[Speaker 19] (0:33 - 1:03)
.

[Speaker 1] (1:46 - 4:16)
Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Select Board meeting of June 29th. Before we get started, if everyone would rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you, everybody. I think that, so to start, we have public comment. We do have on our agenda later, the third item on our agenda is the discussion on the Stand Up Paddle Board program, and if people have public comment about that, it may be better to make those comments when we have that conversation, if that's okay with folks that are here, if they're commenting on that.

I'd welcome public comment on any other matters now, if people have public comment unrelated to that. I don't see any on Zoom, and if people have public comment, which it would help if I open my laptop, they can also email me at nduffy.swampscottma.gov. We have someone, someone on Zoom.

[Speaker 5] (4:17 - 4:17)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (4:20 - 4:36)
Tasiya. Can you allow her to talk? Yep.

Tasiya, are you there? There she is.

[Speaker 8] (4:37 - 4:38)
Can you guys hear me okay?

[Speaker 1] (4:38 - 4:38)
Yep.

[Speaker 8] (4:39 - 6:55)
Okay, hi, thank you for allowing me to speak. I am a resident on Lewis Road, and I am here because I'm concerned about the parking situation of the beaches. I know we recently gave out hundreds of parking passes to town employees and I'm not sure the exact number.

I know many of them already live in town but I do know that a lot of them also live outside of town and I was at Phillips Beach this weekend. Very, very, very difficult to find parking. The only way I was able to park is I actually had my mother with me who's disabled and we were able to use one of the handicapped spots.

There are two handicapped spots now. Previously there were there was only one so I'm really glad to see that a second was added but I can tell you that her experience is that she still struggles to get a handicapped spot there when she goes alone and she wanted to drive with me because she has such a hard time finding parking there on a regular basis too. So I'm concerned that we gave out all these parking stickers.

We didn't add any parking to compensate for that and I know that there's a lot of areas in that neighborhood that are designated as resident but I'd like, you know, to have it considered that they be opened up to add more beach parking and I'd also like to get some more information about our disability, our Commission on Disability. My understanding is we don't have one right now and that is really disappointing because I think it's it serves such an important purpose and you know you just don't know what it's like to walk in someone's shoes when they're disabled and the struggles. I have two disabled parents.

It's very, very, very challenging for disabled people so we really I don't know what we need to do to get that Commission back up and going but I'd like to see that made a priority.

[Speaker 1] (6:57 - 8:03)
Okay, thank you Tasia. Thank you very much for your comments. Is there anyone else here who has public comment unrelated to the stand-up paddle board?

Okay, so with that we have exciting presentation to give. We have some Girl Scouts here who we are recognizing for their amazing work to create a bird blind in the Harold King Forest and they've achieved a Girl Scout silver award. We've got Juliet Hale and Eleanor Zorski so you both if you want to come down here you can there's a microphone here you can speak to.

We'd love to learn more about your projects and congratulate you on your work. If you have something you can you can either sit here or you can use that microphone there whichever you feel more comfortable with.

[Speaker 7] (8:05 - 8:38)
So over COVID we started doing a lot of bird watching and we came across a forestry report from the state of Massachusetts and that suggested a bird blind to be installed into the Harold King Forest. So we approached the Swan Scott Conservancy and the Conservation Commission and got their approval to build and install a bird blind in the Harold King Forest.

[Speaker 17] (8:39 - 9:01)
We then teamed up with Wolf Builders to install the bird blind in the forest. We added some informational signs to the blind that promote the use of citizen science in Swan Scott and then we led a guided hike throughout the forest. And that's basically what we did.

[Speaker 1] (9:03 - 9:25)
That's great well I would mention that this is an addition to all the work that you did in Harold King Forest last year which was you know marking the trails and just making that even a more enjoyable experience for for all our residents. So I really I thank you both and all the Girl Scouts for all your work. I welcome the board to comment.

[Speaker 5] (9:26 - 10:03)
No I absolutely love the fact that the Girl Scouts and and Juliet and Eleanor you're you know you're everything that's right about about Swan Scott and giving back and volunteering and I was extremely pleased last summer when you know when I was able to speak at the opening of the ridge. That was incredibly exciting you know this is now incredibly exciting that we're investing in and continue to invest in open space and we're you know we have incredible volunteers such as the two of you in front of us so so thank you. Thank you so much.

[Speaker 4] (10:05 - 10:16)
Can you just describe what a bird blind is and how long it took you how many hours you put in and what your efforts were so we have a good understanding of how hard you work.

[Speaker 17] (10:16 - 10:41)
Well a bird blind is a structure that allows you to observe birds in their natural habitat but with like disturbing them a little bit less so it makes you a little more hidden and the the outlines for the silver war is that you have to put in 50 hours of work total and that includes building and researching and making signs and leading guided tours and all that.

[Speaker 2] (10:45 - 10:57)
Can you tell us a little bit about the silver award how important is that award?

[Speaker 17] (10:58 - 11:18)
The silver award is the the highest achievement that we can gain at our current level of Girl Scouts. There's three main awards there's the bronze award which you've already done and the silver award and the gold award and they progressively get harder and harder and you have to put in more and more hours and have more requirements as they go on.

[Speaker 1] (11:21 - 14:19)
That's great thank you so much. If there aren't further comments it's my pleasure to present to you both an official citation of appreciation from the town of Swampscott in recognition of your Girl Scout silver award and for your hard work and dedication working on the Harold King Forrest bird blind project. These are science certificates from the board and by an administrator to Eleanor Zaworski and Juliet Hale so thank you very much.

Have a great night thanks so with that it's a it's just about 630 so I think we will the next thing on our agenda is a public hearing for a liquor license that's scheduled for 630 so I think we'll jump into that discussion so do this is for a transfer of license from Yan's China Bistro Bistro to Tyrific by the sea located at 146 Humphrey Street Swampscott Mass. Do I have a motion to open the public hearing? So moved.

Is there a second? Okay all in favor? Aye.

All right so am I is this going to you Sean or?

[Speaker 2] (14:20 - 15:35)
Yes you know this is essentially just a transfer of a liquor license. It's a new business and Angelica is here from the police department. The property lies in a B1 zoning district in Humphrey Street.

The property is within 200 feet of both the Hadley and St. John's. The property has long existed as a restaurant with a full liquor license and they maintain that use through the transfer of business without needing to obtain a special permit before the ZBA. The staff has reviewed this both Margie Golaska and Chief Quesada and with regards to the outdoor dining the current temporary zoning law allows for outdoor seating as of right including liquor service for all restaurants in town where they're permitted as a right by special permit.

The applicant has not yet applied for neither of the common victor license or attainment license. The Office of Community and Outdoor Development has reviewed the application and finds that the local business fits our goals in the master plan and we continue to grow our local businesses with a variety of dining experiences.

[Speaker 1] (15:38 - 16:09)
Okay do I have any questions from the board on this transfer of license? Is there any public comment on this liquor license? I'm assuming to see his hand is not for this.

It's gone and so do I have a motion then to close the public hearing. Is there a second?

[Speaker 5] (16:09 - 16:10)
Second.

[Speaker 1] (16:10 - 16:11)
All those in favor?

[Speaker 4] (16:12 - 16:12)
Aye.

[Speaker 1] (16:13 - 17:41)
Okay and so given that I don't know if there's any further discussion of the board or if I would entertain a motion to approve the transfer of license from Yan's China Bistro to Ty Rific. So moved. Okay all those in favor?

Aye. That was easy. I think if it is okay I'm gonna try to do a couple of items on the agenda out of order to knock them down before we enter the stand-up paddleboard program just because I think that will be a lengthy discussion and see maybe if we can get through some of these other items that might not take as long.

So one of those let's see the first would be I think the item number seven which is aggregate industries earth removal permit extension. This is a request the earth the earth removal permit is up at the end of this month and the Earth Removal Advisory Committee has submitted some questions that have not yet been answered and they haven't been able to provide a recommendation. They don't have a recommendation to us and for their next permit so they're requesting that we extend the permit until they're able to do a full review and get answers to some questions that they still have pending with aggregate.

I don't know Sean if you want to add anything to that.

[Speaker 2] (17:41 - 18:21)
I think a 90 day extension would give us time to continue to meet with aggregate and discuss ways that we can ultimately settle on some concerns that they've presented. We feel strongly though that you know we've got permit conditions that vastly improve our regulatory standard that we've had. We made these changes last year and I think you know they should continue to govern the operations of the quarry.

Any questions on any of this for anyone?

[Speaker 1] (18:23 - 18:36)
Okay so do I have a motion to extend the current earth removal permit for aggregate industries by 90 days? So moved. Okay all those in favor any further discussion?

All those in favor?

[Speaker 10] (18:37 - 18:37)
Aye.

[Speaker 1] (18:37 - 19:16)
All right great. I think that I would like to also see if we can do item 9 which is vote to accept the recommendation of the Town Administrator to appoint Council. This is something that we need to approve.

The Town Administrator is recommending that we want you may want to appoint Council for assistance with both the land acquisitions and easement acquisitions that we are pursuing and so we need to approve that recommendation.

[Speaker 2] (19:16 - 19:37)
This is Attorney George McLaughlin well renowned attorney that specializes in land use in Massachusetts and certainly will allow us to get the type of legal support that will best address the needs of the town.

[Speaker 3] (19:37 - 19:48)
I'd make a motion to appoint the McLaughlin brothers PC as special counsel to assist the town of Swampscott in connection with representation regarding the acquisition of various parcels of land.

[Speaker 1] (19:51 - 23:08)
Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor?

Aye. Okay so I think unless anyone else feels otherwise I think the other items on our agenda are significant enough conversation so maybe we should go back in order and talk about the stand-up paddleboard program. That's okay.

So for folks who are here to comment on that I I think what would be most productive is maybe we have our a conversation about it and then we allow you to make your comment after that discussion because maybe some answers to questions will be provided hopefully and some issues will be addressed. Maybe not. Maybe more questions will come up but I think that that may be the best way to do it.

So that's the way I think we'll proceed. So I we put this on the agenda. Many people know that the Swampscott stand-up paddleboard summer program with an outside vendor has been canceled, was canceled somewhat abruptly I think a little over a week ago.

I want to just acknowledge the upset of that. I think we all understand some of us firsthand how disruptive that is for families and children and residents in general to have something like that go away and having that expectation. I'm not far removed at all from from having to try to program a child's summer and I appreciate the stress that's involved with that task as well as the enjoyment of finding something that fits so well especially when it's nearby and convenient and affordable and so I think we all know that that's not a small a small thing to lose and that's and I think it's important so one of the reasons I wanted to I think it's important to have this on the agenda tonight is have a conversation about what occurred and provide some clarity for people on that piece but also talk about you know some plans sort of how we're going to avoid such issues going forward and looking ahead to summers to summers of the future.

I I'd prefer this not to devolve into an inquisition if you will but I think that it's important to have some clarity for everyone that has been somewhat absent for for I think for I think residents so I think that's important that we have a conversation about that and so with that I'm gonna let the town administrator provide an update to start and then I think the board can provide their comments and ask questions and then we will open it up to some public comment and questions.

[Speaker 2] (23:09 - 25:46)
Thank You Neil. I certainly want to start by just acknowledging just how difficult this has been on a number of families in Swampskate and how I think disappointed we all are that you know something that I we've worked to build over the last few years has just you know evaporated and left us all wondering you know frankly what we could have done better to ensure that we didn't create such a disruption. The last two years you know have been very very difficult for every family and I think it's important for all of us to kind of just understand that you know we would never in a million years want to see a program like this not get stronger and stronger and you know unfortunately you know we we made some mistakes and we we communicated some things to a vendor that you know made them feel as though we would not accommodate the program and unfortunately you know the changes were too abrupt and we didn't have enough of an opportunity to to work out a solution. I do want to make it clear to everyone that you know the town would have taken whatever steps reasonably you know necessary to continue to support the container and to continue to try to support the program. I recognize that that just you know at some point was just a little bit too little and too late.

We do have some dedicated staff and we have dedicated employees that really do care about our community and our children and our families. We are mindful that you know we we had some time to work this out. We had ongoing conversations with the vendor.

Storage was always an issue since the beginning of the program and you know for lack of really a good reason we just have not been able to come up with that compromise that would work for everybody.

[Speaker 3] (25:47 - 25:52)
Can I just ask? I'm sorry to interrupt. Compromise with who?

You're saying compromise. Who are you compromising with?

[Speaker 2] (25:53 - 26:34)
Compromising with folks that actually took issue with a storage container on that parking lot or or that storage container on what we would come to find out is a historical district commission area of town that comes under a regulatory board that while we frankly did not see a great regulatory standard for controlling that container we had recognized that the board does have some jurisdiction for a temporary storage.

[Speaker 3] (26:35 - 26:39)
No thank you. I didn't mean to throw you off. I just wanted to understand when you were speaking in the past.

[Speaker 2] (26:39 - 29:00)
I do want to mention that you know the town is committed to supporting a stand-up paddle boarding program. You know we have a harbor and waterfront plan that that speaks to how important it is to activate the waterfront. The waterfront is medicine to a lot of people.

It's a place where people do find a great deal of recreation but also wonderful opportunities to just enjoy a sense of place and space and you know we continue to think about ways to support a program. These programs are complicated though and they're not something that we can just throw together. They do take teams of really certified and dedicated professionals.

It's the water, it's dangerous, it's a big risk. We were mindful of that but we do have some extraordinary town employees and individuals that are working right now to try to figure out how to put a program on some level in place for this year and certainly for next year but we we're gonna have to come back over the next few weeks and share some additional information because we don't have all of the pieces in place for that but some extraordinary work has been done over the last week to reach out and connect with vendors and with service providers that work in stand-up paddle board programs across the North Shore and we've had some really productive conversations with some folks. With that said ultimately I'll take responsibility for this.

I think it's important for folks to know that as the town administrator these programs are important to me and it's the contract that I signed that frankly I negotiated and you know it it was my hope that this would be a contract that would continue to support programs that I know our community needs and our children need and I'm disappointed and sorry that it just didn't work out. I opened up to board questions comments.

[Speaker 5] (29:00 - 30:42)
Yeah I mean I just a few comments I mean I just quite frankly I'm I'm furious I'm furious that this program isn't isn't happening I'm furious that 300 or so children you know are not able to you know to experience the joys of stand-up paddle boarding in Swampscott. I'm furious that you know these children won't have the opportunity to to get outside and exercise and gain confidence through through this program through a through a program that was going to be a huge benefit and a huge revenue driver for the Recreation Department but was going to be an integral part of our community and our working waterfront you know as we as we look to activate you know those outdoor spaces especially as we're coming out of a pandemic. I'm furious for the fact that we won't have you know increased foot traffic on Humphrey Street to support our local businesses and the trickle-down effects that that you know that that you know that that will cause.

I mean and I'm sad for all the you know for all the kids and I'm sad for my kids for not having the opportunity to to have that experience within within our town. So I mean that's that's that's really how how I feel you know I'm furious I'm upset I'm trying to hold that to hold that in a little bit but but I am upset and I think we do need to do we do need to do better we must do better we can't maybe I mean this is this is too important of a of a program in a very short season to you know to try to change you know to move the goalposts at the 11th hour.

[Speaker 7] (30:43 - 31:40)
So I echo the sentiments of David but also I am additionally furious that every recipient hasn't received a refund yet. That is a real problem for me because in my household I can't afford to send the town X amount of hundreds of dollars for a program that isn't happening and then fill those vacancies where am I getting that money I've already shelled it out and I know it can't be a snap of a finger and happen but if we know it's not happening we should be communicated how fast is it gonna happen this is how we're issuing refunds we should be transparent about it we should not be making people call us for refunds I think that is unconscionable that should not happen and this is not the first time that that has been I have brought up that issue and if you have an update on refunds I would love to know what that is.

[Speaker 2] (31:41 - 31:58)
I do think Danielle has an update I certainly you know we you know understood that refunds needed to be returned ASAP and we looked to do that. Joe's gonna mic me.

[Speaker 16] (32:00 - 32:19)
As of yesterday every person has been refunded to their credit card there were mostly credit cards but we started working on it immediately I had to get someone extra into my office to start doing those refunds because there were 312 of them but they have all been done.

[Speaker 7] (32:22 - 32:23)
Thank you.

[Speaker 1] (32:29 - 32:32)
It's up to you. You can.

[Speaker 7] (32:33 - 33:21)
So also outside of the issues that occurred that we can't change what are we doing to mitigate these issues issues in the future because it seems to me like we signed a contract with a vendor we knew what we were getting because we use this vendor last year we knew that the container was going to be an issue it was in the paper last year and it's literally the definition of insanity to expect a different outcome to do the exact same thing and expect a different outcome so why didn't we what why are we saying that we are shocked or blindsided or surprised and why aren't what are we doing to fix that so that perception doesn't happen in the future for other

[Speaker 2] (33:21 - 35:09)
programs so I think you know we were working with the vendor and we did have several meetings with the vendor over the last few weeks to discuss options for addressing some of the concerns that have been presented about the storage container we had a meeting after the end of last season and we discussed the storage container and we we have some limited space down in that area for storage and so there is a real need there have been a number of ideas that have been presented but you know this is a new activity that we're bringing to that area and I think you know the thought of a longer-term storage location that may be embedded into other you know structures whether it's a gazebo or figuring out how to you know deal with the storage problem that we have with kayaks and other you know small boats that are left in that area it seems to be a pressing issue and so there's there's a number of opportunities for us to think more strategically about storage and work with you know our capital planning to try to address that when we we talked about you know working with a partner we also talked about a multi-year contract that would help us think about how to invest in you know a storage container that would be aesthetically I think a little bit more fitting for that area and the thought it may take us a few years to come up with the funding to address that but

[Speaker 5] (35:09 - 37:25)
Sean just to that to that effect something that's more aesthetically pleasing is still a container personally I don't have a problem with the container I I think the container the joy that this program brings is is over overweighs any aesthetic you know that's that's there I mean I go to Fisherman's Beach all year round I'm a member of the Yacht Club and you know I will tell you the parking lot holds a number of things that are not aesthetically pleasing a lot of the year you know the floats are not aesthetically pleasing they take up four or five parking spaces for extended periods of time you know the residents that I've talked to and they've probably you know dozens over the last over the course of the last week the message that they've conveyed to me and they wanted me to share is we you know we're all for history and preservation of history but they don't want to live in a in a museum like we don't like we want a working waterfront we want a waterfront that can be invested in it can be enjoyed by all not for two people to look and say oh wow this is beautiful there's nothing you know there's there's there's no container but there's also no kids there's also no programming there's also no no joy so I I just I mean we can talk about these these these long-term plans and I think that's great but we also had a year to address these long-term plans last year and we and we failed to do so so you know my from just just as a as a practical matter I don't see I don't see any reason that a parking lot should be a historical district the fish house absolutely absolutely we should preserve the fish house I don't see how a parking lot should restrict use at Fisherman's Beach of Fisherman's Beach for all arguably this is the oldest public beach in the country as as I believe and Driscoll has whose who's on and who's on zoom has indicated at a number of town meetings so this should be used by by as many as possible we can simply not let the the minority you know the the loud minority cannot rule

[Speaker 2] (37:25 - 38:16)
here David I share some of those concerns and I appreciate them I I do think you know you know it was more important that that container stay than the program not move forward and I I wish you know we could have you know kept that program that said you know I think we made some mistakes and I think going forward we have to prioritize some of these programs and figure out how to make sure that you know we continue to engage citizens and use these resource areas you know in ways that would help but we can't prioritize the program if

[Speaker 7] (38:16 - 38:42)
we don't fix the problem and the problem is that where we want to have the programs is restricted correct so I think there was a way for us ability to have programming because of the restrictions on Fisherman's Beach or because of the parking lot restrictions you don't have the ability now for storage or I mean where are you going to store if we if we want to run our own program where you

[Speaker 1] (38:43 - 39:05)
have the ability of the ability there's no restriction there is no restriction to put a container in the parking lot I mean the part the Historic District Commission has an ability for all to whatever it is the appearance of a temporary structure they don't they can't remove it so can we talk about why

[Speaker 3] (39:05 - 42:09)
it was removed or why why why we're removing it please I'm actually really curious about because I don't think any of the conversations any of the public disclosures any of the discussion explains why all of a sudden the town after going through its own RFP process after dealing with the headache of people complaining about the container last year didn't come up with a different solution or just come back and say we're here get used to it instead at the 11th hour for a small business owner the rug was pulled out from them and all of a sudden that we're putting them in fish lockers which again respectfully there's not very many uses in our town that are appropriate for the fish lockers right and so let's just be clear about that but at the last minute you know all of a sudden that that's changed so I'm curious why did it get changed I want to understand why why all of a sudden is the decision that was the basis of a year-long process coming out of summer last year that is a hundred percent your decision under our Charter I want to understand what changed I want to understand why all of a sudden after that whole process that whole year after collecting 311 families worth of money 312 312 that we decided to change our decision not we you you're the town administrator and so I guess I want to understand I guess I want to understand because I don't think I've heard the facts yet to explain it because the Historic District Commission chair you know decided to explain it on Facebook and said the Historic District had an application been filed the Historic District did not have the ability to remove the container so literally the chair says it right here so what normal people would do was just file the application oh you're right you didn't I'm beyond the fact that you guys didn't even pick up on the fact that you need to file the application that's just that's an unforced error you guys should totally be able to pick up on that but but whatever that happened right so the remedy of someone that put replaces a window in their house in the Historic District without getting permission is they don't all of a sudden take out the window and board up their house they say oh sorry let me file the application and they file the application and they go and they do a mea culpa before the Historic District Commission and Historic District Commission even says nope those winners are perfectly fine or sorry they're not fine you have to remove them and then they remedy the situation but they file the application but here we didn't even file the application here we just said uncle but I that's why I was curious before who were we compromising with because I think what we were compromising with I guess to be honest with you I think you were compromising 312 families is honestly that's the compromise that was made unless I'm missing something unless there's other facts out there that tells me who we were compromising with because it's just it doesn't make sense how we could have last summer and you could go through this whole process for a year Sean and all of a sudden right something that's completely your decision we decide to do something totally different 11th hour and then abort all together the container I just it's my understanding that Sean said

[Speaker 4] (42:11 - 42:44)
said to the vendor here you can use the container you can use the container everything is yours and the vendor decided to pull the program and never let me hold on I just I'm saying after the emails that I read that the vendor chose to withdraw the program on a Saturday and it's my understanding the vendor never even notified the town until the following Tuesday that the people at Town Hall found out that the vendor had canceled the program over Facebook so

[Speaker 3] (42:44 - 43:10)
so Sean let me let me let me ask you about that after you told her after the fish house compromise was in place and she said she didn't want to do there so when did you tell her that container was going to be there the entire summer I mean I saw it the next week after after all that I saw you saying something of that but I tell us what that that's after this problem already happened you saying she could use the container that's after she said I'm leaving you said she could

[Speaker 7] (43:10 - 43:17)
use the container I would like to know when you told her she could not use the container indefinitely it was going to be removed when did the vendor find that

[Speaker 2] (43:17 - 44:14)
information out the vendor met with I did not meet with the vendor and I did not speak with the vendor she met with town staff and on with Thursday or you know week before last and they had a discussion they actually went down to the fish house they looked at the lockers they you know it was reported back to me that they had a consensus that they were going to try to work something out and I mistakenly thought oh you know perhaps there is a compromise you perhaps there's something here that really will work for both the vendor in the community if if at any point I knew that this was beyond the pale I would have said look we'll use the container because the program

[Speaker 3] (44:14 - 44:59)
was paramount but no if it but then who were you compromising with you keep using the word compromise no no just listen listen to me for a second the program is paramount you said there was nothing more important than the program happening I just want to know what interest was so important to compromise that three days before the start of a program or a week before the start of a program after a full year of you working through an RFP process you would even just say to the business owners hey you're probably not gonna be able to keep this container here but let us go show you alternatives ignore that sup any small business I mean Mary Alice small business owner other people here do small business days before your opening for a three month short season you went in and said hey by the way one of the fundamental underlying things of your whole program we're gonna we're gonna switch that up I'm just I just don't know

[Speaker 2] (44:59 - 45:13)
who will come I still trying to figure out who we're compromising conversation with the vendor back in September I met the vendor down at the fish house and said hey wonderful program the container is a point of concern then why and why

[Speaker 3] (45:13 - 45:16)
did you put the container out there and why did you sign a contract contract

[Speaker 2] (45:16 - 45:24)
that said the container was coming we were not able to come up with an alternative that really made sense fair enough so why three days before the

[Speaker 3] (45:24 - 45:30)
start of a season did you think you were gonna come up with an alternative that you in the year before couldn't come up with and why why why assume that would be

[Speaker 2] (45:30 - 45:59)
okay to the business owner because I had staff working with the vendor that indicated to me that there were possible opportunities to use that locker and and the vendor indicated to staff that the lockers may work ultimately they decided they wouldn't but there was an indication that after they looked at it that it might work so

[Speaker 4] (46:00 - 46:15)
so if it's being if he's being led to believe staff is being led to believe it's gonna work then there's no indication to staff that this vendor could just pull the plug it was against it was against the terms of the contract

[Speaker 5] (46:15 - 46:21)
the contract provided for an 8 by 20 foot container the fish lockers are not

[Speaker 4] (46:21 - 46:37)
8 by 20 if contract or not if you're in if you're working with somebody if you're and you you're presented hey I want to I want to remove this and I want to give you this and if it doesn't work for you then would you say that does not work

[Speaker 3] (46:37 - 47:57)
for me it is no and this is this is why not for the same reason that when we sit in the room sometimes when we have conversations with someone when we say to a committee or we say something when we when we talk to committee members and we say what do you think I I like the container what do you think do I really think after seven years of sitting here that everybody's so open-minded that they're really gonna tell me everything especially when they disagree with me or no what happens is they they they know the unspoken pressure here when she three days before or five days before seven days before I think it's very reasonable for a business owner to be said look at this container thing continues to be a headache and well we're now looking at July 5th being an outside date but we're gonna put you somewhere else as a small business owner I'm sorry who's been pushed around previously I actually I kind of get the idea that she's gonna she's gonna go along and say oh I guess if this is what we have to do and then if she had second thoughts later I'm okay with her having second that's but it doesn't surprise me and I actually I don't even like this idea that we're even remotely putting it on the small business owner shoulders here because the truth is the conversation should have never happened that conversation should have never happened so we had a container you made the decision to put a container there you signed a contract after doing an RFP that put a container there yep now do I think you should have made it prettier do I think so you should file for permission yeah sure absolutely but that's not what happened and it was your decision to make and if the vendor

[Speaker 7] (47:57 - 48:24)
felt as though this program was not going to happen if she did not look at alternatives to the container and it is not her fault for entertaining alternatives if her care was to provide the service to the community to yes also to make money but to provide the service to the community and one way to go about doing that was to look at alternatives then I don't think we should be holding her feet to the fire because she decided she didn't want that

[Speaker 3] (48:24 - 53:57)
alternative so I'm just gonna I agree with you completely so let me kind of say I'm still wanting to know who we were compromising with right so we're compromising with faceless nameless people who just thought the container was ugly are we compromising with the business owner are we compromising with the Historic District Commission Mr. Commission said they couldn't removed it anyways people didn't like it but you previously set up that's okay it's paramount the program's paramount you said that a year ago like you have been so consistent on that and I really appreciate that I don't know I don't know what it is but I'm gonna suggest it's not any one of these things I think it's all these things right I think you're trying to compromise and make everybody happy and sometimes when you're trying to split a baby you just end up with two halves right and getting to compromise isn't the way to get to sometimes you just got to say we made this decision we're at a point of no return we're doing this we have 312 families so our Charter finally after years give us you know going back a couple years now gives it the town administrator complete authority right you had complete authority to do it right now I will openly acknowledge I'm aware of the fact that one board member talked to you multiple times that that board member Mary Ellen came to us a year before she was ever elected and opposed the container and aspirate she's been very open and honest about it very honest very open and honest about it and and while I think her communication to the Historic District Commission on town email claiming to be a resident isn't the way we're supposed to be communicating to committees and I think is actually just not correct I do want to acknowledge the fact that I also get when one board member shows up at your office or calls you multiple times and says something it can cause you to all of a sudden question try and compromise and for that reason I think the frankly the board this is what select board members we have incredible power we have incredible ability to do some great things and this form here is where we use it so we have less autonomy we give up autonomy because we don't get to do it majority rules here right and so again I'm respectfully I while I disagree with you know substance Mary Ellen about the container I also respectfully disagree about what I believe to be interfering with the town administrators decision yeah to do that and I'm gonna so so I think that matters because last year you didn't have anybody saying they didn't want it here and it stayed this year no I'm not saying it's the only thing I think there's other things that messed it up and just cause you were busy you weren't focusing you didn't get the answers when you need them what a plenty race this is not just one thing but I do believe this board takes response some responsibility as well and and that's because it is a board here and and I believe as though when it's your authority under the charter you should do it that didn't require any board action so I want to differ a situation where the board comes and talks to you independently but something that requires board action so when a board member says hey I think it'd be really great idea if we did something in the budget or I think would be really great idea if we put something in the warrant or I think we should do a capital need and says I think that'd be great that's sharing their thoughts for something that has to come back to the board for the board to bless the board a majority of the board ultimately is making the decision on that not you you put a recommendation out there the board can share their thoughts and feelings about this I just asked this board to think twice before we decide to insert ourselves into things that are independently 100% the town administrators decision here because while it is only one person's opinion and sometimes two persons opinion that matters every conversation we have with town administrators a political conversation we are the town administrators bosses and the town administrator is going to bend over backwards for any one of us at any time to do what he can do and so while he won't say that's why he made the decision I know because I've seen it in other jurisdictions he's talked for years about his experience in Plastow with one or two board members that would regularly call him up and you know Sean's really good and he will bend over backwards he doesn't even need to agree with you he bends over backwards for this so I just ask us to recognize our inadvertent or advertent influence in places that at times we shouldn't be seeking to influence it because it really does matter and I think it's really unfortunate here because I think frankly a lot of bad judgment calls were made to do this and the worst thing is it undermines so much is why I care about it it's not the no disrespect to the 312 families I care about that I can't sit on a paddleboard for the life of me I have no balance whatsoever so it's not about paddleboarding for me it's about every other initiative that we try and do right that we we it's an unforced error right we stepped on our own toes here and and it makes me mad because we've been working so hard to do these types of things and do more of these types of things and then get it so that when people do have complaints about an ugly container for 12 weeks we say do you know and we used to laugh about the ugly container for 12 weeks but think about how active our waterfront is finally finally we have an active waterfront right we're not that far to the point where we take that for granted it only takes a couple of people still complaining to then all of a sudden have judgment calls go the wrong way or people try and compromise and split babies and so I just we're responsible for this ultimately John not just you we are we are as well but but we just got to

[Speaker 4] (53:57 - 56:44)
not make these unforced errors I want to be respectful here it's just I also want to get home at some point tonight um I honestly feel that to minimize the fact that people did not like even people who do like the program did not like the container sitting there that they shouldn't have a say or they shouldn't have opinion where things can't be worked out I just think that that's um that's unacceptable because we do have ways to put programs together we do have ways to think this through we do have ways to make things work and make everybody you know comfortable with what's going on I don't think there's one person in this town that doesn't want to see a program or kids having joy I mean that's that is that's I'm sure that's not on anyone's thought however it was clear last year that many people people from the yacht club people from the boating community people from that had issues with with seniors many people came and voiced that I know Sean received those those calls so to think that because I voiced my opinion to Sean the same as every member on this board does over and over I think that's unacceptable I think I don't even know what you're thinking to be honest with you but we're spending so much time talking about not having a program and I I respectfully disagree I do think a good part of this is on the vendor I don't think that that vendor was shy in any way I think from what I have heard it's vendor she's a very strong woman I think she can hold her own I think she could voice no way am I gonna put my boards over into that locker I I give her a whole lot more credit at being able to express herself I I'm disappointed in the way that she chose to cancel this program I think that so this is my opinion I am very disappointed in how she chose to cancel this program in the manner in which she canceled the program I don't think there was a phone call to the recreation director during office hours I that's my opinion I'm disappointed in it and I think right now what I'd like to see is I would like to immediately see us put together a program and I believe that we could put together a program at a much discounted price and I think we could do it within a matter of days in less than a week and I I actually did have a conversation oh here's a conversation I did have with Sean saying can we put something together now can we reach out to people who have worked for the schools people who have athletic backgrounds people have coaching backgrounds teaching backgrounds and can we assist and put together a program can we help so I think we could put some effort together

[Speaker 5] (56:44 - 58:05)
and have this thing but we also had a program that was then that was that we did we did we had we had a sub program we had a contract and and that was and that was that was then you know discarded the you know back to the point about about Southeast Coast you know when the when the article came in the paper last year I believe from my conversations with Leah that that gave cover to quite frankly a bunch of old white men from the Yacht Club and from the boating community to simply harass this small business owner it gave cover it was it was certainly not it was certainly not welcome I had to intervene on a number of occasions namely the you know the bentwater day at the beach last year because there was an issue with with someone from the Yacht Club and and and Leah you know in a verbal in a verbal altercation I believe that article did did incredible damage to Leah and her business and her psyche and she went to work every day extremely stressed and strained from the fact that she didn't know at which direction she was going to be attacked and that's what that that's what that did to her that's what that did to that that woman owned small business it did and I've had conversations with her about it and I

[Speaker 3] (58:05 - 58:12)
that was completely and utterly unacceptable so Mariel I'm sorry if you thought I was going on too long but I'm now going to finish okay sorry I didn't

[Speaker 4] (58:12 - 58:17)
mean to interrupt you but that's okay you weren't going on okay thanks for

[Speaker 3] (58:17 - 1:00:39)
that observation I'm just gonna finish by saying I actually think the the rights of everyone to complain I'm not minimizing I'm actually minimizing the rights of one if we want to be honest about it everybody in this town should call the town administrator should write a letter do what they want and express themselves to us in other words all I'm saying tonight is as board members we are we give up some autonomy to get on this board you actually have less autonomy as a select board member now because you are actually we act as a board and and I just ask you to bring and my board members all of us bring your opposition to things to the table don't vote yes and recommend a recommendation of a capital article then call chairs of committees and voice your independent opposition the board has voted and so I'm just asking us to any of us all of us bring it here bring it public you have a voice the town administrator will still hear that but it's also being done at a point in time where the town administrator then can hear from others that may not agree or that agree on the board here so the town administrator understands where the direction of the board is to the extent he or she cares where the direction of the board is but when there is decisions for the town administrator to make that clearly a hundred percent his authority to make I just ask that we as a board consistent with what the select board handbook says let the town administrator do their job similarly the handbook says let the committees do their job without undue influence I believe an email from a select board member about something is potentially undue influence you can't just be a resident anymore we gave that up we all gave that up we're no longer residents we're a select board member that may not be speaking on behalf of the board but we are still a select board member there is no resident Peter Spellios and resident Mary Ellen Fletcher we are members of the select board we just don't speak to the select board I just ask us to be conscientious about that and because I think it truly does matter because there's going to be no end of these things where we're changing things we're doing things if if they were easy that would have happened a long time ago if there were people complaining always gonna be people complaining about things we can try and compromise but sometimes compromise just ends up with two bad halves and so I just ask us to all be cognizant about that because I think that is critically important thank you mr.

[Speaker 7] (1:00:39 - 1:02:22)
chairman I I want to also say this in regards to what Mary Ellen just said about the vendor and her Mary Ellen's feelings of her unprofessionalism I I know in this vendors heart she was not trying to have this be the outcome I 100% believe that to be true and I know that she was in turmoil over having to make this decision I know that you feel like it was a whiplash decision but perhaps if we had the traffic of the emails and conversations that have been going on since November about an alternative for the container or some other information that was out there then perhaps you would not feel so whiplashed by the decision she has a certain number of days for which to professionally put forth her business the summer months and as we've already stated to pull the carpet out from under her and her last days before she's supposed to start as she's starting a program in other municipalities as she's getting things off the ground elsewhere we're not her only client I just think it's ridiculous just to put it on the vendor to say that she she was couldn't everybody could have been more professional in the situation but this is not her fault and I just want to make it very clear that I feel like she must have been back in such a corner to make that decision whether or not you feel it was professional or not she did not make it lightly in my opinion and I disagree with the idea that that that was an unprofessional action in her considering the events that occurred as

[Speaker 1] (1:02:22 - 1:03:21)
I understand them so I think I'd like to thanks Katie and everyone for your comments and and you know I'll just my only comment is on Peters observations on them on the role of the board and how there's a separation between board and resident and that I agree with that completely I think this this whole dialogue tonight illustrates sort of how dysfunctional it becomes when we operate in this way and and just you know I think that if if if five individuals are operating that way without doing it as a body as it pertains to the role of staff of the town administrator then it just it will just breed and dysfunction consistently I mean there's that's sort of the outcome that we'll see I do want to open it up to people you open up I just do have a

[Speaker 4] (1:03:21 - 1:04:26)
question because I you know this I think most of this conversation well the conversation from Peter is being pointed at me because I did appear last year at the select board meeting during resident comment and I did also reiterate to Sean that I you know my opinion on that container didn't change I have no intention of not expressing myself to Sean or to any other committee or any other individual in this town everyone has a right to their opinion I am not speaking for the entire board unless at some point I am speaking for the board but if you're saying that everyone on the select board is not going to be having a conversation with Sean then let's just say that but not what I'm saying but let's there's a lot of conversations that go on with Sean a lot of conversations about different topics and for for anyone to turn around say the reason this happened was because Mary Ellen told him that she didn't like the container that's just off the charts and and no one has said that what I said

[Speaker 3] (1:04:26 - 1:06:50)
was there are multiple things Mary Ellen but look at let's okay I know you love the word transparent so let's just talk about it when you show up to this town administrator multiple times and raising the same thing because you didn't like his answer the first time when you show up a third time saying that the town that the the business person the vendor is saying something mean about you on social media it it becomes something you're making comments that are not even true but Mary Ellen it becomes predominant and I'm not saying we shouldn't have conversations I think what we're talking about here is there are different types of conversations right if the town administrator is making a decision about something he can seek input and advice from any of us on all of us at any time that he wants to I'm differentiating things that come back here for action versus things that don't come back here for action because it does make the town administrator and at least the cop let the town let the chairman know that you're having those conversations you should have all the opinions you want right but they shouldn't be done as a select board member in just emails sent from personal email addresses or town email addresses just claiming to be a resident without frankly bring them here let's you can ask for anything to be on the agenda at any time you want that is actually a power you have as a select board member unilaterally in this and the chairman almost always respects it and so let's have those conversations here let's not have them that you know a business person you know last year at a tough time with the town administrator and feeling oh I'm being pushed around but this year it's a town administrator and a select board member so what do you think that business person thinks that person's person thinks Jesus the deck is worse this year than it was last year for me and and and that matters and I think frankly for us for a second to put this on the business person when it's a critical core function we wanted the service first for a second to put this on the business that again you're a small business owner so I you maybe know what it's like but the second to put it on the small business owner when we say this is a paramount function something important for 312 families in our town is I can't even believe for a second we're gonna put it on her and I understand that you may not like the way she has talked about you or you think you've talked about her publicly but but it doesn't it doesn't matter right it just doesn't matter and we just got to all recognize are all individual contributions for this type of thing we have by virtue of this sentence message to any possible vendor that we can change the rules because a town administrator can be whimsical about it or a select board member can be whimsical

[Speaker 4] (1:06:50 - 1:06:59)
and that's actually not how it works I just I just respectfully disagree with multiple comments that you made they're not even factual and you know we could

[Speaker 7] (1:06:59 - 1:07:29)
stay here all night just well I think the select board's conduct is very important that's not why we're here we're here because we no longer have a program and there are 312 families who are out right the ability to have the benefit of the program and a lot of those folks are here and they'd like to speak so I think we could put this aside for the time being and continue this discussion and allow the public to speak if they would like to I agree so

[Speaker 1] (1:07:29 - 1:07:45)
let's move on to that I'm opening up the public comment if people have a comment who are here if you can move down to the microphones down here and just please

[Speaker 13] (1:07:45 - 1:09:24)
your name and address please my name is Jeannie Pats I live at 29 Mason Road I am a town meeting member I'm a volunteer in the community as a PTO co-president of the Stanley School I have a lot to say but I just want to say I really I do not attend these meetings I do not know like what's gone down the last since Mary Ellen Fletcher was elected but this feels like an attack I don't like it at all I think it's really unfair I don't care what the topic is I don't care if it's stand-up paddleboard I do not care what just happened is not okay first of all she was mansplained like to death and second of all like I just think talking about something that we don't know is true I mean I don't know do we all have records of what phone calls and emails that Mary Ellen did I don't know I don't like it at all I've said that I'm done now moving on I have two kids who are registered for stand-up paddleboard am I disappointed that it's not happening absolutely I'd like to go back to the fact that there was a meeting on June 15th was there not a historic district commission meeting there was a meeting it was a meeting about a permit that was not submitted so on paper in theory this program is not happening because any one person sitting here tonight complained about it about a container or any person in general complained about the container right it's because a piece of paper wasn't

[Speaker 3] (1:09:24 - 1:10:00)
filed am I right no no you're not why I because the piece of paper could have been filed the moment they knew the piece of paper hadn't been filed that's not the reason someone once they found out the piece of paper needed to be filed decided not to file the piece of paper and that's why I keep asking the town administrator why did we decide just not to file for the permit we could have filed for the permit anytime could do it right now the container could still be in there could do it right now but for some reason it wasn't filed and it feels like that was a compromise to somebody I know that's been the narrative of why

[Speaker 13] (1:10:00 - 1:10:09)
but it wasn't the narrative on Peter and David's Facebook pages was that it's because people complained about the container that's what the narrative it

[Speaker 3] (1:10:09 - 1:10:28)
is and that's a nice and I stand by that genie a hundred percent a hundred percent I stand by that because if people weren't complaining about it the town administrator in a second would file that piece of paper something kept the town administrator from filing that piece of paper not because he had desire to tell to 312 families not to have a program I think he did it because he felt like he

[Speaker 13] (1:10:28 - 1:10:38)
needed to compromise and it was a bad decision Sean did he feel pressured to I mean I don't understand like I feel like the person who didn't do it didn't say

[Speaker 3] (1:10:38 - 1:10:55)
he felt pressured by Mary Ellen Fletcher did he I'm not I haven't again you can ask him he can answer however he wants I don't ask him because I don't ask him to speak out about select board members he didn't raise it I'm raising it it's my it's my feeling about it but he can certainly answer for himself if he wants

[Speaker 2] (1:10:55 - 1:13:59)
to yeah I I don't think look it's clear that you know one of the select board members was unhappy about the container and look my job is to actually support this board and my job is to try to at times find compromise where frankly it may not exist and I think this is an example most of the time we actually work as hard as we possibly can to find compromise but it didn't work out and ultimately I as I said at the beginning of this meeting I'll take responsibility for that do I wish I frankly knew that I had a vendor that just didn't have the ability to you know work with you know a different storage option even though I had over a year worth of conversations with that vendor and I had staff that had worked incredibly hard with that vendor to try to help that vendor I mean we didn't originally have storage in the RFP we put it in there because we wanted to help a vendor and for me at the end of the day you know we've learned a few lessons here because you know as as the board has mentioned there are 312 families that ultimately are paying the price and and that's not that's not okay it's not okay with me that's not okay with anybody else the disruption that cause is real and and I get that and I want to I want to acknowledge that you know we we should be better did I do I feel pressure there's not a day that goes by that I don't feel pressure there's not a town administrator town manager mayor that somehow doesn't feel the conflict the vitriol the absolute nastiness that we have in this world that we live in I'm I'm up to here with it frankly I want people to be better I frankly if I could have found a way to namaste something or found a way to say hey work with me help like let me help you let me find a way to make this work I would have gone to my toolbox of possibilities I just like this board it has power I have power to I I like to think I have power to solve bigger problems than this but frankly this eluded me and I'm frustrated by that I think there were some things that could have been communicated more effectively probably on all sides we have a new board here we have two newly elected officials we have some relationships that we have to work out government is is not easy but frankly I do think we have some opportunities to learn from this thank you I have one last thing to

[Speaker 13] (1:13:59 - 1:14:31)
say and that is first of all thank you to all of you for serving our community and also I I beg you to please work together please work together demonstrate the like how you want your constituents to interact and interface with you please do that with each other I beg of you we all disagree we all have different opinions and I think it's good it's good to have this discourse and this disagreement I think it's a healthy good thing so let's not fight it let's work

[Speaker 17] (1:14:31 - 1:15:15)
with it thank you thank you hi my name is Judy's all I live in swamp Scott I am disappointed that the swamp Scott paddleboard program is canceled here's why I have to here's why I have to get in the car earlier I will not have as much time to play before camp and all and I'll have close to no friends there I will I won't know most people there the select board please bring this program back thank you for letting me speak

[Speaker 12] (1:15:24 - 1:18:40)
good evening most of you know me I'm Keiko's all a swamp Scott town meeting member for precinct 5 I come before you as a neighbor taxpayer and town meeting member to express my concerns about the last-minute cancellation of the stand-up paddleboarding program through the swamp Scott rec department I am one of the those 312 families affected by that cancellation in April I registered my son who you just heard for a one-week session of the SUP program in July the town was more than happy to process my 275 dollar registration fee in April despite the fact that the program's occurrence was allegedly not yet confirmed at that time I only found out the program was canceled last week from a Facebook post shared by selectman speleos on his campaign Facebook page to date I have received no official communication from the town that the program has been canceled in fact it's here that I heard tonight that refunds are being processed I don't know if it's a matter of it takes a couple of days but I just checked all my bank accounts in the Amex card I don't have that 275 back and I still don't have any information about when I'm gonna see that money because I haven't heard anything from the town I am aware that an email was sent from the rec department to some families who had registered about cancellation and refunds but I haven't received that email it's my understanding that it only went out to families who signed up for this week's session since it was supposed to start this week so when will the town notify all registrants not everybody is on Facebook and it's entirely possible there are families out there right now who are counting on this program happening that don't watch these hearings that don't come here that aren't on Facebook and have no idea that something they're looking at as a source of child care for them this summer is no longer happening please don't misconstrue the intent of my comments I simply I don't simply want my money back but let's be clear and talk about numbers here if we had 312 participants at $275 a pop this program would have generated $85,800 for the town that is not chump change as a taxpayer and town meeting member I want answers about the operational failures that occurred within town hall in the rec department they failed to ensure that this program could be safely could be delivered safely and with high quality as it has been for the past three summers and per the town's own RFP as a mother I come here before you to share that I am so so tired of having to tell my son sorry honey yet another thing you've been looking forward to has been canceled because he's been hearing that for the last two years for him it doesn't matter why it was canceled or all the adult issues that prevented it from happening it's just another disappointment in his childhood so irreparably impacted by kovat I am deeply concerned about administrative mismanagement happening at town hall the sudden cancellation of the stand-up paddleboard program is yet another example in a long line of problematic instances that indicate systemic failures within town administration from the turnover of our town HR director the departure of our town clerk who was a freaking treasure in my eyes and the failure to hire a town DEI director and I urge each of you as our select board to hold our town administrator accountable in the means and ways that you have to do that thank you for allowing me to offer my comments before you this evening thank you take

[Speaker 1] (1:18:40 - 1:18:56)
oh I just I think I just want to mention I think the email notification went out my understanding is it went out to all the email addresses that the wreck has whether they read just I don't know why you didn't get it but my understanding Danielle if you can confirm that that it went to the yes

[Speaker 16] (1:18:56 - 1:20:26)
the first the first email that that went out went to people that were in the program this saying that I was trying to do something to get them back right and then the second one because we had already started doing the refunds because we started that process right away as soon as we knew by the time I went to go send the second email out the people had been who had been refunded weren't in the system anymore as being in that program so I ended up sending the email to everybody who had a an account with us from PK pre-k to ninth grade so that one went out to a larger group of people okay so I'm wondering if I look in your account if they're if you're not set up for cancellation emails or or something like that do you get other emails for me yeah so I'll look at that but I did I did send those out okay okay and I want to tell you that I am also very disappointed that this isn't running I mean I really tried to make it work so I apologize for that yeah oh and our town accountant is telling me that it takes 72 hours for something to and and we were doing them from last week up until

[Speaker 14] (1:20:26 - 1:20:48)
yesterday it took that long okay thanks Daniel good evening I'm Andrew

[Speaker 11] (1:20:48 - 1:23:57)
Steingeiser a member of the Historic District Commission I personally support our wonderful recreation programs and thank Daniel for ongoing efforts I really appreciate that we have two young children and I look forward to them participating as soon as they're able to stand up on a board or do other things I find the recent events surroundings issue quite disturbing I'd like to share a few thoughts and attempt to clarify a few things what we're seeing here is around this issue is a dissolve of productive political discourse it's necessary to maintain a level of decorum and respect for other people some people seem to be falling in line with the national temperature of politics at the local level in order to collaborate agreeing to abide by the basic rules set forth in the town's bylaws is necessary to advance our commitment to the town and accomplish our common goals the HDC the Historic District Commission had only asked for process to be followed by the town the same process we hold private citizens to if you go back and watch the riveting second meeting in June there's a quite a lot of uninformed commentary on on this topic the HDC has not approved or disapproved anything related to this the HDC fully supports the recreation programs the HDC is charged with following and enforcing the bylaws put in place by the town approved by town meeting the HDC has no jurisdiction over the container being there only the exact placement and how long it will be there the HDC had received nothing to review except a letter saying the town had already decided to locate the storage for the paddleboard program to a different unspecified location undermining boards and committees through public comment social media or innuendo directly impacts their ability to perform their duties we are a committee of volunteers volunteer citizens trying to provide a professional skill set to the benefit of our community damage done to committees is damage done to the town the various entities of the town government need to be informed of and supportive of what each other are doing I implore you to be kind to your neighbors in an attempt to restore a level of decorum and respect for one another thank you thank you

[Speaker 3] (1:24:01 - 1:25:11)
I want you to I don't think you heard and I don't I want to make sure you didn't hear it I think one select board member made an opinion about the what the jurisdiction should be as a macro conversation but I don't think anybody here blames the historic district commission at all you guys I think that's why I specifically made sure to read the chairman's comment when he said that you guys did nothing you guys you guys no one filed a piece of paper what I think you're hearing is why wasn't the piece of paper filed and why was a decision made to not file the piece of paper so I think you guys in fairness like and I think the chairman was right by saying you guys he properly said the jurisdiction for it so I want you to hear that from me specifically but I admittedly there may be a bigger conversation about jurisdictional issues and whether or not the parking lot is an appropriate historic district or not but that's not criticism of agency that is more of a macro policy commentary right but I personally and I think others can say as well you guys you guys asked us to do exactly what we ask every resident to do and right and I don't think anybody has a problem with that and the first time HTC has come out

[Speaker 7] (1:25:11 - 1:25:32)
in support of the vendor on their meeting if anybody else attended you guys are very explicit to say this has nothing to do with us against rec programs as against a specific vendor you were very clear about that so I don't I know I am NOT under the interpretation of what was said at that meeting that you guys were against this program whatsoever that this is in any way your

[Speaker 11] (1:25:32 - 1:26:11)
fault we appreciate these comments I think there remains a lot of confusion around the issue whether that historic site is the cause of the movement or not moving this container so I think there remains some confusion I appreciate the clarification on the issue and I hope we can continue having conversations together about public property applications following the same protocols that private citizens are also following thank you

[Speaker 1] (1:26:11 - 1:26:21)
thanks Andrew got some folks on zoom I'm gonna and Driscoll is raising your

[Speaker 10] (1:26:21 - 1:31:13)
hand hi and I want to say first of all that I very much support a standard program I think it's a great idea it's very clear that there are 312 families who are very much disappointed by the fact that this vendor has withdrawn the programming there are there are other people also in town who were very much disappointed to see that container return but I guess I really want to focus on the fact that what we have now is an opportunity to rethink this program and the best way ways of delivering this program this isn't an either-or situation it isn't that there's either a container going to be there or not I think we have to think more broadly about our water resources our waterfront resources and how we might use them and arguably some people might say that maybe it isn't the best idea to have that program at Fisherman's Beach where according to Maddie who handles all the moorings there's like 200 boats there are another over 100 boats that are stored on Fisherman's as well as a novice sailing program that's operating out of the air so maybe this is an opportunity to think about other alternatives like having a program at Eisman's Beach and having the storage fee at Phillips Park I know that somebody mentioned that this was a $75,000 $80,000 program for the town at 75% of that intake the revenue intake was going to the vendor so maybe this is an opportunity for us to think about much like we offer a sailing program we have our own boats we can buy our own wards and you know hire staff to teach the kids in the program and offer adult programs as well I also think this is an opportunity that we widen the RFP process I know a couple of people who do this kind of programming in other communities who would very much be interested in offering a program if we decide not to do our own program that they would be interested in offering a program probably next year probably is impossible this year but hopefully we can figure out some solutions for the immediate future and definitely rethink what we do in the long term because I think that you know I can empathize with Sean that he was trying to respond to everybody's concerns and the people who want this program by all means should be heard but the people who don't think that it contained of belongs on a historic district in a nationally registered historic site they could be heard the businesses that had to see that container and having our very expensive oceanfront property that they paid for I can understand that so I think that we are creative enough we are you know resourceful enough that we can find a solution that addresses everyone's concerns and that's all I have to say and I do have one other thing to say about the article that appeared I can understand if Leah was upset because I'm sure it didn't set well to hear that people were upset about that container but I disagree basically that article was actually accurate so I'm sorry that that upset her but anyways that's all I have to say thank you thank you thank you could

[Speaker 7] (1:31:13 - 1:31:32)
I just ask if Danielle might be able to speak to the RFP process because I think and brought up a good point about she maybe knows some other folks who would like to participate in the RFP process but maybe you could just explain how it happened that way we can sort of dispel some or maybe Sean can somebody

[Speaker 2] (1:31:32 - 1:32:32)
yeah I mean we if Danielle wants to provide some updates you know she did help coordinate that but we generally you know we issue RFPs and we send them out to you know websites for procurement state websites so they're you know we also this past year reached out to different vendors I've been in touch with the you know different providers as well I think our first year we had three responders or we we got three quotes our second year once we hired a vendor you know we just had one proposal and our third year we just had one proposal so it's a small industry we don't have a lot of stand-up paddle board businesses and once a firm you know gets a contract generally you know it's hard to kind of get other vendors involved but there are ways to do that

[Speaker 1] (1:32:33 - 1:32:44)
thank you thanks Deb Newman has her hand raised and I think we're gonna do there are two more after Deb and then I think we're probably gonna move on from this

[Speaker 15] (1:32:51 - 1:34:29)
I agree with everything Ms. Driscoll has said she said it eloquently and honestly honestly and intelligently and I don't want to re-inflame the situation but other people already covered some of the comments I had I would like to say that I doubt that in his seven years Mr. Spellios has never spoken independently to the town administrator or outside of a public meeting and it's disingenuous of him to call Ms. Fletcher's integrity in question she's the only board member it appears who offered a way to help get a town sup program up and running I don't think she has that much influence on Mr. Fitzgerald tonight the town administrator and Ms. Fletcher are being attacked by Mr. Spellios in public last week he was busy on Facebook denigrating a so-called vocal minority people he claimed were against the program when all they were against was the container which could have been housed elsewhere as we heard also I understand and sympathize with the families who are disappointed and frustrated and having to rearrange their schedules but also it's not the end of the world that the kids can't have for an hour or so.

We certainly don't think that Mr. Grishman's exponential fury is the correct response and it certainly isn't constructive. Thank you.

[Speaker 7] (1:34:31 - 1:34:33)
Iris I'm sorry can I make a comment?

[Speaker 3] (1:34:33 - 1:34:35)
Yes, as long as you don't use exponential fury.

[Speaker 7] (1:34:36 - 1:35:24)
I don't think that we're fully appreciating a parent's issue we're trying to schedule summers for their children and I know I am a working parent I am very blessed to have a husband who's a teacher so this was a want for me not a need but I know a lot of folks who have two parents who work the entire summer and although this is called a program they were using this as child care or camp for their child so to downplay that issue does make me furious as you can tell and I disagree with the characterization that it is not a big deal it is a big deal it may not be a big deal for every single one of those 312 families but it is a big deal and if it's a big deal to one of those 312 families then it's a big deal to me.

[Speaker 15] (1:35:24 - 1:35:56)
I think that in the grand scheme of the world and what is going on it's not a big deal and I don't mean to minimize your personal situation. I was a single parent who worked 80 hours a week so I understand all about child care I don't think bringing up the child care card is the right way to address this. This is the summer, this is kids is being able to go to a certain kind of camp, there are plenty of other camps.

[Speaker 7] (1:35:57 - 1:36:20)
There are not plenty of other camps at the, I just wanna say there are not plenty of other camps available at the last minute, moments before, when you find out the week before the camp is supposed to start, there are not plenty of other camps for which you have the opportunity to become part of, and also which are not financially in the same category as this camp was. So I just wanna make that distinction because it's really important. All right.

[Speaker 3] (1:36:20 - 1:36:29)
I think the phrase, don't play the childcare card, says everything that needs to be said there. I can't believe that that was just said, the childcare card.

[Speaker 1] (1:36:30 - 1:37:14)
Okay, so I think we're gonna, I wanna give the last people opportunity to speak and then we're gonna move on. It's important to let people comment. I think people have been sitting on this for a while.

We've all shared our thoughts. Board members can certainly respond, but I think allowing residents to say their piece, I think all opinions have essentially been expressed at this point. I also would appreciate people, if your comment is similar to someone else's, if you can just say you agree with so-and-so and leave it at that, that would be helpful for us in our meeting, but you can say what you need to say.

So to see a, I think is next.

[Speaker 8] (1:37:18 - 1:42:00)
Hi, Cecilia Facilio, Lewis Road, again, speaking. I am also a member of the Board of Discussors and a town meeting member. I am going to echo a lot of what others have said.

My two daughters were enrolled in four sessions each for Paddleboard, so that's eight sessions. That was about $2,000. I've gotten half of that back and it's just still being processed, but it's not showing up on any of my statements.

So the thing I really want to drill home here is we're a town, we're made up of many people with many opinions, and we are never, almost never going to all agree. The situation with the Hawthorne Hotel, that was the best thing that could happen to this town, and we still had two people, two dissenting votes in town meeting or three, who didn't want to purchase that. So, you know, everyone has the right to be heard.

Somebody said that the container is ugly earlier. The container is absolutely hideous. There is no doubt about that.

It may not bother some people, but I can't imagine anyone standing there looking at it and telling me that it's not ugly. It's just ugly. I mean, let's just call it what it is, right?

But a couple of things that were said in the meeting tonight, you know, Katie, you had said that the select board conduct is really important, and you're the top leaders in this town, you're the top elected officials. It is, the tone of these meetings, like Jeannie said earlier, they are just, they're just awful. The tone at town meetings isn't good.

I can't tell you how many people have come up to me after town meetings because I've been advocating for the middle school and apologizing to me for being treated disrespectfully. People I don't know, because I wanted the roof to be fixed and the windows to be fixed, and I respectfully talked about that during town meetings. It's out of control.

The culture, the tone of our town is out of control. So there was a time when I first got elected to the board of assessors, that's why I wanted you all to know that I'm on the board, where Peter contacted me to meet, and Peter, I think, I remember very clearly one of the things I said to you at that meeting was that I was very concerned that almost every vote I saw on the select board was a unanimous vote. There were no dissenting votes, ever.

And I can't tell you how bad that is. What that tells me is there are five members. You guys are supposed to represent everyone on the town, not just one perspective.

So the idea is that conflict is natural and it should come, and you should be able to respectfully work through it to find a solution that works for everybody. Now, it may not work perfectly for everybody, but you should be able to make situations better by working together instead of against each other. And when you see select board members' emails being plastered on Facebook and select board members going on Facebook and commenting these vague references, we all know what you're trying to say.

We get the energy. It's not good. You're the ones who are creating the divide in our town.

And I really, really, really hope that you will take my words to heart because Swampstuff's a great place to live and it's a wonderful community, but it is so divided now over so many topics. And to put this blame on Mary Ellen is totally wrong. Mary Ellen wanted the program and she also wanted a solution to provide for the business of the SUP board and also to provide for the other businesses in the area and to respect the historic district.

So she was trying to serve everyone there. Sean, I have a question for you, if you don't mind. You had mentioned that you had spoken to some other vendors and what would their storage solutions be?

Are they requiring a container?

[Speaker 1] (1:42:03 - 1:42:04)
You haven't had, I mean.

[Speaker 2] (1:42:04 - 1:43:29)
You know, some of the vendors actually had a box truck. Some did need on-site storage. So we have a number of stand-up paddleboard programs across the North Shore with a number of different storage options.

I think, you know, the programs that continue to grow like ours quickly outgrew the box trucks and, you know, these boards are heavy. The boards that are used by programs typically are heavier construction and they're not, they're more durable and they get banged and, you know, they just need to be constructed out of more durable and heavier materials. So it's very difficult for staff to lug these things around.

So the proximity of storage is always a big concern. And those are the same concerns that were presented to me about our program. And that's why, you know, I think the, you know, the proximity of where we offer sub-programs and how we provide storage is going to continue to be an issue because it will impact staff and we've got to make sure that, you know, people aren't getting injured just trying to get onto the water.

[Speaker 8] (1:43:31 - 1:44:06)
Okay, but there were other solutions that could have been, like, you know, couldn't, there were other solutions that could have been put into play. I think that was what I'm walking away with. So, you know, I'm just, I'm begging you all to really try to work together and try to change the tone of our government here in town because it's really just, it's unacceptable the way it is.

And we're all working towards a common goal and our government should be here to serve the people.

[Speaker 18] (1:44:09 - 1:44:10)
Thank you.

[Speaker 1] (1:44:10 - 1:44:23)
Thank you, Tasia. All right, Liz Pappalardo. And then I think that's it.

Can we thank President Pappalardo?

[Speaker 6] (1:44:23 - 1:44:28)
So I echo a lot of what the speakers, speakers have already said tonight.

[Speaker 18] (1:44:28 - 1:45:43)
And I just want to point of order. I feel like we're all putting this on Mary Ellen, but Sean had said earlier that the issue was he was told by staff that the vendor was comfortable with the arrangement. And that was what he was going off.

That was the information that he was going off of when, you know, the vendor pulled out. So understandably, there were some mistakes made. And, you know, we all make mistakes.

And I noticed when, you know, they showed a shot of the audience, we have a lot of great staff members sitting in that audience who do so many good things for the town. And then we hear select board members saying they're furious and they trying to contain themselves. Well, you know, let's allow, give a little grace here too and also maybe direct our attentions to like where it went wrong, where to fix it.

And instead of just directing it on Mary Ellen. And then just a broader comment. I'm just curious.

I've heard a couple of people mention activating the waterfront and it seems to be a message that's coming up over and over again. So I'm curious how that relates to this and what exactly you guys are trying to get at with that. Thanks.

[Speaker 2] (1:45:47 - 1:46:23)
Do you want me to respond to that? Yeah, activating the waterfront means that more people get to use it than just the folks that live on the water. You've got a town of 15,000 people and you have incredible environmental resource areas on your waterfront.

And, you know, it's important that we bring programs and events to the waterfront that help people celebrate those environmental resource areas. Thanks, Sean.

[Speaker 1] (1:46:23 - 1:49:42)
Thanks, Liz, for your comments. So I just, there's one comment that I received through email. Sorry, I just feel obligated to read it.

It's somewhat out of context a little bit in some of the conversations we've had, but I will read that now. It's from Eric Schneider, 480 Puritan Road. He says, as a resident, I have a question and concerns about the recent decision by the Historic District Commission to require the town to remove a storage container from the Fisherman's Beach parking lot because the town did not timely apply for a permit from the HDC.

I think we covered that that was not accurate, but I'm reading this comment as written. I do not understand why a permit from the, this is back to the comment. I do not understand why a permit from the HDC was required for the temporary placement of a storage container in the parking lot.

While the parking lot is certainly within the Fish House Historic District, the bylaws excludes temporary structures and buildings from the purview of the HDC, and quote, subject to the condition pertaining to the duration of existence and use, location, lighting, removal, and similar matters, end quote. Doesn't that mean that requiring the removal of a temporary structure or building is beyond the authority of the HDC, regardless of whether a permit is applied for? That being said, if the HDC has the authority to require the removal of any temporary structure or building within a local historic district for which no permit was obtained, then why, considering all the numerous temporary structures and buildings within the town's historic districts, was this ordinance enforced here, but is otherwise seemingly ignored?

One important function of town government, which includes the HDC, is a consistent and equal application of the law. This is not only required by principles of fairness, but also makes life predictable for residents and businesses. Here, it appears that the ordinance is not equally and consistently enforced.

However, if the HDC's decision is correct and will be consistently enforced hereafter, then almost any structure in the town's historic districts will require a permit. Structure, end quote, is defined broadly, and temporary includes any structure for an existence for less than one year of a building in existence, or a building in existence for less than two years. This overbroad application would lead to an absurd result and would put an incredible burden on the HDC and all residents living in a historic district.

For instance, the HDC's position would arguably result in the shade tents at the farmer's market requiring a permit, the porta-potties at the Strawberry Festival requiring a permit, the tent used at Hadley School last year requiring a permit, or anybody setting up a tent in their yard requiring a permit, on and on, that cannot be how we expect to live. Again, I'm just reading a public comment that was submitted, and I wanted to submit that for the record. I think we covered a lot of that, and there's some misunderstanding on the HDC's jurisdiction, certainly, throughout that comment that we discussed earlier.

So with that, I think it's certainly time to move on, and we look forward. I think we'll just say that there'll be updates on potential sub-programs for this summer, and then we'll certainly be, I think, as a board, asking for updates on the future of sub-programs in Smallscot.

[Speaker 4] (1:49:42 - 1:49:50)
Neil, I just want to ask one question. Are we going to be having, I mean, is that, do we have a goal of having a program this summer?

[Speaker 2] (1:49:51 - 1:49:57)
We do, we have a goal of having some stand-up paddleboard offerings, but.

[Speaker 4] (1:49:57 - 1:50:00)
A program where kids get on the board?

[Speaker 2] (1:50:00 - 1:50:35)
I'm not sure that we can commit to having a program for children, you know, but we're gonna look to have a program. I'm not exactly sure what the parameters of the program will be, but staff are working on it right now. There's all sorts of regulatory responsibilities.

This is not just a, you know, run a program. You have to take into consideration all sorts of safety and training needs for staff, and we're working with some folks to help us.

[Speaker 5] (1:50:36 - 1:50:38)
So, where would we keep those boards?

[Speaker 1] (1:50:39 - 1:50:43)
So, I think, like, honestly, I think we should move on from this conversation. I think.

[Speaker 2] (1:50:44 - 1:50:46)
I want to, wait, I just want to have my question answered.

[Speaker 1] (1:50:46 - 1:50:47)
Where would we keep them?

[Speaker 2] (1:50:47 - 1:50:51)
So, we're clearing out the lockers, and there's a good chance that those boards will be in the lockers.

[Speaker 1] (1:50:51 - 1:51:19)
I mean, but the point is, we don't know what that program is, because they're still developing it, so where the boards are, what beach it's at, what it is, who does it, who can do it, how much it costs, those are all questions that we can answer, but it's happening, and I think we should move on, because, you know, I think we've spent a lot of time on it. So, moving on, the next item on our agenda is town administrator contract recommendations. These are.

Mr. Chair, can I ask a favor?

[Speaker 3] (1:51:20 - 1:51:39)
I'm going to play the child care card, because I actually have to leave in the next half hour, since I'm a single parent. God forbid I'm using the child care card quite literally. All right.

Someone's been. All right, here we go. Can we do the board and committee appointments, please, out of order, and then.

Sure, sure. If that's all right.

[Speaker 1] (1:51:39 - 1:51:46)
Is that okay? Thanks for coming. Is that okay with everybody to do that?

Perfect.

[Speaker 18] (1:51:46 - 1:51:46)
Yes.

[Speaker 1] (1:51:48 - 1:52:19)
Thank you. Okay, so we're going to move to board and committee reappointments and appointments. We all received in our packet recommendations for reappointment for multiple committees and some appointments.

I think there were some that, which is why Peter's bringing it up, that we may need to table. But do you want to just go through these maybe one at a time? And then we can take a motion for reappointment.

Is that maybe the best way to do it?

[Speaker 4] (1:52:21 - 1:52:22)
Committee at a time?

[Speaker 1] (1:52:23 - 1:53:14)
Yeah, and then if there's, if there are ones that we want to table, we can just table them. And then if we're good with them, then we'll just approve the ones that we're good with. Sure.

Does that make sense? Yep. So the first one is Andrews Chapel Oversight Committee, and it's Ann Quigrello for a three-year term seeking reappointment.

Next page. Tell me if I missed something. Conservation Commission, Monica Lagerquist is seeking reappointment to a three-year term, and Scott Saunders is seeking a new appointment.

I'll mention that all of these have gone through the process of, you know, staff has looked through the current applications. The boards have made these recommendations.

[Speaker 5] (1:53:14 - 1:53:17)
And vetted through the town administrator. Thank you.

[Speaker 3] (1:53:17 - 1:53:29)
Yeah, correct. Just to make clear though, vetted through the town administrator. It's not like, I think there's a misconception that we all interview and.

Correct. If you are a warm body and you'll show up and you'll volunteer your time, that's pretty much the criteria.

[Speaker 5] (1:53:30 - 1:53:38)
Right. So is there a reason that we don't have, I'm looking at the Commission on Disability, and is there a reason that we only have one member?

[Speaker 3] (1:53:39 - 1:53:42)
We don't have applicants. So we gotta really, we gotta make a push on that.

[Speaker 2] (1:53:42 - 1:54:14)
We, you know, there are. We have two members. Typically these committees are difficult to, to sit because, you know, we're looking for individuals that either have a disability or have a family member that has a disability.

And it becomes a little bit of a challenge. We can work with a number of different groups. Parents with children with some disabilities.

And we'll continue to reach out and try to repopulate the committee. Yeah, yeah.

[Speaker 1] (1:54:14 - 1:54:15)
I can tell you like when we.

[Speaker 2] (1:54:15 - 1:54:22)
It is important and certainly, you know, we'll redouble our efforts to try to.

[Speaker 1] (1:54:22 - 1:54:40)
Yeah, I think it's recruitment. I mean, I tried personally when we, like when you and I were first elected to try to recruit people for multiple boards of committees. But this is one, because again, it's been vacant for so long, but it just, it's a challenging one to fill, which hopefully that's not the case.

And maybe this conversation will spread.

[Speaker 5] (1:54:40 - 1:54:53)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, hopefully we can redouble our efforts and really get the word out and include that in future newsletters and talk about it. And I think if each one of us brought it up to two or three people, maybe we would be able to fill this.

[Speaker 3] (1:54:53 - 1:55:31)
Can I ask about the bullet points for each of these? There's something, a bullet point for each one of these committees says there are X applicants which are being reviewed for current vacancy. Is that current?

Is that accurate? So for example, on Disability Commission, are there six applicants and we're just not making any, we're not ready to make any appointments? And again, there's specific requirements for most of these positions on disability, whereas normal boards, it's not the case.

So, and then for example, on Conservation Commission, it says there are seven applicants which are being reviewed for current. So does that, I just want to know, is that seven minus that includes the two people here or that you chose from seven? I just want to understand how that.

[Speaker 4] (1:55:33 - 1:55:38)
Seven is the website for all of the applicants.

[Speaker 10] (1:55:39 - 1:55:46)
And now they're going through them to see who they fill up with.

[Speaker 3] (1:55:50 - 1:55:59)
Right, but so for example, on Conservation Commission, there's two vacancies remaining. So you're saying they're going to call those and got it. So on, okay, I got it.

Thank you.

[Speaker 4] (1:56:01 - 1:56:08)
So are you saying it's the committee that's, the committee is vetting the people and then they're sending it? That is correct. Sorry, thank you.

[Speaker 12] (1:56:09 - 1:56:10)
Yes, that's correct.

[Speaker 2] (1:56:11 - 1:56:31)
Not to the exclusion of the town administrator. That's right. Then they'll have a chance to chime in.

So I'm working with a couple of committee chairs or a couple of individuals, frankly, that I have not advanced and they're, most of them I have. But for reasons that I frankly discussed with the chair of the committees.

[Speaker 3] (1:56:31 - 1:56:40)
But the chair is just, you're giving them a courtesy of seeing them and saying, these are our needs. These are people that we think are good. They don't make the decision.

You're ultimately making the decision. That's right.

[Speaker 2] (1:56:41 - 1:56:44)
I have to look at other standards for fitness.

[Speaker 1] (1:56:49 - 1:57:07)
Okay, so moving on, Council on Aging, Maureen Callahan, three-year term reappointment. Maureen, I don't know how to pronounce this name, Yanako Grant, seeking reappointment, three-year term, and Molly Rowe, three-year term.

[Speaker 3] (1:57:07 - 1:58:02)
So can I, just staying on the thing about, there's 14 pending applications, there's one vacancy, but we're reappointing the three people that wanted to be reappointing. One of our guidelines that we passed previously was about creating a mix of old and new, if you will, varying experiences and whatnot. So I just wonder, and again, I'm not, this is not, I'm using this as an example.

This has nothing to do with this committee or these appointees. I'm just wondering, is that something, Sean, I'm sure you're thinking about it, but is that something that, just because these three people sent their letter back saying they wanted to be reappointed, if we have 14 people, there's a lot of interest there, are we thinking about that mix in old and new, and then are we also then redirecting those 14 and saying, hey, you're really interested in this, well, this is kind of related, are you interested in volunteering for this?

Disability Commission being an example that maybe is an offshoot of Council on Aging.

[Speaker 2] (1:58:03 - 1:59:21)
Peter, we have those ongoing conversations. I have a number of, just this past week, I spoke to an individual that wanted to serve on one committee, but expressed an interest or a background for another, and I encourage them to think about that on another committee, because we just have a lot of interest in some committees and not enough in others. But getting back to just diversity, equity, inclusion, we have those conversations, we have sent a letter out to boards and committee chairs, and we do want an effort to reach out and see if we can ensure that we are opening up access to some of these committees for a more robust effort on inclusion.

Some of these individuals, we've encouraged to serve as a non-voting member, for instance, just to open up a seat for a voting member to get some experience. But certainly we're working with committees, the committee chairs, to keep continuity of some of their members as well, because that's an important part of some of the efforts.

[Speaker 3] (1:59:23 - 1:59:57)
I'm sorry, I just got through, last comment on this. I've gone through them, and I don't see any place where an existing member wanted to be reappointed, that they weren't reappointed in favor of someone else. So everyone that's wanting to be reappointed is being reappointed, even if there are 10 applicants for it.

Which is fine, if that's the process, right? But it's also, if there's 10 applicants in the wings, it just doesn't evidence, it just doesn't evidence that thing that you just talked about. So maybe we're just in the initial stages of figuring that out.

[Speaker 4] (1:59:58 - 2:00:13)
Well, but then that would apply to what we just talked about. So the Conservation Commission, if you have X amount of people that are signed up and waiting, and you're going to approve somebody, I mean, what you're saying would apply to everything here, except for, for example.

[Speaker 3] (2:00:13 - 2:00:41)
Conservation Commission has vacancies, though. So the ones I was specifically talking about just a second ago are committees that don't have vacancies, but all the people that wanted to be reappointed got reappointed, and there's a quote-unquote waiting list. Just to make sure that we vetted those to be able to say, hey, it was great that you're volunteering already, but if you've been volunteering for 20 years, and we have so much interest in a committee, there's generationally, perhaps, other experiences or other things, and that just was something the board talked about.

[Speaker 4] (2:00:41 - 2:00:49)
Right, but that does put the Conservation Commission in that, because there is a reappointment, there's a request for reappointment, and there's also seven people, there's seven applications.

[Speaker 3] (2:00:49 - 2:01:32)
No, I understand, but there's also a vacancy, which they're still vetting for that vacancy. I'm just differentiating the ones with vacancies versus not. There's just nowhere here where I see evidence of us switching out, and that may be okay.

Substantively, it may be totally the right recommendation. I'm just wanting to make sure that we're actually vetting that, as opposed to just reappointing, because someone wants to be reappointed. Because I think there are a lot of people, we hear quite often from people say, I would love to get involved with this, and they find it hard to get a foot in the door.

And again, this is a great problem to have, because there are committees that we don't have any people for, right? And so we've got to work and get those. So it's just an observation.

I'm sorry, Katie, you were going to say something?

[Speaker 7] (2:01:32 - 2:01:43)
No, I was just going to say, I understand that there are terms, but then are there term limits on any of these committees? So you can, every three years come up, and as long as you're reappointed, you're fine.

[Speaker 3] (2:01:43 - 2:01:56)
The Cultural Council is the only one that statutorily has limits. I think it's two terms, and you can be off a term, and then you can be reappointed. But I think the Cultural Council, by statute, has a limitation in how many consecutive terms you can serve.

[Speaker 6] (2:01:57 - 2:01:57)
Thank you. Thank you.

[Speaker 1] (2:02:04 - 2:03:17)
So Cultural Council, there are three members seeking reappointment, Carolina Velasquez, Samia Atoui, and Artha Cesar. There are, I think, there are a lot of potential members for that council, so there are multiple vacancies. It looks like there are some applications that need to be reviewed.

Earth Removal Advisory Committee, two seeking reappointment, Tony Bandrewicz and Gary Barden. So it's two applications that don't fit the requirements of the vacancy, because the vacancy on that committee is for an excavating engineer. It's a non-voting member of that committee.

Highly School Reuse Advisory Committee. It looks like every member of that is seeking reappointment. And those, if I recall, I mean, many of them were appointed, right?

Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (2:03:18 - 2:03:24)
By moderator and the select board. Yes, they're not all of our appointments. What's that?

They're not our appointments.

[Speaker 1] (2:03:25 - 2:03:25)
Right.

[Speaker 3] (2:03:25 - 2:03:35)
We actually have the vast minority, I think we have three, maybe, total appointments. Right, so we couldn't reappoint. We can't actually do Hadley tonight.

Right. Because only three of these are our appointments to begin with.

[Speaker 1] (2:03:35 - 2:03:41)
So we'll table Hadley. Does that make sense? Or should we reappoint the ones that?

[Speaker 3] (2:03:42 - 2:03:43)
We don't know which ones are our three.

[Speaker 1] (2:03:43 - 2:03:44)
I don't know which ones are our three.

[Speaker 3] (2:03:46 - 2:03:47)
I don't know which ones we appointed.

[Speaker 1] (2:03:49 - 2:04:13)
Yeah, I know one of them, for sure. But I wouldn't want to guess. So we'll table Hadley.

Harbor and Waterfront Advisory Committee. There are four members seeking reappointment. Alan Vann.

Oh, this one, I think we're tabling, right? Because there's a potential residency question. Yep.

So I think we're going to table that.

[Speaker 6] (2:04:18 - 2:04:19)
And...

[Speaker 1] (2:04:19 - 2:04:26)
What do you mean? If someone seeking reappointment is not a resident. Oh, okay.

So we have that situation, I think.

[Speaker 4] (2:04:26 - 2:04:28)
Well, this also has 13 applicants.

[Speaker 1] (2:04:29 - 2:04:31)
Right. So I think that...

[Speaker 4] (2:04:31 - 2:04:32)
We can't appoint them if they're not a resident.

[Speaker 1] (2:04:33 - 2:05:09)
Right, well, I think we need to have that conversation, because it occurs on another, I think there's another instance, maybe one other one of that. So I just want to have that conversation. So, I think we're going to have that conversation.

Um... Harbor Master. Nothing.

Sorry. That's nothing. I don't think that's a committee.

Yeah, it's just on the list. Store District Commission. Three seeking reappointment.

Richard Smith, Jared Germa, Stacy Reiling. As an alternate, three-year terms.

[Speaker 3] (2:05:10 - 2:05:12)
I would ask us to table this one.

[Speaker 6] (2:05:15 - 2:05:16)
Okay.

[Speaker 4] (2:05:16 - 2:05:17)
Why?

[Speaker 3] (2:05:17 - 2:05:22)
Because I would like to ask the town administrator some more questions about it offline.

[Speaker 1] (2:05:26 - 2:05:48)
Okay. I mean, we can table that. Historical Commission.

There are four seeking reappointment. Justina Oliver. Oh, Jonathan Lehman, Justina Oliver, Brad Graham, and Ryan Jubkins.

I think, Peter, you pointed out that Justina...

[Speaker 3] (2:05:48 - 2:05:50)
Yeah, can we table this one as well and figure that out?

[Speaker 1] (2:05:50 - 2:05:50)
Okay.

[Speaker 3] (2:05:51 - 2:05:54)
There's just a term question. There's just a term question on that one.

[Speaker 1] (2:05:55 - 2:06:21)
If it's a reappointment for a three-year or not. So, we'll table that for now. Sorry.

Open Space and Recreation. Three seeking reappointment. Ryan Long and Tanya Lilick and Sierra Poe-Buno's three-year terms.

[Speaker 4] (2:06:24 - 2:06:25)
And this has 17 applicants?

[Speaker 1] (2:06:26 - 2:06:27)
It looks like.

[Speaker 4] (2:06:27 - 2:06:31)
Oh. People care about Open Space and Rec?

[Speaker 1] (2:06:32 - 2:07:44)
They do. And there's a vacancy, so. The Recreation Commission, Janelle Cameron and Caroline of Alaska's are seeking reappointment to three-year terms.

Also has some applicants that need to be reviewed. Renewable Energy Committee, David Zalanowski, seeking reappointment to a three-year term. I think we can do that tonight, but I think I know that there's someone else, Diane, that was seeking appointment that I'm pretty, so we can do David tonight, but I think there's another person who the Renewable Energy Committee was hoping to be appointed.

Yes, I got that email today. Yeah, so I think we can reappoint David and then deal with that with the other two vacancies. Solid Waste Advisory Committee.

So, Polly Tickham's listed here as seeking reappointment, but she's not seeking reappointment. She was.

[Speaker 4] (2:07:45 - 2:07:45)
I think she is.

[Speaker 1] (2:07:46 - 2:08:18)
No, I talked to her over the weekend. Yeah, she said she was initially interested in potentially serving, you know, not as the select board member, but just as a resident member of the committee. She, yeah, I confirmed it with her.

So, she's not seeking reappointment, but everyone else is. So, if we take that one up, I don't think we need to table it, but just take it up with the revision that it wouldn't include Polly, and it would include Emily Silly, Jonathan Gold, Wayne Spritz, and Emily Westhoven for one-year terms.

[Speaker 4] (2:08:23 - 2:08:35)
Okay, I have a quick question. On committees, I know on this committee, sometimes they have an issue with having a quorum. Is there any possibility of adding alternates onto a committee that sometimes has an issue?

[Speaker 1] (2:08:37 - 2:09:02)
I think we could, but I would suggest maybe we have a, maybe that's another conversation. When we revisit some of these, maybe we can bring that up, and, you know, offline, think about which ones those are, and make sure that that's something that they want to. Yeah.

Traffic Study Advisory Committee, Linda Hayes, one-year term, seeking reappointment.

[Speaker 3] (2:09:06 - 2:09:44)
And, can I just ask, like, what's the timing on, there's so many vacancies, so I appreciate we're doing reappointments in June. That's awesome, because we haven't done that in, like, five years, so, but we're just reappointing mostly. We're not really appointing anybody new, and so traffic, for example, has, I didn't realize we had two vacancies for the community member seats, so we only have one community member with town staff currently on that committee, right?

And the point was to make sure we had community member voice there, so I'm just using that as an example. So, like, what's your time frame for when you want these to come back to us, and we're gonna be filling vacancies?

[Speaker 2] (2:09:45 - 2:10:29)
You know, I'd like another month, and I think we can, you know, take a look at, you know, trying to figure out if any of these new applicants can really help us with the DEI. I'm positive some of the committees, I think we can reach back out to the chairs and really get a sense of their effort to help us ensure that we are continuing to bring in new citizens into these committees, and give the board members a chance to talk about any of their particular concerns about the committees that they would have. So sometime, probably the beginning of August, I think we can circle back around.

[Speaker 1] (2:10:30 - 2:10:55)
Okay. Water and sewer rate advisory committee. Myself, Charlie Patsios, and Ralph Suppe, one-year term.

All seeking reappointment, and then on the Zoning Board of Appeals, Brad Croft is seeking a reappointment.

[Speaker 3] (2:10:56 - 2:10:57)
That's the one that we're gonna table as well.

[Speaker 1] (2:10:57 - 2:10:59)
Table that? Yeah. That's ZBA?

[Speaker 3] (2:10:59 - 2:11:01)
Yeah, because it's a waivered residency.

[Speaker 1] (2:11:01 - 2:11:36)
Okay. So it looks to me like we, if someone could make, I would entertain a motion to accept the town administrator's recommendations for reappointment with the revision that we table to have the reuse committee, the Harbor and Waterfront Advisory Committee, Historic District Commission, Historic Commission, Zoning Board of Appeals, and that on the Solid Waste Advisory Committee that we remove Holly Tickum and that recommendation.

[Speaker 2] (2:11:36 - 2:11:37)
So moved. Second.

[Speaker 1] (2:11:39 - 2:11:56)
Second. Although, any more discussion? No.

All those in favor? Aye. Aye.

Okay, great. Thanks, and thank you, Diane, for continuously going through all these details. I know it's tedious, but incredibly important.

[Speaker 4] (2:11:56 - 2:12:10)
Diane, I've had people say that they put in an application and they've never even heard a response, but I think it was before you even came. So do people get responses now, or?

[Speaker 12] (2:12:10 - 2:12:18)
I think that's something that Kate and I are probably gonna start talking about. We've been talking about the vacancies and the applicants and all of that.

[Speaker 4] (2:12:18 - 2:12:28)
Because is there a chance that it might say you have 13 applicants, but maybe those were like a year and a half ago? Some of them are really old, yep. Right, so I don't have a lot of new ones.

Okay.

[Speaker 1] (2:12:29 - 2:13:02)
Yeah, I think so, in this process over the next month, I think part of that would be to weed out some of these legacy applications that may not even, these people may not live here anymore, so we know a more accurate number, too, as we're going through it. But yeah, and I think that's been an issue ever since I became involved, and it's something that we need to address for sure, is just like the communication of letting people know that their application's been received, and all of that, I think, has been something that has been the real challenge.

[Speaker 7] (2:13:02 - 2:13:08)
That's why I'm on the select board, to be honest, because I couldn't figure out how to use the committee and boards tool.

[Speaker 3] (2:13:08 - 2:13:08)
So you ran.

[Speaker 7] (2:13:09 - 2:13:14)
So I ran. You found it easier to run. It's easier to run for the select board.

That's amazing.

[Speaker 1] (2:13:14 - 2:13:17)
That's an interesting solution.

[Speaker 7] (2:13:17 - 2:13:36)
Also, may I make a suggestion that the town administrator put some of this information in his report that we have, to understand what committees have true vacancies, and not are like waiting with applications to be filled, but actually don't have applicants? That way we can constantly be engaging the public to fill those true vacancies.

[Speaker 2] (2:13:36 - 2:14:18)
We need to come up with a different way to actually just market all of these committees, and make them present to residents in ways that help them really feel like, if they join these committees, they can bring ideas into reality. I think that's what we're missing. I think a lot of folks just think that it's just a place to pass time, but you could be part of a team that actually buys a piece of waterfront property, or you can help figure out how to build a new park, or deal with an environmental resource challenge that really would make this town, and frankly the Commonwealth, that much more successful.

[Speaker 5] (2:14:20 - 2:14:42)
Sean, but we need to put the foundation in first. We need to make sure that we're just blocking, and tackling, and responding to emails first and foremost. I mean, this is probably one of the biggest functions that we have as a town, and one of our biggest responsibilities is engaging with volunteers, and there's no reason that emails should be, you know.

[Speaker 2] (2:14:42 - 2:14:59)
We have the letters that everybody gets sent. We have it all, like it's already in place. We just have to get back to making sure that it's routine.

And, yep. Right, but there is a systemic problem.

[Speaker 3] (2:14:59 - 2:16:15)
I mean, like, and I actually mean system here. Meaning, I think our use, at some point we started using technology, and then I don't know that we really have updated, and fully utilized technology, right? We have see it, click it, fix it, and we like to use that for a lot of things, including complaining about blasts at the quarry, but that's not what it's really designed for.

We talked about having something created for complaints. It hasn't happened yet. The application process for volunteers goes somewhere, but there's not even an auto reply to the person when they submit it, which technology, that's just basic technology at this point.

Even if it still was to go nowhere, just thank you, we've got your email, and we put it in a box. But, you know, just even simple things like that, we just, and I hear you hired someone recently that likes technology quite a bit, and likes using technology in government, so maybe that's something, but I just think as though that's just low hung fruit for us, which is people I just think feel really disrespected, inadvertently, but understandably, when they don't hear back when they're offering their time. And Katie's a perfect example.

She ran for office because of it. So, if we can just explore other things. I just think some of our services are antiquated now.

They were great, good to do it, but there's gotta be better systems. Sure.

[Speaker 7] (2:16:16 - 2:16:22)
I just want to be clear, I wasn't ignored. I couldn't use the website. So this is somewhat also user error.

[Speaker 3] (2:16:22 - 2:16:24)
But I just wanted to be clear. It could have been your technology issues.

[Speaker 10] (2:16:24 - 2:16:26)
I mean, let's be honest.

[Speaker 1] (2:16:26 - 2:16:39)
Right. So next on the agenda is the Town Administrator Contract Recommendations. Sean, if you want to give a summary presentation to provide.

[Speaker 2] (2:16:45 - 2:20:18)
Yeah, I don't have the PowerPoint, but I can kind of go over that in specific. So we have the contract for Chief Ruben Quesada. Chief has recently joined the town, and I'm recommending a three-year contract with a two-year extension.

His contract in year one would be $140,000. Year two, $142,800. And year three, $145,656.

This contract would run from March 28, 2022 to June 30, 2025. There's a two-year extension clause. There's clothing allowance up to $1,500, and the town will provide a command vehicle and an extension bonus of $10,000.

I'm recommending a contract for our Library Director, Jonathan Lewis-Nichols, you know, for year one at $100,000. Year two at $102,000. Year three for $104,040, with a retention bonus of $5,000.

Another contract for our Building Commissioner. Year one at $80,000. Year two at $82,400.

Year three at $84,872. He will also receive an additional annual stipend of $10,000 for the Assistant Facilities Director position and a retention bonus of $10,000. That contract will run from March 28, 2022 to June 30, 2025.

The next contract is for Jared LaLiberté, our town clerk. This contract, year one, would be $80,000. Year two at $83,200.

Year three at $85,250. And this contract would run from April 25, 2022 to June 30, 2025. The next contract is for the Assistant Town Administrator and our HR Director, S.

Peter Kane. Year one would be $100,000. Year two would be $102,000.

Year three would be $104,040. Year four would be $106,121. Year five would be $108,243.

It includes a retention bonus of $15,000 at the end of year three, $7,500 at the end of year four, and $7,500 at the end of year five. And the last contract is for our Recreation Director, Danielle Strauss. Year one would be $77,875.

Year two would be $80,000. Year three would be $82,000. This contract would run from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2025.

These are six contracts that ultimately help us ensure that we have multi-year contracts with key department heads. This wraps up a series of contracts that we've approved over the last three months that really, I think, position the town well in terms of retention and certainly ensures that we have a team of really dedicated department heads to continue to advance important goals for the town. Happy to answer any questions the board may have.

Any questions on these contracts?

[Speaker 1] (2:20:19 - 2:20:19)
Comments?

[Speaker 4] (2:20:22 - 2:21:45)
Well, I'm gonna repeat my comment from earlier. I don't wanna see contracts coming out after an employee has already started working. And I really, I want to make sure that when we're in a position of bringing a new person on, that they go through the process, they're given a contract before they start within the contract.

If there's any type of issues, there's a period of time that issues can be vetted, and then you can move on from there. I voiced this earlier in an executive session, but I just wanna be in public on that. And I also wanna make sure that when we do have positions, that positions are vetted to the point, excuse me, they're advertised to the point where people of all different backgrounds, diversities have an opportunity to apply.

That is super, super important. And then on the last thing, I am not a fan of five-year contracts. We do have one five-year here.

However, this is in the purview of the town administrator, and I do support the town administrator's decisions. I'm just hoping that he'll make some changes in the future. That's my comment.

[Speaker 1] (2:21:46 - 2:21:49)
Thanks, Mary Ellen. Any other comments or questions?

[Speaker 7] (2:21:49 - 2:22:15)
I echo Mary Ellen's comment, which I had also made earlier, about the process being that contracts should come first to us so that we understand employment. It seemed a little bit backwards to have them come to select board and say we've hired these folks and then get contracts after the fact that are now postdated. So I echo Mary Ellen's sentiment there.

[Speaker 12] (2:22:17 - 2:22:17)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (2:22:19 - 2:22:31)
Thanks, Katie. If anyone has a motion to approve the town administrator's contract recommendations as described. So moved.

Is there a second?

[Speaker 7] (2:22:31 - 2:22:32)
Second.

[Speaker 1] (2:22:32 - 2:25:39)
All those in favor? Or any more discussion? Are all those in favor?

Aye. Aye. Okay, thanks.

Thank you. Yeah, thanks, Sean. So I think maybe why don't we do the land use planning?

We'll just go in order. I'm just trying to think of the easiest way to do this, but there is no easy way. So there's, so the next item on our agenda is land use planning, community engagement processes, and timelines.

I had, I met with Sean and P. Cain and Marzi Golaska, our director of community development and planning. I think that was last week or a couple of weeks ago and had a conversation about just wanting to communicate to the select board and get some sort of consensus or people's ideas on what processes should start happening to better prepare us for what I see as there are like multiple initiatives happening, all of which that we've described as robust community engagement.

I think that much of that will be really occurring in the fall, but that requires us to actually have a conversation now and get things going and tee these things up. And I think that they are all, in many ways, they're separate initiatives, but there's interplay between them. And so I wanted to have at least our initial conversation tonight about, specifically about the Hawthorne property reuse and that process, the Hadley reuse process, which is a little more straightforward.

And then included in that conversation, the Mass Housing Choice Initiative, which is the new zoning that requires housing, within distance of MBTA locations, and then our plan for and hope for a land use summit in the fall. This presentation was shared with the planning board. They have a meeting tonight and they're gonna discuss some of this tonight.

They'll be integral part of this process for all of these initiatives and we'll certainly be engaging with them. So I don't think necessarily there are any specific decisions or votes to be made tonight, but I think that if we can give staff a sense of the direction to be heading in and if we agree with this timeline or where we may differ, that would be helpful because, again, I don't wanna, I don't think we can wait our next meeting, our next regular meeting being July 20th, like that, you know, we need to issue RFIs, potentially RFPs, and so people need to start working on it. So with that, I think I'll turn it over, am I turning it over to Margie or Pete or?

[Speaker 6] (2:25:39 - 2:31:42)
I'm happy to quickly start the discussion and maybe turn it over to Pete to really break down the timeframe. So again, this is really building on to discussion and the sort of continuation and the need for a land use summit that this board has expressed and then we have talked about for just recently or for quite some time. As you know, we have this tremendous opportunity and a need to really plan for a future, really engage our community, engage all of our stakeholders to really look at some of the key parcels and probably the largest development within the town of Swampscott.

So you see some of the background. As you know, the select board identified holding a land use summit as one of your goals. This has been done a while back.

This was also identified by various boards, including the finance committee, including the planning board, obviously as part of the master planning process and other communities, such as the open space and recreation planning committee. So the parcels that Neil had talked about, including the Hawthorne redevelopment of Hadley as well as the MBTA legislation of the mass housing choice initiatives are all somewhat intertwined. And it's really great for us to really engage all of our community stakeholders this summer to really try to plan for community engagement, community process, and find out how do we move forward with the redevelopment of the parcels.

So just to go back, obviously the purpose and the goals of the summit would be to engage the community and really try to find out what is the outcome that we wanted to achieve. At the same time, I think it would be great to really educate our public and educate all of the boards regarding the functions of the separate boards. We understand what the planning board does.

We might understand what the ZBA does, but also to see how do we work together? How is the process cohesive and how do we move forward with redevelopment of some of the key parcels? So as you know, right now, we have the sort of like the two or potentially three large initiatives or redevelopment options, and also others not included in the list of projects that's there, the additional two parcels, open space parcels on Arches Street.

And that's also a tremendous opportunity for the town to look at the redevelopment opportunities of those two parcels. And also how do we link them together? How do we plan for the use of these parcels?

And also look at the benefits and just the synergy that a land use board has. So we had worked out a sort of a big picture timeframe, as well as the process of how we should move forward with the initiatives. So you can see that the overall large land use summit would include identification of goals and the purposes.

We will do a great outreach or marketing of the program. We will identify location and timing when this should happen. Obviously, I think it would be important and really valuable to the process to make sure that we can engage all of our stakeholders, all of our boards, and really have a productive participatory planning process that would really assist us with the reuse of those parcels.

In regards to the Hearthland property, we'd love to hear from you, your thought process in regards to a timeline that we have identified in regards to soliciting for a request for proposals and or seeking a request for increase or interest from planning entities and planners to really help us with the process. This is something that we really see the value in having a, again, participatory process that's really engages that community. And we hear from all of the stakeholders in the community.

Obviously, that's something else we will go through the process and we would share all of the information with town meeting as was promised during the last town meeting in regards to regarding this parcel and obviously others. Same thing with the Hadley, we would also like to hear from you in regards to the process that you would like us to follow. As you recall, we had a very successful process for the Michonne, but the Michonne also identified a use from the very beginning.

So I think the process was potentially could be a little bit different. The Hadley reuse committee did provide to us recommendations for potential uses. So that's something else that we'd love to hear from you if this should be a request for proposal for when you should be really open it up to seek for any type of reuse of the parcels.

And obviously the housing choice legislation, you have heard from our planning board chair several meetings ago in regards to what the process might look like. At this point, we still need to hear a little bit more. We're looking for additional guidance from the Department of Housing and Community Development.

That's the state agency that is providing communities with timeframe. Also some additional guidance to see how the legislation should roll out. What is it that each community should be doing?

So I think that's sort of like the key steps. I think that Pete will go over the actual timeframe of each of the individual parcels.

[Speaker 9] (2:31:44 - 2:34:28)
So thank you, Marcie. We put together some rough ideas about what those major milestones would be in each one of these three main projects, but also how they interrelate with the land use summit. So you can see it all together in one.

These are just rough concepts. Generally when you go out to RFP or RFI, you give those general milestones that you want to achieve, but obviously the respondent is going to provide their very specific project proposal and schedule. So this is just to give you a general idea of what we would want to include in our timeline with that RFP.

So as you'll recall, for the Hawthorne property town meeting approved the acquisition this June. So we would look at possibly doing an RFP process searching for a consultant to assist us in putting together proposals for the Hawthorne property. And that process would take place in July and August, likely developing the RFP and releasing it in July with responses coming in and interviews in August so that you can have the consultant begin in September with that initial work, granted it would be a month, likely a month, being able to come to the land use summit, explain what they've been able to acquire for information and what they anticipate their steps to be. That way, essentially using the land use summit as a jumping board to getting the project started, but also getting the community activated in taking part in this.

That would then follow with the consultant doing multiple meetings, outreach, development of project ideas throughout the winter so that a public forum could be held towards the end of the winter in February. At that time, they would present multiple options to the community. That would be the opportunity for the community members to see what those options are, give feedback, as well as give us an idea of which ones should we focus on in order to then bring those focused options to a presentation, a presentation to town meeting at the annual town meeting in May.

Then with that presentation and any additional feedback during the summer months, we would put together a final public forum on what would hopefully be a final option in September. That would then allow enough time for the consultant to refine that final option to bring it forward for that desired town meeting vote in the fall, if that's a November or October fall town meeting.

[Speaker 1] (2:34:29 - 2:35:04)
And Pete, I just wanna make sure it's clear. Like when we talk about final option, it's like the option for the use of the property. It's not a specific plan, et cetera, necessarily.

It's just because, as we all recall, and if the public's not aware, that town meeting needs to approve any other use other than the use there now, or maybe parking for a school in public. So that's when we say final option. That doesn't mean in September we know exactly what's happening, but we're approving.

[Speaker 9] (2:35:04 - 2:35:05)
We don't have construction plans.

[Speaker 1] (2:35:05 - 2:35:10)
The general category of that use at that point. Thanks, sorry, I just wanted to make sure that was clear.

[Speaker 9] (2:35:10 - 2:36:07)
No, thank you for that, yeah. For the second project, this is the Hadley Reuse. We've only scoped in the 2022 schedule here.

And so that is the RFI or RFP process, again, in the summer months, this summer, July and August, receipt of what those proposals or interests are in September, allowing us to review those submittals. That way we can then present those at the land use summit. And from that land use summit and the feedback of that land use summit based on the interest that we receive or the proposals that we receive, that would be when we then determine what those next steps are.

It's hard to determine what the long-term steps are when we haven't decided on the particular use. So that's why we would look at the responses and the information that we receive from the summit in order to make that decision in November.

[Speaker 5] (2:36:08 - 2:36:36)
So Pete, quick question. Previously, before you were here, we had mentioned a timeline and we had talked about the RFI process for the Hadley Reuse. And it was the recommendation that maybe we wait until outside of the summer months, maybe early fall to start this, simply because the responses to the RFI may be lesser in the summertime.

Any thought or guidance?

[Speaker 9] (2:36:37 - 2:37:29)
There's always the truth that, yeah, it could be summer that we're not gonna get the responses. We might not get responses during the winter. There may not be an optimal time to get responses.

What we're trying to work with is, if we know that we want the land use summit in the fall and we want it to be prior to the holiday season, it has to be in October. If we want material to present to the community, do we do the process now or do we decide maybe Hadley isn't part of the land use summit or we just do a tease to it that this is what's coming up? Obviously, all of this can certainly be moved around, but it's trying to decide what do we wanna be able to include in that summit.

But you bring up a good point. We can't say for certain that the summer is the best time or is it the worst time? It's a time.

A time, yeah, exactly.

[Speaker 1] (2:37:29 - 2:38:33)
And I would say, I mean, I think that this reflects that past conversation. I mean, this process other than the potential timing of when the RFI is issued, but in terms of the next step of putting the RFI together based on the Hadley reuse report, I think that when we talked about that, the idea was that Peter and I, because we are on the Hadley reuse, part of the Hadley reuse committee, that we would work with MARS, staff would be putting that together, but we would work with them and then bring something back to the board. And then when we issue it, I certainly think we can have a discussion, revisit that, like what may make the most sense and like, is it a priority to have all this information in the land use summit? Maybe it doesn't need to be.

I think that the land use summit will have a full agenda no matter what we include. But I think that again, the important part tonight is sort of like the idea that everyone agrees that this work should start over the summer. Thanks.

[Speaker 9] (2:38:34 - 2:40:10)
And then the third item that Marzia mentioned is the mass housing choice initiative. So again, a rough schedule that we're looking at here is the potential of establishing a task force. So whether that's the select board creating the task force or the planning board creating the task force, essentially the idea could be that a task force is created that includes multiple members from various land use boards and the affordable housing trust in order to help guide this process, get the guidance from the Commonwealth as to what this regulation will be and how we'll be implementing it, as well as evaluating the community where we currently are in our density and how that relates to whatever the requirement is. And so with that establishment, being able to do the research in August and September, get that up and running so that some initial findings and recommendations as well as getting feedback can be presented at that land use summit, utilizing the land use summit to present what this means to the community and what could be coming forward and then allowing the task force and staff to put together a bylaw, the zoning bylaw that could then go to a public forum in February, allowing for a potential adoption at the Maytown meeting. Again, really rough schedule, but just giving you how it could sequence.

And so finally, looking at the big picture timeline of how these three projects relate to the summit.

[Speaker 4] (2:40:10 - 2:40:11)
Wait, Pete, I have a quick question.

[Speaker 9] (2:40:12 - 2:40:12)
Oh, sure.

[Speaker 4] (2:40:12 - 2:40:19)
It was my understanding that anything under the 3A or mass housing was really in the wheelhouse of the planning board.

[Speaker 9] (2:40:21 - 2:40:25)
Any zoning falls under planning board direction. That's correct.

[Speaker 4] (2:40:25 - 2:40:32)
So wouldn't they be the ones just taking the steering wheel here and saying- They can do that.

[Speaker 9] (2:40:33 - 2:40:41)
This was a recommendation. It's not that it's a requirement that it has to be a task force. Again, we're giving out ideas and recommendations.

[Speaker 1] (2:40:41 - 2:42:45)
I would say the idea of having a task force came from when we were briefed by the chair of the planning board with Margie on this, the one time we were briefed. It was introduced by a resident. And then if I recall correctly, the chair of the planning board agreed with the idea that a task force would be helpful in this.

And so that's why it didn't come out of nowhere for me that came from that meeting. I think that task force could certainly be a step, like Pete mentioned, it could be established by the planning board. But the idea is that with that conversation we had at that one meeting when we were briefed on it, this is a really heavy lift.

Right. And they need all the help they can get. The planning board certainly would be the board- Steering it.

Yeah, and sort of the decision maker. But I think it requires sort of more resources and outside help. And that includes potential residents.

My one thought on this, which I'm interested in hearing other people's response is that like, I think this task force could also be helpful in helping plan for the land use summit. Because the housing initiative, we're not gonna have the details to that necessarily immediately, but I think we need to form this group. And that the land use summit requires feedback from all of these different boards that will essentially be represented theoretically on this task force.

So I think that the task force could serve that purpose as well. Which would, I think, be helpful. I don't wanna create work or death by a thousand committees, but I think it might be helpful to have a separate group with those representatives working on that rather than the plan for the land use summit going.

It's almost like liaisons from every committee.

[Speaker 6] (2:42:46 - 2:44:04)
I definitely agree with you, Neil. But just, I think that we should be a little bit maybe definitive in regards to what's the outcome? What are the goals for the land use summit?

Because I deal, when you think of the land use summit, it just, this can go in so many different ways. There's so many things that we can look at. But I wonder if we kind of sort of maybe scale it, not scale it down, but maybe start off with smaller steps.

And then maybe try to figure out, like maybe try to break it down into maybe information gathering, not gathering, but maybe sharing, kind of just informing everybody in regards to what do our land use boards do? How do they govern the redevelopment process, right? And then maybe just look at the specific parcels that we have versus looking at the overall on a larger scale.

But at the same time, I wanna make sure that a planning board, as you know, that's really like their charge. We work with the planning boards. I just wanna make sure that they really lead the process and that they really are the representatives or they just lead on it and really sort of like walk through the process.

[Speaker 1] (2:44:07 - 2:44:09)
Yeah, no, I agree with all of that.

[Speaker 5] (2:44:10 - 2:44:28)
And then I just had a point of clarification to Marzi. We talk about stakeholders and we talk about boards. Are we talking about resident stakeholders?

Are we talking about inviting some of these large property owners to this committee as well so they can be a part of this process?

[Speaker 6] (2:44:28 - 2:45:02)
I think it's an overall, you're absolutely right. It's the overall process, right? So we wanna make sure that we have all the key people at the table.

We wanna hear from them because if we change, if we look at changes zonings or try to create any type of initiatives, if we don't have the buy-in from the land owners or from the property owners, it's really an exercise in planning, right? Which is really great. We might wanna see something at some parcels, but yet really don't have the buy-in from the property owners, it's not a successful plan or how do we carry it out too?

[Speaker 5] (2:45:02 - 2:45:14)
No, I think that's great to hear. I think we've done some of those things in the past where we've had these exercises and I just wanna make sure that we're gonna do everything that we can to have these large property owners as part of this as well.

[Speaker 6] (2:45:15 - 2:45:26)
Absolutely, and that will be our goal to make sure that we engage them and really have a thoughtful participatory process for the entire sort of like this land use summit.

[Speaker 3] (2:45:26 - 2:45:32)
Thank you for specifying. Oh, sorry, was there?

[Speaker 1] (2:45:33 - 2:45:34)
Nope, go ahead.

[Speaker 9] (2:45:35 - 2:46:21)
So that brings us to the final. This is just so you can visually see the big picture of all the land use summit and the three projects and how they're running concurrently. And the interrelatedness of those projects.

It's just a repeat of the same information, but just brought together. Happy to answer any other questions you might have or any other thoughts if you feel like, if the board really does feel like the RFP processes for both Hawthorne and Hadley or just one of those should hold off, if we should wait until later, that the summer is not the optimal time, we're happy to make any adjustments.

[Speaker 5] (2:46:23 - 2:46:39)
I'm okay moving forward, Pete. I was just simply bringing it up as something that had been mentioned. I mean, it's a worthwhile concern, so I just want to make sure that we're all.

I think if we're working towards that October date, we would need to start the process sooner rather than later.

[Speaker 2] (2:46:39 - 2:46:40)
Yes.

[Speaker 4] (2:46:40 - 2:46:47)
On the RFP process for the consultant, who will put together the RFP as far as information of what you want in that RFP.

[Speaker 9] (2:46:48 - 2:46:53)
So that would be a collaboration of staff, so like Margie and I would work on that together. And then.

[Speaker 6] (2:46:54 - 2:46:57)
Will the planning board be involved in that? Absolutely, yes.

[Speaker 10] (2:46:59 - 2:47:00)
Or?

[Speaker 6] (2:47:01 - 2:47:43)
The RFP. And then obviously we will share the RFP with you, so and seek your comments on it as well. And then the other part is that too, that we can check, go back to town council and really try to find out, because as you know, engineering services, planning services, and retaining of those individuals or consultants to do that work, that's exempt from Chapter 40B.

So we technically don't have to go out to bid. We could really solicit or just request proposals and really have a internal scoring process or maybe interview process to seek the best consultants to assist us with the process.

[Speaker 1] (2:47:44 - 2:49:32)
So RFP process, I mean, we could just substitute that for a procurement process, you know, developing, hiring somebody essentially in the, of course, legal way. But I think that, so I think that as far, if we take it piece by piece, if people can sort of say, we're not taking a vote on this necessarily, but just sort of like the sense of the board for next steps so staff has a good idea. It's like, I feel like what will be helpful ideally at our next meeting is if we had some draft idea of what, you know, either a request for proposal or, you know, like, who are we trying to hire?

Like, what is the description of that? And sort of get that sense on the, for the Hawthorne one, right? And then I think in that meeting in July, we could also have more conversation about timing of that.

And then on the, I think in the meantime, I also think that conversations can be had about like what a task force might look like, you know, talking to the planning board so we could come back in July, potentially revisit that, like a little bit more of an idea of what that might be. Similarly with the RFI for Hadley, I mean, we could potentially have some work done on that at that point. But if everyone feels like, I don't know if I'm missing something, but if everyone feels like these are reasonable, high level, like this is the direction we should go in, then I think it'd be good to just let Marcy and Pete know that so they can move forward.

[Speaker 4] (2:49:33 - 2:49:47)
I just have one question for Marcy. So how, on the Hawthorne property, and then on the Hadley, is there a thought that these two should be tied in or just looked at organically?

[Speaker 6] (2:49:47 - 2:50:42)
I mean, because they're so close, and like, how does that, what's the thought process on that? Marilyn, that's something else that, it's a great question, and I think that's something else that we really need to explore a little bit further, right? Because we wanna see what are the synergies between the two, and how does one support the other?

Or what is it that we wanted to see for the Humphrey Street, the streetscape, and then how does that work? So I just think that that would be all part of the process. So I am glad that when we look at the land use summit, that we did include Hadley as part of this process, so then we can really engage our community, and with the use of a consultant, really narrow it down to see what the best and the highest, or potentially just, what's the ideal land use for both of those parcels?

[Speaker 4] (2:50:42 - 2:50:48)
So it would be the same, we'd hire one consultant group, and they would look at both of these things to? I don't think so.

[Speaker 6] (2:50:48 - 2:51:07)
Well, I see one consultant to help us with the land use summit, that would be one consultant. But I think that you would, after that, I think you should really break it down, and really look at it parcel by parcel, and really bring in the consultant that could best assist us with the process, and with the use.

[Speaker 2] (2:51:08 - 2:53:33)
So there's probably any number of scenarios, any number of consultants, any number of budgets, and so I think our task is going to be, over the next few weeks, coming back with something that really makes the most sense, in terms of each of these pieces, and it's certainly, when you look at the Hawthorne, or the Hadley, these iconic properties shape Humphrey Street, and there will be synergies. The future use of both of these properties will not be independent, they'll affect everything along that corridor. So we're gonna have to have a holistic approach.

We've talked about, the Hawthorne really needs a national type of idea. We have to get the best and biggest idea that we can find, and typically we have to find folks that can help us really think as broadly as possible. There's never been a better time, in terms of state or federal funding opportunities, and partnerships, and our ability to work with our state and federal delegation.

I had a conversation with Congressman Moulton just a week and a half ago, and his team is working on this, and we're excited to really figure out where can we get those partnerships that can help us make the most of this critical conversation at this moment in time for Swanscape. Lots of work though, this is not a small effort to kind of pull together. Margie had talked about, be interesting to just talk about what do each of these boards do, land use boards, and what's the important role that they can play in shaping the reuse, or the future of land use, all of these important properties and responsibilities.

So I think there'll be some amazing conversations, that task force is gonna be needed just to do some of the groundwork, and just to start to clear the deck so we can have the critical conversation about these important issues.

[Speaker 7] (2:53:37 - 2:53:56)
I just think too, it's important to understand that we've already had conversations about Hadley without the context of Hawthorne, so that maybe the context of Hadley changes, or differs now as the Hawthorne property use comes to light.

[Speaker 4] (2:53:57 - 2:54:24)
So I think that's what Mary Ellen is sort of getting at, right, like nothing happens in a vacuum, and that they're- No, well, no, I just wanted to make sure that we were thinking about them not as two separate individual lots, but the Hadley committee has put out a ton of information as far as all different ideas on it. Yeah, a lot of options, it's just, if you go with that option, I just want to make sure that we're not- What are the implications with one option- Yeah, right, right. Yeah, exactly.

That's right, it's not in a silo.

[Speaker 1] (2:54:24 - 2:54:58)
Yeah, and that's, exactly, and that's sort of the point, that's, yeah, totally agree. That's the, well, not just the summit, but just getting this planning started, because there are all these separate initiatives that are all intertwined, and so they need to be talked about together, but they also, at some point, we need to have some efforts happening for each of them. But I think the, especially the Hawthorne community engagement process will include conversations about Hadley.

I mean, it's impossible not to do that.

[Speaker 6] (2:54:59 - 2:55:26)
So- And that is something that the planning board, that was their goal to undertake that this summer. They started to sort of slowly plan for it, but obviously now that we're working together and collaboration on it, so this is something that, you know- Yeah, and we talked to the planning board chair today, and I think we'll certainly be more engaged with them and let them, to your point, Mary Ellen, I mean, lead on much of this.

[Speaker 1] (2:55:27 - 2:55:59)
So that's really important, that they are an integral part of leading this conversation. So I think that that's all I wanted to just make sure we cover, and just again, just seeing like the month of July, almost feeling like it's over already before it even starts. I just wanted to tee that up and get people feeling comfortable with the next steps, and it feels like everyone is, so that's great.

I really appreciate you all sticking around for this meeting tonight and putting all that information together. So thanks a lot.

[Speaker 14] (2:56:00 - 2:56:01)
Okay. Thank you.

[Speaker 1] (2:56:04 - 2:56:26)
So that leaves us, I think, with the utilization of American Rescue Plan Act ARPA funds for some employee compensation that is coming out of a request of the select board originally, and Sean, if you wanna maybe pick up on this.

[Speaker 2] (2:56:27 - 2:59:42)
A few, frankly, months ago, you know, we had a conversation about a number of collective bargaining contracts for our public works department, police department, and fire department that we identified American Rescue Plan funds for at our annual town meeting. Board asked me to go back and look at non-union employees that have done extraordinary work through the pandemic over the last two years to continue to meet and discuss ways to help protect the community. As many board members may know, you know, during the first year of the pandemic, we had daily meetings at nine o'clock every day.

We had staff that were working around the weekends and dealing with the threat that COVID brought to, you know, our world. I couldn't be prouder of the dedication and the work that all of our town public safety staff and, frankly, our town staff put into meeting some of these extraordinary demands. With that, one of the ways that we can utilize American Rescue Plan funds is for replacement revenue.

And I'm recommending to the board that we use $413,394 of ARPA funds as follows. $40,000 for our public works union, $175,644 for the police union, $15,000 for the administrative professional union, $80,000 for our fire department union, and $102,750 for non-union personnel. All of the collective bargaining contracts have been approved at annual town meeting, but having the board vote to authorize the expenditure of $413,394 will help ensure that we're compliant with federal regulations.

And Amy Sorrow, our director of finance and administration, is here to speak to her work to try to help manage the regulatory responsibilities with these ARPA dollars. She has been in regular communication with Eric Kinshaft, CPA, that has been working with the town of Swanscot, but also with 20 or so other communities, and has some pretty rigorous knowledge with regard to the financial utilization of these funds. So with that, Amy, could you provide just a quick update on that and share some insights?

[Speaker 14] (2:59:43 - 3:00:22)
Yeah, so I wanna be very careful with the wording to make sure this qualifies. But yeah, so Sean and I went through after the board's recommendation that we take a look at non-union staff to really focus on who was here through the bulk of the pandemic, working full-time in the office. We did have a cutoff on dates so that it did encompass the employees who were there through the bulk of the pandemic and not people who were hired as things were 90% normal.

When was that?

[Speaker 1] (3:00:22 - 3:00:24)
Are we there yet? Yeah, we're there yet.

[Speaker 14] (3:00:24 - 3:01:46)
There's an optimist in me. So we really wanted to take a focus on that and also look at the impact that the pandemic had on these individuals, as well as the impact that these individuals had on the town through the pandemic as well, between, like Sean said, the daily meetings, everything that came along with it in terms of like CARES regulation, obviously our public health nurse and our health director and our emergency management director taking the bulk of the brunt of this.

But it was something that was really important. It was something that we had staff reach out asking if we were going to be doing something because other communities were. And, you know, everyone's hired and they worked a lot and they were just hoping the town would be doing something to just recognize that.

So I feel very strongly this is a good use of our funding, especially since it's such a small percentage overall of our award, that we can do something impactful for our staff and still be able to utilize the funds to do something impactful for our community.

[Speaker 4] (3:01:49 - 3:02:00)
So just so I'm clear, so this is money above what people are, what their daily compensation is? This is like a bonus?

[Speaker 2] (3:02:00 - 3:02:01)
It is, yep. A one-time bonus.

[Speaker 4] (3:02:02 - 3:02:04)
So one-time bonus. Yes, we can't use the word bonus.

[Speaker 14] (3:02:05 - 3:02:08)
Okay. It is one-time supplemental compensation.

[Speaker 4] (3:02:10 - 3:02:10)
So yeah.

[Speaker 1] (3:02:12 - 3:02:13)
But it's outside of their salary.

[Speaker 4] (3:02:13 - 3:02:41)
All right, and this, and did you bring this to the finance committee also? Say, yeah, this is a great idea or? No, so with federal funding, the finance committee does not need to have a vote.

They don't need to have a vote. However, they are the finance committee and they do have a say in financial matters in the town, right? Not on federal grants.

I think on all monies within the town, they can have a say or have a say.

[Speaker 2] (3:02:44 - 3:02:52)
So- I'd be happy to notify the finance committee that we are making these- Recommendations. Allocations.

[Speaker 14] (3:02:55 - 3:02:58)
I do think that- You have a new chair and vice chair tonight.

[Speaker 2] (3:02:58 - 3:03:07)
That's right. I do think it's important that we notify them and certainly we'll keep them abreast of the utilization.

[Speaker 4] (3:03:08 - 3:03:35)
I'd just like to see town representation when it comes to financial decisions for the town. When administrators making decisions and there's no representation, that makes me a little bit uncomfortable. I'd rather, I would personally like to hear them say, you know, yay or nay or I'm sure they're gonna say sure.

They like to raise their hand and spend money, but that's my comment on that.

[Speaker 1] (3:03:37 - 3:04:51)
So, I mean, I'd support it. As I mentioned, this was originally coming out of the idea that we were doing the same for all the unions and their contracts. And it just seemed like the fair thing to do is to treat non-union staff.

They were not certainly immune to the pandemic and stresses certainly impacted their jobs and lives during that time. So I think it just made sense to do this. And so I fully support it.

I'll also just add with what Amy had said that I had a conversation with the finance director. I asked to make sure that there was an amount for the town administrator, despite his not wanting that or requesting it. But I think that he certainly is included in this group of town employees who have been impacted by the pandemic and also deserve that compensation.

So that's included in this amount that you see here tonight. I just wanted to say that clearly at this meeting as well, just because I think it's important to say that upfront. And that's why that's in there.

[Speaker 7] (3:04:53 - 3:04:59)
Can I ask about the union employees who received ARPA funds? Was that brought before the finance committee?

[Speaker 2] (3:05:00 - 3:05:06)
That was voted on by the finance committee. There were collective bargaining contracts that included the utilization of those funds.

[Speaker 1] (3:05:06 - 3:05:09)
Yeah, that was part of their overall collective bargaining.

[Speaker 14] (3:05:10 - 3:05:13)
That was article four, tell me. Okay, yeah, got it. Thank you, sorry.

[Speaker 5] (3:05:14 - 3:05:21)
Yeah, I echo Neil's sentiments and I support the use of ARPA funds in this scenario.

[Speaker 1] (3:05:25 - 3:05:36)
Any further questions or discussion? I'd entertain a motion of approving the recommendation for the use of ARPA funds for this group.

[Speaker 4] (3:05:36 - 3:05:44)
I don't think that we take a vote. The spending of ARPA funds is under the town administrator and the accountant.

[Speaker 2] (3:05:44 - 3:05:45)
No, it's we.

[Speaker 4] (3:05:46 - 3:05:47)
We have to take a vote on it?

[Speaker 2] (3:05:47 - 3:06:18)
Yeah, we were advised by Eric Kinshaft, the CPA, that this should be voted on by the select board. Okay, do I? I have a draft motion in my report that simply says motion to authorize $413,394 as outlined in ARPA payments for Swampscott Municipal Workforce.

It just breaks down.

[Speaker 5] (3:06:23 - 3:06:45)
Okay, motion to authorize $413,394 as outlined below in the ARPA payments for Swampscott Municipal Workforce as follows. Public works, 40,000. Police union, 175,644.

Administrative professional union, 15,000. Fire union, 80,000. Non-union personnel, 103,500.

[Speaker 2] (3:06:46 - 3:06:49)
Just that number, David, was 10272?

[Speaker 5] (3:06:49 - 3:06:50)
Oh, 10272.

[Speaker 2] (3:06:50 - 3:06:54)
Yeah, we made a reconciliation. As amended. Under non-union?

[Speaker 5] (3:06:55 - 3:06:56)
As in non-union personnel, yeah.

[Speaker 4] (3:06:58 - 3:06:59)
Is there a second?

[Speaker 1] (3:07:04 - 3:07:06)
I can't second anything, so.

[Speaker 7] (3:07:06 - 3:07:14)
I know. I would like to table the motion until FinCom can have a recommendation on the funds.

[Speaker 4] (3:07:20 - 3:07:27)
I would second that. I mean. On the table, I'm not, I wanna hear what finance committee, I just, I wanna hear.

[Speaker 1] (3:07:27 - 3:07:29)
Is there a deadline that we need to be aware of for these funds?

[Speaker 2] (3:07:31 - 3:07:33)
I don't believe any imminent deadline, no.

[Speaker 14] (3:07:34 - 3:07:39)
No, we have until June 30th, 2024 to obligate these funds.

[Speaker 5] (3:07:40 - 3:08:05)
Yeah, I just, again, I just wanna make, I just wanna make clear that I'm in full support of paying these individuals, or compensating these individuals who have worked tirelessly and at personal risk through a pandemic. I think that's incredibly important. And I see the point of running it through FinCom.

When's the next FinCom meeting?

[Speaker 4] (3:08:06 - 3:08:07)
There isn't one scheduled.

[Speaker 2] (3:08:07 - 3:08:12)
They're meeting tonight, and they typically, you know. They're already done. They're very prompt to end the meeting.

[Speaker 4] (3:08:12 - 3:08:16)
No, they're gonna have another meeting pretty quickly, because they have to do a shuffle.

[Speaker 2] (3:08:17 - 3:08:18)
Got it. So typically what.

[Speaker 4] (3:08:18 - 3:08:18)
It's gonna be quick.

[Speaker 1] (3:08:19 - 3:08:27)
I mean, I think there's an important distinction to be made that this is essentially approval of federal funds for use that doesn't impact the budget.

[Speaker 4] (3:08:29 - 3:08:34)
I mean, it doesn't impact the budget. However, it does impact finances.

[Speaker 1] (3:08:35 - 3:09:22)
It's similar to approving the use of a grant. And I don't think FinCom needs to approve the use of every grant that we accept as a town. That's the select board, essentially, who does that.

And so that's how I view it. It's not, it's not a budget matter. I understand it has to do with money.

I get it. But it is different in that way. It's the same way that the select board can accept a federal grant, and it doesn't have to be reviewed or approved by FinCom.

That's essentially what we're doing here. But that's where I, that's how I view it. Again, I can't second it.

A member's not here to second it. So we can revisit it after they review it, if that's what they wanna do.

[Speaker 2] (3:09:22 - 3:10:27)
You know, we would, you know, send the finance committee an update. We can give them a breakdown of the OPERA funds. Again, I just think, you know, it might be weeks.

It might be some time. And frankly, I do think town staff have worked hard, and I think, you know, this would be the last group of employees that, you know, would and should receive some type of recognition for the work that they've done on behalf of the town through extraordinary times. I certainly understand the updating the finance committee and keep them, keeping them abreast, but we are authorized to expend these dollars for these purposes, and certainly, you know, we would ensure that, you know, the finance committee has every detail associated with the financial reporting of these dollars.

[Speaker 1] (3:10:33 - 3:11:15)
So, I mean, I'm not sure exactly what to do. We can have a motion. Anyone can make a motion that they want.

I can't make a motion, and I can't second a motion. So, people can make whatever motions. I would recommend making a motion for approval and approving it tonight and let the process happen so that we can have these funds used for that purpose, just as we have for all the union employees.

But if someone else wants to make another motion, they can, or else we can just move on to the next item.

[Speaker 7] (3:11:17 - 3:11:21)
I think I made a motion. I may own second it to table it.

[Speaker 1] (3:11:21 - 3:11:27)
So, a motion to table this until our next meeting and the finance committee.

[Speaker 4] (3:11:29 - 3:11:31)
Sends along the recommendation.

[Speaker 5] (3:11:31 - 3:11:36)
That's essentially the same thing, is not. Yeah, it's the same thing, so let's just move on.

[Speaker 4] (3:11:36 - 3:11:36)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (3:11:37 - 3:11:41)
So, I mean, we can take a vote on that motion to table. All those in favor?

[Speaker 15] (3:11:42 - 3:11:42)
Aye.

[Speaker 1] (3:11:43 - 3:13:11)
All those opposed? No? No.

Okay. So, essentially, we're moving on. We're moving on.

Yeah, so we're gonna have to move on and we'll revisit it at our next meeting. I think if you can just make sure that that's on the agenda for the finance committee, and if they can meet as soon as possible, that'd be really helpful. All right.

I think that is all that's on, other than the consent agenda. Now I can't find my agenda at all. Consent agenda is essentially approving minutes.

I think we already approved the May 25th minutes, but I just wanted to make sure, for redundancy's sake, that it was the revised ones. They were revised. I looked at at least the revisions that I knew of, but then approving the minutes from June 7th, June 14th, and June 15th meetings, as well as a vote to grant permission for the Chabad of the North Shores 5K run on December 18th, 2022.

So, they're definitely taking care of business, getting ready for the winter run. So, if I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

[Speaker 4] (3:13:11 - 3:13:12)
So moved.

[Speaker 1] (3:13:12 - 3:13:14)
Second. All those in favor?

[Speaker 4] (3:13:14 - 3:13:15)
Aye.

[Speaker 1] (3:13:15 - 3:13:23)
Aye. Okay. And with that, I think there's, I don't know, Sean, if there's anything in the town administrator's report that we haven't covered already tonight?

[Speaker 2] (3:13:24 - 3:13:51)
Let's see. No, we just have end of year shuffle that's coming out this week. We want to thank everybody that helped coordinate for our Pride celebration and Juneteenth celebration, and certainly a lot of great activities for 4th of July.

So, please be sure to check out the fireworks.

[Speaker 1] (3:13:55 - 3:13:58)
Okay, great. Select board time.

[Speaker 5] (3:13:58 - 3:14:51)
Sure. I just want to thank Stormscot Recreation Director Danielle Strauss and her team for having an incredible weekend last weekend. Harbor Fest on Saturday, and the Strawberry Festival on Sunday were two incredibly well-attended, well-put-together events, and certainly excited about the upcoming fireworks festival this Sunday.

It's $5 cover at the door for adults. The veterans will be selling beer and 50-50 raffle tickets. So, please come out and support the veterans, and then on the 16th of July, we'll be having our third Wetwater Day at the Beach on Saturday, July 16th, with the proceeds to benefit the Fish House.

A lot of good stuff happening.

[Speaker 1] (3:14:53 - 3:14:56)
Thanks. Anyone else have anything for select board time?

[Speaker 7] (3:14:57 - 3:15:54)
Yes, I want to mention two things. One, that the 50-50 raffle at that one will benefit Hasley, PTO, and two, I want to acknowledge something that we did right this weekend, which was there was concerns at the Strawberry Festival about accessibility, and concerns were voiced, and the rec department and David and the folks who are handling that were able to make adjustments to make, hopefully, the next events that happen around town hall more accessible to folks. So, I just want to commend you all for listening to the residents and having quick action, because we do have a lot of events happening, and so, it's nice that we didn't, in the midst of all the chaos, we still took the time to say, okay, how can we improve, even though it's on the cusp of occurring? So, I appreciate that, and I'm sure our residents do, too.

[Speaker 4] (3:15:56 - 3:17:06)
So, I want to thank Dr. Friedman for another successful rabies clinic. Takes a lot of time out. It was really wonderful.

Also, the DPW has staff there to help people out. I also spoke with the chair of the school building committee, and she wanted to assure me that to have everyone double check the website, that it is up to date as far as the timing on what's going on with the new school as far as demolition and blasting. I'd like to see, I'd like to get information soon.

Maybe you could get information on what's happening with the veterans lease. That's come up a couple times. It's maybe the next meeting.

We could get that out there, and also, I'd like to start to address the big blue bargains. I've gotten a lot of calls on that, and if we could get that up there onto the agenda or whatever we have to do to see what's going on with that. I mean, I don't, my understanding was there was an RFP before.

They were involved in an RFP. They didn't get into something, so maybe we can get something going.

[Speaker 5] (3:17:07 - 3:17:55)
Okay, just really quickly. Yeah, they were involved with an RFP at 86 Burrill Street in conjunction with Anchor Food Pantry. There was only room for one.

Anchor Food Pantry was selected, and we have been exhaustively looking for additional space in the schools, outside of the schools. It's just been incredibly difficult to find the space. We think there is a solution once the new school comes online with the portables at the Clark School, so that's really the brief update, but I agree.

We should continue to look because I do think it feeds into a number of initiatives in town such as solid waste reduction and support for school and school programs.

[Speaker 6] (3:17:56 - 3:17:56)
Great.

[Speaker 1] (3:17:56 - 3:18:54)
I just want to mention along those lines that that's certainly something that we have been involved in and should be discussing, but we are talking about school property, and so that's the school department and school committee. I mean, that's their conversation, and big blue bargains. Those funds go to the schools, and so it's certainly something that the schools need to be part of.

I mean, we were part of the RFP process for the reuse of the old police station, so that certainly got us involved, and it's not that we're not interested, and I'm not saying we shouldn't discuss it, but I just want to mention that there are other entities that need to be part of that as well, so I don't have anything else on select board time, so I certainly would entertain a motion to adjourn. Second. All those in favor?

Aye. Awesome. Thanks, everybody.

Thanks, everyone, for sticking around tonight. Thank you, Joe, and everyone have a good night.

[Speaker 2] (3:18:54 - 3:18:55)
Good night.