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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-01-11 Board of Selectmen Minutes F k Town of Reading �b Meeting Minutes P'FCEIVE 1j A s s. Board - Committee - Commission - Council: Board of Selectmen 13'i1 JAN 2b All: 3 Date: 2017-01-11 Time: 7:00 PM Building: Pleasant Street Senior Center Location: Great Room Address: 49 Pleasant Street Session: Open Session Purpose: General Business Version: Attendees: Members - Present: Chairman John Halsey, Vice Chairman Kevin Sexton, Secretary Barry Berman, John Arena and Daniel Ensminger Members - Not Present: Others Present: Town Manager Bob LeLacheur, Police Chief Mark Segalla, Deputy Police Chief David Clark, Fire Chief Greg Burns, Assistant Town Manager Jean Delios, Executive Assistant Paula Schena, Erica McNamera, Mark Dockser Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Secretary Barry Berman Topics of Discussion: Badge Pinning - DeRuty Police Chief - Police Chief Mark Segalla introduced Deputy Chief David Clark who was pinned by his father Rufus Clark. FY18 Town Budget Public Safety - Police - Police Chief Mark Segalla noted that 95% of the budget is spent on wages and he has 41 officers. Expenses are down 2.1% for FY18. Chief Segalla noted that there are two types of call for service: Part 1 is crimes - larceny, burglary, robbery and rape; Part 2 - family, vandalism, fraud and drugs. The detectives were involved in 145 cases in 2016. In addition they are involved in quality of life issues - protective custody and substance abuse and there were 13 opiod cases in December alone. It was noted that the police are seeing younger kids use opiods. Dispatch - Chief Segalla reviewed the Dispatch budget which has 1.8% growth. Dispatched logged 32,963 calls and issued 4429 access stickers. Support services include training, traffic controller, Armorer, Safety Officer and Community Service Officer. They had 360 public records request in 2016 and they can take several minutes to many hours. Barry Berman noted that next year they will have one less Officer but business is up. He asked if the override had passed they would have hired an additional officer, how will they address that now. Chief Segalla noted they had 150 calls at school in the past four months. Most of the calls were at RMHS and a lot of it is mental health issues. John Halsey noted that there are more opiate calls for younger ages and we don't have anyone at the middle schools. He asked how short we really are. Chief Segalla noted that in 1998, before Walkers Brook Drive, we had 44 Officers and we are at 41 now. He would like 44 Officers at a minimum. Page 1 1 Board of Selectmen Minutes — January 11, 2017 — page 2 John Arena asked if overtime is stretched when people are out and Chief Segalla noted it is, they have to force people to work it. John Arena asked if assessments are done by headcount. Chief Segalla noted they are done by ratio — they look at development. John Arena noted that he is sure that the majority of calls are drug related even though they are not categorized as that and Chief Segalla agreed. John Arena asked if there is any technology that would help and Chief Segalla noted all of the cars are up to date but body cameras might be an unfunded mandate in the future. John Halsey noted that demands on public safety go on. He would be interested in seeing the soft costs — Officers at committee meetings, Fall Street Faire, etc. Mark Dockser noted that he feels the cost of issuing licenses and permits are under estimated. Nancy Docktor noted that many communities are hiring licensed social workers to free up Officers and we should look at that. Jean Delios noted that Public Services has two social workers who work with Public Safety so we are providing that link. Barry Berman asked if community access stickers can be distributed elsewhere and the Town Manager noted that the Board of Selectmen wanted the Police to make sure they are Reading residents and they are the only ones to do that. Erica McNamara reviewed Reading Coalition Against Substance Abuse (RCASA). She noted that it falls under the Police budget and they have three executive partners — Police, Schools and the White House. The RCASA was created by the Board of Selectmen in 2006. The funding was a grant in the amount of $1.5 million and then there was some time with no grants. The FY16 budget was $223,000 and they deal with underage drinking, mental health issues, and substance abuse prevention. The grant expires in 2019. Their annual budget is $125,000 for one grant. Grants increase work for the Finance Department and require staff services. Her staff consists of herself and a social worker doing 24 hours/week of outreach. Daniel Ensminger asked if they have regional partnerships and Erica McNamara noted that they are working together on opiod issues to get more funding — sometimes it is supplies, sometimes it is training. Erica McNamara noted that there is a significant lesser amount of prescription and alcohol access in local homes. They collected 1.1 million pills in the pill take back program. In addition, they dealt with 170 youth referrals and they deferred 167 who have not re- offended. John Arena asked if they do proactive work and Ms. McNamara noted that they draw themes from youth and do training. Barry Berman asked about Question 4 — recreational marijuana and Ms McNamara noted it will be a challenge. John Arena asked if they take students from other communities and Ms. McNamara noted that they do if they have space and they charge a fee. John Arena asked if they thought about going regional and Ms. McNamara noted that they have been asked but they say no because they cannot commit. Daniel Ensminger noted that we lost one School Resource Officer due to the override not passing and Ms. McNamara noted that she works with the School Resource Officer all day. John Arena asked if tobacco is still a problem and Ms. McNamara noted it is increasing due to vaping. Page 1 2 Board of Selectmen Minutes - January 11, 2017 - page 3 John Halsey noted that the grants expire in 2019 and Ms. McNamara noted that when we reach the max in 2019 they will be all done and will not get anymore grant money. She noted that all grants require match funding from the Town. Nancy Docktor asked if she would consider going into the private sector and Ms. McNamara noted that the billing fees are much lower for the Town than private sector and they are not covered by insurance. Kevin Sexton asked if she had a wish list and Ms. McNamara noted that another School Resource Officer is what she would ask for to get the strategic services. John Halsey asked if there is any way to quantify the value of another School Resource Officer and Ms. McNamara noted that they offer the feeling of someone they can trust and reach out to. She also noted that the younger youth have poor coping skills. Fire Department Chief Burns noted that their duties include fire suppression and fire prevention. Ambulance billing show responses are trending upwards. Transports are increasing at same rates but not all responses are transports. Kevin Sexton asked if they are only billing for transports and not just calls and Chief Burns noted that is correct. He noted that ambulance revenue is trending up also. John Halsey asked how our rates compare with the market and Chief Burns noted that our rates are based on Medicare and 25%. Ambulance billings charges 4% of what they collect. John Arena asked whether our rates are according to costs and should we evaluate and look at other communities. Chief Burns noted that when he did a previous study some communities were very high. Daniel Ensminger asked if revenues go to the general fund and not the Fire Department and gets distributed to all. Chief Burns noted that is correct. The Town Manager noted that when the Town started hiring paramedics only, that increased the cost. Some communities have a revolving fund. He can cost out the type of employee needed to do that job. Mark Dockser asked who determines who responds to calls. Chief Burns noted that when they get ambulance calls they send a fire apparatus with it to help carry people out. The Police do respond with them. They carry the same equipment in the fire truck as ambulances. Chief Segalla noted that the Police are mobile and the Fire Department is stationery. The Police are first responders and have equipment to deal with it. Chief Burns noted that all of their ladder trucks carry Narcan. Barry Berman asked if overtime is a challenge and if he anticipates more overtime. Chief Burns noted that the loss of a position will result in an increase of overtime. He doesn't order them in; they just don't let them go home. He did a restructure of command staff for flexibility. Chief Burns noted that he has employees going through steps; they are replacing radios and buying protection equipment for Fire Fighters. John Arena asked if they needed any technology and Chief Burns noted the thermal cameras are getting old and the new ones are lighter. They just added fire hydrant locators on the trucks. John Arena asked how many they are really short and Chief Burns noted they have two out now. He would like four more and that would reduce overtime. Page 1 3 Board of Selectmen Minutes — January 11 2017 — page 4 Mark Dockser asked about the impact of having two locations. Chief Burns noted that it does not cost more money to staff. He needed them on the west side due to Archstone, Johnson Woods, Austin Prep and schools. He would not want to lose that because it would create a longer response time. Public Services Assistant Town Manager Jean Delios noted that she has 10 Boards in her department and they appreciate all of their work. Administrative Specialist is a new position created by the loss of the Community Services Director and the Office Manager going to part time. She has a strong team throughout. The Building Division is doing inspections five day a week including Friday by appointment. Mrs. Delios reviewed a list of community events and noted that they no longer do the orange highlighted events and the yellows are under discussion. John Feudo spent a lot of time running the yellow highlighted events. The cost of night time government for recording costs is approximately $10,000. Only the recording secretaries get paid for night time government. The Town Manager noted that labor counsel says our ability to not pay overtime is ebbing legally. Jean Delios noted that the time getting ready for meetings and following up from meetings is not taken into account. John Halsey noted that we need discussion with advisory committees to improve efficiencies. The Town Manager noted that the Economic Development Committees in other communities take care of themselves. The employees attend meetings and nothing else. The committees are self-sufficient on their own. Barry Berman noted that this is our government. Meetings have to be at night, this is our form of government so the money should be put in the budget. John Halsey noted that we are just looking at more efficient ways to do things. It's not so simple to add money to the budget when cutting Police. Mark Dockser noted this how we get a lot done. Jean Delios noted that we do not have a recording secretary for the Conservation Commission or Fall Street Faire Committee. Conservation Commission Chairman Anika Scanlon noted that since meetings are video recorded can that serve as minutes. The Town Manager noted that minutes do not have to be a transcript but they do have to have certain things ie. motions highlighted. Jean Delios noted that we have few resources for the nice to haves. Recreation does not run the Fall Street Faire. The Pleasant Street Center will be closing at 3:00 and we will reduce participation in community events. Jean Delios reviewed permits. She noted that they issue around 1000 per year. Inspection fees are spiking; wiring and plumbing fees are low. Regarding turnaround time for permits, almost half of the building permits are issued the same day and others within two days. This happens because the Permits Coordinator is empowered to issue. Jean Delios noted that regarding regional housing we are hoping to get a hold on 40B's. Conservation works together to solve problems and fee are up in conservation. Human/Elder Services is doing a Master Plan and she told a story about a couple that the social worker was able to help. Elder contacts are getting more intense. Heath did 221 routine inspections and there has been a marked improvement with trash management. Recreation offers 450 programs and does field scheduling. The Veterans Division is in great shape. Page 1 4 Board of Selectmen Minutes - January 11, 2017 - page 5 Jean Delios reviewed fees and permits and noted there has been an increase in alterations. Jean Delios noted that the overtime budget line has been reduced by $15,000. A motion by Ensminger seconded by Arena to adiourn the meeting at 10:30 a.m. was approved by a vote of 5-0-0. Respectfully submitted, Seetary i Page 1 5