e e e thank you hello everyone I call the meeting to order this meeting of the Hopkinton select board is being held both in person and remotely using the video conference platform Zoom all members participating in the meeting are present in the meeting room the public has the option of attending in person here at town hall or via zoom using the link posted in this meeting's agenda this meeting is being recorded the first item is Pledge of Allegiance un States of America to the for which it stands one nation under God indivisible withy and justice for all thank you first item on the agenda is Select Vice chair a point of order please yes I would like to move the public forum portion of the meeting to the first agenda item and follow that with the select board reorganization okay I think I'm fine with that yeah all right thank you so we'll have the public forum each person will have up to 2 minutes to speak and please start by stating your name and address is there anyone who wants to go first please Ken Weiss Manel 145 Ash Street I have two public service announcements Memorial Day is coming on this Thursday at 4:00 the veterans with help of the scouts we'll be starting to ref flag the SE cemeteries in preparation for Memorial Day uh if it's raining on Thursday at 4:00 we'll do it on Friday at 4:00 uh the Memorial Day services on Monday start at 9:45 at the Evergreen Cemetery we'll be at the uh then we'll go to the other cemeteries and then at the memorials gazebo on the ton common the service starts at 11:15 uh should finish by noon everyone is welcome to the uh Memorial Day remembrance uh items the other thing that I'd like to announce is that uh the horribl parade on 4th of July is coming back uh the parks and recck is is uh helping with the uh Republican Town committee to get just the organization for it uh it'll be T typical uh traditional noon start it will be horrible of course and uh everyone is welcome to that and you'll hear more and more about that as we get closer to the 4th of July thank you very much thank you thanks again hi Ed Harold 43-year resident of Hopkinson congrats to our newly elected and our reelected members of the board I wish you great success happiness and hope it all works out out now speaking as a chair of the open space preservation commission and I know it's an item of interest to me but I have a concom meeting so I will be stepping out as soon as I finish a year ago I emailed the four people in town hall that I noted the commission is particularly interested in a particular parcel further I ask that the commission be a informed of any actions the town may be contemplating on this parcel last week I had a chat with a longtime employee there's a connection here there was much discussion about the difficulty of getting anything done and of Silo management and that very same day I received the tip that Hopkinson had put that same parcel up for auction with no notice to or discussion with the commission despite the email indicating the commission's interest this is the second interest second instant of Silo management affecting the commission this year Moving On the Open Space preservation commission looks forward to the select board working together to reduce the endemic Silo management and reestablishing working Partnerships amongst the various members of the community especially with us of course thank you and good luck thank you Steve snow 78 Pine Allen to the board I am pleased to announce that I am not here in anguish and anger I'm here with joy and hope for our town I think the public has spoken we spoke at town meeting we' spoken in these walls and then we spoke at the election polls I don't feel that there's a current member of last year's sitting board that is responsible enough to become chair of this board and I think that we should look to our two new members to choose my new chair thank you I'm G to go next because my kids are here make sure I don't cause any disruption um even though they're doing a good job so um I'm Ashley fog I'm at five cross street um good evening selectboard thank you for the opportunity to speak during public comment I believe public comment is an essential part of these meetings allowing team members to express their views Town members not team members allowing to members to express their views and hopes for our community's future in the past several months many community members have been deeply upset with how the select board has handled not only the Tim brenon Manor but also other significant issues we have felt unheard and unseen while I appreciate the time and effort the board dedicates to hopkington it's important to remember that you serve to represent the people's will your duty is to be their voices and Advocates yesterday's election results were clear the town decisively chose Brian her and Joe Clark as the newest members of the select board with a two to one vote margin this overwhelming support indicates a strong desire for new leadership and fresh perspectives in our Town's governance Brian her brings a wealth of experience wisdom and Leadership to the board his campaign demonstrated his unmatched qualifications making him the Clear Choice for select board chair Our Town seeks healing from the actions of this board on a personal note I have been deeply disappointed by the lack of response from the current board members affiliated with the httc regarding the defamation against me which raised concerns for my safety and that of my children despite significant discussion and condemnation a few weeks ago over a single Facebook comment about Mr Manon the board sat in silence last year when myself and my family were attacked this unacceptable inaction contributed to the passing of Article 2 last fall the election results from both Article 2 and yesterday reflect the town stance against such abhorent Behavior and the desire to move away from all that you have allowed to transpire over the last year you should have done better and you can do better Brian ha is a clear choice for chair I urge you to listen to our community to those desperate for Change and New Perspectives I have two sentences left instead of voting your party you should vote the will of the Town allow this board to move in a new direction if you truly advocate for our community please vote for him sus a decision would significantly Aid in healing the wounds of the past year and demonstrate the select board is responsive to the will of the people please vote Brian her thank you I to keep it to two minutes please before I start Mr Manan when you spoke on racism you spoke for 5 and 1/2 minutes as a private citizen and uh not once where you worn there 2 minutes was the limit I don't remember oh yes yes you did you spoke for over 5 and A2 minutes okay over five and a half minutes Timothy boen 41 Pine Cross Village today is May 21st it's been 123 days since the hopkington police department at the direction of Chief Joseph Bennett released the transcript of Sergeant Timothy Brennan's interview in the corl report a transcript which contained unredacted personal identifying information of the courageous woman whose testimony resulted in the now retired Deputy Chief of the hopkington police department John Porter being charg with three Cel CH child rate also unredacted was personal identifying information about the women's young children it's been 120 days since that transcript was taken down but only after it had been released and published over 2 Days by multiple media Outlets as well as shared to thousands more through select board Amy Ritter Bush's social media accounts it's been 119 days since then select board chair Mariel Kramer speaking on behalf of the entire select board and the town government said quote doing the work and making sure this never happens again is foremost on our minds as well as rightly holding ourselves and others accountable is needed in meaningful ways including but not limited to correcting processes and requiring any necessary or relevant training or retraining it's been 32 days since first since the first assistant district attorney of the Northwest District Steven gagy said The Following parties were negligent in not making sure the transcript was properly redacted two CW investigators in its stenographer Hopkinton labor attorney Myrick oconnell Town Council har Harrington Heap LLP then Town manager Norman Calo hington Police Chief Joseph Bennett the entire Hopkinton select board at the time I would to add to that list as a person who ran two PR firms the town's PR firm jgp which also should have had processes in place to protect the Survivor gagy concluded his report by saying ideally the town of hopkington and its Council will Implement precautionary measures to ensure this sort of mistake does not repeat itself my questions what precautionary measures has the town of Hoppington and its Council put in place to ensure this sort of mistake does not repeat itself who per Miss Kramer's statement has been held accountable as needed in meaningful ways have any of these parties Mr gagy listed suffered any types of consequences whatsoever how will anyone in this town ever be able to trust this s board this town government this Police Department if you don't come clean about what exactly happened and how it haen happened your lack of action continues to traumatize this young woman in her family going on for more than 4 months now it's been devastating way more than two minutes no I'm going to finish as Miss Kramer said at that select board meeting in January words are simply inadequate especially if those words aren't backed up by actions of any meaningful consequence until then no sexual assault victim or really any crime victim can feel safe in coming forward to report a crime to the hopkington police department this entire town government simply cannot be trusted until it comes clean on this matter thank you I'll be much shorter than two minutes hi my name is Kelly Fitzgerald I'm from 83 Ash Street um I'm a lifelong Center Democrat and an independent uh registered independent voter I may be the only person in this room who voted for all of you so I'd like to ask the select board and especially Mary Joe who has the most history with Brian to elect Brian as our town select board chair with all due respect to shadul mannon Vice chair and everyone on the select board I believe Brian her has the most four terms now Fifth and best experience needed to chair Our Town select board we've been hearing a lot this week about the will of the people and I believe our extraordinary voter turnout yesterday and the selection of Brian and Joe and my voting for them speak to the current will of our town thank [Music] you good evening Jennifer bisi 24 Huckleberry Road um former Board of Health chair as well so thank you for your volunteerism and congratulations Brian and Joe good luck um I heard today something that compelled me to be here tonight and with all due respect to everybody on the board I heard that Shel was going to try and and become the chair of this board um it has surprised me to say the very least I feel like there's and there is an ongoing attempt to recall him from the board as well as other board members I hope the board has the sense to appoint either Brian or Joe to make someone a chair of this board is essentially a promotion but how in good faith can we promote somebody if there's an ongoing petition with over 700 signatures to recall these people our neighbors and who we have tasked with making decisions for us as a whole so it strikes me backward and negligent that we would appoint somebody whose signatures the town is accumulating to to recall those in favor right now so I ask that you you as a board vote Brian as your chair moving forward thank you thank you anyone else [Music] Karen crom 12 Joseph Road congratulations to both of you I think the board looks fantastic um I don't really have anything prepared to be honest with you I just wanted to express my desire to bring hopkington back to what I knew it used to be um I love hopkington I've been here 21 years it begins with our select board it begins with leadership it begins with all of us doing the best we can I know it's hard um I I know you've had a lot in front of you but I do remember the years I was here when Brian her was chair and I I really feel like we need to move forward from everything that's been going on and bring back our town I would love to see Brian Harris chair Joe I'm sure you would too but no offense um um Amy I know you've been chair thank you for that but I just feel like the town needs the support of the board the Board needs the support of the town and I just feel like it would it would really make a difference to have a change up in the board board thank you thank you anyone else do have one more minute to go maybe even um my name is Paula Garland and I live at 50 Down East Street and I want to congratulate you two and um I want to welcome you here and and I'm looking forward to seeing how this works and I just I have really good feelings about it and I too am here to um ask that Brian be the chair and um and the reason why is because I've done some research and I believe that Brian has the most experience um and the most knowledge with the with the town laws and um in fact what is unbelievably impressive to me is that just with an hours of being elected Brian both Brian and Joe showed up at the um hopt podcast for um uh hop news and Brian showed up with a list of actionable items that he wants to get started on and um I I just thought that was crazy I mean he literally was elected in like an hour or two prior to that and and these are these are really impressive in my opinion some of which are um he wants to appoint a liaison for the corridor project and you know what we all complain about that and I'm I'm a big one to say oh that you know that just looks stupid and whatever and he he brought a different perspective he said let's finish it you know um we can all complain but let's let's finish it and and complain later when how how do we know it's not going to be fabulous so I I thought that was great um the water and sewer past MW issues he wants to set up a board appointed by the select board you guys um um that digs into the money and the process to make that happen and and to help fix our water issues um he wants to put his your all of your Collective heads and Minds around spending and the budget he wants to put limits of authority in place for hiring and for spending and this isn't to say that um there won't be hiring or spending but just he wants all of that to go through you guys because um you would know how to do that best of any here and I think that's a wonderful idea so I just hope that things things go forward in a smooth fashion and I have Great Hopes And I'd like to thank all of you for your service I I know this is a really hard job so thank you good evening Gail Ober 17 Fawn Ridge Road congratulations Joe and Brian welcome aboard you certainly have your work cut out for you I just wanted to say that after listening to those comments that I don't see how this board can do anything other than vote Brian as the new chair I think that Joe and Brian were elected partly because people felt ignored and unseen by the last select board as Ashley fog had stated it is my hope that the new board gets off on the right foot and listens to th to those who have taken the time to be here tonight and I'm sure that we all speak for many others out there in the community as Mike Shepard said during town meeting you work for us and we the people have spoken please elect Brian as the chair thank you thank you I think we are running late for our agenda anyone else wants to say anything otherwise we'll move to the next item all right hearing none I think we'll move to our agenda item uh so first item is Select board reorganization the board will elect a new chair and vice chair for the next year uh so the process will be I'll announce the floor is open for nomination and then we'll go through the nomination and then the new chair will open the floor for nomination for vice chair so with that um I open the floor for nominations for chair I move to nominate Brian her as chair I'll second that nomination and I would move to nominate sh man onest chair I'll second that nomination so with that I think we'll go excuse me one sec we'll go for the Run of voting process so before I entertain a motion I would like to ask each of the board members to indicate which candidate they prefer for the position of chair Mr chair point of order there's a motion on the table I believe there's two motions on the table uh wouldn't we take up the Motions that are on the table first before we go to another motion no we typically go around and if there's a major clear majority preference then we move for nomination usually go around and find out where the majority is and then try to reconcile that way and it's written on the script if you on the last page I got the script so this is about my I don't know I think it's about my 22 reorganization over the years and I understand this one's awkward and I feel for everybody in the room in many different ways but uh I think it's really important that we consider the will of the the people from yesterday the will of the people from town meeting and certainly the will of those that showed up this evening as well um so with that if we have a process that we want to follow that's fine but I would caution the board not to follow a process to the detriment of the community thank you uh we will follow the process thank you uh for that statement so as I was mentioning uh I can start from the left if you want State your preference for the candidate well I think I just did um yeah then we can move to the yeah I think I think I'll continue for a minute um you know as I mentioned this is a difficult process it shouldn't be as difficult it is you know it hasn't been as difficult all the time um but it's really important to me I think to the board should be important to the board I know it's important to the town that we do get off to a good start I think there's been a lot of order I think we are going out of scope let's follow the process please okay so I'm advocating for my candidacy to be the chair um I think there's been a lot of issues over the last year uh that need to be addressed there's a lot of issues that remain uh outstanding and I think it's important that we put experience in the center chair that can bring the community together and not further divide the community and that is why uh I'm happy to serve as the chair if the board so chooses thank you thank you respectfully let's follow the process please yep so I support Brian her and I think A lot's been said I agree with all of it the most important thing is we as a board need to come together and set an example for this town start instilling trust in the town leadership again and really allow the town to heal this is a huge step in that direction if we if we consider it that way and addressing the will of the people making sure they're heard that's going to allow all of us to get back to business which we want to do there's a lot of things we need to get take get taken care of this year and if we can get the respect of the town quickly I think that goes a long ways so Brian her um thank you I think it's um you know an open Democratic process let's follow the process when I was elected I got the highest vote as well but I didn't jump into the chair role I think there are some processed some um procedure that we follow and respectfully I want to follow that as well and I have also the experience of the select board and being engaged with the town for almost 10 years now and I fully respect Brian her and everyone on this board and I do think that uh this type of discussion is what brings up the division when we are not following the process as we have followed in the last 10 20 years if you go back uh but not only that I think I bring a lot to the table and we as I mentioned uh several times have been lot of issues over the last year that's been painful for the community painful for many we fully respect that but we want to get back with the key issues that we have been focused on we have been doing it sometimes not um in a so visible manner because of the other issues overwhelmingly taking over but there are work that's going on there are more work that we want to focus on and I work uh with everyone and I look forward to work with everyone and regardless of the outcome I think we will all come together as one board and work on the key issues I truly believe in one Hopkinton and that's what I want everyone to remember and work together going forward uh so with that I um give mine to Shaul Manan and I also would vote for Shaul Manan and I just you know we don't usually add but everyone's added to it so I will but um so Shel do has already initiated a p advisory committee so I'm very happy to hear that Brian is also interested in that as well and Shadel has also already um set up a framework for an economic development advisory Council which would fit in not exactly the downtown project but would fit in with and the liquefied natural gas plant oversight and advisory committee so I I really think that you know he can do good work for the committee and for the town and get um working on all these other important issues and but I think that everyone of us can work collaboratively with whoever is chair I have a pretty loud voice anyway so I think you can probably hear me um this is this is a really tough one for me I've worked with both men both men are honorable and and uh both men can see the big picture and I have enjoyed both of their company and I and I really do uh like them very much uh but uh in this case I do believe that the town needs a quiet down period and and I would go for Brian her thank you okay so then I would make a motion to nominate Brian her as chair second all that are in favor say I I I hi sorry okay so now reorganizing Mr Vice chair if we could uh change seats I'll take over from here too much drama but I guess that's the norm of the day thank you Brian it's hope that's last I don't know we'll see Mr her we start with the drama and okay uh thank you all very much I appreciate uh your confidence uh I appreciate the gravity of the situation I appreciate the frustration and The Angst uh and I understand how everyone feels I get it I truly do but it's time to move ahead the chair will entertain a motion for vice chair nominations I move to nominate Mary joea frer a second if you're interested yep okay I'm sorry is there a second yes yes Amy Amy so Joe motion Amy second for Mary Jilla frer any other nominations Vice chair again I'm happy to Nom um I wouldn't mind yeah okay so I would nominate sh do Manan for a vice chair is there a second I second that okay so uh following that last process we went through which by the way was new to me I hadn't seen that before we definitely did that when you were on the board with me I don't recall my memories were not what it used to be um following that process I think we started to the left went to the right and everybody shared their uh straw pole support for an individual does that sound fair yes and uh if they want to make a comment or two that would be fine as well Mr Man U Mary Joel Le frer I think uh it's my understanding anyway and you know I guess some evidence that that doesn't always come true that this could be uh M Le frenier's last year on the board who knows trust me on that one um and given that uh I would be honored to have Mary joela Fier sit as a vice chair thank you my vote will go for shidel Manan mean to put you in that poet spot well I've been on the hot seat anyway um I I uh respectfully would accept uh and will vote for myself in this role I think that having a combination of people of different the different backgrounds here might help to bring around a consensus to the town and that's all I really wanted to do and that's that's all I still want to do might not change opinions on everything but uh we will we will work I I've worked with Brian before and we will work that's all I'm going to say okay uh I think still in line with the process based on that input from everybody we would then go ahead and entertain a motion for Mary joela frenier to serve as our vice chair I I move for Mary Joel frener as Vice chair second any further discussion all those in favor I I I any opposed it's unanimous and so voted welcome Mary Joel thank you thank you okay next up on the agenda and you'll have to bear with me a little bit here folks I am Tad Rusty uh we have the consent agenda but Elaine uh we have a public hearing at 6 45 correct so if you could be so kind as to make sure that we don't miss that timeline that'd be great uh we have the consent agenda in front of us Mrs Lazarus so the consent agenda uh this evening is approving the minutes of April 5th and April 12th sorry about that the consent agenda this evening is to approve the minutes of the uh April 5th and 12th meetings to approve parade permit applications for the pride parade on June 88th uh from 1: to 4:00 p.m. at the Center for the Arts uh the Jimmy fund walk on October 6th um along the Boston Marathon road cour course uh and for the cystic fibrosis cycle for life on October 5th um which uh is part of a multi-root uh town uh race uh to accept the resignations of nenda Barker hook for from the historical commission Peggy Barton uh from the sustainable green committee and AMT Tandon from the sustainable green committee and to approve uh disclosure fors uh General 268a disclosure fors uh and 20b exemptions to allow the hiring of the following uh Municipal Employees of the school department who seek to provide personal services to the Parks and Recreation Department for seasonal Sports clinics be will Collins Cameron Gallagher John golden Michael Graber Michael Greco Barrett hanin Thomas Keane Cali Corby Michaela pooi Gregory Roman Mark sanbor and Mike web I would like to pull out item D pull item D okay thank you anyone want to pull anything else uh I well I don't really want to pull IMC but I do want to thank everybody for their service to the town great let's leave it in but we'll put the thank you in the motion the thank you in it okay anything else anyone want to pull okay the chair will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda item minus item D with a thank you for those that have served the town uh in item C item C so moved Nancy or Nanda and Peggy we have a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor signify by signify by saying I I any opposed okay items 1 through C A through C anyway are approved as written item D Mrs ritterbush yes I had just had some questions about this not an objection but um given what's happened in the town of the last few years I was concerned about youth protection and I know these are all School staff so they take a youth protection training some sort from the schools but I wanted to make sure that um that Park ra also had a procedure in place for reporting of suspected grooming or um you know or worse and so looked that up for me today so maybe she can elaborate the Parks and Recreation uh department does requ ire that each of them take the the required courses uh online courses before that regard thank you I appreciate that elen are they all Corey certified as well I would think so uh presumably yes I don't have confirmation from the school department but we can assume that now those things have to be renewed so we don't right it's an annual thing for the Corey I think I see PX and re is here do you have anything that you want to say all right great thank you uh so with that Mrs RB you want to make a motion y I would make a motion to approve the consent agenda item D disclosure forms review and approval of 20V exemptions is there a second second any discussion it is a who's who of Hopkinson Athletics that's for sure um all those in favor I I any opposed it's unanimous and so carries I'll set on item number five employee appointments Mrs Lazarus so I believe we have HR here with employees welcome all from HR good so first this evening we have an fahe who is recommended as assistant Treasurer collector in the finance department uh an Works under the direction of the treasurer collector the um and performs skilled administrative Technical and financial work assisting the treasurer collector and finance office in all areas of responsibility including billing collection treasury debt management manage maintenance of accounts and other Financial records uh an has experience with the town of Franklin uh with the Medway public schools with the town of Medway and with the Milford Regional Medical Center uh she has a Bachelor of Science and business management and a master of science and health in informatics and management and her reference is revealed uh from the Milford Regional Hospital that her role there required a high degree of accuracy and Detail in working with patients who had been admitted to the r Andes regarding medications and had a calming effect on them another reference stated that they send their most difficult customers to her and then tell co-workers to watch and learn an was described also as a great teacher she has a mathematical mind is a creative thinker and is an excellent listener and gives 100% effort uh and another reference indicated that she is someone who looks for answers to problems she takes initiative and wants to know the why she thinks out of the box and finds efficiencies for wherever possible and uh Jessica Len uh Human Resources Director can talk about the interview process please so we advertised the position both internally and externally uh we received 15 applicants for the position uh six candidates were interviewed in the first round the first round panel was included Joyce Emery the administrative manager for the fire department Nicole Le the assistant town clerk Punam Rani assistant Town accountant Kayla laier uh Chief Financial Officer and Kristen Merill the human resources generalist um three candidates were moved forward for a second round interview um second round panel included um Cindy Johnston Our Town accountant uh CJ pette our treasure collector Kyla laier our Chief Financial Officer and myself um and um Ann was uh the outstanding candidate for the position great thank you very much uh at this time I think it would make sense for the board to see if they have any questions is that fair everybody good with that why don't we start with Mr Front a I I I would like to hear from our collected Treasurer what he feels about having a new assist assistant um I'm excited to um have the position filled so that I can focus more of my time on my full-time job um and we feel really excited to have Ann on board um she provides a lot of knowledge to our office that is critical um and a breath of fresh air for the office which we are also think is critical um so we're excited to fill the position thank you this is rder Bush yes I just wanted to say welcome I we know we look through your resume and your cover letter we're really pleased that you have munici experience because that is hard to find new people that have M experience a lot of times try to hold on to their payroll manager as long as they possibly can so we're really glad to welcome you and uh yeah very nice to meet you very Mr Clark um if our treasur is excited I'm excited as well welcome to the town and Mr Man nothing much to add welcome to hopkington and thank you for choosing our town thank you very much for you may or may not know there's some new folks on the board this evening I was here for a long time I don't recognize you folks my apologies don't take it personally we'll get to know each other soon very quickly here but uh thanks for bringing her forward and we look forward to seeing you on board so do we need a motion on this or is this an introduction okay I would move to a point um an Fey is assistant treasur collector is there a second second okay we'll go with Mr mannon all those in favor I any opposed it's human man and so approved so so all good thank you thank you welcome don't and we usually ask you toay for a picture if you don't mind later okay so next up uh Elaine Item B please uh Thomas Iverson welcome Thomas thank you so Tom is recommended for appointment as the food service worker at the senior center um under director of the senior services director uh the position assists in the design and development of daily and special menus um maintains the quality sanitation and safety standards prepares and serves meals cleans the kitchen and dining area provides backup to the dishwasher and provides exceptional customer service to seniors seniors and others participating in the meal programs uh position also monitors the food supply and ensures that supplies are stored appropriately and within guidelines uh Tom's experience is with Donlands in Wayland uh with hopkington drug as a pharmacy technician and um learning prep uh as a speech therapist uh he has a Bachelor of Arts and language German and a master of science in speech and language his references have revealed that he's a team player he isn't afraid to jump in where needed and is reliable he was also described as detail oriented and thorough um Tom's reference from the pharmacy described him as a precise fastidious and exacting and he was very focused on cleanliness and making sure there was no cross-contamination also he's someone who works well independently but also works very well as part of a team and Jessica will describe the process great thank you so again we um advertise the position externally and internally um we had two applicants apply um we interviewed um Tom as the only one interviewed um the interview panel was Melissa Menard the head chef Jessica mnel the senior services assistant director Amy Beck Senior Services director and Kristen Merill the human resources generalists and although he was the only one interviewed a stood out as not only a good fit for the position but a good fit for the environment in the kitchen in the senior center so we are happy to recommend his appointment great thank you thank you uh to the board Mr Manon uh nothing much to add I just want to uh hear a little bit from you uh what was your interest in this position and for our town uh well I've lived here 36 years and uh in my kind of quazi retirement I um after uh being my career as a speech therapist I I uh achieved a culinary certificate at salta college and I did my practice cooking at this kitchen so it kind of familiarized me and uh it attracted me to come back and and uh after I was kind of done with some other part-time opportunities and and seek employment there again yeah thank you that's a wonderful story thanks Mr Clark uh nothing nothing to ask surp uh providing support for our seniors I love it so thank you thank you and congratulations thank you Premier Well I know Tom very well he was my neighbor for almost 20 years or around 20 years let's just say and i' have weighted table at the senior center uh as a volunteer and I have uh worked up there and I know what the kitchen's like and what people are like and I know Tom so well that he's a perfect fit plus he has he has moved up to Davis Road so it's like right next the door to get go to work and um I think he's an excellent choice thanks want to say welcome and welcome back since apparently you live here but we Lov hearing everyone's um the references and how um everyone described you and I know the seniors really love going to the senior center for their lunch so happy that we're going to have those spots filled so they can there's no gaps in coverage thank you thank you Tom thank you very much we look forward to having you on the team chair I'll entertain a motion please I move to appoint Thomas ion as food service worker Senior Services I second that any discussion all those in favor I I any oppose it's unan and so carries thank you Tom congratulations congratulations to you as well stick around for a little bit we're going to get a picture everybody Elaine item C yes so there's one additional item under this and that's to appoint the treasurer collector as the tax title custodian which uh the position may have been appointed in the past but a record of that vote cannot be found um so it's recommended by Council that we um that we make that appointment and CJ treasur collector is here along with our uh tax title attorney to explain if necessary um so basically we are auctioning a property in June um and in order to do that we need a tax custodian um to kind of watch the process throughout um it's been a very long time since we've actually had to auction a property this specific property has been in taxan for 9 years um so it's good to get off the books and get back on to the tax table um so it's just a legality it's a master joural law that we have to have the custodian great thank you and Council you're all good yeah no certainly if you have any questions I'm happy to elaborate but otherwise you prefently okay thank you why we start with Mr Clark for any questions no questions Mr Man uh nothing this m r Bush no questions but I appreciate the explanation it's helpful for the public of course Madam Vice chair this is this is kind of just a it's not a correction but it's just clearing up some right and so I I totally agree it's just been such a long time since we've had to do this process um we're just you know crossing our te's and daughtering our eyes we don't saw a lot of land in town any anything else good elain yep so the chair will entertain a motion to approve I move to approve the appointment or the title I should say second any further discussion all those in favor I any opposed it's unanimous and so carries thank you very much folks thank you thank you it is 645 we should get to our public hearing we would normally do a quick photo with the new employees uh the time okay uh why don't we open the public hearing and gather the folks back in for a for a quick photo so I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing uh for an entertainment license application the Hopkinson parent teachers Organization for the carnival at the Hopkinson High School 90 Hayden rad Street June 27th 30th 2024 do I need to read beyond that lane or is that good okay so the public hearing is now open we're going to suspend it for one minute while we get a pick with our new employees tonight okay so let's do her first go ahead here please open thank you thank you very much good luck folks thank [Music] just do that now we're going to do one picture all right is there any way to block in that take take that D or no all right right up next to each other please three or four pictures thank you than do you want to switch now your Vice chair just okay that was okay thank you for that thanks Amy for reminding me uh so we have a public hearing that is ongoing now we'll continue that public hearing uh Mrs Lazarus uh wondering if there are applicants present but apparently not at the moment uh so the hpto has uh applied for a carnival uh license uh this entertainment license for a carnival at the high school um on from June 27th to June 30th uh in the afternoon and evening uh the dates are in on the agenda the times for the um for the Carnival hours are a little bit different on the application than they are on the agenda I did note that um the uh Thursday hours requested were 6:00 to 10:30 um and uh the um on the the 28th was to 11:00 and on the 29th is also to 11:00 is the request so that's different than what's on the agenda I believe we have two of the applicants on Zoom uh I think Sarah Avan is from the PTO is that right so perhaps they can explain the application applicants are online go yes Sarah Nan has her hand raised I'm just saying it out loud so Ben hears us okay here she comes all right um so if we could have the applicants walk us through uh the the request please oh you're muted will that come come on up here M okay hi everyone can you hear me we can now yes thank you hi my name is Sarah naan I'm president of the parent teacher organization um I believe at least one other person is here tonight also from the PTO we have a big fundraiser it's one of our largest fundraisers it is four days long Thursday through Sunday this year I believe it is June 27th through the 30th uh we have already met with the fire department the police department superintendent was there as as well um hopon Center for the Arts has also been involved just so they know we'll be using the space uh so we have a map already planned out of where everything will be where everyone will be and um and make sure that we have enough safety personnel we're actually going to have more safety personnel than previously and I'm here if you have any questions great thank you is there another person online that wanted to speak hi yeah this is Mara Fitzgerald I'm also with the hopking and PTO I'm part of the fundraising team um I just basically reiterate what Sarah said um and I know you had mentioned the hours were um different than I think what was on there so I think what the hours that you had were correct it was like 6:30 to 10:30 on Friday and then um the 7 to I believe was 11 for Saturday and Sunday um I think uh 6:30 to 10:30 on Thursday and sorry yes yep yep yep perfect thank you Mora okay great uh Mrs Lazarus does all this align with what you're thinking would happen in the expectations of Public Safety and so forth yes so I did confirm um that they have complied with the permitting team comments um so there's nothing additional to be addressed there um the other the only outstanding issue is the uh is the hours just to make sure that everyone's on the same page um the last time uh the permit was issued it was the hours that are reflected on the agenda okay anything else on the applicant side of the equation uh with that are there any members of the public here that would like to speak to the issue and I think this is the appropriate time to ask that question we have a letter we do have a letter here okay we do have a letter thank you uh anyone else here that wants to speak to the question in front of us all right would someone like to read the letter please give me a chance okay Mary Joe you going to read for us okay I'm reaching out to you as a concerned citizen I have been a resident of 95 Hayden Rose Street Hoppington for the past 50 years my wife and I have raised dozens of children among our biological children we as well as foster children we have taken we that we have taken into our home excuse me uh all of our children attended hington public school system and we have been a huge supporter of a high level of education for the children of Hoppington my wife and I have grown frustrated over the past few years there's appears to be more and more events at the school after hours and I am okay with events that are held over the 3 to 4 hour period but events like the upcoming Carnival have a real impact on my wife and me the noise is constant over the 4 days period And I am trying to enjoy my home and my golden years with my wife and it really has an impact on us I would ask that the school committee and the town of Hoppington look for alternative options moving forward to a lesser uh to lessen the impact that has that it has on our residents maybe there are other venues that could be host to this event and wouldn't have such an impact on me and others thank you for your time and careful consideration of this matter Kenneth Swanson thank you was a nicely Written Letter um so any other public comments for the public hearing me go ahead I I just want to uh we have had a lot of complaints in the past about the carnival about the carnival people smoking on Hayden R Street and leaving butts around of throwing trash in people's yards and I want to make sure that you have somebody out there keeping an eye on them all the time and it doesn't have to be a police officer you know it can just be an appointed person that makes sure that all this is taken care of that's all thank you anybody else for public comment with that why don't we go ahead and entertain a motion to close the public hearing and then the board can deliberate somebody want to move to close the public hearing so mve okay is there a second a second any comments on closing the public hearing all those in favor I I any opposed okay the public hearing is now closed the board can deliberate on the issue before us Mrs Lazarus um the carnival has had uh a bit of a mixed history uh there have been some issues over the years um nothing major but a lot of minor stuff a lot of new you know nuisance stuff uh I've heard about the smoking on Hayden row I've heard about the noise I think they're all legit concerns I heard the applicant mention that there's going to be more security this year I think I heard the applicant say that is that our security as in HPD or is that some other entity that's going to kind of do what they want to do they will be hiring detail officers they will be hiring detail so professional detail offic okay all right thank you uh I live about four blocks from the carnival five blocks I can hear it it reminds me to go and spend money you can spend money there very fast um with the kids but uh you know I think it it does a great service for the community but I think the concerns are legit and we should talk about other venues moving forward as the as the person that wrote the letter mentioned any comments from the board Mr mannon um through the chair I saw the fire department had some open questions so I wanted to check if those has been addressed and then I think the Board of Health had some um request for getting more uh validation of the food trucks and the food facilities so have we cleared those out that would be my question I did hear from Gary that all of the fire department's issues have been addressed um and they'll be monitoring as needed uh the Board of Health will do the inspections as needed and make sure that everyone complies excellent thank you good Mr Clark uh nothing from me Mr R I just was going to note for the public in addition to the board of health permits they'll be required to get an electrical permit from the building department and the Mass state building inspector will inspect the rides I know people get worried about that and then the police department um will will request um the applicants uh information so they can do the quy checks and then all employees will wear ID badges while working the carnival so we'll make sure it's the right people who are cor cleared and yep and that's a but otherwise I think it's a great fundraiser for the uh schools and I think it's improved every year and they've and they try to address the issues as they come each year is the friend here anything else I said it okay good bothering me okay um is there a possibility that in future years this could move to somewhere like fruit Street that's a fairly big facility down there now I know there's a lot of turf and a lot of grass but not a huge amount of parking but I don't know I'm just throwing out ideas here because the the letter writer did talk about you know can we consider something else have we looked at other venues over the years that this ready to answer yeah that'd be great if the applicant could maybe weigh in on that that would help us sure I love that idea I think it's um definitely worth looking into I think we've gotten used to this uh because one it goes to the schools it's a big open area it's also easy easy from an emergency access standpoint there's an in and out you can get in very easily you can get out very easily um it it's also not being used during that week specifically we made sure that it was after school after all the kids are out whereas the fields might still be used at that time of the year but uh that's not to say that that couldn't be actually a great location Fruit Street so I'm definitely willing to work with the fire department and the police department and see if we could um switch venues going forward I'm completely fine with that uh our goal is to raise $100,000 for the school system on an annual basis which is so much money and so much time and effort goes into these fundraisers so to be able to have these fundraisers are hugely important however we are completely here for the community we want to make the community happy and we want to make the school system happy so um I am absolutely happy to look into options like that for the future yeah I'm not advocating necessarily that it be at the Fruit Street complex but the idea of looking maybe at some other venues I think would make the residents uh feel like it's been fully vetted and you know we settle on what's the best option for the overall community so just something to think about for next year uh with that the chair entertain a motion to approve uh the request before us specific to the carnival on June 27th through the 30th 2024 so move so we have a motion in a second on the table and that motion is to approve the carnival through those dates correct and the times allotted I suggest uh considering the possible conditions that are in the draft motion as please suggest if we' got com so there's a draft motion aha I forgot about that can someone grab that draft motion please I move to approve an entertainment license to the P for the carnival to be held at the high school from June 27 to June 30 2024 with the following conditions hours of operation Thursday June 27 6 to 10:30 p.m. Friday June 28 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Saturday June 29 1:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Sunday June 3 1: p.m. to 9:00 p.m. all Carnival employees shall be Corey and S certified in accordance with Mass general laws and supported by the police chief a copy of the Sunday license shall be provided to the town manager's office before June 27 the generators shall be located as far from residences as possible barricades shall be erected on the easterly side of the Hidden row across the street from the carnival in order to prevent use of sidewalk in front of residents rides shall be as far back from the street as possible with the loudest being located in the interior closest to the school building the permitting team comments and recommendations shall be addressed by the applicant is there a second to the motion okay so any further discussion on the motion does the applicant concur with the um conditions of the motion yes I concur yes I concur okay all those in favor please say I I any opposed motion passes thank you all right uh public hearing has been closed we move on to the next public hearing we're a couple minutes late uh this public hearing should open at 700 p.m. so we're at 7:03 my apologies uh this is a public hearing for utility poll hearing of Verizon New England Incorporated select board will hold a public hearing on a petition for utility poll located on Elm Street M Lazarus do we need to have a motion to open the public car just announced it we're I forgot that one you can just open the public hearing open it okay so we don't need a motion for that thank you so the motion the public hearing is now open for Verizon New England for a poll on Elm Street is Verizon New England here this evening they should be on Zoom they should be on Zoom I keep forgetting about Zoom okay if the Verizon folks could join us on Zoom please I am here can you hear me okay hi Don hello please go ahead good very good thank you folks um I would like to uh speaking earlier today um um not sure if it was with the Town Administrator or not um but we would like to respectfully request a continuance for this hearing um to the next um meeting and the reason being um we had some concerns with the poll uh being so close to another poll um we think we know why but we're not entirely sure this was a motion brought forth or request I should say brought forth from eversource uh they wanted to put the poll there and we think it's for an EV charging well we know it's for an EV charging station we just don't know why it needs to be so close so we're trying to get those answers for you from eversource and we'd like to have them answered ourselves before we can bring them to your attention so with that being said uh um I would like to respectfully request that we we continue this hearing okay thank you Don Elaine any issues with continuing no we recommend the continuance any board members have any concerns no that was the same question I had cuz I think Dave Doro posed those questions uh in the materials we had that um some of the polls are too close almost 5 ft apart so would like to hear the explanations and possibly an alternate plan okay everybody good so the chair will entertain a motion to continue the public hearing to a date and time to be determined so someone has to make the motion I move uh to continue the public hearing to next meeting why don't we say to a date and time to be con uh continued uh determined because if we can't quite figure it out next meeting we'll have to do this all over again next meeting is June 4 is there a rush on this elen from our perspective no yeah okay sorry Mary Joe it's your motion go ahead whatever you want to say I was going to say we move to June 4th at 700 p.m. could be June 18th too it doesn't really matter to me but okay it's up to the board what what they what dat they would like so let's work on the motion a little bit does anybody have a specific date and time they want to wor do this or are we okay leaving it kind of open-ended or how do you want to do it well I was going to say you know I move to continue the public hearing to June 4th at 7:00 p.m. thank you is there a second second any discussion all those in favor I any opposed okay that public hearing is continued until June 4th at 7 p.m. thank you thank you Don item number nine uh Farmers Market license for the Hopkinson Farmers Market uh aaronap sellers LLC we did we did skip a uh an agenda confirmation of when we would Circle back to number six the update oh only because I have a vendor here who's ready to excellent question we will do that now actually my my apologies I missed it I made a mistake okay uh we have covered our public hearings though right so I just want to make sure we're good there all right so let's go backwards to item six again my apologies uh for hiring process updates for the town manager the deputy police chief and the deputy fire chief why don't we take the deputy police chief and the deputy fire chief first and then miss Lazarus can step off and we can talk about the town manager all right we can do that public okay so um please on the deputy police chief Deputy police chief so uh Public Safety Consultants is the vendor that we are um utilizing to facilitate the recruitment process for the deputy police chief the deadline was April 12th um to submit applications um after the advertising um was completed 12 applicants um um submitted their interest the vendor conducted the first initial screening um to see the applicants met the minimum qualifications for the position um and then the vendor provided an exercise a written exercise of essay questions for the applicants to complete on 4:30 and 51 um the Review Committee then interviewed six candidates and chose four to move forward for the assessment center the assessment center was held on the 16th last week and the next step will be to identify the top three candidates to go before the select board for a final interview so we're finishing the process um so we will um choose a meeting for that to happen Okay let's take them one at a time uh anything else for the deputy police chief okay let's go to the board if we could please for questions comments Mr Man um not much at this time I'll wait for the final round and some of the when you are able to share some of the um resumés and information Mr Clark um one question I believe at the town meeting we talked about a change to um the Chief Clause right adding in the a I think it was an oversight has that changed any part of this process in how we view this no just a formality yes mhm okay okay is the friend here well I've been part of uh the fire chief process and I imagine it's the same and I think we just have to let the process play out until you have someone or a few people to bring before us Mrs Rush yeah I really appreciate that you bringing us the update and the public is very curious about this I don't have any questions but we always appreciate getting this update so the public can know what's going on through the chair I did have one question um yeah if you remember we talked about having a um resident representative in the deputy fire chief um selection committee um has that been opened up or discussed I just wanted to check check on that yes I yes I did reach out as discussed okay thank you and I think some of that was covered earlier but maybe not and I'm trying to listen and I'm trying to keep get organized here as the chair so I'm a little behind schedule in my brain anyway uh can you tell me who is on the selection committee for the deputy police chief who um so we have um Muriel Kramer um Elaine Lazarus myself um the police chief um Chief Hicks from NAC um Patricia dwart and patri Patricia dwart who is the chair for on the Personnel committee yeah yes and that is the that is the that is the selection committee that's the interview committee what is that that was the Review Committee who did interviews and is that in line with your question uh it is except um for the deputy fa Chief there was not a resident representative right so I had on the fire chief we're going to come to that so he had requested that we do because we had already passed the that phase of this process so um since we we reached out for Town manager um for there to be a a community representative an atlarge representative that we would do the same for fire for fire so Mrs Kramer is no longer on the board was she a board representative for this selection committee or was she a citizen for this selection she was a she was a board representative okay so do we need to change that Mrs Lazarus the the the board that the that committee is done with their role in the process okay so the next committee what about the interview committee so who who's on the interview committee then was we've already interviewed and they've already done the assessments so then how are you whittling it down to the three we're at the the assessment center whittles it down to the last Assessment Center does it down to three got it okay and then the the final three go before the final three come here so the volunteers or others are not involved going forward got it only took me five minutes to figure that out thank you um okay any questions any other concerns thoughts about the deputy police chief position process have we got a lot of public input on this process Mrs Lazarus I don't think so no no concerns no frustrations from the public on the deputy chief position today no not that I'm aware of okay I mean it's new to me I wasn't in on every detail obviously uh and uh it seems as if the board is comfortable with where we're headed is that a fair statement yes it's a much more comprehensive of process than when we hired the last Deputy police chief okay so I'm much more comfortable standard process so we are following the same the resident representative is what we started to add with the town manager first and now with the deputy fire chief but uh the police Deputy police chief did not have that and it didn't come up at that time got it thank you and are you comfortable with the process Mr select person over there I'm comfortable right now okay good all right great okay um so with that thank you for that update uh and with everybody's questions being answered for now we'll move then to the deputy fire chief process so we have a uh Review Committee established for the deputy fire chief um so Mary Joe is um the select board member who is on that um Elaine myself and the deputy I mean Ela myself and the chief are on that as well as um Bob levenson as the citizen represent as citizen yeah okay the member at large um so the the outstanding member would be like an outside Chief um and we're at a point where we are reviewing the process further because it's my understanding that um the the vendor is the contract with the vendor is for the assessment center only so we need to um supplement the process whereas the other vendor um did more of a full spectrum of the process for the deputy police chief spectrum and this is a little bit more commit to assessment is that the norm in the fire industry um I don't I'm not sure if that is the case um I don't know if the chief wants to speak to hello chief good evening sir uh so when we went out to bid initially for the uh Deputy Chief's Assessment Center we used the previous practices um we've never advertised this position externally so we basically cut and paste um the last time we did a an assessment center so what went out to bid was just the assessment center portion now with needing to do a uh outside search we have to read vertise that so it's all inclusive in the contract okay so from what you just said there it's my sense then again being the Newbie here we're trying to go outside or we're looking we that's we're open to the idea of going outside to fill the position correct and we could have internal applicants obviously apply as well y okay I guess that's the direction the board wanted to head is all these positions being advertised externally okay so that was a board directive that makes sense okay great thank you all right um anything else so does your question about the citizen thing it sounds like it's been addressed yeah Fair okay um anything else you want to say about the process and the committee and so forth um no we will move forward um so I guess the question would be whether or not we look to aent like read advertise for a vendor um to do the full Spectrum or if we supplement what the vendor's going to provide with our own advertising and all of that which we also can do okay do we have budget money for this outside vendor to come in and help I believe in the past it was paid by the department yes oh it's not budgeted for we just uh like the dep like the fire chief Assessment Center we just ate it out of our operations budget so you have some you have enough there for a couple Grand or whatever it is to cover that cost it'll be tight okay going into the next fiscal year I'm glad it will be tight then you got a good budget number you don't have to so much cash sitting around there um okay any questions comments from the board why don't we start with Miss Le frener well I I met with the chief and I'm part of this team so uh I really don't have any questions right now well I've met with the chief I'm part of this team and we've done some talking and I've talked with HR on it and uh we're just moving forward and and uh I have good hopes for a good outcome yep I um I like as always I really appreciate the the public process and you're letting the public know how it's moving along people always have questions about that but I don't really have any I don't have any questions or concerns but I look forward to meeting the candidates Joe um few things so one you know my understanding I think what I heard was the board decided that we should go external right kind of restart this process and we talked about supplemental costs associated with that do we have a ballpark on what that looks like uh right now the assessment center was roughly 10,000 10,000 that's before any advertising or anything um and you talked about the budget being pretty tight with that are there better things that that money could be used for of course so I'd love would you care to elaborate oh if we have to eat this out of our operations budget this will be coming out of our equipment line item um maybe some Personnel expenses over time so places that we could use for either training equipment will suffer in that area so you know I'm I'm curious to my fellow board members here you know I have kind of an understanding of you know what a strong Chief is it's always been that way in this town um and you know I I followed the chief search last year and I feel very strongly like when we do department heads and stuff we need to make sure we're observing all the options for the town in the best interest of the town we have our strong Chief we have our chief now I you know my understanding is everyone's very happy with him is this the best use of our time and resources and the money when you know if we have internal candidates why don't we just explore that path save some money allow our the men and women of our fire department to do their job with more resources okay I'm sure some folks may have some thoughts on that Mr Man yeah I think we always want to look for uh you know internal talent to grow and promote but at the same time we want to go for the best and this is a reflection of that uh process and policy can I uh yeah anybody else hasn't gone we've all gone once right go ahead Joe and I'll come back go ahead yeah so I I look at this again to reiterate my point on the the chief again completely agree with going external there review all options but I view this deputy chief position as a critical one to the Department and again you know being very familiar with the firehouse growing up you know that is that is a position that interacts with when there's Personnel decisions right so you know when we think about our Chiefs and what we ask when we think about succession planning if we have internal candidates in mind I think it's very important to think about what that what message that sends to the guys on the department the men not the guys the men and women on the department um that are working they only get so few options for promotion in that line of work and it can potentially be a morale um detriment to look at external options when we have qualified candidates internally so I I'd love to know if we do have qualified candidates internally why can't we look at pursuing that saving some resources and you know moving moving more quickly here Mr Clark I think what you're suggesting is uh a little bit different than what the board set up initially for this search how far in the process are we in this search right now in terms of having that assessor or assessment you know line up do we have a contract in place I mean are we already down the path or is this something that's still getting kind of percolated and get ready to go we have a contract in place for the assessment center we and we've established like a Review Committee but we have not begun the advertising for it for the next piece of the puzzle which is beyond the assessment center to this other help that we could get and open it up to others outside correct so there's still room to adjust here if the board is so inclined but I I'm hearing a couple of different thoughts on this uh anybody else well nothing precludes uh hiring from within I mean because we're advertising we're going out we're just we're just trying to expand the field so that we can get uh a number of the best candidates out there and that does not mean that anybody in the department can't apply they're they'll be part of the process just like anybody else and so we're not stopping him stopping the chief from promoting from within we're just having as as much uh depth as we can okay no I I I totally respect that Mary Joe again I just I heard you know what I think is a large number when we talk about tightening the budget sorry what was iance to speak oh sorry Amy then Amy you go okay yeah I was going to say that I think it's always best practice to advertise both externally and internally for these high high level positions but like as we've SE in the past we often have very high qualified candidates within the department so I would suspect that's the case right now too but I think we should advertise it both internally and externally but if we need to save money HR could advertise it externally right it just wouldn't be you know as robust or wide of a external search right could how about how about this could you do us a favor and look into the possibility of advertising it internally you I mean externally but with externally with our inter folks right um and see uh what you think that might look like what you think those results might yield for us in terms of applicants and so forth maybe come back to us and give us an update on that at our next meeting does that sound like a reasonable approach um for saving money so that's good everybody okay with that idea so uh let's table writing a check for 10 grand or whatever it is right now until we do that little bit of research and come back and give us a feel if you feel that 10 grand is an Roi that we can live with great if you feel there's another way to do it that we don't have to spend the 10 grand that'd be great too so if you wouldn't mind checking that out is everybody okay with that mhm good absolutely everybody good with the miss m Lazarus you good with that idea okay all right great so let's uh we'll table and we'll get some more input on the deputy fire chief process soon hopefully at the next meeting uh whenever you're ready so um if it's this next meeting or the we one after you know we'll figure that out uh thank you very much for coming Chief we appreciate your input can I our last three Chiefs have all been um internal appointments and everyone seems very happy with those choices so yeah it's definitely been one of those departments where we grown from within uh and now let's talk about the hiring process and updates for the town manager Miss Lazarus I think it makes sense you're welcome to sit in a room but I think to set up move yourself from That official Duty over there um just like me when you guys say solar I'm out of here really fast so if you ever want to get rid of me just say solar I'll be gone okay uh so now we're talking about the the town manager process and for this one if you would indulge me please this is a huge hire for the town uh I know in a process I have no clue what that process is I have no clue who the people are I have no clue where we are blah blah blah so please if you wouldn't mind kind of doing a little bit of a basic 101 tutorial for myself and Joe well we have a contract with uh Community Paradigm uh John petran here is from Community Paradigm and he's prepared to give you um an overview of what the process has been so far if that's fine okay with you yeah and before we go to the professional team how about locally then who's involved in this process uh within the town of hopkington its government its citizens whomever so we have um of course myself shadul is um the the board representative um Patricia Dar and um Patty cynical both from the Personnel committee are on the review board um Carol Kavanaugh from the school school superintendent is she a designate of the school committee or is she just she superintendent she's she's the superintendent but the school committee did not designate anybody themselves okay no and then U Mina Barra yeah she's our community our uh member at large great great former School Committee Member a former School Committee Member great okay thank you we'll come back to that in a minute please sir all right thank you uh first uh I always joke there two CW in this business congratulations and condolences so the first meeting is congratulations condolences might come after the fact so congratulations on being elected I was here uh with the board with the rest of my team um uh not too long ago and presented so my name is John petran I'm with Community Paradigm and um uh just as a note we did do the fire chief search uh recently this past year so I was the lead person you know uh dealing with the fire chief search from last year so we were hired again to do the town manager search uh we do probably 60% of the Town manager searches you know in the State uh where outside uh Consultants are uh hired so I'm a retired uh uh Town manager Town Administrator I was 40 years in municipal government I served in a town of Ashlin you know close by uh and I retired out of the town of Burlington uh in 2019 the principal of our firm uh Bernie Lynch is the former city manager of low and the town manager of chelsford so again Bernie had 35 years in a business and then Sharon flarity uh the third member of the direct team um is a Communications expert uh so she was a newspaper person um an editor and worked uh uh basically in the private sector uh in uh Public Relation and Communications so she brings that part uh to the team so we were hired to um uh to assist the board with the search and so what we did is we worked with the town we met with at the time each member of the select board uh individually we met with various department heads I had come to town several days met with various members of uh departments and put together uh basically a position statement and I'll make sure you know both of you you uh see that we advertised based on that approved uh position statement you know from the town and uh so we've been through that process um a couple of weeks ago the screening committee did meet and we will be interviewing the next two weeks and um as mentioned uh Mr Manon is uh your representative from the board to the committee we'll be meeting over the next couple of weeks candidates um in the screening round the screening committee will then uh pair that down to any anywhere from you know hopefully three or four candidates it's you know uh uh depending on what the pool looks like at that point uh to present to the select board for final interviews um so we're looking to have that process ready uh for the uh third or fourth week of June so we'll need to set a meeting date you know preferably between June 17th and June 26th four interviews uh before the select board uh I'll be in contact with um you the chair in particular on behalf of the board talk about that process you know moving forward and with the two new members I'd love to have a conversation with you uh now that you're on board and we can talk further about what you're seeing and you know what the process has been and just get a little bit more individual you know contact with each of you as we did with each of the members of the board uh so that we can move that forward uh but that's where we are in the process the process the committee has worked very well together you know uh at this point and so again we'll be doing um uh interviews uh this week and next week of the screening around candidates and um that's the process where we are today so I'm going to leave it at that you know and open up for questions uh to the board um as you know uh to the process moving forward but as mentioned this is the most important decision you know a select board makes and that's you know hiring of a a town manager in this case great thank you John when you're sitting over I'm like I know that man how do I know that man we worked together years ago when you're in Ash I was here on the board at the time so great to see you again thanks for coming in tonight sure uh Mr Man obviously someone that's got a lot going on here with this please if you could share your thoughts on how we're doing yeah no I think it's going well we found um what about yeah is this better yes okay thank you uh I think it's going well we found about 15 19 candidates appli thank you 19 candidates and John has tiered them in three and uh we've gone through those tiers and I didn't IFI the top ones that we want to um interview and our interview criteria was we wanted to go broader than being too selective in the first round so the to is on the uh committee a little bit to give more time which everyone's dedicated to do and we are interviewing about eight PE eight candidates six you know six in the beginning and we may you know we'll talk about that tomorrow when our first so six in 2 days and uh I think we have a good pull of candidate and John I think one thing also would be worth mentioning we did elect uh chair of the committee and Patricia DTE who's been dedicated uh in the personal committee for a long time has offered and has been elected so we're very happy about that and um yeah I think looking forward to the uh interviews great thank you Mr Clark um no additional questions I do like um your comment about like expanding it taking more time slowing it down I think that's a great idea so nothing else Mr Bush um so I appreciate the update um I know I'm just going to mention I've heard from the public about many people that you know really wanted to be more participate more in this process and felt like they couldn't because there's so much interest in this position so if there's any way to incorporate more public feedback that is great you have already started um uh sorting through the the resumes correct so that's already being done okay I was just I need noticed there's an even number of people on the committee and I didn't know if it might be worth adding a school Committee Member but but if you're already into the process that probably would not be fair I think it's too deep into it because you know they've already worked well together and selected you know and and have had the review of initial candidates you know going through um but um I think the committee is working well and um the superintendent brings that school you know flavor to uh the discussion table so I guess one suggestion I have and you can think about this is when um when it's time for the select board to review the finalist maybe we could ask the school committee to submit some questions that we could potentially ask for them just so we're getting their voice um because that is more than half of our town budget yes and we do make sure we have a question or questions relative to you know uh to the relationship I mean you know we all know schools in any Community has the largest budget you know but also it's more than just a budget discussion you know it is you know one of the core values of most communities is especially here in hopkington so we want to make sure that taken care of um and so we want to make sure candidates as we're interviewing will'll be addressing how do they see the relationship working between Administration Administration you know uh in those areas thank you Mr the frer well I um it it sounds like the process is going fairly well and um I I do look forward to meeting candidates uh I are you going bring more than three before us do you don't know that's up to the screening committee there is no direction to the screening committee you know we always say between three and five every once in a while you know depending on the pool it's you know it's 2 to four people back out the problem with the you know in in you know the P you know better than I do these days the Personnel word world these days uh you know the committee May select three four candidates and one or two May withdraw um and so the question is is you know do we put more candidates in or are the other candidates just at a different level not to so we'll have that discussion with the screening committee when it when it comes time for that thank you okay uh does the screening committee need to follow or can they follow because of you know privacy concerns and you know exposure in the marketplace uh can they follow open meeting law guidelines so in this case this was not a screening committee appointed by the board the board gave direction as to the scope uh but it is a uh admin but even if it were it would be under executive session U you would get no candidates applying um if it or a public you know process as in any process followed uh by municipal government um you always wait until uh you know the final candidates only the final candidates be will be released if you don't give that Assurance you will not receive any candidates you know um you know in the process this is the way it works through through all 351 cities and towns will follow that same procedure and so the public will only see uh the finalists that are presented and that is the situation with every single appointment you know that's uh done through a committee basis because again you just would not you know you know you it's like the private sector no one even knows you know uh you know who's applying because um you know people have to go back to the the positions they hold okay that makes sense um when we hire a superintendent of schools in hington and I've sat on that hiring committee on two or three different occasions over the years um there's a process at some point along the way where the proposed candidates come in and they do it like an introduce an introduction to the community at a public meeting and then the community gets to ask questions like it's an interview of the superintendent by the school crowd if you will you know I'm I five kids I was one of them um and it's a very open process where a lot of people get to ask questions is that going to happen in this process that's usually not the case what you know um in the municipal you know side of it sometimes you can have a meet and greet you know uh where people can you you can we can bring the candidates in you know uh the finalists to meet and greet with people if you wish um but setting it up as a public interview process is usually you know not the situation in in this type of role I don't know if our superintendent maybe it's not a formal interview type process at the public level like that but I I know there's a meet and greet type thing for sure and I like there's a couple of them for each of the candidates to give people a chance to come it's a very thorough process I do like the idea of the meet and greet and I have also served on some of the superintendent committees and I think the finalist came and did all sorry I have served on one of the superintendent committees in the past and um I believe it was sort of an all day thing that we took the candidate around to the see the schools and there was a period for PTO members to ask questions there's for all the different staff to ask questions so the idea of a meet and greet would I think satisfy some of the Public's um desire to par so we can arrange a meet and greet you know uh type situation also on the schools sometimes you go to the other schools you know uh you know and that doesn't happen you know um on a municipal you know side uh it's just a different atmosphere you know uh you're working with and so that just does not happen we provide so when you get your your finalists you know um outside candidates will do a review of you'll have that prior to your interviews so you'll get a report from us you know outlining you know reference reviews and so on so a meet and greet would be something that sounds like the board would support and that would be for the three finalists does that make sense for all three finalists for all three finalists not just I want to like pick somebody and say okay everybody met that's kind of like for Pon yeah we can we can talk to you about some sort of process you know with that and we want to be fair and respectful and we understand the concerns well but once it goes public it's public and then they kind of you know they have to own that a little bit and that's really done but it is done you know so it's something we can talk about you know as to some sort of process there through the chair I like likes to do things rare on occasion go ahead sorry yeah I like the idea I just want to make sure that we have a you know process that um actually makes it a healthy conversation sure and um everyone gets to hear um so okay we can we can talk about that further yeah so let's put that on the list of to-dos if you would please and think about that one okay um thank you for that and so um as to a date I you know we will need to try to do this in you know in a in a short time frame you know between like I said June uh 17th and 26th because then you're running into July 4th and July Holidays which will become problematic for you and for the candidates you know um at that time it's a difficult season to you know keep people interested you know at that period so we are looking at that time frame to you know try to get it done to that to that point um I I I have zero concerns about the timing slowing this thing down myself as one member um we got to get this right uh I was on the board in 2007 these guys are going to get sick of here and some of my stories but in 2007 we had a town manager it didn't work it was our first town manager ever didn't work and that individual no longer work for the town after a bit then we had to go through a process actually we had an interim Town manager Clayton I can't remember his last name I'm sorry Clayton K yeah uh was our inter kind of a 1099 if you will Town manager um and then we went through a very long process very slow process I thought at the time but it was a really deliberative process and we got a great town manager and he was here for 15 years so uh my sense is you know I'm not worried about July 4th holiday I'm not worried about Labor Day I'm not worried about any dates I want to make sure we get a really good process so uh that means we have to go beyond I mean until we announce the three finalists you know we're not really exposing anybody to anything I know some people want to move on in their worlds but we have to do it at our Pace they don't want to do it the pace of others so that would be one thought I wanted to throw out there this evening and then at the end of this whole process we get three candidates and and we do all these different things and we do the meet and greet and we're taking our time and maybe it's after Labor Day who knows and we don't like we don't we can't pull the trigger on any one of those three candidates what happens next you go back up that's a decision you can make it's really done but it does happen you know so if you can't come to an agreement we talk about that and um uh we potentially go back out and we try to understand what occurred okay that's fair all right thank you for answering my questions does anybody else have any other questions or comments specific to this initiative I don't I'm involved so I can ask questions later too okay NOP good for now everybody good yep all right great so with that feedback if we could kind of continue down the path don't worry about the dates I think we do need to slow this down and get it right um and we'll uh take it from there okay I'm sorry can a uh hang on one sec please what is the board's preference to members of the audience speaking I want to be careful about precedent but I want to ask the board their thoughts prer not to have comment out of order like we didn't announce that there would comment there could be other people I didn't hear the question cuz you were say yeah the question is what are your thoughts about having somebody speak to an issue that's not sort of a public hearing type thing my my inclination is not to start going down that path cuz once you do it's very hard to pull it back uh cuz there's going to be other issues that might come up that you know yeah it it's hard to speak to a specific issue when you could have other issues or that differences of opinion um Mr Man yeah through the chair I think um we want to hear the voice but uh we don't want to disrupt the protocols that we follow so if uh the resident can send the question um email us to and we'll try to address it in our Mr Clark or yeah I I agree especially with something like this where we're we're slowing down the process there will be other public forums in our next town meetings so we appreciate the interest but I think going out to the public in general after public comment is not advisable for the board under its normal operating rules because it can become very cumbersome on other issues with other people with other passions so I just want to be very consistent in how we do it and run our business but thank you for the interest um I'm sorry oh would I be able to make a comment at the next meting absolutely absolutely anything else everybody good I think we're great thank you so much for that input and the update and we'll see you soon great thanks a lot thank you we go get o Lane yeah we lost our town manager thank you John great to see nice to meet you okay we need to move it along here folks we are running out of time next up we're going to talk about a farmers market license unless I miss something else in my jumbled agenda believe the applicant is on Zoom no I'm Sor the applicant is on Zoom I'm to telling Ben so he can oh the applicant is here for the farmers market license um Elaine you want to just give us a quick overview of this and then we'll go to the applicant okay um aonp sellers LLC has applied for a farmers market license and they will be selling uh wine at the farmers market uh from June 9th to October 13th okay great and is the applicant on zoom and can the applicant describe uh their requests please yes uh I'm n pal of Aon app sellers uh we're seeking to join the hopkington uh Farmers Market um this summer uh sample and sell our wine for uh by the bottle for take-home consumption okay thank you very much Miss Lazarus how are we doing with Public Safety and this request uh no outstanding comments from the pering team okay this is the second of three vendors we're anticipating who want to sell alcohol at the farmers market what is your recommendation uh recommend approval okay Miss R Bush um we just approved one for a me license I think at our last meeting and so not the pering team has no adverse comments I'd recommend approval okay M lrer well you we did okay the me people and they have been here in the past and been good uh tenants at the farmers market uh and I amum assuming that you're going to be the same your samples are going to be in the little teeny little teeny cups and uh you're going to take care of the trash and take take it out of there and uh and you're we're going to be so many feet from the church is that right you're within 500 ft is that the law you can't sell alcohol within a certain length from schools or when the school is not there anymore so that's not a problem um the Korean church is so you have to be at least 500 ft from the Korean church and I guess that's it I just want to want to make sure that uh nobody gets to abuse the samp Le the samples of the wine Mr Fen here I know I'm dating myself when I say this but uh if you recall in Happy Days about 40 years ago that TV show Richie Cunningham had little cups of something and his dad said how many did you have and he said 72 yeah so uh I hear what you're saying about the small cups and abusing that Mr Manon yeah no I'm in favor of this and I think the farmers market need um you know more attraction and this will bring that last year I was in the market and it felt like uh it was um dying a little bit so I'm very happy to see that we have 35 vendors this year and we are getting uh the additions um such as this one one question I do have is I've noticed that our health department has requested some process for discarding the um sample cups and serving sizes uh have we accommodated those questions I think it was from sh yes go ahead yes I believe all of the uh uh the listed suggestions and comments um on the agenda today um are part of our standard process that we follow at all of the 11 to 12 farmers markets per year that we participate in um so this is pretty much standard procedure M Lazarus you concur yes good thank you okay uh I have no further questions anybody else Al set chairl entertain a motion is found in the motion's document I'm I move to approve Massachusetts general laws uh chapter 138 section 15f Farm's Market license to Aon app sellers LLC to sell wine at the Hoppington Farmers Market on Sunday from June 9th 2024 to October 13th 2024 is there a second second second with Mr Manon thank you any further discussion all those in favor I I any opposed it's unanimous all set thank you very much good luck thank you thank you item number 10 Municipal parking lot Municipal parking behind town hall and bills Pizza um I'm aware of the situation you know at town meeting and the article that went forward at town meeting that did not pass the town meeting if I remember correctly and so miss Lazarus do you want to walk us through where we're at and possible next steps or what's going to happen I'm wondering if uh the owners are on Zoom or there's name it's there's just one person logged in with like the name is H oos does that sound no oh that's that's that so Connor is on the zoom John Moser and someone logged in as Hobs okay it doesn't sound familiar but uh they had uh talked about uh coming to speak to the board evening about the future of uh the potential to share parking um and so it would be great if they were here for a discussion um but the question is to the board that they were going to um ask is do you want to continue to discuss that with them or is it something that they can move on from at this point and talk about other development plans for the area okay uh and you don't necessarily have to have an answer this evening but it's something the board can discuss why we start with the basics we were at town meeting we saw the article for 180 total spaces something around there uh and it did not pass um do we all agree that one it didn't pass and two you know obviously that's not going to fly maybe there's something we have to reconsider or just kind of let it go I don't know this is somewhat new to me although we've been down this path as a town in the past and I think the couple of times we've done it before at least one time before it also failed so uh what I saw at town meeting was a huge parking lot in my mind that took out all the trees and just really opened the whole thing up and obviously the neighbors uh didn't support that uh and frankly I don't blame them um but is there some other idea that the board is interested in pursuing or or do we just want to table it for now I I don't know well we start with Mr Manon yeah no thank you I think we certainly want to respect the town's voice um however we do know that there is a pain Point uh for parking lot for the town employees and the visitors as well as um uh downtown uh customers so it would be nice to look at other options but the other question for up for discussion for everyone is that um the 2.7 million is this the top priority for spending that uh so it's a you know Balancing Act I wouldn't mind looking at other options and the last one is I hope Bill doesn't stop us the parking privilege that we have today because I think legally they can do that so that would be really inconvenient for the town employees for sure and for those who enjoy that parking today for uh Town visits and customer visits so the problem remains the solution is certainly much more uh complicated now so we should As Leaders discuss and see if there are other options other negotiations or lease options even we can explore with bills that's my two cents on that okay Mr Clark um I'm still kind of catching up on this obviously I saw at town meeting you know was very aware of that proposal but were there previous Bal you know you know more scaled back less of an investment was was there anything that was reviewed in the past or at least the recent past I should say well as Brian will remember we did several years ago we put articles up to um for three Parcels to be made parking and we purchased two and not the third which was this one yeah and it you didn't pass but yeah I'm talking so yeah I I I need I need to spend some more time thinking about this because I I I think shadu you you you hit the nail on the head right like Town employees need more parking right we need more parking and at a at a cheaper cost so I got to kind of rethink okay that makes sense Mrs rder Bush yeah I've been thinking about this a lot um I think clearly it was not ready for town meeting this year there were too many uncertainties right now and I do feel like if the downtown project had been finished last fall like we all were hoping and expecting people might have more of a vision for downtown which they just can't right now and we don't even know when the Transformers will be available um and then there's also this up in the air the use of town properties like Town Hall needs more space but we don't know yet if it's going to go to Elwood school to Center school or we're going to expand Town Hall so I think the public was not really um comfortable spending the money yet Without Really knowing those things and then I'm just going to mention too I like I don't have trouble finding a place to park downtown yet and sometimes people if people are not feeling that then they may not feel the need for parking and I I think there's a rule of thumb for the um the Donald sh he's a like a parking Guru and that you want to have in any little downtown area about um 85% Park parking spot occupancy at any given time and 15% open and then you know you have just about the right balance of parking spots for the need for parking and I don't know if we've done any kind of study like that or maybe not since before the project so if we I think if we had more data about what what is exactly needed and what's going to be going into town hall versus Center School um I think that would help the public be more comfortable with it and like Brian mentioned to the screening maybe it was just a little too big what was proposed um was the friend here we we have had parking problems I think at Town Hall almost as long as I can remember uh at one time the owner of what is now Bill's Pizza had cordoned off it and the town actually owns about six bases uh people coming and using them all the time and they're actually going and using bills and and using the back spaces but they don't belong to us and uh we have struck an agreement you know uh if you let us use these spaces uh we'll we'll plow when we plow and uh it's it's it's worked out okay but we have to talk to bills again after this uh and we have a few spaces out front and we are spending quite a bit of money to borrow for spaces during the day from St John's now in in the winter when it's really cold walking down from St John's to the town hall employees who can't use the six parking spaces behind the town hall it it's it's been nothing but difficult almost as long as I can remember and uh I really think that we should have some money and take care of the parking lot that we bought on Walcott Street and I don't people are uh a little crazy because we didn't take that house down but I don't know if they know that PX and rck was actually renting property to be in cuz we didn't have any place to put them so when when we did get that building it was uh decided by the town manager to put pox and wreck in there and not have to pay that rent anymore and uh so they fixed it up a bit that parking lot can be there there with the building still there but it needs to be leveled and graded and made into a real parking lot and it's it's nothing but gravel now and it's definitely not flat and there's no way to get up to the town hall uh from down there and we we have had severe packing problems for a long time and uh you know people want uh the town hall the Town Car to done and I want to see it done but they're all crying for new business down here and businesses where people can come and you know hang out have coffee do whatever they want to do but and maybe another little market or something like that but the thing is we can't we can't do this we can't offer them this business unless we offer them parking downtown it's it's that simple we have to have a place to put their cars when they come here and uh right now we don't have it so I think it behooves us to talk to bills and keep this this discussion going yeah I think that's kind of what I'm hearing from the board is that there's this general interest in continuing discussion and try to figure out something out I think 100 personally I think 180 spaces was too many too much too big we SW we tend to swing for the fences sometimes uh in hopkington and then we sort of back down a little bit and we figure things out and then eventually we get through town meeting and everybody's satisfied with the end product but it can take take a few years uh and certainly when black top is in under discussion in hopkington that's going to get a fair bit of attention as well so uh I think a dialed back version of something and some conversation with bills probably makes the most sense and uh that'll give us a little time to kind of catch up as well um but I think elain kind of does that give you the feedback you're looking for that yes we're still interested and we like to figure it out but we don't know what that looks like today is it like we went for 180 maybe it's 90 we add 30 more if there's 30 35 people working in the building we make sure there's a this parking for them and you know and that saves a lot of trees and a lot of you know land doesn't get encroached on and so forth makes sense okay all right so everybody good with that we'll table that for now let's go to uh item number 11 zero Hayward street declares Surplus property Miss Lazarus so this was uh article four on the special town meeting warrant and this is the property where um someone's house half of their house is on Town property and so town meeting voted to to um dispose of the property and so the first step to do that is for the board to declare its Surplus then we'll go through the process the legal process to uh to dispose of the property which involves an RFP thank you so this is an issue following town meeting and their affirmative vote to proceed uh to dispose or to sell um Mr Clark any questions comments concerns nope no questions Mr Mayor uh no questions m r Bush no I'm glad that Tom meting approved this um I know it really means a lot to the family and they wrote us a very nice uh note about it so I'm definitely supportive of uh what you call it declaring ins Surplus M Le frenier uh no I I I think this is a good article I I would move to cleare zero Haywood Street assesses Mel 36 block 32 lot Zer as a surplus Town property second we have a motion and a second on the table thank you for making the motion any further discussion all those in favor I any opposed it's unanimous all set thank you item number 12 the town manager report Miss Lazarus we referring to the um the report in the packet um there's an update there on the Main Street Corridor project um nothing to add uh to that uh we will be seeing some additional work uh occurring um to moving of um overhead wires uh poles uh still waiting for the Transformers from ever Source however but they'll do whatever they can and then after school gets out crew Crews will be back to start brick work and other work but they wanted to wait until uh school gets out after June 18th I believe is that date um M Lazar to that point I think it's an excellent idea to wait until June 15 16 whatever it is to uh do that work it's going to be you know a little bit intrusive in terms of traffic flow but I wouldn't want them to wait a day after school closes to get going on that work if you could please convey that message to amarella point taken thank you uh secondly there is an update uh from on the uh P treatment project um Sor through the chair sure I had a question on the previous one and thank you for that report and on the report I've noticed that ever Source hasn't confirmed the date or the availability yet they're going to um look at it but um I also notice that the completion timeline is looking at September so there's uncertainty there right it's more projected or how confident we are that by then they'll actually have something and get it done it's it all comes down to Transformers so they'll do everything they can except for the Transformers uh even if it means having to go back to another place again um but they'll do whatever they can thank you so to be clear um this may actually get pushed forward right if the Transformers are not available so the data is not certain it's more tentative right now based on the Transformer availability thank you yeah all set next item please so the the past treatment project project is uh uh entering the um the testing phase um uh and then the equipment will be fine-tuned uh be sampled and eventually be um be certified by D and then uh water will be flowing through there um no definite date yet but um it's entered that that Final Phase at this point Thank you and do you want to mention that we have now a date for the public forum on May 30th um for the Pea's discussion what was date so uh May 30th um is a date which I we've had trouble securing speakers is why we have not set out an announcement um but we uh looks like we will be able to have at least an informational uh public meeting uh to start with a lot of information for people and start a community discussion or continue a community discussion about PS uh what is it where is it what we can do about it that kind of thing just to start yeah thank you elen and I think that'll be a great place for um public and everyone interested to come and give us your feedback and input cuz uh we want to use that to build our framework to uh Monitor and strategize on PS going forward and uh I think you'll confirm the date in the next couple of days and publicize it um the venue would be Center the senior center at what time uh 6: to 8 8: p.m. any other questions thoughts on the PFS process next item please can I that we're very it's only 10 nine days away from that date will we be able to send the press release tomorrow okay yes we will mhm okay uh next update is on the mwa MW interconnection project uh no update since the last time uh Power Engineering continues to work on the 30% design um and the town continues um with that questions comments on that item no next item please uh Staffing update um there are positions that are being filled in addition to the ones you spoke about earlier um for example um we are still trying to find uh a dishwasher at the senior center if you know anyone who is interested um also um we have a water technician uh offer extended and accepted by someone so that's a good uh position to fill um also a police officer Academy candidates will be coming to the select board one on June 4th uh the uh candidates for interviews for a new benefits administrator uh are scheduled for interviews um vacancy was created with the promotion of Jessica lens uh prdm dispatchers we have a candidate in pre-employment process uh still accepting applications for our Public Safety dispatchers full-time uh we have received uh several candidates for interviews for social worker and program coordinator um and a um the a uh position of administrative assistant at the DPW has been advertised as well questions on the Staffing update I don't have any would you be able to put together a list of all the open positions in town government please and the length of time that they have been open uh in other words when the vacancy took place and you know obviously how far back that was uh I'm just curious to see it s one piece of paper maybe it's out there somewhere I don't know it's been on our packet recently so we do have yeah i' just be curious to see what that is and and how long these positions have been open because we're going to come back to that when I get to the future board agenda stuff in a minute here um so thank you for that update and item e item e is very exciting the uh 128th uh Boston Marathon Marathon funds fundraising totals for this year was 566,000 48 which is an increase over last year um so it was very exciting to see all the money that was raised for charity yeah uh through the chair I'm really hardened to see that we have garnered um significant increase in fundraising I did notice that quite a few police um beibs didn't get to uh much uh get to uh raise m much is there anything we can help further on those uh I think four or five were under 1,000 or around 1,000 versus everyone else is 5,000 and plus which is great yeah yeah we don't have any information on why that that did happen okay thanks okay uh all settling yes everybody go with the Tom Ander report y can I just add I think we really made a good decision to increase the fundraising number this year we were really hesitant to raise it above 5,000 but I think that was a good idea because most almost all of them made the goal so yeah yeah I've done it a few times uh and the the market rate if you will uh for numbers for fundraising with the baa is $10,000 so I think raising it is a great idea to continue to challenge the runners and do the good things that we do with that money that's raised so well done by everybody uh item number 13 liaison reports um Mr Clark what Aon reports do you have to give us this evening I I must have lost them on the walkin good answer okay uh you'll catch on to this one later Mr Man yeah I don't have a lot but um the esbc meetings are going well there were some design discussions and progressing and tracking a wonderful group of people so um it it's on track great thank you m Rush um I'm just going for the on the planning board leaz and I think with the failure of the MBTA communities act um a town meeting I think we're going to really have to work on that this year and I think the select Board needs to take a more active role like on the green committee this year they came to us and even though our um approval was not required we did go ahead and approve their article for the stretch energy code and I think might be wise this time for the MBTA communities act for us to look at that in detail and make sure they're bringing forward something that that we can put our support behind because uh the deadline is not till the end of the year so we have some time to figure something out but the the loss of all the grants um and getting sued by the Attorney General is not something I don't think we want to um to happen so I guess future agenda item too Guess m the frer well I uh Le on to the marathon committee and I think they had a wonderful race this year uh glad we wrote the letter to the baa asking for the use of our own common back and we did have a lot of people on the common and I know that the Girl Scouts made all their money and and it was I just felt like it was Hoppington again and the race again and uh and then Dy ferer came up with the idea of the the 100 Y dash for the 100 for the kids and that was a wonderful success I hope we continue that uh the 26.2 and the ATS Council had a did the flying feet and that was another and and that was a big fundraiser for them they make quite a lot of money on those and um it was just it was just a delight I I'm so was so happy to see the Town come back out for the weekend and and enjoy themselves uh and I I want to see that continue I'm also leaz on to the marathon fund committee and I just want to report that we have decided we decided we read something like I think it was 33 applications for our scholarships and we were able to determine six and uh we don't know who they are at least not yet and uh and that's that's done for this year so uh I was it was a busy month that's all great thank you I thought the Marathon this year was awesome it was a great day great day for Hopkinson um I don't have any Lia on reports uh like Mr Clark uh yeah um so everybody good with Le a on item number 14 future board agenda items this is a little new to me in what I see on the agenda here because I see future board agenda items we'd like to cover and looks like the individual that raised the question or raised the idea to cover at some point down the road uh so is this how we do it now that we actually keep track of them on the agenda itself uh that was the the prior chair's uh decision to to put them there so that they're visible but doesn't have to be there yeah no I like it because it keeps them visible and it keeps them in front of us and keeps them in front of the public uh so I think that's good uh information for everybody to see but it was just new for me we used to just say future agenda items and everybody rattle stuff off and then I'm not sure sometimes if we covered everything that people did raise so I think this is a great idea so with that uh Miss Rush uh any future board agenda items not beyond what is there but I will note that the upper trials Trail committee is still an open issue and Iran is gone now so we're going to need to assign a a new le someone to lead that because it you know the issue's gone on for a long time and we need to wrap it up I think is that committee also on the select board liaison list itself it is yes okay great so we'll do it when we get to Liaison assignments I think we do that a little bit later in the summer and I'm hearing that they are almost done with their work on suggesting um their a revised charge so I'm hoping that we can still bring that to us and we can kind of make some progress okay so do we want to take eron's name off and put yours here does that make sense no I so my husband is on that committee so that's okay got it thank you thank you makes sense and I trails are not really my thing we'll leave it there for posterity he's he did good work on the board anything else nope Mary Joe anything for future board agenda items yeah I I'm down here for the Tax Relief Committee um I'm waiting here from Su curries I want her to come before this board uh they had a very hard time this year uh they've been giving out less money and less money and she feels like if we don't get a sponsor they lost a sponsor they were getting x amount of dollars from somebody every year now they're not getting that anymore and they can't solicit it's part of the tax relief thing they can't solicit money so um she feels like if they don't find a sponsor or get some relief soon that by 2025 won't have any more money uh they've had this problem before and they've gone from like 500 or more sometimes 700 when I was on it to uh individuals with tax problems to uh we've gone down to 50 bucks and 100 bucks on occasion and and then we got the sponsors and so they had a steady a steady amount and that's what they kind of need to continue and we don't really know how to get that okay all right thank you uh Mr Clark future board agenda items so Ju Just so I understand like we're proposing things right now that we would take up at a future date because I because I know Amy you mentioned the MBTA right I think that's an important one did you already mention to put that on or should we add that captured I mean it was my planning board Le on but it's the same it is a future agenda item too okay yeah I think anything else I I also think that we should look to um and we might need to review with Council first but with the special town meeting article regarding Tim Brennan you know there was a voice of the town so we need to bring that up address it understand what we can or can't do legally and just make sure it's accounted for okay so specific to that one if I could add to that um and and then I'll go to Mr mannon um I agree that we need to follow the general whe of town meeting and investigate or understand where we are today with respect to the sergeant Brennan situation um I think we need to have Town Council and labor labor Council join us at a meeting soon if not the next one the one after that if we can't work out schedules and give us the update as to where we are there's a lot of speculation out there as to where we are uh what an arbitration process might produce what it may not produce what are the options what are what what options don't we have Etc I think we owe the community that dialogue and that transparency as best we can given the legal proceedings that are also going on okay so I'll put your name on that future agenda item since you raised it but I think it's in that the with that approach with those people coming here I don't want to have them on Zoom I'd like to have them in in in in the space with us to have that conversation okay uh Mr Man future agenda items yeah I think I have couple there uh so I would like to uh see especially the uh MBTA I think would be a good addition and all these are important the tax relief also I think we want to look at other ways um to uh help with the taxes not only for tax relief but also how we can help overall tax situation but that said I would like to also propose that we add dates to these uh proposed agend items because records will show some of the or most of them I think are waiting for 9 months to 12 months the date that it's raised Mr Manon or the date you would like to see it addressed dat that it was raised so get prioritized and we get to see it in the agenda item cuz I know the mins were waiting for 10 months so and not to pick on those I think everyone has uh I think it's a great idea so if we could begin tonight dating all the ones that we're raising thank you anything else uh no okay so I have a few um Joe's got Sergeant Brennan situation on his list uh I would like the board to consider on a future board agenda uh naming a special liaison to the downtown Corridor project one of us uh getting named as a special Lea we have done this in the past for certain things in town we did it with the baa we've done it with other in situations where that individual will attend meetings with am amarell construction that individual will attend meetings with eversource that individual will attend meetings with uh all the other stakeholders for the Downtown Quarter project including mot uh and push this thing along the community I think has been extremely patient albeit impatient at times and for obvious vious and I think reasonable reasons being impatient uh with this project it's time for us to push I know it's a mot project and I know 12 of the 15 or 15 of the 18 whatever it is I know the money is predominantly elsewhere coming from elsewhere but it's our community that's being impacted and we need to step up and we need to push on this project uh you know I'm in the construction business and if you don't push you don't get so uh I'm a big believer that we should consider some form of a formal vote to anoint somebody to appoint somebody specially aison to the Downtown Quarter project for the sole purpose of getting this work done um and getting what we can get done done now despite the Transformers I buy 240 Transformers a year literally at work I get the Transformer problem but there's other things that we can do for this mile or so stretch of land here that we can get going on right now and it sounds like they're coming back the next day after school is out to start doing the brick work and other things but I would like somebody on this board to be in that meeting and look those folks in the eye and say are you sure it's the next day what time the next day how many trucks are going to be here the next day how many people are going to be here manage the process I'd like to see this board manage the process uh another idea that I'd like to discuss in a future agenda um and I think this Corridor thing by the way we should try to do at the next meeting linke so we can get these folks ready for this June work um for the Water and Sewer Commission uh I've talked about this over the last couple of months as a private citizen I'd like to discuss it now or put it on the agenda for a future discussion I would like the board to appoint an advisory committee to take hold of the PFS question take hold of the MW question take hold of our water and sewer Enterprise funds in general in an advisory role so that we don't have to go back to the Charter and help us dig way deeper than we have the time to do on this board on those very serious issues so that would be a future agenda item that I'd like to see sure yeah on the second one I think Brian you may have missed uh the proposal I had on uh February 28th I can forward it to you uh that's exactly what I proposed excellent and a framework for that and that's part of the discussion we're going to have so getting the input and see how best to form that to do exactly what you said to do more research to help with the strategy development and then also tracking what are the improvements or what are the short-term and long-term plans that we are doing and executing and a big part of it is also how we can better communicate it to the residents would it be okay to put your name on the future agenda item to today's date for that particular commission or that Advisory Board we had it on future agenda items for a long time and now we moved it to one that we've started already because they're having a forum in uh yeah in nine days okay so I again thank you for that um but let's we'll figure it out okay if if we're already started on it great yeah great okay I'm again I'm playing catchup here but I want to make sure we get some kind of Advisory Board put in place for those two particular Enterprise funds uh finally uh for me anyway uh and that you know again if we're starting that great but if we need to do something else at this level I'd want to see that by the end of August if possible okay and then lastly um for me uh by the end of July uh because the fiscal year starts July 1 I would like this board to consider instituting what we have done in the past which is a limits a limits of authority gets put in place across town government uh for the hiring of uh individuals whether they be for new positions or replacements for existing positions that are open uh as well as a limits of authority on spending for all town government departments at a number that we kind of work out with our colleagues in the management team whether it's 10 grand 15 grand 20 grand I don't know I don't want to tie people's hands too much but anything of consequence that can add up to a million dollars over a couple of months or $2 million over the course of a year I'd like us to have those limits of authority put in place by the end of July if at all possible given what's coming at us in the next 5 years for Debt Service we need to find millions in millions and put it into reserves so that we can use those reserves instead of go to the taxpayers you know for two and a half overrides after override after override to pay for these schools and other Investments that we' made here in the last year to the chair sure uh I was just wondering I like all the you know um new ideas and we definitely want to discuss those I was just thinking um instead of discussing it now we may just queue up the agenda with a brief um tag and then we can start placing them in the upcoming meetings that way you know we can discuss it more thoroughly and one quick question I had um regarding the downtown Corridor lizo and again we can put it on the agenda and discuss it uh in details so we can come up with what's the best framework what's the best goal and all those good things that we can offer in that is that um I heard you mentioning going on you know and we all won the success of downtown Corridor and we are happy to see that now we have progress quite a bit in the last year um since I joined it was it was much challenging situation when we first started but that said I think I wanted to understand also and maybe it's up for discussion is based on our role as select board um there is certain statutory limits how closely we can be with day-to-day operations we don't want to do that so we just want to be cognizant of that and make sure it's more at a you know high level oversight level that's an excellent point I think when we get to the agenda item we should discuss that good point okay uh so with that are we good with future agenda items great thank you very much next item is item number 15 which is an exec cutive session the executive session is pursuant to Mass General Law chapter 30A section 21A purpose 3 to consider strategy with respect to litigation the United States of America V Michael B Michael l z uh at all um the case numberers listed there uh because an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the board and the approval of executive session minutes from 416 to 42 41624 take place in executive session so that's where we're going there is a motion specific to that if someone would be so kind so moved so if you wouldn't mind reading that motion please given the challenges of execu uh I move to enter executive session person to mgl c30a 21A purpose 3 to consider strategy with respect to litigation United States of America versus Michael L Zep al4 CV 10811 d. Mass because an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the board to approve executive session minutes to allow elain Lazarus to participate in the executive session and not to reconvene in open session at the conclusion of executive session is there a second second so we have a motion and a second to enter executive session this is a roll call vote M Le frenier mayor Joel yes am yes Brian her yes Joe Clark yes sh man yes okay folks we are adjourned to Executive session we will not be coming back to public session have a good evening thank you