Chebeague Island Transition Committee
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Minutes
Accepted 12/20/06
Attendance: John Martin (Chair), Mark Dyer, Leon Hamilton, Doug Ross, Donna Damon, Steve Todd, Dave Hill, Jim Phipps, Carol White. Visitors: 15
Next meeting will be December 20th, 7:15 at
the Parish House.
1. A motion was made (Dave), seconded (Leon) and voted affirmatively to accept the minutes of the December 6, 2006 meeting as presented.
2. Questions and comments from the public: Patti Rich suggested that committee members choose their words more carefully when talking to reporters. Mark was evidently misquoted in the Forecaster. During discussion Donna said therešs not much anyone can do about it; reporters may write the story correctly, but then it is edited to fit the space available.
3. Report from the Public Safety Subcommittee by Doug Ross:
Doug named the members of the committee and read the basic charge of the committee regarding Rescue, Fire, Police and Dispatching Services. The subcommittee has divided into five sub-subcommittees. Basically, committee members have been talking to municipal and county entities to see if these entities would be interested in providing services to Chebeague and what such services would cost. They are not ready at this time to make any recommendations regarding contracting services, but they will continue with fact finding.
Public Safety Subcommittee Recommendation #1: As of July 1st, 2007, the slate of officers of the Fire Department of Chebeague Island Station will be expected to continue on an interim basis with the Deputy Chief becoming the Fire Chief/Fire Warden for the Town of Chebeague until the Town Administrator under the suggestion of a personnel committee makes the final decision on filling positions. The recommendation came with a flow chart showing that the subcommittee proposes the department will look like in the future. One position, House Captain, had to be defined: House Captain is the vice deputy chief and has some housekeeping responsibilities. A motion was made (Dave), seconded (Carol) and voted unanimously to accept the recommendation of the Public Safety Subcommittee as written.
Public Safety Subcommittee Recommendation #2: The Public Safety Subcommittee recommends the following stipends for positions: Fire Chief/Fire Warden: $5,000 annually. House Captain: $1,000 annually. 1 Captain at $550.00 annually (SCBA certification). 2 Captains at $200 annually. 1 Lieutenant at $250 (SCBA certification). Radio Base Operator at $250 annually. Total: $7,450.00. A motion was made (Leon), seconded (Jim) and voted affirmatively to accept the recommendation of the Public Safety Subcommittee as written.
Public Safety Subcommittee Recommendation #3: The Public Safety Subcommittee recommends a per diem employee for 16 hours per month to do equipment maintenance to appropriate standards, and perform light building maintenance as time allows for $2,600 annually. A motion was made (Mark), seconded (Carol) and voted unanimously to accept the recommendation of the Public Safety Subcommittee as written.
Public Safety Subcommittee Recommendation #4: The Public Safety Subcommittee recommends that the Town of Chebeague sign into a mutual aid agreement with surrounding towns. A motion was made (Carol), seconded (Dave) and voted unanimously to accept the recommendation of the Public Safety Subcommittee as written.
4. Governmental Structure: Donna distributed a job description form developed by the Governmental Structure Subcommittee. This form would be used by all committees to describe proposed positions, qualifications, compensation and time estimates for Town personnel. When accumulated these forms will aid the Governmental Structure Committee in deciding how parts of jobs can be combined to make decisions regarding how many employees will be needed. A motion was made (Carol), seconded (Jim) voted unanimously to use the form as a guideline to describe and quantify personnel needs.
5. Finance: Dave presented the following recommendation from the Finance Subcommittee: The Transition Committee and Sub Committees will have as its goal to take steps necessary to have the new Town of Chebeague Island fully functional by the opening of business on July 2, 2007, with equipment and trained personnel in place to handle town business such as licenses, auto registrations, etc. Discussion revealed a difference of opinion based on the perceived expectations of the community. Some feel that the town needs to have the equipment and trained personnel in place on day one. Others feel the Transition Committee should not take on financial responsibilities before the funds can be voted by town meeting. In the end, it was decided to make this a topic for discussion at the public meeting scheduled for January 13th. The recommendation was tabled until after the public discussion of the issue. Dave also reminded subcommittees to use the Excel spreadsheets as distributed to facilitate budget production.
6. Planning for the public meeting on January 13th: After some discussion, it was decided to use the next meeting on December 20th to plan the January 13th public meeting. The report from the Marine Subcommittee will be postponed to January 3rd. As preparation for the December 20th meeting, participants will want to think about what we expect to accomplish during the meeting on January 13th.
7. New Business: Steve said he would like to post a notice to see if there are people on the island who are interested in providing contracting services in the area of public works. The problem with this would be that the community will see the notice as a statement that the decision has already been made to use contractors instead of hiring town employees.
The meeting adjourned at approximately 10:10 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Gloria Brown