Board of Selectmen Minutes

Presentation of medals to the Selectmen commemorating the Weston Volunteer Fire Department 75^th anniversary- Chief John Pokorny and Curtis Gunn, President. Curtis Gunn and John Pokorny presented medals to the Selectmen. They thanked them for being supportive of the Fire Department all these years.

Accept the resignation of Dr. Lynne B. Pierson from the School Building Committee effective immediately. Mr. Miller made a motion to accept the resignation of Dr. Lynne Pierson from the School Building Committee effective immediately. Mr. Major seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Discussion/decision regarding a request for a supplemental appropriation to replace the Dial-a-Ride bus- Carlton Anderson. Carlton Anderson said that they are requesting purchasing a new Dial-a Ride bus to replace the one that they currently have. They have a subcommittee researching and recommending and they have unanimously voted to replace the old bus. If approved, the bus will be available to the Town in about 3months.

Mr. Anderson said they were looking at a bus and not a van with a wheelchair lift. There are Weston citizens who are becoming more disabled and require the Dial-a-Ride services more frequently. It will cost $41,000 to replace the bus. The old bus will not be kept in Town inventory when the new bus comes on board.

Lois Miller and Ira Kasendorf, commission members, began researching this back in October 2006 and they had input from the three drivers plus a number of senior citizens in the community in terms of what would be best. After looking at a mini van and a van it was decided to get a bus which holds 10.

Mr. Bliss said originally they were talking about a two year program where we put some in this year and some next year. There is currently $36,000 in the Capital budget for replacement of the old van. The price of $41,000 for the new bus is the “tag-along” bid with other towns and everything was figured into the price.

Mr. Major made a motion to appropriate as a supplemental appropriation the sum of up to $5,467 to purchase a new Dial-a-Ride van in accordance with plans and specs received this date, subject to Board of Finance approval. Mr. Miller seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Discussion/decision regarding the acceptance of a gift of $6,900 to the Library from the Library Board to purchase furniture.- Jane Atkinson. Mr. Bliss said what they had asked for was list of the donations. Lynne Langlois said they received the gift policy yesterday and that they were not aware of a gift policy until it was published in the newspaper.

Mr. Major said we were not actually receiving a gift of $6,900 from the Library Board but the Library Board received gifts of $6,900 and we should just log that in appropriately on our end. All that needs to be done now is get a list of the gifts that make up the number, have the Town accept the gifts and you do whatever you need to do with the gift. The gift just has to be accepted by the Town.

Mr. Major said that they had received a memo from the Library at the last selectmen’s meeting asking that we accept a gift of $6,900. Mr. Miller said they should not have to ask the Selectmen to accept a gift for the library. Mr. Major said we are just asking them to comply with the town’s gift policy. Mr. Major said as the gifts come in maybe on quarterly bases they bring it before the Selectmen to accept. He said before they accept a gift there may a gift that has implication to the Town and the Town wants to understand what the implications are before the gifts are received.

Lois Miller asked what exactly they wanted the library to do. Mr. Bliss said periodically give them a list of the gifts that they had gotten for $100 or more. Bruce Angeli said based on the library standards they have seen it is generally under the purview of the Library Board and that is they way that they have been operating for the last 44 years.

Mr. Major said he was having a difficult time understanding this. He said that someone knew enough to ask to be on the agenda last meeting. Bruce Angeli said the library board just wanted to make the selectmen aware that they disagrees with the policy as it applies to the Library. Mr. Major suggested that the Selectmen take this up as to whether they modify the Gift policy to somehow write an exemption for the library.

Discussion/decision regarding employment issues- Donna Werfelman. Mr. Major asked how long Glen Werfelman was covered under the Westport insurance after he left in March 2004. Donna said to the best of her knowledge they went on COBRA a month or so afterwards. Mr. Major said that that was not what Westport was saying. Donna said her position here has nothing to do with Glen, his employment or his insurance. She said she is coming to them saying that she was eligible to be covered. She said she wants to keep Glen and Westport out of it because it really was not relevant.

Mr. Bliss said the terms for getting the buyout included that the person had to produce evidence that they were covered under an insurance policy someplace else. If you were not covered someplace else you were not eligible. The second thing was that you had to covered by the plan as of the date July 1, 2003. He said you cannot separate Glen being covered since that was one of the two conditions to be able to get the buyout.

Donna said if she had her own coverage on June 30,2003 and all employees were offered on July 1, 2003 buyout she would have then had a choice to make on taking the buyout and then going onto another plan so she would have been covered. Mr. Landry said on July 1, 2003 buyout was not offered to all employees. It was July 1, 2004. Mr. Landry said for him there is different issue. He said that Donna was told by him that she was not eligible to participate because she was not budgeted to work 20 hour. He said she routinely worked more than 20 hours a week over his objection and her supervisor did it. She was now is a position where she qualified and had for some years.

He said he looks at it as an errors and omissions issue. She had insurance through a spouse employment. When that ceased if in fact there were COBRA payments and she was qualified for insurance and did not have it then he could see paying for the COBRA payments. He said if what we have been told by Westport is correct, payments were not made until September. He did not see any argument to get to any payment prior to that July 1, 2004. At the time, when he was talking about this to Donna, he said you feel strongly, I feel strongly, I’ll go to January and we split the difference and in essence that was the money to pay for those 2 or 3 months of exposure, errors and omissions.

Mr. Miller suggested that not withstanding what the budget said if she in fact worked over 20 hours regularly and was paid for those hours for a long period of time those are the hours she is entitled to.

Mr. Major said her own memo and the numbers associated with it that she would not have been on her husbands plan. He said you want us to provide to you a buyout amount which when I do the math we would be talking about more dollars than what we are talking about before hand. He said she knew all along that she was not to be working more than 20 hours. She said she was asked to by all of the assessors that she worked with.

Mr. Bliss said looking at Donna’s memo and the discussions they had last at the last meeting it is clear to him that she is eligible from July 1, 2004 and she should be compensated for the buyout from July 1, 2004. Mr. Major made a motion that they authorize payment to Donna Werfelman for the buyout that was in effect on July 1, 2004 for health insurance. Mr. Miller seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Discussion/decision regarding selection of design firm for Cartbridge replacement.-John Conte; Tom Landry; Arthur DiCesare. John Conte said after the bridge collapsed from the storm back in April he had contacted a number of consultants and asked for a proposal. When they did the Valley Forge Road Bridge they went through an extensive process with a committee of interviewing quite a few consultants through the State of Connecticut. That was required by the grant program that we have for that bridge. He took the top six from the list of consultants that they interviewed for the Valley Forge Road project. He contacted those six firms for proposals and five responded. The sixth one said they were too busy. After looking at the five proposals they narrowed them down to three and interviewed those three and concluded that Mr. DiCesare group offered the best proposal and a very aggressive plan for cutting down the amount of time required for approvals and construction.

Mr. Bliss said in reading the proposals he was impressed with their creativity. Mr. Major asked how much time they thought they would cut. They have a schedule where the bridge would be complete by April 2008. A copy of the schedule and plan for the bridge are attached to the minutes.

Mr. DiCesare said the permits required in order to facilitate construction close to the water could be forestalled by the fact that we are building new bridge behind the existing abutments. They hope to be done with the engineering part by mid September so that they can get the permit process moving along.

Mr. Major said to build the new bridge the permits that we need are local. The permits to remove the old bridge and widen the river are the second set if permits that come from the Army Corp of Engineers and DEP. Mr. DiCesare said they are getting the permits to build the abutments not the entire bridge.

Discussion/decision regarding a request from the Police Commission to increase the hourly rate for Special Officer Terry Mooney from $25 to $30. Chief John Troxell requested that Terry Mooney get an increase from $25 to $30 dollars an hour. He will not be working during the summer but wants to maintain his alliance with the Weston Police Department. He was currently working 20 hours per week but will no longer be working that many hours. He will be filling in for side jobs, shifts that officers are not available for during vacation and some administrative duties that the Chief can utilize him for. He also can use him for training at the range. He said he has not had a raise in two years.

Discussion/decision regarding Vehicle Anti Idling Campaign and 2007-2008 Budget Request- Sharada Strasmore. Martin Strasmore presented a proposed budget to the Selectmen. He said they based it on what other Towns in the area have been using. The intention is to get good speakers for free.

They wanted to give people a small incentive to sign up so they budgeted about $3.00 for a sign up gift. The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund has a grant program, which they just finished, but they are thinking about starting it again. If they can get that they can get as much as $5,000 if they give them a clear budget for cost. At this point they do not know what will happen but they are in contact with them.

So far they have in the range of 70 to 80 people signed up. They can not tell exactly because there are time delays. If they get 100 people, that is a benefit to the Town of $1,500 of the cost of our clean energy.

Sharada Strasmore said they were estimating $50 a sign for aluminum signs. That did not include post and installation. She said that they were suggesting that they place the sign on lamp post on the drop off area at the school. They asked if the highway department could help installing the signs. Mr. Landry said yes. Mr. Major suggested that they go through it with the police department because he is seeing some places where they may be putting them on one way signs.

Mr. Bliss said he wanted a chance to digest this and put this on the agenda for August 2^nd. We need to deal with fiscal year from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008 and look at what are the possible sources of revenue. It is a large amount of money to do as a supplemental appropriation. Mr. Major said they should give some thought to if clean energy fund does come back. What was the size of the grants that were being made?

Discussion/decision regarding Little League Dugouts on Bisceglie Field- Skip Goldberg. Skip Goldberg, President of Weston Little League said they offer programs from first grade through 12 years old to play baseball. The majority of the games and practices are played at Bisceglie field. Currently there are dugouts on one of the three fields. The dugout that is there was donated by Weston Little League to the Town and at the time they donated that dugout they said that they would raise money to donate dugouts on the two other fields.

The dugouts would be the same shape, look and feel as the one on Bisceglie one, except that they are wood. They now have the money to be able to offer it as a gift to the Town. The storage shed is part of two of the dugouts that they are building and they would refurbish one of the existing dugouts. They would add storage, run electricity into the storage units and put up fencing. The total value will be $70,000.

Mr. Goldberg said everything is contingent on getting approvals from all the different groups particularly Parks & Recreation. They met with Parks & Recreation earlier this month and they are considering and they will go back in August.

Mr. Major said that there were a number of concerns raised by Parks and Recreation with this proposal and information have been asked from Parks & Recreation. He said the Selectmen should be the Board of last review. Mr. Bliss said he has discussed this matter with Skip and Dave Juneau who check with some of his commissioners and they do not have any objection since they want this up and running for the fall program. In order to get through seven committees some of them have to go in parallel. He said we should approve it with conditions as they go ahead to get some of the other applications to other boards and commissions. Mr. Major said he had no issue with going forward, but he did not want an approval from the Selectmen to be misinterpreted by the Parks & Recreation who have voiced concerns about what is being proposed, that we are doing an end run.

Mr. Bliss said he spoke to Jerry Sargent about what he was going to propose and he had no problem with it. Mr. Major suggested if you clad the two concrete block buildings with the same siding that you are going to use on the wood one which would match the snack shed and match the existing storage shed you would bring everything into conformity and then there would not be multiplicity of materials out there. It is a simply fix.

Mr. Miller made a motion that they accept the gift of seventy plus thousand dollars from Weston Little League for the purpose of building four dugouts subject to approval of the other committees and boards that oversee this type of job. Mr. Major seconded and asked to modify it to say it is a gift in accordance with the proposal as presented. Mr. Miller accepted the modification and the motion passed unanimously.

Discussion/decision regarding joining a state-wide Connecticut Alliance to Eradicate Lyme Disease and Preserve Native Wildflowers, Songbirds and Forest. Mr. Bliss said Jay Fortin who was chair on the Deer Committee was appointed to the local committee to look at this. Jay has forwarded some materials to us and recommends that we join the group. Mr. Miller asked what our obligations were in terms of manpower and money. Mr. Bliss said he was unaware of any obligations with regard to manpower. Jay Fortin said he would serve.

Mr. Major said that his issue was that there was a presumption of how one eradicates lyme disease and preserve native wildflowers, songbirds and forest and that is basically you get rid of the deer. Mr. Bliss said that you have to reduce the deer population to 10 deer per square mile which was what Dr. Patton brought us three years ago.

Mark Harper said that this was the first that he heard of it and he would be glad to work with Jay. If you read the most updated state report the deer population, the estimates that the state had previously predicted is incorrect. There are less deer in the State of Connecticut then had originally stated in their other reports. He said he would work with Jay and come back with some more information on exactly what they are up to. Mr. Major asked that Jay, Mark and other members of the committee could do a little more investigating as to the committee.

Discussion/decision regarding the appointment of Edward Schwarz to the Weston Police Commission. Mr. Bliss said that he had invited Mr. Schwarz to the meeting but he was unable to attend. He called the State FOI Commission to ask them about proceedings and they indicated that any appointed or elected town official comes under the same rules as an employee which means the individual has the choice to have the discussion be in executive session or open session. Mr. Schwarz indicated that he would prefer the discussions about him be done in executive session. However if we vote on anything we would come out of executive session to vote. At that time he opened the floor for discussion.

Mr. Major wanted the public to be aware that the Selectmen were not informed of the criminal issue until after they had interviewed Mr. Schwarz, had given the public an opportunity to speak, voted on it and had actually made a motion to go into executive session and were leaving the room when the Chief of Police asked to speak to the First Selectman.

Mr. Major said the DTC owes an explanation to the Selectmen as to their candidate selection process. Mr. Miller said he objected to that statement. Mr. Major said he is asked as a selectman to appoint individuals to boards and commissions. It is being represented to him that the respective town committees have vetted those applicants and when they come before him have been approved by the Town Committees. He asked Mr. Miller as a member of the DTC was he told that issue before the Town Committee approved it. Mr. Miller said he was not.

Mr. Major said the candidate selection committee within the DTC has information that they have acknowledged that they had and not only did they with hold it from the Selectmen it sounds like they with held it from some members of the DTC when their town committee voted to put the person on.

Mr. Miller said he felt that Mr. Major was trying to put the DTC and the democratic party on trial. He did not feel this was the venue for that. He said he strongly objected to the conversation. Mr. Major said he was not trying to put them on trial. He said that if they put a candidate in front of the selectmen, and have us endorse the candidate based on their recommendations, then they have a duty to give the selectmen all the information that they need to make an appropriate choice. He said that a criminal matter is still pending. Withholding this information from the selectmen who are making a decision to appoint someone to a board or commission, is absurd, particularly since the board is the Police Commission.

Mr. Major said his issue is not with Mr. Schwarz personally. No one required that position to be filled at the June meeting. It could have been done at a later date. The information could have been given to them in advance or at the meeting and an explanation as to why the pending matter should not have played a roll in whether or not someone is appointed or not appointed. He said to withhold that information and make a decision that the information was not worthy of them knowing is not appropriate. He said this is not a condemnation of one party over the other. He would be saying the same thing if it had been the RTC.

Mr. Major said as a Board of Selectmen they have been chastised time after time for failing to disclose or not putting out all the information. He did not understand how they could possibly justify not telling them that information. Mr. Major said Rick Saltz, a member of the DTC wrote a letter saying he had no knowledge of this pending matter. He said neither Mr. Miller nor Mr. Saltz knew it and yet they are being told that this candidate was vetted and approved by the DTC.

Mr. Miller said that he did not feel that was the issue. The issue is whether or not the Board of Selectmen should approve the appointment of the applicant. He is not making a decision until he hears everything and that will not be until after the 18^th of July. In his opinion Ed Schwarz on the night he presented himself should have made a statement to the Selectmen just like he did to search committee. Mr. Major said when he did not make the statement, and the chairman of the search committee was sitting in the room, and knew he did not make the statement, it then became incumbent on her to make sure that we were aware.

Mr. Bliss said that his concern was that they rely on the political parties to make recommendations. The Board of Selectmen do not have any involvement in an elected position and rely heavily on the parties. He said there was a recommendation filling an opening on the Board of Education where the party involved was very upset with the fact that we just took an extra two weeks to consider the nomination. Untimately, the BoS did appoint the person. He said in this case there is a huge information deficiency and if the parties are going to do that kind of thing, we are going to have to have a whole new process for candidates, because what we fundamentally say is we trust those recommendations and are very close to rubber stamping them.

Mr. Miller said he was very uncomfortable with what was going on now and would like to see due process. Due process means we wait until the 18^th of July, we review all the facts and we give our honest opinion. Mr. Major agreed and said what should have happened is that the candidate should not have come before us, they should have held the appointment off until after the 18^th. He said due process is you put everything out on the table and you let an intelligent decision be made.

Mr. Miller said as far as he is concerned Mr. Schwarz was not on the commission. He is not on until everything is put on the table and then they make a decision. He said that there was no due process and everyone was at fault. Mr. Major said he objected to the statement. Mr. Bliss said it was a ridiculous statement. He said there was transference of information that should have happened and did not happen. He said knowing then what he knows today, he would not have voted the way he voted. Mr. Miller said he would not have voted that way either.

Mr. Bliss said we are only going to be discussing the process and we were not going to be discussing any of the specific matters. Mr. Major said the police were chastised for not informing them of what they knew. He believes the accurate information is that the police at the time did not know for certain that that was in fact the individual that was involved in the arrest. Only after they had voted on the matter that the arresting police officer came into the room and was able to actually identify Mr. Schwarz as the individual he had arrested. He said then they did not know who that individual was.

Chief John Troxell said Mr. Miller was correct. He said he was wrong and did not know the process of the meeting. His complaint is not with the DTC, Democratic Party, Mr. Schwarz as an individual or anything that happen here other than the process that they went through. He said something is missing that the police commission appointment should have been looked into a little bit deeper. There should have been a background check and we would not be here right now. He said they did know when they saw the individual that it was him.

Mr. Robert Schaff said the issue is not the criminal matter but the events surrounding the arrest as they have been reported to the newspaper. He did not feel the judgment on July 18^th matters one way or another.

Mr. Robert Machson suggested for at least the appearance of propriety that they vote to rescind their decision. He said he felt that whether it was legal or not, they should take that position publicly and if it has a legal effect, good. If not ,then you would have made a statement.

Mr. Major asked if there was a way to undo what they had done. Mr. Bliss said he had spoken to Town Counsel and they said that you can reconsider the appointment. Case law is not 100% so there are case that have been upheld and ones where it has not been upheld. If the board thinks that that is an appropriate action it is within their ability to do that.

Mr. Major made a motion to rescind the appointment made at the last meeting at least until all the information that is available is made available to them. Mr. Miller seconded. Mr. Miller said if he knew at the time he voted at the last meeting this information he would not have voted yeah. He would have taken it under advisement until after all the facts had been presented to him. He can without any feeling of discomfort revoke the vote that he made.

Mr. Bliss said he felt exactly the same way. Mr. Major said he had the benefit of knowing one of the candidates who had not been chosen to fill that vacancy. This person had put her name in to be considered a candidate. Mr. Miller said that Mr. Major should not be deciding candidates for the Democratic Party. Mr. Major agreed but said he did not think that individual members of the DTC should be deciding it for the Democratic Party either.

Gayle Weinstein questioned the fact about the discussion being in public session. Mr. Bliss said one needs to differentiate between process and content. This discussion has been about process, although several comment have come close to content. The motion was carried unanimously.

Discussion/decision regarding WWHD Memorandum of Understanding for Planning and Implementation of Emergency Countermeasures. Mr. Bliss said we have an opportunity to get a grant from the state for planning and implementation of emergency countermeasure. He signed a similar agreement about two years ago. Mr. Major made a motion to authorize the First Selectman to execute the Memorandum of Understanding for Planning and Implementation of Emergency Countermeasures as submitted July 6^th 2007. Mr. Miller seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Discussion/approval of the Board of Selectmen’s minutes for the meetings of January 29, January 31, February 1, March 1, April 5, April 5, special meeting and June 7, 2007 public hearing. Mr. Miller made a motion to approve the January 29 minutes as submitted. Mr. Major seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

ATTENDANCE and DISCUSSION: The meeting was convened at 10:14 pm in the Town Hall Meeting Room by Chairman Bliss to discuss events surrounding the arrest of Mr. Ed Schwartz. Mr. Schwarz is a candidate for appointment to the Police Commission, and asked that this conversation be held in executive session, as is his right under that law, since he is included in the definition of employee. At the meeting were Selectmen Bliss, Miller, and Major, Town Administrator Landry, Acting Police Chief Troxell, and Police Officers Powers, Klein, Curcio, and Arnette (who joined the meeting at 10:18pm).

ADJOURN EXECUTIVE SESION. At 10:30 pm, all of the Officers and Acting Chief Troxell left the meeting. The Board continued discussion of the topic until a motion to adjourn the executive session (Mr. Miller, Mr. Major second) was made and passed by unanimous vote at 10:55 pm.