Select Board Meeting - August 23, 2022

2022-08-23 · Select Board · 1:29:09 · watch on YouTube →

Select board meeting of August 23, 2022, the first with Jerry Douglass as town manager, sworn in earlier that day by the town clerk, with outgoing interim manager Mitch Berkowitz also present. Only three of the five selectmen attended. Most of the meeting went to the process for spending what remains of the town's ARPA money, roughly $300,000 after the special town meeting committed a quarter to a third of it: the board discussed a common application form for town departments and outside groups alike, criteria such as financial benefit to the town, and the deadlines of allocation by the end of 2024 and expenditure by the end of 2026. Richard George pressed repeatedly that the town should settle its own needs before inviting applications from non-profits, and the item was left with Jerry Douglass to bring a draft application to the next meeting. Four residents spoke, on road and bridge projects, on the Treasury's final rule and a possible citizens' initiative, on a scoring committee and a non-binding survey in November, and on whether projects need a link to COVID impact. The board acknowledged receipt of the $26,245.50 Dean Smith settlement, tabled a set of abatements and supplementals on a Holiday Drive subdivision because the papers had not gone out in advance, and agreed to advertise vacancies on the budget committee and capital improvement committee.

What was discussed

1. 0:14
   Call to order and oath of office

   Kevin Nadeau opened the meeting and reported that the oath of office for the new town manager, Jerry Douglass, had already been administered earlier that day while the town clerk was present, since she is legally the one who does it.

2. 0:14
   Agenda amended

   The supplements and abatements were pulled out as a separate item, 7A, because the board has to go formally into an assessor's session and back out again; under this form of government the selectmen are the assessors, with Donna Hayes as assessor's agent doing the work. A third new business item was added on vacancies on town committees and boards and how to solicit volunteers.

3. 0:14
   ARPA item is about process, not projects

   The chair apologised that the agenda title was misleading: the board was not taking input on specific proposals that night, only discussing what the process for gathering them will look like. A letter explaining ARPA, its general requirements and next steps was going onto the town website.

4. 0:14
   Draft timeline

   As drafted, August and September go to developing a request-for-funding process, September and October to surveys and to opening special sections of regular meetings for people to bring ideas and priorities, continuing into November and December, then an application deadline. The board then decides what to put before voters, because any use of ARPA funds has to be approved at town meeting.

5. 5:32
   Sample applications

   Jerry Douglass had spent the day looking at ARPA grant applications and found most were county forms with municipalities applying to the county, which can be edited for the reverse case of groups applying to the town. They range from very complicated to short and easy, and he printed one of the simpler ones for the board to look at.

6. 5:32
   One form for everybody

   The board agreed that if the fire chief or public works has a request, they would use the same application as anyone else. One section identified as important asks the applicant to cite the specific language in the American Rescue Plan Act supporting the request, the overview of which alone runs to 47 pages.

7. 5:32
   Not in the packet

   A member said none of this had come in the email packet and it was hard to form a view on paper handed out at the table. The chair offered to table it to the next meeting, and recapped that the articles approved at the special town meeting accounted for roughly 25 to 30 percent of the funds, leaving a large balance.

8. 11:16
   Richard George: town needs first

   Richard George said that before looking at charities the board should make sure all the town's needs and bases are covered, that the money was given to the town, and that when it was discussed with the town the intent was always for it to be spent within the municipality. He said this was the first he had heard of non-profits being eligible, having been on vacation the previous week.

9. 11:16
   How non-profits came into it

   The chair said the eligibility of non-profits came up at the previous meeting and that the working assumption until then had been that they were not eligible at all; it turns out they can be in certain situations. Applicants will have to reference the section of the law that authorises the use they propose, which the town will verify with the town attorney.

10. 11:16
    Town projects to go through the same vetting

    Mitch Berkowitz said he and Jerry Douglass had presumed, subject to the board's approval, that town projects still on the list would go through the same application and justification process, so the board could balance the final decisions on priority and return on investment. The chair supported it on transparency grounds: everything in one format, posted publicly, so residents can compare proposals in the same context.

11. 16:41
    Whether to triage like the CIP

    A member asked whether the board would set this up something like the capital improvement programme, triaging requests to find the best uses. The chair said that was part of the discussion, and floated criteria such as whether there is a financial benefit to the town, giving the example of refurbishing a fire truck rather than replacing it and so avoiding property tax dollars.

12. 16:41
    More requests than money

    The chair said his assumption is that there will be more requests than funds, so the board cannot simply send everything to voters and will have to prioritise what matters most for the town as a whole before putting it to a vote.

13. 16:41
    How the ARPA rules loosened

    The chair explained that the original rules were so restrictive there was almost nothing Durham could do with the money, since it has no public water or sewer, beyond things like hazard pay, with more leeway only where lost revenue could be documented. The final rule applied what amounts to a $10 million standard allowance, so every unit is assumed to have had that much lost revenue whether or not it did, which is what gives a small town flexibility. Durham had no lost revenue to document: excise tax went up and property taxes were collected without difficulty.

14. 16:41
    The burden of justification

    Mitch Berkowitz, having looked at six to ten applications, said the onus of project justification falls on the applicant and that filling one out to meet the ARPA requirements will be a fair amount of work. A member observed that the onus is ultimately on the body distributing the money; Mitch Berkowitz said the point of a common form is a level playing field and a basis on which to rank one project against another.

15. 21:43
    Audit backup

    Mitch Berkowitz said the board needs backup documentation as fiduciaries to support the audit that has to be turned in by 2026.

16. 21:43
    Level of detail wanted in requests

    The chair said an application should not simply ask for money for building improvements but break it down, for example an estimate of $30,000 for a roof and $10,000 for a sump pump and drainage, so the board can be comfortable the money serves a purpose that benefits the town. He also said the form should not be over-complicated.

17. 21:43
    The disagreement restated

    Richard George said the board had not yet determined what the town needs but was already advertising that funds may be available to non-profits and other entities, and that the town's needs, such as the fire department or the old town hall, should come first. The chair replied that providing groups an opportunity to make their case does not determine priority, and that if the town's needs use up the money then that is where it ends.

18. 27:44
    Argument for looking at everything together

    The chair said it need not be an either-or: $10,000 could be a large matter to a small organisation and a small share of $300,000-plus, and that seeing everything in context is what makes prioritisation possible. He said a group might put something on the table the board would not otherwise have thought of.

19. 27:44
    Item held over for a draft application

    With only three members present and nothing in the packet, the board agreed that Jerry Douglass would continue drafting what an application might look like and bring it back for continued discussion at the next meeting. Members suggested borrowing from what other communities have done.

20. 27:44
    Question about other federal relief

    Members suggested the application ask whether the applicant has already received money from the federal government, such as PPP or other COVID relief, and whether they could go to the county for the same thing. The AmVets hall was given as an example of a group known to be interested, with the expectation that the county would send a local matter back to the town.

21. 27:44
    The two deadlines

    Asked when the money has to be used, the chair said it must be allocated, meaning approved by voters for a stated purpose, by the end of 2024, and actually expended by the end of 2026.

22. 33:11
    Doing it in rounds

    Because the board cannot send voters more requests than it has funds for, it discussed asking at any one town meeting only for what it actually has, getting most of the way there in 2023 and returning with the balance at a later town meeting.

23. 33:11
    Whether a grantee must also spend by 2026

    A member asked whether money granted to an outside organisation has to be spent by that organisation by the end of 2026 or merely out of the town's hands. Nobody was certain; Mitch Berkowitz said the audit report asks how the money was used and that you cannot encumber for an outside organisation. The board agreed to confirm it, and to consider an application question asking whether the applicant can complete the project before a date certain.

24. 38:55
    Public comment: Dead Man's Curve and the Tracy bridge

    Alan Purrington of Day Road (?) asked the status of the blinking light discussed by MaineDOT at Dead Man's Curve, and of the Tracy bridge about half a mile off Route 125, which was to be replaced this autumn. He raised it because Swamp Road work has been delayed and he needs a way round. The chair said both were still on the DOT work plan when he checked about two weeks earlier, though the plans carry no dates, and surveying has been seen at the bridge.

25. 44:50
    Public comment: Nathan on the Treasury final rule

    Nathan of Brianna Drive, who had voted for the special town meeting articles, said the US Treasury published its overview of the final rule in January 2022, a 42-page document he had read in full, which answers the board's questions and covers non-profits specifically at page 23. He said it concerned him that 20 to 30 percent of the funds had already been spent without going through the application process now being designed.

26. 44:50
    Nathan on a citizens' initiative

    He asked how the board would react if residents used the citizens' initiative provisions of state law, gathering signatures from 10 percent of the voters in the last gubernatorial election, to put an ARPA spending question straight onto the November ballot, worded as the special town meeting articles were. He also cautioned against building an application process more onerous than the one the original articles did not have to follow, citing the absence of a line-item breakdown for the $45,000 technology article.

27. 44:50
    Public comment: homestead and senior tax freeze participation

    Deb Oliver (?) said she supported the board soliciting all input on the funds, and asked whether the town has metrics on how many residents take up the homestead exemption and the new senior property tax freeze, and whether eligible non-participants could be contacted, possibly by volunteers. The chair said the town has periodically written to people not claiming homestead, that the freeze is a new law requiring an application every year with materials now on the website, and that the town is made whole by state reimbursement so it loses nothing by higher participation.

28. 49:57
    Deb Oliver's suggestions on the ARPA process

    She recommended a committee along the lines of the capital improvement programme, using a points system so applications rank themselves, and mixing residents with town people as the hiring committee did. She wanted all applications posted online so voters are not blindsided by something coming later, wanted future operating costs weighed as well as benefit, and said the board should have estimates rather than guesstimates when it allocates.

29. 49:57
    A non-binding survey in November

    Deb Oliver (?) asked whether residents could be polled on the November ballot, ranking how they would like the funds spent. The chair said that is possible, that it is called a non-binding referendum and the town had done one before on marijuana regulations, and that a question on a fireworks ordinance had also been considered.

30. 55:07
    Public comment: does a project need a COVID link

    Darren Baker of Runaround Pond Road (?) asked whether a project still has to be shown to have suffered as a result of the pandemic. The chair said no: under the lost revenue category with the standard allowance there is no need to demonstrate a direct link to COVID impacts. Darren Baker (?) read the general restriction that funds may not be used for a project that conflicts with or contravenes the purpose of the statute, including mitigation practices in line with CDC guidance, and asked the board to keep the spirit of the money in view.

31. 55:07
    Fire chief: pump testing and apparatus

    Pump testing was completed the previous week on the four major apparatus, two pumpers, the quint and the tanker. Engine 21, a 2004 engine and the department's oldest, goes to Auburn next week for a couple of primer-type pump issues found during testing, work always carried in the budget.

32. 55:07
    Explorer programme and a new volunteer

    The chief has begun discussion on restarting the firefighter Explorer programme for roughly ages 14 to 18, run through the Boy Scouts with a fee and with instructors vetted by them. He described it as one of the real ways to build volunteers, since members start young and are often family, get more active by 18 and go on to their EMT. A volunteer moving into town from Montana, on Pound Road, had stopped by that day.

33. 55:07
    New air packs and a mutual aid call to Sabattus

    The new SCBA air tanks approved in last year's capital improvement, at $63,000, have arrived and are in service. Sabattus called Durham to a mass casualty motor vehicle accident with up to ten patients; Durham sent its rescue with a crew of three and transported a patient, which the chief said is what mutual aid is about.

34. 1:01:04
    Open house October 15

    The station open house is on October 15 from 10 to 2, will be on the town website, and the whole town is invited.

35. 1:01:04
    On the radar: dry hydrants

    The town has no municipal hydrants and 25 dry hydrants, and the fire pond on Brianna Drive has dried up in the drought. Other towns are removing fire ponds from their subdivision options in favour of cisterns or residential sprinklers, and the chief noted that the ponds belong to homeowners associations, many of which have gone defunct so there is nobody left to talk to or bill. He has tested nine of the 25 so far with another nine planned for Thursday night.

36. 1:01:04
    Fire protection options in subdivisions

    For clusters above a certain size a developer may provide a hydraulically calculated fire pond, cisterns, or individual sprinkler systems, with the chief signing off and the planning board aware of the choices. The problem the chief flagged is maintenance responsibility once an association lapses and no documentation survives.

37. 1:01:04
    On the radar: EMS response

    The chief had confirmed that day that Auburn will not send its second rescue to routine medical calls, apparently because of the private ambulance services around its borders. That can reach Durham, because Lisbon backs up a private company and Durham then backs up Lisbon when it is out of position, which has happened several times recently. Durham runs about 500 responses, 365 of them with the ambulance, three of them in the previous 24 hours.

38. 1:06:26
    On the radar: billing insurance for responses

    The chief raised the possibility of billing insurance companies for response calls, particularly motor vehicle accidents, noting the town currently foots the bill for hourly traffic control and fluid mitigation. He has a pamphlet and the town has been offered the opportunity; it was left for the new town manager to consider, with the caveat that one town found it difficult because it cannot be applied selectively. He closed by thanking Mitch Berkowitz for six months of support.

39. 1:06:26
    Road commissioner

    Calvin had come in to say he had nothing new to report, and will report next week after checking with MaineDOT on the bridge and the light.

40. 1:06:26
    Town manager's report

    Jerry Douglass reported that Xfinity is making channel changes so residents may see their channels move; that the DEP has written to say it will be monitoring well water quality for PFAS, concentrating for now on the Fairfield area but branching out to other communities in time; and that the contractor signed the previous day and starts tomorrow on the HVAC work, roughly a week a unit for two weeks before moving to the fire department, with completion hoped for the end of September.

41. 1:06:26
    Fibre optic being run without notice

    The board asked what Fidium is doing, having found it is running fibre optic around town without telling the town. Members thought it was free advertising the company had passed up, and noted the pamphlets already sent out offering fast, cheap symmetric internet.

42. 1:12:13
    Franchise implications

    It emerged that the fibre is being installed for Consolidated Communications, the phone company and the internet company working together. Mitch Berkowitz linked it to the coming renegotiation of the cable franchise licence, which the chair and Jerry Douglass will handle, and the board expected hard competition with existing providers once it is running.

43. 1:12:13
    Special town meeting review

    The spending articles all passed, none unanimously but all overwhelmingly, on a turnout the chair called not terrible for a special town meeting, with perhaps 30 of those present there because they held some role. The HVAC work is already going and Jerry Douglass will give periodic updates.

44. 1:12:13
    Lesson on warrant article detail

    The chair said that whenever a spending proposal goes to town meeting floor there should be a sheet spelling out the breakdown, using the $45,000 technology article as the example. He said people left to fill in the blanks themselves generally do not fill them in well.

45. 1:17:28
    Estimates against exact figures

    The chair said he disagreed slightly with the resident who had asked for estimates rather than guesstimates, in that to-the-penny figures are neither necessary nor possible, but that solid vendor-based estimates broken out by component are. Jerry Douglass agreed, saying an estimate today is no good tomorrow and that a fixed price boxes the town in weeks later. The staff work had been done, the chair said; it was the presentable format for the meeting that was missing.

46. 1:17:28
    Assessor's session: the Holiday Drive lots

    The board went into assessor's session on abatements and supplementals concerning part of map 4 lot 32, owned by Curtis and Janice Pass (?). The previous code enforcement officer had asked the assessor's agent to assign lot numbers to six lots off Holiday Drive; she had seen the draft splits and believed the subdivision approved, but it was not, so six lots were split and taxed as approved building lots rather than as raw land. Two lots sold before April 1, 2022 require supplemental bills to correct ownership.

47. 1:17:28
    Papers (?) read cold, item tabled

    Richard George said this was exactly the problem he had raised earlier, that it is impossible to act on something read aloud for the first time at the table, and the item was tabled with no objection. The chair agreed that nothing should come to the board unseen, and that the packet should go out in PDF with the agenda on Friday and be posted publicly where it is not confidential. Donna Hayes is also to be asked to explain why an abatement and its matching supplemental are not always the same figure, as happened last time when the two were a couple of dollars apart.

48. 1:22:50
    Dean Smith settlement acknowledged

    Out of assessor's session, the board took up the authorised satisfactory judgment on Dean Smith. The settlement and his compliance with its conditions had been approved previously; what was needed now, on the town lawyer's advice, was a vote acknowledging that the payment had been received and the cheque cashed.

49. 1:22:50
    Audit

    The audit representation cover letter had been signed. What the board had in front of it was the summary letter rather than the full document; the auditors will now release the complete audit for the website and in hard copy.

50. 1:22:50
    Committee vacancies

    Two seats are open on the budget committee, Lois having resigned right after town meeting and Lee Bollia Fischer (?) in the past week, which leaves it at seven. Under the committee bylaws the selectmen appoint replacements to serve until the next election. There is also at least one citizen seat on the capital improvement committee, since Joe Tomm now sits on it as the select board representative, and possibly alternates on the planning board and board of appeals, which Jessica was to check.

51. 1:27:50
    Soliciting volunteers

    The board agreed to establish exactly which seats are open and put out communication inviting letters of interest. The capital improvement committee was called the most time-sensitive, since it should be starting its work in September, with the budget committee not far behind.

52. 1:27:50
    Consent agenda, next meeting and adjournment

    The consent agenda was approved as presented. The next select board meeting is September 13 at the town office. No executive session was needed and the board adjourned.

What was decided

• 27:44
  Agreed, without a vote, that Jerry Douglass would continue drafting an ARPA funding application, incorporating the questions discussed, and bring it back for further discussion at the next board meetingpassed
• 38:55
  Agreed, without a vote, that Calvin would contact MaineDOT for an update on the blinking light at Dead Man's Curve and on the Tracy bridge replacementpassed
• 1:17:28
  Go into assessor's session to deal with abatements and supplements (moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Richard George), carried 3-0passed
• 1:17:28
  Table the abatements and supplementals on the Holiday Drive lots to the next meeting so the papers can be circulated in advance, with Donna Hayes (?) asked to supply more contexttabled
• 1:17:28
  Agreed, without a vote, that the full meeting packet should go out in PDF with the agenda on Friday and be posted publicly where it is not confidential, so nothing comes to the board unseenpassed
• 1:22:50
  Come out of assessor's sessionpassed
• 1:22:50
  Acknowledge that the town has received $26,245.50 from Dean Smith as settlement for the action brought by the town (moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Todd Beaulieu), carried 3-0passed
• 1:27:50
  Agreed, without a vote, to determine which committee seats are vacant and put out communication inviting residents to submit letters of interest, the capital improvement committee being the most urgentpassed
• 1:27:50
  Approve the consent agenda as presented (moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Todd Beaulieu), carried 3-0passed
• 1:27:50
  Adjourn at 7:59 pm (moved by Richard George, seconded by Todd Beaulieu), carried 3-0passed

An outcome reads "unclear" where the recording does not state it plainly. The recogniser drops short words, and "the motion does not carry" is one missing word from its opposite.

Motions the minutes record

The town's own written account of what was decided, taken from sbminutes082322_1_.txt. It owes nothing to the recording or to a model: the clerk typed it, with the vote. Where the summary above claims a decision this list does not carry, the summary is the part to doubt.

• go into Assessor’s Session to deal with some abatements and supplementscarried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Richard George

• we received the $26,245.50 from Dean Smith as settlement for the action brought by the towncarried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Todd Beaulieu

• approve the consent agenda as presentedcarried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Todd Beaulieu

• adjourn at 7:59 pmcarried 3-0

  Moved by Richard George, seconded by Todd Beaulieu

Worth knowing

• 27:44
  The ARPA money carries two deadlines: it must be allocated by voters to a stated purpose by the end of 2024 and actually spent by the end of 2026, with an audit due to the federal government by 2026. The special town meeting committed roughly a quarter to a third of the money, leaving over $300,000.
• 21:43
  Richard George argued repeatedly that the board should determine the town's own needs before advertising that ARPA money may be available to non-profits, saying the money was given to the town and that was always the stated intent. The chair argued for gathering everything on one form first and prioritising afterwards, accepting that town needs may consume the whole balance.
• 44:50
  Nathan of Brianna Drive (?) said the US Treasury's 42-page overview of the final rule, published in January 2022, already answers the board's questions and covers non-profits at page 23, and objected that 20 to 30 percent of the funds had been spent before any application process existed. He asked how the board would respond if residents petitioned to put an ARPA spending question directly on the November ballot.
• 1:01:04
  The fire pond on Brianna Drive has dried up in the drought. Durham has no municipal hydrants and relies on 25 dry hydrants, many of them belonging to homeowners associations that have gone defunct, leaving nobody to contact or bill for their upkeep. The chief has tested nine of the 25 so far and is bringing the question to the planning board and select board.

Motion language found in the transcript

Located by pattern matching, with no model involved: "I move that", "I'll second", "all those in favour". This is an independent check on the summary above: 1 passage of motion language, against 10 decisions summarised.

Elsewhere

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