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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-02-03 RMLD Community Relations Subcommittee Minutes_ I " _ p "I RMLD BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ~ S Public Relations Subcommittee Minutes Ia r a, S S . GM Conference Room Monday, February 3, 2003 ' Start time: 7:25 p.m. End Time: 9:10 p.m Commissioners: Commissioner Hughes, Chairman of the RMLD Board of Commissioners, Commissioner Herlihy, member of the RMLD Board of Commissioners RMLD Staff: Mr. Bob Fournier, Accounting Manager Ms. Priscilla Gottwald, Community Relations Manager Ms. Bobbi Maillett, Community Relations Assistant Mr. Hughes called the meeting to order at 7:25 p.m. Mr. Hughes explained this meeting was to discuss the Operating Budget of Community Relations. Operating Budget Mr. Fournier stated that he and Mr. Cameron, Acting General Manager were happy with the budget the way it was. Mr. Herlihy wanted to know where the Scholarship line was for previous year. He would like to replace the Scholarship program with a Summer Youth Program. Ms. Gottwald said that had been discussed briefly with Mr. Cameron and Ms. Antonio. Mr. Cameron said if a program were initiated it would come under Human Resources. It was asked of Mr. Fournier if it was in the budget. Mr. Fournier will ask if it can be put in the HR budget. A discussion ensued about how the program should run. It was suggested that it should be open to 2 teenagers per town, pay would be $10 per hour, 20 - 25 hours per week for 8 weeks for a cost of $16,000 to $20,000. The criteria for the program would require residing in the service territory, being between the ages of 16-19 (RMLD requires employees to be 1. 8), no restrictions placed on the candidates (driver's license, family members of RMLD employees, etc.) Mr. Herlihy would like the Massachusetts Work- Based Learning Plan guidelines to be followed. Other issues in the Budget: Mr. Hughes referred to the legal opinion from Rubin & Rudman at a cost of $9,500. This opinion reviewed the Community Relations Dept. budget. Mr. Hughes regards this legal advice as subjective. The Annual Report was discussed. Mr. Herlihy would like a modest looking Annual Report next year. The Newsletters (residential and commercial) were discussed next. Mr. Herlihy requested a copy of Business Focus Newsletter to be put in his mailbox. The Business Cards were discussed. Clarification was given as to who receives these Business cards. The educational Hazard Hamlet portable display of a town with electrical hazards was discussed. Mr. Herlihy would like the CAB and Board to be aware of the Hazard Hamlet Program which is budgeted for $8,000. Ms. Gottwald said she has a video and an informational packet which she will make available to them. It was decided that it would be brought up at the 2/13 RMLD Board meeting and discussed further that evening. In the meantime, Mr. Herlihy and Mr. Hughes will review the video on it. Decrease Senior Citizens' Drop-In Day (Line item 4a Line 3) budget by $500 from $1000 to $500. Increase Good Neighbor Program by $400 from $100 to $500 to accommodate for cost of envelopes (25,000). Decrease Tuition Reimbursement by $872 from $2,000 to $1,128 to reflect Ms. Gottwald's 10% reimbursement. It was decided that Mr. Fournier would meet with Mr. Cameron and discuss what had taken place regarding the budget and everyone was in agreement that the budget looked good and was ready for approval. Mr. Fournier left the meeting after this discussion. Upcoming Community Relations Events Ms. Gottwald distributed an agenda of current issues in Community Relations. 1. Thursday, Feb 20, 2003. It is a Lunch & Learn at the Reading Senior Center. She, Ms. Maillett, Mr. Carson and Ms. Cavagnaro will attend. Mr. Carson will deliver a presentation on cold weather and what to do in the case of an electrical outage (talk about flashlights, having a phone that uses a jack (sans electricity). 2. Ms. Gottwald attended the Breakfast meeting of the Reading-No Reading Chamber of Commerce on Wed, Jan 29, 2003 at the Reading Public Library. The directors of the RPL and the NRPL were in attendance and a tour of the facility was given after the meeting. While talking to the directors, the subject of RMLD being a focal point for the new residents moving into RMLD's service territories came up. Ms. Gottwald thought it might be a good community service to offer library cards to these new residents (signing up for service at RMLD). Both directors were very receptive to this. Ms. Gottwald would also contact the Lynnfield and Wilmington directors to see if they would be interested. The process is simple. No cost to RMLD, but great publicity for RMLD and the libraries and a good service to the public. 3. At the same meeting, Ms. Gottwald spoke with Sandra Trainor, who is executive director of the Community Parish Nursing in Reading. She is interested in our Medical Alert List. There always seems to be a misunderstanding in this area. When she spoke with Laurie Cavagnaro, she said our interest in the Medical Alert List is to keep track of those patients who require ELECTRICAL medical equipment solely because RMLD does not want to shut them off in case of non- payment. Medical personnel and the directors of the Elder Services and the public sometimes misunderstand that because we keep a file on those who require electrical medical equipment, it is for reasons other than shut-off data. We need to sit with police, fire, elderly to clear this up and share medical alert files. A discussion ensued and Mr. Hughes asked Ms. Gottwald to meet with all people involved, i.e. fire, police, etc. 4. Ms. Gottwald brought to Mr. Herlihy and Mr. Hughes' attention a newsclip from last week's North Reading Transcript in which Tricia Colella, school committee member in North Reading, suggests that RMLD be approached to consider a rate reduction for school buildings in response to Romney's cut in aid. The article states that this rate reduction has also been asked for by the Reading School Committee. 5. RCTV taping was discussed. A meeting was held last week with Ms. Gottwald, Mr. Hughes, Ms. Maillett and Ms. Brough (RCTV). This meeting was to come up with some ideas of getting copies of tapes quicker from RCTV and also to insure that they would bill RMLD monthly for copies of tapes. It was decided at this meeting that RMLD would tape live meetings off of our own VCR and if we had an equipment problem, we would use RCTVs tape as a back up. 6. The next item discussed was the Huckleberry Hill Field trip to RMLD and the tape of these two visits. The tape is available for viewing and is only 16 minutes long. 7. The last item was the purchase of Hazard Hamlet which was discussed earlier. As stated above this will be discussed at the 2/13/03 RMLB meeting. At the end of the meeting, Mr. Hughes brought up the subject of Community Sponsorship. He requested that a letter be drafted to be sent to organizations that had filled out the Community Sponsorship applications and explain that we would no longer be able to do any type of sponsorship of organizations. Also, a letter about scholarships being unavailable will be drafted. Meeting adjourned at 9:10 p.m.