We have a lot to cover tonight, but I'm gonna call to, uh, order the select board meeting for Tuesday, July 10th. July 10th. Why is this June. Why does it have the wrong? Do you have the wrong one? Sorry, I have the wrong 1 July 21. Yeah, I

00:00:20,000	I just wanna make sure I get the right 10 yeah, right.

00:00:23,100	There we go.

00:00:31,300	All right. July 21st. OK, here we go. So, um, We'll do a roll. Do we need to do a roll call vote because we're all here tonight. Yeah, we're all here. So nobody and uh Rose Mayor will be here shortly. You got the CPC have a committee? Have they got a call to order?

00:00:49,729	Sure. This is Jay Butled, chair of the CPC. Go call order?

00:00:52,530	This is the, uh, July 21st, uh, co-meeting with the select board. Uh, I'm just gonna do a quick roll call to see if we have a quorum. Robert Preston is here. Kim Deedle, no, Sandy Carting, no, uh, Michelle Horgan, yes, Bill Wilson, yes, Sean Farrell, yes, myself and Darcy Dale, no, OK, we have a quorum. Thank you.

Excellent. So, uh, G, I'm gonna turn over to you and, uh, we're gonna have our meeting following this meeting, so I'm gonna let you, um, give the, uh, update and public information. So I think you have a PowerPoint. Pardon, you have a PowerPoint? Yes, it's on Joe's computer.

00:01:50,870	Oops. We'll take you, hold on.

00:01:55,370	It's in the packet as well.

00:02:00,670	Yeah.

00:02:03,670	Come on.

00:02:08,930	Is that the first that's the Ja or do you need me to go back on? OK, um, this is our end is, uh,

00:02:19,199	a meeting to, uh, satisfy the statute for a public meeting of the CPC. So several years ago we've adopted the strategy of meeting with the select board to update them and the general public together. So you'll see some tutorial stuff in here, some historical stuff, some new trends, some look to the future, so a little

bit of everything. Next side, the, um, we have 9 members. The coordinator is Cindy Farrell, and as you can see we have a representatives from other committees, uh, the, uh. Historic District commission rep is vacant, but we have a conservation commission rep, planning board rep, a housing authority rep, and a select board rep.

00:03:10,030	The, uh, a little history, the Community Preservation Act in the state became law in 2000. Hamilton adopted in 2005. Uh, as of today, 201 of the 351 communities in mass or 57% participate. Communities get to choose from a 1% to a 3% surcharge on their property taxes. The CPA trust fund managed by the mass Department of Revenue

sets and distributes the state match to what we collect in November of each year. And the source of funds for this trust fund, uh, all of the property transaction fees from the 21 mass register of deeds offices and any potential year in state service that would be voted by the legislature, they've done this 6 times.

00:04:06,629	mass Preservation Act itself requires communities to appoint a 9 person committee with with some specific representation as I mentioned, and it requires us to set up dedicated internal financial accounts to keep track of the moneys going in and out and keep them in the various categories. It also allows the committee to recommend bonding for large projects.

it allows the CPCs to evaluate and approve projects for funding in only three categories open space and recreation, historic preservation, and community housing. And as we hear tonight, it requires an annual public information meeting.

00:04:52,100	Uh, in November 2024, this past year, our 1% surcharge revenue is about $582,000.

00:05:02,500	The state matched that with 18% in mid November for $105 for a total revenue of just over $687,000.

00:05:12,829	Joe, next slide.

00:05:15,930	Thank you. Yep, I show you, uh, Renham's, uh, trust fund distribution as well. They have a 3% surcharge there, so they get a couple extra rounds of distribution, as you can see by the chart, but you can see that this total CPA revenue at 3% is 731,000 compared to 687,000 for Hamilton, not much difference.

And if we had a 3% surcharge, not suggesting we do that right now, the, uh, potential CPA revenue would be over a million dollars.

00:05:57,800	This chart shows the historical CPA trust fund distribution. Sorry you can't read it. This presentation will be posted to. A, uh, tomorrow, so you can go and download a copy of my whole presentation. Bottom line is starting from the beginning of the CPA trust fund, it was a 100% state match.

It's whittled its way down to this past year 21 or 18%. It went 38, 21, 18% this year. I'll mention a minute where it's headed.

00:06:36,100	In February 2025 the the update on the trust fund was that the. Match for November of this year might be about 18%. However, registry of these revenues are up 4000 at the end of May and 175,000 at the end of June over last year. So current thinking is that the state matched maybe a couple of

percentages higher over last year, maybe 20%.

00:07:08,769	In terms of the trust fund itself, there's no expected transfer of excess budget fund by the mass legislative this year. In fact, last year at this time I mentioned the mass millions tax that might offer some funds because uh that those that millionaires tax is gonna be dedicated to education and transportation.

However, despite collecting 2.6 billion in revenues, it had no effect on the CPA. Uh, recently, the Mass state rep Brad Jones of North Reading, the House minority leader, suggested some of the $25 million in taxes from the Plain bridge slot parlor and uh two casinos that's used through annual horse racing subsidies

provide be provided to the Community Preservation fund. There's one place in the state anymore that has horse racing. That's Plainridge Park. He hasn't filed a bill yet, but we'll see.

00:08:11,730	A word about the Mass Community Preservation Coalition. This is a Boston-based nonprofit coalition of all the communities who adopted the CPA. Director is Stuart Saginaw. He's been there since the beginning. It was formed in 1990 to help the passage of the CPA and the communities pay annual dues. Our dues are $2,875 a year.

They also uh we also required to submit reports on all grants because they keep data on all CPA adoptions, all approved grants, and information on all CPCs statewide that's pretty easy to access. They also help communities with understanding, adoption, and information of the CPA. And they advocate at the state level.

They provide opinions to us and many others on the eligible grants as necessary.

00:09:11,000	Um, status of Essex County communities. There's quite a few that have not adopted the CPA. You can see the list there, uh, and then there's a range from 1% to 3%. Uh, we're in the middle there at, uh, 2% in Hamilton and Wenham you can see is 3%. So there's a range, uh, not much moving here.

Swamp's gonna adopted last year at 1.5%. Danders tried to move on it last year, but it didn't happen, so they still do not participate. Uh, a comment about tax rates and the CPA. Hamilton finally stepped ahead of Wenham in the tax rate category, so we're higher tax rate than Wenham. Uh we're the highest in the county.

The 3rd highest is Amberry. Uh, the lowest is Newbury, 2nd lowest Rockport, followed by Lawrence, and then in terms of the state level, Long Meadow for years now remains the highest in the state and the lowest in the state is now Edgartown. And before you ask, there's no correlation between tax rates

and what communities did in adopting the CPA.

00:10:31,899	A comment about the uh surcharge calculation. You can see on the chart that I show a range of property assessments from 500,000 to 1.5 million and then I show what the property tax would be in Hamilton and then what the annual 2% surcharges. At, uh, just looking at the million dollars, a million

dollar property pays over $15,000 a year in taxes, and they pay $282 a year for the CPA surcharge, and it's divided up on with the four tax bills you received during the year as a line right under the taxes itself. I show you the calculation of how you get there. A comment about exemptions.

Not everybody has to pay the 2% surcharge. First, the 1st 1000 of property evaluation is exempt by uh for everyone. And then for taxpayers over 65 who get a $100,000,000 elderly exemption from the state, they get a full boat exemption. And Hamilton has exemptions for senior 60+ and low income non-senior families.

I'll share what that is in a minute. This property This slide shows property owned by non-senior uh. One person household 90,000 4 person household 128,000. If you fall under this, you don't have to pay any CPA and then you can see the property owned by seniors has similar levels and you apply to the assessor's office, the exemption.

00:12:20,230	A word about the uh application process to get a grant.

00:12:27,299	The two applications. First is eligibility, and 5 members of the 9 on the CPC need to approve during this phase we're vetting the applicant. We're determining its eligibility and for many times we're seeking opinions from town council, KP Law, or the Community Preservation Coalition. They're both professor experts in the field of, uh, CPA.

Uh, after we approve eligibility, we go to a funding application again we need 5 members to approve. We view the cost estimates, look at identification of additional funding sources, and if necessary make a recommendation on bonding if needed. The town meeting vote, uh, is a simple majority for approval unless there's a bond involvement it's 2/3.

The grants approved by the CPC and their committee are automatically placed on the warrant for town meeting. Uh, there is, uh, subsequent reviews after our vote by both the select board and the Finom in in some detail, and they make their recommendations at town meeting.

00:13:42,830	The next slide is a quick reference guide to what's eligible and you see across the top open space historic recreation housing. And then down the left side column acquire create preserve support, rehabilitate and it says yes no yes no so this is a quick check uh for eligibility of projects before grants are

submitted we get into a little more detail in this obviously, but it's a guide.

00:14:15,470	Um, this table. Oh Don't see it. Am I in the right one go back right that one yeah that one, the one on the left, on the left, uh, this table shows a list of organizations who have received grants since the beginning. There's only 20 organizations who have ever received grants.

And and the ones that are shaded are town organizations so you can see that the most of the grants that we've approved have gone to the town which which means it's kept it off the uh tax rate for the for the town. I show grant dollars and percent dollars etc. for all of them if you're interested.

The next slide I, I tabularize the results. There's 12 town organizations out of 20 at 60% of the number. They got 13/13 million dollars worth of grants, 84% of the dollars, so you can see that most of the grant money is going back to town.

00:15:28,500	The next, uh, slide is a sign. Designed by my partner Sean Farrell next to me several years ago, um, we, we are allowed to spend administrative money to promote the CPC and this this sign and the wording on there was designed by Sean and years ago we made a few

signs this past year we've made a few more. The next, the next slide here shows the two signs. The sign on the left, the blue sign is a temporary sign. It's 2 by 3 ft. You can see there's one in front of the, uh, public safety building for the Model T.

Uh, building, there's one in front of town hall. There's one at the entrance to the Hamilton one of High School, middle school athletic fields, and they'll soon be one down on Asbury Street in front of the, uh, Habitat to humanity housing. The plaque you see on the left is an 8 by 10 inch plaque bronze plaque.

They're they're sprinkled around town and they these are permanent. You can see them at the Council on Aging Building, the American Legion, um, there's gonna be, there should be one at the First Congregational Church community house, yep.

00:16:50,730	Next slide is the um. Historical distribution of grants since the beginning. Again on the first column is open space and recreation Historic Preservation Community housing. Those are the three categories, and you can see we the open space and rec and historic preservation have got a decent amount of grants. Community housing only 16.

The open space and wreck 33% of the grants, 51% for historic, and in terms of dollars, over $5 million for open space and rec and $7.8 million for historic community housing comes in at $2.2 million.

00:17:38,400	I look back this past year, we, we only approved one grant this past year at the 2024 STM and that was yet another grant for the town hall renovation worth 1.5 million.

00:17:54,470	Currently open grants, these are grants that have been approved by town meeting and the projects are still ongoing and the. Money is still being withdrawn. The first one, the town hall, uh, it's $6 million but I, but I should point out that it's a total of 4 different grants of

$3 million.01 million, $500 and 1.5 million total $6 million. The middle school athletic facilities 800,000. The Asbury Commons which suggest to be started 5000, the antique fire truck building which now has its foundation in place, 150, and the housing protection plan update.

00:18:38,769	We have some bonds outstanding. Uh, we did take out a bond for the Sagamore Hill of the John Day Donovan Recreation Area. Uh, the premium this year is $102,000. It matures in 2032. It originally approved in 2015.

00:19:00,130	The other bonds we have are for town hall. There's two of them. The first one is a $4 million bond which is a $3,400,650

00:19:11,829	bond repayment in FY 26, and the second one is a $1.5 million dollar one for $158,500.

00:19:22,569	A comment about town hall. There's been 7 CPA grants for the project approved since its inception, uh, which total 6,435,000.

00:19:39,829	Uh, a common on annual bond repayments. The Sagamore Hill, as I mentioned, it's 102,000 FY26 it's a 15 year born maturing in 2032. 20 is the final payment. The Hamilton Town Hall, um, number one bond is $4 million which is $340,000 in FY 26. 20 year bond matures in 2044 with a $187,000 final payment.

The second town hall bond is 1.5 million. It's $158,000 in FY26 again a 20 year bond matures in 2045 with $76,000 file payment. So the total FY 26 bond repayments are going to be just over 600,000. The total estimated FY 26.2% surcharge revenue is estimated at just over 600,000.

The statute says we can only pay back bonds using the 2% surcharge money, not state match money, so we have tapped out. There'll be no more bonds for a while for large projects. We're at the max.

00:21:04,930	How much money do we have right now? The last estimate I had done, and it's a moving target. We had, uh, $591,000 in unreserved historic preservation $1 open space and rec $336,000 in community housing $70,000 for a total of just under a million dollars. Now the way it works is that if somebody were to propose and we

would accept and town meeting would to approve a historic preservation grant even though we'll only have 1 $1 in reserves, we're allowed to tap into the unreserved funds to support that grant so we have some. Room for maneuvering on smaller grants, but we'll see. The other comment I'll make is based on the state matches that

we see happening now and into the future, the the funds are probably only gonna grow about $100,000 a year because that's about what the state matches. So we're not gonna see these numbers build up that quickly.

00:22:16,099	Looking into the future, we keep a, uh, future anticipated potential CBA CPA grant list. We divide it up into three categories. A is it's eligible project, good estimate, strong support. Well, we don't see any. So we have none standing in the wings. Category B is there's some question on eligibility, cost estimate, or the project needs more definition.

The one we have is the uh Hamilton Town Hall. Yeah, we put a lot of money into it, but it's a 120 year old building and who knows what you're gonna find so this is sort of a placeholder in case as we get to the end of the

project towards the end of the year, so, uh, we, we could may have to address that. Finally, the category C, which is there's really no project yet, it's an idea, uh, or if there is the costs are unclear and the project support may be in question. We have a bunch. The, uh,

Hamil Hamilton and rec department, the, the Pingree Park tennis courts. There's a debate going on as to what to do with them when I, when I'm open space and rec is leading the charge is some question should they be refurbished tennis courts, pickle ball, or a skateboard park or all three. The second is a patent Park improvements.

Uh, don't know whether we'll be asked for that, but we're showing 50K and finally the Shabacco Lake and Watershed Association or the Sebacco was Land Management for the Shabacco Lake watershed. And finally community housing, uh, for the Asbury Commons apartment they had asked us for a million dollars for that project because we're worried about our funds.

We, we only managed to approve $500,000. The Affordable Housing Trust looked into their coffers and contributed 250,000. But they were still short of the 250 of the million dollars they asked for. We had some discussion a few months ago whether they would come back and ask for it, but at the moment they said they

wouldn't, but they reserved the right to do so, so we may see them again next year asking for that $250,000. Uh, just a comment and closing on what might happen is that we appreciate more advanced notice from organizations who would be looking for grants because as you can see with dwindling

funds we have to be careful as to when we need to keep the powder dry or approve something we're happy to meet with anyone who wants to talk to us. Finally, uh, a nod to the 2024 Hamilton master plan, uh. Part of that talks about the cultural and historic resources goal to protect Hamilton's historic structures and under

the uh implementation program there's a there's a recommendation to create a grant program for the maintenance and restoration of privately owned historic structures uh. Just a comment that is allowed under the CPA, even though they're privately owned, there are some rules you have to follow the most important of which is the historic District

Commission and the historical Society have to agree it's a good idea. There are other requirements as well, so that can be done.

00:25:56,230	Finally, my last slide, uh, we typically meet the 2nd Thursday of the month and we welcome the public to attend and comment. Uh, the next deadline for application for any grants is January 2nd, 2026. They will be addressed to 2026 ATM. Uh, a comment that the CPC will continue to communicate with

the one of CPC for projects requested by the Hamilton and rec department, the community house, the library, and the regional school districts because we have. Been involved with that several times. There's more information on the CPA and our activities and on past grants on our web page right now under the 2025 annual CPC report. Thank you.

00:26:49,500	Well done. Thank thank you, Jay. I wanna first applaud and uh thank you for your hard work and your leadership. How many years have you been doing this now for 20 years? 1215, 15. You've been doing a great job. So I, uh, your, I mean, your contribution to the community,

a lot of these projects have not been done without the help of the CPC and your and your leadership. So thank you. Um, I just had one question if you want to go back to slide or page 6. We talk about this every year, but just to take a look at the numbers, right?

When we don't have enough money, we have to go get a, a bond, right? So we use the CPC then to fund a bond. The bond has a percentage. And we're in the situation now where we're borrowing more money than we're raising, but if you look at that slide 6 on page 6.

You don't you think I'm here.

00:27:43,000	No, you, right? And on page 7, OK page 6. Let's see the one, the one a month.

Yeah. 00:27:54,200	Right there, yeah. All right, so if you look at this right here, right, so in Hamilton, we had a 2% surcharge and we raised about $582,000. With a 3% surcharge, we would have raised another 200 and $80,000 roughly, which would have been about $100 on average

per household um but by that the state would have paid us to do that so that's borrowing money and paying sort of borrowing $100,000 and paying a bond on it we would have, you know, made, we would have raised another $200,000 and gotten $100,000 for the round two and the round 3 distribution, right?

So it just, you know, I don't know at what point we have that discussion and think about if it's worth paying ourselves back rather than paying these bond fees, but. You can see right here, just compared to Wend and they got an extra 100,000 and raised the same amount of money.

Now it was a small community, so we would be, you know, so that's something just to think about. I'm not sure, you know, we, we talk about the possibility every year, but we've never debated actually doing it, so. Yeah, we think you're talking about us posing to increase our

surcharge to 3% right just to give you an idea, right, we went we went to 3%, it'd be on average about $100 per household, you would get an extra $100,000 from the state in funding. We've talked about it I think the CPC is probably a unanimous agreement to do so, but quite frankly over the last couple of

years with these big expenditures before the town, uh. We're reluctant to be the one that has to be a uh uh uh voter petition to get it on the, uh, uh, get it on the petition, right, but I guess the, the, the exercise analysis, Jay

would be to look at if we had had the surcharge and we had. More money to spend, we would have had less on bonds and our tax rate probably would have been lower than it is today, so it's that foresight to look, look in the future, yeah, you

pay a little bit more money now, but you pay yourself back. Yeah, I don't, I don't foresee any large projects requiring bonds looking into the future. I mean we're we're at the max right now and quite frankly we, we talk every meeting about what's going on and what we see

happening in town and I don't see any large projects requiring a bond so I don't think we could justify asking the voters to go to 3% because we wouldn't have a project behind it that would require the money.

00:30:21,230	We had, we'd seriously talked about it when we were looking at town hall and school and stuff like that. And possibly raising it, but just it didn't seem. Good timing plus, as Jay said it had to be a citizen's petition since the whole thing was started, it's a citizen's petition.

So finding a citizen to kind of champion it is another challenge as well. I, I wonder just to kind of spitball here since Jay does such a great job on the presentation and showing the difference between Wenham and us with the 3%, um, we've never looked at it over like when Wenham started 3% and we

started the 2%, what the difference would be over the years. We just kind of do it every year. Jay goes, Here's what Wenham got last year. Here's what we got last year. But I'm curious maybe if we talk to Wendy and see. Historically, how much more money we would have if we had

been at 3% that might be good to put in the mix for kind of future food for thought, right I think it's long term planning, right? Yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm sure it would probably be over a million bucks since it's a when the match was more a lot more but sort of that bonded

00:31:30,730	projects as we do, the exception being the town hall. Yeah. The CPA basically handled a majority of the work done on Plenum Town Hall, and that was all bonded and sucked up most of what they had because there were some arguments on the committee itself about what else they could do. Right. bonding the town hall.

Yeah, I think they think, I think the only thing they bonded is town hall and that was like 5 or 6 million or so at the time. We're up against the hour here, but, uh, any other comments or questions from the board?

00:32:06,630	And I would just say, uh, the exemption, right? We have lots of exemptions which should be used, but you have they're not automatically. You have to apply for them. So please make sure if you, if you meet the requirements of exemption to go into the, uh, assessor's office and fill out the, uh, paperwork.

All right, thank you, Jay. Thank you again. This presentation will be on our web page this week. Look at it if you want. Send me an email if you have a question. Thank you. Thank you, Jay and team. I was gonna say motion to adjourn, Mr. Chair. Take motion to adjourn.

00:32:41,630	OK, uh, all those in favor of adjourning, Sean,

00:32:48,670	Michelle. Thanks, everybody. Thank you. Nice talking to you. All right, now we're going to have the uh Hamilton went and reached the school committee, join us and call their meeting to order.

00:33:06,869	It's gonna just take us one quick sec to get up here. It's gonna be cozy. I think we're down one chair here. Right, yeah, I'm gonna scoot right next to you here. I think we need one more. Can you grab a, um, well, I'm gonna put the candidates there, so the bathroom. OK, thank you, David.

00:33:29,529	Uh, I read it. All right. Uh, I called to order the meeting of the Hamilton Bonham Regional School Committee on Monday, July 21st, 2025, um, at 7:10 p.m. Um, just, we do have a quorum. We have one member who is virtual, that is David Plito, so we will need to take roll call votes.

Um, I just wanna make sure David can hear me. You could like give us a little thumbs up. I, I did earlier get a thumbs up that he could hear us.

00:34:09,469	Uh, hold on.

00:34:12,730	Oh, I think we're good.

00:34:16,630	Yeah. Can you hear him? I can hear him on my. Can you hear him?

00:34:22,670	David, say something. We can hear you faintly if, if we, if he wants to speak and we need to hear him, we'll we'll work on the volume, but I think we can. Yeah, I'll let you know if he speaks. I will keep an eye and an ear out for him. We'll we'll get a microphone in there.

Thanks. OK, um, so, um, first up on our agenda we have a vote on the extension of the, um, Winthrop and Cutler lease, um. Julia, would you be willing to start us off with a motion? Oh, OK. Well, someone who has a microphone, would you be willing to start it as a motion?

00:35:05,730	I move that the Hamilton Wyndham Reg Regional School Committee vote to sign the Cutler and Winthrop school leases. OK. Has presented as presented, um, and I heard a second by Jen, um, so I, my understanding is that the select board has already signed this lease, is that correct?

Yeah, so it's just, um, our job to um approve and then sign that this evening if approved. Um, does anyone have any questions.

00:35:39,869	Uh what's the they should be with you because they were our board's already signed them so you. And what's the length of the extension? Sorry. So, um, if you open up on the, it can, if you look at your document, it's um there are two documents or two. Um, Extensions, so, um.

The first is, I just want to make sure I'm telling you the first one. The first is for the Winthrop school and it's up to 10 years. Um, and then the second at the site of the Winthrop school and, um, the second is up to 50 years and it gives a specific date up to June 30, 2075.

00:36:30,829	2075. OK, right, um, anybody else have any questions? David Polito, do you have any questions?

00:36:41,630	Oh, he's good. OK. Um, all right. It's All right, look, looks like we're ready to vote. I'm gonna start with you, Jen. Julia, Amy, David, yes, Dana is a yes. David Polito. I heard, I heard that, um, that was a yes, and that is unanimous of the six members present and the motion passes. OK, um, oh,

I don't know if that's me. I'm getting a lot of feedback. Um, and school committee members, if you can just stay afterwards because we do need everyone to sign, um.

00:37:20,670	OK, next up, I would like to invite the three, candidates, um, who have presented themselves, um, to, um, this meeting to, um, we are here to appoint a new member of the Hamilton one of Regional School Committee. Um, we have 3 candidates and I ask you all to have a seat here.

It's a little cozy, but you see we're all cozy up here, so it's kind of the way the night is going. Um, Good evening. I just wanna go through the format just so we're I'm going to we're clear on the format, right, because it's, uh, appreciate you all volunteering and whoever does not win

tonight, hopefully you'll run again at the next election because we like our volunteers in this community, but the format tonight because it's a public meeting because only things are done with a motion, we can't actually have a ballot and vote, right? We have to have a motion made and vote on that motion.

So there's more than 2 candidates, what we're gonna do is have all three of you present. We're gonna ask questions of you and that we all are prepared for. You're gonna answer questions after you guys get a chance to present. We're going to do a straw poll of everyone on this school board and select boarding and

and decide our top two candidates. Once we have our top two candidates, and I'll ask for a motion to recommend one of those candidates, the first candidate that gets 6 votes will, will be the, uh, will be the successful, um. Because he's there's 11, so he needs 6 votes and we're all 11 are here.

I was trying to count whether everyone was all here tonight, so you need a you need 6 eyes on the motion to, to win the seat. OK, so I don't have questions on the board on that process, OK. So we do a verbal straw poll which we'll keep track of.

We'll come with the top two candidates and then we'll make a uh a motion for one of the two candidates and we'll vote on that motion. If the first motion only has 5 votes, and we'll make a motion on the second, um, candidate until we get 6.

00:39:20,099	yeah, thank you, thank you for that. Um, so, um, we're hoping to start off with, um, just we'll just go in order and ask each of you to give, and you'll have to pass the mic along, um, ask you to give a brief, um, opening statement. I think, um, I told you all we're not gonna time you.

It's not public comment, but we're really looking for just like a minute long, um. Right Hi, my name is Robert McManus. I've been a resident of Hamilton since 2021. I was born and raised on the North Shore. Um, I've actively participated in town annual meetings and the special town meetings and several select board meetings.

I have attended the Citizens Police Academy, um, in Hamilton, which is just a comprehensive overview of the police department. Um, I have 40 years experience in a Fortune 500 company, mostly in configuration management, um, and I work on multiple projects, um, and I have to bounce back and forth between the different projects and.

Professionals, um, program managers, different engineers, uh, contracts, professionals, quality engineering, safety engineering, etc. um, and we know we need to work with a um challenging schedules and and tight budgets seem to be the reality, but I do my best to prioritize tasks so that they're all completed on time. And we're always looking to

increase efficiency in what we do. I'm also familiar with, um, analyzing problems and to get to the root cause of a problem so that. Can prevent it from happening again in the future. And I embrace the Hamilton Wham portrait of a learner that's on the website. I won't rattle that all off, but I think that's very

important, and I guess I've probably said enough. Thank you. Thank you.

00:41:42,630	Good evening. My name is Megan Benson, and I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight as I demonstrate my interest on serving in the Hamilton Wenham Regional School District School Committee. I'm a Hamilton resident, a full-time working professional at Moderna, and most importantly, a parent of two

very young children who will be entering our public school system in the coming years. Like many families in our district, I care deeply about the quality, equity, and sustainability of our schools, not only for my own children, but for all students in our community. Following the annual town meeting in April, I became

actively involved in building Bright Futures in Hamilton Wenham, a grassroots organization focused on supporting the new school building project and funding school, um, school funding initiatives. From April through the special town meeting in June, I volunteered countless hours of my time in outreach, volunteer mobilization, and education efforts because I believed it

was important for residents to have access to clear fact-based information about the future of our schools. In the weeks following the June special tone meeting, I made the personal decision to step back from my involvement with Building Bright Futures. I did so very thoughtfully as I began to seriously consider putting my name forward for

this open seat on the school committee. I have not been engaged with the group since then. While I very much respect and value the work they're doing, I also understand the importance of approaching this appointment with neutrality and to focus on broader governance responsibilities. My effort with building Bright Futures was transformational for me.

I was able to meet and work closely with members of the community with diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives who all had one thing in common a shared passion to work toward the betterment of our community. Throughout my involvement, I talked to so many families and members of the community and learn more about their

experiences, and it is these conversations that I believe provide me with a unique perspective of what our futures future learners will need. The shared sense of purpose inspired me to get more involved and consider pursuing this vacant seat. I can confidently say that if I had not gotten involved in building Bright Futures, I

would not be sitting before you tonight. Professionally I've spent over 15 years leading strategic initiatives across both public and private sectors, including several years in consulting for state health programs and most recently and currently as associate director at Moderna. I specialize in managing complex programs leading globally dispersed cross-functional teams, clearly communicating progress against goals and overseeing

multi-million dollar budgets. I also serve as a co-chair of an employee resource group that advocates for caregivers, an experience that has deepened my perspective on the support that students and families need to thrive. I believe that strong public education is one of the most powerful levers we have to build opportunity, civic trust, and long term community health.

I would be honored to bring my professional skills, collaborative mindset, and parental perspective to the school committee, helping ensure that our schools remain strong, inclusive, and well equipped to meet the needs of all learners both today and in the future. Thank you for your time and consideration.

00:44:47,570	Thank you. Um, I just wanna make sure we're getting a little some feedback up here. I don't know if you're all hearing that feedback. I don't know if there's anything we can do about that, but, um, I wanna make sure we can, we, I, I can hear you, but I'm not sure whether everyone can hear um,

yeah, maybe the, yeah, the speaker sounds like it, yeah.

00:45:13,500	Oh, that's better,

00:45:16,829	much better. OK, thank you, um. All right, are you ready? All right. Thank you for your patience. Hi, my name is Melissa Saxo. Um, I have lived in Hamilton for the past 9 years. Uh, my husband and I decided to move here as our children entered school.

Uh, school here in Hamilton has been a priority for me since, uh, we arrived. Um, I have always been a. Uh, committed community volunteer, um, both professionally as a national chair for volunteer work at a few companies that I've, um, been involved with and you know, in my earliest days as a class president in high school

I've always wanted to be part of uh what goes on. So, you know, once we joined the community here at, um, Hamilton Windham School District, I immediately joined the Friends of Winthrop, um, started to watch or attend school committee meetings. Um, I later became a trustee on the EDF fund and have worked through various, uh, grassroots

voting efforts, um, over the years. Example, COVID, um, getting our kids back in school. I have worked recently with the Building Bright Futures, um, team to garner signatures for their position petitions, um, and you know, and doing. So I probably have had well over 3000 conversations, um, with members of our community one on one, to gather their

support or their donations for a variety of things to benefit, um, our community. Um, I've raised my hand as a potential candidate for this role because in my organizations, um, throughout the community I have seen that everybody, you know, likes to have a loud voice but not necessarily put their hands in

to do the work, um, so you know I just wanted to make sure that you had enough, uh, candidates before you to make the right decision for the future of our schools, um, professionally I've worked in financial services for the past. 20 something here. you know, it is a heavily regulated industry that is

rapidly changing, um, you know, from either the minute in the markets or, you know, quarterly depending on what rules, regulations, or other things have, um, evolved in the political climate, um, but at the heart of what I've always done is the benefit of the customer. Their best interests, um, and I view this position on the

school committee very similar um you know, the corporation being our citizens and the town, making sure that it is running in a financial capacity that makes sense for everybody and then in the best interests of our students, um, so I appreciate your consideration. Thank you. Thank you.

Um, so next what we're gonna do is we have some, um, questions to ask. Um, we'll mix up the order. People, I hope you all help me to make sure we're mixing it up properly to make sure that different people get an opportunity to answer 1st and 2nd and last, um, and, um.

Again, we are looking for fairly brief answers, um, and, uh, I just realized that some of the select board I don't know, I did print out I know no I know those of you, but I don't know if you got the those of you that don't have a question.

I don't do you want a blank blank copy you all have, um, OK, so I think we're gonna start off with David.

00:49:04,130	Oops.

00:49:06,829	one question to all three. I'm sorry, yes, we're all going to get the same question, but let's let's start with Melissa and we'll go work our way backwards. OK, thank you. Uh, in your opinion, what is the district doing well and what are some of the challenges that you see? How would you work on the

committee to work through those challenges?

00:49:30,170	In my experience, the school, the committee has done a great job focusing on student success, um, in a constrained budget environment. My children being both, um, in the middle school, elementary schools, and now high school, um, have benefited from, um, you know, the approach that we have taken, um, through.

Different challenges over the past 9 years since I have, um, moved here um I think that we have, you know, shown our success through district report cards, MCAS testing for our students, um, and you know, the demand for housing in our areas and towns, um, based on the school's accomplishment.

Um, as an observer in the schools, um, I have watched firsthand, um, the slide in the, uh, physical spaces that our students, um, work in. I think that as a community in a, um, district we can do better, um, by the children, um, and I would also like to see our district take a more innovative approach, um.

To being ahead and not behind the curve, um, for some things one an example of that would be when um you know we were a bit behind in science testing and curriculum for a while, um, and it was testing results that kind of showed the district that more so than the innovative, um, proactive

approach to adding that to the curriculum um, another example would be, uh, current digital literacy, um.

00:51:10,730	In our middle school is nonexistent, um, so just you know seeing us take a more proactive approach than um seeing it as a result of reports um I think my professional experience um in streamlining processes uh financial budgeting and adherence and understanding, um. What it takes to maintain um neutrality when it comes to

taxes and the burden on our community, uh, where I could would be where I could lend the most hand um to our towns on the school committee. Can't we? Thank you. Yes, so we'll just go across there. um, do you need the question repeated? No, I think I'm good. Thanks.

OK. Um. So I think the district has been doing a really great job with long term fiscal planning. I think the establishment of the stabilization fund was a great move because it's my understanding that 90% of the annual budget is really operational in nature, um, which means there's little funding left for any

improvements or repairs, um, so I think that's really an area where the district has done really well in having that foresight a few years ago to to set that up. And then you know we've used it most recently for the uh to enter into the MSBA accelerated repair program for the roof so

um I just think that's an area where we've been doing pretty well. I think an area where there could be some improvement is perhaps um. Just some ongoing communication about some of those projects and how they're doing and just communicating that with the community at large. I know it's challenging at times um this is perhaps an

area where I could help. I do a lot of you know communication in my role in my job, um, taking a lot of complex information and distilling it into. The most important salient points um in a in a way that's easily consumable and and getting those out so that's potentially an area where I could help.

um I also think there may be an opportunity to partner with our towns um select boards and perhaps leverage some of their resources to um distribute information and communicate so um I think those are those are the areas of where I see opportunity for improvement. Thank you. Thank you for, um, would you like the question repeated?

I'm good, thank you. Um, I believe that the the district is doing well, um, based on the ratings of the various schools in the district, um, and also at the, at the district level itself, um. I, I think one key thing that is, is the, uh, that needs to

get improved that folks are working towards is, um, you know, trying to get the new school approved or the funding for the new school, um, you know, from what I've heard at town meeting, uh, the, the, the two elementary schools, um. Are just not um meeting the needs of today's students and

and the teachers and I'm not positive if this is true, but that I've heard that some kids may be learning out in a hallway something to that nature um so that there could be capacity issues um but you know the aging schools definitely need to be addressed either.

A new consolidated school or we may have to shift our focus at at some point to just, um, renovating those schools. Um, so I think that's about all my comments on that.

00:55:06,099	Thank you. Um, I think Julia has a second question. Um, where are we going? What you gonna do? Oh yes, let's start with Megan and we'll, yeah, um, so what do you see as the role of the school committee and what are your areas of interest on the committee and what strengths will you bring to the committee?

And it's OK to repeat.

00:55:31,869	OK, so, um. I want to make sure I'm speaking to the mic. So my understanding is the school committee is responsible for setting policy and goals, for approving, um, and setting the, the budget for the year, um, hiring and evaluating the superintendent. I know we do the ratings, um, in the last few, um, school committee meetings, um.

Adoption of professional development plans and collective bargaining with teachers, um. I will say of those the area that I'm probably most interested in is some of the budgeting um efforts and I I understand that that's the there's also a vacancy on that subcommittee as well so um I would be interested in in helping step in there.

um I do have extensive experience with, you know, developing and and overseeing large budgets, so that is not an area that I would feel uncomfortable with.

00:56:27,800	Thank you, uh, Bob. Thank you. Um, Yes, it's my understanding that the role of the school committee is to set and approve the school budget, hire and evaluate the district superintendent, set the policies and update policies, uh, negotiate contracts with the teachers and also set the goals for the school district and the superintendent and my,

my interest on the, uh, school committee. I would be focusing on um setting and updating policies and I deal with a lot of policies uh in my job and it's very um rigid what the policies are and so I'm accustomed to um live and die by the policies that are in place and.

I like the policies uh to be clear and concise because all too often I find uh the policies that I deal with are up to um interpretation and and then that leads to uh bad things because one person feels that you're not in compliance with a policy and another person may feel that you are in

compliance thank you.

00:57:55,929	Right, Melissa.

00:58:03,099	As I mentioned, I think the role of the school committee is to, you know, create mutually beneficial success of our students in our town. Um, my particular area of interest is wherever I'm needed. Um, I've been a jack of all trades type person in my career, um, you know, I'm no stranger to drafting policy

that impacts, you know, 19 million participants at any one time. Um, so you know, understanding guardrails are there to protect, um, our students in our town and our teachers, um, but you know we need to act within, um, our right conscience and behavior as well. um, I have, uh, led large organizations, created HR

policy, uh, hiring processes, training processes, so I think I could be an asset, um, to the various um. Aspects of working with the superintendent or the teachers union, um, in that regard and then, you know, uh, dollars and cents are my innate nature. um I'm a very research driven person.

um, I very rarely make decisions without some sort of, uh, basis in fact, um, who I am. Um, and, you know, I think that those things would be, um, natural to me as well. You know, I do see the committee seat as making sure that, um, the Hamilton one district stand, uh, stays.

True to the high standard of education in Massachusetts, um, and is a leader in that in the future.

00:59:47,130	Thank you. Um, OK, I think this next question will go first to Bob, and I realized I didn't hand it to you, Jen, but would you be willing to read the third question? Sorry.

01:00:01,730	Yeah, 3rd 1. In April, the interim appointee will have the option to run for election to continue on the committee. Do you intend to run? Yes, I definitely plan to run in April. Thank you.

01:00:17,630	Yes, I, I plan to run in April.

01:00:24,300	I do not plan to run in April, um, you know, a decision like that would be based in, um, some approvals from my employer, uh, some coordination with my family, um, but I do believe that I could be a great interim candidate as things flush out for, um, other candidates of the future.

01:00:47,369	Thank you. Um, all right, so we've done everyone just seeing who's next. So I think Melissa is up to start, and I think it's to the select board.

01:00:59,230	If appointed, you'd be starting during budget season. How would you get up to speed on the governmental budgeting process?

01:01:10,269	Um, I've taken some measures already to look at the resources that DEE, the MMA, and the, um, MESC have available, um, on their website again, very research focused. I wanted to know about that before raising my hand for a role like this, um, you know, I think that I've seen over the course of my career, you know.

Different budgets, um, and processes and I think that I can lend um you know a lot of expertise in that area um I have avidly followed the budgeting process since moving to town um it's always, you know, fascinated me. I think one of my first friends of Winthrop meetings um. Our our, you know, superintendent was there,

showed the budget, and you know I was just interested as a corporate person of where you know schools spend their money. um, I've been very excited to see a lot of the changes over the past 9 years, um, to that process, um, and us choosing to

spend money, um, in a more wise manner, um, than some years in the far past, um, so that's what I would do.

01:02:27,369	I'll go next, um, so I have not pre-researched the budgeting process, but I, I know there are resources out there from DEE from MASC. I would start there, um, if I was selected for the role, I would do a lot of research and self study then I would engage

with each of you and understand the process a bit more, um, firsthand to understand. Some of the challenges you've experienced um and and how you've approached those, um, and so I think by doing some combining some self-study with mentorship and learning from you all, um, That would give me a great start.

I would be remiss if I didn't talk a little bit about my professional experience. Um, as I mentioned, I had, uh, about 10 years in the consulting industry, um, and that was literally getting dropped into a new industry almost on every single project, um, and so there are countless examples that I could give, but

I'll give, I'll give it a couple, um. I was dropped into the state of New York um and building their MMIS, which is the Medicaid Management Information System, um, so every single state uses software to manage their Medicare and Medicaid claims and adjudicate them and determine provider eligibility, all of those things had never

For and within 9 months to a year, I became an expert in the done it.

01:03:52,030	space so much so that I spoke, um, attended the conference, the national conference in Chicago, um, and headed my company's booth at the conference, um, and speaking to to the the technology and um what was happening in the space. So that's just kind of who I am. I dive in, I learn very quickly, um, it's just, it's

just who I am and so actually my most recent My current role at Moderna, this is my first time ever in the biotech pharma space ever, um, and now I've been there for a few years, um, but now I feel very confident working in this industry. So that's just, I feel very comfortable getting in and and

learning on the job, if you will.

01:04:33,369	Thank you. Thank you.

01:04:39,570	I, I do have some experience setting up budgets and they're typically based on the, uh, prior year's budget, so I would want to look at last year's school budget and try to do my homework and get up to speed on on the uh current state of affairs and and the priorities in the district and just take

any training that was available to me. And, um, and then meet with my fellow school committee, um, members, um, you know, to try to get up to speed as quickly as possible. Thank you.

01:05:16,400	Yeah. Um, all right, now help me out. I've lost track. I think, I, um, I think we'll, I think that's right. I think it's again, um, and it's still to the select board. Rosemary. So, um,

01:05:32,099	do I, oh sorry. It is critical to engage with diversity of opinion when discussing issues and proposing solutions to those issues. What are your particular strengths in reaching consensus when not everyone agrees. Yeah, so this is something I deal with on a daily basis, um, in my professional career and so um I traditionally, I

typically take a pretty standard approach which is listening to all the different opinions, right? What are the concerns, understanding um the facts, what does everyone have, um, you know, outlined as a concern, and then, um. Trying to come up with prioritization I think helps a little bit too to try to to try to define a decision especially

when it comes to I think you know if there's a difference of opinion in the policy space, especially in the budgetary space right working with fixed numbers in a constrained environment, there's only so many dollars that can be spent, um. Prioritization is an area that has really helped me kind of

get through some of these spaces and really kind of prioritizing based on fact um and and separating fact from opinion and or feeling can be can be challenging when when emotions run high, but I think it's really important um in a role like this.

01:06:53,400	uh, let's go, I think. We'll go, I think we'll go, Bob. I, I otherwise I'm gonna get confused if we try to make it.

01:07:05,030	Right, to in order to to come to some kind of consensus, I believe it's important to actively listen to all of the different stakeholders that are involved and um and just do your best to work out any differences and, and hopefully you can come to some kind of consensus at some point in time. Thank you.

01:07:33,900	I like to partner um with everybody that I'm working with um on any platform to hear their voice. um I am very adept at keeping my mind open um to interpretation because I feel like that's the only way that uh change can happen. Um, so you know, for me listening, uh, not just to the

fellow committee members or select board members, um, but to the community as a whole, um, that includes teachers and students and children, um, you know, to get as much of a diverse opinion as possible, um, is really what I like to do. Um, you know, that being said, I am a fact-based person, um,

so if facts are there and presented numerically in writing, in law and policy, um, you know, I am somebody who's going to hold to those guard rails where needed and defend that policy where possible. I would say that I am a lively spirited debater. Um, in general, so.

01:08:41,100	Thank you. Um, I think this is our final question is to Amy. Short one.

01:08:52,500	there is a substantial time commitment to serving on the school committee. The committee meets as a whole, in person, twice monthly, generally on Thursday evenings. Uh, additionally, members serve on at least one submittee. There is a significant time investment in preparing for meetings as well. Uh, please speak about your ability to commit to this level of participation.

01:09:18,100	Oh, I think, is it Bob first, I think this one, yeah.

01:09:26,800	Um, I believe that I would have the, uh, time available just through, um, good time management skills, uh, to devote whatever time was necessary, uh, to the school committee and the subcommittee meetings. Thank you.

01:09:44,100	So, um. This is not a decision I have entered lightly um to be here tonight um so first of all, I spoke to my employer um to make sure that any potential time commitment like I said, I work full time, um, so there are no areas of concern there.

But most importantly, this was taken as a family decision truly um like I said, I have two small children who go to bed at 7 o'clock. My husband was home putting them to bed tonight. We had a lot of conversations about this potential role and the time it would take, you know, it's, it's not just um my

time, but it's my time away from my kids. Bedtime is right now it's still a special time. um it hasn't gotten too challenging yet. Um, and that places a burden on my husband to take care of that when I'm not able to be home, but, um, we both feel very

strongly that, um, civic engagement is important, and we also view it as an opportunity for my children to see firsthand that importance, um. The importance of civic engagement as well. I'll just share um there were many nights where I was away from bedtime for Building Bright Futures, and I would

always say to my daughter, um, before I left, you know, before she went to bed, Mommy's going to work on, you know, your school, Mommy's going to help get you. Um, like a great learning environment and so tonight I said Mommy's going to be interviewed and she said what's

an interview and I said, oh honey, just you wait um but mommy's gonna be um asked some questions and she's gonna have to answer them um to potentially be on school committee to support and advocate for you um and so I just I really.

01:11:29,170	Spent a lot of time with my family deciding on this, um, and so I feel confident, um, and comfortable with the time commitment.

01:11:46,300	I'm not quite sure how we will rearrange our schedule to meet the demands of this, um, but I will say that I have, um, as my son and moves on from uh, Winthrop to the middle school, um, no longer being involved with Friends of Winthrop organization should free up at least you know, the 3rd quarter

of every year. We're not running the holiday boutique anymore. But you know, I think I, like any, uh, working parent or community parent, uh, will figure out how to make it work. Um, I love caffeine and I'm a night owl, so, uh, I've been able to stay up for the meetings to watch them, so I

think attending would be no issue, but it'll be a puzzle piece. Thank you. Um, OK, um, yeah, to you, Bill, you know, a great, great discussion, uh, appreciate your answers and your thoughtful, uh, um, presentation and preparation for this. Um, so with that we have 11 of us.

We're gonna start down here and, uh, I'll give you like a minute kind of to think about, look at their notes, and then, uh, Joe's gonna just go down to a straw poll over your top two, and then he'll he'll, uh. He'll, uh Tell us who the top two votes are and then I'll ask someone

to make a motion for one of the 2, and then we will vote on a motion until one person gets 6, at least 6 votes. We didn't give them a chance to ask us questions.

01:13:23,529	that is true. That is, that is true. Thank you for that. OK. That is, that is you're right. Thank you for that. Thank you, so you can proceed then I'll let you that. OK, um, yeah, so finally, do any of you have any questions for us?

01:13:42,199	I do.

01:13:44,829	Um, So I'm interested to hear what the school committee plans to do to um communicate and get the community ready for the September 15th ballot election.

01:14:00,369	So, um, that is a, it's a great question, and this is going to be a little bit of a learning experience about what being on a committee is like. So it's difficult for us to answer that question because we have not debated it as a committee, OK, um, so, um, we can provide accurate information like that, you

know, that the school committee has voted to move forward um with the ballot um on September 15th, um, and that the extension has been, um. Granted, um, but we can't because we haven't discussed, I'm trying to think if there's anything we have discussed in public that we could say Eric is planning several public forums. Yes, go ahead.

Let's talk right into the mic and say that. Um, yeah, I mean anything that's public record, we can say, you know, we plan on keeping the uh website updated and I know that Eric, um, is planning several more public forums on the matter.

01:15:03,800	um. And if I think we can answer that individually if we know, not in this room or could I talk so yeah, so like in in in I'm gonna just say that so and and this and it's a great question and it really is like you're watching us this is

you've watched lots of our meetings I'm sure all of you have and to see that sometimes it's a struggle because open meeting law is really important that like individuals can absolutely express their opinion. Um, and we as a committee haven't created a public strategy right for our next steps, um,

but it was a good question, and, um, I think we're leave it at that unless the select board has anything I don't know that that was directed at the select board, but it could be.

01:15:53,529	No, no, nothing bad. Yeah, and that, that's right, that is another, um, venue where people can, um,

01:16:08,800	to, to your question that, um, both Amy and I this past spring when things were, um, really busy we both held office hours. I know that some of the select board members have maybe done that too. Um, I did not ever have anyone come, Amy. No, you, yeah, excellent. All right.

We'll, we'll need to figure out what made you so popular, um. As like the sort of answering your question, one of the things that I have found to be really different working on this committee versus working in an office is that. The movement is really slow because of the way the committee is structured

01:16:55,800	like we are one microphone, you're not microphone sorry.

01:16:58,630	I don't know. You're not, can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? I'll just talk in my teacher voice. So, um, it's hard to get things done quickly because we come to open meeting, and we need to discuss things here and then we come to a consensus as one.

So it's different from projects at work where you might send an email or have a water cooler conversation and make decisions. So we have to make decisions here in the room together. So that is one piece that's very different from work. That's it. I got a microphone just for that. Excellent. OK, to you, Bill, I think.

All right, so to reset, yes, thank you for coming in and uh. And like I always say, there are over a dozen positions available in town and other committees, so please, if you do not successful tonight, please, uh, we'll take your name because you are very qualified candidates and very passionate. So thank you.

All right, so we'll start down here. Uh, we, um, can I just ask, can we make sure David Plito can hear us and he knows what's David, are you aware of what we're doing here? Yeah

01:18:04,729	OK

01:18:08,029	OK.

01:18:12,170	OK, so we'll go last for you, but we're gonna look for your top two candidates. Yeah, talk to him. We'll, we'll get to you. We'll, we'll call you last so that the, the lag doesn't hurt anything. Everybody ready? From the slight board Bill Olson, Bill Olson. Uh, I thought 2 will be, Megan and Melissa.

01:18:35,470	Bill Wilson, yeah, I think you all bring great, uh, skill sets and experience to the table, but I think my top two are Megan and Melissa.

01:18:44,369	Rosemary Kennedy. Um, I think my top two are Megan and um Melissa.

01:18:53,369	Beguluza.

01:18:56,369	I just want to thank you all for coming in. Uh, it takes a lot of courage to come up here, um, in front of this, it's all formal, but, um, we're all just regular people too, so I really appreciate you coming in and putting yourselves out there. Um, my top two are Megan and Melissa. Tom Myers.

Yeah, I reiterate Ben's comments. Uh, it takes a lot of courage to come up here and, and put yourself out there and, um, uh, it was a tough decision for me. I took a lot of notes and a lot of qualified candidates, um, you guys, um, definitely are all uh qualified for this

position, but I chose, um, Megan and Melissa as well.

01:19:34,670	On school committee, um. Julia? Um, My top two are Melissa and Megan. What's Amy. Yeah, just to reiterate as well, I so appreciate you all coming and um. Sending those letters and this is really hard to do. It's super hard to pick. You all are really great candidates, uh, but my top two are Melissa and Megan.

01:20:07,170	David Frankel. Oh. Yeah, no, I, I echo the thanks for all of you who applying, taking the time, um, but my top two are Megan and Melissa.

01:20:23,399	Car, Jennifer Carr. Um, as somebody who's been in your seat and actually didn't get picked the first time, congratulations for being up here. It takes guts. Um, but my first two candidates are Megan and Melissa. Dan Ora. Uh, Melissa and Megan.

01:20:44,630	And Davidlito

01:20:48,829	OK,

01:20:55,000	OK, uh, all the votes were for either Melissa or Megan, so the top two are Melissa and Megan.

01:21:04,130	OK, so the next step here is I'll ask all of you to pick one of those candidates as your candidate. I'll ask somebody to make a motion for one of the two. Um, if that first motion fails to get 6 votes, we'll vote on the other candidate. It does not matter the order because everybody's picking a

single candidate before we do the motion. So, I'll give everybody 30 seconds to, uh, Think about it because it's a hard decision and uh we will then move ahead and I will look for a motions. Uh, what, what I think each chair should accept the motion. It could be the same or different motion.

Um, that I think that's. Probably true, but it might be easier to just have one start with one motion we can make a motion at the end to the other we'll do, we'll do the motion at the end. She can do the motion just to uh moralize it.

01:21:56,899	Alright, so do I have a motion, uh, sorry, Rosemary, I was just gonna ask, um, the candidates could say their names 11 more time.

01:22:07,829	Just say your names, please, your full names. My name is Megan Benson.

01:22:15,000	Melissa Saxle.

01:22:19,869	Yeah OK, I have a motion. Are we looking for somebody who's jumping up to give a motion?

01:22:28,529	OK, I move that we accept Megan Benson as the role in the role of the 7th member of the Hamilton Wenham Regional School District School Committee. Do I have a 2nd? And do I have a 2nd from the select board.

01:22:45,930	All right, and we'll do a roll call vote, um, and we'll just start, uh, so just, I just wanna make sure. So so the vote is Megan to vote on yes or no on Megan Benson vote up or down on Megan. OK. Um, and we'll do a roll call vote just so it's clear and

we'll start, we're here and work out, Joe, we'll start here and work our way down. Yeah, OK, so you wanna, Joe, you can call now.

01:23:13,100	Um, Phil Olson. Bye. Bill Wilson. Hi, Rosemary Kennedy.

01:23:22,869	Benalooza. A Tom Myers, I.

01:23:29,800	Julia Um, I'm voting no, not because you're not qualified because Melissa. Sorry, no.

Amy, 01:23:42,569	That's 6 votes. That's 6 votes. um, hold on, it's not. David Frankel.

I. 01:23:50,470	That is 6 votes. Jennifer Carr, let's keep.

01:23:55,670	Dana Lara. No. And David Pullito.

01:24:04,829	So Megan Benson received 123. 5678 of a possible 11 votes.

01:24:14,229	And the motion passes.

01:24:21,529	Yeah, OK, just, just making sure the fact I worked. If she didn't get it, get it, so I, I'm just gonna,

01:24:29,000	so we're done, we're, we feel like we're done on the logistics up here. We feel like the logistics are done. Yeah, I don't know if you want to make a motion, but I think we're, I think we did it, um. So I just want to say thank you to the three of you.

Um, I think I, I hope that you, that took some guts for Jen to say that and it's really true. She put herself out there and ended up here anyway, and I think somebody mentioned that there are lots of other. Opportunities out there in the community and we all hope that

you'll continue to step up um and thank you um Megan we'll have a lot of information for you in the near future, um, and I will be in touch um maybe even stay right now. Thank you. All right, so, um, oh, and we need to thank you, and then we have to adjust.

Thank you so much you uh. You will, uh, motion to adjourn need to adjourn and then the school committee needs to stay and sign something for me, OK? Do you have a motion to adjourn? Yeah, I'd like to move the motion to adjourn. 2nd, 2nd by Julia Campbell, um, Jen, Julia, Amy, David, yes,

yes, David Plito she did that.

01:25:47,029	All right, and we are adjourned. Thank you very much. Yes, on all of that. I will give

01:25:56,229	that's what I said earlier out of order.

01:25:59,170	Hamilton Magov you say that. I didn't know. All right, so we're gonna go in here, um. On our agenda We have a board and committee openings, as I said, lots of places to volunteer. Uh, Affordable housing Trust has 2 openings. Conservation commission has 2 openings. Community Preservation Committee has 1 opening for a

member of the historic District Commission. Council on Aging has one associate opening, which is a non-voting member. The historic District commission has the historic District commission has 2 openings for 3-year terms and 2 openings for 2-year terms. Uh, Human Rights Commission has 2 at-large openings, and Hamilton and Wenham Cultural Council has 3 openings, so over

a dozen opportunities to be involved. Uh, we're gonna do public comment now. Um, we're gonna do a maximum of 20 minutes and, uh, each speaker will be allowed, um, up to 3 minutes, so. Uh, Joe, where what microphone is open for a comment. So please come here, identify yourself, your address, and we

will let you speak for 3 minutes. Uh, go ahead, trust the board. Uh, Tosh Blake Sagamore Street, um, my comment is regarding, um, a discussion, uh, agenda item about, um, public comment policy, and I just have a few remarks about that, um. Yeah, I, my advice would be to keep the current format and

have a sort of, uh, like as I'm doing now, just an open ended comment if there is anything for not on the agenda and then have leave room at the end of every agenda item for public comment. I understand there was a bit of a kind of controversy.

Um, in a May meeting where it got a little raucous and, um, uh, partial, partially that was due to the crowd. It was a heated issue, I think, but partially that was due to the chair of the select board where there was a kind of switch pulled where on the agenda it said we could make

comments non-related to agenda items at the beginning of the meeting, but then at the last minute when it came time to the agenda item. Mr. Olson said questions are allowed only, changing it, you know, basically limiting the content of what could be said, which, uh, from one citizen, he filed a complaint, he said that

was an open meeting law violation or relating to, uh, freedom of speech and, um. And then, so since then, the select board from what I understand is kind of shut down those comments at the end of agenda items for comment only at the beginning of a meeting on any, any topic, uh.

I would say the motive for that, the motives for that maybe are not great. I think the motives for some select board members, including Mr. Galuza, Mr. Myers, and Mr. Olson have commented they were unhappy with the content of the speech. Um, Mr. Olson specifically said it got contentious and he want

to limit that, uh, contentious kind of speech. Uh, according to the town council though, you cannot, once you allow any time for public speech, you cannot, you cannot step on and Mr. Myers is a lawyer, he knows it. You cannot step on the content of what's going on unless it's

illegal speech or something like that, but you cannot curtail and say, well, questions only, no statements. Mr. Myers, uh, the last meeting this was discussed and Mr. Olson was not here. Kind of in a disingenuous way in my opinion, to try to conflate time, place, and manner concerns and content

concerns, saying, well, to sit to protect ourselves as a board, we should not allow maybe comments after items because we don't want to be involved in policing the content. Well, that's a false choice. You can have time, place and manner restrictions. I certainly agree that Mr. Olson should run a be able to

run a meeting that is orderly and timely. You cannot have con contents go on for a long period of time. And people cannot be shouting this and that and the other thing. But the same thing with the comments at the beginning of a meeting. It looks almost to me, in my opinion, like retaliation

because this, this thing came up right after the the citizen complaint. to change the whole tradition of what we've done here and a lot of information comes out of meetings during discussion that a public comments could help the committee, I mean, the, the select board itself come to a better, uh, understanding of

One example is when we had, um, uh, some citizens and, and it's the issues.

01:30:16,630	like more member put it together, uh. A proposal for um a land acknowledgement and the citizen who proposed that as well as the select board member were putting forward false information regarding to the actual Indian tribes and then the select board is considering having plaques put around town and if I wasn't there to to say

hey look, this is wrong information. You might have approved something that was factually incorrect, and I wouldn't have been able to say anything because I would have been, yeah, this, this stuff happening during the meeting. OK, so my time so I say, my advice is and Mr. I'll give Mr. Farrell credit when he was a board member.

I mean, and he was a slight board chair also, Caroline Bollo, now I've had my differences with them. Big time, but one thing they never did is try to say, OK, no more public comment on agenda items. That's one thing Mr. Olson has introduced, which I think is, you know, looks self-serving, and it looks like retaliation

against a member of the public who had a legitimate complaint about content restriction at the May. Meeting where the where the uh school committee is invited. So my advice to the board or my ask of the board is to keep the uh traditional comment format. So at the very least the public and the the the board itself

can be better informed. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comment? All right, so we, we're gonna take that up tonight as an agenda item and we'll get to address most of those items.

01:31:42,130	Um, item on the agenda is, so we want to do one thing out of order. We have Tim Olsen here. We wanna just a new business item is a, a water ban or favorite discussion, uh, sort of. Breaking news, but if Tim could come up and talk about our.

Uh, so, go ahead, yeah, we have one microphone here. Sorry. Uh, please, uh, I ask you to take this out of out of order so that Tim can address it with you. Um, we meant to have this on the agenda. It was overlooked. It was an error on my part. I apologize.

We were informed, uh, right after we posted the agenda for the last meeting that the state by the state that the level of water in the river shed and the watershed is too low and that we need to go to the next level. These aren't really, um, voluntary. Uh, restrictions, there's something the state requires us

to do, and this was the next meeting. It was supposed to be on the agenda. It's my fault, so.

01:32:38,369	Yep, uh, Tim Olson, uh, DPW director, uh, similar to what Joe was saying, uh, we're at a kind of a critical point in the river. Um, last reading was of today was about 10.9, uh, cubic feet per second. Our trigger level in our permit is 52.5

cubic feet per second, so we are, uh, well under, um, we are looking to hopefully enact additional restrictions to, uh, prohibit the use of sprinkler systems and only go handheld from this point forward. Uh, until the river level improves, um, this is something that we have done, uh, for several years, uh, over the, um, my time here.

Uh, we start with the seasonal ban which is the use of sprinklers between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m., uh, that is part of our permit requirements. Uh, this is the next level of of restriction, uh, we are. Uh, as we know, the Ipswich River is a very fragile water source.

Uh, we are, um, showing signs of our aging wells, uh, so this is it not only because of the river level but because of our aging system and our infrastructure. Uh, I think this is the proper way to proceed at this time. So everybody has in front of them.

This chart, but that's dated July 7th, so that was two weeks ago, so it's now gone continue to go down. So that's the new one. So I pulled this one today.

01:34:09,270	Uh, yeah, I can, uh, I'll share with you if you if you um.

01:34:15,100	That's out of today, so I presume I'm not gonna be able to. Yeah, so the last one we saw was the here, right? And now it's gone now the spikes obviously the rain events that we've had.

01:34:28,130	So do we have, because it's a requirement requirement, we Got it.

01:34:30,729	actually have to vote and make a motion, or do you just inform us what we're doing? Well, that's right now the way the bylaw reads is that we have to have approval from the select board. Uh, it's something that I would talk to Joe about if we wanted

to maybe move in a different direction, but there is quite a bit of time between when we get those. Trigger levels and when I can come in front of you to get approvals, um, if it's something we can discuss at a later time or or tonight is fine,

01:34:58,500	but we'll just because we like to do we'll just vote on tonight's thing, but yes, and another agenda, let's decide what authority we can vote to give you so you don't have to come to us if it's a state mandated requirement. You don't need our. Right. Our employed you can um you can do that so I appreciate

it um so Joe, what is the motion we need to make tonight it's not written down anywhere for me. A motion to

01:35:23,369	take the next uh to the next level of water ban which is. So it's uh prohibiting um lawn watering, irrigation use, um, and handheld only. So and that is until we vote again or until it goes above 52.5 ft if it goes up above 52.5 for they say three consecutive days.

I like to wait a little bit because we do get some spikes, um, but that would be when I would if we get some rain events and substantial rain or some, um, you know, additional rain here we could see some improvement, uh, but it is quite low, so, um.

We'll we'll see, but I could come before you and maybe that's when we look to uh try to correct or approve or or revise the uh. The bylaw. So I have a, just a question, the clarification, is it for, for grass only for lawns? Is that what the restriction is, or is it for, for gardens,

for plants, um, uh, agricultural use, I've always, uh, it's an exemption, uh, this, this is more for if you have, you know, a green lush lawn, um, you know, I've, I've worked with owners, I've worked with, uh, landscapers that are trying to. Um, build new lawns, uh, to zone their irrigation system, uh, on occasion.

So if somebody does choose to use or would like to use it, they would have to contact me and I work with them about, uh, trying to reestablish a new lawn, uh, but for those people that have green lush lawns, that's what this is about is is

trying to if there's someone who has landscape that is in an establishment period sort of in that first year they've just planted. Um, and in particular for grass for lawns, right, but if they have other landscape shrubs or things like that, are those exempt, um, from this soaker hoses, uh, anything, uh, hand

like hoses are usually exempt, but, um, if they can zone their irrigation system, a lot of them have different zones. If there's certain zones that need attention, uh, you know, just contact me and we can work on a schedule. Thank you. I just wanted those clarifications for the public and.

But do I have a motion to ban automated residential irrigation limited to handheld watering only until our water level rises above 52.5 ft per second for three consecutive days. And isn't it from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.? We isn't it is, I'm sorry, did I miss something? There's no time limit, right?

Just 24 hours a day, or is this time? Oh, this is, uh, complete. 24 hours. Oh, OK, OK, for right now, yep, thank you. I misheard a second, a second. If I have any further questions, just, um, can you just go over what the remaining steps are in the event it keeps going down.

Uh there, so there are, um, you know, a complete ban on water besides, um, agricultural use, uh, gardens and things that we can't, that's exempt, uh, for people to have gardens or equestrian properties, things like that, uh, agricultural use, um, but, uh, we. I'm hoping that this usually helps this usually works.

Uh, we do a pretty good push now that if we do start to see sprinklers in use, we'll educate people, uh, usually send them a letter to remind it's like a reminder letter, hey, we are in this uh status. um, we have not had to really press that because I think just

establishing that connection with the residents uh is the key there, uh, but we do, it's it's successful we do start to see some recovery, uh, over time and overnight. OK, thank you. Yup. Other questions or comments? Uh, all those in favor say aye aye. Thank you. Thank you, Tim.

01:39:06,470	All right, go back to the, uh, regular schedule program. Tim. Thank you. All right. Uh, item number one is request provide street number for a harbor light project on Edward Street Discuss and vote. So Joe, you, you said you gave us a, I gotta get to it, but our street numbering policy.

The recommendations from the assessor's office is for you to number the this will be for the Harbor Life project on Asbury Street that's known as Asbury Commons, uh, to give that lot a number of 461 Asbury Street. Uh, when you look at the numbers across the street and,

and its sequence on the same side of the street, should we leave a number and, uh, numbers directly across the street is 462 470. 7474, so 461 would be a good number uh there and uh that would allow them. Start to pull pros they've uh come in and started to inquire about the next steps because

they're ready to start, uh, research. So just so I understand, so it starts at 461. And what are they and that each unit's gonna have its own address it's gonna be it's gonna be subnumbered within the 46,

01:40:21,630	so they only have one property address and each individual residence will have a number. I say enough, I've been in port for 8 years. I don't, I don't not remember that was the requirement of Sport, but it is our, it is our responsibility to, uh, since

I've been here to, uh, backing up over a side of town, um, somebody's building a new house on a piece of property we had to give it a street number, so, uh, that was

01:40:50,229	3 years ago now.

01:40:53,729	And um the 461 was the assessor's recommendation and also the the project owners agreed to that number. They're looking for something else for the marketing material that made more sense. OK, they're like the 461 didn't express preference.

01:41:09,369	OK, all right, so. There's no more. Was there any um coordination required with um fire department or first responders and has that occurred or was run by the fire and

01:41:24,229	and their typical answer is always, you know, you know, stay in order. You look at where we are across the street and sequence from what the other As Street address numbers are that that number 461 makes sense. Odd numbers on the right side of the street, even numbers on

the other side of the street, so it seems to make sense. OK, so I'll make a motion. OK, so I move that we assign um. The lot that will be, uh, Asbury Commons on Asbury Street as number 461 Asbury Street. Do I have a second any further discussions or questions or comments. All those in favor say aye.

All right, we have a request for a Um, former resident to have purchased cemetery plot, uh, near his family. We've talked about this before, that people who have You know, you're, you're, as a resident, you can purchase a plot. If you're not a resident, you can't, but we have, we have in

my eight years, always granted previous residents. The ability to buy apply just just because they didn't buy it when they were here doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to buy it, especially when they have such a long history in town as long as you've all read the letter.

The only question I had, Joe, and I forget was was it for 2, yeah, 2, which is, which is what we were fine with too previously it's 2

01:42:44,899	it's just one person. It's it's one. So, uh, the gentleman that's seeking this is looking for the spot next to his parents. He born and raised in town, graduated school. went away, joined the Air Force, served admirably. He's retired and here in New Hampshire, um, but he does

visit his parents once and, um, she and her partners was a lot. So, um, it's not like he's gonna bury 18 other people, and that's what the problem we've had before is that sort of debate, but this seems very clean. So anybody have any other questions or comments?

I have a motion and I move that we, uh, approve Thomas Walters, uh, cemetery plot. Second, the other. Discussion question comments. Thank you for your service. And uh what I'll say is people should residents should know that much easier process you plan ahead and purchase it while you're a resident.

You have to come in front of us and have us debate this. We don't never like debating this because it's always, it's always a tough time in life. So, um, that is good announcement there, yes, disposition of surplus equipment, 2nd reading, discuss and vote. So Joe, I don't think I was here for the

01:44:03,729	first reading, so I don't know if yeah, let's keep it going it's there and you got there in your file just to remind you that uh this was this was initiated because we have several surplus items the DBW department um we need a policy to be able to um. It's exposing compliance with state law.

Uh, it's there's public works director Olson stood here. He could, uh, address that for you. He did send me a list, but, um, I did not.

01:44:24,000	Not it accidentally. I can call it up while he speaks to you if you'd like and um. We're looking for.

01:44:38,369	And this um policy came from who wrote the policy. I was not here KP. So this is one of the standards they use and Tim, you have, you've read it, you agree with it. Yes, I worked with Matt

01:44:56,300	Uh, those are the ones. Any other pitfalls we should be aware of and something like this. I mean, it seems like, seems like we do every once in a while we're going on something, but what's the what are the worst case scenarios we should be looking for?

I don't you just need a policy, but it's not like there's anything at risk, right? No, I mean, it's just if we don't dispose of it, uh, it just sits in our rusty,

01:45:17,869	uh, just for your information. The piece of equipment we're looking to surplus right now, our 2013 International 7300 cab and chassis, no standard, a 2013 internet two of those, and it won't read it twice. A 2012 GMC 3500 single rear wheel dump truck, 2016 Chevy Silverado 3500 pickup truck with a block, a 2006 folder.

I think you could explain what that is, uh, but it has a plow snow blower brush car and a 1995 Bombardier sidewalk low. Uh, you can look at the ages of these. Uh, it was with all of our assets you like, uh, we were not able to sell them back as parts of trade-ins.

They didn't have enough value for us in that regard. Uh, we might be able to dispose of these through the policy where we get something for them. We'd make them available for people who might be, etc. so you get a little something, but this policy outlines exactly the steps that Tim would have to take to be able

to do that. Just, um, I, I don't. I don't see an actual estimate of of there's um if there's a minimum bid, there's that's not part of this process. Yeah, so the the way that the surplus policy reads is chances are I'm gonna have to put them on either municipidd or have

like a gov deals uh vendor come in uh to help us uh spec them out and then post them on their websites and things like that so I'm not gonna be handling this inhouse which is. Uh, a time saver, um, but when it's a bid we can take some

pictures, we can post it as is, uh, and just put like a minimum Um, to be honest with you, those six items are not a lot bid on it.

01:46:57,500	They're not, they're not gonna bring in, uh, you know, I think of money.

01:47:00,170	Eddie, yes, my fleet supervisor estimated maybe around 400 or $5000 for most of for a piece, um, Bombardier maybe a little less just because it's, it's parts. Um, but they're not high level high dollar items, so putting them on municipid is kind of a one stop that a lot of people,

it's like, uh, eBay for, uh, municipal vehicles. A lot of other municipalities, cities and towns use municipid just because of the ease of getting rid of the of the equipment. And, um, two other quick questions. Are they in working order and can people come and look at the equipment?

So they, they'll come, they'll be able to come and look at it. I would say maybe 3 out of 6, are in working order. Uh, the other ones are for parts or need to be repaired and would be sold as is. OK, OK. So that right, so this is specific to these 6, but the

policy is for, you know, for hopefully for years but yeah that's what I was,

01:48:01,899	my question I had two questions. One is when it says the town who is when it says the town, is it Joe and is it both of you have to agree, or is it, I mean, when I mean it's only worth $11,000 you think it's worth $900 like how do we, I'm just just trying to figure out

what that means when it says the town decides it's worth less than $10,000. How does that

01:48:31,930	happen? I would say if I'm wrong, but consulting our counsel advised last time, like if it's close or we're not sure if it's like 9000 some change, it was probably worth putting it out through the bid process, but if it's like, well, we definitely know it's 8000 or less then.

You know, so they just kind of advised don't try to go right up against that number and hope for the best, yeah, and the beauty of Minibi is we don't need the beauty of Minicabbi and something like that is we don't need to have like a, I don't need a public auction that you

just put it on the that is the auction through municipid so any of these items, even though they're less than 10. They can just go on there and at least they're being advertised like a cut of the sale so I think there's a small fee um but worth

01:49:16,800	worth every minute you have to manage this and my fleet supervisor doesn't have to do that as well, and he'd be somebody that I would consult with, uh, with Joe about a value of of a piece of equipment, um. You know, to give us an idea of how much maybe we should start

the bid at or or minimum bid at so. Well Joel, the only thing I would ask, I don't know it's a policy or not, but just we get a a reportselectboard gets report on a quarterly basis of of what's being sold just so we can keep sort of a tabs on it. So I only come.

So there any restrictions like for employees to be. Part of the bidding process or is it wide open? I'm not saying there should be. I'm just curious. I believe if it hits, that's the other beauty of munica bid. Uh, it's, it's open for everybody. So if a municipality, if an employee, uh, wants to, to, to

get the truck or, or sander or whatever, um, they have every right to do that on a bid, so it's open for everybody. No, it's an open bid process, so. Um, in response to those requests for a report, I think that it would be really easy to make, um, an annual report as

part of the initiation of the annual capital planning, uh, process, so we can just, uh, these are all vehicles that will be purchased through a capital, uh, plan years ago. We could update the capital include them.

01:50:29,199	These vehicles were included this year surplus vehicles. They were estimated values of listed values and they'll list what we were able to get for them in the municipal process. And will this, these funds go into the general fund where, where will they be allocated.

01:50:46,369	I believe, I believe it'll all go to the general fund if real property, when you sell real property, the proceeds from selling real property are required to go into a capital fund. They can't go into the general fund, but I do not believe, um. Is this the one that wants to?

Oh, it works, um, um, but I do not think vehicles qualify that way, so my 98%. I believe this goes this will go to. OK. And then just one other question, um, in terms of the language of the policy, should we denote the hand, the town manager acting through the town of Hamilton?

Should we make that policy, um, more person specific? If you want to do that, you can. I think that the town manager act outlines out what my responsibilities are in in terms of signing contracts and and conducting the data. In the town. So if you have a policy that directs me to do this, I'm

within my, uh, I'm within powers granted by the town Manage Act to actually execute the contracts. OK. And what about stating where the fund funding will go that, I mean, is that going to be, uh, it's gonna be dictated by finance it's gonna be dictated by by Massachusetts, uh, municipal finance law.

So, uh, as I said, I'm 98% sure that it'll be general funds. Um, there's a 2% chance that. I'm wrong and they're gonna tell me I have to put into a capital fund, but uh, that those are the only two places that we go and there'll be a report, a yearly report. OK, thank you.

01:52:14,729	So do we want to vote on this tonight? I'm fine with it. OK, so I have a motion to approve the. I move that we approve the disposition of surplus equipment policy with us, the added comment of an annual report, with the added comment of an annual report. Second. All the papers say. Thank you. Thank you, Tim.

All right, we're gonna talk about the uh

01:52:43,229	draft public comment policy. For futures like board meeting. On public comments, so I was, uh, I'm gonna start, I don't want you we're not voting tonight. It's just discussion. I think it's good to have as much discussion as we can to build some consensus because I really want us all to agree,

even if we're not in the same spot right now, I think we can get to the same spot. Because this is for our really our board, I think any other board in the future can change it based on what they want to do. So policies are good because it sets the framework and sets a precedent.

Uh, I would, I would say that the, the board can set a policy that you expect other boards and committees that, yeah, particularly those that are appointed by you, uh, be more difficult for you to require, for instance, planning board and school committee to follow those. Because they're elected bodies, but, but any board that's

formed by the select board, um, you could, you could, you know, definitely suggest that they follow a same or similar policy as to whatever you develop, right? And it's when I say select boards, boards, select boards, right? So number one, I'll start with saying like this is not my policy. I'm the chair only for a year.

I've been the chair previously. Uh, somebody else would be the chair next year, so this is not as common for me today. This is not a Phil Olsen policy. This is a select board policy, um. And I'll say a couple comments about what I'm struggling with, right?

So once again just to go on the record, right, I, I have no issue with contentious comments. I don't think I've ever said that I don't wanna have public comment because they get contentious and if I did, I be correct comment for the public is that what has been said previously that when we have

contentious discussions they may. You get the, the, the comments may go on and on and on and we we lose control of the meeting. I don't care if it's contentious, but it's how do you set parameters so you can still control the meeting contention contention is opinion. Some people may think it's gonna, some people are not, so

I don't worry about opinion, but I worry about controlling, uh, a meeting. Number 2 is this is not retaliation for anything. I've been on the board for 8 years. We've got a policy. We were asked, we asked our counsel to respond to a complaint. Our council on recommendation by many of us said now that

we're looking at your public comment policy, it's an outlier. Nobody else does it. We don't recommend it represent lots of communities in town. We know you guys do it, but this is our set recommendation as your council to do this policy, so they came up with it on on sort of separate from us, right?

So then we have to decide, OK, do we listen to our town council. Or do we do our own thing, or do we meet somewhere in the middle, right, so I think that's what we we decide is that's that's the first thing we decide like. You know, from my point of view, do we follow town council?

Do we do what we're doing or something, I kind of think probably we can do something in the, in the middle, um. And make it better and make it more productive, um, but, uh, I'm in favor of public comment. I just think that we, um, by direction of town council, we

need to make it a little bit more finite and descriptive on on what we do. So, um. I'm not opposed to having it sort of be at points through the meeting, but then I just don't know how you, once again, once you, once you have a, a policy, you can't have a bunch

of um A bunch of uh exemptions that policy so I want it to be simple but consistent. So uh I know I've kind of talked to a few of you on it and that's what I'm trying to do, how to make it consistent and simple without being a bunch of if thens.

Well, if there's more than 10 people wanna speak and if there's more than 20 things on the item, like we don't wanna have that. So it's how do we keep it simple, um, and I guess the last thing I will say is. If I had to play devil's advocate and we'll go down the

road here, but if I had to play devil's advocate and say it's not a good it it it is a good idea to have it at the beginning of the meeting because it puts it all together in one spot and everybody knows when they're speaking and what they're speaking to, and people say, well, it's not fair we

can't speak during the the item. I would say the devil that we never vote the first time, right? So if you speak at a meeting.

01:56:36,399	or don't get a chance to speak to me. You're always gonna get the chance to speak at the beginning of the next meeting before we even have the vote, right? We never, we very rarely ever put something on the agenda and then vote on it before someone has a chance to make a public comment.

So I sort of don't actually think that just because you can't make a meeting uh comment at the time we're talking about doesn't give you the opportunity to talk about it at the next meeting before we actually vote on it. So you still have that opportunity as a public comment

to make the comment before it gets voted on. Um, there are also lots of other avenues to communicate with the select board, um. Besides the meeting, right, so that's not the only opportunity you have to, to, to voice your opinions, um, those kind of things I'm thinking about and struggling with, but, um, but,

um, I do like public comment. I do not mind it being throughout the meeting. I just want to figure out a way to make it a little bit more succinct than we have right now. I know our council wants to have it at the beginning of the meeting. I know that's what most communities do.

Uh, but I wanna go with the will of the board and get's opinion, but I think it's really the only thing we're debating about. I don't think we're debating about the timing and the length and the people, I think we're really debating about whether we do it all front or whether we sprinkle it through the meeting.

That's my opinion, but. Yeah, but it, it all, it all leans into time though because we have to manage a meeting, right? And I think, uh, often when you get public comment, as good as it is and as much as I appreciate it, it extends the meeting, uh, and, and brings it into later hours and later

hours don't, uh, uh, necessarily mean for better decisions. So I've been pretty clear from the beginning that I value the upfront, you know, with the time management on it. But I also like a spot at the end of each topic before I vote on something because often I hear something I didn't know or

there's a correction on something that was said, um, and that's kind of what I said at the last meeting when we went over at the uh at the last meeting. The challenge becomes, you know, managing that and then sometimes it becomes more of more than just, you know, I'm

gonna add information so that you make an informed vote, uh, to the select board. It becomes debate of a topic and that extends in and then we hear things multiple times. So if there was a way to manage that where it's a shorter period of time.

You know, and nothing to be repeated, I would be a fan of that, but I have struggled as I look into it since now and then of a way to control that, you know. I did reach out to the school, uh, school board. I got their policy, you know, it's a good policy except for

the piece where it says you have to write up front, which I don't think they follow anyway, um, you know, if you want to piece, they have to, oh, you have to actually sign up, yeah, you sign up front. I want to make a public comment and and you and you talk about what you're gonna do.

Now, but everyone, uh, everywhere I've looked, it's mostly up front, right? And, and I do, you know, appreciate the fact that we don't, we shouldn't vote for the first time on any topic, so there is another opportunity to come back and make corrections and there's also opportunities clearly if you wanna, you know,

write a letter we got a nice letter from folks on the dispatch, you know, something long we read those and we incorporate that into any of our discussions, so we do have multiple avenues and ways to reach to us. If we could get away to leave a spot where it could be quick at the each one.

path, but I struggle finding that absent that, you know, then maybe up front, you know, following the guidance of our of our legal counsel and by example of most uh public boards out there, you know, that seems to be the preferred path, you know, across the state.

01:59:54,630	No, I think we kind of align in our comments. Uh, I am very much in favor of continuous comments throughout the meeting during each topic as we have done. I think that really. Um, helps to helps residents citizens to feel a sense of engagement with their government. I think that's really important.

I think one of the things that's important and that adds too much time is truly when it becomes a back and forth on on an issue being discussed. I think that there should not be back and forth. I think if it's a new piece of information and a member of the board.

Finds it an interesting and compelling topic. Um, we can pick that up and have a discussion about it amongst ourselves or notate it that it's something to consider. So that's where I would draw the line is not having back and forth. I think that does at a lot of time which I think can get very

tiresome at the end of a long day. So that's my, that's my comment. Rose, can I ask you a question? Yes, um. What if we You know, so. The common, right, so the idea is that common up and we'll keep going, but I just wonder why you're thinking about common up front would be.

Any comment or only things that are on the agenda? What are you thinking? Well, um, OK. The, I, I like our system as we have it. People can make a general comments up front and then as each topic is introduced, if somebody has something they feel they want to say to make that brief comment, but we do

not respond if it's if it's a point. That we haven't thought about and we would like to discuss that amongst ourselves. I, I think that's good. We thank the the resident for bringing it to us but not to have a back and forth, just, just the, the, the comment and let the board continue the discussion about it.

But I think if we limited it up front and you didn't allow after. Have to be anything under the purview on or not on the agenda at that time, and I think that's what the schools do, right? I think it has to be, I think it has to be upfront to be

anything on the agenda off the agenda, and then if we did something after it have to be limited to like 10 minutes. Like you have 5 people can talk for 2 minutes each, not repeat yourself just to get the stuff out and then we so we at least

maybe have a 10, but let me, uh, people keep going, Tom. Yeah, yeah, I spoke a lot to this the last meeting, so I won't rehash all of it, but I, I agree with the sentiment of the board that I think public comment is important and I, you

know, I like how we have engaged in the past couple of years with engaging with the public, but I do find as we're actually trying to craft this policy with the guidance of town council and might get something that's, you know, enforceable and something that we can adhere to, um, I find it difficult.

To put some parameters around it, right, so I mean if we're going to think about just having a comment for each topic, I mean, what, what's the policy going to say? Is it gonna say 10 minutes each topic, you know, is a 10 minute so we're gonna open up a public comment period for each topic,

uh, and then all of a sudden we're stretching our meeting hours into the night. Um, I think we're gonna run into trouble. I mean, I like Rosemary's idea. I think that's really creative. She's thinking strategically on how we can do this. I just know us as a board, if someone gets up on and just

says a comment and we know we're not supposed to engage, but we want to say something because maybe they got it wrong or maybe they we want have a follow up question or maybe we're going to engage with them because they sparked a new idea that sparks a new idea for us and I think where there's going

to be a back and forth so I just feel like we'll end up. Discussing and not that that's a bad thing and that's good dialogue, but how do we then control that for the next person that wants to get up and we say you can only state one statement but we just engaged a full dialogue, right?

So I just feel like it's going to be really hard to control, um, and I spoke to this last meeting and I think it's a level of risk that we should you know have to decide whether to take as a board like. There's a gray area that we're operating in and what is our

risk tolerance of like risking another complaint to the, you know, attorney general? Do we want to accept this policy and and engage and, you know, promote public comment knowing that we might get a complaint down the road? Maybe we're comfortable with that because it's not a huge penalty, right?

Maybe we're not gonna, um, or maybe we want to strictly adhere to the law and say, you know, 20 minutes at the beginning. Uh, so that's where I struggle, um, and I, you know, listening to town council, I think they're saying like, here's the law, 20 minutes, that's the standard, um, that's the

easiest to enforce, um, so I sort of lean towards that because it's easier to enforce it, it's clear, concrete, and, um, you know, black and white. The gray area makes me a little bit nervous because I feel like we just sort of open up the the can of worms and I feel like

it's really hard to control once it's open. But we could have a monitor. I mean, it would be, I'm sorry, this is not my time. I'm sorry. Uh, let's let, yeah, we'll debate. Let's let, um Ben go and then we'll talk. So Rosemary, write that note down. We'll go back to you.

02:04:57,470	that we're having our deliberations on more than OK having some back and forth here amongst the board as well. So, whoops. I'll just use your points they don't do much.

02:05:11,569	Um, you know, I've given this a lot of thought as well, and I appreciate everything, the rest of the board. I don't need to rehash all of it. I think each one of you have raised interesting and important points.

Um 02:05:30,630	I think where, you know, the analogy I, I keep using is wanting to keep us off of trying to walk a tightrope, um, you know, it's like, you know, the language of Tom uses like kind of managing risk, right? I think when we get into these more complex issues and especially

when we've been having deliberations we've gone back and done our homework, gathered as much data or as many facts as we can, uh, then we bring it back in front of the community again to deliberate after we've been able to collect the data if we're having additional back and forth like that's where I

think you know it tends to become. The most challenging, so. I think whatever policies we land on. Very much I wanna make sure that we're not getting in the back and forth. I think that was like really astute Rosemary, of like if it does head in that direction that that's something we have

to have those guard rails very clearly written into any policy. I'm not saying that.

02:06:39,000	That's what I would write, I think I'm, if it were, if it were me to write the policy where, where I'm at right now on. You know, open to feedback and kind of like really to your point, Bill, of like building consensus about what the whole board wants, I think that's important, um.

So I'm very open to that. Um, I think where I'm challenged trying to help us as a board when we're having our deliberations and you know when we have like, you know, there's like 3 people here, 4 people here tonight, you know, and but if when the room is full and there's a lot of loud voices.

And we're trying to remember all of the facts and all of the data that we've been processing in the background for months and now there's a lot of like new and loud like and um and appropriately sometimes like emotional voices because of the amount of impact, but we've done our due diligence over

months or quarters or sometimes you all for years it becomes really challenging I think to continue to hold things in perspective when emotions are that high. Um, so. And the challenge that we're discussing here is how do we have a policy that's very, very clear, very transparent and very consistent so that people understand kind of the rules

and norms that the current makeup of this board is trying to. Operate under where you know if something's been going on for, you know, months, quarters, or years, a lot of times there are not a lot of options left on the table either so it's really

kind of like yes or no, do we go forward or do we go back in time 18 months where a lot of the options that people feel very passionately about and they'd like us to be investigating further, we'd have to start over and I and I think that's one of the biggest challenges is that.

We want to have input. We wanna hear from the community. And it's like sometimes our hands are even tied because we're choosing from do we progress or do we go back to the beginning, and that is sometimes lost if you're coming into the process at the very end and you feel like, why aren't they listening to me?

You know, like, and it's sort of like well we want to hear you like your voice does matter like your ideas matter the challenge is like now we're at a place on this particular program or project where we don't have that option it's go back to the drawing board or continue to make progress and so I'm.

I feel I don't want to give people, you know, false hope after all like the due diligence on something has been done when we're really deliberating, you know, is, is this, are we ready to make this big commitment? Because those are the types of things that really I think. Um Challenge us.

It's like when we're getting down to those last, those last 2 or 3 meetings before we make a big decision, but in reality we're voting yes or no, a lot of times or go back to the drawing board because so much planning has gone into getting us that far. And it's a delicate balance, um, I think I'm.

Um, if, if there's a proposal to keep the like comments like going during specific agenda items, I'm open to that, I think we're. I'll just speak for myself where where it starts to become counterproductive is on nights where we're trying to have our final deliberation as a board, conduct our business and make a

vote based on all of the data and information and facts that we've been diligently collecting in the background and we're having that vote that night after many months and many meetings. I don't I don't feel like the additional public comment at the 11th hour is helpful to us, and I don't think it's helpful for the community either.

02:10:42,930	Ma, do you mind if I make a comment? The, the only I, I. The board can make edits and amendments revisions to the policy that was put forward by town council. Um, town council did draft the uh policies in front of you, was not drafted by myself or by the chair or any other member of like board.

The one thing that I, I'd like everybody to keep in mind though is that if you open it up at the end of each or at the end of agenda items to to have public comment, calling it public comment. Necessitates that whatever they want to say whether it's about

that topic or not, they have their 2 minutes or whatever time frame you put on it so if you say on the agenda at the end of. This agenda item we're gonna allow 10 minutes total of public comment. No speaker could speak for more than 2 minutes.

Well, 2 or 3 speakers can get up and speak about something else totally unrelated. And take up that time. And now you've not got anywhere more towards your goal of getting more input. I think that people look at the public comment and think that

that's a great way to get input to the board, and it is, it can be, but it's certainly not the only way that the board receives input and information. You all live in town. You're all active in town. You some of you go to the train station, you all shop in town. You are youth events, school events.

I know from just living in Swampscott and I'm not even active in the town of Swampscott. People come up and ask me questions because they know I'm a town manager all the time. So I'm sure if I'm being approached in Swampscott and ask questions, I'm sure you are all all the time being

approached, asked, and having their opinions shared with you. You know, Public comment is it can be can be very difficult. I want you to just be mindful of what you're doing. You, you've got a great conversation going here. I'm not trying to lead you one way or the other.

I'm just trying to make sure that you're aware public comment is public comment. There are no substantive parameters you can put on it. You can only limit time so if you limit time. There can be, and I've seen it happen in other communities not here, there can be opportunities to misuse that

time component so that you don't actually get what you're looking for out of it anyway. Well, we've always had public comment and when it is on a particular issue, I've not known people in general to stray from that issue. You're right I think because we have the, the public comment at

the beginning for things not on the agenda and that's stipulated in the way that that was wasn't so much a policy as just past practice and there wasn't anything written down. There was no policy that guided it the boards have been doing that for decades. I would, I would say though I think that the current

political climate, not just here in Hamilton but everywhere is so much more polarized than it's ever been at any time in the past that people are looking for opportunities to come and speak to the government and we need to provide them those opportunities. Whether you all decide that it's at your meetings or you

wanna do, we talked I think a little bit, Bill, you weren't here and talked about the idea of having, you know, kind of quarterly community forums where people could come in and share ideas and board members could be present and we could take or without the board staff could be present to take

people's inputs on those on on various things and bring that all back to you pilot and bring it back to you as well. Nobody's saying that they don't want to engage with the public and look for new ways to offer that. We just want to, you know, you're all, you've all hit the

other points about the you were gonna come before when Tom was talking, I'm sorry, I interrupted, um, so I, I think one of the concerns was monitoring the back and forth, and I am definitely for, I mean, maybe we have a monitor who says thank you for your comment and

We'll, we'll discuss it just just we all need to remember to, to truncate it and not get into a back and forth. The conversation should be amongst the the the board members and we may have little lapses here and there, but I think the more we would get used to something like that,

the more comfortable it would become, um, and then it becomes part of our discussion and if somebody says something. We feel we certainly thank people for their for their interest and their comments and their and and their willingness to to come and discuss that. I think that's critical to our to our democratic process um

but if it's something that's not gonna help us then we just don't discuss it if it's something that's um repetitive or something um that's just not salient to to the issue.

02:15:24,670	I, you know, it's like if I do the math, right? If I said, like, I like public comment because people come to the meeting. If we don't have public comment, no one's gonna come to our meeting and we've done really worked really hard to get people to be involved and come to our meeting, right?

So. And I, and, and we're maybe we're different than other communities, but we're, hey, we're different than other communities because maybe we're better than other, I don't know, right? So, and I'm willing to invest an hour and a half per meeting on pub. I mean, I, if, and I can we know it's not.

I mean I've been for 8. I've been here for 8 years. We know the meetings we're gonna have they're gonna go to 11 o'clock at night, and most of them don't. I mean, it's, it's, it's 9 o'clock at night. We've already been through 3 meetings and we haven't so,

so I am OK like saying an hour and a half, which means for me it means like a half an hour up front and it's like Joe said you can't Can't say anything. You just public comment 3 minutes. You can't say no. Don't repeat yourself. You can't.

It has to just be 3 and then 10 minutes at the end of the problem is if I do 10 minutes at the end of every topic and you say, oh, there's 6 topics on a meeting, it could be up to 60 minutes. That's 60 plus 30 it's an hour and a half.

So we're willing to take the risk of that every meeting is gonna have up to an hour and a half public comment. I'm, I'm OK with that in a worst case scenario. If every meeting went an hour of public comment because someone decided to just speak about anything they want to,

not necessarily what was on the agenda item. We may have to revisit my my thoughts on that, but I'm not opposed to an hour and a half of public comment if it needs to be done because I, I, I understand what counsel said, I understand what Joe's, uh, is, but, but we've never had in 8

years like and, and I don't go back, right. The only reason we're having this discussion right now is because I was remote. Bill led the meeting. We had 3 hours of public comment. On a topic we decided not to vote that night because we tabled the vote.

OK, we tabled the vote because we wanna question so we had already had the public comments. We went to the next, next, next meeting to have the comment. We'd already had public comment on that section. So it wasn't, it wasn't that public comment wasn't allowed. It was that we had the public comment and all we did was

table the vote to the next meeting. That's all we did. We didn't table the discussion. We, we had to let everybody let everybody speak

02:17:23,469	with no time limit and no limit of people went over 3 hours. And then we tabled this the vote and then we said if we table let's have a school committee come and answer questions. So that was the format of the meeting. It wasn't like we we weren't trying to change anything. It was the same topic.

It was just tabled so we weren't trying to change the process, um, but we just have to think about that in the future and how we do question answers if we're gonna do a question answer session, it can't be at a meeting. It has to be at a, at a, um, for like a forum like you just

get it so. In the future that was right, and, and so we should have done that. So in the future what we learned from that is we don't have kick question answer sessions, we'll do that for. But um, but I am OK like I said, I'm ready to vote

tonight, but right now I'm in a position where I'm OK if we can draft the policy, maybe Rosemary with your legal eti and drafted, but I'm OK with, you know, investing an hour and a half per meeting at the most on public. And, and we all know that not every um issue will have

speakers who, who want to, um, present an opinion and, and, and I understand we need to think of worst case scenario, but we also should consider sort of what's the what's the usual scenario, right? What do, what do we what Joe, what is, what is worst case scenarios it takes an hour what's the case?

We just hear people talk for an hour and a half, right? No, I'm trying to think legally what's the worst case scenario as long as long as you set the boundaries to strike and stick to them, right? I mean, I would suggest, but once again, you know, Rosie's right about about not responding.

I mean that that is since I've been here, that's been the advice of our counsel several times they said it to me. They said it to past year why do you guys respond? You shouldn't respond. Let them have their say. It's fun and we, I think you should put it in writing and

start to stick we need, we need to have, we, right, but we need to unfortunately we need to have a clock because, you know, was not speaking tonight, but he went 4 minutes, right? He went over 4 minutes and I didn't want to cut him off because I don't wanna be accused of, it's like, so once

he put me in a position where he made me cut them off, which wasn't great, so we need to just have a a clock with a we're gonna do it because it just I don't wanna be in that position where I'm. Looked at cutting people off right that's a good example

tonight and then just discussing whatever it is amongst ourselves. I think that's good because then, then I think residents feel heard they feel part of the discussion and then and then we also get to get to continue with our business. So I I think the nuance of one of the things I was trying to suggest.

Is that if if we've been so like public this public comment one we've been doing this for like a couple of months now we're gonna get to a place where we have a document that we can vote on um when it uh for me since we've already had

all of the public comment on it that we should absorb we've had legal counsel review and now we're going to bring it to a vote. What I'm trying to suggest is on on the day that we take that vote that we. I don't think it improves our community engagement to then

engage with the public one last time right before we vote on it because we've gone back, we've done all of our due diligence, which is what because of open meeting law, this is our only opportunity to have this discussion and then we can go back and we can do all of our final last little dot the I's,

cross the T's, do all of our homework, come prepare and vote. And it's our only opportunity to collect additional like any other facts that we need is why we're not together and I feel like it sets the public up though with an expectation of I'm going to get to comment on it they're going to hear me and

then it's going to change their vote, but we've just created a situation where we are very likely not going to change our vote based on the last thing that we hear from somebody from the public, but we're creating that expectation. But we will not be able to fact check anything that they say.

So if they say a bunch of things that are factually inaccurate or misinformation or are just completely outlandish numbers or dollars or things and we can't correct it, we've just created a situation where if there's a big room where everyone's like, well, so and so just said it's, you know, it's gonna cost. 100 gazillion dollars, right?

And it's like, no, we already went through this, you know, last time, but we can't engage, you know, unless we're just like there with our fact sheet. Do you see the like kind of like the nuance that I'm saying we're creating a problem for ourselves with a community engagement 30 minutes of meeting or say in the 10

minutes it's not like that's just. I, I hear you, but I don't know that it makes a difference that they say at the 10 minutes after the 30 minutes and because they could say it at the time. So if they said the 1st 3 minutes, you would, you'd be getting the same information.

So the challenge though, I don't think that's entirely true because a lot of times we'll have people like come in, we will tea something up and then the way that we've done it is like then they so we tee up, we give all of. Information and then there's this back and forth that gets

created and then we vote and it sounds like we've just ignored everything that they've said you see the difference versus them having an opportunity to speak at the beginning, us like kind of saying here's the presentation, you know, if it comes from Fincom or if it come from somebody else, and here's

all of the facts and we've done all of our homework and diligence and then we. and vote. We're grounding ourselves back in all of the homework we've been doing for months and years versus somebody made a statement at the beginning. Do you see what I mean?

Because it sets up, it sets us up in a situation where there are like two zones of reality when there's there's really one that we've been diligently listening to the community and doing all of our homework. Do you see the difference? I, I do, I do see the difference, but.

The format has typically been and we can change the format, but the format that we typically on you guys, you've been on the board and Rosemary, but is that we is that a topic comes up, right? We talk about the topic then someone and, and usually the motion is not made right away.

We should talk about 5, 10 minutes and then someone makes a motion. Then we get a second then we say. Are there, is there any further discussion or questions, and that's typically when we let public comment come in after we've talked about it for 10 minutes before we voted, right?

After they may come up we can still have a discussion like we don't have to vote after they talk, but once again our job to select people is to take everything we hear and filter it out based on our own knowledge and our own skill sets and so you're always going to that struggle.

So I hear the struggle, but that's kind of what we like to do is is is they they voted for your filter. Like you were voted in to have we like Ben Gois. He's gonna hear everything's in here and he's gonna filter what he thinks is the best decision.

And so I, I think that's, but I, but I trust you

02:23:55,370	you have a filter and you can filter what you think is reasonable, I think is unreasonable, what you agree with, what you don't agree with. But, but that's kind of in the form as we have a discussion, we make the motion second the motion, public comment, then we discuss, then we vote. Is that Bill?

100%. I think you know it's our responsibility to have that fact sheet that you reference Ben and. And then as discussions grow like even the night we vote, new things are said, and those are the things I want people to come up and talk about. You're right, sometimes they'll come up and they didn't listen

to that and they had a preloaded discussion and they want to throw it on there and it goes on forever, um, so I do value the allotted time but it is hard to manage. I, I don't disagree with anything you said Ben. The only thing I worry about is we're managing to an extreme

here and I think in your short, short time here you've been through some very difficult topics and I've seen, seen that that's not the. of the experience that we're it's cemetery plots it seems difficult to prohibit those kind of general discussions for the other 98% of discussions we have. That's all. So something to think about,

but I don't disagree with you either.

02:25:02,729	what do you think for next steps? Who should draft? Well, I think we had policies draft policy. So we draft one policy of everything at the front and one policy things throughout and then see which one we like better. Is that a good idea? Don't we have the front we got the front from KP and I thought

I know that Ben was working on some maybe our and I think Rosie was as well, so,

02:25:25,000	Rosie, I'll work with you on the other one, the policy of sprinkling it in with some parameters, and maybe if Tom and Ben can work on the one we have and Make it a little bit more agreeable to Hamilton, but the Hamilton stamp on it, we

can maybe talk you guys or or do you think that is captures the essence the the one we have to bring it more. I think it needs some I think I had some things that that were a little. I think the timings that we've discussed in terms of the

amount and quantities of time, like if, so, um, Bill, if Olson and Rosemary, if you guys adjust what they put together based on the time, the times and quantities and when it occurs, like how it gets slotted in. To the agenda items just to make that refinement and I think that's the essence

of what we're I think is that we if next week we talk about the two, I think we're really two versions, right up front or sprinkled between what that looks like legally as a policy and then maybe the time after that we vote.

02:26:27,270	I kind of wanna vote before the end of the summer, yeah. That make sense?

02:26:32,629	So we started the year fresh and good. OK, anything else? Did I miss anybody or any thoughts? I mean, I know it's tough, but I just, I don't wanna, I don't wanna kill what we've been doing for years because it actually has worked. The only reason it didn't work is not because it didn't work.

It's because there was a misinterpretation of what we were doing. Well it was just really, really contentious issues, and sometimes you just can't help those kind of reactions. I really value this conversation. I think that our our residents will value this conversation and, and that we are thinking very carefully about about how

to engage the public and not lose that that connection. I think that's important and I think we are. Is more when people are here and they talk. I know, I even if I don't agree with them, I still enjoy the beans. I don't have to agree with everybody. They can change my mind.

I think the policy, if it doesn't should also include other vehicles to to provide input. I don't know if it says you can do this, that. Other, you know what I mean, it should speak to so when someone looks they can say, oh, I'll send an email to this email

select, you know, put our the select board email address or whatever and you know just other other options so they know that it's they have options. All right, what do we got next? Um, um, goal setting, so at the last meeting, the board had agreed to meet on August 13th it said 26, and, um, I believe

in between. Mr. Wilson had sent copies of the most recent goals that we have there that we can use that, I guess, as a template to step off, uh, coupled with that and the next item right right after that is to pick a day and time to do a review of time

management based on the most recent goals we had which weren't actually done last year but were done almost 2 years ago, um, just because we never. Never got to to doing goals this year because every time. We had

02:28:30,729	Discus on the table and so yeah, so I did send something out on the 12th to everybody hopefully everybody saw that it did kind of outline the format, you know, I got rid of any gradings and stuff, but the major categories, you know, communication, personnel management, financial management, planning inter organizational. Professional growth and communicating and outreach, so

those are the major categories and since, as Joe said, you know, we didn't as a board, you know, add anything or delete anything, I added a section bolded in yellow towards the bottom that gave you the opportunity to add initiatives. Uh, two things that we should get out of this one is we can

have a discussion along this on how's Joe doing. Uh, you know, to date on these objectives as well as some other things we should add that might have been done, and this is where I asked Joe if you had a list of things maybe that would help too, but we can discuss about how we're doing

on our path to where we want to go. And the second part, this would work towards the document that we would stamp and approve as your, you know, your objectives if you will, uh, on a go forward for the next year. And we had agreed or thought, you know, that we would come

back around on the 13th, you know, to discuss that. I don't know if we'd have a final thing we would vote then. I'm a little bit, you know, like I've seen this movie before things come in late or don't come in, and then we really need to all commit to get stuff in.

I'm happy to aggregate it, um, and so we have something to, uh, discuss at a meeting, but I would just need commitment from this team, uh, you know, to send stuff by a certain date now, uh, you know, to, to a calendar then.

02:30:04,100	So we were gonna do that in the evening again starting at 6:30 I think and you want me to try to bring food. What day of the week is it? It's a Wednesday. Hallelujah, not a Monday, Wednesday night, right? Wednesday. So Because everybody get everything to bill by the 1st

of August, which gives us a week and a half. We already have that in our calendar. Yeah, we said it at the last meeting, uh, we said the day and time. Um, I think I have to figure out we want to do it a little bit more casually, we could probably do it.

02:30:41,000	So we'll attend,

02:30:47,799	but you don't have you don't allow for that period that's just a workshop so that's not doing the review and the goal at the same time you're thinking about.

02:31:02,670	So let's, so the goal setting is on the 13th. This is not, this is the review though, right? This, this, well, I thought it was gonna, I don't know that there's two documents. I know I think this is your goal setting. You're gonna, and you know, we'll, if you remember what

we've done in the past is we kind of brainstorm ideas of what should be the goals for the coming year, put them in, we aggregate them, then we bring them back and vote them at an actual. Meeting where the public would have an opportunity and the time between the meeting gets posted and the time you have

the meeting you'd be able the public would see what you'd aggregated and make a comment on that and then you vote the goals, um, and then you could have discussion at either meeting around progress will be made my effectiveness and helping that broad rest so what so what prep do we need?

So let's just do what prep do we need to do before the goals. Before the prep before the 13th, I think Bill already did that, uh, largely I need to get it advertised. I need to confirm that you want me to get some kind of a food for that and identify the location so we can properly

post the meeting, um, the workshop meeting, and that, uh, that's all the prep you need for the 13th. I will go through the template that, uh, Bill Wilson shared and try to be prepared to answer, um, what progress on different items. So I don't know that this format view that's more the but

that's more the next one which is the uh which is the town manager annual review, which is what this template is yeah so this template we haven't haven't set a date yet for that but It kind of is hand in hand because I think we I think we

do the review, we're gonna have a better handle of goals for next year, so I almost say like this needs to be done. Like, fill this out before, like by August 1st, yeah, because that way we could close some of the things out and decide and have a discussion on what carries forward or what

might have today is that a reasonable if it's only a 5, it's what a 4 or 5 page document,

02:33:00,200	yeah the bill by August 1, OK. And what I mean comments are it's not a great doc for comments, but I think those are helpful. Is this you have an Excel, right? Yeah, it's in Excel. This picture doesn't do it justice, but. It's in Excel, so you can freeform some stuff.

02:33:18,500	Even if you want to go below it or in the email, I can grab it from there anywhere if you have a comment and you want to elaborate on anything you've said around around the goals. Is that clear? I don't want to walk away unclear. No, I'm clear.

OK. Two different things, but they kind of are they go hand in hand because it's hard to set goals for next year unless we know how he did on his goals over the past year. OK, so, so by the, so by August 1st you're gonna submit the bill. I give them a week and a half

to aggregate it before the 13th. And what time did we decide? I thought I have 5 in my calendar. Oh no, alert one day before at 5. I'm. Where is there a good, I want, I want it to be kind of a good informal like setting like where we're not just like we're

sitting more like in COA we don't, we could do COA or we could do I could ask if the community house has, has, is it going to be on Zoom? Um. We'll zoom. It won't be like a hybrid meeting. You'll all be there. I'll be there, uh, but we can use the zoom to kind of capture.

It's just the COA is comfortable. OK, I, I, I would go for that. Do we want to break bread? I think Joe was asking. We wanna bring some pizzas. Yeah, last time that we did Asian food. Um, what, what, what I know it's a few weeks away your mood

may change between now and what do you want me to leave? Chicken Caesar salad.

02:34:50,000	Oh, you wanna, I wanna just do like a 15 walnut menu and just salad pizza.

02:34:53,629	sit next door. They have good nachos. We can do. You can either do sushi or pizza or everything. So I we just send you a takeout and we can just all get

02:35:08,770	6 meals from walnut and it's right next door and we keep the local business. I won't ask what's in your, but I'm not, I'm not providing any. I have water. All right, so that kind of carries two topics. I'm sorry, and the time again what time? 30, but OK, I had 6 6:30 is fine.

That's 02:35:40,370	on the 13th to the board took some um. Some of where we were at, um, both in terms of the most recent offer from our Alliance and uh a broker that he had introduced us to, um. Essentially the broker was gonna try to beat whatever price that we got or take it to

the market and get a better price. Um, the board had opted to ask me to reach out to Ty Alliance, offer to take their previous offer at 675 for a 30 year term. Uh, I did that. They have not responded at all. I need to get a heads up, uh, let me know how we'll get back

to you, um, and since then the. Uh, brokers also reached out to me wanting to know what the status was. I, I shared with her what the board had asked me to do, and she said, she said, I really wish you guys would just go with me. I'm not gonna charge you anything and I'll even if Tower

Alliance says 675, I'll try to get them to do better. She said so does she know the offer? She does and she's saying that so you think she can get better. I mean, I'm leaning that way. I mean one thing we could do is like give them another shot to

answer it, but then empower maybe me and Joe to kind of go one path or the other, you know, at this point because I think either way it's a win for the town. If she's coming back and said that to you and if you're if you'd like, I'll give her one more call just to emphasize

what the offer is and what it looks like. That's the number that starts making sense. I think under that doesn't make sense, doesn't make sense or that number and we pay her 5K, that's less. But if there's a chance and she knows the industry, she's been

in it for a long time, um, and if she's no, if she's not barking and telling you she'll do better. So what's the timing? Does it need to be done, it doesn't need to be done. I mean, in some ways it's more in favor of them to get done right,

02:37:27,799	not in need of the, I mean, the only risk is you look they pull something. Where does that money go, um. It would, I, I would of some that large I would, I would argue it's, it's gonna be proceeds from the sale of the lease, so you, you're gonna wanna designate that as one

You're not gonna wanna work that into the operating budget. time funds. You could pay for capital. You could pay down something you put it into the capital, um, stabilization fund. You could put it in the reserve fund, but you wouldn't wanna use it in an operating budget, OK.

I mean, I, I, I would recommend if you and, I mean, if unless anyone has one way or the other just empower me and Joe to put this thing to rest because I think either way it's a win. Yeah, I, I, I don't think we need to vote on it, but yeah, I, I.

You have the knowledge of this thing work out a deal and bring it back to us and we'll vote on it for your recommendation, but I, you have my freedom to negotiate, OK, and bring it back to us. But right, we'll, we'll put this to rest. I'm gonna call Lisa as well, Joe, and maybe give one, Tower

Alliance one more shot. OK, so you had another meeting with the board and you have Samantha's number from Tower Alliance. She's the most recent broker. Oh, I thought you were gonna call. I was, I know, I, I've already emailed her as the board described it at the last meeting, OK, and. You want me to call her?

You can, OK, I will. You don't have her number. I do email to her or to tell her I'm not, I'm not sure. Push the email anyway, so it's the top of the list, and then I'll call them both. Alright, uh, new business, the only new business I had we've discussed. Thank you.

Uh, only new business I had was I was looking for, and it didn't happen tonight because it didn't happen quick enough, but I was looking for an update on the field just because I wanna make sure they're gonna be done by the fall, and I think they are, but I just wanted to get an update, but it

looks like they're have a ribbon cutting sometime in the next month or two. So yeah, but uh, we were, we were gonna ask Eric to do that tonight, but then he didn't come, so, um, so for the school board to give us some sort because. Yeah, that'd be good because it's fences are still out

there, so it's still under construction, but there's not much activity going on, so I'm assuming they're just doing punch list and then, uh, town hall, same thing as Joe next couple of months to do a, uh, update on town hall, maybe walking through a slideshow or something, so.

Uh, I have him come in and do that to see what the progress is and what the updated schedule is so we know when we're gonna have our first meeting there. But what's your best guess now, Joe? Uh, I, I think we, I, I'm, I'm optimistic that we'll, we'll be able to move in like May.

I don't think it'll, I, and I don't think we'll be able to have a meeting there until until we're moving in probably next May. Um, actually I did, I will give you one update that uh this isn't really new business yet, but it may be, um, and I'd asked for the board's endorsement or, or agreement.

Yeah, I don't think you need to vote, but, uh, you know, we're currently town offices are in the patent homestead, um, that's kind of a temporary fix for our issue with what do we do with the patent homestead, um, and about 2 months ago, uh, 10 weeks ago, I had a conversation with a gentleman

named Jeff Wells who is the. Uh, director, executive director of the Patton Foundation, which is out of Texas and has been doing a lot of work in Europe and in Texas, uh, around. Supporting veterans, um, they're linked with Helen Patton and the family, and they're interested in working

out some kind of a, a deal where they can acquire either the use of or potentially put property the property itself, um, just the buildings, um, to be able to continue and expand their mission to work with veterans, uh, which is really good for us because that's really what the, uh, patent homestead.

Um, friends of Patton Holmes said, the Patent Homestead Inc folks wanted that property to be used for anyway. Um, Jeff was back from Europe and, uh, he, he and Helen came to my office again this morning. We sat down and had another good conversation. We started. He's offered me a, a letter outlining just the broad brush

strokes of what, uh, options might be. Uh, they're also finalizing a deal to take control or take ownership, I should say, of the, uh, patent archives collection from the one a museum which is trying to divest of it, so that's all good it stays together potentially. So I wanted you to be aware of that.

What I'd like is to put together the task force that we have put back together, reconstitute the task force that we had prior to us moving town offices into the patent homestead. We had a representative of the select board, a representative of the Fincom Patent Homestead Inc, the DPW director, and the

finance director, uh, kind of as a task force to come up with options on what to do with that. I'd like to reconstitute that task force. Uh, with new members and, and have that group help me meet with Jeff Wells and his group, uh, as we work out a timeline

to maybe have a recommendation for next time meeting next annual time meeting in in April. Would this be a lease or a sale? Uh, the both options are listed as potential. Um, if it was a sale, we'd try to restrict it to, uh, as I said, the, the, the three main buildings and, uh, 4.5 5 acres,

uh, maintain the rest of the grounds in town ownership. Um, they've they've also expressed interest in a long term lease, uh, that would give them the opportunity to manage the site. Uh, my concern with the lease is that if the town maintains ownership, they still have to follow the same public

procurement laws to do work on the, on the homestead, and that makes it more expensive for them. Uh, a sale would allow them to make the necessary improvements and upgrades just using the market and taking advantage of whatever contacts they have. So there's pluses and minuses to both sides.

They are, they may also not be in a position to make an offer for the whole.