Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 7/15/14
Meeting Opened at: 4:30pm
Select Board Members Present: Wayne Burkhart, Chairperson, Scott Jenssen and Kenn Basler
An emergency meeting was called to discuss a sudden, generally unexpected set of circumstances that demanded immediate action with regards to the Director of Operations position being offered to Shawn Tryon who currently holds the position as Fire Chief. The unexpected set of circumstances was that a concern was brought to the Board’s attention at last night’s meeting regarding a ruling found on the Ethics Commission website which states that a person that holds a job that is considered a 24 hour job may not hold more than one position (in this decision the position was a Chief of Police). After hearing from Town Counsel it was determined that time was of the essence to make this decision. The Board called for this meeting to determine if the Director of Operations and/or the Fire Chief
position are considered a 24 hour position.
Town Counsel was consulted on the matter and advised the Board “that the information [originally] given to Shawn is correct, namely, that he can hold two positions in the Town of Monterey [as we have a population under 3500], but the issue then becomes whether the duties overlap.~~With regard to the position of~Fire Chief, the ethics commission generally considers it to be a 24-hour job, so it would be difficult to conceive of a scenario where these two positions will not overlap.~ Whether indeed positions overlap is a factual determination for the board of selectmen.”
Kenn stated that he also spoke with Town Counsel and the matter is a grey area and Town Counsel will support whatever the Board decides. Jeremia told Kenn that a lot of the decisions made on the State level are made for larger communities and not communities of our size. If the Board decides to keep it as is and not determine that either position is a 24 hour position someone other than the Board can challenge it and it very well could be determined by the State that one of the positions is a 24 hour position.
Jeremia also stated that it should be made very clear that Shawn does not have to attend all the calls and should make sure that there is a good backup that can attend when Shawn is on duty for the highway department.
There was some discussion that since Shawn did not accept the Board’s initial offer of $55,000 and made a counter offer should the Board inquire with the 2nd choice to see what their starting salary request would be. Discussion ensued and it was determined that a good faith offer was made last night and unless Shawn doesn’t accept it that another candidate can’t be made an offer.
The Board determined that even though the Monterey Fire Department is an on-call paid department they are not considering it a 24 hour position since they are on-call but not on duty nor are they considering the Director of Operations a 24 hour position since this position is also on-call for weather/road emergencies but not on duty 24 hours.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 4:55pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Executive Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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