VILLAGE DISTRICT OF EIDELWEISS
Commissioners Meeting
Wednesday May 19, 2021
The Board of Commissioners met by phone at 9:00 am on Wednesday May 19, 2021.
In attendance for the full public meeting were Commissioners Kathy Koziell (KK) and Paula Doyle (PD) and Administrator Donna MacKinnon (DM). In attendance for part of the meeting were Commissioner Jay Buckley (JB), Moderator Bob Ingram (BI) and Adam Leiser (AL). The meeting was recorded (audio).
At 9:01 am Commissioner JB calls the meeting to order. No agenda was created as the primary purpose of the meeting being to discuss the annual meeting being held on Saturday, May 22.
-Bob Ingram stated that he is responsible for running the annual meeting – it is not a Commissioners meeting. He will welcome everyone, do the Pledge of Allegiance, ask for a moment of silence, review the meeting rules and ask people who are not fully vaccinated to please wear a face mask. BI will bring his computer and office will bring projector to show slides.
-BI states that usually he would then go straight to Article 1 but this year he will allow BOC to present slides on the Reinach Tank project unless the public body objects and overrules him as they did last year. KK will be presenting theses 4 slides.
-BI will then proceed to Article 1 and hopes that we will have results by this time and if so will read results.
-BI will then proceed to Article 2 and will recognize the BOC to speak on behalf of this article. PD will present 5 slides which includes summary on the operating budget, the funding summary, the tax history, the capital reserve accounts and the unassigned fund balance. Agreement not to present the 3 detailed pages on the budget which will be available in the handout. KK to take out the column with difference between 2020 actual and 2021 proposed to make these pages easier to read. BI to make changes to the order of the powerpoint slides based on this discussion.
-BI will then proceed to Article 3 and will recognize the BOC to speak on behalf of this article. KK will present a slide summarizing the water budget. She has revised this slide and will send to BI today.
-BI will then go through all of the other articles and recognize BOC to speak on behalf of each. JB will speak on each warrant article. Discussion on whether Kelly Robitaille should be in attendance. After discussion, agreement that KR will be best person to defend operating budget so he will be asked to attend.
-BI asks BOC why lawyer will not be attending and expresses concern about this. PD states that she spoke to lawyer recently and he told her that he doesn’t attend all of the town meetings for towns he represents. BI requests that we ask if he can be available by phone if a question arises. BOC agrees and DM to contact Chris Boldt to ask availability
At 9:50 AM, AL joined the meeting.
-JB is meeting with Madison Town Clerk today to obtain the voting partitions. KK to get the key to the school on Friday and will go there today to discuss if we can get in to the gym on Friday afternoon after school to setup. Assuming we can, BOC, Clerk and Moderator to meet at school at 4:00 on Friday.
-JB to contact Madison Police to confirm their attendance.
-Final follow up with BI discussed. KK to send revised water budget slide to BI. BI to send copy of rules for insertion in the handout.
-At 9:57AM, BI left the meeting.
-JB states that a deadline is fast approaching on June 1 to submit drinking water grant applications and that he can start the process.
KK makes a motion to have JB complete the DES water drinking grant applications for shovel ready projects. PD seconded. Motion passed 3-0. JB states that he will try to complete prior to BOC meeting tomorrow but may not be able to do so.
-KK states that she and DM have got the 19 letters ready to be signed and sent to the property owners for the water hookups as discussed last week. After discussion on mailing or delivering by hand, agreement to send all by mail and to follow up and deliver another copy in person at end of week for those property owners who are in the district full-time. PD to go to office following meeting to sign letters.
-At 10:00, JB moves to adjourn the meeting. AL states that he has joined the meeting so that he can make public comments – has a few questions. Discussion as to whether this was on agenda for today or should it be handled at tomorrow’s meeting. AL states that all meetings should include public comment as the right thing to do. After discussion, JB asks AL what questions he wants to ask and that we’ll and get back to him with answers. AL states this is not transparent and he doesn’t understand why he can’t just ask and gets answers to a few simple questions.
-AL asks if any of the Commissioners has a background in environmental science. PD and KK state no. JB states that he has training with hazardous waste removal and he spent many years on the Board of Directors for the Green Mountain Conservation Commission.
-AL asks who is in charge of the management of the dam? JB states it is the BOC.
-AL states that the dam was lowered by 10” on November 30 without discussion by the BOC and that JB informed the BOC at a meeting on Dec 16 or 18 that he had told Kelly to do this and that he was breaking the law by doing this and so AL wants to know why he did this and why the PD and KK allowed him to do this because something similar happened the prior year and JB told AL that he was breaking the law and why was this okay this year but not the prior year and why weren’t the other commissioners calling JB out on it. JB states he can’t recall why he did it. AL states that he is concerned about transparency and honesty and trust and wants the BOC to make statements before the public about these issues. AL states that he has also done 91-A requests for information about the paving of Eidelweiss Drive and that there is a pattern of behavior about one commissioner doing things without the approval of the other commissioners.
-AL asks how much in bonuses was given out last year? KK states that all of the information about bonuses is available in the budget spreadsheets and documents.
-AL asks about health insurance and how much is the increase going to family plan? KK states that all of this information is available in the budget documents and PD mentions that this was also presented and reviewed in the budget hearing.
-JB left the meeting to take an important phone call.
-AL states that he has put in many 91-A requests and that he has not received timely responses and will take this to court and BOC will be fined. PD states that BOC has been transparent and has followed the law to fill his 91-A requests that have been very high in volume but vague and broad in scope and require searching through thousands of e-mails to determine what he wants. Also if can’t find, we say so and ask if he can be more specific in which case we search again and sometimes find what he is looking for. AL states that PD complained when he was a commissioner that BOC did not publish agendas and that now she’s a commissioner and agendas are not published and draft minutes are not published and 91A request are late and so BOC is not transparent as stated.
-AL made a suggestion that the BOC publish how the 5 days are calculated for 91A requests and that the day the request is received does not count as day 1. PD explained that we receive the request and that one day to fill it would be the next day and day 2 would be the second day after that and so on. If the office is closed then we obviously wouldn’t be able to receive or fill requests on those days.
-AL asked how much the district has spent on legal costs having to do with the Little Loop project and that as far as he could tell it was $5,000 up until January of this year and so how much was spent since then. KK stated that since January, she thinks, but is not positive, that the only cost was to file in small claims court. AL asks why the BOC spent $5,000 to recover $1,000 from him for his driveway. AL asks why he is billed $1000 for his driveway. KK and PD refuse to discuss the issue due to small claims court case. KK does state that the work was not in project scope and that driveway had flooding issue for a long time. AL states that it needed to be done to keep driveway from flooding even with other work. KK and PD state that the judge can decide.
At 10:30 AM, PD makes a motion to end public comment and adjourn the meeting. KK seconded. Motion passed 2-0.
Respectfully submitted,
Paula Doyle, Commissioner