Richard D. Woycik, Chair
James S. Belden
Daniel Amaral
Chris LaRocque
DRAFT
Legislative Council Public Works Sub Committee
Minutes for Meeting of February 3, 2010
Attendees: Richard D. Woycik, Daniel Amaral, Chris LaRocque, James Belden. Chair Richard Woycik opened the meeting at 7:00.
Public Participation: No members of the public were in attendance.
Approval of minutes: The members unanimous approved the January 14, 2010 committee meeting minutes.
Mr. Woycik began with a review of the findings and recommendations of the Legislative Council Ad Hoc Facilities Committee Interim Report dated November 18, 2009. The purpose of this meeting would be to address item number four of the four recommendations on page 6 of the document, which pertain to maintenance procedures, work tracking and cost analysis for Town Departments. The result shall be a resolution which would put forth for Council vote to accept all four recommendations, as discussed at the Committee meeting of January 14, 2010. However the result of the previous committee meeting left questions regarding the responsible party to carry out the proposed study of possible cost efficiencies by combining maintenance activities of Town and Education departments, as set forth in recommendation #4.
Discussion ensued. Mr. Woycik recalled that the Committee did not feel it should put the recommendation forward with the task of carrying out a study being solely held by the Legislative Council. Instead it was suggested that it is a management prerogative and should be pursued and managed by the Board of Selectmen working with Supervisors and with Board of Education cooperation. The group discussed the merits of the suggestion and the apparent efficiency of having the initiative managed this way and the difficulty of the Legislative Council to effectively conduct such work otherwise. This would be a Council-backed goal, expected to yield results, but managed by the Selectman's office.
It was reiterated, as in the previous meeting, that significant cross-department maintenance and project work, particularly where the Public Works resources are called upon, needed to ensure accounting for all expenses by project and department. Separate maintenance functions provided by the Board of Education and the Town likely could benefit from synergies and saving available by scrutinizing the current methods, including purchasing, contracting, equipment and staffing.
Further discussion resulted in a unanimous agreement. Consequently, a motion was made by Mr. Amaral, second by Mr. LaRocque, to modify a previous motion made and approved by the Committee dated January 14, 2010, regarding recommendations made by the Legislative Council Ad Hoc Facilities Committee dated November 18, 2009. Whereas rather than ask for discussion of the matter by the Council, a new motion would change the responsibility of Recommendation #4: Complete study of whether consolidating town-wide maintenance in one department would lead to greater efficiencies and cost savings, using hard data generated from technology programs that track cost of work;
From:
Responsibility: Legislative Council Sub Committee or Facilities Commission
To:
Responsibility: Board of Selectmen and Board of Education
The motion passed unanimously, 4 ayes.
The meeting adjourned at 7:13PM. No further meetings were scheduled at this time.
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