[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] where over [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e e okay okay folks uh let me know when ready [Laughter] go okay you ready for count sor started in 5 4 3 2 1 good even I'm this is meeting for April 2024 uh first couple announc make first pleased announ hasil um lot people an to and we will be doing great things through this next this will meeting know run the school she's m or whatever but we wish you and if like we continue to work with you but in a different way and hope that we have the same typ Rel withag not each appr person apprciate and we'll see you next time okay any other [Music] upates okay the microphone I wanted to just remind folks that the calls for comprehensive plan Steering group um are still there's a l l on the homepage you book. it will take you to describe of the group um and there link to apply we of course everybody but you C welcome folks to participate the appliation process and again those applications are due Friday May 3r is the great I have a few quick words so powerful stat respon an but we isob I'm glad this brought to our attention and I apologize I can speak for myself I'm sure not when this saying this REM absolutely mean home ANL or um I did think a lot about else say tonight and I will in my usual fashion I think keep it um first I really do want to thank you members I think we are a great model for we disree negotiate compromise we listen to each other we learn and it's been an hon to serve um um [Music] sh we have buil a big a very important um I do want to thank Jo the amazing Commissioners Chiefs department heads staff and the volunteers that make this town work I hope when the report comes out take minute to read what I have written St commission folks and I started school today with grounding at the2 very proud I will read a very short favorite poem of M by because reallys how I feel myself what we do the heart is the capital of mind the mind is a sing State the heart and mind together make a single Contin one is the population numerous this etic nation seek it is yourself that's thank you and of course please remember to vote and you will write comments appr com incling what okay um one um GRE electricity rates will reded starting December thank the leadersh guidance joining PR as you know manag Weis DEC through the effort plan team and Cara brutin and her team and everyone who's been involved in this on the townside town council's office uh procurement um we have been able to secure a significant reduction in the sense per kilowatt hour that will be supplied during the 37 Monon contract uh uh really the 36 month the 36 and change month contract uh plan um the default will continue to be 100% renewable energy um consumers will have the option at any time to remain in the b in the Brookline green product they can go down to the Brookline basic which goes to the minimum level required by the state um or the all green method with 100% Massachusetts class one um renewable energy credits you can also opt out completely and use the eversource rates but those rates are higher um right now in the brook line green program you pay 16 cents per kilowatt hour beginning in December 2024 you will pay 14.6 cents on the all green program you now pay 18.6 cents an hour a kilowatt hour uh in December of 24 you will pay 17.5 um and on the Brookline basic program current price is 14.7 cents a kilowatt hour it will go down to 13.4 so again a real win on the procurement team uh the planning team and we want to thank everyone and the select board for making that possible um could you tell the public how to apply for that this is an opt out program you automatically sign up for this program when you sign up for energy um so if you are if when you get your uh Energy bill um if it says eversource basic Service as opposed to Brookline green all green or Brookline basic uh please contact UM the planning department uh and we will get you get get you in touch with the right people um the national Community survey is available until May 9th a link is available on the website we have heard communities members concerns about you know logging in providing access information we know that that can sometimes be a barrier we have to do that to ensure that we are getting residents involved we we are getting residents of Brookline involved in this we want to promise people that signing up for a PCO poo is the is the contractor will not share your information in any sort of selling and packaging the information way it is just a means of ensuring that we have reliable data from Brookline residents in response to this but thank you for your feedback that you provided so far thank you if you filled it out if you haven't filled it out please do um there was uh an incident uh over the um last week and into the weekend uh regarding a police tactical response to a fake call um I just want to thank Chief P this was a so-called swatting incidences there were actually two of them um I want to thank Chief pastor and the entire rapid response team for their really commendable efforts at you know being upon being told there was a crisis in progress verifying the information not going into a situation that could be you know going into a situation with the appropriate level of response that is to say taking it seriously but also verifying the information making sure that if there was a real threat it would be handled if this was as suspected a swatting incident uh that the individuals in question would be taken care of in a safe way and not responded to with disproportionate uh tactics um it is just a real reminder that um you know we we have a great police force and a great responsive team on this and I want people to be aware uh that if these incidences do occur that you report them to the police department uh that you provide them with any information that you can the only way we can stop this behavior is if people involved if people if you know the possibility of danger that you report it so uh thank you to the Chief and to the whole team for that diligent response to that and the one last thing I have um is um that the um annual report uh will be posted online with the combin once the in conjunction with combined reports so will be very exciting sorry um uh it will be posted online next week and so hopefully it will go out with the combined reports thanks sorry for the many updates oh no problem and as Miriam U mentioned uh I also urge everyone to read the combined reports over the last few years we have done uh combined I'm sorry not combined reports annual reports in a little different way uh the chair of the select board does a sort of General a statement uh for the select board and each individual uh select board member does their own uh statement or discussing you know their observations of their year on the select board and and the things that uh have happened during that time so you know I join Mariam and urging everyone to look for it and read it so seeing nothing yet no other hands raised um I'd like to go to our miscellaneous calendar approval of minutes from April 2nd 2024 any edits or Corrections no okay I'm Mo of approval of the minutes of the select board meeting of April 2nd 2024 all in favor please indicate by saying I let's see who do I start off with Miriam you do okay I um Mike S hi Paul Warren hi and Sher votes I I'm have to get used to I won't I won't take offense because John okay uh next I'm gonna take items 3B to 3i in Omnibus fashion except that I note that item 3G refer I'm sorry oh I'm sorry that's okay um Charlie I forgot public comment so it's all right I'm here to uh I'm here to read it when when we're ready so I suppose we're ready now uh 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 comment members of the public sometimes raise questions during public comment we may be able to provide a quick answer 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're welcome to send an email to board members expressing your thoughts in Greater detail the first person signed up for public comment is Sana ha Sana is on Zoom thank you for raising your hand Sana I'm promoting you to a panelist now and your three minutes will begin thank you and do I have share screen capacity oh no we don't permit shared screen capacity here well how am I supposed to share you know what I'd like to share then with folks it's not allowed if you want to send something in advance you can send something in advance but we don't allow individuals to share their screen I have shared my screen in person before at selectboard meetings but you know that's that's fine you know that's for another day um I guess I'll just cover some main points then as far as this board trying to do damage control it's a little too late you want to say this after the bridge for yesterday evening where some of us discussed the truth about Brooklyn and everyone else gave nice sounding nothing answers that make people feel comfortable instead of addressing this when I as well as countless other Muslim community members repeated this issue uh you know you folks decide to address it now no more apologies it's time for accountability and it's time for change and like Miriam said vote May 7th in the last two years we've seen a clear pattern reoccurring you know this town government is biased and has discriminated against residents specifically against people and organizations of color while at the same time preaching equality equity and inclusion many words without action what I can clearly see is plain hypocrisy and I'll share some examples with you um I was going to share um some remarks from someone that I believe Mike and Mariam know uh they should know who I'm referring to because they served on a committee with him this is how they talk about themselves again I'll be quoting something that is you know not my verbiage and not for me whatsoever but it is a direct quote from an ARP Review Committee Member and I'll begin Miriam's two black children have taken her a long way in the phony liberal Progressive political arena in Brooklyn meantime there is hold on hold on hold you have to let him speak okay you have to let her speak I just note that this is an attack on a select board member and this attack is not made by me I'm referring to how you talk about each other the same folks that are preaching Equity now if I could continue my time I will you may continue please do thank you in the liberal Progressive political arena in Brooklyn meantime there isn't a black person on the school committee the public housing authority as well as many other boards and commissions because of their color another email quote delineates how an ARP Review Committee Member had a private phone call with Deborah Brown Bic um arpa applicant now known as bcdc in that same email you can see them say five minutes following that meeting you and I spoke everyone heard it legal or not this is the deal that I signed up for on the zoom that everyone overheard you know the phone call you made to me during the arpa review committee meeting the $2500 sorry the $250,000 I sweetened your big arpa Grant with we cannot have governance like this this is not accountable this is not transparent this is not just this is just another example of how the arpa misappropriation of funds have severely impacted our communities we cannot have change if we do not have accountability you know I would love to discuss this more but again I'm not able to share the details with you I am being stifled by town governance once again um I'll leave it to there and I encourage all of you to vote change on May 7th I encourage you to look at the people for brookline.com reach out I have a weekly Zoom every Wednesday from 6:00 to 7: p.m. where I want to hear from regular residents like you for the issues that you know like me are not allowed to be talked about by Brook Lin's governance thank you the next person sign up for public Charlie can you give me a second I just want to be sure that people understand um the rules on public comment in the past we have allowed individuals who have visual aids to share them uh we've asked them to share them in advance with staffs that staff can share that's to limit the use of the screen sharing function uh it's been my recommendation to the board and we'll take it up at a future date to cease that practice um it's not in response to any particular event it's the fact that honestly you know at one point you know staff members were asked to run a six slide presentation for someone run videos for them it suggests a level of interconnectivity with staff that I don't feel comfortable with now obviously it's the board's decision but I just think um you know we're at the present the policy is Staff share you know uh you know individual items that are shared in advance if asked by a Community member provided they don't violate the law or the rules so they can't share electioneering they can't share things that are defamatory Etc um but they can um or they give you know again they can't share things that are that are against the law of the rules um but in the future um it would be my recommendation just to remove staff from that process entirely um so that's why we don't allow screen sharing here we have never to my knowledge allowed individuals to share screen during public comment uh let me add one one other thing so the purpose of public comment is to give the public an opportunity to have their say and hopefully influence the board with uh their uh with their comments um when an individual board member is is uh targeted by public comment you have a right to do that but we have a right to take that into consideration in terms of your credibility and the value of what you're offering uh in public comment so I think the the uh mention of Miriam and her children was out of out of line and while you have a right to say that uh we have a right to take that as uh speaking to your credibility or the speaker's credibility and whether um their views uh are going to be influential or persuasive with us so thank you okay next Charlie uh the next person signed up for public comment is AI aiany a you may share your screen and your video if you're or and unmute if you're comfortable and three minutes to begin you are promoted now a if you if you uh if you're ready to speak maybe we'll come back to a at this point um the next person signed up for public comment is Janice Khan Janice uh is Janice in the room at the moment if Jan is in the room thank you you may approach the Pres station in your three minutes will begin okay thank you very much Charlie um and thank you for this opportunity to speak to the select board I'm Janice Khan town meeting member from Precinct 15 I'm speaking as someone who's lived in Brookline for over 40 years who raised a family here who served on Town boards including the commission for women and the advisory committee and who's concerned about the direction Our Town seems to be going in um on the national level we are being asked are we we a nation of laws and I would argue that we need to look at ourselves as well and ask are we a town of laws two recent incidents raised that question for me um the first concerns article 97 Landa buding Pierce School the town has known about this issue for at least two years and there is a legal process to allow for what was being proposed changing the use at least under the ground for article 97 protected land to meet a deadline the process within Brookline was compressed into a few hours the Conservation Commission and the park and wreck commission had to vote unanimously to approve it and there's also there also needed to be a public hearing only the park and rec commission at that meeting even raised a concern the Conservation Commission remained silent and when a member of the public raised a legitimate concern that person was shatted out to stop when going over the allotted two minutes and I would say that the two-minute provision was put in because as a consequence of this compressed time frame for fulfilling what is a state law um the second is the creation of a separate division within DPW the last time there was a reorganization of the DPW the town filed a home rule petition that amended the special act that defines the Department of Public Works in this case there was no home rule petition This legal process was skirted by calling it a p a pilot but that word exists only in one's imagination it's not in writing anywhere and it's not in the financial plan for instance but more concerning to me is not the outcome I support both the goal of building a fossil fuel um free school and the importance of a sustainability director with staff support it's the process which has silenced voices and not followed the spirit in one case and the actual law in the other so I ask my elected represent it is to ponder the question is Brookline a town of laws um and if yes which I yep um which I believe we aspire to be we pass bylaws at pretty much every town meeting um I find What's Happening Here is concerning again I appreciate the opportunity to to make this public comment thank you for your time uh it looks like a might be available to speak now a if you'd like to share your screen and unmute or whatever you're comfortable with your three minutes will begin can you guys hear me yes J BR CL resident um I wanted to speak but uh Chaz man you guys uh as a resident just wanted to say boy you guys are digging yourself in a deeper hole um as much as you guys would want to Tax Center uh or try to make it look like that miam does have a copy of that email you two as well has so that is not that is not a s you guys try to make it look like it's a s thing you know exactly what's going on you don't like the truth and exactly what you guys have been doing to black and brown communities and that game that you guys want to play uh Town Council is goingon to have his hand full with that including that motion to discriminate against black people legally when he won Katy pman about that the records are there on town meeting server so I'm a I'm a big guy of facts I'm a big fan of that as well you guys have been misusing powers in from the ethics issue to you sit on the chair there for three years and you think you have to run people's lives the beautiful thing about this country there's Law and Order and um we know how to go about it the right way too as well and Mikey if you could please stop sending organization issues to campaign emails that' be that' be well appreciated you breaching a lot of laws to there as well I know you guys don't like to listen to Town Council and do what you want and put us as a town in bad situations we've seen the Jed atin uh situation and that is very very minute to what is coming there is a price to pay you don't discriminate against black people like me and my community and think you get to walk away free this is not the errors of the old times fellas and um that's all I have to say cuz we we getting limited with we can't share anything and you guys can change the rule as much as you want facts don't go away so Miriam you could check your email before you get mad at Santa and everybody you know who exactly said that and that goes a lot to show what type of community and leaders we let lead this community thank you next person signed up for public comment is Regina froley uh Regina I if you are welcome to approach the presentation station and your three minutes will begin Gina FY town meeting member from Precinct 16 good evening uh I just have a few very uh brief talk as one has to do with the uh two have to do with the Pierce project in I would ask the explanation after my three minutes what does it mean guaranteed maximum price budget because I saw that at the extension of the high school the stem building and it every other week they were coming for more money I don't know what that language means I know that I learned the hard way that uh perpetuity in the law means 30 years and it doesn't mean it in English but that's what it means in the law so I was wondering what that means because they keep coming back usually for more money I also want to bring up the possibility that is there any way that the geothermal you're aiming toward the peer school can be somehow piggyback the town library the town health department and town hall and do it in one maybe you need an extra well or two whatever it takes but be done with it that's just a question I raised because I think that's a good idea if you can do it and last but not least um I see that the arpa re reallocation is a real issue that might happen I hope you will consider the senior center for some of that reallocation cuz they really needed for things like Transportation as well as for other services thank you okay that concludes the folks sorry we have one more person signed up in person who's uh Susan Park thanks good evening everyone my name is Susan Park I'm a select board candidate um I do want to thank Miriam since this is your last select board meeting thank you for your service for these last three years and really I just came on behalf of Baff the Brooklyn Asian-American family Network as the co-chair for the baffins uh for their ninth essay contest I'd like to personally invite you all to our award ceremony and that's May 15th that's a Wednesday night from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. um at the coolage corner theater from 6: to 8 and we have um five students who won these excuse me the the um Awards and that's Haley Kim uh for her for her essay the fand dance language Karan batia indian-ish finding a way back to my identity Gio alanar her essay is called the sticky heat Melanie ho essay is called reading in between the lines and Bella Wang uh lost in my own voice we will also have the author of The Infamous Mera T Lee She's our keynote speaker she wrote the book everything here is beautiful um after the event we're going to have a reception and we hope that you all can come and we' I'm here also in person because I'd like to invite the public who's watching and who watches the video and we hope everyone shows up for this wonderful celebration this is the ninth year so thank you okay is that it yep so uh we we have a few more minutes uh we could take one more um at this point that would be probably the last person we could we could have though before the end of the meeting sure that sounds good okay um looks like Dell has asked to speak I'm gonna promote Dell now Dell you've been promoted to a panelist you can unmute and share your video if you're comfortable and your three minutes will begin ah thank you Charlie good afternoon everyone my name is Don Senor how meeting member for recing for I'm also on the advisory committee um I know right away this public comment section um heard from minorities in this town that bridge candidates form I remember when it first started I think you know I was running it against yard when that when that first Forum started um and there's a lot of division in town and somehow some way you know these people sitting up here and and you know and the ones that are leaving just we have to lead okay everyone needs to lead in this town and try to work together um we're hearing people say they're not happy all all all groups but but mainly uh a population that has shrunk in this town um is has been crying out for help referrals and when we referr something got town meeting especially if there's a date attached to it we should actually do something about it instead of doing these referrals um in res and with resolutions that have dates but really have no no meaning because there's no effect there's no implementation even select board policies I remember Bernard when we were both running we changed the select board policy on public comment um and there were there were reasons there was there was know good reason for that folks sit up there and serve because they want to and that means taking it all in the good the bad the ugly the happy everything so we as residents and voters here do not want to hear any complaints from those sitting where you are we want to see actions we want to see these policies that have been created acted on that's all I have to say thank you you guys have a good evening thank you Charlie okay um that sounds good so I think we have reached our 15 minutes at the beginning of the meetings that that would conclude public comment for now unless folks want to speak at the end okay um I'll will now take items 3B to 3i in Omnibus fashion except that I note with respect to item 3G uh it refers to a proclamation for National Public Service recognition week which will be celebrated during the week of May 5 to May 11 2024 and the select board by approving this Proclamation uh urges all residents of Brookline to celebrate public servants and their contributions um this week and throughout the year also item 3H is a proclamation acknowledging Jewish heritage month that will be read by Mike sanman you want to do that now yeah um okay thank you Bernard uh I also want to thank uh Scott Gladstone Who provided us with the template uh for this um we have done some editing but um nonetheless we very much appreciate the template uh and before I read this I want to say that may 1 is the start of both Jewish American and Asian-American month uh and this Proclamation recognizes Jewish American heritage month later in may we will I hope recognize the heritage of asian-americans with a similar Proclamation um so whereas the United States has many Heritage months and commemorations that celebrate the various communities that form the Mosaic of our country because of those celebrations we learn about one another we honor the richness of our diverse nation and we strengthen the fabric of American society whereas since 2007 presidents Bush Obama Trump and Biden have all issued proclamations for Jewish American heritage month with celebrate Jewish Americans and encourage all Americans to learn more about Jewish Heritage and contributions to the United States whereas Jewish American heritage month has its origins in 1980 when Congress passed a resolution Which authorized and requested the president to issue a proclamation designating April 21st uh through 28th 1980 as Jewish Heritage week obviously we've had some inflation the America whereas the American Jewish Community dates back to 1654 when a group of 23 Jews fleeing persecution at the hands of the Portuguese Inquisition fled Brazil and found refuge in New Amsterdam now New York from that tiny group The American Jewish Community has grown to over 6 million representing approximately 2% of the American population today whereas Brookline has been a welcoming Bastion of inclusion for our Jewish community members for over a 100 years as a home to multiple diverse congregations of numerous denominations whereas over the past 370 years Jewish Americans have given their to their communities and been loyal and patriotic citizens always grateful for the Safe Harbor that American provided for them American Jews have always pushed America to live up to its promise as a nation that upholds freedom and justice for all today many American Jews are feeling increasingly vulnerable amidst the rise in anti-Semitism as are American Muslims feeling aise in islamophobia history has shown that most groups and individuals who Express hatred of any minority group will also Express hatred toward Jews because of that that understanding American Jews have been active participants in the fight against all forms of racial and ethnic hatred for example through the actions of the Anti-Defamation League the Jewish community relations Council and other Jewish organizations and the final whereas the strength of a society can be measured in part by how they protect their minority populations and celebrate their contributions and it's altogether fitting to once again Mark May as Jewish American heritage month now therefore we members of the select Board of the town of Brookline do hereby by Proclaim May 2024 as Jewish American Heritage Month in the town of Brookline we call upon all residents of our town to learn more about the Heritage and contribution of Jewish Americans in conjunction with acknowledging the contributions of all minorities who contribute to American life and to observe this month with appropriate programs activities and ceremonies thank you thank you Mike so uh now I move approval of items 3B to 3i all in favor I'm sorry no Oh I thought you to say something okay okay all in favor please indicate by saying I um Mary ashkanazi enthusiastically I okay um Michael Sandman hi uh Paul Warren hi and chair votes I thank you U Mike for reading that it's over is it still no it's over no it's over I take it back oh ends tonight you're as bad as you wait wait you don't want to stay for our exciting meeting son son's not down yet okay lots of water okay wait let's not disrup me yeah he right um so bad okay question uh let's see so we just voted miscellaneous items next question of approving the authorization to hire request from the chief of police for a public safety dispatcher one do we have uh Chief Pastor or someone promoting uh the chief now good evening can you hear me yep we can hear you okay sorry about that um good evening Chief Pastor before you tonight to request the authorization to hire one dispatcher to replace uh one of our dispatchers whose last day was today uh she'll be leaving us for a position in the Norfolk County Clerk's Office uh we're sad to see her go um but we have some good candidates in the pipeline with your approval okay any questions I I I just have a procedural quick question so this evening in our consent agenda we approved a number of positions um and I'm just curious is there any particular reason why we need to uh have uh any hire for the police Department separated versus being in the consent agenda there is not except tradition um you know you as the select board are still technically the police Commissioners as you are the fire Commissioners that has been long discussed what does that mean and the answer is it's a ceremonial role but it's still one of importance and so in the past when we have had authorizations to hire police and fire also historically civil servic has played a role in that but that doesn't necessarily have an impact on where the authorization to hire needs to sit um you are you are required to actually hire all sworn officers of a police and fire but this authorization does not need to appear on the I guess I guess my my feedback would be that um certainly when someone's being promoted um you know I think that recognition is important but it feels a little um unequal treatment to dispatcher that's just being rehired because someone left I'd love to see those kind of moved into the consent agenda in the future it's my my view thank you uh does anyone object to that no okay we'll discuss with the public safety team make sure that besides tradition there's nothing else requiring it and move from there we should be glad that there's only one DPW commissioner okay um so I move approval of the uh authoriz authorization to hire request from the chief of police all in favor for Public Safety dispatcher all in favor please indicate by saying I Mar masazi I Michael sammon hi Paul Warren hi and chair votes I next uh Pierce project early guaranteed maximum price budget uh Chaz you're GNA give us some um background on that includ including I think to address I'm sorry someone else is going to do it I was going to let our our our PM um and our uh deputy director for um for Capital lapan um speak okay um I'd like lap to also address the issue that uh Regina raised uh that that is you know why we're uh continually um increasing or make or making um uh budget updates uh once we have a guaranteed U maximum price which is a function of our contingency from where those costs come from but you know lab can explain it much better sure thank you very much chairman uh uh my name is lapan I am the deputy director of Capital Construction in the building department for the town of Brookline uh Pierce is basically my project uh GMP stands for guaranteed maximum price uh to addressing the uh the previous comment about that there are changes along the way uh requests by the uh by the town for example we may want to control some units that are uh that that were not originally in the drawings we tried the the best we can to cover all bases for the Pierce we had Lessons Learned From the Juris schal School uh and we we walked the architect and the engineers through it and show them what we want and what we expect and and some some Miss scope work at jisco that we included in Pierce so uh unfortunately there we're only human and we do make mistakes and and we we try to cover it with the scope of work and sometimes uh we do better job than than other times uh in this case I think for Pierce we did a really excellent job covering all our bases here so that is uh that's a brief little uh explanation of of why we do cost overruns even on guaranteed maximum prices uh I don't know if you guys want me to go any further than that on on that uh as regards to the other question about can we tie in geotherms into the library unfortunately this system is designed just to service the uh the the new school which is a large school and uh there aren't any interconnections between the school and the library at this point it be wonderful we could uh but there is no Provisions at this point to do that uh to uh to to the question in hand which is the early guaranteed maximum price uh request uh we chose the construction manager at risk delivery method for this project because schools are very time sensitive and we want to open up up to school as soon as possible so we can service the uh the the the student population over at Brook line uh as one of the reasons why we chose this the construction manager at risk uh meth delivery method is that it can significantly shorten the timeline from the time we uh start the project to when we open the doors at the school one of the methods that we use to do is reduce uh drawings in advance so we can buy out the packages the the the disciplines of Trades that are required at the beginning without having fully developed construction documents the uh the general method of delivery in in Massachusetts uh by default is What's called the general contract method article 149 uh which is basically having the architect and designer design a full complete set of drawings and then what we call what I would call to throw it over the wall give it to the general contractor bid it out and then uh and then the the low bid or the most qualified bidder would then uh start construction on that obviously that takes a little bit more time there's there's an complicated uh building like pierce it could take over it has it has taken over a year and a half close to two years to do a fully designed and we're still not even there yet so at this point where we're at the design level we have what's we're expecting in about another month or two what's called 60% construction documents so the construction documents are 60% complete but with the construction manager at risk delivery method uh we were able to isolate certain trades that we will need to start the project even before the documents the construct documents are fully designed and fully drawn out uh these trades include uh Espress hazardous material abatement uh certain utilities cut offs uh and demolition so the original budget is $168 million for a pierce we're asking the select board to approve approximately 13 million and change and the good news is we did incur some $2 million in cost savings on this two uh on this $3 million early release guaranteed maximum price budget uh I uh I stand by to answer any questions as need be great thank you any questions from the select board oh I don't have a question I just have a quick comment um just I I wanted to make sure to clarify when projects um come to us and we're getting I think Regina had suggested continue on she's correct requests for additional monies and change orders um often those are are within uh the amount of money which is the contingency as you mentioned Bernard but there's also a factor of just unknowns um I recall the high school uh in in um the science Wing when that was coming down there was an unknown that we discovered which had to do with a wall that had you know significant cost implications and of course Co struck and we had a a redefinition of actually how you do construction remote you can't do it over Zoom um and of course doing the deal with the MBTA and trying to build over the tracks which I hope we never ever ever uh do again uh but I do think that there's you know there are there are unknowns and that's what the contingency is for and should we go beyond the contingency of course that money needs to be approved by town meeting and appropriated and then if it goes beyond a certain percentage the Department of Revenue asks us it requires us to go back to the voters for approval so there are a number of stop gaps there as well okay any other questions or comments from the select board okay I'd like to move approval uh of amendment uh in the amount of 13,1 15,19 with conly construction for early GMP budget related to the per school project all in favor please indicate by saying I Mary masazi I Michael Sandman hi Paul Warren hi and chair vot ey great uh next the uh we don't have the public comment on on the agenda anymore okay did you want public comment on this no no no I um I had the public comment policy oh yeah no we took I'm sorry we took that off I have an old agenda yes sorry okay uh next ARA reallocation review and possible vote on a plan to reallocate American Rescue plan act funding from projects unable or unlikely to be completed by relevant deadlines to new or existing projects able to meet such deadlines chz you want to present this sure thank you and thanks to the board for the leadership and for the um the continued guidance uh on um American Rescue plan act funding forine receiv received nearly $44 million in local fiscal recovery funds from the American Rescue plan act that is a lot of money uh we received 32.4 million directly and the possibility up to 11.4 from Nori County so as of today we've spent most of that money and appropriated you have appropriated all of the rest um but arpa dollars must be obligated which is now a formal term of Art in the rules that is different we you know we initially thought that that meant you could just vote it and it would count as obligated the the federal government produce guidance that said it has to be more than that you have to have contract signed deals in place really showing that the money is moving in that direction by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 20126 you conducted a unique community-driven process that resulted in a plan for how much of this arpa money would be spent um it's a laudable process that has resulted in a lot of back-end work for both um the subrecipients and for us but It ultimately has led to a better and more inclusive Arup process so over a hundred separate projects I think close to 130 are now being tracked uh across our reporting which we must make quarterly to the federal government um and now we have come to a point uh based primarily I think norford County's rules and obligations where we have to start you have to start making some harder decisions about you know if there are projects that are not going to make the deadline what to do with them what to do with the money um and how to reallocate it the this is an initial slate recommendations on projects that are unlikely to meet the obligation deadline um and what to do with that money uh based on submissions received from the Departments we received around $5 million total in requests uh I also received clear requests from the former members of the arpa Review Committee which I tried to honor which was for community- based projects that were not going to forward that there be some effort made to try and get that money to be used for the original purpose in question um for the betterment of the broader community so balancing those two uh obligations out or those two directives out saying one these projects that we recommend to you have to be able to be done quickly uh but two that where Community money is being reallocated it' be spent for similar purposes we have come up with this initial slate um you can see in the list that there are various projects on the town side uh that are either not moving forward or in some cases fortuitously were able to turn back money because they underspent and found money elsewhere particularly I want to give a shout out to the electrification charging infrastructure team which really did Innovative work saving money on these um and for others for example the utility debt relief we did unfortunately run into a situation where we did the legal research we did our best to try and accommodate the will of the board but the reality of the situation was we could not legally just issue a blanket debt forgiveness so what we did was we tried to forgive as much debt as we thought we could legally do and what that was was we anyone who was in a hardship status during covid received a full forgiveness of their Co debt um and that limited it to the purposes of arpa which was recovery for disproportionately impacted and impacted populations uh and provided the maximum amount of relief possible that we thought we could legally provide um you know even that we were concerned was a stretch but we feel that that is defensible so that's what we were able to do um I will say that it is unfortunate that we're unable to proceed forward with the child care affordable child care program I know that was a community priority I know from personally from meeting with that team that they were committed to that work um but I also unfortunately things just got wrapped up in this investigatory process that is still ongoing uh and believe me I wish we were done um My Hope Is that we will be done short L but the reality of the situation is we're just not going to be able to do the work outlined in The Proposal uh and so we must find alternate sources of uh alternate means of accomplishing the aims of spending that money so you can see the full list um in there uh and why it's returning to you you can also see that for example with the uh Bridal path it's not so much we're taking the money back but reallocating it more generally so that money can still be spent on that project and then arpa funds the arpa funds just go to a different purpose a different different way of accomplishing the same aims the child care funding was split between um the resident opportunity initiative at the Brookline Housing Authority which you can see in The Proposal that Michael Alin submitted and an affordable child care initiative that is in development I believe Mike sanon is in the process of discussing this with the Brookline Community Foundation both of those projects would receive most $450,000 with the remaining $100,000 going towards the mental health services Community Partnership funding at the line Center um being able to extend that out through the life of arpa then you can see some important projects that we felt could have money spent quickly you know big contracts that we could spend money on that are also Community priorities Road and control action plan making sure we're spending money there through 2026 the Human Services assessment that is already ongoing money for substance use prevention and intervention the potential 5year strategic plan at the police department PS free response jackets and for the Council on a in to a point raised in public comment um money to complete the senior center food in security program I would also note that money was already reallocated away from the health building to the Senior Center building to complete the electrification and HVAC upgrades there uh you previously had voted that due to increases in the project cost um so we are already increasing spending on the Council on Aging just to that point um there is we time there is a certain time of the essence here with regard to projects that may be reimbursed by norfol County um the county has set a June 30th deadline for us to get any County potential County reimbursements in thus far of our potential 11 half million dollar the county has awarded about five point some about 5 point I believe six million doar from primarily from premium pay we have submitted close to $10 million and by the end of the week uh should be at or should be above the uh allocation but to do that we need authorization from the board to spend up to the amount listed in these arpa requests that are marked with an asterisk so that uh when we submit to the county and the county says has the select board authorized this we can truthfully say yes and then what we can do uh after you've had time to digest after the public has had time to provide you with feedback on this is to say to the county um we are actually only proposing funding a certain amount of the this of this contract so if there's money left over in the County's accounts please fund up to this amount but if not please only fund for example for the um the extension on Mental Health Services could you only fund $240,000 as opposed to $360,000 representing two years of a potential three-year contract so that was the explanation of where we are now and what the hope would be in terms of action tonight would be that preliminary vote to reallocate just on a administrative basis the bridal path funding and some of your contingency for norfor County eligible projects so Tyler and Nicole can submit those to the county and then rebalance those figures on the 14th or thereafter after you have had time to speak to the community consti you an input and have any questions you have from staff answered thank you any com any questions or comments from the board um I have a couple uh first of all I want to speak to the um $1 million we set aside U hoping that we would um have a viable proposal um from uh somewhere uh for Affordable Health Care a sustainable affordable health sorry affordable child care affordable healthcare is a whole other story affordable child care uh program and we've ended up we spoke to um several possible hosts for such a program um and um there was basically no there was no clearly no way uh to put this together uh in a way that was going to be appeal to any of those hosts um I have spoken at some length to beep which has uh a suggestion that um would be a a fallback which is simply scholarships uh until the money runs out however we're hoping that something much more um uh much more longterm much more sustainable will will happen and in the course of and what we're doing is having a discussion uh with one of the major nonprofit Child Care organizations in town uh which um uh may be able to give us a model that will be uh scalable to other uh and and duplicable by uh by other child care U operator um so I noticed that there is $450,000 set aside in your latest um and quite I'm a I'm a little concerned about that because between that and the $450,000 set aside for the Housing Authority that's $100,000 short uh and uh I I feel like we made a commitment uh that uh we should take very seriously uh even though all of it's not going to child care affordable child care the other $450,000 is going to a wonderful program that the Housing Authority runs that helps people who are Housing Authority tenants achieve economic sustainability uh so this is sort of the other end of the scale as opposed to child care uh we're talking about adults um the Brookline Community Foundation ran a program in November uh at which uh one of the sort of graduates of this program spoke and uh she was extremely impressive and the whole program was very impressive and so what happens is that um a small amount of money and mentoring counseling uh is is provided to people uh to help them get their basically get their economic lives uh in in organized uh and move them up so that they are um they're as as the program says are economically sustainable in some cases they're able to move out of public housing uh but uh most important they're able to achieve some stability uh in their uh in their incomes uh and um do things like get graduate um uh equivalency diplom degrees or diplomas uh and put rums together create a savings account that uh that they can actually um use as a mechanism for paying for education um there a whole range of things that the BHA does that $450,000 will support that program for I believe it's two years uh and uh so the other 550 that's left out of that 1 million um I'm hoping will go to uh to uh a model uh for a child care that is uh replicable across uh Brookline and obviously with the board's permission we can modify this these you know make clear where the money is coming from Y is there a reason why um it wasn't in there in the beginning The Hope was that we would try and spread out as much as possible and try and get you know for example the full funding for you know Mental Health Services you know there are a couple of other projects that I small dollar projects that I wanted to spread out money for across other departments um but in this instance if the will again this is this is why we bring it to the board this is your decision if you want us to spend the full million 550 on that and 450 on the BHA proposal happy to happy to come up with alternative proposals that's what this is all uh let me just add that um I'm actually waiting for a proposal from the Community Foundation which would the um sort of the manager of the Implement for implementing this uh this concept we have a couple of different ideas that we're exploring actually but one of them is is waiting on a conversation with uh as I said one of the nonprofit U child care providers um so um that it's important to know how much money is going to be available so that we can structure whatever we're going to do based on reality uh but as I say my own very much a person personal concern uh is that we made that um million dollar commitment and I would like to stick to it Mar did you add up um I um no I'm I I think that I'm no I have something to say about Paul I think was I just um I you know what Regina said really resonates with me that that the lack of uh reallocation to the senior center um you know we know that seniors get a pittance uh of of ocation from our operating budget um even less from our CIP um they got some money uh as part of uh the first round of arpa we do know that there's a significant arpa Cliff uh coming for them in fact uh the director came and spoke to us uh and really lay raid some significant alarms uh about the fact that you know in another year the the budget just falls out from underneath them with respect to transportation and and food security and stuff like that I appreciate there's 50 Grand here but um I know that the first place that always gets cut even from the state uh there was some money there that that they were going to allocate what's the first thing you do you cut the seniors um and so I you know I appreciate um Mike's uh effort to initiate you know child care I'm I'm a firm supporter of that frankly I I wouldn't have been able to go to college if there was not uh support for childcare when I was younger uh but but you know we can't ignore and we can keep ignoring seniors um there's a great need um you know they came to us I think we cut the budget on painting or refurbishing the building that the place hasn't been touched in decades um so I you know if we're going to reallocate uh some of that money I would very much like to see it go into uh something that has to do with with a senior center or seniors so I was just say that um ruthanne doc this director of the senior center submitted one request and that was filled in full um so I can ask ruthanne if there are other things she'd like um but everything that COA asked for is is in here um and the other thing is that you have already um in terms of reallocating the funds from the health department to the senior Center's refurbishment uh provided that level of funding there's also the excuse me the earmark package you supported uh this request you made to the federal government for a million dollars in Senior Center transportation funding um which I went down to an event with Congressman honen Claus yesterday in the hopes of getting some FaceTime and demonstrating how important that is to us I'm not gonna hold my breath on the feds honestly honestly it's a long it's always a long shot with it's a very long shot but we we have to we have to try for every source of funding we can I will go back to ruthanne and ask if there are other projects that we might be able to fund I think that would be important chz I and again it's just feedback you know they they did come uh to the cdbg committee where you know more than half of the money from cdbg gets allocated to overhead um which is something we need to look at but uh you know we weren't able to fund uh everything that they wanted to do um we weren't able to fund completely um uh you know some of the initiatives that we have with steps of success uh to help uh you know black and brown students um with uh you know summer programs and mentoring and things like that um there's just there there is certainly a lot of need uh in the community that that is going unmet and one of them that we hear over and over and over is seniors are not sufficiently supported um and I happen to agree with it um any further comment no okay um are we going to table to next time or what I so we I our request would be if you're willing to do that kind of administrative vote so we can projects to the county with the understand right with the understanding that you would then reallocate and we could even you know again this is not permanent um we could always tell the county if you decide not to pursue our project at all hey we're pulling this project so could we could we move approval of the aster items yes so I have language on six page the memo to reallocate just over a million dollars 1,307 from Beacon Street Bridal path and the select board contingency to nine projects that would be County eligible for us so that we could begin the submission process to the county okay um I move approval then unless there was further discussion I move approval of the asteris uh items uh for the county um it's just described on page six of the memo [Music] there um let's see I Mo of approval of the transferred listed as ongoing efforts um hold on let's see okay let me figure out oh voted uh I move of approval to reallocate 1,3,4 in American Rescue fund act funding uh as follows and there is a list of items um that uh um uh covered uh from the bridal path the select board contingency ongoing Mental Health Services and Community Partnership funding ongoing inpoint protection subscriptions ongoing Road and control action plan activities ongoing Human Services assessment contract ongoing substance use prevention and intervention activities emergency Operation Center backup dispatch equipment procore software licenses fire department radio upgrades and police department digital evidence ID server uh all in favor please indicate by saying I maram ashkanazi I Michael Sandman I Paul Warren I and Cher oi now with respect to the others uh you're going to come back with um a proposed reallocation um I'd like to you know get a good sense of you know what ruthan doc thinks you know our priority items for the senior center um you know I'm just a little comfortable um with the idea that we don't um fund the senior center sufficiently but without specific you know details as to what we're missing what we're not not not providing um great to get a wish list I guess we'll do absolutely okay okay next uh Neta change of ownership we have someone to present that believe the attorney uh Gilbert is online yes I am thank you good evening uh Jennifer depaso Gilbert here on behalf of Neta and um if you could promote the other panelists from my team I can introduce them uh Lynette French is here with me this evening she has been with Netta brookln for many many years some of you may recognize or know her she is the Chief Operating Officer I also have with me this evening Kyle Detweiler who will be uh upon if approved the new uh majority owner with Direct Control also on with me this evening are David Julian and Charles aletti they are the regulatory Council for cdxx and those entities um also they don't need to be promoted but on if there are specific questions for them are Nicole Heisler and Scott Murphy also uh from Neta Brooklyn so this is a request for a transfer of the two licenses and an assignment of the uh relatively new host commun Community agreement that we negotiated and entered into with the town in December uh related to the license renewal the operations uh will remain the same at Neta Brookline and the Neta brand will remain the same the operations team that's in place and um familiar with Town department heads and uh various entities working with Brooklyn will remain the same um the other thing I wanted to uh mention was that uh you know um we had some questions come in from Jonathan Simpson relative to this transfer and the Friday before the school vacation break uh we got the whole team on to answer all of his questions and I hope that we provided all of the information um that he needed uh this is also to let you know that the and you should have this document that the Cannabis Control Commission um did a thorough investigation you should have their executive summary and the unanimous approval that um Neta received for this transfer and assignment request in the executive summary you'll see that the state did background checks on all parties and found no suitability issues uh the parties uh was determined had not exceeded any ownership or control limits and there was also an organizational and financial uh inspection and investigation of Records which uh showed no concerns um the host Community agreement that uh Neta that we negotiated in December provides that the town must consent to a license transfer and assignment of the HCA uh but the language goes on to say that such approval shall not be unreasonable withheld or denied uh this is the third uh ownership transfer request we've been uh before you two other times in in the past um and uh this is really the last approval that is needed to complete the massachusett uh piece of this transaction the CCC approved it on April 11th the town of Franklin where there are some other facilities and the town of Northampton have also um approved uh the request so um we're here to answer any questions and I I think Jonathan Simpson said he would be on as well um but uh this is the third time we've been for you for this type of a request um and available to answer any questions as always thank you I I'd like to start off on an issue that we've discussed before in connection with other um uh cannabis uh uh uh companies and that is with respect to the so-called other owners who own 64. 55% of the stock of CDX trans Co LLC which is three steps above the lcy um are any of those other owners Black Or Hispanic uh owners an issue that you we've all we've brought to to your attention many times yeah um I think I will um turn that over to the regulatory Council who's who's more familiar with these entities Charles Alis ofet if he's on he can feel that one and then maybe uh Kyle deweer the majority owner is also on yeah so uh Charlie aletti and and we're regulatory Council to to cdxx in this transaction so you know I would say you know it's a difficult question for us to answer because um this is sort of of a broad shareholder group um none of whom has control here uh other than Kyle um and they're all sort of entities and you know as part of the cap table we don't we don't take any uh we don't gather demographic data so it's it's really impossible for us to say that you know there's this amount of diverse shareholders or that amount of first shareholders you know any more than you could say you know the the sharehold ERS of of Google or the shareholders of Facebook um you know have a certain percentage of you know diverse shareholders just because we don't you know we we wouldn't you know private companies don't don't ask the shareholders that question um and you know even if we did ask them I don't think that they would they would uh feel inclined to respond um so so we can't address the share I guess my concern is that you know the uh cannabis uh uh legislation was specifically designed to provide ownership opportunities for communities that had been disproportionately impacted by the the criminalization of marijuana everyone knew that in the beginning uh maybe we uh didn't uh live up to our responsibilities with respect to that issue um but you know you knew it and it seems to me that you have now you're now coming to us what the third time with an ownership structure that exclude I can only say excludes uh the very people that this legislation was designed to protect or or to include I mean it's almost anomalist that that you that that it's it's it like that so um I I tend to agree with you uh chair green um that the state and local regulations failed uh there's no question question in my mind uh that there's not enough uh black and brown participation in actual uh equity and an actual ownership um that's unfortunate but I think that what Charles is saying is in this particular situation be because it's such a broad uh number of shareholders and the demographics isn't uh collected um we can't really say one way or the other um as far as uh diversity I think and I'm happy to turn it over to Lynette Lynette French that can go through all of the Dei measures that are in place the policies that will continue that that's a separate issue we can get to that later isue ownership is what we're talking about now yeah yeah well The Courier um company ygp that is owned um by minority full ownership Neta partnered with them and they they are a separate company with a career license and they act under netta's license so there is that um it's unfortunate that there aren't more licenses to give out there was a um a state uh report today that talked about potential legislation to increase the number of licenses I don't know well how that will impact the the the ballot question that the town voted on to limit the number to four the four existing but um you know hopefully there will be some changes um but I agree with you that it it is aern gu my my my question is when you're pulling together your investor group where do you go I mean is the country club looking for investors or do you make a an intentional effort uh or do you intentionally look for a diversity uh of ownership um you know by by by going outside the country club and I know that's no I know that that's sort of not a accurate or good good way of putting it but you you get you get what I'm talking about I do and I understand that the town has the same uh constraints and concerns with with their team and it's very difficult but I'll let uh Charles and Kyle I I'll let Charles and Kyle answer how they look for investors yeah yeah so I wasn't I wasn't part of the the fundraising process for this company so I I can't get into specifics uh you know a number of these investors are people that owned you know this a sort of a complicated transaction but essentially they they they were lenders to the company and sort of as part of agreeing to this transaction they're getting a small Equity stake so you know when when this company went out and raised money and I can't speak to this company in particular but you know similarly situated clients you know people are pretty uh you know just it's it's very difficult to raise money in Canabis these days so people tend to spread as as wide a net as they possibly can and there certainly were no restrictions in terms of other than you know the the the willingness and ability to to put in the money um certainly no restrictions on who was who is uh allowed to invest in the company um but I can't we of course not I mean wasn't suggesting that you put restrictions but just that the uh the the Outreach to potential investors was uh incompetent or or not not sufficient and I I guess you maybe what um I should ask you is what type of commitments can you give us that um sometime uh in the near future uh you'll be able to tell us that the ownership of uh your your lensy or the um your related parties uh does have a diversity of uh of um participation that addresses the need or addresses the reason why the Cannabis legislation was was enacted here in Massachusetts I mean for example um another cannabis uh company said that they could issue a certain uh C classification of shares uh for their uh top managers give them an ownership interest I mean it may be more limited than others but it's it's a first step uh but you know what type of commitments can we get from you so that we have some uh some comfort that we're not going to be uh in this situation on into the future well you know I can't I I don't want to speak for my client and to creating an equity incentive pool but that's absolutely something we would consider I mean it's it's very typical for a company like this to to incentivize its management with equity and that's certainly something um that they would consider I mean we haven't uh you know got gotten to that point where we've defined that but I would definitely say it would be it would be unusual for for a company like this not to have some kind of incentive Equity plan at some point I mean one of the problems um chair green is that the this deal needs to close uh so that we're not gonna prevent it from closing I just want to make sure that next time I see you we're not having the same conversation understood Mike did you have something I'm sorry no no I'm it's I'm paying close attention to the the the the nuances of the disc discussion I think it's very uh listening to the um comment that apparently some debt has been has been exchanged for shares that's very often an indication of some Financial stress uh and the uh The Exchange is uh a mechanism for um reducing that stress by converting uh that Capital basically turning lenders Capital into into Equity um that is as you know that that's really technically none of our business but it was interesting to hear yeah it might be in terms of the equity incentive which again I I you know I'm just I'm just their lawyer I I can't I don't want to commit to anything here but you know it might be helpful if Lynette spoke about the existing sort of management initiatives of the company because those would be the people that would be um you know eligible for for incentive equity yeah I guess you know it would be helpful to understand what is the diversity of leadership management of the officers of the company is there do you have a profile that you could share with us yeah uh good good morning members of Select board it's been a moment since uh I've been back in front of you so great to see you um I'm Lynette French I'm actually one of the original operators that started with Netta in 2017 and uh the proud uh standing Chief Operating Officer for parallel overseeing both Neta still today as well as our Florida and Texas operations I I wanted to share a couple anecdotes with you that I think may be helpful in this conversation the first one is uh I'm currently leading the organization as a female and in terms of diversity of our leadership and our ability to maintain a diverse leadership team it's never been stronger as it is today of 16 of our key roles that our senior director and above they are held by women or black employees in our in our company um we're very prideful of that uh many of you have seen our journey the whole time and we're really um proud of the work we've done still a lot more to do but um you know the new ownership coming forward and giving us a a clean balance sheet to move forward is really important for all of us going forward I know you've heard a lot about all of our de Andi initiatives before with the local team but um to kind of address some of the inequity that's still existing out in Massachusetts um if you haven't heard about our participation with the BCB Mastermind program it's something that I'm immensely proud of um we have partnered exclusively with the BCB Mastermind even in the midst of our restructure for the last three years we've been the sole sponsor that program has really spent time doing work with black and brown entrepreneurs to not just give them funds but actually spend time with them and take them through a CEO intensive accelerator program uh two of the people who went through that Accel accelerator program was Omari Anderson and also the better known Drew lead better who is the um social Equity applicant who owns and operates the Zeb Boutique dispensary um we're really proud of the work we've done with that team because it's one thing to give funding or you know have people on the back or give them support but to really be a partner with Equity applicants so they can actually overcome the barrier barriers the regulatory challenges and everything that's in the space so they can actually operate um that's work that we really don't think has been done in the space and is actually crucial to support the social equity and you know diverse applicants all due respect U that's sort of a separate issue I'm it's an important issue and and we appreciate what you're doing but I think that's sort of a separate issue from what I started out discussing um and while we can come back to that I'd like to sort of complete the circle with respect to ownership of the companies that are are above the Li lensey and and May and maybe what what I need is someone to tell me that you know they will present to us some some commitments uh so that the next time um we we meet um we don't have to go through this discussion again I think we hear you loud and clear and uh we'll have to we'll have to put our heads together after this closing with the new ownership team and uh bring you something yeah I'd appreciate that can I follow up to my last um question okay I just I didn't the question was it so I heard 16 women or black um how many of the 16 are black there's two two black two are we talking about officers yes I don't know well that's management is it 16 officers question well there is three officers I'm the female our general counsel is black so of the three offices one is black correct okay when um I guess I'm this is for Chaz chz when when do we need to vote on this um I I my expectation was that there were going to be some commitments made to us tonight uh that we that about um diversity I don't know what they we all going to be um so but I I I I know wondering if we should just table this until they can come back and make some commitments so unfortunately the reality of the situation is you can't condition the transfer of the license on on I'm not conditioning I'm just saying I can't decide until I hear more information so we're not able to commit until the deal closes um Charles if I'm wrong on that you know you can correct me well yeah that that that makes sense but I guess I'm saying that uh next time we see you under your new ownership structure I'd like to have in in our hands some commitment so that we have a different discussion than we're having right now Mike you had I think the the next time if I'm is uhual LIC December yeah in December uh which is certainly enough time for New Management to be able to respond in some some uh acceptable fashion uh and um it's not a condition of Licensing but uh it's something that we certainly can uh can ask about yes condition of embarrassment if you don't do it well you know I just I just I want to I want to just reiterate what Bernard said you know this is the third time this is it's not a secret Bernard yeah that I mean you've you've been very very clear about this I know at least this time in last time uh that that um Neta needed to make some serious improvements in ownership and equity and I'm just surprised that they came tonight without any information um that it's not possible to understand uh demographic information of investors I don't know I'm just um I think that's that that that doesn't seem completely credible to me so I'm I tonight I'm going to abstain or I I I would like to table till they can come back and give us more information that that would be my uh yeah I mean I'm not asking for a condition I just think that it would be we'd like more information about the racial makeup of the investors um not sure that we can do that um I think what we can do is just make it absolutely clear that we don't want to hear or we don't don't want to have the same conversation again uh in December next time we see you Miriam I mean I I I don't disagree with Paul I guess it'd be helpful if either Jonathan or Joe chimed in so I'm gonna ask Jonathan or Joe to chime in please certainly uh thank you Miriam um Jonathan Simpson first assistant town counsil I think that uh Mike's Mike's suggestion I think might be a very good landing spot for these discussions because as has been made clear by their Council um the use of the word commitment um implies that someone on this call is going to need to actually have the power to commit the company to something and until the deal closes no one on this call has the ability to to do any of that so making waiting two weeks will only prolong their ability to get moving on what we on what we are asking for ultimately I think it it is a it is a situation where the investment participation is been made it's it's it's something that's uh possibly a priority that was not made clear enough to the new ownership group uh but now it has been and but we do I believe need to give them some time and I think the town is best served by giving them the mo most time possible to start to start working on this um I understand very well I was uh I have been I have been sitting in meetings where we have expressed to a number of different retail license holders are concerns about this but um you know while there are some familiar faces here um I would point out you know Kyle as as the as the the new Equity participant representative here is new to this and his group his team um can start working on this if we just give them a chance um uh okay Mike so I I I think it's probably correct to say and I'd be interested in hearing uh what um uh what the uh what the representatives of of n said to this I I think what you're going to find is that a number of the substantial number of investors are themselves corporate entities as opposed to individuals uh and to find out who owns those corporations is a step yeah we're not asking a Step Beyond right so uh I I just um let's just be realistic about what we're asking for I absolutely understand the point um and indeed we have been saying this for quite some time uh and so it's disappointing not to have any more than we we have at this point but just the same uh realistically it's not going to be easy to identify individual and we accept that and but you know that's that's not a reason not to do something yeah I mean I just want to give give amplification to Paul's point which is right we this is clearly information that the town wants to hear and needs to know from not just Neta but anyone who holds these licenses it's not a reason that we could use to deny a license or or license transfer or attach that but it is something that as we look to the renewals and think through that process in December um where you have more Authority again it's not unfettered Authority um license renewals have to be premised on you know any additional conditions or so forth have to be premised on good cause um but you know what you have now is a way to communicate your expectations very clearly not just to Neta but to all four license holders in town um and to say well in advance of December when you come back to us we need to know what your ownership structure is not just the corporations but who owns them and what you're doing to increase diversity and ownership so I guess I Jaz I and I appreciate that um in no way shape or form mind suggesting that um under having insight into the diversity of their ownership is a condition of approval or not right right I'm just saying this evening tonight I do not have enough information and I think I'd like to see us table it um for two weeks until we come back and I think that would be sufficient time for them to be able to GA gather some demographic information perhaps Mike's right that some of it is uh institutional I don't know that may or may not be true Michael we have no visibility right into the ownership structure so um you know again this should not be a surprise I know it's not a surprise uh that we're asking for this information I'm just saying I I don't have enough information tonight uh I I I would like more information and I'd like to wait well okay the way I look at this is you know they're not going to be able to give us the type of information with respect to the current uh ownership structure that's going to satisfy us I'm more concerned with getting commitments from them with respect to what they're going to do between now and December when we see them again commitment that that uh they will figure out how to diversify their ownership uh structure um you know whether that means dividing up uh P debt wellers uh uh uh percent uh percentage ownership of sunstream um and sunstreams ownership of CDX transc Co LLC and and finding a Black Or Hispanic investor to to buy that piece or something else I don't really care I just want a commitment that something will be done by the time we see them next time I think that we can absolutely commit to that who prior to We Gather the documents and policies and put together a package probably in um September usually and what we can commit to is once the closure is formed and we have all of the entities lined up um that that attempt will be made and I certainly hope that this message will be conveyed to the other three license holders so that everyone is treated the same on this particular issue well Jennifer you know that it has been because you were at one of the meetings when we con that and and we got we got some really good feedback from you so yes this is not something we're picking on net out with this is something that you know we we have and will continue to to um speak to all the Cannabis uh uh companies and you know we're under pressure from people in the community who want to know what's going on you know what's what's happening why why why is why is there no change and you they're right that you that there should have been change and and you know we're we're pushing to get it understood okay uh any further discussion anything else you'd like to say uh Jennifer no no okay so um I I heard that you will what I heard from you is that you will um you know once the license uh transfer approved um pull together the uh principles in uh the company and uh come up with a commitment with respect to uh diversifying the ownership structure of the of the of your structure um I think I think that's correct and we will owe you an explanation as to how that was attempted and whether it was successful or not and why um that's what we will do and I'm sure you'll require every other license holder to do the same no that's that's understood um any further discussion okay uh thank you we'll be looking forward to that um unless anyone objects and you can abstain I'm I'm going to be abstaining yeah uh I moved about let's see what is it we're moving transfer of yeah I move approval of the transfer of ownership um of uh okay this is a little complex uh description um I move of approval of the transfer of ownership of the lense e to the corporate structure that um is set out in the materials in our packet uh involving U the ly CDX ma Transco LLC 100% owned by CDX X opco LLC which is 100% owned by CDX Transco LLC which is um 64 uh uh 34% or something uh owned by sunstream USA and 66% almost by other owners um and uh sunstream USA is 100% owned by Kyle Deb Willer um so that is the structure that we are approved approving I move approval of that all in favor please indicate by yes Bernard sorry if if we can just make it clear in the vote that this is going this is transfers not just the licenses but also the host Community agreement um just so it's clear on the uh on the record right good uh plus um we're approving the transfer of the host Community agreement I assume that's to the lcy uh which is CDX trans Co LLC all in favor please indicate by saying I Mar ashkanazi I Michael Sandman I Paul Warren obain and chair votes I okay thank you very much uh J we're looking forward to uh your present or materials that you present to us thank you good night good night okay Department budget review um the school department is here in person and we thought if would if you'd like oh no that's I take them first yeah yeah when we do that okay um votes see the department budget reviews School budgets so Susan given right okay I've only met you one once or twice so I just want to make sure the presentation should be loaded on that laptop at the podium we would just ask that you um share screen on Zoom so that way it goes out to everyone and if you if you see it appear on the projector you will have done it right so just a pull-up zoom and share screen and choose the presentation before you begin if you have any trouble I can I'm happy to run the slides let let me just add and correct me if I'm wrong Chaz that the select board's role with respect to the school's budget is limited uh we just want to make sure and confirm that you have crafted a budget that keeps the school spending within the uh 59% approximately uh of the town's total revenues um as determined primarily by the school Town School partnership so but we want to know what what you've what you've done in your budget you if you need a hand I have been blessed with I'm also happy to run the slide Susan if you just want to let me know when I should change slide I'll only be able to hear you if you speak into the mic at the podium though can you hear me yep yes great yes if you could run the slid show that we great because like I'm not we're not seeing it here on the happy to do that just um me an indic of next slide and I will push it forward for you okay let me just close that good all right okay next slide Susan could you speak close to the mic I think and can we just folks in the audience to I'm sorry folks in the audience Charlie Deb can I ask you to take your conversation outside please thank you and my voice is soft you can hear I have a little laryngitis going on so I apologize I'm actually shouting the lead up to town meeting will do that to you the lead up to town meeting will do that to you oh okay okay this is just a Brookline thing yes okay all right very good so uh we have a few slides for you tonight we thought um we would start and since this is can you see now yes clearly I'm feeling it uh Charles Could you um either move move the yeah I can with our heads in it so that they can see the numbers it's off of mine thanks Chaz appreciate that fa it's the faces yeah yeah just shrink it there you go there we go there we go thank you very much so we began our process uh months and months ago of course in the fall um and we asked our budget managers to put together requests um and at the time we had a strategic plan that we were I would say maybe 80% um through so people were very familiar with uh the items that were priorities in that and had asked them to um take a close look at that and as they were putting together their budget requests to uh include um uh any information they could that would tie the Strategic plan to the uh educational plan uh which then translates into dollars so as we look to translate it into Dollars our initial budget when we rolled it up was uh over $143 million um and uh as a team uh and that would include all Administration we reviewed those requests and uh reduced the budget by um 500 or $5 million uh the budget we put forward to the school board uh was 138 mil4 64298 uh which was above the guideline that we had received from the Town School partnership we were aware of that um and so we engaged in kind of our our our Learning Journey process with the school committee to review what was behind that big number um so we spent the next um month and a half reviewing um information that was in the budget so that everybody have a good understanding there were some items that we weren't able to move forward because we were already above uh the town allocation and um and so there was a lot of dialogue between the school board and the administration around um what we needed um and further refinement of our educational plan um in the midst of all of this of course we got the GIC information from the town which uh was favorable for both the town and the school uh and it increased uh funding for us by 225,000 so when we took a look at the difference between our proposed budget and the and the Town School partnership allocation it meant that we were about $2 million over um and uh that time so um the school committee made some choices and and decisions as as they contemplated the options and um they uh opted to add to additional uh positions at the high school we were short a little bit of money for our uh literacy implementation um and then the peer School of course will be splitting to two separate locations from a single location and there was some staffing implications um that uh we wanted to be able to attend to so the total sum of additions uh was 318,000 which uh increased the Gap um and then there were some other budgetary reductions one of the things that we did to try to mitigate the impact of of uh Transportation was to go out to bid the bids came in in early um March and uh we were able to reduce the amount of money that we had in our budget by ,000 for that there were also some ways that we were be a were able to leverage our grants so that uh we weren't changing really our educational plan but rather just how we were going to fund it so I would say the that the taxpayers ought to be the course of court of last resort not first Resort and so if we can leverage grants um to accomplish some of our goals that that we should do that and so we were able to move some money that was in the operating budget off um to the grants so when we looked at those type of adjustments we were able to reduce our budget by about $400,000 um which left this revised Gap is still around uh $2 million and um the school committee asked the administration to provide them with a list of uh potential reductions and the administration came together and put together a list of um options for the board to consider we present presented them in order of recommendation um and the school committee um um after several meetings of of dialogue um made some um decisions around what we would uh be reducing out of our educational plan um and and this included uh the reduction of literacy um uh coaches as well as uh some secretarial positions and and the big um big item that really uh most folks are are focusing in on is the World Language K through five um and so the total that was reduced from there out of our original proposal was uh the 1, 98,9 444 which brought us to uh in balance and alignment with what the Town School partnership agreement allocated for the schools next by the way this a very helpful chart thank you um and so really the highlights and and um the work that has taken place which is I think what you asked uh as we opened was um was this that appears on the slide here so uh the school uh committee and administration worked together with input from the town um and developed a three-year strategic plan there my understanding is that the school district has not had a strategic plan in a number of years uh to guide Improvement efforts and so um this was a major body of work uh that took place this year and uh because the the Strategic plan had not been adopted in time to prepare the budget but we did have an eye to it um uh you won't see uh some of the direct connections that we'll be able to make next year um because uh the document wasn't completed um at the time that we were preparing but nonetheless the work was done and we're really excited about it and it has informed a lot of the work that's taken place this year and is uh um a huge part of the the thinking that was behind how do we make choices as we're moving forward in the uh development and creation of our budget um the the school committee provided us with priorities as well and one of their high top priorities was to um maintain class sizes within the guidelines that they establish which is uh 22 students um at grades K through two and um 3 through eight um 25 would be would be the max um and so we we look really closely at at at those um class sizes and provided uh the school board with a lot of U data and Analysis on that also as most of you know at the high school our class sizes were were significantly higher um especially in AP and upper level classes uh this year and so um they gave us some uh pretty clear direction that they wanted some course correction there in the original budget that we proposed it had five additional staff for the high school and then as I mentioned in the opening Slide the school board um added an additional two the high school had initially um requested 10 um an estimated 10 would be um what their um uh preference was um when we went through the enrollment analysis so we had an enrollment study done this year um actually two and when we took a look at that um there was some adjustments made um by the high school for a final recommendation of seven so um the other uh item that's that's really driving a lot of our work right now is the introduction of a K8 Ela uh curriculum we don't have a an adopted curriculum in ela at this time and next year we have funding to um implement the K2 component of that so we would introduce the K2 component this year and then next year would be uh 3 through five and then Middle School level uh the year after that does ELA stand for okay um thank you English language arts oh I'm sorry I I don't I can't hear you well from over here so oh I'm sorry English language arts that's what that stands for English language for those of us who aren't steeped in educational culture and lingo I I I will call that out I will not use U edu speak how's that so yeah English language arts curriculum we won't always have our educational person on the select board yes it is literacy essentially literacy yeah okay get it really down literacy okay um and of course last year as part of the override was uh uh commitment to move beep to a full school day program next year um with an understanding that it would have a zero net impact on the operating budget and that is true um but it is a highlight and a lot of work has gone into planning for uh beat moving to the full day program so that's a highlight for this year and then uh last is um we're piloting the middle school winthrip house which will um uh be housed at uh Driscoll and um when we were uh in the midst of planning for the peer school this model was was was going to be part of uh when the peer school was completed that we would start um the Middle School winthrip House however we do have some students with needs um and with Driscoll opening um the school board felt uh and the administration uh uh recommended that we begin the winthrip house programming um at Dro this year and then once uh Pierce opens um in a few years then we would Transit that program over to the peer school is initially uh planned so those are the district highlights for the fy2 budget next slide can I just ask you know what winra is I was gonna ask that thank you yeah win I have a slide on you I mean you could answer it but I could winr pal is essentially an IND District therapeutic program for kids who are have higher needs than can be served through a regular special education program okay is that a accurate description yes yes yes and um these students are typically um serviced in an out of District placement so uh we're yes okay okay so if we can go one more slide we can talk about win through p and then we'll back up to the ELA curriculum great so um this here um the slide kind of explains um uh the the mission or or or the or the purpose behind um the winther P or the concept that the mission is to provide identified to adolescence with a therapeutic education at an earlier age and Stage um one that Fosters the building of academic personal and interpersonal skills uh there is a program at the high school right now and I think we have 32 students that we serve uh there and so this is kind would be more like a a feeder program so if the students uh with similar needs are identified earlier um and we can provide the supports then as they move up through um uh their Learning Journey uh they they have a high level of skills so the ability to access other opportunities is greater so um that's that's really the kind of uh theory of action behind introducing it at the middle school level um decisions may I ask just a quick question about it just a quick question um so in addition to it being a great program to help support students that need that there's also I I thought I heard you say it keeps them in District yes nor way they'd have to go out which is there's a cost differential there correct yes do do we know what the cost differential is approximately so on average we say that uh the cost of an out of District placement is about 100,000 and so and in in District is is is is less um but at a certain but you have to have a certain number of volume of students in order to hit the break even so this this we're going to introduce in a in a two-phase component um next year would be phase one and the following year phase two with the idea of having about uh 10 to 12 students served by this program um when we have it fully operational so next year we're looking at four to six um to introduce that and and refine like the curriculum the processes um the support systems that are necessary so that that we're in a position to be able to um um invite more students um back in yeah how many out of District St students do we have currently approximately 65 wow that's and and in the few that you mentioned you're going to start with four with those with those four normally would those have gone out of district and you're keeping them or my understanding from the deputy superintend for student services that there are uh two that are in out of District placements and there's several that are in District that would have otherwise been placed out okay thank you yep and just so you know we have winthrip house at the high school so it already exists at the high school they're talking about bringing it down to Middle School yeah approximately 32 students at the high school are in the winr House program currently thank you um I think I wonder if I can just give a little history because um the the effort to keep students inhouse is something that was a pretty substantial effort going back several years and we actually we managed to reduce the number of outplacement uh out placements and it is $100,000 AP po um that's disrespectful $100,000 a student uh and excuse me the that was successful and yet what what tends to happen is you have first of all you have an increase in student population um you have different students different issues come through um so it's a constant battle to uh uh to provide in-house as much as you can can I pigy piggy back on sorry just to say that no matter what there will be some substance students that will always need we will not be able to provide for them the education they need in terms of therapeutic needs okay yeah but we try to provide um learning opportunities in the least restrictive environment and certainly keeping them in the community has so many other advantages um that you know where where and when we can we do so this is an exciting new initiative um that we're introducing this year it and and I also want to say that this is uh in the first year is being fully funded through grants so um it doesn't have a budgetary impact on the operating budget but again what we we're presenting is our educational plan funding comes from a variety of different sources the biggest one of course the taxpayers in the community um eventually winre house will transition over to the operating budget in time but uh the early implementation is going to be funded um using the idea Grant um in the upcoming year okay that was my question okay so uh the other thing and we're really excited about this is is uh the introduction of the new Ela curriculum um and of course uh it's exciting for a lot of reasons but uh as we look to um address some of our literacy needs especially closing the the uh Gap um you know having a curriculum that is that is clear and is horizontally and vertically articulated across the grades allows us to be able to evaluate um learning experien for kids and to introduce an assessment a common assessment across our schools so that we can identify when kids are succeeding um and when they need additional supports um and what kinds of supports they need um the ELA curriculum and the um multi-tier student support system are the are probably our two uh most significant educational um initiatives that we have moving forward forward from this year um until next year and it's really about how do we provide kids with quality learning opportunities uh that meet the needs of all students um uh in the least uh restrictive environment so we want students even with tier one um uh learning we'll say learning gaps to be able to be uh supported in the regular education classroom and if you have a strong mtsf program you'll have fewer kids that are at your tiers two and three levels right um so our focus is really on those two areas in the upcoming year and there's been a lot of professional development um that that uh has been included in this year um as well as in next year's uh plan so um um and and and the other you know big uh important piece here is that uh that the OTL Department office of teaching and learning Department um has really been uh looking at uh best practices and evidence-based um uh research to identify what practices are really um um addressing the needs of our students and which ones uh should we be transitioning out so it's not just a matter of coming before you and saying you know we're asking for more we're actually actually asking for different um so there's some some things that are are transitioning out of what we're doing and other areas where we're transitioning in uh where we feel that we could strengthen um the programming for kids so I think that is my last slide but I I will let yeah so um yeah there is a slide here on World Language um uh some folks have asked you know you know why why this particular uh area of our curriculum why why is this uh an area where we are um um reducing and so right now the state there is a huge uh push in the state and rightly so um on literacy because as we know literacy provides students with opportunities um in all areas so the stronger your literacy skills are um the high higher levels and uh uh of course work can take um also and it doesn't matter what in what area you pursue an interest right you have to have strong literacy skills in order to be able to navigate in most any field today um and so uh uh this is a this a strong Focus area in our state and here where we did not have a um a curriculum that had been adopted you know this will certainly strengthen um our literacy program for all students so uh in order to be able to introduce the literacy program you have to have a certain amount of time to introduce the learning units with Fidelity and um there isn't enough time in the structured day with to be able to provide our core subject areas uh with the uh amount of time necessary in order to be able to implement um um the core content um for all students and so as you look at what are the core subject areas they math science um Ela or or literacy and who did I miss social studies um and so uh you know World Language is not a course subject area and um we're not able to even at this time provide enough um enough uh time on learning to really Master World language skills at the lower level so in general most of the schools at the elementary school are offering only uh 20 minutes three times a week that's not enough um time in order to develop the the world language skills to allow students to become you know at some point hopefully bilingual um and so without enough time on learning in general uh the and and really we're not in a position to expand the school day without a significant investment of of time uh staff and uh funding resources um uh the K5 World language program uh was was the the program that was not um uh we weren weren't able to maintain um as we focus our attention on these other um core areas uh so I've kind of talked about all of those items um and so summary in closing yeah so our budget is uh within your allocation not yours our allocation Town School partnership um the focus of our decision- making again centers around our strategic plan and so as we're vetting you know what stays and and what do we need we need to shed at this point um uh we keep referring back to what our uh Focus areas are in the Strategic plan and of course um we continue to um improve our budget process that's been a priority for the last couple Years and we're hoping that in some small way the process seemed to maybe a little more transparent and understanding um to others and and we certainly have a list of recommendations for how we can uh improve that further moving forward so that's our presentation for you tonight thank you thank you any questions Paul I just have a quick comment and a and a question uh first my comment is um as you may know I have two children in the brook line Public Schools I have a kindergarten student and a fourth grader at Lawrence and I just want to um say thank you to the administration and to the school committee uh because it is a wonderful experience usually and it's a great education and we are you know my family is very pleased uh to be able to participate and we appreciate all the work uh that Dr gillery and the administration and the school committee is doing I know you know you guys have a line for public comment that's often much longer than ours um and I understand and uh how how your meetings go but I just want to say thank you uh for all that you do I do have one quick question about beep so beep we've talked about beep being budget neutral the expanded program but the leases are still paid out of the CIP out of capital funds um is that so it's not completely cost neutral because the leases aren't coming out of the operating uh budget do do we have a plan to move beep leases it used to be called um capacity expansion I forget what it's called Uh to we are we going to move that into the operating budget at some point or so let me Point uh a point of clarification so I and I have heard this spoken of in uh different ways since I've been here which has only been five minutes right but uh that people say that um beep is going to be cost neutral but everybody's kind of defining that a little bit differently and I think that there's not a consistent understanding about what beep is so beep is is really a two-pronged um Early Childhood Program one prong of it is um really a mandatory uh program for students on IEPs um and so in that within that program uh you need to have a certain number of peer uh students in order to develop a a comprehensive um program um then in addition to that there's an early child child hood program that is like really kind of in many ways I would say unique to uh Brookline where you have actively um gone out and for many years Had An Early Childhood Program kind of separate that you charge tuition for for the students on IEP program you you um you don't charge obviously tuition for kids on IEPs um and in most school districts you charge a very um you don't the rate of tuition that you charge uh for students attending that the complimentary students peer students um is usually less than what a private school would charge a private Early Childhood Center would charge only reason why I say all of that is because there's not going to be a time where if you looked at the total expenses of uh beep that it would ever be cost neutral because we have mandatory obligations for that that so let me so let me say this maybe maybe my question was not I was inarticulate okay uh the expansion of the be program okay is cost neutral let me qualify it that way okay all right that so I I should have said that specifically I apologize no no okay that's good and so the expansion we've increased tuition so we're covering cost there correct right which is where the operating budget comes but we've also added additional Capital CIP money to cover the the leases because now you're taking you're having more time correct yes and so that's so we are taking from Capital uh to fund the leases and my question is um do you have anticipate when we might wean ourselves from that uh Capital uh infusion yes that has not been part of the dialogue um through this year's process but I'm sure uh given some of the interest in it we would take that up in the upcoming year but I also want to say that the increase in the lease is 77,000 it's the cost of leases have always been paid through by uh through the cap um classroom capacity Grant which is part of your your Capital not a grant it is it is capital but anyway I I don't want to beat to it's you know AC advis been yes is an increase on the capital side and it is not being borne by the revolving fund as the Staffing increases to implement that and at some point it should be correct if that if that was the agreement I would say well I don't know if it's an agreement I don't know I wasn't I wasn't here all right that discuss I'll I'll leave it for now well this will be next year's planning session uh Mariam well I'm going to first um Echo Paul's thank you and I think everyone knows I'm a big fan of schools I have two kids in high school we've been in the school system since both my kids my daughter went two years at beep um at your very last Slide the very last bullet was we're you know we're kind of working on adjusting the budgeting process and I think one of the things I've learned on the select board is um controlling the narrative is important like really getting ahead of how the conversation moves so I'm just curious to me it felt like while the budgeting process for the schools was effective it was um it was a narrative that got away from you a little bit in terms of how are we going to make these Cuts am I you like and so it became a narrative about what are we cutting rather than what are we funding and so I'm just wondering as you think about how you do your budgeting next year how you might think about that approach and that language and um I just I just put that out there for to for you to contemplate am am I yeah am I making sense because I'm you look at me like I don't know I don't want to be confusing but but there was a I was I was at a lot of those meetings and there was a lot of talk very painful talk about what's being cut and I think again you when the when you come out with a budget that you that is beyond what you have versus maybe starting lower and going up you change how people see the process so that is something I think worth discussing as you decide how you do budgeting for next year very well I concur I concur okay any other questions from the select board uh great I appreciate the presentation um it it an improvement over previous years oh definitely yeah yeah we could talk more about it later too I think yeah superintendent Gil knows what I'm talking okay okay um let's go back to uh the capital Improvement program we do have a hearing at 7:30 we do this one first uh it's 7:25 um well well five minute break and I mind doing thatp now I'm just curious what the what the board would like to do okay we can do we can do it now if you'd like to do it now um might as well do it okay we're we're good to go I think can't take more than five minutes though I but okay give me just a moment to pull this up War articles I'm sorry um the budget the the amended budget with AC and that is a public y yes the the budget amendments is actually to the current year budget I'm sorry the current year budget amendment those are those are two amendments that two amendments that came through sort of very recently I'm not sure if they're I'm not sure if they're in your packet or not uh but we'll get there um so I'm presenting tonight in Lou of Melissa who is having to um go to AC um so I'm I'll be talking about the capital Improvement plan the um our interest uh this year and the unclassified budget um so let's Dive Right In so as you all know the capital Improvement plan is a Five-Year Plan um it's always developed within the parameters of the CIP policies and um I'll just plug that the CIP policies are available on the budget Central page on the website and they're in the appendix of the budget book um or on the appendix page if you're in the digital version of the budget um if you're ever curious uh about how the CIP gets structured um and so for this year for the fiveyear plan that we have this year uh it's calling for an investment of $182 million which is about 30 million per year there's a focus on deferred maintenance in the schools and um and with our roads um the 4.67 million um recommendation in the town administrative financial plan for school repair and maintenance has been modified by advisory committee at this point um has been amended rather um and so has the street Rehabilitation um it remains to be seen how that will turn out but um you know F you know we we're fully funding as much as we can using our 6% of Prior year net revenue that comes from the operating budget and using free cash to get to a total of 7.5% um and we used additional free cash to get up to 11.2% operating funded um and that's a that's at 18% as as Melissa slide points out when uh de exclusions are included here's an overview of the major projects in the capital Improvement plan um so again if you uh I'm not seeing roads on here but again that would been modified by AC um and so I'll just leave these up for a minute for folks to digest we can come back to this if we'd like um but these are the major the major projects being funded in the um in the CIP this year again we're talking about this s point uh 7.5% CIP funding policy um this is 6% of Prior year net revenue as I mentioned before plus fre cash to get to the 7% um the 6 point the 6% policy is broken down um by a debt Finance go of 4.5% and a property tax Finance goal of 1.5% um and then the remainder to get to that 7.5 is uh free cash funded here's a breakdown of how free cash is being allocated in the fy2 budget um you you'll note that there is the that here are the here's the breakdown of the CIP policy um you know each each component um but the the the main you know the main takeaway here is that the amount that uh we have available for special use is around 12 million dollar um that breaks out um this is you know sort of over and above the policy because as you can see the top half of this table breaks out the operating budget reserve the unreserved fund balance SL stabilization fund um you know usage uh and so the the bottom half is the 12 million we have for additional special use and that's going into the IOD trust fund into pensions OPB um and the acred time trust fund and there's additional for the CIP uh that's that's a an additional $7 million we have in the CIP this year so we had as you can see we had for we had a fortunate number uh of 25 million for our free cash certification this year um which is again another year of uh a a very high free cash number which is which is great we can put it into the CIP but as folks know that is not guaranteed you um so here is the uh here's the Charlie you back oh okay sorry you had we were we had a we had something in the way no problem I I'll leave this up for a second but essentially if you look at this 25 million free cash certification the top half breaks down how our policies uh used that you know use some of that funding um there's 12 million left after that that goes into the special uses at the bottom so I'll leave this up for a minute um and just so folks can digest okay um so moving on the uh excuse me Charlie yeah ahead okay maybe I'm missing something but uh we have a million dollars for OPB I thought we uh cut that a million to op or 500 to OPB and 500 to the reserve funds to the right this is this is the I think this table comes from the financial plan so you are correct that that has been modified since then if you look at the the TM tables that are included in the the packet um I could pull those up uh if need be you know um we there there was a change to well I think 500,000 I just wanted to confirm that that was that was old those are old numbers um actually I think um if I'm not I'm not mistaken here yeah with 500,000 out of Pensions into the stabilization fund um so that that has yeah that's correct that that has been updated um any other questions before I move on y okay um so the revenue Finance component of the of the CIP this is um this is basically basically the the $6.1 million of this of the CIP that is coming from the operating budget the remainder is from preash and other available so these two these two components comprise the revenue Finance portion of the 7.5% dip policy here is a breakdown of our uh of our debt service our our dead and interest budget um and you'll note that there are two columns here the original Financial plan figures and the fy2 adjusted figures um this comes from borrowing uh 1.2 million more than we had originally anticipated for the fire stations um which is excluded debt so it increases the property tax portion of the budget I'm sorry increases property tax um the total property taxes I apologize by 85,000 fund the the incre the differ um but this has no impact on the operating budget um because this is excluded de um so I'll leave this up for for folks to to look at for the moment but the the essential takeaway is we had we had a higher amount in principle than we had anticipated a lower amount in interest and the 85,000 is the net increase to the property taxes um since the financial plan was released in February yeah um um the excluded that excluded from what I guess is my my question is it being ex is hang on just a sec sure is it being excluded from the two and two and a half percent limit or that's almost the way it sounded because it was going it was being passed into the uh tax base exactly so the the two methods for um going over the 2.55% increase that is allowed each year are the override and excluded debt and so this is excluded from the property tax levy um so it doesn't impact our ability to to go up by 2.5% if it wasn't excluded so up some of the 2.5 right I mean is when you pass a de debt exclusion right I just was mystified by the phrase excluded debt I know it is it's a different way of thinking about it but this is this is our debt service budget because the fire stations are are were excluded or um were passed by a debt exclusion increase does doesn't impact the operating budget um which which is within the 2.5% Levy uh increase plus override funds that were passed last year um it it is separate from that still causes an increase in property taxes um just outside the Levy right got it okay let me just point out that Bond anticipation notes $100,000 that's uh the Austin settlement um that is is you know that actually is a good question Bernard I'm not prepared to answer on the spot I would say that um you know Bond anticipation notes are used as short-term debt to cover when uh it's not necessary to borrow um for on your long-term debts so for example if um if you only needed short money to be able to uh to do some work on a project before you did a longer term portion of your borrowing you could use a bond anticipation note which has it's it's basically a short-term term debt to cover short-term expenses that can be less expensive than using your long-term debt for example because it's short term um we did use those on Austin but they not exclusively on Austin they they've been used in other projects exactly so if if for example a project is set to begin in Earnest in a year and it will require borrowing a huge you know going out for a huge chunk of the full debt exclusion um we you know we might say well let's do a bond anticipation note in the short term uh because we we only need a 100,000 or so or some small amount to get us through the next year um so there their bond anticipation notes are essentially a short-term debt Tool uh that we can use so the the Austin the Austin settlement was initially a short-term Bond anticipation note then it's taken out by long-term borrowing that that might be the case yes Bernard I mean I would have to ask Melissa to just be absolutely sure that I'm answering your question correctly I just wanted to point out that we have liability that settlement is still on the books well it's still on the books I wasn't sure if it was yeah if it was a it must be a long-term Deb at this point Bernard yes um okay any other questions on debt and interest at point or on the overall budget for debt and interest anyway okay um so this is our this is the last slide we have uh this is the unclassified budget uh which refers to a sort of several miscellaneous items that we have in the townside budget um as you can see the major changes are you know we from over FY 24 we're seeing a 14% increase in insurance this is regular rate increases plus attempting to bring the values up on some of our buildings in particular school buildings um you know to to match uh replacement value as we're as we're seeing it now um there's no change in the cost of the audit um or in in in Con in the contingency fund um the liability and catastrophe fund is being funded at a lower level this is this is essentially a policy level where we attempt to keep the liability catastroph catastrophe fund at a certain um Point um and so we didn't need to invest much this year um and then you'll see this is where you'll see the stabilization fund change reflected um initially this was a $2 million budget uh but we have since decrease pensions in order to increase the stabilization fund um in accordance with some recommendations that we got from Bond Council um I'm sorry from uh from U Moody's um you know essentially telling us that we uh that we really need to bolster our reserves um and so we're we're at a point now we're funding it at 2.5 million and then the remainder is uh what we have put into the reserve fund for this year and that's broken down here by property tax and free ta uh free tax uh supported levels so that is the um I guess a quick run through of the CIP the debt interest budget and un can you put that last slide back up please I sure can um one moment uh get that back to where it was yes um there we are feel free to timee in jaaz okay maram I have three questions on this last slide okay sorry oh what you need the microphone oh I have three questions on this last slide one of them is is just genuine curiosity the other so we have passed a waren article we're reducing the need to print warrants so I'm just wondering did that not impact the $50,000 that we spend on printing warrants or is are we just being conservative in maintaining the $50,000 budget I'm going to ask all three and then you can just answer all three if that's okay I'm very curious of The General Insurance 13 14% increase in insurance if it were health insurance I wouldn't be I'd say that's typical of the problem of health insurance but that it's is it health insurance or is it something else no it's something else so I'm curious as to what it is it's what it's property insurance property insurance oh wow it's driven by new school increased values so this is this is a multi this is a multi-year effort Miriam on uh the purchasing offices side to attempt to bring the values that we are uring buildings at up to a more appropriate level there's there have been some buildings identified that were are underinsured we've been trying to do that at a stepping it in each year rather than doing it all at once um and so that's this is FY 25's crack at that got it thank you and I don't actually remember the third question so if you just if you could just printing yeah we can talk about the first one Chaz were you gonna chime in on that no go for it okay um so uh as far as I'm aware uh this this budget we are keeping where it is uh because it lives in the town meeting budget and we are still uncertain about costs associated with hybrid town meeting at this point um there is certainly room in this printing of warrants and reports we saved some money this year on um on printing the budget book which also lives in this account uh but uh my my understanding is we've been hesitant to bring it down because it also balances against their other town meeting accounts um and you know I think even including um other town meeting costs um and and so the the logic has been to hold it where it is until we're more certain of new hybrid town meeting costs that that is a I think that's a fair point though and I would uh I guess I would um failing the the history failing having the history in my in my head uh say yeah that that does make sense that we should revisit that at some point great any any chance you remembered your third question no but I think Paul has a question okay great yes I called sorry I'm sorry and this uh this maybe uh for Char either you or Chaz so um The Reserve fund does that include the change that we have been talking with about advisory about moving 100,000 in there for IEP modifications one moment I might be able to pull that out if somebody else has another question let me take a look um that's a good so the short answer is that should be reflected in the budget tables when what we're in what we're going to be discussing later about the it may not be here but it will eventually be it'll get there yes um 100000 in the reserve fund hold on actually can give you this answer I just need a moment to pull it up um so the additional one one more one more moment here uh I just have to double check the two tables we're working with um the 100,000 is not included here Paul okay so we're going to talk through that when we start when we talk about the final version of the budget that your your proposal yes okay other go ahead Charlie I was gonna say any other questions you're you're way ahead of me that's exactly what I was saying any further questions from the select board okay uh thank you Charlie was very helpful yeah okay next uh and that included the unclassified debt and interests right y so we uh yes don't have to do that correct War articles public hearing uh this is a 7:30 um 7:30 public hearing and we start off with the budget amendments but uh why don't we do the CPA appropriation first so that Nancy hel doesn't have to stay till the Midnight Hour or whenever we in than and uh we we have that presentation loaded on the laptop as well Nancy but if you'd like I'm happy to run the slide I'm sorry say it again I was just gonna say we have ny's slideshow loaded on the podium laptop but I'm happy to run the slides for uh for her if that's if she would just let me know when to the next slide okay so I just want to make a few remarks I just want to make a few remarks first and then I'll ask you to put up the slides okay I'm Nancy heler as you probably know um town meeting member Precinct date and chair of the community preservation act committee known as CPAC um and I want first of all to thank some people because of their participation in the in our working groups members of the CPAC um and working groups meetings perseverance thoughtfulness robust discuss discussions um their determination to conclude our recommendations for funding the projects before us we had our our final meeting today at 5:30 um and so we're ready uh to make the presentation now you do not have all of the materials that I will be presenting I have a uh warrant article explanation which will be sent to Melissa tomorrow and I will include a copy for each of you uh and you can read through it and it's much more detailed than the presentation I'm going to make tonight I figured you didn't want to spend a huge amount of time but I wanted to educate town meeting members in our pre in our presentation about the CP a what we what we did this year uh so that people will understand it better and know what what to expect in the future um I also want to thank Lindsay Butler who's been our staff person and she has done an excellent job sheering us through our process researching CPA issues developing reports and other materials we've needed and the other person is David Lasco who's here tonight there he is um he's really uh put his significant knowledge of CPA into action and work for the committee he's been writing edit writing and editing reports Warren articles participating in working groups responding to members of the community about issues and I want to thank him and a hearty thank you to all of the members um tonight um we're going to ask you to support the recommendations that CPAC is going is making for funding of 11 projects and before we get to the specifics I want to uh show you a chart of the revenue and Charlie I would ask you to put the uh slideshow up now please uh the revenue that has flowed to the CPA account over the last few years okay so this as you know this is our first year of making the uh Grant recommendations um but we've been collecting money for three years for for uh fiscal years 22 23 and 24 and you can see in the first first year um we the the figure on the left is the total revenue and then it's broken down into um the categories that we need to um account for those are 10% of the money goes into each of the of the categories Reserve so open space Recreation housing Reserve historic preservation Reserve each get 10% there's an administrative uh Reserve which also gets 5% we did not have that the first year when we were still uh hiring staff and getting the committee together and then the remainder is is is What's called the budgeted Reserve it's it's not allocated for any one particular category can be used for any of them so that goes on for fiscal year 23 fiscal year 24 and at the bottom um Charlie's uh words are getting in the way here but uh uh you can move that but um that shows you the totals of each of the um that's totaling the three years of community preservation act so this year in other words we have in hand um n um 9 Milli 5969 59 that's on the left then the 900 95 in each of the 10% categories 356 850 in the administrative category and uh the remainer in the general budgeted reserve of 6,255 109 um let me explain that for especially for anybody who's watching this uh that you already in in town meeting already appropriated these amounts the amounts come into the uh General cash account of the town and then the town meeting appropriates them to the CPA account so in that sense you've already appropriated them once to the CPA account now what we're going to be doing is taking some of that money and appropriating it to the individual Grant applications um but I also wanted to mention the other thing we are going to be doing next slide please Charlie next thing we're going to be doing a town meeting if I can just get this piece piece of paper here sorry is we're going to be uh appropriating fiscal year 25 money this is money we do not have yet it's an estimate of what we're going to be getting in the fiscal year that starts on July 1st so again we'll be taking this uh the treasurer will be taking this money from the the General Revenue account of the Town General cash account and moving it into the CPA account when it comes if it's appropriated by town meeting so Nancy I'm sorry so we'll appropriate it but we're not going to allocate it is that what you're not going to well you're not going to do a second appropriation of that to Grants because we're not using this money this at this particular spring to fund any of the pro of the projects we're going to be using this money for next year so we will always be if you will ahead of the cycle which is a good thing actually I think in the long run because it gives us it we have a more precise number each year because every year the the number changes the tax uh sech charge is 1% and then we get a a boost from the state but we never know exactly what that is for instance in fiscal year 23 we got over a million dollars but this year uh in fiscal year 24 we only got 500,000 those round numbers of course so the varies considerably and we don't know what we'll get the other thing that varies is the interest we get on the money so that's calculated by the treasures department and uh again deposited in the CPA account okay um could you move on to the next slide so you can see that we will have 300 three mil we're estimating three $3.5 million for next year in addition to what it will be left over from this year um so I I mentioned this before but I also want you to know that you're going to be getting the detailed explanation uh tomorrow with background about the CPA the constraints of CPA the process we used how many projects Etc um and I I don't plan uh to go through this at this stage but at the town meeting I do want to educate town meeting members about the CPA and uh how it operates because they seem to be quite a bit of uh misunderstanding about what it what it is and what it does okay so now we're going to come into the individual projects and we broke broken them down into the three categories first is the community housing category and uh this turned out to be our most expensive category because uh the the number one project on the list is the High Street development uh Redevelopment project and this is the one that was part of the MBTA CA um um warrant article from from last November and um it's this we've allocated 3.75 000000 uh to this project the uh it's matched by the uh housing advisory trust and it's still they still need to raise a considerable amount more money but because we're putting in this money and the town is committing 7 million in essence to the project they believe that that will help them get the state monies that they need um the one of the critical things for CPA about this particular project is that it will provide about a hundred new units um the plans are not actually set in stone so I can't tell you the exact number but that's considerable that is really a lot uh most of the projects that we've seen coming through are you know six 8 10 units and so 100 unit units is very significant and worth we we thought was worth the money uh especially in this year when we have it um so why don't I if you have any questions about this project why don't we answer the questions as we go along just so we don't lose uh what we're talking about if anyone has any questions um yeah so um if the town is contributing $7 million and there 100 new units that's about $70,000 per unit that's coming from the town um construction costs and or rehab costs or whatever the costs are tend to run higher than that per unit where is the rest of the money likely to come from well the BHA knows that better than I do uh but I think it's a lot of state grants HUD uh that kind of thing inome housing tax CR they they're projecting now they need a total of 75 million but don't forget that some of those some of that money will be for renovation of units that already exist right that's not something that the CPA is going to be pres you know we we're expecting our money to be spent on the new units okay thank you Paul yeah uh thank you Nancy so this question probably applies to all of these on the list is there any time frame that uh is associated with the money when does it need to be used by similar to what we've done with um yeah uh you know um arpa money and also cdbg money there's a time frame yeah um well Loosely we like to see the money spent within two years I think that's not realistic for this kind of a project because it's so huge um so we don't have an actual time frame we will be one of the things that we will be doing for all of the projects is to have either a grant agreement if it's an outside agency or a memo of understanding if it's a part of the town and those will lay out the requirements deed restrictions and it's every every project touches real estate will need some sort of a deed restriction and it will include a time frame that the money needs to be used or would take yes we'll we'll have to well talk with the BHA and see what's reasonable at that point I am I guess I'm less concerned about um because this is it the BHA High Street is a huge project right it's some of the other the other projects that we may be helping to fund Renovations preservations stuff like that and any category so we would we would negotiate with them what what's a reasonable time frame okay thank you any other questions about that one nope go ahead all right so the other BHA project on the list is the eggmon street roof repair the eggmon street has uh several roofs which need to be replaced and uh because um they they're at risk of a future water damage they already have some water damage there's six three-story buildings 120 units um so this is a false into the category of preservation of Housing and preservation of affordable housing uh which CPA is very much about it's a capital Improvement uh but it has to have a meaning under CPA language and constraints of for the purpose of preservation is is really and there's there's a chart that I will you'll get tomorrow and you'll see it's kind of confusing frankly I've had to study it for many months and now I'm finally feel like I'm fasil with it but um it lays out all the C in the different categories what can be achieved and the for instance the only support that you can render is in housing but in all of the others it's acquiring preserving historic preservation you can't create it but open space you can that kind of thing so uh at any rate the roof the these roofs at at the Eggman Street project have reached the end of their useful life and so pH this phase one will replace one two of the six roofs and they do have a match I believe from um I'm not recalling where that matches from but uh state state funds I think um so it meets many of our community housing goals obviously the 500,000 questions on that one I guess I have one so Nancy that the roofs and this is just for education for me the this type of Maintenance would normally be funded by the state correct that th I mean this is the state has done a miserable job miserable at maintaining public housing right we all agree and they're not and they're not doing it yeah we all agree on that yeah but this typically this would be we're picking up where the state's falling down correct well yes but on the other hand necessary I'm not I'm not questioning can't let it we can't let it phone now that supposedly Governor Healey has some funds and but we don't know what's going to happen and when those are going to be actually but you think there's matching funds that are coming from the state they are yes apparently they're going to have a $500,000 match from the state okay okay and then they'll be going to the they they may be applying next year and the year after for another roof next year and one year after because they have six buildings and we're only doing two this year okay so um okay so uh the the next one housing assistance is in the support category that I was talking about and this is a program uh the applicant is the Brooklyn Community Development Corporation the amount is $232 232,000 meet uh criteria consistent with the with laws and policies especially like emergency funds for uh people who perhaps have lost a job or have uh Health uh poor health issues ETC um but um the West the Metro West collaborative development is going to be uh hired to disperse the rental assistance funds directly to the landlords and in addition to that the bcdc will provide other forms of assistance including counseling and education about landlord tenants rights and responsibilities homelessness prevention Financial Planning and good rental practices um so that breaks down as resid res rental assistance is 172,000 the face-to-face counseling is for 34575 5 the Metro West Payment Processing for landlords 25,800 the total is 2 thou 23237 okay any questions about that all right let's move on the Boon Street preservation project is also Brookline community Development Corporation for 1,192 439 um this is a project on Boon Street 154 to 156 bston Street since it was not acquired or created with CPA funds we can only fund projects in this instance that preserve or protect the property from injury harm or destruction therefore the project will only uh focus on on preserving the exist existing affordable housing units that are at risk a future water damage we're going to remove and replace the windows and installing Therma thermal and moisture protection matched with arpa funds so this is going to protect the envelope of the building um and it um you know it it's um I think a very worthy project it's project that really needs to be done Steve heiken recently joined uh our committee and uh we put him to work immediately by analyzing the budget and figuring out that in the end that this this seemed to make sense the other thing I want to say about these projects is that they are all uh projects of reimbursement meaning the uh grantees will need to provide invoices and documentation of how the money is spent the money is we we don't just turn over the money um so we'll work on that and have that as and that'll be a piece of the of the memo of agreement and uh our staff um planner Lindsay Butler whom I mentioned before would be in charge of uh working on this and making sure that number one these are the pro these are approved um uses for the money that we have provided and number two that uh it's within the budget that we that we have uh laid out we there's no going over budget in this situation we're hoping that it will come in at a smaller amount um but uh there's no going over this is not it's not a situation like that um so the other project the last one in the housing category is unless you had a question sorry I ran over that one so wait are you going to go through each category and each of the Y each of each of the pro each there's two more slides sorry well you have to vote on it so I assumed you want to know about it unless you rather just take my word for it and vote it on my hearing we could vote next week you don't meet next week you don't you don't next meeting you don't meet next week and the combined reports deadline is this week yeah we're running up against want well no I will decide that no I'm just okay um I'll I'll try to be quick let's not drone on okay that that's I'll be really quick all right so Beacon Street preservation uh this is a 100 year old building 7 also the Brooklyn Community Development Corporation $766,000 um and again it's going this project will uh uh focus on the exterior of the building work on the envelope thermal protection and and replacement of fire protection system and that also is matched with arpa fun okay all right so the total in this category you'll see on the on the slide 6,441 535 sure uh okay I do have one question Nancy and I and I'm I didn't mean to over bounce here keeping you moving um so I essentially all the money if you go back could you go back one slide is allocated between two entities the Brookline Housing Authority essentially and the Brookline Community Development Corporation yes 34% of the funds did we have any other applicants housing we did so we had a few other applicants uh and in the process of uh determining taking a deeper dive into eligibility issues and uh whether they meet the requirements of a CPA we found that some of them did not and so we lost five projects we had 16 to start and we lost five so we did have at least one other that I can think of it off the top of my head that was a housing project you had 16 housing projects we had no we had 16 projects in total okay and we have 11 now okay that we're recommending but a bunch came up because they weren't they weren't yeah there were there are issues yeah okay thank you that's that's help okay uh the next category is uh historic preservation um and um the All Saints roof repair is the first one on your list uh that's All Saints Parish that's the one on Beacon Street beautiful old building on Beacon Street at the corner of Beacon and um Dean or Corey one of those I think it's Dean um it's for uh 800,000 they also have a problem with their roof and they're going to be um uh matching this with money from they're going to be uh using their endowment to take out a loan and also if they need to but if they're doing a lot of fundraising and they're hoping to be able to match it completely uh it's a $2.8 million project overall so uh and the important point on this one is that no CPA funds will be used to restore any part of the building with any religious significance uh that is in keeping with uh uh statutory and case law the antia amendment okay okay short enough for you Bernard yep okay okay the next one is stop the same day that we started yeah wait not the next slide please go back I'm not finished with thank you Charlie okay the devotion house window repair of 65,000 this is obviously you know of this building it's uh uh Edward devotions house sits in front of the Ridley Ridley formerly Devotion School and uh the windows are in very bad shape so uh they're being um revamped and obviously this is also uh critical in upholding the histo historic characteristic of the building um and it meets our goals and so the to uh the the last one is the Lars Anderson cultural historical cultural landscape and that one is split between two categories uh between um open space and historic preservation um and so the total for that one is actually $1 100, uh $200 but out of this particular uh I want we wanted to show that it's actually being split between the two categories um hold on a second I've lost my space my um that one is um sorry to many papers here all right so that one is uh the historic land um survey of the uh landscape report of the historic Landscapes and structures that need restoration or re Rehabilitation and it's going to cover the Brookline Reservoir Gat house Fisher Hill Reservoir Gat house Lars Anderson Emerald necklace Bridges old berrying grounds and Walnut Hill Cemetery um so we anticipate this is a study obviously and we anticipate that they'll be coming back to us for additional funds in the future years um so the total for this one is 95,00 could you move to the next slide please okay this is the um open space um so the first one is uh um a very very modest project but uh very necessary which is the removal of invasive species at Halls Pond it's going to be carried out by the friends of Halls Pond $3,500 but a lot of the work is being done by uh the volunteers the uh system I think is to is a technique called tarping which is where they they tarp over the uh invasive species in the hope of Killing Them permanently um so the our funds are going to be used for purchasing materials and supported with inine donations and funds from the friends the friends budget uh if this works and it's a successful uh pilot in terms of the tarping then they'll probably want to do it again because it won't cover the entire Halls Pond are these invasive animals I'm Sor I don't hear you but plants okay yeah invasive plants yeah um the DPW and parks and wreck have uh submitted a proposal on a tree inventory $28,300 and that one is uh going to be assessing um uh in the inventory is going to assess Lars Anderson fishal HIll Reservoir Brooklyn Reservoir Emerson Garden Mason Square kivet Park Square parks and it's going to identify uh tree removal and structural pruning and where we're going to need to plant trees in addition so it's a very valuable um climate um measure I'll keep going till you tell me to stop uh the uh par Public Health Plaza at brookln Village 1935 um this is on the land in front of the that de borders Harvard excuse me Harvard Street um and there's a large area of land and they want to put a pocket park there a seating uh tree canopy um and with Native shrubs and pollinated pollinator plants um they're uh hoping they're working with um in to to get some inine contributions and promote climate Equity I'm working with DPW on this project um the last one is the cultural landscape which I already told you about that was funded 50% out of uh historic preservation and 50% out of um open space so the total of for open space and Recreation 575,000 and the total appropriation for all categories is almost 8 million at 700 7, 9317 65 so those are the projects the CPA recommended projects that we're asking you to um approve agree with our Appropriations uh do you want me to go on to fiscal year 25 is that's that's a separate budget issue separate budget issue and this is a public hearing so I want to open up the public hearing first oh Mike right I do have a question um uh as you as you may be aware um Nancy the uh Opera grants are um there's um if the work doesn't go forward or something isn't completed the money reverts back to the town and gets recycled to another Grant is there any provision to do that with these grants yeah well as I say if if a if a project isn't doesn't use all of the money right it you're appropriating it comes back into the CPA account and we'll use it for another project and it's the town who's doing the handling the funds or in some cases it looks like the town and some cases it looks like some other agency well if it's another agency it goes back to the other agency that's my question okay it remain I mean the arpa funds would not come back to CPA the arpa no no forget arpa sorry I may have confused you by I saying something about arpa um I'm just for I'll give you a perfect example for um funds that are going to the uh Community Development Corporation um if they don't spend all of the funds then what happens to that money does it remain with the agency or does it come back no no no well it's never been given to the agency until they submit us invoices that was my question thank you so we are administering it yeah okay so it's it's an invoice uh paid kind of program you know we don't just turn the money over to them at the beginning of the fiscal year we wait for the invoices to come right okay thank you and then we reimburse that goes for all of the projects and I apologize Deborah for using that as an example hey come on move on um okay um this is a public hearing open up the public hearing uh Charlie anyone on the zoom I I see we have a hand rais here check with Charlie first yeah so um let's take the the comment in the room for folks on Zoom if you'd like to make a comment after that person um please use the hand ra or Q&A feature to let us know that you'd like to make a comment um and these are three minutes right Bernard right thank you okay re do you have a hand up okay thank you um this looks wonderful Helen all these projects what I'd like to bring to the attention um one question is about the um uh matching does it mean if somebody doesn't match do they lose any of the money you were willing to give it in the first place it could or it might not okay good that's question number one and what I want to ask is how does my precinct which is the only Precinct in the whole town of Brooklyn who doesn't have a a pocket park for our kids how do we get on your radar screen how do we do the application process what would it take because it at my stage of life I would like to leave that Legacy as will a couple of my town meeting member colleagues feel very strongly that they'd like to leave it even though our kids would not be using it what do we how do you get help from your committee to start that process thank you okay well the first the first step would be to contact UM identify land that you would want to put aart Park on and figure out who the owner is and then if it's the town you would want to work with probably parks and wreck or DPW if it's a a private owner you would want to work with that person or Com or company and then you would uh we will we will hold some information sessions over the summer and some uh we would really want people applicants potential applicants to come to those those or at least one will probably hold one for each area and then uh you submit in uh September an eligibility application and we make sure that the project is eligible for the money and if not is CPA is a grant program but it's a grant program with many strings attached so we have to make sure that uh you're going to measure up to all the strings and then um you'll be invited if it's eligible to submit an application and uh to to the committee and then the committee would start a process of reviewing the applications uh coming up with the uh recommendations as we're doing now and then it would go to town meeting in uh the Spring Town Meeting only has three choices it can uh approve the the recommendations that the CPA has put forward it can deny the recommendations it could reduce any recommendation but it cannot increase any recommendations or initiate any projects on its own okay and so you can call uh you can uh email Lindsey Butler Brooklin ma.gov and uh but you need to identify the property first that's your first step right um I see Susan park has her hand up is there anyone on the zoom Charlie we have 10 attendees and no one is using the hand Raiser Q&A feature at this time to let us know they'd like to make a comment Miss Park oh sorry hello thank you my name is Susan Park I'm a town meeting member um from PN 17 I have a question so L um Amry Park is I think going through a study right now and they're going to be uh working on it and so I'm wondering if it's if the town is doing a study on uh amyy Park can we also uh apply for grants in addition to that or do we I mean like because it seems like there're the town's doing something now but if uh citizens also have ideas for Grants do we do the same process as what you just explained to Regina and then I also have a comment um so if you want to submit an uh an application as a an individual and not the town uh but the town uh is in control of the property you would need to have a support letter from the town saying that they agree with what you want to do but there is string here which I haven't mentioned before and that is that if uh the um town is already plans to do like this study it's already allocated the money um CPA will not replace or already allocated Municipal funds so if so the town is going to do a study of Amry um the CPA couldn't do do a duplicate study uh that would not not make sense did you have question yeah I just have excuse me I just have one more comment so um I saw on the list there was um a tree inventory so something really interesting happened to me this past weekend um a general gentleman approached me as I was campaigning and he said that there was a uh Cherry Tree on uh John Street it's the uh intersection of John and green and he had uh hit his head he hurt his neck he was in PT for a month and really um was distraught because there were a few other people who you know did the same thing one even had a concussion so I reached out to yes this is this is what I was told and so I reached out to um Erin sh and she was uh very quick in replying and actually someone came and um to like really I guess to cut the branch because this was a um a problem for I guess other people that could have the same thing and then there was um someone in the ne in the neighborhood who was complaining very vocally that this tree is so beautiful it's an adult tree the you know the blossoms are gorgeous like you can't cut this cut the branches so I guess like for this tree inventory my comment is these beautiful um weeping cherry trees you know we we have to put them at a place you know when you we when you plant them when they reach full maturity knowing that these branches are going to be flowering and cascading down you can't we can't put them right next to a sidewalk where you know they're going to cause injuries um I grew up with four of these weeping cherry trees okay sorry is this is this related to the CPA committee oh is it not okay so I was just about I was just let Susan know that this is not a CPA issue actually it sounds like this is a tree in under the purview of Tom Brady who's a St was a a town employee and uh Aaron Sho uh in DPW so uh this the tree inventory that was I mentioned was is focused on on the parks right and um so it's it's focused on what we can do to main to uh weed out those trees that are damaged and uh need to be replaced okay Charlie anyone on the zoom who would like to speak I don't see any hands raised in the audience so yeah no no one else has uh raised their hand or use the Q&A feature on Zoom uh we have 10 attendees and no one's using those features at this time so it doesn't seem like anyone is looking to speak okay so I'll close the hearing and unless anyone has any questions I'd like to call for a vote Miriam no I'm ready to vote oh that's my ready to vote excuse me Bernard yes I I just want to mention you're voting on two different things you're voting on the applications but then you're voting on also the fiscal year 25 appropriation moving the money from um the general fund uh cash into the CPA account and those are both encompassed under the CPA Warren article so if they were to vote favorable action on that that's what they'd be have it's a warrant article that's on our agenda it's on the warrant article yeah okay so um I we just have to vote on the warrant article which is what we're saying yeah so I move I Mo a favorable action on warrant article uh 11 fiscal year 25 CPA appropriation uh which includes the uh allocation that we just heard about all in favor please indicate by saying I Mar wants to say something quickly so hi hi I um Mike San hi Paul Warren hi votes compared thank you you already said it for me you said it three times hey next uh fiscal year 24 budget amendments this is the current fiscal year it's not next one correct and um there's some budget amendments to sort of correct or I guess adjust some exp uh spending yes Charlie you want to take those absolutely thank you P Green and select board members um I'm here uh to talk to you about article five which is the fy2 24 budget amendment uh look like Melissa is back um I'll promote Melissa um and if she would like to take it she is welcome to do so you've been doing a great job Charlie thanks Bernard not as great as Melissa if she's she's listening in but I know I know she put her hand down I thought she was gonna let me do it there for a second so you want to talk right yes sure um so Article Five is the budget amendment for fiscal 24 we had filed this um knowing that we likely would need this for the golf course um because we had a very very rainy beginning of the year um and we knew that that would probably mean that they would be having some Revenue issues which indeed they were um in addition with the um the change that we are doing to uh sustainability having that now in DPW um we are looking to transfer some funds to support the position for the remainder of the fiscal year um so there are just two motions that we are looking for the board to vote so let me just pull up my screen oh I need um screen sharing privileges you have them thank you so uh for the golf course course um I met with them yesterday and uh even though it's early in the season they still feel a little bit of optimism um as long as the weather holds out um but just to be conservative I think that they are looking to allocate $400,000 from their retained earnings um if they don't need it it'll just stay within the fund and go back into retained earnings so uh this vot first vote here essentially is amending um the article that originally had golf in the article 7 of the 2023 annual town meeting and it just adds a line here that allows for a transfer of $400,000 from golf Enterprise retained earnings and then the second piece of the vot of the motion is to amend the fiscal 24 budget uh in order to reduce the planning budget by $25,000 and then add that amount to DPW to support the sustainability director position okay uh any questions from the board we get we did those did get emailed to us if you want them right right that was well explained yeah yep so um this is a public hearing U so we'll open it up for a public hearing uh Charlie anyone in the audience like to speak yeah so folks in the room can raise their hand and and uh someone will uh call on you to speak and folks on Zoom can use the hand rais or Q&A feature to let us know that you'd like to make a comment at this public hearing um and I'll just give that a few seconds [Music] Bernard and no one in the audience is using the handraiser Q&A feature uh to let us know that they'd like to make a comment well in that case I'll close the public hearing any further discussion within the select board hey Charlie could you pardon me it seems pretty straightforward yeah um Charlie could you put up the language that we need to vote on because I can't find it in my materials I got it okay the first one is okay I mov at the Town amend section six golf Enterprise fund of article 7 of the 2023 annual town meeting so it reads as follows and I will just reference the language in uh the materials with respect to the golf Enterprise fund um and uh it results in the total cost of 2,575 se4 to be funded from golf receipts and a transfer of $400,000 from golf Enterprise retained earnings with $ 26,2 38 to be reimbursed to the general fund for interest costs indirect costs pardon me indirect costs those are the benefits indirect costs I'm sorry that's okay okay any discussion of that I move of approval as in as I stated it all in favor please indicate by saying I mam ashkanazi I Mike S hi and man Paul Warren hi and chair votes I uh the next vote is amend that uh could you is is there anything below the chart there no okay so I move that uh any discussion of this okay I move that the town amend the fiscal year 2024 budget as shown below with the adjustment made to the Personnel budgets in each department uh as indicated in the chart in our materials with respect to the planning and Community Development uh department and public works department um let's see um any question or comment I move uh so let's see where am I I move approval of what I just said on in favor please indicate by saying I Mary mkazi I Mike sanman I Paul Warren and chair votes I and I saw something in the chat so let's see if we can if I can find that don't think so okay something came up from Helen um Helen no that was when Melissa was sharing her screen she got an email okay that was my my email she was asking if you had voted yet okay sorry okay so uh those are the public hearing articles let's go to the Articles we've um discussed in the past um we have two articles Warren articles to vote on uh Warren article 10 fiscal year 25 budget uh and Warren article 17 with respect to police details Warren article uh 13 we're going to defer to after the advisor committee takes up uh that article and um an amendment and maybe other amendments to it um so um any discussion on or on article 10 the fiscal year 25 budget I have a I have a comment okay um and then I probably lean on Melissa so last week um we were presented with a number of uh s amendments um that were suggested by The Advisory committee's uh L use subcommittee oh Capital subcommittee sorry and those included um they they moved some money around um with respect to where money was located in a uh uh prepaid kind of uh maintenance for schools deferred maintenance bucket they reallocated some of that money to to various line items um they had I think they were moving to zero um IEP modifications it was like $200,000 there uh there was a condition I believe P placed on uh Parks um Monmouth Park and Griggs Park um and then there was uh a condition placed on the appropriation for money for Lars Anderson that had to do with um preservation involvement in review and then there was the Baldwin School uh where there was a reduction in funds to I think 180,000 uh restrictions uh that the work only be done on the first floor not the basement and there was also um uh preservation review was to correct me if I'm wrong but um over we did some Marathon conversations over the weekend uh with the chair of the advisory committee and members of of the uh capital subcommittee and I believe we're in agreement on on moving the money around uh to various line items which Melissa probably has um we agree to move the I 100,000 from the IEP account uh money into Reserve funds so if the schools do need to come for I money uh they have to go through the advisory committee for the reserve fund um we agreed to the Lars Anderson we I'm saying Mike and I actually worked with this I'm speaking on Mike and I um and you know we we I think we we agreed on um the condition for Lars Anderson um we agreed on a a change in how they were wording the restriction on money for the parks um and that was that was agreed to and and so I think the only area of um uh where there's a gap has to do with Baldwin and we're might correct me if I'm wrong but we're recommending uh two 75,000 in change uh for uh work to complete um some work on the Balon school which would allow um the Clark Road uh lease to end and staff to move over there I think we eliminated the Restriction that the money can only be S spent on the first floor which means we're allowing uh the schools to go into the basement and do some renovation work there and we did I think retain some language uh that was suggested by one of the uh subcommittee members for preservation involvement um I think that's where we we ended up right and the the sorry no go ahead yeah the one the one place where there um may be a a disagreement we think the only place where there may be disagreement between the advisory committee and the select board versions is on the uh funding that uh is allowed to on funding for Baldwin to the extent that it's allowed to go into work in the basement right that's the last and may and maybe the amount of money they might want to stay with with 180k so there's a little disconnect there right so there's a potential $90,000 difference there and I guess the other thing I'd say ber real quick is that um there's also one other we put some restrictions also on uh money that this the schools have projects identified and if they uh if they find that they they're under on a project and they want to move that extra money to a projects that's defined they would need to come through uh the select board as with any contract approval Amendment um with I think notice to the advisory committee so in as the package Mike yeah I think they've got 98% of what they want exactly right it's uh hopefully hopefully they'll agree that that's enough yes just ask a question the preservation the restriction or not restriction but the condition with respect to the preservation commission that that re that remains it it Remains the question is does the preservation commission have authority over that type what so we shouldn't well it's Again The Advisory certain members of the advisory committee disagree and so that language is in there so that if ultimately a determination is made that the law does require it then that will happen um but currently the determination is that the law does not require it and in the way it's worded it it was greatly softened um I think based on the original language so that the language now says um you know provided that such Renovations upgrade shall be subject to the review and recommendation from the preservation commission so you know it doesn't it actually doesn't say approval it says subject to review and recommendation so it's it's more like an advisory capacity which I think is reasonable can I just and I think I have to ask most of this but what exactly is the change with the line item for the IEP funding so I think it might be good if we could just kind of go through where we are and then go and then I have a budget table that has everything marked oh good um and then we can talk about each item as we get to it I think that the the advisory committee right now is debating everything so I I we have proposed language we have where Mike and Paul thought that the board would likely go um but we won't know the outcome for the advisory committee unless they take it in the next five minutes so um so later than we do our last meeting so this um this column here was what we had talked about with the advisory committee um and what they voted their operating budget has been voted their CIP has not been voted they're currently debating their CIP right now um so I'm just showing the changes from the operating discussion that we had talked about but we didn't know where they were going to land with it um there was 5,000 additional voted for veterans there was um 3600 80 voted additional for Council on Aging um ad Minister I thought that that was such a minor adjustment that we would just um recommend taking it out of the collective bargaining Reserve so if we do if we if the board votes on that um we would be aligned with the operating budget uh in terms of the CIP um one of the thing or before we finish the operating budget um IEP Paul mentioned the adjustment of $100,000 coming from free cash to additionally support the reserve fund that money would be coming out of the roadway account the schools had uh reallocated a substantial amount of money that was originally programmed for school deferred maintenance uh and instead put a lot of it into the roadway maintenance I think we described that last week in the PowerPoint presentation um so that's where that adjustment would be coming from wait wait can we back up so they took money out of the schools I and put it into roadways and now we've what what's okay so so let me see if I can okay so so there was 200,000 in IEP yeah um and that was really you know a swag uh by by the schools what do you mean swag a scientific wild ass guest thank you Michael so was it wasn't and they'd actually don't have any specific numbers so um what and this was done in real time at you know quarter to 12 during the advisory committee the other night um they agreed to have that money put into the reserve account okay so that just like anything if when if something does come up the school department can go to advisory or AC agreed or everybody uh everybody everybody so so this is my understanding everybody has agreed to this okay um except that the schools have agreed to the Baldwin pieces in the IEP but whether advisory agre not we don't advisory has Ved the I adjustment for the reserve fund so that is taken care of it's just the CIP items that have not been I'm sorry Melissa will you repeat that you I'm not hearing you very well s the advisory committee has voted on the reserve fund allocation for I AP so that they did vote that earlier tonight okay so I guess my question is um so we're having the advisory committee advisory committee uh second guess the schools on whether accommodations for kids on IEPs should be made no this is really a question of where it should be funded these are items that typically have been funded in the operating budget they were requesting a CIP item um because they felt that it was more of a capital expense um that was debated at the advisory committee about whether or not these were permanent modifications or temporary um given that it was extraordinary and unforeseen um that's how people drifted to the reserve fund and that's ultimately where it was decided to fund it okay Mike so uh the a couple things one is that in the past um I think the total amount that's ever been required but this sort of thing was on the order of $50,000 plus or minus um and so the question one question was why $200,000 and they were talking about well you know forward funding it basically um and the other was the issue that it's it's an operating expense not a capital expense so the um the agreement was to put $100,000 into the reserve fund so that if it's needed for something that isn't because these are all unanticipated expenses if they were anticipated they'd be in the budget um so they're unanticipated expenses they're appropriate for a reserve fund TR transfer I will say that the the history of the school committee coming to the reserve fund is that very they really have been very reluctant to do so and I'm actually quite pleased to see that there's been a sensible resolution of this issue in this way because it is sensible for unex you know unexpected expenses unanticipated expenses of this nature to come out of the uh out of the reserve fund uh and um and but just on participated in extraordinary expenses and that's where the IEP stuff fits okay uh anything else Melissa so just to kind of catch up um so the items in Orange on table on the the budget tables here are the adjustments that the advisory committee is currently debating within the CIP um most of these are taking funding that was originally we had originally had 4.6 almost $4.7 million um funded in advance for deferred maintenance in the schools um the advisory committee chose to uh reallocate that to other areas of the CIP that also have deferred maintenance issues most notably the the streets Street rehab and most of this recap is for Miriam who I'm realizing missed the meeting where we initially covered this um and so um all of these orange adjustments are items that they're currently still debating but we think this is like where they will end up and really the the main issue is around um the school rehab accounts and the funding there and so if I pull up the um conditions of appropriation then we can talk about um the the different levels of funding for um the school CIP so let me uh so um we originally had 2.9 29 9 38 2983 675 um 2.7 of that is for um projects that were on an identified list that has been vetted by both the capital subcommittee the school committee um and essentially the message in sub bullet a is stick to the list and if you deviate from the list by school you need to go to the select board and provide notice to the advisory committee that is the language that has been proposed by Paul and Mike I am hearing at the advisory committee they're still debating this I think Harry Friedman is likely to have going to have an amendment that requires not notification but approval by the advisory committee so you should just be aware that that's something that they're considering um then we have this uh Baldwin uh sub bullet B and so with Baldwin the um there are three different amounts being talked about um 275 675 was a a number that we got last week um from the building department I think in response to some of the questions and um the modifications that the advisory committee were indicating that they were looking for um ultimately that number got further refined by the capital subcommittee to $180,000 and that is intended to complete the electrification needed for the building to uh finish the renovations of an upper floor bathroom and then to provide General cleanup but nothing more than than those three items um and so you also should have received a memo um late breaking this afternoon from Susan given um who is requesting that the amount actually be 39675 um so those are kind of the areas that I think are still going to be um hashed around uh both with the advisory and if you have any um questions on um what you'd like to do here as well okay Mike so with regard to the change from 275,000 to $39,000 um Our advice to the um school department was uh please don't do this uh We've settled on 275 as a compromise number uh and um I believe I'd be speaking well I speak certainly for myself Paul can speak for himself but I think we're in agreement that our recommendation is to stay with the 275 yeah so I'm comfortable with the 275 um you know advisory there's some folks on advisory that don't want it to go above 180 right because they don't want the school to go into the basement and that prevents them from going into the basement by cutting fund by limiting the funding um but I'm I'm comfortable with with the 275 and if they you know there's there's contingencies in these numbers and enough to move around if they have to do something so what are we going to vote on and and are we able to vote so you have you have in your packet a draft um conditions of appropriation where all of the changes have been highlighted um whether it be the additional language placed on Lars regarding preservation the additional language placed on Griggs and Monmouth related to um a Butters and design review and then you have um this additional language for school uh rehab so the budget table also provides the changes um we can vote the operating budget that's probably the easiest one for you to get in alignment with the advisory committee um and then you can talk about whether or not um there any additional changes or um whether or not you want to accept um the items that are in this word document that um are still being debated currently by the advisory committee so Bernard I I can speak for myself I'm comfortable uh voting um all the changes that Melissa just presented to us um I think that there are some folks on advisory that you know just have a different view on Baldwin I'm comfortable with it have us having a different view um I'm you know I'm I'm not in agreement that the uh that the schools for a project level item have operational project item have to go to AC for approval for change in funds I think that's they're just going too far beyond um uh kind of their responsibilities and I don't think that's necessary especially if if they have the schools have to come to us and we're going to approve uh it through a public uh a public meeting so I'm comfortable with uh with this language um and you know we're going to be chasing our tals uh with advisory all night tonight if we're going to try to do that i' suggest vot it uh Mike what's your view I I'm full agreement with Miriam what's your view that's fine I'm in agreement okay so even if I didn't agree I'm out voted so so um what do you not what do you not agree with BR nothing oh theoretical so even if you were disagree hypothetically but you don't good and I think the fact that they're debating this right now I think it would be I I would vote this first so we can send it over to them and not let them keep circling um the drain so to speak okay um so I will move approve I will move favorable action on uh article 10 fiscal year 25 budget as amended by um uh who let's see where amended by board member Warren and uh sanman as amended by the advisory committee and then further amended by select board members Warren and okay as CH said all in favor please indicate by saying I Miriam I Mike I Paul i j vot i okay next uh we're not doing accessibly dwelling units sorry can I can I just raise a question about that Berard um I know that uh the uh we discussed with the proponent an amendment to that last when we reviewed this honestly I'm prepared to go ahead and vote on the amendment and then or consider the amendment and vote on the article um as opposed to postponing it and having another probably identical discussion well the idea was to wait until advisory does whatever they do um and you know based on that we told Linda palky that it wasn't necessary for her to appear at tonight's meeting and we told Roger you to and Roger too all right well if we made that commend to two of them then okay for the record I support it also yeah since I get to vote on it I I I support the war in Article 13 as amended no not amended yet not amended yet so no but I I support it as is so I'd have to see them but I don't get a vote so it doesn't matter okay so straight that from the record yeah the reason reason why we left this on the agenda was that if you had comments or or ways to guide advisory in the process that you could do that without running it the open meeting law yeah uh well I I then I'll express my opinion that the uh that the uh article as it was originally proposed is what I would prefer yeah that so I have uh very serious concerns about Investors being able to purchased moderately priced single family homes in Brookline converting them into you know luxury units with potentially an Adu uh that might be at 80% Ami um I had a long chat with the proponent Roger blood he had Rasheed do some leg work and the new uh you know thought on this is well the the investors aren't going to be able to pencil this out anyway and so they're going to make these these up these modifications and then they go sell it to a homeowner and then then you'll have an owner occupied ad you um I think we're making a big mistake getting into uh converting turning more of our real estate over to speculative investors I'm I I'm a huge fan of owner occupied adus that help people age in place bring in you know uh children grandchildren uh you know support if they need it to to age in place or even just to have a unit to help make that uh that housing affordable for somebody uh but converting our middle our moderately priced and there's not a lot of moderately priced uh housing in Brooklyn at all uh into luxury units I'm not a fan okay so um one of the issues that I think advisory is g to uh debate and uh hopefully come to some conclusion is the issue of um you know whether this uh warrant article as as written um in fact is going to be um well let me rephrase this um the problem is that the bond bill in the state legislature Will trump anything that we do right and the Warren article has written attempts to do a workaround around that by requiring an investor owned um an investor to um to have uh perpet deed restrictions on on the property and whether that's a a workaround of of anything that comes out of the state is you know a question to be answered whether anything's going to come out of the state in the bond bill is another question to be answered so the idea was let's wait to see what the advisory committee does um because they would be uh have more upto-date information as well as you they will go through the process of really debating this out and coming to uh a conclusion that we may not accept but that at least will bring the discussion forward a little bit so we'll have an interesting discussion next time yeah okay we need do we need to vote the operating budget no we just did the whole thing oh we did the whole thing we did the whole thing one big vote yep so only thing left is article 17 police details and uh do we have Chief Pastor I think I I thought I would let you pass your go this was discussed last week the discussion you know uh the public hearing was held there were questions about you know oh this is about I'll since you were here um so this is about the home R petition authorizing us to you to have retired police officers serve on details oh okay the idea being it's we if we still want peace officers to serve ve in this capacity and direct traffic and be sure they have the authority to you know maintain order um using retired folks is a great way to do it it follows the pattern of several other communities talks about the authorization there was one question about liability yes if we hire retired folks we are responsible for them that means we are liable but I think the benefits that the chief has identified are are pretty self-evident we get more you know we get paid for details uh over time and we reduce well uh details aren't up AR are we do struggle to fill details that's correct and it's there are particularly with increased utility activity we want we want these details filled right okay uh I'm sorry Mike there's only one concern that I have it says here um that a special police officer shall not be able to serve if the special police officer has reached the age of 70 yes that is that that that m i mean even if I became a police officer I wouldn't be I'm sorry to say that even if you became a police officer you would not be eligible under this statute we can always go back and check and amend it later depending on age but that's the that that follows the the pattern you know Amendment right right right and this is one of the few areas where we say as people age you traffic control you know use of firearms Etc it's just an area where we need to have that language okay so I move uh favorable action on war article 17 please details all in favor please indicate by saying i Mariam askanazi hi Michael Sandman hi Warren hi JS I and that is the end of our meeting oh I'm sorry you you okay go ahead Charlie is there anyone in the zoom box that uh is looking to speak well folks can use the handraiser Q&A feature if they'd like to indicate that they want to speak but no one has asked to this point okay so Regina thank you say mo um I do want to just go back to something I said earlier and chime in with the comprehensive plan when I brought up whether or not the geothermal could be expanded to do that whole area we really didn't get an answer that says it couldn't be done it said it wasn't being envisioned comprehensive plan is exactly the place something that that could be envisioned how because this is the wave of the future whenever we can Geo politically and geographically be able to do something with geothermal and economically of course we're going to either way we're heading toward that kind of thing solar whatever here's an opportunity where we're going to disrupt so much to begin with that it's a real possibility to do multiple uh buildings and that should be the kind of thinking that a comprehensive plan does they think ahead way ahead and you've said Paul that we haven't done enough of that and I would like to see that happen and I can't think of a better time to do it than something we're already going to be digging into the ground disturbing closing uh School Street I mean all the stuff we're going to be doing this is the time to think about the excavation could add a well whatever it takes I'm not an expert on geothermal but it sounds like it might need a an extra well or two so I just wanted to tie it into the comprehensive PL thank you okay well taken unfortunately at Pierce um that would require design changes to the Pierce building well as designed for the other buildings on the um Civic Square I just I think it's important to to know I think it's it is a point very well taken um it's and it is part of why the comprehensive plan is so important and why people should volunteer to be on the comprehensive plan study committee I was better do it um pointing to whichever camera I think is on right now um [Music] you um but in all in all serious you know this this is also an area where because of the msba because of the state giving us money or are just there are practical limitations here that are going to make it hard for us to move on this particular issue at this particular time but the point is well taken and I know lap and the team are are will be responsive to that in terms of ensuring that if there is the future for converting this building Library Health onto geothermal power that that is an area where we're going to look to see if we can expand the wealth is this comp plan going to be only two years I attended all five years of the first one back in 20205 I we I don't want to make public comment back and forth but yes this public comment process is sorry this this comp process is envisioned is three years okay that's my question thank you we off camera but but oh meeting closed