all right we are on air we ran a little late in our executive session uh so we're just going to give it a minute to give everyone the time to come into the room from the hallway or another 30 seconds or so I'll go ahead and read the Preamble in accordance to the requirements to open meeting law please be advised that this meeting is being recorded in broadcast live over the L over the lunberg public access channel on Facebook live on the public access Facebook page and will be uploaded to the lunberg access YouTube channel after the meeting the agenda list all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the chair votes may be taken as a result of these discussions not all items listed May in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by the open meeting law um we will do the Pledge of Allegiance so please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right we're going to begin this evening with public comments do we have any public comments this evening from the board only because I wasn't here at the last meeting I want to welcome Amanda Moore to the select board uh officially so good to have you aboard look forward to working with you thank you as well thank you all right I have uh I'll make a public comment um brief I have um been the chair for this board for the last two years tonight as the first order of business we will be reorganizing uh I am not seeking to be uh an officer of this board and hope to enjoy my last year in public service um and uh support and coaching and passing off projects to other members um with a a little bit more tenure than what I have remaining so I just want to thank the public for their uh support certainly uh all things come with challenges and this has been a challenging one I think the town manager as well for her uh work with me uh I haven't always been easy to get along with and so um wanted to thank the public uh again and and my colleagues on the board any other public comments from the board all right any public comments from the public this evening just make sure you say that at the microphone please 39 courland Circle Amanda it's great to see you aboard and uh my girls I have three daughters so they're very big fans and uh we're very big supporters so stay strong and thank you very much girl thank you um Mr jeffre said last time I was here I asked you about an attorney firm um that you you may use um I have found out are you familiar with a name called Ryan Severance no you you told us three times that you were not no involvement with that firm I was told by Ryan who works at that firm that he handles your attorne your the the your books for your um basically for your your property management company it's very interesting that Mr gaml actually had conversations with um our attorneys that we had for 20 years in our HOA um we found out recently and then we we feel that you and and some of the Town officials have diverted our homeowners association our trustees to this this attorney to come at us and get us rid get us out of town honestly um $20,000 $21,000 of fines doesn't even make sense to anybody um Amanda you probably know some of this from when I called the police stations and so forth and you were very kind to take some of those um calls but you know my family was very much attacked um we feel it it was a um you know a situation that we were wed to get out of town because we raised some concerns with um the police the police that had come to our private property and called me out of the woods that we've had lemonster residents that sat down there and said you can stay didn't make any sense to us we called you Mr Jeff I talked to you you turned 180° on me 180° you said me to go to the you told me to go to the chief to go to make a complaint with a resident I did so I copied you on that email you then turned it around and called me bat crazy now we're year and a half later and here we are still in the situation that no one wanted to do anything that we got a neighbor that's harassing me and my family calling us a piece of calling my wife an goes on and on and the police here did nothing about it except EX for try to take us to harassment prevention orders that Mr gaml had actually supported very much supported and gave one of our gave the neighbor a a complaint a criminal complaint before I was even here before I was even served he gave that to a neighbor is that does that even sound correct none of this sounds even possibly correct and you just sit here and stare at me and you tell me that you don't lie you told me that you told me that many people have told you lie I should have might ear should have triggered right then and there when someone says they don't care if someone calls them a liar because you've certainly lied to us and my wife and I both know it we know what's going on and we're going to trace it down I just want to let the board know what's going on here and if any of you can do anything to help out you'd greatly appreciate it Mr Lonzo today you've been here what 17 18 years today I ask a question and you refer me back to a clerk unprofessional unproper incorrect I asked you for the executive meetings the meeting minutes that's a board that's I've asked the board for that you need to reply and not give it back to a clerk I did not ask for a public records request I asked it from from the governing board directly so you do have an authority to to provide that document to me um and I'm looking forward to that and so I just want to you know it's kind of surprising to me be you being here for 18 years don't even know the proper things to come back to a resident and tell them I don't understand it a lot of this stuff is what's going on here i' I'd love to volunteer in this town but I would never never ever volunteer here because of what the dirty little tricks that go on and Amanda that's why I thank you to to try to stay up and that's why I said stay strong stay strong if if you know get pushed back but there's a lot of stuff going on here and I'd love you some of you to dig into it but there's a lot of stuff Mr Jeff and you know it as well as I did what that attack was in 22 of of November of 22 when I came in t talk to you you turned around 180 degrees attacked my family it's a disgusting story it's a disgusting absolutely disgusting story what went on here how much money has been spent by town by the town the state level and the federal level the state has told the town four times to give a a vide tape from the library to prove a point that a guy is harassing me the town has come back four times and told them no the state said yes yes yes give it to them finally the town got through by saying there's children in the library okay I got a piece of a library clip before before why wasn't that brought up before other residents in town have gotten clips from the library why wasn't that brought up it was prevented from me to be able to prove that I was getting harassed by a resident in town that was supposedly lying on a 911 call he lyed on a 911 call no one did anything about that why why do you have a resident lied to a on a 911 call about another Resident and you do nothing about it why you're protecting this individual and we know it we know you're protecting them and it needs to stop and I'm going to leave it at that and I'll be down talked again January 9th remember that meeting Mr Jeff Mr Franco as well and you Mr all of you were somewhat involved except for Amanda but January 9th we felt we were very much persecuted we weren't we you yes you did invite us to the meeting but we we denied coming and we weren't there so that was kind of persecution Mr Jeff of what you set up in that meeting to try to get us out of town and make us look like a piece of crap thank you Mr Burton for your comment I will respond to two things um prior to being on this B my business which is Jeff's Property Management um I was making about 150,000 a year from it roughly and 5 years ago when I became a member of this board uh I stopped taking customers from Lunenburg uh for the last 3 years my business has made about $115,000 a year I do my own books and I'm not aware of any lawyer you've ever mentioned here before and as I've said to you a couple of times I have absolutely no association with an attorney that you mention here this evening and I don't know much about your personal situation and you are correct uh that you know you and I did speak and after trying to work with you and trying to explain that the concerns that you have with your condo association are civil in nature and that you should talk to a civil attorney about them that was that was kind of where we left off violations are there any other public comments this evening from the public let people finish any other public comments this evening from the public all right first order of business reorganization so this should have happened at our last meeting but we did not have uh all members in attendance so uh this is when following an election the board select its officers of chair Vice chair and clerk so we're going to start with chair are there any nominations for chair this evening I'd like to nominate Caesar noo for chair all right I will second that uh the way that this goes is we typically will uh open the floor to nominations all nominations for position there may be some conversation then we'll we'll take them uh I would like to nominate Tom Alonzo to be chair of the board second all right let's have a discussion on both of these points so to the members are both of you interested in being shair sure I will be the first to admit that I still have a lot to learn uh but yes I will accept the nomination okay um either of you would before we go to a vote either of you like to um Express why you're interested in being chair of the board sure like I said I still have a lot to learn but I think that can be a strength and not necessarily a weakness because it means that I will constantly look for feedback I will listen uh I will care what people have to say both on the board and the public and I will implement the feedback that I receive uh if I'm chair I'll be a collaborative leader I'll still view myself as one of five of the members I won't impose an agenda or opinions on the board and I'll continue to be an independent fair and impartial uh as I consider everything that comes before us I think the board is at a bit of a crossroads right now because we are moving away from Mostly being comprised of long-term members with a lot of experience and our two most senior members are up for reelection or not running again next year so we will be moving to a board where four potentially five of the members have under one year one term of experience so I think it's actually critical for continuity of government for the board to allow one of the more junior members to step up and serve as chair now while two of the most senior members are still on board I'm dedicated to this role it's incredibly stressful a lot of the time but I enjoy doing this work I'm able and willing to step up so I'll accept the nomination if you guys are willing to support it and if not that's okay as well so I've been on the board for 18 of the last 20 years I've served as chair for I don't know five or six I don't know how many time how many years I've served as chair for that time I know the town well I know the job well um and if the board chooses to have somebody experienced in the role at this time that's fine if they do not that is also fine all right any uh discussion on this I'll only add that you know I think that Tom you've done great work here and I would support either one I just I think coming on as a new member um and having some fresh blood I think wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing I think uh Tom's experience is going to be incredibly important the coming year we're coming off of two very uh tumultuous years and I don't think it's going to be a smooth Road uh for the next year and I think having experience at the helm is in incredibly critical heading into next year and and um I appreciate Caesar your your dedication and and your willingness to to step into the role um unfortunately to no fault of your own you were away for 5 months and it was a very I know you dialed into several meetings but um being here during that budget season was was an experience um and so I I feel more comfortable having um more experience in the chair position especially this year yeah I mean I think I came in tonight um fully expecting that uh Mr Lonzo would be our next chair and um you know I think that the um I think experience from this board um is very important I think that being in uh leadership roles in our community is always challenged in um but I think Caesar what you said is is a bit persuasive in the sense of um you know I don't know if I fully grasp the fact that you know i' I made no secret that I'm coming off the board at the end of this term and that does put the board in the unique position of having four or potentially five members that are on their first term I think that coaching um would be helpful um all right let's call for the vote um so we have a nomination and a second for uh Mr Alonzo I'm Excuse me for Mr nuo um all in favor please say I I I those oppose no no no all right Caesar has become chair so just for the record Mr chair you nominated me and then didn't vote for me like what was exactly the point of that exercise oh I think I I expected Tom I think that I expected you to be the chair uh I think that what Caesar just said uh to me was yes I heard it was persuasive it was persuasive but I was expecting to make the nomination and I wasn't expecting necessarily a second uh nomination do we have a nomination for Vice chair I nominate Tom Alonzo I refused the nomination well SEL Alonzo I like and respect you a tremendous amount and I genuinely do value your experience and I think you have an important role to play now as Vice chair and I would ask you to be a team player and please accept the nomination and I refuse the nomination is there another nomination for vice chair I I will nominate selectman empy I also refuse all right well I don't think it would be fair to ask the newest member to be Vice chair I wouldn't have wanted that right when I got on the board so I will nominate selectman Jeff um is there a second second I do not I would not like to be Vice chair I've been clear that I'm not interested in being the chair or the vice chair or the clerk um however I will do my duty to our community and um I will accept the nomination all right all in favor please say I I I I those oppose no no obain clerk do we have a nomination for Clerk I will nominate selected m key for clerk are you not interested in that either [Music] yeah I think I'll pass I'll nominate Amanda Moore for clerk second Amanda will you accept the nomination for clerk yes any additional discussion all in favor please say I I I those oppose no I'll abstain any extensions all right I would like to do musical chairs here uh and pass off the rest of the meeting to our new chair against switching seats switchs my spot I kind of like that spot if you want the spot take no I like this chair though you like the chair the spot I don't like the to you take your name tag no I didn't take my name tag tell me to switch name [Music] tags all right well those was uncomfortable I'll admit it but I'm hoping that I can work well with you guys and earn your support all right let's move on with the agenda are there any announcements this evening I'll wait till later in the agenda to so you can proceed with the long P two hearings all right are there any Communications from other boards I'll H that later in the agenda all right so moving on to appointments up first we have the 7:10 p.m. hearing to discuss and review the restaurant all alcohol license for labala doing business as the reboot located at 50 Massachusetts Avenue so first I will go over the procedure before we open the public hearing are we joined this evening by uh attorney Costa Mr chair attorney Costa was not able to make it for tonight that was sent out prior to the meeting all right so this will be an official hearing everyone testifying must be sworn in the order of proceedings is as follows I will swear in anyone who will be testifying the town will first present testimony the license holder or any representatives of the license Holder will present testimony the board will ask questions we'll deliberate we'll make a finding and then we may or may not determine penalty so the possible findings of this are pretty straightforward one violation has occurred or no violation has occurred so if I can I will ask the clerk to Now read the hearing notice sure I just need to pull it up and I can't find it in the drive okay I'll read it what is it titled excuse me Mr chairman under its public hearing on revocation of liquor license for reboot sorry I wasn't expecting to be quier have to read this if you have it up if you want to read it okay I actually don't see it in here now I don't see it either all right pretty sure there was one but now I don't see it so do you see it the town manager do you have it available I'm looking that's Max you can also look website okay do we need to read it no all right so we will just open the public hearing at 7:44 p.m. who here intends on testifying is there anyone from the Sewer Commission okay is anyone here from lalena that intends on testifying tonight John Reynolds 91 L cev uh the sewer commissioner sko chairman of the Sewer Commission I actually wasn't expecting to participate in this tonight I thought it would be reboot that be here uh trying to maybe perhaps explain why they haven't been paying their sewer bill um but basically they signed an agreement with the Sewer Commission back in December and a payment schedule was set up for weekly payments until they got caught up and it was going to be required that any new sewer bills would be paid on time um they did make some payments in January and a couple in February then stopped one check was paid uh one payment was made there were insufficient funds um s commission met on the beginning of April I think it was our April 9th meeting uh to discuss what to do and um we we wanted to hold them to the agreement they sign now they they did agree to pay $2,000 we thought okay that would go a long way but had to continue paying um so basically when the agreement was signed they were $3,299 behind uh as of today they're $3,689 8 Behind um they're getting the service that they absolutely not pay I'm sorry to interrupt you sure but I just have to swear you in first all right do I have to start all over this do you mind raising your hands do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth under the pains and penalties of perjury yes I do okay you can continue with your testimony do I need to repeat everything I already said yes please okay um again I wasn't expecting to participate in this tonight I just assumed that someone from reboot would be here to try to explain to select word the situation but since um well even prior to December they were not paying their SE bills in December we signed an agreement with them set up a payment schedule uh weekly payment schedule and they also had to uh pay any new sewer bills on time now they started paying uh weekly for I think it was most of January a little part of February uh then they stopped and a check came in there were insufficient funds uh and then there were no payments so the reboot uh was put on our agenda commission the general and beginning of April April 9th meeting to discuss where we should go uh whether we should recommend to the select board that the license be revoked and at the time reboot agreed to pay $2,000 um you know we thought that would go a long ways so we we decided not to make a decision that night but we were fully expecting that they would meet their obligation by uh the 28th of May they have not and in December when they signed the agreement they were they owed $3,299 as of today they owe $3,689 18 and um they've had no contact with us uh given us no indication uh where they are with this other than the fact that we know they haven't paid so we're we are asking that the select board revoke their license they're paying for they're not paying for a service that they're reing we have a thousand other s customers that are paying their bills all right well thank you for your testimony good U and since no one is here to represent them I will uh open it up to the board to ask questionss if you Mr Reynolds just stay at the podium just in case anyone has questions for you uh so we can start with selectman Alonzo no questions it's pretty clearcut no questions for me neither none for me yeah I agree this very straightforward so is there a motion move to revoke the license of the reboot under the failure to pay agreement that was signed uh when was it signed December we have a signing date of this December 13th 2023 there we go December 13 2023 second any discuss additional discussion uh I just want to clarify uh in that motion that it's a liquor license that's being revoked or is it all licenses I don't I mean it was an all alcohol the sewer that's a good question what are we being asked to revoke I mean the liquor license doesn't cause the sewer that doesn't incur any sewer charges so one would think that the ability to operate in its entirety including the common vit license would also be up for grabs to be rescinded it's the cooking of the food that affects the sewer and the grease traps Etc not the serving of liquor unless they're pouring a lot of liquor down the drain mhm so I would I but I don't know what it was what this was posted as is this posted as just a liquor license or all licenses well the agenda says it's a hearing to review the all alcohol license I would separate the motion to into possible findings meaning they've been found to for nonpayment of taxes per the chapter 40 section 50 seven um and then the violation as well okay I don't know that I filed that to make the motion so what do you want to divide it into two meaning uh the steps would be possible findings that they've um non-payment of taxes you found that they have not paid their taxes per Mass General Law chapter 4057 and the the violation would mean revoke their license license or licenses the agend I don't I can't pull up the public hearing he notice say that's that's the agenda so because otherwise how does that help us if they can't serve liquor but they can still serve food and they can still operate so they have to come before if it wasn't posted that way it wasn't posted that way they're going to have to come before us anyway yeah so we should be able to revoke that one too but if that's not the way it was posted so I'll I'll make the motion that we find that reboot is in violation of their agreement of paying their back taxes as agreed to on uh December 13 2023 as the first motion second any additional discussion all those in favor please say I I I I those opposed the motion passes unanimously all right move make a motion to to resend the alcohol license due to the violation second any additional discussion all those in favor please say I I I I those opposed no the motion passes all right moving on to our 7:30 p.m. hearing with request from Chief of Police to hear and discuss the revocation of Class 2 Auto deer license for Jose Iris de oliviera doing business as Maxi Auto Inc and lunenberg auto center located at 36 and 40 Summer Street I'll invite the chief of police up I would to present the request um and please raise your hand if you are here to offer any sort of testimony or okay yep do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth under the pains and penalties of perjury all right thank you so how this is going to work is first I will invite up the chief of police to present the request here and then we will hear from anyone else that wants to speak on behalf of Maxi Auto Inc and lunenberg auto center the board will then have an opportunity to speak and ask questions and then we will discuss uh thank you Mr chair thank you for having us tonight um I'm here uh Chief Thomas gam lunenberg Police Department I'm here to present present you with a request to revoke a license for Maxi Auto in lunenberg Auto Center here in lunenberg on Summer Street um in the last month the department has received and has investigated several complaints involved in Maxi Auto uh the complaints ranged from Vehicles being sold without titles to fraudulent documents for vehicles that were sold and M misuse of dealer plates on May 20th based on a numerous amount of complaints that were received officer Hill uh with the assistance of Mass state police Trooper Eugene Lawrence followed up the investigation and inspected the business both businesses on Summer Street uh when they got down there the owner was identified as Sydney Fernandez Desa um at that time they did the inspection and found that uh the listed owner of the property was Mr olera Jr uh which wasn't matching with Mr duus was uh presenting to them they reviewed the license and confirmed that Mr do ver was listed as the owner upon reviewing the documents that have been provided to me from the town it was also found that the certificate was presented to Mr Olivera uh when I reviewed the conditions of the certificate especially through the zoning board of appeals as a condition of the special permit under condition number eight granting this um and I'll quote this the granting of the special authorization shall inure to the benefit of the applicant and shall cease in the event the business business is sold or um sublet um by this account the business has been selling cars for over a year without a proper license um by the conditions of the appeal uh this um from the zoning board of appeals they should have applied for a new license under the new ownership name um after receiving numerous complaints they went down and found that there was several different complaints going on as well as what we have received I'm going to invite officer Hill up here to give you a summon a summary of what we have discovered and what we're applying for a criminal summons in court I'll say hello everyone officer Jeffrey Hill lunberg Police uh I'm going to try my best to sum up a 12-page police report as quickly and efficiently as I can with you guys uh as Chief Gamel said um myself and Trooper Lawrence from M State Police uh conducted on May 20th on Monday of this year an inspection of both Maxi Auto and lunberg auto sales at 40 and 36 Summer Street prior to our inspection when we met at the police department I was informed by Lieutenant Tibido that a victim over the weekend had actually reached out a gentleman in his late 7s had purchased a car without a title 4 and a half months ago and had been given a repair plate uh to circumvent properly registering the vehicle as there was no title um after I was able to speak with that gentleman in Mr George Brown of ashram um he explained to me that he had bought the car for his wife over four and a half months ago and that they've been driving with the plate um for that amount of time violating two Mass general laws for unregistered and uninsured motor vehicle as well as a code of mass regulation for a misuse of a dealer or repair plate once finally there um Trooper Lawrence and myself observed 18 vehicles for sale they all had American flags for sale stickers some had the yellow sticker for lemon law some had their vehicle year or mileage they were all very obviously slated for sale immediately we noticed that there was four vehicles that didn't have the Lemon Law notice which is in violation of mass Journal law as well um once going in there Trooper Lawrence and myself identified as tro uh as Chief Campell said the self-proclaimed owner and manager of the business Sydney Fernandez duza who's here today um immediately we asked to see their class 2 license for 36 Summer Street as well as 40 Summer Street both of which had Jose Iris DEA um when asked about that as Jose was not on scene Sydney explained to us that he had since bought out Jose's share of the business and now he was the sole owner and manager of it uh as Chief gaml said that is a clear violation of not only condition 8 of their class two license but uh Master on a law as well for unlicensed Car Sales um the next thing troop Lawrence and I were able to do is inspect their log book there is a 7-Day grace period per given to put all of a purchasers sellers any sort of info for any sort of car sale for example if you bought it from an auction then I sold it to someone all of that within 7 days is supposed to be logged we asked them for their most recent book again it was May 20th the most recent um entry they had was March 20th 60 days prior in clear violation of Mass General off um further inspection of past dates as we had nothing in the past 60 days we observed that there was multiple seller infos that were completely blank um this appeared to be very similar to the type of complaints we had received of people not getting titles and not properly being sold Vehicles giving false plates to put on them we I believe that was an an attempt to circumvent um responsibility um at random Trooper Lawrence and I picked two Ford Fusions that were sold in the past six months both with no seller or rather purchaser info who they had sold the vehicle to um we gave the vins to Sydney and he looked them up in his system and both of them had been sold months prior um which I find unacceptable and in violation of mass law um at that point we also had informed them that the six plates that they had been given three dealer plates for Maxi Auto and three repair plates for lunberg auto center were in expired non-renewable status and and they were being seized um three of the dealer plates all three were there and were immediately seized by Trooper Lawrence there was two repair plates that were not there we asked we knew where one of them was at the gentleman and ashram's Range Rover um when asked about the third one Sydney explained it to us that he had given to his former business partner Jose um which is um in violation of Mass General law due to Jose as Sydney claimed not being part of the business anymore therefore he is not a one of the three types of people a manufacturer a repairer or a seller who may have those plates um shortly after Jose drove there with the plate still on a pickup truck took it off his truck parked the truck and was driven I somewhere else by someone else with a properly registered vehicle um at that point we had gone to 36 Summer Street lunar Auto Center which is their repair side of the two businesses um as we got there we realized there was no office of any sort there was a small room that was disheveled and appeared full of dust um Trooper Lawrence asked Sydney if 36 summer streets documents were were in 36 Summer Street as they are required by law he stated no they were all both businesses were at 40 um also as well which is in violation of a separation of business business Mass General law also in violation of the separation of business Mass General law when we return to look at most of the titles or at least copies of titles that Maxi Auto had Vehicles being sold at Maxi Auto 40 summer more than half of them had titles for uh to be slated for sale or were purchased by 36 lunberg Auto Center um once we requested all of those titles at the time of the 18 cars slated for sale we were only able to get nine of them later in the afternoon uh during my 3 to1 shift Sydney was able to bring five more still leaving four cars that were would have been sold that day if someone came up and asked them to purchase that car as we had seen with the Range Rover and many other complaints um without a title which would have made it so they couldn't even register a car that they had purchased um at that time in the middle of our investigation a gentleman came into the lunberg police Lobby to report uh to rather request a followup they had a week or two prior requested to file a police report as they had purchased a Jeep which was still on the lot uh and had not received a title they had sh since attempted to insure it and had gotten a bank loan which they were actively paying and showed me proof of payment to a car that they still did not have because there was no title when asked about that um there was no title that we were able to receive um upon further inspection of the prior police report done by Offa Russell a few weeks prior um when he originally had purchased it and I I apologize I don't remember the date when he originally purchased that vehicle he was came back explained I need to register this car um they gave him new documents forged R&V documents a felony under Mass General law um to make it appear as if a Jaguar had been traded in uh a query of that Jaguar showed it actually to be previous car of Mr Jose DEA um Michelle the victim that day was actually able to show me um a copy that he still had of the R&V document as well as the original one given to him by Maxi a uh when you looked at the updated one it showed that money was actually taken off as if there was a tradein um of this Jaguar I believe that was very much so in uh another attempt to circumvent registration law as there is a grace period if I were to sell my vehicle with my plates on it right now I have a certain time if I relinquish that vehicle to a dealer or a junkyard that I can put those plates to attempt to reregister the car to that plate um yeah speaking with Trooper Lawrence and chief gaml who was now on scene at that time Trooper Lawrence and I believe he'll say the same thing um said that there was he has never seen um this many violations happen at once um if I can give an opinion on it I believe that not only is it unacceptable it's predatory um most individuals we were dealing with there was a strong language barrier um many of them were new to the country didn't speak the language and I believe that many of them believed that you can go somewhere in America you can get something you can trust it when someone gives you documents and tells you this and takes your money and attempts to give you a car that everything is going to work out because that is thankfully the protections we have here um and I think they've all been let down um again still we were still NE um able to receive those four titles um I was able to charge Sydney Fernandez duza with nine charges both in violation of Mass General law and code of mass regulations including as I said one felony for forging R&V documents Trooper Lawrence was then also able to charge Sydney administratively through the RMV in an attempt to permanently revoke uh all six of their plates I I believe throughout the two or so years that we've been receiving complaints from them um it used to be Sil every once in a while once a month civil issues they didn't like how Maxi out was conducting themselves in the past two months we've received over 15 complaints about them I don't know what has changed I don't I'm not entirely sure um but all I know is that it is completely unacceptable how they've conducted business in the town of lunberg thank you I would like to invite uh Trooper Lawrence up he'll explain the differences between the licenses and the two businesses of mixing Mr chair what point may we ask questions um if you have questions specific for officer Hill I do okay I can invite him back up yes sir can you um can you speak to me about um how you were able to get access to the property like how you were able to inspect their books like what was the law that allowed you to do that yes sir so um unfortunately trp Ence might have a better answer than me I can give you um an answer so part of the law under use in new car sales um similar to when a for example a Bureau of Alcohol Control Commission agent can go in there at any time and inspect certain things make certain requests about documents PE persons on scene Etc um we can as well through agents of the RMV um part of Mass General law I can get it for you if you want um believe it's 14062 um speaks about proper bookkeeping um so under that uh Mass General law we are able to at any point go into a dealer uh in town of newer used cars and inspect that book um and I believe the right to actually inspect um would be under chapter 90 Section 5 and uh when you were on the premises did you find the staff to be cooperative with the request I I believe they were Cooperative with giving us all the info um when asked specifically about certain things um a lot of avoidance um myself and Trooper Lawrence actually asked Sydney knowing the answer full well about the forged R&V document with the Jaguar we asked specifically uh in the victim Michelle's case um no you had not done this no Jaguar you wouldn't know what we were talking about if we brought that up um shortly after 15 20 minutes later officer Russell was actually able to bring that victim down um there's language barrier as well with him um his cousin who was able to call who was out of state on speaker phone we explained to him could you please point out um who helped you with the transaction he pointed to a uh employee we asked who gave you the documents who did the documents um and he was able to point to Sydney Fernandez duza and is that person you're referencing here with us to this evening yes sir and who is it on the this is Sydney Fernandez dusza and the original employee that he uh was confused about who helped him was Kyo um you made a comment about your perception being that uh the business is predatory however um you know people who have English as a second language often they go to businesses that speak the language that they understand so how do you in this case draw that distinction due to the uh their predatory nature yeah how so the predatory nature being I'm I'm asking you how you identify you offered an opinion which I'm questioning how do you identify that it's predatory I I when as I've spoken to over a dozen victims um only one of them was an original us-born citizen who spoke proper English um it seemed that those individuals with more of a language barrier who didn't know the Mass general laws or anything like that who were able to who weren't able to rather know that this document someone's giving them and oh just come back um we'll redo that we'll put these plates to a jaguar on your plate um I believe people like that are more susceptible um to these typees of uh as I said predatory business practices I'm going to put words in your mouth and just tell me if I'm correct correct so your interpretation is that um that the target clientele for this business uh that or at least the target from what you can decipher from the complaints you've received is that the target clientele for the business business has English has a second language that this business um speaks another language other than English to make it easier for that Target clientele and that the bookkeeping that they're doing essentially is completely wrong um and that they are taking advantage of the fact that their target clientele cannot easily understand or read U maass Journal laws is that correct absolutely correct to all four of those okay thank you I don't have any other questions thank you you sir all right so I'll invite okay we can continue on with our questions for officer Hill if anyone else has some I don't have any questions all right U thank you officer thank you good evening ladies and gentlemen the SL board my name is Trooper Gene Lawrence Mass state police I've been with the mass State Police for my 33rd year and uh I I'm assigned to the motor vehicle regulatory section that's the vehicle services section of section five of the registry I transferred there from the uh the road probably seven or eight years ago and I've been doing this ever since um I uh do commercial I do an enforcement of dealerships uh repair shops that kind of thing uh to make sure they're in compliance with Mass General law make sure also in compliance with the towns that they're in their licenses so if they have a license in town uh I make sure the license is valid and then then I go from there and then we determine if they're uh they they compliant they can get plates uh deal plates repair plates and so on I I received a call uh approximately a few weeks ago uh from Officer Jeff Hill from the lunenberg police department explaining that he had a lot of problems uh the department did as as a whole uh a lot of problems reports of uh customer complaints and he was able to compile several of these these complaints for me um and here they are here eight or nine of them here so he told me even the week that he was uh on vacation six complaints had come in that week alone so I had realized uh I knew the property well because I'm the person who actually did the original inspection and got Mr D ala uh the plates when he opened his business uh originally was one business lunenberg Auto Center Maxi came after but they unbeknownst to me were owned by the same people um part of the uh the mass jalr requires that dealerships be separate entities among themselves Herb Chambers has you know 50 different dealerships each one has their own plates they can never be mixed up their plates belong here their plates belong there that's how it works these PL these buildings are right next to each other I always assumed there would be a problem in a future and it want to happening the uh the original complaints I got were uh about this this one customer who had purchased a Range Rover and uh it sounded odd and it sounded illegal and it was that he had been he had received a dealer plate at some point not a repair plate but I believe a dealer plate for his Range Rover and had the vehicle for four plus months um the law says that uh you can't sell a car without a title that's first of all and once a transaction's finalized you as the customer have to register your own vehicle you can no longer use a dealer plate you can test drive the car prior to buying it but once the transaction happens there's no more dealer plate it's ridiculous to have a guy drive around for 4 and a half months with the dealer plate and if a dealership can do without a dealer plate for 4 and a half months they don't need that dealer plate so I uh I called down to Ashburnham Police Department where the gentleman lived and asked one of their officers to go pick that plate up and bring it to their station and then I promptly went down and picked it up from him uh I seized all the plates as they were all expired including the one on a gentleman's Range Rover uh had that person been involved in an accident there'd be no insurance because he's not the vehicle is not registered and the plates were expired non-renewable um based on that I went down with troop with officer Hill and uh made some did an inspection the question earlier was how do you come upon the property how you allowed into the property masteral law says any official town city state can walk in and demand paperwork and you as the customer as as the dealership have to provide the documents mentation so if uh the select board says give me your books uh some towns take their books and go over them themselves and for weeks at a time uh the fire chief in some towns will go and make sure there's not too many vehicles on the property that kind of thing so um that's the one thing a lot of police don't know that but they can go on and ask for anything they want as far as documentation um so prior to me actually going down there I set up a complaint I can actually give myself work I can go into the system of the registry and assign myself a task and this task was a investigation for complaint the complaint were these eight that I had in my hand so I went down there and uh as they always do I said uh I need to see your license your class two license I need to see your driver's license so I can understand who you are I want to see your used car record book and that's the book that officer Hills referer earlier the used car record book is a white bound book or it's an electronic thing that's in the system that you are supposed to document every transaction the purpose of that is to document and to find any vehicles that might be stolen uh often times people even at auctions will sell cars that are stolen no one knows they're stolen but that book tells me where those cars have gone to so right if you the book is set up in in three stages on each page the top Parts the the car the middle parts where you got it from and the bottom part is where you sold it to if the car is not sold the bottom part is empty and the car is out front in front of this in front of your business in this particular business which I've never seen before uh there were 18 Vehicles parked out front not one of the vehicles was in a used car ret book not one um you say that one more time not one was what I'm sorry not one of the 18 Vehicles out front for sale was in the used car rord book not showing me where he got it from not showing me where it was not showing me who we sold it to it's just empty the book is completely devoid of any information so I asked is your book up the date and he said no I said for how long he said approximately two months um to be sure that I got the right answers uh uh Mr Sydney uh Fernandes duza is the identifi himself as the owner and uh sitting to two people away from him is uh Kaa is Ka K Kyle Kyle is his translator because Kyle translated the entire thing for us and explained what I was saying to them when he had problems understanding what those things were um I explained that uh there are a lot of violations here um and they were anxious to do what they could at that point to try to get themselves in compliance um so I had brought up several uh instances and one of them would be the issue involving the white Jeep Cherokee a 2017 Jeep Cherokee a lunenberg police officer was on patrol he saw the thing leave the property he ran the plate and the plate comes back to 2017 Jaguar so he pulls that car over and he says hey uh what's going on with this plate he gives him a paperwork and the paperwork clearly says lunenberg autoc Center on top of it and in the midst of that paperwork it shows a transaction for tradein of a 2017 Jaguar for 2017 Cherokee why you do that I wouldn't know but they did that and uh he said did you trade in a Jaguar gentleman said no I don't own a jaguar in whatever maybe broken language but he told me it wasn't my Jaguar he knows nothing about it so uh the vehicle was allowed to go back into the parking lot the plates were taken and these plates these plates right here belong in the 2017 Jaguar they were on a white Jeep Cherokee so they were seized by the lunberg police department I received these tonight um just as a a static display for what happened that night that night um it just so happens that while I was doing this inspection the person that had the Jaguar plates on his vehicle happened to walk into lunberg PD they called uh officer Hill on the radio and said the guy with the Jaguar plates is here in the in the building and he got dropped off cuz he has no car so they drove him down to the the place where I was at at uh at Maxi and he came in and with some help of an interpreter on the phone and and and Kaa Kyle uh who was there he uh the gentleman pointed right to Mr dusa and said he's the guy he's the guy who who did the paperwork now I had been asking Mr duza for about half an hour do you remember having some transaction involving a Jaguar now I don't see Jaguars very often if you ask me about a Jaguar that I saw a month or two ago I would remember seeing a Jaguar he did not he said I don't know what you're talking about it might be me I don't know what you're talking about I don't know what you're talking about well the guy comes in I have the document in my hand that he actually gave to him it's an hand he further went on to say not only did this paperwork involve a jaguar and a transaction that never really happened but that he had had to come back almost 12 times to get new bills of sale so that the transaction would look more recent so you have that 7-Day rule to register your car he said 12 times so after hearing all of that um I told him that the used car record book was not up to date it has to be um I I had aspir as license for both places next door to each other so they got both licenses both licenses the class two licenses were in the name of Jose uh di ala that the old owner now he explained to me that he sold the business two months earlier which I think it had been longer than that I think it may been almost a year but he said I sold it two months uh ago and uh the reason the paperwork isn't up to date is because he still owes him $50,000 so I don't know if that to be true I do however know that the Jaguar plates these plates right here are registered to Jose De ala who's the old owner who was not present except when I called and said I told Mr di I told Mr tuuza I need these plates today right now because uh having those plates out there but customers driving around not aware these plates are expired if they ever involved in an accident there' be no insurance I've been involved in several of these before in malor we had a hit and run or a head- on collision involving these with people whose cars Whose license weren't active the plates were revoked it's a big mess so I asked them to bring that plate in right away a pickup truck pulls in Mr Mr uh diera shows up gives them the plate and then leaves he had one of the dealer plates so in addition to selling the business in addition to loaning his plates to a customer to put on a car that had an illegal transaction which is a felony uh he actually had possession of a dealer plate for what reason I don't know because if he's not business anymore why isn't need a deal plate unless he's driving around with it so with all this going on I uh I made sure that I asked all the questions about um the business and everything else I asked him what's the deal with the license he said he spoke to someone on your board about transferring the license and he mentioned a name I forgot the name but apparently the woman retired uh she's in licensing Elaine peeterson that's her name and he said I I talked to her about it and then the chief caught that that and said yeah I don't think so because I think that she's not here anymore but um he mentioned he he had made the uh inquiry with her but nothing I checked the registry check today so this morning uh I had a hearing through uh Zoom or through a call in a conference call hearing with the registry involving Mr desuza and um my charges are uh the misuse of plates customer had PL on vehicle for 4 months uh 540 CMR uh failure to notify registry of ownership and that includes failure notify the Secretary of State and failure notify the town of lunenberg um and while that's important I need to express this too um every town uh derives their power to give a class two license to a dealership through a state law and that state law allows them to give them that but there's certain requirements those requirements are one of them the big one is that there should be aity assurity bond uh for protection of consumers so as when there's fraudulent activity when there's non-compliance of Mass General law uh people who actually get defrauded or become victimized by these companies they can actually put claims on that uh that shity Bond um but when you change ownership the class two license the shity bond and the license plates dealer plates are non-transferable you have to apply for your own you have to get your own Bond your own license he didn't do any of that I also charge them with uh 540 CMR no separation of businesses um like I said before each business has their own paperwork their own their own plates they own everything they own documentation of service work uh that means repairs to vehicles sales of vehicles all those things didn't happen um they were all in one place and there are times when you can actually combine your paperwork in this case there were two businesses doing the same thing and it's easy to get confused that's why we don't allow it to happen usually but it happened in this case and uh the failure to maintain the used car ret book um two months is ridiculous it's it's it's a it's a long period of time and uh and he had a bunch of vehicles missing the used car warranty label those those used car warranties are a situation that's important here because in one of the documents I read doing my homework listening to uh reading what he wrote to one of the customers one of the complaints was he had offered the guy a 20,000 M warrant waranty that he paid for himself Mr dusza paid for it himself allegedly um a 20,000 Mi warranty when the guy came back to complain about the problems with his vehicle he said oh he was 2,000 Mi over the 20,000 miile warranty so therefore he couldn't help them the fact is that uh the used car warranty is is clear when there's certain things that go on with a car if I bring a car back to you three times for the same problem you must give me my money back and uh I don't know the sit situation with him but uh he clearly didn't offer this the used car warranty to the customer and so uh they have to be in every vehicle for sale for the purpose of of um advising the consumer what their rights are that's with the AG's office so uh I I probably may have missed some things but um there are quite a few um problems here um and based on all of these facts I uh conclude that Maxi Auto and lunenberg auto center uh deliberately defrauded people by not giving them titles by deceptive practices and I think uh created a lot of victims in the process and I think based on those things uh maybe a few of these things can be corrected but in my experience um the length that he went to to cover up this Jaguar trade-in thing uh putting customers lives you know in Jeopardy based on not having insurance and everything else I think that uh he does need my opinion to be in the business of selling Motor Vehicles to People based on my experience doing this for a very long time all right thank you for your testimony TR Lawrence are there any questions for him I do have one question so you and you basically touched on it at the end in your experience so in your experience since we have no history with the applicant sure clearly the charges are numerous and the violations are numerous yeah in your experience this would be enough sufficient even in the first case because of the volume and the extent that was that that you feel they went through to circumvent some of these things that they they should lose their both licenses I do sir and I can go one step further I've um I gave him a lot of opportunities to tell me the truth about what happened with this one transaction in particular uh but he went to so Such Great Lengths a lie about it and uh had it not been for the customer who happened to walk into the station and get driven down there and then pointed them out and gave me the document in my hand I'm now looking at it and then then you can see the change in his in his in his reaction that he realized it was the goose was cooked he it was him and so um I think uh you know when you start giving people dealer plates through the registry motor vehicles and Registries had their CH their problems in the past they don't need it seems like a repair plate or a dealer plate is some kind of stamp of approval that a that a police officer came and did an inspection and has verified that they are a legitim business to get a dealer plate it's a it's a privilege to have one uh I think he he violated that that's why we took our plates back and the registry told him today at the conclusion of the meeting when he even asked if he can apply for more dealer plates uh I jump chimed in and SED the registry and said well a you don't have a license to sell cars at all and B uh based on these practices I don't think you can ever get a license uh dealer plates in Massachusetts so that was today the morning this morning at 10:00 and the they were sarily um uh revoked as a result of this this morning's hearing thank you thank you there any other questions I have a question sure um sometimes uh inexperience looks like um deliberate misconduct how do you differentiate the two in this case well I think um when you don't know something you you admit you made a mistake because you don't know when you lie about something and you try to go be a way to cover that lie and you give people documentation that you know is false that's the difference between not knowing and doing something deliberate deliberate acts tell me that you know better but you're trying to save yourself he gave somebody a plate for four and a half months because he knew we couldn't get a title he shouldn't have sold the car without a title um and the other person with the with the Jaguar uh that looked to any police officer like oh yeah this is a legitimate deal he traded in his Jaguar for for a Cherokee that doesn't doesn't track but I will say this one last thing um as a result and I go back to the shity bond stuff uh this morning I got a call from the uh auction from the America's Auto Auction in Bill R they told me that uh there's a he asked me first of all do they have a license still I said uh for now they do but I don't believe he had one to begin with because I think he was working working with somebody else's license they advised me that uh they had bounced three checks in the last few weeks and they got a bank check for $25,000 yesterday and they're waiting for it to clear I hung up the phone I called the chief and while I was on the phone with the chief the auction calls me back there are two different companies two different banks uh net gear and Buzz BuzzFeed two banks in uh in mass that have multiple titles with them cars with them that want their cars back um and I know that several cars based on some reports from the PD have been repoed at the lot for non-payment I think there's a financial problem there I think there's a moving around of money and maybe that is going to affect the way these people do business in town and I think it it it sends a a shadow uh over the over the town of lunenberg who might allow something like that so I think that's why I'm I made a point of bringing the chief in and everybody else involved in this to make sure we get this thing put to rest all right are there any other questions all right thank you very much uh Mr chair if I may add a few more things uh to this situation um Mr Desa came to see me the day after that this occurred um and I asked him for the proof of sales or proof of purchase that he purchased a business as required by the class two uh class two auto dealer license to I asked them for the assurity the $25,000 Bond or documentation of financial responsibility none of that was provided he explained to me that he was going to email that information to me I still yet to receive any of that information um he did mention to me that he did try to speak with Ela Peterson back in February um the information was was very limited I believe that he was trying to transfer or get a license at that point but he didn't have any paperwork or any proper paperwork at the time he was told to follow up um no attempts were ever made to follow up with that information I will say that one of our earliest reports was back from October of 2023 and he espoused to be the owner of the business um when I spoke to him on scene Mr uh desuza informed me that he's an experienced salesman um that he's been doing this for over 3 years so I I would Echo with what chuper Lawrence said that um um that this is not inexperience that he actually managed that facility while it was owned by Mr D D Olivera um so he's well aware of how documents are pro are presented how they need to be how they need to be um submitted to the R&V and how the plates work um with that being said uh that'll Close Our Testimony at this point I would like to recommended disposition after the conclusion of the hearing all right thank you Chief and now give uh Sydney and his translator Kyo an opportunity to respond is Mr olera here yes tonight okay uh would you also like to come up to testify yeah come guys hi my name is Sydney Fernanda uh I try to speak I I speak but my English is not perfect but I learn it right now uh I have 41 years old I live in ler almost 3 years old and just explanation I walk in Maxi out in lunenberg almost 3 years with Jose you know when St here in the past we apply together but the just the L uh say in Jose's name you know just explanation for example in the last year in lunenberg in Max we sold almost like 36 365 cars you know the last years only these years I sold like 63 cars you know I totally understand because uh I I am responsible for all situation you know but uh for example for about specific cars I have like the answer for about these specific cars is no I know justify you know for my e for my fault about my staff but I his sponsor and I would like check would like talk for about the specific situation for the transfer license uh Jose is the one I I have the partner together and almost two years sorry almost two months ago uh we decide because Jose have more two companies HVAC and pavin and we decide the Sydney s you your wife my wife come to Brazil and right now go to invest in in the company and just stay alone we bought for Jose for 100,000 150,000 150,000 I brought for for this company for Jose and for between this situation we plan for isach to to B the the loone B and for by itself in February but we signed like in April 1st okay and but B this situation because we have a lot of car in in in my lot I talked to Jose and Jose [Music] um um Jose was following up with him is is follow for this situation until I finalize the transfer Li for just this reason because uh Jose uh when sold to me the the Jil ship Jose uh have uh has couple cards in the lot you know like almost 12 13 car in the lot for just this reason I just uh finish the application for for the lense okay I stay here in the past I talk to a l i drop off CLE documentation if you can talk later uh and the for Jack but de say listen is missing cple documents you need after you finish your coming here but I don't return here I don't finish for just this reason because I just finished the so Allard Jose is stay in my Lodge for just this reason this the point for the license okay for about the the customer the car stay uh almost four 4 month is is correct this is my total fault because uh when the customer bought this car with us we explanation for for for about for about the title is Miss the title and my default my stuff is sold the car when I don't have the T because when I receive the t is necess duplicate and delay a lot for just the reason and the second situation for about the the one car H when I talk to to state trooper listen uh I don't know for about the the about this situation no I can't lie I justl listen uh I double check but I don't know for about this and I check my stop and after I can check I know one guy I make a paperwork and bring it for this cust but just the point I would like expl for our us we work um in lunning book almost 3 years you know we have I stay with Jose here for all the time because I I work more inside and Jose in the past work more uh outside buy and sell cars and stay more inside we help a lot my English no perfect but uh here lunenberg ler uh Mo we have a lot of Brazilian Spanish guys for just years reason I sold a lot of cars here and we help a lot of community here you know because I have many Brazilians many Spanish guys here when I work a lot and if you see in the in my patch I don't have any criminal in my name I don't have any problem and Jose and Kio and my wife is stay here right now we have any problem in the past we I to understand uh we make a fult you know for about the specific issues because I have like a for example one one ex for example uh in my uh book I have I have my my is my nephew work with me but when uh the state police is stand in the office for request but I very not sure my I don't know because the guy forgot don't put the cards in my lot in the book you know but like so I mean of course we all have our own roles where we work at and I do assume that that was my fault of course not updating the book um once he appeared to as he mentioned before once he appeared to the dealership he did mention that we could still like we still could have time to finish the book and as we did we have we have the books here both of them for 2023 and 2024 um they are all updated so uh he did give us time for that and we we did do what what he was what he told us to do and and and just for the point for example the total car we sold uh in last year in this year we we we sold almost five 2023 and 2024 almost 400 car you know we sold car a lot and I have a specific problem I know I don't I I don't need for have any problem I totally understand because I make a specific fault and uh I stay here and I would like check for example uh because I brought the dealership C for for me just right now possibility yeah this possibility for example give uh for example today we have a before the the meeting we send all documentation for insurance for the title for all cars I have in my lot you know I sent all documentation for for Section 52 and I would like check with yous again one more chance for explanation for and for you check my job because if you see we have the community here and the location a lot you know we sold a lot of cars and in almost 3 years if you account from around 500 cars and before 23 and 24 just like a 400 car you know I sold a lot and again one more time uh I totally understand for about specific specific fault you have but we we just would like one more CH for for for you see my job for my company for my our stuff because I modulation couple guys is left and contract other guys and uh Jose stay here for just confirm the situation we just not finish the the application because we we sold couple cars you know and for example Jose all the time per week like two times two three times per week go in the dealership for double check for just for finalize the application the license in your name in my name sorry all right thank you I'll open it up for questions starting with select Alonzo so the First Defense I hear from you is that while you may have had these violations that the officers gave we should look over that because you sold a whole lot of other cars is that the defense no okay so of the 18 vehicles that were on the site that nine you didn't have titles for uh no uh explanation for example when uh I bought this car you know I have one Company the company uh the name for plan the company bought this car for auction for me I don't have the title in sometimes I have couple titles in my hand and sometime sometimes the bank hold the title I soon I sold the car I request for the bank listen send me the title because I sold the car the bank sent me the title and I have you know but when the the offic stay about the Hing cards uh I make a print the copy and I drop it off for all cars sorry all tile for in for the hill I think my understanding from their from the police report both police reports is that you can't have them slated for sale if you don't have the titles okay the guy explanation is better for you so um again this is Kyle I forgot to introduce myself at first but going back to what you were saying he was telling me in Portuguese I just translate what he told me um so as he was saying we do have some titles in hand at the dealership but we also work with um Bank company called for plan they they hold the the title of the vehicles on the vehicles that we had in the lot once they appeared to the dealership um the ones that we didn't have in hand they were located at the floor plan company right but they need to be on hand that's the that's the law that's my understanding that the law means they have to be on hand yeah but as as he yeah so as he mentioned I mean that's I'm going to ask uh Trooper Lawrence come back up or to address about the Flor plan I could offer something here uh the floor plan oh yeah there there are banks that have a uh division called floor plan where they loan money to dealerships to buy cars and the dealership supposed to pay the bank off and then they hold the title until those those loans are paid off uh unfortunately the idea of floor plan was that they were supposed to buy the cars through a loan pay off the loan get the title and then sell the car what's happened here and a lot of other places is that floor plan holds a title they get a big enough loan and they don't pay off the loan in time until the customer comes in and buy a specific car and then they go down to that bank to get the title that day so you buy the car me today and he runs down to the uh to the bank to get the title for that car sometimes when the loan is very large and he hasn't been paying on time which is for the cases in some these cases uh the bank will hold the titles so you pay a sufficient amount of money toward the money you owe them and that's where the problem lies so while you're supposed to have a title to sell the car you at least have access to the title and in some cases where he doesn't have enough money or didn't pay the entire loan he can't get the titles back cuz the bank won't give it to him but the car has been sold the car has been sold already paperwork's been trans okay I again so now we're getting into like lots of Reas I'm going to ask you a direct question I'm looking at the report from the police where it says of the 18 Vehicles slated for sale maxoto was unable to present the title for nine of these it should be noted that mass law requires a title to sell the V so is that or is that not kind of a Boolean question is that not or is it a violation it's a violation in that he didn't have access to the titles from the bank he should have had paid the loan off already and gotten the titles back and then sold the car that's how it's supposed to work but uh it's not unreasonable for for them to get a title that same day if you bought a car for me today and I went down to the bank and got the title and gave it to them that's not unreasonable and that's what's been happening uh he's been going down there and the bank's not agreeable to giving up the title because a sufficient enough amount of the loan has not been paid and they're holding a title because of it okay so can I follow is reasonable law when you say reasonable is that they have to they have to generate a title uh within a reasonable amount of time and that's not very specific sometimes the title is mailed from another location to his location it's like an auction will be out of state he'll buy it online they'll mail the title to them so the customer wants to buy the car the title comes in another two two three days that's reasonable I think um in some cases like this guy had a car for 4 months yeah the title was available except that someone didn't pay enough money to get the title the car paid off and therefore the bank was holding the title for 4 and a half months and the guy's driving around with the deal play I mean is it like you can put a deposit down until they get the title and you come back pay for the rest of you certainly can do that that's not what happened here thank you so the six plates so all all the three repair and three dealer plates that all expired so that's just another oversight like you just forgot to renew those no no so uh when um I try to to because uh the the expire in March March right now when I make a for transfer the license but when I see the the license is not no transfer is necessary finish the application for apply for G license it's no license have but you okay but you knew that was happening but that didn't stop you from selling cars and using the plates no but uh because there a matter L okay just confir yeah because um I buy and sell car uh it depended the the license because I just sometimes use the G license for transfer the car for the G pick up the auction you know but uh I don't um for example it depends the the LI renew it's possibility I buy cars because the just the D the the my PL expired you know know my license for buy a car right but I mean the point is the dealer licenses on the repair and the auto place had expired so you couldn't use them they were not valid to use they would be illegal to put on a vehicle but you were still using them until the police came and saw that M okay that's correct and and what about the Let's see we have I mean I'll just th throw out a few of the others I mean here's a simple one here's a simple one you can do you you don't have a lemon law sticker on the cars you're selling yeah how is that even possible that's that doesn't require any work it just requires a sticker and somebody to put it on yeah uh when the state for make a investigation the LA you have I believe four or five cars missing the state law the state law because um so he's saying there is no excuse for that no no excuse but the car is arrival like couple days because when arriv the the AIL and my guys forward they put the the Lono sticker well my feeling is that there's a whole lot of things that there's no excuse for and they pile up and yet I'm supposed to give you a second chance because you sold over three years you sold a few hundred cars and it doesn't don't worry about the ones that that didn't get sold right that would be like going to a restaurant and saying well we serve lter customers and only very few get set no I I totally understand so I I understand your point I just say uh this is my fault because I need a supervisor for my CH for about this specific but it's correct he's is's missing thank you Mr chair um so I have one question the business is now in your name correct uh you own the business right now the business is staying the hose name you know I just finish splish right now two two months ago we bought the I just finished the sold CLE cars for for finish the the application because for example me and Junior we we have like a very good relation for example we we are closing we we leave out together and uh for just the reason I just finish the for application in my name my wife's name because I just finished the the sold cop cars stay in the lodge you know for just this reason so my understanding is the name the name of the person who owns the business is not the same as the name on of the person on the license is that correct I'm looking over maybe someone one of the officers can I think everything is in um I thought I heard there was a discrepancy in the the the license and the ownership of the business yeah yes so the yeah upon my uh arrival for the inspection I was uh met by the owner identifi himself the owner that's Sydney Fernandez the and he's Jose the Ala the license is in the name of josea only not only the license for Maxi the license for lunenberg auto center and there is some uh issue with the some kind of a uh uh what's it called the zoning zoning board that's all in the name of Mr Jose D ala so um he explained Sydney explained to me that uh there was a deal in place that uh he still owed $50,000 to Jose and uh he was paying off the business and that's why the paperwork wasn't up to date and that's he told me that happened two months earlier but lunenberg the reg vehicles and the Secretary of State's office were not notified uh and the bank shity issue is not transferable okay does that answer question I think so I mean that that breaks some Mass General law yes it doesn't itates our own zoning thank you all right are there any other questions yes do you have no I think they've got put my question so far so uh from what I'm hearing today um I'm going to ask you Sydney Mr dusza a couple of disint pointed questions um who is the owner of the property the one of the property I hand the property who owns the property the the Maxi AO is Mike and Mike Kelly is his brother and the the lenb 36 street is a p okay so you are not the property owner no no no I rent all right have you paid Mr ala any money yeah for the business yeah I I just and and you paid him 100,000 yeah and to date what you were buying was the business if I'm correct not the property you were buying the business from Mr Ola and you've worked at the business under Mr ola's ownership for the last couple of years all right I have questions in for you Mr Olive there so what it sounds like to me is it sounds like you bamboozled um Mr duza over here that you sold him a business for 100 grand you didn't have books that were up to date cuz as I we heard in testimony the books weren't updated for the last uh at least the last year um it sounds as though the dealer plates at the time that the purchase happened is it correct that it happened on April the 1st yeah uh but you sold the business on April the 1st yes okay so the plates that expired in March had nothing to do with Mr Ola they had everything to do with you so you sold him a business and if you can translate with him when I'm saying you sold him a business with bad books with bad plates without any clear guidance on what he needed to do to actually transfer the business over so it's not his business it's your business if you want to translate that if he didn't hear it yes yes uh but uh who um the Sydney told you guys about the I I just buy and fix the cars you know uh about the offc everything about the offc see uh take care about the response about the you know because uh before I I but it's in your name and you you will concede 100% that it's in your name and you are fully legally responsible for the business yes but yes but they have the one partnership with the city Sydney you you you take care about the off SE documentation demonstration and I you take care about the cars you know the buy and S the cars I have yeah and uh uh I need the help just because my English know so I take care about the operation and the about the documentation and administration you know and I don't know about the any documentation just uh so long story short he had like one role Sydney had another and um him as the owner he just like followed up with Sydney on everything that was being on done in the company in Mexi AO in univers so then he didn't actually take responsibility for running the business he just got the licenses in his name but he didn't run it [Music] no I work this but see have a more facil more facility experience with one thing than Jose does okay I I I think I I think I understand I think I get it I mean if you have a question let me know yeah I know I I mean I think we're going to at some point have some comments here but I think that it seems pretty straightforward what happened here um which is that this business transferred in the last 60 days over to Mr duza that Mr duza has been operating in kind of a manager role nonetheless Mr duza coughed up $100,000 handed it to you still owes you another 50 but he's not actually buying a business because the business you haven't taken responsibility it seems for actually running the business for complying with the law that you as the owner have not personally taken the responsibility of being legally compliant so you sold him a business for $150,000 that in my opinion you had no right to sell and so now he's out 100 Grand you're about to get your license revoked and so he doesn't have a business that he just bought he just you're the winner you make a 100 Grand and he has nothing how so I'll save my comments I don't have any more questions here all right thank you very much for your testimony I will invite the chief of police back up if there's any other remarks he'd like to make I I think the only other remarks I would have is is a disposition um I would just remind uh from earlier testimony that uh Mr desuza claimed to bought the business last year um the transaction didn't happen in April I can tell you that um this has been ongoing um with Mr Dale a is definitely complicit to what's going on here um and I would suggest the stuff that I have left is about my recommendation and the disposition after you've uh deliberated um the one thing I do want to remind too that uh the banks have called our town also um to say that he's defaulted and that they were looking for information and the if if I me Mr chair the banks calling about Jose Ola or Mr duza Mr duza Mr duza yes okay so Mr duza has loans in his name I believe so for I I can't verify that the information we've been trying to get information from Mr deza and it's it's not forthcoming all right Mr chair if I may what are the banks calling the town about to see if they actually have a auto dealer's license here want to verify the license yeah questioning different things okay all right thank you thank you all right so I will open it up to the board now to discuss what we uh want to do here I if I may Mr chair yes ma'am I think that a revocation is clear um I think that this business looks like a criminal Enterprise uh I think it's unfortunate that Mr uh duza and his wife his nephew have been wrapped up in this it sounds like they're the true losers here um because they're out 100 Grand and they owe Mr DEA even more but Mr DEA um seems to have had no business selling a business that he clearly wasn't managing wasn't verifying that things were in order and that it and and it seems from the testimony we heard um when I say Enterprise it seems as if um it was the requirements weren't clear enough and and we have a higher standard I think for businesses I think it's a good thing for businesses to cater to Target audiences that if you know that you know you speak Portuguese that there's a large and growing Brazilian population to be able to offer that direct service to them I think is a great thing um but to do it in a way that someone has to come back 12 times to get a new purchase and sale agreement is outrageous uh to do a purchase and sale that says that you traded in a Jaguar um when you didn't uh that's shows clear intent to violate the law uh and that's Del deliberate and that's because I have a plate for a Jaguar so I'm going to put it on another vehicle and I'm going to make the paperwork match the plate um which is just fraudulent flat out um so I I think unfortunately it's Crystal Clear uh I I know that this is going to go the criminal route I hope that Mr duza and his family don't suffer too much in the process although I think they're complient in the Enterprise um but we're not here to identify a criminal Enterprise as much as is this the kind of business that should be licensed to do this kind of work here in town and the answer is no all right I'm just going to Canvas the rest of the board to see where we're at right now and whether or not we agree with that Mr chair if I may um I would just like to e Echo uh select board member Jeffrey's comments I think that and um building off of what officer Hill brought forward that this is clearly a predatory um Enterprise to a vulnerable population um and I I agree that we should be revoking their license I would agree that we should revoke the license I also am not here to take any stand with the either of the applicants with hear about about the license and the ownership of the license by the ownership of the company and clearly they have numerous numerous violations I'll let the two co-owners owners previous owners however you want to label them Let Them Fight It Out Among themselves but certainly the company and the business two businesses should not have a license in lunberg given the the vast amount of evidence that was presented here tonight yeah I also support revoking the license due to the numerous violations and neglect whether intentional or unintentional you own the business you're responsible for understanding what needs to be done and what the laws are all right I'm in agreement with all that so Chief did you want to come up one more time with with that being said um one of my recommendations or two of my recommendations is is to issue an immediate cease and deist order um as of today we've been patrolling the areas and we've noticed that the open sign is still there we've advised them that they didn't have technically have a license and they should be monitoring what they're doing I shouldn't be selling cars right now until this issue was resolved I'm also requesting that um all vehicles are removed from the property within 7 Days of issuing of this rication any entertaining motions Mr chair guess I will entertain a motion I move to revoke the uh can you would be possible finding then violation okay uh so first we have to include possible finding and then the violation find finding I move that the board find that the defendants are guilty defendants being Max Auto Inc and lunenberg auto center are guilty of the violations presented to us by law enforcement this evening second any additional discussion all those oo all those in favor say yes I I yes I yes all those opposed all right the motion passes and yep I uh Mr chair I move for the board to revoke all licenses for make sure I get the business name correct for lunenberg auto center also known as uh macki uh Auto Inc for them to remove all vehicles from the property within 7 days and remove all signage that indicates that they're open for business and to cease um all activities related to the sale or repair of Motor Vehicles Mr chair just for the record the motion should indicate and I think they were muddled that they're two separate entities so lunberg Auto Center and Maxi Auto Inc are two separate companies on two separate addresses and they I think that the motion was made that they were doing business as one or the other which is not accurate with that clarification um of the and not or second any additional discussion um I think this is unfortunate I think that when people come to the United States they want to pursue the American dream um that they want to get businesses operating they want to get businesses going that you know I think the state does a great job of putting all laws online making them accessible for people to read and know what the laws are but sometimes I think even your friends can cause serious harm and I think uh from what I heard today it sounds that way so I think this is an unfortunate situation uh I don't Reserve any uh Prejudice towards Mr duza um in this process all right any additional discussion all those in favor say I I I those opposed no the motion passes [Music] than thank you all right so we'll move on to our next appointment which is a meeting with Auditors Powell and suvin from Markham accountants and advisers regarding fisal year 2023 audit thank you for staying so late yeah thank you for having me tonight just like to start off by thanking the uh Town manager the current and the former Finance director treasur collector school department and the rest of the finance team for all the cooperation and assistance that we received during the course of the audit everybody was really great about getting us the information that we need and uh answering our questions and all of that the audit went very smoothly from our standpoint and uh I'd like to express special thanks to the former um Finance director who came back in a Consulting capacity to make sure that the books were closed and that they were ready for audit and that uh all of the information that was needed to complete the audit was available and um you there was a period where that position was vacant and so that was really uh key to be able to um for uh to have that resource available to do that work so we really appreciated it and uh if that wasn't the case I don't think the audit would have went as smooth as it did but it it has historically gone smooth uh the books have historically been in very good shape so um with that out of the way I'll just go through a couple of uh required Communications with you and then I'll move on and give you some financial highlights and I'll just try to make it brief and give you kind of a high Lev overview um but important to know there were no uh deficiencies in internal control uh we didn't have any uh New Management letter comments that were uh included in the management letter and the comments that were in there were resolved there was a comment about writing off old ambulance receivables and there was a comment about uh completing a fraud risk assessment which uh we think is really important identifying the areas where there's risk identifying controls that are in place to mitigate the risks and so you had an outside consultant come in and do that work which is great um as far as the required Communications uh as the Auditors we're responsible for planning and Performing the audit to obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles management is also responsible for the selection and use of um appropriate accounting policies and you can find the significant accounting policies in note one to the uh footnotes of the financial statements there were no new accounting policies adopted during the year and the application of existing policies did not change accounting estimates are an integral part uh about the uh with the preparation of the financial statements and they're based on Management's knowledge and experience about past and current events and they're also based on assumptions about future events the uh most significant assumptions in the financial statements relate to the net pension liability the netop liability compensated absences and depre appreciation on fixed assets we reviewed the underlying uh factors uh and evaluated them and we found them to be reasonable in relation to the financial statements as a whole uh as far as uh difficulties encountered in performing the audit I'm happy to report that we had no difficulties uh while when dealing dealing with management while performing the audit uh audit adjustments are defined as a proposed correction of the financial statement that in our opinion would not have been detected except there are auditing procedures and I'm happy to report that we uh did not have to propose any such adjustments and the last one disagreements with management um our standard is Define a disagreement with management as a matter whether or not resolved to our satisfaction that um concerns uh Financial Accounting reporting or auditing matters that are significant to the financial statements and I'm happy to report that no such disagreements with management occurred during the course of the audit overall results of the audit we were able to issue an unmodified opinion that's the best you can get it's a clean opinion means your financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles uh reporting deadlines were met the information that we received was accurate and we received timely responses to all of our inquiries which we appreciate and there were no internal control deficiencies that we identified as part of our audit also important to note is that some of the things that we consider to be like uh significant risk areas in the audit are are cash um the reconciliation of cash is one of the most important internal controls and so we always look very closely at cash and the reconciliations and uh historically cash has been reconciled and it's been complete and accurate and that that was the same for 2023 so that was great to see especially with uh the change in the Finance director toown accountant position uh same thing with receivables they were all reconciled no issues there so those are some of the main internal controls that we look for um also you know the approval of the warrants the approval of the payroll uh no issues with any of that stuff from a highlight standpoint uh general fund fund balance total $9.5 million of that 60,000 was restricted for Debt Service that's a balance that um relates to um a premium on some msba debt and that's going to be fully amortised in the next year or so so that's um will no longer be on the books another 324,000 of fund balance was assigned and that relates to incumbrances that were carried over uh to the next year for things that uh had a valid valid commitment at the end of the year that allows them to be carried forward you also had another 1.2 million that was assigned uh for subsequent years expenditures and that's just free cash that's devoted to fund the next next year's budget and so that was for the FY 24 budget and all of that leaves you with 7.9 million of unassigned fund balance that is um an important number that the um uh rating agency's look at it was almost exactly the same as the prior year the prior year was $8 million it's about 17% of your budget and it also includes the stabilization funds uh General stabilization fund total 2.7 million prior year was 2. six so uh stayed very consistent zoning stabilization 236,000 also very consistent with the prior year vehical stabilization total $1.9 million went up by about another 400,000 so you put some more money in that uh stabilization fund and last is the health insurance uh stabilization fund which had a balance of 381,000 uh real estate and personal property tax collections continue to be strong at about 95% of your commitment uh budgetary results overall you had a $1.8 million decrease from your uh budgetary uh operations and that's mainly because you use 2 Mill $2.2 million of free cash to fund the budget so that is essentially budgeting for a a loss um and it's not uncommon typically you have a surplus in your revenues and a surplus in your expenditures that will cover that and you'll typically end up positive but this was a different year with all the abatements that were paid um so uh you did also have a shortfall of $70,000 overall in your revenues 1.5 million of that relates to the real estate and personal property tax and again that's due to the abatements that were paid and that that shortfall was offset by surpluses and tax leans motor vehicle excise intergovernmental revenues and investment income so at the end of the day you did have the $1.5 million shortfall in real real estate and personal property taxes but overall you only short 70,000 on your revenues and then you also came in under budget on your expenditures by $589,000 and that was kind of across the board through the different uh functional line items so um I mean you had kind of an unusual uh thing happen with the abatements otherwise you're you know you you have a structurally sound budget you have good budgetary controls in place um as far as your OPB is concerned you contined to uh put money into your opep trust fund which is great you put another $267,000 in there excuse me and um the balance on the trust fund uh totaled $980,000 at the end of the year so that's starting to build up uh net opab liability um increased by about 2.3 million up to uh 53.2 and that's mainly due to a change in the discount rate your discount rate is kind of contingent upon what the uh AA Municipal bond rate is doing because you're not considered to be fully funded at this point because of the amount of funds that you've set aside in your trust once you're considered to be fully funded then you'll just be using like the long-term expected rate of return on your Investments but right now um that ablea Municipal bond rate 20-year rate goes up and down every year and so your discount rate kind of goes up and down and there's a uh disclosure on page 54 of the financial statements that is kind of an interesting one to look at because it it's called a sensitivity analysis and it basically shows you the impact of a 1% change in the discount rate and on OPB a 1% discount rate can increase or decrease the liability by 7 to9 million so it doesn't take a lot of change in the discount rate to have a big impact on the liability so your liability went up by 2.3 in your uh discount rate went down by from 4.76 down to 4.56 so by about 210 um so as you keep funding it you still keep building up money and your your trust fund you start to earn more investment income and it just starts compounding and you'll see that um over time it's going to start getting funded faster and faster um net investment income for the opep trust was $59,000 to the good last year it was $118,000 loss just because the markets were down so that's also helping you and hopefully we have some more years like that with the market uh your funded ratio for OPB went from 1.27 up to 1.81 so you're making some progress there it's going in the right direction even with that bad year last year so hopefully we'll continue to see that funded ratio go up as far as the net pension liability is concerned um your employees excluding teachers and others that qualify for the mass teachers retirement system belong to the uh Wester Regional retirement system and the mass teachers retirement system pays the liability on behal of the teachers and anyone else that qualifies to be in it for Worcester that liability is funded by the town and um the net pension liability uh was $21.4 Million at the end of the year and that was up from 17.4 million in the prior year and the reason for that is that the uh Wester Regional retirement system just like all the other Retirement Systems across the state for the year ended 1231 22 had significant investment losses there was a real downturn in the market so that's not surprising or unexpected or anything like that and I think you're going to see a big boun bounce back in 2023 uh the um Worcester system went from 56% funded down to 48 so we'll look for that to go back up in 23 as well um they used a 7.25% discount rate which is the same as what they did in the prior year fixed assets you purchased about 1.1 million for the governmental funds a big portion of that is road work and then machinery and equipment no new addition for sewer you had $35,000 of short-term debt outstanding and that was to fund the capital plan and also um the purchase of land uh no new long-term debt during the year uh it had 32.3 million of governmental long-term debt outstanding and 3.1 million of sewer debt outstanding um one of the other reports you have there is called the report on federal Awards and what that is is it's a audit that's required if you expend more than $750,000 in federal funds in a given fiscal year although that threshold is going up to a million dollar for fiscal 25 which will be good for communities that are close to that threshold and uh may end up not needing one as a result of that offers a little bit of relief uh you expended $2.2 million of federal funds and FIS schoal 23 412,000 relates to school lunch 798 th000 was related to co co funding or the S grants with the school and that's actually the program that we had to focus our auditing on this year because it changes from year to year another 561,000 for special education and then 429 for other grants as far as the audit of the Sesser program um we didn't have any findings we didn't have any question cost no internal control deficiencies so again that was um a clean audit and those are the best results you could hope for on that and I already talked about the management letter comments so that's really everything that I had all right thank you very much for the presentation I'd like to open it up for any questions first of all thank you as always and my first comment as always or has been um the that kind of report it's dry and its numbers and everything but is so critical to the town and it would be a disservice that we didn't credit the town manager for doing this with leading up this team again and thanking Karen brochu for coming back until we replaced the finance director position but for those people who wonder wow you know what does the town manager do all the time that's what the town manager does that's what the report is that's what we're paying largely largely for is to have a clean record I remember when that management report had 20 different deficiencies on it or or close to 20 and now we're at after this year we'll be at zero with no operational deficiencies that doesn't happen by accident and I think the people of this town should know and this board should know that doesn't happen by accident and I love that you're here every year doing the same news and getting an improved the report when I didn't think it could improve my question to you is how many of the people of the municipalities that you audit get a clean bill like this I mean in a percentage is would this be in the top 1 percentile a top five percentile if you had a guesstimate um I mean believe it or not there's a lot of good communities out there with a lot of good professional people that know what they're doing and take a lot of pride in their work and do a really good job um I would say that the majority are like that okay and the ones that have problems are in the minority um I would say probably 70 80% of the ones that we do are run really well like this but this is one of the better communities even that the finances are are handled and run and yes um all the right things were done at the end of the year to bring in the support that was needed to have things continue along and to be ready for the audit and I understand that that's probably going to continue until there's a comfort level that everything is where it needs to be which is great because sometimes mistakes are made and there's a lapse and someone's not brought in and things can really get behind and the cash reconciliations that I talked about and the receivable reconciliations and all those important internal controls related to processing warrants and uh you know paying the bills and paying the payroll and things can really fall apart if you don't have the right people and they don't get the right support and training and um not everybody comes in with 20 years of Municipal accounting experience and Municipal accounting if you talk to someone that's never done it before and you show them and they kind of see it and they're uh they realize that it's kind of a different animal and it there's definitely a learning curve and you definitely need training and you definitely need support and uh I think that you know that seems to be the route that lunenberg is taking so I'm really happy to see that well and I have full confidence that our new Finance director will come into that and this is a great transition into that uh but once again I want to thank the town manager for an outstanding job in the financial area yet again another year uh and to be resilient with the even with the loss of $ 1.5 million because of of the tax debacle is you know to have a a a budget that that kind of resilience is pretty outstanding I'd say so thank you all right any other comments or questions yeah I just want to Echo the comments that Mr Alonzo made and add you know I know last year with $1.5 million in the abatements not only to be able to handle that situation unexpected situation but also to recover from it this year and to have such a good report I want to thank the town manager and the whole Finance team for um for a really good essentially report card sure I'll just Echo the comments you know thank you I think you've done a fantastic job you know coming from on the internal team to this is you know I know how hard that you you have worked and I think that this really shines so thank you all right thank you very much thank you thank you yep all right so let's move on to interviews appointments reappointments and resignations up first is ratification of the Town manager's appointment of planning board Administrative Assistant Logan oconnell and I'll pass it off to the town manager for this okay so I had sent the board an email about these two appointments that I'm asking for the board to ratify tonight the first being Logan oconnell for the planning board Administrative Assistant Logan is a recent graduate of UMass amher with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a focus in operations and information management he worked on campus as a movein coordinator and also at neurocare where he started as an administrative intern management at neurocare recognizes hard work and dedication and promoted Logan to a permanent position as assistant referral coordinator he also worked as an office assistant for UMass under the facilities manager and executive director of operations he is also from lunberg so he will be re returning to start this position his references were cons assistant and said that he had a technical background that allowed him to streamline processes and make the offices more efficient his positive attitude and his desire to learn and pick up quickly were evident in the interview process so we ask the board to ratify Logan as the next planning board Administrative Assistant all right are there any questions for the town manager is there a motion uh I move to ratify tail manager's appointment of Logan oconnell as the uh planning board Administrative Assistant second any additional discussion all those in favor please say I I I I those oppos no the ratification passes thank you the next appointment that I'm asking the board to ratify is for Jamon Snape and Jameson has not worked in lunberg and prior Beach Seasons but he has worked at Benjamin Hill Pool in Shirley his duties included uring patrons following safety protocols testing water chemicals checking in seasonal members and selling day passes his references said that he's a great worker one of the best they've ever worked with and the most trusted it was also said that he works really well with challenges and is able to work well independently any questions for the town manager is there a motion I move to ratify the town Mar's appointment of seasonal LIF guard Jameson snake second any additional discussion all those in favor please say I I I I those oppos no the ratification passes all right next we'll move on to the town manager report okay I'll start with board and committee Commission vacancies there's one vacancy on the architectural preservation District commission two associate vacancies on the open space committee I'm sorry two associate vacancies on the green communities committee one member at large vacancy on the open space committee and five vacancies on the Personnel committee anyone interested in serving in any of these positions can find the volunteer application form on the town website complete it and send it to the slck board's office and if you have any questions on the R and responsibilities you can contact our office at 978 582 4130 extension1 144 for current employe employment opportunities with the town There's the administrative assessing assistant position for 32 hours a week alternate Building Commissioner which those hours are as needed the assistant to the Sewer business manager which is 19 hours a week the land use director position for 40 hours a week network administrator 40 hours a week and Public Safety desk clerk for 40 hours a week information on each of those positions can be found on the website under job opportunities which is located um on the town website Staffing updates in order to address a need for the management the land use departments Building Commissioner Brian gingras has offered to assume the managerial portion of the land youth director's job until we find a permanent solution the two position descriptions of the Building Commissioner and land use director management component have been merged into a new position description I'll have this request for ratification of the next slick board meeting in regard to the land use director position we recently received a couple applications that I will be reviewing with the assistant Town manager also our interim planner Richard Harris has offered to extend her Services through the summer so I've notified the planning board sh of um this information as well last week the assistant Town manager and the principal assessor conducted interviews for the administrative assessing assistant and no decision has been made yet for that decision an update on Marshall Park OPM pering work and the skate park since the park commission provided their ratings the owners project manager firms that responded to the RFQ and were interviewed at the end of March we have been working with the OPM to determine the not to exceed cost for the scope of work and finalize the contract the OPM has had certain objections and language changes to our contract that have required multiple reviews by our Council and their Council we came to an agreed upon language today and we'll now be able to finalize the contract the fee will be a not to exceed fee of 250,000 that will cover OPM Services through the selection of a designer and engineer and the completion of the construction related to the park Grant which needs to be complete by June of 2025 in the meantime the park commission asked to proceed with hiring a firm to do the preliminary permitting that is required for the US Army Corps of Engineers permit needed for the 1 million Land and Water Conservation fund Grant the parks received this will be not to exceed fee of $4,000 I've worked with members of the park commission the skate park their Council Town Council and insurance company to come upon agreed L upon language in the right of Entry agreement regarding Insurance thresholds as not all the companies that were involved have the same threshold of insurance and the category of work they're performing is vastly different Town Council will be amending the agreement to reflect thresholds of insurance for each category of work this will also be acceptable with our insurance company at our insurance company suggestion we have added general liability and umbrella coverage on the skate park so that in the event of anything tragic that occurs during construction this would be covered this is more out of an abundance of caution as the project will be constructed on Town property but not yet Town owned an update on the September 2023 storm damage uh funding from FEMA on Thursday May 16th I was notified by Governor hey's office that FEMA approved their appeal appeal requests for a major disaster declaration for damage caused to lunenberg and other communities by the severe storm and flooding in September of 20123 however this was limited to individual assistance for residences and businesses the governor's office appeal to FEMA for public assistance was denied the state had held 5 million in reserves for the state from the state supplemental budget and since federal funds will not be allocated they will be distributed distributed the 5 million in funds to the affected cities and towns we were notified yesterday that we will receive 30,000 this is based on a combination factors including storm related expenses municipality size and the amount of infrastructure related cost the funds will be distributed in the coming weeks we were notified by representative Scarsdale at the end of the house budget session that one of the earmark requests for the Milo Advanced Training simul simulation system which includes use of force critical incident training and deescalation training for the police department in the amount of $33,900 was submitted as part of the house budget so we're waiting um on the final budget for any earmark updates repairs to the public safety building sighting the company hired through Maya to repair the sighting the Public Safety Building completed the sighting repairs recently this was all paid through Insurance due to storm damage in December all right thank you very much are there any questions or comments I do have one other um announcement that I'll read um I submitted my letter of resignation tonight to the board and an email and I'll read that now dear select Board Writing to inform the board that I will be resigning from the position of town manager effective August 4th 2024 this was a very difficult decision to make but but one that I believe is the right decision for me and my family there have been many successes and challenges over the last 7 and 1 half years my career in lindenberg I take pride in the work that has been accomplished by my team and I during this time despite these challenges I will save recounting these achievements for another day prior to my departure and give recognition to all the relevant staff at that time however I want to broadly recognize that lunenberg has an amazing staff that we are very fortunate to have as part of our team their dedication and passion for overarching mission of helping others has contributed to making lunenberg a better place to live during my tenure in lunenberg I've worked under 14 different select board members I am appreciative of the strong working relationships formed with many of the board members and especially thankful to those that have been supportive during difficult times it is very accurate to say say that it is a thanless job and I personally want to thank current and past board members for the work they do on behalf of our town lastly I want to thank the many wonderful volunteers and residents I have met over the years there are countless volunteers that strive to make lunenberg a special place and residents that contribute to the fabric of this community over the next 2 months I plan on finishing as many outstanding projects as time will allow and working with the board on this trans transition my recommendation is the board's first action to advertise and hire an interim Town manager until the process that is outlined in the town Charter has completed to select the next town manager I sincerely appreciate the opportunity and privilege of Lun being luneberg's Town manager for the last 7 and a half years and have worked having worked with so many talented and dedicated people Heather just want to say that you were were one of the first impressions of this town for me when I moved here and I attended special town meeting um your professionalism and how dedicated you are to your job has always been evident and I want to sincerely thank you for everything that you've done for this town so thank you Heather thank you I also want to um comment um when I heard the news I was truly saddened um um I know how hard that you've worked I know you don't get the credit that you deserve very often um and I think this is a big loss for the town um but I think you should be proud in in the work that you have done and I understand your your personal reasons um I know it is there is no work life balance in in that kind of job it's it's very very much all work um and I want to thank you for all the effort that that you have done I will save my comments for another day obviously I was not very happy to hear the news I think you've been a wonderful asset continue to be a wonderful asset for the town and like I said I will have further comments later I'll also have comments later but I just wanted to thank you for all of your hard work for all these years I will also um have to comments at another Point Heather I think the work that you've done for our community uh has been overwhelmingly positive um we are definitely in a better place because of the work that you've done and the team that you've LED has done um you know I'm still processing this um but thank you for all the work I know it's thanless I know that it's a lot of time that's put in and I know I know how much energy and effort you've given the job um a lot of sleepless nights a lot of weekends so thank you for the work for the community all right thank you so let's move on to Old business up first we have the discussion on tax investigation report we don't have the composite I still owe the board the composite but Mr chair if I may suggest I think that uh tonight is a bit emotional heavy here um I don't know how effective we're going to be at the rest of our agenda I would encourage us to table most of what's left all right so I will skip down to minutes warrants and action items minutes I don't believe we have any I don't know if the rest of the board would like to discuss things that I mean I would just encourage to see if anyone else is interested but all right I'll ask the rest of the board how are we feeling about how we feeling about what would we like to skip some of the old and current business and close out the meeting doesn't matter to me one way or another okay you sign Warr so y we will all right so Warren what do we have tonight people are going to want to get paid all right roll so we have a an accounts pable warrant in the amount of $668,500 [Music] and we have a [Music] is this also an accounts payable or is this it's a payroll it's a payroll a payroll in the sum of 1,149 1853 are there any action items tonight committee reports uh I'm going to try to it's been like pulling teeth to try to get the capital planning committee to have a meeting I'm going to try to schedule one for Monday um school committee there was a meeting there's a meeting tomorrow but the last meeting I don't think I gave a report because uh it was May 22nd um there was a lot going on that meeting uh uh the BMP or the rain uh detention that was scheduled to go in front of the lunenberg middle school high school was uh voted down by the school committee uh so they uh need to find a new location for that um in positive news they have uh hired a finance director Dr Susan Gilson who starts July 1 uh and Mr hee gave an update on six projects and actually his uh his updates on the you can get them on the School website it's it's very nice um he gives a whole keeps a chronological list of of all the updates um but the six projects He updated on were the um the turf field feasibility study so they are they've had Collins Engineers uh go and and do some study involving a drone and mapping out elevations and everything and they have a meeting oh they did the 29th so I guess I uh this is June um they just they'll probably discuss it at tomorrow's school committee meeting Turkey Hill Elementary School a number of um upgrades so one exterior door upgrades so they have um identified an architect to design a new vest vestibule and they have secured nv5 to do the security upgrades and fire alarm upgrades and nv5 will also be um doing the security upgrades at the primary school and uh lastly tomorrow they are arpa is on the agenda and I believe they'll be taking I think another vote on giving the arpa money back that um we gave since I got the override I think there was a vote before the town meeting um but I think they may be voting again and yeah that's all for the school committee um I have Adcom um met with atom I was I'm a little delayed on giving this update so the night that we had the um vote for the water district I attended the Agriculture Commission meeting um it was uh four members were in attendance and uh they mostly discussed kind of the plan ahead um some challenges that they've had to date uh working together um and and kind of a plan ahead my understanding is that um one or two members will be resigning uh from the agricultural commission and they recently reorganized um they have asked us for liaison uh going forward all right I don't have a committee report tonight planning board has not met so upcoming meetings um it's listed that it's June 11th and June 18th I believe there's a meeting this Thursday is that correct I just um checked the website to confirm that and I didn't see it there so I sent an email out during our meeting meeting to confirm that all right so upcoming meetings next Tuesday June 11th and the following Tuesday June 18th public comment are there any public comments from the town manager no further comments all right are there any public comments from the public Dave pasos 56 whing Street first of all Heather thank you for your service for the last seven years um there's a time in everybody's life that it's time to make a change or move on and I think you've identified yours uh I hope as much for your needs as [Music] anything to say is it on Zoom hello I think that's that was Zoom um I'm not sure what that was um I'm up here to um address what I walked into this evening uh I do need I apologize I was late so I do need to see the uh number of minutes before I arrived here and see what transpired but I'm seriously disheartened with what I saw so far and I hope this board can pull its act together and find a common ground to work together cuz this town needs you to step up and bring us through the next year we all know we have multiple problems and now we have a major challenge also on top of that and the citizens of lunenberg are going to be looking to you to help us through so please work out your differences or whatever it is and I may have more comments next week after I see the previous part the meeting which I missed thank you very much all right thank you Mr pasio so there any public comments from the board uh Zoom I'm sorry Mr CH is there anyone on Zoom Mr Bowen uh Mr noo how are you uh congratulations on your uh vote into the chairmanship I just want to extend that uh Heather I'm sorry that you're leaving but you know comments need to be made otherwise Mr Jeff I'm sorry that you're not able to sit back um and just be a voting member instead of having a position that you're actually kind of falling into um which I think is more instructional from your position I just wanted to say that thank you uh Mr Alonzo I'm sorry um Mr this is not an insult to you but I think that uh Mr Alonzo's experience far out ways your own I hope you will take that as a liaz to be able to get uh you know uh up to speed and understand a lot of things that are going on in the community 18 years can't put aside um it's definitely something that should be listening to um I just want to say that uh boy this has been a very emotional meeting and I'm sorry that everybody is enduring this but I do have some emotional stuff that I have to speak about so let's be truthful about the audit review the statements made by the auditor clearly shows uh Miss Town manager and the select board here um that you failed to inform the owner about the reasoning for the creation of the written turnover policy because he did not mention that in his report if the a looked at the issue behind that policy creation which we can direct toward obviously we know where that's directed toward your Cemetery commissioner uh as being the cfort for the creation of that policy clear obviously because they happened to be the only board that had Ezekiel have to explain the responsibility of how uh transactions and things were handled there was no other board that Mr Ezekiel had to attend outside of the finance committee just to let them know that he is the finance year of the Town um and that there is a new policy uh but why would the cemetery commission be the only place that is to give an explanation if there was not some nefarious activity so I say no the town was not transparent about those issues and should be informed uh in that reason that Ezekiel had to create that policy because of um the power hungry Cemetery commission chair Nancy fatco and I dare all of you to tell me what I just stated was incorrect let's Shi correct connected dots if we may even the finance committee gave a B+ to addressing the appointment of liaison to the cemetery commission due to their use and misuse of the fil lot funds and Perpetual care money as well as the chain of custody deposit and expenditures as outlined by Ezekiel in that meeting with the cemetery commission this board should look real close at the cost and care of these cemeteries the tax money to care properly is not a viable option when they're asking for over a half a million dollar to do things through Capital plan and other expenditures it is not viable I'll say that again and you all should stop ignoring me okay as well as others particularly those who had voted for me as a right in at this election okay and those who have since spoken about the problems at the cemetery commissioner suround ing these two elected officials Dave Dorne and Nancy who are the direct cause of the issues in the cemeteries including the increased costs the conditions of the cemeteries as well as the arrogance that she has towards the people who live around them these are issues that are plaguing our cemeteries and it is clear that it is your Cemetery elected officials who are the ones who are the instigators in the problems with your Cemetery we can either do one of two things we can wait or we can recall and when you're ready to hear my proposal of which I mentioned prior to the election you can hear my proposal I have it written I'd be more than happy to present it to you but I just need your permission to do so I was denied because it would be uh not in the best interest uh unless I had enough people in the town I think Mr Jeffrey said to support my idea I think if you listen to Mr Rog was at the last Cemetary Commission meeting I think he made it quite clear that people in this town want to hear about a different proposal in a different way and I think that this select Bo needs to act on I'm ready to step forward as well as there are other citizens who are ready to step forward and fix the problem where the Commissioners who are present and I'm not talking about Michael Clark okay it needs to stop recall that's where it needs to stop David dor and Nancy Fasco this commission needs to be in the uh the Conservation Commission to be handled they're all abing coner areas Mr Bowen do you want to start wrapping up your comment sure there's a 75 foot abutment area of where uh if you're within 75 ft of a wetland there are certain grants and certain things which of which the Conservation Commission holds okay a 501c3 is not the discussion that I have made Nancy Fasco is daating that she spoke with the uh uh ethics commission is a clear lie and I will prove that it is clear lie she did not speak with the E ethics commission and she knows absolutely nothing about what she's talking but I'd be willing to come forward and make a presentation and I'm sure that if I go up the street to my neighbor Mr Rogers I could probably get him and a few of his friends together to see exactly what it is the specifics to be able to get these cemeteries where they need to be where it has failed for all these years thank you very much for your time folks all right are there any public comments from the board just want to announce that we didn't announce it earlier that uh I believe this Sunday at 8:30 is the annual police and fire Memorial at the public safety building uh commemorating in memorializing all the U previous Department uh members there um it's very moving ceremony and it's open to the public that was my comment are there any other public comments I want to respond just to the last public commenter um because there were some inaccuracies in his statement the audit is based on fiscal 23 not fiscal 24 the policy that you're referencing was uh discussed and adopted in fiscal 24 that's uh the revenue turnover policy which I believe you're referring to wasn't named so but as you described it and that policy I've repeatedly said that was a policy that was going to be part of a series of policies from division of local services that were all Financial related that they would be looking for us to adopt so um it was not made in response to anything from the cemetery commission it is a very common policy for towns thank you all right thank you and with that is there a motion to adjourn I move to adjourn second any additional discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppos no it is 9:55 p.m. and we are adjourned thank you