Penobscot County Commissioners Minutes from January 7, 2020
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Penobscot County Commissioners’ Meeting Minutes January 7, 2020 2268 9:00 AM Commissioners Peter Baldacci and Laura Sanborn 27° Commissioner Andre Cushing arrived 9:10 a.m.
Approval of Minutes -
Commissioner Sanborn made a motion to approve December 10th and 17th meeting minutes and 2019 Budget Meeting Minutes. Commissioner Baldacci seconded the motion. Vote to approve passed 2-0.
Public Comment –
Larry Dansinger was thankful that he was provided a copy of the 2020 Budget. He was unable to identify revenues for each department. Finance Director, Judy Alexander identified where to locate this information for him.
Larry states that he has a group which will hold an education event tentatively set for April 4th in Bangor, “Reducing Jail Populations in Maine”. Larry invited the Commissioners and staff to attend.
UT Update –
Director Shaw Weeks reported that one of our contractors John Reinzo, Sr. passed last week.
Commissioner Sanborn moved to appoint Shaw Weeks as the County E911 Addressing Officer. Commissioner Baldacci seconded the motion. Motion approved 2-0.
The snow removal cost per mile in the UT areas was shared with the Commissioners.
The regional animal control agreements with the Towns of Clifton and Old Town were presented. Commissioner Sanborn made a motion to approve. Commissioner Baldacci seconded the motion. Vote to approve passed 2-0. Signed.
The Patten Ambulance Service Agreement was presented. Commissioner Sanborn asked if we had clarified a portion of T1 R6. Shaw answered no. Commissioner Sanborn asked to clarify before signing.
Discussion ensued regarding Federal waterway water quality standards hearing that will be taking place. George Buswell feels that he doesn’t believe this affects us and has no public comment for this hearing.
George reported we have an agreement with Baxter State Park to give them six yards of sand out of the Millinocket Shed. The State is willing to pay us to plow the end of the roadway so the State doesn’t have to. The Commissioners are Okay with this. George will get in touch with the Park and negotiate a price. Finance Update –
Finance Director Judy Alexander introduced Sheila Wakefield, her new Finance Assistant.
There is $6.4 M in the bank. Our cash flow is the best it has been in recent years.
Updates on expenses and revenues through November 30th was presented.
Commissioner Sanborn made a motion to transfer $7,400 from (Dept. 6) Commissioners to (Dept. 2) HR budget for Maine State Retirement. Commissioner Cushing seconded the motion. Motion approved. 3-0.
Dept. focus for January will be processing end of year forms to employees and government agencies; Finance will also be working on the capital reserve accounts and carry forward requests.
PRCC Update –
Director Chris Lavoie reported PRCC is currently handling the accident that involved numerous vehicles occurring on the northbound interstate lane in Carmel. The interstate is still shut down with multiple response agencies involved.
Department Staff Meeting was held on December 18th. Two guest speakers presented.
Parts have been ordered for the broken desks. We are waiting for pieces to be engineered so that the installer can come in to repair the desks.
Thursday, January 9th we will be hosting the Radio Committee meeting. We are working on the final draft for the RFP. Once in place, Chris will present it to the Commissioners for review.
We will start the application process to fill the open position after the latest resignation.
IT Update –
Director Cliff Warren reported as has been discussed in previous meetings following the dump of the fire suppression system and subsequent unexpected shutdown of the server room, I had been in discussion with HP Enterprise at that time and Simplivity. They made a very attractive offer.
Working with CyberNorth, a value added partner, we developed a plan and were given a quote on what it would cost to expand our existing Simplivity infrastructure with new equipment and then reutilize our existing equipment for offsite backups. This quote was actually slightly less than the amount we’d originally leased and had just completed paying for. The quote is $154,604, which is a complete price for the project excluding Microsoft Windows Server licensure. The Microsoft licensure with CDWG is in my software licensing account. The $154 K amount is actually less than the amount we paid for the original Simplivity system that we have. HPE Finance has provided a 0% lease over 5 years with a $1 buyout at the end of the term. $30,920 will be paid annually. The resulting system will provide a high availability, geographically diverse cluster in which two of the host systems will live in the server room in the Sheriff’s Office and two more will live in the basement of the old Superior Court. If one site or the other should fail, the rapid disaster recovery module will automatically start turning on the servers on the site still in operation, automating and speeding up the process of recovery. Second, as we will be redeploying our original equipment to Belfast Hall, this will provide us a place to which we can make Simplivity snapshot backups that is off site for security reasons. Commissioner Sanborn moved to approve the 60-month lease at $30,920.80 a year. Commissioner Cushing seconded the motion. Motion approved 3-0.
Administration Update –
Administrator Bill Collins reported on the meeting he had last week with the City of Bangor with Rob Frank. More information will follow during executive session.
Bill stated EMERA’s project started yesterday. Currently we are on generator and things seem to be running smoothly with it being a three day project.
Commissioner Cushing and Treasurer, John Hiatt are both registered to attend the Chamber Annual Breakfast and Business meeting tomorrow.
Bill and Commissioner Baldacci will be in Augusta attending the Maine County Commissioners Meeting tomorrow.
Commissioner Sanborn and Shaw Weeks will be attending the LUPC meeting tomorrow.
AFSCME Corrections Line representatives will be here next week to sign their new three year contract.
Bill and Erika have met with Sylvia Hebert on the General Contract and plan on meeting again January 23rd.
Bill reported on the 2020 Budget Public Hearing that was heard on December 17, 2019. Bill reported that the error made on the amounts do not need to be re-addressed. Jim Mackie informed Bill that the State of Maine has approved the Maine Emperor 25 year retirement plan. There will be more discussion with Mr. Mackie at a later date.
One of our deputies was in a car accident over the weekend. The deputy was not injured, however, his vehicle received extensive damage.
There was an incident in the Sheriff’s Department with a citizen who wanted to bring in a check for an inmate.
Erika and Cliff conducted interviews last week for the IT Systems Administrator position.
There will be a safety works assessment this Thursday and Friday.
Bill has heard that our attorney Frank McGuire is planning to retire in a couple months.
Bill provided correspondence that the Commissioners have received over the last couple weeks.
o Barbara Veilleux sent a thank you note o Correspondence from a Grandson of Robert E. Lee from Knoxville, TN o Partners for Peace requesting a donation o Bruce Flaherty sent a Christmas Card with information on Spirit of America o An email from an employee regarding the parking lot during a recent ice storm
Payroll Change Notices signed for: John R. McEwen, Travis Morse and Kenneth York – Hired Full-time; Sheila Wakefield – Hired Part-time; Barbara Veilleux – Retirement; Erin Coombs – Resignation; Jessica Luna – Promotion; Evgeni Aleksiev, Tracy Hall, William Kettle and Tina Morrison – Payroll Change; William Lovejoy and Tyler Thompson – Comp time.
Payroll Warrant to be approved for pay date 12/20/2019: $234,457.05
Payroll Warrant to be approved for pay date 12/27/2019: $236,950.64 Payroll Warrant to be approved for pay date: 1/3/2020: $274,946.42 Accounts Payable to be approved for 12/24/2019: $ 79,934.58 Accounts Payable to be approved for 12/31/2019: $157,779.06 Accounts Payable to be approved for 1/7/2020 FY 19: $105,294.79 Accounts Payable to be approved for 1/7/2020 FY 20: $341,070.66 Unorganized Territory Warrant to be approved for 12/24/2019: $ 61,500.09 Unorganized Territory Warrant to be approved for 1/7/20: $ 118,622.85
Unorganized Territory TIF Warrant to be approved for: NONE
Executive Session---Commissioner Cushing made a motion to go into Executive Session at 9:55 a.m., under 1 M.R.S.A. § 405 (6) (A) Personnel Matter. Commissioner Sanborn seconded the motion. Motion approved 3-0. Present were: Commissioners, Bill Collins, Erika Honey and Susan Bulay. Session ended at 10:12 a.m. NO votes taken. Executive Session---Commissioner Cushing made a motion to go into Executive Session at 10:13 a.m., under 1 M.R.S.A. § 405 (6) (A) Personnel Matter. Commissioner Sanborn seconded the motion. Motion approved 3-0. Present were: Commissioners, Bill Collins, Erika Honey and John Hiatt. Session ended at 10:54 a.m. NO votes taken.
Executive Session---Commissioner Cushing made a motion to go into Executive Session at 10:55 a.m., under 1 M.R.S.A. § 405 (6) (D) Contract Matter. Commissioner Sanborn seconded the motion. Motion approved 3-0. Present were: Commissioners, Bill Collins, Rob Frank and John Hiatt. Session ended at 11:30 a.m. NO votes taken.
Executive Session---Commissioner Cushing made a motion to go into Executive Session at 11:31 a.m., under 1 M.R.S.A. § 405 (6) (D) Contract Matter. Commissioner Sanborn seconded the motion. Motion approved 3-0. Present were: Commissioners, Bill Collins, Erika Honey and John Hiatt. Session ended at 11:55 a.m. NO votes taken.
Executive Session---Commissioner Cushing made a motion to go into Executive Session at 11:56 a.m., under 1 M.R.S.A. § 405 (6) (A) Personnel Matter. Commissioner Sanborn seconded the motion. Motion approved 3-0. Present were: Commissioners, Bill Collins and Erika Honey. Session ended at 12:29 a.m. NO votes taken.
Commissioner Sanborn made a motion to appoint Peter Baldacci as Board Chair for 2020. Commissioner Cushing seconded the motion. Vote to approve passed 3 – 0.
Commissioner Cushing made a motion to approve hiring WorkForce for all EAP services to the County including providing additional training at $ 7,160 +/-. Commissioner Sanborn seconded the motion. Vote to approve passed 3 – 0.
Commissioner Sanborn made a motion to appoint Commissioner Peter Baldacci as Board Chair for 2020. Commissioner Cushing seconded the motion. Vote to approve passed 3 – 0.
Meeting Adjourned-
Commissioner Sanborn moved to adjourn the meeting at 12:30 a.m. with no further business on the agenda. Commissioner Cushing seconded the motion. Moved to approve 3-0 Certified By: Administrator, William Collins Peter K. Baldacci, Chairman Laura J. Sanborn, Commissioner
Andre E. Cushing, III, Commissioner