001All right, it's six o'clock. Thank you everybody for coming. Uh and uh this is just anformational conversation for the public. um we can interact at this point, but once that's over, we're going to have a start our actual board meeting and then there's no public commenting after that. So, I guess this everybody has uh information on what we're talking about. It's the first selectman salary. Uh is there anybody who would like to comment? We're going to have two limit two minute limits. Uh uh Joe, he beat you with his hand up. You can go next, Tom. Uh so if you can state your name. So I'd like to speak in support of increasing the first selectment zone for now and for going forward. And one thing that struck me this morning as I was thinking
002about it is that we do things like fix the soccer team and the first sele on the money we spent like that. So you know I think we should increase it to a competitive amount. I'll defer to the people who are calculating the numbers to say what that should be, but I think it's important that we attract people in the future um that are going to be able to put in the time and of the quality of them. Not to say that we don't have it now, but in the future when it's harder to attract people to attract high quality talent within our country. Thank you. >> Thank you, Joe. Tom >> Tom Manning, 18 school road. I rise to support an increase in compensation for the first selectment. Um, as you know, when I
003speak, I speak based on facts, principles, and reason. The facts have been very conveniently provided to me by Jim Aldrich. Uh, the principle to me is the principle of government of the people, by the people, and for the people as opposed to giving it over to the administrative state. I love I love Jim Rubert. I I love our David Caruso, but um the leader needs to be somebody who comes from the comes right from the people. Um the first selectment position has its own own uh its own chapter in the chart our charter. So it's it's a very important position. And in terms of the time that it requires just just think about the assignment you know when I go to my board I go to those meetings those those meetings I'm obliged to attend
004for selectman as an exeicio member of all the boards and commissions at so he's got a so he's got a big job that's much much beyond uh other uh uh other elected positions um and I understand it's up to uh 20 to 30 hours per week uh as compar compared to me by just a few hours a month. Um I think this table that Jim has prepared is just a great summary of the facts that are relevant to this issue and to both. >> And if you just scanning the um Hello Yes. >> Oh, I was just muting. >> That wasn't me. >> Um, just just scanning the the columns, you can see how consistent it is from top to bottom, even though there's a wide range in uh in the numbers of uh of
005the population and the per capita income. >> Um, >> time's up, Tom. Thank you. Sorry to cut you short, Jim. Oh, well actually Amanda's had her hand up here if you don't mind. >> Well, good because my question is actually for Jim. So, um thank you Jim for pulling together this data. It's um much more thorough and um more comparative than the anything I've seen thus far. So, I appreciate that we're comparing by um you know per capita income and that we've eliminated mayor and town government types. That said, it's my understanding that our government type, which is council, town, meeting within that type of government, there's also a wide degree of variations and a lot of those town governments choose to delegate a lot of administrative tasks to either a town administrator, a town
006manager, or a first selectman. And so within this type of government, I would also like to see a comparison where there's town administrators or managers because there are some towns where the first selectman is the primary administrator for the town. They are running things the same way the day-to-day operations the same way Jim does for us. And so I don't think that we can compare ourselves to towns like that. I do think that this position does warrant an increase um given the time and energy that goes into it and and wanting to knowing how challenging it is to get somebody to run for these positions. Um but I just want to make sure that the data that we're looking at is truly comparable in terms of not only the the the size of the town
007whether there's a school system but also the form of government and the roles and responsibilities of the position. Thank you very much Amanda Jim. >> Well the answer first of all excellent comments and I hope it doesn't bite into my time but uh a town manager by definition usually is the CEO of a community the first selecting government. The first selectman is the CEO. That's the big difference. Uh as everybody now knows my name is Jim Aldrich at 35 handover farms. I'm here tonight to speak in favor of a raise for the first selectment. I'm a former member of the charter commission. Uh Gwen was our job uh chair. She did a great job. After much deliberation, the commission decided to leave the authority for the first selectman's pay to the board selectman. Since our
008charter work was completed in July 22, I've sought bipartisan support to adjust this compensation fairly. In my past discussions, some of the data I used was incomplete. Only within the last month did I learn that the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, CCM, an organization that our town belongs to, has the missing information needed for more accurate analysis. I've summarized that in the report I gave to the selectman in tables one through three. Due to time constraints, I'm going to focus on table two. Everyone here has a copy of that. The first column in table two lists comparable towns by number. The cohort group includes 32 towns are similar to Bolton. The second column shows each town's per income per capita income ranking while the fifth column shows the actual per capita income. Connecticut has 169 towns
009ranked from Darien at number one with a per capita income of 147,000 down to Harford at number 169 with a per capita income of 25,000. For my analysis, I looked at towns ranked from number 58 to 116. Bolton at number 87 near sits near the middle of the school for the per capita income of 53,577. The economists and researchers I consulted strongly recommend using per capita income rather than household income since household income fluctuates wildly. Thanks. That's two minutes. Thanks. by Apple. >> Yeah, I'm certain I'm not certain that's right. Well, I was halfway. >> Perhaps if there's time at the end of the hearing, we could circle back to people who still have additional comments to make. >> Any additional time? Tom Crockett, 121 Birch Mountain Road, Bolton. I'm going to come from a
010different angle. For six years, I was the minority leader in Manchester. The board of directors and the mayor that we have, our job is to make decisions. When we made decisions, we weren't involved from day one. We had bigger staff. I know Bolton has nowhere near this staff, but the fact of the matter, somebody had to come up with a final product. And I'm sure you people are working on that right from the get-go. You're not sitting there getting a copy 20 pages or a disc or so on and so forth. When you think of all the things that have to be done in a town, you could possibly have enough people to do it. You might actually have to make some phone calls. You might have to look online about some projects and it's
011a lot of work. I know you don't have a police department. You don't have a landfill, you know. But I know when I was there, I was spending 20 hours a week a month just going over reports and so on and so forth just because I had to give had to come up with some idea ideas on this stuff. But I I I just want to say to to keep the town moving along unless you want to hire a lot of staff, which is going to cost you more than $17,000 to have people from the first selectman. But the final product a lot of these towns is a result of a whole lot of people who just sit there and then the decision makers make it and then I was six years the the town
012treasurer and it was the same thing. We got reports full reports we had experts we had attorneys. We had this, we did that and it was all just laid out for us. But I, you know, somebody's got to do the work and I don't think Bolton could possibly pay that unless somebody got involved. And it usually falls on the first selection. And the only other thing I want to say before partnering is uh I probably got phone call a month at home. Something was wrong. They stopped by the office. People would stop in and say I didn't call them, but I was just driving by. I thought I'd like you to explain what went on. Well, it's okay. You didn't vote for me. I mean, just they got short quick answers and then I showed
013them off because I had work to do. But so the job the job goes >> goes on and on and on and you answer the phone. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Tom. Next. Is there anybody else who would like to Good evening. My name is Daniel Buckson. I've been a resident for 68 years. My whole life, been on volunteer commissions myself, senior commission, and we helped get the senior center renovated and built. I was a chairman for many terms. Uh, no one asked for money. It was a volunteer effort. This is a volunteer town. I really don't think we should be paying the first selectman more money. Number one, because we can't afford it. The board of ed just came in with a 5.1% increase, which is a lot of money. Most of the collective
014bargaining units have been given raises, which I'm not against. I'm just saying there's a lot of expenses a small town has to pay. So, I do not think we can afford it. I also think it's the absolute wrong thing to do because remember the first selectman has no qualifications. All you have to be is of a certain age and a resident. We could collect we could elect if you could win the election anyone to be first select man. It's not it's not a professional position in that there's no qualifications for it. So why in God's name would we be giving more money to a person who might win an election which is the only requirement to be for selected besides age and perhaps a town residency plus healthcare plus perhaps a pension. That's not how
015it was designed to be. It should be anyone can run. Anyone can get elected. You can be for selectment, but it's not based on money. It's not based on health care. It's not based on pension benefits. It's based on your desire to serve the people of Bolton. And I'm afraid if we start attaching financial increases to this position, we're going to attract unqualified people who just want to do it for the money, which often happens. If there is a decision to u increase these these benefits and pays and pensions, I think it should come before the public for a vote, it should not be decided by the board of selectment. That's a conflict of interest. And also, if there is any approval, it should only be equal to a percent increase of what we're giving
016our collective bargaining and other employees. For example, if you're getting 17,000 now and the collective bargaining people got 2%, you get a 2% raise with definitely no pension and no healthcare for the reasons I stated. Thank you. Thank you, D. Appreciate your comments. Uh, next. Uh, Bob Neil. My name is Bob Neil. I was at 195 West Street Bolton. I was a selectman for 20 years. And when I was a selectman, I suggested that the first selectman get a pay raise. I know you work 30, 40 hours a week, and I think what you're getting now is ridiculous. And I know if you come up to a vote, I'd vote for your pay raise. >> Thank you, Bob. Uh Bob Moore. >> Bob Moore, 15 Thinker Pond Road, 34 years on this board in various
017aspects of it. And there's one comment. If the first element gets a raise in the same percentage as everybody else, let's put in perspective. I started $900 a month. 2% of that isn't worth slat. So that that's I don't think is at all appropriate. What is appropriate is the amount of effort that's required and the time that's required. If you're employed at whatever your 9 to5, you want to be for selectment, you got to put another 60 or 20 hours in after that. Those of us who have served in that position, there's a number of us here today, you put in an incredible hours because you wanted to help the town. Well, somebody sacrificed that. You didn't, but your family did. And it's time that we recognize that. and recognize these peoples, put that effort
018into it, not have to go through that issue. So, let's bring this thing up. It's not a pay. I think it's a compensation that somewhat helps uh offset what you're doing and what you're actually losing in your time in whatever profession you are. Thank you. >> Thank you, Bob. Uh Mary, I see your hand up. Did you have your >> uh mayor board for the school road? Uh at this point I am not in favor of um raising the salary of the first selectman. Um if we do that I I don't we don't have any guaranteed benefit that we're going to get any better better ideas, better service, better anything. I mean, if if if we pay somebody, I mean, we we've had things that have gone on in this town for decades. I mean,
019I work in a trailer, temporary trailer, you know, the registars's office, and that's because for decades, decisions haven't been made. And so, I don't think that necessarily paying the first is going to make better decisions. Um, and if if they do want to or if it does go to a vote, I think it should go to a town vote. Um, raise the pay, uh, I think there should be some guarantees to some degree, like if you're going to if you're going to increase that pay, what if what if we're not getting any better service out of the first selectman? Is there a way to recall? Is there a way to impeach? Is there a way for us to not have to wait till the next term and just keep spending that money anyway? So if
020there if it did happen, I would hope there would be more guard rails as far as that goes for any type of recall or uh any procedure in that manner and I did agree with um any of the points that you thank >> you Mike 30 Lori Ro uh couple of points on it. When you look at the salary that's here, 17,000. I know Rodney takes time off from work. And you got to be charging at least $50 an hour for your work. So the time that you lose, you're not compensated even for the hours you lose during the week. So there's a there's a definite need to be able to raise the salary to be able to attract somebody who works for a living other than just a retired person. I could take that
021salary that be would be better than greeting at Walmart. you know, nice part-time gig for a retired person, but you can't always get retired people. We want to get somebody who's got their hands in today's business and knows exactly what's going on. So, I think there's a need to raise the salary. Uh, some of the numbers I've heard kicked around 76,000. I think I'm a little opposed to that. When you add that to Jim's figure, we're looking at a couple hundred thousand a year to manage the town, which might be a little bit higher than I would have mentioned. When I talked to Jim earlier, I thought, you know, 36 30 somewhere between 30 and 35,000 would be a fair number for the number of hours that I see people working and to attract somebody
022that is still working as opposed to just a retired person. Uh I don't think that you're looking at anybody based on uh their uh experience or their credentials. These are people that like Bob who's worked in this town for years and Rodney uh we've gotten pretty good service out of our first selector. You know, Sandy, Gwen on the board. Uh you know, I I think we've done pretty well with our elections and voting people that were qualified to do the job. I do think the first election deserves a raise, but probably not what I've heard the numbers bantered around. >> Thank you, Mike. Uh, next. Yes, >> Jane. I don't know. I definitely thought I think we're talking 2030 a week that he spent. What we're forgetting is it's a 24hour 7 day a week
023job. I mean, do people get called? We're talking. I don't think we're thinking about that. Anyone who's first elected deserve to be compensative, not that they're going to do a better job, a lesser job, just what you're doing. And I think the town is smart enough to not vote someone in, but they don't really fall by. >> Thank you. Jane Foster metal road. Next, >> Richard Hayes or Bernard. So, I'm uh as well was part of that uh charter revision committee that was uh the uh I guess the author of this suggestion and I appreciate all the effort that went into this and obviously most importantly I appreciate what Mr. Aldridge has done as far as putting the numbers together. I park company with him on a few different aspects of this, but I'll get
024into those in a minute. One of the things that you have to remember is that, you know, this charter revision committee was completed in 22. They went to vote in that same year and everything in in that u all those recommendations were implemented. This is the only one that hasn't been. I can't figure out why. I don't know why we're still talking about this. It's it's just beyond me. But the fact that Mr. Mr. Aldridge, if he had been able to complete his um his uh little presentation earlier, he would have told you that in our dur or in our uh uh group of people here that the average number would have been somewhere in the vicinity of $73,000. Okay, this is where I find company with him. He believes that's the salary that should
025be put forth. Okay, I'm okay with that number. But the thing that he doesn't think that should be put forth is the opportunity to get health care in health insurance as well as some sort of a 401k or a retirement package. We can't discriminate against one person in this town as an employee. You know, everybody else has those opportunities. Why would the first selectman not be granted those same opportunities? That to me is is tantamount to discrimination. And I don't believe that in any way, shape, or form that's any of us are about that here. I think that we just have to be fair about the whole thing and uh you know I'm still a little frustrated that it's taken this long to get to this point but at the same time I think that
026you know uh it's long overdue and I appreciate your time tonight. >> Thank you Rich Tyler Tyler uh 10 French road. I've served on the uh finance committee uh for a little over a year now. uh and I'm here to speak in support for increasing the pay of the first selectman. Uh and I'd like to say that having the first selectman uh as part of the exeicio uh member or or are you a member of the um finance committee either way having him on the finance committee is uh extremely extremely useful. uh he's very knowledgeable about all the town's inner workings and having him as a resource um you know at at those meetings um I I really can't uh express how helpful that is. And my other point I'd like to make is that
027um you know the the amount of hours and the work uh that is put in uh to this position uh I know I've I called Rodney at you know various hours uh of the night and you know some of sometimes the meetings tend to go to you know 8 9:30 10:00 so there is quite a uh quite a time uh commitment involved and uh they should be compensated fairly. Thank you. >> Thank you Ty. Uh, next. Is there anybody anybody online? Uh, >> hey Chris Lane. I don't know if I can do this. Um, but I'll just say right off uh that I'm in support of the pay raise and if I could, can I yield my remaining nine? >> I believe so. Is there anybody else who wants to comment? >> Can we get
028a second round? >> Rodney, this is Sandy Pog. Yeah. Oh, you don't know how to put your hand up on the phone, huh? >> No, I'm driving. Sorry. >> Go ahead. No, I got it. Yeah. >> Um, as a fourterm former first selectman, um, that it takes a lot of work to run the town. I do not support >> giving the first selectment. Okay. Sorry, I was driving through the 384 tunnels. I do not support giving the first selectman who is a part-time employee who works an unspecified number of hours a week a retirement plan or health insurance. No other part-time employee in the town gets those benefits. I work um about 300 hours in the between April and August October for the town as registar of voters. I make 25 under $25 an hour.
029I do not get overtime. I understand that the first selectman probably puts in 20 to 30 hours above what his regular job is because I was a full-time employee when I was first selectment. I truly believe that 25 to 35,000 is the correct number for the selectman's salary. Think back to the ref number of referendums we had this year to even pass the budget. Bolton residents are very very concerned about where their dollars going and paying a first selectman who may or may not be in the office every day is not the way to go. Thanks. >> Thank you. Sandy here of Brandy Street. >> Anybody else? >> You're welcome. Uh Pam, >> one of the things that should be brought up is the change the charter revision commission made. It took the first selectman
030and increased his job and workload by over a third by putting him on the finance commission. So he does all the first selection efforts and normally what used to happen was he put the work of the the rest of the boards in the town put the budget together and then it went off to the board of finance. Well that has changed now and so they have increased his position by putting him on the finance committee. So that is I think an important piece that we need to look at when we're looking at compensation. The point that was making is very true. He's on 24/7. You may not have a week that has 17 hours. You may have a week that has 40 hours. And that means weekends, nights, early mornings, meetings and and commissions that
031you attend as an exeicio or an ad hoc member. So I think it is significant to get and to attract other people to be able to give them a representative amount of money. my repres my representation at the time I had the ability to be able to put it in with the salary that was there but it's not for everybody >> just happens to be the fortune that I had so I would re and I was not on the finance board at the time that changes a lot and I think that needs to be recommended today that we talk about a finance the bottom line but then I think 354,000 is is an appropriate If there's no one else, we'll give Randy Bob. >> Randy Bob, >> he's on first round. >> I didn't see
032it. Yeah, Randle Bob 116 Bean Road. I'm in support of a raise for the first element. I know Bob told me we started at $900 um in 1989. And if you do a consumer price calculation, which uh the computer will do for you, um you should be paid about 27,000 today based on those numbers. I know it's a ton of work. I was board of finance for two terms and I know how difficult it is to get a budget passed in this town but I really think if we can find the money um not only to help the present day people but to attract some qualified people whole future. Thank you. Um, yes, >> Dixon, 72 Tinker Pond Road. Uh, rather than repeat what other people have said, I would like to yield my time
033to Jim Aldridge to complete what he started earlier. >> Thank you, Bernice. Thank you for coming out. I guess uh Bob wanted and then we'll go to Jim. Did you have something else you wanted to >> very quickly just in the dollar wise if you were to increase the salary to between 35 and 40,000 what are we talking about $25,000 maybe $30,000 increase in the administrative budget >> right >> that's it with that perspective >> Jim well Jim's been asking so sorry let me you can go after sorry I've been inefficient with my words I instead of giving my opinion I I really want to focus on closing out this table that I gave everybody. So the bottom line is it's based on per capita income. All the towns 32 are comparable. Okay. The data
034doesn't come from it comes from the Connecticut conference of municipalities and organization town belongs to and when we look we add up all the first selection salaries to the bottom the average first selectman today is $73,650. Many of those people get health care and pension. Most those things add up another $20,000. What I'm saying is just looking at the data, comparable towns, all these towns have a population less than 20,000. If I had included towns bigger than 20,000, the number would have gone up even higher. So it's towns of zero to 20,000. They're all first selectman. First selectman led means first selectman is the chief executive officer. And what you can see is the pay is 73,650. I strongly recommend that you consider changing the pay of the first select bin up to something equivalent
035to 73,650 especially if you're not going to give healthcare and pension. And the last comment I'd like to offer is I've also been recruiting candidates for 30 years now. It's going to be a very difficult job and it's hard to find people that can put in 20 to 30 hours a week for this job and it is many times much more and it's a very demanding job. It needs a very talented skillful person. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jim. >> Again, Dean Bodson 128 lane. Just one follow-up comment. I do know that the elected officials work very hard in this town. with a lot of hours put into the positions. But I've been in town long enough to know that not all of our first select people have been qualified or competent over the history
036of my life anyway. And again, the position has no qualifications. Anyone can run for office probably based on age and residency. And if they can get elected, they're elected. You don't have to have a high school degree. You don't have to have a college degree. You don't have to have an elementary school degree. All you have to be is a good politician who can win an election. That is not a qualification set to offer someone compensation for. I do very much agree with this woman's idea is if there is monetary pay attached to the position, there should be recall. There should be a way to get rid of the first selectment prior to the next election because they're now a paid employee getting benefits perhaps a pension and a salary. And it again it should
037not go before the board for a decision. >> Thanks. >> Is there any other comments? >> We spent $30 million on the high school. We had a heck of a lot less debate on that subject than we did here tonight. So, you know, I kind of wonder everybody should think about that for a minute. But thank you. >> Thank you, Rich. Um, >> can I chime in again, Rodney? >> Uh, yeah. Morris Silverstein just jumped in here. One second. Thank you. Go ahead, Morris. >> Morris Overstein at 15 Mount S Drive. Um, I'm in favor of a raise for the first selection. However, I think you should look at it this way. You should study the situation and find out what the duties are, what the responsibilities are and the pay should be commensurate with
038duties and responsibility. You have to look examine the past, find out how you get to the present so you can plan for the future. back where World War II and after that they used to this town used to be run by a three board threeman board of selectmen. Bobby Morris's father was was the first selectman at times. Mikey Peas was another selectman and then there was another one and what evolved after that was that a five person board of selectman and now what has evolved into is a seven board of selectmen because board of finance was done away with. So I think the problem should be studied and it should looked at this way. The first selectman used to run the town, but now we have an administrative officer who runs the town. So therefore,
039in the future, my comment would be this. When Jim retires or leaves the office of of administrative assistant, consideration should be given to combining First Selectman's office and administrative office. And if you do that, you're looking at $133,000 uh for the administrative officer. You're looking at $17,000 for the first selectman. You put that together, you have a decent salary to offer someone to be a full-time first selectment to run the town. Now I don't know who gets up at 4:30 in the morning whe it's you or Jim to sell go the plows to go plow the road but there was a time when Bobby Morris's father Richie he had to do that now I don't know whe the perspect still does that >> it was a two-minute warning >> but anyway that's my point >>
040thank you Amanda >> thanks I just wanted to chime in with a point of clarification um on the the charter change So, while you have been good enough and kind enough, sorry, he's whining, um, to attend all of the finance committee meetings, right, the charter does specify that the first selectman can delegate. And in your first two years, you did delegate that position to Bobby Mora, and therefore, it is not necessarily an increased burden on the first elect if they so choose to delegate that position to someone else. Um, and again, I I do think that the position I would be in support of around 30 to $35,000. Um, if you do 20 hours a 20 hours a week, right, that equates to about $33 an hour. At 30 hours a week, it's around $22
041an hour. That is much more in line with some of what the other pro-time positions are getting paid through the town. So, thank you again for letting me chime in. >> Thank you, Amanda. Yep. Uh, is there anybody else? Well, if there's not, I think I'm going to drop a comment here. Um, so just so we all understand that the first selectman could very well be in charge of the whole town. If Jim Rert walked out of here tomorrow, I would be running the town. So that's that's a lot of weight on anybody's shoulders. Just the fact that that could happen. I'm the chief of police, so I have to do all the permits and go through all that. I'm I'm not trying to sell anybody on anything. I'm just letting you know because it's
042sounding as though everybody thinks uh the first selection is just some halfhazard position. The town committees put together and find people to run for office. If the town committees are totally incompetent and they're just grabbing anybody to run for office because they say, "Let's run this guy," then that's that's fine with the way you want to think. That's okay. But that's not how it works. And then the the people in town have to go to a machine and vote. If they think A is a bad guy and B is a good guy, then they vote the way they want. So it's not that you could be a guy coming out of school and somebody's going to vote for you. If if that's what the people want to do, that's up to them. But that's not
043part of the position. And I have a hard time to be qualified in that category. So uh and the other thing is uh what happened the first election position is very much the face of the town. So you really have to you have to go meet with the state representatives. you're meeting with the the crog and you start getting out there and meeting everybody and trying to sell the town and collecting money and finding different people to help you. And so anyways, it's that's all I want to say just so you have something to think about. >> Any other comments? I guess that's going to end that part of the meeting. Do you want to just mention that we will be taking action of some kind at at the 7 o'clock meeting? >> That's our
044No, did it say seven or immediately? >> Seven. Yes. >> Okay. >> People know if they want to hang around. >> Um I guess we got to wait till 7. Uh at 7:00 we're going to continue our discussion amongst the board >> and we may vote. Uh we may not. Yes. Um, just have a question for you. Um, when you ran the first, what were the public, what was the hours that are uh for this position >> that was that was discussed? How many >> was there some number that said as a parttime person they're expecting to work like ours? >> No, >> it was left open. There was a whole bunch of qualifications. >> Nope. The town committee picks people and that's who they nominate to run. >> At a caucus that's open to
045all party members. >> Mike. >> Yeah. Just dealing with qualifications. You know, I think we've done very well in this town. That's right. We've had running serving as first selected and then was on board selector. Uh when you talk about qualifications, I don't believe there's any written qualifications for the mayor of Hartford, the mayor of West Hartford, the mayor of East Hartford, New Haven. They're picked basically the same way we are. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't win, but at least in this town, we've been very consistent in getting people who care about the community and do a very good job to their best of their ability to take care of what needs to be done. You know, I I I can't remember a first election that didn't do the best job they could to
046this community, and I was very proud of the ones we had in the past. >> So, you know, to >> Yeah, I was one of them. Maybe the worst, but no, no, no. But anyway, yeah, if if you you know, to say qualifications for first element, that's like qualifications for mayor. You don't see that. That comes out in the campaign. That's right. and you debate and you have your resume out there to see what your qualifications are. There's no written qualifications for mayor in any community. >> To be president, you have to be a US citizen and 31, right? >> Yeah, that's that's the only qualifications and technically not a not but we'll debate that later. >> No, they don't check the resume. >> But anyway, uh you know, qualifications, no, there are no qualifications.
047the elected first current in any community in this state. >> And there's not really a job description either. >> No, there really isn't. It's you you do the job that's necessary. The first elect here does the job that's necessary. Some weeks you may get lucky and have two hours. Another week you may be up in the middle of the night dealing with a situation. I can remember delivering oil to somebody in the middle of the night because nobody else would go out and do it but >> or writing a speech. Yeah, I know. I gave it to Memorial Labor. >> My wife told me to shut my mouth. But anyway, that is my opinion qualification. I think we're doing very well. >> A quick point of clarification, chairman, are we still in the meeting? Are
048we >> 7 o'clock? It's not a meeting. >> So, we're no longer in anformational session or are we adopting by the are we still abiding by the rules we had previously or now we just open for >> previously for what? >> The two-minute rules. We did that because our next meeting is at 7:00 and if it was going to run into that then it would have been but we can't start the other meeting until 7. So we're just >> we're going to kill 20 minutes somehow here. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Are you still taking comments? >> Uh yes, Paula. Go ahead. Um, I guess I I joined late, so I I'm sorry if I'm repeating anything that somebody already said, but my concern here, I I have absolutely zero issues with with a selectman
049getting paid an amount that is deemed to be fair or appropriate or whatever it is. It's a job that I think is thankless and I think that not um not enough people really understand what the job takes. My my two concerns with this, however, are um the precedent that it sets in terms of the just the way this conversation has been framed from what I've heard is that, you know, oh, it's a lot of hours that we're not paid and so we need to we need to pay something. There's a lot of people that put in a lot of time into this town that are unpaid. And I don't believe that I don't believe I don't know that there's anybody that's more than the selectman. could be, but I don't I'm I'm concerned about the
050president that says that's that comes out now that says well anybody that gives x am so some amount of time now needs to get compensated and I would rather see something that's got parameters around it that is that is um that keeps that um protects us from other people coming forward and saying well I also put a lot a lot of time into the town and I'd like to also be compensated. I don't know what that is. I'm not in a position to be able to say what that is. I'm just saying that I would like to see that. Um, the other part that concerns me also is when you're paying somebody a salary, and I'll use myself as an example. I get paid a salary to do my job. I get evaluated on an
051annual basis. So, if we're going to be giving a significant amount of salary on an annual basis to somebody and not have any any ability to um assess them on the on the job they're doing other than four years later, um that's a little bit of concerning to me, too. Again, I don't it's not the dollar amount that I'm I'm worried about. It's the it's it's the dollar amount that goes along with not being able to to assess whether anybody like you don't have you don't have a boss except for every four years. Um and the third thing that I have a concern about only is that I'm concerned that the we have trouble passing a referendum when when people see this and online is going to go crazy. I think people are going to
052be talking about this forever. I'd almost rather see this issue go for referendum and see what the people in this town say because they have to be willing to to accept this and then not vote for not accept something else and I don't know whether the town is willing to accept that. So those were my three things. Thank you. 57 Country Club Road. Sorry. >> Thank you. So uh I think most of what you spoke of if we were to try to build a criteria would all have to go in the charter. Correct? That would all be charter revision, which the next charter revision, you could hit that up to put parameters on there, but I mean, we can't just make them up. >> Just a comment that I think everybody's overlooked. This board sets
053it, >> right? Sets a salary. >> Yeah. >> You set a budget every year. >> That's right. >> You can make your your budget your salary next year $1, >> right? There's nothing that says you can't reduce it. So this this idea of if you have a first selectment that comes in, it's complete God. You're not doing anything that the board can't say okay pallet or woman. I'm not I mean we're using this generic he but uh because we've had both very very well serve serve uh this community. The board makes that decision. So, so every four years the electorate the decision is made who that serves in that position. What that person gets can be changed every year by this board. And so to that point, I was just to the previous uh to
054I guess what Miss Meyers said on the phone, it got me thinking that if this board were to then consider uh like a proportional increase to the pay of the other selectmen as it is a volunteer position to, you know, we do all work, you know, or we do volunteer significant time, not to the same degree that the first selectman might, but then, you know, is is that a worthwhile hypothetical to say if we were to increase it by >> we Well, we do provide compensation, but if we were to provide >> usually a 3% increase, >> but if it were to be 150% increase or whatever was proposed, then would that be something that >> vote on that? >> Yeah, that's something that's voted once a year. The raises were discussed >> that happened
055back in October. >> And and last year's budget that was passed and we're working on included this pay raise for this year already. It's already in this year's budget. We're just It's not in next year's yet and it has been since it was voted on. >> You vote on your budget every year. >> Up, down, round, black, >> right? No, I understand that, too. But if we're looking for a participatory aspect of each individual >> is Dan behind you with his hand up. >> Sorry, I'm I >> since you're since you're allowing third comments, >> what >> again? Um, it's I think it's a extreme conflict of interest for the board of selecting to vote on their own salary. It's just not right. I don't care if it's in the charter. I don't care if
056it's technically legal. You should not be voting on your own salary. That's a conflict of interest. Number one. And number two, we have to keep in mind the limited funding in this town. Okay. The board of ed wants a 5.1% increase. There have been negotiated contract contractual increases given already and approved. My taxes are going to go up. I know that they go up every year. Y >> if my taxes go up, I would prefer them to go to those other things than this position. No offense to the hard work you do. I was an volunteer senior citizen commission chairman for years. the number of hours myself and the other uh board members put in was incredible to get that senior center grant built and renovated. It's not a matter of how hard you work
057or or how good or not good you are. The town doesn't have an endless amount of money and the people prove that every time they defeat a budget. So two points should not lie with the board of ed or the board of selectment. It should go to referendum and I don't think we have the money not with the board of ed meaning more money every year too. Pam >> in order to pay it to you have to have a full public hearing. This is not a public hearing. This is informationational reform >> and you'd have to go further into the process to bring it to a town vote as a separate town vote which is very expensive. Let's start with that issue as well. Uh >> you a lot of times >> well about that
058not about Bernice. How much is it to run a referendum >> now? five $6,000 just so just for your frame of reference. >> That's on the low end based on what we heard in recent weeks from the um election folks are are >> no less than 73. >> Uh hold on. Mary had her hand up. I almost said Mary had a little but go ahead. The only um comment that I had was regarding um you know you change your salary, you can change your salary at any time, but this is a political vibe and that does have influence on what decisions get made as far as things like that. So that's it's not like like an employee where you're you're changing your salary based on either the contract or uh the performance. Mr. political body
059and you're and I can see why you're saying it's concept of interest. Um and and I think that could influence it. All I'm saying it's not >> Jim. Thank you Mary. Oh free we uh I started this effort on the charter commission and charter commission didn't want to have it blosser. It's getting to be very difficult to recruit people for these college offices. This past first select women's race, we had two talented candidates, Rodney and Amanda. Okay. There was zero press coverage, no biography, no nothing. There's no newspaper report that comes to town meetings when I was chairman of the board of finance. It was I was a press person there. Okay. The local newspaper isn't even owned locally. There's no news coverage. We are running our government. In fact, I concur with what Mike
060said. We've got extremely talented people both parties and Folton's a town that goes Republican sometimes Democrat the others. Okay, we've we're going to appreciate point because I also do candidate recruitment. We're not going to be recruiting full candidates for all these boards. If there's one position we got to fill with our most talented person, it's got to be the first selection. We have six other people on the board selecting and the hopes are after you do your internship as a regular selectman at and I tell people 10 to 15 hours a month you're willing to say you know what I'm going to run for the first selectman's job and on top of that when you make that decision when you go home and tell your spouse that they're not getting crazy mad at you because
061you're going to be donating 20 30 plus hours per week. I'll give you a couple examples. Okay, we had a guy I'm in the fire department. One of the guys in the fire department was a janitor at the high school. Fantastic person. He was an officer in fireman. He passed away. The whole fire department showed up for the funeral, including the first selectman. And the first selectman stayed there for several hours, went around and talked to the chief, the officers, talked to the family members. Where's that show up in anybody's job description? Okay. and they want to put solar panels in Manchester on the Bolton line. Who went there and spoke at the Manchester meeting about putting that? We got an automatic notification. Okay. Crag comes in and they they want to fix the intersection
062at 44 and six at Notch. Okay. Who's a member of Crag? Our first selectman. He goes to his first GRA meeting. They elect him secretary in the organization. That's 10 hours a week or 10 hours a month. And I'll tell you, fixing that road intersection is critically important because you can't get across town. It's a roadblock and it's an unsafe situation. The things we ask of the first selective and I thought Amanda would do a good job. Ronnie did a good job. But I strongly support getting that pay up to something that's very reasonable. And that's what was so important of my six-year journey of this. I finally got data from CCF. The average pay is 73,000. Here's here's the biggest adversary. Again, a big increase. His former first select me. All these people did
063the job. They didn't ask for any money. They did a super job. They put in long hours. Okay. Where are you going to find people to advocate for a sizable fairness and parody for the first select? That's why I was hoping you use the data more than the opinions of any. >> Thank you. >> Question. Oh. >> Oh, Bernice had her hand up here over here. Sorry. David's going to cut in with a >> cl. So, if we're no longer a public information session, um then are we not having potentially a legal meeting between the five of us at the moment, plus Bob online? >> I don't think we actually brought the information session to a close. I I feel like we're still >> say at the the end of one of the last two-minute
064sessions that we would be moving on. That's when we check the timeline of the next meeting. >> That's so not 7 o'clock. Well, so you had you had said it was >> you had previously concluded the meeting at like 6:38. Yeah. >> So, we've been here for >> and we're napping anyway to hear new information which the the meeting said we would or the same information over and over again. >> Okay, session's closed. So, I hope people stick around until 7 because uh that you you'll hear the board of selectman's opinions about this >> and I believe we have a a different Zoom meeting too. So, if you want there should be uh on the packet there's a different Zoom link. >> Might need help on this one. >> All right. Thank you all for
065coming. As they do not know,