Tiverton Council Approves Contracts for Teamsters, Police and Fire Chief

7:02 p.m. The meeting begins.

7:05 p.m. The Town Council votes to go into executive session to discuss litigation in O'Dell v. Tiverton, as well as the performance evaluations of Chief Robert Lloyd, Chief Thomas Blakey and Code Enforcement Officer Gareth Eames.

8 p.m. The council is still in executive session.

8:08 p.m. The council reconvenes in open session. Council President Jay Lambert reports that no action was taken. The council voted 6-1 to seal the minutes of the executive session. Councilor Brett Pelletier was the opposing vote.

Council approves several licenses

8:22 p.m. The council votes 7-0 to approve the BV liquor license transfer of Buddy's Place, 79 Main Road, from receiver Vincent Indeglia to Dekeng Zhang dba Buddy's Place. The attorney for Zhang said they cannot present the council with a letter from the Division of Taxation until the ownership sale transfer goes through in receivership.

8:26 p.m. The council approves 6 licenses for renewal, as well as license and release of surety for Countryview Estates. Councilor Ed Roderick recused himself from the Countryview Estates vote.

Appointments and resignations

8:28 p.m. The council unanimously votes to approve Dave Vannier as the town's harbormaster for another year.

8:30 p.m. The council approves David Bell to an unexpired term for June 30, 2013 for a seat on the Historic Cemetery Commission.

8:32 p.m. The council votes 5-2 to appoint Jeff Caron to the Budget Committee, with a term expiring on Nov. 6, 2012. Councilors Pelletier and Roderick opposed. When asked if there were other applicants, Town Clerk Nancy Mello said the only other applicant withdrew their consideration.

8:34 p.m. The council accepts the resignation of Noel Berg from the Building Code Board of Appeals in a 7-0 vote.

Streets accepted as town roads

8:50 p.m. The council is currently discussing accepting West DeMello Drive as a town road with Director of Stephen Berlucchi. He said the town has been providing services to this development since the 1980s, yet it is still private. He said there are other roads in town like this. Berlucchi said he does not want to provide plowing or sanding services to the road since his equipment gets ruined.

"It's private and [I] don't think the DPW should be taking care of it," he said.

Councilor Joan Chabot said the Street Committee wants to look at all the streets like West DeMello Drive in question.

8:56 p.m. The council tables the street acceptance.

8:59 p.m. The council tables accepting the Winterberry Woods subdivision's street until March 12.

9 p.m. The council votes 7-0 to accept Knotty Pine Extension's streets.

Selling old Ranger, Nonquit schools and community center

9:21 p.m. Council votes 5-2 to send out request for proposals to real estate  broker services to make the sale available of the old Ranger School and Nonquit School. Lambert and Pelletier vote no.

9:25 p.m. Town Administrator Jim Goncalo said he wanted to postpone any decision on the until the town figures out what will become of the once the new facility is built on Bulgarmarsh Road. Goncalo said they plan to move three full-time employees - the town planner, administrative assistant and wastewater superintendent - to Essex.

Teamsters contract approved, after some debate

9:40 p.m. The council is currently discussing the . Councilor Rob Coulter cites numerous reasons to delay the vote due to not enough information given publicly about the fiscal impact statement.

9:57 p.m. Some debate ensues between Lambert and Councilors Dave Nelson and Rob Coulter about the impact statement with the teamsters. He said the statement released by the town did not contain its impact on Tiverton's pensions, as well as calculations with FICA, Medicare, sick time "buy back" and trick-down overtime, among other categories.

"We're setting a very poor precedent," Lambert said. "The lesson we really learned is let's agree on an impact statement before we put it out to the public."

Maintenance Director Bob Martin debates with Nelson and Coulter about going back on the Teamsters agreement.

"Now you want to reneg[ociate]?" asked Martin.

10:06 p.m. Coulter proposes to table the vote until a more complete fiscal impact statement is provided. The council votes 3-4 to reject his motion. Councilors Roderick, Lambert, Leonard and Brett Pelletier oppose the motion. Councilor Cecil Leonard proposes an alternative, to approve the contract in order to keep the agreement with the Teamsters and remain transparent, and then revise the impact statement after its approval.

10:16 p.m. The council votes 4-3 to approve the contract with the Teamsters, under Leonard's motion. Councilors Coulter, Chabot and Nelson oppose.

New contracts approved for police, fire chiefs

10:23 p.m. The council approves the employment agreement for Police Chief Thomas Blakey in a 7-0 vote. It's reported it is similar to the town's model contract, where he will be paying up to 25 percent health and dental insurance co-pay. Goncalo said Blakey received a good review.

10:28 p.m. The council approves Fire Chief Robert Lloyd's contract in a 7-0 vote, under the same amended agreements of the police chief's contract.

DEM grants sought to fix Town Farm, put in soccer field near Ranger School

10:35 p.m. The council approves in a 7-0 vote to send a matching, in-kind grant application to the Department of Environmental Management by Nov. 30 for $100,000 toward repairing the tennis courts and playground equipment at . Goncalo said the Recreation Commission has not had the funds to do these large projects, and added the court pavement is cracked and the fencing is very old. Pelletier said he takes pride in this vote, since he is an avid tennis player and played there for many years.

10:41 p.m. The council votes 7-0 to approve a matching, in-kind grant application to DEM to build a new soccer complex north of the new . He said one year ago the Stone Bridge Water District donated some land north of the school to the town for the purposes of building a soccer complex, and the Recreation Commission took on the task.

Cracking down on people abusing pay-as-you-throw program

10:57 p.m. Goncalo announces that since they started the , their anticipation of residents qualifying of 160 people jumped to around 420 people. He said it's suspected some are abusing the system, which asks applicants to provide proof they make less than $22,000 annually. He proposes a more stringent verification process for residents to qualify for free bags. Councilor Coulter suggests making the applicant sign a sworn affidavit, like the . After more than 30 minutes of discussion of how to implement it for July 2012, since the town has already given out bags through the end of the year, Tax Assessor Dave Robert walked into his office and showed councilors the current application. It states, in fine print near the signature, a penalty of perjury if falsified. Discussion ended and no vote was taken.

11:30 p.m. The council voted 7-0 to approved a report sent to the East Bay Energy Consortium about the town's support, remaining questions and steps to be taken to incroporate a wind farm in the town's industrial park.

Patch left the meeting at 11:45 p.m. before the council adjourned.

To watch full-length Tiverton Town Council and School Committee meetings, go to http://www.tivertonvideos.blogspot.com.