[Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] in [Music] [Music] [Music] good evening uh this is a regularly scheduled meeting of the Brooklin select board for 5:00 pm on uh Tuesday May 14th 2024 uh once again uh so I'm Chaz Cary I'm the Town Administrator and once again I have the privilege to briefly serve as chair proem of this meeting uh the bir's first meeting after the town election uh I'd first like to call the meeting to order and direct your attention to the results of the election which will be presented to us by town clerk Ben Kaufman uh thank you Mr chair um Brookland held its annual Town election on uh May 7th 2024 the polls were open from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. on that day as well as early voting vote by mail which occurred in the weeks leading up to it um turnout for the election was 9,845 voters 24.9% turnout which marks the highest turnout at a town election that did not have an override on the ballot in at least 25 years of those uh voters 5,279 of them voted early or by mail over 50% and a thousand of them used our ballot dropboxes in order to return their ballots uh proving success uh in that new program that we introduced uh this past year um a tremendous amount of thanks is owed to town employees from every Department uh who helped with everything from preparing ballot mailings uh setting up polling locations serving as police details to protect our elections and helping to get the final results at the end of the night uh there's also a thank you owed to departments and organizations who gave us their space to host uh polling locations and early voting locations throughout the election as well as a thank you to our poll workers who spent 16 hours at the polls on Election Day uh to make sure that we had a successful election I also want to give a very special thank you to my staff in the town clerk's office um because I was in fact on the ballot uh there are many elections activities I could not participate in uh therefore members of my staff uh went above and beyond uh the regular responsibilities in an election to make sure that we had a successful and joyous day here in Brooklyn uh and they deserve all of our thanks uh the results of the election are as follows for the position of town moderator Neil Allen wasinski for the position of town clerk Ben Kaufman for the position of Select board uh Bernard Green and David arenus Pearlman for the position Trustee of the public library Judith Goldman Kristen hung Carol Loy and suan zela for the position of school committee um Jesse hefter Sarah Anne mogt and Carolyn Thal and for the position of Housing Authority Kimberly Richardson there were also a large number of town media members who were elected I will not uh go through all of those right now but the official results were certified by the registar of Voters at a med on Friday May 10th uh and those official results are posted on the town website under our election results page does the board have any questions about the election itself well if the chair will allow I also do want to um do a quick uh note on the side which is actually to uh commemorate an upcoming anniversary we have in Brooklyn uh this Friday May 17th marks 20 years uh since same-sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts the first place it was legalized in the United States in brookly on May 17th 2004 one of the first same-sex marriages was performed in the town clerk's office by then town clerk Pat Ward well has not been substantiated as believed by many it was actually the second same-sex marriage ever performed in the United States the moment was memorialized in an article in the Washington Post and I would encourage you to all go and look at it on that historic day 76 same-sex couples filed marriage intentions in the town clerk's office and by the end of 2004 187 marriage licenses had been ised to samesex couples here in Brooklyn uh we look forward to remembering that historic day 20 years ago and observing the advancements that we have made as well as the small role the Brookline town clerk's office has played uh in that important day so with that I will say uh while uh we had a very successful election in May our work is truly never done the white board in my office already has the countdown 112 days until September 3rd so I look forward to seeing you all there thank you very much thank you Mr uh with the election results uh in order and certified uh I will direct your attention to the first item on the agenda uh which calls for the board to organized with the election of a chair and we'll note that I read from this from a script that was prepared by uh our the first Town Administrator in the modern era dick liry uh this has been passed down from Town Administrator to Town Administrator so it's a nice little tradition to just continue uh I read from these read from these cards smell read from them Rich ker read from them and wrote them so it's a very nice little tradition here we will now proceed with the election of a chair nominations are in order and no seconds are required do we have nominations Mr Warren yep I'd like to nominate Bernard Green to be chair need to be second are there any other nominations there being none is that a mo is there a motion that nominations be called all right um I will take a vote on the motion that nominations be closed sorry called not close the motion was by Mr Sandman Mr Green yes uh Mr van kak I Mr Sandman hi Mr Warren hi Mr Pearlman hi all right five to zero it has been moved uh and so the nominations are closed it has been moved that Bernard Green be elected chair of the board for the ensuing year those in favor of the motion will say I or yes those oppose no Mr Green hi this time Mr van SK hi m Mr Sandman I Mr Warren hi Mr Pearlman I the motion is carried by a vote of five to nothing I am pleased to announce that the Bernard Green has been elected chair of the select board for the ensuing year and will now take the ceremonial chair my job is done thank you so we we still have to nominate a vice chair of the board um I think you do that those honors too I'm happy I'm happy to do that uh our nominations are in order for a vice chair yes and uh I nomin yes I well you can yeah sure uh nominate John Vin Cory very well are there any other nominations there a motion that nominations be closed so moved all right all in favor Mr Green h i Mr van coer I Mr sanman I Mr Warren I Mr Pearlman I nominations now closed we have one nomination for John Van skak to serve as Vice chair for the ensuing Year all in favor I or yes all oppos no Mr Green I Mr vanak hi Mr Sandman I Mr Warren hi Mr Pearlman I I'm V skak by a vote of five to zero has been elected vice chair for the ensuing year congratulations now I'm really done okay and I am that Bernard Green that was just selected as chair of the select board um before we start I'd like to just thank uh the community for uh support during the election campaign the long election campaign uh and both for their support and their ideas and complaints that I heard about things that we should be doing differently in town or or or better pick those up as we go through the year uh we we don't have any magic wand right and there's no mny tree that uh we can solve all our problems with but we will make the effort to uh respond to the concerns that I learned in the community I think uh David also um and that we hear every day uh in emails and uh phone calls from uh people in the community so again thank you um and let's we we'll move on and uh you know proceed as well as we did before okay um okay let's start off with announcements or updates or other announcements and updates from the select board any I have um some yes mik um uh last week uh John Van squ fresh back from his trip to Egypt and I um attended the graduation from The Joint fire acad Academy um between held by Cambridge and Brookline fire departments um and eight new firefighters will be joining the Brookline force and um uh it was a very um impressive ceremony I think both of us were uh very very very moved by it uh families were there and so forth and chief John Sullivan uh made a very graceful um graceful little speech and uh wanted to publicly welcome those eight new uh firefighters thank you any other John uh yes um it feels good to be back and I want to congratulate our chair on his re-election I want to congratulate David Pearlman on his election welcome to the select board thank you very much and I I hope they make sure to feed you as they feed the rest of us when we have these meetings that start at five o'clock um by the way ordering from uh the spa you'll you'll be perfectly cont ENT with with what you get um I just want to mention that there is uh kind of an important meeting coming up this week the U uh there is an ongoing process by which we are going to update our open space plan and one of the forums that is being held um on that subject is this coming Thursday uh at 7 o'clock at what's known as the municipal service center which is um the the the building that is behind the fire St in Precinct 15 and uh I hope I got that right but I think I did uh we're not talking about the police community community room it's the municipal service center um so that that would be an important meeting to to attend I hope people sort of check out the details on of that meeting on the uh town website um I also want to make known uh if it isn't already known to people that our annual report the town of Brooklyn's annual report has been published and and um notably uh it is edited by um our new Communications official um Christina Meda um and uh I for one think it's it's a terrific example of um the how that report is going to just get better and better as we go forward year after year it's an important report that helps people to understand exactly what they get for their tax dollars and for their participation in our local government and for their um very wise decision to become part of this community um and I hope people will go to the town website look for the um page with the annual Town report it's U it's really well worth going through thank you any other comments or updates um yeah Mike S I have one in the um miscellaneous agenda the uh the things that we uh approve by uh by consent uh there is a grant of $750,000 uh uh $250,000 per year to support the division of sustainability and uh and natural resources and the establishment of a special Grant account into which funds can be deposited for sustainability and environmental goals being administered through the Department of Public Works that comes from a family office which means that there some they represent some family that has um substantial assets and that family has apparently directed them to U make that contribution and I think it it's kind of it's buried in a long list of things I think it's worthy of a request request has made actually to take take that out of the miscellaneous agenda discuss it so we will we will do that okay good and I just wanted to say on the subject of the Department of Public Works next Tuesday is DPW day at the municipal service center um all day um you know it'll be open to the public uh the public hours are on the website uh in addition there'll be visits from U several of the third grade classes um it's one of my favorite days of the year um I always love um seeing kids and members of the public you can touch a truck you can figure out how the gardening works you can look at the giant sewer camera tanker we have it's really cool uh strongly recommend you can see welding and street signs um it's a lot of fun and it's really great uh tribute to our uh DPW staff who do really wonderful work that often goes unseen in the community so uh please come by the municipal service center next Tuesday uh and look online for specific dates and times and even grown-ups can enjoy climing up into those trucks okay uh next we have unless anyone else has a comment uh public comment uh Charlie please uh lay out the rules so we can start public comment happy to do it um this uh so thank you for joining us for public comment this is an opportunity for us to hear your perspective on the issues in Brookline that matter to you each person speaking tonight is limited to three minutes you don't need to use the entire time but you may if you like once 15 minutes has been met There's an opportunity at the conclusion of the select board's business for additional comments members of the public sometimes raise questions during public comment we may be able to provide a quick answer to a question but are more likely to work with staff to get a more thorough answer and respond over email we'll let you know when you have 30 seconds remaining and when your time is up please conclude your remarks at that time if you have more to say you are welcome to send an email to board members expressing your thoughts in Greater detail and so just so folks know we have three people signed up in advance for public comment um and uh so folks can sign up in advance but in the meantime if anyone would like to uh to speak they may raise their hand on Zoom or in person or use the Q&A feature on Zoom to let us know they'd like to make a comment so the first person signed up for public comment is Marissa vote I'm promoting Marissa now hi uh can I talk now is you may yep okay sorry I missed I missed a bit of what you said while I was being promoted to panelists um but hi everyone uh my name is Marissa vote I'm a town meeting member in Precinct 6 and I'm also a library trustee um we have a meeting tonight so um I wanted to briefly address you on the um proposed records retention policy which I know you're t uh taking up later but I'll be in a meeting so thank you for um giving me some time now um I want to just very briefly first disclose that my husband works for a large tech company that does um offer email services to both profit and nonprofit organizations um but I'm I'm not going to really touch on that specifically um I want to thank you for your responsiveness to the issue of um public records um retention and for your hard work on this I just want to say though that I think that the proposed policy um still falls short in many ways I think it over relies on having individual board members keep track of their own records and forward messages to that board archives email address um I think using lists or town own town-owned accounts would help um create archives for each board that would really help with institutional memory if new members were added they could access the archives um you know I think this this policy doesn't solve the issue that a uh Records request could still cost a large amount of time and effort and money from the for the requester um if it was difficult to disentangle emails from um you know public records from a personal email account and then also this records um policy doesn't seem like it's really scalable that it could be applied to non-select board committees like town meeting members in the AC so um you know I really do appreciate your responsiveness to this uh issue and your hard work so far um and I am very mindful of the phrase you know that you don't want to let the perfect be the enemy of the good but also I think that if something is worth doing it's worth doing well um and I would encourage you to continue to work on this um because I think the the the policy as proposed just Falls a little bit short but um again really I thank you for your hard work I know you've got a lot of other things on your plate so thanks have a good night the next person signed up for public comment is Alex Neri Alex if you are in the room you may approach the presentation station and your 3 minutes will begin he's not in the room okay uh I'm not seeing Alex on line either so I'm going to go um to the next person signed up for public comment who is rul Fernandez um Raul if you're in person you may approach the presentation station and your three minutes will begin thank you hello uh board members um good evening my name is Dr rul Fernandez I'm the executive director of Brookline for racial Justice and Equity also known as Bridge just want to congratulate uh Bernard we were talking about earlier your fourth now term on select board and and re-election as chair as well and to David on your election um congratulations to you both and good luck uh last night Bridge hosted an event called race and policy in Brookline we we released the findings of our inaugural community service in partnership with the massing polling group unlike many Community surveys Brooklyn residents were randomly selected to participate and the data was awaited to match the race age gender education and geography of Brookline yielding generalizable results with a 5.1% Marge of error and the data were clear Brookline residents are sounding the alarm about the affordability crisis in our community especially as it relates to the cost of housing and child care 68% of respondents and majorities of every cross crosssection of Brookline residents of all Races ages and genders owners as well as renters regardless of Education or income levels said yes it's getting harder for me to afford to live in Brooklyn this affordability crisis disproportionately impacts residents of color some examples the median income for black households in Brooklyn is $47,000 less than white households unemployment rates for Latina residents are nearly double those of white residents and for all the homes of all the homes owned in Brooklyn just one % have a black head of household considering these stats it's not surprising that according to the Brookline foundation's recent understanding Brookline report the percentage of people who identify as black and Brookline has dropped falling from just 3.4% in 2010 to a mere 2.5% in 2020 back to the survey naturally housing emerged as the top issue with 65% of respondents saying affordable housing would be the most impactful economically including 82% supporting income restricted housing and 74% supporting high density housing a strong majority 63% of respondents indicated support for rank control including 87% of renters and 89% of black and Latino respondents a majority of respondents said that racism is at least somewhat a serious problem in Brooklyn including 68% of women and 70% of black and Latino residents local government leaders you all were viewed most unfavorably in addressing racial disparities with 8 28% % of Asian residents and 25% of black residents saying local leaders are doing poorly at working to address racial disparities you have 30 seconds thank you large majorities strongly support shifting resources and increasing taxes to make housing more affordable address food insecurity and expand child care options indicating widespread support to reallocate Municipal budgets and raise revenues to address these needs I sent you a link to all of these data I encourage you to check them out and please let me know if you have questions My Hope Is that you'll join Brookland resident in Brook line for racial Justice and equity and putting affordability at the top of your agenda this year especially as it relates to eliminating I'm sorry persisting racial inequities in our town we're happy to partner with you to do so thank you thank you thank you let's move on to our next uh section of the agenda which is our miscellaneous agenda uh I move of approval of meeting minutes from April 2nd 2024 April 24 2024 and April 30 202 24 unless anyone has any edits or corrections to those minutes um I actually sent in a correction a little edit that wasn't substantial but um John I just want to note that I was not present for the 24th of the 30th and so that's right we abstain um on those okay um okay so uh I'm Mo approval of those three sets of minut all in favor please indicate by saying I first is John vanak with the um as I just said uh I April 2nd um actually maybe we should go uh each one whatever you think is best let let's start off by uh minutes for April 2nd 2024 uh John vanak hi who's next Mike sanman hi Paul Warren hi moved up in the world and David Perman abstain I wasn't on the committee at the time okay and chair votes I uh next uh April 24th 2024 I'm approval all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak abstain uh Michael Sandman I Paul Warren I and David Perman abstain and shair votes I uh next uh minutes for April 30 2024 all in favor please indicate by saying I uh John vanak have say Michael Sandman I um Paul Warren I David prman abstain and chair votes I so thank you okay next uh we have 26 miscellaneous items um if you start at item 4B because 4 a was the minutes uh we go all the way down to item four doublea so um these include five appropriation transfers which are necessary to close out the budget year and six temporary alcohol licenses among other miscellaneous items but first I'd like to ask David Perman to read our Asian-American Pacific Island Islander Proclamation after which we will discuss item 4f which is a transfer of previous Appropriations made to uh uh uh made from Group Health where we have savings to building School maintenance in the amounts of 787 th000 um where we under budgeted in fiscal year 2023 and are now catching up and finally we will have a discussion of item four r a donation for our sustainability and Natural Resources Division so after we have discussion of those items we'll then come back and and vote the entire to our list of miscellaneous items so David please proclamation of the Brookline Massachusetts select board recognizing Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month whereas the month of May marks Asian-American and Pacific Islander aapi heritage month which celebrates the histories of families who came to America from East and Southeast Asia the Indian subcontinent and the Pacific island nations of melanesia Micronesia and Polynesia and whereas on October 23rd 1992 Congress passed and the president signed Public Law 102 450 proclaiming the month of May to be aapi heritage month and whereas on May 1 1st 2018 Governor Charles D Baker signed House Bill 3360 an act designated may as Asian-American and Pacific Islander month in Massachusetts and in recent years local communities such as the city of Boston Lexington and Amherst have proclaimed May to be aapi month and whereas aapi residents constitute the largest community of color in the town of Brooklyn according to the 2020 census over 12,000 brookln residents identify as aapi which is 19% of the town's population or almost one in five residents and whereas the aapi community has suffered widespread discrimination and hateful and violent attacks throughout its history in America up to the present and whereas despite discrimination and hate the aapi community has made important long-lasting and irreplaceable contributions to American life and culture including in Brooklyn and whereas aapi American military personnel have served honorably courageously and with distinction in Service to America in all its Wars and other military duties and whereas the select Board of the town of Brookline recognizes the contributions and the concerns of aapi and other protected communities through celebrations and events and whereas the office of diversity inclusion and community relations odcr in conjunction with the Brookline Asian-American family Network Baffin has sponsored an aapi Heritage Month cele celebration since 2016 now therefore the select Board of the town of Brookline Massachusetts hereby proclaims that the month of May shall be celebrated in brookln as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in furtherance of this Proclamation the Brookline select board hereby urges Town departments and other local governmental and non-governmental bodies to develop programs ceremonies and activities to recognize and celebrate aapi heritage month at as appropriate to their missions urges residents visitors and people passing through Brookline to use the month of May to start a year-round process to study learn about and reflect on the history culture and contributions of the aapi community in America and in the town of Brookline urges residents visitors and people passing through Brookline to challenge hateful messages and actions against the aapi community whether American Born foreign born citizens or immigrants of America and to acknowledge and learn about the historic discrimination inflicted upon the aapi community and the recent increase in anti-asian racism during the covid-19 pandemic thank you David okay next um we have two items that board members have asked to be taken out of the miscellaneous category and discussed separately um and assuming that uh there's no objection we will vote them together with the other items uh at at the end of this discussion but let me start off by saying largely for the benefit of David Pearlman okay who's new to this board uh that if possible when you see a miscellaneous item that you think should not be voted without discussion or more information is uh needed uh you can call Chaz or Charlie young and see if they can clarify for you uh is concerns that you may have or whether they can prepare a discussion a detailed explanation of the item at the select board meeting of course there are certain items that you do want to have um a fuller public hearing on and and it's perfectly appropriate to pull those out and have that Fuller public hearing on something that you think um you know needs to be more publicly uh discussed so with that uh we have item 4f which is an appropriation transfer um from group uh from the gick to the uh building School maintenance uh account and U Paul do you want to explain sure concerns are there yeah and um and first thank you uh Cher green for highlighting um the opportunities to to bring some items outside of miscellaneous agenda so uh for me there's um often it it has to do with the dollar value so as you start getting up higher and higher in value uh for items uh they often catch my attention this one caught my attention uh because it's uh a request to transfer 787 ,000 um from uh one account to another to cover um a deficit in utilities for school buildings um and you know Charlie um did a great job in issuing the memo and answered you know some of the questions I have but I'm I'm trying to just understand a little bit better uh systemically if uh in addition to rates going up which we know that occurred um is there something that's going on with with our new buildings um um with respect to usage and I did I had a conversation with with Charlie about this and he's prepared to to talk and I think it's beneficial for the board and the public to hear this because this is a a substantial increase um in utility costs for the for the school building so um Charlie I I know you're prepared for for my questions so I'm hoping that you can provide some insight into What's happen yeah Paul I think I think you raised good questions so I'm always happy to to delve into this with you uh and and other board members if they have further questions here or later on utilities please feel free to let me know so um so Paul ask a good question which is is there a systemic issue with with our buildings or with our usage um and the you know the this conversation began last year when we presented a $743,000 reserve fund transfer for school buildings um and advisory and other folks asked you know what's going on in the buildings um and I have a I have a slide which may appear to be a blizzard of numbers but I'm hoping that it will be useful uh for everybody where I'm I'm going to show that essentially um the total cost give me just one moment to pull this up um I'm sorry the total units used by the school buildings last fiscal year um were actually below what we had estimated so hopefully folks are seeing a a PowerPoint slide um so I'll walk through this very quickly but essentially this is what we had budgeted last year for units um for the school this is kilowatt hours of electricity and what it came in at was 500,000 kilowatt hours less um than what we had initially anticipated and so down here you'll see that we were over budget in that account by $400,000 and as has been pointed out by Paul that issue is almost entirely due to um the the the cost of electricity going up by almost 50% the unit cost of transmission for electricity going up significantly um there was another issue uh associated with um to tap-ins new design that's being worked through by the building department at the moment that is also causing some increases uh in cost and use but on the whole you can see that use has actually been going was actually down last year um and so uh and so I guess to continue walking through this you know where else are are we seeing deficits so the $400,000 in in increase costs was carried through to this fiscal year and so we're carrying that deficit plus another 200 ,000 here um those th that 200,000 is likely due as pointed out down here um to uh perhaps a little bit more increase in in costs but also uh to 22 tapin uh design issue and to current costs that we're seeing with for uh operating the new Driscoll school without a Geo without its geothermal well we've heard from building that that is likely to be resolved by this fall um but there there is still um from talking with Charlie Simmons that the building does seems to still be running at a higher cost than they had anticipated even if you factor in for the fact that the building doesn't have geothermal Wells so our our two latest building you know buildings that have been completed are running at at more expensive than we had initially anticipated um and so running down the list you know that that is that's basically the overview of electricity we have a almost 50% is increase in unit costs that we have to deal with and absorb plus uh our two newest buildings um and then um or two latest you know projects that we completed um and then uh for natural gas there are a couple of issues playing uh playing into this one we we did have a a reporting error of almost 70,000 therms last year that caused a significant jump in what we were expecting for units um as you can see the actuals for last year for natural gas were quite high that was carried into this fiscal year as well um which is where you see this $185,000 increase water um is is partly due to an increase in cost that was not projected um but it is also due to increased use um and this we don't see as a systemic issue as you can see it's over by roughly the same amount as it was last year and we're correcting for that in fy2 um and and it's my view that we're correcting for these as well in fy2 we have a a total $831,000 um increase in school building utilities and we are expecting to see some um some solar credits come in that will help to get up to that the total 97,000 deficit that we're seeing and and so just to clarify you know we're only asking for $787,000 tonight um because the the costs to operate Driscoll without a geothermal well um it's been determined should come out of either the construction budget or uh perhaps a reserve fund transfer or another source uh because they simply weren't budgeted for um and and were an unforeseen cost outside of um outside of we're seeing so Paul please go ahead and yeah so could could you please put that slide back up for a moment sure it was it was and I appreciate the summary it was not a blizzard actually it was actually quite good uh the the the question I have though is the numbers that you're presenting were there were FY 23 and this request is actually overage for FY 24 correct we have both we have both here so I'm sorry I I started with FY 23 because this is a deficit that's being carried from last year like okay like I would say 700,000 of the 900,000 is known as of last year due to due to costs and other issues we've gone over this is fy4 here on this side so this is our fy2 24 budget this is what we budgeted for electricity this is what it came in at and what we are uh and what but you don't have but you don't have the electric because you know you and I spoke and you helped educate me which I appreciate that the unit cost of electricity went up substantially right but but you know you're you're showing that uh electricity by unit consumption went down 515,000 units right what is what is the FY 24 projected actual uh based on the current run rate for the school do we have that so um are you thinking so are you thinking actual units yeah box I didn't have that in time for for you today Paul so um as noted in the the memo these deficits were projected by the towns engineer ggd I was sent the analysis that they provided earlier today and it was done in a lump sum of cost I didn't they didn't give us what they projected for units that is something I could give you um okay Charlie first I'm I've taken enough of the board's time on this so first thank you um my question really didn't get answered which is okay it doesn't stop me from supporting this because this needs to be supported tonight but I don't understand systemically um if if there's if there are buildings that are problematic so is Driscoll running higher uh for example than the 86 uh 8,640 th000 units uh which were budgeted what is it's forecasted it would be really helpful to get that information you can send it to me later um and and the same for natural gas and it would be helpful to get that at the building level um to see what's happening with tapen street I hear that that there are some design issues that we're trying to work through but that building is running at a much higher rate um and also that that Driscoll I suspect is running higher uh than we had budgeted um and it would be really helpful to to know if uh if that is the case and then to finally just highlight the the the money um that we were expecting to include in the budget due to the geothermal Wells that's not in the operating budget that's separate it's being pulled out of the capital budget for the school and if I'm correct that's running about 20,000 a month correct that is the engineers estimate that they originally provided they said it would cost 20K a month to operate without in addition without geothermal Wells uh okay so we're underwriting we're underwriting that amount from essentially the bond right for the school is that well it hasn't happened yet necessarily um I think you know we spoke with Building Commissioner Dan Bennett today and his plan is to talk to uh is to go to the the building commission about that and and look at the budget and determine what's what's available right and then if that if failing that it may need to be a reserve fund transfer um for for this fiscal year just just jump in on that it's my preference that that come out of the capital budget no I no I I I understand that I guess in in in summary I am anxious about these numbers um uh and I don't have a sense that we have a good handle on it um and and what's causing it um so Paul I I can jump in I'm sorry to interrupt you I just I just want to clarify that you know on this on this sheet we are saying we are pointing out exactly how much Driscoll is running over anticipated budget right here um it's running currently bills are coming in between 40 and 62k the engineers estimate with geothermal was 20K um and CH talking with Charlie Simmons we do think that in its initial six months of settling into its energy patterns it is costing more to run even if you factor in the the geothermal um I can tell you that I've run separate analysis that shows that um of this uh of this total um you know this total uh deficit we're looking at um let me just pull it up in just a second here the the large majority of it 400,000 of electricity 100,000 of of natural 150,000 of natural gas um are due to unit cost increases so we're talking about more than two thirds of this being related to increases in unit costs that were not captured in the budget um so the Delta there is you know between two and $300,000 some of that is water um and the remainder of that can be applied to some of these issues we've highlighted a 70k error in uh reporting out of therms um so um you know I'd be happy to go over it in more detail perhaps after we get through this transfer and get into get through town meeting we could have a uh a a broader presentation about utilities and where they stand um but but I you know um I I don't want to paint the picture that we're not aware of where these deficits are uh the majority of them are in unit costs okay uh yeah I I think a followup just on school um projected uh unit consumption would be really helpful that's the hole that's missing for me right now um thank you okay thank you uh John so we have a long agenda tonight and if if it's okay I'm just going to uh put my H comment in the form of a comment so that we we don't need to sort of go back and forth question answer question and answer um I I just want to stipulate that I'm going to assume that what's being shown to us is um a projection of how much over budget we will be by the end of fy2 24 because we haven't reached the end of fy2 24 yet and that we won't be hearing a further request for more funds before the end of FY 24 in other words this isn't just catch up to where we are and then if it continues to go over what we anticipated will have to do it again before the FY end of fy2 24 that's what I'm going to assume um the other thing I am going to assume is that if this is the new normal um in terms of uh rates and in terms of usage and in terms of um uh the anticipated difference between the experience of the former school buildings and the new school buildings that built into the fy2 budget already is The New Normal so I I hope we won't in fy2 you know again have to play catchup with energy costs because there there wasn't sufficient money in the budget so I'll just leave that there as a as a comment Charlie thank you very much your your presentation was very helpful yes thank you any other questions comments no let's move on to item three uh four R and on there I I we have uh commissioner sh uh from DPW to introduce this subject and I believe she has brought along with us our new director of sustainability and natural resources Alexander veu so if we could promote both of them that would be great good evening uh Erin Jud Commissioner of Public Works uh congratulations to Chairman green and vice chair van skak and welcome uh to select board member Burman um Public Works looks forward to working with all of you um thank you for the opportunity to speak about the new sustainability and Natural Resources Division and an incredible Grant uh $750,000 over three years to support our efforts in the Department of Public Works um we understand one of the select boards um top goals has been to make significant advances uh in the area of sustainability to reach uh the town's carbon reduction goals attain meaningful Pro uh project implementation grants improve um the inclusion of climate change and adaptation initiatives across all departments and increase our Outreach efforts help residents make meaningful uh change as well so the creation of a new division um with two new full-time staff an assistant director and a project manager um that will help support community outreach and large Municipal grants are envisioned ultimately as the core group that will lead this charge and change for the town so I've been working tirelessly on a grant um the $750,000 that uh we're looking to uh have you accept uh this year um this for this upcoming year to help us build and establish the foundation for this new Division I know that it's the intent to fund uh these positions and the Town Administrator and I are looking for ways to make that happen um but I also know that you want change and you want to see that uh right away uh and so um with that I just want to note that um this grant is really unprecedented in a lot of ways um it is unprecedented in its value the dollar value um it's a ability for us to use for operations and I want to note that it really recognizes great support um for and Trust of the Department of Public Works um to execute this so um really excited about the grant um excited about this new Division and uh it's really a great pleasure to introduce Alexandra beio who is um perfectly positioned to uh implement this new division um successfully within Public Works and for uh the town she has been our director of parks and open space for three and a half years and has touched all things um climate and sustainability relateded from R charging stations to our Greening our Municipal Fleet to zero waste to storm water to um urban forestry she has her masters from Yale University of school of Forestry and Environmental Studies with a focus on climate adaptation and land use planning and um is going to be uh an incredible um asset for us and she was the climate change program director for Mass Autobon um before this so I think what a lot of people don't know about Alexandra is that her her passion and her purpose her education um what she has done um before being our incredible Park director of parks in open space has been climate focused and I think you are going to um be really impressed with the work um that this very talented woman um will be able to achieve for the town and I'm really proud to have her uh on my team and maybe if I could beg the Indulgence of the board maybe just I'm moment for Alexandra to say hello and um maybe a minute or two of herion yeah it's it's great that we have such a incredible person to take over this division that we found in house well thank you thank you um and thank you for that U lovely introduction commissioner too uh good evening everyone I'm Alexander veio And as the commissioner mentioned for the past three and a half years I've had the pleasure serving as the town's parks and open space director um it's really been an extraordinary learning opportunity and it's given me the chance to really get to know and work with our amazing staff volunteers elected officials that make Brookline such a fantastic community and will be key players in the success of this new division um I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to applaud the parks and open space division they're made up of some of the most talented hardworking and creative problem solvers I've ever had the pleasure of working with and the next Parks director that comes in has the pleasure of joining a great team that forever holds a special place in my heart uh and I very much appreciate everything that they've done so I'm really excited about this opportunity to step into the role as the Director of sustainability and natural resources as the commissioner mentioned this is a dream opportunity for me I know the urgency that Brooklyn feels to address the climate crisis because I personally feel that every day as well and it's been the driving force behind my personal and professional uh life work for the past 15 years um I do consider this my life work and I consider as the commissioner has heard me say I think this is the work that fills up my cup and helps me to continue fighting for Meaningful climate Solutions so particularly excited to step into this role at this time um by that I mean we're really building a new division within the Department of Public Works an incredible team um I think this new structure will afford US the opportunity to really operationalize our climate and overall sustainability actions across the town and I'm excited about this chance to build this team um thanks to the support from this grant um that will'll have the right skills and the right Vision to help Brookline realize their their crucial climate goals so I think bringing together uh that team as well as this interdisciplinary working group across all departments that really focuses on measurable and achievable climate actions in a coordinated manner um I'm sure you all are familiar with the the Collins report that came out a few years ago um so this is somewhat similar to uh one of the recommendations in there that we're really bringing together people from all departments um and having this shared agenda of climate our work together and how we're going to achieve it in each of our respective roles so I really see sustainability as something that needs to be integrated across the organization and I think this division allows us the opportunity to do that so I really appreciate the select board and the town administrators leadership on this topic and I anticipate us working together closely and regularly along with Zab and our other Community Partners to help deliver on our various climate mitigation and resiliency goals so thank you so much for the opportunity um and I do ask for a little bit of patience as I continue to serve as the parks and open space director um for the next few months until we fill that role um but am starting to integrate with Zab some of the community groups I've met with climate Action Brooklyn Etc um and really look forward to to doing a deeper dive on that um as the summer moves on so thank you all as we appreciate yeah go ahead I was just gonna say as we as we ramp up and we're able to um work the um funding and budget for the positions into the division over time we can then transition the use of these Grant funds to um very specific projects and initiatives thank you um let me just say that uh we're really looking forward to getting up and running we understand that it's going to be very difficult ult juggling two jobs talking to Alexandra um but you know the board and the town is very very uh glad that we we have this uh new position uh staffed and up and running and uh thank you to all who have made this possible so David you add your hand up yes this this is certainly critical work I'm very appreciative of it I do though have a long-term funding question so the grants will cover 3 years what happens in year four and do we already have a plan for that so we are looking at this as a we know we look at this as a pilot right this is the opportunity for us to have the runway necessary to demonstrate the success and the value to the community of this uh we also are obviously committed to wherever possible diversifying funding sources particularly when it comes to projects we want to be as Grant focused as possible which is why we have dedicated grant grant making capacity built into the office but yes at the end of the day there is going to be we are going to take on operating expenses for this one of the things that we worked through if the if the board decides at the end of the three-year period that we're continuing with this as a a you know a formal process out of the pilot and you know we'll use the traditional tools and methods that the town has used in the past to evaluate that you know evaluations from the committee on Town organization and structure your own evaluations you know the the the input from the community to determine the value of this effort uh and the budget uh that it than is going to require um but one of the things that we did in studying this and studying this for some time was try and figure out you know is there a way to make this totally self-sustaining on outside funding and the answer we got is no um that currently in Massachusetts there's just not enough money to drive the self- sustaining sort of outside sources for sustainability other communities have done this by kind of getting a Runway up with arpa um and now they're coming to the same arpa Cliff we're coming to I think it's more appropriate for us to develop the data we have in hand develop that strong grantmaking capacity utilize the State's new office of Grant Management which is a really good resource that we have just only started to utilize and then figure out from there what is the bottom line number where are we paying for it from out of our sources and put that question to you the select board and and to town meeting uh and determine how we move forward based on that at the end of this three-year period all um thank you very much um commissioner sh and also thank you so much um Alexandra beo for saying yes to the uh the offer um of filling this very important position I love it when um talent that exists within our own ranks is recognized and I love it when we have uh exceptional Talent within our own ranks and that turns out to have been the case um in in when this position uh needed to be filled and um I think people are going to discover some things about ex Alexander that they didn't know before in terms of her background and her skills um and um I I think we're going to have terrific potential with the combination of the hiring of Alexandra and and then the arrival of this gift um I have a couple of questions I'm just going to pose the questions and then I think maybe our Our Town Administrator might be the best position to answer them but maybe commissioner Sho might be the best person to answer them um question number one is do we have a policy on charitable grants of this nature and the reason I ask is that I think it's well understood that when a grant comes from a state or state department there's all kinds of conditions that apply and all kinds of monitoring that kind of kicks in um but what happens when it's a and I won't say this is a no strings attached Grant because I don't know no and that kind of leads to my second question which is that if if we do have a policy um does it say anything about whether grants can come with strings attached um um and if we don't have a policy is that one of the questions we we need to examine um and then there's a somewhat related issue which I just want to kind of get clarification on um it's my understanding that some legislative changes are going to be needed um or or legislative approvals are going to be needed for us to set up this Division and if that is correct um are we setting that in motion at this point so I can answer you know two both of those questions the first is um the ter the terms of gifts are actually set by state law uh chapter 53a thanks to Melissa Goff for the reference there um and what the policy there is the donor sets the terms and we are in then empowered to AC we are empowered to accept or reject depending on what those terms are um and so in the past what we have done is we have been very I would say diligent on this on a case-by Case basis because to your point I don't think there's you know I don't think there's any gift that is no strings attached even if the strings are simply just we want you to you know in this case fulfill this or you know fulfill this work for three years demonstrate its value for three years with the benefit of this gift so that the community can make an informed decision on its value that is still a condition of the grant uh and so we have to determine whether or not it's in our best interest to accept that but we also then with the assistance of town council's office and others make sure that we are not in a position where we are uh unable to maneuver and I know in the past prior to me being here there have been circumstances where initially someone has said I'd like to make a donation to the town I'd like to make a request to the town under the following conditions and you know over the course of negotiating the town has realized that you know it's it's very kind the the the intent is well-meaning but ultimately there is a desire to move move in a policy direction that the select board at the time didn't want to move forward with and so as a result the board was empowered to say you know thank you very much but we don't want to accept under these terms so we don't have a firm policy on when we automatically say yes or no but we rely on you the select board to determine whether you think the conditions of the of the gift are appropriate uh in terms of accepting it on terms of the structure of the department so the Department of Public Works is in part a creature of state statute there's a special act that was passed in 1981 uh that created our current Department of Public Works it talks about some of the divisions that are created within there but one we don't necessarily view that list as exclusive uh for example we've now combined some of those divisions some of those functions we have in the past kind of teased those things out um it really just describes the work that the department is meant to undertake there's also language in there about appointments and how people are empowered to point a point there um I think that's actually been superseded by the Town Administrator act which was passed four years later in 85 um so we're not concerned there from an appointments perspective but what I will say is this is a structural change to the town what we want to do is we want to balance the requests that we've heard from the select board which is move expeditiously on sustainability and create tangible results don't just hire for the sake of hiring and then have someone one person kind of warehoused unable to do the necessary work for us to do our climate work um but also um go through the processes that are necessary consult with the community make sure that the community has buy into to this process and we think the best way to do that is to move forward with this now with the understanding that this is data that we are collecting so that the town can make an informed decision on how much to spend and what to do as we continue to develop this there's you know it's it's it's a really a Monumental task to think about climate sustainability climate resiliency climate mitigation natural resources management just the act of uh decarbonizing our T buildings that we own under current dollar values we're talking that's more it could be an eight figure a nine figure project um lasting towards 2040 and 2050 but there's so much we don't know about that and we need to have the capacity to really develop concrete planning and structures in place so that the community can then make that informed decision yes it's worth it to spend this money and I think I'm hoping that at the end of this with Alexandra's leadership we're going to see that that's very much the case so so just to be clear though um our view is that we don't need to go forward to seek town meeting approval to create this division or to have town meeting seek home R uh to create this division correct we don't think it's necessary um but we definitely think that proper consultation with the community is going to be necessary so whether or not it's legally required we want to do it okay well yeah I have two good questions first Alexander congratulations uh on your um appointments um I have no doubt you're going to do a fantastic job looking forward to working with you it's very important um I I wanted to understand a little bit more about about the grant John touched on a little bit um were there any specific um uh criteria or expectations that that came with the grant other than it be used uh within the Departments of Public Works to establish a new sustainability and Natural Resources Division I don't believe so but I'll let the commissioner answer that question yes I would say that it is very broad um okay and so um that the idea there really is to allow me as commissioner to see where those dollars are most needed in terms of Shoring up this new division okay and so no stipulations except it it really does require and um I think it's important as part of this grant there's a level of um trust that I am going to be overseeing all aspects of the administration of this for a said purpose and that's really it great and uh so that that's really helpful now um first it's an amazing charitable gift I don't know have we had something like this before is this this is where so first thank you to whoever that Anonymous uh donor is um I do want to uh say that first and and my next question um is really just from a from a being responsible about the future um it is a three-year Grant 250 per year um is there any is there any guarantee that next year we'd get it again um there is an expectation that this is the Department of Public Works um we may find that you know uh we have to make this outside of the public works and needs to go back to the Town Administrator for the reasons that John brought up um I just I assume right now we know that we've got at least one here yes and I think true too I in the in the unlikely event that something like that happen something truly structural I think we've done our due diligence on this we've talked about the importance of this living in an operational division we've talked about the difference between having it in the select board's office versus in a departmental office you know different ities are doing this different ways um we talked about in terms of operational offices whether this would be better fit for buildings and public works and we came to the conclusion that it was public works so I think we've done our homework here and feel confident that this is the right fit for this department but I guess my mine was just more about the money and again it's not this is not uh questioning the the donor at all it is an amazing gift and you know the organization that they're working with is is extremely credible and and reliable frankly um I just you know hiring I think David raised it a little bit earlier hiring off of a funding source that we know is going to end yes um is uh is a little concerning yeah um and I hope we recognize that yes okay and then my my second question has to do with um where our opportunities are for carbon reduction we just had a lengthy discussion about the cost of utilities at some school buildings um and you know that's uh that 70% I believe 70% of our um you know carbon footprint is in our buildings yes right um and I just i' I'd love to hear a little bit more about how um this is going this new organization within DPW will help integrate and drive strategy for the largest component um of our carbon generation and reducing that how will that work well structure I'll just discuss briefly the structure and then I want Alexandra speak um structurally how we've set up this division is that there is a new doed line report to the deputy director of public buildings who is taking on increased sustainability responsibilities that's Sarah Gooding currently um and she is uh going to be responsible with Alexandra's guidance and supervision for developing this decarbonization plan and implementing it in the public building sector we have historically proceeded opportunistically on that front now with these resources we're going to be able to proceed much more deliberately we're going to have a long range Capital plan for decarbonization and that's going to be something that takes some time to really develop but that's going to be something that's done through the building department with in conjunction with the building department with clear roles and responsibilities so it's not just aha we have the money we can do this project which is how we're decarbonizing the senior center um but I I but I also assume chess just to follow up that that we would be uh partnering with and working with Zab yes who has a lot of this building uh right infrastructure experience yes and that perhaps uh the next hire uh into this organization would also have a strong building sustainability background uh to help augment uh the existing staff I would love to let Alexandria speak okay uh sure uh thanks Chaz I think um Chaz answered kind of the first part of what I was going to say was that it's really going to require close cooperation with the building department um and really that kind of you know what I mentioned about that interdisciplinary team at the beginning the building department is going to play a really critical role in that um and then to your point Paul I think the the other piece is that we need to make sure that we have the right skills on the staff and so the assistant director position we're looking for someone well we will be looking for someone that has that Energy background um and decarbonization focus in particular um and then I will say also that um the zero emissions advis board has done some work already on some emissions reductions kind of um you know at a high level of what are the opportunities um and what are the barriers to implement those and so our hope is that that will be one really critical work for us to to hit the ground running with but two um can be a really strong Foundation um for our our climate action plan and our climate goals that will really define success of this division as we move forward great um first I want to thank you um I want to thank joh I think he he raised uh pulled this out of the miscellaneous agenda to talk about the grant but I think the value has actually had this conversation more about the organization and how we're going to move forward so thank you very much okay let's move on thank you uh so unless there any other questions from the select board and thank you Alexandria and and um Erin for bringing us up to speed on on the sustainability and natural resources division so uh next I want to move approval of items for B through four double a um on favor please indicate by saying I John Van skak hi um Mike sanman hi Paul Warren hi David Perman hi and chair votes I next we have the question of um an appropriation transfer ER oh I'm sorry um a reserve fund transfer request from the human resources uh director in the amount of $140,000 are you gonna give some background on that or do we have an brag I know Ann is here uh I think Char Charlie or an I'm not sure an's up there yep yep Ann is there I've promoted Melissa or or I can um I can try to take this one good afternoon everyone afternoon so tell us about this Reserve fund transfer so we're requesting $140,000 to um to fund um extraordinary legal expenses that have come in higher than expected for the year as well as um a small amount for our pre-employment physicals so 137,000 for legal expenses and 3,000 for pre-employment physicals we've done a lot of hiring police and fire and um the cost of those physicals has um gone up higher than our budgeted amount okay any questions from the select board Paul I have one quick one thanks Joan so um the the legal fees are for this for this year next year are these being moved into uh into the town council's office because I know we increase some capability there for investigations or is this a separate activity this is a separate activity this is a separate activity okay thank you so it's and the the funding is for litigation related expenses not investigations right okay thank you okay is there anything else you want to say about this no okay I move of approval of the reserve fund transfer uh from The Advisory let's see from the Human Resources Director in the amount of $140,000 uh from Reserve fund to Legal Services and into pre-employment physicals all in favor please indicate by saying I John Van skak I um Michael Sandman I Paul Warren I David Perman I and sherff votes I sir can I just point out that this needs to go through the advisory committee okay we just give preliminary approval right exactly and I think that's important to say and they will have plenty of questions okay um I'm sorry I just said Thank you Dan okay uh next uh site plan review fees review and possible vote on the requests from the town's regulatory division to charge fees for site plan review applications so who do we have to discuss this I see good evening Maria melli from the regulatory division okay so tell us about this um Clos piece structure okay thank you very much um so the regulatory division is asking for the select board's approval to charge fees for S plan review applications currently there is no fee for these cases uh this is related to some of the operational tasks associated with fall Town fall 2023 Town meetings approval of two big zoning amendments uh that implemented section 9.13 that's a townwide site plan review bylaw it would readily apply to the new MBTA communities overlay district and chapter 11-9 that's another new site plan and design review bylaw that unique to the Harvard Street formn based zones so the fee structure we're using is comparable to the current fee structure that we already have for site plan and for sign and facade cases and for special permits so if you see the uh dark box in in your overview memo the $300 um fee would be for Harvard Street form-based projects that are under a th000 square feet of net new gross floor area all other projects would be analogous to our a special permit or board of appeals applications and that's $350 plus $50 for every 1,000 square feet uh square feet of net new gross floor area and um I would say that there are going to there might be some cases where a site plan review would also require a special permit or a variance and in that case the applicant would pay only one of those those fees so we wouldn't be double dipping uh we seem to be in line with other communities uh that we've looked at that are comparable to Brookline but we are going to be examining uh this this year this fall our fees in general to make sure that they are in line with the amount of hours that staff puts in um to these cases and so that's pretty much it um and I'm happy to answer any questions he any questions from the board none okay let's do it fairly straightforward pardon me we have a long agenda okay remember that when you want to discuss other issues um okay um seeing no questions I move of approval of the um um Town's regulatory division's uh fees for site plan review application structure all in favor please indicate by saying I John kak hi Michael S hi Paul Warren hi David fman hi and chair votes I thank you thank you next uh restaurant bar business hours review yes okay tell us about that well thank you um and uh this has come out of the discussions at the select board's licensing panel um for David's benefit and the benefit of some of the community members um we have a uh license panel uh now that conducts the hearings for licenses previously the select board used to conduct these hearings as part of their regularly scheduled business these evenings and we heard feedback from business owners that it was be more advantageous to have these meetings during the day when you know regular hours when their attorneys were available uh before for example businesses open restaurants would open on any given night um more effective for them to have that opportunity uh to be heard uh and then uh if their applications are not controversial they move uh that is if no one raises any concerns or objections they can be then placed on your miscellaneous agenda and moved through with a minimum of discussion uh after the P necessary public hearings have been held uh in the event that there are issues that come up for discussion we bring them to you and this is one of those issues we have had a growing number of requests at the licensing panel for restaurants and bars to stay open till 2 a.m. um and historically the board has taken those on a case-by casee basis but now we are really looking at a number of kind of clusters of restaurants and bars that are open till 2 am and there isn't currently a townwide policy in place on what closing hours for these businesses should be and so we wanted to bring this to your attention to receive guidance from you on what you think and appropriate framework for the approval um or further analysis of ours is um I'm going to share my screen by starting by sharing this document which is a map that uh Tiffany Cesar lensing uh um specialist provided to us and is in your packets um I just think it's very helpful and thanks to Tiffany for putting this together um here is a map of Brookline um and you can see here that the uh I'll move the uh close captions here um you can see here that the uh the T the uh large number of uh liquor licenses and uh that are open uh you know kind of concentrate in various areas coolage Corner rein Village Washington Square and then along kamav along the south side of kav um you can see that uh there are some restaurants and bars in I would call up and cominging neighborhoods JFK Crossing St Mary's and then you have sort of outliers you know you have restaurants and bars that are perhaps in hotels uh as here in or in Longwood here on the border um or actually I think that's a that's a what's that golden uh uh temp gold Temple um um Longwood station no no not Longwood station no um and then this one here uh at the Country Club um so um so you can see here that there are these various um clusters where we have in the P you have in the past approved 2 am closing times um and so uh as the memo in your packet points out once you approve closing hours it's hard to unring that Bell it's hard to go back and say you know we thought about this and we've decided we really don't want you know we really don't want 2 am closing hours um in the absence of you know justifiable evidence to demonstrate that you know well going forward closing hour should really only be 1: am or midnight um so um basically on that front you want to think through strategically how you want to move forward from where you are knowing that it's difficult to turn back the clock if in certain areas how do you want to ensure uh that um if there are areas where you would like uh a presumption that places to stay open till 2 a.m. what the G graphic confines of that are whether or not you would be willing to consider a structure such as the kind of ad hoc structure that we have now which is we have been saying to applicants we will approve an application to midnight or in one case in dra Crossing to 1:00 am but if you want to go later than that you have to go before the select board uh and all applications for 2 am closings would go before you um there could also be a sort of a division for example I think Paul Warren raised this last week in a discussion where uh you could have uh restaurants have their kitchens open till 2: a.m. but not have food service open till 2 a.m. if the restaurant's desire was to just be you know a kitchen serving Uber Eats and door Dash um so all of those are options within the memo are you know just very preliminary sketches of what where I think the current 2 am boundaries might be um in the neighborhoods that have 2 am and I have visual resources for that as well and I'll just walk you through them but I just I we really need guidance from you on what to do here can I add one thing I think Mike yeah I'm um fundamentally uncomfortable with uh 2 am uh and I uh actually I think that certainly food servic is probably um less of an issue than alcohol uh and uh I want and so the suggestion you make about leaving kitchens open makes sense to me I think the difficulty with 2 am is that every virtually every restaurant uh Food Service place in U in and uh in Brookline is very close to residences even the ones that on Comm Avenue the buildings back up to uh to residences and um I really don't want people to be disturbed on a Saturday night uh over near Boston University I think the potential for that is very high honestly uh and uh nothing against Boston University students but they you know they're more likely to stay and drink than people in my generation are and they sing going down Colton Street and they sing going down Colton Street indeed they probably sing all the way down to where you live the be Bridge um so uh I would proceed with Extreme Caution uh uh and that's what I would say to my colleagues Extreme Caution about uh setting any sort of uh policy that um favors uh 2 am uh 2 am closing certainly for alcoholic beverages uh but even for Food Service Paul yeah so um I just want to back up a little bit as to why why this is coming to us yeah so as you know I serve uh with Chaz um on this licensing subcommittee and as Chaz mentioned we're increasingly being asked to approve 2 am. and the first question is well what other restaurants or businesses around are open to 1:00 a. or 2 am. and and quite frankly I grew uncomfortable approving a 2 am and even sometimes a 1 am knowing that it would come to this board in the consent in gender and we would never really talk about it um and so that's that's really the purpose of of this discussion is um it's it's really forcing us to ask the question about how late and where does that approval happen so even if we decide that we decide to do 2 am. you still may want to do that approval at the board level and not as part of the consent agenda you may want to have a public hearing to hear from the community uh on what it means for 2 am and the last thing I'll say is um just because a business has a closing time doesn't mean they use it so for example to Berard dearo in St Mary's I think they even have a 1 or 2 a.m. closing time uh on on the list but in fact they probably close at 10 um or 11 is the latest that they CL so they don't they don't go far beyond the time that's available so this is a struggle for me and you raised good points Mike John yeah there to me there are just a lot of mysteries about this and um uh among them Paul Paul mentioned I mean how many of these people to whom we have given 2 am licenses actually you know use the license up till 2 am uh I've never been able to figure that out um and and my my particular history with this goes back to um uh a succession of requests that we got and people kept coming in and it was almost automatic that if they wanted a um alcohol license they would ask for it to be until serving until 2 am. and and I thought who who are all these people who are all of a sudden interested in in staying open until 2: a.m. in Brooklyn and I I never seem to see that many except gr ales I'll admit um I think they do actually use their license for that purpose um so are are they requesting the permission just to make the license more valuable um that's question number one in my mind and you know do we actually are is our interest as a town served you know if that's the only reason that they're requesting this but not because they're actually going to serve the public until 2 am um and uh the next question is if there are a fair number of um establishments that are using the full value of their 2 a license have they become dependent on this for their economic viability uh because frankly um I'm very concerned about the noise impacts of having establishments open until 2 am but I'm also very concerned about helping people in our commercial districts um um survive economically it hasn't been the easiest of times and I I don't want to be party to decisions that are going to put anybody out of business unless there has been a demonstrated problem of noise and that's the final mystery is I assume noise is going to be a problem when establishments stay open till 2 am I'm not sure we've had in my year and a half um excuse me term and and in one year on the selectboard people come to us at any of their hearings with maybe one exception um saying th this very noisy bar is keeping me awake at night because you gave them permission to stay open until 2: a.m. so it doesn't yet seem to have become a problem but I'm not sure that I've seen all you know that I I know all of the realities for people who live near these establishments and I think the past incidents of noise have been related to Buu parties not in bars you so let's make sure that we're trying to fix a problem that actually exists David right I I agreee with John I think that it's a very important concern we want to make sure that we're not putting our uh restaurants potentially out of business when they make these requests I think it's important for us to have a full cataloging of what the noise complaints are uh also perhaps conversations with our Police Department about whether there's any increase in crime from having these extra hours I think it's also important to have a Rhyme or Reason to why some places get to have 2: a.m. maybe next door we're saying no or potentially saying no just have some kind of system in place some kind of rubric some kind of mechanism by which we judge these decisions rather than as one-offs well so I guess uh as as a a member of the board that sits on this committee with Chaz um I I I ask for your guidance because um you know we this what David just said is exactly what we're facing people are asking for 2 a.m. and it it may be a renewal we don't hear complaints uh if it's new we're looking down the road well there's one on there's one a block down that's at 2 am. so that's but if you with that methodology you're going to creep up Beacon Street all the way to JFK Crossing so um I I would ask that the board provide guidance to us um as a as a committee as to when should is is midnight the cut off for us to approve and it goes into the consent agenda and after midnight uh requires a a direct item that's not in the consent agenda in a public hearing by the board John um yeah I'm I'm willing off the cuff just to offer some guidance I I think we've raised enough questions that first point would be we shouldn't at from from this point forward we shouldn't be issuing any more 2 am licenses until we get a handle on the situation with the ones we've already issued and whether they are causing problems um so that would be my first suggestion and my second suggestion would be um that we go back to what used to be now I'm relying on memory which is not really uh you know reliable uh but Tiffany I'm sure could tell us before we started issuing 2 am licenses routinely what was the you know normal um closing hour that we would attach to licenses I I seem to recall 11:00 p.m. um and I I think if we're going to at least for the time being freeze the further issuance of 2 am licenses we could go back to what was the commonplace practice beforehand but whether it's 11: PM or or midnight whatever it was uh Mike so with regard to the economic viability of restaurants don't forget that what we're talking about here is not taking anybody's license and restrict them back from start and granted it's liy or license applicants who come in looking for a new license and the new establishment that's told 1: am instead of 2: am or whatever time um is going to uh the the the uh operators of that facility are going to have to factor that in uh to their planning and if it becomes a standard that you know 1:00 a.m. is a limit or midnight is a limit um without some sort of special action by the select board uh then people will they'll accommodate to that they'll understand that when they're putting their plans together so I'm not too worried about putting not at all worried about putting anybody in exist who's in existence uh out of business um the other thing is I'm now replacing you on that uh on on the uh licensing board and I'm thinking to myself do we want to bring we have a lot of restaurants that are regularly opening the restaurant business is a bit of a revolving door uh and and um do we want to we we accomplish something by putting uh by setting up the licensing board as a screen uh and do we want to make a great big hole in that screen uh and bring things to the select board so I guess you just shared something with me that I didn't know have I beened you asked me to uh you asked me to uh take that on for it yeah maybe I did uh at least that's why I went there the last this is your problem okay yeah mik well run with it yeah it well no but it becomes our problem as as the as the five of us uh if uh we end up bringing it back bringing specific applicants back into here well applicants should know you know we should determine what the standard is so that they know today I believe that those that bring license requests before us the lawyers law firms know that we can go to 2 am and so they ask for that yeah if if there's a change we should communicate that what that change will be um I I think this is this is all very helpful to start with I think you know one of the things that I'm hearing from all of you is that we need more information from the businesses directly um so the questions I'm here you know and from our from our town departments what noise complaints are we getting um is there any increase in crime based on the extra hours what can the police department tell us about that how many of these places are actually using the the hours that we give them you know you are authorized to open until X time how later you actually open on a regular basis and how critical are your late hours to your operations um you know I think what we're seeing in Brookline Village is the development of a culture of late night um food and drink with you know Maham now opening its uh uh its bar uh next door with Blossom bar and Anatolia then getting the same treatment um there is kind of a cluster of late night establishments in Brookline Village but that hasn't gone un noticed we have got about that yeah um and I think it's important to balance those things out um it is that that area is Shifting uh and the question is how do we how do we balance that so we can get that information for you to help you make an informed decision on where where you might want to go with this and that might be a good first step in in terms of Brooklyn Village what what type of complaints have you been receiving noise complaints noise complaints people you know we we've received a couple in particular about you know as you get close away further away from Anatolia um you know that are closer in that that area you know you really do have people who live right in the heart of the Village um and you know there's that balance of well you live in a more you know a less suburban and more urban part of town there is that balance and trade-off there but it's two in the morning people have a right to quiet enjoyment people have a right to go to bed so David I was just going to say it it is a very tricky balance so I don't know how many of you are sports fans but for bars if you are open until 1:00 a.m. you can see for the most part the full West Coast games that come on at 10 if you close at midnight you're getting kicked out in the fourth quarter or the seventh inning and that's that hurts business because people will just say forget it I'm G to go to Cleveland Circle because I want to watch the game uninterrupted so we need to be mindful about that too yeah that's that's good that's good point yeah um so so it's a type of information that I think that we don't don't always factor into our decision right um so uh I also would just note that in the Q&A uh time meeting member fr pler noted that uh there's there's a concern about outdoor dining our outdoor dining program I think has a mandatory closing time of 11: so there at least we're not having people outside past 11: PM um but that's just a good thing to flag for folks as we we saw an application come in where they said hey can we have outdoor dining till 2 am and our eyes popped out of our head said you know don't think so um so um I just wanted to briefly show you the kind of drawings that we made B very rough drawings based on where we know 2 a um where 2 a operations are we have this the largest one is in coolage corner you can see there uh the um Grandma Mal's at the corner there note that the stops at Babcock Street with which addresses the issue that Paul raised of this issue of can you are you just going to continue to creep out along Beacon or up along Harvard um you have Washington Square which is a much more contained neighborhood it's more of a rectangle but you see it's pretty it's pretty easy to determine uh boundaries in Washington Square um Brookline Village a little more complicated but again based on where existing businesses are uh I would also note I accidentally did not include Station Street along here Station Street is a potential um wing of this that could go out but again there aren't businesses on Station Street currently open past midnight uh there aren't any businesses open at night on Station Street period it's just that given its proximity to public transit if you wanted to do that that's an option um and then kamav again is relatively simple um with the understanding as Mike said that it really does you know I drive down dummer street every day to go home um it buts directly onto resident residences so you have um you have things to consider here um the thing that I would just flag for you as we develop this is to Mike's Point um is that when you if you make a decision that we're going to take every 2 am application at the board level um then I do think it's worthwhile to analyze the reasonable the reasonless inquiry of the grant with town council's office um just because you will get people coming in and saying hey I'm next I'm next door to a business on Beacon Street that's open till two why can't you give me two and you know the that fight may accidentally push you in a Direction you don't want to go um having clear guidance and having clear boundaries on a map that you can point to and say hey sorry be be on this line no not without special permission of the select board um gives you um a real um gives gives you a more grounded reasonableness inquiry so when someone says I'm next to at 2 am why can't I have this the answer is because we looked at it and reasonably that's too close to residences or that's too you know that's that's not in the commercial area that we've identified so by the way I mean Station Street definitely should be on there because me given this location given that there just a few few residential houses towards the uh east of Station Street um that that's where we're going to find commercial development in terms of bars and and restaurants if if probably the prime location given the tea right there and and everything else I look forward to having a cocktail at uh 1:55 a.m. at the puppet show puppet show place David do you have your hand up yes I just going to say that uh what Chaz touched upon about having different regulations for outdoor versus indoor I think is very sensible because I don't see why there should be a need for outdoor dining which can be a lot noisier past a certain time but I do see a need for sports fans to stay open till 1: am and and you can do both and so I think we can look at this uh also based upon whether it's indoor or outdoor we also um limited outdoor dining purposes of cleanup you know which is especially with the rat problem you know was a hot issue so I think on on our end on staff's end we will take these questions back out to departments and to the businesses that are listed on the um on the spreadsheet that you have that are open past two we will ask them for their input and we can come back to you uh at a future meeting is there anything else we can provide to you yeah I when you talk to the businesses I think it's important to say we're nothing about taking something away what we're interested in understanding is what the two are they oper that late late as Paul asked very sensible question some of them that I look at I think I doubt very much that they're open that late um and uh and if they are open that late uh how significant is that is that in their in their business the one I think just as in aside David is absolutely right about um a bar that has a TV up you don't want to close down a game in the as you say in the seventh inning um uh that's uh 1: a.m. is just feels different than than two to me okay David yeah one other quick question so regarding what Mike is saying about not taking anything away so we treat renewal requests differently than a brand new request typically yes okay you know it's it's we what we say so we renew licenses once a year usually in December and what we say in kind of Omnibus fashion and what we say at that time is sometimes people come in with complaints and they say hey this is great it's a renewal I can complain and what we say is we don't take away anyone's license at renewal because that inadequate notice if there is a complaint that comes through we give them notice and a conditional renewal um and then we address the issues accordingly so renewal there is a general expectation that unless a business has done something wrong they are entitled to have their license renewed right okay any further discussion see none let's move on to uh records retention boards and commissions generic emails right um just reading out of the agenda right um so um to um uh to meeting member votes Point uh earlier in public comment um we've received a request to um be more transparent in how we uh maintain records for uh boards and commissions appointed by the select board um and the goal of this proposed policy is to balance that desire with cost and um risk um you know while I think everyone would be happy if we could issue a Brooklin ma.gov email address to every board and Committee Member we're already talking about an excess of a 100 uh email addresses the cost to have two-factor authentification authenic authentication from Microsoft and Duo and Etc is quite high as you'll see in the arpa allocations that the you know endpoint security is an expensive proposition even with the current amount of email addresses we have uh and that is on an account by basis so then you also just think of the sheer volume of people involved in your boards and commissions you have more than 50 that you appoint um currently you have 40 applicants for various boards and commissions out there you know that you will go through in a in a you know reasonable fashion um but there's a lot of churn there's a lot of coming on and coming off uh sometimes people leave even don't even tell us um and also you know you know when one email address is compromised as much as we can try and contain the spread um there is a real risk that then the system is compromised we really want to be cautious in this era where government is repeatedly and just constantly targeted by ransomware um to not have any weak points in our email structure so trying to balance out the cost the security and the transparency we came up with this idea where we said we will create one Central repository a central archive email address for boards and committee members that they must copy whenever they are conducting official business uh if they receive an email from a constituent or if they uh are emailing back and forth with a staff member um whatever um ple they would just need to as a m of reflex copy this email address so it goes in there this has the benef two benefits one it centralizes the archives then those are keyword searchable it's very easy to search one email address uh for any sort of Records request um and two it lessens the burden on the uh members of the uh border commission um if they are doing what they're supposed to be doing and copying that email address then when a records request comes in we don't have to go to them I mean we will we will still say you know as a matter of public policy please make sure that you're not missing anything um but the burden on them to demonstrate that they um provided they've complied with that policy is much more reduced um we can search our archives we can produce the material we have a team of dedicated people who do that already in the clerk's office and in town council's office um so it would just be less of a burden for your board and committee members so that's the balance that we propose to strike here and we welcome your input um Mike uh I think Paul was ahead of me go ahead well I just I wanted to provide a little more context before we we dig into this so um a little background because Chaz and I worked on this together town meeting member approached me um uh with uh the expectation of getting guidance on filing a warrant article uh to town meeting for this subject it was extremely prescriptive um and the problem that the town meeting member was trying to solve was uh really the the cost and complexity uh for the public to have uh Foy requests public records requests fulfilled and so um part of the part of the issue is uh the who's the custodian of those records and when you use Gmail or you use your law firm's uh email account your business email account um those uh those records the town is not the custodian and you have to go to the custodian and often there's a cost associated with it um and there could be a significant cost in a time delay and so um you know the original request was to give everybody um I think a uh a do of account um as chz had mentioned and as well as a whole bunch of other prescriptive things that were going to be uh very difficult to fulfill and uh in Consulting together chz and I with this individual we came to this reasonable uh step of instead of having everybody have a.gov account this creative idea of using the repository and as chz said to copy it does uh accomplish the objective as long as everybody does what they're supposed to do um you know putting uh the information on boards and commissions into uh a a a records retention area that we're we the custodian but you know the thing is if even if you have a.gov account if you want to get around records retention you can get around records retention right uh you you could there's ways to do that um and sadly it is done I suppose but I do think that this is a a reasonable uh uh step and I appreciate uh Chaz uh working with uh our CIO in order to to bring this forward I think it makes sense so mik um I'm gonna I'm going to make a suggestion that there is um this is not a bad idea um but in terms of access if it it this is only presumably the the requirement is only for emails or uh and documents that are that are forwarded by email and there are certainly other documents uh that the public is interested in members of the public May Beed if they make a public records request um and there's a there's a tendency in the IT department to be very cautious about trying to control all of the content that people are generating and I absolutely understand that but there is an alternative for Content that's generated by volunteers and that's to use something like Dropbox uh and there are other services that will provide essentially the same thing which is free storage and it's possible to make documents that are uh placed in that storage facility publicly accessible um you can control who posts and who edits versus who reads and who downloads uh and I wonder whether we could ask the IT department to take a look at just for materials generated by volunteers I'm sure they would never agree to that for materials generated by the likes of us um but um uh just for materials generated by volunteers to consider using that that kind of facility would that be easier than this it's easier it's it's not an easier using an email address it works perfectly well for an email address but when you have somebody who has a document that they're putting on their own hard drive um whether they have cloud storage or not uh it's it's it's theirs and if there and if there's a public records request that document belongs should be revealed to the uh should be provided to whoever is making the request and there's no mechanism for centralizing all of that so we have both on internally uh staff used one drive for this purpose yes I know and one drive compared to Dropbox as you know is somewhat more complex and of course you have to give people email addresses right so we that's not that's not an option for external for volunteers but Civic plus which is what we use for boards and commissions is an option for that okay and I think what we can do on that front is right now we use that you know if you go to a board and commission page on the web page you can say look at the committee files and in the committee files is typically here's the agenda for the meeting here are the minutes here you know and some again some boards and committees are better at this than others and this is where you as the select board have the opportunity to reinforce to boards that are not as good at posting their materials that they need to post their materials but you can also create in that system internal an internal folder that just says you know uh working copies or you know uh documents you know documents that are being developed that are not necessarily tied to anyone meeting but there's just a central repository maybe it's Project based and again some committees already do this we can just I think it and our teams can work on ensuring that they have the training necessary and the expectation from you the board that this is what they need to be doing okay I don't I'm honestly I'm not sufficiently familiar I know I have used Civic plus but I'm not Al familiar with what its capabilities are um I I just you know there are free cloud storage facilities that uh Microsoft Apple um Google they all they're all Dropbox they're all um available and having used them um for other purposes I find them yeah and they're not really free well they they take advantage they yeah they they're they are to some extent they they're free and they probably for uh somebody who's going to store someone who's going to store very large amounts of material there you know I was actually looking on the web for there's an article that I have not completely absor uh figured out here how how Dropbox makes money you know how does it do that considering that I can put stuff up there and I belong to a couple of organizations that use it as a depository I'm thinking you know there are default default settings that will download way more than you want to download into the Dropbox and that means we have to train people to to change those settings um so we're talking about a huge whatever you do is going to required TR you're absolutely right yeah absolutely if you want all of the material or as much of the material as you can possibly reasonably expect to get and a significant amount of generated information is done through electronic communication and attachments yeah right so if there is something being shared um you know I had I had uh thought that we we could ask key boards and commissions those that have a material impact on you know the cost of doing business in town or owning a home or you know the zba the planning board the preservation commission um uh the hab uh EAB there's some core boards and commissions that I think you know members do use their own personal accounts as opposed to a.gov that we could have a course set um and then ask the remainder because there are a lot to use this archival process um you know could be a a a happy medium I think um well Chaz the memo raises the point of you don't want to have necessarily have a two-tier um I think it's okay might be but I think you're still up to a couple dozen accounts then though yeah um that's it's a pretty significant increase even even so you're not talking about 100 but you are talking about I would say 20 to 30 um and again with turnover and all of that I think if you're going to do I think I think it benefits you to to kind of if you if you're not going to go all the way perhaps you know dial back to the one but to Mike's Point you know you can use Civic plus uh sorry Civic clerk to accomplish that Dropbox style function yeah maybe what we can do with those boards and committees I think you know again I think zba already does this the problems that we've had is in for some less formal committees or from purpose built committees we have had staff members use dropbox or we've had committee members use dropbox the problem we have then is who owns that um even if it's an individual staff member who has responsibility for it sometimes we have situations where staff leave and then all of a sudden we lose the login and we email them and say hey what's the password for this and they say oh I forget um um and so having Civic clerk serve as our Central repository where we have operational control and can get into things if we need to uh is a real benefit Jess has has have we gotten any feedback from other boards and commissions was this socialized so I wanted to I wanted to put this draft in front of you and make sure and then what we can do is we can social I didn't anticipate you voting on this tonight I thought hopefully we would then send this out and get more feedback once all five of you you were okay with an initial draft sorry one last question um you might want to just talk with your counterparts uh at other municipalities and see what they everybody has this problem yes uh and maybe somebody has something really unique um maybe not me we're all wandering around in the dark yeah I think this is this this tends to be a bit of a head and sand thing um this tends to be a thing where volunteer driven communities kind of say yeah you are subject to the public records law watch out keep your records don't delete your email follow policy and then they kind of say not my problem um so I think we are taking a step at being more responsible and transparent here by taking you know these initial steps to be proactive as custodians I think it's a simple and elegant solution to try um and I guess do you need guidance from us as to whether the proposal for cing this archive is the direction and go and then You' get feedback from other boards and commissions with your if if that if that's the way you feel I feel I feel are you are you okay with that Mike it as a Wella said something very as a let's let's not um uh uh neglect the the good for the sake of the perfect so yeah let's let's do something but let's also take a a further look at what else that's at least three people yeah so what I'll do is I'll we'll circulate this as a draft to all the boards and commissions that you appoint again to town meeting member votes point we don't have control over town meeting advisory committee all we all all you can do on that front is tell them hey we're doing this you can do it too um and we would be happy to help them for that purpose um but um we don't have control over them okay by the way I would like to um work with you and our new Devin uh Olivia or I'm sorry Tiffany ol Tiffany Oliva yes UMC because this is she coming next week great because this this fits into the U boards and commission policy and structure that Devon and I worked on so you know the whole thing should fit together absolutely okay uh moving on boards and commissions interviews we have an an interviewee David brick for the indigenous people celebration committee and that's you please come up to the uh Podium and and introduce yourself and tell us why you're interested in uh being on this committee I see you've already done a huge amount of work with the committee and on behalf or for the committee so maybe you can tell us a little bit about that and you know what what motivates you okay now up to the Pod with the podium or if you want to sit in my chair you know swap um just to let you all know I I'll be having my eyes closed for much of this I have a neurological issue it will make it easier for me to communicate make sure you you your um mic yeah your your mouth is close to the mic because that's be picked up for our Zoom audience good good thank you appreciate it um yeah so my name is David brick um I have lived in Brook line since 2011 um I am a personal care attendant for a disabled man um and I am a spiritual companion as well a that's a weird offering that many people haven't heard of but it's something I do um and yeah um I I've been attending uh the committee's meetings since for maybe a little over a year now um I my sort of my interest in indigenous issues developed since before that um um kind of parallel with with some you know values of mine with regard to um the environment um and I learned more and came to sort of uh just value more um being uh in solidarity with indigenous folks and also um helping with sort of healing healing of past harm and uh increasing awareness building relation relationships um yeah and so um I over the course of attending meetings of the committee it you know came to be that you know occasionally I through my various interests and involvements including um I'm a volunteer River Advocate with the Charles River Watershed Association um I was able to offer ideas and connections that ended up being helpful um um one of those was um there was a I found I encountered an opportunity for funding that I thought might be of interest to local indigenous folks the massachusett tribe in particular I reached out to them and I also reached out to the chair of the committee Elina Silva Robinson um and ended up collaborating with a few folks on the committee to to um to apply um for some funding for that and in the process I also uh ended up reaching out to um the the first reaching out to the the massachusett tribe was unsuccessful but I reached out again and I eventually made contact with the vice president of the the trial Council and brought them uh brought him rather Thomas Green uh into connection and relationship with the committee and further stuff followed from that including he came and spoke at the high school um to several classes worth of social studies students um and and yeah um and there's just been continued collaboration all the way to the recent on May 5th was national day of awareness for missing and murdered indigenous persons um I mentioned that to the committee and talked with them about some ideas and I ended up putting together a flyer with a bunch of um resources for people to learn about this issue and um and to take action as well and the committee shared that flyer out through their channels um yeah so it's been a good work working relationship we've done good things together and um hopefully we'll continue to great thank you any questions from the board John David thank you so much for applying for this committee um and this may seem like an obvious question and if it was covered in your resume I apologize um it's not a prerequisite by any means for people serving on this committee but do you happen to have indigenous background no I do not thank you for answering yeah any other uh Paul I just wanted to say I'm I'm impressed with the amount of work an activity that David has already done for uh for the committee off and there's a question that one of us asks is have you ever attended one of the meetings um this guy has attend this guy has attended the meeting so uh first thank thank you for your involvement to date it is greatly appreciate it yeah yeah I I thank you also it was quite impressive to see the uh I think seven paragraphs of work that you've been doing yeah with and for the committee so give me a sense of you know what what thoughts you have in terms of you know both the direction of the of the committee going forward as well as any ideas you have uh that the committee can uh work on that it's not currently you looking at yeah um well the one one thing that I mentioned in the application of course has already happened the thing that I just mentioned about May 5th um going forward um so you know there's the um um well I guess just as a general U principle you know continuing to find ways to to increase awareness the committee is already working on um memor realizing certain locations uh with IND known indigenous significance in Brooklyn and so that's something that I appreciate and support um I um in terms of you know I think I think relationships as I said important more possibilities for people from um the massachusett tribe and other uh local tribes um um and Indigenous folks here who are from not local tribes to to come and and participate in events that are not explicitly indigenous themed um um allows more uh you know relationship and awareness to be built um I have thoughts about uh you know so the we have the indigenous people's Day celebration in October every year um and I've had thoughts about you know possibly having some within that that would raise funds for local indigenous causes is um like a raffle or something like that I haven't yet mentioned that to the committee I don't know if it's a good idea there could be any number of reasons why it's not um but I'm hoping to bring it to the committee in the near future to discuss um and great thank you any other questions okay so we will not be app pointing U to this uh committee toight tonight but we'll in the future and we'll be in touch with you thank you thank you thank you for um your application and the work that you've already been doing thank you all okay next we have uh uh boards and commissions appointments these are candidates who we've already uh interviewed or in the case of the Brookline Housing Authority that the trustees of the Housing Authority are pointing to a committee um start with the appointment of the comprehensive plan steering committee is that your baby Paul uh yeah I think it is my my baby um so to speak uh first um you caught me off guard I thought we were gonna take the other one first but yes uh so oh I'm sorry that's okay I I'm prepared um yep we uh issued a call for uh Steering group members uh back in uh April I think early April we had um advertised it widely on social media it was prominently displayed um on the town website I think it went to uh 150 different individuals associated with various boards and commissions to reach out to their networks um I advertised it widely I know others did as well um I ended up posting it on the tmma site which is always helpful to alert town meeting members and we received almost 60 applications uh for 12 spots um so we now have 16 spots that we've uh because it was very difficult to decide um a memo was shared with you today um I think the committee uh the thing that impresses me about the committee is there'll be some names on there that you go of course that person would be on the stering committee and then there'll be names on there that you just don't recognize and I think that's important uh because it does show that we have um this is not a committee of the typical it's a committee that's representative of various perspectives and ideas and uh Geographic locations within the community um some folks that are younger some folks that are older um and in between so I think it's a it's a very good mix of uh individuals um and they are being put forward to you as a slate uh Cara brutin and Jake Collins were extremely helpful uh in um reviewing each application doing an analysis uh that they developed uh and and making an initial recommendation with me uh and we had many discussions about this uh as well as there are some conversations with some members of the board as well I think individually um and I think I I'd ask that you uh uh approve the Slate that's been put forward for the comprehensive plan Steering group good thank you any uh questions comments and there are a number of people who you wouldn't um have thought of uh for this committee because you don't know them um but also a number of people who uh you you if I were U selecting maybe I wouldn't have put on but I I I defer to your judgment on that because we do need diversity of of opinions and experiences and uh skills skill sets so um and I will add Bernard that um the Steering group is not the only opportunity um there will be um a number of individuals that uh we will ask to help uh that will Advocate and connect with uh special interest groups um within within the town um and that'll be an important Next Step uh to reach out and ask those individuals to join uh the steering the Steering group in the committee uh the kickoff first kickoff meeting is the 22nd of uh of May so it is coming up quickly yeah um you know we're we're always concerned about uring that different demographic groups in our town are represented on boards and commissions for example seniors and I see that Betsy poock is is one of the members or one of the people you selected an excellent choice who um brings a wealth of of knowledge experience and um you know concern for the peculiar and unique issues that outly a residents face um and a number of other people that bring similar unique uh experiences and and um knowledge to the uh to the committee so that's that's really good any uh further discussion question if I me oh John sorry I'm assuming there's some significance to the definition of this as a group a Steering group as opposed to a committee board a commission can someone just sort of yeah I I can speak to that I don't think there's any any specific specific reason why it was called group versus steering committee John um you know if you look at what the duties of the Steering group are there if you could replace group and call it a committee uh it's going to guide advise um uh the consultant and staff as the project the two-year project goes forward and and bring in um perspectives and ideas from the community absolutely so so is there isn't there another group or entity that's also work working with you y so there is a there is a consultant that uh that that we've hired consultant but isn't there also I think an ambassador's group and then there's yep and then there is the ambassad the ambassador's group so that will be uh there'll be a call for those folks next some of them will actually come from the applications that we've already received but those are intended to help us reach into the community and advocate for folks and draw them into the process where normally the committee would not have those relationships uh with with those individuals but if if I may just Mike I'm sorry just want to follow up on my question um but is part of the implication of group uh that it's not a body that requires hosting of every meeting and no this is a this this is a p this is a public body um our meetings will be held in public our deliberations will be held in public absolutely and with the usual notification and the requirements and it's requirements oh great no absolutely it was a public call for the Steering group it will be a public process um and you know this the the comprehensive plan is going to be the community's plan if it's done behind curtains it would not be the communities I wonder if using the word group sort of is implies that it's similar to working groups that we set up that uh are not subject to uh in many cases the open meeting law well you could you could make a motion to uh rename the group the uh the comprehensive planing committee I would support that if you'd like to do that like to move that I may have I may have an an answer there is another group working it's the Chestnut Hill commercial area study group uh and it's similarly set up uh uh working with the community planning and development and maybe that's just Community planning developments terminology but yours is a working group that actually is a staff working group this it is a staff this is not a St yeah there's yeah distinction there right yeah yeah that's fair enough I Bernard if you would like to move would like to we rename the group the committee I I second that okay any any objection to that okay um no let's vote on it all in favor please indicate by saying hi John vano hi Mike Sandman hi Paul Warren hi David prman hi and Sher vot I so um any other discussion any other questions about this no yeah and and the actual U creation of a comprehensive plan is not by the committee it's by the consultant yeah the consultant the consultant is going to be uh assembling much of the material um The Guiding of the development of that material making some decisions would certainly be um input from the steering committee um and then ultimately uh by Statute the planning board actually has to approve uh the comprehensive plan and of course it will come to this body as well to the select board for approval so it behooves us to interact with you uh the planning board we do have a member from the planning board on the committee um and stay in regular contact for check-ins and updates so that you so that the board is brought along throughout the entire process to be able to provide feedback yeah and I think it's also important for the committee to make sure that uh it it explains the process and and you know what the outcome will be to you know to the broader community and ways that maybe we don't always do that that is my goal that's why I'm chairing the committee and I believe I will be speaking more and educating the public what's going on than uh you know making sure that meetings are being managed properly we have to we should vote presly on appointing these people yep um I move approval of the appointment of the comprehensive plan steering committee members as uh presented uh to us in an email from um who was that email and a memo from Paul Warren Cara brutin and Collins dated May 14th which I assume everyone has looked at uh so all in favor please indicate by saying I John Van skak hi Michael sanman hi Paul Warren I David Perman I and chair votes I okay next uh we have another appointment to the uh uh appoint Susan Cohen to the CPA committee as the board uh Brookline housing authorities rep representative as recommended by the BHA board is there any need to discuss that or that's a great appointment okay yeah I agree uh on uh I move approval of Susan Cohen to the CPA committee all in favor please indicate by saying I John Van skak I um I'm sorry Michael Sandman hi Paul Warren hi uh David Perman hi and sherff votes I take you a little while to get get over Miriam I'm I'm impressed he hasn't called you Miriam yet that's okay cdbg fiscal year 2025 one-year action plan I see Moana uh is here good evening gentlemen good evening I am back today I was here in April 23rd just um informed you of the cdbg um allotments that we The cdbg Advisory Board had made um thank you for having me this evening my name is aana lindos Smith and um the new Housing and Community planning director um we're here tonight to ask for a vote to submit an application for the cdbg funds that had allocates to us each year well I'm sorry aana would you just move the microphone a little closer to your mouth uh you can you can pull it closer to the center or you can stand in front of me it's Charlie thanks I can move thank you yes I'm here tonight to present the actual figures that we have received from HUD we got a nicely increase um initially we thought it would be um 1 million3 but this year we got 1, 38133 which was a nice $75,000 increase which was great um and I'm here to ask you to vote The Advisory committee's um recommendations and um for our funds they um these are the recommendations that they have we have here the Brookline Housing Authority will be um given 58,216 th000 that should complete six bathrooms the BHA will be having some Capital Improvement movement um on the Veterans building and the public services that is subject to 15% of the 1.3 that we received so it is as follows Brookline Housing Authority resident services program will receive 48,6 the Comm the trips program for Council and aging they'll receive 40,000 the steps to success work connections for youths they will receive 48760 Brookline food pantry will receive 48760 the brookln center for Community Mental Health will receive $2,919 with that said the vote that we're asking for tonight is to approve the submission of the application to HUD for this funding and second vote that we're asking is to authorize the chair to execute the application for assistance I'm sorry let me correct that um the first vote is for the board to authorize and okay the um annual action plan that we do have that we this this has been on our website it has been advertised as um since April 2nd and um for 30-day comment period and um the comment period ended in May second so that was out for everyone to see um it it is also on our website you may go there to find that the second vote we asking is to authorize and execute the application for the federal assistance and that is we have to send in an application needs to be signed by the board or is designate and we're Al asking you also authorize the director of planning and Community Development to execute Environmental reviews which that's a requirement of how it has to be done and this way we wouldn't have to come back to you to to ask you to do it so we will take the responsibility and we're asking you to authorize that also um that's about much um one thing I want to say I really want to thank um my cdbg Advisory Board they were very helpful um in helping us to get to this point where we can come before you to say that this is this is the best way to spend the funds after lots of deliberation it was this is what we came up with and I'd like to thank my staff um mostly Jake very helpful in putting all this together for us and that would complete my presentation do we have any questions yeah I'd like to just say that um first of all Paul is our representative on on the on the committee and for a number of years I was the select board's representative and I I know the uh incredible value the value of of the of the uh work that uh the committee does and the money that we distribute to um critical areas of support for our residents that the select board in the town cannot cannot do or cannot provide money for um both in terms of the housing U U um housing projects um you know providing decent uh facil uh uh facilities for residents of Housing Authority and uh the Community Development Corporation also as well as the um Public Services uh component which uh is incredibly important in providing type of support to to our residents in public housing and elsewhere that uh you know addresses some of the um problems that you know are not new but are are are important uh to you have someone address when we can't um so I think that uh this is a great opportunity for us to use Nix Richard Nixon's um Community Development block grants which is a way of of getting the federal government out of providing certain services to local communities and we're using this in ways that maybe he wouldn't approve but are very very valuable to to to us so um um any anything else see I was around that was great I love that Thank you Rich ni yeah little history okay any other discussion or comments thank you Paul thank you and thank you to the team for doing a great job and of course we had she presented uh just a few weeks ago on this subject and we had a public hearing I promised you i' have been and you did a great job and uh nope Bernard you summarized it well and I guess I would like to see us move acceptance okay so we have three questions I'm gonna take them one by one just to make it easy I'm Mo of approval of the submission of the town's fiscal year 2025 cdbg annual action plan to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development all in favor please indicate by saying I John Van skak I Michael Sandman hi Paul Warren hi David Perman hi chair votes I next question I move approval of the question of authorizing the chair or his or his I guess it is his because it's me uh his designate to execute the application for federal assistance um sf424 and other certif certifications required for submission of the annual action plan on favor please indicate by saying I John Ben skak I Michael samon hi Paul Warren hi David Perman hi jar votes I finally uh I'm move approval of the question of authorizing the director of planning and Comm Community Development to execute environmental review and other programmatic documents required for cdbg funded projects on behalf of the town all in favor please indicate by saying I John V skak hi Michael sanman I Paul Warren hi David pman i j votes I thank you thank you gentlemen most appreciated okay next uh arpa reallocations review and possible will vote on a plan to reallocate American Rescue plan funding from projects unable or unlikely to be completed by relevant deadlines to new or existing projects able to meet such deadlines and this is not possible but we do have to vote correct yes okay um so you the last meeting uh of the board uh you we provided an initial slate of potential arpa projects uh that could be funded quickly and efficiently and particularly use County funds where appropriate um you provided feedback to us on staff regarding these things and there were two key points one was that request that all of the million dollars that was initially allocated for the affordable child care prog program be reallocated for direct community Assistance we fulfilled that by ensuring that in the mental health services and Community Partnership funding that we are seeing $100,000 of that at least $100,000 of that going to direct community Assistance um and then uh on the other end is that looking for additional funding for the Council on Aging um there was a need to identify additional Services there we spoke to ruthan Doc the chair and the director of the senior center um and we uh came up with the uh funding for the senior Transportation program which currently provides free transit to seniors looking to go uh for example to medical appointments or to the senior center um that program costs around $155,000 a month to operate um ruthanne has really just been incredibly diligent in finding sources of money to keep that flowing including from Mar around one and two including from um discretionary transportation funding um and so what we would do here is use $260,000 of arpa money to fund this through the arpa per performance period through December of 2026 which is great because beginning in January of 2027 ruthan has secured a state grant that will provide funding for this program so we are providing continuity of service and guarantees on this front and hopefully if the pro program comes in under budget and there's not as much of a need for uh the discretionary Transportation funds those could be reallocated because we are using the arpa dollars for this purpose so to do that we did ultimately uh unfortunately need to look at um moving some money around there were projects that we had in here that were initially in the operating budget like the ongoing Human Services assessment funding substance abuse and prevention um and then there were things that were nice to have that we were you looking at but that ultimately that you know again it's what the this how we spend this money how the community wants wants it to be spent so we took money from uh procore software licenses for the building department radio upgrades for the fire department and a digital evidence and ID server from the police department um so those uh totaled around $260,000 we were able to put that towards uh the senior center and on pages three and four of the memo you can see there's a language for a vote to reallocate around $3.3 million uh from other sources to the uh list of uh projects uh indicated in the memo okay any question for the uh I have one one one one com two comments first um I want to thank Jaz just came with this afternoon I I just want to I want to thank Chaz for his work um and and hearing the feedback last week um and finding some solutions uh to uh increase funding to uh the Council on Aging for the trips program which is really important uh for seniors to be able to get their appointments uh uh and and and and other activities that they do where they're limited um and I also want to thank Mike for uh his advocacy for uh Child Care uh we heard it this evening during public comment from uh uh Raul Fernandez that uh you know affordable child care um especially for um individuals um that are of color or uh financially disadvantaged is extremely difficult uh within Brookline um I I don't believe there's actually one uh uh uh daycare center that's in Brooklyn that's certified to be able to take vouchers uh so Mike has done a lot of work um in partnering with the Brooklyn Community Foundation um and coming up with h with a plan to move that forward and I just wanted to say thank you Mike it's a very very important uh uh program uh that your be heading so thank you thank you any further discussion hey wait a minute we uh screwed up didn't wasn't the cdbg action plan supposed to be a public hearing yes so whoops you already had you had already had a public I had with that said it was noticed so I suppose you can if you can provide the opportunity if anyone wants to speak on the subject and if that there's an issue you can reopen your vote okay um I apologize whoops but we'll do that yeah okay any further discussion of the arpa reallocation no okay I'm move approval uh to reallocate 3, 356,000 337 uh dollars $1,000 in American Rescue plan act funding from the projects listed on pages three and four of the Town administrator's memorandum of May 14 2024 in the amounts set forth therein all in favor please indicate by saying I John Van skak I Michael sanman I Paul Warren I um David Perman I and chair votes I okay now let's go back glad I caught that um let's go back to the cdbg uh one-year action plan and this is a public hearing um Charlie please uh um tell us if there's anyone on the zoom that would like to speak or if anyone in the audience would like to speak please raise their hand sure and if you're on Zoom use the hand raise wait wait Regina rate very Regina wait wait yes Charlie go ahead thanks thank you chair green um so folks on Zoom if you would like to make a comment at this public hearing please use the hand raise or Q&A feature to let us know you'd like to make a comment there are 15 attendees and no one is using the handraiser Q&A feature right now okay Reen I I didn't have I didn't use my Mallet so well thank you um very brief and very positive um the cdb BJ process is regional now it has been for a number of years we need to support the staff to be aggressive about it to find and go out in the community and find out where these needs can be in advance of the annual appeal for the cdbg for several years Brookline was actually one of the main recipients but now the other communities in the Consortium in the regional Consortium are now fighting for that money too so I do want to give all the support in the world to the uh process of trying to find what we need in the community because without the press and without a lot of Public Communication it's hard to know areas of town that could use that money that would qualify under cdbg so thank you thank you uh Charlie anyone uh raise their hands in the zoom no one is using the hand raiser Q&A feature at this time okay thank you I'll close the hearing and uh there's no reason for us to revote our votes so we'll move forward um rard can I can I just I'm sorry to interrupt the flow but um it Char what Charlie just said just occurs to me we're using the webinar platform um and we agreed that we would move towards the meeting platform and I just want to see if we can get that yes I actually the the the plan on that is actually to move forward on that in the immediate aftermath of town meeting we should be done and ready to go we're working with it now on that front so yes we are moving away okay next oh the fun items on the agenda or an article votes these are meeting pardon me said speaking of town meeting okay we have an OD definition of fun but okay right um we've already had public hearings on the three items uh up for consideration one for reconsideration and two for a final vote um let's start off with uh special town meeting 2 article one which is for reconsideration and Melissa could you explain why this is being reconsidered the the small changes that were made by I think advisory committee uh sure Melissa Town Administrator um so the last uh we voted on this the Articles as submitted um cosos actually took a look at the article and they had some concerns that it wasn't immediately obvious that it was just the police department that we were looking to take out of civil service so in your packet you have amended language where um they make sure that it's very clear that that is um the intent of the motion so um advisory needs to reconsider as well so that we could all be on the same page so you'd be the first um to take action on this okay any questions just that this was ruled within scope A Change by the moderator okay yes it's been included in the reports okay okay um I move um reconsideration of War article one of special town meeting two all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak hi Michael Sandman hi Paul Warren hi David Perman hi chair votes I so we're reconsidering uh article one um any questions okay I'm Mo favorable um favorable action on article one of the special town meeting number two as amended by the advisory committee all in favor please indicate by saying I Melissa you about to say something as amended by cos oh I'm sorry yeah okay say as amended by cos okay all in favor please indicate by saying I John Van skak hi um Michael Sandman hi Paul Warren hi David prman hi chair votes I hey next Article 13 um I think Roger blood is uh here to talk about this article which is um an article originally presented by the housing Advisory Board uh Linda Olen pel is also in the audience although she doesn't have to speak if if if uh there's no uh controversy here on the board about this article is so uh Charlie could you uh promote Roger just a quick question Berard didn't didn't we already hear did Roger already present this to us yeah yes so can I just give you the update on where we are with with this one um so this article the board you've had your public hearing you had not taken a vote on this yet um I think you were waiting to hear what the advisory committee did we now have that outcome um Linda's in the audience because the advisory committee essentially adopted her motion um and so that is also in your packet Paulie is also in attendance she can also explain where the planning board is um which I think is slightly different from the pelky amendment um so that's that's where you are haven't taken a position on this one yet though I don't see Roger uh here either um paie is yeah we're promoting did end he did end intend on being here so so maybe we could hear from PA's been promoted we're just waiting for her to um share video PA we can see your video we don't see you though we can probably still hear her I think she signed in through her VPN so she probably okay so you just need to yes she might be rejoining well why don't we take we can take the other well that might take a while so why don't we just wait with the other warrant article might take a while so just so I understand while while we have an opportunity we're waiting for Paulie so the advisory committee voted in favor of the pelky version of the article that correct yes okay and the planning board has a tweak or a change to the pelky version I believe that they are different they're different from the pelky version if you pull up your combined reports which I can um pull up in just a minute um the planning board report has their their um their Motion in there as well there's Paulie hi good evening sorry about that um so Roger is not here I take it I'm not seeing Roger yeah I did speak with Roger this afternoon about what his position was and basically uh he feels that at this point uh he's going to bring up to the hab that he would recommend that the Linda pelky Amendment uh which uh eliminates the owner investor um be V voted on by by the hab so he is supportive of that um you know he would have liked to have have have seen the the the owner investor adopted but he realizes that there were people uh you know who had some qualms about that and uh he really wants this to go through and so he's happy to uh you know compromise with with the Linda pelky Amendment and to have the hab go forward with that Amendment as for the planning board um they actually met you know way before a lot of these meetings to place but they uh just by a vote of three to two voted to to keep the owner investor uh in in the article but they really as you were pretty much evenly divided on whether it should stay or not and I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you well I just want to be clear Paulie so so the planning board kept the investor uh Adu in the article they did uh but keep in mind that it was before a lot of it was obviously before the advisory committee's vote and uh okay I just wanted to make sure I I understood yeah so what's the desire of the board ask a PO question paully I'm sorry I I don't think I heard you say what was the actual vote of the planning board three to two three to two okay yes uh Mike oh I I'll volunteer to say that um I think that uh this is that lind's amendment is appropriate um uh I think that um the argument that we can predict what an investor is going to do is uh perhaps mistaken uh and we just don't know whether we'll set up a target for people from uh outside to invest in and turn uh essentially turn one family homes into two family homes and then try to resell them so I would much prefer to um use the language that the advisory committee has offered okay anyone object to that I agree David I agree the new guy on the word I agree with Mike and Paul okay um then I move approval of warant Article 13 as amended by the advisory committee uh all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak I Michael Sandman hi Paul Warren hi and David Perman hi and chair oai okay now so you can leave Linda unless you want to stay around for our next discussion which should be very interesting more challenging more Challen pardon me more challenging more challenging right okay so uh next Warren Article 19 um yes so the board has had their public hearing on Article 19 there have been a series of amendments um that are now being uh classified as substitute motions um that will be in front of town meeting uh in addition the petitioners have a revised motion all of those are included in the combined reports um we also pulled into your packet I I thought the advisory committee did a phenomenal job um with their public hearing and really kind of discussion of the article um but ultimately they um decided not to make a recommendation so um that that's that's kind of where we are with Article 19 yeah I agree their report was um a model for the type of reports that uh should be written for issues like this um so here's how I want to work or do this can I make one point before you about how you do it the the one thing that was not in our packet um was the bank a motion to refer so there was um substitute there was substitute motions which are amendments to the original article but um did we get dick Banker's uh motion that's okay his motion to refer okay it did come in late okay okay okay Article 19 the ceasefire resolution um I want to start this discussion of our vote on Article 19 by listening to the thinking of each of you on the Sight board but I'm going to exercise the privilege the chair and you elected me chair so I have that privilege um uh to start so you know this is a difficult uh uh um article to discuss for a variety of reasons at our March 12 hearing the majority of the select board thought that a discussion of Warren Article 19 at town meeting would be um use various words but divisive basically a minority of the board argued that the discussion of Warr Warren Article 19 can and should be held at town meeting and that was me and John vanak if I'm correct right y my view is that the petitioners of the war article ask for a discussion of important issues that are Rel to the town of Brookline they're relevant because all of Brookline has been traumatized by the terrorist attack on October 7 and the subsequent uh events in Gaza that trauma is shared by residents who are Israeli and who are Palestinian here in Brooklyn who are Jewish and who are Muslim and by residents who are not in any of those groups is also relevant because that trauma has caused an outbreak of anti-Semitism and anti-muslim hatred in Brooklyn that we have to deal with it has also Unleashed raw emotions that have caused otherwise let me use my words carefully otherwise good people to say things about the people in the conflict the issues of this conflict and even about their neighbors with whom they may disagree that use angry and hot button language that is hurtful and undermines community in response to warrn Article 19 various Amendments have been proposed to replace the language of the article select board members can move those amendments if they desire but I'm but I am focusing on the original Warren Article 19 in my opinion except for the mark Levy Amendment the Amendments attempt to ignore the subject of Warren Article 19 which is primarily a call for a fire in the Gaza War humanitarian Aid and the return of the hostages held by Hamas this will be a difficult discussion because of the emotions on all sides and there are only a few aspects of this situation that really lend themselves to having a clearly right answer I hope people accept the both the Warren article and the amendments were presented in good faith but pretending that we can suppress or ignore a silence discussion or refuse to engage in difficult conversations with our neighbors in my opinion is counterproductive and potentially dangerous the problem however is how to structure a respectful grownup conversation in a way that gives all reasonable sides a hearing and encourages all sides to understand the positions of the other sides without having to agree with those positions I believe that that we in Brookline are mature enough to have such a conversation we had one during our hearing uh on war Article 19 in um in March uh and I think we can have such a conversation at town meeting or again at the select board if town meeting refers this article to the select board as suggested by um dick binka the options that the select board has to this evening are one to recommend favorable action to town meeting which is a recommendation that Warren Article 19 or an amendment that gets the majority vote of the select board be favorably voted two to recommend no action which is a recommendation that Warren Article 19 as it may be amended be voted down or three no recommendation which is the position taken by the advisory committee and would be a recommendation that town meeting have the discussion without the guidance of the select board so I guess the latter is where I'm inclined to um what I'm inclined to support but I'm wondering what other select board members think as I said I'd like to just air all the views of the select board before we proceed to uh vote on whatever it is we're going to vote on so anyone want to V Mike yeah um so first of all I want to say that I've met with the petitioners um a couple of times and exchanged several emails with them um and from the from the first encouraged them to uh preferably uh to withdraw the article which they declined to do uh or to make significant changes especially in the wear as Clauses and they most certainly did that they made some very significant changes and I hope that when we get to town meeting town meeting members will take the amend amendment that they've offered and that we will take the amendment that they've offered as representing their views and not look at the article and look at Article 19 based on the original text um the petitioners and their supporters include Jews includes M they include Muslims uh and they are all people of Good Will and um the one thing that I regret about the hearing that we had was that there were a couple of speakers Who challenged that that perspective U the tias want a ceasefire and a simultaneous release of hostages uh some have said that we have a moral obligation to call for a ceasefire Mark Levy has uh has based his appeal uh largely on that and others have said that a ceasefire before Hamas has been somehow eliminated means that Hamas will be the winner and I think we need to be clear when we give our report to town meeting that there's no possible winner uh in this war um deciding how to vote on this is emotionally charged it's uh a complex warrant article it's a matter for each person to decide for themselves and I believe that we should not try to give them guidance apart from urging people to respect each other's views and not disparage them uh but it's very clear that we are going to have this debate on at town meeting and so uh that's the the bit of guidance that I would like to like to provide thank you any other are you raise your hand Che no I'm sorry okay oh no just stretching it first okay John um a couple of questions first um Bernard if you know Mr chair would you would you just the last part of what you said I I think is kind of where I'm coming from but I want to be sure I understood the nuances of it so by not taking a position um or no recommendation no recommendation um but we're not precluding the possibility that U slck board members might Express themselves individually on this of course we're just saying that we don't feel that it is necessary for the board um as a board to attempt to steer town meeting towards one particular result or another result because that that's kind of where I'm coming from on this and um you know I'll be frank I haven't made up my mind yet on this because feelings do run so strongly in the community and there's so much yes there's nothing at stake in terms of whether we pass this or that resolution is it going to result in an immediate change in you know facts on the ground um in Israel and Gaza no is it going to be heard you know where they are conducting um negotiations right now you know towards trying to find some kind of a ceasefire that both sides can agree to probably not um but uh we we all share this community and we all kind of um hope to uh learn from one another and I think we need that's why I felt from the beginning that yes town meeting should take this up um and it has spawned many a discussion and it has spawned several alternative proposals and all of that is good it it's how we grapple with very difficult questions of uh both not only uh strategy I mean you know International balances of power and international um standing of States One Visa each other um but it's it's how we um grapple with our concern for our neighbors as to how a a terrible war in in another part part of the world is impacting them and impacting some of them in one way and impacting others of them in a very different way and here we are you know as the um leadership board of the town trying to help people of All Views to come to grips with is there a is there a common view that we can take on this so more than anything else I have been Guided by you know what is the thing that most people including some from side a and some from side B could actually come to agreement on um as as a step forward as a positive step so far um I will be um quite uh you know um upfront about this uh Mark Levy's Amendment comes the closest um and there have there are several aspects of it that um I admire I'll put it that way um uh I I admire the phrase um the United States has a humanitarian Duty um as well as a diplomatic need to provide leadership um I think that's a key phrase I think U the final paragraph of Mark's explanation um kind of speaks to me um and I'll just read it back um I believe passing article 19's call to action is worthwhile and well within town meetings long held tradition of speaking out for peace Town meetings long tradition of speaking out for peace and international cooperation and but Mark has tried to focus his Amendment not the original Article 19 proposal this is Mark's proposal um on the urgent need to stop the fighting and to relieve the suffering that the war inflicts D daily um it's a it's a ambitious hope that that can happen um and it's an even more ambitious hope that it would happen in any to any degree because the town meeting of Brookline adopted a resolution but that's the hope we should be clinging to and I thought Mark expressed it very well um and so right now I'm kind of drawn towards Mark's proposal on this that's that's where I'm coming from but I agree with our chair that we as individual SBO members um are free to express our views on this if we think it would be helpful to express our views but it wouldn't serve a purpose nor would it be appropriate given the gravity of the issues under consideration here for us to attempt to use our Collective vote as a board to push town meeting um in One Direction or another well uh thank you so um I guess I first I would say I am of the opinion that we should take a position we are the chief executive of of the Town um and certainly we should be providing uh an opinion on a very very very controversial article that's been brought before town meeting so I'm I I would like us to take a vote um and not offer an we should offer an opinion um I've mentioned before my adult children are of Arab descent and my grandchildren are Jewish I am absolutely torn by this um uh you know the levy uh amendment has all the attributes that John mentioned um it is very very offensive to uh my Jewish friends and neighbors and family members um and I have great fear for what's going on uh with the war and what's what's happening but um there the debate at town meeting is going to happen barring someone making a motion to table I don't suspect we're not going to do that um and I suspect it would require a two-thirds vote so there is going to be a debate at to meeting um we will have the conversation actually it won't be a conversation it's going to be people talking at each other it will not be a discussion it will not be productive um it'll be very much in keeping with what has has happened here in this hearing room and what happened at advisory um I don't believe any good can come from it that's why I voted back in December with my colleagues at Le a majority of the board uh to not hold a special town meeting because of this exact situation um I do not believe that we we should be as a town weighing in on this um I believe we've got many many many many other issues that we should be dealing with and a resolution passed by town meeting isn't going to make one single change many many miles away but it is going to create harm emotional harm to people within book line um there will be people harmed by a voted town meeting but a vote's going to happen um my preference is uh the to vote in favor of uh the bank of motion which is a motion to refer back to the select board with no action required um it it has the attributes of providing for Town meetings to talk at each other uh for however long we're going to talk at each other um people can hear opinions um and then it can be referred uh without having to vote on any specific uh version of Article 19 if that were to not pass um I would I I personally and I would recommend that we vote no action on all versions of Article 19 um there is not not a verion in my view that is going to be beneficial to Brookline um it will create harm um I think about the many incidents that have already occurred in Brooklyn the graffiti there was just recently graffi in a high school bathroom uh that was not wildly reported in our schools uh we've had multiple incidents publicly uh you know anti-Semitism uh anti-muslim there's been uh uh vandalism this is a direct result of of this uh very very very divisive topic um and I think there's a better way to do it I don't think uh uh passing a resolution at T meting is going to make one difference so I'm in favor of uh of the bank of motion to refer uh and if that if that doesn't pass I'm in favor of no action across the board uh uh the bank of motion is not before us I mean that's sort of a procedural motion it's not a no it's actually a filed motion it's not a procedural motion he has filed a motion with the moderator um and uh and the town um it's an actual motion it's not procedural his motion will be voted on first actually because it's a referral motion so we should have an opinion by town meeting yeah no no he filed a motion motion is a motion it's not an amendment though it's not an amendment uh and U but we could vote to support the motion to refer we could could we could that's a separate topic we could do that yeah that's my point David so I agree with Paul that as the chief executive body of the town we should be aining on every warrant article uh without exception and so I do think we should take an OP we should take an opinion I agree with you Bernard that I think we need to that philosophically we should be respectful anytime a petitioner brings forward a proposal so if somebody wants to have a debate on something we shouldn't be shutting down democracy we should give them that opportunity in terms of where I think the right landing spot is I feel that there is an amendment that doesn't look to try to pick uh a winner it's fairly neutral sounding and that would be the uh burin Gladstone Amendment which essentially says let's support our federal government in achieving a lasting peace and it doesn't get into specifics as to how that's done so I think that is the least painful for all involved because it's not picking sides it's not picking winners or losers and I think that would be the amendment that I would support um any further discussion I guess you know my my um my concern is that uh it's not the um it's not that that article that is creating the harm here in Brookline it's it's the events in the world um and you know we will exacerbate that harm by trying to stifle discussion um well Berard no one's no one's proposing stifling discussion and at this table not a single person has said we're going to stifle discussion the discussion and debate will happen at town meeting we're not suggesting that there be a tabling if if someone makes a motion to Table and 2third there would actually be no debate no one at this table is suggesting a taing the debate will happen at town meeting the question is after that debate what is our recommendation uh to town meeting to do after that debate I believe that we should have a position David just said that he prefers uh the Gladstone Amendment John prefers Levy I don't know where Mike is and and I prefer that we make no recommendation okay yeah that that's right and and my my when I said you stifling um um conversation I wasn't suggesting that this board was stifling conversation but that there is a feeling in town that because this can be divisive that we should not talk about it and that's what I'm you know suggesting we not we not we not do okay um we are talk John yeah I Paul Paul um characterized my position and I'm I I I understand why you did I I I just want to be sure people understand what I did say was the one that comes closest right now um but I'm still doing a lot of thinking about it excuse me I should be speaking it's microphone um the levy amendment is the one that comes closest right now to expressing how I feel about this issue but I think like a lot of people in Brooklyn um this isn't the kind of issue we easily make up our minds on and then decide I'm not going to change my mind you know this this situation is changing by the day there could be a ceasefire agreed to by the time we get to swn meeting so I think we all need to say open-minded as much as possible but at the same time not Sherk having an honest discussion with one another and being unafraid to express our views even if those views are repugnant to some people um maybe that's going to happen I hope not um I I I I don't think anything I have seen um in the proposals that have been offered um is is should be repugnant to anybody they are sincere efforts to find a way out of a situation which is having horrible horrible consequences for many many people Israelis and gazin alike um and U that that's why I think we need to continue to have these discussions and um hopefully find some kind of consensus view among town meeting members and as I said before I just don't think the board has to play a role of pushing in town meeting towards one consensus view or another consensus view but simply to offer our thoughts and then let those thoughts be part of the mix of views that will be debated and discussed at town meeting isn't that the same as making no recommendation I thought that was what his proposed that I said I agreed with with the chair Bernard yeah all right okay seems like a long way to it but thank you where are you coming down well that I was about to say yeah I thought I had made myself clear but apparently not my my view is also that we should not make a recommendation okay so we age so so then I I move that the select board make no recommendation to town meeting on Warren Article 19 uh all in favor please indicate by saying I joh vanan skak I Michael Sandman hi um Paul Warren no um David Perman no okay so not can make a recommendation you do have to vote you have to vote you have not voted yet oh I'm sorry fa votes I very late than all right okay well that's the end of the meeting unless anyone has anything they'd like to say or like to speak at public comment at the end of the meeting okay Regina we do anyone on the zoom we do have a hand pardon me sorry we do have a hand raised in the in the zoom audience okay so let's let's hear from Regina first and then yeah just real briefly I want to really praise town meeting member and advisory committee member Linda pelky as someone who knows how difficult it is to submit any kind of Warrant article let alone one that's so popularly uh demographically supported by newcomers who think it's the easy answer to problems she took lot of heat and she's put a tremendous amount of effort in it and I have to praise her and thank her for her efforts my precinct in particular is happy about it uh thank you thank you uh Charlie um these we have uh one hand raised in the audience it's Mark Levy um so I'm gonna promote Mark now I see in the audience is Roger blood we've we've already handled that issue you can go home now Mark you've been promoted to a panelist if you'd like to make a public comment you'll have three minutes um and your time will begin hi thank you very much for listening to me and recognizing my hand raised I hope you read the fingerprints because that's the only way you could recognize it I suppose uh but seriously I think the most important thing about this warrant article when you boil down it all down it's that uh there are people suffering there people dying not just adults but children and I don't know how to solve the long range problem of Palestinians versus Israelis I don't know whether there's going to be any possibility of having some agreement come out of the uh the process I don't know if the ceasefire will include the return of the hostages all I know is that you can't look at this kind of disaster especially in a town like Brooklyn which has so many people invested in one or the other participants in the War uh and uh say nothing U it seems to me that uh basic morality call for that and uh what I've did in my in my amendment was try to be as neutral as possible and focus on the catastrophe that's happening and try to urge our Congressional delegates and the president to do their best to uh save people people's lives and uh I don't think that's that's a controversial thing to do most of the time um and I hope it can be accepted in that the that sort of way and I also hope that the uh uh redone uh amendment by that was that was put forward by the petitioners the the vision not the original one uh can have some of the same effect and tell me we'll pick one or the other U and all I'm going to say is all it's all it's required for you to flourish is for good people to do nothing I want to do something and I think Brooklyn is has a tradition of wanting to do something 30 seconds oh is that it okay thanks Mark um uh chair green I don't think I don't see anyone else raising their hand looking to speak um at the end of meeting public comment okay thank you with that uh our meeting is