Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 3/21/16
Meeting Opened at: 8:30am
Select Board Members Present: Scott Jenssen, Chairperson, Kenn Basler and Steve Weisz
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Stephen Moore for the Monterey News, Alice Berke, Maria Rundle, Donald Clawson, BJ Johnson, Stanley Ross, Carol Edelman, Pat Salamon, Barbara Gauthier and Ray Tryon
The Board discussed the meeting scheduled for this morning with Attorney Dupere to discuss the school district agreement and have requested that it be rescheduled to next Monday.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Kenn inquired about the process for bonding town officials. M. Noe gets the necessary paperwork from the insurance company for the Clerk, Tax Collector and Treasurer.
2. Scott reported on a conversation he had last week with the Town Clerk regarding fees that she is allowed to collect. The Board will put an article on the warrant requesting that the town accept MGL Chapter 40 Section 21 adopting a town bylaw directing all officers to pay all fees received by them by virtue of their office in the town treasury and in doing so the salaries of the departments it would affect would be increased (Tax Collector and Town Clerk).
3. Concerns have been brought to the Board regarding the article accepted at the special town meeting with regards to the grant writer and how the person will be paid; we have requested guidance from the DOR legal department.
4. Steve has spoken with the Treasurer about setting up the credit card payment system and the Treasurer is unable to at the moment as she is preparing for the audit.
5. The Board approved the April Select Board Corner article.
6. A past Town Clerk has raised concerns to Kenn about the Select Board’s authority to appoint a Treasurer and that by appointing the current Treasurer for the amount of time they have was illegal; town counsel has been consulted. It is the Board’s understanding (and will be confirmed) that the past Town Clerk was reading the MGL that applies to a vacancy of the Treasurer in cities and not the one that applies to towns.
7. A parking/driveway plan was dropped off by Joe Baker for the Community Center which will be given to Shawn for review.
8. FY17 budget:
a. Kenn spoke with the Finance Committee and they all feel that the proposed $30,000 for the reserve fund (132) can be lowered to $27,000. This change was made.
b. Kenn proposed after speaking with the Finance Committee that the monies for an Assistant Town Clerk be eliminated as the consensus is the current Town Clerk has been in the position for over a year now and should be able to get all the work done. Kenn feels that the money was only there to help an inexperienced Town Clerk which is no longer necessary. The Board unanimously agreed to zero out this line item.
c. Kenn suggested that the Planning Board Clerk (175) be dropped to $1 as it hasn’t been used in 3 years. Kenn will speak to Maggie to officially request this be lowered.
d. (222) Fire Department Calls: Kenn has suggested that this be level funded which everyone agreed.
e. Highway Operations (422): Kenn is suggesting that it be level funded or lowered by at least $4,000 and that going forward Shawn will need to present a more detailed spending plan. Everyone agreed to lower it by $4000.
f. (423) Fuel: Since there wasn’t an accurate reading Kenn felt that asking for $25,000 was reasonable. It was agreed to lower the fuel line item to $25,000.
g. Highway Capital (429): Kenn feels this should be lowered by $15,000 until Shawn can present a better laid out plan for capital improvements especially since a separate stabilization account is being requested for bridges, roads and culverts.
h. Transfer station part time attendants: Everyone had mixed feelings on keeping 2 staff on each day that it is open. Kenn is proposing that if we limit the times that you can dump bulky waste you could have one staff member available on Wednesdays (which was the original plan when they were hired). He is proposing dropping this line item to $29275. The Finance Committee and Board agreed.
i. (510) Sanitary Inspector and (511) Health Clerk: Kenn’s research of other towns has shown that most towns give their inspector a portion of the fees as is done with the Electrical and Plumbing Inspectors. He suggests doing that and maybe offering a small stipend in addition to the fees for meetings and such. He’s proposing a revolving fund for the fees where the agent would be paid 10% of the fees in addition to a stipend of $5,000. Kenn suggested getting rid of the Clerk salary and having M. Noe do the work; it was clarified that this salary is paid to M. Noe for currently doing the work. It was asked how much time she spends doing Board of Health work which could not be answered without tracking this for a minimum of 6 months. A copy of the Sanitarian
and Clerk’s job descriptions were provided to the Board. Kenn’s justification for all this was that the Board of Health has not been meeting as frequently and not as many permits are being issued.
j. It was noted that if all departments were going to be looked at that are meeting less the Assessor’s Department should also be looked at as they have only met (posted meetings) once in 2016, three times in 2015 and 7 times in 2014 and they have a paid Principal Assessor, a paid Assessor’s Clerk and 3 paid Assessors. It was agreed to look closer at this department next week.
k. It was also noted that the Fire Inspector should also be dropped to $0 and he should be paid a portion of the fees as is done with the Electrical and Plumbing Inspectors. Shawn will be asked to bring in a history of how many inspections he performs to next Monday’s meeting.
l. Barbara inquired as to why a separate stabilization account would be created for bridges, roads and culverts when that limits you to spending for only that purpose when if you put it in the general stabilization fund you could use it for any purpose with town meeting approval. The Finance Committee was firm on it being a separate account.
m. It was agreed to remove the estimated bond payment for WiredWest as this does not appear that it will happen this year. The ballot question to debt exclude the payment will still be included on the ballot this year.
n. It was discussed that for the purchase of the fire truck we should use $250,000 from stabilization and borrow the remainder of approximately $375,000. It was argued that the whole amount should be borrowed as interest rates are still low and then make the payments each year from the stabilization account. Discussion will continue on this next week.
o. Town copier (multifunction machine): Discussion ensued about whether we should purchase or lease based on figures provided. It was agreed to raise line item 196 to $35,000 and that we would purchase the Canon copier through this line item. M. Noe was asked to find out how much we will be given for our trade in.
9. Alice Berke came in about the following:
a. She feels that the special town meeting held in February was in violation of due process; further research showed that it was posted within the 14 days required.
b. She is opposed to any use of herbicides in Lake Garfield. The Board explained that the FLG was initially proposing to test a chemical in the lake next year but the Board and Conservation Commission feel that a broader community discussion is needed before that will be given town support.
c. Alice is also concerned about the additional tax to be mandated on her especially when it seems that the town is willing to give the lake people any monies they ask for.
d. Alice intends to submit a citizen petition for the annual town meeting banning beaver trapping in Monterey.
e. She’s requested that herbicides be banned in Monterey and that homeowners pull the weeds at the edge of the lake on their property. She also feels that a 2 year ban on motorboats on Lake Garfield would help in the prevention of spreading milfoil.
f. Pat Salamon, member of the FLG stated that are very involved in trying to get homeowners around the lake to upgrade their septic systems and to maintain the lake without the use of chemicals.
10. Maria Rundle, Monterey School Committee Representative came in to speak with the Board about the following:
a. She wants to know what the Board’s plan is to either walk back the comments made by Scott at the last school committee meeting or how the Board intends to move forward with the following. She also would like the minutes where it was voted by the Board in a posted open meeting (and if they haven’t already when it will be) requesting that the school committee place on all the town’s warrants to close the Monterey School.
b. She is also requesting the minutes where it was voted by the Board in a posted open meeting (and if they haven’t already when it will be) to use town funds to hire an attorney to discuss leaving the district and rejecting the FY17 SBRSD budget. It was clarified that there has been no vote to date to hire an attorney all conversations to date have been complimentary. No vote has been taken to date to officially request rejecting the budget; the Board has had conversations about not supporting it.
c. She is also requesting the minutes where it was voted by the Board in a posted open meeting (and if they haven’t already when it will be) to leave the district. It was clarified that no votes have been taken however the Board is exploring all options that may be available to them.
d. Kenn commented that Scott’s emotions may have been high at the school committee meeting and there may have been some confusion about the declaratory comments Scott made that may have reflected more of Scott’s personal feelings versus an official Board opinion. Kenn agreed that everything Scott said has been talked about by the Board at some point but no official votes have been taken to date.
e. Maria clarified that the former Monterey school teacher was not “taken away” and put in New Marlborough, she applied for a position that opened up there. Registration for Monterey was open and a position was posted but no one applied or signed up for the program.
f. Scott clarified his comments to place the closure of the Monterey School on the town warrants should be done by the school committee and was not because Monterey wants it closed but rather because he didn’t think the voters would support it. Scott eventually stated that he was speaking for himself and not the Board. He did clarify though that if the program is going to be suspended for another year that the money for that program that is currently in the excess and deficiency fund should be taken out of the budget to lower it.
g. Steve felt that emotions may have got out of control because it appeared that the $10,000 to fix the school building wasn’t going to be released without jumping through hoops considering that for over 20 years the district has failed to maintain our building as is required by the regional agreement and that neglect has led to serious disrepair. He also noted that comments were made by one school committee member at the most recent meeting that Monterey wasn’t part of the district which just added fuel to the fire. The $10,000 will be released when bills are submitted to the school to be paid.
h. Carol Edelman added that her 2 children went to the Monterey kindergarten and it was a quality program and feels that maybe the people involved now may not have the same commitment to saving it because they haven’t had children that attended there. She is disgusted at how the district has abandoned the building and can understand how there may be a group of people discouraged with the district’s actions.
11. Kenn submitted a proposal to control bulky waste (see attached). Everyone agreed to institute the new policies effective April 1, 2016 and to raise the FY17 sticker fee to $70.
12. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Letter from Joe Baker which will be given to town counsel for his opinion.
b. Memo from Town Clerk regarding election workers pay not being subject to withholding.
13. Administrative Assistant’s weekly report was reviewed.
14. Police Chief’s weekly report was reviewed.
15. Warrants were signed.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 12:30pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
Documents received at this meeting:
- TransferStationFees
- JBakerltr
- Clerkwithholdingltr
These are attached to the hard copy of the minutes located at town hall.
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