10/25 -
To be approved at the November 13, 2007 TC Meeting
MINUTES
FREEPORT TOWN COUNCIL MEETING #16-07
TOWN HALL COUNCIL CHAMBERS
OCTOBER 16, 2007 – 7 PM
CHAIRPERSON’S CALL TO ORDER PRESENT ABSENT EXCUSED
Genie Beaulieu, P.O. Box 74 x
Charlotte Bishop, Maquoit Drive x
James Cassida, 5 Timber Ridge Road x
Rich DeGrandpre, Timber Ridge Road x
Joe Migliaccio, 2 Vinmar Lane x
Frederick White, 45 Pleasant Hill Road x
Chair Cassida called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m. and took the roll call.
FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS: To waive the reading of the Minutes of Meeting #15-07 held on October 2, 2007 and accept the Minutes as printed.
Councilor DeGrandpre noted that under the discussion for Hidden Pond, when he asked about a mud hole to be utilized by 4-wheelers, he meant that he hoped that gravel pits or wetlands of not high value would be made available for 4-wheeler use.
MOVED AND SECONDED: To waive the reading of the Minutes of Meeting #15-07 held on October 2, 2007 and accept the Minutes as amended. (Beaulieu
& White) VOTE: (6 Ayes)
SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS: Announcements
Chair Cassida announced that the Town of Freeport has received the Excellence Award by the Board of Judges in the 2007 Maine Municipal Association Municipal Report Competition. We placed third in the population group, which is an honor. Mr. Olmstead explained that Freeport has received approximately 10 awards in the last 15 years and that Kelly Profenno’s good work should be recognized.
Chair Cassida sadly announced that long-time Town employee, Al Thompson passed away last week. He worked for the Town 38 years and spent 46 years with the Fire Company. Chair Cassida called for a moment of silence.
Councilor Bishop announced that there was a very successful Volunteer Picnic on Sunday, which was well attended. She thanked all of the “chicken burners” and the businesses that donated gifts for the raffle. She noted that the Harraseeket Inn donated a $500 package, which was raffled. $180 was raised from this one item and donated to the Food Pantry. The Council thanked Councilor Bishop for all her hard work in making this event so successful.
Councilor White pointed out that the third Regional Planning meeting would be held tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at the Pownal Elementary School. He will provide an update later in the meeting under “Under Business”.
Councilor DeGrandpre noted that the committee working on the Comprehensive Planning Survey would be meeting in the Council Chambers tomorrow night. It will be their second meeting and will be interesting.
THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS: Public Comment Period – 30 Minutes
(Non-Agenda Items Only)
MOVED AND SECONDED: To open the Public Comment Period.
(White & Bishop) VOTE: (6 Ayes)
Chris Grimm, parent of two small children, had questions regarding school consolidation and asked the Council to draw the entire Town into discussions before voters are shown a plan. Chair Cassida assured Mr. Grimm that this item would be discussed under “Under Business”.
John Jaques of Wolfe Neck pointed out he is concerned with the direction the Town is taking on school consolidation. He mentioned that other towns are bringing the public in to get feedback. He encouraged the Council to get some information out to the public.
Councilor White explained that the RPC discussed holding a public meeting before December 1 but they have not determined what it will look like yet. He did not have a specific date this evening. He noted that the committee is in the beginning stage of the process. He urged Mr. Grimm and Mr. Jaques to stay for his update that will come later in the meeting.
MOVED AND SECONDED: To close the Public Comment Period.
(Migliaccio & White) VOTE: (6 Ayes)
FOURTH ORDER OF BUSINESS: To take action on the following items of business as read by the Council Chairperson.
ITEM #163-07 To consider action relative to proposed amendments to the General Assistance Ordinance concerning Appendixes Updates (Maximum Levels of Assistance) (Chapter 46). Public Hearing
MOVED AND SECONDED: That the Public Hearing be opened. (Beaulieu &
DeGrandpre) VOTE: (6 Ayes)
Mr. Olmstead provided an update for the Council.
MOVED AND SECONDED: That the Public Hearing be closed. (Beaulieu &
White) VOTE: (6 Ayes)
BE IT ORDERED: That the proposed amendments to the General Assistance
Ordinance be approved. (Beaulieu & DeGrandpre) ROLL CALL VOTE: (6
Ayes)
ITEM #164-07 To consider action relative to adopting a new Investment Policy for the Town of Freeport.
BE IT ORDERED: That the proposed investment policy for the Town of
Freeport dated October 16, 2007 be adopted. (DeGrandpre & Beaulieu)
Mr. Olmstead mentioned that the date should be amended to the 12th.
MOVED AND SECONDED: To change the date of the investment policy to
October 12, 2007. (DeGrandpre & White) VOTE: (6 Ayes)
Greg L’Heureux, Finance Director) reviewed the Investment Policy provided to Councilors. He
advised that this supersedes the policy that was in place which was limited to the Town’s
Reserve Funds. This is a broad policy covering all the Town’s investments. Discussion followed.
Councilor Beaulieu referred to Page 3, No. 2 and wanted to go on record to stay away from the Federal Instrumentality Securities such as Federal Home Loan Banks and Student Loan Marketing Association. Mr. L’Heureux answered questions for Councilors.
ROLL CALL VOTE ON AMENDED ORDER: (6 Ayes)
OTHER BUSINESS:
Councilor Migliaccio suggested changing the order of items and other Councilors concurred.
1. School Consolidation Update.
Councilor White explained that he would like to provide a high-level overview of where the Freeport, Pownal, Durham RPC process is and then provide an update on discussions that Freeport and Pownal have been having with Yarmouth on two occasions.
Freeport, Pownal and Durham have had two meetings to date. Their third meeting is scheduled for tomorrow night. They have gotten to know one another and set up some ground rules. They have discussed how to communicate out to the public. They have elected chair people for the Freeport, Pownal, and Durham RPC. They have discussed timelines and began setting up sub- committees. They need to share a plan that shows direction and structure with the Commissioner by December 1. He referred to a flowchart that was provided. The State is the sponsor of this process and Robert Kautz is a State facilitator that can answer questions accurately.
He explained that this process is not about preserving or improving education. It is about saving money at the Administrative level. They are in the process of developing a fourth subcommittee to focus on academics and it will report out on it at tomorrow night’s meeting. The RPC has agreed that information will be provided on each school’s website. Selectmen and Councilor White will keep their groups informed. The communities that have cable channels will provide information there.
Councilor White noted Freeport’s options:
• Freeport, Pownal and Durham
• Stand Alone
• Freeport, Pownal
• Stand Alone
They must look ahead and bring the information to a public forum.
Councilor White advised that Freeport, Pownal and Yarmouth have met on two occasions. He categorized the meetings as informational and educational. It was a fact-finding process to determine if there is anything for us in the future. Yarmouth has been approved by the State to stand alone as a high-performing school. They do not have to consolidate and their timeline is different. They have a three-year window. When you get to the financials, it would cost Freeport $1.2 million to consolidate with Yarmouth. Yarmouth was clear that they had all the information they needed at this time and there is no value added to meet again before their public forum. Regionalization in a collaborative manner may occur with Yarmouth at some point in the future.
Councilor White noted that Pownal feels some responsibility and loyalty to Durham. They are both small entities.
Chair Cassida thanked Councilor White for this detailed report. He noted that the RPC will develop a plan that will go to the voters and he encouraged Councilors or members of the public that have questions, concerns or comments to contact Rick White, John Gleason, Fred Palmer, Marge Migliaccio or Nelson Larkins.
Chair Cassida asked if Councilors needed any information that Councilor White could bring to future meetings. Councilor DeGrandpre would like the RPC to work through our real budget numbers and not the EPS modeling. He feels it is important to have this information.
Councilor Migliaccio noted that he doesn’t want to enter a partnership with two towns that have voucher programs. Councilor White advised it is inherent in the process and recalled sentiment on “if they have choice, we should have choice.” Councilor Migliaccio noted we should be paying per pupil as opposed to on a valuation basis. He would like the Town’s Finance Manager involved in the budget development. He would also like to see what the “opt out” model looks like.
Councilor White cautioned that at some point there will be pressure to close some schools.
Councilor Beaulieu thanked the committee for working on such a tough assignment. She asked Councilor White if the plan is to have a public referendum sometime in June and Councilor White stated it to be so.
2. Discussion on the Harraseeket River Dye Study results.
Chair Cassida mentioned that Rod Regier provided an update at the Council’s last meeting. We left that meeting with several tasks to accomplish. Tom Kay, Shellfish Warden, has worked up a calculation where he estimates the number of bushels, the number of harvesters that could benefit and the number of harvestable days in one year and comes up with $1.8 million of clams in the closure area. It is a finite resource. This gives us a base line.
The Council asked the Town Manager to consult with the Town Attorney regarding what our legal options might be. Geoff Hole advises that there is a procedure to challenge the State’s recommendation if we so choose. His letter makes it very clear that if we were to consider that, we would have to have some qualified professional review this and give a contrary opinion to the DMR’s finding. To do this based on the good work that Rod Regier has done would not be considered adequate based on any kind of challenge. He thinks we are getting a strong recommendation from the Town’s Attorney to seek out a second opinion in this process.
The last thing we were charged with doing was to meet with the Commissioner of DMR. Chair Cassida met with him yesterday morning and had a frank discussion about the process and the way they see things moving forward. They talked about posting the dye study on the website.
DMR’s opinion is that it is their duty as a public agency to publish their findings for public information purposes. They would not agree to remove the results from the dye study from their website. It is debatable whether the findings should be called final or not final. The long and short of it is that they are their findings and they want people to have access to them. Many of their findings are disputed in one way or another and it doesn’t mean that they don’t post their findings once they make them. The Commissioner reiterated that they made an agreement with the Town of Freeport on August 3 to give consideration to the peer review comments addressing the questions we had relative to the dye study. The Commissioner has not spoken to his staff as of yesterday that was privy to the comments from those peer reviewers. Chair Cassida understands that basically two of the reviewers have deferred comment because they didn’t have time until the end of October and one did not specifically address the issues we have raised. The Commissioner stated that a non-comment is a vote of support. The Commissioner agreed to check with his staff and would contact Chair Cassida today. Chair Cassida checked his messages but did not find one today. He may have a further update at a future meeting.
Chair Cassida asked if the Town were to engage in an independent analysis of the dye study, would the DMR give careful consideration to a finding by someone else. The Commissioner deferred answering this question. He would not make a firm commitment on a contrary finding.
Chair Cassida noted that a professional finding would help the Town. Before hiring anyone, he would the DMR to acknowledge that this person is a qualified professional upfront. They don’t have to make any commitment on whether they will accept the findings or not. This would give us the confidence to go forward.
Chair Cassida met with Mr. Regier today and learned that he has not yet gotten together a list of individuals or any estimates. Chair Cassida suggested keeping this item on the next agenda to keep the spirit hot to try to get the list and the cost. Once we have the information, we should ask the DMR if they would accept these individuals’ qualifications at the very least. Chair Cassida is trying to get a handle on how much another dye study would cost. We need to keep on top of this and move forward.
3. Information Exchange.
Councilor Beaulieu thanked Mr. Olmstead for providing the first quarter’s financials. She had
questions about the Police budget. Mr. Olmstead advised that the lines are off. She asked if the
Council could get the same type of quarterly report from the School Department after reviewing
Portland’s problems. Chair Cassida offered to put the request to the School Department.
________________________________________________________________________
ITEM #165-07 To consider action relative to an executive session to discuss the Town Manager’s Annual Evaluation and Administrative Employment Agreements (M.S.R.S. Title 1 Section 405 § 6A).
MOVED AND SECONDED: That the Town Council enter into executive session to discuss the Town Manager’s Annual Evaluation and Administrative Employment Agreements. (Migliaccio & Bishop) VOTE: (6 Ayes)
MOVED AND SECONDED: That the Council reconvene. (White & Beaulieu) VOTE: (6 Ayes)
MOVED AND SECONDED: That the Town Manager be authorized to sign and execute an Administrative Employment Agreement between the Town of Freeport and Darrell Fournier dated October 16, 2007. (Beaulieu & Bishop) VOTE: 6 Ayes
______________________________________________________________________________
MOVED AND SECONDED: To adjourn at 10:17 p.m. (White & Bishop) VOTE: (6 Ayes)
Respectfully Submitted,
Sharon Coffin
Council Secretary
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