Select Board Minutes

Minutes of the meeting of 3/20/19

Meeting Opened at: 3:10pm

Select Board Members Present: Carol Edelman, Chairperson, Kenneth Basler and Donald Coburn

Also in attendance: Michele Miller, Jon Sylbert, George Cain, Shawn Tryon, Peter Chait, Rebecca Wolin, Gareth Backhaus, Ray Tryon, Terry Walker, Dennis Lynch, Tom Matuszko, Cassie Boyd Marsh, Jim Barry, Patricia Mullins

The Board met with the Finance Committee to go over the following FY20 budget items:

• Overtime budget for administrative: It was agreed to add a new line item with $1k to cover any potential overtime for the newly reclassified positions that previously were paid salary when they are actually non-exempt and eligible for overtime past 40 hours.
• It was recommended to raise the street lighting budget to $3,800 as this account has gone over for the last several years.  This request was unanimously approved.
• The group purchasing line item was raised to $1k to reflect the increase imposed by Berkshire Regional Planning Commission.
• Household hazardous waste collections – the new group that will be taking over this organization has raised the assessment to $3,300.  This increase may decrease slightly if enough towns join the collaborative.
• Unemployment Insurance: Our rate is going up to for FY20, we will need to raise this line item for FY20 to $14,040.  Justin will call Harper’s and MA Unemployment tomorrow to determine why there was such a sharp increase.  This will be tabled until the next meeting.
• Final numbers were received from the school district.  The proposed amendment to the assessment method was also briefly discussed.
• Town Administrator budget line item – Kenn made a motion that this line item be kept at $1 until we get a final report from the UMass study that is being proposed.  He argued that it is not fiscally responsible to tax the residents on something that is not likely to be used until April or May of 2020 if at all.  Discussion ensued amongst both Boards.  George agreed with removing the salary and benefits and also proposed removing the study.  A motion was made by the Finance Committee to leave the Town Administrator budget items for ½ a year in the budget for FY20 for the Town to vote on.  The motion was seconded and approved 2 -1.
• Fire department – Town Counsel’s opinion was reviewed that the line item should not be renamed Fire Company Donation and should be left as Fire Department Utilities & Facilities Rental.  Discussion ensued and further clarification will be sought on the matter.  It was agreed that the line item should be split.
• The Finance Committee requested that the special article for the CART services at town meeting be moved to a regular, recurring budget line item.
• An additional meeting will be scheduled for 5pm on Wednesday, March 27^th.

Miscellaneous Items Reviewed:

• Broadband Committee: It was brought up that the Broadband Committee has not consistently posted minutes and the members aren’t listed on the website.  Kenn admitted that this was on him and he will provide all the missing minutes to the Administrative Assistant.
• The Board met with Tom Matuszko and Patricia Mullins of Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) and Cassie Boyd Marsh of Bailey Boyd and Associates (BBA) to discuss the recent communications regarding the transition plan for the FY17 Community Development Block Grant applicants.  New contract terms were discussed and eventually agreed upon.  The grant administrator, BBA will draw that up for the Board to sign.
• Jim Barry of the MA Department of Energy Resources came in to talk with the Board about the proposed general bylaw text that will need to be approved at town meeting in order to continue with the process of becoming a green community and receiving grant monies for energy saving upgrades on town owned buildings.  Jim offered to come and do a Q&A session prior to town meeting and/or at town meeting to answer resident questions on how the adoption of the stretch code affects building projects in a green community.  Everyone thought Jim attending the informational meeting prior to annual town meeting would be helpful.  The Building Inspector will be attending Annual Town Meeting to answer questions.
• Dennis Lynch came in to participate in the MVP reporting conversation.  The letter which designated us as a MVP community stated that there needed to be someone responsible for annual reporting and M. Noe inquired who that was going to be.  There was no provision in the original grant application to cover this.  Dennis offered to look into it and provide a proposal at the April 3^rd meeting.
• Minutes from 2/20, 3/5 & 3/6/19 were approved.
• Mail was reviewed.  The Board read & acknowledged a petition received in the mail asking Don Coburn to resign.
• Executive Session recordings: The Board discussed the pros and cons of recording executive sessions on audio and ultimately decided to purchase a separate recorder to tape these meetings.
• The additional meeting scheduled for next Wednesday will also include finalizing the response to MBI.

A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 6:02pm

Submitted by:

Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant

Approved by:

Monterey Select Board

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