Select Board Meeting ~ August 9, 2016

2016-08-09 · Select Board · 57:40 · watch on YouTube →

The Select Board met on August 9, 2016 with four of five selectmen present, reconvening after an executive session on a personnel matter. The evening's longest item was the fire chief's report that the department can no longer reliably staff its call volume: calls were running well ahead of the previous year, two recruitment drives had produced no one, and about half a dozen calls had been missed. The board asked the department to research both staffing and outsourcing and bring cost figures for the budget, and agreed the chief should keep covering open daytime shifts on a per diem basis in the meantime. Four bids on the public works roof all came in above the money available from the bond, the lowest between $8,000 and $9,000 over, and the board deferred a decision until it knows whether the maintenance budget can cover the gap and until all bidders have been asked to price the job without the office addition. The board also voted the MMA election slate, changed the code enforcement officer's posted hours to mornings, voted for Wade Caplinger and Anthony Reny at the budget committee caucus, and changed the personnel handbook so vacation time must, rather than should, be pre-approved by the department head.

What was discussed

1. 0:04
   Reconvening and call to order

   The board reconvened at 6:30 p.m. after an earlier session, noting a quorum with four of five selectmen present, and rose for the Pledge of Allegiance. The minutes record that the board had gone into executive session at 6:15 p.m. on personnel to act on the PIT position and had voted to hire Alden Allen as assistant to the PIT at $10.00 an hour; that vote is not on this recording, which picks up at the reconvening.

2. 0:04
   Agenda amendments, public comment and consent agenda

   No amendments beyond those already highlighted were offered and no one spoke at public comment. A motion to accept the consent agenda as presented was made, seconded and carried.

3. 0:04
   Pay for planning board members at ordinance review meetings

   The chairman of the planning board had questioned whether members should be paid for ordinance review workshops, which Ruth had been paying up to now. The board recalled budgeting for about four workshops plus some training money, and noted the planning board held no meeting this month for want of applications. A member remarked that in the long run volunteer committees will increasingly look for some form of payment, as with the fire station, because money is the driving factor.

4. 0:04
   Item struck as past its deadline

   Agenda item B was struck because it had been due August 5 and that date had passed.

5. 0:04
   MMA annual election ballot

   Maine Municipal Association had sent its annual ballot, with one vice-president to be chosen from a list and three directors to be chosen from a list of three. A motion to vote the slate as presented was made, seconded and carried.

6. 0:04
   Public works roof RFP: bids opened

   Four bids came in on the public works roof and none of them fell within the money available through the initial bond, the lowest being somewhere between $8,000 and $9,000 more. A member asked how the RFP had been advertised and where it was posted.

7. 5:22
   How the RFP was advertised

   Members said the town normally posts an RFP on its website and the town channel, in a tri-town paper, and on the MMA website, which is free to post, and that calls are sometimes made to known local contractors. Nobody present could confirm the details because the road commissioner had not yet arrived, so discussion was tabled until he did.

8. 5:22
   Code enforcement officer's posted hours

   The code enforcement officer, Paul (?), asked that his posted office hours be moved from the afternoon to the morning, 8:30 a.m. to noon, so that he can take time off in the afternoon after evening meetings rather than remain at the office. He said things were quiet at the moment but would pick up in the fall and he did not want to burn up the budget before then; a member thanked him for being sensitive to the budget.

9. 5:22
   Budget committee caucus nominations

   Each district may seat two budget committee members, one of whom must be a municipal official, and three people had been nominated: Wade Caplinger of Durham, Anthony Reny of Greene and Jolene Landry Beam of Lewiston. A member noted Anthony Reny is a sitting member and recommended Caplinger and Reny.

10. 5:22
    Appeal of the Pinkham Brook cell tower permit

    An email from Kim Moore, wife of the party who appealed the planning board's issuance of a conditional use permit to Pinkham Brook LLC for a cell tower on Pinkham Brook Road on land owned by the Quaker Meeting House, indicated they appear to be preparing to take the matter to Superior Court. They have a couple of weeks left within the 45 days the ordinance allows. The board was told Jack would be contacted if it proceeds.

11. 10:58
    Comprehensive plan survey subcommittee

    A subcommittee has been formed to put together surveys, headed by Chelsea Stewart, who has background in survey work from college, with preliminary formats expected for the next meeting. MMA advice was that the comprehensive plan committee does not vote on applications or ordinances, so the public hearing rules sit less squarely on it, but basic public meeting practice should still apply: post the meetings on the town website, take simple notes recording who was present, and keep votes to the full committee rather than subcommittees. Members discussed the difference between advertising a public meeting and formally posting a public hearing, which carries fixed places and timelines.

12. 10:58
    Meadow Road property and permit volume

    Work has resumed on the Meadow Road property, with repairs done as specified by Joe Neville, the engineer the town hired to evaluate how to stabilise it. Permits are running about 20 percent ahead of last year, including new homes.

13. 10:58
    Comprehensive plan outreach at the November election

    The comprehensive plan committee hopes to have material ready for the November election, on the reasoning that turnout at a presidential election brings far more residents through the building than any other public event.

14. 10:58
    Office space for the code enforcement officer

    A member said he had asked Paul to price building a new fireproof records room across the street so that the existing records room could become a proper office, rather than moving the code enforcement officer out of the building and having him walk back every time someone wants a permit. Members discussed whether the new room would need heat, and agreed archival material needs humidity and temperature kept low, ideally on its own system rather than one doubling for the main building.

15. 15:59
    Conserving the original town charter

    Shannon had taken a digital photograph of the original town charter. A member said a professional document conservator, out of state, would review the photographs and donate the time needed to conserve the charter, and offered to be the go-to person if the pictures were emailed over.

16. 15:59
    Fire department equipment and building work

    The fire chief reported Smiley's is lined up to do the floor but has not fixed a date for the tile work. Truck 24 has had its pre-inspection and service and is ready, subject to whatever the ladder test finds. The pump test was done the previous Friday and results were not back, though word of mouth was that little more than a few valves would be needed.

17. 15:59
    Membership and call volume

    The chief said the department has changed systems to raise morale and enthusiasm but simply does not have the members for the call volume. Last year saw a 15 to 20 percent increase; the department was at 201 calls at this point last year and the call on Sunday was number 234. Two recruitment drives brought in nobody, and the few people who have come forward want fire police and driving work, while what the department needs is EMS providers.

18. 15:59
    Why EMS is the pressure point

    The chief said the growth is almost certainly on the EMS side, with fire responses possibly down slightly. EMS calls need fewer people but run far longer, with a transport committing someone for two hours at a minimum and more often three.

19. 21:37
    Missed calls and daytime staffing

    The chief said the department has started missing calls, perhaps one or two in earlier years but at least half a dozen this year, and that an EMS transport requires two people. Daytime cover now rests on three or maybe four people; he said it is frightening that someone his age is the youngest of the group. He attributed it to demographics, saying few first-time home buyers move to Durham and members brought up through the system cannot afford local housing and move away.

20. 21:37
    Per diem coverage of open shifts

    The Friday daytime person's full-time job has opened up opportunities they want to take, and the three-day-a-week person has asked to reduce hours. For the past week and a half the chief has been putting open days out to six or eight people who work full-time elsewhere and asking who is free; he said it has worked so far but he could not say whether it holds long term.

21. 21:37
    Who covers when Durham cannot

    Asked what happens on a missed call, the chief said it depends on location: the lower end of town near the bridge might get a rescue from a neighbouring service as fast or faster, but residents out toward the Freeport line and another town line the recording garbles would be back to waiting 30 to 45 minutes as before Durham started its own rescue. He put it at roughly half the community seeing the same service and half waiting. A member complimented the crew on how quickly they reached Sunday's accident.

22. 27:05
    Direction from the board

    The chief asked whether the board wanted more research from him, a recommendation, or the question put to taxpayers, saying he did not think he could fix it without money and that residents ultimately decide what level of service they want. Members said the department is better placed to research and recommend, that both figures are needed, and discussed whether a public meeting before budget season would draw five people or a hundred.

23. 27:05
    What outsourcing would cost

    The chief said the town formerly contracted with Northeast while doing its own first response. He estimated a sole-source contract now at perhaps $10,000 to $20,000 a year, with the contractor still billing the patient and the town losing the transport revenue it currently puts toward capital, so he did not think it would be cost effective. He said service would go downhill purely on distance, and offered to look at what New Gloucester and others are doing.

24. 32:20
    Effect on the department and how to reach residents

    The chief said missed calls are gradually eroding morale, with members questioning their own and each other's dedication. Members said the cost falls either way, hiring or outsourcing, and that both figures should go to the budget committee and town meeting. They discussed advertising a public hearing six or eight weeks out with repeated reminders so residents actually notice it.

25. 32:20
    Contractor insurance certificates

    A member noted the town still needed a W-9 and liability certificate from Smiley's, which the chief said he would collect once the date was firmed up. Mo's painting is subcontracting through Gary, who is doing the woodworking and whose invoices the town holds, so a certificate listing the town as additional insured is needed for Mo as well.

26. 32:20
    Roof RFP resumed with the road commissioner

    With the road commissioner now present, the board returned to the roof bids it had tabled. He confirmed the RFP went on the MMA website, and members thought the town channel, the town website and the tri-town paper as well; bidders came from as far as Pennsylvania, picked up from a builders' journal or the Sun Journal. One bid noted the price would be $29,000 if the office area addition were left off, and members agreed the addition was newly built with sound shingles and could be left as long as the colour matched.

27. 37:45
    Deferring the roof award

    A member asked whether the maintenance budget could cover the gap; the road commissioner said he would find out and report at the next meeting, noting the town is paying interest on the roughly $24,000 of bond money sitting there. Another member noted a local contractor who had quoted previously did not bid despite a voicemail, and was told a formal bid process cannot simply be set aside, though the board may accept or reject any or all bids. Two bids were within $150 of each other, and the numbers are already public because bidders had called for them.

28. 37:45
    Bond balance and road commissioner's report

    Payments against the bond were said to look good, with roughly $40,000 to $50,000 left to work with assuming no problems on the rest of the project. The road commissioner reported the rubber tracks working well, the Ted Berry culvert lining completed with the bill coming in the warrant, and Ron back from vacation giving a full crew again. Rabbit Road has been pulverized since the last meeting, with recycled asphalt added and the 19 mm base pavement applied.

29. 42:54
    Rabbit Road paving and cost overrun

    The road commissioner stressed the base course is not the finished surface and that an inch and a half of 9.5 will go on once ditching and anything else that could chew up the pavement is finished, with shoulders redone and feathered to the existing surface, expected this year. About $13,000 in extras arose from box-cutting weak areas and finding springs, which he said was well within the contingency.

30. 42:54
    Next road project and sequencing

    Plans were finished on Friday with the engineer the recording renders as Krooker (?), with changes at several curves and to a blind hill near Barry Baldwin's (?) to leave the top at grade and pick up the bottoms. Grinding is planned for Thursday, and the commissioner was weighing whether to grind and pave the first piece from the bridge back before All States (?) does its injection work later in the month, because ground road turns into a dust bowl that has to be watered constantly.

31. 42:54
    Culvert lining and utility relocation

    The road commissioner described watching the Ted Berry culvert liner cure under a blue light into a form stronger than the culvert itself and with more flow capacity despite being smaller, and said the remaining culverts were replaced in house. Time Warner Cable has finished rewiring the street overhead, leaving only about 80 feet dug from the pole to the transformer, which cleared buried lines out of the way before the road project rather than in the middle of it. The old wires are confirmed dead and will come out during the work.

32. 42:54
    Shouldering and lockout/tagout policy

    Shouldering and stack poles were completed the day after the previous meeting. The lockout/tagout policy has been rewritten for the Maine Department of Labor, and the hands-on training will be repeated this week once Scott is back before the policy is submitted.

33. 48:12
    New truck and fleet preparation

    The 2017 Freightliner from HP Fairfield should be ready in about a month, with the old truck going back. Truck preparation has been worked on through the summer with Scott kept in the shop, and the commissioner said the new truck plus easier flagging this year means he can put three people out and keep one in the shop, where last year the whole crew was needed for flagging.

34. 48:12
    Vacation time in the personnel handbook

    The road commissioner asked that the handbook say all vacation time must be pre-approved by the department head, rather than the current wording that it should be pre-scheduled. His concern was people calling out sick and then being paid on Friday out of vacation time, which is not what it is for. Members discussed whether an employee who is genuinely sick and out of sick time could use vacation time, and were told the policy as written allows a request to the board to borrow sick time, which would not happen quickly enough to affect that week's pay.

35. 53:13
    Should versus must

    A member argued that policies should use definitive statements and that "should" is like nailing jello to a wall. It was noted the board can always waive a provision, that nothing obliges a department head to approve a vacation day, and that notice practice varies by department, 48 hours in public works and three days elsewhere, with the policy specifying none. The road commissioner said he was raising it because he was seeing a pattern.

36. 53:13
    Upcoming meetings

    Selectmen's meetings were announced for Tuesday August 23 at 6:30 p.m. and a September meeting at 6:30 p.m., a special selectmen's meeting for Monday August 15 at 6:00 p.m., and a historic district commission meeting for Thursday August 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the town office.

37. 53:13
    Executive session

    A motion was made to go into executive session under 1 M.R.S.A. § 405(6)(A) on personnel, public works. The recording ends at the motion.

What was decided

• 0:04
  Motion to approve the consent agenda as presented; moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Michael Stewart. The chair called for discussion and for all in favour, and declared the motion carried; the minutes record 4-0.passed
• 0:04
  Board agreed by consensus, without a vote, that planning board members continue to be paid for ordinance review workshops, and asked that Ruth be told the answer is yes.passed
• 0:04
  Motion to vote the Maine Municipal Association ballot for the slate as presented, one vice-president and three directors; moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Michael Stewart. The chair called for discussion and for all in favour, and declared the motion carried; the minutes record 4-0.passed
• 5:22
  Discussion of the public works roof RFP was tabled until the road commissioner arrived, because no one present could say how the RFP had been advertised. He arrived later in the meeting and the item was taken up again.tabled
• 5:22
  Motion to change the code enforcement officer's posted hours to 8:30 a.m. until 12:00 noon, effective that Friday; moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Mark Blake. The motion was first stated as reducing the hours and was corrected during discussion to changing rather than reducing them. The chair called for further discussion and for all in favour, and declared the motion carried; the minutes record 4-0.passed
• 5:22
  Motion that the board vote for Wade Caplinger and Anthony Reny at the budget committee caucus; moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Mark Blake. The chair called for discussion and for all in favour, and declared the motion carried; the minutes record 4-0.passed
• 32:20
  No vote was taken on the fire and rescue staffing problem. The board agreed the department should do further research and bring both sets of cost figures, staffing and outsourcing, into the budget process, and agreed the chief should carry on covering open daytime shifts on a per diem basis in the meantime. Whether to hold a public hearing before budget season was discussed but not settled.passed
• 37:45
  No award was made on the public works roof. The board deferred it until the road commissioner can say at the next meeting whether his budget can cover the gap, and asked that all four bidders be given the chance to price the job without the office area addition so they are on a level playing field.tabled
• 53:13
  Motion to change the personnel handbook so that all vacation time must, rather than should, be pre-approved by the department head; moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Mark Blake. The chair called for discussion and for all in favour, and declared the motion carried; the minutes record 4-0.passed
• 53:13
  Motion to go into executive session under 1 M.R.S.A. § 405(6)(A) on personnel, public works. The recording ends at the motion and no vote is audible.outcome unclear

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 select_board_minutes_8-9-20161.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.

• the Board into Executive Session pursuant to Title #1, M.R.S.A., ss. 405(6)(A) – Personnel – Act on PIT Position at 6:15 p.mcarried 4-0

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Sarah Hall

• hire Alden Allen as Assistant to the PIT at $10.00 per hourcarried 4-0

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Mark Blake

• Approve the Consent Agenda as presentedcarried 4-0

  Moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Michael Stewart

• vote for the slate as presentedcarried 4-0

  Moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Michael Stewart

• changing the hours posted from 8:30 a.m., until 12:00 noon starting this Fridaycarried 4-0

  Moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Mark Blake

• the Board vote for Wade Caplinger and Anthony Renycarried 4-0

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Mark Blake

• make the change in the Personnel Handbook from “Should” to “Must be.”carried 4-0

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Mark Blake

• Adjourn at 7:43 p.m. p.mcarried 4-0

  Moved by Michael Stewart, seconded by Mark Blake

Worth knowing

• 15:59
  The fire chief said the department was at 201 calls at this point last year and the call on Sunday was number 234, that two recruitment drives brought in no one, and that at least half a dozen calls have been missed this year against perhaps one or two in earlier years. He said daytime coverage rests on three or four people and that he, the chief, is the youngest of them.
• 27:05
  The chief estimated a sole-source ambulance contract at $10,000 to $20,000 a year, with the contractor still billing patients and the town losing the transport revenue it now puts toward capital. He said roughly half the community would see comparable service and the other half would go back to waiting 30 to 45 minutes for a rescue.
• 0:04
  All four bids on the public works roof came in above the money available from the bond, the lowest between $8,000 and $9,000 over. One bidder priced the job at $29,000 if the recently built office addition were left off, and the board deferred any award until it knows whether the maintenance budget can close the gap.
• 42:54
  The Rabbit Road job ran about $13,000 in extras after weak areas were box-cut and springs were found, which the road commissioner said was well within the contingency. He stressed the pavement now down is a base course, not the finished surface, which is due later this year.

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: 3 passages of motion language, against 10 decisions summarised.

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