Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 5/23/16
Meeting Opened at: 9am
Select Board Members Present: Kenn Basler, Chairperson, Steve Weisz and Carol Edelman
Also in attendance: Shawn Tryon, Ray Tryon, Julio Rodriguez
Miscellaneous Items Reviewed:
1. Update on Treasurer and Accountant:
a. The Board is concerned about proper procedures especially as it relates to checks and balances being carried out in the finance office. The Board suggests that the Treasurer and Accountant meet to clarify proper procedure. Because neither can come in when the other has office hours this presents an immediate problem. Kenn will seek guidance from DOR and continue to mediate the situation.
b. The Board has also been made aware that the 7 employees on the health insurance were overcharged for their portion of the premium for FY16 (calculations done by M. Noe were based on 12 months and 4 weeks in each month when it should have been based on 52.2 weeks according to the new Accountant). The correction will be made over the next 3 weeks and M. Noe has been tasked with clarifying the changes with the Treasurer.
c. Kenn is in touch with the Dept. of Revenue and is working on getting them here to make a professional evaluation of the Treasurer/Accountant office situation and procedures and to have them evaluate the other offices in town hall to help us to develop best practices.
d. Steve will start a discussion with the Town of Sheffield with regards to sharing a Town Accountant as they are looking and ours has committed only through September.
2. The Board discussed the incident that happened last week with the Treasurer screaming and using profanities at the Administrative Assistant because the Administrative Assistant would not act as her personal secretary and rather provided her with the proper people to contact with regards to getting an office key and IT support. M. Noe requested that the Board get in front of this situation before it gets out of hand and before the rumors spread making the situation worse. Kenn stated he has already spoken to Jen and told her that this kind of behavior is unacceptable and if it continues action will be taken. Kenn spoke to others that were in the building to confirm the incident and is also going to speak with Sergeant Johnson who was is the building but did not investigate the matter while it was
occurring which was of concern to M. Noe.
3. The Board discussed the proposed social media policy. Carol feels that it needs to be more specific and firm and state that no town business should be discussed on social media. Enforcement with regards to elected officials was discussed. Carol is going to make changes to be discussed next week. Town Counsel will be asked what legal recourse the Board has with enforcing the policy.
4. The Board asked M. Noe to have Don Torrico come in to a future meeting to discuss availability, hours worked and responsibilities. Kenn stated that he has been receiving multiple complaints about the Building Inspector’s inaccessibility.
5. Lake Garfield:
a. Steve felt it would have been more fitting if the Con Comm had come to the Selectman’s meeting when he was here. It was explained to Steve that the Con Comm felt the same and have scheduled a time during an upcoming meeting when Steve will be present. The issue that Con Comm wanted to discuss was the use of town counsel by Select Board members and when opinions by town cousel are presented at a public meeting, is the Select Board member representing the Board or himself. It was discussed and decided that town counsel should be invited to this meeting.
b. The Select Board is going to announce they are looking to form a committee to address the weed issue in Lake Garfield. Steve agreed to be the Select Board representative on this committee and will take a lead on finding interested parties. A guideline for the committee should also be created.
6. Carol stated that the Bidwell House invited her to a meeting last week and updated the Board on the several projects they have going on.
7. Town Administrator:
a. Each Board member will work on items they feel should be included in the job description as well as what will be expected from the resume review committee.
b. Kenn has reached out to 4 local Administrators who are willing to meet with the resume review committee to review the importance of the position and what they do for the towns they work in.
8. Kenn gave an update on some town grants that he is working on including a joint application with Gould Farm and a multi town collaborative.
9. Fiber – Carol and Kenn attended a very informative meeting that the Monterey Broadband Committee had last week. Steve gave an update on what the Committee has been working on and informed the Board that we are going to need to start thinking of a town owned location for the hut. It was requested that the Broadband Committee get on a future agenda to provide updates to the Board.
10. The Tower Company is ready to submit plans to the Building Inspector for the proposed 2nd tower to be constructed on the Hume property.
11. Julio informed the Board that a resident had been in touch with him about the incorrect spelling of his father’s name on the Memorial Board in front of town hall. Solutions were proposed and Julio was asked to report back with a follow up.
12. Minutes from 5/16/16 were approved.
13. Administrative Assistant’s weekly report was reviewed.
14. The Police Chief’s weekly report was reviewed.
15. June’s Select Board Corner was approved.
The Board met with Director of Operations & Fire Chief, Shawn Tryon to review the following:
1. New fire truck:
a. The total amount for the new truck (without outfitting) will be $625,000 we will get $48,000 for our trade in. Final contract will be $597,000 for the truck to include the necessary modifications for storage. The remaining funds would be used to replace 12 air bottles for the air packs and a few other pieces of equipment and tools or we would need to appropriate the funds for this next year. Kenn requested that an itemized list of equipment and tools to be purchased be provided to the Board next week.
b. The Board signed the purchase agreement.
2. Transfer Station:
a. Concrete is ready to be poured however there have been some technical difficulties with the truck and driver preventing it from happening.
3. RT 23:
a. The process is to grind to gravel, mix blacktop with gravel (about 4,000ft/day), samples of soils are sent to Lenox, if ok they regrind and add an asphalt emulsion, it’s then re-graded and rolled, it must then set for 3-5 days before it can be paved. This is a state project.
4. Memorial Day:
a. The kitchen will be open and Hume will be in charge of setting up the tables and cooking the food.
5. Tree cutting:
a. Kenn questioned the cutting they did on Eaton Rd as it’s a private road. National Grid should have gotten the owner’s permission prior to cutting.
6. Bidwell Rd and RT 23 – there have been a lot of stumps placed on the town’s property on the Raab property. Kenn has offered to take the lead on working with the owner to get them removed. Shawn will get copies of the drawings which show that they have been placed on town property (there are clear property markers).
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 11:03am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
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