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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - BoS - 09/04/2018 Selectmen Minutes September 4, 2018 Selectmen's Meeting Town Hall-Selectmen's Office 41 Highland Avenue Cohasset, MA Selectmen Present: Diane Kennedy, Chairman Kevin McCarthy Steve Gaumer Paul Schubert Jack Keniley Others Present: Christopher Senior,Town Manager Chairman Kennedy called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and asked for a roll call vote: Steve Gaumer-Present,Jack Keniley-Present, Diane Kennedy-Present, Paul Schubert-Present, Kevin McCarthy-Present. Chairman Kennedy asked for a motion to go into Executive Session-Exemption#3-To discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares. The Board will discuss proposed settlement of two contracts and an update on union negotiations. Exemption#6-To consider the purchase, exchange, lease or value of real estate, if the chair declares that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the negotiating position of the public body and the chair so declares. The Board will discuss possible property acquisition and easement. Motion moved by Selectman Keniley, Seconded by Selectman Schubert. Roll Call Vote; Kevin McCarthy-Aye, Paul Schubert-Aye, Diane Kennedy Aye,Jack Keniley-Aye, Steve Gaumer-Aye. The Board went into executive session at 7:03 p.m. The Board came back into open session at 7:45 p.m. Public Comment-None. Vote on MOA for SEIU Clerical -Mr. Senior reported that the contract for SEIU has been ratified by the Clerical Union. He reviewed some of the changes including an added retirement incentive. The contract will be in effect for 3 years. Motion by Selectman Schubert to approve the MOA for the SEIU, Local 888 Clerical, seconded by Selectman Gaumer. Roll Call Vote: Kevin McCarthy-Aye, Paul Schubert-Aye, Diane Kennedy-Aye,Jack Keniley-Aye,Steve Gaumer-Aye. Committee Appointments- Historical Commission-Motion by Selectman Keniley to appoint Noel Collins and Merle Brown to the Historical Commission for a three-year term, seconded by Selectman McCarthy and the vote was unanimous(5-0). Cohasset Cultural Council-Motion by Selectman Gaumer to appoint Meghan Michalak to the Cohasset Cultural Council, seconded by Selectman Keniley and the vote was unanimous(5-0). Open Space & Recreation Committee-Motion by Selectman Keniley to appoint Dustyn Mascia to the Open Space & Recreation Committee, seconded by Selectman Schubert and the vote was unanimous (5-0). 1 Selectmen Minutes September 4, 2018 Affordable Housing Steering Committee-Motion by Selectman Gaumer to appoint Melissa Weber to Affordable Housing Steering Committee, seconded by Selectman Keniley and the vote was unanimous (5-0). Cable Advisory Committee-Budget and Special Counsel discussion/contract-Chairman of Cable Advisory Committee Nicole Graebner and Program Director Don Roine were present. They reviewed their Financials and Balance Sheet for January-December 2017. Selectman Gaumer noted that there is a strong increase in revenue unlike the national trend. Chairman Graebner stated they are due for an audit which will provide more details. The Board had a brief discussion about the number of members currently on the Committee, which is four. Chairman Graebner stated the Committee is looking for approval to hire Attorney William H. Solomon to provide legal services for the Town of Cohasset's cable license renewal process. Attorney Solomon has assisted many other towns in the area through this process. The Board had a brief discussion about whether the Committee or Town pays for special counsel. Mr. Senior will look into and get back to the Board. The topic will be placed again on a future agenda. Licenses/Permits/Events-St. Stephen's Parish Picnic-Sam Pease-Warden from St. Stephens gave an overview of their annual picnic. Motion by Selectman Schubert to approve the use of the Town Common and road closure for the Annual St.Stephen's Parish Picnic on 9/23/18, seconded by Selectman Keniley and the vote was unanimous(5-0). Holly Hill Farm-Farm to Table Dinner-Motion by Selectman Schubert to approve a one-day liquor license for the Farm to Table Dinner on 9/22/18 from 6-10 p.m., seconded by Selectman Keniley and the vote was unanimous(5-0). Sailing Club Boat Storage License-Mr. Senior advised the Board there has been a request by the Sailing Club to store some boats on the grassy area at the back of the Town's parking lot behind the Lightkeepers Keepers building. They are looking to store them from October to May. They are drafting a license agreement. The Board had a brief discussion about whether the Lightkeepers have been notified. They also discussed if other 501c's have similar requests how they would handle them. Mr. Senior will check with the Lightkeepers and the Board will vote on at the next meeting. Set date of Special Town Meeting-12/10/18 and Open Warrant-Mr. Senior advised the Board they need to set the date of STM for 12/10/18 and pursuant to the town bylaw open the Warrant for 7 days for Citizen Petitions. Petitions will be accepted until the close of business on Tuesday, September 11, 2018. Motion by Selectman Keniley to set the date of 12/10/18 for Special Town Meeting @ 7 p.m. and open the Warrant, seconded by Selectman Schubert and the vote was unanimous (5-0). Board of Selectmen Budget Message-Advisory Committee Recommendations-Chairman Kennedy stated the Board is having a Goals&Objections meeting next Tuesday. Chairman of Advisory John Chapman was present and discussed the following recommendations; 1. Cohasset has benefitted greatly from the development of and adherence to a set of consistent financial management policies and practices. We commend your support for these policies in past messages and recommend that it continue. 2. However,policy and practice have lagged with regard capital planning. The process for vetting and optimizing individual items of capital expenditure for the next immediate fiscal year is well developed,and there is an established schedule for select regular items, such as vehicles for the police department. However,we lack a complete,well socialized long-term capital improvement plan that not only identifies future needs(and wants)but also prioritizes and sequences them in coordination with other planning activities of the 2 Selectmen Minutes September 4, 2018 Town,and,importantly,includes o financing plan. Each year's capital budget should be based on such a plan. We recommend that you make development cf a capital improvement plan a priority for the coming year. 3. We recommend that a plan and funding policy for maintenance and repair of roads be included in the capital improvement plan. 4. The need to adequately fund existing assets is commonly raised in discussions of capital spending,and rightly so. While the facilities department has been strengthened and its budget has been increased in recent years,there is further planning and budget assessment to be done. We recommend that the capital improvement plan be accompanied by a companion plan for maintenance and a policy for its funding. 5. Regarding the financing component of the capital improvement plan,we observe that operating budget appropriations for capital as a percent of the operating budget have been dropping. This is in part because of roll-off of excluded debt,but also because the formula for determining the appropriation for the capital stabilization fund does not account for growth of the operating budget. We recommend that the goal for FY'20 be that the sum of the appropriations for non-excluded debt service and the capital stabilization fund(net of transfers for capital stabilization debt service)be at least 5%of the operating budget which was the average from FY'14 to FY'17. The capital improvement plan when complete may well require commitment to an amount larger than this,but we should take this first step this year. Year-end transfers to the capital stabilization fund are helpful but should not be relied upon as a matter of policy. 6. Despite recent progress in funding Post-Employment Benefits,particularly with the establishment and funding of the OPEB trust fund,much remains to be done. We commend your recognition of this in the establishment of the PEB Committee. 7. Regarding OPEB,our actuaries have reported that in order to be on a path to fully funding the OPEB liability under current benefits and assumptions over thirty years,the Town should(as of FY'17)be allocating$2.65 million annually to our retiree health insurance obligations. In FY'17 we paid about$1.6 million for current retirees, so to meet the funding requirement we should have contributed over a million dollars to the OPEB trust fund. We actually contributed$475 thousand,a shortfall of$600 thousand.In FY'18 the OPEB trust fund contribution was only$350,000 so the shortfall likely was larger. We do not recommend an immediate increase to full funding, which would put a severe strain on the rest of the budget, but do recommend the following: • Estimate the new liability per employee accrued each year,and separately report this amount for each proposed FTE addition. • Include in the budget book and in the town report a table of current year changes in OPEB liabilities under the budget as proposed,like exhibits 1.3 and 4.1 in the most recent actuarial valuation. • A substantially larger initial appropriation for the OPEB trust fund than the$100,000 in the current projection. • Amend the financial management policies to establish a target for OPEB funding and a timeline to reach that target. This should reflect any recommendations of the PEB committee to reduce future liability. HR Update-Policies& Procedures-discussion-Chairman Kennedy stated Director of HR Lisa Uglialoro has accepted another position closer to home and will be leaving Cohasset. The Board thanked her for her hard work and is grateful for how far they have come with Human Resources. Lisa advised the Board there is an employee handbook in draft form that needs to be further edited. It has been reviewed by counsel. After the book is finalized, counsel will review again. The next step that should be taken is to have department heads and staff input to be incorporated. Later this fall the handbook should be reviewed and adopted by the Board of Selectmen. Mrs. Uglialoro reviewed the 8 sections of the handbook. She reviewed with the Board things she has accomplished over the last couple of years. She stated she brought HR out to the people by moving around and spending time at all town buildings. Mr. Senior thanked Lisa for her hard work. Town Manager Update-Cunningham Bridge Update-Mr. Senior stated the bridge railings are being installed. They are still expecting the bridge opening in early October. There will still be more finish work in the area, but the road will be open. He reminded residents that the bridge is still closed to 3 Selectmen Minutes September 4, 2018 pedestrians and vehicles at this time. There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony in October in which the Governor will be invited to. Town Hall Update-Mr. Senior stated the Town has retained a company to do an analysis of the building and expects a draft report early next week. This will include a building system analysis report. Mr. Senior stated the air conditioning units have not been working properly. They installed a window unit in the Selectmen's office tonight before the meeting. Selectman Keniley stated he spoke with Selectman McCarthy and they would like the Town Hall to be painted to help preserve the wood and the outer shell. He asked that they discuss further at the 9/18 meeting. Mr. Senior will distribute the report of the analysis to the Board to see if there are bigger issues. National Grid update-Mr. Senior stated the Town has been working with National Grid on the power issues however,the lock out didn't help. The recent outages the Town has experience happened in good weather conditions. They have been told one incident was vehicle hitting a pole and another was a failure in the feed from Norwell. Mr. Senior met earlier with the Chairman of AEC Stephen Girardi and Chief Silvia. They are going to do a ride around town and identify the issues. Mr. Girardi said part of issue is different voltages coming in different parts of town. They are working on setting up an appointment with the Governor's office and other state representatives. There needs to be answers to why the outages keep happening. Chairman Kennedy agreed and stated there that we should get a communications plan in place (with National Grid)to improve communications on outages, anticipated return of service, etc. Selectmen Update-Selectman Gaumer asked when the Board will get an update on Bound Brook. Mr. Senior stated there is an Executive Session scheduled on 9/18/18 to discuss. Selectman Gaumer stated the Board received a note from the Harbor Committee Chairman about what they want to achieve with the real estate renovation around the harbor. He suggested the Board discuss at their Goals & Objectives meeting. Selectman Keniley agreed that the Board needs to decide what they are willing to endorse for the harbor development. Selectman Schubert stated Pond Street has been paved and looks great. Selectman McCarthy asked when the Long Range Planning Group will be meeting. Chairman Kennedy stated the Board discussed recharging the Committee in June. She will put on a future agenda to discuss. Motion by Selectmen Gaumer to adjourn, seconded by Selectman Schubert and the vote was unanimous(5-0). The meeting adjourned at 9:57 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Diane Kennedy, Chairman Documents Committee Applications Cable Advisory Financials Minutes 7/24/18&8/14/18 4