Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 1/23/19
Meeting Opened at: 3:30pm
Select Board Members Present: Carol Edelman, Chairperson, Kenneth Basler and Donald Coburn
Also in attendance: Hannah Shirley of the Berkshire Record, Stephen Moore, Justin Cole, Jon Sylbert, George Cain, Rebecca Wolin, Mickey Jervas, Mark Makuc
Miscellaneous Items Reviewed:
- Mattress recycling: The Board discussed the Director of Operations and Administrative Assistant’s recommendation to charge $20 per mattress for any mattresses brought to the transfer station after January 31st. A motion was made to charge a fee of between $15-20 per mattress beginning February 1st. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
- The Board discussed creating policy for the recording meetings and retention of the audios. A motion was made to retain all recordings on the Administrative Assistant’s computer for 3 years. A suggestion was made by an audience member to inform the public that copies are available if requested. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.
- Building department job descriptions: The Board reviewed the 3 draft updated descriptions. Kenn noted that he is still concerned about the proposed 1 ½ hours on Monday mornings and would like it to be for a longer period of time. Kenn requested tabling this until the next meeting to allow him time to talk with Torrico further. Kenn and Carol agreed, Don stated he was fine with Torrico’s proposal and did not agree with tabling.
- Owen Wright’s resume was reviewed and it was determined that an interview isn’t necessary; once we clarify the above mentioned items with Torrico Owen will then be appointed.
- Broadband: Don reported that a concerned resident informed him of an issue which Don called the Ethics Division about and spoke to Eve Slattery. The concern is that anyone that had paid the $1k hookup fee to Fiber Connect previously would not be eligible to negotiate or vote with Fiber Connect for town wide Broadband as they would have a financial conflict of interest. Kenn said that he paid $500 for the hookup, that the company had a range of prices and that he, [Kenn] will follow up with the Ethics Department. He stated that this seemed absurd since Board members all have electricity and phone yet participate and vote in pole hearings and matters involving other utilities. Don then requested copies of the proposals received for the Broadband RFP issued. Don was informed that he will receive these along
with the rest of the public once the Broadband Committee has completed their executive session review (Feb 6th). Don disagreed that he would be considered public and argued the documents should be available to him for review. Don was provided copies of sections of the 30B manual explaining the procedures set forth by MA General Law.
- Kenn requested that the Board reconsider switching the phone and internet services from our current providers to Fiber Connect. Kenn reported that several employees in town hall have complained about the slow internet speeds and the need to take work home where their speeds are faster. Our IT professional has also commented several times on the speed of our service. We currently pay $199.20/month for 9Mbps and could get 1 GB with Fiber Connect for only $149/month. It was agreed to only discuss internet today as the switching of phone service requires some hardware purchases. Don wanted an updated proposal from Fiber Connect for internet before making a final decision.
- Carol reported on the sub-committee school meeting last night that she attended. Consolidation discussions seem to be stalled but shared service discussions are a priority.
- Carol also met with Berkshire Regional Planning as well as Shawn Tryon and Melissa Noe to discuss the next steps in the process to get our Green Community designation and associated grant funding.
- Bicycles: Kenn reported that he has received several calls about Monterey’s stance on bicycles and bike paths, etc. Kenn suggested that it might be helpful to find interested parties to form a committee on bicycle use in Monterey and developing a bike policy. Carol supported Kenn writing an article for the next Monterey News about this; Don did not comment.
- BYOB events: M. Noe informed the Board that the Community Center inquired about the ability to let private events have events that were BYOB (bring your own beer) without needing a one day alcohol permit. M. Noe confirmed with our insurance provider that liquor is excluded under our policy and that the host of the event would need to purchase a separate liquor liability policy and list the town as an additional insured on that policy. [Please note that his policy does not include events serviced by professional caterers who carry their own liquor liability policy, therefore may serve at catered events.] M. Noe will report these findings back to the Community Center. The Board had no objections.
- Justin Cole came in to update the Board on the following:
a. The library loan note documents were signed in the amount of $1,986,595.00 (long term cost to the town will be $1.2million). We should know by Monday if the Department of Revenue has accepted it and then the funds would be available on February 5th.
b. Audit update: Hard copies of the FY17 draft audit should be in town hall tomorrow for everyone to review and provide commentary on. The FY18 audit has been scheduled for this April and the FY19 audit late summer/early fall.
c. Employee classifications: Justin explained the necessity for clarifying and classifying correctly the paid positions in Monterey under the Federal Labor Laws. This may result in changes to employee status and method of payment. A comprehensive review of all job descriptions, normal workweek and monies paid is highly recommended. The Board will begin working on this immediately with Justin’s assistance to be effective July 1.
d. Justin plans to schedule working with departments to create the capital asset report that the auditors have recommended.
- The Board met with Finance Committee to discuss the following:
a. Line 122 grant writers: Kenn proposed a maximum of $5k ($25/hr with a maximum of 200 hours; currently the position is salary) for the budget with more oversight and control of the grants we are seeking. We would require that the grant writer propose grants they would like to apply for and the number of anticipated hours to write it, these proposals would require approval from the Board. Discussion will continue on this at the next meeting
b. Line 141 principal assessor assistant: Originally the Assessors proposed deleting this from the FY20 budget but they have since reconsidered. The Assessors have been asked to provide a summary of what this position will do and why it is needed if the Principal Assessor plans to stay for another 5 years and the current recommendation is to use an outside consultant after that.
c. The cost of Assessors software has gone down as the service they hired last year to help with the reevaluations is no longer needed.
d. Line 151 town counsel: Don inquired why there was such a substantial increase. It was explained that Counsel requested this for additional time anticipated for legal consultation based on this year’s volume. Most agreed that the request didn’t seem excessive.
e. Line 294 tree warden expenses: Kenn is recommending that the request of $41k for FY20 be lowered to $35k. Everyone agreed that the tree issues we are facing are larger than we could imagine or adequately address without substantially increasing this budget but thought that the increase needed to be gradual.
f. Kenn proposed cutting $20k from highway operations if we are going to approve the proposed 4th highway person as this person should make the department more efficient and productive, justifying lower costs to the overall operations. The Director of Operations has agreed that this is acceptable as the 4th person would be doing work that right now is farmed out.
g. Line 431 Solid Waste District has been eliminated as there will no longer be a Solid Waste District. Household hazardous waste was moved into the transfer station operations budget.
h. Transfer station operations will be lowered to $70k. Our efforts to better sort trash and recyclables and monitor the removal of bins has dramatically reduced our hauling and tipping fees.
i. Rebecca (an employee of Berkshire South) informed everyone that the notices for the lifeguard increase would be going out soon and it will be raised 5%; the budget was amended to reflect this.
j. George expressed his concerns with the Police Department’s request for a new cruiser and suggested that this be put off a year. George was informed that this had already been put off a year last year and discussion ensued about how the wear and tear on a cruiser engine is different than that of a normal car. The Finance Committee requested 2 years of service history on the 2013 cruiser as well as more information on engine hours versus mileage.
k. The Finance Committee also requested a 4 year history of fire department calls to help in their decision making for the request in FY20.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 6:40pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
| 
