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Town of Littleton

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2010 Meeting Minutes and Agendas

Board of Selectmen

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Approved Minutes Special BOS Meeting Mar 31, 2010

TOWN OF LITTLETON
BOARD OF SELECTMEN’S SPECIAL MEETING
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2010
9:00 AM
COMMUNITY CENTER HEALD ROOM

Present: Town Manager Chuck Connell, Chairman Ron Bolt, Vice Chairman Ed Boynton, Selectman Marghie Seymour, Executive Secretary Ceil Stubbings

Others Present: Jere Eames, Joanna Ray, Eddy Moore, Thomas Alt, Bob Nichols, Robert Blechl, Art Tighe, Paul McGoldrick, Jim Daly, Mary Daly, Andy Smith

Chairman Bolt called the meeting to order at 9:00 AM.

Board Position on Land Use:
Chairman Bolt said the first thing he would like to do is change the agenda order. Bolt said that Mr. Alt called and said he would like to attend the discussion on land use. Bolt said the Planning Board is in the process of updating the Master Plan that was done in 2004. They are in the middle of chapter two which is the land use chapter. Bolt thought this would be the appropriate time for this board to discuss any guidance or suggestions that we as a board might provide to the Planning Board. The Master Plan is a critical document and it is the basic document for our community. Bolt said there were a number of recommendations made in 2004. Bolt said that many of the recommendations had to do with land use, but precious few had been implemented. Bolt found a document on common ground from the Local Government Center (LGC). The document deals with the natural tension that exists between the necessities of growth in the community versus the need to preserve our resources. The document recommends a balanced approach that can benefit the town. Bolt said there were a number of things he wanted to mention. Bolt then provided a brief overview of the areas the document addressed. Bolt said they have to make work force housing available and they should focus on areas already developed rather than branch out to new areas. Bolt said the last thing he wanted to mention is the Innovative Land Use Planning that is in the RSA’s. There are a number of suggestions that can be used. Bolt said they do need to review adequate work force housing in Littleton. We do need to consider ordinances that would allow the use of renewable energy sources and consider adopting innovative land use control ordinances with particular attention to cluster developments, site plan review and impact fees. Bolt then asked Ed Boynton what his thoughts were on land use.

Ed Boynton said he attends the Zoning Board and Planning Board meetings. He feels the boards have done a very effective job up to this point. Boynton said he would like to read more on the subject before he got too far in depth with this. Boynton said he did not want to get into the housing issue because there were too many things going on right now at this time. Boynton said this sounds like it is mandating where the housing would be put. Bolt said that all he is saying is that the community has to understand their responsibility.

Marghie Seymour said that one of the problems with 91-A, the right to know law is that it is not possible to have any kind of discussion to talk about this outside of these sort of meetings about what is coming up and what we are going to be talking about. Marghie said she has had no time to see any of these things that she has in front of her. As a general statement she is very much in favor of more managed growth rather willey-nilley development, which she thinks we have been practicing for quite a while in this town. She is in favor of coming up with some guidelines in how we would like to see Littleton grow. She totally recognizes that we can’t stay in one spot and that development is going to happen. Marghie said she is not opposed to development she is just opposed to having it go to wherever anyone wants to put it at the risk of damaging neighbors and ultimately the character of the community. Marghie said it does not make sense to put housing that is necessary way out on the line near Dalton. Marghie said it also does not make sense to make housing for people who work at stores and get paid minimum wage and they can’t afford to rent. All of those things need to be looked at. We need to see there is affordable housing for people who get paid very low wages. Whether it makes more sense to attract businesses that pay a higher wage so that housing can be built. Marghie said that she has heard that a lot of people are complaining about how much affordable housing is going into this town. A lot of people think that if you build a lot of affordable housing, which means that it is fairly low cost, there is this idea that if we put up affordable housing then a boat lands in Miami and a truckload of Haitian’s show up and move into our affordable housing. Marghie said that is not what happens. There are a lots of people and kids in this town that are offspring of those of us who have been around here for a while who would like to stay here. They need places to live. Marghie said it makes sense to have those places close to where they can get jobs and also so they can walk to work rather than have to take their cars to work. Marghie said we have a zoning ordinance right now and that should be looked at to make sure we are building in places where we are supposed to be building. Marghie said she is an environmentalist, she understands the connection between development and impacts on water and wetlands and how wetlands affect the water that we ultimately need to drink. All of those things need to be carefully considered before we start building in places where later we can’t get rid of the building and we can’t get rid of the mess that we made.

Ron Bolt said that what he gets asked quite often is “why doesn’t Littleton have site plan review.” Bolt said he is also often asked, “Why doesn’t Littleton have impact fees.” Bolt said he does not have a good answer but he knows they have been considered.

Tom Alt, Chairman of the Conservation Commission introduced himself and said he would first speak as the chairman and later as a citizen. Tom said he brought Chapter 36 of the Commission, which was established in the 1960’s. The commission was created for the proper utilization and protection of the natural resources and the protection of the water resources in the town. Tom said the commission has always tried to review any Planning or Zoning Board applications. Tom explained the Dredge & Fill Application at this time. Tom told the Board the number of dredge and fill applications they have going on along with the locations. Tom said they go through all of these applications in great detail. Tom said a recent study from AHEAD said the town of Littleton is one of the poorest towns in the county and the state. A recent housing study showed a need for an additional 450 low-income housing units in Littleton. Tom explained some the problems they run into with some of the applications. Tom said they met with the planning board several months ago when they became aware they were removing significant amount of conservation wordage in the master plan. It turned into a monologue from the planning board chairman. Tom said that after a while he got up and left because it was obvious that there was no interest in communicating on a personal level. Tom said the conservation commission feels that the relative value of our open space and natural resources are not high on the list. On the other side of the coin he knows they have been working on the Highland Loft project. They have done a commendable job to do what they can to look out for the towns resources. Basically our opinion is the attitude and the spirit of the boards in that the natural resource values do not get a fair shake in their decision making process. Ron Bolt said the other thing he wanted to comment on was he did sit in on the same meeting Tom referred to of the Master Plan and he too was taken aback by the attitude of the planning board. There was a brief discussion regarding empty storefronts on Main Street, the transient population numbers and the pressure they put on town services. Bolt said his intention here is not that he wants this board to tell the planning board what to do. First of all we can’t tell them what to do but the board can collectively agree there are some aspects of managed growth that we would like the planning board to take into consideration.

Heidi Hurly introduced herself as a rental agent for Lahout’s. Heidi said there is a high demand for people looking for housing. The demand is from people who have lost their jobs. The demand is very high and they are not low class citizens. Heidi said that she knows of three sex offenders living on one street. She would much rather see the people who are applying now living in the apartments. Currently all of the apartments are filled to full capacity. Heidi said whenever they do rentals they do a background check on everybody and a credit check. Heidi said they are not just letting anyone stay in their apartments. Chairman Bolt then ended the topic and moved onto the next item on the agenda. Marghie Seymour asked if we agreed on this topic. Bolt said no he thinks they need to discuss this some more at another time.

Board Position on RSA 91-A
Bolt said this was sparked by a question that Mr. Moore had raised at a previous meeting. Bolt then provided a quick recap of the right to know law. Bolt advised that the LGC strongly advises against the use of email. Bolt said he was proposing a policy that we as a board discourage the use of email for anything other than matters such as scheduling meetings. Bolt said it pained him to suggest this because he is an avid user of email. Ed Boynton said he would agree with the policy because of what they ran into last year. Boynton said he would forward something to Chuck and then he would forward it to you or vice versa. Marghie Seymour said that is illegal too. Seymour said you could not circumvent the intent of the law by sending emails to somebody else and then having them forwarded on to someone else. Boynton said that yesterday Bolt had a private meeting with the Town Manager behind closed doors. Boynton said he has no idea what transpired in that meeting. He then said that he hopes he would be brought up to date on what transpired because he has every right to know being a member of the board. Marghie said she would also like to know but each one of us has the right to talk to the Town Manager on our own. Seymour said that whatever the meeting was about, a decision did not get made there. Seymour said it was not a board meeting without all three of them there. Seymour said the point that she is trying to make is that each one of them can talk to Chuck independently, but if you want to say something that has to do with official business of the board of selectmen, and there is no meeting, you cannot get around 91-A by sending an email. Bolt said the question that Eddy Moore had a couple of weeks ago was related to a practice he had last year. Bolt said when he would think of a topic or something else he would fire off an email. Nobody responded so it wasn’t a meeting but the email is a government record. The public has a right to that information. Bolt said he would stop doing that as a policy. Bolt asked Boynton and Seymour if they agreed with the email policy. Boynton and Seymour said they both agreed. Bolt said he would write up the policy.

Chuck Connell brought up how he had forwarded an email to all three selectmen regarding the Ammonoosuc possibly flooding. Connell said this type of email is informational communication and not a meeting. Bolt said there is a lot that happens between meetings and gave examples such as the new McDonalds, the naming of a street etcetera. Bolt said they should be discussing these things. Bolt said he was proposing that on the weeks that they don’t have a board meeting, that we have a one-hour update with the Town Manager. Bolt said it would be during the day and be declared as a board meeting and open to the public. Ed Boynton said he had to disagree with that we have more then enough meetings. Boynton said he knows that Marghie can’t make it into the office everyday but he is there in the office every day. He feels he is up to speed on everything. Boynton said the weekly meetings are uncalled for. Bolt said there are so many other things that occur in the space of one week. Bolt said he knows of other towns that do this they have a board meeting one week and a work session the other week. Marghie said the idea of having hours more of meetings is appalling to her. We have a full time town manager whose job is to handle all of these things on a day-to-day basis. Marghie said the fact of the matter is it would be easy enough for Chuck to let us know one or two times a week by email the important things that he feels we need to know about. Marghie said our purpose is to meet and give Chuck policy direction but his job to take care of all of the other things. Marghie said that if there is some big policy issue that we need to decide on we can get an email stating we need to have a meeting. Marghie said that in terms in getting together every week to talk about every little thing she thinks that is more than what we are supposed to be doing. Bolt asked Connell what he thought about the periodic update. Chuck said he had the policy that has been developed by this board and their predecessors that give him the guidance he needs to work with. Chuck said if we need to have a special we could do so in twenty-four hours. Chuck said he believes he is sending them the information they need to be aware. Marghie asked Connell if she could have a copy of his contract. Connell said it was a public document and he would send her a copy of it by email. Bolt then moved onto the next item on the agenda.

Board Use of Supporting Staff:
Bolt said when he is talking about the use of support staff he is talking specifically about the town manager and the executive secretary although it could apply to any town employee. Bolt said they need their support collectively we have three years of experience as a board and we have a learning curve. Bolt said they have to recognize as much as they need their services that they do have full time jobs. What he is going to suggest is that we can establish a schedule. Bolt said he plans on going into the town offices every morning around ten o’clock and he only plans on staying for about ten or fifteen minutes to sign anything that needs to be signed or to ask questions from Ceil or Chuck. Ed Boynton said he usually goes in the afternoons. Marghie Seymour said her intent is to come in on Wednesday or Thursday to sign things whichever day is the better one. Marghie said she is not going to show up everyday as though there is something that she has to take care of. Connell said that as a general rule Thursday is the better day. Bolt said he also wants to make better use of the selectmen’s office because Ceil has people in and out of her office all day long and she has sensitive materials she has to work on. She also has clients in there from time to time. Bolt asked Connell to figure out a way the selectmen’s inboxes could be in their office. Connell said he has some ideas this.

Development of BOS Handbook: This item was passed over.

Changes to Meeting Agenda Format
Bolt said he would still like to start out with the pledge and move the approval of minutes as the next item. He would then have the appointments and then citizen concerns. Bolt said Connell or himself would provide feedback from citizen concerns from the previous meeting. Bolt said they would allow up to thirty minutes for citizen concerns. Bolt said he would also like at each meeting a ten to fifteen minute spotlight for department heads to give us an update to how it is going. The Town Manager’s Report would be next. Then Old Business, New Business and a new thing at the end, which would be what he is calling Take Aways. This would be where we would recap those things that came up during the meeting that we agreed we would meet again on or we would take some action on. Marghie Seymour said that it sounded good to her and she liked the new format.

Review First Draft of Ethics Policy
Bolt said they all agreed at the last meeting to review the code of ethics policy. The school board also has an ethics policy. The policy was read aloud by Bolt at this time. Boynton said he disagreed that all communication had to come from the chairman. Boynton said he felt that this was silencing Marghie and him from speaking their mind on matters. After some discussion the board agreed as a whole to accept the policy. Bolt said he would format the document and have it ready for the board’s signature at their next meeting.

Chuck Connell said that we are at a juncture where the board needs to make a policy decision regarding the settlement to TransCanada. There are two options and probably other options between the two extremes that the board might want to consider. Connell said the chairman has amortization schedules that we received from NH Municipal Bond Bank. Connell said they are illustrative in nature because they have what the bond bank considers a very conservative interest estimate. Please understand that the bond bank does not know what the interest rate will be until the bond issuance occurs. Connell said the town could also check on bonding with commercial banks and provide them the opportunity to quote it for us. Connell said in the past this has saved the town a lot of money. Connell said there is $2.1 million in overlay that has been saved over a period of five years because of the TransCanada situation. There are two alternatives, we can commit $2 million of that money to TransCanada and bond the difference in round terms is $ 4.3 million. Connell said that the alternative is we can bond the $6.3 million and use the $2 million over a ten-year period to reduce the tax impact. This then led into a discussion on the impact of the alternatives regarding the amount of the bonds. Connell said it is critical that people understand why this has to be done. Connell said that if the bond fails they would return to arbitration. Connell explained the tax impact the amount of the bonds would make. Connell said that on April 21st they would ask the board to authorize town council to petition the Superior Court for a Special Town Meeting. At that point we have to give the Superior Court the bond article. Connell said even before that we have to have bond council to put this together. The critical piece of both is how much are you going to borrow and for what term. Both the board and citizens expressed their dislike of paying interest on long-term loans. Marghie said she hates paying interest but she also knows that sometimes you are better off paying the interest with the longer period to make the payments affordable. Connell told the board that whatever we decide today can be changed right up to the deliberative session. Connell said he must fill out the bond bank application all of which are things we need to do before we petition the court. Connell recommended the board go with the worse case scenario and go with the $6.3 million bond over a twenty-year time span. After much discussion the board unanimously agreed to go with the full amount of $6.3 million reserving the right to change the amount and the terms. Bolt asked for a motion to adjourn. Ed Boynton made the motion to adjourn. Motion seconded by Marghie Seymour. Motion passed 3-0. The meeting adjourned at 11:33 AM.

Respectfully submitted
Ceil Stubbings





Littleton has functioned as a Board of Selectmen/Town Manager form of government since 1976.

The Littleton Board of Selectmen meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 4:00 PM at the Littleton Community House - Heald Room.

If you would like to be put on the agenda for an upcoming Selectmen's meeting, please contact Ceil Stubbings. Please be prepared with all information needed for the Selectmen to make a decision no later than the Friday before the Selectmen's meeting

Members

Ronald J. Bolt, Chairman
Edward C. Boynton, Vice Chairman
Marghie M. Seymour, Selectman

Selectmen's Email: selectmen@townoflittleton.org

Executive Secretary for the Board of Selectmen:

Ceil Stubbings
cstubbings@townoflittleton.org
125 Main Street
Suite 200
Littleton, NH 03561
603.444.3996 x15
603.444.1703 (fax)

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