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Minutes of 9/17/2012 DRAFT

September 19th, 2012

Carroll Board of Selectmen
Meeting Minutes
September 17, 2012
DRAFT
"These minutes of the Town of Carroll Select Board have been recorded by its Secretary. Though believed to be accurate and correct they are subject to additions, deletions and corrections by the Select Board at its next meeting when the Board votes its final approval of the minutes. They are being made available at this time to conform to the requirements of New Hampshire RSA 91-A:2."

Minutes recorded by Maryclare Quigley, Secretary

Board members present: Bill Dowling, Mark Catalano, Paul Bussiere.

The meeting was called to order at 6:10 PM by Chairman Dowling

Members of the public present: John Trammell, Bill Smalley, Jeremy Oleson

Pledge of Allegiance

The Board announced the approval of bills and signing of manifests.

Chairman Dowling confirmed with the Police Department that the Highway Department is now getting involved with the 911 numbers.

Chairman Dowling announced that the charges for World Surfer are going up.

Chairman Dowling brought up the Avery Sweeping Contract. As no one else had received this, he asked that it be put on the agenda for the next meeting.

Discussing the budget was brought up and Selectman Catalano suggested doing so later as those in attendance are here for the Fire and Police overtime. He proceeded to talk about the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and said he understood that was more for fire departments with people living there; those with around the clock coverage. Jeremy Oleson answered that was correct and explained about the higher number of hours before overtime is paid with those places that had shifts of so many hours on and then so many hours off. He said it was safe to assume that during a 48-hour shift, a number of hours would be used sleeping. With smaller departments that are not staffed around the clock, they do not sleep there and therefore are engaged in performing duties and tasks all the time.

Police Chief John Trammell said the FLSA is the same as the Garcia Act for police departments. He explained briefly that it says overtime at time and a half is required after 40 hours and that there are exceptions depending on several things including collective bargaining or other union, or an agreement reached before employment begins. There are also exemptions for a public agency i.e. fire protection and law enforcement with fewer than five employees. He said one of his references was from a copy he had received from Chairman Dowling when this issue came up several years ago, and as he had brought copies of various RSA’s, the Garcia Act and the FLSA and he offered to make some for the Board. Selectman Catalano said they need to look at solutions and what causes a solution may create or may not. He also stated that people were receiving their new property values and this should be something that should be considered. Chairman Dowling thanked Chief Trammell for the copies and said they will look at them and make an announcement next week if the town does not fall under this law.

Selectman Catalano referred to questions that Bonnie Moroney had presented to the Board at the last meeting. He said he didn’t want to put words in his colleagues’ mouths, but felt the Board
1.--Wants to do the right thing and
2.--Would be looking to Jeremy and Marc (Brodeur, Interim Chief) for guidance such as, if there is a problem they are not aware of, what it is and how they might be able to fix it.

Jeremy said they understand that and that it is rather difficult the way the department is right now. He said Marc is good, but he doesn’t really want to be Chief, and that everyone has stepped up and are working together to keep things going the way they should. He said they are also working on the ambulance service and believes it’s going in the right direction. The Board thanked Jeremy for his input.

The Board then briefly looked at the kiosk and lease and all agreed they believe it is a good thing. They will bring it up again at the next meeting.

Chairman Dowling then started the review of the proposed 2013 budget by departments/categories. Under Town Officers, the suggestion was made to reduce the Deputy Town Clerk from $11,154 to $8,000 based on actual spent of $4,580 to date. The Chairman said this could always be brought back up. Under Financial Administration, Chairman Dowling said to reduce Selectmen Office Overtime to 0 from $5,000, and to reduce Bank Service Charges from $800 to $600. There was brief discussion of the number of Post Office boxes the town needs and perhaps it should be reduced to one from the four, Town, Town Clerk, Fire Dept. and Police Dept. they now have. The Secretary said the Town Clerk’s Office should probably retain their own and if they reduce the other three to one, we would most likely need a larger box. It was agreed that any savings would be quite small so it wouldn’t be worth it.

The Property Assessing line brought discussion as to whether they would want to do the next re-val the same way, with a quarter of the town being done each year for four years and putting all the numbers and finalizing everything in the fifth year. It was noted this format caused quite a few problems with people not understanding the process and expecting different values being applied at the time. It is possible to do a complete revaluation in one year and if this is the way decided on, the Board discussed that they would want to put a warrant article in each year to spread out raising the money for the project over the five years, rather than raising it all in year five, the year that the re-val would have to be done. Chairman Dowling said he would look into this.

The Legal Expense line was reduced from $13,000 to $10,000 as there are no new cases that anyone is aware of and the case currently in the Court system should be finished this year. Planning and Zoning Boards were left as printed with brief discussion about being sure there would be money in the budget somewhere to pay the Building Inspector if his salary will not come from the Planning Special Revenue fund.

Government Buildings budget was left as printed with a brief discussion about putting a warrant article in for a comprehensive audit of the Town Hall. The Board agreed they did not want to spend any money on new furnaces, etc. until they knew what other steps could or should be taken to help cut down energy use. Chairman Dowling advised the quote for doing an audit this year was $5,000. Cemetery, insurance and other general government costs were left as printed.

In the Police budget, it was stated to cut the Detective salary to $1 from $46,176 and not fill it for the remainder of this year as they said the people should vote on next year. They put some of that money into the Patrolman salary line to cover the $3 per hour raise recently made increasing that line from $41,309 to $47,549. The Gasoline line was reduced from $12,000 to $10,000 as the new state prices are not available yet. Chairman Dowling said he would talk with the Chief about leaving the cars running when they are visiting. The Uniform Cleaning line at $1,050 was briefly questioned but no action taken. The Fire and Ambulance budgets remain as printed as this was the first year they have been separated and the Board agreed that a new Chief should have some flexibility with the budget. Property Inspections at $2,450 and Emergency Management at $103 remain the same. Highway at $91,028; Street Lighting, $16,000; Solid Waste Disposal, $74,931; Sewage Disposal, $750; Health Officer, $1,325; Welfare Assistance, $22,000; Parks & Recreation, $12,371; Library, $13,433; Patriotic Purposes, $1,000; Conservation, $426; and Debt Service, Long Term Notes, $61,806; and Interest, $29,131 all remain as printed. (Selectman Bussiere spoke of eliminating street lights to reduce the cost to $8,000 a year, from the present $16,000. However, it was explained to him that this had been brought up before and was not well received by the citizens of Carroll.)

The Chamber of Commerce Town Entertainment line was reduced to $2,000. $2,500 for fireworks was removed as the Board felt this money could be raised otherwise in the public. After brief discussion, the budget will be on the agenda for the next meeting.

As there was no further business, the Board was polled and went into non-public session for personnel matters at 9:10 p.m.

At the close of Non-Public Session, Chairman Dowling moved to return to Public Session and seal the minutes from Non-Public Session. Selectman Catalano seconded and the Motion passed unanimously.

There being no further discussion, Chairman Dowling made a Motion to: adjourn the meeting. Selectman Bussiere seconded and the Motion passed unanimously. Chairman Dowling declared the meeting ended at 9:25 p.m. The next meeting will be on Monday, September 24, 2012.

Town of Carroll, New Hampshire ®2024