April 16, 2019

Present: Don Hawley, Gary Thomas, Bill Hiller, Becky Stone, Terry Gould, Michael Ernst, Walt Engels via cell phone (remote participation), Lisa D’Orazio

Also Present: Dan Hamill

Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm and is being recorded.

Purpose: Finish Budget proposals and Annual Town Warrant for Fiscal Year 2020

Pg 26 #210 Police: Michael began the discussion on this budget by saying he thought the boards had previously kept the Police Training line item at the original amount. Michael also stated he felt it was important to reconsider the tasers and keep them in the budget. The Training line item, per Dan, has been reduced to $10,300.00 from $13,544.00. Dan stated the quote he got for the tasers is for three of them. The quote includes cartridges for training, train the trainer certification for three officers, and cartridge reloads for use on the job as well. The plan is to keep them in the office and officers on duty will sign them out at the beginning of their shift and sign them back in at end of shift. The first year’s charges will include a charge of $2828.91 plus a charge of $2295.00 for a total first year expense of $5,123.91. Expenses for years 2 through 5 would then be $3,825.00 per year. The total Police budget without tasers comes to $141,680.24, and with tasers comes to $146,804.15. The Select Board decided it would be prudent to look into some grants to cover the cost for the tasers. PASSED the budget at $141,680.24.

Pg 58 #610 Library: The budget was previously passed, but $1276 was unaccounted for if their Technology line item was reduced to zero. The $1276.00 was put back into the Library’s Technology line item. PASSED previously at $65,100.00.

The Final Total Budget for FY2020 was approved for $5,589,349.60, which is only $67,950.97 over last year’s total budget. A 2 ½% override is not needed.

Annual Town Warrant Discussion: Draft 3 of the Annual Town Meeting Warrant was reviewed article by article. Articles 9, 17, and 19 are to be removed from the warrant and another article to vote on reducing the number of Planning Board members will be added to the warrant. This last article was approved for recommendation by Planning Board members.

Other:

Information Request: A part-time town resident has requested documents that are available on the town website under a Freedom of Information request (FOIA). Becky will notify him all information is available on the website.

Second Information Request: A second resident has asked for a signed copy of the Host Community Agreement, which was requested by phone on April 10^th and requested via letter on April 16^th . The Town Administrator received permission to issue a signed copy to the requestor.

Selectmen’ Secretary Position: Two applicants have submitted for this position. The Board would like to interview them next Tuesday before the Select Board meeting.

Rescue Truck Warranty: Because we are expecting delivery of the repaired Rescue Truck before June, we need to have the money available to pay for the repairs before July.

BiWeekly Payroll: Becky asked the Select Board when would they like to schedule an employee meeting for this and Don and Gary decided this would not be happening for the new fiscal year as they have not heard back from the Treasurer on their questions.

Meeting adjourned at 6:50 pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Lisa D’Orazio

Selectmen’s Secretary

Town of Otis

List of Documents

Becky’s third Draft Warrant for the Annual Town Meeting (labeled as Draft 3) will be filed with these meeting minutes.

Bill’s spreadsheet with department totals will be filed with these meeting minutes.