TOWN OF WILLIAMSTOWN MINUTES PRESENT: Larry Hebert - Chair, Rodney Graham- Vice Chair, Bill Ashe, Francis Covey, Art Stone Town Manager: Garrett Earls
VISITORS: Mike Sprano, Kathleen Lott – The Northfield News, Kamala Chouinard, Allen Chouinard, Horace Duke Jr., Dave Delcor, The Times Argus, Arthur Kramer, Sam Fisk, Ivan LeBlanc, Tom Bailey, Monica Hayden, Larry Elliston, Irvin Stephenson, Attorney Paul Gilles At 7 pm Larry called the meeting to order for the April 19, 2010 Williamstown Selectboard meeting. Announcements: None Visitor’s Comments: Monique Hayden came to the Board to express her concerns of a poor path were going down with the conflict between the Selectboard and the Town Treasurer. Larry explained that was why the Town’s Attorney, Paul Gilles was there to answer questions. Review and Approval of Warrants: Rodney motion to approve warrants SB44, SB45 and SB46. Seconded by Francis. After a discussion the motion passed by a voice vote of 5-0. Approval of Minutes: Francis moved to accept the minutes of April 5, 2010 Selectboard meeting. Seconded by Francis. Corrections were made and the motion passed by voice vote 5-0.
Manager’s Report: Sidewalk pre-bid is tomorrow at 10am, Town Hall. First phase before the bids. Next item is a request for an employee to be compensated for vacation time in lieu of taking the time which is allow in our Personnel Policy #7 under Section A. So move by Bill and Francis seconded. The Board asked Garrett to bring to the next meeting the hours accrued by staff for review. The motion was voted on by voice vote 3-2. Roadside mowing: 1 contractor for $80.00 per hour, traditional mowing the vegetation at intersections at one pass around $4,200.or we can rent this Challenger tractor with an arm and the 5 foot head on it, for $2,200. per week for two weeks. After a discussion, by consensus the Board decided to hire a contractor at $80.00 per hour. Unfinished Business: Red Flag Policy: Bill explained what it was about: to provide training in the town offices
to people who are involved in the transactions, mostly related to the
water & sewer fund which elevates us to needing to have a Red Flag
Policy. Red Flag is really identifying situations that might indicate
someone from outside is trying to gain some information about the identity
of people who would be doing business with the Town to protect against
identity thief. It starts with a risk assessment. Bill felt Garrett could
do it with consultation of the people working in the town offices. From
that, to then identify the kind of training the people in the town offices
that would enable them to detect circumstances that might indicate that
someone was trying to gain information improperly. It needed to start
with Garrett doing a risk assessment with workers at the Town Hall. Garrett
will talk to the Clerk for her input Request for Proposal Auditors: Garrett presented the Board with a request for Proposals for Complete Audit Services for the fiscal year 2009/2010. Bill’s comment was for a specific date for the final report to be submitted. Also in proposal requirements, he didn’t know the practice of keeping books open but we should know the dates we are asking for are achievable. The Board made changes and Rodney made the motion to accept request for Proposals for Audit purposes. Francis seconded and the motion passed by voice vote 5-0. New Business: Health Officer Candidates: Larry explained they originally had three candidates and one has since resigned. The candidates are Sam Fisk and the other was Arthur Kramer. They spoke to them and gave their opinions of why one candidate would be better for the job than the other. Rodney moved to appoint Arthur Kramer as Health Officer. Seconded by Art Stone. After the Board members gave their opinions the motion passed by voice vote of 5-0. Larry thanked them for coming in. Meeting Town Attorney: RE: Public Official Larry introduced Paul Gilles, Attorney from Montpelier, highly recommended by Vermont Leagues of Cities and Towns. He is very well verse of Municipal Law and is going to be working with the Town to get through the situation were in now with a public official. Mr. Gilles had looked over the material the Board submitted to him about the issue here. It was clear to him that the Board had the authority to do what you have decided to do so far. An appropriate municipal response is to concentrate on the power you do have in terms of setting the salary. You can’t establish hours, can’t direct the treasurer in how he does his work although there are a few elements we want to follow up on such as investments but there is no reason to change course from where you are today. In an open forum the Board and Residents shared questions about the Treasurer’s responsibilities and duties with Attorney Gilles. He in turned answered the questions of what the Board could or could not do concerning elected Officials. One large issue was having the reports of the current financial condition of the town monthly. Mr. Gilles pointed out the Town needed this information and if it’s not presently being provided to you , you can ask for them but you are not in a position to order them. It is the traditional job of the treasurer to supply you with that information. You can only do what you have authority to do. Mr. Gilles was asked how they can get the information. He answered that all the treasurers’ records are public and you have as much power as members of the public as you do as Selectboard. As investment you have a salutatory combination that you work together and the statues assumes the treasurer takes independent action and the Selectboard takes independent action and where you have a conjunction you have to work together. This is not a unique problem to Williamstown. If you can’t then you will need to find the information yourselves. It was asked that one part of the duties of the treasurer is to supply the Selectboard with financial information. Mr. Gilles said it is the traditional duty of the treasurer. Our treasurer is not performing his duties. Mr. Gilles pointed out there is no statute that obliges that relationship. He said it’s a traditional relationship that officers have to act together and you think you all would work together because you’re in the same business of managing this Town. Then he was asked that the law provides that accounts kept by the town treasurer must be available for inspection by interested persons. If you do get information that is not up to date, is it legal to hire an accountant to do our bookwork and reducing the salary of the elected official. The reply was you certainly have the power to hire someone to give you the financial advice. He would not tie it to a particular salary decision. You do have the right to that information and get it however you need to. You could keep alternate set of books that are current. You could ask for those records through the access to public information law. There is nothing confidential in those records. You would write a letter to the treasurer and request that information under access to public records. It has to be provided by statute and it is enforceable. The statue has a requirement that the information be produced in 24 hours. You have to ask for information under that statute. If you want to remedy that there is a procedure through the courts. The Board asked Mr. Gilles if they could not get this resolved what options did they have. He recommended hiring a shadow treasurer or a financial officer to provide you with the necessary information that the treasurer should be providing so you have something to work with. The Selectboard could vote on that. Larry on behalf of the Selectboard thanked Mr. Gilles for coming and hopefully has been helpful to the people in the audience. You have been very helpful to us. Thank you. Around the Table: Francis: Nothing at this time. Rodney: Nothing at this time. Bill: Reported they had one meeting of the Policy Committee and the next
meeting is April 30th. He has not had confirmation from the treasurer.
It is going to be exceedingly difficult to arrive at policies without
the participation of the treasurer since without the treasurers he is
not obligated to follow policies prepare without him. Larry: Echo to what Bill said on the Water & Sewer Committee that’s working on to try to adjust the rates in town, we really need the information where we stand. We are meeting on next Monday night to try and finalize stuff but it’s going to be based on what numbers we have. To end on a positive note, we will get through this, it looks pretty bad right now, and hopefully the worst is behind us and things will start getting sorted out. The auditors wheels are in motion, we are trying to keep this as open to the public as we can. Hopefully this is informative to everyone and we will keep you updated as things progress. Thank you all for coming. Visitor’s Comments: Mike Sprano understood the Boards problem because he is a little involved in it; he said if we can work it out, give up a little time as a Committee with the treasurer. If it doesn’t happen then you have to go the other route. Ivan LeBlanc as a resident felt he was extremely disappointed in the way the treasurer is acting. He is acting very unprofessional, very unresponsive, what is he thinking. He is not serving me as a tax payer at all. Art Kramer stated there is a five member Board and an elected treasurer. He keeps hearing individuals say I ‘am upset with this and give him time to work on it and so on. He listened to the attorney, and your questions and answers. Roughly speaking there are three thousand people in town if that’s the case those are the people that don’t have time to wait until he shows up and gets the books back in order. He thought you did what you needed to do, the Town of Williamstown, every person in this town can’t wait. They do not have the luxury. You talk about the water & sewer rates; you can’t expect people to have things put off to wait until everyone works this out. We need to do something now. He believes there is a moral obligation the Board step forward and do something for the three thousand people. Larry said we need to give the State Auditors some time to look into this and then we will see our next step. The Board is together in the steps they have taken and are working together to resolve the issues. Rodney motion to adjourn, seconded by Francis. Motion passed by voice
vote 5- 0 at 9:25 pm. |