##VIDEO ID:5F1abMU0yKY## kids with us today so this is going to be a a happy meeting so um we will do a roll call vote uh Pat here Sean here John I'm here Chris here Kirk here Ed here Greg here and Nancy here and Carla's here thank you everyone um just a quick review of the agenda we'll have public comment we will have Leon report we um have Town Council here who is going to um review with us the um Public Employee political activity um document that they've put together we will have designer reports we will review any questions or comments from the um draft PSR and we will vote to accept that PSR report and then we will um do approval of the prior meeting minutes and future agenda items in the next meeting dates okay great so we will start with um anybody have a public comment reporter yes I'd like to make a public comment sure um thank you Ray Porter Frank uh 529 Franklin Street Reading um also uh a part of the sustainability committee supporting the project uh also an rmld uh uh commissioner and former uh reading climate committee advisory chair um calling in to support the uh electric options one and three for full geothermal or full geothermal uh partial geothermal with air source heat pump support um that that is among the Pres the options presented to the sustainability committee feel that these two options uh represent the Community Values that the uh this building committee is uh considering including Energy Efficiency and life cycle cost these options came up uh positively in the life cycle analysis presented by the engineers and will represent the most efficient use of energy for the project uh it'll also support the goal of uh gaining economic incentives the msba reimbursement and the IRA tax credit will bring millions of dollars to the town to support those those projects so from the point of sustainability uh I pursue uh support those two options also operational expense the Energy Efficiency uh has a minimum Energy Efficiency rating of four the scr of four means that we're using uh far less energy to deliver the Heat and cooling needed and the cost of that energy would then come from rmld which has the lowest rates in the area but my main point um besides that that is that we should engage with rmld on the uh use of solar panels as a part of the design and integrating those into the design uh making sure that the the roof is capable of handling or or how many panels the roof can handle as we get into um building construction and layout uh consider solar panels for the parking lot um the need to consider these things up front as part of the design means that we can provide structural support uh as in the design rather than come back and look at these things later too often projects have come through reading such as the schools where talks discussion about doing solar panels would may have been handled early on but by the time the roof was designed and constructed um options for putting panels up there was no longer available a parking lot uh structures also need footings which can handle wind loads and snow loads ice loads on panels that cover parking lots so these two also should be uh considered as part of the project um also engaging rmld in the discussion of how power would be done the power could be Town owned or utility owned probably the preferred way is being discussed by the Parker school would be a power purchase agreement and uh in terms of being able to uh have a resource on the schools but not have the maintenance required just an agreement on the power purchase arrangements and then final benefit of solar would be that there would be battery backup by using battery backup on solar panels this will allow you to distribute energy generated during the day into the evening hours uh when the sun is waning it would also uh provide a resource for emergencies when needed rather than have a generator for that purpose so having a battery you use continuously rather than a generator you use sparingly um is another offsetting benefit of the project for the reasons of sustainability operational expenses and the ability to compare this with solar power um I support the uh pursuit of geothermal or GE full geothermal or geothermal with air source heat pumps uh thank you for your consideration thank you Ray any other public comment can I make a quick on thank you um I just wanted to say that um we have Molly here with us um from rmld and um so Bill B that you met earlier has taken another position so he unfortunately we appreciate his input but he'll no longer be part of this project but Molly is here and Tom OA has retired so just wanted to point out that so we have one constant face I'm sure we'll get more support so thank you thank you Karen anybody else Jackie not Jackie Caitlyn anybody online I don't see any hands no one else for that's raising their hand for comment great thanks Kaitlyn okay leaon reports okay moving right along and um we have Town Council on Donna Brewer from Town Council be on you do here hi everybody Donna Don hey everybody so Town Council came up with this document for us to explain um what we as surrogate Town employees are able to do and not do in terms of uh um any type of promotion for this project so she's going to give us a very general overview um and the committee needs to um be reminded that if you have any specific issues or specific questions that relate to you um we always have access to Town Council and we always have access to the ethics board right um with the state that um you can call their number and get very specific specific guidance as to your specific um situation um just those are just two options for us so right thank you thanks so much um good evening everybody uh a couple of basic uh distinctions I want to make for you getting into this and this is an extremely Nuance to what you can and cannot do so I would expect some of you to indeed come to us with specific questions but uh first there's two laws you need to keep in in mind one is chapter 268a which is our standard ethics law and the other is chapter 55 which is the campaign and political Finance law they have overlapping but sometimes different requirements for public officials public employees who want to engage in advocacy on behalf of a matter that's going to be come before town meeting or come before um the voters on a ballot chapter 55 the campaign and political Finance law only applies to elections that is its requirements do not apply to uh advocacy rules for town meeting for town meeting what you need to comply with is chapter 268a and the chapter that um sorry the chart that is attached to aa's June letter is from uh the Ethics Committee and it is the first thing that you should look at as you're going forward figuring about out about um what you can and cannot do one thing that you will see in that chart and in every's letter is the distinction that both laws make between elected and appointed officials the uh ethics Law chapter 268 makes a distinction between appointed policymaking officials and um appointed non-p policymaking public officials the campaign and political Finance law does not make that distinction it only makes a distinction between appointed and elected for the purposes of the ethics law you all should consider when looking at this chart the restrictions and the uh opportunities that you have as appointed policymaking public officials even though some of you are elected for the purposes of this project and your service on the school building committee at this stage you should take a look at the at the chart for those columns uh so generally what can you do uh you can advocate for the project you can vote as a committee to support the project and you can post on the ordinary ways in which you communicate with the constituents what your position is on the project the tricky part comes when you want to do things like engaging email um blasts to the voters or if you want to put your name on a document that supporters of the project put out there uh you know they will publish an ad and they want to include your name and that then gets into the area where you have restrictions so you cannot use your official title on such things as an advertisement that's going to go or in a email blast that's going to go uh through a group that supports this this um project you can use your own names and you always have that right to use your own individual identities to support a position the Restriction comes in using your official title it also comes with using public resources so you couldn't even as a committee publish an advocacy piece uh and and make that available to the voters you can send out information you can do analyses of how this project will affect uh your school district for example but you can't Advocate on it using public resources that's sort of the general uh overview as to what you can do and what you can't do as I say there's a lot of nuance in this area so I don't expect it to be an area that's going to frankly make a lot of sense in some in some circumstances but uh we have the guidance from the state from uh from the courts as to what you can and cannot do and it is set out in this chart that IA has attached to her June letter Donna can I ask a a question sure um for for the the majority of this group right um and and I'm are are we looking primarily people on this board are appointed um there are elected officials as well but are you saying that we should be looking more um in under this appointed policymaking column yes yes because um for this project that is your role as a member of an appointed uh body subcommittee and that those are the rules that are going to apply when it moves Beyond this when it moves beyond the subcommittee stage um but although frankly it never will because you guys are going to be around until the project is completed so yes you only want to look at the appointed policymaking column and and this applies for Town staff right does apply for Town Town staff as well the chart does but not the category so Town staff is going to fall under the appointed uh nonp policymaking group so you as a committee and uh the superintendent for example those are policymaking positions and give a bit more freedom than the restrictions that are imposed on non-p policymaking appointed public employees that's question I can imagine we have a lot of questions from teachers too like what their role will look like here too I we can pull out from this chart and start to put together some advisor but I know if something that already exists that might be easier for us we have to recreate the wheel yes so for teachers for example and I think IA had an example of what teachers can and cannot do in her letter so you want to take a look at that but basically teachers are not going to be able to do anything in the in the workplace and they're not going to be able to use any public resources to support this project they're going to have to act just as individuals outside of work hours and not using things like uh school email lists um they're not going to be able to use uh their um classroom teacher lists parent lists they're not going to be able to use the school um copy machines or scanners for any of this kind of of work they're just simply going to have to do it in their individual capacities outside of work with outside resources thank ask a quick question so uh Donna just two questions for me um so and again just to clarify you know on the back of Carl's question whether you're an elected um um elected or not from uh from a kilum school building committee we all treated as appointed policymaking whether you were elected into your other position or not we're all appointed from for purposes of this committee correct okay um second question on the the not using your title so if you if I were to reach out um is it I can't reference it in any in any part of the communication that I'm um on the committee or is it I just can't sign it saying that I'm a you know that I'm on the killum school building committee you know if it's in the body of the of the of the email or communication is so you can't have any reference that you're wrong in the committee if you're going to send any kind of communication outside of the communication that you as a committee will take that is correct okay has a thanks Cara uh thanks Donna so uh couple questions uh Ed clarified mine which is we're all in that other category instead what is considered outside of work hours like who is that for because I don't work for the town hypothetically if I worked uh 1 to8 in the morning like who's whose definition is workout yeah that's not going to matter for you Chris as a member of this committee so as a member of this committee the uh School building project is of course within your official purview as a member M of this committee and therefore inside or outside um working hours you are able to Advocate through your position for this project so you can you can make a statement anytime you want saying that you are um in support of this project uh as a member of the committee so it the working hours would would depend or affect a teacher for example go back to that question the teacher outside of you know between seven and four whatever their working hours may be they are not entitled to and cannot take any position or use any public resources and then how does it deal with um like say the kill and PTO or something like that where would they fall under well they're not going to be public officials at all they're not public employees what they may have to do is look at the campaign and political Finance law they're not going to be affected by the ethics law but they may have to form a ballot question committee or some other kind of political action committee and that would be governed by chapter 55 thanks can I ask a question on that same note about the PTO so I'm the um Donna I'm the kilum principal Lindsay so the PTO has asked me already like can I send certain things out because I'm the only one who has access to that list if I'm purely providing information and not stating anything of myself or the title am I still allowed to do that or is that access to those emails on school time so you could only send that out if it was information that was prepared as part of your officials responsibilities you can't send it out on behalf of an advocacy group like the PTO okay so say this group we have a meeting next Monday and we want the community to know we have following meetings and the following has been done I can still share that in weekly newsletters that they're going to be meeting yeah and kind of like the updated timeline the information about when the vote is all of that kind of stuff yes you can send out information on things like when a vote is going to be uh but if you're going to be sending out information about when a meeting at the PTO is going to be in support of this project then you could only do that if you were offering that same opportunity to a group that opposes it okay thank you so we can still talk about the project we can still talk talk about it in terms of schedule and needs and what's going on with a project in our quotequote official capacities but if it delves into the line of providing email addresses or anything for a a a ballot question a yes for or a no for campaign we're not allowed to do that unless we're doing it equally if there are two sides of that coin for for giving information about what others are doing yes for yourself again um this is getting into one of the differences between it being at a town meeting versus a ballot question town meeting you can take um a position and advocate for it for the ballot question you cannot um Carla you you just asked about use sending email addresses did you mean like that the that the principal is collected that would be a public resource that's right so they would not be able to okay just so clarifying question right and it's I understand that the um ptos and stuff have their own Communications yeah they would have to use that if they were doing right just a point of clarification I think we need to really push that with all of the pto's because it's only families who sign up yeah the PTO are going to need I would recommend that they contact the office of campaign and political Finance so that they make sure that not only that they're following the law and how they're engaging with the public but also they're going to be required to make certain filings with the state um Donna eventually hope that there will be an advocacy brief that comes forward and operates independently does all the right things um Can Town staff wear a yes for killum or a no for killum sticker or button when they are in a school during working hour no or in a town office I can't yes for no yeah they cannot do that other questions so we can always reach out um through town staff to um legal counsel and always anybody always has access to the calling there's a number at the bottom of this document that you call out this commission and ask any questions that we might have personally and what we are allowed or not allowed to do yeah I'd really recommend people do that when you have specific things that you want to do you know send us an email give us a call and we will walk you through what these two statutes will require you to do Lindsay do you have a question see your hand up sorry that was from before I do I do think that my position is a really tricky one with this and sometimes it comes up kind of quick so I'm hoping I'm hoping we can look at that as it keeps evolving yeah your position Lindsay is going to be as a um appointed non-p policymaking position so uh you should have if you look at the packet that was put online you will find there the chart I've been talking about tonight and that will if you look at that column for appointed non policymaking then you should have some more guidance as to what you can and cannot do great thank thank you just maybe followup question on that one Donna um Lindsay is a an employee but she's not really appointed to the committee she's not a voting member of this committee so I'm I'm just wondering I don't see that she's appointed the committee or elected she she's like she's ay yeah a public employee apped by the super right right that's what it's referring to it's just refer any Town staff is going to be appointed rather than elected again getting back to the only two distinctions that the campaign and political Finance law makes is between um those who are elected and you can think of it as those who are elected and those who are not but are still public employees and since she is not elected she falls into into that uh category of appointed people more confused now than they were before yeah that's what kind of what I expected so I'm sorry for that but uh it it is um it is not easy to go through and as I said frankly a lot of it doesn't make any sense because you should be able to Advocate it absolutely for any reason because we want this project buil so but but the law does not allow us to do that thank you and we know at least we have avenues for questions um in the future so yes yeah we we're here great thank you Donna okay take care everybody have a good night bye by um we'll move on um the designer reports um if you any questions or comments on the draft BSR re great um I um we wanted to share um just the updated B1 site plan um to show the um changes that we talked about in the meeting last week um see Linds hand I think uh do you wanna um talk through this or you want me to can you hear me we can hear you oh good I get to talk through the machine so um we believe we listened um and try to quickly make changes based on all of your comments which were really good and helpful comments what this uh site plan shows is that we took the B1 option and shifted it over a solid 20 feet more to the left which is to the West away from haal Street it is it is at its minimum 60 ft from haol Street a little bit more in some places so that's a very different um that's a very different uh thing because it actually allows us to have a wonderful strip of play you can imagine there'd be a sidewalk in trees then maybe a little space in some fencing and then the kids some kids could play or there could be patio from the cafe back there if you look at the dotted line of the existing building to the left we actually stayed away uh we we never went more closer than 20 feet so Pat and others you know and then it it obviously steps away so we wanted to try to keep that 20 ft so we think um that was a fairly successful move which helps to put the play space and the building in a more advantageous location um does that sound good in order to do that we actually did shift the plan a tiny bit um so that it fit on the site a little bit better um as John Co said um you'll have to uh realign your perfect alignment inside and I said okay and so we actually do have I don't know if we brought the showed the floor plans but we're so um responsive that I we didn't want to show you this until we went to the floor plans uh these are the these aren't the shifted floor PL which is [Music] okay they probably look so much alike uh um Jenny that you wouldn't wouldn't even know but um we just shifted the gym over 10 ft and it all fit on the site really well and all of that that's the case Le they are the shifted FL right it it really doesn't matter just so you know that what we have floor plans that match perfect and they have they don't really change the floor plans at all um just a little shift up in the gym area so um it fits on the site that way any questions about um just the idea that we listened and changed it good thank you um great thank you so I did get um a couple of um comments uh via um they pointed out some areas where I needed to uh sharpen my pencil and I will do so um Greg noted that there's an evaluation Matrix missing and I won't add that and um just wanted to ask if there's any other comments pleas one one uh comment there's a lot of um like finishes specified throughout the PSR report some that I would imagine or just some design elements that are still up in the a for sure um and that's assume that this is like a starting point exactly and we'll get into a process for involving and all those decisions later the idea there is to provide a descriptive narrative to the cost estimator to give them a kind of Baseline a baseline on which to base their the cost estimates you know probably our cost estimators so familiar with these kinds of projects that it's not even necessary but it's um but everything will be nothing has been designed yet as you as you note um in terms of finishes exterior interior so um it will all be designed and reviewed as we go along that's make a motion sure I'll move to authorize the OPM and design team to complete the PSR document and to the prior to August 21st 2024 second discussion we'll take a voice P yes Sean yes John yes Chris yes Kur yes Ed yes Greg yes Nancy yes Carla yes the motion passes yay great job an enormous do at that um and approval of Prior Mee everybody had a chance to readie I had one comment on the minutes um I think Mike advised us that it was not a good idea to do a test floring for geothermal purposes prior to us making the decision that that is the way we want to go and I think it's a good advice I think you got that advice from others who are professional in the industry I think that should be included Mommy it gets approved Kaitlyn if we could have Kaitlyn have that piece of it yes I can make those changes anybody else okay um so how about motion to accept the 85 2024 meeting EV as amended any discussion seeing none go to a vote Pat yes Sean yes John yes Chris yes C yes Ed yes yes Nancy yes yes passes um and moving on future agenda items and and next meeting dates we have Wednesday we have our community meeting at 7 o' in ring Public Library um Shirley I believe is going to get over the list of um meeting dates moving forward I guess she was just waiting for a com one comment someone on Thursday so um once we get that out we people schedu meeting dates moving forward anything else when's our when's our next we don't have that scheduled yet okay yeah yeah that's that's the list that's the list from Shirley Jenny had come up with it and op was just checking sounds yeah we all need to get that into our maybe talk toy tomor Charle do you know off chance just the next meeting at least the one next meeting yeah hold on one second let me look it up um you on the spot or anything too late I had follow up with them this morning to so see schedule looks like looks like it would be the and correct me if I'm wrong Jenny I know you you kind of created this too is the meeting for f updates on September 30th is the proposed next date so September 30th would be next like I said we'll get that um Carla hopefully I can get you something by tomorrow perfect thank you course um um and we also have um just on a side note we have submitt that we need to get from the town PSR on it get that done if you have any questions or anything just yeah probably um I know there was talk about visiting um swamp Scot school I didn't know if that's still happening or if it's being scheduled that's a good one we were kind of talking about it little circles so that's probably something be looking into a lot work to do tomorrow fine anytime's fine beautiful beautiful I think we wanted I think we want to give Pat some time to sweep the floors yes Molly we that's something we're some any I'll entertain a motion motion to adjourn second Pat yes Sean yes John yes Chris yes K yes Ed yes Greg yes Nancy yes and car balancing out last that impressive e e e e e e e for