e [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] oh [Music] [Music] all [Music] recording in progress [Music] for e one good evening okay someone has a turn out there good now okay good evening I'm Bernard Green chair of the Brookline select board and this is the meeting of the select board for Tuesday uh July 23rd 2024 let's start off with any announcements or up dates from the select board no oh David last week I uh had a tour with Mike Jacobs of the BHA properties and also Mike alrin and I uh found it quite informative it was great to see all the progress that is being made in some of the new constructions and Renovations uh the BHA does a really impressive job of maintaining the 13 properties that are uh within our borders and for uh I'm sure that all of you have done it at some point but for those who want to have a tour again they're always willing to do that and I would recommend it yes I'll second that um it's very interesting you know what BHA is doing and it's uh it reflects the fact that uh Brook line for all of its uh faults is an open Community for people who lower income whether they're seniors or families or whatever so I think that uh the be ha is something that we should all know more about any other uh John yes um I uh for for reasons that are that are um personal uh in part um I'm very interested in things to do in Brookline um this summer says the select board member who hasn't yet figured out how to plan his summer vacation so there are a lot of things that um um you you can have a what they call a station in Brooklyn and um have a lot of fun um uh at the same time and I'm just going to mention a couple of things that are coming up um very soon Thursday of this week there's going to be an ice cream social at the um coolage Corner Library um in the meeting room and um I I I myself think that um you know the more ice cream socials that the world has the better so uh this particular one is Thursday July 25th at 6:00 to 7 p.m. um there is also an ongoing concert series which takes place every Wednesday night from 6:00 to 7: p.m. at fiser Hill Reservoir Park and um upcoming um in the concert series I'll just mention two of the upcoming concerts um the July 31st um there is going to be the kba um which is an AF afro pop group and um July 24th uh there are the Mystic Jammers um and they are reggae group um so anyway every Wednesday night 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at Fisher Hill Reservoir Park just two of the things that um make bookline um a pretty fun place we're a fun place year round but um during the summer we have a lot of special events and I think that's great I also want to mention excuse me that um many people I'm sure have read the news of the passing of Jack Connor um pretty pretty amazing guy Brooklyn resident um as the Boston Globe says um legendary for his generosity to Boston College among many other um in um institutions um and causes that he gave to um he um is also cited by the globe as um being the driving force behind the merger of Mass General Hospital and bamman women's um uh a real uh um towering figure in the uh lay leadership of the arch dasis of Boston confident of cardinal Bernard law um and um uh a person who U just is is was admired by everyone for his both his generosity um but also his Spirit of um helping others who um are you know disadvantaged and and U need a hand up and the globe says his greatest Legacy and who am I to argue is something called Camp Harbor View uh which is a program for disadvantage youth um that he launched in 2007 um he was partnered with mayor Thomas monino from Boston um in this endeavor um and it is um a legacy that um truly um his surviving members of his family can take great pride in so Jack Connor's um figure known not just in the Greater Boston area but throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and a Brooklyn resident died this week thank you John any other yeah I one yes Mike uh we have a uh well let me go back just a bit um we have um had a discussion about arpa funds for affordable uh Child Care uh earlier this year and we have a proposal from The trustly Learning Center for a very interesting partnership between the town uh the trust ear Learning Center and the Brookline Community Foundation and um it needs uh needs some further discussion and further refinement particularly uh we have to coordinate with the Community Foundation which would be asked to provide some of the funding but uh I want people to know that that's going forward and uh one of the things that uh intend to do is to reach out to the community that is U most likely to be served by affordable child care uh and uh get some feedback some participation so that this is not something that's coming from above from above but rather coming from U uh participation by the community as well okay thank you any others okay yes ch National Night Out is August 6th Tuesday uh 5: to 8 P.M uh Bine Avenue playground um come one come all it's a lot of fun there'll be trucks and uh very the bear will be there bear the police dog um book Lin's favorite celebrity um so uh please do come down it's always a lovely time and speak summer things to do great and we also have a flock party on Saturday right know nothing out other than the name yes explain that sure we very excited to have the uh the flock party which is the uh announcement and unveiling of some of the public art um that was uh developed um as part of a community dialogue um you know this is something that really the community participated in and one of the things that we heard over and over again from the uh folks who were asking for um you know was public art to spruce up Brook line and so this will be the unveiling of some of the um ceramic turkeys decorated by local artists um they are uh lovely uh and really excited we're really excited to see them uh and it's a great again reminder just like with the wrapped box uh wrapped utility boxes that you can see in some parts of town um and the movement that we've had with the assistance of the select board to try and be more protective of public art that currently exists you know just making us a more vibrant place to live a more attractive place to live really does improve the quality of Our Lives so um it's another great step forward for public art we're grateful for the Public's uh input for all of this and we'll see you on Saturday to uh ring in the turkeys okay let's be careful there okay with that uh let's go to public comment um Tiffany could you read the rules thank you for joining us for public comment this is an opportunity for us to hear your perspective on the issues in Brookline that matter to you each person speaking tonight is limited to 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 expressing your thoughts in Greater detail and the first person signed up for public comment is Regina froley no oh I saw your name um next is Alan sheo okay uh thank you for um hearing me I like many other Brookline residents who own a car have to pay for overnight parking my monthly rate just increased $30 a month to $2,520 per year that's $210 a month some like me pay these expenses directly while Others May pay indirectly say to a landlord who secures overnight parking for their tenants and then there are those who prefer to take a chance and park their vehicles on the street if they get a ticket they get a ticket usually $30 but based on what I've witnessed they usually don't get a ticket maybe five to seven tickets per month based on what I pay per month they're paying less than me a lot less I live on the corner of Williams Street and Winchester Street just over the race crosswalk few hundred feet south of the Brookline Senior Center I've noticed William Street lately uh seems to have become a Haven for overnight street parking these are cars with Town issued special parking permits and cars with handicapped placards you understand that these cars are allowed to park overnight and then there are others including a big box truck with no specially marked privileges I consider this truck to be a security issue as it blocks my apartment building from the street view from any suspicious activity for the past few weeks I've noticed no tickets on this truck or other vehicles for overnight parking these vehicles of course have no special parking permits or handicap placards and when I ask the person who drives this truck uh what his secret is to not getting a ticket he told me and I quote because I can why am I paying so much money to follow a law and others are allowed to get away with it and what makes this harder is that I'm a retired senior on a fixed income as as I understand it no overnight street parking is allowed uh is the law to allow for security reasons and for emergency vehicles to more easily travel the streets in the dark I understand the law is also in place to allow the street cleaners to clean the streets at night and to plow the streets in the winter at least that's what was told to me when I moved to Brookline about 40 years ago Brookline has no law of overnight of no I'm sorry Brooklyn has no law of no overnight street parking and other words Brook line between the hours of 2: am and 6:00 am. is basically one big no parking Zone special permits are not allowed to park in a No Parking Zone and cars with handicapped placards and I used to have one get some special have 30 seconds remaining I'm sorry you have 30 seconds remaining okay uh get no get some special privileges but then cannot park in a No Parking Zone and finally in addition if cars are parked down the streets how and when does my street get cleaned in the winter how and when does my street get plowed in addition to paying for off street parking I also pay with my taxes and have to have my street cleaned and plowed I'm asking I come before the select board and the transportation board to ask you to consider raising the parking fines in Brookline particularly the overnight that concludes your time Brookline currently charges to the State Maximum which I believe would be from $30 to $50 and and to at least uh uh uh enforce this law at least 85% of the time all right got it thank you thank you you want to make uh make a copy of your comments and give it to the select board I will do that can I email them to you yes thank you that concludes all the p uh persons who signed up in person um or in advance if there's anyone online who would like to speak for public comment please use the raise the hand feature there are 22 participants online and no one is using the raise the hand feature to speak at this time okay thank you uh Tiffany please uh help me I can't get to my notes on my computer so um I'm sort of uh stumbling along here if I if I mess up let me know okay sure I have some notes but uh not enough okay next uh miscellaneous items first of all approval of meeting minutes from July 9 2024 anyone have any edits or corrections to those no then I move of approval of the minutes for July 9 2024 all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak I Michael Sandman I Paul Warren I David Perman I and chair votes I next I'd like to take an Omnibus fashion items excuse me 3B through 3 the um unless anyone wants to pull anything out of that list I'd like to do those in honor of this fashion seeing no one raising a hand on that uh I move of approval of items 3B through three V of the miscellaneous calendar on in favor please indicate by saying I John Van skak I um Michael Sandman hi uh Paul Warren hi David prman hi and votes I next uh our main calendar first the so sorry I'm it's my it's my fault I want an announcement that I missed um but I want to thank Tiffany for fllying this for me um which is the survey that the board asked us to send out to businesses local businesses regarding um the use of uh late licenses late late late closure licenses is now out um so if you are a business owner and you received this or if you are a business manager and received this document we both mailed it to you and we emailed it to you we we used every address we had on file uh to try and reach out to you um if you um or one of your clients if you're an attorney uh has received this please fill it out and send it back to us we really do find this information helpful uh and we would love your feedback um as the select board considers how to effectively move forward um with authorizing um closing times for bars and restaurants so thank you sorry for the delay no problem uh could you also uh um or tell people that the select Board office is going to be closed tomorrow apparently we're being spied up a little bit yes tomorrow Wednesday theboard office is open but we are open remotely only so if you have business on the sixth floor in the select Board office in town hall please call us the all the information is posted on the website you can also call us at any time 617 73022 again 617 73022 uh and we will route your call to the right person this is because we are reorganizing the office furniture so that everyone who works at the select Board office we now have a full compliment of Staff the first time since the pandemic very very grateful for that and we will we need to find space for them all to sit and work so we are reorganizing the office and it will be reopened on Thursday but again we are all working remotely so please reach out via phone or email if you need anything okay thank you uh next uh September election I see that the town clerk Mr Kaufman's in the audience he's going to introduce number of questions that we have to approve uh certainly thank you uh so uh before you the board today are three different questions related to the September 3rd State primary election uh the election uh is going to be um uh used to set the ballot for the November election uh and it features a number of different races is uh all the way from US Senate all the way down to some of the county offices that we have um before somebody asks it does not include president so the news over the weekend is not going to impact this election that we have in September um the first item that's before the board is the election warrant uh which simply lists um the precincts the polling locations the voting uh times as well as the offices that will be on the ballot uh I will note for this election due to the state representative precincts we do have those split precincts uh five and 5A 13 and 13A 14 and 14a um these are precincts where the State Rep line does not follow the actual Precinct Line so voters in those precincts will all go to the same place they will continue to vote where they are but when they go in they will have two different check-in tables depending on which side of the precinct they live uh so we will have extra staff at those polling locations to make sure voters uh know where they are going um if you have any questions about your polling place you can always go to where do iot ma.com and uh find out where your polling location is the second item that's be for the board is uh the approval of early voting times and locations for the September election in the interest of consistency to make sure voters know what to expect we are uh asking for these same uh hours as we did for both the March and May elections uh that is on uh Saturday and Sunday August 24th and 25th from 10:00 a.m. until 4 pm at three locations at Town Hall at the coolage corner library and at the putterham library and then uh throughout that week from the 26th until the 30th uh during the town clerk's regular business business hours here at Town Hall that's 8: to5 Monday through Thursday and 8 to 12:30 on Friday uh that is available for any voter who wants to vote in the election uh even if you requested a mailed ballot you can still come in and vote early as long as you have not sent your mailed ballot back in uh the final item that's before the board is the approval of the police details for the September election um it is a standard compliment that we have a uh uh police officer at every polling location to ensure election security and integrity um as well as some offic offers who are stationed at Town Hall to bring ballots out to the precincts and other ones who are assigned to places where we've seen issues with traffic parking uh or other uh situations um this has been reviewed by the chief of the police department uh and had her sign off um and is uh something that's a fairly standard practice for us a note that I will have the final item on that is um any further officers assigned as necessary for the proper Safety and Security of the election uh we include that primarily for the September election it's also the first day of School uh so if there's a situation where a principal wants to have an extra police officer for crowd control or another issue they have um we want to be able to assign that police officer um if it is requested um so that's why there is a little bit of that open language down at the bottom is to give us the flexibility uh to increase the police details if needed um the September election is already underway uh I know it's still July but the ballots were delivered to our office a couple of weeks ago and uh staff worked tirelessly last week over three nights last week we mailed over over 9,000 ballots um out to voters so if you requested a mailed ballot uh before uh a couple weeks ago you should already be receiving it uh it either went out late last week or uh due to the technical issues that happened on Friday where our mail room's postage machine was down uh some of them did go out Monday morning um but you should be receiving those ballots if you did not request a mailed ballot you'll be receiving a postcard in the mail that can be used to ask for a mailed ballot uh so feel free to fill that out and send it back in um you can return your ballots by mail in person or in one of our ballot drop boxes great thank you questions uh Paul yep just a quick question thank you Ben um I'm wondering about early voting if you have any statistics from the annual election with respect to the distribution of how those uh remote roly voting locations were the type of demand that they saw absolutely so we had a 623 voters cast their ballots during inperson early voting at the May 2024 election uh which was slightly lower than we saw in May 2023 overall turnout was slightly lower because that 2023 election had the um uh ballot questions which drove a lot of turnout uh the weekend uh the Saturday and Sunday uh saw about uh 300 of those voters cast their ballots so almost half of the voters cast their ballots during the weekend uh and it was split about 5050 50% of Voters did it at town hall and then the other 50% did it at one of the two library locations during that week um we tend to see especially for uh local elections is uh where the competitive race is tends to have more turnout there's a competitive race down in South Brookline there's more turnout down at the putterham library uh for that purpose we would anticipate for the September election due to a competitive uh state representative race uh that's in precincts uh 145 uh 13A and five uh that we will see a bit of a higher turnout uh during early voting at the putterham library location than we will uh in other locations okay great thank you okay was there any other questions I'd like to move approval of all three items together unless anyone objects and that is I move of approval of the U uh issuance of the warrant for the state primary election scheduled for September 3rd um for the U setting the date for early voting uh for the state primary election scheduled for September 3rd and uh authorizing police details for the September 3rd State primary election all in favor please indicate by saying I John vano hi Michael sanon hi Paul Warren hi uh David pran hi and chair votes I did I state state that correctly nope that was correct thank you very much okay a select board member who will remain unnamed uh gave me a quizzical look okay uh next uh this is a public hearing scheduled for 5:45 so we're a little late but not too late and this is related to the Newberry of Brookline um um elderly housing uh development change of ownership common victure entertainment license and alteration of premises and change of manager and an alternate manager these are things that we're uh going to be voting on uh is there anyone here to speak to this hi uh I'm here Stephanie rro from R across the street um representing um 123 Fisher Avenue tenant doing business as the Newberry of Brookline good evening um as you all may know the applicant is the operator of the senior living facility situated at 123 133 Fisher AV with current plans to open by year end the license was originally issued to will ball for Brooklyn tenant um doing business at Bal for Brookline but a name change of both the corporation and the DBA was allowed by the board on June 3rd 2024 um this evening the board is here on a multiple uh Amendment application um to further amend its liquor license as well as on its application for a common vict license an entertainment license and an alternate Manager application for the liquor license the applicant is first seeking the approval of a new manager of record Francis Ates Francis is here today to answer any questions the board might have she has been with a current operator of the facility since March and has experienced running operations in restaurants and Senior Living Facilities since at least 2019 she's been tip certified crowd management certified qued fingerprinted and is familiar with the regulations of the town of Brooklyn and the abcc next the applicant is seeking to update the ownership of the LSC to reflect the departure of former owners Michael shurn and Susan Juro um and uh that's more of a technical applicant application um for the abcc and finally the applicant is seeking to amend the description of the premises to add uh a Skyline Lounge which was not formally included in the premise description that was initially approved by the abcc the lounge will seat a total of 45 people and would be located on the sixth floor of the facility um notice to abutters was sent out together with a copy of the legal ad published in the Boston Herald on June 27th 2024 and the green return receipt cards will be submitted to the licens and clerk as it relates to Brookline licenses the applicant is filed for its CV and entertainment licenses there are a total of six bars and restaurants with a total of 168 dining seats 67 bar seats and 41 patio seats there will also be room service provided to the occupants a description of operating procedures uh a menu or menus rather a lit letter have all been submitted to the board for entertainment there will be televisions radios movies live instrumental and vocal music and holiday shows offered throughout the year and finally the applicant seeks the approval of the uh alternate manager record Andrea Stewart who is also here this evening Miss Stewart has been working in healthcare since 2016 has been working in Brooklyn since 2020 is tip certified crowd management certified qued fingerprinted and is likewise avail familiar with the regulations of the town of Brooklyn and the abcc and that's really all I have for this application if the board has any questions please uh feel free thank you okay this is a public hearing but first let's hear if the select board has any questions or any questions uh Paul thank you um I just had one quick question about the entertainment license is that only for indoor entertainment or would it include the outdoor patio um I believe presently the plan is for indoor entertainment only um I don't know if Francis or Andrea can speak a little bit more to that I don't know if they have been promoted I don't see them now oh yeah just promoted Andrea um yes um good afternoon uh this is Fran Bates and uh it you are correct it is primarily for indoor entertainment and um um we do not really see a reason why there would be outdoor entertainment could we um actually make that notation where it's it's restricted inside and not be outside um entertainment yes you could could we could do that should we um okay it's a that mean it's a question I'm asking and and you know again I mean do you have an outdoor patio where you'd have in they did yes we do have on the SK Lounge we have an outdoor patio it's not very large um and um it's on the sixth floor it's on the top floor um and then on the main floor one of our restaurants has outdoor seating to the central part of our of the community on what side of the building is the outdoor patio um the outdoor patio uh dining is facing Fisher Avenue Avenue I guess but it is also kind of enclosed by a walkway and gazebo um to the street it's like in a courtyard yes yeah so it's not it doesn't have a lot of exposure to the street so yeah Mike uh well I actually have a a um a layout um of and it is a it's essentially an outdoor area that's enclosed uh by a walkway is it within the perimeter of the building or is it does it I guess I'm just concerned about sound traveling on the hill that's my uh honestly I can't imagine that it will be an issue this is we're not this is not an organization that's gonna have Rockets right remember this is a senior they are of Our Generation and you know music was pretty LS 60 like 50s and 60s but okay my concern is yeah this is not facing the residential part of this uh um area standing and I don't want to you know prevent uh you know them from having you know radio music for example or or something that you know is reasonably quiet one thing I would say is that the noise you know this is not a noise bylaw waiver right so even if there is an authorization to have entertainment Outdoors if it violates the noise or ordance that's still a violation yeah so just I I think we've we've had others come before us uh asking for entertainment licenses and we have restricted outdoor entertainment um and we're going to have the Irish hotel tonight uh coming before us with an entertainment license they have outdoor seating 40 seats or so um I'm just I'm asking us to to consider being consistent uh with with other uh food establishments and entertainment license whether you're in a high-end residential facility or not yeah I is it consistency we need or or responding to specific problems and issues U that would warrant us limiting the uh entertainment noise I I guess I'm asking for just I'm asking us to consider again I said is it possible or you know we we should consider it maybe context is important here but we should try when ever possible to be consistent with um outdoor entertainment license okay what uh John I I have to say I think Paul raised this a good point um If This Were uh I don't think we would have any doubt about this if it were um a street facing uh restaurant that we don't want competing music from restaurants next to each other you know being blaring out onto our sidewalks um this happens to be you know in in a brand new facility it looks wonderful um and I think it's going to be a great addition to Brookline but if I heard correctly this outdoor patio is sixth floor did I hear that stated am I right in in reciting that um and um you know music if it was played loudly enough and I don't mean too loudly I just mean you know above a certain volume uh um on on a patio on the sixth floor could certainly be heard in the neighborhood and I don't think we intend here to um give a indoor entertainment license that will result in there being complaints from people because of the outdoor noise or sound uh emanating from this restaurant any other comments okay so um do you want to make a motion no why don't we hear public why don't we let public comment I again thank you for reminding me um this is a public hearing Tiffany Tiffany would you like to open up public hearing um there are currently no speaker signed up in advance to speak on this item if there are members in the audience or online who would like to speak on this item related to the new Buri of Brookline if you could either approach the podium or raise your hand using the raise the hand feature online there are currently 25 participants online and no one is using the raise the hand feature to speak okay uh I'll close the public hearing then and um let's first deal with this issue of uh condition on the uh entertainment license um you want to make a motion I guess um I would I'd like to hear from my my colleagues and see if there's votes here again I don't want to take us down the wrong path but I you know this is um a unique facility in a residential neighborhood um you know we for other establishments that have had restaurants and enter seating outside we've restricted the entertainment to be the inside you can't have it outside um to John's point you know I have a six-story building or five-story building next to me and there's a rooftop deck and I can participate in their conversations uh because sound as travel um that that that that's my concern um so I if I would propose uh restricting the uh entertainment license to be indoor um I'll make that motion okay um any any other comments okay um Mo a vote or approval for um Paul's motion to restrict the entertainment license to the endure areas of the building John vanak on in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak I uh Mike Salmon uh for personal reasons I need to abstain okay um David Perman hi um Paul Warren hi I'm sorry okay you'll get you got around the horn okay I vote no okay so that passes um by vote of uh 311 okay uh next uh I'd like to um move of approval of all three four five six items um unless anyone wants to talk about any of the others individually I Mo approval of first question of approving the application for a change of ownership interest second approving the application for common victure license third approving the application for an entertainment license as uh amended by or as condition with the condition that we just voted um fourth approving the application for an alteration of premises of uh the um of the skyline Lounge uh fifth approving the application for a change of manager from Philip Barlo to fr Bates and six the question of approving the application for for an alternate manager uh in the person of Andrea Jean Stewart uh all in favor please indicate by saying I John v skak i Michael sanman F say okay uh David I'm sorry Paul Warren hi David Perman hi and chair votes I okay thank you thank you so much okay um next uh we have uh another a new all alcohol license a common victu license an entertainment license and approval of an alternate manager uh an infl flammables license which is a parking lot don't get upset um and this is a public hearing also and this is for the um Wagner Restaurant Group uh LLC doing business as the iris hotel at 30 Webster Street um and and before we start I'd like to just give some context here um the select board has received some comments from Neighbors regarding the hotel asking us to deny or restrict the liquor license our authority to deny an alcohol license requires a proper reason for such denial and of course is subject to review by the state alcoholic beverages control board to obtain the liquor license The Establishment must obtain a license from the town using abcc forms upon filing their application the town must hold a hearing which is what we're doing tonight if we deny the application it will go to the abcc for an investigation if they agree with us the applicant's next option as I believe it is to file suit in Superior Court if we deny an application we must provide some reason some uh basis for for that denial our local police building health and fire departments have found no basis for denying the license um there are some allegations regarding a previous owner who may have some continuing interest in the hotel although I don't believe that that can be the basis for denying the license um unless someone has some other uh information respect to its compliance with our laws uh Etc we have we can however impose reasonable conditions on the license such as you know closing town for outdoor seating noise issues trash storage and removal concerns and if there are violations uh such as an under underage drinking for example uh we can take steps to um either revoke the license or other appropriate measures so with that sort of introduction which is basically saying if we um do as many people are asking us to do and and deny the license we have to a damn good reason for doing it Mr Allen I appreciate those comments Mr chair um for the record my name is Robert Allan I have a law practice across the street here at 300 Washington Street Mr Town Administrator Mr chair members of the board thank you for having me here tonight I'm I'm excited to be here tonight because we have a new hotel in the town and um for those of us that have been involved in politics in Brookline for a number of years a hotel is something that uh We've pushed hard for and uh now all of a sudden we're no longer that one one hotel town that we used to be for for a number of years so um I'm here representing wag Restaurant Group with me is Wagner uh konia who is the LLC manager he's the sole member of the uh licensed application as well as a proposed alternate manager to his left is Eva Kavanaugh a second proposed alternate manager of record and to her left is eigor borin uh the proposed manager of record for the Li premises uh the iris hotel is now open for business as I said it has 119 guest rooms dispersed among seven seven guest floors 17 rooms per floor it's an extended stay hotel primarily servicing those in need of business needs or uh long-term treatment in nearby hospitals or families of patients who've been admitted it is anticipated that the typical guest would stay there two to 3 weeks at a time and for this reason each hotel room is equipped with a kitchenet and there's lawn and and and gym and other facilities on site uh I'll also let the board know that we've been working closely with commissioner sh and her team and we're in the process of making numerous repairs along Webster Street unrelated to the hotel that include replacement of a couple dead trees installation of bike parking hitches on the existing meters repairing the chicanes and the sidewalks at certain locations and some other beautification measures uh the request tonight is uh the application for a common victual license which I actually think that we received when we were here last time however I think this is a little bit more detailed now because it's actually been built out there a there's a physical location of the restaurant we know the number of seats and all that uh an all alcohol section 12 license which we withdrew at our last hearing for two reasons at that time the owner did not have an operator to lease the hotel to I mean the restaurant 2 and two uh we wanted to get further in the construction to get the lobby complete to see the ual number of seats um the entertainment license which is TV background music occasional instrumental from Thursday through Sunday uh and alterate manager license and as the chair mentioned um the infl the inflammable license for storage of it's all open parking there no underd park but for for vehicles on the site uh but before I get into that I want I want to just give you a big picture because I know as the chair mentioned there was some interest in the location at the end of my presentation I'm going to try to um assist with with the board's decision and at least make a recommendation that I think will be helpful we're a neighbor in the town we're not here to be controversial in any way uh I think it is disappointing that we did have some people come in uh for tours who were more interested in what country the owner was from than anything about the hotel which is not Brook line and and and not something that should be a focus of anything in this town but the the people that we walk through loved it uh they really Lov the location one already wanted to book a birthday party for their for their child at the location so that positive feedback is great um and you know I I think at some point I've repres represented every hotel in this town and um I think when you see this place and we plan on having a a grand opening in September and we'll invite all the town folks and the Chamber and all that but the design inside this place is second to none um I'd also note every hotel in town does have a liquor license with it um and when you first walk into this H this Lobby here it's it's it's warm it's comfortable and it's only get better as you get up to the room it's hard to believe that this is a former site of a nursing home and then as this board may remember it was a temporary K through five school um it's obvious that a lot of time and detail went into it uh we do plan again on having everybody in there September but what I did do just because I think it's important is I put together a quick 30 second video so you could actually see the lobby see the get a feel for it I think it's great after hearing your last discussion saying what's that patio going to look like I think it's very helpful for you to see exactly what this Lobby looks like so I'm hoping that can tee up oh as long as I don't have to touch anything welcome to the iris Hotel Boston enjoy your stay we're fully equipped with the latest in state-of-the-art technology here we'll have a digital concierge for all of our medies the nectar bar a common room here we have our pedal restaurant our one-on-one individualized spa services facials massage treatments we also have our executive business lounge and our laptop and Business Center Hub here for any printing needs you know it didn't flow as well on my on this computer as it did on my computer so they showed the restaurant for a quick blink but it's it's hopefully you got a little bit of a feel my apologies for that it didn't look like that on my computer so we uh we did we had planned on a soft opening this past weekend and we actually got pressed into action um because of that Microsoft outage uh and there were grounded many flights as as you know at Logan there were a lack of hotel rooms uh our phone started ringing off the hook so we wanted to accommodate so even though we planned that soft opening it turned into a little bit more than we expected um but everything went relatively smoothly we obviously still have some things to to work through um but we were very proud of our staff um we did we did take a little grief that the uh Hotel bar was uh there but uh the glaring Omission that there was no alcohol it turns out that frustrated folks uh were more frustrated when they couldn't have a night cap but uh fortunately many of them just wanted a good night's sleep and we were again happy we were able to accommodate let me just jump into the request tonight the alcohol common Vic entertainment license as you saw briefly the restaurant and bar is situated in the lobby of the hotel it'll Serve American fair with International specials offered daily uh we anticipate this will predominantly be for the folks in there but we would certainly welcome others to come there's a total of 69 seats I think the the writing listed um 49 indoor and 24 outdoor but it's actually 45 indoor and uh 24 outdoor which a total of 69 uh the proposed hours for the restaurant are 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and for the bar 10:00 a.m. to 1: a.m. uh by virtue of the entertainment license the licy seeks permission to hang television you saw the television there in the background play some background music in the lobby restaurant and bar area and to have live acoustic and vocal music on Thursday through Sunday all indoors not we're not any out door entertainment is not is being proposed here uh the restaurant also uh fulfill all room service requests for both food and alcohol a proposed menu refu plan and description of operations have been filed the kitchen has recently been signed off actually maybe a week ago today from the health department notices to director Butters was sent out together with a copy of the legal ad published in the Boston Herald on June 2724 the green return receipts have been submitted to the licensing Clerk the people here tonight the sole manager and member of the pro proposed uh Wagner Restaurant Group is is again Wagner uh he has experience in both the hotel business and liquor industry having been involved in Hotel restaurant and management in the New York and Boston area since 1996 uh wag Wagner who is also before the board uh for an alternate Manager application is over 21 a US citizen has been crowd management management certified tip certified and is familiar with the rules and Rags of the board and of this board in the Commonwealth Wagner has met with the health department to discuss and review Brookline specific regulations and requirements and is familiar with the liquor regulations of the town as I said eigor uh to his uh to two to his left uh is the proposed manager of record eigor has experience in the restaurant industry uh having operate along with his wife blue Salt restaurant in West Newton since 2021 igore will be working for the lensee uh and plans to be on the premises at least 40 hours a week he's obviously over a US citizen has been crowd management certified tip certified familiar with rules and Rags of this board as well as restaurant owner as a restaurant owner he's familiar with the laws within the Commonwealth also we have uh Eva um she's got experience in the hotel and liquor industry and will be present at all times uh if either eigor or Wagner cannot be there I is also here for questions if the board has any questions uh again this town's come a long way since being a one-town hotel um you know right next to store we have a short-term hotel we originally talked to the hotel when we first before we even opened and they suggested focusing on long term they have a lot of Desire there they're not really set up for longer term care uh so we uh we thought that was a great fit we look at ourselves as partner with the Courtyard Marriott I think it's uh it could be very successful there um but you know we feel this restaurant like every other restaurant in the town should be equipped with a liquor license so that they can serve its p particularly if you're going to be there stay there for a long period of time the one thing I would suggest to the board is I did read some of the emails Tiffany was kind enough to send them to me rather than you know wait don't give them a Lial license let them open I feel like you you know you'd be starting this business in a little bit of hole and I know that's not your intent to but I also understand that on that side of the table you have to listen to other people and if people have concerns what can we do to address those concerns what I would suggest to you is you know every year the liquor license has to come renew rather than just doing the typical renewal why don't you bring us back here in December have a hearing for us in December we'll show you what we've been doing we'll answer any questions you have everybody who has concerns can address any concerns they have hopefully we'll have some letters of support by then but it gives the it gives us time granted a short period of time from now to December to open get running and get things up and running gives the board comfort knowing that hey they're coming back in December and they'll have to answer any questions they have so I suggest you that's a better alternative than saying don't give these people any liquor license let's let them stay open for a couple of years you know it's tough enough to do business I don't have to tell anybody that allow us to compete with every other restaurant that has every other hotel that has a liquor license in the town I'm happy to answer any questions or I have these three individuals who'll be happy to answer any questions okay any U let me just add that not only um is opening um with a liquor license good for your business it's also good for the cool Corner area where particularly extended stay right yeah they're not going to eat at our place every night that's for sure right that's just my opinion uh did you have your hand up Paul no oh I'm sorry any other mic um yeah so a couple things um first of all uh I'm very sorry to hear that there were uh comments about you know where where somebody originated where the family originated that's that's not the basis for the attention that um this applic gets the basis is that the hotel the original developer of the hotel uh is a landlord who has had some history uh and I think you're you're aware of that and um uh when I'm looking at the certificate of organization from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts of the LLC uh and that um the original developer is nowhere to be found uh it's um that's not his business he's not in the restaurant business uh and uh this the LLC is just organized as of June 9th 2024 uh and so this is essentially a separate operation from the developer and the and his interest is that correct think of it as a landlord tenant type of relationship it's a contractual lease all right and the landlord obviously in a restaurant was it doesn't have any interest in oper not a percentage interest or else I would had to record that on there it's straight out lease and we've submitted the lease terms to the town and to the abcc right okay that's fine thank you any other discussion from the select board okay this is a public hearing um if any could you open up the public hearing for yes um those who've signed up in advance are Jonathan Davis is Jonathan Davis in the room yes oh if you could please approach the podium and you'll have three minutes thank you very much uh my name is Jonathan Davis uh I'm a Brookline resident 125 Park Street I'm a town meeting member Precinct 17 which uh includes uh Webster Street in the iris Hotel um I'd like to address the entertainment license um I'd like to most strongly urge that entertainment be restricted to indoors the application uh asks for entertainment By Radio recorded music and TV Saturday through Sunday from noon until 11: instrumental and vocal music Thursday through Sunday 6 p.m to 10 p.m. Webster Street is a narrow Street and across from the iris there's a four-story walkup apartment building and a three-story walkup apartment building and together it appears that they have ten or more rear bedrooms that face Webster Street and the hotel these buildings are old rental apartment buildings with relatively moderate rents the tenants of these buildings deserve to not have their residential occupancy especially on weekends and evenings disturbed by what the hotel management thinks its guests will appreciate in the evenings and at night The Neighbors in the walkup apartments across Webster Street may be trying to sleep with their kids to sleep trying to work at home I think all entertainment should be confined to Inside the Hotel building and that by the way includes recorded musac which I note that this morning was being played on speakers outside the hotel I have a couple of comments about the application for management uh for common vict triller and alcohol um I'm not criticizing the in the individuals but it seems to me that the select board should be going slow to see how things work out with a new hotel that's just getting off the ground for example there's another entity Wagner Hospitality management of which Mr quintina is is the manager this entity says on its website that in addition to the iris it also manages four other hotels including three on the cape in terms of the number of rooms the iris would be 21% larger than the biggest of those four other hotels it seems reasonable to expect that the iris just by its size will present a management challenge a according to the July 7th report of the of Lieutenant brother of the Brookline Police Department Mr Quint quintina lives in Bennington New Hampshire Google Maps tells me that's two hours away from 30 Webster Street you have 30 seconds I I don't know if he's going to be commuting every day from Bennington but that Al but he also is going to have to manage four other hotels three on the cape and it seems to me that that he's going to be uh stretched pretty thin and there are going to be challenges in terms of management thank you the next person who signed up in advance to speak is Bruce Levan you'll have three minutes I would just like to give the official petition 80 people not easy to get during vacation bopies were sent to uh the select board um I did a little look around the street this week I spoke with the manager at Prairie Fire which has a outdoor a liquor license nine on weekdays 10 on weekends I spoke with a Mr Daniel West assistant general manager of the courtyard 9:00 through and through Sanctuary deliverables Flo closes at uh 8:45 weekdays 6:25 weekends um I don't know why they should get more than the uh others in the area under the uh relationships I have from the uh Secretary of State's office ragner Hospitality management Wagner kelana I'm sorry if I mispronounce your name sir as manager and then you flip the page and it says sock signatory onwa onwa fisel 1249 Beacon Street real property onw fisel 272 Huntington a um I think we're a lot closer than we think but the important thing is there are kids that want to go to sleep we have old people we really need things by eight or nine we don't want to hear it we don't want them out outside we think that's quite reasonable uh I was very impressed on the inside and it doesn't look like the kind of bar where kids got to go in there and Order shots in Long Island Iced Tea it was sedate I think people on the 40 will probably run out of their screaming but uh this idea of entertainment including instruments I think's a s slippery slope if someone from Berkeley wants to play on a regular guitar Andre sovia that would be great but a guitar can also be Ted nent could it be a band with drums and amplification I don't know and I think it should be made clear that we are restricting entertainment to only the softest volumes and certainly know those that will not be uh heard you have 30 seconds outside what I would actually like to use this for a question to Mr I'm Mr Mr Wagner and to Mr Allen things happened there were problems people are unhappy I went in there and I saw there was a con desk 247 if there's a problem can I go in and speak to someone there so you always have someone at that desk so we can say could you quiet down could you that concludes your time another one perhaps we'll have it a question to them uh rather than town I think it will help everyone and then as I excuse me um time's up thank you thank you okay yeah um the next person we have to speak is Linda pelky who is online Linda I will promote you now can I just say we can't make U Viewpoint decisions between sovia Andre sovia and Ted nent I like Ted nent just kidding well you know sometimes Linda you have three minutes okay thank you um good evening select board my name is Linda Olsen palky I Am a town meeting member in Precinct 17 um and as has been mentioned this um Hotel does find itself in Precinct 17 so I am here to support my constit ents who signed that petition and what I know is we're all dancing around the fact that um the owner and original developer and person who is still deeply involved given um what Mr lvin disclosed about the location of this LLC is that it really is um still back to the original uh developer and owner over seeing this and I don't think it is any kind of um out ofline comment to say that he has a very checkered past with a long history of violations and Court actions against him so I think it's reasonable for the close Butters especially being a residential area to be concerned about noise and what activity is going to be going on here and whether or not the facility really is going to be well-managed and controlled and I share Mr Davis's concern about the manager being stretched so thin and I think what the neighbors are really asking for is really careful oversight by the town here and personally I don't think it's a unreasonable request to ask to wait and see how well the um activities are managed before granting especially the liquor license in my opinion um I don't really know that having a another hearing in such a short amount of time is going to give meaningful um oversight and reaction from the community I don't know that it's enough time to really know so I would like to request on behalf of the abutters that you not Grant the liquor license and wait and see how well this facility is really managed thank you there are no other speakers uh signed up in advance if there's anyone who would like to speak Who's online please raise your hand using the raise the hand feature if there's anyone else in the room who would like to speak please approach the podium there are 33 participants online and no one else is using the raise the hand feature to speak okay then I'd like to close the hearing um and have discussion among the select board members there two issues seems to me that are in contention here first of all the liquor license and secondly the uh entertainment license I understood Mr Allen is saying that their entertainment license going to be just used indoors is that okay so so we can make that as a condition we're fine with that condition okay okay um secondly the uh question of the liquor license um what what do people think about that David I really don't think it makes much sense to hamstring a hotel as it's opening by declining a liquor license I think that generally when we open hotels we provide them with liquor licenses or a lot of expectations uh for patrons to be able to drink liquor at a hotel so I think that it would the proposal to come back before the board and review in December how it's gone I think that's reasonable uh but I think we should Grant it any other comments U Paul I I have a couple of questions Bernard thank you uh first about on-site management uh did I hear that there will always be on-site management or 247 there 247 there'll be someone there if there's an issue more for the residents they have a question there'll be someone that can check them in or they have issues absolutely okay and then there also a condition on the zba we had to submit a a a a plan that included a 247 so there two bites thank you um and then the the an issue that got brought up by one of the speakers was the I don't necessarily know if it was the license closing times of various restaurants um or what they when they chose to close what is is that do we know it's the ladder so the license closing time for you know that were mentioned those those normal and typical 10 or 11 yeah um I I can actually pull what those are okay that would be helpful and then I have one a couple of comments on so um first I I I will tell you today I did go over and visit the hotel yep um uh with my baseball hand on my shorts and uh I I met a lovely young person at the front desk um the hotel is beautiful I think he did a great job with it um I walked around it I didn't go into a room but I did check out the restaurant the bathrooms the business uh Center um your yog little bar I don't even wouldn't even call it a bar um and you know I did walk around and checked out the parking area the parking Drive is a little narrow that's going to be uh interesting I don't know how you going to handle that back and forth but I was impressed by it um I guess that the a couple of things I would say is one I I would agree that the outdoor entertainment attorney Allen if if you're willing to have that condition that I think that makes a lot of sense um and I agree uh with my my colleague Mr Pearlman that doesn't make a lot of sense to hamstring this business uh by not giving a liquor license we actually want hotels 100% commercial uh we get meals tax exct um right this is you know this is the type of business that we want to succeed um I did take uh the hour to watch you all two years ago by the way you all look great nothing's changed uh I watched the video from from two years ago and many of these comments were brought up actually as much more intense I think there was many more spe that raised issues uh about about the prior owner um or not prior owner it was a hot issue back it was a hot issue included a warrant article right but I do believe at that time everything was issued except for the liquor license um because you went through it so I think you're correct that so the board this is a little bit more detailed than it was before okay so anyway I'm I'm inclined to to support it with the Restriction that entertainment stays I have a couple questions um that that came up in the um hearing um I I assume Mr quentina is is i that's reasonably accurate pronunciation um you're not overseeing all four of your hotels or are you wag come please go the board wagia that's a tough last name um yes I do oversee all the hotels can I do that alone no I do need a team it takes a team so there's a lot of U paperwork that I do but also I visit every site um I appreciate you know the feeling of getting to thin it's always a concern but uh in the hotel business we work 24/7 we never close it's one of the very few business that you have to be there for your staff for your um guests and for for the neighborhood for the community uh I can only do with a team and part of my job big part of my job is to have managers on every Hotel they're very capable and every employee should be empowered to manage the place uh again alone no one can do it I don't believe so I organizations in New York City and always CH your command okay uh there's also a a concern that there were uh speakers today I think today or recently on the outside U yeah my my guess is this this construction still going on outside there's there's a there's a canal liever going up so my guess it was the construction guys had a boon box or some something speakers out there okay Berard yes right um so uh I'm looking at an article from the fouth Enterprise and let me preface this by saying that I I don't see any basis for not issuing a a liquor license but uh I do want to get it on the get a couple things clear uh clearly in my own mind uh an article from the fouth Enterprise from 2022 um saying that um Mr fisel company had purchased two hotels on the cape and the last paragraph of the article says uh Wagner Quint quintonia is that close enough I'm okay I'll try Wagner Quint associate of alpha management said the building needed to be renovated so forth but uh the associate of alpha management caught my eye well it's I think it's the way the reporters reported the story more than more than anything he's a separate entity he's he's comes in to manage it right uh and do you manage other uh restaurants in uh Mr fil's uh Alpha management is all residential he's one of the larger property owners this town but in city but but and Wagner has nothing to do with any residential units he just he he's brought in as a as a contractor at Wagner Hospitality to run these uh hotels which I think are up to four okay and those are uh nonetheless owned by Alpha management the hotels Well a different entity then within the same corporate um ultimately the same all right uh that's fine I just want to make sure that we're very clear as to Falmouth just extended his hours by the way till 1 1 am just two weeks ago you go to the go to the microphone no he we he's just going to say we they've had the license for two years and they they just increased the hours of operation it was 11 and now it's one okay I think what um Mike mentioned or found uh by Googling wow meeting um it is important I don't think is relevant to um to this to the license or anything else but I mean it's it is important that people not be uh or not believe or it's important that people know that there is that connection with someone who is very has been very controversial uh in the Boston area uh including in Brookline although is is I was going to say although in Brooklyn not as controversial as in Boston but there's still that feeling um yeah that's just not something that you should go around hiding because people are going to think there's something going on uh that that that you're covering up something did I hear you say in your presentation that the bar hours were 10:00 a.m. to 1: a.m. that's I don't I don't think I see that in the application okay um but maybe I'm missing it um I see you know I see the common Vic hours but I don't see a separate request to have the bar open in those hours um chess what are what are the hours for other for the hotel next door hotel next door is the Marriott Courtyard um yeah that that may be that may be you yeah that may be their choice as opposed to when they close versus what they're licensed for that's so I'm trying to get at yeah I have to find the doing business as there and pull that it will take me a second um I do think we should be consistent um at 1:00 am seems and also the board is not currently issuing licenses past midnight good cause right given the so want to be sure the other comment while Chaz is Googling or searching I I do want to mention Bernard um my daughter actually manages a hotel in Fenway and there is uh and they're not an extended stay hotel and there is often pressure for them to try to help uh support uh uh medical visitors that are here for Extended Stays for Cancer Treatments Children's Hospital so there is a great need in the market yeah you know for that and I know there's been um some organizations that have purchase some some homes in bigger homes in Brook line and are providing that type of service but it really is an important service that's needed uh for Extended Stays for for Medical Treatments in the long with area and we're fine if we don't have 1 am out of the gate if the board wants 11: PM out of the gate we're fine with 11: p.m. out of the gate the the one thing I'll say is a little bit different than a restaurant is we have all these rooms that are all there right people are there they're not you know driving anywhere they're there they're staying there tend to hang at the bar area a little bit longer so so yeah the courtyard we like to have 1 am but we can always ask that in December when we come back so the courtyards current hours are Monday through Saturday 10: a.m. to 12: a.m. Sunday because the blue laws 12:00 P p.m. to 12: a.m. right so that would if you did that that would be an impair fine with that okay so we'll be consistent with it would be consistent with the hotel it Al the nearby Hotel it also be consistent with your current kind of moratorium and what are those hours again soorry 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday 10: a.m. to 12 am Sunday 12:00 pm to 10 to 12: am okay so 1200 am closing okay uh any other comments one other point Bernard um as Bobby as I did say I did visit the the hotel today and I walked all around I didn't see any construction going on so um I would uh perhaps revisit and ask you to double check if there's a wired speaker trying to create some Ambiance outside the hotel um we you know unless it's for an announcements like you know leave the building there that thing should not producing music yeah I'm I'm yeah I was just guessing you should know better we'll take care of that okay any other discussion from the select board uh John yeah uh and uh this is not really covered in the licenses that we're going to vote on tonight um but I can't help it just asked the question CU I did hear a discussion of the uh that there would be an onsite uh desk person um at all hours is that is that in fact guaranteed guaranteed guaranteed required by the zba decision it is it is good yeah and and the only reason I'm bringing it up is um who would have thought U that hotels are now um adopting the practice of not having someone on the desk um and those who have The Misfortune sometimes of arriving at like 1:00 a.m. because of a schedule of a a a flight that didn't arrive on time or you name it um this this whole case was written up in one of the newspapers just this week um if they aren't given the right password they can't get into their hotel and they can't get into their room um you know and the thought of having an operation that would leave people stranded on the sidewalk because they can't get in at 1:00 in the morning is not something I well to Paul's point we do anticipate that there'll be a lot of LMA V visitors that uh that will be staying there so those hours are going to be really strange so it's going to be important for us to have people there yeah good understand that I'm I'm glad the zba thought of that and I just want to make a quick comment about the town meeting members who um who uh they were the ones who thought of it the town meeting members good for them I was just going to I was just going to add add a little bit of Praise in their Direction I I I I'm not going to agree with them um on this in other words I'm going to to vote to approve these licenses um but I I think everybody recognizes um they're they're doing um their level best to look out for the interests of people in the neighborhood including people in the immediate vicinity of the hotel and theyve raised some good questions um I I think um we're ready to vote approval of this and I appreciate the offer uh that Mr Allen made that uh we could they might come back as soon as December just so that we can see how things are going and if there's any issues that do crop up between now in December um people will have a chance to um make that known uh very soon um and I think it'll be a beneficial um bit of pressure um on the new ownership to uh excuse me the new management to U make sure that um nothing occurs that would get in the way of this license being renewed the next time we have to vote on it okay any other discussion from David just going back to the noise issue that was raised earlier uh as mentioned in the context of the Newbery we still have the noise bylaw so sovia versus nent that's taken care of with our noise bylaw okay um any other comments from the select board okay so let's uh let's vote okay um we can vote them all together I'll just explain uh the variation um from the agenda um I move approval of uh the application for an all alcoholic beverages license uh subject to the condition that um uh they will the hotel or the restaurant will return to the select board uh with a hearing in December uh to uh I guess renew or re review the liquor license okay um we're not we're not approving it again we're just reviewing it and if there's a problem we have the the tools to address that problem uh and secondly approving the application for common vict license uh for the hotel restaurant uh thirdly approving the application for an entertainment license on the condition that the entertainment is inside the building um uh fourth uh approving the application for an alternate manager Eva Elena Kavanaugh and Wagner quintanilha uh and uh let's see fifth approving the application for an inflammables license at U at the hotel which is an outdoor parking area that's correct okay we we haven't discussed that but I assume there's no there's no issue there um all in favor please you two two quick edits one is the proposed seating for the common victual license the for number of seats indoors is 45 not 49 and then the hours of operation for the bar would be Monday through Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. Sunday 12:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. okay and there's also a stipulation that entertainment will only be in Inside Yes Endo only and Mr borin as manager you said that did I no I I said the indoor uh piece I did not mention the hours okay okay so with that um amendment to my U motion uh all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak hi um I'm sorry Michael Sandman hi Paul Warren hi David Perman I and chair votes I thank you thank you all very much appreciate your time tonight good luck okay next uh we have another public hearing a noise bylaw waiver a question of approving a noise bylaw waiver for the Pierce Park overpass the bridge over School Street uh coming down uh work to happen on Saturday August 10 from 10:30 uh 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 pm uh with a backup uh weather day of August 17 uh is there someone oh I see uh Adam Kean okay so tell us about the uh the bridge tear down yes yes um yes I will um hi guys my name is Adam Keane I work with left field we're the owners project managers for the new peer school um as part of the demolition for uh the peer school we are uh need to take down the pedestrian bridge that goes over School Street uh we are proposing this noise ordinance like Bernard had mentioned um we for August 10th um and it is actually from uh 7:00 a.m. to 9900 p.m. is is the window of time um then um we are asking for this because we're going to have a a very large crane um set up in the street and um dismantling that bridge the bridge will be um picked off uh the street will be closed um the uh bridge will be laid down on the street it'll be cut in half and then um trucked away all in the same day so uh we do need a 14 hour window for this the first proposed date is August 10th uh we have also allowed for a rain date or a weather date for August 17th um I'll also go on to say that we have had um initial conversations with the building department the traffic department uh the fire department but we have a another meeting this Thursday with uh police fire uh traffic in the Parks uh group to discuss this with more detail hey thank you any uh questions comments from the select board Paul yeah I just have questions about the uh the method that it's it's going to be taken down you're gonna a tall crane um is this thing being it's not being eaten by one of those uh eating machines that we see that spews cement all over the place is it going to be cut and lifted how is it going to happen yeah there's actually so uh there's going to be a 250 uh hydraulic train that uh crane that'll be set up in the street um first operation is we got to take the glass out of the um um uh of the um uh Bridge itself right we remove the glass first just so it's not as messy as we're taking it down then it's cut loose and it's like a it's very large frame right so we'll pluck it so to speak with this crane and it'll lay it down um and then on the ground it'll be cut with torches and uh in two pieces and then those two pieces um the crane will then pick one piece up put it on a flatbed truck take it out of there similarly with the other one there is a tower on the park side that will also be demolished that day and that part will be um uh crushed if you will um it's it's kind of like an ex an excavator that has a thumb on it and um um you know uh the the word that you use kind of uh eeden is um somewhat accurate well was that thumb like a hydraulic jack or is it actually a Crusher it's a it's a it's a thumb and it is a hydraulic jack so it just as opposed to um an excavator that Scoops this one uh does have a crunching motion and it's a very typical Tool uh for Demolition and are we spraying is there what are we doing for dust and we'll definitely have dust control we'll have um um hoses uh from local hydrants that will make sure that the dust is is taken down and everything will be cleaned up uh we'll make sure that we have a proper um police details to support this as well um we are looking to do this on a weekend and in the summertime uh because we feel like traffic will be um the least um impactful and uh um okay thank you Mike um I I I just want to check on um you're putting a fairly heavy piece of equipment on the street to do this um it do you anticipate that the street will need any repair is there going to be uh usually with these um these devices you have uh some uh sort of legs that come out with a flat surface underneath them that down on the road what do what do you anticipate as far as the Street's concerned there there definitely will be some cribbing that um to support that in the street and um yes the crane does have some Outriggers or ar extending arms to uh give the crane both balance but also dissipate the weight of this crane uh we are very um aware of the utilities in the street there um if you were out if you walked it today um we have had it all Dig Safe there's a lot of paint on that road because there's a lot of ities in that road but we definitely do need to be mindful uh not to um damage the road uh or the utilities below it we will ultimately replace that road um uh repave that road um redo uh many of the utilities including the sidewalks but that'll be uh sometime right the street is going to be re-engineered redesigned really for U yeah okay yeah with raised tables and and different BLS and different biking Lanes Etc right okay thank you but immediately you you'll temporarily repair the road uh we will protect the road um such that we don't need to repair it but if there were an instance that we did do damage we will of course be responsible for that and um repair Great John I just have a couple of questions there seems to be a discrepancy between what is um on the agenda and what is in the application the agenda says 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. uh but I heard um what was recited was 7 am. to uh I think 9.m to to 900 pm. is that right in the memo yeah yeah that's just an error on our end on the on the um the uh agenda it's our that's our on the office's side we apologize for that the okay the application was submitted for 7 to n 7 to n is is the request just the request okay okay uh okay well I mean you know 7 seems awfully early um on a Saturday but if 14 hours are required um seems to me we're I don't want to screw up um the plans to get this done in one day so um if if we can take you know that at fa on good faith that that's what's required I think um I'd have to say yes to this so a question that uh some people will ask or have asked uh how are how are you recycling this uh Bridge um it's a uh the bridge itself and you could see this very clearly by looking at it is a heavy steel frame and um it will definitely be uh recycled all of the steel there and um the components of the tower uh are breaking concrete those will be recycled as well but the steel will be 100% recycled and um there's good um um Financial reason to do it yeah okay this anyway maybe we could uh knit it back together and put it over the da over Davis path right um one other question um so is this a public hearing for what notice open yeah what notices went out um uh to the public were the abuts notified and writing how did how did the notice happen we um we have uh not notice not specifically abutters to this um other than we do have a Weekly Newsletter where we talk about um major events like this yes I'm rather surprised that we didn't notify abutters that we're going to be doing this that actually concerns me maybe we won't hear from anybody in the public hearing because they they don't know about it um normal and typical if you're going to bring in a giant crane shut down the street uh violate the noise bylaw asks for an exception uh you would have notify the immediate abutters um that's concerning to me frankly I I I I would want to see them actually notify the abuts before I'm inclined to go approve John I I was unaware of what Paul just raised isn't that legally required cuz my next question was going to be if there was legal notification of the abuts did it tell them that the request was for 8:30 um a.m to I forget what U 8:00 pm or did it tell them it was for 700 am. to 9:00 p.m. so the noise bylaw um does it requires them to give a special you re them to a special permit um and the application simply requires that be on an the appropriate form uh available at the office uh that hearing be held um but the um you know they there's no requirement that a Butters be notified for a noise bylaw waiver hearing that's that's something we ought to correct well it's it's not just it's this is unusual noise bylaw may be you know uh NSTAR out on the street you know digging something up but this is different this is a major construction effort to shut down the street bring in a giant Cran uh this this seems more than just making some extra noise Adam do you I mean there are only a couple of letters other than the apartment buildings block away um aren't you in contact with the U owners of the houses along um School Street some of them we have in the past uh distributed Flyers to all of them um including other businesses in the area right um when we first started uh we walked around a bunch of flyers and talked to some um we have not uh done that yet but we certainly couldn't and as early as uh before the end of this week hi this is uh lap Yan from the building department uh we we if uh we can definitely do uh uh acknowledgment of this work we can create a flyer and we can certainly distribute it to uh to the butters uh David I would suggest that such notification be done as a part of the vote that we're about to take or that we be given a certainty of a date by which notice could be distributed I do understand though to some extent why notice hasn't happened yet because absent our vote for the noise's bylaw waiver on this then maybe a different date would be selected or a different time and you don't want to be noticing something that then the date suddenly changes that would defeat the purpose uh yeah okay uh chance can we uh vote to approve the uh noise bylaw um conditional on um notice to the abuts within you know a week or so yes okay I I'd actually I'd like to amend that and say that that we're scheduled for the 6th I'd like to I'd like to have uh a another public hearing we can correct the mistake that was made on the public notice in our agenda um and give the abuts the opportunity to come and be hurt I I think we're we're setting the wrong we're starting off this project not well if we're not alerting the abuts that a giant crane is going to come in and do some Demolition and shut down the street and they haven't been properly noticed I'm concerned about that so so the uh the issue is the noise bylaw the noise bylaw doesn't require notice according to chz uh so it it would be kind of unusual for us on the flly to create a condition uh of of notification like that yeah I you know I I I can tell you this I feel funny about this I'm uncomfortable with with shutting down the street bringing in a major piece of equipment dismantling a major structure across the roadway and noise B are not we haven't noticed provided any notice uh to the to the ab and I could be I could be wrong I mean what notice is required to shut down the street and do the other things that are required to remove this so because there's the noise bylaw issue on one hand and then there's shutting down the street bringing the crane and all that on the other hand right and that's been that that I understand has already been taken care of as part of the General Grant of being able to conduct construction activities on that site and does that include any not noce I mean the not you know the notice is that you know on periodic occasions School Street may need to be closed on a temporary basis in order to these things through that's my understanding uh I get where Paul's coming from but um I I I'm going to stick with you know my inclination which is to say yes to this request um I I do hope um that uh the those in charge of this project um will uh take note that we don't want a pattern to develop of oh the Pierce um School Community knows all about this but the neighbors don't know about it and I have seen that happen in a couple of instances I'm sorry to say and yes there's a website where the peer School Community has been well alerted they because they're you know they're they really want to follow this closely and they can follow it closely at the website but the fact that there exists that website is not a substitute for um the kind of notification you expect when we're talking about a disturbance of the public piece for 14 straight hours um and I think A Better Effort has to be made I've personally been a witness to a transportation board hearing um which the notice identified a street incorrectly so if you read the notice you couldn't even know that your street might be affected and then another entire street that was going to be affected by what was being requested of the transportation board was not even included um in the um information that was shared um as to what was before the transportation board and that led to some consequences you know where there ended up being an appeal to the select board so a better job has to be done of getting the word out on um anything that might in the neighborhood not just in the peer School Community but in the neighborhood um might indicate to PE might cause people to inconvenienced um um or disturbed or um want to know you know people need to know when they're going to have to change their plans for getting back and forth and so so on so I just want to put that on the record thank you Mike so I I I'm listening to this discussion and think well first of all um the hours that we put out were that we put in our agenda Inc correct so there's some question as to what we can do with that um the um but I really Paul made a really apt point this is a a very significant project right in the heart of town in a busy area there going to be lots of interruptions lots of situations where uh the public is going to be inconvenience this won't be the first time that street gets closed uh and uh I I think we do have to start off on the right foot by letting people uh know and if we're we do have meeting on the sixth let's let's go through the um let's jump through all the proper Hoops here and and uh and do this right or not I um oh PA can I add something so one of our craft uh attendees a note um saying that the bylaw in fact says that a person a person seeking such a permit should make a written application to the board of Selectmen or design the town will make all reasonable efforts to notify all direct abutters prior to the date of the selectman's meeting at which the issuance of the permit will be heard I don't think we've actually made our best efforts reasonable efforts at this point we've noticed it improperly and and a newsletter from the construction manager is not appropriate notice yeah I think that's fine if you if that's the well if that's the direction the board wants to take on that's my direction yeah yeah agree okay anyone object to that sorry Adam we're gonna take this up again that's okay we understand um I you you you'll still have four days to um between our approval and your getting your crane out there I assume that you can handle the logistics of doing that yes we can and we're going to um uh so I understand this correctly we'll we'll notice with uh Flyers um and mailings um to local abuts um a notice it says uh contingent on board approval on August 6th um uh we will be looking to demo bridge on August 10th with the rain date of the 17th does that sound acceptable well yeah and I would add please add the that there'll be a public hearing and not notice by the select board and give the date and time yeah very very good we will thank you okay so so if if the select Board office it's not the select board if the select Board office is supposed to give the notice um how how are we historically what we what we've done in this instance is we've with these applications usually come from the utility companies that's where it's been we've usually if it comes from a private entity we ask that the private entity take on the responsibility ility of taking on that notice um and then if it's the utility company they usually do that as well and we ask for proof that they've been notified that's what we use on those instances so so make sure that the select Board office has um proof of of your uh giving notice to all the abuts and um I assume that I'm not that's usually that's usually that's usually just a list of the addresses that we that we visited or we had ensured we nailed things out I'm I'm wondering how broad is that uh is the area that we give notice to um I can check with DPW about where the range is um because it's not just a question of of the noise it's a question of who's going to be impacted by the shutting down of the road like the every driver in goes through that Predator right well or or who parks in their in their um garage right on the street yeah I think that right and right this question of reasonable efforts and notice is one that we have come up against in the past which is there when there's no firm requirement sometimes people say well what's the you know what is the reasonable requirements well there's a warrant opening up we could make an adjustment and fix this that's exactly what I was going to say well I'm sorry yeah go ahead you know I seem to recall that there have been circumstances where there has been a um very specific requirement as to within a radius of what whatever you know they have to be notified I I'm just puzzled that this exists in some kind of a gray Zone that um that it is not already established what are the requirements here uh and I think we can we are Happ to dig into this some more you know the noise bylaw waiver only came in the modern version of as I understand it came into effect in 2008 and the the the viewing public can correct me if I'm wrong but I think that's when this version of the bylaw came into effect and what it said at that point was exactly what Paul quoted which is there actually doesn't even necessarily need to be a hearing unless the select board thinks there's a there's the possibility of controversy your practice has just been look we're gonna hold a hearing for everything because that way people have the opportunity to be heard um and and so forth so that's really where this has kind of come stemmed from is this earlier version of the bylaw I'm sorry I just follow up because I'm thinking back to what we went through with the teston hill realy and Hancock Village and uh wow I mean the comparison to this there's no comparison we you know there were we we were talking about you know very specific radiuses identifying which houses might be impacted by the noise from the construction vehicles and blah blah blah blah blah well there I think it was about you know the the question of notice wasn't necessarily in play there there it was the question of of remediation mediation or mitigation right like what's what was the appropriate mitigation steps to take in order for you to Grant the waiver ultimately we couldn't reach and I wanted to add a note of levity if I may permission to add a note of levity we also the wording we used was question of approving a nose bylaw wer so U people may have thought this I noticed that I just didn't want to raise that some people may have thought this had to do with odors from contion wait Mike had his hand out uh no I just that's fine chest the thing with chest Hill royalty was a much I it was a huge scale of difference between what this is and that well but we do but we you know we have something coming down the pike it's called Waldo durgen that is going to be in the heart of coage corner yeah uh surrounded by residences of oh I have no but I guess my my the reason my point is this it there is a great opportunity to uh file a an amendment to this uh to this noise bylaw and just make it clear uh that a notice has to go out there has to be a public hearing we can Define what the radius is of Define what normal normal things okay so um have we had our public hearing open up let's see if anyone we just postponed it didn't we I think you I think you should post okay and again folks are here had to postp yeah but obviously folks you knowa address is always right yeah but otherwise we will post on this to August 6th okay yeah okay thank you thank you gentlemen will see you on the 6th okay hey next uh diversity hiring update information on the town of Brook lines's diversity hiring provided by the Director of Human Resources an Is With Us online so I'm going to promote an now and Lloyd is also with us online and I'm also promoting Lloyd you've both been promoted good evening everyone this is Ann HR director for the town of Brookline um I am going to present some information with Lloyd Delano on the employment report for the first half of calendar year 2024 and the end of fiscal year um 2024 so um you're seeing the full slide we're seeing it in your view an and not in the presentation view okay no if you click on display settings in it might switch the view for us I'm on best appearance do you see the presenter View screen yeah okay I can also share for you yes would you do that please sure I'm sorry no problem we'll use this view for now um next slide so in the last six months we've had 49 new hires across 15 departments including um 22 Females and 26 males um encompassed in that group is six firefighters and five police officers we've hired 12 mid managers including our ATA for operations Tiffany our Communications officer um Christina and our language access coordinator Med and various it related positions both in um it as well as um in other departments such as Public Works two 911 operators and um both a wreck and engineering director um some Librarians and Public Works employees um the new hires in the last six months total 48 um by uh gender we're slightly over half and half um male to female um and we have uh approximately um well a quarter are are um non-white um people of color and um both Asian Hispanic Native American or other and African-American or black um where our our black hiring is at 11% in Hispanic at 8 um our Caucasian population for new hires is 75% next slide departures in the last um 6 months have been total of 44 with the race being 71% Caucasian 11 Hispanic and 18 black one of the things that the select board asked was in one of our last reports was what were the reasons for people leaving and 68% of those left for another position or resigned 23% retired and 9% either were discharged or for another were left for another reason Public Safety hires um all of the um uh fire hires were white males and the police officers um total five here but we also had a lateral um that came in so um three males two females and um the inclusion in the new hires were one Hispanic and one black or africanamerican and these were done through the civil service system um not from the other soon to be new process continuing activities is reviewing job descriptions and including the the essential qualifications looking to disconnect our job descriptions from um specific uh higher education requirements where appropriate and reviewing them through a diversity and Equity lens continue to use Clear company and diversity jobs to advertise as well as MMA and mass hire which is the state portal we assist departments to manage recruiting particularly if they're looking to hire multiple roles at the same time and we encourage networking with professional organizations and Affinity groups through Linkedin um Facebook um and other social networks promoting jobs at colleges and universities through our um online Network called handshake and where we've needed to using recruiting firms with a proven record to ensure diverse applicant pools and recruiting passive applicants um as well as using a diverse hiring and interview committee um and working with departments on having this standard set of of questions which is best practice um so that folks are um staying focused on the requirements of the position and not anything else next slide I think that's the end I think that was the end an okay thank you Tiffany you're welcome one question I have you mentioned uh in one of the slides that a certain percentage or number were discharged or other Reon could you go into more detail about the other reasons um in in order to not um individualize uh a a a reason um it is um we'll call it not voluntary um not all of them were listed in in Unice as a discharge so um just to clarify my question I didn't mean go into the specific reasons of why each person was discharged but I thought that discharged or other reason implied other reasons such as Retirement or getting another job somewhere else those sorts of reasons so so I had those I had retirement and other jobs as as a category um I had to use other where the department did not um categorize the reason for the person leading okay thank you Paul thank you Bernard uh thank you Ann uh quick question the I don't know if you have this information but the the the hiring profile um do we have a sense or do we track um how many of those individuals are residents versus non-residents how many are living in town um as far as employees yep new H um we I believe we ran that when when the last report came out but um I can get back to on that I believe it's um it's well below half but I'll get you a number yeah it would be helpful to have that and then my my second question and this is outside of the scope of your your current report but as a essentially a volunteer government um we rely heavily on boards and commissions and um have we had any consideration to expand um you know this type of data collection um for the makeup of boards and commissions I can I can address that go ahead ly um yes um excuse me Paul yes we do that actually yearly uh we're actually finishing up the report um and we should have that online into your office I would say within the next um three three weeks uh we're just tightening up the the data and and the report itself okay great we do it annually okay great thank you okay any other [Music] questions I guess I have one more Bernard like so what are we doing to try to change our increase our diversity of our of our Workforce and Lloyd you have answer let Lloyd start since I uh spoke most of it yeah well the the activities that Ann mentioned um I think are very important ones that we do already um in discussing this with Ann I also think that uh we need to make a more concertive effort to make sure that diversity and inclusion questions um are asked for all of our hires not just for management but also line stuff as well it helps to build build and maintain the culture and it's a lot easier to bring it um to have that culture or that sort of mindset coming in rather than trying to um develop it through um training programs which we know changes Behavior but doesn't NE necessarily change mindset um so I think that's a really important aspect of it um in my conversations with Uber drivers and stuff they're always asking about jobs in Brooklyn and know we have a portal they were not aware that we have a portal that you can actually look up um um if um the town is hiring I think one of the things we can do there is just to make sure that we're advertising that out that out and important too is when we start doing a popup tent um events again that we actually have job descriptions and um um um where we go so we actually give those out to people and say Hey you know the town's hiring you may be interested in these positions so I think those are sort of more Grassroots stuff that we can be doing more of um but I do think that you know um sort of making sure that anyone who comes in for to an interview for Brookline or elsewhere knows that the diversity inclusion questions are important and we wait heavily when we um make our hiring decisions um so so Lord do we is okay if I ask question Berard lloy do we or and do we have a sense of how many employees are coming from referrals from existing employees and do we have a referral incentive with employees to uh refer folks that they know uh in their Comm in their communities so um we don't have a referral incentive I'll start with the last question first and um we get some information on the applications as far as how they heard about the position it could be that it's our employee referral it could be um you know the website and and it allow we the website allows us to track click-throughs um as the term is called um it is it is helpful to have referrals the challenge can be with referral is that um you could and up with more um more folks who um look like the folks we have and if those the source of the referrals depending on you know I have a diverse um group of people I I connect with but others may not have a diverse group of people and so they may be recommending folks who look like them or think like them um and that it can be a double-edged sword or or related to them well that that's a tougher challenge because of you know the the um nepotism rule but um you know it could be across departments um and um but but it is it is a it is a a mixed blessing um with referrals um and it can be it can pose management challenges as well when folks get on board did you have your hand up no oh sorry anyone else okay thank you next Road and control action plan presentation by director of Public Health and Human Services SE Galla ree good evening thank you Cal Ree director of Public Health and Human Services here for an update on our road and control action plan I have a brief presentation but um a lot more detail in the memo provided um and we can get into questions and specific questions after so just a little background you know how we got here um um in short many urban areas began to see an increase in Road and activity in areas historically um where activity wasn't seen much of this is due as we know to changes in our behavior during and after the pandemic wherever there are people rats are sure to follow factors such as climate change Urban Development contribute to their presence um shorter warmer Winters due to climate change create ideal conditions for rats to thrive uh Urban Development with its construction activities and lack of natural Predators also push rats above ground while rats carry diseases the actual risk to the public is relatively low in Massachusetts for instance hirus is very rare in our state and um those at higher risk are veterinarians who are work workers and Farmers but with that the the general public faces some minim minimal risk and can take precautions um such as things like avoid vacuuming and sweeping rod and waste and really using gloves and um in a wiping solution to clean up um outlined here on the slide were our recommendations in October of 20 um 2002 and I highlight a few in the presentation here but again a lot more details and open to discuss the process and where we are with a lot of these um recommendations so a big um tool that we have in our toolbox uh CommunityWide is a modern Smart City system and here you can see on this graph which um we report monthly on the website is the amount of uh catches we get in that system uh it was deployed in December of 22 and like I said we have a live map on the website and report it monthly as of this morning we had 1,78 catches um and we continue to evaluate this and change the location of the box in the sewer pipe systems it's really a two systems there um and some of the increases that you might see month to month are related to location changes and you can really see that in January where we implemented the program and then at the beginning of this calendar year um did another big reshuffle and you see a big up in activity um decreases month-to month we're hoping are because of decreases in activity um and of course seasonal factors too uh in the cooler months tend to see less radent activity so working with our food establishments one of the key things identified during inspections was a need for more training on what staff and Food Service workers can look for to reduce rodent Harbridge in and around their restaurants working with Burger food safety we hosted and recorded trainings for food establishments in June uh we continue to share the recordings in English and Spanish and provide tools like checklists and self assessment Tools in English Spanish and Chinese for our food establishments we also continuing the inspection program um in addition to our routine food safety program these are specific inspections focused on rodent control uh Regional staff is now out uh training with Burger food safety in the field in these actually in these uh over this past month um so we can continue to conduct these inspections internally with the metro public um Health collaborative staff so excited to have that additional resource so the department and um the Department of Public Works collaborated on developing an infrographic that helps us communicate the new dumpster requirements as part of the solid waste regulations update uh these along with the already established door hangers you can also see here are being used in the field for awareness and um also used as enforcement tools to really to clearly communicate the requirements so we're doing public awareness but then also education is also an enforcement tool we use in collaboration again with the regional group the department has launched the rodent management education campaign areas of focus of the campaign include facts and myths about rodents uh proactive steps that safely minimize rodent activity reactive measures to correct rodent issues and safe Solutions and resources the regional collaborative will soon be releasing short videos and Graphics encompassing these topics across the web pages social media accounts and the four partnering communities uh new staff at DPW is really just getting up and running um and we think that this this new role will allow for increased communication on complaints and improvements to the brook online system um and will also help us focus on um frequent complaint areas or what we frequently call hotpots we do map out our complaints and we look at we look to perform routine preventative inspections in those areas um and identify contributing factors such as public and private property that might um be in violation whether it be um Solid Waste or lack of uh Pest Control um and again this involves collaboration with Public Works where they enforce the solid waste and the health department is enforcing The Pest Control requirement I would say the solutions to reduce Road and activity are not the challenge the challenge is getting everyone to take action to help resolve the issue and this means Town operations public and private uh Property Owners business owners and residents really all doing their part I can get into some details if we want to but um Public Health we always talk about prevention so what preventative measures can we take um you know I can talk about you can see in the bullet points here um and again if we want to get into more detail um I can talk about PR message the public could take because that's really part of the campaign that we will be launching again with those videos and infographics coming out soon um but overall proper trash disposal eliminating food and water removing shelter and harborage and hiring professional Pest Control those are all very important and uh if we want to get into the Weeds on that I'm happy to talk about it um but I think I'll open it up for questions and hear what the board is thinking Mike there's one one bit of weeds I want to get into and that is the um uh private property owners uh in some cases are using pesticides uh and there's concern about pesticides affecting wildlife and um potentially potentially even pets and uh do we what's the what what control do we have over that and is that um is that something that we're able to pay attention to yeah very little control to regulate on the local level um there is some State legislation that has been moving forward um to regulate it on the state level we actually cannot regulate tell people that they cannot use it on private property um we do have a policy locally on Town property where we do not use esars second generation anti-coagulants um we implemented that internally in collaboration with Public Works in the building department it was used very infrequently so it was it was sort of a simple small shift to just say you know we're not going to use it entirely um but on private property it is it is a larger challenge part of their c campaign though does talk about using integrated Pest Management um just putting pesticide in bait boxes is not a effective system to reduce Rodin activity you have to sort of have that more um Global look and using all those prevention strategies listed on the last slide there reducing food reducing harborage all that in conjunction with rodenticides um it is an important tool in the toolbox to have some sort of rodenticide but really it is one piece of the bigger puzzle of using integrated Pest Management okay thank you well uh thank you thank you for your presentation it was quick much appreciate it um so it you know we're doing a great job getting the information out educating people on how to properly store we know food is food is the the number one driver of the Rat population is access to food if they didn't have it they wouldn't be able to expand as quickly as they have been um the the other piece is enforcement um and I I'd like to under I know there's you know we don't have a rat Zar does BOS somebody has a rat Zar we don't have a ratar thank God I think um but it does seem that responsibility is diffused uh within within between various departments which concerns me um can you talk a little bit about enforcement do you are you tracking how many citations have been written both to commercial entities and private owners um are we are we doing that type of tracking yeah I think one Improvement we made when when we launched the um Road action control plan was to bring some of those systems in together and um you know like many things it's plus and minuses we really look to bring in complaints to start tracking that better and making sure complaints we getting in an efficient way to the responsible Department because there are really three large departments involved so we drove everything to Brook online what that did though was that it created a lot of flow to Brook online and that's been a struggle for us honestly to keep up with it um so I think with the new staff at DPW we're hoping to to have that run smoother um and better Communications through that system but so that was one way that we s were able to create efficiencies and make sure that each department gets the information they need to do their enforcement um the tracking we all do use the asella program in our actual enforcement so there is some ability to get data but I would agree that um the systems that DPW might use on Solid Waste enforcement are different systems and different really um regulations and tools that they use then we might use in the health department with Pest Control enforcement we might depending on the situation whether it's a restaurant whether it's a um residential you know building or private property single family home we might use different tools of enforcement um because of the different codes that we enforce whether it be the FDA Food Code with a restaurant so it does create a mixed sort of landscape of different enforcement tools that we are using that is hard to Encompass in one um system we have really struggled and I think this is where we're trying to do better on communication is to express what we are doing and the response we are doing um you know I come here I put it on the website you know I'm showing a lot of the work we're doing but when somebody is affected by or sees Road activity on their property or near their property they want to know exactly what we're doing about that situation and I think that's where we're really hoping that better Comm Communications through Brook online will communicate the exact actions taken by the various departments that I think is lacking in sort of the next step in the recommendations I'm hoping we can do I guess you know I I I sometimes think of things too simply um I think of this one as a too simply I believe but you know i' I'd really like to see one person one person not as are not the rats are but someone whose responsibility it is to go drive around we know where trash is put out the night before we know the restaurants we can walk down the alleys one person whose job they their job is to enforce the codes around uh food and and and waste disposal and that's all they do and they have full authority to educate they can first offense they can decide to leave a hanger on the door or at the business they can go in and speak to them second offense they issue a warning third offense they issue a fine but I think we need somebody who that's all they do instead of waiting for a resident to complain and have to go through some workflow work on on line we could do a tremendous amount by just having a person responsible for enforcing the codes I'd be happy to support funding that type of position well does that make sense I I think what we've been trying to shift to what other what other problems would we appoint such as Zar or whatever you want to call them I did not say Z well whatever you want to call it uh to to hand I could say what we've been trying to do is work um doing team inspections at the same time so we're going out there and having joint enforcement at the same time it is still multiple departments um involved in the obviously in that inspection but we are sort of on the parallel tracks issuing enforcement at the same time um to have that holistic view because like I talked about it's not just about Solid Waste storage it's not just about proper Pest Control it's involving all those things but I hear we're always looking for efficiencies uh David you referenced in your first slide changes in pattern between pre-pandemic and post-pandemic Beyond perhaps eating outside more often What specifically are you seeing as changes in patterns yeah so first it was the removal of the regular activity in our urban areas right we all went into lockdown the food sources weren't there so rats are a very successful species they are very opportunistic they went looked for other food sources which probably tended to be more in our residential areas where there was accumulation of trash and food sources like Mr Warren describ that's they're going to look for food so they went into areas that they probably weren't as active in before and then when we all came back and we came back with outdoor dining not only outdoor dining but a lot of outdoor eating in our Parks um in our back patios because we wanted to be safe when we ate Outdoors a lot it created even more opportunities in multiple areas where there were um harborage where there's food and places for them to nest and borrow so we sort of expanded their population and then um and then went back and they were able to succeed really in both areas um and I think there was a recent article in the book in the globe that Boston has hired um Bobby Corgan who is I've been to many trainings with him he's wonderful he blames all rodent activity on human behavior we're the ones that contribute you know as a community not any individual to their um their success because of some of our behaviors whether it be around food waste um I say simple things like if you see a full a big belly or trash de septical don't try to shove your waist in there maybe go look for another one so it can actually do what it's supposed to do and be rodent proof but the minute that container is now open and is no longer effective so it's a lot of our behaviors that we need to change in order to reduce the population right so one thing speaking of speaking of of human behavior um if you walk along uh monster you get to St Mary's as you continue walking uh East you enter Boston along Medfield Street Medfield Street runs up into Par Drive uh and I've walked along there on trash day Boston trash day or whenever the I'm I'm not sure it's Municipal trash or or contractor private contractor but you I've seen the black trash bags ripped open um and very clearly that's a rat that's you know it's not nobody's coming along looking inside of a trash bag for um uh and so the the question I have is there any any discussion back and forth with the city of Boston about uh their uh enforcement I I don't know whether they require closed containers or not but on that street in particular there was a great big long line of of trash bag sitting out there yeah we're fortunate one of our inspectors actually used to work in so has um still knows a lot of his colleagues over there um so if we do the one of these inspections where we go around we do an evaluation of the neighborhood of the area and we look for contributing factors and we do see things over on the city Side um we do contact their inspectional services and ask for enforcement um I was happy to see in that same article that Brighton was identified in Boston as one of the areas that they're going to be targeting because that will off obviously help our effort um if they do Target their enforcement on the other side of the line in Brighton you're right this doesn't happen to be in Brighton this is the other side is a Fenway but um but do they require do you know whether they require closed containers I I'm pretty sure they do they actually even stole our name of a rodent action plan so um I I will look into that I don't know off the top of my head but I would be shocked if they didn't although New York just New York just you know just woke up to like oh really yeah like really invented the trash can Yes invented the well but to be clear uh my understanding is we don't require um toter for multi-unit buildings and that there is routine disposal um in bags as long as it's only left at the curb for a minimum number of hours is that correct I don't believe so the solid waste regulations require everything to be in a bur proof tight fitted lid container we can Kevin Johnson is on great oh and I meant to say that I'm sorry Kevin's also here to answer questions Mr comment on that you have an answer to that good evening um Kevin Johnson Deputy Commissioner of operation for DPW uh yeah as far as the solid waste regulations about uh storage of um trash um they do have to be in a sealed container um totor trash can and even when they bring it to the uh curbside um it has to be sealed so if there's any Trash which I I we we do see some people just put the bags out and you know they say it's just there for an hour or 20 minutes the track you know their contractors's coming but they are in violation if they do that and I if if the board would allow me I do have some uh roded data that Mr Warren was uh asking about uh in FY 23 we had 175 rodent issue complaints on our our RS uh Brook online and our um work order system uh of that 175 when we went out to these issues we did end up uh giving out 385 enforcements were taken from those 175 rent uh complaints uh 20 175 of those were warnings and the 110 or so uh ended up in $16 16,23 worth of fines in FY 24 so that in the past six to seven months um we've as uh Seagal has mentioned we are we've gotten better at tracking our our complaints with online and GIS so that it's all going into one central location and uh we're able to keep track of the total amount of uh complaints we're getting uh we have 734 rodent issue complaints uh that we've uh tracked and um on on our systems 351 enforcements we're taking from those uh issues that's like going out and they might see one or two other issues or they don't see an issue 220 of those were warnings and we recouped $2,415 worth of fines from those complaints um and the health department Health Department rod and Page there was 579 rodent activity noted in the um in the modern smart system just so as seal mentioned so we are we are doing a better job tracking them and we are doing a better job um with educating and issuing enforcements uh to Mr Warren's H question as far as the uh rodent SAR we don't have one but we do recently uh in may we hired a a new code enforcement manager that uh was approved by the uh town meeting uh about a year year ago so we finally got that staff member on board uh it's been going well she is focused in on all the hotpots that uh Seagal has mentioned she's doing a lot of out uh education Outreach and she's doing a lot more followup on um complaints where there was a a warning issued and we're following up to make sure it was rectified if not they uh we go to the fines um portion of the enforcement so um it is getting uh better but there's still a lot we do get a lot of complaints um Brook online and one of our challenges and you know maybe it's just letting everybody know is we'll get a complaint and all it all the complaint says is they saw rodent crossing their street so we'll go out we we'll inspect that complaint majority of the time we don't see any issues from that complaint because obviously the rodent's not there anymore and we don't know where the rent man have came from he could have came or she he or she could have came from two or three um two or three neighborhoods and is on its way home or whatnot so but we are addressing those issues and we are uh going through the neighborhood and surrounding um areas when we do get a complaint like that just to make sure that there's no um violation of uh Solid Waste storage or whatnot Paul thanks Kevin and I appreciate all the statistics it would be great to get those you know published or maybe part of our rat tracking website that we have um so it does sound like we have someone who is doing an a proactive education and code enforcement within your department that that's that's good to know I didn't realize that that's that that's good to hear you know one of the things that that I see frequently is uh you know the big belly um trash containers are are good um but periodically you know people will stuff a pizza box in there or they'll put and this happens in St Mary's all the time they there's folks across the street who use them for their household waste I'll I'll find a white trash bag in there totally clogging the thing up and of course it's not full it's just the opening is clogged um in my understanding is that those specific units send an email when they're full um do we if it's if it's clogged and they haven't broken the beam it it doesn't think it's full but nobody can put trash in that's when they put the pizza box next to it or they put the takeout containers next to it I mean I've seen everything um and so I'm curious is there do we have a routine uh schedule of reviewing those containers in the business districts even if it doesn't send a message to say I'm full I can can I you want me to take that Soo yes thank you okay yeah yeah you're absolutely right uh Mr waren on um everything that you just mentioned about the pizza boxes and people putting their household uh Solid Waste uh trash bags trying to get it into the big belly um just so you're clear when we do get those complaints and we go out there and we notice that it is a um a large bag it's not just litter we we do our enforcement does go through the bags to see if we can get an address so that we can um do some education and enforcement at for that uh that particular individual as far as the pizza boxes uh there is nothing uh right now big belly indicates that it's just a uh that it's blocked with something and it it's still not full so yeah we do get emails when they are full but we're not getting emails because of of storage uh because of the the uh the hopper being jammed right so Kevin my qu this is my question I and I'm sorry I may have not been clear I understand they get clogged and therefore you're not getting the message that it's full right and it doesn't tell you that it's clogged do you have a regular schedule to visit all the you know these areas uh just to to follow up are you always waiting for the message to go empty the container so the the question good question the question uh the answer to that is we we have been that was the traditional way we try to we try to go out and hit all the ones that we have the complaints for we do during the day we do have people that are in these sections that are looking for this stuff but it's not it's not um always guaranteed that we notice it with our issue was our some of our issues is that a lot of these uh types of uh complaints or what you're seeing with the pizza boxes and stuff like that is happening on off hours later on in the evening especially during the summer in the high high pedest and traffic areas some of the popular parks and whatnot so as part of this rodent action plan the town meeting um a few years uh about a year back as well as when they approved the code enforcement manager position approved another uh labor staff and another sanitation truck a smaller Packer we call it to go around and pick up big belly so that we could increase uh the service for picking up uh big bellies on off hour so we can create a uh an alternate shift that we call that we can get out there more towards later in the evening and more towards on the weekends so that's when and be able to touch all those hot spots where we feel okay you have heavier traffic okay so so we are so I was going to mention the same thing that you know I'm I don't know I think I'm maybe the only one who lives in a business district in Brookline um so I live this every weekend I live in St Mary's where you know for Red Sox season right so we we're a hight trffic area um the the Bell the big bellies often get clogged and there's trash all around them on the weekends are we Pi are we picking up trash on weekends right now we're picking up trash from 3: to uh from 7 amm to 3 pm um on Saturdays and Sundays well we're doing that seven days a week for uh big bellies and and litter but uh now that we uh the additional labor FTE that we got in the initial truck we're hoping to we are going to be expanding that to be able to collect it later on in the evening when we feel that's when a lot of these big bellies are getting full or clogged because that's you could a lot more pedestrian and traffic in the Parks and obviously Fenway at night and stuff like that okay thanks Kevin that was very helpful thank you hey any other questions I just want to say thank you both and thanks to Aon who's not here but who's you know the work you're doing it's a lot of progress lot of progress a huge undertaking I know how much time you spend on it your staff spend on it it's a huge thing so thank you and to Kevin's point I think this was the thing that Kevin thank you I was sitting here being like didn't we didn't we improve that code enforcement Mees yes we did um and but this is it's it's because of the override right this is this is where the override has been so vital to our efforts and it is a phased in process so this is now year two of the override we're coming into year three we have these new resources that are gradually coming online and they are making an impact like this code enforcement position like they have the authority to go to court on our behalf if they need to like it's a it's a big benefit to us that we didn't previously have so thanks to the members of the community who voted that through thank you sir thank you seal thanks Kevin and thank you Kevin thank you next uh goals and objectives discussion of the select board's goals and objectives so what is this about this is just an update um the board I know I'm sorry okay what is this about a retoric question yeah the first item in the packet is the draft of goals and objectives that we worked on at the June Workshop remember that oh yeah the second item is the revision by Town staff based on our discussions at the workshop the select board as the chief executive body of the town has an important role in the financial management of the town which includes making sure that its views in the form of goals and objectives are considered in the budget process and we we don't write up the budget uh but you know our views are important in the process of creating the budget the budget starts with the financial plan which is a consolidation of the request of town departments that is put together by the Town Administrator following the financial forecast and preliminary Capital Improvement plan in December it's reviewed by the select board and the advisory committee and the advisory committee makes its recommendation to town meeting who must review adjust Anda and pass the budget at the end hopefully before the end of the fiscal year we have had uh situations where we were very very close like I think in one case uh 11 o'clock on June 30th we're trying to get that budget passed um the purpose of our goals and objectives is to make the select board's views known to town departments as they begin their budget work in September and to the advisory committee when they began working on their budget in the spring when the select board be begins to review the financial plan after February 15 it it can have a conversation with Town departments that includes the extent to which some of the select board priorities are included in the budget request submitted to the Town Administrator and a discussion of the reason why others were not maybe because they just weren't practical or uh they clashed with other priorities of the town so with that uh introduction I I think we should have a discussion of the goals and objectives as revised by the town staff um do you want to add anything chess just briefly so the revision is based on your conversations and subsequent conversations I've had with you individually just in you know where your thoughts are the hope the goal was to try and limit this to 20 um across four key Fields uh for broader fields and where possible not necessarily state obvious you know for example or or you know develop something that uh then you know gives clear direction to staff for example um you know continue prioritizing investment in roads and sidewalks with regular updates to the select board on progress you know as opposed to you know just prioritizing uh that investment that obviously is a directive you've given us and we are doing but making sure that you are uh then updated on how your Investments are doing and what it is that what it is that we're doing with that money um so um that's that's just where we are in this but again the goal is to have this finalized at your next Workshop in September so any feedback you have here any feedback you would like to give us um in private we welcome that and we're happy to take this back and continue working on it um as September approaches okay I think you know any comments we have U please you know State them but you know we just got this this afternoon and so urge um I urge select board members to to uh give their comments in writing or call chz up um between now and our next meeting when we should probably have a you know further discussion to find not finalize but semi finalize U these goals and objectives um who had their hand up I I put my hand up so first I want to thank you for Distributing it I did read it I did call you Chaz uh I did have create a bunch of edits um the first thing I noticed Bernard and my first thought was to you because you created the initial version of this and I would encourage you to go compare if you maybe you've already done that but I Haven there were some there were some things that I said I'm surprised that's not on that that editor list so I would encourage you uh to do that I did have I have a bunch of edits and and I'll send them to you Chaz but a couple of things that I just wanted to to point out a kind of high level uh the first is um you know I I appreciate that the comprehensive plan is on um on the preserva you know on the planning piece um and I just wanted to mention that you know we need to be careful with having an outcome in mind when we talk about the comprehensive plan and there was an outcome in mind as a kind of a second sentence in there about you know areas of the town that might be uh develop further um I I think we just we want to be careful with that and and I'll I'll provide you with an edit um I I also want to think um carefully about language that we use with respect to operating overrides or any override um item three I think it's item three I may have deleted one but it's the support the activities of the revenue working group um I want us I'd encourage us to think a little more broadly that it's not just Revenue right it's also costs so I I adjusted the language to say revenue and spending alignment working group um you know we we can't just be looking at asking the asking the the taxpayers to just raise more Revenue um we should show that we've gone through the process of making sure that we're using every dollar as efficiently and smartly as we can um with respect to preserving our Financial Health um you know we've been talking for quite some time about uh establishing uh quarterly budget Summits um with with multiple parties you know that's a recommendation that came from BAC that you know I think is one that we should actually take uh because we've you know have struggled uh with all the various pieces of of our government town schools um you know advisory Capital um you know thinking holistically about our budget so i' I'd actually like to suggest that we add that as one of our objectives um so those are just uh those are some of the some of the changes I think I um I added one other uh item I changed uh the title where it said repairing our roads I changed it to improve the public way for all users um our chair of the uh Transportation board might appreciate that so it's not just about roadwi roadways right it's also sidewalks and siging um and you know particularly we have been talking about upgrading and repairing our uh audible signals for uh for those in our community that um are blind or visually impaired um and i' I'd really like to see us get very specific about making sure that um all of our uh Crossing signals are ADA Compliant and I know that's a goal that we have it would be good to be able to articulate it those are some of the just the initial feedback that I have John um I I have not U gone through this as thoroughly as Paul has and uh I I commend him for his comments um but I do want to note a couple of things because you know I commented on this generally before and I'm going to just stick with uh the kind of comments I tend to make on these things I like I I like things to be as simple as possible and clear as possible um and as um plain in the language as possible I think we've made uh significant U steps um I'm going to U take the liberty of noting that the original draft was over 700 words in this uh revised draft is just over 500 Words any anytime you can you know say the say the same message and fewer words I think that's an improvement the original draft um did not have but this draft does have uh subheads which um I think are you know very helpful in kind of organizing what this is all about um so you know what what are the major objectives that we have to keep in mind as we plan a budget and you'll see them very clearly in this revised draft I'm just going to go through them really really quickly there's just five of them excuse me preserve our Financial Health sounds like something we should be doing in every single budget plan for the future yes um ensure better Greener income diverse housing yes um repairing our roads something we've had a lot of conversations about um on this board um I think the the the big challenge going forward is going to to be okay you know we said we want to develop a budget document um that preserves our Financial Health we we should be able to say once that budget document is developed what parts of this budget document represent our steps towards preserving our Financial Health not just the same old steps that we always take every year but maybe an initi new initiative or two same thing for planning for the future same thing for ensuring better Greener income diverse housing same thing for repairing our roads so those only comments I'm going to make for now but I I do think we're making a lot of progress in in good directions here Mike uh I think um the workshops that we've had the offsites that we've had I think have been very useful um and I think it's important to remember it's not just about um Financial Health although obviously that and you're absolutely right that's really important it's also about making sure that we factor into the construction of the budget the changes that are inevitable uh in what the public is looking for and uh it's it's a theme that I've spoken on before I'm sure I'll speak on it again uh that uh if you look back 10 years and or or 15 years um people's concerns were not as focused on some of the things that they they are now focused on certainly climate changes uh one of those uh asking the town for certain social services that municipalities have not traditionally provided is another um so let's make sure that when we think about um putting objectives together that one of those uh objectives relates to uh listening to what the public wants uh and incorporating that to the extent that's feasible recognizing that you know we don't we don't have complete flexibility with the budget by a long shot uh incorporating that into into what we're doing uh David I want to really uh commend both you and Chaz because I think this is really excellent and at a minimum it's an excellent step in the right direction toward identifying what we had discussed at the workshop as what we would like to see as goals and Endeavors that we take up as a board and as a town I see two right here that uh I had mentioned is particularly important to me support the new public land acquisition and Exposition committee's efforts to identify opportunities for both new property or the disposition of existing property so I think it's great to see that in there and also uh reviewing pilot agreements and and other agreements with local nonprofits with a focus on access to facilities and other amenities I'm happy to see that there as well uh but really all of this I think encompasses quite nicely what we discussed at the workshop I also like Paul's edits I think those are uh very thought thoughtful and will help improve the draft for the next iteration that we review okay my my only comments are that um always remember what we're using this for and that is to give recommendations to town departments about how they develop their budget and you know it's just a question of making sure that it's clear in our in our language that we're doing that for example uh the first item under preserving our health um you know in instead of Ensure Health reserves to protect us from Financial instability which is sort of a vague you know um great goal um you know that that should be I think um you know focusing on the use of free cash to ensure um that uh we we are maintaining our reserves in other words really give clear direction as to you know what we're talking about in terms of budgeting for these things um I and and for example there are certain things that I don't think really belong here like maximize use of CPA funding I that's not really our our responsibility that's the CPA committee and we can figure out ways in which you know we can uh recommend to uh Town departments uh working with the CPA committee um but and maybe there's nothing wrong with including something like this but just remember you know we need to make sure that we're giving Town departments clear guidance as to you how we want them to think about their budget making um and for another example in terms of planning the future item three uh this is very important you know development holistic Hub based social services model but maybe we need to say you begin to budget over you know one two three fiscal years the development of that model um and you know provide ongoing uh reporting to the select board as that how we're how we're moving in that direction so I mean you know my my main concern I I haven't read this in deep enough or deeply enough to to say much more than those general make those General comments but you know we think about how we're you what we're using this for we want to in September give Town departments our views as to how they should develop their budgeting um and you know maybe they they you know maybe what we're we're thinking is not appropriate but you know they need to have clear guidance as you know what it is we're trying to do all this feedback is very helpful um and I'm very grateful for it um we will take this back um I would you know just something note something that Paul said because I think it is important to flag there are references here are two groups that don't exist which is a public land acquisition and disposition committee and what I short-handed is the revenue working group which obviously I think is it's a good edit to make sure that it's not just about Revenue it is really about overall cash flow and you know what we're spending and what we're taking in um those don't exist you discussed both of those at the um at the workshop and I think it's probably something worthwhile at the next Workshop to really talk about putting a charge together for those groups I think both the for the disposition and and purchasing of land and for looking at our financial future as we come out of the last year of the override to say you know where are we and what can we do to ensure that our expenses or do not exceed our revenues what what steps can we take to lower the expenses and what steps can we take to raise revenues and to have a comprehensive plan in place for that rather than a more ad hoc plan um chess when when do we need to have that done by now sooner well I'm not saying the charge but when when do we need to have the recommendation really the recommendation needs to be made by next December at the latest okay so a year and a half yeah okay thank you any other discussion okay let's move on finally Brian you're you're next okay um so first of all Brian Kane's going to give the report of the uh Transportation board which is included in our packet and is very uh helpful and then we're going to have a discussion on a couple things related to that evening all right good evening I shall do my best to channel both Shostakovich and Ted nent I promise it's sovia not sovia yeah yeah it's all it's all she got she got toote Co shastovich shastovich tends to be thank you tends to be a little bit more Forte than than SAS okay I guess I'm more Ted nent than anything else but um thanks for for having me I I I appreciate it um and thanks for um for the invitation um I thought I had some slides but oh there we go thank you Oliver uh but we have introduction my name is Brian Kan I live at for Lincoln Road uh right around the corner I have the great honor to uh chair the transportation board since 2021 um little bit about me um I've worked in transportation in Massachusetts for about 20 years now um eight years at the te and most of that time at the NBT Advisory Board I'm currently the executive director for the past four years um I serve on the Boston region Mo which uh allocates millions of federal funding to local communities uh every year uh and in February Governor Healey appointed me as one of the 31 members of the Massachusetts transportation financing task force uh to make recommendations in December how to fund transportation and infrastructure across the Commonwealth so we actually met earlier today for two hours and discussed the needs of local cities and towns uh and Municipal funding such as chapter 90 so very topical to what you're you're talking about um with your last item um this is the uh Transportation board's annual report um I think it's a great idea that you're doing this um uh I'm very honored to work with uh my fellow board members Jonathan Capo Chenal guadino Len Wy Wendy Freeman and Nancy Moore uh we're a great team we all bring different skills uh Jonathan is a skilled traffic engineer with lots of years of experience Chenal and Wendy are true neighborhood activists who bring important perspectives such as uh people who walk ride and drive to places like businesses uh Park schools and similar places uh Len Wally is a town meeting member is passionate about improving safety for all Road users especially our children getting to school uh Len is a math teacher and an aeronautical engineer um that's another way of saying he's scary smart uh Nancy Moore as you all know is a law professor and brings uh the perspective of protecting our small business owners and Merchants to the board and and also serves as our liais on to the disability commission which is a crucial connection and I'm very honored to serve with these volunteers as we collectively work to make Brookline safer and better for everybody um in terms of the basic numbers since uh July of 21 uh we've met 21 times and taken up 351 individual agenda items uh we meet almost monthly we there's been a few months where we haven't met uh and I cannot stress enough um how much our work is collaborative uh we appoint and oversee three advisory committees each of whom also meets just about monthly as well as a very close relationship with other boards and commissions including the commission on disability safe roots to school task force the Council on Aging uh and many others uh we rely on an amazing staff here at the Town um including but not limited to commissioner Shu uh director of engineering and Transportation uh Daniel Murphy who is uh still relatively new uh sustainable Transportation engineer Dan Martin Transportation engineer Sam DS and uh Transportation administrator Amy Eng Les um and Jonathan Anderson uh these dedicated professionals work diligently daily to improve our town uh and I am very grateful um that they help us do what we do because as volunteers as you know uh we couldn't do it without without the the folks working behind the scenes and the town staff and they they do an amazing job um so responsibilities as as you know the transportation board is authorized under mgl uh to administer all matters relating to parking and transportation on the public ways of our town and terms of approach the cornerstones of the board's Transportation policy approach are to support and continue the overnight parking ban uh to continue and support the two-hour default parking Rule and uh slowing down cars slowing down Vehicles not just cars slowing down all vehicles whether they be propelled uh by electricity or gasoline uh or diesel and I say that I mean trucks bikes scooters and all other forms of propulsion slow is better and much of what we do is designed to slow things down to improve safety for everyone including other people who are using the road uh drivers included um responsibilities of the board include a range uh include the design implementation and signage related to the movement and exclusion of all vehicles and pedestrians uh we have no enforcement Powers unfortunately uh or fortunately I don't think uh we want them we're not trained to do that uh and we rely on the voluntary compliance of the public and the support of our dedicated uh police department for enforcement uh and I want to recognize the sergeant who's here tonight thank you um would that change sorry what's on my screen here is now different from what's on that screen so I'm doing my best um you want this one no I'm good thanks so within within this purview as the select board knows uh we regulate certain ride for higher businesses uh the blue bikes in town uh our parking meters uh including the multispace meters um signage placement and the recommendation of uh meters recommendation of rats to you folks and neighborhood traffic coming request and Street design um I mentioned sort of our cornerstones but I also want to note that we rely heavily on resolutions and actions passed by town meeting in in Rec years um and I'm just going to list a few of them just to to sort of help so you understand how grounded we are in this stuff uh in May 2017 town meeting overwhelmingly voted to lower the statutory speed limit to 25 townwide uh November of 2019 a resolution calling for the town to properly maintain Street markings article 16 from the same town meeting related to E Scooters and micromobility devices article 31 from the same town meeting climate change uh article which urged the town to push for Less single occupants vehicle trips article 31 of the May 2021 town meeting uh another overwhelming vote to lower statutory speed limits to 20 m per hour townwide um uh 2020 May of 2022 Article 19 division zero committee May and may of 2022 article 20 supporting pedestrian friendly lighting so we try and balance all of these various resolutions that uh that our legislative body has passed and we also rely very heavily on policy um papers from the select board um we rely heavily on the complete streets policy approved by this board in 2016 and updated in 2017 and also in 2023 there's also a transportation and Mobility Improvement plan from 2021 uh and a vision zero action plan is underway so trying to balance all of those needs for all of the various stakeholders and all the various users as you can imagine is is a challenge but uh we are very grateful to both town meeting and to the select board for its um its direction and and please know that um we are trying to implement all these directions uh as best we can uh and as fairly as possible um DPW support uh as I mentioned it's critical um there are things outside of uh our purview that uh the DPW commissioner has control of that it's important to note um things on this slide are things that we do but um for instance the DPW commissioner has the authority um to do what's called daylighting which is uh within 20 ft of any crosswalk there's not supposed to be any cars parked for instance uh that's in the traffic rules and regulations and that's not within the transportation board's perview that's within the DPW commissioner perview and that could be done uh at any time um however given the parking crunch that we all hear about all the time we this isn't always done and the commissioner I believe and I don't want to speak for her tries to balance uh the needs of our commercial areas and the safety issues around daylighting as much as possible um little bit about what we've done in the last year um it's it's been a busy year um and and and there's been a lot of things that we've that we've undertaken you can see lots of stuff there some of these have been more popular than others uh some of these have taken a lot longer than others um some of these have lots of fans and some of these don't um we're coordinating with the te now on Beacon Street trying to get the bridal path and the scen line improvements and uh construction out there coordinated uh the Davis path foot Bridge continues to move forward as you know uh even though the grant applications weren't uh always successful uh trying to get Mass DOT uh regulations uh understood and implemented in our grant applications especially for things like Washington Street is a challenge uh the Department of Transportation has gotten much more stringent on its own complete streets Andis Vision zero requirements for money um and and and it's a challenge so um I just wanted to end by talking a little bit about uh complete streets and um how we plan to sort of modify this a little bit and and work with you to do this so um I think we need to amend the complete streets policy um and really only apply it and not apply it everywhere not apply it everywhere all at once a one siiz fits-all approach doesn't work and we learned this recently on on Arlington Street and craftsland Road um applying it only to arterials and collect and and collectors makes sense and not applying it to every local Street uh where sometimes it just isn't needed um first of all this saves us uh money and allows us to focus our resources which are stretched uh to uh to those major streets that need it the most and also bandwidth um it we can free up the bandwidth of of our amazing staff uh to do more um as of this month there are still 52 outstanding traffic study and traffic cming requests before the department um and while we're grateful incredibly grateful for the recent increases in in in funding from overrides and other sources uh there's much more to do and we hear all the time from neighborhoods who want more traffic coming who want things slowed down in their neighborhoods and we really wish we had the the resources to do it hopefully by amending our complete streets policy we can focus more money uh where it'll have the biggest uh effect and uh and not necessarily do it everywhere do you want to talk about um scooters and stuff now Mr chair do you want to wait uh well we wait a second okay need s introduce or or do my introduction um I want to thank you for what I thought was a very helpful report and you know the purpose of us asking boards and commissions and committees to come before the board and um you uh talk to us about what they do uh is to um learn you know what you're doing we don't we have so we have tons of committees in boards and commissions and we have no idea what they do other than what's on the web page and that's always not that's not always very accurate and very useful um and you know the other thing that that I think we're trying to do is to you have the opportunity for us to listen to you um and then let us know what our concerns are for example we appreciate the fact that you we have raised issues about the the the about complete streets and how it uh many times impedes the improvements to particular uh roads and ways that uh are necessary for purposes of safety and and other things so you know that's an example of of how you know this two-way communication uh can be very helpful um so I mean the the purpose of this meeting is I'd like to have your thoughts and the thoughts of Sergeant Lacy who's in who's in the audience on a number of safety concerns have been um um conveyed to us or expressed To Us by especially elderly and uh disabled uh residents um related to bikes and scooters uh but also all these other strange Mobility uh Vehicles like um I'm not even sure what they're called but sort like unicycle Wheels what do you Micro mobile white whatever they're call um yeah you know which uh you know scare a lot of people um and also maybe it's it's Sergeant Lacy who can talk about the um um delivery bikes that uh you know I live in the brook house and I see them coming down Washington Street or route nine going into Boston ignoring the lights and ignoring you know uh pedestrians on the road I mean it's really it's a wonder that uh you don't have serious accidents but you know that that's another um you know area where I think it'd be useful to H have your um your your thoughts and inputs and you know the I ideas and how we can reduce you know the danger or even the perception of a danger that many people have um in those in those areas so um so just to to briefly respond I think this is a great idea um having boards and commissions come and report to you it it it's something we probably should have been doing for for years and uh thank you for doing it it's great and um I would love to figure out a way to actually amend these policies the the actual things we have in writing um and and it would it actually really helps to be able to point to something and say no we're doing this because the elected people in this town told us to do it so um whatever whatever you folks can do to help amend those documents um would be incredibly helpful to us especially the complete streets one that that we talked about in terms of micromobility um so you know there was four areas that that you specifically asked me to comment on uh Mr chairman uh sidewalk and crosswalk safety especially for older persons and those with disabilities encouraging all roadway users to comply with safety and speed regulations addressing Business Delivery challenges in educational Andor enforcement measures um and I'll just take them one at a time and I'll be I'll be very brief the you know we take sidewalk and crosswalk safety uh incredibly seriously um as I noted a above we we strive to slow everyone down in our streets including cars trucks bikes scooters and other modes of travel those um electrically powered unicycle skateboard things the yeah um slowing down all vehicles makes it safer for everyone especially those on sidewalks and in crosswalks um and and I believe that if we were going to have speed limits and the speed limits are going to mean anything we should be using design and infrastructure to compel people to slow down I know there's issues with um with getting emergency vehicles places I I understand that um Somerville is is put putting raised elements in lots of different places I I talk all the time uh to the Somerville director of traffic um they are not seeing huge slowdowns in their emergency vehicles they're not seeing huge slowdowns uh in in their in in in their traffic they're not seeing huge congestion in their squares and it seems like the citizenry of Somerville is incredibly happy with this um and it's something that I think we need to consider I think we need to really take a hard look at putting raised element places to force cars to slow down and again not just cars I say cars because it's what comes to mind first Force cyclists to slow down Force everyone to slow down we we've all got in a in a hurry since the pandemic and it's um it's it's it's led to to some some issues and and I think we need to just go back to safety first um the second part was encouraging all roadway users to comply with safety and speed regulations um as I mentioned you know we we have the transportation board can influence signage signals infrastructure and policy but we don't have enforcement power nor should we um so we will continue to use paint signs and signals to to com to encourage voluntary compliance but at the end of the day um it it's going to take enforcement to to get the the scoff laws the folks that just will not obey the rules to be compelled to to obey the rules and that gets us to The Business Delivery challenges I mean this is a challenge that many communities across the country you're facing right now and and frankly across the world um we've all seen delivery drivers and others wanly float the rules cutting in and out of traffic um cutting people off driving up on sidewalks uh driving over curbs it it's it's it's a problem um you know I know in Boston just this past weekend uh the police were confiscating unregistered delivery vehicles uh or ones that were operating illegally and seem to be operating illegally now now this is an extreme response and I'm not suggesting we do that but this just it's an example of what is being done in places uh and just um just earlier today I I emailed um I emailed you miss Oliva uh a a a a thing I recently saw which was uh a scooter uh painted on the sidewalk on on the sidewalk with the red X through it to designate that scooter should not be on walking paths um and you think it would be common sense that you should not be putting electrically propelled things on walking paths but sometimes people need to be reminded of that so again it's something we should probably consider doing um but again we we need enforcement there and and if folks are going to willingly break the law there's not a heck of a lot that we as a transportation board can do um but the the the question of education and enforcement is really one that that I've been thinking about for a long time this is my second goar around on the transportation board um and uh as Mike sammon might remember we we once discussed trying to work with a school committee and the school department to put in some kind of education program for for young for our young people uh to learn about riding safe ways to cross the street safe ways to uh to be on the public way it could be done through physical education kids could ride those little push bikes and learn how to stop at red lights and stop signs and cross safely and use crosswalks um I don't know if we can fit that in the corre curriculum I I have no idea how that stuff works but I I can tell you that education is desperately needed and I I think it's something that we should we should do and and I'm happy to to take this up with the uh with the school department I think it's something that um is a novel approach I know it's done in other countries um but I guess in just you know to to in in conclusion I guess or or to conclude this part um we really do see our role as Safety First and we are trying to slow down everybody and that is not always popular as you know as you guys get the phone you folks get the phone calls um I think slowing down everyone does make it safer for everyone including people in cars including people on sidewalks including people on bikes including the elderly people in crosswalks including folks who just want to just want to do their shopping we all just have to slow down and it might take an extra few minutes to get somewhere where you're trying to go but at the the end of the day it's just going to be safer for everybody the um of course you have no enforcement power which is why we asked the police department to also appear actually your recommendation let me give you credit for that um and and you know give their sort of thoughts on enforcement issues I remember a number of years ago uh there were officers on bikes on Longwood Avenue um stopping bikers who went through red lights and and um you did other things that were unsafe um in route to Longwood Medical Center um they're not there they they haven't been there for for a number of years and you I'm sure there are reasons why I'm sure there are reasons why that type of enforcement is either impractical uh or you know not useful but I would' like to just know understand some of those issues and maybe come up with some ideas is as to how we can address uh that aspect of of this problem so I couldn't agree more um we we we have uh Deputy superintendent Murphy at all of our meetings uh we also have uh Deputy Chief caner from the fire department at all of our meetings we we continually try to ensure that we are communicating and and coordinating with them but I know there's been staffing issues at the police department and and and and other areas so uh I'm not a law enforcement official uh nobody wants to give me a gun it's a good thing um I wouldn't know what to do with it but um I I just think that the police do a great job with the resources they have and and we rely on them and you know I'd be interested to hear from them as well if you don't mind Le and we're not asking you to do anything make do any Miracles but you just help us understand what the limitations are and what what things we can do to move this forward um to your point about the cycles sorry first of all Hello everybody um Keith Lacy s and Traffic Division Brookline police um the bicycle uh thing I agree has kind of got Fallen away in terms of the the bike on Bike kind of enforcement um but we recently just um applied for a grant in 2025 with the uh Office of Public Safety um in the years past we've had these standard kind of components it's distracted driving uh click ticket uh speeding uh but there's another realm that we applied for that's strictly pedestrian and bicycle enforcement so that's a track that we're really seeking this time coming up and we're going to uh hopefully get the funds and then uh We've recently uh sat at the table with The Pedestrian uh Advisory Board and it's been we've had I've been part of two meetings there it's been very informative very uh engaging and uh we've heard a lot of those complaints so my hope is is that some of that if we get that some of that uh funding and attention it's in addition to our regular shifts it's overtime pay for folks and thanks to you guys you've increased our ranks so more people are taking this they're not being forced to do additional shifts because of the dirth of bodies to cover shifts so now there's availability for people to take these extra shifts and uh and utilize it and so they'll go off for a four out block seek an area in town and uh enforce it uh p uh crosswalk enforcement for instance we can set up decoy stuff there's also a component of non enforcement uh Revenue that's available to us and I think to potentially sit down with the T the t board and the The Pedestrian Advisory Board and try and understand what can we do more for them um in terms of you know enforcement but we are out there I've got some just some small data we've up to this point this year we've written 3,1 uh citations that's actual citations issued to operators who have violated some sort of law um I don't have the breakdown on what those are at this time but uh that that's a considerable amount of and there are other stops where a citation is not issued it's called a verbal warning so it's probably more quite more than 3,000 stops uh so so these are both bikes as well as automobiles more Motor Vehicles right certain there are a few bicycles in there but the overwhelming number would definitely be motor vehicle uh stops uh and and some scooter stops yes a the bikes um but I don't have that breakdown I was kind of thought the focus was on um some seniors and the vulnerability of them um you know Crossing and stuff and I have some some some data on that and what I found in the last 18 months I went back and there's been 10 collisions uh of pedestrians over 60 years old in town um thankfully none of them were fatal um a Maj uh five of them were in crosswalks were were folks in crosswalks at low speed thankfully so they're um and citations were issued and in five of those crashes um the average age of the the people involved was 72.6 years old so um they all are just two of them were uh backing where just uh someone was backing up and didn't realize someone was behind them which is more on The Accidental side and somebody gets struck in a crosswalk that's strict liability there on the operator for that you know and so uh that's happening so um there there have been we've done a fiveyear look back uh pedestrian I have the data here if there's a little bit of a report if you want to put that on the record um but it's up to uh there's been two 205 pedestrian vers motor vehicle collisions from 2018 up through June of of this year so it's a pretty pretty high number it it it averages about 31 a year um and in the Grant application you know our goal is to to cut that in half at least and you know love to see it at zero but um you know with uh all due respect to to Bob Dylan the roads they are a Chang in you know and and and folks need the education component of that you know where are we you know the threee as you know it's it's it's engineering enforcement excuse me engineering education and enforcement and those all go together we have to collaborate on all of that and um you know folks in town all of these new roadways new speed limits this is all new to them so uh just being out there making these stops informing the public uh is a big part and we're happy to to be part of it um and we are out there and we're doing as much as we can you said Deputy Murphy attends all these meetings very into it and chief Pastor she's she's you know they're all they want us to be out there we cross uh 350 hours a week are devoted with our folks to cross kids in school which it comes up to over $18,000 a year safely getting kids to and from school parents vulnerable population um so we're out there uh the traffic division particularly it it really touches a lot of folks that are vulnerable each each day um so that's what we're passionate about we want to continue to do it and if we can uptick it or enhance it or if there's any kind of suggestions that you think we could be doing I I will get back to you on the the scooter uh delivery po I really don't have any kind of handle on that particular thing right right as we speak but it is a problem I see that and it's difficult to engage folks on scooters because they can get through the traffic so and then disregarding the lights then it becomes a Pursuit kind of you know thing with us and can be challenging at times um we we we have some Authority uh to regulate the companies that use these scooters I mean we've had a hearing or not a hearing but um it's a licensing meeting or hearing a few months ago so you know so so we have some authority to at least speak to the companies that uh uh this is a food delivery service who provide who who hire these um operators and uh exert some control there yeah if we're able to attribute the the operator to that particular entity it would be great you know to to utilize those means to try and correct some of those behaviors but uh it would also be nice to to you know stop them and and you know try and engage them on the street in real time too um but that's something that I'm going to have to get well we're going to have to get back to you want in terms of a plan for that that uh um but we are actively uh out there as a department and uh specifically as a traffic division you know with our with our civilian folks and then all of our uh people who go out pretty much exclusively all day all day and look for violators and or respond to uh crashes and accidents and then um with this grant these Grant funds it's been really good uh this year we've we've spent the money or pretty much almost spent all of the money where in years past some of that money was left on the table because again like I spoke of earlier we just didn't have the opportunity to to to commit to that to to to do it you know so so that that's good that that we are doing it it's an enhancement to what we're doing 247 as a department it's it's an additional thing and I really uh look forward to working with the advisory committee yeah about uh some ideas uh for what we can be doing on yeah we're we're not looking for answers you know tonight but just begin the process of coming to answers and the data that you uh referred to earlier if you could get that to to our office absolutely you we could distribute it to the select board as well as to to the public I think that'd be very helpful all right um the any other I'm sorry Mike yeah actually I have some some things that I want to address that uh to address some of the things that Brian asked and also um they they they tie into what Sergeant Lac is talking about um first of all I want to say that I'm Brian's great-grandfather uh when it comes to um chairs of uh of the transation board there were two people intervening between us uh and you were on the board in fact when I was chair I believe right so uh and uh I I I'm very pleased to hear the comments about complete streets I think Paul and I have been very interested in that as you know uh and he's really taken the lead on it uh and um that's great that you're that we're headed in the right direction I think um when it comes to slowing things down I think it's really important to say what the purpose is and the purpose is to reduce injuries you mentioned 205 vehicle and pedestrian collisions since 2018 uh we have a vision zero committee that that I'm the the representative for uh and the idea is to have zero deaths but also reduce uh uh vehicle and pedestrian collisions very substantially when two vehicles Collide in Brook line at the speeds that people are typically going at it in Brook line there aren't any fatalities it's rare to have an injury when a pedestrian collides with a a car or even with a a a bicycle it's much more likely that somebody is really going to get hurt and it's that that we need to be focused on so that's the slowing things down it's great to you know sort of take your time but it's also really important from the perspective of reducing um uh injuries um I had mentioned earlier that we want to respond to what people want and we I was talking about the budget and I think it's fair to say to the transation board that we know you're pulled in multiple directions uh that uh there are people who want to go faster people want to go slower people want uh this to be done people who want that to be done and um I think there are a lot of misconceptions uh uh in terms of what people perceive the danger to be and I know that um uh uh I confess that I'm a bicyclist I rode here on my bicycle tonight um so um uh I know that there's a a perception that bicyclists are going to run over people and kill them uh it's much more uh likely that the cyclist is going to be H trying to avoid somebody who steps in front of them but um in any case uh I think there there's um a perception of danger uh that is sometimes misplaced and yet my own perception of danger is that we ought to be taking some kind of measure to reduce the um dangers from electric scooters especially delivery and I wonder whether requiring them to be registered is a possibility so that you can attribute the the driver and the uh and and the um uh the scooter to a particular uh Food Service delivery a food delivery service we can I think they're already required to be state Register well only if they're um you have to have a certain number of cc's in the for gas powered ones and electric ones I I think there's a similar it it's a a class three vehicle that uh that needs to be uh registered to go 28 mil an hour I think they're going faster than 28 um but there but uh we're not I I don't see that being enforced effectively because they're not carrying any kind of indication that uh uh that they're uh that they're registered except for the ones that have a have a a plate um so I don't know if that's practical whether that would help and I I don't want to suggest doing something silly if you don't think and the department doesn't think it's sensible but that's something that I think it' be good to take up at least we can just get the facts uh I mean the ones I see seem to be actually mopeds as opposed to yeah um I think that's true mopez with a a case on the back um the last thing I wanted to say is um uh there um one of the points that that was was made to me recently uh in fact this morning in a conversation with someone who one of the people who wrote a letter to us um is that uh we should be seeking uh some diversity of interest on the advisory committees that report to the transportation board uh and uh I know we have a bicycle advisory committee that's that is fortunate in having some um very uh thoughtful bicycle cycling Advocates but uh it would also be helpful to have some people who are um perhaps not uh as uh as focused on on cycling and uh I appreciate that you know you want an advisory committee that has a particular set of views and interests and comes to the transportation board and it's your job to sort of sort all of that out um but I do wonder about increasing the diversity of the uh advisory committees well first of all as as your great great grandson I look forward to being in the inheritance list um that that's going to be great thank you Michael um in terms of I I saw that comment today as well and I agree um I mean part of the issue is getting folks to volunteer and obviously the folks that volunteer are are folks that are passionate about these things I mean we we just reconstituted our shared Mobility advisory committee um in June um because we have a ton of MBTA stuff that that needs to get done um so yes I I completely agree I I I think term limits is not a terrible idea for for these things um I I thank you for reappointing me for another three-year term last month I I can assure you that will be my last um and I I think we we need some kind of turnover as well on on the advisory groups I I completely agree with that right okay and the what I there's actually one other thing I should say specifically because you because I know what you do in the daytime um is that while we're very interested in slowing things down on the roads that's not true of the tea we appreciate your service I I agree with Mike and I speak quite a bit about uh Transportation stuff first Brian I want to thank you for your service um I uh you're someone that I find to be uh very approachable collaborative uh and you know you should be replicated on many of our boards and commissions I thank you for our service now that I blew that smoke um um about the the the issue that that Mike just raised that you spoke to about diversity um one of the things that you know to consider is is the mechanism where who's deciding who's bringing candidates forward I think traditionally uh the the transportation board has relied heavily on the chairs of these subcommittees and the chair of the subcommittees are the gate they're the gatekeeper um and I think that that in itself can actually limit diversity of thought and opinion so I'd encourage you to look at that yeah um is one way I I want to thank you for bringing up uh complete streets uh Mike and I and yourself and Aaron uh commissioner sh and others have sat around uh for hours uh discussing this and I think we all have a common vision in mind and I think we're going in the right direction and you're right we need to modify and make some adjustments to uh to our policies um I have an ask two ask actually one um I don't know the D if if we've already settled this yet but um we need to keep micromobility devices off the sidewalks agreed this isn't just about Collision it's about fear and if you are if you're someone like me that is often walking with young children down the business district sidewalks or you're a senior like me believe and I all we're all seniors um D you know it and it it can be very intimidating to have um someone coming up behind you on these devices and these devices don't make actually any noise and suddenly they wiiz by you um we we can't be asked or have a policy that says these things can be on the sidewalk and they need to go a certain speed limit it'll be completely unenforceable so I don't I don't know where that's going but um well we we just uh amended the traffic rules and regulations on this very topic uh I think in May um to to try to make it much clearer that these things should not be on the sidewalk right but you know not everyone reads the traffic rules and regulations no I that's where enforcement comes in I think enforcement's really important and then the the last Point um is uh the Gateway East y dedicated bus lane um I I uh commend that we're doing a pilot we're trying it um yeah you know and I guess I'm wondering it's a question I have how is feedback um being taken into account who's taking it into account and are we making adjustments to the signaling and the approach that's taking place there yes uh to to Really adjust the pilot as we're going forward yeah we've already had the um the the the folks out adjusting the signal timing uh on the High Street side uh it was not coordinated for the first week okay um it's pretty clear that it wasn't coordinated so we are trying to fine-tune it and get it to work the way it's designed to work um that pilot will be a challenge and um I I hope it is successful um but as we've talked about here before um it's going to be a challenge and uh you know my my wife um hadn't been home in three weeks and sort of was asking me the other day what the hell is going on down there what are you doing and I had to say well it's a pilot and we're going to work through it so yeah um I again Brian I guess my my point is I'm just encouraging that the public needs to understand right how do how what type of feedback are you looking for where does it get channeled how do they know when adjustments are being made so that they can have the confidence that this thing is just not going off the rails so the the and and and that they should tell uh you or whoever what the specific issues they have in in using that that intersection so the the staff are monitoring and the police department are monitoring um backups um in the village as well as on High Street as well as on Route n so that's that's three data points right there and then uh the DPW was supposed to set up a dedicated uh email address and I'm not sure if they did that I think they did I think they did I think they did but are you are is the transportation board going to have a periodic yes public hearing check-in on this thing so that you can hear quarterly quarter border okay yes we're well we're going to start in September because it's summer sure but yeah we the first one in September and we'll we'll try to hear and we rely on Tom meeting members as well and as you know they're not shy can I I just want to put in and suggest that you talk to Brook line. newws oh good idea about getting the word out as to what you're doing and why and what the feedback mechanism is idea uh Bernard I did have one last thing that I promised someone I would ask I had a I had a asking all the things I I I I had a resident uh contact me and actually there was a gentleman that spoke to the board uh maybe two months ago and it had to do with parking meters in quarters yes and um and I don't know where if this is the transportation board or somebody else but um you know there are there is there are individuals in town that do not want to use a credit card they're very fearful yeah of using a credit card or like they don't have electronic device and it's expens Bernard I think actually runs around with rolls of quarters I do he does so are we are we here's question running into Starbucks to get a cup of coffee all I need is 12 minutes you don't need to pay 12 minutes plus 50 cents right so here's my question sir are are we maintaining and are we committed to maintaining our meters to include the acceptance of coinage yes okay thank you legal tender for all debts public and private John uh uh I think Brian said two things that I'd like to emphasize because he's basically given us um the uh uh permission if that's the word um to seriously consider pairing back um how many streets uh we apply this complete streets policy too um that's huge um I wouldn't say permission is the right word I work for you so yeah uh and I I I I grant it's not it's not the right word but um uh let's let's take that very seriously that he he brought that up tonight yeah um let's also take very seriously that he brought up not just we need to slow down but there's a way to achieve that um and he mentioned the Somerville example and it isn't necessarily all I love that there's this distinction between speed bumps and speed humps and then there's probably something a little bit below level of what who knows yeah um it it doesn't have to mean um creating a um excuse me impediment to emergency vehicles but there are measures that can be taken that will help to slow people down routinely and shouldn't require um tons and tons of time and applications for Grants and so on and so on and so on tapman street is a perfect example yep um the people on tapen Street who have been petitioning this board or pleading to this board that they have uh an ongoing dangerous situation there for children um who U routinely are on their way to school using tapen Street sidewalks but sometimes have to cross the street um that the traffic is too fat it's reads by too quickly on tapen street are we going to do anything about it well maybe if we can figure out uh something that is uh sort of a soft solution to it and I hope we'll take you seriously on that as well as on pairing back on the complete streets please do ber just briefly to to John's Point um and I'm glad he he brought up um the complete streets pairing down Mike and I um have been working with uh with Ryan and commissioner Chu and others to uh come up with the revisions to the policy which means pairing down uh to um you know theaters and and major corridors um and that's important but you know the the other thing the reason why complete we started down the path of looking at complete streets was because anytime we wanted to do anything to a roadway it required going through the complete streets policy which required a full study including speed humps and traffic coming you know and and we need to be able to modify the policy to allow our DPW to be able to maintain and fix our roadways to make them safe without having to go do um a significant complete study of of the public way um and I'm with you I I believe that slowing traffic down I think Mike mentioned it ran you mentioned it um we you know Boston is going through a very rapid conversion of its uh of its roadways to include um these traffic calming speed bumps um and they're doing it very quickly and I think uh at very cost effectively as well um and I would fully support uh seeing us do that um sooner rather than later as well good yeah um one other thing that uh I I've read in some of the comments from the the community uh the idea of um Road diets yep now their concerns were a little different from my concern my concern is that that's a dis misrepresentation of what you're really doing it's not a diet in that the the cars go away it's more of a girdle and you know we're pushing traffic into other areas um and not slowing and not reducing traffic down now that's just a little issue of uh terminology okay but I I think it really is important in many situations that we look at the effect of so-called Road diets on know area or adjacent streets and and uh and areas so no absolutely and then the the the road diets that we're looking at now are on on Hammond Street on Lee and Clyde which are four-lane roads that are that are really Speedways um that we can road diet means you you kind of go from two lanes to one in some cases and and try to restrict it narrower roads tend to slow down traffic more uh DCR did this on the Hammond Pond Parkway next door by the way so I encourage you to look at it but yeah we also don't want um don't want traffic then going up into neighborhoods that's that's not ideal either so we're trying to balance everyone's needs and wants and um sometimes we get it right sometimes we don't but when we don't we can fix it pretty quickly so so um I guess that the the um conclusion of this is uh um Sergeant Lacy's going to get us some data as well as information regarding delivery vehicles uh and other things and um the idea of of looking at how do we increase the diversity uh with respect to you know particularly uh elderly uh Representatives uh on some of the Committees that report to the transportation board is something that we should follow through with in terms of identifying people and in terms of encouraging people who are interested in this issue to come forward and and um present themselves I guess to in this case to you since we don't appoint the members of these committees um so yeah I I hope you follow through on that because that that that is something that's very important and um message has been received yes um and I I just I should also note that the the task force that I serve on is also looking at the delivery issue and trying to figure out how to do some identification around that and some Revenue capture perhaps so it's it's something that is being struggled with everywhere um around the world not just not just in the US and just one more thing Bernard on your on your list of to-dos for Brian um you know I spoke to commissioner Chu before she went on vacation they're actively working on amending uh and making policy recommendations to a whole set of things in that are related to complete streets that's going to come to us and it's going to need our support and approval so I'm hoping that we're that we're going to be United in in helping to uh to make this happen yeah and and also Sergeant Lacy if you could just make sure we get information on the grants that you're applying for with respect to enforcement as well as I think it'd be very helpful to us and the community to to understand the the the the the problems that you may be having with enforcement whether it's uh Staffing or um I don't know what what other problems would be but I mean it's not as simple as just having you know bicycle officers out there you know stopping bicyclist who go through red light it's much more complicated than that yeah the grants get awarded in October so I'm hoping I'll have a success story to report there um yeah and um I I wouldn't say there's problems right now I think we have enough we have a lot more staff than we did maybe two years ago so I think we're trending in the right direction in terms of enhanced enforcement and maybe uh specific types of enforcement too we have the flexibility for that too so that's moving in the right direction so um or on board we yeah the select board made sure that uh the staffing issues were addressed and again we appreciate that very much um you have something to say Jas I was just going to say the third rail of enforcement in Massachusetts is always cameras um okay no kidding we should have that discussion yes we really no well we've we've actually had that discussion with our our most prominent State Rep with Tommy vello and he says that uh I it's a state law that we can't use cameras and that's not going to change it's come close to getting repealed a couple of times now the question is whether we want to do that right the the answer is yes answer is hell no yes okay so frequently going through going through red lights Bernard where you don't want to no is that what's going on no if I go through a yellow light though I don't want to get a ticket in in the mail saying that I went through a yellow light three months ago anyway okay thank you appreciate it very very very helpful hey what's next on our agenda got a whole SLE of whole slew of things um long agenda boards and commissions reappointments so these are reappointments uh that we're going to uh just make you know without interviews of course uh these are people who have been U recommended by the chairs of the various committees um and no select board member has identified any of them as requiring you know special scrutiny uh or anything with one exception oh that's right one exception Bernard I do have one can I make one comment before we we vote um in this again I I agree with reappointing everybody that these are all quality folks and dedicated to to to serving um when we come to this again next year um I know that we advertise for openings on boards and commissions um I wonder if it would also be helpful for people to know that there's that there are you know seats up for Renewal um that that you know if someone wanted to apply they wouldn't be prevented from applying because there's no opening well nobody owns the seat um of an appointment and you know people should be encouraged if they'd like to join a border commission they should put in an application whether there's someone who's not renewing or not yeah good good good point hear that Tiffany okay I'm sorry DAV I completely agree with Paul a lot of these committees that we're being asked to reappoint people to and again these are probably all fine candidates but nevertheless advisory counsil on public health Economic Development Parks and Recreation zero admissions advisory zoning board planning board those are all boards that generate a lot of interest and it's really hard for me to believe that nobody would Express interests Beyond these incumbents and we talk about wanting to diversify our boards our representation and yet we essentially rubber stamp these selections again that's not saying these aren't the right people but I think that we would be better served if we engaged in more active Outreach and advertising about the positions what they would entail so that we are constantly attracting new candidates from a diverse array of demographics to apply and then interview them and see how it goes okay done I'm GNA disagree I'm going to disagree I'm sorry to have to disagree um and I feel like this is one of those classic cases where having done it the way that Paul and David are suggesting we came around to the realization that we are overwhelmed um with the whole process of routinely interviewing the current incumbent and everybody who has applied for the position when in fact we've already heard from the incumbent chair that the chair actually is very very happy with that incumbent that incumbent is very valuable to the board um and we have no reason willing neilly to go looking for someone to replace that in accumbent and just as it is important to get diversity on these boards and commissions it's also important to get continuity it's also important to get expertise it's also important to reward people who volunteer and then Faithfully serve um and you know not just because a few other people wanted to apply for the position bumped them off the board um so I I will disagree we can have that dis discussion you know when this comes around again next year but um good luck to you if you decide to go in the other direction and have to interview every single person who applies for every single opening on every single board that's dozens and dozens and dozens and it ties us up and it ties up staff and it's for no purpose if we're going to end up reappointing the incumbent anyway I actually agree with you John um the other issue is you know except for a couple of these committees um we don't get a lot of interest you so yes I can add um of all these committees listed we have had recent vacancies or currently do have vacancies outside of the um incumbents uh except for Park and W zero missions Advisory Board and solid waste advisory committee so those are the only ones that I don't think have had vacancies recently and we just filled a couple of vacancies in parks and rec just then I think then we would take that off of the three that I've just mentioned um and that that also goes for indigenous people celebration committee we just filled a vacancy there as well yeah okay okay um unless there's any further okay let's not get into back and for no I I respect Sean's of view and I I don't entirely disagree with you I would weigh very heavily incumbency and what the chair of a board thinks as well I just don't think the inquiry should end there that because someone's an incumbent they're automatically in and I think that there's an in between that we could have maybe it's filling out a questionnaire maybe it's a letter of interest and we just review that doesn't necessarily have to be a full interview and certainly would weigh very heavily someone's service and recommendations they receive it's not an automatically kicking them out it's not that they're automatically in and I have raised a question which is going to you know I hope you will just specify that where there's a question uh you know about whether an appointment uh is sort of at the threshold um we take some time and that's all that I'm going to request that we do tonight with one of these appointments so it's not automatic um and it's not on not on the list that appointment's not on the list well if it's not it's not but it's I'm looking at it so oh okay well maybe have the wrong agenda U Mike I I hope this a well I hope this is helpful but I would say as a when I was chair of the transportation board um I in fact asked the select board not not to reappoint someone and the select board applied uh which I was very very happy that they did I think you can rely generally on the chairs to give you a a good feedback on on whether somebody is a is um doing the job in a helpful member and and by the way one of the reasons for the uh requirement that boards and commissions report to the select board on an annual basis is to help us or give them the opportunity to let us know about um yeah you know their Staffing and and you know issues that uh you know they see with their membership okay so I move approval of the following uh individuals uh to the following boards commissions and committees indigenous people C uh celebration committee Felino silver Katherine floral advisory Council and public health Charles Homer and uh Leonard Jacobus economic devel long night Economic Development Advisory Board and Myers Parks and Recreation commit Mission John oh that's the one oh I'm sorry um strike that zero admissions Advisory Board Kathleen scanland I was thinking of someone else that's okay um Solid Waste advisory committee Dean Cody Mary litus Katherine oconnell zoning board of appeals Saul fredman I'm sorry Feldman uh police commissioner's advisory committee Ronald wil Wilkinson planning board Blair Hines uh all in favor uh for appointing reappointing those individuals to those uh committees please indicate by saying I John vanak I um Mike sanman hi Paul Warren I David proman I and chair votes I okay you're about to say something okay boards and commissions new appointments question of approving the following candidates for appointment to the following boards and commissions um and we're not voting or we're not interviewing these people of course either uh age friendly cities committee we've already interviewed we've already I'm sorry right yeah uh engga forti uh Trustees of wet Hill Cemetery Thomas M Johnson all in favor please indicate indicate by saying I John Van skak hi Michael S uh I need to abstain on one and vote I on the other how do I do okay well why don't we start over again age friendly uh cities committee on favor for Inga forti John vanak hi Mike sanman obain um Paul Warren yes David prman I and chair votes I uh all in favor of Trustees of wet Hill Cemetery appointment of Thomas M Johnson please indicate by saying I John Van skak hi Michael Sandman hi Paul Warren hi David prman I and chair Bai next interviews we have the following candidates for boards and commissions to be interviewed by the select board and first is housing Advisory Board Rebecca mner uh by the way I apologize we should have put you up earlier you didn't have to sit out here all this time but that's life no problem just we have to sit here too y it's always good to be reminded of all that you folks do and what a what a generous commitment it is to the town to be on the board so could you introduce yourself to our VAST TV audience and um give us some uh reason why you'd like to be a member of the housing Advisory Board sure so good evening my name is Rebecca plout mner I live in Precinct 11 I've been a town meeting I was a town meeting member for 14 years and stepped down this year partly because I um have taken a more demanding professional job uh full-time job in the city but um I in in the field of aable housing so I have spent the last 30 years working in the for of field of affordable housing most of that time has been as a nonprofit developer I've been involved in developing well over 1500 units of affordable housing everything from very small domestic violence shelters in western Mass and in greater Boston to one of the most complex 21 buildings scattered site affordable housing projects the city of Boston has ever financed um I understand understand every aspect of affordable housing developments and operations I worked at the Boston Housing Authority early in my career right now I oversee a portfolio of 750 affordable units and I've done um in my career have worked with a lot of owners helping them figure out not just how to build affordable housing but to maintain it and and keep it as an asset that will serve the community and the folks who live there for a long time to come I'm interested in serving on the hab because been to numerous Hab meetings um it's a very important body in terms of supporting the creation and preservation of affordable housing in Brookline and one of its um key responsibilities is reviewing funding applications from developers and I think it would be advantageous to the hab to have someone with several decades of experience on the ground um on the committee representing the town in deciding what to fund a good portion of my job for the last 20 years has been securing funding from municipalities for affable housing so um I would bring expertise in how other municipalities around this the state do it I also have worked in Connecticut and for a year ran a training for um developers and service providers in mass in in Connecticut for about probably four or five years training them in how to do this work so I have experience working with many municipalities in Connecticut as well as Massachusetts but as a develop so I both bring um familiarity with best practices and worst practices um but probably most importantly as a developer um I think it's very important to have the perspective of someone with a lot of Hands-On development experience on the board there are already current board members like Jonathan Klein who understand the business well um also uh Pam Goodman like folks who have had more of a bigger picture view um and I respect enormously and have respected enormously for decades but I think the perspective of someone who has stayed pretty close to the ground um would be very helpful to the town and the board I mean to put it simply I know where the bodies are buried I know the tricks developers play I am in this market and I know what is um what is true and what is fluff um and one example of how I have uh brought that expertise to Bear is in the last year um you may be familiar with Boston's bill building emission reduction um ordinance Berto which now Newton has considered and I know we been looking at I was on the community Advisory Group for Berto and there were TR the city of Boston was with a really good intentions trying to create some flexibility for affordable housing but the the mechanism that they were using um I won't get into the specifics of it was going to create like a window for affordable housing that was going to be so big that every private developer development would pass through through it as well and no one at the city understood enough about the legal entities that are used in in real estate development to catch that but because I was on the committee we were able to change the definition so it's just one example of how having someone who's in the trenches can be valuable to municipality and trying to craft policy and make tough choices thank you thank you um I have one question you one of the concerns we have here in Brooklyn as I'm sure you know since you live here is um you affordable housing has to include also middle- income housing Workforce housing um in other words across the income Spectrum um you know you what ideas do you have uh that can be used on have which you know through the affordable housing trust can go up to 120% of Ami um yeah I think um that flexibility and funding is probably the critical tool it's always we were having this conversation in the office a couple weeks ago it's always stunning to people how given how high Market units Brookline may be one of the few places where cross subsidy works but in today's market this was not true 20 years ago but in today's market where construction prices are so high and interest rates are High um most market rate developments in the Commonwealth don't throw off enough cash to provide enough subsidy to create another for unit um unfortunately there are times in markets where it does work really well we might be at one in the future but right now we are not um I was actually at a training uh a contractor was doing for some young people are running a summer internship program and it's you know it's 500 it's routinely these days for or $500,000 a unit for hard cost alone that doesn't include the Architects the engineer the construction loan interest so um in Boston we routinely have have things weighing in at over five you know $600,000 $700,000 a unit if that's the cost yes in Brooklyn there will be situations where there will be market rate condos or rental that can can cover that but in the rental market it's really hard to generate enough cash in today's world to really do effective cross subsidy which means that what you mentioned having funds dedicated to that 100 to 120 band is really the only way you're going to be able to effectively create those units yeah Paul yeah uh Rebecca thank you uh for coming and I really appreciate the clarity of your presentation and value that you'd add um I have two questions um one any conflicts you said you're a developer like so um that um that is a good question um I work for the Jamaica plan neighborhood Development Corporation and um we don't currently have any work we are doing in brickline we are exploring a project in brck line I actually hoping part of the reason I asked for the later date was I was hoping that it would be determined by now if that was moving forward because if it was I would have um uh remove my application um so um I expect that I'm going to know in about four weeks time if it's really it's but you earn your living by yes by this business okay that's just helpful for me to understand yeah yeah most of my work is in the city of Boston but not exclusively we're looking at a project in Quincy right now and okay and then um the second question is what are we not doing what what should we be doing more of in Brooklyn to get more affordable housing deed restricted affordable housing well I just want to say I think one thing the town has done really well that it was has only started doing recently is providing the kind of um emergency assistance that keeps people from being evicted I think that's really crucial it's not creating permanent affordable housing but um when you think about the impact on families avoiding eviction is tremendous and especially if you get evicted from subsidized housing if you live in public housing and you fall behind on something or you get evicted for cause if you have a Section 8 voucher and for some reason you can't you get evicted you basically can never get publicly subsidized housing again um it is as we say kind of a game-ending move so um even though I mean I'm I'm a landlord right I I'm like literally responsible for 750 units we have some thirdparty management companies that but I I do have that portfolio um you know I do evict people from subsidized housing because sometimes you have to to protect other tenants or sometimes the situation has gotten just really out of control um but I think work the work to prevent evictions is is really crucial because it's just extraordinarily hard for folks to come back from that um um in terms of so um that's something I think the town has just started doing recently that's incredibly meaningful I don't think people who have not been on the brink of of losing their homes understand how significant that is and that's without even talking about the impact on Children and Families you know you become homeless you can't go to your school anymore you're shuttled rent like it's just the the um ripple effect is stunning um I have um on development I think we um I think the time is a lot of things right I'm not saying that just to to Curry fig withth folks I think the changes to the inclusionary zoning were good were good um I think sometimes we focus so much on the small wins we neglect the big wins like you know doing tiny incremental changes and you know we lost in colge corner a floor off a building kind of easily about six years ago and like it's very very hard to create 11 affordable units in in cool corn I think that's what we lost on the um bcck bcck project so um I think we kind of have to keep our eye on the ball and be willing to fight on the big things and not spend quite so much time on the Small Things um for instance like adus like let's just do them let's not make it I was in Tam meeting where like the definition of who could do it got narrower and narrower and narrower I mean a lot of people put so much effort in hundreds of hours into it and we narrowed it down and narrowed it down and then it was like what's the impact going to be so I think we have to be not shy away from doing things that are sometimes harder but a little bit bigger um because the long-term impact is going to be make it worth it than okay um one more question we're kind to avoid the half hour long interview just in terms of your overall philosophy around Housing Development do you see it do you look at it at a macro level municipality wide are you more a neighborhood by neighborhood approach would you look at North Brookline the same way you look at South Brookline for example so every project is different that's part of why um my jobs like that's why I love what I do because every project there's no two projects that are ever the same I went to did a project in acting and sbur for the local housing authorities at the same time you would think it's it was different um I think very different things are needed in Brookline I think it's there's a real tension um there's a lot of reason to build more affordable housing in north brick line where there's better public transportation access and you can be less car Reliance um and perhaps more Community for folks um and yet it doesn't make sense to have all our affordable hasn't concentrated in one part of town that's not good for anyone the folks in South Brookline are missing out from living in a much diverse from a class income point of view town or most of South Brooklyn not not near hanok Village so I think I mean every project is different every project is neighborhood specific and every project has the same fundamentals like it has to provide a decent living experience for the tenants it has to cash flow we want it to be as energy efficient as possible it has to nothing will ever be um aesthetically pleasing to to everyone um but you know we need to work with folks sometimes that means fitting into the the local um aesthetic and sometimes it means doing something different because because of like in really his you know you just some some things cannot be created in in this Century the way they' were done in the past um so it is it's the answer is kind of it's both it's each project is unique and they're the same fundamentals that make any project a good project but there's a huge diversity I do a lot of home ownership I do housing for rental housing for homeless people you know there's a huge range thank you you and uh we'll May uh we'll be making appointments at a later meeting you hear from us thank you thank you for your time thanks Rebecca okay okay next advisory Council on I think it's on public health right not of public Heth is it of it is of oh and lir Nolan Is With Us online I've promoted you to a co-host you should be able to share your screen now okay great give me one second I'm just trying to make sure that I can bring my camera on for you all sorry thank you yes share your video not your screen no worries me the one who wants us to interview everybody but and we had more we need more talking about that don't burn okay yeah I see you coming into the room again okay perfect yeah I'm just going to join on my computer I was having trouble with my phone here okay I've promoted your computer and you should be able to turn your camera on okay great okay so introduce your oh Echo how we turn that off let me see should work it's me no that's not me there we go okay okay introduce yourself and tell us why you'd like to be a member of The Advisory Council of public health absolutely um it's such a pleasure to get to be here in community with everyone U my name is is lashy Nolan but everyone calls me lash and I am a Internal Medicine resident physician at briam and Women's Hospital I recently graduated from Harvard Medical School and Harvard Kennedy School with my MD and my masters in public policy as well I'm interested in this position because I'm a fervent believer in the fact that the sociopolitical determinance of Health must be addressed in order for us to see the best health outcomes for our our patients and communities um the experience that I have ranges in the policy world from the federal to the local level at the federal level I've served as a part of the White House's Health Equity Roundtable while where I provided advice and in in that advisory role suggested different things that should be done at the federal level to increase Health Equity across the country at the state level I've worked with Senator Liz Miranda specifically as an advisor to helping her improve legislation around um efforts around maternal Health specifically the maternal Health um mortality differences that we seen between black women and white women and then finally at the local level I work with the city of Cambridge on their Community safety department efforts and also uh with the city of Boston in regard to their Community Health Improvement and implementation plans so I think that all of these things together have made me uh that much more passionate about supporting the communities here in Brookline I moved here three years ago uh when I was still a student in Harvard Medical School and I think the thing that um immediately became most striking to me is the the history that's associated with the town a lot of times when I tell people that I live in Brooklyn especially people who identify as black um they say oh wow are you okay is that a space that you want to be in do you feel safe in that neighborhood and I certainly felt safe here but I do think that the town could continue to improve efforts in making this safe into making this space more accessible um to making it a space that does promote uh social justice and racial Equity uh when I checked out the website that the advisory on public health oh you're lost your lost your audio for some reason we lost your audio um standby it may be on our end okay oh there we go there you are you're back you're back you left off we we last heard um when you checked out the website yes yes so when I checked out the website um I did see that um in 2020 there was a statement about uh racism in public health and and this idea that there was going to be a plan for how to address that in the town but I wasn't able to find what exactly were those action plans what exactly were those next steps forward and I think that's something that I would be particularly interested in exploring further um if selected to be in this position and um in in addition to that I also have a nonprofit organization called we got us uh which is a coalition of young people that are passionate about addressing uh public health concerns around racial Equity across the Greater Boston area and I think that that is very emblematic of what I hope to bring to this role um I'm at the start of my medical career I'm on the grounds talking to folks doing Grassroots work and I do think that that is a perspective that that the council could very much so benefit from and I would look forward from getting to learn from my colleagues and also bringing this fresh perspective and and bringing it to the Forefront as well so um I look forward to your questions and um and very excited and thankful to be here I was interested in your statement that uh some of your friends ask you whether you're comfortable living in Brooklyn um I've lived here 24 years I'm very comfortable um but I'd be interested in um your your I mean not now but at some point uh your you know thoughts as to you know how uh our town could maybe address um you know its communication its um um you know the image that it it it has um you know based on historical uh issues as well as any current uh issues uh and how we can uh address them um you know so so that people don't have the uh wrong impression that uh you we as black people should be uncomfortable here in Brooklyn more so than for example in Boston or or where I grew up in Philadelphia yeah yeah yeah I mean it's honestly it's a big question I think that it's one that takes self-reflection on the part of of the Town leaders generally um but I think from from my perspective and doing this work of racial Equity the first step is is having that space to do that reflection and then from there having a reckoning um and and understanding that uh redlining historical policies and practices that still impact things like access to housing um access to Safe spaces to exercise um and all of those things I think need to be publicly acknowledged and from there there needs to be a serious action plan where whether it's having a listening sessions or circles where we're talking um to Black residents or residents of color about their experience with racism in the city um and then from there thinking about what already exists what infrastructure what projects and organizations are already doing Network and then using um those conversations and that infrastructure that exists to then build on that further um so I think that it's it's a mix of of first making sure that we're reflective and understanding that the issue does exist and that we reckon with that history and then from there building on that with um with practice and making sure that there's an action plan um there's um how many years ahead of time do we want to make sure that this is done you know it can't just be like yeah we're going to change things we're going to do better but what exactly is the timeline and what are our objectives and the things that we're hoping to accomplish based off of the feedback that we've gotten from the communities that might be impacted oh yep uh hi good evening thank you for your application first my my wife is a physician she oversees you're in your first year of residency did you say I'm wondering where do you find the time to do what you're doing um I asked that seriously I mean you as a resident you're a pretty busy person yeah absolutely you're doing a heck of a lot so that's a rhetorical question um with respect to all this this experience that you're bringing um and your your lens on Equity can you make a give us an idea of the types of things that you'd be advocating for with respect to Public Health um should you should you serve yeah um so I can I can answer your first question about how do I find the time um for me seeing patience is the greatest gift of all but I also feel like understanding how to impact the systemic is what gives me life and keeps me going because sometimes if a patient can't afford a medication if a patient can't afford to have transportation to even get to Clinic those are the things that can really um grind at Physicians over time and that's what leads to these these levels of burnout so I think for me it really sustains me to be able to attack these these issues at the system level and that's why I think it's important for me to always make time for that um in in regard to what I would like to see from the public health perspective is I think um from my understanding the advisor's role is to take uh different pieces of legislation that come in and to try to provide um some type of a public health insight as to you knowes is there a public health lens that applies to this are there ways that we can think about economic issue and housing issues from a public health perspective and I think what I would hope to do is help to to to help folks understand that some of the discrepancies and the differences that we see um with racial disparities is related to the sociopolitical determinants of Health for example policy decisions that have been made um the way that we might have implicit biases at play um when certain decisions are made even at the individual level and I think that what I would hope to do is to help folks understand that some of those pieces of legislation that we're looking at we should make sure that we're applying a lens of social justice and understanding that even though we might not exactly understand um the relationship between the fact that um we have a rat problem um and and public health outcomes but we that that that is something that is in fact relevant and that who are those individuals who are disproportionately impacted by the burden of having rats and trash cans and things of that sort so I think that that's the lens that I would hope to apply um and I think that that sometimes is not as evid or it's it's not as easy for people to to draw and connect those dots um between racial Justice and social justice and inequities and and public health outcomes and I think that that's really what I would hope to do thank you any other questions okay thank you uh lash Nolan right yes it such a pleasure okay sh um we're gonna be making our selections at a later meeting and we'll be in touch with you at that point great thank you thank you thank you um sherff Fisher is not is not appearing tonight and S uh sheer Fisher is online oh she's oh she is here okay can you hear me yep so uh introduce yourself and tell us why you're interested in the um advisory committee of Public Health I thanks so much thanks to the select board for allowing me this time this evening and to present remotely and I realized it's late I'll try to be brief um I'm away at summer camp with my kids actually right now um my name is Shira fiser I grew up here in Brookline after graduating Brookline High I studied biochemistry and went on to work in health policy at The Institute of medicine which is now the National Academy of Medicine in Washington DC I returned to Massachusetts for a combined medical degree in PhD and epidemiology at UMass in Worcester and early in my training I um decided I recognized that while doctors can help individuals in their clinical care like others have mentioned the issues in our society are much more systemic and I decided I want to work on improving Health at a higher level so I proceeded to a clinical informatics fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on Harvard Medical School I've since worked for a decade at the Rand corporation which is a nonpartisan nonprofit Think Tank a leader in health policy and I'm a senior physician policy researcher there my research focuses on health information technology and I believe we have data and tools that are not being used to best their ability to improve health um I listened to the other candidate interviews from a few weeks ago um and I Echo Anthony and his comments about the wealth of expertise and experiences each person has to offer and was very impressed from um all of them and the previous candidate as well Brookline is very lucky um my unique contributions would be the following I've served Brooklyn in many ways so far including as a town meeting member for the past 10 years in Precinct 11 and on the redistricting Committee in 2021 so I know a lot of people involved in Brooklyn and I'm good at connecting and collaborating I'm trained in both medicine and epidemiology I work in health policy and my expertise in informatics and data could broaden the council's expertise um and lastly I would bring new energy and ideas to The Advisory Council um local government is limited in what it can do particularly around Public Health Brookline however has opportunities to serve its citizens and support their health and direct and indirect ways um and like it often does through town meeting to serve as a model for other towns and for the state level like others have mentioned health is much more than just medical care it's affected by how easy it is to be outside use Parks access healthy foods access preventive care and get information about healthy behaviors in healthc care um I haven't presented before the board before but I have spoken to Seagal rice in the past and to some other board members to learn more about the role and I'd be happy to share some specific ideas I have but in short I'd be honored to bring my ideas energy and expertise thank you any questions joh sure Hi how are you Hi good how are you good and thank you for applying um do you mind uh just give us one of the uh you know you just mentioned at the end there that you have some ideas you'd be happy to share um pick one and sure nutrition is something that leads to help so I've supported work um with some high school students uh to bring more vegetarian and vegan options to Brooklyn Public School cafeteras uh again that's a systemic solution to reduce meat consumption uh vegetarian options are better for the planet and often healthier and it's a way to support nutrition education so it's both um education and actual action right within our Public Schools that's one example great thank thanks Sher and thanks for applying anybody any other questions okay thank you just how do how do we select among yeah yeah we're very we're very fortunate we're very fortunate so there is one voting seat and two affiliate seats that are non- voting for The Advisory Council of public that is good to know that is good to know and how many candidates have we interviewed so far five and those are all of the candidates to be interviewed at this time in terms of applications received I I do want I do I don't have a question but I do want to thank Sher for her application um and bringing it forward and and I mean everybody um just it the the amount of um uh expertise and knowledge and breath of around uh Public Health policy um each individual would bring uh a unique perspective and a lot of value so it's going to be uh a very very difficult decision but I really appreciated your epidemiology your medical background and and your policy intersection it's really great thank you Sher sure thank you we'll be making our selection at a later M uh later meeting thank you for applying John's gonna take over yes second I'll do my best um and um I see that the next item on the agenda is uh interview for the economic development Advisory Board uh is George Cole going to join us for that yes George Cole is online George you have been promoted you should be able to start your video and it looks like you have I have um good evening and thanks for the opportunity to speak with you this evening select board my name is George Cole I'm a 40-year resident of Brookline and I am currently in probably my 25th or 26th year on the Brooklyn building commission as well um by background I'm An Architect by training but um for the last 40 years have practiced in the areas of uh real estate development and Consulting um I um have experience direct experience in development of large scale projects two of which are in Brookline um Brookline Place where my client was Boston Children's Hospital and the booth theater complex for Boston University um what I do currently in my civilian job is I primarily advise and consult to nonprofits um major health care and higher ed institutions and corporations on really the deployment of their real estate and how best to use their real estate to further their mission I'm specifically interested in serving on EAB because I see um the intersection of profit and Mission um on the board whereas the mission is an enrichment of life in Brookline generally and a tax base um and that's the profit element it's to increase revenues to the town but also to really enrich uh the environment of the Town um through promoting uh a greater diversity of uses and opportunities for small businesses and job creation um I've been aware of EAB for many many years I have many friends who have served on that board and um with my semi-retirement from my professional life I now have the opportunity the time and the opportunity to offer my uh assistance on that board um I'd be happy to answer any questions you have thank you very much uh George and turning to the board members any questions and I think Mike sammon I I have a question I that I should know the answer to really are you you going to remain on the building committee on the building commission absolutely unless you guys kick me off uh that won't happen thank you uh we have Piers to get through Mike I'm not I'm not GNA give up before that's successfully completed all right all right anything else Mike no no Paul Warren I know him well George thank you for uh for coming this evening um I'll ask the same question I asked a earlier candidate on a for a different board um any conflicts uh being on EAB given your uh professional you know your day job how you earn your money no I have no projects or clients currently active in Brookline and if I did I would uh recuse myself from okay great thank you and my my second question is um I mean you've been around long enough to know our constraints where's the opportunity for us um you know that's a really good good question I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt you no that's it that's my question um you know we're we're constrained by um Legacy ownership often ownership of parcels that are developable and could be enhanced uh there's no desire upon on ownership to do anything with them we're also uh land constrained as you know and we also have a large percentage of our land held by nonprofits who are not um who may be subject to Pilots but not to um real estate taxes I think the real opportunity here is to look at Legacy owners um of larger scale developable parcels and Stop and Shop on Harvard Street and TJ Maxx on Harvard Street come to mind where there may be an opportunity to provide sufficient incentive to promote um you know higher and better uses of those sites in a way that's compatible with overall Community goals not just tax revenue but overall use and transportation goals as well so that that's where I would like to focus and you know having been in the development field for 40 years I really understand what a Prof what it takes for a developer to actually pull the trigger and that's what the perspective that I would like to bring um to EAB there's there are many developers on EAB already but uh I have that um expertise and perspective as well well and and and thank you George for for mentioning those two parcels and I do think that that's an important um uh perspective to have is how do we uh Target um you know specific uh uh Legacy owners and help them uh better utilize those uh those spaces and I think Stop and Shop we you know this board excluded Stop and Shop uh and TJ Maxx from the Harvard Street MBTA communities act um it it it wasn't included in the up zoning so uh those are two Parcels that um I think need some some focus and some collaboration so I'm I'm glad you mentioned them you know honestly Paul I see any surface parking lot in a commercial area as a a waste of an opportunity thank you for mentioning that as well good point so so where do the customers of the um businesses uh Park their vehicles that's they may be under under those buildings instead of on the surface or they may use alternative means of transportation which is a very expensive way of um providing parking it is and that's why you have to provide incentive for for those owners to redevelop but by the way what what do you think of the concern that many people in the community have that uh stoping shop and TJ Maxx serve Ser a very important um uh shopping uh uh areas or businesses for particularly lowincome and elderly residents of town yeah I think that's they're extremely important in that way and I would you know as an example Stop and Shop recently just moved um in the New Balance development from a standalone surface parch store to a second floor store which com is combined with um housing um this is over in uh I think it's called um Beacon yards or it's it's part of the New Balance complex on Everett Street the new Stop and Shop anyway there are ways to do supermarkets within larger developments um Star Market over in the Fenway is now moving over to the new um lab building that Samuels is building adjacent to landmar and star is building one in Newton uh that is similarly part of a multi-story complex on it's on Beacon Street in um right near wet so again these are opportunities to just explore yeah um you know I'm not sure they can be done but they need to be explored yeah keep our minds open thank you we'll be uh making our uh selection to the EAB board at a future meeting thank you okay thank you next uh Brookline Commission on disability um Kieran baa Kieran has emailed me earlier to request to postpone the interview due to a family emergency okay um Frank and pinetta Lopez uh I don't see Franklin pinetta Lopez online if you're online could you raise your hand using the raise the hand feature I do not see Franklin online so I'll have to reach out to him we we can uh re re U reschedule okay that's the end of our interviews um final item is Select board board and board and commission's assignments these are really committee assignments question of approving select board members assignments to various boards and commissions and committees uh any discussion of that it's uh in the packet uh okay okay on favor please indicate by saying I so we do you not want to take the time to go line by line Bernard no want to go home boy do I want to go home all in favor please indicate by saying I John Van skak hi uh Michael Sandman hi Paul Warren hi David prman hi and chair voty and that is the conclusion of our meeting thank you everyone excellent meeting yeah okay this