Select Board Meeting Minutes 6/2/21

Minutes of the meeting of 6/2/21

Meeting Opened at: 6:01pm

Select Board Members Present: Steve Weisz, Chair, Justin Makuc

Select Board Members present remotely: John Weingold

Also present: Susan Cooper, Emily Johnson, Janet Jensen, Michael Zisser, Dennis Lynch, Mickey Jervas, Hillel Maximon, Nancy Tomasovich

Items discussed:

1. Town Administrator items
   1. Review and accept bids for truck and dump body.  A motion was made to accept the high bid of $6,400 on the 2000 Ford F550 and the high bid of $6,678 on the 9’ stainless steel dump body.  The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
2. A motion was made to approve the edited minutes of 5/19/21.  John asked if anyone listened to the recording and Justin stated he did.  Justin seconded the motion.  The motion passed 2-1 with John voting no. The approval of the 5/26/21 minutes will be tabled until the next meeting.
3. 319 letter of support: Dennis Lynch explained the letters are needed for the 319 grant proposal.  Dennis provided a summary on the in kind items that will be eligible to assist with the required town match.  A motion was made and seconded to approve the documents to be signed and submitted.  The motion passed unanimously.
4. Review mail and correspondence to be sent/signed: none
5. Continue review of Select Board Roles, Polices & Procedures draft:  A copy of the most current edited draft was placed on the screen.  Justin went over each of his suggested edits and the Board discussed them.  John made a motion to add that all selectman can contact town counsel and that an opinion should be given in writing to all members.  John asked if there was a second. Justin questioned why a motion needed to be made for this edit when we did not do it for any others discussed tonight.  The motion failed.  The document will be redistributed with the edits made tonight for review and possible approval at the next meeting.
6. Steve asked if the board thinks it is fair and reasonable to have one member add over 20 agenda items for one meeting and suggested that each board member be limited to 5 items per meeting to avoid a lengthy meeting. Justin said that in all fairness Justin and Steve did not add any agenda items.Justin stated that putting this many items on means that the appropriate amount of research will probably not happen, but that we always have the option of tabling them to a future meeting.
7. Mandating Gotomeeting Transcripts of all Selectboard meetings, public and SB access to meeting recordings and link access always an issue, not downloadable, Mandate posting of meeting links to website for open access, Selectboard (SB) access to Gotomeeting account and recordings, labeling meetings SB meetings, discussion of moving to Zoom. This item was added to the agenda by John Weingold. Steve suggested that if this were enacted it should be across the board to all committees and boards.  Justin felt if the transcript was easy to do it might be worth trying although he doesn’t think the transcription document will be that accurate based on his experiences.  Discussion ensued about whether or not to have links to the video/audio recordings posted on the website.  Steve argued that some people may not wish for to be memorialized online. 

A motion was made to circulate the transcripts of all select board meetings to all members and place all video meeting links on the website.  Steve requested to amend the motion to just state to circulate the transcripts of all select board meetings to all members.  The amended motion was seconded and unanimously approved.

A motion was made to post all gotomeeting recordings to the website with an accessible link for the public.The motion was seconded.Steve felt strongly that turning the select board meetings into a reality show made him uncomfortable. Justin related the recordings more to C-SPAN rather than a reality show. John thinks posting them will keep folks from acting out and will keep officials in line.  Susan Cooper pointed out that someone can still edit the recordings and repost, misrepresenting what actually occurred. The motion passed 2 – 1 with Steve voting no.  John tabled the discussion about moving to zoom’s platform.

1. Discussion of stopping procedure of sending documents the day of meeting expecting edits without listing edits on Agenda. Only documents send 48 hours before a meeting should be discussed or considered. John Weingold added this item to the agenda.  John was reminded that Melissa has received an opinion that she cannot send documents that have been edited beyond grammatical corrections as she would be contributing to a potential Open Meeting Law violation by distributing the other board members opinions.  John did not agree with Melissa’s interpretation and will make his own inquiry to the Open Meeting Law Division.  Justin stated that if the Board is unable to have enough time to review a document then the discussion will be deferred to next meeting unless the document/matter is time urgent.
2. Inaccurate/incomplete SB minutes, failure to produce accurate minutes, review transcripts/recordings after the meeting to produce accurate minutes.  Edits to minutes and minutes discussed at meeting and posted with links in minutes: John Weingold added this item to the agenda because he personally feels minutes are inaccurate.  He believes that transcripts and recordings will help with this concern of his.  Steve stated that generally minutes are produced to give a reader a summary of what happened a meeting and too succinct minutes may be quite lengthy and wordy and too short of a document may not accurately represent what happens.  Steve added that minute writing is not an exact science and Melissa has been doing a good job for several years with the majority of the Board approving the minutes as written or with minor edits.  Justin said that maybe the Board should consider hiring someone else to do the minutes to allow Melissa to be freed up to participate in the meetings as Town Administrator.  Justin added that he would like to talk to Melissa about what she thinks regarding the matter.
3. TA procedures, Town Administrator (TA) vacation w/o approval, job duties per the job description, post the TA job description on website, holding multiple paid positions contrary to job description: John Weingold added this item to the agenda because he thinks we need to develop procedures for the Town Administrator such as use of vacation time.  He understands she is entitled to vacation but then accused Melissa of just telling the Board when she is taking off rather than asking permission.  Steve pointed out that all employees fill out a time off request form which is in the Select Board mailbox and they are signed when Board members come into town hall.  All of Melissa’s time off has been approved by 2/3 of the selectmen since John has been on the Board.  Once again it was stressed to John the importance of coming into town hall to sign the warrants, look at mail and meet with all department heads.  John then inquired why the job description for the Town Administrator was not listed on the town website along with all the others.  It was an oversight since this is the most recently created job description.  Melissa Noe informed the Board that she was adding the description right now.
4. Fire Department Self Contained Breathing apparatus Grant update, accounting of the $1K authorized for the grant writer, what happened to the grant?:  John Weingold added this item to the agenda. Melissa Noe stated that we have been informed that the government is one month behind and we should expect to hear something in the beginning of July.  The grant writer has not yet submitted a bill for the $1k.
5. Massworks Grant application update:  John Weingold added this item to the agenda.  Melissa Noe informed the Board that a lot of dedicated people have been putting everything they have into this and the sudden resignation of the grant writer was unfortunate and a misunderstanding which has since been talked through.  Justin and Steve both stated that they have been in communication with all 3 parties and Steve can attest to the fact that it was a misunderstanding and all parties have moved forward in a positive, team approach. Justin would like to develop a procedure for grant writing going forward, like the Select Board policies and procedures document, in order to make future grant writing processes happen more smoothly.
6. Green Communities update:  John Weingold added this item to the agenda.  Melissa Noe informed the Board that we are still waiting on the final report from our re-inspection of the town buildings for the energy audit.  She has also been informed that the board will need to amend the vehicle use policy approved a few months ago.  The monies for this grant will not be available to spend until next year so we have time.
7. John made a motion to table the remaining items on the agenda (#’s 13-22) due to the late hour.  The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
8. Comments & questions from the public: none

A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 8:08pm

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. 319 grant letters of support
2. Draft Select Board policies