Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 9/14/15
Meeting Opened at: 4:32pm
Select Board Members Present: Scott Jenssen, Chairperson, Kenn Basler and Steve Weisz
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Jill Pajka for the Monterey News, Leslieann Furcht, Maryellen Brown and Mike Mielke Jr
The Board interviewed Leslieann Furcht for the position of Town Accountant. Leslieann has 5 years municipal accounting experience for the Town of Mt. Washington. She does have experience with cleaning up an office that had issues and had regularly attended the Collector and Treasurer meetings. While working for Mt Washington she helped transition from paper only books to online/computer accounting. She is not familiar with our accounting software but stated she learns quickly. She is unavailable between the hours of 2-6 on Mondays at the moment but would be able to adjust the hours if need be to be here.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. The Board reviewed and discussed all of the applicants that interviewed for the Treasurer and Accountant positions.
a. The Board agreed that Paul Lisi was a very strong candidate for the Accountant position. A motion was made to offer the Accountant position to Paul Lisi at the existing salary. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
b. The Board discussed the 2 candidates that applied for the Treasurer position (Sue Funk & Jen Brown). It was agreed that in the short term it was a plus that Sue and Paul are currently working together as a team and felt that it might be a plus to have them come in to clean up the office and have it running properly for whoever runs in May. The strained relationship between Jen and Kenn was also discussed. Kenn proposed that Sue be offered the job. Mike Mielke Jr was present and noted for the record that Sue is his aunt but felt it did not make sense to hire her for 6 months to then go through the transition of a new Treasurer again. Steve explained that he’s currently looking at the Treasurer position as 2 separate jobs, the first being to clean up the
office and get it in order, and then phase 2 would be for the permanent hire to the position. Maryellen asked if you had 4 paychecks that were all incorrect would that be ok with you or by the 4th one would you have been upset and wanted the issue fixed (which is what led to the disagreement between Kenn and Jen), she felt that to not choose a town resident with Treasurer experience is a terrible way to treat Jen and a resident that is interested and qualified for the position. Maryellen felt that if the Board didn’t appoint Jen now it would be sending a message to the voters that they didn’t have confidence in her abilities (Scott and Steve stated that this was not how they felt, at all.). Scott stated for the record that he has faith in Jen’s abilities. Kenn asked Maryellen why, if Jen wanted the position of Treasurer, did she not show-up for her interview. Maryellen said that “she had other things to do”. Kenn made a
motion to appoint Sue Funk to the Treasurer position until the next election. The motion was seconded. The motion passed 2 – 1 with Scott against.
c. Thank you letters will be sent to those that applied that were not selected.
2. The Board discussed hiring the Collins Center to make an independent report relative to the organization and operations of the Town. Steve had not had a chance to read the sample report. Kenn felt that hiring the Collins Center would be a positive way to move forward and suggest that the discussion be continued to next week when everyone had a chance to review the sample report.
3. The Board was given copies to review of the EDM structural report of the Monterey School from December of 2014. It was suggested Scott provide an estimate of how much the repairs would cost to determine how the Board will need to proceed to procure the services. Discussions will resume next Monday.
4. Regarding releasing executive session minutes; Town Counsel stated that the information contained within are considered ongoing and would never be released and he (Counsel) suggested that the copies of the minutes should be kept on file at his office.
5. Holiday hours: The Board has learned that per MGL 136 Section 6 the town is not legally allowed to have the Transfer Station open on the following holidays: Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving or Christmas. The Board stated how frustrated they were, especially since the residents have asked that the Transfer Station be open on those days.
6. Steve updated the Board on the negotiations between Hume and the cell tower company; the current cell tower company is negotiating a lease agreement with Hume however nothing has been signed.
7. Administrative Assistant’s weekly report was reviewed.
8. Warrants were signed.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 6:14pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
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