TOWN OF
SPECIAL MEETING - MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2008 5 PM
JUDGE WELSH HEARING ROOM
Chairman Michele Couture convened the meeting at
Other
attendees: Town Manager
Recorder:
The following are meeting minutes, in brief
Chairman Couture read the Public Hearing Notice. The Board decided to discuss each Article separately.
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]
Comments from the
Public
Against:
Barbara Rushmore. She has her own version in Article 17.
Against: Astrid
Berg - Feels that the 80% should be
strictly specified for Town Hall and not let the CPC Committee decided what to
do with it.
Rick Murray – Asked for clarification in comparison
of this article and the article Barbara Rushmore is proposing.
Article 2. Accept
Town Collector Local Option Statute. To see if the Town will vote, pursuant to M.G.L. c. 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]
No
comments.
Article 3. Collection
Costs Imposed on Delinquent Local Taxpayers. To see if the Town will vote, pursuant to M.G.L. c.
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]
No comments.
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]
Letter
from Celine Gandolfo read into the record against this article. ( Chair Couture will speak with her.)
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, with said
borrowing authority contingent upon approval by the voters of a Proposition 2 ½
debt exclusion ballot question in accordance with the provisions of M.G.L. c.
59, §21C(m); or to take any other action relative thereto.
[Requested
by the Board of Selectmen and the Town Manager]
No comments.
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]
No
comments.
Article
7. Relocate
and Alteration of Layouts of
[Requested by the Board of Selectmen and the Town
Manager]
No
comments.
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]
No
comments.
Article 9. Acceptance of M.G.L. c.90, §20A ½ - Schedule
of Fines for Parking Violations To see if the
Town will vote to rescind its acceptance of M.G.L. c.90, §20A and to accept M.G.L.
c.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]
No comments.
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]
No
comments.
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]
No
comments.
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]
No comments.
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]
No comments.
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]
Open discussion ensued.
Need to exempt seasonal workfoce.
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]
No comments.
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
A: The fee imposed shall be due at the time of the transfer of the real
property interest and shall be paid to the Town of
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]
Comments from Public.
Against – Bill Dougal. Barbara
Rushmore explained why she is bringing this before town meeting.
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]
Comments:
Barbara Rushmore explained her reasons for submitting this article.
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]
No comments.
Motion to adjourn by
Minutes
transcribed by:
October 30, 2008