Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 11/21/11
Meeting Opened at: 6:00pm
Select Board Members Present: Wayne Burkhart, Chairperson, Scott Jenssen and Jonathan Sylbert
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Maggie Leonard for the Monterey News, Laurily Epstein, Holly & Eric Montgomery, Stanley Ross, Monica Webb, Michael Storch, Gareth Backhaus, Maynard Forbes and Mike Johnson
The board reviewed Director of Operations, Maynard Forbes’ weekly report for the week ending 11/19/11 which included:
1. Checking beaver dams
2. River Rd project
3. Patching pot holes on New Marlboro Rd
4. Repave apron on Main Rd
5. Blow leaves from ditches
6. Repair lights on 2005 – 550, remove dump body on Kenworth, mount sander, repair lights and fenders on Kenworth sander
7. Repair signs at 23/57 intersection
8. Clean ditches on Gould Rd and River Rd and sweep River Rd after construction
9. MEMA, PDA snowstorm meeting on 11/21
10. Meet with Commonwealth Guardrail, install on Saturday on River Rd.
The board reviewed Police Chief, Gareth Backhaus’ weekly reports for 10/24-11/12 and 11/14 – 11/20/11 which included:
Calls:
1. Building check on Beartown Mtn Rd.
2. MVA on Blue Hill Rd.
3. Assisted a citizen on Mt Hunger Rd.
4. Tree on the wires at Camp Half Moon
5. Assisted Fire Department with a possible OD on Gould Rd
6. Well being check on Beartown Mtn Rd
7. Assisted a citizen on New Marlboro Rd with an ongoing domestic issue x 2
8. Suspicious activity reported on Main Rd; Police investigated, suspicious vehicle was from the National Crime Victimization and was doing a survey
9. Disturbance reported on Blue Hill Rd
10. Suspicious Activity Reported on New Marlboro Rd.
11. Assisted a citizen on Cronk Rd
12. Summons served on Hupi Rd
13. Assisting with traffic at the Monterey school each day when school lets out.
14. Lost hiker reported at Main and Steven’s Lake; found by police and transferred back to their vehicle.
15. MVA at Pixley and Main Rds; car was towed
16. Assisted with a medical emergency; drove patients to the hospital
False Alarms:
1. Swann Rd
2. Deerwood Park Dr.
3. Main Rd
4. Blue Hill Rd x 2
Abandoned 911 calls:
Tyringham Rd – misdial
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Laurily Epstein stated that in the November Monterey News town section it mentioned that the Monterey Select Board had attended a MMA Legislative Breakfast and one of the topics of discussion was placement of wind turbines. Laurily wanted to know if our Select Board has been approached by anyone to place wind turbines and if yes what was the response. Jon stated that the general consensus seemed to be that the local Select Boards would accept nothing less than total Select Board/Town control if the Wind Siting Bill was to pass. We have not yet been approached by anyone to place a wind turbine in Monterey. Holly Montgomery has heard that this bill might be pushed through by December and was wondering if there was anything that a collective group of Select Boards could do. Eric
Montgomery also asked how this bill and the Scenic Mountain Act would affect each other. The Board felt all were good questions but that they couldn’t answer them right now. There was a map that has since been removed from the mass.gov website which stated that there was zero wind in the Berkshires.
2. Gareth Backhaus, Maynard Forbes, Michael Storch and Stanley Ross were present to continue the discussions on the full time employee benefits. Stanley opened the discussion by stating that he has reviewed the employee proposal provided last week carefully and as a member of the Finance Committee he agrees with most of what the proposal says and that it is a good beginning.
a. On the 1st proposal: Keeping the split as is (90/10) for current employees and splitting any premium increase over 15% - 50/50 (as the SBRSD does, which means that if the increase were 16%, the employee and town would split 1% 50/50) and any new employees hired come on at 80/20; Stanley stated that he can’t recall ever getting a 15% split, he doesn’t agree with the cap being 15% but would be agreeable to anything over 5% being split 50/50 if this was the option everyone agreed on. Wayne felt that this option would become complicated when the next year’s increase come along. Everyone felt that sticking to a split option with out the 50/50 split of any increases was a much simpler option than trying to calculate the increase to split 50/50 each year above
and beyond any predetermined increase percentage and that this could become a negative option for employees who may remain with the town for many more years.
b. On the 2nd proposal: go to a 85/15 split contingent upon salary increases being approved to cover the difference in a separate article from any COLA’s or merit raises being given with no 50/50 split of increases and the current retiree policy being amended to state that any retirees that have not reached Medicare age be provided health insurance at an 85/15 split until they reach Medicare age at which time they would then go to 50/50; Stanley felt he could go along with this but is not decided yet on the retiree request. Currently any retirees, no matter their age pay 50% of the health insurance premium.
c. On the 3rd proposal: to have the health insurance handled by the Select Board; No one had any issues with moving this under the general Select Board’s supervision but first wanted to find out if this was an official part of the Treasurer’s job.
d. Longevity Bonuses similar to what the SBRSD offers; Jon stated if the employees wanted this option they would have to be willing to go to an 80/20 health insurance split like the school does and have the proposal match other items the school offers to which Maynard pointed out, they offer 180 sick days. Michael wanted to know if the longevity bonus was for each year or just at the mile marker. The bonuses run each year from 10 -12 years you would get $800, 12 - 15 years $1,200 and 15 and longer $1,500 each year.
3. The minutes from 11.14.11 were not approved yet and will be reviewed further at next weeks meeting.
4. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. A letter from Environment Massachusetts which is a statewide, citizen based environmental advocacy group reaching out to local officials for their support on a campaign to increase the use of solar energy in the state. The Board will review this further at their next meeting.
b. The tenants at Bally Gally have decided to stay in the rental property and a copy of their lease renewal was provided to the Board.
c. 2011 Pavement Condition Report from the BRPC which the Board will review next week.
d. An opinion from Town Counsel answering the question that has arisen several times on whether the Select Board Chair can make motions. He stated that the Chairman can make a motion, especially since he/she is a voting member on a small town Board; thus, the Chair retains the ability to make attempts to craft votes in a way they find acceptable. The notion that a Chairperson cannot vote comes from larger assemblies, where the Chairperson attempts to retain an appearance of objectivity which doesn’t hold with smaller boards.
5. Inter-Departmental Secretary’s weekly report reviewed and time off requests were approved.
The audio tape shut off midway through the meeting and some items were unable to be recorded in the minutes.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 7:30pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary via audio recording
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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