Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1980-01-02-BOS-min 1)G SELECTMEN'S MEETING JANUARY 2, 1980 A regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen was held on Wednesday, January 2, 1980, at 7 30 p m Chairman Miley, Mr Busa, Mrs Battin, Mr Kent and Mr Crain; Mr Hutchinson, Town Manager; Mr Cohen, Town Counsel; Mrs McCurdy, Executive Clerk, were present Chairman Miley read a memo from Ms Sheila Cheimets, staff member Bridges - of the Massachusetts Municipal Associations, regarding federal funds Fed funds for bridge inspections Mr Hutchinson reported that we do not have bridges that fall into the outlined categories Mr Busa mentioned the Maple Street bridge and suggested that someone look into it; he did not know who is maintaining it but it is in a distressing condi- tion on the sides and underneath hasn't been looked at in years Chairman Miley said it was her understanding that when the B & M was declared defunct, the bridges went over to the state Mr Kent said that Maple Street is the most serious bridge, and requested that Mr Hutchinson reference it and the other bridges, most of which have tracks going over the road rather than under it, when he writes to the state. Mr Hutchinson agreed Chairman Miley read a request from Mr Paul F O'Brien, 33 Haskell Street, for deferment of the sewer betterment assessment on Lot 72 Summer Street; previous approval had been granted in November, 1976 for a 3-year deferment Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to defer payment, Sewer under the provisions of Chapter 159 of the Acts of 1950, of the sewer Bettrmnt betterment on.Lot 72, Assessors' Map 28, Summer Street, owned by Paul F O'Brien and Elaine M O'Brien, in the amount of $567 40, without interest, Haskell St until such land or any part thereof is further developed, sold or until the expiration of three years from the date hereof, whichever event occurs first; provided, however, that this extension of time shall terminate immediately if said land or any portion thereof is further developed or sold Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the Minutes minutes of the breakfast meeting of December 7, 1979 Mr Hutchinson recommended that the Board sign the memorandum of Ch. 90 agreement between the State Department of Public Works and the Town Funds of Lexington for Chapter 90 funds in order to keep us eligible for monies for future projects If other projects come up, we will be eligible to participate in the program. One of the more interesting things we are investigating- right no is that they have allowed certain communities to use Chapter 90 funds for support of the Mass transit system. We are going to pursue that over the next several months and check into the eligibility The Board agreed Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to authorize and execute the agreement between the Massachusetts Department of Public Works and the Town of Lexington for Chapter 90 funds in the amount of / 11 Selectmen's Meeting - 2 - January 1, 1980 $81,500, FY 80 $40,750 and FY 81 $80,450, to reconstruct or otherwise improve Adams Street, East Street, and/or any other Town Road approved by the Board of Selectmen and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Depart- ment of Public Works Insur Mr Hutchinson informed the Board that the Insurance Committee Committee will be at the meeting on January 7 to discuss the report submitted to the Board Mr Kent asked about liability coverage on town officers and em- ployees, and Mr Hutchinson said it is not referenced in the report We carry $1 million in aggregate and he believed it was not fully investigated by the committee Mr Kent felt that the Selectmen should have the advice of knowledgeable people on the whole insurance picture, and he requested a supplementary or amended consideration of the committee Mr Hutchinson said that he would review the area with Mrs Banks, who is handling it with the committee, and report back next week. Mr Crain added that because of the very strong point made about employee education, he thought it would be very helpful in terms of timeline if administration could be ready to respond specifically as to how they would envision an employee education program when we hear the committee's recommendation Mr Hutchinson noted and agreed Human Mr Hutchinson discussed the letter from Mr Robert French, 40 Reed Services Street, expressing his continued concern about institutionalization of Committee/ neighborhoods Mr French wrote that he had attended a meeting of the Reed St Human Services Committee and the committee had discussed the need for a Proposal policy statement which would help define the scope of its operations; however, the direction of this discussion left considerable doubt as to whether the Reed Street problem would fall within the purview of the committee Mr French had requested a committee agenda item in the near future to determine whether the committee felt that the problem was properly assigned Mr French had enclosed with the letter a report on the problems, and he requested an opinion of Town Counsel regarding the proposal During the discussion, Town Counsel was instructed by the Board of Selectmen to deliver an opinion regarding the impact of the Harbor Schools v Board of Appeals of Haverhill case and outline to the Board, the Human Services Committee, and Mr French the rights that the town may have within the scope of that decision to initiate procedures that might deal with recent actions by organizations such as MVMH in neighbor- hoods The Board agreed to Mr Kent's recommendation to acknowledge and accede to the request of the Human Services Committee that no further citizens' problems be referred to the committee by the Board Contract Mr Hutchinson recommended approval of the increased amount of $1,290 80-5-E in the contract for the scattered sites project as a greater amount of trench ledge had been encountered on Earl Street and Avon Street Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to authorize an in- crease of $1,290 under Contract 80-5-E to Somerset Paving Corp for con- struction work for the Housing Authority's scattered sites program; con- tract of $27,875 to be increased to $29,165, Appropriation authorized under Article 18, 1979 Selectmen's Meeting - 3 - January 2, 1980 Mr Hutchinson informed the Board that John R. Clarke & Associates ,Inc. Parker Cambridge, has scheduled a meeting in Estabrook Hall with the area residents School of the Parker School on Thursday, January 10, 1980, at 7 30 p m to review the proposal for the Parker School Clark has made arrangements to go be- fore the Planning Board on January 14 The Board agreed to schedule a meeting with the Central Business Com- mittee on January 7 Mr Hutchinson informed theBoardthat a permit hearing for the Honeywell Company concerning their license application will be scheduled for a regular Selectmen's meeting Mr Hutchinson requested approval of an addition to the route of the Common Boston Tours Carrier Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to add Route 2 East License and West to the current Common Carrier license of Boston Tours Mr Buse asked Mr Hutchinson about the proposed reclassification of Bldg the Building Commissioner and requested that it be scheduled as an agenda Comm. item again for further discussion IIIMrs. Battin suggested that the Board schedule a meeting with our Minuteman representative on the Minuteman School Committee, Mr Jackson, and a School - representative of the Appropriation Committee to discuss the Minuteman budget. Chairman Miley said Mr Hutchinson has been balking with Traffic Minuteman on the problem of the traffic light and she had talked with Budget Mr Jackson. The School Committee would like to meet with us and after we get some groundwork done, we will have them in Mr Crain said he was intrigued with the 11 percent increase in salaries, which is pretty heavy, and 11 percent in transportation, especially at a time when they are suggesting to broaden the zone, to include Lancaster and Needham, when energy is so expensive Chairman Miley said that what we were work- ing on was not that budget part of it; that we can discuss with our com- mittee member ourselves In fact, if we get the whole School Committee in, we could discuss the salaries then. Mr Crain said that if they come in and don't know we are focusing on a couple of items, it won't be very productive Chairman Miley said she would pass that word back to Mr Jackson Chairman Miley said that Mr. Zabin is here to discuss his letter re- garding an article on a fair housing resolution, and Mrs Sunney is here to deal with HUD Section 8 Mr. Zabin said that the Fair Housing Committee has been struggling with the whole problem of fair housing, both from the policy and with some understanding of what the needs of the town are with respect to deal- ing with MCAD. Basically, we have tried to define the scope of fair housing problems in Lexington We did feel that one of the things we should get a start on is having the town make a public commitment to the town meeting to fair housing, not only because we believe basically it is the right thing to do but it is the kind of thing MCAD is also looking for communities to do It really requires a development of 1 I Selectmen's Meeting - 4 - January 2, 1980 consensus by the town boards that have responsibilities of running town affairs, and housing as well We are cognizant that there is not a lot of time to do that kind of work between now and town meeting It is a de- cision of the selectmen Mrs Battin asked how much he wanted to say in addition to last year's resolution? We did make a commitment to the number of units to the elderly and we talked about low and moderate income Do you want to say specifically in numbers in terms of minorities? Mr Zabin said that last year's deals really with the issue of low and moderate income housing What we are looking for is a policy for the adoption of a statement of principle as to who is in those homes, and maybe beyond the public market as well Mr Kent said he would like Mr Zabin's reaction to tentative concerns he had His recollection of what we did last year was not simply work out a policy statement for the town but came as a result of extended work by a committee which came up with both a majority and a sonority report What ultimately was adopted by the town was predicated upon an alternative draft substituted by members of town meeting on the floor of town meeting, and that was what he thought had emerged as a housing policy for the town Now, we have a fair housing committee and if that committee believes that in some respect that policy fails to fully meet significant issues the com- munity ought to meet, he was most receptive to proceeding in some form to address the committee's concerns He was not troubled by re-address- ing the content of that housing policy if the committee believes that it is deficient in some material respect within the charge which has been given to the committee He was troubled by the elaboration of some separate policy dealing with housing in this respect apart from the housing policy which was so painstakingly hammered out through the processes of the town by the committee and the town meeting last year He was troubled by the premise that the housing policy really didn't have anything do with fair housing; he thought it had a lot to do with it Now, it may not have been sufficiently explicit and he was quite ready to support the inclusion in the warrant of an article call- ing for additional reexamination if Mr Zabin believed that the committee process leading up to that can be fully and adequately handled in the time that exists between now and town meeting. Mr Busa said that we are trying to build a utopia here in the town of Lexington, and he didn't think it could be done in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts He fully realized what we adopted last year and he thought it was a fair housing policy, which should be implemented to see what the final results are We have not had results of whether it is adequate, will work, or will not work As a citizen and a member of the board to make a commitment to see that we bring in minorities and ethnic groups in the town of Lexingtin, either willingly or against their will, the case of the elderly will come forward If you are talking specifically about bringing more elderly, in ten years this will be an elderly town - more elderly than people who are earning a living; it would mean double the taxes to support some of the social programs that are coming forward He could not support a commitment to increase the number of minorities in the town unless someone could convince him that we do not have a fair housing policy exclusive, and if that's the case, if we have a policy that excludes minorities who would love to come into the town, he would be the first one to fight against it and support the minorities who come in He had no problems with minorities, majorities, and ethnic groups as he had lived with it all his life Imo '` Selectmen's Meeting - 5 - January 2, 1980 Mr Zabin said he did not think the Housing Authority or any board had been consciously engaged in any exclusionary policies; however, the recent statistics on elderly housing from the Housing Authority indicate that there are no members of any minority, if at all He was not saying that the Housing Authority was not looking into minority applications, but that there are 148 white occupants of the 148 housing authority units for the elderly There are lots of reasons why this is so, none of which imply that the HOusing Authority in any way has followed a segregationist policy But it also indicates that if having minorities live in Lexington is something that the town ought to strive for because it wants to because it's good or because the MCAD says we have to, something is wrong with the approach that somebody has taken to achieve that goal Mrs Shunney said that first of all, this business of Lexington residents having first preference, it is important that you include in that that this is only with all things being equal so that Lexington residents can. On elderly applications, we go through a tenant process, which is difficult and painful We have personal interviews and tenants are selected by need Mr Zabin's approach is unrealistic; it is idealistic Instead of looking at the make-up of the people in the units, you also have to look at the number of people who apply We probably have more minority people apply under Section 8 program than we do under the elderly We have a number of oriental people apply; it is obvious there is an in- crease in the oriental population of Lexington and therefore their Tela- , tives are going to be needing housing. There doesn't seem to be an in- crease in the black population in the town; there is an increase in indian and oriental people, and we have had those applications We seem to be at a standstill as we haven't had a vacant apartment in six months, and you can't put someone out in the street in order to put someone else in. We are working with everybody who applies and it just isn't possible to have quotas For the most part, the minority groups who apply under Section 8 come from a distance - Lawrence, Haverhill, parts of Boston - and they have to come, be interviewed, fill out an application, and either they are or are not eligible for a certificate of eligibility; then they have to go out and find an apartment in Lexington Right away, this is a problem as a lot of them come by. bus We sit with them and help them fill out an applica- tion, and they have to have someone to drive them They have to have access to what rentals are available in Lexington and,most of the time, apartments in Lexington are scooped up quickly There are many factors that come into this picture and reasons why the breakdown of the people who are actually in our program The Housing Authority works very seriously and sincerely with the need of our applicants, and that is how they are chosen All things being equal, I will admit, and we have to go through this with every program we have When you get a program funded, you are going to be scrutinized in every area before ELCD or HUD gives us that money, and part of that is a very serious discussion of the policy No matter what the local policy is, it depends upon the agency that is giving you the funds for a particular program, and it depends upon the people who happen to be working in that department at that time In three or four years, she had seen changes - a strong policy one way and then it varies a bit if you happen to have a change in the person in charge of affirmative action and equal opportunities, and in charge of tenant policy We have guidelines, and we realize we have to have them, but you have to be realistic in that you have to deal with the applications that are received and you have to deal with the people who are giving the money ) Selectmen's Meeting - 6 - January 2, 1980 Mr Kent recommended against the Fair Housing Committee submitting an article to the Town Meeting without the fashioning of a resolution in- volving the taking into consideration the views of a great variety of people, including the Housing Authority Mr Zabin said that is the unanimous position of the committee Mr Kent said if that is the committee's position, he did not believe that the time exists for the orderly and the sifting process that has to go on in something like this and he would urge that they not try to do it in haste Mr Zabin said that the committee Ranted to make the Board aware of what their thinking is Mr Crain said that one of the frustrations is apparently the incon- sistency between the stipulations and criteria of HUD and MCAD, and he was very cognizant of how long it has taken to get Jane Edmonds to come out and start the process of understanding what the MCAD's position is, which then we could attempt to reconcile with HUD This suggested to him that this year's town meeting is unrealistic Chairman Miley agreed and said that she did not think the resolution could be put together for this year's town meeting Mrs Shunney said that the Housing Authority has prepared an outreach letter to be sent to churches, temples, Metco coordinator, and larger companies in the area, informing them that the houses are in the process and the Housing Authority will be accepting applications If names are submitted to us, in addition to advertising by the rule, we also will inform any person who has so advised us of an interest We are compiling a complete list of places to send the outreach letter The Housing Authority is doing somethingright; we have 148 units and we do have 17 more, $500,000 to purchase more units, and we are work- ing on legal problems of trying to acquire the condominiums, which is separate from the $500,000 grant We are looking into some private property and we are going to have 60 more units Regarding the Section 8 letter, the Housing Authority unanimously opposes the DCA application because of local control reasons The Department of Community Affairs is now applying for Section 8 money as a local housing authority would apply, and it is allocating 1600 units in the four counties Mrs Shunney could see it happening in a com- munity where there is no housing authority or one not doing its job but not in Lexington DCA does not have to give us any information and we have no idea of where their units are We would like to see support from the Board of Selectmen to maintain local control Chairman Miley informed Mrs Shunney that Section 8 was not an agenda item this evening but would be on the agenda for a decision next week Mr Hutchinson said that the issue dealing with MCAD and HUD is some- thing we have to keep re-emphasizing because we also have an affirmative action plan that this board adopted; a component of that was a housing program, and the outreach letter the housing authority is sending out is an indication of the efforts that we are trying to make to reach appropriate interest groups We are trying to get a lock on where we are going There is no way we are going to have a successful affirmative action program in the long run if we don't have a transportation system ar, Selectmen's Meeting - 7 - January 2, 1980 IIIas well as a housing program that provides capacity for people to live within the community, and we are moving within the direction they want We have to request of these agencies what they do want and we have to come up with some standards to be able to and measure our own goals against, because that is one of the issues the board references to me quite frequently We are going in the right direction but in trying to establish what direction is going to be, evidently we are going to have to walk onto it Those questions for this town meeting are too complex, certainly without the federal and state agencies even being available to us at this time Their work as your committee does tie in with the plan that this board has already adopted Chairman Miley agreed. Some of our conservation money was received because we promised we would meet these goals and with the affirmative action program, which is what that is, you are sending out to these people with the assurance that they have as fair an interview and shot at these different units as anyone else Working together, we are going to reach our goal It was agreed not to have an article on the resolution for this year's Town Meeting Mr. Kent. assured Mr ,Zabin, that his concerns with ,tipeness d-01not-constitute, remotely a discouragement to come to grips with this and attempt to work through a town policy on this; there is a great deal to be said for it but it will not be an easy road and he hoped the committee would do it Mr Zabin agreed and retired from the meeting. Mrs Shunney is to meet with the Board next Monday regarding Section 8 Mr Hutchinson discussed the following budgets Members of the Human Human Services Committee were present. Services Committee Account #2380-Council on Aging The bulk of this money is for staff and program development and, at a subsequent time,we should review this with Budgets CoA, as well as with the Hlnnan Services Committee. $35,100 Account #3300-Health, $10,950. Account #3310-MVMH, $30,853 Account #3320-Visiting Nurse & Community Health, Inc , $6,800. Account #3330-Community Services, $37,388 This is mainly money for Re-place The Human Services Committee had been asked by the Board to focus on MVMH, Re-place, and CIIHARC. Mrs Perez, Chairman, said that members of the sub- committee had met with MVMH and Re-place and tried to evaluate what in- formation they had obtained and come up with recommendations for the selectmen. Because of insufficient data, and even with our knowledge, we were not able to get the right kind of information that was needed for tonight The Board agreed that it was very complex and had been frustrating to them in the past because mf a lack of time and expertise in these fields The committee was asked to again meet with these agencies for an explanation of the budget requests and to evaluate the potential of redundancy or gaps of services, and come back by February 29 with recom- mendations The HSC agreed and retired from the meeting Mr Cohen left the meeting at 9 35 p m Selectmen's Meeting - 8 - January 2, 1980 Budgets Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the Selectmen's operating expense budget, Account #1050, in the amount of $6,725 No questions were raised on the following budgets Accounts #1065-Town Manager, $7,000; #1142-Instate Travel., $10,000: Mr. 1utchiiison said he is recommending reimbursement at 17 cents a mile vs $15 cents, and we can operate within the budget of $10,000; #1200-Town Clerk,. $1,400; #1550-Board of Appeals, $2,430 Account #1080-Office Furniture & Fixtures, $1,200 Mr Hutchinson ex- t plained that the Assessors have asked for $1,000 for new files and office equipment necessary for the revaluation program On the over- all budget, if requested funds are not needed, the money is redirected to take care of other department requests Account #1135-Out-of-State Travel, $6,000 Mr Hutchinson can certify each request and will submit a list to the Board Account #1141-Tuition and Training, $15,000 Mr Hutchinson is to submit more information as the Board had question the funding of the cadet train- ing program. If we make it an internship type of program, obviously we would have some reduction in this area He had also provided some monies in this budget for an update of the organizational development seminar which was conducted when he first came; to track what has happened since that time dealing with the staff internally Account #1148-Safety Program, $770: Consistent with the insurance report, Mr Hutchinson is to work on this budget and revise it to allow for some- thing more comprehensive; we are expecting to work with the Personnel Advisory Board on the design of that program Selectmen's The Board agreed to adopt the goals and objectives, which had been Goals and discussed at great length at previous meetings Objectives Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to adopt the following SELECTMEN'S GOALS AND OBJECTIVES GOALS OBJECTIVES A Center Revitalization 1 Increase parking availability looking specifically at the Metcalf & Eddy report and their recommendations for improved parking, and at reducing number of all day parking for commuters 2 Recognizing the need for a vital center center as the community's civic, commercial, social and cultural focus, a plan for re- vitalizing the center shall be prepared by the Town, the Chamber of Commerce, Lexington banking and lending institutions, Lexington industries with, if appropriate, the advice and assistance of the Executive Office of Communities and Development rya Selectmen's Meeting - - January2, 1980 GOALS OBJECTIVES (Center Revitalization) completed Such a plan shall be by December 1, 1980 and submitted to the appropriate Town Boards, Town Meeting Members, Commercial interests and citi- zen groups for action It shall include but not be limited to methods of achiev- ing commercial diversity, increased social add cultural activity, improved traffic flow and increased parking Specific proposals should be prepared for the 1981 Town Meeting including specific proposals for parking and transit B Increase Sources of Revenue Decrease Rel_ianee on Property Tax r 1 Lexington should take the lead in initiating and maintaining a sus- tained effort through the Mass Municipal Associations and related municipal organization or, if necessary alone, a tax reform study with a view to filing comprehensive legislation no later than December, 1982 2 The Manager's office shall study and report to the Selectmen no later than December, 1980 on ways of increasing non-tax revenues This study and recommendations for action should include but not be limited to the development of an administrative process for seeking out and aggressively pursuing available federal and state funds for all town services and suggestions for in- stituting user fees and increasing town fees for licenses, permits, etc 3 At national level encourage programs like revenue sharing which allow for local flexibility Increase Tax Base 1 Establish a Selectman's Advisory Committee to critically review the status of our ef- forts to increase the tax base in order to review the current situation in the antici- pation of providing imaginative and innovative alternatives for significantly increasing the attraction of new and significant additions to the tax base A final report should be prepared by 1981 Selectmen's Meeting - 10 - January 2, 1980 GOALS OBJECTIVES 2 Review zoning and vacant land so compatible development can taker place C Financial Management 1 Achieve tax stabilization 2 Investigate methods of consolidating town and school functions where possible Specific investigating centralized maintenance, finan- cial management 3 Consider centralized motor vehicle maintenance a. Complete a critical analysis of current de- centralized motor vehicle maintenance ap- proach and test the operational and economic feasibility of centralization by 4/1/80 b Establish an implementation schedule if centralization is inducted by 6/1/80 c Implement centralization of vehicle main- tenance function by 12/1/80 4 Town Manager should submit by September 1, 1980 a 5-year projected tax rate D Employee Development 1 Commit the Town to establishing a conscious pro- Capacity gram to identify high potential employees so as to provide them with maximum opportunity for personal development in order to provide a pool of available internal human resources to be considered as promotional opportunities available a By January 1, 1980, to develop a process for the identification of employees with poten- tial for promotion b By March 1, 1980, to identify employees who meet the criteria established in a above c By May 1, 1980, to establish individual plans for selected employees with their input considered, a desirable career path and ultimate target job d By July 1, 1980, to develop an index of the specific skills required which may be acquired through a combination of job and education experiences e In the month of November each year, to re- peat the process following the completion of annual performance reviews 3U Selectmen's Meeting - 11 - January 2, 1980 GOALS OBJECTIVES (Employee Development 2 By December, 1980, expanded educational Capacity) and in-service training programs shall be instituted to up-grade employees' technical, managerial and interpersonal skills 3 Develop increased awareness among employees concerning employee relationships with citi- zens in the community Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to adjourn at 10 10 p.m A true record, Attest gje.,„,„ (122c ae-e-0(--7 Executive Clerk, Selectmen 11 I i