2022-08-11-TREE-rpt1 - Laserfiche WebLink

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August 1, 2022 Meeting Notes The meeting was called by Jim Malloy (Lexington Town Manager). Invitees were Dave Pinsonneault (DPW Director), Jill Hai (Select Board Chair), Joe Pato (Select Board liaison to the Tree Committee), Nancy Sofen (Tree Committee member) and Gerry Paul (Tree Comm ittee Chair). Jim kicked off the meeting by stating that Dave indicated he is uncomfortable having staff attend Tree Committee meetings since staff feels they are being abused by the Tree Committee during the meetings. Dave indicated they need an understanding of mutual respect and how we can make things work. He said he doesn’t think there is a respect for his him or his staff. He reviewed his qualifications and the organization and workload of the DPW. Gerry indicated before accepting some of the premises stated so far, he would like Dave to elaborate on specific ways the Tree Committee has abused the staff and showed disrespect. Dave responded that he had been told that the community: questioned “who was DPW to talk”, noted that Chris is not a certified arborist, and questioned Dave’s certified arborist status, and was told that the community valued the judgement of the Tree Committee more than the DPW. Gerry wanted to clarify that Dave was hearing second hand accounts, not from the Tree Committee directly, that there are concerns about the Forestry Dept. and asked if this is what was referred to as the Tree Committee abusing staff. Dave responded that there was a tone in the meetings that was not appreciated but the other things told to him were second hand. Gerry asked, if at any of the meeting that Dave has attended, had he seen any of the Tree Committee members act inappropriately. Dave indicated that the tone of the meetings was his concern and reiterated his concerns about the comments from the community. Jim then stated that the correspondence from the Tree Committee to Dave and/or Chris Filadoro, “has been fairly sharply worded at times”. Gerry asked Jim what communications he believed were sharply worded Jim said there he hadn’t gone through his emails but he thought they were not worded appropriately.