Pittsfield Planning Board
Town Hall, 85 Main Street
Pittsfield, NH 03263

DATE: Thursday, January 12, 2012

AGENDA ITEM 1: Call to Order

Chair Ted Mitchell called the meeting to order at 7:05 P.M.

AGENDA ITEM 2: Roll Call

Members present: Jim Pritchard (JP, associate member), Pat Heffernan (PH, associate member), Gerard Leduc (GL, selectmen’s ex officio), Clayton Wood (CW, vice-chair), Ted Mitchell (TM, chair), Peter Dow (PD, alternate), and Ray Conner (RC, alternate).

Members absent: Fred Hast (FH, selectmen’s ex officio alternate).

Members of the public appearing before the planning board: Steve Aubertin, Mitch Emerson, Larry Konopka, Bill Miskoe, Jesse Pacheco, Matt St. George.

AGENDA ITEM 3: Members Concerns

None.

AGENDA ITEM 4: Board Recorder

TM said that the board must either hire a new recorder or reappoint JP, who resigned at the last meeting.

CW moved to reappoint JP as the board’s recorder.

TM seconded the motion.

Discussion:

GL said that he prefers to hire someone from the outside. GL does not want the controversy that the board had at the last meeting. Minutes do not have to be word for word accurate. The board should be preserving tapes.

Vote to reappoint JP as the board’s recorder: carried 4 – 1 – 0. (Voting “yes”: JP, PH, TM, and CW. Voting “no”: GL. Abstaining: none.)

CW referred to the Local-Government Center guidelines for minutes. The board owns the minutes. The public cannot demand anything in the minutes. When the board approves the minutes, the board, not JP, is responsible for them.

TM said that the board will revisit the matters of a recorder and the minutes at the next meeting when the board does not have to have a public hearing.

PH said that finding a new recorder that will be acceptable to everyone will be difficult. “I think he [JP] does a hell of a job. Put that in the minutes.” PH said that CW had answered PH’s concern that JP is under attack. The board, not JP, is responsible for the minutes.

AGENDA ITEM 5: Public Input

Bill Miskoe said that tonight’s meeting had not been legally noticed according to RSA 91-A:2, II. The notice does not state the place of the meeting.

(Editorial comment by planning board recorder and member Jim Pritchard: Tonight’s meeting of the planning board was at the main conference room of the Pittsfield Town Hall, 85 Main Street, Pittsfield, NH. The board ordinarily meets at this place. The notice that the board gave was on planning board letterhead, which states the address of the board as “TOWN OF PITSFIELD, PITTSFIELD PLANNING BOARD, Town Hall, 85 Main Street, Pittsfield, NH 03263,” and the notice itself says, “The Planning Board will be meeting on Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 7:00 P.M. for a Work Session.” The board has long used this same form to notice the board’s ordinary regular and special meetings.)

Mitch Emerson asked for clarification of GL’s comment on the word-for-word accuracy of minutes.

GL and TM explained that the minutes do not have to be verbatim. Minutes are a summary of the subject matter discussed.

Larry Konopka asked whether the town attorney had yet reviewed the proposed “frontage” definition.

TM said that many surrounding towns have a similar definition.

Larry Konopka asked what was the number of surrounding towns that had granted variances from the frontage requirement for subdivision.

JP suggested that the board listen to public input but defer answering questions until after the board had dealt with the frontage issue on the agenda. Questions on frontage may be moot.

Matt St. George asked whether the board wanted to answer questions when the public asked them.

TM explained that the board is currently taking public input. The board is not having a public hearing on some issue and thus does not have to respond.

Steve Aubertin asked for clarification that public input is a courtesy.

TM said that it is a courtesy allowed by law.

Jesse Pacheco discussed how the board would use public input to decide how to vote. He asked whether he could ask questions about the frontage proposal.

TM said not tonight. The board is not having a hearing on that issue tonight.

Jesse Pacheco discussed grandfathering on class VI highways.

After looking at the notice for tonight’s hearing and consulting the blue book of statutes, JP said, “Ted, I really think I need to bring something to your attention. I’m not certain that this meeting should continue, because it seems to me plain that Bill is correct, the notice does not include the place of the meeting. We have to correct this and do whatever is necessary.”

CW said, “I got four notices here, this is standard procedure.”

JP said, “I realize that; however, this is not a standard situation. We have somebody who, you know, I have been down this notice thing before, as Bill knows very, very well. We can’t afford to have any blemish on this notice at all. We’ve had this before. We had a zoning proposal before, it was a defective notice, and this kept an important proposal off the ballot. The town attorney said, ‘you didn’t notice it properly, too bad.’ That’s what happened. And I strongly urge you to call a halt to this meeting immediately.”

TM said, “Okay, the meeting is closed.” at 7:21 P.M.

Minutes approved: February 2, 2012

______________________________ _____________________
Ted Mitchell, Chairman Date

I transcribed these minutes (not verbatim) on January 13, 2012, and on January 29, 2012, from notes that I made during the planning board meeting on January 12, 2012, and from a copy of the one Town tape that Chairman Ted Mitchell made on January 13, 2012.

____________________________________________
Jim Pritchard, interim planning board recorder and associate member

1 Town tape.