Selectmen, building inspector debate use of Munis system

Date: 9/11/2014

EAST LONGMEADOW – At its Sept. 3 meeting, the Board of Selectmen decided to host a future public hearing regarding an ongoing issue pertaining to the town’s Munis system.

Munis is an operating system database that sends notifications to various municipal departments.

According to an Information Technology (IT) Department memo dated Aug. 26, one of the proposed changes to the Munis permitting system requested by Building Inspector Daniel Hellyer and Selectman William Gorman, the board’s liaison to the building inspector, was to deactivate the building department’s 16 event notifications except for the new permit application event notification in the Clerk’s  Office for tax notification.

Christine Saulnier, chair of the Board of Assessors, said the Assessors Office needs seven days of notification under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 143 Section 61. That notification allows for the assessors to determine if any permits have been misplaced or lost in the municipal system.
   
The Munis system also serves as a means for checks and balances for most municipal departments, she said.

“But if we don’t receive the permits can the town afford to go without $1.5 million in new taxable value? Can you afford to go without $400,000 or $450,000 in new growth revenue? And what about our own inspection system, there’s  a whole ripple effect to this,” added Saulnier.

During the meeting, Hellyer said his intention was not to end notifications to municipal departments and further stated that there might be a misunderstanding with regards to the IT memo.
“There’s never been any intention to take you out of the loop as far as getting notified,” he said.

One of the main concerns that Hellyer said he has with the Munis system is his perceived limitation of his authority as building commissioner.

“There’s nobody else that can actually have any authority over the issuance of a building permit,” he said. “That includes a check list. Check lists are not allowed according to the state because I ultimately have all the responsibilities.”

“Other departments want full authority over something that falls under my jurisdiction,” he added.

Hellyer stated as an example that there are only three items that can stop him from issuing a building permit for a house. These include inadequate water and sewer, zoning, and lack of payment for fees or taxes in the town clerk’s jurisdiction. He added that zoning is his responsibility.

“What’s been happening is my permits have been blocked [by the Planning Department] and I have sat with up to $20,000 in checks that I could not enter or receive and I feel that it’s not authorized,”  Hellyer added.

Hellyer said he and Gorman met with State Building Inspector Harold Leaming on two separate occasions to discuss violations in regards to the Munis system during the past month.

“[Leaming] directed us what he wanted off the computer, what we’re supposed to do, and if we don’t adhere to this he could possibly sue the town of East Longmeadow,” Gorman said. 

Town Counsel James Donahue said that he doesn’t believe the law is being violated.

“The state can come in and say all they want to say, but in the first instance the determination of how municipal government should operate on the local level is a determination that the local boards should make through their elected officials,” Donahue said.

“This was put to bed three and a half years ago and as far as I know the system has worked fairly well since that time,” he added. “The fact that these issues are coming up now is a whole new problem that I’ve never heard from the department heads that was existing.”

Addressing the possibility of a lawsuit, Donahue said, “Mr. Gorman, the first thing that the attorney general would have done if the regulations people had an issue, they would have assigned it to a district to assist an attorney general. They would have called town council and said, ‘What’s the problem? We’ve got an issue. What are we going to do to get this fixed?’”

He continued, “And then we would have worked to address the concerns that the state had so that it worked here for the town in an amiable fashion to make the system work for the benefit of all residents.

Board of Selectmen Chair Angela Thorpe asked for specific examples of violations, which were not provided during the meeting. 

Thorpe said a written list of violations would be necessary to discuss the matter of the upcoming hearing. 

Thorpe recommended inviting Leaming to a future meeting, which would also include department heads and staff to discuss the issue and find a solution.

Hellyer also stated that his license could be revoked if he does not issue a building permit within a 30-day period.

Donahue said he believed that statement was not entirely accurate.

Planning Board Chair Michael Carabetta said under the East Longmeadow bylaw Section 7.72 that the Planning Board is the special permit granting authority.

“This is the book that we use to institute the town bylaws that [were] instituted in 1962, he said. “So, I ask you, who is superseding their authority?”