Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 6/17/13
Meeting Opened at: 9am
Select Board Members Present: Muriel Lazzarini, Chairperson, Wayne Burkhart and Scott Jenssen
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Susan Gallant for the Monterey News, Emily Kramer for the Berkshire Record, April Dupuis and Pat Scalanti of Melanson & Heath, Robert Lazzarini, Donald Clawson, Michael Johnson, Emily Johnson, Stanley Ross and Maria Rundle
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. The Board met with April and Pat of Melanson & Heath to discuss their audit recommendations.
a. Pat gave an overview of the Financial Statements and its purpose. Pat stated that according to the financial statements we look very healthy and respectable. The Auditor’s recommend having at least 7 – 10% of your budget in stabilization and we have 20%.
b. Management Letter: 1. Cash coming into the town hall; the Board has decided to continue to allow cash. The auditors stated that they did not recommend not taking any cash; their recommendation was that the turnover sheets to the Treasurer should differentiate cash versus checks whereas right now some departments were lumping everything together into one sum. 2. Authorization of pay rates: salaries voted on at town meeting can be traced but the Auditor’s found 11 instances of people being paid an hourly rate that was not approved at town meeting. She recommended that a list of all employees, their hourly rate and frequency of pay should be approved at a Select Board meeting prior to the beginning of the new FY for the Treasurer to follow. 3. Withholdings
recommendation – the Board did not understand what this recommendation had to do with. This had to do with state, federal and insurance withholdings from payroll and the backup documentation for the withholding. The Auditor’s couldn’t find documentation for the payments being made against the payroll register. 4. Chief Procurement Officer recommendation – the Board is still discussing this. 5. Life and Health Insurance – Stan stated that we’ve had an actuarial study done which states that our total liability is $370,000 and we should be contributing approximately $40,000/year to our stabilization fund set up in 2007; the Auditors concur with that we should be putting something toward this, they noted that they did not have this report available to them while they were here. 5. Cash book and reconciliation between the Treasurer and Accountant recommendation; Our Treasurer’s cash books were several accounts lumped together and did
not use the formula process it should and the bank reconciliations did not agree to the Treasurer’s calculated balances in her cash book. April has tailored a cash book for Monterey which will be provided to Bethany to use going forward – Stan will follow up with Bethany.
2. Maria Rundle, Monterey’s School Committee Representative came in to check in about the letter from the school board regarding the June 25th meeting. She wanted to make sure we were all on the same page. The purpose of the meeting will be to discuss the capital needs of all the buildings and how to go about fixing them when the buildings are owned by the towns but the district is responsible for maintaining the building which has not been done regularly.
3. Mike Johnson came in to begin discussions and planning for the 2014 Memorial Day Festivities (May 26, 2014). Mike has been in contact with the Berkshire Highlanders, a bagpipe band and the US Army regarding their participation for next year. Mike is also talking with several internal departments for their monetary support and actual participation. Mike is going to approach the local gardeners about making our wreaths rather than purchasing them. It was suggested that we could add dogs to the parade as well. Mike is also going to try to find a member of each of the services to carry the respective flags. A motion was made to appoint Mike Johnson to the Memorial Day Committee for a 3 year term. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.
4. Special Town Meeting:
a. Emily Johnson, Town Clerk came in with more information on the necessary software needed to properly run the office and be in compliance. She is requesting that a special article be placed on the upcoming meeting warrant in the amount of $11,806. This amount will cover purchasing the archival paper necessary for the vital records and the books that they must be stored in. The minimum for software, including a year of maintenance is approximately $8,000 and the grand total includes an additional $1,000 for tuning of the Automark machine which has never been done in the past as it is required under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Emily has reduced the list of available software to what is crucially needed/required to be legally compliant.
b. The Board is still waiting on the wording and amounts regarding the septic loan program from Maryellen Brown, Interim Town Accountant.
c. Maynard has made a plea that the special town meeting be scheduled as soon as possible so that the quote will be honored and that the machine can be ordered and delivered in a timely manner so the crew has enough time to learn the new machine.
d. The Board set the date for the special town meeting for Friday, July 12th at 7pm. M. Noe will check on the firehouse availability and M. Lazzarini will confirm the Moderator’s availability.
5. The minutes from 6.11.13 were approved as written.
6. Muriel followed up with the Finance Committee on what items are going to need to be covered by transfers from the Reserve Account to cover department line items that have gone over their budgets for FY13.
7. Stan stated that we should consider placing more money toward the retiree OPEB at the next annual town meeting based on the report provided by the former Treasurer.
8. Muriel stated that she received a complaint from Jim Edelman about an alleged improper bid opening by the Parks Commission. He also had a separate complaint about the current contractor and that he has not fulfilled his contract and properly maintained the ball field as he’s supposed to which is an issue that the Parks Department would need to handle. M. Noe informed the Board that the Parks Chair has informed her that they will be putting the mowing contract back out to bid.
9. Muriel suggested setting a date for the August 2nd homeowner’s meeting so that we may advertise it in the July Monterey News.
10. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Bill Arrigal of the Department of Local Services has stated that the debt exclusion question at this year’s town elections has been approved. We still need to have the secret ballot, 2/3 vote for approving the borrowing of the money which will be done at the upcoming special town meeting.
b. One application has been received for the Town Accountant position.
c. Water company annual meeting – Wayne will attend
d. Email from Pat and a MIIA Account Manager stating that all employees are covered under general liability and that the bonds for Treasurer and Town Clerk is an Employee Dishonesty coverage with a limit of $200,000.
11. Warrants were signed.
12. Inter-Departmental Secretary’s weekly report reviewed.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 11:17am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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