01/06/1982 BOARD OF SELECTMEN Minutes

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MINUTES OF MEETING OF BOARD OF SELECTMEN January 6, 1982 Present: , Chairman Chester A. Garland, Selectmen B. Jean Thomas and Kevin D . O 'Connell , Executive Secretary. Joseph F. Murphy, Jr. , and Town. Counsel Joseph Reardon. Chairman Garland convened the Meeting at 2 : 00 . Sel.. Thomas moved accept- ance of the Minutes of December 6 , 1981 (with the tape as an appendix) , seconded by Sel. O'Connell. Unanimously voted to accept the minutes . Since the Town Accountant, Kenneth .Culp,. had not, arrived, the. Chairman went directly to Old Business . r OLD BUSINESS 1) Chairman Garland read a letter to the Members of this Board from the Falmouth Board of Selectmen, commending them for their recent vote to establish a one o'clock closing hour for liquor establishments . KENNETH CULP, TOWN ACCOUNTANT The Town Accountant having -arrived, the Chairman read the formal summons which had been presented to Mr. Culp, requesting him to appear at this meeting. Chm. Garland then recognized Mr. Murphy to explains the complaint that had brought Mr. Culp before the Board. Mr. Murphy reported that on October 15, the Town Accountant had received a request from the State for certain information, to be supplied to' them by October 30 . On , three subsequent dates, Mr. . Murphy had brought this matter to Mr. Culp' s attention, and dis- cussed the completion of the form with him. Mr. Culp on .each occasion gave the excuse that the books were being closed out, and he could not give his atteion to this matter. On December 30 , the notification was received that if the information was not provided to the ,State byeJanuar_AliP1982, the Town would lose funds reim- bursing it' foi shellfish activities . While no amont can be estimated for this year, the amount received by the,,Town last Year was $2 , 900 . Mr. Murphy said he discovered it was not needed to close out the "books for 1981 .to, provid'e the'State with this information. Y , s - Sel.4Thomas asked at this point if Mr. Culp would prefer to go into Executive Session. Mr. Culp began to question Town Counsel: on the matter. Chm. Garland cautioned him that Town Counsel was not his personal` attorney, and he had no right to seek legal advice from him. He was told he should turn to his own attorney. Again, Chm. Garland put the question to Mr. Culp, did he wish to have this matter discussed in Executive Session? Mr. Culp replied that if. the shellfish issue was the only one that was going to be discussed, he would prefer to remain in open session. ,• In response to Mr. Murphy' s charge, Mr. Culp stated that his answer to Mr. Murphy had consistently been that the report should not be completed until the books were closed for 1981 . Chm. Garland asked if Mr. Culp was aware of the importance of .getting :..these ,:repor.ts com pleted and seri= tc the State? Mr. Culp responded 'yes'° .