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Town of AmherstBoard of SelectmenOctober 2, 2006
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Chairman Bruce Bowler called the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m. Selectmen present: George Infanti, Thomas Grella, Jay Dinkel and Reed Panasiti. Also present Town Administrator Gary MacGuire and Executive Assistant Sharon Frydlo.
Citizens’ Forum
There were no questions or concerns from the audience.
Steven Ellis – CIC Committee
Mr. Bowler advised that Doug McAllister, Chairman of the CIC Committee had a potential candidate for the Committee and a letter of interest had been given to the Board by Mr. Ellis. Mr. Ellis briefly spoke about his background in the audio video field, his work with Doug during the past three years and his interest in extending the content of his work to the CIC Committee. Board members commented that he would be a great asset to the Committee and they thanked him for his willingness to a volunteer. It was a pleasure for them to meet both he and his son. Mr. Dinkel moved to appoint Steven Ellis as a volunteer to the CIC Committee, second by Mr. Panasiti. Discussion: Mr. Panasiti asked if he had a term limit. Mr. Ellis replied a maximum of three years. Vote: Unanimous.
Update on Town Web Site – Rich Hart
Mr. Hart reported he has been working on the site for approximately three years and they now have approximately 1200 files with 60 megabytes on the disk. There were three closely associated web sites – Library, PMEC and the Souhegan School District. He had a bit of trouble determining how much the web site gets used and could not come up with the exact number, but the main page gets approximately 1000 “hits” per week. There were four mailing lists on the site: Amhersttalks, ACCfriends, Amherst_CIC and Amherst ListServ. He spoke briefly about what each comprised of. There were 150 members of Amhersttalks – Sally Wilkins contributes on Planning Board issues and he contributes to Conservation issues. The ListServ Carl Weber had started and Mr. MacGuire has continued it.
Mr. Hart continued, there were a collection of people who help to keep it updated: Sharon Frydlo does a lot of work with minutes, agendas and keeping the Committee representatives updated. If someone wants information put on the site, she contacts him and asked that it be done. Doug McAllister contributes to the CIC Channel 20 Broadcast Schedule, Cari Lane and Vicki LaForet with simple PMEC updates, Jim Morgan is the list moderator for Amhersttalks. Among others, there is Shawn Brewer, Anne Krantz, Bill Overholt, Beth Woodbury, and David Vogt who have made available photos.
One goal Mr. Hart had, was community involvement and the ability to provide information for newcomers and long-time residents; to provide information about community organizations and also list more local services. He spoke of future additions such as NH E-Reg, on-line maps, combine many Town maps with overlays (Bedford is a good one to look at for this), E-Bill where one could pay taxes, register dogs, etc. online A few towns are doing this, but not too many at this time and the Board may want to consider this. Mr. Bowler commented that E-Reg is coming to Amherst, possibly in November.
Mr. Hart briefly spoke about the Town’s 250th Celebration and the thought that the web site design be changed since they have had the same one for three years. He would like to clean-up the zoning regulations and have a better directory, but this would take some work and time. Another thing he would like to do it figure out a better way to handle Town news on day-to-day and week-to-week basis. In answer to questions raised by Mr. Panasiti, Mr. Hart explained that Sharon updates minutes on a weekly basis. His updating goes in spurts, but he believed fairly soon things will pick up with the upcoming elections. He briefly spoke about links to organizations if they have sites, if not he puts in a little bit of information about those clubs that do not have any web sites.
Mr. Dinkel mentioned that for a volunteer, the Town got great service. Mr. Hart spoke briefly about how he charged the Town because he also volunteers on the Conservation Commission and Planning Board. He decided to charge the Town when he was sitting in front of his computer. If he was sitting at a meeting and collecting information this was his own volunteer time. He has been receiving the same dollar rate for the past three years and would like to increase it in the budget coming up. Mr. Bowler thanked Mr. Hart for doing a great job and an increase in what he was charging was something they can discuss in the upcoming budget process. For the record, Steve Coughlan asked what was the URL. Mr. Hart advised www.amherstnh.gov.
Re-Award Tractor Bid
Mr. MacGuire reported the Selectmen awarded this bid last week and while compiling the two bids, several items had been left off. He wanted to present the bids again with the low bid being a bit higher than what was presented last week. Last week the low bid was $49,790.30. With the addition of non-radial turf tires and a bucket self-leveler brought Knoxland Equipment to $51,690.30 which was still substantially lower than Chappell Tractor at $61,383.00. Mr. Infanti moved to accept Knoxland Equipment’s bid of $51,690.30 for a new Massey Ferguson Tractor, second by Mr. Grella. Vote: Unanimous.
Request to Purchase Town Property M/L 24-61
As this pre-dated Mr. MacGuire’s time, he asked Sharon to explain this request. She indicated that Mr. Augello had made this same request many years ago and the then Board of Selectmen voted not to approve it – one of the reasons was at that time they were looking for boat launching areas to Baboosic Lake – if she remembered correctly, this town-own lot had a steep incline to the lake. Mr. Infanti mentioned he had read all the old correspondence from previous Boards attached to Sharon’s August 23 memo and did not remember why the other Boards were a bit hesitant to sell the right-of-way to the lake. He suggested that after reading all the information he did not think it a bad idea for them to look it over. Mr. Dinkel commented that it did the Town no good to own it and would like to move ahead if Mr. Augello was still willing to buy it. Mr. MacGuire thought they would want to make sure there was some type of bidding process. Mr. Bowler agreed that the other abutter or someone across the street might be interested in it too. He thought they should meet and view the property before it gets too late. The Board concurred with this suggestion.
Mr. Panasiti felt they should open the sale of the property to anybody. Mr. Bowler asked that a letter be sent to Mr. Augello indicating that the Selectmen were beginning the process of looking into his request and whether or not they needed to notice any public hearings.
Mr. Bowler asked Mr. Infanti if he had anything to add to their previous discussion. The Board was not going to set a number now and Mr. MacGuire and the Department Heads will come back with something realistic. Mr. Infanti indicated he was “of the old school” of setting something and keeping within a certain percent. He was unsure that last year the Department Heads got all the correct advice. He had always been of the mindset that they want to keep the budget below 3 or 3.5% and work into that. This gives them some guidelines to come up with a budget the best they can while the Board spends a lot of extra time cutting it down. What should their guidelines be, he asked “sharpen your pencil”.
Mr. MacGuire commented on dialog he had with Mr. Dinkel publicly last week – with the Board giving guidance, it falls back on him and he had no problem with this. In the past, there was a percentage every Department should strive for. The message he has given the Departments is to come up with what they need and to sell it a demonstrated need. His job was then to get to the budget’s bottom line across the board. Last year some Department’s may have unrealistically been trying to reach a goal. Their target goal is the bottom line and it was up to him and the Department Heads to make this happen.
Mr. Infanti indicated that the Department Heads work very hard to keep the bottom line down. The Selectmen had time to work with the Department Heads and they knew the Selectmen want to run the budget “lean and mean”. He did not have to set a percentage, but it was something he had always done. They also know that DPW is a department that they needed to beef up on. They had time and he did not have to have a percentage. Mr. Grella indicated he was in the same position as last year and spoke about it last Monday night. Gary was leaning in the direction he would like to see. Mr. Dinkel would like to see them set a percentage on the bottom line and let Gary manage this. They were zero to one on the goal setting and now was an opportunity to have a legitimate goal. He suggested taking the COLA out of the goal setting.
Mr. MacGuire advised that last year the Department Heads were delivered a message from the Board, at least a number, but never got a chance to look at it from a bottom line. How they get there is their project. Obviously there will be some highs and lows to get to that number. They were almost agreeing on the philosophy on how they are going to get there. They were looking at it differently last year, the COLA that affected salaries last year wasn’t out of the mix and may affect the number. Mr. Panasiti indicated that what Jay said made sense. There were two things out of control – oil and insurance rates. Perhaps they should tell them to look at this and the Board looks at the outside factors. Mr. Bowler suggested they may want to start with last year’s default budget - the COLA and gas and diesel will need to be changed. Mr. Dinkel suggested the budget be net of the inflation factor and wanted to keep the rate of growth at 2.5% and felt the COLA would be hitting them hard again this year. He would yield to whatever Gary thought.
Mr. Infanti thought this realistic and where he would be looking. This sends a message to the Town Administrator which is the message he will send to the Department Heads. He had a strong comfort level with the Department Heads and Gary, know what the Board wants and this gives them a little idea. Mr. MacGuire was not sure what that number was and without putting a number to it, it should be fairly simple. There is the addition of personnel, replacement of equipment and new programs. He agreed with the concept that the growth contributes to it and it is delivering the number of services. Mr. Dinkel commented that they can’t forget the income side – average income goes up 8%. They can raise income without raising tax impact and he was good with this.
W&M member Tedd Landon reminded them that new homes are down 19%, new truck and car sales are down 40% which reflects the State of the Union in this State as well as the nation and he would look at this closely. He talked about COLA’s last year and he knew the Board was going to look at salaries for Town employees. He thought they were going to look at salaries and if COLA’s were the way to go, should they also do something else. Coming from the private side, he would like to see employees have departmental reviews and get paid for what they are worth and not simply across the Board receive 4%. If employees were not doing the job, they shouldn’t get a raise. He would like to see numbers used in the “real world” such as for truck drivers. He suggested they mix it up with what they are paying in the Town and then go from there, rather than going for COLA’s all the time.
Mr. Dinkel wanted to hear, within the next several weeks, ideas from Gary and not have this as an edict. Mr. MacGuire advised that budgets were due in next Tuesday and they should have some numbers for them by the 16th. There were some numbers he wouldn’t have such as property liability and health. The process as it stands now, there will be no COLA’s in the budget. Relative to outside hire and personnel additions, he has told the Department Heads that this would have to be sold up front. As a Board, they don’t have to deliver a message, everything new and above has to be sold. If a particular department needs to do “x” to keep up or catch up, then it is their job to sell it to the Board, W&M and ultimately to the public. If they do a good job, then everybody will support them along the way as well.
Mr. Infanti told the Board that Milford’s DPW Director ranks his employees. Some people don’t work as much as others. He did not believe they went straight across the Board with COLA’s. There is always some people who do what they have to do and they draw their check and there are others who come in early and “check the oil”. Amherst no longer has a Union in the DPW Department. If the Police get something, they should take this under consideration. Maybe someone shouldn’t get $2.50 because he is “just doing his job” and others should get more. Some may get $1.00 and some may get $1.50 – no one pulls “all their weight” in any job. He was not saying they had a problem with Town employees because there are some who go way beyond and some others just do their job.
Mr. Dinkel suggested using the COLA as gross dollars Town-wide. He was not sure that they could do it this year, but “we say this every year”, he said. Mr. MacGuire thought they were talking about several different things. The steps that are now at 2% were definitely in the area that could be addressed. Two years or so ago, they had NHMA do a wage study and the COLA’s are meant to keep the Town competitive with the workforce around them. It hasn’t been that long since they looked at the different positions in Town, made some adjustments and the COLA should be keeping them even. They tried to pursue a merit increase which created a range and the correct employee did get higher than the average and the average less than that.
Other Business
Mr. Infanti reported he had missed the opening around the cemetery and heard the measurements were off. Wednesday night’s Planning Board will be interviewing the two parties submitting proposals for the Master Plan starting at 5:00 p.m. with Gary sitting in on them.
Mr. Dinkel reported there was a legal matter that should be discussed in non-public session. He had nothing further to report. Mr. Grella and Mr. Panasiti also had nothing to report. Mr. Bowler reported there was an individual who had been in Town for 1 ½ years, was retired and wanted to volunteer at the Transfer Station.
Minutes
Mr. Grella moved to accept the minutes of September 25, 2006, second by Mr. Dinkel amended as follows: Line 20 – Change “were” to “are; Line 208 – Change “were” to “are”; Lines 291 & 292 – Strike the sentence beginning with “Mr. Panasiti mentioned and ending with “go down 25%; Line 317 – Change “existed” to “exited”; Line 318 – Change “promotional” to “probational and change “one employee” to “the Police Chief”. Vote: 4-0-1, Mr. Infanti abstained.
Other Business
The Board briefly talked about complaints received when talking over the microphones and people not hearing what was being said. Mr. Ellis advised the CIC was working on a set of guidelines and will try to keep this in mind.
Mr. Bowler reminded everyone that Tuesday night there will be a special meeting with the Department of Transportation at 7:00 p.m. to discuss Route 101 and Old Manchester Road. They will arrange for overflow seating if needed, since the meeting room can only hold 84 people.
Non-Public Session
Upon a roll call vote, the Board unanimously entered non-public session at 8:23 p.m. under RSA 91-A:3 II (a) Personnel and (d) legal.
The Board came out of non-public session and voted unanimously to take Town Administrator Gary MacGuire off of the probationary period.
Upon a motion made and duly seconded, the Board adjourned the meeting at 9:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Sharon L. Frydlo
Executive Assistant