I am told that the minutes of an open meeting should reflect the accurate discussions of not just the BOS and their agents, but the participating public as well. I have read the minutes of the BOS December 6th meeting and watched a TV tape of the meeting. The seven questions posed by me to the members and their agent (the Town Manager) were basically represented fairly with a needed correction in their minutes on question number 4; the question was not on “park” but “parking”; there is a world of difference.
The answers to my questions as approved in your minutes are another matter. The employee contract negotiating process has not changed ... it has been altered, as Randy Scollins stated, by the interpretation by the Town Manager of the roles. I am told by members of the personnel wage board that in prior cycles they were totally involved; i.e., attended several meetings of the teams, not all, as their time permitted. One stated that the Library met at 10AM typically, and was attended. Other members attended their sessions in the same manner. The contracts of the Highway and Fire signed by Rebecca in ‘08 and ‘09, indicate their participation through Andy’s tenure. He would meet with the Board often to update them on the missing sessions. Only one meeting has not occurred since Andy’s departure.
Let me state again that I do not question the wording of the superman manager statute on this question ... he is mentioned as shall “negotiate all collective bargaining contracts on behalf of the town,” and states, “... under the guidance of the BOS”. The statute does not say how, the by-law does! I question the interpretation that the superman statute totally voids the town by-law especially as indicated in Article 6 of said statute. The question as to whether his statute is valid is not the question which needs to be asked of Town Counsel. Instead the intent of the taxpayer voted by-law describing the make-up of the committee, which includes the manager (1996 amendment stated town administrator), Randy and department head, as well as two taxpayers ... is it still valid, as Section 6 of the manager statute indicates it is not VOID! When was the BOS officially informed that the wage board “could not take the time to be involved”? What date, and when recorded?
When asked if this is as it was done before this time, someone (Randy ?) answered yes ... for 8 years. Yet the personnel board says NO! Andy kept them involved. The answer then and as released in the minutes says they were negotiated in the same manner ... and Kevin added that this has been done this way “for the last eight years. This is not true!
The second issue of the ZERO/3% executive session vote was answered by the chairman, Larry by asking Kevin if he “made copies of the minutes” ... Kevin answered, “we did” ... “yes”. Then “you indicated you have given him what he asked for?” “Yes!” these quotes are from the TV tape. Yet in his letter to me of the 15th of November, emailed to you with my comments on the 17th, stated that this document does not exist! This is but the fifth set of minutes in which this item was discussed ... in at least two others the chair directed him to release this to me! NEVER HAPPENED!
The third issue, that of the snow and ice transfers is total misrepresentation, to be polite, a fabrication! Randy is noted in the minutes as explaining how the ice and snow account is adjusted each year. This was not the question asked! He even noted that the Advisory “takes a vote in June each year”, and added “they do take the vote”. I have asked for a copy of the minutes on this vote ... there is none for $450,000! It is instead for $8,900. I have inspected their minutes from April ‘10 through August ‘11... there is no such record ... so I guess Kevin’s handwritten note on my Request for Information form is correct ... there is no record! Having attended most of the AdCom meetings from January thru June ‘11, and asking them in open session whether they had voted such an item, their response was “NO!” Randy added “traditionally” this transfer is “town manager to Scollins”. And has been done this way for years.
I gave each of member of the BOS a copy of the statute ... it clearly indicates as I have noted to you previously “that such expenditures are approved by the town manager AND THE FINANCE OR ADVISORY COMMITTEE ...” (Caps are mine.) Kevin clearly is of the opinion that no record exists because he does not feel it is necessary to involve the AdCom per the statute!
All of the responses were skewed. The question posed on the negotiations will lead to only one answer ... so let’s abandon the wage personnel board. Let's continue the process of employees negotiating an employee contract with employees ... or let’s begin to discuss the taxpayer intent from ‘96 and the manager statute with town meeting for a clearer by-law. I think both are clear ... the manager is the chair of the negotiation team and it comprises two non-employee members as noted in ‘96!
And if the transfer of dollars, be it the $105,000 reserve account accomplished before informing your board, or the transfer of $450,000 is in violation of the statute, and transfers of other large hundreds of thousands of dollars for overtime and other account overruns without a visible and transparent paper trail is proper, we truly have problems. We appropriate $392,000 for police overtime (O’Leary TM ‘10), are told by that warrant that we spent some $400,000, yet advisory is given a document that we spent some $580,000. HOW and where is the trail and by whose taxpayer authorization!!!
We have a town meeting form of government, with the BOS vested with the executive powers of the town and the town manager, who acts as their agent under the jurisdiction of the BOS. This is directly from the superman statute. The taxpayer is the business of town hall, and we need to remind ourselves of this responsibility. The wording used to be public servants!
*answer the questions in a reasonable amount of time;
*provide documents and data as required by requests;
*make changes expeditiously!
Dick Heydecker, 63 Grove Street, 508-543-9412
