Selectboard Meeting Notes – A Bitter $800,000 Pill To Swallow

Ouch. The Brattleboro Selectboard settled a lawsuit with Kingsbury Construction Co. at their meeting on Thursday night. Brattleboro won’t owe the $1.5 million, but the settlement payouts will add over $800,000 to the cost of work done at Black Mountain Road for the gravity fed sewer line to be complete.

Assistant Fire Chief Peter Lynch is taking a new job, tax rates were set, good news on Police and Fire project bond financing was reported, committee appointments were made, and Brattleboro’s new Comprehensive Review of Town Operations is officially debuted and open for public comment.

Preliminaries

Chair David Gartenstein announced the retirement of Assistant Fire Chief Peter Lynch. Lynch has accepted a job as Chief of Fire Service Training for the Vermont Department of Public Safety after 34 years of service to Brattleboro, and nine as Assistant Chief.

Gartenstein praised Lynch for his leadership in creating a school crisis response plan, and countless hours devoted to the safety of people in Brattleboro. Other board members agreed. “You are always welcome back,” said Gartenstein to Lynch.

Town Manager Peter Elwell echoed the sentiment saying that he hoped to work with Lynch again at the state level.

For committee reports and comments, Dick DeGray asked that a discussion of pedestrian safety lights be placed on an upcoming agenda. He noted another pedestrian accident on Western Ave. last week and said that the Town could spend money now rather than wait for grants to pay for the improvements. “We aren’t doing enough.”

David Schoales mentioned the quick action by police to the racial assault in Brattleboro last week.

Public Participation had no public participating.

Re-Appoint Deputy Health Officer

The Brattleboro Selectboard unanimously approved of re-appointing of Fire Captain Leonard Howard, III, as Deputy Town Health Officer through July 31, 2019. The information is sent along to the Vermont Board of Health.

DeGray reiterated his desire to discuss subcontracting this work out.

Police and Fire Facilities Projects Update

Ground has been broken and work has begun on the West Brattleboro Fire Station. 

Town Manager Elwell has some excellent news regarding project financing. It turns out our bonds were sold, according to the Vermont Municipal Bond Bank, at the “lowest cost financing ever” – an average annual interest rate of 2.732%. By way of comparison, we had been projecting a rate of 3.269%. Overall savings will exceed $400,000, and average of about $20,000 per year for 20 years.

The Brattleboro Selectboard approved of a “Policy for Use of Owner’s Contingency and/or Reduction In Project Scope (PUOCRPS)” for the projects. Similar to what was done with the Waste Water Treatment Facility project, this sets a minimum dollar number to trigger Selectboard approval of work changes. Anything over $10,000 for the Police and Fire projects will require the board to approve. Lower dollar changes can be approved by the Town Manager, as can “urgent situations” that will later be ratified by the Selectboard.

This allows for small increases or decreases to the budget to move ahead more quickly.

There was a somewhat cryptic discussion of change requests. Kate O’Connor got the confusion underway by asking whether the board could be informed of “negative recommendations” to not do something.

Elwell said he understood what she was getting at, but replied that it would be difficult if not impossible to do, as so many things get discussed during construction projects that aren’t ultimately what is implemented. “You’ll get what you ask for unless we mention a change,” he said. “It’s hard in the abstract to describe.”

John Allen said that if it were time sensitive, the project could be stopped for a time to consider an option.

Elwell assured them that the integrity of the project would guide his thinking and that if anything “raises an antenna” the board will learn of it. “It’s my obligation to inform you.”

In that spirit, Elwell then informed the board of one small change order approved Thursday – an allocation for testing services to make sure things such as cement get tested independently.

Brattleboro FY17 Property Tax Rates Set

The Brattleboro Selectboard approved of the recommended tax rate proposed by Finance Director John O’Connor, and explained by Town Manager Elwell. 

The Municipal Tax rate per $100.00 is set at $1.1907 for General Fund Operations. This is an increase over the previous year of $.03.

The Downtown Improvement District Tax Rate per $100 is $ 0.1357. This is an increase from the prior year of $.0001.

The Tri- Park Special Assessment Rate is $6.6535. This is a reduction from the prior year by $.0671.

State Education rates are $1.6219 for homesteads and $1.4861 for Non-residential, a reduction of $.0550 and $.0187, respectively. David Schoales explained that the reasons school taxes dropped this year is that more pupils (pre-school kids) were being counted now, so per pupil costs dropped this one time.

Kingsbury Construction Settlement

Somewhat hastily added to this week’s agenda was action regarding recent executive sessions wherein the selectboard discussed “possible litigation.”  Turns out the litigation was actual, and Brattleboro quickly realized that settling a $1.5 million lawsuit against the Town would be the least painful outcome for taxpayers.

David Gartenstein explained.

Kingsbury, you may recall, was the contractor working on the Black Mountain Road gravity fed sewer connection that would tap into existing town lines at Putney Road. This line would be dug under 91 and the cemetery, and test borings seemed to indicate all would go well. It did not.

While drilling sideways some 40 feet underground, the contractors hit an obstacle of indeterminate origin – a rock? pipe sleeves? No one could say for certain.

Brattleboro was unhappy, rejecting the first successful path dug as being too small and saggy. Kingsbury did more work, and submitted change orders for more than $600,000 of new work. “This led to an extended period of dispute,” explained Gartenstein, but Brattleboro ultimately accepted a new pipe.

The dispute continued, said Gartenstein, over who should pay for what work. Kingsbury took matters to court, asking for $1.5 million in damages against us for associated costs. Brattleboro considered this, consulted with outside experts, and concluded any litigation would lead to town liability, not a victory.  

With that in mind, Brattleboro settled. The town will pay about $720,000, plus pave the VFW work staging area and demolish the pump station. Total cost could be about $813,000 added to the project.

Part of the settlement is a provision that Kingsbury will not seek further damages regarding the damages caused by flooding of stores in the Black Mountain shopping center. Another is that Kingsbury won’t seek damages against the Town regarding a “dip” on 91 just north of the overpass at Exit 3.

“It’s a bitter pill to swallow,” admitted Gartenstein, as it substantially increases the costs of a project that was intended to offer substantial savings. “There were unforeseen conditions and it costs more because of that.”

Money for the settlement won’t come from insurance. Gartenstein explained that there was still $215,000 in the bank for this project, plus close to $200,000 in additional financing from the state, and “there’s a $6.5 million surplus in the Utilities Fund.”

Grant Application of VCDP Planning Grant for Westgate Housing

The Westgate Housing Project is hoping to do some re-structuring, and to do so will take money. The Brattleboro Selectboard approved of a planning grant application to the Vermont Community Development Program for $27,000, and an additional grant from Brattleboro’s program income fund in the amount of $3,000 if the VCDP grant is awarded.

Westgate is innovative in that the tenants have an ownership stake in the $8 million property of 98 affordable housing units, explained president Julie Maloof. “We’d feel stronger and be in a better position with a partner,” she told the board.

The restructuring is partly a result of changes to the way affordable housing is funded. With Low Income Housing Credits set to expire, and prior loans requiring repayment, tenants voted to  pursue a new general partnership with the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust.

Funds will be used primarily to hire a development consultant and a lawyer to get the project through the maze of legal documents and additional funding needs.

Grant Enhancement Request – Windham and Windsor Housing Trust

The Windham & Windsor Housing Trust has an existing 2013 VCDP Scattered Site Grant to help fund their home repair program and counseling advocacy services. At their meeting Thursday, the Brattleboro Selectboard approved of an “enhancement” to the  original grant, and approved of an additional request of $394,237. They also will request a one year extension to the project.

Bruce Whitney and Elizabeth Bridgewater were on hand to explain the programs, as well as answer questions.

The Selectboard was particularly interested in what they considered to be a high program management request compared to a smaller request for the program. Bridgewater explained that they could request less for the programs themselves because other funding sources, mostly repaid loans, provided that funding. “Our capital needs look lower because our loan pool has a healthy balance.”

In answer to a board question, they reported that they had about 8 of 215 loans classified as delinquent. 

Comprehensive Review of Town Operations

“I’m delighted to have this draft for you,” started Peter Elwell by way of introducing the Comprehensive Review of Town Operations, a project he has been working on almost since he arrived on the job.

He said it was a significant undertaking with help from all departments and builds on prior efforts by previous Town managers and Selectboards to reduce costs.

This document was a bit different, though, in that rather than focus on cost cutting, the aim was look for ways to improve government operations and service. While some items will save money, some will require an investment before they pay off. 

In the past, some cost cutting efforts went too far. IT and computers were an example, said Elwell.

The document has 50 items, many that can get underway by staff as soon as the list is approved. Elwell admitted the list might look a bit ambitious, but he wanted it to be aspirational to some degree and a bit of a challenge. Circumstances will change, he said, and the list will change. “We don’t want to lower the bar too far.”

He suggested the board take time to absorb the list and make recommendations. He also proposed a public comment period, offering the community a chance to weigh in until September 9th. After comments are reviewed, the document will be revised and presented again for approval.

Gartenstein expressed hope that newspapers would cover this news and encourage people to make comments.

Dick DeGray wondered when items on the list were up for debate. He took issue with the time that would be required for a regional economic hub effort at the state level, but Gartenstein nipped the suggestion by reminding him that the regional economic hub was a previously approved Selectboard goal. Elwell agreed, though he offered DeGray one option – convince the board to change goals.

DeGray asked if the CRTO list would be re-adopted each year by each new Selectboard. Elwell said yes, that prior to budget planning each year “we should review where we are.”

Committee Appointments

Rueben Tamler (Schottland) has been appointed to the ADA Committee for a one year term. 

Laurie Favreau has been appointed to the Housing Partnerships Board through June 2021, prompting a “Holy Moly! That’s five years away!” from David Gartenstein.

Deliberative Session to Consider Road Changes

The board ended the meeting by entering into a “deliberative session” regarding possible road changes. They will continue the session on Friday.