session to discuss reputation character or mental state of an individual explosive of evaluating performance so if you choose to while the anniversary date is kind of funny people can speak to that but i think because it took a long time to redo my contract by review date is still february second but the contract changed to april seventeenth or something something funny happened along the way up to the backyard i think that's right you because you're you're and i did research on your past increases they've all expires april to three hundred staple of next year very right ok gotta play it way it worked out but yeah that's so we we were given forms to fill out and then does reach some of the cummins here jim jim this will be transferred the substation the transmission component of the substation will be transferred to ever source no later than twenty sixteen and as you state it will be less than half of this project is no only six percent is that correct ok great production proposed increase of approximately sixty percent or twelve cents per kilowatt hour again you go in to  reiterate how this product will provide increased capacity for the much electrical needs improve the quality of power and also provide increase why ability and then you also talked about over the past year pl talent you develop in train staff to execute projects in a more effective and efficient manner and it's the two that software systems to improve process quality of reporting keep ability and time sensitive manner successfully directing the completion of the program which save the time bomb a residence millions of dollars my own individual research and my experience is more in the press in the for profit sector although right certainly worked in non profits and you know my experience has been that you know that there's a certainly a bonus range you know i think mostly bonuses are paid and you know based on you know contract and goals and something that's established up front but since that was not the case here and it was just you know discussed but never you know committed to a contract i think that you know where it's a discretionary bonus that you would do it's really you know it's pretty challenging to come up to the right number tell you this is such a hybrid that it's such a different role that it is really can not be compared to your basic town department head your town manager because  town managers i also think that i know one point when we were discussing bonus you know the thought comes up well this does set a precedent and you know how do we deal with other town managers and apartment heads who may you know feel that you know that this is something that applies to them and i would say that if that's the case then maybe it is time to look at them says for department heads or town managers who would handle a project to snag and if that ever happens you know then you know then of course you should consider a bonus arrangement for something like that but i i don't think that they come along you know every ten anything about the bonus arrangements at that time but we were almost primarily taken up our time was taken up with you know personnel so i didn't have anything for you on that but you know it's something i i could certainly investigate to see how you know recommendation to tell the media through the budget process in terms of so you said you've worked with the light department for three months but on a sporadic basis i'm just why did you had sporadic i'm just curious well because you know i think it would be wonderful if i had a great deal of time to give more time but i do have other engagements that and work with for one thing and secondly i think that jim is very mindful of the the fact that as a consultant you know i can't really dig in and get into that h r work like i would probably do if i could because i'm not an employee you know and ok but then no given that come and do you feel that you've had enough time to do what we've done obviously you do or you wouldn't be sitting here i do identify lot of reading  a big proponent of a successful performance review because i think it's a failure of senior management or boards if someone's in a position where they don't do their work because they haven't been given the feedback in order to make the changes necessary to do the work by the time you get to the evaluation so i think in my in my estimation this is a very positive situation in terms of jim's evaluation no we obviously will have different opinions and that's why there's three of us i guess right even though some people think there should be five but i i don't agree we're not getting to that next ok so i did want to ask about the form though because i was struck by  a management measure because and just as in their employ i just want to mention for the public that we were given four evaluations for each category and one was outstanding and then the second one was fully satisfactory the third one was needs improvement in the fourth one was under satisfactory and i just thought there was such a huge difference between outstanding and and fully satisfactory that you know i would have liked it had a fifth one in there so with that it background and then also i don't know if you i sent this to you but i don't know if you discussed it with mark i when i read  i sent this to you yes putting it in this regard i've referred to the paragraph concerning financial metrics in the assertion made that the project has achieved twenty seven point six million and savings and as i understand it is known that twenty six point one million of the financing was estimated to be the expected long term asset for the town and twenty seven point six million of short term debt was always intended to be repaid by ever source upon energy as ation in acceptance of the project that's the way you understood it to i think it's not what's happening sadly the way you understood and then also is not what's not clear to me is what happened to the twenty six point one million originally estimated to be the long term asset for the town and what further payments are due from every source based on what has happened in the project so we had a meeting that said that there may be a payment of up to fourteen million due from ever source which would be used to reduce the twenty six point one million and in this regard we asked for an explanation to be reported our next consider the role that you played in these changes and whether the outcome represents up to fourteen million and savings or not and jim and i had a discussion about that and i i now understand that his actions that he was involved in over the past six years have actually led to that outcome and so i just i just wanted to you know we're going to have a discussion about his responses to those two questions but i wanted you and sammy to know that i sent him that question on october twenty six which was a while ago and i got an answer that satisfied me that indeed he had taken actions that led to those savings the other thing i want to say is that in this is more of a personnel thing for the light department that i know jim is the general manager but the project has been very successful in the us people that are working for you and i'm just wondering how we think about subordinates who are involved in the success as well what i'm trying to stay on the point to him why do we care at this point we can evaluate jim and yes but now we want to talk about some words are you suggesting they deserve bonuses as the the bonus for jim and if there are bonuses in his opinion forsworn it does that go to town meeting no i don't think so it's up to this ok functions as a self starter i'm not going to read all of it but i'll just say functions as a self starter my choice was between fully satisfactory and outstanding because of the what i thought was the wide variance i rated him as outstanding effective member of a work group gaining the respect and cooperation of others i rated jim fully satisfactory effective leadership and directions to staff outstanding  maintains a work style which is open to constructive suggestions fully satisfactory evaluates programs practices policies and procedures and personnel effectively outstanding and i just mentioned that every position like company has policies and procedures and they have job descriptions establishes a clear vision and direction for the organization they have a mission statement i rated him outstanding monitor's current as it relates to the project and the ongoing management of the like company while he was doing that handles problems in a professional manner we agreed fully satisfactory and challenges evaluates and rewards employees and managers toward the achievement of goals and objectives again i think that his staff that i know is highly motivated and i think the reason for that is jim's management style and so i rated him outstanding ok financial organizations debility i wanted to recommend that in addition to maintain the profit letter letter level that allows helmet light to transfer to town the pilot payment rat stabilization fund payment depreciation fund payment and unfunded benefits payments ok you know i think that needs to be added yes just unfunded because that's part of your cost now and then with regard to the goals  i was a little confused about this is for two thousand it's very fifteen or two thousand and sixteen for the coming year the goals are for now argued it was not only it's ongoing which is today but also sort of go when we entered the summer of two thousand and fifteen completion of the substation project was the biggest strategic and financial risk for the town belmont my view is that jim palmer is really helped to jobs for at least the past two years one is the general manager of the light department and the second is project management of the fifty three point seven million substation project both have been performed in an outstanding manner as the substation approaches ownership transmission to ever source over two hundred seventy five residential solar installations have been approved and installed i know the light company wasn't in charge of the solar is asian project but you know if they weren't there you know look out  new billing system has been developed converted and installed even though they had to hold my hand quite a bit to in order to get that done but i did get through it and smart meters have been installed system wide that's true no also these accomplishments and programs have been achieved in completed during a period of great change in the structure of the advisory board announced by your committee in the composition of the light board and its chairmanship in fact jim palmer has been at the helm of the light department for more than six years that is best characterized as a period of great change i think we can all agree with that and is consequently the only member of senior management who has served consistently during this period i know i haven't been here for six years new challenges will include the decommissioning of existing substations and a system wide upgrade of distribution lines which themselves are each major undertakings well done i say th s i would disagree with that comment that i don't believe that's true i don't know where you are getting your information but he did it's not true now as these his office contacted us nothing so i think if i hadn't heard from the adult come from floyd promote his point of view he said this communicate on the problem is exactly what your role is at the like well i think i think that's absolutely true i think that without your support be very difficult to have these conversations and make sure that they're information on this very important project which again on the other and i'm telling you that an outstanding job leading but i feel it's time is myself or perhaps other members of this board who will speak for them are lacking in terms of information detail information completion dates the numbers involved in this things of that nature and in a water here tonight to talk with us about some type of resolution that was completely unknown to me from the transfer in the asset so i'd like to helpful to get some general you know information as relates to that that's just my point of view right if you were coming in well i guess you know you know i don't disagree with you know what you're saying i think that this has been a concern of mine that i've had expressed with mr jones several times up pulled him aside and said to me you know we need to work on structure and i like structure and i think that we can certainly you know work closely together on on coming up with a better you know communication structure between the department and the board because you know pretty obvious that i do the best tonight well no it doesn't need to be decided to be discussed by think realistically where there was you know unfortunately and i was sick last week and this came up during a conference call and i alerted adan and said we've got to get this on the agenda is we need to talk about ok jim also gets a ten thousand dollars on call but i think bob that correct me for money that's just based compensation correct research there but i mean it's not equivalent to the police and fire but it's kind of the same because what the light matter of policy and consistency you know i know belmont lights different because they get their revenues through rates that are passed on to the rate payers but you know those rate payers are also belmont residents it's it's it's us paying rates like it's us paying real estate taxes so you know i have heard rumblings from the town side that why is that employees get additional benefits or privileges or pay because belmont light is a separate enterprise and they just pass those on to the rate payers and it's not you know it doesn't go through town meeting and it doesn't seem to be as transparent so to me it's important to be consistent you know we've we've given for example our town administrator at two percent you know  raise and part of me says why should the executive you know the chief executive of our like department be treated you know any any differently it kind of sets of a precedent and i don't want people to feel that belmont light employees are different because we just sneak them into the rates instead of through the real estate taxes that said you know i would support it two percent cola  i do understand jim has wore a second hat as you know as the overseer of the substation project and you know i support an extra percentage raise for that and so which is i think the framework we use last year that's similar to the framework we used last year so i suggest a three percent but ok that's my reasoning to you and i'm looking at i'm looking organizational chart and not a budget organizational chart because many of the departments report to us independently and you know if you if you look at it from the budget standpoint it all reports and david literally it does not i don't critical of what you're saying i'm just i'm explaining my view it's two completely different jobs and it is also true i believe that and i like numbers that the light department is twenty five percent of the town's total revenues and i for one since i've been sitting here more than a year and a half now i guess i am grateful you know that the  the project which i viewed as being a big risk and i was told when i came into this job that it was a huge risk and i made a point of going out to lunch with jim and trying to figure out you know the gestalt of the situation sammy was the chairman then you're the chairman i think you both did a good job but i mean jim palmer and floyd are the people you know who work together and brought this thing home in a successful way and i don't know anybody else employed by the town who could do that no one else could do that so i see the jobs as being different with regard to merit increases i'm i'm not happy because of the town situation with something beyond three percent period for anybody and the reason for that is that we're at our tax levy we have projections that show that we're in we're in trouble fiscally and unless we begin to more actively manage the situation and i think in a prop two and a half and then in the situation that belmont's and at the top of its levy that it's difficult you know to cherry pick different individuals and say ok he gets four and a half percent he gets four and he gets three now your base salary is one sixty isn't sixty five one sixty so if you get four percent instead of three percent that's a one percent difference which by my calculation is one thousand six hundred dollars is that true yes when six in one thousand six hundred fifty is one thousand six hundred dollars so i'm just asking you know for the audience because i know what the answer is the you pay taxes know so it's not going to make a difference to jim palmer whether it's four percent or three percent and i think that we're going to reward jim palmer for the two jobs to six years to fourteen million dollars in savings and we should talk about that because it's real i think it's real you guys know more about it because you've been around longer than i have but you know if we're going to reward him it should be on the merit side the other problem i have with  the other problem i have with you know marriage this marriage that is you if you multiply four percent times ten that's forty percent isn't it you know you know we don't want to be there like that and no no i mean that but that's the way you have to think you know that we can't just automatically be giving out the well i'm not finished yet because it is time it's twenty seven or i thought we have other things or we have come in i know that these some some of these things need to be said and the other thing i'm concerned about is this cola and i don't like the cold on the town side because you can't reward people who perform who are above their midpoint and it's just a silly policy in my opinion so i want to know is that the policy that's at the like the department do we have that policy at the lake of fire what is that the policy that if you're above your midpoint the you can't get an increase no you can get increased which is which is why they have a cola you have a color and the color of the color is basically your pay scale is adjusted by consumer price index which has been roughly we've been adjusting by two percent but right now in my opinion two percent is too high but the again because if you multiply two percent times ten you're looking at twenty percent and the three of us have to look at the overall budget to make sure that we can bring you know the plane in into the airport because that's a stand the standard practice is to update it on an annual basis  practice and then you have your pain classification plan review ok i understand all that and i think people work within their job descriptions they work within their pay classification so let me be specific if we're talking about three percent  is part of that color is part of that straight salary increase what are we talking about for jim this is just simply a merit piece of him so what is it that you support so it has it hasn't there's no poll in there or anything else it's an implied i don't think it's going to make a big difference to you and i'd like to reward you in the bonus ok all right so when we at least green the three percent i mean i was at four simply because i think you know in the last two years tim's and terrific job and having to sort of move forward three percent with talk about bonus well everybody brings their experience to the table i want to know what the benchmark is is there a benchmark we mean by that are there other municipal like companies where the general manager department this is kind of a unique project because this transmission and not a lot of the ministers have have ever installed transmission lines but there are minutes pulls that have installed generation which i think in terms of the magnitude of the project is of me which is in the summer that i would ask you for your assistance along with you know perhaps what the flask of the members of that hold back to do some research on benchmarking which i think is a fair question to get some benchmark information to understand whether other municipalities you know what the for profit sector provides jim yeah and you'd be difficult to sort of identify i mean it's a powder that has gone through this kind of a project you're not going to find it  can tell you from what i know from my colleagues in municipal and walter may be able to support this but generally you're looking at a seventy five hundred to a ten thousand dollars bonus is basically what most general managers if they were getting bonuses would be getting ok but that's based on your regular general manager duties and regulars that in addition to it's not these neurotic reached him as well it's just so it yes he would probably take the place of american point of these realities typically braintree you know does that i believe writing about actual it is in the i don't know if it's in the contract i never asked that question but i know that you know folks have disclosed that that's how some of them work  right i mean under my regular responsibilities as general manager of seeing like the pa and i you know i get you know the three percent is what thank you very much increase right and then on the projects side is totally different so the numbers that i came up with in the stands i came up with just from talking to folks that have experience with bonuses and i was told that you know generally anything above twenty percent is considered in the set of you can get bonuses as much as one some benchmark and if we do that would we do that within twelve thirty one of us sixteen so the project but obviously the project has to be turned over to the project is going to be turned over ok and you know i have some ideas about it without the benchmark but i'd rather hear the benchmark but i'm not thinking ten thousand dollars i'm thinking something substantial ok ok and i also am thinking that it should be structured in such a way that there's a interesting discussion a solution right now we are in the home stretch in terms of closing the project and transferring the assets under the j d a you've got fourteen days after the testing is complete deal transfer the asset right now the estimated date for completing testing is the center second so that would put the the deadline for closing within two weeks sixteen sixteen th another easement that will be a granted by belmont light to and start to use the substation in an area outside of substation for transmission purposes you know the interior is is divided up into several areas one is a sale and then the sec the fourth piece of the purchase price is going to be what we call non property p t s which is basically the value of the contractual work that went into the substation and the transmission line and i said the this a few days ago and i said you as an individual as a general manager don't have authority as far as i can see have not been granted authority to sign any of these documents in addition to the ones that are the ones that i just laid out so what i had suggested was given the fact that we're going to be in a situation that's fluid we're not exactly sure of the closing date it's going to be within a two week window we can if the like who are authorized him to sign those documents agree with him i think if town meeting is looking to us as a light board for us to give him a power of attorney to sign thought i already have you know that's perfectly fine well actually i think it is risky if something goes wrong and then you know it's on jim's head right we don't want that we're want the the documents when they're ready given to us and we can sign of ok you know online we don't write in that i've already assigned those documents you'll have documents to review ok yeah when you say send up to us so we can advance you know weeks but when you say review you know i'm a banker now we're going to resorts in the count i think it's i think i don't want you know i don't want a bunch of red line stuff you know i mean no no no no no no not even when i was a banker i never thought about final documentation ok ok to know that to understand what it is is going to an asset transfer agreement that's going to describe exactly what it is is only a four or five page document with attachments you know boeing attachments but it will be set up so that you know the structure of how perfectly clear that these documents need to be signed it is very fluid and the sixteenth of twelfth or whatever that date is maybe too late so the escrow honeyman escrow is something that you may want to on that