Selectboard Meeting Notes for December 28, 2022, 6:30 pm


Selectboard Members:

  • Marcia Calloway, Chair. Elected; term expires March 2023.

  • Robert Gere. Elected; term expires March 2023.

  • Aaron Lamperti. Appointed by the Board; term expires March 2023.

  • Mary Layton, Vice-Chair. Elected; term expires March 2024.

  • Roger Arnold. Elected; term expires March 2025.


What You Need to Know


  • The Selectboard continues to show a lack of understanding of how the town operates. They ignore the professional experience of town employees and overrule requests from other elected officials.

  • The Selectboard, under the cover of ongoing collective bargaining negotiations, has been meeting in executive session to discuss the requested department positions.


Police Department


  • The Police Chief has two excellent candidates he wants to hire at market wages. The Selectboard denied Chief Cochrane’s request and did not include him in police staffing discussions, despite the Interim Town Manager stating he did not know how they could have the meeting without the Chief.

  • We would not be surprised if Chief Cochrane decides to leave given the disrespect and lack of support from a majority of this Selectboard.

  • Manu Tesone asked the Selectboard to:

  1. Explain why they cannot authorize the Chief to make employment offers at market wages. There is no formal/legal constraint on the Chief making such offers; and

  2. Let Norwich residents know that their rejection of the NPD budget request means residents will not get help when needed and 20/7 coverage will not be available.

  • Aaron Lamperti stated the Selectboard cannot approve the NPD request given the spending on other parts of the proposed budget. Roger Arnold claimed that the Police department cannot offer market salaries until the current collective bargaining agreement is renegotiated.


This is not true. The agreement provides a mechanism (side letter) authorizing the town manager to make adjustments as needed. Side letters have been used in the past and do not need to be made public at the time of hiring:


“When determined appropriate by the Town Manager, adjustments may be made to the hire rate for officers, secretary, operators, technician and custodian at the time of hiring to reflect previous education, training and experience. Any adjustment shall be approved by the Town Manager and a copy of the adjustment placed in the employee's personnel file” (Section 4.01- Rate of Pay).


It is clear that a majority of the Selectboard have either not taken the time to read the agreement, or are wilfully misrepresenting the facts to continue defunding the police department. It's worrisome that they are now responsible for renegotiating the agreement.


Assistant Positions


  • The Selectboard discussed shuffling assistant positions between planning, DPW, and the town manager’s office after the departments requested to separate these out due to the amount of work that the assistants were supporting.

  • Note that the Selectboard also discussed cutting the town clerk assistant position to a half-time role without the support of the town clerk. They did support funding an assistant Rec Director for one year, which is expected to be paid for by the increase in Rec revenue.

  • Assistant town manager position: taking the current position held by Miranda Bergmeier and “formalizing” that role / promoting her. Also Miranda could be a temp manager position if needed.

  • Listers administrative position: Lamperti stated the Listers are not intending to fill that position in the next year and it should be removed from the budget. However, Cheryl Lindberg (as Lister) stated the Listers office cannot function without an assistant. They cannot get the reappraisal job done without support.


Deficit


  • NEMRC (financial software used by the town) shows a deficit for the 21/22 fiscal year.

  • Joyce Hasbrouck, Interim Finance Director, is only relying on the reports she was provided by the town.

  • These (likely incorrect) reports were given to the auditing firm.