Beautiful. Hey, hey, hey. Good evening. Welcome to tonight's select board meeting. It is June 30th, 2026. also the last day of fiscal year 2026.
>> Congratulations, we made it. >> Yes. >> Uh and our >> and our first item of business will be a question of entering into executive session for the purpose stated in items two and three and to then reconvene in
open session. Uh so I move that we go into executive session pursuant to Mass General Laws chapter 30A section 21A3 purpose three for the purpose of discussing strategy related to collective bargaining with the town's union personnel specifically the public
employee committee. >> All right. >> Yes. >> Michael, >> are you going to read number three also? >> Oh, I'm sorry. and and also for the purpose of approving the executive session minutes of April 7th, 2026 and May 19th, 2026.
>> Bernard, your vote? >> Yes. >> Michael, >> yes. >> Amanda, >> yes. >> Anthony, >> yes. >> And I also vote yes. All right. >> Recording stopped. Hey, bang. Heat. Heat.
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Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Welcome back. We have now returned from our executive session and our first item of business back in open session will be announcements and updates. Do any select board members want to announce any
recent or upcoming events? >> I'd like >> Go ahead, Bernard. I just want to mention that a few of us went out to fire station 4 to see how it's come along and I can say that it's money well spent that the money we spent has been
well spent in terms of issues of gender gender equity safety um just the the the type of uh setup they have that encourages camaradership um so I think that uh you know good job
>> I would certainly I certainly agree with you there. I was there. I saw Amanda there as well. Chief Sullivan uh gave the town administrator and I and Amanda and a few others in the community a very comprehensive tour, explained everything in punctilious detail. I'm not sure I
was able to follow it all, but I'm sure it was all quite important. It was uh extremely impressive the work that's been done there. Uh it's already in operation. It's been so for about a week, I believe Chief Sullivan said. uh and the fire station renovations. Uh
we're of course renovating or rebuilding all of our stations and so station four is the first one to have been completed and it really looks great. >> Any other announcements, updates? Amanda? >> Uh a couple of them um last week.
>> I'm so sorry. Just for for both of you, for all of us though, we just need to speak into our microphone. So Oh, >> thank you. Sorry. >> That's right. Um, so last week a couple of us were able to attend a soldout Brooklyn night organized by the Charles River Chamber of Commerce. Uh, a number
of local retailers, nonprofits, and individuals were recognized for their contributions to the community. And just for me personally, it was great to see such a large crowd supporting our local businesses. So, shout out to all the organization that took place to make that happen. Um, the second announcement
I wanted to make, um, is upcoming events. Uh for for those who don't know, Brookline Wreck actually organizes outdoor concerts every Wednesday from uh tomorrow through August 6 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Concerts alternate between
Emerson Park and Fischer Hill uh with tomorrow's concert featuring the outside toys at Emerson Park. So you should check it out this summer. Michael. >> Um, for those of for those of you who uh have networks, um, to pass this along,
um, and I'm sorry I don't have the announcement in front of me, but between starting today going through August 15th, um, in l in lie of school lunches and school breakfast, there is a program um, being offered
uh, in order to provide meals uh both breakfasts and lunches um this year not only for kids but for members of their families um and I will get the details and get them posted in the announcement section because I don't
have them at the moment. >> Anyone else? >> I do just want to flag um that starting we have declared a heat that uh commissioner of public health has declared a heat emergency in Brooklyn. Uh as you all know um the um weather is
going to be quite hot um going through the 4th of July. Um so um on Wednesday and Thursday there's standard operation for um town um uh facilities. The public library locations will be open. The senior center will be open. The pool
will be open. Um and um so we just encourage people to take advantage of those spaces. Um on if people need a place to go that isn't the library, the um public safety building here across from town hall, the public uh safety building uh community room is open uh
and available for people if they need a space to cool down. Um on Friday and Saturday, please check the uh brookclinma.gov website and the news announcements there. But just to flag for people, um we are having the there will be cooling centers open um in the
north center and south of town. Um on uh Friday and Saturday, the senior center in Florida Ruff and Ridley School will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Potterham Library community room will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The pool will be open on Saturday from 12:00 p.m. to 400 p.m. for the dive well and
the shallow pool only. And there will be free admission for all Brookline residents. The pool will be closed on the 4th of July, however. But yes, on the 4th of July, we will have cooling centers open um in all both North, Central, and South Brookline. Um and we just strongly encourage people to stay
safe. Um uh take advantage of the splash pads that are out there. The list of pads that are open uh and working as well as those are out of service are all online as part of this announcement. Uh please take the heat seriously. It's going to be very hot and crucially, it
is not going to cool down at night. Um that's really the big issue here. A lot of people think that when the night comes in doesn't turns the it goes uh the temperature goes down. That's not going to be the case. So we strongly encourage you to please u uh take care
of yourselves. Any other announcements? All right. Seeing none, we will move to public comments. Public comments a period for those who request to speak to the board regarding town issues. Persons wishing to speak may sign up in advance
beginning on the Friday preceding the meeting or may sign up in person at the meeting. Speakers will be taken up in the order they sign up. Advanced registration is available by calling the selects board's office at 617-73022
or by email at km mcgilly at brooklinem.gov. The full policy on public comment is available at brooklinmma.gov selectboard. So, do we have anyone who has signed up for public comment today?
>> We do. Do you want me to go through my timing and Okay. >> 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 three minutes. You don't need to use the
entire time, but you may if you like. Once 15 minutes has been met, there's 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. The onscreen timer will flash orange when you have 60 seconds remaining and red when your time is nearly up. Please conclude your remarks at that time. If you have more to say, you are 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, either their Brooklyn precinct number or street address and the specific topic on which they wish to speak. The board encourages but does not require that remote users turn their video on when commenting. And
we have Carrie Tenant has signed up for public comment. >> All right. Hello. Oh, welcome. >> Thank you. >> Um, so nice to meet everyone. My name is Carrie Tenant. Um, I'm a resident of
precinct 16. I live on Grove Street. Uh, and the topic that I was hoping to discuss tonight is actually the the Rotary that's just sort of right outside my home across from the shops at Peterham, if you all are familiar with
that, like where Cherylyn's Bakery is. Um, so I moved into my home in October of 2024 with my husband and our then fourmonth old baby. She's two now. Um, and in the time that we've lived there,
we've experienced a lot of issues with just like safety in that rotary. So, we probably see at least one to two car accidents in that rotary every week. Um, and neither of us works from home. So, that's just like in the time that we're
home. I I suspect that there are probably more car accidents than that. Unfortunately, I myself was involved in a hit-and-run car accident in that Rotary in January of 2025. Um, where the person who hit me drove away. Uh thankfully my daughter was not
in the car with me and you know the damage was all to the car but um and then similarly during a lot of the recent um more severe winter weather in the two winters that we've lived in the home winter of 2025 and winter of
this 2026. Our fence which abuts the rotary um has been knocked down by the snow plow and it's not actually um hitting it because there's a sidewalk and a guardrail, but the plow is going so fast and then the
snow is hitting the fence and like knocking the fence over. Um, so obviously I know I have three minutes and you know it's not going to be solved today, but I've tried reaching out, you know, to numerous different
avenues in the town and just really haven't gotten a response. Um, so I'm just not sure who the appropriate party contact is about just like an overall solution. Not looking for any like assessing any liability or anything about past events. I just want to make
sure that it's, you know, a safe place to drive and walk around and that, you know, we don't have our friends knocked over every winter. So, I'm just not sure who the Yeah, I tried. I can tell you who I tried if that's helpful.
>> Would you leave us your email address, please, and we'll follow up with you this week? >> Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. >> You can just I we have a pen and paper here. You can just leave leave it with Melanie and that would be great. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Thank you.
>> I see Janice Khan has her hand raised. Okay. Yes, I can unmute and Okay. And now I can So, thank you very much for just I I just have a follow-up comment to um to something that our town administrator said that has been a
concern of mine for a long time that we have cooling centers but they close by 6:00. And um as was pointed out, it stays hot at night. And I just want clarification for the community that my understanding is that the um that that
at the um combined police and fire station that that is a 24-hour area that stays open and could you just clarify if that's so? >> Yes, thank you for clarif thank you for that question. Yes. Um, so when the cooling centers close at the end of the day, um, the while while those cooling
centers close at the end of the day, the the public safety building at 350 Washington here is open 247. Um, and that is a space where if someone loses power, if there's a that there's a need um for cooling or ice or water or anything, um, they can go to that uh,
community room um, here in um, right here across from town hall. Thank you. >> Would anyone else like to be heard in public comments? >> All right. Seeing none, we will then move on to miscellaneous.
Now, there have been some requests to take 6H and 6V out of the consent agenda to be voted on separately. Are there any other items that members >> 6 and six what?
>> V. >> Oh, V. I'm sorry. >> Wait. 6 A or H? >> H. 6H and 6V. 6H is question of appointing the town administrator as hearing officer pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 31
section 41 for individual hearings on whether four members of the fire department should be discharged on grounds of medical incapacity and 6V is the question of affirming the audit committee's recommendation of a certified public accounting firm to
audit the town. So, regarding six H, I I would just like to ask for a little more background on the uh appointment process and whether other communities similarly have town administrators or their equivalent serve as hearing officers. If
you could tell us a little more about this item. >> Sure. Thank you. Um so yes um the process so under the civil service law which is what this law is which is what would be cited here um employees with those protections um are entitled to a hearing before their appointed author
their appointing authority or their design if there is something contemplated that is in excess of a 5-day suspension. Um and in this case, you the select board are the appointing authority for firefighters um and police officers under the civil service and uh
or you know even not under civil service, you are still the appointing authority for the police as police commissioners uh and fire commissioners. And so historically what you have done is you have appointed either a member of town council's office to hear these matters whether they are disciplinary or
medical or whatever in nature. Um or in an in the event such as here where um our labor council recently um uh took a different job in government and we wish her all the best. Um um where there hasn't been the capacity either because someone is were down a member of town
council's office or there's some sort of conflict. um I've stepped in um to serve. Most recently, I served in um late 2025. There was a disciplinary hearing. So, under the same authority, you appointed me that as hearing officer. Ultimately, a resolution was
reached before uh the hearing was held. Uh and there was no need to hold the hearing, but in that case, you did appoint me and I did um serve as hearing officer doing all of that work. So, there's nothing out of the ordinary here. period is your standard practice to appoint somebody uh rather than
conduct the hearings yourself. Um and that's just um that is standard practice for many towns and communities in Massachusetts. >> Anthony, >> can I have insight into whom the the the details about these four members and why
they are up for possible discharge? So I can't talk about the medical uh you know it's it's it's medical. So I'm I'm not allowed to disclose under you know privacy laws what those conditions are. I not at a public meeting. Okay. Um but you know I can certainly discuss you in
general the contour the rules are. If someone is has a condition and they are not able to do the job and are not likely able to do the job for the foreseeable future um then the employer does have the ability to separate someone on the grounds of incapacity.
>> Um and that's a last step. Um we only take that step if we think that there is no opportunity elsewhere. Um for example, if there's a reasonable accommodation to be made, if there is something that can be done. Um that really is the last step in the process. >> And these recommendations came from
originally the chief. >> The chief. Yes. >> Okay. And then the chief went to medical advice and then made the recommendations. >> So this is right. This is this is the end of a long process where we've we've gone through medical evaluations. We've gone through this and again this is not
>> it's not a foregone conclusion, right? at the end point of a hearing is that they have the opportunity to present to me a new set of eyes, a new a new face in this who's not the department head the opportunity to say no this is not right or there is something else there's something missing here they have the opportunity to do that I'll take that
into consideration and then I'll make a decision based on the evidence they present >> so this is not the first that these people are hearing about >> no this has been going on in in most of these cases for more than a year >> got it thank you >> and each of these four members have distinct cases so in theory the decision
could be different as to each one. >> Yes, I plan on, you know, there's there's no I'm not we're not holding mass hearings. Each one of these individuals is entitled to an individual hearing. They will present their own evidence and they will receive their own decision based on the evidence they present. >> Gotcha. Thank you.
>> Anyone else on 6H? All right. Questions on other items though. >> Go ahead. Um, first off on the the minutes, I submitted some comments, but they didn't make it into the packet. So, I might ask that
>> we can hold them. >> We can hold them. >> Yes. >> Um, >> second one, 6B, the Aging Friendly Communities Committee report. Is that report going to wind up somewhere more public facing permanently? Because I think there's a lot of valuable information in that that I only learned
from reading it. Yes, in fact, we are uh we're probably going to post it on the select board's page in terms of policies and procedures, but I think it's you know, I just had a conversation with members of Brooklyn can this afternoon about making that more visible. So, yes.
>> Awesome. Um and then 6 through 6P, we have a number of uh change orders essentially. Yes. Um where vendors uh end up needing more funding for one reason or another. Um,
and then we're also choosing particular companies to do uh certain tasks. And so I'm wondering if we track uh how good various contractors are at sticking to budget when deciding whether to award them or if we usually just go
with the lowest bidder. >> So we are allowed to under the procurement rules, right? And again, it depends on what kind this is complicated. It depends on what type of procurement it is. you know, is it really the lowest responsive bidder? Is it a more um uh qualitative analysis?
So, it but for things like what you're seeing in the miscellaneous, it is the kind of lowest response, you know, lowest responsive and responsible bidder. Um so, yes, they we do have grounds and we have um we do keep track of how well contractors do. Um and we have bypassed contractors. I mean, as
recently as a couple months ago for um even though they were the lowest bidder, we didn't believe they were capable of doing the work. So, we we bypass them. So, yes, we do keep track of all that. >> That's good. >> And to that point, which I think is a very important one, Amanda, by not being capable of doing the work, do you mean
by sticking to a budget or the actual skill set? >> It it can depend. It can be both. Um, it can be, you know, we look at the budget and we don't believe it's a realistic budget under the because of the what we know about the project or we don't believe that the based on our past experience with the contractor that
they're going to be able to do the work as outlined in the bid. >> Okay. >> That that's always important even in my like professional work. Sometimes the lowest bidder uh cost you more in the long run. >> That's exactly right. And I think you know certainly from our teams you know
public buildings and capital projects again as I I I come back to this and I pound the table on it. That's why having good in-house management of this is so important because it saves us so much money in the long run. We have good institutional knowledge about what contractors we work with work, what
contractors we have had bad experiences with. Um and we keep a we keep a tight tight uh grip on our projects. And I think that actually results in that's the reason why Brookline has such a good reputation for having its capital projects come in on time and on the
budget. >> But also typically in capital projects there will be a contingencies budget line. So it's not as though we have to dip into free cash or go back to the voters. That did happen on one occasion, but overall we have not had to do that. >> Yes. One one one occasion one project
out of a half billion dollars worth of projects I think is a pretty good track record for Brooklyn. Uh so >> and then I have one more question. Um and I had asked uh Chaz this in advance but I I wanted to
highlight here because I am personally interested in this and I don't know how many um but for six you we were talking about mobile food vendors and they're basically all ice cream trucks which like for my kids yay. Um, but I personally would love to see the
opportunity for more food trucks to be able to operate in town. Um, and I'm wondering if there's been any demand um for for food truck vendors that maybe might want to park out at one of our parks um and serve lunch for instance.
>> Yeah, there has not been historically there aren't too many of them that operate in town. Usually three or four come in over the course of a year. Um the licensing requirement is not ownorous. We ask them to tell us tell us what your route is. We ask them to make sure that they're not blocking spaces for a long period of time or distra or
disturbing people's experience. But um that's one of the many licenses that can historically come before the licensing panel which meets once a month on Wednesdays uh which you will be the new life board leaison to. Congratulations. Um and um but yes, we can certainly talk
about um emphasizing our desire to have more um uh food trucks and open air vendor licenses out there. Um we can put out a call for applications. Um >> be very cool. >> Anyone else?
>> Okay, we're going to pull out six was it? >> 6H and 6VA separately. Yes. I want to make a few comments though >> about the process. >> Okay. Go ahead. >> You're holding you're holding the minutes. So 6A
>> holding the minutes. >> Okay. So uh regarding 6V which is the selection of an auditor. Uh the audit committee met last week uh to select the firm that was selected and we appointed a new chair uh Steve Herskville
Hersvichi. Um, our prior chair, Paul Healey, moved out of town. Uh, both Paul and I have agreed to work with Steve to make sure that some of the problems that we've had with our audit um are addressed, and
we're behind uh our fiscal year 2025 audit, which should have been uh ready by u fall of 2025, had to be filed with uh a with the what's called Emma um
electronic municipal market um I forgot what the A stands for. Um filing system was not filed at least the audited financials were not filed. We filed an unodudited uh set of financials which is okay but not something that we want to
do. So, you know, both Paul and I and I was a audit committee chair for many years, uh, you know, um, back back in the old days. Um we we've you know agreed to work with uh Steve to make sure that you know the schedule of
getting the audit done as well started as well as completed as well as all the filings that need to be made uh it's done in a u in in a way that doesn't uh get us behind like we are now. It's no
real big issue with respect to being behind the fiscal year 2025 audit. It's just not something we want to be doing. It's embarrassing. Um, and the firm that we selected that's committed to getting the fiscal year 2025 audit uh done by
the end of August. This is a very aggressive schedule, but they convinced us that they can do it uh based on uh taking advant or making use of the uh old firms which is CBiz's uh audit book
which is a book of materials that talk about, you know, what was uh what was looked at over a period of time um and could be the basis for doing an audit, you know, uh quick I'm a little confused there, but doing doing the audit uh by
August 31st, they convinced us that that's possible and we expect that that will be able to happen because a lot of the work has already been done. Um and going forward fiscal year 2026 uh you know they'll start uh as soon as we file the
uh or or complete the uh contract and uh we should be back on track. We have a controller which we didn't have for a number of uh uh not a number of years but for a while which created problems and we had uh issues with our prior
auditor. So those things uh have been addressed and I think we're in good shape now going forward. So >> Anthony >> Barard, one one point on that. Does this relate at all to our new policy of switching auditors every few years? >> Uh
it's okay. I'm not sure how to answer that because >> was my question policy but the reason why we switched auditors have have to do with other things. >> Okay. Got it. Understood. >> Yeah. Okay. I mean the long and yeah the long and the short of it is yes and it's it's good that we're doing this but it was not you know it was our our prior
audit firm was bought twice um and it resulted in becoming CBiz um and then we worked with them for a year for the reasons Bernard described we've moved on from that relationship uh we have a new auditor here we will begin working through that process and uh again the
hope too is because on our end right um Chelsea Stevens the comproller is going to be directly managing this process My hope is that this goes smoothly and quickly and we get an FY25 audit in short order. >> Cool. Thanks. >> All right. Any further questions
regarding any items? >> Okay, seeing none, I move uh we're holding 6A the minutes. So I move approval of >> 6B the audit. So we'll separately. Okay. Yeah.
>> So, I move approval of 6B through 6 W except for 6V. >> Bernard, >> yes. >> Michael, >> yes. >> Amanda, >> yes. >> Anthony, >> yes. >> And I also vote yes. And now for item
6V, I move that we approve item 6V. Michael, >> yes. >> Amanda, >> yes. >> Anthony, >> yes. Bernard >> abstain and I vote yes. All right. So now we'll move on to our
next agenda item. Boards and commissions interviews conservation commission. We have Matthew Eddie with us. >> Yes, he's online. >> Good evening. Thank you very much for your time. >> All right. You can begin whenever you're
ready. Uh, thank you. My name is Matthew Eddie. I'm a 10-year resident of Brooklyn. I live and vote in precinct 3. I happen to, uh, live on Brook Street. Uh, and it's given the name Brook Street because the, uh, Tannery Brook runs underneath
it, which gives me a particular interest in water management and storm water management in the town of Brookline. Um, I have had a long-term interest and commitment to conservation work. If you uh had a chance to read the paragraph of my uh application for the conservation
commission, uh I have a master's degree in natural resource management. Uh I uh served for the uh muddy river restoration project maintenance and management oversight committee for five years and I'm currently engaged in a certification program uh working with
the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions uh trying to get a a conservation uh commission certificate through them. Uh I'm very excited about the work particularly in the town of Brooklyn. Uh my hope is to simultaneously focus on environmental
protection and resiliency planning and also to support the good work of town employees uh with whom or to in whom I hold high esteem who worked as part of the muddy river restoration project. Uh they are in departments like sustainability, parks and open space
engineering and public works and I very much admire the work that uh that the town has done and continues to do. Uh I believe I can assist in the work of the conservation commission in five main ways. Uh the first would be in evaluating deeds and plans. Uh I know
that that is largely the breadandbut work of the the conservation commission and the work that I did uh as the administrator for the uh the MOC uh gave me the opportunity to develop some expertise in reading notices of intent uh and project notification forms etc.
So I feel like I have that experience that I can bring to uh to the commission. Another way that I feel like I can help is by is through education. Uh one of my other major careers in my life was as a a high school science teacher. Uh so the ability to translate uh technical
material for a public audience is something that I hold in high esteem. Uh so I feel like I could do that well through uh the any work that the conservation commission might send my way in terms of tours and uh the the authoring of articles.
Uh I feel qualified to support the town in uh managing and hopefully expanding townowned lands of conservation interest. Uh and that was some of the the major focus of the work that I did in in my graduate program. uh and I have some experience as a volunteer manager
uh specifically working with Habitat for Humanity, but also with other organizations uh in terms of helping leverage public interest uh in the work uh that is that the town is engaged in with respect to its uh conservation lands. And finally, I'm happy to pick up
a shovel. Uh I've done uh plenty of work uh particularly through the Student Conservation Association to make sure that I'm contributing uh my muscle and heart and arm to uh to the work of uh of conservation. Uh so those five ways, evaluating deeds
and plans, education the public, managing uh open space that's owned by the town, volunteer management, and fieldwork are the things that I feel I could contribute to the conservation commission. and I hope that you'll consider my uh my candidacy. Can I answer any questions?
>> Yes. So, a question I have, I see that you recently served as a sustainability consultant for Riverstone Sustainability in Newbury Port. Uh >> that's correct. >> I wonder if you can tell us a little bit more about the work you did there and uh
how it might inform your thinking if you uh join the conservation commission. Yeah. So, uh the uh Riverstone Sustainability is a very small shop. There's just one proprietor. Uh and we uh she hired me as a a secondary person
for a period of time. Um the bread and butter of that particular consultancy focused on uh lead certification, LEED certification, uh largely for uh universities uh and colleges. And so the one that was closest to the work that I
uh to this area was working for Boston College uh which is putting up putting together a new archive. So I was doing work uh there uh evaluating the lead uh suitability particularly associated with um water storm water management with
respect to that building. Uh so working in support of our community members uh whether they be in business or in nonprofit or in the government I think is something that I feel like I am comfortable working with all those
different constituencies keeping the public interest in mind. >> Any other questions? >> Michael. >> Uh first of all thank you very much for your application. Um Have you had an opportunity to uh
observe a a uh a meeting of the commission of the council? >> Yes, I have. >> And did you have any uh p thoughts on uh the governance within that commission, things that worked well, processes or processes that could be improved?
>> That's a good question. Mostly I was there just to to listen as and to be in support of uh of Alex Cassie in particular because I feel like he does terrific work on the part of the town. Um uh I will not say that I have enough experience with the dynamics of the
committee to be able to say that they could do their work more effectively. I think as as someone who is coming into the committee for the first time, my job at least at the start would be to to listen and understand the structure of all of of that. Um, I think what impressed me uh was the uh the energy
particularly around doing site visits. I know they all went out to to Putterham uh golf course to look at a major project and the enthusiasm that the other members of the committee had shown for getting out in the field and observing those projects firsthand was something that uh that it inspired me
that a committee made of volunteers were uh showing that level of motivation. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? All right. Well, thank you very much for interviewing with us. Uh, and you will hear back at some point soon.
>> Thank you. I appreciate your time. >> All right. Next up, we have Ernest Cook. >> Excuse me. Before you before you proceed, could we get a summary of the number of positions that have open >> one?
>> I'm I'm sorry. Could we get a summary of the number of positions that are open? Sure. That we're interviewing for. >> There's one. It's on the um website for commission. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> There's one current vacancy, right? >> Yeah. >> And one potential future one.
>> Hello. My name uh can you hear me? All right. Is Ernest Cook. Um thank you for considering my application to serve on the Conservation Commission. I've been a member of or a resident of Brooklyn for
I think about 30 years. Um I have been active in town politics. I was uh served on town meeting for six years. I am vice president uh currently at the Brookline Greenspace Alliance and uh we um
advocate as I'm sure you know for uh the the conser park and conservation uh spending and programs um within the town. Um, I'm also on the board of advisors of um the Charles River
Watershed Association, which cares deeply about water quality in the Charles River and its tributaries, including the Muddy River. And as I'm sure you know, Brookline is the principal watershed for the Muddy River
and um contributes considerably to uh water quality problems um in the Muddy River. Um my professional career um for oh nearly over 45 years has been
principally focused on parks and land conservation. I I worked for the trust for public land for 37 years um and rose to become senior vice president and director of national programs for that
organization. Um I've also had um a consultant um business landwater associates and uh where I've retained several people with expertise and
wetlands and planning and public finance to create plans and implement plans for um parks and land conservation. uh I was the for example print uh well recently I've been
u moving toward retirement and uh cutting down on the work of Landwater Associates. So it's pretty much me now. I I don't uh usually employ other people at this point. Um but just uh one example of my work. I was the principal
author of the land protection plan for the US Fish and Wildlife Service to expand the Iranis National Wildlife Refuge in Texas with the goal of protecting habitat for the recovering population of the endangered whooping
crane. Um that was all about wetlands. Um so in addition to the planning I'm now involved in implementation of that plan uh including uh applications for funding from a variety of state and federal sources as well as negotiations
with land owners to uh actually acquire that land and move it into public ownership and management. Um, at that point I uh I could just open for questions on my background and and
interests questions. So a question I have if you could expand a little bit about your experience as uh the primary author of open space plans. You referenced the Aransis
uh National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. You also mentioned in your resume something similar in Georgia. U can you talk a little bit about how you would utilize that experience on the conservation commission? Yeah, I was just in in Georgia, I have
been um principally responsible for creating uh two different partnerships that have been pursuing land protection to um avoid uh listing of various
species as endangered in the state. One of them was the gopher tortoise. And uh more recently this uh I've been leading a partnership that is trying to um avoid any further uh listing of
endangered species in four uh significant watersheds in north um north northwest Georgia. Um the uh I don't have a great deal of much experience in uh
regulatory approaches. Uh I have done uh work on in California to prepare um environmental quality uh reports under the um California Environmental Quality Act. Um but most of my work has been
kind of in the non-regulatory approach to um uh meeting environmental goals through incentives uh for for land owners principally land protection uh conservation easements um I have uh
written many conservation easements and negotiated those with land owners um so uh it's that experience I think working a lot with the the the private sector and understanding incentives that I could bring that perspective to the
conservation commission. >> From the materials you provided though, it looks like you also had some experience with promoting federal legislation uh in relation to the Connecticut River Conservancy. >> Uh yes. Um I was for oh probably 10
years at the Trust for Public Land in charge of um all government relations. Uh and that included um a significant group of uh uh uh federal affairs
experts working out of an office in Washington DC. And uh I brought that uh experience later to my work as a as a consultant with Landwater Associates. And um had a
couple of um uh consulting uh uh projects related to um large watershed uh protection efforts. One of them being the Connecticut River. And uh there I helped to design legislation that was
ultimately pretty much in the form I developed it adopted um to uh expand um federal uh ambition shall we say to to protect that watershed.
>> Thank you Michael. >> Uh thank you. Um, have I'm wondering if you've had the opportunity to sit in on a meeting of the Conservation Commission. >> I have not actually. >> Okay. Um, are there any particular um,
charges of the Conservation Commission or activities um, that you've gleaned from its agendas um, or its work that you are particularly interested in diving in on? Um
I'm very interested in um sustainability in uh promoting green infrastructure. Um and uh I have done a fair amount of work in that arena. Um, I'm in charge of
a uh sustainability um uh committee and plan for um uh for my boat club, Riverside Boat Club in Cambridge. Um so sustainability issues have always keenly interested me.
>> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> All right. Well, thank you very much for the interview and you'll hear back from us. Thank you, >> David. >> Yes, >> had a scheduling issue, so he won't be joining us until July 14th. >> Okay,
so with that, then we will move on to 8B interviews for Brookline Commission for the Arts. And we might as well review how many open positions are there? >> Three. >> Three positions currently. And how many applicants total? >> Um, three tonight. I think we have two
others that we have previously interviewed. >> Okay. So, first up we have Arav Patel. >> Um, hello. I'm Arav Patel. I attend Brooklyn High School. Um, I'm a junior
in the fall. I live in district 10. Um, I want to be on the committee cuz I've seen how public art can change like the space and bring community together. I've also um started the impact walls which
Jason Kakone started which like brings like all the murals around Brooklyn they bring a sense of community and um bring like the community together and lots of students from Driscoll an elementary school that I went to um have
worked on the murals near Driscoll like the one next to Stokes and the club that I started um has and trying to help um do this and clean up the neighborhood like all the graffiti.
Um I've also had experience in one of their meetings. I've attended a few of their meetings cuz I was invited and got to see firsthand how everything was. um I faced or I have um seen that and I
just want to like change the community and change like how art can be accessible to everyone and not and make it just more accessible. >> All right, thank you. Any questions? Amanda,
>> um I I always like when our high school students uh throw their hat in the rink to apply for various commissions. Um and so I'm wondering for you what uh in inspired, for lack of a better word, uh you to apply to this commission uh and
really any commission in the high school? Well, um Jason, uh the founder of uh Impact Walls, he said it would be a great idea because he was on this commission and it helped him um learn
more about how learn more about community and a sense of community and also learn more about how art can like bring the community together. But I also wanted to join because um I've seen many of like the showcases of
what the Brooklyn Arts Committee Committee has done like the um ability um performance that was held like a month ago. Um um and I just wanted to join because it
would help like me and I think I could bring um skills to the committee. >> Thank you. >> Could could you talk a little bit more about your work in founding Impact
Walls? How many people participate in it? uh which mural initiatives you've been involved in there. >> Um at our club we have about 20 people who um have been helping. We have done
bake sales and trying to raise money so we can clean some of the graffiti like at Gregs. Um I have been involved in two murals. Um the one next to Stokes with like the dragon um and
the pizza and that and then one with this one was taken down because of the reconstruction of Driscoll but is the I think it's still in the school though. Um it's the mural of Mr. Um,
I'm blanking on his name, but he um was with Martin Luther King Jr. and it's just a mural of him. >> Bernard, do you have >> I think Amanda for ask question I was thinking about, but give give me a sense
of um how how excuse me, my voice. Um, give me a sense of how you would uh bring the sort of energy of high school students and and other youth uh to uh the arts commission and the types of
programs you think that they're missing out on or not doing that uh would appeal to youth. Um, I think that many people don't appreciate like the art and things that
the committee has done before cuz they don't know about it. So, I would want to bring like awareness to it. And I also don't think it's very interactive. Like much of the art that the committee has done isn't very interactive with the people. It's either just a showcase or
it's just like them painting a wall and not saying anything about it. Cuz the new mural that they put up next to Autos, I personally had no clue that they were doing it until I joined one of their meetings and they started talking about it. I also never knew about it
until I like walked over and looked at it. But there's no awareness. So, I'd want to bring awareness to all the art and then I think that would be helpful for everybody in Brooklyn High or just in high schools and the youth to see if
there was more awareness. >> Anyone else? All right. Thank you very much. Uh, you'll hear from us eventually. Uh, next up we have Kelly Pope. Hello everyone. Thank you for having me
tonight. My name is Kelly Pope. I've been a resident of Brooklyn for over 20 years. I am a new resident at Marian Street, which we just cut the ribbon on my building not too long ago, and I'm very excited to be here. I currently sit
on the board council on Aging. I formally sat on the board age friendly cities committee and tonight I am applying for commission for the arts. I have a 40-year career in the music business where I started my career with
Dolly Parton out of the University of North Carolina where I sat on the on the concert committee where I was studying stage production and lighting. I therefore went out on tour with her and ended up in Los Angeles where my career
really took off. Um, I had a 10-year career at Westlake Studios. And if you've seen the Michael Jackson documentary recently, then you would have seen our studios because we recorded every single record that Michael did there. I therefore went on
to manage bands, having them signed to Epic Records, touring with those bands. Um, I then went on to produce my own benefit concert that aided the LA homeless. And I'm applying for the Commission of the Arts because I know that I can bring
a wealth of talent and experience in the field of music, which is the arts, that I feel that we are lacking a little bit in the community of Brooklyn. and I have been invited to sit into one of their meetings which happened to be just a few
hours after I applied for this um position but was unable to attend and um talked subsequently to Jillian and I look very forward to meeting everyone because it is an A-list talent of people on this committee and
I'm very excited about meeting everybody there and if you have any questions for me I'd be happy to answered them. >> All right. Any questions for Miss Pope? >> Michael. >> Um, thank you. Um,
in ter in terms of of all of the skills that you've you've developed um in your long music career. Um, are there are there sort of particular ways that you think those skills can be applied to the
work of the commission or the projects that the commission might sponsor or evaluate? >> Um, yes, I am I I really wanted to try to meet and have a meeting with them before I I did my interview, but that
did not work out. But I I have seen some of the music projects that were granted um grants this past year and I feel that we can open those genres a little bit further to include other
forms of music and not just like woodwind and more classical things that they have been granting these grants to. I also would like to see us step our toes into maybe combining more
arts and music with Brooklyn Day and maybe co-producing some things with the rooms um at Koolage Corner Theater that they built to host arts and crafts and different production values of people coming in and the art
world and also we were losing our galleries here and that is a big strangle hold on us. We need to really find a place to showcase the people that live within the Brooklyn community, not only in physical and meet different
medias of arts, but also music, performance, and those areas as well. And I would just like a chance to sit down with a member of the committees and really hash out some future plans of how we can start branching out a little bit
further. Thank you. >> I I have a similar question. So I notice and again you spoke to this about your extensive experience with uh major music bands and uh I I appreciate that it
sounds like your uh bent within Brooklyn Commission for the Arts would be uh auditory and performance-based not just visual. Do you have experience doing uh something similar with other communities
in terms of arranging sort of municipal arts? >> Um I do do you remember Mr. Cutler's outside the box? He has passed now but he did this wonderful festival on the Boston Commons
um before he passed away called Outside the Box. and you know and I stepped up and I volunteered for that and basically the first place they threw me was backstage to deal with all the talent. So I have a plethora of experience with
PR production. Um, there's so much that goes into it. It's It's really, as you know, it's a lot to to put to to put on a show and I feel that I can bring those elements to the Commission of the Arts because I
think we are lacking and those production values. Um, and I would still like to try to do things with Brookline Wreck, like co-produce some things because I know that Cadence is carrying on the live shows at the parks and I
feel that we could do a lot more than what we're doing. So, I I welcome the challenge. >> Thank you, Bernard. >> So, so we could do a lot more than what we're doing. What What do you think is preventing us from doing a lot more? I
mean, for example, uh spaces for performances may be limited here in Brooklyn. Yeah. There may not be an appreciation of different genres of music, for example, um in in Brooklyn that which could be an educational issue. You know, what what what other
things do you think um you know, sort of impede that uh effort? >> Um that is a great question, Bernard. Um, you know, music is vast and it and expands every generation
and what might be for you may not be for me and what might be for me music-wise may not be for other people, but but we do have a stage on Brooklyn Day and I think that we can grace that stage with
a plethora of different genres from the voices of the people that live in Brooklyn um that are musically talented. And I think that we need to do that. And I think it would be great to make Brookline Day more of a
more to add more festival bands, performances, arts. Um, and also setting up giving the artists a chance to get booths to display their works as well, Bernard. I
think that's really really important. And also bands to display their CDs or, you know, their download details or, you know, I just did, you know, it's funny. I still run the platforms for creation records and I
lived in London, England for a very long time. after I left um LA. And I have given those bands that used to be on Creation a second breath of life because we're all in our 50s. I'm in my 60s. And
it's amazing how just the power of these social media platforms get the word out. And I think that we can utilize that a lot better in Brooklyn as well on our social media sites and getting the word out. So, I'm up for the challenge. I
would really really like to to sit down and speak with the present committee members and the new members that you all decide to take on. And I'm just up for the challenge. I have a vision of really trying to help in the
music department wherever I can and and listen and and work with people to we have a lot of talent in Brooklyn. It's just not being utilized. >> Anyone else? All right. Well, thank you very much for
the interview. >> Thank you. Nice to see everyone. And next up we have Saiaka Minagishi. >> Yeah, this is Saiaka. Hello. Um, my name is Saka Migishi. You
can call me Sai. Um, I am a resident of Brooklyn for eight years and I live on Brown Street which is in North Brooklyn. Um, if I'm selected to serve on the Brooklyn Commission for the Arts, I would love to bring um I would love to
contribute to the ongoing efforts to um strengthen public spaces such as um through the rapid recovery plan. And I believe that art has the power to make neighborhoods more vibrant, inviting. And I would like to um encourage more in
installation of murals and galleries to um to all people of all background regardless of their arts background back art backgrounds. Um and I am very grateful for my upcoming
exhibition at the Pam branch. um which is from July to August. But I am also keen to um encourage um more collaborative work, not just displaying work. So I'd love to um encourage
projects that are created with it with the community members um from all ages and all backgrounds. Um, and I think that murals and um public artworks otherwise
like um like p pictures or famed artworks or sculptures there. I think they're all um great ways to foster creativity. Um and I want to give all residents like a sense of ownership over Brookline's public spaces.
And I would like to bring a collaborative mind mindset and um a willing a willingness to listen. And I am very um excited to make Brook Lines uh to help make Brook Lines community
more accessible and um and somewhat comfortable for all. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Any questions? Amanda? >> Yeah. Uh, so you spoke really nicely just now as well as in your written
response about the need to increase accessibility of art to a much wider swath of the public, including those with disabilities. I would love for you to expand a little bit on that because I I think that's a really good goal and I'm curious as to how you might actually
be able to accomplish that. >> Yeah. So like we we have um a place called Gateway Arts. I don't know whether everyone knows it but it's um it's an organization where people with
disabled backgrounds can participate and create art and sell online. Um and they have galleries online as well where people can see their artworks. And I believe that if you extend that to the wider community u for example like doing
that kind of event regularly um outside of get outside of that program that can really make um art more inviting and can really help to make art accessible to all.
>> Thank you >> Michael. Um, thank you very much for your application. Um, I'm wondering if you can talk at all about how you think about motivating the the broader public to be
engaged in the kinds of art uh, installations or murals or other uh, ways of engaging it in art within Brooklyn. >> Yeah. So I think that we shouldn't make
art projects like um only for artists. So I think we should make for examp like we should make you know um pop-up stores that are like that can that where people can easily stop by and create some kind
of art like contribute to the sign or like um something very small that people don't have pressure to be good at. I think that's like a great way to um encourage people to be more involved in art. And if if people are interested,
they can, you know, go further to um to interact more with the Brooklyn art community. >> Thank you. >> You speak in your materials about art as a form of emotional expression, not just
uh something that many people would find beautiful that's been made by a professional. And so somewhat similar to what Michael's asking, do you have any uh experience with arranging certain types of art activities or events that
are designed to encourage uh sort of the lay people or those like myself who can maybe draw a stick figure into uh artistic expression? >> Yeah. Um so I've been involved in um
organizing art activities for a temple that I go to that I went to um back in Australia. I came from Australia um before I came from Japan and um I helped
make like origami sessions um where people can just fold origamis um and that kind I think that encouraged people from all backgrounds to participate even lay people um because origami you don't have to like think much and you can just
follow the instructions and fold papers um and what you can make is really interesting. So that I think that was um a helpful project and yeah
>> and then you also >> and also yeah >> you reference that you I see in your materials you lived in Australia, you studied there. Is there something that Australia is doing that we're not that you would want to bring here?
Um no I mean I would like to so each country has it good and bads but um from Australia I would like to actually bring um I would like to bring like the culture of accepting everyone. Um I
don't have anything that I don't want to bring but I do want to bring the culture of accepting everyone regardless of their accent or you know backgrounds. Um because I believe that art, you can speak through art. Um art can art can
access act access as a voice. So I really want um people more people in Brooklyn to be able to speak their emotions um through engaging in art activities. >> All right. Thank you. Any other
questions? All right. Seeing none, thank you for interviewing and we will get back to you. >> Thank you. >> I I just want to say as a broad statement, I am really impressed with the interviews that we have had. I mean, we have some really talented people in
this community and uh we're going to have some difficult decisions before us because I'm really impressed. I mean, some of these applications you'd think that they could be applying at state and federal level even. Wow. All right. So with that we will move to annual
appointments. Question of making annual appointments as recommended by the the town administrator of department heads, administrators and other officials and employees and of setting the benefits, salaries and wages of all non-UN employees effective July 1st, 2026.
>> Yes, thank you. Um first off, I want to thank the entire town administrator team and the whole staff for bringing this together. You can see Charlie Young um is the author of this memo. Technically, it's supposed to come from me. So, this is me officially endorsing Charlie's work on this. Um um but I really want to
thank the whole team um for bringing this together. This is a big production every year. Um every year um some positions uh that you uh appoint are required to be reappointed by either local law or state statute. So, you
reappoint those. You also have a number of the ancient positions listed. the keeper of wooden bark, the keeper of the gaol, um spelled that way. Um you know, measurer of coal, etc. Um all of those you are required by ancient
Massachusetts statute to do. Um you are also technically required, for the record, to walk the boundary of Brookline and measure the meats and bounds of it. Uh we don't make you do that anymore. Um but it's technically the law. Um >> be fine. just so you know, uh, you got to go find all the little stones where
where the boundaries of Boston are. Um, so no, we don't make you do that anymore. Um, but we do, um, ask that you reappoint, as a matter of course, uh, those employees. Obviously, um, under the new, you know, under the current, uh, system with department heads, um,
it's a little different than how it used to be, but as a matter of statute, we have to reconfirm some appointments. So, we just ask you to do that. Um, for the non-UN employees, uh, the cost of living adjustment this year is 1.5%. We acknowledge that that is below the rate of inflation. We acknowledge that that
is a tough, uh, adjustment to make. Um, but at the same time, that was the adjustment that was put in place knowing that there this would be an override year, knowing that we would have these conversations about um, things going forward. Um and we just want to acknowledge everyone's service and
appreciate that while we are grateful to be able to give some cost of living adjustments and this is uh many people will receive stamp adjustments as well. So for those folks there um they are seeing an increase above 1.5%. Um but we acknowledge that that cost of living
adjustment is a tough one. Um and yet we will continue to do our best to provide parody to our employees with our comparable communities and ensure that everyone is compensated fairly and competitively for the work that they do. Um the last couple years have featured
some adjustments to the department head pay plan as part of the mid and the mid-level technical pay plan. Um this was part of the prior override. uh you allotted $500,000 in the prior override to conduct a study that had been uh
basically on hold for more than a decade uh of whether or not we were compensating our non-union employees fairly. Um that resulted in significant raises most notably to our social workers which was a huge benefit um but also to folks that had not seen um reevaluation in quite some time. That
process is now largely shaken out. There is one final change in here for the director of water and sewer. Uh so you can look at all the different movements in here. Um it's just you know uh a correction due to the um you know the intricacies of changing people's grades.
Sometimes their pay actually went up less than it would have if they had stayed in the same grade. And so this is just a correction to that um for Jay Hersy's position uh to ensure that he's uh at the right level of compensation. Um and so uh but other than that uh
there's nothing out of the ordinary for the um uh the positions listed on your u the department head pay plan. All that information is set um and that will be um when if you vote this that will all be set for the current fiscal year and
we'll have be in good shape to proceed into FY27. Anthony >> I have a question on the 0.1. What does that last sentence mean when it says, "Please note that positions such as town administrator, chief of police, fire chief, and town council have a different status due to provisions of other laws."
What does that mean? >> Um, so we so some of those positions, so for like the those three positions, my position, the chief of police, and fire. >> So town council is slightly different
than those, but the um we are the chief the the chiefs and I are contractual employees. So we are appointed based on your authority directly and we uh we work on contract rather than as part of the department head pay plan. Um with that said all of our salaries are
incorporated into our contracts but this contract and not the pay plan is the source of our uh uh payment. town council is reappointed uh is is a reappointed position and so that's statutory or local statutory I believe and not um so that's just slight it's
just a slightly different method of appointment um whereas the rest of the department heads under the town administrator act I recommend them for appointment to you and you make those appointments um but there's no special statute governing that so they serve for
um they they serve at at will they're at will employees but they serve for a dedicated term the same way that I do, the chiefs do in town council does. >> Those terms being set by your contract? >> Yes. In our case, yes, in town council's case, it's renewed every year. Um, but
yes, for the police chiefs, the police chief, the fire chief, and I, we all operate on three-year contracts. >> Got it. Okay. So, I don't understand. I guess it doesn't make sense to me. I guess it doesn't matter. Like town council is still for one year, but it's a contract. >> So, town council is not a contractual. Yeah, this is Yeah, this is right. Town
Council is the and some you can see the couple other positions that are listed there. Um you're they're um they're not contractual employees. They are still department heads, but because there is a local law that says they must be reappointed by the select board every year, we reappoint them, but we treat
them no differently than other department heads. It's just that we have to honor the terms of the local law when we reappoint them. >> Okay, >> Michael. Um so you you mentioned the director of water and sewer was a correction. Yes. And I was and I was
going to ask the question of why um that particular um position went up two steps as opposed to others which went up either zero or one. Correct. And I'm assuming that that is the reason. Yes. Um so the question I
have um and this I guess particularly applies to not the department heads but potentially division heads um or other sort of second tier management positions. Um was there any um
basically competitive analysis done for similar positions in other communities and potentially the need for adjustments in those? >> Yes. just so that um we don't find ourselves in the position of undercompensating relative to other
opportunities that our excellent town staff may be able to afford themselves of. >> Yes. So in both of those cases um all non-UN positions were evaluated as part of that uh process that was undertaken during the last override cycle. So, not just the department heads, but the
division heads, the um folks who are part of that what we call the T plan, which is the technical and mid management staff. So, that ranges all the way up to a T17, which is the director of public buildings, all the way down to, um, you know, technical employees down at the, you know, T4 or
five level, um, who are line employees with technical expert, specific technical expertise. So all of those individuals were evaluated. Um and our target point for this was if we were greater than if we were out of alignment
more than 5% with our basket of comparable communities that we would bring those positions into alignment so that they were less than that they were at par um or within 5% based on our pay plan. So we didn't want to blow up the pay plan but we did bring people into alignment. And when you say parody with
our peer communities, are you talking about the the average pay of those or the 75th percentile or what's the parody point at which being considered? >> It was the average. It was the it was the a um it was the average of a diff
but each position had a different basket of communities because some communities just don't have positions. Some communities have different. So it really is it is an art as much of a science to try and figure out you know and people's responsibilities are different. Um you know for example in our our space you
know Lincoln's job is both treasurer collector and finance director. In other communities those are two separate jobs. Um so you know thinking about how these all fit together and what their roles and responsibilities are results in differing baskets of comparable
communities for each position. Yeah. Um, one of the reasons I asked is because there is some risk. If you are looking at the average, then that means that half of the communities in your basket
are actually typically paying better than you. Yes. And that is a very large pool of opportunity. Yes. That we have to respond to. And in our case, we we we took the average as kind of the guidestone, but we didn't adhere to that
at a oneto one. You know, for example, if we saw that there was a wide variance, if there was a significant standard deviation, then we looked at whether or not a movement upwards was appropriate in those circumstances. So, it wasn't always targeting just the average. That was where we were trying
to wind up. But we for example in some situations did see that there was significant variance and we wanted to be competitive and you know one of the analyses that was done for the department of public works does target that 70% um it was a separate study that
was done so we are looking at that more at the 70th percentile rather than at the average. >> Thank you. I have a question sort of along those lines of we did this essentially internal audit of of pay structure. Five years from now are we going to have to do a similar audit or
did part part of that work look at scaling over time? >> Part of that work looked at scaling over time. Um you know how to and it is I I will be frank our our pay plan has evolved over the years. I think our next step, you know, not in the immediate
term, but probably over the next five, ten years is is rebuilding the pay plan. Um, we now are where we want to be with a lot of these non-union positions in terms of compensation. What's out of whack sometimes is the pay bands and where the overlap is. It is very
difficult to create new positions and move people around and create a situation that's equitable. um you wind up because our steps and and grades are the way they are. Um
you're never going to make everyone happy. Um you're always going to have a situation where someone is going to say, "Hey, wait a minute. That person is being paid X for this job, but I do more than that person does. Why am I being paid less?" You know, why am I in a different pay plan? I get that a lot. Um
it's and I understand why. It's it's we've asked this system which has been around for many years to do a lot. Um it's time in the near future for us to rebuild this pay plan, but that is going to take a significant investment. So
we're it it works now. Um and I think the compensation is correct and is likely to sustain us in that next five year window, 5 to 10 year window. But eventually we're going to want to look at are the steps right? Are the grades right? um are the gaps between grades,
right? How can we make this cleaner um going forward? >> Thanks. >> Under miscellaneous positions, there's measures of wooden bark, but there's some others that I'm wondering if they have more application. So, for example, fence viewer. >> Yes,
>> I I I would imagine that's something that town council would probably actually handle. But does uh Aaron truly deal with border disputes between neighbors? >> Yes. Um if we need to inspect someone's fence. Um right if and again yes these
these are historic positions um and ultimately the responsibilities are diffuse among department heads but we you know there are times for example when we have to go back to right who was the who who is the appropriate surveyor for this and you know where's that authority coming from. So yeah it's not
it's not all it's not all just historical oddities but in many cases the reality is this responsibility is diffuse among multiple people in town. We just need to name someone under by by state law saying yeah this person does this job. >> And can you describe in a bit more
detail agent for management of real estate? That sounds very broad. >> You know what I have not looked up what the agent for management of real estate does. Um but I will get that information to you. Um it is it is a very broad >> that's your tax collector. That's your
tax collector essentially. >> Thank you Melissa. I knew someone knew. Uh, >> all right. >> And and we have the uh measure of wooden barks. >> Yes. >> Taking on the oligarchy. >> Two two measures. Pardon me. >> I said taking on the oligarchy.
>> Right. That's right. And we have four inspectors of animals. >> Wow. >> Um, how much coal did we weigh last year? And how can we get that number to zero as part of climate action? >> It's part of net zero. It's part of fossil fuel freedom. Sorry, let me correct that. Um, we will be fossil fuel free. There will be no weighing of coal.
Um if we need to weigh coal, we have we have the ability. >> Well, the town will be but residents, right? >> And and this is for measuring uh the amount of coal people get when they buy it, right? >> Yeah. And I mean this is, you know, to your I think you did a great job,
Anthony, in your speech at town meeting talking about, you know, where these positions come from, why they're important. Um and it's very similar to measure or wooden bark, right? It's and now that function is contained really within the health department, this idea of, you know, weights and measures. um ensuring that people aren't getting
scammed by a scale somewhere. Um that used to be much more discreet tasks and now that's professionalized in our departments. All right. So I move approval of the question of making annual appointments as recommended by the town administrator of department heads, administrators and
other officials and employees and upsetting the benefits, salaries and wages of all non-un employees effective July 1st, 2026. >> Yes. >> Michael. Yes, >> Amanda. >> Yes, >> Anthony. >> Yes. >> And I also vote yes. With that, we will
move to agenda item number 10. Select energy solar panels. And the question of executing the bill of sale and solar panel storage agreements. Let's select for Pierce Brookline High School, H School, Brooklyn Village Library, and
Fire Station One. But first, we'll have a bit of a presentation. >> Sorry, don't mind me. Good evening everyone. Alexandra Veio. My keys were tangled within my dress so I was just trying to detach myself. Um all righty. I will pull up our slide presentation
here. Um so this evening, um we're here to talk about our strategic uh solar initiative. Um this is what I'm going to refer to as part one of that initiative. Um and you've heard about this in kind of a few different forms. um either when we were talking about our climate action and resiliency plan that was recently
adopted um at town meeting um when we were talking about our CIP authorizations um and uh to some degree when we were reviewing um the uh contract for Driscoll Solar. So you've seen this in a
few different iterations. Um but uh this evening um I am here to talk about uh five projects that we are looking to advance in compliance with the investment tax credit. Uh before I jump into what that means and why that's important, um I want to acknowledge um
our deputy director of sustainability, Shelley Dean, who's here with me this evening. Uh she's worked uh very hard uh to get us to this point. Um there has been a lot of uh complicated factors um and uh it takes a great deal of tenacity to get us to where we are. So I
appreciate that. Um and also want to acknowledge Jonathan Simpson who um has been very helpful um in advising us as we've been working through a lot of different contractual agreements. So just a quick uh reminder for I think most of you know this but where we stand
on our municipal solar projects. Um, currently the town has uh two townowned systems. Those are relatively small um at Putterham Library and on top of the health department building. We have one town-owned system that's currently under construction, very near conclusion, and
that is at Driscoll School. And then we have five other PV arrays that have been developed as power purchase agreements. Um, which means that those are not town-owned facilities, but instead basically we're leasing out our rooftop. Um and we're receiving a reduction on our overall utility bills and those are
at Brookline High School, Bronl School, Ridley, uh the swimming pool as well as uh the municipal service center. So that is our existing uh solar portfolio. Um, and the question that was brought forward throughout the climate action
resilience planning process as we were looking to become a designated climate leader community as we think about our net zero goal, but also as we take we as we look at our financial um uh forecasts for utilities and bills in the future was how do we um find a way forward that
is both sustainable um and financially feasible. And um the federal government um under the Biden administration developed the federal investment tax credit. Um I'll refer to it as ITC. Um if you were here on the board when we talked about the Driscoll School
project, then you've heard about this before. Um there have been a lot of unknowns on when this was expiring um and a lot of stress um from that. Um but uh we now have some clarity, no less stress but clarity um that uh we have to
either commence construction on or before July 4th, 2026. Um and then we have four years to place that system into service or we can start construction um after July 4th, but then the service it has to be placed into service by December 31st of 2027. Um, so
still an opportunity, but a much smaller window and in the world of construction, one that makes my heart um speed a little bit faster. So we um have uh set our targets, our sites on that July 4th date um which is why we're here this evening. Um there are some other rules
and regulations around um the materials that can be used um and essentially where they can come from. Um and so we've also ensured that we have compliance with all of those in the projects that are before you this evening. This work um really stemmed um in part
from the solar financial working group uh which included members of um the zero missions advisory board, the expenditures and revenues committee um the commissioner of public works Aaron Chute and myself um as well as a select board member uh Michael Rubenstein. And so the charge there was to really
identify opportunities to reduce energy costs, manage financial risk, and advance Brooklyn's climate goals. And so um what you're seeing this evening is um the first phase of what um the working group suggested which is this dual track implementation strategy. So the first
phase allowing the town to meet that deadline for the um expiring uh tax credit the ITC and the other looking at um more opportunities for solar on roofs possibly over parking lots ground mounted but it's going to require a little bit more financial analysis um a
little bit more technical assessment um and it's going to take a little bit more time. So uh we split the work into what we call track one and track two. Um so track one are those near-term installations. This was done in coordination with our department of public buildings as well. Um looking at
which areas that we have just recently completed or are about to complete a roof renovation on um and felt that this would be a sound investment um since we're looking at 20 plus years with this um PV array installed. Uh and then also
looking at um projects that were feasible um for us to construct again within the the time constraints that we have. Track two projects are future installations. So you'll be hearing way more about those. Um but right now I'll just say that we do have an RFQ out um
advertising uh these other 19 potential sites and um we'll be selecting a vendor to essentially um conduct site feasibility and financial analysis for us and determine um the prioritization of construction there. But for this evening we're talking about site one or
excuse me track one which as I said includes Brookline High School. Um you heard that at the beginning as well. So this would be an additional um PV arrays on top of the high school. So we're calling phase two um the Brooklyn Village Library, Fire Station 1, Haze
School, and Pier School. I will just note that Pier School um we are moving kind of with this package. However, the um CIP uh FY27 uh CIP allocation is not being used towards the Pier school purchase. That will be the pier school budget. So um it is coming from a
different funding source but still moving along with that July 4th deadline in mind. This gives you an overview of um the different projects. Uh so um both the including the size, the preliminary construction cost, what we expect to
receive from the tax credit, um the first year production uh that's anticipated, um what percentage of the electricity this would absorb based off of our fiscal year 25 usage at those buildings. uh the savings that we'll see
over 20 years which is um really the minimum lifespan I would say of a of a system and then the payback. Yeah. >> Could you send out the full spreadsheet of how that table was calculated? >> Uh yes. And also I have it in here. So
yes. >> Um so as you can see Pierce School um is probably what you would say is one of our most advantageous projects. Um it essentially um we're getting a payback on that project immediately um in less
than a year. Um for the fire station um has a much longer return on that investment. It is a much smaller system. I will also note that the fire station um those numbers are really based off of the electric usage that we have now. That fire station, as you all know, is
um scheduled to go under renovation soon and will become an all electric building. Um so it will have um a very different cost breakdown for electricity in the future. Um and we will also expect an increased rate on electricity. Um so the numbers that are presented
here are based off of the current data, but we anticipate that will shift significantly. Um and then the main library, we're looking at a payback in about nine and a half years. Hayes school just over six and the high school just under six
years. For point of reference, Driscoll School, we were looking at a payback of somewhere between six and seven years for that project. >> Yep. Um so the total cost of 1.9 million with an with an 871,000
credit. So, does that mean that those four projects are basically going to cost us 1.1 or around 1.1 million in total? >> Yes. Um so it's the payback um because
the tax credit um for Pierce is included in that next column. Okay. >> Um that includes the 293 from Pierce as well. So it's actually a little bit less than that. Um so it's 871US 293. The reason the reason I bring up those
numbers is because the CIP item is $3.2 million. >> It is. >> So, will you be speaking to what the rest of that money will be used for? >> Yes. So, great question. Um, thank you. Uh, so the uh 3.2 2 million is uh was uh
set to both get us started with these projects. Um ensure that we had enough for all of the down payments that are necessary until we get the um tax credit and return back. I'm sure I don't have to tell you all. It's not instantaneous. So we don't get to say we've signed the
contract. Please give me $300,000 federal government. They're like of course. Um so uh there's a bit of a gap there. So, we wanted to ensure we had time to um cover that gap, but also the remaining 3.2 million is going towards uh the track 2 projects as well. Um so,
for us to get started on um installation uh assessments, construction of of those additional properties. So, it will all continue to go towards the strategic solar initiative. >> Thank you. >> So, that 3.2 is is currently sitting in
the sustainability department budget, not yet deployed. Correct. It's in the CIP, but yes. >> Okay. Um, and then town administrator, where where is that money earning interest somewhere or where is that money sitting at the moment? >> Melissa, I think it's it's in a cash account, so I'm not sure.
>> It's free cash. If that answers that. >> Yeah. >> So, the the CIP the the cash related projects are segregated into a separate account um that the department then has access to until until it's exhausted. >> Okay. Okay.
>> It's it's it's earning whatever interest it can in a liquid account. >> Okay. But it's in a full liquid account. >> Yes. >> So that it can be spent. >> Okay. >> Great. >> Thanks. Sorry. >> Yeah. It's okay. It's a good question. >> Um so I have a quick breakdown on each
of the projects. Um and um this was highlighted in the table that you saw, but just as a little bit of a a visual understanding of what we're talking about. Um, Pier School, we have a 329 uh uh kilowatt system with a preliminary
cost of 1.15 million looking at um 46877,000 for our first year of production and that payback timeline of less than a year. Um, SMARTT uh I apologize is one of the state incentive programs. So, addition to the federal tax credit,
there's also incentives through Massachusetts that we are um taking advantage of for these projects as well. Um so, this project though because um obviously Pierce is under construction right now. Um this project has a
preliminary design where over the mechanical equipment they're essentially um decking Thank you, Shelley. um decking um for uh solar panels um to go on top of there to take advantage of that space so we don't lose that rooftop space. Um
that does make it a slightly more complicated design um and has taken um a bit of of back and forth with uh select energy um to figure out what the pathway forward is. think we have that pathway. Um but as we are chasing that July 4th deadline um as is every other
municipality and customer in Massachusetts and so they said can we uh finalize this for certain after um July 4th and we said yes because all the designs that you're seeing right now are preliminary still have to go through a structural analysis and things like that. Um so we're hopeful but we have
carried some extra contingencies just in case. So, I'm hopeful that the project cost overall for peers may actually decrease from what we're seeing here. This breaks every rule about presentation 101. Um, and
but I think this is what you were looking for, Anthony. Um, so I'm happy I have this for each of the projects. I'm happy to go through it. Um, but uh also um can share it with you all immediately afterwards so that you can see. But essentially um you're seeing this is calculated over 20 years looking at the
estimated solar production for each year what our savings are either from electricity bill savings the state incentive revenue that's the smart program that I referenced um and then our overall um revenue and savings that are generated. Then we carry in
operations and maintenance cost. Um so the first year that's included after the first year of construction and then after that it would be a new contract likely with the installer um to continue that operations and maintenance. Um if there is debt service in the case of Pierce we're carrying that as well and
then we end up with our um total costs overall net cash flow and what the cumulative budget is. Um and this is all all of these cash flow projections are taken into account after the ITC. Um so this is assuming that 30% return. Um in the case of PICE it's actually 25% but
the other projects 30% return for fire station one. This is a smaller system 21 uh kilowatts uh with a preliminary cost of 123,000 and um a first year production of uh 23,810 uh kilowatt hours. And um Fire Station,
as I mentioned, uh Fire Station 1's electricity usage and costs are really expected to increase with the building electrification. And so the payback projections um are based off of what's on our current electricity rates. Um and so because there are um some additional
engineering that needs to be done um for this uh particular site and because it hasn't undergone construction yet for us to have all the information that we normally would before we would be installing solar um we are carrying a higher contingency. Um so similar to Pierce uh we are basically buffering
oursel um to make sure that we are income compliant with the ITC have enough money in place to move these projects forward. Um but uh we will be back before you with a final purchase and installation agreement and with that um final numbers for the actual project costs for each.
Same thing here you see the cost breakdown um for the fire station and um the uh overall costs um both net cash flow and the cumulative cost impacts.
Brookline Village Library. Um this is a a 60 kilowatt um uh system with a preliminary cost of 278,000. Uh the first year production um is 69,000 and 11 kilwatt hours and the payback
timeline is um uh just over 7 years. The uh cost estimate for this project and all of the others includes a 5% contingency. So likely not a lot of movement in the numbers on these. And again, I realize this is a lot of numbers, but just wanted to include it so that you had it for reference um as
we move forward. Yeah. >> Can we calculate the the electricity savings? >> It's um Go ahead. >> So, so the electricity savings is the amount of electricity that gets generated times the current rate that
we're paying for electricity at that site. So, if that building um I I don't know off the top of my head what Brookline Village's electricity rate is, but if it's 18 cents a kilowatt hour, you know, then it's times 18 cents a kilowatt hour. And for the second year,
the there's a a small escalation in that. So the assump, you know, there's an assumption that over time the amount of electricity that gets generated decreases slightly each year as the solar panels become slightly less efficient and but the cost per kilowatt
hour goes up slightly each year as well. >> Perfect. Thanks. And Shelley, can you tell me for year one, were these based off of current Eversource electricity rates or the new proposed ones um that are >> it was based actually on it was based on
fiscal year uh 25 because that was the only year we had the full year's worth of information. >> Thank you. >> Most recent full year's worth of information. >> Awesome. So for high school um a larger system 205
um kilowatts uh a preliminary cost of 684,000 with a projected first year of 240,799 uh kilowatt hours with a payback timeline of just over 6 years. And this also carries that same 5% contingency.
Again, you're seeing the same uh table that you've seen before. But the only thing I will point out here is you're seeing um in that column that's um excess generation revenue that's actually stemming from this is a school building. Um and so assuming some downtick in uh operations and usage over
the summer months um and uh that we may be generating more than we're actually needing to use in that building. Yeah. >> Sorry, I feel bad. I keep ruining your flow here. But if we generate more than we're actually using, who's giving us that money? Is that coming from Eversource because we're adding to the grid? >> Yes, correct. Yeah. and they're charging
and they're charging back uh what percent of what they charge to you. We don't know, but that's just what we would get. >> Yeah. >> Okay, that's fine. >> I I don't know the exact percentage, but um it's it's close to but not >> not what we pay for electricity.
>> Yeah, I understand. Perfect. Thanks. >> We don't actually have um many projects. We have one right now, our solar panels at the municipal service center, but for the most part, we don't generate more than we use at any of the places that we have PV arrays. So, um this would be an
exciting advancement for us. Um and then, uh Brookline High School, um we already have solar that you can see reflected, um in the uh gray portion, if you will, of the of the building, um in the upper right hand
corner. Um, and then we're adding um additional panels there um with uh an additional 248 um kilowatts um at a cost of 839,000 um and a first year production of 308,000 kilowatt hours with a payback
timeline of just under 6 years and also carrying that 5% contingency. And same thing here um the same breakdown that you were seeing before um with uh revenues savings um anticipated costs and our overall uh budget all
after the ITC is applied. So for uh this evening, we are requesting um a vote from the select board to authorize the purchase of these solar PV arrays um from select energy and then execution of bills of sale and the solar panel storage agreements. Uh
essentially saying that select will hold these panels for up us um for a period of of 12 months. It can be extended after that if we need to. Um and that would ensure that once those contracts are in place and an initial down payment is made. Um then we have uh complied
with the necessary uh regulations for the investment tax credit. Um and then we would be returning to the board um likely in July or early August um with the full purchase and installation agreements um after we've had a chance to finalize those with town council um
our staff and the building department. Um but we we'll still lock us in for that July 4th deadline and happy to take any questions. >> Yes. >> Hang on one more. If you go back one slide. Um this is also the the for a school project. Um why do we not think
we're going to get excess generation revenue from this one? >> So um so Brook first of all we um Brookline High School as you know is a very large building. Um, so we're not even with covering virtually the entire roof, we're not
>> covering uh nearly 100% of the electricity that's being used at the school. >> Um, and also there are some programs and stuff at the school. So that so that over the summer, so there's higher usage over the summer or anticipated higher usage over the summer at Brooklyn High
School than at Haze proportionately. >> Got it. Thank you. When we looked at all these projects, we looked at the um historic electricity usage um from all the data sets that we have from Eversource bills. So taken into account. >> Awesome. >> Other questions?
>> Michael, um I was just doing some rough math um in terms of the projects with taking the cost and dividing it by the kilowatt hours and dividing it by the payback time. Um, and it seems like the
average cost for electricity over the course of 20 years is about 45 or 46 cents a kilowatt hour on average through that time. Is is that comport with your numbers is my first question. Um and the
second question is um how what was the basis you used to estimate inflation the inflation costs of electricity over the 20 years? >> Um I have to say I haven't done the math
quite the same way that you have. So I don't I I I feel like I can't really speak to the 45 cents per kilowatt hour. Okay. >> Um you know the numbers start out pretty small. You know, the numbers start out, >> you know, like
>> 18 19 cents per kilowatt hour, right? You know, over over 20 years, the expectation is that um electricity has historically increased somewhere around two to two and a half% um the cost of electricity per year. Um and I know that
that um that that was added into the into the um es you know into the cost escalations but I haven't done it in my head to say so in year you know 20 how how much you know what is the cost of electricity I I should have done that
but I haven't done that. Okay. Thank you. >> Else go ahead. >> I guess the one thing that I would say is we do know for example that right now FY26's electricity costs are higher than FY25s
by more than 2 and a half%. And we've signed um an electricity supply contract as well that includes an increase that will go into effect next year which will be more which will raise things even more just because the price of
electricity is getting more expensive. >> I would say generally the projections that we have um air on the side of caution so that you all will be pleasantly surprised um when we save more money than I told you we would. Any further questions,
discussion? All right. Well, I then move that we uh support executing the bill of sale and solar panel storage agreements with select energy for Pierce School, Brooklyn High School, Hayes School, Brookline Village Library, and Fire
Station One. >> Bernard, >> yes. >> Michael, >> yes. >> Amanda, >> yes. >> Anthony, >> yes. >> And I also vote yes. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you so much. appreciate your support. If I may, um, I have hard copies. Um, we very on a very tight
timeline and I was hoping that at the end of the meeting I could get you to sign the hard copies that I have which have already been co-signed by Select Solar as opposed to the ones in your packet that they have not signed. Is that possible that I could get your signatures this evening? >> Sure. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> In fact, while we're discussing this
next item, why don't you, if you have the hard copies, you can send them. We'll pass them around. round robin. >> Also, thank you guys for figuring out all of the administrative hoopla in order to make this happen. >> Awesome stuff. >> All right, so our next item
>> is public outreach and communication, discussion of select board outreach and communication strategy with the broader community, including but not limited to education on warrant articles, email response policies, and office hours.
So, um this is a follow on from your discussion at the u uh your work session. Um and uh at that time Bernard pointed out and I think it was a good point that we didn't have the um prior communication policy in front of you and also it was getting a little late in the
day. Um so we thought we would um defer it uh to this point uh and have this discussion with you all here. So now we have the 2024 communication policy which I think um you know is a was a an attempt an early attempt at trying to
you know set outreach and and uh uh communication guidelines appropriately. Um and then you have also in there a number of items about um warrant articles. You have a 2017 draft uh you know how to write a warrant article
document. you have um you have Michael's document in there and then you have um additional guidance I believe 2023 although I'll double check. Um, so you've you've got a number of different attempts at um helping town meeting members write uh effective warrant
articles or you know and I I and I think you know too the core issue at least as I see it is right how do you how do you help town meeting members and members of the community solve issues that they've identified or take on initiatives that
they've identified? Um because sometimes oftentimes the way to do that is not by submitting a warrant article. It's by petitioning the select board, petitioning a department, you know, figuring out a way to change policy or change practice in such a way that um
achieves the aim that you want. Um it it tends to be, you know, there are some things that do require local legislation and we should obviously be supportive of that when that comes up. Um, but the benefit to things being able to be done with policies is that policies can be
flexible and change and develop in accordance with how we actually see the flow. Whereas laws are good for being for broad statements uh and and general application. Um, but when you make a bylaw too prescriptive, you wind up
locking yourself in and that can often lead to issues that the community later then has to deal with by amending the bylaw. Um, so there's a balance to be struck there. So I think the goal, you know, the as you discuss these, especially when it comes to warrant articles, I think the question, the
underlying question is what are you trying to help people do? um if it's trying to help people get um the policy outcome or the or the process outcome that they want um I just want us to be I want us to be as helpful as poss on
staff to be as helpful as possible to you all in supporting that initiative. So I guess Michael this was your request to put on and I want I don't know if you >> Sure. Um so so let me let me start by saying that um
I I took this on really specifically um in response to a roadmap um strategy and a roadmap action that we established when we uh passed the road
map the 2030 road map. Um and my sense of just reading those, this is um action 2E1 for those people who are looking at the roadmap details. Um which is to confirm that warrant articles have been properly vetted with staff in advance of
filing and ensure that they are in line with previous stated priorities and work plans. If a warrant article causes the select board to rep prioritize, identify the impact on redirecting staff time. Um, and this is also sort of the need for this was somewhat confirmed by the
several warrant articles that came up in the last um in the last town meeting. Um, often in the form of resolutions, but not always. um where the substance of the warrant articles ended up
changing dramatically from the point of filing to the point of what was actually passed by or or considered by town meeting most of the time passed. Um and so um so it's
um upon reflection if those warrant articles had come either to staff or if staff had directed them to committees or if the select board had taken them up sooner before filing. Um, I think a lot
of the challenges that were ultimately worked out either in conversations with the advisory committee um or conversations with the select board and significant changes in the scope of those warrant articles would have been
better handled before the actual filing. Um, so, so the letter that I constructed was really designed to invite people who are considering warrant articles, and I've
heard bits and pieces of various warrant articles that are in consideration for the fall to engage with town staff. Now, one of the concerns that I that I I just want to be really clear about and I discussed um with the town administrator
earlier is to ensure that town staff actually has the time uh to engage at the at the level that would be worthwhile. Um, and the reason that I constructed this letter was actually to
sort of force that question because um, in making sure that this letter gets reviewed by the town administrator and department heads, I didn't want to put us in the posi position of inviting um engagement with the with town staff that
town staff doesn't have time to to do. So I am making the assumption based on the the feedback that I've gotten that that that concern has been substantially addressed. Um now to the point that um
that the town administrator has raised about the previous efforts um the one that I would add to the to the items that are part of 11A um is also the significant number of pages within the town meeting handbook which goes through the warrant article process um from a
legislative perspective um and discusses you know the issues of scope and the issues of filing deadlines etc. Um, and it's not either my intention nor do I believe it is the select board's intention when we establish this item on
the road map to uh to replace those legislative processes to impede those legislative processes um but instead was to facilitate better warrant article creation um through engagement with town
staff. So I really viewed this as supplementary. Um now I recognize that you know the letters from 2017 the guidelines that we produced in 2020 um were in some ways uh had similar similar
goals to improve the process of writing. Um but it is now 2026. Um and my suspicion is that um though there are a number of people who have engaged with this in the past that it is worthy of a
uh of a refresh and a reinvitation um to uh both members of town meeting uh as well as uh citizens more in the town more broadly who might bring citizen petition articles um to to town meeting.
Um, I did make one amendment to this which I sent to the town administrator and town staff, which was basically to insert a paragraph um, uh, that was a oneline reference to the town meeting
handbook um, simply to acknowledge um, the primacy of that document and to make some nonsubstantive um, corrections to the to the third paragraph. about engagement. Um but
other than that, I view this really as our um meeting the goal that we have set for ourselves. Um and to be set completed in year one. Um so I will leave it at that and um appreciate your
consideration and discussion. Amanda. >> So, um I I just want to say I think uh when this was framed initially like the first document in the docket is on communication and I think that's somewhat of a separate issue than what
we're talking about here. And so that should probably be a separate discussion. But for what we're talking about here, I think it is really important to recognize that um as someone who has brought citizen petitions before, there can be gatekeeping when we say you must go to
town staff and then town staff don't have time. Um and then we say, well, why didn't you talk to town staff about this? Um, so I want to make sure that if we are setting forth this goal, um, that
there is a way to engage and still be respectful of staff time, right? To be able to get, um, staff time as consultant as opposed to having to give hours and hours uh, to a warrant article to improve it. um but that it's
not used to gatekeep which warrant articles we work to make better and which ones we look to sweep under the rug. >> Well, I think that's that's a great point and I think that's that's one that's a that's a that's a conversation that I think is helpful to have here which is
is there an expectation that staff give time to every warrant article because I don't think that's feasible. And then you know what what's helpful to us then is what are you asking us to prioritize and the road map helps us with that we can say we will look in the road map we
will see does is this in the furtherance of one of your priorities and if the answer is no then I think maybe the answer to the petition is we appreciate this but we don't think this is a priority for the town at this time. Um,
and that's not gatekeeping. That's the reality of the situation. Now, it's not it doesn't mean that the person can't file the warrant article. It doesn't take much. They can file it. They can bring it forward and we can discuss why things are aren't a priority. We can still work to try and make it the best
possible article it can be within those constraints. But if you tell us it's not a priority, then we will treat it. we will we will focus on the things that you were asking us to prioritize as opposed to the things you're asking us not to. So I think maybe that's the way
to frame it. I I think it's tough to think about it as gatekeeping when really it what it is is there are only so many hours in the day. Um, and there's a lot that people ask us to work on, including, you know, resolutions, um, things that don't have legally
binding uh, requirements, but that you you take seriously and you ask us to take seriously. And I don't think that's a bad thing inherently, but I think it is something that you want to consider when you think about prioritization of our of our time. is there, you know, and
so maybe this is an opportunity to do that in inviting people to submit things significantly earlier before the opening of the warrant. Um, it allows you to give guidance to us on where you see
your priorities and how we can then work through that. And it allows the community to understand, too, so that there isn't a sense of, oh, I submitted this and I didn't hear anything, or oh, I submitted this and staff said they don't want to do it. Um, it makes it I I think it allows them to be heard and
and and understand better if that process begins at the select board level. Um, but you know, again, do you do you want to do do you want to invite that level of discussion over the summer or do you
want us to do you want us to look at your roadmap and the other priorities that you've outlined and try and, you know, build build out uh prioritization that way? Um, I think is my question. I I would also just add that I gatekeeping
sometimes often has a negative connotation, but I interpret this more as a way to help the petitioner be more successful because as we often see in the run-up to town meeting, there are some petitioners, well, I don't think there are any petitioners necessarily
who are not well-intentioned, but there are petitioners who have a certain uh objective they want to achieve, but they may not quite understand how to get there. They might phrase things in such a way that if they approach town staff a bit too late in the process, the
moderator might deem it out of scope and then there's a delay for that reason. But had they come to staff earlier, that uh barrier would have been identified and rectified in timely fashion. So I see it as an opportunity to make warrant
articles more successful by uh adopting these recommendations. I'll also note that the second paragraph of uh the warrant article vetting invitation explicitly states note that this engagement is not intended to replace
the town's legislative processes in any way. Engaging with town staff is not a requirement to file a warrant article, nor is collecting the necessary signatures for a petition necessary to engage with town staff. However, the select board believes that engaging with
town staff will facilitate the town's legislative processes and allow issues that necessitate a change in scope to be considered before filing a warrant article. So, I think that's the main advantage, but I do hear what you're saying that sometimes a petitioner might
not get a timely response from staff and as we're hearing from the town administrator, um there there are legitimate bandwidth issues, but that does sort of encourage petitioners to maybe get out front a bit earlier than they normally would and then hopefully there'll be enough time
that everybody gets a substantive response. Well, and could you like as as Michael wrote in this I don't even know what piece that we're we're all looking at um would town staff feel comfortable
saying I got 15 warrant articles sent to the town administrator's office. Um these five of them are directly applicable to your road map. So, we're going to encourage town staff to talk to
those five petitioners and the other 15 will send a message saying this is outside the the scope of the priorities. You're welcome to pursue it, but we don't have the bandwidth. >> I I guess the the the there's there's a there's a couple of
criteria here that we're that we're talking about that that I think we have to sort of tease apart. one is in any particular warrant article, how much time how much time is it going to take for town staff to engage with this
warrant article. Um, and you know that may require sort of a fixed level of evaluation before we can make before the select board can provide feedback or direction. So, so there so there's the question of time. There's the question
of does this warrant article align with the roadmap in which we might which might also impact the select board's guidance. Um, and and then there's the the question of of and this is sort of related to the time
question, but there's the question of does the staff actually think that a warrant article is the most effective way to to achieve the results that the the petitioners are actually seeking. Um and
we sort of have I believe we sort of have to allocate some fixed amount of time upfront as part of the of the uh analysis process to give the information
to the select board before the select board can provide that feedback. >> Yeah. Um, and and I don't know, I'm not exactly sure how to work that into the schedule because warrant articles are not necessarily going to all come on, you know, July 10th so that we have six
weeks of or whatever before the filing deadline. So, it's going to be a rolling process. But I think, you know, and this this is where I think you've got to um that that third thing is what I think might be missing from this current draft
is this is the sense of, you know, right now it seems to presuppose, you know, that a warrant article is is is the way forward, right? you if you want to file, but I think there's kind of a step zero here, which is uh have you identified something that the town isn't doing that it should be doing or that it is
currently doing that it should stop doing or you know um something something along those lines, you know, have you identified an issue that you think local government should be engaged to solve? Um if so, what is that? And do you think a local law is necessary to do it? If so, you know, this is your opportunity.
Please, you know, submit that. you know, if you think it should be in the form of a bylaw, please give us that information because that I think that sort of step zero allows for um reframes the conversation in a certain
way. is doesn't presuppose that a bylaw is the is the right way to do things, but it it allows still the opport another opportunity for people to formally talk to the select board and say, "Hey, there's something that's not happening that I would like to happen or something that is happening that needs
to stop happening." So, so in the in the third paragraph of the body after the the sort of whereas clauses at the top where it talks about send drafts and explanations for your proposed warrant articles to what I believe you're
talking about is they may not be drafts and explanations for proposed warrant articles but but something that is more step zero which is a description of the problem that needs to be solved. >> Yeah. I mean, the reason that I was asking for it in terms of drafts and explanations for warrant articles is
because I think at least that forces the petitioners to do some level of work to um to structure uh what they're providing. And I guess the question is, is it worth
having somebody go through that exercise for the town staff to turn around and say, "Well, actually, you know, if we amended this policy, then it would achieve your the goals as you stated in the explanation, and you won't wouldn't need the warrant article." >> Yeah. And I I think that's a tough it's
a tough balance to strike because you right, you don't want just I think there should be better dog licenses, you know. Um Right. >> That's not helpful. Um, but you do you also right to your point. You don't want someone to spend a lot of time building something out only to be told, well, you
know, we could do this. We we are or you know, we are already doing this or there's a way to do this more easily. But >> maybe that is just the the the level of process that needs to be engaged with. So, you know, maybe there's language that could be drafted that says, you know, whether you whether this takes
whether your proposal takes the form of a Warren article or something else, you know, it should be trying to think of a way to wordsmith it, you know, um a way to
um ensure that proposals are substantive um but not necessarily presupposed that they are destined to be legislation. trying to think of ways ways to get helpful helpful input. Um >> I mean it's it's sort of by by draft,
right? Like if you're accepting a draft, you're not expecting a final. Um and just to say like the explanation can be a paragraph and the draft can be you know like start with the resolution and then you come
still the process is missing but you come before some someone talk to someone and they're like actually this is a bylaw change like that would be a much more straightforward path. Um I think draft is fine. It's just I I still don't understand who is doing what evaluation
>> in the leadup to the closing of the warrant. >> So I think I think the as I understand it and sorry I'm I'm trying to synthesize what you've been saying. There's two kind of work streams. There's the workstream on staff's side which is we get something in there's a and I would suggest you put a you know
what they call in admissions the soft cap you know you know priority consideration by this date um so that you get you encourage a firm deadline for people to get their information in and then you say that once that date passes staff will evaluate what we've
got and we will evaluate how complex a task is how much you know whether whether there are alternatives that could be used to address this, whether we think they align with any of the goals that you've outlined for us and um right the the the whether there's an
alternative that could achieve the same ends. Um and then we take that to you and you have that conversation amongst yourselves about in public obviously about what your whether or not you agree that this is where staff should be prioritizing their time. I I think there
I think I I think there should be a little bit more of a political process here. And what that what I'm saying to that is like I feel like the fi first filter should be a select board member to be honest with you. I feel like a select board member should hear a public idea, a public complaint or, you know, public something and then we say, you
know what, you're kind of right and then we take it to staff rather than it being staff first because I feel like that I feel like that could open the floodgates a lot to a lot of work for the >> My one concern with that is then it looks like we're sort of taking over the legislative process where we're the
executive. I understand it's well-intentioned. It's well meaning. >> Yeah. Um, but I'm not sure that the legislative branch wants their efforts filtered through the executive branch in that manner. >> That makes sense. But I don't also don't know if this is talking about
legislative efforts because I think the whole idea is saying what are you trying to do legislatively that we could actually do executively, you know, and then if we can't do it executively, then you have to go through the legislative process. But, you know, here I I think it's reasonable to say, you know, here's what I want. Here's what I would like my
executive to do. And then if one of us says, you know, I think that's actually a good idea, we could take it to staff and go forward. Um, but, you know, that's that's my take. >> Yeah, I I think I'm more aligned with with David. I
I I am very I am very sensitive to what Amanda brought up very early in terms of us being too strong a gatekeeper. I'm I'm I I would be I I I think the intention of the of the
road of the roadmap goal was to facilitate the cre the creation of the warrant articles. And so, you know, if there is an alternative that is a better way forward for a particular warrant,
for a particular issue, um I I I think that we can identify that or staff can identify that through through their evaluation, but but I don't I think that the premise coming into this
process is that somebody is is trying to move something through the legislature because if because if if we're if we're if we're talking about this qu the the broader question of like of of
anything that somebody thinks the town could do to do things better. That's that's really a much broader question and and I don't think that in terms of the particular goal within the road map
um I don't think that was the aim of the goal. I think the aim of the goal was to take the warrant articles that people are trying to move the legislative process and ensure that both the legislative process is the optimal form
for that goal and that the way that they had structured their warrant articles was to whatever extent that staff can help optimize that before filing that they would have the opportunity to do so. So I think I think I think the goal
of this the goal here is actually more limited than you've described. Not it's it's it's actually not that step zero of of um you know here's something that we should improve.
Um, it's actually I'm trying to move something through the legislative process, but by giving the town staff an opportunity to review it before filing, they may be able to make substantive improvements either in in any one of
those three ways that would >> and these improvements are recommendations. >> Yeah. All of these improvements are recommendations because ultimately staff is going to weigh in on every warrant just about every warrant article anyway when we have our warrant article discussion. So
I think the goal here is to try to make the Warren article uh more likely to succeed from sort of a bureaucratic perspective in terms of understanding the process, knowing what's already out there and maybe the staff feedback might
just be a macro level you're on the right track or actually you probably want to change XYZ without actually doing it for the petitioner >> or or it might be a recommendation to the select board that this is this is
maybe an interesting topic, but we're actually going to take this up in a future time or this should be referred to a committee for further study and it's not really ready to go to to the legislature, you know, any it could be it could go into any of those directions
as well. >> Yeah. I mean, let me take a concrete example. Um, let's talk about dark skies, dark sky policy. Um that was a town meeting landing issue. Town meeting members obviously have a lot of interest in
this. There is community support for dark sky bylaw of some kind regulations was to and we what I think was missing from that process was guidance from the select board. Is this something we should be spending our time on or not?
Um because if you and if you want us to do this, what should we not be doing? um because there were things that we were working on that were you know germanine to this work in in different ways. You know what what that kind of sprung out of was the fact that we didn't have good
regulations. We didn't have good bylaws about light regulation. Light pollution is a problem. Um and because of the way that our bylaws are written, it's hard for us to enforce light pollution rules. So we tried to come up with a solution to that problem. And then the community said this is great as an opportunity to
talk about dark skies. And all of a sudden it became about something much bigger. Which again is not a not a problem. But we were kind of stuck in this moment where we said what what should we be doing? Should we try and say to town meeting we appreciate this but we're trying to solve the problem that was identified which is we struggle
to regulate light pollution or do we want to take this whole you know this broader question of you know light pollution at large and its impact on the environment and its impact on um the community and try and you know adapt a
model dark sky law for this community and I think we kind of got stuck. It was sort of a situation where it was like yes and um or you know let's let's let's work on both. Um, and I don't think anyone ever actually said that, but there was no, the board didn't
ultimately say to us, listen, continue your work on light pollution and tell the town meeting members, we will do this in stages or no, pull this back and and work exclusively on the broader dark
skies. It wasn't really until we got to town meeting that I felt like we had concrete guidance which was kind of driven by the discussion on the floor of town meeting which was the will of the voters seemed to be we want dark skies and we don't want to deal with this light pollution stuff in the absence of
a broader dark skies policy and so it was pulled and that's where we wound up. I think had we started at the beginning with a convers had someone come to us at the beginning and said we want to do dark skies I think our response to you using this framework that you've
identified is this will take a lot of work this would be this will be a largecale project and we have not heard you the select board to date say that this is a priority um our priority if we were to spend time on this would be on the narrow question of
light pollution because that is a clear problem that we struggle to enforce. Um and then you would in under this circumstance you would have the opportunity to tell us no we you know it makes sense to us to try and do this do
dark skies work focus on that. Um >> well gi given the guidance from staff that this is a large body of work um it it would seem to me that a reasonable a reasonable response from the select
board is given that this is a large body of work if we can break it up into multiple steps then let's deal with the sort of setting up the regulations first and then and and that would be our recommendation. But it would really not be our
recommendation to staff. It would be our recommendation based on the staff's feedback to the petitioners because ultimately the petitioners are going to have to decide what they want to file. But I think this dark skies uh versus
light pollution question is germanine for what Michael was talking about at the outset in that I think the way the conversation evolved was actually initially there were people who were just interested in the light pollution portion but then we had that whole
discussion with town council about well is it going to be zoning or is it going to be bylaw and if it's zoning then prior alleged violators are grandfathered in. So, it could only be prospective, right? And if you want it to apply to
everybody, both forward and backward, it needs to be by bylaw. But so far, the signage portion is in our zoning. And so, it got more complicated. But that is all the more reason why having these early conversations would be helpful. Yep. Because I'm not sure that everyone
understood those nuances. And I think that's why the conversation evolved because sort of became the way to get around this via uh a bylaw change that would require some other language coming out and that's why we have a
moderators committee that's working on it. Uh but that type of guidance from staff I think is extremely beneficial and that's what we are ultimately looking for. >> And I would I think I will say just on that one too and this is I see this most
often with town council. Um and so I just want to stick up for that office. We are the most educated community per capita in the United States. We have the most advanced degrees. There are a lot of lawyers in this community and they are all very smart people and they do a
lot of good work. I see town council's opinion get second guessed a lot. Um and I I would just as we go through this I would strongly encourage the board you
know to question obviously those those opinions and that judgment in private and speak to town council. Town council and his team are always open about this and willing to have those conversations. But it gets really tough when other lawyers get up on the floor of town meeting and basically say town council
doesn't know what he's talking about. Um Joe has been working in municipal government for like 40 years. Joe knows what he's talking about. Um, and it's and it's I I say it happens most often with town council, but I see it with other department heads, too, where there
are people out there who have a lot of expertise in these fields and speak very authoritatively and come up and say, I I have an opinion on this subject and I do think it would be beneficial for staff to have the select board in that instance be able to come up and say,
yes, we respect your opinion. We respect your judgment, but the people who we hire and the people who we spend and and work to do this are telling us that your opinion while is is, you know, it's your
opinion and we respect it, is not the opinion that we're going to follow here. Um because I think leaving department heads out in in those situations is tough. Um so I would just want to make sure that we figure out a way to
ens ensure that everyone is on the same page. Um and that we're not leaving the department heads out on the floor of town meeting. >> Um you you you have really uh accurately and well defined a significant challenge that we have as select board members. Um
however I would also say within the context of the legislative process you know we also are presenting whether it is based on the expertise of our town staff or our own opinions um a
position of the select board to the legislative body and it is therefore then the legislative body's role and privilege to consider our position relative to all of those other very intelligent positions that are being
presented on the floor of town meeting or in advance as part of the legislative process. So, you know, we also have political considerations um to consider in terms of, you know, how we present the executive
branch's position on these issues towards the to the legislative branch. I I would just maybe thread that needle a little bit in that the po the the place to to rely heavily on staff is not
at town meeting. It's in the hearings leading up to town meeting when we are hearing a certain war article. Um, that's where I I look to get guidance from town staff and their read on things because they are the experts that we rely on as a select board um in addition
to our own opinions, but like to to better inform our opinions and what we're we're coming out with >> um to then uh have a endorsement or rejection of a Warren article that then we present to town
meeting. And so I think the place where maybe it is most useful is in this sort of like prehering stage where we are trying to figure out um if some sort of process can actually improve warrant articles that are going to come before
town meeting. Um because I do think and and just to to give maybe not a specific example um temperatures rise at town meeting especially when people get very animated with whatever they believe in right um
but if we can sort of turn down the temperatures and start talking nuance in a way that's not like an up and down vote but a how do we improve what is coming before us I think that will benefit everyone. And just to be clear with my remarks,
I'm not I was by no means trying to suggest that department heads were not competently expressing their opinions. My point was just that having that feedback early on is helpful in shaping the trajectory of
a warrant article so that it can be timely and likelier to succeed and reflect the will of town meetings. So, had the drafters of that warrant article had an opportunity such as uh laid out
from our roadmap to present their idea early on and town council had responded, "Well, here's the issue about zoning versus bylaw." I'm not questioning his opinion. I'm just saying having that information up front would have helped the drafting of the War.
>> No, I and I agree with that. And that's I think that's the other thing to Michael's point. And this is something I say to department heads all the time, right? You you are directly accountable to the pe to the voters, right? You face election every three years. You are you are the direct political leaders of this
town. Um you're the executive and you have political considerations that you by virtue of your position insulate staff from. You know, it's our job to implement your policies. Um but you all take the heat um when those policies are
implemented and you are bound by political considerations that we are not bound by. And so if you make if you as a select board make a decision I think it makes you know we we want to do X for these reasons. Um it can be any reasons it can be no reasons right you know our
job is to respect that and to implement that. So we can offer our opinions and our advice and you know based on our our our expertise what we know um but you all have a broader universe to consider that is not always just you know does
staff think it's a good idea and I really don't want us to be in that situation where oh well staff says it's a good idea so we should do it. I actually think we should be challenged and and and encouraged to think about the broader position, not just, you
know, in our own boxes, you know, the day-to-day operation of the town. There are broader political considerations. And so, just to play that dark skies hypothetical out, I we come to you and we say, "Hey, there's a dark proposed dark skies bylaw. It would take a lot of time. We've never heard you say anything
about it." Our recommendation would be don't you know focus on light pollution and your response could well be well wait a minute the community is telling us something and maybe we should refocus our attention on that. Um and okay so we are going to tell staff in this instance
nope it makes sense for you to refocus your energy on this and we'll say great that's that's the that's the answer to the question. Um >> or or the answer may be to go to the petitioner and say, "Given the staff recommendation, would you consider X?" >> Right. Right. But I'm saying what I'm saying is I I don't want there to be a
situation where we we um I I don't I don't want it to be a situation where staff just says, "Oh, we don't like it." And everyone says, "Okay, we accept that as gospel." Um there are political considerations and things and policy considerations that you all have to make. And so we're not
we're not the be all and the end all here. You guys are. Um and so that's I I want to be very clear on what our responsibility is. It's to inform and provide as much information as possible for you to make informed decisions about what the priorities are.
And I think that I think that the the the priority question that we're actually wrestling with right now is given this roadmap directive that we've established. Um and you know we we could
through the course of this conversation realize that we made a mistake and like maybe we shouldn't be this is not a good use of staff time but I don't think we are there. Um and to and to say sort of and to
establish what the process is and how much time we want to um commit of town staff towards this preliminary part of of the warrant article development
process because as David said, you know, once the warrant article gets filed, you know, it's going to come before the select board, we're going to have a hearing. We're going to get feedback from staff anyway. So, so it's not
really I mean that part of the process is is at least from my perspective not necessarily gerain to this goal. The purpose of this goal is to optimize
our sort of the downstream processes as much as we can um with some fixed and potent and hopefully limited amount of effort on staff's part. >> So would uh in order to move this forward, could we take sort of what what
Michael wrote and have a deadline six weeks ahead ahead of the closing of the warrant? I don't know what the how much ahead time to say if you would like to get staff input into uh a proposed warrant article submit it
to whoever by this date. Um and then we set up a process by which staff will do some sort of highlevel analysis not a ton of staff time to inform a discussion of the select board as to how to handle them. >> Right. Yeah. I mean, we right we track warrant articles informally now, right?
When when around the time that the warrant starts to open, we start we you know, every department head meeting, I come out and say, "All right, who's got something? You know, who's who's who's shown up? Who's who's who's going to who's talking about submitting a warrant article? What do you what do you hear?" Um, and we talk through it that way. I
think formalizing that, you know, Frank, frankly, I can put together, you know, a shared spreadsheet that basically says, "All right, here's a, you know, we're going to keep this running tally and at a certain date, we're going to this will be the soft cutoff after which if things
come in, we will continue to review and we will continue to list them, but we may not devote we may not have enough time to devote serious effort to it." And then we'll bring them to the select board. We'll say, "Here's what we've heard. Here's what we think the level of effort would be." Um, here's whether we think it could be accomplished via other
means. Uh, and here's where and here's where we think it sits within your your stated priorities. >> That's perfect. >> Right. >> That's perfect. >> We can do that. >> I will just say this. Um, and then this is the last point I have on this conversation, but uh I I submitted a warn article one time and I was able to talk to Lincoln Heinman and town council
about everything. You know what I mean? um that that that channel was open but I think it was only because I reached for it and I think it's not clear that you can reach for it which I think this would help solve. >> Yeah. I and you know this is a classic right you can you can lead a horse to
water problem. Um there will be folks who just won't do it and that's fine that's life. Um, but I think opening the door and emphased and, you know, either they get a better warrant article out of it or they realize, oh, there's a better way of
doing this. Um, or, you know, they hear from you that it's not a priority and they say, "Okay." Um, you know, those are all good outcomes. Um, so having that can help. Um, >> okay. So, as a matter of moving this
forward, shall you and I work together, produce a new draft, and bring it to the group. >> Sounds great. Perfect. >> Um, I just have one question. Are we going to talk about the communication policy that was initially part of >> Would you like to um
>> Why don't we Why don't we go ahead and do that now? >> So, I understand why it wasn't implemented. Um, >> and why is that? >> Because >> I mean I have my ideas, but >> it depends on what we think
communication policy is. I was pulling up the list of things even in the last month that have come before us. Um, I'll just list a few of them. Um, one asking about municipal broadband,
one re-evaluating the garden use of Lars Anderson, one discussing potential greater budget for Department of Public Health for food equity, another on pedestrian safety. A lot of the the emails and messages and calls we get are not requests for information. They are
policy requests or trying to push the select board to do something in their favor. Um, and so if you set up a process by which whoever it gets filtered to one select board member, the best you can do is say
interesting information. We're hearing this at this time or maybe go to this planning board hearing, but it's not like we can give a satisfying answer. Our role is to hear the concerns and then decide what to do about it. Um, I
think requests for information are probably the one area that the select board could have a better policy on. Uh, going back to Anony's point that people don't always know uh how to get information. Um, and so if they are looking for information, that is one
area where uh one of us and it probably could be as simple as a rotation could figure out the right staff person and connect them. Um, but in the the weighing in on policy, I don't really know what we're hoping to accomplish. Um, and therefore that's a lot of work
that you can't really fulfill the answers that they're looking for. >> Are we really talk talking about situations where people ask us to weigh in on policy? Or are we talking about the typical question we get about, you
know, why is my road not uh um paved or or whatever? >> Why is my fence getting knocked over in the winter? >> Right. Right. And and those are things I mean we get a lot of those questions and and the problem that we're that you know we were concerned with when this first came
up was many of those questions were just not being answered and people were they didn't like the fact that we weren't answering them. It was so easy to you set up a procedure whereby those questions are answered. People are given direction as to who to talk to um you
what we what we're doing etc. I I think something else Amanda has I identified is that there is such a broad array of subjects with which people reach out to us. It doesn't really fall neatly into categories of who is a liaison on what
or who is heading what subcommittee. The examples you gave. I mean I suppose the public health one I'm the public health liaison but it's not super clear and so we probably do need a different method for ensuring that everyone receives a response. Um, this is
I don't know how popular this is going to be, but this is like if we were to have like a better communication strategy and we're trying to funnel the right questions to the right people as fast as possible. That's like the perfect use of an AI chatbot that immediately directs your question, reads
the policies of who's the liaison to what, what departments handle what, reads those things, knows what they do, and then when a question comes in, immediately directs you to the person that leads that. That's like the perfect example of a chatbot and I think we should explore that.
>> I will say there are a number of vendors out there who have approached us about putting a chatbot on the website. We have seen other municipalities do it. Um I you know this is great. Charlie Young is our AI advocate and I'm the AI skeptic in the office. So we just it's
two two guys named Charles. Um and so um I'm I I'm I'm I've been sufficiently convinced that that is something we can explore further. >> I would love to see the cost on that. >> Yeah. So we can definitely take a look at that if that's something the board is interested in
>> for communities that have been uh adopters of this. I know it's very early but what's the initial feedback? >> Seems to be positive so far. Um we're reaching out. We're doing a little more research. Um I you know again I think Fun and her team have been really great on this. they they're really interested in the technology, but they're going
about it in a very deliberate and and careful way. So, >> um it's kind of the best of all worlds. Um so, we will get more information for you on that and and and come back to you. >> And I'll also say just from a professional perspective, I implemented one of these at a company. It works. It
works awesome. It works really well. >> Yeah. It's funny. I I uh you know I'm dating myself but I I that narrow band of people that know what six sigma is. Do you know what six sigma is? >> No. Yeah. See Michael does. You >> I don't.
>> Um it was it's now a very disfavored process. Um but it used to be this idea that you really want to build your processes out to six standard deviations as opposed to three or two or whatever because the margin of you know you want to you want to set a high standard with
low margin of error and the example I gave to Charlie was I don't want the what happened to Chipotle which is their chatbot was used to write to weaponize and write malicious code. So, you know, the the potential for harm with AI is so high and the potential for
>> um right error causing serious harm can be high. And so, I really want us to be >> I don't want us to be six sigma because I think that leads to um unnecessary caution and uh poor results. But I want us to be um four sigma.
>> The other thing is people really want to talk to a person. >> Yeah. >> Yes. That too. >> And and especially when that person on the select board. >> Totally. And the chatbot, the way that I'm thinking about it, just off the top of my head, is very much like a like a funnel, not going to answer your questions, but more of a this is the
person we're sending your message to who's going to answer your question as soon as possible. >> Right? Our goal is to have a a no wrong door policy, right? This idea that someone gets shuttled around from department to department. They are going up and down the stairs and town hall. They get more and more frustrated. Our goal is really when someone walks in the
door of this office, you know, Melanie and Michelle and Nicole and the whole team here really do a good job. and Kate and everybody of saying, you know, what do you what do you how can we help you? Not, you know, you you really need to go to the fourth floor. Sometimes you do, but you know, wherever we can, we could be helpful to them.
Well, I I guess what you're describing, Anthony, is is consistent with my own thinking is that the category of questions that can be that can be addressed this way, which is a subset of
of what you laid out at the beginning, Amanda. Um, you know, it shouldn't actually I'm not sure it should actually be a select board role because those question That set of questions sort of
by definition should be attributable or directable to some staff function that we have plans and processes for handling them. Whether it's, you know, dealing with your fence that's been hitting my
snow plows, which I think would be a DPW issue or, you know, putting in a request for traffic calming or, you know, how do how do we get how do we fun to the extent that your question or your
interest can be funneled into a town process that we have, then we should be able to apolitically funnel into that process. But to the extent that people are doing advocacy, you know, none of this is going to be
helpful. >> I will also just add to based on Bernard's Bernard's point, sometimes they email you because they have gotten a response from town staff and they don't like it. Um, and sometimes they pretend that they haven't gotten a response and they email you in the hopes that they will be getting a different response. It's like going to dad when
you don't like mom's answer. Um, >> yes. >> So that and that that does happen. Um, it happens a lot. Um, and when and when that happens, you know, what they're looking for from you is not please talk to this person. They already have talked to that person. They're looking for you to tell that person, hey, I'm the select
board and you have to do what I say. Um, and we don't do that here. And that can be frustrating to them. So, I think setting that expectation is an important thing, too, of being like, if you've talked to staff and staff have explained why we're doing this, then going to the
select board and asking for the rules to change It's not often the right way to go about it. >> My typical response when I've experienced that kind of thing is actually you're not asking for your problem to be solved. You're asking for
a policy change and then you've just moved into, you know, that set of right >> of buckets, >> right? >> Yeah. I like uh last thing is I I liked Amanda's idea of of like saying six
weeks before deadline of warrant, >> but we'll we'll work that out. >> Yeah. Yeah. to your to your point though Amanda of you know this this policy um is there can we can we work are you willing to kind of take a crack at at something different something you know
we can look at the chatbot idea because I think that is but for that subset of things that is not >> routing totally not the apolitical sort of you know find the right door um >> right I mean that I I would be happy to work with it but it's unclear that there's even a consensus on like some of
a lot of it is advocacy Right. Or like one of the emails was on traffic enforcement and that I've gotten in person a number of times too, right? Like that is not something that immediately an individual select board member can fix. We could discuss policy changes. And so
I'm like not sure what the board's ideal situation is for essentially public comment or email that is advocating for something. >> Well, if it's advocacy related are and
it's coming to all five of us, I suppose we can each give our own answer as long as we're not copying everybody else on it. Uh because you're right, a lot of these advocacy questions don't neatly fall into a particular bucket. And even if it does, we each have our opinions.
And sometimes a subset of us might be emailed, not necessarily all of us. Lately, I'm getting a lot of uh emails regarding uh political speech on public property. Quite a few. I'm not sure why I'm getting those, but I'm I'm being
responsive to it. >> So, advocacy then the policy is essentially that individual members can respond as they see fit. Um and that basically encompasses
everything that is not here is a specific issue I'm having. Maybe we do a chatbot. Maybe we have something in the interim >> that says um >> it seems like outside of your home there
might be a need for traffic coming. This is the polic this is who you need to talk to to make this happen. >> Um and I don't know if we think that is the job of the select board and therefore we want a policy that does that. Um, or do we think that is more
I don't know who else that would be because we're going to be the ones getting the contact. >> It may not be the the job of the select board, but the job that the people want us to to to do >> and and we have to respect that. And even when someone's trying to lobby us, we can just say, well, you know, you're
trying to lobby me, you know, here's how you get, you know, get what you want. is not by getting me to be lobbyed and then lobby the uh the staff. I I guess I don't see what you know the problem is that that uh you have with the way it's set up.
>> So what would be your ideal workflow of emails that go to the select board at large >> workflow? because right now this >> go through Melanie who I mean under this
policy Melanie would send out an email saying you know we received your um your question and you tell them what the process is for getting an answer and and then assign it to a select board member who could either answer the question or
tell the person that this is an inappropriate uh attempt to you know lobby us to do something that uh we we shouldn't be for example. >> So then we're essentially rounding because most of them don't fall neatly
in like you head up the vision zero now defunct committee, right? Um a lot of them don't fall into an individual bucket and so then are we putting on Melanie shoulders to just randomly
assign a Slack board member? >> But how often does that really happen? It seems that people either write to all five of us to begin with or they choose among us one or two of us for whatever reason and we're the only ones receiving it. So I I mean I guess that's more a
question for Melanie. Are you already routing a lot of emails or are they already written in such a way that it's either to all five of us or to some subset of us? >> So we get a lot of emails to the select board email address. Um, there is an automatic response that gets sends out
sent out to those emails. Kate is the one that funnels them and puts them in yourformational packet if it's something she wants you guys to take a look at. Just an FYI. Sometimes we forward it to department heads that might be able to
answer it better than we can. Um, but Kate is actually the one that funnels a lot of those. >> I'm not sure we need to change that process. >> Right. To me, I'm not quite sure what the problem is we're trying to solve, unless it's people not getting a
response at all. >> That's that's what this was initially targeting. It was there was a subset of emails that was going to select board at proclaman.gov that was not getting that we would put in your packets and then there was there was sort of a collective action problem, right? All five of you would look at it.
All five of you would say, "Yep, okay, someone surely will respond to that." Um, and then nobody responded to it. Um, >> and so that's that's the narrow subset of emails that we were trying to address. >> So,
but all of those people presumably got the automated response. >> Yes. >> The automated, you know, what they were what they were looking for is that second touch point, right? The that some that a person to, you know, that a person read it and is has issued a
response to it. Maybe maybe we should be more clear in the automated response as to whether or not they will receive such an email. >> Well, I think people in the community generally are going to want to have some
kind of personalized response. And as we discussed at the workshop, school committee handles this by just each member takes a turn for a week. Uh and it might be a generic response, but still it's going to have some kind of personal touch and people tend to appreciate that. So, that's something
that we might adopt. But then again, we're not going to know whether someone else already responded, but if they get more than one response, I'm not sure they would necessarily be unhappy about that. >> Right. Well, because the the emails that go to the select or email address, they
don't come to our individual email addresses. They just end up in the information packet and then you sort of like click through them oneonone. Um, so it's like not the the most straightforward to respond to either. Um, like you can, but you have to jump through some hoops, >> right? I mean, we could certainly set up
a rule that routes them directly to your inboxes. Or we could set or we could set up a rule that if to David's point, we could have a rotation and we could set up a rule that every week it just rotates a member and says, "All right, you're on you're on duty this week. You will get everything that's sent to select board at but and we'll still put
it in theformational packet so that everyone else can see it." But there's an expectation that that person will be responding to those emails for that week to the extent that a response is necessary. >> I think I think I would ask for two things. Number one, I would ask that
they all be routed to me. You know, you guys can make your own decisions. Um that they would sure I would ask number one that they all be routed to me and number two that I be able to set up a rule for my
brooklinemma.gov gov account that puts them all in a special folder so that I can identify them independently of my inbox and then I would choose to handle them or not. >> I agree
>> that can be done. Um I actually think that this was set up and in in the true everything old is new again. I think this was probably set up because the board complained that we were forwarding everything to their mailboxes. >> That's so funny. >> Um >> but that's why you need the the second >> right rule. >> Yes. the the the the routing the filter,
right? >> Every story has already been written. >> Yes. Uh >> okay, >> cool. >> I think that would be helpful because to Amanda's point about the additional steps in looking at the emails that go to all five of us. I think there's some
that I miss and then I'll get an angry phone call and see you like three times what's going on and I look through my email and I'm not finding it. uh and then eventually I do see it and so that would avoid that problem. >> So we will set up an automatic rule that routes them um and we will work with it
to figure out a method that works best for all of you because you may have different rules that you want to follow in terms of you know sorting them and so forth uh mail sort rules. So we will figure out a way to make that work depending on your individual preferences. But we will kick things off
by by routing email that goes to select board.gov to each of you. >> No, no, >> not yet. >> Don't do that before you set up the other one. Otherwise, we'll get overwhelmed and then it will be worse. >> Okay. >> What? We would be overwhelmed. I mean,
how many emails do we get? >> You get less than you used to. Um, but you do get you do you do get a fair amount. the the the the reason is because because it you know there there are times when
it takes a takes a little more time to get back to people because there are other things going on and so it's important that that set of emails be segregated from the normal stream of our inbox so that we can process them
separately. And if they're not, then they're just as they're almost as likely to be lost or ignored or skipped over or whatever. >> I agree with Michael that organizing it in that manner would be helpful. Uh when
I served on school committee, we had everything forwarded to us and that creates sort of the opposite problem of you end up losing in that stream some of the really critical emails. And I don't say that to put down >> other categories of emails, but sometimes you get sort of those chain
letter emails that are almost all the same. And and in that volume, you kind of lose what you really needed to address in that moment. >> Yep. >> I will say I I don't think we're I just want to set expectations. I don't think the system is sophisticated enough to be
able to filter out without manual intervention some of that. But you get you get less of that than the school committee does. Um it really is only when big policy issues come up that we start to see chain letters. Um >> but we should it shouldn't be that hard to set up a filter that says everything
by select board select board at Brooklynmma.gov goes to a folder. >> That's like >> Yes. Yes. Yeah. I'm just want to set right be beyond that, right? We we will try and give you permissions to be able to customize that as you see fit. >> Okay. >> Perfect.
>> That's fine. All right. Any further discussion? >> I have one question. How can I go about adding something to the agenda? I've never done that before. Can I bring up a topic I want to talk about next week now? >> Yes. So, so yeah, and you can also always email David or Michael and
Michael. Um, and you know, usually what happens is the there's never the the board almost always by consensus says, "Yeah, whatever whatever an individual member wants to put on the agenda, we'll put on the agenda." It may not be the following week because there may be a
lot going on, but they'll add it to the list and it will be on at a certain time. >> Okay. um you um if for some reason there's some dispute, if the board is not in alignment, if the chair doesn't want to put it on, then what we do is we put on an agenda item at the end of the
agenda that says future business, and that's the opportunity for the board to discuss something for the future that they want to put on. So I would say >> okay >> this under the stickler's rules if you just email David Michael Melanie and me we will we will when we talk about it in
the agenda setting meeting we'll find a slot for it and if for some reason there's a problem we'll put it on as and again I've this has happened once in the three and a half years that I've been here um we'll put on a future business item and you can bring it up to the full board and say hey I want to talk about this can we please put it on an agenda. >> Got it. Okay.
>> Anyone else? All right. Then with that, I will >> I will just note for open meeting laws, I don't think David or I would respond to you right directly in any way other than >> talk with Chaz and staff to put it on
the agenda. >> Right. I won't take it personally. >> Yep. >> All right. So, I'll get another opportunity for public comment if anyone wants to be heard. Go ahead. >> Hi. Yes. Regina Frolley from South Brooklyn Precinct 16. Um, can you tell
me, Hang on, there's a lot of feedback now. Um, I heard earlier that there's a um person who might be Erin who's in charge of something to do with surveys.
Surveys. Uh when my street was done and the sidewalk was done, um a problem that a neighbor, one of my abutters had had without a permit, the town did it for them. They widened the um uh curb cut
and that has unbeknownsted to us initially has created a lot of problems. So, when they did the sidewalk, um, I I paid for the survey, $2,700 in order to put a sheh shed in my backyard, and I
was supervised. I had a permit, etc., etc. And Dan Bennett came and told me I had to go down even deeper and dig. I mean, it did everything right, but it put a survey marker 22 inches into my neighbor's driveway.
Since the sidewalk was redone, the markers missing and now it's more like 30 in. Um, I need three of my survey markers are still accurate, but that one isn't any longer. Who's going to be in charge of that and help me remedy that
situation? and I shouldn't have to pay another $2,700 for it. It's understandable that it happened because it was a new sidewalk, but it still has created a problem for me. >> You know, I don't know off the top of my head who's I'm sorry. Yeah,
>> I know. It's okay. I don't know off the top of my head who who within the department is responsible for that, but we will look into that and I'll email you later this week. >> Please. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Anyone else? Anyone online? Seeing none, that concludes our meeting
for tonight.