No.   1:   PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: 

Council led the Public in the Pledge of Allegiance.

No.   2:   CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL:

The Special Meeting of the Exeter Town Council was called to order at 7:05 p.m., on Monday, April 29, 2024, in the Exeter Public Library Program Room, 773 Ten Rod Road, Exeter, Rhode Island.

No.   3:   FISCAL YEAR 2024-2025 BUDGET PREPARATION:

A.     TOWN PLANNER/PLANNING DEPARTMENT: 

Town Planner, Bill DePasquale: 

The Planner and Planning Department budgets are level funded, except for the Comprehensive Plan request.  The update to the Comprehensive Plan is well on its way.  There is one more

step, Statewide Planning approval.  Statewide Planning is appreciative that the Town has moved forward.  It has been 15 years since the Plan was last updated.  There will be comments and suggestions from Statewide Planning.  Once those are received, revisions to the Plan will be necessary, then a public hearing will be scheduled.  The funds requested are necessary to engage Larissa Brown, Consultant, to assist with the revisions, and for binding, printing, advertising.

Discussion ensued.

Mr. DePasquale suggested that Council, from a planning perspective, in order to move the

Town forward and considering the Town’s lean staff, set aside funds in the capital program for: 

1) An in-house human resources person.  Town staff does its best, but a person to whom specific tasks, objectives, and duties are assigned would be beneficial to the Town.

2) An information and technology assessment consultant.  The Town does the best it can with its limited budget and staff, but efficiency is needed.  The days of emailing with attached emails, which is the only means the Town currently has for conducting its business, are going by.  Files are too large to go through and the Town’s system does not recognize the many different emails and servers being used today, which makes it difficult to conduct business efficiently and timely.  A consultant could assess where the Town is, where it should be heading, and set a timeline.

3) Software and hardware productivity, efficiency, and improvements.  For example, form solutions where information entered once populates into other files that can be accessed by

those who need to, rather than going to a staff member or the files. 

4) An APRA (Access to Public Records Act) person, even part time.  The legislature is proposing that the response time for APRA requests be reduced to five days from the current

ten days.  Currently, files stored in every form and everywhere have to be perused to answer APRA requests, which takes absurd amounts of the staff’s time.  Technology could make this easier, by putting all the records in folders on the Town’s system or in the cloud.  Having a person whose main task is to answer APRA request would free up the staff’s time for its

other, ever-increasing duties.

Lengthy discussion ensued.  Mr. DePasquale praised the Town’s staff for their dedication and work ethic.  Council praised Mr. DePasquale for his expertise, professionalism, and dedication.  Mr. DePasquale will research consultants who could help with the Town’s file system and report back to Council.

Town Treasurer, Maria Lawler:  Proposed Budget Draft No. 3 before Council tonight has

not changed much from Draft No. 2.  A couple line items were changed slightly in order to

be as realistic as possible.  Town Planner, Bill DePasquale, asked that his salary be reduced

from $60,000.00 to $49,066.00.  He is fine with that salary, feels it is competitive, feels the difference should be distributed to other staff, and knows the budget is tight and “held together with glue.” Following discussion, the Town Planner’s salary was changed to $57,500.00.  No other changes were made.

No.   4:   INCREASE COMMUNICATION NOTIFICATION AND AWARENESS:

Council Assistant, Ken Findlay:  ClickSend is used by the Library.  The Town can use

it to send notifications to residents’ phones regarding Town government messages. 

It will not replace other forms of notification awareness, such as CodeRed, which

Emergency Management uses.  Several plans are offered.  There is an up-front cost,

$150.00, and credits (for text messaging) are purchased.  There is a limit to the number

of characters per message.  The lowest cost, lowest credit package, will be $20.00, 738 messages.

MOTION made by Mr. Lefebvre to direct Council Assistant Kenneth Findlay to move forward with the Increase Notification and Awareness via text messages with ClickSend; seconded by Ms. Allen; and voted unanimously in the affirmative.

Discussion:  Mr. Findlay will research how other users utilize and manage ClickSend

and will report back to Council at its June meeting.

No.   5:   THREE-YEAR DELTA DENTAL AGREEMENT PROPOSAL:

Town Treasurer, Maria Lawler:  The proposal level funds 2024 at 0% and 2025 at 0%

and maxes 2026 and 2027 at a cap of 4%.

MOTION made by Mr. Lefebvre to approve the three-year Delta Dental plan proposal

as presented; seconded by Ms. DeFrancesco; and voted unanimously in the affirmative.

No.   6:   ADJOURNMENT

MOTION made by Mr. Patterson to adjourn the meeting; seconded by Ms. DeFrancesco;

and voted unanimously in the affirmative.

The Special Meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

                                                            Lynn M. Hawkins, CMC

                                                            Exeter Town Clerk                                       

Approved:  June 3, 2024