HomeMy WebLinkAbout08/07/2004
FISHERS ISLAND CIVIC ASSOCIATION MEETING
August 7,2004 at the Fishers Island School from 4 pm to 5:15 pm
Heather Ferguson, President of FICA, asked for and received a motion to approve the minutes of the
May meeting. Motion was made, seconded and passed unanimously. Heather introduced FICA board
member Barry Bryan.
Barry asked for and received a motion to approve Virginia Thors to act as secretary of the meeting.
Motion was made, seconded and passed unanimously. The FICA bylaws call for an Annual Meeting for
election of Directors in either July or August of each year. In view of ongoing discussions this Spring with
the Island Institute Steering Committee and the FICA Board and uncertainties about possible changes in
governance structure, and when and if changes might take place, the FICA Board of Directors decided to
postpone elections rather than solicit and nominate candidates for a rather amorphous role. It is not entirely
clear that this meeting had been properly convened as an Annual Meeting. Notice was mailed out with the
minutes of the May meeting (to save postage) and this meeting was called an Annual Meeting at that time.
However, the FICA Board of Directors never adopted the formal resolution called for in the bylaws fixing
the number and classes of directors, calling the election and setting the date, time and place of the meeting.
In order to clarify the situation, he proposed that this meeting, to the extent that it is an Annual Meeting, be
adjourned to Sat. Oct. 9, 2004, at which time the election of new Directors will be held. The three Directors,
whose terms expire in 2004 - Barry Bryan, Sarah Malinowski and Mike Imbriglio - and the two Directors -
Kate Reid and Jack Hesse (appointed by the Board to fill out unexpired terms) - will continue in office until
the Annual Meeting in October. This will allow time for the Community Board situation to become clearer
and allow time to nominate candidates in accordance with the bylaw procedures. Of course, members will
be able to nominate additional candidates from the floor. Elections of new Directors will take place at that
time. This meeting can continue for consideration of all of the other business on the agenda. Barry asked for
and received a motion to postpone the Annual Meeting until October 9,2004. The motion was seconded and
passed by the membership.
Heather reminded the membership that the Town Fathers meeting will occur at I :30 pm on Thursday,
August 12, 2004. Louisa noted that they will arrive at II :30 am if anyone wishes to meet with any official in
advance of the Town Board meeting. At Louisa's suggestion, Town Supervisor, Josh Horton, came to
Fishers Island in July and met with most of the FICA Board. All of the other hamlets in Southold are
involved in Hamlet studies which are funded by the town. The Board went over a "wish list" with Josh
Horton about items that they would like to see included in a Hamlet Study for Fishers Island. Items to be
included would be: a review of infrastructure, zoning, and a master plan for the town owned property on the
West End. The resources are there in the town for a study of this type and he is very interested in helping us
out. Supervisor Horton and his planner expect to revisit FI in September. Any suggestions or input are
welcome.
Chippy duPont, Chairman of the FI Ferry District, reported that the work on the New London
terminal project is on time and on budget. There was a minor delay due to the removal of pilings from an old
railroad pier. The sheet piling walls should be complete next week. Chippy went over the various
contractors and completion percentages for each at the present time. The Federal government will owe us
approximately $6 million. To date, the Feds have paid us approximately $1.457 million and have an
additional $632,000 in bills on their desk. This represents 80% participation by the Federal government for
our construction costs. Chippy gave a detailed inventory of items that have been used in construction. I
think that the project is about 50% complete. Q: I have heard that there were some workers/skippers who
have expressed an interest in living on FI. A: This has not been expressed to me.
Jeanne Schultz, Superintendent of the FI School, reported that the oil tank removal project will begin
on August 23'd and the Science room addition will begin on Sept. 6. This necessitated moving several of the
teaching staff to different locations. We have been very proud of our seniors who are all going to college
this fall. We lost one teacher this year. Tanya Eastman will be taking that position and she and her family
will be moving into faculty housing on the island. I wish to thank the School Board for their work and
support.
Barbie Riegel, co-chair of the FI Conservancy's Nature Days, announced that the week-long program
begins tomorrow. This is the second annual exploration of environmental issues and awareness. Barbie
gave an overview of the events of the week. I have brochures with me that list all events. We encourage
everyone to attend. John Thatcher, Chairman of the FI Conservancy, hoped that the Community Board
concept would be discussed at length and that he anticipated that it would be a topic of discussion at the
annual meeting of the FI Conservancy on August 28th. He said that he hoped that the best days of the Civic
Association were ahead of it and not behind it.
Heather Ferguson asked that all questions about the Community Board proposal be held until after
the presentations. The vote that was just taken had nothing to do with the merging of the two organizations,
but rather to postpone the election of Directors. No one at this time is entertaining a motion to dissolve
FICA. That is not the intention. What has come out of many conversations this winter is that this may be a
time to better structure the Civic Association - how to better structure the makeup so that it would be a more
collaborative group of various organizational representatives. The result would allow for a governing body
of volunteer organizations working together in coordination rather than working individually on their
different sets of missions. The conservations started a while ago and where the FICA Board ended up was
with the proposal that you all saw. Nothing is happening other than we are entertaining the concept of
creating this Community Board as a committee of FICA to allow it to get up and running and support it. Let
it get started, have their elections and then go from there. We need to hear from our membership before
anything happens. All of those pieces must happen. Nobody is closing the door and starting over. This is
meant to be an addressing of some of those concerns that we have heard over the past 12 months about
representation, about coordination and having our many groups work together more effectively. John
Spofford will give a history of what has happened over the past 12 months.
John Spofford, Steering Committee member, reported on the history of the Island Institute's
involvement with FICA and the result of the visit of a group of 9 individuals from FI to the Institute's
headquarters in Rockland, ME in January of 2003. Initially, the focus of that trip was on the FI School as
there had been problems that had been here and also because the FI Board of Education was in the process of
searching for a new superintendent. School representatives from Islesboro and Vinal Haven, as well as
others, were in attendance in a full day of meetings. We got into other issues about islands and island life.
We listened to a selectman from a larger community. He, unlike what we have here at FI, had a structure to
work in. Two people came to FI from the Island Institute in April 2003 for a weekend and we had a series of
meetings. The Island Fellow program was described in one of these meetings and the group attending felt
that this program would be a benefit to FI. A person (with Island Institute training background and backup)
is put into an island community to live in the community, listen to it, learn about it and help the residents
learn to solve their problems themselves. The Sanger Fund supported the effort financially and Nate Gray
(Island Institute Fellow) came to live on FI in January. A Steering Committee was formed and was a
resource for Nate to find his way around the community and listen to him and guide him. A second Island
Institute Fellow has been retained. He/she is an impartial outsider. The key was to address the declining
young family year-round population on FI. The numbers have stayed about the same at about 265 to 290 for
about the past 15 years. This loss has most affected the school and the fire company. It was felt that there
must be a better way of coordinating things to retain the year-round population and grow it. Nate came here
with three things on his plate: to create a community calendar, to establish a village office (to pull together
the enormous amount of information that exists here) and to build some sort of structure. The center for this
Village Office was provided by Utility Company. Nate has been a consultant to the community. FI is self-
sufficient. There are four tax districts where the money is raised and spent here. All the 29 or 30 volunteer
organizations are all based here and have 290 board members between them. Yet there is no structure to this.
The idea was to build some sort of a structure to make the people and the organizations cut down overlap,
not waste time, improve communication and set island goals and have people working in the same direction.
What has come out of this is the FI Community Board. This is a Board made up of the 8 FI organizations
that affect the daily life of the FI community: FI Ferry District, FI Fire District, FI Board of Education, the FI
Waste Management District, FIDCO, Walsh Park, Island Health Project and the FI Utility Company. In
addition, there would be 6 at-large board positions filled by elected individuals - 3 from the year-round
residents (based on either the ferry pass list or the Utility Co. year-round resident list) and 3 from the
seasonal community. The Town Justice and the Superintendent of the FI School would be ex-officio
members. The Board would meet every month. Every other month there would be a public meeting. The
heads of the 8 organizations have signed on to this and are willing to serve on the Board. This is a work in
progress. This is a logical evolution of FICA and how it functions taking the work that was done on the
Growth Plans and now trying to have an evolved structure that will let that work more effectively. A list of
all of those people that Nate has spoken to was passed out. The new Island Institute Fellow will be here next
Wednesday to debrief Nate and then has an orientation week at the Island Institute the second week in
September. She will be on FI after that.
Ken Edwards, Steering Committee member, asked Nate to stand up and be recognized. The Steering
Committee job was to acquaint Nate with how FI runs - along with our local and town government. The
Steering Committee had luncheons, dinners and meetings to get people to meet Nate so that he could find out
what some of the FI problems were. Ken then asked the Steering Committee members to stand and
identified them.
Carol Giles, Steering Committee member, thanked John Spofford and Nate Gray. She reported that
the new Island Institute Fellow will be working with an interim Board and they are going to establish an
election process, duties of the Board, duties of the Administrator and how that Administrator will carry out
the requests of that Board and our community just to make this a better place and a more productive and
better place to live. Things like budget items also will be worked on.
Rosemary Baue, Union Chapel Minister, thanked Brad Burnham for providing FICA reports to
acquaint her with FI before she came to live here. She has been struck by the diversity and talents of the FI
population and the independence of those who live here compared to urban or suburban communities. She
has been impressed with the quality and the amount of listening which has been fostered by the relationship
with the Island Institute initiative. The outcome of this is the possibility that, instead of talking about what
needs to be done, there can be a representative group of all people who come to FI that can set some
priorities and can actually implement them so that we can work on getting some of problems solved. I would
like to thank John, the Steering Committee and FICA.
Heather Ferguson said that any of the FICA Board of Directors or the Steering Committee members
would be happy to answer any further questions. In summary, the FICA Board of Directors voted
unanimously to support the creation of the Island Community Board as a FICA committee. This will allow
them to pull themselves together to get the 8 organizations to fill the 6 at large seats, to define their roll, to
define their relationship with this new Island Institute Fellow, to define how they are going to do their
elections and to get moving. Once this happens, we will come back and report at the October meeting, and at
other meetings moving forward, where the process is. That is all that has happened to this day. There have
been no other votes or steps taken. FICA supports the Community Board and its efforts. I would like to
open the meeting up for questions.
John Thatcher remarked that he was expressing his opinions and not those of the FI Conservancy. He
had recent talks with Conservancy President, Ellie Kelly, and that they are in agreement that the
Conservancy Board would take up the matter of the proposed Community Board at the annual meeting on
August 28, 2004. John made several points: He knows the members of FICA and is in sympathy with most
of the stated aims, but feels there might be a better way of achieving the new entity called the FI Community
Board. He expressed the need to separate from the Town of Southold. He then questioned why the FI
Conservancy, the H. L. Ferguson Museum and the Island Peoples' Project were not included as members of
the FI Community Board. Response from the audience stated that IPP had recently been included. A: John
Spofford. The Community Board is to get the organizations together that affect daily life of the people who
live here, to collect information. Referring to a recent conversation with Ellie Kelly, John Spofford cited
several questions which had been posed to Ellie by new homeowners regarding the kinds of plantings which
were appropriate to FI. This is just the kind of environmental information that should be in the Village
Office. Pat Schiestl, Steering Committee member, reassured John Thatcher that as proposed the concerns of
his organization would be fully addressed and that there was a distinction made between the "engine"
organizations, the Utility and Fire Departments for example, that we could not live without, and the second
layer, the IPP, the Museum etc. needed for FI, but not critical for day to day living like the doctor's office.
According to Heather, the organizations will be represented in the Village Office and questions will be
referred to them.
Discussion followed. The point was made that change come slowly; for example, the 1986 Growth
Plan now seems so obvious. There is a process here and FICA has done a superb job. Another noted that in
1900, there were 300 island communities in Maine, now there are 14. This one works and volunteer
organizations are very active. Q: What is the legal status of the Community Board? A: Barry Bryan, FICA
Board member. The concept was that the Community Board would be most successful setting itself up as an
unincorporated association, free of all corporate problems, such as quorums and agenda, and getting itself
organized - having meetings and doing its thing. It has no legal authority; it is not a governmental body; it
does not have taxing authority or regulatory power. What it will have, if the community is behind it (both
winter and summer), is the power of "jawboning," of getting organizations to work together and individuals
to participate. The initial structure will be an unincorporated association which FICA will designate as a
committee of FICA, mostly for purposes of providing support - support in the form of its banking facilities. I
am told that an unincorporated association cannot get a bank account under the Patriot Act so it will need to
have some funds. Secondly, if there is a need for an employee, an administrative assistant to run the island
office, that employee could be on the FICA payroll because FICA has a taxpayer ID number. Thirdly, FICA
has decided to provide some financial support along with other island organizations for this Community
Board information. It will start off as an unincorporated association - holding its own meetings, writing its
own constitution, creating an action plan to get things done. This view is that of a FICA member, not the
Steering Committee and I hope that I've got it right. Q: Who will represent the 8 organizations? A: John
Spofford. In the discussions we've had, the President of each of the organizations has agreed to sit, or to
delegate someone ifhe or she cannot be there. Several points were made: comment about the number of new
organizations. Does it affect tax status of existing organizations? A: Heather Ferguson. No change in tax
status. Rosemary Baue, Union Chapel minister. Organizations not represented in core can get together to
decide who will represent them. Another reiterated need for an information center. Q: What are the logistics
of getting the Community Board running before Oct. 9? A: Heather Ferguson. According to the by-laws,
the FICA Board can form a committee without the vote of the membership. This committee can then bring
proposals to the FICA directors on budget, transition, and agenda. Six elected representatives would be
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appointed initially for 8 to 12 months to set the groundwork. After that group has defined how the elections
are to be held, elections will be held. The Community Board will have elections the way the FICA directors
do to elect executive committee among the 14. A: John Spofford. The Community Board chairs will be
made up of 3 members of the Steering Committee and 3 members of FICA to insure a sense of continuity for
this process.
Charlton Phelps, FICA member, spoke from the microphone and proposed a motion: First, to thank
the Steering Committee and John Spofford for the presentation which was understandable to everybody.
Second, we need a motion that we feel the sense of this meeting is to give FICA the go-ahead in forming a
Community Board. I would like to make such a motion.
Arthur Houghton, FICA member, spoke from the microphone. I strongly recommend we slow this
down a bit. This is a very contentious issue. I correct myself that the FICA board is not unanimous. We
have not seen a budget for this. As a FICA member, I feel this needs to be carried out in absolute
transparency. I propose a motion which would be to defer action on this until the annual meeting in October,
to maintain discussion and get further views. Heather: There is a motion on the floor. A comment was made
suggesting that if the speaker had been to FICA meetings over the last year, he would have been aware ofthe
discussions ofthe Community Board.
Charlton Phelps spoke from the microphone. I would like to clarifY the motion, not to change it. I
move that this body of members of FICA give the FICA board the power that they go ahead and further
investigate and work upon this and return at the next meeting to tell us where it (the Community Board) is.
It is just to give them the consensus that we are for it. That is all the motion is. The motion was seconded
and passed.
There was a motion made to adjourn the meeting. It was seconded and passed.
Virginia Thors, Acting Secretary, August 24, 2004
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