Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 3/31/14
Meeting Opened at: 9am
Select Board Members Present: Muriel Lazzarini, Chairperson, Wayne Burkhart and Scott Jenssen
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Sheila LaBarbera, Pat & Julio Rodriguez, Mickey Gervas, Maynard Forbes, Maria Rundle, Shawn Tryon, Dan Moriarity and Gareth Backhaus
The board met with Sheila LaBarbera, Executive Director of the Berkshire County Retirement at the request of the ECAC to review the following with regards to our retirement system:
- Muriel reviewed what we currently have in the Employee Handbook to be sure that it is accurate.
- Sheila brought copies of a PowerPoint retirement seminar presentation and copies of the retirement manuals.
- Sheila confirmed if an employee works 20 hours a week or more for more than 6 months consecutively they are eligible for retirement and required to be enrolled.
- OBRA is mandatory in Massachusetts because public employees are not eligible for Social Security. The OBRA plan is something that is selected by the Select Board. The Board will speak with the Treasurer about shopping around for a plan that doesn’t have as many fees as the plan the part-time employees are enrolled in. Currently these fees are costing the part-timers more money than they are putting in.
- Health insurance benefits are not regulated by Berkshire County Retirement but MGL Chapter 32B does have some requirements. In order to receive retiree health insurance benefits you will need to be collecting a pension through the Berkshire County Retirement. When somebody retires they need to be “benefit eligible” to retire.
The board met with Director of Operations, Maynard Forbes to review the following:
- Maynard came in for a signature for a right of way certificate.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Julio & Pat Rodriguez came in to discuss the option of a dog park on the Bounous land. Julio has checked in with Gould Farm and left messages but they haven’t responded to any of his calls. Muriel stated that using the Bounous property will be problematic from the get go (there is a know abutter that is against the project) and that this may not be the best option to pursue. The Board also informed Julio that there isn’t any extra money in the budget this year for any expenses that may be associated with constructing a dog park. Julio stated that he has been working on this for over a year and that he doesn’t feel that this project is going to pan out so he will be dropping the matter.
2. A motion was made to appoint Julio Rodriguz to the Veteran’s Memorial Committee for a 2 year term. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved. Julio will be sent the information on how to legally post their meetings and submit minutes.
3. Julio inquired if there will be any funds from the Town toward Montereyfest and the Board stated that there will not be as this is a very tight year.
4. Maria Rundle came in to update the Board on the annual school budget authority submission which has to be done no later than April 11th. The Board agreed that instead of resubmitting what was sent in last year to reconfigure our request. Wayne is going to speak with Susan Bacheldor, Charlie Flynn and Bruce Turner to coordinate all of this.
5. Shawn Tryon, Fire Chief came in to discuss the proposed budget and cuts the Board has made:
a. Shawn stated that we need a minimum of $28,000 to make training happen and the Board has cut this to $25,000. Shawn is here to fight to have the line raised to $30,000 (down from his original request of $36,000) as $25,000 just isn’t going to cut it. The Board stated that they don’t want the Fire Dept to feel singled out as all departments have had significant cuts made to their requested budget. The Board will take this into consideration when they finish the budget later this morning.
b. Chief Tryon confirmed that as of right now there isn’t a cap on membership and that the department encourages as many people as are interested in joining the fire department.
6. Gareth came in to talk about the Sergeant’s salary: He wanted the Board to understand that he has worked for a very long time to get this department as stable as it is and he is afraid he is going to lose the Sergeant due to the large costs to live in Monterey if the Board doesn’t give him the additional $5,000 it is most likely that Monterey will lose Sergeant Johnson as an employee. The Chief offered to take $5,000 from his police expenses to cover the $5,000 salary increase to the Sergeant position. Wayne suggested $3,000 and didn’t feel that it should all be placed on the back of Police expenses. The Chief also noted that when he made this position salaried he saved the Town $6,000/yr in overtime. Scott inquired as to what would happen if the increase to the Sergeant’s salary isn’t accepted at town meeting what with the Chief do then when his expense budget is now $5,000 less. Dan felt that the effort made by the Chief to save this employee by paying him more and doing
so by lowering the departments operating budget. Dan feels that the employees have to hold a value that is equal if not greater than the value we place on our capital expenditures.
7. The Board continued their discussions on the FY15 budget and finalizing the town meeting warrants:
a. Right now the sand and snow overage is at approximately $58,000 but all the numbers aren’t in yet.
b. Muriel is not in favor of using any free cash to lower the tax rate. Wayne disagreed and felt we would be overreacting if we didn’t use any free cash. Scott felt we should use some of our available free cash to lower the taxes. We currently have $317,000 in certified free cash. Wayne is recommending using $100,000 of free cash to reduce the tax rate, Scott recommended $50,000 and Muriel suggests $0. Don Clawson stated that we’d ideally like to have about a $200,000 balance in free cash to use. Bob Lazzarini asked why there was such a concern with lowering the tax rate by using free cash when we are the 10th lowest tax rate in the state of Massachusetts. After calculating several different scenarios A motion was made to use $75,000
of free cash to lower the tax rate. The motion was seconded. Muriel opposed this motion but it passed 2 to 1.
c. The Board discussed the differences between a 5 and 7 year loan for the grader and the interest rates associated with each loan. Muriel prefers a 5 year loan. Wayne would like a 7 year loan but will go with a 5 year loan. Scott also agreed to go with a 7 year loan. M. Noe will notify Bethany that she should go out to bid for a 7 year loan.
d. The Board agreed that the 2% COLA increase should only be given to the full time employees and not across the board to all positions. It was agreed that since the Assistant Town Clerk position was lowered by $5,400 it was fair to give an additional $1,000 to the Town Clerk to cover the additional work she will be assuming. It was noted that if this addition was to be made to the Town Clerk’s salary she would now be making more than the Tax Collector who has been with the Town for many more years. It was agreed that $1,078 will be given to the Tax Collector (making it $18,000) as she has been instrumental in helping with the recent financial crisis we have recently suffered and to account for her longevity in this position. The Board stated that the ECAC should take
a look at the part time and elected positions this year to make sure that they are on par with the surrounding towns.
e. The Board discussed Gareth’s proposal (above) and decided to add $5,000 to the Sergeant salary and level fund the police expenses line item.
f. Scott felt that there should be more conversation on whether or not funds should be raised for Montereyfest. It was suggested that maybe the additional funds could be requested from the Parks Department on town meeting floor. Muriel stated that she feels if the Community Center organizers can raise such large amounts of funds from events that they hold that the organizers of Montereyfest should be able to do the same. It was agreed that if the Town is to give money again in the future there needs to be more structure/mechanism and town involvement to prevent the problems that happened with Montereyfest 2013. It was also noted that it isn’t equal right now between the 2 lakes and their celebrations as Lake Buel doesn’t receive any town funds for their
celebrations and Lake Garfield is. They still owe the Town $37.48 from Montereyfest 2013 and are refusing to pay it. Muriel felt that the Town shouldn’t have dealings with entities not sponsored or supervised by the Town.
g. The Board asked M. Noe to inquire of Barbara Gauthier how using free cash affects our levy limit.
h. $1,000 was added to the Temporary Employee line item.
i. The Board discussed the Fire Chief’s request to raise the compensation and education training line item. The Board unanimously agreed to make that line item $28,000.
8. The annual and special town meeting warrants were signed and witnessed by the Town Clerk. It was confirmed that a note about the informational meeting should be included in the mailing of the warrants which will be held at 7pm on Friday, April 25th.
9. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. 2014-15 Operating, Transportation and Capital Budgets of $14,925,833 Certified Assessments and Payment Schedule from SBRSD
b. Response from King Information Systems regarding the Town’s refusal to pay their fee to make a sales pitch.
c. Notification of a special application filed with the ZBA for 457 Main Rd (the Town is an abutter).
d. Decision from the Attorney General’s office with regards to Articles 6,7 and 2 from the December 6, 2013 Special Town Meeting.
10. Executive Secretary’s weekly report was reviewed.
a. The Board accepted the disclosure of election or appointment to an uncompensated position as required by 930 CMR 6.02(3) and the disclosure by non-elected municipal employee of financial interest and determination by appointing authority as required by G.L. c. 268A section 19 which allows Melissa to serve on the ECAC without any conflict of interest.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 12:02pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Executive Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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