Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Live reporting - closing items

L. OLD BUSINESS - none

M. NEW BUSINESS - none

N. COUNCIL COMMENTS
McGann - went to an Eagle Scout ceremony for three scouts at the Elks

What is the duty.legal option for dealing with a coyote. He has a number of coyotes coming up to his door, he doesn't want to loose his golden retriever to a coyote.

Doak - omitted from earlier report on the Charter Commission, did not look at the people currently in the position

Pfeffer - New Secretary of Elder Affairs will be at the Senior Center Thursday.

motion to adjourn - passed 8-0


Live reporting - Administrator's report

K. TOWN ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT


Thanks to everyone's patience, the roads that were to be paved, have now been, some stripping remains.


The first newsletter has been sent out via email. You can sign up at the Town Administrators web page.


Live cable show available for on-demand viewing on the H1N1 virus update.






Live reporting - legislation

J. LEGISLATION FOR ACTION

  1. Resolution 09-59: Amendment of FY 2010 Budget  motion to accept - passed  8-0
  2. Resolution 09-60 Endorsement of the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust  motion to accept - passed  8-0
  3. Bylaw Amendment 09-634: Amendment to the Franklin Conservation Bylaw Chapter 181-8D: Term of Years- 1st Reading  motion to accept - passed  8-0
  4. Bylaw Amendment 09-635: Amendment to the Code of the Town of Franklin, Chapter 25 – Personnel Regulations – 1st Reading  motion to move to second reading - passed  8-0
  5. Bylaw Amendment 09-636: Amendment to the Code of the Town of Franklin, Chapter 25 – Human Resource Management – 1st Reading motion to move to second reading - passed  8-0
  6. Zoning Bylaw Amendment 09-637: Amendment to Chapter 185-3. Definitions – Referral to Planning Board  motion to refer, passed 8-0
  7. Zoning Bylaw Amendment 09-638: Amendment to Chapter 185-39. Uses Accessory to Dwelling – Referral to Planning Board  motion to refer, passed 8-0
Notes for above
1 - balancing the budget with some minor adjustments now that the State budget numbers settled. This is a known adjustment, expected since the original budget was passed in June. About 1.4 million dollars was saved with salary deferments and co-pay adjustments.

2 - resolution added related to dissolving the Housing Partnership, the town would use the money to buy some housing and mark them for affordable housing forever.Looking to obtain smaller homes with this approach.

3 - A problem with consistency between the state level requirement and the local bylaw. This will provide some extensions one year at a time to bring the two into alingment.

4 - goes hand in hand with #5, the existing bylaw for personnel would be removed and replaced by a new bylaw to cover Human Resource issues. The Town Council would still be involved for approval as requried for the check and balence but to streamline the process for approvals to changes.
The one significant change is in the time off policy where it would provide more flexibility to the employee to use time but more responsibility and accountability.

Very few municipal governments do this, so they tried to account for the long term employees and still make it workable for the new employees. It is competitive.

Questions to clarify how this would be used, some of the questions are more to the day-to-day management of the personnel rather than the overall procedures being proposed. There are transition coverage items to help the existing employees move from the old way to the new way.

Suggestion to correct the document for the next reading to reflect the proper wording around the 30 days as discussed earlier.

6 and 7 go hand in hand, these had come before the Town Council previously, have been revised and are now being looked for to go to the Planning Board for further hearings and approval before coming back to the Town Council for final approval.

Discussion on need for "fulltime" in the definition, Per M Cerel, the text needs to be as tight as possible to put the onus on the resident to make the proof rather than the town having the burden of proof.

The resolution that was added reads as follows:

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io


Live reporting - Charter changes

Subcommittee - Doak, Whalen, Zollo

the page of changes to be added later, there are a number of minor changes to reflect better language
One change would remove from the Charter the requirement for the Town Council to meet twice a month and change it to meeting once a month. The Town Council should have the ability via other Town Council procedures to hold meetings.

cleaning up conflicts within the charter and to remove ambiguities

Change of the Finance Committee from 11 to 9, and change the term to 2 (from 1).

Section 7-7 - to be removed, these items should really be covered in a human resources section.

The three page handout from the subcommittee follows:

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

--- page 2 ---

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

--- page 3 ---

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io


Live reporting - Town Council - 9/16/09

Attending: Whalen, Vallee, Bartlett, Feeley, Pfeffer, Doak, McGann, Zollo
Missing: Mason

A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – August 19, 2009, September 2, 2009
motion to approve - passed 8-0

B. ANNOUNCEMENTS
Harvest Festival this Sunday, 9/20/09  11:00 AM to 4:00 PM


C. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS - none

D. CITIZEN COMMENTS - none

E. APPOINTMENTS  - none

F. HEARINGS   - none

G. LICENSE TRANSACTIONS  - none

H. DISCUSSIONS - none



Open offer to candidates for Franklin's Election - November 3rd

As there are several new candidates for election this November, let me re-post my offer.

To the candidates for Franklin's election on November 3, 2009:

I extend an offer to conduct and post an interview with you here. The interview can be either text or audio.

You are running to conduct business on behalf of Franklin. Together, we can share your views, your objectives, and help to spread the word to create an informed voter.

Send me an email (shersteve at gmail dot com) and we can arrange a mutually convenient time.

Be aware that this is my public service effort conducted solely to create an informed electorate here in Franklin.

I do this for fun and education. If it stops being that way, I will stop. This is not an advertising site. This is an information sharing site.

My disclosure statement can be found here.

The Milford Daily News covers the current candidate line up in their article today.


November Election Line up

The line up for the November 3rd election finally has settled and looks like this:


Board of Assessors - 1 Position (For 4 years)
no candidates

updated 10/28/09
Chris Feeley has announced his intention to run as a "write-in" candidate for the Board of Assessors


Board of Health - 1 Position (For 4 years)
Bruce Hunchard
Koren Kanadanian - new

Planning Board - 2 Position (For 4 years)
Anthony Padula
Joseph Halligan - new

Planning Board (Associate) - 1 vacant position (For 4 Years)
John Carroll - new

Town Council - 9 Positions (For 2 Years)
Joseph McGann
R. Scott Mason
Judith Pond Pfeffer
Shannon Zollo
Robert Vallee
Stephen Whalen
Glenn Jones - new
Daniel Ballinger - new
Bryce Kuchs - new - due to changes at his work, he would be unable to fulfill the duties if elected*

Robert Avakian (switch from Board of Assessors)
Matthew Kelly (switch from School Committee)
Tina Powderly - new
Glenna Richards - new

School Committee - 7 Positions (For 2 Years)
Susan Rohrbach
Paula Mullen
Edward Cafasso
Roberta Trahan
Jeffrey Roy
William Glynn - new
Cynthia Douglas - new

* Kuchs name will still appear on the ballot as it has already been printed.