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Select Board
Date: 2024-06-27 Time: 9:30 AM
Building: Location: Zoom
Address: Session: Open Session
Purpose: General Business Version:
Attendees: Members - Present:
Carlo Bacci, Chris Haley, Mark Dockser, Melissa Murphy, Karen Herrick
Members - Not Present:
Others Present:
Town Manager Matt Kraunelis, Executive Assistant Caitlin Nocella, Linda
Snow Dockser, Mary Ellen O'Neill, Angela Binda, Ivria Fried
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Caitlin Nocella
Topics of Discussion:
Bacci called the meeting to order at 9:30 AM.
He took a roll call vote for attendance with Haley, Dockser, Murphy and Bacci noting
their presence.
Public Comment
Herrick joined the meeting at 9:34 AM.
Linda Snow Dockserthanked Karen Herrick for all her hard work as a volunteer.
Mary Ellen O'Neill asked the board to reconsider Guy Manganiello's appointmentto CPDC
noting he has too many conflicts of interest to be an effective member on that board.
Angela Binda echoed Linda Snow Dockser's comments about Herrick.
Discuss Open Meeting Law Complaint filed by John Sullivan
Haley moved to go into Executive Session under purpose 1 to discuss and potentially
respond to an Open Meeting Law Complaint filed by John Sullivan, received on June
15, 2024, to invite Ivria Fried and Rian Holmquest from Town Counsel's office, Town
Manager Matt Kraunelis, Assistant Town Manager Jayne Wellman and Executive
Assistant Caitlin Nocella, into the Executive Session and to return to Open Session to
continue discussion on this topic and to continue on with the rest of the meeting. The
motion was seconded by Dockser and failed with the following roll call vote:
Haley - no; Murphy - yes; Dockser - yes; Herrick - no; Bacci - no.
Motion fails; they will continue in open session with this agenda item.
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Ivria Fried explains the open meeting law complaint that says the board entered into
Executive Session improperly at a previous meeting.
In the meeting in question, Herrick abstained from the motion to go into Executive Session,
but since she didn't vote she doesn't have purpose 1 rights. Town Counsel feels the board did
not violate any open meeting laws.
Point of Order from Linda Snow Dockser - when I was on the School Committee we were
considered some type of employee for elected volunteers - is it the same for the Select Board
members.
Counsel noted, yes they are municipal employees for purposes under the law.
Bacci noted he agrees the board didn't do anything wrong.
Dockser thinks they should acknowledge a grey line and promise to try to do better in the
future keeping this in mind.
Haley noted the board all received the notice/ OML complaint so he doesn't feel Herrick can
claim she didn't get proper notice about it. He agrees with Bacci and would like to respond
that the board didn't do anything wrong.
Murphy agrees with Dockser and doesn't believe the board violated any open meeting laws
but feels they should be cognizant of it going forward.
Herrick noted she would like to move on and do the work they are elected to do. She agrees
with Dockser on how to respond to the complaint and move on. She thinks in the future we
need to provide proper notice to anyone named in CML complaints.
Town Counsel suggested the board can take a softer approach and say they don't believe
they broke any open meeting laws but promise to do better in the future.
Haley moved to authorize town counsel to respond to the open meeting law complaint
filed by John Sullivan as discussed. The motion was seconded by Dockser and
approved with a unanimous roll call vote.
VASC
The board needed to fix a clerical error from the previous meetings board appointments.
Haley moved to appoint John Kastrinos to a full member on the Trails Committee with a
term expiring June 30, 2027. The motion was seconded by Murphy and approved with
a unanimous roll call vote.
Haley moved to appoint David Swyter to an associate member on the Trails Committee
with a term expiring June 30, 2025. The motion was seconded by Murphy and
approved with a unanimous roll call vote.
Discuss replacing SB Member on the Killam School Building Committee
Herrick asked why this was on the agenda and Bacci noted he was given a list of
unprofessional behavior by the Chair of the Killam School Building Committee, and he feels it
needs to be addressed.
Herrick noted she has no knowledge of this list of what Bacci is speaking of. Murphy, Dockser
and Haley indicated they had not seen any such list.
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Murphy feels Herrick is not completely in the dark on what is going on based off her public
comments at the School Committee meeting the other night.
Bacci gave Herrick the option of reading the list or not to which Herrick declined to answer.
Haley volunteers to be the new Select Board designee on the Killam School Building
Committee.
Murphy noted she would like some more background on this and would like to hear what is
on the list.
Dockser feels this is inappropriate over accusations and this conversation is going nowhere.
Haley noted these are notjust accusations; everything is documented.
Haley moved to rescind Herrick as the Select Board designee on the Killam School
Building Committee and appoint Haley as the new designee. The motion was seconded
by Murphy.
Herrick then suggested adding Haley as a second designee with her on the committee. She
then went on to list all her accomplishments and what she has done thus far in the past two
years being on the committee.
Haley agreed that Herrick's dedication is unmatched, but everything else that has happened
is unacceptable and can't be looked past.
Herrick noted the board can remove her, but she can and will still attend and participate as a
Select Board member and support this project. She indicated she will not be leaving this
project.
The board took the following roll call vote on the motion to remove Herrick and add
Haley to the Killam School Building Committee:
CH - yes; MM - yes; MD - no; KH- no; CB - yes.
As the board was trying to finish their vote, Angela Binda, yelled out "communist Russia" three
times before saying, "communist Reading'.
Schedule
The board scheduled another meeting on July 911 at 6PM to address another open meeting
law complaint filed against them.
Haley moved to adjourn at 11:04 am. The motion was seconded by Dockser and
approved with a unanimous roll call vote.
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