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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSelect Board 5/20/20Select Board Meeting Minutes May 20, 2020 Present: The members of the Select Board all participated remotely via using GoToWebinar: Mr. Jess Aptowitz, Chairman; Mr. r Michael Trowbridge, Vice -Chair; Mr. Neil Rhein, Clerk; Mr. Frank DelVecchio and Mr. Steve Schoorivgd Mr.JCe ��m rDuas, Town Manager and Mr. Barry LaCasse, Assistant Town Manager/Finance Director, Mr. Paul DeRensis Town' 6u� see also participated using the GoToWebinar.rD 7 _s 1. Call To Order Select Board Meeting - Pledge of Allegiance Chairman Aptowitz called the meeting to order at 5:30PM. He then asked those present to state the Pledge of Allegiance. He reminded everyone that the meeting was being broadcast live and taped for future broadcast on Mansfield Cable. The public was not allowed to be present in Town Hall. Chairman Aptowitz read a statement and provided an email address and phone number to those watching directing residents to send their questions in. 2. COVID-19 Update Chief Sellon, Chief Desrosiers, Ms. Amy Donovan -Palmer, Health Agent were present. Chief Desrosiers began the discussion providing a recap of the COVID data for the Town, stating that 100 persons tested positive since the beginning of the pandemic and there were currently 29 positive cases under isolation. He stated that 105 people have recovered and there have been 13 COVID related deaths. He then added that in the month of March there were 28 cases, 89 in April and 30 so far in the month of May. Chief Sellon then provided an update on the coordinated response and items that were taken into account and how items are being addressed in the public safety department. Ms. Palmer stated that things are changing every day, but the teamwork and coordination among departments has been great. She stated that the biggest item is developing a reopening plan for Town Hall employees to return safely to the building, as well as relocating some employees into conference rooms to provide the required distance. She stated that there is a lot of information being put out by the State and integrating the information into the Towns plan as well as providing daily updates on the Town's website and on Facebook. She also added that the most important thing is for everyone to wear masks as anyone can be a carrier and not have any COVID symptoms. The Select Board asked a few follow up questions and thanked the group for their hard work. 3. Consideration of Special Events Application for Mansfield Schools Ms. Teresa Murphy, Superintendent was present for this agenda item requesting to have a senior parade for the Mansfield High School Class of 2020. She stated that this was a way to recognize the seniors on what would have been their graduation day. She provided the route that the cars would follow and hopes that later in the summer they can have a more traditional ceremony. The Board thought this was a great event for the seniors to remember and members asked a few questions in regards to safety that Ms. Murphy would further discuss with the Police. Motion: To approve the special events application for Mansfield Schools for a Class of 2020 parade as presented, pending routing through Town Hall Departments and Public Safety. (Rhein/Trowbridge) Roll Call Vote: Mr. Rhein —Yes Mr. DelVecchio — Yes ChairmanAptowitz - Yes Mr. Trowbridge — Yes Mr.Schoonveld —Yes Passes 5:0 4. Discussion and Consideration of Amended Town Election Warrant for Polling Hours of 7AM to 2PM on June 30, 2020 Ms. Staples, Town Clerk was present for this agenda item. Mr. Dumas explained that the Board can decide to reduce the hours that the election polls are open. He noted that a minimum of four continuous hours are required by the State. The election polls are currently open 7AM to 8PM and from a public health perspective the Town will be completing a mailing to all registered voters with the option to use participate with an absentee ballot. Ms. Staples stated that as part of the Town Clerks Association 100 other communities have pushed their elections into June and 25 of those have reduced the hours that the polls are open. As of now she has sent out 200 absentee ballots and during a typical election year there are normally 20 to 30 absentee ballots. She emphasized that she wants everyone to have an opportunity to vote and has spent lots of time planning to make it a safe place for the workers and for the voters, but is encouraging people to vote with an absentee ballot. The Health Agent had recommended reducing the hours to make it safe for everyone, but Ms. Staples stated that she will make it happen if the Board feels the hours should be the full day. Select Board Meeting Minutes May 20, 2020 The Select Board understood the concerns that Ms. Staples had and asked a few questions. Mr. DeRensis did ask the Chair for permission to speak and he then added information to the discussion of knowledge he had with the guidelines from the State. He explained that the longer the polling hours are the more space between voters there would be, thus having it safer for everyone versus if the hours were a shorter window it could cause thousands of voters to come at one time. He also noted that the recommendation is to not have split hours even if it is for lunch or cleaning; it should be one continuous block of time. The goal is to reduce the amount of people who are coming to vote in person so mailing the application for the absentee ballot is highly encouraged to make it easy and not require voters to find the information online on a website. Chairman Aptowitz stated that the consensus of the Board was to leave everything as is. Mr. Schoonveld asked the Chair to take public comment at this time, but there were no members of the public on the webinar that had a "hand raised" or sent in a question. Mr. Schoonveld did ask that the Town get an opinion from the State on mailing of the request for an absentee ballot application to voters and Mr. DeRensis stated that it has been approved by the Secretary of the State. He added that some communities wanted to mail the ballots out, but what Mansfield is proposing is a conservative approach. Mr. Dumas then read part of email that came in from resident Sandra Levine that pertained to this agenda item. There was no motion made and the election hours remain 7AM to 8PM. S. Consideration of Financial Policy for Use of Receipts Related to Covid-19 Pandemic Response Mr. Dumas explained that this policy was the result of a second consensus meeting with the School and Finance Committees. Mr. Rhein recommended a few grammatical changes. Mr. Trowbridge stated that he did not consider this a long term policy and that was not reflected in the document and he added that the School Committee had not reviewed it. Mr. DelVecchio stated that he had several changes to the policy and believed the policy was not written in a way that was intended. He stated he would like to see broader guidelines and questioned if the formula at the bottom of the document even worked. Mr. Schoonveld believed it was a brilliant document by Sara Walsh of the Finance Committee and stated that the policy only mentions FY21 so it was not intended to be long term. He then addressed the concerns that Mr. DelVecchio had. There was no motion made. 6. Consideration of Select Board's Vote of Intention to Layout a Town Way in Relation to a Partial Section of Benefit Street at a Public Hearing on June 3, 2020 Mr. Trowbridge stated that he would be abstaining from the vote as he did some work for the previous owner. Motion: To approve the intention to lay out a town may in relation to a partial section of Benefit Street at a public hearing on June 3, 2020 at 5:30PM. (Rhein/DelVecchio) Roll Call Vote: Mr. Rhein —Yes Mr. DelVecchio—Yes ChairmanAptowitz - Yes Mr.Trowbridge—Abstain Mr. Schoonveld—Yes Passes 4:0:1 7. Budget Update for FY20 and FY21 Mr. Barry LaCasse began with an update of the current fiscal year stating that he continues to track COVID related expenses and monitor revenues. He expects to have a full report at the June P meeting with a full report for the month of May. He then stated that at the consensus meeting last week with the Finance and School Committees reached consensus for the FY21 budget. He has reduced the State Aid amount by ten percent and 10.41% reduction in local receipts which created a 3 million revenue shortfall. This was overcome by using FY20 $300,000 available free cash, $1.5 million from stabilization and the FY21 reserve fund was reduced to $300,000 as well as reducing the OPEB contribution to $120,000. This now leaves the Schools and Town to further reduced their budgets by $582,000. Mr. Dumas added that there will be a budget presentation for the public. Mr. Schoonveld agreed that a formal budget presentation was necessary and their needs to be a way to provide this information ahead of time to the residents as well as having the budget information presented in a way that any resident could understand. Mr. DelVecchio agreed that the information should not be presented as budget line items. He further added that he also understood that this was a unique year and the consensus meeting was only last week and that it would make more sense to make it a priority post COVID. Chairman Aptowitz noted that everyone is working hard to finalize this budget and the information should be put out as soon as possible. Mr. Schoonveld noted that it was a very tight schedule with Town Meeting five weeks away. 8. Consideration of Lee Azinheira to serve on The Joint Transportation Planning Group for a One Year Term to Expire on May 23, 2021 and Mr. Rick Alves as the Alternate. Select Board Meeting Minutes May 20, 2020 Motion: To appoint Mr. Lee Azinheira to serve on the Joint Transportation Planning Group for a one year term to expire on May 23, 2021 and Mr. Rick Alves to serve as an alternate. (Rhein/Trowbridge) Roll Call Vote: Mr. Rhein —Yes Mr. DelVecchio—Yes ChairmanAptowitz - Yes Mr. Trowbridge — Yes Mr.Schoonveid - Yes Passes 5:0 9. Consideration of D. Austin Horowitz to serve on the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission for a one year term to expire on May 22, 2021 Motion: To appoint Mr. D. Austin Horowitz to serve on the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission for a one year term to expire on May 22, 2021. (Rhein/Trowbridge) Roll Call Vote: Mr. Rhein —Yes Mr.DelVecchio — Yes ChairmanAptowitz - Yes Mr. Trowbridge — Yes Mr. Schoonveld - Yes Passes 5:0 10. Resident Questions and Comments Mr. Dumas read the remainder of Ms. Sandra Levine's email and the Select Board addressed her concerns and made a few comments. There were no other questions and comments from the public. 11. Review and Approve Consent Agenda All items on the Consent Agenda may be adopted with a single motion. Any member of the Select Board may request that an item be withdrawn from the Consent Agenda for separate consideration in which case that item will be voted on separately from the remainder of the Consent Agenda. All licenses have been routed through Town Hall Departments and any conditions have been noted below. a) Approval of Select Board Meeting Minutes for: • April 15, 2020 b) Vote To Approve Warrants: • Town Vendor Warrant No. 20046T in the amount of $1,868,895.35 • Electric Vendor Warrant No. 20046E in the amount of $1,042,250.65 • School Vendor Warrant No. 20046S in the amount of $315,520.12 • Town Vendor Warrant No. 20047T in the amount of $1,716,104.17 • Electric Vendor Warrant No. 20047E in the amount of $315,161.19 • Airport Vendor Warrant No. 20047A in the amount of $60,000 c) Permits and License: • Consideration of Banner Application for Mansfield Electric Motion: To approve the consent agenda. (Rhein/Schoonveld) Roll Call Vote: Mr. Rhein — Yes Mr. DelVecchio—Yes ChairmanAptowitz - Yes Mr. Trowbridge — Yes Mr. Schoonveld — Yes Passes 5:0 12. Consideration and Approval of Town Payroll Warrants: • Town Payroll/Town Medicaid Payroll 20046PT in the amount of $357,782.20 Motion: To approve Town Payroll/Town Medicaid Payroll 20046PT in the amount of $357,782.20. (Rhein/Trowbridge) Roll Call Vote: Mr. Rhein —Yes Mr. DelVecchio—Yes ChairmanAptowitz - Abstain Mr. Trowbridge — Yes Mr. Schoonveld — Yes Passes 4:0:1 • Town Deductions Vendor Payroll 20046TV in the amount of $110,804.16 Motion: To approve Town Deductions Vendor Payroll 20046TV in the amount of $110,804.16. (Rhein/Trowbridge) Roll Call Vote: Mr. Rhein —Yes Mr. DelVecchio—Yes ChairmanAptowitz - Yes Mr. Trowbridge — Yes Mr. Schoonveld—Yes Select Board Meeting Minutes May 20, 2020 Passes 5:0 • School Payroll/School Medicaid Payroll 20046PS in the amount of $1,659,607.18 Motion: To approve School Payroll/School Medicaid Payroll 20046PS in the amount of $1,659,607.18. (Rhein/Trowbridge) Roll Call Vote: Mr. Rhein —Yes Mr.DelVecchio— Abstain ChairmanAptowitz-Yes Mr.Trowbridge —Abstain Mr.SchoonveId—Yes Passes 3:0:2 • School Deductions Vendor Payroll 20046SV in the amount of $520,019.17 Motion: To approve School Deductions Vendor Payroll 20046SV in the amount of $520,019.17. (Rhein/Trowbridge) Roll Call Vote: Mr. Rhein —Yes Mr.DelVecchio —Yes ChairmanAptowitz - Yes Mr. Trowbridge — Yes Mr.Schoonveld — Yes Passes 5:0 • Town Payroll/Town Medicaid Payroll 20047PT in the amount of $358,516.19 Motion: To approve Town Payroll/Town Medicaid Payroll 20047PT in the amount of $358,516.19. (Rhein/Trowbridge) Roll Call Vote: Mr. Rhein —Aye Mr.DelVecchio —Yes ChairmanAptowitz - Abstain Mr. Trowbridge —Yes Mr.Schoonveld —Aye Passes 4:0:1 • Town Deductions Vendor Payroll 20047TV in the amount of $111,954.79 Motion: To approve Town Deductions Vendor Payroll 20047TV in the amount of $111,954.79. (Rhein/Trowbridge) Roll Call Vote: Mr. Rhein —Yes Mr.DelVecchio —Yes ChairmanAptowitz - Yes Mr. Trowbridge —Yes Mr.Schoonveld - Yes Passes 5:0 13. Correspondence • Notification from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for Lease Space • Letter from National Grid on Upcoming Sideline Vegetation Management Activities • Letter from National Grid of Yearly Operational Plan for the Rights of Way • Notification from Xfinity of Price Changes Mr. Rhein read a summary of the above correspondence items. 14. Town Manager's Report Mr. Dumas updated the Board on several items. He began with thanking the staff and the COVID Task Force for their dedication to the Town. He then noted that the Mansfield Green will reopen on May 26`h and will be open every day to give residents extra time to bring their recyclables before returning to regular hours on Saturday, May 30th. Mr. Dumas then stated that the Town will be receiving $2.1 million from the CARES Act, based on the population and the fund can be used for COVID related expenses. He then stated he is working with the COVID Task Force and Town Counsel on planning Town Meeting and he will be able to have a full plan to present at the next meeting. Mr. Dumas also stated again that he is looking to hold a budget presentation for the public as a webinar in the coming week or two and will have information pushed out in a format that residents can understand. He stated the hope is to answer questions ahead of time and make Town Meeting as efficient and quick as possible to keep residents safer. Mr. Dumas also updated the Board that he expects guidance from the State and relaxing of policies from the ABCC to help local businesses reopen and will send that information to the Board as soon as he sees anything. Mr. Schoonveld commented that the Board does want to get the restaurants back running as soon as possible and stated that the Board should schedule an emergency meeting as soon as that information is released. 15. Select Board Member's Questions and Comments Mr. Rhein thanked DPW and Mr. Azinheira forgetting Mansfield Green opened. He asked if people were able to get a sticker for Mansfield Green at this time and Mr. Dumas answered that they are relaxing the policy at this time. Mr. Rhein then commented that the Downtown Business Association orthe Tri-Town Chamber could help with a campaign encourage people to buy gift cards and help the local businesses during this difficult time to help give the businesses the revenue now to be able to survive. Mr. Rhein then thanked Mansfield Electric for the Class of 2020 banner that will be hung. Mr. Rhein then asked where Town Meeting would be held, but Mr. Dumas was not ready to discuss, but answered that it would be held outdoors. Select Board Meeting Minutes May 20, 2020 Mr. Trowbridge commented that the new fence at the Mansfield Green was great and that he was looking forward to seeing the trees planted in that area. Mr. DelVecchio asked about excess garbage created due to residents being home more and Mr. Dumas answered there is not a way right now for them to be picked up unless they purchase an extra trash bin through the DPW office. Mr. Rhein commented that sometimes a neighbor may have capacity to take an extra bag. Mr. Schoonveld commented that Ms. Charlene McNeil deserves recognition from the Board. Mr. Trowbridge noted that it was being planned. Mr. Schoonveld then stated that the Field of Honor was recognized on WBZ and as always they did a great job and made Mansfield look great. He then stated that he listened to the Massachusetts Select Board Association call and was about Open Meeting Law, COVID 19, and conflict of interest law and then noted a few things that need to be addressed in Mansfield like a detailed agenda items and that deliberation amongst Board members needs to happen on the screen and not via text during a meeting. Chairman Aptowitz thanked Mr. DeRensis for being on the meeting tonight and thanked the staff for working hard during this time and knows it has not been easy. He also encouraged everyone to be safe and remember to wear masks and keep their distance from others. 16. Any items not anticipated by the Chair 48 hours prior to this meeting There were no items. 17. Adjourn Motion: To adjourn the Select Board Meeting of May 20, 2020 at 8:28PM. (Schoonveld/Trowbridge) Passes 5:0 Roll Call Vote: Mr. Rhein — Yes Mr. DelVecchio—Yes Mr. Trowbridge —Yes Mr. Schoonveld-Yes SAnature Minutes prepared by Carrie Champagne Chairman Aptowitz - Yes Date/ Select Board Meeting Minutes May 20, 2020