Littleton, New Hampshire

Approved Minutes Oct 14, 2010

TOWN OF LITTLETON
BOARD OF SELECTMEN'S MEETING
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2010
2:00 PM
LITTLETON TOWN OFFICE CONFERENCE ROOM

Present: Chairman Ron Bolt, Vice Chairman Ed Boynton, Selectman Margaret Seymour, Finance Director Karen Noyes, Town Manager Chuck Connell, Executive Secretary Ceil Stubbings

Others Present: Eddy Moore

Bolt called the meeting to order at 2:00 PM and advised the purpose of the meeting was to give the Town Manager a midyear performance review. The last review was done in a non-public session but at the end the board concluded there was nothing that needed to be withheld from the public. Bolt suggested they start out in public and move into a nonpublic session if necessary. Seymour was going to suggest they start off in nonpublic. The board decided to start out in public session. Bolt advised this would be the last review until the annual review in March of 2011.

Bolt asked Seymour if she had any specific things she wanted to discuss. Seymour said she had a couple of things and asked Connell if he has moved to town. Connell said he has made arrangements for a residence in Littleton that he would be finalizing tomorrow. Seymour asked if he was planning on moving into it. Connell said he would not be moving his home. Connell said he would have a residence in Littleton, which is what his contract requires. Seymour said that one of the reasons for asking an employee to live in town is that they have a stake in the decisions made. Connell told Seymour that he was not moving his permanent residence to Littleton at this time. Boynton said he did not think the board could mandate that Connell reside in town. Bolt read the clause in the contract that states the town manager agrees to establish residence within the town. Boynton said only about 40% of the town and school employees live in town. Bolt said his point was well taken but the town manager is an exceptional case because of the clause in the contract. Bolt said the town manager had been granted two waivers and even Connell said the board should not do that again. Bolt then asked Connell what length of time he would be present in town, every day, every other day, etcetera. Connell said he would be renting a residence in town, unlike the school superintendent who resides out of town. Connell said he would be commuting to some extent and that he would not be here seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, but he would have a residence. Seymour said she was concerned because she feels that he is in breach of his contract. She said that at the last meeting Connell had promised he would have moved here by October of this year. She has had at least one person ask her if he was living here and it seems to be a sore spot with some people. Seymour said she would like things to be the way they are supposed to be. If his contract says he is supposed to live in Littleton then he should be living in Littleton. Seymour said that maybe they should have an attorney review the contract. Connell said that in his opinion if he establishes a residence he has met the obligation. The board decided Seymour would contact the town attorney for an opinion.

Seymour said that there were a couple of things she had concerns about regarding the performance review. Her concerns were on accuracy and attention to detail. Seymour listed two incidents, one the furlough days and the other regarding the police reorganization and the communication with the union. Bolt noted Connell had improved on some aspects such as meeting preparation and having information available but referred to an incident regarding the sale of land abutting the Gilbert property. Bolt said the confusion was from the situation being the first time they had to face such an issue. The board then briefly discussed the additional role the town manager has as the zoning officer and the deputy health officer. Bolt said he had some concerns on public relations over the last three months. He gave an example of one particular storeowner who asked a question about trash pickup and had not received an answer for over a week. Bolt said they had extended the goal of the review of staffing until the end of the year and limited it to the town office. The board went down a list of previous concerns and discussed the areas that have improved.

Connell mentioned that one thing the board could do in regards to their agenda would be to implement a closing date so they have time to review the documents before the meeting. The board agreed to close the agenda on a Friday at 3:00 PM. The board decided to continue onto the budget work session without adjourning the meeting. The board then reviewed a report provided by Connell regarding a breakdown of the legal expenses.

Connell advised the board of an emergency sidewalk situation on South Street. This was identified this year and determined the sidewalk is in total failure. It is unsafe and has been blocked off. This winter it is not going to be useable. George Chartier and Karen Noyes have worked on this and have determined they have enough money from the money that was left out of the $200,000 warrant for sidewalk repairs. George provided a report and photographs of the failed sidewalk. George said there was a cost estimate done but it was a high cost estimate of around $130,000. George said they had enough granite curbing left over from other jobs. Connell said that he and Chartier believe they can get the cost down to under $75,000 which is the balance left from the warrant. The warrant article was written in such a way that the remaining funds could be used for other repairs. Connell asked for the board's advanced permission to proceed if they can get the cost down to a price they can afford. Seymour made the motion to approve the request made by the Town Manager and George Chartier to proceed with the emergency repairs on the sidewalk on South Street provided the cost does not exceed the balance remaining in the warrant article for road repairs. Boynton seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0.

Bolt then asked the board to review the minutes of previous meetings. Bolt directed the board to the minutes of the 15th of September. Seymour said she had a correction for page 3, in the top paragraph, ninth line down it said empathized but should say emphasized. Boynton moved to accept the minutes as amended. Seymour second. Passed 3-0.

The board did not require amendments to the minutes from the 22nd of September. Boynton moved to accept. Seymour second. Passed 3-0.

Bolt stated that he was not in attendance on the 28th of September. Seymour stated that she noticed under Budget Presentation and Discussion on the fourth line down it should say of instead of or. Correct it to say the beginning of the process. Seymour moved to accept as amended. Boynton second. Passed 2-0. Bolt abstained.

Bolt was not in attendance on the 30th of September. Seymour said the only thing she saw on this one was under the sewer budget. She did suggest that they consider using part of the savings that they were going to realize by not paying on the new bond to put into a capital reserve fund. Seymour said that was the first time she brought it up and then she brought it up again at another meeting. Bolt asked her if she wanted to just add a sentence. Stubbings said she did not recall this being brought up at this meeting. Seymour said it was not that important and moved to accept the minutes as written. Boynton second. Passed 2-0. Bolt abstained.

The minutes of the 5th of October were not amended. Seymour moved to approve them as presented. Boynton second. Passed 3-0.

The minutes of the 6th of October had some areas that needed to be amended. Bolt said that under the flood event where it says Mercieri stated the Highway Department estimated $8,000 to $9,000 in expenses and the Police Department estimated $1,000. Bolt said it was the Fire Department that incurred the expenses. Stubbings said she went by what he said. Bolt said the minutes were incorrect. It was agreed a footnote would be added to make the correction. Boynton made the motion to accept the minutes as amended. Seymour second. Passed 3-0.

Connell advised he had a conversation with Paul Hatch regarding the flood event. Grafton County had more than $250,000 in damages. The other requirement for FEMA to make a declaration is for the state to meet their threshold. So far the state is nowhere close. It does not look like we will get reimbursement for the event. Connell then advised the board that Jae Whitelaw has been rescheduled to the November 3rd meeting to talk about the Badger Trust. Connell said that leaves nothing on the agenda for October 20th. Boynton made the motion to cancel the October 20th meeting. Seymour second. Boynton amended the motion to cancel the meeting on October 20th and November 17th. Seymour second. Passed 3-0.

Real Property Appraisal
Connell advised this budget has gone up by $13 on the bottom line. The permanent position reflects the 3% increase. The MRI Assessing Contract is being held at the same rate as this year. Seymour asked how long the contract was for. Connell advised it was a 5-year contract. Seymour asked when they were going to discuss if they wanted to do something different. Connell advised he would need to know that now, because he was getting ready to sign the contract. Seymour said that at their last meeting some people said they felt MRI was not the best way to be spending our money. Connell said he was very satisfied with the service MRI provides. After some discussion Bolt asked about the dollar amount for the assessing service because this year we had them do more work because of the reassessment. Connell said they have a 5-year amount for the coverage and the figure does not change. There is a condition in the contract that they increase the fee by the CPI. Karen Noyes said she had found a savings of $29 under data processing that needed to be corrected. In addition there were some other corrections that were not reflected on the copies of the budget provided to the selectmen. Noyes said the new bottom line after the adjustment was $139,634.

Planning & Zoning
Joanna Ray said she was confused by the format on the budget sheets she had been provided. Karen said she had not made the changes they had discussed. Connell said the change they had discussed is only showing the income and not showing the expense. He is recommending they show both. Joanna said she spends $2,000 in postage and Connell said there would be an offset to the postage expense with$1,600 revenue for postage. There will also be a $550 for recordings. Joanna said it was the same with notices and publications. Seymour said she would like to see the legal expenses for the Planning & Zoning in their budget. She would also like to see the legal fees in the Assessing budget. Seymour said it would make sense for people to be able to see the true cost for each department. Connell agreed with her.

Tax Collector
Connell announced the tax collector was out on sick leave. The board reviewed the budget with the only increase under BMSI in the amount of $1,878. Bolt asked if the tax bills have to be mailed. Connell said the bills are processed out of Maine.

Opera House
Seymour thought we already covered this. Connell asked Seymour if the Town Building Renovation Committee has discussed fees. Seymour said the committee did not have numbers for this. They will have a presentation with options but it would not be ready until the next month. Connell said they have to work on the revenues. Bolt said he would expect something from the Chamber or the Opera House Commission projecting revenues.

Special Detail
Connell said the numbers stayed the same unless the board has questions for the police chief. Bolt asked for more detail. Connell gave an example of what outside detail entailed from flagging to traffic control for parades, etc. Connell told the board that if they reinstated all of the parades it would be $15,000. Connell explained the difference between inside detail and special detail. Inside detail is considered community policing at a reduced rate for the town. Special detail is for outside agencies. Boynton asked who determines which one is inside detail. Seymour said all five parades were considered inside detail and included in the budget. When the parades were taken out of the budget the parade people had to figure out how to pay for their police coverage. Seymour recommended they put the parades on a warrant article to let the voters decide if they wanted to pay for the police coverage. Connell said a warrant article could be written to put the total for all five parades into the police budget at the inside rate. Seymour made a suggestion to insert a new line into the budget for the parades and by doing so it would show what portion the school would need to reimburse. The board agreed to consider putting all five parades on a warrant article.

Sewer Replace Reserve
Karen Noyes provided the board with the report they had requested the sewer replacement funds balance. The current balance available is $315,288. $242,940 was used for replacement and maintenance on Main Street. Seymour was going to suggest that they put half of the savings this year into the reserve fund balance and the other half would go to reduce the user fees. Then next year when the tax burden is going to be even harder then the full savings would be passed on in that year. Connell said there was a $92,238 difference between the 2010 budget and the 2011 budget. Connell then asked Seymour if she was thinking of half of it. Seymour said she was only thinking of half of the amount that was attributed to the bond. Connell said the $70,000 bond has been paid off. Seymour was suggesting they add $35,000 to the $32,500. $65.000 would go into the fund balance. Bolt asked if the justification was to beef up the reserve fund. Seymour said yes because for many years there was equipment and other things that were not being taken care of. Seymour said they could bond but it would be beneficial if they had money in an account to deal with situations if they need to. Ed Boynton said he was inclined to leave it alone. Rob Bolt said he was in agreement with Boynton.

Animal Control
Connell guided the board to the animal control budget line and stated that it is the same as last year. The one thing that needs to change is to take $900 out of this budget and put it into the town clerk's budget. This is for office supplies, dog tags and postage.

Karen Noyes said the selectmen had at one point asked her for the history on the electric bill for the opera house. The town had budgeted for electric $5,500 and after taking the year to date and averaging it out it comes to $5,642. She did the same for heating, which was budgeted for $12,000, and she estimates that $14,988 would be spent this year. The board then went over other related Opera House expenses.

Connell provided the board with a response from a representative who is with the LGC and the discussion was our coverage under the Public Liability Trust and where they feel we should be on insurance. Connell said the parks department carries their own insurance. One of his predecessors split the insurance out to make the budget look better. The transfer station, library and parks and town are all covered under one policy. Seymour asked if the parks were requiring third party users for insurance certificates. Connell said that was a non-budget question but he believes they are. Seymour said she would ask the question when they meet with the park commissioners. Seymour said if the park is not requiring insurance certificates then the town would have a problem.

Bolt had a question on the executive office. There was a line for town manager relocation expenses. Connell said he forfeited that but then said he would rather discuss it later. Bolt said he would like to see a net loss or gain on the Fire Department resulting from the call company taking over some shifts. Bolt also requested the savings on the holiday pay. Connell said he could provide an approximation. Bolt said he would still like to get back to the subject of pay equity at next Thursday's meeting. Seymour made the motion to adjourn. Boynton second. Passed 3-0. Adjourned at 5:27 PM

Respectfully Submitted Ceil Stubbings

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