okay the meeting is now being recorded um welcome and I will uh let Sean go thank you so much for setting this up have a great night um okay welcome everyone I just W to be aware we have
the Colin Center Anthony and Patricia with us thank you both for coming and attending we normally do have a quorum however uh Raphael and Marcus are absent they have been sent the link um and a
reminder uh I just did that and um we will let Anthony and Patricia from the Colin Center present um and be able to ask them questions however unless uh one of either Marcus or Raphael joins we won't be able to continue with the rest
of the agenda or um deliberate with the Colin Center or among ourselves um is that's violation of open meeting law inless um we are able to get a quorum and if I see anyone uh in the audience um I will let them in the public Zoom
link uh has also been corrected so that the charter review committee meeting public Zoom link goes to the Charter review committee meeting and the uh Community Resources Committee of the Town Council Zoom link goes to the Community Resources committee for the public so that was just corrected um I'm
going to check if we have any members of the public here one looks like one um I appreciate appreciate you joining us um and we will kick it off just reminder no deliberation unless we get a quorum with
Anthony with uh excuse me um Marcus or Rafael Anthony or Patricia you want to start us off um I'm sharing my screen please um we have a you know brief slid slideshow presentation for you excellent thank I'm
getting over a little bit of a cold so I might sound little weird but Patricia will will chump in whenever and make me sound good um thank you um thank you for joining us with a cold oh no problem you're welcome um and also we're from
home so I feel like there are very limited excuses to not being able to make something today's world well this evening time could be hard but um so I'll just do a quick quick introduction for myself and Pat um in the C Center I know that a number of members of the committee are familiar
with the c Center but I'll just give sort of a brief overview of us but my name is Anthony Wilson I'm currently leading the um Charter and organizational structure for the Colin Center prior to that I was a city clerk in Cambridge Massachusetts as well as a city clerk in Springfield and a lawyer in the Springfield Law Department for
several years um and and I'll just quickly turn it over to Pat for her introduction hi I'm Pat Lloyd um with the Colin Center I've been with the Colin Center for um more than three years now um in my prior life I was a labor and employment attorney as well as
managing editor for a publisher for cities and town um legal Publications um I also was on my own local Town um town meeting for 15 years and served on a number of committees so I have um some
experience and many angles of this um and we're so happy to be here and talking to you today and look forward to um hearing more about still don't have a quorum thank you both I appreciate it um and thank you for putting up with us uh
getting started there um Meg I just want to let you know you're unmuted um yeah thank you sorry yeah and I'll just remind folks if they have questions for the Colin Center no deliberation but you can raise hand and I will call on you to
ask questions um just raise your hand and I just want to let everyone know as we go through this feel free to interrupt us and ask us some questions um this presentation is going to be a brief overview of again the col Center and a little little bit about the charter review process and some of the things we've seen uh uh other
communities do um as they sort of embark on this process um so quick background C center created in 2008 um by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to provide technical assistance to cities and towns and other um public agencies across the state we provide services in a number of
areas including Human Resources Finance operations it and obviously Charter and organizational structure um the uh um the town of Amherst has been a uh a recipient of our services in the past we
assisted with the previous uh Charter creation project but we also assisted with projects um with communities across the state I've listed a few at the bottom of this slide but um I I I tell people I like to tell people that we really go anywhere in the state we're on N Tucket now we just finished a project
in lllo um so we're at either end of the state and we are in communities of all different sizes and shapes so communities with mayor communities with managers Town meetings um really any any structure you can think of we we've probably worked in uh so let me turn over to you Pat for
a quick overview of the charter Basics thank you um so when we look at Charters um a charter review process is going to look a little different than creating your process as a whole um some of the we've included
here these are the sections of your Charter um and we can talk about what modern Charters do and the changes that are made and some things you might want to look at um modern Charters tend to be laid out in a certain organizational
pattern um in Amherst Charter very much um evolves under these patterns um first incorporation and definitions some background information um there'll be a discuss of the legislative branch the executive branch and other elected offic
offices are always listed in the charter it's really intended to be a um instruction manual for the for the city or town to help people find what they need all in one place um more and more there has been an emphasis on putting
Financial policies and procedures into Charters um there is also a process by which the administrative structure of the town is established and um laid out exactly how do you how do you change departments how do you change how the
town is structured um there will be a section on elections um as well as a section on Resident participation I know that Amherst has um some interesting elements of its own Charter with respect to resident participation and as we go
along we'd really like to hear from you and how these things have been working out for you um General Provisions is another section which which is very you know basic legally boilerplate telling you things like when um how often are
you going to look at this Charter um and finally the transition provision um helps you determine how you're going to make the charter changes how how they're going to go into effect and over what period of time so um this you the next
is a little bit about um your Charter changes some of your Charter changes if they're relatively minor are not don't require um to be passed by special act but any significant or substantial changes will require a special act uh
why do we do this um it allows for a diversion from state law so if you've opted into a state um the a state law or if you want to do something a little different from the basic structure um the you have the flexibility under a
special act to ask for exactly what your Community needs um there's we talk about stability um so in your case you have a council but a special act amendment is going to be require approval at Council
appr um and then go to the legislature and then after the legislature approves it and in many cases it's then ratified by the voters before being put into place um as we talked about before transpar transparency is really
essential in this process and while the charter is a single resource where you can pull together somewhat the instruction manual for the town um going through a special act and having these changes incorporated into your Charter allows for one place where um your
residents can find exactly what they need and understand how the town is run so I'll go a little bit over the charter review process and I just want to before I get into uh these next slides I want to sort of um pick up a little bit on on something uh Pat discussed which was um certain Charter
changes will require a special ACT versus just an act of the Town um that can be a very sort of nuanced discussion um generally speaking you can think of anytime that you're um changing um elected positions the composition or or
making an elected position una appointed an appointed position that may trigger the the special act process and again it it varies it's not going to be it's not goingon to be fruitful to have the full discussion on that today but just know that if you're making certain major changes specifically around elections
those are ones where you need um to go to to the legislature could you say those three things again elections um uh the the the um composition I said the composition so for example I uh you have a um a Town
Council so if you were to change the size of the Town Council change the terms um things of that nature generally those are going to be the typ of things that you need yeah and the timing of Elections and what was the third one the the timing the N the the number
of the the size of a council body um the terms you know the terms of office things of that nature okay got it now there could be that's not an exhaustive list that's just an example of sort of right the types of things that require a special act um Julian hi thank you um I
just want to interrupt for one second uh it looks like Marcus has joined us which means we do officially have a quorum um Marcus can you hear us and be heard yes when I can figure my mute button sorry excellent thank you so we officially have a quorum of the
committee um great everyone else uh can be heard and everything um and I'll let you finish up your presentation we'll ask questions then we can deliberate and then I'll go back through uh points one two and three on the agenda and move us
to point five just so folks know how that's working and to the public uh we still have one participant but Welcome to our official meeting we are now um Can Vote and deliberate and all that uh so you're aware um because we have a
quorum just barely uh and my one question for Anthony was just uh does that include changing the form of government would that require a special act or will that require a charter commission as well change former government that you could do it through
a special act and that would you I'm sorry it would require a special act correct thank you and and just when you said you you mentioned a charter commission a charter commission is a different process altogether and that is a resident-led process which would involve an elected
Charter commission um that's an alternative path to changing the form of government um but the path that you're on right now is an appointed um committee rather than an elected commission excellent thank you and so
this is this next CH uh slide is just an exerpt um from your existing Charter um so this is a good starting point a sort of a um this committee as I understand it was formed pursuant to this periodic review so this is your first review under the charter um your your regular
review is going to be every um uh every 10 years but this is your first um I think five-year review um so the next reviews will happen sort of over a longer period of time um and I just highlighted some of the sort of um intering Provisions with I think we were
sort of on at six which I think the committee sort of touched on the committee was technically formed in 200 uh 24 I think in the summer June June abouts um you've got in under the charter in theory about one year to to make your recommendations for proposed
changes to the existing Charter um uh and I and it it does say you know I didn't highlight this but unless an extension authorized by vote of the Town Council so there there's the ability to get extensions if necessary and Andy I see your your hand up go ahead
Andy You're M you're muted you're muted my understanding is that we will need to request an extension so I you don't need to worry about us trying to finish up by uh by April but Al I I can't get my thing to
okay there yep Meg go ahead I can't I'm on my iPad and I'm not used to using it I don't know if you can even see me um if you can't use it for whatever reason you can no yeah we understand that the report isn't necessarily the final report it's just a
report an update okay right that's we well I well so the you know we're not necessar legal council for the um for the community even though both myself and P LA but um it says recommendations
in a report um to the Town Council um you know talking about sort of in that time frame so yeah well our recommendation might be to give us more time I have there's three reports um and
one is preliminary one is intermediary and one is final um and we will be discussing the time the timing of at least the final report um later on in the agenda so I'll ask to hold discussion about that until that point go ahead Anthony I I see Bernie has his
hand raised sorry Bernie go right ahead yeah real quick um Anthony Pat did you have an opportunity to look at the charge we were given by the uh by the commission I'm not sure if I've seen I may have seen the charge I don't remember all right because I think what
we want to be what we want to focus on is really um the the operation of the charter the effectiveness of the charter and I think it when we get
around to actually working on an agreement with the Colin Center and I'm gonna advocate for that U I've been advocating for that uh we can get into some more specifics about the number of reports we have to generate and the like but but I think the uh the thing for us
is to uh um to to be willing to get into the weeds as to how the is operating and where the charter can be improved and if those improvements Can Happen by vote of the council or do we need to use the referendum process to to
to get them approved and then beyond that if there's any major changes because we're not a charter commission we're a charter review um we we'd have to that'll be a separate debate in section of the of the report so just with that in mind please
continue no thank and Bernie that was actually a great segue to the next slide which is how should the committee go about the process of make the determination that you were that you were talking about what in the charter should we be looking at what should be changed um and so um the communities
that we've seen engage in this process um particularly in under the more modern firms of Charters how do they how do they do that um and so um you know I would say maybe recommendations is too strong over of a word but where we've seen it work really well is communities
that start as sort of a blank slate and say okay we are charged with you're not necessarily crafting a whole new Charter you're looking at the charter that was recently adopted and saying what works and doesn't work and how should we start that and that's by gathering input and sort of air quotes here public input in
the sense that you want to methodically go through the various um uh stakeholders that are impacted by the new Charter which is in your case you've got a sort of brand new or relatively newly created um legislative entity called The Town Council so you probably
want to hear from uh some of the members um you want to hear from the boards or commissions that were some may have been created by the charter and some may be may be impacted in their operation under the new Charter um you want to have um some interviews or meetings with some of
the elected or an appointed officials uh as Pat showed in the um that sort of summary of the Articles of your Charter the other elected officials um and I don't know specifically who's in there but to extent you have some that could be meeting with members of the school
committee or other elected officials and while it's not while it's last here on my list it's certainly not last it shouldn't be last in your thinking but also having open meetings to hear from the public um in terms of uh now now the public is uh interesting because that
the charter can be somewhat esoteric and sort of thing that people are not just that Weare about sort of the the underlying Plumbing of their government um but with some sort of with some guidelines you can definitely get some interesting um feedback from the public maybe they don't feel like they're
hearing enough from their Town Council maybe they are not aware of who to speak to on different issues and know that could be um an area for you to point to um uh in terms of things to look at um and then obviously you're sorting that
that that um input about the charter and then you're reviewing each article now as we get to this this third area here the review of each article I generally recommend to these committees to look back at the report and I'm not sure if we've already done this but to look back at the previous report created by the
charter committee that created your current Charter because I'm sure that there's that that the reports generally have um some reasoning around why the committee went in One Direction versus another um and perhaps some things that they would have liked to have looked at to explore but didn't for one reason or
another and not to call anyone out but I think you have some members from the previous prior from the prior um Charter committee on on your committee who can maybe um remember some of those things they're still they're both still unindicted so it's it's
okay yeah we paid off some people okay um and then after you've done some of that um digging uh to cons you know each one of you is bring your own life experience and your own um thoughts and Views to this um so and it
doesn't have to be sort of in this chronological order that I'm lay out but even as you're sorting through so you it's it is appropriate for you say you know I actually really want to look at this article or that article um for whatever reason um to sort of mix that in um and it's funny that youve talked
about sort of a number of diff different documents um so of we sort of recommend you're going to have some preliminary findings right not necessarily that you've necessarily written anything down or propose any changes but you're going to you might say we've seen these areas of concern oh we've seen that this is
working or not working well um and you want to hear from the public again and from the stakeholders you know yes we agree this is something that that should be looked at and here's our recommendation for you to look in terms of solutions and then you take all of
that into the drafting process into this you know the solution making which really should happen I say in the sort of the second half second third of this this whole process I'm sorry second half or the final third of the whole process right I'm gonna move on from
this slide I don't know if there's any questions because I think we're going to so I have a I have a question you said it's good to maybe misunderstood to share what we each think could be an improvement and I'm not sure how to do that because our
Focus has been to our credit almost entirely about listening to other people and listen and find being creative and energetic and uh rigorous about listening to the public and engaging people whose voices aren't usually heard
and so I don't see this as a role where one would be an advocate for something well I don't I don't necessarily mean mean advocacy um well you know there's some advocacy
but excuse me I'm so sorry that you have to do this well you should be in bed I'm getting no I'm much better than I was but what I would say is important your family should be bringing you tea they they have I have I have a lot of St around me what I would say is after you've after you've heard from the
public um and you've sort of done that sorting and you guys have looked as a group of all the information that and recommendations that you received um you'll have learned a lot about your Charter and you've had a you have learned a lot about your community at that point and there may be things that you know for example let's say you do
your sorting most of most concerns are in you know I'm just making it up bucket a and you don't see the need to to go into bucket B but someone may have some someone on the committee May really be interested in in making a tweak for bucket B I'm thinking at that point once you've
gathered the information once you've done your sorting um you know a lot of this is you guys are working as a committee that means hearing from one another listening and so at that point it's good to have that discussion about why you know why we're going to go into the solution creating about one thing
right another um so that's what I mean in terms of in terms of um um considering considering other articles as necessary from from the because there you know there's there's probably gonna be some things where it's like yes we know we need to work on this um but someone may be interested in something
else that doesn't automatically win that bucket there should really be a robust discussion on why you know we do or don't Andy I see your hand um we when when I when we talk on the phone um we talked a little bit about um you know the nuances and I
think you mentioned it's kind of a nuanced um process to get input from the public on something as technical as a town Charter or or city Charter and um you know one one of the things that that struck me in that conversation was
and it made sense to me was that we're when we're talking with the public may maybe when we're talking with counselors or when we're talking with you know town manager or or you know elected officials or whatever we we could get to the point where we're saying are there particular aspects of
the charter that that you think are or aren't working but more generally the I think what you were saying was focus more on on General um General input on what is working and where what's not
working where are the pain points you know in in in dealing with the government now or or how decision are made or whatever and not get too technical about well what do you think about you know article six or whatever
so is that is that a fair um you know uh mindset to have that's yes that's very correct um I like to I don't know if if I said this during our meeting but I like to say know your residents are are um are in some Way's clients or or recipients of
service so they're gonna their feedback will be better and sort of I experienced you know this service I wanted to speak it uh at a meeting and you know so if you put in the bucket of not the tech you know the technical sort of requirements of you know a has to happen before B but
at the end result you know were you feeling in terms of the result and and then you and then there's there's definitely a sort of um some thought and some uh Nuance that goes into you know they experienc they the member of the public experience experience something
how do I connect that to a process in the chter in in the charter um and that's really going to be um that you know that kind of falls in the committee but as you structure this and I'm going to go back a slide you know I think it does make sense to sort of say to talk to some of the internal folks first not
to say that they're more important from the public but that can start you that can start to allow you to sort of have some bins of of areas where that things can go into and then you can structure your your formal public input meeting around those bin to say you know we've heard a lot about um you know the the
council meeting or decisions made by the uh Town manager um in that decision- making process and and do people feel included or not and that sort of can help to shape that uh discussion so that you get more usable feedback from the public and can I just follow up on
that yeah um I think you also mentioned that you you have a in terms of uh figuring out what questions to ask that you guys have a Resource Bank of questions that have been tested in the past is that something we can access I wouldn't necessarily say tested
but we have a we have a bank of questions that have been used in the past and other uh Charter reviews and and we can give them to you with some um with some editorializing about about um how well they did or didn't work all right with that I'll turn it
over to Pat to talk about some of the trends in municipal government yours is relatively new but you know things are evolving even in the five years since your adoption well first of all I want to emphasize that we're really looking forward to hearing what you've done um
and what issues have already come up so um these are just some ideas that um some other Charter committees are working with to give you um as Anthony says some bins to put your ideas into um
there seems to be on in the average um a reduction in the number of elected officials and Boards combined with a centralization of management um as the professionalism of the Town staff Rises
um we're seeing that some elected appointment elected officials are being converted to um appointed officials perhaps some boards are downsizing um sometimes there's not the volunteer um
pool that would support large boards so that's one area that you may want to take a look at whether things are working how things are working for you whether you're getting I yeah sorry never I'm sorry got to figure out how to raise my hand oh that's fine Meg before
you before you say that I was just gonna because I saw you were having your phone we're gonna send you the slides so you don't have to take pictures I'm taking is this a is this a summary of General cities that you work with or ammer this is just general um General
these are General Trends um in some Charter and and it doesn't mean that these things have changed or that um it just means that these are the issues that people are looking at in other cities and towns got it helpful it's a
you know each city or town is so unique that you really have to look at what the culture and the political structure of your city of your place is yeah what's working for you and what's not um as I mentioned before there seems to be
more of an emphasis on the budget process um making sure there's a lot of public input along the way in the budget process and and heightening transparency and sometimes that comes out in Charter changes around the budgeting and the
financial areas um another um you sometimes there's a requirement to develop and maintain a long-term capital plan or a long-term financial report um that's being included in some um and
yeah um some try to highlight the powers of the towns is it says a state home role provides um in other words um are there things in your city or town that you want to do differently than perhaps is
the general Norm among General Council manager um town um is there something that you want to adapt specifically for the town of Amherst got it there's acknowledgement and adaption
to emerging emerging technology um maybe you want to change um you you can't change the laws around it but there may be places where you want to change um how how is there notice for meetings what does it mean to provide notice for
um different um either meetings or for or other requirements under your Charter there is some attempt to standardize procedures for conduct and operation of local government Administration and this can be done both
through like a handbook or or bylaws but there are also some areas in the charter where they've chosen to streamline certain procedures for um boards and committees um for example um you know
whether when minutes have to be posted it things like that uh in general there's a removal of gender references I think your Charter is pretty up to date on this and so it probably doesn't apply to you but we we always like to keep that in mind so for
example um there are a lot of places that have evolved from being Board of Selectmen to select board or to um another name for their for their select board um okay next slide please Anthony um Bernie go ahead yeah just just
quickly I was a part of a committee that uh reviewed the town's bylaws and mapped them from the town form to the city form recommended changes to the council um where we could and we were pretty rigorous about eliminating gender
references and um making sure that we had uh our language was was Equitable and and how in our phras it was was uh proper so and light which is what I think we need to watch out
for so yeah that's the gender references piece I think is I think that T's done a good job of of addressing that wonderful thank you um some other issues that we're seeing um there's been a lot of discussion about and this may
actually apply to Amherst because of your large number of um students and and other people who are living in work um in amers but um there's been a discussion about removing some residency and voter requirements certain offices and volunteers for example there's some
movements to allow non-voters to be a part of committees um that you know some cities and towns require you to be a registered voter in order to serve on um you know the various committees throughout town so there's been some movement in trying to incorporate uh
residents who are not voters I know I know Amherst already um has some has moved in that direction but you can talk about how that's working for you um some Charters have started putting in mechanisms for assuring that Charters
are enforced um and it's language for example what's the process where do you go if you think that the charter hasn't hasn't been followed um and so we we have looked at different different ways of managing that who's in charge of
making sure the charters is being followed um there is some um there have been has been a trend to coordinating Emergency Management activities and resources um that you know may not raise
rise to the level of a charter issue but um it's certainly an area where there's more talk about how do we share Services um another is an emphasis on how residents participate and stay informed in town policies function
activities Community engagement we've seen some Charters look at putting in language giving um for example the the town manager or someone else responsibility for making sure that um
for reaching out and making sure people are engaged um that the processes are transparent um we've seen a lot more concern about that um adoption of procedures for Resident initiative referenda and recall you have a very
robust um resident participation section already in your Charter um but you may really want to look at um is it is it working for you are people able to work through this um but you have a re uh you
you actually have one of the most robust and and inclusive and allowing people to ways to participate in government um so it's it's a good it's a good are for review so um we can definitely help you
along the way uh and talk about what other cities and towns are doing I had one question if you don't um which is just have you seen like I know I read in the news um and read into it a bit how a
few years ago the city of Holy Oak had a um member of the who worked for the schools um was like some sort of educator in the schools um run for a city council and how that was an issue with the towns or with that City's Charter um and I know we have a similar
provision not worded exactly the same have you seen that addressed in um in a lot of cities and towns or is that was that more of a specific issue um are you referring to specifically being a town employee and running for office at the
yeah exactly that is absolutely something that's addressed in Charters um when is allowed when it's not allowed um whether it creates a conflict and it's often going to vary depending on what position um is being held um so um
there is obviously the state conflict of interest law sets the standard you know the minimum standards for what can be done um Charters often um go above and beyond those standards and create um
Provisions to avoid the appearance of a conflict but it's there's definitely room for discussion in that area and it and it's put into the charters exactly um what can you know what is permitted and what is not thank you so much I gotta raise my I'm on my iPad I
can't figure out somewhere I can um you've talked a lot in a helpful very helpful way about uh amending the charter uh what about things that are practiced that are just the way it's
done like how we use e uh zoom and uh which information is private and which isn't it's not really a charter matter but it's how uh leaders have't decided to implement
practice so um so that's that's um another sort of a good question so in this in this sort of next step slide one of the things we we we do talk about with communities is um I'm I'm going to point you to that third a bullet here sort of U or second and third bullet which is sort of not
all issues can be um resolved by the charter and then sort of you know we recommend that the charter focus on who makes decisions whether those decision makers should be appointed or elected and then the decision-making process which is um sort of how much is it made
publicly and and how many meetings and things you know there's a number of things that go sort of go into the decision-making process sort of in that um uh in in sort of that that so that sort of sort of creates sort of a a um a boundary around sort of what you should
be doing but in that in the process of you learning about your government and how it's worked in these past five years there there's going to be a number of things that you are going to find or maybe that you've already sort of noticed that that exactly what what you're saying Meg about sort of like um
just the the practice maybe things have been held over from the transition from town to the from the town meeting to the Town Council that either shooter that people think are are 't working but they're they weren't in the charter um we recommend those types of issues to be raising the committee
report to say um um Town manager or or um town counsil you know Town manager maybe you should P we've noticed this in our in our Charter review and we'd recommend you explore it for maybe a policy or right Town Council we've noticed this and maybe you should
convene another um um committee or you yourself should look at drafting some sort of um bylaw to address this issue and you can sort of lay that out in as much specificity as you deem appropriate I I would sort of put some brackets
around to say um you don't want to you kind of have a lot on your plate already in terms of just reviewing the charter so just be careful about going down rabbit holes that could sort of um sort of take you too far away from your your your your your standard Focus so that
that's I yeah I would say that you know the people who come up to me so you know on the street as they say or email me or the things they are unhappy about our practice they're not necessarily in the charter like not being able to see who
the participants are in a meeting because of something about zoom and other towns show them if you know it's or or you can be anonymous if you want but that is this transparency stuff that people seem to be concerned about yeah aren't really related to the Charter at
all I'll just chime in that's even an issue that I've wrestled with this chair because I originally wanted to uh name the participants and then Athena told me not to but there isn't anything in the charter that prohibits it so it really is sort of just a matter of what
different people deem is reasonable and I would say oh sorry whether applicants for position or public information I mean you know there's a lot of issues around transparency come up to the people who talk to me like you know want
to have coffee and that's what they talk about and some of that may be able to be addressed in the in the chart I don't again we don't have all the specific so I don't want to go sort of too far a field but um you know we're using Zoom
um and these these sort of telephonic um ways of communication more and more it's part of sort of the fundamentally way that we interact with government the way that government interacts you know go goes about its business and so you know that's exactly what sort of Pat that's one of the things that Pat
sort of handed on which is as technology evolves and as our um uh the way we interact with te technology changes maybe our Charter should be um modified to to incorporate some of that now you got to be careful you know there's open meeting law there's a lot of things but
again dep as you explore these topics you may be able to find that there's something that you can address in in the charter um again you that you can't um that's a good place to have the report in because some of these things just like the legislature it's been on their
agenda for the past two years how do we how do we pass an act that makes um virtual meetings um or hybrid meetings permanent um they they could be a whole study committee and and of themselves yeah but before before Zoom everyone who came to a public meeting difficult as
that was to get in your car and drive somewhere you look around the room and you knew who was there and so Zoom has enabled a variety of ways of reducing transparency you might not know their names though right I was gonna say you might not know their doesn't mean that
you knew their name and just because you know you don't have to recognize everybody in a room they're just there you had to speak up and say who you were to speak but being in attendance didn't require you to identify yourself and it should not require you to identify
yourself but you could take your name off Zoom I'm not aru I'm just saying people have raised this you can remove your yeah at the at the same time Julian should you know if we have public comment we require someone to say who
they are where they live right just the same way as we do in an inperson meeting whether you've got your name displayed or not is neither here nor there right so anyway we don't need clearly this is something to talk
about example I was just giving an example not to discuss it right now yeah I will just say that that specific issue although we could potentially add something in the charter or recommend adding something is currently sort of at
the chair's discretion um and if the committee wants to take an ad a vote to advise me one way or the other on that I would I would be happy to consider it um I've sort of gone back and forth I've had meetings where I where I list off participants and where I don't um Bernie
yeah I was going to say that we um one of the things that have been raised to one of the concerns that have been raised to me is that we're we're all little Talking Heads and how do we know that you're really you right and and in particular was
referenced in particular was people who either had a a photograph of themselves and and they rather than appearing live on camera or people who keep their uh video off
we know that they're you we know they're really there we're not gonna solve that solve that I'm more concerned I think with u looking at uh how we can recruit
people in to commit recruit people to run for public office I agree those are the kinds of things that you know there's a million different ways to communicate to the council but how do you know that the council's actually received and reacted
will react to If they don't just because our right of counselor does oblig I agree I agree obligate coun but I want to be able to know that the person got message so there's some some stuff in here that we can we can look at and I
think we need to uh be careful to sort out um tradition sort of Behavioral things that are uh that may be behavioral traits of a person how a person behaves in a meeting
versus U what how this Charter is structured how meetings are structured and and do does that structure facilitate open discussion is that structure facilitate decision making uh I I'm really U you know
constant concern of mine is is the length of the meetings and how they work um or don't work and then to to ask somebody to run for office to you know spend that amount of time is getting difficult so uh I would like to be able
to look at look at some of the behavioral aspects that the charter imposes or behavioral requirements the charter of peasants we can we can make that a little more efficient and make that uh make it easier to be heard for the public to be
heard okay um oh sorry Pat or Patricia would you prefer Pat or Patricia I should have asked earlier Pat is just fine Pat is okay great thank you I saw you had your hand up so I wanted to let you go ahead I did and and I love this discussion and it's great to hear um I
wanted to add there's one more um maybe half of a bullet um on occasion um when you find that you get to an issue that just would take too much time um and and as Anthony says your plate is full you're going to have a lot to get done
in the time that you have um but if there's an issue that be really Rises to the level of this is something we really need to talk about um often in the transition section of a charter um there will be a directive to form a study
committee on a certain matter so um that would be a part of the charter that you know when in a certain amount of time after the charter changes are made um a study committee will be appointed for a certain matter um so you know there are
those issues that you can raise in the report um and but there may be one or two issues that even rise to a higher level saying this is not something we can deal with but we really believe that this should be in the charter as and
involve the creation of a study committee good idea thank you Andy yeah I I had a question about the the trans trans section because um you know right now it's basically here's how you transition from town meeting to council and so I was I was wondering if we even
needed it anymore or do we do we jettison what's in there now and we put transition to the next phase in the in the charter or what do we do with that section right well usually I'm sorry go ahead Anthony well I was gonna say usually the the transition section it it
it stays in your like your what'll probably come out of a committee like this is uh is legislative language for for amendments to the CH for to the existing Charter and so it wouldn't be you wouldn't propose an amendment to delete it or at least I haven't seen that happen very often but as Pat said um you
could add a provision to the trans to the transition section to say I mean for example I'm I'm just making this up I'm not saying that the commit is going to do this but assuming it were to change the structure of the Town Council I think just just a good example then you would put in um a provision about how we
transition into this new the new structure whether it's the size whether it's the terms you'd have a transition but as Pat mentioned you could have something to say um you know we would like for because usually the transition section is time limited so you'd say starting within you know a few months of
the adoption of this Charter the Town Council will form a nine person committee to look at issue X and present a proposal so that's so it's usually am minuted to I haven't seen it fully deleted in most Charter proposals and Pat I think you're want to say something feel free to to jump in I was going to
say exactly what you just said Anthony excellent uh just one quick question before I call on Marcus is this our last slide or what how's the slides show this this is our last slide I do just want to uh say one thing before the
group gets into um uh its discussion which is um very warm feelings towards Amherst uh I talked to the group that worked on the last Charter we do really want to work when I when I propose this to the team they a lot people really want to work with mhst unfortunately we have a lot on our I think I think it was
Bernie earlier who said there's a lot of dots on the map of the places that we worked in that's really sort of filled out so we're we our team is a little stretched right now so we wouldn't be able to start working with Amherst immediately I think the soonest we could
probably get to you is um mid to late um March um um to really start coming to meetings regularly um and I'm in the process I've talked to Julian and I've talked to um Andy so we I've got yeah I've got the sort of the background to make a proposal so we hopefully we'll be sending one over in
the next week or so um to be forwarded up the chain to possibly resign but we wouldn't necessarily have a team to come over specifically until late till late March just I just wanted to put that um to the committee no worries I I appreciate that Anthony and thank you
Anthony and Pat for uh presenting to us that was an excellent presentation and I think actually even answered a few more long ranging questions folks have asked um I will call on Marcus and then Andy oh thank you sorry I was just kind
of curious when you said that nobody kind of deleted the transition section cuz that's to me it's just dead dead language right it's been and gone and why are we kind of sticking around I don't know if you've heard anything about a town or City's thoughts on why
to why not to get rid of it you know nobody cares what happened 10 15 20 years ago at this point we're trying to look forward so reuse the section for something that's looking to go in the next phase of the chter not the original
phase um Pat I I love if you had any have any feedback um I haven't heard too much robust discussion on it I mean the little bit that I have heard about the transition section is that some of the um historical information is kind of useful in terms of how the transition
was made particularly in communities where you've changed for form of government um but I haven't been a part of too much of robust discussion about keeping or or deleting it sorry I because I would think that you know the original
form you know there is a version of the original charter and this is the new Charter so this version doesn't need the old stuff anyway anyway I think that's something Andy and I can talk about for ages um it yeah the only thing I would
have to add is as Anthony mentioned there's an historical value to it for the town to understand um and and what we're just talking about what we've seen um sure it's possible to get rid of that and put in new information it's really
going to depend on the nature and how many changes you you would choose to make to the Charter um if there's just a few changes um with a little bit of transition um maybe you wouldn't need to wipe it clean but if you going to do something major you might need to wipe
it clean and start over it's it's really going to be a case-by case basis um and we can take a look at that after we the transition is always the last part that we write um we have to understand where everything is going before we lay out
the transition section so um you know it it may be when we're all through with this we we decide to delete some of it um we may like to leave it in I have to say as a researcher I love love when it's still there because it's not so easy to find old Charters online um so
having it there is really wonderful when you're trying to look and compare um Charters among the communities I just wanted to chime in um for one minute before I let Andy and Bernie speak um and just remind us where
we are on the agenda because the meeting got off to a little bit of a rocky start called order welcome announcements has been done um approving the minutes of January 16th and January 30th we do not have a um we have not been presented with
either of those minutes from Athena so we are not um working to approve those at this point so that's been tabled I am wondering um I've sent folks an email out about this um who is taking minutes
for tonight I thought I was and I have the um transcript running right now that I was just going to run through chat DPT and excellent that's perfect thank you Marcus that that works I don't quite know when it started so we might Min a
few I don't that's okay I we missed a little bit of that presentation that that's all right GTP does that wow yeah you can throw it you can throw that sort of stuff in and say make a summary of this transcript and W it'll it'll put it
with Google as well on your phone yeah thank you um and then lastly before we get to Too Much deliberation I just wanted to invite um any I know we have one member Anita from the public uh who if you want to make a comment please
step in uh press the raise hand button on Zoom or star9 before we deliberate so that the committee can consider your comment see if you have any H excuse me uh I don't see you raising your hand at all um so I will just
remind us we've done the Colin Center presentation um we're doing Colin Center Q&A in next steps right now and then we'll move on to budget update unfortunately Samantha who works for the town social media cannot be here tonight but we may invite her to a future
meeting um so then after uh this Colin Center Q&A we will have the budget update um and extension request um and then I believe Meg also has something to bring up in topics not anticipated um I will
call on Andy then Bernie then Meg that's the order I originally saw your hands thank you um I guess I I'm wondering we I think we're uh okay having meetings I don't I don't know I
we could talk about what what the proposal entails whether how how much we need to have you guys at our meetings or versus more of a Consulting um relationship up front to say hey we're gonna we're going to be talking to elected officials these are the
questions we think about asking can you look them over um or we're preparing a survey for the public U or we're or we have a we have a timeline for outreach you know can can you give us some
feedback um I'm wondering if we could have sort of an initial relationship that was you know lighter on time for you guys but would get us sort of the Just in Time feedback from you guys uh sooner rather than later or getting
access to the questions that people have asked in other you know Charter commission Charter review committees things like that so there may be things that you know we actually are thinking about Outreach we are thinking about doing interviews um and those things we can do
um without having you guys have to have a team coming to meetings or anything like that but it would be great if we could get some feedback on on the questions we're asking sooner rather than later so that we don't just go running off and asking things that could be better with your input so I'm just I
don't know if you have the capacity to do that kind of you know brief like we email you something you look it over you send it back to us and say have you thought about this I I don't know if that if if it could be structur in a way that it's Consulting up front and then maybe we have some more meeting support
later on um um yeah I so I do sort of have that in my notes from our last conversation so yes um I actually meant to sort of to your question I sort of meant to have a proposal to you before today but it we just have we have had a
lot of projects so I'm hoping I so I do have it structured that way sort of uh a smaller Li more limited contract to sort of start with um which I'm hoping to get over to you next week um uh and uh
um that that doesn't have that many meetings actually built into it so sort of you know it it sort of structured that as more consultive contract with some meetings in built in um sort of more spread out um but not as heavy and just for anyone who may be concerned
it's it's we have had circumstances where if we've sort of expended the number of meetings through for a contract to be amended or extended things of that nature so it doesn't sort of lock you necessarily into having that limited relationship but knowing where we are and sort of in the conversation
we have where you guys want us that's that's the sort of first draft of what what the proposal would look like thank you Bernie yeah well Anthony I'm glad to hear you say that because um um my thoughts were running along the same lines as as Andy uh we did map out
um a process for interviewing Town officials electeds uh department heads we have some sample questions we get some of that screened and looked at so we could begin that process of of what really the first bullet point in your your uh your
chart of of who do you talk to um and that that's that's a critical thing that you know we we get that b we get those people interviewed and get that Baseline so we can get up to speed and then when you guys engage with us we'll have more data to to offer you um just a couple of
of remarks um we're in academic community so we're always used to having uh the phrase further study is needed um included in just about anything especially if you have a grant uh and you need another
Grant that's one thing the other thing is I trained as a historian and the transition section uh basically tells us how we got here and I would want to review that transition section as part of the uh part of this process to make
sure that we covered all the points and I there are some probably a couple of things in the transition section that haven't been addressed uh uh you know I think the the topic of of who can vote is in there um some other things that should be studied or should have been
studied that weren't done so yeah we want to we want to don't want to just ly throw it out we want to take a look at it thank you thank you Bernie Meg my uh questions were very much along the lines of of Andy and Bernie so I
won't repeat that a couple of other things when someone can start working with us in late March will it be you two Anthony and Pat or will we be meeting two different people or it will it will probably be be us I know P I know Pat is
eager to work with with you and and it it'll probably I'll probably be involved in some way okay as well it's just and I I'll appreciate being able to be in tou we don't have to always be in these meetings we can send you a text and you can answer it and we can read it out
loud so it's but I think that's um this is really minor and and I don't want to embarrass you but it's we pronounce our town ammer without the H and there's a joke t-shirts you know amoris were only the H is silent um
so I'm just it doesn't matter we're used to it but you might I'll remember it I'll remember that it's just a little uh Anthony you've got that you know you've got the 413 cred going for you so you that you know well people live here for years and
years and still say Amhurst yeah it's always kind of I don't know it's just a funny it doesn't matter that much I don't want to embarrass you but it's just so you'll know 99% of the people who live here say pronounce it that way and and so you know none of us none none of us in this room are the
[Laughter] H who silent yeah anyway um but thank you for being willing to work with us when you're so busy I think just we have to really we
we need to get this thing going so you might sense a little bit of uh urgency eagerness urgency yeah um Pat I I one thing that you said just made me um want to point out that what
we frequently do is um have a meeting in between your meetings what we would call a planning meeting um and it's usually with the chair and sometimes with one or two other members um not consisting M Quorum but um just to plan out what's
going to happen at the next meeting and questions so um we make ourselves very available in between the meetings um and we really pride ourselves on that because we want to know what's going to happen in between and we want to get feedback on how you think the meeting
went um what topics you're interested in coming up down the line so that we have a little um you know advanced notice of you know in in two or three weeks we want to talk about this and we can start getting ready to have you prepared to talk about what you want to talk about
so um you won't just see us in these full meetings great generally we'll meet with the chair and um sometimes there's a another member or two who are involved in the planning in in a smaller Planning Group great thank you that's really
helpful excellent that is very helpful um okay so any further questions for the Colin Center um before we can let these wonderful folks go um Andy Andy thank you as like I think are you
quasi public or or you're a mass agency of some sort but that makes it easier for us to contract with you is that is that correct and and how do we go about doing that correct you don't have to do the whole procurement process um I'm always forgetting the citation 30 30b or
um but whatever whatever it is you don't have to do the procurement process we just send the proposal the community agrees to it and then we can sign a contract um because we're we're um a sub entity of of UMass Boston excellent would you um I was just wondering so
would we vote to request a proposal and then um you guys would send us a proposal and uh we would send the cost along to that for the supplemental budget request to the manager I don't think I don't think you need to vote to request the proposal okay I'll work on
it I'll send it over to you through the chair and then excellent I don't know what your structures but maybe you want to vote that the committee wants to move forward with the engagement then you'll you'll request the appropriate budet so at a future meeting we will uh we will vote um if we want to move forward with
the engagement and um I'll also just speak to agenda Point uh six which is the budget update um in that we would then send the cost associated with that proposal um to the town manager I would um as our uh part of our supplemental
budget request um so folks understand that update Andy oh I'm sorry I just left any other questions for the Colin Center at this point seeing none thank you both um Pat and Anthony that was a wonderful
presentation and I don't want to speak on behalf of any everyone but at least me personally I really look forward to working with you and I think um this will be a really productive relationship as I know you've done work with amest in the past thank you for having us have a good night thank you thank you take care
thank you all right everyone um thank you all uh so that moves us forward through agenda point six and seven um so now we're on agenda point8 um which is
obviously we will need our um we will need a uh extension um for our committees work as we told the cin Center um and the goal tonight is to decide um when we want to submit that by
so uh any members who want to and myself can work on drafting that request to the Town Council Meg I just was curious didn't you say Raphael had joined uh no I had said that Marcus had joined oh I'm sorry okay good rapael has not joined us um and Eric
told me she's not GNA be yep um so when do we like it's a reasonable time to and if anybody who wants to work on drafting an extension request to Our Town Council I can work on that um I mean we have through till April right yep
technically so it's not like we need to do it next week um yeah I can I can work on that um I'm assuming it's just a hey sort of basically a formalized and a date that we would like um that we would
like to extend it to um and to put that extension request in in a short rationale um on the topic um if we could get that done maybe by the by March 1 that I think that would be excellent
sure um what sort of date are we thinking about are we looking for like a oh God I see Andy's got his hand up that depends on when we' like submit the final report which is um the next agenda item um so these will sort of maybe yeah
maybe for the horse yeah um Andy and Meg do you still have your hand up oh I didn't mean to Andy go right ahead yeah I was just wondering I I'm remembering that um the finance person said that there's
a a challenge of moving from year to year year to fiscal year I I don't know it it won't be if we have contract okay so we can we can have the contract go over I think the CH be if we have some discretionary funds like to to host a
meeting or do a mailing we need to know what year it's in what you're doing when you're doing it and how you doing it the contract um if a contract's signed with C CER it becomes a continuing appropriation we can keep the money will just roll
forward okay so so we don't about you know making it June 30th it could be I mean I I would not have this thing be be done by I'd like that not be doing this forever but I mean maybe we say
September 1st or something and bit longer than that I was thinking six months I was thinking longer than that as well I was thinking um we'd ask for an extension into like almost a year maybe like February or March of next
year no not if I'm on this comme yeah I'd love a little bit more I think it's six I think six Monon extension taking us is the summertime's going to be difficult we're gonna do yeah meetings because the town goes away so we want to leave ourselves some
time in the fall to pull things together so so if we you know if we um uh tell them that we'd have the contract done by the end of the report done by the end of October how many months is that sure if
that's six months six months sounds sounds good more than six months from now yeah well it's not from now though right it's from the end of the last right okay
um May one factor is that it took them months to appoint us right the end so the end of October would would be six months from the end of April yeah I'm I'm honestly kind of tempted to say nine I would I would like
longer as well I would I would be in support of longer at least till the end of the year if not if not Fe February if we get it done but I mean Bernie if we get it done sooner that's great that it's awesome get it done sooner but we
want to allow us to have that flexibility if we need it and um if we if we need it it I would rather have a tight deadline and if we need to extend it again going and get it going again okay AG to have just we we need to put a
pen in this and say this fire no further and if we get to that point and we've we've got some some uh amazing stuff that we need more time to cover we can say to the council we have some amazing stuff and we need more time to cover but just stretching it out and stretching it out it's
not it's not [Music] happy it gives us a false sense of security yeah I'm just going to remind people try to raise hands I know this was a little bit of a back that's okay um but if folks can raise hands that's great um I'm also just going to jump in
um and try to bring this to somewhat of a close given that it's getting close to 8 o'clock um and suggest uh that um I'll split sort of the difference um and I'll make the motion for January 30th uh 2026
um if I have a second on that you want to go a little sooner Marcus yeah I I think I I'm I am sorry I'm December December 30th um 2025 I I'd say November can we do November yeah
yeah I do November 30th sure okay yeah actually the week before whatever before I agree as Bernie said we can always ask for another extension yeah yeah I didn't raise my hand sorry I was think I was thinking like you know to
Bernie's point right everybody leaves in the summer so that gives us the full semester effectively and I think that like beginning of ooc beginning end of October is just a slight Tad on the
short side of that so okay the the week you know the week before Thanksgiving in November I think might give it enough but you know not too much like don't know when Center is going to start working with us in late
March I mean that already puts it out a little bit further that we should consider that um and I know the Outreach subcommittee hasn't been moving all that fast on a proposal for a survey so that's just my my line of thought but
Andy go ahead or sorry did Megan you had your hand up earlier well I was gonna oh wait I was gonna respond to what you just said but I'll wait I'll put my hand go ahead Andy yeah I mean I think Dam it we we want to spend some time interviewing people who are or have been
in the in the system we want to talk to uh you know uh employees and other member elected members uh and I would think we could do all of that in a couple of months and then we want to sort of look
at that and and and I don't know if it's simult I I would think that we would get some additional some initial things for people to react to and then we develop that into a survey so if we were doing that over March and April and then we could survey people in May before people leave town
oh yeah have some meetings then maybe we then maybe we do some work ourselves over the summer or you know and then by the by the Fall we should be able to be getting down to some
nitty-gritty okay so I I I I think if we chunk it out there's no more than a month or on each of these sort of big pieces so I I I'm I'd love to see a little bit of urgency and we do have
three reports I'll just remind folks I know it's not just one report so factor that in the process true um Meg go ahead um well my comment is going to get into the vi comment that I wanted to make when the at the end but
um I think there's we need to get going and uh I don't know why we can't start employing deploying Bernie's outline of counselors to meet with we had a long discussion about that
um and I I can our subcommittee wasn't able to meet because Athena wasn't well and the meeting didn't get scheduled or something but um that was see Erica and rapael they're neither of them here anyway anyway but I I have another
comment to make but it's not it's in my 48 hours before is this okay if I just make it now it's um I do want to stick to the agenda as best we can so let's settle this motion and then I'll move through the rest of the stuff okay thank
you good idea no problem uh so I'm hearing what folks are saying were we saying December 1st maybe would that be acceptable uh so sorry I I do I think maybe we need yeah to to Andy and Bernie's point maybe
we need to you know do need to light a um fire under ones behind and let's go with the 30th of October so that okay we've got some urgency because I am a huge
procrastinator do you want to make that motion Marcus yes I'll make the motion I think uh yeah our motion that uh we ask for an extension through till Mar uh March October 30th uh of
2025 um to the Town Council okay um and then would you also like to combine anything about the three reports because that would also mean that our final report would have to be submitted by that date and we should think out about the other two as
well I I let let's wait for that let's talk about that because um I yeah let's talk about that another time I think let's just do the date to start with and then we can plan around it because I think other people's points we need yeah so I I think I heard Bernie of the
second sorry second Bernie yes okay question can we in discussion I mean the last day of October is actually the 31st right oh yeah Halloween days half September yeah I should have been running through that I'm looking at it I'm looking at it at
my screen right now okay um I will amend friendly Amendment to the motion the 31st um Bernie that's fine uh I'll start with you Friday so Friday's Good Friday's good okay Meg are you voting
yeah I'm just surprised you all don't know how when Halloween is I'm yes Mega are you voting yes no on this yes okay um Andy yes Bernie yes uh Marcus yes okay um I I'm abstaining I
think I'll abstain um so that is for in favor one exstension motion passes um all right and uh then we'll go to the dates for the three reports um obviously the final report will have to be submitted by the
31st um do we want to discuss the two former uh reports or would we like to table that to the next meeting given the hour we table it okay yeah I would like to defer it I was kind a hard stop at 8 o'clock got it I'm not seeing any uh
public Outreach um event that I think is appropriate to table just because uh we don't have the Outreach subcommittee except men um and an update on the survey earlier Meg so I'm going to move on to Future agenda planning is there any what
about things you didn't think of 48 hours that's next that's after future agenda planning future agenda planning any comments for that no okay oh Andy go ahead I think we had talked about having KP law come and
give us a a summary of the various way specific summary of how do you change a charter whether it's the council can vote whether it's the you know the various flavors got it um any other future agenda planning
suggestions for me no my comment my comment will be one okay 48 hours in advance before we adjourn go right ahead Meg I'll try to make this really really quick no problem um need two things you mentioned that the subcommittee isn't here to give a report on the survey but
at our last meeting we said we were going to ask the Colin Center for advice on the survey so that needs to be rethought and I'll accept taking that back to our committee thank you to make a suggestion because I think if we don't even start thinking about the survey until late March right blah blah but the
point I was I mean it's I don't want to express too much anxiety but please reference them to our vote that will that will but you know we're all spending quite a lot of time doing this and if we need to make some progress so many people are coming up and saying what's happening what's happening
exactly yes I want to suggest that the survey I think had a lot of problems uh and it was in my opinion too broad and I think it would be really I'll cut to the chase helpful if someone or group and maybe our committee I mean I'm thinking never mind would would have a sheet that
describes what some of what was said tonight what can be changed in what different ways I think Andy and uh Brian Harvey did a good start in an article they wrote in the uh current uh that could be expanded but I think it would
be helpful whatever survey we send out it be accompanied by a short tight well-written example of what can be changed in what way three methods we've had two long conversations that I thought were a little frustrating about
the law with concerns Dan had and I thought we reached consensus uh obvious I haven't spoken with him but um I think it's time to convert that into something that we can show the public this is you know if you want to change this here's how it
happens if you want to change change that here's how it happens so that it starts to Prime the wheels of people thinking because I think if you just say what do you like about town government a lot of people don't have a clue and that there low amount low level
of low number of people who vote in referendum questions is an example in our district we don't have competitive elections for the council and we used to have competitive elections for town meeting people need to we need to help them understand how our government works right just ask them how do you think it
works they're just going to say I don't know so I'm I'm offering our subcommittee to write that even though twoth thirds of us aren't here okay yeah I would I would recommend we can put it on the next agenda for the Outreach subcommittee to bring back a survey
proposal um well this is in addition to the survey it's a statement of what's possible you all should take that up to the subcommittee I would recommend a priority focus on the survey and then work with the statement um just because
a focus on the survey um will really help get us going given the timeline we adopted so so that's a change does everybody else want to wait that was a change from what we said at the last meeting does everybody agree that that we should work on it take the survey
back with the vote that we all just took and say we need to get working on this now um and start working on it with something you can bring back to the next meeting and then move along after that point um with the other thing you were
mentioning Andy go ahead yeah I feel like this is that that we can get started but I think we should get started by doing the interviews uh with elected officials I that will give us a sense of momentum yes we're talking to people who are working with the charter
and in the charter and we can start to build some themes that are coming out of that yeah and I don't think we need to worry about survey quite yet I think we can we can build that based on what we're hearing from them and and at the same time the Colin Center will come on
at a time when we can bring what we Le from those interviews and we can get the support of the Colin Center and then we can have a survey in like May or something or you know for the next for for the next meeting I will bring back a revised
contact list awesome on and I will uh I will send around again um the questions that I'd framed and some others that people might want to considering considering I ended up with a list of like 25 questions yeah
considering what we discussed in the last contact so I'll be happy to uh I'll be happy to do that for the next in advance of the next meeting so people will have the opportunity to look at it and think about it and hopefully we can we can get input you know feedback from the Colin
Center on those questions as well before we before we go out and interview if if they can allow that to happen Meg raise your hand but now I'm looking I've just lost my picture but is it do you agree with us writing a one page summary of
what's can be changed how different things are changed I don't see a problem with it necessarily I don't think it should be the top priority that's just my take um I would say that this is top is not anticipated it's becoming more of a
discussion than a topic which um means I will definitely put it on agenda for as an agenda item for the next meeting but um great I just wanted to give us a little bit of what allowed the public to expect at the meeting um so if I don't see any other comments or questions I'm
G to move to a journ second great second second okay Meg yes Bernie yes Marcus yes Andy yes myself I'm an I have
a great night everybody take care bye