Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 1/5/15
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, Jeremia Pollard, Rudy Gero, Chief Backhaus, Roger Tryon, Vito Valentini, David Hastings, Bruce Turner, Dennis Sears and Maria Rundle
Roll call was taken by the Chair. Present: Wayne Burkhart, Chair of the Select Board, Scott Jenssen, Select Board member, Kenneth Basler, Select Board member and Jeremia Pollard, Town Counsel. A motion was made by to go into executive session at 8:35am to discuss complaints and charges brought against an employee and discuss legal strategy pertaining to same, motion was seconded, and approved unanimously. The Board agreed that they would return to an open session. Open session was resumed at 9:47am.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Letter from the Jehovah’s Witnesses regarding an incident that occurred in November. (attached)
b. WMH quarterly report. (attached)
c. Nominating documents for MIIA.
d. Survey results of the December Question of the Month: 78.57% are in favor of the town supporting the state (Mass Broadband) and regional (WiredWest) proposal for high speed internet which would require the town participating in the funding. 21.43% were opposed.
2. Warrants were signed.
The board met with Chief of Police, Gareth Backhaus to review the following:
1. Three letters of support for Sergeant Johnson were provided by the Chief to the Board for review during the executive session. (attached)
2. The Board informed the Chief that with regards to this morning’s executive session what has been worked out is that town counsel will be speaking with the members of the Police Department within the week.
3. Weekly report was reviewed.
4. Rudy Gero was present to discuss the following:
a. 12/15/14 meeting; Rudy felt that having the Chief come in to discuss the complaints brought forward by the part time officers at a previous meeting but not having it on the agenda so that all interested parties could attend the meeting and participated was a violation of the Open Meeting Law. Chief Backhaus interjected that the complaints brought to the Board prior to 12/15 were not from all the part time officers; Rudy agreed that it was from some not all of the part time officers. Wayne agreed that it was an oversight on the Board’s part and that a solution to have a complete dialogue with all interested parties should be discussed and planned for a future meeting. Roger Tryon expressed that he felt this was an issue that needed to be dealt with immediately and not
placed on the back burner.
b. Rudy stated that over the course of the last few weeks in talking to other officers he has learned that the Chief has been telling people that Rudy is incompetent; which he feels is unfair and is an unjustified attack on his character and reputation. Rudy provided a copy of his last written evaluation (attached) in which every item was checked “exceeds expectations”.
c. Rudy requested an update on a sexual harassment charge he was told were being filed against him. The Board was aware of the situation Rudy was referring to but was not aware of any formal charges being filed. The Board stated that there is a plan in action for town counsel to speak with future and past officers of the Monterey Police Department to discuss any issues there may currently be. The Board apologized for being so vague but the current situation involving these interviews is a quagmire. It was also noted that all communications with counsel at this point with regards to this particular matter will be done through Scott.
d. Rudy presented additional documentation (attached) regarding his feelings about inaccurate information or unfair treatment by Sergeant Johnson.
e. The Board inquired if Rudy was on duty when the firearms qualification classes were offered to the other officers. Rudy confirmed that he was on shift that weekend and that he was the only officer not told about the class.
5. Superintendent David Hastings, Business Manager Bruce Turner, School Committee Representatives Maria Rundle, Dennis Sears and Vito Valentini were present to discuss the following:
a. EDM Engineering Report and the future of the Monterey School Building: The Board wants to work with all involved to figure out a way to improve the neglect that the Monterey School building has suffered. The immediate issues that need to be addressed involve structural issues. It was suggested that the Board determine what amount they could contribute toward a project and then the scope of the project and the school committee would then pay a share.
b. There has been one meeting to date with regards to the buildings and grounds. Vito suggested that if Monterey could find it in their budget to cooperate with the school on getting the items fixed in the building he could foresee the district being able to assist monetarily (for example: we supply the floor the district would supply the tile). Maria and Vito also stated that Monterey as a town needs to decide where they want to house a Monterey school program as there are a lot of building projects happening right now. The Board stated that they feel that they are committed to using the current building with repairs for at least the next five years until the 10 – 20 year future plan can be put together.
c. The Board stated that they will determine that they are willing to commit xx amount of dollars over a 5 year period to correcting the issues at the Monterey School. Scott and Kenn will work on creating a list of items that need to be immediately addressed and those that can be addressed over the 5 year plan and will get some quotes.
d. Documents were presented with regards to the proposed roof and boiler project at the main campus. With regards to the roof project a heavier membrane is being used so that a solar project could be a possibility in the future. Kenn raised the concerns he has with changing from oil to biomass on the new furnaces and wants to make sure that the committee is aware of the day to day maintenance these systems require and the learning curve that goes along with this type of system. Vito offered the research they did before deciding on this type of system. Scott was concerned with the future of the availability of pellets. There will be a need for a short term loan of about $400,000 to tide the committee over until the above mentioned projects are approved by the state
agencies involved. This $400,000 would be a part of the bond being sought not in addition to. The committee stated that the district towns will all need to have special town meetings by mid-February.
e. The committee would like to hold an informational hearing in Monterey in January. The Board suggested it should be held in February so that information about the meeting could be placed in the Monterey News. Vito stated that it really needed to happen in January. January 27th at 6pm was the date decided.
6. A request was made by Nat Yohalem and Dave Smith of Sheffield and New Marlborough to discuss shared services. The Board was not interested at this time in adding any additional meetings and instructed M .Noe to schedule them during next week’s Select Board meeting.
7. The Director of Operations informed the Board that one of the trucks has broken springs and needs about $13,000 in repairs and the truck approved at May’s town meeting is still being built and isn’t expected to arrive until spring. Shawn doesn’t feel that the work can be done in house as he’s not sure that he has the right tools. The options discussed that Shawn will look into are the cost of purchasing the tools needed to do the repairs in house, renting a loaner truck and/or contacting local in town mechanics to see if their quotes for repair would be any lower.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 11:38am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
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