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Dighton Water District 192 Williams St. No. Dighton, Ma 02764 Sue Medeiros Paul Joly Paul Pacheco COMMISSIONERS Carol A. Stevens TREASURER May
19, 2010 A
meeting of the Dighton Water District Commissioners was held at the District office
at 10:00 A.M. Chairman of the Board,
Paul Pacheco called the meeting to order.
First
order of business was to re-organize the Board. Paul Pacheco said, “I’ll step down and make
a motion that Sue Medeiros be the Chairman and Paul Joly
be the Clerk.” Commissioner, Paul Joly said, “Second.”
Paul Pacheco said, “All in favor, the ayes have it.” Sue Medeiros took over as Chairman. Sue Medeiros said, “I make a motion to
accept the warrant as written to be posted for the Annual District Meeting on
May 27th.” Paul Joly
said, “Second.” Sue Medeiros said,
“All in favor, ayes have it.” Sue
Medeiros said, “The $25,000 we set aside for Aquaria we do not need to put an
article on the warrant to rescind the vote we need a letter from the
Department Head saying the money won’t be used and it can be put back in free
cash.” Superintendent, Charles Cestodio said, “There is an agreement with the Planning
Board saying there would be no cost to the District for the connection.” Paul
Pacheco mentioned the sign for the driveway.
Paul Pacheco said, “I want a sign to go up there that will last fifty
years.” Sue Medeiros said, “A nice
sign, go to the schools see what they can do, put it out to bid, something
nice for the money.” Paul Joly said, “Look at it, see what kind of materials are
needed.” Sue Medeiros said, “Put it on
next month’s meeting agenda have the specs, information and pictures for
review.” Sue
Medeiros and Paul Joly mentioned effective July 1
the agenda and meeting postings would need to be visible forty eight hours in
advance. Sue
Medeiros said, “I need to bring something up to clean the slate, last year
was difficult for me I always felt like I didn’t know what was going on there
were always calls, e-mails, meetings down here, it was really against the law
as soon as Commissioners meet you now have a quorum you’re not in compliance
with the open meeting law. I want this
to be a team of three to meet two or three times a month let’s do that. Lots of times I only knew what was going on
because Carol filled me in and we have to utilize Carol as the Office Manager
we have to.” Paul Pacheco said, “Carol
wasn’t the reason you filled her in was because every time a question came up
I’d say get a hold of Sue get her opinion?”
Treasurer/Clerk, Carol Stevens agreed.
Sue Medeiros said, “We shouldn’t be doing that we should be meeting we
need to work as a group of three.”
Paul Joly said, “The perception of this
Department has right now in Town is terrible.” Sue Medeiros said, “Chuck you’re doing a
great job I will never micro-manage you never, never, never. Last meeting with Paul Coffey and David Gay
they mentioned micro-managing. I don’t
want to see the get togethers down here, meeting
with an employee too much of that last year.
Even negotiations if I didn’t come to the last negotiation, I was suppose to be kept up on everything, Paul you also after
negotiations we automatically should have had a meeting we never had
meetings.” Paul Joly
said, “That’s the perception throughout the whole Town, too much one man
operation, one man show, everybody else was left outside.” Sue Medeiros said, “That’s going to
change.” Paul Pacheco said, “Sue the
very first meeting you came to Ed was not here.” Sue Medeiros said, “That’s right I still
have a problem with that. Today if you
were not here Paul and I would not re-organize I would wait till our first
meeting with a group of three.” Paul
Pacheco said, “Where was Ed that night, at the ball field about four miles
away if he was that concerned about being here as far as I’m concerned he
would have been here you’re saying you knew I was going to be the Chairman
you’re the one that wanted to make him Chairman first.” Sue Medeiros said, “I did not.” Paul Pacheco said, “You most certainly did
pull the minutes on that meeting you said you wanted to make it the following
meeting and I said we’re going to have to cancel the meeting and you said
okay we’ll leave the Board exactly the way that it is, the first motion you
made was to keep the Board the same Ed Chairman and me the Clerk if you don’t
remember it Carol will pull the minutes from that meeting.” Sue Medeiros said, “Because I didn’t want
to be Chairman the following year I didn’t think I’d be ready I honestly
didn’t think I’d be ready, well I’ve changed my mind.” Paul Pacheco said, “I need to get out of
here soon, let’s talk about negotiations quick five minutes.” Charles
Cestodio said, “I request the hours change back the
way they were.” Sue Medeiros said, “I
don’t have a problem with that.” Paul
Pacheco said, “I make a motion we go back to the way we had it.” Paul Joly said,
“Second.” Paul Pacheco said, “Give a
two week notice.” Sue Medeiros said,
“All in favor, ayes have it.” Sue
Medeiros said, “I make a motion we go into executive session at 10:35 A.M.
we’ll come out and go back into regular session.” Paul Joly said,
“Second.” Sue Medeiros said, “All in
favor, ayes have it.” Present in
executive session were Sue Medeiros, Paul Joly and
Paul Pacheco. Sue
Medeiros said, “I make a motion we come out of executive session at 10:50
A.M.” Paul Joly
said, “Second.” Sue Medeiros said,
“All in favor, ayes have it.” Sue
Medeiros said, “Carol, Commissioners are going to get together to meet one
hour before the Annual we’ll meet right at the school.” Paul
Joly asked for a excel spreadsheet with the
revenues be sent to Finance Committee member Jim Ready, Charles Roderigues, and Joe Lawrence. Carol Stevens said, “I will send them to
Jim this afternoon, Charlie and Joe do not have e-mail I’ll have Jim give them
a copy.” Paul Joly
also requested a break down into salaries. Sue
Medeiros said, “Chuck we want to let you know Paul, myself, and Paul are here
as Commissioners to help you guys too we don’t want you to feel you can’t
come to us with anything, any issue, any concerns, any ideas we look to you
for guidance too I know I do you and Carol, Donnie whatever, we’re not going
to harass anybody I don’t want any bickering, definitely not between the
Commissioners sometimes I felt like I was the referee. It’s a clean slate. I didn’t believe in what Ed did a lot of
times Ed would do this, talk to this one, talk to that one, I never did it I
won’t, I won’t do that I want employees to go to you, you are the
Superintendent ok you come to us I’m not going to get a phone call from an
employee if I get a phone call from an employee I’m going to tell him take it
up with your Superintendent have him get together with the Commissioners
we’ll meet on it, it’s going to be the three of us.” Paul Joly said,
“We’ll get a letter out to everybody telling them what you say is the law any
problems take it up with you and then we’ll follow up.” Sue Medeiros said, “Chain of Command here
we need to follow that Chain of Command.”
Paul Joly said, “I don’t want you to second
guess well I’m going to get somebody to step on me you’ve been around here
long enough you know what’s got to be done you’ve got to let them know.” Sue Medeiros said, “I was never in the loop
I knew nothing I never talk to Ed never, I talked to Ed at the Town Hall about
finance but I knew nothing and I hated it I felt like I was a third wheel and
I’ll be honest I missed that last meeting I had to go pick up my husband, I
didn’t even feel guilty about missing that meeting.” Paul Joly said,
“Attitude of coming in if you don’t like the way I’m doing it don’t vote for
me that’s not the thing to say he’s like a bull in a china shop.” Sue Medeiros said, “You guys work hard, you
guys do a good job let’s get that perception back out there to everybody
we’re working with you, you’re working with us.” Sue Medeiros said, “When Ed was here I
never got keys to this place I do not have keys to any of this
building.” Paul Joly
asked, “Does he have a key?” Sue
Medeiros said, “That’s what I want to know does Ed Swartz have a key, does
Paul have a key really we shouldn’t have keys especially to your office,
maybe an emergency key I think the Fire Chief has an emergency key.” Charles Cestodio
said, “The Fire Chief has a key to get in.”
Sue Medeiros said, “That office where Carol sits and Tina they are
bonded employees, nobody should be in that office after hours, anybody,
Commissioners there is no reason for us to be in there.” Paul Joly said,
“We don’t have to be in there.” Sue
Medeiros said, “So if there are keys out there Paul I don’t know if you agree
with me I would like to know who has them, for what, and bring them
back.” Charles Cestodio
said, “Alleviate the problem change all the locks.” Sue Medeiros said, “I make a motion to have
these locks changed I don’t agree with Commissioners having keys to
everything.” Paul Joly
asked, “Do you have a record of who has keys?” Sue Medeiros said, “We should meet twice a
month.” Paul Joly
said, “Communication, e-mail, correspondence back and forth cc the
Commissioners have Donnie do the same thing anything he sends we’ll have a
meeting with everybody or we’ll put a letter together telling them what your
function is you run the operation no questions about it you run it something
does come up you have access to the controls but they have got to know we are
supporting you 100%.” Sue Medeiros
said, “I think once they know we are supporting you 100% I agree some of this
will stop.” Sue Medeiros said, “I make
a motion that we change all the locks in here, keys, master list will be kept
by Carol in her office, keys will only be distributed by and at the approval
of the Superintendent locks to be
changed immediately.” Paul Joly said, “Second.”
Sue Medeiros said, “All in favor, ayes have it.” Paul
Joly said, “Meet twice a month we’ll get a lot of
this stuff set up so we know where we’re heading, everybody’s heading.” Sue Medeiros said, “We talked about a lot
of stuff nothing ever got done my main issue is the wells I really thought
this was needed to move forward for another well it’s been years, money for
it put aside, we gave money to reduce the tax rate depending where that free
cash comes in this year at that point look at it again have a special in the
fall. We want the people in this
District to feel we’re doing a great job, not a good job, a great job get
that perception out there.” Paul Joly said, “Transparency tossed around never really acted
on, make the people aware they can access the website, ccr
report, comments from the Commissioner explaining if they have any questions or
problems e-mail the Commissioners we want them to know we are here to serve
them.” Sue Medeiros said, “That’s our
job.” Paul Joly
said, “Communication. We need the sign
nobody knows where we are.” Sue
Medeiros said, “I totally agree 100% we need a sign I’ll never agree to a
$25,000 sign because I as a taxpayer would not be happy.” Paul Joly said,
“He’s going to get the specs. Maybe do
$2,000 for something like this, have stuff donated, we can buy it at cost and
have the guys put it up.” Sue Medeiros
said, “We have to be very careful we have to have bids Paul has to be careful
he’s in the sign business it becomes unethical.” Paul Joly said,
“Cover ourselves, send out bids to everybody, other
thing accounting after we get done with this June.” Sue Medeiros said, “Put it on the June
meeting agenda accountant work, we’ll send a letter effective on this date we
no longer will be needing your services we do not have a contract.” Paul Joly said,
“Specs on what we need, we can open it up to payroll also, a package deal if
they’re able to do that. Bring
somebody in to do the audit and have somebody else do the accounting.” Sue Medeiros said, “Have someone work with
you weekly or on a monthly basis, come to review the warrant and pay them
$30-$40 an hour for four to five hours instead of $245.00 an hour.” Paul Joly said,
“The answer I got was professional services didn’t have to go out to
bid. Try to put RFP together to get
the accounting done. New bids send
them out as soon as possible.” Sue
Medeiros said, “Authorize Carol to get the information together, put it out
there to get some accounting and payroll services.” Paul Joly said,
“Second.” Sue Medeiros said, “All in
favor, ayes have it.” Paul
Joly mentioned purchasing portable signs to post
meetings, etc…for positive visibility.
Paul Joly said, “Put them out there for a
couple of weeks then take them down after the meeting, store them until the
next time they are needed.” Sue
Medeiros said, “I agree.” Sue
Medeiros said, “Chuck you’re the Superintendent if you feel there’s an issue,
you feel an employee is not doing something there’s an issue you come to us
they need to follow that Chain of Command.” Paul
Joly asked, “Do you think if we sat down with all
of them and explained the procedure it would help?” Charles Cestodio
agreed it would help. Charles
Cestodio said, “Regarding the roofs at the stations
I met with the one Ed requested at the last meeting he’s getting me a
proposal to do the two roofs. There
may be a problem Ed asked to see the quote the figure is out there it is very
easy to go out there and say what’s already been quoted.” Charles Cestodio
mentioned the CCR reports were printed and that he ordered a couple of loads
of gravel. Charles
Cestodio mentioned he was going to try the variable
rate on the propane bid. Paul
Joly said, “I will go down to the Planning Board
talk to them, set up a meeting, let them know there’s a problem and they need
to correct it.” Carol
Stevens mentioned the Commissioners needed to do a report for the Annual
Meeting. Sue
Medeiros made a motion to purchase a jar testing dvd
for the lab. Paul Joly
seconded the motion, all were in favor. Carol
Stevens explained the budget figure for lab equipment was going to increase
because of needed analyzers. Sue
Medeiros said, “One of my goals is to find ways to save money, we can’t keep
hitting the taxpayers.” Sue
Medeiros said, “I make a motion to adjourn.”
Paul Joly said, “Second, all in favor, the
ayes have it.” Respectfully
Submitted, Carol
A. Stevens District
Clerk Those
in Attendance: Paul
Pacheco Sue
Medeiros Paul
Joly Charles
Cestodio Jr. Carol A. Stevens ______________________ _____________________ _____________________ |