TOWN OF GLEN ECHO COUNCIL MEETING JULY9, 2018 Willem Polak, Mayor Dia Costello, Councilmember Nancy Long, Councilmember Matt Stiglitz, Councilmember Julia Wilson, Acting Clerk-Treasurer  ATTENDANCE:  VISITORS:  Jean Sperling Raya Bodnarchuk Emily Parsons Edie Springuel Susan Grigsby  Dan Spealman, Councilmember, was absent and on travel. The meeting was brought to order at 8:05 pm.  APPROVAL OF MINUTES  Councilmembers Costello and Long voted in favor of approving the. June minutes as amended,  Councilmember. Stiglitz abstained since he was absent at the. June meeting.  REVIEW OF REVENUE AND EXPENSES  (See attached documents - Expenses by' Vendor Summary and Profit & Loss Budget VS. Actual) Councilmember Stiglitz noted if the town has future tree care needs, the job should be put out for bids. He recommended Chapingo Tree Care Specialist 301-760-7042), a company he has In the Profit & Loss statement for. June, Mayor Polak noted the cash on hand -- $535,742.04. Councilmember Stiglitz noted that the town has gone over budget in professional services, most of which is legal fees. He said sO fari the town has spent $26,000 over budget. He said we seem to be using Town Attorney Ron Bolt more than in the past and asked for some idea of Mayor Polak, gave as examples questions about ordinances, permitting, curb cuts, and  used.  what he's working on.  variances. He said no one else in town has that expertise.    Councilmember Stiglitz recommended people with those questions be sent to the county first, Councilmember Stiglitz gave as an example 7315 University Ave., a rental property. The renters recently left and the owners brought contractors in and in one day enclosed the porch. No permits were obtained. He asked if the town should have a county inspector come out. He said the point of using county rules is sO the town can avoid administrative costs. He recommended the town file a complaint and, if not permitted, ask the county send an inspector out. Councilmember Costello said she was unaware of this issue and asked that all councilmembers be kept ini thel loop. She also suggested if Mr. Bolt is at a meeting, he be put at the top oft the  where most of those questions can be answered.  agenda.  AUDIT AGREEMENT/SIGNING  Mayor Polak and. Jean Sperling met with accountant Dennis Alexander to see about his reducing fees. The town spent about $12,000 with him last year. They are also meeting with other  accountants. time constraints.  Mayor Polak said that the town will have to start the audit process with Mr. Alexander, due to Councilmember Stiglitz said it would be difficult to switch accountants in the middle of an audit, so it would be best to stay with Mr. Alexander this year and reconsider for next year. Resident Martha Shannon noted it is considered best practice is to switch accountants every! 5 DISCUSSION OF A WORK SESSION ON TOWN ASSISTANT OSITION/ARTICE20F  years.  ORDINANCES  The Council agreed to hold a work session on hiring a Clerk-Treasurer and on Article 2 (Animal Control) of the ordinances on August 1 at 7 p.m. It is open toi the public and residents will be Mayor Polak noted that 2 people have quit the Clerk-Treasurer position in recent months and hei is spending about 20 hours a week on town issues. He suggested the Council discuss the possibility of offering benefits. They will also discuss the possibility of upgrading the workspace.  notified by flyer and the listserve.  WEATHERVANE DISCUSSION/APPROVALTO PURCHASE  The Council agreed on a weathervane topped with an eagle for the Town Hall and Mayor Polak will get price quotes for different types of metal. The roofers will install it at no cost and the  money' will come from Town Hall maintenance in the budget.    DIGITIZING OF OLD FILES  Martha Shannon reviewed the report she sent the Council (attached).  She reported the Hedlund bid came in at under $5,000 and would take 2-3 months.  The Council did not decide to take any action at this time.  TOWN HALL RATES/ USE MEETING  The Council set a meeting on July 16 at 7 pm for the Town Hall use committee to meet. Councilmember Costello, whoi is heading the committee, said there are some disparities between the website and the rental contract which have to be resolved. She also said the  online calendar is on hold for now but will happen.  NEW/OLD BUSINESS  Councilmember Stiglitz noted that solicitors must get a list of residents who have asked to be on a "no solicitation" list, which does hot yet exist. He volunteered to start compiling the names He also mentioned that the Council should take up the issue of parking on the other side of The Council voted to reconvene the second week of September. Councilmembers Stiglitz and Costello voted in favor, Councilmember Long voted against. The motion passed.  ofi interested residents. town, probably ini the fall.  The meeting was adjourned at 10 pm.  epectrulysubpmites, Julia Wilson Acting Clerk-Treasurer oceDh  MAYOR  CLERK-TREASURER    Report to Glen Echo Town Council on Archives Project  July 9, 2018  At the Town Council Meeting. June 11, 2018, Ip presented a report on the town archives including recommendations for long term access and preservation. Two estimates for professional archival management services were included. Int the meeting was asked to determine the time The two estimates are. similar ini that they would do an inventory of our holdings, creating a high level finding aid/listing and make suggestions for organization and housing of the records. Each contractor would also provide guidelines for digitization of documents. Ir requested further input from both contractors regarding the official records retention plan. Both would be willing The two contract proposals differi in scope, cost and time. History Associates would complete the work in 61 to 8 weeks but would not do any physical organization of the records. Hedlund would complete the work over a few months (estimate of 150 hours work max), and would physically rehouse and organize thei files in archival folders and boxes; and provide input to a digitization strategy. Hedlund estimates that her time would be approximately $3750 plus cost ofs supplies ($800). History Associates will charge $10,000 (finding aid + suggestions fori further Digitization: Mayor Polak and Jean Sperling arranged a conference call with Advanced Business and Ricoh digitization services on. June 20. Ricoh does large scale projects all over the country and complies with federal and state standards for archival management. They would scan and create a database ofi information for records that we designate. We must first review all our records and then request that they visit us to review the priority files. They digitize all sorts of materials from sheets of paper to photos, microfilm, slides, and oversized drawings. They would do this work at one of their high security processing centers (there is one in Alexandria). Before giving us an estimate, we need to determine which records we would like digitized. (Therefore, the logical sequence would be to complete an inventory project with one of the contractors noted above.Alternatively, we could have them review all the files here and give an estimate by types of files (e.g. minutes, newsletters, rolled drawings) sO we could then prioritize the work and the cost. Another alternative would bei to have interns/archival management  frame for the project work.  to do this as an additional cost.  organization/digitzation/preservation,  students do the digitization on the newi town copier.  Martha Shannon