The Rochester Select Board on Monday began its meeting by approving a three-year contract for new Town Planner Michaela Shoemaker, a mere week after the board hired her. Shoemaker is the former Community Development planner in Falmouth and has also served as the town planner in Hanover.
The board also approved new three-year contracts for Assistant Town Accountant Kathy McHenry, Fire Chief Scott Weigel, and the Police Union. The latter contract led to the most noteworthy follow-up discussion.
Town Administrator Cameron Durant noted that, under the new Police Union pact, all patrol officers have agreed to wear body cameras. This change, he said, “will have a positive effect on the town’s exposure.” Durant explained the use of body cameras will cut down on the department’s exposure to liability claims and lawsuits. Proof against such claims will be on video. This will even mean a slight credit/reduction on the department’s liability insurance, he said. In exchange for this part of the agreement, he said the Police Union has been granted a raise in the private detail rate to $65 per hour.
The board then approved declaring a Council on Aging van as surplus property but stopped short of voting to immediately sell it at auction. COA board member Michael Cambra tapped the brakes on this part of the plan by asking if the Friends of the Council on Aging could sell the van and use the proceeds for the proposed renovations of the town’s Senior Center.
“Do we have no ability to do that?” he asked. Durant said he wasn’t sure.
Select Board member Adam Murphy said the van has to be declared surplus first, then the friends group would have the option to bid on it. Durant said the proceeds from any sale of the van by the town would have to go into the general fund, not a COA-specific account. He then concluded he will speak to Town Counsel “to see if we have any wiggle-room.”
Next, a last-minute addition to the agenda, discussion of the Public Safety Feasibility Study Final Report, prompted Murphy to vehemently defend the way the board has handled the plan to build new public safety buildings or renovate the current facilities.
Murphy said a letter from residents criticizes the board for its spending and its lack of “transparency” related to the plan. He and the other Select board member in attendance, Paul Ciaburri, explained that some of the facts in this criticism are not accurate. Ciaburri said the study’s scope was intended only for the need for a new fire station. The study itself ballooned out of proportion to include a $9,000,000 police station.
A Special Town Meeting article in January addressed the police station need another way, Murphy argued, with a $300,000 renovation instead of a $9,000,000 new station. Ciaburri noted the need for a new fire station was identified in 1998 when it would have cost perhaps $3,000,000. And that expense, he said, “would have been paid off by now. … But we kicked the can down the road.”
Murphy said the Feasibility Report has finally been posted on the town website, at his urging. He said he will be available at Town Hall on Thursday, March 6, starting at 5:00 pm to answer any questions on the study. “We will shed light on what we are spending on and where. It’s on us to be as transparent as possible,” said Murphy.
The next meeting of the Rochester Select Board is scheduled for Monday, March 3, at 6:00 pm at 1 Constitution Way.
Rochester Select Board
By Michael J. DeCicco