Recording in progress. All right, we good. I think so. All right, um We are already in session because we had an executive session and then left executive session to come in. So we do not need to call the meeting to order. Uh, but we do have a action packed agenda tonight and we’re going to be

very efficient with our time. Wendy. I’m looking at you. Um I. Can’t I. Can’t. I’m not kidding. Um Uh, To make that Uh, but I will get it kick us off with a board and committee openings, uh, as a reminder to folks listening all of y’all who have so much involvement online.

We’d love you to get involved in real life. And. Here’s how you can do it, Uh, the Conservation Commission has two openings. The Council on Aging has two associate openings, the Finance and Advisory Committee has one associate opening. The Historic District Commission has two openings for a three

year terms and two openings for two year terms. Um and must one must be a resident of the historic district, and one must be a resident Realtor. The Human Rights Commission has one opening. Uh, and the Planning board has one associate opening and the zoning Board of Appeals has one associate opening.

Um At this point we will go to public comment as a reminder Public comment is three minutes on anything not currently on the agenda. If your topic is on the agenda. Please Wait and hold your comments, uh, until the topic is at hand. I, See, we have a Good Evening, Everyone Kin Cale Town clerk.

I do have a few items I just wanted to bring to the attention of the select board and to, um any residents listening or reading at a later date some things impacting all the residents as well as things impacting, elected and appointed officials. So first thing, um, tied to the census.

We’ve tried really hard to get people to return their census forms, but there’s slightly over 800 that have not yet been returned. So today I had to do what I’m required to do by Which is called mass inactivation. Anyone who did not return their census form has been marked as inactive in

the voting system, uh, to make a long story short, um I always say to people who who arrived to vote and find out they’re inactive and are required to prove their residency. It really does make sense if you don’t live here, you can’t vote here. So. The census is my only way of knowing who lives here.

So. Unfortunately, As. I said 1322 moved to We don’t like to see that in the presidential election year. Um, unfortunately, it’s going to cost the town $2000. Because next week. We will have mail We have to mail out to every one of these inactive voters. What’s called a confirmation card. It’s kind of their last

chance to say, Yep. I still live here, or Nope. I moved. So. Um those will be going out in the mail, and I encourage people if they get that, please return it as soon as possible. Otherwise when it comes to the election if we haven’t heard

from you, you are going to hold up the line and people will not be Happy, so just want to get that out there, Uh, June 1st dog license application. Uh, late fees went into effect, so if you hadn’t gotten it in yet, And if IIN addition to the In

addition to the What is this thing? In addition to the fee. Uh, there will be the late fee as well. Uh, another topic for, um, elected and appointed officials as well as some employees. Uh, compliance with the conflict of interest law. Uh, as folks know, every other year, we all have to complete a

lengthy training, but every year we have to acknowledge receipt of the summary I had in one hour training on that again today, um, emphasizing the role of town clerks and making sure that this gets done so, um Um lots of people are gonna be hearing from me over the next week or so. We’re at about 50%.

We’ve had 100 and 79 completed in about 180 not done for the acknowledgment. Yes. Some of you are acknowledging that I’ve reached out to you, and, um, you followed up, so I appreciate that. Um, I always love to see those get completed, uh, last but not least campaign finance officer, the campaign

political finance forums. There are a few from the most recent election that are still outstanding, so I’ll be reaching out to the folks there because I don’t want to get in trouble by not making an effort to, um, solicit compliance. I. Wanna keep everybody else out of trouble, too. So thank you.

I think that might have been a little more than three minutes, But, Um, appreciate the time. Thank you. Thanks. Uh, do we have any additional public comment? You come on up. Hi. Uh, Debs. We apologize on behalf of It’s not personal. Just. Hold it, Uh, Deb Safford. From, uh,

Maple Street. People in us, Um At the risk of being called intolerant and a bigot. I just want to point to the charter of the Hamilton, Um, Human Rights Commission Charter, which Talks about, uh, striving that all people feel safe in Hamilton enjoy the equal opportunity to participate in local affairs,

access to services, education, public forums. I’m just stating that up front. Uh, because Oh, Thank you. You’re welcome. Because sometimes when we point out a different perspective, we can be called bigots or in you know, people become intolerant of you. And. I just I’m just coming with a heart not for

being unkind, but for just, uh, being true to myself. I just feel called to speak here today. So thank you for letting me do that. Um and I and I do appreciate the goal of the, um, human right commission to advocate for those people, But. I’m specifically today asking about the town’s sponsorship,

Uh, with the library, the patent homestead. And, the town of Hamilton. Um Uh, with drag makeup tutorials at this year’s picnic. Last year, it was Right. Bingo this year. It’s tutorials for makeup, So teaching the kids how to make up and look drag. Um, and the town in sponsoring these events through the human rights coalition,

which aligns with the Hamilton venom. Sorry. The commission aligns with the coalition. It’s all very connected. You know we we’re sponsoring those the the late the logos are there and the town, therefore is on record for sponsoring, grooming and sexualizing events for our littlest residents, and this is

upsetting to me. Um, I asked this because, uh, to look and to be drag is basically leading Down a path of this adult sexual content. Drag shows used to be adult entertainment and whatever go for it If you’re an adult. I don’t care, but I’d like to know that given these sponsorships of town

organizations that are tax dollars support, so these are our tax dollars that are funding the library and funding the patent homestead and funding. Um, the town. How. Much has gone to support this event. And is the school Are, you guys as the select board. Are you guys on the record that you’re supporting these

grooming events. Again dragged by definition is dressing and acting provocatively in a gender stereotype opposite to your birth sex. It’s adult content Being a kid, I think is hard enough without social confusion and social contagion. So. I don’t hate those in drag. I’m not against that. But. I think we have to be really

consistent as a town Because if I was gonna come and ask for town property to be used for an event to have a baptism and bring people to Christ, you know, would that be allowed at my guess is that that probably there would evoke a separation of church and state to some event, and I don’t think we

should be hypocritical That way. I. Think of the town is going to sponsor an event. It should be something that supports really everybody and isn’t a controversial thing. So if you’re not gonna support using the patent homestead public, you know, private public property for events that are, um for a baptism to Jesus, then

we shouldn’t be holding it to sexualizing groom our kids. So I’m, asking the select board to consider removing sponsorship of events going forward. It’s too late for this one that have political activism in their nature. If you look at the um Hamilton, Wenham Wenham Coalition side. It’s very

specific that it’s it’s an an It’s activism. Uh, for what they’re passionate about, but it’s still a political activism and I don’t think our town should be doing that because you’re not doing it. For both sides. We just wanna be Supporting, uh, supporting those events that really support all the residents.

Cause. We’re all humans and, uh, you know, opposite of political persuasion, sexuality, heritage and all that, Uh, I hope that the select board will consider in the future, not sponsoring events that have such distinct, uh, grooming sexualization of our Children. I think it’s A very scary time with our kids.

It’s confusing enough so I hope you’ll take this into consideration. And I. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Hi Michael Madden Highland Street. Um, I didn’t plan on coming up here speaking tonight, but Um, I just wanted to follow up on That last those last comments

by that lady, Um, I mentioned this because I think this deer to be raising a Palestinian flag. Um, if we’re really if the human rights UH, coalition group and Commission group is really about human rights Um and I brought this up with some members. I haven’t gotten any feedback, but we’ve all seen

the terrible human rights abuses towards Palestinian people this year. So for really, really about human rights group, I think and I’d like to ask the select board to consider that Um I’m Irish, uh, this past week? Um Three countries in Europe, including Ireland and Norway and Spain.

They recognize the state of Palestine. Um As a as a state. Um, the human rights abuses. There are horrible. I think we’ve all seen it. 36,000. Plus. People have gotten killed, Um So I wanted to bring that up. Um and I’m also looking at other notes that I have I’m

saying that this in addition to recognize the human rights abuses against the Palestinian population, and that we should all rally around, raising the Palestinian flags flag in our towns. After all. It’s a human rights group as I mentioned Because. I think if we If we don’t It can be perceived that

we cherry pick what we push and we can be perceived as a political activist group like that Last Lady mentioned and again. This is ad hoc. I wasn’t planning on being up here tonight, but That group to me is looking like a political activist group. And if it’s really all about human rights

Then let’s Raised the Palestinian flag and show that we really care about these people. Thank you. Any additional public comment online or IN. The room Somebody on mine has seen Oh, You a RE off mute. Did you have comment? No. OK? Um Again. Thank you for the comment. We don’t typically

respond to comments publicly within the second one meeting, but I do appreciate you guys coming and we can certainly follow up. Um, after the meeting. Uh, we can move to select board member and town manager reports. Uh, do we have any select board? Member reports today, Bill anything

from you? That would have like to attend the, uh So we’re in the months I would like to send the the flag raiser 530, but, uh I was there. It was good. Yeah. Um you know a a small but mighty turnout of folks. Um, the pride picnic. Is this coming weekend, uh, at the

patent homestead. And. Um, the police department was there and a number of, uh You were there as well. Um, but it was It was a nice gathering. Rosemary anything from you, Um The only thing I wanted to mention was that I attended the, um Hamilton when high school graduation on Saturday and I

have to say it was spectacular, the kids Oh my gosh. They supported each other from start to finish. It was very heartwarming. It was a very congenial group. Um Special shout out to Joey Coughlin, who graduated? Um, but it was a great, um Event and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Great job

Hamilton Wenham regional school district for having kids who are so committed to each other. We’ve also gotten. I mean, we we had absolutely nothing to do with it. But the, um signs along one A. I’ve heard nothing but positive feedback about that. So I. Think making sure

that folks recognize that we can continue to do that in the future is important. Anything for you. I’ve just continued with schools. I guess the last day is I believe June 13th for the district, So another great year and graduation. Uh, good comments on that also relative to there’s a school committee

meeting this Thursday where they will review the, um informational survey or polling that went out. Many of the residents may have got it. Hopefully, uh, have responded to it. So. If. You’re interested in those results. I know the subcomittee will be reviewing those results on Thursday. Um and tentatively,

depending they will be, uh, two votes. Uh, potentially Uh, one on the preferred option, which right now is the Cutler school consolidation, So I think that’ll be a thumbs up or thumbs down, based on the school committees? Uh, whatever happens at that meeting, Uh, if it is an op, I think then the

next vote would be to the MSP or the the state School. Uh, education, uh, department on grade reconfiguration because if that does go through, they’ll reconfigure the school’s grading with the kindergartens at Bucher. Um and, uh, of course, um Cutler would have the elementary school so big night on Thursday, Uh, for the school committee. Um, as

far as the Master plan goes, you know that that steering committee was, um uh, finished and completed. You know that’s with the planning board. The Planning board has now met twice on it, You know first time in reviewing it. I think there was a lot of back and forth and kind of want to

rewrite it and do a lot of aggressive things. I know, Marie. Uh, the last meeting. Uh, I did I didn’t attend, but I did watch. Uh, it seems like they’ve got a directive now to kind of go in, Uh, And really, you know, not change the content because a lot of that came from, uh, to focus

meetings with citizens and a lot of hard work, But, you know, take some editorial, um chances in connect the elements a little bit better, So. I think over their next meeting. They were tasked with coming back with some added So. My Hope is that over the next month or so we’ll see a final document on

that. We’ll see wait to stick with it. A couple of birthdays on that one. Uh, Continuing. And jump in on any of this. You want to do? We did, uh, kick off the reopening of the regional school district agreement? Uh, last week, Um, with Eric and Dana and representatives from the Hamilton and Wham select boards

and as well as Joe. Um, next, I think is going to be a conversation with our lawyers, is where everybody sort of brings their asks to the table. That. We can, uh, work through, Uh, getting an A draft put together, Um for folks who who don’t know or haven’t been, you know, plugged into this.

Our. Our school agreement. Was it 1959 1959 1959 was the original draft agreement. It is as 1959 as one might imagine. Um, and it was never holistically rewritten, and so it’s been amended multiple times, but it is sort of a Frankenstein document, so there’s two parts to this one is, um some of the

content that I think we wanna look at codifying some things that have not been codified but also restructuring the entire agreement so that it reads more comprehensively and and more succinctly. Um, so, uh, ultimately, that will, uh, come before the the towns, um, before it goes forward, but

that you know, there’s a long tail on that work that we’ve kicked. Uh, also congratulations to our town manager who has, as of, uh 22 minutes ago, signed the next three years of his life away to the town of Hamilton. Uh, for another three years. Uh so we’re excited about that.

Um and then, uh, also, Gordon Conwell has, uh, signed a PNS agreement to sell the apartments, uh, on their property. Um, this is just the apartments and I think it’s 11 Acres around the apartment. It is not any substantial transfer of land. Uh, the the current intended use is to continue to

have those be, um Apartment housing rental apartment housing. Um, some for folks who live or work at Gordon Conwell, but also for the community at large. Um we are currently in the process of working with not only the seminary, but also the buyers, uh, to try to leverage this opportunity to get as much

affordable housing on our SH I as we possibly can. Um, those conversations of I mean I personally had five meetings last week on it. I think Joe had at least a additional three. So. We’re sort of doing everything we can Uh, we don’t we don’t have that many levers to pull, but we have a really,

um a really good buyer. If there’s been a lot of transparency and a lot of eagerness to try to work with the town. Um, to do what we can to get additional affordable housing on the books. So we’re excited about that. Anything else? The dorms. Just the dorms.

Um And it’s I mean the dorms in the parking lot and the parking amounts to about a total of 11 acres for the six buildings in the Associated parking lots. And it It. Uh, it there. It’s not public record yet. Still hasn’t gone through. It’s A, P and S. There’s 60 days of due

diligence we have been introduced to the prospective owners and discuss the, uh affordable housing component with them, and we’re working. Diligently to to come to an agreement on how we are gonna pursue that. There. There have been receptive, so they they are not arguing with us at this point, so And they are, um,

deeply incentivized to make minimal, minimal changes to the buildings themselves. Uh, because of the way that the buildings were built the the zoning and coding of the current buildings and so right now the plan is quite literally to not change anything about the exterior. There’s no expansion. There’s no addition.

It is literally just interior renovations, um and and continuing to use them for housing. That’s part of the ongoing conversations of how we sort of separate the the septic or don’t or how it sort of. Oh. There was a, uh folks in the room had questions about, uh,

the sale of Gordon Conwell clarifying that it is the dorms. Um and then a question about the septic. Um, and that is part of the ongoing conversations with the seminary. I mean I will say we feel cautiously optimistic about this, I think after the year and a half that we’ve all put

in a lot of ourselves the planning board. Yeah everybody else is is really feeling optimistic that this is this is a good opportunity for us, and we’re encouraged by the the buyer, um and and their willingness to really work with us in in a way that they candidly maybe didn’t need to,

but have been really open to doing so. It. It feels it feels pretty good at the beginning. There. There are two Hun there. There are 209 units in the, uh in the six buildings, Uh, where our goal is to try to get 25% of the units count as a to be

actual affordable units. And if we’re then able to do that, we will argue to the state that just as with the new building project, all 209 units should be counted on the SH I. We’re not sure that they’ll agree to that the state that is not, but we’re working on that.

Yeah. The the state is in the business of not approving right. Their their job is to to make sure that you sort of don’t get to that number. And I think, uh, there is the Our challenge here is that you know 40 B and then the affordable housing is about new construction, not existing or conversion projects. We do

think that there are some interesting things about this conversion project that make I mean as I. I think our lawyer said he has extreme skepticism, but there’s enough of a chance that we should at least go down that path, which we are so About 200. 13 Yeah, it’s actually a little less than

that, because we have units that are in the pipeline. So you had the 18 units on Willow Street come online a couple of years ago. Those count now that took us a little closer than we had 10 units of Habitat for humanity on Salisbury Street that are under construction and are on the SH I and there’s

another 45 units across the street on Asbury Street that are in the pipeline. They haven’t been given a building permit yet, so I think when all is said and done, you’d be looking at More like 100 and 50 to 100 and 60 units that we still need to get to get to 10%.

Um, as Caroline noted that you know the states goal is to have more new housing built, um and inclusive of affordable housing. The argument our argument that we’re gonna make the state is as far as the market is concerned. These are new units because though they were there and their old older

construction They were only, um They were only available to, uh, members of the Gordon Conwell community. They were not available on the on the general market. So now that they’re on the general market, we feel like they should count just like a new construction project would Mm. Yeah. We’ll see if

the state cares about what we think. Um, but even at 25%, I think to take 50, you know, to get actual 50 affordable. That would be a big chunk. So, um, cool. Uh, all right. Next. We have the consent agenda. I’ll entertain. Oh, sorry. Me. I don’t know much of the detail to take a moment to recognize

sort of Peter Britton. I heard over the last week that he had passed away. Um he’s been an anchor of our community, uh, helping develop the against farm and getting us into a Compost program and really giving back community property is given to a 40 B property, So.

I just want to take a moment to They. Really, you know, Wish his family well, and, uh, say we Appreciate all he did for our community, so Absolutely absolutely. Alright, um, Next up. Uh, we have a consent agenda, which is approving the minutes of May 6th and may 20th and approving the coast to cure

bike ride through Hamilton on September 7th 2024. I would entertain a motion to approve our consent agenda, so I’ll make a motion that we approve the consent agenda. Second Um, any discussion All in favor. Bye. All right. The meat of it. My friends, Um, as a reminder, I do have to, um Dug out a

little bit early this evening, but you’ll be in the capable hands of Bill Wilson, uh, who most people like more anyway, So I think that’ll be fine. Um, first on the do we have Jeff here? Is he on? Your Jeff Jeff. Hi. Um, We’re we are here to approve the appointment of just

Jeff Austin as an associate member of the planning Board, Um Would you like to come up? And say a few words. I convince us, uh Jeff Austin 50 Sharon Road, Uh, South Hamilton. Uh so I was in front of the plane board. I think it was last week.

Did an interview? Um I. Some of the questions came up was you know what experience do you have I? I don’t have any official planning experience. Um there’s a there’s a desire to have more people join boards. I have an interest in in helping out the community.

Um so I stepped up. Um my background is is project. Uh, product ownership. Um and engineering. Um so I have a little bit of Idea of how to plan things out. I’m not sure this correlates, but I’m willing to learn And. So I. I, Uh, put an application in That’s where I AM Now we

appreciate that more than you know. Excellent. Um all right, I will entertain a motion. To begin. I make a motion that we approve Jeff Austin as a associate member to the planning board. Have a second I second, that awesome, uh any additional questions or comments? So when I read your

resume. Oh, my God, I don’t even know what language it is. It sounds very tacky, so I’m sure you’ll be very helpful. Thank you. I love that any other questions? There’s a lot going on in town, right? Just wanted to get some thoughts on what what corner like between schools and the different, you

know, different developments and stuff. Have you been involved in that stuff? Have Any sort of. Uh, yeah. So. Be aware, I mean so I’ve been in town 15 years. I got two When I came. There were two small Children. They’re They’re 12 and 14 now, So. Uh um you know, I. I started watching the

community channel here and there as they were young and I was busy when they were young. And now that they’re a little bit older, I have some time and you know, there’s a lot of, uh, changes in town that piqued my interest in learning more because as you know you, you

you can get on social media and you can hear all the rhetoric and a lot of rumors and whatnot, and I thought the best way to really learn is from the source of the truth and get involved and be aware, so that’s where, uh, the precedence started for

me to get involved. Yeah looks good if you can get that master plan moving for us. Uh, well with no further ado, I will, uh all in favor. Thank you? Thank you very much. Thank you. You’re welcome. They. Did they did. They were unanimous. Yeah. Yeah. There was an email from Marie sent a separate email

from Marie. The one. Yeah, it’s in there. I mean it was separate from the You don’t have to feel sheepish when you Stuck out. I just I want you to know we we It doesn’t hurt our feelings like it used to when people do that. Uh, all right.

Next up. Yeah. Uh, we are gonna remove. Remove We’re gonna remove? No, we’re gonna review The matching funds proposal for the patent pavilion at Homestead with, uh, Holly and there will be a vote here. Hello, Holly. Hi, everyone. Thank you for listening tonight. Um I wanted to just do a little recap for anyone who is not

familiar with this. Conversation. Um, So in 2012 When, Joe and Patton gifted, uh, her land and family home to the town of Hamilton, known as the Patton Homestead, she said did so in the hope of protecting the property for all to enjoy and to provide a place where community could grow through public engagement and cultural

enrichment, as you know, in May 2023, Mass Cultural Council approved a potent homestead for an $87,000 facilities Grant For building a covered shelter, Uh, structure, which would aid cultural events and programs. In, which you have graciously agreed to name after Joanne Hoper Patton in honor of Joanne’s devotion to

strengthening the community. Um as the grant is contingent on a 11 match of funds. You also generously agreed to release $50,000 if the friends of the patent homestead could raise $25,000. Uh, the total would be $75,000 towards the match. I’m here today to share that the friends have raised $21,403.80.

There are still more donations pending. I am grateful for their ongoing efforts to raise money for the grant, which they have helped to write. However time is of the essence. As. You know the longer we go without reliable shelter, no visible progress, The harder. It is to keep the momentum from the past

years. Um, the positive momentum. From the last few years. Going. Uh, with the addition of the new Joanne Holberg Patent pavilion, the town will not not only memorialize a woman who has made such a positive impact to the town, but it would also create a reliable gathering

space to bring Joanne’s vision to life. I am seeking your help here this evening by asking you to consider the arrangement that was made when the 50,000 do, uh, dollars from the town was dedicated to the project pending that the friends of the patent homestead raised $25,000 given the shrinking timeline to

get this project underway. The tremendous effort that this volunteer group has made to raise money on the town’s behalf. I would like to ask that you left the the restriction here today. I’m currently working with, uh, working on a benefit showcase, aiming to raise additional funds to add to the match with the ongoing effort of the

friends, along with modest money brought in by the showcase. I believe we will be close to the $25,000 by the end of the month. 100 and $50,000 will be sufficient funding to adequately pay for the pavilion on the grounds of the patent homestead, where a covered reliable site can be used to

program. Um and be happy to answer any questions that you may have. So. The question about the size of the pavilion. How. Many people will be able to be accommodated and then where exactly at the property will it be located? That’s a great question in the paperwork that was submitted to the Mass

Cultural Council. We submitted a design that was in the, uh, frame of, uh, 30. Ft by 50 ft In the hope of seeing 100 people. And where will it be located? Oh the backside of the patent homestead offers, um, a little bit of an elevated surface. Um, where the pool shed is, um And the There is a

drawing that is part of the grant. Um, which I can always pass along to the committee, uh, to to won’t affect that gorgeous vista. It won’t affect the vista. The idea is that it will play into and elevate the vista so that not only can we do cultural programming, but we can do all sorts of different

types of events. Um, and it will actually draw people to the property. Um, and you’ll be able to kind of see through this shelter. OK? Right. So. Sorry. I understand that it’s going to be over near where the stable area is. Sorry. There’s A. There’s a Pump house where

the old pool is, can you picture where that is, there’s a cluster of trees. Yeah, and so it be nestled in with a cluster of trees, and so it would actually eliminate the eyes or what I think is a little bit of an eyesore of the pump house. Um, but it’s much larger and it will. Actually I

think it will be quite elegant. OK? And. It’s What’s the material that none of this has been, uh, decided upon because, um, in terms of like the nuts and bolts of it, we sort of need to have some funding, um, in place to be able to spend money for, um any kind of

design, but in theory in the hypothetical work up that we did in the application for the the grant we were working with wood we were working with, you know, asphalt shingles, um, very basic building materials. Thank you? So? What would the timeline be then if you were to

get this money released, and you can get the design going? When, would we be looking at a pavilion? It would be really nice to have the money released so that we can get, uh some actual money on paper like the funding on paper get it designed this summer and break ground before snow flies.

Essentially, it would probably do a procurement process that would ask for a design build type of approach because we know basically what we want. We don’t get a little bit of A little bit of input as to what the design would look like. And then, uh and then be able to do a design build, get the

building permits to get it up. Um We. We wanna make sure that we’re able to utilize the grant funding? That was we would look at a 25 season 25 season for but hopefully opening there 25 season. Um, I think that if we if we saw any longer and start this process, you know this

time next year, but it’s just it’s a It’s a short, uh, fair weather season for me as I’m Sure you can imagine, um and I would love to activate it. OK good. So we’ve already the Board in in a former iteration already Gave support for the project gave support for pavilion specifically today,

it’s we said we’d give 50 once 25 was earned. Its 21 has been donated. So the vote for us today is Will. We release the 50. And Bill, Will. You write a check for the other four. I think, yeah. Yeah, but I think I read, too, that with some of

the activity I have in place by the end of this month. Potentially you think you’ll be knocking on the door? That’s right. Yeah. Um, but there are some concerns about the timing and the grant money going and if we miss that window, then we won’t even have the the 75 from the the state. So, um, Yeah,

the question before you today is well Do. We vote to, um Approve the release of the 50. Given. All. We have now that you will continue to fundraise to reach your portion of the commitment. That’s right. Yeah. OK? Any additional thoughts concerns questions queries. I would make a motion to release the $50,000 of robber funding

towards the patent pavilion. Like Who said it first. Um Right? Yeah, well, there’s one Unfortunately. It looks rainy again. I was out of town to out last Thursday, too, or they got ran out last Thursday, but we do have a rain date coming up for the benefits so hopefully

something will pan out. And. I really appreciate your support, and, um, hopefully we can get get this project going so well, I know so all I love your optimism. Sorry to get ahead of my It’s good to like, Put some pre guilt in there before. All in favor. The clothes all in with eyes, have it. OK, so

thank you So. Much for your story. Awesome. So. You just wanna I. Just wanna make a comment that there are some people on zoom Who that they can’t hear us, So I wonder if the issue isn’t the issue isn’t with speak more into the microphones. Can they not hear us at all. Or. They said they

can’t hear the zoom And that somebody asked. Please repeat again where the site is. So. It’s a pat homestead in the back acreage behind the House and the barn and the stable down the slope. There is where the pool used to be. There was a pump house. Problem is HW can’t turn it on their mic.

Turning that off. I’m trying to hopefully you can hear me this way. So. It’s near where the old pool used to be, Uh, sort of adjacent to where the pump house is, but blend it into the little group of trees so it won’t break up the visual Across the line towards the river. Yeah. I hope you all

heard that this time. That’s it I. I keep on muting and I I get whenever you’re unmuted. I get feedback right here. So is somebody on mute to those so that they can hear you at Oh. So. Why don’t you turn off your volume all the way And then you turn off your I’m already muted.

I’ve already got my microphone off and my speaker off everything’s off. On I’m not logged in. I got nothing. I’m not on it. Try it on mute again and we’ll see what happens. I just Some buttons will maybe We have any tackies in the room? I just hate to think the public has missed all this excitement.

We’ve been on fire, just like Let’s. Just rewind it. We’ll just do it all over again. People are not sure the zoom is a courtesy. It’s not a requirement of the meeting the meeting. It’s an open in person meeting We provide zoom to try to help people participate, but

if it acts up, it’s We don’t cancel the meeting or John I’ve been recording the entire Yeah. Yeah, and I and I’m recording on Zoom, too. So my This will be fine there, but I just Yeah, Yeah Um John, McGrath and chat. Can you hear us at this point John McGrath’s left. Oh.

He’s not there anymore. That’s hurtful. All, right? Well, if if folks online continue to have problems, just let us know. Uh or join us here at the library. It’s a good time. Um All right, Wendy. Next. We’re gonna review the proposed financial policies with finance director Wendy Markowitz. Oh, thanks. Appreciate your support.

OK. Thank you. So, um Preparing for the fiscal 24 audit. It is important that we are in compliance, uh, with our financial policies, and I know that we’ve been making, uh, progress and working very hard to get as close caught up to date as we can. So I’m just bringing to your attention,

future policies that will be coming to you from the from the fin. Com, um, with their with their proposal, and, um Recommendation so the policies are grant management policy procurement, conflict of interest and comprehensive public records and technology policy. So in summary, Uh, Grant management policy kind of goes in hand. Uh, hand in hand

with the position that has been opened up for a grant. I can’t remember the name Grant position. I don’t know Joe. He’s not listening in. Thank you. Sorry. So. Um, the policy in summary to ensure Hamilton efficiently and appropriately manages its grant funded programs. This policy sets a framework for evaluating grant opportunities, tracking grant

activity and pre pre processing sorry grant revenues and expenditures. Effective Grant management helps promote the pursuit of grants that are in the town’s best interest and assure timely reimbursements to optimize cash flow to guard against, uh, year end account deficits. Um, with that, basically means is, you know if you don’t have somebody paying

attention, you can’t. Um, you know, send out for reimbursement. A lot of the grants are reimbursement, um, type and you need that person to be on the back end, searching for the grants and applying for the grants and then seeking, um, reimbursement, So, then that will be more efficient as a legal contract.

Every Grant agreement must be fulfilled in accordance with its prescribed terms and conditions as well as all applicable federal, state and local regulations. Failure in this That exposes the town legal and financial liabilities and compromises. Future grant funding that is the summary The policy is, uh, much more lengthy. And. Uh, it will.

You will have it when it’s uh complete, uh, number two procurement. Conflict of interest summary is to ensure integrity of the procure in the procurement and contract processes to educate town employees, Consultants uncompensated outside parties and any other person involved in decisions to award contracts about potential conflicts of interest. To establish a process for the screening of

conflict of interest, Just making sure that when we, um You know, go out to bid or receive contracts that there’s no conflict of interest between, uh, the town and any, um, potential vendor. Three, comprehensive public records and technology policy. Uh, this is just basically to communicate to all town employees. The importance and

responsibility of one’s awareness and compliance related to public records, management and the use of technology. It’s pretty common, uh, right now, so it goes hand in hand, and we just wanna make sure everybody’s aware. And, uh, just get these policies adopted officially. So. That’s just for your awareness. There’s no vote.

There’s just to let you know that this is what’s coming down. This process is these will go to the F, who will review them make recommendations, um, adjustments and then they’ll come back to you for, uh, for adoption. Uh, probably in July. Hopefully, it sounds like a good month. Yeah. The long list

of financial policies like years ago. We’ve been knocking them off. Is there like a comprehensive list that we’re sort of see where we’re at. Yeah. We can we can get you to these policies were part of that. Yeah. No. I agree? Yeah, I reckon recognize, but I

forget what the other ones were sort of. Yeah, it’d be good to kinda see what they are when they were last adopted. And, then kind of like what? What’s your next story for whatever. I think I think if we get these, we’ll be at 11 or 12 out of 18

or what? We’re making Good progress, That’s for sure. And. These These were the ones that were highlighted by the auditors as the most the most needed. Not needed. I should say the the highest priority and the highest year risk. Whatever. Yeah. Process. Right. We haven’t had any issues, but let’s avoid it. Thank you.

You want me to stay here for the next thing? I think so. So. We’re good with that any other, Uh, questions Or, um, so next up on the agenda is a review proposed amendments to personnel policies, uh, with town manager and finance director Wendy, So I think there were a lot of, uh,

collective bargaining activity over the past. Uh, X months and we’re gonna talk about some of the things that happened. Ask Wendy to highlight them. I just I’ll just set it up for so we negotiated. This year for the first time the town negotiated with all five unions at the same time, we had, uh, done

that intentionally to try to get all the unions on the same schedule, but also to negotiate with them in the same climate. Uh, at different times. In the past. You negotiate with three unions for a three year contract, and then you can’t hear me. So we’ve updated our Schedule for negotiating our contracts with the unions.

We’ve got all the unions on the same schedule. Now. All five unions negotiated contracts this year, part of the reason for doing that is to make sure that all the unions are being treated fairly. And, uh, through the negotiations through the collective bargaining discussions, we did provide some additional, uh, benefits. I. I. Guess.

You could call them to the, uh, Union personnel that kind of go into the category of helping employee morale, just things that make them feel better. Things they’d asked for that Don’t cost a lot of money but help them feel appreciated. And now that we’ve done that, with the five unions, we’re asking the select board to, uh, to

endorse us doing that with the nonunion personnel. So, um If you if you review when you review these with you tonight, And Then if you approve, uh, this we will have the language adopted and put into amended personnel policies that will bring back to you and and in July to have voted So. Um the

There are five pieces of the of the union contracts that would also affect, um nonunion employees. First of all the cola increase of 3.5%, which is effective on July 1st of the new fiscal year. Uh, the second, um Change is annual longevity bonus. So that was only in a couple of contracts. Now.

It’s in all five to be F to be paid the first paycheck of of the new fiscal year. Uh, all five CBAS include an annual longevity bonus for full time employees from 7 to 10 years 1811 to 19 years 2021 years or more of service. Uh $2250. Currently. There are six positions that are not in

department head positions that would be considered eligible for an annual longevity bonus. Um, the director of assessing town accountant, treasurer, assistant DPW, director, assistant treasurer and conservation agent of the six positions, there are two positions that meet the criteria in years of, um anywhere from 7 to 20 years.

The. Other ones are not quite there. They may come along in the future, but not right now, Uh, birthday day off all exempt. Would have the same benefit as collective bargaining units to take their birthday day off in close proximity to the actual day without, uh, causing an overtime situation.

Vacation buyback and carry forward for all exempt employees would have the same opportunity to request up to one week of unused vacation buyback prior to the end of the fiscal year, which we cannot currently do, and the second is to request up to one week of unused vacation at the end of the fiscal year to be

carried over. Um, now from July 31st to August 31st of the next fiscal year to make it, um Easier for people to use their time. And the last one is all eligible step increases would be effective in the last paycheck in January. Currently. They’re all whenever their date of hire is so this would make

it streamlined and much more efficient and everybody would be on the same page. Those are that’s it. You have any questions for us? Have we have has this been quantified and impact to the budget. I mean there’s some things that are that looked like it rolls forward right to get everyone

on the same page. Obviously, someone’s gonna get an earlier than anticipated staffers. There will be a couple of those, but they won’t. But. Uh, the unions had had all agreed to it, and it’ll help us, Pa. Part of the thing you have to keep in mind is that, uh, we have a a

small accounting and department and we actually have one person who does all the payroll stuff and right now, every month she’s running around chasing different people to get their, um, anniversary date. Make sure that you can get, um They’re step increases, if by moving everybody to step increase is

happening once a year. It’s just like coal is she can adjust everybody’s pay for step increases once a year and then all the work is done, and we do the same thing already with cola. So that’ll be, um you’ll get you step increase in January. You, Get your cola in July and no no other pay

adjustments in between. And the salary reserve. That was, uh, part of the budget. It takes all this into consideration. Any questions over There. Pretty Pretty comprehensive. But, the five unions, so there was a question from the audience. Uh, about what other five unions we have a police union, a fire union AD, PW workers union and

administrative, uh, clerical union. And, the dispatchers Union. Um so three of them are public safety units. One is public. Uh, one is public works and the other is the admin. Tom White. Um, so the vacation they were always was a carry forward, right? The buy back is there was a carry forward for one

week up to one week for only one month. Um, unless there were extenuating circumstances the town manager could approve. You know it longer. We’ve negotiated that we’d allow everybody that carries forward to carry forward have until end of August, But they’re really would have to be an extreme situation to approve anything beyond August 30th 31st, and it

becomes difficult with July 31st because of the year end Everybody is scrambling to make sure that all the year end Uh, stuff is complete. Right, right? And then in the in a union like the DPW part of the reason this got negotiated in is union like the DPW union. We get a lot of

work done in the summertime. So now, all of a sudden, uh, some of the older employees that have been here for a while are trying to use their vacation time in June and July or they lose it. So. We have two different incentives. One if you are an older employee, and you have maxed out at four or

five weeks, you can’t you don’t have to use it. You can sell one week back to the town and get paid for it. And then the other one you’d have until the end of August to using and that allows us to be able to keep scheduling work to get done, Um,

and have employees available to get that work done. Yeah, makes sense. How. Many exempt employees do we have Oh, boy like a handball. There’s a hand. So. Many people do you have there? It’s Round about a lot of the policies would affect anybody that’s not in a union. Um, but some the longevity wouldn’t affect any departments.

Department heads wouldn’t get longevity only non department non Exempt employees. OK? Well under 20. I’m gonna say it is under We only have 65 total employees so Definitely under 20. Any further discussion. Could I, get a motion. Um Where are we here to, uh, to vote? On

the amendments. Yeah. Hold on a second. Uh, and make a move. I was trying to get the language here. I make a motion to approve the proposed amendments of personal politics. As I Your client Inspector. Second A second I and any further discussion all in favor. I Thank you. Wendy been working

on for a long time, Joe to get it, you know, give a quick example and, uh in 2020. When the lockdown happened. We had two unions that were supposed to negotiate and we had absolutely no idea what the financial future was gonna hold. Um, And at that point, I was able to go to and say, look in

the interest of, um In the interest of just making sure we treat you fairly. How about we just take the terms of this contract and extend it for one year and the next year, we’ll have a little bit better idea of where we stand, and they

agreed to do that. So. We held all the same terms that year, but that meant that they were then 2 to 3 years out of step with the other three unions that had negotiated the previous year. So when the next group of unions came up, I negotiated only two year contracts with them so that we

could get all five on the same schedule. And so these are the ones just to prove the two years? No. These are now all in the same. These are now all new three year deals. Three years, I. I laid that ground work a couple of years ago, OK? 21.

OK, thank you. Uh, Next on the agenda is to re review and approve medium room use, policy and license agreement. We’ll discuss and vote. And we have a document. Here. They are in the So, Uh, as you had asked at the last meeting we we proposed, um, a draft meeting room use policy and, um, license agreement, uh,

or application that would have to get signed and reviewed by department heads to be used. Um, the, uh, agreements were Based a little bit on the patent homestead use agreement, um, modified to include three meeting rooms. Uh, the meeting the memorial room at town hall when the town hall reopens, and

we’ve identified it as two spaces in the council and agent currently because there is a plan to put up a a movable wall to separate that space so and identified it currently as the primary meeting room in the auxiliary meeting room. And. Uh, this would kind of set the ground rules for how people can,

uh, can ask to use the meeting room. It does, uh, require them to complete an application, identifying the responsible party and to provide, uh an insurance. Uh, waiver, um, with with certain restrictions with certain minimum limits, covering the town in the event that something happens while

someone not the town is using the room. Um You. I know it’s a lot of information and II. I don’t necessarily expect the board to want to vote on it tonight, and you’ve only got three of you here right now. So if you wanted to, you know, Review it some more and have further discussion and come

back at the next meeting I. I certainly would understand that, but I definitely wanted to, uh, make sure we got it into you so that you could start to consider it. Um So I. I just have a couple of comments. Um, first comment is, um did we decide that it would be available to Hamilton. We I

folks only Because I. Think about the Council on aging. It’s very Yeah, setting and so I. I thought that would be an appropriate thing to to do so. Town councils opinion is that that might be difficult to defend. We can certainly lay out in the policy that the

intent is for Hamilton and wham residents. Only, um If. It gets challenged. We’ll have to kind of cross that bridge when we come to it, But once you make something public, it’s it’s public. And you can’t that That’s. That’s been the case. In. Other instances. So. We’re, uh, we’ve been framed this so

two different things that people can attend. It are the people that can plan it. Yeah people attended the people plan it we we could certainly make that a condition a condition is that it has to be. It has to be, um Hamilton Hamilton resident to be the responsible party sponsor and and and and Thing

is, um Um, I. I like the idea of a policy. I think this policy um as written, I understand, it’s a draft. It’s a little verbose and, um, I, I would I would like to see it, um, streamlined and tightened up and I’m happy to look at it and offer some some edits.

Happy to have your edits. It. I mean, Agreement six pages. But And. I’m wondering if it’s if it’s a thought. Process. It’s gonna use somewhere else, but it’s only gonna be for these two rooms. You probably And specifically true of you. I don’t need to have these six pages. I really don’t see any

other rooms that the town currently owns that we have that that specifically the town of Hamilton has control over that. We don’t we already have a youth policy and and agreement in place for the patent homestead. The Park is already under the rec department. There are no other

rooms that would be suitable to being allowed to be used for public uses. Um, the the training room at the P at the Public Safety building is one that people would ask about, but that’s a public safety building. There’s a lot that goes on there. Um, it It’s. It needs to be a secure, uh,

location. We would never offer that publicly to be available. It protects you from. I mean it protects The six pages that protect itself having me we don’t want to have there because it’s a lot of Where you got, but it also makes it a little Onerous. So why don’t you take a look at our Roman

and see if you can get on with and then obviously bring it back to the to the board to, uh Again. And if there was another space that became available at some point, then we could just bring it back to the board to to be annotated. Yeah, I.

Just. Think about the council AJ. I understand? Joe can just walk me through what you I mean? I I’ve read the sort of the D OS and don’t but can you just walk us through? Approval process that you see happening like if someone’s having an event, it’d be a It’d be administrative. So the building. Uh, principal in

this case in in the council. Excuse me in case of Council on aging. It would be Theresa Woodbury or the future Senior, Center director at the mo at the town hall. It would be the town manager. Uh, would, uh, make sure that they get the application completed. It gets

reviewed by myself and you know, DPW or, uh, public safety just to make sure that we feel like we can manage the the size of the crowd, and then it’s It’s administrative at that. Point. You set the policy. They have the agreement as long as they provide proof of the insurance and they’ve completed the

application. We can approve it. And it as again it’s public use so we wouldn’t be denying things on any We wouldn’t be denying things as long as they need to be the requirements right unless it doesn’t meet the the conditions of the of the use agreement. Well. Is it

an opportunity to an earlier comment where we don’t want the facilities or rooms to be poli political activism side should we incorporate anything like that? Where where? Because we don’t wanna You know what if there’s something there that the town doesn’t really That’s a sponsor, but that that’s a

that’s a danger and II. I spoke with Town council about that extensively, but Uh, Free speech amendment says that we we can’t limit the speech. So if somebody comes in as Somebody using a public building. Doesn’t NEC not necessarily mean that the town endorses that use. It just

means that they were a member of the public and we’ve allowed a member of the public to use the building. Um That’s You know we’re not really allowed to say you can or can’t do this or that we can’t, uh, limit their free speech rights.

Carolina, right? It because we do say it can’t be I I had I had the heart to heart with the with Town Council, and, uh, honestly. The But, it says with the adoption of an agreement like this, the the town could open itself up to being you

know. Asked to if there was a local resident willing to to to sponsor being asked to have some something there that we don’t want there. Um, and there’s nothing we could do about it. Town Hall Town Hall Memorial two rooms at the Council on aging. That’s it right now. This agreement would

apply to those those three rooms only. Well, well, I think that was what we were just talking about that, um, it would have to be, um The plan would be for a local Hamilton. We Lenham resident to actually initiate and be the responsible party. You know? Well, but somebody could want to go like

we do partner on a on a lot of issues with when I and I mean if the if the Select board wants to amend that, and have it be just Hamilton residents, I, I can understand that war and more joint things with it and our council in aging,

already partners a lot with the town of Wenham So yeah, Yeah. No. Yeah. No, no, that’s a good question. It it. It’s a good question. I’m just trying to explain the the thought process, But. The. Uh, the board wants to amend that they again This

is just the first draft. They, can we have so many? We have so many things in common with them that it would be? I think it would be hard. Just because there’s so many Parts of the town that are combined. If. There’s an event came out of a school or came out of the

library or came out of something else. It would be hard to separate it, but Yeah, but I mean I can see it either way, but I thought it made sense to be having one. And and don’t know B. These are. You can institute a fee? It’s up to

the select board if you want to add a fee. Uh, we have to It’s for local residents, then I. I think it should be a perk. We pay enough in taxes. Right? But I mean? I? Don’t know I haven’t asked you. I mean it’s this came out because somebody asked

to use a room so we didn’t really have a you So I mean it hasn’t come up that many times. The question is is like we had We had two people in the in the space of one ask, and it was like down. We gotta figure out

how How do we do? The Town Hall gets renovated. It’s gonna be a nice room. People. Don’t use it. So the meeting room on the second floor will be handicapped accessible with the elevator. It’s gonna be a really nice room. So does one of them have a have a meeting

room meeting room youth policy for there? I do not know. I have asked Haven’t asked the I got a vote tonight. We. Look at it. We consider it. We’ll have more conversation about it. But I. Don’t think it’s I mean? I think it’s a great thing to do

to create meeting spaces for our town to To do things and we we have these nice spaces now, so we gotta make sure we don’t create something that Back for now. Sorry we got I. I know, I said the part, but we’re supposed to go to Mike to talk just because people are online.

Joe. I understand your concern about the free speech, Jeff Austin again heard from earlier. Um, So. Is there a path for concerned citizens that want to put a petition up or what’s the path there? If there’s it or is there is no path. For. Certain groups that are concerning to residents about using town facilities. To promote things

that are maybe at at You know the jet. The overall towns interest. I think that’s where it’s coming from. So. You’re asking it. Would there be a way for a petition to stop something from happening, So. I understand you’re concerned about the legal side of it being, uh, infringed on some

free speech. That’s his explained to me by town Council I. I was just re repeating the answer that I was given. Um and I mean I see both sides of it. There’s definitely a concern. You know that. The classic example is is if you open it up

to one. Then. You know what happens if you know The, United States Nazi organization wants to come into town. How can you sell the milk and the legal answer is always you can’t Um, in this case, we’re we’re saying that in order for the Nazi organization to come to Hamilton when I, a Hamilton

resident would have to put their name on the paper as sponsoring that and to come up with the insurance, uh, liability form if this even gets approved, so that would be the path But once you do that You’re open to that. Yeah. This is also what the library here does They open their the

library to groups and they don’t endorse anything. Somebody is basically just renting the meeting space, So. I think that’s kind of what we’re thinking about. And it also You know. Build it? It breeds tolerance. I mean I don’t have to, like everything that somebody wants to pursue,

but I think it’s important that we that anybody who wants to rent a space within Reason right in a child sacrifice or things like that. But you didn’t do anything illegal. I think that’s in the policy. I think that that That. I agree with you. I think that, um I think it should be a fee

because town about sponsoring something sponsoring in kind. Should be there to actually pay for. It sounds like giving it for free to organization. I think it’s important a nominal fee, I think, but I think that crosses sort of in that way. It’s not. It’s not advertised with town outside sponsored by

the town. It’s limited. It’s not outside. It’s. It’s in the room, and it’s like, so there’s limitations on size and And. You know things like that, so I think we can work on it and decide what we do, but I think it’s a good first step, Joe. Thank you bring together I think it’s important that we

have a policy. Yeah, And and I agree. Yeah. I think a fee too, and I think like if there is something that we incur an additional cost, like I don’t know. Maybe it’s in here, and I missed it, but like it should be over by a certain point or

because we wanna make sure they’re locked and secured. And if it goes over a certain period and we have to have somebody stay late to do something, then they should cover that cost. That would be the person who is The Responsible party, Right, Maybe, maybe a deposit a damage

deposit or something I would say. I know the library does if you go over certain time slot, there’s an extra charge. But I, I think we they come in, and they go like this to you, or they would send a bill. Lots of schools charge a custodial fees.

So, if you if you’re going to be in the building after hours, then you get you get charged for the the the time of the custodian, um, that that could be something. I actually prefer the idea that you previous sight of Yeah, I like it? I

think so. You you have to be out of the building by X time. You know you pick a time. 8:30 p.m. nine PM something like that. So. You limit the length of time. And. I think this policy already says that it would be for non operational hours. So like we we’re not offering the meeting room

during the hours of operation at the Council on aging. We’re offering it when the when the Council of managing would be closed, and if we limit those hours to keep it finite, it might help us as well. OK, so we’re gonna take this back. Rosie. I think you’ve offered to kind Streamline a

potentially, and maybe we’ll add some, uh, hours or fees and and things. Yeah. Nominal fee nominal fee. Or deposit or something. OK Alright. Okay S. Good discussion. Uh, Next topic. Um, schedule FY 25 goal setting for the town. Did I miss one? What’s that? If you go over the hard time. It’s it should be

there. Where is that? I don’t see it out there. Did we pass it up. This is what was on the table. I have it up here. I can go to the one live. I Think so? I think we did add that this might have been an earlier

version of the agenda. OK, no worries. Yeah. Let me go back to it. Uh, let’s see. Then. You didn’t get it. You didn’t get the actual document Bill. I printed out this version of the agenda. I printed it out. Yeah. This was on the table and that’s what I brought to keep

track of the meeting, But it may not. It’s in the packet, it may not be the proper agenda and the hot topics, but yeah, so I guess the next item will be a review of a one pager about hot topics. One page about time it was supposed to

be before the meeting we saw so and Caroline has a note here that you’d like to see. Yes. Have it done by Friday so we can get it out as mailing. And and so Yeah, I love it. Love it, but I would love it if it was

one page. Hence the name had a hard time getting on one page. Uh, so a lot of that was not drafted by me. Um I. I contributed to the drafting, but I, I can take an editor’s eye. Are there things in it that you are concerned about

that I should take a first look at think it’s got a little. I think it’s I think the details Great, But, I think if you’re getting a detail, you probably can be be reference to a a website or a department to call to get more information, But.

I think it’s great. I think it would be better one page. You are going to turn the page. OK? I would I’ll reduce it to one page? Do. You want to authorize me to reduce it to one page and be be have that be because if we want to get this done before Friday, you won’t have another

meeting. You won’t have another meeting. Yeah, maybe we should Phil Wilson. Thank you rosemary, Did You, Uh, work on this with Caroline. No. We’d never did. Uh um Collaborate. For some reason, Yeah. And to find it. If you’re gonna pull it up here, Joe. But Really for the

Community and maybe they can look at it and get they wanna make a comment They can I think it’s a great On page 24. Is slightly different because I I was working on it again today, so you have four hot tubs in this way You got the Gordon

Conwell. The mass. 1 33 6 and then the second page was, uh, school building project. So. All these have to be trimmed just a bit. I think if you trim like four lines out of each one you get, um One page and maybe by changing the font. I can get it out of Aptos into something

that’s a little smaller, it might help to. I think it’s um A. Good thing to sort of have for And the I. The idea is that we’d put this on the town website by Friday. And. Then we we’re gonna send out. Um, a a general drop mail mailing to everybody to let them know about next Wednesday’s forum

That’ll be held both live here from component about The idea was originally to do AAA for about, um all of these topics. I think it might be difficult in the amount of time that we’re gonna have, uh, to touch on all four, but we’ll we’ll outline some things make a short presentation and then and

then take some questions. Um, next Wednesday evening here. And, So. It’ll probably be, um Principally about the three A zoning and the, um The school vote because I think those are the, uh, the elementary school project because I think those are the two things that have a lot of overlap and have the

most the most time sensitive right now, um We. We need to get people’s input on those things and have them aware of the with the different processes are and how they can plug into those, Um The 133 Essex is currently pause while it’s while the safe harbor is being appealed by the developer

and the Gordon Caldwell, As, we said at the top of the meeting is progressing on its own pace right now, so, um, we can answer questions about, um that to the extent that we have information, but we we don’t need to make a lot of, uh, presentation about Gordon Calwell next week. But.

All. This information will live online. On the website. Yeah I. I mean I would just caution to get to one page if we lose content that would not be good. I mean I’m going through your life. Go to the second page, right, Joe. It’s about a half a page over going to the school

stuff. Just give you an example. Right. So, like the third tenants down, it says, uh, It says, Um, the school committee has several votes upcoming in the color school Building Committee in Consulting are targeting the students and you could just say the school building committee are targeted June submission to the MS B A,

and it says the same thing. So you you made like half the work right? So. I can do that. I’ll do that tomorrow. Sure. Um, I’m thinking on that, Um, on that one Since since the vote. Oh. I’m Sorry, Uh, Deb Safford, Um so because the school committee is voting on Thursday like they’re making their decision

you could cut out like seven lines there and just say after Thursday night, you know the vote was blank right and that’ll eliminate that part. Um, if you go up, please, to the three a one. I’m just gonna highlight this because I know to change all that. I think that that’s like that. If that

was mailed two weeks ago that would make sense. But, since the answer is gonna be there unless they don’t decide. And then that would be great, too. But, Um, on the three a thing I just wanna qualify or clarify that the, um the UTL was hired a resin advisory group has been

established a deliverable Will be a T The three a proposal for the town to consider. I Don’t recall that that’s actually the deliverable. I think it was a development of the downtown and three a, according to the planning Board. Um you know, it was gonna be like a bucket. I think Jonathan Paul was talking

about like, Let’s pull out the bucket of wind of Winthrop. Let’s pull out three A and let’s focus on the development of the downtown, So I think that’s going to be very incendiary. I didn’t I didn’t write this, but so just like, If you wanna have the And I think it’s great to have a

discussion about that, but I think we have to be really careful that that’s not It might be that the RFP said that that was the deliverable, but I think that that’s been changed since that RFP was done is my understanding from the planning board who was sort of running this and this. Playing boards

involved. They’re not running it, and they actually have been very careful to say that they aren’t running it right. Oh, So there’s two people that are on it that were involved heavily with you and someone else and doing it is also involved in several other stakeholders. Yeah I. I just think that Yeah.

So. It does state the primary is to, uh, explanation. Exploration of a form based code to shape any future development, and it leads in because the sub bullet is three A, which is a big topic. One of the deliverables. Is this it but it actually right, But. I’m not sure that that’s actually

the deliverable of that committee. I. Guess this is the but of three a of of of the contract with and it’s again the as an example of like, where the three a would go and where it wouldn’t go. Based on OK. As. Far as our reading is our C. Our. Our responsibility is to present something to town

meeting and let the town decide And unless we have something to present. We can’t do that. So we’re working. To try to get the best. Plan for the downtown with form base code and everything else and then a part of this will be. Hey Tom meeting. Do. You Wanna do this.

If You do this. It will comply with three A. If you don’t It won’t but we still have all this other good stuff over here that we can still do. So. It’s not again the be. It’s not like we’re trying to make sure it gets passed. We’re trying to

present options. That’s and we’re I’d be late anyway, so We’re gonna miss it. I miss it so, and the form base would the way I look at it. Correct me if I’m wrong Is it a lot could actually put parameters around it and limit you know 700 units,

But. It would say the form base will, you know, promote other stuff in the area it’ll allow for X and if a developer wants to do X, they have to follow this right? So three. A is a really hot topic. If you guys that’s right. And so it’s great to have this discussion.

And. Are, you guys working with consultants like Are? You gonna be pitching it or are you just here to hear from people like what is that meeting? And be like I think the idea for um one next Wednesday is kind of just Make sure that everybody knows what’s going on. Ask people to plug in, Ask people

to get involved give their feedback give their perspectives so that we get as much public input into this as possible. OK could I just do a public service announcement on one thing that there is a bill that’s going that’s being stalled in, Um, the Legislature of the State House. It’s an

amendment to 40 a. I think it is 4040? No 40. It’s 48. It’s a 48, which is a section is it’s what is that if you meet your 40 B numbers, the three a would be removed. Yeah, so that’s a really, really important thing that as a as a committee, you know that’s supporting the town.

There’s so much push back about three A like we should be advocating for talking to our legislatures to have that go through because Then like if we meet our our target with the seminary, you know, then the whole three a argument within our town, which is really dividing our town, which is not

a good thing. You know it’s a very that would alleviate a lot, And I hope that you can bring maybe that up as well at the meeting, so it can be an information. This is what three A is. And this is what it isn’t and let’s make sure we’re all talking about the same thing.

And we’re not using like deceptive language to make people think that it’s Oh. It’s just a zoning, but it’s never gonna be built. You know? No? No. The Camel nose under the tent if the nose I think that in the fall that could change all of this, So that is also

very true. So Alright, so I’ll make make change, so just so I know, because I read about that today as well. So. That’s 48 which 440 B if you hit that number, which Gordon potentially could then so Cha cha chapter 48 is the general zoning housing regulation and Section three a. The M BT.

A law is referred to as Section three A because Section three a of 4840 B is a separate, uh, proposal under the zoning to to specifically create affordable housing. They didn’t the Legislature didn’t want three a to be only affordable. In fact they don’t even have an affordable requirement within

three a Right, but but based on the size, there’d be less expensive. Yeah. On. The end of the Yeah. Uh, it’s a very good point. I think it makes sense to link the two together. Uh So Hi. Uh, Steven mccorter 18 Cunningham drive. Uh, just so people understand that the the three A numbers make our 40 B

look worse. Yeah. It will right and that’s probably what they’ll connect unless we’re able to get the the it’s a percentage. So, the bigger It’s a percentage of right, so that makes it worse. It’ll just increase the goal 25% and we all want affordable housing, but it’s like three. Yeah 38 is

not heading in the correct direction. And, um Seeing how it’s a hot topic. I might as well speak a little about the, uh, survey that happened. I’ll talk to the school committee. That wasn’t our survey just to be clear the town. The School Committee did that on Thursday. We had nothing to do with that.

So Oh. I have a whole plan about all your numbers, So I. I don’t need to ask a lot of, uh Yeah? No, I’m anxious to hear too I Don’t know I. I called the the chair and I tried to get out. They have nothing pulled together. The There’s a

subcomittee, Uh and they’re gonna present it on Thursday. So, we We’re all waiting to see it. I saw it. I didn’t see all the results, but a lot of people thought it was, um Oh, you saw the survey, but not the consolidated results. That’s what I’m talking about, but I’m gonna give feedback a lot.

A. Lot of people thought it was, uh, a hacking exercise. Didn’t really represent. It was coming from the town. Look like spam. But anyway, Um, one of the first things they presented was, um, a formula of 47%. All my numbers come off the state. So Uh, the reimbursement will be no nowhere near 47% so It

creates a misleading survey. Her results But anyway, Thank you I appreciate it. OK, um So. Yeah. So. I think we’ll take that as an action to try to get I Do I am concerned we get a lot of gonna happen when transpire between now and, uh, Friday, anyway, so if we can

get it there, let’s get it there. I do think some wording can help it, You know, even in the lead in could go away. So if we can get a one pager That’d be great. I would just caution on. Let’s not lose content from it, That’s all.

Alright, um 25 goal setting for the town and the manager. Do. We have a proposed schedule timeline. I think that I would I was gonna say that we typically try to do goal setting in June. We’re already in June. So. Um, but in order to Thank you, everybody. Thank you see you again soon. Um, I.

I would I would ask that we try to do it in either late June or early July, so that that there’s opportunity for the board to have time to assess my performance against the goals. So. Is there something that is there something that we have we can look at and in anticipation of maybe putting this on, uh,

the next or the one following meeting of what Here were the goals. Here’s kind of things that happened against them or anything like that. And. Then we work from that, or you guys to pick a date to set a goal setting meeting. Um But.

I think a lot of what I’m saying is like I think of like what? We’re What are our current goals We have right and then so how do we, you know, Extend them or say me? It met it, met it and add or delete, you know.

So I. I know that the board had kind of reviewed me back in February. I think it was so Sean and Caroline had that right up so we can, So does that have all the goals so we could start from that? You start from that that had the,

uh the goals that I was being assessed on there. And so we typically in the years past, we take those goals and some of them get Forward and some of them drop off because they’ve been accomplished or what. Um So. Um, if you don’t have that

And Rosie. You might not cause you weren’t on the board at the time. So If you don’t have that. Let me know, we’ll get you a copy and anybody else that doesn’t have it. I’ll get you a copy? Um So that you can So, maybe like between Caroline and I. We can use that document and

kind of shift it into a 25 a forward looking document. And that’s usually what happens with the goal setting. We. Take that document we I’m just thinking if we have a live document we can work on from that. You know what I’m saying? And then, um I’m open to suggestions when you wanna do

it so Yeah, I think we’ve got a lot going on, but I think like I. I haven’t seen what’s on the top agenda for next meeting, but I think it would should be within the next two meetings. Um, they the board has at times had a special meeting to do

goal setting and a couple of times. They’ve even done it on a Saturday. Um You can do that. You can do it all by virtual to make it easier for everybody because that’s now allowed, uh under state law, if you want if you thought that would make it easier, um Actually I like that.

Better like a separate meeting. I don’t know what what you two think. But. Uh, whether it’s uh, you know, a Saturday Yeah. We use it on a salary. So let’s work to get a date on Saturday in June and I will meet with the I will call you in the chair and see which Saturday in

June. You Wanna pick and then we’ll make sure the other members are all available and I try to get an accountant. So. In. The. Meantime, I just reviewed last year’s goals and, you know I’ll work with Caroline or I’ll I’ll flip it so we can, you know, use that as a working document 2229 so

maybe start with it. 22nd Tentatively does that work for people or is that aggressive? I will be here. Uh, we kind of Check with Caroline. See if the 22nd works In the morning. Is there a time or That. You’ve done this historically nine o’clock nine o’clock on the 22nd to bring coffee.

And, You’ll have to bring your own coffee. I. See? OK? I don’t know if you if you could do it at the homestead. Is there a room that would, uh, that’s quaint. Uh, it has to be a room that the public can have access to. Nobody’s ever shown up.

It has to be a room that the public can have access to so We might actually be able to do it at the memorial room Still, or, um, Or we might have to do it by zoom, cause. I don’t think we can get a Saturday in June in this room. Let’s shoot for

that, Uh, the 22nd see if that works, we’ll start some emails going around at nine o’clock and we’ll work on. You know, just making sure we have the existing goals and we’ll kind of delete and add from there. And. We can use this one page or even as a as a start with it

incorporate that in There’s a lot Cause. I think, too, depending on what happens Thursday with the schools and, you know how does the town work with the schools at that point, really, on Moving forward. There’s a lot of lot of connectivity that has to take

place there if that goes that way. OK. I think we have a, uh, recommendation on that? All, right. Any new business? Moment for me, I think from you A lot of ground. Something and moving something forward, which is good. Alright, then I’ll entertain emotion. She A All in