Select Board Meeting Minutes 3/17/21

Minutes of the meeting of 3/17/21

Meeting Opened at: 9:05am

Select Board Members Present: Steve Weisz

Select Board Members present remotely: Donald Coburn, Chair and John Weingold

Also present: Laurie Shaw, Mike Johnson, Rob Hoogs, Michele Miller, Mary Makuc, Stephen Moore, Janet Jensen, Dennis Lynch, Mark Cappadona of Colonial Power, Denise Allard of Colonial Power

Items discussed:

9am: Updated Community Center lighting proposal:  Rob Hoogs presented the updated proposed plans to create a uniformly lighted pedestrian pathway: one for $29k and one for $10k.  The Community Center has presented a citizen petition for the warrant requesting $29k to be raised and appropriated or transferred from other available funds.

Steve asked if there were contemplated ways to bring option 1 ($29k) down.  Rob said it is down as low as he would feel comfortable suggesting.  John stated that there are experts that design expert lighting and wanted to know why they weren’t hired to give accurate figures.  Mary explained that the first quote came in from an environmental lighting specialist, Nancy Tomosovich whose plan was not nearly as comprehensive as the one Rob has presented and is an expert in this field.

Michele Miller expressed concerns that the current lighting proposals are not suited/appropriate to the area and investing $29k should make the lighting look good and not “municipal” or “Disney like”.

Don made a motion to include the article using stabilization funds rather than through the citizen petition.  Steve seconded the motion providing that stabilization does not go below $500k.  John then argued that this falls under the Finance Committee’s jurisdiction not the Board’s.  Don countered that for 63 years the townspeople have understood that the Finance Committee is advisory.  John, no, not our jurisdiction.  Steve, yes.  Don, yes.  The citizen petition will be withdrawn and it will be added as an article.

Berkshire Low-Income Community Solar for Municipal Aggregation Presentation (Colonial Power) – will be rescheduled due to running past scheduled time.

10am: Administrative

1. Review/discussion of proposed bylaw amendment regarding the Finance Committee: Don made a motion to include the proposed finance committee bylaw on the town meeting warrant. Steve would like to modify the draft to include that it is the Finance Committee’s job/role to advise and counsel the select board on matters involving the budget.  It was decided to make the amendments and carry this to the next meeting for a vote.
2. Review/discussion of proposed edited election recall bylaw: The revised draft includes edits suggested at the last town meeting.  Key differences are increasing the first step from 25 to 50 voters and 30% of the registered voters.  Also eliminated was the provision that someone recalled couldn’t be appointed to another position for two years.  Steve respectfully did not agree with some of the proposed changes.  He felt the 30% would be a burden larger than we can currently perpetuate and suggested 20 – 25%.  Simple majority versus super majority was discussed.  A motion was made to lower the 50 voter requirement to 30. Steve, yes. Don, yes. John, no.  A motion was made to lower the 30% requirement to 15%. Steve, yes. Don, yes. John, no.
3. Town Administrator items
   1. Elderly and disabled transportation inter-municipal agreement: A motion was made to accept and sign the inter-municipal agreement with the Town of Gt. Barrington for elderly and disabled transportation.  The motion passed unanimously.
   2. 604b documents: A motion was made to sign the contract for grant administration services with the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission.  The motion passed unanimously.  Another motion was made to sign the agreement with Foresight Engineering.  The motion passed unanimously.
   3. The still missing minutes of the Finance Committee was discussed.  Members of the audience asked for clarification on where the minutes were supposed to be sent.  The board stated that they are to be sent to the Town Clerk and the Town Administrator.  A motion was made to reapprove the existing (non-written) policy and remind committees and boards that approved minutes are to be sent to the Town Clerk and the Town Administrator so that they may be properly posted.  The motion passed 2 – 1 with John voting no.
4. A motion was made to approve the March 3 minutes.  John provided a transcription of edits he wanted added.  It was asked where the transcription came from as that meeting was not recorded due to technical issues with gotomeeting and no one in the audience stated they would be recording.  The transcribed edits were not accepted.  The minutes were approved 2 – 1 with John voting no.  A motion was made to approve the minutes of March 10.  John had some minor edits which were approved by all.  The minutes of March 10 were unanimously approved.
5. Review mail and correspondence to be sent/signed: none
6. Comments & questions from the public: none
7. Continued review of operating budget and special articles:
   1. Our Unibank representative will be asked to attend next week’s meeting to review all of the library loan options again.
   2. The possibility of removing the COA Outreach Worker special article and the Ambulance Service special article as they may be covered expenses through the updated American Rescue Plan Act was discussed.  Steve requested more time to review the news articles.  This will be discussed again next week.
   3. The Board agreed to add the milfoil article as a regular article rather than a citizen petition using free cash to pay for it.
8. Citizen petitions filed by John Weingold:  Discussion took place about the 18 citizen petitions received this week filed by John Weingold.  M. Noe expressed concern at the weight this would add to the mailing and that we did not have enough to pay for it.  M. Noe was instructed to follow up with counsel on the options we have available for addressing this.  Steve asked John if he was aware that at an approximate 15-20minutes an article for discussion that the 18 he added could add another 6 hours to a town meeting that already usually lasts 4 ½ hours and believes this could be an act to disenfranchise the voters of Monterey as no one will want to sit at town meeting for 6-10 hours.  Don asked why John chose this route rather than discussing these with the Board at regularly scheduled meetings.  John replied that he did provide the Board with the opportunity and they didn’t want to.  Steve asked so then this is retaliatory then since you were outvoted?  The order of the articles and Counsel’s response will be discussed at next week’s meeting.

A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 10:45am

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. Updated Community Center lighting proposal
2. Citizen petitions received
3. Proposed finance committee bylaw draft
4. Proposed recall bylaw draft
5. 604b agreements with Foresight and BRPC