COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
Sherwood Forest Road Maintenance District
Special Meeting
Saturday, June 16, 2007

Committee Members: Present: Robert Ronzio, Chairman; Jerry Summit, Vice Chairman; Gilles Beaudoin; David Bonney; Michael McEnerney Marty Feit, Clerk-Treasurer

Public Present: Dan Andrews, Albert Barvenik, Fran Barvenik, Paula Bergeron, Eva Bonney, Celia Boucher, Ron Boucher, Bill Brownhill, Joyce Brownhill, Charles Clemons, Margaret Clemons, Patricia Clemons, Claire Daigle, William DeLomer (sp?), David Devane, Nancy Devane, Jennifer Discowicz, Laurie Discowicz, J. W. Dupuis (sp?), Robert Fishell, Deb Fitzgerald, Gene Godbout, Mario Godbout, Steven Grondin, Robert Guevin, Mary Kay Jubok, Al Labonbard, Sandra Labonbard, Dennis LaChapelle, Blanche Lennington, Howard Lerner, Gail McGeer, John McGeer, Beth Meditz, Eugene Norton, Melva Norton, Gene Pike, Steve Rosenthal, Linda Shaw, Linda Sperdowski (sp?), Caroline Summit, Pauline Taurarian (sp?), Juston Townson, Kim Van Buren, Ron Van Buren

Mr. Rosenthal addresses the group as Moderator. Mr. McGeer takes issue with his position. Mr. Rosenthal points out that he was elected to the position at last year’s annual meeting.
A quorum of more than fifteen eligible voters is present.
Mr. Feit, Clerk/Treasurer and the members of the Prudential Committee introduce themselves.
Mr. Rosenthal reviews the guidelines for conducting the meeting.
Mr. Rosenthal reads the warrant for the meeting. The two articles on the warrant are:
Article 1
To see if the District will vote to appropriate the sum of $34,200 to fund the following accounts at the listed amounts for the balance of the fiscal year:
General Roads, Spring Grading $22,000.00
Waterways $3,000.00
District Office Expense $1,000.00
Prudential Committee Expense $200.00
Contract Services $4,000.00
Insurance $1,000.00
Addition to Reserve Account $3,000.00
And to fund this by transferring $34,200 from Free Cash.
Article 2
To see if the District will vote to appropriate the sum of $65,000 to fund the following account:
General Roads, April Nor’easter 2007 Expense Emergency Repair and fund this by transferring $65,000 from Free Cash.

Mr. Rosenthal explains how the vote will be conducted and then explains the “Point of Order” procedure for interrupting the moderator and asks someone in the audience if he is raising a point of order.
Mr. McGeer says the moderator at Town Meeting always asks for a show of hands of registered voters and advises others in attendance that they are welcome to participate in discussion but may not vote.
Mr. Rosenthal asks Ms. McGeer for the rough number from the sign-in sheet – it is about forty-five. He then asks all registered voters in the room to raise their hands. He then asks everyone in the room to speak now if they wish to challenge the voting status of anyone with their hand up. No challenges are made.
Mr. Rosenthal re-reads Article 1 and opens the floor to discussion of same.
Ms. Norton asks, regarding the road grading line item, if it is for work that has already been done or for work to be done.
Mr. Summit says it is for work to be done but does include work which has been done in the past couple of days.
Mr. Ronzio says the money is to be used “for work that was done last week and for any work that would be done between now and then.” He then adds that there was money expended this year that went against last years funds so there was work done from a previous year that was paid for out of this year’s funds and that is one of the reasons there is a shortfall in the budget. He says this was due to an inability of the District to carry forward the money from the previous year because the books were never closed out in 2006 and 2005 and that it actually goes back to 2004. He says that is what Mr. Feit has been working on with the DOR. He doubts that the whole $22,000 will be used but that was the figure estimated in putting the warrant together.
Linda Shaw asks how issues will be resolved regarding road work which has been done inaccurately. How will a “yes” vote here impact that?
Mr. Summit says the money is for future work except for work that started the last two days.
Ms. McGeer says, “I’d like to know if we can combine all of these articles for payments and hold them over at our annual election. In other words, vote down the whole budget and re-bring it up at our annual election. I think there’s a lot of people happy to get out of here and we don’t want to spend the whole day here and I know that a lot of them are to turn the budget down.” She then makes a motion that we turn the budget down and we come back to it at the annual election.
Mr. Rosenthal explains that according to the bylaws and the rules of order, the meeting can not be shut down while there are two articles in process. He says the question can’t be “called” while there are still people who wish to speak. When there are no more people who wish to speak on the article, then a vote can be called.
He recognizes Ms. VanBuren who asks about how the board proposed to keep contractors accountable in the future. Mr. Rosenthal says that discussion must be specific to the articles. He says it is a reasonable question but not exactly within this space.
Mr. Bonney asks how flood damage will be separated from grading work. Mr. Rosenthal asks that it be related to the specific road aspect. Mr. Bonney says the rest of the flood damage could probably be corrected by grading but wonders how the District will get credit if it’s not called flood damage. Mr. Rosenthal solicits an answer to the question.
Mr. Ronzio says he was the one who prepared all of the assessments that were sent in to FEMA and MEMA regarding damage done in the April nor’easter because the Road Superintendent was unavailable at the time. He prepared the paperwork, assessed all of the roads, and submitted the paperwork to MEMA as a preliminary estimate. He says MEMA is coming in June 21st to meet with him and Mr. Feit to go over what was prepared and to go around the Forest to assess the damage. He has alluded that he has some leeway in terms of looking at the issues and the amount of money may even be able to be increased. He says that approximately 75% of what was asked for will be returned to the District. He adds that part of the work probably could be taken care of by any grading that is being done. He says he can’t tell where the money will come from until the articles are voted. He says that’s usually the purview of the Prudential Committee. He refers to a previous question regarding payment to the contractor and says that the Prudential Committee looks over bills and if they have question regarding any of the work that is being done they do not have to sign a warrant for payment. He says there were questions that came up after the fact about the accuracy of the bills and that all of the information this year was verified. He says there have been very few complaints about the work that was done on any of the roads and this draws a chorus of dissenting voices from the floor.
Mr. Rosenthal calls order.
Mr. Ronzio says the Prudential Committee could refuse payment on any particular warrant item based on any input that they received but that all the bills for the entire year have been approved by the elected officials.
Ms. Brownhill asks if the $4,000 line item for Contract Services was for the mailing that was done. Mr. Feit says that $3,524 of that money is for payment of “Altman’s mailing” that was approved by the Prudential Committee. He says at the time they thought it was to be a vote but it turned out to be an opinion poll but that the money is owed and should be paid.
Ms. Lennington asks to move the question; Ms. Barvenik seconds. There is no discussion on this and the motion is passed with a show of hands.
Mr. Rosenthal re-reads the article and calls for a vote by show of hands; the article is voted down.
Mr. Rosenthal now moves on to Article 2. He re-reads the article and opens the floor to discussion.
Ms. Norton asks for an explanation of the article.
Mr. Feit says he has the bills and that the work is itemized road by road. He says that Mr. Ronzio was the one who did the survey after the storm so he will have to answer the rest of the question.
Mr. Rosenthal asks that Mr. Feit briefly give the room an idea, from the invoices, what activity took place.
Mr. Feit reads figures for hourly charges and materials from several invoices but no locations are listed. He says that when he showed the bills to the FEMA representative he was told there is not enough detail and they will have to be redone to show locations of work done. He says, “Basically we’re looking at charges that we really don’t know anything about.” He says the invoices will have to be redone before the scheduled upcoming meeting with the FEMA rep.
Ms. Brownhill asks if there is a deadline for paying the bills in order to get the FEMA money. Mr. Feit is recognized to answer her question and he says he’s not quite sure but he thinks it’s sixty days. He will clarify this when he meets with the FEMA rep on the 21st. Ms. Lennington is recognized to speak and says that it is her understanding from attending the MEMA/FEMA meeting that they are very willing to work with applicants as long as they are kept informed of any problems which may arise. Mr. Feit says, “I would just like to reinforce that in the meeting with John last week that was the feeling I got also.”
There being no more discussion on Article 2, Mr. Rosenthal re-reads the article and calls for a vote by show of hands. The article is voted down.
Mr. Rosenthal asks if there are any other articles that anyone would like to bring forth at this meeting.
Ms. Norton asks who makes the decision about giving out the contract and when is the contract renewed. He asks if someone can give a technical answer to the question. Mr. Ronzio says the question of the contractor is not an item that would be up for the Special Meeting. He says it is a question that would need to be directed to the Prudential Committee, that the Prudential Committee is responsible for contracts.
Mr. Rosenthal clarifies that the question was, “What is the procedure?” Mr. Ronzio says the procedure is to go to the Prudential Committee. The Prudential Committee would be the appropriate party to solicit and award contracts.
Mr. Rosenthal says the other part of the question is, “When does that happen?” Mr. Ronzio says, “That would happen when the District determines that they want to put items out to bid for work.
Mr. Rosenthal recognizes someone calling a point of order. This individual says, per Mass. General Law, contracts should automatically be put out to bid.
Ms. Brownhill asks, regarding Andrews’ bills, if a breakdown of where the work was done could be supplied before payment is voted on again. Mr. Rosenthal says he believes the question has been answered in that the FEMA rep wants more detailed invoices and once the government is satisfied, the District should be as well. He also says that what he has heard is that there is a goal to have it done by Thursday.
Mr. Ronzio makes a statement with regard to Ms. Brownhill’s question. He says, “In terms of payment of any of the bills that were due for this year, basically by rejecting both of these items . . . the Sherwood Forest Road Maintenance District, by rejecting this, the moneys would have to come out of next year. If the bills are going to be paid it’s going to come out of next year’s appropriation, which you’ll have to have another special meeting at such time to do the transfers of the money to bring the moneys forward. Otherwise it’s going to increase your taxes.”
Mr. Rosenthal clarifies that it is not “you”, it is the District.
Mr. Ronzio says, “The District will have to have another special meeting in order to pay these bills.” He goes on to say that there is no time remaining in this fiscal year to pay bills due out of this year’s funding. He says the money was there but the District felt it was not appropriate so it will have to be paid out of next year.
Ms. Daigle asks if Mr. Ronzio said that this would increase our taxes. Mr. Rosenthal asks if there is someone who can answer it in a “yes” or “no” manner. Mr. Ronzio says, “It depends on how it is all handled. In order to take the Free Cash or any money that was appropriated in prior years and bring it forward to the next year . . .”
Ms. Lennington makes a point of order, saying that she believes “the lady’s question was, ‘Did he say . . .’” Mr. Rosenthal says, “You’re absolutely right.” He then says to Mr. Ronzio, “The question was, ‘Did you say . . .’”
Mr. Ronzio says, “Yes I did, but I didn’t . . .”
Another individual is recognized and asks if there is a percentage that taxpayers could expect their taxes to go up. Mr. Rosenthal then says that he thinks the question is a good one for the next meeting, not this one.
Mr. Boucher says he can’t understand the statement, “I did say it but I can’t explain it.” He asks for clarification. Mr. Rosenthal says if the question is whether taxes are going up or not, he doesn’t believe that is something that can be answered within the confines of this meeting. He says that the purpose of this meeting was to see if money that the District has could be spent and that two different articles for that were voted down. He says that eventually the obligations will have to be met and the money will have to come from some source and that his personal logic leads him to think that if the money exists somewhere and is not available because it was voted down now, it will still exist and can be voted to be spent in the future. <<Blip in tape>>
Mr. Summit says that two years ago the DOR looked at how something was paid and said it would have to be added on to the tax base so taxes will go up if the DOR directs that something has to be added onto the tax base.
Ms. Norton speaks about spending money and the condition of the roads.
Mr. Bonney says he thinks it was right to vote it down because the misappropriation has to be dealt with.
Ms. Devane asks a question which is inaudible on the recording. Mr. Rosenthal says he thinks that is a question which will need to be asked at the continuation of the Prudential Committee meeting.

There being no further business to conduct the meeting is adjourned.

Respectfully Submitted

Marty Feit
Clerk-Treasurer

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