Community Preservation Committee Meeting

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Meeting date: 
Thursday, July 14, 2016

Approved Minutes 8.11.16

HARWICH Community Preservation Committee Meeting

July 14, 2016, Harwich Town Hall, Griffin Meeting Room

 

Present: Chair Bob MacCready, Vice Chair Kathy Green, Cindi Maule, Daniel Tworek, Walter Diggs, and Jim Atkinson

Absent: David Nixon and Robert Bradley

Vacant: Housing Committee representative

Guests:  Ilene Brady

 

  • Meeting called to order by Chair Bob MacCready at 7:05 PM.

 

  • A motion was made by Walter Diggs and seconded to approve the May 12, 2016 CPC Meeting minutes. 

VOTE:  Yes  5;   No  0;  Abstain  1.   Motion passed.

  • No meeting minutes for June 9, 2016; no quorum.

 

New Business

  • Public Informational Hearing date pros and cons discussed:

Cons: Summer may not be the best time for public to attend; too many other activities. 

Pros: Historically this meeting is held in the summer to start dialogue with potential applicants and to allow lead-time to work on applications before submission deadline of Oct. 1st.  It allows for summer residents to attend and learn about the CPC.

 

A motion was made by Kathy Green and seconded to hold our annual Public Hearing on August 11th at 6:30 PM prior to our regular meeting.

VOTE:  Yes  6;   No  0;  Abstain  0.   Motion passed unanimously.

 

  • The updated CPC application is on the town website.

 

  • Reorganization:

All CPC members present are currently authorized to be on this committee.

 

A motion was made by Walter Diggs and seconded that we continue to have our officers -Chair, Bob MacCready and Vice Chair, Kathy Green presently.

VOTE:  Yes  6;   No  0;  Abstain  0.   Motion passed unanimously.

It was noted that the Housing Committee appointment is still vacant.  They won’t meet again until October.

 

The CPC members were thanked for their attendance and involvement.

 

  • Kathy Green has requested an updated Open Space Recreation Plan that was submitted to the state.  It may be available online.

 

  • Harwich Housing Production Plan (HHPP):

Chair MacCready will forward the June 14th email from the then Town Planner David Spitz to full committee members.  Charlene (in the town planning dept.) will continue the HHPP work.  A working group of representatives from multiple entities will work on this project.  Cindi Maule volunteered to represent the CPC.

 

A motion was made by Kathy Green and seconded to nominate Cindi to the Harwich Housing Production Plan working group. VOTE:  Yes  6;   No  0;  Abstain  0.   Motion passed unanimously.

Chair MacCready will notify Charlene. 

 

  • Bookkeeping Plan/“Paid Staffing”:

Chair MacCready did get clarification from the Alliance on the regulations on paying for additional staffing. (It was noted the board secretary is paid from CPC funds through town payroll.)  Additional staffing position for committee work was discussed.  A job description might include the terms data gathering and analysis, and/or financial oversight.  The committee realizes the need to monitor CPC finances, which includes verifying incoming bills, updating accounting records, creating spreadsheets for the committee to follow, etc.  The town accounting department is not interested in handling this for us.  The town accounting department codes vouchers submitted by project leaders and pays the bills.  But is the project going as approved?  Other towns make it the CPC’s responsibility to review the stack of invoices and approve the outgoing checks. 

 

The town accounting department can provide this committee a report on each CPC project in the past.  They can also provide monthly reports to review open articles.  The Munis (accounting software) reports state account balances, but may not provide enough detail.  How much time does this committee want to commit monthly to financial oversight and how much detail this committee needs to determine.

 

Bob and Kathy have a list of the approved Harwich CPC projects since 2005. They do not have the financials from 2005 to present day.   Do we want to have this researched?  The town may still not have finished the 2015 audit yet.  What is reported in the 2015 Town Annual Report?  Does this committee want to contract an employee to create an historical analysis of the last 11 years?

 

It was decided:

  1. The committee will start with a review of the Munis reports at the next meeting.
  2. The historical analysis will start with the excel list of the breakdown of past approved projects, but not what was spent.  Kathy will send to all committee members.
  3. Bob has to investigate the new town accounting practice to figure out how much will be available to spend on this year’s projects.

 

  • It was questioned if this committee wants to continue as it has in the past or do a need’s assessment or to

determine the community needs.  It was also questioned if this committee wanted to reduce the work load on its members?  Bob has not seen any desire from this committee to develop any additional ways to create projects.  It may be difficult for the CPC to sponsor a project because someone has to be responsible, a project leader.  No one has stepped forward at this point.  The CPC can work with town committees in the future.  In the past the town administrator has come forward with projects, we could go to him instead and suggest projects to bring forward.  The CPC can make suggestions and evaluate it.  What exactly is the purpose of the Harwich CPP needs to be defined.  A list of the town priorities can be presented, but until someone is assigned to complete them, it really doesn’t get very far.

 

Other

  • June Payroll for Board Secretary:

A motion was made by Cindi Maule and seconded to pay the submitted one and a half hours.

VOTE:  Yes  6;   No  0;  Abstain  0.   Motion passed unanimously.

 

Old Business

  • The Community Preservation Plan CPP:

We can go ahead with our CPP but there are two points to consider about our timing:  1) The town will be doing an updated comprehensive plan.  2) A new town planner will need to be hired.

 

Bob researched other towns’ CPPs.  The town of Concord is similar in character and size to Harwich, though it is not a tourist town, but rather a historic New England town.  Bob sent the Concord CPP to all committee members for review.  By removing the Concord specifics in each section, the plan is workable for Harwich.  Bob proposed that each section could be assigned to our corresponding committees, like the Open Space section to the Harwich Real Estate/Open Space Committee, and that section could be reviewed and rewritten to suit Harwich.  A CPC statement of purpose may be needed on procedure.  Town committees of RE/OS, recreation, and housing are in place.  Will the historic concept need to be defined to include more than one group?  In the end the CPP will need a public review, then approval at a town meeting.

 

A motion was made by Walter Diggs and seconded that we proceed with this concept.

VOTE:  Yes  6;   No  0;  Abstain  0.   Motion passed unanimously.

 

  • Note: Kathy announced the whole committee is invited to the opening of the trail at the Hall property on Friday,

July 22, 2016 at 9 AM. 

 

  • Guest Ms. Brady posed a thought to the committee - to track the last ten years of historic projects to get an idea of

the ratio of private vs. HDHC sponsored CPC projects.  It would also be good to chart how much CPC money has been spent on which categories over the years. 

 

The process of paying the submitted bills was discussed.

 

Adjournment: 8:46 PM