[Speaker 12] (0:16 - 2:16)
In this lecture, we are going to look at how to solve the equation of motion for a fluid fluid.

[Speaker 8] (2:27 - 5:48)
In this lecture, we are going to look at how to solve the equation of motion for a fluid. In this lecture, we are going to look at how to solve the equation of motion for a fluid. In this lecture, we are going to look at how to solve the equation of motion for a fluid All right.

[Speaker 6] (5:49 - 6:00)
Thank you. Welcome to the January 24th, 2024 Select Board Meeting. This meeting is being recorded.

If you'd be so kind to stand and rise for the pledge.

[Speaker 3] (6:02 - 6:13)
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[Speaker 6] (6:15 - 6:23)
Thank you. We certainly have a busy agenda tonight. We're going to start off with the town administrator's report.

[Speaker 2] (6:30 - 9:39)
Thank you, David. So I'm really pleased to provide an update that over the last two weeks, we've gone through all seven respondents of the RFP that we sent out for a possibility of converting the Hadley Elementary School into a hotel. It was absolutely amazing to hear the vision that a number of these firms have for the use of that property and how we can reinvigorate the economic strength of Humphrey Street.

A review committee made up of myself, Pete Kane, Margie Golaska, and Select Board Member Katie Phelan and Peter Stelios carefully reviewed these proposals and we are recommending three of the proposals to be advanced. So we have scheduled a meeting on the night of January 30th here at the high school to go through those presentations and really want to invite the public to enjoy and follow that process and join us as we really try to define the most successful proposal. Pleased to report that we have rehired an individual that worked in our clerk's office during the pandemic.

Matthew Davis has started as the new administrative assistant for our police chief, Ruben Quesada. Matthew joined us today at our department head meeting and comes to us after spending some time with the Central Mass Planning Commission. He's got a background in GIS and a lot of data analytics.

I think he'll do a terrific job helping Chief Quesada in a very complicated role. I continue to work with state agencies and stakeholders to engage our state and federal partners with meetings and discussions regarding how to address challenges with Kings Beach. On February 2nd, I have a meeting, a working meeting for the first time with a number of agencies involved with state regulations and federal regulations.

We've reached out to Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and EPA, DCR, but also CZM, a lot of the alphabet soup of regulatory agencies that have a role to play in supporting regulations that would allow us to see infrastructure investments that would help us protect citizens. We're continuing to advance conversations around the UV disinfection, outfall extension, and periacetic acid.

[Speaker 6] (9:40 - 9:48)
Otherwise, that's fine. Members of the public, stand up. You have three minutes.

Mr. Lehman.

[Speaker 9] (9:58 - 12:21)
Jonathan Lehman, Precinct 6 Town Meeting Member, and I'm also Vice Chair of the Historical Commission, and I'm speaking on behalf of the Historical Commission. We do have an agenda item, but what I just heard is it's appropriate for me to bring this up now, so I will. It's an article that we requested in January for the Town Warrant, and the language was written by Town Council.

I'll read it very quickly. It's a short paragraph. It's to see if the Town will vote to transfer $25,000 from free cash for the purpose of preserving, restoring, or salvaging the General Glover House located at 299 Salem Street, Swampscott, Mass., or any historic components thereof, or to take action relative thereto. This article came about because of a fine that the Historical Commission levied late last year on a property that was demolished improperly. We levied a $25,000 fine, which has been collected. The money is actually in the Town now, but Town Meeting needs to vote on this.

The Glover House is something that we're working on right now, whereas my understanding is that this money is tied up in an account until something to the Department of Revenue has to approve it, so the free cash thing is sort of a stopgap until it's approved. So the important thing here is it's not coming out of taxpayer money. It's just a transfer.

So we want to be sure that this article gets into the warrant. The other piece of this is that we have a revolving fund with a $5,000 limit, and it's not possible to raise funds or to accept fines or that sort of thing without raising that. My understanding is that it's not possible to have an unlimited amount.

If it is, that's what we would want. And if we have to put a dollar amount, I'd recommend half a million for that article to go in as well because the two of these go hand in hand.

[Speaker 6] (12:24 - 12:26)
Thank you, Mr. Lennon.

[Speaker 16] (12:33 - 13:55)
Doug Schmidt, 45 Rockland Street, Precinct 4. So this is regarding just pouring some information into trying to get the resiliency of our beach here in Swampscott or Shoreline at the forefront. September of last year, I was going to be going on a trip in about a week over to Germany for a walking tour, and there was another storm just like the last two we just had.

And it happened the night, and then during the day I was at work. So after work, I went down to the beach. It was calm.

So I went down to check out Fisherman's Beach. I went out to walk up onto the pier, and the planks were missing, but it was dark. So I stepped, and I went straight down the beach and smashed into the underneath of the pier.

And luckily I was able to pull myself out of there and kind of hobble away with just a scratch and a bruise. But I kind of was reminded of that because it's blown out there tonight again. At least it's roped off now.

So I just wanted to bring that up that it's pretty important. Things are getting destroyed, and people are getting hurt. Thank you.

[Speaker 13] (13:56 - 13:57)
Thanks, Doug.

[Speaker 17] (14:06 - 15:27)
Good evening. Chris Swartz, 33 Winshaw, District 5, I think. We have one of the prettiest coastal landscapes in the Boston skyline, often bordered with fantastic sunsets.

But Nahampe is just not something nice to look at. It's a vital economic hub for restaurants, leisure and tourism, the lobster industry, and it's the border between our homes and the ocean. According to NOAA, 40 percent of our nation lives in coastal counties, yet the coastal coast accounts for less than 10 percent of the continental U.S. People want to live by the water, and that's pretty obvious by the statistics. People wanting to live there increases the value of our properties, which in turn increases town revenue through taxes. Investing in coastal and harbor resilience is not merely a choice. It's an imperative for the sustainability of our communities, which maintain the value of our properties and the local economy.

Rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and other climate-related challenges pose significant threats. By investing in resilient infrastructure, we not only protect our harbors from the impacts of climate change, but also safeguard the homes and livelihoods of the individuals who live in the town. So I ask, please continue investing in coastal resiliency as outlined in the harbor plan.

Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you.

[Speaker 18] (15:36 - 16:44)
How you doing? Thank you. Derek Farris, 17 Blaney Street.

Appreciate all you do for the town. Yeah, no injuries, as my friend Doug has from the last few storms, but again, I chose to live in this town, truly, because of its character and its waterfront beauty. My kids go to school here.

We chose them to have this beach life and this waterfront life that is so important to us. It's truly a special place. When you travel the country and the world like I do, I kept coming back to want to live here, and there's a reason for that.

Other communities have waterfront not as nice as ours, but do, are getting federal monies, various grants, to bulk up their infrastructure as storms seem to be getting worse in my lifetime. As bad as I've seen it in this area was the last one. So we have to think proactively, not just get demolished and have to wait for FEMA to come in and save half the homes or things around here.

Let's do what we can, hire grant writers, work with other communities, work with our legislature in D.C. Whatever we have to do to help build this up, we need to do it now, not until it's too late. Thank you all. Thank you.

[Speaker 13] (16:55 - 18:48)
Ted Dooley, 58 Magnolia Road, Precinct 5, I believe. I am also here to comment on the resiliency of our coastline. I spent, last few weeks we've had a few storms.

It's been interesting and fun to watch, but it's been the first time since I've lived in Swampscott where I've said this is getting really serious. As entertaining as it is to see those waves pound against the sea walls, we all know that sea walls in this town are not always the most reliable thing. Current events have shown us that, whether it's weather or walls having other issues.

We really need to do something more urgently to figure out how we're going to protect this town and Humphrey Street, especially our harbor, from these continuing rising sea levels and stronger wave actions that are coming here. We have awesome restaurants coming to Humphrey Street every year. It seems like there's a new award-winning restaurant investing in our town, hiring local workers, providing a lot of great times for everyone who lives in the area.

And I think we need to show those restaurants that are investing in Humphrey Street, and as the master plan calls it, one of the economic corridors of our community, we need to show them that we're serious about protecting their investment as well from the tides and the ocean that is attracting so many people to come to Swampscott, but is causing more and more urgency for us to need to act to protect our community.

So I would just ask that you consider how we can be more proactive on our resiliency efforts, how we can put more effort into ensuring that our town is protected from these storms and that our infrastructure is invested in, and take a serious look at some of the goals outlined in the harbor plan to figure out how we can really come together and address this issue proactively. So thank you very much for your time. Thank you, Mr. Dooley.

[Speaker 14] (18:54 - 20:34)
Hey, guys. Andrea, 15 Sheridan Road. And believe it or not, I'm not here to speak about King's Beach, but I'm concerned with our friends at the Harbor and Water Committee and the Swampscott Yacht Club, and urge the town to focus very heavily on the coastal infrastructure.

I think that we've been talking about sewers for the last six months, and the events of the last couple of weeks have really kind of shown an additional urgency, especially on things like seawalls, the railings along King's Beach. All of this is severely lacking. And I believe that it sort of sheds a light on our basic infrastructure in general, and especially, you know, given the character that the town does have.

I think many people in this town have moved here pretty much exclusively, not exclusively, but mainly influenced by the proximity to the beaches, and I believe that it is really critical to invest in and protect this important asset, because it is truly what makes our town stand out on the North Shore. Additionally, I believe that sort of from a more practical standpoint, it's financially important to invest in the seawalls in general, because in real estate, we've been seeing insurance premiums spike, and we've been seeing more and more insurance companies not even issue policies in this area, even when it's not in a floodplain. So I do think that if we see continuous flooding events, eventually more and more of Swampscott is not going to be able to get a decent or affordable insurance policy.

So I think that's something everybody should really be on the lookout for. Thank you.

[Speaker 6] (20:34 - 20:36)
Thank you.

[Speaker 10] (20:46 - 24:01)
Hi, folks. Mara Lau, Outlook Road. So on the website for Hadley, there are proposals, but unfortunately, they're just on the Hadley Reuse website, so I would really hope that folks could, that the town could move them to the main page so that they could be front and center for everybody to see.

And I realize it will be whittled down, but even the ones that are not being whittled down, I think that they're important to read and for everybody to have access to them. I would also appreciate it if an email went out to town meeting members to say that they are there, please read, please do the due diligence. I'd like to point out that Mary Ellen made a request regarding the town meeting one that passed for all of the plastics.

So that request went out to town meeting members by email. So we got information about that. So people knew that there was information that they needed to research.

It was a slam dunk. So people were not questioning at town meeting. They had information.

They were prepared. Okay, so the proposals really quickly. They're vast in size.

They include rooftop decks galore, easements to Linscott Park to get swooped in to use in their own structures for wedding venues and the like. Linscott Park is a town property. So please be mindful of this.

The size and scope of all of these was vast. 50 to 100 parking spots, two levels of parking, substantial additions off to the side that would include ballrooms, spas, rooftops, first floor restaurants, coffee, bakeries, retail stores, hot tubs, pools, which looks like it would be right where the trash bins are at the moment, which made me chuckle, and possible inclusion of a significant retail space on two of them. So the comment has repeatedly been made that we are trying to bring small businesses that already exist and encourage small businesses.

So please be mindful of the fact that if they're spending all of this money, they want the money to stay in their building. So that is where they'll want people to eat, and all of their incentives will be surrounded by that. So again, there was no mention of any community space because that was left off the RFP because the Peters didn't think that it needed to be put on there, even though it was something that was passed at town meeting.

Pickleball, sound. We were concerned about the sound of pickleball at the last town meeting. The sounds that will emanate from this building will be vast.

Please, the six people that are watching this, please read through these more thoroughly.

[Speaker 6] (24:01 - 24:02)
Thank you, Ms. Lyle.

[Speaker 10] (24:03 - 24:18)
One more thing. Our high school will not last 113 years, as Hadley has. The building is going to need to be maintained.

We are already using it as a public space for voting.

[Speaker 6] (24:18 - 24:18)
Thank you, Ms. Lyle.

[Speaker 10] (24:18 - 24:20)
And it is getting tired.

[Speaker 6] (24:20 - 24:21)
Thank you, Ms. Lyle.

[Speaker 10] (24:21 - 24:26)
So please keep all these things in mind because developers will continue to just push it.

[Speaker 6] (24:26 - 25:08)
Thank you, Ms. Lyle. We have some hands on teams. I think Ryan Hale.

Yes, we can. You can go ahead with your comment. You have three minutes, Ryan.

[Speaker 15] (25:08 - 26:39)
Okay, thank you. I haven't seen the articles, but I'd like to, as a member of the Ryan Hale, 270 Paradise Road, Precinct 2, member of the Regional Literacy Committee, and chair of the Capital Improvement Committee, I'd like to advocate that we add a warrant article, if there's not one already, that the town adopts the specialized stretch standards. And since we have the expectation of a few large commercial or mixed-use properties coming up in town over the coming years, adopting the specialized stretch code will ensure that those buildings are constructed in the most energy efficient and environmentally aware way that we know how right now.

We're already planning to have a topic to show the strength, and if not, I'd like to invite the select board to discuss that and to engage with the Conductor's Committee, the Regional Literacy Committee, the Capital Improvement Committee. We've got a lot of subject matter experts in town that are eager to share their knowledge to steer county towards adopting this important piece of infrastructure and set of standards that will help Sunscot remain a leader in the development of these high standards.

[Speaker 6] (26:41 - 26:49)
Thank you, Mr. Hale. Thank you. Next up, we have Louis...

[Speaker 21] (26:50 - 26:51)
I can't see your name. I can't see your name.

[Speaker 6] (26:52 - 26:52)
Drizula.

[Speaker 8] (27:04 - 27:06)
All right. Everybody hear me?

[Speaker 21] (27:06 - 27:07)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

[Speaker 8] (27:09 - 29:45)
Hello, everybody. Hope everybody's doing well. Happy New Year.

My name is Louis Drizula. I live at 5th Avenue and 14th Avenue Road. My family and I spend nearly every day during the summer at Fishman's Beach.

My children go to school there. My wife and I spend time with our friends and family. We often walk to Hungry Street and appreciate all of the great businesses there.

Our Spanish business community along Hungry Street has been impacted by the recent storm that hit, which has been getting stronger and stronger and occurring more and more often. As a town, I really hope that we can be more proactive in investing in coastal resilience. I do know that Mrs. Stelios spoke on this before, right?

That we need to have a block on it, people in the town, on what we need. And along with beaches, which have been suffering, I believe that these walls are something that we need to investigate in, look into more about how to raise them, look into how to improve the walkways so that these streets also don't get damaged, the houses don't get damaged, that they are along with businesses. I know that the docks, the dock, May Dock, for all I've heard, which is something that's big for this town, that needs to be part of the program as well.

So I guess I just want to be one of the voices to help urge that along with King's Beach, Fisherman's Beach, and getting to Homestead, that we need to keep in mind that the water is rising and we can't fall behind, because if we fall behind, we will sink down with the water. So we need to keep this in mind, keep this on the top list. We are a seacoast, and we definitely need to look into grants, especially grants that have been worked on in Boston, which help protect a lot of the programs out there, and actually these past two storms where they raised the seawall have shown that it has made a difference.

So Sean, I would really suggest to maybe look into what Boston may have done with these seawalls and programs. They probably speak with the mayor down there, and maybe it's something that we could also invest in. Thank you for your time.

I appreciate it.

[Speaker 6] (29:45 - 29:51)
Thank you, Mr. Trusula. Aaron Burdoff?

[Speaker 8] (29:57 - 31:07)
Well, this is Aaron Burdoff from WGBO, District 5. I just want to make a number of reviews for all of the people that have already stated in terms of climate resilience, and support them, and all of those wonderful points about the urgency. And I do want to just look forward to working on and just coming up with new things that we're looking into, or just to seek action as soon as possible.

I think there is urgency in what's being said, and that's certainly important. And that's one of the things that's worth attention to, what we're trying to do in terms of saving King's Beach. You know, turns out the people that come out that are going to pursue a community of climate, I want you to think about how high the sea level is going to fall, how much it's going to wobble there, let alone how strong it's going to be.

And how often that area, for instance, if you reach your hands, is it highly extensionable, do you think you can have the water seepage at any time? So, again, I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

[Speaker 6] (31:10 - 31:12)
Thank you, Mr. Berdoff.

[Speaker 1] (31:16 - 31:26)
All right. Mr. Chairman, I think you mentioned to me that at an upcoming meeting you intended to have an agenda item. Yeah.

So maybe just now is a good time while people are here.

[Speaker 6] (31:26 - 32:16)
Yeah. So we will, on February the 7th, we have invited the Harbor and Waterfront Advisory Committee, as well as the Climate Action Plan Committee, to present to the select board. So I know the town administrator and myself are working with the chairs of those committees to pull together some presentation material.

So I urge all of you to attend and continue the advocacy for coastal resiliency and climate action. So I look forward to that conversation in two weeks. Thanks.

All right. We'll move on. We're going to move on to discussion and possible vote on municipal elections and the Votes Act requirements.

That's Jared LaLiberté, our town clerk.

[Speaker 3] (32:17 - 32:17)
Are we skipping him, Warren?

[Speaker 6] (32:18 - 32:26)
We're going to go there first, since this is one of the items within the line, Doug. Really not.

[Speaker 1] (32:27 - 32:29)
Topically, yes, but not really.

[Speaker 19] (32:31 - 32:31)
Yeah.

[Speaker 4] (32:36 - 38:59)
Thank you very much. I did this presentation a few years ago for the majority of the board on just I'm going to update about what's changed since the Votes Act for the new members and quickly just talk about the local election and what I would like to do for early voting. In June of 2022, Governor Baker signed the Votes Act, which made a number of changes to the way, especially early voting and vote by mail is done in the state of Massachusetts, basically changing a bunch of deadlines and requiring early voting for all state elections and state primaries, allowing the making it so it's the select board's decision to to assign police detail, though this can be delegated. So I'm not going to go into too much detail about any of that, but you have the PowerPoints. If anyone has any questions you can feel free to ask.

But basically now for the March 5th will be our first election, which would be the presidential primary with the March 5th election. We are required to have early voting on six hours on on the weekend and be open all business hours for early voting to the general public for us. That basically means I will do six hours on Saturday, the 24th and then the the hours that we are normally open to public, which is eight to five Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and then eight to seven on it's seven on Wednesdays as the day town that the town hall is openly.

That is the requirements under the state law, which obviously is what we default to. I'm currently working with the finance director for the upcoming budget to hopefully get a few more hours to make sure that all hours are covered and hopefully expanded a little bit in the, during the, for the increased demand during the fall elections. But for now, that is the presidential primary, which does not need a vote that defaults to what the state tells us to do.

But for the local elections, there was no requirements still. However, given the climate and the desire of people to vote, I am here tonight to propose that we do allow early voting, which would be a vote of the select board to allow early voting in person at the town office buildings. I have a couple different scenarios that I have worked up that have a few different options for you to mull over and decide which one you would, if any, you think would be appropriate for us.

So basically we can do up to 17 days beforehand. You can do up to 17 days beforehand and must end two days prior to, so that's the Friday prior to our elections because we have Tuesday elections. So what I've worked up just because I think it's best to do it as close to the election as possible.

That's what is most on people's minds when candidates are really pushing and running and getting people out to vote. That's when people think about it is when it's coming close to the election. I don't want to do it too far in advance just because I think it won't have as good of a turnout.

So I'm proposing the Saturday the 20th to Friday the 26th and basically I have sort of, yeah, so option one would be basically the same thing we are doing for the presidential primary with an extra day on Friday. Oh, sorry. Yeah.

With an extra day on Friday, a half a day on Friday for people to vote. So that would be six days of early voting in about 48 hours. This would give people a number of different opportunities.

Obviously everyone's schedule is different, but having that Saturday for six hours that also coincides with when we would be in any ways for the last day to register to vote. Um, so my office would be there anyways. So that allows people to register to vote if they want to, as well as early vote, um, which able to do at the same time as long as before the deadline to register.

The second option, uh, would be some additional late night hours on Monday and Wednesday to allow, uh, additional opportunities for people who work a nine to five job to get in for a chance to vote. Um, so that's an additional four hours on top of that. And then finally would be a late night every night.

Um, basically running eight to eight. Um, as you can see the money is nominally more expensive for them. Uh, I suggest, um, option one, just from the standpoint of, um, you know, the clerk's office in order to run, run this, uh, and to, um, uh, I think it's the most, yes, the money is not that much more, but also, um, it is more, um, sort of work on the clerk's office.

I think number one and number one would allow us to be open for when people can be there. It has the Saturday hours. It has the Friday hours.

It has the normal hours were there, which still allows us to do the other sort of, um, legal obligations we have with securing the ballots at the end of the night. Cause we are still there for several hours after all that. I think that's the best option.

We're still allowing the flexibility for people to get in on various days. And I think hopefully, um, we'll help increase voter turnout, which we have seen dip over the past couple of years as we, the first year we kind of do, uh, early voting for local elections. I hope we'll that along with an aggressive, um, sort of, uh, information campaign to the public.

We'll hopefully bring up and, uh, get more people to vote in what is a very important election though. A lot of people, um, uh, sometimes I'm aware of that, which my office has been trying to do more about lately to make people aware of what's going on the ballot and make ease of access.

[Speaker 5] (39:00 - 39:13)
Um, so the two days that the election, the early voting must end two days before the election.

[Speaker 4] (39:13 - 39:14)
Yes.

[Speaker 5] (39:14 - 39:16)
Business days to business days in either scenario.

[Speaker 4] (39:17 - 39:36)
Yes. And no matter when it has to end two days before two business days before. So for us having a Tuesday election, it's the same as like a general election or anything else.

It's the Friday. I double checked at the state because the wording to me was a bit trained to business days. I didn't even know if they went to full business days.

No, but it's going to end on the Friday by the end of the day.

[Speaker 5] (39:36 - 39:44)
Okay. Just because it would seem like that Saturday before voting might be, you know, yeah, I just want to make sure you can't do it.

[Speaker 4] (39:44 - 39:47)
Yeah. I asked just to make sure, but yeah.

[Speaker 5] (39:47 - 39:47)
No.

[Speaker 4] (39:49 - 40:09)
Um, should we do a, should we do a motion on that or you might be, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm all set with my, uh, uh, so I'd write them. Chair would entertain a motion to, uh, approve one of the three options that we'll put in front of you. Okay.

Questions or comments. Yeah. Question.

[Speaker 7] (40:09 - 40:20)
I have a couple of questions on these different, um, scenarios. Are you, are you forecasting or do you have any idea what type of an increase you can get by?

[Speaker 4] (40:21 - 40:43)
I, I'm not, I'm not sure other crooks I've talked to kind of anecdotally tell me a couple of percentage points, which I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but given what typically around 13 to 15, 13 to 15%, I'm hoping it gets up to more like 20% by this, but that's a best guess. That's Mary Ellen.

[Speaker 7] (40:43 - 41:13)
So I'm looking at this and on the, if you're recommending, you're recommending option one, it looks like you've closed at five o'clock each day except for Wednesday. And I'm just thinking, why don't we just go to option three? Cause the difference in price is what $500.

And it would give people an opportunity to come in and vote after work that that gives it to them until eight o'clock. To me, that seems like, you know, it seems to me like the best option.

[Speaker 4] (41:14 - 41:52)
It's definitely the most time for people to vote. I agree with you, Mary Ellen. Additional money.

It's, it's not much in my eyes, but my budget is rather tight. So I'm trying to just be cognizant as you know, for my own office's budget. Now, like I say, in the cost variance slide, sometimes people work with senior tax workup, but I plan that no one takes senior tax work off credit just so I know the most I will spend in that time period.

So these numbers may actually go down a bit if more people take, which I do have some people, but I don't ever want to assume that people are going to take senior tax work off credit. So it's kind of tough to know.

[Speaker 3] (41:53 - 41:59)
I also heard you say that it might be a little bit difficult to staff all these hours in option three.

[Speaker 4] (41:59 - 42:49)
That is, there's always a problem. I feel like I can, but again, I don't know. Early voting comes with a little bit more.

I'm not through that. A lot of my poll workers book out specifically election days. Like at the start of the year, I get emails at the start of the year.

Like what are my elections this year with something new coming up? I'm not always positive, but it will be staffed. Even if it's my office staffing it and not volunteers, like we will have it staffed or whatever you decide, but it's always a kind of toss up.

I have unfortunately lost a few poll workers over the years, two years I've been here just because of age or retirement from poll working, but we have been getting more and more. Jody Watts and I have been working to increase things. So I think I'll, I think I'll be fine, but you never know.

[Speaker 1] (42:52 - 43:22)
So I'm, I'm, I'm squarely with Mary Ellen on this. I just think this is a fundamental cornerstone that we should be, as a community, make it unequivocally clear that we are going to maximize the amount of time and we're going to make it as easy as humanly possible for every single resident to come out and vote in a few minutes. I think we're going to talk about some more in articles and we'll talk more about town voting.

Jared's right. 13% in our last election, 16% average over the last 17 years or seven years.

[Speaker 3] (43:23 - 43:36)
Right. But the question is like, is being open a couple more nights late really, is that really what's going to move the needle or is it really, we should be thinking about something different if we really are focused on well, in a few minutes, we're going to think about something different.

[Speaker 1] (43:36 - 43:39)
Cause we're going to do it, but I'm saying for me as to hours.

[Speaker 3] (43:39 - 43:39)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (43:39 - 44:09)
Yes. This is an, and since we do very little to begin with now, and this is solely within our control, I agree with Mary Ellen. I think it's a great use of funds and if we've got to throw more resources at it, this is exactly Ron DeSantis paid $1,500 per vote in Iowa.

We can, we can spend $3,000, $2,600 to keep the polls open in Swampscott. So, you know, I just do, I just think this is, this is, we've under invested as a society in this. So I think it's vitally important.

[Speaker 2] (44:10 - 44:26)
So I Peter, I agree with you. I have mentioned a few times to Jared that if his budget doesn't have enough funds in it, we'll cover it. And we will literally make sure that this can happen.

[Speaker 5] (44:28 - 44:57)
Yeah. I think Doug, you make a good point. Like even $500 of spending, it will move the needle.

But I guess like, let's see, it can't hurt. And if it doesn't, then we consider other options next year and we'll have a little bit more of a data to see if it did work. So maybe it will be helpful going forward to understand.

So I think option three as Maryland.

[Speaker 6] (44:58 - 45:45)
Yeah. I want to make it as easy as possible to vote. You know, I, I know that I know that there are many days where I'm, I'm out of the, I'm out of the house before seven o'clock and I'm not home until after five o'clock and having those, those late, those late nights where I can stop by town hall and, and easily cast a ballot in a local election is certainly helpful to me.

And it's certainly going to be helpful to those who are, you know, who are working or just juggling busy, busy lives. So I want to have as many hours of early voting as possible. And that's within our, our, our, our ability to craft policy.

So I would be in that, I would be voting for, you know, schedule three to have his, to have as many hours possible. So I would entertain a motion.

[Speaker 1] (45:46 - 45:52)
I'd make a motion to approve schedule number three, which sets forth a total number of early voting hours of 50 hours.

[Speaker 5] (45:53 - 45:53)
Second.

[Speaker 6] (45:54 - 45:55)
All in favor.

[Speaker 5] (45:55 - 45:56)
Aye.

[Speaker 6] (45:56 - 45:57)
Aye. Aye. Thank you.

[Speaker 5] (45:57 - 46:30)
Jared, if there could be over communication of these hours, I know that's what you're striving for and you continue to always strive for, but we can get them on the town website if we could Sean you could direct town staff to just be emailing it out having it in the newsletter every single Avenue we can and then including the days of voting reposting it to Facebook I know Diane has been keeping tabs on that and making sure that people know day of

[Speaker 4] (46:30 - 47:05)
it's happening that would be helpful I will I will work with everyone in town to make sure it goes out as wide as humanly possible already working with Jody on the newsletter I work with Diane and then also the robocalls the sign everything else I can think of to get it out and I will put it up tomorrow up on the website so it's always humanly possible and then continue to bring it more to the front brought to my attention in the past I'm very well aware of the website but not everyone is I'm trying to keep it on the front page as much as possible

[Speaker 2] (47:23 - 47:30)
yeah anytime we can cross-populate it's a great idea

[Speaker 6] (47:31 - 47:44)
thank you Jared in that same vein we're gonna move on discussion and possible vote on proposed changes to municipal elections and I believe this is going to go to mr.

[Speaker 1] (47:44 - 1:06:14)
Spellio's thanks I think this is actually also taking us into our warrant article a little bit but this is coincidental that Jared's here and now I'm talking because we're talking about very similar topics here and tonight and there's been a lot of talking in the community over the years about just things that we need to do better in terms of voting things that we can just do better both mechanically in town for example things like we have our town meeting immediately after our town election so therefore you have brand-new select board members brand-new town meeting members brand-new planning board members who three weeks after being sworn in are now in charge of a town meeting and and handling a warrant that many of them had nothing to do with since they weren't in office at the time so there's some technical changes tonight I want to and in our in our articles with the help of Lauren Goldberg at KP Law there's there's two suggested warrant articles that are all that are both related a little bit technical but really it's about the goal of increasing turnout in municipal elections you want to put that up sorry thank you almost like Jared and I worked on the slide together so this just gives you a flavor of the last seven years of municipal elections and the turnout in Swampscott I'm going to talk more about turnout later on but just to start with this one out of six registered voters in Swampscott's voted in 2022 one out of six registered voters which is by the way one out of eight people in our town when we take all people that's who's making all the decisions that's who is actually deciding who sits here who sits a town meeting who sits in the planning board I had a conversation earlier with with someone about the zoning board we appoint the zoning board right but only one out of six residents are the ones making these votes and it's especially difficult now that we're also losing local media right and so when we talk about how to get word out social media is increasingly where you get word out but social media is not nearly accurate or predictable or consistent and and I think there are some some issues with relying on social media and the good will when it is goodwill of others just to spread words about it next slide please next slide so in our Warren article there's some time suggesting some after talking with the town the town moderator we had a good meeting with the town clerk and the town administrator and town council about some technical changes but also some not-so-technical changes the first is going to be changing the order of events so that the town election happens after the annual town meeting this will be consistent with most communities if Marblehead's an example of that who doesn't write their election is weeks after their annual town election that allows just for more I think continuity through town meeting and doesn't cause a lot of distraction frankly of bringing new members in and doing things just before town meeting so number two next one is to change our town election date Tuesdays are a bygone error of when we had Tuesdays as the day to do it and you can read any accounts many accounts of why Tuesdays were ever picked by anyone across the country to do voting Monday was too soon after the weekend you needed to give farmers a chance to tend to the farms and so therefore Mondays were never seemed to be a good day because they had to make up for lost time and so Tuesdays were it before us anyways in the Warren article is a proposal to have elections over two days both weekend days both and would be the first consecutive Saturday and Sunday in June the important parts are to make it more available for individuals and that do not work normal hours some work seven days a week some work Saturday some don't work Saturdays we also want to take in consideration religious affiliations and so therefore instead of choosing one weekend day it's to have them open both weekend days I think this sends a really clear message that this is a priority for us that this is important for us and it's not going to replace the need to get out the word about elections and talk about elections and encourage elections but it's certainly going to start sending a very strong message about it number three is exactly what Jared was talking about what but what I'm going to propose and what's in the Warren article is actually codifying the requirement that for local elections the clerk does not need to keep coming back every year to the select board to say do you want to do early elections I think it's important enough topic that this shouldn't be a debatable thing early election should be in our town charter and we should make it very difficult for anyone to restrict the availability and and of elections and so therefore in essence what Jared proposed tonight in which I really appreciate his his strength integrity about voting and how strong he feels about it I'm suggesting that we put this in charter so that therefore it is the rule it is the law in Swampscott unless a charter change in the future is approved by town meeting is approved by the legislature and someone goes through that extreme hardship to start scaling back voting opportunities and then four is a on this one here is a technical thing and and so if we have a town meeting study committee and there's been conversations and I've had conversations with the moderator about some just interesting things that happen in our town one of the byproducts of not having high turnout is at times we don't have a large number of candidates and increasingly in the recent years in the seven years that I just showed you we have an increase every year of vacancies on town meeting which great so you easily solve I'm gonna write in my niece I'm gonna write in my I'm gonna write in my neighbor I'm gonna run my wife but interestingly enough what's happened is increasingly people don't even know that they're elected because they didn't volunteer to be written in and so we've actually had the situation where people have said I didn't ask to be elected and to do it so we've had conversations talked with KP law but what a creative ways to try to synergize this to both address the issue where people are being written in with one vote that don't want to be written in but at the same time trying to activate town meeting to help us fill the memberships and so what this is proposing is if you are today deciding to run for town meeting you have to go and get a nomination paper from the town clerk and you have to get ten residents in your precinct to sign it that's that's the prerequisite to get on the ballot for town wide offices it's 50 but for town meeting members it's 10 and so this is proposing having the same thing for write-in ballots so if you are written in by ten people then you can get in because it's the same so what happens if you don't you still end up with vacancies what it does is it throws it to the precincts each precinct then is the one that's deciding and voting on and soliciting as a precinct to find members to join them and so it kind of calls the citizens to activate to be activists to go out there and say hey we have holes in our membership here we're going to go out and we're going to find the people to to fill these we're going to go to my neighbor and say hey I know you're new to this town but this is this is what town meeting does or hey I know many years ago you did this but you got busy with kids and you got off it can you get back on it and do these things but really the the the goal here is is not only to make sure that people get written in that wanted get written in but also that we start activating town meeting members that do show up and that do volunteer their times to help us fill these voids because that creates greater buy-in by all town meeting members when they're part of the solution of filling those vacancies so those vacancies aren't filled somewhat arbitrarily that they're filled with some discussions and and and some forethought by individual town meeting members so that's the first tranche of what I'm going to call I guess voting reforms and things that I think are important here in Swampscope but make no mistake about it you can go and check the voting turnout in any community in Massachusetts you can go in Kansas you can go in Nebraska you can go anywhere and I think you're gonna find the same trends and this topic is not just about making sure that people feel representative in town government it's not about just making sure the best people run or the best people win it's it's not about just Swampscott this is certainly a bigger topic but I think every town like Swampscott needs to start doing their part to advance these conversations so procedurally just everyone knows this is a charter change so what does that mean it means that town meeting has to approve it has to go to the legislature legislature has to prove it in the governor has to prove it that's just how Massachusetts does things with charter changes so it's not an easy process and it will take some time next slide Diane please and so what does that mean is it's certainly not going to affect 2024 the language in the Warren article specifically makes clear that effective date would be the earlier of January 1 of 25 or the date I sorry the later of January 1 25 or the date the legislature approves the home rule petition so it wouldn't in any circumstance take effect before the municipal election in 2025 assuming the legislature has taken action on this by that time it's hard to tell how quick they'll take action or not on these changes they have approved somewhat similar home rule petitions for other communities but again every town kind of is a bit different so that's Warren article the first Warren article next slide please the second Warren article is one that I want to go back to data again for a minute because I started by talking about what's the percentage of Swampscot turnout is and and how embarrassingly low that is and how it's not getting better it's getting worse but I also want to talk about trends and I also want to talk about where some of where I believe some of our problems and I think many believe some of our problems are being exacerbated and where some of the fixes are so if you look at just Swampscot voting records these stats are Swampscot in federal elections for the last 50 years Swampscot has fallen off about 2.3 percent not bad over 50 years basically if you kind of smooth out the trends of it federal election turnout by Swampscot registered voters has only gone down by 2.3 percent next slide please state elections a little bit worse over that same 50 year period we've fallen off by about 8 percent again not unusual I think very easily we could replace Swampscot with Marblehead we could replace Marblehead with Louisville Kentucky we could you know I believe these are these are trends that are not anomalies for us but the one I really want to talk about is the next slide Diane which is local elections in the same period and local elections have fallen off disproportionately and I find that hugely ironic because local elections are about local government and local government is where most people have the greatest opportunities to touch and feel the impacts of government have the greatest impact to influence what government does for them and every day of their lives they experience the results of the decision that we make in municipal government so it's disappointing and concerning the drastic you know decline has happened but it's even more concerning here in Swampscot because especially over the last 10 years we probably had one of the most active 10 years we've probably done more things in the last 10 years than we did in 40 years before that but yet in this 10 year period our voting has declined it has accelerated the decline so even in a town that has been so active and so involved so many different things we're talking about infrastructure we're talking about resiliency we're talking about schools which I mean it's amazing the number of topics go to other communities and you're not gonna see anything nearly as dynamic but even in a town like us that has so many committees with so many specialized people taking part in volunteering their professional services for us and doing all the things we're doing we're still declining and as an accelerated basis the decreased in voter participation and anemic voter turnout at the local level has created a dangerous void in our understanding and appreciation for the role of a democratically elected government instead it leaves us leaves in place people losing faith in our government being cynical being skeptical and losing their belief in democracy due primarily to the fact that all they see and all they witness is what they see on social media and in the media about political gridlock inactivity and extreme partisanship that has overtaken Washington DC in many state capitals in light of this reality it's essential that we welcome more voters locally and get more people involved locally to help educate people and to help give them real life experiences about the importance of a democratically elected government in the coming weeks and you can go to the next slide please to go to go to next one yeah right there in the coming weeks a group will be talking with juniors and seniors in high school and having a discussion with them in the month of February about whether or not swamps that should grow should be added to the list of growing number of communities asking the state for permission to allow sixteen-year-olds and seventeen-year-olds to vote in local elections I believe it's critical that we invite them into this dialogue and that we have the conversation we have the opportunity to have these young people make up for the irresponsible problems that us old people have created by not voting in talking to these young people we're going to be doing it in classrooms we're going to be doing it while they're surrounded by advisors by history teachers by civic teachers by professionals that can help them be introduced into the importance of voting when where why and how so they don't leave high school without ever being part of the experiment they're actually in high school being schooled about the importance of the experiment and they have active involvement while they're here in our school system so that they can come to appreciate why is it important why you should want to vote in a local election because you don't want the AP biology class cut why you need to vote in a local election because you are sick and tired of the Phillips Park field having holes in it why you want to vote in a local election because you are sick and tired of the fact that your street has never been paid the issues go on and on and they are real-life examples that get by when we see results when we see the impacts of government we believe in government more the problem is the only place people are seeing it right now is at the local level but with the decrease of voter turnout and the decrease of local papers we aren't witnessing it as much so people have now associated with government with do nothing and do nothing means voting doesn't matter and that is the exact opposite of the truth so the second article before us both allows 16 and 17 year olds to vote in Swanscott elections point of interest 1972 it actually took a referendum the legislature didn't do it took a referendum to get the legislature to decrease it from 21 years old voting age to 18 years old it passed overwhelmingly not surprisingly and then the second part about this is hey if we're gonna tell you you can vote you can also run we all know examples of kids students that that actually sit on committees we've appointed them to committees that have done more work than many adults on committees that you know you're thinking of who I'm thinking of and and we know we also know not not every kid but we also know that not every adult but we don't restrict that do we and and we certainly can come up with examples there so and next slide please I'm sorry I mentioned this is going to join other communities in a second I'll talk about the procedure the procedure just like the other Warren article requires us to go to the legislature requires us to get permission to do this but we're going to be joining communities like Boston Somerville Concord in Northampton Southboro that have all already petitioned the legislature to allow this happen there's also a number of bills pending in the legislature that for statewide asking the voting age to be changed so why would we do this if the legislature hasn't done it and why wouldn't we just add our voice to along another list and have it another bill and ask our state rep to champion and our state senator because I think it matters I think they haven't been approved and so there's no community messages right now that can vote below 18 there are Brattleboro Vermont you can there are other communities across the country but those haven't been approved I think it's important that that list gets longer I think it's important that that the legislature again we're a home rule state and and the legislature keeps really tight control on what municipalities can do on their own I think it's vitally important that we work to add to this list and show the importance and show that we want to do it next slide please so I mentioned this is requires town meeting approval in a home rule petition by the legislature the last thing I want to leave with because I think it's really important is to repeat what I said earlier about what we're going to be doing in the month of February I really appreciate the superintendent I appreciate the principal in the high school and their eagerness and excitement to engage in this dialogue and to invite the dialogue into the high school in the month of February to ask the kids to have a conversation with the students those 16 and 17 year olds that we're talking about what do you think about it what are the pros what are the cons and then also use as an opportunity to start talking about what government does right to contextualize the decision so that when we get to town meeting they have informed us they've given us some feedback we're working on it such that the feedback and the questions and the comments by students will be available and shared publicly so that people will be able to perhaps watch some of that experiment in democracy in that discussion about democracy that will happen through the month of February with that I'm happy to take questions but that is all I have thanks Peter questions from the board comments I mean

[Speaker 6] (1:06:14 - 1:08:21)
I have a few so no Peter you would you had posted the voter turnout for the last several elections and you didn't read those numbers and I just I just want to I just want to spell those out because I looked those up today as well 2023 voter turnout 13.8 percent 2022 voter turnout 16.2 percent 2021 voter turnout 19 percent 2020 voter turnout local elections 17 percent 2019 voter turnout 22 percent 2018 voter turnout nine and a half percent average for six years 16.3 percent so you have one out of every six voters making these decisions and I think just by having by us by the fact that the select board is having this conversation tonight you know we're bringing voting you know to the fore so I really I really encourage these you know these opportunities to to say hey what can we do as a town what can we do as a Commonwealth to to make it easier to vote early make it easier to vote on Election Day but also how do we you know how do we engage our our young citizens how do we how do we encourage them to be involved the earlier you vote the more likely you are to vote as an adult what some of my earliest memories are going into going to our local polling place in Louisiana with my parents and and voting and using those using a variety of really old voting machines with knobs and I thought it was just completely fascinating but you know it set me on a trajectory where you know as soon as I turned 18 I was so excited to vote you know in in local state and national elections and that's just my experience so you know Peter certainly thank you for for putting that presentation together and I'd certainly

[Speaker 5] (1:08:21 - 1:10:24)
be interested to hear from from others I mean I think it's not surprising that all of us likely have a similar story as David or we wouldn't be active in local politics right I mean obviously we had something that each affected us in a way that brought us here to this table and for the folks sitting here you all I'm sure as well have some sort of personal touch point that makes local politics important to you whether it is just you understand its significance in your daily life and your family and your community or you know you have a personal connection and you know it's always been important what one of the things I can appreciate that's on the table is the Saturday and Sunday voting because one of the things that my husband and all my husband I always try to do is to take our kids with us to vote to understand that in order to be a member of this community you must be an active member of this community and that means you've got to put in some work and voting day is actually the probably the easiest day to do the work right because you just go in and you have an opinion but it's part of the contract you have to be a member of this town and anything we can do to to sort of ignite that flame earlier to understand that these young citizens are not just kids who are told what to do but have a voice in the process I think it's a fantastic social experiment that will provide us I think with a lot of very interesting data and is well worth the push to see to become part of these communities to see what kind of wonderful things come from it so you know I wholeheartedly agree that this is a worthwhile so I

[Speaker 7] (1:10:24 - 1:11:52)
think it is really interesting why people are choosing to not vote and you know I've said it during the campaign and many people know that I've lived in Eastern Bloc countries for a long time so I've lived in areas where people didn't have the opportunity to vote and it always amazes me why why people don't want to why people don't go out and exercise their their privilege to vote and I often ask people why and I'm still interested in why but recently I did ask somebody why they didn't vote and he actually said do you really want me to vote if I don't follow anything and I don't really know what's going on do you want me do you really want my vote and I thought well that's pretty interesting maybe I don't want your vote if you don't follow things so but I think changing the times and trying to make it as convenient as possible and maybe running some transportation for seniors or people who you know don't have transportation things like that that might make a big difference too I think the the thought of 16 and 17 year olds voting I work with many 16 and 17 year olds so I would have to really think that one through and get a better understanding of it but I would like to know more from people why they why they choose not to vote.

[Speaker 6] (1:11:53 - 1:11:58)
Thanks Mary Ellen. Doug any for your thoughts?

[Speaker 3] (1:11:59 - 1:13:19)
It's hard to top all that you know voting is great so tonight what we're really doing here is deciding whether or not something this is segues into the warrant right deciding whether or not it's going to be on the warrant and then we have a subsequent meeting to talk about whether or not we're actually where the select board is supporting it right is that the process yeah okay so I think these are all great things to you know have on the warrant to get to the meat of it I'm not necessarily sure about one or two of them whether how I feel about I need to think about a little bit more the 16 and 17 year old voting and and running for office definitely support that but a couple others I just want to think through a little bit more but appreciate the effort and putting this together and and raising the questions for sure it does raise another question for me which is we we solicited a lot of other charter change information from committees and I'm not really sure like was this part of the only thing that came of this or there was still outstanding this is independent of it

[Speaker 1] (1:13:19 - 1:13:30)
this is specifically limited just to election stuff as a policy thing not really the holistic charter change you I don't know where that stands in terms of

[Speaker 6] (1:13:30 - 1:13:39)
reviewing that yeah yeah I need that I need to work on that with the I just

[Speaker 5] (1:13:39 - 1:15:36)
have a follow-up to something Mary Ellen said and I don't want to sort of go too far down this rabbit hole but I sort of just want to touch on the stigma of being an educated voter and I think everybody's definition of being an educated voter is different right and you know you want to some people think you have to know the candidates you have to know the issues you have to know you know a certain amount of knowledge to get out there and vote and I sort of have a chicken-and-the-egg thought when when I come to this which is you know maybe that's true initially that you hesitate to vote because you don't have the information but maybe voting in that election gets you to become a more informed voter going forward maybe you feel like when your vote counts or you feel like you've ownership in it it puts you in a better position in future elections to be a more active participant to be more engaged to understand how your vote meant something maybe it inspires people to become more active so I don't that is why I don't hesitate to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote I am NOT concerned they vote the same as me I would it would be great if they didn't because we'd have a hundred thousand more ideas on the table to discuss and I'm not putting those words in your mouth I'm just saying that as an observation to me I think it's exciting to allow them the space to think they have a voice and then now what can they do with it and I don't want us to stifle the idea that they can't have it because they have to meet some sort of threshold of what it means to be an informed voter

[Speaker 1] (1:15:36 - 1:18:58)
so thanks Cody I totally agree with you but I appreciate that that idea is out there right and but I just it's it from and we've all said jokingly well the ill-informed voters the one that doesn't agree with me but the but I mean that's that's the simplest thing that you see most times right but but the truth is we we need people to vote because this isn't about any specific politics or party or or belief system what it's about is that buy into the system is what we are losing which is why we are literally talking about democracy versus autocracy it's literally why we're talking about the fact that we're talking about is crazy but we're talking about it because people have lost faith in the system and they've lost faith in the system because they've stopped seeing government do things and they've lost their understanding of what government can do and the generations that saw big action by government or specific actions by government they're aging and we now are bringing up and then we have the middle tier and we've been living in this gridlock and now we're all bringing up a next generation who are also going to live in this if we don't actively recognize that we've got to correct the system to whatever and politically it doesn't matter if you're right you're left your center you're for you're against it's not the point at all it's this is simply about a good functioning democracy and a local at the local level where we're seeing the biggest drop-off which is staggering it's the easiest one to hook people into government because Katie's absolutely right and David like I'm here because my mom was the president of the PTO right I never thought about it when I was young but now that I hear I'm like what why would I ever do this and like oh my god cuz my mom was the first one to raise her hand volunteer for things right you know more your kids are gonna run for office why because you care and like you show up things your kids I mean they see you right and I know your kids and so they're going to right and so they're they're going to and but I mean that's that's the beauty of it that they see that but that's not everywhere and increasingly just without local papers talking about government and without that that connection to government that oh my god I don't like the size of my trash barrel I can affect the change right that kind of direct connectivity it's not going to change the world but it's gonna change that person's perspective and that's a building block that we're losing so I appreciate everybody's willingness to entertain the conversation I'm excited about the conversation that we're gonna have in February with the students and I'll report back and I think we're doing it in a format that will allow it to be shared because I I'm really excited about it I mean I've asked my 16 year old and he started that why would you ever let me vote and he's slowly evolving to saying hey actually especially today because he had to put his cell phone in a locked pouch at the high school he's actually thinking you might want to be on school committee so he can get a cell phone back but that's the point right we've been engaging that and saying well you don't like putting your cell phone in that pouch how did that decision how is that decision made it was made by the superintendent not the school committee but who who hires the superintendent who does the superintendent report to and this is politics it's government and so anytime we can engage them I'm excited about it so thank you very much for considering the topic thanks all right so we're

[Speaker 6] (1:18:58 - 1:19:07)
gonna move on now to opening of the special town meeting warrant of March 11 2024 including review discussion and votes on articles for inclusion in the

[Speaker 2] (1:19:07 - 1:19:35)
warrant great thank you David this is the first draft of a special town meeting warrant Pete Kane is online here and he's gonna step us through the table of contents and we can talk a little more about the board's desires to include any of these or additional articles

[Speaker 6] (1:20:17 - 1:21:07)
or articles no we don't we don't need to talk language today let's just let's just look at the article okay let's stop there and let's stop there and let's and let's kick it to the

[Speaker 1] (1:21:07 - 1:21:28)
board for questions or comments so my understanding is that the first the first three I sorry the first two articles are there the school articles that we previously didn't do at the at the fall special and because we specifically said we're gonna special thank you and those those numbers those

[Speaker 6] (1:21:28 - 1:21:35)
dollar amounts the 186 001 in article 1 and 26 4 4 5 those are those are set in

[Speaker 2] (1:21:35 - 1:21:58)
stone those are set you know our director of finance administration in the school finance director have been reconciling those numbers and I would expect that you know if there's any adjustment we can make that you know but right now those are the numbers that they've agreed to yeah thanks wait so

[Speaker 3] (1:21:58 - 1:22:05)
what is the number on there 31 this is 186 001 number one it's up in the text

[Speaker 1] (1:22:05 - 1:23:13)
all right it's in the comment can I just ask that we had a moving target I don't think so I think I'll fix some okay but we let's confirm make sure but I think to fix some there my understanding if we can just the sometimes the the side the the nitty-gritty of these kind of gets lost into the last minute but sponsored by things or that would for example I'm just gonna use the example where mr.

Lehman talked about the one about the historical funds but it says sponsored by it's already in here but none of us know who why and and again it's a suggestion right now meaning who sponsored it right and so for example this one says sponsored by the Finance Committee but I don't think the Finance Committee is gonna sponsor it the sponsor the Finance Committee is gonna move it that's not sponsoring it that's different right sure I believe it's either the select board the town administrator the school committee is probably gonna be the one sponsoring this because it's a school article and then the Finance Committee moves it but they typically aren't the ones that sponsor articles and so just if we can just focus on those sooner so that we're not rushing understood whatever

[Speaker 6] (1:23:13 - 1:23:19)
night yep okay so can we just have the school committee sponsor articles one

[Speaker 2] (1:23:19 - 1:23:23)
actually you know frankly this is something I I'm happy to recommend okay

[Speaker 1] (1:23:23 - 1:23:51)
that's great thank you can I just ask that we just asked the school department to read the comments in one and two to make sure the comments are accurate in their standpoint just because there's no way I would know but there and just

[Speaker 5] (1:23:51 - 1:24:12)
sure school related things any questions comments on three or four so then who

[Speaker 1] (1:24:12 - 1:25:26)
would sponsor article four thank you can we talk about that article for a second I mean I just I'm interested so I heard what the sources but I'm not sure what the revolving count is for historical so I guess I just need some more background on that and I heard something that I just didn't know was true and I don't have an opinion at the moment but fines don't necessarily accrue we collect fines all the time they don't go to the building department to go to the zoning board when there's fines there so I just general fun so yeah they go to the general fund so I just I just want to understand two things I just want to understand when a fine comes in to a commission of board the concom has a fine does it go to their revolving account yeah that's historical does it go to a revolving account I mean I'm just making sure I understand that and then the second thing I just do want to understand is we're if it goes through evolving count and then someone it's their their money that committee's money I don't that is what it is I don't need to understand it but if it doesn't and this is discretionary then I guess then I would ask the question what are we using the money for because then it feels like we are taking something that's in the general fund and moving it for a purpose but if it's something that goes into revolving count automatically because that's the way it works then then that's a totally I'm good with that this does

[Speaker 2] (1:25:26 - 1:26:10)
not this is the first time I think we've actually levied a fine and yeah and so I had a conversation with the chair of the historic Commission about frankly the amount of the fine a few months ago I was kind of surprised frankly it was just 25,000 I thought it should have been significantly higher but but that's not that's the I know that's not the conversation but I guess you know I would recommend that the historic Commission be allowed to utilize these funds to advance some of the priorities of the historic Commission it seems as though we have a commission that has a lot of historic properties that we have to take

[Speaker 1] (1:26:10 - 1:26:33)
care of and no no I appreciate that can you just focus I just want if you can just answer the technical question for me which is what is the historic historical Commission's revolving account and what is the source that funds that if there's a revolving no no I'm not asking what the cap is guys I'm asking I'm asking the mechanics

[Speaker 19] (1:26:33 - 1:26:58)
of these are two different things that John I mean maybe so that that was my

[Speaker 1] (1:26:58 - 1:27:45)
understanding because I remember there was a conversation less than a year ago where we talked about the amount of that a cap on that because they wanted to do more robust fundraising and I so I that that's consistent with my memory of it so just again I'm not I don't know what it's but now we're for the first time we're taking something that would otherwise fall to the general fund like building violation fees like blighted property fees like zoning penalties and we're just we're putting it over there which again I may be totally fine with I just it feels like we should understand then are we setting a new policy that every fine from the historical Commission's going into this revolving account because up to now it's there's never been a fine and it's been donations used for donations and just I just want to be clear on that

[Speaker 3] (1:27:45 - 1:28:23)
because it feels yeah I haven't made any there's two separate things here I believe John can add to this but I don't I don't think in progress I misunderstood but it wasn't necessarily that the 25,000 was you're asking for it go into the revolving fund I think the language here was about 25,000 and then you were suggesting something additional about the cap on the revolving fund where this 25,000 goes per se I didn't necessarily understand that to be going into the revolving fund yeah I don't believe it's going to the

[Speaker 2] (1:28:23 - 1:28:28)
revolving fund either it was a request to actually allocate this these funds and I

[Speaker 1] (1:28:28 - 1:28:33)
apologize if I have conflated the two topics it's but I'm glad we're having a

[Speaker 9] (1:28:33 - 1:29:55)
conversation it's that's correct this particular amount is already spoken for if approved to go towards Glover's so it would not need to go into the revolving fund unless temporarily we are looking at our bylaws as a separate item and in conjunction with that the the cap on the revolving fund because this is the first fund that we've ever levy in the history of the Commission we don't have a mechanism for putting this money into historic preservation which is something that we're going to propose for approval outside of this so our feeling is that fines of this sort and we we hope to not collect too many we hope that we improve compliance but to the extent that we collect a fine we want that money to go towards historic preservation so that's something that we will be proposing in conjunction with the bylaw revision we're looking at a number of things separate from this and and that's why this particular provision addresses only Glover because that's something that that's happening right

[Speaker 7] (1:29:55 - 1:30:08)
now but do you have an actual invoice like where does the money actually go do you have an invoice that it's going towards or like why wouldn't we have we

[Speaker 9] (1:30:08 - 1:30:48)
have a number of expenses depending on the direction what if if we should move the building intact or take it apart that sort of thing so it will go towards that we actually have some invoices Amy I know yeah one is for the the the macros the the research that was done on the history by by an expert so that's that's one that comes to mind Amy would certainly know of others but you really

[Speaker 1] (1:30:48 - 1:31:10)
mean proposals for work moving forward because it can't be invoices of things already accrued because there was no appropriation you're talking he said I think Mary Ellen's more specifically meaning like proposals for do you have you already identified a scope of work a proposal for whatever it is for $25,000 or five of them that equals $25,000 that has specifically been identified that the Historical Commission if this money was here tomorrow would sign the

[Speaker 9] (1:31:10 - 1:31:22)
go do this $25,000 worth yeah it's a work in progress certainly the expenses will will well exceed that we have fundraising going on separately but yeah

[Speaker 2] (1:31:22 - 1:31:44)
if you're looking for a specific invoice there's a scope of work I received last week for $29,000 from structures north to support an RFP to preserve the elements of the building well what you know that that's certainly something that could be supported through the use of some of these dollars well why

[Speaker 7] (1:31:44 - 1:31:51)
wouldn't we just put an article in to increase the revolving account and then that money just goes into the revolving account and then there's no I think

[Speaker 2] (1:31:51 - 1:32:18)
there's an urgency in terms of time you know the property is under some pressure for redevelopment and so I think there's a sense that what the Historic Commission the Glover we're looking to allocate $25,000 of fine revenue to support efforts to yeah I understand that I'm just I'm just wondering

[Speaker 7] (1:32:18 - 1:32:23)
mechanically how does this how it gets moved like where it's just

[Speaker 3] (1:32:38 - 1:32:58)
okay and then because as John said earlier it's like because the 25,000 that came in can't really be credited until the DOR certification next year so you're really taking free cash right now to kind of seize that money now but then kind of recouping it later but I think I don't know that Mary Ellen and I agree

[Speaker 1] (1:32:58 - 1:33:36)
on the conclusion but this does seem like a lot of mental gymnastics going on here and it seems again something that I haven't seen before so it's it's we're gonna put free cash to pay something in and we're gonna put it in their general operating line item which I haven't heard that used before as a concept and we're not gonna put it in their revolving account but maybe we're gonna change the revolving accounts that said they're now gonna collect fines and we haven't talked about that for about two seconds I'm just saying there just seems to be a so I guess that was a confusion it's it's here it's here so we just it's

[Speaker 2] (1:33:36 - 1:33:39)
first time I heard that we were doing that was tonight at this meeting well I

[Speaker 1] (1:33:39 - 1:34:38)
mean so I don't think that was suggested no but but but again you've put this in here the draft so I'm just no I think this needs some side discussions and so that way our next meeting when we're talking about this we actually can hone in and because if this is kind of like a capital article right it's it's a report or something like that we would be I play Mary Ellen always asked certain questions like okay where was this on the capital plan what specifically it's going for what's it allocated for it doesn't none of those are dispositive questions it's just background information that we typically want to know if conversely this is something where we're saying and it doesn't seem like it is we want policy change that we're going to increase the cap on the historical Commission's revolving account and from now on all fines would get credited there that's a that's a different conversation right that's and so I think we just need clarity on what we're talking about and what you're and finance team are recommending that we talk about just because finance committee's gonna want to know this too and so we've just got a understood yeah

[Speaker 5] (1:34:38 - 1:34:48)
it would seem like if the money was appropriated it could not at this time without an additional change go into the revolving fund because there is a cap

[Speaker 7] (1:34:48 - 1:35:23)
yeah right so we're not talking about that would have been one Avenue do it but now we're talking about something else so clear as mud we'll get there okay I think I think Amy can just if Amy just makes some clear recommendation I just I think that if we're gonna be increasing the line item you've got to adjust the whole budget okay so we need the mechanics cleaned up it's just a I personally support getting that money over there just want to know how it

[Speaker 6] (1:35:23 - 1:35:27)
works well yeah we'll work on that in the next then the secondary question is

[Speaker 5] (1:35:27 - 1:35:32)
what we were talking about about the increase to the revolving fund but that's

[Speaker 7] (1:35:32 - 1:35:37)
not on the table and I don't want that on the table that's something I'm happy

[Speaker 2] (1:35:37 - 1:35:48)
to talk to the historic Commission about but I certainly think increasing it will give the historic Commission a lot more opportunity to observe some of

[Speaker 3] (1:35:48 - 1:35:52)
these buildings that would that was the idea downside that's a separate thing

[Speaker 19] (1:35:52 - 1:35:57)
that would be ideal because they're I mean they're raising money right now I

[Speaker 7] (1:36:10 - 1:36:18)
just have one question to that is the historic historic Commission trying to raise money right now and they need that

[Speaker 9] (1:36:18 - 1:36:27)
increase right now there is a fundraiser an active one going on for the save save

[Speaker 1] (1:36:27 - 1:36:43)
the Glover campaign so but that's I think been set up to flow yes yeah tax vehicle that they don't it wouldn't come per se to the town exactly there is

[Speaker 3] (1:36:43 - 1:36:53)
an interim solution ideally this would be a change the revolving fund sooner rather than later but there I don't believe it's a crisis yeah now the

[Speaker 9] (1:36:53 - 1:36:58)
annual town meeting that sounds great thank you very much thank you mr.

[Speaker 5] (1:36:58 - 1:37:06)
Lynn moving on mr.

[Speaker 11] (1:37:06 - 1:37:20)
Cain we're still going I'm not aware of

[Speaker 7] (1:37:20 - 1:37:33)
anything I could come up with so why don't we have it in here we're the capital committee hasn't seen anything for capital articles it's just a place

[Speaker 1] (1:37:33 - 1:37:42)
holder you don't you don't that's the town administrator know of anything that you're thinking about that could fill that placeholder and you can see now

[Speaker 2] (1:37:42 - 1:38:07)
that's 25,000 for Glover I think that's in for it is no I understand we're talking about five I know I'm just saying if we're gonna appropriate at 25,000 I would prefer to see it come out of a capital article as opposed to the operating budget so you know what's not coming out of the operating budgets being used free cash it is but Amy has just said that it's gonna come out of

[Speaker 20] (1:38:07 - 1:38:25)
the line item in the gonna go into there gonna go into the line item it's gonna be balanced with something else that's right yeah so I have to I'll have to go back and all right so it sounds like again you need to have this got put in there for an article pretty fast I put in this up put in it 532 we'll fix

[Speaker 3] (1:38:25 - 1:38:35)
it okay well yes we make it seem like it just arose doesn't it doesn't matter we just need let's get it fixed on it

[Speaker 1] (1:38:48 - 1:39:16)
I don't I can't envision anything on on six the Hawthorne eating anything I think so unless anybody I would be fine just leaving that placeholder because I don't think it's needed okay seven seven I do we need to keep that placeholder right now until we over the next few weeks have further conversations on Hadley there may be a need but there very well could not be a need so it doesn't but that's just a placeholder just to keep it keep it open to that

[Speaker 11] (1:39:16 - 1:39:45)
okay Pete yes please okay this is a good one for the town administrators speak to so I've had a

[Speaker 2] (1:39:45 - 1:41:53)
series of discussions over the last year and a half about the discount that we allow the Tedesco Country Club to receive under chapter 61 be this is a piece of Massachusetts general law that allows property owners that have open space to receive significant relief on their property taxes and and frankly given our revenue position given all the complexities with you know a private golf club you know getting tax relief on behalf of every property tax owner in this town I just think this is a and it's just a misuse of the spirit of this legislation there are a number of communities including Belmont and the city of Newton that are are also expressing frustration that golf courses in their communities are taking much-needed property tax revenue this is a hundred and thirty three thousand dollars last year if you compound that over ten years we're out millions and it's all being subsidized by Swansgate taxpayers and and frankly we need those revenues we need those revenues for renewable energy we need those revenues for a more sustainable community we need those revenues to fix our pipes we need those revenues to fix any number of things and and we need it yesterday I I can't stress how important it is for the town to move forward and and have this conversation on Beacon Hill and urge our legislators to end the subsidy for private golf clubs that charge over sixty thousand dollars annually for memberships it's it's just unfair and it's unethical and it needs to change and this is something that it sounded

[Speaker 3] (1:41:53 - 1:42:04)
like this a little bit like the 16 under the 16 and 17 year old votes like this is not something that other communities are trying to do but there's not a precedent gonna be over success so far but we would be joining a club the most

[Speaker 1] (1:42:04 - 1:43:15)
the most recent communities Belmont which is the Belmont Country Club which is one of the most prestigious and it was a citizen petition seeking to have the exemption that Belmont Country Club which has revenue of an excess of twenty million dollars a year lose their seventy five percent tax discount they get for the benefit of having country club we actually have it worse than Belmont because at least Belmont had a clubhouse they got to tax in our town we don't have the clubhouse we have 16 of the holes right 16 holes and we don't have the clubhouse Marblehead has a clubhouse and they get to tax that so we actually have nothing I mean realistically here and so Belmont though I think there was three no votes 200 plus yes votes in Belmont to remove that tax exemption and I appreciate that from a bygone era someone thought it was a really good idea to do it but it's not I applaud you Sean and I know that the globe did an article last year and Tedesco is highlighted there and I know that you've talked to the you've been talking about this for many many years and I applaud you for putting it on the Warren article so that the taxpayers can actually decide whether or not a private country club should get a 75% tax break

[Speaker 6] (1:43:15 - 1:43:19)
so can we talk about the process just with the home rule legislation and how

[Speaker 2] (1:43:19 - 1:43:52)
long how long you know process can take a year it can be extensive we went through a home rule for civil service better part of six months I have discussed this with representative Armini and you know we discussed strategies for you know working with Newton and Marblehead I mean Newton and Belmont so what about Marblehead

[Speaker 3] (1:43:52 - 1:44:00)
the point part of its in Marblehead yeah they tax so they were taxed they can decide for themselves that they want to understand so they have no incentive to

[Speaker 2] (1:44:00 - 1:44:13)
be doing all those three holes probably are in chapter so I'm happy to follow up with the Marblehead town administrator and see if there's a level of support for

[Speaker 7] (1:44:13 - 1:44:30)
that great so could you just walk me through this so we would if we were to prove this then it just goes to under the home petition and then we just keep our fingers crossed that the home petition we don't keep our fingers we go

[Speaker 1] (1:44:30 - 1:44:39)
up but yeah we have to we have to wait but I think Sean's gonna we're gonna actively encourage passage so are you saying that this could get passed within

[Speaker 2] (1:44:39 - 1:45:03)
a year all depends on the political leadership that would be willing to address this inequity and the opposing forces that's right it's a democracy it's a hundred and thirty three thousand dollars a year and growing I know I've

[Speaker 7] (1:45:03 - 1:45:08)
had conversations with representative our meeting about this so you and I have

[Speaker 2] (1:45:08 - 1:45:23)
talked about that yeah she has shared her concerns about the the influence I'm not concerned about the influence I'm concerned about the taxpayers in

[Speaker 1] (1:45:23 - 1:45:44)
good for you I've been seriously good for you and I do want to do a shout out when Polly Tickham was on the select board she absolutely I think was one in one a on her list and she met with you often I mean so champion this but I'm glad it's coming to fruition but I want to give her credit because it's really

[Speaker 2] (1:45:44 - 1:46:03)
it's really important I also want to just recognize Dick Simmons our interim professor he was very helpful in helping me get some information and analyze some data that really helped reinforce I'm not sure dick appreciates

[Speaker 1] (1:46:03 - 1:46:06)
you saying that it probably messed up his application for the country club

[Speaker 6] (1:46:09 - 1:46:22)
there's a few municipal clubs that will take him all right anything else on eat Pete continue please

[Speaker 1] (1:46:49 - 1:47:33)
I would, I think it's worthwhile for us to maybe see if Lauren Goldberg might be able to join a select board meeting virtually, just kind of walk through, because she is, she is quite, I mean, she's extremely impressive as an election law attorney, I mean, she speaks all across the state on this and really was, it was very helpful to interact with her, because she's really very focused on these things. And there's a little bit, I gave, I think, a decent summary, but also I want to make sure everybody understands the mechanics, for example, there's a postcard requirement that goes out to make sure that people know about early voting and things like that.

There's other elements of this, which are really, I think, dynamic and interesting, but I want to make sure everybody's clear on those. And same with Article 12, which is the election age one.

[Speaker 5] (1:47:33 - 1:47:40)
I thought the charter was changed, and it says not board of selectmen.

[Speaker 1] (1:47:40 - 1:47:50)
You know what, it's really interesting you say that. I don't, I actually think, just so you know, I don't think the home rule petition is still sitting there, and I don't think the home rule petition has been signed that changes from selectmen.

[Speaker 7] (1:47:50 - 1:47:51)
It is still sitting there.

[Speaker 1] (1:47:51 - 1:48:01)
Board of selectmen to select board. Isn't that true? So I think technically our charter still says board of selectmen, but we've euphemistically converted that because it's a stupid name.

[Speaker 5] (1:48:02 - 1:48:02)
Absurd.

[Speaker 1] (1:48:03 - 1:48:05)
It should be gone, it should be gone like the tax cut.

[Speaker 5] (1:48:05 - 1:48:06)
It hasn't gone.

[Speaker 1] (1:48:06 - 1:48:07)
It's being advanced.

[Speaker 5] (1:48:07 - 1:48:07)
It got lost.

[Speaker 7] (1:48:08 - 1:48:11)
Well, maybe a man can ask for directions.

[Speaker 2] (1:48:12 - 1:48:13)
Dog ate our home rule petition.

[Speaker 7] (1:48:13 - 1:48:16)
Our home rule petition got lost, but it's back on track.

[Speaker 2] (1:48:16 - 1:48:21)
Representative Armini has that, and she and Senator Creighton are advancing that. Great.

[Speaker 5] (1:48:21 - 1:48:23)
Perfect. We found it. Okay.

[Speaker 9] (1:48:27 - 1:48:27)
Next.

[Speaker 11] (1:48:29 - 1:48:46)
Next is Article 10, which is the Charter of Amendments. This is relating to the request to amend the Charter and allow inmate eligible 16 to 16 year olds to vote in the annual and special county elections. First I'll let you start.

[Speaker 21] (1:48:48 - 1:48:48)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:48:53 - 1:49:29)
So I'm sorry. We skipped over the sponsored by things. If you don't mind hearing me, we're going to go back to 8, which is the home rule petition.

So presumably that's going to be select board, maybe. I'm going to encourage us to have it be select board or TA. Select board and TA.

Hopefully 9 and 10, the select board feels like they can, and the TA can sponsor that. And now we're at 11, which similarly, and 12 similarly. Sorry.

I just wanted to go back to it.

[Speaker 6] (1:49:34 - 1:49:36)
Go ahead, Pete, with 11.

[Speaker 11] (1:49:37 - 1:50:26)
All right. 11 is a federal bylaw amendment for the state to include and adopt the specialized energy code. The energy code, similar to our express code, is part of our general bylaws.

Currently the way it's written in here is that it would be Article 30. My recommendation is actually that it should be Article 17, which would place it right after the express code, which would then renumber everything. But just for the purpose of tonight, just the language, this is an amendment request for specialized energy code.

And then the actual language of the energy code article for the general bylaw is in an appendix A, and it is based on a state model.

[Speaker 1] (1:50:27 - 1:51:06)
So Pete, what you're saying is if you made it Article 17, it would renumber everything after 17? Correct. All right.

So that's why we probably don't want to do that, because all the cross-references get thrown off, and we have to then go change all the cross-references. I'm not looking at the bylaw, but it may just want to be a new Section 16A, for example. If there's already a 16, there's already a 17, you can create a Section 16A and keep all your cross-references the same, just because we've gotten tripped up previously on this, where we inserted something and didn't get all the cross-references, and then the right hand and the left hand are looking at each other, not knowing what to do.

We're going to figure that out. Okay.

[Speaker 5] (1:51:07 - 1:51:12)
This is the topic that Mr. Hill is speaking on, correct?

[Speaker 1] (1:51:12 - 1:51:20)
Yeah, so are we going to have sometime in the next meeting or two a presentation on this, Mr. Chairman? Yeah, that would be the plan.

[Speaker 3] (1:51:21 - 1:51:35)
This is what I sent around. Yeah, I'm not sure you sent it. I think the February 7th, if that's sufficient time, when similar groups are coming anyway, they can speak to this at the same time.

Resiliency.

[Speaker 6] (1:51:35 - 1:51:41)
So you, the Royal U, will have a presentation.

[Speaker 3] (1:51:42 - 1:51:43)
Yeah, I'll basically go through what I sent around.

[Speaker 1] (1:51:43 - 1:52:54)
Okay. Yeah, I do. Can I just say, that sounds efficient, but I also don't want to overshadow the resiliency conversation.

I mean, this is very important, and by the way, I'm there, so I'm totally there. I just don't, I appreciate that you asked Harvard to come in and other committees to come in and talk about resiliency. Not just, like literally, not just how do we protect, how do we turn around the unfortunate problems that we've caused with our environment.

What do we do now to protect some of our resources, just given the actual realities that we're facing today? I really, no disrespect to the topic, I just want to make sure that we don't do anything to delete that focus for a good portion of the meeting. Only because we have never had that conversation.

I mean, like really, and I just looked at the CIP, and it's embarrassing. The lack of projects that sit in a multi-year, many-year, many-decade CIP that have resiliency. So we have to play catch-up on this, so I'm just, if we do it, if we can just make sure that we don't overcrowd the meeting, such that we shortchange the resiliency conversation, because I think that's really timely for us.

[Speaker 6] (1:52:55 - 1:53:07)
Understood. I mean, we're going to have a pretty busy agenda with discussion of the warrant and with special guests arriving, but we will make sure that we- The other thing to note, we- I'm sorry, go ahead.

[Speaker 3] (1:53:07 - 1:53:55)
This can be pretty, I believe this can be pretty streamlined, this conversation here. Right. And as I mentioned last meeting, I don't know if it was after three or four hours, but it was Climate Action Committee, Conservation Commission, and Harbor and Water did start getting together with MARA-Z to talk about resiliency grant funding.

And it does kind of segue, because by doing the specialized code and climate leader stuff, you actually get access to more grants to do resiliency planning. So these all kind of go together. There's also municipal vulnerability grants, which we got one, and we have an opportunity to do more.

So these all do kind of come together, not to kind of water anything down. No, it's good. I appreciate that.

But, yeah, thank you very much.

[Speaker 6] (1:53:56 - 1:54:08)
And, Doug, can you also speak to, you know, really the timing and the urgency- Yes. Of which for us to- Right. To take action here- Now, rather than- Right.

Our annual town meeting in May.

[Speaker 3] (1:54:08 - 1:55:02)
Right. Simply said, you know, I think Ryan spoke to it. You know, there are large projects potentially coming that this would affect, and we want to make sure that there's an even playing field for everyone.

But most importantly, really, it frees up larger grants faster. You know, just to put a number on it very quickly, like being a climate leader, which requires doing specialized, frees up $500,000-level grants to do decarbonization work. You don't get that with just being a green community like we are today.

So that's like, you know, someone's cut to the chase, like what the two prongs of the benefit of doing this now are. And, you know, a lot of other communities are doing this, et cetera, et cetera. Salem, our good friend, Neil, they're probably voting on it tomorrow.

So this is kind of happening everywhere. That's, you know, on the milk of communities.

[Speaker 1] (1:55:03 - 1:55:20)
Thanks. I think the other good news for us is that, and we didn't highlight it, but this warrant shows a town meeting that's one week later than when we set our schedule last time we were together, and we did this every meeting schedule. It is still going to be on the 4th.

And so this is actually on the 11th because it changed just because there's a primary on the 5th.

[Speaker 3] (1:55:20 - 1:55:21)
Oh, we changed it?

[Speaker 1] (1:55:22 - 1:55:47)
Yeah, so it's the 11th. Right? And so it's on the 11th because the 4th – sorry, we're concerned that if it went to more than one night, we couldn't have consecutive nights because the 5th is a primary date.

And the clerk. And so we can't have it then. So it was moved.

The moderator made some good suggestions after talking with the clerk about double booking the clerk like that. So we have a little bit more breathing room.

[Speaker 7] (1:55:47 - 1:55:48)
So what's the date now? March 11th.

[Speaker 1] (1:55:48 - 1:55:55)
March 11th. But it looks like an agenda that you should save the 12th as well, just to be candid.

[Speaker 7] (1:55:55 - 1:55:55)
Beautiful.

[Speaker 1] (1:55:56 - 1:55:58)
Yeah, we already have.

[Speaker 6] (1:55:58 - 1:56:11)
I'm talking to my colleague about that. Got it. 12th of March.

Not just the 12th of February. Yeah, 12th, 12th of March meeting as well.

[Speaker 5] (1:56:11 - 1:56:14)
All right. Take them all.

[Speaker 1] (1:56:14 - 1:56:16)
All right. Pete, bring it home.

[Speaker 21] (1:56:17 - 1:56:18)
Yep. All right.

[Speaker 11] (1:56:19 - 1:57:49)
And this warrants is the appropriations for our grant. This is for a transfer of available funds or. we're going to borrow a sum of $103,870.

It's related to pick up all requests. There are a couple of my modifications. First of all, was on the January.

January. The first is the language stays the same request of the state. As far as the park grant is concerned with the article.

However, the comments and the motion would be to appropriate free cash rather than borrowing. The other thing is that it would be a long course that would be located at the park, but not at a specific location. That location will be determined during a public process post town meeting.

So, once the allocation is made, the town will then work with designers to. And I'll let you know location within a park. We did receive a authorization from the state in order to get an extension on getting this approval.

We do need to get this approved. In March, so that the town then has enough time to get a design and that design submitted. So that we can then get a grant and a permit started for July 1.

[Speaker 6] (1:57:49 - 1:58:03)
And Pete, just also as a matter of clarification for article 12, because there's the use of free cash rather than borrowing. It's a majority, simple majority versus a two thirds. That's correct.

[Speaker 3] (1:58:04 - 1:58:17)
Thanks. Is it required that we specify? I appreciate the kind of flexibility about the location within Phillips Park.

Is it being in Phillips Park required?

[Speaker 2] (1:58:18 - 1:58:19)
It is.

[Speaker 3] (1:58:19 - 1:58:21)
As part of the grant still?

[Speaker 2] (1:58:21 - 1:58:25)
We have to identify a location or a locus area.

[Speaker 1] (1:58:26 - 1:59:38)
So, can you just, David and I had a little exchange on this. But I just want to have it out loud just to make sure we're feeling. So, look it.

I get it. 65%. Three votes short of a super majority voted for this.

And so, this just puts it back before town meeting and allows a simple majority to prevail. Which, again, democracy is funny like that. I've never understood the two thirds voting requirement for bonding.

But put that aside. We'll change that by special petition some other day. My question is, I mean, just from a pure financial standpoint, regardless of what the money is being used for.

Mechanically, is the preference from the financial team? Again, it's net $50,000, right? So, it's 103.

I'm just using round numbers. Net 50 after we get the grant. Let's just use round numbers.

Is the preference to use free cash or is it just free cash because that actually is a vehicle that requires less vote? And the preference would still be to bond this and not use free cash. In which case, my question is whether or not we shouldn't.

I don't disagree with David. David said maybe just streamline it. But put two Warren articles, the first one being bonding and the second one being free cash.

And if the first one doesn't pass, then the second one doesn't pass. And I'm just saying I don't want for expediency to let just a majority to fail. If you want, if the finance team.

[Speaker 2] (1:59:38 - 1:59:46)
It's not enough of a concern about free cash. Okay. You know, frankly, it was a larger.

[Speaker 1] (1:59:46 - 1:59:52)
Yeah, no, fair enough. Okay. I just wanted to ask it because I didn't want us to sacrifice principles of good finance.

[Speaker 2] (1:59:54 - 2:00:00)
Yeah, that's all. Having a little more room on our debt service line is probably as helpful.

[Speaker 3] (2:00:02 - 2:00:33)
So, I want to just press just a little bit because, I mean, I actually didn't end up being here. I was sick when this happened. But I know that there was a lot of, you know, concern of people around the park for sure, obviously.

And I just want to press and make sure because we've gotten it seems flexibility to move the location within Phillips Park. It is absolutely positively required. There's no ifs, ands or buts.

We have to for this grant as it stands right now. It has to be in Phillips Park.

[Speaker 2] (2:00:34 - 2:00:38)
That's my understanding. I will double check with.

[Speaker 3] (2:00:38 - 2:00:41)
I'm not looking to make it more complicated, but I just want to understand what the.

[Speaker 2] (2:00:42 - 2:00:54)
We've identified that area in the grant application. So, you know, we can explore whether or not, you know, there's some process to change it.

[Speaker 3] (2:00:55 - 2:01:14)
This is going to be slightly off topic. So, if it's more than one sentence answer, forget it. We'll talk about it later.

Has there been any engagement with the neighborhood yet about this process? I mean, this is the first I was finding out the fact that actually this was coming back up. So I don't know.

Has there been any other engagement yet or do we plan to engage substantive?

[Speaker 2] (2:01:14 - 2:01:21)
I believe the director of community economic development has reached out to the neighborhood, but I'll look into that.

[Speaker 3] (2:01:22 - 2:01:34)
Please, please make sure that. We have talked about. I mean, everyone's going to agree, but let's just make sure that we really have tried to process this ahead.

So we're not worried about two thirds or one half or whatever. Understand.

[Speaker 2] (2:01:34 - 2:01:42)
We want to make sure that we're good neighbors. And thank you.

[Speaker 7] (2:01:42 - 2:01:53)
Are we sure that in Phillips Park that it can be built in Phillips Park due to any flood issues or zoning?

[Speaker 1] (2:01:54 - 2:03:06)
Yes. But you're not. I mean, like, I know you're saying that.

I know. But no, Maryland is asking a good question. I mean, I know you're saying you are.

Look at that. But it's a little bit of the cart before the horse. It hasn't been designed yet.

It hasn't been cited, so no one can know that answer. I'm just being respectful to the question. Yes, I think preliminarily you guys have gotten feedback.

We've reached out to the conservation commission. No, no, but I'm not. But that's not.

You can't say yes because we don't even have a location. So I'm just being really open about it, Maryland. The answer is no.

Like, he cannot say that. No one can. Preliminarily, did they do homework and talk to consultants?

Did they talk to others and try and get a feel about things? Yes. But I don't think they haven't even cited the location.

It was here or here or here. And so the answer is no. Part of this and part of the grant is going to allow them the funds to engage the wetland scientists to do the notice of intent and go through the conservation commission and make sure if it's in a floodplain how it's being dealt with and how it complies with the Wetlands Protection Act.

That's part of the grant program. And so the state doesn't require us to permit it before we go through the process. The permitting is part of the process with the state.

So just to be asking a fair question, I just want to be specifically clear that no one can tell you unequivocally.

[Speaker 3] (2:03:06 - 2:03:19)
Which may mean that the $100,000, $103,000 or whatever it is to build it, that was the number we knew specifically before when it was a very specific site. So in order to take care of the flooding issues and things like that, it needs to be different.

[Speaker 1] (2:03:19 - 2:03:27)
It could. The mitigation could end up being more and then they would have to come back to us anyway. Yes, that is a possibility.

But with every project, right, for that matter, I guess. Okay.

[Speaker 5] (2:03:28 - 2:03:43)
But I guess too then, in that same vein, if they thought a location might be appropriate and it turns out it isn't for various permitting issues, then another location might be looked into. Not outside of the park, but within the park that might lend itself differently.

[Speaker 7] (2:03:47 - 2:04:08)
So just to say that. Yeah. Well, I just want to ask this.

Can you tell me, have you, were you absolutely vetted all different areas, like up by here, up by aggregate, in the back by Tedesco? I mean, maybe Tedesco wants to give us an email.

[Speaker 2] (2:04:08 - 2:04:37)
We haven't done a comprehensive site selection. We identified the park for a number of, you know, I think good reasons, that it has ample parking, it's connected to a number of other recreational amenities, and certainly we have looked around. We've looked at a few different sites, but we feel like this is centrally located and easy access for the town.

[Speaker 6] (2:04:38 - 2:04:43)
I also hope this is the first of several pickleball courts.

[Speaker 2] (2:04:43 - 2:04:44)
Me too.

[Speaker 6] (2:04:44 - 2:04:46)
That will transpire in Swamp Street.

[Speaker 2] (2:04:46 - 2:04:53)
I think other people are going to be claiming, you know, to have their pickleball court as well.

[Speaker 1] (2:04:53 - 2:05:25)
Okay. In some ways to me this is actually really interesting. I think the fact that we actually know in advance that 65% of town meeting approved it, just three-fourths actually show, that's actually almost town meeting saying, hey, we want this.

And so in some ways for me this is actually easier this time than it was the first time I was on the warrant, because now I actually know it's the same town meeting members, it's the same thing, is that they've made it perfectly clear that 65% of them wanted it. And so to me it's actually easier this time than it was last time. Like last time we didn't know, and so we didn't have a mandate or instruction.

It kind of feels like instruction this time to me, personally. Thanks.

[Speaker 6] (2:05:26 - 2:05:28)
All right. So we have a little bit of homework.

[Speaker 2] (2:05:29 - 2:05:47)
We do. And I think, you know, if the board is in agreement that this stays on the warrant, we will reach out immediately with the neighborhood and we'll redouble our efforts to engage folks that are abutters. Okay.

Thanks.

[Speaker 6] (2:05:48 - 2:05:58)
All right. We'll move on now to discussion of possible vote on the selection of an independent consultant for review of blasting plans at Wholesome, Inc.

[Speaker 2] (2:05:59 - 2:07:29)
So this is a standard practice, you know, in the Earth Removal Permit, the board is identified as the approval authority for consultants. Brierley Associates has worked with the town over the last few years to really look at a number of impacts the quarry has on the community. This particular scope would analyze 2023 blasting data and blasting reports and provide a scope of work to help us just really understand and summarize the blasting impact, the exceedances, and, you know, provide support for Earth Removal Committee.

I did receive some information today by the chair of the ERAC that had asked to update the scope, so what I would ask is the board to authorize me to work with the Earth Removal Committee and revise this scope and provide some technical, you know, edits to this to ensure that we capture all of the details that the Earth Removal Committee is looking for.

[Speaker 1] (2:07:30 - 2:07:38)
So is that, are you asking us to approve this? No. In the amount of, no, for the amount of $10,000.

[Speaker 20] (2:07:38 - 2:07:39)
I am.

[Speaker 1] (2:07:39 - 2:07:41)
But that the scope may be tweaked just because.

[Speaker 20] (2:07:42 - 2:07:42)
That's right.

[Speaker 1] (2:07:42 - 2:07:51)
I'm just trying to be clear on this, okay. And this is the annual, if you will, and this amount is repaid through the aggregate Earth Removal Permit, correct?

[Speaker 3] (2:07:51 - 2:07:51)
That's right.

[Speaker 1] (2:07:51 - 2:07:58)
Annual consultant and the annual review that happens here. Okay. I'm just saying it out loud to make sure I'm clear.

[Speaker 3] (2:07:59 - 2:08:16)
Happy to make a motion. Go ahead. I'd like to move that we authorize Sean to proceed with making any technical tweaks to this up to the $10,000 that's envisioned in this scope in order to comply with the Earth Removal Permit.

Do I have a second?

[Speaker 7] (2:08:17 - 2:08:17)
Second.

[Speaker 3] (2:08:18 - 2:08:18)
All in favor?

[Speaker 7] (2:08:18 - 2:08:19)
Aye.

[Speaker 6] (2:08:22 - 2:08:32)
We're going to move on. Hadley Hotel RFP update from Peter and Katie, and I think we also have Pete Kane.

[Speaker 1] (2:08:33 - 2:10:50)
I think as though it's pretty quick, Sean did a great introduction for us. And, Katie, feel free to jump in here. But I think Sean already said it.

So on the 21st of December was the deadline for the RFP. We received seven submissions to the RFP. All of them are on the town website.

And the assistant town administrator during this meeting has emailed me to say that there's actually a news link on the front page that references those so it gets you directly to those RFP responses. So the seven responses are up on the responses. Important to note a couple of things about the responses.

I think very high level just information. With the exception of two responses, all the responses at preliminary review actually comply with zoning and comply with the zoning that town meeting passed here. So two responses do seek some things outside of the zoning that town meeting passed, which doesn't per se disqualify them, but it is something that we've noted.

But the five of them, the other five, complied best we can tell. Preliminarily based on schematics that are included in the package. We do encourage groups to look at them.

We have, and when I say we, a subcommittee of the town administrator, the director of community and economic development, the director of planning and assistant town administrator, pinnacle advisors who the town has retained who's a hotel consultant, and Katie Phelan and myself interviewed all seven respondents virtually. We didn't ask them to come to town, even though several of the respondents live very close here. And then we ultimately submitted follow-up written questions and follow-up questions, and then ultimately recommendation based on that to select the three top proposals.

Those proposals are, respondents, excuse me, are scheduled and have confirmed that they will be here on Tuesday, January 30th, starting at 630 p.m. I'm right with 630, right, Pete?

[Speaker 5] (2:10:51 - 2:10:52)
Six o'clock.

[Speaker 1] (2:10:52 - 2:10:54)
That's why I'm asking questions. That's what I meant to say. Six o'clock.

[Speaker 5] (2:10:55 - 2:10:55)
Sorry.

[Speaker 1] (2:10:56 - 2:13:08)
Starting at six o'clock in this room, each of the three groups will be here and they will do a presentation followed by select board questions and then followed by public questions. And so there will be an opportunity for people to ask questions and learn more about the process. Tentatively, it's on our agenda to then, as a board, come together and discuss in public meeting on February 7th, next steps from there.

So that's where we are right now. Pinnacle was fantastic for us. They, I mean, just the things they're asking about, they are really focusing just kind of put it out there.

There are really two key aspects of this from just a vetting perspective. One, building, developing, doing something. Two, running a hotel, right?

And we're not looking to run an empty building, right? We're not looking to have something in five years that's not viable. And so really what Pinnacle really honed in on more so than the rest of us, because we've all stayed at hotels but none of us are hoteliers, is they really focused on the operating assumptions.

Like what are the economics? What are the economics that you're assuming or what you need to have to be successful here? Challenge those.

Shake them. Make sure they hold. And then also what's your experience, right?

What's your true experience, not just as a hotelier, but someone that's doing a boutique suburban community? How reliant are you on room revenue versus food and beverage revenue and ancillary services? Things like that.

So it's helped them see and give us better feedback as to who they think would be stronger a sponsor of a project for us. And so just having them as part of that dialogue. And they'll be available for us on the 7th, I believe.

They'll be available for us to include them in the conversation on the 7th so we can all ask questions. And if we have follow-up questions after the 30th, there's an opportunity for us to submit questions to respondents. So it's been a lot of work and many, many hours of work just to get here.

And I really appreciate Pinnacle and staff because staff, Pete and Marcy.

[Speaker 2] (2:13:09 - 2:13:10)
Max Casper.

[Speaker 1] (2:13:11 - 2:13:18)
Sorry, Max was in charge of all of our tours. Sorry, I forgot about that. So, Katie, did I leave anything you want to say?

[Speaker 5] (2:13:19 - 2:15:08)
No, I do just want to encourage attendance for the event on the 30th and encourage a little bit of homework before that night. The proposals that we received, some of them were breathtaking and exciting and innovative. And some of them were different and intriguing.

And, you know, we brought forward three of the RFP respondents that we, you know, really felt like not just could develop something but could have success going forward. As Peter said, Pinnacle was a partner in that, really the leader in that conversation because we don't do well with vacant buildings here in town and we don't want this to be a vacant building. We want this to be a successful entryway to Humphrey Street, a revitalization of that corridor.

And so I would just encourage public attendance and, you know, really looking at those RFPs and coming in with some questions. That's what they're here for. They're here to understand, you know, about noise and swimming pools and spas and how, you know, how we get small businesses to integrate into their business.

And I encourage that sort of communication with them.

[Speaker 6] (2:15:08 - 2:15:14)
So is the plan for next Tuesday to have a 10, 15-minute presentation?

[Speaker 1] (2:15:14 - 2:17:11)
Yeah, so let me – I appreciate you saying that. Not only that, I just realized that the link doesn't actually tell you who the three groups that are coming are. So don't read them all.

No reason. I assume the link said it. So, yeah, you don't – certainly – so there are seven proposals on the town website.

You should look at all seven because there's ideas. There may be things that you like in something that wasn't necessarily financed that you want to explore and have conversations about. So, by all means, feel free to look at them all.

The three groups in no order – I'm just reading from here – in no order whatsoever that are coming is Clearview Investment Management. They operate under the Delamar brand, the Drew Companies, and Knowinit Group are the three groups that we'll be presenting on January 30th. But certainly look at all the proposals if you want to and be familiar with them.

But those are the three groups that we'll be presenting. The presentation format is 15-minute presentation for each group, one at a time. Again, they're coming in no order of anything.

It just was randomly picked. Fifteen minutes of presentation by them, 15 minutes of select board questions, and 15 minutes of public. And then we would probably take a 15-minute break for the next group to set up and then go through it two more times that night.

And so just to keep it under three hours or at three hours, we had to limit presentations. If the questions end quicker, then it'll be less than 45 minutes. But that's the presentation format for everyone.

They'll have electronic, and then they're also bringing a board, which we will then put in town hall so that people at town hall also can see the materials when they come into town hall. Great. Thanks.

Pete Cain, if you're still listening, or Sean, can we just make sure that we – I think we should update this link here to identify the three groups that are coming on January 30th, and I think update January 30th, right, and tell people about the meeting and coming here and help us advertise that, please.

[Speaker 11] (2:17:12 - 2:17:16)
I'm in the middle of doing that right now. I wanted you to announce it first.

[Speaker 1] (2:17:16 - 2:17:19)
Of course you are. All right.

[Speaker 6] (2:17:19 - 2:17:30)
Thanks, Pete. Thanks, Pete. All right, and we'll move on.

Discussion and possible vote on members for the Water and Sewer Infrastructure Advisory Committee.

[Speaker 2] (2:17:31 - 2:23:45)
Sure. You know, I really appreciate the number of individuals that have reached out and asked to be considered for this committee. I had a chance to reach out and speak to almost every individual that applied.

They all come with an extraordinary background and passion for helping Swampskate succeed. I'm really frustrated that we can't appoint all of them to the committee. I think each of them would contribute to the best of their abilities to help us think more critically about our infrastructure.

Unfortunately, we only have seven seats. I am really begrudged not to pull out all of the chairs for individuals. We need everybody to help us as a community, but tonight I'm pleased to recommend Liz Smith.

Liz has an extraordinary professional background. She's, frankly, a wonderful person to work with. She's certainly somebody that can tolerate differences of opinion in a very tactful way.

She has demonstrated that she rolls her sleeves up and really gets into the nuances of regulatory positions. She's no stranger to our meetings and certainly would think that she would benefit this committee in any number of ways. She has a deep knowledge of the issues affecting Kings Beach, and she's willing to learn more and more.

Kelly Vigan is a former member of our finance committee. She's demonstrated a real passion for helping Swampskate. Kelly joined me a few years ago on a trip over to Lynn Water and Sewer, along with Gina Acresta, to really think about how we can work more effectively with Lynn Water and Sewer.

She shows a real passion for environmental sustainability. She is an environmental engineer at a leading environmental firm. While she focuses on this committee, I think it gives us that added benefit of somebody that really knows the town, knows our history, and really can help us advocate as we need to for additional funding and support for our infrastructure.

Ralph Souza is a civil and sanitary engineer. Yeah, I'm sorry. And has spent time on our rate-setting committee, certainly has a resume that is about as well-established as any engineer, and I think his experience along with that of Charlie Patsios.

Charlie is not an engineer. He has a rare non-engineering background, but Charlie is a very notable member of town meeting and certainly has served on our rate committee. Chris Volkey is a molecular biologist.

He is absolutely a fascinating individual who brings a great deal of empirical analysis to this position. There's a lot of important biology that we need to consider, and I think that voice is critical. Lauren Fisher is a terrific project manager and certainly somebody that has experience working in business and has a passion for supporting the town.

Adam Smyth has a terrific background in oceanography. And, you know, certainly, you know, for alternatives, our alternate member, Brian Drummond, Jeff Kaplan, Matt Phelan, Terry Dancil, and, frankly, Andrea Amore. I mean, all of the folks that really, you know, have so many talents, you know, I would love to see them be engaged as subcommittee members.

I don't think this committee has to just function as a board. We need subcommittees on public engagement. We need subcommittees on state and federal regulations or grants.

There's any number of opportunities to serve. I would certainly encourage the committee to be as ambitious as possible and really engage as many of the individuals that have expressed an interest in serving. I think in the spirit of our efforts to talk about voting, I think we've got to be as inclusive as possible with an issue like this.

It needs as many individuals to support the broadest responsibility that we have. That said, I know that there may be some other ideas, and I'm happy to turn it over to the board for an opportunity to hear more of your thoughts.

[Speaker 5] (2:23:46 - 2:23:48)
Do you mean like I have an idea?

[Speaker 2] (2:23:48 - 2:23:51)
No, no, no. I do have an idea. Yeah?

[Speaker 5] (2:23:51 - 2:23:53)
I'd like to see a student member on the committee.

[Speaker 2] (2:23:54 - 2:23:55)
Awesome. Great idea.

[Speaker 5] (2:23:56 - 2:23:58)
I don't know who that is, but we should find them.

[Speaker 3] (2:23:58 - 2:25:38)
That's exactly what I wrote down too, Katie. It is challenging because the one young gentleman that we are all familiar with, Sam, that is on Climate Action and shows up at Solid Waste and others and is the chair of the Environmental Committee at the high school and all that, he's been trying to encourage his fellow students to get engaged and it hasn't necessarily materialized yet. So I think the efforts you're talking about, Peter, with voting, we do need to make a really concerted effort.

I know Neil got this started with Climate Action with having two students and we're trying to get another one for Climate Action. So absolutely, totally agree with that. I just want to echo having looked through all the respondents to this.

It is amazing when you go through an exercise like this to see the expertise of the people here in town. I don't know how many GE engineers we have here, but there's a lot of them. Is there a GE plant around here?

Yes, something like that, I think, yes. Very cool, very cool. So I'm really excited to get this committee up and running and rolling.

I just want to acknowledge Andrea doing everything that you do outside of the committee. I think it's a really, really important complementary strategy. We have complementary strategies for IBDE.

We have complementary strategies for making all this stuff happen. So I think this is kind of a really good balance and effective way to move forward with people here that are kind of on the committee and people kind of surrounding the committee. So I'm just really excited to get things rolling.

[Speaker 7] (2:25:39 - 2:25:44)
I just have a quick question. So is this a one-year term, and then we roll it next year?

[Speaker 3] (2:25:44 - 2:25:52)
I would say lifetime. I think we talked staggered, didn't we? We did talk staggered.

[Speaker 2] (2:25:52 - 2:26:31)
I believe that we can, frankly, in a random way, just list one, two, and three and just give the committee a little bit of continuity. We certainly want some folks to serve for a few years. I do think it's going to take a lot to really get baptized.

It's more complicated than I think many people might believe. It's a complicated system. It's going to require time to really come up to speed.

[Speaker 7] (2:26:31 - 2:26:49)
I'd just like to reduce some of the complications right now. We are going to be voting on this tonight, so we should probably be voting on the terms at the same time. What's the next process as far as?

[Speaker 1] (2:26:49 - 2:26:53)
Maybe Sean spends a minute jotting some notes down on that. That's a good idea.

[Speaker 7] (2:26:56 - 2:27:04)
Then when will they be able to have a meeting, and what is the procedure? What's the next step? That's all.

[Speaker 1] (2:27:05 - 2:27:10)
I have questions about that as well. Have we designated who the select board liaison is?

[Speaker 7] (2:27:11 - 2:27:12)
We voted for you when you were out of the room.

[Speaker 1] (2:27:14 - 2:29:38)
Right, but in case I, like a town meeting member with one vote, say I didn't want it. No, I'm just joking. Do we have a liaison?

We do not. My experience has been one of the hardest things for committees, especially new committees, is that they are thrown into a functioning government that they don't necessarily know how it functions. So I think tonight we should designate who that liaison is in my view, or we can do it next week or whenever we meet next.

I just wanted to say generally about the committee, I think it's great, and you guys have all had thoughts about it, and I'm fine with everything that we're doing here. This committee is an advisory committee, which means that it's not an advocacy committee, meaning people aren't selected because they believe one thing, and we want to make sure there are one things on the table. I hope what we've done is we've identified people who have varying backgrounds but are intellectually curious and open-minded enough to hear everything and understand there's ideal, then there's ideal within financial reality, then there's less than ideal, and sometimes it's complicated subject matter in and of itself, but then you put it within municipal finance structure and political structure and regulatory framework, it gets really complicated. So I'm encouraged and I'm hopeful that everybody's coming open-minded.

They can have opinions, but be open-minded to understand that. But I'm more interested in understanding how we are supporting the committee. I previously suggested, and the language got changed, which is fine, to have the consultants, town's consultants there, and I know that will be on call, but we don't have a budget.

We haven't engaged a consultant to say, hey, we're going to do a preliminary kickoff. You need to do a tutorial for somebody. Not everybody has been engaged like some of them are, and so I just want to make sure that we're setting this up, and I don't think we have a budget for a consultant.

I don't think we have a consultant per se, and I'm not trying to micromanage any of the work of the committee, but I also want to make sure that they're supported, and I don't know how we support them because I don't think we've advanced that conversation enough to know that we have resources to do all those things and we can set them in the right direction, and then once they're in a direction, they can do their thing, whatever it is.

But I'm just concerned that we don't have.

[Speaker 2] (2:29:38 - 2:31:08)
Peter, I hear you. I think, you know, look, I had a chance to have a conversation with all of these individuals. These individuals are as sophisticated as I think we'd ever hope to have.

They have a master's in public health. They've got their doctorate degree. They have engineering degrees.

They're very, very smart, and I think they will work with us as we ramp up. The town has existing contracts with consultants. We have staff that will be available to help get them up and going.

We don't want to micromanage the committee just like every other committee. We want them to come to us with questions, and we will do our best to support them. I appreciate that it's an advisory committee, and I think we're going to have to make sure everybody understands, like, we need.

This isn't a governing body. It works within the framework of a governance structure where we all have to work together to kind of figure out how to advance priorities, advance capital projects, advance, you know, operational responsibilities, and I'm not concerned about a budget for this committee right now, but I'm concerned that, you know, frankly, we might need some additional financial support, but that will all materialize as we kind of hit the ground.

[Speaker 1] (2:31:08 - 2:31:44)
So I appreciate that, and I agree with everything you said. I just want to make sure that those resources, the right staff contact, and, again, the liaison here can be helpful as well, but, frankly, a staff contact that can execute and just is important, because I don't want the worst thing is to have people come, volunteer their time, and then feel as though they're spinning their wheels and don't know how to do things that they're not expected to know, right, and then get frustrated by it and then take their special skill set and go home, right, which is the worst outcome for me.

Agreed.

[Speaker 2] (2:31:44 - 2:31:51)
I think there's plenty of things for this committee to really help advance.

[Speaker 1] (2:31:51 - 2:31:58)
I know, because I hear you. I just want to hear that you're saying yes, that we're going to have a specific staff designee.

[Speaker 2] (2:31:58 - 2:31:58)
We are.

[Speaker 1] (2:31:58 - 2:32:07)
We're going to do the select board thing tonight. Okay, that's all. I mean, I agree, but I just want to make sure that we have that commitment, and you're going to identify that and can come back to us and tell us who that is.

That would be great.

[Speaker 7] (2:32:07 - 2:32:18)
So I just have a quick question, because what is different with what we were sent tonight is we don't have a staff, a voting staff member on here. So we didn't.

[Speaker 1] (2:32:18 - 2:32:24)
Well, I think you took them. I say you. I'm not talking.

Somebody over here made a recommendation to remove them from voting staff members.

[Speaker 5] (2:32:24 - 2:32:25)
As a voting staff member.

[Speaker 1] (2:32:25 - 2:32:26)
So they're ex-officio.

[Speaker 7] (2:32:27 - 2:32:30)
On this document? Yeah, just like solid waste.

[Speaker 6] (2:32:30 - 2:32:32)
Solid waste. Yeah, right.

[Speaker 7] (2:32:33 - 2:32:33)
Okay.

[Speaker 6] (2:32:34 - 2:33:09)
And then I have a recommendation just for the staggered terms. So, you know, just kind of going down the list, I'd recommend Liz Smith and Kelly Began have three-year terms. Ralph Suppe, Charlie Patsios, and Chris Vockley, two-year terms.

Lauren Fisher, Adam Smyth, one-year terms. And the alternates would also have one-year terms. And just for specificity's sake, the one-year terms would expire June 30, 25.

Two-year terms expire June 30, 26. Three-year terms June 30, 27. Right?

[Speaker 5] (2:33:11 - 2:33:12)
Liz, you cool with that?

[Speaker 6] (2:33:16 - 2:33:18)
Time flies when you're having fun.

[Speaker 7] (2:33:18 - 2:33:25)
You know, if none of you want to be the liaison between now and June, I would volunteer my time. But if somebody else wants to.

[Speaker 6] (2:33:25 - 2:33:26)
I'm happy to volunteer my time.

[Speaker 7] (2:33:26 - 2:33:27)
Okay, that's good.

[Speaker 1] (2:33:30 - 2:33:37)
I'm happy to volunteer your time, too. Thanks, Peter. You're welcome.

Is that a motion? I would entertain a motion.

[Speaker 7] (2:33:37 - 2:33:56)
Okay, so. So I'd like to make a motion to approve the list of members for this new. What is the name of this committee going to be?

What is the name? Water and Sewer Infrastructure Advisory Committee. Along with the staggered terms as listed.

[Speaker 5] (2:33:58 - 2:34:04)
Second. Do we have to approve? We don't have to approve the liaison.

You'll just designate yourself.

[Speaker 6] (2:34:05 - 2:34:05)
Yep.

[Speaker 5] (2:34:05 - 2:34:06)
Second.

[Speaker 6] (2:34:06 - 2:34:08)
All in favor. Aye.

[Speaker 5] (2:34:08 - 2:34:08)
Aye.

[Speaker 6] (2:34:08 - 2:34:10)
Thank you. Thanks, everyone.

[Speaker 5] (2:34:11 - 2:34:14)
Thank you. Go for it. All right.

[Speaker 9] (2:34:18 - 2:34:19)
Consent agenda.

[Speaker 6] (2:34:20 - 2:34:34)
The consent agenda is designed to expedite the handling of routine and miscellaneous business to the board. The select board may adopt the entire consent agenda with one motion at the request of any board member. Any item may be removed from the consent agenda and placed on the regular agenda for discussion.

[Speaker 7] (2:34:35 - 2:34:40)
Can you remove the minutes and can we put that on for the next meeting? I just didn't get a chance to go through them.

[Speaker 6] (2:34:41 - 2:34:42)
No problem with that.

[Speaker 1] (2:34:43 - 2:34:45)
I'd move the consent agenda minus the minutes.

[Speaker 21] (2:34:46 - 2:34:46)
Second.

[Speaker 6] (2:34:47 - 2:34:50)
All in favor. Aye. Aye.

Thank you. Select board time.

[Speaker 7] (2:34:57 - 2:35:42)
I think it was 2014 or 2016, Kleinfelder did a very, very lengthy study on resiliency. And there's a number of items in that study that recommend things that we should be doing. And I really think that we should pull that study out, dust off some of those cobwebs, and start doing some things.

For example, they did make a recommendation on how to protect the fish house. And at the time, the cost was going to be, I think, between $20,000 and $30,000. And I think maybe going and looking at something like that again, looking and seeing what they recommended for the seawalls.

So it's been a while since I looked at that study, but I think we should look at that study again.

[Speaker 3] (2:35:43 - 2:35:46)
Can I comment on that? Can I chime in? You're select board time.

[Speaker 7] (2:35:47 - 2:35:51)
Okay. I can share. Go ahead.

Okay.

[Speaker 5] (2:35:52 - 2:35:53)
You have three minutes, Mary Ellen.

[Speaker 2] (2:35:56 - 2:35:58)
You'll yield 30 seconds for that.

[Speaker 7] (2:35:59 - 2:36:29)
I just want to give an update on solid waste advisory committee. We are looking to make sure we have a few more applicants to fill our new seats there. That's real important.

I think Diane's doing a great job making sure we get all that. I'm hoping if you could, David, put that on the agenda to make sure before the 15th, we have some candidates that have already applied, if they could get vetted and advanced.

[Speaker 21] (2:36:30 - 2:36:30)
Okay.

[Speaker 7] (2:36:34 - 2:36:39)
And as far as the rest of my committees, I'll just hold off on getting back on those.

[Speaker 3] (2:36:40 - 2:37:10)
Thanks. Doug? That people have already actually dug back into those reports.

As per this conversation I mentioned before about the resiliency and CONCOM, Tony Bandritz, of course, had the reports all with her, and people in the committee have actually dug all these things out, and so those things are being surfaced, and there's a process for that, but I'm sure we can have that be part of the presentation on the 7th to bring those to light. Great.

[Speaker 6] (2:37:11 - 2:37:16)
Peter, Katie, anything else? I'd entertain a motion to adjourn.

[Speaker 7] (2:37:16 - 2:37:19)
So moved. Second.

[Speaker 6] (2:37:20 - 2:37:22)
All in favor? Aye. Thank you.

Thank you. Good night.

[Speaker 21] (2:37:23 - 2:37:23)
Good night, everybody.