So, having called the meeting to order, I'm going to ask everyone to join us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And uh now I'd like to ask everyone to join us uh in a moment of silence to reflect on the the bravery and the sacrifices of all those who put their lives on the line in service to our country.
Thank you. Um, now I'd like to move on to the next item on our agenda, which is uh public comment. And um, I'm happy to open things up. We have uh, yes, please, Mr. Berseron. Thank you. feel free to uh approach the bench and uh it's not the first time I've heard that but for the wrong reasons. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm just going to ask you to uh state your name and uh residence for the record. Wayne Burggeron, Net Lane, Dennis, Massachusetts. Um I appreciate the opportunity
to uh address um an agenda item that is you'll be discussing before too long and it has to do it has to do of course with uh executive order 650 which the state put out basically restricting the use of ice on stateowned property. So now the question become discussion towards I'm sure potential restriction of ice on county property county owned property. So why is this needed to begin with is
probably a great place to start. Right. the uh the fourth and 15th amendments um the fifth and 15th amendments guarantee a right to due process to everybody that's within this country regardless of immigration status that's been upheld three separate times by the Supreme Court in terms of that however due process as it is described which is a chance to appear in front of a
court to plead your case to have representation ation habius corpus has been ignored. We have approximately 17,000 immigrants on Cape Cod. All right. Um most of them are Brazilian, Haitian, Jamaican uh primarily in the midcape area. And for those of us who work with them, there are very few days that they don't experience a tremendous amount of anxiety and fear that they're going
to be separated from families. They're going to be put in a place that is so far away from where they were taken that they are not accessible to families. They're not accessible to attorneys. Needless to say, this has created a tremendous amount of fear within the community. No longer is a warrant needed to go ahead and just to take a person. Uh be it judicial or administrative.
Most everybody taken as a person of color. We're not going to get stopped and asked to identify ourselves and explain ourselves. If you're a person of color, that's very much you have to have between the racial profiling and the lack of the ability to have a uh fair and just hearing in the due process aspect. We crossed a bridge right now that's difficult. The
town of Felmouth has been addressing this issue in terms of not using the town property. Okay. Um, of course we know what the state has done. We are looking at various avenues. Nobody has a difficulty with ICE doing its job legally. And that's the key term here, legally. We were told from the start they're going to take the worst of the worst. Well, apparently a lot of these worst of the worst are 5-year-olds, eight-y olds, young teenagers, and they're gone. We don't
live with the fear of coming home and not finding a family member there. We have school children in Dennis Regional School District who are afraid to go to school because their parents might not be there when they come home. This is all pertinent to this discussion because ICE is operating in a lawless fashion. They've already murdered at least two people and there's two more on top of that that I'm aware of besides Minneapolis and they are not to be trusted. As a county,
you can make a statement that simply you're not going to aid in a vet any more than you have to. All right. This continued behavior by not allowing them to use county property for staging or anything else that we're looking at. To make such a statement or any town board, never mind the county commissioners is a courageous statement because you know there'll be blowback. This is the time that we live in right now. Okay? But it needs to be done. So I appreciate your time and
um I'm looking forward to the discussion. Any questions before I sit down? Well, generally we can't engage in that. What I what I would like to do is just make sure that we clarify the the nature of your public comment. You're speaking on behalf of the item number uh 6C on our agenda, the executive order resolution introduced by commission. Yes. Yes, indeed I am. Good. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. We have comment. Okay, we have I'm going to go to Zoom and then I'm
going to come back here to in person. Uh SL, can we bring SL up into the meeting? Robin, good morning to the boards. Steve Leewoods, one Independence Way in Brewster. Uh I won't take up too much of your time as Mr. Burgers spoke eloquently uh on the need to uh move forward on item six on your agenda. Uh we've seen the state begin to take action whether it's executive order 650 uh the passage of the protect Act in the House which is then moving
to the Senate and the courageous action of the uh town of Falmouth in order to uh uh protect town land from from being used. the county has the opportunity to to take a bold step to protect people's rights and I think it's important for us to send the message out that unless everybody's rights in this country are protected then nobody's rights are being protected. I urge you to move forward uh with that uh that type of statement from the county and look forward to your discussion. Thanks very much. That's great. Thank you. Yes. Public comment. Yes.
Take time. No rush. See wearing a boot. So by all means, that's the least of my trouble. I'm Thomas Ryan from East Hamler. Um, and I'm here to speak about agenda numbers 6B and 6C both. Uh, I was a very active in the Human Rights Commission in its first 10 years, including being coordinator uh within those first 10 years. Uh and for the 26 years that I've been living on the Cape, I've been active in every ecumenical and interfaith group around and also active in immigration issues and
with immigrant communities for the 26 years on the human rights advisory commission agenda item. U I always think it's important to take a broad view before even looking at the the year's report and taking a broad view of their existence. I believe that they should receive strong support and lots of funding from the county because they help assure a good government and in the long run they save you time and money. Uh and also immigration topics for the 20 years of the
human rights group's existence, immigration topics have always been fearful. Coordinators have always felt awkward or walking on thin ice to bring up these subjects. So it's we recognize that these are fearful topics but important nevertheless which brings me to agenda 6C uh the proposed implementation of the executive orders 650 and 655. I firmly advocate the county implement this especially sections 2 and three. That's where it says that the there with stated
exceptions disallowing civil arrests by federal immigration officers, not just ICE. There's other kinds of federal immigration officers, but disallowing their civil arrests uh in certain areas of county facilities and disallowing county facilities to be used for facilitation and staging of enforcement actions by whomever at the federal level. And I know that's what many people are here for uh following you is to keep ICE off county property. What I want
to speak to for a minute is section four of the executive order 650 uh and also where it was uh amended in 65 executive order 655 as you clearly stated in your resolution Ron uh and that's where it asks all related state departments or in this case county departments and staff to assist the public entities and private entities that provides services to immigrants. Uh so not just disallowing
ICE on your our county properties, but assisting child care providers, public and private schools, colleges, hospitals, places of worship to assist them in thinking through how to cope with federal enforcement procedures. It's a very important part of the governor's executive order 650. And it's the totality of the amendment in 655. So I want you to pay attention please to that as well. But and these p as you all three of you know and I've known all three of you for some time. All three
of you know that these private and public entities are vital to the life of our county of our country and always we all you I all of us learn a lot by being involved with them. So I encourage the county not just to have the state officials trying to work with hospitals and places of worship and all of this, but you too, the county should also be working with our local facilities uh helping them prepare for any federal enforcement activities. And let me say finally that with
sufficient funding or let me two final things in the governor's u supplement to the current budget bill going through the state house uh there's explicit language that takes executive order 65655 and gives it a little more careful parsing. So, I recommend when you're doing the final wording to look at the wording the governor's staff put into the budget bill that that does it as well as if not better than 650 and 655 executive orders. My and my final one is with sufficient
funding and staffing, the human rights advisory commission is well equipped to assist you uh with all those public and private entities. Uh so, I advocate giving them all the support you can. Thanks. Thank you very much. Thank you. Is there anybody else in the audience? Yes, we have another
gentleman in the community. Hi, good morning. Uh, I'm Sandra Fame Silva. Uh I live at 50 Davis Road in Felmouth and I am als uh I am uh a member of the um Barnsville County Human Rights Advisory Commission as the Felmouth representative uh to that organization. I'm also chair of the uh Felmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition which was formed about a year ago more than a year ago to address the immigration crisis and and work on behalf of immigrants in our community
and throughout the Upper Cape. Uh, and I strongly support what uh Tom Ryan and Wayne Berseron have uh just testified to. And um I just wanted to mention again the the Falmouth initiative. We were very pleased in our work that we worked in concert with uh the Falmouth uh select board to hammer out an ordinance that uh is being implemented in our town. And we uh support at the county level as
well any initiatives uh that can protect and assist immigrants in lawful activities uh in uh in resisting unlawful activities that have penetrated our communities. Uh I uh the Fmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition has developed a variety of committees uh to work on immigration assistance issues. Uh and um uh for example, we uh have a business outreach uh activity where we have a
packet of materials that we share with businesses uh to uh help them learn about their own uh rights, Fourth Amendment rights and other other rights uh as businesses uh and how they should uh have uh standing protocols to um uh to ensure that their employees as well as customers, clients uh are are safe and are protected if ICE knocks on their door. Uh and um we uh encourage them to have
uh people trained with uh a protocol on what they should do. Uh and the out business is really any organization that has a public facing component. So faith communities, schools, uh social clubs, um and uh offices are all uh subject to uh the public and the private spaces of the workplace. So, um we have paid some close attention to informing businesses,
but I do encourage uh the commission to um to try to help us uh have other towns implement a similar resolution or similar protocols uh that we're doing in Felmouth. And we hope that there will be a landslide of of support throughout the Cape uh to these kinds of uh um protocols and I thank you for your courageous work and putting forth your uh your suggestions. Thank you. Thank
you. Thank you for all that you do. A lot of work. It's what what retirement's all about. Is there anybody else in the audience who would like to speak to this or any other I I do, but I'm going to wait until we uh have this on our on the agenda. How about online? Robin, do we have anybody else raising it? Okay, then we can move on to the next item on our agenda. Um general business. Um and uh 6A, this is a request made to the commissioners uh to declare May 2026
as ALS awareness month. And I'm going to ask Commissioner Lions if she would um um speak to the proclamation. I will speak to the proclamation. uh we became aware of this and as we know that ALS is a a very awful diagnosis to receive and a real debilitating uh disease to have to endure and um like everything as we can see with they really focus on cancer they can make a lot of progress
and we hope that the investments are made in the research here so that we can uh maybe make progress on this particular disease as So would you like me to read this citation please? Um so uh our official citation is let it be known that the Baronville County Board of Regional Commissioners declares May 2026 as the amotropic trophic lateral sclerosis awareness month otherwise
known as ALS. Whereas amo whereas ALS I'm going to say it that way so I don't screw it up. uh was also commonly known as Lou Gerri's disease is a progressive fatal neurodeenerative disease in which the person's brain loses connection with their muscles slowly reducing a person's ability to walk, talk, eat and eventually breathe. And whereas thousands of new amotrophic lateral sclerosis cases are reported every year, the estimates show that every 90 minutes someone
is diagnosed with ALS and p someone passes away from ALS. And whereas on average patients diagnosed with ALS survive only two to five years from the time of their diagnosis and the exact cases of ALS are unknown and there is no known cure for ALS. Whereas people who have served the military are more likely to develop ALS and die from the disease than those with no history of
military service. And whereas securing access to new therapies, durable medical equipment, communication technologies is of vital importance to people living with ALS. Whereas clinical trials play a pivotal role in evaluating new treatments, enhancing enhancing quality of life, and fostering assisted technologies for those living with ALS. And whereas the ALS association is the largest philanthropic funer of ALS research globally and has committed more than 154 million to
support more than $550 projects across the United States and 18 other countries. And whereas the ALS association is committed to make ALS livable and a cure and cure it for everyone everywhere. and where ALS awareness month provides an opportunity to increase the public's awareness of the dire circumstances of people living with ALS knowing the terrible impact this disease has on those
individuals their families and to support the research to eradicate this disease. Now therefore, the Bible County Board of Regional Commissioners do hereby complain proclaim the month of May 2026 as ALS awareness month. I call upon Americans to join in and supporting ALS research, advocating for increased funding, and standing in solidarity with those affected by this relentless disease.
given this 8th day of April 2026. Would you like to second that, Mr. Brook? I will second that. Okay. So, any more discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of this uh resolution say I. I. Opposed? It carries unanimously. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is item B and that is our local resident. Oh, we do. Okay. Could you uh the name of the this constituent is
who? Thomas Noble. Thomas Noble. See if we can bring Thomas up. Thomas. Good morning everyone. My name is uh Tom Noble and I live at 34 Chipman Road in Sandwich. Uh my mom died of ALS in May 2006 uh 9 months after her diagnosis. So it has been 10 years since her passing. And um I want to thank you for passing that pro proclamation and for keeping the public spotlight on this disease, keeping it in the public's awareness and
uh hopefully keep us all working towards better outcomes for everyone else who has to go through this experience and that someday we'll have a cure. So thank you very much for doing your part in doing that. Thank you, Mr. Noble. I just want to to give you our condolences on your mother and uh I want to thank you for bringing the awareness forward and into asking us to do this. It's a very debilitating disease. I've had two friends uh you know in their 60s uh people I went to school with
also pass away from this disease and it is really um just a real debilitating experience. So thank you for bringing this forward. Everyone should be more aware of this disease and what we can do for it. Thank you. Ron did you just to say that yes I've I've also in my life known people who have suffered this and young people you know in in their 30s and 40s and to know them before they got this disease and to see the debilitating effects of this over the course of time really
heart rendering especially since they remain you know you know basically mentally sound during the time that their bodies deteriorated slowly they lose skills to communicate. So, anything, you know, we live in a new age of technology and hopefully we can overcome this. I agree. Very good. Is there anybody else, Robin, that we need to on online that we need to acknowledge? No, we're good. Okay. Let's move on to the next item on the agenda then. Uh 6D, the uh human rights
advisory commission update and 2025 intake data review. And we have Leslie. Come on up. And that's Yeah, that's me. So, yesterday was um International Women's Day and I did not make that. Thanks. And I regretted that I was unable to do that.
It was good event. Very good. I bet it was a great event. They always really got to register this. I should have just showed up, but Hey, Leslie, I'm going to ask you to introduce once again the the panel and absolutely for the folks at home. Yep. Thank you. Uh so, good morning. Good morning. Uh I'm Lesie Dominguez Santos. I'm the human rights coordinator for you guys. Um and with me I actually have three members of our commission. Um Dr. Sandra Fayman Silva, she is our town liaison
from Falmouth. Uh Rick Draper, he is one of our appointed commissioners. He's from Brewster. And online I see Dan Cuperman who uh is one of our appointed commissioners from MASHP. Um, all three of them are members of our intake committee. And since I'll be walking you through our intake data, they're here to help make sure I cover everything that needs to be said. Um, before I get into uh their presentation, I just wanted to give you a few updates taking advantage of of our time here.
Um, our chair this year is Leo Blandford. Um, and our vice chair is Daniel Beltran. Um they're both fantastic. Um our nominating committee just forwarded and and you all just approved uh three new members of our commission. We've had some turnover as people timed out and moved. Um but we had three new members joining us, which is really exciting. Um there are now only two towns that do not have liaison to the commission. So we really are representing
um all of Barnesville County and and that's exciting. Could I ask which towns? Uh yes, East Ham and Heartwitch. Um those are the two towns that we currently do not have liaison from. Um as several of you know as you were there, we had a great human rights day celebration in December. Uh we recently hosted our human rights academy. We held it over at Sturgis 529 building. Um and had students from across the Cape. We connected them with several of our local nonprofits. um because
students had been saying they felt disconnected both from each other and from the community. So, we brought in nonprofits to talk about ways that students can connect. Um and actually at the international uh women's day breakfast yesterday, um one of the community agencies came up and said, "Oh my gosh, we had students from your academy come volunteer." they uh they it was um serving breakfast to people who are unhoused and a bunch of the students who had never done that before
showed up. So that was pretty cool. Um and we're launching our tableabling season. So this is when we're out and about in the community letting everybody know who we are, what we do. Um and then um two other things I just wanted to draw your attention to. one is as a commemor as a commemorative activity of our 20th anniversary, we are working on an oral history project. Um, and we've got uh several members of our commission who are interviewing
members of the community who had been part of the commission in order to preserve that history. Um, we're going to put together a short film uh and hopefully show it this coming December. Um, and the other thing I just wanted to let you know that's coming up for us, uh, is our strategic plan is going to end at the end of this year. And so, we are beginning a strategic planning process for the next five years. So, that's my brief update. Now I want to share if I can figure out technology um our intake data because I think it's really important um that
you know what we are seeing um out and about in the community. All right. Great. Um slideshow. All right. It's there. It's just not in present mode. Sorry. Michael can do it. Oh, thank you, Michael. He's a wiz at this. Good thing I'm not. There we
go. Thank you. Oh, now we can deliberate engagement. I don't want them. No. Well, there's Michael right there. from the beginning. Oh wow. How did that Oh, but it used to be a Wiz. It went away. Well, you know, I think there was when that box came up, it you weren't supposed to. There was a little link underneath. I could see it. Oh gosh. I'm so sorry. Technology and I are not friends. Is it this one here? The intake data. Just do that. So, you learn something every day.
Yep, there we go. Okay, so now you should be able to I just click forward or it's back. Okay. Okay, awesome. Thank you all. Um, so we track our intake phone calls um by the calendar year because it's a whole lot easier to go out in the public and talk about what we've seen from year to year. Um, so as you know uh a big part of my job is to receive phone calls from the community
um and of people who are experiencing what they consider to be some kind of human rights violation. Um, and so we've really made a point of trying to track the phone calls um, just so we can see what the trends are. Our numbers are too small for us to be able to definitively say, "Yes, this is an issue, but uh, what we do is we use these numbers to kind of help with our education efforts and talk about what we're seeing and hearing in the community." Um,
okay. So um in 2025 we had 48 touch points that's what I call them. Um that includes our intakes which are indepth. I'm talking to the person I'm helping connect them to resources trying to do warm handoffs to local nonprofits so that the person's getting all the support they need. Um reports from our community and then inquiries. um you'll see that our numbers are slowly going
up over time. Um I don't know that that is necessarily that more bad things are happening or that more people know to tell us about the bad things that are happening but numbers are in fact increasing every year. Um the difference between intakes, reports, and inquiries is really that um the intakes, as I said, it's it's in-depth. It's a warm handoff. It's connecting to resources. My intake committee helps me identify resources um for people who call. Um but we've had an a a
large increase in reports and inquiries that are coming from service providers. So, one of the things we noticed this past year is that people are really scared. They're scared even to call me even though I'm not a super scary person. Um, but they are asking other people to call me. Um, and so we've done a lot of sort of gobetween work this past year and that's new. Um, as you know, uh, that what we work with are the protected classes that are still identified by our ci
civil rights laws. Um, and so Massachusetts has an expanded group of protected classes and and we feel fortunate that it is that way. Um so this shows you three years worth of data um of the way people how people identify when they call us. Now when you look at this data you have to know that people can identify as more than one thing. So if I was calling and I was saying I experienced something I could say I experienced this because I am female. I experienced this because I am Latina.
So, some of these numbers, it doesn't always add up to 48 because people can identify as more than one thing. Um, the pullout data, what what I'd really like to highlight for you guys is here. Um, race continues to be the largest reason why people call. It's about race. It's about race. It's about race. Um however um this also this data very much mirrors what we're seeing nationally. Um
the increase in phone calls related to national origin very much are related to immigration status and ICE and the presence of ICE on Cape Cod. um the LGBTQIA phone calls very much mirror what we're hearing nationally around um support or lack of support for individuals who are trans. Um and so again, our numbers are small, but they very much reflect that in Barnstable County, we're seeing the same things that we're hearing about nationally. Um, so again, back to our civil
rights laws, these are the areas that people are protected from discrimination. So this is how we track our phone calls as well. So when we look at service areas, this is again what we're hearing across the board. And then the the pull out for here, these are the the two that I most want to focus on. schools continue to really be an issue. Um, I would like to think that the decrease in
numbers is because the Human Rights Commission has been very actively working with schools to try to come up with anti-bullying approaches. Um, but schools still continue to be an issue. Um, and the public space numbers again very much reflect what we're hearing nationwide that more and more people feel like they can go anywhere they want and say whatever they want. Exactly. Um, and so that the increase in numbers in public spaces really is people saying things on the street.
You're walking down the street and you just feel like you can say or do whatever you want. Um, and so I I always want to bring this to your attention because we'd like to say, "Oh, in Massachusetts it doesn't happen here." Or, "Oh, on Cape Cod it doesn't happen here." But what our small numbers show is it really does happen here. All the same things that you hear about in the newspaper, they are happening here. Um, again, I I think I touched on these already, but um,
notable trends, more service providers calling as as in between, um, the increase in in phone calls related to immigration status, the public spaces and schools still really being a concern. Um, we make referrals out to local agencies, state agencies, and federal agencies. Really depending on the severity and and what people are looking for. Um, and then in terms of our referral
outcomes, we have a really good track record. Um, and so there really are people who have findings made in their in their cases. Um, we have schools that change policies. We have landlords that start doing the right thing. Um, and so again, it's a small impact, but it's a real impact for the people um that we are connected with. And that is it for the slides. Um, but I want to turn
it over to Sandy and Rick and and Dan online just to see if there's anything you would like to add. No, I I I don't really have too much to add except for I I would like to say that uh Leslie does the work of about three people. She's she's an amazing addition to this to this commission. Um and I'd also like to thank you all for your continued support.
That may be you. Yeah, you may still be on. Yeah, but Dan is I'm here, but you're you're good. Dan, you have the you have the floor. No, I just heard my name, so I decided might as well let you see me. But I don't have anything to add. I think Leslie covered it. And uh I just add thank you to all the work that the the commissioners do. I'm I'm happy to be part of the commission. and we're happy to have you. Thank you for serving. Thanks, Dan. And I'll just say that yes,
I think the um the compilation of data is excellent and you can really see what the issues are that are of deep concern, particularly schools uh and um public spaces, but also the um the sort of mixing with the immigration crisis. I think we have to be continue to be very vigilant and somehow find ways to connect with our schools and not only the youth but the the faculty staff
um everybody who's connected to the school communities and work continue to work on racism which seems to be the bedrock uh crisis issue. Commissioner. Yeah. you know, those of us who have this vestigial memory of, you know, the 60s and the civil rights movement and the Stonewall and and you know, the end of officially sanctioned uh discrimination. It, you know, I don't say we take
pride in we like to think that in our lifetime we've made a lot of progress and toward uh ending, you know, racism, racial discrimination. So to see what's happening now and I know there's a legitimate issue around people who have come here undocumented, but so much of the rhetoric is based on who these people are. You know, if there was 10,000 Norwegians coming over the border, I don't think there would be half the the concern that there is now because the people coming over
are different than us. I mean, they're racially different than us. They're they they have a different look to them. They're darker. And so I think we have to separate those two issues because unfortunately the victories that we've had or the success we've had in the past doesn't always translate along the line. We have to be vigilant and your existence of that committee is part of that vigilance. Make sure we don't slide back, you know, into where we were several decades ago. So, I appreciate everything you guys do and and uh hopefully we'll take a deep breath and maybe we'll
get by this. Okay. Thanks to your help. Thank you. Thanks, Commissioner. Commissioner Lions. So, I I would imagine that some of your uh you know, referrals that are coming from service providers or from healthc care service providers. I was um you know a healthcare navigator at our Cape Health and I was there during the first administration of the Trump administration and that's when you know he opened the opened it up by going the you know going to airports and getting people and that
whole it was a real crisis then but we had people in place still he hadn't uh done that work in between those four years and at that point I did get on to a um a phone call that was once a week with lawyers from all over the country trying to give me guidance because when people come here they are generally especially when they come on a work visa they're here and if that extends gets extended they can stay and what people don't realize is that every time that's extended that's
like 10,000 dollars that they have to pay this isn't like a free ride they have to pay for that visa they have to pay for that renewal they have to pay to be able to go home and come back and it is a family uh adventure you know they there is an investment from the family so a lot of them feel obligated that they have to send the money home so they're faced with all of these it and they will work 20 hours a day 20 hours a day and uh and it looks like they're making money you know
but between the cost that they have to pay for their rent which they do have to pay might be a reduced if it's from an employer, but it's being shared with many others. Um, and if that expires, you know, I would guide them to make sure you pay your taxes, even if you're illegal or not. They could never collect on their taxes, but they paid them. They did everything they could to get that status, play by the rules. I never I there was one out of maybe a thousand and I am telling you I
helped a thousand people a year on my statistics. Um, I had one case that was a criminal that turned out that he did a crime, but the entire family did not. And other the whole population that I served, and I've served mainly Jamaicans, Haitians, and then there was Bulgarians, Russians, and many I mean, Province Town is a poor town. The whole world lands there. And um it's just really incredible the attitude people have in just helping someone out if they're sick. And
um this state and I think even the country there were there are these very lowlevel uh like health safety net these types of things that allow people to get medications to be seen if they're having high blood pressure. People resent that. People resent that. And actually, it's there to save us money because it's something somebody's being paid or else we're paying a lot more. We're paying full rate on a service and they're inflated rates. So, it's um it's really stunning to me how quickly we
can go to hating the other. And we have to have a human rights commission. We have to stand up for these people. They are part of our community. They are what makes our community better and some of uh our white white residents could take lessons from them. And I I hate to say that. I'm not I'm not being down on our own people who live here in this community, but I had more issues come from the the residents who were born here as opposed to those that were trying to become citizens here.
So, they know that they're here. They're they're grateful to come. They want to play by the rules. They would never do anything uh illegal even if I said we could do this. No, I don't want it if I get I I don't want anything coming down on me. They took anything during this period. So that was the attitude I had from I would say 98% of the people I assisted. And it very much upsets me when I hear people talk about immigrants and they're here taking things from us. There was a woman on a call in and I'll just leave it at this. She said, "I was in a a waiting room. I had to go
to an emergency room and I couldn't get diagnosed because this other woman was ahead of me. No, that other woman was probably there a day, you know, because she probably didn't have that insurance, but they did finally see her. But this woman just looked at her and her bad experience was because this woman was taken before her. And I just found it stunning. Otherwise, she was a very good Christian. And uh and um so we really have to look at our hypocrisy in this country and what we're really saying out loud. And uh it's not that it didn't always exist. We've had the
Virgin Society. We've had all of this for years. But we as a people um outnumbered that. And that is what I'm afraid of that we're not outnumbering it. And it's our job to do so. So thank you for all the work you do. And um I just want to take this opportunity just to say um it's not what you think it is to those who want to hold those opinions. Thank you, Mr. Bergam. Anything else you want to add? No, just that uh you know, I just once again appreciate the work you guys do and and
hopefully those numbers won't go up too much. I'm sure I'm sure you're ready to deal with whatever comes your way, but hopefully not too much of it'll come. Well, I just also want to say that those don't really reflect everything that's going on because there were times people like I I've sat in that and I was able to navigate it before I had to go to you and or I was going to different sources like these lawyers trying to guide me through a legal situation on how I could keep them safe and keep them healthy and um so there's a lot more than what we see there. It's really
when they have no it's I'm sure where else can we turn? That's where you get that. Just wanted to I had to say this because it's something sticks in my mind. You know, it's controversy about illegal people who are here undocumented voting. You know, supposedly that cannot happen. In my experience and also in your experience, people who are here undocumented very careful not to interact in any way with the government. Why would they voluntarily expose themselves as being identified?
And you said yourself that they now others call for them for that very reason. So I mean we do have to have these periods. A lot of people are here without without proper documentation and they should come in out of the cold but what's happen what's happening now is not what not the way to do that you know it's only to drive people more and more into the darkness you know and also you know immigration is 15% of our GDP. you know, they really contribute to the wealth of this country
and we can see that wealth going down right now. So, it's for everything you want to say, uh, we're all living a good life because they're here. I I'll say no more. Okay. Thank you so much for all the work that you do. We know that you're incredibly busy these days and we appreciate all your service. Thank you. And Dean, thanks for joining us from now on. It's great to have you all here. Thank you for having us. Thank you. We're going to move on to the next item on our
agenda, which is item C. Uh the executive order applicability review. the review and determine the applicability of executive order 650 regarding ICE activities to Barnstable County properties, including the courthouse in Orleans, and consider issuing a similar order if needed as introduced for discussion by Commissioner Bergstrom uh last month on March 11th. So, Commissioner Bergstrom, I'm going to turn this portion of our meeting over to you to talk about your proposal. Yeah. Um early
in March, I think the first week of March, I attended a couple meetings of people who were advocates, you know, very immigration and other other issues. And the conversation among the people there were very animated and they asked themselves a question, we see what's going on with ICE, so what can we do about it? What can we do as individuals? And you know, we'd write postcards and we could go around the country and see who the who the uh advocates are for some kind of fairness and and reasonleness. And I came out of that meeting and I asked myself the question. I said,
well, what can I do not just as an individual, but what can I do as a public official and what and by extension, what can we do as commissioners? What's what's what authority do we have to act? And of course, right away, I said to my I realized and became aware of the executive order 650 by the governor. And I said, well, you know, this campus is under control of the executive branch from the administrator from us. And I said, we have to and everything that goes on here, it's a sense goes
on with our approval, you know, and there are people who are going to the registry. There are people coming as witnesses in the trials. There are people advocating you know coming to various um functions right here on the campus and I said we have to see if we are covered by the governor's order 650 now commonwealth county parts county established in 1685 we were here before the before Massachusetts okay but let's be honest we're part of Massachusetts you know
they're the big coonas we're the little coonas right all right so they put out this executive um barring ICE from all state property and courouses and stuff. So the question arose is this cover us and if it doesn't what can we do about it? So I asked the chair to put this on a further agenda and then we also um empowered the administrator to look into the legal ramifications to talk to council to understand what our rights are because it's a little more complicated than just saying okay no ICE. I mean another issue of course we have is that there's often time a
reaction to this around the country you know internet trolls will find out that somebody has opposed administration policy and they can try to retaliate them. So I thought to myself, well, if we are covered by the governor's order, we have a we have a team behind us. You know, it's not just the three of us standing here up against the governor Governor Healey and and her people, and they're pretty tough. So that's where we are. I um I'm not going to go into the things that
everybody else said about the unfairness of the of the current process, you know, so many times, but I'll go a little beyond it. just the issue of whether a person is here undocumented or not. So many times we'll have someone come up to the microphone in any kind of an issue and they'll say I've been here for 50 years or they'll say my ancestors came over here back in 1620 and after a while listen I thought to myself well that's fine but you know if you are an immigrant you take
the pledge as an American citizen that day you're just entitled to the same rights as everybody else regardless of your background regardless how we've been here. We have an equal protection clause in the in the constitution which gives every citizen the same right as every other citizen. And right now beyond the issue of um undocumented certain populations are being targeted as being less American than the rest of us. I think one of the commentators said the same thing. So,
we have to at the same time as we're dealing with the initial impact of ICE being on uh you know haunting the courouses and the public property, we also have to deal with the issue of the fact that there's no standard American. We're all citizens. We all have the same rights and we can't somebody comes here and and becomes an American citizen. We're not being invaded. My my ancestors didn't invade us. You know, your ancestors didn't invade us. they just came here like everybody else. So, it's a big issue. I know here today we are be dealing with the specific issue of the campus
and our rights to um prevent ICE from intimidating people on this property. And so I that is where that's where that's where we are now. The the chair um we skipped the meeting because we were in East Ham, but now it's in front of us and I'm hoping I get support from my fellow commissioners. I Commissioner Lions. No, I I think it's time that we do this. I do know that other uh in talking to um a couple of administrators of other towns, they would appreciate this because it
kind of helps them come forward. There is sort of a blanket cover as as Ron feels that we have sort of a protection from the state. The towns can feel a protection and a stand taken by the county. And uh not everyone's going to love this. we're going to be snowflakes and woke and you know uh just helping those people. But that's okay. Um that's part of the that's part of what you sign up for uh when you're sitting here. And we do have to make those hard um and honest decisions. It
really is about who are we? Are we going to be a bunch of thugs and bullies and we're better than everybody else? I mean, we're really not looking very better than anybody in the world today, especially today. And um so I totally support your your resolution and uh and uh I'm ready to take a vote. Yes. Okay. Just just to say in in no way am I suggesting that ICE doesn't the immigration and
customs enforcement doesn't have a legitimate purpose in our society and has fulfilled that literature legitimate purpose for many years but what we're seeing goes way beyond that. So I think that we as a county and also as a as a state have to take a stand. So this is proposed resolution um the imple which is the implementation of Massachusetts executive order number 650. So is this your motion commissioner? This is my motion. Yes. To move that uh this resolution as it relates to Barskll County owned and lease properties. Whereas on January 29, 2026, Massachusetts state
Governor Mora Healey issued Executive Order number 650 protecting access to essential services and keeping Massachusetts communities safe, amended by Executive Order number 655 on March 18, 2026. And whereas as county commissioners responsible for the management and care of county property under section 3-3B of the county charter, it is hereby ordered by the Barsville County Commissioners that the county administrator take all steps necessarily to implement Governor Mora
Healey's executive order 650 amended by Executive Order number 655 and to instruct county personnel to take all necessary steps to comply with and implement the provisions of Executive Order 650 amended by executive order number 655 as attached. And so we have that order attached and second. Okay. So we have a motion and and a second. Is there any more discussion um by the board? Hearing
none. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. It carries unanimously. Thank you all. Thank you all. Thank you all for your support on this and for everything you do. Okay, the next item on our agenda is the uh are we going to table the proposed changes dealing with the uh the marine flare program? Uh I would appreciate that. Uh the presenters uh are under the weather. Got it. Okay. So, thank you for that. So, we're going to go to item number E. Uh Jacob, Jacob, are you here? I'm
here. All right. We're going to get an update from uh Children's Cove on their rebranding initiative. And I encourage folks to stick around for this exciting yes that Jacob does children's code. All right, let's see if I can make the technology work this time. Learned a lot in the lab presentation. I know. I should sit here beside you when I can find out how to do it, too. Absolutely. No worries. Um, here we go. So, for the record, you're gonna Yeah. So, for the record, uh my name
is Jacob Stapleton. I am the community engagement education program manager at Children's Cove. Um and we are the child advocacy center, uh which serves the Cape and Islands. Uh and so I wanted to talk today to announce an initiative we've actually been working on for for quite some time. Uh next year, uh we will be entering our 30th year as a department of Marsville County serving uh children and families of our community and those who in particular um have been victims of crime. Uh for those that aren't aware of Children's Cove, we provide the coordinated response for
cases involving uh child sexual abuse, severe physical abuse, witness to domestic violence, as well as commercial sexual exploitation uh and human trafficking within the region. Um for I I've actually am going to be coming up on my 10y year anniversary working at Children's Cove, working in in the community. And uh across that time we have uh and and I personally have engaged with hundreds of of children, families, community members. Uh you know, my my role is really to raise awareness of the work that we do as a child advocacy center. And for for many years,
um I've often heard this similar response. Oh my goodness, the work you do is it's so hard, it's so sad, it's so difficult. Um, and yes, you know, when when we're here talking about this work, um, child sexual abuse is not a topic that really jumps out from the headlines as something people want to want to discuss. And and it's hard for individuals to imagine children and and families in that that process in that time. And that's what we're there for. Uh, and for for nearly 30 years,
we've been providing that that hope and healing and and support as they've been moving through it. However, when we engage with the children and the families who we have seen over those 30 years, um many of them have talked about how supported they felt, um how comfortable they felt, how engaged our teams were, how much of a difference it made in their lives. Uh and a lot of the work that we do now when we're engaging the community is talking about hope
uh healthy outcomes, positive experiences, and those that they have had at at Children's Cove. And so as we're preparing for that that 30 years of service, um we've we've rebranded for a number of reasons, but really to bring forward that that notion of brighter tomorrows, uh that commitment to our our communities for brighter tomorrows. And so we wanted to talk about this and it's which is going to be rolling out a little bit later this month which April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month as well as National Sexual Assault Awareness
Month. So it's an appropriate time for us to to talk about this. Um our new logo is um really bringing forward that new identity. It's visually gauging the organization's um goals and commitments. That sunrise of a brighter tomorrow hopeful. Yeah. a commitment to a brighter tomorrow for for the children, for the families, uh, and for the community at large. We work with, uh, every town, uh, within our region. We work with members of law enforcement and child protection, hundreds of community- based organizations and nonprofits to really provide that support for our
community. Uh, and and anchoring that brand uh, in hope is something that we we really wanted to do. Uh we also wanted to ensure that as we move forward, our colors, our our mission aligned more with Barnstable County's uh government's logos and colors. We wanted to make sure that there's that clear connection between Barnstable County and us being a department of that. Uh and so all of our brand colors uh directly correlate. So we're bringing the focus on the blues that the core there, the rays and the sunrise uh are also tied into the to the yellows and the golds. And so we
have kind of a mix of of those colors to to bring it all together. So a more cohesive, clean and bold uh imagery. Uh and that's going to continue throughout our entire brand identity with with all of our um corporate material, our brochures, our rack cards, uh social everything that we're going to be doing is is bringing that forward uh and and focusing on the optimistic spirit of the work that we do. Um we really are a collective service for our entire community bringing that that brighter
tomorrow for for everyone. Uh and we're really excited to to show you all when we completely completely full uh can do the roll out. It looks great. It really it's So it's been 30 years. So do you know how children's co one more one more year? Okay. Next year we're almost there. All right. Um, these interviews used to happen out in the hall and Marylair Mhm. and Rob Olari. And Marylair would say to Rob, "You see what's happening here? We've got to do something about this."
And that was the beginning of them figuring out to partner with the DA and start this. So, it's we'll give them a tip of our hat uh while we're here. But it's um I think it's really because it is a heavy I mean I I congratulate you for hanging in there 10 years because it is it's heavy work. It's heavy. I'm a social worker myself. It's it's hard work and um so thank you for doing that and um I just think these look great. I think all of the thought that's in there is sort of showing
themselves. So very good. Commissioner Bergstrom. Yeah. Um you're partially funded by the state is it or the federal government is that? So I am not the the expert on our full budget but we you know we do receive um majority of our funding from Barsville County government but we also receive uh state and federal funding um both through the Massachusetts Children's Alliance funneled through there uh and then uh there is federal grant funding as well. Yeah. The only reason I bring that up is not the dollar amount's not amounted important, but uh you know the president
recently suggested in the midst of a war in which we're spending trillions of dollars that we can no longer afford to fund things like Medicare and so on and and you know there's always the threat um as there is to many of our programs here in Barsel County that the funding would be pulled. But um I know that I personally I think I speak for my commissioners who are committed to this program. We're going to make it work however it's necessary. Mhm. You know, so excellent. I think that's good. Thank you. No, I I would agree with my fellow commissioners. You do great work and
uh the branding is is is is well done. Very well done. It's very well done. So, kudos to you. Kudos to the rest of your team. Kudos to Stacy. We appreciate all your hard work. We really do. Yeah. We look forward to a 30th celebration. We'll have to be planning that. Yeah. Yeah. So, we wanted to we wanted to get a little bit ahead on here so that everything else we're going to do is we're gonna have some great stuff for our community. Is there anything else that we need to be brought up on? You know, I you know me, I can go on for hours, but I think I think we've
had a great day and uh you know, we're we're really excited to to bring this forward and uh looking forward to providing more updates in the future. Well, you've got our blessing. So, thank you. Thank you very much, Jacob. And good to see you. You as well. Okay. Uh the next item on the agenda, I'm going to ask uh our administrator to uh brief us on proposed ordinance 26 to be named budget transfer for the completion of the public safety training live fire project.
And we're going to take a moment to let our guests leave. Thank you for joining us, folks. See you later. And for this item, I I'm going to abstain from any discussion or to vote on that particular item. Yes, since it's lives in your town. Did I see something in the paper about this the other day? Uh about something on fire in your must be about our building. I just Oh, was not too
many newspapers, too many uh documents. Um well, thank you. this uh I bring you this um and I'll give you a little bit of background. Uh obviously for for your benefit, for the public's benefit, um the Barnstable uh county uh we call it a burn building. I know I'm not supposed to call it the burn building uh fire training uh facility. Um is um something that that was originated as far back as 2017, I believe. Um, we received a FEMA grant which at the time probably would have built the
whole thing uh and funded the whole thing. Um, over time we had to get several extensions of the FEMA FEMA funding. Um, and uh and we have also um secured smaller amounts of of alternative funding. But the bottom line is that we are now just about at the very end of this project and we're very anxious uh to turn this over to the town of uh Yarmouth so that they can develop the regional uh plan for for all uh Capees fire departments to be able to train uh at this facility. So,
the reason for this transfer request is that um based on numbers that we received last year, we thought we would be able to finish it this year with with a $100,000 earmark from the state legislature. Um turns out that that costs have escalated. So, we also now know that if we wait until next fiscal year to finish this, uh it's going to cost about another 50,000 plus. Um, and I just I think, you know, the more we wait, the more the finish line seems to creep forward. And uh we're not doing uh the Cape's firefighters
any any service by uh not letting them use this facility for for the training that they need. So, my proposal would be to uh transfer funds that we have within this year's current budget uh that we know we're not going to use um and transfer that uh to just finish this building um and and get on with uh transferring it over to the town of Yarmouth. Uh so, we we did some estimates. The the final estimates to finish this building run about 250,000. Um we have a
$100,000 earmark that Senator Seir was able to secure for us. uh this fiscal year. Um and so uh in a very conservative world, we need 155,000 uh to to complete the whole thing. I say in a very conservative world because we know that we uh the fire chiefs, the Capees fire chiefs have have been able to raise some funding that will offset some of this. Um but uh to be on the safe side, I want to make sure that we transfer enough just to make sure that the line item is there to just
finish the project and be able to move on. So that is uh that's the genesis behind this ordinance. Um but I'm happy to answer questions. No, I think it's uh well time. This has been sort of like a of course we've been dragging around and it won't drink anywhere and um so I think it's time. So uh with that I am going to uh move that uh to introduce proposed ordinance 26 to be named
but budget fund transfer for the completion of the public safety training live fire project. Second. Um I I I'm going to call for a vote. So I'll call for the vote I guess. And I say I. Bertram votes I and I abstain. Thank you. New business. Do we have any new business to come before the commissioners? Hearing none, I'm going to go into the next item. Number eight, commissioner's consent agenda. I
have a motion. I move to approve commissioner's consent agenda items 8A through 8Q as listed on the April 8, 2026 meeting agenda. I second. Is there any discussion? Are there any items here that any board members would like to highlight or acknowledge? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed carries unanimously. Approval of the meeting minutes. Do I have a motion? March 25th. I move to approve the March 25th 2026 regular meeting minutes as drafted. Second. Okay,
we have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Any corrections? Any adjustments? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. I. Both. Harris. Unanimously. Item number 10. Commissioner reports. I'm going to start with Commissioner Bergstrom. Any reports, Commissioner? No, I don't have anything right now. So, okay. Commissioner Lions. Um I will just uh bring to people's attention that I did have a a we have a wellfleet forum uh in the town of Wellfleet and we also
the honor cape services actually started in the town of Wellfleet years ago because there was no um healthcare out there in Province Town and then Harage. Um so there is a move now to tele medicine and it was a very interesting conversation with the CEO of outer cape health and if anybody's interested in looking at that they could access it through the wealthy community forum page probably in a few days but right now it sits on the wealthy town under well media you just scroll through and
you'll come to the community um videos and um it sounds really scary and It sounds like it's not going to work, but it does seem like it does. And uh and and uh Dr. Archer, who is the CEO, uh really went through the whole thing. But it also was fascinating to hear how clinics are funded, hospitals are funded, and how screwed up our health care system is. And we are ruled by pharmacy and insurance companies. And until we get a hold of that, it won't get any better. However,
that's my sidebar. Um, I just wanted to say it was a really interesting conversation and for people who are going to be experiencing this probably through hospitals and their clinics. Um, it's the brave new world we're entering. So, I think we have to kind of give it a go, but it looks like it's this is where we're at now. There's not enough doctors to go around. Um, the only report that I have is earlier this week we had a forum. We looked at a form with Mass D to get an update from Louisa Pawansky on the status of the replacement bridges for the Cape Cut Canal.
And I'm sorry I did not engage and well, we've got a good recording and the press release put together a very good release on summarizing uh what what what the updates are. And um so kudos to uh Robin for helping organize it and put it together as well as our friends over at the Cape Cut Commission uh Christie Steve Tupper and uh David Still and Sarah Coburn. Every everybody stepped up and helped uh us get this off the ground. We did it. This is the first time we've
done a forum like this with Mass DOT you utilizing the Mary Pat Flynn conference room and bringing inviting a state official to come and interact with officials from throughout the region. Um and there's interest in doing another one maybe open to the public um and see if we get a broader audience um maybe sometime in the summer months where we could invite uh year-round residents, summer residents to join us. forum on the status of the bridges, what's going on. And uh yeah,
the time to do it would be at night, like at 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. We'll call it a Capeen Islands town hall. And uh Louisa Pawansky loved the idea. So, she's ready to participate with us. So, I look to hopefully getting the same help from from our staff here, our our clerk and uh our friends over at the Cape Cut Commission so that we can uh provide that an update to a much larger I have a suggestion. Um, if we do that, I would send that invitation out to the um, they're called different
things in different towns, non-resident taxpayer association, uh, summer resident association, um, whatever it may be because we have a very active one and they do have meetings um, in fleet like we have our state of the town for them and that sort of thing and it's hugely attended. So if there was a stream and they could project that on, they would have a meeting and all of them would be there to listen to this if they weren't in the building, they would be listening to that in their
respective towns. So I think if you really want to hit all of those people, especially in the summer, not everyone can get here in a summer traffic. It's only going to get worse with our building um our building boom. Um so it would be a really good thing because I think a lot of people are interested in that. what's going to happen and when is it going to happen and that sort of thing. 2033 2033 is when so if you're revving up your engines right now to drive over that bridge you may have to wait a little bit but but also that being said as Mark will say all things
all systems are go it's cruising along I am we're meeting the deadlines right good okay that's my report uh upcoming business let's go to the administrator for a quick review of the agenda for our next meeting uh so right now for our next meeting which will be in well fleet It's kind of wealthy. Do we have a venue yet? Yes, it's the It's going to be at the um adult community center at 715 Old King's Highway. Thank you. I got that confirmed yesterday. I did ask. I
said, "I think they have classes." He goes, "We booted them out." Oh dear. I know nobody's going to do their chair yoga. We could all do a little bit of chair yoga while we're there. work that in our wellness program. Yes. Now, how is that agenda shaping up? Um, it's shaping up well. We will hear uh from APCC on water supply protection u matters. Uh, we will hear from Brian Bombgardle um our uh um clean water center uh director on uh uh IA systems and and tracking of IIA systems. Um, and
we have uh minor piece of business um to do on a uh bond anticipation note sale uh with the finance director, but that shouldn't be too bad. So that the date of that meeting is what? The date of that meeting is April 22nd and again in Wellfleet uh 10:00 a.m. And that's Earth Day. So we have a very earthy Yes. like agenda. I know. So is Andy Gotley gonna be attending? Okay. Um, I think the the the
in our discussions, I think we're interested in knowing more about their campaign to promote more land conservation and water supply, water resources protection. Oh, you will have a crowd. Okay. Well, that's good. Isn't that what we want? That's what we want. Yeah. There is a development that's probably we're actually putting it you know they commit this state board you know you only one voted against it I won't say who um to go ahead with this 250 unit and now that people are seeing
we just completed a 45 unit and I'll be happy to show you that we'll drive by that on the way back but um um the uh now people are realizing you know we do want this and We want some housing, but we don't want what's gone on there and we don't want the scale. So, there is this debate and so it's actually on town meeting to get a temperature of the town now. How do we go forward? Oh, that's Yeah. And we're letting you know, I mean, there's been such an outcry and we've gotten letters that
actually have more signatures on it than you would get at attendance at a town meeting. So, I think we do have to pay attention to what the people are saying and I'm glad that we are. So, uh, there will be people there that are going to be more than interested in, uh, Andy's talk and, uh, and Brian's as well because we are also facing the our sewering and how are we going to go about we're going to be that hybrid town of some sewering and probably more septic and everybody's freaked out about that because of the cost and sounds. So, it'll be interesting.
I did ask um was there anything we could do on procurement only because we are always our assistant administrator was always and they said have you ever tried the county just to see if they could assist you on this and it would be nice to let them know what we can assist with what big things and what small things. Uh so short answer is yes. uh not something that's ready for a commissioner's meeting, but I have uh reached out and continue to work with the Cape Towns just to assess what kind of procurement help they need. It seems to be a hot item. Um that and uh and also um
seasonal inspection services because now there's a requirement that you inspect second Yeah. short-term rentals. Yeah. So that's that's putting a lot of towns under a lot of pressure that don't don't have robust building departments. So, so we're we're looking at that as well. Okay. So, we look forward to having everyone. So, what do you think, Commissioner Bergstrom? A good agenda for for Wealthy. Oh, I think so. I'm looking looking forward to uh meet the movers and shakers up in Wellle. They've always been very vocal about uh policy things going on up there. So,
it should be an interesting meeting. It should be. Okay. Um let's move on to a county administrator and staff report. I have uh few items. Um, all good for the most part. Um, just want to let the, uh, board know that bid documents for the work on this building, the Spir Court building, were released on March 25th. Uh, we've had a pre-bid meeting uh, that showed very good interest in the project, which is always a gauge of a good gauge u, in this case of of how many
pe how many bids you'll actually uh, receive, excuse me. And bids are due April 23rd. So, that is coming up and we're excited about that. Um we have a uh tenatively scheduled uh meeting with the Barnstable Village Association on April 21st uh which is an opportunity to really dig into the detail more details about about this project the timelines uh how you know what kind of what kind of uh details there are and also the levels of interruption that that will occur uh during
the course of the project. So so that is coming up. Um budget process is moving along. Uh so far the finance uh committee, the assembly's finance committee has recommended several uh including the Cape Cod Commission budget, the dredge uh program budget, facilities, registry of deeds, uh public safety uh and finance have all been recommended positively. Uh the committee wanted more information on Children's Cove uh as well as some more information on fringe benefits and debt and so forth. So um so that's where they stand now. Obviously, we've got more budgets to review
uh this coming Thursday and then likely the following Monday. Um I will tell you that Paul Rosala and GZA, our uh engineers on on the uh municipal fire train, former municipal fire training site, uh are presenting the county's work at um at the Northeast Waste Management Officials Association conference in Worcester uh later this month. So that's uh an acknowledgment uh of the importance that uh that work has taken on and and the good stuff uh that we've done,
cutting edge stuff in some cases that we've been able to do. Um we also held an afteraction uh session with about 15 to 20 of uh county staff directly involved in the blizzard response. It was a good productive uh session uh and really lays the groundwork for future planning with with both uh us the county within the county uh and also the the county's uh regional emergency planning committee. So So good good good results coming out of that. Can can we just for
a moment just stay right there because I think we're going to want to have an update in terms of that work. But I also want to introduce the conversation about how we restructure Um, I'm I'm I'm a long-standing believer that that department has to be pulled out of that health department, needs to stand alone and report directly to the administrator. I felt that from day one. Uh, and because of some of the recent developments, I'm even more convinced of it because I felt it was a problem in the past and I think this is something that we really need to address and I'd
like to see us address it as a group soon. uh and and and and and I think to some degree there may be some members of the assembly that may have an interest in how we uh restructure this and how we do this because there's some delegates that have a real strong public safety background that can probably contribute something productive to this whole exercise. So I'm anxious to get a report but also talk about uh in terms of where we go from here. Restructuring has to in my opinion has to be a part of the conversation. Agreed. Agreed. We actually um will likely come to you with a with a
probably a comprehensive restructuring within the next month to two months. I would I would sort of guesstimate at this point. Um and certainly on the public public um uh you know the emergency planning piece absolutely include um those that are interested and those that have uh specific uh expertise uh in the field. So that would be I should know the administrator and I have had some discussions with people at Mass Maritime Academy. They have an emergency management program and uh
they're interested in partnering us with us to provide some resources and support that we can make a really strong program. Uh they've got great resources, great talent over there. Um in my travels to various towns I participated uh I didn't participate. I was giving a talk to the Orleans Select Board several months ago and uh at the same meeting that I was presenting um the uh Mass Maritime Cadetses, they had interns working in the town of Orleans on a emergency management
plan for the town of Orleans. So this is in my in my discussions my my my limited contribution to this effort. I believe that as a county uh we we should be playing a more active role in working with our towns and helping them update their plans much the way we help with updating and developing other plans. But we need to be sufficiently resourced and have the right people u you know in a position to do that kind of work. And so hopefully u we'll be able to restructure
this and and hit a reset button so that we can do a lot more uh in in the in the years and months ahead. So, and if I can add part of that emergency planning is also fire and um so there's a group in Truro that I've been dealing with uh Mr. Marxbury and he has had communication with Mike uh Maguire at the cooperative extension who has um secured a grant uh to do a regional plan. So this is another
type of regional emergency response but it is really something that we do have to look at and um so we have to remember that that is a component of that planning. for your information. We keep we've been talking to Mike about us getting an update at one of our meetings on this whole wildfire planning effort and um there's been some delay at the federal level in terms of getting uh the funding lined up. I think uh Mike Maguire and I think he's his instincts on this are right.
Let's get the money locked down, get a grant agreement set. let's get the scope of work pretty much hashed out first and then once we we got something to roll out that would be a good time for us to be having that conversation. So I just want you to know that it comes up in my discussions with staff about setting an agenda that's clearly a priority. It's on our list um but it's not quite ready for prime time and and the national seashore is as far as the fire is concerned is also a partner in that whole composition as well. Well you've got the seashore on one end and you've got the national guard on the other end. Uh there's some very very
capable organizations that I think can work well or better with us and DCR and they're all they're all really great. So no question any other staff updates or administ right now. Okay. Is there any other business to come before the board of county commissioners? No. Hearing none. It is uh a little after 11:30 and I will second that would um any discussion hearing none. All those in favor say I. I opposed. It carries unanimously. We are adjourned. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you every