Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 6/2/14
Meeting Opened at: 9am
Select Board Members Present: Wayne Burkhart (left at 10am), Chairperson, Scott Jenssen and Kenn Basler
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Chief Backhaus, Roger Tryon, Mickey Jervas, Giuliana Raab and Steve Weitz
The board met with Chief of Police, Gareth Backhaus to review the following:
1. Written report for the week of May 25th.
2. Chief Backhaus said he was contacted by National Grid asking if we want to install a weather station (which is part of Earthworks). Chief Backhaus feels that this is a good opportunity. The weather station may need to be attached to the building but the Chief’s preference is that it be attached to the base of our existing antennae behind the town hall. A motion was made to accept the proposal from National Grid to install a weather reporting station at the town hall. The motion was seconded and the Board unanimously supported the installation of the weather station.
The board met with Town Accountant, Brendan Fletcher to review the following:
1. Brendan came in at the request of the Select Board to update the Board on the progress of status of the department.
2. Barbara Gauthier was unable to attend the meeting today but asked that the following be conveyed to the Board: “I think Brendan is putting in the time and effort to do the accounting job. I will be here for the next three weeks and plan to work with him. Bethany [the Treasurer] has said she will catch up on Sunday which is great but a lot of this should’ve been done much earlier and without my prodding. I have my doubts but will try to see that both jobs are done well.”
3. There were concerns about the communication from the Treasurer’s side with the Accountant. The Treasurer has not been consistent in regularly performing all the items/duties required that will allow Brendan to keep working uninterrupted.
4. An email from Maynard Forbes, Director of Operations was received regarding the new vendor payment request policy. Maynard stated that he had no issue with the new schedule as long as vendor checks get paid the following week which has not always been happening. He also noted that he has not received any updated reports from the Accountant in quite some time.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Giuliana Raab came in to complain that she was ordered to stop work on her roofing project as she didn’t have a building permit but stated she was under the impression that because it is less than 25% that it wouldn’t require a permit. Giuliana was upset that she was told to come back today to work with Don to apply for the permit but he wasn’t here. M. Noe reminded Giuliana that she was given Don’s card on Friday and was told that he’s here by appointment and she did not make an appointment.
2. Mickey Gervas came in on behalf of the Employee Compensation Advisory Committee to determine what the Select Board’s plan was for the future of this committee. Some of the committee members felt that the there was a lack of communication and interaction from the Select Board when they made their decisions on recommendations made by the committee and felt that maybe this was because the Board did not want to continue with this committee. Wayne explained that there was a bit of angst in the budget planning this year and the whole board hopes to do better this year. The Board is going to start the financial planning much earlier in the year this year so that things are missed and so that there is better communication between all of the boards and departments. Mickey also added that she
feels that this committee needs to be set up differently, 2 members have not been regular in showing up and 3 of the members are employees. Mickey suggests that only 1 full time employee should represent the full timers and that there should also be 1 part time employee on the committee. Wayne noted that the consideration of this is delicate and that the Board doesn’t want to restrict our non-union employees from being on this committee as it could force a union situation to occur. Mickey stated that the committee also works on other items besides compensation, they have been working on job descriptions and the handbook and she would like to see that continue. Kenn offered to be the Select Board representation on the Board and the Board agreed this would be a good idea.
3. Mickey first stated that the roads in Monterey are maintained wonderfully however she had a few items to discuss with the board: she wanted to know what the large pile of gravel at the highway department was for, Maynard was called and he said it is for re-oiling and stoning Brett, Fairview and Art School roads. Mickey also wanted to know about the status of the dam behind the library; Kenn has already spoken to the highway department and they are waiting for the river to go down to its lowest point and they will start working on it in late July or early August. Mickey also stated she was told that the plywood on the bottom of the salt shed was going to be painted to match the shed several years ago and it hasn’t been. Mickey also reiterated her complaint about the poles that are still on
the side of the road off Brett Rd (the work was done several years ago and they were never picked up). Mickey also noted that the trees at the Veteran’s Park still need to be pruned (this was brought up last year); the Cemetery Committee will be notified again.
4. Kenn brought up that there is still an issue here with missing town documents. He has spoken with the Attorney General’s Office and has confirmed that no town documents should ever leave this building. He reviewed the previous minutes of the Board and noted that they had requested all of these documents that were taken from the Clerk’s office be returned to the town hall by January 6th but this was never followed up on. Kenn requested permission from the other Board members to approach her to get all of the documents from her no matter what condition or status they are in. Scott explained that the January 6th deadline was never followed up on as the current Town Clerk felt that when a document has been requested Linda has found it and provided it to Emily. Scott had no issues with Kenn approaching Linda but was not comfortable with any threat of a police presence being brought into the matter. Kenn felt strongly from his research that these documents need to come back to
the town hall by such and such a date and if they don’t then the town will need to take additional steps to retrieve them. Wayne felt that we shouldn’t do things on the basis of fear. Kenn felt that taking the soft approach has not worked over the last 2 years but he will try but he feels adamant that these records need to be returned to help our current clerk who is doing a fabulous job do her job even better.
5. Steve Wiesz came in as a member of the Historical Commission to note that they have done an inventory of all significant buildings and places in Monterey and provided to the Board a list generated through the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System. The Historical Commission is requesting a heads up from the Building Department when any exterior building permits are applied for for any of the buildings on the list provided so that they may offer their input so that they may be done appropriately. The Board had concerns with adding another layer to the building permit process which could delay a homeowner’s project. The Board asked Steve to return next week to talk about the Commission’s proposed process.
6. Camp Hume: Kenn suggested that a letter should be sent thanking Camp Hume for cooking at the Memorial Day festivities. On another note he also suggested that conversations should begin with the Camp on making payments in lieu of taxes. He suggested that they be asked to come in to speak with the Board about instituting this. This discussion will be continued to next week when Wayne is here.
7. Kenn stated that he had a conversation with the original executor of Edith Wilson’s will and he suggested inviting him in to discuss his interpretation of the will and possibly selling the Bally Gally property and using the funds for the continued construction of the Community Center.
8. Monterey School; Kenn was approached by the current Chair of the Town of Sheffield wants to sit down and talk about the future of the outlying schools, he has heard rumors that the Chair of the New Marlborough Select Board would also like to be a part of this conversation. Kenn suggested that the conversations begin as a one on one rather than as a public meeting and stated that he would be willing to do this if no one else on the Board was interested at this time. Scott suggested that the first thing that should be done is talking with the Business Administrator of SBRSD to find out exactly what the Monterey School costs to run and what would be saved if it were closed as it is our understanding that the Teacher and the Aide positions would just be transferred to another campus and would still be a
cost to the taxpayers. Kenn offered to get this information for next week’s meeting.
9. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Email from Natalie Manzino regarding a cemetery deed that she has been trying to obtain from the Cemetery Commission since the summer of 2012. She was requesting the Board’s assistance in the matter.
b. Email request from David Hastings, Superintendent of SBRSD requesting feedback from the Board on his efforts to meet the goals he set forth in working with the individual towns.
c. Information on the process of recalling an elected official.
d. Information from town counsel on changing a position from elected to appointed.
10. Executive Secretary’s weekly reports from 5/9-5/15 and 5/16-5/19/14 were reviewed.
11. The Board discussed the fire department insurance policy and agreed that since the town pays for this item through the town budget the policies should be sent directly to the town (through the Executive Secretary) and that any recommended changes to the policy must be approved by the Select Board.
12. The Board reviewed the list of reappointments to be made and will address this next week.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 10:42am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Executive Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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