Many "Elephants in the Room" at April Town Council Meeting

As Councilman Bill Lanes put it, there were several “elephants in the room” during the April Whitehall Town Council meeting, held in the Town Hall on Monday, April 15th.

The first elephant: The Whitehall Town Council’s development and determination on a franchise agreement with Visionary Broadband Communications, which received a federal grant to provide fiber internet to underserved and non-served areas in Whitehall. Town Attorney Ed Guza updated the audience on the new direction being taken, which is a complete ordinance for all telecommunication companies who wish to utilize Whitehall’s right-of-ways. Guza said the ordinance is “90-95%” done and needs public hearings and approval to be implemented.

“This creates an even playing field for everyone,” Visionary CEO Brian Worthen said. He noted that the ordinance's approval would not hold up engineering and the start of installation, as the Council had previously approved his project, contingent upon either the franchise agreement or the ordinance.

Another elephant emerged as the Council voted to begin paying TSS for internet service for the town hall, city court, public works building, library, swimming pool, and rec complex. The previous agreement had been a “handshake deal” where the Town traded out rent (use of water towers, etc.) for free internet. Mayor Mary Janacaro-Hensleigh noted that this agreement was made before her time as mayor and needed to be corrected.

“The perception does not look good for the Town,” Councilman Roy McBride said. He and Councilman Shawn Hoagland added that rectifying the situation and charging TSS market rate for renting the Town’s property was necessary for transparency.

“Things need to be memorialized,” Guza added. He cited how hard it is to remember what’s been done over the years without written records.

The most public of elephants - the proposed Infant in the Office policy - brought over half an hour of discussion.

Lanes read a statement of his support for the policy, noting that the Council is listening to the public. The Mayor added that the community survey showed 60% supported the policy, though she also added that only 10% of the in-town population had responded to the survey. Audience member Nancy Edsall asked whether the survey comments were public and could be read, to which the Mayor replied that they were. Former Town worker Jerry Ward questioned why the survey was not distributed more widely, as many do not use Facebook or the internet, to which the mayor noted a link to the survey was available on water bills.

Councilwoman Linda Jung read a statement of support from RoseAnn Palakovich, who previously worked for the Town. Palakovich mentioned how difficult it is to learn the job in the first place and that training someone else to replace the current pregnant employees would be costly and inefficient. She closed her letter with, “Do everything you can to retain them.”

“It would be very damn painful to the Council and the community,” McBride said, stating the Council would be setting themselves back two to three years if the policy wasn’t implemented. However, McBride also motioned to table the issue until the new job descriptions for both positions were provided to the Council. The mayor asked not to table the matter because of planning and temporary worker hiring that would need to be done.

“My job is to listen to my constituents,” Councilwoman Pat Petersen said, adding that she had been met with comments at the post office, grocery store, emails, and phone calls. “The comments are predominately negative. We need strong measures of productivity in place. I would hate to lose the staff we have, but we also can’t penalize the town.” Petersen said many are worried about productivity, responsiveness, how much time a newborn takes, and how that would be handled in a work environment.

Public comment was made against the policy by Edsall, Ward, Nancy Wheeler, Jessica Hagerty, Maxine Samuelson, and Connie Hamilton.

“I am totally against this,” Wheeler said. “It’s obvious they aren’t getting the work done already because the office is closed to the public on Fridays. The taxpayers are the ones paying for this...if this were a private business, it would be fine.”

“It’s not the Town’s responsibility to babysit,” audience member Hamilton said. “They are hired to do a job.” Hamilton said she would be very upset, as a taxpayer, if this was approved and led to disruptions in conversations and services provided at the Town Hall.

Hagerty asked if employees would still be granted benefits if they didn’t work at least 30 hours a week, and the Council said no. Petersen reiterated the need for a time clock or some productivity tracker.

When Edsall questioned whether an Infant at Work policy for office staff and not Public Works staff could be seen as discrimination, Guza said he had reviewed the policy and did not see anything discriminatory. However, liability on the Town’s end was still an issue.

“My biggest concern is liability. Our insurance provider [MMIA] needs to be involved in this. It’s an ongoing conversation, and we need to find out if extra insurance is needed,” he said.

In the end, the elephant remained, as the issue was tabled until job descriptions could be presented, which was against the Mayor’s wishes.

The last elephant? A painful increase in the base rate of the Town’s water. While this increase has been lurking for the previous five years while the development of the water treatment facility occurred, the total amount led to comments.

“Our bond carriers set the rate, and DEQ requires this water facility,” the mayor said. The base rate for Town water has been $37/month. There will be a two-part rate increase, one in July 2024 and another in January 2025, increasing the base rate to $70/month, almost doubling the fee.

Wheeler questioned whether anything could be done to ease this burden for the elderly or on fixed incomes. The mayor said a “Pay It Forward” program was being discussed. The Ledger will have more information on the rate increase as it becomes available.

CONSENT AGENDA:

• Whitehall Food Pantry was credited $47.06 on their water bill due to a leak; Warmoth Lincoln St. was also credited due to a link for $416.81.

• Planning Board Approvals: Collins’ concrete patio application and Noble’s fence permit.

• Planning Board Denials (until further information is provided), Austin’s addition permit and variance request.

•TIFF Board approved $7,000 to Town of Whitehall for cornhole pits and $1,800 to Whitehall Chamber’s Mural project for mural waterproofing.

OTHER ITEMS:

• The council updated the Town’s Personnel Policy and Procedures Manual to adopt FMLA law.

• The council approved declaring the 1990 Mack Truck from Public Works obsolete and will post a call for bids, starting at $6,000.

• The council approved a procedural update: meeting minutes will be digitized from 2020 forward and not printed into binders in the future.

• Janacaro-Hensleigh announced that the annual Spring Clean will be held next week (April 22-25). If anyone needs trash, branches, or appliances removed, please contact the Town at 406-287-3972 to schedule. Decor at the cemetery is asked to be removed or secured on stones during Spring Clean week, or the decor may be tossed when cleaning.

• Samuelson pointed out that two different agendas were used at the meeting—some attendees and council members had the agenda posted on the Town’s website, and others had an updated agenda provided at the beginning of the meeting, which was not posted on the website.

• Wheeler, Samuelson, Edsall, Hamilton, and Ward commented on the dogs currently allowed in the office, stating it was inappropriate, a health concern, and questioned the Town's liability.

The next Town Council meeting will be held on May 20th at 7 PM in the Town Hall.