Good afternoon. I'm now going to call the Wednesday, February 11th, 2026 meeting of the North County Commission to order. Welcome everyone. I'm going to read the executive order on remote participation.
On March 28th, 2025, Governor Healey signed into law House Bill 62, an act relative to extending certain COVID 19 measures adopted during the state of emergency, excuse me, which include a two-year extension of the
option for public bodies to hold remote meetings by suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law, Mass General Law, chapters 30A, section 18 through 25. That action was effective immediately extending the current option
for remote meetings through June 30th, 2027. If you could now stand and join me in saluting the flag. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,
one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you very much. >> Roll call. Commissioner Steve, >> I am present. >> Commissioner Collins, >> present. Chairman chair is present. We have a quorum.
>> Number three, executive session. Uh, Richard, uh, do we have a motion to go into executive s? >> Richard, do we have your permission to use your stamp today? >> Yes. Permission granted. Yes, sir. >> Great. I'll make a motion under item three, executive. And when we go into executive session pursuant to master law
chapter 38 section 21 subsection A subsection 3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation and open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares. >> I'll second that motion as presented.
>> Motion made and seconded. Roll call vote. Commissioner Stady >> I vote yes. >> Commissioner Collins >> yes. >> Commissioner Shay votes yes. I will remind everyone we will will be returning for the remainder of our today's agenda.
We are Thank you. Welcome. We're back on the record on Wednesday, February 11th, 2028 meeting of the North County Commission. Item number four, minutes of the open
session meeting of February 4th, 2026. Commissioner Sty, >> do we uh I have to pay defer to Mr. Commissioner Collins. I'll defer. >> Yeah, I'm fine with the minutes. >> I'll second that. >> Motion made in second. Roll call vote.
Commissioner Stady. >> Yes, sir. I vote yes. >> Commissioner Collins. >> Commissioner Shay votes present. I was not at that meeting. The motion passes. Number five, appointments. We have none.
Number six, public comment. Each week at our meeting, we have a session for the public to comment on agenda items either in person or over the Zoom on Zoom land there. Do we have anyone that wants to make any public comment?
This is for Zoom land. Director Cronin, are you aware of anyone? >> No, sir. >> Last call for public comment. Thank you. Seeing none, we'll move to number seven. All business we have none. >> Number eight, personnel matters for
consideration. >> We have one. >> I'd move, Mr. Chairman, notice of leave of absence effective 21026 code 260201 as presented. >> Second.
>> Motion made and seconded. Roll call vote on the notice of leave of absence effective 21026. Commissioner Stady, >> I vote yes. >> Commissioner Collins, yes. >> Commissioner Shay votes yes.
Number nine, payroll expense warrants for approval. Richard, I have those. Do you want me to read them? >> Yes, please. Thank you, Peter. Thank you. Um, I move um uh the warrant 26-32 payroll of the county in the amount of 143,697.
So move >> second. >> Motion made and seconded. Roll call vote. Commissioner St. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Collins, >> yes. >> Commissioner Shay, >> yes. Okay. The second item is warrant 20
uh o20206 expense of the county uh $269,539.78. So moved. >> Second. >> Motion made and seconded. Roll call vote. Commissioner Collins. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Stady?
>> Yes. >> Commissioner Shay votes yes. Motion's adopted. Next, the last item on the award list is 25-6 US Bank uh 102512 bond in the amount of 123,146.88. So move >> second.
>> Motion made and seconded. Commissioner Stady. >> Oh yes. >> Commissioner Cons. >> Yes. Chairman Shave yes. The motion passes. Thank you. That concludes payroll and expense. Number 10, letter of support for House
Bill 5047, an act authorizing the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance to take eminent domain on a certain parcel of land in the town of Null. Gentlemen, as you all know,
um unfortunately and certainly tragically for the greater Norwood area, we lost our Norwood hospital a few years ago due to a violent storm and uh efforts are being made to correct
the situation as it be. And we have received a message, a letter from Tony Mazuko, manager of the town of uh No, I won't read the whole thing, but it says, "I'm writing to respectfully urge your
attendance at the state house hearing next Thursday, February 12th, regarding representative John Rogers bill welded to ending anime domain authority in the Nwood Hospital property says, "If you're unable to
attend in person, may you submit written testimony to the committee and we have a draft letter for your review and signature." Thank you, Bill Buckley. And we are, I assume, supportive of this action, and
we're happy to support all the towns and particularly town of Norwood in this manner. So, if you're ready to approve the letter today, it's ready. If not, we haven't got a lot of time. Uh, if you want to make some changes, that's okay, too. But I'd like to get a sense today
and get get it out of here as quickly as possible. >> A strong strong supporter of the efforts by Representative Rogers and others to get this hospital back online. It's been terrible. so many people and even it has
an effect on fire departments because they have to take uh people who are hurt now or sick to other hospitals and it's just it's costing them on their equipment. So, whatever we can do, I'm all for it. Absolutely. Absolutely. >> All right. I'll second your motion to
support the letter, Richard. >> Yes, that that's I'll make a motion to support that letter and be sent as soon as possible. Thank you, Peter. >> Okay. on the letters to chairman Cabal and Collins relative to supporting the town of Norwood
in their efforts to get Norwood Hospital back online. Commissioner Stady, >> uh, I vote yes, please. Yep. >> Commissioner Collins, >> yes. >> Commissioner Shay votes yes. We're going
to use your stamp and we'll be out of here today. >> Yes, please. That'd be great. That's important. Thank you. >> Item is that good. >> There's a number of letter 11. Number 11 and 12. I'll do to do them together. >> Yeah, I can do that if you want. Whatever you wish.
>> October 25th, 2020. October 2025 trial balance for acceptance. After that, we have the November 20th 25 trial balance for acceptance. They're in your package. >> Yep. I got them. I I got them. I read them. I I'll move, Mr. Chairman, if you want. I'll move
>> to sign. We'll do October 1st. >> Yes. I'll move October 31 the sum 32,970,2811. So moved. >> Second. Motion made and seconded to approve the
>> accept to accept >> to accept the October 31st, 2025 trial balance. Motion made. Roll call vote. Commissioner Stady. >> Yes, sir. Yes. >> Commissioner Collins. Yes. And
Commissioner Shay votes yes. We have accepted November trial balance. >> Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, I'd be pleased to move the acceptance of the trial balance of 113025 the sum 32 million $4,58161.
So moved. >> Second. Motion made and seconded to to accept the November 30th trial balance. Roll call vote. Commissioner Stady. >> Yes, sir. Yes. Commissioner Collins.
>> Yes. Commissioner Shos, yes. Motion's accepted. Adopted. Thank you. Next item. Report from the procurement department for bid openings in contract awards. Moren is not with us
today. She's at a meeting, but we do have one here. Great. Want to address >> relative to >> Go ahead. Why don't you explain it? >> Sure. Commissioners, uh, good afternoon. the um the county's auditing services contract was up for bid. Uh Moren put it
out to bid. She received a response. Um CBIZ, which is the current uh vendor that provides your auditing services, has responded with an offer to provide services totaling $65,000 for fiscal year 25, $67,000 for fiscal year 26, and
$69,000 for fiscal year 27. um in FY25 that audit period um that is about $15,000 more than what we're paying right now at $50,000. So it is an increase. Uh for your benefit we uh for your knowledge rather we did try to
negotiate um this uh fee proposal but the vendor stuck to their number. Um at this point it is a vendor that we've worked with that done great job and I think it's important to recognize that the county's audit um is quite complicated. It
involves a lot of stakeholders and it takes a lot of time and time is ultimately money and I think that's what drove the uh the value of this contract in the direction it did. This afternoon I recommend uh your approval of this three-year contract so that the county can keep working with CBiz and keep our
audits flowing for FY25 26 and 27. >> Any other questions? When we entered into this originally, they were powers in Sullivan. Now they had been bought out by a national firm and uh we're still dealing with some of the principles that we were dealing with
originally. So was a continuity there and uh they did our most recent audit. So this would tie us up for three more years, but you know, we can put it aside so to speak. >> So they basically are the same firm, John, or uh are they they've been bought
out? You said are they? It it is now a corporate firm. Uh Powers and Sullivan was um purchased I think about two years ago and they've now become the national firm of Cabbiz that joined CBiz. >> Okay. >> Okay. I'd move the recommendation of the
director terms of uh accepting the uh one award for the auditing services for fiscal year 25 26 and 27 as presented. Second motion made and seconded. Roll call
vote. Commissioner Stady. >> Yes. I vote yes. >> Commissioner Collins. Yes. Commissioner Shay votes yes. And for auditing service contract for fiscal year 25 26 27. All in favor? I. That concludes that.
>> Wait the roll call. No >> took it out. No, he already did that. >> Okay. Sorry. Sorry. I thought you said >> the county director number 14. Uh, thank you, Commissioner. A few items. Uh, speaking of audits, just to let the commissioners know, I'm expecting the FY24 audit to be in your hands for um
review and approval within the next two weeks. Uh, we are wrapping up some final elements with the vendor and hopefully we'll have it completed then. I wanted to let the commissioners know that seasonal hiring at the Wall Recreational Facility is underway. Um, tomorrow afternoon, our human resources director
will join the golf pro and staff up at the golf course to receive interested parties um to join our seasonal hiring team at the golf course for the upcoming season. I want to let the commissioners know our facility manager posting which has been
up almost two weeks has attracted 164 resumes in county. Um after Friday, um Gerard will go through them um and begin looking at all the qualified applicants so we can winnow it down to a group that we can hopefully tackle and begin
interviews without delay. Want to inform the commissioners that all department head evaluations for midyear FY26 performance evaluations are now completed. The commissioners do have a meeting tonight. The Aggie, their monthly meeting starts at 5:00 in
Walpole. And then finally, an announcement. Uh, next week's commissioner meeting will be held in room 4214 in the uh, Betty Duket building at the Northfor County Agricultural School. The so-called disaster recovery room will be the space where the commissioners will hold their
public meeting next week. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. >> Thank you. >> Anything for Director Cronin? >> Just real quick, real quick. Go ahead. >> You did We didn't change the time. Are we still meeting at 1:00 for that meeting? Uh we we have not set that yet.
Um but uh Commissioner Sheay, that's something you want to change or look at. >> Well, I thought I thought we were going to do there's no Aggie meeting. There's no need to do it. But whatever the chair, that's fine. >> Let's keep it at one. >> Okay. >> Yeah, that's fine. >> And also, as a reminder, it is a long
weekend. Our uh audit our agenda will be posted Friday. >> Okay. from a post really early on the new disaster recovery session. >> Okay, I think we're fine. We'll give
that a little time and see how it goes. >> Okay. >> Right. Number 15, emergency items or topics the chair did not reasonably anticipate would be discussed. Gentlemen, believe it or not, I don't
have anything else. Um, I just have a little something that I caught on John's desk that uh came from Lucille from the RSVP program. It's a
little poster that >> actually Bill Buckley did that with the content from Lucille's program >> based on what information. Okay. And last year 4,088 so almost 4,100 rides were given to the
I mean this is a fouryear figure were given to our vets over the past four years and they have a breakdown uh from 22 to 25. It's pretty interesting and when we see it laid out like this it really brings the number home. So uh
congratulations. to Lucille. Congratulations to our drivers and uh we're looking forward to a very busy 2026 and started our battle. That's all I have. We'll take a motion for a journ.
>> Uh I move you adjourn at uh 218. >> Second motion made and seconded. I'll take a roll call vote on a chairman. Commissioner Stady. >> I'll see you later on. I vote yes. >> Commissioner Collins.
and Commissioner Shoes. This meeting is ajourned. Thank you very much.