Lakeville boards take no stand on plate reader ban and blight fines before Nov. 18 town meeting

LAKEVILLE Lakeville voters will get no advice from the Select Board or the Finance Committee on a ban on license plate readers or a blight bylaw for business property when they meet Wednesday, Nov. 18.

Both boards voted at a joint meeting Wednesday, Nov. 4, to make no recommendation on those two citizen petitions, Articles 9 and 8. The Select Board recommended the other seven articles on the warrant. The Finance Committee recommended Articles 1 through 5 and voted to make no recommendation on the two zoning articles, 6 and 7. Before the petition votes, members noted the boards have declined to take a stance on citizens' petitions in the past.

Town Counsel flagged parts of both measures that may not hold up, while saying the choice belongs to voters. "I take no position," she told the boards on the plate reader ban. "The residents have to vote for what's right for them."

The plate reader ban

Lakeville has one plate reader, on a contract of about $3,000 a year for a subscription that also gives access to other Flock cameras, Town Administrator Andrew Sukeforth told the boards.

Town Counsel said the article's reach could catch more than Flock. Cameras at the library or Town Hall may use facial detection, which tells a person from an object without recognizing who it is, she said, and the article could also bar plate-reading technology in police cruisers if the town has it. She said a clause making the data inadmissible in court would likely be unenforceable, because that decision belongs to a judge. She also raised questions about the section letting any resident sue, the section ending existing contracts, which could expose the town to a breach of contract claim, and the requirement to delete old data within 48 hours, given public records law.

One board member called the article "way too broad." A speaker at the table noted that select boards elsewhere have settled the question after hearing from their police chiefs, without a town meeting vote, and said Lakeville's board could do the same in the meantime. No bylaw passed at town meeting takes effect until the attorney general approves it, and Town Counsel said that review could run past the usual 90 days. Police Chief Matthew Perkins is expected to speak to how the camera has been used, she said.

The blight bylaw

The petitioner told the boards that Article 8 is aimed at commercial property left to decay, with a warning first, a $200 fine for a second violation and $300 a day after that. He said the figures followed what other towns charge and that he had first wanted them higher.

Town Counsel said the $300 is the most state law allows under noncriminal enforcement, which the article as written does not include, and that it could be added on the floor or at a later town meeting. The lien section would likely be struck by the attorney general, she said, because it does not cite the required state law. One member objected to the "subjective" wording on rubbish and overgrown vegetation. The petitioner answered that the town could set a baseline from how other businesses in town keep their property, such as clearing snow on time and mowing regularly. Town Counsel said courts apply a reasonable person standard to language like that.

Where each board landed

Votes at the Nov. 4 joint meeting, Articles 1 to 9 of the Nov. 18 Special Town Meeting warrant.

Article	What it does	Select Board	Finance Committee
1	Adds $157,298 to the budget, $255,000 to a pay reserve, $97,702 less for interest	Recommend	Recommend
2	Moves $30,000 to engineering for fields at Ted Williams Camp	Recommend	Recommend
3	17 small tax title parcels for sale or restriction	Recommend	Recommend
4	Asks the Legislature to name the Pickens Street Bridge for Sgt. Brian H. Reynolds	Recommend	Recommend
5	Affordable Housing Trust board from five to seven	Recommend	Recommend
6	Battery storage zoning	Recommend	No recommendation
7	Open space residential development zoning	Recommend	No recommendation
8	Blight bylaw for business property	No recommendation	No recommendation
9	Ban on plate readers and biometric surveillance	No recommendation	No recommendation

On Article 1, Sukeforth said the $255,000 comes from better revenue from the meals tax adopted in June and from investments, and would cover union settlements and non-union raises. The $97,702 is a premium the town received when bidders paid more than face value for debt it renewed in October, the town's finance director said, and because it is excluded debt, it means about $97,000 less raised on this year's tax bills.

Article 3 covers 17 parcels in the Clark Shores area, all under 10,000 square feet, which the town would offer to neighbors through a buyer program, Sukeforth said, putting them back on the tax rolls.

Also that night

The Select Board appointed members to the 30 Howland Road Property Acquisition Advisory Committee, the group studying whether the town should buy, conserve or subdivide the 565.75-acre parcel, and left one at-large seat and the Open Space Committee seat for later. The town posted a call for at-large applicants Nov. 5. Sukeforth said a state climate resilience program, MVP, has land acquisition grants of up to $3 million that the town could seek once it finishes the program's next phase. The permit hearing on the owner's earth removal plan resumes Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 6 p.m. at the library.

The board also waived building permit fees for pool repairs at George R. Austin Intermediate School, where Sukeforth said a company will pay about $40,000 to $50,000 a year to lease the pool, with community swim and the swim team using it. And it authorized Sukeforth to join the Lakeville Disc Golf Association as co-applicant on a first-step, $20,000 Community Preservation request for a free nine-hole course at Ted Williams Camp.

How to weigh in

Registered voters decide all nine articles Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 6:30 p.m. in the Apponequet Regional High School auditorium, 100 Howland Road. The Select Board's office is at 508-946-8800, ext. 4.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.