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Home My WebLink About2020-12-15 Select Board Minutes Rt: GLIVED ry TOVJP! CLERK Town of Reading R ~ '`, ' ! ""!A.� Meeting Minutes 21721 JAN Zu AM 9: 25 Board - Committee - Commission - Council: Select Board Date: 2020-12-15 Time: 7:00 PM Building: Location: Address: Session: Open Session Purpose: General Business Version: Final Attendees: Members- Present: Mark Dockser, Anne Landry, Carlo Bacci, Karen Herrick, Vanessa Alvarado Members - Not Present: Others Present: Town Manager Bob LeLacheur, DPW Director Jane Kinsella, Facilities Director Joe Huggins, Assistant Facilities Director Kevin Cabuzzi, Fire chief Greg Burns, Police chief David Clark, Coalition Director Erica McNamara, Program Coordinator Sammy Sulkin, Assistant Town Manager Jean Delios Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Topics of Discussion: This meeting was held remotely on Zoom. Anne Landry moved to go into Executive Session including Counsel Greg Pagnini (BHPK Law), Ivria Pried and Chris Heep (both from Miyares &Harrington) and Jody Mills (from MIIA); staff members Bob LeLacheur, Caitlin Saunders, and Jean Dallas in order to discuss strategy with respect to litigation and pending actions involving 59 Middlesex Road and that the Select Board Chair declare that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the body, and to reconvene in Open Session at approximately 7:15 PM. The motion was seconded by Karen Herrick and approved with the following roll call vote: Herrick - yes; Landry - yes; Alvarado - yes; Dockser - yes. The board reconvened in open session at 7:26 PM. Introduction of new Housing Authority Executive Director Katie Gallant, new Executive Director of the Housing Authority. She started about a month ago and came from the Somerville Housing Authority where she was there for the last 10 years. She just wanted to introduce herself to the board and she looks forward to working with them when needed. The board noted they do not currently have a liaison to the Housing Authority so Karen Herrick graciously stepped up to the plate and will be he liaison. Dispose of Surplus DPW Director Jane Kinsella had a list of items to be declared as surplus. She noted all of the items are no longer in working condition or have problems not worth fixing. Page 1 1 The board had no issues with disposing any of the ten items listed. Anne Landry moved that the Board dispose of the list of surplus items as presented 2008 CAT 450 E 2009 International Max Force DT 1985 John Deere 750 2010 Bobcat 5385 • 2007 Ford Escape 2011 Stetco 950 2012 VER-MAC PCMS 1500 2011 Stepp SPH-2.0 • 2006 FORD E250 • 2007 FORD FOCUS The motion was seconded by Karen Herrick and approved with the following roll call vote: Herrick —yes; Alvarado — yes; Landry — yes; Dockser — yes. Budget Presentations Town Manager Bob LeLacheur noted these requests are everything each department would ever want in a perfect world with no money restraints. All presentations can be found in the Select Board for packet for December 91', 2020 on the town website. Facilities Director Joe Huggins and Assistant Director Kevin Cabuzzi were present for the Facilities budget presentation. His budget is up just over two percent. Mostly because of expenses which have increased by 4.9%. Expenses have increased due to the new filters they have to use now due to COVID. They cost more and don't last as long. Assistant Town Manager Jean Delios presented the budget for Public Services. She has five asks in this budget in a perfect world. She would like more hours for her general administrative positions. Economic Development needs some more money for programming. A new part time position in building; a code enforcement officer. She needs more resources in the Health department including a director and more hours for the nurse. Recreation needs a full-time program coordinator. Anne Landry asked for more of explanation for the plan with the health department and the positions needed. Mark Dockser noted downtown parking has been a big topic and it expected to return to the board in the spring. He asked if they are staffed adequately to handle that. Vanessa Alvarado asked for a report on the staffing for the past five years in her department. Next up was Fire Chief Greg Burns. He noted the fire department budget is up for a total of 2.3%. Salaries are up 2.3% and expenses are up 4.8% this year. He noted he does have a lot of grants in progress. He explained the grants related to COVID are much more in depth and they are asking for a lot more information than normal so they are taking a lot longer to create and process. Police Chief David Clark presented the Police budget next. He noted his budget is up 4.2% in this request. He is asking for a civil rights officer at the Sergeant level. Vanessa Alvarado feels the psychiatric social worker for the department should be a prioritized position. Anne Landry suggested it could possibly be a shared position. Page 1 2 The dispatch budget is up slightly by .66 percent. It was noted their budget is 95% salary. The Coalition Director Erica McNamara and Program Coordinator Sammy Sulkin presented the Coalition budget. Their budget is up 16.6°/x. There is a slight increase in wages by 2.7% and the rest includes a 229% increase in expenses. The large increase in expenses is due to 3 major changes. The'text a tip' program was previously funded by grants but is not this year so there is an expense to keep using and being apart of that program. There is a software to help staff track all staff activity that will be extremely helpful. And the Interface Referral Services program which provides helpline services to Reading residents has an increased cost this year as well. Lastly, Town Manager Bob LeLacheur went thru the Capital and debt. He showed the changes since November Town meeting. There's about six million in roof changes for the schools. They split that into three separate projects. After discussion, Parker Middle School roof is the priority. It needed more extensive repairs so that number was increased by one million and moved up two years. The high school turf is also another priority and being added into the capital plan. Economic Development phase II for the downtown area has two million allocated to that. We are still in a very early stage for this project with a lot of discussion needed. The capital plan includes additional funds above and beyond the Finance Committees recommendations. It would be 5.5% instead of 5%. He still has some juggling to do as another request just came in yesterday. He would like to ask for some money to do some design work to the police station. We removed a generator from town hall from the capital plan. A new item for a GIS flyover to gather information has gone down due to some funding being picked up by Mass GIS. He would like to put a small amount of money aside for downtown energy efficient changes; this would be more of placeholder for now as there is more work to do with RMLD. The board talked about Camp Curtis and Symonds Way. They are going to go out and get a wetlands scientist to walk Camp Curtis. There is $50,000 allocated for this time but it will not that all of that. They are going to do some title work on Symonds Way. They believe one parcel will be buildable and one will not be. Vanessa Alvarado asked if the board would have another meeting to make comments about the budget. It was noted that at their January 5`h meeting it will be on their agenda. Karen Herrick moved to adjourn at 10:33 PM. The motion was seconded by Vanessa Alvarado and approved with the following roll call vote: Herrick — yes; Bacci — yes; Landry — yes; Alvarado — yes; Dockser — yes. Page 1 3