[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hey Charlie I just unmuted hi folks let us know when you're ready to go and I'll count through Mike you ready recording in progress okay great um all right then I'll count you in Bernard we are recording to the cloud so we'll go live in five 4 3 two one good evening I'm Bernard Green chair of the Brookline select board and this is the meeting of the select board for March 19 2024 uh let's start off with some announcements and updates from the select board and I'd like to start if you don't mind um Sunday evening I along with a couple hundred it seemed to me other Brookline residents attended a wonderful and informative event at Temple sin to break the fast that Muslim residents were on during Ramadan I believe that uh most if not all select board members were in attendance during this difficult time of trauma and War in the Middle East it was very nice to be able to gather as members of the three abrahamic faiths Judaism Christianity and Islam and others uh to learn from each other and enjoy very relaxing Fellowship um I really appreciated uh the the synagogues uh opening their doors and all the people who attended um and made that a uh a very meaningful event the second thing I'd like to mention is that later under miscellaneous matters we will be pulling items 3C to 3G out and voting them at a future meeting because of questions concerning the notice uh that the building commission uh gave for its meeting on March 12 at which these items were voted the building commission will hold another meeting at a future date to revote these items and the peer school early demolition package prior to the building commission meeting the select board will hold a public hearing with the Park and Recreation and conservation commissions and following that hearing those bodies will have their own meetings at which they will vote uh their votes must be unanimous and I've have been given assurances that this will happen um and we expect that that it will following um that our project man manager left field can signed the bid packages and put together contractors staff and mobilized materials began the process of demolition of the uh old building on July I think July 1 so somewhere around then uh no one wants to put a roadblock in front of the Pierce project for among other reasons the impact that would have on the Pierce students who attend school in the Pierce building and let's not forget those students who cannot attend Pierce School in the Pierce building because of their handicaps or other reasons that they can't attend a building that's just not appropriate for them plus the impact on the next school project uh which you know probably will be Baker speaking for myself I'm committed to seeing the peer school project begun on begin on schedule with demolition starting uh in July 2024 but like many things in Brooklyn this has been a diff difficult project but we will ultimately Prevail in my opinion and the new peer school will open on time though the delays and other obstacles may result in additional costs to taxpayers but we will try to avoid that at all costs so that's that's uh Paul Paul thank you Bernard for your for your comments um I too want to um First Express my complete understanding of of the anxiety and concern that's been generated from uh the uncertainty and doubt about the process that uh the peer School uh planning uh and demolition has been going through uh the use of the the peer School playground for um geothermal Wells and some things that need to be passed for article 97 but I to first I want to thank uh Bernard yourself uh and the Town Administrator Carrie chz car as well as the boards and commissions I I think I've spent two days on the phone with uh a number of you uh to try to work through the complexities of the issues um and I just want to assure the Pierce community and the public uh that um we are committed to seeing this project through it was approved by the by the voters um and the school will be built um and we will do it in a time we fashion and I personally am very committed uh to seeing that happen I think as many others are thank you thank you any other oh maram I mean I I just want to say to to reassure I with Paul and Bernard Pierce is a priority for me and I mean that's it right we we fought very hard uh to get the citizens to pass this they passed it and we are going to build it and I say that also as a person who personally cannot function in Pierce as a as a person who's heart of hearing I've told the story many times my very first meeting in the select board was in the Pierce Library and we had to move the entire committee out of the Pierce building because I could not follow a minute of that meeting as an adult with all of my assisted listening devices my clothes captioning on my phone my nothing worked so students most certainly should not be put in that situation so you have our you know my I can speak for myself like Paul and Bernard did I am aund % behind this John U I wanted to clarify because I I don't want to claim um that I was at the ifar which I greatly regretted missing I I I didn't get to make it this year and I was felt very bad about that but I had other I had volunteer business in New York City um and I hope to be um present uh next year um I just wanted to announce a couple of things if that's okay and one of them um I think is very good news for Brookline and for a lot of people in Brookline and that is that we received word um that the chessen hill reality uh putting Stone development is now accepting applications for um affordable units um dozens of them and um I think there's probably a lot of people in Brooklyn who will want to check out um the news of that um that possibility and maybe even apply for one of the units and the fastest way to get the information you need is to just uh Google search CHR which stands for Chestnut Hill realy CHR and uh pudding Stone which most of us are familiar with that terminology but it's pudding like the pudding you eat and it's Stone like a stone a rock and it's all one word pudding Stone so CHR and pudding Stone and you'll see a great big splashy announcement about the new affordable one two and three bedroom apartments um and so they're accepting applications uh the website tells you pretty much walks you through the application process but um they have also announced that there will be paper applications um at the South Brookline Library so I think um there's there's going to be all kinds of ways that people can apply and I think they should look into it if they're interested um the other thing I'm going to do and and forgive me if I do this a lot between now and Marathon day but I just want to remind everybody that one of the best things about Brookline is team Brookline and one town one team um a whole bunch of very very admirable um and you know people who you just have to stand up and salute them for what they're doing um many of them some of them I'm going to guess will be running their first marathon um all of them will be running a marathon for charity and the the charities in particular which um um connect with Team Brookline are local nonprofit Charities five of them and um sponsoring a runner or sponsoring the team is adds so much to the marathon experience because if you're used to sort of showing up to cheer on the runners um it's multiple times more exciting when you're looking for one Runner or one team of Runners um to you know pass by um on their way to the finish line and you can become a sponsor of one of those runners or a sponsor of the team and you can also support one of your favorite nonprofits in Brookline by just going to the team Brookline uh website and then you know just clicking through the process for sponsoring the team Brookline Runners um and those are my two announcements thank you any other announcements okay uh public comment uh Charlie you want to present the rules thing Bernard 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 whole time but you may if you like once 15 minutes has been met there is an opportunity at the conclusion of the select board's business for additional comments members of the public sometimes raise questions during public comment we may be able to provide a quick answer to a question are more likely to work with staff to get a more thorough answer and provide a response over email we'll let you know when you have 30 seconds remaining and when your time is up please conclude your remarks at that time if you have more to say you are welcome to send an email to board members expressing your thoughts in Greater detail and I would just like to preface that we have five people signed up for public Comon tonight um that will likely take full 15 minutes at the beginning of the meeting and then three additional folks signed up for public comment at end of the meeting um if there is time at that point so the first person signed up for public comment is Susie Ma I believe she will be in person Susie you may approach the um presentation station the podium on the side of the room and your three minutes will begin great thank you hi everyone my name is Susie Ma I am a pierce parent I have two kids who graduated and one who is still a student there um I am gratified by your comments I think you've heard some of the concerns already and I appreciate the actions you've outlined in moving forward um I did I especially appreciate the direct support from Miriam and Bernard and Paul I would like to I'll just truncate my comments and just go on the record with what I was going to say uh I want to I think you've heard the frustration with the the Pierce renovation project you know the joy that we felt last May when the ballot measure was passed and then feeling like there was just hurdle after hurdle to cross the stat of which sparked this action was the building commission's failure to vote to release funding for the the demolition last Tuesday which we thought was going to happen um did not and we again um it just felt like the project timeline was being jeopardized therefore the budget was being jeopardized and the whole project was potentially being jeopardized I felt even worse so so I felt very frustrated about that but then I felt even worse when I learned that there were other various commissions that needed potentially their approval was needed so the parks and rack you mentioned and the Conservation Commission so I'm happy to hear that is lining up um I will will hold you to to that timeline and we'll we'll be present and and try to support that process moving forward I again want to emphasize the 674 peer students and their families who do not know where we are going to school next year this uncertainty is very stressful ful not to mention the teachers the administrators and the staff who cannot plan for a move yet because we do not know if we are moving so I would again just urge you to please keep to the timeline so we can move out in May and demolition can begin um thank you for providing this timeline and the process you've outlined and we'll just keep and we'll pay attention and we'll follow along appreciate your response to my comments and concerns that's all okay the next person signed up for public comment is Jeff Rudolph to speak um I believe in person Jeff you may approach the presentation station otherwise I will look for you online don't see you online I'm heing person great thank you I know who made this microphone now I'm in between my readers it's for me so need an need an extension all right can you hear me is that better yes yeah thank you thank you very much my name is Jeff Rudolph I'm a town meeting member of Precinct 6 um I am also a pierce parent and I will be speaking as a pierce parent tonight um I'm G to try to change what I was going to say I'm very excited to hear what everyone just mentioned thank you Paul thank you Bernard thank you Miriam for your comments um that's wonderful to hear um and uh I'm going to add just a little bit of color that I think is is also helpful for everyone to hear at this meeting and also around town um I was uh the former override campaign manager last year for both the operating override and the Pierce dead exclusion um I can't tell you how much I learned during the campaign about the complexities of the Pierce project you know we're built into the side of the Hill there's four parking garages underneath we got to go across a busy street we want to have geothermal you know Wells to help our electric power you know this is a very complex project why would we ever expect that building it would be any less complex and in the last few days I've learned so much um as as Paul also mentioned about all the different commissions all the different votes that we need to have happen um and and I'm glad to hear that we're we've got some direction and a plan and what I'm really just asking is that we continue down that path we understand everything we need to do we make sure that everything gets noticed correctly so we have time to vote appropriately um if there are any other questions from our fabulous boards and commissions who are full of very smart very passionate people care a lot about Brookline you know let's just get all of those questions out so we can talk about them we've been talking about peers for five plus years now um this is a wonderful project it's going to help the town for hundred years so thank you very much I I appreciate your leadership I look forward to hearing the next steps thank you okay the next person signed up for public comment is Marissa vote Marissa it looks like is online I'm promoting Marissa to a panelist Marissa you've been promoted to a panelist you can unmute and cre your video and your three minutes will begin hi everyone um I'm sorry I couldn't join you in person I'm uh trying to watch my my kids um I'm Marissa vote I'm a town meeting member in Precinct 6 and um I have a a first grader at Pierce and a younger child in prek at beep um and I I just want to start by saying thank you to um chair green and the other select board members for your statements of reassurance about the Pierce project um just a few minutes ago um I'll keep it really short I was just going to speak to to um ask you for exactly what you said to um to commit to keeping the Pierce building project on on um schedule and on budget and to work with your commissions and Boards um to make sure that they have all the information they need to just keep having their meetings and keep moving the uh the project forward and um you know I just wanted to give a a personal um you know a personal note to this about the uncertainty um about where the pier Community will be next year um it's not just theoretical or just about the impatience with the delay about where schools um when the school will the new school will open but this uncertainty about when we're going to move into the swing space actually really impacts my family personally um because my to manage the two pickups and drop offs um if my older child's going to be at Old Lincoln we have to move our younger child to a different beep location um and would rather not do that if you know they're not moving into the swing space so um you know it's the uncertainty really is um impacting families it's much harder on other families than it is on mine and certainly on the the teaching staff and the administration um so thank you for for listening to us and for um acknowledging our concerns and for committing to moving the project forward and um have a great night thank you okay the next person signed up for public comment is Dave Porter uh Dave it looks like he online I'm promoting him to a panelist Now Dave you have been promoted to a panelist you can unmute and share your video and your three minutes will begin hi uh Dave Porter Precinct six um just adding my uh the weight of uh uh my voice to the weight of all the other voices um thank you for what you said earlier uh please stay on track and um you know this is real important I understand that it's real complicated uh but and it's real important so uh keep it up and we'll keep watching thank you all very much okay the next person um signed up for public comment is Linda pel Linda I believe is in person I'm not not 100% on that but hi Charlie yes I am thank you L Now for Something Completely Different uh good evening my name is Linda Olen pelky I'm an urban planner a town meeting member from precin 17 and I'm a member of the advisory committee on the land use subcommittee and I wanted to be here tonight just to acknowledge the importance of the contract that's before you tonight to begin what I hope will be a transformation process for Brookline namely our comprehensive plan I want to thank everyone who has helped to get us to this point most notably planning director Cara brutin Town Administrator Carrie who saw the need and had the foresight to include the funding for this work in our most recent override the staff and membership of the planning process study committee who drafted the request for proposals and the consultant selection committee I wanted to remind the community about the individuals who drafted the process that we're going to be undertaking uh namely John Van skak Mark zerillo Carla banka Felina Silva Robinson Susan poda Jonathan kleene and Al rain and myself and of course Emily deog who did an incredible job as staff to that committee I'm thrilled to see the collection of Highly skilled professionals that has been put together by the agency to tackle this daunting task of particular note I'm especially excited about the inclusion of grayscale collaborative a few years back I read about Mr grayscale's work in atin Brighton and what struck me about that work is that it focused on enhancing and improving the community for the residents that live there and building upon what social fabric interests and activities had already organically emerged by providing improvements that would matter to the community improve opportunities without displacement to be successful we'll need everyone every segment of our community to engage in this process with an open mind with respect and with the willingness to learn and listen with the High Caliber professionals assembled here we have the type of partners that can help us understand our options highlight necessary tradeoffs think holistically and hopefully bring us together around a realistic and inspirational shared Vision I do hope you approve the contract tonight thank you okay uh we still are underneath the 15 minutes that we would normally have uh for public comment so I think we can take one more uh public commenter if they're they're available um one the next person I had signed up for public comment is Liz Gorman Liz Gorman are you in person we see Liz no yes no anybody no no don't see we'll we'll come back okay uh I have uh I'm sorry I have uh the next person signed up for public comment is Alisa Connor I'm promoting Alisa to a panelist now thank you so much I'm so excited to speak um I anticipated Liz Liz thinks that she's on for about 8:30 tonight so I'm um happy to jump in and so she will say more about what I said uh some things I refer to so I'm Alisa Connor Brooklyn resident voter Precinct 5 property taxpayer and parent I also graduated from Brooklyn Public Schools and I've taught Spanish at the high school since 2001 around $3 million of cuts to our children's education is on the table and I'm here to ask why why are their proposed budget school budget cuts the year after a successful override vote why is the town proposing to increase our already healthy Reserve funds rather than fund the schools why did the town leave over 5 million on the table this year from Pro potential proposition to and a half funds and why has the town underestimated local revenues by millions of dollars each year for the past five years so year after the year the district claims a budget shortell right about now and this causes immense insecurity and demoralization among our Educators and I'm here to say that the austerity approach that is seems to be driving the budget decision makers in Brookline threatens the stability of the workforce that cares for our children and threatens the quality of the education that we can provide and none of this is inevitable and nor does it accurately reflect the resources in our community so I'm calling for a fully funded school system with the k through eight World Language instruction digital literacy instruction and literacy support that our students deserve those are the things that are some of the things on the chopping block and so I urge you my select board members to investigate this manufactured budget crisis and call on the school committee to delay their budget vote which is scheduled for March 28th resolve this unnecessary budget crisis find the funds we can and we should invest the funds we have for the common good including schools and now with my Spanish teacher hat and you'll hear more about this from Liz later um but there's some hits that the K through 5 World language program is on the chalking block maybe because it's not as effective as was promised or it takes away from literacy and math instruction um but I want to point out that the district has in recent years persistently undermined those teachers ability to be as effective as they know how to be creating unsustainable workloads and driving numerous qualified you have 30 away from Brookline so it's not the program that we voted for that it could be and even so the program is a win for our children early language learning has immense benefits for young brains and I canest ify as a teacher that my high school students are reaching the levels of proficiency in language higher than I've ever seen in my 22 years here so I'm here to say we can do better in Brookline let's do it postpone that school budget vote and fully fund the schools thank you okay that concludes the 15 minutes we have at the beginning of the meeting for public comment other folks that are signed up will have a chance at the end of the meeting can I raise a point of order please there's no point of order at a select board meeting I can't hear you what there's no point of order at a board meeting this isn't town meeting I'm sorry but you welcome to email or call you had one minute left would you have time within one minute to make a comment you're you're we're more less than 30 seconds do it thank you yes and it's a positive thing I want to say whoever the gentleman is every single week I come here two or three times it doesn't matter at this hour who does the lobby downstairs does a first class job and you should let him know that because it shines down there and it's vacuum down there and it's a very welcoming way to walk in the building he's a lovely human being too Regina just a very very nice guy okay uh Chaz did you w to add something sure uh I got a lot of emails this afternoon you too uh yes from uh from folks and I don't and I don't want to be I want to First say um that I don't want to be dismissive or uh or or minimize the concerns raised um by the um um by by folks who have sent those emails around about the school budget but I also think that the message while well-intentioned also reflects I think some confusion um and I just wanted to set the record straight so folks have an understanding and we can move forward collaboratively so I just want to read the email that I've sent in response to all 100 emails I've received so far because I do take this very seriously um good evening thank you for your message unfortunately there seems to be some confusion or misinformation regarding the town of Brook Lion's budget and processes I Town Administrator have not proposed any cuts to the school's budget I don't have control over the school budget uh the school department and all of the municipal operations are funded through a mutually agreed Revenue split with approximately 59% of all our Revenue funds after shared costs are paid for going to the schools and 41% to be shared between all other Town departments such as Public Works Police Department fire department so on when the initial Revenue projections for the coming fiscal year which starts July 1st where released both the schools and the remaining Municipal operations showed shortfalls it means our revenues don't cover our projected growth and expenses so that means both on the town side and on the school side we need to make reductions to sustain our operations the decision of what to reduce on the school's side to balance the budget is a matter for the independently elected school committee not the select board my office to the extent arguments are being made that Brook Line's reserves are healthy or sufficient that is unfortunately untrue Brookline is one of only 13 AAA related communities in Massachusetts and its reserves were recently classified by Moody's the rating agency as lower than those of most of the other AAA communities this year Moody specifically told Brooklyn that the town needs to increase its reserves from 10% to 20% of its revenues we also have significant unfunded liabilities for our pensions and other post-employment benefits like retiree Healthcare only through extremely diligent plan and through the work of our Deputy Town Administrator Melissa gof and our finance director linol Hinman the whole team have we been able to get in range of satisfying our pension obligations and even there we likely won't hit that goal until 2030 at the earliest at which time we'll still need to address the even more underfunded uh post-employment liabilities uh our AAA Bond rating is critical to maintaining our borrowing power and our low interest rates again may not sound like much on paper but if we lose that taxpayers pay more to service our debt which is significant and that means means less money for the schools and other Municipal operations at a time costs are rising I also want to point out we are not under projecting our income that is incorrect where revenues come in higher than expected we adjust our financial projections for the coming year accordingly recall we cannot be over budget we are not the federal government we are not a private business we are not allowed to run an unbalanced budget um so when revenues go look up go up we adjust accordingly for example local receipt revenues for things like certain non-property taxes went up significantly last year on the next fiscal year we're increasing the projections on that by 10% but even then that's still not enough to offset the growth and costs for things like healthare and wages to pay our teachers and our other employees but as I said all of our Municipal operations are feeling the sting of this crunch the school department is not being singled out or having its budget cut by the select board all of us are having to make hard decisions in an environment where expenses outstrip revenues to ensure that Brook line continues to provide the level of service its residents had come to expect the town's financial plan for the next year is available online strongly encourage you and anyone else concerned about this to review the initial budget message which makes up part one discusses these cost drivers and how our revenues while they're growing aren't sufficient to meet them it also talks about our policies with regard to one-time sources of funds and why even in years where we seem to bring in more than we thought we might it's not appropriate to rely on them to balance shortfalls in our operating budgets this was a major ma Pitfall in the 1990s in Brooklyn that resulted in serious you know dilapidation to Municipal facilities the loss of jobs when revenues yo-yoed it was not a way to do business and it certainly not a way for us to maintain the bond rating we need to keep interest rates low so again I really appreciate where this is coming from I understand people's concern and frustration but I want to assure you this is not a manufactured crisis it is not an attempt to undercut the operations of the school department the superintendent and I work very well together we don't treat ourselves as in competition with one another the way some other municipalities do we Thrive as a whole when the schools Thrive and we're committed to helping them do so through this challenging economic time so again I do appreciate the Outreach and the concern I've responded to every one of those emails but I want to be sure that people understand this is not something manufactured this is a tough economic time we're going to get through it but it's going to take work so thank you thank you CH excuse me okay next uh our Miss enous agenda ber can I just add one thing briefly before we go on okay um I you know um I I give uh Town Administrator Kerrie tremendous credit for his measured response I don't need to be so measured um I have two young children in the Brookline Public Schools a fourth grader and a kindergartner um and I uh am very concerned about uh education I'm a very strong supporter of the schools which you heard earlier about Pierce I'm also a strong uh supporter of maintaining classrooms and teachers and small class sizes I've advocated for that at uh at public comment at the school committee I have to tell you um I found it offensive a public smear and a lie for a uh email to go broadly to town off that says the Town Administrator proposed cuts to the public schools of Brooklyn it's false it's untrue it's unfair it's utterly disrespectful of the hard work of that guy right there who's been incredibly collaborative with this group with the public schools um and many many people within town so um I have actually reached out to a number of folks that have connections to the Brookline Educators Union and I've ask them to signal that they should walk this back it's wrong it's divisive it's uncalled for and I wish it would stop thank you thank you okay move on to our I just say yeah I just want to say ditto ditto okay um yep okay well said next our miscellaneous agenda um items 3A and 3B and then we jump over to item 3H through 3 um I haven't had any requests from select board members to pull out any other than 3C through 3G which are the items that were voted by the building commission at a meeting uh that there is some question as to the the legality of um so we're pulling that out we'll deal deal with them at a future meeting um any questions about those items John yeah um could we have just you know uh some simple basic explanation of what what the question is about the legality uh the there was a concern raised about the open meeting law about the whether the agenda was specifically detailed enough and out of an abundance of caution we want to just say folks okay we will take we will run this back we'll make sure the agenda is clear and we'll revote to be very specific town meeting member josn Murphy uh real time uh to the chair of the building commission made a request that the agenda was in violation it wasn't properly worded uh for the for uh votes and so out of an abundance of caution I I watched the uh the commission meeting uh the chair decided that um they wouldn't take a vote on uh the Pierce project uh because because of the the the question and all the other agenda items were worded the same so I think uh administrative carries recommendation to hold these makes a lot of sense John well and and I I've asked for some clarification on it for a simple reason um uh I I don't even have that agenda in front of me um so I I won't say definitively that this is the case but I do think we better be careful about we we have to be scrupulous we have to be correct about what is a a proper agenda for a meeting and what is not a proper agenda for a meeting but uh my best guess is that if um if it turns out that we determined that this was not prop a proper agenda for a meeting I think we're going to find there's a heck of a lot of meetings that had agendas that were similarly sparse you know in terms of what they said you know would be discussed and and would be done at the meeting and so we better consider the implications of drawing too strict a line on what is a proper agenda for a meeting it's Point well taken and we are we are looking at that again this is not a guaranteed thing it's we're not saying oh yes this is this must have violated the open meeting law what we're saying is particularly is out of abundance of caution here um you know the building commission is very scrupulous in what they do they're nonpartisan they're they really Pride themselves on being a political body in an off in a highly charged environment and they want to do things right so that there isn't especially especially if there's a question on a project that has a lot of public attention the last thing they want to do is you know move something along and then accidentally wind up delaying the project you know if there's some question I agree but not to put too fine a point on it yes if we say this was not a proper agenda for the meeting there were a lot of previous meetings at which there were also votes on on this project and a lot of other stuff so we're we're we're on you know we're on important ground here but we have to tread it very carefully yes and again we're not saying we're not saying oh this is invalid and therefore everything else we're not we're not we're not making that determination all we're doing is someone raise the issue there's the possibility that there could be a complaint that could come up the process better to let better to better to say okay I abundance of caution issue has been raised we're going to resolve it and we're going to we're going to handle it this way so that there is no room for doubt yes the other thing is uh this is basically a message to all boards and commissions to be very careful that they in their notice make sure that they are sufficiently uh detailed so that people know know precisely what is on the agenda and what what the vote will be um and you know that's something that people should have always been doing but oh absolutely yeah I and I and I do want to add John that you know when when a former leading opponent of the peer school project files a complaint about an agenda item as not being properly worded which is fine and well and good I think it's important to be accurate just know that that request also goes across all agenda items for that agenda any other equally worded agenda item which is what caused the situation yeah and if you look at the agenda uh all were very vague and um just did not tell us what what what was being voted so anyway that's you know that that's why we're pulling that ping it might be time for some training on agendas there's there's a there's a there's a there's a there's a list of a couple of things we're working on with boards and commissions a lot of okay I'll say I think you should I'm sorry we're chatting on the side and we shouldn't be um why don't you share with us you're talking about right I I think um four of the five of us were strong supporters of Pierce U myself included and um I think uh I I would endorse being cautious uh to preclude any possible future uh attempt to uh uh uh put uh put a stick in the spokes uh when this thing gets going okay uh we I had um I had made made a motion so I'll make a motion I move items 3A and 3B and 3 H through 3 all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak I miam ashkanazi hi Michael Sandman hi Paul Warren hi and chair votes I and again we will take up uh items three three three C to 3G at a future meeting probably next meeting um next calendar items sale of bonds uh Mr Hinman come and tell us about the money that we're borrowing how many pieces of paper did we sign did you all sign them already that our Triple A rate no no we have not so good evening thank you uh so Lincoln heidman I'm the uh Director of Finance for the town um as so I'm coming before the board now as the board knows to seek your approval of the issuance of bonds for uh for six different projects in the amount of $24.5 million um true interest cost is 3.39% uh the specific projects uh the largest is the Pierce School construction uh after that um the first borrowing for the fire station Renovations and construction the Fe the peer School feasibility study improvements to both Murphy and Robinson playground and um borrowing that the town has done for several years now for storm water improvements um as um as was mentioned earlier in the meeting and as the board has heard earlier when I was last before you at at the uh at the budget review meeting for the finance department um the town's AAA rating from Moody's was reaffirmed with this sale um I I did want to in addition to you know going over some of the specifics of this borrowing I did want to mention a couple things and get back on a couple questions and build a little bit on what um Town Administrator krie had uh referenced earlier in the meeting with respect to our AAA Bond rating um and respond a little bit to chair green and and select board member samon's uh some of the questions about what Moody's new metrics are so uh in brief um the uh if if the board recalls um at our rating uh meeting or rating review with Moody's prior to this sale um they there were some there are some new metrics that Moody's is now applying to us for the first time and um in since um that discussion at the last board meeting where um the the uh where the the borrowing and the ratings were discussed um Deputy Town Administrator gof and I met uh again with Moody's did some more some further research make sure we have a complete handle on what these change metrics are there's five primary categories for how moody determines the creditworthiness of all municipalities um throughout throughout the country and and specifically in this case for Brookline um one of the one of the primary questions that select board member samon had raised earlier um that we have a definitive answer to now is the question about reserves and what percentage of uh of um of Reser reserves uh Moody's is now recommending looking for as as a as a percent of total revenue and uh if as the board knows uh the there's currently a board adopted policy for a target of 12.5% of general fund revenue of general fund reserves as a percent of Revenue with a minimum each year of 10% what Moody's is in fact um to to confirm what we what had earlier said what Moody is now measur ing is total revenue so business type activities as well so in our case water sewer and golf not just general fund revenue and um they're doing that um because Nation we've we've since learned um in our further conversation with Moody they're doing that because um they are viewing many municipalities throughout the country having significant business type activities that are contributing a significant way to you know the overall health of municipality so for example airports so an airport um is a business type activity obviously we don't have one but many other municipalities elsewhere in the country that that Moody is evaluating does so that that is their reasoning for why they have changed this metric um and um so uh what um after this research after these after this further meeting with Moody's um as I mentioned uh our last meeting um the budget review where we're um in part discussing this issue is uh uh Melissa and I will be intending to come back to the board with specific um recommended adjustments to the town's fiscal policies to continue to meet um the the the booy levels and and I think that's likely to take the form not of changing the metrics that is to say I think uh it likely would be um recommending that the appropriate metric continues to be um re reserves as a percent of general fund Revenue not overall Revenue but but rather a change in quantity so that so that you know through that change in quantity and through that recommended um that policy change that we would be meeting you know and continuing to meet the the Moody's uh metric by having by by um seeking our own metric that makes more sense for the Brooklyn situation can I ask you question uh sure so yes so I but but that's briefly that's that's you know pre premature at that point but at this point but I just wanted to build on the conversation earlier and and say that we're thinking about this and we'll be coming back so uh two things uh one is you know the general revenues are about 75% of the total of of total revenue something on it I'm you know give or take so uh in effect they're bumping up the reserve requirement by like a third uh uh if uh that that's a big change uh and then where is the 20% come from because that was in the report yes so so so to be clear we we are meeting and and are continuing to meet and actually are so they they are listing that they were looking at our fiscal year 2022 audit yeah and they were saying based on this metric that they have 23 23.1% completely correct our total revenue across all both business type and general fund activities um so 20 we have 23.1% reserves of our total revenue so we are meeting that metric yeah um the as as Chaz mentioned earlier um other AAA rated uh municipalities in Massachusetts have a have higher um uh reserves as a percent of total revenue so um we're meeting that metric we're continuing to meet that metric we're actually doing better we know in fiscal 23 um but nevertheless you know we are below uh what that other median is in Massachusetts and when they're looking at reserves do they since they're looking at total reserves do they also look at reserves from say the um the the water revolving fund they are right so so they're looking at so in that case retained earnings so so they're um right so so there're so they're including those both in the reserves and in the revenue all right so it's not quite they're not it's not like we have to bump reserves by a third we uh right it it's not quite that bad all right it's yeah so so they are bumping it there's no doubt about it I mean the the the it's changing qualitatively and quantitatively right but um but yeah so they're also comparing us to Massachusetts municipalities that uh have a medium reserve of what 36% 38% 38% and National municipalities with Reserves at the median of what 60% or something that 60 some OD percent right yeah so the question I have is what is a municipality I mean municipalities don't always have to be cities and towns so what's in their list of municipalities that they're comparing us to so so these are all Municipal entities so most so there are cities and towns so cities and towns but also counties right or or independent water districts for example you know which which is a common thing occasionally here in Massachusetts but common elsewhere elsewhere in the country and to be clear just to be super clear that that median um that that uh 38% that metric that are um that our other that that is the metric um that that our our other uh is the median of other AAA Massachusetts municipalities not all Moody uh Massachusetts rated municipalities but just the aaa's so yeah um okay go ahead many of these municipalities don't have the type of restrictions that that cities and towns in Massachusetts have so and and and that's a factor so that you know not to get too deep into the weeds but when when you mentioned the the the other the AAA municipalities that are raided by Moody throughout the country um at with those higher Reserve ratios um they note that and they you know they um there's some adjustment for that in that for example we have proposition two and a half here and we have collective bargaining um laws that that um restrict things in in ways that other municipalities throughout the the country don't have and then conversely the the other municipalities have throughout the country have ability to pay to raise revenues in ways that Massachusetts municipalities can so for example through a sales tax through other other mechanisms so you know so they they recognize that and recognize that the Massachusetts AAA median can or will and should be lower okay okay proceed so and and I would just I would just uh as select board member ashkanazi said please uh provided you prove this these bonds please make sure you sign all the documents tonight so we can get them off to bond Council tomorrow so hey any other John uh you know dealing with um Bond issues is one one of the most important things that a selectboard member does but at the same time you know for those of us who are not experts in bond Finance um you know one of one of the more mystifying and um in the interest of simplifying it for not necessarily this occasion but future occasions I'll tell you one thing that would be extremely helpful to me and I think would be helpful to others as well well is if whenever we do um an issuance um based on you know the results of a recent bid if we could see comparison communities that are also Triple A and what they are paying for the same type of extend whether it's a 30 20 or 10 you know year um just to get an idea whether you know we're in the ballpark and you did that you did that for me at my request and and it was helpful yeah absolutely and we can seek that we we don't always have information to um access to all the information but we can certainly seek that and our financial advisers handle many mass Massachusetts municipalities and we could certainly um for for data that is publicly available we could certainly have a a comparison say for example of sales above a certain amount within the last month you know that that something like that man and the other thing I wanted to ask if you don't mind um is simply how how do we decide whether to go out 30 years or 20 or 10 so it depends so in large part it's um it's dictated by state law so um in in Massachusetts uh the um the maximum excuse me the minimum term um for which a school construction project that is receiving funds from the Massachusetts school building authority uh a grant from the msba the ma the minimum term um excuse me the the maximum term is 30 years so in this case um we're at 25 um but which you know I think is reasonable under the circumstances um but but largely it is determined by the state law and then further rulings from the State Department of Revenue thanks okay so I need you to take that vote please pardon me take the vote please when you're ready getting there when you're ready sorry to clear my throat you got a lot of writing on this um do we have the votes yeah you got yeah sener package and and you there's no there's no um need to read out the whole vote you you could simply um if you chose approve to to say U you know move move the vote as printed in the packet so so I move the uh uh question of authorizing $4,495 th000 General obligation bonds of the Town awarded to Robert W Barett and Company um uh as uh set forth in our packet um all in favor please indicate by saying I I vinak sorry I miam ashkanazi hi Mike sammon hi Paul Warren hi chai thank you Lincoln you want to show the public what the documentation looks like this is one of the documents yeah yeah six point type I think yeah yeah okay next comprehensive plan contract um bar brutin is gonna present that to us season license Ral oh I'm sorry let let's take that out of order that's EAS it's easier to do it's easy to do we should do comp plan first you're here apologize M no it's okay well so uh good evening my name is Cara brutin I'm the director of planning for the town of Brookline also Dave jocus is with us I think um virtually if someone might let him in um our chief procurement officer he has worked with me very diligently on the um RFP um as well which you all saw last fall as well as the contract um and we also I also want to give thanks to the town council's office um to so I'm here tonight to ask you all to approve a contract with agency landscape and planning um to prepare a comprehensive plan this has been a long time coming um I'm also here to request the select board appoint a member to a Steering group for this work which we can um talk about in more detail later um first of all for the audience at home what is a comprehensive plan a comprehensive plan is a a leading policy document that guides the future physical design of a community and in doing that it should clarify the relationships between the physical development um policies of the town and the social and economic goals of the town because those are certainly related um in the RFP that you all saw last fall um which was drafted by a committee because that's the way Brook line does things um and that was chaired by Linda Olson pelky and I know she was here earlier tonight um speaking as well on the comprehensive plan the RFP includes language um that refers to the American planning association's best practices for a modern comprehensive plan meaning um rather than having topics segregated by topic like transportation and then a chapter on housing recognizing that these things all interrelate um and so just to um raise that up again that um idea from the American Planning Association is um called sustainable places and so that work and that methodology is Incorporated in the work that we want to do for the comprehensive plan in um presenting material to the community that integrates um different disciplines different subjects um because the world is is all related in that way that um contract the RFP went out last fall and the selection committee worked um has been working since January um we had three very um very good proposals that submitted um their ideas we had multiple interviews Paul Warren was on the um selection committee as well as Dave jocus guiding us through um also in the selection committee was uh Carol Gladstone David Lee Susan padba um Mark zerillo Susan and Mark were on the RFP writing committee as well um commissioner sh um and Emily Deo in in my office um so we conduct multiple interviews reviewed supplemental materials asked them to have follow-up uh materials for us we conduct extensive reference checks and interviews um and tonight uh Bri hensold and Annie Streetman are have joined me from agency um they are the lead consultant of this group but as you probably saw in their proposal it includes a collaborative with several subc Consultants including grayscale collaborative in his associates McMahon Bowman for transportation rkg Associates and util Architects some of you probably recognize many of these names almost all of them have done work of some kind or other in Brookline um they know the community well um I think the exception to that might be grayscale we haven't worked with them yet in Brooklyn um but I know that Linda talked about Linda pelky talked about them earlier tonight and that's all I have for um a contract to be signed the team is here if you have any burning questions um but we're very excited to get this going and what I would love to have is um for you all to decide an appointee for the Steering group from your board so that um I can work with them and the planning board share in in getting the um the call for civic action up and going but we won't come back to the select board until after the May elections for um for deciding who should be on the steering group um and I may be back in between to talk about a um an idea that we're developing with Brooklyn interactive to be a um kind of under a separate contract to provide some enhanced Community engagement in also civic education um as a adjunct of this process I'm not sure I understand we're not you don't want us to select they select word member for the steering committee I I do oh just that I'll come back in May with you know let's not talk about the Steering group members until May I'm looking for as a select board um appointee so that I can work with them to further develop the group okay that's confusing but I think I know sorry okay any any discussion Mariam uh Cara can you introduce your team hi everyone good evening I'm Bri hensold and I'm a principal and co-founder of agency um I'll be the Principal in charge for this project um working day-to-day with Cara and her team as well as hi everyone uh I'm Annie Streetman I'm an urban planner at agency and I will be the project manager in day-to-day contact for this workk thank you great easy question just Paul yeah so uh briefly I I do uh just want to make few comments that this um has been a long time coming um I remember a couple of years ago we uh I think I was a co-sponsor of the article to uh have town meeting approve for a comprehensive plan and then the budget adjustment to to get it going um and I can just uh I can tell you that I know the the planning process study committee which Linda py mentioned earlier uh did an incredible job in the development of the RFP uh as uh should mentioned I was uh part of the selection committee and we had uh three great presentations three proposals um and they were three uh amazing candidates um and they actually did the best uh agency landscaping and planning did an incredible job um and we feel very confident that they're the right partner um I think what Carol was saying about um the the appointment of a steering committee there is a broader committee that needs to be developed because this is a um a community Le process uh for for comprehensive planning and that's what she's talking about there's no way you could put that together in in a few days that's going to take some time for Criterion selection um but I will say that this um you know there's a few moments in in in the municipality's history where you where there's work that can last a lifetime um and this comprehensive planning process is one of those very very important activities that will have an impact for uh for gener to come and it really is it's really critical work so I'm I'm hoping that we all support unanimously the uh the approval of the contract an appointing agency our partner let's see any other questions or comments if if not I move approval of the contract for Professional Services for the preparation of a comprehensive plan with agency Landscapes plus planning LLC in the amount of $575,000 all in favor please indicate by saying I John Van skak hi r ashkanazi hi Mike Sandman hi Paul Warren I and chair votes I next we don't have to wait till May question of designating a select board member to the comprehensive plan Steering group and I think that uh it's Paul Warren that that has has um been s identified for that purpose recruited hijack uh I have I have I have been asked um it would be my honor to uh serve on it um it certainly is going to be a lot of work um we will I would like to have a discussion about some of the other things committees that I've been working with that maybe we could uh get some help with um okay just to free up some time but yeah I I would be delighted to do it um and I'm looking forward to to making a contribution yeah okay then I move uh uh the designation of Paul Warren is the select board member to the comprehensive plan steering group and apparently we'll do something else in May the actual group the appointment of the actual group okay um need something to steer Bernard okay a boat to steer on favor please indicate by saying I John Ben skak hi mam mkazi hi Mike Sandman hi Paul Warren hi and chair votes I thankk you very much congratulations hey next we have our budget reviews sorry you one oh I'm sorry pesky license oh my eyesight is just okay um and why are we doing this here instead of the uh licensing good question um the answer is scheduling and I really I've done my best to uh address that before we proceed I just want to note um we got to note that uh if you're watching this uh on cable access uh there is a sound problem originating at the big uh level there should still be captions I understand big is putting a caption on uh there is still sound available on YouTube Facebook everywhere else this is streaming there's just a cable issue you can turn on your closed captions and you should be able to see the captions even if you can't hear it we apologize we're working with big to correct that so H how will people hear what you've just said I hope they can read lips um if they cannot but I know again big good point hopefully big will be able to put a message up uh but I just wanted to put this out there in the event that Savvy users may have already turned captions on I have the uh Millennial practice of watching with captions and I hope you do too it's great um um okay seasonal license yes schedule now why isn't this a hearing so there is not there is no need for a public hearing with a seasonal alcohol license um the reason why Hemlock Grill has a seasonal license is because they are on Town property they are not allow allowed to have a year round all alcohol license um and so what they typically do is that for their quieter seasons of operation they apply for and receive uh shorter term temporary licenses and then in the um when they go back to a full schedule um which begins very shortly um they have a seasonal license that they apply for with the board um it was just a matter of timing this time around ordinarily we would not Grant an exception and put this on but because it is a business on toown property we thought it would be appropriate in this limited instance yeah any questions about this this item I would just say that I had dinner at the hemlock Grill of one one of their Fireside um dinners on Saturday and it's just a fabulous place um and I just it's just a great addition to places to eat uh in town so that's all thank you for that yeah have not eaten I mean besides the true there for the the Fireside dinners are just just great fun fabulous food any other questions or comments or whatever okay I'm Mo approval of the um seasonal all alcohol license for game hinge golf LLC doing business as him loock Grill 1281 West Roxbury Parkway all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak hi Mary ashkanazi hi Mike Sandman hi Paul Warren hi shair boats I now back on track Department budget reviews um first of all we have the Council on Aging but I want to First say that you know what what we've asked various departments to do uh in their presentations is um talk about uh the measures for Success that they use and their goals for the FIS for this fiscal year um and metrics they'll use to determine how those goals are met and we we're also asking them to indicate any new initiatives that they'd like to pursue within the current budget and uh any uh plans to add or subtract Personnel um and some details regarding that so I just want to let you know that you know we we've given uh departments uh some guidance in terms of their presentation and we're looking forward to a hearing first from the Council of Aging uh ruthan doc good evening thank you chair green select board and members of the public I am Ruth and Doc the director of the Brooklyn Council on Aging and Senior Center and it is my honor to present the Council on aging's budget for FY 25 we are extremely proud of what the Council on Aging does we feel that we are very cost effective and provide a wide range of services that allow our older adults to remain in Brooklyn and live independently with dignity and a theme of this evening will be talking about the future uh and our budget concerns not in fy2 but beyond uh Charlie do you have the slides for slide two please they're up thank you um the Council on aging's fy2 budget is 1,200,000 we primarily our staff heavy 87% of our funding goes for that staff that's doing direct service and providing all those essential programs and benefits to older adults our FY 25 budget is very stable um the only increases are for some contractual obligations for a copier or lease building cleaning and Wireless Communications those all total a mere 1328 in additional requests that was provided next slide please our accomplishments in FY 25 were really sought in our 24 this is a result of two items that were much discussed one is our social workers our mid management received a a look at through uh it was a select board um Rec recommendation last year and we saw with working with the finance Melissa gof Charles young and Chaz that our social work mid-management was undercompensated and this was looked at in um with HR job descriptions were modified and reclassified so our mid-management goal of achieving parody with some of the other communi for our social workers was achieved the next really big accomplishment came as a result of the override we were able to see in FY 24 this year $25,000 which is going towards our social work position uh it is now uh something that had been 20 hours is now fully funded by the municipal budget and this in 25 will increase another 50,000 which will maintain that social work position and start to add the transportation coordinator as part of the municipal budget our trips coordinator who provides all the transportation services coordination has been funded only by grants and Foundation since it's in ception back eight years ago so this was a major achievement next slide please the Council on Aging received three earmarks this year and this tells a major story about our success in being able to provide not only cost effective services but able to Garner community support for some of our needs if you recall three of the a marks are for strategic planning uh transportation and for a creative arts I'm sorry for employment was the second ear Mark the governor in January instituted a 9C cut and those ear marks were reduced by 50% instead of throwing us into a series of what are we going to do we had two Community responses for the senior employment which was cut by 25,000 a single benefactor made a donation to our foundation in that amount in order to keep senior employment on the Forefront and be fully serviced the Strategic plan is able to move forward despite being cut by 50% because we're able to work with UMass gerontology Institute and receive a municipal benefit of a contract which is under the 50,000 range the final Grant which looks small at 2500 another Family Foundation has stepped forward creative arts has been one of the most successful programs in breaking social isolation and loneliness for our older adults and a Family Foundation has stepped forward to increase that funding for creative arts for the next couple of years in the amount of $30,000 to our foundation I tell this narrative because so much of our funding is outside of the municipal sources and we need to be planning in the future and dealing with these issues next slide please our outside services in this current fiscal year total over $690,000 this means that the municipal portion of our budget is just 64% this does not even include our successful arpa funds so the concern is with that much funding coming from outside sources we need a sustainable plan and for the community to acknowledge that so much of what is happening at the Council on Aging is coming through these outside sources next slide please arpa is another success story we received from the town allocation 57200 in our funds these are going to very important projects our transportation which I keep talking about the needs of transportation and access is now an equity issue food insecurity we already depleted the $100,000 allocated by arper soon this year and are applying for round three for food in security issues the third has been around digital technology which is ever important as seniors need to navigate online and I call digital technology similar to literacy in today's world a third funding source has been 880,000 for a new electric vehicle all extremely important so while we're extremely grateful for the arpa funds those three projects that I mentioned are not going to be solved by the end of arpa in 2026 we're still going to need to look at funding for transportation food in security and digital literacy and Technology next slide please I want to spend a brief moment on the Census Data because despite the fact that it's 20 24 this was the first year that we really had solid statistics from the Census that we can now say yes indeed there are 13,220 older adults from the 2020 census that's a 20% increase from the 2010 and if you calculate that those who are 55 and the next generation of older adults it constitutes 25% of the town's total population are now Aging in place the other statistic that I want to bring attention to is the increase in poverty this is deeply disturbing because we know that the poverty level is so low as calculated by the federal government the fact that it increased to 10% from Seven is real concern and again underscore that that is just the poverty level not those who are living in economic insecurity next slide please we were asked to present about how we calculate our Matrix of um measurements and I'm going to talk about again digital technology and transportation this evening our digital techn techology is ever increasing importance for the town and our older adults through our volunteers we are providing over 500 hours of oneon-one in group Education Services on digital technology we also distributed 225 tablets through again arpa funding to get tablets into the hands of lowincome and disabled individuals this has been a great success and needs to be an ongoing program for the Council on Aging in the community the final statistic is 4,000 of rides were you utilizing smartphones to call their lift that's showing again the support of our educational programs in providing uh seniors with access to digital technology and transportation next slide please transportation again and again and again comes out to be a high priority in any needs assessment done in the community it is an equity issue it is access it is being tied to health measures as well as social isolation and loneliness we've seen an explosion of our transportation since we've been able to fund through arpa um since covid the year after our transportation rides increased by 78% and I just provided some January stats uh the total invoice was over $114,000 for subsidized rides this includes 840 rides we have 497 people signed up to receive Transportation through the Council on Aging we provided 407 rides to and throw the senior center 257 different individuals in January took uh advantage of those subsidized rides so that just gives you a brief uh showcase into the importance of Transportation next slide please if we're looking at our Five-Year Plan I tied it into and if money were not an object we are seeing three priorities again the Strategic plan will happen it's gut funding it's moving forward but the issue is what is it going to find and how are we going to fund some of those needs the second issue I've been talking about this evening is again how long are we going to keep the transportation funding sustainable as I mentioned there were $690,000 through 10 sources of uh funding many of those are grants that are keeping our transportation programs viable and finally the senior center is back to saying we're over capacity since covid with that growth in the senior population that we see both happening in 2024 and the next 5 to 10 years we do feel like there needs to be consideration of some satellite site whether it's at the Newberry College some place in South Brooklyn or other needs for us to consider our growing senior population next slide please like to conclude by also doing a shout out that this year we were accepted into the AARP age friendly network of cities and towns as a reminder the Brooklyn Council on Aging was the first uh in Brookline we submitted an application for the World Health organization we were the first New England town to be designated as age friendly and this year we took it to be part of the AARP Network which is providing us with many best practices and information on senior service delivery throughout the country always say that we would not be where we are without our dedicated staff our team of volunteers which is well over 250 individuals who are donating much time and energy the Council on Aging board and finally I would be remiss if I didn't mention this evening that I have been publicly announcing that I intend to retire sometime in this calendar year I don't want the budget discussion to be focused on my tenure there's enough time for that kind of discussion but it's definitely something that needs mentioning as we're talking about the future and transition so with that I welcome questions comments and anything else from the board thank you uh it's going to be hard to replace you and that's going to be part of this discussion at least in the background anyway um any questions Miriam um ruthan first of all thank you very very clear and um focused presentation I really appreciate it um generally I always ask at the end about arpa funding but you had a wonderful slide and you really talked about the impact of that and I appreciate that I want to say that the arpa proposals we reviewed from your dep Department were excellent and very clear on what they wanted to to achieve and it's wonderful to see that that has happened so thank you very much and we will in fact miss you greatly thank you arpa has been a tremendous support of course I I would be again remiss if I didn't mention that older adults have really taken the brunt of covid they're still reeling you know the statistics show that it is not just the time of covid but the after math with all kinds of implications around social isolation and loneliness and long CO as well and I think the fear that and the fear yes and we thank you for all your hard work on the arpa and thank you I think John who next Ruth and thank you so much for the presentation tonight and for um your many years of service to town Brook Lan um s of a personal note um one of the first committees I got appointed to when I got elected to the select board in 2020 was to there's two of them actually uh they must have thought just you know that I I'm the right kind of a guy for committees that have to do with the senior population but uh I got appointed to the age friendly cities committee um and I got appointed to the Council on Aging uh to to be the select words leaon to the Council on Aging and the leaon to the age friendly cities committee um and uh especially the Council on Aging um if this this If This Were a meeting of the Council on Aging right now there'd be 30 or so people in in the audience um nobody does meetings quite like the Council on Aging does and it's largely through the preparation of uh ruthanne and her staff and to see the teamwork between ruthanne and her staff and the and the members of the council at every single one of those meetings um it's just fantastic they were one of the first to figure out how to do hybrid meetings and so all of meetings take place um in the room at the senior center but then also over Zoom they have a very Lively audience on Zoom a very Lively audience in the room um they spice up their meetings every now and then like they will in April with h entertainment uh and a volunteer appreciation day and so on so anyway all good things uh uh and now I'm going to narrow it down to one very very um small thing um which um I just think is emblematic of um uh how how maybe we need to do a little bit better job on behalf of the Council on Aging with the money that we budget and I'm not gonna I'm not to blame anybody for this maybe I should blame myself um but we haven't yet come through with money to um spruce up the senior center which has been without you know um serious U uh cosmetic improvements um for the 20 years or so Ruan I think is is probably correct um since since it was um you know since they cut cut the ribbon on it um and um it's a building that could could definitely benefit from some paint and some Polish and and so on and um so I I do hope we get that um done one way or the other this year I don't have the magic answer as to um doing it but um I I hope we sort of get all muster all of the forces in the dollars together to do it because um it's time to to the year of of you know celebrating ruthanne's achievements on the board in the on the council or as the head of the department uh would be a perfect year to see that happen at the senior center oh yeah I sure I want to follow up on that because it's it's a it's a point well taken um I will say one of the big arpa projects and one of the arpa projects that's going to likely come in for reallocation before you is the renovation project at the senior center that will address what I know some members of the community have raised with regards to the HVAC system we'll also be electrifying the building that will require some work in the interior as well as the exterior we will take that opportunity hopefully to do some of that interior work as part of that effort with regards to exterior matters we will obviously take a look and we can have that discussion with the building department when it comes time to discuss their budget and the CIP for repair and maintenance just talking about for the town Town owned buildings you know between the town and the schools I think there's you know 80 to 90 buildings that we own what the maintenance schedule is there and when the uh Senior Center building is up next uh for that those efforts so we will make sure we will you know stay tuned and watch this space but in terms of some of the issues in the building that ran has identified and other members of the community have identified we are already using arpa funds towards that purpose it's very good news thanks Pa yep uh ruthanne uh I too want to say thank you for your service uh to our community um you talked about the the future and you have concerns about you know the budget and stuff like that um I have great concerns that we're losing you because you have been a tremendous force of nature uh for our senior population and the work that you've been doing to pull funding uh the what you've been able to accomplish with such a small amount of money is absolutely incredible um and I want to thank you for that and I think that's one of the greatest risks that we have in the future is that um I don't know how we're going to find someone with your uh with your skill set um but you did say something um Ruth an actually came to the community block uh grant money I I got to cheer that um and ruthan you brought uh Transportation proposal and this uh I I want to make sure we focus on this this is a significant issue uh the the transportation needs for seniors uh getting them to doctor's appointments getting them to uh to the C on aging and uh you know this is a really critical aspect um and you know ruthanne mentioned loneliness um it's it's a huge issue and I'm I'm really concerned about how that program is currently funded I mean it really is pulled together from uh some block rant money um I think some arpa money has been used and I'm I I guess could you speak a little bit to how much what is the total dollar value of the program today that's funded I know some comes from various and and when does that money disappear uh from the onetime funds either uh you know I think from arper maybe where the bulk of it's coming from well and and to put more bad news on it one of our sources that we've been increasingly dependent on is uh what they call the TNC funding um that is the money that comes back to each Community um each Uber in lift ride or Rod share is tax 10 cents and then that comes back to communities and uh we advocated and worked very closely with the transportation staff and the transportation board um to secure TNC funding for our transportation um this this current year town meeting voted a 100,000 um but we just found out that that TNC funding is um likely to end um unless I I I don't know if there's any chance that the state will reenact it but it also is going to expire right when arpa ends in 2026 so um that has been a big source of our money um we do as you know every year apply for cdbg funding for transportation um and we've been very fortunate to receive Mass do funding um for transportation so uh that is going to be one of of the big issues facing the the town uh again how do we um deal with that very expensive transportation is expensive unfortunately and you you you came to the cdbg committee with an ask for and we weren't able to give you the full amount could you tell us what is What is the gap between what you need in order to fulfill uh the current program with seniors that that you had planned and and what the money that you've actually been able to Cobble together is there a Gap there's not a gap because again we have secured great deal of arpa funding okay and the the biggest ask of that arpa of the 500 uh and 67,000 that I mentioned that we received uh well over 300,000 was allocated for transportation the bulk of it went for transportation so that's 300 from marpa and then you're saying was there another 100 from TNC TNC and then the cdbg okay so that so and then we're also going to be getting some Mass do right so so we're secure through 2020 the December 31st 2026 so I'm trying to understand the cliff that you're heading toward it the cliff is $300,000 from arpa $100,000 from TNC the 45 we gave you from cdbg I mean you're heading you're heading towards a half a million potentially yeah this I just I I just want to say that um I really want to put an emphasis on this this is a huge issue um seniors are tremendously dependent upon this Transportation program um and we're going to need to really focus on how to make up this uh this Gap in 26 we're looking at all available options one of the things that's in a very Nation stage is we've had conversations with our other communities particularly Newton or neighboring Community this is a high priority for us we know how important this is for folks to get around and we're going to do everything we can to to Stave off this cliff and and I want to say one other thing I'm not sure that it's just an older adult issue oh no yeah and I I think um what we've learned from covid in transportation it's an equity issue it's a climate issue and we feel you at the Council on agent we don't want to be the only ones fighting for transportation and access in this community um if you look at Newton's program you know they were able to expand and look at taking care of Transportation needs for some of their commuters to getting from The Villages into the green line students to after school programs so and again what we heard through our hearings at Co the food pantry was having difficulty with transportation for their folks uh the Housing Authority often cites that Recreation so it's a bigger issue maybe the comprehensive plan that we talked about this evening is another way of looking at Transportation um while I'm a strong advocate for the older adults it's not just an aging issue yes that's true thank you so I just wanted to mention that as well Mike um thank you um so um want to add uh add my thanks and uh and concern uh for uh uh uh after you've uh you know for for how we would ever find a replacement one of the things that it's really interesting to listen to this is uh the your ability to pull together multiple sources of funds and whoever succeeds you certainly is going to have to um do exactly the same sort of thing can you can you give us a sort of an overall s an overall number for the total budget that you have between Town funds um that come out of the the operating budget and arpa and grants that you've received and so forth what's the the overall package look like so in um FY 24 um if our Municipal budget was at 1 million whatever right is you add 690,000 to that for outside sources okay that was some of that is stable one of that is our fortunately our formula grant which is a state allocated um per Elder and so that is a very stable funding of 185,000 per year for us um but much of that other resources from that 690,000 um is through grants and the senior center foundations okay so it's that I recall the $690,000 up there I was wondering if that was the represents. that's our total all right plus arpa though so it's even higher right okay thank you great thanks any other questions thank you for very um very well done and and informative presentation that uh really focuses us on you know the future needs of Council of Aging thank you and again I did not want tonight to be um you know just talking about the transition I will be here for the foreseeable future and I just am publicly announcing it so there will be a smooth transition and we can all work together um to deal with that so ample time to talk more about that thanks thank you thank you next uh fire department I take it Chief Selvin on the uh is joining us remotely yes on the zoom on the zoom I think got a haircut good evening good evening Chief s i I don't know new glasses too I got new glasses I don't know how I get the honor of uh following uh ruthanne almost every year uh but uh it it truly is an honor and uh I'm going to miss her as well she was the first department head that I went and VIs visited when I got here to Brookline six years ago and uh she certainly will be missed we all agree I could share my screen and you have uh that on your your screen yes yep yep okay perfect now I just got to figure out how to make it full here there we go I think that doesn't Okay uh again uh John Sullivan Fire Chief uh and Emergency Management director for the town of Brookline um here to present the overview of the fiscal 25 budget for the fire department and the uh Emergency Management function in the town of Brookline so uh 20 for accomplishments uh just highlights of some of the accomplishments for uh fire department and Emergency Management uh we uh have initiated the long uh term station Renovations project uh and uh be happy to answer questions about that and continue to achieve the benchmarks for planning and design for that uh the first phase of that uh long and uh much needed project uh number two maintain maximum Staffing levels uh we've had long discussions in the past about the import uh on our overtime budget uh at maintaining maximum Staffing uh and we are in the process right now of having eight recruits in our drill School along with the city of Cambridge uh who is running a joint drill School in our facility and uh they are anticipated to reach our fire trucks in uh late May and and the third uh is the initiation of acquisition of a second radio frequen frequency uh fire radio frequency which is uh something that the town has needed for a very very long time and uh as of uh Monday yesterday um the the license has been approved by the FCC and so I'm working with Scott Wilder uh and his staff uh in um coordinating what uh other um uh pieces of the of the puzzle that we need transmitters and receivers at our sites in order to um establish that second radio frequency management um we were successful in reestablishment of the lapc the local emergency planning committee uh our first full year of subcommittee meetings and lepc activities uh was uh accomplished in this last year um we've also um taken on the task of development core strategic planning including a femur approval of our hazardous mitigation plan which is the foundational plan for all uh our other plans uh right now uh Cheryl Snider uh our Emergency Management coordinator is in the process of developing and um um reissuing our uh s plan our uh Community Emergency Management plan uh which is uh in need of uh re re revising and uh appropriating through mimo uh and third initiated a new community preparedness program until help arrives uh Sophie Gordon uh who we have on a grant through uasi uh in our our um she she started our uh our EP buddies program uh and continues to do that as well uh initiated this through a uasi funding uh until help arrives and we've delivered six programs uh to over 60 citizens uh I will just take a note that um that very successful program that Ruth Anne was justed uh through Emergency Management and handed off to the senior center uh we we had secured funding for two years uh for that project during covid which was uh an extremely helpful and uh advantageous program especially to our seniors um and uh when that Source um uh went uh by the wayside as far as funding went through uasi uh we were able to hand it off to ruthanne and her staff and they've done a tremendous job of keeping it up and actually growing that program so um white 25 goals for the fire department uh begin the first fire station Renovations project station 4 uh we hope to uh start that project in in uh in Earnest in in the fall of uh of 20 4 uh and continue to reach our construction benchmarks as we go through that first phase uh in that highly pivotal station uh up on Reservoir and and the Boon Street um second uh goal is to operationalize our Astra program uh which we completed uh negotiations with the Union in our last contract uh we have had a recently had a tabletop exercise with the police department again through some uasi funding that we were able to secure and able and uh um have an inter agency uh tabletop exercise and the next phase of that is to go forward with uh a Hands-On uh exercise and we hope to be in the process of being able to do that towards um the early stages of April uh between the inter agency operatives of the Police Department fire department and our EMS Partners uh at Coast and uh the third uh of our goals is to accept and deploy our new engine one and engine 4 um construction acceptance C customization and training on uh those two pieces of apparatus we have uh our initial um meeting with the manufacturer for their first phase and uh we expect to receive those uh two new fire trucks sometime at the end of calendar year 2024 four for Emergency Management uh again to continue to uh strategic review of all of our emergency response plans including the simp our Oasis plan for uh migrant communities um evacuation plans Sheltering plans and mass care those are all on the board for uh this this fiscal year um coming up utilize Regional Asset Management toolkit which is a function of um uh the greater Metro PA Boston homeless security initiative and uh to be able to track and um maintain our resources uh in a more comprehensive fashion uh but it also ties into the regional uh assets so that if we were to uh need equipment that we don't particularly have on hand we would be easily able to go into that uh tracking um software and find our our neighbors who do have it and uh ask for assistance with whatever resources we would need and then finally to uh continue to conduct a fullscale Emergency Management drill uh around uh um the state is is looking for us to do a comprehensive uh evacuation drill uh but we also hope to uh accomplish a larger scale Asher drill as I spoke about earlier long-term goals and objectives for the fire department uh of course uh at the the top of the list is our Renovations and replacement of the fire stations uh as always uh we continue emphasis on firefighter health and safety initiatives including cancer screening pfast free PPE annual medical evaluations and fitness standards for all of our firefighters also to increase our fire prevention footprint including a true uh Community risk Reduction Program uh and um through the process of inspections enforcement risk analysis and planning and then uh finally uh in the long-term plan uh objectives is ladder company in South Brookline long-term goals and objectives for the Emergency Management function increased participation in our alert Brookline code red Mass notification system which has been uh a very uh robust and and uh well received uh and uh again uh in our collaboration and cooperation with the senior center uh Ruth Anne and her staff have been able to sign up uh along with Sophie uh Gordon and and Cheryl Snyder a a great number of our senior citizens into this Mass notification program uh which gives them you know a real sense of security and uh and uh communication with the town in the event of an emergency and does for all all citizens and we encourage everybody to go uh online on the Brookline website EOC website and there's a QR code there and you can sign up for alert Brookline and get those Mass notification messages uh strengthen the emergency response Readiness for all Brookline responders uh assets through additional training and collaboration and then lastly to enhance the influence of Brook Lin's objectives with um the Metropolitan um Metro Boston Homeland Security region and secure additional uasi funding uh from the same service level increases uh the fire department has realized the steady growth in call volume from 2015 to 2023 our total calls in that period are up by 25% approaching 10,000 calls per year um and our EMS and false alarm calls make up the buck uh the bulk of those increases um the fire department has seen increases in fire prevention services including plans review site reviews construction details and enforcement Personnel uh something that we've talked about in in the past and uh we'll be looking for um support from the the town in FY uh 25 FEMA safer Grant uh for four incident command technicians um they're they're they're imminently in tied into the firefighter safety and accountability on the fire scene uh it is something that uh the town used to have many many many years ago uh and through proposition two and a half budget cut um um unfortunately lost those uh those command technicians in today's day and age they are even more vital than they were 20 25 years ago uh in order to assist on the fire ground with the F with the one deputy chief that we have to make sure that uh we are at at the Forefront of safety and accountability for our firefighters and uh the safer Grant is a way for us to um utilize Federal money uh for funding for the first three years of employment for those four positions um this this is anticipated in our Renovations project and it is part of the uh buildout of station one and anticipation um of uh of that change in in our uh Manpower our priorities will continue to be the firefighter Health wellness and fitness uh the fire station Renovations maintaining our ISO class one rating we are currently in the process of um uh the iso rating review uh and we'll hopefully by the end of calendar year 2024 uh have completed that review so that we can maintain that class one rating which uh allows our citizens to have uh access to uh lower rates for their Home and Commercial properties uh for their uh fire Insurance uh relationship building with local uh 950 if is always at the Forefront of uh most of my everyday um uh you know interactions and we're uh I think we really have an excellent relationship and we continue to build on that in collaborative efforts including our station Renovations project uh which includes uh members of the local on that steering committee succession planning uh as well as Fire officer uh professional development are also our priorities and uh to enhance our community outreach initiatives new initiatives down the line something that we've talked about between police and fire over the course of the last few years uh the inevitable replacement of the computer AED dispatch uh CAD system uh which is the foundation for dispatch for both police and fire um the the company uh that we've been dealing with for the last 20 years or so was bought up by a Canadian uh firm uh and it is uh inevitable that the uh the new the new firm is going to uh roll out their new product and uh end of life the one that we have uh it isn't a foregone conclusion that we will continue to go with that particular company uh but it is something that we need to uh address and it will be part of a CIP um I'm sure uh a CIP request between police and fire public safety request going forward uh it is a multi-million doll project it is the basis for every uh response that we do both police and fire uh and uh it is uh the foundational element of our dispatch system uh continue to develop the town's Emergency Management function including um upgrades to our Emergency Operations Center and then uh formalize our community risk Reduction Program public education and that is uh my presentation for this evening uh and uh I know you have the budget book in front of you and uh our goals and objectives as well as our um our yearly uh uh performance indicators and um I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have regarding the fire department budget thank you Chief Selvin any questions from the s for Mike I I I do have one and maybe I should know the answer right it's a minor point you mentioned uasi what is uasi urban a urban area Securities initiative so that is the federal program uh you may have heard some push back from our fiduciary uh Boston uh in in the Boston city council a couple of months ago uh with regard to some of the um especially the uh the Boston Regional Intelligence Center um ultimately they they decided to accept the grant uh and um you know which is good for all of us uh in the in the uasi region um it it isn't as though the uasi funding would go away we would just have to find a different fiduciary to um manage manage the funds many of the uasi regions have a private entity that does it uh and they pay them out of the uasi funding uh to do that work um we have had the luxury of having Boston Emergency Management uh do that work for uh since its Inception uh and they do a fantastic job and uh we'd hate to see that that change anytime soon thank you on Chief thank you for what you've presented tonight and for um all of your services to Brooklyn and the department too um I I just want to focus in on one item out of the um the um significant list of fiscal year 24 accomplishments that you have presented to us and the item is number two um which mentions that um quite quite correctly that in cooperation with the building commission um reviewed bids negotiated a contract to provide architectural design project management contractor bids and related actions regarding the upcoming station renovation projects for stations four and one so that's that's two stations um out of five and this is all in the context of um uh town meeting approval of funds and voter approval of um debt exclusion for five stations um many millions of dollars I think it was 60 plus millions of dollars um and now we're doing four and one and you gave a very good um and honest uh report to the building commission at their latest meeting as to how the work on 4 and one is going and what the implications are for finishing all five stations within the allotted dollars can you sum that up for people tonight so that everybody is kind of on the same page with um what could be a a sizable ask that we're going to be facing in the future sure uh thank you uh John so um obviously when we uh proposed the renovations project back in 2019 uh preco a lot of the planning uh and the uh estimates were done uh under under that umbrella if you will that that place that we were all in prior to um the the world shutting down for for a year and a half um the the estimates that were brought before the voters so there's a difference between the warrant article and the allocation so the warrant article in and of itself does not have a number affixed to it it it simply states that you know the the town agrees to or the this this the citizens um uh agreed to the override not the override but the debt exclusion to fix and renovate the fire stations the allocation at town meeting uh was based on the assumptions at the time time of a $65 million Bond allocation to cover the costs at that time what we have found as we have moved forward now three plus years later uh as the design team went into their uh full analysis of the buildings uh as well as the cost of the fossil fuel free end of this um and the and the associated cost to to do uh whether it it is um one of several designs for fossil fuel free um forgive me I'm not a I'm not a uh you know an architect who knows the the the main uh components of it but there are three different choices and they escalate in uh cost and the last being and the most expensive being the geothermal um um option um so as you look at station one and Station 4 and the total costs that they estimate now based on the the the First Choice which uh forgive me I just don't have that in front of me right this minute to to give you the name of the type of electrification system that it is but it is the one that the Architects and the building um uh the building department uh recommends because of the um the nature of what it is we're trying to do with these older stations um station 4 comes in about 18% over budget um the the estimated original budget in station one comes in about 2% over the original estimated budget given the scale of the two different projects at station 4 being a much smaller building uh and station one obviously a larger structure um the cost implication for both of those is almost the same amount of money even though the percentages are are different um but it does come in over budget and so if you project that out over the course of the five stations um by the time we get to station the fifth station um if we do receive the uh uh the um go-ahead to exceed the original expectations but stay within the $65 million allocation as we get to that fifth project there will not be enough money in the allocation most likely to cover that last renovation and we would have to come before the voters again uh at a town meeting and say this is what we have left from the original 65 million here's the cost estimate for this last station would you would you vote to um allocate additional resources under the original debt exclusion which did not have a capped number to it and I'm I don't I'm sorry if I missed it but um did you give us a dollar figure as to what we might have to come back to town meeting to ask for it's it's I didn't because it's it's really impossible to say at this point um we're talking about probably by the time we get to station uh s um six years from now five to six years from now so the there's no telling what the cost implication of that is going to be at that time the the the um Architects and the building department experts are confident that the the first four projects will stay within the $65 million allocation that we already have uh at approval for it's just going to be uh the the Nexus between what's left and what is um of the actual cost for that fifth renovation now one of the things that I had proposed forward uh even back when this project originated was that our our last project which is station 7even at Washington Square is one that you might recall uh the union president at the time had advocated for a new station in the Washington Square area instead of a renovation that is something that we we um um dedicated that we would look into um obviously trying to find property in order to be able to do that uh is is difficult in Brookline any way shape or form you put it um we are also looking towards the legislature uh for the state because there has been a pending legislation before the uh House and Senate for the last uh three uh calendar years or fiscal years uh in a similar a similar a um uh opportunity like the school department has uh it's called the uh public safety building authority uh and so where we are able to utilize money through the state to help fund building schools um there is legislation for the same type of mechanism to allow cities and towns to ask the state for for additional funding uh for public safety building Renovations and Replacements and um you know the hope is if you will that uh by the time that we get to station 7 uh that there will be funding opportunities in that Arena as well oh that's good to hear do you mind if I follow off with one short yeah um a quick question and and then I'll have just a quick summing up comment of my own um so I just want be sure that people who are listening to this understand and you you've stated it very clearly but I just want to be sure people hear it clearly because you said we'll we'll do the first four within the allocation that we were granted by town meeting which is the 65 million which was actually for five stations so so when you're you're correct in saying that but the implication is you know some amount you know may maybe the entire amount for the fifth station won't be there because we will have spent it on as part of the spending on the first four what what was the amount in the budget for the fifth station um it it was in the area of $6 million for the renovation okay okay um and the the sort of summary comment I wanted to make because I I think it's one of these distinctions about Deb exemptions that people might not fully understand when when a or debt exclusion excuse me um when a debt exclusion on the ballot has no dollar number on it um if the project ends up going over the total amount that was allocated by town meeting town meeting can then come back and increase the amount of the budget for the project and it will be treated as though the voters have already Exempted the additional amount of debt that's how you expressed it as I understand and I believe you're quite correct in that that's the way I understand it as well yes okay thanks uh Paul uh Chief thank you for your your presentation and for um providing some clarity on this issue and John thanks for thanks for bringing it up um I guess Did we tell the voters we were going to build five renovate five fire stations when we approved the uh yes okay uh so I think that's a big problem um uh frankly we should renovate five stations for the 65 million Chief is it what is driving uh the cost overrun is there anything in particular uh it's it's construction costs prevailing wage and the electrification of the full electrification of the fire stations so moving do we know what extent of the electrification is is causing the overage percentage wise um I I don't Paul I I I can't tell you the exact amount uh it's it isn't really presented to us that way from from the design team uh as a total uh we're just given the total I don't I don't really have a percent of how much that is and and again this is this is with the understanding that we are going to choose option one which is the least expensive of the electrification uh options yeah and and I thank you for that I guess um I just um and this isn't going to have an implication for the budget this evening but when we when we ask the voters for something uh we should deliver what we commit to the voters so if we're getting if it was five stations we should renovate five stations I don't know how to work through that but um it it it does seem to be a pretty significant issue um but I understand cost of escalating but I I guess I'm trouble by John and thank you for bringing it up John I I was not aware of that um I learned something I learned a lot of things tonight um this the the second question and I I just um I hear a lot about this issue and I never really understand where it's at um it has to do with a ladder truck for self- brookl I hear this quite a bit uh um you know Hancock Village is significant it's grown quite a bit um I've heard you know there's um issues with potential uh times I'm not sure if if that's 100% accurate but I just I wanted to hear from you um your thoughts on that uh do you anticipate at some point that we would need need to add a ladder company and truck to to cover South Brookline I think it's something that is is definitely on the table for the continued growth of the town of Brookline uh as you saw in the program tonight uh we've had over the course of the last just eight years a 25% increase in our call volume uh with the same amount of resources uh and that that call volume includes uh you know all All Phases of what we do um there there is a gap in response time for South Brook line for our ladder companies just based on where we have them stationed at the mo at this time and uh in in uh station one down in the village um and uh also at station five on Babcock Street obviously North Brookline has the largest population density uh and if you look at a job analysis of uh firefighting as a as a u a breakdown in what it is that we need to put as far as resources on the fire ground in a certain amount of time to be able to affect effectual uh an effective response to a fire um the two ladders in the North End of the town are wholly appropriate and we need those resources as well uh in South Brookline where the density of population gets uh less lessened uh it it it it is something that we have a gap in uh and there used to be a ladder at station 4 back decades ago um that was changed um after proposition two and a half and that ladder was lost uh there was an experiment for a number of years with a quint uh which never really worked the way it was supposed to work in terms of closing that Gap because it can't serve two things at the same time it has to be either an engine or a ladder it can't be both uh unless you staff it with enough folks to make it both and then if you do that you might as well have a ladder and an engine and so there was no real cost savings there what there was was a a plation if you will of the um at the time that oh look we're going to give you a truck that can do both but in reality it it never did okay and so the the population is increasing in South Brook line it is something that I believe and we have done a study through the uh International Association of firefighters that was brought before this board a couple of years ago and we will certainly redo it before we come back to the voters and ask again uh and even a more deeper dive into it before we would ever ask for uh the money to do that okay so but I guess in summary I'm hearing you say yes indeed um at some point we may need a ladder truck company for to cover South Brook line is that what you're saying yes and can I I'm sorry I just had one more quick question I and I don't want to dominate the time here I'm sorry um can you help me just understand order of magnitude how much does a ladder truck cost and how much what does it take to to staff it so at this point in time uh the estimate is about a million dollars uh a year for personnel costs for an additional 20 firefighters uh again we would be looking to utilize the safer Grant uh opportunity through the federal government to uh get Staffing um uh costs uh covered by the federal government uh if we were successful for the first three years uh and then the allocation could be moved into the the town budget over time uh that's and and that would be something that would be uh most desirable a ladder in and of itself at this point it costs about a million three million four depending on the ladder that you're buying and um that has a 20year life cycle so if you do the math out over 20 years you know you've got a couple of few hundred thousand dollars a year couple hundred this was this was really helpful uh you know this this has been kind of I've been hearing this for a little while and you you clarified a lot of it for me thank you so much Mar yeah hi Chief hey Mar um I'm gonna ask question that I have been asking so I know the fire department did get some arpa funds so can you just tell us a little bit about that uh so the fire department received uh arpa funds uh for our diversity training um in in round one uh we were not successful in round two uh so we did a um a fire department specific diversity uh and inclusion training Dei training for all of our members uh which was uh widely um uh appreciated and accepted by our firefighters uh I do plan to um ask for uh a round three a second at the Apple at that it's been a couple of years now since or a year and a half since we've done it and we've got 15 new firefighters and there's always more to learn so that will be coming in round three as well um and uh we did receive uh an allocation for uh EOC upgrades uh and so after the pandemic we were able to uh identify uh some of the things that uh were shortfalls of the the EOC uh during that time and uh one of the things is the secondary um dispatch capabilities down at the Emergency Management Center and so uh we are uh in the process of continuing to outfit that second um dispatch capability uh and um we did an upgrade to our call center uh down there and uh we we also uh did upgrades to uh the emergency Operation Center uh layout and platform down there great thank you very much any other questions uh I have a question um um far station down on Hammond Avenue uh has a gas tank I I believe right um no which one you mean like Diesel and gasoline right no where where do you get your Diesel and gasoline from at the municipal service center okay the our our station one at um The Village has a diesel um tank and and uh um capability but it doesn't it it doesn't have gasoline at all okay my my actual question is um how how soon or is it possible for you you to convert some or all of your equipment to Electrical uh vehicles I know that there's a problem with some of them but or difficulty with some of them but I'm just wondering what uh you know what your plans are or what the potential is for uh converting to electrical Vehicles so as far as our staff Vehicles go um we we we look at uh our options for our staff vehicles in the non-emergency response area uh and so our fire prevention vehicles are training vehicles uh and we have uh uh said in the past and we will continue to commit that as we replace those vehicles and we have uh charging stations available to be able to um uh to be able to reservice those overnight uh then we will certainly move in that direction as far as the fire trucks themselves the apparatus uh right now it is it is not cost effective for us to do that in terms of the um we just don't have the infrastructure to support that it is something that we looked at in the uh Renovations plan as to whether we would be able to add additional power to those stations at this at at that point um the it was not part of the scope of the renovations project and it and so it is not part of that at this at this juncture uh down the line when we do station five for a rebuild we will certainly be looking to the architect to put those uh types of um uh capabilities into the new fire station but as far as the existing fire stations go uh we we're we're looking at a significant change to uh not only the Transformers that service each of these fire stations uh but potentially according to National Grid uh having to look at the overall substation capabilities within the town of Brookline uh which is a uh according to uh not National Grid but NSTAR here uh if if we were to be looking at the necessity to add or change the substations in town to be able to accommodate all of the electrification that's going on you're looking at a 15-year lead time uh in order to be able to do that at this point we are not on schedule within our vehicle replacement plan to replace new an apparatus until 203 fiscal 2032 right so just to follow up on I know one of the things that that is a barrier because the chief and I have talked about this is that when you have a electric uh a battery powered vehicle if the battery runs out you stop pumping you stop you know nothing nothing works uh and I'm on the website of Pierce which is one of the major manufacturers of fire engines and what they offer is an electric vehicle but it has an internal combustion engine engine for when the batteries have been depleted so it's a hybrid and that's about as good as you're going to get at least at this stage of technology and and that cost right now uh Mike is about double what we're paying for right an engine right this moment uh and it does not include the the the sustained costs to our utilities to be able to continually charge all of these vehicles as well right yeah I I bet the C I just looking at the size of the battery in their drawing I would say it's there's a lot of money just in the battery you know that's that's typical sure okay any other questions comments I just want yes that Melissa is on as well talk a little bit about the fire station projects uh hello Melissa hi I just wanted to add um something to the conversation about the process for um you know when when a debt exclusion related process um project goes over budget um how that works we we had that experience a few years ago with the high school um there is a a a form that we would need to fill out and um discuss with the Department of Revenue to explain the overage and um you know it's something The Architects of the project would need to kind of help us uh sort out the explanation behind the overage and then the Department of Revenue would then make a determination as to whether or not any overage could be applied to the ex to the existing authorization for the debt exclusion or whether we would need another vote in order to get additional capacity so um you know a lot of that has to do with the way that the project is presented and it's also something that I always remind the advisory committee um that their project explanations that go in front of town meeting are critical because that's really what do relies on when they're looking at whether or not a project is still within the original scope that was contemplated at the time of the thank you and just to add on this because I know we we've been working internally on this question of how over budget we are what the options are but we are in agreement that we want to do this and do it right we want to balance the community priorities between electrification getting to Net Zero getting to car not just Net Zero but fossil fuel Freedom um and figuring out how to do this project at the budget that we told the voters it was going to cost so we're still working together internally to present a plan to the select board on next steps here which is where we are May Bernard sure and J that's great news to hear um and Melissa if I recall the high I think this was the high school project where we we had the overage and um in addition to how the Project's defined it there's kind of a percentage threshold right that that once you get Beyond um is when you need to go back to the voters is that is that it is it as simple as that or is it more complicated I think it's a little bit more complicated so as an example with the high school project we we had town meeting authorized a certain number it was I think around $35 million do actually said nope less than that is what you're able to apply to the debt exclusion so we have some bonding Authority that we're going to need to resend because there's currently not a funding source but it's not something that we were ever contemplating spending once we got the number from do that was our revised budget that we operated with for that particular project okay great thank you and didn't we have to go town meeting had to go back and vote for more funding for that correct I think I think we did yeah we didn't have to go to the voters that's I think no but town meeting had to rote I mean had to vote a second well we we did have to go to Department of Revenue it as yeah yes I'm just happy to say that my overage won't be anywhere near the high schools ah yeah what they're trying to do essentially is pro is you know to avoid scope creep so let's say that you originally went for five Renovations and then you decided you wanted to rebuild three stations instead of one um that is clearly outside of what was ever contemplated at the time of vote so that's what they're trying to avoid is is kind of growing the scope that was something that the voters never never knew about when they voted for it right I hope I hope they go the other way when you said that you they were going to get five of something and now they're only getting four so I think that's you know another issue that's probably important as well okay thank you CH svin next uh the library we have someone to is remote I'm promoting her now hi there can everyone hear me good evening Miss Hurst hi uh let me bring up my presentation okay uh are you all able to see my presentation yep wonderful so I'm happy to meet with you all this evening uh to share an update about the library department but before we get started I'd like to recognize that a number of our Board of Library trustees are also with us tonight thank you Karen Livingston Carol Loi Judith fander Judy Goldman John Margolis Chris chanis suet Kristen hung and Marissa vote for attending and support this evening uh again uh this is a report to the select board from the library Department my name is Amanda Hurst your director of libraries so first I'd like to talk a little bit about our accomplishments in FY 24 uh we are the fourth busiest library in the Commonwealth after Boston Cambridge and Newton and uh this number does not correlate to population size as you know Brooklyn's around the 18th largest town or city in Massachusetts and so what I think that represents is that Brookline is a community of readers who appreciates its Library also our accomplishments include meeting our annual goals and completing four action items that the board votes on every year and this is in addition to our regular complement of programs that we plan and execute throughout the year um we've also implemented a number of process improvements at the library which allows us to meet our annual goals and action items and this includes improvements in scheduling and absence management uh employee onboarding and our operations workflows which um has put structures in place to manage any unforeseen issues that we may have at the library um in our day-to-day uh operations the library is required to report a number of metrics to the state in order for us to remain certified and so we do keep a wealth of statistics on our library operations programs and services and I'll go into some of those in Greater detail in this presentation looking ahead to fy2 before I launch into our key goals I'll talk a little bit about our budget the library's proposed budget is um an increase of 1.8% from FY 24 uh libraries in order to remain certified by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners um must meet certain requirements and that in in order to remain certified every year and that includes meeting its Municipal Appropriations requirement meet the minimum standards of free public library service um which is uh open hours metrics and um and then also submitting annual reports and forms to show that we're in compliance the certification from the mblc allows the public library of Brooklyn to receive its full Award of state aid which is approximately $100,000 among other benefits and so uh I work closely with town the town finance in order to make sure that we're meeting that requirement with a budget increase and in order to calculate this we take the average of the previous three years budget and multiply it by two and a half percent and then commit to funding our library collections at 12% so the 1.8% budget increase that the library will be receiving will go to um roughly 35,000 of that will go to salaries 19 19,000 towards Services 19,000 towards supplies primarily our book budget and then another 7,000 to budgeted Capital which is primarily our least equipment computers and um copiers our key goals for this year are similar to last year's goals um they're good goals and they've car they've served us well and I think they will continue to service well through fy2 so that's to support K through2 education and lifelong learning focusing on two key areas steam which is an acronym for science technology engineering the Arts and math as well as literacy we'll partner with organizations in Brooklyn and Beyond to increase the of Library collections programs and services especially to those who are unfamiliar with what the library is and does implement a library-wide strategy for equity and inclusion that will include deliberate practices to increase diversity both within the organization and in our collections programs and services and then increase opportunities to for citizens to engage with Library staff Collections and pro and services without having to visit a library so our long-term objectives uh with the library I identified three areas one is sustained growth of Library program services and collection so that we'll continue to meet the um changing needs of the community building improvements which would include renovation or new construction in all three of our locations and then advocate for internal pay Equity among Town staff and when I talk about internal pay Equity what I'm referring to is that jobs across departments um similar jobs across departments are compensated similarly uh at the library we have custodians division heads and Librarians like other departments but they're all compensated very differently in terms of new initiatives um we would we prioritize uh initiatives that are Ser service driven and that prioritize the staff Patron interaction and so we're carrying forward two that we hope to see into fruition in fy2 which is the library bookmobile which is partially funded by the arpo round 2 Grant as well as an automated Materials Handling system and what this is is a conveyance system of Library mat materials that um allows items to be self allows items to be checked in and sorted onto a uh shelving cart in order to go back on the Shelf so this reduces the amount of time that staff are actually handling Library materials and so that frees them up to um interact uh with our patrons uh the amh system will be installed first brookin Village and our estimated date of delivery for that is mid to end of July and in terms of service demands uh for Library Services more is actually more any service increase in FY 24 equal an increase in our metrics we uh were open longer hours and we had extended summer hours and we had an increase in Patron visits so this past year we had 470,000 plus visitors to the library we were able to offer more programs and we had higher attendance and so we there were thousands of library programs with around 26,000 attendees and then more access we've been able to provide more access to our e- sources which has um increased usage uh so year-over-year we're seeing about a 20% increase in overdrive usage which is our main ebook vendor uh the library spends its time reading to the town's children we provide after school activities and we provide elll and citizenship programs to new residents as well as help our senior citizens with tech support and providing book clubs and other activities such as movie viewing programs uh at the library for them so really our constraints on growth right now are budget based rather than demand when we talk about Library Personnel the most again the most important asset of any Library goes home at night and that's our library staff we have 42 full-time positions and 34 part-time positions um our part-time positions do not receive benefits and are capped at 18 hours a week and part of my Personnel wish list would be to be able to consolidate some of our part-time positions to either full-time or part-time with Benefits positions uh I also wish for an assistant director of Public Services the library has a director for an assist director for administration and typically libraries have both an assistant director for public services and administration and then lastly we can always use uh additional it support uh in the day-to-day we hired a library it support specialist and that position I think would be greatly supported by a Help Desk position as well and then when I think in terms of No Limits budget priorities for the library it would allow us to do the following things which is to hire and retain top talent have state-of-the-art facilities be known for our Innovative approaches to programs and services cultivate a positive reputation with name and brand recognition and have a recognition for our library leadership and expertise which would culminate in the public library of Brooklyn being a leader in our field and so that's my presentation I'm happy to take it any questions that you may have great thank you uh Paul uh thank you for your presentation um I have one question and one ask I'm gonna make my ask first um it would be great to have some sort of tag put on books because my children are forever borrowing books and I can never find them in the house I am constantly scurrying around trying to find the books you want the Apple tags I don't care what it is but if you it's something that I can use to find uh find the uh the book would be tremendously helpful the books uh anyway that's my own personal issue um you mentioned that the an increase in hours has increased the number of customers um that's a direct correlation um do you have a a sense of the percentage hours increase and the percentage of of number of customers you you didn't show the change you just said that we increased hours and we got 430 something thousand customers visits yes I I believe our visits went up by about two and a half percent over um from the previous fiscal year and then we didn't change our hours very much over the summer um and so we were able to maintain summer hours with the exception of a Sunday closure of Brookline Village from mid June to about Labor Day and so we had uh two locations then being fully open on Saturdays when the previous year they were closed um we also increased putter Ham's operational hours by about two hours over the course of the week as well so I guess in to so in total the entire systemwide you increase the number of hours in system wide you had a two and a half% increase in number of visitors yes okay that's that's great so more hours equals more visits I guess is what you're is what you're saying is there a way to get more visits without increasing the hours has that ever happened well you don't need to answer that qu you don't need to answer that question sorry I will no I will say that we have been building back very successfully with Co not every library has been able to bounce back the way our libraries have in terms of usage um since the covid closures yeah well you're doing a fantastic job and we love the library our family loves to visit and you're doing a great work thank you so there there's a lot of uh concern about uh Senior Services in South Brooklyn and uh I was wondering if uh the library in South Brooklyn um has any Outreach or specific programs in collaboration with the senior center for seniors or is that something that you can look forward to yeah uh we do um we're actually a frequent partner in the Council on Aging um our putterham library uh has a program called gentle chair yoga with Keith Beasley that's been happening for a number of years and it's one of um it's a program that our South book Brooklyn and Senior residents are quite attached to and uh they they uh support that program very vehemently in addition to that we um partner with the Council on Aging on a senior book club that happens out of the putterham library that is available both I believe it's available both in person and online for seniors to access so those are just two that come to mind right Miriam thank you I'm gonna ask my usual question so um thank you for this presentation thank you for the work of the library um uh you had mentioned arpa funding used for the bookmobile but I think you got some other arpa funding so can you just there was some arpa funding in round one uh related to some technology upgrades and that includes um enhancement to uh our laptop so we were able to replace some of the laptops we also during covid times where we were concerned about the number of people mingling in the library we were also able B to implement technology that allowed us to determine how densely populated a portion of the library was and allowed us to space people out appropriately uh we're still able to use that to detect uh how busy our building is at any particular moment and then the third that we have been able to implement what were solar chargers for devices at each of our locations that people can sit outside and uh recharge their devices you know with the Rays of the Sun as opposed to um electricity great thank you are those used a lot uh well they were installed in the fall and so it hasn't been perfect outdoor weather to uh test those out but I suspect that they will get much usage when the weather improves thank you we have a small homeless population in in Brooklyn but but uh I understand that to some degree uh the library is a friendly and um sometimes warm location uh do you have Outreach programs or how how do you address you know the issues and concerns that arise with with uh homeless individuals in the library you're you're correct we do make um space for anyone that walks into our door we do not ask for identification for residency status or for whether or not they um you know or any socioeconomic um indicators and so the library is often seen as a place where people can go that is warm and dry when um the weather isn't so friendly um we treat our all of our Pat patrons similarly if they can abide by our library rules of conduct then they are welcome to stay and um when we notice that there are people who may be in need of service we do have information um for them so for example if a patient had a hygiene issue and they were in need of resources uh we have a brochure about the resources in town where people can get cleaned up um find uh a change of clothes uh and use of laundry and uh we we also partner quite frequently with other Town departments such as the town social worker to uh work with folks who may also be in need of services you know um we have a um homelessness task force that meets occasionally um I I assume that the library has a represent ative to that in terms of coordinating Services across departments and um around the town um so good yes I just want to really thank you for that I think it's really important to see our unhoused population as people and treat them as people with respect so I really really appreciate it thank you John um hi hi Amanda and and thank you for um the excellent service that the library provides um couple of question questions have you um had any particular issues with filling positions at various levels that's one and the other one uh question is has have any individuals or groups approached the library with suggested lists of books not to be sheld at the library great question uh we have had a number of vacancies this year uh more so than I care to have actually uh but we have had successful recruitments for a number of our library positions I will say that the industry in general is in transition postco there are a number there were a number of retirements um during the pandemic and then once the you know organizations were sort of safe somewhat safely through it people you know felt like it was it was time for them to retire and so challenge that I have had in filling vacancies is mostly around positions that require uh a high level or extensive level of experience so when I talk about uh those positions it's for our department heads within the library people who need to have um you know five years of experience some of that management experience um and so those are the the vacancies that have taken the longest to fill uh in terms of um any challenges or feedback that we receive on Library materials we have we have not in my tenure had any formal challenges regarding any um library book uh and the the library has a process for patrons if they did want to request that we reconsider um having an item at the library that they would be welcome to follow and ultimately it would be decision um by our Board of Trustees but uh a tenant of Library Services is what we call intellectual freedom and so that means that we uh carry books on a wide array of topics and sometimes I'd like to say we you know there's always something in the library to offend someone so thanks any other questions well let me try one few years ago there was a concern about the U requirements from the government federal government to uh turn over information on the book reading habits of patrons is that still a problem and and how do we deal with it so in Massachusetts there's actually a law that protects um patent privacy related to items checked out and so there isn't a way to retrieve checkout data um within the law that I'm aware of and if we had a court order or foyer request for that the the library would act in consultation with Town Council to make sure that we are protecting Patron privacy within um Massachusetts law any other questions from the select board no thank you very interesting okay thank you so much thank you okay thank you thanks next Warren uh Warren articles public hearing we have two warrant articles up for public hearing article nine to establish and acrude liabilities reserve and who is gonna talk about that is that Lincoln Lincoln Melissa and I can and Charlie all of all of us are here okay the gang's all here good evening um article 9 is an article filed by uh both me and Lincoln um to address our unfunded vacation and uh comp comp time liabilities um we currently have a um vacation liability about $4.4 million uh dollars now obviously um that becomes a problem as we have uh retirements because if you haven't used your vacation um that's a rather large buyout especially as you know as you uh acrew it and then you move on to higher level positions that liability can grow um you know we've been looking at ways of managing our um our employee balances for vacation and comp time um we've made some strides in our mid managers and and Technical staff uh in terms of encouraging vacation use and um you know trying to make sure that the Caps uh are adhered to um it provides a larger Challenge on the union side where you know a lot of past practice has allowed for the Caps to go over um and some of the some of the employee acrs are rather large um and as these employees are nearing retirement they become more problematic so um we're looking to establish a reserve that would allow us to um address some of the larger biots that may occur in the near- term um and so Warren article 9 allows us to establish the reserve uh you may recall that one of the recommendations for the use of free cash is to provide a million dollars to support the establishment of this Reserve okay any questions from the slick board Paul yep uh thanks Melissa um so I just want to understand this a a little bit better so um this is this is vacation acrs people don't take their vacation and they get to carry it over um is could you explain about how how do how do how does one accumulate vacation don't go I mean that's essentially what it is is that you know we we have an annual allotment of vacation and um over the years and this is going back decades that you know people have not um adhere to the Caps that have been stated in both you know policy and some collective bargaining agreements there there are it's not everywhere I mean I think that there are um you know for examp example uh in the fire Union you have to schedule out your vacation every year so the the the balances are not as large in fire um you know in police this has become a problem we've had a lot of retirements recently in police and this has kind of exacerbated the issue um needing to fund those bi outs um that have occurred over the last you know three four years um and you know with our mid-managers and our non-union employees um we're able to you know better enforce some of the Caps that we do have in place um but it is still it's still uh a lagging issue just from years of um allowances that have been um given to to employees to exceed the Caps so when when you say what's the C what is the cap tell me about the cap so I I rely on an since she is more familiar with uh the provisions of the contract and and kind of in general what the what the Caps are um for the bar I'm just wondering what the definition is is it you can you can only carry up to 25 hours or something or there's some unlimited caps I just don't understand what cap means so I can I can speak to that thank you um and Braga for um Brookline HR um depending on the contract or the classification and pay plan the standard is um that folks who have been with us since 2013 or earlier um have a maximum of eight weeks and folks that came on board after 2013 is a maximum of six weeks to be carried over that's the standard um as Melissa said um in the case of fire and dispatch um they aren't allowed to carry their time over for the most part unless there's a special exception made um there are caps in other collective bargaining agreements um That Vary depending on on the agreement the number of hours worked um but those haven't been um enforced so what we would need to do is to Prov provide notice to the uh collective bargaining unit eboards to say you know effective such and such a date we will be enforcing the caps and much like we did with the mid managers um a couple of years ago we gave them about six six months notice to say we are going to enforce the caps and what that means is that if you are in excess of the Caps as of a certain date um you will no longer acrew vacation time over and above the app and we had um what will I say a very vehement um and strident response from members of the mid managers who were um not going to be acre for them um to you know that this was going in place what I will say is with the exception uh we probably had about 40 mid managers that were over the cap to any extent and by the time we went to um actually not um allow for acrs we were down to around a dozen and now we're probably under 10 um for those folks that are over and above so so the Caps do work Berard if you could just bear with me I'm I'm still trying to understand this a little bit so so when you say let's take a six- week cap that means that an employee could carry over up to six weeks into the next calendar year but do they carry it forever can they keep each year could they accumulate six weeks so some people have a hundred weeks of f food vacation that we have to pay out or is our only exposure a Max of six weeks for per employee it would be either six or eight weeks assuming the Caps are being enforced they don't it isn't six weeks per year okay it's not it's not it's not it's not accumulating o o over the lifetime I guess I'm I'm hoping that um I understand with collective bargaining that with the unions we have to deal with that as a collective bargaining but um this seems like something that I'm hoping that we can get ahead of and enforce it seems self-inflicted uh a bit but this is a big reason why in this fiscal year we want to establish this fund is because be clear to folks you know they're they're as part of negotiating it's possible that what we might do is for example we might have a um one one aspect of comp of of vacation time is compensatory time which you know is very uh there's a high amount of that in the police unions there's high amount of that elsewhere and people you know it's a it's a benefit people you know accumulate a fair amount of at comp time um for taking certain shifts or doing certain work um and so if we were to say as part of a bargaining process I don't know you know if you're X if you're above the cap to x amount as of six month you know there was there will be a one-time offer to buy back some of that back some hours right um so I think I think the fund is an acknowledgement that we have a growing liability and we need to try to put money away for it yes but the real issue is we're not enforcing our cap we're enforcing the cap everywhere we can um the issue that we're facing is that in areas where past practice has limited our ability we're going to need to bargain it um and so part of bargaining is incentivizing new patterns of behavior okay thank thank you right I was going to say that the other part of bargaining is for management to do its job and enforce where it can that's correct and it sounds like if you're on the track for that yeah yeah good good um right so we're going to be we need to fund this in the in subsequent budgets presumbly yes a uh a reserve fund without any money and it doesn't do much good that's right but again we're fortunate this we're fortunate this year this year it's it's a unique opportunity for us we're talking about limiting liabilities across the board limiting pension liabilities op liabilities contributing to St ization fund dealing with things like this I will note that on this matter it's not exclusively a town issue there are some school caps involved there are people who are at the caps in the schools um so it's not entirely a townside issue and we want to make sure that that's reflected as well one of the other things that we encounter is that um sometimes we have folks transfer between the schools in the town and when they come over from the schools where there are different policies Sometimes they come over with significant vacation balances um and so that's an eort to we need to be able to control for um you know I I don't want to name specific cases but you know some of some of the the B the some of the bigger cases have involved employes that have transferred between schools in town and you mean the funding doesn't come along with them ah if only okay we'd have another 150 emails if that happened uh any other questions okay this is a public hearing uh I'll open up the public hearing to see if anyone would like to speak I see someone coming up from the back of the auditorium good evening good evening can you hear me yes very well um thank you members of the select board for your service to this town and for listening to my public comment tonight um I am a long time Brookline resident my name is Liz Gorman I'm also the parent of two Brookline um well Lincoln School and Brookline High School students uh I am also a Spanish teacher at Brookline High School in my 28th year of teaching um I speak here in all three capacities uh I'm here to advocate for the select board authorizing the full funding of the school department which excuse me this is a hearing on on article nine oh I'm sorry I thought you invited said call me up for I thought you were it was it was on it was on the war at the very end of the meeting there'll be an opportunity for public comment sorry we're almost there uh we're almost there we'll let you we'll let you no it's okay we'll let you begin again sorry okay uh folks on Zoom can use the handraiser Q&A feature to let us know that they'd like to make a public comment at this time um and Bernard just let us know if anybody in the room if anyone else in the room would like to speak on this issue there's 17 one in the room that's uh indicated a desire to speak okay uh we have 17 attend is in zoom and no one is using the hand raise or Q&A feature at this point to indicate they'd like to make a comment okay I'll close the hearing then uh any further questions from the select board um is is this something that we feel comfortable voting tonight yes I do okay good uh then I move approval of uh article n I'm sorry favorable action on article 9 establishing a acred liabilities reserve on in favor please indicate by saying I John vak I maram ashkanazi I Michael Sandman I Paul Warren I and chair votes I thank thank you next is article 18 resolution to create a social wealth fund study committee uh Mr Bruno a town meeting member from Precinct 17 I apologize if that's not an it's all right you did better than most I appreciate it all right Anthony Bono town meeting member Precinct 17 can you hear me all right is that all right all right cool so um I want to go in and just give my little spiel about kind of what it is and uh the philosophy that goes on behind something like this and then I want to take as many questions as you guys have related to it so hi everybody today I'm here to introduce you all to the idea of a social wealth fund and my proposal to create one here in Brooklyn this will be a transformative approach to Collective prosperity and pave the way for more Equitable and financially secure future for our community before we go into what is a social wealth fund and the details of my proposal I want to begin with where this idea stems from and the philosophy behind it it's no secret to everyone in this room that the wealth born of our nation's economic growth does not magically trickle down to the average American for far too long we have not tackled the difficult question of how to effectively make the working and middle class people in towns like ours benefit from our nation's expansion currently it is large corporations that reap the benefits of our economic progress progress that is only made possible by our infrastructure judicial system human capital educational institutions and vibrant democracy all of which are built off the backs of of the progress of America's Collective achievements the working class in towns like ours built our infrastructure educated our children and nurtured our institutions and yet when corporate stock prices go up loing local workingclass people in communities like ours feel almost none of it what I'm proposing today will act as a small but necessary step to realign our economy uh a Brookline social wealth fund will bring the benefits of our nation's economy back home to communities like ours belongs so what is a social wealth fund a social wealth fund is when a government invests a portion of its revenues and uses the generated Capital returns to address social inequities this is not a new or radical idea countries and states have been operating social wealth funds for years to generate frequent and consistent Revenue to better their citizens lives the French deposits and Consignments fund was created back in 1816 and directly invests government revenues into the market to ensure long-term growth and sustainability similar systems currently like exist in the United States a Brooklyn social wealth fund will do multiple things first it will help us accumulate the resources necessary to combat poverty second it will improve brookline's financial position by ensuring the longevity of our AAA Bond rating and third it will generate these benefits without continuous tax increases so what is the plan specifically well that is where the study committee has to come into play I must admit I am not an expert on Municipal Finance or the intricate legal regulations that need to be abided by to make an investment fund like this from the ground up however I have developed a general plan that can be a starting point for the study committee to launch off of first we have to create the fund under chapter 40 section 5B of Massachusetts state law municipalities can set up special purpose stabilization funds to save and invest money for any use desired by the locality Berlin L and casset have all opened special purpose stabilization funds through this provision although they do not currently invest their funds in higher yield assets after we create this fund we must identify a funding source and invest the money the specifics of both of these points will be the subject of the study committee itself but I want to give some estimations of what the town could accomplish through my preliminary outline with minimal withdrawals from the fund over a 50-year time frame with responsible funding the Brooklyn social wealth fund can accumulate around 823 million assuming we can capture the average market rate of return adjusted for 3% inflation that is $182 million this rate of return will depend on if the finance department study committee can build out a diversified portfolio of high yield assets from the list of legal municipality Investments under chapter 167f section 3. 1-5 um if needed I can run through those five points of the different things we're allowed to invest in through the stabilization fund after putting this money away for 50 years we would be able to take out 3.5% of our Brooklyn social wealth fund every year in perpetuity without the value of the social wealth fund ever decreasing this is because our withdrawal rate will be less than our growth rate plus inflation rate this will be approximately $6.3 million annually adjusted for that 3% inflation what can we do with all this well we can fight for social justice we will allocate this money to close the equity Gap in our community wherever it exists putting the municipality on the front lines of reducing poverty so much falls on the shoulders of the municipal government we are tasked to do everything from educating our children to running Emergency Services addressing housing inequalities mental health struggles Business Development and so much more we are struggling to do everything and we're struggling to fund it all this charts A New Path instead of raising taxes incessant to fund social programs we will have an income generating fund that will always be there to fight for social justice no matter what is it worth it in my preliminary outline Brooklyn will be investing $19 million in inflation adjusted dollars over the 50 years in the 51st year Brookline can begin withdrawing $6.3 million meaning after 50 years of investing Brookline makes all of its money back in three years and then after that if the US is stole around and the market keeps growing it's continuous profit forever how will we fund it this will be the main topic of the study committee it may be through allocating a small portion of income generated from new commercial development or General Revenue through free cash it has to depend but this will be the topic of the study committee I want the funding to come from a responsible and reliable place there is no reason that this program should financially burden the town as the goal is to give us Financial Freedom not the opposite I want to make it uh clear in my explainer attached to my warrant article I specifically mentioned the priority of funding the pension the unfunded pension liabilities and the um other post-employment benefit stuff I make it specifically clear that until certain metrics are hit funding should not exceed a certain amount if we invest now reap enormous rewards in the decades to come this will be an example to the nation an example how to bring our nation's economic output to the communities that built it this is a path to make the people get their fair share of the economy that they helped create I understand that it's hard to comprehend and appreciate the benefits of something that I'm suggesting is 50 years away but I want to remind everyone of FDR's fight to enact Social Security countless advisers warned him that creating such a program at that time was useless they W they warned it would not be politically popular they warned it wouldn't do anything to attack the issues of the day they warned it could be deflationary by pulling money out of General circulation FDR rebuked these criticisms as he saw the larger picture of what he was attempting to build a future where the government was there to catch you when you fall to Aid you when you are sick and to let you retire with dignity we take this for granted today but it was FDR's decision in 1935 when the economy had hardly recovered to look beyond the current moment and plan for the future Generations when advisers hounded him to postpone the enactment of Social Security due to immediate concerns FDR responded with we can't help that we have to get it started or it will never start let us let us harness that energy here and recognize the urgent need to plan for the future that we want to make a society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit so let us take take a small step towards building a better future where we have the resources to fight for social Equity the way it deserves to be fought thank you thank you uh I have can I ask first question I me so um is there an a state other than Alaska that has a social service fund yeah there's one in West Virginia North West Virginia West Virginia me and West Virginia North Dakota a lot of the government protocols that I have in my explainer is from the North Dakota Lake legac fund and Texas has one for their school system as well okay thank you um Miriam so first I just have to say that we can't talk about social security and FDR without please giving a nod to Francis Perkins yep love Francis Perkins shout out to her the Department of Labor would happen without buil this whole plan and convinced him to do it um and I am not overstating that um I have a couple of uh I have a recommendation I I actually think I think it's a idea worth exploring I think it's it uh it's not a heavy lift to have a study committee um in something that I think you know is at least worth talking about my recommendation to you would be for the now therefore Clause to be more specific about who you how many people should be on this committee give us a little more guidance it makes it much easier for the select board um I mean it could be seven to nine it doesn't have to be very prescriptive but it's very very vague now Okay so if you know what the other committees look like or have looked like in the past a little guidance for the select board if they were to then adopt this we'll do thanks uh Mike do you have your yeah I do so um first of all um you and I have talked about this uh really going back to the town meeting uh and uh at the time I thought uh well this is interesting but I I didn't think it was feasible and I think I expressed that to you uh and uh regrettably my my view hasn't changed very much um it is interesting and visibility is really uh open to open the question one of the differences between uh Social Security being enacted by the federal government and uh what you're talking about is that the federal government doesn't need to balance its budget uh and certainly and FDR was an Exemplar of not doing that for good purpose no question about it I'm a Keynesian after all so I certainly was was uh certainly what what he did was uh uh was really magnificent but um that's not something that we can you know we have to have a a balanced budget and you've been sitting here this evening and you listen and very patiently I must say you listen to Council on Aging talking about the needs that it's going to have we had the discussion about the reserves that we need to increase in order to keep our uh AAA rating and I I'm not sure whether something that's invested for for with a commitment of not taking any money out for 50 years would have the same resonate in the same way with uh with with the rating agency I will say in the I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt you that's all right uh the schools uh we've had uh I think all each of us have had somewhere around 120 emails asking us to quote fully fund the schools even though we have fully funded the schools to the extent that we can uh and uh you've heard the discussion about from Public Safety uh the needs of the fire department uh goes on and on uh and so the feasibility is it's is is is open to question uh and uh I would just um caution you on making estimates based on trends that uh Trend over 50 years is um you know there will be inflation over 50 years what that what the average rate will be what the average rate of return in the market will be is uh difficult to hang your hat on and particularly uh I would caution you about um thinking that we can invest in high rate of return assets within the framework that we are allowed uh any more than we do now with our existing uh Pension funds so um when you're presenting this at town meeting please be care careful uh to really hone your uh um your predictions based on the you know take a careful look at the rates that you're using um because you'll have a lot of people in town meeting who will know a great deal about rates of return and um some of them will ask you some some difficult questions if you're not careful I will say the the rate I used was just the S&P return since 1929 that was the rate that I used for the Assumption there the before or after the stock market crash before starting before yeah I think so okay um I wanna I want to outline here let's see if there's more do we want to keep going sorry oh wait yeah you were gonna answer think question there I don't really know there was a question in there but well okay yeah well John really don't F over what repeat for us what is the rate of return that you're assuming here 10% whoa well 10.26 is the S&P 500 returns 29 can the rest of us get in on this uh he's saying you can yeah you just buy the S&P Index Fund I don't know anybody who's no the trouble is we're not allowed to buy Index Fund you're right you're right what we are allowed to buy are insurance company stocks Saving Bank investment funds utility company stocks common corporate stocks and then SEC regulated stocks SEC regulated stocks are allowed to be 15% of the overall portfolio Saving Bank Bank investment funds are allowed to be 50% of the overall portfolio so for my understanding I'm not a lawyer but that can get us to around 65% of stuff that is at least involved in the market now Saving Bank investment funds there are aggressive Saving Bank investment funds that do take advantage of of uh you know General Equity markets so I think that that could get us not to 10 but maybe to seven and eight and that still makes the thing totally viable if I if you don't mind my asking do you personally invest in the Market or well yeah I have my retirement account are you getting 10% annual rate of return about you are yeah well good for you maybe we'll put you put you in charge of the fund all you have to do is invest in the S&P and then you get it I mean well it depends on the year well yeah it's it's it's a question what can what what can be a a Guaranteed Rate and and uh over years I don't know anybody who's guaranteeing 10% a year over 50 years but anyway um uh truthfully what worries me about all this I there's no there's no nothing wrong with the idea of Warren Buffett has phrase get rich slowly you know um get rich slowly you know put put aside a bunch of money at the beginning wait 50 Years it'll grow into a blah blah you know etc etc etc um what what I'm worried about is the way that you have packaged this and the rhetoric you're using um makes it sound like you're saying um people can get rich uh by doing you know B basically without having to actually put anything at risk um and this is you know absolutely putting money at risk and it it also you know sort of creates a notion that we will solve all our problems if 50 years from now we have so much money set aside that we get a $6 million return on it I mean six we can withdraw $6 million on every year 50 years from now I I don't think 6 million is going to go all that far no it's six million inflation adjusted so it's six million in today's dollars it's a 2% increase in over overal budget yeah I think I think we're saying the same thing well $6 million is not won't go a long way I'm saying $6 million in 2024 cash not $6 million in future cash yeah and future cash in nominal terms is 28 million but I that number doesn't mean much though it's six Mill 6.3 million in real adjusted terms yeah um but but um what about the 19 million that you have to come up with at the beginning not at the beginning so at the beginning my funding mechanism that I very is a very preliminary outline that is not hold to the resolution at all it's just to showcase the possibility of what can be accomplished is 0.7% of the town's Revenue invested every year that is $250,000 once the pensions liability is fully funded we increase that 07 to 0.1 to 0.14 of percent of town Revenue get us closer to 300,000 to 500,000 invested each year after 50 years it accumulates 19 million invested over 50 years all real adjusted for $ 2023 and then we make our money back 3 years after so really it genuinely does pay for itself it's the same thing as get one marshmallow now or three later uh other people can look at your math I don't think it I don't think it Bears out I did some quick math just with a savings calculator here it didn't it didn't even come close adding up to the kind of numbers that you're talking about you know um uh you know plugging in the beginning amount the the amount invest amounts over and I put in a realistic number as to you know what you might get as a return which is what most people use these days on our own retirement portfolios we have been lowering the anticipated rate to bring it into a realistic range it's now in the range of about 6% if we're talking about and even that we're we're not necessarily staying with it we've had some good years yes but you know we'll probably have some bad years so perent makes a lot of sense because most of the time when you're talking about retirement planning you want of you want to view your calculations of what you're going to have post um inflation so if you account account for inflation all my calculations it's a grow rth of 7% right if if we account for inflation I'm talking about a 7% gross rate minus the when we take out the inflation stuff um I I I can send you the spreadsheet too I want you not I'm not that I I I don't believe in this kind of financing of government operations I just don't so you know and by the way it's Bill Spitz not Warren Buffett who F get well I'll stand corrected oh there's one more Point too on the second page of my explainer I do make it very clear about the risks I actually underlined it I said by investing in corporate equities and index funds there is a risk of Lo is loss of principle if as performance is not guaranteed as past performance is no guarantee of future results in addition there will be fees charged for all transactions that could pack annual yield so I did include the risk I did not Missle that so first I would say I one I appreciate you bringing this forward in the creativ and I I'm going to say you know sincerely when I can find something that I really want to have put through at town meeting I'm going to get you to help me because because you have passion you know the details you present well um and and I can see that you really want to get this done so that's that is a sincere compliment um but I'm I I want to get away from the numbers and the returns everything and just and just say I do not believe that this is the role of our municipal government um I don't believe that that Brookline uh should play a role as Fidelity Investments um you know as as a taxpayer um I I I me personally um I don't want to write checks for someone to invest for me I want them to fix the roads fill the potholes hire the teacher make sure the trash is picked up on time uh hire Librarians uh make sure that we can uh you know transport seniors from place to place on and on and on and on I think Mike Mike kind of gave you the list but but again I don't and I don't say that in chest I just want to say I do not believe that this is the role of our government um and therefore I'm unable to support the concept of even studying it because I don't believe that the idea is correct uh for for for what we should be doing so I I can't support it but again um I'm gonna find something I have I really need to get past the Finish Line because you're you are really doing a great job but I um I I I I appreciate your approach and your values um I just don't think it's the role of our government okay um can I make the last point I can't resist and I I I thank Bernard for correcting me on who who who had that it's a piece of useless information that clutters my brain well it's good B deal but I want I want to mention the last person who made headlines for promising people that he could make 10% of years and it was Bernie not promising you it was Bernie made off what I'm promising though it Bernie made off we know what happened to him and not promising a 10% every year that's not what I'm suggesting in my calculations I'm suggesting a 20% annual average which means 20% loss one year 30% gain one year whatever it goes up and down I'm not saying 20% G 10% gain every year but do you understand the gravity of of of proposing to take people's tax dollars o on the assumption that they will over time be able to get 10% on it investors who invest in those kinds of schemes often lose everything you know no no that's we we take employee employ tax dollars and put them in Pension funds I mean you in contributory Pension funds you're right we guarantee them 7% a year yeah we 6.9% is the last Actuarial figure from the last report was 6.9% and by the way that's a guarantee that if it comes up short we have to make up the difference so that's how we and and what's beautiful about my proposal is that you don't have to make up the difference yeah they We're not gonna make okay quick comment so I think it's clear I'm probably going to be the only one supporting this but um I just want to say that I think we're getting into the weeds here which to me ex except for Paul's comment which I think is is an relevant but not to what I'm about to say I think you make a relevant point I don't agree with it but that's I mean that's that's okay that's the way it is I mean yeah that's okay but to to everything else we're getting in the weeds right and to me that's what a study committee is for getting in the Wheats because there is clearly something here to to figure out and there are other states and communities that have done this successfully so to me a study committee is just about that let's look at all those other places and see how they did it and see how it's working out for them and learn from them and maybe even if we don't go this way maybe it'll show us another way so that's why I'm supporting it to be clear I don't know that this is going to work or not I don't I don't know what the rate of return is I definitely get better than 6.9% on my own Investments so we can talk John um but but but I think it's worth investigating because we have examples of other successful uh social welfare funds so that's just that's what I'm saying and by the way yeah I I disagree with Paul that this is not a proper purpose of municipality um think it's a good point sorry um I mean subject to you know what it is that you use the money for you know because we have limitations there but uh you know my concern is that you're talking about something that's not going to come into being for 50 years and for me you know I'm like the Ki and you know guy who's going to be dead in in the long term um but uh you know I I I I don't bad idea I think it just needs a lot more thought um that's exactly why a study committee I think is the perfect place for this and the 50-year time thing I that's that's just something you know that that was my calculation to make it give the good presentation it doesn't have to be 50 years the study committee can say 50 years is unreasonable um I also want to add one thing to what Paul said um when we talk about um bringing new ideas into the national Focus it's very very difficult to take things from the Citizen's mind and get it thought through and action made at the state and federal level especially what Municipal governments are when they're at their best is being the Laboratories of democracy that Justice brandise wanted them to be and so what I think this does at least by having the study committee is taking up the true role of local government that is as close to the people as you can possibly get and say this is something that the people are interested in this is something we want to see here we're going to do our best to make it in our own community and we can export that to the state and the national government eventually so I understand if you don't think it's the right place for the locality but this is how we get it on a national state okay this is a this is a public hearing um and I see one hand raised in in the in the U room here Regina Regina fry T any member from South bookline pring 16 um yeah I think Lincoln should be hiring this guy if he can deliver that kind of percentage increase because I sit through a lot of these meetings and it doesn't even come close to that but I'll tell you the question I have I have a couple one where is this money going to be generated from what little paperwork I had did not tell me that and number two the one paperwork I did have said and it wouldn't be too burdensome to people on fixed income that was grave concern to me because I'm not sure I I would trust a kid to tell me what's too burdensome to be perfectly honest but I I will point out that there is no law in Massachusetts against age discrimination against people under 40 but as someone under 40 I've experienced it a number of times please don't discriminate against any on the basis of all right then this petitioner um wrote that and I would like to know what he has presumed to be an acceptable damage for people on fixed incomes especially low fixed incomes so those are two questions fantastic FC question thank you I'm going to answer your second one first because it's fresher in my mind the the reason I mentioned that it wasn't burdensome on fixed income is because we're going to be able to raise expenditures of the town without having to increase property taxes that's that's what's happening with the funds that's getting generated from the market itself so because we don't have to we we're going to increase the net expenditure of the town without having to do an override to say you know what I'm saying that's why I should have just said burdensome I apologize um and then the first question was how refund it that is the topic of the study committee I do not pretend to be an expert Municipal Finance I want I don't want to have to I don't want to make that decision I don't feel comfortable that I'm knowledgeable enough and I accept that fully and I wanted more and better input people who have more and a better understanding of the municipal Finance system to get that information okay uh Charlie oops um so folks in the audience can use the hand raise or Q&A feature to let us know they'd like to make a comment at this public hearing um so again just use the hand raise feature or put something in the Q&A uh we have 15 attendees okay I'm seeing Neil Gordon has his hand up I'm promoting him to a panelist now Neil good NE you've been promoted to panelist you may uh share your camera and unmute and you'll have three minutes yeah uh thank you um so the advisory subcommittee uh school subcommittee had a public hearing and there who are you please who are you please I'm I'm sorry I'm Neil Gordon I'm a presec one toown meeting member and a member of the advisory committee um the school subcommittee of advisory had a public hearing and meeting um on this particular warrant article and they too went right to the weeds um the article calls for a study uh and uh it it seems to me that this discussion and the school subcommittee discussion uh was about who's going to invest who has the talent this was the school subcommittee um do do who's going to be the investment advisor um the discussion it seems to me is a discussion of the Warren article that may or may not be brought uh 6 months 12 months 24 months from now uh after or not at all uh depending upon what the report of uh this particular study committee concludes as I said to the school subcommittee um we hear all the time that the town needs to do some long-term Financial Planning and I think that this uh proposed committee uh as we look at hopefully the uh expiration of payments for OPB the expiration of payments for unfunded pension liability um long term there is this opportunity to use funds that are now directed to those two uh unfunded liabilities and at least Ponder what we might do but yet the subcommittee and the uh conversation that I've heard this evening has been about well how realistic is the return um how realistic is the return is a subject of U Future date thank you Mariam for keeping the uh uh the the notion of this conversation within the scope of the Warren article which I support and thank you okay folks in the audience can use the hand rais or Q&A feature um I have not seen anyone else uh let us know that they would like to make a comment Bernard we have 14 ATT attendees and no one is using the handraiser Q&A feature at this time okay um I don't see anyone in the um Auditorium here raising their hand uh so I will close the hearing uh you have any final words um I appreciate you taking the time to have this conversation with me I really greatly appreciate it all of you Michael Sam and thank you for the long email trains that we've shared even late into the night I really appreciate it um I hope this article earns your support um I hope if there's any more clarifying questions that I could have please feel free to email me I want to I want this to be a partnership between all of you and not just me because obviously I wanted to be successful and have legs and Longevity and that is only accomplished with consensus and not just a single person so thank you so much right and this is a article that we will not vote on tonight but at a future meeting um which will give people time to uh have the email correspondence with the petitioner uh and um come up with a questions thank you much okay next uh Warren articles that we have taken up in the past and are on our agenda for a vote tonight we're on Article 15 uh create a new general bylaw establishing staggered terms of office for constables uh Neil Gordon is here but uh you know we just need to discuss it among ourselves and see if we're ready to vote any any discussion I can make a quick statement Bernard I um I I appreciate Neil bringing this I think he made a good case for uh staggering the terms so that you know um people are actually aware that constables um exist uh that that they um that you know moving it to stagger terms would bring up an election every year as opposed to the way it is uh I think every three years right now and um creates an opportunity for some mentorship uh for you know new uh new consales so um I support it it makes L okay uh I will move favorable action on warrant excuse me warrant Article 15 on in favor please indicate by saying I John V kyak hi Mary ashkanazi thank you Neil Gordon and I um let's see Michael Sandman hi uh Paul Warren hi and shair votes I okay okay article 16 this is John Van skaks article um amend 3.1 4.1 of the general bylaws to change the number of commission for diversity Equity inclusion and community relations members from 15 to nine uh any discussion just an update okay uh the advisory committee subcommittee voted unanimously in favor last night great okay good um I move uh favorable action on warrant article 16 16 all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak hi maram ashkanazi hi U Mike sanman hi Paul Warren I and chair votes I and that is the end of our agenda we can now take uh comments from the audience we do have someone signed up reg someone signed up this Liz Borman and we have one other person we have one other person signed up after that um okay all right I'll start again start again uh my name's Liz Gorman uh thank you members of the select board for your service to this town and for listening to my public comment tonight um I am Al I'm a longtime Brooklyn resident uh parent of two Brookline Public Schools educated children and um I'm also a longtime Spanish teacher at Brooklyn High School this is my 28th year of teaching and I speak here related to all three capacities um I'm here to advocate for the select board authorizing the full funding of the school department which is facing a $3 million gap or budget deficit with the understanding that it is the select board who has the capacity to authorize more funding whether from the the certified free cash that I know that you addressed earlier or from elsewhere in the long history of my years here I have seen there have been times when the town and the school have come together to discuss to find ways to fund um unfunded issues um I also hope that each of you will be compelled after listening to me to urge the school committee to postpone their budget decision and to follow through on their Promises to the voters um of this town I'm particularly concerned sad and angry about the possible loss of the K to5 World language program along with other taxpayers and your constituents in this town I voted for an override first 2009 to create and sustain a k to5 World language program very few communities have Elementary programs and this is one of the things that distinguishes us this brings people to our town um my friends with children and other communities Envy us for this reason and cutting this program would be a huge loss there are many many benefits to a young person to learning for learning a foreign language ranging from increased economic opportunities it allows them down the road to a host of unique brain development that it allows to the inreased cultural sensitivity and crosscultural understanding this community has always gone Against the Grain in val valuing multi- lingualism unlike much of the United States and it is something I have always loved about this town as a parent as a resident as a high school teacher I remember clearly the first five to six years that the students from the K to8 started arriving after the creation of this world of language program each year with more language each year we revised enriched and ultimately rewrote our entire curriculums to respond to the growing skills that the students were bringing the impact of starting younger is significant what I can do with my Spanish for students is fundamentally different from my colleagues in other districts we speak you have 30 seconds okay um we speak about curriculum it is clear that we are working on a different level um in again in 2023 I voted alongside the other residents of this town to invest specifically in the K to5 program to hire a cons consult to help us redesign and improve the program a clear vote to invest in it rather than putting the recommendations in place we find it at risk of being fully eliminated and I am dismayed it would be a huge loss for our educational system it is also just wrong to go against the voters wishes who not once but twice have voted to invest in this program please do not progress um be cut entirely I close asking you to um thank you fund a school system and thank you for your time consideration the next person sign up Ison is online I'm going to promote Alon now um and Allison is the last person that we had signed up in advance um Allison you've been promoted to a panelist you may unmute and share your video and your three minutes will begin all right hi everybody thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening my name is Allison ker I'm in my sixth year as a French teacher in Brooklyn transitioning this year to the high school um after 5 years in the K to8 programs I'm here to respectfully ask you to do everything in your power to preserve the K to 5 World language program to the greatest extent possible as well as edtech specialist literacy coaches and school secretaries among other roles that are on the chopping block due to budget constraints this year these roles directly influence the day-to-day functions of our school and we should do everything we can to preserve them having listened earlier this evening I have heard that you feel your role as select board has been misunderstood or your priorities mischaracterized and that's not my goal this evening I do hope um despite your frustrations that you're available to my EST um and in addressing the issues I've present this evening um currently the K to8 schools each offer one language K to 5 Chinese or Spanish and a choice of two languages in six to8 either Chinese and Spanish or Spanish and French last Thursday at the school committee meeting Dr funo recommended cutting the K to5 program in its entirety I believe her recommendation is misguided and I hope you will urge the school committee to reconsider before their vote on March 28th or delay their vote until there's more time given to this discussion while many school committee members seemed to discuss eliminating the program as a foregone conclusion some school committee members also remarked how drastic and sudden this decision felt that while they had been discussing the budget shortfall for a while discussions around in cutting six years of a program had only been introduced last Thursday Dr Fortuna referenced the review completed by Thomas saour and pearl as a justification for the cut ignoring many of the assets Mr sour identified in the program and instead focusing on findings that taken out of context could just justify Cuts one such example of information taken out of context is comparing students Proficiency in 6 to8 with that of students after K to 8 without the Nuance of how many minutes of instruction per year students are getting at the different levels of K to 5 or considering how students entering French and sixth grade have a wealth of knowledge and skill sets and study habits established in the K 5 that propel them forward in their French language acquisition we would be remiss to underestimate or understate the influence of K to 5 Spanish on students language vment and K to5 Chinese on students language development regardless of their choice in high school and middle school rather than refine the program and make it sustainable using Mr Sour's recommendations the district propo proposes losing all of the progress this program has made since its creation years of curriculum development and professional development and recently tens of thousands of dollars that Thomas SAU and pearl have been paid this year to implement the changes he suggested it 30 such a shame to effectively waste all the money taxpayers have vot oted to support this program by cutting the entire ha 5 program without allowing a single year for these changes to be Implement implemented World language education has a direct impact on students Intercultural proficiency which is so important in a globalized 21st century I urge you to fight for this program to the extent that you're able by providing necessary funding or by advocating to school committee to consider reexamine reconsider and possibly delay their vote after March 28th so more discussion around this can take place um thank you for your time I really appreciate it thank you uh Regina think you're next unless there's someone else um m r I just know you you spoke at the beginning of the meeting you have two and a half minutes okay uh actually I Rise for exactly that reason I wonder if there's any way to balance those of us who sign up in person who shouldn't be put at the end of the line in my opinion because we took the time to physically be here and not just prioritize those who use the computer to sign early we shouldn't have to be in that position I wonder if we could alternate them from those who are present versus those who are also online and clearly the majority is online so that's my comment and it's my request thank you thank you and that's something you could respond to I would imagine well we give it some thought um you know someone saying no over there yeah we we'll give it we'll give it thought what I'll what I what I'll note is that what I'll note is that anyone who wants to sign up can sign up by a phone or email or any other means any other electronic means it's not limited just to email um obviously people can come to town hall and sign up um so we PRI we provide a variety of opportunities and obviously if someone requests a reasonable accommodation we're happy to provide a reasonable accommodation um but again the point of the sign up is to allow people to you know allow folks regardless of the method they use to sign up to speak in the order in which they sign up uh and we don't think that discriminates against folks who show up here in person because they can use the phone or email or any other means to sign up beforehand if they so desire okay and that is the end of the meeting uh so the meeting is over thank you everyone