Select Board Minutes

Minutes of the meeting of 4/24/19

Meeting Opened at: 9am

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

Also in attendance: Janet Jensen, Peter Chait, Michele Miller, Steve Moore, Wendy Jensen

Miscellaneous Items Reviewed:

• A motion was made by Kenn Basler to appoint James Dutcher as the Care of Soldier’s Graves person for a 3 year appointment.  The motion was seconded by Carole Edelman and unanimously approved.
• A motion was made by Don Coburn to appoint Jacob and Maddie Makuc as junior firefighters as recommended by the Fire Chief.  The motion was seconded by Kenn Basler and unanimously approved.
• Lighting at the Community Center:  The Board received several complaints about the lighting at the Community Center.  A motion was made by Don Coburn to have the Director of Operations, a member of the Community Center as well as our electrical inspector meet to come up with a solution that suits everyone along with proposed costs prior to town meeting so that any additional monies that may be needed to address this project this year could be added to the budget on the town meeting floor.  The motion was seconded by Kenn and unanimously approved.
• FY20 sticker pricing: M. Noe recommended that the Board keep the sticker price the same for FY20, stating that Shawn Tryon supported that recommendation. Kenn made arguments to lower the sticker price by $10.  M. Noe provided reasons she received from Accounting on how doing this will affect the budget/tax rate (lower free cash and higher tax impact).  Kenn made a motion to drop the transfer sticker fee for FY20 by $10 (from $70 to $60).  Don noted that the sticker cost was not tax deductible and agreed with Kenn that charging money simply to build free cash was not fair and Don seconded the motion.  It passed 2 to 1 with Carol against.
• Michele Miller inquired about hosting another “trash cleanup day” for the roadsides.  M. Noe is working with I. Marcus of the Berkshire United Way to organize a cleanup day in June.
• FY20 hauling contract:  The Transfer Station Manager/Director of Operations recommended the Board sign a new contract with Valley Rolloff for FY20 with the option to extend twice for one year each as he has found them to be a responsible and responsive vendor.  A motion was made by Kenn to accept Valley’s bid which was seconded by Carol and unanimously approved.
• MBI Response – There is nothing new to report, we are hoping to have something from MBI for next week’s meeting.
• Don inquired about the Broadband Committee Minutes: Kenn said that he had just submitted all the minutes from when he served on the committee).
• Kenn informed the Board that he has filed an Open Meeting Law violation against the Finance Committee alleging that it had as not posted 31 sets of minutes for agendas posted from 2016 – 2018.
• Kenn provided an update as requested by Don on the Open Meeting Law violation Don filed against against Kenn with respect to meetings. Kenn said he was expecting a letter tomorrow from a law firm that had agreed to give him an opinion without charge to the town.
• Adam Chait, CEO of Fiber Connect responded to today’s meeting agenda item about the conflict of interest and opinion from the Ethics division with a letter asserting that neither Kenn nor Carol had a conflict because both took advantage of the special rates and became customers after 10% of the community had.
• Don had concerns with a letter that was created by the Police Chief, Administrative Assistant and Director of Operations that was going to be sent to the Editors of the Berkshire Record and Monterey News.  In his opinion what the employees did was personal politicking in town hall when they should have been working on town business; He also said that it was particularly inappropriate for Melissa as administrative assistant of the select board since employees might think she was doing this with the select board's approval. Melissa disagreed, saying that their efforts were to convey that the employees in town hall are working together as a team in the best interests of the town.     For unstated reasons, the letter was not sent to the papers.  No motion was made.
• M. Noe requested that the Board vote on the suggestion made at a March executive session to hire a mediator/arbitrator as she claimed that the continued false accusations and harassing emails are still being sent by Don to Melissa.  Melissa felt that even if Don would not participate that the arbitrator/mediator could still provide useful ways to proceed to both the other Board members and herself.  Don said, as he had before, that he would not mediate with someone who tried to file a criminal complaint against him based on a false statement of facts and who had otherwise made false statements about him repeatedly.  Don said it would be a waste of town money.  Kenn said he wanted time to consider this and the matter was carried to the May 1 meeting without objection from anyone.
• Warrants were signed.
• Minutes from 3/7, 3/20 and 4/3/19 were approved.
• Mail was reviewed.

A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 10:02am

Submitted by:

Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant

Approved by:

Monterey Select Board

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