Meeting transcript
BOS Special Meeting Part 1
July 25, 2022 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
So Joanne. Oh my God, do that all the time. Sorry about that. My fault. Is that me? I'm sorry, Paula. Sorry. Sorry, Eric. Joanne Eber? No, all set. Thanks. Okay.
And we're all good. So we are all in attendance. I apologize for not being at the last meeting. Paula, I'm glad you made this you said you were going to be out of town Paula. I made it back. There you go it's too hot wasn't it Paula. No it was cooler up north.
Okay, all right. That okay so we're done with public speak we're going move on to item three old business. We're going to discuss and act upon a minor correction to the language and the charter revision draft language for the ballot.
Dennis, would you like to review that? I think I should explain because it's my fault and I'm the reason why we had to have this meeting, at least this part of the meeting and I asked for it and I appreciate you all coming together and hopefully correcting the error that I made. The last meeting on July 11 it was a regular meeting and we went through a long process of finalizing our Charter Revision Package. The one thing that I want to bring up is that there was a list of ballot questions that we approved, you approved based on my recommendation and I did leave out a few words from one of the questions. And the reason I left it out was because there had been a lot of back and forth as is required by law and the way it ended up was there was originally or earlier in the process the Board of Selectmen had voted to limit the town meeting to a simple get together without a vote and that was changed after a discussion between the Charter Revision Commission and a vote by them and then a revote by the Board of Selectmen to
put it back in the way it is, the way the town meeting is so that votes are taken. In fact, something that was added previously regarding the town meeting was I inadvertently left it out of the draft of question number one. Recall that the Charter Revision Commission had recommended that the budgets be bifurcated after one or one of two different events occur. First of all, a defeat at a first referendum and secondly, a defeat of the budget a second time at a town meeting and I left the part out about the second time at a town meeting so I'm asking you to include the words I don't know if everybody has the item in front of them but to include the words or for a second time at a town meeting at town meeting or for a second time at town meeting in the second line of the first question to go on the ballot right after the word referendum comma. The words again are or for the second time at town meeting. And that would make this consistent with what was passed by the Board of Selectmen for the proposal in general, which includes all of the changes that are recommended by the Board of Selectmen after working with the Charter Revision Commission and that this particular change is in that proposal which would be implemented if the budget questions are passed on November 8. So I'm asking for a motion to add the language or for a second time at town meeting to the second line of the budget of the ballot question number one after the word referendum and a comma. That would make it consistent with the entire package. So, and I'm sorry about I regret my error but
sometimes it happens.
That happens. Does someone have that motion in front of them that they can just read it? Yeah. If
you have it in front of you, you can just do what I just did and say to add to a No. Just align I I got it. You got it. All right. Good Scott. Thank you.
So I motion to reword on the town of the Andover Charter Commission revision in commission number one to read. The town charter be revised revised provide that if the budget is defeated at a first referendum or for a second time at town meeting, it shall be bifurcated into two separate simultaneous votes on the town budget and on the local board of education budget. And the approval process shall begin again with the board of finance and continue until each bifurcated budget is finally approved. While either bifurcated budget may be separately implemented once it is enacted. Need a second. I'll second. Okay, further discussion.
My only question is, I just want to check something real quick. There's a question mark. Okay, nope that that matches up. I just want to double check punctuation.
And just as a question for me, when was this passed at what meeting Eric? The original one?
The original, when was this originally passed? Yeah, when it was originally put in by the Charter Revision Commission and passed, think it would be have to be the June meeting. That's what I was wondering. And I think you were in attendance at that meeting, but you were not, you did not attend the July 11 meeting. If you were, you probably would have caught my error. I doubt that Dennis. I mean the truth.
Dennis, I saw that but I didn't think that it was a I don't know why I didn't think it was an issue. It's alright. I didn't see it. I didn't catch it.
Okay. Any further discussions? Jeff, Adrian? No? Okay. No, I'm good. Okay. Let's all vote on that. So all those in favor, Now we can move on from that item to public speak to close this part of the meeting so we'll go back through Karen made or would you like to add anything at the end for public speak. Problem. Kurt Dolling. All set. All right. Carol Lee, sorry, I didn't include you beforehand. Would you like to say anything regarding that last item? Oh, just thank you for making that minor revision. Okay. Thank you, Carol. Joanne Ebert. All set.
Okay. Alright. Item four is executive session to discuss union bargaining issues. So if someone would like to make that motion, we can move into executive session. And Eric, do we need to invite anyone into this? Besides yourself? You're on mute. Eric? Or is it me?
No, it's me. Sorry, I was muted. You should invite Carol Lee into that. Okay.
Alright, so someone want to make a motion to go into executive session and invite Eric. I'll
make a motion that we go into executive session to discuss union issues, including bargaining of contract. And if we can include Carolee in that,
as well as the Board of Selectmen. Do we need Dennis? Eric. And Eric. There you go. Okay.
Dennis, thank you very much for everything. Thank you very much for everything. Enjoy the rest of your evening, everybody. Thanks Dennis. Thank you. Thanks Karen. Yep, I'll second.
All right, all those in favor. Aye. Aye. Aye. Executive session. Eric, if you can stop recording.