Select Board Meeting ~ September 12, 2023

2023-09-12 · Select Board · 2:29:56 · watch on YouTube →

Regular Select Board meeting of September 12, 2023, with Joe Tomm in the chair. The board took up a request to move October's meeting dates, then spent most of the meeting on the Union Church restoration reserve account: Town Manager Jerry Douglass walked through the account's spending since 2019 and the legal question of when the board may spend reserve funds without a town meeting vote. Douglass told the board that its earlier vote to pay a structural engineer out of the undesignated fund was not valid, and that the money must come from an existing account instead. The board appointed five members to the Solid Waste Committee, heard that the fire department had overspent its operating budget, and took the town manager's report. It accepted the consent agenda, went into executive session for the town manager's performance review, and adjourned.

What was discussed

1. 5:13
   Call to order, agenda amendments and public comment

   The chair opened the meeting, confirmed a quorum, and asked for amendments to the agenda and for public comment. There were none.

2. 5:13
   Old business: changing October meeting dates

   A member asked whether the board's October meetings could shift to the first and third Tuesdays, October 3 and 17, because he would be away on vacation from the 6th to the 14th. Other members said they had no policy preventing a change but were reluctant to move a meeting for one person, and one member said the 17th would be difficult because he would be in a multi-day trial.

3. 10:14
   Union Church restoration account: spending since 2019

   Jerry Douglass handed out a history of the Union Church restoration account and walked through it. He said the account held $67,269 in 2019, that $18,860 went to excavation and rebuilding a back wall that year, $10,637.36 to repairs in 2020, $767.48 to painting in 2021 that was never taken out of the account, and $16,850 to roof shingles in 2022.

4. 15:20
   Authority to spend from reserve accounts

   Douglass cited material saying municipal officers are trustees of reserve accounts and may spend from them for a project within the scope of the account without an additional town vote. He said smaller repairs had been authorised by the board and larger items such as a plow truck had been taken to town meeting by choice rather than by requirement. He gave the account balance as $21,572.14, separate from $10,000 raised at town meeting for the sills.

5. 20:30
   Discussion of the process and where the confusion arose

   Joe Tomm said he had put the item on the agenda because residents and board members had been confused about how the two pots of money work, and asked for the discussion to be public. The board established that the $10,000 was raised at the article level for the operating budget, specifically to help with the sills, and so sits separately from the restoration reserve. Members agreed the board does have authority to spend from the restoration fund, leaving only the question of whether it wants to.

6. 25:37
   Structural engineer site visit

   The board was told the structural engineer's site visit was set for the following Wednesday at 10 o'clock, after which hard bids could be sought.

7. 25:37
   New business: fire department operating budget overspend

   Douglass reported that the fire department overspent its operating budget, mostly on fuel. He said he had checked with MMA and other town managers and the best route was to ask residents to raise the amount at the next town meeting rather than put it on the November ballot or hold a special town meeting. He also said the auditor would come to the next meeting to go over the audit.

8. 31:20
   Validity of the earlier vote to pay for the structural engineer

   Douglass told the board that the warrant is the town's fiscal policy, that municipal officers have no inherent authority to spend unappropriated surplus, and that the board's earlier vote to pay for a structural engineer out of the undesignated fund was therefore not valid. He said the cost should come from the $10,000 raised for the sills, the Union Church account or the municipal capital account.

9. 36:22
   Which account pays the engineer

   Douglass said that when the bill came in, expected between $1,000 and $2,000, he would pay it from the $10,000 line and the board could then authorise moving money from the municipal capital account back into it. Josh Klein-Golden said the board's intent when it voted had been to avoid drawing down the $10,000 so the full amount would remain available for the sill repairs.

10. 36:22
    Contingency fund for the next budget

    A member raised putting an article in next year's warrant for a contingency fund so the board can pay unforeseen bills. Douglass compared it to setting money aside for roads and vehicles and said borrowing costs interest on top. The board agreed to take it up during the next budget season.

11. 41:28
    Solid Waste Committee appointments

    The board considered five names for the Solid Waste Committee and approved them as a slate. Members remarked on seeing new names come forward.

12. 41:28
    Town manager's report: grant reporting and Efficiency Maine

    Douglass said he had completed an outstanding grant report covering March 2021 to April 2022, which covered technology upgrades but not the recently bought truck. He also said the town's Efficiency Maine application for a lighting retrofit went in on the deadline of the 31st, with the audit work done by Enterprise Electric of Lisbon, and covers the town office, fire station, public works and the Eureka Center outside lighting.

13. 46:34
    Town manager's report: copier lease, ball fields, absence

    Douglass said the copier lease that ended in March was a market-based lease under which the town had been paying tax for six years, and that a dollar-buyback lease would cut costs by roughly 30 to 40 percent, with colour copies dropping from about 10 cents to 5 cents. He reported work on the ball fields was going well, said he would be away for the first two weeks of October, and said he and the fire chief would talk at the end of the week about an approaching hurricane.

14. 51:41
    Consent agenda and upcoming meetings

    The board accepted the consent agenda. Upcoming meetings were listed as Select Board on September 26 and October 10, and the Conservation Commission on September 20 at 6:30 pm at the town office.

15. 51:41
    Executive session: town manager performance review

    The board went into executive session under 1 MRSA 405(6)(A) for a personnel matter, the town manager's review. On returning, the chair said the board had provided Jerry Douglass with his performance review.

16. 2:28:49
    Adjournment

    The board came out of executive session and adjourned.

What was decided

• 10:14
  Motion to move October's Select Board meetings to October 3 and October 17, moved by Joe Roy and seconded by Josh Klein-Golden. After discussion the mover withdrew the motion and said he would not be at the October meetings. No vote was taken.outcome unclear
• 36:22
  The town manager said he would pay the structural engineer's bill from the $10,000 raised at town meeting for the Union Church sills, with the board able to authorise moving money from the municipal capital account back into that line afterwards. This was an understanding reached in discussion; no vote was taken.outcome unclear
• 41:28
  Approve Jill Schoolfield, Juliet Caplinger, Curtis Dimock, Jr., Milton Simon and Claire Ross as a slate of appointed members of the Solid Waste Committee, moved by Joe Roy and seconded by Joe Tomm. The minutes record it carried 4-0.passed
• 51:41
  Accept the consent agenda as presented, moved by Joe Roy and seconded by Josh Klein-Golden. The chair called it unanimous and the minutes record it carried 4-0.passed
• 51:41
  Go into executive session under 1 MRSA 405(6)(A) for a personnel matter, the town manager's review, moved by Joe Roy and seconded by Josh Klein-Golden. The minutes record it carried 4-0.passed
• 2:28:49
  Adjourn, moved by Richard George and seconded by Josh Klein-Golden. The minutes record it carried 4-0 at 8:59 pm.passed

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 sb_meeting_minutes_09_12_23_0.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.

• move October’s SB meeting dates to October 3rd and 17th

  Moved by Joe Roy, seconded by Josh Klein-Golden; no outcome recorded

• approve Jill Schoolfield, Juliet Caplinger, Curtis Dimock, Jr., Milton Simon and Claire Ross as appointed members of the Solid Waste Committeecarried 4-0

  Moved by Joe Roy, seconded by Joe Tomm

• accept the consent agenda as presentedcarried 4-0

  Moved by Joe Roy, seconded by Josh Klein-Golden

• go into executive sessioncarried 4-0

  Moved by Joe Roy, seconded by Josh Klein-Golden

• adjourn at 8:59 pmcarried 4-0

  Moved by Richard George, seconded by Josh Klein-Golden

Worth knowing

• 31:20
  Jerry Douglass told the board that its earlier vote to pay a structural engineer out of the undesignated fund was not valid, because nothing in the warrant gave the board authority to spend unappropriated surplus.
• 36:22
  The $10,000 raised at town meeting for the Union Church sills goes back to the general fund if it is not spent by December, and members discussed whether drawing the engineer's fee from it would leave the church short of the roughly $30,000 the sill work is estimated to cost.
• 25:37
  The fire department overspent its operating budget, mostly on fuel. The figure is garbled in the recording, spoken as around three thousand and referred to later as $3,000 and change. Residents will be asked to raise it at the next town meeting.
• 41:28
  The Efficiency Maine lighting project, if it goes ahead, must be completed by February 2024, and the town has to pay up front and be reimbursed by the grant. The programme is open only to towns under 5,000 population.

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: 5 passages of motion language, against 6 decisions summarised.

Elsewhere

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