e e right folks I'd like to call to order the select board meeting of Tuesday March 26 2024 um thank you all for coming out tonight this obviously is quite a uh a large Gathering of folks I'm glad we were able to accommodate a larger location in terms of what's going on um tonight our first agenda item is a board discussion and vote to reorganize um we will have public comment after that but that's going to be our first item this evening I would like to kind of start out on the on and I have he I'm sorry I will speak louder there's a seat down here there's two seats down here speak up I'm hearing that there's no sound on Zoom for some reason we are not we took it off mute right yeah it's off mute controller let me just check it out these mics are just for rctv they do not amplify sound of so every I could better hear the people in the audience the M are in that room Rob Rob please sorry yeah no it's should be [Music] okay good evening folks are you able to hear me in the front and back of the room okay we will I think folks the the answer is we need to speak loudly this evening so let's do that um our first item is board discussion and vote to reorganize and I'd like to start out talking a little bit of of background and and specifics of where I think I would like to see things go this evening on this last Saturday our community was assaulted with a bomb threat called into this Library aimed at disrupting The Pride Story Time with drag friends event this is an affront to our town it threatened our neighbors families adults and children and all were who were here or were going to the library it required First Responders to risk their lives in making sure the buildings were evacuated and to see if there was a bomb inside I commend the response of the library staff Public Safety teams as well as the state police and surrounding community and University Public Safety teams and I commend our town and Library leaders for their strong response in Chief Clark's words threatening violence and harm to others will not be tolerated in Reading we will not be silent on these matters and our neighbors will not be intimidated we need to band together as a community to call out this bias motivated crime and act of hatred and to stand end up that hate has no home in our community folks we may not agree on all things but I hope and trust that we agree that threats are unacceptable dangerous and will not be tolerated in our community to that end we my colleagues on the select board and myself need to be able to work together in a civil manner to serve the community and offer stability in governance we need to support our new town manager who has already undergone trial by fire the town is divided perhaps mirroring the country and perhaps even the world right now but we can set a better example of how to behave and how to lead we can stop the bullying and promote debate on issues using our established policies and procedures to that end I would like to nominate carachi as chair and Karen herck is vice chair for the board I believe this offers a solid Way Forward demonstrating our ability to work together and find compromise is there a second for that nomination second are there other members that would like to speak rest please thanks Mark um and yes I wholeheartedly agree with with what you said threats of violence anything of that nature absolutely has no place here there anywhere sorry um I agreed with Mark uh everything uh that he said there's no threats of violence here there or anywhere um in our community elsewhere absolutely not under no circumstance should that ever be um anyone's thought uh top of mind but um as Mark mentioned um I like um his compromise going forward um with Carlo and Karen um and that's that's pretty much it so thank you Mark for um just thank you M M K thank you Mr Sher first and foremost I too want to denounce the persons or person that sent the email threat to our staff and disrupted Library programming on Saturday reading will not tolerate hate groups or any actions that threaten the Safety and Security of our staff residents or invited guests reading will take any and all law actions available to discourage future disruptions and to hold these perpetrators accountable reading will continue to strive to be an inclusive and welcoming Community where we can all be safe to enjoy the diverse library and Community programming in peace I stand behind our library team and thank them for their courage on Saturday and for reopening the library as soon as the all Clare was given although I've become a huge fan of ebooks in recent years I made a point to come down and thank the Librarians in person as soon as the library opened and in the process discovered you know what a cool Public Library app we have I'll make a final public thank you to our town manager Town Hall staff the Reading Police and Fire for instantly mobilizing against this serious threat and successfully engaging the needed State resources as well as keeping the public updated throughout the ordeal via official channels including the code red system so thank you um and I thank you for that nomination I would be happy to accept thanks Mark um yeah the uh I saw it on social media what happened this Saturday and uh I can't imagine just being in the building and opening up that email and having to uh notify our First Responders but one thing that always I wondered about was so what happens so police show up do you wait for the bomb squad I asked and they said no we have to go in and clear the building so just imagine those First Responders walking through the building making sure no one is here knowing that there could be a threat and I just can't even comprehend that but that's their job so I I applaud them I applaud everybody that showed up I think State uh agency showed up as well so uh I echo my colleague's comments uh you know it was a a sad day but a good day on the way we responded so uh I I look forward to uh moving forward and hopefully the person or persons that did this will get caught thank you are there any other nominations for chair or vice chair not appearing we'll close nominations um let us vote on the the uh the ticket if we call it Carla Bashi is chair Karen herck is vice chair all those in favor raise your hand those opposed we are 4 Z and here is would you like to sit here would you like to no I I'll stay here thank [Music] you thank you Mark all right folks we got a pretty busy agenda tonight uh as Mark said but I'll go over it really quick we already took care of uh um Mr chair should elect a new secretary oh sorry I forgot the whole yeah yeah you're right good point good point got ahead of myself sorry so um I will retract what I said for the moment and we're going to take nominations for secretary Mark's volunteering Mark I'm all right so our first nomination is Chris for secretary I track what I said um any other nominations for secretary no all right nominations are closed um any uh what do we second it no we didn't second it yet we did second already all right any discussion I'm looking at Chris all right all those in favor we shouldn't be laughing but um all those in favor of Chris being secretary 4 Z thank you Chris for stepping up thank you Chris all right back to the agenda um we already did uh reorganization uh public comment will be next uh we'll have select board and town manager reports we're going to reopen the warrant and close the warrant uh for town meeting start date vote to adopt Hazard mitigation plan vote to hold in person early voting on special election on May 14th discuss and vote on modification to CPA committee membership to include member of Conservation Commission vote to appoint select board members to CPA committee vote to appoint Town accountant to a term uh July 2024 to June 2025 discussion on Investigation into board conduct future agendas minutes and then we are going into executive session and we will not be returning into Open Session and I don't have the little cheat sheet that we have in our room but uh we are on Zoom we are on rctv uh and over Verizon channel 32- 33 I don't know what Comcast is but hopefully everyone's able to watch all right so next we have public comment um if anybody wants to speak you don't have to come here right now you can always uh chime in at the end if you want to speak on public comment first we have Patrick Egan and I'm guessing we doing the podium right yes thank you Patrick thank you uh good evening uh my name is Patrick Egan 88 Oakridge Road also chair of the library Board of Trustees wanted to wanted to speak for a few minutes um echoing the opening comments about the events of Saturday I've already stated on the record my position and respect and love for the library staff and their great work at evacuating the building and the work they do and I'll address them at our next board [Applause] meeting thank you why did I come here to your jurisdiction is because I want to bring out a few other things I want to address first uh as has already been noted our First Responders got here very quickly and were incredibly professional Chief Clark Chief Burns their departments were here they were canvasing the building as uh our new chair just noted uh when there was an active threat they were working with the library staff I want to commend our assistant director Michelle who actually went with the bomb squad through the building because she knew the building so well so they stepped up but what happened on Saturday was no surprise with the way our police and fire and this the support they have have helped us they are constantly there to protect and serve our patrons and our staff and I want to publicly thank them for all the work that they have done on Saturday and all before that for this Library second I want to thank our new town manager Matt kralis we got the threat came in early at 9:30 the library director texted me shortly after 9 9:30 a.m. I met down at St Agnes church at a St Vincent dep Paul society meeting my phone blows up I'm here within 10 minutes the entire uh building is evacuated the staff is already grouped and congregated and people are here shortly thereafter the police have set up their presence and there's Matt and he's there all day he's there all day until the threat is left lifted and then he's down at town hall for the same reason moreover he together with director Landon and our assistant director Michelle are there providing resources to the staff who obviously are having a pretty traumatic day making sure they know what is available and access what things are available to them so Matt thank you very much for your leadership and courage that dayk you and lastly just on the [Applause] point lastly I have been asked since then what is this threat say about reading I believe it says absolutely nothing about reading this is an anonymous threat from who knows what in a deplorable aboring statements and attacks what speaks volumes is how we respond to it Chief Clark Chief Burns Town manager kralis your elected leaders here tonight they've all spoken up and that is I think what we can take away so I thank you all for that and I thank you all for continuing to support this beautiful building and the people that work here thank you [Applause] I forgot to mention sorry that we uh as a policy try to keep public comment uh to two minutes um I don't want to interrupt anybody but if you're going to finish just let us know I have you know one sentence left but we're going to keep it at two minutes and uh can I borrow someone's phone I don't have a you have a can yeah do you want me to just turn you want to do you want to do okay uh GNA please GNA thanks GNA GNA pilowsky three Herman Avenue um so recently the town has been feeling like a pressure cooker and so um you speak up a little bit more yeah yeah I thought this was on no it's not on all right so apologies GNA pilowsky three harimon Avenue recently I felt as the recently the town felt like a pressure cooker uh so I appreciate the board taking their time and uh coming to a consensus on the vote and sort of alleviating some of that pressure uh tonight that that that that's great I do want to acknowledge that you know often times we're stuck in our social Bubbles and for the most part it's it's okay but at times we get hyperfocused on uh certain things we lose track of what what's important in the town and The Business of the Town grinds to a halt unfortunately and there's some reciprocity with regards to what the select board does and the community does there's a back and forth we Channel your energy and vice versa we bring our energy to you so I don't know exactly how to address it from the community's side but I do believe that you as board as elected officials all of you had thousands of people vote for you to represent the community so you folks as the select board have the ability to channel positive things and encourage um work within the different volunteer groups and different members in this community so again I wanted to thank you all for uh coming to consensus tonight I that's that's great and I'm looking forward to this type of uh activity in the future thank you all thank you [Applause] uh Peter Kramer he left he left okay uh Eleanor please hi Al shout I'm Elanor actius 73 Longfellow Road and I want to say thanks to the board for rotating in accordance with policy that was great to see um I still want to chime in and request uh an independent in investigation into uh whatever went on that we're all kind of having concerns about and that there's a lot of articles about and discussion about um and one last quick thing um I noticed um on Facebook Karen gatley Herrick stating that Anonymous bloggers may not comment on official Municipal business which seems sort of like she doesn't understand the First Amendment so I would love to know that our um select board members value the First Amendment and Free Speech even if it's speech they don't like thank you Travis please all right good evening my name name is Travis Estus a 36 interal Terrace town meeting member for Precinct 7 so my daughters are watching this tonight right now and I think it's so amazing that they get to see how our town is coming together to engage and cooperate to make this town something that we all appreciate and love it's pretty remarkable that there are so many people here tonight passionate about what our town is and can be and I personally want to thank you all for caring so much for giving your evenings for giving your times and conversations with families friends neighbors that's what makes this place special as I've been following the conversations online and with neighbors I've been struck by the recurring overlap and language that is used by both progressives conservatives liberals Democrats Republicans Independents and everybody in between themes around transparency accountability and equity and honesty are prevalent and concerns about fascism hate and Corruption are real concerns that people have in a moment when our nation's history and where they have some political leaders whose primary tactic is to incite division manufacture fear and so chaos we and reading have the opportunity to be better in our small New England town we can be friends and colleagues and still disagree I don't think it's unfair to say that every single person in this room every person on the select board cares passionately and deeply about this community that's why we're all here we're all here for the same reasons but how we get there is Up For Debate as it should be that's how democracy works it's fluid and it requires all of us to listen more than we speak so coming together from a place of mutual respect and Common Sense is the only way that we'll succeed in meeting our shared goals so tonight again I'd like to thank you all for coming for the hard work of the sele Board of the Town employees and everybody who's engaged in this process and a special thanks to the select board in this moment for taking the time to set the tone of compromise and collaboration out of the gate thank you [Applause] all sa me 10 seconds guys thanks you're welcome uh John Sullivan 23 Weston Road uh I'm going to divert I guess from some of the other topics I wasn't going to speak tonight I'm not sure if anybody saw the news today but there was an accident in town today involving a car and a 15-year-old pedestrian uh it sounds like up sorry uh it sounds like the the kid had serious but not life-threatening injuries which thank God for that uh I'm sorry what she asked where it was can you guys hear me now yeah all right coach's voice uh I'm not sure if anybody saw the news but there was an accident today I believe on L Street involving a car in a 15-year-old pedestrian uh it sounds like the kids injuries are serious enough to go to the hospital but not life-threatening so I think we can all be thankful for that uh I would like to encourage the board as much as possible I guess you guys are the road wardens if that's the right term for the town I would encourage you strongly to be more proactive and more aggressive in doing whatever is within your authority to make our roads safer traffic calming more stop signs more speed bumps whatever you can do uh things are dangerous out there I don't think that relying on everybody who's driving to be safe and responsible is a realistic path forward to keeping our community safe I hope that you will do whatever is in your power uh so that then if there is another accident that is not as serious or doesn't happen at all thank you thank you thanks uh Tara's next please Tera Gregory Pleasant Street on Saturday morning staff at the reading public library and the town hall received an an ominous bomb threat the reading police department has confirmed that the threat was in reference to the pride Story Time with drag friends that was to be held that morning this kind of Terror is M hurts us all it hurts our lgbtq plus Community our town and Library staff our First Responders who are called on to ensure our safety families were left to explain to their children why plans changed and why story time wasn't happening but parents couldn't really tell their kids what had happened to the town and ultimately this hurts every single resident who wants and deserves to feel safe as a transgender non-binary person this made me scar Beed for my personal safety and I feared for the safety of my friends and neighbors that were directly impacted by this event unfortunately political rhetoric at the federal level is seeping into reading people are becoming emboldened in displaying their intolerance of others there is no room for hate or bigotry in Reading I ask everyone currently serving in an elected or volunteer capacity to join me in standing up against hate condemning it in all its forms and supporting our neighbors and First Responders as they process the feelings and experiences that they caused by this recent threat we need to show solidarity as a community to loudly and boldly State we support you and we care about your safety today we stand unified as a community today we build stronger relationships and today we combat hateful ideology together thank [Applause] you thank you David Owens please David Owens 369 Lowel Street and I also would like to congratulate the board on coming to this consensus and showing that they can we all can work together to move forward even when we have very different positions um to that effect at the last meeting uh somebody got up to make a point of order that the board the select board's job responsibility was to listen to the voice of the people and I was disturbed by the underlying what seemed to be the underlying assumption that that there was only one voice of the people that they had to listen to and I want just wanted to remind the board and the audience and the community at large that we have more than one voice and I represent a different voice um I think Karen represents a different voice as well as we all do and it's really important to acknowledge that the First Amendment doesn't just work for the people who shout the loudest it works for everybody who has a voice has a vote whether they express it out loud or not that's it thank [Applause] you uh Bobby belli please CL Bobby bought a CH I don't think I need this um Chapel Hill Drive thank you for reorganizing thank you for your nomination Mark that's long time coming I'm a realtor I've been a realtor for I'm a realtor I've been a realtor for 38 years I am I'm co-owner of Colonial Manor realtor here in reading the other day my business partner Rick nazaro received a threatening phone call to me and it was from Karen ER and the phone call was to tell me that I'm not allowed to say anything about her anymore or she will turn me in to the realtor Board of Ethics now I will read you this short statement from the realtor Board of ethics and it's Article 15 it says realtor shall not knowingly or recklessly make false or misleading statements about other real real estate professionals their businesses or their business practices whenever I speak about car and heric it has nothing to do with her profession it has to do with her position as a select board member as a select board member you are open to discussions and opinions of all of your constituents and if I make an opinion that I'm not happy that she's on her phone during the meetings or that she's consistently late to meetings or that she's nasty to other board members and other people than I have the right to make that and if Karen can't take that then she shouldn't be in the public eye but don't threaten me I don't take that well my partner told her I probably shouldn't tell this to Bar because it's not going to go over well and then he said to her but wait a minute Karen you say things about Carlo and she said oh Carlo's not a realtor he's just a broker he doesn't want to pay the $500 to be a realtor that was disparaging so if she if I that was actually talking about his profession so I would ask Karen not to threaten me or anybody else because again I don't take kindly to it and one other point I'd like to make to the chronicle if you're going to report please kindly stop reporting on on the actual facts you seem to be leaning to one side when you report and that's not what a town paper should do and if you quote me quote me properly thank you Angela I don't know what Angela is thank you I'm good congratulations and I look forward to all working together for the good of the TCH thank you Nancy I know no no problem uh Rebecca liberan she here thank you Rebecca liberman 50 Prat Street I want to thank the board for coming together and selecting a chair I wish it had happened last uh last meeting but I'm glad you got to Yes uh I just want to express that I was uh concerned about uh verbal allegations being made uh and I full disclosure I'm a state employee so I know a lot about open meeting law state ethics I've spoken to the ethics office if there are concerns about violations those need to be uh those need to be raised in accordance with select boards procedures town and state policies and reported to the appropriate agencies uh and you you folks are not lawyers and it's not your place to uh uh to accuse people of things that may or may not meet the standards for actual violations so I just feel like it's not helpful to cohesiveness of the board to make accusations without going through the formal process uh it requires there are time limits documentation requirements and I just want to remind you all that you have a big mouthpiece being on the board anything you say is recorded it's going to be on rctv it's going to be in the newspapers it's going to be posted reposted on social media so uh I just want to just remind people that we have to set a high bar as someone said last time and uh I just hope that if if you can't govern under your current policies maybe you need some policy changes to make sure that everything happens respectfully thank you so [Applause] much uh Kevin Lucy is Kevin still here good evening Kevin Lucy 7:45 Pear Street um congratulations on reorganizing finally um you know I agree our town does need to heal our town needs to come together um but I believe before that can happen we need closure with the select board chair issue there was serious allegations that need to be investigated I think the previous chair was doing a very good job because I never heard anything negative going on that tells me that things were going smoothly until the town me uh manager hiring process came about um like the town manager Hiring Our Town has dealt with turmoil with events with the police chief hiring we've dealt with the Freedom of Information Act request and email Scandal that released a child's medical and IP information to many elected positions we've dealt with an Americans with Disabilities Act violation where the town was sued for denying a sober house and lost a six fig judgment and the soba house still is put in place you know that that soba house um I'm glad to announce help helps children and it's now across the street um most recently an election was held the candidate one when the time came to select a new Chia you guys changed the rules and when people showed their dismay you called the police the same police that were disrespected when they wanted a new police chief and not a rless ship we watched in that same meeting what appeared to be two people continuously texting each other in instances of one person caught on TV making hand gestures saying no to the board members we need this nonsense to stop we want Safe Streets for our children to grow on we want good schools for our children to learn in we want affordable taxes so we can stay in the community we love we want our elected officials to work together to make our town a better place we need to get to the bottom of what happened so we can start a new thank [Applause] you uh would anyone that didn't sign up like to speak public comment no one in the room Caitlyn anyone on Zoom um no one raising their hand okay okay thank you everybody for speaking now we're going to go to uh uh L's arm reports and town manager report anyone mark thank you thanks Mr chair hope that feels good we'll see um so there is a lot of acity going on with uh recal Council on Aging activities the senior center um feasibility study is moving forward at a very quick Pace right now there are three sites that have been identified as potential sites to further explore um town meeting members will be receiving some information inside of the the town warrant booklet that talks a little bit more about them and it would be great to get more people able to see what these options look like and what's happening the Pleasant Street Center as we've talked about is enabl to support the Community anymore and as we have a growing U I'm going to call it not a senior population but a 60 plus population in the community we really need to do more to take care of them so I'd encourage everybody to learn more about that tomorrow evening is a meeting that's going to take place it's Joint Council on agent Yan recal and we're going to take a look at the the three options that are being explored right now um looking for more Community input there will be a number of additional Community meetings that take place to support that and the hope would be that we can move this ahead um over the summer pick a site get more detailed cost information and then start educating the community about it bring it forward to town meeting and then bring it forward to the voters so the Council on Aging met last night was Monday yeah last night um and then recal Council on meing is going to be meeting um this coming act uh tomorrow sorry at 6:30 thank you do you know where they're meeting the cour room uh okay it's okay it's okay no no I know where they're meeting I think it's the conference room is the conference room I think it's the conference room Town Hall yeah okay sorry I was going to check my calendar uh no I didn't write down where it is Town Hall can I just ask is tomorrow night if I heard you correctly the consultant is going to present well the the three sites have already been identified yes and then there's going to be drawings or plans or not yet um so it's more a discussion of where we are on each there are some preliminary um cost estimates that will will be shared with the community it will also be on Zoom so you can you can watch it that way it'll be recorded as well uh and and again it's more at this point to understand what the sites look like what the opportunities might be uh and for the community to be able to see that all right yeah I would encourage anybody that's been involved in the senior community center um A lot's going to be shared tomorrow night and and that will hopefully steer Us in the right direction on way to put it can I just close so what will then be happening is um recal and these other groups will come to some consensus on a preferred site bring that back to the select board for discussion and hopefully approve it no thank you Chris Karen Karen sure um so last night the kilm school building committee met and um it was um filmed with rctv and there's a lot of great information in there I encourage you to go and check that out on their YouTube channel I assume um and I expect it will be also posted on the kilum school project website um we um U I got a second view of the results of the traffic study having attended a a recent traffic community meeting that we had but if you weren't able to attend that the results were presented last night and um you know thinking of the unfortunate accident we had earlier today these um these folks who I believe have worked with writing before have done an amazing job looking in detail at the sidewalks the accessibility The Pedestrian access in and around that school so um the committee is now also um getting into the details on a potential districtwide School districtwide pre-k solution which which would increase the number of parents and students at that at that school building the second half of the presentation was from um The Architects themselves they are starting to think about how best to use that site we keep hearing it is actually a pretty small site the size of school building we need to build maybe 100,000 maybe 120,000 square foot um site and keeping everything intact during construction so so that was the reoccurring theme but they started you know laying out brainstorming how the traffic might flow how to get the buses off the street how to uh avoid places where children and pedestrians are going to potentially um be in the same place at the long time and also alleviating um congestion in the neighborhood so definitely encouraged that was full of all kinds of uh specifics so we are getting to a very active um part of that project we have a deliverable coming up in May back to msba so um much like the community center um the work will now begin on uh more of the structural elements and starting to talk about cost estimates thank you thank you Chris thanks Carla um due to uh circumstances I wasn't able to mention uh last meeting um uh that just to thank the voters that came out um to elect me for another three years here I I truly appreciate it um I appreciate everything that Laura Jim and her staff the board of registrars um they pulled off another uh election uh without incident and then they have to turn around and do town meeting and then won an election all over again so um thank you to them for for all the the hard work that they do um and then uh lastly uh just want to speak to an item that is not not on the agenda tonight that was on last uh the last agenda was the uh business license for the um the resident that wanted to sell cars um and I just want to thank Matt um for handling that uh we got an email uh that night uh from the resident I reached out to Matt and just said listen we got to come up with something uh Matt waited uh no time spoke to Town Council got it squared away um uh by Friday so um thank you Matt for you know addressing those concerns it might seem like uh uh it wasn't their fault um I agree I agree with that but I it's just another instance where I appreciate you stepping up and and handling things um considering the circumstances um but in terms of le as on reports I I don't I don't think anyone knows anything that's gone on the last four weeks here other than what's gone on with us so and we I'll leave it at that thanks um so I think it was last week if Angela is still here to correct me uh we had a very great um Simon Way exploratory committee meeting we're coming to an end we all work together on presenting um a slide deck to present to this board with Jackie's help uh Jackie who's in Matt's office uh did a great job helping us we all had input um went over all the slides that night we're going to have one more meeting to kind of finalize our findings and hopefully I I'll talk about that later in our future agendas to get uh that committee to present uh to this board their findings so it it was a we we it was we came to a good ending even though it's not officially over but I think the seven of us worked pretty well together and especially that last meeting where we all gave input and feedback on wording and language and just kind of word smithing some things so that went well and um and that's all I have so I'm going to turn her over to Matt okay thank you so I mentioned it on um on Saturday but I'd again like to thank the public safety personnel the the bomb squad Town staff um town library staff for all their support the select board who I was in constant communication with all day for their response and again say that we condemn acts of hate and reading and everyone deserves to feel safe and reading and um it was covered well tonight I won't I won't Dell on it I pray that it it never happens again um in lighter news the winter parking van is has been lifted I meant to I meant to say that last time and the pickle ball and tennis courts are open um now that it's 20° out you know hopefully um people can out could go get out there and enjoy those things um fincom finished their budget process last week and the budget is now moving on to town meeting um the budget passed and I thank fincom for their support of the budget this year and I attended a legislative breakfast this month with the reading delegation and others sponsored by the local Chambers so I thank the the local reading North Reading chamber and the other Chambers for putting that on it was very informative um I learned a lot and got to talk to the legislator legislators one-on-one um and so that's an event that I look forward to every year um otherwise I know we have a full agenda tonight I'll be speaking on some of the agenda items so I'll pass it back to the chair thank you is uh Lara oh we have a hand sorry yes my name is Johnny Russo oh can you all hear me do do you have do you have public comment is over do you have a I want to ask a question have we ever had a bomb scare in the past Bomb b MB uh I'm not i' in my tenure here I don't remember i' I've been I've only been here nine years but I'm sure the police may speak to that well let's hope it's a last one I I I agree with that for sure all right La thank you Lara U we're going to um work on the warrant and uh change the start date of a town meeting was I doing that one well I mean I is it do we have a just make a motion and I have a motion if you want yeah and and I would um suggest I know you get to pick the start date I and I don't know what you're thinking but in talking to the moderator and other staff um Thursday the 25th Thursday is a is a day that people are used to coming to town meeting um I know you have discretion to put it on any day you'd want but that seemed to make a lot of sense um so if the motion would be to move it to to the 25th that would be preferable just a comment too with uh the Passover I guess um someone that's in here that this Jewish might be able to um let me know but I believe that the first and the second night are the most important so therefore you don't want to switch to Tuesday so I just wanted to point that out yeah thank you Mark yeah just to offer a little bit of background um so usually um we the town tries to select dates for meetings that don't conflict with with major activities whether they're major holidays or other holidays celebrated by different religions or other very important dates on this particular occasion it was her Passover that I'm sorry Mark that's not true okay please correct um so the by the general bylaw and the charter set the dates for um town meeting and we have no choice so it it may have been missed in the fact that it didn't get pointed out when you signed off on it but that we had to set it for the 22nd I'm sorry I I sit corrected thank thank you L that said um the town does try to where we can and don't run into cont conflict find ways to to be as accommodating as we can be in this particular occasion uh it it didn't happen um the calendar wasn't checked carefully and and that conflict um existed there are different ways that we could change it but the best way we thought was to bring it in front of the board to talk about it um to appreciate the situation and then as as Matt suggested the idea of moving it to Tuesday wouldn't really uh help and it's a different it's a different structure than people are used to people used to Monday Thursday so the idea of moving it to the 25th I think would would fit for everybody the town moderator has been very involved in this discussion is very supportive of this as well and the preference would be to do exactly that move the start date to Thursday the 25th of April thank you for that background thank you all right um do we have a motion uh move to reopen the 2024 annual Town me meeting warrant second second any discussion okay all those in favor right 4 Z thank you thank you Lara oh so now that it's open yeah yeah right now we need to the start date okay and then we another vote another vote sorry I I wasn't I'm not privy to the motion so I I yeah know I haven't yeah okay yeah good everyone's good 25th yes Thursday the 25th April 25th so the motion is to start town meeting on April 25th yeah okay uh pursuant to GL chapter 39 weird symbol 9 move to delay town meeting start dat from April 22nd 2024 to April 25th as reflected in the document presented second second any discussion no all those in favor 4 Z thank you when signatures yeah okay yeah I have signatures Laura has to post it right away so if you can sign tonight that would be great thank you thank question did that also close the no that's okay all right so we can so I have the next one all right sign that and then we can do the next one this the final page thank you all right Chris next one yep move to close the 2024 annual town meeting warrant consisting of 16 articles as amended second thank you second any discussion no all those in favor for zero thank you thank you all right now I think we can move on next is the hazard mitigation presentation and we have Andrew McNichol on Zoom okay as well as our I believe our consultant is also on Zoom to um to do the presentation so Andrew you ready yes can you hear me yep yep great thank you all thank you to select Bo for having me tonight thank you of the public for being here even if it's not for the hazard mitigation plan specifically I am Andrew McNichol the community development director uh we're here tonight to try to put a bow over the planning process related to the hazard mitigation Plan update so I'm just going to share those slides on screen and run through this presentation real quick to explain what this plan is and what the process looked like from from start to finish so I just want to start by saying we were awarded a state Grant um through an application in late 2022 the state Grant was awarded and they partnered us with consultant Jamie Kaplan Consulting LLC Jamie's team did a really wonderful job I just want to send a big thank you to them Jamie is here tonight but Darren punchard Bill Bona on the gis and risk assessment David Murphy on the mitigation specialist in climate just want to give a big shout out to them for helping R and complete this process it's a very technical plan it's a very long plan and it's a very long process so moving on to describe what is a hazard mitigation plan A Hazard M mitigation plan is established at the federal level through the Federal Emergency Management agency better known as FEMA um a town and municipality must have a hazard mitigation plan in place and formally adopted in order to be eligible for FEMA Grant Awards Hazard mitigation Grant Awards um and we must update this plan on Five-Year intervals which reading has maintained since its original Inception of the hazard mitigation plan it's really a proactive effort to identify long-term strategies that can be taken to reduce impact and dangers to both life and property that come from natural hazards um we think of that in terms of climate hazards or non-climate hazards in this plan it includes risk assessment establishes goals and the actionable measures to achieve those goals to uh reduce your vulnerability so it's really focused on disaster preparedness and reducing what we call Community stressors which range from your social health to your environment to your infrastructure the potential grant opportunities that you are eligible for with a adopted hazard mitigation plan these are just a small some small examples but the FEMA brick award Grant there's been some Regional context to that and some recent Awards through the brick program one thing you'll notice about the brick is those communities are mostly Coastal communities and so that really gives the opportunity to partner this plan with What's called the municipal vulnerability preparedness Grant MVP for short of which reading is designated as an MVP Community MVP similarly addresses climate hazards and preparedness and mitigation efforts reading has been able to implement MVP grants to uh proceed with the mlet SS and Morgan Wetland restoration for storm water storage as one example MVP and the hazard mitigation plan really are a nice tie in for Inland communities specifically it seems like so just to step back and review the timeline of this planning process we really again started this in late 2022 we formed a local uh Municipal team which consisted of DPW and Engineering Public Safety Communications health department Town management and many other volunteers from like the climate action committee as well um and the planning staff of course but we started this in 2022 held a series of meetings with the municipal team started to look at what those hazards are in terms of Massachusetts climate hazards regional and local looking at reading's critical facilities which we'll get into in just a second establishing broader mitigation goals and then the actions to achieve those goals we're now in these later stages where we've drafted the plan put it out to the public for public comment and we've even taken the step to get it approved by Mima and FEMA through some minor amendments and we're now at this last step which is to receive official adoption by the town which is what we're hopeful to do tonight through this process and discussion with you as the board so from a high level what's included in the plan I won't read all of these chapters um specifically but you really start as most planning processes do in terms of what's the context what's your geography what's your demographics what are your existing conditions again looking to understand that risk assessment what are the hazards what are your critical facilities and how do they all interconnect looking at your capabilities and existing infrastructure um to help support mitigation efforts and then establishing those strategy and goals and then for the future how are we maintaining and addressing those goals and addressing this plan and keeping it up to date on its five-year cycle so to maybe no surprise climate mitigation and Hazard mitigation specific in our region it's very um can come down to changes in precipitation the natural hazards from that include flooding from high rain drought from lack of rainfall or even landslides to a degree there's rising in extreme temperatures that can um kind of interplay with some of this but are separate in terms of some of their impacts like extreme temperatures on shorten periods wildfires including brush fires invasive species um and infectious disease from mosquitoes and others that can start to arrive as rising temperatures changes your environment your um extreme weather as well hurricanes and tropical storms so severe winter storms in nor Easter tornadoes things that are starting to become more or less frequent or more or less intense and there's really different ways to look at that on each storm on its own merits but non-climate hazards as well like earthquakes um which maybe aren't so so prevalent here in Massachusetts but are included in the plan because it's on a national level right FEMA so moving on towards those Hazard rankings FEMA in the plan gives it a quantifiable effort to try to address those hazards and understand what are the high hazards to our re region looking at those winter storms extreme temperatures flood flooding um you'll see here infectious disease we talk a lot about climate hazards in this plan infecti disease is really more of a public health um impact as we all might um recall through some previous um history both in the early 2000s and more recently in the 2020 pandemic FEMA's really taken that step to try to address infectious disease in this plan and try to give it some correlation into um heightened risk assessment in terms of what that can mean through the changes of the climate and through the changes of Hazards the critical facilities of a town really looks to establish your social spaces your Public Safety and your infrastructure and the plan really gets further into detail onto these critical facilities in terms of are they situated in flood planes are they situated in high fire risk areas or other So the plan really breaks it down into detail as to the locations and the potential impacts of each and every one of the critical facilities and reading I believe we had 20 to 30 plus critical facilities detailed in our plan mitigation actions really short and simple they are in efforts to reduce your risk and address your vulnerabilities you must improve on your vulnerabilities right that's how you're going to reduce that risk that can come from flooding or heat both on the social side and the infrastructure side and this plan does a great job of How It's possible to address all of those different uh risks R assessments that were in detailed in the table and those actions can come down to local plans regulations and policies to address future builds uh codes in shape how the land and the buildings are developed right if you're in a flood plane what are we doing to compensate and protect that structure and infrastructure similarly is there roads that are prone to uh flooding and maybe need to be addressed in a more appropriate manner to make sure that transportation and access remains V at all times during all emergencies your natural systems maybe even your historical assets are detailed in this plan for protection things that really um can help address climate situations but also the social health aspect as well education and awareness programs may also be mitigation actions again it's coming back to social resiliency and understanding BPW does a great job on Water Resources planning department as well trying to put the word out there through these planning efforts on awareness and um social understanding this was just a short snippet of some of the mitigation actions here in the plan uh so you'll see key items like providing full generator coverage at more critical facilities upgrade updating your transportation infrastructure to remain safe and viable at all times all of these now become action items for the town and could even be uh supported through Grant and or local funding so that was really in short to saying that this plan um really Partners well with many of our divisions the town has a public safety and emergency task force this plan can help support them just in the awareness and efforts building so we're hopeful to adopt this and um use it use it in good faith to um address the needs of the town and um do this every five years from here on out that was all I had tonight Jamie Klan is here again but I just want to give a thank you to her team and our Municipal team and the public for their efforts on this thanks Andrew Jamie do you have anything add I'm really here to be supportive so if you've got questions about the plan I'm happy to sort of answer them but the key thing is for you to adopt that plan um without the adoption you the town is not eligible for what FEMA calls pre- disaster mitigation funding so um it's essential that the plan be adopted I think with adoption what you need to know is that after you adopt the plan and you're eligible for funding if there's parts of the plan that you want to edit things you want to add things you want to change it's a living document you can do that without state or federal approval any time um so there's really no downside to adopting the plan um but there's big downside to not adopting the plan um I can tell you I got a call today from a Massachusetts town who is about to receive over $40 million in Project funding from FEMA and they're not going to get it without a FEMA approved mitigation plan like they're stuck um and you don't want to be in that position um but again I'm happy to answer any questions you have and obviously support Andrew any way I can thankk you uh any questions guys no uh thank you Andrew I appreciate it and uh look forward to 5 years from now so Christopher yes thank you um so I have a long thing to read but I can read it kind of reading a motion adopting the Hazard mitigation Plan update 2023 whereas the town of reading recognizes the threat that natural hazards pose to people in property within the town of reading and whereas the town of reading has prepared a multi-hazard mitigation plan hereby known as town of Reading Mass haard mitigation Plan update 2023 in accordance with federal laws including Robert T Stafford disaster relief and emergency assistance act as amended the national flood insurance act of 1968 as amended and the national Dam safety program act as amended and whereas the town of breing Massachusetts has a m mitigation Plan update 2023 identifies mitigation goals and actions to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to people in property in the town of ring from the impacts of future hazards and disasters and whereas adoption by the town of reading select board demonstrates it its commitment to Hazard mitigation and achieving the goals outlined in the town of Runing Massachusetts Hazard mitigation plan update 2023 now therefore be it resolved by the town of Reading Mass that section one in accordance with MH General Law chapter 40 the town of reading select board adopts the town of Reading Mass Hazard mitigation Plan update 2023 while content related to the town of reading may require revisions to meet the plan approval requirements changes occurring after adoption will not require the town of reading to reopt any further iterations of the plan subsequent plan updates following the approval period for for this plan will require separate adoption resolutions adopted by our vote now thank you is there second okay Karen was on that one thanks who guys any discussion just a question for Jamie oh sure everything here says update 2023 we're in 2024 is that fine that's okay yeah that's fine that's because that's when FEMA approved the plan it it doesn't make any difference what's going to happen now after you adopt the plan after you sign this resolution Andrew will send me a copy of it I'll forward it to the state and to FEMA and FEMA will return a letter to you that says your plan is approved congratulations and it will give you a date five years from now um when you need to have a new plan adopted um so you're you're good don't don't worry about that thank you good good good good question I caught that as well all right we have a second uh any other discussion question question s oh all those in favor all right 4 Z thank you thank you guys thank appreciate it justair sign okay uh where are we now uh next item is vote to hold iners early voting on special election May 14th thanks is that for you oh says Clark on there oh yeah thanks I did all right so good evening me again so um the just to kind of give you a little bit of a brief explanation when it comes to local elections but uh as of 2022 if the town wants to participate in in-person early voting we have to do what's called opt-in to in person if we don't want to participate in vote by mail we have to opt out so we automatically participate in vote by mail for local elections I was not here for the March 5th local election because um it was held on the same day as a state election therefore we have to adopt the state election laws so what um the process is is that the board of registrars discuss whether or not they want to opt in to iners early voting and and uh keep vote by mail or opt out they make a recommendation and then you as a board need to decide what you want to do it's up to to the select board the board of registers met on March 21st 2024 they took a vote to opt in to in-person early voting um and to keep the vote by mail um they suggest the suggestion is that we do in-person early voting during Town Hall hours with only one day being an extra day um and that would be Saturday May 4th and the reasoning behind that is that I have to be to the public anyway that day is it's the last day to register to vote so if I have to be there from 9:00 to 5:00 I might as well offer inperson early voting at the same time we've done that before correct yes okay so the inperson early voting would be from um the recommendation of the board of registers would be from May 4th to May 9th thank you um any questions guys Chris thanks Carlo in I assume the vote was unanimous it was not oh what was the vote then um it was two to one with me abstaining oh okay so that's why it wasn't unanimous um it's uh it was two 211 correct I'm sorry yeah y all right thank you all right any other questions foro all right do we have a motion please I don't no but I will uh move to okay y so move to um hold in-person early voting for the special election uh from May 4th through the 9th at Town Hall um that's pretty much it right yeah for the amendment is ours recommended by the board of registrars if they had ours yes y hours in Saturday yeah yeah okay second second okay um any discussion all those in favor 4 Z thank you um so I'm assuming that you want to continue with the process of the vote by mail you do not want to opt out of vote by mail you want to take a vote there too as well you want to continue with it do we need to you do not we do not no yeah it's not on the agenda we're good okay thank you so if I may just take a moment um anybody that sent in a vote by mail card at the beginning of the year saying that you wanted all elections we'll be receiving a ballot from for the May 14th automatically thank you all right moving on uh next item discuss and vote on modification to CPA study committee membership to include member of the Conservation Commission and I guess that is amongst ourselves oh Cameron yeah I did speak to our conservation administrator this week and and Matt you can feel free to chime in um um he did give me some background that uh the reason the reason that it would be a good idea to do this now is if we envision um this study group you speak up composition transitioning into the official committee if approved by meeting and the voters if it becomes an official Committee of the town then a conservation member is required okay because a certain percentage of the funds must be dedicated to open space right right no I I but for the study committee it's it's optional I okay I see what you're saying okay just kind of put the structure in place yep okay cuz what yeah all right so cuz what what we talked about and kind of put into a text was the composition of the uh study committee and and I don't know if we discussed even discussed conservation I don't remember I think we might have mentioned it um and um so two residents up there yeah yeah so current oh sorry so so currently we have this is what we talked about a few months ago I guess now uh one of us selectboard member Recreation historical affordable housing trust member uh finance committee member and two residents and one nonvoting member uh that will count towards Quorum who is director of reading housing authority and those of you who are not familiar when we say CPA we mean Community preservation act and those are funds that we'll have access to uh for three different areas uh Recreation historic is it housing and space or just both both right um so that will that will make us eligible for for for funding uh you know currently we're not eligible for funding and if I'm guessing I think half the state is CPA roughly little more okay so a little bit over 50% of the state has adopted uh CPA there are a lot of benefits uh of course it will be uh a tax that we will all uh be part of in the community to take advantage of grant funding so we wanted to form a CPA study committee uh and then to present that to uh town meeting and to adopt CPA we will need a vote and and we have the upcoming elections in the fall and um you know we we lost some time unfortunately the past few weeks and um we need to get this committee started and hopefully not overburden them to get this done uh with recommend recommendations um well in advance of an election so um so I guess I don't know how everybody feels about adding conservation now or you know leaving it off and having two because obviously if we add conservation and not remove anyone then it's only one resident so and and I think I'm I'm you know I'm not setting Stone on on either one I guess we should discuss it on you know having adding conservation or just keeping it the way it is Mark thank you Mr chair um so I did I had a discussion with Chuck terone kind of right after we voted this and he brought up exactly what Karen mentioned in terms of not so much the study committee but in the future they have a big part to play in what's going on and uh someone who's a member of conservation is also a resident and my thought was let's add conservation as one of the ex official voting members and have one uh non-affiliated resident I'll call it uh in terms of of what's going on the the only Downs side of having one resident is I think we were talking a little bit about what you know what do we want to hear from from the residents in terms of more more supportive versus perhaps less supportive upfront right so that was that's the only question here but I think having conservation makes good sense I think having them in the process from the beginning makes really good sense um our experience I think has been that seven is a really good number yep um eight would be an even number and and maybe less less beneficial we could go to nine but I think our experience has been that s is really good and so I I would suggest we stay at seven and perhaps add conservation uh in exchange for one res thank you Karen you have a hand up you want add no I was just I mean all of the my thoughts on this are could go either way I um this will be an all Resident board and I I think the folks that are excited about investing in open space or historical preservation or Recreation will self- select themselves so um I I could go either way on this Chris thanks Carla um I'm now remembering that I'm going to have to abstain from both of these votes um but in general broad terms uh on any committee I would highly advise against a point any members to the committee that are all going to agree on the exact same thing because I think if you want something to pass in general uh you're going to need a a spirited debate to be able to Hash it out so I would just caution that hopefully this can end up um with some not this uh just in general uh some diverse viewpoints on things because uh as you can tell we can get to the middle ground somewhere on things um so I would just hope for any committee that that's the way that things go but I'm I have tostain from both of them thank you I um I I go first no I I just Recall now that I'm thinking back to the meeting and you know maybe you guys can help me on this one I'm pretty sure I I discussed conversation I mentioned conservation someone from conservation just in general like who do we want on this on this study committee so I am uh fully support of of adding conservation to this study committee because I think it makes sense mat yeah and just as an aside I had a conversation with the Housing Authority director and I guess they weren't pleased about the non-voting status uh for the director I know she doesn't live in reading so she would be non- voting um but I think the Housing Authority felt that they should have a vote um on this and so they were going to send an email I don't I didn't see one I don't know if the board had SE seen one this was a conversation I had after the agenda was already set but I just wanted to bring that up I told him I would just raise it at the meeting um I I know that's the rule you have to be a resident um and you could try to replace the the director with a member of the Housing Authority who is a resident but I don't know if that would solve anything so yep just a question yeah so do we have an affordable housing trust set up yet no was we're waiting for the that was a problem last time so could we make could we make a friendly Amendment slash affordable housing trust slash Housing Authority resident member because we we don't even have this trust right now so I'd hate to create a position that we can't devel you can do what you what you'd like on it I mean you still it's just a study committee it's yeah yeah I know we mentioned that last time that we don't have the affordable okay I forgot about that yeah we'll just why don't we just switch it to the housing authority and does anybody have a problem with that we don't have an affordable housing trust yet if this moves through if the will of the voters that this becomes real we can revisit this maybe maybe nine would be an okay size for this committee now that we're kind of talking about the different areas that it hits I'm okay with Karen's suggestion I think it makes sense and I think I think the director I'm hoping that the committee would value their input right as as a non you know even you know we can't defer uh you know from our rules and you know being a resident of the committee y that's what I told her but right y but it's a good point so she's the only non- voting I am I am fully on board with adding a conservation member and then rewarding um affordable housing uh you know you know backslash and then you know to to see what happens and then we can always amend this I mean if we need to or add eight I mean it's I don't think it needs to be nine but it could be eight but that's fine ju just one thing so um each of those groups currently would be appointing a member so what would we change it to for it would be a member of the Housing Authority I don't think you can do a slash right yeah yeah yeah I I think so I think we have I think we have to pick one right and then I mean it's it's it's it's basically April right next week so yeah we got we we we got to get going go and and if something changes in the coming months we can always add a member it's not to me it's not a big deal I think more more more people order sir yeah yes you were notified only to the Conservation Commission you're not notified to change the rest of us so unless you're invoking the 24-hour rule 48 hour rule you can't make the change you're talking about and you would then also have a double representation of the Housing Authority because the director is still there thank you I you are correct um oh did you yeah I was going to come in if every was on the line looking at the wording of the agenda item I think it's broad enough it does specifically mention the Conservation Commission member but it says discuss and vote on a modification to CPA study committee membership I mean yeah I mean if you want we can just take you the way it is and like keep on going bring it back again I I don't want to hold it up anymore yeah I don't either but I uh okay that's it's a good point but I think to me it's broad but it's there's a fine line between Broad and specific so again not not playing a lawyer I agree with you I think that it's broaden off what we could do if we want is maybe check in quickly because I know every is going to be on going to be on for later anyway maybe Matt can just check with do you want to keep going we'll come back to this I think that makes sense yeah is that all right with the board we'll come back to this y okay um all right so we're going we're going to skip I guess well excuse me I guess we could go to the next agenda item and appoint one of us to the CPA study committee I don't think it's going to be a controversial vote here I'm hoping um so I guess does anybody want to volunteer for the CPA study committee before we you know make a big fuss about it I'm willing to volunteer okay no thank you second that nomination okay well we didn't Nom yeah we didn't nominate yet but yeah anyone else be willing to no thank you thank you anyone else want to put throw their hat in the ring I mean I as much as I'm against taxing this this CPA thing really intrigues me um and I don't want to make things difficult I I wouldn't mind I wouldn't mind doing it myself uh to be honest with you um because I'm maybe can give a different point of view um than other people I'm not saying that your points of view aren't valid but uh this one as much as we've talked about it the past couple years this is one I I would like to do and great I don't volunteer for much guys you guys know that so I'll I'll leave it if Karen wants to withdraw or we can do a vote or whatever you guys want to do no nominate carachi to be uh the like word member of the CPA study committee second second all right any discussion no all those in favor thank you three three and one abstention abstain abstain yeah three and one abstention Caitlyn thank you all right we are moving on E is is on now Zoom if you wanted to go back to you yeah since we're we're still here yeah y whenever you're ready IA hi I'm sorry I'm just joining is there a question sorry sorry how's the weather how's the weather outside the question is we were discussing adding a conservation member to the CPA study committee and we uh pretty much all in agreement Chris is going to abstain because is an affordable housing component uh to the study committee and uh the three of us uh seem to be on board but a question came up on we wanted to kind of reward our uh the language of the study committee because we don't have a Housing Trust member yet to make to make it uh affordable housing uh not not a trust member just affordable housing and it's author Authority sorry affordable housing authority and thank you and um it's not on the agenda but do you have the agenda in front of you the wording of it um I do I just used it to log on let me just pull it up we think it's broad enough but uh a member of the public brought it to our attention and so we wanted to get some input is it time sensitive yes um not emergency but yes time sensitive like tonight if you need like a few minutes we could come back to it we were already oh no I meant is it time sensitive that you make this vote to modify housing to the Housing Authority tonight or can you do that at your next meeting we could do that too well we'd like to get the committee started informed yeah no I mean say we keep going and leave that open cuz we can't fill it okay and get the positions posted at least yeah I should whatever you have to do yeah um so the house sorry remind me again the Housing Authority is not a body of the town right they're separate and distinct that's that's correct but they're made out of reading res they reading res but they're technically a state agency right okay so um I would recommend that you add this to your next agenda and um I understand that that can slow up the process I'm sorry we can move forward with all the other members but I think the way that it's worded it's to include a member of the consom um and so I'm concerned that okay it's it's too narrow okay no thank you y okay so we are a motion going to I just add that the positions have been posted and and other committees have nominated their member as well so you know we are it's not that the whole thing's being held up you know we would like a full membership though so yeah good to know okay all right uh well we've taken care of this board so um and then a resident has the application for a resident been um yeah posted yes okay um then you just want to vote on what we put on the agenda item yeah I I think I think we could do that I think um and did we say how how did we strcture it we're going to just have one resident one resident yeah one resident right or do we I think that's what we said just want to make sure yeah because Chris is abstaining he's asked me to to make the motion if that's okay no that's fine but I'd like Chris's input on the one member versus I know you can't vote but you know you have a right to I have no yeah okay all right um Okay so Mark please so move to amend the CPA study committee membership to include a member of the Conservation Commission as an ex officio member and to reduce the number of residents from two to one so the committee stays at 7 second all right second all right any discussion no all those in favor three and anyone abstaining one thank you uh we need do one other motion to officially appoint you oh we didn't do that yeah [Music] through June 30th 2025 second all right Mark second any discussion Chris thanks car just yes thank you Sharon um I mean she puts a lot of time effort and energy into anything and everything here in reading so I'm happy to see that she's going to be here for at least another year or two hopefully longer yes hopefully forever thank you I I Echo that sent um ready for a vote all those in favor 4 Z thank you all right next item uh 9:00 we're moving along very quickly which is nice next item on the agenda is discuss in investigation into board conduct um the the way the way this reads is I guess maybe not the uh intention but I I it's on here the way it reads so I I will uh open it up to uh my fellow board members on um my interpretation is this this is referring to uh what started on February 6th and and what's continued uh up till today so that's my interpretation but um I'd be happy to discuss our our options um I think at a previous meeting um was after speaking to IA there was kind of three options in front of us go to the police uh report it to State ethics and hire uh outside Council so that's the way I interpret this agenda item and I'm happy to talk to you guys about what she's back oh good yeah yeah I I don't know if you want to if you want to comment to start or you want to just listen to us um I'm happy listening to you I think the only um I guess the comment I would make off of what you just said Carlo is um those options are fine you can always hire outside Council what I was suggesting is to the extent the board wants to you could hire an investigator there are individuals that are trained in um you know reviewing situations interviewing individuals and determining what they believe to be the facts of the situation so um that that may be um something you want to consider did I misinterpret that the investigator would attorney or did I just Mis misunderstand what you said so sometimes they can be attorneys there are investigators that are attorneys not all investigators are attorneys though and so you know our firm does do investigations I would advise that to the extent this board does decide that's the path you want to go that you not use our firm to do the investigation that you hire a third party and so then it's up to the town to determine who you're looking at um to do that investigation all right I apologize for missp speaking can just a Frank comment just disclosure so um as I was the one that put this item onto the agenda I contacted State ethics in advance to make sure that I could participate in discussion there wouldn't be any potential conflict of interest they advised me there was not um nonetheless I filled out a disclosure of appearance of conflict of interest form uh 23 B3 um which I filed with the clerk uh several weeks ago so I just wanted to kind of to close up front that I I did that I to talk to ethics they said no issues no thank you no thank you thank you um any other discussion on how we should handle this Chris thanks car um I guess it's more of a question for IA is this something that we as a board can just um delegate to M to hire because if it's uh a lawyer or something or do we have to go out to bid or how does this actually go right so the the individual um the the services that the individual will be performing is not exempt from 30b so it depends on the value of the contract um if the contract is you know $10,000 or more you're going to have to use probably three price quotes um it's unlikely it would be more than ,000 so you wouldn't have to go out for like an RFP um invitation for bid type process if it's less than $10,000 you can use Sound business practice um but we can definitely help Matt um and his team through the procurement process and we have names of individuals that we've used in the past if they're going to do um you know need need people to reach out to I think what's how this board may want to structure this conversation is what is the scope of this investigation and what are you looking for from this investigator there are many ways that investigations can go and so are you looking for interviews of just board members are you looking for interviews of board members and residents that are willing to participate how broad do you want the scope of this investigation to be and then what is the goal is the goal for the investigator to produce um their summary of the facts that they believe to be to be true and just like these are the facts or do you want the investigator say these are the facts and based off of these facts my conclusions are that this policy was violated or this policy was not violated it's up to the board as to whether or not you want the investigator to take that second step and so how you draft the scope is going to inform the cost which would then inform the procurement process um so that might be one thing that this board wants to focus focus its attention on tonight is what are we asking of the investigator and how should we be crafting the scope okay thank you that's very helpful because it's this is not this is something we haven't done so uh yeah and I do say so I had one other community that conducted an investigation of board conduct um it's it can take time um the investigator wanted to in that case review um videos of meetings conducted interviews with board members looked at emails and text messages so there is a process that investigators can use um it's really up to the board though to determine what the scope looks like it's your investigation to kind of craft and then you hand it over to the investigator can we put I don't want to call it constraint but can we say you know we'd like it within 45 days 90 days can we you know make a request I guess always sorry go ahead no no that was it like so it's not open-ended and he comes back he or she comes back to us 2 years from now here are our findings absolutely you can always put timers constraints on that my my word of caution would be if you're asking for someone to produce something in 45 days 90 days are we narrowing the poll of available investigators that have the flexibility in their schedule to work within that time period and then what does that mean from a cost perspective are they going to charge us more because we're working on working on a truncated time period investigators do tend to turn over their work product fairly quickly because a lot of times they're dealing with employment matters and so they're very time sensitive so it's a 90 days is probably feasible for most investigators um 30 days you know 45 days maybe on the shorter end of things but it's it's absolutely it's your investigation to set the scope and and the timeline those were ARB arbitrary numbers by the way I I didn't mean to think that this would take 45 days or or so that was just I picked numbers at random point of order and sometimes it's dictated to by the availability of individuals that are going to serve as Witnesses or give um an inter or share an interview with the investigator all right thank you point of order yeah please clarify whether the agenda item is just to discuss the investigation or Does it include the other two options carel that you mentioned at the beginning well the the agenda item is pretty broad uh discuss invent investigation into board conduct so it's kind of to me I interpret that me is kind of open not really too specific um because it says discuss it doesn't say vote it doesn't say and we're learning as we as we go as the board goes we we haven't done this before this is going to be all new for us so I I will take the guidance of IA and my board members I I am just one of four my interpretation is it's kind of Broad and we need to narrow it down per per what ia just said I'm taking notes so now I kind of get a a better handle uh of what I uh what this means because this is open to interpretation on on the agenda um so if we have to make another agenda item um you know in the future that that is fine to get more specifics uh this is our first go at this um ever um so I I I I will defer to the board and I'm happy to work with Matt Nia and make a more specific agenda item but I guess it's okay to get you know a a pulse of of the board or not I'm not you know I'm not going to say that we have to but I I just I want us to discuss this because it's been a lot of people's minds uh for a while and um and I think we owe uh the community [Music] I didn't watch the show but you know if everybody remembers Dynasty one of the last episodes was who shot Jr and then the season ended or the show ended I don't know what happened but that was the big Cliffhanger who shot Jr right now the big Cliffhanger is why did Jackie McCarthy resign so suddenly and so just to be thoughtful in the process also um Jackie has shared certain things with us kind of when she decided to leave the board and and asked that you know from her perspective that it's St private so I just want you I'm I'm fine exploring you know what's going on here and interviewing people see what's happening all good I think if the mission is to um kind of honor honor what she said and find out as as much as we can about you know did we violate did anybody violate board policies okay all good I think it would be difficult to essentially say yes we're going to kind of Honor her a request to keep it as a private matter but not really well I I I I I hear you and I think if if she is part of this process and she says no comment she says no comment I mean I I hear what you're saying right you know she's uh we're all residents she she's a resident uh not uh on this board anymore but she was part of this board and she was the chair so that really I mean you know we could watch the video we were in shock you know I know I was um so it was really you know in my tenure we've gotten shocked twice Bob leaving kind of a curveball and that for me for me that that was I was not expecting that from Bob um on his retirement so um that was a personal decision Jackie made a personal decision I agree but I think as as we go down this road I think we can develop the scope as as IA suggested and what what findings we want out of this um you know obviously facts are going to be facts you know who who talked to who who said what review our meetings um you know this it hasn't been pleasant we all know that since February 6th and um and I was proud of that process and I take responsibility um but I I think again my opinion I I I think we're it's worthy uh to to find out because someone who was doing a good job and only had a few months to go well less than that a month to go um you know the timing it it just it raises a lot of eyebrows for me but you know she was not going to be chair anymore after the election um so it it's kind of it's a whole it's very very murky Waters we're going into but uh I I I I want to move forward uh me personally so I I am I am okay with crafting a better agenda item so we don't um you know go down a path that we were going to regret and really uh dedicate some a decent amount of time uh to to go over this um I know we have a a town meeting coming up and an upcoming election but uh you you know when we get the future agendas we we can talk about it then so I'm not going to I'm not going to discuss it now so if anyone else wants to chime in um Chris thanks Carla um I think in regards to the framework um 45 whatever it is I I think 120 is more reasonable or something like this uh in terms of the individual or individuals I would say all four of us at minimum um if Jackie is willing to participate than she is and like you just stated if she isn't she isn't and perhaps for the most part it is over or not um and I think that it would include any other um individuals that uh that if Jackie is willing to participate any of the individuals that um she discusses would also be covered under um the investigation so in terms of like I just said it's it's us for plus her if she's willing to participate plus any arms that comes off of that I think is kind of the the framework of how would should work Daren sure um the aftermath um from the events of February 5th have been horrible um and and I clearly heard our former select board member say that she was stepping down for person reasons and um it it was truly unfortunate um and I also so I keep thinking that I don't understand what would we be seeking to get out of this investigation um I have been reviewing our policies and I've been reviewing um our select board manual and as a finance committee member we did do one investigation and that had to do with financial issues um in it had to do you were on I'm not sure if you on the finance committee yes so it had to do with improper policies for disposition of assets when they were no longer useful for rmld so we did have a we had a subcommittee on the finance committee I don't recall if we hired outside help to do that I think we did yeah okay so it was not insignificant and as a result of it um it was deemed that we weren't following a good policy new policies were uh put in place and we no longer have that financial problem at armlinge to my knowledge we haven't had any other investigations in myong volunteer service um so I also I'm also not clear that the select board this seems vague and ambiguous and potentially an evasion of privacy and if the other Alternatives if it is a something if it's just a policy Rel ated thing then I get very concerned about violating um the request of a a former colleague of ours that this is personal and um so that that is a problem and and if this is not something that is in ethical or illegal action or if it is then those first in my opinion they need to be reported to the proper authorities to ascertain whether that is a problem I am loathed to spend taxpayer dollars on an investigation that I we haven't clearly defined I don't see what would come out of it that would help us and I think if you're going to launch an investigation there needs to be clear evidence that something went wrong Beyond someone's personal opinion that she'd had enough and that is a valid opinion we have had people resign from committees because they they have personal reasons whether it's work family a divisive board is a lot of work coming here tonight I ask myself why do I keep doing this um but I take the responsibility very seriously as I know we all do and I I know our former colleague does well so I'm having a hard time getting past spending taxpayer dollars and an invasion of privacy for a very personal decision and I don't know because I have not had the luxury to speak with a select board member it would be really awful to conduct an investigation that depends on input from a select board member that is not going to participate I don't think I can support an investigation like that but I do support if we have members that think something was an ethical problem or against a valid Mass General law that though I would support anyone's right to pursue that with the appropriate law enforcement bodies so that's where I am with this Chris thank you car um I believe it was in the chronicle as well as other places mentioned personal multiple times the fact is and this is Jackie McCarthy's direct quote but separately from this recusal and because of circumstances that I won't go into right now I feel it's best for me and my family to resign from the select board and I'll do so tomorrow nowhere in there is it mentioned that it's [Music] personal so to just keep hearing that it's personal it's personal it's personal it's not she didn't mention it then she hasn't mentioned it since and I think uh as we mentioned at the onset here if she is not willing to participate it is just an ass and if she says no Then That is it with Jackie but with us perhaps it could continue perhaps not um but yes if she's willing to do it then I don't see um what the issue is for me personally um if she doesn't like I just said it's it is what it is and then we haven't really spent that much money on it at all so it is not personal that is her direct quote anyone else Mark so um was all these things so start at the beginning I I am fine with pursuing some type of an investigation there's no issue that I do think that we you know it may be that it it's um what we talked about it's interviews it certainly needs to be the four of us there's no question about that um be great to have other people directly involved um and then I don't I don't know I don't think any of us know where what happens for that where it goes or what's going on um but the notion of kind of uh two bytes of the Apple as possible but maybe it's better to kind of figure out you know once this is this is what we're hoping to find and say that different here's what we'd like to learn through an investigation these are the kinds of facts we'd like to to get back make that part of the scope of what we're talking about lay out the parameters that we're we're suggesting um and then maybe get some more feedback from uh both Town Council and the investigator had some more experience with it to structure and say okay if that those are your goals here's what I would suggest in terms of what to do do interviews do this do that and then um and kind of do this a little bit more iter iteratively figuring out what it is that we want to ask for to make sure that we're going to we're going to get where we we're we're hoping to learn and I think it relates to to board policies I think it relates to um you know how we conduct ourselves no well said I I couldn't have said it any better thank you um yeah I I I think we need to um get something going and I will discuss that with Matt and IA and and craft an agenda item that won't be exact but I think we'll we'll go over the exact words of I wrote down scope of Investigation equals facts in summary or a vers a version of that and what and how and that's going to be up to the four of us um you know it's been already said that IA can investigate us her her firm can't investigate us we can't investigate ourselves and the last thing I want to do is spend tax dollar money on this but but I think we could put some caveats in there that you know we we we don't spend money we don't need to spend um on the way we craft the scope of the investigation to me those three words the scope of the investigation will determine a lot on how move forward and um so tonight was just a discussion I I thought it was helpful um I I agree with Mark's uh comments on how we should proceed so I will uh discuss that with Matt and IA offline and uh I I expected to be on the next agenda and kind of dedicate some time to it and um we we'll go from there uh this is not going to be I used 45 90 days just because it was the first things that came to my mind mind right that that I did not mean to say that is my time frame I just use those numbers so months not years months it it's going to take so um I'm ready to move on unless anyone else wants to make a comment like make one more com yeah yeah thank you thank you good Chris sorry it's hard for me to someone else go yeah well go ahead every sorry sorry it's hard for me to see um I just wanted to make uh two comments to make sure everyone on the board had all the same information so um the first is to the extent that the investigation concludes there was a violation of board policy I just want to be clear that as elected officials there's no process for the board to remove one of its sitting members that would have to go through the recall process or Through The Ballot Box so I just want to make sure everyone understands unlike an appointed official that you do have the ability to remove for C there isn't a similar provision that would apply here and then the second point which we can discuss at next time or in the process of crafting the scope is that it's likely whatever documentation is produced will be a public record so to the extent that we're concerned about individuals privacy um interest we want to make sure that we're doing all we can to adequately protect that thank you thanks Carlo um brought up my point is essentially um there's no recourse for us at the end of the day uh uh other than a recall so um that's why in terms of the two that you laid out where it comes up with this or it comes up with a finding effect with all the extra stuff I would prefer to go the extra stuff route only because um we don't have any means of removing any of any one of us nobody in the state does um other than a Recon so um or resign or an election or an election yep um so yeah but thank you every year for bringing all right I have a point of um so you spoke of three options in money um yeah Kevin hold on Kevin I I don't what's the we're not taking any votes we're not doing anything tonight okay so I understand that but I don't know what the point the point of order is going to be very specific okay so you guys spoke three options one being the police investigation and state was uh uh ethics or you guys the investigation is that correct that's what you said that's not a point of order sorry I I thank you I don't I don't want to open this up to I I appreciate that thank you um um all right guys we are we that we are good there guys we're good for that one okay um so I discuss future agenda items um let me go to the let me go to my other page here all right we have when are we meeting again April 9th April 9th Mark oh sorry yeah just I thought so we we all heard something from Trails committee U yest today I forget which asking the charter part of the charter where where they should said I I believe there's some communication I think Laura you got back to Kathy Kelly suggesting that um if there was specific language you might want to come up with it probably with some help um but I what I was going to suggest is can we put that onto our agenda if there's a part of that that we would engage with as it relates to adding that the discussions sure is that okay yeah I I thank you I did see that and I saw Lara's reply that there is a provision in the charter for Trails but that we want to see if they want to add anything to that correct yes just to clarify there's no um specific provision for Trails okay so in the charter it talks about some specific committee boards and committees and then there's a section I think it was 4.14 that mentions other boards and committees and that's where Trails would fall under um I believe that Kathy is asking that trails get become one of those specific committees right so I had asked them to come up with specific language if they would like to add okay and we can bring that to the board thank you um my opinion should it go to Charter review first or like I don't know the process here the the um Charter review is still open right you have not yeah um yeah we're going to be going into the public portion the boards and committees have all come back um Laura sent out two emails um so they've come back with their various changes or no changes at all um just the the word of caution once it goes into the charter it takes a charter change to change it if it goes into the bylaw it's easy just we're getting into yeah right right right right should I'm just trying to figure out the order of things do we discuss it first uh I wonder if is it possible to put it on to the the U the future agenda let the process play out a little bit in the background either continue with it or take it off okay and and April 9th you think is appropriate or wait or longer I mean what's when is Charter didn't have a defined date yet because um the election first off if I was even still there um but secondly we were getting all the feedback and then we're going to do um another meeting uh with all the feedback that we got and then open it up to the public help to have an April 9th I mean we could yeah we can put as a placeholder I mean yeah I I it's uh right two weeks yeah right um so yeah that's good uh the only thing I have and it's not going to be ready for the 9th uh we're meeting uh Simon's ways meeting I think on the 1st uh if I don't know anybody's here I think we're meeting on April 1st and uh that should be it and there be one more meeting to go over all our minutes but I would say we'd be ready to present maybe after town meeting so you know I'll I can add that the SWAT presentation to us of the fin ings and um I don't know if anyone else has anything we need to wrap up the town manager screening committee we had to Sunset it and final oh it has it's done it had its final meeting in the minutes are published okay good thank you um if I could one other thing to add I think in May it would be great to have recal come back to the board with report and recommendation on site and um it sunsets in June so the board should talk about whether there are other tasks for it or I see we already have here the notion of a building committee which might be the next logical step right okay okay yeah is the um so maybe the the um May you want more time or 7th I wa um I should know because we've talked about it I'm sorry we going put on the 21st for now okay um and and we have time to I'll come back yeah so after tour I I think I'll know better okay can yeah just um so the designer and the owners project manager have been presenting the school committee they have not presented to the select board they're willing to do that um and I ask Matt to help coordinate that just the right date um probably sooner rather than later and so you've already been had the presentation I mean the killum school build killum School building committee has already had it the um they they have presented I believe just once to the school committee right um you know we we hired the the town manager on our behalf hired the project manager and the designers we are critical to this process so they should be updating you all as well I know you don't have time to go to all these meetings and watch all the all the recordings so they're very happy to come in and update us on how the project is going and answer any of your questions y okay thank you maybe like the next couple of meetings which everyone better yeah all right thank you I'll put uh 49 or 57 um I really for me other than swack I don't I don't know um does anyone else have any Chris thanks Carla um it's more of a general with the speed thing that was mentioned earlier today um and I've received some communication about Hail Street um and the speeding that's happening over there if we can kind of I know it's um 129 and and havil our out of our perview but is there something that we can get a general understanding of why um like an overall speed decrease in town or something like that if that would be governed by that or does the state still have to do it effort to suggest maybe um would it be good to get a little bit of an update from pttf in terms of where they're looking or um you know we've highlighted a couple of areas that seem to be dangerous yes yeah sure how about we talk about it yeah yep y we can do that and if you can find out the definitive with the same yeah I'll find out on the State issue are are are you um it's been a year so my memory is a little foggy how quickly do we uh reassign Liaisons should we meeting after the chair yeah right right but within a couple meetings or we have to kind of divvy up our duties again we're not a full board wait if you wait till the 21st of Maye okay good idea thank you how about uh bask yeah that was that was on my mind that was on my mind um yeah lot of groups that would like members yeah Karen and I are still leading that charge so Caitlyn you know where I know lot's been going on but um I'm only traveling one week in April or 5 days in April so other than that I'm available uh for for meetings and we can coordinate that uh offline but yeah you're right can maybe bring that back to one of those main meetings yeah yeah yeah of course yeah um okay anything else guys oh Chris yes sorry just one other thing I think it would behoove us to just revisit our actual s more policy of everything that's happened maybe just another refresher I don't know when the last time we were done 1817 whatever the deal is no it wasn't just a a nice little r oh no it was in the library I remember we were in the library last time that that we did it but not on the next agenda just uh on a future agenda time for minute yep all right I think uh we are uh minutes right approved meeting minutes yeah actually there I think three of them I think at least three Caitlyn are you still here yes all right yes I am can we do the first set please yes so the first one is from January 27th it's the interviews for the town manager okay um position so these ones were really long uh yeah it was very detailed right yes yeah yeah uh like pull them up real quick I didn't have any changes yeah I didn't have any changes any I don't there any typos or any yeah there was one set that's a different color one area that has a different color on under hgan different color text different color text I'm sorry yeah okay so I don't know who put that in but I'm fine with it as there they're coming up it's like it's what towards the end uh middle oh yeah so red right up near his name at the beginning not white it's red oh yeah oh yeah this is um Carlo I think you asked us to put a little something in there about that uh that's me yeah uh no that wasn't me that was not me I would not have that kind of detail I would no no it wasn't your word exctly but you asked to put something in yeah yeah he did cuz he at the beginning of his interview he did mention if you guys recall he did mention that he had an incident I'm fine with this yeah yeah okay all right thanks sorry about that I didn't mean to put words in your mouth yeah yeah no it's not your exact words but we mentioned adding a sentence in about the accident so okay yeah everyone okay with that even though I didn't write it okay thanks okay was there anything else uh Matt markk to do we need to say as amended um yeah do one at a time yeah let's do one at a time yeah Chris motion for yep move to approve the meeting minutes of January 27 2024 as amended second second any discussion no all those in favor 4 Z thank you Caitlyn all right the next set was 227 so I have a comment on this one okay I have one and I did have yeah I had a few um up I did have an edit to these ones I have an edit but I did not send it to you [Music] okay I get a feeling it's the same edit as me Mark uh I have two edits actually so yours will probably be right after mine okay so these are the minutes and then I got an edit from Chris earlier um just trying to see where it is okay so right here under this I'm going to replace it with what um what I just put in is what Chris changed it to here prr you is that what you yeah that's my edit okay so I have an edit for you Jackie um um right before he noted the board right before that y right here right before that y okay cuz I actually um pretty much read a statement um and I I can you want me to just sends it to you or you want me to dictate it um is it super long it's three sentences it's two sentences with three lines yeah if you want to send it to me I can just insert it right here is that what you want y let me I'm going to um close the other one just talked about right there do oh do you want to do this one first and then do the other one now this is that I thought you had two I'm sorry Mar the second one related to what Chris oh talk okay so I just sent it to you Caitlyn uh make I'm online yeah know yeah so it's it's the uh colored piece my computer it's red I don't know what color it's going to be when you see it are you still seeing this screen right here yes yeah okay so here's what I I wrote I added in this right here gotcha yeah okay Dr firly denied the allegation oops did not no oh so the word that is extra so denied the allegation the word that can disappear sorry I'm going edit myself stating he did nothing inappropriate to influence the discussion or vote on the town manager he then noted he denied and was consult by any allegations to the contct Y um unfortunately that rings a bell that was all I had on that one for changes okay anyone else yeah under liaison reports Caitlyn um it should we should just spell out Mass Municipal Association um it's under me first paragraph under leazar reports and I would capitalize Mass Municipal Association thank you Karen do you want to also change like PSC to Pleasant Street Center yeah I can do that thank you probably a good good idea maybe CPA Community preservation all right now we're getting a little well I so if you go back and look at these not right 5 years from now we like what is that or if you're not very familiar with this stuff like we are you're like what is that so it's an accountant CPA obviously no I mean Kaitlin's doing a great job getting these acronyms it's just a matter of what do we want to see when we go back and look at this from a historical perspective anything else Cameron or that it Chris anything else no all right are we uh motion to approve these minutes Chris please some oh well you need the date move to approve the meeting minutes of February 27th 2024 as amended sec I'll second any discussion no all those in favor 4 Z Caitlyn all right um and the last set I have for you tonight is the last meeting 312 and I realize I owe you a set from two yeah two two something that's Saturday meeting right yes yep 217 yeah one thing in here where is it how do you spell Kim and Li's last name does it have an ey y yes okay so his name is not spelled correctly if you Google Lu u y it should be an e in there l u e y okay here and then I did have one um edit from Chris hold on one [Music] [Music] second oh yeah want to go for a bank um at the [Music] end going to edit this so we're not seeing your screen right now oh yeah sorry we're not seeing your screen not seeing anything sorry correct we're seeing ourselves I still looked hand see Bob on his phone pretty much okay can you see it now yes okay so we had this at the end change slightly an edit for Chris so I think that it needs to note that you left as well because we lost horum so I was going to send the actual screen shot as well attached to this but during the motion to adjourn it was seconded by Karen or you and then the vote went up with you and Karen motioning to adjourn while I was still sitting down and Carlo was leaving so I was still present when the motion to adjourn happened but I did not vote you can write that in there well I watched the movie I I watched the movie I rewatched it you were already packing before car screenshots do not lie yeah we're not going to include a screenshot in here that's not how we do this these are minutes if if we didn't want to in include a screenshot if a screenshot is used during the time during the meeting um then it can be included in the packet and I will happily uh uh show a screenshot on my screen right now to include it in as part of the package if needed how did we adour we lost we lost cor so you voted two people to vote that doesn't count you didn't raise your hand you were still standing there you could have raise your hand but you not to I think that needs to be reflected in the meeting you willfully chose not to at least adjourn the meeting I'm I'm okay with that that is that is accurate it is but I was still sitting there during the vote that happened okay that's fine Carlo was not and I was you there I was looking at you hoping you I hear you let's let's create the right words yeah that's why it was fair and had Carlos starting to walk up I didn't say he was SI but you started packing first in the video I started packing 10 minutes Chris before Bachi left Chris had already been packing for 10 minutes we don't have to put that in there I'm joking so after the word in the period um there was a mo motion to adjourn was it made by me I think so okay so doctor made a motion to adjourn seconded by herck two votes were recorded in favor of adjournment with Mr Haley present I I don't know how do you how do you want Mr Haley present then then we lost Quorum and the meeting ended is that right well you can almost say that bot and Haley did not vote to adjourn but we we the meeting adjourned because of lack of quum it's a gray area because Carla was leaving and I was still there and technically it still could have happened so it's kind of Kazi Mir so it's however so so there are two votes to adjourn correct one person left with last Corum right and the meeting adjourned due to lack of Quorum yeah so there's a little Gap there but or loss of Quorum sorry not lack of right loss of quum yeah loss I think is better that is black means we're lazy so the only thing missing here is that how do we lose quum what you got me walking out right so there only there are three people left we still have cor correct but we lost cor cuz that point there were only two people stayed in the room and then yeah we we it's got to be reflected somehow I mean had to Chris left we were still here we could not end we lost Tom that's how that happened when Chris w got of the room we lost you just add that when CH after haly left the room also or left the meeting also yeah accurate sure I'd be splitting hairs if I decided I wanted to change the time frames and everything else cuz technically I was in the room while Carlo wasn't I might have stayed in the room a couple minutes longer than what's here but I was not in my seat so I would allow this to be accurate I'm not sure we could I think we're there yeah let's stop to finish I do have a couple of comments earlier um up up Mark up up to the board then discussed they reorganized after the May 14th special election where is that so this is after public comment this it board reorg okay yeah board reor stop y all right so two things so a resident in the room called a point of information not a point of order I I forget I'll I'll believe you but I forget it was it was Diana Hon oh okay I I don't know what she I didn't catch her name I don't think she she said it in the no she didn't say it she she but it was a point of information okay um and I think the other thing that needs to go in here is go up where it says dos are called for another 5 minute recess due to yeah disruptions from the audience and requested that the police be called to the building that's factually correct correct and or requested is actually requested of here's Matt sorry hey Matt sorry and as the town actually asked the town manager a police presence that's why I requested the town manager all the police uh I yeah I said that police be called to the building call the police to the building perfect didn't I have one other edit Caitlyn where I didn't know I think it was oh yeah hold on one sec I wasn't sure where that went [Music] um I think it's in the beginning I think oh no right here you wanted you think this is towards her you said yes I don't believe that was Mark I think it was K everyone is everyone oh I guess camera needs to chime in if that's accurate I think it is I'm not sure I don't know I think U my general comment is you know I hope that we can return to our summary notes after this because these are getting very detailed and wordy and we do not we do not as a rule put that level of detail into minutes I understand these are challenging times I was trying really hard to I I know I know I'm hoping moving forward we don't have to do this because this is too detailed but I understand why you guys have made requests that makes sense yeah I think not a complaint uh but but a hope that in the future there's less detail that is needed to clear things up yeah I'm not being critical um my some of my colleagues are adding language and you know situation probably warrants it it's pretty unusual um so I have one change one little one what page you remember right under public comment where um Carl McAn presents a check to the town for over 100k from the reading Ice Arena for their yearly it should be lease payment that's all is that no I don't think it's Le payment P call it rent yes it was I thought it was their like Surplus payment that's called a lease came in they turn over excess Revenue to the town that is the lease contract says if you have any Revenue less it goes to the town so I don't know what a turn back is 30 something yeah 1 I think yeah like 113,000 I think it was 13 so you could I mean the number doesn't matter it's up to you turned it over we didn't I think I think lease payment just it sounds like they're paying us rent they do pay us rent they do have you read no no no no I know but I'm saying I I know what what you're you're trying to turn back right I don't know what turn back means yeah so I want to see like lease or rent I don't care what it is it's an annual payment to the town and rent or lease do you want we have a lease contract with yeah that's all lease payment can we just add the words to the town payment to the town yeah well it says it says it above it to to the town it says that's fine turn back doesn't make any sense that's fine that's fine anything else guys nope I'm good Caitlyn all right I think we're all good a motion yep move to approve the meeting minutes of March 12th 2024 as amended second any discussion who was the second karon okay uh no discussion all right all those in favor 40 Caitlin all right minutes um how about a five minute recess for a bathroom break no it's executive well executive well yeah whatever you want to do I'm not done all right I didn't know if you wanted to read this so the public isn't waiting so just executive session and lean have executive bathroom break perhaps it doesn't matter to me we going to session that's fine I I guess it does it say we are not going to return to public correct okay yeah let's just do that let's just end the meeting Rob can go yeah Bob can go and Rob can go I might have a question for somebody you might have to wait well during the bathroom break I I guess yeah and I can't we can't oh yeah then we can't right we can't go in there we once we're in there yeah yes let's take a 5 minute recess guys 5 minute recess sorry e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e is it blue it's not blue no it goes corre oh it goes gray to all right it is it went red when I pressed we are we are back in session in no that's not up yeah it was blue before no Zoom is gone yeah yeah Caitlyn just said she lost zoom in there oh okay I know something looked funny oops rob you there it's got nothing to do did he leave right but I'm wondering is he still here no he is but Zoom is over there oh I'm still here oh wait for you guys to go in executive okay so you're on track we just lost something happened we're going to bring it back okay yeah let me see if I can see it lost power because it's not even L up no it was reded it was red it'll go red oh it does yeah yeah it goes red yeah I guess we leave it off and then if it goes white then we're good what by S it's blue the color blue yes blue is on no it's white right but right now there's nothing on right now it's clear yeah blue is on blue blue also we're going to find this out we we just outvoted you it's blue well you can out you want when it goes white you get a problem it's not white as long as there there you know there better be a shade of blue is there a shade of blue in there no it's you need a quir to make it blue touche thing's going white Rob's back there laughing he's like it's white yeah absolutely see that's white there's blue in there that is white that's blue that is not blue there was blue in there that's light blue that's light blue join it now that's all right stop fighting we're back in session um wait for Caitlyn to come back or we can yeah I just put it back on all right it's buffering oh wait let's see oh here's she youres all right okay this K all right we're back in session for my break should be back and uh we're going to have a motion oh well we we're gonna so he knows we're back in session yeah yeah I did that earlier but yeah yeah we're we're back in session from our break and uh we're going to go into executive session so I have a motion move to enter into executive session under GL chapter 30A squiggly symbol 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to Coster ver town of reading Apple Tax Board ATB docket number F350 310 cost R verse time of reading ATP docket number F350 371 as the chair declares that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the public body to invite Town Council um Town manager uh an executive assistant to the select board and town manager's office into executive session and to adjourn the meeting from the executive session not that seems weird why is it right used to be to not open session Y and the meeting from executive session and not return to open session yeah yeah so moved okay I will second that all right any discussion no all those in favor no roll call oh sorry thank you thank you Mark uh Chris yes Mark yes Karen yes Carlo yes uh 4 Z to go on Executive session e