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Home My WebLink About2020-12-16 Select Board Minutes h�=GEIVti TO,NN GLERK Town of Reading - Meeting Minutes a 7� 2271 „h„ ZJ AM 9: 25 9'IX(OP� Board - Committee - Commission - Council: Select Board Date: 2020-12-16 Time: 7:00 PM Building: Location: Address: Session: Open Session Purpose: General Business Version: Final Attendees: Members - Present: Mark Dockser, Karen Herrick, Vanessa Alvarado, Carlo Bacd @ 7:15 PM Members - Not Present: Anne Landry Others Present: Town Manager Bob Letacheur, Executive Assistant Caitlin Saunders Nocella Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Topics of Discussion: This meeting was held remotely on Zoom. The board called to order at 7:05 PM with Mark Dockser, Karen Herrick and Vanessa Alvarado present. Town Manager Bob Letacheur gave an update from command. At their last meeting they mostly talked about spectators at sporting events. They are trying to figure out how to ask people not to have large gatherings during the holidays. The mortgage/rent assistance program has received more than a dozen applications. He noted they have tentatively hired a second public health nurse. Lastly, Town Hall has reopened by appointment only; this has not publicized this yet because most people are still able to do all their transactions online. Liaison Reports Karen Herrick reported on a new conservation policy changes that will have them meeting with DPW regularly now to improve communication. Carlo Bacci noted CPDC on Monday night discussed the Postmark square sign and bagel world updates. Mark Dockser spoke about the council on aging and noted The Green Tomato donated over 1,000 meals to the adopt a meal program at Thanksgiving. Town Manager Bob Lel-acheur wanted to remind residents trash will be delayed by one day. Liquor License Fees The board discussed if they would like to lower liquor license fees this year given the pandemic. Page I t Karen Herrick started the conversation off asking about our clubs in town and if they were open or not. It was noted most closed for a period of time but are open now within the COVID guidelines. The board had mixed opinions about lowering the liquor fees for this year. Some members felt the fee should be waived completely, while some felt they don't need to be waived at all. The board did agree not all liquor license are the same and concluded that the restaurants were impacted dramatically due to COVID while the liquor package stores haven't quite been impacted as much as they were able to remain open the entire time. The board decided the liquor package stores will not get a reduced fee and then they started discussing how much they wanted to discount the fee for other licenses. Mark Dockser tossed out the idea of reducing the fee by 50% while Vanessa Alvarado and Carl Bacci wanted to waive them completely. Karen Herrick was in favor for the 50% decrease in price leaving the board split. Instead of picked a percentage off the board looked at the actual fees and decided to pick a number they felt comfortable with instead. The board discussed how much revenue would be lost by this. The board agreed to reduce fees for restaurant all alcohol licenses, restaurant beer and wine licenses and the clubs. Carlo Bacci asked about Pamplemousse noting they do hold a package store license but they are not the typical package store. They only sell a small variety of specialty wines and he knows they are hurting. The board debated Pamplemousse and questioned if they could pick out one establishment from the entire class of package stores and just give a reduced fee to them only. They asked staff to check with counsel and if counsel noted it was legal for them to do then they would give Pamplemousse a reduced fee this year as well. Carlo Bacci moved to change the liquor license fees for 2021 as follows: Restaurant All Alcohol - $1,000 Restaurant Beer &Wine - $750 Clubs - $300 The motion was seconded by Vanessa Alvarado and approved with the following roll call vote: Herrick - yes; Bacci - yes; Alvarado - yes; Dockser - yes. Carlo Bacci moved to reduce the liquor license fee for Pamplemousse for calendar year 2021 to $600. The motion was seconded by Vanessa Alvarado and approved with the following roll call vote: Herrick - yes; Bacci - yes; Alvarado - yes; Dockser - yes. Staff Relationships The board discussed each member meeting with a department head to have an informal conversation regarding communication and working relationships between staff and the board. The board created a spreadsheet (attached at the end of the minutes) to sort out which member would meet with which department heads. Communication Policy This has been moved to the next meeting when all members are present. Role of Liaisons Mark Dockser shared a spreadsheet he created regarding liaisons and their role. He feels part of the liaison role is communication with staff and department heads about things that may be brought to their attention. Vanessa Alvarado noted there needs to be a way to share information with the whole board so that the whole board knows if an issue is pending/resolved/being worked on. She also feels there should be no decisions by an individual liaison. If a decision is necessary it should come to the whole board. Page 1 2 Karen Herrick echoed the need for more information to come to the board when staff is taking care of an issue. Town Manager Bob LeLacheur noted he feels a lot of these issues will be addressed in the communication policy Anne Landry has been working on. He feels there is a clear way to 'close the loop' with board emails in the new policy. Mark Dockser shared a spreadsheet he created with regards to closing the loop on board emails. The board then discussed future agenda items. Carlo Bacci moved to adjourn at 8:57 PM. The motion was seconded by Karen Herrick and approved with the following roll call vote: Herrick - yes; Bacci - yes; Alvarado - yes; Dockser - yes. Page 1 3 Proposed Department Head Informal Meetings Department Department Head SB Members Public Safety Police David Clark Anne/Mark Fire Greg Burns Anne/Mark DPW lane Kinsella Carlo/Karen Library Amy Lannon Vanessa/Anne HR Sean Donahue Vanessa/Carlo ? Public Services Jean Delios Vanessa/Mark Recreation Carlo/Karen Human/Elder Mark Health Anne Planning Carlo Conservation RMLD Vanessa Facilities Karen Finance ???? Mission: Connection Hot topics Concerns/Request/Ideas Board discussion to follow 2nd meeting in Jan � s AF sa $ s pps g3 i • i� R �a e 's$ €i 3 P# as Liaison Discusslon ascusslons GeMelines: request for lnho to department head,cc to Town Manager so unilateral action 'direction'-->board discussion and assignment function as board sharing of Information to Poll board ❑bison read,meeting Repoli beck from committee,/department heads to Ward Important that can't wait Board may request hither action email no decisions by indlindual member(liaison) Special Requests questions to put on agenda--TM report Board discussion possible asslgnment Liaison Other board designee