[Music] good evening I'm Bernard Green chair of the Brookline select board and this is the meeting of the select board for April 24 2024 our regular meeting on Tuesday uh was delayed until this Wednesday because of Passover um so let's start off with any uh comments or updates from the select board uh Mike or Paul yeah I do have a quick one Bernard thank you um I just wanted to mention that we are embarking on an update to our comprehensive plan uh first time in nearly 20 years and the board is uh made a call for um committee members a Steering group committee that will be appointed by the select board uh there will be uh 12 members of that board and that board will that committee will guide the consultants and staff as we go through a two-year process of um developing and the update to our comprehensive plan so if you are interested in applying for um one of those seats membership to that board that uh committee you can go to the town website under um boards and commissions it's called the comprehensive plan Steering group and Chaz we're going to add a news item to the homepage that people could go there as well to find easy access to that page as well thank you thank you uh Mike do you have anything no okay let's move on public comment uh Charlie please uh set out the rules and we'll start thanks Bernard uh than 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 speaks speak tonight is limited to 3 minutes you don't need to use the entire 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 but are more likely to work with staff to get a more thorough answer and respond over email we'll let you know when you have 30 seconds remaining and when your time is up please conclude your remarks at that time if you have more to say you are welcome to send an email to board members expr ing your thoughts in Greater detail first person signed up for public comment is ISA Khan we have issue on audio so okay folks are saying they can't hear the audio got it uh no problem here oh yeah you might be on the cable feed in YouTube ah okay is it just the cable feed or is it folks who are in the zoom no okay okay I can hear you folks could you confirm in the chat anybody that's not on a panel if they if they can hear the meeting um right now only um panelists can use the chat but if you could if you're having issues please put in put something in the Q&A if you are having some issues Melissa is an attendee and is she's able to hear yeah and we can hear you in the [Music] room all right so if it's an issue of the folks watching on television we just ask folks to join okay here we go all right should we should I get started yep all right the first person signed up for public comment is fisa KH uh fisa um if you're in the room um please approach the presentation station and your three minutes will begin I'm not able to hear anything at the presentation station if that's no one's talking yeah we're getting it set up here all right just making sure sorry yep noris thank you um I wasn't even uh aware that there was a B on a brck house meeting when I did ask somebody that I know that lives in the brick house is this is this Berard Berard green he said that he said was D so um that will be that video will come up during um either SAA or or Samuel I thought there was only one public comment I apologize no that's okay Eric thank you for jumping in I appreciate it um so fisa yeah you please approach the presentation presentation station when you'd like to begin your time I'm here thank you so um fisa Khan a resident of ping 13 I'm here today to bring your attention to the difference in approach I noticed when the select board chair Mr Green issued his statement earlier this month regarding the anti-semitic gra graffiti found on a sign at an MBTA stop anti-Semitism is unacceptable and must be denounced wholeheartedly just as all other forms of hate the statement was spot-on unambiguous and sent a strong message as it should have while the statement was commendable to say the least I noticed that it was a perfect example of two set of rules in effect for the residents in the town of Brookline there were no such anti-hate statements or any statement to say the least issued by the select board or a representative thereof when anti- Palestinian graffiti containing an exploitive was found in two different places in Brookline in December 2023 one on Garder path and one on a sidewalk or sidewall I have attached and submitted the images for your reference despite our reaching out to you and the town in that regard and others sadly Muslims and Arab Americans in Brookline continue to notice the difference you exit in your attitude that shows through your statements or lack thereof a perfect example of this differential attitude is the select board members issued statement supporting Israel after October 7th and condemning the violence now that the death tole is over 35,000 for the Palestinians over 15,000 are children we have yet to see a statement that supports Palestinians or Palestine or condemn the violence there from any of the members as we look at the loss of human life each side has endured you must ask yourself if you are treating one Community different from the other why has no one here issued a statement denouncing what's going on you were quick to issue a statement about a foreign country then but bringing a ceasefire resolution in Brookline regarding the same C country is divisive why could it be that you kicked off the divisiveness but by urgently issuing your statements of standing in solidarity with one entity one country that could be on the wrong side of History being a town leader comes with a great deal of responsibility you provide a model to your residents of how you want us to act you know and we know that hate is hate no matter which group is on the receiving end of it when you pick sides what message are you sending what happens when we choose to highlight denouncing one from form of hate and not another what message are we sending it's your decision to uh and discretion to issue statements but please know that the select board's lopsided approach is not going unnoticed and is contributing to the so-called divisiveness in the community thank Youk you the next person signed up for public comment is DaNell O'Neal Dell I'm promoting you now Dell you've been promoted to a panelist you can unmute GRE video and your three minutes will begin right good afternoon everybody uh donil Senor Tom meeting for PR 4 M advisory committee speaking as a record person from Brooklyn Born and Raised who's a little disappointed um two things I'll be brief first thing is the juneth celebration um I feel there's still going to be a division um number one the way that the town set it up um was application process and that was a good idea you know the application process when application it says will all the organizers work with any other organizers who want to be involved you supposed to check yes or no fortunately everybody checked yes but the no is but aren't actually working with us so that's one thing the second the second thing is we March away from that location for a reason over the last three years and that's going to continue um we have the celebration over here on Brookline nav for juneth for a number of reasons um first First Responders going to work they can stop by and get some something free to eat and like I said we're walking away from that property in coolish corner um a lot of people I've spoken to including my my my junior my son will not be celebrating over there the ratio of the money spent um divided is it's a crazy number it's something like 85 to 15 um uh split up so that means well you already know what that those numbers means um I I I would like to select board not to vote on that until we get one more opportunity to have a a full discussion about this uh all everybody involved last thing Marissa vote sent an email out earlier on the town meeting list sered in regards to Warrant article 17 that warrant article had to do with equity in the Cannabis industry um uh Chaz is aware of this he allowed he gave permission to Marissa to send it out there's a test case that's happening so my question is there's a change of ownership thank you Charlie who and CH and Chaz if you may uh answer please who's changing ownership um Sanctuary who I mean who's who's changing ownership because now the select board's you know policy could really take an effect uh thank you okay I I can follow up I can follow up offline there's we're not we're not ready to have that conversation uh but the change of ownership is a matter of public record Neta is if is changing ownership they've already been approved by the state okay um the next person signed up for public comment is Shan O'Neal I understand that either Sam Pierce or Sana haiz is uh perhaps going to read a statement that will lead into the video that we started earlier yes on Sean so please go ahead and read the read your short intro and then we will uh we'll have Eric in the room start the video for everyone thank you hello my name is sha O'Neal and I'm running for Brookline housing commissioner at the South Brookline candidates Forum select board candidate and current select board chair Bernard Green mentioned me in my struggles to get around town during a question about equity and walkways what's interesting is that a few weeks ago I was a I was made aware of a brook house candidate Forum that was occurring one that I was not invited to despite the other candidates being there I called Bernard who made excuses and said that it may be because of a space issue despite the fact that other candidates were given an accessible option a zoom link I don't need governance that says my name in my real struggles in rooms that they don't even help me get into my community needs governance that values lived experience and fights for it to be heard I thank my friend and neighbor for helping me record the following video vote change May 7th thanks okay um Eric if you are there would you start the video that we queued up earlier and that will take up Shan O'Neal's public comment wasn't even uh aware that there was a brook a brook house meeting when I did ask somebody that I know that lives in The Brick House Bernard Bernard Green he said that at first he said there was a there was a space problem in the room or there may be one I wanted to just touch base so that everybody knows how it felt not to be invited it feels horrible because we we are handicapped or not we are all uh supposed to vote and I don't know why I have to vote for somewhere that I can't get to or was not invited to he apologized but I don't think they should have been an apology I think that I should have been able to um be invited to the meeting because I always vote I always say what my opinion is so it's not like people don't know that but again they're leaving me out of something very important I've lived here close to 30 plus years um and I have uh run into the problem of accessibility in our streets and homes so my my idea is to try to make it a little more accessible for other people and people AG them in place um nobody considers the AG them in place but you have to when talk about for one of my goals is to um help those who need to age in place and have have specific handicaps so that they don't have the difficulty that I have the wheelchair company even told me don't ride on the sidewalks because it tears up the undercarriage of my chair so I'm forced to do the bik Lan at at the point where riding in the street is a little bit safer than riding on our own sidewalks someone has to do something about this if not now when because you can't you don't know the difficulty unless you yourself are the one okay um the next person signed up for public comment is Sam Pierce um Sam is being promoted to a panelist now um you've been promoted to a panelist you may unmute and share your video if you're comfortable and your three minutes will begin um thank you very much um I'm actually on the train but I just wanted to tell everyone hello my name is Samuel Pierce I wanted to highlight something communities have been putting together with all the Vision all the fear and all the worries our communities coming together to stand in support of an immediate ceasefire with the March Saturday May 4th at 11: am March peace March from um starting right next to Brookline High School at Cypress Park and we will be marching to town hall as one community of all Races religions backgrounds with our common values of human life in peace there will be Faith leaders Community leaders and more will deliver remarks that remind us all of our shared humanity and as someone who grew up in Brooklyn I can tell you that ignoring our problems doesn't solve anything it never has as someone who now lives in Boston I can assure you that your neighbors support you your cousins in Boston are with you and will be there to support our community and I was hoping that everyone on the call will be able to join together like so many across the country on Saturday May 4th this effort from everyday residents regular people of all different backgrounds is a testament to how we have much more in common than not and if you would like to be part of the organizing this event please reach out to Brookline sefir March gmail.com and you can scan the QR code on the screen to get the link less than two weeks away from the March and so it's important that we get the word out to as many people as possible thank you all for um providing time for me to speak and um let's come together okay great the next person signed up for public comment um was Sana H uh saana you may approach the presentation station and your three minutes will begin hello my name is sah haiz I live in Precinct 4 and I wanted to emphasize exactly what this Brookline ceasefire March means for our community everyday residents of all different faiths and backgrounds coming together to create Flyers make event links pass out QR codes reach out to our leaders and Community stakeholders file the paperwork collect the 10 to 15 signatures of residents submit the March location the route working with Town departments like the police department and DPW all to ensure a safe event for all this isn't any one organization or affinity group this is what community and shared values looks like from our cousins in Boston and neighboring regions to the faith leaders from multiple religions that are coming out to support we too can show that our Community Values human life we can demonstrate that despite all the back and forth we've seen at various Town meetings that we are willing to have these difficult conversations everyday residents are willing to build Bridges and find our common Humanity we the people want unity and we want change despite elected officials like Town moderator that is once again trying to stifle Community Voices by saying the event flyer cannot be shared we know that neither Gins nor the hostages nor anyone else is safe with this indiscriminate bombing we know that the first step is lasting peace the first step to Lasting peace is a ceasefire let's build common ground on May 4th at 11: a.m. at Cypress field right next to Brookline High School as we march to town hall and if you have any interest at all in helping our team of everyday folks organize organize this event please reach out to the email that's listed there please scan the QR code and please spread the word as a final note this division is absolutely fueled by governance from the community that has started you know juneth in this town being robbed of the celebration to the discrimination against the Muslim Community you know to the issues with accessibility that we're seeing multiple people multiple different communities have concerns that are not being heard if you have concerns like those that have been voiced today please join my weekly Zoom from 6:00 to 7M every Wednesday on my campaign site the people for brookline.com I think that we need change and I think the first step of that is ensuring that the voices with the lived experiences that deal with these issues every day have a chance and a platform to speak thank you okay Bernard I believe that concludes the 15 minutes that we have at the start of the meeting if there are any other folks who would like to speak they could raise their hand or put their name in the Q&A we will get to that at the end the conclusion of the select board's business so I turn turn it back over to you chair green thank you next item on the agenda um miscellaneous items first uh approval of uh meeting minutes for April 9 and April 16 2024 uh any edits or corrections to those minutes seeing none I move approval of the minutes for April 9 and April 16 all in favor please indicate by saying I uh Mike Sandman hi Paul Warren hi and chair votes I next we have um items 3B through uh 3H uh which which are miscellaneous items plus items 3i through 3v which are licenses and grants of location that were heard at a hearing on April 17 uh here at the uh Town Hall um Mike sanman was representing the board and I was also in attendance and uh the recommendation from that hearing was approval of all of those items uh so I move approval of items 3 B through 3v um all in favor please indicate by saying I Mike sandon hi Paul Warren hi and chair votes I okay next I see um our DPW commissioner Ain shu is at the microphone and we're going to start with the departmental budget review uh for uh Public Works and and the water and sewer uh division um before we start let me so we ask departments to structure their presentation a certain way to maximize the benefit that we get from them and help us identify areas where we can express our concerns on the record to the advisory committee who will ultimately present uh the town's budget to town meeting and of course then we'll express our concerns to town meeting we asked for uh them to address the following issues following four issues one their biggest accomplishment of the previous year their goals for the upcoming year any new initiatives within their current budgets and finally any initiatives that they would pursue if there were no constraints uh by uh no budgetary constraints that they were living under um we also asked them how they would measure success of their conf m in fiscal year 24 how they measured past past success of their accomplishments in fiscal year 24 and how they plan to measure success for fiscal year 2025 just wanted to give people a a sense of you know what we're asking departments to present to us um and um uh we'll hear from uh Commissioner of Department of Public Welfare or Public Works uh Aaron shot I'll get it out right all right see I just want to make sure this is I think full screen and we are good so good evening uh my name is Erin chud I'm the commissioner of Public Works and for those of you who may not be familiar with the broad range of services we provide I encourage you to take a look at the fy2 uh budget book on the town's website it details um all of uh really goes into detail on uh all of our division functions but in summary our job is to enhance the quality of life in Brooklyn as responsible stewards of the town's physical assets infrastructure and natural resources we design build manage maintain protect and improve the town's utilities that's water sewer storm water infrastructure and public spaces public right of way Parks public grounds school grounds and Civic space we provide reliable cost effective highquality service that protects Public Health maintains customer confidence and supports a prosperous economy so I'm here this evening with our outstanding leadership team uh to discuss the fy2 budget and because we have many watching at home thought I would do a quick introduction looks as though this isn't forwarding it's being shared hey may have to just drag that drag it down like you know scroll the mouse down or um use H down yeah that works down might be with you okay so uh we have Kevin Johnson who is our Deputy Commissioner of operations and director of Highway sanitation and Fleet Services Alexandra veio our director of parks in open space Jay hery is our director of water and sewer Amy Engles is our transportation administrator and Dan Murphy is our very new director of engineering and transportation is on his fifth day I think so we are thrilled to welcome Dan so um as select uh board chair green mentioned um uh they provided us a list of questions that primarily focus on goals and objectives so we're not going to spend much time uh on budget numbers we've uh spent a lot of time with with advisory there's a lot of detail in the budget book but at at a high level we have a budget of um 52 um. 246 million uh 33.4 million is with the water and sewer Enterprise and I'll just point out that 69% of that or 23 million is our assessment to the MW and then 18.8 million is uh the balance uh of our budget uh for the rest of Public Works we uh have 175 um person and in the budget book we have a total of 73 accomplishments and 60 goals for fy2 I have selected just a few to share with you this evening and I'm going to talk a little bit about how we set our goals which was one of your questions and and then I've actually pulled out five to share with you some metrics uh because that's one of the things you asked about was metrics and benchmarks so uh the Department of Public Works has a 10-year strategic plan uh it's 22 to 32 plan we have uh 20 overarching objectives um and then 60 goals and what we do is we use this to establish our um goals each year and this is in concert with um doing uh input from the public uh boards and commissions the select boards um goals conditions analyses and um we use that toel to develop our goals with our guiding principles from the Strategic plan our gu principles we have five it's provide a clean green safe accessible inclusive sustainable and welcoming network of public spaces assets utilities and infrastructure we want to be the service provider of choice this is design construction maintenance and management we have incredible staff within the Department of Public Works create a culture of opportunity continuous Improvement and Excellence to deliver exceptional public projects and services demonstrate inclusion equity and engagement values and our management of public assets services Employment Practices and to incorporate climate mitigation and adaptation goals into the development of capital Improvement projects and daily Public Works operations so I'm just sharing with you that we have this strategic plan we look at life cycle assessment we work with the community and then we develop our annual goals um and objectives and then we reference the Strategic plan in those goals and objectives so if you look in the budget book you'll see that we have these items um you know a list of these items and then in parentheses we give the objective within the Strategic plan so we're really trying to come back to our strategic plan and make sure that we are on course and that we're staying within those guiding principles so just to give you a high level of some of our FY 24 accomplishments uh we um will complete construction of the replacement of the Synthetic Turf at Skyline um park that's done um Murphy playground uh will be complete Robinson and the Lars Anderson access road we have developed a collaborative Waste Management Services bid with Newton uh this is Newton and Brookline to evaluate costs efficiencies and options to most efficiently effectively and responsibly manage all waist streams um the Department of Environmental Protection is really um excited about this collaborative approach um our um recycling bid is um will be up and so we're we're really looking to implement this for FY 26 uh but this is going to give us great cost analysis to look at what is um most uh beneficial for the community going forward and we're really leveraging um the buying power of uh our two communities we've commenced the storm water model of the town's drainage system to determine capacity um and constraints and look at Future improvements to increase our resilience and prepare for future flooding associated with climate change this couldn't come at a better time honestly with the year that we've had the amount of rain it is really top on everyone's mind we're doing a townwide model that will then roll into a storm water ma um management and master plan and um priorities that we will set with Capital Improvements uh so that we can really prepare for um these events and improve our our systems capacity going forward we planned and implemented Brooklyn's first miuk Forest which had tremendous Community involvement we cond constructed bike and pedestrian safety improvements on Beverly Road as part of the town's traffic calming and safe routes to school we supported the town's radent control action plan updated the regulations we have hired a code enforcement services manager within the last month and um we've added an additional 22 22 big belly trash and recycling receptacles for parks and public grounds and we've also Incorporated a an item into our CIP where we will annually be replacing all of the open top containers now with the fully inclosed um rodent control uh big belly trash receptacles and we celebrated the restoration and reopening of the Carl Street Footbridge which I will mention um again a little bit later in terms of objectives for fy2 um we are looking to complete a um a paying classification study for all of Department of Public Works um functions we received a mass compact Grant to do this and so this is um underway we uh are currently feling out all of the questionnaires and we're working with gov HR consultant um to do this there'll be a community survey as well looking at um other communities but it's very important that we are competitive in the marketplace that we look at retaining our employees and that we have um that we're a desirable Community for other individuals to come and want to work with us we'll commence the construction of the renovation of shik Park the skyline Park trails and playground and also the amyy tennis courts that's a project that includes the clay courts the parking lot the Comfort station and replacement of the Halls Pond Boardwalk uh we're going to work with all the town departments to create a new policy and plan regarding the acquisition and procurement of electric vehicles and funding installation of charging infrastructure I know that Eves was one of the board's um goals and that you've talked about during the retreat and I have some metrics to share on that um we're going to implement a comprehensive water meter replacement program uh we're looking we've started a vision zero plan and policy with a committee and so over the course of this year we will develop that plan uh that is being chaired by select board member Michael sanman uh this year we will commence a public design review process to advance the Beacon Street um Bridal path project and um we were re accredited this year which was thrilling this is we are re accredited every four years we revisit all of our um policies and practices and one of our goals starting this year is to revisit a quarter of our policies and practices each year so that we really have time to think deeply about them and are they best in practice and so um what policies what practices do we want want to um update to best serve the community so a little bit on the metrics so um this is a slide uh looking at EV this is something that I'm really proud of in terms of how far we've come with both uh charging stations and with um our electric vehicles so in fiscal year 24 and unfortunately you can't here you can't see like the full bar chart but in fiscal year 24 um we installed 63 um new charging ports in fifth in 23 we had 40 and so we currently have now over a 100 um and we have I think it's 14 maybe planned for FY oh thank you see on mine as well fy14 so um we've spent we've had 1.4 4 million in construction and station funding that was received through the eversource Make Ready program where we've had those incentives and then we had around 240,000 that um we used through arpa and TNC money so we've spent over $1.6 million in all of this EV Readiness with with funding sources outside of the Town budget um we have um we have Matrix we're looking at how many megawatt hours we're using per month um and really what that means um in terms of Co CO2 emissions and um what we can say now is that with the Chargers that we've installed to date and the energy that has been used it's equivalent to planting 6,500 trees over a 10-year period within DPW we've purchased seven Duty vehicles um with EVs and they um replaced uh combustion vehicles that we have that equates to three tons of CO2 per year and we are the First Community in New England that will be introducing an all EV trash truck and we did receive a grant in order to acquire this truck and we will be rolling it out uh shortly so we will be continuing these efforts I mentioned we're going to work on a policy because going forward we need to make sure that the acquisition of vehicles lines up with the um availability of um charging facilities we're working with all the town departments to make sure that they have what they need and that we're moving forward with a plan environmental health and safety this was one of my primary goals coming in was to ensure that the Department of Public Works was compliant um and that we were um had the plans protocols training practices in place to um keep our employees safe and also the public so since in 2022 we had about six um policies and practices uh in place we now have uh over 38 and um we have instituted a whole host of training across our full staff it's OSHA training it's OSHA supervisor training we have a safety orientation program for employees we have a winter Operation Safety Training that we've Implement implemented and a lot of um function specific training that we um require uh in many cases for employees that are doing safety sensitive functions and in terms of lost work dayss and when we started this um we have gone from um over 800 lost work days per year to now uh around 350 directly attributed to the policies and the practices that we have put in place Carlton Street Footbridge um this is really just an example of a project that can take many many years and a lot of people and a lot of community involvement to accomplish um well over 20 years to achieve this project when we think about metrics and even standard Massachusetts tip projects you look at your you know design documents and you have a goal for 25% and 75% 100% complete and then construction this also had the goal of it was a requirement the muddy river restoration project permit and funding for that um project was tied into US successfully completing this project so we've accomplished all of that and in this past um several months the project has received an award from uh the American Council of environment of engineering companies so an engineering Excellence award at the Civil level level uh Paul and Nikki sis award from the preservation Massachusetts that's for Bill Smith the project manager and the and it's for the full col Street Footbridge the brook line Green Space Alliance is honoring Bill Smith as an outstanding public servant and um his achievements and then just um this past week we were notified that it has been selected in the category of historic restoration and preservation as project of the year with the American public works Association so just in terms of um benchmarks terms of recognition that's not just local but across the country and many many projects um submit for the American public works but I think perhaps the um you know the standard we should all achieve is to try to have the project and your face on a mug which there is for the car street Footbridge so uh we're really proud of that project and uh know that it uh it already is is a significant pathway and Gateway that's really helping connect Cambridge and Boston to the Medical District and um into the emerald necklace so roadway NE Network and asset management last week I came and talked to the uh select board about our transportation and Mobility um plan about our pavement condition index uh I know that uh deferred maintenance management of our infrastructure is very important to the select board it's also very important to us so um one thing that we're going to be looking very closely at um in the coming months is the whole um all of the assets so sidewalks pavement condition and the different you know The Pedestrian advisory committee complete streets multimodal accommodations um all of the various in interest groups and looking at that programs and the condition the process and our funding moving that into kind of looking at Road Safety specifically and our pavement condition index so that data what is the condition of the roads overlapped with complete streets and those goals and all all of these other um desires that we have for safety and accessibility as a community and then coming up with a clear balanced transparent datadriven process where we can maximize asset in our asset management and also continue to pursue our complete Street um goals so just saying that I heard you in the um select board meeting and we're really trying to think about how we move this forward and then creating a dashboard ultimately on our website which will be really clear to everybody um what we're doing what it costs and how we're doing that pre reservation bylaw uh this was approved by the select board in November uh just as a quick reminder um residents cannot remove a protected tree without a protected tree impact and removal permit during construction uh we've reviewed 34 permits 12 didn't trigger the bylaw um we've had six permits issued um those you know the balance there there are some that are still under review where we're requesting additional information and um 36 new trees have been planted so we'll be AV valuating this as we go into fiscal year 25 we'll have a full year to really see how many of um how many permit requests are we getting what's the time to process and what's the impact that we're having are we able to save trees are we just is the benefit that we're actually making sure that we're replacing trees and so we'll have um we'll be able to provide some data uh on that in the future and then this last piece is the new sustainability and Natural Resources Division and this came up um several times in the select board's goals and objectives and also as part of your retreat uh the Department of Public Works um will now house a new sustainability and Natural Resources Division uh we'll have a sustainability and Natural Resources Director and the thought in this division is that it'll have an assistant director of sustainability and also a sustainability program manager um will be responsible for community outreach grants programming we'll be incorporating uh the existing conservation uh administrator role will um be part of this team and then there's a dotted line to buildings uh the assistant director of public buildings to really pull in the fossil fuel free and Net Zero goals and then the tree Warden urban forestry manager will also have a do dotted line as we continue to implement the urban Forest climate resiliency master plan in terms of the road map we're looking at hiring the director creating a short-term um list of goals and objectives and an Outreach plan identifying goals action items with the stakeholders and creating an internal um management team that will include involvement with the select board we'll hire staff um look at updating or creating a new climate action plan um identifying grant opportunities and there once we have staff in place there are some great opportunities for the town um to Leverage in terms of Grants and then set benchmarks and Report annually on progress so um I would just say in conclusion um the sort of guiding long-term goals and objectives for me as commissioner is communication and customer service Staffing retention and capacity building asset management and maintenance environmental health and safety digital transformation which I think is what our community wants how are we getting our information out to the community how are they able to engage with us and how are we able to do our work most efficiently and then climate resiliency and environmental sustainability um if I mean one of the questions you had asked was around um if we had you know sort of unlimited funding I think that was actually the question if there's something along those lines really realistic I know I think for us it's really looking at um the capital funding and deferred maintenance um so thinking about um the roads and the sidewalks um the fleet and also looking at our um storm water and green infrastructure on the capital side um maintenance I think that's really across the board all the assets that we manage we want to make sure that they're not um falling into disrepair and then I just want to emphasize I think the important of um paying classification uh and that we are in a place where we are supporting retention um hiring and employer morale so with that if you have some other questions um either related to uh your own goals and objectives I have the full team here like maybe I'll just stop um and see if there's anything that you might have okay any questions from the select board is Mike still here yes maybe we can yes uh and I thank you Bernard I need to um I should explain that I need to leave in about two minutes to um host a meeting of the Chestnut Hill commercial study area Workshop but um I I wanted to say thank you Aaron that was uh vintage uh Aon shoot uh covered all the bases beautifully and um I really appreciate the high points that you you talked about the col Street bridge and and uh Transportation uh issues and so forth that was very very helpful thank you um Mike could you possibly stick around for the next item which should be brief the the tree easement otherwi if we lose a quorum we can't have a vote on that I will journ this this session with uh DPW and move to that and move to that and come back yes okay can we do that real quick then by apologies DPW teams we promote um Jonathan Simpson and Jennifer Gilbert okay so Newberry uh site tree easement um who we have have uh first assistant uh Town Council Jonathan Simpson is he here roing him now Jennifer depaso Gilbert is a guest Charlie she in the attendees list there he is Jonathan hello everyone okay tell us about this uh easement so that we can vote on it certainly I will be brief because I know Mike needs to go um back in uh when we uh approved the special district Zoning for the former Newberry College property uh among the town meeting votes taken was the uh one one of the things we negotiated was a plan to protect six old growth trees along fiser Avenue and that was Memorial that the plan was to memorialize that at a certain stage of construction um by way of a of an easement agreement town meeting approved the acquisition of that interest in real estate at that same town meeting so that that aspect of the process has already been taken care of but the understanding was always that the tree easement wouldn't need to be executed until they were a certain at a certain stage in the in the construction process which they have now reached so to Tom Brady and I and Jennifer Gilbert who's also on the call have worked together to uh to draft the easement agreement that's before you it is um essentially the agreement is that the the owners of the property uh will will be responsible for maintaining the trees pursuant to requirements listed in the easement agreement that Tom Brady has reviewed but it will also this is where the critically it is an interest in real estate comes from um the town if if they fail uh to perform under the their obligations the town has the authority to go in and do it uh do it for them um to to so as to maintain these trees in addition there's an there it it includes the understanding that if one of the trees um is diseased or damaged and needs to be taken down that they'll be responsible for uh for replacing it so it is um it's a way too um one of the the sort of long tale of some of these big Special Districts that we that we put together but I'm happy to report that it um this is this this is things working as intended and this is another uh box we can check along the way to uh to finishing up uh that whole special District we worked on together in 2020 okay in addition the vote will include the ability uh for delegating the the ability to Chaz to sign on your behalf so you don't have to worry about all showing up anywhere with right okay any questions uh Mike you have any questions no uh Paul no I don't either okay I move of approval of uh the question of approving and executing an easement between 123 fiser Avenue owner LLC in the town of Brookline for a 6,920 square ft easement on fiser Avenue provided for protection and maintenance of six trees and to delegate to the Town Administrator the ability to execute on the town's behalf execute the agree the easement on the town's behalf um on in favor please indicate by saying I Mike sammon hi Paul Warren hi and shair votes I thank you very much thank you thank you I'll see you at 7:30 thank you okay so let shoot she'll come back back I had a few thoughts Bernard if it's okay pardon me I have a few thoughts a question okay yeah start off uh first thank you for the presentation um I will say when I join the select board um for whatever reason that the the organization I came most in contact with was yours um and at first I want to say um it's a pleasure working with you and your team you guys are professional um responsive um and collaborative and it's a good thing um you have uh one of the most visible uh positions in the town um not specifically yourself but all the work that you need to do um it touches just about every resident in Brooklyn um and in visitor as well um as well as employees and I think um it is uh it's a critical role and um while everything isn't always perfect uh you guys are working very hard and I appreciate it um I just wanted to say that you're doing a great job um I did have a couple of questions um rats rats rats you know we always are are talking about rats I'm I'm pleased to hear that we've either hired or moving to hire the code enforcement individual um as you know one of the the the challenges that we have is uh is enforcement with our commercial entities um there's a tension right we don't want to overburden them with a lot of Regulation and cost but yet they do are often a source of much of the food uh that that the rats uh need in order to sustain themselves can you talk a little just a little bit about code enforcement and how you anticip at going about it and moving the needle and will we have a rat metric um I know that I'm sure you have metrics but how do we measure it so uh thank you I'll say that the the rodent control action plan is uh something that the Department of Public Works and Public Health and Human Services work very closely together on so our director of Health and Human Services Seagal ree really takes a leadership role in the entire program um but we we work hand inand and we're we're both out there uh enforcing so uh as it relates to the action plan as you know last year we implemented new regulations um and uh what we've been focusing on and will focus on this year is going to be the enforcement so as I said we have someone that just came on board we're actually sort of onboarding them now uh in terms of uh the inspections and the enforcement protocol so what we see is far more um Outreach and touch points with the businesses with the areas where we have repeated problems um greater communication with the neighborhood uh greater communication with those business entities and um with our internal team we do a lot of collaboration with building with health with Public Works in terms of making sure that um we're sharing all of the information um so we will have the metrics that we have are um really on enforcement and that uh is already going up uh just in terms of the communication the warnings we generally try to do that first we need to teach people what they need to do it's for us in public Public Works is generally improperly stored trash and if they can store their trash properly that's really dealing with a huge portion of the the food source problem um but also the work that we do in the public areas to keep our roads um clean uh and our commercial areas clean is um equally important and so uh we've been talking about sort of doubling down on that uh effort in our um we do have some metrics I don't have that for you um this evening but uh Seagal and I have been talking about that it's it's modern Pest and the numbers that we have from them it's the work that we're doing ourselves and um and also the the complaints number of complaints and location of the complaints that we see uh on Brook online great um yeah and I think the proactive enforcement as opposed to waiting we're inbound is also important and and you're right education is probably the number one thing that we can do to help people understand in neighborhoods neighborhood associations and even business districts for I'm surprised at the number of people that just don't understand that you know having a dumpster that doesn't close properly or overflows because they're not picking it up frequently enough um the number of rats that that can really generate in a very short period of time so we we I'm glad you mentioned that actually we did create some um promot some educational materials with the health and human resources department specifically around dumpsters and you know sort of pro proper maintenance of the dumpsters and we delivered that to all of the commercial and multi-resident buildings in town the other I had two two other quick points um questions one is um Brook online and do you do you believe that it's serving us well um is there a better solution I know some communities have is it 611 or you know some other number 311 that they that they can call um do you anticipate something like that augmenting what we're doing or um improve improving the the the brook online type of system do we need to so I I think online is something where we're looking to make continuous improvements it's and and we have made some recently I want to say was our number around was close to 10,000 um you know sort of work orders that we implemented coming through because of requests with Brook online and our own so Brook online absolutely helps us get the information from residents that they think is important that they want us to look at and try to prioritize because we get so many we cannot address all of them Sim simultaneously um one thing that we have changed this year that I think will help is we've merged Brook online the brook online system with our work order system so Brook online now becomes a work order and so we are then able to message a little differently when we close um what we're finding though is we sometimes people will just see sort of the closed action and they're not reading the notes which are this has been added to our list for spring work or we've forwarded this to the health and human resources department and so um it's not that easy to change some of these automated messaging through the software companies so we are working to make that better so that what we're doing with the requests that we receive is more clear and responsive to residents so I think that's where it's falling short right now is residents don't always understand that they're that their um request has been received right and what is going to happen with it so I think that's on us to continue trying to improve but I actually think it's an excellent tool and um we do use that to um incorporate into all of our work and then the last Point um I'm going to do a little PR for you um so you know for many months now we've been talking about sidewalks and road conditions and you know how to tackle uh the issue of of trying to get caught up um and I just I I do uh want to uh thank you and congratulate you for the effort that you've put in not only to help us um in leadership figure out the type of funding that you need you need a lot of funding um more than than we have um but you are actively working to um address prioritize uh in and and tweak the approach so that in addition to working to make sure that we have safe roads we're also actively working to repave repair and improve the quality of our existing streets and sidewalks and I just it's not a question I just want to acknowledge that that is happening and the public should see and I believe they are seeing active work that's taking place now thank you I just want to thank you for that so I I also want to praise you for the work that you do at the department um and thank you for a great for all that all of you do sorry and um thank you for really a very useful presentation both here in in the room but also your written presentation which is very helpful and connecting it to your um master plan I think is something that maybe other departments should do there theirs would be different but you know it's a good way to um to sort of connect what you're doing with what you say doing yeah yeah and we have so many requests that come in it helps us make sure we're on Mission um for the town yeah so one of your divisions that people are very excited about looking forward to with anticipation and wondering when will it be online is your sustainability and Natural Resources Division um yeah I'm not sure that everyone you know connects the two um but I'd like you to sort of talk about the connection between sustainability and natural resources which I assume is tree canopy storm water drainage issues uh and you know that infrastructure that makes it possible for us to have a sustainable um you system wonderful um thank you for asking the question so um climate initiatives sustainability um climate resiliency has always been uh a part of our goals as part of our strategic plan uh in public works we think about climate readiness we think about emergency response we think about our infrastructure um and um how we will adapt and change over time uh with this new division we will continue to look at all of that yes the green infrastructure and storm water but really be thinking um more broadly about sustainability about um you know our climate change goals for the entire town it'll be working with the select board and what select board's goals how do you want to see that prioritized and rolled out and then um working with our various um boards and commissions Zab in particular um to develop a work plan with them so I think the benefit of this position with this approach being in public works is to operationalize um the climate resiliency initiatives and sustainability initiatives into Ser Public Service into capital projects and do that within the town um and then leverage that and take that um broader and out to the community so I think that with this team they think about um climate initiatives already and so there's a great team in place to support this new director and so I think that um it's really exciting I'm hoping that we can um make an announcement very soon for waiting yep yep I think very very soon and I'll also say that I have been I I presented an org chart tonight this is where I think Public Works can be most effective I think that this is this is a strategy where we can leverage positions that we have the new positions that I think need to be created in order for us to be effective um in the past that it's really been impossible I think there's been one person that has been asked to wear too many hats and just really um you know could not do um everything that the community is asking for um so I think this structure um will certainly make a big difference and I have been working very hard to um try to secure grant funding for us to Kickstart this um so that we can um bring those two new positions on board and then truly demonstrate um what we can accomplish when we have um the right expertise and people power um to do that and um I I know but I'm going to say I assume that uh you're tied in with Comprehensive planning process also Al because seems to me that a lot of the natural resource ISS issues that we have in town like Rising water tables and things like that really require coordination between you know comprehensive planning uh you know for a variety of things as well as you know what what we do and natural resources I guess subdivision so but at any rate you know everyone is excited about getting this off the ground and yeah I couldn't agree more with the link to the comprehensive plan as well and really that overarching look at the whole Community um I was on the selection committee for that consultant team with select board member Warren and will be very involved as will the directors in um helping uh our director of planning Community Development Cara brutin in every and any way we can um to help that be the best plan it possibly can be for the community there are no walls between our departments I so um okay it's just the two of us so any other questions actually I do I have one uh one more question actually since we have time 7:30 is when Mike's coming back quite some time you don't have to be here you don't have to fill it till 7:30 you do not um but I do have there was I've gotten actually all of us have gotten a number of uh questions about the amyy park uh project uh the redesign um and effort and it just might be a great time uh to get um some clarity on this specifically around the clay courts uh there was quite a few emails to us I think I got some phone calls um primarily from folks that play tennis and they're they're concerned about um the the clay tennis courts being uh replaced now I'm not asking for specifically about that but really the community needs to bring that feedback and those concerns and their desires to the design review what's what's the path for them versus emailing the select board which you know doesn't help a lot they really need to get plugged into this process right maybe we could speak a little bit about that absolutely and I think that I'll ask director Veo to to correct me if I'm incor if I'm wrong about any of this because um the the CIP item was developed and put in place envisioning replacement of the clay quarts there's um and it's a little unusual in that playground in the athletic field like was a bigger project but the fields were done first and then this this second part really identified four other key areas that needed a full um renovation or replacement um so any concerns or advocacy about those clay courts what they should look like that should go to the park and Recreation Commission design Review Committee that is where um those conversations happen it is it's the committee that wants that feedback from the public they want to know that this is a valuable resource here's the community that it serves it's why it's so unique and important and so um I do think that potentially those letters in essence going to the select board is almost lost um you know that it would be um not that I mean you'll share it with us we'll share it with them but I think that um their voice is better heard going right to those design review there's a a project page right on your right that they can go to and it has contact information and schedules for when the next meeting is going to happen and all the presentations that have already been had so um okay okay so all right so they so so I I redirected some folks and apparently they went to the right place great I'll just share for the audience that um that comment was that there's been over 120 um comment letters or feedback that um that the department has received in the last three days okay well good thank you good any other questions from other members of the board none for me thank you thank you very much I want to thank my staff for being here they're often so patient and sit here and they're they're incredible professionals they manage um wonderful teams of employees that um work really hard for this town that work really hard and care about the work that Public Works does and so often you have to sit here and listen to me so I'm so sorry about that but I appreciate um everything that you um do and the team that we have so thank you and we appreciate you too and and the fact that you're here in person is really special for us after all these years of Zoom meetings I mean really makes a difference to see who you are in person um some sometimes we run into you in the sort of regular course of business but not all the time so thanks for your time thank you so much thank you thanks all okay next is uh language access plan I'll wait for I can promote for that or um are we are you looking vote on that tonight or no you can't vote on it but it can be at least the the item can be presented as part of the meeting uh and then we can that's perfect I was just checking sorry um aana is being promoted now so not aana Caitlyn Caitlyn star oh sorry we're doing thecr first I thought we were doing C I'm sorry I have my I have my schedule mixed up it is Caitlyn's time right now K I'm promoting you to a panelist and Ahmed as well hello um ahed is actually our new language access coordinator will actually be doing the presentation um tonight I'm I'm just here to help answer any questions that predate um his start you should be able to share your screen let me know if you have any trouble all right I'm gonna share my screen just a second sorry one okay is everyone able to see yep okay good afternoon everyone U members of the board fellow Town colleagues my name is Ahmed Hamza um it's Ahmed Hamza in Arabic but of course I won't hold you all accountable to pronouncing my name in Arabic excuse me but I am the language coordinator uh for the town I just started in uh early March it's a pleasure to be here and I'm going to be talking to you all about the uh language access uh policy and our language access plan um but before I get into that I wanted to go over some of the um linguistic demographics uh that we have here in the town so um According to some census data and also some of the information that our um Town organizations have been telling us around 30% of the Town residents um are foreign born and they speak a language other than English these populations are um abbreviated as Lotte individuals um in a total of 10% of the population are self- reedly limited in their ability to communicate effectively in English these are um limited English proficiency or LEP individuals um and of course these individuals are protected by laws such as the Civil Rights Act um and so any um instances of exclusion based on uh linguistic diversity or or Regional origin um is of course um to be avoided um and the majority of Lotte uh and immigrant clients so 91% of the clients that work with Community organizations in Brookline um do not know how to request Public Services because of this language barrier um or they are underiner as one of the obstacles to uh participating in in you know accessing Town resources programs and so on and so our language access policy is designed to basically combat this um to ensure that our lot and LEP residents have access to all of the town's public information public resources and programs um and this um uh Equitable access or ability to access this information uh for these um Lotte and LEP residents is what's called language access and so making sure sure that these folks um have just as much access to all public facing information um as much access as uh those who are proficient in English and so this policy has external and internal applications externally of course it's to allow again access to these residents uh to to public programs and resources but internally this is to um sort of guide us in changing our policies and our um ways of engaging with the public um and really having language access U at the back of our minds whenever we're we're public facing it so um once this policy is approved uh Town departments will receive a copy of this and further guidance will be provided you know within 30 days but of course this is an ongoing conversation um and implementation of the language access policy is done through the language access plan um which I will go over right now so the language access plan or the lap was developed uh through collaboration with language enti equity and access Partners um and the first thing of course we needed to know are who are these uh residents in Brooklyn what languages do they speak um and so again thanks to US Census Data and of course information provided by Brooklyn Public Schools by our town departments and by different organizations in the town um we have a good idea of the language demographics there are of course um different size communities for example category one languages are um those that are most spoken across the town and so my understanding is that languages such as Mandarin Cantonese Russian and Spanish are among the major languages in bookline and so these category one languag should always be um considered when we're um facing the public and of course category two languages are still spoken in the town but less common so you might see languages like Korean Japanese Hindi Udu and so on um and so we do have uh a good amount of data on the languages that are spoken um but it's important to of course know which languages are um significantly uh spoken in the town and of course uh we have to understand the um Town departments and how much they engage with the public and so uh there are of course departments that engage quite a lot with the public so departments such as planning Community Development diversity um and health Public Health um these departments have all been um engaging with me and and sort of had um uh introductory meetings about our plans for language access and there will be you know consistent uh engagement with these public facing departments to ensure that all of our public facing efforts are vetted through the language access plan um so given the language needs um uh our main strategy for ensuring language access is translation of essential documents that are faced in the public um this includes of course not limited to this but uh things like flyers uh notices for different programs um Services benefits and especially alerts um and in terms of spoken language interpreting services for public meetings um of course there are virtual options for interpreting as well as iners um and occasionally um for those who uh visit us at Town Hall um um vendors also provide um live 24hour 7 interpreting that we will also be taking advantage of to ensure that we are effectively communicating with anyone who stops by um Town Hall regardless of the languages that they speak um and of course we have bilingual staff who are always uh willing to volunteer um to help us translate interpret and you know meet the needs of um uh multilingual residents and at some point um each department will have um their own language access Liaisons which will U hopefully take care of the specific language access needs for each department um and I will be you know collaborating with with them to ensure that um things are going well um and so staff um all staff including the leaon um will be trained uh make sure that they understand the language needs the kinds of services a language vendors provide um and the specific ways of applying language access to their departments at the same time we will be collaborating with Community organizations to um Implement accountability measures make sure that um residents are actually benefiting from language access and so we will be asking for feedback from these organizations um and not only for feedback but to help us um let residents know that these services are available uh that they should never be hesitant to ask for this kind of service um and that we're you know we have the ability the capacity to um make sure that they're able to engage with us in the language they feel comfortable in um whether it's whether it's English or any other language and so from here I'm working closely with uh with Caitlyn my other um colleagues in uh diversity um as well as Town departments to develop guidelines and resources for staff to request translation and interpret um and identifying these Department Liaisons um to continue to implement language access for each department um I will of course be overseeing this um we are slowly developing a network of vendors uh we'll be providing many helpful Services um and Outreach which is incredibly important to ensure that uh residents know that again we are able to provide these services and uh that they're able to to engage with us and give us feedback and let us know if this is meeting their needs or things need to be U improved and uh lastly of course like I mentioned earlier feedback mechanisms really important for um tweaking any things that we need uh to um to fix in the way we are administering language access um that's all we have right now uh so I'm going to stop sharing uh but essentially that's our intention with uh with language access I'll give Caitlyn a second if um you would like to add anything um and of course we're happy to take questions at this time Kaitlyn no I'll just say thank you I was gonna say thank you so much for all the work that he's already done with us over the past month and a half um and I do just want to say that the data he was showing from that first slide is all from the language access needs assessment that was conducted by the language equity and access Partners um so that is we haven't done any new surveying or anything that you haven't seen before that is all data that was picked out of there and I just want to make sure that was clear thank you any questions from you Paul uh I do have a couple first uh take ask one and then let me ask okay I have a couple don't hog the question we can go back um so thank you for the presentation I I'm trying to there's a huge amount of work work here uh if uh and I'm trying to get my head around around it um uh because I think about all the communication that takes place just about town meeting uh yeah the creation of Warren articles the submission of Warrant articles the uh publishing of the warrant the public hearings on the warrant um amendments etc etc that's just one thing um how do we I guess how do we prioritize this is there a legal requirement that's like a baseline that we have to make sure we achieve and then there's also what do we need to do in order to be able to Service uh the our our LEP residents how do we how do we deal with this I guess is my question am you want to take that first and I can follow up yeah absolutely um it's it's definitely a big lift it's it's a it's a very big lift um there are several things that I've I've considered um things that I've worked U when I was doing this in Boston um first Department Le aison they'll be able to really plan well ahead um because they are the ones that will I will train them in language access and they'll be well trained in what their departments do individually so they will have the foresight to uh know what's coming especially if it's a lot of notices a lot of events that are coming up um but also um the language access plan is flexible enough to allow us to for example condense documents um or um uh recycle things such as Public Notices which are essentially going to carry the same amount of information every time you send them to the public um these kinds of small strategies that make it a lot easier to translate things to get them um out in the public and also our Partnerships with the community organizations who make it very easy to get all of this information out there so I'm hoping that U through collaboration with these different departments and with the town organizations that even though it is a lot of information and content that might need to be out um we'll have different ways of doing this including using um social media email things that make it easier to translate and also distribute information out to the public um but the the policy itself is is very much uh flexible um and it'll allow us to you know through through a lot of trial and experience figure out what the best way is to to send this information out to the public I guess LPS are are are we are required to provide you know meaningful access to govern for everyone um and so that means where necessary publishing in languages that are spoken in the community so you know um you know the the the correct the correct translation and the correct Services provided how we go about that is the point of this language access plan and we're aware you know not only is it a heavy lift it's a significant cost barrier um a big part of the um initial spending on the uh from the override uh was went is going to go towards some of these efforts um and in the other areas we're just going to be very clear that you know the efforts will need the money will need to be spent as appropriate on translation services where we where we need to have them right I guess sorry just a quick followup the the I think the operative point there is where we need to have them I don't understand where we need to have them because there is a huge amount of information that's that's what that's a huge amount of what amed's work is going to be it's going to be figuring out is going to be working with departmental ason to determine all right what is the what is the vital information that we need to be able to provide to people on demand what is something that we or what is something that's going to need to be published and fomulated in multiple different languages right away what is something that might need to be translated on demand for a user how do we you know how do we interact with people who may come who are Le who come directly to the counter you know those are all those are different questions but to your point about like use C media as an example all right we that may not be a situation where we when we promulgate amendments we publish every single document in the four major languages that we know are spoken in Brookline but what we say is we're promulgating this document and we translation services are available um should you need it okay um okay that was basically my question also because in in the policy there's a definition for vital documents Y and I'm thinking of uh our board packet every week 52 weeks or less than 52 weeks a year but still many many weeks um and uh the uh the translation in the four or five languages has to be both accurate and timely so I guess you know maybe you know Chaz answered that question and you answered it in terms of the flexibility within the policy um I I I'm just U somewhat concerned that we bitten off a little more than we can chew effectively um but you know wherever possible we want to provide meaningful access to folks but I also think that it's fun it's funny too when we think about what is what are people's typical day-to-day interactions with government it's not select board packet it's how do I pay my parking ticket well some people it is for some people it is that's right but there is and we want to be and that's where and that's where we say to folks yeah if you if that's if that's the level of access you need to government or you feel you want from government we want to be able to provide you know reasonable translation services to allow you to interact with the government on that level um but when we think of what is a vital document for living and existing in Brookline we want to be cognizant of you know what when when legal notices go out to folks for example you know a notices to a butters for example those are the kinds of things where I would think in most cases we would be looking at having those be translated into multiple languages at the start or having a document that goes out with them in multiple different languages saying for translation services scan this scan this QR code call this number right come to this office which is what you know I think of what we do so I think what you know one of Chess one of the things that I believe um we we have to think about is if this becomes part of the normal course of some some work group or commission's work it's going to add an amount of time and built-in overhead right right to all the work that they do um and I think about the the comprehensive plan we just you know I know the amount of delay that added to the process of just getting the the call for um you know membership applications um you know there was certainly some cost associated with that but time yep um and we're not fast as it is you know and Nimble um so this this would it'll be interesting to see how how this works its way into systemically into what we're doing and that's where it's really important for us to be well coordinated to ensure that we do not that it does not become a burden to us but instead that as we get better at it it becomes second nature to say aha this is a document that needs to go out in these languages great we have we have a template ready to go that's not a problem um so as we get better at it the burden on us will decrease I'm not so much concerned about notices and and sort of the routine documents that we put out and that that's a heavy lift but we can we can lift it what I'm concerned about is the fact that the policy does not include uh language to the effect the you know documents that are appropriate or reasonable uh responses to um the document request for example you know our board packet I mean you know if someone asked for the entire packet translated into Mandarin I'm not sure how we can do that um again mean it's right there there are these issues of what is the access you know what is the access for what is the access needed and again we're balancing the needs of people who you know live in the community and make sure that they have meaningful access what does that look like but it can be it can be very case specific um and and that's cool I I would like to see some language in here that that talks about you know potential limitations uh not in terms of what people need but just in terms of us you know um identifying things that um maybe they don't really need and they and and because they haven't really thought through what what's important no yeah I mean the issue is always if you can't read it you don't know what's important and what isn't um we gota we got think through how we how we address those issues I'm also thinking what what is our litigation risk when you don't have those limitations MH but you know and are we setting an expectation uh with this policy that that is it does the community expect now that these types of services and a certain level of translation is automatic and does that create some risk to to the town it's just it's unclear to me it this seems like we boiled the ocean um a bit and I worry about about that we can definitely would take this back and make sure because I don't think it's that that's not the intent right the intent is to provide meaningful access it's not to Pro it's not to say every document everywhere will be translated on demand into a language of you're choosing like that's not the that's not what this is about this is about realizing that you know we have communities here that speak different languages and have different needs we want to be responsive to those communities and make sure that they can participate in government uh and that's what the end goal of this is it's not you know it's not a universal translation service and I assume ahed having worked in Boston I assume in in in Ang language access uh probably could you know give us some guidance in terms of uh what to expect absolutely uh there are several several things I could I could go on and on about but um I wanted to uh touch on the point earlier about the the Translating uh a lot of content at once and this is something that we had to really strategize on but it was a very simple fix which is condensing information into a different format using fact sheets for example U that pull out and extract only the essential information um into a three-page document for example or even a two-page document um making the um the the parts of these documents that the most impactful Parts um the focus so that residents are one it's easier for us to translate two it's easier for residents to read in their languages and of course um significantly reduce cost and so these are things that that um uh just one example of things that we've done uh in the past um to address these points certainly is a big lift and and there are many many ways that we can um go about reducing cost effectively communicating and uh making this efficient and another thing I want to one last thing I want to mention is that the intention I have going into this is is to make language access um compatible with the processes that already exist so I'm I'm trying best to not disrupt the workflows of each department um certainly not making things take longer but to um adapt our language access uh policy um based on how long it takes different departments to get documents ready and so on um so the intention is to uh certainly not to make things longer but to make language access compatible each department which of course means that um there will be Department specific language access plan um that really complement what each department does and so hopefully a combination of these things would U make this uh run smoothly cost effective but also impactful for uh for our residents um and so I definitely look forward to collaborating with you all with t departments to making this happen the idea of a fact sheet is is I I think you know the solution to a lot of our problems I just want to make sure that that is contemplated in the policy um course so that someone who wants to Sue this the town just because they don't like us you won't have this as an opportunity to that's right so as so as an example um I think what I just heard is um that essential information we could translate the agenda for the select board but not the packet yes yeah providing essential information to know that the meeting's taking place in what we're going to be discussing that's right and and and the key documents I mean right if there are key documents for example a memo from a department that's two pages that summarizes what's going on yes we can turn Okay alternatively there there is also the option of um sending notices that ask residents to request translation for certain things especially the things that might take longer um that might be more difficult to vet through language access asking residents to request them by certain date um if they would like them to be translated and then doing the translations based on the requests that we get um that's another uh option that we have to um hopefully make things easier while again delivering um uh essential information to the public but of course these are all options that we can you know look at and work on um as we progress great so this is going to come back to us uh yeah yeah because we have to vote it and we can't do that toight well we'll take this feedback back and we'll take a look um and we'll make sure that it comes back to you yeah and just in one closing point it would I don't understand the process of this service you know U there's and how it is going to in integrate into what we do today that said that this should be you know frictionless essentially um it would be helpful like are we using third party services do that what's the turnaround for those 30d Party Services is it contracted does it get bid once I mean I just I don't understand how this stuff happens yeah it's it's going to vary Department by Department too um you know for example language line is service we have we've historically had access to that provides you know you pick up the phone you call them and they you can get translation services on the line that's one aspect that's going to help some departments but not others um some of this is technical information that may need specialized translation correct that's more expensive yes okay thank you thank you and uh welcome aboard on I'm you know yeah I've met you but I don't think you've been officially introduced to our vast TV audience thank you everyone it's it's definitely nice to have that audience a month in um but yes thank you all for the war welcome and I I very much look forward to working with you all on this great thank thank you for taking the time appreciate it absolutely thank you Kaitlyn for all you do thank you everybody okay bye okay next uh CBD advisory committee recommendations uh I'm not seeing Iana online is Anana in the room she's in the room we are oh wonderful wonderful thanks Charlie um so my name is Cara Bru and I'm the director of planning and I'm here just to give you um a bit of a big update for us um aana lindos Smith is our new Housing and Community planning director so she's now the manager of our Housing and Community planning division um I am absolutely thrilled to share this news with you um aana first came to the town two score ago two score two score ago we were just doing the math um but every day she walks in as if it's her first day um she's been serving as the interim manager since last fall um she has obviously a depth of experience with Town operations and Community Partnerships but she's also a natural manager and leader um she inspires all of us to be creative impactful and even cheerful in our work which is a nice thing to do um her education background is in Business Administration she also has experience in management um certainly knows um anything related to anything Financial um started in the comp controller's office here in town um has a deep knowledge in local state and um Federal affordable housing um programs opportunities Social Services especially the organizations in town and how they deliver their programs to benefit Brooklyn residents um she comes every week with new ideas and ways to for uh Town residents to benefit from funding or different programs that are available um and she is excited about adding and preserving our affordable housing stock um she's going to be developing and supporting that very talented staff um but often many of them are new to their positions in this Division and so um in summary I'm thrilled to have aana in this position so it's one ucer yeah let me uh add I had I wrote out a not a long but a couple paragraphs about Iana because I worked with her when I was chairing the cdbg uh committee and you praising you know the the work that she did and and uh uh how she helped the committee through that process and and you know gave us insights and all like my computer crashed and and I lost those notes so I I have to talk off the off the the cuff uh I'm really excited and glad to uh have you work in this new position I know um that uh you'll do a incredible job to to help get these uh these uh um grants through the process and uh for the benefit of very important entities and institutions in our town so w welcome congratulations and um let's hear from you thank you thank you cara um I have also with me today um one of my staff members um Jacob Collins um we both worked very hard together on the um cdbg process so I brought him here so that um we can answer any questions you may have recognize him yes he's our new community planner he's been in the position since the fall also so it's um we're all just trying to work our way through all this thank you all for your patience with that um I'm here tonight just to um present to the select board the cdbg advisory committee recommendations that we have for the use of our cdbg funding this year we have um normally um get an allocation of about 1.3 million at this point in time we're not sure exactly if we'll get that exact amount but this is such a long process we have to move along and assume that we're going to be level funded so that's why we're we're here to St you know keep the process going um we have advertised our annual action plan and this plan States what we're going to be doing um with our funding when we do get it I was told that um we should be hearing from HUD by May 8th as to exactly what our allocations right now we're just working on the 1.3 um what we have decid what the board has decided to do it's when we do get our actual allocation we are going to whatever percentage is it is um lower or higher we will change these numbers by that however whatever we have voted on the programs projects that we're going to be working on they are not going to change it's just probably the amount changes up or down depending on what we get um just a moment I'm sorry okay um the projects that we um we're working on this this year it's some the we had a public process that for The cdbg Advisory Board this took place on March 11th and 13th on those nights um the the applications that came in they had to present them to us and so in the process of um they had to tell us you know how they'll use the money and if they weren't to get enough money how would they survive what would happen with the programs the board listened to this and this is part of what they used to make their um recommendation to you we have um that public our budget recommendations I will get to that is um for this year we have Staffing costs which is about four 525 $338 we have um housing which under housing we have the Brookline Housing Authority resident health and safety projects that we have um set aside 500 $1,193 and this is for a project to for the High Street Veterans building for Community for capital projects and we're hoping that that money will be able to leverage some funds from the state two and a half times that amount which would really help the B BHA and the projects that they're working on we also gave the Brookline Community Development Corporation formally B um $63,000 and that is that should be helping to renovate three of their bathrooms at 154 to 156 Boon Street I tend to get that wrong I'm always saying beac it's Bo Street and then on our Public Services we have um allocated some funds to the Brookline Housing Authority resident resiliency program which is social program and it does help um residents of the Housing Authority or any lowincome um resident that may reach out to them we have allocated 45,000 to them the community the trips program which is the transportation program for the Council on Aging we have decided the board decided on $40,000 steps to success which is a program that helps kids in the summertime to stay off the streets and give them some training that program got $45,000 in the brookln food pantry which for the food insecurity that we do still have um $45,000 and the Brookline Center for Community Mental Health they were um awarded $2,894 for a to help with a case management um salary and this is the case manage manager from their application is someone who would help after they've done the mental health and they need help they'll be able to help refer them to the right places to get the the help that they need um our annual plan this is all listed in our annual plan you can find this plan on um our website the planning department website and if you need information or any questions on any of this we do ask that you contact myself and my email is elindo brooklinema.gov or you can send an email to Jake Collins J Collins Brooklin ma.gov we'll be more than happy to answer anything um and help you with other questions tonight we're just um we're just presenting this to you the board um it's not a it's not a hearing it's just a matter of letting you know about this so that um when we come back because we will be coming back on May 14th you would be aware of all these things so if you have questions or any corrections that need to be made we do ask that you let us know about this it the annual plan is now out for comment and we're waiting for um if anyone sends in any comment they they're instructed to send it to me um that way it will be included in the annual plan and we will mention that at the next meeting so on May 14th we'll be in asking you to approve to to vote to approve um our application to HUD and that's what that is and approve the annual plan and the application to HUD at the same time um I think that's about it that we have at this time does anybody have any questions or so you have a hearing after do you get the final numbers is that yes we're hoping it will come through on May 8th and this is what will happen if we don't get it by the 14th I won't be here with you on the 14th I have to wait for those numbers because we can't send it to HUD until they say okay we think we're going to give you another 1.3 if they don't say that I can't move yeah so we we won't the numbers next time I come to you the numbers will be solid um that's what we'll have and that time right any questions from other members of the board I'm Mr Warren I don't really have a question I just uh have a comment um I want to thank I I got to cheer this as you know you handed it off to me um in good hands it it was a a distinct pleasure to work with Iana and um and and Jacob uh they ran a very tight ship very professional um and we had a unanimous Advisory Board as we went through this process the recommendations as you know Bernard um there's always far more requests need than there is money available um and I think that was the most difficult part for me was to have to say no um to to many things and I think in particular the Brookline food pantry was one of the ones that struck me the hardest because food is such a basic need yes and they came uh looking at requesting a much higher number um and it was not 100, and they more need um so um but I I appreciate that you you did it for many years and I know that you wrestled with probably the same types of questions um how to allocate a small amount of money relatively small amount of money to a big need so um I just wanted to say thank you it's it was a pleasure working with you um you do your job uh efficiently and always with a smile so thank you so much and to Jake as well he my motto is you get more with honey than with vinegar that is true right we could all learn that and live that daily thank you so much thank you very much so any questions please feel free to reach out we're more than happy to answer and take care of it yeah the um it was very difficult to you know from my recation it's very difficult to divide up the small amount of money we had to the huge need that out there but you know the fact that we're able to provide uh money through this block grant program which Nixon um established back in you know the 1970s for reasons that aren't really good but still um able to provide you know funds that the town couldn't provide in many cases to uh deserving uh entities particularly the housing authority and all that they do um in in terms of uh renovating U many of their properties I it wasn't everything they needed but you it made a real big or made a significant Improvement in the lives of uh their residents so it was uh it's it's a um meaningful committee to to be on I I appreciated it and appreciate your work and uh thank you you're continuing to do uh that that that important uh job that uh thank you we do it's it's so hard too because we have to play by the rules that that um you know the cdbg rules that HUD has given us and with the money we may say 1.3 but the social services they they really get um 15% of that and there is we can't spend a penny over that 15% or then the town has to pay it back from the general fund so usually that might be a big problem considering what's going on these days so um you know it's it's just difficult but thank you guys for for um thank you very much for all all that you do because it's hard I kind of just sit and listen to you guide you a little bit but I listen to you I'm trying to you know thrash out those few pennies especially for social services good thank you so much for having me tonight thank you cara you wanted to say oh you're just getting up to leave yeah okay we're all set okay thank you so I'll be back on May 14th don't forget oh we won't then if anything before that let me know so we can fix things or do whatever we need to do okay okay thank you so much thank you hopefully there'll be more uh members of the board here um yeah well 7:30 we're getting one more right yes well you have you still have one more thing before then thankfully you have an interview with a candidate for the Small Business Development right um is uh Charlie is uh Chris moody in the audience there see him in the attendees list he is in the attendees why don't I have the attendees list here you need to be promoted to a we can let me get Bernard promoted to a panelist and Chris is also being promoted now thank you Charlie hello Christopher hi Bernard how are you tonight I'm good I'm good so uh tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're interested in uh being um uh appointed to the Small Business Development Committee um and what you have to offer certainly so uh my name is Christopher muddy I've lived in Brookline for about 10 years um I previously was a small business owner in town I owned a company called Green Line Growers and we were a hydroponic Farm we also went a local food store called Brookline grown on Pleasant Street um since then I've been primarily a stay home parent um and then I recently have been appointed to be the next executive director of the Chamber of Commerce um so I am certainly committed to the uh small business Community um growing it and promoting it and uh would love to be a member of this committee wow that's uh reason enough um actually I I we we knew about your hydroponic uh Farm U many years ago or a few years ago and um it it's not operating any operative anymore is that correct that's correct yeah we shut down in uh I think I finished the books in 2019 um thankfully just before covid I'm not sure how we would have operated during during the pandemic but uh certainly learned a lot as being a small business owner in town um that I think will be beneficial to the the rest of the community yeah well I'm sorry that we lost that business that that was uh pretty important any uh questions from you Paul uh sure Chris thanks for uh for joining um and I you know the the you didn't give the full story about your small business your um where was your uh hydroponic Farm located it was in the Waldo durgen uh build I didn't want to mention that it's it's fascinating to me this business model of being able to have these these farms and and such a dense Urban location I'd never heard of it before it's fascinating to me um yeah definitely um and it was uh there were three repurpose shipping containers so they were you know inside of an old parking garage um just an incredible place to grow greens yeah yeah it's it's fascinating so anyway I just I wanted to have a chance to have you get that out there I I found it fascinating and I would hope others would as well I didn't know such a thing was done um what what would be your you know three objectives of uh you know should you join this uh the committee what would you like to accomplish so the the committee has a stated goal of increasing diversity and that was one of the things that I actually ran for school committee last year on a platform what is one of my three things that I was really focused on um so definitely increasing the diversity of the business community within brick line is one of the things that I would love to see that committee really be involved with um a second is uh one of the things that we're doing for the um that we have a grant for with the um the chamber is uh as the restaurant resiliency program and so getting um restaurants involved with that program um I think I can help kind of make that happen um a third thing with the Small Business Development Committee um i' actually have to really kind of think about that but those are definitely the two that I want to focus on if I'm lucky enough to become a member well I would um I I guess i' I'd give you a a hint well something that I'd love to see happen um you know I I spend a lot of time in our small businesses because I live right behind a lot of them uh many of them um down in the St Mary's area and just uh you know getting to know them hearing them out understanding the challenges that they face um you know giving them a voice um they because many of them are working you know 18 hour days uh just trying to get by um they don't have a lot of time to get plugged into Brookline and processes and politics and go you know they it's it's very difficult for them to keep up and many of them aren't just aren't residents either so they're and they're very very busy um more advocacy uh I think um you know for our small businesses and just you know bringing them into the fold uh promoting them giving them a voice I know we've done some work uh like that before and we're continuing but I think it's just it certainly is a need uh uh for them and I'm I'm sure it's uh it's a struggle for for many small businesses just to survive um uh you know with with current times and the way with inflation and costs so anything that we can do to get get them plugged in uh would be really great especially if they're not in a a a a commercial District that's really well organized um you know there are some that are better organized than others I think Co corner is reasonably well organized and they're connected but I think there's some others that that that aren't like same areas uh just want to apologize for the background noise it's dinner time so I don't know how much you can hear um we didn't notice it so you shouldn't uh but I I do want to follow up on that Paul uh so one of the first things that I'm going to do the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce when I started on Wednesday um is to do a listening tour and my initial plan was to do it primarily with members but you have me thinking maybe I should expand that to the business community in general just to I'm trying to get out to as many as I can um and then also to H zooms where they can just kind of join hopefully and I provide them an opportunity to just kind of let me know what they need and uh I can do that as an advocate a good idea it's a great great way to get new members yeah so um you mentioned that uh you're particularly interested in diversity of the business Community here in Brooklyn uh do you have any specific ideas or or suggestions in terms of of um of acting on that goal both as executive director of the chamber as well as on the committee well I have a couple of contacts that I've reached out to that um and this would be specifically for restaurants um who highlight restaurants especially during Black History Month they highlighted um businesses throughout the Greater Boston area um who would be potentially looking to expand so I think reaching out to those businesses understanding what's preventing them from coming to Brookline and then hopefully providing the resources to get them to expand into Brookline um if there's a right Market fit um so there's there's plenty of people on social media that are you know influencers that are doing that kind of work um so kind of I've been getting in touch with them to get a better sense to who the restaurants are that could potentially um you know look to expand a book line any other questions no good okay uh thank you Christopher uh we're not GNA be of course we can't because we don't have a quum he's he's on he's on for later because he's joining the chamber I thought would be if you wanted to if you're once you have a quorum if you wanted to vote uh okay Poss but so uh we may come back to you today but uh until then thank you all right absolutely thank you have a great night thank you so your hearings are noticed for 7:30 and that's when Mike returns to you so you have a little time I apologize why we take a break adjourn till 7:30 yeah okay let's do that okay uh we're going to adjourn until 7:30 um and at which point uh we will um begin uh our public hearings on warrant articles uh with a full comp not a full compliment of the board but at least a quorum of the board so thank you okay um this is the resumption of the select board meeting for April 24 2024 um let's get back on the agenda we have a hearing warrant article hearings and I need to find my agenda the first one is um the police and and and article or article one of the um special meeting article two collective bargaining right okay uh do we have someone to speak on this I have Ann Braga Director of Human Resources see and welcome [Music] everyone um can you hear me yep so by the way this is going to be a joint hearing with article one of the special town meeting correct uh yes we can we can open we can have it we can share this with the special time meeting one okay special time meeting two sorry article one and that would be the Civil Service yes y okay so can you speak on both of them I assume uh I believe Chief Pastor is scheduled to be part of the hearing this evening we can promote her um I believe actually I think I think the chief is actually out she she's present but she's not may not be responsive she's out at an event so we might want to promote superintendent mey about it I'm promoting uh I threw out a promotion offer to both just in case um but okay pulling up my reference materials hello superintendent mey hi how was everyone tonight good oh I see uh Chief pastor's here too behind behind the um no problem thank you snuck in there second touch and go for a little while but we made it yeah okay uh and do you want to start sure so warn article two for the spring town meeting will include two collective bargaining agreements as well as an attachment that's related to the Police Department collect bargaining um Mo MOA so I'll start with the teamsters the teamsters are um represent the uh dispatchers for the town of Brookline and we are presenting a 2022 through 2024 um which provides for um wage increases of 1% in fiscal 22 3% in fiscal 23 and 24 now this will be a fully retroactive um collective bargaining agreement um they did come to an agreement shortly before town meeting but with not enough not enough time in the fall town meeting to be able to present it for Action um the dispatchers will have an have an added holiday of juneth effective um July 1 of 21 um an increase in the training officer styen um where more senior dispatchers train the newer dispatchers to go from 2 $2.50 an hour to three $3 an hour increase in the education incentive for dispatchers an addition of one step effective July 2023 and an increase in the gap between steps in in as of July 2023 the dispatchers gaps were um 1% a piece um and so this has been increase to provide um more of an increase as dispatchers uh spend more time in service and they have agreed to a reasonable suspicion drug and alcohol testing policy as well as the um related Wellness day for annual physicals and cancer screenings um I don't know if Melissa wants to put up the cross Grid or if you want me to you probably have it more readily available I wasn't prepared to present this one so I can Shing prives thank you so what you'll see here and I'll just expand the SI um you'll see the cost the total cost of the contract implementation is $151,000 20 15122 um with an overall increase of 10% you'll also see a fiscal 25 cost item and that is um the new senior step and increased differential the carryover into the the new fiscal year of $9,000 questions on the dispatcher's contract uh not for me um Mike no your hands not raised Paul no I think I'm okay okay good no fine thank you an sorry no questions pardon me sove on from there nothing all right yes we can move on from there I think thank you okay up so the police Union police Union contract is a one-year contract for fiscal 24 and then a followed by a three-year contract for fiscal 25 through 27 know there was some discussion of this at um advisory and so there might be some repetition for those that are H have attended both um in fiscal 23 there is a 3% cost of living increase or fiscal 24 a 3% cost of living increase similar to all the other colas for the other unions during that fiscal year for fiscal 24 25 and 20 26 fiscal 20 excuse me Fiscal 25 and 26 have a 2% increase fiscal 27 has a 1 and a half% increase which is the this standard for colas that we have outlined um in the budget proposal there is an addition of a six-year step in fiscal 25 and an eight-year step in fiscal 26 to provide additional opportunities for retaining officers after their initial three years of service there's also a hazardous Duty or Regional tactical response typend stipend which converts the post from the post stipend that was um approved during the jlmc process with an additional 1.5% in fiscal 25 and 1% in both fiscal 26 and 27 recognizing the duties of 21st century policing and regional response to major events and responsibilities of multiple agencies in active Shooters incidents this also includes uh departmental removal from Civil Service um which is outlined in attachment a providing a similar process um for um setting up standards for hiring promotion and um other related um issues to um Service as Patrol officers existing um members of the Union will be um continued in the Civil Service process and um there is an updated provision for sick leave military leave and the grievance procedure um and the addition of the je holiday a full release for the union president focus on member issues and Union management relations attachment a includes the changes um for hiring and promotion um that include uh setting up a vendor to provide assessments for promotional opportunities as well as creating the selection and hiring of new officers based on written procedure and um also that the discipline would continue to be under the Prov principles of Just Cause and include an appeals process but not um specifically to the Civil Service Commission um I going to look to share my screen again with the cost grid for the police Union contract you'll see the cost items out here and we have Melissa and Carly walk through the details of all of this and could you talk into the mic I can't really understand you sure um the uh C grid is being shared currently um Melissa and Charli are on the on the meeting be able to answer any specific questions on this um then any other questions you may have okay uh any questions from the board um don't see Mike's hand up all I guess my my only question is just I want to confirm the the budgeting for this jez um and Melissa and Charlie I think can confirm this I um as part of the um upcoming discussion of the budget in your memo Melissa you mentioned that there's these additional adjustments for the police budget um that's due to this contract being settled correct there's nothing in there above and beyond the um the additional cost to settle this contract that we identified correct so we have um funding for fiscal 25 um allocated in the budget when the financial plan came out we had a certain assumption around where we were with collective bargaining we were still in ongoing negotiations um with the finalized agreement Anda um we discussed with the board in executive session the options to fund the contract and so the the adjustments that you'll see as part of article 10 um get us to the funding that we need for this uh contract for fiscal 25 and so Melissa thank you for that and so that that is consistent with our uh prior discussion that the board had around funding yes okay thank you that's what I want to make sure okay any other questions so um coming out of uh soci uh Civil Service uh our existing officers will still be subject to the uh disciplinary and other procedures of Civil Service uh they'll also be uh subject to the promotion list in Civil Service correct or is that not correct no they maintain their rights for discipline um and the promotion process moving forward um everyone would um fall under the new promotion process right it's only for discipline okay hiring and promotions will be civils will be will be our own process going forward good okay any other questions Mike nothing no all nothing okay uh this is a public hearing um Charlie could you see if there's anyone in the um Zoom audience interested in speaking I see two individuals here in the room neither one of has raised our hands so sure um folks on Zoom can use the hand ra or Q&A feature to let us know that they'd like to make a public comment at this public hearing um so again just click the the raise hand button or enter your name or request in the Q&A and we will uh promote you to speak Bernard we have six attendees in the audience right now um a couple of those are staff even so um only a few attendees and no one is using the hand raise or Q&A feature at this time okay uh then I will close the public hearing um this is not something that I think we should vote on unless other people disagree um so we will uh take this up at a later meeting of the select board you disagree I i' be prepared to vote unless you feel that yeah have the full board here for that or because John's not here next week right he's down here next week right he's out for the next two meetings for this meeting and next meeting sorry Bernard the board's already voted to approve both moas so a favorable action vote in this article wouldn't be um un it wouldn't be unheard of okay well then let's do it um I move approval of U War article two collective bargaining and War article one of the special town meeting to two with respect to Civil Service uh all in favor please indicate by saying I uh Michael Sandman I Paul Warren I and chair vots I okay that's to off our list next uh article six unpaid bills I think it Melissa is going to tell us about all of our unpaid bills if any so unfortunately we do have some unpaid bills um we're going to need to have uh Finance director Lincoln Hinman talk about um the unpaid bills that have come across our desk so um Lincoln's just been promoted hello good evening um Lincoln heinan the town's Director of Finance so we do as Melissa mentioned I didn't hear all of it but as Melissa mentioned um we do have uh two sets of unpaid bills from previous fiscal years um this is a standard article six is a standard uh in excuse me article um annual article uh since state law requires to meeting approval for any prior year fiscal year prior year fiscal uh prior fiscal year bills uh for which an appropriation is not available so over the past couple months there have been two outstanding bills um that have come up from fiscal year 2022 and before that are legitimate and do need to be paid um one is for the mailing of real estate tax bills at the close of fiscal year 2022 um from the town's previous printer mailer um the town had not uh no one in the town had previously received this bill um that is for $89524 and the other outstanding amount is um a portion of what the United States Postal Service says is due since calendar year 2017 uh and after for three Post Office boxes that are used by by the treasur collector's office to collect payments um we we have four post office boxes uh for real estate and personal property bills one for motor vehicle excise one for water and sewer payments and one for Refuge payments and uh throughout the time uh since 2017 um the town has been paying uh a post office box fee on time regularly um but uh just in the last couple months the post office has come up and said that that is only covering one of these Post Office boxes and not the other three so um it is uh there is this uh outstanding set of bills uh I'm in the process of negotiating that down and I believe will be successful in negotiating some of that down with the Postal Service um but uh the sum total of those two sets of bills um at ask uh that town meeting approve a motion of not to exceed uh $ 38,9 75 for these two sets of bills so uh and I should note the advisory committee did unanimously recommend approval of this article um so happy to answer any questions um that folks have he any questions from this like board I have a quick one yeah thank you Lincoln so just so if I understand it the based on the math the two two uh Post Office boxes are costing us 30 grand so it's actually three and well we already paid one though right right so there are four total oh there's four okay yeah there's four total so this is three uh since calendar year 2017 and that is the subject of um the what I believe will be successful negotiations in bringing these down some so for example the postal service is seeking to charge the current rates for um the the current ongoing rates for past uh you know when the rates we know were lower back for example in 2017 so so they did so they this is from 2017 they didn't build us for these three boxes they buildt us for one we can find no record of any time that they ever build us for these three no not not since 2017 interesting okay thank you so this was way before your time Lincoln so um it was how did it happen that we um you knew that we were renting four boxes uh we only paid for one because that's the only one we were built for but we didn't notice that they made a mistake maybe there's no answer to that but no I mean you know the the bill essentially says postal postal boxes and you know I think everyone in the treasur collector's office since 2017 assumed that that was covering all four um and um you know it was not according to the Postal Service yeah Mike you have your hand up yeah I think um and what happens with these things is uh the bill comes in and as Lincoln says they just think oh yeah this is it this is the bill um the Box the cost of boxes has gone up very substantially in the last several years so um I can I can understand why I want to try and negotiate this now but my assumption is that it's the mailing that's the greater expense here is that correct no it's it's actually not true so on an ongoing basis the mailing mailing the bills is more expensive but this was just one outstanding bill back okay all right not the whole package but just yeah back from our old printer mailer I should note we use a less expensive and better uh printer mail or now we've we we switched uh um uh towards the end of calendar year 2022 so this is this is just one bill back from June of 2022 okay did you have a a question Paul no no okay um this is a public hearing um Charlie is there anyone in the zoom public that would like to speak there are two people in our audience neither one of us raised their hand so okay folks um if you heard before you know the drill please use the handraiser Q&A feature to let us know that you'd like to make a comment at this public hearing and we will promote you in Zoom so you can uh make a comment um so just raise raise hand or use Q&A okay Bernard we have six attendees and no one is using the handraiser Q&A feature to let us know they'd like to make a comment okay so I will close the hearing and we will move on to a vote um unless there are any qu final questions uh I'd like to move approval of Warren article uh six unpaid bills um all in favor please indicate by saying I I assume no one objects to his vo no but it's up it's up to a he's capping it though right it's up to an amount not to exceed yes the request would be an amount not to exceed $ 38,9 52.75 right okay uh all in favor Mike Sandman I Paul Warren I and chair votes I thank you thank you okay next a a big one fiscal year 25 budget The Advisory committee's budget okay Melissa evening take us through this long journey well we've been uh reviewing departmental budgets since the FI financial plan came out in mid-February and we're with dpw's budget covered tonight I think that's the last of the Departments um next week we'll uh wrap up CIP and the unclassified budget but um in order to meet the timeline for the combined reports um we thought it would be good to have this public hearing you'll be voting next week uh in order to meet the deadlines for the combined reports your last meeting uh next week will be your opportunity to wrap up any outstanding votes that you may have um so you have in your packet a number of items um the first is a memo from me talking about the changes since the release of the financial plan and so some of those things are um you know the Police contract and the um the impact of the Police contract and the changes that we needed to adjust uh in in order to fund that Police contract um we had an adjustment for debt and interest based on the bond sale we borrowed a little bit more for the fire station renovation project so we needed to make some adjustments there uh we had some Group Health adjustments uh we had some um the GIC rates came out and we have with the finalized rates there was a little bit of savings there um we previously discussed the um use of free cash for OPB and redirecting half a million doll instead of to opvs that we would use that uh to further support the stabilization fund um and then we also um just recently discussed yesterday actually at the Town School partnership um that we were looking to go for the house Ways and Means version of the budget in order to provide a little bit of budgetary relief um the recommendation for the towns side of those funds is for collective bargaining um given the recent Police contract obviously there are other um areas uh in our bargaining uh cycle that um are looking for additional support as well um I do have a PowerPoint that will help kind of bring us to um where the advisory committee is um and hopefully kind of give you the update on all of the changes that are going there as well um let me just share my screen so um I think I kind of covered the first slide um you we have $389 million of general fund Appropriations um and I've already covered the changes that are on this first slide as well um there's been a lot of activity at the capital subcommittee of the advisory committee and so there are a lot of changes in the capital plan the operating budget um some minor changes but it's something that I think um both Dennis and I feel that we can work through uh with the Town Administrator So currently just for the operating budget they are slightly over um they've voted some adjustments without um identif if Ying an offset uh one of those is for the veterans budget they um were really um stressing the importance of communicating with newer veterans um and trying to do an Outreach campaign for that so they voted $5,000 uh in funding in order to um have the um Bill mcgr do additional Outreach um for veterans I will say that bill has also been engaged with um Christina mcf who was our new Communications uh officer and um they are already doing a lot of good work on kind of updating a lot of the information that bill has um for his Outreach um Council on Aging um they voted additional funds to continue a program that's current the food program that is currently funded with arpa um they did say that if the select board um supported additional funding through a third round of ARA allotments that they would reconsider that um and then they also added some additional funding for fuel um we we think that there's you know the in terms of you know the staff assessment of um what we potentially could U put forward for um another round of arpa we think that the Council on Aging um food program is probably high on the priority list and that very likely um we could you we could um make the adjustments so that we wouldn't be that far out of balance with advisory committee um Capital subcommittee has met on the CIP um they have uh voted on the CIP but that is getting presented to the full advisory tomorrow night um so we'll know next week how the full advisory reacts to some of the recommendations that are in um that uh that vote um I have the next slide will show you some of the reallocation that they're looking to do um within the um the allotments that we have for CIP projects um they do have some additional restrictions they that they want to put on some projects I have those also outlined for you as well um they did not vote on Griggs or Monmouth um they express some concerns on the um the guidance that um they are getting around the abutters that are um whether or not they're allowed to participate in design review and so um they they wanted to express that concern by um holding the votes on these and and hoping that maybe there could be an advisory or some way to sort out whether or not a b um within 300 feet of a project would be allowed to participate in design review and I know that there's um conflicting views on you know the bylaw and the intent of the bylaw and then the the state law um and they discussed some of that with Town Council last week um but we'll see how the full committee feels about um wanting to move those projects forward Melissa can I ask a quick question before you go past that slide sure sure So when you say no vote they're they're not saying they're they're voting against Griggs and monit they're just saying they're not taking a vote what is what is it basically haven't voted to fund it yet so um I think the full advisory will have to decide whether or not they they feel that they can make a recommendation on that one uh these are the changes um that they have recommended um as you know we had a strong free cash certification combined with using $3 million from the assessing overlay Surplus um to help support projects in the CIP we've been hearing for a long time about the need for deferred maintenance funding and um in particular from the advisory committee we've been hearing a lot about school deferred maintenance and so with the financial plan that came out that's where we put a lot of the funding um unfortunately um you know there has been some questioning about um the existing allotment for Capital um spending and whether or not the original intent for town meeting has been honored in fiscal 24 um and then the advisory has um essentially made some uh decisions around further restricting those funds uh based on those conversations and you have um in your packet also a report from Carol Lan who is the chair of of the capital subcommittee um that further expresses um some of the ra rationale behind some of these adjustments and so you can see that there are um three reductions for school projects um 1.7 in the school rehab upgrade $200,000 in a new account that we were looking to fund for uh IEP accommodations um and then a request for a long-term capital plan for schools and um that funding has been redistributed to the accounts that are listed above here and all of these accounts obviously are ongoing um maintenance accounts for the most part um in the CIP so obviously the this it's always there's always a need for funding in these areas um and I think we'll just continue to engage with the capital subcommittee um I think that there's also some um uh adjustments that um I think the school department is still um trying to advocate for uh you just recently got in your inbox earlier this evening and I believe Susan given is on this call um some concerns expressed about some of the restrictions that the advisory committee is trying to place on um the remaining amount that the $2.8 million particularly around um uh renovation for the Ballwin school and we can we can kind of go and cover that next would you stop for a second Melissa sure y absolutely I just want to understand what I'm reading here I apologize so um let's just take one of these line items um energy man Town School Energy Management the f125 financial plan allocated 100,000 and the subcommittee increased it by 200,000 to a total of how did they maybe you don't know this how did they determine that2 200,000 additional dollars were needed above the 100,000 that staff had asked for so I think part of it was that they engaged with Charlie you know obviously we can't give every Department everything that they ask for and so um to the extent that the request is over what we we think that the plan can afford um I think that those are the areas where they decided to put additional funding so are you so let me see if I'm understanding you just said so essentially Charlie had asked for $300,000 we gave him $100,000 yes is that what that is is that what that means yes okay I understand I don't necessarily agree with it but now I do understand yeah at Le for some of the for some of those accounts that is the rationale but as an example for Street rehab that you know DPW didn't ask for an additional million dollars they understood that the funding that we had available to support the program was coming from the override um but you obviously are very well aware of the outstanding U backlog that you know this account could get millions of dollars and we still wouldn't be caught up um so you know that's another area that they they felt that you know funding would be be going um to a good to a good place as well and just to add to that right you know I think right the question to Charlie is not you know it's similar to the question that you asked which is what would should do if you had infinite resources and it's well we this is how much it would cost you know to do to do this kind of work this is how much I think I could spend but again we deal with competing competing requests and scarcity and this is how we build the build out the CIP so I mean and a big reason why the school rehab account got so much money in fiscal 2 was because of the feedback that I was getting from the advisory committee for the past two three years at the very least what do you could you maybe explain that a little bit further what do you mean it it's been a theme of and part of departmental budget discussions for at least the past you know three to four years at the advisory committee about the underfunding in building maintenance um the list that had been put together of requests from the schools um I would say that you know this past summer Susan and the school team has done a lot of really good work scrubbing that list and getting it to a number that they feel is um probably more legitimate than it has been in years past but um it's still it's still a pretty large underfunded area of the budget okay and I assume that there's a detailed report that explains the justification for each one of these numbers yeah so they have you know they have a um a list of the um the school rehab and and what they're intending on doing um with the funds I think you know the intent that I was trying to get to was to while we have the money fund it and then it will take care of the future years and so the school committee had only requested maybe about $2 million for fiscal 25 um you know giving them $4.6 million was intended to cover them for you know three four years uh of the plan okay so you were front loading it so they asked for two million okay I I get it that's helpful I didn't that okay thank you okay Mike Mike's hand yeah so there it's looking at this is uh very interesting because um I had a call from a school Committee Member uh concerned about this and and the school committee's perspective of this on this was well theyve taken $2 million out of our budget and put it elsewhere $2 million out of our capital budget and put it elsewhere um what you're saying um it it sounds to me like what you're saying is that for the current years's upgrades at the the baldon school which is that small building on the top of the hill um at uh at at uh he Street um the school committee had actually originally asked for $2 million and some change to and a half so um when we go into the conditions of appropriation we can talk about what um what the issue is with Baldwin so uh Balwin has a little bit of a longer history in that um you know they had requested funding for a larger scale renovation somewhere around 9 to1 million a couple of years ago um that was put in future years of the CIP to kind of sign know like what are we doing with this building let's talk about this yeah um and then um there really wasn't a lot of discussion around it um so the funding didn't get pulled forward um at the same time the school committee was engaged in a discussion on the leases um and decided to end the lease at Clark Road um but there wasn't a funding plan on how to deal with that and so um they used their school rehab money in fiscal 24 to start to outfit Clark um Baldwin to get it ready to accommodate the the Clark Road um the people that were working at at Clark Road and I think that the advisory committee took exception to that um given that that wasn't part of the conversation around the million dollars that was allocated in fiscal 24 and so um I think that's part of the reason why they're reducing funding in fiscal 25 um and trying to put additional conditions um on the on the funding that is uh provided so but we'll go through that when we do the conditions of appropriation um that they currently have on Project okay and of course clock Road has been the subject of some tugging and Hauling between the advisory committee and the school department for some time it was carried as a capital item and so and and it should have been an operating item but that's another whole story um okay but but the and the upshot is one one of the comments that that I got was that we're that the school is by law required to make the modifications for um IEPs for students who have an IP and I have no insight into that except to hear what somebody says about it and and that's been cut to zero uh and uh I'd you know be interested in having the advisory committee explain that in some detail as to why they're doing that yeah I can't remember if some of that rationale is in Carol's report but I will say that you know that work currently is being done in the operating budget and I think there was a request to fund it in the in the capital plan instead and so I think it's a question of you know whether or not it's appropriate to have it in the operating budget or whether or not it should be in the capital plan but then it should be put into the operating budget as not just cut it should be moved from one bucket to the other rather than taken out of the bucket altogether um the the justification is in on page 794 of your packet this part of their the capital subcommittee memo and what they say is um the modifications to the building historically all I modifications were made from other operating funds these modifications to the building are specific to an individual student and may require restoration to the original building conditions when the student leaves the school in addition modifications to a handicapped bathroom to have to accommodate a specific student have in some instances rendered band bathroom non-handicapped accessible so that's their that's the justification for why that's give me that page number again because I'm not seeing that in the package 794 you may not want to read it apparently what I just heard oh well I do want to read it because I this is no I'm kidding I was making a joke so um I just Mike are you all said can I well I haven't got the I haven't got the packet packet so I'm I just think um when I look at this I think um well we have to see what comes out of the advisory committee as a whole but I'm I'm not quite comfortable with what I'm hearing um about the IEP part of it not any kind of answer and um I just don't know about the rehab part well that's that's I I had um is it okay question sorry um I just wanted to one really clarify this one point Melissa I want to make sure I understand it um the the line item which is school rehab upgrade of 4 point something s million um you what I heard you say is you front loaded that line item it's a multi-year budget right there are all continuing Appropriations so they can spend it over more than one year I completely understand that um if do we and what what is the number for fy2 if you didn't uh you know add some additional for future out years sure um if you just give me a minute I can look up the uh actually I'll do that on my phone and keep this up so if you just give me a minute um yeah that was I think you mentioned something like 2.4 2.7 something in that order is yeah around $2 million but I I think it's oh we have we have a 2.12 thank you is that uh that should be in the um school committee that's Just5 yes yeah okay okay so if we and again I'm not saying I agree with this I'm just trying to understand if the FY financial plan funded projects for fy2 that number would be uh for 2120 675 yes okay and then um and I know that street rehab because you as you're right I've spent a lot of time on Street rehab trying to get additional money I do know that there's you know there's a front loading that would be great but there is a an extent to how much they can actually spend um in FY and I think both accounts is the same thing they only have a finite amount of time to get the schoolwork done so um if anything the pressure there to get you know to get bids in hand and projects accomplished is even even tighter yeah I mean these my you know my view is it may be perfectly right to see some of these other items get fully funded like Energy Management Systems we're concerned about energy management if that 300,000 is going to be implemented um and needed to put the complete system in um the the other items you know I accommodations where we're going to zero um yeah that's i' really would like to better understand the logic there so anyway that's my initial my initial sense I just need more I'm hoping that maybe uh when they do finally get this cleared up at advisory maybe uh one of them would come and talk with us when we go to vote on this um as opposed to trying to read the tea leaves in a report maybe we could have a conversation with a a person from the from the advisory committee some of these are pretty significant changes yeah I think you that's why you know I was you I I talked with with Carol and I said you know I don't know how the board is going to react when they see all of this um so at the very least I need your report and I you know I think it was just too short notice to try and get her here but um uh I think after the advisory committee meets um you know maybe Dennis and I can talk about you know potential coverage or or um kind of a way to present their sentiment on on how they eventually will vote um if we can go through I'm sorry let go ahead apolog no no no if I wasn't sure if you're ready to move on if not we can keep going well I'm not um so I I think it would be very useful to have a discussion with the subcommittee uh which is the the capital subcommittee before this goes to the PO advisory committee because once the advisory committee does it and then have back and forth it gets very cumbersome there are 30 of them they're do they taking this up tomorrow night Mike uh that's too bad all right yeah it is too bad either way you know it would be helpful really helpful to have Carol or someone from the subcommittee come and walk us through the logic as opposed to being asked to just read a report because the risk here is that there's going to be two motion there's going to be two motions at T meeting um if there's not if there's not some consensus here um this this this is a dramatic uh these are dramatic changes uh to to to the CIP which may be perfectly well and good but it would be helpful to have it be more collaborative than uh than what I'm currently seeing yeah but I'm sure it'll get worked out um well I guess the uh if you if the message Melissa if you're conveying the message back to uh um the subcommittee it's what are you guys doing uh is the message and we'd like to know a little bit more about this well and I also think that you know some of the restrictions I think we have some concerns over that as well so why don't we go into that as well so there there are also conditions on some of these Appropriations yeah um that I I think um are still kind of ongoing topics of conversation and my screen is currently Frozen so if you give me a minute I think my remote just kicked just uh hold on I think I need to restart my uh remote and as I guess while you're waiting for some a reboot there Bernard as we go into our planning process for next year I know you're um you're going to we kick us off uh you plan to kick us off in a uh a more thoughtful you know objectives oriented way it would be if if to prevent this next year it would be good to see some collaboration um between uh the capital subcommittee I don't know if that's happened before but this this is a rare event this seems like a big surprise yeah well I think part of the issue is that with free cash being certified so late in the year normally we have a preliminary CIP that comes out in December and um then there's an opportunity for some feedback before we actually have the final financial plan um you know I have recommended to the advisory committee that um they they schedule a meeting for after the the board is going to have forecast presentation and hopefully a preliminary CIP in mid December you'll have your retreat and I recommend to the advisory committee that they meet two days after that so that we can kind of dive into that um with them um and hopefully that will you know provide that that area of feedback that we need you know because we don't we don't like these surprises either so um you know I think that they're they're definitely is an opportunity to get a little bit more um information from them on on what they're looking to see um and any issues that they that they have with the with the capital plan essentially they're rewriting the CIP a few weeks before town meeting it's just it's uh again it might be uh you know it might make a lot of sense what's being done but uh it it's um it doesn't seem like a real a great practice uh to to be doing this at this time that's just my my view but again the these may make the absolute right sense and they did their due diligence and uh and and and there's a rationale for these things um it's just it seems to be um it seems to be a lot okay let's uh move on to restrictions on Appropriations sure so um the first is um we have $3.3 million going towards LS Anderson oh I see my Mike's hands raised I'm sorry but in the Q&A Susan given is being is asking to be able to speak yep I have um so Susan when we get to the um conditions of Appropriations around um School rehab I think that would be a great time to have her um kind of provide some more context to the memo that she sent earlier today um which is just another two slides um so the the first one is on Lars so um they have some additional uh restrictions that they'd like to put on the um the monies for the renovation work at Lars um to uh essentially uh ask that the preservation commission weigh in on the plans uh for that that site um this is not required in the general bylaws this is not required by state law I I think that the department would probably acknowledge that there could be better coordination um whether or not that needs to be hardcoded into a condition of appropriation I I think is still up for debate um and so um that's probably part of what we'll talk about tomorrow night as well can I can I ask a question about that MSA or Chaz has has the preservation commission ever been involved in any work that's been done at at L at lsers I I I I mean my institutional memory doesn't go back very far so I'm I'm not aware you know preservation does have a role to play in buildings that are designated historically you wory preservation there is there are General like very severe preservation restrictions on Lars Anderson to begin with um but that doesn't necessarily invoke the preservation commission's jurisdiction so for example is is the existing skating Pavilion is that designated a historic structure no what about the durat yeah I think there are some I think there are some so my my understanding is that the skating the skating rink is not historic structure it's not so designated but there are other parts of it um but again I I would need to check with the uh parks in open space director uh and get a full understanding of that because it's my understanding that the the interplay of what's a historic you know the park itself is a historically is is designated historically significant I think it said that it's a that it has a federal designation of being historically significant um but that doesn't necessarily again invoke the preservation commission's jurisdiction in every instance okay well this will come up next okay so um the next the next piece I think um it would be good if Susan were promoted so um for the allocation of school repair and maintenance um the advisory committee is trying to segregate um each of the areas for renovation into its own kind of uh category so um $1.4 million on um the Lincoln School 250 on the hay school so generally um the way that these Appropriations are written is it it's very general and allows for the flexibility for Charlie to spend in in whatever schools he you know uh deems where the work is necessary and so this would kind of restrict that um in addition the um the language around the Baldwin School is at the bottom here and it's highlighted in yellow um you know it's very specific about where the work can be done and also has um a requirement um for the the preservation commission to weigh in here as well and what is the justification for the preservation commission here I think there are some concerns about the building and whether or not the work would um comply with preserving the historic character of the building but um this is interior work isn't it we we actually we we did some preliminary analysis here we don't think the building falls under the preservation commission's jurisdiction okay have we communicated that to the advisory committee yes and do they respond you can see the response okay well and I think the other issue here too is that they are looking to have anou between the town and the the schools around the use of the Ballwin school but the Ballwin school is under the care and custody of the school committee and so um I've already talked to Tong Council about whether or not we can require this and it doesn't seem that we would be able to um so that's another issue um I don't know if Susan's been promoted but um she should be so if we if we agree that um uh the school should not be subject to for example the preservation committee's um you know monitoring what what what are our options um so there have been um years in the past when the board and the and the advisory committee are not aligned where um there would be separate motions uh for particular items and so um there could be an issue where we would have an amendment to the advisory committee Motion in order to um take the language away can I make a com make a comment oh yeah I'm sorry Mike yeah so um what we're supposed to be doing uh as as you know what a volunteer board does or for that matter the select board whether even you know despite the fact that we have a a stipend we're not totally volunteers um uh but um what we're supposed to be doing is setting policy uh and okay the advisory committee goes beyond that certainly and they they create the budget but to get down into the nitty-gritty of um How uh how money is allocated between specific projects is a really an uh an inappropriate thing for the for the AC to be doing um and I wonder whether you know how do we make that case to them does it make sense for one of us to show up at the meeting and ask to make a comment do we uh put that in a note to uh uh uh to the chair uh what what should we be doing here in order to say of course I'm speaking only for myself here um no this isn't is not what you're supposed to be doing well I think that's where um the feedback from the school department on the practicality of of being able to adhere to these conditions and that's why that's why Susan and the memo that was sent earlier today has also been provided to the advisory committee and um Susan if there's any feedback you want to give the board I think that would be helpful as well right but be to be to be realistic Susan is is going there as a spokesperson for the school department that's who she works for um we're the select board and if we have something to say about this I'd like to find a way to say it so Bernard any any thoughts or is this should that was my question also yeah I mean I think I think you know I would say even as you know last year for example the the the board and the advisory committee were out of alignment pretty much until the night of the budget you know right or the night before the budget came up um and it was through the arduous but you know effective process of realizing that the bodies want to come to consensus that a consensus was ultimately reached I mean you were literally meeting in one classroom of the high school and they were meeting in the one across the hallway um and you but this is chz this is a different level of Disconnect yes there's there's budgetary disconnect where you want to allocate you know 40 Grand to the Council on Aging to help with transportation and you know there's there that's a level of budgetary Disconnect this is this is they're getting into operational micromanagement yeah of of the CIP which is this last one highlighted um imagine if that was done in in other parts of the CIP uh playgrounds uh you can spend this amount of money on the play structure this amount of money on on the Green Space if you go plus or minus x% you need to go seek approval um this is not the level of of oversight that we need um and I think it's wholly inappropriate and I I I'm I'm prepared this evening to have us draft a memo from the board and tell them that um I think that they've way stepped over their bounds on some of this stuff um there's there's nothing wrong with providing guidance and recommendations to have more budgetary control and and transparency but to put that into this level of micromanagement in the CIP is wholly inappropriate and we should communicate that to this to the AC and frankly I'd be prepared to go with to to to meeting because I think that this is a terrible preced yeah I I concur well I think the the full committee still needs to vote so I think that some of that feedback will be received tomorrow night um you know and and and we'll see we'll see how the full committee feels about um this language as well I think this goes this goes I'm sorry go ahead you're a spokesperson when you go to the to the advisory committee to a certain extent without laying the burden saying it's your opinion please do con to them that it's the opinion of the people sitting here three of us is that this is this is not on this this particular part of sermon though and then we have some questions Mike Mike could you speak closer to the mic I I can't I'm saying I'm asking Melissa to convey to the advisory committee that um she's just the messenger not to kill her uh but uh that uh the the select board is really unhappy with this and said and I think on our our our end just to the point that you've raised about the budgetary process starting earlier providing more clarity all of that is important for us to work on you know to remember not only in this moment but for the summer when we start you know working on FY 26 to provide I think the advisory Community really needs guidance from you you know they're a separately elected body they're independent but I think what they crave is a a sense of um um where they fit in the process you know what is and isn't acceptable and and have operational oversight period this is operational oversight this is operational control of of of the CIP just inappro right the question of how right the question of where that the question of where that line is because you know their their powers are broad under the statute and I think we you know I I try and be respectful of that but I you know I I I have concerns when you know there's a potential pending motion to move a position from one Department to another like that's not to put a too fine a point on it but that's my job uh you know I don't I value The Advisory committee's input on these sorts of things but the day-to-day operational responsibilities of departments is my job um and I I want us I want us to be very respectful of their you know there's a huge amount of expertise and institutional knowledge on that committee and we need to listen to them um and but I need to there needs to be clear lines in terms of where operational control is yeah and I wonder what's really behind these uh these proposals so um Susan given uh we're going to get open a hearing we're gonna open the hearing soon but Susan given okay yeah um can I speak can you hear me yes of course you can okay great um well this is my first opportunity to meet some of you so um thank you for allowing me to speak tonight and for your support um uh in relation to the CIP um proposal from the advisory committee you'd asked several questions tonight and I'd like to be able to answer them for you to the extent that I can um I wanted to clarify a little bit um the request for the IEP accommodation fund uh the reason we brought that forward is because uh we ran into a situation um at the end of last year as I was coming on board where we had um uh a facility related modification that had to be made to comply with an IEP that costs $35,000 um we don't Budget on the school side for facility related modifications like that um and so we had to transfer money over to the the town side in order to be able to do this but but we didn't have an appropriation set aside on the schools uh to be able to address this need and it happens from time to time um that these come up uh another example uh student comes to us and has some sensory issues we uh were required to modify the building to mod moderate the temperature in the in the school sometimes kids have uh hearing challenges and uh then we have to put um some kind of um noise reducing systems or amplification systems um in the classrooms and these aren't things that we Budget on our side what we do budget for are Support Services uh Staffing for teachers and and um uh curriculum uh things along those lines but we don't put money in our budget for uh facility modification and because it can be quite costly we we thought that uh it would be prudent to set aside in a fund like you do for um uh ADA accommodations a certain amount of money so that when those things arise we are able to access it um because uh there was no money in the facility budget and uh we still would have had to uh do those modifications so we just we're we're trying to address a a very specific uh situation that arises um uh without having to put set asides within our operating budget to accommodate these because they don't happen all the time so we ask for $50,000 we know that uh in the past um you put aside a certain amount of money each year for things like Ada and this is a real uh true need um on the school side and we thought that this might be uh an opportunity to bring that issue forward and have you consider it so um that is what the IEP request is for we don't budget for it in our operating budget it's something that we have to come up with and we don't have Reserve funds um in the same way that perhaps other um areas uh and and departments have so I mean we can of course put set asides within our budget we just don't do that right now if that is if that's the wish of of the community um we just thought this might be a better vehicle for that so are there any other questions maybe I could answer around the yeah I I actually do have a a question on the IEP thank you Susan for that um that explanation so the I assume that advisory if I'm going to put my advisory hat on that their issue with this is that it's not a permanent it's not a permanent upgrade right it's not a permanent Improvement sounds like it's specific to um an individual if it's noise dampening systems that that that that that modification may not remain in place or actually may move with the student to another school um is that potentially what is what is going I forget I'm just that's a classification but are these temporary are these temporary changes or are they permanent changes to the building um for the most part permanent though as a student moves through um their cohort moves up and the student moves and advances through their education we may need to make further modifications but once we're aware of the IEP then we can plan for it right we have a conversation with Charlie we have this coming up and then it can be built into the building budget request but when these things happen it these aren't um always things that we have advanced notice about so the modification for example to the safe room um you know cost $35,000 and uh that's a significant amount of money um that's modifying the actual building and and even though the student will advance uh the space remains okay yeah CH just did build on this because it's an interesting question Susan um if we can't accommodate a student who needs a space like this an IEP says we need this and we can't build it for them we have to put them in a private placement of public expense is that correct is that generally correct well we we can get fined we we you know in this particular case we we were out of compliance and um and so we wound up in a litigious situation um and and we had to take action to resolve it so if we couldn't accommod I mean certainly I don't I can't speak to this this particular I want to speak to a specific in general if we can't if if the school system can't accommodate someone's IEP the remedy under the law is that they get placed at a private placement that can accommodate it at public expense is that generally fair to say we we would need to be able to provide an accommodation for the student one way or another either within our school facilities and if we can't you know we'd have to uh work with the parents to find an appropriate placement right and in some situations that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year uh per student um and that isn't that a major driver of costs is our is is the cost of of outo District placements um yes when we can't accommodate students within our school district then yeah AO District placements tend to be more expensive um kids are going to a more specialized program that may be more appropriate for them uh than what we can uh provide them within uh the four walls of our schools here so so if we can invest in the infrastructure rure to accommodate these students IEPs we may actually be able to drive down the cost of Prov providing special education to the students who really need it um theoretically right by being able to provide these Capital Improvements if they allow us to then provide the student with a free and appropriate public education there wouldn't be a need to send that student to a private placement right and not even just for that student because once you have the capacity within the school system which we do we have some districtwide programs um where we we have students throughout the town attend specific schools because of the um the our ability to provide the services to them in in that particular site so uh we do try to to leverage these improvements um and take advantage of the investment but if we don't have the investment then we can't do that so I would just kind I need to flag for a second because Mike put this up um Mike has to leave where he currently is um you do have you don't have to take votes on the Articles tonight um but you do you might want to take votes on the board and commission appointments uh do you want to table this item briefly so that Mike can vote and then he doesn't rush home discuss if you don't mind I'd like to just make one comment on what Susan said just to round out what she said and what you said Chaz the I think I believe I'm correct in saying that the average cost of of an outplaced student is is north of $100,000 so to make a small change in in accommodations physical accommodations in the schools um uh is it just you know the there's just no comparison uh from an economic perspective never mind from an educational perspective 100,000 plus per year too so if transportation is involved it's it could be more yeah yeah I say 100 North of 100,000 okay so let's uh let's go to the um boards and commission appointments uh following candidates I'm sorry someone said something we're going to return we're going to return to this matter we're just tbling this for we're tabling it for a second sir no it's okay we're we're tabling this for a second we will return and open a public hearing on the matter we're just making sure that we get the vote in before Mike goes thank you okay uh boards and commissions appointments uh following candidates uh for appointment reappointment to the boards and commissions as follows Small Business Development Committee I assume that's Christopher Moody who we interviewed earlier today um anyone have any comments before we vote yeah I'm over approval of Christopher Moody to the Small Business Development Committee on favor please indicate by saying I Michael Sandman I Paul Warren I chair votes I okay let's go back so you also have you also have Arisa boy who's be who's current M and this the current iteration of this board did interview previously so we did not ask to recall for a second interview because you were all present for the initial interview so if that's okay with you yeah um no I assume no no question okay and she's being upgraded from associate member to full member of the preservation commission correct um okay so all in favor of um Arisa boy please indicate by saying I'm Michael sanman hi Paul Warren hi and chair votes I the last vote you have on your agenda is the vote on article 18 which the petitioner withdrew however because that article is still on the warrant uh it does require you to take a vote that's on the social wealth study Comm theoretically anyone could move it and it's on the warrant the fact that the petitioner is not and mo no action on one article 18 um which I assume is agreeable with everyone y okay all in favor please indicate by saying I Michael sanman hi Paul Warren I and chair votes I all right okay so he with through that that's okay so I'm GNA be kicked out of here in about five minutes but I appreciate that thank you chess okay uh uh let's resume the hearing on Warr article 10 the budget uh Amendment um War an article I me Susan were you gonna did you have more to say um I we did provide you with a memo um with some information uh regarding the other CIP I think you've covered it pretty well tonight but but I'm happy to answer any questions you know particularly around Baldwin um you know we do have to have a place to um move you know this the staff um once once the Clark Road lease expires and uh we're we're on task to be able to complete the work at Baldwin in time to move our staff over there um by the end of this year before summer uh recess begins so um the work is essential we're not um modifying in any significant way it's it's some uh work you know related to HVAC and electrical and plumbing we certainly need to have some um uh upgrades there and then flooring and some painting uh there isn't any really significant modifications being done and none being done on the outside of the building we uh Charlie was in the process of of adding uh aula so that we would have handicap accessibilities between the floors um and um you know we had to uh move forward in the winter time with some of those upgrades otherwise the space wouldn't be ready for the for the staff members to move into um in time for the Clark Road lease so we had talked about this quite openly um since the summer and I know that Carol did attend some of our meetings in fact made some comments asking about parking so you know I guess I I'm I was a little surprised to hear that um they were taken by surprise since since there had been some conversation um I think important uh to the process is is being able to uh reflect on things that go well and things that maybe don't go as well as you would like um and then have the opportunity to have a dialogue about how can we improve process um uh the idea that um um you know we we have these staff members that need to move someplace but um there's a desire to uh not allow us to complete the work um you know doesn't feel like um the right approach to take um uh in this case so uh you know I wanted to certainly make you aware of uh you know that there's been a lot of work a lot of communication a lot of collaboration between the town departments and the school department to uh ready the space for for school purposes and um we really just would appreciate your support and and helping us to finish this out so that we can have a smooth and orderly transition um and be ready to open the school year um in September so you know there was no nefarious motivations um we're trying to meet the outcomes um be responsible and uh do things in a timely fashion when there's when there's capacity to do so so okay and we appreciate that and and we'd rather spend this money at Baldwin than $1.6 million again is it 1.6 million or 1.2 at at 1.2 at uh Clark Road I have a question something over a million that yes it's we we'll we'll be saving over $1.2 million okay and um CH as you said that U we have clarification that this is not subject to preservation committee we don't believe this we don't believe this work triggers the triggers the preservation commission's jurisdiction no is there some way to communicate that to advisory we can do our best okay um have a question Bernard yes I just I it would be helpful to get an understanding of um the the modifications that you're making to Baldwin just a high level scope um and what the budget is for that and then what advisory is suggesting that they they suggest it to you what they're doing what are they cutting they're cutting money which I assume is cutting scope and what would be the impact if you could without spending too much time but give it just an overview of the project and uh where it's at and what the impact is if these cuts are made I I'm not entirely clear myself um what they're cutting uh specifically but I do I I have heard and have read that they don't want us to do any work on the lower level um that the Lula lift uh that would allow us to be handicap accessible on both floors is something that they're not supportive of um Helen I think is there and was an attendance at the more recent meetings and the walkthrough so she might be able to provide little more insight into their thinking around uh that but but um I don't have um any more information about their think the think on the part of the I'm not asking you I was asking Helen can you just give a overview of what's being done there yep did have to go over there is that okay ber uh yes yes go ahead hi I'm Helen charlupski I'm on the school committee and chair of the capital subcommittee of the school committee so I'm speaking from that perspective probably also experts as one of our experts as one of your experts uh who has been at Baldin many times um we went there to uh the start back two steps advisory wanted a tour of the building and so I gave it to them that was last week or maybe two weeks ago and and in that they they originally were very upset that we were doing anything you asked what we were planning on doing we're doing flooring actually it's exactly what Susan had said we're doing flooring we're doing painting we're doing um um doing some small Renovations in terms of making some offices be private because we have classrooms there and so some of them are being made into two offices or something like like that um the lighting needed an improvement those sorts of things it's basically and what's and what was What's the total budget for that total budget was Susan do you have that 7 80,000 or something along those lines okay 780,000 and what is the adjustment that's been made and so we've we actually used money from last year 300,000 or 200 how much you we 282 from last year's money to cover the 785 so we're and then they only want to give us 180 more to finish it to finish it how much you they took out the Lula I do know they took out the Lula which is I think how much is the Lula about 150 maybe and that's not for kids that's for staff right yeah for staff it's it's but still the building itself is handicapped accessible through the outside not through the inside so if you you know needed if you were in a wheelchair you would need to come go from the top floor outside and then down to the bottom floor that's the bathroom essentially okay so essentially they're cutting out hel and they're cutting out they cut money for the Lula is that what you called it right that's what they cut out and the whole first floor the basement of the first Flor well it's the level okay what and what and what's in the lower level that big there's one big space that that we were going to make into two spaces okay and a gym that we were going to Ed for a resource center uh for um so those were the and you know the equip the heating and other stuff is down there on that floor but that's it's basically and a bathroom and if you don't if that if the changes aren't made to the first floor what's the implications of that then we can't go ahead yeah so yeah so let me explain we'll do a tag team here yeah so part of our strategic plan includes um creating a a learning center for staff um as you know there is a significant um labor shortage problem that we have in education and finding um staff and retaining staff is a real challenge for all of us so one of the things that uh we have in our strategic plan is to develop uh a comprehensive program for all levels of staff to to help develop their skills um as part of their growth and development of their career Arc um and so we need a space in order to offer courses um uh as well as our mentoring and induction program to have um a location where we can have staff uh work collaboratively on on project development curriculum development um and advanced ing their their skills this is you're building meeting and training space exactly okay does thatp four is all office space yeah and it does that does does that type of space exist anywhere within the system today no okay it doesn't okay let's move on so in order to use baldwood one of the zoning requirements is that you have to have an educational purpose um we have our curriculum coordinators moving there as well uh one of the uh spaces would be used for resource Library um and then we would have you know our curriculum coordinators that can work with uh new teachers um provide some professional development and supports there as well as keep um curriculum resources uh there and available for staff to use so that's what the downstairs area was going to be designed for um and we you know it's not significant modifications to that that area in fact there is a wall that was added in order to make it into two separate classrooms when it was used um as a uh Early Childhood Center a number of years ago and so we were um just going to kind of make some updates um to the space there so that we could just convert it to two two areas um that we could use for um professional development um and a learning uh a nice learning environment for for um our our use so um that's the area they're saying now that um we wouldn't be able to um move forward with now there is a bathroom down there we were also going to have the staff break room down in that area as well um and so modifications have already begun on um the the bathrooms down there to get them ready so that we can have adequate number um of of facilities for uh the occupants that would be there um so that that's what the first floor is um and the Lula would allow people to move between the two floors because otherwise you'd have to go outside of the building um out out the lower level door and around and up the hill and into the front door which you know we we didn't think was um you know way to to address the Ada needs um for folks that would be in there also the basement level is used as a um an evacuation site we learned for the SE Center so um in cases where we would have staff upstairs the the the the students that are uh the children that are in that program there should they need to evacuate would be evacuating into the lower level so we' certainly want to make it um appropriately safe um for those reasons as well okay uh thank you Helen okay appreciate that um hold hold hold on Regina say one thing thank you for your support oh of course okay okay um unless anyone has any further questions uh this is a public hearing I'd like to open up to public comment uh Charlie is there anyone on the zoom audience we have one person in the audience who would like to speak first so um well maybe you should have them go while we let folks have an opportunity to to raise their hand or use the Q&A feature to let us know you'd like to make a comment folks chat um follow those instructions right hey Regina it's your turn now thank you Regina fry from uh preing 16 I did attend the uh subcommittee at length on this discussion and they just didn't feel that there was a stability for the future of Baldwin as you know some of you might know historically it's been up in the air it's been used for the staff to use it for their uh babysitting that kind of thing that the town provides the material program at any rate um it's not quite fair to say they that it's micromanaging they were going to vote the whole thing down because they don't care for it being used for staff training they are concerned about the growth in South Brookline of the uh Village and they there are currently classrooms in that building it was always a a a school so they just they did compromise on the what you call micromanaging they decided that no matter what the future of Baldwin holes it would need electrical upgrades so they voted excl to my memory voted exclusively for the uh electrical upgrade which I think is responsible given the direction we're going to through but they didn't approve the Lula they didn't approve anything that uh they felt was up in the air as to how it could be used when the need might arise for the students thank you thank you Charlie anyone else okay we have nine attendees and no one is using the hand raiser Q&A feature at this time okay I'm going to close the hearing and um let's see where do we go from here one more Warren article for a public hearing uh there's no need for a vote currently on this you have a quorum we we do want to sort of direct you and Melissa I think we we we heard the message when Mike was here that you'd like a memo of some kind so we will draft something to that effect and circulate it to the board obviously the problem is you can't act until next week um but we will have a draft for you no I just want to get the process moving right and I want to be clear about what my feedback is my feedback is um when I say micromanagement when we're getting into small amounts of money 15 $20,000 and it's they they've broken a request into multiple line items uh with uh Appropriations that's that's very very specific uh level of of of guidance which we have met before I think there's a valid conversation to have about these numbers where they're increasing HVAC up you know that may be completely appropriate if that's if that is the best way to use that money for that project at that time and if we're frontloading uh you know uh Building Maintenance uh to the tune of maybe $3 million or $2 a half million dollar I can understand why someone might want to reallocate those to a near-term need like fixing roads at sidewalks as you know so um I'm I'm less I'm not I'm less concerned about the numbers and the movement of numbers we always do that uh but the level of detail on that how the money is being appropriated is very very specific okay so um we'll move on to article 17 police details um who do we have is the chief Pastor still here for that yes on and um I had sent them back to the attendees but I'm promoting them again now hello again Chief Pastor so War article 17 police details um sounds interesting but not very controversial or maybe it is I don't know I hope it's not no um this article petition uh the purpose of it is to allow me with the approval of the Town Administrator to appoint retired police officers uh for the purpose of doing police detail work um into a have police Powers uh related to doing that detail work a retired police officer appointed under the provisions uh you know that we're asking for will be somebody that's not been retired for more than five years that's to be compliant with um the mptc requirements that any any officer who's been um separated from the Department for more than 5 years is required to go back to the police academy and that's not what we're asking for here so it's people who have retired with within 5 years um will be allowed to work details if they have retired under superannuation um they will be required to keep up with all of the required training including CPR firearms training anything that's required under Post in mptc um and will Ex extend their age of Eligibility um up to the age of 70 I'm happy to I mean I so know if anybody's having a chance to redw it but that that's basically if I take it as a on the details they would not have the authority to hope to carry a firearm that they get as a regular police officer would have to be separately licensed so they would actually have police powers and they would be it maintain their Department issued equipment um they're required to train on that okay there are officer safety reasons to uh keep the equipment consistent with what our officers are carrying on the street got it uh Paul yep uh thank you Chief uh two questions the first is um are we limiting uh the retired police officers to retired from the Brookline Police Department or is it any any retired officer could be a Boston cop a Cambridge that's a great question I don't think it's been asked before but yeah the intended to limit it to um police officers retired from Brookline PD okay we may want to get specific about that if that's a uh specify that um and then I follow on to Bernard's question so if they're retired they're not active duty um if they're on a detail they would become active duty and have all the you know power responsibilities and duties of an active police officer so if there was a crime they could then go uh you know investigate that situation and have the full powers of an active officer that's exactly right and to um it has to be tied to their performance of um their duties as a a special officer that's um they'll be appointed special police officers in order to do details so as long as they're acting within the scope of you know the assignment that they're hired for for example you know if somebody's doing a detail in front of CVS where there's you know a robbery that's just occurred they would been they would be able to make that arrest for robbery for example okay so they would be G they're giving a special they're given a special designation that's right be sworn in as a special designation is it would they go through that whole process y that's another good question um I do believe they are sworn in as special police officers um and if there was if there was an issue let's say that something happened is the Town cover word liable for just as if they were a sworn in full-time officer yes they they're acting as agents of the town so yes okay and I assume they get the training of regular police officers particularly uh as updated by the post commission uh statue that's correct they will be required to uh keep up with all required trainings however um they won't be paid overtime or compensated by the department it's entirely on them um you know to keep up with that training on their own time at as a privilege yeah and of course they they would have to be certified under post that's correct I I assume that but I think it's important for our fast TV audience to know that so CH is this a these two specific things about being kind of sworn in as a special type of off whatever the designation is and what Bernard had just stated um are these things that would be built into the article or is that more policy and procedure policy and procedure I mean and this is this is a um as as we've been as other communities have been looking for ways to ensure that details are fully staffed this is an option that they've been using right uh and so we have other policy and procedure options available to us it's what the chief has been using as kind of a template for the build out of this article and chief do you have a sense of how many may be interested in in in doing this um it is hard to say what's important to know to is that the detail work will go through you know all current officers um all union members would be afforded the opportunity to work first and it's only when that list has been exhausted that will reach out to retirees um and to the town administrator's point I do believe that right now we're the only Department in norfor County who does not have this oh interesting okay that's and you mentioned or maybe CH has mentioned um policy they'd be operating pursuant to policies and procedures those would be new policies and procedures or do we have exist in policies that would cover this um just so I understand so yeah the in terms of you know working into this was actually um worked on in conjunction with the Union e board and so the union you know is on board um with incorporating this concept um into this CBA so um policies and procedures yeah it would just be you know a matter of documenting the order for hiring um and just language that says that they're subject to the you know performing under the rules and regulations of the Brookland Police Department the only thing that's different is that um we have a lot more leeway in terms of terminating their appointments they need to be given 14 days notice um if we're if we're deciding that they're no longer eligible um and we're not you know they don't have due process under civil service or anything like that it's it's an agreement that we can terminate my main question was um once you revise the policies and procedures that's going to come back to the select board as a what a general order probably a special order yeah okay our our current detail policies are written as special orders and so those those are the those are your notified of those but those aren't orders that you that you have to sign off on okay yeah any other questions hey this is a public hearing um we have one person in the audience who is indicating she does not want to speak uh Charlie do we have anyone in our Zoom audience who would like to speak we have only four attendees um folks if you'd like to make a public comment please use the hand rais or Q&A feature at this time and we'll promote you to speak um it seems like no one is interested in speaking Bernard okay so I'll close the public hearing and um with that uh the meeting you have you have you did have a someone did request to sign up for public comment so you have a public comment pin oh okay A has requested to speak and I am uh promoting them now this is public comment not on yes not on this correct not on public hearing meeting com okay great thank you thanks Chief thanks superintendent a been promoted to a panelist you may unmute and your three minutes will begin can you guys hear me yep okay you can stand my time start Charlie ad Jesy Brook line resident so in the last two years we've seen a clear pattern a clear pattern reoccurring uh the town government is biased and has discriminated against residents against a lot of residents that are coming on public records to speak about this and specifically against the people and organizations of color and while at the same time we're preaching equality equity and inclusion it's a lot of many words without actions um because uh what's baffling is the ones that are preaching peace are the same on seing divisions right what I can clearly see uh just plain Hypocrites and I share some of this hypocrisy hypocrisy that lies within Town governance with you uh Charlie can you share that document please I believe uh I I I have to I have to apologize you've asked to share a document that we're concerned might be electioneering we as Town employees can't share things we can't use public resources to share electioneering documents so we have to regrettably say that we if you want to share that with the the board directly you can but we can't share things that would be conceived would be could be considered political advertisements uh none of the stuff I'm Shar has any political it makes respectfully it makes reference to candidates for election in this election um and so I can't I can't authorize members of my staff to share that because people would could construe it as us using Community Resources to influence an election which we are not allowed to do you of course are allowed to read whatever you'd like you are allowed to send that directly to the board but I can't authorize sharing that document uh on the screen okay I sent it to Charlie I guess I'll wait to we have a meeting next week right there's a meeting next week yes uh not a problem I'll set up and I'll address these issues next week then thank you thank you so with that uh the meeting shall be terminated was Raising do we want to entertain one more public commenter here spoke earlier so um I want to throw that out there I'm sorry who spoke earlier it's denell and who's raising his hand but he had a chance to speak at the beginning of the meeting so okay we generally we we like people have three minutes so we generally we we let we let people have one public comment okay yeah okay so uh with that we'll end the meeting thank you