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Select Board Meeting Minutes 3/10/21

Meeting date: 
Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Minutes of the meeting of 3/10/21

Meeting Opened at: 9am

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

Select Board Members present remotely: John Weingold

Also present remotely: Peter Chait, Mike Johnson, Attorney Alexandra Glover, Rebecca Wolin

Items discussed:

  1. Roll call was taken: John Weingold present remotely.  Steve and Don present at town hall.
  2. The executive session originally scheduled for today has been postponed to April 7th at 6pm at the request of Attorney Glover who is representing the commission member.
  3. Recent Open Meeting Law complaint filed by John Weingold:  This is the 5th complaint filed by Mr. Weingold.  Don Coburn read the suggested response for discussion and approval.  Steve noted for the record that it is a shame we have to spend any time on this as it doesn’t move Monterey forward but slows us down; but maybe that’s the point.  A motion was made to approve and send the response as read.  The motion was approved 2 – 0.
  4. Email from John Weingold requesting public records from counsel:  John stated that this was not a request for public records but rather attorney/client documents.  John was reminded that the Board is a 3 person entity and acting as one violates the town’s current policy for contacting counsel adopted in 2016.  John asked how he is supposed to be aware of a policy from 2016 and complained that Don acts like a mayor doing things by himself. 
  5. John inquired as to why the executive session was removed from today’s agenda and by whom.  John was reminded that the Board previously gave authority to the Chair to create the agenda which includes adding or removing items.
  6. Adoption of Property Tax Commitments and Accounts Receivable Policies & Procedures section: A motion was made to approve the document as edited by the Assessor and Tax Collector.  John wanted to know why Mari and Don Clawson weren’t present to explain the document.  It was noted that was because John didn’t ask for Mari or Don to be invited.  John has no knowledge and cannot make a determination and therefore abstains.  Steve, yes as this codifies their job responsibilities into a document.  Don, yes.
  7. Request to begin Massworks application process:  Terry Walker has requested to be paid for 2 hours to write and submit a letter of expression for the upcoming Massworks grant.  A motion was made to approve the 2 hour request to write the letter of expression.  The motion was approved unanimously.
  8. Don noted that the town (M. Noe and the Council on Aging) successfully applied for and received a $15k grant for an outreach worker to address social isolation.  This $15k is available for expenditures from now thru June 30, 2021.
  9. Distribution (without discussion) of proposed bylaw amendment regarding the Finance Committee for consideration at next SB meeting.  This will be added to next week’s agenda for discussion and a vote.
  10. Distribution (without discussion) of proposed edited recall election bylaw for consideration at next SB meeting. This will be added to next week’s agenda for discussion and a vote
  11. Town Administrator items
    1. M. Noe informed the Board that she intends to file an Open Meeting Law complaint as last night was the 2nd time she was denied access to the remote Finance Committee meeting. M. Noe did eventually get access but the meeting was pretty much over by the time this happened. Last night Sergeant Fahey was also not permitted to attend the meeting.  Later in the meeting the Chair of the Finance Committee joined the meeting and was asked by Don why this happened; Rebecca did not respond.
  12. Approve 3/3/21 minutes: M. Noe apologized but she has not finished them yet.
  13. Review mail and correspondence to be sent/signed: none
  14. Comments & questions from the public: none
  15. Proposed FY22 budget:  The Board discussed the following and made changes as noted;
    1. Temporary employee was lowered by $1k
    2. Treasurer expenses was lowered to $6,700.  Discussion ensued about the amount of borrowing that would be necessary.  A motion was made to continue the policy decision to go with a 1 year house note for the library for FY22.  The motion passed unanimously.
    3. Litigation fees and expenses was lowered by $2,500
    4. Town offices was lowered by $1,520
    5. Highway operations and highway capital were each lowered by $2,500.  Steve thanked Shawn Tryon for being willing to adjust his budget.
    6. Cemetery maintenance and lawn care was lowered to $22,500.  It was noted that M. Noe has reached out to the Chair several times with no response to follow up on her request and the past expenditures coming in much lower.  For FY18 $18,072 was spent, FY19 $20,383 and FY20 $16,702.
    7. Bridges roads & culverts stabilization appropriation was lowered to $15k
    8. Fire department stabilization was lowered to $15k
    9. The school consolidation was amended to $8k at the direction of the 8 town committee.
    10. Ambulance: As this is a complicated situation and it appears that Gt Barrington is not amenable to the current request of over $30k, the Board will keep the request level funded and will wait to hear further from the ambulance service.  John inquired why we just don’t enter into a mutual aid agreement.  Steve informed him that we already are and that when Southern Berkshire can’t respond one of the other neighboring ambulances does regardless of how much money we give them.  John asked for a copy of the mutual aid agreement.  M. Noe will follow up with the Chief of Police and Fire Chief.
    11. M. Noe suggested removing the $19k estimated figure that the transfer station operations is likely to go over due to the influx of residents that became full time since COVID.  She suggested that we can use internal transfers or transfer from the reserve fund and use monies already taxed to cover this.  It is anticipated that there will be extra money in the snow and ice operations as well as the health insurance as a plan was budgeted for the vacant Town Administrator position that is no longer necessary.  Don and Steve agreed.
    12. M. Noe was asked to prepare 2 budgets along with updated impacts to the levy with one scenario showing the $200k for the truck as a loan with no money going into the general stabilization and one scenario with using a combination of free cash and raising and appropriating for the truck.
  16. Comments from the public: none

A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 9:59am

 

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. Weingold OML complaint
  2. Weingold email to counsel
  3. Grant request

      4.   Draft budget and two analyses