Does a board member taking part remotely pay as much attention as those meeting in person? Some fellow Alna residents raised the issue April 20 as selectmen loosened a policy that sprang from the pandemic. The changes conform with revised state law, First Selectman Ed Pentaleri said.
The new version still lets a member attend remotely due to an emergency, illness, or absence from town making it hard to get there; and adds another possible reason for remote attendance: It can now be due to “other matters of personal necessity or convenience” and Pentaleri said the updated policy applies to all town boards and committees, so each would no longer have to craft its own.
Pentaleri said remote attendance helps get a quorum more easily, and encourages younger people to take part because neither work nor needing to be home with children would prevent participation.
Resident and past planning board chair Jeff Spinney noted some boards are involved with permits. He said it would not be fair to an applicant to have less than 100% of a member’s attention “because they’re home watching the kid, the dog, are sick or whatever. I think it will be a slippery slope to blanket-approve this.”
“I would agree, and I could see this becoming a issue,” Mike Trask said.
When Spinney also said someone would not be paying full attention if attending remotely due to work, Pentaleri said: “That’s not true, Jeff ... I’m proposing that we enter the 1990s here. I can’t tell you how many meetings of planning commissions and town meetings I attended from hotel rooms in Korea, Japan, Hong Kong. Just because you’re not physically present does not mean you’re unable to engage and participate fully in a meeting.”
Attending in person does not guarantee a member is paying attention, “whether they’ve got their phone in their hand or their mind somewhere else,” Second Selectman Steven Graham said.
Jeff Philbrick, via Zoom, said the policy “maximizes democratic participation ... I think we should assume that everybody is going to do the best job that they can ... so I’m all in favor” of the amendments, he said. So was the board, passing them 2-0, with Third Selectman Coreysha Stone absent.
Revising another policy, on public funds administration, the board decided it will now consider seeking bids on non-emergency projects expected to top $5,000; the old sum, $3,000, goes nowhere near as far as it once did, Pentaleri said.
Also April 20, selectmen opened snowplowing bids and reached no decision. Mike Jewett – who plowed the 2022-23 winter after Holbrook Excavating did not plow the final year of its contract – bid $300,000 a year for three years; and Gordon Libby, $356,760 a year for three years.
The board agreed to take out a $450,000 tax anticipation note. On questions from Wiscasset Newspaper, Pentaleri did not have the interest rate and said he believed the TAN will be from Bath Savings.
Donors and volunteers are making a shed for the community garden, where it will hopefully arrive in early May, Pentaleri said.
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