[Music] I've [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Charlie why don't you give us a countdown and we'll start the let's just make sure we are recording recording in progress webinar recording and then I will count you in um all right we'll go live in five 4 3 2 one good evening this is Bernard Green chair of the Brookline select board and this is the meeting of the select board for April 16 2024 let's start off with announcements and updates from select board members uh anything that you want to mention uh Miriam yeah I'll just quickly say for those of you that are are listening for I'm out of the country and for those of you who don't know we cannot access our Brooklin mass.gov email um when we're out of the country so if you're emailing me this week I canot to I'll get back to you when I get back okay thank you any other updates or comments or announcements I have a quick one Bernard okay John well um uh Bernard and I I think maybe Miriam as well uh I understand you may have been at the kickoff dinner for our team Brookline yep the mar the marathon runners um and you must have done a good job because they did a really good job take no credit I just found out uh um breaking news here uh all 34 team Brookline Runners did indeed cross the finish line and uh so far and they are still counting the fundraising from the runners um they are at $319,000 which I think is yeah nothing to sneeze at um even during record too right I don't think it's a record but I would have to go back and check but it's a very good amount um and that's for um you know a bunch of local nonprofits including the Brooklyn Community Mental Health Center which serves as sort of the um overseer of Team Brookline so it's been many years that um the folks over there at the at the Brookline Center for Community Mental Health have successfully kept this team Brookline going and it's a wonderful part of the Boston Marathon experience for many of us and people who maybe thought they would donate but didn't get around to donate to to donating can still do so they can go to the team Brookline site and they can still donate great thank you okay um any other announcements or updates just this just that um there were two of us maram and I at the Finish Line watching the uh first of the team Brook line folks come through great cool that's great you weren't at the starting line it it was great yeah CH thanks very much um I just wanted to uh one extend our the congratulations here in the office to the uh team that helped make the marathon run so smoothly um across many different communities um especially Lieutenant Hatchet who served as you know his in command uh and Cheryl and um both Chiefs and Aaron in DPW and um you know just a large number of people who put in a huge amount of time and effort um our new Communications uh officer Christi meaf was out taking pictures uh doing some Recon um really great um really great event and a wonderful uh wonderful time so thanks to everyone who made that possible um and then on by by the way social media is a buzz with how great a job DPW did cleaning up afterwards so that's that's and that was a real concern of a lot of people especially with the rat situation yeah and I know that was thanks Kevin Johnson and his whole team you know the whole whole team really did excellent work so thanks to the whole group um um and then um the national Community survey who had which we conduct on a regular basis um those questions went out and will be available starting tomorrow through the end of the month the survey will ask for a zip code excuse me a survey it will ask for a zip code and an email to submit the survey this will ensure we only have one response per person and it allows us to start building up a digital panel of residents we can follow we can you know ensure that we can continue to ask questions uh of the community about initiatives uh or other Hot Topic issues so if youve received a postcard asking you to fill out the national Community survey um or you received a copy of the physical survey um please um fill that out uh and be sure to send it back to us um at the address uh requested um I know there's a lot of paper going out in the mail a lot of people are being asked a lot of questions about a lot of things this is really critical to ensuring that the select board and town staff have information about how you live in this community the things that matter to you uh and what we can do to be you know good stewards of your time and efforts to make sure you can uh be supported here so thank you for filling that out if you receive it great thank you anything else okay let's move on to public comment uh Charlie um announced the rules and um I will enforce them with my Mallet here good hopefully audible over Zoom right um doesn't cut out the microphone or anything without the screen of my computer right yes yeah don't go that far so um right folks 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 person speaking tonight is limited to three minutes you don't need to use the entire time but you may if you like once a total of 15 minutes has been met there will be an opportunity at the conclusion of this life boards business for additional comment 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 and you have 30 seconds remaining and when your time is up please conclude your remarks at that time if you have anything more to say you are welcome to send an email to select board members expressing your thoughts in Greater detail so since we are on Zoom folks who are in attendance can use the hand raise or Q&A feature to let us know that they would like to make a public comment and we'll promote you um so click the hand raise under uh at the bottom or use the Q&A feature we'll give that a second we do have one person uh with their hand rais they don't have a name on their uh they they don't have a name on their account I'm going to promote them anyway um and be ready to uh react if need be so uh you may unmute your uh audio and show your camera if you're willing and then please identify yourself before you your three minutes will begin yeah thank you Charlie name is adanos brookly resident prison 4 I don't know what's going on with room am my sign but uh good evening everyone thank okay good evening everyone thank you for letting me speak this evening a couple of points number one uh the issue we having a little issue yet at Brookline Avenue Park uh sometimes the dog park get closed up and people bring their dogs into where the kids play that happen to be the same park that the rise the Early Education school on Brooklyn Avenue uses so um that's been an issue cuz a lot of the kids happen to start playing in poop that the teachers around there have to leave a sign on the park even though it's there that dogs are not allowed in that Park so we don't know if the select board can help in reaching out to DPW some residents have already done that but we haven't gotten an answer so if they could kind of put a big sign when they locked the main field where the dogs used and leave a sign in front of the Children's Park that people shouldn't let their dogs go there because kids happen to be stepping in poop and now the teachers have to deal with that would greatly appreciate that issue being solved uh number two I would also like to uh take this opportunity to thank uh Chief Pastor I think last week she mentioned one of our officers already a drone operator so that's a good thing to know that some people are actually listening um to us to what the future would be and that's going to help Brookline Police Department be more efficient U number three I would also like to use that Medium to congratulate uh ATP 107 courts 100% graduation rate and all now 107 uh drum Pilots so I would like to appreciate the leaders from the black and brown Community for stepping up and those that are becoming foundational pillar in um helping us build and finding our path towards economic equity for our people living in Brook line for the future remember not too long ago we made mocker of openly that our ideas wasn't something that was going to be effective but uh the Drone package and the aviation industry and the Drone industry is going to be one of the rapid growing industry in 2025 with a lot of jobs so that's that's all I just wanted to say congratulation to the community leaders and we hope and look forward to continue to do the good work thank you thank you okay uh folks again can use the hand raiser Q&A feature to let us know that oops that they would like to make a comment um I just grabbed the wrong person and promoted them to put them back down into attendees so Bernard I'm going to be sending you another uh promotion invite uh and again folks can use the handraiser Q&A feature to let us know they'd like to make a comment and once the chair is back um Bernard it seems like nobody else would like to make a comment okay I am back sorry about that Bernard but um but we're good to go okay um okay next U Department budget review review of the fiscal year 25 Department budgets for the uh health and human services department and building uh Department I think building is first that that correct yeah um we've asked the uh departments to discuss in their presentations their accomplishments their goals for the upcoming year and any new initiatives and what they would do if their budget allowed um an unlimited number of new programs or projects um so hopefully that will uh um be informative to the select board and um yeah yeah good anyway uh go ahead Dan Bennett I see is here good evening uh Dan Bennett Building Commissioner thank you for uh giving me the opportunity to speak today um Charlie can I sh share my screen you should be able to now Dan all right so I will share my screen and go through a a quick presentation find it can you see that now yeah good great uh so there's the building department FY 25 budget um the building department has various divisions that have responsibilities um within the town public buildings uh code enforcement inspections and then construction and CIP work indicators for each of those divisions are on under public um buildings we did just over 11,000 in-house work orders orders those are in-house Tradesmen people that work to the town electricians plumbers painters Carpenters uh and we did about 1720 outside contractor service orders those are the larger jobs that um the in-house guys don't either have the time to do or it might be too big for them to do um with on the code enforcement side we have um issued uh just right around 6,800 permits and processed uh applications we performed an excess of 10,000 inspections and responded to 175 complaints and um in the CIP of the Construction Division we had uh Tony Quigley who retired after many years of service to the town uh was taken over by lap Yan he's um acclimated very well um he wasn't here for a lot of this but he will be here for the peer school we have approximately 6 680,000 Square ft of school space and about $800 million worth of construction going back to proa Ridley School um I followed the uh narrative that was sent out by Chaz um three biggest accomplishments to the building apartment this year were the implementation and execution of the capital Improvement plan imple ment of the stretch energy code the specialized code and the pilot energy code as well as advancing um electrification uh with respect to the CIP plan you know we did complete the um the um RIS of school in October it was occupied we are now in the process of demolishing or the rear building has been demolished and the geothermal Wells are being um installed we've Advanced the pier School design and we've proceeded with the fire station upgrade project we're beginning with stations number one and four and that's a $65 million project that was voted uh think two years ago um as well as the police department lock room uh with respect to the energy codes we've essentially gone through three various codes over the last year and um through that implementation it has you know delayed the the process that the my my inspectors go through but at the end of the day it wasn't as big a deal as we initially thought it was going to be um it can report that we have um don't have the structures I have 11 new structures that are fossil fuel free and I have the unit number in here for whatever reason I have misplaced them but we're in the area about you know this is all building so I think it's about 50 to 60 units uh that have been created that are all fossil fuel free as a result of of this you know code which you know is better than I had had initially if I really dug down into some of the numbers I think you would find that uh there could be more it's difficult for me to go into some of the the trigger is a major uh alteration um this is just pulled out of this all the new structure that we had in town and those would have to be fossil fuel free based on you know various factors um the three key goals for this year for for the building department are continue recruiting efforts in Staffing uh the build building department as well as the department reorganization this is something we began last year we're in our second year and we have a third year next year uh again implementation of the CIP we wanted to advance a in-house construction kind of management software that a lot of the construction firms are using proor we use it individually we we're allowed to get access through the various construction projects that we don't have our own um if we were to secure that we have asked for that through arpa uh it would help in in in our uh CIP process and uh digitizing of you know plans and documents that go with every Capital project and then the last there is the um scanning and digitizing of all you know building the P documents we continue on the Excel program everything is digitized since 200 17 but I'm trying to go back in time and get some of the older records um SC in and done I'll talk about that again in the next couple of slides and then advancement of electrification to town and school buildings uh the senior center is a building that we had requested some arpa funding for that is in the process we're going through the design phase um and probably bid phase it probably implementation would probably be in the spring of 25 uh the hay School formally the um Hay School is H we're doing some electri electrification over there with some heat pumps in the bwing and as you know the pier school will be all electric uh whether geothermal or some other um heating mechanism and the brisal school in the same manner could be geothermic um some of the initiatives that we want to pursue um in the building apartment right now it's the Excel enhancement and expansion and that's the program that uh the building department uses the select board's office uses the Health Department fire and you know various uh Town departments for licensing and permitting uh that's a continuing um growth within the IT department they've got a a dedicated employee that kind of assists us on a daily basis and um we continue to do what we can to expand that program for online services and um in reviews and just other um more efficient methods that the residents and designers and and and people can access and obain permits and and licenses um sorry um with respect to the some of the Personnel that I would need to hire um local building inspector has been there for some time I did I was up to five for about two months and then my inspectors left so I'm back down to four I do have funding for a fifth position so that's something we're out looking looking for one of the newer positions in our uh reorganization is a strategic preventative maintenance support coordinator that person would work with our two Deputy directors and kind of coordinate between the two Capital um uh Capital Division and the Operations Division to assist in projects and uh you know put um plans and and projects you know forward um if I was not constrained by some of the budgetary you know limitations uh there's a few things that we would do um electrification would be one um Charlie did put out a a number that was in you know was hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars and what it would cost to Electrify all uh Town buildings um if it was an unlimited budget that's certainly something that we would you know pursue and want to you know want to do um in addition to that electric Fleet um and solar installations any of those types of things moving into the sustainability realm would be would be helpful uh document scanning it is something that I have been doing you know for my time here um I did put in another arpa request I received $30,000 do to do some more in the process of doing um and you know if I could do all the documents it would be it would be great um in addition uh a you know some sort of a report uh on all Town buildings with respect to the roof envelope all the systems would be another you know unlimited type thing we do have a reports in right now for roof and envelope they're about 20 I think we did a 20- year and a 30-y year we're looking to renew those but there are certainly other areas of any building infrastructure that we would prefer to um to analyze and and and get you know uh a nice overview of of what we have where they're at and what needs to be done and lastly it's just more happen um with with respect to code enforcement zoning and um plan review type of things that we would you know like to you know see in the department um and the last slides are just some pictures and photos of some projects that we have um completed or under construction or in progress so here is the Brisco school again that was occupied in October of 23 this is the demolition you know partial demolition of the rear uh School in the uh in the lot that building is now gone most of the materials they're probably gone by now um and the geothermal Wells are in the process of being installed um the next photo is uh 40 Center Street these are both 40b projects 40 Center Street right behind the town parking lot uh that's under construction and then 108 Center um you know they're they're well underway um moving along uh this is the bour uh project this for maneuver site um these are some Aerials that I received from from the contractor uh these I think these quot are maybe three or four months apart the one on the right is a little bit further along you can see the construction of the um the connection you know the right hand side it's not there on the left and there's some some work going between the former Mitten house and the um the uh new new structure and um completed projects over here Village is the community Center and uh Jerry Road that's a multif family on the right and just Community Center for residents there on the left and um this is the pudding Stone project that is under construction um this is um I think a little bit further along than they had had anticipated but um this is the one where they did come to the board I think several maybe a year ago looking for um permission to work outside of the um scheduled hours to try to see if they could move LA but um it doesn't seem to have been a huge issue and um we receive a complaints every once in a while from from the residents um but um it does seem to be moving along and what happen with that so um that's everything have any questions I can this for you great thank you it's very interesting very helpful any questions from the select board hereiam thanks Dan I really appreciate that you mentioned I am asking the same question for everybody in your presentation you'd mentioned the arpa funding for the electrification of the senior center did the building commission did you guys receive ARA funding for anything else and if so can you just give a quick update on that where that is uh yes so I I received great by the way excuse me great presentation thank you appreciate it um I received oper funding for uh $30,000 to do some scanning and this is a continuation of my plan scanning those are all up on the seventh floor and then we attach them to permits that are in the Excel system that gives any Resident the ability to sit at home and see those plans as opposed to coming into town and having staff going and grab them so that's something that I have been working towards for you know for 10 years or so um we have the Opera funding for the for the senior center and I don't believe CH I'm not aware of any other funding that we have well we did receive funding for two uh for some uh electric vehicles as well there was the there was the health building too but the ultimate decision was made that if we could only fund one of those projects because of the increasing costs the senior center would be the one right and yeah I mean I thought we originally put in for three buildings but it was just that the prices grew too fast uh so we went down to the one and we have we do have funding we have requests in for additional funding in round three uh for more scanning and I think Charlie might have something in for uh looking at the some sort of analysis of the build buildings on electrification and what that would take in you know various non buildings great thank you very much any other questions uh let let me ask a question um touchy subject and I know you're working on this but I just hear constantly a constant um drone on about painting the senior center uh could you give us a sense of you know the sort of timeline for that uh any issues that um you know arise there well to the best of my knowledge we don't have any funding you know for that at this point uh typically we have a mini CIP that is put in place um for both town and schools we could certainly look at that mini CIP and see if there'd be room for for that um I do know that you know I think we did second or third floor renovation over there five or six years ago you know this's work that Charlie has done he meal but it hasn't been you know one full um you know go through the whole building and paint it and that that's that's what our mini CIP is for I'm not sure if the senior center has put requests in through Charlie that's typically how that process works but it's something I could could look into and um try to get back you with an answer any other questions uh John thank you and Dan thank you for everything you in the department do um I I know that this has been a subject that people have thought about and worked on for quite some time do you feel we have a handle on how to weigh the relative needs of the facilities that are defined best as being Town buildings and the facilities that are defined best as school buildings so that the distribution of the effort of the department but also the distribution of the funding for upkeep and maintenance and Capital Improvements is proportional to uh you know the number of buildings that are under each of those umbrellas and and their age their conditions their needs so certainly you could look at a building and say that's town or that's school that's that's pretty clear and I think there's no question uh with respect to that um we have a a u work order program that we can run and show pretty clearly how much of our man hours are in a school building versus a town building and right now my understanding is it's a 75 25% split in the salaries for the trades and 75 towards the schools and um my inclination is that it's probably more if you go into the real real world and look at it you know closer we have not done that um the other issue or concern that has come up mo more importantly this year more so than last year is in our Capital there are a lot of um um line items that say Town school and this year we were really questioned more so than in the past on well how much of that is town and how much of that is school and you know that that those line items and that that process or or whatever you want to call it was set up many years ago and it's hard to say uh in any before the money spent after we could we could you know clearly do it but I think it was set up that way more for flexibility that if something came up in for instance a um a you know Energy Systems you know management type of thing and it was a something blew up on a Town building in any given year and we had to use a majority of that money to on the town side then we could say yeah that money was used to town um after the fact but prior to it's hard to say other than you know we know what we're doing with some elevators so we can kind of predict what those are for Town and school we know what we're doing for some roofs so we could probably show you know where that you know town and school is there are some things that we could pretty clearly show but there are others that it's it's it's more difficult to do in any given year and again I think it's just more for flexibility if we label it town we can never use it in schools and if we label at schools we can never use it in town and I think has been you know possibly beneficial but I do know that the advisory both full advisory and subcommittee have been on us for this year and they may uh look to make a change I don't know but they are going through the CIP uh very closely and I think they're they're gonna Charlie could answer better I think they're going to make some changes to what you know how Melissa has out laid out you know most of that funding for whatever reason and you know we just you know done the best to State our case and what we need our funding for and what we're going to do with it and try to lay out where the town side is and where the school side is but it can it can get gray at times certainly Bernard if if I may ask another question sure thank you very much and um Dan the question is is this in discussions of school buildings um It's Not Unusual to hear the phrase end of its useful life I mean this the state build School building authority even has um a condition that they apply to you know their their participation in funding a new building which is you know the building has to have a useful life of 50 years um so they sort of see buildings as you know being replaceable after 50 years is there some standard like that that is looked at for Town buildings does anybody ever say this town building is at the end of its useful life I I have um I've never heard that um I have heard end of useful life more so on the school side and not just in this community but in my PR community and I I um and you know the state for whatever reason has now put a program into effect apparently that identify something to that effect but you can look at a lot of you know buildings you can look at residential buildings look at aftera stations um if someone wanted to claim you know end of useful life you know if some of those could be looked at whether we could make the the final determination that they're at the end of their useful life remains to be seen because there's always some sort of a renovation or a an addition of something that you could do and I think the town's done pretty well fire stations for for instance um we're going to be spending a lot of money on those in the next um you know five years or so and part of that program is to convert those for electrification and bring them up to date more so now with respect to the health of the firefighters themselves so when they come into the um into the uh station after a fire that the these various areas are separated out between the apparatus Bay an area where you take off your your turnout gear where you eat where you sleep and you know in years past those weren't that easily uh defined but um you know that that would be you know a place where you might use that term but um I I don't hear it too much outside of um the school the msba type that okay thanks okay any other questions oh chz you have your hand up I just want to chim in that one of the things the state is considering the legislature is considering is kind of a companion body to msba um for the construction of uh Public Safety um buildings um in communities and providing that level of State Assistance or a related level of State assistance so as that continues you'll probably start to see increased discussions of useful life metric and so forth with public buildings other than schools that's good news that was in the details though okay thank you Dan um really appreciate it very helpful thanks he next we have the um health and human services department and I see Sali is um joining us hi good evening re director of Public Health and Human Services thanks for having me I'll go ahead and also share my screen um I have a brief presentation and then hopeing um to have a great conversation with you guys about the budget and the department great okay so for our numbers um pretty much a holding pattern really a flat budget going to fy2 we're going to get into some of those reasons um as more as we talk about operations but overall numbers are pretty flat I wanted to share this infographic we created this at the end of um of calendar year 23 just to share some of the work that we did over the year and um to look ahead at some of the projects that we are working on um but this was a great also to communicate what we're working on in the department we shared this widely on social media and in the community looking at um looking back at the accomplishments with the Department um a lot of these you know the select board has been involved with um including the Metro Public Health collaborative um so the department secured an increase in the state public health Excellence grant for over 570,000 per year to build the matest public health collaborative and this is with Newton Arlington and Belmont and the goal of the collaborative is really to support um participating communities and sustain sustaining performance standards set forth by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the shared services staff um provide direct capacity support to health departments uh activities um and services for Brookline and the other three collaborative communities um specific things that the shared staff have supported include the bookr Bounty food program the Community Health assessment Community Health Improvement plan and the rodent action plan um they've helped install a formal onboarding program for new staff on the department and also support the department applying for additional grants as part of the public health inluence program the state has developed a capacity assessment tool to measure how the collaborative has progressed towards the defined um standards that the state has set for local Health departments and uh we've all gone through the first round of assessment um that actually information is up on a dashboard on the State website site and um this year will be an internal review and then next year we will do another formal assessment with the state to see our progress towards meeting those standards so it's nice to have that built-in evaluations into the program uh the second accomplishment I want to highlight uh the department completed the a comprehensive book on marijuana research study the study used primary and secondary data sources and provided recommendations considering the social drivers or social determinants of Health the substitute and violence prevention team is now working to incorporate the recommendations into our programs um it will perform a lot of the work with the peer youth leaders and also Drive the partnership with the schools around data Gathering management and sharing um and we continue to evaluate the data from youth risk behavior survey to really measure our long-term goals um with reducing use substance use and improving mental health outcomes and lastly I wanted to highlight the book line Bounty program as a great accomplishment um continues to be a success with a growing number of families gaining access to the food coupon program uh we not only monitor purchases and evaluate the types of purchases with the food but we also take into account obviously the number of households and the first year in 2021 we had 489 households we had 604 in 22 and then the last season in 23 we had um 700 families uh participate and we're really looking forward to the season they increase those numbers even more so looking forward at some major goals and projects that we're working on um really two large studies that we're working on I mentioned the community health assessment and the community health Improvement plan and also the Human Services mapping assessment um we're in the final stages of the community health assessment um really just waiting on some State data from the Community Health Equity survey and we have moved into the second year of the project which is the community health Improvement plan the chip um involves an in-depth engagement process to identify priorities from looking at the community health assessment the cha um and we're engaging in that process with stakeholders in April and May and we actually had our first meeting last week we reviewed the key findings from the community health assessment um and voted on four top priorities so breaking news here um the to four top priorities for the health Improvement plan will include Financial security access to Social and Health Services housing affordability and mental health and Behavioral Health so those are four really huge topics um that we will now work through the next uh really two months with this um Community engagement group to really narrow down on actable items we can take to address those four categories and then parallel to that and I think we very well complemented as access to Social and Health Services was identified as a priority from the chip is the Human Services study um so the Human Service study will summarize human services available to Brookline residents and this of course is throughout the whole Community um including information on providers resources and populations served and identify existing collaborations and connections between providers um and note opportunities where we can strengthen some of those existing Partnerships the Gap analysis will I identify the needs and the gaps um such as funding demand for services or barriers or anything um preventing access or utilization so in the human Human Services study we have identified four categories of Services shown in the infographic here and you can see we sort of break down Health into behavioral health physical health and oral health and then the categories above that and then thinking about human services it's more about not only the services but the different access for different populations so we actually broke so within those Services we break down the population subgroups and I will say there's actually one not listed here after we made the infographic we did add veteran services a specific subgroup that we wanted to look at so it's really how these different subgroups access those different services and I would say each subgroup might have different access barriers um for example we can think about language when we're talking about refug immigrant and Refugee Services there might be language access there we might talk about discrimination um and disability and bipox population so understanding all those different access barriers the final report will develop options that really transform the goals of the assessment and the Gap analysis into realistic and achievable targets so I think we're really looking forward to have those um actionable items and recommendations at the end of that report and I do anticipate that that will be um at the end of summer or in early fall so key components of both the community health assessment and the Human Services Gap analysis have been Community engagement um not only do both gather local survey data but each one has key inform interviews and focus groups as well as looking at secondary data sources in the assessment portion um aside from those huge big studies which are consuming a lot of the Department's effort I do really want to highlight the work we're doing around harm reduction and substance use um the department has taken on installing um Sam boxes they're called they're Good Samaritan boxes um similar to an AED we want to make sure that the lock zone is widely available um and accessible to Save a Life um and so you'll see a little picture down there I hope it's you can see it on your computers but um it's the opioid overdose rescue kits with Malone and those have already gone up in a lot of our public buildings a parallel program to that is um is our none distribution program called uh project can uh citizens access accessing none um where we provide harm reduction kits with nxone fentanyl strips and treatment information this is available um for residents any residents to come pick up at our department and we're also working with many Our Community Partners to make sure um there's awareness of the program and distribution in the community so since July of 23 we've distributed uh 249 kits each with two doses so 489 doses in the Lux Zone like I said we we continue to look to work with our Community Partners on that distribution I just wanted to quickly share the survey because it is live um and always a lot of surveys but they're really important as a way to gather information so this is our survey for the Human Services um assessment and GAP analysis so that is live and out there we'll be pushing that on the community again partnering with our stakeholders looking at long-term goalss and objectives um like I keep saying these two main studies will really um prioritize um actions for the department and for the community um but I do want to highlight a few other long-term projects including uh the food safety program um the environmental health division has enrolled in the FDA National program standards and this is an effort by the FDA to ensure Health departments local Health departments are regulating food adequately and appropriately having enough training and using established baselines for bre Ator engagement and there's four um priorities that the FDA set up for inspection services like ours so excited to get bookline enrolled in that process and starting the self- evaluation uh we continue to build on the um Metro Public Health collaborative to meet the prin performance standards and really build up that Regional structure and um like I said continue to work on the uh Community Health assessment Improvement P which will outline the goals and objectives for the coming years um and I really like I at the beginning describ the budget as really in a holding pattered I really see this as a planning year with the completion of the Chip And The Human Services study at the end of the summer and early fall a better understanding for the needs and possible solutions um and these will really be um and again I want to prioritize that these will be determined based on a lot of community input in the reports um so you know if if sort of the question of you know what would you do if you had unlimited funding um what every department head would love to have um I think I would really look at what the recommendations are from these studies and be able to implement them all because realistically I think that is going to be a challenge for us I wanted to quickly just put in here a slide on um update on the rodent response um the department continues to collaborate with public works and the building department on the road and control action plan um overall we know there's a multi-pronged approach needed to manage Pest Control including solid RTE storage and Disposal proper Pest Control cleaning and sanitation and public awareness um we have continued to track complaints and respond to high complaint areas with interventions such as Solid Waste inspections adjusting the modern smart system and public awareness um we began redirecting all compains to book online in 2023 and this had allowed us to track complaints over time and with the start of 24 we can now start to compare seasonal changes and complaint Trends um and you can see on the the graph here we we report the data on a monthly basis complaints tend to go up in the summer and fall and drop over the winter months where really visible Road activity drops and conative factors such as outdoor dining ceas um as with all roaden activity it is highly connected to human patterns and activity um so we see you know a lot of I would say a lot what we like is a lot what they like good weather and food they become more active just like we do um but this information this is one of the graphs that we present on the website um updating information monthly and again this looks at complaints over time and you can see the red line was 2023 and the blue line is um we able to start compare year to year we're really excited in January to see that drop but I would say February and March have pretty much been on par with a number of complaints and while this is a very visual way thing to look at it is just one of the many things that we're looking at um to try to measure how effective we are but as I always stress it is really hard to measure how effective we are in Lo control um in addition up at the top there that is an infographic we created with Public Works um to share the new requirements for dumpsters with operators and and with the public and that was a part of the solid waste regulations update I do want to mention two new programs that we're be implementing and it um because of the regional collaborative we're able to do this um we're going to continue work to work with Burger food safety with our food establishments and established an educational program for our food estage some of the feedback we got from that consultant that we brought brought in to help us do preventative um rodent inspections with all our food establishments but she said our number one priority should be around education so we're going to be developing with them an education campaign um rolling it out actually regionally the second component um again with that Regional collaborative um because we are all struggling with this issue it's a Common Thread that we discuss at our monthly meetings um we also be doing a PR campaign both focused on rot control and measures we can all take to help um reduce Road n in communities the campaign will have PSA social media content and press reles so a lot more to come on it and then continued demands um we continue to be stretched to meet the new demands of of new bylaws and initiatives like a couple of the ones listed here um in addition many of the staff still tend to be new and we continue to have some turnover although a lot less um you know than when I first got here um and this Al obviously consumes time with training and onboard in new staff but there's really a loss of institutional knowledge and a loss of connection with Community groups um so one of the things we've been working on is to try and document and formalize the relationships with our partners um by establishing memorandums of understanding and we have one with the brine Center for Community Mental Health and we also have one with the schools we really outline that partnership so if any of the leadership sort of steps in or out there's um at least an outline of what that um for personnel changes um really because of the regional structure that's been the additional staff that we've been able to hire which is Grant funded from the public health Excellence Grant um and again the goal of that program is to really build up Public Health infrastructure and Staffing through a regional approach um and then as outlined in the memo I just took a couple I tried to draw the specific accomplishments and objectives from the board's report and highlight the Department's impact and we've talked a lot about this in my earlier slides um I look forward to continuing to work on with Partners on the office of housing stability and how that interacts with the Social Services Network but also our inspectional services um continue to develop and staff the regional Public Health collaborative um in addition we're working with our substance use and balance prevention division to put the Canabis study into action into our programming um and continue to work on that data gathering with the schools um and I stated earlier um we're working on the human services and Social Services inventory and recommendations which will be a key objective for fy2 um and also looking at about how we can incorporate the objectives of the office of housing stability and short-term rental and lodging CES continue to draw on our inspectional services um to ensure that health and safety standards are met there overall the goals of diversity equity and Community engagement are important cornerstones of Public Health um programming and policy as well as the need for housing and climate change such significant public health impact so a lot of alignment there um so I look forward to discuss discussing these and answering any questions thank you seal um and I appreciate the fact that you Incorporated the board's uh goals and objectives into your uh presentation um you know that's that's the way that uh the select board which is not going to issue the uh budget to town meeting nonetheless will have a role in um you identifying our go goals and objectives and hopefully incorporating them into the budget so I appreciate that so I see a lot of hands up I think Mike uh was the first one um I just want to say congratulations on the um on the grants the the level of grants that you've been able to uh to obtain that in the past in the health department going back a couple to a couple of your predecessors or prior before a couple of your uh predecessors um the department was very very successful in that I think you've you're bringing that back and that's really important uh and uh it's really appreciated thank you um Miriam great hi SE um also a great presentation um I really think you've just done a fabulous job um and you know the question I'm going to ask is the same question I've asked everybody so I know we gave you our profunding I think we are you one of you can correct me I think you were one of the few departments we actually gave funding for personnel and you said I'm going to get a grant for this person and you did so I really appreciate that but if you could just go over the arpa funding um that your department got sure um we have uh a lot of several small projects some bigger than others um where I think we drive Tyler and Charlie crazy um but we have um so the community health assessment Improvement plan which I talked a lot about they're really important for Department um that is arpa funded um as you mentioned our merg preparedness coordinator um arpa funded um the Brookline Bounty program also mentioned in my presentation um that was originally Grant funded for one year and we were able to um continue it for a couple years with arpa and then also built it into the override um we've done a lot of Road and control um with with some arpa funding we purchased an electric vehicle um and then we have some small things um some software and Hardware purchases for the Department as well as the um the health Champions program which I think when it was going through the process was called um Gatekeepers but we've rebranded it as health Champions and continue to work to try and Implement that um a couple new requests too going in um looking to do some mental health funding um possibly augmenting the Human Services study additional radent control um if possible and then looking at um Mental Health Center funding um so some some other things out there be able the fun too but the first list was what has been established in fun great thank you very much thank you John um yes thank you seal U very much um I I was uh wondering if there is can you tell us a little bit about the Outreach that is being done to let people know that we're you know stepping up and um making making more uh of a of a front and center effort um on the housing assistance front the office of housing stability or sort of what's coming out of the I'm sorry I should have been clear the office of housing stability yeah I know for us um a lot of the interaction is around inspectional services at this point so one thing that we've um communicated with our staff when they're going out and doing inspections making sure that we refer to the website as possible resources I think also um something that we're looking to launch pretty soon and Chaz you can correct me if um or anything you want to add is um a way what happens a lot is that there's so many different departments involved so we're looking at really combining that through an intake system um through multiple departments where we can capture that in the asella system um and make sure people are routed we sort of saying the no wrong door um that no matter where people call they're routed to the appropriate resource for their need at that time and a lot of times that could be varied resources I would say many of our cases that we get might be a housing complaint um but there might be the need for fuel assistance or rental assistance or there might be um legal questions that we need or discrimination questions that we need to refer and bring in other um of our teammates here um on the town side so the this new program will really help us do that yeah I'm I'm sort of thinking in in terms of um if a person who's new to town and is living in an apartment and runs into an issue and then they think I wonder if the town um can help me with this some issue and they go to the town website would it be no trouble at all to quickly discover that Brooklyn has an office of housing stability that can help and and maybe see some FAQs and some names of and some numbers and some email addresses as to who to write or who to talk who to um try to get in touch with yes so the office of hous and stability is listed right under um listed with all the Departments and there's a great wealth of information on that website and which does refer to um a direct contact numbers for the Departments for specific needs yeah good good is that link on the landing page or is it on your page it is right um when you on the landing page if you hover over departments it's a separate listed Department any other I'm sorry I'm sorry Bernard and I'll just add a final comment you know I I guess it's no secret I I I think it's something that we would it would be a great PR move on if if you'll forgive my putting it that way you know on the town's part to um you know shout it from the rooftops a little bit and uh and and feature it say on the T on the landing page of the town website as um you know uh Brooklyn can if if you're you are living in an apartment in Brooklyn and or or in a private home or situation and you're fearful of your you know loss of your housing or you are facing problems of how am I going to meet the cost of my housing or pay the rent on my housing we can help um you know ju just to make sure that there's no nobody is missing the message when it comes to Brookline has an office of housing stability and we are here to help and um I'm looking at the Landing site and um too yeah have to get down a couple levels to uh actually I just did a search on housing it was interest do that I that that's what I was asking I mean when they go to the first landing page as opposed to going into the Departments and looking up um Public Health and Human Services um I I think this is an important enough uh office that it should be the first thing it should be on the page that people first come to well I mean it is but are you saying you want it on the same level as parking trash and recycling permits and licenses you want that you want a housing stability button there because we can certainly do I I don't see it on the first page so if you go down to the if you if you go to the menus up top government residents businesses departments if you hover over departments housing stability is one of the Departments there it's it's got its own separate so that that's an extra step and and I know we should expect people to take those steps but I think this is an important enough um you know office that uh people should be able to get to it without you know knowing first of all to look under departments and knowing you know what department to look under okay we can definitely put that on uh try and put that on the banner here with parking trash and recycling so forth um I will say we are in the process now we like I said there's a three-phase process to the housing stability office uh we actually just finished the train training and development of phase 2 which is the asella system Seagal talked about um we are soft rolling that out now it was my hope to make a exciting announcement about it in the next two weeks but uh I guess stealing stealing our own Thunder here a little bit um it is it is proceeding really well and I'm really grateful to Seagal but really every every Department that has exhibit you put a ton of time and effort into making this work and work right um I think the board will be very pleased to see the variety of issues that are covered and how the workflow operates but I do want us to be careful about not being able to O not over promising an under delivery um you know to your point John about the if someone comes in and says I have I have a problem you know I can't I'm in danger of losing my home you know I want us to be able to refer them to services but we can't pay their rent um and I really don't want to set up the expectation that we're that then they are disappointed when they realize that we can't provide that level of service to I know and I I think it's important that they not um misunderstand that but but we can refer them to some State programs that that um might you know might even provide some rent assistance at least temporary yeah like raft I guess it's called you know yeah yeah and we want to just be right messaging carefully but again this is something where Christina has been working with the team and I think it's it's a great it's just great to have dedicated medication services available to provide this level and making sure to your point that when we're ready to hard launch it uh ready to really get it out in the community and stress test it um that we're able to send that messaging out appropriately great still have your hand up John no I'm sorry I should lower that I will any other questions from the selectboard so G thank you for for your presentations it's always very uh informative and um important uh to hear what your Department's doing so yeah um I have my Naran I have one in my car and I have one in my computer bag and so I'm one of those 249 people so I encourage you all to go get your naram that's it Jaz has his too right there in the office my office okay uh thank you okay uh next on our agenda waren articles public hearing and this is a public hearing um scheduled for 5:45 we're a little late but not that late um Melissa you want to lead us off article eight um so article 8 is an article that is looking to establish a revolving fund for vaccines um this is something that was requested by Seagal and um this is the mechanism that we are able to establish a revolving fund so in essence um you know we have a vaccine program we get reimbursement uh from that program uh from insurance providers so this would allow scal to use the uh reimbursement to then purchase more vaccines um we left the wording broad so it can be more than just the flu it could be more than just covid um just vaccines in general and this is the template that is used to create revolving funds Lincoln and I kind of looked at what was out there for Town revolving funds um to make sure that we had everything included in this bylaw um there's a change in law that has you know there are some revolving funds that were established before the law change and then um some that were established after um there is a requirement that all the revolving funds be listed in the bylaws so this um this article accomplishes both it establishes the revolving fund that Seagal needs but then it also has all of our revolving funds listed in the bylaws great okay thank you any questions from the select board before we open up the public hearing uh Miriam do you have your hand up oh I'm sorry you're you're reaching for something okay um I'm the warrant article in the packet right okay uh since no questions from the select board uh Charlie you want to open open up the public hearing or I'm opening up the public hearing Charlie tell us if there anyone if there's anyone with their hands up well we only have three attendees right now so folks who are attending can use the hand rais or Q&A feature to let us know that they'd like to make a comment um at this public hearing and we'll give you three minutes to speak um of our three attendees nobody is raising their hand or using the Q&A feature okay we'll close the public hearing and uh go on um this seems fairly straightforward and I don't think that anyone is opposing is going to oppose this is a select board ready to vote okay um seeing no objection I move uh favorable action on Warren article 8 the establishment of a departmental revolving fund for vaccines all in favor please indicate by saying I um John vanak I Kazi I Mike Sandman I and chair votes I um to my uh un Expert Eyes this looks like an incredibly good program thank you for for came up with it um okay next article four special Appropriations we're closing out um some Bond authorizations um and I see Lincoln Hinman is probably gonna make that presentation or is that I'll be covering this one too Lincoln's just here for for support um which I appreciate um article four is an annual article that we file that uh provides a listing of all of the special Appropriations whether it be Revenue financed capital accounts or Bond financed capital accounts and we um send this out to departments every year as the warrant closes and asks them to update their project status it's basically um a way for the com controller to have certainty that um accounts can be closed when projects are completed and there may be excess funds still in the account um we're still in the midst of um getting that information from department heads not much has changed from last year and we don't anticipate uh any action under this article um we're likely to leave our current special Appropriations where they are and same thing with Bond financed accounts too so the recommendation under article four is no action okay um I think we're ready to um move that okay I move no action on I'm sorry this is a hearing okay first of all any questions from the select board no done okay um let's open up this public hearing Charlie is there anyone interested in uh speaking we have the sameeh three attendees here um folks in the attendance list please use the hand raiser Q&A feature to let us know you'd like to make a public comment at this hearing and we will promote you and give you three minutes um give that a couple seconds but um folks know the drill no one is using the hand raise or Q&A feature right now Bernard okay uh let's close the hearing and um I move no action on Warren article number four special Appropriations closeout report Bond authorization recision um Etc all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak I Mary ashkanazi I Mike Sandman hi and chair votes I okay those are two warrn articles off the list next special town meeting uh question of calling a special town meeting on Tuesday May 28th 2024 at 8:00 pm at the high school and zoom remote meeting to wave the requirements of section 2.1.2 through 2.1.4 of the town's bylaws to open and close a warrant and to insert in said warrant the following article special town meeting 2 Article 1 Police civil service service um okay any Melissa you can present that sure um so as you are aware we have an agreement with the police Union U that allows the town to leave civil service for the police department so in order to do that we need to file a warrant article um that achieves that and so since the warrant was already closed osed after the agreement was reached um we need to call for a special town meeting um that allows us to file the the article that allows us to do this so um you should have a memo from me in your packet which outlines the um provisions of the bylaws that you need to wave in order to call for the special town meeting that can be scheduled within the annual town meeting so this will be special town meeting too um and once you do that then we'll go ahead and even though we've waved notice requirements we're still going to go through the process of Distributing the warrant like we typically do um and if Chaz has anything that you want to add you know we can do that as well yeah I just wanted to try on a couple of the specifics of the article itself you know the procedure Melissa's outlined really well um uh the article um resends the vote of town meeting from 1894 uh that entered the town into civil service for the police department um I know there was a question at The Advisory subcommittee last week about whether or not the requires action from the legislature uh I know um some of our legislative delegation raised that question because they see those votes come in and they've seen Brookline do it that way in the past um we did reconfirm both with town council's office and with our legislative delegation that that vote is not necessary uh that Brooklin can leave the way it came in for I town meeting for now I will say the same thing I've said before which is the legislature as part of its civil service reform process is considering preventing communities from leaving basically saying if you're in you can't get out unless we let you out if that were to happen if the legislature were to put that on a track towards a vote I would recommend to this board that you call an emergency special town meeting um sooner than the regular town meeting for the purposes of one approving the CBA with the police so that that is done before you take the vote to leave Civil Service uh and then take the vote to leave Civil Service uh and that could be done with as little as two weeks notice um it would be tough obviously for town meeting members we understand and we want to be respectful of their time but we also think this is such a priority and it's a Once in a one you know it has to be if it can't be done now then if the legislature is going to lock us out then we need to beat the legislature to the punch here um the uh concern also that I've heard from members of the um of the Union which again we thank them for their uh negotiating uh in good faith on this reaching this agreement um is you know when civil service is complete you know when this when we leave Civil Service what are we leaving towards uh that's referenced in attachment a of the memorandum of agreement that was distributed it talks about how the assessment centers are going to work and how they're going to be devised by the chief this is a cottage industry right there are entities out there that provide Assessment Center services to the Departments that have left Civil Service already in Massachusetts Chief is in discussions with her counterparts and other communities about how best to run this in a way that is effective and fair to union members and the department uh and we are confident that we are going to be able to both quickly get that up and running and that we have the funding to do so so this is not a hurry up and wait type situation this will be a smooth transition with clear Guidestones but we also want to be clear that this is you know this is done and it is signed and ready to go uh we're not moving in advance of the authorization to do so by town meeting um so I just want to provide that reassurance uh that we are confident uh that the process for for transitioning from civil service will be smooth and collaborative with the Union by the way uh this would become effective at the vote on the 28th or would it become effective when town meeting is adjourned so because this is because this is a special town meeting it will become effective at the dissolution of this town meeting which is important in the same way the Pierce vote will become effective if it is passed at the dissolution of that special town meeting um the effective so on the 28th as opposed still on whenever well that's the right that's the hope is that we will handle all the time sensitive material and it will depend on what the new moderator wishes to do um you know we hope that we handle all the time sensitive material on the first night and move on to the budget the second night right okay um by the way um I take it we don't need a public hearing for this so this is just the procedural maners to put this on then we will put this into your regular business for a public hearing um and we'll probably do that next week so that you and and any members of the public who wish to comment on this will be free to do so okay any uh questions from the select board okay um we have some um uh motions um two motions first of all um I move to call a second special town meeting on Tuesday May 28th 2024 at 8:00 p.m. at the high school auditorium and Via Zoom to wave the requirements of section 2.1.2 through 2.1.4 of the town's bylaws to open and close the warrant and to insert in said warrant the following article article one to see if the town will vote to remove all positions in the police department of the town of Brookline from the provisions of the Civil Service laws including general laws chapter 31 at sec uh and the rules and regulations related to the Same by revoking the town's acceptance of the provisions of chapter 267 of the acts of 1894 um voted Under The Third Article of the warrant for the town meeting held on May 29 1894 or act on anything relative there to any questions regarding uh this uh um motion okay uh all in favor please indicate by saying I John vak I maram ashkanazi I Mike sanman I and chair votes I next uh motion is uh I move to execute the warrant for the May 28th 2024 second special town meeting um any discussion of that no um all in favor please indicate by saying I John vak hi maram ashkanazi I Mike Simon hi and chair votes I okay so we are off and running and there's nothing else on the agenda any anything that people want to raise or course we can't but here what we can say is enjoy yourself in Jamaica Maran okay we don't need to post that um than to the three people who are in attendance tonight we had as many as eight before I'm not sure that's real dedication yeah okay so uh with that the meeting is over thank you everyone bye everybody e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] [Music]