Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 6/3/13
Meeting Opened at: 9am
Select Board Members Present: Muriel Lazzarini, Chairperson, Wayne Burkhart (arrived at 9:10am) and Scott Jenssen
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Susan Gallant for the Monterey News, Raymond Tryon, Maryellen Brown, Pat Mielke, Emily Johnson, Stanley Ross, Donald Clawson, Robert Lazzarini and Ian Jenkins
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. The minutes from 5.20 & 5.29.13 were approved as written.
2. Raymond Tryon came in to request that the Board consider an article to return the elections to the day of the town meeting instead of the Tuesday after. Muriel stated she was in favor of this and that she did not agree with it being moved in the first place. Raymond stated that the polls do not have to be opened until noon which will cut back some of the noise that was the issue for the Moderator and poll workers and changing the day of the elections. Scott also did not have an issue with placing this article on the warrant.
3. Town Accountant vacancy: Muriel suggested appointing Maryellen Brown as the temporary Accountant until a permanent person can be found. Muriel also stated that a thank you letter should be sent to Pat for stepping in and helping out last week and to make sure she is paid for the week’s work. Muriel would also like a thank you letter sent to Jenn Goewey. A motion was made to appoint Maryellen Brown as the temporary accountant until a permanent replacement is found; the motion was seconded and approved unanimously. An appointment letter will be sent and cc’d to the Clerk. The Board also approved the help wanted ad to be placed in the Sunday Berkshire Eagle, the Shopper’s Guide and the Berkshire Record.
4. The Board discussed Pat Mielke’s suggestion to move all of the payroll responsibilities to the Treasurer instead of having the Accountant input it and the Treasurer outputting it and issuing the checks. She stated that it is done this way in Egremont, New Marlborough and other towns and that there should be a shift in pay if the change in responsibilities is made. The Board agreed since the office doing the work seemed to feel that this would make it easier they could support the change. Scott made a motion to have the Treasurer handle all of the payroll responsibilities which was seconded and approved unanimously. It was agreed that it takes about 2 hours to process payroll each week so if there is to be a compensation switch it should be for approximately that amount of time.
The rate at which this will come out of the Accountant’s Salary and into the Treasurer’s will be determined at next week’s meeting.
5. Assistant Treasurer Appointment request: Muriel noted that if this is a request to cover Bethany during her maternity leave that is an unpaid leave for up to 8 weeks and anyone covering the position during that time would be compensated out of the Treasurer’s salary line item. A motion was made to add an article item to the special town meeting warrant for an assistant town treasurer salary and let the town decide, the figure for the article will be discussed next week. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved. A motion was made to temporarily appoint Pat Mielke as Assistant Treasurer to assist Bethany with learning the payroll. How to compensate Pat for this temporary appointment will be discussed next week.
6. Muriel read aloud an anonymous letter addressed to the Board and Town Clerk. Due to the totality of the situation and the rumors floating around, Muriel felt it was important to read this aloud. “This letter is to notify you of what has been done and what may be done. Barbara [Swann] has been very boisterous about how she does not want Emilee in the town clerk’s office because she is friends with Melissa [Noe]. She is almost to the point of being neurotic about it. The following is what she has done, or intends to do to get her out of office. She has contacted the state and let them know that the election was done wrong. She has been told by Pat [Mielke] that Emilee has not yet been bonded, and Barbara has let the state know this. Chapter 41, section 13
requires that a town clerk be bonded within 10 days of being elected or the office be declared vacant. She has talked most of the election staff into quitting, right before the election, so Emilee will not have any workers and be forced to ask for her help. I have met Emilee and she is very well liked. I do not want to see this happen to her.” Muriel stated that Linda Hunt (whom the Board met last week) is willing to be appointed as the Assistant Town Clerk to assist Emily who has rescinded her earlier resignation. The previous Assistant was paid $1,800 for the year and that amount was approved for FY14 so we will just need to increase this amount. Muriel researched other towns and took into account that Linda was a Town Clerk for almost 13 years in Stockbridge and should be compensated for that knowledge. The amount agreed upon will need to be placed on the warrant at the special town meeting. The Board agreed that it
should at least be an hourly rate of $20 per hour up to 10 hours per week. The amount to be put on the warrant will be $8,600. Emily will put her appointment in writing to the Board. Emily will be attending the new Clerk training in Eastern Mass this week. Emily has requested permission to cancel a phone/DSL line in the Town Clerk’s office that was separate from the town’s lines costing $80/per month. After some investigation it was found that the DSL box was not even hooked up or turned on and that the Clerk’s computers are actually tied into the Town’s DSL access. The Board unanimously agreed to have Emily cancel this line. While at the conference Emily will meet with vendors regarding software that is needed in the office that the previous Clerk’s have stated they purchased with their own money and therefore it belongs to them. Emily reviewed her current budget statuses with the Board. Stan Ross
and Don Clawson suggested amending the Clerk’s expenses to reflect these purchases that will be needed for FY14.
7. Proposition 2 ½ and the town’s levy limit: The Board reviewed the estimates that Barbara Gauthier assisted Muriel with as well as the levy limits definitions that Don Clawson provided. ( Documents Attached) It was discussed that since the previous Clerk has been unable to provide a copy of last year’s annual town election ballot it appears that the rescue vehicle we borrowed money for did not have a debt exclusion question on the ballot which will need to be corrected this year for the remaining 4 payments. The Board reviewed our current status and will revisit this again around October when the Cherry Sheets come out. The Finance Committee stated that they are planning on meeting quarterly and would like the Select Board to attend these meetings to that everyone will have
a better grasp on our financial status. LevyDefinitionsbyDClawson.pdflevyspreadsheet.pdf
8. Scott asked that during the quarterly finance committee meetings we should address the fire department compensation transparency issues brought up by Jon Sylbert at this year’s town meeting.
9. The Finance Committee inquired if there will be any yearly transfers between accounts necessary. The Board will inquire of the Accountant.
10. Muriel noted that an issue was brought up the other day with cash coming into the town hall and a suggestion was made to eliminate accepting cash at the town hall. The Board felt that this was an auditor’s problem only and that as a convenience the town hall will continue to accept cash when appropriate.
11. Donald Clawson is going to inquire with the State on the possibility that the septic loan transfer should’ve been on the annual town meeting warrant which was left off by suggestion of the previous Town Accountant. One of the Board members was under the impression that this was left off because the loan was going to be paid off and no longer offered but the other 2 members had entirely different recollections of the scenario. Don will report back to the Board on his discussions with the State.
12. Special Town Meeting articles to be written:
a. Permission to borrow the money to purchase the grader done by secret written ballot.
b. Assistant Town Clerk Salary: $8,600 additional to be added to the $1,800 already approved.
c. Fiber Contract Services: create a new line item to pay for the entire service provided to the Library, Town Hall, Fire Department and Police (about $4,500). Cartographics new feature which will have an annual maintenance fee of $1,400. The Board also feels that this should be a new line item to cover the services since it will be available to multiple departments within the town hall. It was agreed that these fees should be added to the line item #197 – Computer Software and Supplies
d. Changing the town elections back to the same say as town meeting to start at noon.
e. Assistant Treasurer – an amount still needs to be determined.
13. The Board voted to cancel next Monday’s meeting as Muriel is unavailable and hold a meeting on Tuesday, June 11th instead at 6pm so that the special town meeting warrant can be compiled.
14. ECAC appointments: The current appointments will expire on June 18th and Muriel suggested reappointing all the current members and adding additional members. Muriel felt that having the 3 employees currently on the committee has proven invaluable and she is in favor of keeping the 3 employees on the committee. Jon Sylbert has suggested that the entire makeup of the Board should change and consist of 1 employee, 1 Finance Committee member, 1 Select Board member and 4 citizens of Monterey since it is an Advisory Committee not a bargaining unit. Current citizen member Mickey Jervas feels that with the current composition there does seem to be a larger percentage of employees than necessary. Muriel suggested adding more members of the community. Scott suggested that a member
of the Fire Department should be added. Scott stressed again that the town should not balance the town’s budget on the backs of the employees and only focus on one benefit that they receive. A motion was made to reappoint all the current members. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved. M. Noe was asked to speak with Shawn about who on the Fire Department may be interested in representing the FD on the ECAC committee.
15. The Board discussed whether or not they would be in favor of Memorandum’s of Understanding for the Highway Department. The Inter-Departmental Secretary and Police Department are allowed to have contracts under MGL. The Board as a whole felt that there needs to be a trust on both parts of the Highway Department members and the Board and to keep things as status quo without a MoU.
16. Memorial Day parade 2014: The Community Garden is interested in being included next year. Muriel felt we need to think about other groups that should be included as well.
17. BRTA representative appointment: Wayne will continue as the representative.
18. Transferring oversight of all the insurance responsibilities to Melissa from the Treasurer’s Office. Melissa wanted to know how many hours more this would require of her and if it was considerable that compensation should be shifted from the Treasurer to her. The Board wanted to know more about the policies and what is involved, if it is tied to payroll and who handles this responsibility in other towns. The Board would like M. Noe to research how other towns handle this and asked that Pat Mielke and Bethany Mielke attend next Tuesday’s meeting to discuss the responsibilities.
19. Jamie’s Court/Parks Update
20. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. 2013 Condition of Accounts for line items 015197.200, 015122.700 & 015196 from the Accountant.
21. Warrants were signed.
22. Inter-Departmental Secretary’s weekly report reviewed.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 11:07am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
| 
