Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 1/23/12
Meeting Opened at: 6:00pm
Select Board Members Present: Wayne Burkhart, Chairperson and Scott Jenssen
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Maggie Leonard for the Monterey News, Stanley Ross, Finance Committee, Maynard Forbes, Director of Operations, Officer Johnson and Chief Backhaus
The board reviewed Director of Operations, Maynard Forbes’ weekly report for the weeks ending 1/14 & 1/21/12 which included:
1. Checking beaver dams
2. Checking Lake Garfield dam inlet
3. Week ending 1/14/12: checking roads for icy spots (Fairview, Main & Beartown), salt & sand on Thursday am & pm and plow, slat & sand on Friday am & pm and Sand the dirt roads on Saturday.
4. Repair the 2005 – 550 load cover, fix light on Kenworth, repair 4500 and 2005 -550 sanders and grease them and repair chain on the 2011 – 550 sander
5. Patch potholes on Beartown Mtn Rd
6. Week ending 1/21/12: Salt roads on Monday night, Tuesday am plow, salt & sand, sand dirt roads in the pm, sand dirt roads Wednesday am and spot salt the icy spots, spot sand dirt roads on Thursday am, plow & salt Thursday pm, plow, salt and sand on Friday and Saturday.
7. FEMA/MEMA reimbursement papers & contracts
The board reviewed Police Chief, Gareth Backhaus’ weekly report for 1/9 – 1/22/12 which included:
Calls:
1. Loose horse on Main Rd; provided traffic control.
2. Building check on Hupi Rd.
3. Unfounded complaints on Blue Hill Rd; crisis team called in
4. House check on Beartown Mtn Rd.
5. Assisted with traffic for a brush fire on RT 57 caused by someone dumping a hot pot of fireplace ash on the ground
6. MVA on Main Rd.
7. Courtesy transfer to Laurel Hill Rd
8. Dispute on Main Rd over dog droppings – peace restored
9. Assisted a lost citizen
False Alarms:
1. Sylvan Rd x 2
Abandoned 911 calls:
Main Rd
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. The minutes from 1.17.12 were approved as amended.
2. The Board sent the attached letter OMLresponse.pdfto the Attorney General’s Office with regards to the Open Meeting Law complaint filed by Jonathan Sylbert. The letter was cc’d to Jonathan and Town Counsel. The Board as required by the AG’s office reviewed the facts of the complaint and determined that a violation of the OML did not occur and requested that the AG make the same determination.
3. A motion was made to sign and accept the proposal from MIIA for our property, liability and workman’s compensation insurance which includes a rate change of 0% for FY13 and no more than a 2.5% increase for FY14. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved. M. Noe will forward the signed document to Michael Garrold of MIIA and give a copy to the Town Accountant and Treasurer.
4. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Notification to the Town as an abutter of the upcoming hearing for a special permit request by Gould Farm’s Harvest Barn.
b. Correspondence from MassDOT was reviewed with regards to RT 23 project file # 605798 and designating a coordinator/liaison to work with the Community Compliance section of the Right of Way Bureau –Maynard Forbes also received a copy and is taking care of this.
c. Copies of the dismissed lawsuit, Charles J. Ferris v Monterey Zoning Board & others regarding the proposed dog park. The motion to dismiss was granted on December 20, 2011.
5. A motion was made to move the Select Board meetings to 9am beginning Monday, February 6th. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved. Maynard stated he felt this was a positive move as it would increase the communications between all of the departments and the Select Board. Melissa Noe will make the necessary meeting posting changes.
6. The employees were present to offer their proposal and agreed to keep the negotiations in a public meeting rather than an executive session if the Board agreed to keep the discussions between the Board, Finance Committee and employees only and use the power that the Select Board Chair has to not accept any public comments. The Benefit Proposal which was compiled by the 7 full time employees was reviewed and all the items listed were items that have been previously discussed and preliminarily approved in previous Select Board meetings. There were items noted in the proposal that the employees decided not to pursue and the savings to the town by not pursuing them. Wayne noted that the proposal showed a lot of good work and felt that it looked very good. Stan stated that at the last Finance
Committee meeting they voted to propose a 3% salary increase for all employees (part time, elected and full time) when they meet with the Board in February based on what surrounding towns were going to be giving. The employees noted that last year Monterey employees weren’t given raises at all even though surrounding towns did give a raise which was why the employees were now proposing a 4% increase for FY13, and a 3.5% increase for FY14 and 3.5% for FY15. It was also stated that the raises/salary increase do not have to be the same across the Board for full time employees, elected officials and part time employees. Scott stated that he has been approached by individuals (who won’t put their concerns in writing) about capping certain salaries/positions and he felt that the issue should be addressed prior to town meeting. Scott thought it should be looked into more than just a casual conversation but stated he didn’t like the idea of a cap. Wayne thanked the employees for their
due diligence and their continued participation in the discussions. The Finance Committee agrees with keeping the current 90/10 split for all of the 7 full time employees. Scott asked what they decided on future employees. Maynard commented that keeping the split the same for future employees would be an important incentive for any future employees. Wayne also agreed with keeping the split at 90/10 for the health insurance. Scott stated he agreed with everything in the proposal and Stan agreed. The employees researched employee contracts and have examples from several surrounding towns for all the positions showing that it is legal to have 3 year contracts. Maynard noted that most of the towns that have contracts with their employees do not itemize their budgets for town meeting like Monterey does, they have one line item per department which includes expenses, salaries, etc and the town votes on the entire budget for that department not
each individual item of that department (a sample of Sheffield’s warrant was provided). Stan asked the Board to look into who is liable if we enter into the proposed contracts. Scott and Stan both agreed that condensing our budget section of the warrant is a good idea. There is still transparency as the entire budget for each department is broken out and presented at the informational hearings held prior to town meeting. Wayne agreed to look at changing the warrant style further and to seek town counsel’s advice on the matter. Stan agreed to bring the employee’s salary increase proposal back to the Finance Committee to reconsider. It was noted that elected officials can not be compared to full time employees because they get paid whether they do the work or not and whether they do it in 1 hour or 1,000 hours and they are only accountable to the voters when it comes time for re-election. The Board agreed to allow the
Maynard to contact Town Counsel to research the contract matter more then it was agreed to have Town Counsel come in and meet with all involved.
7. Warrants were signed for 3 weeks as the Town Accountant is going on vacation.
8. Maggie Leonard, Planning Board Chair stated that she is shooting for the annual town meeting warrant for the bylaw revisions to be voted on.
9. The Board discussed current policies with regards to part time employees receiving benefits.
10. The Board discussed mail handling protocol.
11. Inter-Departmental Secretary’s weekly report reviewed.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 7:00pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary via audio recording
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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