard had several commitments to fill. These include a Selectboard member attending Planning Board meetings, a Selectboard member attending the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee (ConVal), and a Selectboard member serving as a liaison to the Police, Fire, and Emergency Management departments in town. There is also the need for a board member to serve on the Hazard Mitigation Committee to update the Hazard Mitigation plan. It was noted that this was recently updated and would not be a priority for a few years.
At 6:30 PM the Chair made a motion to enter in to non-public session under RSA 91-A3:ii,a Personnel. The motion was seconded by Selectman Atherton. On a roll-call vote the Board voted 3-0 to enter into non-public session. At 7:53 PM the Board voted 3-0 to exit non-public session and seal the minutes for reasons of personnel.
The Board reviewed a Right-to-Know request from the Ledger Transcript. The request asked for a copy of the response to Kim Kamieniecki to be provided. The Board agreed to provide the response. A second request from the newspaper for the Town Administrator’s contract was discussed and the Administrator was asked to explain to the newspaper reporter that the contract was under review by Town Counsel, and the Board would need at least two weeks until they could expect to make a decision on its release.
Documents for Review/Approval
The Selectboard signed A/P Checks & A/P Invoices. An Order for Removal was tabled pending review by Town Counsel. Signatory documents from People’s Bank were signed and notarized by Kathy Valliere, Tax Collector.
Adjournment
On a motion by the Chair, and a second by Selectman Atherton, the Board voted to adjourn. The motion carried 3-0. The meeting adjourned at 9:20 PM.
The minutes are final when approved and signed by the Selectboard. A signed copy is on file in the Selectboard’s office.
_________________ _______________________ _________________________
Chair, Margaret Charig Bliss, Selectman Stephen Atherton Jr., Bob Marshall, Selectman
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