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Finance Committee Meeting Minutes 3/15/21

Meeting date: 
Monday, March 15, 2021

Finance Committee Meeting Minutes  3-15-21

Meeting called to order 4:49 – Present was Rebecca Wolin, Jon Sylbert

                                                Late – Michele Miller, who did not want to take care of business of the     

finance committee and left.  She came back into the meeting some time later     

and then left again – I was not watching the clock.

 

  1. – Address OML violation notice received from MN.  Jon drafted a letter (see attached).  A motion was made by RW to approve and send, Jon seconded, no discussion, the motion carried.
  2.  Address the missing minutes records complaint from the MN – Jon drafted a letter.  Jon drafted a letter (see attached).  A motion was made by RW to approve and send, Jon seconded, no discussion, the motion carried.
  3. Address letter to BOA regarding the fire company’s 3ABC.  Jon drafted a letter (see attached).  A motion was made by RW to approve and send, Jon seconded, no discussion, the motion carried.
  4. Address nonresponse of the fire company for copies of the 990 which by law is required be shown to anyone who requests to see their 990.  Jon drafted a letter (see attached).  A motion was made by RW to approve and send, Jon seconded, no discussion, the motion carried.  Jon will send another letter via certified mail.
  5. Addressed question of when the railing for the fire station was bid out.  Jon drafted a letter (see attached).  A motion was made by RW to approve and send, Jon seconded, no discussion, the motion carried.
  6. Mickey Jervis asked to speak about the amount on the budget to pay towards the library loan.  There was an amount of $72,000, Mickey inquired why it was not closer to $100,000 plus interest.  Jon made a motion to raise the amount to $106,629, rw seconded the motion.  The motion carried 2-0
  7. Discussion on the tax levy took place.  The finance committee went over what our levy goal was.  RW mentioned that we should assume that all the special warrants will pass and that the fire company would not get the grant and budget as if Monterey will have to pay for these items which includes $30,000 for the community center, $30,000 for the milfoil, and some miscellaneous ones that may come in.  Jon suggested we wait until we know of all the special articles to work on the final amounts on the budget to bring the tax levy in hand.
  8. Michele asked if she could write a letter to the community center asking them to put off submitting a special article and to work with the dpw to put in a fix rather than an entire new system.  Both Rebecca and Jon agreed she could write the letter without coming back to a finance committee meeting.
  9. Jon started to go through some other budget items, Michele asked to stop the meeting as she wanted to leave and just have a separate meeting to discuss budget only, we scheduled our next meeting for Wednesday March 17, 2021 at 5:30

Response to OML complaint] 

Dear Ms. Noe, the Finance Committee has received your Open Meeting Law complaint  dated March 11, 2021. 

We find no merit in your OML complaint. Our Finance Committee meetings are all  accessible to the public. The Chair requests that attendees provide their names so that  the meetings are not subject to “bombing.” Neither Ms. Noe nor Sgt. Fahey provided  their names using Zoom at any point in the meeting. Both Ms. Noe and Sgt. Fahey,  though he never identified himself, were granted access. 

Zoom software provides a procedure for attendees to identify themselves by name. If  Ms. Noe was not aware of this procedure, that does not indicate in any way that the  Chair was refusing to admit her. As soon as the Finance Committee was made aware of  who the caller was, access was granted. Again, if Ms. Noe could not hear the meeting,  this is not due to any action by the Chair. 

In fact, the Chair made a note of this in our public meeting notice as follows: 

Due to Zoom bombing, to be let into the room please change your tag  line to your name. if using a phone there are specific bu9ons on your  phone you can use to accomplish this or please email me through the  website with your number so I will know it is a real person. 

It is obvious the Chair was making every effort to provide appropriate access to the  meeting. 

There is no remedial action needed. The Finance Committee always gives as much  technical support to attendees as we can, but attendees must learn how to use the  software. 

As required by law (see below), the Finance Committee is notifying the Attorney  General that the Board has responded to the complainant and provided a response. We  have copied the Attorney General's Division of Open Government email address on this  email: openmeeting@state.ma.us 

Sincerely,  

Relevant text of the OML: