2026-07-07: Select Board

Click timestamps in the text to watch that part of the meeting recording.

Now the minutes.

Select Board — Regular Session, July 7, 2026

Swampscott Town Hall · Video ID 9AwssV7BrCQ

Diarization note (important): the transcript’s [Speaker N] tags are badly scrambled — the same tag is reused for different people across the meeting, and each person appears under several tags (e.g., the acting chair surfaces as Speaker 1, 2, and 5; Town Administrator Connors as 1, 3, 5, 7, 8). Attribution below is by content, self-introduction, and named address rather than by tag number, with uncertainty flagged. Chair Katie Phelan appears to have been absent: the meeting is run throughout by an “acting chair” who is addressed as “Danielle” (13:43 “as acting chair Danielle…”), Phelan is referenced only in the third person, and every recorded vote produced four votes, consistent with four members present.

Section 1: Agenda

  • 2:14 Call to order; recording notice; Pledge of Allegiance (Boy Scouts present)
  • 2:57 Town Administrator’s report (Connors)
  • 19:39 Public comment (3-minute limit)
  • 31:28 New & old business
    • 31:39 Proclamation — July as Park and Recreation Month
    • 33:59 Proclamation — recognition of Eagle Scout Aiden Tate
    • 37:38 Review and discussion of construction drawings, Hotel Delamar Swampscott (Dixon Mallory)
    • 1:17:51 Discussion and possible vote — FY26 year-end transfers (Patrick Luddy)
    • 1:33:36 FY27 water & sewer rates (Patrick Luddy)
    • 2:01:58 Discussion and possible vote — resident parking on Ingalls Terrace
    • 2:18:01 Discussion and possible vote — recycling & solid waste service contract and fees (Connors / Spritz)
    • 3:16:02 Hawthorne site/platform RFP — walk-through of nine decision points
  • 3:41:52 Consent agenda (minutes; appointments; executive-session minutes release)
  • 3:45:36 Select Board reports & comments
  • 3:54:01 Adjournment

Section 2: Speaking Attendees

Select Board (four present; Phelan absent):

  • Danielle Leonard — Vice Chair, serving as acting chair tonight. Runs the meeting, reads the Parks & Rec proclamation, calls votes. Addressed as “Danielle”/“Dana”/“Dino.” Recurs mainly as Speaker 5 and Speaker 2.
  • Mary Ellen Fletcher — Member. Reads the Eagle Scout proclamation and the Ingalls Terrace resident letter; raises Anchor Food Pantry, Nahant cost-sharing, and swearing-in ceremonies. Addressed as “Mary Ellen”/“Marilyn”/“Muriel”/“Mariel.” Recurs mainly as Speaker 6.
  • Ted Dooley — Member (former Planning Board Chair). The planning/technical voice — EV-readiness, stormwater, site-plan process, “my colleagues on the planning board,” Ingalls lot-line history, the Hawthorne straw poll. Addressed as “Ted”/“Tab”/“Tad.” Recurs as Speaker 4 and Speaker 10.
  • Wayne Spritz — Member (former Solid Waste Advisory Committee chair; drafted the trash RFP). Leads the solid-waste fee analysis (“the data guy,” “we ripped this apart”); raises Cedar Hill parking. Addressed as “Wayne.” Recurs as Speaker 3 and Speaker 6.

Staff / officials:

  • Nick Connors — Town Administrator. Delivers the TA report; drives the hotel-process, trash, and Hawthorne-RFP discussions. Addressed as “Mr. Connors”/“Nick.”
  • Patrick Luddy — Finance Director. Presents year-end transfers and water/sewer rates. Addressed as “Patrick.”
  • Marcy Golaska — Community & Economic Development Director (corpus: “Marcy/Marzi/Marcie/Marcia Golaska”). Handles the hotel LDA, Planning-Board process, and the 2017 parking study. Addressed as “Marcy.”
  • Shannon — staff running slides/AV and keeping public-comment time; handled the Scotland-visitors email. (Appears as Speaker 2 during public comment.)
  • “Emily” — Solid Waste Advisory Committee chair (Emily Westhoven, per prior corpus); referenced as having worked the second-barrel plan with Spritz. Not clearly separately voiced.

Presenter:

  • Dixon Mallory — Director of Business Development, Hotel Delamar. Presents construction drawings. Recurs as Speaker 7 (and Speaker 1 during the flipped-site-plan narration).

Public commenters (self-identified):

  • John Giantis (“Jantis”) — 61 Blaney St; also a School Committee member. Hotel-project abutter.
  • Al Williams — 11 Cedar Hill Terrace (“Seed Hill Terrace” is a mis-transcription). Cedar Hill parking.
  • Michael Garvey — 85 Monument Ave. Leaf-blower-ban enforcement.
  • Brian (last name not stated) — Hawthorne RFP / town-planning principles.
  • Aiden Tate — Eagle Scout honoree (spoke briefly about his project).

Section 3: Meeting Minutes

Town Administrator’s report — Connors 2:57

Connors thanked staff for the July 3rd celebration, singling out Steve Luck (Police, emergency planning), and Charlotte and Christine (Recreation), plus DPW.

  • 3:55 Anchor Food Pantry: a signed occupancy-and-use agreement has been executed by both the town and the pantry, continuing the same usage (pantry carries insurance, contributes to utilities).
  • 4:23 Transitional audit: the audit ordered by the May 2025 Town Meeting (performed by CLA) was delivered at the end of June, covering water, sewer, and recreation — transactions and best-practices review, “not a full audit.” Update and the report itself to be shared with Town Meeting members and posted at the next meeting.
  • 5:17 Personnel: new customer-service supervisor Erica McCabe (from the City of Salem, started Monday); Janelle Espinosa Garcia, a summer local finance fellow (Commonwealth Fellow Program) supporting Luddy and Braley.
  • 6:14 Hawthorne parking: the new tenant, the Swampscott Center for the Performing Arts, posted a paid-parking program around July 3. Connors told the tenant that commercial parking is not an allowed use under either the agreement or zoning, and had “several conversations” to that effect; the tenant understood.
  • 7:08 Strawberry Festival & Parade: thanked Janelle Cameron, this year’s Grand Marshal, who announced it was her last parade organizing after decades of volunteering.

Board response to the report:

  • Multiple members echoed praise for Janelle Cameron.
  • Fletcher asked whether the audit covered procurement (Connors: yes, within water/sewer — part of the coming presentation). She asked the town to request more open hours from Anchor Food Pantry (“they only have two days”) and raised that Nahant is served but contributes nothing financially while Swampscott residents finance the property, capital, and utilities — “if we’re going to be servicing other communities, other communities really need to step up.” She said she supports signing the lease but wants added benefits. She also asked to resume public swearing-in ceremonies for new police/firefighters and recognition of retirements (citing a recently met new firefighter, “Ben Rossman,” and a ~20-year fire retirement).
  • 11:38 Spritz asked about Cedar Hill: neighbors want a public hearing. Connors/Golaska described prior steps — hash/white lines at the bottom near Humphrey, vegetation clearing (Gino’s crew), and coordination with “Four Seasons” on its CBA-mandated parking plan. Spritz requested the town set up a public hearing so residents can have an interactive discussion.
  • Dooley broadened it to town-wide parking enforcement along Humphrey Street, noting the ~2017 MAPC/Kleinfelder parking study whose recommendations were never enacted (“worth dusting off”). Connors suggested bringing the Chief and Captain Cable to the relevant meeting.
  • General praise for Recreation’s summer programming and the World Cup viewing on the town hall lawn (Reddit praise; a thank-you email from two Scotland visitors). A note that the Declaration of Independence reading (Rep. Armini, Historic Commission) and the first summer concert would run July 8 on the town hall lawn.
  • 18:52 Leonard expressed dismay at the Hawthorne paid-parking signs ($40/day charged over the holiday to people who parked free months earlier) — “not what we intended.”

Public comment 19:39

  • 20:26 John Giantis (61 Blaney St, School Committee member) — direct abutter across from the hotel site. Reported takeaways from a hotel community meeting: the developer (via “Dixon”) will make the parking-lot entrance one-way in, with the exit farther down Reddington near OYO, so headlights no longer point at his house; light mitigation (berms/fencing) is “part of the plan.” Raised parking capacity: the lot has/will have 62 spaces against a project contemplating 167 for guests/employees/restaurant; solutions floated were the church/Archdiocese, and he suggested satellite lots with shuttling. Asked the board to weigh light, noise, and parking as it proceeds.
  • 24:12 Al Williams (11 Cedar Hill Terrace) — noted improvements since the May 4 meeting (white lines at the bottom of the hill; DPW brush-clearing on the left side, done in the rain). Requested a public hearing as “more efficient” than one-way public comment; said he emailed a modified parking plan and the neighborhood’s signed petition (originally sent to police in October, ~two years running, transferred to the board this spring). Argued the current Cedar Hill problem is commercial vehicles parking and overstaying, and that Bayview concerns are speculative (“not a problem until it is a problem”).
  • 26:49 Michael Garvey (85 Monument Ave, near Howland Park) — the leaf-blower ban is not being enforced. Landscapers “laugh” when told he might call police; he called several times last year and never saw a cruiser. “We have a bylaw. It’s not being enforced.”
  • 28:43 Brian (Hawthorne RFP) — argued that before defining the nine RFP checklist items, the board needs to identify larger goals and a vision/direction for the 1.4-acre site. Key claim: removing the existing restaurant building opens the site “for all sorts of possibilities” with no additional land purchase. Urged the board to build familiarity with town-planning principles so the RFP “contains a clear compass.”

Proclamation — Park and Recreation Month 31:39

Acting chair Leonard read the proclamation designating July as Park and Recreation Month, thanking the Parks & Recreation Department and the open-space/recreation committees. Signed by the board.

Proclamation — Eagle Scout Aiden Tate 33:59

Fletcher read a proclamation recognizing Aiden Tate as an Eagle Scout, noting the Town Hall plaques honoring Gold Award and Eagle Scout recipients. Tate described his project: rebuilding a Christmas nativity crèche for St. John’s Church that had been destroyed by wind. Group photo taken.

Hotel Delamar Swampscott — construction drawings 37:38

Dixon Mallory (Director of Business Development) presented, following an earlier same-evening meeting with abutting neighbors.

  • Site plan (revised): traffic flow was flipped in response to prior public-hearing feedback. Cars now enter from Reddington near the playground/ball field, either park or continue past the annex to drop off in front of the hotel entrance, then exit via the existing curb cut near Humphrey — “more logical from a drop-off standpoint” (passenger-side). Pole and bollard lighting identified; a landscaping schedule shared with the board; screening (arborvitae, fence, or combination) to be worked out with neighbors and town.
  • Board questions: Dooley confirmed EV-ready spaces (dual-head chargers, electrical run during site work). On parking overflow, Mallory said valet parking with a to-be-determined off-site lot, citing their West Hartford hotel (leased from the town, municipal-lot overflow) — and no charge for parking. Employee parking via a mix of on-site and public transit (nearby bus stop and train station). Stormwater to be handled in an engineered grading/stormwater plan at site-plan submission. Dooley pressed for arborvitae/greenery over vinyl fencing for screening. A retaining wall toward Stone Court would naturally screen abutting homes; some abutters may prefer no screening to preserve water views.
  • 45:53 Golaska summarized neighbor-meeting concerns: landscaping, traffic impacts, retaining walls, parcel maintenance, and playground relocation.
  • Process/jurisdiction: Leonard clarified the two parallel tracks — the town’s Land Development Agreement authority as property owner, and the Planning Board as site-plan / special-permit granting authority under zoning. The applicant’s detailed elevation/engineering work goes to the Planning Board at building-permit/site-plan stage. Per the LDA, all permits must be in hand by February 2027; a site-plan permit is subject to statutory approval clocks.
  • Page-by-page walk-through (changes since last presentation):
    • Basement: a two-level restaurant now placed in the old mechanical room, with a speakeasy-style bar on the sub-basement floor and private dining in sub-basement rooms with 20-ft ceilings; kitchen back-of-house with frosted windows. All existing space, no new construction.
    • Annex basement: one large room split into two; ADA-compliant layout; single elevator serving basement (doubles as service/passenger). The only new construction is the connecting tower between the main building and annex.
    • First floor: main entry via existing staircases; lobby in the former principal’s/nurse’s offices; ballroom in the former gymnasium (25-ft ceilings, retained stage, air wall splitting it ~70-30), overlooking Linscott Park; ADA access via the new elevator tower.
    • Second floor: hotel gym on the mezzanine level (poured-concrete steps made a hotel room impractical); no spa (couldn’t fit).
    • Guest rooms: carved from ~800-sf classrooms with a demising wall down the middle, yielding rooms of roughly 325-350 sf (nothing below 250); some connecting/suite configurations; existing cubby closets reused as bathrooms; all-new plumbing.
    • Rooftop: open-air seasonal deck with a bar and consolidated stair-tower/bathroom mass (a change adopted from a prior public-hearing recommendation, which Dooley credited to “my colleagues on the Planning Board”); dark-sky-compliant, subject to the town noise ordinance, no amplified music.
    • Capacity: ballroom seats 144 (“call it 150”); 57-58 keys (zone max 60); max occupancy roughly 200 (double-queen rooms exist). Restaurant ~80-100 seats; outdoor dining retained; Delamar operates its own restaurants but may lease this one.
  • Next steps / timeline 1:16:06: Golaska walked the LDA schedule — permitting (site-plan review, Historical Commission on any demolition/exterior work) and financing due by February 2027; construction ~24 months; hotel open ~November 2029. No formal vote; the board will refer the project to the Planning Board. Connors noted a weekly standing meeting among himself, Golaska, and Mallory. Board consensus: the plans “look beautiful.”

FY26 year-end transfers — Luddy 1:17:51

Luddy presented year-end transfers for fiscal 2026 (ended June 30). Total transfers ~$285,000, down from $663,000 last year and $479,000 the year prior — “lower than what we’ve seen… reflective of the budgeting we’ve been doing.”

  • Transfers in: fire department (largest — overtime; also the ladder-truck purchase that came in over bid, paid from operating; extraordinary street-lighting maintenance), DPW labor (trash strike), lifeguards (~$15K, some FY26 lifeguard salary had been miscoded to the rec revolving account), harbormaster salaries (police backfill at overtime), a Senior Center retention bonus (from an older contract; none remain in current contracts), and a small cemetery/DPW rounding correction.
  • Transfers out: employee benefits / health insurance savings (~$97K), and solid-waste expenses (savings from the JRM/Republic contract during the strike — Republic credited roughly the first three months; those savings cover the DPW labor line, a separate budget line; excess closes to enterprise retained earnings).
  • Discussion highlights:
    • Lifeguards 1:21:19: both a miscoding and a genuine under-budget; the line should be set higher going forward. Fletcher asked staff to confirm the legality of using the revolving account for lifeguards/community events (Luddy: conversations underway with Charlotte, more before the next budget).
    • Harbormaster 1:22:51: overtime from officer backfill; Fletcher questioned whether the non-police harbormaster staffer is being used and asked staff to check with Lt. Waters. Notably, no police-overtime transfer was needed this year.
    • Retention bonuses: two Senior Center contracts once carried them; now none do.
    • Ladder truck 1:25:51: Town Meeting authorized ~$1.6M; the bid came in ~$20K over. There is no policy governing how much of a capital overage may be absorbed from operating appropriation (allowable under state statute). The decision to buy a less-customized model for a much shorter lead time was made jointly by Luddy, the Fire Chief, and Connors; the plan to hold budget and make up the difference by year-end fell short, hence the transfer. Members probed the capital-vs-operating question (Fletcher: “there’s no policy”; confirmed).
    • Fire overtime 1:31:07: the department has not been at full staff all year, which raised overtime rather than lowering it (paying others more to cover shifts). FY25 fire OT was $885,000; FY26 was $795,000 — still $105K over budget. Connors proposed bringing an overtime-management discussion (police and fire, within contract terms) to an August meeting.
  • 1:33:22 Motion to approve the year-end transfers — moved and seconded; passed (all in favor).

FY27 water & sewer rates — Luddy 1:33:36

Luddy presented rate options.

  • Committee role 1:34:29: Fletcher and Leonard clarified the Water & Sewer Infrastructure Advisory Committee recommends but does not set rates; last year a subgroup was consulted but made no formal rate recommendation. Luddy will consult them again before the later-in-month discussion.
  • FY26 results: projected retained earnings of 29% of budget (sewer) and 33% (water) — above the 20% policy minimum (both were below policy at last certification). Drivers: increased irrigation and tier-3 (high-usage) consumption. Tiers explained as incremental usage bands; irrigation is separately metered (un-metered sprinkling falls into domestic and pays sewer cost too).
  • Budget growth / capital: sewer budget +7.3% (incl. indirect), water +6%; five-year capital of ~$5.7M (sewer) and ~$6.25M (water) requiring significant new debt service, including a phase-2C SRF loan (spring application) that was left counted in the CIC five-year plan though not yet borrowed.
  • Assumptions: 95% of prior-year domestic and 85% of prior-year irrigation consumption; flat account count; collections rate lowered from 90% to 85% (FY26 actually collected 86% of billed; all secured by property taxes, but a delinquency uptick is suspected after last year’s large increase).
  • Recommendation 1:47:00: sewer +4% / water +3%, projecting 32% (sewer) and 48% (water) retained earnings — consistent with last year’s 4.3% forecast; average bill impact ~$52/year. Luddy presented a single recommendation (“I didn’t want to enamor you with three”).
  • Discussion: Leonard pushed back hard, citing resident complaints about water/sewer bills, and asked to see a number lower than 4%, plus scenarios showing actual costs at 15%, 18%, and 20% retained earnings with operations-plus-debt forecasts. She and Dooley asked for unaccounted-for water data (a “>20%” figure was rumored; staff to check with Cresta), lost water from recent large main breaks, the I&I fund balance, the MWRA/Lynn Water & Sewer assessments, and a delinquency-aging report. A ten-year retained-earnings chart was shown to explain the 2023-2025 drawdown (deferred infrastructure maintenance “came due all at once”). No vote — staff to return later in the month with the requested scenarios.

Ingalls Terrace resident parking 2:01:58

Connors framed the item (misuse of resident spots; signage needs replacing). Fletcher raised it and read a letter from resident Nicole McGee (23 Ingalls Terrace) requesting resident-only signs (beachgoer congestion, overnight parking on both sides of a tight dead-end street, emergency-access concerns). Fletcher had visited at 2 p.m. and found the street lined both sides with cars, no stickers, despite existing seasonal no-parking signs (April-October).

Discussion turned town-wide: the board cannot direct police to write tickets, but wants Chief Quesada and Captain Cable at the next meeting to explain the enforcement plan. Members called this the third parking flashpoint in two months (Cedar Hill, Ingalls, Hawthorne) and cited the fisherman’s lot (11 non-stickered cars; a BMW across two handicap spots). Leonard/Connors described the resident-sticker system as “opaque” (residents unsure whether a sticker covers them off their own street) and floated a zoned color-coded model with education before enforcement. Dooley noted Ingalls’s confusing lot lines (private parking abutting sidewalk, hard to distinguish from street) from his Planning Board experience. No vote — deferred to the next meeting; all of Ingalls Terrace to be noticed (vs. the 300-ft radius used at Cedar Hill). Fletcher to follow up with the residents who called.

Recycling & solid-waste service contract and fees 2:18:01

Connors and Spritz presented.

  • Rollout: new 95/96-gallon recycling carts delivered week of the 20th; old private bins picked up curbside starting the second week of August, with a DPW drop-off option — reuse strongly encouraged.
  • Additional carts: a limited number of 65-gallon smaller recycling carts for residents with mobility issues/seniors (request at swampscottma.gov/trash), one-time — no later downsizing/upsizing swaps.
  • Contract 2:24:35: the Republic contract tracks the RFP and a May 16 revised proposal; Spritz reviewed pricing (matches RFP), Phelan to review legally. 2:28:15 Motion to authorize final review by Spritz (pricing) and Phelan (legal) plus signature — moved and seconded; passed (all in favor).
  • Extra trash-barrel fee (extended debate) 2:28:22: the blue-bag fee is proposed to rise from $3 to $3.50 (first increase since 2020; trash costs up 50% since). For an extra 35-gallon trash barrel, Spritz recommended an annual fee of $180, built from tonnage ($126.45/ton, +5%/yr), barrel cost ($12/yr), and a share of service cost. Leonard repeatedly argued the math only clearly supports ~$138 (tonnage + barrel) and pushed for $150 (“give people a break… evaluate it in a year”), warning the town never lowers fees once set. Spritz and Fletcher defended including a service-cost share (extra users consume more of the collection burden; bags represented ~16% of tonnage, ~$92K of service cost), landing tentatively near $160-170. A comparison to peer communities was requested. No vote — the fee was deferred to July 21, with staff to bring frameworks and comparator data; residents told to expect a $150-200 range and that requests can be withdrawn.
  • Extra recycling barrel 3:07:12: a second 96-gallon recycling barrel set at $100 (recycling revenue offsets the marginal service cost).
  • Every-other-week recycling 3:07:00: projected savings of ~$168,000/year (≈ one FTE), +5%/yr. Members (except Leonard) favored the switch; debate centered on timing (three months vs. January 1, to clear the holiday recycling surge). 3:13:49 Motion to move to every-other-week recycling beginning January 1, 2027 (as a target/projected date) — moved and seconded; passed 3-1, with Leonard voting no.

Hawthorne site RFP — nine decision points (straw poll) 3:16:02

Connors framed nine foundational decisions needed before drafting the RFP; the board ran a straw poll to sort quick calls from deeper discussions.

  1. Lease vs. sale — consensus to lease; retain town ownership “in perpetuity,” a long-term (e.g., 99-year) lease. No appetite to sell or subdivide.
  2. Residential use — broadly opposed: Fletcher and Spritz firmly against (parking, crowding, “not the intent when we purchased it”); Dooley and Leonard skeptical but open to a small residential component only if needed to make a project finance.
  3. Open-space proportion — deferred for a deeper discussion.
  4. Municipal parking — mixed: Fletcher skeptical (businesses will need the spaces); Leonard/Dooley favor some parking component but at lower priority, and would prefer it serve the site’s businesses rather than open municipal use.
  5. Building reuse vs. demolition — left open; members want the facts first (part of the foundation is built into natural stone; demolition would trigger Chapter 91 waterways public-access obligations and lose buildable space). Preference to let the RFP invite both a reuse and a demolition path.
  6. Environmental standards — leave out of the rubric; the town already adopted the specialized stretch energy code (top ~10% of communities) and anything built will exceed current code by construction time. Note it in the RFP narrative rather than scoring above-code bids.
  7. Walkability — unclear; defer to Phelan to articulate.
  8. Streetscape — merit acknowledged; defer.
  9. Synergy with the hotel / commercial corridor — high priority; the goal is to complement, not cannibalize the corridor (the hotel plus the other Humphrey Street restaurants/businesses), with interest in a function/venue capacity above 144, tourism/visitor generation, and community use. Discussion ranged over an open-air market, rentable kitchen space, and a performing-arts tie-in.

Items flagged to revisit: residential, parking, reuse-vs-demolition, open-space proportion, and hotel/commercial synergy — with “community use” added as a tenth theme. Members stressed that a healthy, busy hotel is central to the corridor’s benefit to the town.

  • Item 1 (minutes): motion to approve as amended, removing the June 17 minutes (Dooley had not reviewed them; deferred to the next meeting) — seconded; passed.
  • Item 2 (appointments): approved. Andrea Moore appointed to the Water & Sewer Advisory Committee after a vacancy of over a year (Fletcher “ecstatic”). Fletcher noted the asterisked terms are intentionally staggered so members roll onto standard three-year terms. Passed.
  • Item 3 (executive-session minutes release): motion to approve 2021 and 2022 and table 2023, 2024, and 2025 to the next meeting (Fletcher flagged one item needing consultation with Phelan) — seconded; passed.

Select Board reports & comments 3:45:36

  • Dooley: Boston tall ships anchoring off Swampscott — Friday by 6 p.m., eight of the ~22 boats off Little’s Point (visible from Fisherman’s and Phillips Beach), the rest off Nahant; parade to Boston Saturday morning.
  • Connors: the town is switching public meetings from Microsoft Teams to Zoom for better cable-access recording, control, and capacity (~$1,000 budgeted; webinars for the Select Board and Planning Board, plus three general meeting accounts scheduled through the TA’s office). Dooley flagged COVID-era pain with two-factor authentication / account-ownership and urged training committee chairs to self-manage; Connors said staff (Shannon) is already addressing the 2FA question and asked the board to let staff execute the switch.
  • 3:54:01 Motion to adjourn — moved, seconded, passed (all in favor).

I’ve also logged the meeting’s trajectory changes to the current political-context snapshot (data/political_context/2026-05.md, dated observation for 2026-08-08) and appended one news-idea (the Hotel Delamar / Hadley redevelopment reaching construction-drawings stage) to data/news/IDEAS.md; the parking-enforcement, trash-rollout, and Hawthorne-RFP threads are already covered by existing open ideas.