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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-10-24 Board of Selectmen Minutes OF$fi_ O ♦ Town of Reading Meeting Minutes RECEIVED TQI�N CLERK REQ DIHG. MASS. xcu ° s'9rinQ� Board - Committee - Commission - Council: �Q�1 NOV 29 p Board of Selectmen Date: 2017-10-24 Time: .7:00 PM Building: Reading Town Hall Location: Selectmen Meeting Room Address: 16 Lowell Street Session: Purpose: - General Business Version: Attendees: Members - Present: Chair John Arena, Barry Berman, Dan Ensminger, John Halsey, Andrew Friedmann Members - Not Present: Others Present: Town Manager Bob LeLacheur, Town Accountant Sharon.Angstrom, Town Appraiser Victor Santaniello, Executive Assistant Caitlin Saunders, Bill Brown, Barbara Melanson, Vanessa Alvarado Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Topics of Discussion: Chairman John Arena called the meeting to order at 7 PM. Liaison Reports Mr. Friedmann attended the Trails Committee meeting. They are currently preparing their presentation for the Mass Trails Conference. The trails committee takes care of 462 acres of trails in town and they do it with a very little budget. Mr. Berman noted the library is exploding with usage. CPDC has been having meetings regarding the Gould Street project and the developer and making some changes due to pushback. The YES for Reading event displayed many teachers talking about their day-to- day struggles. Mr. Halsey wanted to note Recreation Committee is dealing with a problem on the turf field. Users are not shutting the lights off at night after they are done. The committee will be taking up a policy because of how frequently this is.happening. The town does not pay that electric bill for the lights, the tenant of the field that night does. He also noted the Birch Meadow Committee is coming back together. Mr. Ensminger explained the Board of Health is having a hearing on pesticides and will be working on getting some guidelines over to the Selectmen. We are currently working on putting together a-listof all vacant associate positions across all boards and will post those soon. Mr. Arena attended the Financial Forum and the YES for Reading event. He also attended the HRAC meeting and they plan to support MLK Day celebrations along with the RED group. He noted he also watched the CPDC meeting and saw a packed room with abutters. Mr. Arena then asked the group if they had interest in meeting on the 14th.to review the Page 1 1 BOS survey results together with the School Committee, Finance Committee and Library Trustees. Vanessa Alvarado asked if the School Committee and Finance Committees will get the survey results prior to the November 14th meeting to look at. Mr. Arena explained it's not that easy and they need to figure out the best way to present it. Mr. LeLacheur explained that the meeting on the 14th can be looked at as the start of this and to open the dialogue with all the boards. Mr. Berman asked Mr. Arena if there was any news on HRAC and Mr. Arena noted he would like to extend them a year since they are making good progress. Mr. Arena also took a moment to announce he will run again for Selectmen next term and would like the support of the town. Public Comment Bill Brown asked if Town Counsel has been to see Memorial Park or Oakland Road'. Mr. LeLacheur noted they have seen Memorial park and they are looking at it. Town Manager's Report Mr. LeLacheur noted JAMS for Jake is this Sunday. RMLD has dropped the ball and told us just this week they cannot get power to the field. Two town employees have volunteer their time and resources and will step up and make sure it happens. He would like to thank them for that. The Police and Fire did a presentation about their active shooter trainings and they received a lot of great feedback from other towns. Both departments work very well together. Mr. LeLacheur then read a .memo-he wrote to the board and is included in their packet. Mr. LeLacheur's memo stated the decline we have seen recently in the discourse of the town that only seems to continue spiraling downward. He noted last week he had to refer two incidents of discourse to the Police for investigation. One incident was a threat made a public meeting-to an employee and one was a letter written to an employee directed at specific boards and employees. These behaviors are beginning to surface more and more at public meetings and there is something we need to do about it. Mr. Halsey noted we have a member of a volunteer board who sent a Fetter to an employee that is completely inappropriate and unacceptable. This cannot go unnoticed. Mr. LeLacheur explained at this time he does not believe either incident is a serious threat. After speaking with Police, the comment that was made at a meeting seems to be a' misunderstanding. The member who wrote the letter did send a new letter, however, did not apologize or show any remorse for his original words. Mr. Berman noted he believes the things that were said in the letter are not things someone would say face to face and the incident is more of a keyboard bullying issue. He thinks we need to be sensitive to the fact that this is big project he is talking about in people's backyards. Mr. Arena explained that as soon as words become threats that is not okay. This is over- the-line coming from another Chair of a board. Mr. Ensminger wanted to remind the board almost every property in this town abut_s a residential area and property owners have a right to.develop their property. Mr. Friedmann noted he thinks this needs to be viewed in context as peoples tensions are running high right now about this project. He also noted he believes the Chair sent the letter as a citizen and not as the chair of the board. Page 1 2 Mr. LeLacheur wanted to inform the board the only reason he involved the Police is because he was obligated to after more than one person came to him saying they felt unsafe after the threats were made. Mr. Halsey noted he understands the situation and the neighbors wanting to have a say in projects in their backyard, however, the board has obligations to support the Town Manager and his staff. When his staff is being threatened we need to help take care of that. This person officially needs to be talked to because this is not acceptable. Mr. Arena stated there has been no apology from this individual. Mr. Berman suggested writing him a letter and explaining why they are upset. Change of Manager - Chili's All their paperwork is in order and the Police find no reason for the change of manager to happen. Mr. Ensminger moved that the Board of Selectmen approve the change of manager for an Annual All Alcoholic Beverages Restaurant License - Pepper Dinning, Inc. d/b/a Chili's at 70 Walkers Brook Drive, Reading, MA. Town Accountant Quarterly Report Town Accountant Sharon Angstrom was present to update the board. FY17 Revenues are 1.3 Million over estimates while FY17 Expenditures are 1.6 Million under budget. Mr. Ensminger commented .that this may lead people to think we saved a ton of money, however, it is important to advocate that is not quite the case. Ms. Angstrom gave a 5 year free cash analysis. Our reserves are 10.28 Million. Mr. Berman noted he.thinks it is also important for us to define and explain this better to residents. Mr. Halsey noted trying to find the proper and most efficient way to communicate that is difficult. Mr. Arena asked if our free cash number is similar to our peers. Ms. Angstrom noted it's hard to compare equally because different towns reserve their money in different ways but yes it seems we are in line with others. Mr. Friedmann asked if it was fair to say our reserve fund is like a savings accou.nt for most people and Ms. Angstrom noted yes that is a way to look at it. Ms. Angstrom noted she is currently working on getting our free cash number certified with the Department of Revenue. She also handed out a TLT breakdown of all the fees we have paid for that litigation and the HRAC donation list. She noted the Selectmen.can vote to accept the donations and then she can move them over to a town account. Mr. Berman made a motion to accept the HRAC donations totaling $1,392.97. The motion was seconded by Mr. Berman and approved with a 5-0-0 vote. George Kachen urged the board to talk a resolution to explain free cash at Town Meeting. Review Senior Taz Relief i Town Assessor Victor Santaniello made a short presentation to the board and explained to them that they can either vote to provide relief at a Ix factor, 1/2, or double the circuit breaker. Only 182 seniors were approved for the Senior Circuit Breaker totaling $181,096. The rate the Selectmen set will be shifted within the residential class or properties to pay foe the relief. Mr. Arena explained this could and probably will gain popularity and would be inclined to set the rate at the Ix factor. Page 1 3 Mr. Santaniello said even though there is not a lot of applicants this year, there could be unexpected consequences next year if you suddenly have 600 applicants. Mr. Halsey wanted to remind the board the other households pick up the burden. The board is doing the right thing here and we need to think of this are more than a number. Mr. Ensminger made a motion to set the Senior Tax Relief Rate at a ix factor. The motion was seconded by Mr. Berman and approved with a 5-0-0 vote. Preview Tax Classification Mr. Santaniello then went on to discuss the tax classification and rate the Selectmen need to set. Reading has never had a split tax rate. If the matching senior tax relief were granted, the single tax rate would raise $0.04 bringing it to $13.83. He then explained if they split it at 1.0028*, DOR only takes 2 decimal places so the rounding error would still get us to the same $13.83. He did note that it is possible that some households or commercial properties may be a penny off. The board had a lengthy discussion about shifting on residential vs. commercial. They understand small businesses would be affected but they cannot pick and choose to only tax the large businesses. They also understand there are struggling households in town as well. The board felt conflicted trying to come up with answer that would please most. Vanessa Alvarado asked when the board would actually be voting on the split tax rate and it was noted at their November 7th meeting they would make the final decision. Depot/ Compost Stickers Town Manager Bob LeLacheur noted the Board does not need to hold a hearing to change the fees if they are ready to change them tonight. Mr. Arena noted they have talked about this multiple times before tonight and asked the board if they felt comfortable moving forward tonight. There was a consensus because of timing that they should set the fees tonight as people will start to buy the stickers around Thanksgiving for next year. Mr. Friedmann expressed he.does not want to increase the fee if the price of service has not gone up. It was noted this fee has not been changed in many years and is vastly underpriced. Mr.. Ensminger explained his thoughts are to keep the depot sticker at $25 with a senior discount of$15 and charge $125 for the combine depot/compost sticker, with a senior discount at $100. Mr. Halsey commented his thoughts are to charge $200 for the depot sticker with no senior discount. Mr. Berman expressed that he does not think this is the right solution and perhaps charging daily would be better because there are people who only commute a couple times a year. Bill Brown noted Wakefield charges by the day. Vanessa Alvarado noted that is a 800% increase to the fee and asked what the cost is going to be for all the extra policing that is going to be needed when people start parking in the neighborhoods. Mr. Friedmann feared this is too much of an increase too fast. Mr. Halsey noted we have to account for everything that goes into this to cover the costs. Page 14 Mr. LeLacheur noted the people who park in the neighborhoods are going to park there no matter what the cost is. Mr. Ensminger made a motion to set the fee for the combine depot/compost sticker to $150 and just the compost sticker to $25 and $15 for seniors. The motion was seconded by Mr. Berman and approved with a 5-0-0 vote. Vote Warrant Articles Mr. Ensminger, second by Mr. Friedmann, move that the Board of Selectmen recommend the subject matter of Articles 3, 4, 6 and 3 of the November 13, 2012 Subsequent Town Meeting. Mr. Berman asked about the plastic bylaw article and if they ever held a hearing on that. It was noted that they were having a meeting tonight, an informational one and they have talked to the some of the grocery stores. Town Manager Review Mr. Ensminger noted Mr. LeLacheur had generally a good review. Mr. Arena noted we are lucky to have Mr. LeLacheur. Communication seems to be something to be worked on. Mr. Halsey explained the cogent path forward that Mr. LeLacheur.came up with last budget season was great. He then noted we should formally ask the School Committee to formalize if they're not going to need our funds we set aside for them. He thanked Bob for his service to the town. Mr. LeLacheur noted he is glad that the Selectmen and himself have a good relationship. He also noted he is thankful for his good employees. He explained that he thinks of the volunteers as the Selectmen's purview but if they wanted him to start treating them like his employees he can if that is what they want. Mr. Halsey explained he thinks the board should keep handling the volunteers. Minutes Mr. Ensminger moved that the Board of Selectmen approve the minutes of September 5th as amended. The motion was seconded by Mr. Berman and approved with a _5-0-0 vote. Mr. Ensminger moved that the Board of Selectmen approve the minutes of September 26th as presented.The motion was seconded by Mr. Berman and approved with a 5-0-0 vote. Mr. Ensminger moved that the Board of Selectmen adjourn at 10:50 PM, second by Mr. Berman and approved with a 5-0-0.vote. Page 1 5