Select Board Meeting Minutes 9/8/21

Minutes of the meeting of 9/8/21

Meeting Opened at: 6pm

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

Select Board Members present remotely: John Weingold

Also present: Jon Sylbert, Jeremy Rawitz, Terry Walker, Gary Shaw

Also present remotely: Don Coburn, Nancy Tomasovich, Susan Cooper, Frank Upton, Karin Jackson, Michael Watts

Items discussed:

1. Clerk’s request to change hours:  The town Clerk is requesting to change her hours again to Tuesdays 1 – 5pm and Wednesdays 9am – 8pm, anytime by appointment and 4.75 hours at her discretion.  Steve noted that the office hours are all about accessibility to the public.  Gary was asked if he is going to be available to cover office hours when the Clerk is unavailable; Gary said only if the Board says it’s ok since the last time he did he wasn’t able to answer a question and the previous Board said if he can’t answer everything he shouldn’t be covering (Steve did not.  Steve is concerned about allowing discretionary hours and setting a precedent for all other departments to do the same.  Justin wasn’t concerned as he stated other departments such as the Building Inspector and as long as the departments stay available to the public it’s all good.  A motion was made to accept the new proposed hours.  The motion was seconded.  The public questioned why the Saturday hours are going away; Justin stated that there were only Saturday hours for a short period of time, Steve noted that there had always been Saturday hours but for a short time there wasn’t.  John W. stated that he couldn’t hear anything and that he would be recording this meeting.  The motion passed 2 – 1 with John abstaining as he feels it is not within the Board’s jurisdiction to dictate the clerk’s hours.
2. Police department donation received: Discussion ensued about whether the donor’s name should be released or not.  This item was tabled.
3. Accounting contract: The revised draft includes all suggestions made by town counsel.  A motion was made to accept the contract as submitted for August 2021 through June 2023.  The motion was seconded.  John W. wanted to discuss the errors noted last week that were “blamed” on Terry Walker and in his opinion may in fact be the error of the accountant and therefore he is not in favor of signing the contract until it is resolved.  Steve noted that he spoke with the Assessor about the process and he agreed to also throw additional eyes on the process going forward.  Steve stated that this has no direct relation to the contract as they have been serving Monterey flawlessly and this error was an oversight.  John stated that his information he received was that the Accountant made the error and the person at the state representing Monterey did not see the error and got fired after a Finance Committee member pointed it out.  John wanted the facts first and to find out who actually made the error and if it’s the accountant then we should look for a new accountant.  John also claimed that the information he received said that this accountant has made errors 2 years in a row.  Don asked if he was trying to destroy this town.  It was suggested to have the Accountant come to the next meeting to discuss the error and the contract. Terry then stated that she was the one who found the error while working with Lisa.  Susan Cooper then expressed concerns that Mr. Weingold’s main purpose for interaction is to block every single contract while at the same time he gets upset when there aren’t contracts.  Susan then inquired as to the consequences and seriousness of the error made.  It was explained that the monies voted to lower the tax rate at the 2020 meeting were inaccurately reported and thus we will be getting $341k more in free cash for this year.  This item will be tabled until a meeting can be scheduled with the Accountant.
4. Special town meeting date:  The moderator is unable on the 16^th of October but can do the 23^rd.  The Clerk stated she is unavailable for both dates.  A new round of dates will be sent requesting their availability for upcoming Saturdays or a weekday at 5pm.  John W asked why we needed a special town meeting if we had over $850k in free cash to use; Steve pointed out that use of free cash requires town meeting approval.
5. KP Law engagement letter: A motion was made to accept the engagement letter with the $17k/yearly retainer.  The motion was seconded.  Gary inquired about the current cases the town is involved in and if it was a good idea to have former counsel finish it as opposed to new counsel.  Gary was assured by Steve and Justin that the Board will be discussing this with both attorneys to determine the best course forward.  John W thought it was absurd that we would continue to talk to former counsel when we have new counsel.  Justin pointed out that a discussion with former counsel is necessary to find out how much he would charge to continue on these cases.  John W thinks that KP Law is going to advise us on whether or not we should continue forward with them at all.  John W. had issues with the engagement letter stating that the Town Administrator would be the main contact.  The motion passed 2 - 1 with John voting no if the Town Administrator is involved.
6. HR opinion from KP Law: It was noted that John Weingold abruptly left the meeting at 6:38pm without reason provided. KP’s response was read into record which summarized stated that if time is of the essence the Board may consider scheduling a special meeting to discuss the complaint with 48 hours’ notice given.  In their opinion, KP Law feels the Board should hear from labor counsel as to the options it has with those options generally being the retentions of an independent investigator or an attorney within the firm not a part of the Monterey team.  Labor counsel is scheduled to meet with the Board next Wednesday.  Reasons for entering executive session were discussed. It was agreed that Steve will reach out to labor counsel with the specifics of the complaint and what he is specifically recommending the Board do.
7. Terms & conditions for youtube:  As Justin and Steve are divided on this issue it was agreed to table it to the next meeting.
8. Minutes of 8/19 and 9/1: Approval of these minutes were tabled to the next meeting since John W left the meeting.
9. Continue review of Select Board Roles, Polices & Procedures draft: This was also tabled to a future meeting.
10. Review mail and any correspondence to be sent/signed:
    1. It was noted that quite a few communications have been received that will be formally listed on a future agenda.
11. Comments & questions from the public:
    1. Susan Cooper inquired about the actual budget for the Fire Department/Fire Company as only non-profits which receive more than $500k/year are required to perform audits.  It was noted that the Monterey Fire Company does not receive anywhere close to that.  Jon S. states that an audit is a good idea and the only issue now is who will pay for it.
    2. Don Coburn inquired as to when the Select Board is going to appoint a charter committee to investigate what a charter could do for Monterey?  This will be added to a future agenda.  Steve noted that the Board can get to things when the meetings aren’t bogged down with the other nonsense and he hopes they can become more succinct and cohesive and get to all the items brought up at town meeting.

A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 7pm

Submitted by:

Melissa Noe, Town Administrator via recording

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. Draft Accounting contract
2. KP Law Terms of Engagement letter