e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e this [Music] is for for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay thank you uh welcome back we I'm calling the meeting to order and we will start with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for which it stands one nation under God indivisible Liberty and jce ladies and gentlemen at home and also here in the meeting room I would like to ask for us all to take a moment of silence in memory of Destiny decof they are memorializing her passing as we speak right now um in the tragic um events that happened a couple weeks ago on um ayen R so just one moment of silence please for [Music] thank you all um tonight before we start with our regular meeting for public comment we would like to take a few minutes for the board and some some guests as well to take a few minutes to thank Mr camalo so we're starting tonight with an opportunity um to recognize and thank Mr camalo who started with us in June of 2009 is that right yes nearly 15 years ago um as our town manager he has shephered this town through tremendous growth and challenges and notably helped develop hopkinton's town government in many important ways a few important ways that I reflected on were um our financial processes that are incredibly efficient based on sound financial practices and sustainable even during times of increased budgetary pressures our stabilization fund and free cash provide stability um our pay as you go program has allowed us to better maintain our facilities and meet our needs using onetime money for one-time expenses transparency in the process is notable and very appreciated Innovations like the participatory budget also make makes us stronger and invites participation from the residents our focus on deib has helped us make great strides in diversity diversifying our Workforce and importantly develop a team that supports new members and prioritizes creating a welcoming environment to retain those new employees and and really build that team um he has a sustainability strategy within that marries with his focus on intentional professional development so that employees understand their roles our supported to learn additional roles and are encouraged to grow in Hopkinton even in times of of great turnover he has always had a secession plan in place and we move forward seamlessly he has maintained a remarkably professional respectful and reliable presence in town for his entire career with us there is so much more to say but I want to allow others time to speak and then we have a a a gift to present in our appreciation so thank you so much to Mr camalo for all you have done for Hopkinson uh Joe do you want to go next it's hard to follow that but Norman has been here every step of the way uh I remember my first meeting with with Norman in his office and he was giving me the lowdown on what to expect and he said oh we're going to have so much fun well that's debatable however we have had a wonderful relationship a good good relationship and he's always been available whenever I needed to talk to him uh just walked in and uh he's G me all the time that uh was necessary and I greatly appreciate that he's been wonderful with the putting together the town meeting he's been great with the budgets and the finances and um I just can't thank him enough for his leadership Amy okay so I'm try not to repeat things other those have said but I will say you're going to be a to be a tough act to follow and having been here so long you're going to be the model for all future Town managers for a long time to come I think they'll always be compared to you I really appreciate how much you work with Civic groups and nonprofits in town on helping the getting their events and I remember when you really helped project just because move into their new building and they were having trouble with their Transformer and you really brought that to life to come um so they could open um and I really appreciate all your improvements over the years on transparency I know government moves very slowly but um there's definitely been huge improvements in the communication and transparency since you've been here um and I really appreciate you tolerating me bugging you all the time about Weds of website improvements and email communication improvements and accessibility standards so um we're really going to miss you but we wish you all the best in your next venture thank you so we've heard all the professional aspects and everything that you've done to professionalize Hopkinton but what I want to say is you've done it all very humbly and it's obvious by the way that you seem very uncomfortable that we're honoring you today but um seriously you know it's you you've taken this this town through a period of incredible growth and um and approached everything with calmness and humility while taking on new initiatives throughout the way and um I can say personally I've learned an awful lot from you um and and how to interact how to you know how to bring the critical teams together and yeah I I've learned a lot from you and um I'm going to take that with me and and and run with it as well thank you so much we're really really going to miss you and I hope we stay in touch on a personal level thank you shahul a lot has been said a lot more to say I'm sure we may not have all the time but we could speak hours about Norman's dedication and hard work and contribution to our town so Norman thank you a big thank you for your over a decade um of service to this town and you are now part of the history of our town and I have um many reasons to see your professionalism even in my short uh last two years and uh for any uh knowledge or any uh history or any reference check I always uh come came to you and I will certainly miss that and uh you have a library of knowledge of plethora of information history about the town about the government about various procedures and uh it it has been tremendous working with you and you've been along our um uh side all the time supporting us supporting the town and uh thinking about uh doing and uh doing great things about the town for the the town and as ifan and my other colleagues said during um high growth time uh you were uh part of us and uh supporting and uh leading uh with all these challenges that we have had so thank you and uh I I wish you all the best in your next venture and uh it's been a pleasure uh and honor working with you and um certainly I'm sure our paths will cross and I wish you nothing but the best thank you sorry I couldn't be there in person today it's because of the spring break had to uh be out with the family but I'm sure we'll catch up and uh talk more and you're not too far we will certainly count on you and your advice time to time I'm sure but thank you big thank you thank you Mr Ted Stone board members how are you here to tell you everything that you're doing wrong but I could your name your name and your address sir oh Brendan tedstone 45 Pleasant Street uh so I just took a second to come up here uh Mr Calo to thank you for everything that you've done for the town I work very closely with you from 2016 to 2022 uh and I assure you you taught me a whole lot more than I taught you uh I'm sure you did learn a lot of things from me uh things that are what we may call non-conventional uh in our in our ways to to come to to a conclusion um the amount of time that you put into this town and your heart and soul at the sacrifice of your family does not go unnoticed with me I think at one point I was speaking to somebody that was uh someone from the town that was complaining about your salary that he gets too much money he's not worth it I said if he does six hours a a week I'm sorry 6 days a week 18 hours a day when you break it down it's really close to minimum wage uh Norman I assure you Norman is is in into this uh position truly for the town he taught me what it meant to as a selectman to protect our what we call a brand uh the brand of hopkington where maybe you might want to as a knee-jerk reaction have a not you but me would would have a knee-jerk reaction it was better to just sit on that um because your my Outburst or my anger that would come through would not be good for the brand of Hopkinson and it was not the Brendan tedstone show although many people would say it was um Norman brought uh just a he was just a massive calming Force for me uh he was very patient uh and taught me what it was what it was like to be a selectman uh because I was a selectman I was not a select board member I was voted in as a selectman um and I am uh grateful as a as a friend I'm grateful for you um as a selectman I was very grateful for all the the patience and guidance and your institutional knowledge that you brought to us um and as a as a taxpayer um you know the work that you did from day one when you got here to today when you're when you're finishing up uh the town is by far in a much stronger position uh this town will be uh will miss you tremendously I won't miss you cuz I'll still call you all the time um but we have um Norman and I that what we would do is we would communicate uh in Zulu um so uh that way if somebody overheard what we were saying it was uh it was hard to decipher and um we have one say I won't bring up the saying that we have but uh there's there was one saying that that uh resonates with me and I still use I had an orientation today for nurses and and uh and CNAs and I still use that phrase uh about roasting uh which that's as much as I'm going to say to it but uh Norman um as a as a friend and as a co-worker and as a taxpayer and as a town member from the bottom of my heart I thank you for everything that you did uh and I know that your legacy will be carried on um and uh and the town is much much better off and and uh it's not just thank you to you it's thank you to your wife and your kids for for giving you to us for the amount of time uh that they did uh and i i l you for everything that you've done for us so thank you so we have a couple of small gifts we have um uh bouquet for your award and after yep we have some flowers for your wife rodo in thanks for all the ways that she has generously shared you with us um and uh you may realize that we had a lovely event just yesterday successful fabulous event and we have a momento that not only marks the event but it marks the 100th running and it um I think it uh it it symbolizes so much about what we uh we are all about it is one of the pieces of art from the um the flying feet on the common and uh I just want you to know that this particular piece is titled we are all born to fly the artist is Chelsea Bradway and the Hopkinson integrated preschool at Marathon school and this is what uh Mrs Brad Miss Bradway says she embarked on a unique collaboration with approximately 100 preschoolers ages 3 to 5 to create an inclusive art project the project aimed to celebrate creativity and diversity by showcasing the unique perspectives of each child the preschoolers learned about teamwork and the power of art to bring people together Bradway hopes that this project will inspire others to EMB Embrace inclusivity and collaboration in their own Artistic Endeavors and we thought that this would be perfect for you to have thank you now the only bad news is that the HCA wants to continue to display it for another week so I promised that I would safely bring it back and then get it to you as well but we are very proud to present this to you and we hope that you will treasure as much as H treasure thank you thank you thank [Applause] you everybody out to a picture sure yeah I'm going to let you hold it so we know who's holding it do you want to come out this go ahead you do your thing look at the lensch please pleas don't go don't go thank you than [Music] sorry I a Bel for that on way exact oh y oh one more Mr Cala I forgot your card sorry about that yeah it's really easy we all printed big letters you here for public [Laughter] comments two minutes take your time Mr camalo yes I made it through without crying yeah um I'll share with you that in my culture when we Express gratitude we don't just say thank you we name the person we're thinking and if I was to do that I'll violate the two-minute rule thank you after 15 years my time in hopkington [Music] an exceptional Community is ending on behalf of rudo n tabi tando s dumi and Zola I want to thank the residents and families of hopkington for welcoming us to this beautiful Community from the day I sat on a small chair in this room I think I was somewhere here interviewed by the select board in 2009 I felt welcomed and at home suffice to say finding a home away from home in Zimbabwe is not an easy task Hopkinton made that very easy for me and my family firstly I thank Hopkinton for affirming that Resident and families are the heartbit of any and every Community you all make Hopkinton what it is a great Community to work play live and enjoy with you all write and tell the stories that began long before and will continue long after I am grateful for the opportunity and honor you gave me to be one of you as your town manager I am thankful to having been part of the writing composing and telling of a small part of this community's melody some of you know how close I am to music my family and I sincerely sincerely appreciate and will forever cherish our fantastic journey together with all of you thank you for allowing me to connect with you and bringing my HD and joy into this community your success as a community has been and will continue to be my blessing to the staff thank you for your support care kindness compassion and passion for community service your hard honest collaborative entrepreneurial effort always inspired me to show up and do the best we could together yes I I was not perfect you never asked me to be to the residents and staff you truly make hopkington a special place thank you for giving my family a great life experience giving us a home away from home my dear friends I wish you continued success in my language and on behalf of rudo my family and the kids thank you you um okay so um we will open for public forum and note that each person has up to 2 minutes to speak please start by stating your name and your address and is there anyone present in the room who would like to speak at open Forum yes please hello I'm Linda chus from 11 School Street um later today you'll hear from the sustainable green committee about article 36 the specialized building code up for vote town meeting I'm on that committee but tonight I'm here as a private citizen committed to sustainability asking you to formally and publicly endorse the measure as a board or individually whichever is possible you know clim the climate crisis is deadly costly and growing we say we want to be leaders in Hopkinson but those are only words unless we take actions like this one we have a net zero Target but that's just a nicity unless we can get on track and we can't get on track without this code it's one of the most important things our town can do right now period there's little downside to passing it this one is easy to endorse and Implement and if we don't we're only digging a bigger hole to get out of later people need to see Town leadership is taking key steps so I'm asking all of you to formally endorse it we also have another article on the warrant number 34 requesting funds to test for toxins in townlands and Waters I'm at 2 minutes think so but go ahead are you almost done almost done and in materials to be applied to them and we need that because the laws are not protecting us including past that's sometimes hidden in containers and in our ingredients so I also ask you to endorse article 34 as Town leaders by publicly supporting critical environmental measures you help all our residents see their importance thank you for your consideration thank you Linda thanks hey there uh darling Hayes 1/3 Road um I have three quick things the first was was I just wanted to thank Norm um the abundance of phone calls and tremendous amounts of emails you've always been respectful always responsive to me and all my annoying questions so just thank you um the other two kind of piggyback on each other um and I think we can learn from the communities next that sit alongside us um ashon does a really good job of having a citizen of the year and I'd like to see if hoofington might want to put something like that forward forward um what better platform than what we had the stage yesterday to like acknowledge someone whether it's a town manager or the select board chair and I'd like to nominate dnie fer Wallace if you actually move that forward would be a great um first one and the last part has to do with the marathon as well and that is when you guys give out the numbers those are going to a lot of the Town boards and committees like the veterans and um the emergency funds and Library and it's cool but those that I've really watched what ashin Nack and Framingham has done and they've made those numbers team Ashlin team Framingham you know and it's team Ashlin and the name of the person running for the veterans committee so that they they know that these are numbers from the town but they're part of like a the town a team that belongs to the town and the town got them jerseys and things like that and put it on but thinking like in the future it'd be kind of cool if we embrace the same thing is that all the numbers you give out to these local organizations that support local is that they're part of team hackington and they're running for ehhop or the veterans and that was all I had thanks thanks hi Ed Harrow a Spring Lane I'm here as the private citizen I came here to crash the executive session because they were discussing matters of interest to open space and I got a hint that this was like Norman's last meeting I am not prepared that never stopped me sakona sakona yeah Norman and I had a most engaging conversation where he enlightened me about Ubuntu a African pH philosophy and I wish that I could reiterate what he told me but now perhaps you could share a few words it's a very interesting approach to life and I'm not going to say that I've done a very good job incorporating it but I do think about it thank you Norman okay yes please Timothy Bo 41 Pine Crest Village uh before I start with what I came here to say I want to mention to you what I said to Mr Calo at the end of the performance review and I uh at the last meeting and what I told him was that I thought it was very fair I've I've done performance reviews as a leader since I was 22 years old in the Army and it it took a while to get there but if that's what you're going out on you did an outstanding job and I appreciate it and a very contentious uh issue uh the other reason I'm here is I'm here again to ask why Joseph Bennett has not been placed on paid administrative leave that's my question that's a question um that's it is not on the agenda and it isn't something we can exchange with unless it is on the agenda and it would you would know if at any time that was going to be on the agenda so can it be placed on the agenda because he's under investigation by the Massachusetts State Police by the Northwest County District Attorney's Office uh going on the precedent that was set with uh Deputy Porter and uh with sergeant brener they were placed on paid administrative leave and so I you know I just remind you that precedent was set I'd like to remind you what Chief Bennett said during Sergeant Brennan's louder Mill hearing if we don't expect that a police officer is going to report a crime committed by another police offer officer simply because there is no complaint it because someone hasn't walked into the lobby we're done we're done there will never be another fellow officer reporting about another fellow officer's wrongdoing in the same vein if we don't expect that this select board will not place the senior law enforcement officer in this town on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation into why he released the personal identifying information of a child rape Survivor and her children in blatant violation of state law well you're done you're done it's the the same principle it is the exact same principle minutes Tim there will I just want to say there will be never be another rape or sexual assault victim willing to trust that their identities will not be revealed by this Police Department meanwhile the Survivor continues to experience day after day of betrayal trauma because the select board continues to pretend that there's nothing that can be done that can be done with the exception of Miss Kramer I don't know how the rest of you sleep at night thank you um yeah Greg deor 46 Spring Street before I get going I just want to thank Norman for um as a union president for the police department and all of our interactions over the years um I've always enjoyed working with Norman and I'm gonna really miss them even at that time when our relationships have been contentious I've always enjoyed our relationship and I wish you all the best thank you um on to my statement um members of the select board I'm the union president for the hopkington police Arbitration Association I'm here tonight because the agenda for this meeting States the select board will consider interviewing Sergeant Ain O'Neal Sergeant Matthew mcneel and Sergeant Scott f ralton as finalist candidates for the Lieutenant's position I've recently sent two separate letters to the town manager and every member of the select board um certain members of the select board continue to willfully disregard the collective bargaining agreement between the town uh and our Union as it relates to Promotions as a result of the board's action there is currently an open grievance related to the promotion of Sergeant Santoro and I once again the board is on the brink of violating our collective bargaining agreement and the promotional policy by attempting to conduct interviews that were not agreed upon during collective bargaining to be clear we do have a we have agreed to a robust and comprehensive process related to Promotions of Sergeants and lieutenants this process includes participation by Hopkin and human resources related to the testing interviewing of candidates as well as the review of candidates past performances and qualifications these processes are extremely well laid out and the union wholly agrees with how the promotional process works and with the final candidate produced through the process previously there was language in our contract that referenced having members of the select board actively involved in the promotional process by me part of the interview panel this was bargained Away by the select board who entrusted HR to represent their interests in this process the board's willingness to I'm almost done the board's willingness to continue to disregard our agreement with the town over the promotional process can only be construed as a town bargained with us in bad faith our Union does not take issue with the member of the board being on the interview panel for promotions in the future however that needs to be done through the appropriate means of collective bargaining recently the select board had questions about recruiting and retention of offic offers I submit the select board should look at themselves and hold themselves accountable um for the for um responsible the board has created an environment that demonstrates to our officers that they are not supported they are not trusted and you are not valuing us it is time for the select board to start abiding by their agreement with their employees and move the department forward as the chief has requested thank you for your time okay um is there anybody on Zoom that want any raised hands there hands okay I wanted to thank everybody this board as leaz on to the marathon committee Dy farer and uh John from PX Andre and Kelly from HCA and Mrs Chisum from the 26.2 and everybody who helped with this year's Boston Marathon it was a huge success and everybody knows I was upset last year when we didn't have anything going on the common and a lot of the towns people were and I had written a letter and this board was very supportive Paxton Rec was very supportive the marathon committee has been really very very supportive and I'll tell you it warmed my heart to see all the people on the Popkin con common this weekend it was amazing and uh the the race that that Dy ferer put on for the kids of the 100 yard dash was a huge success the parents were here there were 160 I think maybe more now kids participating yeah plus they that showed up and uh and then the the Thursday night at the uh HCA with the uh Greek counselor and the people from Ashlan and and all of these gifts that they presented to us to the town of hopkington it was just incredible it was very nice it was a wonderful marathon and I just want to thank everybody that's all and come out next year too yeah congratulations to everybody and nice job Mary Joe okay I have a um few things to say he could statement sure public comment first yeah first of all I want to resonate the thanks to uh the wonderful Marathon um that we just had uh our 100 start uh great thanks to uh doy our marathon committee chair our marathon uh committee all the volunteers baa and everyone involved our law enforcement police fire and all the state um uh law enforcements who has participated and helped make it successful It's been a mendous effort uh so thank you big thank you and it was wonderful day beautifully um enjoyed by everyone uh and I also want to resonate what Darlin uh just mentioned that we definitely uh recognize D's um decades over service on this making it successful and we want to honor her uh any way we can uh I want to honor her any way we can uh for the future now U that said I do have a ministrate ment on a completely different topic and I think it very to discuss and bring it up today especially because my uh pier and friend uh Iran nasah is um U probably going to be the last time in this meeting and Muriel you will be too but this is um as you hear more because of Iran and also because uh my friend and colleague and our dear Town manager Norman kumalo's uh last day uh so this is regarding a very sensitive however very important topic uh that I want to bring forward and there's no you know better days or no best day to discuss this except now and except today uh so I'll read it um if I could uh for a few minutes and um it it is I think something very critical for our residents and my dear Neighbors in the town to hear as well um so here I go hello everyone today I would like to address a grave concern that has recently touched not only myself but also our respected peer and our families it is imperative that I discuss the sensitive matter of racial attacks within our town let me State for the record for today and for all future Generations that despite the challenges we face I have unwavering faith in the heart of this country and this town which I have called called home for the better part of my life 28 and 12 years respectively to be exact this is my home my country my town and I am here to stay in recent weeks and months I have endured threats harassment and racial profiling among others most recently I was stopped at an event when I was with my wife and children and asked if and why I'm still living in this town these actions have been made all the more pagant by their visibility in the local media a Town Newspaper and solidified or normalized by the silence against such injustices it is disappointing that not one voice among any of our current or former elected leaders in town or any other leadership has risen to speak against these acts until this moment the truth is is racial bias still exists Among Us influencing perceptions and actions it is evident when a person of color speaks with conviction they are often perceived differently than their white counterparts this is not just an observation it is a systemic issue that we must address when a white male speaks strongly he is admired as a strong leader when a white female does she is seen as a progressive rightfully so yet when a brown man speaks strongly it's often labil a cultural issue one can only imagine the reaction when a black man speaks strongly or a brown or black women for that matter this highlights clear systemic racism I did not seek public office for personal gain or monetary gain I did so with the intent to to serve and improve our community a value instilled in me by my family it is my duty to represent not just some of us or one but all members of our community with your support I will continue to do so and I am hopeful I believe this in this town and our neighbors and residents who has opened their hearts and arms for us for over a decade I strongly believe that they will not tolerate the racial profiling and threats to stop my voice or any other voice I am hopeful that my clear and candid statement today will not only resonate in their hearts but they will resist and deny any part in it racism bias and profiling has no place in hington my beloved town thank you for your attention now let's get on with our business thank you thank you madam chair thank you for um sharing um and uh I appreciate that you are elevating the issue and standing strong and we um we all want to make sure that we make space for everybody's voice thank you thank you m thank you okay um we are going to consider the consent agenda um which includes the minutes of March 19th 2024 the parade permit for the wicked 5K and the New England Chinese American Alliance event um the wicked 5K is October 27th at 1 p.m. and the Chinese American Alliance event is May 4th um with a rain date of May 2 7th anybody want to pull anything off of that no okay move the consent agenda is there a second second um and so by roll call vote shahul how do you vote on the consent agenda yes R yes Amy Amy mayor J yes Mel Kramer yes um our next order of business is this special temporary alcohol license for the Knights of Columbus the select board will consider approving a special temporary alcohol license for Andrew Vale on behalf of the Knights of Columbus Bishop Bryce Council for its annual fundraiser the event is to be held on May 4th from 6: to 10: at the St John's Parish Hall located at 20 Church Street the alcohol will be served by a tips certified servers and will be supplied for Marty's in addition the board will consider a fee waiver for the license application so moved um do we have yes come on forward thank you welcome thank [Music] you first uh my name is Andy Vale I'm a member of the Knights of Columbus Bishop rice Council uh we service and help uh St John's as well as St Cecilia's so both towns both parishes as well as the local towns in the area um I also want to thank the board for the last several years approving uh the temporary alcohol permit for our fundraiser this will be the fourth time we've held it it'll be the third in hopkington that we have and it's one of the main sources of funding for our Council and many of our programs help directly the communities in which we all live seniors Special Olympics um you know meals things like that so if you have any questions or it's a horse race too a virtual horse race tickets are $20 if you want to buy some let me know we'd love to have you there but uh and it's held on Kentucky Derby Day so on Kentucky Derby Day there we go yeah been in the past and it was a lot of fun ah did you win uh not much but I was with people who did so there you go every year we try to add something to it this year there'll be hats and things like that you know so coms I am because I was okay thank you I'm almost there um so I don't think that we have any um we have any objections um from the police department Sergeant van ralton uh shares that we have supported the event since am I in the right place no I'm sorry yep my apologies that was the race here we go saying would docents there people crowd management crowd management was the fire department right and a detail was the fire department the police department great thank you um my packet went dark on my other attachment here here um I don't have any questions Beyond including the comments from our professional departments anybody have any questions I think that was the only thing just the crowd manager and the detail okay um I'll entertain a motion um are you comfortable getting a crowd manager as well as a police detail for if the attendees go over 100 uh if it's required uh we would we've spoken to the police chief we also have many members uh ex law enforcement and current fires well among the knights so and we have reached out to both the police chief and the fire chief as well and the attendance is mainly parishioners um it's controlled by tickets of course and uh it's a little over 100 I think the max that we've ever seen is uh under 130 which is what was on the application yeah you WR 130 yeah yeah and so I would um I would move to approve where is it uh I moveed to Grant a special temporary alcohol license for the nights of annual fundraiser on May 4th 2024 from 6:00 to 10: p.m. at St John's Parish Hall um we talk about oh we did not talk about the fee waver but you can put that into the motion I'm sure and to Grant a fee waiver for the license application uh which is from a nonprofit organization provided that um uh if the number of attendees exceeds 100 people um that a uh police detail be hired yeah okay and the crowd manager can just be one of your one of your members it doesn't have to be someone you hire yeah yeah okay just second all right any questions or any discussion all right by roll call vote Mary Joel Mary Joel yes Amy Amy yesan yes Shel Kramer is a yes congratulations I hope your event is a wonderful success thank you all right we now have uh new employee appointments the select board will consider confirming the town manager appointments of several people welcome come on right up all right good evening so uh are you going to start us up or will you start us up Miss lence there we go Lane nice uh so we are see which which I this is uh Melissa Menard yes okay great um Melissa Menard is recommended as head chef for the uh Senior Center and um Works um obviously in food preparation and kitchen maintenance uh duties include design and development of daily and special event menus in addition to maintenance of quality sanitation and safety standards for all areas under their control they'll prepare and serve meals with exceptional customer service to seniors and others participating in in the Department's meal program monitor supplies accept deliveries and ensure supplies are stored appropriately within required guidelines it also provides supervision of kitchen operations and provides General supervision to Kitchen staff and it works less than 30 hours per week um Melissa has uh two and a half years as food service worker and prep cook uh and two years uh with the Hope Deale Pizza Market and also 5 years with the Liberty Adult Day Health uh at as head chef um and for Education she's a high school graduate with a certificate in hospitality and we've heard wonderful things about about the work that you do um and the the meals that you've prepared um and also especially your work with the the participants in the adult day health health area uh the references revealed that when Melissa was at Liberty Adult Day program she was adaptable and flexible which was evident when Co came along and there were new rules and changes related to how the things were managed she's wonderful with staff and patrons has formed meaningful relationships with her colleagues and their seniors at the center and through the interview process it became clear to the panel that Melissa has a lot of wonderful ideas and loves to plan meals for the senior F patrons uh HR was told by staff that they've received many compliments on her cooking these past few weeks and so uh with that uh to manager is recommending appointment and Jessica talk about the the process sure so um the position uh was posted um internally and externally um two candidates applied two were interviewed um the interview panel consisted of Amy Beck the senior services director Jessica mnal the assistant senior services director and Kristen Merill the HR generalist um and uh Melissa um and ended up being the person that Rose to be selected for the position thank you yes super excited oh well we're glad you're excited I'm sure they're excited that you're excited to stay um okay do we have any do you have any questions for Melissa oh all I want to say is I hope you're a good cook I've seen the last couple of weeks and I've been on cooking so if you like this then well I I go to the senior center every other week or so at least once a month that's the the least that I go and I it's a wonderful service to the seniors of the town and I appreciate it very much and I have enjoyed my lunches there in the past so I hope to continue doing it in the future welcome to hackington thank you so much yeah I'll just Echo what Mary Joe said that um you know n of the seniors really enjoy having the lunch there and I really glad that we can find someone can do it h fulltime and looks like you already been filling in um so so that's great you know what you're getting into so thank you for fun really yeah I mean not not a lot to add it's um seems like you you love what you're doing um you've been there you've been cooking and uh someone who's as enthusiastic as you are I'm I'm happy to welcome you to our town thank you so much thank you I just I was want to add one more things is that uh we're so well received and and hington has such a good Senior Center that uh we have a lot of people from out of town for lunch and and for our special activities so uh you know I know people from come up from natic and malro and Milford and and and it's it's amazing uh we have a great reputation and uh you I'm sure you'll just keep it going thank you Shah I go the same uh have an excellent background and happy to have you and I've been in um Senior Center several times uh it's a great place and a wonderful lunch I would go for your cooking sometime soon again and um welcome thank you and it would be a great service for our seniors I'm very happy about your journey thank you thank you we certainly appreciate that you have applied and you have been selected and uh Your Enthusiasm it's a really vibrant wonderful robust environment so I know you'll uh fit right in with that kind of enthusiasm for the job so uh congratulations Madam chair I move to confirm the town manager's appointment of art as head chef at the senior center second by roll call Oran yes Amy am yes F yes sh and Muriel Kramer a yes thank you now you have to stay just a few more minutes cuz as we force a picture upon you thank you everyone to believe me thank you you too um okay next up uh Jessica Jess diamond so Jessica or Jess Diamond uh is recommended as young adult librarian uh she's replacing uh Jack Miller who was promoted um the purpose of this position is to perform professional and direct service work advising and assisting tween and teens in identifying assessing navigating and retrieving information at the library uh to assist patrons with technology to lead collection development of young adult collections to plan and Implement Young Adult Services and programs that invite and excite the targeted popul ation and creativity and Innovation are important and encouraged in this role uh relevant experience is at the JV Fletcher library in Westford for three years as young adult librarian uh the Bedford free public library is eight years for reference and children's librarian and substitute librarian and at the needen public library for one and a half years as part-time children's librarian uh education uh is a master's degree in library information science and a Bachelor of Arts in English um references revealed that Jess was described as a forward-thinking and proactive individual and a supervisor indicated that she easily makes connections with patrons and teens they trust Jess and feel comfortable approaching her Jess was described as someone excellent at identifying opportunities and making things happen she's Innovative and makes programming look effortless while being creative and thorough and most importantly she's described as having a passion for this work so with that their recommendation for young adult librarian Jessica sure so again this position was posted externally and internally there were 15 candidates that applied six were interviewed on the first round um and on the first round panel was Jack Miller the assistant Library Services director Andrea K calibri the Youth Services Supervisor Nicole a O'Brien the assistant Town Clerk and Kristen Mar the HR generalist uh three um panelists I mean three candidates were passed to second round interviews and the second round interview panel was Nancy Hill the library Services director Andrea calibri the youth services supervisor and myself the HR Director and Jess was selected as the top candidate to be offered the job another enthusiastic hire I like it like it um thank you very much um so uh welcome and congratulations um you are new to hopkington so take a minute if you don't mind to just introduce yourself to the town and why you're so excited about this position at the library sure so I am and yeah I am you might be hard to hear if you don't we hear complaints uh I'm very excited to be joining Hopkinson um I basically what brought me um to want to uh apply to your town was your um Forward Thinking um welcomeness um I think you know in the ear half of this selectboard meeting I saw how beloved um Norman was and that was really nice to see um kind of a welcoming and um Forward Thinking Town um and yeah I I have experience at the Westford um Public Library as the young adult librarian there and um I'm really excited to meet the families of hopkington and yeah well we're really I everybody at the library we're very excited to have you here so um any questions Mary Joe I think young people in hington are going to love you you look like you absolutely fit and I said I've heard that before and I I we're very glad to have you that's really all I have to say great um we looked at your resume everything looks great you have excellent experience and as you know we have a lot of Youth in this town so we definitely need a full-time youth Librarians um for programming and all their reference needs and everything so we really happy to have you on board Madam chair if I can you just say something oh please um so uh one thing that we're very excited about having Jess on board is as you know the library works very collaboratively interdepartmentally and um Jess having an experience in children's and adults and teen Services is something that I think is really she's able to bring a lot to the table because of that that's wonderful thank you thank you we fun just seeing your enthusias M and you know going through this whole process makes me realize yeah you're the right person um your your resume looks great I love stealing people from other towns so uh welcome aboard thank you you know working other towns has you know been a good experience absolutely to The Next Step Shah I'll just Echo the same and by the way I couldn't hear I think if you want to get close to the micophone but uh have an excellent background and we are lucky to have you thank you for choosing hopkington and uh one uh just one question I have is uh that young adults are submerged with digital um interfaces and especially social media how do you strategize to uh get them to the books who are not and get them hooked uh to the joy of reading well luckily when you're in the library you see a lot of the kids they're already hooked on books on reading um but yeah I think you know meeting them where they are and you know we have an Instagram and social media for the library I think that's a good way to engage with them um and yeah going into the schools having conversations with them about the different types of books that we offer you know finding the right book for the right reader yeah thank you excellent we'll need uh a lot of that thank you teens in particular um use a phrase meeting them where they are it's so important um and to engage with them where they are and how they want to be engaged with and to sort of invite them in and then um take your lead from them too in terms of what they want to see in terms of programming and so forth so um really uh really excited to have you join us and uh I will entertain that motion Madam chair I move to confirm the town manager's appointment of Jessica DeMent as young adult librarian at the hopkington public library second second by roll call vote Mary Joe Mary Joe leer yes am yes B yes Shad yes Ariel Kramer is a yes [Applause] congratulations do we have more one more one more welcome hello has so tonight we have Antonio or Tony Garcia who is recommended as custodial maintenance worker in the facilities Department um he's replacing austo d oler um and under the the uh direct supervision of the facilities manager the custodial maintenance manager performs General Building Maintenance semiskilled building repairs oversight of subcontractors and vendors work order management buildings and ground maintenance and occasional routine custodial tasks um and the oversight of subcontractors and vendors the role is available on a rotating on call schedule for snow removal and after hours and weekend emergency response it's an emergency contact and first responder to building security alarms and building fire alarms in the absence of another facilities team member the role performs minor repairs and jobs such as painting patching sanding window glass you know we have a lot of that that here um assembly of furniture sheetrock resilient flooring Carpeting and small plumbing jobs uh and preventative maintenance such as replacing filters cleaning coils and and and the like uh relevant experience is uh as a predum custodial maintenance worker here for the last one and a half months uh work uh for the last year at uh Windsor communities and at nishoba Valley Services as a carpenter laborer for 18 years um Antonio is a high school graduate and his references reveal that he's an extremely hard worker skilled at painting framing sheetrock repair and all kinds of handyman type duties and he's someone you can give a task to and consider it done and he works great with a team or on his own Jessica so um again the position was posted externally and internally we had four candidates apply um three were interviewed um the interview panel consisted of Dave deloro Our Town engineer and Facilities director our Nadu um our facilities manager vuda daa our executive assistant to the town manager's office and Kristen Merill our HR generalist and from the three that were interviewed actually two were selected um because we had two positions um one candidate is still completing their pre-employment um contingency steps and um Tony um completed those and was um recommended for offer great thank you or fun start with you do you have any questions Dave yes do you have anything you would like to say I'm sorry um no I just want to um I'm I want to thank the HR staff um our interview team for Expediting the advertising the the interviewing and the selection process we got a couple good good candidates um Tony's been working here for about um four to five weeks per DM um we were lucky enough to through a a connection with our facilities manager um Armando worked with Tony um at psor and um we're able to get Tony over here per DM quickly um and thanks to the town manager's office and the HR office for giving us the opportunity to get somebody to to help us we were to to positions short so um in this last advertisement where again we were really lucky to get to very qualified people um the work Tony's done for us has been has been exceptional already he's done some um a lot of Hands-On um real real renovation projects that already saved the town um you know thousands of dollars redoing floors and redoing tiling and painting So something we're going to be looking forward um as a department to follow up with with a department Matrix for for for Town manager's office down the road um Tony's hard worker he's coming after hours he's coming on the weekends already so I think we're lucky to have him accept the petitions great thank you herun any questions no questions but that's some certain certainly some High Praise um it's nice that you've been able to to step in already and and show What You're Made Of and um you know it sounds as though Dave is very happy with the work you've done um I do I do ask uh why Hopkinson I work for this area like for 20 years so I working along the west Bo of hopt my last job was in hopt so I know excellent thank you am um no um everything looks great you're look you sounds like you're highly qualified and um and you've already been working here so they know that the quality of your work so we're very happy to have you that you can um take the job thank you considering the great recommendations from HR and Dave and the fact that you've already been here for a while so you've got your feet wet so to speak uh I think that you're going to be a great addition Shu yeah um nothing much to add welcome to Hopkinton thank you for choosing us and uh it's such a critical job to maintain and provide the service and keep up with all the buildings and everything that we have in our offering so thank you for uh taking the burden and joining us welcome I don't really have any questions either appreciate that you are already here already unboarded and already hard at work and reliable for the team so welcome to the town of hock thank you uh I'll entertain a motion Madam chair I move to confirm the town manager's appointment of Antonio Tony Garcia as custodial maintenance worker in the engineering and Facilities Department second by roll CVO refine yes yes yes sh yesel KR yes congratulations [Applause] thank you thank Melissa still here yeah she leave up thanks oh you got to come for a picture anony [Music] yeah I'm thank you get you all in thank you thank you welcome I do not mind on us is that what it is yeah are you feeling it too yeah I do feel it yeah we have a nice sunet yeah right thought it was a window yeah I keep two people I don't know okay so then no no don't REM me the next order of business is to the appointment of the interim Town manager so we will uh report its vote appointing Elaine Lazarus as the interim Town manager for the town so we're very delighted to uh to have sealed that deal and appointed you as interim Town manager we very much look forward to working with you um going forward so thank you so much I'm honored and I'm grateful and I'm excited looking forward to serving the town in this new role um and I just want to say one of the things I enjoy about working here is the wonderful team of professionals we have on boards committees and in town hall and other Town departments it's just wonderful uh so thank you wonderful so I will say that you are one of the first faces I met when I uh came to town hall way back in the way back machine um and you are consistently one of the people that I continue to recommend people engage with when they have questions or want to understand the process or want to learn about what happened before and how to uh make things happen in the future you have been um stalwart professional reliable and consistent um very open to engagement with the public no matter what the concern is and we appreciate I appreciate how much how helpful you've been to so many over the years thank you and people should still come they shouldn't stop good good mam chair can we get a I mean is yes yes let's in the town Che is here to administer the a of office oh let's do it oh yeah yeah did he just he was leaving we can see ra your right you solemly swear you will faithfully and impartially discharge perform the duties Inc coming upon you as the interim Town manager for the town of Hopkinton in accordance to the Charter and bylaws of the town of hopkington and the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts I do congratulations than [Applause] have to leave stand why you taking your keys out taking his keys out okay right here one two three one two three one two 3 congratulations El okay next up is the hiring ing process updates Miss Lazarus okay Town manager all right uh so the Staffing update just get the uh see is Jessica okay so I'll start with uh the deputy police chief okay um that position uh closed on April 12th um and I have have a schedule here from the consultant um they will be uh consultant will be conducting um a resume review um they're doing that now uh then they will provide the uh candidates who are meet the minimum qualifications they will uh send them essay questions um and those will be returned by April 20th um there will be a pre- meeting for the hopkington screening committee uh when that can be organized uh shortly and uh prepare for oral interviews which will be occurring uh after the everything is organized um and then there'll be an assessment center conducted by the consultant staff uh on May 25th and then uh select board interviews will follow the assessment center is scheduled for May 25th yes tentatively May 25th great is that a dayong event it's a Saturday day and it is a day okay and then I'm sorry I interrupted you what's the last thing uh then the select board interviews will follow the assessment center great all right um do so can we get a jump on scheduling um just knowing that we know that the timeline for the essays and so forth um can we get a jump on scheduling with people's calendars is that possible yeah we'll be reaching out and that as soon great okay thank you and and for um Deputy fire chief um the uh committee is being assembled to uh complete their work um and that will take place shortly uh Jessica may have an update on that the deputy fire chief process you have to speak at a microphone or nobody can hear you I'm sorry so I believe resumés are received I believe just secured the um contract with them okay so we're at the beginning stages of that process okay okay beginning for the fire chief yep and then uh so when is the posting hopefully going to be is the posting already up for the fire chief Deputy fire chief I can't okay do we know what we're targeting in term of dates not yet not yet I yeah okay as soon as possible we can do that um okay and the town manager process so um that position has been posted um the um due date for résumés and cover letters is May 6th um and we um are putting together that um search committee which is fairly expensive yep anybody have any questions on any of these I don't think so I think people have been filling out the survey that we posted right right uh we will advertise um also for um community community members great for that that that search perfect sh any questions uh no thank you none at this time great thank you for the update and then in other departments um for the administrative assistant and land use an offer has been extended and accepted and will be coming before the board at the next meeting um another custodial maintenance worker as Jessica mentioned will be coming forward um there's a candidate for a dishwasher at the senior center for uh is in the pre-employment process um the assistant Treasurer collector position closed on March 25th and the second round of interviews is scheduled this week um and then for police officers four have hired to date uh three are attending the Academy and one starting on April 15th and two additional candidates are in the pre-employment process um and we had up to the appointments this evening and then the water technician uh the interview the it closed on March 18th and the interview scheduled for April 8th and the candidate has withdrawn and so more applications are being solicited I see okay all right thank you and then um and then the only other thing was to review the promotion and appointment process for um actually it's for sergeant and lieutenant and I just drafted something I don't think we can discuss it tonight or we can just consider it and discuss it later but I just tried to Simply codify the process um which we did hear um today from the town attorney is completely within our purview to to um to do it so I think it probably makes sense to ponder it and come bring it back unless people want to read it quickly and you know we're going to have some turnover on the board um so I mean I think it makes sense for so I do think we should since we just got it now we should wait but we should yeah we y y so it just codifies um it's it's part of the packet now and so part of the public domain and we can um we can either discuss it or we can um we can table it for a while but I do think that it's our process I would love to at least talk about it um and then let the board decide what they want to do with it okay our next order of business is um a police Lieutenant interviews so this just yes go ahead last one sorry has the attorney reviewed just the draft not the draft we heard from the attorney today on the the G yeah riew this that's a good idea can we have can we have the attorneys review the the draft that I put together that's a great idea Amy um I just want to point out though uh our next meeting is May 6 7th that's town meeting town meeting right yeah and then after that it's May 21 um I'm going to be here yeah you no yes and we're Ed about that um uh I did have um I did have a question about whether we wanted to meet on the 30th and I was going to talk about that at the end but that will be that will affect how this plays out for sure um I had a quick question yes uh my question is are we able to share or have we because it came in half an hour before the meeting uh also when I saw it uh the response from Town Council um we we can so there two it's really two different things you want me to you want me to share the response on the grievance chahu uh yeah I'm just proposing you know no no okay um yeah we do have that um I I think that um I think that because it came in so quickly we'll wait on that and um that'll be that'll be shared with um all parties um and then I you probably have not seen it but I will I will email it to you shael I just put together a simple detailed um detail on the process we used which um I'm going to I'll read it out loud so I read it into the record um this is the review process for promotions to hopkington police sergeant and hopkington police lieutenant um the hopkington select board or the board as the appointing and promoting Authority for the Hopkinton Police Department or the department adopts the following procedural guidelines for promotional review or the review to consider promotions to hopkington police sergeant and hopkington police Lieutenant the promotional review process will align fully with the promotional processes as outlined in the most current Hopkinson police Union contract and the most upto-date applicable policies and procedures which delineate the criteria for consideration for promotion and the internal process for selection as candidates to be recommended for consideration for promotion by the board the board's re review will in no way interfere with the Department's contract or policies and procedures regarding promotions the board will consider multiple candidates for each promotion or position review the Personnel records and disciplinary records of all candidates put forward for promotion reserve the right to meet with candidates individually prior to the formal interview with the board include the chief's recommendation in their consideration and consider both the needs of the department and the town when considering candidates for the promotion um and then uh if it's adopted I just put a a date a month day and year when it is adopted the reference documents that I used were the most current police Union contract um and the the appropriate the sergeant promotional process policy and procedure though that is being updated so it's dated um July 2018 but it's currently being revised as of February and then the lieutenant promotional process policy and procedure also last dated um formally uh July of 2018 but currently being revised in February but we'll send that to you I'll email that to you Shaul thank you that would be great and just to clarify my previous comment was not yes or no I was um simply asking if the council has uh agreed and directed to share that but we can wait if it's not the time okay great thank you I guess I had that question too is is it attorney client privilege or would be be okay to release that letter it would be helpful I think yes to release yes I agree it's a good question but we'll because it just arrived um we'll give um M Lazarus and uh all the parties a chance to interact with it okay um now our next order of business is police Lieutenant interviews so the select board will consider interviewing Sergeant Aon O'Neal Sergeant Matthew mcneel and Sergeant Scott Van ralton as finalist candidates for the lieutenant position as recommended by Police Chief Joseph Bennett so Chief please come forward first of all congratulations for having such tremendous candidates um to put forward we're delighted to be here tonight absolutely Mike thank you I'm sorry we can't hear the ch oh it's it's hard to hear online I think may we have to speak up sorry does he need to switch maybe maybe the other mic yeah is that better is that better yes yes thank you well beginning at the beginning thank you uh through the chair uh it is a proud moment as an organizational leader to be able to bring before you three quality candidates for the position of Lieutenant you'll see through these interviews that uh they've worked TI through their careers they have uh worked on themselves they've worked on their knowledge skills and abilities and they're committed to the organization we uh had an ex a robust process to to arrive here tonight and I think Jessica will go over that and uh but uh looking forward forward to conversations terrific thank you just take us away tenant position was posted yes thank you tenant position was posted on February 27th of this year applic application materials were due March 11th um the chief um had his evaluation um piece that was worth 50% of the overall score um and he this step was completed um by him March 22nd the oral review board which um was conducted on March 25th um consisted of three outside Chiefs um Chief Santiago from Shirley um Chief hn from West bfield and Chief Anderson from Shrewsberry and then also our human resources generalist Christen Merill um and um the oral interviews measured um 16 skills that are that were outlined in the policy um questions were developed 20 questions were developed to um properly assess those 16 skills um a new numeric value was assigned those question results which weighted 50% of the score and then the final rating was um provided on the 25th um and then the then the chief was in a position to make a recommendation okay great so our first candidate I ask just procedurally we only have one sheet of paper usually if they're interviewing more than one person we have more than one sheet of paper I don't know if we could make copies it's the same question C no I make the copies just I always take notes on mine this I knew why you were asking I was busy uh I was busy work doing a work around here oh yeah we have the working mic I do good um sorry about that no worries so by way of introduction this is Sergeant Aaron O'Neal Aaron came to us in 1999 uh he's had a incredible career he's uh committed to the organization and um he's taken on a lot of key roles that are important to the community as far as probably one of the most um important one is he works regularly with Youth and Family Service on substance abuse and mental health issues and he'll I imagine he'll explain more about that but uh one of his most recent things uh is he took on the Training Division control over the Training Division he's been active within the division as an instructor and um he took the the entire division over and has has built um that um top down and sideways approach that we've been talking about where he's he's identifying uh team leaders and training them and developing in them and uh and he's taken what our vision our new vision is of um changing the old way that we did policing where one person got all the cool tasks and then got promoted we're changing that and he's been an integral part of that uh he has a master's degree in criminal and masters of arts in criminal justice and and uh I think I we'll let him tell you the rest of the story great um so uh Sergeant O'Neal I know that you have um been here for a long time but take a minute to I know you're very well known in the community too but take a minute to go ahead and introduce yourself your career um and your strengths as you see them in terms of being considered for this position um thank you for the opportunity for this uh like the chief said I started back here in 99 been a 25 year of a veteran here I'm also uh prior to that 10e Army veteran uh through that leadership throughout my whole adult life I I have spent my whole adult life in uniform so I understand uh leadership strengths as well as weaknesses um I have my masters in criminal justice I have completed the FBI leader program and I always continue to to uh better myself through Education and Training so I can pass my knowledge that I've learned uh through my training and experience to our other officers within Department great thank you uh thank you for your service I know that uh I speak for everybody when I say that um I sometimes joke that um not really joke that I learned leadership at the foremost Leadership Academy on the planet when I was in the military right um so um so we will ask just so you know being the first candidate through the process we will ask all the candidates the same questions so every candidate gets the opportunity um to answer the same questions um and I will um I will start with um as a leader within the hopkington police department you must often build support for for a town Vision Department goals and projects from people who do not report to you tell me about a situation where you have demonstrated that you can build the needed support especially from people you may have no authority over uh yeah uh as the chief mentioned before I've been working closely with the family youth uh uh Family Youth and services and uh I think it's a great partnership to be able to have the police department work within that agency and we're able to uh develop programs to help people that need that we may have not had an opportunity to know about before and being a police level we are on the front line of what's happening in the community and when we see something that we're unable to do as police officers or is not part of role it's always nice to be able to get to help people that need it so working with um the uh Youth and Family Services as well as prior to this we I was the liaison for the uh jail diversion program through Advocates and having the clinician program uh been fortunate enough to be on that for 9 years it's a very important program that I believe that we are trying our best to get the clinician embedded into the uh police department again so we can get those to those people that need it l great thank you um and when you have an abetted clinician just uh really briefly what does that mean from your perspective as a police officer how does that how does that work so the clinician rides along with us um During certain situations that when there is a mental health crisis for an individual that they can be there they can make evaluations recommendations and get them the support they need also if the clinician is not available during that time we also have the clinicians to follow follow up with um recommendations that officers have seen that people um that need help the Clin followup with uh situations needed thank you you want to go next sure 25 years it's a long time my life yeah I'm glad to have you um so liutenant position is uh relatively new in hopkington uh describe your understanding of its value opportunity challenges hopkington Police Department the Lieutenant's position is a uh is a supports position that our ultimate goal is to make sure that our officers on the street have the uh training support uh equipment available to them and asant we have to make sure that they're well taken care of and that they need to have all the tools to do their their job properly um by scheduling training by um making sure they have the right equipment and uh addressing any needs that the officers because mental health within the officers organization is very important and we need to have um take care of our own they can do a great job of helping to off 100% what steps will you take to socialize the rules of the department uh and the lider community I'm sorry could you repeat that what's steps will you take to socialize this this new role uh to the department and to The Wider community so I I'm always a fan of getting the um more people involved in um decision- making gives a an outside perspective of issues that we may have not seen in the past so I think that if we get more people with internally and as well as externally giving us um feedback and advice we can grow the position in uh and have a well more uh developed understanding of what's Happening um in the community as well as in the department so I think the more the more involvement than that great and um last last piece to this what distinguishes this role in Hopkins in from other departments uh this is a department that I have been here for 25 years it's been a nical part of my life I feel that I'm a part of the community and um I've meet uh lifelong um friendships and I've always felt that it's part of family that um we have here at the department so this is essentially my home away from home so thank you thanks Amy I'm gonna do um question six um so please describe how you would meet with Civic educational and Community groups to develop or build upon Community programs and events related tow enforcement and in Hopkinton and in the surrounding area um yeah I think that being out in the public is very uh very important going to community meetings uh other activities that are um other groups in town um have it's I think it's important to meet with them um and the other thing is making sure that people know that we're available whenever they need something so I think availability and approachability is very important for a police department um so if anybody has any um issues or concerns or or feedback to us we want to be able to have them come in and speak to us without with um without any hesitation okay and the follow on is what is the key to success when communicating with the public uh it's uh be genuine and be uh be an active listener you know listen to what they have to say and um and and then when people have concerns you have to follow up on addressing those it's one thing to listen it's is another thing to get the job done or address what issues are being um displayed out there thank you here Joe uh in recent years law law enforcement has had a challenge in retention of and not not just Hoppington but everywhere of personnel and I don't know what what strategy would you use as a lieutenant to ensure the success of the retention of new officers yeah retention and recruitment is every training I go to that's the hottest topic of law enforcing is keeping and getting officers um I believe that you have to make them part of the team that you you have to give them an opportunity to grow give them new skills and uh give them an opportunity to get into fields of the police department that they feel um is important to them uh listen to what concerns they have and like like I mentioned before uh make sure that their health and wellbeing is is addressed and taken care of because that's a very entral part of uh being a leader is taking care of your people thank you Shah sure I don't have the printed material that you all have own questions and I'll go with that but feel free um s in fact it's been emailed to Shad you have you should have have in your email Shah came from Jessica from Jessica okay Al from vasuda or vasuda sorry okay I'll look for that email I check the last couple hours but um I will ask one question in the meantime sure which um as you have discuss leadership is super critical for this role how do you define leadership and if you can draw an example from your uh experience and expertise and long service that demonstrated your leadership and by the way thank you for your service 25 years it's tremendous and uh we fully and totally appreciate it I appreciate that um I would say my I important part of my leadership style is lead from the front um never ask anything of your guy of your people that you wouldn't ask yourself and leave by example every one looks at you for when they have questions or see how you treat people or you or you approach situations so I believe that leading by example and leading from the front uh is my leadership style um as for uh examples um I always go where my younger days when I was in the military and I would always everything is team driven team driven team driven and on deployment you're individually a part of the team and it was always important to me that our team always would do things together stay together and voice any concerns that we had within each other um so we could work effectively as a team so my early early 20s I I learned that um working as a team isn't important and if you don't have communications within with your people then your mission will fail thank you excellent thank you for sharing uh my I think we're asking a couple I have another one uh which is um as a police officer adhering to policies and procedures is super critical um I would like to hear your thoughts on that on two fronts one is when there is a situation of difficulty arises about policy uh following a policy or adhering and implementing it how would you go about handling it and second is When You observe any policy Gap based on your situation or drawing from your experience and expertise how would you go about improving um and adding to the policy and procedures um did that make question U Mak sense or yeah yep I I I I understand it um for some quite time time now I've been on um a lot of Development I've been on the policy committee for the on the union side of the uh our policies and as well as recently I've been on the accreditation um committee as well as developing and um and uh Mak sure that we're up to standard for uh accreditation purposes as well as having guidelines uh making sure that uh policies are fair in Equitable will between the uh department members as well as the public uh if issues have arised where policies seem to be not spelled out correctly or if they lack guidance um it's we'll try to address it and rewrite the policy to give a better direction of um how we can deal with certain situations there policies are are involving they sometimes are outdated and and or they just don't fit the situations that are needed that possibly was proper in the past but going forward um they need to evolve so with implementation it's important that um you know you you make sure that it's understandable and that people understand the importance of a certain policy and the reasons we have they have to be followed a certain way thank you I appreciate your thoughtful insights thank you I have no other question all right um I have uh one more question that I wanted to ask of the candidates um I think a lot about the opportunities that exist for this department with all the new hires that you have um so if you would tell us what you're excited about or um thinking about in terms of helping build the team with such new so many new uh individuals and so much new Talent um if you were to be promoted to Lieutenant yeah it's we it's exciting that we have a lot of new officers coming in um and uh you know new faces and fresh tases and new ideas that come through so with um you know they're they're the future they're the the're department so I think it's very important that we give the opportunities and the tools that they can grow and be successful officers um coming up more uh sooner rather than later so I believe that I believe in the team method that if someone is has an interest or uh wants to get involved in something that they come into the team and we'll develop them so when I leave it the position will go up or uh or uh when my career is eventually over that they have the tools to be successful and maintaining the standards of the hopkington police department great thank you any more questions or no I'm good Amy no Mary Jill any more questions no uh thank you very much we appreciate your thoughtful responses and we wish you good luck thank you very much and I just want to say uh it was great to have a successful Marathon home safe and uh the weather was cooperative for the most part sunburn was on to a minimal for me Hazard um but um thank you for the opportunity and uh and I'd like to say that I uh Chief has done an outstanding job and I agree with the process and his uh selection for lieutenant all right thank you thank you Eric okay next candidate they're working their way up here so they're sequestered downstairs okay they'll be here momentarily they've been signaled I'm told signal send up smoke signals there you go good thinking well we have a minute uh we talk for a minute about the gifts that we got for the marathon is a beautiful picture of K aiti statue over there that was given to us by the Greek Council and and uh alega society and there's a clock from Ashland it's representing the Clock Tower and here we have a resolution from Senate President Karen spilka and I just want to tell you there's a difference between a citation and an actual resolution uh a citation we get often and they have many but a resolution is read into that that Senate session and it is read in for the history of the Senate so you anybody at any time could go in and look up the Senate session and find our resolution in it it's the only only thing that happens this way and and it's quite an honor to get one so uh I just want to make sure that people understand that there's a difference and and it's a very good one we want to thank the Senate President for that well I took up some time good job oh who did we get the sign from the sign was from the baa baa I got it from the baa that's nice yep [Applause] nice job I need one of those you would sink want to sink what's it want to sing yeah everybody will leave I really need to do it too yeah aome one time at Brand while I was laying in bed you met your goals like laying it bad I don't think that's a goal getting enough sleep is a goal yeah good sleeply Fitness goal so it's a fitness go it is it is welcome even welcome sergeant to the chair I'd like to introduce Sergeant Matt mcneel he came to us in 1999 as well uh Sergeant O'Neil has a master's degree in uh master of arts and criminal justice as well he uh most Rec he's had a distinguished career he's been very active he was always a very active police officer he U he's a uh he's known to be the cop's cop on the street and he uh has continued to grow uh as you as you hear from him tonight you'll you'll learn more about him but some of the biggest things that he's worked on is uh as a traffic coordinator uh it was a position that was created years ago to manage traffic complaints and Community response as well as work with um roote issues and he took that on but since taking it on he's uh done work that was un unpredicted uh he leads a team of traffic constables which is a division that was created to um address uh payroll issues and now we have a team that he he brought on a team he worked with and I should let him explain all he did to do it but uh through CRA collaboratively with other uh Town departments solicited applications and ultimately now we have a really robust traffic Constable team that got us through the Main Street construction on on an average day we might have 13 details and we certainly don't have inh house 13 people absent the traffic constables to to meet that need so I think I'll uh pass him on to you to to answer your questions and um explain further great thanks for being here um Sergeant McNeil welcome um we uh we just so you understand the process we are asking everybody the same questions so um everybody gets the same opportunity to answer each question but first I know that you have been with us a long time and we appreciate that um we're very lucky to have three candidates that have uh been in hopkington for quite some time um start by introducing yourself to the community I know you're known to the community would just tell us a little bit about yourself um and how you see this as um you know the right progression in your career the right fit for this particular job yeah certainly you said I I came to town um I didn't know much about the town I saw an add to Telegram and Gazette back in the day so I applied um the town through the hiring process the town um saw my resume and actually gave me an opportunity to uh and they I believe I was the first first police officer they sent to the police academy uh cuz they hired a couple guys um right before me so they had the time to invest so I was uh pretty fortunate that the town took the time to invest in me uh throughout my throughout my career uh I started off as kind of felt like I owed the town since they invested in me and I was out there pretty aggressively enforcing traffic traffic laws and and and such um I uh spent a lot of time uh getting to know the residents kind of that way to be honest with you maybe that wasn't the lead you were looking for that was a new way of community policing but uh I thought it was effective but they did not so but um no throughout the years I been been in town excuse me I don't know if these allergies or what I've been in town for 25 years and and uh I've seen like generational where we chase chase kids around and kids that need some direction and then you see them 10 15 20 years later um at community events like the marathon and you see them with their own their families and stuff so they come up and they say thank you and hello so it's it's you know it's made a difference um I I think I've made a little bit of a difference in some people's lives so it's been fun great thank you um so my first question off the list is as a leader within the Hopkinson Police Department you must often build support for a town Vision Department goals and projects from people who do not necessarily report to you tell us about a situation where you've demonstrated that you can build the needed support especially from people you may have no authority over sure um part of the traffic constables program we started because we identified an issue that we could not fill details um with with the staff and Hopkinson with the amount of jobs that we have so I worked closely with human resources um um a lot of other Town departments to on board I think we have a total of 80 traffic constables and we vetted we we um went through all their applications determined who was trained and who could start right away who wasn't trained and a lot of these people were from not within the community they were outside um some had experiences some didn't so we had to go through all those names and and uh determine who had to go through some training who had Who had who had the um the records that are they were up to dat with training and I put trust in people that that um you know we we didn't really know we just we just vetted so um just communicating with emails and stuff like that um I think we just entrusted those people um which I I I kind of oversee but I'm not their their boss you know I think the town V's office kind of um controls them my in my line of work we call that hurting cats a little bit yeah it's daunting sometimes it is daunting um okay thank you Amy okay okay so um please describe how you would meet with Civic educational and Community groups to develop or build upon Community program prrs and events related to law enforcement in hopkington and in the surrounding areas I think I think I might start from the um the community uh survey that I think that we recently did to find out what the actual issues are and which groups um for support and then just reach out to them individually to see what their needs are and what is what are the keys to success when communicating with public I think um just having an open relationship having an open um dialogue sometimes you know I've had some experience with negotiating contracts with Mr Calo and we both realize that sometimes neither side wins but we agree to disagree and um we we have a pretty good relationship so I think even if you can't um I don't know um help in the way like a certain group needs you to but as long as you just support them and do the best you can okay thank you yeah may Joe okay uh retention has been a problem in law enforcement not just in the but in in in the whole nation right now I guess um what strategy would you use as a lieutenant to ensure the success and the relationships of new officers so um that's that's been a topic of conversation recently certainly with uh a lot of people even with with inside the building so um We There was discussion about a stay interview U which I thought was a great idea um also just having conversations with the younger officers because there is quite quite a bit of Gap they uh they feel valued if they're given opportunities so I think as a lieutenant I would probably uh reassess the opportunities that we currently have for police officers to grow and maybe there's opportunities to create new positions 25 years it's been a long time glad to have you here um as you know the lieutenant position is relatively new in hopkington uh describe your understanding of its value opportunities and challenges uh in the hopkington police department well currently it's it's um like I like I just mentioned there's a uh there's quite a bit of a a gap so there's um the chief the the sergeants we um we have a wealth of knowledge just institutionally and just because we've been around for a while it's our job now to pass that on to the to the new younger the younger officers um and we can do that through mentoring uh coaching and um just you know giving trying you know just have supporting them and and like maybe somebody wants to start a k9 program you know we could support them and researching it and and uh who knows maybe Hopkinson will'll get another K9 someday so uh this is a followup what what steps would you take to socialize the role uh to the department as well as the wider public I'm sorry I missed the first part of that what steps would you take to kind of socialize the role um within the department as well as to the general public okay so um as we all know social media is um the way people communicate now so currently we have a Facebook page um maybe talking with the younger officers that want to get on the I know there we have a social media team and there's quite a bit of an interest in that but maybe SE seeking out different platforms not just Facebook the older people use Facebook younger generation does not so there is a little bit of a gap hey hey that kind of hurt me in a way that it's hard to describe that's why I don't do any social media so sorry I shouldn't I really age myself that way try to keep up but um sometimes it's it's difficult but but there's a lot of from what I understand is there's uh many more uh social media platforms that than we current than we currently use so we probably reach out that way and again if you just if you tap into the resources that we have which the younger officers they they have um they can maneuver social media sites pretty well and they know how to make memes and and stuff like that so um I go that route to to send a message and to get people on bo uh and feel feel that value that that they they they look for they want last followup what distinguishes what distinguishes this role in hopkington um from other departments I think we just displayed it yesterday we're all in the uh the spotlight so um when you when you see a successful event especially with related to law enforcement um Lieutenant has a lot to do with organizing that thank you welcome sh thank you Sergeant for your service long service for our community uh protecting us um appr my first question is about leadership what is your thought uh and how would you describe your leadership style and if you can uh draw an example from your experience uh to elaborate on your style sure I wouldn't I don't know if I would categorize my myself as a just a single in single like a single word um I think you you just have to um not conform but like just read the room I guess you know some people um like to be told what to do some people don't take directions uh as well as others so you kind have to feel out how each person uh reacts to you know an order or a request uh some people like to volunteer some people are more eager um some people are more knowledgeable in certain areas so I would just you know seek out those individuals and um just kind of fine-tune how how um I would direct them how I would you know help them get into training classes that uh that they're interested in um so yeah I don't think I have one specific leadership style that's okay I think you U captured it well thank you the second question is U regarding policies and procedures obviously it's uh super critical uh as a police officer uh sergeant and now focusing on liant uh uh to be compliant and adhering to all policies and procedures um in times of difficulty or confusion how would you go about implementing policies and procedures first part of the question and second is if you see any Gap in existing policies and procedures how do you go about improving those well policies are basically our our rulebook right so so um the first thing I would do is just uh to change a policy um so they figure out what is wrong with the policy or what areas need to be changed and then have a discussion with the administration and um figure out what is the best way to change it and then um get the Union's approval and then obvious obviously bring it back in front of the board to get approval um in certain situations um the first part of that question sir could you repeat it was there was a little bit of background uh sure uh if because as police officer you encounter various complex and difficult situations uh in when a situation arises that makes it um make can create confusion or makes it uh difficult for policy adherence for whatever reason how would you go about handling that okay um app thank you for repeating that it's a a little more clear now uh so In the Heat of the Moment uh in situations where you just can't you can't stop and and act and you have to uh continue um handling whatever Situation's in front of you and then realize uh like in an in a after action um either sit sit down a report you realize um some of the limitations the the current policy has or some of uh the issues within the policy that you recognize during that incident or after the incident so um again just sit down point out um which which uh areas need to be changed and then just sit down and have a conversation with it with with this the uh committees that we have thank you I don't have any other question I thought so too which one do you oh about new [Applause] recruits did you ask one more last time shadu off of the list you didn't have the list he didn't have the list that's why yeah both are my own questions but I Reed them no it's totally fine we were just trying to make sure we were true to the process and we asked the same questions I'm sorry for the confusion um I did ask one more question um last time I think um and I say a lot but I think often about the the potential and possibilities that are um ours here in Hopkinson because we have um such a new group of police officers right and uh and that presents as a really strong opportunity so in terms of um when you think about that as an opportunity potentially um team building and and making making uh the you know the um Department into the team of uh that you you know you want to see what is it that you um bring to that or think about that in terms of the opportunities there and what you might like to to see yeah so I've um I've had quite a bit of experience with team building with Department I think back in I think it was 2006 or 200 was asked become a trainer uh since then uh I um the program has dramatically changed and grown it consists of uh five field trainers currently with uh um so um after after um I let me back up it's a long it's been a it's I've been involved with it since 2009 and it's grown so much so I'm kind of all over the place but I'm proud of it so I don't I got to slow down um um over the years it's it's grown and every officer um every s every current sergeant the exception of two have gone through the gone through the field training program or have been um field trainers so it's within our department it's def definitely like a quasi leadership role it's the first kind of leadership roles somebody gets and um it's kind of sends a clear message that uh the current sergeants um all were field trainers so it kind of shows that the younger officers that hey this might be a stepping stone um again there's a lot into it there's a syllabus it's it's that's um followed check each each box is checked off to make sure that if the field trainer has gone over every aspect it's a long we process and each each trainee gets um three different field Trainers for a certain period of time and they go back to the the first field chair the last week so hopefully that that that trainer uh sees a dramatic change in in the officer in that nwe per that they were separated so um anyways that that program is uh I'm sorry Mrs Kramer I I missed I lost my train of thought it's okay it's not it's not a really fixed question it's what do you see as the possibilities um in terms of team building if you're in that role thank you yeah so I was just trying to explain um my experience with team building it was in hton so it's uh it's an awesome program and I built it and I just recently gave it up to take on more roles um because the chief has given me the opportunity to take G more of like uh administrative duties so um which I appreciate the opportunity to grow within the department so um the I also had some experience team building with um the traffic program that we have uh we have a couple officers assigned to that and as well as the field uh the fleet Fleet Maintenance so I built a little team for that too so the new officers they they want to be involved so um most of most of the time I just ask if people want to be involved you know I don't force people to do it so it's great because when you get Buy in they're willing to do and take on a lot more so it turns into just giving them a little bit of direction and once they're very comfortable with the tasks that they that they do and you just kind of have to stand back and let them do it and then you just kind of manage that process so and it gives it gives the feedback that I get from them is they appreciate it because they they get a little bit of freedom to kind of there's no micromanaging going on that I hate and and uh had a little bit of experience with that so I can tell you that's that's one style that I do not do I do not do that so yeah there there there's been a lot of team building uh again just by giving the opportunities from uh my Chiefs in the past and and most recently Chief benett has given us um it was a a t tumultuous uh few years and uh what we didn't see uh benefited us tremendously because I've gained a lot of experience in the last year that if we didn't have the open positions that we do now I wouldn't have had that experience great um thank you I think um that is all the questions that we asked um we really appreciate you being here um and uh we wish you good luck appreciate that sorry I lost my tra of thought there but I have a lot to say but in a small short period of time so no worries no worries thank you time we send smoke signals downstairs again I'll be right back than so about the sound they going to do the presentation tonight in I think so them here I here in the [Applause] oh okay and there's one working microphone and one non-working microphone so it's actually a mind trick we like to we don't want anybody too comfortable when they get here are we waiting for Norman to come back smile yeah been a big uh big couple of days I would think we could start yeah I think yes thank you um okay so um welcome we start with the chief through the chair I'm here with Sergeant detective Sergeant um joined the Department in July of 2001 he served as a detective detective sergeant and um has a jurist doctorate and Masters intice Administration and throughout his career he's uh been involved in some ma very major and critical and tragic uh events within the community he was one of the two investigators who brought forward the arrest of NE an twistle after he murdered his wife and child uh and that became came an international Case actually traveled to go get him and bring him back and have him held accountable for for what he did in his time as detective he's and detective Sergeant he's been instrumental in um kind of leading all the major cases and and supporting uh Patrol men as they work cases one of the things we do is uh in order to grow the skill set of the patrolman we don't just pass off cases uh we try to keep the officers involved as the case evolves they might not be doing everything but um they they're invol actively involved run up through arrest or search for an execution we do that to develop them he's been been leading that charge for a long time most recently uh since August of 2022 he's served as second in command and has has learned and developed uh all the skills knowledge skills and abilities in that role the opportunity to talk more about that but he's um we'll let him talk about it come back okay you need to so we um we just want to make sure we welcome you um I know you've been here a long time our candidates have all been dedicated to Hopkinson for better than 20 years which is incredible um if you can just you know introduce yourself to the community I know I know you're known so but to make sure people know who you are um and what your interest is in this position just a little little intro I think is helpful sure uh so I've been like that Chief said I've been with the Department in a full-time capacity for over 23 years um I've moved up through the ranks 14 years ago I promoted the sergeant five years ago um I was assigned as a detective Sergeant where I oversee Court prosecution property evidence um and all investigations that involve a detective um as of more recently um been more involved in the more administrative roles um dealing with payroll dealing with budgeting um policies and procedures uh Boston Marathon was a major project that uh I think was a like you said earlier was a great success shined our community made hopkington look great um and through that experience um I've had the opportunity to work with federal state other local law enforcement building um building teams um learning from that on how to build what we have here in hopkington and ensure that uh everybody here has a safe and fun day I also feel as though um and I believe that I'm a role model for the other sergeants um I made Sergeant before them I've I helped coach them um I've brought them along and and tried to expose my knowledge onto them and uh and ensure that is a succession plan that there there's time when I'm not there that they can handle it and they can um and move on move the organization forward um even if the chief or I are not there great thank you um as a leader within Hopkinson let me make sure I'm asking the right one thank you um as a leader within oh just procedurally I didn't say this to you I don't think we ask everybody the same questions so you know everybody's had the same opportunity to answer the same questions um as a leader within H the hopkington police department you must often build support for a town Vision Department goals and projects from people who do not necessarily report to you tell me about a situation where you demonstrated that you can build the needed support especially from people you may have no authority over okay um so I'll draw from recent example um we had the senior car parade and the tatcha truck event and um both were approved and planned for the same day in and around the exact same time and it was brought to our attention uh by the toucher truck folks that it was going to it was going to impede their ability to set up and and have the carp parade there in and around the same time what I learned was the toucher truck event didn't need to come before you they went to the school and got approval and picked their day and the senior Car Parade did have to go to you and the school said it's a non-school event and we have no we're not going to be involved with it so they came before you for a parade perit and unbeknownst to the both organizations it was picked for the same day um so we scheduled a meeting of the station um with both organizers and discussed it and figured out best course of action and how um um things could be amended so that it could both events could be safe both events could proceed without uh without issue and um if you recall that's why they came um before you a month or so ago um asking for a date change um to Sunday instead of Saturday great Amy uh please describe how you would meet with Civic educational and Community groups to develop or build upon Community programs and events related to law enforcement in hopkington and the surrounding area so um currently I oversee the SRO um hopefully in the coming year we'll have two sro's um but with um with him we meet regularly with the school um superintendent and the principes um to discuss what programs and what he um can do to advance safety whether it's um safety drills Alice training um things of that nature within within the school um and to also promote the police department and um events where other officers um can participate so this time of the year uh we're we're in getting near the end of the school year there's typically field days and different events between um Marathon School uh Hopkins and Elmwood and uh we communicate that with the other officers and encourage them to come down and participate in some of the events just to have some face time with with the students and um what is the key to success when communicating with the public um open transparency um eight I think there's a lot of unknowns about law enforcement um and people are always interested in doing more there's certain things we can obviously share and there's certain things we cannot um but the um should be available for the public to to view and ask questions thank you Mary Joe I'm going to ask you the same question I've asked everybody um in recent years it's been difficult not only in Hoppington and the state of Massachusetts but pretty much in the whole country retaining officers uh in law enforcement I was going to ask you what strategies would you use as a lieutenant to ensure the success and retention of new officers so I think one of the key roles um as a lieutenant is to build trust with the officers um you know I think we've done well with building a contract that um is certainly competitive with um area towns and with um with our other with other agencies um but the officers need to feel that they're they're trusted that they have the support of the administration um and that will listen and sit down with them if they have a concern do what we can to address it but ultimately just sit and listen um them out as to you know what they feel is important what they feel um would improve their work um and if possible um bring them in and have that uh have that issue that concern address and improve their their work product fan so um you know the lieutenant position is a relatively new one in Hopkinson uh describe your understanding of its value opportunities and challenges in the Hoppington Police Department so it's an opportunity to build off leadership that you've learned um it takes you into a different role um obviously more administrative than on the road day-to-day answering calls um having that background and having that experience I think I can use that to um promote training promote experience connect the officers with people I know law enforcement is a very small world and uh a lot of the time having connections and having those those resources that you can call upon um and share those with with the officers um and promoting you know their growth and development within the agency great now how would you kind of uh socialize the the department as well as the community to this new role so I feel as though it's a forward- facing role um it does require sitting behind a desk um but it's important to be out in the community uh important to be at different meetings uh throughout the community and uh participating in different events um that are that we have essentially every weekend um in town um especially with the warmer weather and and um the different different things that we have going on great last followup what distinguishes this role in uh in hopkington from other departments through my experience and I think um some of our retirees would agree with us that the sergeants and the lieutenants in hopkington do a lot more than what sergeants and lieutenants do on other organizations um other organizations the sergeant are typically just Road supervisors they handle calls they deal with the patrol guys lieutenants you know are strictly administrative they don't get involved in a lot of things our leadership is involved in like every aspect when we start talking about policies everybody gets brought in to talk about policies uh we talk about different training programs sending people to different training programs everybody gets brought into that fold um and I feel as though we're unique in that that respect where where um our leadership is not pigeonholed into uh one one area not another great thank you Shah thank you thank you Sergeant for your um long service to our community and protecting us uh and for uh being here with us tonight U my first question is uh regarding leadership how would you describe your leadership style and your thoughts on leadership and if you can draw on an example from your experience um uh or um any other um uh expertise that you demonstrate and elaborate on your leadership style sure so I would describe my leadership style as situational leadership um you know we read all the leadership books and is autocratic and Democratic and um I look at it more as a situation so there are times uh for instance when um one of the our from our strategic goals I'm in charge of recruitment um and hiring that allows me to sit down with a team and discuss how do we want to go about this how do we want to recruit do we want to go to theems do we want to go to job fairs um how how do we want to do things so I feel as though that's an opportunity to sit down and have a discussion um we've had incidents uh in town that require a much more dictatorship style of leadership where it's a dyn dynamic situation Dynamic incident and orders have to be given and followed um I don't have time to take everybody's feelings into account we need to to handle the situation and officers need to respond um so I really don't find myself as one type of leader thank you I appreciate your Insight um my second question is uh regarding uh policies and procedures which um is absolutely critical for uh the job of police officers um so I would like to hear your thoughts regarding uh compliance and adherence of policies and procedures and two aspects of it one is in the time of difficulty uh because of the complexity of the situation you are in um at a moment or for a long time um or for any confusion how do you handle how would you go about handling the uh adherence to the policies and procedures and the second part of the question is uh should you observe any Gap in existing policies and procedures how would you go about uh recommending and improving that policies and procedures to um uh fill in that Gap sure sure so uh currently I'm in the process of finishing up our policies to ensure post compliance uh ensure that we meet all the the the standards that are imposed on us and through that uh we meet with our policy team and discuss things and address their concerns and some of the concerns are part of accreditation and we can't adjust them but a lot of the a lot of the policies can be amended Department specific uh if there was a um the the My Philosophy with policies is they're a guidance they're a tool um to be used and referenced by the officers um but more more often than not it's common sense and I've always told my officers do the right thing for the right reasons and I'll support you um I will I'll work with you I'll go through it with you um it's when you don't do the right thing for the right reasons um and in clear violation of a policy and um I believe that if the officers feel as though um I trust them they'll do the right thing for the right reasons thank you for sharing your insights I appreciate it thanks Sergeant I don't have any other questions okay one more question for me um I often talk about and think about uh the opport Unity that uh is in front of Hopkinson with a department that has so many new and young officers so my question really is about um team building the opportunities that are there and how you see um yourself taking advantage of that opportunity in this new role uh so I believe that I've done that um in the past with the way I I lead um being in charge of recruitment in hiring um being in charge of detectives uh all those involve bringing our officers in and getting their input and allowing them to run with it um the first step to leadership is delegation um and I don't assign tasks to officers I delegate authority to them and give them the opportunity to build upon a program I give them the direction I give them where we want to end up and allow them to figure the process to get there and that gives them a sense of ownership gives them a sense of Pride that they built something that they brought something forward in betterment of the agency and uh and I think when they see that and they see that from dayto day around the station it's a sense of Pride for them and uh and also an opportunity for them to learn a new skill or a new um new task that puts him you know in a better position for the future great thank you so much um that is all the questions we have um we're in a very fortunate position where we have three very dedicated seasoned officers um for this position so we really appreciate you being here tonight and we wish you good luck thank you [Music] through the chair I think uh I sit here with great pride with responses that the three candidates gave this is in a very uh stressing deucing uh experience to be on film and to know that every word that you speak will likely be analyzed uh they're all all three are very committed to their growth and support for the Department and they they also in our organization you know we're always trying to portray the most professional best image for the department and I think they all did really well what you've seen is truly representative of members of the hwk and police department the last part of the process is I have to make my recommendation that's the final that's the final final task of my and my my part of the journey here and I want to begin by thanking all three of these sergeants who have really put the pedal to the medal especially since about May uh took on new duties learned new skills they came asking to learn new skills and to grow their their uh abilities uh they took on extra hours when generally they don't want to you know they they want to be with their family friends and loved ones um but they they've been doing it to uh to keep the organization uh moving forward in the absence of the Command Staff that all being said by far uh in the process we know that uh I I should state that Sergeant van ralton came out significantly on top and sergeant mcneel and O'Neal are within like half of 1% of each other's scores uh the way my evaluation Works their their career has been so similar that I actually scored them the same um through the interview process uh is uh is another area where Sergeant veralon shined Sant van ralton has always demonstrated the ability to develop programs uh work above um his rank he's been developing programs and proposals his entire career and since August of 22 he's essentially served as a my second command he has the ability to he to do payroll but that doesn't end with him today's Marathon very complex Marathon payroll uh S V roll actually on a vacation day today and our very complex payroll was done by S mcneel um he's been involved in procurement he's uh Boston Marathon is all this all going on that he he's been doing he's also put brought the marathon plan together which is hundreds of hours it's non-stop it doesn't shut off at 4:00 and uh his commitment and dedication to the department as obvious uh law degree has been a resource and uh tonight I'd like to recommend Sergeant Squad van ralton to be promoted to the position of lieutenant [Music] okay so yes you like me to stay or would you no absolutely yeah this is probably yeah absolutely um just in terms of process do people need a little bit of time with their notes or how are you feeling I could probably use five minutes with my notes yeah okay is it is that okay okay um Shaul just five minutes to CCT your notes and thoughts and so forth and then um we would typically let me just run that run what I think the process is we would typically run through our uh own recommendations or thought processes on each candidate and what our where our initial feelings are um and then we'll see where we are in terms of the vote does that make sense um whenever we vote we always want to make sure that we have have um a majority so if it did happen that we had two two and one we would probably take the two top two and revote it is that am I I'm looking for the nod so yeah so we would at least have a three to vote all right so we're going to take five minutes for Mrs Kramer apparently just S [Applause] Notes for [Music] just e for I'm not sure this is going to help me that much you e for very difficult think it's better just exactly yeah almost every 15 minutes uhhuh yeah yeah that's what's great about the Apple watch is it it's time to stand to stand yeah yeah how many hours do you set for standing to day okay how many hours yeah what's your tet just whatever it came with probably oh okay yeah I didn't actually s it but such a sedentary life I live oh yeah we're designed to be always emotion I was talking to my my uh friend and I'm like well yeah you know summertime you get so much more work generally just as aware do lawn doing you know um I was thinking you know like minutes hour and that's it whereas in the summer time something nonstop yeah I I actually compare people at home all his motion M all his motion yeah sitting in the office you get behind that desk and te yeah really is yeah el. and you have it through historic district anyway yeah okay [Music] no [Music] took okay spe [Music] here m are we ready but I'm going to have got your own that's the one that works oh no they both work oh they both work now yeah stereo very nice high-fi I missed it um okay so um I I think that we will just start the process um and um yeah usually we reflect on strengths and and make our recommendation and um I don't know if anybody is a willing um candidate to go first or if they'd rather I do I will you're looking at me so no I I will if I will if I have to but either way I don't mind okay um this is a very difficult decision there are you know three very qualified candidates and um it s that we can only pick one um I think um Sergeant van Walton's um experience um basically assuming the role of Lieutenant for the past uh past year and speaks volumes to me that he's probably he's likely the most most prepared I think his his background as well um really jumps out of me as on top of that um I think you know Sergeant O'Neal um also displayed tremendous strengths and um it's this is a difficult decision that as well um but I yeah so I guess that's kind of where I fall okay um I um I I have a list of strengths here I'm sorry what goad uh that as I take notes when I'm doing interviews um I very often highlight what it is that really speaks to me and I um um I I Look to I Look to think to see how that all works together so um I I'm very very much struggling with the decision there isn't an easy answer to me um everybody has tremendous dedication um to this town and in their career um um I um I liked so much of what I heard for example um Matt mcneel said I felt like the town had invested in me and I I want to invest um wanted to invest in the town and um that he's grown here um has really good experience in building teams um with the field training and um and and the traffic um the traffic enforcement uh Juggernaut that he apparently single-handedly um built um and uh talked about leadership style reading a situation I think that that um is often very critical um for police officers um Aaron um talked about our new officers as our future that really spoke to me giving them opportunity to to grow um and um helping make sure they have the opportunity to to um you know lead and and be involved in the decisions um was um particularly um I thought approachable and humble in his style which also speaks to me um his leadership style um again speaks to me leading um from the front and by example um and then when he answered shadu's question about policy he said he made the point that you have to address the honesty gaps which I thought that was just a was just really important um to hear so um and then Scott obviously has um a very strong background but educationally and by experience has handled a lot of major cases um has established himself um with the opportunities um he's had for um the administrative and the delegation side and um working uh across agencies uh mentioned wanting to be a role model that speaks to me a lot um and uh something you said struck Accord with me opportunities to build on the um opportunities that they have earned so I I like that a lot as well um and then also spoke to situational um leadership style so um I this is a really hard choice for me but um honestly um I lean towards my vote going to Aaron Aaron Aaron me to go ahead yep okay so like everyone has said and I know we say this a lot it's really hard when we have to make a choice um when there's many qualified options here so I thought um Aon and Neil's strengths were the mental health clinician uh role and program um and his responses on teamwork and retention I thought were really good and getting the new report p on board and then the policy policy experience um about working on the policy committee and the accreditation committee uh for Matthew mcneel I thought that his experience as the traffic coordinator managing all the traffic constables and the field training program showed really good leadership and I thought those were really strengths for Matthew Anil and then for Scott Van ralton um the payroll budgeting procedures policies all that stuff has to be done it's not very exciting but um I thought and is it has the lot so jurist doctorate is a law degree but not a practicing no he's a he has a LIC law degree yeah he's a licensed attorney yeah yeah and has um working with the senior car parade in the Touch a Truck to you know that's kind of a sticky situation they both had their hearts on having the their event the same day and they worked hard for it so um so I my vote goes to Scott Van ralton but yeah I thought all presented themselves very well and I liked most of what they all had to say they're all dedicated and I really feel like this department is in a good place having the three of them there and um this is like between my head and my heart and I'm having a very very difficult time with making a decision but uh tonight I would have to say I have to go with Aaron sorry you got the hot you got to break the tie I didn't necessarily set that up for you Shah I my apologies in advance and we can talk through it if that's hard no no no worries uh yeah it is a tough uh call and tough decision but it's a good problem to have in my view cuz we have three really uh wonderful candidates and I like them all their dedication their empathy and their engagement with our community their responses on leadership and their outstanding U resumés um it's it's awesome each of them are highly educated and uh has uh you know been multi uh talented and as the chief mentioned and they also mentioned carried the burden of some of the gaps uh in people for some time and that certainly matured and elevated their status so really proud to see that and uh we still have to the decision obviously and uh so in terms of the strengths I see you know Aaron I liked his um um articulation of the thoughts on mental health and some of the other engagements on leadership on policies that he mentioned and uh I liked his uh background um experience and dedicated service for a long time a US Army veteran uh and uh his education and skills and the leadership that he has demonstrated uh on um Sergeant mcneel certainly also comes out very well with the background experience and the education um uh High education level and the responses on some of the leadership uh questions were are really on the mark and he has uh served the community uh for a long time as well with dedication and um so um coming to Sergeant van ralton I certainly liked his responses on leadership and also policies uh as well and his um education has one notch up with the J degree which is may not be essential but is certainly an added Advantage for a leadership role in law enforcement uh now where I'm coming down and and I liked his U administrative skills his uh focus on management and uh one thing that stood out about Sergeant van ralton was his U uh planning and engagement that the chief has mentioned it's and it seems like that he has been playing a little bit more uh strategic and Leadership role than the others and uh maybe the opportunity is in front of him because of his uh uh role and the engagements and he has demonstrated well on that uh especially I heard on the uh Marathon planning and execution side of things on the administration side of things uh so as you can follow mine it it is a difficult one but I'm leaning towards uh Sergeant van ralton for the latter reasons it is uh you know one notop leadership role where uh I can see uh Sergeant van ralton fitting in uh quicker uh because of uh the roles he's playing along with his um surgent role on the administration strategic planning and execution sides uh and more of a executive presence I I felt came out a little bit stronger and again it's a very difficult de um decision comparing you know we have outstanding and really good um candidates uh so I am my vote is for sergeant van ralton and my last comment on this is that I would like to see uh sergeant mcnail and Sergeant Aaron uh continue to grow on the uh Shadow path to become you know our move towards the leadership roles uh with more opportunities and more work because we do want also succession and um uh contingency planning for various reasons as we always discuss uh so those are my thoughts and again uh thanks to all the candidates it's it's a tough decision but a good problem to have and I'm leaning towards that uh you've leaned towards that you that that's because we're going to take a vote Shadle so that's your vote I'm right that's my vote for yeah I just want to make sure I wasn't yeah putting words in your mouth um okay I'll agreed a very tough decision would somebody like to make the [Music] motion Madam chair I move go ahead shadow Madam chair I move the motion to appoint uh Sergeant van ralton for the position of Lieutenant at the Hopkinton Police Department uh Sergeant U Scott Van ralton is there a second second uh how do we vote uh by roll call Vote or yes Amy Amy M yes Joe yes sh iel Kramer yes congratulations congratulations [Applause] congratulations I like to get pictures of all would love that over our shoulders abely want to gole here for me first please one more thank you than than than [Music] through the chair thank you we're almost miserably behind schedule here I'm tell oh please I can't do we have any actions we have to take on it I don't think so we have to make our recommendations what is critical here we sign we to sign me town meeting annual town meeting I think it's the critical P oh and the GRE has been waiting for us yeah so oh is there anything else in between yeah let's do sustainable green and then hopefully we're not long know time meeting shouldn't take long I don't think so I hope not all right Mrs Lazarus it's up to you to get us back on schedule Oh is not possible shall we do sustainable green yes okay we're going to do the sustainable green committee sorry and so appreciate everybody's patience this was an important meeting these are important decisions okay do you have a PDF is there a presentation or uh some slides slides it there we go perfect thank you okay all right here we go Connor tan Mrs Lazarus already go ahead all right we uh really appreciate your time we know it's late um uh it'd be remiss if I didn't start by thanking Norman for everything uh four years ago when I started on the sustainable green committee um I mean everybody on the committee we all had these big ideas on everything we wanted to achieve and he's the one that sat us down and was like this is how you actually get things done I've learned an enormous amount from you thank you for that going to miss you around here thank you for the kind words you do good work for the [Music] community and uh I know the town's in good hands with the lane as well Fountain of Knowledge um so we're here tonight talk about the uh specialized code for town meeting um I know building codes are a Hot Topic um but uh uh next slide please oh by the way for anyone watching uh my name is Jeff Roland I'm chair of the sustainable green committee uh with me tonight is Nicole Simpson So in uh Massachusetts um we have three levels of the building code there's the base code which sets minimum building standards and is covered by very small proportion of the population at this point uh beyond that we have the stretch code which um hopkington adopted in 2010 and um set higher efficiency standards for buildings uh until last year when the specialized code became available the stretch code was the highest uh most efficient uh version of the building code and the majority of Massachusetts was under it uh early last year the specialized code uh was introduced as an opin for municipalities and it is a green Amendment to the stretch code not a massive change and It prepares new buildings for Net Zero within the first year there's been quite a lot of adoption 26% of the state population is already under the specialized code and with the town meeting season coming up we expect that to go up as well hopefully in hopkington um and if we were to adopt it in town meeting it'll go into effect in January of 2025 there needs to be at least a six-month period uh for you know developers and the building inspectors everybody to get ready for such a change next slide please um so as far as timeline uh as I mentioned we adopted the stretch code in 2010 hopkington was one of the first communities to do so and in January 2023 the specialized code became available uh as you may remember in November at special town meeting we brought up the specialized code and it did not pass uh at special town meeting um we we got some good feedback we could have done a better job explaining the differences um we maybe spent a little too much time on why we were doing it not the what um the details of the the specialized code and um we didn't spell out the differences the the stretch code was also going under undergoing a few changes as well at the time which we could have done a better job explaining we're hoping to correct that this time around so here we are in May and again if this were to go into effect it's not going to happen until January of 2025 next slide please so I know we spent too much time on why in November but I just want to reiterate this is about climate change our climate's changing we are coming out of our warmest winter on record here in Massachusetts um and on the right there which might be hard to see but it's a very compelling graphic on the direction climate change is going to take us over the course of the century this data is specific to Hopkinton developed by scientists at um Amherst and few other schools I believe it's at available at resilient ma.gov and it shows down that middle line is the most likely projection by the end of this Century residents of hopkington are expected to have more than two months of the year above 90° so our descendants are going to have a vastly different climate than we have right now which is frightening to think about we have other similar charts available on our website uh hops specialize.in of say the average temperature over the year uh rainfall projections on extreme weather events how the number of cold days is going to drop significantly as well there going to be a ton of impacts um so we want our to do our part to reduce emissions now to do that we need to address emissions of our buildings in hopkington about half of our emissions come from our buildings mostly from the way that we heat our air and our water and so again reaching Net Zero um where we have you know essentially zero emissions requires us to reduce our building emissions the specialized code will at least prevent us from making that problem worse as we try to bring them down uh next slide please so here is uh a graph of our home heating Trends over the last U 5 years 12 2027 2017 through 2022 that the number there's a bit of a delay in getting the data but you can see that over those 5 years almost all new construction has been trending towards natural gas the uh the orange section on the bottom whereas growth of uh you know all electric or oil has been fairly stagnant oil you do want to be stagnant or come down um but this the fossil fuels that we burn are what's known as scope one emissions um which are the emissions that we can most directly control within Hopkinton with the specialized code we want to at least prevent this number from uh to from keeping to go up and that's what we're hoping to do heat efficient heat pumps are already available for homes uh to to heat them uh with a lot of rebates available and uh again for this trend to change we really need a building code change to be able to bring down uh the amount of fossil fuel usage in our homes right next slide please and Nicole's going to take it from here okay so this next part I'm going to explain what the specialized code itself does um two most important things to remember um are pre-wiring and solar that's those are the big changes that happen with the specialized code so to explain pre-wiring that means that while you're constructing these new buildings while you're doing the electrical work the walls are open to put the wiring in place that you would need for supporting the building's needs um to be all electric if you build it all electric from day one it's kind of baked into what you're doing but if you do decide to go that mixed fuel route to have fossil fuels into the building that's allowed with this code you just need to have the wiring in place so that future Air heating water heating cooking and clothing drying can all be electric um so the next topic is solar for buildings that go that mixed fuel route and that means you have natural gas propane or oil into the building um there's a requirement to have a certain amount of solar on site and there's more criteria around that that I'll get into in a later slide um that's only true if you go the mixed fuel route it's not ired if you do all electric for your building um some other detailed uh uh changes that happen with the specialized code if a home is over 4,000 square ft there's some additional requirements basically that um it's not just this minimum amount of solar but enough solar on site to fully offset the energy use on an annual basis and then for large multif family homes these are um buildings over 12,000 s ft so this is a pretty large building um it needs to use the passive house pathway um and so that means efficient by Design it's a certain building standard that's been around for a long time but it's a specific way of building for high efficiency and for all of this we are talking about new construction only this has no impact if you're doing an addition or a renovation this is strictly about new buildings next slide please so this this is a detailed chart of all the different Pathways for these four main building types um homes less than 4,000 sare ft greater than 4,000 ft multif family buildings that are over 12,000 ft and commercial buildings so um if you're ever un Shore uh I'd say go back to this chart because I find this a pretty informative way to understand what the different options are with this this code um for all of these there's different Pathways you have all electric or mixed fuel which have different uh requirements around them and what you can see shaded in yellow that's really what's new with the specialized code everything else is already there with the stretch code next slide please so let's walk through these different scenarios a new single family home that's less than 4,000 sare ft um when we looked at the data of what's been built in hopkington looking back the past 15 years that reflects 91% of buildings that were built in the past past 15 years so that doesn't necessarily mean that's what it looks like in the future but it gives a good idea of what kinds of buildings are are are built so if you go all electric there's no changes from the stretch code today if you use fossil fuels you need that pre-wiring for electric appliances and you need a minimum amount of solar um at least 400 uh sorry 4 kilow um and there are some exceptions allowed for shaded sites and there's detailed requirements of what what would ify as that within the code next slide please homes greater than 4,000 ft and that represents 6% of the buildings over the past 15 years the percentage is a little higher if you look in just the past few years but overall it it's a smaller amount of the buildings um that have been constructed all electric no changes fossil fuels again you need pre-wiring for electric appliances and then you need enough solar to offset energy usage on an annual bis this is not um this does not have any exceptions for shaded sites um larger homes do have larger emissions that's that's a fact and so this code is putting in place expectations to offset that impact of larger homes next slide please multif Family Residence greater than than 12,000 um Square F feet um this was only 2% of all buildings built it it's three buildings that have been built in hopkington in the past 15 years these are very large buildings um uh so it can have a a bigger impact um whether you build all electric or a mixed fuel it's uh the passive house design um that's required so that highly efficient building standard um for the people who live in those um those units eventually it's really going to minimize their cost for heating and cooling because of that efficient design that really is going to retain that temperature within the building um if fossil fuels are used um again pre-wiring for electric appliances and there's no specific requirement for solar um for for this uh pathway and next slide please commercial construction this was 3% of buildings um all electric there's no code changes um and just to highlight uh the Elmwood School replacement is already planned all electric is already fully in compliance with this code so um that wouldn't there wouldn't be any difference there for fossil fuels if those are used again pre-wiring for the building needs this does not apply to things like a manufacturing process it's really about again that heating and uh heating of air and water is really the main thing in that commercial building uh the solar requirements are specified a little bit differently but the way it would work out is to about 25% of the roof area of a two-story building um now it doesn't have to be on the roof that's a typical way of complying but you could do a canopy over the parking lot you can do it elsewhere on the property it's just you need that solar on site next slide please so cost impact one thing I want to share is uh that by adopting the specialized code that gives Hopkinton the chance to become a climate leader this is a new program in Massachusetts that's just starting that um would give us access to grant money that we haven't had access you before this is uh with this new program it would only be the towns that have taken the step to adopt the specialized code um so uh that could be applied for Energy Efficiency or environmental projects in the town that um include things like we're doing this Hopkins school edition that's going to have ground Source heat pumps um a grant could go towards something like that and it's unlike the green communities that we've been a part of it's not capped at $500,000 but we only have a chance at that opportunity for these competitive grants if we adopt the specialized code um and just one more thing to note with that we've been uh a green Community um since 2010 and we have gotten over a million dollars of grant money through that so it's already made a big difference in our town this is a chance to um be in competition with just dozens of towns versus hundreds of other towns um for developers the the cost of building is about neutral if you look at the data in Massachusetts of hundreds of buildings um when they're built um all electric Net Zero ready the cost was neutral and often times less there are so many incentives available between federal and state incentives especially for um building all electric if you do go the mix fuel path there could be a little bit more expense with that pre-wiring that could make a differ but the cost of pre-wiring when you are building a new building is far less than it will be down the road after it's constructed to try to add that wiring so it's really the smart time to be putting that in place um finally for residents um if unless you're building a a new house this is really going to have no impact on you but for for the people that are building that new house it's you can save money on energy um building per this Co code and then um if you go that mixed fuel path you don't need a retrofit later um 10 15 years from now things are going to look very different and things will be moving more towards all electric you don't have to bring in an electrician to be able to change out your Appliance when um it reaches end of service next slide please so this is the last slide thanks for sticking with us here um just to summarize pre-wiring enables an easy switch to Electric appliances down the road um this is a key action for reducing carbon emissions in buildings we cannot achieve our Net Zero goals unless we address buildings and this is the easiest opportunity to address buildings is while they're being constructed um it's cost savings to the homeowner both short and longterm this gives us chance to um have increased State grant money as a climate leader but at the end of the day this um this building code has multiple Pathways there's Market Choice available for those developers and for those home buyers you can choose which path makes the most sense for you thank you for the time tonight do you have any questions I was just going to ask if we could skip the supplementary slid so thank you um the only thing I I wanted to ask um was if there's unintended consequences where people are taking down more trees because of the solar requirements right so there's some sort of balance between maintaining our trees and and also our so do do we have any information or data on what we're seeing out there if they just do all electric they won't be I I know but if they do all electric yeah there's no solar requirements if you go all electric you go the mixed fuel path um for homes under 4,000 square ft there's um there are uh shading exceptions so if that would apply if there's not enough roof area that would um get sufficient um solar to justify it then there is that exception that you would not be required to to do the solar so you wouldn't have to cut down trees in that case the only time when the solar is absolutely required is over 4,000 square foot homes that follow the mix fuel path but I think if you look at most of those homes being built you're not seeing a lot of shading impact because those tend to be larger properties so um most of the time an exception would um be able to um not force you to cut down those trees well thank you also a um for a house less than 4,000 F feet you need a 4 kilowatt installation it takes about 230 roughly square feet of roof area so not a ton of space that would need to be in the sunlight any questions or fun uh no although one one comment that I've always kind of thought about is um you encouraging developers to have south facing roofs um maybe to the rear um I mean it wouldn't be something from the stretch code but uh it's just it seems to make a lot more sense for solar to you know plan it at the very beginning stages and and have a South face when they're sighting the house on where they sight the house where they set the house on the lot and you know so and with newer proper properties you certainly have the advantage of planning that out yeah um and they can design the roof in a different way as well to to maximize that exposure yeah so exactly but doesn't have anything to do with the stretch code so we can move on Amy I was going to say um as requested I'd be very happy to make a motion for the select board to support this article at town meeting if that would help um after everyone has a chance to yeah no that's that's totally in order once people Hadad they just ask questions Mary Jill well uh 40 years ago when I moved into my unit it's all electric and it's still all electric uh few of the units have converted to gas unfortunately and uh the premise at the time was electric feet was more expensive but it is no longer yeah if I could address that um that that was true because electric heating was a different type of system at the time heat pumps the technology has really taken off over the past few years um so if if you remember anything about heat pumps from a decade ago it's a very different situation now they work well in in our climate um it's very common to um use heat pumps that you have to use the right type and design your building in the right way but again if you're planning that from the beginning it's very possible heat pumps are extremely efficient um uh appliances because they are moving Heat rather than creating heat so they just have this high efficiency that it uses Le less electric and so it's very different than the electric systems of the past that ran in a completely different way so totally understand that switch from Electric to gas to save money based on those old systems that's not what we're talking about here we're talking about heat pumps also new construction built to the latest versions of the code are extremely efficient um they almost think of them like a thermos they're going to hold heat really really well and so then that requires a lot less electricity as well to heat and cool it Shadow thank you for the wonderful presentation and a very thoughtful uh proposal um I have um some couple of questions but um before going there I also want to resonate what um Amy mentioned I think and I always say that um we need to think Global globally and act locally and this looks like a great opportunity uh towards uh that in terms of climate change or managing help manage climate change uh so I I think I would love to see that um supported by this board in terms of question one clarifying when you mentioned 26% of Massachusetts is covered is that all for new constru ructions percentage wise or overall Statewide population wise if you can help clarify that and then I have another big comment of course so it's 26% of the state population is already under the specialized code which only applies to new construction does that help yes otherwise all construction Renovations additions and such um revert to the stretch code got it thank you uh the second comment I had was um I I like how you put out the scenario for various sizes of residentials as well as commercial and I believe at esbc when we were discussing uh and esbc certainly is following the new code uh there has been actually a financial analysis in terms of total cost of ownership and it certainly stood out that um over years long term this is um also financially viable and and um uh uh better so you may um look for that calculation and Analysis and um also include it as part of as an example that's a real example we have right in this town that's coming up uh which is also super exciting but thank you it's a wonderful presentation thanks so much I actually think we have um one of those charts in our supplementary slides for this and we're going to work it into our version for town meeting in some way yeah it's definitely an example of a success story that we are seeing right in our town of showing not only is all electric feasible it is a a good choice for comfort for cost for for the environment it's all around a good choice so um it's very cool to have that example to point sometimes leading with the story right really really makes a difference all right Amy do you want to make the motion yeah so I would make a motion to support um article 36 adopt the specialized energy Cod okay I second all right by roll call vote Oran really yes am yes Shad yes Kramer yes congratulations thanks for doing the extra work thanks so much for your support yeah may I say something yes through the chair um I think good work by the um H kington sustainable G committee getting us to this point I I understand at the last town meeting there were questions asked I think what needs to be said is the effort that you put towards engaging the public um one other word of caution is the whole issue regarding how much electricity heat pumps use especially in the winter what you you're going to hear from residents is that their experience shows that heat pumps use more electricity and more costly I believe you have to be ready to answer that question clearly they are efficient absolutely efficient but in terms of how much it is costing to run a heat pump in the winter people will tell you that it's costing them more they're not saying it's bad they're saying they like the choice that they have made and they do understand that it's more costly to run a heat pump in the Winter thank you Norman and we are preparing for those questions uh regarding Outreach we have been reaching out to um some local developers and speaking with other committees with you know related purviews we're talking to the planning board next week for example uh and regarding heat pumps yes you're right and it it varies quite a bit based on the building we're talking about what kind of heat pump was installed uh there's so many variables uh with new construction however um that is the best scenario possible for heat pump in terms of efficiency but we you're right we need to tell that story well and be prepared for those questions thank you thank you so much thank you all thank you thank you all right speaking of town meeting speaking of town meeting uh tonight um I think the important things for the board to think about are signing the voting to sign the annual town meeting warrant and the special town meeting warrant um and I can go through and talk about a couple of changes um to the annual town meeting warrant um one of those uh came up today so thank you for meeting on Friday to put the additional ballot questions on on the ballot um but today there was um further discussion with Bond Council about one of the phrases in in the um in the question which they have changed their recommendation as to whether it should be included or not and speaking with uh Bond Council Town Council uh and uh town clerk today um that phrase can be removed contingent on Town council's review of the deadline and how the holiday affected the deadline to make changes to B question so we are able to make the change cuz Town Council says we can because of the way the deadlines work contingent upon his additional review tomorrow contingent upon his additional review tomorrow okay so the phrase may come out or it may stay the same and I could read that phrase so we have a motion here is that the one to mod move to modify about questions seven and eight to move the phrase is that what we need to do and then um uh Connor had uh sent me some language recommended by Town Council indicate contingency so we would add contingent language which I just put in the online version if you have that open do you want to just read it but the phrase that would be uh removed it says that while such borrowing shall be a general obligation of the Town it is the intent of the town that the debt service will be paid in the first instance from the water Enterprise fund and they're saying that is not not necessary not recommended okay and and did you say you had phrasing to replace that or is just it would just come out it would just just come out yeah and there isn't something to add in no okay um and that's that's primarily because if we vote it this way the town is actually obligated I'm guessing whether or not we intend at the moment raises some difficulties I guess you potentially all right I love lawyers so um often they keep you out of trouble okay so uh does anybody have any questions about removing I don't have any particular problems removing it no I'd like to go with the way the town attorney recommends so I can read the revised motion um now or whenever you're ready go ahead okay so it would say I move to modify ballot questions s and 8 to remove the phrase contingent on review of the effect of the holiday on the ballot deadline and then the phrase okay all right is somebody willing to make that motion as amended as amended yes so moved second um and then by roll call Vote shahul yesan Yes mayor yes ker yes and the only other change to the warrant that's in your packet is in article 35 which is the senior tax exemption y uh in section one there was um language indicating that the select board would um would set at the annual um set the annual amount but uh Town Council recommends that that be the board of assessors yeah since they will be doing everything else that's listed here okay yep that makes sense and that's the only change all right do we have to take a vote on that or is it just the language is just being made just moveed to sign yeah it's just in there okay okay all right would somebody like to make the motion to sign the annual town meeting warrant no chair I move to sign the annual town meeting warrant second uh by roll call vote Shad yesan yes yes yes Mel Kramer yes and then uh a motion to sign the special town meeting warrant special time meeting warrant and no changes on that second Shadel how do you vote Yes your fin really yes am yes may I have a question sure on the last arle uh first a special town meeting is to take care of problems from or things that happened last year that weren't funded or didn't get solved there there's a problem with it I didn't think you could introduce new articles at special Town Meer uh it could be anything it could be anything okay then I'm fine say yes yeah M Kramer yes um okay and then uh do we have to take action on the following annual town meeting articles so the board has a number of recommendations to make um appropriation committee began tonight on grafting their recommendations and they're meeting again tomorrow okay and we would typically uh vote to recommend or not recommend all of them yeah yeah yeah yeah are there are there more than what's here um okay let me let me ask this question I know the hour is really late um I wondered if the board would want to meet in two weeks mostly for the purpose of celebrating the recent promotions the fire chief the lieutenant and the two sergeants and we could we could address the recommendations that night too but we do the celebration first so two weeks from now brings us to the 30th 30th um yeah I'm I think it would be fun to celebrate all those uh yeah that would work for me the 30th Tuesday yeah no I I don't have a problem with that I just when's fireman Sunday it's in June right it's the beginning it's like I don't know think it's think it would be nice to do it that week so there's two things so so the celebrations also the pride parade permit hasn't come before us and we don't want to miss that we could hopefully take care of that but then would that be time enough to vote all of these it will be time to vote them we will look into timing of the printing for the one motions document and if we have to go to print before then it would just indicate that you'll make your recommendation and tell me I think that that's what we're going to have to do I think okay does that make sense yeah yeah okay all right unless anybody is desperate to say anything else tonight I'll entertain a motion to adjourn chair I move to adjourn is there a second yeah so I want to get the date so hold on 30th sex probably right yep I was looking at the upcoming select board meetings saying this isall guess what I get one more you're welcome well town meeting counts too you're welcome town meeting counts too yeah yeah no listen we're going to be kicking up our heels as we leave that meeting um okay did somebody second I did yeah thank you okay by roll call vot sh yes thank you so much everybody for hanging in there I voted no I didn't want this to end no one asked [Laughter] you for