Confusion reigned Saturday at Hancock’s Town Meeting, as voters struggled to determine how many vehicles the town’s Police Department should have.
A warrant article asked voters to approve having the Select Board set a policy requiring two primary sports utility vehicles and no support vehicle. The department currently has three vehicles – two SUVs that are assigned to the two full-time patrol officers and a Crown Victoria police cruiser, which is the department’s oldest vehicle and is used for patrol as well as court travel and details by Police Chief Andy Wood. Wood and the officers also drive the vehicles to their homes at the end of their shifts.
When the article came up, none of the Select Board members opened discussion by explaining why they wanted to establish a policy or why the policy should limit the department to two vehicles.
Instead, Wood spoke first, making the argument for having three vehicles.
Wood said all officers should have a fully equipped vehicle on hand in order to respond quickly to emergencies when they are off duty but on call. Wood noted that he takes on-call shifts along with his officers and said he needs the cruiser in order to respond from his home when needed.
“It’s 23 miles from my house to here,” Wood said. “It costs $700 to $800 a year for me to be on call. I have the guys take their cars home and I believe it is cost effective.”
Wood said Hancock is the only small town in the region that hasn’t relied on state police coverage when an officer isn’t on duty or an officer needs assistance. He also said having a vehicle available for police details has brought in about $42,000 in revenue for the town.
After Wood spoke, residents questioned the Select Board about the article.
“Procedurally, this is back-asswards,” said Dave Carney. “No one spoke in favor. Do we have a policy in place?”
The three Select Board members – Tom Shevenell, Erik Spitzbarth and John Jordan – appeared reluctant to speak, although Spitzbarth did say that the article could be amended if voters felt a support vehicle was needed. And resident Sharon Gordon then made a motion amend the article to call for the town to establish a policy for the Police Department “that would require the department to have two frontline vehicles with one support vehicle.”
As discussion on the amendment continued, with some residents questioning if the town really needed three police vehicles, Spitzbarth said the warrant article came about after the board began discussing the need to replace the aging Crown Vic cruiser. He said the board decided that the voters, as the final decision making body for the town, should set the policy on how many police vehicles are needed.
“Either way, this body will make a decision,” Spitzbarth said, referring to the Town Meeting voters. “It’s not going to be at the whim of the Select Board.”
Jordan then said the three board members had been unable to agree on whether to keep a third vehicle. “I’ve had so many calls about the expansion of the Police Department,” he said.
“We also felt there was a slippery slope,” Shevenell said. “I have not been convinced of the need for three vehicles.”
Voters eventually approved the amendment calling for three vehicles, by a margin of 84 Yes to 61 No on a ballot vote. But then, after another lengthy discussion, they reversed direction – or at least those who stuck around did – defeating the amended motion by a vote of 48 Yes to 62 No, also on a ballot vote. So the town was left with no vehicle use policy in place.
Confusion continued after the vote, when Moderator Ric Haskins told residents that the next warrant article, calling for $37,000 to purchase a new police vehicle, could not be discussed and voted on. He said the state Department of Revenue Administration, which reviews all town warrants for legality, had ruled that the vehicle purchase article was contingent on passage of the previous vehicle use policy article. Since that one had failed, Haskins said, the purchase article had to be ignored.
That immediately led to discussion of whether to reconsider the vehicle use policy and take another vote. Haskins urged residents not to do that, saying that reconsideration is rarely used, partly because it’s unfair to those who have left the meeting thinking an issue had been resolved. Voters spent a half hour or so discussing the pros and cons of reconsideration, although no one made a motion to do so, and they eventually moved on to other topics.
Earlier in the meeting, before they became enmeshed in discussion of police cruisers, voters overwhelming supported several articles:
They approved a bond article for up to $512,246 for a new fire engine. Fire Chief Tom Bates said the engine to be replaced is 23 years old and will accommodate only three people, meaning firefighters could have to wait for a second unit to arrive in order to have enough people to safely launch an inside attack on a building fire. The new unit, he said, will have an enclosed cab to hold five firefighters and they’ll be able to put on their breathing apparatus while inside the truck. Bates said the estimated tax impact would be about 63 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation. The article passed by a ballot vote of 136 Yes, 30 No.
At the start of the fire engine discussion, Carney noted that the town has not appointed a Budget Advisory Committee to review and offer input on warrant articles. “It is a violation of the law,” he said. “Clearly a massive neglect of duty.”
Haskins, who as moderator is charged with appointing a Budget Advisory Committee, responded that he had struggled to find people to serve on that group. But he apologized, saying he would make a “personal commitment” to re-establish the committee, and he went to the back of the room to shake hands with Carney.
The town operating budget of $2,322,560 passed unanimously. The budget was up 2.7 percent over the previous year. Part of the increase, Shevenell said, was due to providing cost-of-living increases to the town’s 74 employees, 13 of whom are full time. “Wages and benefits are about half our total budget,” Shevenell said.
Prior to passing the operating budget, voters approved an amendment, proposed by Carney, that stated “This budget was not reviewed by the Budget Advisory Committee.”
Voters unanimously approved $152,317 for repair of the bridge on Longview Road, with $75,000 coming from the Bridge Capital Reserve Fund, $70,317 from the town’s unassigned fund balance and $78,548 from state aid received in 2017.
They approved $100,000 for repairs and painting of the Meetinghouse steeple, with funding coming from the Meetinghouse Reserve Fund, from an LCHIP grant, and from a pledged grant by the Hancock Improvement Association.
They approved $234,000 for a six-year lease-to-purchase agreement on a 2018 10-wheel dump truck and plow to replace the town’s 1994 six-wheel Mack truck. DPW Director Mia Lee said the town has been down one vehicle all winter and the town has spent over $53,000 for repairs on the Mack since 2009. Lee said the department had borrowed a 10-wheel truck from the town of Hillsborough and driven it over the plow routes to make sure it would be usable in Hancock.