The July 16th Selectmen's meeting went well. Or at least as well as can be expected.
Selectman Royce Heath entertained us with his "No Comment" and Snippy attitude, and there's a BIG surprise for Lebanon voters at the end of the meeting!!
Part 1 of the meeting has Tom Torno, Lebanon Road Commissioner speaking to Selectmen regarding his overseeing of the town's cemeteries. After a Wednesday morning phone conversation with Lebanon Maine Truth Seeker Deborah Wilson, Torno had gone to visit and check up on some of the cemeteries being cared for by a Brownfield Company.
The talk turned to Wilson's recent project request in putting together a committee of volunteers to do some of the cemetery work and oversee the care and maintenance of the town's many small cemeteries as outlined by Maine State Law, Title 13, especially in article II. Wilson took a moment or two to outline the State Law, reading parts of it to the Selectmen. Select Board Chairman Ben Thompson talks about the State's new E911 system and the ability to mark and chart cemeteries in the town with GPS coordinates, and the fact that he's been following through by contacting the town's insurance company regarding insurance needs for volunteers who do work for the town. Thompson believes that an ADHOC Committee to oversee the work needing to be done on town cemeteries is probably the best way to go, but he's waiting to hear back from the insurance company and from the town's legal advisors.
Thompson states that with the many cemeteries only recently being brought up to the Board needing care, that he forsees this becoming an entire town department, "This is going to get really big, really fast," he said, reflecting on the upcoming transfer of care from Milton of the Prospect Hill Cemetery and the 24 or so recently discovered smaller cemeteries.
SEE Part 1 of the 7/16/15 Selectmen's Meeting Video HERE:
In the second part of the Selectmen's Meeting Video, Selectman Heath offers a business card for someone interested in maintaining the town's emergency generators. Selectman Nadeau asks to look at the card, and THINKS that it is his nephew. He asks to see the card again, and YES, it IS his nephew. Lebanon Maine Truth Seeker Wilson asks if this work shouldn't be put out to bid, and is met with resistance from Heath, who says that putting this work out to a bid would "cost the town too much money." According to Heath, no one is interested in maintaining the town's generators, which include units in the Fire and EMS stations, and one in the school for the use of the Emergency Management Agency.
WATCH Part 2 of the 7/16/15
Lebanon Selectmen's Meeting Video HERE:
In Part 3 of the 7/16/15 Selectmen's Video, the Board welcomes Mr. Tony Jones, of MEMIC (the town's insurance carrier). Mr. Jones is in the office to discuss various safety courses, offered to the town's departments FREE of charge by the carrier, aimed at reducing claims and losses to the town's insurance policies. Mr. Jones talks about the losses to the town, basically outlining the fact that for the most part, the bulk of the town's insurance claims have come from the Fire Department. Select Chair Thompson had texted to the Lebanon Fire and EMS Department Chief, Daniel Meehan, and when the Chief arrived, it was a surprise meeting for the two men who knew one another and had not seen one another since 1980 *according to a statement made by Meehan after the meeting*. Jones, who lived in Lebanon at one time, outlined the different on site training and inspections his company offered, along with inspections, on-line courses, and training visits. Thompson and Lebanon Truth Seeker Wilson both speak to Jones about "riders" or "blanket policies" that would cover any of the town's volunteers or committees, which Jones refers back to town insurance agent, Mike Lonergan. Both Chief Meehan and Selectman Royce Heath ask questions regarding statistical numbers on what the town would save, or how many accidents the courses can help to avert, but Jones tells that there is no way of knowing, just that they've seen performance go up, and accidents go down in the past when such training courses are utilized. Lebanon Maine Truth Seeker Sandy Adams asks about the town's past history and what exactly is driving the town's premiums up, and Jones says that the the town's problems all stem from 2 specific years, Fiscal Year 2011-2012, when there were $24,000 in claims and 2012-2013 when there were $34,000 in claims. More questions are asked regarding the $34,000, which Jones states the bulk of that went to one claimant, who responded to a multi-vehicle automobile accident and received a $29,000 claim for "over exertion".
SEE Part 3 of the 7/16/15
Lebanon Maine Selectmen's Meeting Video HERE:
Part 4 of the Selectmen's Meeting Video is all about Assessing, and the changes being made by the Selectmen as they act as the Board of Assessors. There is a lot of discussion about how the town's MIL rate, currently scheduled to be raised to 16.0 is calculated and the way that the assessment measures are being calculated using a "Base Lot" and then adding additional acreage dollars, then adding the valuation of the house (if there is one), or any additional buildings. There is a discussion about the savings that mobile home owners will see in their taxes this year, and how each persons taxes are calculated, with Thompson and Nadeau answering Wilson's questions, and then Nadeau having some questions of his own. Town Clerk Mandy Grenier joins the meeting with her request for the Part Time counter help for the Town Office that was budgeted for in the Town Office budget approved by voters on June 9th. Grenier speaks about job description and a finalized version is decided upon for release immediately after the requested changes are made. After questions about accessibility to Vital Records information, Grenier expresses her concern that there are "too many keys" to her Vital Records information, adding "If anything happens to the Vital Records information, I'm liable". There is some troubling discussion regarding Selectmen's Secretary, Sue Collins and Thompson admits that Collins has been doing assessing work and that she's "not sworn in for that." There is excited talk about the town's new website and the possibility that it will be up and running soon!!
In the 5th part of the Selectmen's Meeting, we continue on with Town Clerk Mandy Grenier as she outlines several ordinances she is interested in adding to the November 3, 2015 Town Election. Grenier speaks of the town's Fee Schedules and that they are not sustaining the positions that they are supposed to support. Grenier would like the fee amounts to be removed from the ordinances that they are tagged to and lumped all together and approved annually by the voters. The Town Clerk has been busy as she proposed changing the Town Meeting requirement for the issuance of a "Special Amusement Permit" (such as the one held by Trains for having live entertainment), and several new ordinances that would be overseen by the new Code Enforcement Officer, regarding Food Vendors, Use Car Dealerships, Service Garages, and Pawn Brokers **Pawn Brokers was stricken as we have no Pawn Brokers in town**. The 5th section of video gets rather interesting when Selectman Heath and Nadeau's former boss enters the room and Heath, who had been happy and joking and jovial all evening, decides that Wilson shouldn't be allowed to ask any more questions. **Added note, I had a nice talk with the Transfer Station Manager after the meeting, and he has no idea why Selectman Heath's attitude would have changed so quickly upon his arrival. He agreed that the Selectman was a bit Snippy**
SEE part 5 of the Lebanon Maine Selectmen's Meeting Video HERE:
The 6th and final part of the video of the 7/25/15 Selectmen's meeting, happens after the Board was in Executive Session for about 40 minutes. Lebanon Maine Truth Seeker Deborah Wilson returns to the office just to clarify the amount of money returned to the General Fund after the last minute surprise "gift" of $28,000 added to the department's budget during the meeting of June 29, 2015. If you will recall, the duo of Heath and Nadeau tag teamed Select Board Chairman Ben Thompson in a one-two no discussion motion, second and vote to add the money to the Road Commissioner's budget, and although there had reportedly been no discussion, Selectman Heath admitted to doing some "Soul Searching" in order to come up with the idea, but the project to spend the money was chosen, priced, and performed within a matter of days after the "gift". When presenting the P.O. for the project, the newly appointed Road Commissioner had said the project would be about $30,000, but that he would be using money left over from his regular yearly budget and that the $30,000 request on the P.O. was overestimated and that the project would not cost all of that money. Any unused funds from the project were slated to be returned to the General Fund at the beginning of Fiscal Year 2015-2016 which was on July 1, 2015. When the question was asked, Chairman Thompson referred the question to Selectman Heath, who had originally made the motion to add the $28,000 amount to the Commissioner's budget. Heath said, "I was given a sheet of paper with numbers on it, but I'm not sure those numbers are totally accurate," and then he refused to answer the question. When Thompson was asked a second time if that was a correct statement, he added that the Road Commissioner's project not only used the entire remainder of his planned budget, AND the entire $28,000 addition, but that he had overspent by $6,700.00 so far, and the projected overage was more in the area of $7,000.00 over budget. Selectman Paul Nadeau said that he had "NO COMMENT" to the overage, but that he still believes he did "the right thing" by hurrying through the motion.
Wilson added that she found the overage a big surprise, to which Selectman Heath added, "I think we're all rather surprised at that."
Wilson then asked the Board if they had engaged in any further discussion of the Ethics Policy that Chairman Thompson had introduced for their review a few weeks ago, and they all said they had not had any further discussion on the matter.
You can SEE the final portion (Part 6) of the Lebanon Maine Selectmen's Meeting Video HERE:
