July 10, 2017 meeting minutes

Chairman Barrett called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. He announced that the meeting was being recorded for transmission by cable television. He led those assembled in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Appointment to Board of Appeals

Board members interviewed Eric Chisholm for an alternate position on the Board of Appeals. Mr. Chisholm reviewed his community involvement, his military service, his educational background and his work in the legal profession. Board members thanked him for his willingness to serve.

On the motion of Selectman Dalton, duly seconded by Selectman Crawford, the Board voted unanimously to appoint Eric Chisholm as an alternate member of the Board of Appeals with a term to expire on June 30, 2020.

Interviews for Reading Municipal Light Department Citizens Advisory Board

The Board interviewed two residents interested in serving on the RMLD Citizens Advisory Board as Lynnfield’s representative. A third applicant is expected and will be interviewed at a later date. Frank Rivera reviewed his educational and his employment background. He works in risk management for the Massachusetts Port Authority. Vivek Soni reviewed his educational and employment background. He is a consultant in the energy field and has spoken to David Nelson, the most recent CAB member, about the work.

Board members thanked both for coming forward and their willingness to serve.

Appointment to Board of Registrars

Town Clerk Trudy Redid recommended that Michael Feinberg be appointed to the Board of Registrars, which is now down two members as one member moved out of Town and another declined reappointment.

On the motion of Selectman Dalton, duly seconded by Selectman Crawford, the Board voted unanimously to appoint Michael Feinberg as a member of the Board of Registrars with a term to expire on June 30, 2020.

Continuation of a public hearing on request for a guy stub pole on Locust Street, Peabody Municipal Light Department

On the motion of Selectman Dalton, duly seconded by Selectman Crawford, the Board voted unanimously to continue the public hearing.

Chairman Barrett said that after meeting with a PMLP engineer and neighbors, it was decided that Peabody Light will look at replacing a pole at that location instead.

On the motion of Selectman Dalton, duly seconded by Selectman Crawford, the Board voted unanimously to close the public hearing.

Town Meeting Study Committee and Field Committee Update

Arthur Bourque III, who serves as chairman of the Recreational Fields Committee, gave a brief update on work underway at the Middle School site and thanked the Conservation Commission and Department of Public Works for their assistance.

Mr. Bourque, who is the Town Moderator, appeared before the Board to suggest the appointment of a five-member committee to study town meeting. Issues to be discussed could include changing the start time and date of the meetings, the latter of which would require an amendment to the charter; parking and transportation issues; the location of the meeting and overflow; electronic check-in and voting; formatting and display of the warrant and motions at the meeting; changing the authority on governance of the meeting from Robert’s Rules of Order to Town Meeting Time; changing or eliminating the quorum; limits on speaker time and issues such as distribution of Town-generated and other materials, allowing other activities such as fundraising efforts during the meeting.

He urged the Board to appoint a committee of people who are experience with town meeting and leave the charge somewhat open-ended to allow for unanticipated issues to be discussed. He said the effort should include reviewing operations at other communities’ town meetings. Some of these changes can be adopted by a bylaw.

Chairman Barrett said that Mr. Bourque does a wonderful job as moderator and said that this review is timely after feedback received after April’s town meeting. He said making town meeting more efficient is a good goal. Selectman Dalton said Mr. Bourque’s memo on the subject made him enthused about the subject. He said he expects that a charter commission will be convened at some point.

Mr. Bourque said that only contemplated changes he raised that would require a charter change would be the date of the meetings and the changing of the authority on meeting governance.

In terms of the timing of the report of the committee, Selectman Crawford said next October may be best. He said gaining a quorum for the second night of town meeting when needed is difficult.

Resident Patricia Campbell said that the town meeting is not faithful to Robert’s Rules of Order and said she does not believe eliminating the quorum would spur attendance. She discussed several of the issues raised by Mr. Bourque.

Town Administrator James Boudreau said there are several steps that could be accomplished without charter or bylaw changes. He said some improvements could be undertaken before the review is complete if there is agreement on them.

Resident Jill Giuliano said she favors the electronic voting system.

On the motion of Selectman Dalton, duly seconded by Selectman Crawford, the Board voted unanimously to establish a five-member Town Meeting Study Committee, with the moderator and town clerk to serve as ex-officio members.

Fiscal Year 2019 budget process

Chairman Barrett said that among the Board’s goals for this year is improvement of the budget review process. The budget deadlines more moved earlier in the year to allow for more time for the Board and Finance Committee to review department operating and capital budget requests. He noted that the Board will have for the first time a comprehensive 10-year capital plan, as well as providing voters with information about all facets of the Town budget and spending through its enhanced fiscal transparency feature on the Town’s redesigned website.

Selectman Dalton said that the budget presentations should be standardized and tie into the budget line items as put forward in the warrant, in order to communicate the budget to the public in a more understandable way. He said three years of actual expenditures should be provided for comparison purposes.

Town Accountant and Assistant Finance Director Julianne McCarthy said that the budget is derived from line items in the Town’s MUNIS accounting software program, and does not always roll up into a direct match with the warrant display. This can be reviewed. She noted that the budget during the review process changes from department head request to the town administrator’s recommendation to that adopted by the Board and the Finance Committee recommendations. To ten end of standardizing budget presentation, fillable capital budget request forms have been created. She said it will be mandatory to include an explanation when any budget request would significantly increase or decrease a line item.

Chairman Barrett suggested moving the Budget Summit earlier and having budget submission deadlines adjusted accordingly. Ms. McCarthy said that the charter requires that the budget requests be submitted 120 days prior to the annual town meeting. She said she would review what additional information would be needed by departments. If the department submission deadline is moved up, the departments will need additional time earlier in the process to comply. She also discussed work done this summer in conjunction with an intern to provide additional budgetary and revenue trending analysis.

Ms. McCarthy also said that the budget cannot be published prior to the public hearing, and that her office and the town administrator’s office work with the Finance Committee to produce the warrant booklet. The financial transparency module on the website, once completed, will provide additional data to the public.

Mr. Boudreau said that a lot of monitoring takes place as well as analysis of prior years. He said that in the Town’s budget management system, the document is 460 pages long. He said that any true forecast of revenue will have to wait for the announcement of the governor’s state aid figure in December or January.

Regarding adoption of a best practices approach to budget documentation, Mr. Boudreau and Ms. McCarthy said that it would require a lot of work by department heads and the best approach may be to adopt two or so practices each year. He said that this discussion should continue and that requests for departmental and committee budgets will be sent out earlier this year, in October instead of early December.

Amended sewer agreement with Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, Market Street and Town of Wakefield

Mr. Boudreau said that when the four entities reached an agreement in 2008 for sewer service to the Market Street development, it was based on assumptions about the total flow. Actual flow is higher than the estimates and the development is not completely built out. The Town is a party to the agreement, and in the revised proposal, the Town of Wakefield reasserts its Board of Appeals ruling that no signage directing traffic to the Wakefield entrance to the development will be allowed.  Mr. Boudreau said this clause is superfluous, as the Board of Appeals has the power to regulate signage in that community.

Selectman Dalton said he is concerned about signing the document as the Town is not a party to the agreement on signage. He noted town counsel represents both communities and may have a conflict. Mr. Boudreau said this agreement is required by terms of the development agreement between the Board and National Development. He said that the agreement is pretty straightforward and that Lynnfield is not a significant party to it, as Market Street pays Wakefield for the sewer cost. He said he would ask town counsel to review the matter. Chairman Barrett said he is also concerned about the language addressing the signage issue.

The Board asked that town counsel review the issue.

Compensation for fire chief

Mr. Boudreau said that while other department heads received a 2.5 percent increase in compensation for the current fiscal year, Fire Chief Mark Tetreault did not due to an oversight. The amount required was encumbered from last year’s funds.

On the motion of Selectman Dalton, duly seconded by Selectman Crawford, the Board voted unanimously to award Fire Chief mark Tetreault a 2.5 percent salary increase retroactive to July 5, 2017.

Selectmen updates

Chairman Barrett said that about 15 volunteers have submitted applications for the newly formed Senior Citizen Advisory Committee. He said he would be ready next month to provide a recommended list of appointees to the Board. He also said he will suggest at that time recommending that the committee be expanded to include a representative from the Recreation Commission.

Selectman Crawford said that the Substance Abuse Prevention Committee met and resident Dawn Ripley stepped forward roe eve as coordinator. He said students at the Middle School in High School in selected grades will be administered a Youth Risk Survey in the fall, and that a survey of parents is also being considered. Funding would come from a grant from the Lahey Health group. The Fire Department is planning “hidden in plain sight” rooms for the department’s open house and schools to help parents find how to see signs of illegal substance use by their children.

Selectman Crawford also provided an update on the plans for Union Hospital. He spoke to the new president of North Shore Medical Center, who sees no change to the current proposal to close in the fall of 2019. Certain functions have already closed and there have been 150 layoffs between Union Hospital and Salem Hospital. The Union emergency room is still seeing 65 to 70 patients a day, with some being diverted from Salem to Union due to volume. With the closing of various divisions, there is a concern about keeping Union staffed during the next few months.

Chie Tetreault said that his department had transported patients to 16 different facilities in the past year, with 40 percent being taken to Union Hospital. The dispatching protocol is dependent of the patient’s condition, and secondarily the patient’s wishes if they can be accommodated safely. Most routine cases are taken to Union Hospital, where he has not seen any reduction in services to date.

Selectman Crawford noted that Salem Hospital is disbanding its cardiac unit. Chief Tetreault said the closest cardiac center would be Lahey Burlington. Resident Patricia Campbell asked about the difference in driving times to those destinations. Chief Tetreault said it is dependent on traffic conditions and time of day.

Chairman Barrett said that the Library Building Committee will meet on July 13, at which point it will find out if its grant as approved by the state. He thanked all who worked on the application.

Town Administrator update

Chairman Barrett recused himself from the portion of the meeting during which the Perley Burrill project was discussed and rejoined the Board after that portion of the meeting.

Mr. Boudreau said that the two buildings at the right of the Perley Burrill property have been razed. He said that the foundations will be checked by the building inspector. He also said the field improvement project at the Middle School will begin on Monday and that he discussed solar panels on Town buildings as well as solar arrays on Town land with the Reading Municipal Light Department. He said he is working with Public Works Director John Tomasz on this issue. The plan would be to lease the space to the provider, not to build the units and use the energy.

Public comment

There was no public comment.

On the motion of Selectman Dalton, duly seconded by Selectman Crawford, the Board voted unanimously to adjourn at 7:43 p.m.