00:00:00,720 S1: We'll call the August 31st board meeting to order, and 00:00:07,160 William Olson: we'll do a roll call vote. You need a roll call? Yeah, we'll do a roll call vote. So we'll start with, uh, we'll keep the same order tonight, but we'll start with, uh. Uh, Rosemary. 00:00:19,440 S2: Hi. Rosie Kennedy here. 00:00:22,160 William Olson: Uh, Lee. 00:00:27,640 William Olson: There. Lee. 00:00:29,120 S3: I lost you guys, but, um. 00:00:31,360 Lee McCoy: Lee McCoy here. 00:00:32,920 William Olson: All right. Ben. 00:00:35,120 S4: Ben Galuza here. 00:00:37,160 William Olson: And William Olson here. All right. We have one agenda today, and that's to, uh, to consider appointing a new member of the ZBA. And I think and we have, uh, I think he's I know he's attending, but. 00:00:57,760 S5: I'm trying to figure out where he is. 00:00:59,290 Joscph Domelowicz: Um. Just hold on tight. If you don't mind. Sorry. Hope this doesn't. 00:01:05,290 S6: Joey just texted me and said he's on the Zoom, but I don't. 00:01:09,890 Joscph Domelowicz: Can he hear us? I can't see him at all. 00:01:18,010 Mark Connors: Uh, I'm gonna try to call him. Hold on one second. Okay. 00:01:25,290 Rosie Kennedy: I'm going to go get an ice cream cone. 00:01:30,970 William Olson: Get two. 00:01:32,170 Mark Connors: Hey, John, can you hear me? 00:01:37,610 Joscph Domelowicz: So, okay, so, John, thanks for joining us. We don't see you on our Zoom screen. I don't understand why. Uh, but you can see and hear all of us. 00:01:45,770 S7: My screen says waiting for the host to start the meeting. 00:01:50,690 William Olson: It might be a different Joe. 00:01:53,810 Why don't you send him the link? Joscph Domelowicz: I'm going to. 00:01:56,330 Joscph Domelowicz: Um, John. Mark, give me his email address so I can forward him this meeting. 00:02:04,340 Mark Connors: Um, I have the link already set up to do it, so I'm just going to forward it to him right now. CC you. 00:02:10,780 Joscph Domelowicz: Okay? 00:02:24,060 Joscph Domelowicz: Yeah, I think he's in the wrong meeting. 00:02:25,740 S7: Um, I just got a link. Um, here we go. Join the zoom. 00:02:37,860 Joscph Domelowicz: Here he is. 00:02:40,300 Rosie Kennedy: Oh. 00:02:41,340 Joscph Domelowicz: Thank you John. Okay. 00:02:44,260 S7: It looks like. Okay, great. 00:02:45,820 Mark Connors: Okay. Great. John. I'm going to. 00:02:52,180 Joscph Domelowicz: All right. Okay, John. You're muted. We can see that you're muted right now. Um, Bill, you got your candidate here. 00:02:58,710 William Olson: All right, John, thanks for joining. Um, yeah. So we have one one on the agenda. We had you on the agenda last week, but, um, as you could not attend, we decided to, uh, this is an important position in town. We decided to have a special meeting tonight just to, uh, get to meet you and hear from you and then make a decision on how we move forward with, uh. So we got some options with what we vote for to keep the ZBA at a, at a three member board. So, but we didn't hear from you a little bit about, uh, about yourself and why you're interested in joining the board and what you know about the ZBA. So, uh, I'll let you introduce yourself and, uh, might have a few questions for you, but once again, I appreciate you volunteering. Uh, great to meet you. And, uh, we're always looking for people in town to volunteer and jump on these boards. So, uh, we'll start by saying thank you for doing that, and hopefully we find a good spot for you. 00:03:48,990 S8: Sure. That's great. 00:03:50,470 John Green: Now, I did introduce myself a month or a month and a half ago. Um, I think it was a slightly different cast of, uh, board members back then. I don't, I don't know if I should repeat myself and just give you the basic biography again, or if that. 00:04:06,400 Joscph Domelowicz: Yeah. I think you met the ZBA at that time. And, um, we're introducing yourself to them. I don't think the select board met you yet. 00:04:13,600 John Green: Oh, I guess Rose Rosie was there. I guess perhaps that. 00:04:16,960 Rosie Kennedy: That was the ZBA yes. 00:04:18,720 John Green: Yeah, yeah. Okay. Sure. Well, yeah. So I guess I'll give you the the short biography. 00:04:26,560 John Green: Sure. Uh, I, uh, I was actually born and raised in Massachusetts in Swampscott and then Lexington, Massachusetts, uh, went off to college, um, left the state for college, uh, after college, uh, a few years after college, I joined the Marine Corps. So I spent four years, um, as an infantry officer in the Marines. Uh, after that, I came back to New York and went to graduate school in, um, I got a master's in international affairs, and then my sort of career proper began. And for most of a decade and a half or so, I was a consultant in New York. Um, I was a political and policy analyst at a company called Eurasia Group, and then a few other places after that. Um, where, where we would, um, we would inform our, we would inform our clients of, um, what we thought would happen politically and policy wise in various countries that we happen to be covering for them. And I, my focus was Asia for a while, although I also did some work on, on Europe and uh, and the US. Um, I'm largely retired now, um, about about five years ago during Covid, we, my, my wife, my wife and three kids and I left New York, moved to Arizona. So I lived in Arizona outside of Phoenix for about four years. And last year we moved back to, well, we moved to Massachusetts. Back to Massachusetts for me. We moved back here in May, uh, bought this house here on, on Meyer Road. Um, the three kids are in school nearby. We've got a, a daughter at Pingree and another daughter at Brookwood. And my, our son is at, um. Um. Oh, my God, it's the end of summer. And I've forgotten the names of all these, uh, schools. Um, our son's down in Beverly Farms at the, uh, um. 00:06:34,420 Rosie Kennedy: Land landmark. 00:06:36,140 John Green: Landmark. Landmark? Yes. Thank you. Um, so we're busy with them, and, um, I mean, I had a, I had a short, uh, oh, I had some involvement with the building department. I, um, when I moved here, I decided I wanted to build a sauna in our backyard. So I got a permit from Richard for that. And, uh, over the next nine months or so, finally, um, Torturously built myself a sauna, and Richard came by periodically to review the building and approve the various steps. And, um, just had that permit closed out by him, um, a month ago or so. And I have a fully functional sauna that I'm very happy with. So my, my experience with the building department has been very positive. Um, look, you know, I, like I said, I covered politics and policy, including of the US for a number of years as a, as a professionally. And, um, my sort of view today is that, you know, politics in America and a number of other countries has become very dysfunctional and frustrating and somewhat depressing at the national level. Um, but, you know, I, I think that, um, you know, there's still opportunities to do very good work in government at the local level, uh, despite my, my sort of interest and involvement in politics, uh, over the many years. I really have no interest in running for office. I don't think I have the personality for that or the temperament for something like that. Um, but this, this kind of work at a local level with what the zoning board is doing is something that seems very useful and something that I think I'd enjoy. I think I would enjoy the experience, um, particularly in light of, of what I've done in the past. 00:08:30,720 William Olson: Are you familiar with some of the things that the ZBA is working on right now? 00:08:36,760 John Green: I'm sorry. 00:08:37,760 William Olson: Are you aware of some of the projects or applications that the ZBA is working on right now? 00:08:44,480 John Green: Uh, well, you know, in the the local Hamilton-wenham newspaper. I've followed the. The biggest issue seems to be the decision on that property up Bay road a bit from where I live. The, uh, the property that's now sort of, um, uh, fenced off and I guess the new owner wants to convert it into, uh, 1 or 2 storeys of mixed commercial and residential use. And at least some of the neighbors in the area are opposed to it. And I know that that has come before the board. And the board has made a decision. And I think, according to the paper a week or two ago, it's the issue is going to be back in front of the board. Um, and there may also be a a Massachusetts state courts involved in that decision as well. So I'm I've heard a bit about that case. It's getting most of the attention. I was, I, um, joined the ZBA for a call in early summer, probably June where they were hearing a um a a permit request for, uh, property over in um the Asbury Road area. And uh, listen to that back and forth. And I think that was ultimately approved. So I have a little bit of, I'm aware of just a couple of the decisions that have been made or are pending by the board, but not, not, not an extensive list now. 00:10:16,540 William Olson: Yeah. No, just yeah, it's good to hear what's going on. I mean, for me, some of the questions I had and we can go around the room, but, um, you had originally applied for the associate member position, which was that would be in favor because it's a good way to learn and, and be on the board and sort of grow up with the board. Because a ZBA, in my mind, is something that's really about building the character of town. And a lot of decisions that they make are based on the fabric of the town. And some of the language involves decisions. That is, in the opinion of the ZBA would not be more impactful than than it currently is. Right? So it's hard for new residents of town to know what's more or less impactful when it's not really, it's not prescriptive, it's more of an opinion. So I just just that's one thing I was struggling with in terms of hearing from you, because it's harder for me to see, you know, somebody who's going to be voting on things where you sort of have to know the flavor and the nature of town as a new resident. 00:11:13,670 But but you've been here for now for how long have you been resident now? John Green: Just a bit over a year. Year and a quarter or so. Yeah, it was my understanding that the position I would I would get would be, uh, associate or I guess non-voting, at least for a while. 00:11:26,270 William Olson: So yes, that's true. But since you applied, we have lost another member who moved out of town. So now there are only two. Now there are only two permanent members of the ZBA. We need three plus an associate. So we're sort of tonight, considering I haven't really gotten the chance to talk to the board, but we'll back up here. So really try as a board, we have three decisions to make tonight. Right. Or four really not not vote them in. Right. Freedom is an associate member. Freedom is as a permanent member with a longer duration of vote, as a permanent member with a shorter duration. Um, so we sort of have a bunch of different options, but it's important, I think, that we need to keep as marks here to talk about it's important to keep the ZBA as a functioning board, um, and not have our citizens come with applications that can't be considered. Um, because if we don't have a third member. So, um, but will the board and the board will discuss that? But I didn't realize you didn't realize that. But yeah, so we're looking, we're considering you for a number of positions on the board to figure out, to keep the board going. And once again, appreciate you volunteering. And we and we need someone to help out. So we just need to figure out the best fit. So I will go around the room and let other people speak on the board. But I'll start with Rosie, see if Rosie has any comments or questions based on what we talked about so far. 00:12:43,290 Rosie Kennedy: Yeah. I think you bring up a lot of really important issues. Um, John, um, I think when, when we chatted, when you came to the ZBA, you were looking at an associate position. Um, you know, I think, I think there are two factors here or three factors. Um, the first one is that we do have a zoning bylaw that one has to adhere to. And then there is always some discretion for, for issues. Um, and a lot of times there are abutters who have opinions and concerns, maybe abutters that have been here for, for many years and they have opinions about what, uh, how intrusive or non-intrusive a particular project might be. And so that's the second factor. And the third factor is again, your your short time in the town. Um, Hamilton's a funny town. You, I mean there there are definitely lots of people who really value the traditions. Don't want the town over developed. Um, really value the sort of quasi rural character that we have. And then we have people who feel that we should get into the 21st century and let's go for this and go for that, and maybe don't have as much history in the town. So I guess regardless of what we need tonight, and we do need a third active member. 00:14:33,980 My question to you is, are you interested in being appointed as a full member, or would you prefer to be an associate member? John Green: I think I'm okay either way. Whatever. Whatever you decide I'd be. I'd be happy with. I mean, if I'm an associate member, it's like being a being an alternate juror in a case, you have to sort of, you know, hear, hear all the. Yeah. You hear both sides, hear the evidence, weigh it. I would, as an associate member, I'm sure in my own mind I would come to. I would come to a decision about how I would vote if I were voting. Um, and if I'm a voting member, then that will be something that matters. But if, if, if, if I'm an associate member, I'll just be doing that exercise, I suppose in my head. Um, I understand your, your, you know, your perspective on, on, uh, on the town and getting to know the place. You know, it's. I lived in the, I lived in New York City for a long time, 20 years. And then out in Scottsdale, Arizona. And Hamilton's very different from both those places and I don't I can remember living in Swampscott barely, and a little bit of Lexington, but um, and so New England generally. And so I'm starting to get a feel for the. For the town. Um but but, you know, I can appreciate your, your perspective on that. So whatever the board decided I'd be, I'd be happy participating in, in either role. 00:15:53,600 Rosie Kennedy: And since you. Thank you. And since you, um, have a political background, um, you can understand the, the tugs in, in both directions. Um, and I'm sure that you would have no problem understanding our bylaw and maybe reviewing some case law to think about how other decisions have gone based on, uh, maybe the same bylaw, but maybe not the same fact pattern, right. So, um, and that's, that's always part of the decision also. So I think you're, you're very capable of doing the, um, the objective work. So, so I'm, I'm, I would feel confident in, um, from that perspective that you would that you certainly understand it's not just, well, what do I think it's it's looking at all the objective data and the by law. So and, and there would be lots of people who would have input to important decisions like the, what is it, the 956 Bay road, the, the, the, um non-conforming that the new owner wanted to put something substantially larger according to, to the ZBA. So anyhow, I, I appreciate that you came in, disclosed and, and um, just talked about who you are and what's important to you and, and how you acknowledge that you are, um, somewhat new to the area, but are very astute in realizing that we're kind of a different town. Right? And there's a lot of, um, there's a lot of desire to to keep Hamilton a very special place. And you could probably tell from listening to me that I've been here 35 years. And I think it's really important to preserve as much character of the town as we as we can as, as a group of boards. 00:17:53,820 John Green: Yeah, I mean, I, I think my views would probably seem fairly moderate to most people in, in that regard, I think I'm in general. And these are obviously only very general terms, but I, I, I am I appreciate the, the desire of some residents to sort of move forward and adopt whatever the, you know, the latest technology, the latest, um, you know, um, to, to grow in whatever, you know, the ways that other, other, you know, communities are growing. But I think it has, I, I think it has to be done sort of slowly and carefully. So I think breakneck growth, you know, or changes to the town and its character that are too sudden, too swift, that are that the leap where the leap is too great, um, is something I'd probably be careful, you know, try to avoid. But I do think I, I don't think sort of, you know, freezing the town in amber is probably the right approach either. So I think, you know, if I, if I, you know, weighed in on, on ten or 20 or 30 issues, my, my overall approach would probably be seen to be fairly moderate to most people neither, you know, approaching neither favoring the growth and development of this town in all cases, nor nor opposing growth and development in all cases. 00:19:17,390 Rosie Kennedy: Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. 00:19:19,790 William Olson: Thank you. Thank you. Um, Lee, I'll let you, uh, ask a question or make comments. 00:19:25,470 Lee McCoy: Thank you. Uh. Hi, John. Uh, thanks for coming in tonight. Um, I had a question. Uh, just a quick clarification. If he's an associate member and there's only two members on the board, he would become a voting member just. 00:19:42,960 William Olson: Yes. 00:19:43,360 Lee McCoy: Correct. Right. 00:19:44,120 William Olson: Yeah. De facto, yes. It's just it's a it's a it allows us to put some pressure on the ZBA to find another member and not just say we're done. So it's. Yes. So he would de facto become a voting member on any new applications that came in. Um, but it would force the ZBA to say, hey, he's, you know, he needs some time to train and, and learn and he's willing to do that. And maybe it's good to do it under a different situation. So but yes, that's answer your question, Lee. 00:20:12,040 Lee McCoy: It does. Thank you. 00:20:12,960 William Olson: Okay. 00:20:13,880 Lee McCoy: Um, yeah. And something, you know, I think that we've been touching on, but, uh, John, is that, um, is that the decisions that the ZBA makes, uh, puts the, the, you know, a town at at risk both, both in both directions, because sometimes the applicants unhappy and can sue about that. Sometimes the abutters can be unhappy with it and sue about that. And so making sure that we have someone in there who is making well informed decisions and defensible positions are, as seems like is very important. Um, I just say that being relatively new myself, I can say that moving to Hamilton suggests that a person values the character of town. Um, that's why you moved here. So I have a little bit less concern about that. Overall. I think that people that move here can be just as invested in keeping Hamilton, uh, a wonderful community to live in. So a little bit less concerned about that. Um, and with that, I don't think I have any questions. I think all of my questions have been answered. So we can. 00:21:20,810 William Olson: Thank you. Lee. Uh, and Ben, I think you're still on there. 00:21:27,970 Lee McCoy: Is that. 00:21:28,210 William Olson: True? 00:21:30,190 Rosie Kennedy: I'm Sam. 00:21:31,550 William Olson: Hey, Joe. 00:21:35,190 Do we lose Ben? Mark Connors: I don't see him under the participants. No. 00:21:38,590 Joscph Domelowicz: Yeah. Yeah, I don't see him under the participants anymore. He must have dropped. I don't know what happened. Let me text him and see if I can get Ahold of him. 00:21:44,590 William Olson: AM I texting him? Yeah. Well, I mean, we still have a we still have a quorum of the board here, so we can continue moving along. But, um, but before we have a further discussion, Mark, I just wanted to have you sort of give your opinion on what you think is, you know, the options that we have to vote on tonight and sort of, you know, you know, you sort of represent the ZBA. So in defense of ZBA, what what you would want, you know, to make your case on what you think we should vote on tonight. 00:22:10,710 Mark Connors: Oh, well, thank you for having this meeting. I mean, the biggest issue is just having a full board for the meeting on Wednesday because they're discussing that pretty important items. Uh, so, you know, either I think either way would from a staff perspective, we'd be happy. I mean, um, I will say that Hamilton has a really good staff resources. Part of my job is to help new members get kind of acclimated and learn the ropes a little bit. Um, and Joe is great. He, we've always had access to legal counsel, so if any legal questions, we can get them a legal opinion before a hearing. Um, so, you know, I think from a staffing perspective, we can sort of hit the ground running, John, but I think I'll leave it up to the board and, and the applicant. Um, you either have the option in the beginning, John, you'd be acting as a voting member because we don't have a full board. So, um, you'd be acting as a full member essentially until potentially the board, if the board chose to appoint you as an alternate, you'd, you'd be a voting member for at least the first month or so. Um, and then it depends on how quickly we can recruit someone to fill that extra seat. Sometimes that takes a while. Um. 00:23:23,240 John Green: So you're saying that the, the next board meeting is Wednesday. 00:23:27,010 Mark Connors: Yeah. 00:23:27,850 John Green: And if I were put on the board, no one else is going to be added to the board before Wednesday. In any case. 00:23:34,170 William Olson: So that's correct. Yes. That's right. And you're you're available Wednesday. 00:23:38,730 John Green: Yes. And I'd have to, I think, go to town Hall and be sworn in on Wednesday too, before attending the meeting later that day. But that's all I'm happy to do all that if that's what if that's what you want. 00:23:52,650 William Olson: And Mark, can you just so I use the terminology correctly moving forward. 00:23:59,250 Is that, uh, associate member or is it alternate member? Mark Connors: It's associate member. 00:24:00,490 William Olson: Okay. All right. But you but it's an alternate. Okay. And we got Ben back. So Ben, I'm not sure if you, uh, heard the conversation, if you had any comments or questions. 00:24:08,330 Ben Galuza: I'm so sorry about that. I missed the last, like, 7 or 8 minutes. Um, lost cell service, but I'm back on Wi-Fi at home. Um, could you bring me up to speed, Bill, real quick, just on the implications of the associate member versus full member voting? Uh, how many people do we need for a quorum? Like just some of these process and logistics questions I'm sure you guys just answered. Sorry to repeat yourself. 00:24:31,740 William Olson: That's all right. No, it's pretty simple. Yeah. The logistics of it are we need to have three members of the board. Um, it's only three members of the board. But if you only have two members of the board and they vote differently, you don't have anybody to break the tie. Right. So the board really needs three members. Currently only has two. Ideally, there's three members and an associate member who serves as an alternate member so that if the one of the members isn't there, they have an alternate that can. It's like, I think John did a good job just kind of describing sort of an alternate on a jury where, um, you get called in when you need to and you've done all the research and all the, all the stuff in the background waiting to be called in. But, um, but what we talked about was that it might make sense to vote him in as an associate member because that's what he originally applied for. And I think it would be a great position for him, uh, and welcomes onto the board. and then he can serve as the de facto voting member until they find a third member, or until we decide that he's months from now, that he's done a good job and we can vote him in as a full member. So it kind of is a nice for me, in my opinion. It's a it's a good way to. Welcome to the board and and get them up to speed. So. 00:25:42,070 Does that answer your question? Ben Galuza: Yeah, thanks for that. And I guess so. Two members. They have a quorum. The only challenge is if they disagree with each other then then what happens? Um, procedurally if, if we didn't have an associate member or a third member and they can't, the two full members can't agree. 00:26:11,270 Mark maybe or Joe what's what happens that what would happen then? Mark Connors: So, um, some items they can vote 2 to 1 and that's that counts as a vote. But like to grant a variance you need three votes. So it has to be unanimous. So, um, you know, that's where we can't really have two members because you can't hear those applications without three members. So, um, now what they can do is if you wanted to appoint Mr. Green as an, as an associate, he can participate as a, he'd be appointed as a voting member on those meetings. We are shorthanded. And, uh, they would have a quorum be able to make decisions. But and then I think that's a fairly good compromise. You could reconvene in three months or so and see, um, Mr. Green, you can make sure that you like, you know, serving in the position and the select board would kind of have a chance to see how you've done. Um, but, but this board is the alternates are the associate members are, I almost consider them like regular members because it's a three member board. So it's very common that there's an app, one member can't make it and you're often asked to step in. So, um, there's, there's really minimal distinction between a regular member and an associate. 00:27:20,090 John Green: Right? 00:27:22,170 William Olson: This is a small right. It's a small differential. But is it is it enough to make us feel comfortable with it? So, um. 00:27:30,410 Ben Galuza: Did we. Sorry I missed that little 5 or 10 minutes there, but the I guess the questions, John, around your your background, you know, I heard kind of about the international affairs and policy. Um, I was curious kind of what your experience had been with, you know, development design or construction, um, kind of real estate, etc. if you had personal experience with this or sort of. 00:28:00,250 Ben Galuza: You know, what your background is, you know, if you have people coming in, you know, proponents for projects, things that would change the fabric of the town. Um, you know, if you've had experience kind of dealing with the technical aspects of that and what it would mean for your role. 00:28:17,690 John Green: Yeah, I mean, I I don't, I don't think I've had a lot of experience. I, I was, um, a board member of, you know, 1 or 2, I guess two um, condo or co-op associations in, in New York, um, which are always, you know, knee deep in New York City, you know, building regulations and permitting. And so there were, you know, when you're on those boards, you're in frequent meetings discussing whether the, you know, whether the building meets code or what the city's demanding that you do or trying to, you know, um, um, resolve a dispute between two co-op neighbors. So I've, I've had some experience and, you know, one of the co-ops had about, you know, 100 and something, 180 units. So it was a pretty big community. It wasn't like a five member townhouse. It was a pretty big building. Um, so I've had some, you know, experience in, in, in, in, in that sense. Um, and I've, you know, we've had to, you know, pull permits from various towns to get things done in our own home and things like that. But, um, beyond that, not so much. 00:29:30,270 Ben Galuza: Yeah. I think, you know, Rosemary and others probably have brought this up in addition to Rosemary around kind of, but I think the reality is that while we have zoning bylaws, there are particular aspects of it, you know, where there are some loopholes and there is a fair amount of discretion left to the the ZBA as well. Um, especially when it. Well, I won't go into what those loopholes are, but there, there is a fair amount of discretion. I think that's left to ZBA in terms of what gets approved and what doesn't, as well as then if there's any potential wiggle room for conditions or restrictions, it's not really something I've seen exercised. I don't know necessarily even what they are allowed to or not allowed to, other than just not approving someone's application. Um, and because of that looseness in some regards, it does make this role, I think, very important because of the impact that it can have on, on people and neighbors, neighbors lives. So it, as much as it can feel like it's kind of a small town and it, some of the issues and challenges can feel pretty big at times, especially, um, just given the circumstances and the amount of impact it can have on a neighborhood. So, um, I think that's a, a long way of asking, you know, are you, you're kind of up for that, even though maybe the political climate and other things is not what many of us would want to see in our in our nation. It's still politically complicated. Um, and it can be in a small town like this. And that means making difficult decisions where some people may be happy and some people may not be. 00:31:18,530 Um, is that something you're comfortable with? John Green: Yes. I mean, it's clearly, uh, could be part of this job. I, I understand that and, uh, you know, these decisions have to be, have to be made by somebody and, you know, uh, I think I'd appreciate not being the, the sole decision maker in these sorts of, you know, cases. I think the idea of a three person board that can, you know, get offline and discuss it amongst themselves and hear, hear what the other two board, the other two voting members and any other associate members might be thinking is certainly going to be important to me. Um, so the decision wouldn't fall, you know, entirely on my head, nor would the responsibility. But, you know, I think as part of a group of decision makers, you know, somebody has to make these decisions. And, you know, I'm, I have a, I, I'm pretty, pretty confident in my own, you know, ability to be fair and impartial and reasonable. Um, so I, you know, I look forward to those kinds of challenges. Tough decisions. Wouldn't, wouldn't, um, wouldn't intimidate me. Um. 00:32:29,220 Ben Galuza: All right. Thanks for letting me catch back up there, Bill. I'm all set. 00:32:33,300 William Olson: Yeah. Yeah. I just want to mention, I just want to correct one thing, but. So, John, there's been some we don't need to go into the legalities now, but there's been some new case law in recent days and weeks that, uh, board members can no longer, uh, talk offline in terms of public meeting law, even one on one are not going to be permitted. I think, I think our counsel still sort of reviewing what the impacts are, but we're just going to keep it safe moving forward, even with the select boards that, that, um, that now all discussions will need to be, um, part of, but you'll, but you'll learn about that from your training with mark and, uh, and, but, but that's one of the new challenges we have now is we can't even have one on one conversations offline is not going to be recommended through our counsel. 00:33:13,910 Joscph Domelowicz: Yeah. About matters that are before the board. So like, I mean, you know, obviously you're, you're going to become friendly with these folks. You're going to have conversations about different things. You might separately from an individual matter that's before the board talk about philosophy and try to understand each other. But items that you have for business will have to be discussed in an open session. 00:33:33,790 John Green: Okay. But still, there still will be some back and forth in the public domain among board members as they come to a decision. 00:33:42,670 William Olson: Correct. 00:33:43,030 John Green: Yeah, yeah. 00:33:44,070 William Olson: Yeah, like, like sort of like we're doing right now. So, um, so, and I will go back to sort of anybody have any other follow up questions for John before we talk amongst ourselves as a board? 00:33:57,510 William Olson: Okay. So as I said tonight, I think we have four, four avenues. Maybe someone could suggest a fifth, but the four avenues are, um, vote. John is an associate member. Um, Vorderman is a full member, but with a shorter term vote him as a as a because it's anywhere between sort of months and years. Right. Vitamin is a longer term or not vote him in at this point at all. So, uh, what I would look for is, is either some further discussion or someone make a motion and we can vote on it. 00:34:29,720 John Green: So do you want me to, to remain on for this or to. 00:34:32,720 William Olson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Please remain on. So you know what you're what you're, yeah. You can, you can, you can mute. But yes. And we might have some other questions for you. 00:34:41,440 John Green: As you just said, it's all public so I could find out anyway. 00:34:44,280 William Olson: Yes, yes. Stay on. I appreciate you stay on and we might have more questions for you. Or you might want to congratulate you in a couple of seconds here. So, um, but yeah, so I'm looking there for more discussion or a motion from the board. 00:34:56,680 Ben Galuza: I think I just want to plant one seed is to, um, think about staggering our, um, board members. So regardless of which way we go on this. I am in favor of doing a a limited term of, you know, 1 or 2 years on either position. So that way we kind of are starting to like stagger them. I think we had all three members come up for a three year term, um, back in the spring, you know, so I think we want to start to space them out. So that way, um, we have some. I agree. 00:35:34,970 Joscph Domelowicz: Mark refresh my memory, but I think we had appointed the chair to a three. I think the board in the back in June had appointed reappointed the chair to a three year term. And then the member who left, I think we knew he was leaving. So we only reappointed him to a one year term. 00:35:51,170 Is that correct? Mark Connors: Yeah, I believe so. 00:35:52,450 Joscph Domelowicz: So so so even if you just voted to appoint him to fill the vacancy, that would give him to June 30th. 00:36:04,410 Lee McCoy: Is that what we're doing? We're not. We're filling a vacancy. We're not. 00:36:08,180 Joscph Domelowicz: Technically, you're filling a vacancy. 00:36:12,460 Rosie Kennedy: Right. So, um, I, I kind of like the idea of, of, um, considering voting him in as an associate, um, for a short term. And then, um, uh, John can reevaluate whether he would want to be a full member because it really is a, a big learning curve. And, um, I think we would be happy to appoint him as, as a, as a full member after a trial period of an associate member. I don't know what others think, but that that's kind of my thought. 00:36:52,220 William Olson: Oh, that's where I was going. Rosie. I mean, I think to appoint him as an associate member until next June is almost a year, um, the busy part of the year because the summers aren't as busy. So, um, I think that makes the most sense in my, my, my view. So yeah. People. 00:37:08,630 Rosie Kennedy: I'm sorry. 00:37:09,630 William Olson: No, it says people agree with me. We can make a motion, but yeah. Sorry. Go ahead. 00:37:12,910 Rosie Kennedy: So I yeah, I'm I'm and um, and obviously John, you'd be able to be in essence a fully participating member right now, even as an associate, unless and until somebody else decided they wanted to, um, become a full member. And as you can see, we consider this board a very, uh, critical board. And we would be very discriminating about anybody who came forward. I think you've shown us that we're we're very happy with your, um, presentation, and we feel confident that you'll do a good job for us and that we would be happy to appoint you a full member come June. So given that I move that we appoint John Green to, um, a term ending June 30th, 2027 as an associate member. 00:38:10,280 Rosie Kennedy: Of the ZBA. 00:38:13,320 William Olson: Second by Lee. Any other discussions or questions? I will take a roll call vote. We'll start with Rosemary. 00:38:21,200 Rosie Kennedy: Happily Rosie Kennedy I. 00:38:24,400 William Olson: Uh, Lee. 00:38:25,680 Lee McCoy: Lee McCoy I. 00:38:27,840 William Olson: Uh, Ben. 00:38:30,360 S9: All right. I did have a question. 00:38:32,520 Ben Galuza: Uh, we just started call. 00:38:34,240 William Olson: Oh, sorry. I sorry, I didn't, I didn't. 00:38:38,880 Ben Galuza: But I know we're all probably on tiny screens. Sorry about that. Um, can we pause, roll call, come back to it procedurally, Joe. 00:38:47,840 William Olson: You can ask your question. Go ahead. 00:38:49,360 Ben Galuza: All right. Um, if we're basically saying, hey, like we're going to do the associate member thing through June, um, or till the end of this term, but we are we able to then bring in a second associate member? You know, it's I think it's important that we do have we are trying to like get a full board. It sounds like, you know, having three full time members and one associate member. So if he's locked into that associate member position. But realistically, we're hoping that he grows into the full member. 00:39:23,530 Can we have two associate members at the same time? Rosie Kennedy: There were two associate members previously who, who both. Okay. 00:39:28,370 Ben Galuza: So. 00:39:29,490 Rosie Kennedy: Uh, I agree, Mark, would you agree with that? 00:39:31,930 Mark Connors: Yeah. So John would be one of the associates, but we still have a vacancy for the other associate. 00:39:36,290 Ben Galuza: Okay. All right. Great. Uh, Ben then I yeah. 00:39:40,970 William Olson: And, uh, John, thank you for coming. And, uh, we enjoyed talking tonight and you’re an aye from me So you have a unanimous vote and we look forward to joining the board on Wednesday. So get down to get down to town hall and get sworn in. 00:39:54,570 John Green: All right. Well, thank thank you very much. I'm I'm excited. 00:39:59,050 Lee McCoy: It's at the Patton Homestead. Right. And not town hall, right? Well, yeah. 00:40:02,980 Joscph Domelowicz: Yeah, yeah. The come to the homestead, the town clerk's office on Wednesday morning. I think you've already been in touch with Karen HCL. Or at least Mark has just in case this happened. So, um, try to get there sometime Wednesday before you meet Wednesday night. That'd be great. Uh, Mark will have. 00:40:18,380 Mark Connors: An appointment set up, so we're we're in good shape. 00:40:21,100 John Green: Yeah. 00:40:22,540 Rosie Kennedy: And I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday via Zoom. John. 00:40:26,700 John Green: Great, great. Look forward to it as well. Thank you. 00:40:30,700 Lee McCoy: Thanks, John. 00:40:32,860 Ben Galuza: Thank you. 00:40:33,500 William Olson: Uh, do I have a motion. 00:40:35,100 John Green: To the meeting? 00:40:36,060 William Olson: Yeah. 00:40:38,340 Do I have a motion to adjourn? Lee McCoy: I move I make a motion to adjourn. 00:40:40,620 William Olson: I have a second. 00:40:41,540 Ben Galuza: Second. 00:40:42,940 William Olson: Uh, we'll do a roll call. Vote. Rosemary. 00:40:45,220 Rosie Kennedy: Rosie Kennedy. I. 00:40:47,420 William Olson: Uh, Lee Lee McCoy. I Ben. 00:40:50,780 Ben Galuza: Ben I. 00:40:52,060 William Olson: William Olson, aye. I thank you all for jumping on today. This is an important topic as you can see. So, um, thank you all for, for giving your thoughts.