Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the working meeting of 5/29/13
Meeting Opened at: 4:
Select Board Members Present: Muriel Lazzarini, Chairperson, Wayne Burkhart (arrived at 5pm) and Scott Jenssen
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Susan Gallant for the Monterey News, Maynard Forbes, Robert Lazzarini, Pat Mielke, Bethany Mielke, Dan Moriarity, Linda Hunt, Steve Pullen, Don Clawson, Stanley Ross, Donald Hopkins and Linda Thorpe
1. Muriel updated the Board on the Town Clerk and Elections situation. Emily’s resignation goes into effect on Friday; Muriel has found an experienced Town Clerk that will be coming in tonight to discuss mentoring if Emily will chooses to rescind her resignation or to run the office if Emily is resigned to leaving. There is a state election coming up on June 25th, Muriel has spoken with someone with the State about the possibility that we may not have someone to run the elections. Town Counsel is in conversations with the State and a solution is being sought.
2. The Town Accountant has resigned as of Saturday for health reasons, effective immediately. Pat Mielke was appointed for one week to process payroll. The Board will need to research a more permanent situation. Muriel was not that impressed with the other applicants in the last round and suggested re-advertising the position. Pat stated that she can continue until a replacement is found if the Board wishes. She suggested however that a change needs to be made to payroll, this is one of the only towns that the Accountant inputs it and the Treasurer outputs it. Pat suggested that the entire payroll duties be put under the Treasurer’s duties and that additional compensation should be made to the Treasurer for the extra duties and the Accountant’s salary should be lowered
to reflect the change in their responsibilities. Bethany was able to watch the process this week and stated that it made much more sense doing the payroll from start to finish. The Board will discuss this further on Monday.
3. Audit draft report: Copies of the management letter were distributed.
a. The Tax Collector passed along her comments to Muriel earlier as she was not able to attend tonight. She stated that it is very difficult due to everyone’s schedules to reconcile with the Treasurer more than once a year. Steve commented that internal control is an ideal and it is expensive and comes with more bureaucracy. Steve stated that this particular reconciliation is certified every year with the state so it isn’t as big of an issue as the report may have made it sound.
b. Withholdings – Mari felt that this was an important issue and Pat confirmed that this was her fault as she had some timing issues. She also stated that a process is now in place that should solve any further withholding issues.
c. Disbursements (page 5) – Pat understood this to mean that the Auditor’s would like to see everyone turn in timesheets but in such a small town with small departments, this isn’t really necessary. The Board will ask the Auditor’s to explain this comment more thoroughly.
d. Significant deficiencies noted:
i. Employee pay rates were not appropriately supported in the examples they were given. Steve explained that this had to do with the frequency that employees are paid as some are monthly, semi-annually and others are weekly and there are some positions that do not have a designated line item for their salary (i.e. firemen, lifeguards and library staff).
ii. Improve documentation of cashbook and reconciliation procedures – Steve stated that the town’s ledger system has one cash account but in reality the Treasurer has 20 separate accounts. Steve stated that this had a lot to do with the crossover from one FY into the next. The town operates on a cash basis and the auditor’s operate on an accrual basis and these two methods can’t be combined.
e. The Board is going to discuss further the suggestion that the town needs a Chief Procurement Officer. Steve commented that the system is working as it is with each department handling their own procurement of items. Muriel felt that this was being recommended to properly follow the General Laws and procedures. Maynard noted that part of the Procurement Officer Job is making sure that the bidding laws are followed and put out properly and legally and to be done right and legally. There is a considerable amount of work involved and legalities. The Board will discuss this further on Monday.
f. Pat asked that while she is acting as Accountant if departments could put their account numbers on all submissions that would be extremely helpful.
g. Steve felt that the comments on receiving cash weren’t as important and the town should consider implementing a policy that the town no longer accept cash if it’s really an issue.
4. Debt Exclusion and Grader purchase: The grader vote at town meeting was supposed to be by secret ballot (per our town bylaws) not a voice vote and pass by 2/3; this did not happen and therefore the vote for the grader is invalid. The debt exclusion ballot question at the elections was however, done correctly. This would never had been an issue had the acting Town Clerk, Barbara Swann not filed an incomplete and confusing report with the State. Muriel noted that the Moderator did apologize for missing this. Muriel is sending a letter to the State clarifying the incorrect vote tallies sent to the State by Barbara Swann. The letter also addresses the fact that the Assistant Town Clerk at the time neglected to put the debt exclusion question on the ballot as requested by the Select Board
and therefore a separate slip of paper was distributed at the elections, this only needed to pass by a majority not 2/3. The validity of this vote is still being investigated by the State. Linda stated that she attended the April 8th meeting trying to get the Select Board to add the ballot question to the town meeting warrant which they informed Linda didn’t need to happen, it only needed to be on the election ballot not the town meeting warrant as per the Proposition 2 ½ Guidelines. Maynard inquired as to when the special town meeting would be scheduled for to rectify the issue. The Planning Board also needs to have a special town meeting for some new solar bylaws and misc items. Maynard is requesting that the meeting be held on June 21st which Muriel did not feel was likely. Maynard did not feel that the Planning Board should hold up the purchase of the grader and that this problem should be rectified as soon as
possible. Muriel noted that in addition to bylaws that the Planning Board would like to add there are also several other monetary issues that may need to be dealt with; additional monies to hire a consultant to fix the issues in the clerk’s office, expenditures for the fiber broadband services, the septic loan transfer and a few other small items.
5. Linda Hunt came in to meet the Board to discuss consulting in the Town Clerk’s Office. She recently retired after 12 ¾ years as the Town Clerk in Stockbridge. Muriel explained that there is a very unusual and awkward situation in town with regards to this office. The previous Town Clerk, Deborah Mielke resigned after 10 months after voicing several concerns about things she had found in the office that disturbed her. The most recently elected Town Clerk resigned after spending only week in the office and giving us two weeks notice; after finding several alarming things. The Board has been made aware that Linda H. is a “by-the-book” Clerk which is what we need right now. Bob inquired if there was a State agency that would do an audit of the office to
determine the deficiencies. Linda stated that vital records could come in to ensure that births, deaths and marriages were all done properly and legally. There is a gentleman from the State that will come perform training at your office. Pat felt there had been too much intervention and unauthorized memos from other departments in trying to run that office which caused all the issues at hand.
6. The Board asked M. Noe to reschedule the Auditor’s visit until a later date in June.
7. Muriel met with Barbara Gauthier about the town’s status regarding the levy limit and she plans to go over this at Monday’s meeting. Stan as a member of the Finance Committee did not feel that the town was in any danger of overspending or being in need of an override.
8. The Board all agreed that the best situation for the Town would be to have Emily rescind her resignation and work with a consultant to clean up all the issues in the office and get it running properly. Emily has asked for the evening to consider this.
9. The Board discussed the fact that Emily may not have been bonded as is required. Pat Mielke was pretty sure that Emily had been bonded in the time frame required, Bethany came in and clarified that she had not sent in the paperwork yet as she was waiting on info from Pat. Pat felt that everyone here is covered under general liability and that the lapse in submitting the paperwork shouldn’t be an issue.
10. Scott would like to discuss possible subversive actions that may have been made by Barbara Swann trying to sabotage the recent town election. Town Counsel will be consulted on the matter.
11. Mike Johnson commended M. Noe on organizing the Mr. Ding-a Ling ice cream truck for the Memorial Day festivities. He requested that the planning for the 2014 festivities begin as soon as possible.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 5:52pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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