[Speaker 2] (0:00 - 0:15)
Welcome to the October 1st select board meeting. Excuse us for the delay, we had a technical delay. And if you could join us.

And we are being recorded. If you could please join us, if you can, stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

[Speaker 12] (0:18 - 0:30)
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. For which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[Speaker 2] (0:36 - 0:47)
Okay, so we will start with public comments. Is there, what, you see somebody? Okay, not seeing any, we will move to the town administrator's report.

[Speaker 3] (0:49 - 4:23)
Sure, thank you, Mary Ellen. So, it's a busy fall. We started with our major work on the Marshall Street outfall for our sewer improvements.

This is a project that will help sleeve the sewer lines and help address infiltration and inflow. We've hired Renison Company to help advance that work. You know, Crusher and I, along with Kleinfelder staff last week, met with the construction team and went through a pre-construction meeting.

They will be doing the laterals of the private laterals that go from people's homes to the public sewer. This is a project that will have a certain scope of work right around the Fisherman's Beach area. We expect that this will significantly address some of the INI.

There's detailed notes of the project team meeting. We have press releases and flyers that will be dropped to the neighbors so that they'll know when to expect the work. We had a wonderful Essex National Heritage tour of Town Hall.

It's great to remind ourselves that we have such a historic property. Elihu Thompson was one of our greatest engineers. The town bought the building from Elihu Thompson, and every year we have folks come from around Essex County to tour the property.

Pleased to announce that we have sent conditional offers to three firefighters. These are outstanding candidates. We interviewed eight firefighters.

They all were impressive. If we could have hired them all, we would have. We have a remaining five candidates that were not selected, but certainly gonna keep them on our list.

Our senior center is promoting our Forget Me Not campaign by holding two trainings monthly, one by our teams and one in person. If you would like to participate, please reach out to our senior center. Hosting a series of events on housing.

I want to thank board members for heading down and working with Seaglass Village to talk about home health care. We've also reached out to a number of regional all ages groups, including Salem and Marblehead, to conduct a study of how they're supporting all ages. We do have researchers in from Australia here next week.

We're here to study how Swampskate is bringing intergenerational groups together. So if any of our select board members are around and want to have a sister community in Australia, that certainly should be a possibility. Please get your flu shot if you're 65 years or older or if you're a public official.

We are all around a lot of people. And so please reach out to Diane if you'd like to sign up for a flu shot at town hall. We are going to have our first ever pumpkin smash on November 3rd.

Don't throw your pumpkins away. Get it out of our solid waste stream. It's heavy, costs us money.

Bring them down and smash them. Get your kids out and have some fun. I want to thank our solid waste committee.

They've been doing a lot of trash talking. And they're coming up with some great community events to help reduce our solid waste tonnage, and that's all good fun.

[Speaker 5] (4:23 - 4:24)
Did you say where that is, John?

[Speaker 3] (4:25 - 5:45)
That is gonna be at the parking lot by the football field down at Bloxidge. So easily accessible and loads of fun. Our Veterans Services Department is very busy.

We're working on our Veterans Service Heroes Meal Program with the Greater Boston Food Bank. Military Foundation, we served over 50 veterans and their families on 9-11 as part of the monthly food market. Certainly been busy with the monthly coffees and pastries.

We are looking to get pictures of our hometown heroes banner. If you have a loved one or that's a veteran from Swampskate, please send your pictures in, we're gonna get banners and fly them around town for Veterans Day. We do have weekly Veterans Services Office Thursday from 11 to 1 PM at the Senior Center.

So feel free to bring these pictures down on Thursday at the Senior Center. Recreation has some events including a classic by the sea car show on Sunday, October 13th. So if you like cars, come down and check out all the cars at Town Hall.

That's my report.

[Speaker 2] (5:45 - 6:16)
Does anybody have any questions? I just have one actually request. Under the Senior Center, so we have two residents in town.

We have the Marriott, it's so nice, I call it the Marriott, but it's called the Residence Inn, and the Bertram House. Is it possible to get staff from the Senior Center over to just go over and give them an update and to see if we can engage with them on activities?

[Speaker 3] (6:16 - 6:37)
Absolutely possible. We've done it in the past, Mary Ellen. We've actually gone to the housing authority.

There's a couple of other properties in town too that we know we have cohorts of seniors. So great idea. And certainly we'll schedule a few of those meet and greets over the next couple of months.

Thanks.

[Speaker 2] (6:37 - 6:58)
Okay, any other questions? All right, so seeing no other questions, we can move along on our agenda. To new and old business, how about if we read under number one, reading the proclamation for indigenous people.

Would anybody like to read the proclamation?

[Speaker 1] (6:59 - 7:05)
Let's go around the room. Be happy to, if you want. Do you want to go back and forth, David?

[Speaker 13] (7:05 - 7:05)
Huh?

[Speaker 1] (7:06 - 7:06)
Want to go back and forth?

[Speaker 13] (7:07 - 7:07)
Sure.

[Speaker 1] (7:07 - 7:08)
Yeah.

[Speaker 13] (7:08 - 7:08)
All right.

[Speaker 1] (7:09 - 7:28)
Whereas instead of commemorating conquest today here in the town of Swampscott, we recognize our history and since time immemorial, people indigenous to the land now call Swampscott built communities, fostered cultures, and steward the land of sustainability, and-

[Speaker 8] (7:28 - 7:51)
Whereas for the first time in our town's history, we recognize indigenous people here and anywhere in the United States as we pay respect to the cultures and populations that existed long before European contact with this land.

So too, we celebrate the contributions of all indigenous peoples to the culture of diversity, innovation, and resilience that has had an indelible impact on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and-

[Speaker 1] (7:51 - 8:15)
Whereas the town of Swampscott recognizes that the indigenous people of the lands, later known as the Americas, have lived on these lands since time immemorial, and we honor the fact that Swampscott has been built upon the traditional and ancestral homes of Native Americans, referred to as Naumengex, and called Swampscott the land of the Red Rock, and-

[Speaker 8] (8:15 - 8:28)
Whereas Indigenous Peoples' Day was first proposed in 1977 by a delegation of Native nations to the United Nations-sponsored International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas, and-

[Speaker 1] (8:28 - 8:48)
Whereas the town of Swampscott is committed to protecting and advocating for justice, human rights, and the dignity of all people who live, work, and visit our community, and to supporting the principles contained in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, endorsed by the United States on December 16th, 2010, and- Whereas the Declaration of Human Rights

[Speaker 8] (8:48 - 9:21)
recognizes the right of Indigenous Peoples to the dignity and diversity of their cultures, traditions, histories, and aspirations, which shall be appropriately reflected in education and public information, and places an obligation to take effective measures in consultation and cooperation with the Indigenous Peoples concerned, to combat prejudice and eliminate discrimination, and to promote tolerance, understanding, and good relations among Indigenous Peoples and all other segments of society, and- Now therefore,

[Speaker 1] (9:21 - 9:49)
on behalf of the entire Select Board, we do hereby proclaim October 14th, 2024, as Indigenous Peoples' Day in the town of Swampscott, Massachusetts, and encourage all faith-based and nonprofit organizations, residents, businesses, and public institutions to acknowledge, honor, and value, and celebrate Indigenous Peoples' historic and current contributions, locally and beyond, while also recognizing the ongoing and interconnected struggles of all Indigenous communities, locally and beyond.

[Speaker 8] (9:51 - 10:02)
In witness- In witness whereof, we have hereon to set our hands and cause to be affixed the great seal of the town of Swampscott, Massachusetts, this first day of October, 2024, Swampscott Select Board.

[Speaker 2] (10:03 - 10:38)
Very good. Okay, so now we will move to the highlight of our evening. We have- We have Senator Creighton and Representative Armini with us here tonight.

We've- This is your second visit to us, correct? So what- We wanted to take this opportunity to let the Senator and the Representative fill the community in on all the wonderful things that you have done for this community and the wonderful things you will be doing for this community.

[Speaker 4] (10:39 - 12:58)
Thank you for laying pretty big expectations for us here tonight. No, in full sincerity, we appreciate being invited here tonight. Not- It's not often that we get to come before local government to talk about what we're doing and to hear from you and to learn, so we do appreciate you taking time out of your busy agenda.

I think I mentioned last time when I was here that I had the honor of serving six years on the Linn City Council and recognize how difficult the job is in local government. You're where the rubber hits the road and it's- it's really difficult. You have difficult decisions that you're feeling the pain directly here on as, you know, residents here, but as local officials, so we thank you.

We- Sorry. We thank you for being a tremendous partner to us on Beacon Hill and making sure that we're aware of what's going on locally. I also wanted to say at the outset congratulations.

Today we were with the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary Augustus, as well as the Attorney General, recognizing the 75 communities that are now in MBTA compliance, MBTA community compliance, and just no- no easy feat. I- I will confess that I was the sponsor of the legislation as well as the amendment that passed. We gave a great deal of leeway to Swampskate's own gov- or Swampskate's own Charlie Baker, then the governor to come up with the regulations and, you know, he signed it into law, which, you know, I wasn't certain at the time, and he was pretty ambitious with his proposals as well as Secretary Keneally.

So I think obviously there's a lot of controversy around it, but there are communities that have been willing to roll up their sleeves, put in the really, really hard work, communicate effectively with the constituents, but also just recognize the need and the crisis that we're facing across the state where families can no longer afford to live here, people are leaving the state because they can't afford to buy or rent here, seniors aren't able to age in their own communities, and our young people aren't able to settle down and start a family. So you were recognized today, and as part of that recognition, thankfully, there was an additional grant program announced, and thank you, Jenny, for putting down the notes.

I'll let you lay out what this does, but the MBTA's Communities Catalyst Fund.

[Speaker 7] (12:59 - 13:00)
Sorry for my handwriting.

[Speaker 4] (13:00 - 15:42)
So it's- it's- it's new to us, that's why we have these notes here, but when Jenny jumps in, she'll explain a little bit more there. We, as a legislature, I think have unfinished business, typically after July 31st of our second year in session. You know, we've kind of wrapped up on things, but that hasn't been the case this year.

While we've got a lot of done, including on housing, the biggest housing bond bill, making investments not only in production of all kinds, but also in our public housing, which has been done to this level ever. We have an economic development bill that we're still working on. Right now, I'm chairing a conference committee on substance use disorder.

We have a few- a number of other pieces of unfinished business that we'd love to come back at the end of session and report back to you on. One big item that we continue to talk, obviously, with the Town of Swampskin on is all the issues that we face at Kings Beach. Obviously, this has been discussed at length here and everywhere to this point, but I just come back to, again, thank you for your partnership.

I think we have a commitment now in the support of the administration to move forward and to further look into UV treatment, along with other alternatives as well, but for a while, I think there was a reluctance there to fully embrace it, and at this point now, they're helping us coordinate with EPA and some of our federal agencies to make sure that we're seeing what dollars are available there. Obviously, there's still things we need to work out. There's still differences of opinion in terms of what's achievable and what's not.

I do express caution in terms of the outfall and the opposition that I've received from environmental groups, as well as other communities I represent, as well as just the overall timeline and the expense. It is a permanent solution, and I respect that, but I do think that if we want to achieve this for, you know, my kids' lifetime or in the near future, we want beaches as clean as we can, that we should really go down this path of pursuing UV and working together to make some big decisions, and again, those decisions happen here at the ground level, so I'm certainly not preaching, just expressing support in what you do and continue collaboration. I'm gonna pause there because I tend to ramble too much, and it's probably better value answering questions, too, so I'm not just giving a speech, so turn it over to my good friend, dear friend, and I forget that Jenny is, this is her first term, and I feel like it's been a decade, so.

Yeah, I feel that way, too.

[Speaker 7] (15:47 - 19:20)
Thank you. You really said it all, but I'll try and add, I'll try, you know, try and add some color. The first thing I want to do is just thank you all, because over the past year, since we were last here, I've just so appreciated our conversations and our partnership.

I know that I can call every single one of you at any moment, and we can sit down and talk, exchange ideas, information, and I think it's that open dialogue that really makes all the difference, because I'm able to help you and you're able to help me, and that is only good for our constituents, and I do think that's rare. You know, I have colleagues who don't have that kind of relationship with their select boards, and so I really value that, and I'm, just thank you so much for that. I will, I guess I'll go over the numbers.

I know you're always interested in state funding. This year, Chapter 70 for Swampscott was up 4.5 percent at 5.34 million dollars. Unrestricted aid only rose 1 percent to about 1.6 million dollars, and one thing that I'm really happy that we did is minimum, Swampscott, like many of the communities around here, minimum aid schools, and the minimum, the per pupil expenditure went from $30 to $104 per pupil for minimum aid districts, so that's fantastic. As you know, because we all opened that wonderful school, the MSBA, because of the legislature, I want to say, was able to contribute more money to finishing the school, offsetting the increase in costs because of inflation. It was, what, 5, 5.3 million dollars. That was, that was a joyful moment when we realized we could bring that home to Swampscott, and having just gone through the school, and used it wisely, it's amazing, amazing, amazing.

In terms of the MBTA Community Catalyst Fund, which was announced today, so we don't have a tremendous amount, but I'm thrilled that Swampscott is going to be eligible for this money. The average, the average grants are going to be between 250,000 and a million dollars. They will be awarded to projects directly linked to multifamily housing production, so that can be water, sewers, sidewalks, roads, other multimodal infrastructure.

The projects will be evaluated, are they ready, how much do they cost, and will they directly create X number of multifamily units. So you can see the focus is on building housing, but this is a great, this will be a great opportunity, particularly as Swampscott figures out what it wants to do with its housing plan. So really happy about that.

[Speaker 4] (19:21 - 19:28)
So I forgot the one thing, main thing I was supposed to speak about was transportation, and I didn't mention it, so if I could, can I steal some of your time?

[Speaker 7] (19:28 - 19:29)
Because he's chairman.

[Speaker 4] (19:30 - 23:53)
Yeah, it's another Green Line derailment, so I don't know if I want to be associated with all things C, but just quickly, you know, through our efforts funding in the legislature, also making the case around the summer tunnel closure, we were able to obviously again have ferry service here on the North Shore. I do think that there's a great deal of momentum behind this for a long time. People roll drives when you talk about water transportation.

Back when I started 19 years ago working for then Senator McGee, then we got it, and you know, some people didn't share the vision and it was put away for a bit, but now there's a full-time ferry, the person's very staff member, the team dedicated to it. There's a whole movement, not just in our community, but to really access water transportation, and not just for seasonal benefits, but year-round. So we're hoping to extend the season again this year and slowly start to build to that year-round schedule, and also the weekends this year were an absolute hit.

Like, I couldn't believe looking at the numbers, it was better ridership than during the weekdays, which for a long time we thought it was just gonna be like a fun thing, you know, maybe a few people use it. So it's, when they went through all the different numbers, Lynn's just jumped out on that, I probably should have brought some facts and some numbers, but we knocked it out of the park. So I think we've made the case for long-term service and looking at different boats, backup boats, so I can say with confidence it will be here for next season, hopefully starting earlier and later.

And then on the commuter rail side of things, we continue to push for electrification. We are still part of phase one on the New Report Rockport line going up to Beverly, which again, with electrification, it's obviously great for the environment, great for public health, when you think about all the folks in EJ communities from Beverly South through Salem, Swampscott, Lynn, Chelsea, Revere, Everett, all those communities, very few of them able to ride, whether because of access to train stops there or because of just too high of a price, yet they have to deal with a great deal of pollution, particulate matter in there, leading to, you know, much poorer health outcomes. So it's certainly an environmental piece, obviously climate change, public health piece, but it's also just a much better, more efficient, more reliable ride, 25% more reliable than the diesel locomotives that we currently have. So you get that frequency, you'll get infill stations, you know, one at South Salem for Salem State, one in Everett, Wonderland, so you have that connection to the Blue Line, that's actually underway, the design funds there are being put to use now.

It's really exciting, Fairmont is getting a pilot, so we were, phase one was Fairmont, us, and Providence Line, just because it already is electrified partially. Fairmont's moving forward, and at first it was, it was bittersweet, right, like we're all rooting for each other, and, you know, one's gonna have to go before the other, we pushed to have ours included, there weren't enough vehicles, but they're gonna be testing kind of a hybrid model, so it's the catenary, well potential catenary, but also having this battery electric technology, which isn't used in passenger vehicles yet, but around the country, municipalities and states are just, you know, really diving in here, so I think we see how Fairmont goes, I think we'll get the sense of that greater frequency, how long those batteries go, and seeing how we can apply it on our own line, which is, you know, longer, but also, you know, I think certainly many of our communities will be willing for that catenary to help charge as well, so no major updates other than we continue to get more money invested towards kind of design and laying out the groundwork, and hoping to see this technology work on the Fairmont line soon.

One last transportation piece was means-tested fares, which for a long time we've fought for just to make sure that all folks, every person in the Commonwealth can have access to public transportation regardless of their income, so folks that are receiving certain, residents that are receiving certain types of assistance are able to have a reduced fare by half on all modes, so that includes your ferry service, which is traditionally more expensive, as well as commuter rail, this will really open a doors for many, and I don't think we've done a great job getting the word out really across the state that this is a benefit for people to take advantage of, so I'm someone watching at home, you know, go to the website and sign up, see if you're eligible, and hopefully it'll lead to greater access.

[Speaker 7] (23:54 - 23:59)
Did you mention with electrification the price will become... It didn't, Janet, thank you so much.

[Speaker 4] (23:59 - 24:41)
It was part of the vote, it was for commuter rail up and down our environmental justice card, I sort of said at the start, to be subway type prices, so $2.40. That was the vote that was taken, the idea being greater frequency, more passengers, obviously you can reduce fares, but right now, I mean, I grew up in Lynn, I did not take the commuter rail until I was in my 20s, no one, you just can't take it at that price point.

With means-tested fares, I think we'll see that shift, but overall, you know, we get that frequency, it's more or less, it's no longer commuter rail, it's, you know, it's essentially a subway, subway. Now we open it up to questions from the distinguished body.

[Speaker 2] (24:42 - 24:51)
So, do we have questions? Well, I know we have questions. Want to go first?

Go ahead, Doug. Doug, we're waiting on you.

[Speaker 5] (24:52 - 25:14)
All right, I have 13 questions. So, I probably don't want to get too much on record, so you can be very conservative about it, but like the electrification in this area, like what is your wild guess about like when that might really, are we talking about three years, ten years, you know, like just ballpark?

[Speaker 4] (25:14 - 26:40)
So, I'll base it off the Fairmont line, I believe it's within three years, they will be up and running, so it's, the procurement really takes the longest, you know, that is three to six to seven years, right? So, until we procure the vehicles, it's kind of hard to say. So, it also depends, too, if this technology pans out or not.

I, for a long time, pushed back when we talked about battery electric, just because no other, no other passenger service in the U.S. used it. I think it's, it's probably easier to get to a, for our line, a catenary and traditional model, which does exist. So, there could be vehicles that pop up.

It sounds strange, but like there have been a few different opportunities throughout time where it's like, hey, we could seize all of those vehicles and maybe not have full service, but get it going. Hard to say timeline. If it, within the next seven to ten years, we had the full line, I would consider that to be a victory.

If Fairmont pans out and all of a sudden you see the battery electric being mass-produced and there's more vehicles to purchase, we would be the next logical line, and then you don't need catenary. So, you would think, even if the infill stations aren't complete, that we could at least get some battery electric back and forth and have that frequency. Sorry, I, I used to say three years, and then I was proven wrong.

Yeah. No, that's why I came and went.

[Speaker 5] (26:40 - 27:04)
And I really do thank you. I mean, you've been on this for a long, long time, a long, long time. I didn't have gray hair before we started the investigation process.

On the housing, I know you just heard about it today. Do you know, you, you kind of mentioned, Jenny, that it was like kind of for surround support stuff. Could it be for the housing itself?

[Speaker 7] (27:04 - 27:05)
Could be for purchasing land.

[Speaker 5] (27:06 - 27:06)
Okay.

[Speaker 7] (27:07 - 27:11)
Okay. And it can be for engineering designs.

[Speaker 5] (27:12 - 27:59)
Okay. Okay. And then, in terms of the housing bond bill, is there anything that we should be doing right now to line ourselves up for, you know, if you don't have the answer, you know, off the top of your head, I understand, but like the question is, like, what planning should we be doing right now to best position ourselves for that?

Are we just waiting for different contracts that are put out, you know, procurements that are put out, just kind of waiting for that guidance, or are there ways that we should be thinking right now with our public housing that we need to have a feasibility study prepared right now, so that when something comes out, we already have it in hand, like, what should we be doing?

[Speaker 4] (28:00 - 28:19)
It's a great question. Maybe we're gonna get back to you. It was so robust.

A lot of it is more private sector driven, you know, incentives for developers to come in. So, you know, obviously you make the land use decisions around here, depending on what fits best. On the public housing piece, let me, let me look into that, because that, maybe there are things that we can, we could be doing now to position.

[Speaker 7] (28:19 - 28:34)
No, that's a great question. I mean, we put in a hundred and fifty million dollars to decarbonize public housing. So, great, great question.

What can cities and towns do to access that hundred and fifty million, and when's it going to become available?

[Speaker 5] (28:34 - 28:38)
And I know these things usually take a while to kind of spin the programs out and all that.

[Speaker 4] (28:38 - 28:50)
I should say too, it's, I mean, as you know, anytime bonding, sometimes it's authorizations, right? So it's, you know, the governor has to get, the administration has to get these programs up and running, and, you know. Right, there's a lot of chatter.

[Speaker 5] (28:50 - 28:56)
It's 5.2 billion or whatever, but really the, the real meat of it is, like, half that or whatever.

[Speaker 7] (28:56 - 28:58)
Or you can only bond a certain amount.

[Speaker 4] (28:58 - 28:58)
You can.

[Speaker 7] (28:59 - 28:59)
Right.

[Speaker 4] (29:00 - 29:02)
We'll, we'll, we'll send you over a break.

[Speaker 7] (29:02 - 29:03)
We will.

[Speaker 8] (29:07 - 29:24)
Yeah, that was, no, that was, that was my question. So now that, now that we have the, the support of the, the administration, and we're looking into the UV treatment, can you kind of walk us through a timeline, best case scenario, as to when this could potentially be implemented in Kings Beach?

[Speaker 4] (29:24 - 30:58)
I mean, many people have been involved here, but I believe the, the timeline from Kleinfelder for the UV piece was three years. We don't have the funding in place, and the administration has not, I should say, has not committed the funding, but rather as a, you know, the, the testing that has come back has been promising, it's been good. There's still certain weather events that have not quite been tested, but I don't think this was ever intended to be a hundred percent, you know, effective.

It's, I think it's 85 to 90 percent to eliminate that, combined with obviously the great work that Swamisk has been doing at IUE, and you guys have been a tremendous partner, and the work that Lynn's been doing as well. If, I, I don't know how much money you need to get a project going at this level. I mean, we are pursuing different federal grants that, again, if the administration is not helping you on that end, I don't know that the federal government pays much attention to Lynn or Swamisk necessarily coming without that level of support.

So, we still have our work to do, though. I, even under the best circumstances, we're looking at a number years away. There's also, you know, potential for pilots, too.

Like, I, I don't have an exact, you know, we're doing this, this, and this, and this timeline, but I think progress has been made, and there are no good answers on this, as everyone here knows. Like, there, all of these scenarios require more patience, more money, and a lot of headaches for both municipalities, certainly.

[Speaker 7] (30:58 - 31:00)
And we have to get through the permitting process.

[Speaker 8] (31:00 - 31:11)
Yes, yes, no, understood. And then, and then on the state level, in conjunction, are we also, are we, is the, is the outfall extension still an option that is being, that is currently being explored?

[Speaker 4] (31:11 - 31:54)
I don't think anything has been taken off the table, right? We all have the same goal of having this open as soon as we can. I think, you know, there may be some prioritization in need, in that, if we have UV, we have the testing results.

They're showing how effective it has been. I think it's worth pursuing that. I mean, there's just been no easy answers, unfortunately.

So, I think we still need to do our due diligence on all, all modes. So, sorry, it's, could be, it's progress, but it's not, if we do X, Y, and Z, we'll have this, the beach cleaning up and running in three years.

[Speaker 5] (31:55 - 31:56)
Do you mind if I pipe in?

[Speaker 4] (31:56 - 31:57)
Go ahead, go ahead.

[Speaker 5] (31:57 - 32:19)
I can't help myself. Yeah, go ahead. Two things.

I assume you're aware of the kind of latest testing that the famous Liz Smith and committee have done recently, and Chris Buckley, and the fact that there are some things happening in terms of the decrease, an impact of all of that. That doesn't sound, that's, we should make sure that you have that.

[Speaker 7] (32:20 - 32:20)
The decrease?

[Speaker 5] (32:21 - 32:33)
Decrease in bacteria levels and, like, what, what's driving that, and some of the testing has shown that there has been, something's happening, right, Liz? Never mind, I won't call you out on it. We'll get you the information.

[Speaker 7] (32:34 - 32:36)
Yeah, yeah, decrease I was not aware of.

[Speaker 5] (32:36 - 33:14)
Yeah, right, and I just want to say, you know, it's very much appreciated, kind of, the work, and I know that this is, like, extremely complicated with so many different opinions, and, you know, evolving technologies, and trying this out, and trying to get to something is great. Yeah, I'll just say one little person here, skepticism about a lot of these things, in terms of them actually really working. I know that, if I understand correctly, the UV was kind of a clearish day.

It wasn't really worked in kind of normal conditions. I think you referred to this.

[Speaker 4] (33:15 - 33:40)
I don't think, I disagree with that. Okay, I would say for UV, it's been tested in many different scenarios. I think that there's a certain level of turbidity, that's what I mean, but to the same end, it was not for major storm events.

It was never expected to work, so we continue to test out those, and I have the same level of skepticism on all of our options for forests, to be frank, both in terms of timeline and effectiveness, so.

[Speaker 7] (33:42 - 34:07)
I think that's an important point. You know, this UV was never expected to work in a hurricane or a bad storm. It was, it's really meant to just open the beach as quickly as possible on good days.

I think we have to sort of set our expectation. UV has never been seen as the solution. It's been seen as an option to open the beach more than it is right now.

[Speaker 4] (34:08 - 34:21)
And obviously, I mean, the administration had skepticism as well, and they said, oh, if you want to try this out, you know, test it out and show us, and that's what we did. So it's, you know, we're taking the steps as painstaking as they may be, and there are more to come.

[Speaker 7] (34:21 - 34:42)
And we've run down every ground ball, when you think about, you know, we looked at the parasitic acid, the ozone, I mean the dechloric chloride, and again, if any of those pop up, we're still, you know, we're running down every ground ball.

[Speaker 5] (34:42 - 34:46)
Yep. Meanwhile, you gotta line the pipes, fix the pipes.

[Speaker 2] (34:47 - 34:50)
Daniel, do you have any questions? I don't, no.

[Speaker 1] (34:51 - 36:15)
I guess this is a follow-up to the Kings Beach conversation. I know we obviously, as a community, undertook to do significant testing this year, which we were not required to do, but we committed to do, and I think, hopefully, the feeling is we will continue to commit to do, if not even greater, than the amount of testing we did this year. And I guess we've not yet talked about a sort of consortium of testing across our region, but I don't think that's something we're disinterested in, and, you know, to maybe look at testing in Nahant, and testing in Lynn, and how we could sort of figure out a way to unify our testing efforts, either to pool for, you know, better cost or better functionality, or the data lives in one place, and it helps us pursue all these issues on the table, right?

Because the data is going to drive the solution, and I think we've said here tonight and other nights that it's not one solution that's going to solve all our problems, or else we'd already be doing it. So, you know, just interested if, when you have the stakeholder meetings and conversations, if anything along the lines of sort of a unification of testing across the region has come up, and what you mean?

[Speaker 4] (36:16 - 36:16)
The water quality?

[Speaker 1] (36:16 - 36:18)
Sorry. Yeah, the water quality test.

[Speaker 4] (36:18 - 36:39)
The bacteria level testing. Okay, yeah, so I mean, it's certainly, I mean, it's DPH and DCR on our side. Right.

So we can certainly work with those organizations, and I think there's different testing schedules and all that, and we would be happy to do that. I don't know that Lynn's testing the DCR water, so.

[Speaker 1] (36:39 - 38:22)
Yeah, I think the feeling, at least for our own community, is that wasn't enough, and so we, you know, obviously got on board with purchasing our own testing functionality and training, our own volunteers, and undertook a monumental amount of time and energy to make sure that not just what we were required to do by DCR, but what we needed to do to make our communities, beaches safe for our community, that we did that.

And, you know, obviously we're encouraging other cities and towns that surround us to do the same thing, because I think some of the data we found out wasn't exactly what we expected to find out, because we weren't always testing the other beaches, because we weren't required to. So, I think, you know, the more data we have, it can't hurt us to find a solution, because there are different data points that we've come up with based on the amount of testing we've done this year, involving weather events, involving the way the tide comes in and out, involving, you know, the phases of the moon, and all sorts of things that I cannot even speak to, but I know that smarter people than I are finding, sort of, maybe some credible data there that can point to other things, other than just the pipes leak that caused the bacteria to come onto the beach and make the beach unable to be enjoyed by our community. So, I just, you know, some sort of standard that's greater than the standard that DCR imposes on us in the region might be something to talk about or to look at, and I don't know if that's a conversation that's sort of come up at all at any of those King's Speech stakeholder meetings.

[Speaker 4] (38:22 - 39:19)
Absolutely. So, definitely committed to working with DPH and DCR and connecting whoever the folks are here to kind of figure out where, you know, what the differences are and how you work together or, you know, take some of your good ideas and apply them. The system is greatly flawed, right?

I live just off of Windshore Drive. We're down, spend a lot of time in Swampscot, though, a proud letter. My family's here all the time, and those flags aren't always indicative of what it's actually, the waters, right?

Obviously, there's delay in the testing, and it's been a challenge, and every year we discuss it. The Metropolitan Beaches Commission, of which I chair, discusses it. We bring it up.

We have hearings. We talk to you. We have no good ideas.

Sorry, we have great ideas. We have not landed anywhere that's really moved the needle in terms of us feeling confident in what that flag means, right? So, I'd love to partner with, or we in the state, would love to partner with you guys.

[Speaker 7] (39:19 - 39:30)
Is there an end-of-season report that's been compiled that could give us, you know, sort of a narrative, because we're not science-y people.

[Speaker 3] (39:31 - 39:31)
I'm sure we can pull.

[Speaker 7] (39:32 - 39:43)
We'll have one. So, words would be great in some kind of a narrative that we can then use, and you could take to the Metropolitan Beaches Commission, and we can talk to other communities.

[Speaker 3] (39:44 - 39:48)
We get some great slide decks and data from every single day over the summer.

[Speaker 4] (39:48 - 40:06)
I mean, the other challenge, too, is you look up and down the coast this past year. It's just, every beach is closed all over the place, right? From CSOs and other weather-related issues.

So, not to say that you take comfort in other communities suffering like we are, but it's a much bigger issue that the state really needs to grapple with.

[Speaker 1] (40:06 - 40:27)
Yeah, I think now's the opportunity because it's not just us. I feel like it used to just be a small corner, a small segment of beaches, and those beaches were dirty. It's not just us.

It's higher coastlines that are having these issues, and so maybe there should be some real money put towards these issues instead of sort of leaving them in a corner of the coastline to deal with on their own, so.

[Speaker 7] (40:28 - 40:30)
It's really part and parcel of the aging infrastructure.

[Speaker 13] (40:32 - 40:32)
Not enough.

[Speaker 1] (40:33 - 40:35)
We need more. More. We need more.

We need our beaches clean.

[Speaker 2] (40:38 - 41:09)
So, before, I do have some questions that don't pertain to Kings Beach or water quality, but before we move from that subtopic, I just want to see, we have the chair of our harbor, of our water and our infrastructure committee, and I just want to, Liz, did you have any questions here? I just want to open that up for you. I hate to put you on the spot, but you're here.

I don't want you to call tomorrow and say, hey, you could have called.

[Speaker 5] (41:10 - 41:13)
I think we'd ask Liz to give the answers. Can you give the answers?

[Speaker 9] (41:14 - 43:39)
So, we did do, we tested Fisherman's Beach every single day this summer, and we learned a lot. We learned about rain correlation. We learned that testing every day, you can test on a next Wednesday and miss a whole slew of exceedances in the water based on what's going on when the pollution comes out and where it travels based on tides and currents, and we're still correlating the weather data and the tide data and all of that, but we do have preliminary, which we've already shared with the select board.

It does show a strong correlation to weather and really demonstrated that testing every day is more beneficial, more helpful, and gets us more information that's useful to the public. It's not real time. We all know we don't have test results for at least 24 hours once we take the samples, but it's a whole lot better than testing once a week and not really knowing what's going on in between, so we can share that information with you.

I think a regional solution is a really good idea to start thinking about. Marblehead might want to be involved. They've already approached us, some people from Marblehead, about, you know, what are you doing?

How are you doing it? It's definitely a scalable process and not that expensive. It's more about getting the people trained and the people that can do the work, so I would say that is something that could maybe be a separate discussion for the steering committee because Kings Beach is tested by DCR every day, and we do know that there's a problem almost every day, right?

At least 90% of the days there's a problem, so that and then and then that led to the whole discussion about complementary solutions, but we did talk at the last meeting about the community change grants, and we've had more discussions about that. We've actually connected with Valerie and Chris and started talking to see how we can put our heads together around parallel processing so that we're not just looking at one solution, but we're looking at the breadth of solutions, and there's even a possibility that that could fund some source elimination work as well, so it's very encouraging. So anything you can help, you know, help us along with that would be beneficial to everybody.

[Speaker 7] (43:40 - 43:48)
Well, let us, you know, let us know. So for instance, you know, some of this information about the data, I didn't know. You didn't know.

[Speaker 9] (43:49 - 43:54)
You know, we'll share, I'll share, we can share our latest deck with you tomorrow. I can send it to you.

[Speaker 7] (43:54 - 44:47)
Yeah, no, that would be fabulous. I mean, and as you know, the steering committee's really been focused on, or task force, I don't know what it's called, it's really been focused on on finding a solution, or for Kings in particular, for what you're talking about now is a, would be a broadening of what is, what began as a very informal group of, you know, to just try and bridge the divide between Swamscott and Lynn, and trying, you know, work things out, so it's not, sometimes I hear, and I read on social media, people talking about it, and it's, it really was just an informal group that was brought together to find some solutions, so it may be that looking down the line, some, a different kind of group needs to come together, you know, to explore those kinds of details.

[Speaker 2] (44:50 - 44:53)
Okay, Sean, before we jump subjects.

[Speaker 3] (44:53 - 47:55)
You know, I just want to thank our delegation, you know, the work you did to get us an additional five million dollars to address the inflation that happened during the pandemic, helped really make that school so successful. I want to just underscore how unique that is for a town of our size to get that type of support. The work around Kings Beach is is extraordinary, you know, the fact that, you know, Swamscott and Lynn have come together to really study, spend $100,000, that Swamscott spent $100,000 of its budget to really put together an engineering study on alternative or supplemental strategies because, as Doug has pointed out numerous times, it's not one or the other.

We're going to continue to do IDDE. We're going to sleeve every one of these pipes that the town and other communities across the Commonwealth haven't focused on because they're underground, and we're so busy fixing all the things that are above ground that, you know, our beach is really struggling. I hear you on UV.

I just want to say we're a small town, and when we think about projects, whether we're building a school or housing for veterans, it starts with site selection. Where do we put it? How do we fit it in to one of the most densely settled regions in the Commonwealth?

And it's not just Swamscott. It's Lynn, too. Like, the neighborhoods that we share, they're so tight.

I worry about the timeline associated with site selection for a really industrial type of technology that's primarily for wastewater that we're trying to shoehorn into drainage, and so this is complicated. I'll be in meetings this Friday with the mayor and Lynn. We're going to continue to explore it.

I'm fully open to being surprised by something, but I worry about this because I look around the country and I see that Myrtle Beach took them two and a half years to permit an outfall, and I kind of think, why not this place? Why not the place that we care about? I get the environmental folks that are pushing back.

We've looked at the volume of drainage when it comes to Naha Bay, and it is so, you know, de minimis in terms of the volume of water. I just think if we can keep an open mind and continue to explore how we look at this, we could solve this for the future forever and not worry about whether or not we have a weather event or a day that, you know, might be, you know, a red flag day, you know. That's the hope that I have for this region.

[Speaker 4] (47:56 - 49:20)
Can I just quickly, I appreciate, I think we do need to keep all options on the table. I will just point out that we as a group, and Strom's going to put a lot into this, and we appreciate that money, skin in the game, to having Kleinfelder come in to do all this work over the last few years. The report did identify a site that was deemed the correct size for what we're looking to do, and they also did the work that showed that UV highly outranked all the other alternatives.

So I just don't want to roll back the work that was done by, I believe, or I mean you still work with them in different ways, like they're a well-respected firm. So I'm a politician, I don't know this stuff. That's why we rely on these folks, and not to say we shouldn't have a level of skepticism.

And for the same, for the outfall, it was seven to ten years, I believe, to the tune of up to 75 million dollars, which is not insurmountable, but it's just, if we're looking to the work that was done that you guys, and that we all, you know, contributed to, I'm just hesitant to ignore it, I guess. And not saying you're ignoring, excuse me, that was not. I appreciate that.

I just, I think we should take that into consideration, but all options should be on the table, and I know that you and the mayor continue to talk. It's certainly not one community against the other, just two communities trying to solve a really difficult problem together. Senator, I appreciate it.

And your density point is a hundred percent accurate, too.

[Speaker 3] (49:20 - 49:24)
A hundred thousand dollars is literally peanuts in terms of feasibility.

[Speaker 4] (49:25 - 49:25)
Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (49:25 - 50:06)
So those cost estimates are kind of planning numbers. We've learned a little bit more about, you know, the systems, the supplemental systems, and I think, you know, I look back and I see that the Executive Office of Environment, the Secretary and Correspondent have said that, you know, they support an outfall. The head of the regional DEP supports an outfall.

I hear that as our state partners are willing to get behind something that really could, for generations, solve this problem and get us away from a system that might be, you know, it's energy dependent, it's, you know, what we get weather dependent.

[Speaker 4] (50:07 - 50:43)
The operating costs are fairly low, and I would just say that I appreciate you. There have been concerns in writing from the Secretary, as well as the Undersecretary, and other folks, the EPA, the OEA. There have also been subsequent meetings where they said, we are supportive.

You've demonstrated that UB is effective, and we want to help you pursue this, and we're gonna reach out to the EPA. So, like, I get it. It's been a back-and-forth, and it's challenging when you have different.

If outfall was achievable in the near future, at a fraction of the costs, I would be open to it. Again, there would be challenges, obviously, from surrounding communities. I'm grateful, Senator.

[Speaker 2] (50:43 - 50:44)
I don't want to believe.

[Speaker 4] (50:44 - 50:47)
Anyway, I appreciate your partnership in this, and we'll continue to work together. Thank you.

[Speaker 2] (50:47 - 52:02)
Now, for my questions, I'm just, two questions aren't that complicated. One is, I've looked at other communities, and money that they're receiving on the federal level, federal grants and federal things, and I feel like Swampscot, as a community, we're not getting that benefit at all. So, now, you guys are state, but I'm just wondering if you could assist us with getting a little bit more assistance with our friends on the federal side.

Do you just have an example we could go on? Not with me, right here. I don't have that file with me, but I will get back to you this week.

I just would like to have a little bit more access to our two senators, and maybe they can help get some funding down there, not only just for some of the economic development we're trying to work on here in town, but also for Kings Beach, and some of the other situations along the North Shore, to really get some of these sewer issues taken care of, just some type of funding. I just, I'm not really feeling the love. So, and I'm hoping you can, maybe you folks can help us.

[Speaker 7] (52:03 - 53:02)
So, I will say the earmarking process at the federal level has changed in recent years. So, what Congressman Moulton and the senators have to do, is they now created, basically, a grants process, where communities, if they want, apply, and non-profits can apply, not just communities, but non-profits too, can apply for a pool of money that each representative and senator is given. And so, and they send out solicitations every year, and ask, you know, please apply for this.

They tend to want, you know, shovel-ready projects. So, that's, that's one avenue, and they tend to rely on that. The rest of the federal process is a bit of a mystery to me.

Okay.

[Speaker 4] (53:03 - 53:30)
I would say that, I mean, as we started to look to potential grants to help with UVA, or any of the alternatives, and pilots, whatever, this conversation has come up that we really do need to, and they've been at the table, but we really need to work closely with our federal delegation, because it's going to be that funding. So, certainly our relationships there, we'd love to, you know, maybe we could have a follow-up meeting with the town and the congressional delegation.

[Speaker 7] (53:32 - 53:43)
They've said, they pretty much said they're waiting for us to pull the trigger, right? That's what they're saying. There's, you know, they're saying, once you decide what you want to do, give us a grant.

[Speaker 4] (53:43 - 53:44)
Yeah, I think once we apply.

[Speaker 7] (53:44 - 53:45)
That's what they've said to us.

[Speaker 4] (53:46 - 53:49)
Okay. It's the same how it works here. If there's a grant that, I mean, if there's ever a grant.

[Speaker 7] (53:49 - 53:49)
Well, that's true.

[Speaker 4] (53:50 - 53:51)
Once you apply. Right.

[Speaker 7] (53:51 - 54:01)
It's the same at the state level, you know, you know, once you apply, we will support whatever, you know, grant program you're going for. We do it all the time.

[Speaker 2] (54:02 - 54:45)
Okay. So, I just want to just jump to different grants. You and I, Jenny and I have had conversations.

We are right on the verge of hopefully being able to bring a hotel to Swampscott and to really put some serious economic development into our community, which will benefit the entire North Shore and the state, and we really would like to see some assistance from the state, whether it's for grants or whatever's out there, but we really need to know what's there, what we can do, and how we can maximize any type of relief. So, just to put that on the top of your list and help us out, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Speaker 7] (54:45 - 55:05)
Well, as you and I have talked about, you know, we're in the process of putting together a meeting for the town of Swampscott to sit down with Economic Development and probably Environmental Affairs. It may be a separate meeting to talk about just that. Right.

We appreciate it.

[Speaker 12] (55:06 - 55:06)
Thank you.

[Speaker 2] (55:06 - 55:10)
So, if we're all set, really appreciate you coming once again.

[Speaker 12] (55:11 - 55:11)
Thank you. Appreciate your time.

[Speaker 2] (55:11 - 55:18)
I appreciate all your hard work and showing up at all of our events with your killer speeches. You knock us out all the time.

[Speaker 4] (55:19 - 55:31)
Thank you for Swamptoberfest. That was a great escape for my young ones. Oh, good.

I have them. I just come and mooch all of your programming on Town Hall. I don't know if I'm allowed to as a Lynn resident, but.

All the time.

[Speaker 5] (55:31 - 55:32)
We're keeping track.

[Speaker 4] (55:33 - 55:34)
Mooch away, Senator. I paid.

[Speaker 7] (55:35 - 55:38)
You're allowed like a certain number of tickets per year.

[Speaker 4] (55:38 - 55:40)
I'm gonna smash my pumpkin, too.

[Speaker 7] (55:40 - 55:43)
Oh, really? Okay, we'll see you at the Pumpkin Smash.

[Speaker 3] (55:43 - 55:44)
More the merrier.

[Speaker 7] (55:44 - 55:45)
And you're gonna play Smashing Pumpkins.

[Speaker 3] (55:46 - 55:52)
That's a great idea. We will play a few of those songs. I saw them live this year.

Awesome. You did?

[Speaker 4] (55:56 - 55:59)
Screen day, Smashing Pumpkins. Thank you.

[Speaker 2] (55:59 - 56:00)
Thank you so much.

[Speaker 3] (56:00 - 56:03)
Thank you very much. It's been like 25 years since I've seen screen day.

[Speaker 2] (56:04 - 56:10)
Okay, now we'll move on to sign the warrant for the state election.

[Speaker 3] (56:11 - 56:26)
Right, this is a ministerial responsibility for our democracy. As the select board, this is your warrant and requires your approval and signature.

[Speaker 2] (56:27 - 56:29)
So you need a motion?

[Speaker 3] (56:30 - 56:41)
Yes, if you just motion to approve the warrant as presented, we can either attach your digital signatures or you can sign it. I'll make the motion to approve the warrant as written.

[Speaker 2] (56:42 - 56:42)
Second, Katie?

[Speaker 1] (56:42 - 56:43)
Second, yes.

[Speaker 2] (56:43 - 56:44)
All in favor?

[Speaker 1] (56:44 - 56:44)
Aye.

[Speaker 2] (56:45 - 57:02)
So moved. Okay, moving along. Discussion and possible vote to sign the memorandum of understanding for interagency mutual aid for Essex County.

Did I say Essex County Police?

[Speaker 3] (57:02 - 57:02)
Yes.

[Speaker 2] (57:02 - 57:03)
Essex County Police.

[Speaker 3] (57:05 - 57:49)
So this is a standard mutual aid agreement as I understand it. You know, it is just part of a standard mutual aid shared services. If there's ever an incident or an event, we would receive support from communities that participate in the mutual aid agreement.

We have a number of, we have 34 cities and towns in Essex County and looks like about three-quarters of them. Captain Cable is here tonight to represent the chief. Captain, would you like to share any additional thoughts about the agreement?

[Speaker 10] (57:57 - 59:35)
Thank you very much. So about 20 years ago, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts recommended that cities and towns enter into an agreement such as this to take care of some jurisdictional issues that were commonly cropping up in criminal cases. So outside of this agreement, the only time that we can assist each other is fresh and continuous pursuit or a direct OIC to OIC request.

So if an officer needs assistance from another community, it's a matter of getting in touch with our OIC, having them somehow called. OIC is officer in charge? I'm sorry, officer in charge.

The person that's in charge of the police departments at the time. It's very difficult and it makes it cumbersome and it impacts a lot of cases. We've initiated mutual aid either sending or receiving 96 times in the last three years.

More often than most people would realize, sometimes it's very mundane accidents which Lynn needs assistance, we need assistance. Recently, Lynn assisted us with a foot pursuit and we actually engage this or use this agreement many times in our protest a few years back. Just so everybody understands, this doesn't mean that any other officer can come into the town of Swampscott and just be exercising their authority.

The second they come here and they act under their authority as a police officer, they have to check in with us and the Swampscott Police retain full control over our jurisdiction. We also assume no liability for anybody that comes and works within the town of Swampscott. The sending agency retains that liability but the same applies to us when we assist with another agency.

And the agreement is reviewed annually by the Mass. Chiefs of Police just to make sure it's operating as intended. Is there any questions that I can answer?

[Speaker 2] (59:37 - 59:40)
Danielle, do you have any questions? I don't have any questions, no.

[Speaker 3] (59:41 - 59:53)
The only question I have is why are there so many that aren't, it just seems like every time I see it I'm like why, why, like why isn't the city of Peabody, you know, or is it, are they just out of sync or is it?

[Speaker 10] (59:53 - 1:00:10)
Yes, I think that's what happened. It works well and it gets off of people's radars. So it started in 2003 is when they first pulled this together.

By 2010 there was 100% participation and then since then I think some agencies just haven't basically renewed this agreement but the Mass. Chiefs is pushing to get once once again to 100%.

[Speaker 3] (1:00:10 - 1:00:24)
Yeah, there's no cost to it. There's no, it's just basically in the event of an emergency, we protect the town and we will support our region with public safety, so.

[Speaker 2] (1:00:25 - 1:00:28)
Great, so we need a motion.

[Speaker 3] (1:00:29 - 1:00:31)
Authorize the chair to sign the agreement.

[Speaker 2] (1:00:32 - 1:00:59)
So moved. Second. All in favor?

Aye. So moved. All right, next we're, we have discussion and possible vote on 224,000 National Grid Grant opportunity for lighting with future requests for or in funding.

We talked about this at our last meeting and Sean is just giving us an update.

[Speaker 3] (1:01:00 - 1:01:51)
Sure, some good news. We are not under the same kind of time duress that we were two weeks ago. I did meet with Joe and Dulette and Max Casper.

They have reached out to National Grid. Thank you, Joe. Yep, Joe's in the back of the room here.

He's a little camera shy, but Joe has said that while we'll still need to seek funding at a special town meeting this fall, the work can actually happen sometime this spring. So we'll be back in a couple of weeks with an update on the procurement of this lighting system and the funding. There are some things that are going to change in terms of what we presented at our last meeting in terms of how we can finance the work, but we're pulling that together.

[Speaker 2] (1:01:51 - 1:02:25)
Great, any questions? Okay, so now we will move on to discussion and possible vote on members for the following boards and commissions, starting with Commission on Disability. Danielle?

Oh, no, no, so on Disability we're moving, we're gonna, we're moving that to our next, for, to a future meeting. Yes. I got it.

Recreation?

[Speaker 6] (1:02:27 - 1:02:28)
That's me.

[Speaker 2] (1:02:30 - 1:02:46)
So we are nominating Cynthia Flannery. So we need a motion to nominate Cynthia Flannery to the Recreation Commission for, is there a period of, what's the, three-year term?

[Speaker 1] (1:02:48 - 1:02:48)
Okay.

[Speaker 2] (1:02:50 - 1:02:52)
Nominating, we're appointing her.

[Speaker 1] (1:02:52 - 1:02:57)
So she expires next year and then she'll come up for re-election on a three-year term? Exactly.

[Speaker 2] (1:02:58 - 1:02:59)
So, okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:02:59 - 1:03:01)
So it's one, it's a one year.

[Speaker 2] (1:03:01 - 1:03:07)
Final year of a three-year. Okay. Alright, so do we have a motion?

Motion. On the floor? We second?

[Speaker 5] (1:03:08 - 1:03:08)
I'll second.

[Speaker 2] (1:03:09 - 1:03:10)
All in favor? Aye. Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:03:11 - 1:03:23)
I just want to confirm that the, this was a consensus among the chair, yourself, and that this is the correct person for the job.

[Speaker 5] (1:03:24 - 1:03:27)
Yes. Why are we doing it now if she still has one more year?

[Speaker 2] (1:03:29 - 1:03:32)
She doesn't, it's open, she's filling the spot. Okay.

[Speaker 6] (1:03:33 - 1:03:38)
It is a one year initial, yeah. That particular spot that she's taken. Yes.

[Speaker 2] (1:03:40 - 1:03:48)
Okay, so now we have Water and Sewer Infrastructure Advisory Committee. We're moving up a alternate into the vacant position.

[Speaker 8] (1:03:49 - 1:04:09)
Yeah, that's correct. So we've, so I've, I've discussed with, with Liz Smith, and who's the chair of the Water Sewer Infrastructure Advisory Committee, and it's her recommendation, and I support it, to recommend the appointment of Matthew Pellin as a member with a one-year term which expires June 30, 2025.

[Speaker 1] (1:04:10 - 1:04:12)
Do we have a motion?

[Speaker 2] (1:04:14 - 1:04:15)
Do you second?

[Speaker 1] (1:04:15 - 1:04:16)
Yes, I'll second.

[Speaker 2] (1:04:16 - 1:04:24)
All in favor? Aye. Okay.

And Zoning Board of Appeals, we have Danielle up again?

[Speaker 6] (1:04:24 - 1:04:45)
Yep, so this is Michelle Graham for the actual member position, and Anthony Sanchez for the associate position. And, yes, I, Heather Roman and myself, and Marissa Meaney, also for the associate position. And, yes, I, Heather Roman and myself, and Marissa Meaney, also for the associate position.

And, yes, I, Heather Roman and myself, and Marissa Meaney, also for the associate position. And, yes, I, Heather Roman and myself, and Marissa Meaney, also for the associate position. And, yes, I, Heather Roman and myself, and Marissa Meaney, also for the associate position.

And, yes, I, Heather Roman and myself, and Marissa Meaney, also for the associate position. And, yes, I, Heather Roman and myself, and Marissa Meaney, also worked on this one. We had a lot of really good candidates, and we agree that these two will be appointed.

[Speaker 2] (1:04:49 - 1:04:51)
So, is that your motion? That is my motion. We have a second?

[Speaker 8] (1:04:52 - 1:05:08)
Second. I had a question. So, later on in the consent agenda, there is information about the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Do these appointments have anything to do with something a consent agenda item number one no yeah totally

[Speaker 2] (1:05:08 - 1:05:15)
separate hmm that's just in the consent it's just a it's in a fix yeah what we

[Speaker 5] (1:05:15 - 1:05:22)
did last time yeah okay yeah that's a correction okay okay so all in favor

[Speaker 2] (1:05:25 - 1:05:32)
all right so we have all that fixed now we're on discussion of possible to men select board handbook and code of conduct

[Speaker 1] (1:05:40 - 1:06:06)
the revised handbook on Sunday to the board but it was pointed out that it was not a red line so if you would like I did a compare which I emailed before the meeting but it was very close to the meeting so I could either go through and tell you what sections I made changes to that way we can approve that way or we can have further discussion whatever uses the chair so I'm open to anything

[Speaker 2] (1:06:06 - 1:06:27)
it's just because I didn't have the red line I did double-check a few things so there's a few things that on my copy that we talked about changing last week that we didn't change for example under chapter 3 board meetings he motions the

[Speaker 1] (1:06:27 - 1:09:10)
chair may not make a second motion under chapter 3 3e so would we would it be okay if we just went in order with the red line and when we got to that point you pointed out sure I can if you if what do I do just log into teams and share if you want to give me the ability to share I do not currently have it ok alright so scrolling down the first additional change that was made and this is obviously the comparison when you do a compare it accepts the changes that were made from the last revision and it only shows the difference of the two so it's not going to show that all the changes that we had agreed to the last meeting so Mary Ellen as we get to the points if you think some of the changes I made are not reflective of what was discussed just let yours minority have yours might have it so okay so this is section C chapter 3 3 C I'm sorry no before that there was a change that came up on the red line that we made this to business day right so that's fine hopefully everybody I just want to point out all the changes so that everybody knows there was some formatting issues in this section but you had something in E so does yours show that the chair the chair is we have here any member except for the chair can make a motion motions must be seconded in order to move a board vote the chair may not

[Speaker 2] (1:09:10 - 1:09:19)
second a motion so are we staying with that because I thought we went to a chair can second a motion okay right that was not we were going to take the

[Speaker 1] (1:09:19 - 1:09:36)
not taking the knot out the knot out so then some changes were made in g1 hold on something before that I do have

[Speaker 2] (1:09:36 - 1:10:02)
some so we lift E and if you're in F 3 3 town council at the request of the board comma town council may attend meetings to provide legal direction give I'm just wondering should that say at the at the request of the board or chair because what happens if is this saying that we're asking the whole board of town council could come because we'd have to vote in open meeting and then

[Speaker 1] (1:10:02 - 1:10:11)
ask town council we might I don't think that's how we facilitate it now right we don't vote town council we don't find us we just we just we just make the

[Speaker 2] (1:10:11 - 1:10:19)
request right yeah but this says at the request of the board so you're saying

[Speaker 6] (1:10:19 - 1:10:22)
it should say at the request of the board or the chair right why doesn't it

[Speaker 1] (1:10:22 - 1:10:28)
just say at the request of any board member any member of the board well

[Speaker 2] (1:10:28 - 1:10:41)
because you said any member of the board if you have a if the chair is putting everything on the agenda do you want to have it where a member of the board can call and ask for legal counsel to be there well how do we operate now do we

[Speaker 3] (1:10:41 - 1:10:53)
allow that now no we have a budget every time you talk to an attorney it it's a lot of money and we're we've got a fiduciary to manage I think the can you

[Speaker 6] (1:10:53 - 1:10:57)
not give the chairs of the committees the option to talk to no they go through

[Speaker 3] (1:10:57 - 1:11:00)
the town of minutes it depends on what they're asking but I think you said at

[Speaker 6] (1:11:00 - 1:11:05)
the last time that you never say no no I say no all the time but I generally

[Speaker 3] (1:11:05 - 1:11:26)
when it comes to the budget I try to help my board chairs and when they they do email me like generally they'll email me a question and I'll review it and if it's question that we haven't had a legal opinion prior we'll send it off and we'll get a legal opinion but try to keep a some type of a understandable

[Speaker 6] (1:11:26 - 1:11:36)
with three or four hundred thousand dollars over in a legal item so if they're offered that same courtesy I would think a select board member should be offered the same that would be my yeah I don't disagree I think there

[Speaker 3] (1:11:36 - 1:11:41)
are a lot of legal things but I do think you know if if it can go through the

[Speaker 2] (1:11:41 - 1:12:02)
chair and it comes to that that line item that is actually different this is I'm just talking about town council being at a meeting the only reason I'm saying say or chair is good at the last minute we might want to have legal counsel and the board wouldn't be able to meet in advance and say we want to have legal counsel I'm just trying to brought it so that after you said that

[Speaker 6] (1:12:02 - 1:12:15)
we said any select board member right so that's what we were speaking about I think what we said to change the wording to any select board member and that's why I asked John that's where that came from right so what are we saying I I just

[Speaker 3] (1:12:15 - 1:12:45)
think that the chair is one of the meetings and let's say and if any select board member can actually call up town council and say I want you at that meeting tonight like to me that right but what I'm hearing is that you know there might be a consideration to have any select board member be able to reach out and invite town council to a meeting I think that could that could get a little confusing at times and I think the chair actually should be in charge

[Speaker 2] (1:12:45 - 1:12:58)
of that responsibility or the board saying we want we we would like to have legal counsel at this meeting so you would be at an open meeting and you would be able to get an open meeting otherwise the board cannot have a

[Speaker 1] (1:12:58 - 1:13:41)
discussion right but I think that's a catch-22 because we get the agenda and then we look at the agenda and say like oh there's an agenda item I want counsel there for that but we don't have an open meeting before that open exactly so that's why you would say the chair to the chair and then say you're like no I don't think that it's necessary for that now I have to violate open meeting along get another select board member to email you the same thing so that they say that so like there's no way to get three people to come together so then in essence we don't have them we have the right to ask you the right to say no but we don't have well the chair so it should say it's like your position has the right right right question the chair mm-hmm so what do you want to say okay

[Speaker 6] (1:13:41 - 1:13:54)
I'm at the request of the chair yep so at the request of the chair I mean I think that's rather than what could be both oh or chair yep the board could

[Speaker 5] (1:13:54 - 1:13:58)
have won an exact session or whatever and three members of the board vote and

[Speaker 6] (1:13:58 - 1:14:07)
yeah right that's a right so then scrolling down to G citizen

[Speaker 1] (1:14:07 - 1:15:19)
participation right this part I left as it was from our conversation and then I assume what will happen is once we approve it the whole handbook will go to council to review and then if they have friction on this section they can come back and say yes or no and we don't this doesn't work for us because of your okay issues you brought up earlier formatting problems up I'm we'll pull this page up so that it's not okay goal setting I think I added the quarterly operating budget review to January I added the capital discussion to March although it looks like it's already on here it says capital first Wednesday CIC presents proposed capital plan to select board so I mean I don't know if we just add third Wednesday continued discussion of capital plan or if you really need to have a whole nother section here did we also move the water

[Speaker 8] (1:15:19 - 1:15:29)
sewer rates as well I just had I had notes for yeah so August came out we

[Speaker 1] (1:15:29 - 1:15:47)
finished the capital yeah it seems redundant now yes we have it above and then there there's an additional quarterly budget review in April and then we did take out the annual water sewer rates for August but you're saying

[Speaker 8] (1:15:47 - 1:15:51)
it should have gone to March that was that was what it wasn't my notes right

[Speaker 1] (1:15:51 - 1:17:05)
okay supposed to be a March alrighty and then so July gets a quarterly operating budget review September there's a fiscal year revenue projection discussion October is a quarterly review and then November a five-year financial forecasting review and then we took the operating budget year to year from the quarterly report section because we reflected them above and to be honest I mean we didn't discuss this last time but the enterprise funds and the capital improvement year-to-date statuses being quarterly reports if you want to pick months and put them in there and take that section out fatality it doesn't it sticks one half doesn't the other but it gives a good roadmap of exactly what we should be doing at certain months instead of leaving it open I think that's a good idea so if there's a suggestion then for maybe just the leaner months that we have these conversations should we just add them in when we're doing the

[Speaker 2] (1:17:05 - 1:17:10)
quarterly is on everything financial I think you should get a monthly budget

[Speaker 3] (1:17:10 - 1:18:12)
revenue report and you know quarterly you should have the quarterly report because you know with the quarterly you can start to gear up for any type of action that you have to take with revenue like let's say your revenue drops and you need to direct some reductions to help meet budget because I think there's a lot of a lot of folks think hey the budget's approved we can spend all that money it's it's never like that it's budget approved throughout the fiscal year and we're trying to manage to budget and as the policy board you know you have a chance to you know during the quarterly updates you know really see the performance of the budget and revenue and and get a sense of whether or not you know there needs to be further analysis on spending levels to control the budget so then why don't we move the just move them into the

[Speaker 1] (1:18:12 - 1:18:23)
quarterly both both the capital and the budget yeah I'm enterprise funds I would say so and then we'll remove section C it will be unnecessary because you're

[Speaker 2] (1:18:23 - 1:18:32)
gonna have it in your you're gonna have it in your packets in advance and if there's nothing big moving on there you know it'd be an easy conversation all

[Speaker 1] (1:18:32 - 1:18:46)
right so there were some formatting issues which were fixed I updated the Climate Action and Resiliency Committee name and the Recreation Commission name

[Speaker 2] (1:18:46 - 1:19:02)
from committee you know there's one committee that we have left that we still have the article we never disbanded article 6 committee and that was a committee for regionalization I'm just I would think we still have to keep

[Speaker 3] (1:19:02 - 1:19:13)
it on the books it was a committee of town meeting right yes so I think if if town meeting creates a committee they should dispose of it right so what is

[Speaker 2] (1:19:13 - 1:19:18)
that considered that would be considered a standing committee we'd have to go

[Speaker 3] (1:19:18 - 1:19:27)
back and look at the town meeting vote if it was I don't know if it was an advisory committee I think it was a study committee town meeting often

[Speaker 2] (1:19:27 - 1:19:31)
appoints study committees they didn't I remember it they didn't title it a study

[Speaker 3] (1:19:31 - 1:19:41)
committee they just said it was there was a report that was issued by the by the article 6 committee they engaged the Collins Center right the Collins Center

[Speaker 2] (1:19:41 - 1:20:09)
did the report but the article 6 committee was just meeting constantly trying to advance efficiencies different efficiencies yeah so I think the only way that we can remove that is through town meeting so I think maybe we just put it under advisory committee or either way just it's got to go somewhere okay while

[Speaker 5] (1:20:09 - 1:20:14)
we're on that oh there it is okay traffic safety traffic study is still a

[Speaker 1] (1:20:14 - 1:21:18)
committee too yeah it's just called the article 6 committee yeah that's what was called article 6 okay yes to Doug's point there are I tried to gussy up this section or the advisory committees there was in the first paragraph we talked about the authority of the advisory committee is limited so that we understood which authority was being limited not and we'll add the article 6 committee the water and sewer infrastructure advisory committee is now listed on here and the community life center task force and then we took okay then moving on to the appointment process for these committees be so I did my best to detail the process as I understood it but so I have a question

[Speaker 2] (1:21:18 - 1:21:48)
under goals and appointments to ensure bullet number three how did we leave it with to ensure boards and committees have members residing in Swampstead as many voting precincts as possible appointment one I recall correctly that we said we wanted to leave it this way

[Speaker 5] (1:21:48 - 1:21:58)
we put pressure on the fact that it would be someone and if there needed to be some exception we would make that this is a handbook we can we can override

[Speaker 2] (1:21:58 - 1:22:48)
this if we because it's just a goal that's what it was because it was a just a it was a goal but that's right right yeah that was our key there yeah okay and then under to process you know my concerns as I had brought up I had brought up when I wanted to make changes my concern was putting too much emphasis on chairs and not and having chairs controlling who's sitting in meetings was not so that was the reason why I had brought that up but under here under F I just want to make sure that we add each applications reviewed by appointment select board liaison and select board because I want to make sure that if the select board is voting on members the select board can look at is looking is looking at resumes and then contact sending an email or contacting the

[Speaker 1] (1:22:48 - 1:24:18)
liaison making their recommendation I guess what I'm confused about is how the process is playing out in practicality so each application the applications come in Diane bets them they go to the liaison right now right in the way I had understood it and the way it was explained I felt like the way it was explained originally to me was that it would go to myself and the chair we would work together to come up with either through interviewing or what have you come up with a person for myself to submit to the board but I would say like this I asked Danielle how does the chair feel about it that it would be collaborative communication to bring a person forward for the board it wouldn't just be I reviewed the applications and I felt like it was the best fit so for this section that's why I thought the conversation between David Danielle and I last week that this reflected that part of the conversation where it's the liaison the committee chair and the applicable town staff review this the applications however the process works between the three of them they come to a conclusion which then the chair puts forward to the select board and then the select board can have opinions so what you're asking what you're asking the

[Speaker 2] (1:24:18 - 1:25:36)
select board this is what I wanted to make sure that when I when I put this forward I wanted to make sure that the select board would see resumes and give a recommendation on you know they might think I'm I'm I'd like to support these I think these three or four people will be good good mixes and when he's come in front of me I'm going to be in support of these three three or four people whichever one you pick so you're but what you're saying right now is what you say right now is the select board doesn't even see applications and the one thing that did I think the reason why this worked when we saw applications when we put together the infrastructure committee all the applications went out to select board members select board members contacted Sean and said you know who they thought would be stronger or not as strong or what their recommendations were and then it was put together and then the recommendations came to the board what I'm saying here is that I just think it's important that the select board sees these recommend sees these resumes and if you should so choose you give your opinion to the liaison and then it's the liaison who is either contacting the chair contacting staff contacting whoever you want to contact to come up with your idea I'm I'm fine with that I think it's what I'm

[Speaker 5] (1:25:36 - 1:25:57)
hearing Marilyn says there's another line here like when you send out the application send them out to everyone everything else kind of continues with what you have you know if you know that you're using the collective little mini crowdsourcing basically if anyone else has any input basically they can feed that to the liaison but at least everyone's seeing who's being considered

[Speaker 1] (1:25:57 - 1:26:12)
yeah I think I think conceptually I'm fine with that idea that and that's not it I'll have an opinion prior to it coming to the table as a recommended person I guess the part that I'm uncomfortable with is to take the chair

[Speaker 8] (1:26:12 - 1:26:22)
out of the process yeah yeah I second that I want to make sure the chairs involved and the and the liaison is then the sounding board for the I'm not

[Speaker 2] (1:26:22 - 1:26:53)
recommending that here but I am saying that I do not want to see I am very hesitant of chairs having too much of a heavy hand in who gets on a board only be only because I find that my worry is somebody is friends with somebody else I'm friends with somebody on the select board I'm friends with the chair I'm friends with here I just want to make sure we have everybody has the best shot and we take out the friend part of it well I think if you're worried about that

[Speaker 5] (1:26:53 - 1:27:19)
Mary Ellen I think you this is this process takes care of that because you really got the liaison and the chair and maybe town staff working together to come to a conclusion I thought you were actually worried about something else I thought you wanted all of us to see all of the applications for everything flow through us at least which I'm actually fine with I mean I can choose to how much I want to dive into every single thing but it's really I'm relying on the

[Speaker 2] (1:27:19 - 1:27:29)
liaison to do that work right no that's what I am saying I am saying that that everybody should see all the applicants and and you give your opinion on there

[Speaker 5] (1:27:29 - 1:27:34)
that's fine that doesn't really address the issue of chairs picking friends like

[Speaker 6] (1:27:34 - 1:29:02)
no no that's okay that's okay so so just to just weigh in on this I think that perfect example is how my committee appointments went with this given scenario I sent out who after discussing with the chair and town staff who we thought would be the best fit I sent it out to the group and I got some great feedback and that's how the process really you know worked itself out I think that we can't it has to be a balance right right I think that the chairs have to be a part of the conversation they they're the chairs right they have a role but I think that you know ultimately the appointment comes from the select board member who's putting it up right that's that's where the buck kind of stops right at some point someone's got to make a decision but it should be done after collaboration with the chair maybe not always agreement maybe there's gonna be a back-and-forth maybe there are situations where you know a chair wants somebody and a select board member wants somebody else but that's democracy and that's that's what we're supposed to be working through and talking through and in guiding them in having input I think that's where we have the input but I don't think that either side has to be you know the decision-maker it's a collaborative approach you have the only

[Speaker 2] (1:29:02 - 1:29:17)
the only request I was putting in here is to add select board you have a select board liaison you have reviewed by appropriate we reviewed by select board select board liaison committee chair and one applicable town staff

[Speaker 1] (1:29:17 - 1:30:02)
yeah so I guess the worry that I have is that we could accidentally be violating open meeting law if we aren't directing our conversation to say Diane of what our like if we're all reviewing every resumes right and then we reply with our preferences and then somebody else replies to Danielle and somebody else replies to Danielle on preferences that that might be a violation of open meeting law because now we're having a discussion on the topic via email so in order to avoid that I think we need to communicate preferences directly to town hall staff and then town hall staff needs to facilitate that conversation between the chair and the liaison so that we aren't stepping in that got it

[Speaker 3] (1:30:03 - 1:30:46)
that's an excellent point Katie I do think you know the intentions here are all good you want to make sure that you have you know fair representation Mary on your points are strong too you know you don't want to have group think on these committees you need really strong you know independent thinkers and sometimes committees can you know devolve into that not because of any batteries and it's just people sometimes you know get too comfortable but you have to be very careful about how you deliberate about that and in going through the chair alone not with other members and not emailing each other like you don't want to unintentionally just get caught up in an open meeting law issue so just

[Speaker 1] (1:30:46 - 1:31:23)
information to I added I don't know if you can see but I added it now says the committee chair select for liaison select board members and when applicable are encouraged to interview each candidate and collaborate to select a position I can add a sentence about select board members shall communicate through the town administrator's office their preference 15 minutes until the

[Speaker 5] (1:31:23 - 1:31:27)
vice presidential debate thank you

[Speaker 1] (1:31:27 - 1:33:32)
did you set the popcorn but the rest of the the rest of the edits to the section are as everybody understands the process was that fuzzy one that you were trying to push past us no it was fuzzy and then I scrolled up and scroll down to make it not fuzzy deck I would never try to get something by you like that that's too easy and I'm being recorded so for sure people be talking about that later chapter 9 the town administrator we implemented the changes as discussed here are the red lines one was a typo we added whenever practicable to section C enacted was all smushed together so I just unsmashed it yep and then this is highlighted because my notes were not clear about it so I wanted to make sure that everybody reviewed it and that that was as as the discussion and the charter well we I think the discussion we had was maybe we have to look at the charter it was and so I left it highlighted because that hasn't happened yet and we didn't but if it aligns with the charter charter is that the discussion as what was had two weeks ago okay so we'll make a comment I don't think the charter says anything about this I thought think someone said it somebody said it said so we'll check it I don't know you mean we're not gonna vote on this finally tonight I mean we could as revised as long as it doesn't

[Speaker 5] (1:33:32 - 1:33:54)
the charter maybe this is a replay but every department head how about just the ones in this is a conversation we had there's a new minority ones for hiring right and I guess I was came away thinking it was just gonna be the reciprocal for those same positions yes right it would be this kind of the

[Speaker 1] (1:33:54 - 1:34:07)
reverse for the termination come to us to hire them we've got to come to us to right but if that's already in place mm-hmm where does it say that sorry that's in the chart that's already in the charter yeah so we were just trying

[Speaker 8] (1:34:07 - 1:34:16)
to make sure that this reflected that this reflected what was in what's in the charter but this is broader the way no it's not meant to be broader okay so so

[Speaker 2] (1:34:16 - 1:34:51)
can we strike it sure so this would be department I just have a quick question this would be department head these these could possibly be department heads that don't have contracts yeah that they're not enumerated enumerated in the town charter right so we're did you just say we're taking it out mm-hmm yeah we're striking it cuz it's already in the charter we're not trying to give we're

[Speaker 1] (1:34:51 - 1:35:00)
not trying to give ourselves broader rights than we already have under the charter so if it's already in the charter and if we are being consulted to hire them we are being consulted to fire them

[Speaker 2] (1:35:04 - 1:35:10)
is there anybody we're not consulted to hire there are yeah that are heads of

[Speaker 6] (1:35:10 - 1:35:14)
departments yeah yeah mm-hmm that Sean can there's probably not many on

[Speaker 1] (1:35:14 - 1:35:16)
administrator can hire not many but there are a few I mean

[Speaker 5] (1:35:31 - 1:35:36)
does that finish Katie does that finish it Doug no is that finish that sentence

[Speaker 1] (1:35:38 - 1:38:14)
you should say personally are you talking about the one that's got the purple highlight yes what is that person no yeah I just don't know why it's purple highlighted that's all I'm sure I'll figure that out after okay board members should speak with the town of missionary keeping the chair apprised if matters we spoke about last week and then going down to chapter 10 liaisons we had just made a couple of these are the notes that I had the liaison should help guide the goals and actions and and we just took this usurping language and added it here so that you know the liaison should be careful not to serve the prerogative of the chair and then we added this section with the exception of the Advisory Committee members town boards and committees must be free to act on their own will without interference from the select board towards that end when attending meetings of other boards and committees board members being us and liaisons shall generally respect the committee's autonomy there's some format there and this section is the relations with town staff adding the sentence the select board and its individual members should communicate with town staff as appropriate and include the town administrator or at time its designee and then we took out this assistant town administrator stuff and just said at its does its designee relations with residents David I added that sentence every attempt will be made to provide select board with presentations and relevant information at least 48 hours prior to select board meeting barring this section on the Charter and then obviously a review of Town Council we could if folks were comfortable have a motion to approve the handbook as revised so long as oh we took that

[Speaker 2] (1:38:14 - 1:38:19)
section out about the Charter right we took that out but I don't want to vote

[Speaker 1] (1:38:19 - 1:38:25)
on something without Town Council coming back okay but if Town Council's can we

[Speaker 5] (1:38:25 - 1:38:32)
can we Town Council's vote on its subject to yeah that's a motion all in

[Speaker 2] (1:38:32 - 1:38:57)
favor I because it's getting late I think I was gonna I wanted to try to hit a couple of the pages on code of conduct but it's getting late we have that we can we can the night is young kids are to other meetings but I want to get okay so let's move to the consent agenda so we did not review the social

[Speaker 8] (1:38:57 - 1:39:02)
media policy right oh is that is that under the code of that's under code of

[Speaker 1] (1:39:02 - 1:40:19)
conduct so probably should be it doesn't exist anywhere right now so what we could we could do it multiple ways I think some people some municipalities just have standalone social media policies that control boards and committees employees saying elected and appointed and employed personnel so we sort of took from that standard sort of approach and and put together this amalgamation of like a couple other towns policy for you guys to review it could be maybe when we do the review of the code of conduct it might make sense to put it in there because that controls both boards and committees both boards committees and ourselves but it wouldn't necessarily cover personnel it might make sense to have it standalone so that it covers all three if we wanted it to I guess it depends on what we intended the the ultimate outcome of it to cover to make sense where to put it should cover everyone yeah I mean I I think that's good that it's standalone because I think it's really important in this day and age that we are implementing a policy that we are

[Speaker 2] (1:40:19 - 1:40:39)
holding up everybody to if we're good with that so first we have to see if everybody's good with that if we are good with that then we're gonna have to make an adjustment into the handbook to add it we're gonna have to make an adjustment into the handbook that this is another policy that we have the code of conduct we have the handbook it just has to be another policy that people have

[Speaker 1] (1:40:39 - 1:40:47)
to check off well I don't think right now well I think it shouldn't it be done in

[Speaker 6] (1:40:48 - 1:40:59)
conjunction with an employee social media policy also or is it covered I think it's covered everybody right so but it has to kind of go along with an

[Speaker 2] (1:40:59 - 1:41:09)
employee handbook as well which well you could sign this before the employee handbook with you you sure could but we don't have technically an employee

[Speaker 6] (1:41:09 - 1:41:44)
handbook right now right so the language and in parts of it are something that you know should be incorporated I think in an employee handbook so I mean you can do it without it's kind of like cart before the horse right it's usually like an addendum to an employee handbook okay like acceptable use social media right we don't have any of that right now for employees it could be that we get a cart and then soon we get worse and then we create it after that you know we can have that standalone policy and then right build the handbook off of that

[Speaker 1] (1:41:44 - 1:41:50)
it's just not how you normally do it but you can yeah so as it pertains to

[Speaker 2] (1:41:50 - 1:42:00)
us right now I'm hearing that we're pretty much all in favor of having a standalone the next question is does anybody have any opinions on on the

[Speaker 5] (1:42:00 - 1:42:40)
actual policy well first of all I want to thank both of you a lot for what I imagine must be a considerable amount of work not only in this but also on the handbook so thank you the only I will admit that I have not studied this for a long period of time I kind of read through it but the one thing that jumped out to me and I think it's probably just needs to be contextualized in three policy all-town social media sites shall be approved by the select board what what do we mean that like the fact that there will be a site not that we're

[Speaker 1] (1:42:40 - 1:42:50)
literally like approving like yeah like if rack had its own site it should probably say accounts yeah yeah there you go thank you and are we

[Speaker 8] (1:42:50 - 1:42:54)
retroactively approving these sites if they already exist or are we just

[Speaker 1] (1:42:54 - 1:43:36)
approving new pages of what exists today I think that would be smart to do that just to be consistent is to do you have all of the towns just be doing the same thing so where was that at it really three three a I page one just all town social media accounts and then there should be some sort of inventory kept whether it's the town administrator HR that just gives a list of senior center and then who administers those accounts right yeah like who has access to

[Speaker 8] (1:43:36 - 1:43:50)
administer right account and that's yeah that was my question who are the moderators of the town of Swampskates yeah who selected these individuals and right I personally I don't think elected officials should be involved totally

[Speaker 3] (1:43:50 - 1:44:10)
agree I think these are typically we have to pay fees for some of these accounts they ultimately you know you know that it's the town's responsibility so you know the town should be managing them that we have to comply with all sorts of state and federal laws and you just can't

[Speaker 8] (1:44:10 - 1:44:21)
volunteer your way through that but but as part of our as part of the inventory that we're gonna that we're gonna do you know we'll also have a list of who the moderators are for each for each of the pages and really a list by position not

[Speaker 6] (1:44:21 - 1:44:23)
person because that is right

[Speaker 1] (1:44:23 - 1:44:34)
you have a name director of recreation or whatever their titles are so that if those people are rich positions that you just have it would not be with the

[Speaker 3] (1:44:34 - 1:44:57)
person it would typically it's every department head they're in charge of their landing pages they have privileges to update certain you know landing pages we do have some boards and committees but typically we have the staff that are affiliated with those boards and committees responsible for just updating you know some of the social media you know pages for those departments and

[Speaker 6] (1:44:57 - 1:45:05)
committees it's really anybody that's gonna act on behalf of the town right so anybody that's gonna speak or make comments or make sure that they're

[Speaker 3] (1:45:05 - 1:45:14)
following generally a few we've had all the rest of issues here and there but generally it's you know people understand you know you've got to separate your

[Speaker 1] (1:45:15 - 1:45:42)
public responsibilities so we can like continue I don't know if anybody has any other updates but we can always like look at this again when we look at the code of conduct if people have want to make more in-depth because I know you said you didn't really or something doesn't make sense just because it doesn't mean it will work for us.

[Speaker 2] (1:45:42 - 1:45:48)
Okay so let's just we'll just add this to when we go over the code of conduct.

[Speaker 1] (1:45:49 - 1:46:11)
But to your point Mary Ellen having hopefully do we vote on this but we we probably should add reference to the social media policy to like yeah so it's like affirming the oath as it is review the exception of the handbook the board and committee handbook the code of conduct and the social media policy.

[Speaker 5] (1:46:11 - 1:46:19)
Yep happy to accept that as a friendly amendment to the vote we already took.

[Speaker 2] (1:46:31 - 1:46:57)
So now we'll move down to the consent agenda and before you make a motion to approve the consent agenda David when we had voted on the Zoning Board of Appeals Mr. Demento pointed out that we were making a mistake and later we found out we did make a mistake so all this is doing is correcting our mistake and putting everything in line.

[Speaker 8] (1:46:58 - 1:46:59)
What was the mistake that we made?

[Speaker 2] (1:47:00 - 1:47:31)
I think we added it a year on to one of the members. So just put it we had we had already we'd already did this last year we had already approved it we added again that's all it was so we're just doing this to stay off of social media. Okay so can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

[Speaker 8] (1:47:32 - 1:47:38)
Well yeah I want to take out take out the minutes.

[Speaker 2] (1:47:40 - 1:47:57)
Okay you want to take out 9 4 9 18? Yep. Okay so can we have a motion to approve the consent agenda minus item number five?

So moved. Second? Second.

All in favor?

[Speaker 8] (1:47:57 - 1:47:57)
Aye.

[Speaker 2] (1:47:57 - 1:48:04)
So moved. Select board time. Danielle?

Do you want to talk about the one we pulled out?

[Speaker 8] (1:48:05 - 1:48:37)
We can we can we can talk about it. I was just I read it I just really wanted to make a comment as it concerns the September 4th minutes I would it would be my recommendation that we look to not have verbatim comments as part of our minutes. That would just be my recommendation.

[Speaker 2] (1:48:37 - 1:48:49)
We already have precedents when someone says they want their they've come up and they've read a statement that they want their minutes they want their statement in the minutes. So if we've already set precedents.

[Speaker 8] (1:48:50 - 1:48:55)
We set precedent as part of public comment. This would be a this would be a different.

[Speaker 2] (1:48:55 - 1:49:00)
That's right this wasn't public comment. So this is different.

[Speaker 8] (1:49:01 - 1:49:04)
Yeah so I I think it's I think it's worth a discussion.

[Speaker 2] (1:49:05 - 1:49:06)
These are yours.

[Speaker 8] (1:49:06 - 1:49:21)
I can go I can go I had to I had I prepared it but I'm I think I don't I don't believe it's a very it's a very good precedent for our board to have verbatim minutes.

[Speaker 3] (1:49:21 - 1:49:49)
I agree with that you're not required to do it by law and you will because it's not public comment yep but you will encourage this type of practice and I think it will be cumbersome and I I do think that it will inspire others to show up and and respond in kind and you'll you'll continue to have you know conflicts that may not get resolved constructively.

[Speaker 5] (1:49:50 - 1:49:54)
Just to state obvious anyway these are minutes not transcriptions.

[Speaker 2] (1:49:57 - 1:50:07)
However just to be really clear if people come to public comment and they're reading from a sheet and they want their comments and yeah into we have now created that

[Speaker 8] (1:50:07 - 1:50:33)
precedent yes but it is but it does it does sit within this board as to whether or not we can continue this because while there was a precedent set for one meeting that doesn't mean it has to be well this isn't public comment right no no no but I'm but I'm just it can be an attachment maybe that maybe those public comments are summarized and not written you know transcribed verbatim that's all.

[Speaker 1] (1:50:33 - 1:50:46)
If a person wanted to hear what any of us said they can access all the recordings through the town website and watch us all on Swanscott TV. Well why would I spend

[Speaker 2] (1:50:46 - 1:51:14)
your time but why would I want someone to have to go through that I mean I guess I look at it I'm not worried about I I question what's the problem if now how many people do we have come and saying this is my comments and I want these edits so it's pretty minimal and I just feel like if that's what you want you're making a public comment why whatever but we're not talking about that's right we're talking about something different.

[Speaker 1] (1:51:14 - 1:51:40)
I understand that but I'm just saying as a point as David's point that at any just because we set to set a precedent at any time it's our precedent we reserve the right to change it right for any reason if a hundred people start coming to public comment and they all want to give us their their stuff we can have this conversation again yeah that's the point I'm making.

[Speaker 5] (1:51:40 - 1:52:32)
Okay so I guess I would suggest that for 9-4 we go back and summarize the comments instead of approving these minutes today to keep with kind of the way we've done things in the past I mean you know it's a little bit of six and one half dozen or another but at least that kind of keeps things in the spirit to which we've had in the past since these were not public comments and so then I would recommend we focus on the 918 minutes I don't think we have that issue yeah I didn't I didn't have a problem with

[Speaker 8] (1:52:33 - 1:52:41)
with 918 okay we still had minutes with still six pages all right so could we

[Speaker 2] (1:52:41 - 1:52:48)
have a motion would you I mean I'm not inclined to tell anybody what they can

[Speaker 6] (1:52:48 - 1:53:15)
and can't say so I I use that example for myself as I do for other people if I can say what I want to say then I think everybody should be able to I I'm just not comfortable saying no you know for this one particular situation we're gonna say no we can't do what you're asking us to do I personally don't feel

[Speaker 2] (1:53:15 - 1:53:25)
comfortable saying that okay even though this is not so this is not resident comment I think that's like I think we're splitting hairs because it

[Speaker 6] (1:53:25 - 1:53:49)
was said of it because it wasn't said at a certain time of the meeting somebody asked us to admit this as their statement or whatever submitted as a her as this person's statement I'm not comfortable saying we can't do that all of a sudden we can't do that this one particular time I just people are allowed to say good or bad what they want to say I don't disagree with you

[Speaker 1] (1:53:49 - 1:54:00)
but the minutes don't have to reflect every transcript of what people say good or bad the minutes are meant to give a summary of but we we have the luxury of

[Speaker 6] (1:54:00 - 1:54:31)
looking at these minutes when we don't like or when we want to edit it right if people on this board have problems with the way they're described in these men we have the ability to edit them or we can say to Diane Diane I think this should be edited or we have that privilege right but people that show up and make comments don't have that privilege you're right but they can say you know I want this admitted this is what I'm saying this is you know my response or whatever it is I just don't want to impose something that I couldn't

[Speaker 1] (1:54:31 - 1:55:03)
impose on myself yeah I think the other point is when the person asked the question at the meeting was the response yes we will accept them into the minutes because if that was the intention at the time right to go back now on that does feel disingenuous mm-hmm where if they said I would like this to happen if one of us or any of us said it can happen a representation that it could happen I don't recall I'd have to go back and watch but if we did then we should include it because they asked the question and they none of us said no at

[Speaker 6] (1:55:03 - 1:55:12)
the time or even I don't know if she's if this person said it to Diane I don't know but we should have said at that point I know it's not something we're

[Speaker 2] (1:55:12 - 1:56:04)
gonna put into the water we heard or whatever would would you be okay would everybody be okay if we just tabled this and went back and did a little research sure and came back so is that okay with you David okay so can we can we at least have a motion to approve what was our other one 98 918 so moved second all in favor all right nice one nice one well played let's let's move to select for time oh did you want to skip it because mine's definitely not any longer than 25

[Speaker 5] (1:56:04 - 1:56:28)
minutes there are four other people at this of course I know that that was the joke so mine is all about requests for future meeting topics okay and so one's a little one for climate action Resilience Committee Marianne which had an email about this a while ago yes short 10-minute thing so if

[Speaker 2] (1:56:28 - 1:56:50)
we can okay but if anybody wants things on the on the agenda you have to send your information to Diane because we were ready for you but you hadn't sent your information in and not you just the committee any committee any committee well it was you you made a request and we didn't have any documents so we had I didn't know I was I didn't know they were I didn't

[Speaker 5] (1:56:50 - 1:57:19)
know they were on ready to be entertained yet you made that request it worked right okay okay I have to get used to that all right great well therefore and I might have even more no just the financial summit okay yeah because now we're in October so I know this isn't necessarily tone administrator time right now but you're welcome as far as

[Speaker 3] (1:57:19 - 1:58:07)
I'm concerned to give a very yeah I had a meeting today with staff and we went over a number of slide decks that we are trying to pull together on expenditures and revenue and do our data we're reaching out to the call-in center to see if we can have somebody facilitate this but we've also reached out to Eric Kinshaft he's a former CPA that we've worked with that could help us analyze and present some of the data so staff are working to pull it together and we anticipate that the next week we'll be sitting down with the school finance team and just going over some of the data that we've collected to try to frame a conversation about where we are where we've been where we are

[Speaker 5] (1:58:07 - 1:58:19)
and where we're going I'm gonna assume there's a channel of communication with the someone in the school department about the fact that we're pulling some data and this meetings happening

[Speaker 3] (1:58:19 - 1:58:50)
yes we've had some conversations they certainly you know are they're busy then they're they I think have expressed that they feel as though having somebody independent present some of this data would be their preference I certainly appreciate that I think we all come to the table with our own unique perspectives and having somebody that can objectively just look at the numbers and explain them so they're different Collins or this Eric guy or whatever okay all

[Speaker 1] (1:58:50 - 1:59:51)
right yeah I think I think the other important thing though is the data how what data is pulled right and I know you're saying there's only one true source of data but I don't know that necessarily that is a shared sentiment so I just want to echo that cart horse conversation that it's great that we're pulling the data it's great that we're creating slide decks but this in this process in and of itself if it's not handled correctly we'll set the tone for how the conversation happens we'll set the tone for how collaborative it all becomes so I understand the school is very busy but I encourage the school financial team to be involved now so that this doesn't become an issue when we sit all sit down at the table because you know either the data was pulled incorrectly or misconstrued or all these things that we can't fix when we get to the table

[Speaker 3] (1:59:51 - 2:00:56)
so I'm happy to have them involved now I we've reached out to them weeks ago to try to get them involved so encouraging pull out all the chairs they can help run through the numbers and context them I Katie I totally understand that you know they may have unique numbers that justify their position on certain things I use the state data the October 1st reports different things because it standardizes where Swampskate is with 351 other cities and towns per capita expenditure on every municipal item and and that's just one set of data and and so that benchmarks us and then we can kind of take the unique perspectives of every department head and every individual that works in critical position and say but how does it really fit and are there unique things about Swampskate that three square mile town that is different than you know a town that's similar to us it's you know it's 15 square miles I mean there's lots of things that qualify these points

[Speaker 1] (2:00:56 - 2:01:42)
but I think we have to start with a baseline yeah I just don't want to get to the table and argue about the data instead of arguing about so Eric conversing about solutions yeah so that's why I'm just saying like it it's really imperative that we all come to the table for the financial summit at the same place and in the right mindset so that we are putting the community first and our students first to collaborate on solutions to get both the municipality and the school to a point where it feels like we've collaborated in a real way and come with come to the table compromising with each other and not just arguing over the slide deck yeah I'm really struggling here to

[Speaker 5] (2:01:42 - 2:02:17)
make sure that we get this right and do we have is it appropriate I don't want to suggest at this phase like some joint meeting between us and the school committee or you know but like is it appropriate for the superintendent or the we have here's like we where are we ensuring that we're we've got this teed up the right place because then you started off saying Sean's taking

[Speaker 2] (2:02:17 - 2:03:01)
care of that so like well I'll answer please so Sean is working on his on his stuff yeah the Sean myself and the Finance Committee chair are meeting tomorrow so that we could make sure we know what dates and then I'm answering an email from the chair of the school committee as far as when the tri-chairs can meet so we're gonna be having a meeting with the superintendent the business manager Amy our finance director so we we already have that you know in we don't have the date set but we're we'll have a date set before Thursday great and so like ideally maybe you guys would

[Speaker 5] (2:03:01 - 2:04:27)
have that meeting before our next select board meeting so that we would have kind of something to say you all have met you've got kind of agreement on here's the data we're pulling or here's the outside person we're using or something like that so that we know everyone's been engaged yes okay yes that would be terrific thank you thank you the other two things which I can write to you too but just everyone Danielle and I have been talking getting a joint we had this a ways back about resiliency and harboring water and climate action and you know we've had some conversations about the pier and we have stuff obviously about water and sewer I think we need a collective kind of update you know update from water and sewer you know all the testing that we just heard about tonight kind of summarize you know what's really happening with the pier there was a public meeting about that you know we had some some response to that I don't think we've kind of collected all that in together we have a grant that we applied for one which we did not get municipal vulnerability we have another one out that we're waiting on we put some money aside through ARPA so I think just collectively we need kind of to come back together and say

[Speaker 2] (2:04:27 - 2:05:08)
like what's our go-forward plan here I think what we need to do is we need to take this is what I'd like to look into or like I'd like to arrange is to have the chairs of the committees that have that much synergy together and come into a room and sit down and really have an open conversation as far as what are the future goals are going to be especially as it pertains to goal as it says it pertains to grants because often one committee doesn't know what the other committee is doing and if we have Margie there and we start to figure out exactly what are all our goals I think that's going to help so I would agree with that too so that I'm asking for an agenda topic

[Speaker 5] (2:05:08 - 2:05:19)
where we bring those three chairs together to have an update and they're kind of go-forward plans so we can kind of observe all together like what those are make sure they're coordinated

[Speaker 1] (2:05:19 - 2:05:27)
we had discussed like a grants database not of what exists for us to apply to but what we have

[Speaker 3] (2:05:27 - 2:05:33)
actually applied to yeah I have a list of all the grants that we've received in the last and then

[Speaker 1] (2:05:33 - 2:05:47)
who seven years who is applying for those grants because I I don't know is Margie taking all the communication from all the boards know every typically every department head has a number

[Speaker 3] (2:05:47 - 2:05:59)
of grants that they can apply for rec police fire town you know we all you know there's there's a lot of folks looking for grants now every grant that we apply for over $50,000 comes to the select

[Speaker 1] (2:05:59 - 2:06:21)
board so we're kind of funneling them but that's only at the municipal level like if resiliency wants to apply for a grant for $50,000 they don't have to come to us but not but I guess outside of our boards and committees if I guess it's other town yeah okay I mean I you know the

[Speaker 3] (2:06:21 - 2:06:55)
city of Lynn is looking to apply for a $200,000 grant I'm in a meeting on Friday and I've already let the mayor know I look I gotta come back to the select board and ask you for permission to even you know work with them on that because that's your prerogative as the governing body that's a policy like do we want to be part of regional grants do we want to be you know previously you know those are things that frankly this board didn't you know want to have a formal vote on but you know we're gonna we're gonna make sure that you have that role yeah I just don't want to be competing against

[Speaker 1] (2:06:55 - 2:07:34)
each other I think we want to be collaborating with one another and if there was a central database to keep track of the grants as as they were being approved by us and as the committees were working on them then you know either synergetic committees could reach out and say hey we think this is gonna help you with that here's the data like if water sewer saw something that they could be helpful with to resiliency they could send something over but that doesn't exist right now because we just don't have a place where they are so we've talked about this

[Speaker 3] (2:07:34 - 2:07:58)
as a team and you know there's a real concern you know where these grants are but all competitive they're very competitive and and so when we kind of share some of that information the concern is that we're you know even locally other communities are gonna start to compete they're gonna start to get a sense of what we're we're going after and there's just a you know if that's a confidential

[Speaker 6] (2:07:58 - 2:08:02)
document why would other cities it's not confidential it's public but I'm saying if we

[Speaker 3] (2:08:02 - 2:08:09)
made it yeah I don't we can pull it together like we have a list of these grants I'm happy to share

[Speaker 2] (2:08:09 - 2:08:22)
with like we could have quarter like I'd like to have quarterly meetings with the chairs of committees that do have you know serious things in common and then just to have an update of

[Speaker 3] (2:08:22 - 2:08:54)
what's going on yeah we want to incentivize these committees and frankly these department heads to apply for every grant that they can think of there's all sorts of like Doug's conversation tonight about the five point two billion dollars there's got to be some opportunity there for the town to shake out some of those dollars and apply it to a number of housing initiatives and and so we have a number of committees that could help us you know do some of that work and we're we're strategizing on some of that stuff but you know okay so there are many committees

[Speaker 1] (2:08:54 - 2:09:13)
that are applying for grants but they don't all have the same bandwidth right then you know maybe they could pass the torch on to a like-minded committee to say hey we found this and we don't have the time or energy to apply for it right now because we're focusing on X for example the

[Speaker 11] (2:09:13 - 2:09:46)
Harbor waterfront typically the parting part of getting grants is not getting one you know and

[Speaker 3] (2:09:46 - 2:09:55)
just sticking to it because we will get that grant was your point Katie I just wanted to say on the

[Speaker 6] (2:09:55 - 2:10:31)
last Harbor waterfront meeting that I was at a couple weeks ago they were talking about grants that they were going after or going to go after you know we want to make sure that maybe climate knows about that or you know that the other committees maybe sewer and water infrastructure that they're working together right if we know you know Margie happened to be at that meeting so she was able to advise and talk about it but we want all the committees to have that same access that same opportunity I think that's kind of what you're talking about if they don't know what the others are going after you know you could get into a situation where you're operating kind of in a

[Speaker 8] (2:10:31 - 2:11:26)
vacuum so be finished I'm done David yeah over the weekend there was a veteran suicide prevention 5k run walk down at the VFW there were probably 70 or 80 participants it was a good it was a good day it was a first the first ever veteran suicide prevention run walk in town hopefully this is an annual event and hopefully we can continue to build on this and certainly and certainly have many more members of the community and the surrounding area at the next one but you know it was a it was a great day to be out there and and be out with the veterans and walk for a great cause you win my son finished second and fourth and fourth don't forget about this and they could

[Speaker 1] (2:11:26 - 2:12:48)
have won next year actually didn't have anything to say but something came up when we were just having conversation about the consent agenda involving edits to the minutes and generally like my own personal rule of thumb I try not to edit the minutes unless they are factually inaccurate and that's because the minutes are meant to be Diane's reflection of what occurred she does consult a transcript and views sometimes when she doesn't remember information and so you know I encourage everyone to sort of follow similar guidelines where we're not embedding ourselves in a hindsight 2020 situation or you know changing sort of the phraseology of something unless it is inaccurate because to Daniel's point we have an advantage that others don't and when other people are participating in the meetings whether it be people we invite or public comment or even the town administrator he doesn't get to look back and say that's what I said or what I didn't say we have we have the right to say that's not what I recall Sean said I didn't say but so just remembering that that's a privilege we have and not to abuse it I don't have that

[Speaker 3] (2:12:48 - 2:13:36)
privilege I oftentimes have to sit quiet and I have to listen to things that are untrue and unfair and it's difficult to see that contained in minutes sometimes it's it's their opinion and they have the right to have it there but when it becomes that explicit it it hurts employees it harms my character it harms the character of my department heads and people that I'm here to protect and if you as a board let that happen I feel as though that's a responsibility that you're you're not being good about there's more to it but I just want to put that out there this can be weaponized and it can be used to really undermine the good faith responsibilities that we have to

[Speaker 6] (2:13:37 - 2:17:25)
administer the responsibilities of this town I am thank you um Daniel so to Doug's point I feel like the financial summit has become a mirage in the desert because I feel like I hear about it at every meeting and I hear the same things it's like Groundhog Day did we talk to the schools did we reach out are we going about the data the right way do we have a date I mean we're at October 1st I've heard about this thing for probably four or five months and we're no further advanced than we were with with this thing and I'm really concerned that after what happened at town meeting in the very vocal situation we had with the school department that we have made no progress at all in my view in reaching out to them collaborating with them trying to get to the heart of what we need to do for next year's budget season and we're still at square one there's been no progress and I just think that's not the way to do it I mean there was a real concern at town meeting about budgets and in the collaboration between school and town and we have not really done anything to change it to improve it to to further along that process and we use this financial summit is you know potentially something that would like bring them all together and we've made no progress on it no that's disappointing and I hear the same thing that our staff is working on they're pulling data they're doing this they're reaching out to the schools the schools have heard nothing right so we're where when do we move forward here and how do we do it right because we're all just sitting here and Doug brought that up way back at town meeting right after right and he's you know he's still asking the same questions and I have to agree like I just it seems like a mirage in the desert like it's not gonna come to fruition and we need it to you know we really need to have a conversation so thank you for bringing that up Doug I think it's a valid concern you know to your point Sean about minutes and in comments whoever wants to come here and say whatever resident wants to come here and say whatever is on their mind is entitled to do so and I want to hear it I always want to hear it good or bad because unless you hear the bad you're never gonna grow there's no growth unless you hear what you can do better right and sometimes that's not the most perfect form but we set ourselves up for that when we took these seats and you took this position unfortunately you're the head of a town in a in a very public position it comes with the territory yeah ideally you know people won't come up here and say disparaging things or be you know annoyed but by the time they get here they're probably so aggravated with having attempted maybe to solve a problem and it hasn't happened that yeah you know sometimes it's on us to find that answer right so I'm not inclined to fix edits of minutes what I say is what I say I stand by at any time that's what I'm here to do and I don't feel like it's appropriate to censor or adjust or you know make something look like it's anything different than what it is right people have the right to come and say whatever they want to say and we have to hear it you know but again it's an opportunity for growth depending on how you look at it you can look at it and be defensive and say people are attacking me they're attacking my staff well maybe there's a problem maybe there is something that we need to fix internally maybe there's something wrong with the department that we're not looking at we're just ignoring and glossing over because it's too inconvenient to address so I think that there's value in listening to what people have to say and I'm not afraid to do

[Speaker 2] (2:17:25 - 2:19:04)
that so my turn I would like to thank Nathan Hintz, Nate Weisheim, and Mr. Joe Doulet for putting on this fine show here tonight it's always appreciated and I do want to give a little bit I've fallen behind on giving my updates from my committees I just want to get back to that a little bit the retirement board met this week and their first quarter performance in real estate was down by quite a bit and they're working with their new advisors Wainwright on evaluating their best investment strategy they have also been putting together four different funding schedules to consider increasing the COLA base by a couple points and by doing that they're also looking at extending the funding schedule and reducing the impact on the town's operating budget this is something that's pretty serious that I think all of you should really look at the current base is 14 and it has a 5% increase to the funding schedule their next meeting is October 29th at 8 a.m. and you're all welcome to show we can't sit and chitchat we just have to keep any questions to their chair so they would love to see everyone on October 29th 8 a.m. extending that schedule

[Speaker 3] (2:19:04 - 2:19:23)
could save the operating budget hundreds of thousands of dollars Bravo they're considering that a real lifeline for some of the financial issues that we're dealing with it's a structural although they're they're looking for something in returns they are but you know I have I said to

[Speaker 2] (2:19:23 - 2:21:15)
them last year look work with us mm-hmm so there so I still have the floor the board of assessors there as we know we have a new assessor in they also have per the recommendation you are they have access to assess Pro and they are starting to they will be starting to get their information together for their tax classifications on solid waste the chair wanted to make sure everybody know that their minutes are up to date the pumpkin smash event will be on November 3rd at Phyllis Park 9 to 12 they ran some quick math on whether or not it was going to be really financially advantageous to us to have composting for every household and right now it is not financially advantageous but they they're going to continue to look at that that's a goal that I asked Wayne to see if what we could do to increase composting they're trying to start a survey of apartment and condominium complexes to understand what recycling services are being offered to their residents they've been slow to get that going but they're working on that they've reached out to Sean and Jeff to try to get some help with that project and they will be at the farmers market through October this is proven to be a great outreach opportunity this summer collectively as we talked to hundreds of residents and we receive a lot of feedback so household oh one more thing you want me to household hazardous waste drop-off day is Wednesday October 16th from 4 to 7 at the Marblehead transfer station and that wraps up my comments

[Speaker 1] (2:21:15 - 2:21:21)
and metal and styrofoam waste drop-off is the last set last yeah that's our last

[Speaker 2] (2:21:23 - 2:21:35)
that's always standing okay so with that can we have a motion so moved all in favor so moved thank you Joe