Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 9/17/07
Meeting Opened at: 8:30am
Select Board Members Present: Jonathan Sylbert, Chairperson and Wayne Burkhart
Also in attendance: Deborah Mielke of the Monterey News
The board met with the Director of Highways, Maynard Forbes and reviewed the following items:
1. Call from a resident about lack of water. M. Forbes informed the resident that based on where they lived they had a well and would need to contact a plumber to investigate the problem.
2. Weekly report reviewed.
3. Drain on Hupi Rd and Tyringham corner; M. Forbes plans to clean the ditch out prior to the winter.
4. Ditches on Sandisfield Rd are being paved.
5. Highway members attended the equipment show in Dalton on Friday.
6. National Grid was contacted about the trees they were to remove; there were some staffing changes there and the new person was unaware of the 11-12 trees in Monterey. A site inspection was made last week and they turned it over to the tree company to be removed.
7. Trees in Rawson Brook; will be removed once they can hire a bigger machine and a request will be made to the Con Comm to extend the emergency order.
8. There are 2 gentlemen from National Grid checking the information on the poles in Monterey.
The board met with Police Chief, Gareth Backhaus to review the following items:
1. Medical call on Harmon Rd.
2. 2 calls to Art School Rd for a rabid raccoon
3. Suspicious person on Tyringham Rd.
4. Several false alarms.
5. Abandoned 911 calls; town beach (2), Gould Rd.
6. Well being check on Sylvan Rd.
7. Complaint of a jet ski on the lake; gone when police arrived.
8. Disabled MV on Main Rd.
9. Complaint of a missing canoe from Lake Buel.
10. Complaint from a resident of storage containers and construction debris on the property of another person. Complainant was referred to the Building Inspector. The Building Inspector would need the complaint in writing in order to follow up on any zoning violations and complainant was made aware of this.
11. Threatening phone calls made to a resident on Main Rd.
12. Tree with wires down on Worth Lane.
13. Assisted Tyringham Police department with a MVA.
14. Assisted New Marlborough PD and Gt. Barrington PD with misc. items.
15. Lockout on Pixley Rd.
16. Arrest for operating without a license on Main Rd.
17. Mooring permits were discussed and the complaint that came in about one in particular that was an unregistered boat. The information was given to G. Backhaus to investigate although it was noted that since the boat has already been removed it will be difficult.
18. G. Backhaus was asked about parking on roads such as Hupi Rd especially when the cars are parked in front of someone else’s property. G. Backhaus stated that he didn’t believe Hupi Rd was wide enough to allow street parking. G. Backhaus will look into the matter to see if anything can be done/enforced.
9:30am: Nora Hayes, ACO came in to discuss the following with the Select Board:
1. Nora feels that the information in the September Monterey News was incorrect and injurious to her role as the ACO and to her privately run business in Sheffield. The board explained that meetings are public and anyone is allowed to attend and speak with the board and that the conversations are recorded as minutes by their secretary and there is also someone in attendance from the Monterey News. Everything from the meetings ends up in the minutes and the Select Board does not feel it’s fair to edit them. It should also be noted that the Select Board doesn’t write the articles for the Monterey News and what is printed in there is the
Monterey News’ interpretation of the meetings. G. Backhaus was asked to come into the meeting to discuss the communication issues and procedures. Nora stated that the hospital is supposed to notify her immediately via fax when there is a dog bite which hasn’t been happening. Nora asked the Chief about the comment in the paper about Nora not being available for a dog bite that came into the Town Hall as a walk in. This particular complaint was handed to the Board of Health (Nora’s supervisors) at their meeting that evening since Nora couldn’t be reached. Nora gave the Board a copy of the protocol (currently being revised) to contact the ACO. G. Backhaus stated that a new pager is being programmed as we speak to be given to the ACO, pages will come directly from the dispatch center and is capable of paging all of placePlaceNameBerkshire PlaceTypeCounty (currently used by emergency services). Better protocols need to be
put in place and that the communication attempts/acknowledgments need to be documented so there is a trail. Nora feels that she needs to have a good line of communication and relationship with the Town and its officials since she’s representing the Town. G. Backhaus noted that in all communication attempts, the ACO needs to acknowledge that she’s received the feedback.
2. Nora also asked to speak about dog bite prevention; she would like to talk to the town about doing a course for the children of the town on how to prevent dog bites. It’s a PowerPoint presentation that teaches children how to approach and how not to approach a dog and how to react should the dog attack. This was a part of the ACO course she attended. The Board stated that the ideal place to hold this type of presentation would be at a school to ensure a large audience. She would like it to be sponsored by the Town of Monterey. The Board would be happy to help in any way they can.
10am: Jeramia Pollard, Town Counsel came in to discuss the following with the Select Board: Also present; D. Dempsey of the Monterey Conservation Commission
1. The property located next to the Town Beach and who the actual owner is; Dean Amidon or the Town. The board reviewed documents found in the archived Select Board files regarding the piece of property next to the Town Beach. Copies will be made and given to Town Counsel to aid in his research. J. Pollard reviewed old County Commissioner maps that were available at the Registry of Deeds and they didn’t show anything with a right of way. A request has been made to Foresight Land services for copies of the County Maps they have. J. Pollard stated that this is a very complicated situation that involves a lot of deed research and
he suggested that the Town will want to hire a surveyor to mark out the property lines as stated on the deeds and in the maps.
2. The Board asked to discuss J. Pollards 7/22/07 email regarding how the Select Board can legally handle a situation/conflict between officials/employees in Town. J. Sylbert stated that when J. Scully was Town Counsel he suggested opening an investigation of the situation between the elected and appointed official and then the final report from the investigation (which would involve interviewing parties involved) could be put in the Town Report to make the residents aware.
J. Sylbert asked for clarification on MGL Chapter 41 §19D which was an option suggested by the new Town Counsel. He would like to know what constitutes “just cause” (in general) to justify opening the hearing that would begin the process for removing a Town Clerk from office. J. Pollard stated that there is not a solitary case note on just cause. There are other places you can look (such as the Department of Unemployment) but the information from each department does not necessarily mesh. The reason this Chapter and Section was suggested by Town Counsel was to show that these hearings can certainly happen (the Select Board has that authority) if that’s the road the Select Board wanted to take. J. Pollard stated that if the positions
obligations/job functions/duties were not being followed, that could be one example of just cause. J. Pollard stated that when you are talking about an elected position there are defined duties and that may be where you’d want to start versus a defamation of character issue which isn’t clearly defined. Just cause is not a legal concept it’s a human concept. J. Pollard is also going to review just cause statutes involving other departments.
The Select Board wants to know what their authority is, when they can apply it and to whom it applies. J. Sylbert asked about the process that J. Scully recommended where witnesses would be called in, interviewed and an investigation would be opened and the results would be published in the Town Report. J. Pollard confirmed that witnesses could be called in but that they are not required to attend however that could be noted in the report written. The Select Board cannot force anyone (elected or appointed) to attend an Executive Session or to participate in an investigative process.
There are 3 options available to the Select Board for instances concerning conflicts between officials/employees in Town:
a. Mediation
b. An investigation that would be printed in the Town Report or
c. Call upon the process of removing an elected official.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Correspondence from Dean Amidon, Deputy Harbormaster regarding the recent mooring complaint was reviewed. (This was given to Chief Backhaus)
2. Representative Pignatelli’s email regarding the school budget and hiring a mediator was discussed.
3. Mr. Kaufmann, town resident came in to follow up on his mooring complaint. The Deputy Harbormaster’s response was given to the Police Chief and he was referred to him. Mr. Kaufmann spoke with Dean Amidon and he feels that Mr. Amidon wants him (Mr. Kaufmann) to do all the legwork that the Deputy Harbormaster should be doing to follow up on the complaint.
4. The minutes from 9.10.07 were approved as written (with a minor addition).
5. Mail was reviewed.
The meeting adjourned at: 11:37am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
| 
