flag of the United States Justice for All and apparently Zoom was muted so bear with me good evening and welcome to the select board meeting again for Monday April 1st 6 o'clock we are in the auditorium at Town Hall tonight this meeting is being recorded if anyone else is recording the meeting they are to let the vice chairman know please um this meeting is being conducted in a hybrid fashion both in person and on zoom in attendance tonight myself what's that I just in attendance tonight myself chairman Doug moglin Vice chairman Jason Peron Diane gaale Clerk and may I introduce acting chief administrative officer Robert a Landis also in person assistant chief administrative officer naen signon and our secretary Lisa Anderson is in the other room at this time I'd like to take public comments if you would please do us a favor because like I said the Acoustics in this room are bad if you could come up to the front of the room and and grab the microphone and state your name and address for the record and then we'll take any public comments we'll start in the room tonight is there anyone in the room that would like to speak under public comments sir please please we have a microphone right there for you sir I think you just pushed the button till the light turns green good evening this little show my sign I put it there my name is r and four Field Street I worked on the police department for 36 years I retired 30 years I came back the town allowed me to come back for five more years to a state legislation just about a year ago I came back and I was hired by the select board for the traffic control with I was on for about a year one day I'm working traffic detail and I get a call from the police chief saying are you're fir never gave me any information I asked him why H up on don't even tell me why I was fir I went Chief's office the next day ask him why I was fired and he says I'm not I asked for who and why he says I'm not telling but there was a complaint by somebody that I wasn't doing my job properly the next week or so I asked the select board to give me a he the ones to hire mman sends me a letter saying we're not on my complaint that's what they do the town employees and the citizens of this F thank you thank you sir is there anyone else in the room that would like to speak under public comments okay we'll go to zoom there's a lot of folks on Zoom tonight so if you could use the hand raise function please I see none so then if if you do have a public comment you're on Zoom start talking okay first order of business for 6:05 PM is a liquor license hearing a transfer from Prime Steakhouse to 5bs LLC doing business as the Blackboard congan located at 101 Point grow gr Road Southwick Mass Greg and Kristen thank you could you say that louder the Savages okay I'll go with Greg and Kristen if that's okay with you please um we can get you one more chair or you could just grab a chair from the front row there thank you appreciate it good evening Bo I'm Alexander representing 5 BS LLC for the liquor license transfer at 101 white Grove Road in sth Lake um this is an all on premise all alcohol liquor license being transferred from Prime Steakhouse LLC to 5bs Mr Gregory I'm going to say it a little different the Savages will'll be the acting manager for the liquor license um he intends to be on premises 50 hours plus a week um they T already run a restaurant in South Windsor Locks um sorry Windor locks called um the Blackboard this will also be DVA black board in Southwick um the food is intended to be somewhat like Tavern food but goes as high into steak and and some Lobster type ditches is um the service hours are intended to be 7 days a week from Sunday to Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 2 a.m. uh as well as the um indoor entertainment outdoor entertainment will be 11:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. thank you is there anything else you wish to add time you have any questions well where the black wood right now wi lock is more of a bar that and we B basically outgrew our kitchen because we do a lot of food out of there um and their food's excellent so this is an opportunity to go more into restaurant mode you know kind of not that we're not going to serve alcohol the bar but the black L is a bar you know this is going to be more restaurant family children so so forth um that's basically what we're looking to do I'm getting too old s doing till 2: a.m. in the morning we put 2 a.m. the chances of us being open that lat are very slim we're going to stay open as late as any other liquor license in our vicinity you know we not looking to have people travel from one liquor license permitted to another you know because closes earlier so we're trying to say stay consistent with the people all the business around town not to buiness they doing to coexist typically you know they're doing a special on one night we'll make sure you don't compete with that we do something on different night just to make sure everybody's happy and excellent thank you questions from the board I have none I'm just glad to see that there's activity going on if iess Miss Gale I hear you on 50 hours that would be a blessing um I assum you'll be serving that serers you will be open all year yes plan to be okay guess there might been some complaints earlier other previous places about noise and all that make sure that we're very conscious of that you make sure that whatever the town has on sure we F that as well very well and you already have your tip certification and all of that stuff yeah we're working on getting through Massachusetts just make sure that it's on the same can get on Ser safe everybody in the building as well always be a qfo buing I'm sorry there always be a qf service person in the building all times myself my managers excellent anything else I just want you anticipate opening uh hopefully by may this is the plan you know I think it really depends a lot on irland that's going to really be the over that's be the another question it's a long distance call from there here good question okay thank you all right so I think then we would entertain a motion right to transfer the license from Prime Stakehouse um to 5bs LLC for the address at 101 Point Grove Road we do have a a letter here from um there is a a let me just make sure let me get the hearing read in just so for so we're all official notice is hereby given under chapter 138 of the Massachusetts general laws that 5bs LLC D DBA the Blackboard congan has applied for a transfer of the on premises all alcohol liquor license at 101 Point Grove Road previously owned by Prime Steakhouse LLC located on Westerly side of Point Grove Road in a two-story frame building four rooms on the first floor three rooms on the second floor storage room four entrances and exits in the kitchen and a deck in the Back 7,816 Square ft the pro proposed hearing will accomplish a transfer of said license from Prime Steakhouse LLC to 5bs LLC DBA the Blackboard Kuman establish entertainment licenses and establish serving hours from 11:00 am to 2: am Saturday through Sunday the proposed hearing will also accomplish establishing indoor entertainment Saturday through Sunday between the hours of 11 11 a.m. to 2: a.m. and outdoor entertainment Saturday through Sunday between the hours of 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. date of the hearing is April 1st at 6:05 in the selectboard conference room um which was moved to the auditorium 454 College Highway and that's signed by myself Jason perone and Diane scale okay so I'd entertain a motion at this point to close the hearing or unless uh I think we actually go through this is anyone else like to speak in favor of this application andas Road I definitely speak in favor of Kristen and Greg we had a lot of people address in the property and they were definitely the um best Mr Allen Chris Allen I own Allen's pable Auto at 96 bike road across the street and uh i' just like to say I'm in favor of getting the business back in there also I think you guys are seeing it backward see Saturday through Sunday isn't it Sunday through Saturday sounds you open two days Saturday or Sunday it is how it reads but I do believe you're correct I think that's a typo it wasn't it was intended to be seven days a week Sunday through Saturday we'll go with that I noted seven days I'm y the only thing we not we need to check uh well let me let me keep going in the room is there anyone else in the room that wants to speak in favor of this license is there anyone on Zoom that would like to speak in favor of this license is there anyone in the room or on Zoom that would like to speak in opposition to this license okay the only thing I note and just by past practice we usually don't have what is a serving hours on Sunday usually do we usually start at noon or is it 11 done as early as 11 on sometimes for for a temporary right any large objection to a noon on Sunday start okay now I'd entertain a motion to close the hearing I will'll make that motion second let's take a roll call vote to close the hearing Doug moglin I Jason Peron I okay I'd entertain a motion to Grant a license transfer uh with the hours of Sunday through Saturday of uh 11a to 2A except for Sunday which will be 12: p.m. to 2A I I'll make them motion motion made and seconded uh let's do a roll call vote for that as well Doug moglin I Jason per I thank Al congratulations welcome to the town of Southwick best wishes and good luck good luck thank you J all right let's just knock out a couple things real quick and then we'll move on to our interviews we'll acknowledge payables warrant number 2420 dated 326 in the amount of $245,713 190 we're going to table the Open Session minutes from 325 are there executive session minutes from 325 I'm good is there a motion to approve the executive session minutes from March 25th I'll make that motion Doug Mogan I Jason Peron I all right and we'll come back for the Open Session minutes at a uh future meeting and do we have the finance joint finance committee meeting budget hearing minutes for 39 and 323 I see the ones for 39 they together they're stapled together I wasn't there oh that's right I don't make a motion to accept those minutes 439 and 323 yeah uh I'll second it with one change uh minor I was remote for the 23rd minutes 23rd meeting so motion made in second are you okay with that yes Doug Mogan i d Jason brone of stain okay okay at this time we're going to start the process for interviews for police chief um we have two candidates tonight uh Lieutenant Rhett banish and Sergeant Thomas krooka um we're going to do them in alphabetical order and by first name and last name the order is the same so uh Lieutenant banish will be our first candidate to interview tonight I know EX you sir small ask for me yes sir all right so here's the the general process we've got a bunch of questions for you should take no more than three or four hours to get through getting and at that when we're done with our questions there may be some follow-ups to those questions um and then at the conclusion of the Q&A session there'll be an opportunity for you to make any statements or add any additional information that you may desire to do so everybody all set sure okay so we'll just go serially all right why don't we start with Diane first okay thank you for coming thank you for apply for such an esteemed Ro we just um solv these questions for the first time so forgive us if we stumble I'll bear with you we couldn't prepare anything please describe what immediate steps you would take to prepare and coordinate efforts in the event of a major disaster such as a tornado requiring all Manpower on Deb so for any major event you're going to have to get all your personnel in um we would be using our code red system probably want to use the microphone yes there's a button button it'll turn green T this sorry all right so anytime you have a major emergency you're going to have to get all your personnel so generally what we use is we use our Cod system and that's the reverse Fone call in a situation you can describe there's a good possibility that that Cod R system may be down it's a good chance of the telephones and cell phones may also be down too so we would have to go to other meem to get the officers in and at this point in time the majority of our department actually lives out of town so being able to do that would be somewhat of a problem we would have to potentially reach out to other departments in the area to go and get a hold of our officers uh once we do get the officers in you know we're going to have to to come up with a game plan as far as what the uh hardest hit areas are what's needed uh you know what other assets do we need to get in we're going to have to get in DPW probably Red Cross Medical um other police departments depending how localized this is and this is just soulier this is south of Westfield agam type event you know tornado usually doesn't track that far it's usually fairly localized so we should be able to get some mutual Aid Assets in from the other departments uh you know once we get to that point we also got to involve our town government our CAO there's going to be a lot of reimbursements and such that we're going to have to be able to cover in a situation like that um hopefully I covered that pretty good to liting in this point you want me to do the followup sure all right followup to that suppose another agency or subordinate fails to follow your command what do you do immediately and then what do you do in the afterm are we talking in this particular event or is this separate in this event so basically you're saying if I or one of the supervisors asks or tells us person to go somewhere and do something they don't do it is I understand it's correct they don't follow the commands yeah okay so in the event where they don't follow the commands you're going to look at you know immediate action so the person unfortunately if they continue to not do what they're being told they're going to be sent home immediately in the aftermath that we're going to be opening an internal investigation to see where the failure was once you do that you've got to go through the internal investigation process step by step the person has their rights so you're going to have to you know be notified of everything they'll have Union representation so on and so forth and once once it's done then it's up to the chief uh at the recommendation of the internal investigator punishment there may be it's up to the chat to make that determination on discipline thank you I got an easy one what makes you the most qualified applicant for this position so naturally your decision whether I'm not the most qualified or not um at this point I've been with the Department 28 years um in that time I've been a Reserve officer I've been a full-time officer I've been a sergeant I've been a lieutenant now I also uh did some work outside here I worked at molio for a year something like that part time um in that time like I said I have three years of administrative time and in that administrative time in the absence of the chief I do his duties and responsibilities so I've gotten um the opportunity to make decisions in the absence of the chief the department absence of the chief furthermore I I have I should say attained two degrees I have a bachelor's degree in criminal justice I also have a master's degree in criminal justice I've attended multiple mptc classes for management U you know in this time I've also attended your monthly I should say your weekly meetings on a regular basis for probably the last three years uh in the last three years as well I've attended multiple Community functions senior events School events Civic fun events rotary and Legion Events I taken leadership roles at the PD every chance I've gotten um some of those roles are fto it's field training officer also field training coordinator Reserve program coordinator and the reserve program supervisor those were when I was the uh Sergeant uh I've also set up interviews for for the new people coming on board whether it be reserves or full-time officers I contacted them sent them all correspondents came up with the questions and interviewed them as part of a board prior to them getting to the the select board for approval uh additionally I have experience uh on the T committees I'm on the ldpc right now was the police department representative I was the chairman of that board actually for two or three years I if I remember correctly I was also on the short-term rental subcommittee so I do some experience with uh the town committees and Boards as I was saying additionally I was the union president for a period of time and also the vice president so I have some uh experience with labor negotiations and contracts I'll be it from the other side that it was a good [Music] experience I also have experienced coordinating large events such as the Motocross the rean B which unfortunately long business and the Iron Man which I actually be coming through here in a couple of months um additionally I am a town resident here uh I grew up here schooled here my wife's sh here my kids go to school here so you do have a different perspective as far as how things go when you do live here and you're seeing everything on a day-to-day basis you just all go home at the end of your day then that's the end of it additionally and I cringe to bring this up usually uh when I was 15 years old my father did die in a work accident um so that was quite a shock to the as you can probably imagine uh few years later my mother passed away from cancer when I was 21 so as you can imagine that will leave quite a mark on you so um I think I will the question there thank you lieutenant banish What would is your worst day in a supervisory position worst day you know worst day really doesn't come to mind I tend not to dwell on things um when brought into perspective of what I just spoke of last I mean I can't think very many worse days than those um as far as bad days I would say any of the any of the fatals that we've had over the years they are to put it in perspective they're they're a mess unfortunately they're hectic it's it's quite trying as far as trying to deal with a situation like that when you got you know people coming at from every which direction wanting to do something in some cases you can in some cases you can't so specifically I have nothing specific un fortunately however that would be my my general worst type of day thank you are you calming down a little bit I'm just just to hear myself talk what have you done over the course of your career to prepare yourself for the chief so over the course of my career I guess we'll go all the way back to you know when I was in high school Miss that's not really part of my career will start there um I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do at that point in time I you know looked at different things this was appealing for a couple of different reasons um so I figured to get into this I would talk to some you know some of the officers here in town which I did at the time and the suggestion at that point in time would obviously go to school get your education and once you get to the around the age of 21 we'll you know visit you maybe coming on here as a as a part-time officer so that's what I did I went to westfi State I graduated here you know 1997 with believe like a 347 or something of that nature um at that point I still wasn't hired full-time I was hired in 1896 as a reserve and in the time between then and 2000 I was hired fulltime I still had some time on my hand so I figured I would get the master's degree at that point in time because quite honestly I figured as the longer it went the less I'd likely I'd be able to go back or be able to go back just because of family commitments and work and everything else so I pretty much front loaded everything with the idea that you know the Master's Degree will give me a foot up I guess we'll say in the process whether it be being hired full-time whether it be promoted whether it be becoming a chief generally speaking uh the commercial process does favor those who have the degrees so that was sort of my longterm plan on the shorter side um after I got hired I did classes mbtc classes and such um I just you know refer to my notes here real quick as far as some some of what these classes actually were I did spend some time with the specialized training with the administrative classes in the last 3 to four years some of the classes I did to are the uh cadis Readiness Suite what that is cadus is the tracking excuse me the tracking system for the mbtc as far as all the classes that we do this is how we go in and retract the officers how to enter them into the system for training purposes I've also attended class building wining culture law enforcement a community engagement Class A deescalation use of force developments class first amendment audit class a special note I did attend the FBI media classes there's three of them the command Leadership Institute that's a oneway class the executive Leadership Institute class which is a wig and the FBI lat supervisor new sh class which is also a wig uh that is what they call their Tri fact it's their it's their three classes that they do and what leita stands for is the law enforcement uh executive Development Association uh in addition I also went to a number of IC classes injured on duty Workshop intentional leadership was a three-day class law enforcement Command Staff understand the aspects of a smaller Police Department was a one de uh bunch of liability classes legal liability reform class for the [Music] Post also went to managing the fto program mental health th day ners reporting and what ners is that was a three-day ners is all the crime data that we submit to the is that it more so LT what is your management philosophy philosophy style and how do you resolve conflict so my my management philosophy I guess is is really teamwork uh in order for us to you know get where we need to be we got to have everybody acting as one so as SW as my train of thoughts sry did you read that me one more time what is your management philosophy SL style and how would you resolve conflict so like I said it's it's teamwork I want to be able to give the officers the opportunity to make as many decisions as they can at the lower levels because when you do that you do create something where the officers have a vested interest in it and when they got a vested interest in something they're more likely to perform at a higher level because they've got as I said an interest in the final out as far as conflict resolution goes um the easiest way to do that is to talk directly with the [Music] person and find out why whatever happened happened or is happening you know a lot of conflicts are basically the result of misinformation uh misunderstanding not having the full story so if you can come and find that Common Ground a lot of times you can uh take care of a conflict that's in front of you not always but aot a lot of times there's a caveat to this question so I'll give that to you ahead of time please note before answering the following question the candidate should make sure no specific examples or names are referenced in answering this question do you feel that necessary and warranted discipline is consistently applied in the department and do you feel positive recognition is rightly and consistently applied how will you ensure that both discipline and recognition are always consistently and equitably applied without inherent or intentional biases write that down can I have that you can take notes so I would say as far as that goes again I've been here for 28 years I've seen a lot of problems over the years have been handled different ways we've had different supervisors who've handled things different ways we had different Chiefs lieutenants who've done things in different ways some were more app to give someone paper some are more apt to give someone a warning don't do that again knock it off um it depended on the individuals involved so as far as that question goes I would say no it has not been uh done fairly across the board the entire time um you know since I've been in my position I am the internal affairs investigator at this point in time I try to do everything according to the policy the procedure the rules the regulations I think fairness is very very important when you do these similar types of events should end in similar types of punishments or reprimands or education [Music] um the thing you also have to take into account is we do follow the rules of progressive discipline here so a first time event depending what it is is generally going to end up in a verbal warning a educational uh change change possibly a written warning it depends on you know what level we're actually at at that point time once you start moving more into situations where you've got a repeat aend you established a pattern of conduct this is where things start to escalate up this is where you start talking into your uh situations where you may have a suspension or termination or something of that nature and again as the internal investigator now my job is to go in and you know fairly go through all the information come to some form of conclusion and give those conclusions to the chief of police chief of police in turn will look at the files the chief of police will determine whether you know my suggestion are accurate or if he wants to possibly go different direction based on what he sees in their files I don't have access to the Ia files themselves I turn them over to him and once they're turned over to him it's up to him to make those decisions I follow up if you let's turn that on its head for one second because there's the other half to the of the question and do you feel that positive recognition is rightly inconsistent consistently applied and how will you ensure that both discipline and recognition are consistently and equitably applied without inherent or intentional bias so I we saw it strange but they actually say that positive discipline actually it is something I mean you always think of discipline is something negative but discipline does include the positive such as you know reward and commodation so we do have an employee um remember what it's actually called and employee recognition policy and it's pretty well spelled out in there how everything takes place if you know a supervisor sees one of his or her officers has done something Exemplar then there is a process to submit that on the chain to myself to the chief to to have that person formally recognized um as far as other forms of recognition you know it's always a good thing even you know it's nothing you know out of the ordinary that someone's not a job well done is a job well done so you do want to take and tell the people when they when they've done something good you know rising up to that level for something formal is is something else but it is good for everyone to know that they are doing a good job they do matter and they are appreciated and one more followup please is there a gray area into which either could be withheld not sure I'm understanding the question there me either because I didn't write it but um so if there's times when you're going to have discipline Andor recognition but is there a gray area in which either of those would be withheld there shouldn't be I guess that's PL answer that there shouldn't be if someone's earned something then they should get it thank you how will you prepare the bench of future officers and leaders in the southwest police department so preparing the bench as we've heard probably in a couple interviews before this is you know it's very important the current officers now need to be trained and unfortunately as police we sort of do things backwards we don't train you before you go into some of these positions we train you after so if you do a good job as a patrolman you may the sergeant you get the sergeant and you unfortunately have no real idea what you're doing once you get there you may have some idea because you've been a shift commander in the past but you don't get the actual formalized training until which point in time you've been promoted the same goes for lieutenant the same goes for chief um one of the biggest things we have to do is keep on top of the train I have training under my weighing that's one of my duties that I do here um so I regularly check the cus which is again the training uh portal for the mptc and I check for different classes that are in there as far as you know who needs what uh most of the class that I told you about earlier are C Class that came through Aus management case classes the leadership classes if we can identify people ahead of time that would like to track for supervisor positions we can begin to send people to these classes to get them ready to see if that's a fit for them and a fit for the Department is that something that you would do in your something that yes yes I would do that's in my planner doing it now um the unfortunate part is over the last year you know we've been down with Staffing so you know being down with Staffing unfortunately limit some of the other things you can do except the people with glasses you know the biggest responsibility we have is to Know cover the road and then we can you know sort of Branch out from there all right multiple multiple parts to this one not multiple choice not multiple choice multiple Parts given your experience within the South PD what do you think the greatest strengths of the department are what areas weaknesses or skill sets of the CTIC Police Department could use Improvement so I pretty much figured that question was going to come up um I did talk to a large amount of the officers on the Department about what they saw as the strengths and weaknesses of the department so it varied um you know because what we see up in the administrative might be different from what they're seeing down on the Patrol Division our you know views are again they're just they're different so let me just go in here because I don't want to mess up anything anyone told me but the strengths of the department are the overall Freedom uh the offics do not feel to be micromanaged with the current Administration they feel that being able to take time off the way we take time off is great benefit they also feel that the current Command Staff works very well together that's myself that's the chief that's the sergeants they feel we're all approachable everyone gets along line mostly and I say mostly because just like any family you're going to have disagreements uh you're going to have problems but there's nothing in there that's going to you know stop everyone from doing the the job we need to do um the curent morale is good it is a family type environment people do look forward to coming to work as far as improvements we could potentially make to the Department uh communication always comes up unfortunately and communication is something that you know in all aspects of Life communication is is very important if someone doesn't have the answer to something they're going to come up with an answer whether that information is correct or not usually leaves a lot to be desired um again a lot of this boils down to the officers will hear things in the back they will not understand why something's being done and sometimes it's you know an issue where it's personal for someone it's an injury for someone it's mental health issue for someone it's not information that we're going to take and just distribute around the police department and unfortunately sometimes when people don't get answers again they're going to come up with their own if they're just told that you know the person is out on a leave that's the aliens um another Improvement um that was brought up was the lack of continuity with the what we'll call short-term Chiefs I guess we've had a couple now that have gone three years and out the last two I think the one PR think was seven so it just seems like every time you get going now you're starting over again technological improvements is on the list of improvements uh possibly a shared computer person maybe with Westfield to do some of our it it work uh ongoing dispatch issues which that's that's a fine to issue I've been overall very satisfied what they've provided with us you know a lot of the older officers were used to the way we had it this is just a little bit different um technology upgrades will be on my list body camera is probably number one I know a lot of the officers still don't want to hear those but as an internal investigator I can tell you they're phenomenal it give you that other part of the story that is lost a lot of times uh recordkeeping uh payables would be other technological improvements we'd be looking at you our [Music] payroll is Arc at this point to put it honestly uh availability of Officer mental health counseling was another thing that the officers have brought up the AV availability for employee assistance programs and having someone possibly on staff who can talk to them when they're in need cross training of officers will be on the list we have some officers have very specific things they deal with whether it be records or submissions of important data that is time sensitive when they're out they just feel like they can't really take time off if no one else is there and trained to do their job uh The Reserve officer program it's something we've got to evaluate based on where we are what it was is no longer what it is at this point in time because of the post and the elimination of the uh Reserve Academy a couple of years ago now uh we also talked about um new community programs possibly and know we've tried to run some classes such as the citizens police academy and we had unfortunately I two people sign up so we might want to look at how we recruit and how we look at you know the different types of programs we want to run uh this was one of my uh things that I actually brought up would be monthly nighttime hours for the chief a lot of people do still work daytime they don't have the ability to come in during the day so night time hours you know once a month I think would be a good thing to try and take care of that uh regular scheduled staff meetings which would take care of some of the communication issues we had talked about uh family leave had actually come up through a couple of people although I know that's obviously something that's contractual and have to be bargained uh our policies are in serious need of a update and revision at this point act touched in a couple of years um the ordering list which you know was a problem for the bot five of officers depending on where we are with our staffing right now we're in a good spot but we're going to be losing some more people here shortly so every time you order the ordering sort of ramp up you know the the younger guys start getting a little bit of edgy that they're going to be ordering in on a on a regular basis very good thank you so what is the single largest biggest challenge facing the department and what would you do to face this challenge largest problem facing the department I don't think there's really a huge problem right now that needs to be addressed tomorrow this would be something again that I would sit down with everyone if I was appointed and we you know we go through it and basically rank things that they see as problems this list of things here then I just went over you know probably the communication would be on the top of that list that's the one that would potentially cause problem it's probably the easiest one to fix quite honestly thank you with the full implementation of post what problems have you seen in regards to how it affects the day-to-day workings of the department and the men and women of it so with post I don't think a lot of the officers are affected very much in the least it's really the upper management that affected by it uh the chief the lieutenant uh the administrative Sergeant we're the ones who basically have to go in we've got to do the information reporting we've got to do the entries um you know the chief's got to do attestations um I've got in there I've got to enter the IAS you know do that in a timely timely manner they've got to be in within two days of submission then we've got you know 90 days to come to a conclusion if the conclusion isn't reach and we've got an answer of extension you get up to a year you've got to basically send all that information back they've got to stamp it certify it go through everything they do but for the general officer there's there's really not a lot in there um the new officers like we just hired one there's a whole new way you've got to go in in there and you've actually got to do a whole questionnaire on them an interview with them a background check on that's that's all new that wasn't something that have been done in the past but again dayto day all the training and everything that the officers do that's the same training they've been doing in the past it's just entered in there and signed off on they're really not doing anything now Recruitment and Retention have become a huge issue within the law enforcement world what do you think can be done at a department and town level to encourage people to pursue a career in law enforcement so retention yeah it's an issue this is one of the things I was thinking about of my way over here um I know like I said a lot of departments the West Springfields the spr spr Fields chickies they're losing officers quite a bit and being able to fill those positions has been tough for them you know they've got we'll say 10 spots open and they're lucky if they get three applicants for those jobs we've been very lucky here um we filled four in the last year and I think we got you know an outstanding group of four officers they wanted to come here we didn't have to really recruit them the department you know name itself was what brought them in here you know it has a lot to do with the reputation of the department it has a lot to do with the community how the community supports the officers and you know to some degree it's money too but you know if you meet those other two goals if you take a little bit less money work in a good Community probably going to do it um as far as getting additional people to come here I know the patrolman just signed a pretty good contract you know that's got to be a positive for anyone looking at this department we do have probably one if not two people we're going to be hiring here one for sergeant miles and possibly uh someone the Phil our position so like I've said up to this point in time we've really had no issue attracting people people still want to come here it is attractive to them um might we look at you know advertising or something like that it's not a bad idea it may be something we have to do in the future depending on how many offers we have but to fill one here and one there I think we're we're in really good shape just based on you know the department and then the community's reputation as a whole all right thank you lieutenant you touched on this but this will give you an opportunity to flush this out officer mental health and wellness has become a topic of great interest and importance as witnessed by the focus mptc put on this topic in the past several years of training how do you think you can promote officer health and safety and how do how would you handle a situation where Poss intervention is needed with an officer who is showing signs of a possible breakdown so you are correct the mptc has made that a topic the last couple of years I would say so they've offered different different classes mental uh Health they've had I'm trying what some of the old ones were I think I've been to three different classes with some of the officers for some of these mental health aspects um I did touch on them earlier you know some of the officers had said they would like to have someone on staff to you know deal with mental health issues um I don't know if that's you know something that's feasible at this point in time we really haven't look that far into it right now we're actually trying to sign with BN something some similar to what Westfield has for the general population um I know one of their counselors actually does have a side business that deals with law enforcement firefighters military other First Responders um again I am in favor of sending as many people as I can to some of these classes but we've got to have the you know the personel to cover the ships at the same time they they only offer them so often it's not like there's 10 of these available they come locally you know once or twice a training year which is the same thing as the fiscal year as far as someone coming to me I've been in that situation we've had some people who you know CED some some issues because of the work that we do and we've been able to you know bring them to the employee assistance program get them the help that they need and get them on the right track to coming back to work you know with this with this little issue as possible thank you please describe your views on community policing as well as your history of participation with Community engagement how will you put forth and maintain a positive policing presence in the community so community policing is something hate to say it was a bad but it was something that the government put a lot of money into back in the time period when I started here they used to have community policing symposiums where it was 3 days up in New Hampshire that everyone would get together uh those days and those monies have since dried up you know they say that community policing is more than programs it has to be a philosophy for your department it's something that has to be you know right right at the core of what you do in the time that I've been here I've you know I've participated in the particular programs that we've had whether it's been an instructor in the citizens Police Academy over the years uh I've gone to different Community type events as I mentioned earlier I've done the you know the the Christmas parades the you know the school events I've done the rotary events I've done the senior citizen events pretty much anything where we've had a representative go in the last three or four years it's usually been me I've been one of the one of the people to go you know I think it's it's very important to get out there and be seen in the community they shouldn't know who their officers are they should have a good idea that you know they care about what's going on in town and you know in my case I I do live here so I think it's it's very important to give back to the community that should do live police departments need to have strong ties to their communities the citizens of Southwick have a great relationship with the police department how could you cultivate that relationship with the citizens of Southwick to benefit the department and town I would agree we we have a lot of support from the town I mean you could see that a couple of years ago we had the ice for the sou Police Department signs that were all over town that I believe it was the Rotary Club was uh behind those signs um you know usually a week doesn't go by that we get some form of letter from someone who was happy with the services they received however small those Services may have been uh you know just thanking us for you know coming to help their loved one up off the floor or stop by for the lemonade stand or you know stop at one of these senior events you know the public is very appreciative of what we do so you know I say that we continue to do these things and you know we look at possibly expanding that to more you know more programs more stops at you know local possibly the church or you know some of the nonprofits in town I have a followup question sure um how take a turn go ahead try um how would you engage with the youth more do you have any thoughts on that so right now we've got an intern program um we've had that for a number of years now I think actually Souther Westcott was the first intern we had so I'll probably date him a little bit in the world but you know it's good to get the kids to come in and see what we actually do see what everything's all about especially if they have some form of interest in what we do because it is a different world what you see on TV is not you know not real I guess is the easiest way to put it you know I'd also like to run some you know Cadet type program or Academy specifically for the Youth in town you know hopefully we get a better turnout for that than we got for the other don't one to we try running but you know to be able to go in and cultivate potentially new officers coming in I mean that's a couple of things that would be very beneficial and get a couple of those kids possibly to you know entertain a career in law enforcement thank you good day yep thank you lieutenant how do you expect to enhance the role of Chief internally and externally with the public and other agencies and do you have any specific new goals or objectives in mind for leading and managing the department so again I I think I want to continue with what the previous Chiefs have done here now we've got an outstand standing excellent reputation in in the area here you know each Chief has added a little bit more and a little bit more as we've gone along uh you know the current chief has has done quite a few things with the building we've got a new drone program now um you know for me the things that I'd like to do again I'd like to update our policies and procedures I'd like to you know look at some new technology you know modernize our uh our payroll modernize some of our recordkeeping I'd like to [Music] basically get the things that the other Chiefs didn't get to so as a followup so how will the Southwick Police Department be better in the future if you are selected as the new chief just trying to think out my response here I think I think it will be better in terms of again moving forward being able able to modernize a lot of the things that we do is we be able to you know speed up some of our record keeping it'll be able to be easily easily searched um again I just I want to be able to continue on with a place where people want to work people are happy to work people want to come here thank you you're almost there I don't think I asked so many questions in the role of Chief it will be necessary for you to have a unique role in matters such as Staffing labor negotiations and enforcement of town policies please explain how you will Divorce Yourself from your formal role and personal opinions to facilitate the best and fairest outcomes for the Department the individual staff and the town's taxpayers I hate to ask you to read that again I I knew you were going to in the role of Chief it will be necessary for you to have a unique role in matters such as Staffing labor negotiations and enforcement of town policy how will you separate yourself from your former role and personal opinion to facilitate the best and fairest outcomes for the Department the staff and the tax Affairs okay so I mentioned earlier I was the UN president and vice president for or and was the vice president for a number of years so everything I did back then was to benefit the members of the police Union since I moved from Sergeant I was a sergeant since I moved from Sergeant to Lieutenant my uh job and Outlook is different I am an administrator at this point in time I work in concert with the chief so the things that I mentioned everything for you know the patrol body hasn't been you know the issue in 3 years now I've got to think more about the management thing management side of things you know how does What's Done affect the long term how does it affect what happens down the road how does it effect each and every little thing within the department if there's you know negotiations and something is giv to the union how does that affect something down the end of the line whether it's you know more money whether it's a specific benefit there are repercussions somewhere else what do those look like and how do they affect you know the town the department the cash flow I guess we'll say of the department but from my point of view at this point in time most of what I do has already been divorced from what I was doing as one of the patrol union members I'm the longer in the union I am outside the union this upon all my contract is based on theirs thank you we only have two more pages of questions that concludes the question and answer portion of this this interview Lieutenant do you have any any commentary or statements you wish to make at this time think we covered M but let me just take a quick look I think the only thing I would I would add to this are just some of my duties presently as Lieutenant um obvious the immediate supervisor for the Department sergeants I tasked with their efficiency and their effectiveness some of the duties that I do are the department tradeing coordinator the internal affairs investigator I'm the ners reporting officer the post Lea is on the acus fbtc Lea is on the National new of force reporting officer police ID program administrator C red administrator officer in charge of breath to maintenance uh again I've been involved with the safety planning and supervision of a number of local and National events that have come through town I also do townwide messaging with code red and I'm in charge of Department staff and approval of all Department reports I think that's really all I wanted to add any other questions for followup we're all done I think I'm all set almost up thank you very much you we do have this covered uh this topic coming up under our agenda tonight we may or depending on the hour may or may not discuss this topic again tonight thank you very much thank you I'm was thinking exact same thing folks we're gonna take a five minute break and we'll kind of come back at uh 7:25 M but not e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for it's good that we don't ask you know your you know your own you know a lot of people don't realize that these have to follow a certain script sure and you can't go into you can't dive into areas that are not sure that are touching all right we're going to resume and we'll bring in our next candidate we have another set of papers or use the same same ones for the second candidate yes no I don't have no we're good are you okay with using your yeah I have my little notepad so I wrote all over mine but I'll write in a different color or something you want some blank paper no I'm good I have thank you good evening how are you how are you Sergeant I'm good I'm good thank you okay apparently we have about 300 questions for you okay we'll and then um we're going to ask them serly we're going to go one at a time ask you a question uh don't be afraid to ask us to repeat the question or if you need any other details and at the end of the question period uh there'll be an opportunity for you to make any statements or add any information that you feel would be beneficial sound reable understood yes you ready to go ready to go you got a full water there you're all set you got some water there okay and we had an odd number of questions so we're GNA start off with with me Jason all right Sergeant question all right please describe what immediate steps you would take that prepare and coordinate efforts in the event of a major disaster such as a tornado requiring all Manpower on Deck it's actually kind of a two to determine who would you call in what order SEMA oh is that supposed to be there that's not not oh has it there repeat the question thank you repeat it for me please and of course we don't have anybody else please describe what immediate steps you would take to prepare and coordinate efforts in the event of a major disaster such as a tornado requiring all Manpower on Deck okay uh first we're going to alert our Command Staff um put everybody get everybody inside um we're going to continuously watch um any and all weather forecast that we can find um we will bring in as many personnel available uh we will coordinate our efforts with the fire department U make sure their their Staffing is is fully staffed um in the event of a tornado or something that that's we're going we're going to lose power we're going to lose all our Communications um so we're going to coordinate um all our efforts into the the initial blast um whatever whatever is coming first um then we're going to make sure we have uh a location uh where we can all meet uh incident command uh type of location um and then we're just going to set it out we're going to wait see what happens um as it goes through we are going to coordinate our efforts into check for injuries uh we are going to uh try to keep open lines and communication with eversource uh find out what kind of damage is done uh when it can be surveyed um first and foremost obviously you know we're going to try to have a rescue mission uh um kind of damage Our Town sustain um and yeah from there it's just going to go into a recovery mode we'll work with uh whatever agencies available uh able to provide any kind of assistance and we'll just go from there I'm going to interrupt just for one second with a bit of procedural housekeeping Sergeant there's a microphone in front of you if you could push the button once so that it's turns green and use that so the folks in the room uh can hear what you're saying I saw the red light so I assumed it was on it was the red no the green light is working way better thank you sorry for the interruption please that's at the end of the question VI all set Sergeant yeah okay then you have the follow oh that's actually part of this question so all right suppose another agency or a subordinate fails to follow your command what do you do immediately and what would you do in the aftermath in the event of a storm like this or an incident like this well we're going to deal we're going to continue on we're going to deal with what uh with with what we have on our hands um as far as any kind of orders that are disobeyed or procedures that aren't followed um we will bring that up at another time um when it's safe to do so and when everything is back to to running quietly and running smooth thank you sir Sergeant what makes you the most qualified applicant for this position well I strongly believe in the past 23 years um in the day I walked in in the door of this Police Department um I've been afforded many other work opportunities that most police officers in the town sth aren't afforded um I started as a patrol officer um I was assigned as a canine Officer I worked with u my Kine partner for 10 years um which brought me all over Western Massachusetts um I've worked with Federal and both local narcotics units executing search warrants in um bigger cities and towns Springfield chabe hoo um places where a Small Town police officer never goes um after K9 after 10 years of K9 I was indeed PR Sergeant with back as U on patrol as a patrol Sergeant um leading me up to the detective Bureau the detective Bureau was a very eye openening experience um I quickly learned you could not work in the detective Bureau as an investigator uh with the same mindset as a patrol officer it was a completely different job um it was quite rejuvenating actually um your halfway through your career Things become a little bit sale um this was like a fresh start uh fortunately for me I had one of the best teachers um then Sergeant Landis now Chief Landis worked in that office for quite some time um he's well known throughout Western Massachusetts as being a very well organized very thorough professional uh investigator uh so I was very fortunate to uh to have him as a teacher well working as the investigator um it is my job to investigate any and all crimes incidents that occurred within the town of South um that are considered serious in nature um I also uh work with assist or guide um our Patrol officers with their investigations um also serving in this capacity I work as a sexual assault rape investigator narcotics investigator I investigate all our fatal motor vehicle accidents any debts that occur within the within the town of Southwick that are considered suspicious or or uh out of the norm such as uh an overdose suicide Etc things like that um while working in this capacity I've worked with numerous other law enforcement officials from uh both local and State uh police departments federal agencies including the FBI DEA the ATF uh and Homeland Security um I've learned so much from working with all these investigators um I've established contacts with all these investigators I'm able to contact them each and every day with whatever needs we need um I work very closely with the District Attorney office in both the district and Superior Court levels um it's just been uh you know since day one I feel that I I've actually been being groomed for this position um it's l us it's LED I believe it's led me up to this point in time where we are today so yeah thank you I think we need to hold the microphone up what was your worst day in a supervisory position worst day in a supervisory position any day that we have a tragic event in this town is a bad day um in the past few years we've had several uh when you work in a supervisory position it's um you know especially in the detective Bureau as the investigator investigating these crimes um it is my job to organize these crimes uh to gather the facts of these crimes to pull in the assets um that we that are needed to investigate these crimes such as uh other agencies uh and of course we have to notify and notify the family these are always the bad days um these are the days that I dread um you know as a control officer sometimes you you are forced to to Serge uh or have to do these notifications but anytime involving something like this um the heartache that is spread that people are forced to endure um it's it takes its whole on you um it's something you have to live with yourself for the rest of your life um but you have to gather put yourself together and move forward um I don't know if you're looking for any particular events um that's good that's good all right so what have you done over the course of your career to prepare yourself to be the chief of this department I've worked very hard um as I as I said working in so many different capacities working with so many different law enforcement officials so many different investigators detectives um you you learn to deal with each and every situation no matter what the seriousness is of of the situation is um I was able to like I said as uh I've been very fortunate here in the town of Southwick I've been able to uh have this real life experience um on so many different levels also there's other things um I've done within the police department um for for numerous years now I've taken on the role of creating maintaining our uh our our vehicles um it's my job to budget these vehicles to purchase these vehicles to outfit these vehicles and to maintain these vehicles um each and every year we we do our budgets for the maintenance um to outfit them um yeah with uh Chief Landis um he's included me numerous times each and every year um several different areas of our budgeting um so it's just it's just 23 years of experience um and taking in as much as you possibly can each and every officer in the course of their duties attend attend trainings it's it's what we do we do it on a Contin continuous basis um it never stops uh and it just builds it's they're building blocks and it just keeps going um all right thank you sergeon what is your management philosophy style and how do you resolve conflict well I think my management style is is team um I believe that it is is vital it's very important to build a culture within the police department where everybody matters everybody has an opinion everybody's an equal um one term that I I I do not like to hear and you'll never hear coming out of me is a subordinate um that is just one word it's it's uh it's it's demoralizing um I'm sorry could you repeat the thought what is your management philosophy style and how do you resolve conflict okay um by including everybody everyone has an opinion everybody matters um even as small as our Police Department is there's still are 23 24 different opinions nobody you can't make everybody happy all the time um I think by including um Everybody keeping the lines of communication open keeping everything transparent um there there has to be communication uh when there's conflict we have to talk about it you can't fix problems that you don't know about um a lot of times people will get in groups and they'll talk about it um and you hear it through the great B there's got to be an open line of communication um so yeah just just communicate communication being transparent thank you without um specific examples or names in answering this question do you feel that necessary and warranted discipline is consistently applied in the department do you feel positive recognition is rightly and consistently applied and how will you ensure that those are always consistently and equitably applied without inherent or intentional biases well again um goal would be to create and maintain um a culture within the police department where everybody has like I said where where you know everybody is included it's a team um you have to be a team player um this has to start at the top um it has to start with your command stop there has to be a sense there has to be accountability um um I'm sorry could you repeat that was a long question it was it was do you feel that necessary and warranted warranted discipline is consistently applied in the department and do you feel positive recognition is rightly and consistently applied and how will you ensure that that remains without inherent or intentional bies positive recognition is a must um people do a good job they need to be they need they need to be told um discipline you know we're we're all adults uh for the most part you know our police department has been very good um we have rules regulations policies and procedures that we follow um for the most part they're follow um do mistakes happen sure um I believe you know it it would depend on the event or the incident that we're talking about with something very carelessly or foolishly done where a disciplinary action has to be imposed if it does then it has to be um you know you would try to avoid that um keeping everybody accountable on the same level I think is vital um Everybody again pulling everybody together uh it goes back to communication being transparent so yeah I mean discipline has to you know if it has to be imposed it has to be imposed but I think positive reinforcement is is is a much more way to go um to keep people you know doing what they're supposed to do is there a gray area into which either could be withheld the discipline or the prid I think depending on the situation um depending on the security of what we're talking about um you know it may came it may come down to maybe some retraining uh instead of a disciplinary action um it may come to uh you know what was their intentions were there good intentions and a mistake was made U you know we we talk about it we correct it um we move forward thank you how will you prepare the bench of future officers and leaders in the South Police Department you know one of the decisions uh what it came to mind when I was making the decision to apply for this position um Jason I think you going attest to this each and every officer as as you as you start your career in law enforcement uh you either attend school or you attend a police academy um that that builds a foundation all that does is build a foundation you cannot learn this job from a book this is something you learn learn on the street and it takes years to learn um and as you come aboard you look towards your veteran officers for guidance um and their expertise and that that will go on for years um what I finally realized after you know Chief land is retiring that's it's the end of an era for us um it is now our job to train all our new staff our officers um it's more it's an obligation um that's what kind of pushed me into into making a move here um we train our officers as as we go obviously um each and every day is a new learning experience I can honestly say in 20 over 23 years of doing this job um I still things still see things every day I haven't seen before it's always a learning experience um so it's yeah I mean your veteran officers are always going to guide assist and and help your your your officers since you are in in new positions new responsibilities um and what keeps us moving forward all right thank you given your experience with the Southwick PD what do you think the greatest strengths of the department are what areas weaknesses or skill sets of the South bake Police Department could use Improvement and how would you address those areas and lastly are there any current strengths or opportunities that might be broaden okay it's an awfully long question um one thing with the South police department and we we've always had a very good uh relationship with our community um it's very important um back with uh when we went through the George Floyd uh time period back then uh many surrounding cities and towns uh police departments across the country um we all having very difficult times with Community they were being attacked um both physically um it it's just the town of Southwick we didn't have very many issues they stuck by us um that told me a lot that told me that we were doing things correctly um we try to keep a very open communication with our town try to be transparent with our town um that's why I think it's really vital to have these uh our community policing events um that was one that's one thing that I would like to continue I like like see these things grow um toing keep bringing our our community into our Police Department to be transparent to see to show them how we do things why we do things um it it just it's beneficial to all of us um second part of that question please what areas weaknesses or skill sets of the Southwick Police Department could use Improvement and how would you address those areas you know we're always we're always struggling um with staffing issues um and when this occurs all of our programs suffer um we've been trying to do a Cadet program uh which I think is it's an outstanding program the city of Westfield just graduated or appointed two full-time police officers that came through their Cadet program um these young men started as children they were well versed they were well groomed um and they slid right into these positions they turned out to be fine young men I know both of them um we just had our rad program uh for kids which I wasn't a big really supporter of rad um until I saw this it was actually outstanding I mean these kids had not only did it kids uh relate and communicate with the police officers well so are their parents um I'd love to see that continue I'd like to see it continue different age groups to keep these kids involved um it's things like that that suffer um when we don't have Staffing we're a small Police Department we lose two or three people now our ships are you know we're struggling to fill our ships um so that takes away from everything else if if the guys are being forced to to or ordered into work the ships they're not going to want to participate in anything uh any extra U activities outside of you know their shifts um they do want some time off and many of them have families and they're having babies um so it's very difficult to maintain these programs or to get them up and running um I would definitely like to see uh our staffing needs improve we're still running a 2-man minimum we've been running a 2-man minimum for years um know the it's the three man minimum has come up it's going to take a lot of work um to pull that off and I I don't see it happening anytime soon hopefully in the future um but yeah I mean it usually comes down to Manpower um um we'll just keep we'll keep trying we keep forward thank you yes than what is the biggest challenge this what is the big biggest challenge facing the department and what would you do to face that challenge uh again um staff um we're always we always seem to be struggling um we this this past year we were able to add to our sta um which was fantastic for a few months um but since then we've had a couple of of injuries we have some um two officers or one officer out she just had a bathing um she's expected to come back soon um but it's always seems to be it everything revolves around Staffing um it's always an issue and and it's not just us it's any small kind Police Department you know you don't have a staff of 80 officers to keep filling into into rotating these people into different world and and positions um so the department our size if you lose two or three people you know it causes a lot of trouble a lot of struggle um so definitely staffing issues for sure do you have any thoughts on how you can lessen those issues that um you know it's not a matter of bringing people in of course um you know it's it's it's the size town you know we have a small Police Department you know we're not budgeted um for all these extra officers um police reform um has really tightened the uh the ropes with us um with the police reform we've lost our Reserve staff which we depended on reserve officers um would work extra Patrol ships they would work our road jobs our parades our any kind of details like that so losing our Reserve staff was big um if we could somehow you know create uh part-time positions full-time officers um I think that would be good I don't know if that would be something uh you know Contra that would you know because of with being contractual um how that would definitely play out I know it's kind of the same as having Reserve officers but they would be fully trained so just just got to play with different ways to bring in some people maybe on a part-time basis to relieve some of these uh some of this tension some of the struggles Serge with the full implementation of post what types of problems have you seen in regards to how it affects the day-to-day workings of the department and the men and women of it I don't know if I would say post itself affects the daily operations I know when post was still was first implemented um officers were afraid basically to go out on the street afraid that you know all these you know one little complaint um sent to post is going to get them decertified um you know each and every day a police officer is going to make a citizen or or or somebody angry whether it's with a speeding ticket or you know a domestic situation where one of the parties is arrested um they're going to complain um so officers were they were afraid that these complaints were going to be you know affect them uh on a regular basis however it didn't turn out like that um the complaints aren't being sent to post as much as we thought they were and if they do post is very good about weeding them out um they do understand what police officers do on a daily basis and how sometimes it's going to upset people um so I don't really see any big or major uh inconveniences or or or lasting effects uh since Poli has been implemented um actually I think it's been running pretty smooth um some of their investigations um that we we've dealt with you know they come down the pipe um they're they're they're very open-minded they do what's right they're just not handing down or decertifying police officers for every little thing that comes through through the door okay thanks Recruitment and Retention have become a huge issue within the law enforcement world what do you think can be done at a department and town level to encourage people to pursue a career in law enforcement well recruitment is always an issue uh retention we've never had much of an issue here in the town of southa and I think that says a lot for our department it says a lot for our our our leaders um for the most part uh I can I could probably count on one hand how many police officers have actually left the police department since I've been here and gone to another department in fact uh yeah not very many at all recruitment is a is a different story um especially nowadays uh years ago when I first began this job these jobs were not readily available you definitely had to kick scream and scratch to obtain some of these jobs um so now um things are a little bit tighter um so you got to really be careful of of who you're bringing AB board you know we have a police department that's running smoothly uh you have high morale you have a culture within the police department that is satisfying and it's it's created a positive workplace um the like I said the retention people people come and they stay uh this is a great town it's a great place to work um I think it's a great place for people to come and raise their family I think our schools um are are wonderful we we're having a little bit of a an incident right now but we'll pull together and we will work through this and we'll get through it um so coming to this town as a police office officer um it's just it's a great place the world you know it's it's it's not the big city but it's busy enough where it keeps these guys going and it keeps them satisfied and uh as far as you know you keep the morale High um through through you know transparency I mean the communication um if people feel left out uh they're going to get any but you know we don't really have those kind of issues um like I said it goes back on our leadersh it's a great place to work officer mental health and wellness has become a topic of great interest and important importance as witnessed by the focus mptc put on this topic how do you think you can promote officer health and safety and how would you handle a situation where possible intervention is needed with an officer showing signs of a possible breakdown yeah um these are things that you know these are cases that have to be handled on an individual basis everybody seems to deal with these situations differently um I myself in the past 23 years I I have dealt with quite a few of um some pretty traumatic um events um even more so in the past five or the past five six years as working in the detective Bureau um I myself has have found myself um kind of slipping away into a dark place [Music] um I worked through my through it myself um with with with health and fitness um I brought myself back physically and mentally um through training um it worked out very well um each and every officer like I said handles these things in a different way it affects them differently some officers are able to talk talk about it fellow officers and work through some aren't um and you can see this they start drifting away uh you can they're not as happy as they were um they don't talk as much um so when you see this when you notice this it's important to talk to them and to get them the help that they need and if that means they need to you know some outside counseling some uh any kind of uh intervention like that you're going to get it for them you're going to do what you can um a lot of these officers are able to work through this um just by talking with somebody um so it's it's very difficult when you're dealing with with mental illness um it affects work life it affects home life um so you just got to look for the cues Sergeant please describe your views on community policing as well as your history of participation with Community engagement and how will you put forth in maintain a positive policing presence in the community community policing uh like I said before um I think it's vital to keep a open line of communication and being transparent with our community um it's only beneficial to us as well um letting them know bringing them inside the police department getting to know the police officers getting to know that uh to see what we do how we do it and why we do it um it creates a better understand understanding for everybody um I love different programs um that we have again like I said we just did our first rad class for kids I wasn't a very big proponent of this until I actually saw it and I thought it was absolutely outstanding um so I'd love to continue with that uh again the cadet program Sergeant Landis CH plan is have been talking about this for quite some time um we just have not been able to to implement it um so I would definitely like to see that through I think that's an outstanding program our citizens Police Academy was always very popular um we've been trying to to get that back on board Co really took a toll on that um so I would definitely like to keep working on that and and get that up and running um there's there's smaller things that we do that have been outstanding uh at the end of this month we have our second annual pancake breakfast for the fire department um we teamed up with malicious and it raises money for the food pantry we we opened up our doors and we created a uh an open house uh along with the fire department um during this Panic breakfast it it was an absolute success people loved it it it was fantastic I would definitely like to see that happen every year um so just different ways we have to we have to keep those those lines of communication open uh the transparency has to remain open um and just to bring people into the police department um so I look forward to finding different ways uh in creating different events this year I would love to see uh you know we always miss it usually it's due to staffing issues night out against Crime again it's an it's an open house type uh program you know it brings people in people love it um the more we can introduce the people to our police officers to get to know them on a firstday basis to to show them what we do how we do it and why we do it is just beneficial to all thank you I think this is in line with the last question as well police departments used to have strong ties need to have strong ties to their communities the citizens of Southwick have a great relationship with the police department how could you cultivate that relationship with the citizens of Southwick to benefit the department and the town uh as I just stated um keeping the lines of communication being transparent letting our our our community know what we're doing and why we're doing it um different programs our we just talked about it yes um continuing with our community policing events um the more we can get people into our Police Department the better it is um getting our officers out there and different you know these parades the farm parade is outstanding people love that parade they love seeing the police officers out there um I'd like to see that grow um we lost our firemen's uh Carnival I think that was a major event that was a great time and you know everybody got to talk everybody uh you know just to get get to know the officers um there is a program or an event I've been I've been stewing up for the last couple years um working along with the school department with the uh kind of in Christmas event I'd like to bring in aboard you know the fire department uh the SRS uh I don't know if it's their actually their choir their band um this a big Christmas event you know um out in the field um I think it would be a great community policing event I haven't don't have the details I did speak to a music teacher at the high school he was really on board um I'd like to you know bring the town we it'd have to be a whole group effort um but I think it would be a great time and it would bring everybody together thank you how do you expect to enhance the role of Chief internally and externally with the public with another agency and do you have any specific new goals or objectives in mind for leading and managemental Department as far as the police chief the chief of police and the citizens of the Southwick um you need to get out there you need to be out there with your with your staff you need to be out there with your officers you need to again bring them in to meet you as well um you have to keep an open door you know if if somebody has an issue or a problem and you can help them you know you yourself take care of it um the second half that I'm sorry do you have any specific new goals or objectives in mind for leading and managing the department you know uh Chief Lis and I we it's been very fortunate we we've shared very similar views on the direction of the police department um I think you know uh Chief Bishop started it you know we kind of changed things around morale has been going up over over the years um Chief lus has laid down the building blocks I would like to continue with that and I think can like what I mean contining with that is keeping the lines of communication open with our staff um I think we can improve on that um just talking around with people um it's always seems to the topic of communication seems to come up um I want to build a team I want everybody to be a team player I want everybody to be equal um I want everyone to be heard and to have their uh their opinions uh taken into consideration I think if we can keep those lines open uh we can keep moving forward uh I'd like to you know keep morale um at an all-time high to you know all of us have to we all go to work we spend the majority of our days at our jobs um there's nothing worse than going to work and and not being happy um earlier in in my in the early days before I got into law enforcement I did I worked for a shop it was a family-owned shop it was owned by Two Brothers they used to fight all the time um they would argue and yell and it would run off into the shop and I couldn't remember I remember clearly saying you know if I was ever in a position of where I had my own business or in a management role I I would do whatever I could to prevent this it was just Dreadful um get up in the morning and you dread going to work um you take time on so now production suffers um and law enforcement if if you're having those issues it's going to run off into the community you know your police officers are going to be miserable they're going to treat people miserable it's just it's it's it's a it's a domino effect um so I think it's just very important um you know keeping those lines of communication open and everybody matters um you know everyone's opinion matters as a followup how will the South Police Department be better in the future if you selected as again uh morale is is is a very uh big thing for me um again I want to you know we we have morale is good right now in the police department um I would like to take it to the next level I think we can improve on it and we're going to do that with with by maintaining those lines of communication that I keep talking about um I think we can grow with it I I I want I want people to be happy to come to work I want to create that positive uh uh atmosphere within within the walls of that Police Department it's only going to benefit not only the police department it's going to benefit the town as well thank you just so you know it's the last one in the role of Chief it will be necessary for you to have a unique role in matters such as Staffing labor negations excuse labor negotiations and enforcement of town policies please explain how you will separate yourself from your former role and personal opinions to facilitate the best and fairest outcomes for the Department individual staff and the town's taxpayers I believe that's going to be a Lear you know a learning uh process um as in any position um going from patrol officer to the detective Bureau um again as I stated before um I quickly learn it was a completely different job I could not go in there and work as a control officer so it took time it took time to learn the job it took time to readjust um and move forward as Chief yeah um you know uh just to encourage everybody to keep a happy uh like I said the positive reinforcement um the positive atmosphere as long as everybody feels like their warranted or their uh their opinion matters um we can keep a positive u a positive atmosphere we can work together um as far as you know negotiations and things like that um to separate yourself it's going to be very difficult um but to encourage your your to encourage your staff to work as hard as your staff um you know and we work through everything together um yeah I mean it it it's going to be work in progress um it's something I'm going to have to learn and I'm and I'm willing I'm willing able and ready ready to to do so that ends the questions so Sergeant is there any information that you would like to share with us or any statements you'd like to make as part of this um but uh first of all I'd like to thank you both for taking the time and putting in the efforts to choose s since close to um I know these decisions are never easy so thank you very much um Douglas I sat in this chair just over 6 and a half years ago seeking uh promotion in front of the board um at the conclusion of that interview you asked me a question um I don't remember for btim but it was in somewhere in the lines of where do you see yourself in five or 10 years the answer I gave you um which was right here serving the town uh the residents of the town of South my ility um I knew that wasn't the answer you were particularly looking for so I'd like to take another crack ad but before I do that I like to just quickly do a quick recap um just over 23 years ago I came to this to the town of South seeking position in law enforcement I didn't care where it was I was just I just wanted to work as a police officer sou was gracious enough to afford me the opportunity and they appointed me as a reserve police officer for the next couple of years as like a sponge I had absorbed as much training that was made available to me um I put my my my face inside that building as much as I possibly could as so I could be recognized as a go-to u officer somebody they can depend on um after a couple of years of this um there was in fact some retirements on the horizon the topic of putting myself through the full-time Police Academy um came up uh to enhance my chances of obtaining one of those positions however this was a very bad uh this was a very rough time for me financially I took on a major family responsibility I took custom me of a young man that was uh in between homes needed a a steady place to live um I was also trying to go back to school to uh finish my degree so and it was just a lot going on we weighed the pros and cons and after some conversation the decision was made to go to the police academy I was able to scratch up enough money and I became a member or I old and was a member of the 37th mpfc uh the gamble paid off shortly after graduating I was in fact uh appointed as a Time police officer here in t southw um it did not take long to realize that this was home this was career this was the place I wanted to be not once in 23 years did I straight did I did I look or even consider looking at another Police Department um as I mentioned before I've been very fortunate here in the town of Southwick I've been afforded so many more work opportunities or of being able to uh assume different roles than most police officers working for a small town again uh 20 uh in 2007 I was appointed as the department canine Handler um by the good grace of God I was I was paired up with the most amazing K9 partner anyone could ever ask for I don't think I could design a better dog Jax was absolutely amazing um it did not take long for his reputation as being a phenomenal narcotics detection dog to spread throughout West Massachusetts um our services were requested all over the region um in the early days as they stated before um we did work for a federal task force which was comprised of uh detectives from other police departments from surrounding cities and towns Agents from uh the DEA in homeland security of course in the latter years we had the opportunity to work with uh Chief Landis and retired Chief lari in eastern Hond County Narcotics stpks uh of course this serving in this role um we had the big one in 2014 while executing a search warrant in in the town of agam our attentions uh was pulled away and we were asked to search another storage area um after searching 90 to 100 storage Z Jack hit on one which yielded a couple hundred pounds of marijuana in over $1.2 million in cash um it was never confirmed but I was told that this was the lar largest cash hit by Canan in the commonweal of course 10 years went just like that um before you know it was over and it was time for Jax to retire um I was faced with yet another agonizing decision whether to continue with canine or to step down and see promotion seeing that Jax was uh still somewhat healthy he was going to be around for a while um so I just could not after a lot of consideration it was just it justable to have another alpha dog at home and I do have to admit there was an emotional side to it I don't think I could I had the heart to drive away with another canine in the car in the Cruis like Jack was Washington so the decision was made to to step down and seek promotion a short time later I was in fact promoted to Sergeant I worked another year as a patrol Sergeant all by myself alone in the car with nobody to talk to nobody to drool on my uniform and as disgusting and the seem I missed it quite up quite a bit um anyways um another year passed by I was in fact assigned to the detective Bureau um again I I mentioned it before um this was an eye openening experience um I quickly learned you cannot work as an investigator think the same mindset as a control officer um you know uh I mentioned uh having the best teacher um I learned so much from Chief Landis um you can never repay that debt um it was something it it was an eye openening experience anyway serving in this capacity you know uh again my duties uh were to investigate any and all crimes considered serious a nature in the town of souck uh to assist oversee or work with a patrol officers um with their investigations um I served uh my duties also consisted of a sexual assault rape investigator narcotics investigator investigated motor vehicle homicide or motor vehicle fatalities uh any deaths that were uh suspicious or or you know again suicides overdoses things of that nature um again serving in this capacity it's and I created so many working relationships with other law enforcement officials from uh both City uh surrounding cities and towns and our federal uh law enforcement agencies uh the FBI the DEA the ATF and Home in security I've created these contacts um with which have been instrumental um with everything I do um no matter what is going on there's somebody we can call um and and get assistance working with these agencies and working investigating these crimes um it's given me the experience and the confidence to respond to any type of crime regardless of the seriousness in nature um it's it's given me the ability to quickly assess these these uh responses uh determine what assets needed what assets are available and how to obtain these Assets in a reasonable amount of time um having said all this you know assuming these responsibilities these roles and responsibilities serving these capacities um I strongly believe I you know I've been unknowingly have been being roomed for this position for quite some time um so Douglas to answer that question once uh once again or taking a shot at it I see myself sitting here in this chair once again in front of the board seeking the position of a chief of police um and of course U serving the residence of town south my building thank you thank you anything else no further questions sir none from me thank you thank you very much thank you back to our regularly scheduled program okay meeting discussion items action item bills mailes correspondence y y uh first approve and designate Surplus chief administrative office chair for Carl J Stein and I have already deposited one US dollar with the town clerk I'd entertain a motion to approve and designate Surplus the chair of Mr steinhardt I'll make that motion second uh it is a roll call vote because there is a dollar at stake here Doug mowan I Jason Peron I van I approve the request from Conservation Commission to amend an arpa fund vote to include camera and maintenance costs of the cameras to remove porta potties I will make that motion second discussion has was anyone present at the concom when they discussed this believe it or not okay you want to give a summary uh basically the arpa money they want to use it to set up the cameras that they've been talking about um and the maintenance costs and operating costs and they want to remove the Porta bodies that's pretty much straightforward on that one I don't see any issues with what I've read don't know no none so that's it in your nutshell okay uh roll call vote Doug mowling I stain Jason Peron I I okay approve Pioneer Valley Planning Commission invoice number 13 for fiscal year 21 Community Assistance Program for 1, $9.33 make that motion second Doug moglin I Jason p i I approve the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission invoice number 14 for fiscal year 21 southw community Assistance Program for $275 16 I'll make that motion Doug Mogan I Jason coron i j i approve the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission invoice number 15 for fiscal year 21 southp community Assistance Program for $1,297 I'll will make that motion second only one more to go folks approve the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission invoice number 16 for fiscal year 21 Southwick community Assistance Program for $344 60 I will make that motion second Doug m i Jason Peron I I you didn't aoll call vote on the last one I didn't no which one that $1,200 one one prior to this one okay let's let's uh go back and check that uh pvpc invoice 15 12979 a motion was made and seconded uh we'll do a roll call vote Doug Mogan I Jason Corone i d i thank you okay uh acknowledge souck rotary flyer requesting a donation for the summer concert series uh I will invoke the rule of necessity since the select board is a corporate member of the rotary and I believe in previous years we did make a motion to be a sponsor from the select select board gift account um I don't recall the dollar amount however you did silver is that you sorry wow that's awesome uh so would anyone like to make a motion to apportion $100 from the select board gift account to the uh support the summer concert series by the rotary I will make that motion second I will definitely take a roll call vote this time Doug Mogan I Jason Peron I thank you I okay so we're up to new business first no the old agenda that agenda Amendment one there's Amendment two okay multiple part question approve and sign the memorum of agreement between the town of Southwick and the Southwick police Coalition for Kelly yakam it's close Kell I yes okay so I need a motion for the chair to sign I will make that motion second Doug Mogan I Jason pone I I okay you want your agenda back too is there any other changes on this agenda besides that okay good that was good thank God all right new business nine none interim CAO land welcome by the way I think I said it at the beginning but you're doing a great job thank you I'm huh under the off oh well that's me to kick Carl I have a quick one uh for the budget review that we will be doing um I have done a little tracking of Prior four years's expenditures versus the budget amounts in this kind of format if you think this be helpful to you I can get copies for you it's basically each page that you have with the trending and some suggested changes or if you've done your own that's fine but I can share those with you if you like you just doing this in conjunction with Finance or on your own that's just my analysis that's your an can can h Jason new business none right now okay Mr Brown here or is he on Zoom there's a lot of people on Zoom So Randy are you here there you are yes I'm here Doug all right so we're gonna go to some of the old business updated Road and infrastructures from DPW director for fiscal year 24 which we did talk about last week and carried to this week so discussion I know Wy kind of played it all out here in the we had to kind of figure out what we're GNA do here I had a question for Randy on the um remove the sidewalk on Garden ter South Side was it removed and replaced on the southide or just removed I can grab that one it was removed and grasped so there's only the I guess it would be the north side has a cruddy sidewalk remaining we were only going to do a sidewalk we were going to do one side correctly and remove the other one which was done all right and then my second question on the four a b and c Feeding Hills Road um it's proposed to go to number 268 um why not the rest to the town line which is about 410 of a mile 268 is just past calib the top of the hill there yeah so that's where there's a transition in the asphalt so Mass it was a mass do project uh they resurfaced that section of Feeding Hills Road from 286 to the Town Line I want to say that was six or seven years ago okay and that road isn't that that section is still in good condition Thank You So Randy because that's just Mass do did that because of the project they did is or is that their responsibility that little section no it's our responsibility uh I call it a bonus um maybe payback for conam on road um I I honestly wasn't even aware of the project until the day the crew showed up and they started mill on the road all the way down to where they ended at 28 268 and um I didn't say anything it was just do took it about themselves to repair that section of Road replace it thanks yeah so if I recall from our conversation last week you have there's $540,000 regard um not the projects that are started on 2024 are still going to happen but then with the fair share and the carryover from previous years there's $540,000 to allocate amongst the uh gajillion dollars on items one through 21 as of today yes and then and then we do expect to receive our our fy2 chapter 90 share those funds should be allocated in June or July time frame and that's typically $370,000 give or take and then I'm also very hopeful that there'll be some funds from uh the town allocated at town meeting correct Randy which of uh this is for my edification of the uh three through four C what's the worst part the worst section of Feeding Hills Road yeah it's got to be uh from Crepes up to uh Feeding Hills Road and then and then from there to the uh top of the hill by past calies 286 Crepes to Foster or or you have Crepes to Foster and Crepes to 268 yeah I wasn't sure what uh afterwards we spoke at last week's meeting what sections you were referring to so I kind of broke it up into these three sections so obviously we'd like to do the whole road but uh that that obviously takes more more funds to do ultimately I'd like to do I mean I think 4B would be a good goal to get from Crepes to uh 286 or yeah 268 sorry I think we can get there if we do the drainage work work first and then if we wait till our chapter 90 money is allocated and we should be pretty much uh pretty close to that or 90 number and you just did some drainage work in that general area correct we did last fall and the intent is to continue that all the way to Foster Road and you want to allocate the whole 540 or close to it correct uh well right now what I'm suggesting is allocating just the drainage work on F on Feeding Hills Road which is Project three and then withholding the $290,000 wait until we get the chapter 90 money fine combine those two together and then we have more than enough to do for B okay but three does not have any Paving in it it's just digging it up and putting a patch over where you do your work correct correct just like we did uh in the fall so that 350 would still leave you some monies left out of this list to pick a spot correct if you uh not looking at Paving Feeding Hills Road then yes or you would just allocate that sorry was a question allocate the Monies to a project but you're going to do the drainage on number you recommend to do number three first and then come through and do a Paving project to close that up from either 4 a b or c and and then maybe combin last year's money or this year's money with next year's money correct to do the paving seems reasonable to name that area is kind of good no doubt probably the worst that I've seen in the town so I know it's you got to get out more there's some pretty interesting roads well as far as on a main th fair and that's kind of a failing for what there's you know we don't need to go over how we got there but under uh so but I agree I think that um I think you need to do finish the drainage project that he's talking about and then go through and we'll take the rest the remaining money and allocate it towards Paving it when he gets his other and and leverage it with existing sorry with new monies for the 2000 fiscal year 2025 you gotta do that subtle nodding of heads yes yes okay so can we vote to all make a motion to approve project number three Feeding Hills Road Foster to Buckingham drainage in the amount of $350,000 and then roll a balance between the 540 and less than 350 forward into projects for the 2015 season that how I understand it that's how I understood it tell 15 2025 I get my decade right it's been a long day but yes I'll make that motion roll call vote Doug Mogan I Jason Peron I can I ask a question Doug before you move on just just just to clarify I did add some language about uh reallocating some funds from point Grove Road in the letter the very bottom of page one I want to make sure that you're also amenable with that 182 we took funds out of the water and sewer counts to uh work on some improvements at the intersection of Point Grove Road uh that project was a little over budget uh so to get that work done I took those accounts but I like to uh replenish those with these dollars if Avail if if amendable to the board so they 18, 182 out of the 540 as well correct that would come out out of the 540 what if it went over we got to pay it that's where it came from for the best sounded like a motion make that motion to pay that or move those Fones I'll second that roll call vote Doug m i Jason perone I thank you okay anything else Mr Brown no I'm good on my end sorry we're kind of slow when it's B dollars like that no worries Mr Davidson was here and then he left so I'll give you the uh there was a bit an update in your folder tonight about the bench so I'll ask the young man to come back in front of us again for our next meeting um basically the the location did not work at the Town common Cemetery it's not really workable for what what the gentleman would like the young man would like to produce so it's been suggested that perhaps that he would make something for priy Park I'd like to have him come back and kind of answer to that Carri out the next or next meeting yes Council on Aging director internal postings done that closes this Friday police chief internal recruitment process April 1st interview and discuss selection appointment what's your pleasure thought we had two great interviews by the way we did taking notes oh tonight I came in here originally I wasn't going to pick either one I was going to insist on going to an assessment center again because I think these two are both these two gentlemen are both qualified and eligible subjects for the Chief's position after observing the interviews um I was definitely swayed um you know coming from my as you guys like to call it expertise um there's a lot of stuff that's been going on a lot of things I had to review a lot of things I had to talk to people about um and as someone who's been through these processes and at different levels I know what it takes to get to these positions that being said people learn from mistakes mistakes are made and if they're learning tool people can be redeemed as I like to call it so therefore I would like to make a motion to appoint Lieutenant Rhett banish as the chief of police motion on the floor is there a second I think he's a very strong Choice he has a head for becoming more efficient more use grasping technology to promote the Department's business um I talk to a lot of people on this got a lot of input um I think he definitely has the most experience um both equally dedicated and we're blessed to have that um but I would second that motion for right I just would like to uh clarify uh before we proceed to a vote first of all we have to clarify and with all the Y yadas subject to negotiation of a contract and an agreement and all of that other stuff that needs to be part of the motion um and whatever else needs to be done to meet the requirements under um under our our statutory stuff um but I really want to thank both candidates for putting themselves out there um to make Southwick a better place to make the police department a better Department um I know we've had a lot of conversations with um a lot of members of the department sergeant krooka lieutenant banish um you know sometimes through the heights of negotiations as we proceed through that mine field and and other times where um and you both addressed it tonight that we're lucky lucky that we have a great department and a great bench and we're going to need to continue with that we're lucky that the citizens of Southwick are blessed to have such a great Police Department today and the police department is equally blessed that people still wave and honk and salute the men and women of the South Police Department when they drive by and believe me in this day and age that's no small measure so I I will get off my soap box but I did want to make that clear and I really do appreciate both of you for putting yourself out there um as part of this process I know it's been arduous I know it's been you know there's been a lot of of back and forth and there's been a lot of um whatever you want to call it there's been a lot of it so with that we do have a motion made and seconded on the floor and I'm going to call for a vote and I will vote Doug moglin yes Jason Peron yes congratulations Lieutenant banish subject to the Y yatas Sergeant krooka thank you very very much Tommy very much appreciate highspeed internet IMA for Westfield Gas and Electric uh we had a posting mess up and we didn't meet so the meeting never happened uh we have to post a new agenda with our schedule that looks like it's going to be uh the week after next just with all of the stuff we have going on with budget meeting and so on and so forth marijuana dispensary web page hosting any update coming very frustrated with it um things are changing daily so what I did yesterday is going to change um or getting there I think at some point um but it's not your fault I know it's it this whole thing like we said they they keep changing the rules at every step I think we just got to rip the Band-Aid off and just do something so that we can get our application and the rules we'll every else along you know I know this was that you know we held AAL for we want to try to get this started and you know the people spoke loudly about it so let's keep that process moving I appreciate you bird dogging this I really do uh hunting bylaw proposed related to private land uh we talked about this last week that we want to kind of have a public information session um did we pick a date on that so April 16th April 16th in this room so anyone that wants to come down and talk about this we're not going to have any kind it's not a uh it's a work session we're not going to vote on anything I we just want to take input and get feedback from people so please make your voice heard um bring your friends bring your family uh what time what that be six o'clock right here um land license no update Mass General law any update 61 61a 61b that's waiting for a date to be scheduled for the Department after town meeting Town administrative recruitment panel finer interviews by select board in April April 6th so apologies we did talk about it last week during the meeting but uh we did turn up a conflict all mine um so we pushed that meeting to Saturday April 6 10:00 a.m. in the other room T-Mobile Hometown grants I sat with Carol this week um talked to her we're waiting on uh I need estimates on the equipment and the bid from I believe Mr sheeld and was was gonna look into that for us um once I have that I can finish putting the grant together and get the remaining stakeholders U individuals to sign on and read that forward master plan implementation committee um I did a little bit more writing on this I want to get with Mr dowy again but I wanted to give you an update on my I think where I left that and my notes are a little bit incomplete but um it would be a select board member a planning board member uh one resident select board appointee one planning board appointee and then there's one more and I don't know if that's a joint appointment or or we have to figure that out because frankly we get outgun with a joint appointment because they got five guys um so we have to work that through but I would like to kind of isolate out a mission for that Master Plan implementation committee rather than just appointing a committee and saying go committee so um the things I wrote down that I need I would like to follow up with chairman Dary is to report to the town meeting annually at least report to the select board and planning board by anually um identify successful strategies and barriers to progress conduct Outreach and provide uh a conduit for public input um as well as evaluate progress via metrics based on the master plan and other relevant data um there was plenty of stuff in the master plan itself Norm chever spent there he is right now I didn't see you till I said your name Norm chever spent a gazillion hours putting different measurements and and metrics into the master plan itself that a master plan implementation committee can use as a guide to kind of measure progress um so I'd like to see that those tools utilized um to their fullest capability as part of that process um and then I I just think that this the mic should meet probably around five to six times a year you know so once every other month or you meet during the winter you meet a few times and take a couple months off in the summer but um I think that would be um my you know my thoughts interest to hear any feedback on that um would they have authority to develop work groups to tackle options by all means that yeah they need to know that yeah no input right now good because it's 9:00 just kidding um work oh boy um and and I was remiss I forgot I'm I'll get to you one more second I forgot one item under new business so I'll cover it under old business um I'd like for the board to consider this is something we had done in the past I think we got away from it for a couple of years um but I would like for the board to consider to vote on or would allow me to craft a uh a proclamation for our next meeting um which would be to uh honor Donate Life month April is Donate Life month in the Commonwealth we typically had lit up the the town hall um in the color it was blue for Donate Life month uh we did have a heart plant recipient in our town um that has since passed but uh who was very very active in that in the donate Life program and was very active in recruiting folks to make sure that you're signed up to be an an organ donor and to be cognizant of that um so with your permission I'd like to craft that proclamation to be adopted by this board at the next meeting absolutely okay any other old business you also want to talk about early voting no I wanted it I I didn't want to bring it up because I wanted to thank you for mentioning it I did want to bring it up because I want to carry it as an agenda item I did did not want to Spring that on anybody as part of an amended agenda because there's costs associated with that and there's process associated with that we're doing it for this year's local election it's going to happen everybody got the postcards we're signed up to do it if we need to take some other vote as a formality for this year for reimbursement purposes we should do it but I think it's a good topic to discuss whether or not we want to continue to have um early voting for local elections or we're fine having it on do we still have mailin voting you'll still have that but do we want to have also early voting for local elections so I want to bring that up as an agenda item I want to hear if there's pros and cons to that um and have that discussion I didn't I just felt it would be improper uh especially given my position to bring that up at this juncture without it being on a formal agenda for discussion right so Jessica will and provide info yes I believe so and if if not uh if it's a problem for this year we'll carry it on the agenda for our next meeting because we're gonna I think we have another meeting on uh whatever day that is that we're meeting next I know we're meeting is it this Thursday we talked about this right we have a budget review meeting so it's a it's a posted meeting so we can take a vote if we need to take a formal vote for this particular election that's already happening and we're already going to do it and that's fine but I think as a board via policy we should talk about that for in out you know outlying years and I'll I'll confer with J to see if we need to do something then take an affirmative vote for this particular election but that that's just my opinion I don't think we should change we should have something come up after the agenda was already posted as significant as dealing with voting without it being on a posted agenda that I right yeah I thought that's GL clarified that I thought you any other old business no sir none [Music] sir wow I'd entertain a motion to adjournment motion made second all in favor I thank you folks