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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002-09-09 ad Hoc - RMLD Governance Advisory Committee MinutesAd Hoc RMLD Governance Advisory Committee Meeting z- C E I V ED' September 9, 2002 0 NN, CLERK ~.C3 G. MASS. The meeting convened at 7:30 p.m. in the Town Hall Conference Rq0*,,S18 wA lptr , Reading, Massachusetts. Present were Chairman Dan Ensminger, Selectman Matthew Cummings, Travis Miller, Doug Cowell and George Theophanis (arrived at 7:40 p.m.) and Town Manager Peter Hechenbleikner. Approval of Minutes On motion by Cowell seconded by Miller, the minutes of September 3, 2002 were approved, with an amendment to the first paragraph under discussion with RMLD Board members, by a vote of 4-0-0. Discussion/Action Items Development of Fact Finding Procedures - The Advisory Committee discussed the draft survey that Travis Miller had put together. Discussion ensued as to how the survey was to be done. Mr. Miller volunteered to do the survey. He plans on doing it by calling the General Managers of each of the Light Departments and getting information. If need be, they can follow up with the Town Manager in the community. There is an option to send a copy of the survey if the responding party would like it. Chairman Dan Ensminger and Doug Cowell both indicated that they may have some time next week to do this work. Mr. Miller will do a spreadsheet of the results. The suggestion was made that under the questions about the Light Board, we should ask by whom the Light Board is appointed if it is an appointed board. The Town Manager noted that he had information that Hingham and Hull had both gone through some changes in the governance of their Light Board within the past several years, and he will try to get information on that. On motion by Cummings seconded by Cowell, the Advisory Committee voted to approve the survey form as amended and shown on Pages 10, 11 and 12 of the September 9, 2002, Advisory Committee packet, by a vote of 5-0-0. The Advisory Committee asked the Town Manager to have Town Counsel search case law about the General Manager's independence to act interested in finding out whether this case law is more recent or if it is an older, more historical case law. George Theophanis felt that we need Town Counsel to get more specific about what can and what cannot be done with regard to the authority of the General Manager. Selectman Matthew Cummings noted that the Light Board can set policy but the Board has to determine if the policy is met. That has been some of the failures in the past. Doug Cowell noted that the key to the relationship between the General Manager and the Board is balance and clearly that balance did RMLD Governance Advisory Committee Meeting - September 9, 2002 - Page 2 Travis Miller noted that the contract given to the General Manager gave a great deal to the General Manager in exchange for nothing. Selectman Matthew Cummings noted that the RMLB initially agreed to this contract in order to address the ancillary businesses but it wound up being problematic for the entire operation of the Light Department. George Theophanis indicated that the Advisory Committee needs to think about a list of policies to be implemented and list of contract issues to be addressed (or to not have a contract). Doug Cowell noted that because of the power given to the General Manager, the Light Board did not allow itself to exercise proper authority. Travis Miller noted that it would be interesting to see what the Light Board does about the request from the Advisory Committee not to continue with the hiring of a General Manager until the Governance Advisory Committee completes its work. Selectman Matthew Cummings noted that we may need Town Counsel to advise us as to what can be done by policy, and had to enact recommendations of the Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee talked about areas that they would want to address in their report. The broad areas that were identified were accounting, auditing, type role of the Board if any, what legal services (Counsel) should be provided and how, what the purchasing process is, and how energy purchases take place. The Town Manager was asked to get a copy of the tape of the presentation by the RMLD to the Finance Committee regarding energy acquisition. Doug Cowell indicated that he came into this process assuming that we would be just addressing policies and fine tuning theirs. He has come to the conclusion that it is well worth considering a major make over of the Light Department. He feels that the problems are cultural and ingrained within the department. Selectman Matthew Cummings agreed and noted that the Town of Reading holds all of the risks for the Light Department. George Theophanis noted that when he was on the original Charter Commission, one of the issues that they had proposed eliminating was the number of independently elected bodies. He feels that perhaps the Light Board ought to be appointed. It should be a very technical board. The reason why it was not modified in the Charter was that the Light Board really didn't affect anything else in Town and the sense was to leave it alone. There were many other issues that were a higher priority to deal with in terms of Town Government. Doug Cowell noted that the Light Board is fairly invisible if something is not broken. Clearly, the Light Department is visible now. When he voted, he looked for someone for the Light Board who had enthusiasm but couldn't tell much about the qualifications. An appointed board would have the advantage of having an open selection process through an interview, perhaps by the Board of Selectmen. RMLD Governance Advisory Committee Meeting - September 9, 2002 - Page 3 Chairman Dan Ensminger agreed with the previous statements. He generally is reluctant to tinker with the authority of the voters to elect people to positions like this. However, he feels that an appointed board would probably be more accountable. Doug Cowell asked if one could do both an elected and appointed board some members elected and some members appointed. There was discussion about whether or not this was done in any other instance and nobody could think of any similar situations. The closest that you could come is where some members of a City Council are elected at large and some by precinct. Doug Cowell noted that in spite of the problems in the governance structure of the Light Department, the day to day work is done well. The cultural problem is at the top with the Light Board and the General Manager. George Theophanis expressed concern as to whether or not the issues identified in the ethics implied by the Inspector General affect the power purchase process. If so, this could be very serious. Selectman Matthew Cummings noted that the Municipal Light Department funding and budgeting process is fairly invisible. If there was an issue, it would take a long time for it to come out because they have so much cash reserves. The rate stabilization fund is over $10 million, and monies can be moved from that to cover up any problem. Chairman Dan Ensminger indicated that he was inclined to put together a subcommittee to work on an outline of what the decision areas might be needed so that at the next meeting, we can begin to talk about potential recommendations to the Board of Selectmen. Selectman Matthew Cummings and Chairman Dan Ensminger voted to be on that committee. The Advisory Committee asked Town Counsel to put together a synopsis of 85121 the major elements. It did not appear to Selectman Matthew Cummings that 85121 was a "loss" by the Town it appeared that most of our contentions were upheld in this case. The Advisory Committee further discussed their schedule of meetings. At their next meeting, they will try to have the Citizens Advisory Board there. The members of the committee should be knowledgeable about the 20 year agreement. It was noted that the operating structure of the Light Department appears to be more of a co-op, than the Light Board being responsible for the Department. If we go back to operating the Department as it is structurally established, rather than the model of deferring many of the decisions to the CAB, the other communities may not feel that they are as well served as they have been. It was noted that the RMLB by their own admission deferred much of the decision making process to the Citizens Advisory Board using the General Manager as a conduit between the two. The Advisory Committee asked Town Counsel to review Chapter 164, Section 47a, and particularly the last paragraph on the page paragraph f. The Town Manager read this to indicate that the community should talk about what kind of generated power they wanted to purchase should they go for buying a certain amount of "green power" or using more nuclear, etc. Others felt that this was a referendum to see whether the communities- wanted to -allow -residents to - - purchase power from outside the system. Town Counsel will be asked to clarify this. 'RMLD Governance Advisory Committee Meeting -,September 9 2002 - Page 4 The Advisory Committee also asked for more information on the RMLD's authority to get into other businesses (Town Counsel's Item #7 on Page 18). The Advisory Committee discussed their schedule and agreed that it was reasonable. On October 3rd, they would like to continue to discuss options. On motion by Cowell seconded by Cummings, the RMLD Governance Advisory Committee voted to adjourn their meeting of September 9, 2002 at 8:55 p.m. on a vote of 5-0-0. R ctfully submitted Secretary