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[Music] good evening i'm Bernard Green chair of the Brooklyn Select Board and this is the regular meeting of the Select Board for April 1st 2025 i'm going to start off by moving that
the select board go into executive session for the purpose of approving executive session minutes discussing strategy related to potential litigation that is clearly and imminently threatened by Kabad Libovich at Chesnut
Hill involving property at 90 and 100 Billingham Road and discussing strategy related to potential local collaborative litigation the litigation matters must be discussed in executive session because an open meeting may have a
detrimental effect on the litigation position of the town and the chair so declares an executive session therefore to be necessary all in favor of going into executive session please indicate by saying I john Vancoyak I michael Sanman
I paul Warren hi david Burman hi chair votes I the select board will reconvene an open session following the executive session [Music]
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[Music] one good evening i'm Bernard Green chair of the Brookline Select Board and this is the regular meeting of uh the Select Board for April 1st 2025 no April Fool's jokes today um we
just ended our executive session and I'd like to start off but with preliminary I'm sorry start off with um um updates and comments from the select board or announcements and updates and
I'd like to start with one it's a little long so bear with me but it's important members of the select board do many things outside of the limelight but that are important to the town in
various ways yesterday I had the privilege of meeting with the Portuguese council general Thiago Arauo and two officials of the city of Karaga doal Mayor Paulo Catalano who is also a
board member of the Salsa um Mendes Foundation in Caragal Housal and city council member Luis Fidalgo also a board member of the Salsa Foundation and you'll get you'll hear what the Salsa Foundation is shortly
they were in Boston to visit the New England Holocaust Memorial and talk about the work of Aristides Desa Mendes the Salsa uh Mendes Foundation was established to recognize Aristes Desa
Mendes a Portuguese diplomat who during World War II saved more than 3,000 30,000 lives from Nazi persecution in 1940 in what is considered to be the greatest rescue action undertaken by an
individual person during that time related to the story of the heroism of Arista de Sasame Mendes there will be a lecture by a Japanese professor at Temple Emmeth on Monday April 7 on the
role that a Japanese console general uh Shaun Sugahara played in providing visas to Japan for 2,000 Jewish families in Lithuania the select board will send a resolution
to honor uh uh Saigo uh to the lectures since uh it's not in the packet I will read it okay it's a resolution of the select board commemorating the 125th anniversary of the birth of Shiuna
Sugahara the Japanese council to Lithuania who saved over three over 2,000 Jewish families in 1941 whereas Japan's council to Lithuania Chauna Sugahara a at great jeopardy to himself issued over 2,000 visas to Jewish
families in Lithuania saving over 6,000 Jews in the spring and summer of 1941 to facilitate passage of those Jews to Sura Suraga Japan and whereas in 2020 Lithuania declared that year as the year
of Shyuna Sugara in his honor and whereas today the estimated estimated number of descendants of those who receive sugara visas ranges between 40 and 100,000 individuals that is say people who were saved from uh the Nazi
death camps by sugara and whereas consul sugara epitomized the teachings of the Abrahamic religious traditions that if you save one life it is as if you save the world and whereas the Jewish and Japanese communities in the town of
Brooklyn have hosted celebrations of the heroism and righteousness of consulya Zugahara initiated by Samuel Mansky who was a member of Temple Emmethline and whereas the council
general of Japan to New England the current council general is facilitating a lecture at Temple Emmeth by Sugahara historian Professor Shiharu Inaba of Maho University in Nagora Japan on
Monday April 7 2025 and that is the lecture to which we're going to send this proclamation so whereas a monument celebrating the heroism of Shiona Sugahara located at Temple Emmeth in South Brooklyn is
recognized worldwide and has been visited by the many descendants of people saved by Shiona Sugahara now therefore be it resolved that the town of Brooklyn Massachusetts declares
Monday April 7 2025 as a day of remembrance for Japanese council Shioni Sugahara honored as one of the righteous among nations by Yad Basim Israel's official memorial to the victims of the
Holocaust and also honored by J by Brookline's Japanese and Jewish communities and many other residents of our town uh signed by the select board of Brooklyn
so what's the significance of this to today the histories of the many individuals who risk their lives and positions to rescue European Jews from the Holocaust is especially relevant to today's America when refugees from
numerous countries many of whom are here legally as green card holders students researchers or others are facing similar threats and although the threats they face are nowhere near as extreme as faced by the Jews in Europe we should
still learn the lessons of the Second World War lessons that include to not look the other way when people are being attacked because of where they come from or who they are or what they believe
even if you disagree with what they believe that's the end okay um okay that's my statement and any others yes thank you sure John yeah um thank you very much and thank you for that statement um as
quickly as possible uh my weekly reminder which is going to continue for a few more weeks that the marathon is coming and that there is something known as team Brookline and if you Google search team Brooklyn you'll come to a page where you can actually participate
in um the fundraising by some some charity runners who are running on behalf of Brookline charities so I hope as many people as possible will consider um doing that and supporting team Brooklyn um there is an announcement
that uh is a very worthy one that we've been asked to make um having to do with National Public Health Week in Brooklyn um I I hope I didn't jump the gun on that one uh if anyone else was intending to make the announcement um there's a
special there's a week of of programming uh starting next Monday um in particular there is a program on Wednesday April 9th 6:30 to 8 at the U what's known as the Freshman BHS building i think everybody knows what that is um and uh
it's a it's an a program that is going to help you know people to I think renew their understanding of the essential role that public health plays um in our communities so again that's Wednesday April 9th um 6:30 um at BHS and finally
finally finally um our firefighters in typical fashion um performed really really well um in a fire that broke out last Friday excuse me at 79 Craig Place C AIG um two of the firefighters had to
be taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries um but they did a really good job in tight um very very um densely packed housing area um at suppressing a fire that could have spread and had much greater consequences
so job well done to uh to the fire department and to the individual firefighters thank you Mike on a somewhat lighter mode um there was a an article I believe it was in the Boston Globe uh that um an
organization had issued um the uh top places a list of the top places to live in oh yes in American Brooklyn came out as number one u and the number of Cambridge neighbor neighborhoods were variously scattered down to the next 10 not sure how Cambridge got 10
neighborhoods and we got just behind but um there we were awarded an A+ for our schools which is certainly not a surprise despite the the difficulty that we're having in making sure that we can pay for them properly uh and um um not
such good grades in traffic uh we also got an A+ in nightife which kind of uh surprises kind of raised my eyebrows and I it makes me wonder whether we you know our policy of setting a one:00 closing time is perhaps the appropriate one
makes me wonder whether my social life is missing something i mean there's a lot of stuff going on that we clearly get out of it i mean that's for sure okay anything else just really quickly um to follow up on two things that John said one thank you and I just want to
add the great work that the firefighters and the whole fire department did uh Chief Randolph Chief of Operations Randolph managing uh the situation there and many others um to the two injured firefighters we obviously wish them the speediest recovery we just want to update folks and let them know that they
are home safe um so that is excellent news um the public health week coming up next um opens with the public health carnival um on Monday the 7th from 3:30 to 6:30 also at the freshman building 22 Tapen Street um there's going to be a lot of exciting activities um including
face painting uh those of you who saw me get my face painted for Brooklyn day not going to do it again but uh you should uh but your daughter will after that yes um so um it's going to be a lot of great fun so thanks to the whole health department that team a really huge
effort uh and the payout is going to be really great so I hope folks enjoy it great thank you so unless anyone else has update or comment uh we'll go to public comment uh Tiffany yes read the rules thank you for joining us for
public comment this is an opportunity for us to hear your perspective on the issues in Brooklyn that matter to you each person speaking tonight is limited to 3 minutes you don't need to use the entire time but you may if you like once 15 minutes has been met there is an opportunity at the conclusion of the select board's business for additional
comments members of the public sometimes raise questions during public comment we may be able to provide a quick answer to a question but are more likely to work with staff to get a more thorough answer and respond over email we'll let you know when you have 30 seconds remaining and when your time is up please conclude
your remarks at that time if you have more to say you're welcome to send an email to board members expressing your thoughts in greater detail any person wishing to speak must begin their comment by identifying themselves with their full name and either their Brookline precinct number or street address the first individual who signed
up in advance is Arthur Conquest good evening excuse me can you hear me arthur Conquest town meeting member precinct 6 i spoke to you during public comment comment on the 28th of January
2024 my final words during that presentation were and I quote I'm asking for a public meeting um an investigation and or a written report on the restoration uh restorative justice fiasco," unquote
i handed in a copy of that presentation unfortunately shortly thereafter I caught a virus and became very sick housebound for two months till uh two Wednesdays ago i've come here again
tonight to ask what exactly was the purpose of the restorative justice initiative who from Brookline's um hierarchy communicated with the restorative justice staff about things related to that initiative from the
names of the individuals who would be participating to the groups they had been assigned to dates times locations eg train health building on a Saturday afternoon I was told last week that the
restorative justice organization was paid how much and exactly what for as a taxpayer I should be able to know obtain this information especially so since I was involved i have some I have
somewhere in my vicinity or say 50 emails uh back and forth with the restorative justice staff and I can say in all cander the initiative was upside down yeah uh back behind backwards and
completely inside out starting just from the planning none of it made any sense whatsoever sadly and this is how you have conducted initiatives related to the black community and individuals over
and again for say the last four decades we need a judge Arthur Garity to examine how the town of Brooklyn is mistreating misdirecting exploiting its black and Latino Latina citizens thank you for
your time and I look forward to hearing from you if there's something special 30 seconds if there's something special that I need uh to write or say or connect with please inform me so that I
can get the information that I need thank you thank you the next speaker is Jesse Heft good evening my name is Dr jesse Hefra i'm a town meeting member in precinct 14
living on Chestnut Avenue this evening my comments relate to item number 10 on your agenda the approval of a contract totaling $118,518 to KDson and Associates to begin work on contract PW25-29 entitled the bicycle network
implementation plan in the memorandum of understanding from the town to the vendor dated March 25 we read quote "The green routes bicycle network plan developed by the bicycle advisory committee has served as a helpful resource for the town in understanding the streets that the bike community
wants to focus on and the types of infrastructure that they would like to see." End quote the first item in theou that the town is asking for is quote conduct public outreach activities to help identify key issues and opportunities related to planning and
implementing Brookline's bicycle network this is somewhat troubling as it seems that we are about to consider spending over $100,000 to get a set of guidelines about how to engage with our community as these proposed transportation changes occur we heard from several citizens at
the select board meeting on March 25 about significant deficiencies in both the town's process for convening some neighborhood meetings and significant issues with the engineering department's design of proposed changes including improvements to the existing bike lanes on Chestnut Halev the initial proposal
was already drawn by an outside vendor based on input from our own engineering department and is now being revised as we speak and now we are adding another level of consulting services according to statistics recently shared by Mr vancoyak biking as a commuting choice in
Brooklyn was 4.4% in 2013 and 4.8% 10 years later in 2023 showing a minimal growth accordingly we think it's important to note that while providing a level of safe accommodation to bicyclists in Brooklyn is an
important goal whether they are from our town or just passing through from neighboring municipalities it is critical that we might take a pause right now and re-examine the capital expenditures that are planned and the road designs that are being proposed for our infrastructure for biking in town as
an example Chestnut Hill A carries over 15,000 vehicles per day while the total number of bicycle riders on the street on average ranges from 5 to 10 in one day our town has already begun to create newer and safe safer bicycle lanes for example the fall 2024 Beacon Street
repaving and line painting project between Washington Street and Air Road near Cleveland Circle spending nearly $120,000 within DPW to develop a plan by a consulting firm which includes how to develop an implementation plan for bicycle infrastructure when we don't yet
have neighborhood by neighborhood or street by street buyin seems somewhat irresponsible this would be true at any time but is even more acute issue in our times of some financial includes your time and budget pressures last sentence in conclusion it is crucial that we
re-examine our biking infrastructure needs and capital expenditures before committing to such a large sum for outside consultants let's work together to ensure responsible spending and effective community engagement thank you uh that concludes the speakers who signed up in advance is there anyone in
the room or online who wishes to make a public comment at this time if you're online please raise your hand using the raise the hand feature there are approximately three individuals in the room 33 online and no one else is indicating their desire to speak okay thank you and we'll go on to
our miscellaneous calendar first item will be approving the meeting minutes from March 18 2025 that was our workshop at the golf course any corrections or edits to those minutes seeing none I move approval all
in favor please indicate by saying I john Vancoy i michael Sandman hi paul Warren hi david Pearman hi chair votes i Next I'd like to take uh in omnibus fashion items 6B through 6D uh 6E has
been pulled uh plus item 6F so those two three four four items in omnibus fashion i'm sorry different numbers i think the numbers seven oh I'm sorry seven that's right can you say that again my notes are uh little off
repeat that yeah yeah just Yeah so I'd like to um take in omnibus fashion items 7D through 7D plus items 6F I'm sorry 7F
um item 7E has been pulled from from the agenda uh all in favor please indicate by saying I john Vancoyak i michael Sandman i paul Warren hi david Pearlman hi uh chair votes I um Mr chair before we go to the next item I apologize i
forgot to add Carla Bena to the list and she did ask to public comment in advance okay um can we go ahead and promote her carla I'm promoting you now okay you should be promoted sorry about that okay I don't seem to be able to get my
video on but can you hear me yes we can hear you good evening i'm Carla Bena a town meeting member from precinct 14 and I'd like to offer a few comments on agenda item 10 the bicycle network implementation plan specifically the
scope outline for proposed consulting services with KDson and Associates transparency and community engagement are frequently invoked as critical elements for educating the public and winning their support for a particular plan or project however in reviewing the
scope outline regarding the development of a bicycle network implementation plan I see reference to project team meetings meetings with town staff meetings with the bicycle advisory committee and up to two presentations to the transportation board i don't see mention of meetings
with neighbors or neighborhoods and although under task two in the scope outline the consultant is required to develop a public outreach plan the details of when where and how to promote outreach events are left up to town staff perhaps the recent and less than
robust effort of the transportation division to inform and engage the public on proposed changes to Chestnut Hill Avenue will illustrate what I and others see as a concern as you heard last week during public comment at the beginning of March the
bicycle advisory committee docketed within its agenda an item listed as a public hearing on the plan to incorporate bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements in the pavement treatment project for Chestnut Hill Avenue interestingly the planning
document presented was called the pavement marking and signage plan when in fact what is actually being proposed is far more than that the hearing was intended to provide the transportation division engineer in attendance with an opportunity to receive feedback from
committee members and from members of the public abutters apparently received notice of the hearing but precinct 13 and 14 town meeting members did not neither did relevant neighborhood associations even with only one hearing and essentially non-existent neighborhood
notification there were many valid observations and objections made by the abutters and acknowledged by town staff it would seem in this instance that appropriate standards for community outreach transparency and open processes have not been met with the development
of improvements to Chestnut Hill Avenue however the select board now has an opportunity to ensure that a clear process for community input is in place prior to execution of the bicycle network implementation plan contract having such an explicit process to
community would increase the likelihood of the implementation plan's ultimate success thank you thank you Tiffany for remembering me and thank you Chair Green for letting me jump in thank
you okay next item on our regular calendar is annual town election i see our town clerk in Kaufman is approaching the podium and we're going to be voting on issuing the
warrant for the state election on May 6th voting to approve the early voting schedule for that election um and voting to authorize police details for the election so Cler Kaufman
uh thank you Chair Green and uh I I'm happy to cover all of them in an omnibus fashion but I don't want to take too much of the board's time uh these are standard votes that we do before every election um that you guys are familiar with um I will note for the town election um we do have one kind of
unusual office which is the office of constable uh town meeting voted last year to move our constables from uh all five being elected every three years on the same election to staggered terms and that will take place on this election so there'll be five constables uh the top
two finishers will be elected to a three-year term the next two to a two-year term and then the fifth place finisher to a one-year term um otherwise there are positions on the ballot for a select board school committee library trustee as well as for town meeting seats uh there are several precincts
that also have vacancies that are being filled at this election so there are short seats not the full three-year but a shortened term um otherwise there's no changes to polling locations from the November election uh for early voting uh we are recommending the same that we've recommended in past years which is a
full week from Saturday uh uh sorry April 26th through May 2nd uh from 10 to 4 on the weekends regular office hours on the weekdays and on the weekends at both the Koolage Corner Library and Putterham Library locations in in addition to town hall and finally uh
vote by the board to approve the police details for early voting and for election day and I'm sure the board will uh join me in thanking our uh incredible uh police department who always lend their assistance on these days it's always reassuring to our poll workers as
well as to our voters uh to know that we have an officer in every precinct ensuring election laws are uh followed while also lending other support uh sometimes they've helped translate uh ballots helped uh wardens move uh equipment around in the precinct as needed um they're a tremendous asset uh
for us uh in our polling locations so I'm happy to answer any questions that the board might have but those are the three votes that are before you tonight okay any questions from the board no you are pretty expl well well explained and cogent um so you want to
vote uh in omnibus fashion all three of them i'm happy to do whatever the board would like does anyone object to doing it together okay uh so I move that we approve uh um items related to the May 2025 annual town election including item
A vote to issue the warrant for the state election called for May 6 2025 b vote to approve the early voting schedule for the May 6 2025 annual town election as laid out in the memo from the town clerk that was in our packet
and C vote to authorize police details for the May 6 2025 annual town election as laid out in the memo from the town clerk all in favor please indicate by saying I john Vancoyak I michael Samman I paul Warren I david Pearlman I chair
votes I thank you very much and if the chair will allow a brief uh moment uh I will let voters know that we did send out postcards last week uh that they can use to request vote by mail ballot so make sure you get your vote by mail ballot back in we plan to send them out uh the week of April 14th we expect to
get the ballots and start mailing them on the 15th so uh make sure you get your requests in so we can send you a ballot if you'd like to vote by mail great when are we going to hear about the sticker uh oh that is an excellent question we'll have a new I voted sticker we plan to uh present the sticker uh on April
10th at the school committee meeting so uh keep an eye out and make sure you come and vote so I while you wait okay thank you next uh the bicycle network question approving contract number
PW2529 bicycle network implementation plan with KDSON and associates in 118,518 who's going to speak on that we have Amy Engles our transportation director oh right there on the screen hello Miss Engles hello good evening
everyone is and and um what you want us to do yeah sure um so the bike plan is um really um meant to be a planning document a guide uh for helping us be strategic about decisions and about where we want to have bike improvements
and that we're doing it um uh in a way that creates a connected network um that's thoughtful uh ahead of time and um it's what it isn't is a blanket approval for the recommendations to to move forward without any further evaluation or engineering or public
involvement it's definitely not what it is it's it's a it's kind of a it's it's an upgrade to the existing green routes plan which um uh was previously mentioned and what has been very helpful for us um but it it does lack in some
engineering and feasibility assessments so we're uh kind of upgrading it with those types of things as well as cost estimates uh very high level cost estimates for the recommendations and um uh priorities rankings for the recommendations so we kind of know what order uh roughly we want to do uh
certain things in and uh one really critical thing that this will help us do uh that's off that's quite preient uh with uh the uh Chesnut Hill Avenue uh proposal is um you know aligning our
efforts uh you know for pavement preservation and bike infrastructure needs and some of our other plans um way ahead of time so we have have a lot of time for public involvement um to kind of start from you know um a smaller neighborhood meeting and work our way
through up to the transportation board um we were not able to do this unfortunately with um Chestnut Hill A i think as I know the board knows and for the audience we uh you know the last year or so have been in the process of uh creating new policies for the way
that we integrate our different um initiatives uh most specifically pavement uh uh pavement preservation work and complete streets efforts um and we just got all of those policies approved I think last week um so they're brand new and so you know it takes time
to kind of um for all those things to fall in line and and really create all the efficiencies um but these policies together will help us kind of see further down the road and create more of a strategic work plan so we know what we're you know what we're trying to work
on in come in coming months and really in coming years and we'll have more time to uh sit down with the community and kind of work through um recommendations and you know uh trade-offs and things like that so um that is all to say that the you know um the Ches Hill a uh
situation was uh had to be fast because we were reacting to uh pavement uh preservation activities that need to happen this summer um so was kind of not the ideal timeline but this uh bike network plan will help us identify those timelines way ahead of time and so that
way we're not we're not uh catching ourselves in a a rushed position again mike can you So it sounds like the um this plan is actually sort of the antidote to what occurred with Chestston Hill Avenue is that a absolutely yes
okay thank you um John I think well um uh antidote uh is uh an interesting word uh I I I would think that um you know if you
think of it in terms of inoculation or vaccination um we we want that kind of planning to occur for all of our future projects so why are we going ahead with this project when clearly that kind of um planning
didn't occur is the question on my mind and that's why I have sort of come around to thinking uh it it's a very difficult choice to have to make tonight to say no to a contract that calls for a planning process that should take place
when I know that it didn't take place and there is a a very important project advancing towards approval I assume by the transportation board that got none of the benefit of the kind of planning that we're paying paying for in this
contract in the future so it's one or the other i mean if the planning and the contract are good and worth the expenditure of over $100,000 um then why is it coming along after we've already had a process for
Chestnut Hill Avenue that somehow arrived at a design for the for the street that hadn't been cleared with the neighbors of the street the residents of the street who almost to a person have signed a petition saying "We never we
never were consulted on this we don't like it we're looking for changes in it and yet there seems to be a rush towards putting these designs which are now being changed um uh putting these
designs into effect that resulted from uh no process that that drew the neighborhood in so I mean if you had to choose I don't want to put you on the spot but I guess I am you know whi which is more important that we get the planning right and approve this contract
um or that we go ahead with a street that didn't have the benefit of this this uh planning process regardless of the fact that it's already opposed by um most of the residents of the street because they had no involvement in the
in the planning process so yeah so I guess there's kind of a few questions wrapped up in there um Chestnut Hill A uh like I said we um moved on that the way that we did was uh because it's a pavement preservation project that in order to preserve the
payment uh pavement and its state um and not have it further deteriorate it needs to have this pavement preservation work done and so that presents an opportunity because we're um you know essentially putting a layer on top of the pavement uh to put pavement markings and stuff like that back differently and uh
Chestnut Hill A Chestnut Hill AB actually happens to be called out in the green routes uh bike network plan our our advocate driven plan and the um uh pretty much now finished vision zero action plan as um one of the high most
high-risk streets for crashes uh in the town and uh so those two things together made us think that we you know that this was a great opportunity to try to put some improvements some safety improvements for all all modes pedestrians bicyclists uh drivers um
into this project if we could and um you know we did try we did want to involve the community that's why we sent out the mailers i'm not sure why um the two town meeting members didn't get them uh because we definitely sent them out i looked at the list their names were on there but um maybe that was a mailing
error in the mailing system or something like that but uh we did try to you know get things out there as quick as we can and have a a meeting at the um the bicycle advisory uh committee and to try to take some feedback uh and I'm you know I do apologize if they were taken aback by something that looked like a a
ready to go plan it certainly wasn't it was just it was what we um were responding to with the um the prioritization in the uh vision zero plan most specifically needing to have um uh better accommodations for uh
pedestrians and bicyclists uh most specifically uh Paul yeah so um thank you Amy for that that explanation um and I do realize these two things are coming kind of coming together um at one time could
help could you explain how this contract would help prevent what happened with Chestnut Hill A and then I'm going to ask you a question about Chesnut Hill A but how would this be integrated with a proposal like Chestnut
Hill A um and and how would it have prevented the situation that we've had happen yeah so um the bike plan that's uh the contract that we're uh talking about now um we'll have you know uh
public involvement um to develop it we'll uh be doing some popups and some various other things with the community um probably an online uh feature like we had for the vision zero plan where people can go on a map and kind of uh you know point out things that they
would like to see or problem areas things like that we'll have a number number of different ways to engage with people uh to try to understand what their priorities are are around biking where um they feel like uh missed like missing connections are that kind of thing um so there'll be a lot of uh you
know opportunities for uh collaboration there and that will be yeah kind of the the beginning beginning piece that maybe some of the the folks on Chesh Hill Lab were looking for uh more of a um give us your ideas kind of approach rather than responding to uh an idea that was
presented before them um so that's that's one way u because it'll start with that kind of a foundation um but the plan itself once developed will also um be you know a strategy for a connected network not just we want a bike lane on this street we want a bike lane on that street um but something
that's really cohesive and that gets people to where they want to be safely um it will also kind of drill down a little bit further than the green routes uh uh current plan does and uh do some kind of higher level engineering an analysis and feasibility assessment as
to the different types of facilities that could work on a certain street um and it'll identify critical links like maybe a bridge crossing or something like that um that need to be achieved in order to make the network uh connected uh and it'll help us um uh develop a
work plan multi-year work plan because there'll be some kind of higher level um cost estimates associated with all the recommendations as well so we you know know that we're we're budgeting ahead of time we know how much roughly uh we might expect to get or at least we can plan to ask for um and having these uh
cost estimates will really help us do that uh so we can kind of map things out you know a design this year a construction the next year you know plan it all out um much ahead of time so we have time to sit with the community and and get their uh input as to what the design might look like i I really
appreciate that explanation Amy um I think the thing that it's occurred to me as I heard you speaking and I'm looking at the project name of this is that it really is um a one use view of our roadways it's called the town of Brooklyn bicycle network implementation
plan and bicycle the bicycle uh dedicated bike lanes or whatever non-dedicated bike lanes are just one component of the integrated roadway which is multimmodal which includes walking and cars um and so the I guess
the the thing that I'm uncertain of is how if if you're doing a bicycle network implementation plan you're adv you're reaching out to advocates of bicycle uh safe biking which I appreciate um the thing that seems to have been missing and is still missing in this contract
and which was missed with uh Chestnut Hill A which was already on our green roots plan is is the engagement with people who aren't riding bicycles who need parking and access so this I I actually feel like this project maybe is
illconceived because it's only one use um and it actually be it should be looking at multiple uses and thinking of our roots as multiple uses as opposed to just one oh I don't know if she wants to comment you want to comment i wanted I wanted to
ask yeah so you know we um a lot of the strategies we'll be using for public involvement um well there'll be a variety some will be a meeting that people will intentionally go to but uh we're also looking to do popups at like the farmers market or something like that so we could be talking to anyone who would want to come so it's you know
it's we're not specifically just wanting to talk to bicyclists um so that's one thing but but also um this plan will help kind of identify um in the recommendations it'll help identify trade-offs that might need to be considered and so those things will already be front of mind to us when we
come to the public to actually um start working on uh a street and coming up with what the design might look like so we will you know we'll still have that that neighborhood meeting with the abutters and and you know that's everyone's invited it won't be um we're no we're not going to be doing um that
initial meeting with the uh bicycle advisory committee um you know that'll be just for the neighborhood um so we'll kind of get that those the sense of those trade-offs there and and try to weigh them um starting at that point
John um Amy thank you very much for your answers um on this particular question and and um I I want the people viewing this to know that we have very very good people in our transportation department and change is coming change is happening
in how we view the prioritization of the spending of very very um crucial resources on our streets and I think Paul makes an excellent point it isn't all about only bike lanes um it's way
beyond that because I I don't know if you have you know counts that you can cite as to the amount of bicycle traffic on Chestnut Hill Avenue um versus the amount of car traffic um on Chestnut Hill Avenue cuz I
haven't seen them yet um and and yet the plan that's on the table until it changes um is is a plan that it seems to be aimed entirely at the bike users of the street and in fact um is a net
negative for all the residents of the street um and those residents use cars in their daily lives and they've been waiting a long time for there to be improvements to the pavement of Chestnut Hill Avenue but never no one ever told
them that not only would they have to wait years to get the street repaved and resurfaced but when it was repaved and resurfaced it would be done in such a way that flex posts would be lining bike paths on both sides of the avenue that
then interfered with their ability to maneuver their cars to the curb and I'm not going to show them tonight i'll show them if I have to at a future meeting we can go out any day and show how in their daily activities people of ch on
Chestnut Hill Avenue use the curb a lot and they would be denied that use of the curb um by the plan that was first presented to them that they had had no consultation on so if we're going to go forward with a planning process that
embraces the needs of the residents of streets and embraces car users on streets that's going to be good for bicyclists too because one of the major hazards to bicyclists um is broken pavement and bad
pavement and poor pavement especially when it is on the area parts of the road that are to the side where bike lanes tend to be so we'll be helping everyone if we do these streets right but this plan maybe is too narrow in its focus
and by the way it's not the first time we've done a narrowly focused plan the existing plan is from 2022 you know that's only three years ago and it was an update of a plan that was done in 2008 so this would be our
third plan in a row that is focused solely on the bike lanes and not the crucial need to have repaved streets on a regular basis david had stand up first yes first of all unless I missed it once again I
don't see the exhibits that are referenced in the proposed contract for our vote and scope of services is exhibit A and if you read section two for scope of services it references exhibit A which we don't have so it's
not entirely clear what scope of services would actually entail uh beyond that I uh definitely agree with the point raised by Paul and echoed by John regarding the need to look at transportation in a multimodal manner
not just in terms of bicycles because if we truly want integrated networks that includes various forms of transportation uh we've heard a lot of concerns during public comment about pursuing this project at this particular
time uh I have some concerns about the process about who was reached out to i understand what Miss Engles is saying regarding uh that anyone's welcome at these meetings of course but if your sole focus is on bicycle lanes then it's
unclear if you're really getting some balanced input about how to integrate everything also Miss Engle's reference that part one of the values of proceeding with this contract would be to identify potential barriers around uh
safety such as whether we need to build a bridge who would pay for this bridge and so to a point that uh I understand that was just a hypothetical example uh but John had mentioned at our last workshop that when we are voting on
contracts to pursue studies of something we need to have some kind of understanding of what is the purpose of the study what will it lead to in a practical sense how much money will be expected as an expenditure down the road if we pursue a study and I'm reluctant
to support a six-f figureure expenditure for a study if we don't have the money available at the end of the study to actually pursue what is proposed i think we need to be very careful about how many plans we undertake and whether we
have the money to actually pursue the plans i don't think we should be in the business of planning for the sake of planning if there's not going to be the ability to execute uh and also do we have any data currently indicating that
Cheson Hill Avenue is high priority for uh changes are there a lot of accidents at Ches Hill Avenue have a lot of bicyclists been injured on Ches Hill Avenue uh Mike so um a number of things first of all I'm certainly not going to defend
um the original plan that came out on Chestnut Avenue i I had originally thought that thought about viewing the ballots concept favorably but I I've changed my mind i think I've I've John and I had an interesting exchange about that and I
must say he convinced me um I think that um it's it's certainly true that this is a study about the bicycle network there is broadly speaking a vision zero plan in the community which seeks the purpose of a vision zero plan is to seek to
eliminate uh fatalities and serious accidents and if you look at Chestnut Hill Avenue um it's there aren't bicycle accidents on Chestnut Avenue not very many bicyclists at all on Chesn Hill Avenue i know I biked it um and although I will say that there was some
suggestions that Fiser a be used as an alternative and I defy anybody who says that to uh try and bicycle up Fischer Avenue but uh the uh the um the vision zero plan includes
uh a number of provisions for both cars well for cars pedestrians cyclists and other kinds of wheeled vehicles there all sorts of you know we have scooters of various sorts and so forth so this is I I I would hope that you would view this as one component of the various
studies that have occurred we t we we listen to the uh the superb presentation by the DPW on its plans and in our offsite we listen to and I think we're very favorably impressed by the integrated approach to repaving planning
and all of that is part and parcel of the same process um this you know this particular uh contract feeds into it it doesn't it doesn't occur in isolation it's part of the whole package of things that we uh
that we all talked about and that we all heard from uh the DBW um with regard to the point about studying spending money on a study and then not having money to pay for it later well we've had you know we have uh what um millions tens of millions of dollars of deferred
maintenance on on streets that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be planning and are planning in fact on a program to gradually catch up uh so you never have the money right then and there for something that needs to be done in the future uh uh over a long period of time
and I think that's what this kind of a uh of a contract would um would contemplate so again I don't I don't think you want to make the I said to you earlier that this was the antidote to what happened on Chestnut Avenue i don't think you want to make the an improvement in the planning
process the victim of a screwup on one particular street that was the consequence of not following the process that would probably emerge from this well just one followup and this is it's helpful really helpful um to hear this
conversation and this is for Amy um Amy the Let's put Chestnut Hill aside for a minute and you're going to go through this and this it appears like it's it's a scope right it's identifying potential scope
and and connections of bike lanes um which if you hadn't done Chestnut Hill the way you had done before um Chestnut Hill would might show up in this report as as being a connection my question is
when when will the design work be done as a result of this plan for any particular road and will that have proactive notification of a butters and community engagement for all modalities
including biking pedestrian automobiles parking yes absolutely um so this uh bike network plan is kind of um a road map to help us uh plan out uh break out the work plan over a number of of years
really months and years and so as we um take on a specific project a specific street um a specific uh uh intersection um you know we'll have some idea of what infrastructure will work uh might or might work um in those locations from
the bike network plan but as far as an actual design we'll do those you know one at a time and that's when we would bring in the community to um to figure out all of the different uses of the street um and just kind of the more specific um
uh trade-offs that you know we we may need to consider um and hear you know hear how people use the street and how they want to see um what they might want to see in the future so I have one follow-up question Bernard and I promise I'm done so um if if Chestnut Hill was was not on
wasn't done and ch and this process started this proposal um h Would Chestnut Hill have shown up as a result of this plan as being in scope even though you're hearing so much push back from um it sounds like a
dedicated bike lane with flex post on Chesn Hill A is not a supported project by at least this these this particular set of abutters in in in the community in this area would would would this process that you're going through
have kept that project as a bike route off or would it have just said it's a bike route but it might be a shared a chevron versus uh you know flex post do you understand my question i think so so if if the you know um if there had been
no you know public process or no mention of the the project at Chesnut Hill a would that be would Chesnut Hill a be in the the bike plan is that what you're saying yeah would Chestnut Hill AB still would it show up in this this new scope of uh this new connected bike uh network
as saying this is where we we would like a bike path um would would it have shown up likely shown up in the as a result of this report well it's hard to say um because you know the part of the development of the bike network plan would be um you
know field visits uh talking to the talking to the public lots of you know different data collection um stuff that we haven't you know necessarily uh done for all the streets that we want to look at it's I think it would definitely be one that uh the team the staff team and
consultant would look at um just you know kind of by looking at a map it does connect to a lot of things it's a good north south corridor um so just kind of at that first flush it would be of interest um but if you know we dove into creating this network and the public
involvement and that public involvement showed that you know that folks really didn't want something like that there then you know that would that would um you know be considered in the development of the the network so it's it's hard for me to say that for sure
but I think it would be discussed okay so I think what what I hear you saying is even though a road like Chestnut Hill may show up on a report like this it does not mean that we're committing to building that infrastructure on that roadway we're saying it's a target and it's within it it it could be part of
the network but we'd still have to go through the community engagement to see specifically how it would be designed and whether it be a raised bike lane or parking eliminated or not that's my question i'm hearing that being on the report doesn't mean it's automatically going to be done i I I just I just do
want to mention that Chester Hill Avenue has a bike bike bike lanes marked they're fog lines currently there's already a bike lane there it's not a matter of sharers the road is is far wider than it needs to be to uh for or let's put it a different way the road is
wide enough so that you can accommodate a bike it already exists okay chess um I just want to flag D to David's point and again I apologize for this this is something that we will follow up on and work on so this is a form contract um
that we have and it makes reference to exhibits A through D um because it's a form contract not all of those are included all the time and in this instance what you what it's referred to as exhibit A is this preamble scope outline and budget estimate i believe this document here so that's your scope
of work and then exhibit C which is the hourly rates is the last page of that scope the budget breakdown talks about the hourly rates there but then the area of work which is exhibit B and the specific technical specifications in exhibit D those aren't a part of this broader um they aren't a part of the
specific agreement they they aren't um I don't believe they're part of the specific agreement and so they're omitted but I apologize we you know we use these you know standard language contracts and then we include these to be interpreted as as you know right to be incorporated into it but we've got to
be clear when we present them to you on what those exhibits are so I apologize for that sorry thank you john do you recall offh hand um how much we spent on the 2022 update of the green roots master plan i'm going to guess it must have
been something close to this amount right thousand I 100,000 or more you know I'm not sure because it uh there was not a consultant involved it was um like I say mostly driven by the um the advocates uh by school advisory
committee um they produced the the document and you know I'm sure that staff um collaborated and provided input and stuff i uh I can't I was not here so I can't speak exactly but yeah I I I didn't mean to put you on the spot my my bigger point is people should consult
the Brooklyn um green roots master plan uh update of 2022 um they will find that it is a very substantial document with very clear plans in it for streets that should be protected one way and a different way
and a different way again um and in 20 I'm looking at page 11 and Chestnut Hill Avenue is on the 2022 plan as a protected bike lane which by the way I don't have any quarrel with that but
presumably um the kind of process that is envisioned under this hund and some odd thousand contract is the process that should have taken place after Chestnut Avenue was identified as a
target for a protected bike lane in 2022 and should have embraced the residents of the street and should have included data on how many bicyclists actually use Chestnut Hill Avenue versus how many cars use Chestnut Hill Avenue
versus what is the daily use of Chestnut Hill Avenue by the residents of Chestnut Hill Avenue um and so if none of that took place and I I you know I I really can't see any evidence that it did and all of a sudden we came up with a design
for a protected bike lane with flex post on Chestnut Hill Avenue just because it was identified as a you know target for a protected bike lane in a 2022 study then we're not doing it right and I think we've got to pause Chestnut Hill
Avenue until we figure out how to do it right maybe this contract will get us to a better place as to how to do it right but I agree with Paul until the contract specifies that this is not just for the sole purpose of imagining protected bike
lanes wherever we think you know there might want bicyclists might want to have a protected bike lane but rather is for the better planning of the street for all the users of the street um I I'm just not comfortable that we need this contract and that we need this further
study the 2022 update of the bikeways greenways master plan goes over most of the ground that is gone over in the description of this contract uh Amy did you want to respond um I mean I
sorry if not David had his hand up just a followup to what John was saying how different would this study be from the 2022 one why is the 2022 one already rendered obsolete yeah so um like I said there that's a
good foundation it's um it was made by uh advocates and it was primarily yes focused on on bikes and more or less um we used it as kind of I don't know to put it as I guess a a casual term kind of a wish list like this is these are the the streets that they were
interested in that they thought made a good connected network um that they prioritized it was their priorities we get um documents and and various things like that from other committees we you know that focus on like for example the pedestrian advisory committee has uh
come up with lots of documents that focus on pedestrians and what pedestrians need and want and aren't you know talking about parking or any other modes because they're the pedestrian advisory committee and that's focused on their goals and so that's what this that's what that document is it's it's a
advocates document about their goals um but you know it doesn't have any engineering or feasibility assessment some of the recommendations and I'm not saying this default them by any stretch but some of them uh recommend um
protected bike lanes on a street where there just it's like literally not possible there just is not enough width within the ride ofway um so we you know we couldn't we couldn't carry out that recommendation you know so that those are the types of things that I'm trying to uh to that we want to do with this
this bike plan um that has will have engineering input um just you know some more detailed stuff like that cost estimates and prioritization uh those those are the main three things well yeah just a conclusion because I this we need to land this ship um yeah
so I um I'm really torn about this um and I I appreciate Mike's comment that this is just a component of a lot of other components of what we're trying to do with the public way i do I do worry that um this is specifically targeting
more advocates for for for cycling which I appreciate but feasibility and supportability by the community is also um needed to we need to understand that and then and I think that means also getting people that that have other um
needs of the roadway that may that may need to share the the cycle cycle track or cycling And so I wonder Amy is it possible to maybe take bring this back uh later with a modification to explicitly call out that public
engagement will include um the concept of where feasible parking what the implications may be like having having people that just take Chestnut Hill A um instead of just one use we're we're going to invite people to to come that
aren't just advocates for cycling but also perhaps folks that are concerned about parking for a whole host of reasons or or other things that might have to go on with the public way i just I want it expand I want it broadened so it's not just we're not just reaching out to advocates of cycling is that is that reasonable is
that screwed this project up too much i guess what I'm No um no I think um I think it's it's difficult because of the level of the planning document it's looking at the entire town and so
it would be hard to do that in a way that's comprehensive over the entire town you know we might get that kind of feedback about Chest on Hill or you know some other street because those are the people who we happen to be able to excuse me uh to connect with but you know there are a lot of other places
where trade-offs um would need to be considered just the same but maybe we don't end up connecting with those people for one reason or another but the way the way so anam a way this would be what I asked for would im impact what you're doing is there's an online survey there is I
suspect the way this project is currently defined there wouldn't be a question about how important is parking on your street or would you be willing to give up parking in order to have a a cycling lane right this would be where would you prioritize cycling how important is it for you to have cycling
do you feel safe on this road without a dedicated bike lane so I think how you come at the framing of this project is really important in in in the types of questions that you're going to ask in a survey or even in some workshops you know in a workshop if it's only about
cycling you're not going to have a a a a you know post-it pad that says parking issues right it just wouldn't exist in that workshop but when you are considering multimmodal uh for for uh Brookline completely I think you would
have something about parking and pedestrian so I I a part of me wants this to be more of a a multimodal townwide uh scoping project than just a cycle tracking connections that's kind of that's where I'm at and I'm for me tonight I'm just not comfortable approving this i just have to What do
other people think about floating this uh well first of all I I think it's not it's not going to pass as it is so uh let's figure out what what what yeah what is and I think Paul raised a really good uh point and um there needs to be
some you need I think the staff needs to take it back take a look at it and not try and boil the ocean not try and do a plan for the entire town actually I mean DPW has given us a street plan for the entire town after all but rather take a look at how this particular piece of
work can be better integrated with the other aspects other than I think that's a perfectly reasonable uh approach to take Amy can u can you do that and and how soon
um I think we can take this back and uh I will talk with my team and commissioner of course and uh the consultants and try to focus something that's responsive to to those concerns any other uh thoughts in terms of what
we want to uh ask them to focus on well if I may yeah yeah i I if I could you know have my wish my wish would be that essentially the amount of money that was to have been spent on this contract uh
as I say $100,000 plus dollars um if if if knowing what we now know about the changed approach that we're going to take towards catching up with the dire need to to deal with pavement issues all
over town knowing that how would we spend $110,000 uh or hundred whatever it is thousand dollar um to best advance uh and make progress on the repaving
program as quickly and as efficiently as possible i don't think we need another bike planning document um I just realized that in addition to the 2008 and 2022 versions of this plan the you know the green roots plan there was a
2018 uh plan for for bike networks in in Brooklyn so um we're we're not really getting all that many protected bike lanes in in Brooklyn despite all the planning we're doing for them and the
reason is first of all you know bicycling is pretty um a pretty low-level activity compared to the 17,000 cars that use Chestnut Hill Avenue every day and you know maybe we have to tilt a little bit more in the
direction of a plan that is primarily focused on smoothing the pavement all over town for bicyclists for cars and while we're doing that deal with improving of intersections those are the most
dangerous places for bicycles um but we don't need another plan um that results in more proposals for more you know bike lanes with flex posts or contraflow bike lanes or you know these kinds of bike lanes that um are popular with with
planners but don't seem to attract all that many bicyclists and come at a great price to people who you know are accustomed to using access to the curb on a on a daily basis okay so I guess we're not going to vote
on this um and Amy's gonna come back with some additional thoughts bernard I do think it's important that that that the board give her a sense of whether she should bring it back john just said "Don't bring it back." Right and I and I and I want to make sure
we're not like putting a I don't necessarily think we should be putting a a fork in it i I understand I understand what you're saying read the 2020 plan and then I completely I complet one second one second I completely understand what you're saying I just am very sensitive to Amy and staff and she
just heard two different messages one was you know expand the scope to consider other things for the the road network um and she heard don't do it and I just want to make sure saying well I'm saying uh yeah don't do it in the sense
of we don't need I don't think we need all that much more planning you know we've got plans plans plans plans what we haven't had is pavement pavement pavement pavement and Chestnut Hill Avenue is a mess can I road at the at
the Boston line is a mess and it's kind of crazy that we're always appropriating more money for the next plan and we're way behind on on getting these streets simply getting them repaid mike and then So uh I do think Amy made one point that
I think is very important john I I I I think you're missing it um which is that the document that was done in 2022 was put together by bicycle advocates it wasn't done by professionals who could say "Well it'd be great to put a bike lane on the street but it's just not wide enough." Uh and so let's leave that
out so this isn't an effort to professionalize what was done by those people uh and um if you look at the total amount of money that needs to be spent and it is being spent on streets um you certainly want to spend it uh in
the most you know in a way that provides as I said something that that supports the vision zero concept that um supports safety for everybody including vehicles including cars including uh pedestrians i don't think that the $118,000 makes a
a dent in what's available to do that once you have good professional evaluation of what you want to be doing so I I think Wall's concept is right on and uh I hope that that's what we agree to do or that that's what Amy takes away
as the uh as our sense hey David i take Mike's earlier point about the importance of having phased plans uh it's just I want to make sure it's a phased plan that we will actually be in a position to execute and I accept
John's point that we don't need to be having plan after plan after plan i understand that uh the other committees prior may have been primarily composed of uh bicycle advocates who didn't necessarily have the professional
technical expertise around feasibility but I trust our staff to be able to identify as Miss Engles just did well this proposal clearly can't get off the ground because of XYZ but these other ones we could pursue and so I don't really see the point to just identifying
for the third time in under 10 years where we should have bike plans uh I think look at what's already been created and integrate that for with a through a multimodal lens as Paul is suggesting if we're going to have a multimodal transportation plan for the
whole town that I think would be worth pursuing but just another bikes only plan when we've had several of those already doesn't seem like a wise way to spend finite resources could I make Hey Amy could you um respond to that
um yeah I so I think you know I I think I've I've said what the what the the benefits of uh an engineering and feasibility um assessment uh would be part of this
uh the the bike plan and what the differences are uh compared to the the green routes plan and it's its previous iterations were literally just updates based on you know maybe there's a new development or maybe Boston installed a new bike lane on our border so small
small changes not like whole new plans so um it's really just been the same plan more or less the whole time uh of course update it if we ever did uh build something but um I think that yeah what this really
helps us do is prioritize for one um which are the streets that are most important um and uh the cost estimates are really um a major component of this as well um I hear what you're saying and I think
um making a multimodal plan you know uh I think it would be I think it would be difficult i you know you just don't really see a lot of precedent for that out there um often plans do have kind of a not narrow focus but a specific goal
in mind and then you know our jobs as engineers are is to take all of those those goals and try to find um with the help of the public of course uh to find uh a balance you know u like we've done with all our public process on Washington Street um there there's a lot
going on we don't have a lot of space to do it within but um we want to know the goals of the various uh people involved in the various uses and this is one way to um kind of clarify um and ground truth uh the bike goals
okay i I heard Amy say that she can come back at a future date uh addressing some of the issues not all but some of the issues that the select board has raised uh Paul yeah I didn't I actually heard no i heard uh this is going to be a bike plan we're not going to do a multimodal
plan um and this is what you know so I I I'm I'm inclined to just not support the contract um and at a future date if we can come back with a plan for multimodal I would support it but this plan I'm I'd like to move no action david I agree
with Paul if we're not going to have a multimodal plan then what's the point of having more siloed efforts and I've brought this up in other contexts to have one plan that's only looking at the interests of bicycle advocates another plan that only looks at the interests of
pedestrians another one at traffic another one at this at that and the other at some point you have to integrate them and if you're not integrating from the start that seems very inefficient and then it just becomes a contest of which committee which study has the most momentum behind
it or the uh greatest return on investment potential in terms of receiving state funds or I would rather that we take the approach that we integrate from the start i think that would be far more efficient and effective and if that's not the
direction staff is comfortable in going in then I agree we shouldn't be pursuing this particular study further uh yes give us some direction here i ultimately it is the decision of the board um and I think well the decision
of the board is not right and that's that's fine so I think you know I think Amy has said right the the how this tends to work in practice is that we we we do by virtue of how these things operate either we can either look at specific projects at a multimotal level
or we can look at the broader picture of if what we want is you know protected bike transportation townwide what does that look like as a practical matter and then we take that into consider we take that plan into consideration when balancing out what projects do we select
how do we plan multimotally in those instances i think that's what's being said here so but I take your point i I think it's I what I and if the board is saying that's not the approach we want to take that's fine i should we we can either reject the contract or just not vote we can I and I would suggest you
not vote and you know give give us time to come back and discuss the rationale for it but not necessarily keep going keep going back to the well with something that you with an approach that you don't you fundamentally don't agree with I don't think that's a good use of your time or staff's time just just to
to save us a whole lot of time because what you just said was your direction to have them come back and see if they can convince us some more i would just I would like to move no action on the contract and then and then if they want to go back and create a new contract or a different scope bring it back but this contract no I'd like to just move no I'm
sorry David I just want to offer the example of the comprehensive planning committee so that is broad in scope looking at land use and to me that's a much more appropriate approach for the issues we're facing in almost any capacity and there can certainly be
subcommittees within that but I think if you're not considering all factors and interests from the outset you're just going to have competing studies later on that don't produce anything well I I take your point however I would say the comprehensive plan is a three-year
process hundreds of thousands of dollars and at the end of it it produces zero actual zoning the actual zoning that's going to come out of the comp plan is an entirely different process so I do I take your point i do but I think you do
run the risk of saying if we want it all then you risk inertia right i think that was the concern that people raised about the comp plan in the first place and I think the comp plan committee has done a really good job avoiding that by demonstrating that no the comp plan is not an excuse for no action it is a
broad roadmap towards future action but if all we say is we want the best we want a full comprehensive analysis of this or nothing we may get nothing okay so um Paul why don't you make a motion and we'll see what happens
um and I'm trying to be very respectful of staff i you know I I'm trying to send up smoke signals that bring back a multim the answer is no you're saying that we we should vote no action as opposed to well just not taking it up um
if if staff will hear the message that that we want a more comprehensive review of of multiple uses on the roadway as part of this plan then we don't have to make a motion just say we hear that we'll bring back something different but what Amy said is no we're not going to do multimoldo we're going to bring only
a bicycle uh that's that's what I heard so I'm not sure what to do with that so I think maybe what you do is you move no action on this for now that we if if come back if staff staff has heard your direction we want something more multiball so I move no action if we if we can do that we will if we can't we'll
explain why okay okay so So we're killing this contract for now for now what do you mean for now well I mean yes yes you're killing this we will no it's not coming back in this we hear you okay um then I'll move uh what
am I moving no john Paul just moved it okay all in favor of no action uh John Voyak hi michael Sandman abstain paul Warren hi david Corman hi and chair is going to abstain too okay so we've
killed the contract thank you we can bring it back next week all right zombie contract thank you okay thank you Amy uh next departmental budget reviews um we're going to start off with the
library um I think the interim director Danielle Seven is going to be speaking is that true um actually um the interim director is under the weather is still online with us but um the interim deputy director Ryan Brennan is online and will be presenting
and we've asked you to among other things focused on focus on our goals and objectives and um whether there is anything in your in in your area that uh speaks to them
great i just want to Ryan Brandon thank you um can everybody hear me okay yep okay um so I just want to thank uh select board for allowing me to um discuss the library's budget for fiscal year 26 uh my name is Ryan Brennan i'm the interim assistant director um I also
want to recognize we have a number of trustees on the call tonight um I want to thank them for being here and just for being such great stewards of the library and being really supportive of library staff um you know as in past years the library has been very busy this year um I do also want to recognize
that we've faced some internal challenges at the library um and um you know we have a new workflow at our Brooklyn Village location after installing an automated materials handler in July um we've also seen a bit of turnover with 12 full-time positions and 14 part-time positions um so change
is normal in any workplace but I I do want to acknowledge that um take a toll on staff uh we continue to operate all three of our locations though uh for 63 hours a week seven days a week um during this transition time um so yeah I wanted to um this is
library for fiscal year 24 by the numbers i'll try to give you a little bit of context on some of these um so we welcomed 546,000 visitors in fiscal year 24 which um was up from 470,000 the previous fiscal year um or about a 16%
increase in our art traffic um we circulated over 814,000 physical materials which remains the fourth highest in the Commonwealth um additionally um we've circulated over 243,000 ebooks and audio books which is an increase of
over 16 a.5% um and we've offered over 1400 programs with 32,000 people in attendance which was actually a 23% increase from the previous fiscal year of 26,000 um and we met all of our annual goals and completed four action
items so these are um some of the action items that we um completed in fiscal year 24 so the first was um implementing some results and recommendations from a diversity audit of our collection the previous year um that included a survey for the public um and a resource
document for our professional librarians to um help increase our collection diversity um we also developed a number of program opportunities for neurodyiverse patrons um this included sensory story times we've had silent book clubs um we also expanded access to
the library at Brooklyn's public housing community um this included outreach from our librarians um you know going over electronic resources and discussing with residents um what it's available to them um and then we also continued to um deliver library materials to homebound
patrons um and I think is evident um about the kind of folks that live in Brooklyn is initially when we started we had more volunteers that wanted to deliver um materials than signups um that's evened out since but um that's been great as well
um so our fiscal year 25 objectives that are um in our strategic plan um we going to continue to support K through2 education and lifelong learning um focusing on steam so science technology engineering the arts and math and also literacy um continue to partner with
organizations in Brookline and beyond to increase the reach of library collections programs and services um especially to those who are unfamiliar with what the library does um and implementing librarywide strategy for equity and inclusion that will include deliberate practices to increase
diversity both within the organization and in our collections programs and services and to increase opportunities for citizens to engage with library staff collections programs and services without having to to visit any of our locations um some of the action items that we have
in progress for the current fiscal year is we're organizing an art walk um that's going to coincide with Brookline Village Arts Festival on May 3rd um and we'll start at both our Koolage Corner and Brookline Village locations um we're working on some after hours programming at the library um we've got a trivia
night planned for Koolage Corner and um some programming for the kiddos at Brookline Village um we've also been promoting our library resources and digital resources all year long um in social media by doing outreach um doing some instruction as well and then we're
also um working on a collection strategy and a policy for our library of things collection um for now and going forward um I want to talk a little bit about library certification um so in order to be certified by MBLC um we have
to meet a number of requirements each fiscal year um so we have to meet the municipal appropriation requirement which requires um us to fund our library collections at 12% of our budget um meet a number of minimum standards for free public library service which includes
our open hours um for each year and then we also fill out um an annual report um and additional forms to show compliance and then with that we get state aid um which is about $100,000 among other benefits like our delivery system and
things like that um and the municipal appropriation requirement um what that is is the average of three years um of our municipal appropriation by 2 and a half% um and the fiscal year 26 budget is a mo
modest increase but it does um fund the library to meet the municipal appropriation requirement and that's all I've got but I'm happy to answer any questions you may have great thank you pardon me i thought that was nicely done
yes I agree i I do have two questions though um in building maintenance uh I assume building maintenance is performed by the building department but there's a um amount in your budget for
$30,153 for building maintenance is that I assume your building maintenance is greater than that do you offend what pardon me is it custodial maybe i don't know i don't know i'm asking yeah um so it does the funding does go to the
buildings department for the maintenance um Daniel let me know some of that is is custodial um requirements and update there you know where where possible right you know because of the way that state funding works some of the library budget is some
of the budget for that money amount is covered in the library budget and some of it is covered as part of the building department's budget okay um how you're going you're going to be uh suffering cuts from federal through the
state federal sources through the state is how is that going to impact the library in ways that uh um people will see um so the biggest impacts I think it'll have is um on our commonwealth catalog um which is largely funded by federal
funding um so what the Commonwealth catalog is it's outside of our our regular library network that allows um patrons across the Commonwealth basically to get materials um from anywhere in the state so um a good example is academic materials from um
universities in Massachusetts and those sorts of things um that's largely funded by that um the other thing is our statewide database resources um which I believe we had 9 million more than 9 million full text downloads of articles last year and that's largely um used by
our schools in the Commonwealth about 60% of the usage is from the schools um along with that so the actual state aid is funded um in the state budget and under statute but um a lot of the folks that administer the program at the Massachusetts Board of Library
Commissioners are at least partially funded um by federal funding um and lastly I think the other impact would be um federal funding broadly um widely funds LEA which stands for library ebooks and audio books which is a
statewide initiative that allows our citizens to access any of the ebook consortiums in the state so that would include Boston um that includes you know the libraries on the Southshore and everywhere in the Commonwealth um we're able to access those ebook collections
from all those networks um and it also gives us additional funding um network level to do some initiatives with our ebooks including like world languages and um diversifying our collection so I think that's um obviously there's a lot
up in the air but those are kind of the biggest um impacts that we expect and it would start next fiscal year thank you uh Paul y thank you uh thank you for the presentation i have two questions the first is related to um compensation so
uh the libraries went through a period of challenging retention period I think um and part of that was compensation i noticed that your I mean your budget's actually completely flat um in total but also specifically with compensation i'm curious h how are we doing with
retention how are we able to keep compensation flat where I think every other department um in in town is getting some 2% or something um so I would say primarily with having so many new staff um you know they start at the first step in most cases so I
think that has to do with um no real increase there um and you know also waiting on contract negotiations of course okay and then my second question relates to um uh the libraries being
used as cooling centers during heat emergencies um I I believe and I could be wrong here i'm asking that uh if there's a heat emer heat emergency outside of the operating hours of the libraries the libraries are not made
available as cooling centers is that true uh that's true at this point yes so I you know um I guess my ask would be and this is probably more for Chaz that um you know the libraries are really a critical place I think given that you know given that they are distributed
throughout throughout the town um and you know what what would we need to do to make them accessible for uh for as cooling centers during the heat emergencies that we seem to be increasingly having i'll speak with the um emergency management team on that okay because I I
assume we'd have to staff them someone would have to be in the building that's right right which is one area right well but I think and money to to staff them that is part of it um but I I also think there may be some mechanical concerns there but I'm not sure so let me take that back to the emergency management team and I will get back to you okay
thank you uh David I have a couple questions and so the youth services sub program to what extent do you uh integrate those services andor coordinate with the public schools of Brooklyn um so yeah our our youth services
librarians um coordinate with them in a number of ways so um they do a lot of school tours a lot of um you know creating library cards for students all at the same time to make sure um they know what's available there and that they can you know use us after school um and also we you know we get the summer
reading lists from the schools every year and make sure that we um we have everything in the collection and then some to make sure they're available for students um you know we've also in the past year started um increasing the size of our decodables collection to kind of
support literacy curriculum in the schools um so we've added a significant number of materials there um so yeah I would say those those are some of the the biggest ways all right thank you and my other question is regarding the tools
library so you referenced that uh in the introductory section that you have are there any a lot of people of course are aware that libraries are where you find books and to an extent movies and DVDs as well they don't necessarily expect that you can rent tools and I think
that's a great resource we have are there any other innovations that the libraries are looking at um so I mean we circulate a number of other um you know pieces of technology or library of things items i think the other big ones for us are um hotspots to
kind of increase internet access um and also you know Chromebooks and other um technology that folks might not be able to access otherwise um you know we're always kind of looking for new things that we think would be helpful and effective for the public so for example
um within the last year we added um CO2 detectors air quality monitors um that we got with a grant from the um National Network Libraries of Medicine um so yeah we're always looking for items that might be prohibitively expensive or things that citizens might use once or
twice um and try to kind of focus a lot of their efforts in that way if it's a high value item like a Chromebook for instance do you have any policy to ensure its return that goes beyond the
policy for um books or is it the same um for Chromebooks it's the same um for something like the tool library there is a waiver that is initially um built out just once the first time somebody accesses it all right thank you okay any other
questions not here okay um Okay thank you thank you next human resources and benefits uh I see an is approaching the podium good evening everyone my name is Ann
Braga i'm the HR director for the town of Brooklyn i'm here to present the fiscal 26 HR budget and following that Melissa will provide information on the personnel benefits component so just an overview of
employee demographics um at the end of 2019 we have the the circular um pie chart that shows our gender diversity as well as our racial diversity followed by the
grid for our 2024 and 2023 employees i do want to note that much of the increase from 23 to 24 reflects the change for the part-time library employees to go from a part-time
non-benefited role to being represented by ASME so um while they may not receive benefits um they are covered under a collective bargaining agreement um which will be negotiated shortly
uh one of the things that was discussed when we provided information on the demographics earlier in the year was a a question around what is a good retention rate and I think Paul asked that question um earlier so I did some some
research on that and any retention rate under 10% in the in the public sector where it is something that is um not related to retirement um is good and obviously the lower the better as
far as retention goes um based on removing the retirees from our 12.9 or 13.2% 2% turnover rate we are at uh a little under 8% or a little under
9% I'm sorry uh as far as turnover for nonretirees so that would be folks who move um or change positions as well as those who might have been either discharged or left service for another reason
the next uh in response to the questions that were provided the top activities for fiscal 25 um I will note that we are are and have been busier than ever um with job reclassifications the new process that
we outlined for departments to do that as well as looking at reviewing and streamlining our new hire process in order to reduce our time to hire and an extensive amount of time in coaching and counseling managers and employees on a variety of issues not
always uh disciplinary in nature but being able to support employees or managers in being able to uh improve both the performance of their division or part of the organization as well as just addressing issues that employees
might have come up during the year for fiscal 26 we do have um an expectation to be able to continue the work from the current year and develop and implement an exit interview process for employees
leaving town service um as well as continuing our policy and benefits review particularly getting um moving and expanding on the harassment policy which we did in 2024 and looking at our
IT policies particularly around um AI and some of those tools that are coming out um so that we have a vetted process and we are working with Fong Yang in IT to be able to um both beta test some of
those as well as um make sure that that the policies are reflective of of current state of affairs where have we been and where are we going i'm not going to go through all of these but this is in in four areas
classification and compensation we are at about 90% or more in the override funded class and comp review and upgrades um we have dealt with ripple effects um looked at internal and external equity um we are now working
through the DPW class and pay review um and as part of our collective bargaining processes looking at comparator analysis um training and development we are expanding our use of our new
learning management system which is NEOGVL learn and continuing our collaboration with um a variety of stakeholders and employees and departments um across a a broad array of
issues including um our review of language access for um our policies um and then um just a repeat on on the policy notation on what we're looking to be able to do in the
next year uh investigations just a update on these we had uh 15 unique investigations last calendar year and as of early March we were at four for this
year this does not include repeated complaints about or by the same person fiscal 26 budget there really isn't much that's different we are uh on the receiving end of the transfer of the generalist or investigator position from
town council's office um to assist with both HR duties as well as investigations as they come in um to expand our our bandwidth for complex investigations and if we were to have sort of a a I don't want to say a run on
the process but if we have multiple complaints going on at the same time Our budget also reflects the additional costs for two cell phones and um corrected funding for applicant tracking software and a replacement of a
COVID loaner laptop new activities increased investigation proc capacity the exit interview process and continued expansion of NEOGV other budget considerations
related to what we look at um is vacation leave liabilities exceeding $4 million with uh the value of vacation exceeding the vacation caps being about 2.3 million um and that is uh 160
employees that are benefit eligible are over their um vacation cap as defined either by town policy or for collective bargaining agreements comp time is valued at um $2 million for police
department only um and just a not notice on sick time because all employees receive a maximum of $5,000 upon separation that valuation would be $3.5 million if everyone were to
um go out at the same time just a notation um for police and fire those additional stipens on a pr-rated basis when people leave whether it's for retirement or to pursue another position include Quinn and Asher um and we are
continuing to work with departments and unions to have employees work on their use of acred time um to both improve well-being for our employees as well as reduce injuries um long-term
goals continue to work on making Brookline an employer of choice through our policies and development for employees improving the new hire experience including reducing time to hire um there are more and more in the
the current market where employees or applicants go from applying interview job offer sometimes within a week i don't know that we in the public sector can meet that kind of
um time frame and we are looking to improve our support for employees and managers across a diverse array of topics and then one of the last questions that you asked is what if so no holds barred ideal world um look at
provide continuing services to employees and managers through dedicated staff technology integrating technology solutions so right now a lot of our technology um is from a variety of different um software
and programs they don't always talk to each other and having staff bandwidth to develop and implement more transformational HR policies and programs and just a thank you to our incredible staff Leslia Jennifer Kayla
Tim and Kimi for all that they do um where we support both town and school for many functions as well as retirees and active employees and I will take your questions thank you very
helpful any questions uh David I noticed that for FY26 there's the addition of an investigator to the HR department uh and that wasn't present from FY23 through 25 can you elaborate on the need for that
the role of the investigator so if if you go back to the slide on investigations you'll see um a significant increase through several of the years um and what I tried to identify is the complexity so an
investigation some folks might think it's just one one individual issue related to one person and what we're seeing is more complex issues and more individuals who are involved um either
as witnesses or um were either the objects of the investigation um and so the the time commitment to do do the investigation appropriately um has been taking uh more bandwidth and so
this was a conversation in the previous fiscal year about where that investigator would be housed and the initial discussion in fiscal 25 was to have the investigator housed in town council's office um with a additional
review and discussion with town administrator's office is putting that that investigator um position in the uh HR office i know that you've had conversations with uh Joe Kalan around the municipal hearing
officer so an original plan was to have a combination investigator municipal hearing officer and so we've we've made a bit of a pivot to be able to address those issues in different ways will this investigator also collaborate on the school side HR
um I don't know that we have with this investigator that the um school HR investigations will be handled by this investigator i think that's a conversation for a later date and potentially around shared services
between town and schools yeah I will say that share the shared services conversation is accelerating at least on our end so wherever possible we would like to be helpful to the schools and do this and Ann and I have had those conversations joe and I have had those conversations i think we're furthest
along with town council and that's probably where we're going to see things move hopefully first again in partnership with the schools so it requires us to have that that conversation as part of town school partnership um but HR is close behind there and we want to take it we want to evaluate what the services are over
there currently and how they're going uh Paul thank you an um a quick question uh under salaries there's a line item called offset yes could you describe what that is sure um so part of what we
do in townside HR includes injured on duty and workers compensation health insurance and unemployment compensation and those have specific funds within the town budget and so half of Leslia's the assistant HR director's um salary is
covered under the workers comp account because she directly supervises the leave and disability specialist the salary for the leave and disability specialist who deals with IOD and workers comp both town and school side is covered under the workers comp fund
our um employee and labor relations manager manages both town and school unemployment so a portion of her salary is covered by the unemployment comp fund and Kayla Toino's position which is our
benefits administrator for both town and schools is covered under the health insurance uh trust so this is so it's basically a credit to you because it's funded from another account correct it's a it's a chargeback if you want to look at it and I'm and I'm I'm terrible at math here so I'm I'm going to butcher
this but um so you've had one headcount increase from like 2023 to this to 2026 correct but it looks like the the compensation is it it's not doubling but it's um it was three I know there these
are line items but there was 360 um permanent full-time then it the next year it went to 611 in 2025 2026 it went to 701 um I'm trying to understand that increase in compensation but yet we
haven't added added any headcounts so we had some vacancies between 2023 and 2026 currently we are in month six of a vacancy in our leave and disability specialist um we also had a
vacancy um for the um position so we originally had an HR assistant in 2023 and we converted that position into a learning and development coordinator so while you don't see a change in
headcount the positions changed as far as the um classification as well as headcount so we had a vacancy we had to get budget approval for the the position it was a partial year budget approval um so we did that halfway through as we
were bringing in our LMS for um learning and development and um we also have one of our positions um is a um while it is technically a full-time position the employee does not work um full-time
hours okay so I get So I maybe and I can dig into this with you offline but I'm still having a hard time with the numbers so in FY24 permanent full-time salaries were 360,000 um FY25 it's 660,000
it's $300,000 increase in FY26 it's now 760,000 um I mean this is I'll I'll I'll get back to you on that um you know and you're saying that this it's because of the these were positions that weren't
staffed and now they're being staffed some of some of them were um not staffed we also had reclassification so we did do um an upgrade on um department heads as well as the non-union position so the assistant HR director was reclassified
from a T10 to a T13 um as we did this is a good conversation for offline okay thank you uh Mike so there's a table in here of HR measurements uh and it's
alphabetical um and uh so in here are for example the number of Cy checks that were done last year 1950 or you're projecting for this year 1950 and the number of union contracts seven and the
amount of dollars for workman's compensation claims 2,300,000 um and then it's added up at the bottom uh the seven the 2,300,000 the 1950 are all added up and comes up to
5,238 209.9 and honestly that number is that doesn't mean anything and so hold on just a sec okay so I want to help you here not not I'm uh and maybe help us or help a future select board um it would be great if you could organize that
table not alphabetically but by type of activity so you there are a number of a number of things where you're spending money that's a useful total to have the if you add in the number of Cy checks with the number with the amount of dollars you're spending the number of Cy
checks is you know it's it's not even a rounding error so um if you could categorize these things and then total the categories I think it would be a much easier to digest and much more useful set of measures not just for us
but for that matter for you as a as the as the as the department director does that is that helpful i hope so i agree with you um this is something where we provide the information to the finance team who merges it with open gov
so that can be a conversation that we'll have with with them as far as organizing the the metrics um and I appreciate the information an Excel spreadsheet so somebody could go through it and just move things around really I I'm not sure
specifically how uh the data is merged with open gov and producing the budget book but I will uh speak with Charlie and Melissa i I agree thank you hey John thank you Ann um so you know
every year understandably um you know doing something to reduce uh the number of injuries is is an objective of the department so that's a good thing h how did we do uh this year um in terms of reducing the number of injuries
so we have reduced the number particularly in in the fire department reduced the number of folks on injured on duty um as far as what I'll call transactional injuries so somebody tweaks an ankle getting off a firet truck
um counterbalancing to that we have had additional um employees being diagnosed with cancer so um under the presumption law for both active employees as well as retirees that has taken a bigger chunk
so if you're looking at the IOD medical expenditures um we're starting to see the impact of the legislative change for uh IODD cancer presumption for firefighters um
so where we've had our um sort of short-term injuries we've been able to get folks back um more rapidly we also in our last collective bargaining agreement with the fire department made the provision for moderate um modified
duty more flexible for the chief to be able to bring folks back it used to say in the collective bargaining agreement that only if you could definitively say that the employee would be back to full duty within 30 days could you assign them to modified duty that
was challenging at best mhm um so we've had more flexibility with that based on our last contract and we are working on the non-public safety side in particular with um public works around the issues
of injuries in the the different divisions um so the public works has a um health and safety officer they too had a had a vacancy for that for part of the year um but making sure that new
employees are trained regularly on uh health and safety that they're wearing the appropriate footwear um and their ASME employees so they get compensation for boots and things like that um and we have um where needed sent people home because they've shown up in sneakers and
they're out working in parks or you know um running lawnmowers or whatever the case may be um I do believe that we'll see a further decrease in injuries with the contracting out of sanitation because one of our highest areas of
injury is in sanitation for the folks who get off the truck and and throw trash um into the vehicles um so I'd expect to see that come down further and our hope is that the next
person who comes in as leave and disability specialist um for our our department will be able to take more of a lean on townwide health and safety around um injuries and um taking a
different way of looking at prevention um yeah great thanks i have one last question u one question see if it's the last one um so we we've been talking about combining the functions of uh
school and town uh department sure uh including HR uh are there impediments to to that i mean legal requirements for example I don't know what they would be but legal requirements skill sets uh what are the difficulties of actually
doing that so one of the main differences between town and school HR is uh review and tracking of teacher certification under the standards for the state uh for
certification as far as licenses how long they can employees can have a provisional license versus um making sure that they've got their uh professional license um and and those um
tracking of appropriate um continuing education um they have somebody that does that on the school side um many of the other functions are similar um and so the the those other functions as far as
leave administration um we obviously already do health insurance we do workers comp we do unemployment comp so we do many of the functions that that currently um if it were completely separate um the school department would have to be doing on their own um I also
meet weekly with the school HR director to talk about issues that cross over so we have a good working relationship on on things that are of issue um and they they have different compliance requirements for certifications as well as
um not specifically ethics but um they have to do certain training um for for the teacher and staff side and obviously they have different um bargaining agreements with BEu and and ASME okay thank you thank you very much very
helpful next uh we have Melissa on for benefits oh I'm sorry Melissa talk to us about benefits hello um I have just something a screen share to help us walk through the um
benefit budgets okay so um what you have here are the revised um benefit uh numbers for fiscal 26 um the one change that we had since the financial plan came out is the um changes to the group health insurance um
based on the GIC rates which essentially brought that number down by about $300,000 so you can see that our pension um schedule uh we're looking to increase the budget by uh 582,120 um in fiscal 25 we did use some
free cash so that is kind of a lower than um than average increase to the pension line item for group health we're at $41.9 million uh which reflects the rates um adopted by the GIC um a couple months ago our oped uh funding is about
$4.9 million um we are pausing the annual 250 inflator that we have been putting on um in the OPED trust um last year we were able to infuse that with some free cash so that's why you see the drop between 25 and 26 um same thing
with the acred time trust um we were able to use some free cash to create that program um we'll see how the activity is in fiscal 26 and then potentially could make some recommendations in fiscal 27 um group life insurance um is level funded as is
disability insurance as is workers compensation um trust fund these are just transfers into the trust um public safety IOD we had provided some enhanced funding in fiscal 25 um bringing that back down to 350,000 in uh fiscal 26
unemployment at this point there's sufficient fund balance in the unemployment trust that we are not making recommendation for additional funding although um both this and the group health insurance budgets are likely to change given the activity on the school side in terms of position
reductions and things like that and then Medicare payroll tax um essentially changes with wages and that is uh projected to grow by about 6.7% for an increase of 212,000 Okay any questions i have questions
thank you Melissa um so I'm just going to home in on pensions and and group health uh because my understanding every year year after year has been that we're on a you know uh path towards um eliminating unfunded liabilities that is going is
requiring us to do substantial increases in those items yeartoear and this seems to show the opposite so am I missing something i just misreading this so in fiscal 25 the pension number is inflated by $2 million of free cash
which is not h carrying forward into fiscal 26 so budget to budget it looks like the growth is less um but if you take free cash out of the equation the um pension schedule grows by about 7.85% annually so um the the free cash just
kind of masks that um in terms of group health um what we end up doing is we kind of recalibrate the base and then we apply the GIC rates so um although the GIC rates um were a little bit higher based on the activity and where people are in their plans um the the actual
growth is about 10.2% so are we on on path to um with the commitments huh opeds are are different from group health so our oped our our oped funding
um currently we provide 250 annually but we are um part of what you see in the group health budget is the cost of retirey group health um and so trying to fund OPEDs is a way to try and um essentially create a system similar to
the SK the pension schedule where we would like to um once we're done with the pension obligations and we're projected to be done in 2030 um divert that funding into the o to the OPED schedule so that we
don't have this large um we're kind of paying as we go with the um the group health obligations for retirees but being able to create a system that allows us to have some funding available to address it um is what we would like to do uh going forward after we're deal
done with the pension obligation okay thanks uh Paul yep and um thank you Melissa the the group health uh number um what how do we compare in the
amount that our employees contribute to group health versus other municipalities have we have we done that are we high are we low are we in the middle so I I I think we're on the high end in terms of what we've been you know in in
our peer communities when we entered the GIC the incentive that we used to get into the GIC was to bring the rate the the split up before we were in the GIC our split was 7525 and as a way to uh incentivize the PEC to agree to go into
the GIC that shifted up to the 8317 that we're currently in um we were one of the early communities to join the GIC so the rules for joining were different and the threshold for joining lowered a few years after we were in um so that we
probably you know hindsight's 2020 but the 8317 we may not have needed to do had we waited a few years and and kind of gone along with these other communities that were able to join with a with a lower threshold uh for entry but um from my understanding and talking
to other communities and and some of the research that we do with the bargaining teams for collective bargaining I think we're at the higher end in terms of what is offered jeff can I ask a follow up and you you could probably do the math quicker than me what is that what does that percentage chain mean to the cost of the
town do you know what how many millions of dollars it was i think um I'm trying to remember what a point uh represents and I think it's somewhere around it's close to 300,000 for um a shift in the in the percentage okay so that would be 2.1 about 2.1
million yeah yeah we've we've actually we've we've done this stuff another a couple of different ways and we know so we're we're trying to nail down as we have these discussions more broadly what a shift to 8020 looks like what a shift to 7525 looks like because there are
it's it's it's a little it's a little more complicated than the back of the envelope calculations we've been doing so we're trying to work with our our um our group health consult health insurance consultant yeah and this would all have to go through collective bargaining and Yes yes there's a I think it's believe
it's a weighted 70% of all the bargaining groups that are in the GI would need to agree oh interesting okay okay great uh thank you Melissa thank you next we have uh recreation department
and I see Tim Davis approaching the podium our interim or recreation director recreation good evening everybody uh Tim Davis recreation director for the town thank you for having me i'm joined here tonight by Erin Freriedman on Zoom as
well our assistant director um who will help in any questions if I cannot uh answer um let's see if an overview of the department as a refresher um the recreation department is spread out across the entire town our main building and our main activities do
come out of the Elliott Recreation Center at 130 Elliot where we see 10 of our full-time employees um this again is our main hub of all recreation activities uh that's where all of our programmers work out of our administrators work out of every registration um that comes through and goes out every program that's planned
every permit that's granted um every field uh that is given out to a group or the schools comes through Elliot Street so that is our main building from there we have the Evelyn Crane Aquatic Center over on Tapen Street our full-size aquatic center uh home to five full-time
employees as well as 100 plus part-time seasonal employees that fluctuates throughout the seasons um from there we do operate the SU early education center on Hammond Street where we operate four full-time preschool classrooms uh home to two of our full-time administrators six full-time teachers and then 11
part-time teachers as well um our jewel of the town of the golf course over on the West Roxberry Parkway uh Robert T lynch yeah golf Course at Potterham at Brooklyn Golf Course whatever you want to call it at this point um home to our six full-time employees um and 40
seasonal staff where we are just kicking off our season and then of course uh the skating rink up at Lars Anderson that we operate fully out of the recreation department so um across town all of our employees as you see represented here um making sure that the work gets
done going over our accounts um again as a refresher the recreation department is unique when it comes to the town as we operate out of three different accounts uh one the main one being tax fund of the operating account operating budget uh which is mainly management salaries so non-union full-time salaries um as
well as supply lines for um assistance with operating the pool um so supplies maintenance supplies um water supplies things that we need to make sure that that facility stays up and running and safe um our revolving account which is our main hub for financing everything
that the recreation department does uh mainly around programming this is the self-supporting fund so every program fee that is charged and brought in pays that expense um that is attached to the programming uh but it is also home to our full-time programming staff as well as hundreds of part-time salaries across
all programming of the town uh this budget also um supports the SU early ed center that we just spoke about as well as the seasonal rink for Lars and then lastly uh the golf course fund which is the enterprise account uh which again is the self-supporting fund um that covers
all operations staff supplies everything uh soup to nuts of the golf course and we will run through them quickly with some highle uh changes that we're speaking about so general fund request for the operating budget is um on a set of 2% um the main increase there is
salaries of the full-timers that I spoke about um to cover the step raises um and longevity of our employees uh we had pretty significant decreases in the general fund um operating budget this year uh mainly with utility assumptions going into next fiscal year as well as
um lowering our maintenance supplies uh from the pool again projecting out uh what we believe um is needed over at the pool um and many and that account is also those monies that were taken out of operating were encumbered uh for safety in the revolving account in the event
that we do actually need um that funding for the pool so again just a 2% um no increase of staffing um on the full-time level um with that our revolving account as mentioned being our biggest account uh we're looking at an 8% increase in
expenses um all of the expenses of the increase are directly tied to service so I want to I want to point that out and programming increases as mentioned full-time part-time salaries are coming out of there our biggest increase is the part-time salary line um this is because of the expansion of programming specific
to summer um this summer we will be introducing uh longer hours expanded hours for our summer camp program so offering more childcare options for parents uh longer day obviously a longer day comes with more staff hours more staff hours uh costs more um so that is
our biggest increase for that 135,000 out of that 371 increase um we are going to be introducing new recreation registration software this year um so that is the other modest increase coming in uh just over 31,000 we will be moving away from the current um software uh
that is not quite frankly meeting the needs um of our department so we will be introducing and launching a new software to the public this summer to take its place bus services bus rentals continue to increase um so that's reflected in the increase and then just general rec
services uh we have a continued initiative of expanding our vendor programs so these are programs that come from outside businesses and outside vendors um afterchool programs enrichment programs um those go across from entertainers at school for the kids
in the classrooms uh to the program room up at TAP and at the pool and then spread across the town in general so u we are planning on an increase of service there which is great and then um as you just heard prior just our intergov transfers mainly of uh benefits
that obviously increase that we absorb for those full-timers that are located in the revolving account and then lastly the enterprise fund again uh the self-supporting fund for the golf course is seeing our largest increase um of 11% uh with three main
things sticking out that I wanted to call attention to uh one this year uh we are putting in a light item for golf course improvements um so we are taking or we are looking to take uh measures for preventative maintenance for maintaining a lot of the improvements
that the course is going through right now through the master plan we want to ensure that we have funds allocated and encumbered so that if something is um caused for worry or something is needing our attention uh that Justin and his maintenance team can tackle that head-on
um without trying to or preventing the the biggest goal is preventing future capital need or elevated capital needs of the course especially with how much the town is generously putting in so um that is a line item that we are looking to carry um so we can um again tackle
projects head on on the golf course as well as the clubhouse um the bonds for the capital projects for the master plan are going online um so we have that expense going in and then our full-time employee salaries and benefits um again
are are increasing uh general other just general increases are across all supplies for agricultural maintenance um and then just to point out again master plan implementation has begun um so we're actually saving some costs now that that's in play with the engineer services no longer needed contractor
costs uh for the planning piece of it are no longer needed so that is taken out um and then just a note on the bottom there that we did for the first time in three to four years now uh increase green fees to help offset or help cover these um increases uh but those increases are only for
non-resident fees so the uh resident fees have stayed the same for use of the golf course um so we're seeing a slight uptick for non-resident to be competitive um and a slight increase for the driving range to to cover those expenses going through some
accomplishments um kind of spread across the town we have a lot of sites so whole bunch of accomplishments that we're super proud of um the main one being the investment that we've made in our staff uh we few minutes um Aaron and myself have um dedicated a lot of time in growing our staff internally to help with the retention rate but also expose
everybody to as much as we can um that we saw come to fruition this past year uh where we were awarded the agency of the year award uh for the Massachusetts Recreation Parks Association um as well as the therapeutic recreation award for our uh certified rec therapist Melanie
in town uh in office which was wonderful um our equity initiative as everybody's very aware of came to a conclusion in last calendar year um as a response to that we have updated our financial aid policy to continue their equity offerings internally uh without ARPA
funding uh so we're very proud that was um built internally by staff to to implement so we're very excited to put that into play uh continuedwide trainings and goal setting and then uh implementation of a marketing as well as policy and procedure committee that was
much needed on the capital side um as mentioned master plan imple implementation has begun we're about 90% done with permitting uh we'll be going out to bid in the coming months and our goal is to have shovels in the ground in the fall our courtyard at SU is going out to bid um be posted next week with a
fall anticipation completion date and then the dehumidification project pool and as well um we have a contractor um signed and that's ready to go programming across the board uh with accomplishments uh participation continue continues to see demand and
increase in numbers uh we've implemented Nordic Sports Winter Sports at the golf course which is extremely successful this year because of the temperatures as mentioned we'll be on boarding new software for the public in the summer uh working very hard at reconnecting with our partners in town housing authority
community foundation Brooklyn Mental Health the public schools um and then just overall um I think the theme of of a lot of our accomplishments and our goals is that of uh best practices um with the department and just jumping to those goals as always expansion of
services to all of our residents with programming pre-K through senior uh ages continued adoption of best practices uh and what we mean by that is operationally internally but uh financially making sure that our staff are making sound financial decisions um continued investment in staff training
again the software implementation and then um the one I the last one I'll highlight is that expanded multi-use concept for recreck facilities um the golf course has been a great image of that of being able to use the golf course for non-golf activities and we're challenging our staff to kind of look at
all of our facilities across town uh to see what the alternative uh use are for it so a lot of good energy coming out of the rec department lately staff is great staff is working hard super proud to be part of it um and I'll take any questions great thank you very
interesting david a question about cost recovery so it appears that uh the fees that are charged cover about 83% of the expense so there's about a $1.8 million gap uh that and has there
been any consideration of trying to find ways to bridge that gap or is 83% sort of what you see as the sweet spot on cost recovery it's an active conversation that we're having with our business manager um the implementation implementation and the growth of cost
recovery has been kind of in a holding pattern due to leadership changeover um so again active conversation in the office that we're looking to relook at on a much deeper level this fall um so it is kind of it's already the the conversations are happening and our goal obviously is is always to grow that to
offset the the need for operating is there some kind of regional or national standard for recreation departments around cost recovery there's no I would say standard i think it's a standard adopted practice i think there's different models with different consultants and different companies
different percentages based on the towns and cities and municipalities that utilize um the idea of cost recovery um it just comes down to what we feel is best for our town what we feel is um in reach I think of the programming and what we're what costs we're looking to
pass off to the residents of the town john how did the season go at the ice rink excellent uh we exceeded our numbers that was one of the things I glazed over um we exceeded our numbers for public use for public skate uh by a few thousand which was great we had a
banner winter year with the cold yeah so good stretch took advantage of that u so public skate was up private rentals were up cancellations were way down i think less than 10 days we saw cancellations this year mainly because of rain on those kind of raintorms we had so um
overall a very very very good year and and is the um move towards the replacement rink on plan at this point yep so we have a CPA application in uh for the design and construction documents for the new rink um so hopefully with a positive vote at town
meeting we'll get that ball rolling process started thanks Paul yeah uh thank you for the informative presentation the um drop off for equity um are we doing so at this point scholarships not offered or so
scholarships are still offered yeah uh the the gist of it focusing on camp because that is our biggest thing um we had to it goes back to cost recovery we had to look at what we can cover internally to be able to still offer free recreation for these families uh
looking at summer which is again our our main chunk uh we're able to offer up to four weeks of free camp uh the reason we picked four weeks of one of cost we felt comfortable with it but it also matches up with the school programs of what they offer in the summer so if a child is going to summer school and needs uh camp
in the afternoon to fulfill that full day of child care we we're able to offer that to complement the school on their on their four-week program uh beyond that um there's still scholarship and free wreck available for vendor programs those external enrichment programs after school programs uh where you could you
could take advantage of one a season for free um so we'll cover up to one a season for that and then we are still looking and then um family memberships at the pool swim lessons uh on the early um levels uh are still covered for free
and that is to get to a swimmer to the point of um the Red Cross where they should be comfortable swimming on their own so still providing that essential service um so short answer yes we're still we're still offering uh plenty of equity opportunity across all seasons and all corners of the rec department
that's great and my one other question is I I spend my often my Saturdays uh watching my son play basketball at the SU uh at buildings in in really terrible terrible shape um is that in the CIP for
rehabilitation or something yeah we're making incremental um improvements no I get it um improvements to that um the ceiling is on um on our our radar right now to try to get that bathroom you have to kind of walk past the heaters and the
Yeah the junk and the We're aware we're aware of the condition and we're trying to find solution for it okay it just needs to be torn down in a new building but is what has to happen simple okay unless there are any other questions thank you thank you can we
take a break i was just going to say seventh inning stretch okay so let's take a five minute break you read my mind yeah go [Music]
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[Music] okay uh we're back okay next is information technology um and I see Fun is uh on the screen there
good evening Chair Green good evening Mr kerry and members of the board fun Yang CIO Information Technology Department it is my pleasure to be here to present the FY26 IT budget so let me uh let me share
my screen it is late so I will try to be uh as brief as possible are you guys seeing my screen everything is good yes yes yep okay excellent okay so I'll start with our large and expanding digital landscape
which you have seen this uh snapshot or an older version of it uh before so this is the landscape we manage and uh I also want to show you our dedicated collaborative efficient and fun I team this is one of our staff meetings
um that I took a snapshot of and our FY26 proposed budget is $2,654,440 uh that's comprised of uh 57.65% salaries 31.78% services 9.62% 62% budgeted
capital uh with an increase of 6% the three major driving factors for the change in the budget uh are the following uh the cyber security principle analyst position was founded through opera in the past few years and uh it is now built into the IT operating
budget this is very important and uh thank you all for your support and we also have standard annual software maintenance increases um and um during COVID and uh we thanks to all of your help we were able to get some uh opera
fund to upgrade our infrastructure our data centers our networks so that has helped with some of the savings in our budgeted uh capital area uh so uh that um contributed to the uh uh 6%
um let's see very quickly I want to uh share with you our uh key accomplishments um number one is definitely cyber security we consistently maintain the grade A on our cyber posture scorecard uh this scorecard changes is a continuous
monitoring so this is our external cyber security posture and uh we continuously enhanced all aspects of our cyber security posture based upon NISK framework and best practices and build a defense in depth strategy and raised the
user awareness so if you look at our national cyber security review mature level we have in all categories of the national institute of standard and technology cyber security uh framework so identify
protect detect respond and recover um however this space uh is um certainly a tremendous amount amount of work and also changes all the time so we have to continue we have to be vigilant all the time hackers only need to be
right once and we have to be right 100% of the time so new vulnerabilities emerge all the time and this is a um continuing effort uh that we have to put in um so we upgraded and enhanced our networks and data center infrastructure
we established an off-site DR colllocation maintained an uptime of 99.9% and um our digital services team have uh has worked collaborative collaboratively with the business departments to enhance the workflows develop the new online
services and improve the customer service experience and accessibility and uh we utilized the new ITSM system that we put in place last year which allowed us to efficiently triage tech support tickets delivered customer
service successfully deployed all managed devices and established a new baseline for services and uh you asked how do we measure our um accomplishments um there are uh some of the stats that we traditionally use um such as uptime
which we m we maintained for uh at 99.9% we also have some new metrics that we can use from the new system uh one of which uh is time to resolve of a particular ticket and also user satisfaction survey so what you're
looking at the top chart shows our full one year worth of data it's an weekly average of create to resolve in hours and uh um I uh I I won't dive into the details but there's more that we can do we can look at data and improve our
operations and uh we'll have a baseline to compare to and we do um after service satisfaction survey this is uh automated by the system so there are a set of questions that a user will fill out after the service and a couple questions
for instance how satisfied are you with the service out of all the responses we've received 77% said very satisfied 17% said satisfied and 4% said neutral and uh 2% which are three responses said
dissatisfied and one is uh blank which they didn't fill out so there are other questions for instance uh did did the service desk effectively address your issue so 87% said yes uh 8% said uh left it blank so they didn't fill out this
question and then 5% said no so we have a lot more uh data that we can use to improve our operations and I do want to also mention that uh we worked closely with town council's office and HR revised and established the new IT
policies and I think m mentioned earlier in her presentation and we are going to have that in front of the HR board at some point uh soon and then um uh after town meeting I know you you all have been you are very busy before town meeting with budget and town meeting
articles so we're going to have the policy in front of you after town meeting for your review and approval and uh uh we actively see uh federal and state grant funding in um in the past few years uh since co and uh I was able
to secure federal and state grants amounting to $24,000 and these are all primarily used for cyber security um platforms that you know I mentioned a little bit about the defensing depths strategy so basically
this is uh putting up multiple layers to protect our environment and that's the only way to deter um you know um threats so um I do want to um touch upon a little bit of uh Brooklyn's AI journey
um that uh um as you all know um and uh since Chad since since GPT4 came out in 2023 uh uh AI has been uh the conversation of uh even grandmothers right uh not only the not only the tech
industry so um so we um have been observing our environment our computing environment we have seen very steady increase of usage of AI by our users um and um that's you know from a year or so
ago 200 to 500 various different tools this is after you know firewall blocks or the malicious ones so we dived in to understand what the risks are particularly in the cyber security space there are a lot of challenges powered by
AI uh you know uh more sophisticated ated um fishing attacks you know spear fishing steep fakes and AI hallucinations and bias insufficient guardrails u privacy concerns so these are all risks of um the AI technology
however it is a revolutionary technology it's only going to get better from now on so we definitely need to you know uh make sure we you know get try to get our our arms around it and see how we can use it so last year we developed a gen generative AI generative AI is a type of
AI that creates new content such as text or images or videos and music and things like that so gen we developed the generative AI policy we also developed the guidelines that that are all published on the town's internet for
employees we also have added um multiple AI modules in our annual um uh employee cyber security awareness training in October um and also we have added a section for AI specifically in our
vendor cyber posture cyber posture review so those are in the governance space and we are currently um doing some research and and identify use cases in the capacity that we can on top of other things and we're evaluating tools so
there are a few sponsored Thank you Tiffany um I'll wrap up very quickly so there are a few uh IT sponsored test pilots so for instance our uh communications director is using KA AI for social media post we have a a team
of uh testers from IT from town min ad min ad min ad min ad min ad min ad min ad min ad min ad min ad min administrator st uh uh staff and also uh other departments testing AI companion for meeting summaries and also we have a team of testers from IT and HR and other departments for Microsoft 365 co-pilot
so our goal is to have a list of IT approved tools but also define really the next step is trying to define the value of initial AI use cases ai is here to stay and it will only get better and we need to understand what the cost is
and how we use it how we leverage it so um I asked AI uh to create me a workcloud for the uh seven work streams of AI road map and in the context this is where your prompt engineering comes
in right in a context for government so here's one graph you created for me so we need to look at AI data AI governance AI strategy AI value AI people and culture and AI organization so there's a lot to talk about a lot of uh yeah uh
things we can talk about among all of us okay so you asked you know if uh we were not constrained by current budgetary limitations would our priorities change um I don't uh I I I I don't think so i think we still care about cyber security
our infrastructure our digital services our customer service however you can wrap up yes um I would definitely want to establish a dedicated infosc division and also form an AI team and uh focus on exploring and leverage AI so I will wrap
up uh I just want to uh I do want to uh mention that we our objective next year uh is uh one of them is going to is collaborating with departments to provide IT support in achieving the SLERS's uh objectives because it really
is more of an enabling department um so I'll end I will end with this wonderful slide of IT activities um our service desk tech uh at work our new staff that uh started this year our retirement party our you know holiday launching and
our in Brooklyn day uh community engagement so thank you very much for your time and uh I'm happy to answer any questions thank you Pong very interesting very important um I guess one question I have is uh apparently the federal government is no longer
interested in security cyber or otherwise um and I see that you got um you you received $24,000 from state and federal funding for cyber security what what do you see as uh the
future and and are there ways that you can work around uh the um uh the federal government's um lack of interest in in some of these issues uh that's a great question um Bernard and um um so I
definitely I won't be able to um get that kind of uh grant funding in the future that's that that's my my um well I think that's that's how I view it and we already have experienced uh some of
the ripple effects from the federal government cutting cyber security this is really um very difficult to see because since covid there's a there has been a huge infrastructure built for cyber security that's between federal
government state government local government tribal government nonprofit organizations for election security for cyber security that's really crumbling at this point so for instance Department of Homeland Security uh CISA you guys
know CISA which is the cyber security agency um has been cut already some of the you know like the red team has already been cut and um so the funding for multi-state information sharing has had 50% budget cut and they actually
just uh this afternoon had a member call um they have 18,000 state local tribal entities that are members of this organization uh 50% of budget is already cut and right now they are supported by a nonprofit organization called Center
for Internet Security uh but they don't know what the future is going to be so some of the services we use uh from CISA and from MSISAC they are still um functioning but we don't know what the
future holds so we already experiencing some of these um um uh ripple effects so there are some state grants for cyber security that we can still apply uh there are some um nonprofit uh you know
like MA or maybe it's a quasi government or uh collaboration like ma mass cyber center has grants that we can apply but um they state will be affected by what the federal government is doing as well so we're certainly going to see um less
uh grant funding that we're going to be able to receive so um I would need to be looking at what's going to be impacted for our cyber security you know platforms um we luckily we we are working with the town administrator's
office some of our um subscriptions are a year or two out but we're going to need to figure out uh you know what's still going to be supported by grant funding and what we need to work into the operating budget so we're going to need to you know work that through um
and also we're going to see what other funding we are able to obtain so it really it's hard to see you know we you know so the whole community is um um you know everybody's talking about it so I'm very excited about um the progress
that you've reported in the use of AI and um but the one thing I didn't hear and I'm wondering if this is in the future is um uh in terms of the access to questions about services offered by Brooklyn um and you know if you're a
Brooklyn resident and you're wondering uh does Brooklyn have services in the area of mental health does it have fair housing can it help me with a fair housing question is there going to be an AI tool on our landing page that gets
people answers comprehensive answers you know instantly um without having to get reference to another page and then from that page get reference to another page and then then to another page um AI I have found is just fabulous at answering
basic questions about town services that are not readily answered on the landing page of the website the town website uh that's a great question John um so um certainly AI can be very useful in that
space um I just want to um say that um there are concerns um so for instance um well number one it's going to require resources to build that
um um and number two um there are things that we need to be concerned about uh so for instance uh New York City rolled out a small business portal uh last year with you know using AI as you know AI
chatbot and it was uh giving out illegal advice so so there are AI hallucinations and bias that we have to be careful so and also uh a lot of uh a lot of people are talking about um users especially
you know customers residents uh don't really want another chatbot uh they really want to talk to someone so other you know some organizations are thinking about how do we provide AI assistance to the employees who are
answering the calls and you know enable them to be able to provide that information but with all of that said there's a lot of infrastructure for that to happen that's not in place yet and the technology is also still evolving so
definitely that's where we want to be we want to have an AI tool that can tell us a lot you know aggregate a lot of the unstructured data to provide information but we're not there yet but you know that's definitely something we should discuss as a whole organization
thank you with Mike um a very different question um I I looked at the um job tickets uh or the you know the the support tickets that you it's a interesting list and um
schools take about 60% or so of the total tickets it looks like which is fine that's that's you know shared services are we're I'm I'm very pleased to see the integration uh that that your department is providing that support uh
it's something that uh going back a few years there was almost no integration and and uh there was a lot of duplication of effort so it's great to see that um my question is I assume that all of that the cost of all of that is within your budget and then when we
report it to the state it's um split out and reported to Desi as a piece of support that we provide to the schools as opposed to it being in the school budget is that correct so yes a lot of a lot the lines are on our side um almost all the lines are on
our side although not all of them um it's it's complicated and I mean I think Fun has done a really fantastic job inheriting and trying to make work a system where you know we when she came
in the theou between it and schools hadn't been updated since 2005 um you know it's it's an ongoing it's it's an ongoing process as people say um and here too I think because we have a better sense of the needs we're further
along when it comes to a shared potential shared services model y and that is something where I really think it's important that especially given the the breadth of the threats and the potential for cyber security issues that there really needs to be a unified
demand structure and it needs to be in fun's Right well my I I absolutely I think you've come a long a long way and so my history goes back a little further than yours and so it was considerably it was
considerably more it was dysfunctional really uh uh early years years back but really what I'm asking about is the budget side is all where when people look at the budget they look at the school budget and they think well that's all the school spends but um in fact a
fair amount of money is spent in the town operating budget and then when we report to the state we report that that that's attributed to the schools but it's in the town's budget that this money is uh is being spent yes okay thank you
okay well thank you fun for very uh did you have your hand up oh okay a very informative as well as interesting presentation great thank you thank you good night good night next we have the advisory
committee and who is that going to be dennis dennis is online pardon me dennis is online okay Dennis you've been promoted oh perfect i didn't see any notice of that so sorry
about that um this one should be pretty simple uh the um advisory committee budget is uh for the proposed advisory committee budget for fiscal year 2026 is 20 is
$31,427 it's down a whopping $25 from last year because uh the least computer equipment line item has dropped slightly uh the budget is comprised almost entirely of salary for the um uh for
Alisa Porsche who does yman's work uh supporting the supporting the committee uh very modest amount for uh professional dues uh conferences and meals on the occasions when we meet in
person as we are going to do next week uh and uh I I'm happy to take any questions but I think that budget is probably the simplest one you're going to review okay any
questions comments um did you get a raise this year yeah I've been getting twice as much i hope people at home appreciate that we're talking on nonsense here but
I congratulations by the way on continuing to do a really good job um you're here very underappreciated committee but I'm going to criticize you roundly in a in in a week or so i'm sure
okay yes i'm sure i look forward to that okay well um I guess the only thing I can say is that uh we all appreciate the fact that you work very very hard as do we um and we're paid the big bucks to do
that um you get he gets even fewer big bucks than we do that's right um but you get good we get pizza yeah um but anyway I assume that everyone understands and appreciates the work that you do oh thank you
thank you okay next warrant articles these are public hearings and we have five so let's begin warrant article 10 Community Preservation Act fund
appropriations um I'm sorry what yeah so um Nancy Nancy Nancy Nancy Heler and Lindseay Butler are online okay i just want as people are getting promoted I just want to thank all the department heads who participated tonight you saw a
wide cross-section of the work that happens public facing behind the scenes um it's just a great especially and great to see new faces in the library team thank you for all the for um all work you're all doing um a lot of work
so those presentations yeah and the presentations really address the issues that we've asked them to address uh in many cases as well as you know provide the type of understanding of of day-to-day work of the departments that I think really uh is helpful to us um in
many ways so okay um I see Lindsay Butler is on the screen oh Nancy Heler I see you up there now okay yeah okay so proceed all right we have a slide presentation i'm going to
rush through it because I don't want to take more time than I'm allotted and I get to the heart of the matter so Finay you could put that up and I'll just uh you know ask you to skip we'll skip through the first three three or four slides and if you guys have any questions uh you'll ask me at the end
and I want to thank the chair and and the members for taking the time to uh review this stuff with us um so that's the first slide go on to the second and then the third uh and these slides uh keep going these slides are all things we've
discussed before and I don't want to take the time to go through them now it takes too much time i assume you know we worked hard and that's what that slide says keep going and uh the next slide is we get to the heart of the matter which is our warrant
article and it's broken into three parts essentially uh the first is a revenue appro appropriation for fiscal year 26 uh we're estimating the revenue as you see uh the revenue line there uh and
that's an estimation it will be divided into different buckets uh the first um uh budget reserve open space preservation and community housing are all buckets that uh we have that will be
in the first motion and the second motion and this is by statute the way it's designed uh the administrative our administrative costs are in the la in the uh last bucket and it will be in a separate motion so that that really
takes care of the first two motions um and I'd ra like to get to the third motion which is broken into sub subsections because it's all of our projects so could you go to the next slide before we do this actually I'd like to go to the last slide lindsay if
you would just put that up for a sec uh to let you know that we are leveraging funds from other um areas of the community and these are the projects there are six of them that have leveraged some funds and the and
the amount of leverage ranges considerably um but uh our but it it's important to know that there's community buyin and that this is one of the ways we get that so Eggmont Street and go
back to Eggmont Street um this has got to match this is our only housing project for the year if you recall last year we did the walnut high development plus some BCDC uh projects and or and one of them at roofs at Eggmont Street and egg and the
EHA this BHA project has been able to secure state funding matching state funding so instead of this being spent $500,000 per year uh for one roof they'll be spending a million dollars a
year for two roofs and that'll knock the project down to a three-year cycle uh if the state decides to give us more money we'll we'll have it it'll be done quickly more quickly but at this point we're anticipating this will be the the
third roof uh for uh that we're participating in the other two were taken care of last year because we also had a state matching amount next slide please um then we're going to go to the uh historic preservation projects that's
one of our three buckets um the first is uh a project by Temporal Habai Shalom the dome restoration as you know the dome is a historic icon in um in Brooklyn beautiful dome but it's leaking
and making um inroads into the structure of the building and uh our help will preserve the building from further deterioration and hopefully uh they'll be able to use matching funds to correct um some of the problems that that this
is correct uh the chemical firehouse is actually a Brooklyn owned building but it's leased to the Brooklyn Arts Center originally their project was they asked us for additional money uh for a larger project but realized that they needed to
get a few more ducks in a row including uh accessibility issues so they're focusing this year on just the heat pumps and the uh HVAC system for the for the building and it's uh obviously uh they have a match as well and that um
that program uh will obviously make a huge dent in in the uh sustainability level of the building and that is a town building so it'll be a benefit to the town uh the next project is a archives project of
$60,000 there's also a match from the historical society for this one um and it's a really a plan to figure out what what have we got because it's been so scattered in different places and stored in many other places and we know some
records have been lost there's some records which we will not spend money on that includes marriage death and birth because those are mandated by the state for the town to to maintain um the next is a a project at the Putterham Golf Course
uh the clubhouse window restoration $19,000 a modest amount relatively but important uh as the uh they're leaking and uh again it will contribute to the uh sustainability efforts of that
building pier school freezes in the historic building of the pier school uh there is a there are freezes which uh line the first for uh mostly and they have have badly
deteriorated over the years uh and this is an opportunity for us to take them down in conjunction with the project which is also providing a bit of matching funds to take them down and store them while we um until we reach the end of the project when they will be
uh restored and uh reput up in the sixth grade area where the children in the sixth grade study Greek life and ancient Greek life and they use the phrases uh as a uh tool in that in that uh
curriculum um then we have a couple of historic preservation efforts at the restoration of a foster fence it's the f it's the fence that surrounds the foster plot at the old burying ground $88,000 and it's in deplorable condition
really needs to be renovated and the Minot Rose Garden trellis restoration the May not rose the Minot trellis comes from Lars Anderson and is a historic artifact was moved to the Rose Garden but requires restoration again it's it's
uh needs it fairly badly so with a total of 1.3 million and change um that's our historic preservation projects lindsay could you go to the next slide please uh these are open space and
recreation projects we have Lars Anderson which is a large amount of money uh but it's for the design review process and construction documents of $1.68 million u but it's very important for
the for the town a very important effort uh we've had such a disaster with the rink and while it's in temporarily good shape uh that's not expected I don't think to last very long and really needs
uh to be restored uh the CPA cannot pay for anything that's indoor in terms of recreation projects this is an outdoor ice ring uh moving on to the Koolage playground tennis court design uh that
court has reached the end of its useful life it's a very popular uh tennis court used by many members of the community okay I'm I'm going to be quick as I can thank you um and uh it will uh enhance
the the tennis experience and pickle ball I believe as well ridley tennis court is three act three actual tennis courts are suffering from uh water damage there's water issue there uh again at the end of their useful life
and they also um will um benefit the school and the community will benefit from uh this money this is the design and then the construction will follow at a later date putterham Woods uh is trail enhancement these will be the uh in
conjunction with a town pro project which is to restore the putterham woods trails and these will be trail heads one on Hammond Street and one in the parking lot of the golf course uh providing one in our golf course will provide a kiosk
and some seating etc a community garden at Elliot Recreation Community Gardening is a very hot popular community activity uh this will be establishing new gardens at Elliot Recreation Center the other gardens around town have long waiting
lists and we expect that this one will be just as popular amory Woods is a boardwalk is a project that's badly needed the Amory Woods boardwalk is underwater a lot of the year it's not accessible and uh it's deteriorating
because of its position so it needs to be redesigned and constructed uh according to the problems that we face and also to make it ADA accessible please move to the next slide uh we go on to riverway invasive
part species um the each there you'll see there there are three invasive species and I'll just say that each one of them is a bit different and that it it's looking for a different invasive species to eradicate about 10 minutes
thank you um but and we hope that that this will make an inroad in that process and the tree inventory also will make an inroad into the process of inventorying our trees and uh so that we can respond to
some climate issues as according to the master plan climate on climate resiliency in our master in our urban forest next slide please and and this is the last slide uh again these are the rules grant reimbursement program as you
know next slide please okay and this is the one which I showed you before that leverage other funds so sorry I'm rushing through this but welcome to your questions okay thank you any questions uh Paul yep nancy thank
you so much i think you did it in half the time that you did last year so thank you for your efficiency if I remember last year there was some discussion about um kind of breaking these out for separate votes um I don't think we ended
up doing that last year have and I'm hearing maybe are there rumblings again will the will these are we voting these as a package or will town meeting vote on each one separately i can't remember what what we do or as we get closer to
town meeting I know that the moderator will want to weigh in on this there are 18 projects so that if we vote separately it's a considerable amount of time um and the moderator may want to clump them together or do some other I don't know exactly we haven't quite
figured that out yet uh but uh you know I think if there are uh there's some community dissension about uh some projects as there were last year uh I don't sense it's quite at the same level but last year was the first year so
we'll see okay thank you Nancy uh John hi Nancy hi um what kind of reimbursement are we getting from the state reimbursement is not the right word it's a bonus I guess or something it's a match sort of i mean not really a
one for one match but it depends upon uh the level of fees i get lot it the money comes from the registries uh real estate um registries and so it depends on the year that uh the registries have had and
how much money they accumulate uh so we won't know this year I think we got 500,000 or 550,000 we're hoping to get 550 next year but we don't know a year couple of years ago we got a million was a great year but I don't think we would
get that again for for a while so you know we can't really know and we have to uh do an estimation which is you know that's built into our our forecast for fiscal year 26 yeah i I just want to
pause and for for people who maybe you know weren't part of this process that led to our having a community preservation act fund um what was it three years four years ago that we finally got it adopted um until we got
that adopted and it took a long time um none of the projects that Nancy just ticked off tonight uh would have had funding um under normal circumstances but because the people of Brooklyn got smart took them a while it
took some of us longer than others our first 2006 so I love Yeah you started in 2006 but we didn't adopt it until 2022 20 something like Yeah yeah so um congratulate ourselves
um and congratulate people like Nancy and others and uh we needed leadership after that happened the vot voters approved us having a community preservation act fund and we found it so thank you Nancy for not only working to
get um us into the same ballpark as a lot of other communities with community preservation act funds but um we just take this this second here to thank Lindsay our staff member and also y committee members David Leu the vice pres vice chair puts in a lot a lot of
time other committee members um so I I want to thank them because they they really uh you know we have a lot of meetings around deciding about these I want to thank John too because he provided some very useful advice when we were u designing our campaign to go to
the voters and we got the second highest vote in the history of the community preservation act so um uh hats off to you to also John for your contribution the I know enough self- congratulation but I got to say the voice that you hear
is David Loyier and and I don't deserve anywhere near the credit either okay this is a public hearing uh this is a public hearing let's open the public hearing and see if anyone wants to speak yes um now that the chair has opened the public hearing if there's anyone online
who wishes to speak on this item please raise your hand using the raise the hand feature if you're in the room please make your presence known uh there are seven individuals in the room 19 online and no one is indicating their desire to speak at this time
okay so I'll close the public hearing and um what does what does the board think about uh this do we want to vote it tonight or I'm happy with a single vote tonight i certainly don't want to take this apart bernard excuse me yes i I meant to
mention one other thing which is that we will have a minor adjustment to our warrant article and that's because when in in September when the recreation and um um uh invasive species especially uh
projects were uh put forth by the department of public works we didn't have the staff in the recreation department and the sustainability department to monitor it etc and and hunch of those and now we do so the the department of public works has asked us
to make a change in the um in the p in the department that's going to ma manage these grants and the okay department to which these will be awarded so we will do that we will make a recommendation at our next meeting which will either be
the 8th or the 14th well before um the combined report and so we'll vote yeah we'll vote uh this morning article when those changes are made thank you okay great i'm um did I hear someone over
here okay next uh warrant article two approval of collective bargaining agreements i assume that that's Melissa yes article two we have um we file in case we have any collective bargaining agreements that
need to be uh approved by town meeting at this point in time we do not have any ready for t excuse me for town meeting um so the recommendation would be no action under this article if there if in the future we did have something we would move for reconsideration but at
this time there are no uh collective bargaining agreements for the board to consider okay great uh let's open up public hearing there are no individuals who signed up in advance if anyone is interested in speaking on this uh word article please raise your hand using the raise the hand feature or make your presence known in
the room no one has done so so I'll close the public hearing uh I move no action on Warren article two uh all in favor please indicate by saying I hold on paul Goyak hi michael Samman hi paul
Warren hi now you can David Crowen hi and chair votes I okay next warrant article four report on the close out of special appropriations and bond authorization recisions u Melissa sure so article four
is an annual art article that we filed providing town meeting with the status of revenue financed and bond finance CIP appropriations uh in your packet you have the list of all of those appropriations with the department and hence filling in the status um of each
of those and this article would be used if we need needed to take any action on any of the accounts at this point we do not have any accounts that we're looking to make any recommendation under so the recommendation under this article is no action it really is just a way of compelling department heads to provide
additional information for town meeting but no action is currently recommended okay uh this is a public hearing so let's open it up to public yes no one signed up in advance if anyone's online who wishes to speak on this article please raise your raise your hand at
this time and if in the room please make your presence known seeing no one I'll close the public hearing and move uh no action on this warner four four
uh all in favor please indicate by saying I john Vancoyak i Michael Sandman i David Pearlman i chair votes I thank you thank you next warrant article 18 amend article 8.32 of the town's general
bylaws to reduce demand for singleuse plastic food packaging so good evening my name is Brenda Hawkberg i'm a town meeting member in precinct 2 and with Louise Bowage we co-lead the
mothers outfront Brooklyn Brookline zero waste team and our other co-etitioner Richmond town meeting member pre and member of solid waste advisory committee so we're in article 18 um
we're going to be a sec here um the backdrop for this of course is the tremendous amount of plastic that's being produced and we're trying to cut into that we have had a bylaw for
some time now on sustainable food packaging and um it came to our attention that uh the bylaw wasn't always being followed there were some non-conforming takeout containers being given out by restaurants the requirement currently is
that the containers from restaurants need to be reusable or recyclable biodegradable or compostable there is an exemption for certain caterers if 50% or more of their business is from catering
so um with mothers out front we started meeting with uh members of u department of public health Sigel Ree and Nicole Marve and also met with um Katie Weather Seed from the Department of Public Works
zero waste program and over time through some conversations and um other information about what other communities were doing we arrived at a number of um beneficial changes that we'd like to propose to warrant to um the bylaw for
takeout containers so the first of these is skip the stuff so that this you may or may not be familiar with it um but if you get a takeout order and when you unpack it you find in the bottom a whole ton of plastic utensils condiment packets you
probably don't need them and you throw them out or stick them in a drawer it's kind of wasteful so the idea here is that the restaurants would not give you any of these items unless you specifically request them and it's it's a win-win the restaurants save money and
the the customer doesn't have to to uh deal with extra items we're also going to make explicit that black plastic takeout containers are non-conforming the current bylaw requires the list that we showed
um and because of the nature of the processing uh at the plant for u an optical scanner is looking over all the items on the conveyor belt and it cannot see even though there's you know when you look at the bottom of the container there's chasing arrows and a number and
you think sure this must be recyclable but it isn't because the optical scanner cannot read the number on the item so th those don't get recycled and um unless you know a lot about recycling you're not going to be able to read the
bylaw and know this under the current bylaw but we would add this explicit ban on black plastic we've also um updated some definitions within the bylaw um just to make them more
um just easier to apply and the easier to enforce u so for for example for compostable items there used to be um some technical standards now we're referring to certification that would actually be marked on the item and
you've probably seen these with u you know like the produce bags at Trader Joe's there's specific logos on there that you know it's compostable and Black Earth will know ah thank you okay you have 10 minutes so don't waste
them showing us little and the black show and tell don't worry I won't need all of it anyway almost done and then as a kind of a nod to pragmatism um portion cups these little containers
that may have a dressing or a sauce that you would get with a takeout order these are not recyclable even though the material itself might be they're too small for the processing equipment um they're pretty popular and alternatives are rather expensive so at the request
of the Department of Health we put into the uh warrant article in the bylaw that would exempt these at least for the time being when it is too expensive to replace them and uh through discussions with the
um with with one of one of the people at the um small business development commission committee um we had some conversations after uh we presented to them about catering and why
caterers are exempt and why was the definition of catering 50% and so on um at with further discussions with the department of health we decided that the the only reason to exempt catering was if there was some food safety issue
because there there's kind of an ambiguity about catering from a restaurant sometimes it's just a large takeout order and you think of it as catering but it's not catering in the Department of Health sense which is when they issue a license specifically for the restaurant to be serving food
offsite and in that case they might need very specific kinds of food containers so in a nod to that the warrant article suggests that the bylaw um had the same exact rules apply to caterers that currently apply to restaurants um with the exception that
if there's a food safety requirement that they can use whatever is necessary to meet that food safety rule and we have been working with other um with various groups to get feedback and endorsements so as I mentioned earlier
we work closely with department of health and public works we have endorsements from the advisory council of public health and the solid waste advisory committee and we just we just got an approval from the department of public works
itself and we are continuing to be with um undergo review with small business development committee and hopefully we'll get uh their approval uh next week and we have been working with the moderator and town council on the language of um the bylaw there is going
to be um an amended version coming out of the advisory committee public safety subcommittee chiefly on effective dates a few other uh flying points that they um spotted so that and these are friendly
amendments you're you've accepted i'm sorry you'll accept the amendments yes yeah yeah they're they're all good points and um yeah so that's the end of the presentation we can take questions yeah I I have a couple questions i
noticed in the materials that um among the things that are banned are wet wipes um I was wondering why that was in there number one you mean they would be part of Skip the
Stuff so they wouldn't be given out unless you asked for them is that No I Well maybe I I didn't I don't have the uh financial plan with me so I I can't I'm sorry the uh uh warrant article Mhm
or the warrant with me but my recollection is that uh among the things that are banned are wet wipes and I apologize for not having that that material with me oh thank you you happen to have one that's great so is is that within the category of of
items that can't be uh given out without someone asking for i believe that's the only context that come up in the um in the bylaw i just remember when when my kids were young you know Oh yeah they're not they're not banned it's more just only given on request right okay it's
the prepackaged ones not general wet wipes like you might see okay okay okay that that clarifies it uh second question I had is um uh many times including here in Brooklyn restaurants will uh package up their
leftover food and give them to I think homeless um organizations or others uh and they typically use the black plastic um containers have you have you thought about how
uh they can be allowed to continue doing that which is a very important service uh with these rules yes there the health department has a list of of of u places you can source similar containers that would not be black plastic so they could
be white plastic they could be aluminum okay in and costly or or as cheap as uh the black plastic which I assume are cheap i mean yeah we don't really know what if if
it's only cost or if there's other reasons that there is still black plastic being used by a number of restaurants so and I I don't know if what's the cost comparison uh okay which one of you is first mine's
a quick followup okay okay so what is the purpose of black plastic why is it popular if it's not recyclable why go with black plastic as opposed to use some other color and sturdy
well yeah plastic can be sturdy color the color is not a function the sturdiness is not a function of the color it's a function of the the the thickness and the and the particular uh polymer that's used so I don't know
what the miracle is with black plastic either but um isn't there something in in the in the composition of black plastics that is particularly bad it can be
if it's recycled u electronic waste and there can be flame retardants in there and it it's important not to confuse the blast black plastic food containers that are in this article with things like um the black plastic spatulas and things of
that sort that's a different whole different category of uh of material so the reason I ask is if we're just talking about color then cost shouldn't be a factor in terms of switching and is the reason why it's not recyclable because it's dark it blocks the number
and so for electronic processing that creates a problem is that really its only issue yes and restaurants understand this one more issue though the black plastic is is of low value because normally the highest value recycled materials have the least amount of additions to them so clear white
paper that doesn't have much printing on it it's that sort of thing but the the black one reason it's cheaper so we've read online is that um you can mix different resins of different colors and then just pour the black in at the end so it can that's why it's a little marginally cheaper okay i mean there may
be other reasons but that's one reason that we've we've reserved you i I Yeah i just wanted to say um I think you've done a really fine job of delineating M a few things that are exceptions i think that's really important i'm sure it's
important to the business community for example the little little the less than 4 ounce cups for um uh um salad dressing and that sort of thing that's um you've done a really um exemplary job
I think of sort of uh walking a line between what we can reasonably tighten up here and walking and and tightening it up so much that it causes problems to um to food service and and stores so nice work okay Paul yeah just um I know
you're meeting with the small business uh group at some point can have have you had feedback from restaurants what's the feedback for the business community i don't know if it's been widely promoted um is it you haven't heard anything yet they may not know yeah well we did share
um with the head of the Chamber of Commerce and the Koolage Corner Merchants Association shared copies of what we were doing had conversations and there hasn't been any any push back okay and we followed up you know what would how
do we interpret this silence but we um if it was alarming to them I think they would have said something yeah i just wonder if the if the the restaurants know i mean they may not have shared with restaurants so that's I'm curious about how how proactive did you go out
and talk to the the the actual affected by this um I don't know if they talked to their members okay but you didn't you as a petitioners you didn't uh no reach out directly okay
should have any other Okay this is a public hearing this open up public hearing yes now that the chair has opened up the public hearing um if there's anyone online who wishes to speak on this article please raise your hand using the raise the hand feature at this time or make your presence known in the room yes
you can approach the podium you have three minutes hi I'm Laura Nod i'm a town meeting member in precinct 13 and I'm also the co-coordinator of Brooklyn Mothers Outfront um to report that the leadership team of Brooklyn Mothers
Outfront has unanimously endorsed this warrant article thank you is there anyone else who wishes to speak on this warrant article at this time and I do not see anyone okay I'll close the hearing and um unless anyone has any
further discussion we'll we'll move on i understand that you're updating the warrant article so there's no reason for us to even consider Yes voting today your question just one question if I may i is there any example of a town or or city in Massachusetts that's already
adopted u pretty much this regime for for plastic uses yes newton has Newton and recently or I mean has is there an opportunity to see how it's working in Newton yes it's been a few years since they
been a few years oh okay yeah so if we shop in Newton we won't be presented with anything in a black plastic um container or they they have had trouble enforcing it i I've been told oh okay yeah that's useful to know um Okay
thanks i have one more question and the does um any thoughts on notification how will this uh h how how will the should and I assume town meeting will adopt this how does it get communicated out to the to the business restaurant community
they they um maintain a brochure that's online who's that we the department of health i'm sorry our department of health we're saying we're sharing that information yeah we have I mean we have obviously the contact information for everyone who has a common picture license anyone so we would just send
that information out to everyone okay all right thank you department of Health and Department of Planning which also deals a lot with economic development uh has been is already thinking about materials to share with their their contacts within the community it will actually make it easier for them
to enforce you need to go to the mic you got to speak you need to go to the mic it will actually make it easier to enforce the health department will be very is very enthusiastic about this their problem is it's not recyclable but it appears to be it has chasing arrows
on the bottom and they have a difficult time enforcing it they're pleased to have this clarity which is what this is okay thank you and the same thing with the compostable materials requiring the certification removes all ambiguity so you can't just hold it up and say "Oh this is compostable." You say "Well how
do we know it's compostable if it has one of those certifications like BPI which is a nonprofit certifier." So they already So they're already used it there's containers that they're not supposed to be using so this is a clarification of what they're not supposed to be doing okay thank you okay
thank you uh next we have a warrant article um 20 okay 22 has been pulled 19 19 19 hey why is why are my notes all messed
up okay 19 okay all right this one is regulation of plastic bags this one is u shorter there's some points that overlap so I won't repeat those essentially we're in the same
space we're trying to reduce plastics single-use plastics and we have already had in place a uh plastic bag ban um which probably familiar with um it it does have some significant exemptions restaurants are not under it officially
and there are exceptions for small retailers as well uh but in in spite of the exceptions there's been really widespread adoption of of this ban and that I actually have been walking around um because I'd heard anecdotally that oh
they've all switched over to paper they're not using plastic anymore with with a few exceptions which was um one reason we started even looking at this was we were curious why there's one particular largeish store I don't want to name names necessarily but they are
giving out plastic bags and kind of wondering why is that and they're technically under one of these exemptions so um given that that adoption of um this ban has been so widespread um but
yet there's still a significant amount um of bags being given out that we we'd like them to be paper or to discourage them altogether and people bring their own um we would eliminate those exemptions and we'd be in good company
doing that there's 162 Massachusetts communities with a bag ban and all but six have done away with the u small business exemptions and apply um their bag ban to restaurants as well another thing that we're doing
while we're in there is match the Massachusetts Senate bill definition of a reusable bag this is one that's um from the Sierra Club and I believe is it California has it as well what was
uh yes um two types of reusable bag there's the tra some some have claimed that these film bags are reusable they're just thicker plastic bags this is a nonwoven polyropylene bag with um uh handles and you measure these with mills and you
measure these with grams per square meter so we're adopting this standard that's applicable to the kind of reusable bags that are really supposed to be used because this is this is this is a step backwards and the last point is we're updating the definitions the same way for compostable
and biodegradable as in the other warrant article okay uh Mike so this is one where um the exemption for small retailers Uh I can imagine that it may have made more sense in a period when we were
first adopting these measures but now even small retailers can find alternatives but I do want to make sure that um the the small business the the small businesses are informed and through the Chamber of Commerce or through the um Department of Health or
however right through the through the health department health uh this will be more planning yeah okay um and I I you know I'm saying informed as opposed to consulted because honestly I think there there are alternatives now um so but
information you know you won't get compliance with every with everyone unless everyone knows so I think one of the differences between uh food packaging and plastic bags is uh it's a much simpler domain you really only talk about one thing there's not
you know hundreds of different SKs and product options uh people know what these are they're kind of the the bogeyman of plastics the first thing that's usually addressed when this issue comes up that's why there's 162 in Massachusetts and there's on the order
of 50 around food packaging so you can see the sort of a 3 to1 ratio of towns that have acted on this there's still no state action this will help reinforce that but um it's it's just a much more popular er as as Brenda pointed out it's already they're already most stores are
already in compliant now 2025 2012 when we did this originally mike I do have one question if you go into some grocery stores um there's a a roll of very thin uh very thin gauge plastic for getting like six apples or that sort is that
included in the uh in the ban yeah those are called produce or product bags yeah uh they are already the ones that you find in me in in in Brooklyn are already compliant at the supermarkets but this would extend that to a broader range of stores but there's not that many stores
that have those kind of bags where everyone has a shopping bag okay thank you okay this is a public hearing let's open up the hearing now that the hearing has been open there's no one who signed up in advance is there anyone in the room who wishes
to speak on this sworn article and if you're online please raise your hand using the raise the hand feature i uh Laura not town meeting member precinct 13 and co-coordinator of Brooklyn Mothers Outfront reporting again that the leadership team of Brooklyn Mothers
Outfront has unanim unanimously endorsed this Warren article thank you and it looks like no one else is indicating their desire to speak okay we'll close the hearing and uh any further discussion
okay thank you for your time thank you thank you thank you okay um next warrant articles that we have already held hearings on and uh they're up for a vote first warrant
article 12 establish a flood plane administrator uh a question was asked last time about what happens if FEMA goes away as part of this so the big thing about this article is that FEMA administers the National Flood Insurance Program NFIP um
and that's what this is really about um so as much as the current administration may want to dispose of FEMA I think they would face an existential outcry from the Gulf States if they tried to dismantle the NFIP since it is the only
insurance uh entity that provides flood insurance i mean when you buy flood insurance from a company you're actually buying it from the federal government there's just a broker or go-between um so even if FEMA is dismantled or transferred to another
agency like HUD or even if FEMA is dismantled NFIP would be transferred to another agency it's not possible to get rid of NFIP at this juncture it would basically leave the entirety of Florida Alabama and Louisiana and the Carolinas unprotected so um unless this
administration decides all of a sudden it wants to hurt people even more than it's going to hurt people I don't think that it has said that there's going to be some pain yes in certain areas anyway that's let's not the AC the AC approved
this article at the time okay um any discussion i have one I I do have one question someone raised this and I don't know if it's valid um that the maps were developed before the muddy river was
re-engineered is this old maps were the old maps were yeah i don't think these map I think these maps consider the consider what yes the Army Corps of Engineers did to the money that's my understanding although again this has been going on for a long time yeah um so I don't know what you know and the other
thing is that these maps get appealed all the time so it's a long process okay i don't think this map is inaccurate or under uh underinclusive let's put it that way okay i I can just add that earlier tonight presented to the advisory committee and these maps are
more precise okay uh so I'd like to move favorable action on war article 12 all in favor please indicate by saying I john Vancoyak i michael Simon hi paul Warren hi david Pearlman i chair votes I next
warrant article 16 um amends the zoning bylaw to expand requirements to provide long-term bicycle parking spaces it also addresses a percentage of bicycle parking spaces to be dedicated to larger
bicycles what's so what's the discussion here well we we I had a thorough look at the um at that bylaw and um um it's one of these things that I think may have been uh adopted sort of out of momentum
rather than really thinking through what the needs are and I'm a little little concerned by it i I'm uh kind of reluctant to go with this I think the basic bylaw actually needs some work uh John um this feels like one of those
areas where if we you know intervene too much and and make wrong assumptions about the amount of bicycle you know use or bicycle space need that is going to exist in a given development i mean you know we could in in certain
circumstances just turn off a a developer who was interested in developing in Brooklyn until you know among all the other things that were being imposed on him he found out and furthermore I have to have like four times as many bike spaces in my parking garage as I'm going to need and so you
know I just give up you know um needs vary from one part of town to another part of town needs vary according to whether it's a building with a lot of um uh older people uh or or families um to put a formula into our
our zoning u that might just greatly uh overstep how much actual need there is for some bike parking spaces just doesn't seem right especially when people can work these things out you know if you have a fair number of car
parking spaces and it turns out there's less car use and some demand for bicycle spaces that you didn't anticipate you can give over a few of the you know car parking spaces to bicycle spaces seems to me yeah by the way the issue someone
excuse me someone was supposed to discuss with EDAB whether they think that this uh would impede development they haven't met yet pardon me they haven't met yet actually they're meeting Monday no well I was that was a mistake on my part they're having a special
meeting this coming Thursday I think it is yeah um I don't think that that's going to change what I sense is the sort of inclination of the select board i will say I'm I'm unsure on this one um
and I kind of torn so uh I think it was Anthony Aishack right brought this and he you know he he positioned it as we're not really changing the square footage of bike racks we're just changing the configuration
um and and that's I think partly that's true so if it's 20 foot bike rack instead of having 20 slots for 20 bikes it's now you know 12 for regular bikes and right but the ones for larger bikes are longer spaces and is you are increasing the you are increasing the
space but the other thing is this is getting into the definition of which units it's going to be going into right so uh building use if it's a it was uh 1 to seven dwelling units it's
now 1 to three dwelling units so um I didn't understand understand that multiple dwelling units of eight units and above they're going to four units and above so that means in a fourunit
building there's one.1 per dwelling unit so there'd be four bicycle more than four four i don't know why it'd have to be 4.4 um per unit and I just I just don't know
what does that mean to a four uh a fourunit building and and is it clear when it kicks in is it when it's renovated when Okay is there anyone um who would vote favorable action on this
okay i move no action all in favor john Vansco in favor of no action yes uh Michael Sanders yes i um Paul Warren um I'm going to abstain
david Groman i chair votes i Well we've switched places huh we switched places i just I don't understand questions or in article 22 wasn't that pulled it was pulled we we we kept it off the vote for a week just in case anyone else picked
it up but no one else has okay so So we don't have to vote on that oh you should but no action I mean yeah okay i move no action on Warrant Article 22 all in favor please indicate by saying I john Vancoy i michael Simon hi paul Warren hi david Pearlman i chair votes I warrant
article 22 uh I'm sorry 24 home rule petition real estate transfer tax um any any thoughts on that um I it it's just a matter of weighing in with the state legislature adding one
more municipality to the list of municipalities that are interested in it uh unless the unless we feel like it's not an appropriate thing to do in the first place it has been something that we've submitted before if we want to follow up on that then it needs to be
submitted again oh so I um I had a couple of phone calls with the petitioner so with Alec about this because I um I had my primary concern i had two concerns one had to do
with just single use it's you're dedicating quite a bit of money to one use which is um affordable affordable goes to the affordable housing trust if I had my brothers it would go to the general fund but uh that that's not really what this where the state's going
with it um and we do need more deed restricted affordable housing so I support that my bigger concern was to make sure that we had some flexibility should this thing come back to us to be able to provide uh exemptions for cost burden you know houserrich income poor
uh individuals that maybe are looking to downs size and they want to they need the money to downsize size or they need the money to the proceeds to be able to go for longer term aging care um and so there is a
provision in the in the uh home rule that there's two provisions one it says that um the the circuit senior circuit breakers would apply and those are the circ the state level circuit breakers so the state level circuit breakers are you can apply if you a certain income level
um at a certain age and you can get a tax rebate on your taxes on your um it actually comes through as an income tax rebate so that's one but two there's a general provision that says that we would have the ability to create other exemptions um either through bylaw or
through um um through policy regulation at the select board so with that I'm comfortable that um the seniors the issue that I'm I'm hearing from seniors they're worried about losing the ability to uh take the proceeds to go live out
the rest of their lives or downsize and I think that that provision in the home rule gives us the flexibility to be able to create a provision that says if you're 65 years older and you have an income of X um you know we would take the the exemption from a million to two
and a half or three million and we could greatly increase it thereby I think uh satisfying um you know the the concerns about seniors and frankly we could exempt the all seniors uh depending on income level so I feel pretty good that that uh provision um would give
Brookline the flexibility to help deal with aging adults that are concerned about proceeds so I think I'm I'm in favor of positive action john well um uh this is not new i I
opposed this years ago and I'm opposing it for the same reason today i I think it's very unwise in a time when we desperately need revenue uh new revenue sources for the schools when we need new revenue sources for town needs um to
have a an earmarked uh revenue stream that is only available for one use and it's it's a use that we honor in many many ways with other sources of revenue including C CPA funds um and uh I think
this is disproportionate um we have needs far beyond just um housing and uh we ought we ought to be divvying up whatever proceeds we get from a real estate transfer tax between I you know a simple formula would be one-third to
town municipal uses one/3 to school uses one/3 to the housing trust fund I'm not sure why it wasn't formulated that way that seems a much wiser way to formulate I'm not sure whether the moderator would agree to an amendment it's actually interesting those lines it's interesting
that you raised that because I did call the moderator in fact and ask him if we were if um he would accept an amendment that would redirect the funds to
um uh to the general fund either 30% to the general fund and the uh you know 30% to the housing trust and then 70% to the the general fund um and he said that he would accept such a he would accept he would want to see it first of course but
I did I did I did run it by him because I had the same thought my other I said my one of my general concerns is that it's not going into the general fund that it is one use um you know and if if there a way to do that i mean I I called
our state rep and he said you know this is really a statewide effort by uh folks that are very concerned about affordable housing and you're going against the he said there's nobody else that has made suggested this type of amendment um but
just to let you know glad that as well you know maybe uh I definitely think it's a better idea for a lot of communities and uh think of how much less of a agony we'd be going through right now school committee meeting after school committee meeting you know painful painful painful budget cutting
going on and here's a substantial revenue source the sponsors have done a good job of pointing out this will really bring in revenue of course depends on where you set the level of the of the transfer fee but the potential is huge and we're we're we're
blowing uh the opportunity to use some of it for things like schools and our other needs if we don't if we don't sort of amend this it would certainly bend the curve on overrides because operating overrides as if Sure alec estimated the first year could be like if we I think
it was last year's or the year before was like 3.5 million yeah 3.5 million times three is essentially an operating over yeah n name another opportunity where we're going to be able to add that kind of additional revenue to our revenue
stream interesting chasing Hill uh Dave that's a good one too one question I have for the town administrator and this might be difficult but are you able to estimate about how much we spend on affordable housing from the general fund
currently in various manners i would have to get back to you on that the reason I ask is if it's depending what it is if we were to support uh this warrant article one way to address John's concern would be that
whatever we're directing toward affordable housing now we don't have to direct anymore because we would have this new revenue coming in to fill that that's right and you know you can see in our free cash policy or the the waterfall right that the affordable housing trust is on there um and it gets refilled when it's low it's getting
refilled this year um to the tune of around $1.3 million um so you can see that we do definitely spend some money towards that um but one of the reasons why that's part of the free cash waterfall is that it's one-time money um
and we use that for that purpose this is presumably while it's a more volatile stream of revenue because it's based on sales um if you want to use it in the general fund or for general fund purposes we'd have to have a benchmark and we need would need to be a
conservative benchmark that we would then be able to use this for before we started talking about moving that around so um the amount of money we spend in the operating budget for affordable housing is more difficult to quantify um but I could talk to planning and and get
some m material back to you right we do support um affordable housing in various ways it would be interesting to have an answer to that question there's there are supports that we provide in one way or another to the housing authority for example correct and uh that certainly is affordable
housing uh so um uh it uh um I I think the I'm not quite convinced by John's uh argument in the sense that money is funible and if you don't spend it uh on if you don't take it out of the existing general fund
sources um uh and and and instead replace it with revenue from a transfer fee you can use the money that you haven't spent on something else okay um well yeah ju so just briefly this um the the issue around the
inconsistency of uh of the revenue going into the general fund would be would be an issue for us right right you could set up a reserve lumpy same way that that CPA you can move you can move it to a reserve and then and then allocate it um but
yeah my I again my my bigger concern was do we have the ability to do a a real circuit breaker for seniors so that they're not caught up in this um and and depends on what the bill ultimately is going to legislation how it comes back
yeah john um you know Mike makes makes a good point and David too but I I I would say the answer to what you said is because I heard someone say for example we could take the money from free cash well we don't generally use free cash
for operating purposes and you know the the difference between this revenue source and thinking that we can put it all into housing and then not take free cash into housing is that we have policies on free cash and you know free
cash would would you know at least as presently dictated would limit us to using that for one time only purposes and not to help our school budgets and not to help our town operating and policies are written on a piece of paper and digitally and there it's up to the
board to change them didn't tell the rating but we haven't um I just want to chime in because our intrepid planning director and uh um deputy town administrator have been texting me with some information to David's point which is that um our operating costs at least
on the planning side for affordable housing are funded through um CDBG so we have two full-time employee lines that are funded on through the CDB community development block grant um so our operating costs are usually zero terms
of revenue from the town itself going into affordable housing we cover that through the HUD block grant um typically one-time funds it can vary it varies from zero to in this year 1.3 million um on average it's closer to the it's you
know around $400,000 in onetime funds a year so that's what we currently tend to spend on affordable housing related projects at least on the planning side of the house there are other smaller expenses you know in terms of so forth um inspectional services um but the lion
share of that comes from planning okay i'm hearing that there's some suggestion that uh um we suggest amendment I've got a well I think if if we have time to do this I I'd like to you know myself have
a little bit more time to speak to the town moderator and some other folks so why don't we put this off until future date okay moving on to war article 21 creating new general bylaw establishing a commission on thriving children and youth is there any support to that
so I have the feeling I'm going to be in the minority on this but I I do see tremendous value to having this commission to engaging in this work i understand that it uh will likely be unfunded to begin so I I think we would
want to be uh transparent about when this could get off the ground in a meaningful way but that is not reason enough to me to not pursue it because in an ideal world we would be able to have this commission uh engaged in this important work so I'm supportive but I
think we need to be realistic about our expectations in terms of when it becomes fully operational in an ideal world um the various departments and agencies that we have would be doing this and health
department and they are university commission and they are um so I'm sorry Mike Mike was a question well I was Bernard you you really uh you've made my point and there's something I I it's a when um you know there's a a an effort
to um gather signatures to have have a election for charter commission one of and CTO and S committee on on town organization structure interviewed I think all of us and they asked they asked some questions about well what do
we think some of the some of the inefficiencies and the barriers are to Brooklyn moving rapidly and what and my answer was it's not so much town meeting that that doesn't I think the difficulty we have is we have this incredible number of commissions and boards that weigh in on everything and I think we're
creating yet another one that's going to duplicate efforts that are already made uh and it there's I've used this analogy many many times on on other topics not notably on zoning but we laid these things down like sedimentary rock uh and
they uh they u they turn into they turn from sedimentary rock into uh into uh granite somehow um they they it it there's an effect when you keep layering stuff on uh and I I think this
is an example of that i will say speaking of cos they they took it up last night i don't know what the outcome of that is so I don't know if that's relevant on your discussion here if you want to wait for them or um I know that they were considering several potential amendments um I don't know what the outcome of that conversation was
unfortunately well I'm glad Chaz brought that up um I I I can't say why i don't know the the outcome uh I was listening to the meeting and I got to the end when they were going to try to vote take a vote on it and I don't remember how that turned
out what I do remember and which I highly recommend to everyone and and David I think if if you had the time have the time to listen to the discussion uh before COS you know you you might have your mind changed some really good points were made that had
not been made in any of the discussions that I've been part of or listened to previously having to do with um a lot a lot of the responsibilities that already exist um under the school school department and the school committee the
public health department and the advisory council on public health the the um you know various other um departments in the town they exist there statutoily you know and and then you can't just kind of like come along and
say "Well actually we're going to give this body that's just you know being created um on paper um authority over the people who have authority in these areas to tell them that they have to do this and they have to cooperate with
that person and they have to formulate a plan you know and you can't just do that." Um and they could just say "Well it's nice that we have this thriving youth commission but we think we already do pretty well you know in in the areas of thriving youth and we we we don't need this commission." But they might
decide to that that the commission can be helpful but it's just it's not drafted in a way that that deals with any of the conflicts that it's creating it creates a lot of conflicts and a lot of confusion over who's going to decide
this who's going to decide that um who's going to you know make departments show up when there's meetings of the thriving youth commission and they want to have people from the school department or the school committee there um we need to be much
more careful when we draft these kinds of changes yep so I I'm with David that I think this is something that's worth doing this activity i don't necessarily know in this form so there are many agencies
and departments and um groups involved and available for to help children thrive and they are very disconnected um it had been suggested by uh somebody might have been from COS maybe this is where they're going that instead of
forming a commission right away maybe what we should do is encourage change this into a resolution and suggest that uh that uh maybe the health and human services department facilitate uh a bianual summit between all the parties
that are involved to try to create initiation of the integration that communication that we'd need and If that if that was effective it would actually maybe help inform if we need a commission actually I made that that s I
made the comment about um the Brooklyn Community Foundation convening a group many many years ago and and found that people hadn't been talking to each other right uh and it was a very useful thing to do so I I think that could be it could be an interim step to to help
determine if we actually need a commission now you know my preference was would be to wait and see if CTNos comes out with that so we don't have to do it but I can see you want to hold this for I think so okay okay anyone
object or would you like to vote i mean I I I think it would be useful to send a message of of uh you know no action uh because of the many concerns being raised i I'll move no action then john Vansy hi michael Sammon hi paul
Warren hi david Pearlman nay and chair votes i so okay next item is boards and commissions appointments question of appointing Lily Wallace to the economic development advisory board any questions or comments about
her okay i move approval of Lily Wallace to the EDAB board all in favor john Vancoy hi Michael Sandman hi Paul Warren hi David Pearlman i votes I okay and that is the end of the meeting do we
have anyone in the audience who would like to speak at the end anyone online who would like to raise their hand for our after meeting public comment seeing none uh the meeting is
therefore over yeah excellent um we need to get Tiffany to turn off the Yeah Tiffany will turn it off oh that's right okay 1107 not much better than last time much
better right 40 minutes back [Music]