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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-05-26 Board of Selectmen Minutes Board of Selectmen Meeting May 26,2009 For ease of archiving, the order that items appear in these Minutes reflects the order in which the items appeared on the agenda for that meeting, and are not necessarily the order in which any item was taken up by the Board. The meeting convened at 7:00 p.m. in the Town Hall Conference Room, 16 Lowell Street, Reading, Massachusetts. Present were Vice Chairman Ben Tafoya, Secretary .lames Bonazoli, Selectman Camille Anthony, Town Manager Peter Hechenbleikner and Assistant Town Manager/Finance Director Bob LeLacheur. Reports and Comments Selectmen's Liaison Reports and Comments — There were no Selectmen's Liaison Reports and Comments other than appreciation by the Board of Selectmen for the staff work in preparing for Memorial Day. A suggestion was made by Selectman James Bonazoli that perhaps the Parade could be expanded in length and number of participants. Discussion/Action Items Code of Conduct—The Town Manager reviewed the draft of the Code of Conduct. With regard to enforcement, the Board felt that language to the effect if member conduct is inconsistent with the policy, the Board of Selectmen will determine if action needs to be taken. This will be put on a future meeting for the Board.to adopt. Additionally, the Assistant Town Manager raised the question as to whether or not members of all Boards, Committees and Commissions should be required to fulfill all civic obligations including payments of taxes, licensing of dogs, etc. in order to serve. The Town Manager will ask Town Counsel to check this matter. Boards Committees and Commissions Appointment Process—The Town Manager noted that Chairman Stephen Goldy asked that this matter be deferred in discussion until he could be present. The Board members present wondered how, using the North Andover model, the three members who are not on the Screening Committee who had a question about an appointee get that question resolved. The Town Manager will ask other Town Managers how they address this issue if at all. Electronic Packets - The Board discussed the issue of electronic packets. The Town Manager explained that at least a couple of members of the Reading Municipal Light Board got their packets for their meetings electronically and then brought this information on their personal laptops to the meeting. An advantage to such a system would be to avoid having the Police drive to the Selectmen's homes to deliver their packets once a week, and it would also save on paper. Board of Selectmen Meeting—May 26,2009—Page Vice Chairman Ben Tafoya noted that being in a meeting with everyone focused on their laptops could be very distracting to the operation of the meeting both with the noise of typing as well as members focused on their laptops. Members of the Board felt that some information could be sent electronically; for example, the liquor license renewals, and much if not all correspondence. The Agenda could then list the correspondence. The Town Manager noted that eventually all of the packets will be done electronically in addition to'however the Board of Selectmen want to receive them for purpose of record retention. It would also be his intention to put the fall packet on the Town's website with the Board of Selectmen's Agenda probably the Monday before a Tuesday meeting. The Board felt that some items like the Tracking Log, the Calendar and even the Minutes could be given to the Board electronically. If the entire packet was sent to the Board electronically, then Board members could print out for themselves whatever was relevant to the upcoming meeting. For the next Board of Selectmen's meeting, we will send out the packet as usual but Board members will focus on what, in that packet, could be provided electronically rather than in paper. Goals — The Town Manager noted that there have been several suggestions about Selectmen's Goals, and whether or not they differ from the Town Manager's Goals. There'was a difference of opinion among the members of the Board. He would like to suggest the following: For the Board of Selectmen to develop broad vision statements in a number of areas that cross Town Government functional areas. Examples would be economic development, sustainability, financial planning, etc. The concept would be to have an evening meeting with no other business on the agenda, and take one of these topics, thoroughly'review it with the Board of Selectmen and staff who are involved with that item (Department Heads and perhaps some Division Heads), and at the end have a vision for that area of focus. Once the Board had done this for the three or four of the areas that they wanted to utilize, then it will be much easier for the Town Manager to set goals at a work program in furtherance of these vision statements. The Board members suggested pulling out previous information like the existing mission and value statements, and have the Board then go through the process of determining what two or three major areas of focus would be. Information for the World C66 could also be used for securing information on the two or three major areas of focus. These areas should be broad issues that are interdisciplinary in nature. Vice Chairman Ben Tafoya noted that the Board could then use a process of reviewing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to focus the discussion on those areas. The Board agreed to do a workshop type of meeting with staff to develop the two or three Board of Selectmen Meeting—May 26, 2009—Page 3 major areas of focus for this process. This will be done without a facilitator and each topic would take one such evening. Selectman Camille Anthony also asked for several items to be considered: ® Community Outreach, "Reading Matters," monthly shows on RCTV to be rotated among the Board of Selectmen, and better ways for Outreach to get people to vote. ® Modifying the email acknowledgement process. ® Establishing common liaison responsibilities. ® Looking at the next upcoming meeting of the Board'of Selectmen at the end of a meeting so the Board knows what is coming up. The Board had some discussion on the MMA material and budgets. The Town Manager advised that we continue to wait until we have a State Budget, and then look at modifying or amending our budget as needed. On motion by Anthony seconded by Bonazoli, the Board voted to go into Executive Session for the purpose of labor negotiations not to come back into Open Session. Ona roll call vote all three members voted in the affirmative and the motion was carried. Respectfully submitted, /Secretary i i