we're recording please go ahead okay thank you um good evening it's February 10th 20125 this is a regular meeting of the Town Council with a pause at the beginning for an executive session and a
public forum as well the open meeting law allows us to continue holding meetings remotely without a quorum of the council physically present at the meeting location while providing the public with adequate alter alternative access to the meeting this meeting is
accessible in real time by Zoom by phone and is a live broadcast on amoris media channel 9 and live stream there are presently seven counselors in the town room and several online given that we
have a quorum of the council present I'm calling the February 10th regular Town council meeting to order at 6:02 I'll call upon each counsel by the name they have indicated they would like to be addressed at that time please unmute your mic and say present please remember to mute your mic
after saying present Patti Angeles present Anna delin gothier present counselor ET is not here yet Lyn grimer is present councelor hanii
present Bob hegner present councelor Lord present Pam Rooney here councelor Ryan present Kathy Shane here Andy Steinberg present Jennifer to will be absent and councelor
Walker is not here yet okay there's no chat room for this meeting if you have technical issues please let Athena and me know and we'll determine what to do at that time I am going to make a motion
at this point because we are not meeting at our normal time of 6:30 the motion is move to wave rules of procedure 3.2 C that basically states that our regular meetings are at 6:30 is there a second
second is there any for tonight's meeting for tonight's meeting thank you is there any further discussion seeing none I'll move to a vote Anna Devin goth here I councelor ET not here yet Lyn grimer
is an I councelor hanii uh hi Bob hegner I councelor Lord I Pam Rooney yes councelor ryyan hi Kathy Shane yes Andy
Steinberg yes Jennifer to is absent counselor Brer is not here Pat the Angeles hi we'll proceed with the meeting I just want to point out that the order of the agenda is altered tonight um upon completion of these
opening comments I will make a motion to immediately move into executive session we will then return to the regular session and take up action item 8A an open meeting law complaint filed by Mr Ahmed es
fanani dated January 29th 2025 we will then proceed with the agenda however we will break at 7 o'clock for the ad adverti special Town Council and finance committee meeting it's a public forum on Appropriations
outside the annual budget during this meeting the public forum there will be a special public comment period and there'll be one other general public comment period during the regular meeting during the executive session counselors will be moved to a different
Zoom link and the town room will be vacated except for the town manager and Clerk of the Town Council once we have adjourned the executive session we will move immediately back to the regular session using the earlier Zoom link okay
so the motion uh is to move into to meet in executive session pursuant to General Law chapter 3A paragraph 21 A1 to discuss complaints or charges brought against a public officer employee staff
member or individual the Town Council will return to open session following the executive session is there a second second Rooney thank you uh is there any further that's no question I'm going to move on
councelor ete at this point is not present um uh Lyn grimer is and I councelor hanii I Bob hegner I councelor Lord I Pam Rooney yes councelor Ryan hi Kathy Shane yes
Andy Steinberg yes Jennifer to is absent councelor Walker is not present okay I'm an I I'm I'm also an I I'm oh I forgot I forgot to go back to
the beginning thank you so much Pat D Angeles hi Anna Devin gothier hi thank you my deepest apologies we're going to go off of this and come back on a different Zoom thank you e
Lauren so you'll want to disconnect from this one and then rejoin the link I sent e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e thank you uh I'm going to I just want to note that it is now 6:27 I just want to make sure that all of you that have rejoined uh can hear and be heard uh I'll start with Bob hegner
present councelor Lord You're not back yet I'll come back for her Pam Rooney here uh councelor Ryan pres Kathy Shane I'm here Andy Steinberg
president uh Pat dangeles present Anna delin gothier present Lyn grimer is present councelor hanii present Bob hegner I guess we started with Bob um so I'm still waiting for
counselor Lord and we still do not have coun ET or Walker we have a quum so we can actually proceed um as I mentioned earlier we are
going to now move to agenda item 8A it's an action item uh it's an open meeting law complaint filed by Mr hammed ES dated January 27th
2025 and I would now like to call on attorney Lauren Goldberg and Jenkin David Jenkins uh to see if they would like to proceed with the discussion in your packet for both us and the public
is the legal opinion from the town attorney on this so Lauren are attorney Goldberg thank you Madame President um attorney Jenkins actually has uh left
the meeting so I you're stuck with me um I will uh just briefly um talk about the nature of this complaint um here just anticipating uh what the questions might be um there will be a need for a vote um
at the end of the discussion of the open meeting law complaint um directing C to reply to the complainant in a manner consistent with the council's vote on this topic so um I just wanted to let you know ahead of time that we're going
to be uh looking for a vote on that um essentially this complaint was um filed alleging that the Town Council has failed to post meeting minutes in a timely manner within uh a 30-day period
um and that um you know that there has been numerous city council that's his language meeting minutes remain unposted um he doesn't specify the particular dates of the minutes that haven't been posted um he raised he indicates he raised concerns
about the delays and pointed out the potential violation of the law but was instead um referred to human resources and then finally um he seeks as a remedy that the Council post all of their outstanding meeting minutes and ensure that they're posted within the required
time time frame um as a resolution he looks for mandatory training for personnel and a public acknowledgement of a violation um uh as as you know the council meets two times a month on uh regularly um as
a council of the whole and additional subcommittees meet um many additional times uh the meetings are long and the council and the council staff are and in my uh as far as I'm I I understand quite aware of and seek to comply strictly
with the open meeting law requirements um there has been um uh some uh sets of minutes that um have yet to be um to be complete uh completed and um in fact the
complainant was one of several uh new employees that were hired to um ensure that the minutes are being created um in the consistent with the standard that the Town Council and the council clerk have for these um for these minutes um
and uh essentially um the the summary of the law here is that there is nothing under state law that requires that minutes of any meetings be posted and therefore um you know the the
allegations and the complaint do not suggest a a violation of the open meeting law moreover the complaint is directed uh to the council clerk um saying that the council clerk has violated the open meeting law and the
council clerk cannot violate the open meeting law she is not subject to the open meeting law um the only thing that's required under the open meeting law is that the town uh Council keep uh its minutes that the minutes be um
sufficiently specific so as to allow a person who has has not been at the meeting to um understand what's happened at that meeting um in our view of of the complaint and of the um of the law uh it
is um as I said the the complaintant has not uh addressed or or or made a complaint that actually alleges any violations of the open meeting law um the council has 14 days 14 business days to uh respond to the complaint
um and uh that is February 18th um your job at this meeting is essentially to acknowledge the complaint uh decide how how the council wants to respond um and to determine if there's
any action that needs to be taken um that would uh you know remedy any alleged violation um as we indicated we do not see that there's been any any violation and so we don't think there's anything um that the council has to do
in that regard however we do know that um there are as the the council clerk has indicated um there are a few sets of minutes that do need to be finalized uh for the for the town um Council president's review and where the council
and the town very strongly uh endorse and and seek to comply fully with the requirements of the law and the interest of transparency um it would be appropriate uh if the council chooses to um take a corrective action to address
that there are a few outstanding sets of meeting minutes to be finalized um my understanding from the council Clerk and obviously she is here and can explain is that there is a current plan to uh respond to I mean to finalize all the
outstanding sets of minutes and get them to the council president for approval within uh I believe it's the next week um so that um or or actually even in yeah within several days so that the council president can approve them um
and then uh the town will be up to date and there will be no other action needed to be taken to be fully compliant with the open meeting law the the date is March 10th uh so with the following motion I'm going to make Lu a second and
if if there are questions we can ask them we acknowledge receipt of this complaint with this motion we've reviewed and discussed it so the motion is to determine that the Town Council did not violate the open meeting law as alleged in the open meeting law complaint filed by Ahmed es fanani dated
January 29th 2025 Ander authorized KP law to work with the council president to respond to the open meeting law complaint consistent with the council's discussion on February 10th 2025 that the Town Council did not violate the open meeting law as alleged additionally
in the interest of transparency the town council's commitment to complaint to compliance with the open meeting law to review and approve an any outstanding meeting minutes and voluntary post them to its website as promptly as feasible is there a second
second deangeles thank you are there questions yes councelor hanii it's not a question it's a comment um I will support this motion because I do agree that on a technicality and not
necessarily a technicality but under the L language of the statute and the law we have not violated the open meeting law but I have been concerned and in fact weeks ago I brought my concern up to the president and the manager of
how wildly outstanding our minutes are not just for the council but for the Committees um and while this vote might deal with the issue related to the Town Council um I would love to see a
plan to get all of our committees also minutes up to date and past we are in one committee I think again over six seven eight months behind I don't know if the other committees are like that um our rules of procedure say we will pass
our minutes at the next regular meeting um we clearly have fallen outside of our rules for a long time and I would like to hear from the president um and the clerk how the council will get back on track in
getting me minutes approved in within what our goal under our rules of procedure are okay thank you Pam roone thank you um I I agree that it would be um I I've
I've looked for for past minutes as well um but I did want to confirm that it it actually does not say in state law that we must post meeting minutes I thought that was in fact the law attorney
Goldberg yes thank you Madame President that is correct there is no requirement under state law that minutes be posted and there are some um citations to attorney general decisions in the in the memo that I made that that clarifi that
um the town just you know to to explain however the town does have a practice of doing so and um you know that is that is both consistent with the intent of the open meeting law and with the town's General position with respect
to transparency and availability of of town records um so you know it it is it is a very useful um practice to be in it makes things much more easily available to the public are there any other questions
from counselors councelor hanii you've raised an issue I will uh ask that we address that issue but not while we're dealing with this open meeting law complaint but later on in the meeting okay um are
there any other questions or comments then we are going to vote on the motion that's been made and seconded I'll begin with councelor hanii i Bob hegner I councelor Lord I
cam Rooney yes councelor Ryan hi Kathy Shen yes Andy Steinberg yes uh councel to is absent Walker is absent Pat deangelus hi Anna delin
gothier hi councelor ET please uh acknowledge that you're here and also vote please I I thank you and councelor grimer is I it's unanimous with two absent um thank you we are now at
6:40 uh our public uh and we want to thank attorney Goldberg for joining us for these meetings thank you so much um and for your advice along the way uh we actually um are going to go ahead and do
the announcements uh since our special uh public forum is not posted till 7 o'clock so we'll can proceed with announcements would you please put the announcements up on the screen so basically what we can see here is our
next meeting of the Town Council is February 24th in addition to that the Committees that have met so far are Community Resources committee and the finance committee and so their meetings uh their next meeting is scheduled and
it tells you what their regular meeting schedule will be governance or go governance organization and legislation will meet for the first time on February 18th at 6 :0 and TSO will meet for the first time on February 20th at 10:00
a.m. uh Bob hegner you have your hand up yeah I just wanted to point out also that jcpc will have its first meeting on Wednesday this coming Wednesday at 9:00 am it's on the calendar on the town calendar thank you for adding that and
the other thing that is not on here and has not yet been scheduled but there will be another meeting of the budget coordinating group we just have not identified a date and time Anna you have your hand up yeah sorry I I thought that
go was starting our meetings um tomorrow on the 11th in an off like an off cycle meeting to get going is that there there the off cycle meeting um is going to be on the 18th the 11th didn't work for a
variety of reasons oh okay thank you okay thank you for asking normally it would have been the 11th okay um I also want to point out please check
the town manager the website if you will uh Winterfest is February 5th to the 22nd and has full of a full set of activities and they are posted on the website and updated regularly um we are going to move to
General Public comment at this time um anyone wishing to speak who in the town room if you've not done so yet please sign up with Athena and if you are zoom and on zoom and you would like to speak please raise your hand at this
time Athena how many people have signed up one okay and I see two hands raised for people on Zoom and public comments are on matters within the jurisdiction of the Town Council residents are
welcome to express their views for up to three minutes the council will not engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised during general public comment public comments are not reflective of the opinion of the Town Council the First Amendment broadly
protects individuals rights to address the government to speak and to express themselves including their right to say hateful and offensive things I am generally unable shut those commenters down under the First Amendment to the US Constitution unless their level of speech Falls within an
exception articulated by the courts such as fighting words true threats to a particular individual harassment of a particular individual or incitement of eminent Lawless activity if a question arises as to whether a particular speaker is engaging in unprotected
speech I must defer to the principles of freedom of speech will recognize the spe speakers in the order in which they have signed up will'll begin with zoom first and then go to the audience Laura strandin strand Lund please enter the
room state your name and where you live can you hear me yes we can thank you so much I will be very brief my name is Laura stanland I'm the president of the heartsville Farm homeowners association on to Terrace in South ammer
Bob hegner is my representative I'm met with him last year um regarding an issue having to do with Public Safety at our intersection where it reachs um Route 116 we are going to be having some Trails put in by the town I've been
working with Dave Zac on that I believe those trails are going to be completed sometime this uh spring we will need a crosswalk in order for people to access those Trails on foot and also for us in this neighborhood to be able to cross
the street to get to the um to the um crosswalks on the other side of 116 there aren't any crosswalks on our side of the street we've had several near misses uh near collisions um at our intersection where Vista Terrace meets
uh Route 116 Bob's aware of this I've spoken with him I've spoken with um the town I've spoken with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation so we just want to appeal to the town to maybe look at this issue a little bit more closely that 45 mph speed limit that that starts
just after Atkin as you're headed up the notch is only 4/10 of a mile before it reduces back down to 35 so in our opinion and we hope that the town will take a look at this that with the additional foot traffic that we're going to have on our street we feel it's
worthy for us to lower that speed limit down for people to safely cross the street and to um possibly put in a crosswalk when the uh trails are put in and that's all I wanted to say and I want to really thank you guys for all that you do for us thank you for joining
us Laura AA who's next Vincent oconor I'm Vincent OK Conor I live at 175 Summer Street Apartment 12 um so I have heard
distinctly what um from the manager and the police chief what they are not going to do in terms of cooperating with ice or other or federal agents operating on behalf of
ice what I have yet to hear distinctly and clearly and we shouldn't be deceived by the fact that they're having terrible problems picking up very many people we have there are only so many criminals um immigrants despite the president's um
false statements to the contrary and what I think people would be more reassured by is what the police department will do if ice Agents come to the
town and um go to people's homes make threats to break open doors and to or have seized individuals who are US citizens and can prove themselves to
be um I think it is important especially in light of the public public um information that people have uh Sally um posed as ice agents in one case engaging in rape in another case tying
up an entire family and stealing their belongings and their and their uh monies and I think it is important if somebody says there's somebody here from I threatening to break down my door the answer should not
be oh we don't don't get involved with ice the answer should be we will send a a we'll send an officer out immediately uh to rectify the situation because the only instance where doors can be broken down is if there is a
warrant and usually the local police are informed if a warrant is going to be executed the only other things they have are detainers which are signed by Homeland Security Regional uh directors
and those things do not authorize any federal agent to break down any person's door who refuses to open the door to speak or to speak to them and it should be extremely clear to the public that if
such an instance takes place and people call the police that the police will respond appropriately as though these people were um burglars or or kidnappers um I think it is important that people be reassured that
federal agents are not immune from laws about breaking and entering or kidnapping and that we will get an appropriate response from the police department and that response will be
positive action we need to not in action thank you uh I'm going to go to the audience uh there was a another hand up I believe it was Ariel Ariel Templeton did you
want to join us we're bringing you in you need to unmute yes hi thank you um yeah my name is Ariel Templeton uh my husband and myself have been homeowners in ammer for um the past 20 years we teach
instrumental music at the elementary and Regional Schools and are also the parents of a fifth and eighth grader um I'm on this meeting tonight to ask the Town Council to um consider contributing more towards the school budget um we
have truly been an Arps family uh we both work in the schools and um have our children in the schools we chose to live and work in amers because of the schools but now with this projected budget deficit we don't know if we will have jobs to return to next year or if the
programs that we run at the schools will be reduced or cut alog together um we also have concerns about whether the programs that we want our own children to experience will be cut uh will they be able to have Art Theater band uh smaller class sizes the supports
outlined in their IEPs um I have heard the sentiment of um folks saying that you know it's not fair to taxpayers if the town increases their contribution to the schools but I definitely beg to differ um does the town really expect
families to be drawn to ammer or to continue investing in ammer if the schools continue to face Cuts every year we can only ride on our reputation for so long and after years of already sustained Cuts we're at a Crossroads um does the town expect to attract high
quality teachers and staff with annual cuts to the district and the bad press that goes along with that uh does the town expect families who have already invested in the town to stay um if the schools are underfunded and the buildings are deteriorating then why would they um and lastly and most
importantly pets due to this deficit would Target our most high needs and underprivileged students who can only access special programs like art dance theater and music ensembles through the schools how will they access these sorts of programs if they get cut how is it
Equitable if only the privilege get access to these opportunities is that really what we want for our diverse community in ammer um please give our current Arps families a reason to continue to choose ammer and for our future residents to choose ammer and
please consider funding our schools thank you thank you for joining us Ariel that concludes public comment um let me just mention there are no hearings today I'm going to move to
the consent agenda um and the following items were selected because they were considered um to be routine uh and expect to pass with no
controversy to remove an item from the consent agenda for discussion later in the meeting ask that it be removed when I list the consent agenda items a request to remove does not require a second the motion to the motion is as follows to move the following items in
the printed motions there under and approve those items as a single unit we have already decided to remove 8 8e approval of request for long-term I guess it's actually 8C uh I'm sorry approval of the request
for long-term reservation of the public way amest Farmers Market however remaining on the consent agenda are 11 a to e approval of minutes June 3 2024 Town Council and finance committee meeting Capital Improvement program
public forum June 32 24 regular meeting June 17th Town Council and finance committee meeting public forum on the Appropriations outside the budget track and field June 17th 2024 Town Council and finance committee meetings public
forum on an appropriation outside the P outside the budget purchase of watershed land June 17th 2024 regular meeting are there any requests seeing none is there a second
second hegner thank you we're going to move to a vote I'm sorry my I just have a point of clarification with the removal of the public way request I believe the Quantum of vote is seven not nine just to for the public clarification thank you yes
since it says it on the motion sheet okay um okay councelor uh I'm sorry Bob hegner I councelor Lord I Pam roone yes councelor Ryan hi Kathy
Shane yes Andy Steinberg yes Jennifer to she's absent I'm sorry councelor Walker is still absent uh Patti Angelus hi Anna Devin gothier hi councelor ET I Lyn Griers and
I councelor hanii hi it's unanimous with two absent um I think at this point we're going to wait and begin um the meeting at 7:00 which is a special Town council
meeting um and finance committee meeting in public form so you have a 4minute break don't go too far was REM e e
e e one okay we're at 7 o'clock so we're going to get going on the public forum so um good evening it's February 10th 2025 this is a special
Town Council and finance committee meeting for the purpose of conducting a public forum on Appropriations outside the annual budget I've already taken role I'm going to call this form together at 7
o'clock and um let me just say that the public forum itself oh I'm sorry no before I get moved that count Shane as chair of the finance committee newly elected chair of the finance committee would you please call the finance
committee to order I call the finance committee to order and uh to the extent I can see them on the list um all members are here of the who are on it from the council and I don't see the two resident members
okay thank you um this public form is specifically with regard to an appropriation and transfer order F1 y 255e an appropriation an order appropriating funds for a portion of the town of Amis Capital program Road and
sidewalk repairs in the amount of $500,000 is there anybody who wishes to speak with regard to this item public comment will'll deal with later this is an item only regarding
this financial order Vince please come forward is there anybody on Zoom who wishes to speak to this financial order please proceed you know the rules um vinent o Conor 175 Summer
Street Apartment 12 writing the last three years Financial improprieties for the past three years a single unelected Council employee the manager has presented to the Council on May 1st budgets that claim the
anticipated Municipal Surplus for the fiscal year due to end on that June 30th was unknown 56 into any fiscal year a competent Municipal fiscal manager knows
with certainty barring a catastrophe whether their Community will finish the fiscal year with a surplus or a deficit and its appropriate size these budgets concealed three consecutive 5 million plus budget
surpluses and distorted the council's annual budget guidelines and budgetary discussions in these budgets the manager recommended destructive cuts to the amist and Regional School operating budgets voted by elected School
committees he supported his recommendations with statements about ammer fiscal year situations that were false and misleading so what are the appropriate corrective actions certainly not what is before you tonight for this finance
committee to recommend and this Council to act on I will not State the first paragraph which is in writing but can go to the second second both School committees operating budgets by Council vote should
be made whole immediately restoring the fy2 24 $2,200,000 Elementary School cut and the multi-year $600,000 regional Cuts these money should be
included in the base upon which the coming fiscal year school budgets are calculated an appropriation of less than $1 million is quite modest in light of the damage inflicted on school children and employees please also reject the
proposition that compensation compensation paid for operating uh School budgets impacts be confined to school Capital items or that the paperwork necessary for the council to act must be authored by the miscreant
himself wrongdoers must not be allowed to dictate or control the ter terms of their organizations required restitution are there any other comments at this time okay I will note that the public
for has allowed for an equal amount of time for public comment I'm going to call on Kathy Shane to share with us what the finance committee's recommendation is thank you Lynn the finance committee met and discussed this item and we all
agree that roads and sidewalks are priority not just for the council but for the residents of the town and we positively recommended to the council that they um proceed with this order on the motion the other the rest of the
discussion also looked at that we would rather uh one way of avoiding capital appropri ations outside the regular Capital planning process would be for the joint Capital planning committee and the town's Capital plan to identify
areas that are a high priority where we didn't have enough money to fund them in a particular cycle so that we wouldn't be considering things out of cycle without having reviewed them but that didn't affect the majority voted in favor of recommending this uh
appropriation and transfer order to the council thank you based on public comment Kathy would you please determine if the finance committee needs to change their recommendation of the members of the finance committee who are here now the
um council members would any want to change the recommendation I should note that the vote of counselors was 4 to one and both of the resident members were in favor of the motion okay seeing none I'm assuming that the count that the finance committee
recommendation stands um just to let me note that uh upon adjourning the public forum we will move immediately back to the town council meeting Kathy please adjourn the finance committee I journ the the finance
committee and not then I want to note that Alicia Walker has joined us Alicia can you hear us yes I can thank you thank you so I'm going going to move that we adjourn the public forum and seek a second
second and I'm going to move immediately to that vote I'm going to start with councelor Lord I uh Pam Rooney yes uh George Ryan
councilor Ryan I Kathy Shane yes Andy steinber yes Alicia Walker yes paty Angeles hi Anna Devon gothier I councelor ET I ly grimer is an i councelor hanii i Bob hegner I it's
unanimous with one absent we are now back into the regular meeting of the Town Council and I apologize for uh councelor hanak you have your hand up um you might have been doing what I was just going to
ask um about reopening public comments I I am doing that thank you um because the agenda did say that explained when public comment would be I'm going to reopen public comment for people who have not already spoken are there any people on Zoom who would like to make
public comment that have not already done so during this time okay and Athena how many people have in the audience
four okay and I see two people on Zoom okay we are going to allow three minutes for public comment which is what we allowed before uh we will start with in this case the people in the audience please call the first person Richard
mlan please state your name and where you live before you make your comment I'm Richard mlan I live on Alpine Drive uh I'd like to make a comment about could you speak closer to the mic or bring the mic to you it moves thank
you I live on Alpine Drive and would like to make a comment about the large and looming budget deficits at the ammer and Regional School Districts The Town Council appears to be ignoring its citizens concerns on Equitable funding of our schools I have heard some Town councilors say it's unfair to ammer
taxpayers for us to properly fund our students education but if we don't ammer students will suffer just the same as students from the other towns losing the projected dozens of teacher and parent positions will be a large and Lasting blow to our children that will hurt for
years if amers needs to lead the other towns in addressing this budget shortfall it should let us set an example and push the other towns to rise to it we should at the very least be starting with the 4% not three and a half%
increase I have two kids at Fort River who love the staff and Educators who work there they're part of the commes and music programs both of which are threatened by the budget deficits amist is not alone as a town in facing school budget shortfalls this
year large systemic Solutions will be needed at the state level but until that happens it's up to us to respond to this emergency ammer children need their Town Council to fight for their future by properly funding schools now thank you
thank you for joining us um I i' like to call Laya Masha mashc from Zoom please enter the room state your name and where you live hello my name is Leila MUSC uh I
live in district one and I'm uh frustrated that once again the residents of this town have to come out to ask you to support the future and current health of our schools you know we're in a time of great political uncertainty that's facing each of us in this moment as we
watch aack on immigrants people of color the lgbtq plus Community threats to Federal programs put in place to protect our quality of life and the broad deterioration of civil rights and it has become increasingly urgent that we build out and rely on our local support
systems to ensure the safety of our communities our schools are a center and lifeblood of our community they bring us together they provide stability and vital resources that imp impact every person in this town deprioritizing them as many in on this Council have
undermines the well-being of our families and the future stability of this town you have the power responsibility and resources to safeguard this fight this vital need you have an Engaged and informed constituency willing to provide support
and free education around this issue but it it has become increasingly clear from some of your responses to our repeated pleas and from councelor Ryan's recent statement that many of you on this Council neither understand nor take this responsibility seriously I urge you to fulfill your
elected duty to your constituency respond to the seriousness of the moment and urgently meet the increasing needs of our school system now and I'd like to also remind my fellow residents present here that we must remember counselor actions when it comes times to vote for
who's capable and willing to represent us thank you thank you for joining us I think EA Watkins hi I'm Becca Watkins I live at 129 Heatherstone I have two kids at Fort
River schools um I wish I had as much eloquence as the previous two speakers but I'm just asking you to consider the schools as you go through the uh fiscal year 2026 budget thank you thank you for joining joining
us um Ellen JG you have your hand up please enter the room state your name and where you live can you excuse me can you hear me we can great I'm Ellen jri gadera and I
live on Bay Road in ammer I am a parent of two kids at Crocker farm and I want to urge you to please support and equitably fund the ammer regional and elementary schools
our kids need this funding more than ever now is not the time to save as much as we do within the Surplus um I don't have anything prepared and I don't have a lot of background in this area but I do know
we've had four to5 million of surplus for the past eight years and I don't understand why hasn't been changed so that we could fund our schools better um even in the six years we've been here I've seen increases in class size
decreases in the numbers of professionals and staff working with our students like speech pathologists in particular um the the teachers the parent professionals they're all asked to be doing so much more with so much less and
Amis needs to step up this is why we live here we came here for the reputation of this town for its excellence and education that's why people come here we we lead in these areas or we thought
we did um I just really want you to take a good look at what's happening to our schools and and fund them equitably and and support them as much as you can and I don't think you're doing that as a
Council thank you thank you for joining us alen cor Fernandez hello I'm cor Fernandez I'm in 24 Obin Wood Road in ammer um I'm the parent of two children one in e8th grade
and one in sixth grade at Fort River and I'm here because um of everything that was was just said I care about the schools we know that is a a surplus in the town and we really want you to think that the schools are worth it um that we can't have another years of cuts uh of
teaching positions of sta positions uh we were here last year also with the school committee you know uh defending the music program we don't want you know every single year to have to come here uh to demand that like uh the budget takes uh into consideration the schools
we're not asking an expansion of programs we're not asking for more teachers for more programs we're just asking for the budget that is necessary to keep what is existing in place um so I think you know we're not asking for that much and our kids deserve it um and going back to the comment of like well
it's unfair if ammer uh has to step up first um I think it's unfair to just to betray our children and our teachers and our community so please uh consider uh using part of the Surplus at least um in covering uh the existing deficit thank
you thank you for joining us cor Jo brevic please enter the room state your name and where you live hi I'm Jill brevik I live on Market Hill Road um and I don't have anything prepared but I'm going to try to just uh join the many voices here who are
advocating for um bringing the funding for our schools back up to the Baseline that we would expect um I moved here with my husband and two kids about 5 years ago primarily for the schools and the community um our kids are fortunate to attend Fort River
Elementary um yeah I'm here to join the the many voices who are fed up with this constant need to advocate for our children I've gotten more involved in town politics over the past year and as i' I've gotten to know this slate of counselors I've been extremely
disappointed at best it's clear that the issues in amoris are deeply rooted but I see no solution to these issues with a council as honestly incompetent as this one is to even entertain the idea of cutting a large number of additional
School staff positions is infuriating now is the time to show us that you care I've seen zero evidence of that to date this is serious please take your positions of power seriously thank you thank you for joining us Joe Athena
Rachel is it Hull Hall thank you hi everyone I'm Rachel Hall um I also did not prepare a lot to say tonight I think all the parents who are here had very busy days um both working inside and outside the home taking care
of kids I'm a parent of two children at Fort River I moved here because um in all honesty a colleague who I trusted bragged about the education system here um and I'm really confused after living here for 3 years my kids are also in the
music program at Fort River um and after Co it brought them so much joy Focus purpose skill building um and we were begging with signs for that program not to be cut um my friend cor just said
we're not asking for an expansion at this moment we're really just asking for the programs that you have already invested in um and some are very basic some are enough pair of professionals to work with a kid um so that when they throw a chair across their room that the rest of the children are safe and that's
also something I've experienced in the school system is a lack of attention in need and certain professional positions being cut while the rest of the kids just kind of scramble and figure it out and the kids that are um developmentally okay figuring it out have done great and
the kids that are not have suffered um so really just asking you to use your position of power to equitably fund um the schools and invest in our students and the teachers and the professionals
that support them the same way we fund all of the other Municipal services in our community that's it thank you so much Rachel thank you for joining us Jennifer curiel and apologize for mispronouncing your name Jennifer please go ahead
Jennifer curi Al can you hear me yeah yes okay I live on woodlot Road in ammer and um much like every other parent who has spoken today I had an extremely busy day parenting and working and got up here by the skin of my teeth because it's that important to me to make my
voice also heard about the schools in our town a vital Community needs healthy schools we also moved to amoris Massachusetts on the reputation of the schools that reputation um it does not live up to its reputation at all the school are in Decline they're in steady
decline year after year there have been cuts and we do more with less I've seen neighbor after neighbor friend after friend pull their child out or children out of our public schools for Charter Schools or private schools or even other public schools in other towns
um what's going on in our country is an emergency situation the fact that anybody would even talk about what's fair when there's an a crisis and an emergency it doesn't matter what's fair we have to save our public education system we have to save our schools we have to educate the next generation of
students of children so we're not in this situation that we're in now um it is now time to think outside the box business as usual does not work anymore in a town like amoris Massachusetts to have to continue to plead for functional
schools does not bode well for the country it does not bode well for our future please change what you're doing change how you're doing it and prioritize our our schools we they're desperately uh in need thank you thank you for joining us that
concludes public comment correct Athena okay thank you we're going to now move back to the action items we're at action item B the appropriation and transfer order FY 25-5 and Order appropriating funds for a
portion of the town of amest capital program roads and sidewalk repairs I'm going to read read the motion seek a second and then seek questions having held a public forum on February 10 2025 with a recommendation by the finance
committee to adopt appropriation transfer order FY 25-5 an order appropriating funds for a portion of the town of Amber Capital program Road and sidewalk repairs as shown on page nine of the motion sheet
is there a second second D thank you are there any questions or comments uh we've already heard the uh finance committee recommendation seeing no no raised hands I'm going to move to a vote I'm sorry Pam
Rooney thanks I wanted to remind that that um this originally came this financial order order originally came at the number of $1 million for roads and schools and um there was
enough consternation that in fact we had not done enough for the schools that the amount was brought back to 500,000 uh so I do support this lower amount um and I do thank the finance
committee for having discussed it in more detail thank you okay are there any other questions or comments okay uh we're going to start with a vote Pam roon yes George Ryan councel
Ryan I yes councelor Kathy Shane yes Andy Steinberg yes Jennifer TOS absent councelor Walker yes Pat d'angeles hi Anna Devin goth here hi
councelor ET I Lyn grimer is an i councelor hanii no Bob hegner I councelor Lord I it is 11 in favor one opposed and one
absent we're going to move on to bangs Community Center and going to place a motion and then we're going to have a presentation to refer appropriation and transfer order fy2 -5f in order appropriating funds for a
portion of the town of ammer Community Capital Banks town of ammer capital Banks Community Center renovation to the finance committee for recommendation and report to the count count Town Council by March 24 2025 is there a second Ryan
second okay I'm calling on count on uh Town manager baman who is accompanied tonight by several other people Rob MO is here Etc go ahead Paul thank you Lynn so I am accompanied tonight by Rob Mora
and Dave Zac and I'm not sure if Bob parent is here or not so tonight you have before you a request for $2.8 million from free cash uh for renovations the banks Community Center and I'd like to go through the request and we want to talk about what
the funds would be used for but also where the money's coming from for this because I think that's probably the most important thing for your consideration as you recall we had arpa funds which was our finance director bissa is here as well um as you recall our finance uh our we had arpa the town
was appropriate arpa funds the school was appropriate Esser funds and we've been utilizing our arpa funds for one-time expenses U and certain other things that were permit permitted under the law with the change of and one of those things that you're allowed to use funds for is to is for what is called
Revenue replacement um as we were allocating our arpa funds we had identified the improvements to the um Banks Community Center as one of the things that we could utilize onetime thing onetime uses
for arpa to make improvements identifying the um the the banks Community Center was something that the council had put on its 2024 goals for the town manager and there was also clear need with the condition of the building um so as and we were moving
forward with that we had and we'll go through exactly how what steps we had taken to get to this position um in December when we were anticipating what the new federal Administration might be doing including changing the rules that
we were operating under that had been put into place by the previous Federal Administration I made the decision that we should use the arpa funds in the legally permissible way of using it for Revenue replacement this would secure those funds and not make them vulnerable
to any kind of clawback activity by the federal government that's what we did in the meantime we had this project that was uh poised to move forward we're just a few weeks away from going out to bid so uh the funds that are in that Revenue
replacement will ultimately fall to free cash on July on June 30th of 2025 so and there's a in the memo there's an outline of where that money would how much money that would be and what that what has been saved what has
been allocated for already and we can get more into that but I just want to sort of framework where that money is coming from it's the money for this project is our arpa funds that were set aside for the town to make improvements that were allowed under the um arpa
guidelines but for the this action to put the funds in a in a um Revenue replacement which would fall to free cash we'd be moving forward with this project so and I think the other question that counselors may have is well why now why can't this wait well
we're ready to go um it it the request addresses a documented need um it includes several things that meet other goals for the town such as our climate action goals uh addressing the needs of the senior Senior Center um and I I
think that this it is a a project that half we if we were to delay it prices would go up and it would just delay everything that we were um we're hoping to accomplish so I I think the timing is right we think it's um uh we're ready to
go and with support ask the Town Council support to move forward so I'm going to turn it over to I think Rob Mora who's going to go through what we're talking about and why why we're presenting it to you now thank you rob Mora uh we go to the first slide please uh so this is one of our larg
buildings uh over 30,000 square feet houses the musanti health center occupies about 10% of the building uh number of town departments uh Civil War tablets uh meeting spaces uh program spaces and utility areas uh We've
recently completed a number of small Renovations including uh restoration of the six rest rooms uh there's two core uh restrooms on each level of the building uh there are some new office spaces on
the Upper Floor where Dei Crest are uh currently working uh We've made some site improvements with a uh addition of a ramp to directly to the nanti Health Center entrance uh and and some other small improvements to the senior center
next slide please so this this building is missing major systems there there isn't a sprinkler system the fire alarm is quite outdated incompatible with any uh replacement parts or any of the vendors
that we currently use or available uh we also know that uh due to the work that I just described on over the last six or eight years or so that we are up against triggers uh that will require code upgrades uh so we we are unable to
perform work without addressing some of these items uh these items that we're going to be talking about in more detail will prepare the building for uh some larger nicer projects uh and we'll talk a little bit about that in a minute uh and we really are hoping to better
utilize some of the spaces as an example we'll talk about the large activity room uh and there's other spaces that also could be improved and we are actively looking at other sources of funding to couple with this project one example that we've identified is a
decarbonization grant that could be available to help us reach our climate action goals and and remove the building off of fossil fuels uh and that's something that we could also um you know possibly combine with this this project
or um follow closely behind next slide please so we uh we engaged an architect back in in the summer of 24 uh EDM Studio Architects was selected uh we immediately got into design work as as mentioned we we were working towards the
end of the year deadline with an aggressive schedule uh we we immediately got into meetings with the building users and and continued through weekly design meetings through the end of the year uh finalizing the documents uh
making the decisions on the on what will be included in the Project based on the cost estimates that we had and really getting ready for for bidding the project this project is now ready to go to bid next slide please a little bit about what we uh hired the
architect to do uh we wanted to conduct a space needs analysis we want to understand how much space each department each function needed and were they appropriately placed in the building and if we needed to look for additional
spaces uh we we know we needed to improve the major Life Safety Systems in the building we know that we have poor air quality and hbac system systems we know from a recent study done a couple of years ago that there are a lot
there's a long list of accessibility deficiencies throughout the building that needed to be addressed uh next slide please we also wanted to continue looking at uh other um other potential uh improvements to the building including the kitchen renovation the
kitchen that exists there now is not a commercial kitchen it uh it doesn't have the space doesn't have the equipment there's no ventilation and really is inappropriate for commercial use uh we wanted to look at reconfiguring spaces
and adding program space uh as an ex example and specifically where to put the fitness room for the senior center uh we know that signage is is needed throughout the building both to identify spaces and wayf finding through the building and the
site uh we we know we'd like to upgrade lighting and controls so we had the architect look at that uh piece of the building and understand what would be needed for Energy Efficiency updating uh equipment and controls both for um the
systems and for programming and you know when we get to it it would be really nice to uh make the building look a little newer fresher with with improved finishes uh in various places next slide please so as we looked at all of that uh
in detail with the team of Architects and their their specialist uh we needed to narrow down the project to something we knew that wasn't budget and that's that's what's listed here uh so we went ahead and design the uh sprinkler system a fire alarm upgrade uh remove all the
accessibility issues and design a uh HVAC system that uh starts to take steps towards our uh sustainability uh you know goals but um main focus improving air quality quity and comfort throughout
the building and all the spaces next slide please and then we you know hoping that we have competitive bidding we wanted to look at what would be our next uh options to add on so we have a list of potential add alternates here uh the
first one these are not at this point in any particular order but the first one here uh is to include a a new restroom near the large activity room there there is a restroom that exists there's Plumbing that exists uh in that area
It's relatively easy installation uh from that perspective and uh it comes with a great benefit it it would allow us to potentially use the large activity room off hours on the weekend and close down the remainder of the building so
that there didn't have to be access through through the entire building just to use the large activity room for an event uh another item is uh moving the Personnel Services space the nurses office up onto the main floor next to a
restroom uh this would be over near Room 101 uh an under underutilized space in the building right now and can accommodate uh a little larger nicer uh more accessible space for for the nurse and uh their services uh we also looked
at increasing some conference space and maybe even some storage space on the Upper Floor for the uh departments that work up up there and then finally uh we did design a space on the first floor that would reconfigure the current health
offices into a fitness and Conference Room for the uh Senior Center uh this is something that is not uh firmly decided to me forward but it it is designed a possibly for a future uh project uh when
other space in the building becomes available or just for future discussion uh as this project goes along next slide please uh the the estimates for that base bid that I described uh are over $2.8 million uh
$335,000 of that has already been uh obligated uh in contract with the designer uh those were arpa funds that uh were committed before the deadline of the end of the year uh leaving a balance of 2.54 million needed to satisfy the
cost estimate of the base bid and then those alternates that I described they have range in value uh totaling almost $500,000 as Paul mentioned the request tonight the request going forward now is for $2.8 million to uh uh fund the base
Bid And if uh we have competitive bids perhaps an alternate or two next slide please uh as I mentioned this project is ready to bid uh we can move into contracts and the start of work
relatively quickly and by uh summer of next year have a project that uh is complete and a building that is uh much improved with systems and ready to look at uh what's next uh next slide please and of those future projects that
we've identified and worked uh on some conceptual layouts for and really have a good idea of of what possibly could happen uh include the total kitchen renovation uh more uh improvements to the Senior Center expanding it
reconfiguring it um we need storage throughout all of the all of the functions could use storage spaces that don't exist we know we want uh to work on signage and finishes and really just continuing to look at the assessment of the space for needs of all the
Departments and uses and you know one big piece of that would be what ultimately happens with the Civil War tablet display and does that space become available for consideration for some other use in the future and and that would really um you know having that um decided will help us move
forward with finishing up the space needs assessment for uh the uses that are in there now uh and that is it and I'd be happy to answer any questions let me just mention as we ask questions this is a referral to finance
committee so part of the questions you may ask maybe the ones that you want the finance committee to particularly uh raise and consider before they bring this back to us in uh late March Kathy you have your hand up yes thank thank
you rob for the presentation um I have uh several questions um I'll start with uh you listed HVAC system Comfort um are we changing over to an all electric system or not and is there solar on the
roof planned or not is my first set of questions should I just rattle them off please yeah go ahead the second um is um in the last year Capital plan a year from now
$175,000 was budgeted for bangs windows and I assume that was partly because the windows are uh not working well not double pained does this 2.8 million include the windows or are we looking for still more spending on bangs out of
our Capital funds the third um is as um and and I'm on finance so we we can ask for the budget also I don't see how with the Alternatives you can expand a bigger room on the second floor without
expanding the building and I don't think you were talking about making building either taller wider or fatter is a way and then I'd like to know how much of the space of the 37,000 square foot space is occupied
by Crest how much is occupied by the muan health center both of which were not originally thought of as being part of that building so I just like to know what is uh what after I subtract everything what
is left for everything else and as I understand it you would not be doing redoing the kitchen um so even under the Alternatives it looked like it but I'm not quite sure whether the kitchen would be redone so the price
tag seems fairly high but I'll I'll um stop there with my questions Robert do you want to address any of those questions at this time I do uh we'll start with the HVAC uh this project will not um move us into full electrification
but it will begin to it it replaces everything uh as part of the distribution through the building except for the uh Central Boiler uh in the mechanical room so rooftop units would be replaced to heat pump style uh
there's a significant amount of duck work and uh other equipment throughout the building that would be installed and controls as part of this project uh we are not exploring at this time solar on the roof that was not part of the the project scope so far uh the next item
the windows are not part of this project the request that was made in the Capitol uh uh program uh was to look at replacing a section of the windows a portion of the building there's much more that would have to be done uh as
part of the capital plan moving forward um the AL Alternatives uh or alternates for the second floor um up in up on that level there's a very large wide Corridor and the idea was to and a room that
would take away a portion of the corridor and make it more usable uh that was the additional square footage of the additional space being proposed uh the nanti health center T is about 3,800 square feet takes up about 10 a little under 10% of the uh entire
footprint of the building uh Crest is smaller at around, 1500 square feet uh up on the second floor uh for the space that they're currently occupying and you are correct the kitchen is not included in this although we were fortunate in the design phase that we've completed so
far to have the architech bring in a kitchen commercial kitchen specialist and we've worked out a conceptual layout and details that both work for fit it you know fit in the space and uh can accommodate be accommodated in the space
with the utilities and service the needs um for the senior center and other functions to utilize it as a proper commercial kitchen and if I may when so uh councelor Shane mentioned what was designed for so when
I started hear that I think the recreation department was housed in the bangs Community Center at sometimes we had rented the space on the second floor to um different nonprofit agencies uh and I think it's been used for a lot of different um activities at different
times so this I think it's always fair to look at what it could be used for as well as what it's being used for at this moment in time thank you pamy thanks um I was trying to remember if there were funds for the
bang Center originally uh if if where where were those funds going to come from if not arpa um secondly does does any of the work within the building um within this first phase actually make improvements
to uh organization of space for the senior center I know they've asked several times if they could somehow be on the same level does any of this work help uh enforce that and then thirdly um if we do not have funding for a
full-fledged commercial kitchen which has a lot of plumbing and and HVAC requirements are there aspects of that kitchen Improvement um that could be implemented um if not the full if not the full thing
um Rob did you or any of your other colleagues want to address any of that I can address a couple of them uh this Pro this project does not uh modify the senior center space or expanded uh it gives us the opportunity to look at
doing that so so there are a number of small things that could be done uh for example we could set up the fitness equipment in a space if we had good air quality and ventilation in those spaces so having having this project as we've
uh designed it completed will allow for us to look at those as as future projects um a partial upgrade to the kitchen is certainly possible um it's there's a lot of work needed there isn't much of the kitchen that could be uh
reused right now including the size of the kitchen cannot accommodate all of the uh pieces of equipment that'll be needed but uh you know there's a significant amount of work that would have to be done and certainly from that point we can look at bringing in it in phases uh as an option to build out the
kitchen um Services would be limited uh through th that phasing effort councelor hanii oh I'm sorry yes Pam funding go ahead please repeat uh
the question was were there other funds for this for bangs Improvement before arpa came along Paul I think there just the only one was the capital request for the windows uh it's the only thing I yeah I think that's the only thing I was out
there okay are there any other questions Pam okay councelor hanii um yeah it would be wonderful since it sounds like there might be some schematics that include the adults to see those schematics when it comes to finance um
we're kind of operating in the dark here as to what the plans are and I find that kind of strange um in particularly you're talking about adults that include a if I've understood the
references to the floors correctly which are also very confusing um since I think ground is part of one and one is part of one and lower might not be ground I I I think I've got them correctly but but if I've
understood them correctly um the bathrooms are going in the large activity room potentially so and the commercial kitchen would have to expand into the large activity room and so I am really curious what kind of reduction in size the large activity room is
potentially going to have with all of these um you know improvements that are discussed in here um and how that will have effects on things like elections or just the use of what we use that room
for and could then use it for based on capacity um other of my questions have been asked already okay are responses that b Rob or anybody else from the team
want to make uh yeah just briefly uh the uh the the space that we're looking at creating the restroom off activity room does currently house a restroom and the nurses station so that would be
reconfigured along with some of the storage space that exists in the large activity room to not take away a significant uh any significant area in the large activity room and uh you know again with the kitchen this and when we can show you the the images you'll see
that it's utilizing underutilized space in in the large activity room and not taking away from the core area where uh the larger capacity would be so we're not expecting any any decrease in occupant load for that
space if I may add so the the entire question about a kitchen is a significant conversation to be had whether it's whe whether we want one whether we can manage one um whether we want to invest in a full commercial kitchen or not those are all important
questions for the for us to have with with the council in terms when uh the plan future plans come up um thank you Paul because that was one of my very um questions was a commercial commit kitchen is not just a
commitment to equipment it's a commitment to who's going to manage it and who's going to make sure that it's used properly and um my own experience with commercial kitchens are places like the survival center but
there's full-time staff who use it and use it a lot so I hope that the finance committee um that's not part of this plan so I don't know that it's appropriate for the discussion now uh my other question however
is does this project um would this project qualify and I don't know that we can answer this for the potential bill that is being reintroduced for for municipal buildings
of course we have also suggested that we hope our fire and DPW will be in that category as well but I would assume that some of this might position us for that as well and I don't know that anybody can answer that I just want to make sure
we keep it in mind as we look at this okay Kathy you had your hand up again uh yes um for the finance committee um I'd like to just build on what Mandy said it would be great if we could see something about floor layout just on Dimensions
you know I don't want to put you all the way to what we were looking at with the school but we had floor layouts and and then a budget that doesn't not just a total but the pieces um you said you already had the money the
$300,000 Plus for the designer did that come out of Ora was my other question so it's already a piece of orpa that's been spent thanks so I just you know so line item budget with the big pieces I don't need to see the little p we don't need
to see the little ones I guess the one question you could answer is did this design money come out of Aro yes it did thank it's already been spent okay Pam yes could the uh the request for floor plans and budget be sent to the entire
Council please not just Finance thanks thank you are there any other questions or comments this is is a referral it's a referral to uh finance committee with a report back in March so with that we're
going to move to a vote I'm going to begin with George uh councelor Ryan hi Kathy Shane yes Andy Steinberg yes Alicia Walker yes Pat dangeles hi Anna Devon gothier I
councelor ET I Lyn grimer and I hanii hi uh Bob hegner hi councelor Lord I uh pamon yes it's unanimous with one absent thank you so much for the time you spent
on this and um keeping in mind that down the road maybe it will lead to something bigger uh thanks for joining us I know this is you know not your regular work hours um the next item was introduced by a
counselor I'm going to read the motion seek a second and then call on uh Pam Rooney um to give us a little more background to refer the proposed amendments to the community activity form and Town Council policy on making
recommendations for Town Council appointments to multiple member bodies to the governance organization and legislation committee with a report to the council by March 24 2025 is there a second
second Rooney Thank you Pam you want to speak thank you um every year the the community resource committee uh goes through the process of
interviewing uh uh members for the zoning board of appeals and for the planning board so this is absolutely an annual thing we have a conflict in the information that is given to the public in terms of
encouraging public participation in our in our boards and committees in town so the the very basic premise here is that the community activity form website says if you have sent in a
calf um within the last three years you do not have to send in another one and yet our our mult our policy Council policy for multi member bodies says something different um so I
would I'm asking for go to take a close look at that I'm I'm hoping for some good feedback and some and some improvement to this um idea but I would um there's a time frame on here um just
to keep things going in fact we will be as a as a committee starting the process of discussing zba and planning board um interviews and the sooner we get some feedback from the
council as a whole the better equipped we are to um handle that process smoothly so I appreciate the time and energy and look forward to some good feedback thank you are there Council questions councelor hanii
yeah um number one I was dismayed that this I'm going to be a stickler on procedure and rules today I'm dismayed that this was Memo was addressed to go instead of the council um because our rules require any measures come to the council not to
committees first um so it would be nice if individuals and counselors asked the council and waited for a referral before addressing committees um it is unclear from page one with the
motion that has a recommended Motion in it particularly number two that has a move to amend section two of the policy to change the wording to State and then that wording includes exactly one sentence um but the discussion at the end at the beginning of Page Three
indicates that it would be more than that sentence um so I am hopeful that go can clear up whether the intent is to essentially delete all of section two
except for the sentence that's listed on page one or whether as it appears in the rest of the memo the intent is to change a small section of that section two um to the new wording um because
those are two very different things [Music] um I support amending the calf I am concerned that this change um if it leaves out other things again
I'm not sure what it's what section two would read in the end because it doesn't even page three leaves out the rest of section two even if it has the dot dot dot in the beginning so again I don't know what the intent is to have section two read after this so it's hard to make
comments um I don't support removing other sections of this section too um the wording about those individuals who
submit an SOI no um some sort of wording that um there's no no requirement uh it is unclear what the applicant pool would be between the bulletin board notice being sent uh
posted and Communications from the chair because the reason we had new cafs to be submitted was to clear up who the chair needed to communicate with
throughout the whole process until the interviews and I am worried that this language unclear that up um because the language also does not address other than having a chair reach out to a new to and re potentially a a current board
member whose term might be expiring it does not say that that board member must submit a new uh CA but the board members we appoint for threeyear terms their CF will not be within the last two years um and so do they need to submit a new one
to be part of the pool because in theory they do but this doesn't clear up that they would so I think there's a little bit of work that needs to go on in here I I'm okay with the intent if I understand the intent correctly I want to be clear on that but how it's been
presented and what the actual final version looks like um is hard to comment on um because of in particular that issue and then things that are not clear
to whether other parts of section two would be deleted or intent tend to be deleted because I would not support deleting um the multiple member bodies are separate the SE the cifs are separate from um those submitted to the
town manager I would not be okay with deleting um that the chairs have to confirm receipt of the CAF to the people and I would not be okay with deleting that CFS are personal Personnel records and not public documents yet
this everything listed here seems to imply that those particular sentences would be deleted um and so I want to be clear about that thank you are there any other comments this is a referral to
go we'll begin with Kathy Shane yes Patty Angeles hi Anna delin goth I councelor ET I Lyn gur's an i councelor
hanii i but I believe you skipped people between Shane and Angeles oh I'm sorry I did I skipped it's on the next page uh I'll come back to that um let's continue councelor hanii
I heg councel um Bob hegner I councelor Lord I hamery yes councelor Ryan I Andy Steinberg hi Alicia Walker yes thank you it's unanimous with
one accent the uh next item was pulled from consent because a counselor and aled me in advance that it they would be pulling it so we just went ahead and pulled it uh I'm going to read the motion seek a second and then we'll go to the
discussion point of order yes to save one potential Amendment before you read the motion can I make one comment about my concern yes there was a discrepancy between the motion and the plot in particular with the parking spots can we clear up which one is
accurate cuz the motion has six five spaces on boltwood and six on South Pleasant and the plot that we were given has six spaces on boltwood and five on South Pleasant so I think that the language got transposed so I want to
stick with the plan since that's already done so just if if you if it's okay with the counselors to change those numbers to six on boltwood and five on South Pleasant that matches I just make sure that matches is yeah that matches the
the the plan all right are there any other okay thank you that one was going to be a definite if you made the motion and I didn't want I wanted to save that one thank you um so the motion as it presently reads is to approve the emeris farmers market long-term event use
reservation of the South Common and Associated parking spaces at no charge under Town Council policy regarding the control and regulation public way on Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. beginning on April 19th 20125 and ending
on November 15 2025 and then dots approve exclusive use of the area on the South Common is shown in the plan entitled ammer Farmers Market proposed layout 2020 2022 season January set 27
2022 next bullet reserve 15 spaces on Spring Street for six spaces on boatwood Avenue and five spaces on South Pleasant Street for
all vendor parking there's an extra four um and customer pickup to be clearly marked by the emeris farmers market and to further authorize the town manage to the ability to modify an the approval
through November 15th 202 5 in order to schedule concurrent use of the Town common for shortterm event use is there a second second Ryan okay councelor hanii yes a couple of questions that hopefully can be answered tonight
um does the farmers market still do customer pickups the spots on South Pleasant Street were originally in covid for customer pickup reservation and that language is still in here but are they still actually doing I don't know what
the term would be but pickups like that instead of people walking around um such that those spots are those spots still needed for that purpose um as it stated in the motion um it says no
cost do we charge other entities fees for reserving the common or parking associated with use on the common during and throughout the year and if so which entities do we charge and how much do we charge them um
and the times that are listed here 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. the memo indicated that people start pack unpacking somewhere around 5:00 a.m. um I believe our parking rates start at 8:00 a.m. on
Saturdays um so are we charging them for parking at 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 and if the vehicles are still there after 1:30 are parking fees still do they go back in effect in those are my questions I think I can answer I can
answer most of them so the um most most of the parking is utilized by the vendors there's some uh mostly in the Spring Street lot that are that they hold back in case someone needs to drive up to pick up food for any reason but all the ones on South plasma Street and on Bullet Avenue are used by vendors and
then they because we don't we don't want them to be driving on the common they park that's the closest to their various stands basically uh we do not charge them for this this parking that we give them this has come up previously as you recall um so this is a permission to use
the space because of the greater good for the community I think is the logic behind that um and then for the uh other users there isn't a fee to reserve the common um there is some times a um there
might be a deposit that's needed for use of the electricity that's on the common I think they have to get a key or something I'm not really sure what the specifics are for that um and other than the uh rotary uh which uses a large portion of boltwood Avenue for its
parking uh um there aren't usually large requests for parking um if they are I get I report them to you uh in in the in in the manager report I think the um but we don't charge for use of parking
associated with any event on the on the common please do we charge the farmers market for the use of electricity or the deposit to get keys for electricity since I believe some of the vendors hook up to electricity no we don't um why
would we have different policies for them and other users of the common so we don't charge people for the use of the electricity it's more to make sure there's a key to unlock the cabinet to make sure that the key comes back we do this for um different buildings that we have as well that it's a way to get the
key back once we if if it's a physical key I'm not sure um months and we do the same thing it might be 20 $25 something like that I guess I don't understand why we don't charge the deposit for the farmers market for that key so they
don't get a key though DPW knows they're there every more every Saturday they would go and they open up the because they it's every every Saturday okay and um if it's all vendor parking it can be some customer parking no I I understand that I'm concerned
about these times 8:30 to 1:30 if if vendors are there earlier and technically parking is charged starting earlier are the times in the mo motion proper times how are those times related to when the vendors
are parking there and should the parking reservation times better match the vendor times and should there be different times for the use of the common itself versus the parking or do they all match the same
times so they it' be better to make it longer um because they they get there as early as he said five I think it's more like six o'clock that they tend to get there and that's when uh they start to um utilize the parking spaces and in the
comment itself so I would we could make this from 6:00 AM to 1:30 p.m. they're usually pretty much gone by 1:30 p.m. okay um councelor hanii so hopefully it's a friendly Amendment um I'm more concerned about
the time that overlaps with the charging of parking then that although I guess if they're not reserved till 8 or 8:30 and someone parks there at 7 you the farmers market can't do anything about that um until 8:00 right right I mean if they if
they have a reserve starting at six we start to try and work work through who who those cars belong to well but if it's not Reserve till 800 or 8:30 you don't work we can't allow that you can't do that until 8:30 you can't so we'd like to make this 6:00 a.m. so 6 amendment to 6 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. fine
with me um seconder who was the second and fine thank you are there any other questions or comments councelor hanii you still your hand up okay seeing none with a friendly
amendment of changing the 830 to 6 uh we'll begin with Kathy Shane yes Andy Steinberg yes Alicia Walker yes Patti Angeles hi Anna Devon gothier hi
councelor ete hi Lyn Griers and I councelor hanck I Bob hegner I councelor Lord I Pam Rooney yes counselor Ryan hi 12 in favor and one
absent um we're going to take a break uh we'll be reconvening at 820 um please turn off your mics and your pictures and turn them back on when you come back thank you e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e we need to uh reconvene gang we're going to start in another minute I'm using my clock on my computer not the town
clock please please turn your video on when you get back to your seat please turn on your video when you return George P thank you um is this going to take e
is your is your microphone on I didn't thank you y that's why you're looking at me so strangely [Music] um um good evening are you putting that motion on the floor I am putting following motion
on the floor to adopt the 2025 Town manager goals and at this point is as presented is there a second second deangeles so point of clarification yes this is the revised version you put on
the floor to adopt right that came out later today one this is the one that was mailed out today that included splitting the two things that you called our attention to okay does that make sense um counselor
pamon uh I have a question and that is are we automatic Ally adopting all of the uh ongoing goals action items I should say that were in a table at the very end of our action item
list if so I would actually like to see them they were not included in what we got today I yes they are they're Incorporated all of the ongoing yes the ongoing are now Incorporated okay uh um
Kathy I think that relates to Pam's question but ly I didn't completely understand when I should do this but I would like to change the wording of one of them okay the one that relates to Jones because I didn't understand it was going to become a goal or I would have done it
when we met okay so you just tell me when I'm when I make that motion and I can explain why okay I'm asking the uh Clerk of the council to put the goals up so that she
can um show your motion and Kathy it is now up there so would you please yes so I I wanted to just um the way it was originally worded would you um you speak a second
now that there's a motion I'm assuming you're making a motion to amend so can we have a second so let's yes second I I am making a motion to amend this one item and and would you please read your motion I move
to okay I move to add the wording provided that the funding for the trustees share grants and other non- taxpayer share of the Jones project is secured and the budget is no more than 46 milli
comma I move to add those words so that the goal would say provided that the funding for the trustee share grants and other taxpayer share of the Jones project is secured and the budget is no more than 46 million sign a contract and
break ground on the Jones Library renovation and Expansion Project is there a second second okay Kathy please speak to your motion um I wanted to add this wording and I'm I'm
fairly confident the town manager would do this but I don't think we should just say sign the contract and break ground because we need to make sure we are on secure grounds to be financing to keep the town taxpayer share at what we have
publicly said it is multiple times right now there is some question that the Federal grant funds $2 million might be at risk we haven't closed that door yet we're not sure about some of the other pieces the trustees at one point the
former treasur had said they could take a loan out against their endowment to move money over to us faster so I just want to make sure before we sign a contract that we're sure about the funding sources and we're sure that the
budget is still add or below the 46 million so that's why I added those words then I'm okay with going ahead and sign the contract and break ground okay are there questions or comments regarding this
amendment pamy thank you I I would like to make sure that we have the $46 million correct if it's 46.1 I think is the number that stay is in my head I just want to make sure that we have that correct I actually don't know I've
always thought a it is 46 but I do want to be precise what whatever we're looking it up whatever the original authorization was cam was there any further comment okay uh George Ryan so I can support
this but I I have a question about what secur means and maybe Kathy can clarify that a bit um clearly the fundraising campaign won't will have all their money on hand uh By the time it's time to sign a contract so uh we have in the past is my
understanding been relying on the good judgment of the Town manager that he and his Finance team would be satisfied and until they're satisfied they're not going to sign anything um and so I'm perfectly comfortable with the way things stand right here but if you wanted to add this language I would be
willing to consider that but I need to understand and I imagine the town manager might like to know what you mean by secured okay Kathy okay I I'll speak to that when when we originally discussed this um one
possibility offered by the trustees is if they had not gotten all the the what they thought they could raise fundraising that they had talked with the bank and they could get a $5 million loan against their endowment and they could move the loan over to us you know
so at this point the Gap almost equals the endowment they can't send the entire so that that would be one piece piece of it so I understand they may not have every piece of their fundraising the other piece is we've got 2 something
million in Federal grant as part of the financing project and I'm hoping we reach closure on the historic uh review and we get a favorable reading on that but I would like to know that that's happened before we sign a contract because it's $2
million if the federal government backs out on either of those grants then there's another $2 million loss and I I'll just say I mean none of us can know uh the best we could do as best we can
but one of the grants if we don't get it soon uh and the fine tooth comb that's going through every Federal dime looks at the cultural Grant it might not be you know since we don't have the money in hand yet um it's been it's been OB
bance so I would just like to be on fairly secure ground given the the crunch we've got on our operating budget and other Capital so that's why I wanted to add this wording and you know I do think the town manager will likely do this but on the
other hand the the bid came in under or at the amount I don't want to say just go plowing ahead I want to make sure we're really cautious before we sign a contract
Paul did you come up with a figure 46.1 please amend it's and we'll accept that as a friendly amendment I hope yes absolutely yes thank you may I follow up justly yes please so I guess my question perhaps now is directed
better to Paul is Paul comfortable with this language and does he feel like he understands what's being asked of him here if the language has changed in the way that Cath is suggesting so I don't I guess I the question I would have is secure what the secured
being um does that mean a loan has been taken out that there is a loan authorization to take out a loan if needed I don't I'm not sure exactly what you mean by secured I I I do mean money on the table in some form because we looked at uh we had an estimate of the
short-term bands and what the interest rates would be on those and they were substantial if we had to float the money before we got it from the trustees and that was assuming we get the $2 million federal grants so I want to make sure we get the federal you know the federal
grants aren't at risk anymore and um then uh secured within one year the the memorandum of agreement has them giving us all the money over at a later date but I I really am worried about our operating budget and our capital budget
if the interest cost on us turn out to be a lot more than just carrying the 15.8 million that was the taxpayer share so to the extent you can come in with a financial accounting that says
we're pretty confident that we're not putting ourselves at risk for a lot more than we originally budgeted I I I understand what you're saying on that I the agreement we have with the trustees is that they will give us the funds over time I don't have the
m f of us but it as a time frame for when they would give us the funds it's we're not expecting them to give the funds all at once we know that there's going to be a borrowing involved uh we know that there's money that's Advanced To Us by the mass Board of Library Commissioners um so
I um if you're saying we will have funds in hand um I don't think that's I think we we have the borrowing authorization to get to that like you said the Bands so and what I with the Moa does have them a
timeline for when they would be sending money over to us hey I I'll just I'll repeat again at the point we voted on the 46 the treasurer told us if they hadn't raised enough money he could secure a $5 million loan to to put it
over there was still an exploration on whether the federal government would speed up those grants to us let alone fund them at all um and all of that was an assurance that I thought maybe we were on financially stable grounds if we
can't have that and we're going to start with a $7 million gap or five or six name the number it it's a cost to us because we're going to have to pay the contractor costs I mean once we start this you know so if it's one year I
don't know how much the float is but we had put in um the numbers that we've been given were in the $400 to $700,000 range depending on what those short-term bands were and so it's part of the larger equation for everything else we
want to do so yeah some some good numbers would be what I'd like to see yeah I I I will certainly give you good I can certainly have I will certainly want to have good numbers before any contracts are signed I just won't don't want to be caught up on what you what
you imply what you mean by secured versus what I consider secured secur Securities has a certain I'm sure technical definition and and so I think um I I guess so but if I was buying a house the mortgage the bank would want
to know I'm secured so I think we're buying a library building and I would like to know we're secure on our end what our risk are so if there's a softer word but um we were given a lot of assurances uh which won my vote a couple
years years ago so I would like some of those become uh money is I guess the the simplest way to talk about it so if I may u i mean if she gets that much time I may I respond yes again I
think as my colleagues perhaps can see this term is not as simple as it sounds I believe we have we have a very prudent financially responsible Town manager he's proven that for how many years years he's been here and we are under under the clear understanding as he is
that he will make a decision based on prudent Financial judgment um I understand Kathy's concerns um I think many of them are legitimate uh Paul understands them I'm sure very clearly as well but there's no way we can tweak the language here and the word secured
simply will not do the job um so I would at this point just listening to this conversation and back and forth um Kathy might have one idea of what secur it means I might have one idea you might have one idea I think at this point we have to give some trust to our town
manager um that he will make the Judgment based on not only his uh thoughts but on the thoughts of his financial team Andy I um I think I am comfortable with the amendment I want to make sure and I
want to get um my uh question reflected somehow in the minutes which is why I need to State this um I think that it's the right thing to do to in that past to have this
amendment because it is authorizing in essence the signing of a contract and um I think that the only thing that I'm concerned is if there is a change of facts that we don't anticipate
that um the town manager recommends that we sign a contract under slightly different circumstances then presented that we are not depriving of the Council of considering that request at the time
if it were to be made again I'm hoping that that I'm only speaking the hypothetical and it never comes to pass but I don't want to um Rob the Council of the ability to make other judgments
at other times if the council at that point deems it appropriate Pam uh I would support this amendment um I think the word as as we've heard everyone has a different idea but but it
implies that the sources are known the quantities are um appropriate and doable um and without that I would not want to say please just lold go ahead and sign
this contract I I want caveats and uh there's enough there's enough um concern about some of the funding sources that it's appropriate to add this word of caution thank
you so I'm I'm caught speak as a counselor I'm caught between the fact that we have anou and it seems to me that somehow or
another what we are saying here is that the town manager should sign could go ahead and sign this as long as it is consistent with
theou and if we if it's not consistent with theou then that means we have to change theou and I'm that's not what the discussion is so Paul you have your hand up maybe you have some better yeah Clarity I I just think it's important
for the council to be clear that this is a goal there's no authorization needed there's no authorization for you to say can't sign a contract that's within the purview of the Town manager this is a goal that you're asking me to meet and I I will attempt to meet it so you this
this is not a you know I think uh Council Steinberg said that you know this is a authorization the council does not authorize the C manager to sign contracts so um you know I think it's important to recognize what this is that you're saying here's what we want you to
accomplish as a goal and if I don't accomplish I don't accomplish it for any of these goals that you've identified I think I've been pretty clear with this project what I would do um in terms of how it the kind of this
um Financial Security we'd expect to see but you again you have your role and that was to provide the authorization to borrow the funds I have my role to carry out the project um could I try something if after the word secured it
said consistent with the signed mou please use your microphone I'm sorry and I interrupted also I apologize and the reason I'm saying that is because let me just explain it's because we have anou and
the mou defines some timelines and some timelines for reimbursement and some timelines for actual borrowing not securing the borrowing so part of me doesn't want
to pass a goal that's not consistent with documents that are in existence that's where I'm coming from so anyway Paul you have your hand up Kathy now actually I'm gonna go to
Pat she's not spoken at all okay damn it Paul was quite clear about what his role is and our role is quite clear so I think that that answer makes me not want to support this amendment because I
feel like I have faith and trust in what I've seen in six years of his work that he's not going to sign something that's going to uh put us in financial Jeopardy um yeah you I
I think we're sticking our nose where it doesn't belong how's that okay um Kathy okay I I'll make a I can hear the concerns here but my concern is when we voted on this which
has turned as Paul said he gets to sign the contract we all thought there were tax credits on the table as did the trustees most of the trustees but then we found out they knew there weren't tax credits on the on on the table anymore and one
of the confidence that we were told by a very well-respected Treasurer that because there were tax credits they could afford to give us $5 million out of their endowment and take out a loan we can't we can't theou says we get the
endowment that's the security here if we take the whole endowment we have an enormous hole in the operating budget for the library and we were trying to avoid that none of us want that to happen we're already down staff in the library we're expanding space and you
don't want to open it without enough staff to run it so theou Lynn if you said do I want to rewrite thatou you bet you but since I you know at this point because the circumstances have changed but the has a time frame in it and it is
a pledge with the security of the endowment and the building that we don't own uh we get some rights over it for an extended period of time that they can't sell it but otherwise the time period leaves us exposed to a lot of money
particularly if the federal grants fall through so I want this coming back to I want I want to send a signal out to every resident in town that we too are concerned and we're putting faith that
the town manager can think through the Financial Risk to this project before signing a contract P you have to raise your hand please uh I'm gonna go to Alicia Walker she's not spoken um thank you Lyn I just wanted to
say that I would support this amendment and I think um what I'm getting from what Cathy is saying and that this isn't necessarily about whether or not we trust the town manager I think it's just about providing guidance to the town manager that represents what our expectations are um and adding them to
the goals uh is also just saying like when we are doing the town manager evaluation this is a criteria we will use to evaluate his performance in this area and so to me it seems like a reasonable indication as a goal regardless of whether or not we think he
might already just do this and he has already shown good judgment I think that that is true but I don't think that that prevents us from having a good reason to add this as a goal and to be clear about this is something we will be looking at when we're doing the
evaluation thank you George we could put provisos to many of the goals in this document we could imagine all kinds of scenarios um I think as a town manager has made clear um his job is to um sign
a contract based on his Judgment of the financial realities so so this doesn't really give him any new guns this doesn't really tell him anything he doesn't already know and it doesn't really answer the question of what secured means what he
has stated and I agree with him is the goal is to sign a contract and break ground on the Jones Library renovation Expansion Project that's the goal and he will make a determination as to whether he thinks that goal is the appropriate one or not for us to achieve in a
financial way putting this extra wordage in um this does not help him in any way shape or form um so if it makes you feel good you can put it in um but in the end um he will make his call based on the financial realities and based on the advice of his financial team um you
could probably add a few more things in here too if you wanted um what's the goal okay um if unless there's any further comments that people feel absolutely necessary we're going to
bring this to a vote the vote is to amend by adding the words provided that the funding for the trustee share comma grants comma and other non-t taxpayer share of the Jones project is
secured and the budget is no more than 46.1 million sign a contract and break ground on the Jones Library renovation and Expansion Project okay need to just find a place to cour
VES we'll begin with um I don't know where I am Andy yes councelor Walker
yes Patti Angeles no Anna dein Gotham yes coun r no Lyn grimer is a no C hanii no Bob
hegner Yes councelor Lord she may actually have left yes she is now absent um she's still connected she is um maybe come back okay Pam mnie yes
councelor Ryan no Kathy Shane yes okay the vote is six to five with at this point it appears to be two two counselors absent and so therefore it
passes um point of order yes is a counselor who is connected technically absent or abstaining and what is the required Quantum when there are weth present um um in the past we've counted counselors who don't respond when their cameras are off and we can't tell if
they're still present and participating we've counted them as absent if they're not um speaking their vote yeah and so therefore the quantum is it would be a majority vote a majority vote of those people present and voting yes
okay majority based on 11 not 12 we are now going back to the original motion okay the original motion is to adopt Town manager goals as amended in this case it's been made and
seconded councelor hanaki you have your hand up I moveed to delete um from the infrastructure management maintenance and land stewardship section the action item update the 5year capital Improvement progam program in
light of the 2024 revisions to the financing plan for major capital projects and in accordance with the current budget guidelines and to delete from the housing and economic Vitality section continue implementation of the residential rental
bylaw continuation of the residential rental bylaw of continue continue implementation of the residential rental you're just deleting those okay is there a second pange seconds okay councelor hanaki please
speak to your motion so if these are action items and we've been told many times that we are trying to put action items in here that don't necessarily aren't quote automatic and things like that um because um you know just saying
ensure housing or effectively I'm going to use the budget as an example we we've been told we don't need things about the budget in the action items because they're just expected to be done um we should just expect our manager to comply with the charter which is what
the capital Improvement program item is and we should expect our manager to comply with our bylaws which is what implementation of the residential rental bylaw which has now been adopted is so I do not believe they need to be in here as action items okay is there are there
other conversation counselor Ryan I'm sorry no oh your hand is down I'm sorry are there any other counselor comments then we will bring this to a vote um we're going to begin with
councelor Walker no Patti Angeles I on deelin gothier I councelor ET I Lynn grimer is an i
councelor hanii i Bob hegner I councelor Lord is considered absent Pam Rooney yes councelor Ryan hi Kathy Shane yes Andy Steinberg yes
the vote is let me just get it 10 in favor one opposed and two absent I think there were two NOS were you were no there was only one no okay are there any other comments or
questions we're going back to the original motion the original motion is to adopt the town manager goals as amended councilor Ryan point of order I thought that's what we were voting on no oh we just deleted those we were voting on the two
itions okay councelor Ryan uh under Town Council community and strategic relationships I was going to propose amending the first item to take out uh emmer College since it's already been accomplished but perhaps that that was
what I was going to suggest so the motion would be to delete ammer College since that's already been accomplished is there a second the motion dies for last lack of a second okay uh councelor hanii I don't have another motion but I
have a comment about the administration and Leadership section okay I can understand it has one action item in it that relates to hiring we
have no action items there that relate to the town's Financial Health or frankly that relate to supervising the current employees and I understand that we don't necessarily we're not looking given the
motion I just made we're not looking for an an action item of like adequately supervised but I do think it is problematic that when we review the manager we will have
not asked him to improve his Supervision in any specific way of the town's employees yet that is one of the primary um items that his job is about
is managing the town and its staff yet we have no action item that that is specific about how he can improve his IM performance in that area um we deleted
all the ones that were there um which is why I'm not asking to bring them back in I think it's a shame we deleted them and I don't know what we would add but I can't let this vote go past without making that comment that I think we are failing the manager for not having a
single action item that tells him what are goal is and how he can improve his performance with relating to the management of the staff thank you having noticed the absence in that
goal as well um are there any other comments Kathy uh I I agree I mean I I I don't have anything to propose because I also the Anna's attempt to make this more elegant
which it e exactly is the very long words before the actions we have nothing about financing operation of the town or managing the staff at all as part of our goals we're saying we just expect him to
do that I think the problem with the managing staff well supervising is we do not have an easy way of evaluating an outcome on it and we always have we have never had an easy way of evaluating it so that's that's
been the issue with this you know we uh we don't get everybody who works in the town responding to any survey and we don't have a really good objective way of doing it so I don't have a good thing to propose um and the same is with
finances um uh you know we're he we get a balanced budget we get everything on time so we've always given and A+ rating on it because we don't have another way of of saying anything so I'm sort of comfortable with this but I realize that
we have a hole um because we don't have a good way of assessing it okay unless someone comes up within a way of assessing it councelor Ryan so I'm not going to speak to things we haven't put in this document or didn't put in this document or deleted
from this document but I do want to acknowledge I think that this is a step forward um it's been a long and difficult process and it's taken far more time than I think any of us would like but I think this is a definite step forward I think I speaking as a member
of go want to express my thanks to the chair who I think brought us a format that I think is better um clearer and more focused I hope it will be an advantage to our town manager I think we still have a ways to go but I think we' have made progress so um I want to
express thanks to her to the committee go for for its hard work and to all of you for your patience and for your diligence in doing this it's just unfortunate that what is today February it's the 10th right we're a little we're a little behind the game
but anyway that's all I have to say um as a member of go and counselor I do want to point out that in the actual statement of the goal uh the objective I believe is the correct term we actually raised many of
those issues and in the past our the last two years at least our practice has been to evaluate based on that statement and then individually as well so it still provides the opportunity for the feedback on issues like budget and
personel I agree so the statement is the important one here exactly uh Andy Steinberg actually I'm going to lower my hand at the moment but I was going to raise exactly the point that the chair
just raised thank you councelor hanii so a logistical question here the motion on the floor is it's going to be as amended but to adopt the manager goals as amended um the document that in theory is on the floor has no introductory
statement but all of our previous documents have had the introductory statement are those introductory statements part of this motion where do we need to make a motion to add all of that into this document
Anna I think that what we were just discussing as a council was the action item and goal area and um objectives I like I wrote those titles and I keep forgetting them so we'll change them next year um but I
think that so I don't know I guess I'm not I'm not going to be the one to chase this Rabbit Hole down to the end I think that we could use that same uh version as part of the goals the only thing we would need to update I believe there's reference to a specific number and we
would just need to update that and I can pull it up and uh if if we can if at least three three people get the same count when we count these action items um which we've struggled with in the past then I can update that but unless people have significant edits to it I think that we could consider it as part
of the package just not what we were editing as part of this lovely process uh councelor hanii is that okay okay uh Kathy Shane sorry I was going to say just what
Anna said I thought the introduction words were fine other than making sure the couns updated thank you I'm going to move the question since I see no more and this
is to adopt the 2025 Town manager goals as amended I'm going to begin in this casee with PTI Angeles hi wait second that did you have a second I would love to Second
it the original motion was second was seconded it was okay a while AG go Patty Angelus hi Anna Devin gothier I coun at I Lynn grimer is an i councel hanii hi
by hegner I councelor Lord is I ah she's returned uh Pam Rooney yes councelor Ryan hi Kathy Shane yes Andy Steinberg yes councelor Walker yes
it is unanimous with one absent thank you Anna thank you it's been a pleasure can't wait till we get to the evaluation section you have thank you to go who has come through on
so many occasions always we'll see you again in go sure well okay there's no appointments tonight uh Le on reports there's a few because we do have some committees that have met CRC Pam
roone I'm not prepared to do an uh okay Elementary School building committee Kathy uh we have a meeting this Friday Valentine's Day but we already got our Valentine in that the the school construction has started and I got an
update last week um and I figure out a way of getting these regularly to the council because they're exciting that the concrete contractor is on site digging the foundation and we can expect to see the steel structure start to go up in March
Bren um finance committee Kathy uh you have a report um in your uh packet um one of it was the uh the authorization piece we did just
did earlier today we also got first quarter um report and we're supposed to get um we're hoping we're going to get second quarter report at the next meeting which will mean we're halfway through the year and this is the quarterly financial report so other than
that we were discussing various budget items and you've already heard from the town manager first the very bad news on health insurance and then the slightly better news on health insurance um with uh Bringing Down the rate and the cherry sheet showing us that we've not got
really no very little net gain or no net gain from the state so we we were just doing updates there is an updated um budget overall with the 3 and a half% that was presented to the budget
coordinating group and we'll put it in the finance package as well so it's it's an update on what we saw in November but we did not yet have that document when we met as as the finance committee and I think I'll end there with my report okay
go um the last the committee last has reported and we have the new one has not convened yet Jones Library Pam we have not met uh TSO has not convened yet any liaison reports councelor
hanii I thought we should report on BCG I was I put that down there and I said to myself we didn't list it can we do it sure um okay BCG so BCG met th Wednesday Wednesday of
in prior to the four towns meeting I guess someone else can report on four towns too um but um it was I I thought personally I thought it was a good discussion I'm one of four counselors on BCG so others can can chime in um the
library EV every entity has concerns about next year's budget it's not just the schools it's the town it's the library it's everyone that insurance number Hits every every part tremendously hard um
and other inflationary numbers and colas and all it all hits tremendously hard um but I think the things that the council needs to hear that came from BCG is that a number of the school committee members when asked if they think their bottom
line budgets at the school committee would remain and be voted on close to or match what the financial guidelines say at that 3 and a half% raise the school committee members um were very open in saying they're not
sure that they'll vote a number that low that it is likely that they will as a committee vote a number higher than what the financial guidelines have both at the elementary level and the regional level now that is just each of the
representatives own views at this point they haven't done hearings they haven't done anything but I think the council needs to start think about and having discussions regarding potentialities if things like that
happen um because that was put out there as a possibility at BCG um other um things that were mentioned were possibility of should we be talking
overrides and operating prop two and a half override which would essentially be a per permanent tax increase um I think that's going to be on the agenda for our next BCG meeting there was a request to have BCG meet more frequently other requests to talk about at those meetings
were the capital needs of the Town including the schools um and how that fits into budgets um Elementary transition and its budget impl implications um and how that might implicate next year's budget the
transitions the year after um and the region 712 possibility of consolidation and that budget implication I'm sure others have things to add the one other item um that is has been requested that we have a discussion
so that there's better understanding of is freecash and uh I have sent a um email to the town manager asking that we schedule our next BCG meeting and
included a summary of those items that councelor hanii has just uh mentioned including however the sixth grade and what's going to happen there okay uh and then while we're at it for towns meeting uh we did have a four
towns meeting on Saturday we had M president I had a question about BCG if I may oh I'm sorry please my hand is up thank you please it's just a question for amandy or for anyone on BCG but um one of the things that I'm struggling with
is the sense of uh given what we've been hearing from the school committee what we're hearing from some members in the community um is what happens the next year and the year after and the year after um do you think that BCG is a place where those kinds of discussions can take place where we can get any
sense of what the bigger plan is because I feel right now we're just being asked to look at this year right at this moment and no one seems to be thinking about what comes the year after the year after the year after so is BCG the place where that conversation and some of that
information can be shared or does that have to take place somewhere else Anna I I don't pretend to speak for anyone else on BCG but I think it's a little bit of both right I think that BCG is one of the places where those conversations can start to happen it's
one of the places where those those groups come together and I think one of the well one of the requests I made at BCG in addition I was one of the people who asked for more meetings uh more regular meetings one of the other requests I had were more uh meetings
where the full bodies come together um to to have these some of these conversations uh obviously those get unwieldy quickly with that number of people but I think it's very apparent that our communication and our um
conversations need to be more aligned than they have been so this isn't fully answering your question George but it's a little bit of yes to BCG as well as full full group meetings uh and possibly another Avenue that we haven't even
imagined yet but I'm open to suggestions all right George did you have further question about that counselor hanii um to add to what Anna said um I think the two
consolidation questions that are on potential future agendas start those conversations but as our manager is always reminding BCG BCG is not a decisionmaking body making body it is a body to relay information across bodies
um so hence one of my mentions of what a school Committee Member said about their potential budget vote that relays to us so that we can start thinking about possible implications if something like that happens and maybe have
conversations here in our body related to that um so that maybe surprises aren't unanticipated as they were last year if something like that were happen so I think it's a it's a place to start conversations and relay
information but it's more of a place probably to request that other elected body IES have those conversations as well as we have those conversations on our side and then relay what our conversations have been to the other
bodies and they can relay what their conversations have been to us councelor Ryan so maybe we'll end here but I guess my question is do you feel that you're getting answers I mean I'm really asking questions I a
conversation's nice but I need information I need questions um I get the feeling that that some people are asking us to provide a bridge uh to some future um I'm open to that but I need to know where that I need it's right now it sounds like a bridge to nowhere I'm
trying to figure out what if that were to happen what are we building a bridge to so is BCG a place where you can actually get some answers to questions like that um because I I'm being asked to make decisions and I don't really have the information I need to I I um
I'm beginning to feel that we're wandering Beyond what's posted in the agenda so I want to be very careful okay okay yes councelor hanii so I think this will help you at that meeting I
mentioned asking for more information regarding the FY 27 elementary school budget when the new building opens because there's a consolidation from three schools to two and the building committee and everything has talked talked about when when we applied for
the grants and all of that that that there would be a significant cost savings with that opening and if the school committee is going to be asking for more money above the guidelines we need to see what the
budget after that year looks like at consolidation to see if that money is just a bridge or not and provide us that information so I think it is a mechanism to and anticipate questions that might
come up at the council and push for them being ready for those questions and to present them to us um but it's not necessarily a place to get the answers to those questions okay good
Kathy yeah I I suggest that people write these down and get them on piece of paper because this is perfect for the May budget disc discussions you know and the sooner we have questions that we can
ask in advance the better um the which brings up the other issue and that is that what it is the Confluence of the various groups
for towns BCG Finance Council and then all the other separate bodies um and we need to sort through them okay thank you are there any other questions now four towns so we did have
four towns meeting there was a quorum of the council present uh no votes were taken nor were there any votes intended to be taken uh because it wasn't posted to take votes um the real the uh
superintendent of schools presented basically two scenarios for budgets uh however there continues to be I think and others spelt the same way um confusion as to what is considered to be
the state formula you will or assessment method the second one is what really is our alternative assessment method and then what's really being proposed so um we've actually had some discussions about how
to try to get to those answers um again um the school committee was there they also had a quorum um but again no votes were taken and um
there I can only say that I think that some of the issues that have been expressed earlier by councelor Ryan and uh councelor hanii um were evident at the meeting uh the other piece that I think
also comes out of that four towns meeting is an answer to a question last time uh last year and that is what happens if we don't agree to the assessment method what and nobody was ever able to
give us the answer to that question last year so we it's still hanging out there um are there any other committees to be reported on and I'm going to ask that the when we put the agenda together
in the future that for the next couple of weeks we continue to include BCG and also jcpc since jcpc will be meeting regularly on the liaison reports uh I know if Jennifer were here she would
talk about the meeting that George and I attended with her at UMass it was with the Eisenberg School of Management it was the with the MBA program and the Council on Aging um has become is quote a client of
their intern program this year they work with you on some basic problem that you want worked with and in this case I think they're focused on communication just as an example last
year Big Y and um oh come on Dean Bean je Dean beans were clients and both of them talk glowingly about what they got out of being part of this program and um
so that was um and um our actual official liaison to that the council and aging is Jennifer she cannot be with us tonight George did you want to add to that yeah
just that the the faculty member who's the principal in these practicums um and I think some others as well um were interested in potential collaboration in some future date um with perhaps other parts of our town government even
including this body so it was encouraging it was it was an interesting and exciting meeting and we'll see what comes with it yeah and the way they assigned students is they assigned them so that some of them come from for example from sports management and some
come from the MBA just basic program and some one of the people was actually out of health and so it was very interesting collaboration of Master's level students to uh collaborate so anything else on leaz on
reports we've approved the minutes Town manager report Paul so I apologize I got to you so late I know you didn't have a time to read it so if you anything you can wait till your next meeting or if you have anything in in between in in the meantime please just give me a call
uh one things few things I want to highlight the cup of joe this week is going to be at West Street Coffee and Tea uh which is uh in pomoy Village it's a very very small place there's very limited seating uh so they don't want to ex you know exceed their their capacity
so I think it's a total of 16 people or 18 people something like that so uh welcome everybody who wants to come but just be aware that it might fill up and they might not be able to admit everybody but and but we are honored to
our tree Warden at the request of the uh coffee shop owner he I said who would you like to have as your department head here and they said the the tree Warden said he would he was really excited about joining so that'll be fun um as you mentioned the health insurance
increase was very high 20 uh 19.9.2 per uh we had a meeting with our insurance advisory committee just for clarity that is a a a committee of all the um unions and non-union Representatives who we met in this room uh that includes the school
unions as well uh they as reached consensus on uh making plan design changes that would reduce the um increased to by about 4.1% reduction they also talked about CH making some other changes between the PO
and HMO to S encourage people to choose the HMO which is a better more managed plan so they they all recognize the um the challenge they would rather pay $5 more $10 more for a co-pay versus losing
an employee so I think there's a real uh camaraderie amongst the employees to try and uh Stave off any kind of um uh reductions in force the um in in the in the town manager report it's a very long extensive amount of information on the
Aven flu from our health director so it's just if you want to U spend some time on that it's and uh it's it's really interesting stuff actually and the council president me mentioned Winterfest which starts uh this weekend because school vacation week is next
week it's all time to provide activities on uh school vacation weekend there's so much so many things that people can do that don't cost anything with your with their kids uh it's really a a great job by the recreation department and then lastly you saw the announcement last
week that we did reach uh the Amis college has agreed to make contributions to the town and to the school district uh very specific purposes uh and that I'm really pleased to have reached that and I think the urgency of making that
decision at this moment in time because we don't know what the federal U government is going to be looking at uh is really important for the town so that we have secure funding it's important for the college that they have made their commitment to the town um and so I I want to thank the college publicly for
what they've done for the town George I mean sorry councelor Ryan it's fine so Paul in my speed reading of your document um I noticed that the wayfinders project has met met a bit of an obstacle in seeking funding from the
state does staff and maybe they haven't had a chance to go through it yet but does staff have a feeling that this is just a bump and they should be okay this is the project right for Bel toown Road and for the South South South school so yeah so so they're in touch with the funding agencies at the state level and
they basically um advise them that you you'd be better off waiting for a year because there's a lot of competitive proposals that they've already taken into it under advisement so they will probably delay this for a year or not even a year later this year they will reapply or they will apply so
it'll be a Year's delay is what we're looking at I don't know how much of a delay it depends when it actually gets funded okay um okay um any other question yes Kathy yeah I I have a few Paul and I I'll just
U go through them um the first is during the four towns we heard that the UMass uh payment toward the schools about 15,000 of the 185,000 went to Regional and the rest went to
Elementary so I don't need you to answer this right now but is there any chance we could go back to UMass and ask for high allocation I live uh in the north emerest world that I live in um I'm
seeing quite a few uh what looked like middle and high school age kids get off the bus in some of the new housing developments um that UMass has put on their campus and that was the original source of the estimate so just uh
looking at how many of UMass campus kids we've got in our school is a question then the second one I don't think you can answer tonight but we the emmer College news was fabulous and there's 250,000 for schools how do we go out
about making decision on what the allocation of that is regional versus Elementary and then my last two are more looking into the budget side the news that Crest got this large Grant is
terrific I would like to know what the total cost of Crest is with salaries and benefits and then the net cost to us when you subtract off the Grant I just would like that piece of information as
soon as we can get it and to to get a better understanding on why they're starting up a newsletter I think we really need to get an assessment of the program I think they staffed right now at four responders plus the director and the assistant so or five responders so
they they they're back up you know I don't know but for a while they had vacancies in department but I I would just like to know more about that and then finally um I raised this in the context of our goals and I don't think
we need a a response soon but I'd like as we look at the civilian oversight board to get some sense of Staffing applications just so that we have a better idea of not just
exploring a plan on how to do it but also what kind of staff I looked at Cambridge and a couple other places it's not zero so I just want to uh get some sense of that as we made it a goal for you for the coming year but I'd like you
to be thinking of how we can either get you information or something so we get a better idea of what the implications of the concept are for our budget so I can tick through thank you yeah um in reverse order so I don't know what they're recommending in terms of
the resident oversight board we always anticipated that there would be a cost involved with that uh specifically stiens and or some additional Staffing um until I we know more I know they're meeting they're the group continues to meet like twice a month to move this
forward um once we have a clear idea of what they're looking for and what they're recommending um and that would it will will require a council appropriation unless it's something done within our current budget which I don't think it would be um in terms of Crest we will we can work on that I mean I
think we are beginning our budget meetings tomorrow or Wednesday so I think that will be part of our budget discussions on that as as best we can there's the staff are really devoting their time to working on the budget and that will be part of that budget discussion in terms of the um $250,000
to the schools from the ammer college the the money will go to the school and the superintendent will decide how to divide it up between the region and the um and the elementary schools and that's the same for the UMass moneyy they they decide how they would like to divide it up the money for UMass uh was tagged was
um the amount came from a study that was done of students who are live live students in the public school system who are living on University property since that time they have um you know rebuilt un what they now call University Village and we have asked the university for a
census of the number of Elementary and high school students who live in that development I do want to cross check that with what we think we have may have at our with enrollment numbers with our school um District as well because we can I I think I'm allowed to look at addresses but I'm not sure what they
what they can give me in terms of that Thank you Pam yeah another action item that we know is on the plate now uh the DPW and I just wonder if you could give us the status because I think last meeting we
were talking about appointing council members and we tabled it for some reason so it was tabled for a good reason and that you did not have a a charge in front of you and I think counselors needed to see what the charge was to understand what kind of commitment is
being requested so that's on my plate to put a a charge in front of you and just for um we are also meeting with the new fire chief who has taken a freshh look at the uh locations and so we've been we had a meeting with him on Friday and
he'll be out of town for a week uh but when he returns we'll have continue to have that conversation to make sure that he's in alignment with whatever we bring to the council okay anything else pam pam you're okay uh Paul I do have
one question and that is we did get um I have to find it hold on oh are there items in the recently filed Municipal empowerment act that you would like the council to specifically support
well I think the number one thing is being able to meet meet remotely um and I think everybody understands that that's that's a time-sensitive topic because and I think you're aware of that as well we raised that with I'm hoping that happens a lot earlier than the whole bill so I I'll learn more tomorrow
there's an MMA board meeting tomorrow um so I'll learn probably a little bit more about what they think I think it's important for us to put our um energy and effort behind things that are likely to move forward not things that are not going to move forward and they usually have a pretty good sense after talking
with the legislature about what is has some has some possibility and just need some more push and I think I'll have a sense of that after tomorrow's meeting okay um George I councilor Ryme this is just an aside I guess maybe
it's it's late but maybe I'm the only one who feels that um the ability to meet remotely for this body is something that that often troubles me I understand it usefulness I've taken advantage of it
myself and perhaps that's just the way the future is going to be but I often feel that for a body like this that being in the same space and being together physically is really important um it certainly been a godsend for many
of our boards and committees and it has been useful to many of us when we've been traveling whatever so maybe in the end my feeling is just that's what it is but um I really would like to be in a world in which this body at least met in
person if you can't be here in person then you can't be here just my thought if I can so the legislation just allows a committee a community to choose how it wants to meet if it can meet remotely so it doesn't require you uh anything there's
different versions out there so we just want to have the ability to meet if we if the if the town chooses that means we don't get any snow days I'm sorry I had to in in inject that okay um are there any other
questions for the town manager okay there's no um president's report under future agenda items let me just um mention that on the 24th uh we don't know whether we will be
ready to do the proposed University Drive overlay that will depend on whether we get the legal reading and CRC has met uh percent for art for I'm sorry go I'm sorry it and and go is reviewed CRC has already
made the recommendation however we do need the planning board and and um CRC final reports okay um the percent for art for the elementary school I know that Paul is convening a meeting so that
they can have a conversation between the um Arts Council and um public Arts Council so that's a question uh two items I do know or that I do know is one is a request from councelor hanii uh
that is a proposal for a revision to the rules of procedure regarding multiple member bodies that's based on a memo not the rules of procedure the the same the policy on recommending appointments to
multiple the same policy you you proposed revisions to okay so we'll be adding that to the go pile um and then uh the other thing that came up earlier and that is I will work with the um Clerk of the Town Council
and bring to you um at our meeting on February 24th a plan for catching up on minutes for committees a plan for catching up for minutes for committees okay are there other requests
for future agenda items are there other councelor comments councelor Hani it is extremely hard to prepare for a meeting even when I prepare day of when
the motion sheet is not ready it is extremely hard to be ready for a meeting when you wait until you walk in the room to know what motions are planned [Music]
um it would be very nice and very appreciated if our motion sheets are in the packet by Friday evening okay it's been a long time since
that's happened and it just makes our job harder okay are there any other counselor comments Kathy okay uh just following up on that I mean I appreciated the presentation um
the charts on banks but the memo we had in the package had a whole bunch of questions that I sent you Paul so if at all possible if we're getting a large project presented could we get the charts the day
before or or even the morning before so it would save me time when I'm meeting your memo to try to figure out what's missing um it I know it's not always possible but it it feels like they were further along with bullet charts so
just getting them earlier is also helpful for me okay any other comments seeing none I'm making a motion to adjourn and seek a second second uh begin voting on Devin gothier
I councelor ete I Lyn grimer and I councelor hanii hi Bob hegner I councelor Lord I Pam Rooney yes councelor Ryan hi Kathy Shane yes Andy Steinberg yes uh
councelor Walker yes Patti Angeles I it's unanimous with one absent meeting's adjourned