Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 2/12/07
Meeting Opened at: 8:30am
Select Board Members Present: Michael Storch, Chairperson, Wayne Burkhart and Jonathan Sylbert
Also in attendance for the meeting: Maggie Leonard for the Monterey News
The board met with the Director of Highways, Maynard Forbes and reviewed the following items:
1. M. Forbes let the board know that the town received several packets to help reduce junk mail from a grant. They can be obtained at the Town Hall from the Inter-Departmental Secretary.
2. M. Forbes let the board know that the furnace was full of soot last week and stopped working and it took a lot of parts being replaced to get it working again. A similar problem happened in December. M. Forbes stated that the furnace is old and inefficient and should have been replaced years ago. The bill for this last problem came in at $600+. The board discussed whether or not they wanted to wait until the Town Meeting to get permission to replace it or to declare it an emergency and replace it now so that these problems don’t continue to happen every few months. M. Forbes stated that it would cost about $7000 to replace it. A motion was made and unanimously agreed upon to wait until town meeting to get town approval to replace it unless it
should die in the meantime.
3. The crew started working on opening up the room downstairs.
4. M. Storch noted that some of the boxes of books downstairs have been moved to the Historical Society and L. Thorpe will be moving the rest this week.
5. Solar power at the garage; M. Forbes will call CET and get the status of it.
6. Gennari will be here next week to look at possible zoning solutions to help with the inconsistent heating problem in town hall. S. Ross asked if the heating system was ever flushed, he had a similar problem at his house and when it was flushed it solved the inconsistent heat problem.
7. S. Rose asked if the signs on private roads were going to be changed to match the other new street signs placed around town. The board and M. Forbes stated that he can order them but someone would need to pay for them as the roads he is referring to are private roads not town roads.
The board met with Building Commissioner, Donald Torrico and the District State Building Inspector, Gordon Bailey to review the following items:
Because questions about building codes and what the Building Commissioner is required to do have recently arisen, D. Torrico asked District State Building Inspector, Gordon Bailey to come to the Select Board meeting to answer any questions.
Mr. Bailey read a Draft version of the 1.22.07 minutes and thought there might be a need to clarify what is expected of a Building Official. Part of Mr. Bailey’s job is to provide technical assistance, review building departments, speak with local builders and architects, etc., to ensure the proper enforcement of the building code. In his interactions with Mr. Torrico in both towns that he deals with he has found that D. Torrico interprets the building codes very well and his understanding and consistency with enforcing the code is consistent.
Mr. Bailey has found that when a town has had prior building officials that may have been lax or unknowledgeable in their permit issuing, that when that person is replaced with someone that does understand the Massachusetts State Building Codes that people tend to interpret his/her actions as being unfair.
M. Storch notified the board that he contacted the State Ethics Commission regarding the events that occurred on 1.22.07 between a Select Board member and the Building Commissioner. W. Burkhart stated that he did not appreciate the procedure that is being taken here. Mr. Burkhart feels there is a glaring miscalculation of something that he said to M. Storch that was noted in the Draft 2.5.07 minutes, he wants it known that he would never say that the town needed to get rid of someone; M. Storch agreed that he may have misquoted him. W. Burkhart feels that he should have come to him prior to going to the Ethics Commission. M. Storch felt he needed to go to the Ethics Commission after a conversation where M. Storch informed W. Burkhart that he can not mention anything to do with Gould Farm while in
the seat of Select Board, that he needs to first recuse himself from that seat and when W. Burkhart disagreed, M. Storch felt that the next step was to involve the Ethics Commission.
Mr. Bailey clarified that he is not the Building Commissioner’s boss, the Select Board is. Mr. Bailey’s job is to make sure that any Building Commissioner is following the State Building Code and is enforcing it correctly. He also made mention that the Select Board or any other Town Official is not allowed to tell any Building Commissioner how to run the building department or how to interpret or enforce the State Building Codes.
J. Sylbert stated that D. Torrico does a wonderful job and he needs to be supported. Mr. Sylbert was a member of the board during the time when the Town of Monterey employed other Building Officials and he can see the positive difference that D. Torrico has brought to this town.
W. Burkhart feels that interpretation plays a big part in the Building Department. W. Burkhart stated that he knows that Mr. Bailey is not from the Ethics Commission but asked how he’s supposed to bring up specific examples that occur with the association he works for while wearing his Select Board hat. Mr. Bailey is going to give the board his card to call whenever there is a building question.
If Mr. Torrico feels that something brought to his attention is outside of his comfort level, he calls Mr. Bailey and some of the interpretations Mr. Burkhart may have problems with may have in fact come from him. W. Burkhart stated that he does not want to fire D. Torrico and he never said that and would never say that and he’s very upset that something he said may have been misinterpreted.
J. Sylbert asked how the search was going to make sure that Building Officials in the local surrounding towns were all on the same page so that there would be fewer comments like “I don’t have a problem in “XXX” town with this same type of project”. Mr. Bailey stated that it is a continuing battle but he has noticed that there has been a lot of continuing education and that the State is holding officials more accountable. Since several comments have been made in town by Mr. Burkhart that Mr. Torrico isn’t interpreting the codes correctly he felt it necessary to respond to some of the comments made that when he runs into a “muddy water” situation he always runs it by Mr. Bailey and if it’s a potential zoning issue, he always runs it by Town Counsel.
Mr. Torrico also questioned the use of the word “Gestapo” being used in a permitting conversation during a public meeting and wanted to know to whom it was directed. Mr. Burkhart stated that he doesn’t think he used this word and certainly didn’t mean it directed toward D. Torrico.
The board met with Police Chief, Gareth Backhaus to review the following items:
1. False alarm on Mt Hunger Estates.
2. Medical call on Main Rd.
3. 911 call received by a child left at home alone.
4. Lockout on Main Rd.
5. The board questioned why there aren’t reports for every day of the week. G. Backhaus stated that the laptop in the cruiser has been down and is being worked on.
6. The board read into record the letter received from Officer Whalley
7. The speed sign/trailer ordered through a grant should be delivered sometime in March. It is used to help compel people to voluntarily comply with the posted speed limit.
8. G. Backhaus is helping M. Forbes with cleaning out the downstairs and will let M. Noe know the type of secured cabinet he’d like to order to put down there for his stuff. G. Backhaus stated that he doesn’t like the chicken wire that has been put up in place of the wall that was there.
The board met with Inter-Departmental Secretary, Melissa Noe to review the following items:
1. The board unanimously approved the purchase of a wireless headset to allow M. Noe to be able to work in other offices such as the Building Department, Meeting Room etc and still be able to answer the phone.
The board met with Town Accountant, Barbara Gauthier to review the following items:
1. Next week is a holiday; an estimated payroll will be done this Wednesday.
2. The warrants were signed.
3. Oct- Dec revenue reports were distributed.
4. The board inquired about the winter overtime budget; allocated is $54661 and we’ve currently spent $12551.
5. The Plumbing Inspector has been giving a mileage reimbursement regularly but the Electrical Inspector has not, B. Gauthier has asked the Building Commissioner to speak with him.
6. B. Gauthier gave the board a breakdown of surrounding town salaries for various elected and appointed positions as stated in the MMA FY06 Salary Study Survey.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Roger Tryon came in to discuss the list of trees he wishes to plant around town. The board stated that they discussed it last week after they received the letter and spoke about it with M. Forbes and they have questions regarding some of the requested plantings. Mr. Tryon didn’t feel it was right for M. Forbes to be the deciding factor about where trees should be planted, that the town should be. The Select Board stated that they weren’t asking Mr. Forbes’ permission and that he was not the deciding factor, the board only requested just his opinion as Director of Operations. Mr. Tryon stated that with permission he can plant in the setback area on private land and he’s currently looking for the MGL that states this. Roger asked if the
Highway Department would be able to do some of the clean up work requested and the board noted that if the board agrees with the proposal, they would ask him. R. Tryon asked why the backhoe was purchased if not to help with the trees to be planted in town and the board clarified that it was purchased to clean out the ditches so that the town will not have to rent a machine any longer. The board questioned the Tree Warden’s budget increase that was presented as an increase to hire a crew to plant the trees; Mr. Tryon stated that if the town has the equipment he needs why wouldn’t he have use of it. M. Forbes stated that the highway department might be able to help him; he does have some questions as to where they would be planted and how far out of the right of way and when the Tree Warden was hoping to plant the trees. The issue will be tabled for now and the board will speak with M. Forbes to find out how much time his crew and equipment would
be available for and they will get back to R. Tryon.
2. The minutes from 1.29.07 and 2.5.07 were approved as amended.
3. J. Dahlman inquired as to if there were any street maps with directions on it available at town hall; S. Ross stated that the Assessor’s maps all have this information. The board will look into the cost of making maps.
4. The board officially discussed the current Select Board meeting times and hours and possibly changing them. M. Storch feels that the day and frequency should be change from once every week to maybe every other week. M. Storch doesn’t feel that they should be changed to the evening after the several comments and discussions he’s had since the issue came up with other various departments. M. Storch stated that Monterey is the only town that meets in the morning or during the day out of 32 Berkshire County towns. J. Sylbert stated that he does feel that the Board meets too frequently and if the meetings were moved to evenings, more residents may be likely to run for a seat on the board because they are currently unable to meet at the current Select
Board meeting times. W. Burkhart stated he was unsure if moving the meetings to the evening would really encourage more participation or discourage it. J. Sylbert suggested that during the caucuses open meeting sponsored by the Monterey News and caucuses on the 24th an informal query/survey would be done. W. Burkhart feels that the weekly meeting is good and he wouldn’t want to meet less frequently. All board members agreed that M. Noe does a fantastic job as the Select Board Secretary and helping to unite all the boards with information received at each board she represents and the board needs to research how this change would also affect her ability to remain as the Select Board Secretary.
5. M. Leonard stepped out of her seat as Monterey News correspondent and into Planning Board Chair to report that they do not feel that it’s necessarily true that there would be a problematic zoning bylaw proposal that would warrant holding a separate meeting from the Town Meeting. The Select Board feels strongly that the Planning Board needs to revise the Telecommunications Bylaw this year. M. Leonard will bring up the issue again with the Planning Board concerning a separate meeting.
6. The Building Inspector’s request of the Board to put the paragraph back into the 1.22.07 minutes that was taken out was discussed and decided against.
The meeting adjourned at: 12:08pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe
Inter-Departmental Secretary
Town of Monterey
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