Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 3/19/12
Meeting Opened at: 9am
Select Board Members Present: Wayne Burkhart, Chairperson and Scott Jenssen
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Maggie Leonard for the Monterey News, Doreen Beller, Stanley Ross (Finance Committee), Daniel Moriarity (Finance Committee), Roger Tryon and Steve Pullen
The board reviewed Police Chief, Gareth Backhaus’ weekly report for 3/2 – 3/15/12 which included:
Calls:
1. Lost cat on Main Rd
2. Building checks on Hupi, Art School, Mt Hunger
3. Assisted a citizen on Heron Pond Park
4. Suspicious activity on Mt Hunger.
5. Mutual aid to Gt. Barrington for traffic control due to a structure fire.
6. Well being check on Main Rd
7. Provided traffic control for the MFD on Curtis Rd
8. Investigated several bags of trash deposited on the road; party was warned about the penalty for doing this; Scott asked M. Noe to inquire as to why there were no charges or fines imposed.
9. Disabled MV on Main Rd
10. Assisted a citizen at the town hall
11. Assisted a citizen on New Marlboro Rd.
False Alarms:
1. Main Rd
The board met with Town Accountant, Steven Pullen to review the following items:
1. Warrants were signed.
2. Wayne inquired about school budget items that would be exempt from proposition 2 ½ - Steve stated that it is just like when you finance equipment which is also exempt. Annual payments on financed items are excluded from proposition 2 ½ Steve stated.
3. Wayne confirmed that we should receive the warrant article wording to change the payment schedule for the school this week.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Doreen Beller came in to discuss Monterey Fest 2012 (formerly known as Lakefest). They’ve changed the name because thy want to combine the elements of “I Love Monterey Day” with Lakefest to make it more of a Monterey community event vs. a Friends of Lake Garfield event. The goal is to bring together all of the full time and part time families of Monterey. They plan to integrate all of the key institutions of Monterey such as Gould Farm, the general store the library, etc. Berkshire South is also lending their help free of charge. The date will be Saturday, August 18th. There will be events and entertainment throughout Monterey concurrently. There will be fireworks again if they can raise enough funds to cover the cost. Projected expenses
for Monterey Fest are approximately $6,000. They are requesting $4,000 from the town (up from $2,500) and have assured the Board that none of this money will be used toward fireworks. Doreen stated that this is strictly a Monterey only event and it will not be advertised or promoted outside of Monterey. The Board did not like the sound of restricting the attendance to only Monterey residents as the lake is a public lake for everyone to enjoy. The “I Love Monterey Day” line item will be zeroed out and the special article for “Lakefest” will be renamed “Montereyfest”.
2. The informational meeting to discuss the items on the annual town meeting warrant has been set for Friday, April 27th at 7pm.
3. The Board met with the Finance Committee to discuss the FY13 proposed budget.
a. Request from the Friends of WMH to place an article on the warrant to raise and appropriate $10,000 to use towards the renovation of the building to a community center. The Finance Committee asked if the FWMH has stated their plan to raise the money needed and how much it is that is needed. They are actively seeking grant money in addition to seeking money from other venues. Stan suggested before the town puts this on the warrant that they require that the FWMH has to raise xxx amount of money prior to giving them anything as this has happened in the past and they were unable to meet their monetary goals. Wayne disagreed with Stan and stated that he supports this request. Dan stated he’d like to have the FWMH be more specific as to what the requested money
will be used for. Wayne stated that he read the FWMH’s goal is to raise $175,000 which it was noted would not be enough to build a community center. Stan asked if this was put on the warrant and approved at town meeting could the town restrict releasing the money until an approved upon goal has been met by the FWMH. The Board will hold off on adding this to the warrant until next week until Wayne can personally request the information the Finance Committee is seeking.
b. HVAC system for the town hall: it was agreed this would take a large burden off of the current heating system (lowering the use of oil). This system will provide heat, air flow and air conditioning to the rooms not currently cooled. It was noted that the current zoned system is not sufficient enough right now as is noticed in several of the rooms that can be very cold in the winter and very hot in the warmer seasons. We have received preliminary estimates to do 2 phases, one phase being the front room only and one phase being the back offices for a total of $18,000. Wayne wanted more information on if the system was hydronic and how efficient it is. Scott will report back on what he finds next week.
c. Raises: Dan requested a summary from the Board regarding the meeting with Attorney Dupere last week on employee contracts. It was stressed that Attorney Dupere does not represent employees he represents management. Wayne insisted that there should be special considerations given to public employees as it is a different “ballgame” than private employment. Scott reviewed his notes from last week and stated that the 3 items that Attorney Dupere felt were the most important were 1- considering the employees were not given last year that a 3-4% increase this year could certainly be justified, 2 – the boot and clothing allowance request should start at $200 per person rather than $400 considering this has never been asked for before and 3 – that on-call pay
should not be given to highway members as it’s a part of their job however it should be offered to the midnight to 8am police shift as it’s not a covered shift and the officer should be compensated for having to remain on call. Dan wants to know what percentage of the budget reflects employee salaries and benefits and in numbers how it affects the tax rate. Wayne is in favor of grouping departmental salaries on the warrant vs. listing them individually as is currently done. The Finance Committee was in favor of keeping the warrant as is for this year but they were in favor of considering condensing the budget portion of the warrant for FY14. M. Noe will check with counsel as instructed by the Board on how this would legally be done. It was agreed by all that the Board will not enter into contracts with the employees right now but it is not off the table, there just isn’t enough time prior to town meeting to have them written and
reviewed by all parties involved. Wayne stated for the record that he is not in favor of an across the board percentage raise as employees that are a lower paid employee do not benefit as much as a higher salaried employee. Everyone present except Stan was in favor of giving the 7 full time employees 4% seeing as they were not given any increases last year and this would average out to 2% for last year and 2% for this year. The Finance Committee will be meeting this Thursday to make their salary increases for elected and part timers.
4. The minutes from 3.12.12 were approved with a few amendments.
5. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Survey from MAPC regarding the impact of the new municipal health insurance law (Chapter 69 of the Acts of 2011).
b. Correspondence from the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development on unemployment payments and claimants who improperly receive them.
c. Wayne signed where required on paperwork submitted from MassDOT Highway Division regarding the FHWA Emergency Relief Program – Federal Aid Reimbursement Agreement. Maynard Forbes and the Treasurer also have papers in the packet to sign/fill out before M. Noe can send it in.
6. There was some discussion on when the warrant would be closed & signed by the Board (March 26th), when it will be sent to town counsel (March 26th) and when it will be provided to the Town Clerk (as soon as it’s approved by town counsel). Maggie was concerned about this as the Planning Board’s bylaw revisions public hearing is set for April 2nd and she wouldn’t have the article ready by then. Scott thought that the Town Clerk could sit in on April 2nd or 9th as an “acting board member” since Scott will not be at these meetings and then she could sign in lieu of but according to the paperwork/MGL’s she provided earlier, she is only able to sign the weekly payables warrants in the absence of a board member,
not the annual meeting warrant.
7. Inter-Departmental Secretary’s weekly report reviewed.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 11:24am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary via audio recording
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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