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Select Board Meeting Minutes 9/16/2020

Meeting date: 
Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Minutes of the meeting of 9/16/20

Meeting Opened at: 9am

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

Select Board Members Present Remotely: John Weingold

Also present remotely: Shawn Tryon, Adam Chait, Barbara Swann, Peter Chait, Dennis Lynch, Mary McGurn, Mickey Gervas, Steve Snyder, Jeremia Pollard, Richard Vignette, Caroline Massa  

Items discussed:

  1. The Director of Operations requested that item #9 of the agenda be moved to 1st, the Board agreed.  The following sealed bids for the Sandisfield Rd resurfacing project were opened on September 9, 2020;
    1. HMA Contracting $353,816.41
    2. LB Corporation $361,553.50
    3. Northeast Paving $368,842.50
    4. Palmer Paving $395,380.20

Shawn is recommending the next lowest bidder, LB Corporation.  Several calls to other towns that used our low bidder expressed unfavorable reviews/recommendations.  HMA also was unresponsive to requests for references.  John rejected Shawn's recommendation, saying only that we should take the low bid.  A motion was made to accept Shawn’s recommendation of LB Corporation.  Steven, yes.  John, no.  Don, yes.

  1. At the request of the Police Chief a motion was made to appoint Alan Havil as a probationary Intermittent Reserve Police Officer.  The motion was approved unanimously.
  2. Policy on adding items to the agenda: Due to the large number of items being added by John, discussion ensued about revising the current policy for adding items.  It was noted that most of the items this Board member is requesting to add could be addressed if the Board member would come in and meet with the Administrative Assistant first.  The prior, longstanding policy was then discussed.  It was noted that under that policy, onlythe Chair of the Board initially placeditems on the agenda .  IIand if a member edwants to pursue an item that was not added,the member had the right at the next meeting to ask for a vote on adding the item to the next agenda.  John stated that he now feels clear that the only way to get his items considered will be to get citizen petitions and put the items on the town meeting warrant.  A motion was made to adopt a policy that the Chair will prepare the agenda with the Administrative Assistant and any Board member may request at a future meeting to add an item to a future agenda which will be voted on.  Steve, yes.  John, no.  Don, yes.
  3. Special town meeting: The special town meeting will be held on Saturday, October 24th at 2pm at the pavilion.  M. Noe is working on the draft warrant. Don reported that the Finance Committee approved at their meeting last night adding the warrant items for purchase of 2 trucks and a rescue boat and sale of the old Oshkosh truck and the present rescue boat..There will be a joint meeting with the finance committee to discuss the financing options on October 1st at 5pm.
  4. The Board discussed the email communication from Unibank recommending a new state note for the library and leave the permanent financing for later in the year or early next year.  Unibank and the Treasurer will be asked to attend the October 1 joint meeting with the finance committee to discuss this further.
  5. A motion was made to accept the Lake Garfield Working 'Groups recommendation to accept the only bid received for the diver assisted suction harvesting received from New England Aquatics.  Discussion ensued.  John accused Steve of having a conflict of interest as he lives on the lake, to which Steve replied that if that were the case then all selectmen would be unable to vote on road projects as they drive the roads in Monterey regularly.  Steve, yes. John, no and Don, yes.
  6. A motion was made to accept the Cultural Council’s recommendation to change the process for dispersing grantee funds by changing to the option offered by the Massachusetts Cultural Council called “Direct Grants”.  The motion passed unanimously.
  7. Fiber Connect and Broadband and Fiber Connect's request for permission to place a permanent equipment shelter on town property.  Don reported that he had a meeting this past weekend with Adam Chait of Fiber Connect who informed him that he will not be spending any time or money on negotiating or approving the agreement with the towns until an agreement is finalized with MBI.  Don made a motion to table the shelter request until such time that an agreement has been reached between Fiber Connect and MBI.  Discussion ensued.  Town Counsel entered the discussion.  Counsel confirmed that the agreement drafted by counsel for Fiber Connect and the Town of Egremont was sent to Fiber Connect some time ago and no response has been received to date and no agreement has been finalized or discussed.  Adam Chait interrupted, asking to make a point of order, which was that this discussion about the status of negotiations is not relevant to the shelter request. Don noted that would depend on the vote of the Select Board.   On the motion to table the shelter request, the votes were: Steve, yes. John, no and Don, yes.
  8. Jeremia Pollard and Richard Vignette asked for direction on the process and any work to be done on the town agreement. Steve expressed that he would still like to work with counsel on the town agreement in parallel with MBI and Fiber Connect’s separate negotiations.  Don is not supportive of this as it could be done very quickly once an MBI and Fiber Connect reach an agreement.  Discussion ensued about the $25k available for technical and legal assistance (which comes out of the grant), what a town service agreement with Fiber Connect is for (MBI requires it to release the monies).  A motion was made to allow Steve to work with counsel on the town service agreement.  Steve, yes.  Don, no and John, no.  The motion failed.  Jeremia asked for confirmation that Monterey is not going to work on the agreement at this time; this was confirmed.
  9. Open Meeting Law complaint filed by John Weingold: This complaint was originally filed on June 23, 2020.  After receiving notification that the Attorney General’s office was going to close this case unless John Weingold edrequests permission for further review,, John filed a letter with the Attorney General,along with the original complaint, that does not address any open meeting law sviolation but rather his complaints about his fellow Selectmen and decisions that have been made in open meetings regarding the hiring of a Town Administrator.  Don read into the record a proposed response to John's letter, indicating that he had given a copy of the proposed response to Kenn and Kenn had agreed to its contents.  sendingA motion was made to approve the draft response  to the Attorney General. Steve, yes. Don, yes. John, abstain.
  10. Grant proposals received from Terry Walker and M. Noe:
    1. Terry Walker proposed to write a grant for police radios for up to $40k.  Estimated time to write this grant is 20hours.  The Board unanimously approved the request.
    2. Melissa Noe proposed to write a grant for cameras to assist the highway department.  They would be placed strategically throughout town to monitor road conditions and increase winter operation efficiency.  The grant may also include extending fiber optic cable to the highway department.  A motion was made to approve the grant proposal.  Don, yes.  Steve, yes.  John, no
  11. School building insurance:  The Board unanimously approved accepting the renewal insurance policy for the Monterey School Building.
  12. Caroline Massa of Berkshire Regional Planning Commission was present to review their recommendations after closing the survey and hosting an informational meeting last week.  Option 3 received the highest support.  Caroline stated that option 3 and 2 were the best options for Monterey’s downtown that would be integrated into the fabric.  Shawn agrees that option 3 is the best interest for the town.  Steve also agreed with option 3.  John suggested not doing the project as we do not need to spend this kind of money.  Steve noted that prices are never going to go down, only up and waiting could cause negative impacts to buildings, people and emergency services.  Caroline added that the life of the current culvert has ended and it needs to be replaced, it cannot be left to deteriorate and is not an option.  A motion was made to proceed with option 3.  Steve, yes.  John, no.  Don, yes.
  13. Administrative items:
    1. M. Noe reported that she and the Accountant have come up with a solution for submitting bills to avoid moving up the submission deadline.  We will be slowly implementing it with all departments, beginning with the library since they usually have the most constructive criticism.
    2. M. Noe distributed copies of the IT health check report from the recent free audit through the state.
    3. M .Noe distributed for approval a draft drug and alcohol policy.  This policy is required by the BRTA if we intend to use any Monterey volunteers to drive seniors in the elderly transportation vans.  The Board unanimously approved adoption.
    4. The Board accepted the amended draft payroll policies and procedures section of the Financial Policies and Procedures manual that is about halfway completed.
    5. M. Noe provided the Board with the temporary schedule she and Mark Webber have come up with for the next 2 weeks.
  14. A motion was made to approve the edited minutes of 9/2/20.  Steve, yes.  Don, yes. John, abstained due to the fact that he has an open, OML complaint.
  15. Transfer station complaint:  A reminder will be given to the attendants that they should not allow anyone to dump without a sticker and that anyone without one must pay the $10 per visit fee if they choose not to purchase a sticker.
  16. John reported that a resident informed him that a prior select board chair promised a sign would be erected in downtown Monterey directing folks to the beach.  John made a motion to erect a sign facing both ways directing folks off RT 23 to Tyringham Rd and the beach.  Steve expressed that this would be a horrible idea.  Steve, no.  Don, no.  John, yes.
  17. John made a motion to table all the rest of his agenda items to the next meeting.  Don, no.  Steve, no.  John, yes.  The items discussed below are all the items John added to the agenda.
  18. John noted that since the beach has been inundated with folks this year, the Board should consider adopting some sort of regulation to restrict access to town residents only.  John made a motion that beach access only be allowed access if they have a town transfer sticker.  Steve noted that not all residents get a transfer station sticker and may have multiple cars.  Don reported that the reason stickers were eliminated [by the Parks Commission] was because the system wasn’t working and was dependent on volunteers.  Steve, no. John, yes.  Don, no.
  19. Discussion of a noise ordinance:  Don advised John that this is an item that should go in front of the Planning Board, as it is responsible for that kindof bylaw recommendation to the town.  Steve added that this has been discussed almost every year and there has always been a decision to not pursue this, in part because the State has an anti-noise law. 
  20. Exploring K&P as town counsel, cost analysis, and a K&P letter dated July 15, 2020.  John requested to table this item as he did not send the letter ahead of time to the other members.  Steve inquired where this letter was and why they (K&P) would be soliciting only one member of the Board and not the Chair at that.  John stated that it was sent to him individually and later admitted that he solicited this information because “we get what we pay for and why not go with the best of the best in his opinion”.  No motion was made.
  21. Item 22 (Lack of continuity in Select Board decisions concerning hiring a Town Administrator): John requested it be tabled to the next meeting.  He was informed that it would not be on a future agenda as it has been tabled indefinitely.
  22. Item 23 (Placing items on town warrants w/o required signatures for a Citizens Petition but labeling it a “Citizen’s Petition on the warrant):  John stated that the weed harvesting article on the last town meeting warrant was placed on there without the proper citizen petition signatures.  Don stated that the Select Board can place anything they deem appropriate on their warrant and can waive the formality if they so choose.
  23. Item 24 (Collins Center report & 12 recommendations, an update, and an explanation of what items the town has implemented of the 12 recommendations to date and request to publish the first draft of the Collins Center's report) This item was tabled as an interim Town Administrator has been hired.
  24. Item 25 (Status of the Finance Committee and Select Board logjam over the town budget process, and the Select Board's rationale for this dispute and how this dispute benefits the town) Don noted that there is no logjam. 
  25. Item 26 (Code of Conduct Bylaw discussion) John was reminded that counsel has already weighed in on this and the Board has already voted on it.  Don also noted that the Employee Manual already contains a code of conduct.
  26. Item 27 (Status of drafting and adopting Financial Policies for the Town that were recommended back in 2016 by DLS) M. Noe reported that the she, the Board, the Accountant and Treasurer have been working on this manual for some time now and it is about ½ completed.
  27. Item 28 (Recommendations made by the 2015 Citizens Restructuring Committee in their Working White Paper, including but not limited to a TA, legal counsel and SB, and AA) This is deferred until Mark Webber officially starts.
  28. Item 29 (town website professional management, administration, and redesign for user friendly access and accuracy.  recent citizen complaint about not finding any email addresses for SB): John was informed that the website is professionally managed and the matter noted was resolved in 2 hours after the Administrative Assistant was made aware and brought into the conversation.
  29. Public comments: Steve Snyder stated that he appreciates the work that the Board is doing.  He will be encouraging everyone he knows to tune in and he doesn’t agree with Mr. Weingold’s assertions that nothing is being done properly in town government.            

A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 10:54am

 

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. Sandisfield Rd bid recommendation
  2. Grant proposals
  3. Draft payroll policies and procedures
  4. School building insurance documents
  5. DASH contract
  6. OML Complaint and draft response
  7. BRPC culvert recommendation
  8. IT Health Check report
  9. Transfer station complaint
  10. Answer to John’s letter see 0.10 above