and um good morning and happy new year. Uh this meeting of the Boston County Commissioners will be conducted via remote means in accordance with applicable law. Persons wishing to participate may do so by accessing the meeting via Microsoft Teams. For instructions on how to access the meeting, please go to uh the Barnable County website under which is www excuse me www.capecod.gov
and you can find the meeting agenda in the Bonsible County under the meeting center menu. Apologize. I'm trying to read this from a very small place and I can't get it to adjust. Um, please use the team's raise hand feature to be acknowledged when public participation is required by law or allowed by the chair. And with that, I call the January 2nd, 2026 meeting of the board of regional commissioners. And please join me in a pledge of allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. And could we please join us to join us in a moment of silence to reflect on the bravery and sacrifice of all those who put their lives on the line
in service to our country protecting our safety, our freedom, and our democracy. Thank you. And as we head into the new year, may may all of that be so and uh that we are protecting our all of our freedoms and democracies. So today we are going to start the new year with our reorganization of the board of regional commissioners. I as chair am stepping
down I think um I think that's how we do it. And um and we are I'm going to take nominations for the new chair. Uh Madam Chair, I nominate Mark Forest as chairman of the regional commissioners. Do you accept that Mark? Yes, I do, Madam Chair. Well, I will second it. And uh since we are doing this remotely, all votes will be roll call, please. So, Lion's Eye works forest votes eye.
All right. I guess I'm going to hand that over to you now, Mark. You are the chair. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to uh not nominate um Commissioner Bergstrom as the vice chair. I will second that. I accept. That's great. Do I hear any more nominations? Hearing none. Uh all those in favor of Commissioner Burkstrom as the vice chair, roll call vote. Lion's eye. I
uh Forest votes eye as well. Very good. So, let's move on to the uh the next item team. Committee assignments. Has everyone had a chance to take a look at your committee assignments? Um I'd like to propose a change for me. Um does anybody else have any No, you go right ahead. Yeah. Um, the change that I'd like to propose for me is I'm listed as the county's rep to the Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative and uh those meetings have become a bit challenging uh for for
for me in terms of the time. Um, what I'd like to do is I'm happy to continue, but I'd like to see if we can convince the county administrator uh to be my alternate so that if I can't make a meeting, uh, we have an alternate selected. So, Mike, if we can get Mike on the screen here, I'd like to pitch this to to Michael as well and and to have some discussion. Well, the the thing is these meetings are dominated by vineyard people. Michael probably knows most of them because he's probably worked with most of them and um but I I wanted to see if that's um because it is a it's
a it's a it's a fairly substantial workload and and I think quite frankly um I'm not sure as a county we're taking full advantage of the CVC opportunity. Cvec's purpose is to create renewable energy for the municipalities in the county. uh that are members of it and um you know I I think we can probably do better but um I think sometimes it requires actually hands-on staff. It's in those
communities where the the representative on Cvec is actually involved in the energy management th those those are the folks that seem to be um more engaged in getting more out of it. So, I I wanted to just highlight this for Michael to see if that would be Are you okay with that arrangement? I am uh I am fine with that. Whatever uh whatever the board pleases uh obviously, but but I'm I'm certainly glad to step into that role. Is that is that something okay with
the rest of the board? Yeah. So, I'm fine I'm fine with the slate as presented provided that um we include Michael Dutton as my alternate. Okay. I will move that we include that um the slate of uh assignments including Michael Dutton as alternate to the CEC. Yeah, I do also I will agree with that if we have to do a vote with Michael being on there, but I do I do have another uh question about the slate of our assignments here. Go ahead. Go ahead.
And I don't Okay, see the workforce environment. I just thought that last year we thought we would change the retirement association. Ron has been on that now for how many years, Ron? I think it's time I became a commissioner. Yes. Yes. So, I think it's I I would be interested in uh learning a little bit more about this about the retirement and um and uh it seems like something I could do. It's the fourth Tuesday of every month in the morning. So,
I um I'm just proposing that. I don't know how you feel about that, Ron. Well, I don't feel, you know, I enjoy being on the retirement board. It's quite a lot of not just necessarily a lot of work but it's a lot of of research and and experience you know and it it is quite an important board because we make decisions that affects people's uh income you know directly and there is there is something to that um speaking of so I think it's I think it would be good it's a good time to rotate it that's my opinion
well I mean I' like I say I'd be reluctant to give it up. I mean, the board seems to support me and uh you know, as I say, it's been it's been a learning experience and something that should have some continuity to it. Uh you know, I don't know how you feel, Mark. Well, I I think what we've been the way we've operated in the past is we've sort of um deferred to the members that want to keep their assignments and then when they're interested in giving them up. I know. I I probably
that's kind of been our sort of MM O and the last thing I want to do is get in the middle of um a disagreement between my two favorite commissioners here, Commissioner Burstrom and All right. Commissioner, I just thought I would um No, but I think I think the question should be on some of these um and and maybe this is for a future meeting and a future discussion is is you know which of these do we rotate on a more regular basis. Um you know I I think um and and there
may be some that are subject to that that we just automatically rotate them. I'm not I'm not sure if this is one of them. I do know that uh from my own experience just dealing with the retirement association, the people that have served on the board generally have been on there for a long time and there's and I don't know if that's a good thing or not. I would they're all very talented. They're all very good at what they do. Um, but it it just sort of begs a a broader question and
that is is uh you know is is there one here that we should should should should rotate. I and I I don't and I quite frankly haven't even thought about it. I don't have an opinion on it. Okay. Well, I'll I'll drop this I'll drop this request and and suggestion and um we can think about this and how we want to approach it in the future. I'm very comfortable bringing it up again having a conversation about all these assignments again. Okay. Um, so we have we have a motion on the table from Commissioner Bergstrom to um adopt the slate and continue it for 2026 with the addition of
uh the county administrator as the alternate for the uh Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative. Um, and let me just go down the list to make sure that everybody's comfortable with this. So, Commissioner Lions is on the Americanore Advisory Council. Uh, I serve on the county's coastal resources committee. Commissioner Bergstrom is on the county retirement association. The Barnstable County Human Rights Advisory Commission. Commissioner Lions. Commissioner Lions is
also representing the board at the Cape Islands Workforce Board. Um, Commissioner Bergstrom represents us on the uh the Cape Cod Commission. Uh I serve as the rep to the economic development council and the Cape Cod MO, the Metropolitan Planning Organization. Uh we have Justina Marzac uh handling our affairs for the Cape Cod Municipal Health Group. Um I represent the board for the Dredge Advisory Committee. Commissioner Lions is on the Health and Human Services Advisory
Council as well as the National Seashore Advisory Commission. And so that is the current slate. And uh I do think that maybe what we do in the future is look at just how many assignments each one has and just try to cap it and maybe go from there. Maybe that's something that we look at. So that's the motion. Did I get a second on that? Commissioner. Okay. So we have uh a motion and a second. So um excuse me. I want to see Lions votes. Lion says second just to be safe. Good. All
right. All those in favor of this the motion as presented. Roll call vote. Lion's eye. And Forest votes I. So it carries unanimously. Very good. So we've taken care of that business. The next item is um on the county administrator's goals. Uh Michael has sent us a memo outlining goals for 2026. Um It's a it's a shortened version of uh what's used which what's what has been a fairly lengthy uh document. Um I'm going to just bring this up for discussion. Would you like to
highlight anything on your your statement of goals for the coming year, Michael? Um nothing really other than uh just sort of highlight the the the broader um subject areas. I think obviously the board knows that uh composting uh at joint base Cape Cod is for the four upper Cape Towns is uh is a challenging uh maze to sort of step through. So So that's uh that's one area. Uh county offices, I think the board knows uh with the renovation of um the Superior Court, we're going to have a lot
of moving around to do and we're going to have to find additional space uh for people to work in. We're also losing the space at the uh at the uh innovation room uh or innovation space. So, we're going to have to u do a little fancy footwork to find appropriate space. Um and then finally and and probably the broader more long-term issue is uh drafting some sort of plan uh both practical and financial plan to uh for our long-term space needs uh pursuant to the facilities master plan.
So, so that's another sort of broad area. We've talked a little bit about the uh lease agreement that we have with the state with the state trial court uh system and uh it's a challenging lease to say to say the least. Um and that needs that needs work. Uh that'll be largely I think a political um a polit political issue rather than operational issue. Uh but certainly there's a lot that we can do internally to get uh get uh ready for for a proposal uh to to update those leases. Um a
lot's been said about the dredge uh over the past few years. Um and I think we're at a place where we know what the issues are. We know um the what the challenges are and we have some idea on how to how to um sort of confront those those issues in a positive way. So I think uh finalizing a business plan uh for the dredge and then implementing that b business plan would be appropriate. Um obviously with finance, Carol uh and her crew have done an excellent job stabilizing county finances. Uh but
I think there's more to do on financial policy especially around uh how we calculate revenues and and how we uh develop policy around that. Um, and then just in terms of of general government, I think uh it's time for a really healthy uh and productive dive into how we how we organize the county departments uh and and try to make more sense of of that uh in the upcoming year. And then finally, just um uh getting ready for uh what probably or possibly will be uh an
elected charter review commission. There's a lot of back-end work uh to do certainly in terms of uh educating people about what the county actually does before they go to the polls in November of 26 uh and and give people the sort of the full lay of the land as it as it pertains to the county, what we do, how we do it, and uh and people can decide whether there's an opportunity for us to do things better uh in nove November of 26. So So those are sort of the broad areas. Um, and if if the board is amendable to that or wants to add things, um, I can certainly um
u sort of expand on that and give you a document that uh that you can vote on if you wish to vote on those. So, I appreciate that. I'm going to open this up for for comment. Um, Commissioner Bergstrom, any comments on Um, can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Um, yes. No, I I accept the u the goals laid out by the uh the administrator. I think they're solidly in line with our goals and with the goals of the county and uh we'll start to work on them and he'll start to work on them
uh right away right now here at the beginning of 2026. So, thank thanks Ron Commissioner Lions. No, I agree. And I think that um you know Michael I'm looking as he was speaking I'm thinking of really there's a lot of work ahead and he has a lot to take that we're we're putting on him uh especially with the charter review. So I think it's and and the move and the renovations but that alone is going to be consuming and um so I I I also agree. I think he's right on as far as also looking at
the structure of the departments and and um how they could interact better and consolidate efforts more. So I think um I think he's right on right on target. Yeah. Thank you. Um there's one thing that I just want to highlight that I didn't see on here and um we talked about this um at a recent meeting and that is is the financing of the uh some of the courthouse work um and the need to get DAM to take on some of this work because of the limitations on our own finances. Michael,
is that in here somewhere or am I missing it or where? Well, I thought that was sort of like in pursuing our lease and Well, it's Yeah, along those lines. Yeah. No, I can I can certainly add that. I think I think sort of implicit with the court leases, but I'll I'll sort of flesh that out under that sort of topic heading. So on the court leases, yeah, let's let's make it abundantly clear that we're looking again, we're we're limited in terms of how much we can borrow. And so
it's far better for us. I think we've came to this consensus at a prior meeting that we really should get DAM to take on some of this work uh for us ASAP and we need to begin those discussions with them using the offices of our legislators. Did I get that right, Michael? Correct. Yep. Nope. That's correct. That's correct. Okay, Mark. Um, if I jump in. We're assume I'm assume you're going to be attending the uh MMA conference uh later this month along with myself and Sheila. Um, a number
of state officials will be there. It might be the opportunity to put our heads together at some point and you know come up with a collective approach to uh the state and explaining to them that we're not we're not prepared to carry a lot of debt for a long period of time and that they should start coughing up coughing up a few bucks a little quicker. So I'm suggest maybe they have me a good opportunity to do that. They may very well be. That's good. Thanks, Ron. Anything else on um the uh county administrator's goals for 2026? No. Uh hearing none, I I'd entertain
a motion to accept the goals. Mr. Chair, I uh move that we accept the goals as proposed uh the administrator's goals as propo as proposed by the administrator. Second, the administrator Michael Dutton. Okay, we got a we have a motion. Rhonda, did you want to second that? Yes, second. Okay. So, we have a motion in the second. Um, we'll take a roll call vote uh on on uh on the motion. Um, Commissioner Bren, votes I, Lions is an I, and Forest is an I. So,
it's unanimous. And again, the um the the leasing, you're going to rewrite that first bullet there, right, on leasing so that we're clear on on that. Okay. Good. Right. Right. Let's go down to the uh the next item on our agenda is the consent agenda, item number six. We have a number of bullets in here. Um uh what I'd like to do is I'd like to recuse myself from I've generally been recusing myself from anything having to do with um the fire training facility. Um and I see that $100,000
earmark that was to work on the burn building. Correct. That is correct. Yeah. I've I've been recusing myself from all of that activity for a variety of reasons. So, what I'd like to do is is um is entertain a motion to accept the commissioner's consent agenda items A, C, D, E, F, G, H, and I. Excluding B. If someone would like to make that motion. I go ahead. Go ahead. No,
go ahead, Ron. Go ahead. Yeah. I I move that we um we accept the commissioner's consent agenda items A, C, D, E, F, G, H, and I. Is that right? If I got that mark right. You got that right. That's good. I second. Lions seconds. Okay. So, let's take a roll call vote on that. Uh if there's there's no more discussion, votes I. Lions votes I and Forest abstains.
Boris Boris will eye it. Yes. Okay. Sorry about that. So now now Ron, you can take a B. I move that we accept item B on the U. We've we approved item B on the commissioner's consent agenda. Lion seconds. Okay. So we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, roll call vote. M for I. Lion's eye. And Forest now abstains. Bingo. Okay. So, that takes care of the the commissioner's consent agenda items. Uh, do we have any reports from uh our fellow
commissioners? Commissioner Bergstrom, any reports? Nope. Commissioner Lions? Um, no. I do I do want to just state that um I have receive I continue to receive letters from people uh across the Cape you know with concerns about development and I have forwarded some of those to you and as I received them I'll for them for your information and we you know should probably talk about it at some future date otherwise no it's been kind of a quiet holiday I hope everyone no I think I think
we should put this on our agenda. We should on on how on we review with the administrator how we're responding to the uh requests from the folks that we're fair hearing from in Haritch. Um I I share with you a concern about um development u particularly housing development. I'm not sure these projects I'm getting concerned about the scale of some of these projects in some of the communities. How much and what we can do is is another question. But we're clearly hearing from
a a lot of people around the Cape very concerned about some of the projects in the scale. We're hearing about in Hyannis. Absolutely. Falmouth, Harwitch and Elaring it from the outer cape pretty soon. Hearing it from the outer cape. So yeah. And um it reminds me of the days when we were debating uh whether or not to have a Cape Cod Commission or not back in the 80s and uh I was um a young congressional aid working on the Cape and um uh it sort of much of what we're hearing echoes what we
heard back in the 80s when the pace of development was really picking up at a very robust pace and people were pretty much from one end of the Cape to the other said that we needed to do a better job in getting getting a handle on it. And um you know the the purpose of the commission was to help us get some of these larger scale projects um you know to get them to sort of fit uh within the character of the Cape and in some cases uh find ways to mitigate or regulate impacts and
uh much of what we're hearing I think echoes a lot of what we heard back in the 80s and I think yeah we should have at least an initial conversation about where we want to go in this. So, I'm going to um put this on the agenda for a conversation. We should at least talk about the Haritch letters and how we want to respond further to those. Um there's some legal questions. So, um you know, uh I'm going to work on getting some background for folks on that. And let's have an initial cut at this conversation at our next meeting. Great. Okay. Mark, can I just jump in here for a minute? Uh sure. you know, we're we're aware of the limit being on the commission. I'm
aware of the limitations that the commission has in over, you know, in reviewing uh 40b projects, but I don't know that we've actually gotten an official uh document from the commission. Maybe they've sent it to the to the to others, but we want to make sure to put down exactly what their authority is and what is not because my understanding is that the Haritch board of commissioners have requested a uh discretionary referral. So, we like to like as you I would like to get through the legal questions uh so that we know what firm ground we're on. If I may,
I I do believe once a DRRi is requested, they have to respond to that. That is part of their Yeah. their power. Um I know that some goes to commercial, but um and and if and if it doesn't, then we should do something about that, right? So, let's let's put Haritch because it has these questions. Let's let's put that that whole topic on the agenda for our next meeting and work with staff to make sure that we're sufficiently briefed. Um, and and we may want to have some
of this, excuse me, presented uh in some detail because I think there's some confusion out there in terms of what we can or can't do or what the county can or can't do on some of this this work. So, let's do that. Um, any other reports? Okay, I see Sheila's just stepped out for a moment. I'm going to move on to No, I'm right here. I'm right here. I just had to pen. Thank you. So, um, Sheila, did you have any other reports at all? No. No. It's been a quiet few weeks here. Okay. Uh, upcoming business. Michael, do you want to just take a preview of our next meeting?
You're muted. Yeah, you got to unmute yourself. Sorry about that. Um your next meeting will see the two uh state senators, Senator Seir and Senator Fernandez, um giving you a legislative update um on uh on a whole variety of issues uh which will be good and uh my apologies. We we will add the uh Haritch the Haritch uh items to
the agenda. and buried in my paperwork. You've got um uh it appears you've got uh the PRB the testing initial testing results for the PRB at the uh at the former municipal fire training uh facility. Uh which uh I think will will be good news for for us generally. Um, and so far that's it and whatever the the board and the chair adds to the agenda uh after that. Very good. Any
items that we need to bring up or make sure are on our agenda for the meeting on the 14th? Yeah, I don't know about the 14th, but at some point we can review the second quarter financials, you know, as far as the um revenue goes. So, sounds good. I agree. Okay. County administrator, will we be meeting? Are we going to be meeting at the 14th will be at our will be in our usual spot? Usual spot. Our usual place. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. That building there that's crumbling
and the next meeting. Oh, yeah. That's Yeah. The what I'd like to do is the do the uh remote the road show or the the on the second meeting. We have two meetings a month, right? First meeting should be to try to get as much business as we can get done for the first meeting, you know, at the county offices and then the second meeting um tailor it to some degree to where what we're doing in an individual town particular. Yeah. So the first the first meeting on the road will be
the 28th and that'll be in Felmouth and um we're starting late and uh you know we look forward to meeting with town officials going over town mutual areas of mutual interest and um you know hopefully by the 14th we can get a preview of how that agenda is shaping up. It's not finalized but it's just sort of a conceptual outline. Um but I think it should be a good meeting. Great. So, Michael, I'm going to turn this over to you for uh Thank you. I just Yep. I just have uh one
item uh one or two items. Um you will see uh on your 14th agenda um some finance uh money transfers. We have uh had to replace the chiller on the first district court and uh and now we're going to have to replace the piping that that pipes the glycol. Uh so that's a fairly expensive proposition. Paul and and uh Don and and um Carol are working on trying to get that price down,
but you'll see that you're also uh looking at uh additional funding that we're going to need to replace the boilers and superior courts. So the conversation about um about uh asking DAM to step in on some of these projects is timely. Uh but the both the chiller work and the boiler work do need to happen uh fairly quickly. And so you'll see uh some some transfers uh for th those purposes, but uh those will be coming your way. Um and other than that, I think that's all I all I have. Okay,
that's great. Okay. Um, unless there's any other business, um, I'd be happy to, um, accept a motion to adjurnn. Mr. Oh, wait a minute. Um, second, I just want to, um, make a request that I speak with Ian or someone after. I guess it will be after this because if I don't do it now, I won't get it done. I have to fix this email. So after we adjourn, Commissioner Lions is going to stay on the screen to work out uh stay on a meeting. If Ian has time right now,
I'm not sure if he's due to Well, and that's good thing. Thank you. Yeah, he's good. All right, so we got that squared away. So, was that was that a motion, Commissioner Bergstrom? Yes. Okay. Did I have a second? Seconds the motion. Okay. Um hearing uh no more discussion on that. Uh roll call vote. Um Commissioner Bergstrom votes I. Lions votes I and Forest votes I. So our meeting is adjourned. Thank you everybody and uh happy new year. Happy new year to everyone.