Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 11/3/14
Meeting Opened at: 8:30am
Select Board Members Present: Wayne Burkhart, Chairperson, Scott Jenssen and Kenn Basler
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: David Irland for the Monterey News, Ray Tryon, Rudy Gero, Shawn Tryon, Richard Tryon, Roger Tryon and Julio Rodriguez
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Letter from Michael Johnson informing the Board that he could not attend the meeting this morning as requested and notifying the Board that he would not be accepting the reappointment to the Council on Aging. The letter also followed up on the few projects he is working on completing for the COA.
b. The Board reviewed the final results of the October question of the month. 35 people responded see attached for results with about 60% of the respondents in favor of it. The Board will now look at different potential town owned land sites that may be suitable for a dog park. One potential site that was briefly discussed was at the top of the current transfer station where the old dump used to be.
c. Letter from the Town of New Marlborough responding to the Superintendent of School advising him that they would still like the school committee to proceed with initiating the process of voting on the future of schools in Monterey and Egremont. This letter was written prior to the School Committee’s vote on the matter on October 30th.
d. Letter from the Town of Alford responding to the Superintendent of School advising him that they would still like the school committee to proceed with initiating the process of voting on the future of schools in Monterey and Egremont. This letter was written prior to the School Committee’s vote on the matter on October 30th.
e. Response from Town Counsel with regards to whether or not an alcohol permit can be granted to persons using/renting town property. Counsel has confirmed that such a prohibition does not exist.
f. Notice from the BRPC of available technical assistance.
g. Notification of a pre-construction conference from MassDOT with regards to the RT 23 project. Shawn, the Chief of Police and Kenn Basler will be attending.
2. Police Chief’s weekly report was reviewed.
3. Administrative Assistant’s weekly report was reviewed.
a. The Board gave permission for M. Noe to attend the monthly Berkshire Manager Meetings which occur on the 2nd Tuesday of each month in the morning rotating amongst the member towns.
4. Warrants were signed.
5. The minutes were approved with amendments.
6. M. Noe informed the Board that Kay Purcell and Maryellen Brown are interested in being appointed to the Council on Aging. The Board discussed the town bylaw with regards to the COA appointment and Town Counsel’s interpretation on whether consecutive reappointments were allowed; which town counsel concurred are. A motion was made to appoint Kay Purcell and Maryellen Brown to the COA for a three year term each. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
7. The Board discussed the recent School Committee meeting where the School Committee voted unanimously that they would not be asking the towns to place articles on their warrants to close the Egremont and Monterey schools. The Board discussed the bond that the district is going to be looking for and that Monterey has to show its support for it.
8. The Board discussed the EDM engineering proposal for the Monterey School building. The Board is in favor of approving the proposal but is unsure what line item the monies should come from. Barbara Gauthier will be called to confirm that we could use the remaining funds in the Berkshire Housing Grant we received.
9. Kenn informed the Board that the Book Recycling Container is being delivered this week. He also reported that Beth is doing a wonderful job cleaning up the swap shack.
10. Julio Rodriguez came in to provide the Board with the schedule for the Veteran’s Day Observance. M. Noe will post the event on the website.
11. The Board reviewed the “issue” that came up last week with regards to the Town Clerk and the Administrative Assistant. Wayne explained to the other members that he approached the Town Clerk last week as requested to discuss what the particular issues were that she had. After this meeting he met with M. Noe to continue the discussion. Wayne and M. Noe discussed the points brought up by Emily and it was decided that the best way to approach the situation was for M. Noe to email the Town Clerk to try to open up a dialogue (attached). After discussing the grievances the Town Clerk had it was decided to send a letter to the Town Clerk inviting her to the November 17th meeting to discuss her grievances. The letter also states that if she chooses not to come to the
meeting the Select Board will consider the matter handled and closed.
12. A motion was made to document any issue (positive or negative) involving an appointed or elected official that needs to be addressed with the individual and placed in their personnel file with the action taken. The motion was seconded. Discussion ensued. The motion passed 2 to 1 with Wayne opposed.
13. A motion was made to appoint Steve Pullen, John Bodnar and Estella Bodnar through June 30th as requested by the Town Clerk. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
The board met with Chief of Police, Gareth Backhaus to review the following:
The Chief explained that the department is working on adding categories/classifications to the rankings of personnel. One specific category deals with officers that are 65 years of age and can no longer work active shifts. These officers will become special police officers that are primarily used for traffic details. The Chief brought a summary of the revised policies and classifications for the Board to review. The main difference in the special police officer classification for Monterey is that they will no longer be allowed to use the cruiser or perform the same duties as a full or part time officer under the age of 65. It still requires the same trainings but restricts them to traffic details only.
The Chief noted that all of the policies and procedures that Monterey uses are modified versions of procedures drafted by the Counsel for the Massachusetts Chiefs Association.
Rudy Gero inquired about the position of the special police officer in the rotation of the details assigned; it was confirmed that special officers would come after the full time officers followed by the part time officers then on to the special officers and out of town officers. Rudy questioned the fairness of how details are assigned. Gareth rebutted that there were actually 18 details and 6 of those were passed up by all of the officers in the rotation.
The Chief noted that policies and procedures are written for the department not for an individual and the policies Monterey has are similar if not the same as most other towns with a full time police department. Kenn did ask the Chief to speak to the number of details that are being offered to one particular officer and felt that if the part timers and special officers were offered more details they may feel more committed to the town. He feels that the amount of money this one officer is making in details raises red flags. Scott agreed and felt that the rigidness of the rotation should be adjusted. Wayne expressed that he feels there should be more of a round robin rotation in the assigning of details; if officer ‘x’ gets a detail on Monday then officer ‘y’ should be
offered the next detail and so on, Scott agreed and compared it to how unions operate.
The Chief feels that he does not want a heavy hand in changing the policies that exist for the reasons he has given but he will give some thought to the concerns that the Board has about the perceived unfairness to the rotation. The Chief requested that the Board vote on the policy as presented. A motion was made to accept the policy as presented. The motion was not seconded as Scott felt that there was still discussion needed to be had with regards to the rotation schedule presented. Scott has issues with the implementation of the rotation schedule. After some discussion the motion was seconded. Discussion ensued amongst the Board and public. The motion was approved unanimously.
It was agreed that a future meeting should be held with the Chief to discuss the current procedure of rotating the details.
Rudy added that he has spoken to an attorney and has been informed that the mandatory retirement age of 65 does not apply to part time officers to which the Chief disagreed.
A motion was made at the request of the Chief to extend Rudy Gero’s appointment as a Part Time - Reserve Intermittent Police Officer through November 30, 2014. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.
A motion was made at the request of the Chief to appoint Rudy Gero as a special police officer effective December 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.
The Chief returned to further clarify details and how they relate to Sergeat Johnson & Rudy. He also provided reports that show several years history of details that were worked by officers from other towns which means that all of our officers turned the detail down first.
The board met with Director of Operations, Shawn Tryon to review the following:
1. Shawn and Kenn updated the Board on their recent meeting regarding salt usage. Kenn suggested that the gentleman that put on the presentation should be invited to Monterey to make a presentation to the other highway crew members and the Board to help give a better understanding about the usage of salt. Shawn agreed that it would be helpful. Given some of the estimates that similar sized towns are using it seems that Monterey may be using more salt than is necessary but the amount in excess was not quantified. Shawn is looking into this and the effective use of salt and will be using his recently acquired knowledge this winter. Wayne noted that it should be kept in the back of everyone’s mind that Monterey maintains a state route (RT 23) whereas in most other towns these main
roads are taken care of by the state. Kenn provided a suggested new snowplowing policy (attached) for the Board and Shawn to review and consider. Shawn does feel that there is room for improvement with the town’s current plowing and salt usage policies. It was unanimously agreed to ask Mike Smith to come speak with our highway crew understanding that there may be a fee to do so.
2. Shawn reported on the culvert study for the RT 23 project. This was a step that was left out of the engineering study the state required when we proposed the RT 23 project. Shawn stated that the assessments have just been completed and he will keep the Board updated.
3. A few trees fell down over the weekend that the crew is working on cleaning up. Shawn stated that the Board is going to need to look at the trees in town and come up with a plan to address the many dead trees.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 12:35pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
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