Meeting transcript
Board of Selectmen - Special Meeting
March 4, 2022 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
I'm sorry. So we're gonna get started with the town of Andover Board of Selectmen special meeting for Friday, 03/04/2022, starting at 06:00. And we are going to start with public speak. And as we have members for potentially the board of the BAA appointment, there is only one little block that I don't know what is, the MACPC. Anybody, would you like to participate in public speak? Okay. We are hoping to and I appreciate the three potential alternates joining us. And Georgette, who's the chairman of the BAA, thank you for joining us for this. Paula, do you know where our friend Mr. Mandeville is so we can move along? Oh, I apologize. You know what? I forgot the Pledge of Allegiance, didn't I? We'll we'll move to the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Sorry about that. I apologize to anyone who I offended there. Uh-huh. The town attorney has now joined us. That's good. How are you, sir? How was your radio show?
It was great. Excellent. I won't talk about it. I'll let it go. Great show, though. Have you on some day, Jeff. Excellent.
Looking forward to watching that. Alright. So, Paula, have you emailed him and texted him?
I will do that right now. You know, Adrian time is I admit it.
You text them and Georgette, would you like to speak beforehand, explain the situation for the BAA and then we can move on to discussing or talking to candidates?
The problem being that it's a three member board, and one of the members is appealing as well as his brother. So he has to recuse himself from those two processes, and it would help if we had still had three people because it would probably end up in a tie without a third person. Someone have would have to break the tie. I think it would be more fair to have a third person. Yeah. Alright. Thank you. I'm
gonna go to the town attorney before I go to anybody else. And Dennis, according to the Charter, the Board of Selection has the authority to appoint an alternate to the Board of the BAA. That's a state statute that authorizes that, yes.
Alright. I know that on our Zoom call, we have Joan Foran, Elaine Bucart, and Robert Hamburger, all potential candidates for the position. Would any of you like to speak? Can I sit there and pick you in any order? Or I'll ask Joan. Joan, would you like to speak before us for the position? Joan, can you unmute yourself? She's trying. Okay, Joan, we'll go to Elaine now. We'll come back to you.
Hi. Hi, Hi, yeah, Georgette Conrad knows, you know, that I've been on the BAA before for years, and that I'm a real estate agent, So when it comes to any kind of assessment changes and stuff, I do have the ability to go ahead and look into market value, current market value, things like that. So there's, you know, there is an advantage being able to look things up, keep everything as objective as possible. But I'm certainly willing to act as an alternate, my understanding that it is just for this particular, these two particular motions because the main third person on the BAA can't, has to recruit himself. So it's like, okay, and I and I agree with Georgette that it would be good to have three people so that there is not a tie in case there's a tiebreaker, but I'm certainly willing to serve
if I can. All right, thank you. Joan, are you all good now? You should have unmuted and left it there, Joan. No, still muted, Joan.
Press and hold your space bar. You had it, Joan. Fully unmutes you. You have to hold it down.
Okay. Bob Annaberry, thank you very much. Thank you, Bob. There you go. Is that good? That's good. That's good.
So I am also interested in the alternate position. I have served as chairman on a prior time, and I really enjoyed it. And I understand that I probably won't be voting, except in this situation to break a tie, or in the absence of the full member. But what I'd like to offer, and I think this is really important. During my time at the board, we had classes that were held in Andover. They were held by the Association of assessing the officials. And they were very informed. We had three, one dealing with just the handbook, another with motor vehicle, and a third with PA two forty. At that time, we had an appeal pending. And it was very, very helpful, but also informative. We had members of OPM staff coming and other local assessing staff. The point that I'd like to make is sometimes it's difficult for new members to come and deal with some of the statutory requirements that are utterly necessary to achieve the equity. And if we are looking for new members in current elections, we have one coming up. The alternate position gives you the chance to bring in new members, have training, and then have them stay. When you maintain your membership, you maintain not only longevity, but information. And this is really important to a continuous support of not only assessor, but also our taxpayers. And so that is what I'd like to volunteer to do in addition to whatever votes I am needed to cast. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Joe. Thanks, Joe. Bob?
Thanks, Jeff. What I bring to this situation, I previously served on the Planning and Zoning Commission. In fact, I chaired it for a couple of years. So I have that regulatory and real estate, you know, experience. I'm also an engineer, you know, for the last forty years, so I'm somebody who lives and dies by the facts and by deductive logic and examining and trying to find the truth. So I pride myself on being a very logical, dispassionate kind of person. Politically, I'm neutral, I'm independent, so I like to joke that I'm more liberal than my conservative friends think I am, or rather less liberal than my conservative friends think I am, and more conservative than my liberal friends think I am. So, you know, I stay as neutral as possible and rational and logical. So that's what I can bring to process.
All right, thank you very much. Do any other members have any questions that they would like to ask? Nope. Alright. So we have to vote in one of the individuals. So I do I do believe we should have some discussion related to this. So
I guess I, maybe I can start it. I'll make a motion that we consider Bob Hamburger for the, the open spot to get, so we can get to discussion at least.
Does someone wanna second that? Dennis wants to speak, I believe. Well, second it, and then we'll get Dennis to speak. Okay. I'll second. Dennis. Just wanna clarify.
I believe the statute would allow you to appoint more than one alternate. I'm not don't know if that's a good idea but you know, you never know that that puts the onus or whatever on the chairman to decide which alternate to see if you have more than one. So I'm not sure which is the best way to go. But I just wanted you to know that that is an option. Just in this
case though, I think that the issue may be that the chairman is one of the people with So I don't know that I want him appointing his replacement. Oh, yeah?
Isn't the chairperson the one that has a conflict? No, Georgette is the chair. Oh, no, Georgette the chairperson.
Okay. And there also, the other thing I want to point out is with regards to the process, I've written a memo on the process that I've sent to the members of the association. There's also a terrific handbook put out by the assessors that could be used by anybody who's new. Just so you know. Okay. That's all.
Okay. For clarification, we're just envisioning this person for the couple of hearings that we have an issue with, right, at this point? Yes.
Actually, if you point an alternate and there's another, something unexpected happens and somebody doesn't somebody can't show up, that alternate could sit in if somebody's ill or whatever. Okay. So, you know, that alternate could be used for all purposes that are needed if they don't have a full complement.
Thank you. So Dennis, to clarify, this person would be in until the next election cycle as an alternate,
correct? That's a good question. I think that person would be in probably until the end of this particular round of hearings. Would, in fact, would, you you should probably put that in your motion that as soon as this round of hearings, I think Georgette knows better than I do, but I think there's 13 or 14 cases and some four or five have been disposed of already. So it's not going to be long. But there are two cases where we know we're going to need an alternate, Jeff. And yeah, would say for the end of this session of hearings this year, if you could put that in your motion. Sure, Jeff. That's a very good question. There are seven cases,
but it's only the last two, Allen Roy and Dan Roy that the alternate would be voting on. Okay.
I am going into the hospital on Tuesday to have a hip replacement. So if something happens to me, the alternate would, you'd need another alternate too. Dennis, I'll ask you a question. Always, always ready, Jeff. Since
the concern, and just so everybody understands how this is playing out, Mr. Roy, who is the person the alternator is replacing, recommended Joan Foran for the alternator. Georgette, who's the chairperson, recommended Elaine Bucard. Mr. Hamburger is a third party, non affiliated to the situation individual. So you had said we could we could potentially see multiple alternates. You can appoint Can we as the board appoint the alternates and in order of, because the issue would be not to allow the chairperson to pick the individual on the bench to sit there and hear this case.
I think you have the power to do that. That's not clear, but I don't I don't see why not. You are the board of selectmen. You are under your basic statute. You are to superintend the needs of the town. I there's nothing in the statute that would bar that. I think the statute is content intended to make sure that the job gets done. Can you clarify that thought process, Jeff? Because I'm. Well, my issue is if Georgia has
a hip replacement, we could be back at this again. Mean, just God forbid, Georgia, I don't ever wish, I'm not saying anything, but we could be back at this again is what I'm trying to tell you. And I don't want to and that's all I was thinking, Adrian, is do we do this now and see multiple, multiple alternates? I mean, all three individuals were willing to sit there and come and participate. I have no problem with any of them. I would sit there and I understand the logic of Mr. Hamburger being the selection simply because it leaves the board in a position where we did not pick an individual that was recommended by the person that is having to be replaced or by the individual that voted against that. So to me, I understand. I'm I'm I will vote for mister Hamburger for the simple purposes of not of being as impartial as we possibly could be. But I also respect the fact that Joan and Elaine offered up and actually accepted.
I guess the question to the board is, okay, we could be back here in another couple days and doing this again.
Let's do it as two separate motions if you want to do that. Let's do the replacement for the, for the abstention hearings. And then if there is a need for another alternate, we can appoint a second, do a second motion. Okay. Do you want to do it I that
have no problem with that. Yep. Okay. You know, unless there's further discussion on the Robert Hamburger motion. Anybody else? Where'd Paula go? She's sitting right there. Somehow I missed. All right. So all those in favor of the appointment of Robert Hamburger to the Board of Assessment Appeals as an alternate? Aye. Aye. Okay. That's five nothing. All right. Do we like to make a second motion to sit there and appoint do we appoint both of the other individuals in case of emergency and allow one or the other?
So what do they do, thumb wrestle at that point? I mean, we gotta pick someone. Now we're back to an even number, which doesn't work. Right. Okay. Oh, Dennis, can we point both of them? Well, we could, but then you're gonna end up you'd it could end up with a tie. You could end up with a tie, it's if you Well, it's so unlikely that this will, you know, you will necessitate having to seat them. I tell you what,
as opposed to doing anything related to the next appointment, I am going to put my trust in God and Georgette's doctors and she will be okay.
That makes me feel better. Is everybody good with that? I just didn't want to be the jinx.
Joan and Elaine, we do want to thank you very much for attending and stepping up in this situation. Greatly appreciate it. We know you both have the qualifications and it puts the situation in a little bit different light for the board to allow us to do it this way.
I think we just want to say, we appreciate you've given volunteered in the past and we appreciate you stepping forward again. You know, we do. Thank you very much. All three of you actually. Anytime you need me. Thank you.
It's nice to have three capable people to choose from, that's for Right, thank you. That would have been a very hard vote there.
Yeah. And Georgette, I hope everything goes well Tuesday for you, so.
Hopefully. All right. Thank you very much. All right. We are now going on to item four, discuss the town returning to work procedure. And we're going to do this and go into executive session to do this. So
someone wanna make a motion to that effect? I'll make a motion that we go into executive session to discuss return to work policy for the town.
I'll second that. Alright. All those in favor? Aye. Right. Everybody else, thank you for attending. Bob, thank you very much. Enjoy your night out. Thank you. Paula, you have control?
Not yet. I think she's working on it. Great. Paula, always ask me. If you'd like.
Say that again, Dennis? I I just I'm willing to stay on if you'd like. Yeah. We