Select Board Meeting Minutes 2/3/21

Minutes of the meeting of 2/3/21

Meeting Opened at: 3:30pm

Select Board Members Present: Donald Coburn, Chair, Steve Weisz

Select Board Members present remotely: John Weingold

Also present remotely: Rebecca Wolin, Terry Walker, Jon Sylbert, Kyle Pierce, Michele Miller, Ilene Marcus, Sara Hunter

Roll call was taken.  Steve and Don present at town hall.  John Weingold present remotely.

Administrative items:

1. A motion was made to accept the winning bid in the amount of $6,500 for the airboat received through the online bidding site municibid.com.  The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
2. M. Noe informed the Board that she spoke with the Building Inspector about assessment of the playground equipment for safety and he said that this does not fall under his jurisdiction.  M. Noe has a call into our insurer to see if they can help.
3. M. Noe and Don Coburn updated the board on the recent Shared Human Resource position and meeting held.  Gt. Barrington will be researching firms that provide HR services and M. Noe will be looking into the Community Compact Grant.
4. Administrative Assistant items
   1. The Board agreed to allow Colonial Power Group to represent Monterey at the February 25, 2021 public hearing for the municipal aggregation program.
5. A motion was made to approve the minutes of 1/20/21.  The motion was seconded.  John, yes, Don, yes, Steve, yes.  M. Noe pointed out that John was not at this meeting so he cannot approve the minutes.  John rescinded his vote.  A motion was made to approve the minutes of 1/27/21. The motion was seconded and passed 2 – 0, John did not vote as he was not present at the meeting.
6. Review mail and correspondence to be sent/signed: None, just what is in the folder at town hall.
7. Comments & questions from the public: None

The following opinion posted by the Attorney General was discussed: “OML 2021-2: In this determination, we address whether a public body member who is participating in a meeting remotely violates the Open Meeting Law when the member turns off his camera or steps off camera at times, in light of the Open Meeting Law regulation 940 CMR 29.10(6)(b), which states: “[w]hen video technology is in use, the remote participant shall be clearly visible to all persons present in the meeting location.” That regulation, promulgated in 2017, contemplated a situation in which at least a quorum of the public body members, as well as members of the public, attended a meeting at a physical meeting location, and one or more public body members participated remotely if physical attendance at the meeting was unreasonably difficult. Currently, when many public bodies are holding fully virtual meetings, we are cognizant that some public body members may not have personal technology available to participate in a meeting by video, and that public body members who utilize video may need to step off camera briefly. A strict requirement that if video technology is in use all public body members must be visible on camera at all times could result in public bodies opting not to use video technology at all, which surely would not serve the Open Meeting Law’s transparency goals.  Therefore, we decline to find a violation of the Open Meeting Law when video technology is generally in use for a meeting but some members of the public body are not on camera at all times. Nonetheless, the Attorney General recommends, as a best practice, that members of public bodies turn on their video cameras, especially while speaking, whenever possible.”

The Board commended the highway crew for a job well done during the last storm.

4:30pm: Interview with Angie Lopes Ellison

The Board interviewed Ms. Ellison for the Town Administrator position.  Ms. Ellison stated that if chosen she would only be able to do the job after her full time job in North Adams and on Saturdays.

Roll call was taken for the Finance Committee.  Jon Sylbert present remotely.  Rebecca Wolin present remotely.  Michele Miller present remotely.

5pm: Joint budget meeting with the Finance Committee; General budget discussion with the Council on Aging

1. Conversation ensued about the Outreach worker proposal.  Ilene has already written the grant, it just needs to be submitted to the state with another town.  A motion was made by the Select Board to approve the COA budget as presented with the $6,048 to be placed on the town meeting warrant pending final budget approval by the Finance Committee and Select Board to allow them to do research.  The motion was seconded.  John argued that the Select Board had no jurisdiction in approving budget items and abstained as he didn’t feel he had the right to vote.  Steve and Don both voted yes.  Rebecca and Jon Sylbert argued that this was not the policy that was approved at the beginning of the budget process which was to make a final vote on anything.  Steve and Don reiterated that the vote was to “pencil in” the request and not finalize it.

5:30pm: Joint budget meeting with the Finance Committee; General budget discussion with the Clerk

1. Terry is requesting an extra 1 ¾ hours a week for a total of 19.75 hours per week. She stated that the extra hours will allow her to get the office 100% ready for her retirement on June 30, 2024.
2. The elections budget has been reduced as there are fewer elections in the coming year than there were last year.

6pm: Joint budget meeting with the Finance Committee; General budget discussion with the Treasurer

1. Changes made to the proposed budget include additions for a bond rating consultant fee.  The town will only need a bond rating if we will be taking out a loan over $1million.  Having a bond rating usually gets more banks interested in bidding and lower interest rates.  If the Board and Fin Comm decide to do one more one year note this additional expense will not be necessary. 

Next week will conclude all department heads that the Board and Fin Comm wanted to meet with.  After the final presentation it was agreed to begin the joint discussions on the budget as a whole.  John W stated that he would like to review the town counsel survey of surrounding towns and Rebecca said that we are still waiting on additional information

No public comments.

Fin Comm adjourned at 5:50pm

A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 5:53pm

Submitted by:

Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant

Approved by:

Monterey Select Board

cc: Website (www.montereyma.gov)

Select Board Members

Minutes Book

Town Clerk

Any documents used in the meeting are listed below and are available by request at town hall.

1. Municibid report