##VIDEO ID:bWSfMZLxkc8## you do that first minute or then that the record that's it live no noing progress we got recording there and live on YouTube when you came in you go and like follow this meeting to order I to the flag the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God Indy and justice for all please the advisers meeting is being recorded and live broadcast on the Plymouth County YouTube channel and will be distributed to the various local access stations around Plymouth County for potential rebroadcast first item on the agenda minutes for December 30th December 31st and January 2nd motion to approve motion commissioner right Mr chairman I wasn't present I don't know if it's proper for me to Second them I just vote present that is okay I will second the motion all in favor I uh extensions one two in favor n oppos one exstension signature of chair on do letter for 2024 Pou County Commissioner meeting minutes need to vote on that or I de no that's just this is an annual manual statutory requirements the minutes for calendar year 2024 that sent up to the uh Rue okay next item vote to accept and approve CPS forms Robert spear anniversary step increase aino Tara anniversary St increase Timothy White resignation of first assistant register of deeds and Anita Roso FMLA lead I have a motion motion so move commission right second commissioner Hanley all in favor next item vote John zorus $766 something9 to leave buyback motion motion commission right second oh I'm sorry it's a red vote never ordered that the county treasure pay John zorus second 116 D Avenue Plymouth Mass 02360 the sum of $ 7,665 196 to be paid from the Plymouth County fi 23 uh 25 budget uh as said John zorus the second retired from the position of director of operations at the pth County Register of Deeds on January 3rd 2025 with 965 hours to his sick leave credit the amount of sick leave buyback is 20% or 93 uh hours uh at the rate of compensation of $39.78 per hour second all in favor I unanimous do I have a motion to accept and approve vendor vouchers Move Motion commissioner Hanley second commissioner I all in favor I'll obain a motion to accept and approve payroll vouchers motion so moves second motion commissioner right second commissioner Hanley all in favor okay next item discussion and vote of salary range of first assistant Register of Deeds um I do want to acknowledge Tim White is here and thank them for his many years of dedicated service to the registry of deeds and Plymouth County we certainly wish you all the best in your retirement and thank you for your service thank you congratulations well do yes abely um so with that good ridens no not good ridens May the record reflect commissioner Hanley only that yeah um at any rate so uh with the uh retirement of Mr White uh certainly uh one of the uh prerogatives of of this board as the Personnel Board is to discuss and potentially set a salary range uh to hire his replacement um certainly uh we're appreciative of his years of service and the salary that was uh afforded him was due in part to his knowledge and expertise that he brought to the overall operation so with that in any organization generally speaking uh when new folks come in they come in on a lower uh range based on the fact that they don't have the same commensurate amount of years so uh I'm happy to open it up for discussion uh for the board I see register bakley has taken the podium although I will recognize uh Commissioners first if they would like to say anything I would like to I have a couple of questions actually so um with this uh position open uh would you be moving somebody within up to the position no that's why I'd like to discuss that I've already submitted a CPS I hope you have that information it's in front of you Frank has it given it to you it was Ely submitted uh it was submitted I rejected it uh using my prerogative as the chair uh based on the uh salary that was not previously discussed okay well let me just give you do we have the floor Mr chairman or commissioner wrers recognized Flor and she will I'll take a cop commission with the CPS form being attorney and as you can read it um is my right to appoint and it is an outside person and I submitted a CPS form as I've done in the past with the same salary that's what this discussion so I'm sorry you don't have the CPS and the in the U resum and we have it now I thought you had that so I guess you know my other question is is that you do have uh you do carry a license a law license is that correct as just my right and but no I'm just asking you and we also have the county uh attorney if needed uh for this position I you know I would think that uh hiring somebody at the same rate that Mr White has worked so many years for and get up to that point is not uh something that I would go forward with the salary range um I think for just a an assistant um would be a lot less than uh what the $3,235 of body censor so uh going forward with that um I would set the salary R [Music] discuss well we're happy to have the information Mr buy what I what I will what I will note is as I've stated and I appreciate this uh information here uh what I would note is that while you certainly have the right to appoint your assistant I do not dispute that um as I mentioned to you back in December uh we have the right as a board uh to decide what that pays we can't exceed what The Advisory Board uh States however I don't have the exact section but that's why I've asked Council Resnik to be here to cite the section of the law of which the Commissioners do um you previously had represented at a meeting that we had had that you were unaware of when Mr White was retiring although there was plenty of rumor about it there was moving if I if I could finish um when I was first born in several years ago there was a position I think it was Human Resources where and I know it's part-time and that's why I didn't make that big of a deal of it but I had asked for the courtesy that when uh an employee that has had many years of service at the registry were to depart that should their replacement come in that we might consider not bringing them in at the top grade of pay um due to the fact that they again don't know the operation and the rules and this is general standard practice when I was hired to work for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts I made less than my predecessors I didn't know the job now that instance it was Human Resources I've worked in Human Resources human resources are generally transferable skills from organization organization obviously they need to learn some specifics with within an organization uh as far as I'm concerned the first assistant register of fees is an incredibly unique position it's not quite transferable unless we were to of course have someone from another registry come over so that said I I kind of in League with commissioner rights statements um have a hard time replacing someone who has had years of service to the county into the registry they have gained knowledge and expertise uh that they achieved by working the job the individual replacing that person is not going to have the same knowledge or expertise yet you're asking us to continue to pay the premium I had asked you on the phone yesterday commissioner Wright has asked for this and we will continue to ask now I know for the ask for what for for a job description I still I in this packet I don't think a job description for but to be honest with you the the assistant register works for me under what I guide them to do okay and and I also would like to say I am following the practice I did when Tim White came in are be happy to give you Cy of that CPS that that's that's fine I I would but that is counter that I was on right commission Handley were part of that and I would argue that and that's the practice that we did back in those days so I went forward with the practice that we had in the past so that's fine we have uh a new board obviously new um and I think that as we've looked at the overall organization I've made it clear that uh that I would like to see some things done differently so that being said um you are correct in your assertion that you do not need to provide me or any one of us uh with a job description we of course have the job descriptions for the union employees um and I certainly agree with your assessment that the first assistant is under your direction that being said you're asking us to then pay a premium for a position that we are unaware of what the day-today operation is we are unaware of what the expectations are we're una aware of what their benchmarks are we're unaware of what their goals are we are completely and totally blind to what exactly it is the expectations out for this position and you are asking us to make them what I believe to be the this individual would walk into the registry as the second highest paid employee within the registry behind yourself and they would be one of the highest paid employees in the entire County as a whole with no prior experience at the registry there's experience as an attorney understood experience as a title person done real estate 30 years of practice in the legal Community I think that justifies the salary and when you see what other assistant registers are paid I know you don't want to factor that in it's pretty clear that the yeah what I'm asking for is is uh $20,000 less than most of them yeah so it's not a matter of not wanting to see the data I appreciate the data but what I've always enjoyed about data is any one of us can pick cherry pick information that suits our argument so you pick barnable norol s and Worcester perhaps I want to see what Burk Shar Franklin and Essex are GNA be distinctly smaller registers but you see my point right you pick you pick suffet County which is the city of Boston and three other communities to compare we are more than Bible slightly more than b more than Bible and slightly less than nor see what those two because our population in number of dwelling I understand but my point is we have almost twice we're almost twice the size of barille County right so of course we're going to have more documents recorded we're have more property to sell there's more property to have transactions on so naturally we're going to have double the size of course we probably have hundred times that of what nck county records I don't see nck County on here so again my point is I appreciate okay but do you understand the point I'm making the point I'm making is you cherry-picked four counties to make a comparison and now I'm gonna cherry pick four counties to make a comparison not making comparisons with similar counties it has nothing to do with pth County suff County also has nothing to do with County with all due respect all du respect salaries they are paying $700,000 excuse me Mr White you've not been recognized okay I will run this meeting if those who wish to speak can address the chair to speak anybody that decides to address the chair from the audience like that will be asked to leave and I will remind the folks that the open meeting law only requires that you can observe the meeting I am under no obligation to recognize anybody in this meeting aside from my colleagues okay so again I understand that perhaps you don't understand my point Mr Buckley and that's fine my point is you picked four counties to compare I didn't have the time to pick four counties that I wanted to use to compare the range so has two employees compared to our operation Franklin County has two employees Berkshire County hamen County hamen county is a City of Springfield I could pick them much smaller our operation right and you chose a county that twice the size of Plymouth County so again data I understand the value my point is I I would like to see what the rolling average is if we're going to do this I'd like to see what every first assistant is making across the Commonwealth not just in counties that you chose to to suit your argument I hope you're not just delaying this Mr I'm not delaying anything uh Mr Bley as a matter of fact as I pointed out the law does EXP lcly stating as I said to you on the phone yesterday um we need to do this together you chose again to I chose that and that's fine even though I had stated previously that it was my desire now of course I'm one of three it really is going to be the pleasure of the board my desire to see that practice change because again I understand This Woman's resumee looks impressive uh I'd like to ask like a question she has her own Law Firm does she intend on closing that law firm uh should should okay fulltime employe okay and quite honestly I don't mean to be overstated it's my right to hire it who I choose it absolutely is and it is it is and under the law it is our right for an ungraded non-union position to decide what that position gets paid and given the financial conditions that the county is in uh given that ACC to your own newsletter the registry is down 1% in total documents from year-over-year 2023 to 2024 and considering you recorded the fewest number of documents in 2023 since 1984 um again I'm I'm wondering um why we will continue to pay a premium and bring someone into a brand new organization when when the revenue is down at to make them the second highest paid individual within the organization $20,000 less than other positions is not paying a premium it's I'm looking at the County's budget I'm looking at the overall organization and the overall chart that we have and in my opinion and I'm one of three in my opinion we are paying a premium for a position that you have unilaterally decided should be an attorney uh there is nowhere that I've been able to find there's only one one position that requires a law degree and that is district attorney in the5 years of the attorney assistant register being an attorney it's an important asset have to be by law okay my choice right so um I've had the floor long enough commissioner right you had had some I think you had I see where Mr White started at 92,7 14450 back um in 2013 uh that being an attorney at the time um I guess I guess hold on um I have the floor um I guess what you know my thoughts are and I go back to a couple of week uh meetings ago when you came in and told us that you had to close a department because there was nobody there that was able to depit a minute wait a minute um because there was nobody there to service the people that were there uh and you said not even yourself could uh service the people because you didn't know the job it's not my job right okay so I guess my thoughts are you do hold a law license you can be the attorney there and we also have the County Attorney which you're more than welcome to use or bring her on service to use as needed I don't see where we need three attorneys but that's not my job to decide that's just my opinion of what I'm thinking um I think somebody you do need an assistant um I thought maybe somebody who knows the registry well uh could come in and you could decide that and take over and fulfill the position knowing how you run the registry at least they can run a department and not close it down uh so I would close down I would know well that's not what you said much time because short that's not that's not we have it on recording so we can bring that up if we need to so my idea is that um we do not need I don't think that we can fill it with another attorney uh I don't think an ATT even if it was another attorney should come in uh at that rate um that Mr White has made uh over the many many years that he's been here so uh the wage for just a an assistant would be a much much less than uh what you're asking for I think you're asking for an awful lot at this time and I don't think it's necessary I would um I'm actually I'll dtail that commissioner right because I I meant to mention it before so I understand Mr Buckley it's not your job um again right I understand you that's not you're the elected department just as Treasurer just as Treasurer O'Brien you're both record no my point is neither one of you are even obligated to to show up for six years the voters decide who you are that's not that's not ask and I I know that's not I'm I'm I'm adding that however um part of that conversation and commissioner right just draw my memory um and and I recall it because you had sent an email to myself and Mr Basler um informing us that you had closed uh land court for an hour for lunch and that two folks had come in and I believe if I had asked uh why yourself or Mr White or Mr zorus at the time who was not retired um why one of you folks could not have assisted them and you represented then just as you represented now that you yourself do not know how to do it and I believe and you canre me correct and correct me if I'm wrong but you also represented that your assistant at that time was also unable to step in and and transact that because they also were unaware or unable to human rules as who can do what you now miss Resnik or Mr baser you correct me if I'm wrong but I I believe that management would be able to step in much like Mr Basler steps in for the union position in our office to process payroll that's not what I'm talking about talking about filling my assistant position I'm not my point is you represented that that your assistant at that time was unable to transact the two individuals that came in when we hire you hire Miss White the the the CPS form that you did submit uh that's not on the agenda so we will not be acting on that tonight uh do you intend on uh training her within the Departments within the registry to be able to backfill when there are vacancies illness or otherwise I will not do anything that violates our Union agreements and would miss Resnik or Mr Basler care to weigh in on whether something like that would be a violation of Union agreements because again I am aware that within this building uh there have been plenty of instances where management again I'll use the example of payroll uh our payroll individual is a union employee when she's on vacation Mr Basler does payroll right I don't think uh any member of the Union is going to gripe that a member of management stepped in to do that so um I I I am not an attorney so I will defer to council Resnik to let me know if the assertion that management can't do a basic transaction when someone's on lunch um is against a collective bargaining agreement I think we're way off track M we're not off track we are discussing a salary range for a position within your organization based on what again is is a position that I still to this day after I asked you back when we first discussed uh the potential retirement um for months for some semblance of a job description I have none and you're asking us again to make them the second highest paid individual in your building and I believe the third of third highest paid individual in the county as a whole so we're not off track we're discussing the salary range based on what we believe the job is you have your right to not tell us what it is you have your right to to to let me finish you have your right to not tell us what it is you have your right to decide whatever that is we have a right to set the range based on the best available information that we have and where you have still yet to provide that information I can only act on that but I'd like to recognize Council Resnik to clarify me uh on Mr Buckley's assertion that him or um Mr White stepping in and I would remind uh Mr zagoras was a union employee at that time uh he could I mean I don't know how those rules work very helpful to everybody he was he was he was excellent so I just think it's slightly inappropriate to comment because members of that Union are present here they're the ones that hold the right to grieve not necessarily the employer in that situation I have seen grievances within County that was similar nature to that um that were unsuccessful okay so I appreciate that so to put it in my very layman's terms if Mr Buckley were or Mr White or anybody in your organization I don't like using names so if the register or the assistant register were to have stepped in that day and the collective bargaining unit filed a grievance uh in other instances those grievances have been dismissed so I think your aarch on that you couldn't have done that um is is is incorrect commission right anything further no I don't know if Mr H Hanley wanted to say anything before we set up a salary range yeah obviously I'm just waiting my turn go ahead are you are you done go ahead okay uh couple questions Mr chairman why is this before us right now I just am curious um what is the financial I'm do these I'm looking at what you said what's the financial condition of the County right now we I had a revenue estimates so behind uh I believe the projections uh are currently running ahead that's what Mr Buckley represented to be anyone in the audience can tell me where we are right now we we are running ahead commissioner through we are running ahead for the year uh December uh estimates in uh the registry of deeds came in behind slightly uh so it's uh forward a little bit back a little bit so yet to date just ballpack I'm not to date over do you have a number ballpack Tom treasure you're looking at the budget as a whole uh overall over projection budget is hold about $210,000 over over okay so from there um 17 days into this fiscal year we imposed a hiring freees at which point I think there were three to four employees affected uh with their vacancies what's the approximate breakage at six months on those positions being not paid but still being carried in the budget youw Mr chairman yeah and before you answer treasure because I think I'm going to ask the same question of commissioner Hanley just differently had we not have the Hing freeze would we still have been over projection yes not necessarily well you you budgeted items I'm talking about Revenue I asked a question about Revenue I'm not asking a question may I ask a different question than commissioner Hanley so ask your question then I'll ask mine so you if you can amend your convers your the the estimates that you used as the basis for the hiring priest you somehow had an idea that we were not going to have a good year I remember back in December asking the same question question and we were like $350,000 ahead of projected okay now based on that you had a budget right and again uh 17 days after we agreed to that budget in the fiscal year we put in a hiring freeing because you know the board decided that we didn't know what it was going to have and in December we were 350,000 ahead of estimates is that a true statement approximately okay so now I asked the same question and we're at 210,000 month we could be 100 which is fine ahead of estim okay so my other question is was and is um from July 1 to now you had four vacancies you had carried those lines in your budget what is the sum total of half those uh for the year half those salaries how much savings does the department have within that budget not withstanding Revenue because we can't predict Revenue but we can you can give me a static number on what is the savings to the county and those positions not being filled I through you CH I can tell you I don't know four vacancies I know you don't have vacancies and I would have to sit there and do the ma just a clarification through you to the regist do you have vacancies in your department from the hiring fees from July one to now that is not focus I understand this is my inquiry Miss three people that are out injured okay 20% of our staff right okay so the the vacancies that are unfilled at this point are how many four four so from July one year no I understand I'm trying to get to the breakage on the salaries I I if you can help me Mr chairman clarify it for people I'd appreciate it so again I'm glad the register noted it this is a discussion vot on the salary range of first assistant register of deed my my I understand I I I understand that you want to use this as an opportunity I allowed some Germaine questions but to ask how many vacancies he has uh is not quite Germain to this it is gerain because Mr chairman and if I may can I take over my line of inquir you've made some sort of ruling here I'm trying to get to how much money do we have we have money right that we've saved because four positions haven't been filled and I just want to know what the total of that number is and the treasurer has assured he doesn't know compile that information so we'll leave that aside if I can continue it is I'm trying to get to the numbers Mr chairman because you're making this about numbers and uh what we're hiring someone at as an entrylevel apparently uh attorney okay so my my fear to say that you know there's money in the bank uh for us to spend not only in the budget but we're ahead of Revenue and we have breakage in the salary line so that means that there is in the label line altoe Department wide there is extra revenue and there's money above what was budgeted so to answer your question currently right now con of the treasurer yes however I will remind commissioner Hanley that within this current fiscal year budget when we talk about the projection because that's all the budget is is a projection we have used onetime revenue from arpa interest to the tune of 7 50,000 for what to balance the revenue for this year that's money that if we didn't have I don't think that's a true statement that is an absolutely correct statement that's the balance last year's mon no that was this year so you're telling me that we've spent 750,000 in this budget Year yes that was what we did at our ADV yes that's what we did at our advisory yes what we did was use yeah said instead of using so that no no that samp AR is the money was committed through another commissioner it's not my point is it's all onetime revenue whether it's stabilization ARA interest or unreserved isn't something we didn't know we had already made a decision to move that money from from an account my point is We're Not Gonna point we're gonna we're gonna move the question want to get to the numbers unless unless you have I I can unless you have a line of question I'm GNA answer your line of question I want to know how much money we have left in the budget right now as far as I'm concerned when we're using onetime Revenue to balance the budget as far as I'm concerned we're minus $750,000 using one time money to balance the budget when you had it in a rainy day account use one time money every budget that I have been a part of that is an unsustainable off track I really care about the money was we knew about it we took it out of stabilization and then we had this extra money and revenue was a good move to take it from interest income so guess what we already committed that 750 in your budget building process that it was going to come from stabilization do not interrupt me commissioner I have the floor Mr chairman I I know you have a hard time with this every meeting commissioner Hanley I run the meeting I give the floor and I also take the floor so when I want to take the floor I will take the floor and I will give it back I'm taking the floor so whether it's unreserved fund balance stabilization or arpa interest it's onetime money and we have continually used onetime revenues to balance our budget every year that I have been here what happens and this is the question I ask every time you bring this up what happens when we have no more arpa interest money which we do not what happens when we don't have any more stabilization and what happens when we don't have any more unreserved fund balance when those go to zero then what you're at $750,000 over you're spending the county spends more money than it takes in Period and it's done that every single year I've been here and that is an entirely unsustainable way to run a government a business a household anything you deplete your I'll stop when I'm done okay you deplete your savings account and you run out of savings then what do you do so when the county depletes their funds and depletes the back stop which has been unreserved fund balance the Opera interest or stabilization then what do we do can I comment on what you've just commented on Mr chairman no you can go back to the discussion of vote in of salary Ranger the first assistant register if you have any further questions from Mr Buckley if not then we are I'm not done I'm not done you're interrupting my question so the question I have to you Mr chairman is that you had we've had this information on the budget we knew there was going to be a deficit of 750,000 at budget time and we had the fortuitous situation of having interest income that was extra one-time money that we now can keep the stabilization money that we committed at budget time we knew this right did we not know this okay at budget time we said all right we got 750,000 deficit we're going to take a vote we're going to take it out of stabilization we're going to balance the books for this year and that's how we're doing okay now we Mo forward we got this interest income and it was a great move for us to keep money and stabilization use the onetime money because where else would it have gone it would have gone into stabilization if we didn't the Air Market correct so that's all I'm saying is that it isn't something we didn't know you in in on 17 days into the into the year you ask for and received a um hiring freeze okay from that hiring freeze you have six months of salary in four positions okay that in addition to revenues that have come in overestimate then your balanced budget right now has the remainder salary of of the assistant the first assistant is remaining he is leaving so that means the line item for the first assistant is at a prated pay rate of $113,000 is that that's what I'm trying to get to this money is in the budget at that rate okay and the purpose for you to put this discussion on now to discuss what we should pay someone who is uh coming to the county for the first time as Tim White did 10 years ago when Mike he took place for Mike Holden he came in at 92,000 all right I'm guessing that per the same Register of Deeds with the same job description he chose someone based on this resume that has the commensurate experience for what he as a department head needs to have happen okay he is allowed by Statute to hire that person we as you are you're correct in saying we can set the salary okay but who are we to qualify what in your background your bra or my background do we have that allows us to pontificate on how and why someone who's been in the position of register Deeds you're saying in your opinion you you don't think these people deserve this money but what do we know about the operations of the registry shouldn't we allow the elected department head with his amount of experience to finish out the year at the 113,000 he's shown uh a revenue projection of first first assistance second assistance and all of that with a you know a salary range that is commensurate he has he has in suffet County you said that's a much larger community and you're right but they have three assistants all making more the third assistant is making um $20,000 more so when you look at you know what is the relevance of of that what is the most like-sized Community I'm trying to be County I mean is it vable with is that fair is that a fair no I would say double the size I think the only one so if we're double the size Hampton County one major city and in smaller issues for the basis of a conversation Mr chairman the fact that bondable pays their first assistant $135,000 okay and we're larger than that is that is that a true statement that is a true statement if I may though commissioner I would remind you that they have a different Deeds excise formula that affords their budget to be significantly larger than ours if that's a relevant point I well is they more money than us even though they're smaller I'm just trying to put an argument together or a discussion together on WE what what is the need for us at this point you're coming into your March budget season right you're GNA have until July one to hammer out all of this right so why would we get in the way of a past practice that you and I actually I just saw that we signed something we didn't have this type of deliberation and we had worst Financial situ situation back then 10 years ago if you recall so why would we go to the Great Lengths of trying to do this you know it's the law say says that he can hire the person okay and the law also says that we cannot frustrate the process of hiring through this and so I'm looking for some reason why and how we can't maintain the budget on at 113,000 in in someone's estimation between the three of us apparently this Carson has been active member of the boss since 1991 so she's been an attorney years 30 years and so who amongst us has the qualification to say whether this person is qualified or not did we have the same conversation with Tim White no we signed the CPS we didn't challenge him he has the right to hire but only he knows what the value of those qualifications now can I ask a question um these are just questions that I have that I want you to keep in the can I ask a direct question of the register yes how many people uh uh applied for the job um we searched we didn't put it on indeed we talked to probably 20 people um and um came up with this this person is having the best so you had 20 applicants have applicants people we talked to people of Interest okay so because I get to make this choice if I may if I may okay so were there any applicants here that um probably may have had a better resume or more experience okay so this person went through a process that you feel is worthy of the job and at the budgeted salary that you have you couldn't offer more money without this board saying so was there any apprehension from the applicant in taking the job at 113,000 discussed because last time we did this same you know activity uh there was no issue with trees but if you had an applicant that had more experience and all that you wouldn't even be allowed to give them a higher pay you'd have to finish it with the budget that you have okay okay so but if you you know it sounds as if we're looking at experience and making a determination without having sat in any interview or having any background of the operations of of the registry and you made a decision on your own and the most you can do is 13 ,000 that it should be an attorney and I offered what is budgeted for the position okay and it was accepted in the past practice was for that to go through okay so now based on this compensation survey that you did okay uh they like in comparison to the duties of an assistant so and Steve Steve Murphy has three assistants okay same basic job and all three of them make more but right okay so bondable has one making more Northfork has two people making more by significant amounts of money okay so all I'm getting at is from our point of view as Commissioners okay does it not make sense for us to allow him to hire with that person and then when you get into the 2026 FY budget deliberations that this goes on the table for consider itation now having said that John do you have any um desire to replace John zorus let me that's a separate item well but I'm talking about money Mr J just but that's a separate discussion if you if you read down the agenda but to answer that motion question okay one I will recognize that motion in a moment uh commissioner right the only statement I'm gonna make to commissioner Hanley is I absolutely believe it would be an inherently unfair uh to bring this individual in at $3,235 44 and then have a budget discussion whereby we would potentially decide to cut that pay well You' have to justify that is an inherent well they're ungraded I mean and they would have less than five years so I think it would be inherently um disruptive and unfair which is why we're having the discussion now rather than bringing somebody in and then doing that commissioner has made a motion to move the question I will recognize register Bley I will second the motion on moving the question register Bley okay um fish you mentioned that we have three attorneys at the registry attorney res does not work at the reg she is the county she does not do job but she can oh she can why can't she well you can ask her yeah she'll tell you why she can't willing to come to work at the registry te well no not to go full-time work but she can be the counselor for the county for the registry dat not the job same job she give up a job to do this job I'm not saying that we use her Nei none of none of these people do either but we use her as need so my thought I I guess I'll go on my thought is that we don't need three legal uh people but she is not working at the you can hire her or you can take her in as necessary or whatever issue you may have the operation of the assistant register is a day-today person who works full-time at the registry did nothing to do with outside coun and I'm saying that I'm saying that we don't need that that's I believe I have the right to set the parameters of who should be my assistant and we have the right to set the Sal do and on that there's a motion in a second to move the the motion Mr chairman I don't recognize me on the motion do not believe that that is a debatable motion uh on moving the question all in favor I I opposed that is two and one okay so we will now I will entertain a motion on a salary range for the first assistant Register of Deeds I'll make a motion uh for the salary range for the uh regist of Deeds as an assistant no law degree uh at 52,500 up to the maximum of uh 60,000 you can't tell me I can't hire a Bo I will that is true uh I will ask commissioner I to just amend that it not to just take that it can't be an attorney statement out because we can't dictate that but I will second the moot you said without a law degree not acting as a lawyer you can't stipulate that he can't hire an a we can't stipulate that but we can stipulate the range I will second the motion of 52,500 to 60,000 on the motion M sh commissioner Hamley okay so as I was speaking to you earlier about who amongst us has the qualification who all right Mr Mr White thank you um so again he has the right to hire for his specification we have the right to condition the salary but of what I heard from both of you on your reasoning you went into Union versus non-union you didn't really get into the specificity of the qualifications and are you qualified to judge whether or not this individual is qualified at that pay range so what qualifies the three of us equally commissioner Hanley is that we were duly elected by the abant of Plymouth countyy to make the decisions that we feel are in the best interest uh and the law clearly states that this is under our perview and quite candidly that's what gives us uh the authority to do that and that's what gives us the background that's what elections are for and that's how this works so but I think you know to the letter of the law because that's sought an opinion on the law okay for you to um make this suggestion okay you're you're imposing on his rights all right again if I may been recognized Mr I not recogn you so you you're making this decision and yet you're qualifying the salary range on that and it is it is not something that the law allows he can choose the person but in doing so what you're doing is frustrating the process you're prohibiting from him him from doing his statutory right now my understanding is you've gone and already gotten this person certified by the superior court is that part of the law required by law okay as required by law so this person is actually hired at this point correct without the salary being approved by this potentially by this position she accepted the position and I believe your Ro is in okay so in she did she accept it at 114,000 accepted as C salary which you voted in you voted in the past to do the same salary ch being inconsistent okay uh so Buck you're not recognized I thank you diminishing the registry intentionally I think that's a ridiculous decision I know you can continue to make that argument Mr Buckley in that that is the furthest thing from the truth and uh and I find the assertion to be an appropriate um you can feel that way you certainly have a right to feel that way um and and we'll certainly take that under advisement however [Music] um I think we have we have Motion in a second on the floor may I finish uh I thought you were commissioner I wasn't people keep jumping in on my space here no no disrespect but you know I don't of what I heard uh today we did not justify uh amongst us with your arguments my arguments whether or not um this position should be paid any less we don't have any Revenue issues we have plenty of money and the budgeted item is there for the rest of the year I would suggest if this is something that is of great concern to you as my colleagues that you take it up at budget time uh and until then because I know we have plenty of money at this point to satisfy this hire at that pay rate and looking at the information that was submitted to us that's a salary Sur we have plenty of budgeted money from the additional revenue and the break line item to to pay this without any we're not going to continue we're not going to continue to we not going to have a rue discuss spoken on my piece and I'm going on the record opposing it because I feel we're frustrating the hiring process V so on motion commission right second Commission of Valena to set the salary range of the first assistant registry of deeds Register of Deeds at 52,500 60,000 all in favor I opposed one that is two objection M chairman that's what no is it's an objection no because I think it's illegal you're trying to change okay next I'm on the agenda vote for mileage expense increase to match 2025 IRS allowance uh chair the uh IRS uh changed the mileage allowance from 67 cents in 2024 to 70 cents in 2025 and we use this uh as a mileage allowance for uh contractual obligations within the Union if they're traveling different locations there's a motion uh there that be read if you would thank you okay uh viled to increase the miles allowance to 70 cents per mile facted January 1st 2025 for Internal Revenue Services motion commissioner Wright uh second second commissioner Hanley all in favor I okay next item on the agenda I will only read this verbatim and then I will offer my apology vote to make obsolete certain registry of deeds positions director of operations and customer service and issue letter to opu uh I apologize to uh the employees of the registry as well as Mr Buckley for my inartful wording uh was brought to my attention by Council resident Mr Basler uh as well as your representation of EI that to render obsolete would be a contractual discussion so I for my apologies however I asked Mr Basler to um cite the section of the contract that I was operating under whereby uh we have the authority as a board to alert uh the bargaining unit of Our intention to not fill uh certain registry positions which would be uh the aforementioned positions it's uh in the contract uh it's section uh 15 15.0 01 it states that uh whenever vacany in a covered position occurs as a result of promotion resignation retirement or termination said position shall be posted within three months uh and then it continues on if the position is not to be filled the county will inform the Union uh in writing uh with this with the reason so uh that is why we're gonna uh we're gonna discuss and and do it so the reasoning for this is again um as I've been here for four years uh one of the things that's unique about the county uh is uh we have to sustain ourselves we can't ask the voters to do an override we can't search for more Revenue uh and what has been greatly concerning to me uh has been uh the use of one-time money to balance the budget um in examining the overall operations of the county uh it has been uh of my opinion that um should we have the opportunity to see certain positions attrition out uh that it may be of a benefit for uh for the future operation of the county so with that being said I've examin the full operation and and uh plenty of departments are down um treasur O'Brien when you were first elected how many employees were in the treasurer's office and there are how many now four so that's a 50 almost a 50% reduction so uh we've seen it across the board maintenance uh has been down as well so um in conversations uh with Mr Buckley uh with register Buckley um again I understand that we have the job descriptions but um there were in my view a couple of issues with uh some of these positions um and so that being said I would like to entertain a motion to uh notify eiu of Our intention to not fill the director of operations position and uh the vacant customer service position before I recognize register Buckley which I will do with my own discretion um commissioner W anything you like to department will you take a vote I there's no motion to take a vote on Mr Buckley so what I'm doing is I'm recognizing my colleagues first and then I will recognize you I will again remind you that this is a commissioner's meeting and while certainly I will you the opportunity to make your statement I am not under any obligation well if that's a question that my colleagues may feel the desire to ask I will recognize you through that line of questioning if that's uh if that's the questioning have commission nothing commissioner Hanley point of order Mr chairman is this agender uh that I have in front of me right now the same agenda I received in the email because it seems seems to me if we've modified this bulleted item on this particular thing I recall that there was uh a discussion and vote and now I see amended language here is this the original uh actually if I may chair the original vote uh the original posting on Monday was discussion we actually sent out an amended vote to everyone and we posted uh and change that to um discussion and vote and that was on the uh first assistant registry ad's position that was the only amendment correct yeah that was the only amendment change from Monday to Tuesday which still was duly noted okay this is the first time I'm seeing and that's probably on me um I would appreciate in the future when you do send things out you have a chang and I'm notified verbally as well if you don't mind thank you um so Mr chairman my only um concern here it's the liability issue that this discussion is potentially an unfair Labor practice specifically what you just said about your opinion of things and I think um I would you know maybe ask you to ask uh for our legal council to advise us on this and even having this discussion or taking this vote um I I just that your comments to me uh with members of the Union president um present that they seem to be a bit um threatening so I would just um well it's whether it was intentional or not all right I'm just asking if you if I may through you to get legal council's opinion on an unfair Labor practice um so the coun that I gave was that there are two distinctions here notification to the union of intend not to fail position in accordance with the um CBA CBA and removing the position from the union that's an impact bargain correct so my councel was that you could exercise your right under the contract to give notice if not to fill okay and is that what we've just well nobody's made a motion yet but but I would entertain that motion just looking for clarification and I'm just as a try third person of this group I'm warning us collectively that we should maybe table this um for a later discussion because my understanding is this CBA isn't even ready for a discussion we're going to have budget deliberations Jared okay that maybe it might be better to bring that up as a bargaining position of this body if that's the way you feel if it's two to one vote you still can move forward with that I would just say that for us to act on this now sends a bad faith message in my opinion it's only my opinion of you're sitting down with these people to try to impact B in something that needs to be done in bargaining sessions that's just I'm asking for caution here that's all oh I understand and I appreciate commissioner Hanley your your caution um we're not going to reopen negotiations uh I have no intention of that unless this board does but we don't um to have those uh discussions all this is doing is exercising the current language within the current contract that allows us to notify the union of our intent not to fill um to your comments about uh the budget um certainly those conversations will begin earnestly soon but until then um in order uh to continue um execu some of the the savings that we're looking to continue uh and In fairness to the operations of of the registry uh I felt it was appropriate to at least notify that or at least in my opinion I'm one of three if there's no motion a second then so be it of Our intention to not fill those two stated positions okay may I ask a question chairman yes so is it your intention to then keep the hiring frees in effect and keep those four positions at Bay and this would be an additional two people being eliminated from the registry um rosta so it' be down six people on the operations over there exercising your same caution I would not necessarily use the word eliminate but I would state that we would be informing them of the intention not to fill um I also disagree with the um assertion that it's four vacancies we if you recall on two to one votes that I lost this or did vote to fill a couple of those venes full a fulltime and a part-time where the other vacancies so regardless of that um can we a can we just ask him what his operational where he is operationally on bodies and and and we did mention challenges that Sandra brought up about putting up a you know close till lunch or whatever you said there was a sign put up and that they closed sto the oper just myself and Mr Bas okay but there was due to whatever reason sick time vacation time heart time there's operationally the residents of the county if someone has to go to lunch we put a sign up and says we'll close to lunch before we used to work through it because we had enough bodies and they staggered their lunches and and I'm guessing that we have a Manpower issue and if it's four bodies now that is causing that condition does subtracting two more bodies impact the operation it's pregnant pause question yeah and and and I before I recognize register Buckley I I think um I don't know if it was myself or commissioner right has been asking the register for data so we can make those informed decisions we've asked how many people have come through um I think we we asked you in I think in December and we've asked you statistic again for certain data points and statistics so we can make these so we can make these points so can make these informed decisions so this is again where I become frustrated because we ask for information you don't provide it we then now let me finish please sir we then are asked to make decisions for the whole operation of the county and we are utilizing as far as I'm concerned the best available information at our disposal you you have your full right to not disseminate any information to US unless we do a public records request you have a we she can ask he can ask and I can ask we've asked we've asked for uh number of individuals that have passed through on any given day that information is still yet to be provided we ask for the amount of documents and CU we have asked and commissioner right has asked commissioner well I don't know about commissioner I know commissioner right certainly has we've asked for people that have passed through in a day you made a joke I'll get a clicker I'm not sure if you did but you haven't but my point but my point is you haven't done it so we're again operating he's asking how this affects well no number of documents how many people are physically passing through the building how many transactions are online again according to the newsletter that is sent out uh you had a 1% reduction in the number of docu toal total again so we we are making a decision on on we're trying to make decisions based on the best available information we ask you for supplementary information you don't provide it that's not true that is I can at least cite one instance where commissioner right has asked for that information she asked for that in December and we can I I've asked for job descriptions I've asked I've asked for how many trans uh transactions go through there um on a daily weekly you should have a total of that at at the close out at the end of day I would think uh but again I can't say how you operate your operation over there we don't have somebody counting people that are walking through the door your computers don't don't can't tell you how many we don't have a counter your your computers don't uh register how many people come in door all the time ask for you don't we don't track them and that's fine you don't have to but we we then you can't be surprised when we're trying to make decisions based on on you're you're telling us surprised about is that you're making decisions about my department without the board talking to me what doesn't talk to me about yes well we're having a public meeting a public discussion to me about our needs you're making an arbitrary decision based upon a budget that was at a hearing was voted by the Commissioners voted by The Advisory Board and is accepted as a budget and now you're making arbitrary change the budget again is a projection the budget it's not projection money is a projection the budget is an and what happens when you make less money than what it costs but you see something different I assure you if the project our expenses was an operation it'd be extra money that's what you're talking about if it was an Enterprise account it'd be more than enough money paying for it paying for its own health insurance yes I'm not gonna Actuarial IE that out right now can make us friendly suggestion hopefully uh would it be fair uh for us as I've been instructed to do to when I'm seeking information from employees or department heads to work with Frank as the conduit who then would record the requests that we may have uh for data for statistics and then if the register doesn't respond then then we go down this pathway but can we uh so we don't go off the rails here work through and authorize um whatever data you would like you would like I would like through the administrator to the department head and and have it flow back to us I I like that idea commissioner Hanley and I certainly support and endorse that idea sure um however it was a public meeting we can go back now on YouTube and watch where that information was asked of the and was not as far as due with a can we authorize County who comes in I give you the document count and that is a status of our current employee when I was when I was elected talked about when Tom started when I was elected the reg had 65 employees we're way less than half and as you can see even of our higher employees we're down over 20% we we have four vacancies and we have three people that are injured and are out not able to work and we're very stressed and staff I can have my staff over here testify to that if you'd like I don't think that would be entirely appropriate why because I've deemed that not to be appropriate this is not a personel board meeting that is not duly noticed if any one of your staff as I've told any one of them that have ever come to our meeting before have any concerns that they want to voice you can contact our office God bless you contact our office I will put it on the agenda and I I I will sit here until midnight listening uh so why voting to eliminate positions before you even have discuss with me or any of the Union people is is really crazy I don't think so and you and I have talked about it and not made a compelling commission now we're having a discussion at time again yes that's how this that sorry commission just one moment all due respect Mr V that's how this works okay the three of us individually have an idea or want to do something we put it on the agenda and then you come or anybody comes to an open meeting and we discuss it and we debate it that's what we're doing right now this is on the agenda with the board this is what this entire forum is for this is you and I have privately had those discussion we are now bringing that discussion further to the board you and I have not been able to come to an agreement on some of these things I'm now bringing it to the board uh to make a decision that's how this works I don't hide in the shadows or make conversations behind closed doors uh that we do these things in public and that's what this is for that's that's what the law prescribes and that's how we're going to do it I think you're violating the budget process by doing this in advance of the budget I think we had an agree upon budget uh we had a hearing we had discussions with with the all the department heads creting a budget we had a vote of the Commissioners we sold the budget to The Advisory Board I remember specifically at the budget hearing of The Advisory Board asking me is this budget satisfactory to me and then budget was never imp and I think that's fraudulent to be honest with you it's not fraudulent and I disagree with uh the assertion and I and I again I think asking me to support a budget and then on implementing the budget we've imp we've implemented the budget the budget we most we most certainly have money is being collected and employees are being paid so that's how that's the budget that's as far as I'm concerned how that works Mr so mrman violation of the budg Mr you can one moment commissioner sorry you can you can certainly believe that register Buckley and that's your opinion yes again it is of my opinion as the Executive Board of this County that oversees the day-to-day budget that is our charge obviously we don't do it full-time but that's our charge is to continue and I will repeat this again and then we're we're going to move to commissioner Hanley for hopefully something that is not being repeated again we are using and continuing to use one-time Revenue to balance the budget I not sure you say you do I'm now at a point all due respect where maybe maybe you you don't so what happens again when all that onetime money is exhausted and the county is spending a million dollars more the the there's nothing else to cut the budget is n what's the 98% salaries and benefits right I mean this okay but so in the the purpose of this is where can we again continue to effectuate savings so that people that are currently employed can continue to enjoy their employ uninterrupted without there being the potential several years down the road and I'm being cautious of as commissioner Hanley noted several years down the road when the revenue continues to be static as it has been since 2011 or 20 10 we are out of one-time Revenue I work professionally in real estate I work with mortgage brokers this is not improving anytime soon the inventory issues is aren improving anytime soon rates are not going to come down to what they were before you're not going to have the same level of refinances the revenue that we were able to execute in the first two years of my first term is not going to be seen again for several years so as I like to say a stitching time saves nine I would prefer where there are vacancies now where people are not going to be affected to alert that we're going to keep those vacant and then um down the road people who are currently employed can continue to enjoy their employe or we can continue to spend moneyy that we quite frankly I know commission Hy will disagree with this don't have because we're using one-time money to balance the budget we can continue spending money that we don't have and then we're going to have far more difficult discussions several years down the road maybe not that long but at least several years down the road that are far more uncomfortable and will cause far more pain than doing something as simple as this where there are folks that are not occupying those positions that's why there is a legal budget process it's better set out in Mass general laws and that is why we in Mass general laws also gives us the avenue to do things such as this Hanley thank you Mr chairman I may so I I think uh the chair has stated uh his objections and why we're having a public discussion uh having said that in one night you've asked for discussion and a vote I feel and I can ask legal councel if she fails if this is necessary for a vote tonight I think you've a number of times mentioned informed decisions obviously we are not informed by whatever means um you say you've asked for information it hasn't been provided and as a result you're going to make a decision however I'm offering an offramp here in a one meeting stay of execution on the vote if the data through the administrator is provided of whatever you would like through the administrator and it is provided by the register and then you have a chance to review it and if you still feel the same after having received that information which will give you a full um picture of what the realities are we can then take that vote all right it if we do it tonight it's just we don't have any options so I for one am getting information for the first time I don't like getting information for the first time before I have questions to follow up off camera in my own way to make an informed decision if you say you don't have the data then I believe you you don't have the data but we don't need to enact this policy tonight we can if you for your discretion Mr chairman allow it to be carried over for one meeting which will be in two weeks I would charge the administrator to get whatever your fact finding information is necessary to him back through us so you can make a decision your frustration level I would agree if if the questions were asked and not answered this is the pathway but let's go and try to go with the benefit of Doubt here let's get the information requested so we can all make an informed decision and that's where we is that a motion to table if that's what you feel is appropriate I'll put that of a motion that was a motion by commissioner handleing is there a second we that was motion for to bring it back just table uh just to table it so that the information that you're seeking can be through the office of the administrator be asked of so there's a record of it he's the aitor he's a neutral person he's going to get the information we need to make that informed decision that you've spoken I'll second that thank you um just on the motion in second I would just add that this is information that has been asked for and uh we will compile the information that we want get it to Mr Basler uh we have asked for that information and again um in my opinion I I would have liked to have seen uh this letter issued uh we are continuing to delay the inevitable um so but there is a motion in a second to table all in favor I I oos I thank you Mr chairman he letter supporting uh Judith hardigan's buy into the pul County Retirement Association uh two years ago there was legislation filed on behalf of a uh the tax collector in Rocklin who was not put into the retirement system in order to afford her the opportunity to buy in legislation would be required that legislation was filed two years ago by representative dast which is the relevant State Rep uh in that time frame um in the refile period um the house for some reason has asked that the commissioner send uh a perfunctory letter of support this in no way in my my opinion uh the Commissioners don't have any say on this and the Commissioners don't weigh in on this in one manner or another um but that said um I don't think it would do us any harm to uh just give the letter to the office representative the coast so that way this can be refiled Mr chairman can I make a motion take a five minute recess what is the purpose for the recess question I would like to speak to you in the hallway regarding privileged um communication I don't think that's appropriate no I'm not gonna I'm sorry that's fine you can talk to them after the meeting that's fine I would I would is it about this is it about I just asked for five minute recess Mr chair yeah so I I I respect that commissioner Hanley but I do not want us to run a follow the open meeting law which of course you and I convers would do offering a recess if there's something that you feel is gerain to this that needs to be said okay can be no that's fine I I just it's a privileged motion and it's something that is legal so I don't think I'd be violating the open meeting law if I stated why and how in public session but that that's fine is that um so that something that I would like to ask from Council I asked for five minute recess there was a discussion on it and would not have it in I think he's asking for a recess to discuss something and I don't want to put words in your mouth you don't what conversation I want to have with you so let's just leave it at that you don't want to do that's fine with me uh we'll do do it in Open Session if that's what you want that's that's how this works we can't have off we can't have discussions outside of it's fine the open me you you can rule on it Mr chairman so all right uh do we have a motion to I think well I I I would like to understand a little bit more uh I I heard your explanation I don't know who Judy hodan is and I don't think you know who Judy hadigan is could you ask me who judyan was right but then as he spoke I I recognized the back so is this a requirement you said that the house is requiring us to uh what do we what are we required to do by the house the house although I would argue we are not required but the house clerk is asking the uh is asking representative D Coast to acquire uh letters not only from us they want one from the town that would support uh legislation that would afford her the opportunity she may not necessarily exercise the uh right to do so but would afford her the opportunity to buy into the Plymouth County Retirement System dating back to 2009 so in 20 still working for Plymouth County no she works for the town of Rockland she's a town of Rockland employee so this does not uh affect the County's bottom line when she was elected in 2009 uh she was put into obra ra rather than the Plymouth County Retirement System was that at her election Mr chairman it it was I believe at her election based on her ignorance that the town Treasurer at that time um led her to believe that that was her only option for retirement in 2015 she was alerted by the Town Administrator at that time uh that she should have been Ed into the county retirement system and this is all stuff that that happened two years ago so this legislation's already been filed so I the individual came to me the constituent came to me I brought it to the attention of Treasurer O'Brien um and we huddled with the constituent as well as not huddle but I mean through conversations um I suggested to the constituent that she contact the office of Representative D Coast to file legislation because the law only allows the County Retirement board to allow her to buy back into 2015 when they were notified so because the Retirement Board was notified in 2015 according to our research and I'm looking at the treasure to affirm my memory on this because the Retirement Board and he had worked on it back then I believe too 10 years ago so because the Retirement Board was notified of this in 2015 the LA law only allows them to allow her to buy back in to 2015 but she was elected in 2009 so so what this piece of legislation would have done should it had passed last session is it would have given her the opportunity to with the uh vote of the Retirement Board to go retroactive to 2009 okay can I just ask for a clarification yes so where are we in the process is this legislation that was filed in now we're in a new session and has to be ref correct and now the house clerk again for reasons that I can only imagine uh asked representative the co office who then reached out um to me to receive a letter from the county um in support of this and they provided I guess they did this for a Barnstable County Retirement uh system individual as well so they had sent a letter that the barnable County Commissioners had sent uh that was similar so this was filed and never voted on just diing session and is now being refunded did we provide a letter of board on the last we did not okay I didn't think it was necessary because it doesn't mention board that would have written the letter off in theory the Retirement Board could but but they they're asking the Commissioners and that's why it's before us now so you you mentioned two things one that represented the coast who I'm willing to support um requested uh of you but then you said that you had a conversation with the constituent is it our constituent or is it his constituent well his constituents are our constituents yeah but you had did you have a direct conversation with that that constituent that constituent had reached out to me first and I then directed her to representative D Coast to file the legislation okay and so the remedy is I just feel a little awkward about how this is all going down it's not required of us right in my opinion well no however the clerk of the House of Representatives who is the gatekeeper of legislation to be filed has stated to representative D Coast if you want to refile this piece of legislation we want a letter of support from and it wasn't just us they wanted one I think from the town as far as I'm concerned to help the constituent we can check our box and say fine here's a letter of support it doesn't affect the County's bottom line it has no bearing on our budget whatsoever um as far as I'm concerned it's good faith and it's helpful to representative D Coast in filing that leg ation okay so once it goes through the legislature it gets passed does it go to the Retirement Board as an order to the I don't think it would necessarily be in order my understanding is should it go through the legislative process and be signed by the governor uh the individual would then have the right to petition to the Retirement Board um membership and they would have to buy their years in and then the Retirement Board would uh then have a vote on whether or not to allow that individual ual in okay so if I may while I was away you got yourself pointed to the Retirement Board do you see this transaction is in any way being any kind of conflict of interest no for you no well now I don't see where it would be okay that's I just get an understanding and I would and I would clarify I just feel uncomfortable on this completely so if you don't mind I'm just going to abstain yeah that's fine um again I thought this this is a pretty simple routine and and I know I I always appreciate your uh I'm trying you are my New Year's resolution Mr sure I am commission my New Year resolution making it hard to be your friend appreciate your inuendo did you hear me on uh ATD the other night platitudes I miss I missed that it's available I will I will be sure to listen and I always over I'm looking forward to good four years um well somebody has to make a motion I would just say I appreciate commissioner hanley's uh always attempt at inuendo on uh the behavior of myself and commissioner Wright um I don't know where you're going with that and and I would again explicitly say I I don't have if I had influence over the legislative processess in the executive branch of the Commonwealth uh while DX I certainly would have passed um and as you noted I I will be right so um and a vote of the Commissioners to Appo me to the Retirement Board of which I was happy to accept so um I will entertain a motion on the letter okay I'll make a motion uh I guess the prank to send the letter uh supporting Judy had again to uh for the buy back into pouth County Retirement Association and to be clear this letter will be going to representative Doos to be attached to a bill file that's all this is going to I will second that motion All In favor I I one exstension 201 one okay vote McGovern uh mhq for price of Jeep and Dodge 2025 vehicle bid pricing vote McGovern so this that one's Ford and then this is the giving thank add a regular meeting of the pouth County Commission is holding up Plymouth on the 16th day of January 2025 voted to approve an increase in Contra track pricing for the Cooperative bid for public service Vehicles manufactured by Ford Motor Company accessories and Equipment as listed in the invitation for bid Board number 2023-2024 one Elm Street mro mass per attached documentation the requested increases are allowable under the terms of the bid specification second all in favor I um chairman arpa no I have another one this too at a regular me County Commission is holding at Plymouth on the 16th day of January 2025 voted to approve an increase in contract pricing for the Cooperative bid of Public Service Vehicles manufactured by Dodge pricer deep Motor Company and accessories equipment as listed in the invitation for bid Dodge D Dodge 2023 d202 to MCG mhq 4 401 Elm Street mro mass per attached documentation requested increases are allowable under the terms of the bid specifications second all in favor is that it all righta Thea uh well this should be pretty easy I don't know treasure want off I've been dying to do oper it over in Paris uh sure and if I could the director invention sheet apologize to the top the report I know that she was so um I was not the reason this time I just wanted to fill you in that uh we had a quick round table at the end of the AR the other counties and it was reported that North County reviewed 390 applications from the county we viewed and process 37 2 applications brist County received process 371 applications and bar County processed 104 uh it was also noted by the team that the average approval rate was uniform throughout all four counties between 68% and 72% that means roughly that percentage of the applications were approved by uh the Commissioners in each of those counties great largely considered a huge success again reported that while they have very little of any concern about County operation they remains concerned about the operation at the state level and individual communities with some of the monies they receed directly as you know we'll continue reporting on this we do have one vote to take it is the administrative cost it's a little higher than in the past but that's because we received over 80 applications within the last three weeks of the program so there was a lot of activity in that period of time if there other questions I'm here to answer them um but that's what you question commissioner right um was there any money that you know of right now that was returned or yeah um so that's a interesting question I just have to answer there was a lot of money returned throughout the process but we refund it back into those communities okay since then we have had indication that there will be some money's return okay and then still early still too early I'm sorry say again is it still too early okay well so they have now two years to spend okay the money so we have now in December 31st 2026 to see but we already have indication from one community that one of the projects that they had funded a year and a half ago is coming into the budget INE of about 100,000 so that money will come in now again the way we've positioned ourselves just as a reminder of the Commissioners in case you get asked out in the hustings um we allowed uh towns to submit an additional request that we've obligated but withheld and so if the money comes back they have an additional request you could see fit to apply it directly to another one of their requests if a town has not submitted that request you could decide to apply it to another Town's additional 10% request or apply it to an obligation or an additional request that the county ised but here's the good news we have submitted more than $3 million of additional requests so I can't imagine $3 million being returned uh and all of those requests being fulfilled so you will have some people that submitted additional requests including the county that won't get those additional requests so it was the only way to back stop against the federal government pulling any money back here's what I can assure you not a single penny of the monies contributed to p on the ARA program will be returned to the US I think we're one of a few groups that can say right no thank you to the treasur um I want to remind the treasurer that on November 5th 2024 there was vot in the Commonwealth that ended the requirements for mcast So I would ask that the use of mcast words be um you know left out of your vocabul because I know you're always trying to win Goods not used a single uh mcast word in the today uh I don't know Mr chairman I is that a subject of inter I heard a Snicker over here that I chuckled because I have never heard that word and I don't know what that word is it was his attempt always in the last four years to educate me as to the mcast allowable words so just to reminder the Comm up has spoken and said that I should continue to educate I'm doing my best right okay commissioner Hanley pursuant to the terms and conditions of the American Rescue plan act the Plymouth County commes Grant Discman of funds held and administered through the Plymouth County Opa program as follows payment to Clifton LW and Allen LLP and the amount to $ 28,45 for administrative support motion commission second commission right all in favor unanimous okay uh we scared away the extension director so uh Treasurer support treasur O'Brien I have nothing specific unless questions that you folks have no although I think um it may be appropriate um if the bandwidth allows for the next meeting to compile some the information commissioner Hanley uh was asking for in the previous items the revenue projection and the realized savings from the higher inre yes it'll be e suisee that commissioner yes thank you Mr chairman okay I will point out just as a reminder people retired at different points that's why that number is not off the top right yeah okay thank you maintenance and administrator Mr Basler uh in the maintenance department uh we continue to battle uh illness in all of our buildings we have uh anywhere from 10 to 15% team out on any single day uh unfortunately and at one point we had three of our team members in the hospital uh suffering uh some maladies uh the team's doing great uh challenges are the cold and uh melting water and snow and sliping Falls but they stay on top of it uh and uh we continue all the projects that we've been working on um all the major uh Renovations uh just finishing up our Courthouse rent report uh which will be filed with the state uh this this the end of this week uh for administrator's report uh I did uh provide to you an update on the uh on a PowerPoint uh of the dredge I actually presented that at the uh cape in irelands harmas association uh meeting on uh on Tuesday uh it was well attended uh and actually um the South shub Masters Association is not an active Association but uh several of the members uh of s go down there too so I was able to chat with them uh we have the dredge right now in Yarmouth uh just completed a week's worth of uh projects they spoke very highly of it um and uh uh uh the Harbor Master there uh actually gave a glowing Rec recommendation to the other Hab Masters and natural resource man managers uh of the uh efficacy of the machine and uh and uh the meeting the meeting went really well filled in some questions uh and uh there will be additional work coming out of it uh the machines uh heading to Falmouth tomorrow and we'll be start digging uh starting on Tuesday uh down in Falmouth on their annual uh projects um finally I just want to say uh I was able to complete this week uh the Department of Justice grants financial management training program it was a 40-hour online course and final exam uh it just took a lot longer than I wanted to but kind of squeeze 40 hours and uh you know but it's a mandatory thing for us to be able to get any federal money even the even the uh oper and other cares act so uh that's CER is all completed and I did pass very great congratulations congratulations okay um is there anything else chairman if I may um I would ask um I through you I went through the town County Administrator about speaking to you about the possibility of restoring the new business piece and I'd like to add to that if I may with conditions that uh if you allow to happen that uh it would be allowed under the pretense of announcing what the commissioner's new business would be not to be voted on that night and if it gets the approbation of the board that it then be allowed to be put on the agenda for a future meeting as needed for example you know after the election I thought about what are going to be my um priorities for me personally for 2025 that I think we can bring to the table one of them is our program with e911 that you have authorized and we had to cancel a meeting on the 17th with the Chiefs I'm glad that you voted to allow the equipment to go through on that deal that's a very good thing for all of us I think and I'm going to try to build upon that but there are also things that for me personally uh that I ran on that I know you ran on and one of them is revenue streams I would like the opportunity to uh revisit uh authorized program that failed only due to the language that was put forward in a previous attempt for energy management that there was a provision in there that just wasn't going to meet our timeline and and was no longer a program but there is a way I've consulted the previous uh chair the Meritus about language that could be done but we haven't been able to get together on that because of higher priorities within the administrator's office but I would like to at some point address Revenue um in a way that at one point if our partners had gone through with their programs we'd be in pretty good shape as a County right now in terms of Revenue uh there are other opportunities out there for Partnerships and Etc so my point being is if you would mind because I was told you were taking under um advisement if you could restore new business so then we can be authorized to work with the blessing of the board on our own sweat on bringing something tangible to the board for a future vote on that due diligence so I'm always happy to entertain agenda items my calance with commissioner's new business as a broad item on the agenda is um based on the ethics commission and open meeting law in that it is too broad and does not provide um for generally specific noticed items my my intention when it was restored before having it pulled back again was it would be to announce um some of the activities we may have been doing in the community maybe you went and visited a retiree or commissioner wri or myself I think you got you folks when I was away uh saw someone turning a 100 that's that to me was what commissioners business was other items that you've mentioned specifically as I've said bring him to the administrator he's always called and asked and um if the agenda allows it then then we'll put it on the agenda something like that um I would like more background and I'll meet in my own time with Mr bowler to get the background and then if it's something that I think we can execute we'll put it on the agenda and we'll we'll go from that I appreciate the statement but I also added a caveat which wasn't in the PRI all I'm looking for is on a perase basis to State and then the board has vote that night we wouldn't be voting on the issue just I'm bringing this up can we Mr chairman do an energy management program like I did last time and it was put forward we authorize or work together we just couldn't pull it off so I'm not looking to do anything that is unted or agenda yeah so if if you would consider that I would appreciate it as a way to communicate with you as my fellow colleagues the administration and more importantly the residents of the county okay any else yeah I just like to say that you know going out into the communities lately uh because we've been on cable now uh so many people have reached out to me and uh told me that they had no idea what the Commissioners do um I think that you know long time ago we divided the county up into nine towns each of us but uh I would like to at some point uh maybe go out into the towns to a road trip again like we had done before and just uh give them you know some ideas of what we offer them uh I know that they're open for a lot more now regionalizing um so let's get out out there and find out you know what their interests are and what their needs are yeah I mean and then we're gonna move on because they're getting a little off track but um I've always supported that I think again I mean I attended almost every Opera presentation in the last six months um what might be beneficial for us would be a breakdown of the member communities and the services of ours that they are using and the services they are not using so that way for instance I think wam uses the full Suite of services so I'm not sure what more we could um sell to wam um but getting a full breakdown of the communities where we could go and talk about the other Suite of offerings not the worst idea I I shouldn't recognize treasure O'Brien because this is not on the agenda so but I will use conis with respect to the list of services your colleag had already asked me met with the administrator we're putting that together collectively right so you have available to you see how inform that was without any or then what other were to before I would answer that very quickly distracted by the road the road trip oh yes I would just remind the Commissioners that I think it was much more effective the executive committee meeting that you held we invited all the Selectmen and then you had the administrative committee we invited all the administrators having more than 20 years under my belt the road trips are far less effective than when you invite them in to share ideas that went out you've been road trip for decades without getting any real tangible ideas you had one legislative meeting you had three or four tangible ideas some of which were enacted so rather than go out I would just humbly suggest you putting them in and you do that again in the march in as far as the calendar goes Mr chairman didn't we say that we would do by anual so we would be at the six-month juncture to have two more meetings with we're having that in April we have well we were we were scheduled originally for the fall but uh due to the elections and due to the I don't think we had much of an update I I don't think the election had much to do with ARA many things many things least of which being the election um contributed to making it not I mean we had just started the pond uh Resource Center that was getting off the ground so I think the decision was made there's not much more to update here in the fall let's Ki it again to the spring um and I think we're going to absolutely do that um I look I have never had I don't have a problem I I think it would be ineffective for us to take commissioner meetings into these sound halls but I think finding our way onto some of these uh agendas um in some of these communities where some of this information again some of the programs that we're running would be beneficial so I think that's a good idea can I just all right go off one thing to Tom so I'm sorry may I yes or no uh yes and then that's it um one of the things that I found out which I ended up really explaining to a lot of people is what we do is we communicate with the town managers and a lot of times from the town manager to the uh select board or the counil whoever they are they don't get the same thing although we did have that meeting a lot of them were very surprised about what we were able to do and I think that was a great meeting uh but it's from taking it from there going out to the community how do we get this out to the community you know so and I even thought we have uh The Advisory Board there's one member from every town why couldn't they you know bring it to their town meeting and uh you know anything new or anything that we're doing or bring just bringing up the fact that you know what County government has done yeah just as a quick response old breath of perspective you folks have over the last two and a half years been in front of the 27 communities in every respect thousand times more than ever before right people have more of a recognition understanding appreciation for count government because of candly I don't think going to town meetings um is a very effective way to talk about theing people are there usually with an agenda item or items don't want to hear that they tend to be focused on whatever school project they're there for or whatever it you they're there for um and when we go in front of slman where you folks go they tend not to be there to listen to what you're offering and I just feel as though what would really work with those collaborative meeetings and then maybe feed off of those so I would bring those groups in again in March gr talk to them and even ask them hey we want to continue to get this information out how are you in the front line feel that would be best but just continuing to do the checks you have another 6 to 12 months of those you saw the pile on my desk we'll schedule those out over the next couple of weeks so that's your opportunity that's your time to get there and even when you and I went to hang do you have anything you need from us they're like nope just keep bring your ask me yeah and I'm afraid that's all you'll continue to get let's bring them in get their ideas and then ask okay okay with that I'll entertain a motion to adjourn motion commission andley second commission right all in favor I okay thank you do I have to return this you me keep that I'm not going to pill for any