TOWN OF
SPECIAL MEETING - WEDNESDAY,
OCTOBER 22, 2008
JUDGE WELSH HEARING ROOM
Chairman Michele Couture convened the meeting at
Other
attendees: Assistant Town Manager
Recorder:
The following are meeting minutes, in brief:
1. TOWN
HALL TRANSITION
Move
to Jerome Smith Parking Lot
This item could not be discussed as it was not advertised for two
consecutive weeks. It has been scheduled
for
2.
MOTION: Move that the Board of
Selectmen vote to place article 1,4,5 and 6 of the Warrant after Article 16 thereby
changing the order of the article to:
2 becomes #1; 3
becomes #2, 7 becomes #3, 8 becomes #4, 9 becomes #5
10 becomes #6;
11 becomes #7, 12 becomes #8, 13 becomes #9, 14 becomes #10
15 becomes #11; 1
becomes #12, 4 becomes #13, 5 becomes #14, 6 becomes #15
16, 17 and 18 remain
the same.
Motion by:
Yea 2
Nay 3 (David Bedard/
-
MOTION: Move that the Board of
Selectmen vote to accept the ordering of the articles in the warrant for the
November 176, 2008
Motion by:
David Bedard Seconded by:
Yea 3 Nay 2
(
Article 1. General
By-law Amendment: Community Preservation Committee By-law. To see if the Town will vote to amend the
Provincetown General By-laws by amending §5-14-2-4 to delete the words, “not
less than 80%” and insert in place thereof the words, “not less than 10%”, or
to take any other action relative thereto, so that the section will read as
follows:
In every fiscal year, the community
preservation committee must recommend either that the legislative body spend,
or set aside for later spending, not less than 10% of the annual revenues in
the Community Preservation Fund for open space (not including land for
recreational use), not less than 10% of the annual revenues in the Community
Preservation Fund for historic resources; and not less than 10% of the annual
revenues in the Community Preservation Fund for community housing,
or to take any other action relative thereto.
[Requested by the Board of Selectmen and the Town
Manager]
Article 2. Accept
Town Collector Local Option Statute. To see if the Town will vote, pursuant to M.G.L. ch. 41, §38A, to
authorize the Tax Collector to collect, under the name of the Town and under
the title of the Town Collector, all accounts due to the Town, or to take
any other action relative thereto.
[Requested by the Board of Selectmen and the Town
Manager]
Article 3. Collection Costs Imposed on Delinquent Local
Taxpayers. To see if the Town
will vote, pursuant to M.G.L. ch. 60, § 15, as amended, for each written demand
issued by the Town Collector a fee of $15.00 to be added to and collected as
part of the tax, or to take any other action relative thereto.
[Requested by the Board of Selectmen and the Town
Manager]
Article 4. Capital Projects Fund Transfer To see if the
Town will vote to transfer from the appropriation under Article 71 of the 1999
Annual Town Meeting, or any other available fund, the sum of $492,955, more or
less, to fund Phase I construction costs to repair the structural integrity of
the Town Hall, including structural repair of the roof and comprehensive
exterior damage at Town Hall; or to take any other action thereto.
[Requested by the Board of Selectmen and the Town
Manager]
Article 5. Town
Hall Renovations. To see if the Town will vote to raise and
appropriate, or transfer from available funds, or borrow the sum of
$2,000,000.00, more or less, for Phase I construction costs to repair the structural integrity of the Town Hall,
including structural repair of the roof and comprehensive exterior damage at
Town Hall, and including all costs incidental and related thereto; or to take
any other action relative thereto.
[Requested by the Board of Selectmen and the Town
Manager]
Article 6. Town
Hall Renovations. To see if the Town will vote to raise and
appropriate, or transfer from available funds, or borrow the sum of
$500,000.00, more or less, for Phase II design costs for the comprehensive
restoration and renovation of Town Hall, which
[Requested by the Board of Selectmen and the Town
Manager]
Article 7. Relocate
and Alteration of Layouts of
[Requested by the Board of Selectmen and the Town
Manager]
Article 8. Town
Acceptance of Mortgage at Private
Property Location. To see if the
Town will vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to accept on behalf of the
Town a mortgage upon property located at 467 Commercial Street, Provincetown,
Massachusetts, which the Selectmen may amend and subordinate from time to time,
and to enforce said mortgage, including the statutory power of sale there
under, to secure the payment to the Town of an amount of money due to the Town
and the performance of other obligations of M. L. Bryant, LLC, and Eugene A.
Bryant (separately or together “Bryant”) under a certain agreement between the
Town and Bryant dated November 14, 2007 and of the obligations of Bryant under
any promissory note or notes given to the Town pursuant to said agreement to
evidence said monetary obligation, and to authorize the Treasurer of the Town
to accept and hold said note or notes until paid in full, or take any action
relative thereto.
[Requested by the Board of Selectmen and the Town
Manager]
Article
9. Acceptance of M.G.L. ch.90, §20A ½ -Schedule
of Fines for Parking Violations To see if the
Town will vote to rescind its acceptance of M.G.L. ch.90, §20A and to accept M.G.L.
ch.90, §20A1/2, effective January 1, 2009, which authorizes the Board of
Selectmen to establish by regulation a schedule of fines for parking violations,
or take any action relative thereto.
[Requested by the Board of Selectmen and the Town
Manager]
Article 10. Use of Free Cash to Fund FY2009 Budget To see if the Town will vote to transfer from free cash the sum or sums to fund
the operating budget of the Town for the fiscal year beginning July
first, two thousand and eight, or take any other action relative thereto.
[Requested by the Board of Selectmen and the Town
Manager]
Article 11. Use of Free
Cash for Capital Projects. To
see if the Town will vote to transfer from free cash the sum or sums to the
various capital projects as listed below or any other capital project, or to
take any other action relative thereto.
[Requested by the Board of Selectmen and the Town
Manager]
Article 12. Use of
Free Cash for Special Revenue Funds. To see if the Town will vote to transfer from free cash the sum or sums
to the various special revenue funds as listed below or any other special
revenue fund or to take any other action relative thereto.
[Requested by the Board of Selectmen and the Town
Manager]
Article 13. Stabilization
Fund. To see if the Town will
vote to transfer from free cash the sum of $250,000 to the stabilization fund
or to take any other action relative thereto.
[Requested by the Board of Selectmen and the Town
Manager]
Article 14. Room
Occupancy Tax. To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Board
of Selectmen to petition the General Court for special legislation authorizing
the Town to impose a room occupancy tax on vacation rentals not currently
subject to such tax; provided, however, that the General Court may make
clerical or editorial changes of form only to said
[Requested by the Board of Selectmen and the Town
Manager]
Article
15. Purchase
of Front End Loader. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer
from available funds the sum, more or less, of $138,848.00 for the purchase of a John Deere 544J loader to be
used by the Department of Public Works, or to take any other
action relative thereto.
[Requested by the Board of Selectmen
and the Town Manager]
Article
16. 1% Real Estate Transfer Fee – A
Home Rule Petition
Whereas: The need for
revenue is great. Our Town Hall has been condemned and needs repair, estimated
at 6 million dollars or more and
Whereas: Provincetown is
a unique community with a Summer population 10 times the year round population
requiring us to provide water, garbage disposal, police, ambulance, health and
building inspectors, etc. for 40-50,000 people, rather than 4-5,000.
Whereas: The vast
majority of real estate sales last year were properties owned by non-residents.
Whereas: Real Estate
Transfer Fees are widely used and common across the Nation.
Therefore:
Section
I: I move to see if the Town will
vote to instruct its Senator and Representative in the General Court to file a
Home Rule Petition for a Real Estate Sale Transfer Fee equal to 1%, paid for by
the seller on the sale of all property and payable to the Town of
A: All
residential property held by the owner(s) who have lived in
Section II: The following transfers shall be exempt from the
Real Estate Transfer Fee:
A:
Transfers to the Government of the
B: Transfers
without additional consideration to confirm, correct, modify or supplement a
transfer previously made.
C:
Transfers of convenience with consideration under $100 which include name
change, into trusts, out of trusts, etc.
D:
Transfers to any charitable organization as defined in clause Third of Section
Five of Chapter Fifty-nine of the General Laws, or any religious organization,
providing that the real property interests so transferred will be held by the
charitable or religious organization solely for its public charitable or
religious purpose.
E:
Transfers between family members, marriage partners, parents and children,
step-parents and step-children, brothers and sisters.
Section
B: The
Seller shall pay interest on any unpaid amount of the fee at the rate of 14%
per annum.
C: The Town shall notify a Seller by Registered or
Certified Mail of any failure to discharge the amount in full the amount of fee
due.
D: All fees and interest required to be paid under this
act shall constitute a personal debt of the Seller and may be recovered in an
action of contract.
The
General Court may only make clerical or editorial changes of form to the
[Requested by Barbara Rushmore and
others]
Article
17. Community Preservation Act Money
for Town Hall Repairs
Whereas: The Town
has need of money to rebuild our historic Town Hall;
Whereas:
A fee of 3% of our Real Estate Taxes has been given, under the Community
Preservation Act (CPA) which allots, by law, 10% to historical preservation,
10% to affordable housing and 10% to open space, and the remaining 70% as the
Community Preservation Committee votes with the approval of Town Meeting;
Whereas: The uncommitted CPA funds now amount to over 1.8 million
dollars;
Therefore: I move to see if the Town will vote to change the percent for
historical preservation from 10% to 80% and the percent for affordable housing
from 80% to 10%, letting open space remain at 10%, and to release CPA funds for
the renovation of Town Hall after all indebtedness, such as the affordable
housing projects at Seashore Point, Sandy Hill Lane and Shank Painter Road, and
any open space projects already voted are paid or put in reserve before the
dollars are released for rebuilding our historic Town Hall or take any other
action relative thereto.
[Requested by Barbara Rushmore and
others]
Article 18. Open
Space Purchase To see if the Town will vote to use the
Open Space funds to purchase lot 31 and 30 to make a “greenway” and preserve
blueberries for a town garden of wild edible blueberries in perpetuity part of
the Provincetown Conservation Trust, or take any other action relative thereto.
[Requested by Olga Opsahl
and others]
Motion
to adjourn by
Minutes transcribed by: