Select Board Meeting Minutes 6/15/22

Minutes of the meeting of 6/15/22

Meeting Opened at: 6pm

Select Board Members Present: Justin Makuc, Chair and Susan Cooper

Also present remotely: Mickey Jervas, Jeff Zimmerman

Items discussed:

1. The Board discussed the following with regard to requests for American Rescue Plan Act Funds:
   1. The Board has received a total of six requests, two of which are time sensitive.
   2. A motion was made to approve the $17,979 requested by Southern Berkshire Ambulance towards purchasing a new ambulance. Both Justin and Susan have reviewed the audit provided by the ambulance squad which confirms that the books are in order. All agree that the current equipment is old and needs to be replaced.  The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
   3. $55,000 requested by the Fire Department towards purchasing a new Rescue 5:  Justin noted that he spoke with the Police Chief to see if it would be feasible to transition 1270 to the Fire Company but the Police Chief stated that the 3^rd cruiser is used to cover any downtime when the others need repairs and feels it is imperative to keep it for the police department’s use. The Board’s main concern with the request is the current capital plan does not include Rescue 5. Justin is concerned about adding a vehicle to the capital plan using ARPA funds which will need to be replaced in the future with other appropriations.  Ellen Coburn pointed out that Monterey has a majority of older people and this is a safety issue.  Further, the current vehicle requires significant repairs, and a new one would be more costly and take longer to acquire. This item was tabled until later in the meeting.
2.  The Board discussed ideas for ARPA request deadlines (November was suggested) and the creation of an official form. Consideration must be given to any future financial obligation to the town for any purchases made. The Board will work on a form and will revisit this topic next week.
3. A motion was made to approve and send a letter to the Town Clerk following up on a June 1 discussion about mediation.  The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
4. Review policy for contacting Town Counsel: Justin would like to institute the form that Mead, Talerman and Costa suggested and to make the current policy more concise.  Susan would like to see the Town Administrator given permission to contact counsel for efficiency’s sake. Justin noted the current policy allows the Chair to authorize contact that cannot wait a week. This will be tabled to a future meeting. Jeff Zimmerman suggested that the edited policy include a provision for emergencies if the Chair cannot be reached or is not available; Justin noted it already does but maybe it needs to be simplified and made more clear.
5. Review policy for Agenda Posting Requirements: Justin noted that Melissa did inform him that she has been training department heads to post their own meetings and would like to revise the policy to reflect that. The Board talked briefly about redundancies and backup for employees when they are not in the office and this will be added to the next agenda.
6. Review time off request policy and employees seeking to make up time: Susan asked what the past policy was as it was her understanding that part time employees do not typically make up time. Justin said it depends on the department and there have been issues with this in the past, he thinks it should be consistent across the Board and hopes the new Human Resource Director can address this.  Justin is also concerned about participating in this discussion as his parents are both part time employees, and will recuse himself if any decisions that need to be made will have a financial impact (positive or negative) on his family. Susan said that this came up because the Town Clerk has asked for time off and requested to make up the hours. Susan feels the Clerk needs to state when the hours will be made up and that the hours should be posted for the public. Susan noted she also has concerns about the discretionary hours the Clerk has, as well as making up hours on a Sunday (office hours should be during the work week, although the State update is an obvious exception).  As for coverage, while initially claimed that her staff was no longer her assistant and could not cover for her, she has now said that her staff is capable of covering for her. Susan reached out to Gary Shaw directly to discuss whether he is in fact willing to be trained to be the Assistant Town Clerk. He is indeed willing to take on the additional responsibilities but would want to be paid more than minimum wage, which is he feels is consistent with that position. Susan also noted that she has spoken with other departments about their current back up plans. Justin suggested a letter be drafted to the new Human Resource Director laying out Monterey’s list of items they would like prioritized.
7. A motion was made to approve and send thank you notes to the children who helped place wreaths in Memorial Day Parade.  The motion was seconded. Mickey Jervas thought a handwritten note might be better.  Melissa offered to hand write them, the Board thanked her.  The motion was amended to have them handwritten and sent.  The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
8. Policy concerning employee response to Select Board communication and requests: Susan provided a draft for review and Justin asked for a week to review it. Melissa noted that a previous board did make a policy that employees had 24 hours to respond to any requests made.
9. The Board discussed the Town Clerk’s request to change her Thursday office hours to 4:30 – 8:30pm from 4:00 – 8:00pm. A motion was made to accept the request to change it from 4:30 – 8:30pm. Susan also asked that the Clerk choose and post her make-up hours, and the Board asked that those hours be on Monday 6/27. Tuesday 6/28, or Wednesday 6/29.  Susan agreed to draft an email to Terry confirming both the change in hours and the Board’s request that she choose and post her vacation make-up hours, and further that she properly update her office voicemail to reflect the current hours.  The motion was seconded and unanimously approved. Susan reiterated again that she does not have a problem with this request but she does have an issue with discretionary hours and would like to see the return to normal working hours, not hours until 10pm at night, as this is a public facing position. Susan would like counsel to be contacted about any potential litigation issues that may arise if the Board requests this as she is concerned about these unusual hours going on for too long.  Justin agreed to reach out to counsel but wondered to what degree the Human Resource Director should be involved; realistically this person will be swamped when they start and waiting until August may be too long. Justin would like to see the Select Board more removed from day-to-day Human Resource issues and function more as an Executive Board.  Susan agrees that this would be ideal, but that at present the Board is in this direct supervisory role, and ultimately will be the body deciding on town policy with the advice of the HR Director.  Ellen Coburn requested that the Town Clerk or any other employee that works only toward the end of the week work at least one day or half day at the beginning of the week.
10. The Board discussed the dissemination of the August special election warrant. Both Susan and Justin agree that the warrant should be mailed to all registered voter households but were undecided whether a sample ballot should be included. Justin will reach out to Town Counsel to confirm any deadlines we need to meet and to approve the draft warrant we would send.
11. Town Administrator Items:
    1. A motion was made to sign and approve the accounting software contract for FY23.  The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
    2. Shared Human Resource Director Inter-Municipal Agreement (IMA). A motion was made to approve the IMA with the condition that section 8 be clarified, as to who holds the power to amend the agreement.  The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
12. The Board discussed the nature of appointments in advance of annual appointments. Justin said that last year KP Law was asked about appointments without end dates which Melissa has shared with Susan. Furthermore, when he got on the Board they had not appointed someone that was due and the legal advice at that time was that if the appointment was not rejected they continue in limbo until reappointed or officially not reappointed.  Susan would like permission to contact counsel to ask whether or not appointments are at will or if termed appointments (ie. a specified number of years) are a form of contract.  Justin said that KP Law actually addressed this previously and read their response which Susan still felt was unclear.  Justin referred to a communication from Counsel on how to remove an appointed position and will send it to Susan.
13. Review mail & correspondence received or to be sent:
    1. The Board acknowledged the June 11 letter from Kathleen Ronchi of MIIA (the town’s insurer) regarding our insurance policy and potential litigation.
    2. Susan noted that the Parks Commission asked for permission (after the agenda was posted) to contact counsel to determine if it is legal to restrict parking at the beach even though it is a great pond. Susan did reach out to Sergeant Fahey to see how the police would feel about giving tickets and they would if it was a town bylaw. Justin will ask the Parks Commission for specific questions and will then forward them to counsel.
    3. Laurie Shaw also sent a question but Justin would like to reach out to the Ethics Commission to see if he has a conflict since the question involves an immediate family member before discussing this further. Susan will follow up with Laurie to see if there are any responsibility changes that will come along with her request.
14. Susan provided an update on her call with Verizon on the ongoing issue with phone service on Beartown Mountain Road. In the end Susan received a call back from the Verizon State Governmental Affairs Office. A tech was dispatched today to address the current service failure at the Coburn’s residence.  Verizon has previously checked the lines from Great Barrington to the “slick” at the Fairview/ Beartown junction, she will now be authorizing a detailed analysis of the line from the slick to the Forest end of Beartown but this may take until mid-July. It was also reported that Verizon has completed their make ready for fiber and Susan reached out to Adam Chait to confirm. Susan also contacted Smitty Pignatelli who will reach out to his contact at Verizon.
15. A motion was made to approve the amended minutes of 5/23/22.  The motion was seconded and unanimously approved. A motion was made to approve the amended minutes of 5/25/22.  The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
16. Comments & questions from the public:
    1. Mickey Jervas criticized that the transfer station sticker for FY23renewal reminders were not mailed. She pointed out that there are residents who do not routinely use the website or internet.  The Town Administrator said that she would ask the Director of Operations to put up the renewal reminder sign at the Transfer Station.

A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 8:28pm

Submitted by:

Melissa Noe, Town Administrator

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. none