Eliot Select Board Approves New Officer, Policies, and Carryovers

[0:00] Alex Arresas: Here you see how it's going up and down. Yeah, that shows that you have sound on Town Hall strings. This is what people on Town Hall strings, once the meeting starts, well, I mean, it's, it's fine. It's already he 's got it to where it's not just big. [12:49] William Weedy: RECORDING IN PROGRESS. IF [12:55] Speaker C (unidentified): YOU'RE GOING TO SPEAK, PLEASE PRESS YOUR, YOU'LL SEE THE GREEN LIGHT UP AND ALL RIGHT. [13:05] William Weedy: I'M JUST GOING TO TAP, I GUESS. IT'S 543. I'M GOING TO CALL THE ORDER THIS MEETING OF THE ELLIOT SELECT BOARD. I'LL LET THE RECORD SHOW THAT ALEX ARRESAS, Lauren Dow and William Weedy are present. Cabotra and Christine Bennett are excused. We're going to do a Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, [13:29] Speaker C (unidentified): and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible. [13:38] William Weedy: All right, so first up is public comment. Anything not on our agenda? Nobody from the public here. Okay, we're moving on. on. Next up, the approval of minutes from September 10th. Do we have any suggested changes? [13:57] Speaker C (unidentified): 79 says [14:06] Lauren Dow: the town manager will miss the next meeting and the revised draft was tabled to a future agenda. So that's- Yeah, here you are. [14:13] William Weedy: I can't remember. I didn't think you felt like that opinion. Did I just totally make that up? I don't know. [14:20] Speaker C (unidentified): That was Christine, member Christine Bennett. Okay. So I, do we have any other changes? [14:29] William Weedy: Just, I'll just cross out town manager and put Christine. That's fine. I make a motion. We approve the amended minutes. Second. [14:39] Alex Arresas: I'll remember the second. Alex? Yes. [14:43] Speaker C (unidentified): Warren? Yes. Bill? Yes. [14:46] William Weedy: All right. Public hearings, we have none. Town managers, report. [14:52] Speaker C (unidentified): Mr. Chair, I don't have anything to add. I just want to let people know that if they haven't seen it already, the police station is very much under the renovation. and we are doing the best when people come to accommodate. We encourage people just to call and we'll, as best we can, let you in the back door or just come over to Town Hall and we will contact somebody from the police department and they can meet you over here or they'll make other arrangements. But hopefully we'll be back in three weeks with a new handicap accessible door. We have run into a few issues more today about that project and we are working through them, and the other projects are moving along. They were spreading wood chips today at the Frost Tough Playscape. People are very excited about that. We hope that the fencing will start to go in next week and we can open that park, and shortly behind it, Murray Rowe, they were finishing up the footings for the dugouts for both the softball diamond and for the baseball diamond. So I hope people are excited about that as well. And we, the chair and I have talked about doing some kind of an event when it's appropriate and all the equipment's moved to, you know, invite the public to a ribbon cutting or some ceremony appropriate to reopen those parks. But it's an exciting time and I appreciate people's patience. [16:45] William Weedy: Great. Any questions for the town manager? I got one. How is voting and all that going? I know that started on the 5th. [16:56] Speaker C (unidentified): Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for asking that. The voting we're just talking about, I think there's over 900 absentee ballots already requested. It's been robust. We appreciate people voting, getting out, and we are trying a couple of new things. Wednesday, October 21st from 4 to 7 p.m. we are going to have vote extended voting hours or to pick up your absentee ballot or to register to vote again. That's October 21st from 4 to 7 p.m. and Saturday, October 24th from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., both of those days, we're going to offer Elliott First Mile transportation. You can schedule a pickup in advance. We'd ask you please to call in advance at 207-451-9334 if you need a ride to Town Hall to register to vote. We also, the day of election from 10 to 3, are going to offer ride services through Elliott First Mile. So thank you to Recreation Director Heather Muzarol-Roy for that and for working with Town Clerk Wendy Roski. It's, I think, a great program. And Saturday, October 24th, is also Elliott Connect's Book Fair. So they'll be in the large meeting room. At the same time, we're offering people to either register to vote or get their absentee ballots in room 112. That would be to the left when you come in the front door, Town Hall. Also there's extended drop-off, register to vote or pick up your absentee ballots on October 28th, 4 to 7 p.m. We encourage people to, if you're going to use that, to get those ballots back as quickly as possible. And we also would remind people that there is a absentee ballot box at the left-hand corner if you're facing the building. Big flag says ballot drop box. It's secure. There's a camera are trained on it. And we hope people use that as well. If you have accessibility issues during the day and you just want to drop off your ballot, you can pull up to the drive up window. We'd also remind you. So thank you. To Town Clerk Wendy Roski and to everyone else who's working hard to make the voting seamless and present an opportunity. And we hope everybody comes to those issues too, because the day of voting will be crowded. But again, thank you very much. [20:14] William Weedy: I heard through the grapevine that the town ballots were delayed at the very start of on Monday. [20:22] Speaker C (unidentified): Day, can you just give a little insight for the people? Yes, and we do apologize. They were, they were delayed for about four or five hours. We didn't have them until three o'clock that afternoon for the town ballots. There were a few people in the morning who came in and they weren't able to get those ballots. We were, we are required to have those ballots available that day. They weren't available until the afternoon. We appreciate people's patience. And, you know, I discussed it with the clerk. She made every effort to get these here in time and get these. She's done a wonderful job in that regard. But we talked about how we can move that up. And as we've discussed before, whatever is going to be on the town ballot, either for a special town meeting, for an annual town meeting in June, the sooner we can get it, we continue to seem to, and it's my fault as much as anyone's, is cut it close. If we can put a timeline in this year so we know what's going to be on the ballot, we know earlier whether they're coming from the Select Board or the Planning Board, that would really be helpful to make sure that we don't have this issue again. [21:50] Lauren Dow: Yeah, just a quick question. You're going to post this, I'm assuming, to the website at some point? [21:55] Speaker C (unidentified): It is already posted to the website, and it should be posted to the website, and it's up at the various places that we post the, I think it's on the clerk's website. Okay, cool. And it's under news and announcement on the front page. So we're excited about it. Did you find it? [22:24] Lauren Dow: I found the, there's one that doesn't list Wednesday the 21st, but it does list the 24th as well as election day. Okay. Which I think came out earlier in the week. Okay. Yeah. [22:36] Speaker C (unidentified): We probably just haven't updated, but thank you. Okay. [22:41] William Weedy: Okay. Just given our timing thing, I'm going to make a request to the planning board to let us know what the status is of their ordinances and give them a drop dead date of February 28th. It gives us March to review and ultimately make the decision in April. Does that sound? [22:59] Speaker C (unidentified): Or not does that sound? Yeah, I think if it's possible you can review it if you could get it a week earlier that way if there's any corrections or changes we'll have them by the third. I'll ask. [23:14] William Weedy: Second two. Well, let's let's ask for a list now and then they need to have the final product to us the third Thursday in February. Okay. No, thank you. I appreciate it. Later than the third Thursday. [23:26] Speaker C (unidentified): Day in February then we have time to review and a list for the first meeting in November. [23:32] William Weedy: Yeah, first meeting in November just the ordinances they're working on and the current status. Okay. Of them and we can follow up with requests for drafts if something piques our interest. Does that work? Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. I move the select board ratify the town, sorry, accept the town manager's report and direct it to be made available on the town website. Okay. Yes. Yep. Next up is board and committee appointments as resignations. So this would be the ratification of Elliott police. Officer Abigail Gilman, chief would you come on up and introduce, you can tell us about yourself if you want, if not we can ask you questions. I grew up in Mass my whole life. [25:11] Speaker C (unidentified): They don't hold that against you. We're surrounded. [25:16] Alex Arresas: But, yeah, now I'm currently getting my master's in technology. [25:21] William Weedy: Cool. So what made you interested in Elliott of all places? Because we always have, you know, turnover, and we're going to be recruiting people for this and that. So specifically what interested you in Elliott? I used to work with her as a reserve. She was a reserve. I was a CSO. And just talking with her. Very cool. Cool. How do we recruit more young people like yourself? Because obviously all of our departments are aging and on the verge of retirement or we need younger blood. So how do you think the best way we do that? So this might be like a different opinion, but I don't necessarily think it's the department's fault. I know a lot of people are hiring. [26:21] Lauren Dow: I'm actually living in New York City right now, but I work in the suburbs as well. [26:34] William Weedy: All right. Well, we seal all new hires with a handshake, so you're going to make it down the line here. Welcome aboard. I will do the official motion. I move the Elliott Select Board ratify the town manager's appointment of Abigail Gilman as a town of Elliott police officer. Second. Alex with a second. I'll do a roll call. Alex? Yes. Lauren? Yes. And I'm a yes. We ratified. I made the motion. Alex seconded. All in yes. Anonymous. Anonymous. Anonymous. Hip Hop Anonymous. [27:10] Speaker C (unidentified): And thank you for Officer Sear and Lieutenant Levesque for being here tonight. [27:15] William Weedy: You guys doubled our attendance. All right. Sorry for making you wait. It's all good. All right. Next up is a procurement card policy amendment acceptance. Mike. [27:37] Speaker C (unidentified): So the this is a little change from our credit card policy it's really an update or credit card policy it removes all references to trio it updates some of the processes to align with munis software that we're putting in some of the things that are a little different than before, too, is we have cardholder agreements, statements that are more, I want to say stringent, but more robust, that people acknowledge the rules, that they've read the rules, that they're saying that they're responsible, and they understand that if they don't use the procurement card properly, the card will be taken away from them and you know this is there's only six excuse me seven people i'm not one of them that has a procurement card or pretty much a credit card for the town and we haven't had a problem it hasn't been an issue but we want to make sure that we keep it that way and make sure that people stay in line so i thank krista mcmulty our finance director for reviewing this working with tyler technologies munis erp and making sure that these policies are aligned with the standards that they see in other communities and the ones that will be part of our new financial software package any [29:24] William Weedy: questions we'll entertain a motion i [29:30] Lauren Dow: move the elite select board to accept the procurement card policy as presented. Second. Alex. Yes. [29:37] William Weedy: Lauren. Yes. Bill. Yep. All right, next up is the emergency action plan. [29:45] Speaker C (unidentified): So the emergency action plan is part of a program, you may recall, that we entered into with our insurance, our liability insurance, that we would have certain standards and put certain things in place for the town of Elliott, which would result when we go through all these steps, some of them fire extinguisher training, some of the stuff that we've already done, we would be able to get a five percent discount on our liability insurance. None of it's really heavy lifting. It's all real good stuff. When we signed on to this program they had us listed as having a emergency management plan in place, or emergency action plan in place. And when we went to look for when it was accepted by the select board in 2020, nobody could find it. We don't think it was ever accepted. We updated it, made some adjustments to have it reflect modern day and added a few things, and we ask you to accept it so we can submit it to our insurance company. Motion. I move the LA Select Board accept the emergency action plan as presented. Second. Lauren. Yes. [31:28] William Weedy: Bill. Yep. All right, next is the Public Works Fiscal Year 26 carryover. Pretty straightforward on this one. Mike, you want to give us the two-sentence explanation? [31:45] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah, the public works, it's really paving. [31:50] William Weedy: Okay, sounds good. I'll entertain a motion. [31:54] Speaker C (unidentified): I move the Elliott Select Board approve the public works FY26 carryover request as presented. Second. Elliott. [32:02] William Weedy: Yes. Lauren. Yes. Bill. Yeah. And just so everybody knows at home, this is like a standard thing we do every year. Sometimes all the paving doesn't get done, so you just push it off into the next year. Yeah, no taxes. No taxes. No new taxes. It's already tax money. It's already in the account. That way it doesn't impact the taxpayer. All right. Next up is the police department fiscal year 26 carryover. I'll take the one sentence explanation. [Speaker C (unidentified): Renovation. One word] is even better. And if you drove by and you saw the destruction at the front of the town hall, we need it. [32:41] Lauren Dow: I saw Mike over there multiple times when I drove by dropping the kids off picking the kids up and just out front [32:47] William Weedy: looked like a lot of problem it looked like a lot of problems I just kept driving yeah I moved the Elliott Select Board approved the police department fiscal year 26 carryover requested as presented second yes Bill yep administrative carryover [33:09] Speaker C (unidentified): $50,000, health insurance, communications, and increased software costs. [33:16] William Weedy: Okay, so everybody, we get our, we budget for what our health insurance is going to be, and then it always comes in with sticker shock, surprise, way higher than it normally is supposed to be. It's never lower than it's supposed to be. So we need to carry some money over to make up the difference so it doesn't have to come at a new taxation. [33:33] Lauren Dow: I move the Elliott Select Board approve the administrative FY26. 26 carry out a carry over request as presented. Yes. [33:46] William Weedy: All right next up is a town managers contract extension so this is just for public review we had been working on this in the executive and we wanted to put it out to the public. This is I believe. Let's wait to ratify with the whole 5 members of the board is that fine with you. that's fine with me I mean I'm fine to do it tonight but I think it's stronger to do it with all five members president okay you guys feel the same way or it doesn't or do you care anything as long as there's no yeah no impact right you find a way table to the yeah absolutely okay table to the next meeting all right so there it is it's all out there if you wish to file your complaints about the town manager you can send me an email NOW, BE WEEDY AT ELLIOTT MAINE, ELLIOTTMAINE.GOV, SEND ALL THE COMPLAINTS RIGHT TO ME, I'LL TAKE THEM ALL, RIGHT. we have all five members i don't see any issues i just on the town manager's contract i just feel better about everybody pitching in on that one next up is the public hearing for october [35:13] Speaker C (unidentified): 22nd this is standard every year that your ordinance calls to have a public hearing on the warrant articles for a special town meeting or an annual town meeting. And as it fits into the schedule, October, we're asking for the hearing to be held on October 22nd for the November 3rd special town meeting referendum. [35:41] William Weedy: All right, so the next select board meeting, you can come and you can ask your questions directly of us about the ordinance amendments. to the next select board meeting. Otherwise, it will not be read. [36:22] Speaker C (unidentified): And there is information on the website for each one of the articles. [36:27] William Weedy: All right. So I move the Elliott Select Board set a public hearing for October 22nd, 2026 in town hall for the purpose of hearing public comment on the November 3rd, 2026 special town meeting referendum. Second. Alex. Yes. Lauren. Yes. Bill. Yeah. Do we have any select board reports? Discussions. How are the children? Children are great. So I'm good. [36:54] Lauren Dow: I just have an open inquiry with the open committees and boards in town. Just looking for like a list. I had some people asking me about it. So people trying to recruit for us, which is nice. [37:10] William Weedy: Great. All right. Alex, you want to handle the next one here? [37:18] Lauren Dow: I move the Elliott Select Board accept the payroll and accounts payable warrants as presented by consent agenda. Second. Elliott. [37:26] William Weedy: Yes. Warren. Yes. Bill. Yes. So this other one, we added a category of correspondence new to this meeting. I received a letter, I would call it a demand letter from a law firm demanding that we reconsider the lot rent stabilization ordinance. At this meeting and I you can see my response I believe did my response make it in here [Alex Arresas: So] I responded that there's no point in us reviewing an ordinance on October 8th when ballots already out on October 5th so we obviously we're not going to be pulling it from the ballot we remain open-minded to changes if they wish to propose some after November 3rd but we're going to see how November 3rd goes. They have reasonable changes and suggestions. We will put them in touch with the subcommittee first to talk, and we'll go from there. [38:33] Speaker C (unidentified): Mr. Chair, you did invite them to participate in the political process. Yes, I did. [38:38] William Weedy: I did tell them if instead of us pulling an ordinance, they should participate in the political process like everyone else, and it probably would be cheaper than lawyers. All right. So I move, yeah, you want to? [38:59] Lauren Dow: I move the Elliot Select Board accept the correspondents from Durbin Law without comment. [39:04] Speaker C (unidentified): With comment. With comment. Without comment. Without comment. Well, there's no additional comment. With the chair's comment. On what is written. Second. [39:14] Lauren Dow: Alex. Yes. Lauren. Yes. Bill yes I will [39:24] William Weedy: Be adjourned second yes we're adjourned thank you everyone [39:29] Alex Arresas: I do have some signing