Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 3/28/11
Meeting Opened at: 7:00pm
Select Board Members Present: Jonathan Sylbert, Chairperson and Wayne Burkhart
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Sue Protheroe for the Monterey News, Stanley Ross (Finance Committee), Barbara Gauthier, Daniel Moriarity (Finance Committee), Cynthia Weber (Council on Aging) and Fran Amidon (Council on Aging)
The board reviewed Director of Operations, Maynard Forbes’ weekly report for the week ending 3/26/11 which included:
1. Checking roads.
2. Burning brush.
3. Removing wing and chains on grader.
4. Salt, plow and sand on Monday and Thursday and salt on Wednesday.
5. Change plow blades on Osh Kosh.
6. Mount sander and plow on 2005 – 550.
7. Haul gravel, grade and repair Harmon Rd.
8. Clean trucks.
9. Planning on the Beartown Mtn Road project.
10. Revising Transfer Station protocol and have CET review.
11. Met with John Fields regarding tree removal at the WMH property.
The board reviewed Police Chief, Gareth Backhaus’ weekly report for 3/21-3/27/11 which included:
Calls:
1. Complaint received with regards to a car parked on River Rd. Police found 2 people sleeping in the car and they were asked to leave.
2. Suspicious activity reported on Main Rd.
Abandoned 911 calls:
1. Swann Rd.
2. Gould Rd.
Traffic stops: 5
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Stanley Ross and Dan Moriarity of the Finance Committee as well as Steve Pullen, Town Accountant and Barbara Gauthier came in to discuss the following with the Board:
a. Town Insurance policies: The Finance Committee stated that the Town is paying $2500/yr for health insurance for the former Town Clerk (this is 50% of the cost, she pays the other half). There was some discussion on where the money was coming from in the budget to pay for this. Steve stated it is an expense in the health insurance line item and the money appropriated each year as a special article for retiree group health/life has not been touched. Barbara suggested that a lot more money should be put in this account as there will most likely be more people retiring soon. The money in this line item should be actuarially determined each year. The Board was going to request the estimated projection of money needed and potential retirement dates that Pat had
provided to the Board when this warrant article was passed. Steve suggested that the ½ that the town pays should be a separate line item from the health insurance line item for full time employees.
It was confirmed that the current rates and plan we have for health insurance can not be beat or even matched by another insurer so the town will remain with MIIA and will keep the same plan and contribution rates.
Jon was concerned that the increase from FY11 to FY12 for the health insurance was showing as 20% yet the rate was only increased 9.9%. Stan explained this is because last year there were 2 single plans (1 was a single retiree) and 5 family plans on the insurance and this year there are 7 families and 1 single retiree. It was also noted that last year there wasn’t a full time officer on the plan and now there is. The jump in premium is due to utilization.
b. General Liability, worker’s comp and umbrella policies: Currently the town receives “rebates” used as a credit against the premium from MIIA. MIIA also offers a 5% discount if the premium is paid in full. The proposal from MEGA (Wheeler & Taylor) does not offer these benefits. Stan also noted that MEGA’s general liability coverage proposal is for $300,000 less coverage and the umbrella policy only offers a one million dollar umbrella and MIIA’s is a two million dollar umbrella. The Finance Committee recommended that since the net difference was $5,700 (Wheeler & Taylor’s proposal is $25,376 and MIIA’s is $31,076) but MIIA’s proposal covers and offers more for that difference, the Town should stay with MIIA.
c. Veteran’s Benefit’s: Line item #543. Steve Pullen explained that the State has benefits for veteran’s that covers a significant amount of their health care. We have a veteran in town that has become eligible and the local Veteran’s Agent submits the claims to the Town which we are mandated to pay at 100% of the claim. The estimated cost for the FY12 will be $1,200 a month and the State will reimburse 75% of that as some point in the future. The line item for FY12 needs to be $14,000.
Barbara Gauthier came in to talk to the Board about their intention to pay for $126,000 worth of special articles from stabilization. She did not agree and recommended that the Board pay for all the articles from Free Cash which has already been appropriated. She stated you don’t take little amounts from your stabilization which is your “savings” account, you save that for large purchases such as a fire truck. She also recommended that only $50,000 be put into stabilization. She also suggested that the request for FY12 for the reserve fund (line item #132) should be for $15,000.
d. Special Town Meeting: The figures have been added for accounts overspent in FY11. There is $1,000 being requested by the ZBA to cover expenses incurred for legal advice for hearings held. The ZBA has been using Mark Bobrowski instead of town counsel for questions. The ZBA feels that they can not use Town Counsel for these matters and this is why they’ve hired Mark. Jon stated that Town Counsel disagrees and that he can be used by the ZBA. Jon stated we are now paying 2 attorneys for internal issues. The ZBA has never had a fund for a separate lawyer before and Jon questioned was that because they never had doubts or questions before. Stan stated it wasn’t a matter of doubt, it was good information. Jon asked what is normally done
when in the middle of the year money is being spent that wasn’t appropriated. Steve replied that he remembers Bob Lazzarini coming in and asking to hire Mark Bobrowski to rewrite the bylaws, Jon interrupted and stated that that money was not for hiring an attorney to answer questions on hearings it was to review our bylaws to give a proposal on rewriting the bylaws. $2,000 was agreed to be paid and it was coming out of the monies set aside for a master plan. Jon reiterated that these two issues are separate and shouldn’t be confused. Jon stated that the ZBA hired their own lawyer without having a separate line item for an attorney or having funds appropriated for this expense and finally they are supposed to use town counsel.
Steve was given a bill for services for Mark that is separate from the bylaw revisions and he was under the assumption that it was to be paid out of the master plan funds. The Board stated this is incorrect and it should come from the ZBA expense line item. Jon instructed M. Noe to remove the request for $1,000 on the special town meeting article to cover what the ZBA believes they are going to go over on from their appropriated FY11 expenses.
The ZBA is requesting an additional $1,900, a total of $4,000 for FY12 expenses to cover the usual expenses (postage, advertising, etc) and legal advice from counsel separate from town counsel.
e. Employee Raises: The Finance Committee stated that at their most recent meeting the revisited their original vote to not give raises to the employees. One Finance Committee member gave it a lot of thought and felt that all of our employees were career employees and should be recognized and therefore the Finance Committee re-voted and recommended that the Town give the employees a 2% increase. The Finance Committee felt that despite arguments that the world and country are in bad shape and that we are in a recession, our particular town is currently spending roughly $360,000 in special articles and capital expenses and our biggest commodity is the people working for us and they should be compensated. Jon stated that the original discussion around raises centered on the
fact that Monterey has the most generous health insurance policy in the State and that the employees had a choice which was move to a standard policy or get a raise, not both. Dan stated he was not present for that discussion and it was never brought up by the Finance Committee at their meetings. Stan disagreed, saying it was brought up. Jon added that it was brought up several times in several meetings specifically by Michael. Stand and Dan agreed. Jon stated that in the private sector and State sector people are making huge sacrifices and their not getting raises. It was agreed that the town/employee contribution split is unheard of in the surrounding towns but Stan stated that our full time employees are career people, there isn’t a revolving door here and they don’t quit and come and go. He felt that he only sees people leaving when they retire but because of what they do, who they are and their “stick to it-tiveness” and
their benefit to the town they are worth the 2% increase they are recommended. Jon stated he wouldn’t vote to approve it as it was disgraceful to waffle on their previous decisions. Wayne felt it was too late in the game for a switch like this and it has been a rough show and there are lots of people who are getting hammered and he felt it appropriate to wait on any increases and therefore agreed not to give any raises in FY12.
Jon felt in the last few years there has been a sloppy approach to raises and it needs to be approached with discipline. Everyone did agree that the portion of the budget for employees is a very small portion.
2. Cynthia Weber of the Council on Aging came in talk to the Board about the Southern Berkshire Elderly Transportation and their current financial situation. Cynthia spoke with someone there and they stated that they are $50,000 in arrears for the remainder of this fiscal year. They are requesting that the balance owed for the remainder of this fiscal year be paid as soon as possible. Steve stated that money we’ve received from the State Executive Office of Elder Affairs (in a special revenue account) is currently in savings and totals about $8,000 (we receive approximately $3,500/yr from the State). SBETC is paid from this account and is not appropriated through the budget. Steve didn’t know who was authorized to use the $8,000 that has been accumulating from the State. Jon stated that the town is not allowed to make donations but he would recommend having the SBETC send us a bill and then we will pay it. Steve and Cynthia will look into the matter further. Steve also
questioned if there were other places besides the SBETC that could use the money we receive from the State.
Dan Moriarity asked that $5,000 be added as a special article for the Lake Buel Watershed maintenance. The Board approved adding this to the warrant. Dan asked before the Board considers spending any money with BRPC regarding the flood plans they are working on as his experience with them and the problems at Lake Buel have all been negative. He felt that they had a history of dropping the ball with anything having to do with Lake Buel. BRPC is creating a natural hazard mitigation plan on behalf of the town.
3. The minutes from 3.28.11 were approved as written.
4. The Board requested that M. Noe send another reminder to the Town Clerk for the wording for the town meeting warrant to change the voting day from the same day as town meeting to another, separate day for next year.
5. Jon stated that Bob Lazzarini contact him today stating that Will Marsh asked Bob to write something for the Monterey News with regards to the proposed doge park. A sample of the article was given to Jon and Jon explained to Bob that the article did not sound like an explanation of the dog park dilemma but rather a defense of the ZBA’s actions and that it’s a legal matter between 2 boards and he didn’t feel it appropriate to be submitted to the newspaper.
6. The Board agreed to start the special town meeting which occurs prior to the annual town meeting at 9:00am.
7. Jon reviewed Town Counsel’s response and advice regarding the ZBA hearing #11-06 in which the Select Board was requesting that special permit #10-01 be amended to allow a proposed dog park to be constructed on the Wilson McLaughlin property and/or to remove the condition that states “no other municipal use is approved”. Wayne had not read it and took a copy home with him. This will be discussed further at a later date, no action was taken.
8. The Board asked M. Noe to send another copy of the request from the Board to the Town Clerk to have more zoning bylaws printed.
9. Warrants were signed.
10. Inter-Departmental Secretary’s weekly report reviewed.
11. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. A request from the Fire Dept to add $15,000 to the special town meeting warrant for wages for the firefighters to cover the months of April, May and June of 2011. This was added to the special town meeting warrant.
b. A request from the Fire Dept to allow them to use funds from reserve in the amount of $1,200 to cover the Fire Protection account for the rest of the fiscal year. The Board did not know what the Fire Protection account was as it’s not listed on the budget.
c. A letter from M. Forbes advising the Board that Senator Downing’s office has notified him that the Town of Monterey will be receiving a $500,000 Strap Grant for drainage and repair on Route 23, work to be done this summer. M. Forbes will meet with the Board when he has more information.
d. A renewal proposal for the health insurance from MIIA which was accepted and signed. This will be faxed into MIIA tomorrow. The Board also approved and signed the attestation confirming that the Town considers the current health insurance policies to be “grandfathered” under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and that we request that the contribution rates for those plans reflect that status.
12. The Board approved the stock paper and color for the FY10 town report.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 9:00pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary via audio recording
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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