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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-12-04 Select Board Minutes ��or FrgQ Town of Reading a� Meeting Minutes ioard - committee - commission - council: 209 JAN 10 AM 10: 06 Select Board Date: 2018-12-04 Time: 7:00 PM Building: Reading Town Hall Location: Select Board Meeting Room Address: 16 Lowell Street Session: Open Session Purpose: General Business Version: Attendees: Members - Present: Andy Friedmann, Barry Berman, Vanessa Alvarado, Dan Ensminger, John Halsey Members - Not Present: Others Present: Town Manager Bob LeLacheur, Executive Assistant Caitlin Saunders, Assistant Town Manager Jean Delios, Administrative Services Director Matt Kraunelis, Town Accountant Sharon Angstrom, Public Works Director Jane Kinsella, Assistant Public Works Director Chris Cole, Human Resources Director Judi Perkins, Facilities Director Joe Huggins, Assistant Facilities Director Kevin Cabuzzi, GIS Coordinator Kim Honetschlager, Town Clerk Laura Gemme, Finance Committee Members Eric Burkhart, Mark Dockser, Karen Herrick, Anne Landry, Shawn Brandt, Dan Dewar. Residents; Jean Jacobs,Nancy Docktor, Ben Ream, Tony D'Arezzo, Gina Snyder, Bo Garrison Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Topics of Discussion: Chair Andy Friedmann called the meeting to order. Liaison Reports Mr. Berman mentioned that Wakefield has a proposed 40B project going in right on the Reading line. He attended Wakefield's zoning board meeting that discussed the project. It is proposed to be 190 units. The entry and exit points for that project essentially dump into Reading. Wakefield will be holding 5 meetings starting January 9t°. Mr. Friedmann attended the Board of Health meeting where they reorganized. Ms. Alvarado noted she met with Barry as the communications subcommittee to continue discussing things like social media policies for the board. She also attended the annual audit committee meeting for RMLD which raised no real concerns. Public Comment Nancy Docktor asked for an update on the pesticide regulations that the Board of Health brought to the Select Board last year. Mr. Friedmann noted he thought this was back in the hands of the Board of Health for further review but he will find out. Page I 1 Town Managers Reoort Mr. LeLacheur noted tomorrow is a National Day of Mourning for George Bush; the Town Hall will still be open. The police conducted a liquor compliance check and all of our establishments in town passed. ' The winter parking ban is now in effect so, please, no parking on the streets overnight anymore. The staff are analyzing the Wakefield 40B project so everyone knows we are aware of it and working on how to proceed. He also noted he does not think the board will need to meet next Wednesday. The Finance Committee called to order at 7:20 PM. Send Trails Committee Ms. Alvarado made a motion to retroactively extend the Trails Committee through June 30, 2021 with a second from Mr. Ensminger. Mr. Berman noted the board needs to do better realizing when boards sunset and acting in a timely manner on it. Will Finch, member of the Trails Committee, asked why they need to have a sunset date at all since their job is never ending. Mr. LeLacheur explained that because when the committee was created It was put In their policies with a sunset date so In order to change that, they would have to hold a hearing and change their policies. The board voted on the motion to extend the committee 5-0. Development Liaison Report - Lincoln/Prescott street Mr. Friedmann noted the project is ahead of schedule. The past concerns have been about debris and parking but those have all been resolved now. He noted the residents still want better communication. He then expressed concern about the sidewalk on Prescott Street stating we need to make sure that stays clear of snow for people walking. Town Manager Goals Mr. Berman made a motion to approve all 20 goals the Town Manager and staff came up with. Mr. Halsey seconded the motion. Mr. Friedmann asked about prioritizing the long list. Mr. Berman explained all the goals are important and it would be hard for him to prioritize. He does think next year we need a better process/system in place for doing the town manager's goals and review. Mr. Ensminger reminded the group the fiscal year is now half over at this point so we have to remember that when evaluating him on the goals if he was not able to accomplish them all completely. He also feels the board is getting close to micromanaging Bob and we don't want to do that. Some of these goals, for example, how he manages his employees, is micromanaging. We hired him to do a job; we need to let him do it. Ms. Alvarado agreed with all the previous thoughts. Mr. Friedmann then asked the board to discuss the 7 goals he came up with to add to the ' list. Mr. Halsey feels a lot of those goals on the second list are an Invasion of micromanaging. We are going places we shouldn't be going comparing us to running a business. Page 1 2 Mr. Friedmann doesn't think government can be compared to a private organization. Mr. Berman agreed with Mr. Halsey and noted, if any, he could maybe support the 'customer service' goal off of the extra list Mr. Friedmann provided. Mr. Ensminger agreed with Mr. Berman and would only support that one goal as well off of that list. Mr. LeLacheur noted he would like some direction on how to accomplish that so he would like more detail in regards to what actually needs to be done. The board then discussed what part of the customer service goal to add in specifically. Mr. Halsey still feels this is micromanaging Bob too much. Mr. Friedmann made a motion to amend the motion to add customer service training for all staff. The motion was seconded by Ms. Alvarado and approved with a 4-1 vote with Halsey opposing. Mr. Berman again moved that the board approve the 21 Town Manager goals for FY19 as presented and amended, accomplished as prioritized as time allows. The motion was approved with a 4-1 vote with Halsey opposing. Mr. Berman has prepared a document to address the process of how we evaluate and do Town Manager goals, however, Mr. Friedmann would like to save that for more time on the next meeting agenda. Renew Assessing Inter-Municipal Aareement ' This is the agreement the Town currently has with Wakefield that allows us to share our Town Assessor Victor Santaniello. This is to renew the contract for another three years. Wakefield will be voting to approve it at their meeting next week. Ms. Alvarado made a motion to approve the Inter-Municipal Agreement with Wakefield through December 31, 2021 as presented and amended. The motion was seconded by Mr. Berman and approved with a 5-0 vote. Town Department Budgets Public Services -Assistant Town Manager Jean Delios Ms. Delios went thru an in-depth presentation explaining her department and budget. She has no changes to her expense budget. There are slight changes to salary due to positions being changed around a little bit. Her department staffs 8 active committees. She has hired 6 people in 2018 and still has one vacancy, the Economic Development Director. She is asking for one new clerk. One of the people she hired was the Commissioner of Buildings, which came from the override. He has been extremely helpful and able to staff the counter more while inspectors are out Inspecting. The Elder/ Human Services Administrator went from part time to full time thanks to the override as well. Ms. Delios is requesting an increase in hours for the Public Health Nurse, the Senior Center Coordinator and the van driver. Mr. Berman asked if this was an appropriate time to get a feel of the board for whether or not they are interested in moving forward with economic development and getting a new director in place to work. ' The board seemingly agreed that economic development is important to them and they would like to get someone in place to work on that. Mr. Halsey noted Recreation has grown tremendously and in order for it to keep growing they need the new turf and lights done. Page 1 3 Mr. Friedmann commented he has gotten a lot of emails regarding the wayfinding signs and the color of them. He asked when the public will have an opportunity to weigh in on that. It was noted that this already went through a public process and they did get a chance to weigh in on it. Mr. LeLacheur wanted to also remind him that the color of the new signs do not mean we , are changing the school colors or the'town' colors. They are simply new directional signs for the downtown and that is it. Red and black signs are hard to read. Administrative Services - Director Matt Kraunelis Mr. Kraunelis started off his presentation with the organization chart for his department to show all the positions. The Town Managers budget overall is level. The Town Clerk's budget Is slightly lower because there are less elections coming up than last year. He is asking for a clerk in the clerk's office. Right now she has a couple part time people but a full time person would help out tremendously. In Human Resources he is requesting a second HR Generalist. Right now we share our one generalist with the Schools. They really need another person in there with the amount of work they do. The override funded a software training coordinator which they hired from within so now they have to fill that spot. Shawn Brandt, member of the Finance Committee, asked why we budget so much for Town Counsel. Mr. Kraunelis it is mostly to give us a cushion because we really don't know how much we will use him and we would rather have a little more budgeted than not enough. Finance Department- Town Accountant Sharon Angstrom Ms. Angstrom explained that she has three parts of finance split under her; accounting, assessing and general finance. General finance is responsible for a number of things Including payroll for all employees, quarterly property tax and utility billing and processing over 125,000 payments a year. Assessing deals with valuation of all real and personal property, property tax abatements and over 25,000 motor vehicle excise billings a year; to name a few responsibilities. Last but not least, the accounting department handles Invoice t processing and payment, budget oversight and support and compiling audit requests among many other things. Overall the finance budget is up 4.1% mostly due to her request to increase a couple positions to full time. DPW- Director Jane Kinsella Ms. Kinsella noted the override funded her department yz a clerk and one highway seasonal position. The challenges she faces with this budget are staff and space. She has struggled with acquiring and retaining laborers and engineering staff. The DPW and Cemetery garages are no longer big enough or suitable for what they need. In regards to salaries, this budget will go from 3 parks long term seasonal positions to 2 parks laborers; 2 cemetery long term seasonal positions to 1 cemetery laborer and 2 short term seasonal positions; and 1 highway long term seasonal to 1 highway laborer. Expenses have increased due to a couple of factors like increased costs associated with computer software, line painting and traffic markings and cemetery professional services. Mark Dockser asked if the department could consider adding another weekend to keep the compost center open for leaf drop off. The board thanked all the department heads for their presentations tonight. Ms. Alvarado moved to adjourn at 10:23 PM. With a second from Mr. Berman the motion passed with a 5-0 vote. 1 Page 1 4