Hey, hey, hey. 3, two, one. Good evening. I'm Bernard Green, chairman of the uh Brookline Select Board, and this is the regular meeting of the select board for July 1st, 2025.
I'm joining tonight's meeting from home via Zoom because I recently tested positive for COVID. Not a bad case, but no one needs to be exposed to it. Uh I asked David Pearlman to help me recognize collect board members who want to speak if I begin to have trouble with
that. Um and here's John Vancoyak. Uh hello John. Hello. So let's start off with uh um announcements from select board members. Anyone have an announcement to make or a
statement or anything? No. No takers. Nothing happened last week. Huh? Was quiet. Uh, let's let's have public comment now. Um, Charlie, read the rules.
Sure thing, Bernard. Thank you for joining us for public comment. This is an opportunity for us to hear your perspective on the issues in Brooklyn that matter to you. Each person speaking tonight is limited to 3 minutes. You don't need to use the entire time, but you may if you like. Once 15 minutes has been met, there'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, but are to a question, but are more likely to work with staff to get a thorough answer and respond over email. We'll let
you know when you have 30 seconds remaining and when your time is up. Please conclude your remarks at that time. If you have more to say, you 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 Brookline 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. Um, we have no one signed up for public comment. Folks in the room can raise their hand or if
you're online, you can use the hand raise feature uh to let us know that you would like to speak. Okay, it doesn't look like anyone wants to speak. Yes, we have 13 participants and nobody is raising their hands. So, I think I think we're clear to continue.
Bernard, let's get into the meat of the meeting then. Okay. Uh first of all, question of approving the minutes from June 24th, 2025. I asked U Kate to include in the minutes my statement from last week about the poss the impact of a
possible war in the Middle East on Brooklyn. Um so I assume there's no objection to that or any other edits to the minutes. Okay, I move approval. I'm sorry. I I'm
sorry. I just had a couple of uh technical corrections and I just wanted to make sure that both Paul and I were listed as you remarked on the JFK trip. Oh, good. Thank you.
Y Okay. With those edits, I move approval of the minutes for June 24, 2025 as amended. All in favor, please indicate by saying I. John Vancoyak. I. Paul Warren. I. David Pearlman I.
Michael Woodenstein I. Chair votes I. Excuse me. Next I'd like to take items 3B through 3 I in omnibus fashion unless someone would like to pull an item out for further discussion. Um I would
actually uh if someone is in the um audience who can talk about the uh MOA and um non-disclosure agreement with Eversource and National Grid. I think it'd be useful for people to know about uh uh this grant from those two
companies that is enabling us to perform outreach services to um support energy efficiency programs. Is there anyone who could talk about that. Charlie, I'm sorry, John. I don't have quick insights for you. I don't see
anyone here, Bernard, who can uh who can speak on that. Well, I I just think people should know that this is a grant from uh those two companies uh to the town of Brooklyn uh to support a part-time uh employee to uh make
outreach to so-called priority groups which are small landlords and low-income customers, moderate income customers and uh people uh whose language is other than uh English as well as all other small businesses uh to let them know
about opportunities to um increase their energy efficiency and and reduce their carbon impact. I think that's a good program and um I thank uh our our sustainability um director,
excuse me, uh for her initiative and in pulling this together, Alexander Vio. So, uh, with that, um, I move approval of items, uh, 3B through 3 I. All in favor, please
indicate by saying, I. John Vancoyak, I. Uh, Paul Warren, I. David Pearlman, I. Michael Rubenstein, I. And chair votes I. Okay, let's go to our main calendar.
Noise bylaw waiver. I think Lapland is um um going to make a presentation on that regarding the uh waiver of the noise bylaw with respect to work being done at Brooklyn High School. Lap said he would be online and I'm not seeing
him online right now. Um I'm going to shoot him a quick email. Bernard, maybe we should circle back on this item after the next one. Although the next one I don't see. We can take the social media policy and I can send a lap email. Okay. Uh, this
is actually a public hearing scheduled for 6 PM and it's 5:40. So, there was a suggestion made about moving on to item number six. Yeah. So, we have to do that since the public hearing. Um,
media engagement policy and the social media policy. Uh, Christina Metaf will will be making a presentation on this. Christina. Good evening, select board. Thank you for having me here to talk about these policies tonight. I'm just going to take
a quick minute to share my screen. Okay. Um, I just want to make a note that this afternoon the select board uh packet was updated with uh answers to the questions that Mr. Runstein answered uh asked me and um thank you for sending those ahead of time. So, those can be found in the packet with some additional
information. Um Whoops. The media engagement policy is a new policy. It codifies the procedure that I've slowly unofficially put in place for u media inquiry. So any uh department or um person that gets a media inquiry from um
any uh media outlet will um be able to respond to me um and have a uh it clarifies the rules. It gives the procedure. So if they get an inquiry via phone or email, letting the uh reporter or person knowing, asking questions,
asking for a deadline, um and then uh getting back to me and just looping me in. Sometimes it's uh a procedural question that they're asking and it's publicly available information and they're just trying to confirm information. Other times it could be um something that should be bumped up to a department head or division head and
have that response. Um it clarifies the roles and usually um if it's an onair or just a quote from somebody um usually our department and division heads are the ones to go on air um versus having uh getting an email back um it provides some best practices. So, um, instead of
saying no comment, um, uh, you know, we don't have any information at this time. We'll get back to you and and other, uh, best practices in, um, interacting with the media. And it establishes myself as a resource for um, staff looking to maybe bounce ideas or just have a
conversation about the response and make sure that they're in line with um, the the town uh, administrator's um, views on that and and the town's best uh, best interests. Can I ask a question? So, what is when you um you I don't think you meant to
leave out the select board there, but so the select board members often get media inquiries. Is that how does that fit into what you just said? So, honestly, it's just a looping me in so that um sometimes we've had I know that we've had a um something I can think of
recently is that a a reporter had reached out to Chaz and to Bernard wanting a comment um and by the time we got a hold of Bernard, Bernard had already had the the conversation. So we didn't have to do that sort of back and forth and emailing and whatnot. So it's just making sure that again I'm in the loop and if you know if they're reaching out to CHAZ, if they're reaching out to
you, if they're reaching out to other department heads to sort of know and say, "Hey, this is all going on. Um we're getting inquiries from NBC and they want to know about this and just saying they're reaching out to all these different people. Here's the sort of position that we're taking as a town." And to make sure sort of every everybody's on the same page with their
their answer. obviously not limiting to you to your opinion as a select board member or well that was I guess that was my point is that you may find that there are different opinions on the select board it's a politically elected position that's different than what a staff member may say so we wouldn't be limited no okay in in terms of it was
just it's just the looping in so we're aware and if you I think that um I think there was a a point I think a maybe a few months ago a year ago that you had done um an interview or was on a panel talking about the MDA communities act and so it's something like that where you're doing some sort of press and just
aware like that we could share that or just be, you know, knowing that it's out there so that if I get asked about it, I'm not caught off guard um as the town communications officer and and that direct one of the direct contacts for media. Yeah. And and of course this all this all assumes that in expressing our
opinion, our individual opinions, we make clear that it is our opinion, not the position of the select board or the town. us. So, it really requires us to be very very careful when dealing with uh the media because we know the dangers uh that that could cause. Uh I also want
to mention that uh the select force talked about a communications protocol a year a little more than a year ago that maybe we should uh revisit in terms of not uh uh controlling select
board's responses to communications or or comments or questions from the community. but just um a protocol to ensure that when when a select board member makes a um response to a
community member's question uh or comment um that uh they're able to get the latest information from the relevant town department so that um you know what what they say is is uh is accurate and
um you know complete. So, so, uh, when Tiffany gets back, I'll discuss with her what we want to do with that, uh, so-called protocol. So, and again, I think the select board does an excellent job of of reaching out when there is media, especially if it's a high-profile
issue that needs a coordinated response. Um, we've had other, uh, issues that have with other boards that may have just need a little bit of guidance. So they know that it's a a re that I as well as their they can reach out to their boards and um department liaison to to have a resource if they're not
sure how to talk to or you know what um what they should and should not be maybe saying just depending on if there's sensitive information, confidential information um and at what point they should be divulging that or not. One followup Bernard if I may. Yes. I
know what she's she's still working on her presentation, but um so and I appreciated you bringing up um kind of responding to the public, but we have you and I have chatted a number of times and I don't think we've really have figured this out. It's an opportunity where something has happened within the
community and probably needs a statement from the select board, but yet the select board really can't issue a statement because we can't deliberate um you know over the phone. we can't develop a a a public statement meeting from the select board. You thinking of
the issue that raised with uh with the incident with the brick uh being thrown through through the the window um uh at the butcher. So I just it would be good to try to figure that out too because sometimes the statement the timeliness
of the statement is as important as the statement itself. Um, and we are we do struggle, I think, because we're restricted by the open meeting law crafting statements from from the board. Yeah. In in in the past, I don't think
it's been a problem when I um, you make a statement. I try to make it as um, as non-controversial as possible, taking into consideration what I, you know, believe other people's uh, views are. and just mentioning that um you know I
I'm doing it because we can't deliberate it um and and come up with a uh a formal policy uh at a um you know uh posted meeting. Yeah. Again, my my my feedback is not my bringing this up is not a a
commentary or criticism of any statements that you've made. Yeah. No, sometimes we do trip we trip over ourselves trying to get a statement out. Bernard John has his hand raised. Yeah. John, thank you very much. Um, and Christina, thank you for everything that you do. Um, I just want to remind
everybody listening to this discussion that there was a time not long ago, um, when we didn't have a position of spokesperson. And, you know, we're delighted not just to have the position, but to have, uh, our first spokesperson be Christina. Um that being said, uh is
this going to lead to um a uh perhaps a a more stepped up approach to issuing statements by the town or issuing news by the town. And I'll just give a couple of examples. There there will be occasions when our
town administrator, who frankly is very good at this, will send a memo to the select board members to let them know about something they really need to know about, you know, that's happening kind of behind the scenes or that happened and they might not know about. Um, and
on some of those occasions, uh, I have kind of wished, can we also put this out in a, you know, news release or can we also put this out in a statement so that I don't know something, but I have to keep quiet about it. um when it's in
fact something that the public is going to dis discover pretty soon and and I I always am um a little bit sensitive and I think the other members of the board are too when it looks like the select board is the last people in town to
actually step into a discussion of something that has popped up in the news because we're kind of waiting for there to be a position on this or we're waiting for it to be confirmed you know by the account. So, so is part of the
policy here or the intent here to step up um the frequency with which we make communications to the public so that the select board when they get a communication um less often will they have to worry about how many days do I
have to keep quiet about this before it looks like the select board is the last you know the people in town to have come become aware of of a certain situation. Uh that's a great question. I think that in some instances there is a a called for period of waiting because you are,
you know, in your executive sessions, you're privy to information and we're waiting for things to be completed behind the scenes. So you might know where we are in the process before everybody else is. But we can't we need to wait until the process has played out and we, you know, have the ramifications so that when you do talk about it, you're not talking about it in um
theoretically. You're talking about an actuality and what's and what the next steps are. so you're more informed of the complete process which I understand is um can be frustrating or you want to be able to share that information. I would say that um I you know I think in most of those emails I am included or
informed very closely there afterwards or um beforehand and so making sure that um okay this is and determining with Chaz and the rest of the DA team whether or not we need to get that out and what that is going to be doing. And I think that chess is also a great job of saying this is the next steps. This is where
we're going next. This is the information that's going to be coming out and not going to be coming out. So I think that um that's something I can keep in mind moving forward and we can adjust that as we go forward and and have that conversation once CHAZ is back to to make sure that we have those sort of next steps of like this is what can
be this is what embargoed this is what's going out next and this is when you can have a conversation with constituents about it. Great. Thanks. Hey, I don't see anyone else with their hands raised. Any further discussion?
Mike, Michael, um I just want to know if your presentation is finished so that we can see the rest of the presentation before making further comments. Uh on on the media engagement policy, yes. Um but that's not the social media policy. Okay, let's move on to social media
policy unless someone has questions about the uh U media policy. So, we're update, excuse me, uh so we're updating this policy. It hasn't been updated since 2017. Um it gives a little bit more information about the social media account creation.
So, um who can create it um and making sure we're aligning with best practices. So, including approved platform, listing authorized users, training for social media users, the naming of the the account, and the uh email to use. So, it's not a personal account that's being
used. So I'm not I'm not tied to all the town of Brooklyn accounts. We have a a a social media or social at Brooklyn MA so that it's account so when I move on very far in the future um that it is that that stays with the town and it's an easier transfer over to the next person managing the accounts and this goes for
for all of the other accounts. Some I think most of our accounts are set up that way but there are some who did not unfortunately go through the the social media action plan and were created with some personal accounts. Um it also does official use guidelines. So when you're
um for uh everybody who's posting, it goes through um how to how to post when to post if you make a mistake, how to update correctly, how to um if there's a post that needs to be taken down or comment that needs to be taken down, how to do that and the correct way to archive it and then delete it. And
there's al um that goes along with the comment and um moderation and removal protocol that's in uh section four, I believe, or section three of this policy um personal use guidelines. So, as a um as a town official um as somebody who
uses social media myself, if you're um posting on social media as yourself and posting an opinion about town happenings that you're doing it and saying this is my own opinion. This is not the opinion of me and my official position as communications officer or deputy town administrator. It it goes um and things
like that. Um and yeah, just making sure you're not uh speaking in a official capacity. Uh the next part um public comment engagement. So, um, what's acceptable of comments, what can be taken down after it's properly archived, um, the response protocols and best practices. So, you
don't want to get into a back and forth and create a public forum, but sometimes, uh, just information of this is where you can find this information on our town website so that you can clarify and answer a question that way. Um, and it outlines that. Um, and then the policy, sorry, the employee responsibility and enforcement just
outlines all authorized users should follow this policy and who to contact if they have questions. And the policy review and updates just um outlines that we will be that the town administrator's office, HR and IT will review this on an annual basis and decide if it needs any updates and then come to the HR board
and the select board if that is the case. Any questions? Sure. And just so far Michael. Um, so I I want to refer to one of the questions that I sent you previously about the policies for
posting on social media accounts not managed by the town. Um, and you had said, and I'll just quote what you said. Um, I agree it can be helpful to post information on public forums, but it can also lead to back and forth comments on
posts or in some cases people tagging the department in a post as they are a member of the forum. And if that page is not monitored or responded to, that department looks nonresponsive or avoidant. Um, I take your point. Um, and
nonetheless, I would urge you, especially in cases where departments are soliciting feedback, such as there are surveys that people want to promote, um, or there are opportunities for people to get information that simple,
uh, social media posts that simply, as you mentioned before, refer to uh, information that's on the town's website or other websites. um would be particularly helpful as a way to get information out broadly. Um and then of
course anyone else as individuals can then reshare and repost. Paul, yep, thank you Christina. So the um Michael had asked a couple of great questions and as memo thank you for sending that out. One of them was an inventory of social media platforms and
also social media accounts that exist today. Can you talk about what platforms we're on and what departments actually have individual social media accounts? Uh, sure. So, I have a little bit more of a a broader level view of that. So, we have about 14 Facebook accounts, 18
Instagram, 20 Twitter, uh, six in uh, LinkedIn uh, accounts. There are six unofficial. LinkedIn does this thing where if people mention enough time, they sort of create a page and you can either claim it or not claim it. And so, we just need to make sure we're not claiming it. Um there are two Tik Tok accounts but they are inactive and one
was approved before um information was uh given to the IT department that determined that we would not have a Tik Tok account. Um and so both of those are are not active as of right now. We have three YouTube uh active YouTube pages and channels um and then five that are a little bit more inactive or just have
had tags of other departments. Um I can tell you that I would say most of the public facing um departments in the town, so DPW, town clerk, um uh let's see um just going by flu in my head. Um
obviously that the new town um the and and the the DPW has uh several different pages. They have the Green Dog uh in uh Twitter account. Um police has several Instagram pages. There's Officer Katie and Bear. They have the Brooklyn MA uh MA account. Um they have the
Brooklyn animal control account. Um Brookline planning has an account. Um and I can get you that more detailed. Uh so any of these that's that's really helpful. It would great to see a list like which departments in a matrix to understand coverage and who's responsible. That's I'm surprised that's
actually more than I would have expected to tell you the truth. These are on the website too, right Christina? that list hasn't been updated and some of those links need to be adjusted and they will be once this uh goes through. And um does the Paul I don't see a component of
this but related to um groups like the townwide Facebook page? Can a department join the townwide Facebook page? I think there are a couple departments that I know of at least one that has joined. Um there's debate back and forth of whether
the town like the town the official town Facebook page should join. Um, again, it's a a fine line to walk of wanting to make sure that we're we're monitoring in issues and being able to respond to things, but also not um it would be helpful to discuss that. Um, you know,
that um it's one thing to have a social media account where we're pushing information out, people engage with us. It's another to go into the fray of a group. Um, and I I would be hesitant to
support any department head officially being part of of a large social media group. Um, I I don't know. How do how do others feel? Makes me It's an interesting concept. Um, what what do others think? May I
just jump in? I'm thinking about Brooklyn townwide discussion page which all of us occasionally drop a comment on maybe or some news mult individually. Yeah. Um in our individual capacity but there's no official select
board group. No there's a difference between the select board members doing that and and a town department head doing that or someone representing a town department. Well I was really concerned about the latter. I think DPW
occasionally has posts on the townwide forum just about in of anformational nature, right? We have such and such an event coming up. It's from X hour to Y. Uh but not really opining in any way. So if it's purely informational, I would be
comfortable with that type of presence, but I would agree. Yeah. To be very careful. There needs to be a fine line. And I just I just remember during the the DPW discussion of outsourcing and I I can't remember the specifics, but I I think one individual kept tagging uh you
know the department Facebook page um which I think was uh was happening. Again, I'm it's just I don't know the answer. It's just a it's just an interesting place sandbox to be playing in. there's 14 departments in there.
Maybe there should just be one official uh announcement area for for the town town of Brooklyn and you know and tell us what it is and then they could point back to the social media page if someone wanted to get more information. Michael. Yeah. Um first of all I agree
with you Paul that this is a worthwhile discussion for us as a group to have. um and also um want to commend you for bringing it forward. Um the other question that this raises of course is if you want to centralize the management
of those interactions, how much capacity we have in our communication department to actually do all of that centralization. Um because that that could potentially be a lot of work. Um, I am not enough of a social media guru
to understand the ramifications of the tagging that you describe whether or not that's actually problematic. Um, just, you know, if for example, depends on what's being tagged. Well, it depends on what's being tagged and who's tagging it
and what their reputations are. I'm I'm sure all of those things go into uh into the matter. Um but but it would be it would be worthwhile I think from what you're saying Paul and I agree with you
to have some sort of whether it's in the form of a white paper or some sort of uh uh accounting of this question and the various pros and cons for the select board to review. Yeah. Just I think it's a complex issue,
right? participating in the townwide Facebook page is a complex issue, but individuals and then if you're in an official capacity, but whether it's the townwide Facebook page or the r/brookline page on Reddit or I'm sure that there are Twitter
accounts as well. Um, what is all issues? Christina, do you know what the school committee how the school department handles? Do you know what their social media? I I do know what their social media is. Unfortunately, I believe their communications officer or communication specialist last day was yesterday. That position unfortunately
was cut. Um so I'm not sure what their their plan is going forward. Um but I when I when I did work with them, I know that um Neil Ga who was the communication specialist had um was managing the superintendent newsletter much like I managed the TA newsletter as
well as the official town social media accounts and he was a great partner. Um, and I would hope that going forward with that, however it looks in in the new administration, that we could work together to have that that um that outreach. I think the the superintendent's newsletter was a a great way to get information out for um
the the pool who had a pool safety day um and different departments who um have uh kid focused events or sponsorships or grant programs or wreck that they able to reach out to that and and they've done some reverse on that. Um, just to go back to the the sort of comments, I
actually appreciate getting tagged in post so that I know what's being talked about and I think that there is a um an argument to be made to being a part of that, but maybe not being actively posting on that. I think that it's great that I I do believe that the the DPW is a part of that and they're able to at
least see what's going on. And I think a few of us use that as an indicator of okay, what information are we missing? What information are we not putting out there? And how can we do that better? So, taking sort of the cue from the comments that we get, maybe not exactly those specific notes, but okay, there's a lot of questions about trash as we
changed uh you know, trash collection provider. So, if there's things like that that are coming up, hoping the DPW is able to say, "Yep, we've updated our web page. Look here for what's changed." And really nothing actually has changed for um trust collection. My worry there though is the potential for being drawn
into more political discussions as opposed to focusing on the work at hand. because I think there should be a very clear delineation between uh the responsibilities as a staff person and not allowing the politics of a situation to perhaps impact the work that is being
done. I think that's more what the select board is is for to make some of those political calculations and I worry that if staff is being tagged on conversations of a political nature at a minimum at a subconscious level I would think there is an influence that might
have on the work that our employees then undertake. It might encourage employees to go in a different direction based on the narrative that they're seeing unfold on Facebook. Okay. So, with part of this policy that wasn't
really implemented before, that gives me a little bit more um oversight and enforcement is to get the list of authorized users, get the list of all the accounts and the passwords and that so I'm available. I'm I'm aware of all the different users and and um who I need to be training and and and
obviously we are um obviously, but we are going to be starting a monthly communications meeting. So all the different communicators that are in town um and just making sure that we're an opportunity to talk about things if there are being comments made and it's affecting how things are going, best practices if there's an account that
needs some help and getting some engagement and things like that. And so just really creating um that synergy between all the different departments that have been siloed for so long and with my position and after being here for a year and seeing how everything works, be able to sort of collaborate and just like we have department head meetings, having those communication um
user meetings to make sure that we're all abiding by best practices and and have an idea of what's going on so that if we're getting tagged and things like that, we have us we have a standard way that we discuss as a best practice to respond or not respond. Yeah. because as I think you mentioned in in the response to some of Michael's questions or maybe
Michael raised it is, you know, if if there is a message and there's an expectation by the public that you're going to respond and no one ever responds, right? I mean, there's a tremendous amount of content on uh these large groups that have seven, eight, n,000 people that it's almost impossible
to keep to keep up with. Um, and if you know there's there's two there's two things. There's a push method which is the parks are closed because they're wet or heads up we're going to be paving Washington Square, you know, or the
police department has to send out a message. Um, you know, that could all be done through our alert system, which could have its own Facebook page on the townwide Facebook page. here's the here's the town's alert system and you can always go to that and look at it and
see what the most recent alert is and it's on the townwide Facebook page. Um versus having 10 people have to post individual messages. That to me would be a more centralized stream um or a push of information. Conversely, any type of feedback could be provided
to that or another account, you know, for feedback. And again, it's it's centralized versus, you know, 15 20 people um having to think regularly to sit down and look at or monitor social
media versus doing, you know, something else. Michael. Um I think the balance um to what you're talking about Paul uh is the fact that uh well it's both helpful to have a place that you are in control
of and monitoring um but it is also helpful for other kinds of push alerts um to actually go where there are people congregating right um so for example if the if we had the alert system and and to continue with your example the alert
system had um you know pushed all of its alerts onto a Facebook web page that it controlled. A great strategy. Um it could also as part of that protocol simply just push all of those alerts to the town Facebook page. Well, that's what I was saying that that was that's
right as a as a as a central mechanism. Um and maybe all of the other um departments that are pushing would would utilize that system as well. Okay. So, I need more time to think about this and I I appreciate I mean there's a lot of thinking that's gone into this. Um, it
would be it would be helpful to maybe have a follow-up discussion. Yeah, I'm on it. So, why do we not vote on this tonight and uh take it up at our next meeting? Bernard, if I may, I just have one additional question. And so in the materials provided, you define success
as increased engagement with participants, but I think that ties into this very issue that we're discussing. And I I'm not sure I'm hearing quite yet that we would be okay with that as the definition of success in terms of level
of interaction with participants. To me, that implies ongoing discussion between town staff and the community at large. Uh, unless I'm misunderstanding the example with the town clerk's office, would you be looking at this as each
office defines what success would look like and then metrics are crafted from the department's own vision or would it be the same for everyone? I I think that there are different um different
accounts serve different purposes. For example, the the green dog Twitter account that's to notify whether the fields are open or closed for rain, for maintenance and things like that. That's not something that I think that you know to bring under that umbrella. And I think that serves that very niche whether it's you're a green dog a resident or non-resident who comes and
uses the the green dog fields in Brookline. Um I think that an example that I've talked to our um Cheryl Snder who is our emergency management coordin coordinator deputy director um that um the uh OEM Facebook page has I the last
time I checked about less than 200 followers. So not getting that message out very well. um her department spans health and public safety. And so taking um taking those posts that she would normally do about public emergency preparedness, um heat advisories, heat
emergencies, and sharing those and giving those to the police and fire and health department pages to post on their pages and giving those information. And maybe it's, you know, emergency preparedness, September's emergency preparedness month and how to create a bugout bag and they're or they're going
to talk about that at um the uh August um national night out and so they're going to be there and so being able to post on different platforms and I think once we get all those um content creators and social media users all together and be able to say okay we're gonna you know Cheryl has five posts for
the month of July that she needs to put out. We have a a new alert Brooklyn Brookline provider. So, we've switched over and we're getting people signed up for that. So, we're going to have police push out a notice, buyer push out a notice, and and health in the town push out a notice all different times. And so, she would come up with the same uh
information and platform and be able to get it out there at maybe at different times and stagger that information so that's out there. And then that would create um and so she has those platforms. We could also we could shutter that Facebook account page so it doesn't stay stagnant. Gee, it's getting to followers. Police, fire, and public
health have way more followers. Um, I don't know off the top of my head, I apologize, the OEM page. And so, really just taking advantage of that, like I think Michael said, consolidating what we need to consolidate, but and getting down to maybe we don't need 20 Twitter accounts or 14 Facebook pages, but
really streamlining those so that they provide the information that they need to each niche thing. Sometimes it's I've heard the you know some people want to do just one town account and I think that that's a lot for this person you know for one person to manage and try to get all of that and coordinate that. So
yes. So so I and I want to make sure my my feedback is is very targeted. So I'm I I'm good with individual departments having this connection to the community and followers, right? It's when it jumps into this large group, right? So we
should be very very thoughtful and intentional about how we enter into much larger groups like the townwide Facebook page or some other large social media group that that would have an interest in what's going on within the town. So your preference, excuse me, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but your
preference would be so I I believe you know the town is not a member of the Brooklyn town discussion page, but the DPW is. So you would rather that reversed and have anything that could I don't I don't I well I don't want to go I don't I don't want to go so far as to say what I prefer. I just know that if there were five, six, seven, 10
departments on the townwide Facebook page, I think that would be a bit much. um if there was one one or the two that are most frequently engaged maybe but you know we should just be intentional and clear about what the policy is around that that's all I agree
um I I I also agree first of all thank you for uh all of this work that you've done thus far and it it seems like um and and I would appreciate your feedback on this
that the policy that you've crafted is definitely an incremental improvement over what we currently have in place from 2017. So, as just as a matter of incremental progress, I think it's it's worth putting in place. Um, but I but I
also sense that there is more work to be done from a policy perspective in terms of addressing these these issues that we've raised here. And I'm just not sure whether it would be most helpful to you to establish the policies that you've
put forward and then continue to extend them or to for us as a as a um in one fell swoop to um consider these other issues and then incorporate them into uh
a further revision of this uh version of the policy. Um, of course I would like the policies to be passed tonight. Um, um, but I understand that the the need to just sit and think about it a little bit more. Um, I think that,
you know, communications is a living breathing thing. Things change from month to month, dayto day. And so what I would say is that I think you know that could be a sort of underlying just once we have those communication team meetings of okay this is what we're going to do and and and be able to find
out okay who's a part of those because there's a web to to ask everybody okay are you a part of this and sometimes you can see sometimes you can't see who um are members of that so I don't I I can tell you I besides DPW I don't know um
of town departments who have commented um I do follow that I follow other different social media accounts to see um who is responding to different things and it's usually their own accounts. I don't think that we um most people do not want to go into the Brookline discussion group for one reason or
another. So um I think that that's easy enough to put into place to say if you're going to respond to that make itformational only. Don't you know again don't start a public forum or can respond to the person saying hey there's more information on the website if you need more you know if you want to discuss this further contact the DPW at
such and such a phone number and take the conversation offline through email or through phone John um I just want to draw a distinction that I hope is a useful one um because we've been talking about a social media policy and I think what we
also need to talk about or at least to be thinking about is is a social media strategy. Um to you know to me the the real sort of rubber meets the road part of this discussion is how effective
are all these 20 you know accounts at actually attracting people and getting information out and and the the wonderful thing about social media is you can you can really measure um a lot. you know, you you you know that an you said it yourself, the police and the
fire departments have much larger followings than most of the other um Brooklyn related um accounts and than my than my personal account. I mean, if anybody wants to figure to discover for themselves how hard it is to attract a
social media following, start a social media account and see who if anybody follows you or or how many people follow you. Um and and I think our strategy needs to be effective um use of social media um to communicate
important news to the people who need to see it and and need to come across it and need to share it with other people. And we've got I think we have available to us a lot of different ways that we can measure that. And there's also a lot of I'm I'm not telling you anything you
don't you don't already know. you know, there there there's also a lot of thinking that goes on about this very subject and municipalities kind of talk to each other about what works for you and what doesn't work for you. And um sounds like we're very much a part of
those discussions and and I do hope that we'll apply some pretty rigorous standards of performance to our social media accounts because um there's nothing sort of more useless than a social media account that isn't being
seen by more than a handful of people once a month. Absolutely. And in fact it can actually dilute you know your effectiveness because people don't know whether to go to that account for news or to some other account for news. So I do hope we keep strategy in mind as well
as just our policy. The town does have a Hootsweet account but um not all of again we I don't have all of the passwords and account accesses. So, if we get that and I can upload those information to there, again, I wouldn't be posting, but that would be able to allow me to track and share those insights and say, okay, you know, when
you're doing video and reals, you're getting a way you're getting way more engagement and way more likes versus static posts. And static posts have their their place in time. There's also, you know, care the algorith algorithms on Instagram change and so keeping up with that. And so I don't expect the,
you know, the DPW social media person or the the town clerk to be keeping up keeping up with social media trends. That's my job to inform them. And so having those communications meetings would be able to let them know, okay, this is what's going on. Here's how here's how to implement this and training. Um we uh for the um health
department's public health fair, we had a um they usually just they post their flyer of all their different events. And I had spoken with Darlene Johnson who does their social media over there and said, "Hey, let's try a carousel." Carousels get a little bit more interaction. You're going to have all the information on different posts. And the great thing about carousels, um the
trend the algorithm right now is that if you're they missed the first post in the feed, the the algorithm feeds the the second post into the feed again. So, you get a second chance to miss it. So, if you miss it the first time, if somebody scrolled through it and didn't go through the whole thing, it gets a second time. So, you have a second shot at gaining their attention and getting
them informed about what's going on. and I I showed her how to do the carousel and she just ran wild with it and did an amazing job. And if you look back at the April posts for um the health department, they're fantastic. Right. I just want to add that the Mass Municipal Association launched a group for
communicators like Christina um so that they can collaborate and learn what other communities are doing in terms of best practices. Yeah, that's great. And also I have I'm a part of an informal group that does um that meets uh monthly to talk about just sort of the different things going on. So I actually reached out to them regarding your question
about Reddit and Blue Sky and a lot of them um some are on Reddit, some are on Reddit, some have just um had Blue Sky regarding your question about Reddit and Blue Sky and a lot of them um starting your question about Reddit and Blue Sky and a lot of them um some are on Reddit
some are on Reddit some have just um had blue sky accounts but um just to grab the name but to are not really active on it and vice versa. So, it's again those emerging ones and that's something that I would have to um included in your in your packet was um added this afternoon was the uh it's security um sheet that
they go through to make sure that it is. So, like Tik Tok does not work for that right now and again from and guidance from the federal government says that we shouldn't be using it right now. Um but I don't know if Blue Sky and or Reddit are you know are one. So, they would have to go through that before we we would get any um accounts like that. But
I agree that and again I also want to stress that I want to make sure that of all these accounts that we're doing now that we are doing them well and not expanding ourselves and spreading ourselves too thin. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Anything else? Okay. So, thank you Christina
and uh we'll we'll take this up at our next meeting. I I get the sense that uh that's what the board wants. Okay. No one objected. So I guess it is. Thank you, Christina. Yes. Thank you. Okay. So, let's go back to the um first
item on our um main agenda, which is the uh no noise by excuse me, noise bylaw waiver for the high school. Is Lapanne um in the audience here? I am here. Can you hear me? Yes.
All right. I let me see. Uh having a little trouble with my video. I don't know you can see me, but uh I do have so no need to put it on. All right, I'm going to I'm going to uh share my screen with
this uh short presentation. Hopefully uh afterwards uh if you have any questions, be more than happy to ask. Can you guys see my screen? Yep. Okay. So this is the uh Brookline High School tunnel project which is uh we call it the tunnel
because it goes into the basement level of this long corridor which uh in in it looks like a tunnel. So the uh location is the high school on the uh the greenall street. It is uh there's two sculpts of
work. There's the inside work which is the tunnel. It has some pictures showing why we need to do it. It's outside work which is the root cause of why we're having some problems inside the school. So right now this is a picture of what it looked like before we started
construction. Uh we built a containment area because there is some speestous material and we're containing it so it uh it doesn't uh get into the air and and we can dispose of it properly. Uh the root cause of why we having the issues is that the concrete here wasn't
pitched correctly. Uh, so the water is draining on into the sides and it's uh affecting the concrete that's inside. It's spalding concrete and I'll have pictures showing why it's so bad. It was ne it was also never waterproof properly the foundation walls. So the water is
seeping through and uh again the next picture will show you how bad it is. So as you can see what what's happening is the water is seeping through. It's spalding concrete. the rebar is being exposed. You can see the rebar is rusted
over many many many years of exposure to the water. Um and this is why we have to patch it and we'll measure the structural engineer says it's okay for now but we need to take some actions shortly. Um going to the next picture.
This is the actual tunnel itself. So you can see this is the area where transitions from the old school to the new school. Um concrete is spoiling. It's breaking apart. Part of the scope of work is we have to take down all these pipes. The school is shut down.
So, uh no one can use it because uh once we take these pipes down, there is no air conditioning. There is no potable water coming into this into the school. So, we take these pipes down. We patch and repair all this. Uh they're setting up the scaffold right now to start the
work soon. So, this is on the inside. They're tearing up the concrete getting ready for um getting ready for the uh the repaving of it so that it drains and pitches off correctly. They're also tearing the concrete out so we can uh
properly apply the the waterproofing off vapor barrier so the water does not seep into the high school. A little bit more picture of what's going on here. Again, they're tearing up the concrete. This I took this picture of today. So, this the status of the uh the work today.
So, we are requesting a waiver because um it's very timesensitive. Um the we have to finish the work uh by August 15th, refill the system, make sure the uh the water, the HVAC works. Um
and it's weather dependent. We're outside. We're pouring concrete. Uh we're having some nice weather recently, but it could rain. It could get uh kind of crappy. And we don't pour concrete when it's crappy because it'll be bad concrete. Therefore, we're requesting a
noise waiver on the following Saturdays. Uh we're not requesting it this July 4th weekend because no one was going to work July 4th anyway. We're going to be uh we request that we request the waiverss on July 12th, 19th, and the 26th of July. We may or may not use it, but if we do
use it, I would like to have this in in my back pocket so that uh we can do the work without going back to the select board every single weekend. Uh the work would that would make a lot of noise, jackhammering uh and pouring the new concrete
sidewalk. Uh so with that, uh I'm ready for any questions you may have. Any questions for the select board before we start the public hearing? Oh, I have one just one quick question. Thanks, L. I app I really appreciate the pictures. Um, you came before us a while
ago for another noise waiver bylaw, I think, for the roof. Are these things overlapping? They are overlapping. Yes, that's a separate project. That's a Charlie Simmons project that's part of the uh the CIS program. Same same
building, same location. Same building. Yes. Actually, Charlie and I have had to coordinate to make sure that we don't get in each other's way. Okay. Did does his noise bylaw waiver that we gave him cover this? Wouldn't it cover this? Uh,
I'm not sure. I you know I I I actually should have asked Charlie. I'm not exactly sure, but we're asking for Saturdays specifically, you know, starting at early. Thank you. Could you specify how early? Uh 7 a.m.
starting. John. Um, this is not a noise question, but it uh it's a question that sort of needs to be asked. Um, are was the contractor um involved in in
work in that area of the of the building um responsible for this issue? Um and if so, are we seeking any kind of um compensation for work that um was not properly done? Uh the cont from from the
best of my knowledge uh the contractor was not involved in the original design or construction of the building. Um it this has been going on for decades. So I mean not decades but you know at least decade that that that's an accumulative
effect of uh the spalding concrete and the rusted rebar. Well, but the drainage issues um you said were improperly designed and the water was running where it shouldn't be running. Um, I was actually on the committee of seven that um, launched
this and we did do a thorough tour of what I just call the basement of the high school to see see the damage um, uh, and and also the tour the area under the archway leading into the courtyard where it was suspected that the water
was um, seeping in. Uh, and that area, the courtyard h had a had a um complete renovation, didn't it? Um, and I I was wondering if the entrance to the courtyard was also tied into that project.
Uh, I I that was before my times, sir, and I I really can't speak to to that issue. Um, yeah, I mean, it was it was one of the last days that Tony Quigley was still on the job. Um but uh I mean did
did any of this get discussed in the handoff? Uh I was not aware of this. No in terms of outreach to a Butters I see in our materials that there are essentially two notices. One of them is the noise ordinance waiver request which
doesn't mention the 7 a.m. time just the date. And then the other one from East Coast Masonry and Restoration, which does mention 7 a.m. and who to contact, which notice went out to Abutters? Was it both? The flyer went out to the
Butters. The East Coast Masonry flyer went out to the Butters. Okay, any other questions? Let's open it up to a public uh or to um public hearing. Sure. This is a public hearing. Uh if
you'd like to speak, please use the hand raise feature if you're online or raise your hand if you're in the audience and you'd like to speak. We have 17 participants online. Uh again, please use the hand raise feature online. Uh press the raise hand button
if you'd like to speak uh at this public hearing. It seems like Bernard there is no one interested in speaking. Okay. So, let's close the public hearing and if there are any other questions from the select board um unless there are any other
questions, we'll um take a vote. Any other questions? I don't see any hands raised. So, um I move approval of the noise bylaw waiver for the high school project. as described by Lafian. Um, all
in favor please indicate by saying I. John Vancoyak I. Paul Warren I. David Froman I. Michael Rubenstein I. Chair votes I. Thank you a lot. Thank you very
much chair. Okay. Have a great night. Thank you. You too. Next item on the agenda is the interim public health and human services director. Uh question of appointing Dr. John Klashinski as interim health and
human services director uh as recommended by the town administrator and by Siguel Ree I understand. So um is someone gonna talk about uh Dr. Kjinski? Sure Bernard I'm covering uh in
Chaz's absence. Um so we are recommending that John be uh made interim health director and I can tell you that um you know we are very fortunate to have someone of John's experience um in the succession plan. Uh he's extremely talented. He's done a lot
of great work with the chip the um health improvement plan uh and working on cannabis issues and other public policy issues. and Sagal is very confident that John is able to take this role and and really uh do really great work for the town. He joined the town in
2021. You have um his resume in the packet and um just you know by the experience of recruiting public health directors in the past. I can say um this seems like a very um easy easy fit for the town and we recommend that uh the board appoint him as interim health
director. Okay. It's very great. It's very good that we have someone in the pipeline to move into the position when it opens up. Um, someone who knows us, uh, knows the issues of the department,
etc. So, we l we're lucky. We lucked out we're losing someone that, uh, did a great job, but we're um, getting someone who's going to do a great job in the future. Any, uh, questions, comments from the slight board, Paul?
Yeah, just one quick one. So, um, is this So, we're going to fill this in an interim basis and then do a search for So, the Chaz will line out his plans for um how he plans on filling the position. He I think um we'll see how the interim role goes and then we'll make a decision about the recruitment going forward.
John, did you have your hand up? I did. I did. Thank you very much. Um uh I I want to just second everything Melissa said. I've had the pleasure of um uh experiencing uh John uh in meetings, you know, where he was a
featured presenter whe whether it be of data on you know mar you marijuana use among kids or or any any number of subjects and um I know that he is enthusiastically endorsed by people from the advisory committee council on public
health. Um I I I just want to know are they involved in any kind of a formal way in in you know on an occasion such as this when an interup interim director is being appointed in the department um are they consulted and and do we have
some sort of measure of you know you you know their take on this they don't have the authority to actually approve the appointment but they are a very experienced group of people who I would rely on uh and I'm wondering if we're making sure to consult with them. So for
the interimm I I believe um I think that they are aware but we can confirm that but in terms of a permanent director they would they would likely be part of the group that Chess consults as he is making his decision on who to recommend for permanent appointment. Great.
Sorry I was muted. Uh any other questions from the select board? Okay. Um I move approval then of the appointment of Dr. John Eklashinski as interim health health and human services director as recommended by the town
administrator. All in favor please indicate by saying I. John Vascoak I. Paul Warren I. Gearman I. Michael Rubenstein I. Chair votes I. Thank you. Great. Um, if he's in the audience, welcome
aboard. Whatever. Okay. Boards and Commissions interviews. Uh, we're starting off with the Park and Recreation Commission. And the first person on the agenda is Emily Jacobson.
Is she around? She's here. Okay. Emily, uh, please introduce yourself and, uh, tell us why you're interested in being member of the parks and, uh, recreation commission. Hi, good evening. Uh, my name is Emily
Jacobson. I'm a resident of precinct 5. I think they just changed the borders. I'm never sure if it's four or five. It's over. Yeah. Lean into the microphone. Yeah. Already very close to it. Um, you're hearing me fine. Yeah. Okay. Um,
and uh, I'm interested in serving on the parks and recre recreation commission. Um, uh, I really feel that Brookline's parks are something that I think everybody has something that they feel makes Brooklyn
unique and to me it's really the parks. Um when I first moved here, uh it was just before the pandemic and um during the pandemic we were constantly walking in the Mstead Park and I think it was
just a real lifesaver for me. Um and I'd like to um help protect that and promote that. Um and I also understand that the commission finds it val valuable to have people who are um familiar both with the
design review process and also with the construct construction process in general from like a broad point of view. So I hold a bachelor's and masters in civil engineering and I work in structural engineering. So I'm quite familiar with the design review process
um from the consultant side of the table. Um but also having served on design review committees here in Brooklyn, the served on the Davis foot path Davis bridge
foot path bridge committee and um so I'm familiar with that process from both sides and um understand that they find that valuable. So if I can contribute that that would be great. Okay. Um, if if you I take it you've
attended meetings of the parks and recreation commission. Do you have any comments or thoughts about uh how it functions? it seems to function in a very professional way. And um the last committee, the last meeting meeting that
I went to was kind of an overview of all the projects that um that they were having through this capital improvement cycle. Um the staff were um really
motivated and um yeah there's just a lot of interesting projects that they have in the pipeline. I think you answer my other question regarding your professional background relevance. Any other questions from the select
board? John. John. Thank thanks very much. Thank thank you very much Emily. Um it's good to see all the applicants that we've got coming before us on this position. Um so um now correct me if I'm
wrong but I think bicycle is um uh and I don't I'm not saying that there is any um set rule that you know we don't want people to be on more this commission and that com board. We want
them to be on one or the other but um we you know we are trying to spread around as much as possible these opportunities to serve on boards and commissions. Would you be giving up your position on the bicycle advisory committee if you take a position on the park and rec commission? No, I I wouldn't. Uh when I
spoke with the the chair of the committee, she indicated that she wasn't looking for me to give up my position on that committee. I'm the chair of that committee and I was just recently selected as the chair of that committee. So I don't want to throw them under the
bus, so to so to speak. Yeah. Okay. just I thought I should ask Paul thanks thank you Emily um do uh so I appreciate your background and and um I've watched you in action on the bic advisory committee I appreciate your
work there can you talk maybe a couple of things that you think um we should be doing with uh on park and wreck I mean they have a they have a broad set of responsibilities right they cover not only design reviews for park upgrades uh but they're also setting policy for
programs s um you know and and things of that nature. Can you talk about you know your thoughts on a couple of things that you think would be important that you'd like to see done on park and wreck? Well, I think one thing that's really important is um like accessibility of
the parks, especially in North Brooklyn. Um we have a lot of really great parks in North Brooklyn, but um of course they're also the most densely used. And so I think any opportunity that there is for um for parks and recreation to um
you know either uh create uh these temporary parks or um um upgrade uh existing facilities in North Brooklyn is really really important. And I think also the other
part of that is the huge importance of the very some very small parks that we have. Um like there's one just over on Route 9 um near the fire station. Um and uh it's super important place just from
the point of view of you know people's experience of of the town shade trees and stuff like that. Great. Um, any other questions? Yes, I have a question. You talk about in your application, uh, the importance of
making our parks accessible to all ages, groups, demographics, etc. Uh, do you have any concrete examples of what you would like to see in our parks to improve accessibility? Well, I think in terms of accessibility,
um like the legal definition of accessibility, I I did see that when they're redoing the parks, um that they are following ADA rules. I think it would be great if they also followed PROWAG rules. So that's um it's kind of
enhanced um uh rules for um accessibility of of um the pedestrian experience, right? Um and um
I think it's also something where you have to be really careful that everybody is able to experience the park in an equitable way. So, um making sure that you know walk
walkways are not sort of um more difficult walkways or a roundabout ways that people that have uh mobility needs can go and experience the park in the same way. That was something that
came up on Davis foot path for example. There was a big question about uh how to get because there were a bunch of different levels and so there were big questions about how to get people who in wheelchairs down to the level of the park and also over to the playground
area and um it's just very important to to uh to safeguard that idea of equitable access. Thank you, John. Yeah. Um,
one other actually two other questions. Uh, and I promise I'm going to ask these same questions of all all of the other candidates for this position. Um, one of the major decisions that the park wreck commission made within the past year, if not the major decision, uh, just in
terms of its, um, impact was to, uh, address the problems with the ice rink at Lawrence Anderson Park um, in a way that keeps the ice rink um, in its current site and also keeps it um, an
open air ice rink. Um and um implied in all of that um is that uh the decision was not to go with an indoor facility um that would be you know used much more during the year and um much
more weather protected for the sake of um advancing much much more opportunities for hockey um leagues to use the facility. Um did you agree with that decision? That's question number one. And question number two is, do you have any ideas that you want to bring
forward as to uses of the golf course? Uses of the golf course. Um, I don't have any ideas that I want to bring forward for of the golf course. Yeah. Um
um with respect to the the ice skating rink, I understand um that the the town's uh like the the town has significant budget constraints. Um and I
suppose if I were on the parks and recreation commission, I would feel that I would be able to speak from the point of view of users of parks. Um, but I think the decision to build an whole
indoor ice rink is something that really needs like a collective decision of the town because it's a big expenditure. So, okay. Thanks. How do we feel about it? Thanks. Okay, great. Um,
thank you, uh, Emily Jacobson, and we appreciate you're applying to the, uh, Park and Recreation Commission. and uh we will u be appointing people at a later meeting. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
Yes. Next u we have um Sarah Schlober. Sarah is online. Sarah, you've been promoted. Yes, there you go. You can share your video.
Hello. So, please introduce yourself and tell us why you're interested in the Park and Recreation Commission and what you would bring to it. Yes, definitely. So, hi everyone. My name is Sarah. I just graduated from Wesian University where I studied applied design and
society. And that was a self-designed major that I created because I was really interested in studying the connection between humans and their physically designed environment. So, it was kind of along the lines of what an urban planning or urban design major would have been at another school. My
school just didn't offer that. I grew up in Brooklyn. I was raised in Brooklyn. I was a PSB student athlete. And a lot of my fondest memories growing up just occurred at the parks and open spaces of Brooklyn with my friends, my family, and my teammates. And so I'm really
enthusiastic about this opportunity because it's an opportunity to give back to the community that really shaped me to be who I am today. Also, I think we're at a very interesting time right now being post pandemic where the pandemic really shed a light on the
importance of parks in not only cultivating social interaction amongst a community where during the pandemic that was really the only time where you could go outside and interact with people was at parks and at open spaces. Um, and so I think that the pandemic really brought
that to the forefront and created parks as this concept of a third place where everyone can go together and interact with each other. And I just think that that's such an amazing idea and concept. And I'm just really enthusiastic and passionate about that idea and thinking about how we can create the best parks
to cultivate the strongest community bonds for Brooklyn. Also with the broader issue of climate change, parks and open spaces hold a great potential to mitigate Brookline's impact in the broader climate change issue. So by
implementing tactics like planting more trees to increase um the air quality, improving bike lane connectivity to reduce carbon emissions um and reduce traffic. Tactics such as that are really able to be implemented by parks and open
spaces. And so for those two reasons along with my passion that I developed through my time at Wesley and then my studies and the projects that I've completed, I am just really excited about this opportunity to give back to a component of the community that really
shaped me. Great. Thank you. So um you're a new recent graduate from college. Yes. means you're younger than than those of us on the select board. Um, give me some thoughts about your um
views of how um parks could be more useful to a younger crowd other than organized sports youth. Definitely. So, I think that parks can be useful to a
younger crowd by having not just sporting events that are occurring there, but different recreational activities that incorporate features of the parks into their programming. So, for example, because not everybody likes to do sports and not everybody likes to
run around in order to interact with other people socially. So one example of that could be maybe there is a walking group or a birding club that attends these parks and there are certain benches or certain points designated for
these kinds of groups to use in their recreational activities. So for a walking group maybe it's a specific path that this walking group follows and it's an accessible path that everybody can access equitably. And for a birding
group or something of that nature, maybe there are specific benches or specific tables or there's posts where people write down their observations of what they saw that day and then when they come back another day, they can see what other people observed. And so I think
that it's small implementations of physical structures that can be utilized by not just people wanting to do athletics, but also people that are looking to just be outside and be with other people. Great. Thank you.
Uh any other questions from the board? Michael, um hello Sarah. Um I'm wondering uh have you attended uh meetings of the park and rec commission? I have not attended a
meeting. However, I did read through the open space recreation plan and from that I feel I have a broad sense of the capital projects that the commission is working on right now. So, one thing that I was very drawn to was the
accessibility projects that the commission is planning on implementing over the next eight years. Those including the Hayes playground updates, the Boilston Street playground updates, and the Griggs Park updates. And those
really stood out to me because I think that accessibility of playgrounds is extremely important because I think that everyone should have equitable access and be able to play so that no one can feel left out. And from the the plan
that I read, I also gathered that thinking about climate change and Brookline's impact and how to mitigate Brookline's impact on that issue is one of the great overall things that the commission is thinking about right now.
And so I think that the motions to increase the bike lane connectivity, especially connecting Brookline High School to South Brooklyn and South Brooklyn just to the rest of Brooklyn with bike lanes was really interesting and something that I would be really
passionate about because I enjoy biking. However, I do feel as though the bike lanes could be improved. connecting South Brooklyn to the rest of Brooklyn because if there's a safe way to commute
on bike from South Brooklyn out um then that would not only reduce the carbon emissions of cars but it would also just encourage more people to bike and to be outside which I think would be a really positive thing. So while no I have not
attended one of the meetings I have read through the documents and the plans and I do feel I have a strong sense of the projects that are in progress and the direction that uh the town is going.
So my second question my second question was going to be what did you learn from that but I think you have satisfactorily answered that question so I healed. Yeah, John. Um, I'm sorry, John had had your Should I go
Should I go ahead while I have a question? I'll wait for you. Okay. Thanks. Um, so as I as I said uh when um Emily was at the microphone, uh there are two questions that I'd like to ask all of the candidates um for this commission and um so I'm asking you um
do you have an opinion as to whether the park and rec commission did the right thing with their decision on the skating the ice rink which um to sum it up quickly uh was to basically keep an open air um seasonal ice rink such as we have
now but one that is completely restored um in the place in in the same place that the current one is situated um and not to go with a um much more substantial and expensive um indoor uh ice facility. Um do you agree with that?
Second question is do you have any ideas um as to uses of our golf course? Yes. So for your first question I would say that I do agree with that decision. I think it's a difficult decision to make because the economic factor of if
the rink had been converted to an enclosed rink that could be used year round by hockey teams that is certainly something to consider. However, I think that if the decision had been made in the other way where the town did decide to go with that enclosed rink, then what
the town would have been losing is the character of an open air ice rink. Because I feel that an open air ice rink is a very different environment than an enclosed ice rink where one would bring economic opportunity in terms of teams
renting it out. The open air ice rink acts more as a park and an open space. And so I think that by choosing to maintain and preserve that component of this landscape, it was the right
decision to make because without it, the town would have been losing. A park that is a recreational facility where people can go and relax and be outside and have it be more integrated into the overall
Lars Anderson park environment. and the golf course. Yes. And for the golf courses, uh, one idea that I had would be to potentially increase the amount of recreational activities that
happen at the golf course. And perhaps it's not specifically golf, but maybe it's some form of mini golf or glow-in-the-dark golf or something that would attract youth participants. Um, and obviously not over the entire golf
course, but on a small segment of it. Or maybe there's organized walking groups that go and utilize that land to walk around. Kind of similar to um my thoughts on what makes parks special and ways beyond athletics. Um, but yeah.
Yeah. Thank you very much. Let me let me ask a question, another question. Um, you mentioned uh accessible uh playgrounds. I I take you've been to the Brooklyn Avenue playground which is an accessible play playground we have here
in Brooklyn. Um maybe the question is have you? I actually am not 100 I'm from Southline so I'm not 100% sure if I've been to that playground as growing up I frequented the South Brooklyn. Okay.
Well, just in the last few years, um the Brooklyn Avenue playground has been made uh much more accessible and inclusive. Um but mainly uh for younger kids, uh elementary school children. Um how but
but you know, parks and and even playgrounds are places that should be attractive to people, you know, of your age, for example. Um any thoughts on how we address uh accessibility issues for
um of young adults in in our parks and and playgrounds definitely. So I think that accessibility in parks and playgrounds should be addressed by ensuring that there's something at the playground that
every single person can access. And I think specifically for young adults, I think that there could be an increase in the amount of playgrounds or parks with athletic ability. So, I know that at
Downs Field there was that uh the new playground that was added on the side of the track um with that rock wall and um those obstacle course pieces. Um, I think that is one great opportunity to
possibly tweak a couple of things and improve the efficiency of that for young adults who are at the track exercising to maybe have a pull-up bar or some kind of outdoor elliptical machine I've seen at other parks. Um, and so I think that
that could be a way to increase how young adults use parks and open spaces. Um, and then back to your question about how can parks be accessible to everyone. I think it really just comes back to making sure there is something that everyone can access and especially
making sure that all of the paths and levels are connected in a way that a wheelchair could go up the paths um like a wheelchair swing. Um, so just making sure that there is a way for everybody
to interact with the structure. Great. Thank you. Uh, unless there are any other questions, um, we'll end the interview. Uh, we will be making decisions on appointments to the park and recreation commission at a later
meeting. We appreciate your um application and uh we appreciate uh the information that you provided us and the ideas that you have. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next uh on the park and recreation
interview interviews is Raj D. Raj is in the room. He's approaching the podium now. Okay, Raj, please introduce yourself and tell us why you uh want to be on the park and recreation commission and what
you'll bring to it. Uh members of the select board, greetings. I'm applying for a position on the Parks and Recreation Commission because I'm passionate about the parks of Brooklyn and have the skill set necessary to make
them more beautiful, friendly, and safer. My passion for making parks in Brooklyn more beautiful, safe, and friendly comes from my lifelong interest in gardening. It all began when I was 14 years old and
I took a course in bot. Since then, every opportunity I've had, I've been deeply engaged in creating, maintaining, and enhancing green spaces. Great. A good example of that is a very
large garden around my house in College Farm District. I'd also like to comment on the recreational aspect of various facilities in Brooklyn. Over the decades that I've lived in Brooklyn, my family and I have been active users of tennis
courts, baseball fields, and golf courses. Golf course. So, we have a firsthand understanding of of what could be made better. Excuse
me. And now about the skill set. I trained as a mechanical engineer and as many of you know I've operated businesses, executed development
projects which have given me the experience and understanding of negotiating contracts, executing plans. This could be very helpful for many things that the the parks and recreation
commission uh gets involved in. I'm passionate about open spaces. Uh I have been careful to see that my development Thank you. Uh my development projects did not encroach on any open
spaces in Brooklyn. In this context, I want to say something about the golf course, the town own golf course. Um, I understand there's conversation going on, but my position
is that it should remain an 18hole golf course. uh if it becomes a 9-hole golf course, you'll see very dramatic drop in use revenue. And most golfers don't consider
a 9-hole golf course golf course as a real golf course. Um, and also, uh, if it goes to nine holes, uh, it I'm assuming that the space that it'll
relieve will be not be open space anymore, whether there be development or whatever else happens. Um, one other subject I'm quite knowledgeable in is dark skies, outdoor lighting issues.
uh with my um background in lighting, I believe I can be helpful in addressing that issue um in parks, park lighting and even street lighting or new real estate projects, housing projects. Finally, I
feel that a sincere efforts sincere efforts need to be made to improve communications between the parks department personnel and the residents and users of the parks. On the user
subject, I feel that there needs to be more clarity and enforcement, if you will, of some of the park uses. And I particularly refer to Emory Park which is very near my house and Boston
University. It's in my opinion it's become de facto Boston University Park. I think it could be an opportunity to clarify all the rules and perhaps
even get some revenue for the town. So those are my thoughts. Uh, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Okay. Uh, thank you. Uh, John, did you
have your hand up? I've got my hand up. Yes. Thank you very much. Um, and Raj, thank you very much. Um, and I I just want to add um a note of thanks to uh you and your family for all the contributions you've made to Brooklyn
over the years. Um, thank you. It goes without saying that, um, you become a very important part of this community. And if people don't know what I'm talking about, they should look up. There are buildings, um, that, uh, we we owe to you um, in Brooklyn. And, uh, I'm
I'm very pleased that you're u applying for this position. Um uh and at the same time, you know, I want you to um share with us your views as the other candidates did on whether the the Park and Wreck Commission uh made the right decision with its decision on the ice
rink. You've already answered the golf question, but how about the the ice rink question? I'm sorry, the ice rink question. Ice rink question. Yeah. Um I think it's not a good idea and for the following other reasons. Uh,
no, I'm sorry, but just clarify, uh, to to to go to a larger facility is not a good idea or or That's correct. Yeah. Okay. Uh, because obviously it'll take up more open space. uh the traffic and parking, all those
issues that all day long we talk about in any project that would they would even be more uh prominent in that kind of and uh so my position is that uh I'm
not in favor of of that. Thank you. Paul. Yep. Uh, thanks Raj. Um, thank you David. Thanks for coming. I, um, I have a question about the green dog program.
You know, Park and Wreck is responsible for the green dog program. Um, do you see any uh any opportunities for improving the green dog program? Do you think it's working well? Um, we have a much increased pressure um on on our
parks. Um, there may be BEu uh students coming to Amry Park, but there's also a hell of a lot of dogs going to Amry Park at all hours. What are your thoughts about the green dog? Should we continue it? Is there any modifications that need to be made? Any changes? How would you improve it? Uh
uh most dog owners prefer to uh walk their dogs by part of necessity and preferences in the evenings. And so I would like to have some change,
some idea explored whereby perhaps the morning program at Amory the um is reduced instead of up to 1:00 maybe it's up to 11:00 because I'm not sure much
happens between 11 and 1. And as long as there are some guidelines and provisions that the evening program does not affect the baseball games, the high school baseball happens there. Um, so that
would be one thing I would think. Uh, so so you would so you would you would extend it. Um, so one of the one of the questions I have about this is so you know I have young children and I too Yeah. Right. almost about Amry Park. Um, my children have been attacked multiple
times. Wow. By dogs at Amry Park. Um, the you know the the the amount of of scoff laws at Amry Park with leashes. So you know I I my children get out of school at you know 2:30. I take them
over to Amory Park around 3:00. at 3:30 there's eight to 10 dogs at Amory Park off leash. Um, same group, same people. Um, and they feel entitled that they should be able to do that. Um, one of them chased down my child on his bike.
Um, scared the heck out of them. So, there's there's there's there's an inherent conflict that's developing with our parks. you you raised BEu students who I see playing volleyball and being healthy, which the last candidate spoke about the need for more things for for
that age group. Um, my children almost can't use Angry Park. They go sledding, dog attacks them. They go bike riding, dog attacks them. Um, the green dog program in our parks are in great conflict uh with uses. And I I I don't
think extending it the answer. Doesn't sound doesn't sound like that's the solution. Well, I would say that like any violation of rules by a person or dog, it should be uh the appropriate
action should be taken. If somebody some dog is Is your dog ever off leash after uh 3:00 at Amry or after 2:00 in the afternoon? Your dog's never off leash at Amory in the afternoon? Never. But if there's nobody in the park, we might But there's never Does the green Does the
green dog program say you can have your dog off leash after 1:00 as long as there's nobody else in the park? Or does it say that No, you can't have Let me finish. You can't have your dog off leash after 1:00, period. If you want to be a part of the green dog program, that's what it
does say. Does it say that if you consider your dog to be friendly and controllable, it can have their dog off leash after after the green dog hours? Or does it not say that? It does not say that. Does not say that. I I understand what the Thank you. Thank you. what the
uh Yes. Michael. Uh thank you Raj. Um I just wanted to ask you the same questions that have been asked of the other candidates. Um have you attended uh how many parks and rec commission meetings
have you attended recently? uh online. I have online. Okay. Um and is there anything in particular that you've learned or uh understood from those meetings that you think would be valuable to lift up or carry forward?
Uh I'm not sure that I particularly learned or didn't learn anything. It was I watch watched the meeting and I had some thoughts on uh how the conversations went. Uh but it felt to me
it was like any other meeting of that sort. Uh so I can't say that uh there was any specific learning. uh obviously I have attended
hundreds of meetings over my career. So it by itself I didn't go to that meeting and say let me see what I can learn from this meeting. If there was a subject of interest to me I obviously would pay more attention to it. Uh but uh it was
more out of curiosity. uh secondhand from time to time I've learned what went on at those meetings from uh other people uh and yeah I think
that I'd have no issue with any meeting of that nature. Thank you. I I guess the question is um uh you know how how did the meeting run in your opinion and did it run in such a way that the concerns that you had or
the questions that you had um got a good uh hearing and um were useful for you. Um the meeting the most critical meeting from my perspective actually I went to
was in 199 I think there was the issue of uh at the golf course there used to be something called the inner club and maybe you
folks are not familiar with it. But it what it was was there was a group of people who have privileged uh uh reservation reservation time. They weren't paying anything extra. Some of
them weren't even uh the town residents actually the president of the town. So at that time I went to the board members who I knew and they asked the commission to hold a meeting. It was a pretty intense meeting because the subject was
of uh incredible interest to uh all the people who were in the uh inner club which was the idea was that the inner club was going to be banned and their meeting ended with that exactly that
happening. Um that was probably the most um meaningful meeting of the the uh parks and recreation commission I went to. Uh
but uh other than that uh I would think that the meetings run perfectly fine like any uh meeting of that nature would and there's conversation there's agreement disagreement and eventually a
decision is made. Great. Thank you. Any other question? Yes. I just have a question. And you mentioned in your application how uh you think you could come up with ways to generate more revenue from parks and you reference BEu at Amory as as one
potential example. Do you have any other thoughts on revenue generation? Um the the uh thought I have is um some idea we need to come up with
that a park like Amry Park which is very close to Boston boundary and wherein lots of use happens by people who are uh not Brooklyn people or taxpayers and
they we pay for the uh green dog uh tag. Uh so in my opinion it's not inappropriate that we come up with some idea that these folks who are uh
different the other day I went to four volleyball games. I just nicely asked, "Do you folks have a have a permit?" And they looked at me like, "What do you mean permit?" Uh, I think that certainly
could be managed in a way. Maybe for example, uh, there could be a fee to put a pole in the ground. That could be a formal way of saying you have a
uh you have a permit and you would be I mean if if you go there it's too late now but an hour earlier if we had if somebody had gone there and there'd be
10 12 8 some number of volleyball games and the town is getting nothing for it. I think somehow I don't have a kind of a here's the exact plan but I think it's
something we should certainly talk about it and also there's the social events that happen in one corner of the park u and I checked the other day and I was told by the parks department that they
all uh have to pay a fee to have a commercial event. I challenge I mean I would be shocked if any of that fee is being paid but they do leave us
with lot of trash and which means uh rodents and all that kind of stuff. So I think in a summary I would say this I don't have nor did I intend to come
and present any specific plan but I do think that a real u evaluation of how it could be managed so that the town the it's more orderly and the town
gets some revenue. Thank you. Great. Thank you. So, um thank you for making your application to the uh park and recreation commission. The select board will be uh selecting people for
appointment appointment at a later meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next, we have another uh uh body, the Brooklyn Commission for the Arts. another commission uh and Samuel King uh
is the person who has made application for membership on the commission for the arts. Is he in the audience or online? Yes, he's coming up to the podium. Bernard, good evening. Good evening. So, uh, please introduce yourself and give us a
sense of why you want to be on the arts commission and what you can bring to that, uh, body. Of course. Uh, well, uh, good evening and I'd like to start with offering an apology for missing last week's meeting. Uh, we did have a death in the family, so I do apologize for
wasting the board's time last week. Thank you for this week. Um, well, uh, my name is Donovan King. Uh my family has lived um previously we lived just outside of Brooklyn, a mere 20 ft from the Brooklyn line when we first moved to
Boston. And our lives, our social lives, everything we did was in Brooklyn. When we moved away briefly and had the opportunity to come back, there was no question that we would return as Brookline residents. I had the distinct
pleasure to work for the public schools of Brooklyn in the enrollment office and the grants office for two and a half years. Um, so I got to know this town very well as a participant in Brooklyn
Arts Commission activities, festivals, um, by speaking to families at all levels. Um, and just by, you know, by living in Brooklyn and um, seeing the changes after a year away, coming back,
seeing the way art has exploded in public areas, um, it's incredibly encouraging and I would love to bring my knowledge and expertise uh, particularly in theater uh, but also having worked in
live events, um, fine art, museums, to the arts council and continue the wonderful work that's already being done. Great. Thank you. So, um let's see. I had a I did have a
question. Um do you have any ideas? I think in somewhere in your materials you mentioned u uh the schools and arts in the schools. Do you have any particular ideas of how we can use arts in the schools more effectively?
And I sort of um noticing that your wife is an opera singer. Um just to make this question a little harder, how would you incorporate opera into the schools in a way that helps to um sort of give kids
uh various uh skills or knowledge about uh themselves, you know, their emotions, whatever. Right. Uh I think it's a very good question. Um, I've been able to work directly with arts and schools in my last position living in Connecticut. Uh, I was in
charge of the Strapford High School Drama Society. So, I feel that when looking at arts and schools and how we can better utilize that in the town, um, one thing that I've had experience as as a high school student was getting arts,
uh, theater in this case out of the school building and out into the public. um there the easiest way and this is at any level would be uh utilization of Shakespeare that is something that there are no royalties to pay there's no cost
it is entirely public domain u in Brooklyn as has been discussed through the previous round of interviews for the parks commission we have the best asset in the world for live theater which are expansive parks with unique physical
features that mean minimal sets, minimal staging, a little bit of sound. Kids love that opportunity to take something and make it more accessible. Um, so I think you would utilize your school students, have a summer Shakespeare, um,
focus on kids, non-professionals. Um, you could even do a youth program. uh particularly with um summer camps uh would be one of the easiest ways. You can usually put up um the junior version
of a show uh and a bridge Shakespeare within a week. Um it's very easy to get that done. Um during the school year, opera is tricky but not impossible. Um particularly if you stick with the more
the romance languages. American opera is devilishly difficult. So stay away from that. But you gather the meaning, the intention, you have those lessons, you do the dramatury. Um you could definitely introduce uh that kind of
music and opportunities through a scenes show, uh dessert theater, great fundraisers for individual school programs, or a larger scale um public theater option.
Great. Thank you, Paul. Yep. Uh, thank you for for coming this evening. I'm sorry for the lo your loss. Condolences to your family. Um, so I in your application you mentioned neighborhood festivals and concert series and stuff. Could you That's interesting. Could you
speak uh hadn't really thought of associating with the the arts, but could you speak a little bit more about that and what your thoughts are? Oh, absolutely. I think um Brooklyn to me is fascinating because in a such a small geographic area, you have such distinct
neighborhoods, each with their own personality, um to be informal, their own vibe. Um people make a choice to live in their neighborhood. And I feel that I've seen it with what Boston's
done on a large scale with their their neighborhood festivals. Um I the I did the Alustin Main Street with my family uh I believe it was two years ago and it was a lovely place with a primary road was shut down. Local vendors were able
to come out and it it generated much greater foot traffic for uh businesses on the route and then just off the routes. I think it would be easy to replicate this in Brooklyn utilizing um a lot of the facilities and assets that
I've seen for Brooklyn day. do it on a slightly smaller scale. Um, every neighborhood has at least one road, square, or park where you could set up a mobile stage with sound equipment. Um, invite local bands to be
able to perform. Um, reach into the high schools, get dance teams, uh, brass bands. You could get, uh, kids that play their own instruments to come out and provide, uh, entertainment. You could offer uh depending on the area a certain
number of local artists their booths to either demonstrate products or activities. Um, you could offer uh performances on those same stages and you do it. You find the central location for each given
neighborhood like you know you could find areas in South Brooklyn, Brooklyn Village, Kulage Corner, Washington Square. Those are the first ones that come to mind. Um, increase the bonding with neighbors, get you that familiarity, especially considering
Brooklyn is such a transient community. we have so many people, so many families coming in and out every year throughout the year. Uh it's an easy way to start making those bonds um and make it more welcoming. And all of the those things
are arts or arts related. Um and it's a great way to let people kind of get that opportunity to build uh professional connections and hopefully uh financially flourish. Thank you. Right.
Okay, I'll ask. Uh, Mike, you have a question? Uh, yes. Um, I just wanted to know if you um have been to any meeting of the bookline arts commission recently and if you had any uh observations or
things that you learned or um has has been asked, things that you would particularly seek to improve. Uh, I have not had the pleasure of attending one of the meetings. Um, we've been back in Brooklyn, well, technically living in Brooklyn for the first time for only the
last couple of months. Um, so I I do not have uh I cannot speak to that unfortunately. And so at uh last week's meeting, we appointed a new poet laurate um which is one of the functions of the arts commission. Um do you have any thoughts
on um ideas for the poet laurate in the areas you mentioned in your application? I may I may add that um the town the state's new poet laurate is Reggie Gibson who has a long and deep
connection to Brooklyn. Um but anyway well I I think that I mean I I do love the fact that Brooklyn has that we have our own poet laurate. Um, I think one area of performance art that is terribly underutilized is the art of uh the per
performance of poetry. Um, doing poetry readings. Um, I think that with the number of public spaces we have, you could easily utilize town spaces to do effectively a townsponsored open mic night. um especially if we could utilize
the poet laurate there as an MC, somebody to be able to have that opportunity and access to discuss uh the art form of poetry or performative reading. Um I think that's that's the first thing that comes to mind of how to
best utilize um that. And then even if we wanted to better integrate the schools um poetic writing the competitions, displays uh or short story uh competitions either displaying them
through public newsletter or uh offering a chance for students to read their work themselves. Uh utilizing public auditorium like the Brooklyn High School could make it a a lovely town event.
Great. Thank you. Any other questions? If not, um thank you for your application to the uh Brooklyn Commission for the Arts and um as I say with respect to all the applications, uh the select board will
at a future meeting uh make appointments to this uh to this body. Thank you. Thank you all for your time. Okay. Next, Mission Mission Massachusetts, Inc.
Um, is Jonathan Simpson on uh either in person or on Zoom? Jonathan is online and he has been promoted so he can uh show his video and unmute when he's ready. Um, and I'm not
sure, but we think that uh Chris Whimmer on Zoom is uh with Mission, and I've promoted Chris in case he'd like to chime in as well. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. So, originally we were going to take up
a uh ruling by Judge Kretzley uh who was a um an independent um investigator that we hired to look at some of the issues associated with u mission and uh their ceasing business and whether that uh
involved or entailed also uh the um surrender of their license. Um since that time however uh we hear that uh you have speaking to Chris Warmer um have filed uh or filed a motion for the
appointment of a receiver which was appointed uh which sort of changes uh the nature of our uh deliberations here. And what I'd like to do is to have uh um Jonathan Simpson uh first of all
ask you a few questions to sort of give us a sense of you know where we are uh with respect to mission uh given the appointment of a receiver uh and then the lightboard will you know discuss this in terms of where we go next but uh
so Jonathan could you sort of help us out here? Sure thing. Thank you, uh, Bernard. Uh, for the record, I'm Jonathan Simpson, first assistant town council. Um, Mr. remember uh
back in January um we received a letter from your council uh missions council at the time um and stating that that there was um uh stating that there there was a a
transfer to an established operator um was imminent that you'd have reached an agreement in principle with that party. Um what is the status of that transfer? That transfer now is likely not viable because of the receiverhip and and just
the passage of time that was potency was the name of the potential purchaser. And and first just let me say to the select board, thank you so much for the time this evening and for the time on prior evenings. I've been at the prior meetings and I've appreciated the
consideration you've given us at each turn. Thank you. Okay. Um, so, so, uh, Mr. is the, uh, is there, are you, I apologize. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I think I might have missed the beginning of the, of the agenda
item, but the, uh, are, are you able to, to speak for the receiver in this matter or um are is there another possibly another representative of them here at the meeting? No, I'm sorry. We don't have a representative of the receiver here. I I can speak with uh authority
for the company and the receiver is listening to what the company thinks should happen with a lot of these matters. So I think I can be an effective tunnel although I can't speak authoritatively for them tonight. And I apologize again I I I um I was having
trouble at the beginning of the of this agenda item. You are when you say you can speak for the company are you referencing uh Forefront or Mission? So Forefront is the parent company of Mission MA and so I can speak on behalf of both. I'm in-house counsel to both.
Excuse me one second. I'm sorry Mr. Whmer. Um so uh so Mr. are is it possible then um as you mentioned if uh I don't I'm not sure if you're aware of what's what's in
the uh the receiverhip order where have you reviewed that document? Yes. Okay. Um so Mr. Member the um the as you know that the town um operates with its marijuana establishments based not only on the
parameters of the bylaws but also through a host community agreement. Um, in your experience, does uh is that host agree host community agree image does that survive the receiverhip? I guess I haven't looked at that issue specifically um a lot we we've been uh
triaging a lot of issues. So I can certainly look at that and get back to you by tomorrow. Okay. I I think in to sort of go go above and beyond that, Mr. member. Um there there is a uh a paragraph in the uh receiverhip order
that states that agreements are the receiver is not bound by agreements. While it is of course bound by statutes and regulations, it's not bound by agreements uh unless it um it affirms in writing that it is. Um, so to the extent you are following up as soon as
tomorrow, which we would appreciate, we would appreciate that affirmation in writing from the receiver that you will continue to be bound by the host community agreement. Um, as you know, it is a not just a an agreement in this case, it's actually a regulatory requirement and we just want to make
things unambiguous to to to mission and to the receiver that that host community agreement does still need to stay in place. Yeah, I absolutely understand that. I believe the receiver does too. They see this. This is our local license, right? It's our local authorization to operate. Without it, we
cannot operate, but I will speak to them. I do have a meeting with them set for tomorrow. And I'll make sure that they understand you'd like to see in writing an affirmation of that agreement. Great. Um, so we received a letter from uh James McMullen last Friday and that letter stated that um
Mission was going to continue operations through the receiverhip. What does that mean to you or what does that mean for mission to continue operations? So mission MA Inc. also has a location in Worcester. This is what you received was a form letter sent to all our host
communities uh stating the the exact same thing. We continue to continue operating as normal. Obviously we do not have a currently active location in Brooklyn. That is the entire topic of our ongoing discussion which again I appreciate the board engaging in. So we certainly
didn't mean to suggest that anything other than what are the current facts. Okay. Okay. So as as you may know um we the town believes that there is an issue with claiming you are continuing operations but not having a working
storefront in Brooklyn. Understood. Uh so we we would um then appreciate and any idea you can give us at this time or if you want to follow up. Do you have any idea of the timeline when uh that the receiver is going to be working
under to uh get this license in a in a way into a into the hands of someone who would be able to continue to reopen the business? So, the receiver, as you saw from the order, has 45 days to prepare an initial report. That's the initial period during
which they assess the business both in Massachusetts and Illinois and to the extent we've got contracts in Washington. And then, u you know, put together a report. they have been working busily uh on incoming inquiries that you know we have inquiries
interested in the sale of all our Massachusetts operations as a whole or perhaps just our Massachusetts retail and so they are you know discussing with these potential purchasers and then there will be a sale process I don't control and so don't know how quickly
that sale process will happen but it's on the order of months you know it's on the order of uh three to six months I think is the goal to have it complete and so I would expect the sale process to start within a couple of months here but I can get you a firmer idea after meeting with the receiver tomorrow.
Okay, that would be that would be much appreciated. But to your understanding the ultimate the the receivers's role in this is to sort of liquidate the assets including the license that would mean a trans sale effectively or transfer of the license to someone else. subject to
regulatory approval at all levels. Right? We we understand well we need each town's approval. We need the CCC's approval for any sort of transfer or change of location. But the receivers's role, and I'm sorry for the the siren if you're hearing that, the receivers's role is to get the businesses in order
for sale. The intent is to sell them as going concerns as operated because we do have good strong operations. We just had too much debt at the corporate level. And again acknowledging that we are not currently operating in Brooklyn. So I want to speak to that the Brooklyn
situation as I understand it. You probably know more than I do. Um the the my understanding from speaking to your representatives in the past was not that it was a debt issue at the corporate level. It was a issue with your landlord at that particular location. What is
what is the status of your agreement there? Have you received any breaks on the rent? They are they they had they had sent us a letter as well at one point stating their belief that the mission should be allowed to transfer that license, but I believe they were referring to that previous agreement in
principle that you said is not viable anymore. Right. So, the issues we had with our Brooklyn location is a flavor of what happened nationwide. Uh, I don't know how well you know the cannabis industry, but landlords charge extremely high rents for buildings uh when they see
cannabis because they falsely assume that cannabis businesses are making a ton of money, which they are not. Um, so that was an underlying problem there. That and the opening of the other dispensary directly next door to us and them selling at very low prices absolutely killed that location. It went
from being a very profitable location turning about $200,000 a month net to a money loser. uh over the course of a year or so as a result of that. Now, that coupled with the debt at the corporate level, which sits on all of our subsidiaries because if you're going to borrow, you've got to borrow on
behalf of your whole enterprise. Those are the combined things that cause the problem. With respect to the landlord, uh they have served notice of termination of that lease. They have not been able to find a new tenant. uh we've been in communication with them not
about anything specific because there isn't anything specific going on but just staying in touch. We do have a good relationship with them and I do believe that they would be interested in seeing another dispensary open uh either a mission dispensary under a different owner or or perhaps uh a new license
entirely and again understanding that it all has to be subject to town approval. Certainly. So are you you aware that the um in Brooklyn we uh you mentioned the town approval a part of the town approval is a special permit that is that runs with the land at that site. So
um we we are sort of you can you would understand our our concern here is that if the landlord has served you a notice to terminate hopefully they'd be interested in having another marijuana retailer on site but if they're not there is a significant barrier to entry to anyone who's attempting to obtain
that license. I just want I you know I don't I I'm not like you said like I'm not part of the cannabis industry. I'm aware of how we do it in Brooklyn. Um my concern there is that to the extent the receiver is hoping to uh sell these as a going concern that that may hold up
a sale. Is are you does the receiver know about that special permit situation here in Brooklyn? So the receiver has handled other Massachusetts cannabis receiverhips is extremely experienced as an operator. So, while I haven't discussed them with this with them specifically, I'm sure they're familiar
with the local zoning and permitting requirements that frequently occur. And I I mean, to be uh to be blunt, I don't know that anybody thinks this is a high value proposition, whatever it is we have because of the situation with the town and the questions around our
license and whether we even have a license anymore. I think everyone's very aware that it would require the active cooperation of the landlord, the town, the future purchaser to work through the what is a clearly very complicated situation. Right. Um you mentioned that
they have expertise. They they this receiver has actually done uh cannabis uh businesses has been a receiver for those in the past. Yes, a number of them. And in fact, the way they started initially was as a consulting group to
help cannabis businesses operate and then as you know the industry matured, it largely became about helping them work through receiverhips on the other side. Okay. Interesting. Okay. So, um my my last question, Mr. Whmer, is we've uh
we've been in contact with the the CCC uh intermittently throughout this process. Um and our latest communication with them uh we had inquired about uh the mission license that they hold for this the Commonwealth Avenue location
and we were told that uh Mission was still had asked for an extension in order to obtain a host community agreement. uh are you I don't know if you helped prepare that application at all or anything but um if you could help us understand what what the company meant by trying to obtain a host
community agreement that would be with Worcester again Mission MA holds two licenses one for Brook Brooklyn at the state level and also that same uh entity holds a license in Worcester and so I expect it had to do with getting the application for Worcester the HCA in
place for Worcester. I don't think it had anything to do with the Brooklyn license. But we we referenced it. You could be right. Um uh but we referenced it by license number. Isn't the license? So I believe there's one license I I and
I'm sorry if incorrect here, but I I was in the impression that one license number encompass both locations. If that's not correct, um I'll I will just have to go back check with my compliance department. Um I didn't I didn't handle that application directly. So if you could check with the compliance
department, you our concern here is that as you know we're in a complicated kind of un uncharted territory with respect to the mission license, but we certainly don't want to give anyone the impression that the proper step for mission is to now seek a new post community agreement
with the town. We think that would be problematic on a number of levels. So to the extent you're representing to the CCC that that's what you're doing, we are not enter we are not in the market of entering into a new host agreement host community agreement with mission at
this time. No, that's understood. I I don't think that was I certain that was not the intent behind the compliance department. Again, the with the HCA extensions, it was likely a form letter that was done for each of the entities because we have not only Mission MA, we
have Healthy Farms, Inc., which sits in Georgetown, we have uh New England Cannabis Corp, which sits in uh Hollist. So, I if that was the if it was written that way, it was likely as a result of a form letter. But again, I'm happy to go clarify that. Okay. Thank you, Mr.
Bernard. I don't have any other questions right right now. Okay. Any uh discussion from the select board on on this issue? Uh Michael, you have your hand up. I I do have a question, Bernard. Okay. Uh Paul, thanks. So, I just wanted to be
clear about um what I heard about the operations in Brooklyn. So, Mission does not have an ongoing operation in Brooklyn. Correct. No, we we don't have a store. We sure would like to reopen the the store we
have either under a mission or someone else, but no, we do not have a store operating. Okay. But you do have you still have control of the site. You have a lease. We our lease has been terminated according to the landlord. Uh again,
they've expressed interest in us reopening there if we're able to get things sorted out or having another dispensary open there. But you don't have a you don't have a lease. No, sir. No. Okay. Okay. Thank you, John. John,
thanks. Um, I have to say I think, you know, uh, speaking for myself, uh, I I find this very, very difficult to sort out. I I'm going to guess that maybe some of the other members of select board find it very difficult to sort out. Uh I just want to return to what I
think is the fundamental issue here and that is that um we had certain conditions that uh were written into our agreements not with just with this um particular um cannabis retailer but with
um all of the operators in town. And uh you know among those understandings was an understanding as to what might trigger um the um return of a license to the town. Um it's an important issue because
uh we we've we've not fully satisfied, you know, a uh goal of all of this that there be some equity in terms of licensing operations that are not just m
owned by sort of majority um major majority non majority white ownership. Um, sorry to use that very uh, you know, bold sort of phrase, but um, you know, we want this to be open to all. We want
there to be equity in who gets licensed in Brooklyn. And so the return of a license is is a potential opportunity. That's all I'm going to say about it. It's a potential opportunity. We need to know if we are in a position right now
to uh require um or at least to um uh in fact um uh assume that the license is subject to return to the town. And the only person I can count on to give us
good advice on that right now um because I don't consider it to be a judgment call on my part um is our town council and Jonathan Simpson is working really hard on this and knows the details of this better than I do. And so, John, um,
you know, I'm just going to wait until you're ready to give us clear advice as to what our rights are in this situation and how we should exercise them. Michael, Michael has a question. Um to be really specific to follow up um what
John is asking um I guess the question for our council is whether or not the town believes that given given what um Mr. Whimmer has said um and the information you've now received as to
whether or not uh mission is in violation of either the the host community agreement or in violation of their license given that they do not have an ongoing concern at the uh
aforementioned address. Uh, I think um that there is no question, especially given what we've just learned, that they do not even that their lease has now been terminated. I do believe I I do not believe that there is any interpretation
um of the relevant statute or post community agreement that could be interpreted to say that they are still in operation and therefore I believe they are in violation of both. Uh so that and um but that only gets us so far
because the question then be one thing we have not yet had to do is determine what the appropriate remedy is uh in that situation. Um here I think we have a situation where it is uh
there is at least a chance according to Mr. Whmer that that there may be a mission branded or new mission entity at when this is all said and done that wants to try to reopen at that location. Um because of because that is there there is a
possibility of that. I think that the board should at least consider that there may the upside of allowing um additional time to to to allowing a remedy short of revocation. Um because
uh in that situation it may behoove the town um to uh to allow what is effectively a a incompany transfer with a lot of unfortunate middle steps uh which is something that we have allowed in the past. A remedy in that case could be of any number of things. It could be
a brief suspension once they reopen. It could be a suspension that they've effectively served. Um I think it is but again that is I think at this point I I have not heard anything that would disabuse me of the notion that they have uh the violation
is clear. It's just a question of remedy. May I just cover? I don't think we I don't think we would disagree. Um we're not operating or we lost our lease. I I you know I don't think I would fight you on any part of that. And uh we're very much in favor of the social equity
licensing. You may remember uh we had a potential purchaser who was a social equity ly. The only landlord in town they said who would consider renting to them was the place we're sitting and they were not able to reach terms with that landlord. And that we we we
searched deep and wide to find purchasers including social equity purchasers. So, I do think the smoothest thing would be to give our receiver a little time to see if there's a way to to transfer this as a going concern. Um, because I don't think there are a large
pool of people waiting for this license, even unfortunately, social equity applicants, but we absolutely defer to the town's judgment on all this. And again, I I appreciate your patience with this. Oh, that's one.
Are you talking that could be a potential um license holder? We ran out of we ran out. We we canvased everybody we could imagine and including using brokers and and we've run out. So, we do not have any other active um
individual licences. Although again, we have received inbound inquiries about purchasing all of our Massachusetts operations either as a whole or as just retail as part of the re Yeah. Thank Thank you, Bernard. And I I
I appreciate the the challenging situation that you find yourself in and how you're trying to manage and navigate through it. Um and I just want to make sure I understand the facts. Originally, um, we thought you thought you had a social equity applicant and they
couldn't come to terms with the landlord that then was a backup, uh, potential candidate. Um, and it sounds like that one has now fallen through. Um, and so, and you're saying there's nobody in the pipeline at this point. Are you are you
would you agree to return the license to the town of Brooklyn at this point? So, I can't do anything now without receiver approval. I will absolutely ask them tomorrow if if they would just like to return the license. Uh I can just I I'm not going to speak for the board, but I I can speak for myself and it gets a
little bit to what what John was saying. I mean, there's been a long Someone's speaking over me on the Zoom. I think it's Brad coughing, I think. Oh, it's it wasn't someone was talking. Um that you know, we've we appreciate you working with us. I think you've appreciated us working with
you. It's been 10 months or so. Um, we've tried a number of different avenues. We've, you know, had a third party come in at to help adjudicate this thing. Um, I for myself at this point would be, you know, would be greatly appreciative to see the license come
back to the town. Um, so that we could go to the next steps with what, you know, we need to do. Uh, but the reason of what what we want to do, it shouldn't be the reason for you to returning it. Um, it should be that, you know, we've run this road pretty far. Um, and I it it just seems to me, in my opinion, it's
time, you know, for that that license to be returned. You don't have a lease. You're not operating. Um, you yourself are saying there's really not value there. Um, at this point, you can't find anybody. Um, I, for one, would appreciate it being returned at this point. Yep. Well, and totally reasonable. And
I'll take that to the receiver tomorrow, right? And and get his view back to us, right? Absolutely. Michael has a question. Yes, Michael. Um I I realize that our next meeting is on July 15th and I don't know whether the select
board wants to continue operating on this. Uh but uh it given that that we're act fundamentally entering a negotiation now with the receiver and not with mission. Is there anything that we can
do such as authorizing our council to negotiate on our behalf or some other task that can more rapidly cycle engagement with the receiver with the goal of getting the license back more
quickly or is that is that worth our time? And I'm just throw throwing that out to the rest of the select board for or the council for their consideration. Um, I I I think it I I do not think it would be appropriate for me to take to
receive all of your authority with respect to this matter, but I do appreciate what Michael is saying. I think I I would I would be the one talking to the receiver most likely anyway. Um, and I'm happy to try to try to work something out on the town's behalf. So, to the extent you want to
delegate me authority to do to negotiate on your behalf, that's that's that's a good thing. Um, but at the, you know, I would ultimately need to bring it back to you all. Uh, I think regardless of what, whether it was to accept the license back, as Paul was just saying, whether it was to impose some other type
of remedy, um, or whether it was to simply allow them ultimately allow the the transfer to the new entity. Yeah. All we're asking is that you use your expertise and knowledge to Sure. Ident identify you what our options are uh given the current situation with receiverhip and you know we will make
the decision. Yeah. And I think that um and I think that this what we've heard today um I don't I would not counsel you to make any decision right now. This is we have we have different things that the that that we've already heard the receiver needs to speak on to say nothing of. There's
more things developing as we go. Okay. Any other questions from the select board? I I Yeah, I I agree that uh we're not really in a position to uh make any decision
right now. Um but you have a question, John? Ju just a quick one. I I I heard um the phrase um uh you know, all we're asking for is a little time. How much time is a little time?
And I'm sorry. I'm not I'm not talking to John Simpson. I'm talking to the representative of the mission. Thank you. So again, the receiver has 45 days from appointment, which was the
20th. So we're already, you know, a good 15, 10 days into that. So within a month, there'll be a report from the receiver. Um, but I I absolutely can ask that we accelerate their consideration of this piece. Uh, you know, I I will
speak to them tomorrow. I will make an effort to get a response back to you this week and and they very well may just say, "Let's surrender the license and be done." U, but I, you know, it if you needed a hard deadline by the end of next week, but again, I'll really try to get you an answer this week. time.
Believe me, I I while I've appreciated the opportunity to attend the meetings, I would like to be done with this issue as well. Good. Good. By the way, what what is the uh financial condition of your other operations like in Worcester and and the other ones you mentioned?
So, are they facing similar financial problems? I mean, not at the individual facility level. Um although the market in Massachusetts continues to tighten as more retail comes online um and generally we're seeing declining
revenues across the industry at each store location. Uh our wholesale our wholesale division has grown quite strong. Uh and so that piece of our our cultivation is doing well. U out of state Illinois we're doing much better.
It has a lot to do with the limited number of licenses available. Okay, that's interesting information um sort of suggests what the receiver may come back with, but we'll see. Uh any any other questions from the select
board? It's it's not a question, but I would endorse a version of Michael's proposal to authorize town council to speak with the receiver so that we're in a better position at our next meeting to
understand the decisions before us. Do we need to formally say that uh vote that Jonathan, you're muted. I think it couldn't hurt if you want to delegate, you know, as David was saying. Okay, we'll formalize it. Do you have a
question, uh, Paul? Um, no, I guess if someone's going to craft a motion, then I'll probably have a question about the wording of the motion. It's, you know, how much what authority are we delegating to Jonathan? No, it's really not authority. We're
just uh um I wouldn't call it delegating. Would you, Jonathan? I mean, we're saying we're urg we're asking town council to open up discussions with the uh um receiver in order to um identify for us
some options uh for the select board to take. Uh he has no power other than the power to figure out what the options are. Well, I I guess that the thing that you know John had spoken earlier about it it seemed like a desire to see this
license come back to the town. I have a desire to see this license come back to the town for similar reasons that John uh has raised. Um I I'd be curious about to understand the will of the board about this license coming back. This thing's been sitting out there for 10
months now. Drip drip drip with first we get an equity applicant. They fell through. We get another another potential sale. They fell through. Now we're with the receiver. Um you know I I'd like Jonathan to go go talk with the receiver and say we'd like the license back. The board hasn't taken a formal
action, but we'd like to see the license come back to the time. That's delegating him the power to do more than I think you want him to do. I mean, okay. Well, I'm saying I'm just sharing you with you what I would like.
We don't need you don't need to, you know, commit at this time to one way or the other or one one course or the other. Um, you know, Jonathan, you know, is um, I hate to use the word delegate because it's really not delegating
anything, but you we're directing him to talk to the receiver and see what options there are so that we can make a uh, informed decision. Okay. Is that clear enough? Yeah. Michael, I guess I guess the
question the question that we have as a board is whether or not we want to add to that motion for the purposes of facilitating the return of a license back to the town of Brooklyn. Well, facilitating the return I mean I
don't want to be sort of tied into that facilitate the return of the license or other options uh that uh the select board can consider. I I I agree with you, Bernard, because as mentioned by council for mission, the receiver has 45
days since June 20th. We're already a significant way into that period. We don't meet again until July 15th. So, I'm not sure that we have to be directing the outcome at this very moment rather than having a full
exploration of the options with that particular one of having the license returned to us be explicitly articulated as something that we've discussed. But I don't think we want to be making the decision today. Yeah. Okay. Any objection to that approach?
Okay. I move that we uh direct uh town council in the form of in the person of Jonathan Simpson to um uh discuss with the receiver uh for mission and their affiliated uh companies um the options
that we have given the current situation um and to bring those back to the select board for decision. That a good enough uh uh motion? Okay. So, I move approval of that motion. All in favor, please indicate by
saying I. John Vancoyak I. Uh Michael uh Paul Warren I. David Pearlman I. Um Michael Rubenstein. Hi. And chair votes eye. Thank you Chris Whmer and thank you
Jonathan Simpson. Um this is a difficult uh process but you know we'll get through it. Thank you all. I really appreciate your consideration. Have a great evening. Okay. Okay. So we have another uh long well
maybe long discussion uh for item number 10 comprehensive emergency management plan. We took this up last meeting and uh decided we needed some time to sort of digest um you know the uh the basic plan or
base plan um and uh we we're now going to presumably make a decision whether to approve or not. So who's going to make a presentation here? We have Cheryl online. Um, she's been
promoted. And Bernard, I just want to make sure I understand this. Um, just raising my hand here and speaking at the same time. I should raise my hand be called and speak. Sorry. Um, we've had this presentation. Cheryl did a great job. What, a week ago? Two weeks ago was It
was last week. Yep. Last week. Two weeks ago. No. All right. So, we don't really need another presentation at this point. Correct. Uh, I don't think so. I mean, I'm not sure if anyone has any questions. Um, I have a few comments I'd like to make.
Cheryl, do you have anything quick to say? Hi, Cheryl Snyder, deputy director of emergency management. Uh, we are asking again that the select board uh approve this comprehensive emergency management
base plan. Uh, it's the foundational document for how the town of Brooklyn will manage largecale emergencies. It addresses the roles and responsibilities of all Brookline departments, agencies, government operations, organizations,
volunteers, and community partners that may be involved in emergency response operations, and identifies how regional, state, federal, private sector, and other resources may be activated to address disasters and emergencies in the community.
Thank you. that that is short and sweet. Um I guess my my what I want to make sure that Blackboard is focused on and doesn't require uh any further discussion. I mean yeah it doesn't require any further discussion. We can
discuss it all you want. Um but uh to focus on understanding our role in the event of an emergency. I mean, I've went have gone through an emergency, you know, tornado, um, which destroyed an entity, almost destroyed an entity that
I was on the board of. And one thing that I remember about that is that when the emergency happens, it's total chaos and confusion unless people really have developed almost muscle memory regarding what they're
expected to do. Um so I just urge people to read through this from the standpoint you know what is our role you know what happened to us you know what things do we uh should do we have the ability to do and what things should we do um and in that
regard you know there there three pages or no a bunch of pages that I'd like to just mention page 32 emergency management leadership uh 36 uh t line of succession
39 Brookline government organizations which is not really big deal and then uh something that is not gone into in great detail with respect to the select board is pages 74 to 75 regarding training and exercises
and the other thing that we we should get a copy of it's it's online I think it's actually linked in the document here is uh our policy regarding delegation of authority to issue declaration ations of emergency because you know the select board is is um the
only body that can declare an emergency and what we did when was it um it was pretty recent was to delegate that uh authority to the town administrator and the emergency management director. So I mean we don't have to discuss that but I
just urge people to get those documents read them and understand them. Any u discussion, any questions for Cheryl? Uh I just have one question.
Um there there's there's a lot of references and I'm sure a lot of important information in the annexes that will come following this. Um, and I'm just wondering if there is is a schedule or an inventory of those annexes
um so that we know sort of when all those pieces are coming as well. Sure. Uh we um put a schedule of the annexes both functional and hazard related in the uh emergency management strategic
plan that was approved last uh December I believe. And so that strategic plan is available online uh in the OEM uh section of the town website and uh we
are currently working on several annexes in draft form. uh one is damage damage assessment and the other is emergency communication public communications which we're working very
closely with uh Christina Metaf the uh communications officer thank you good good question Michael um any other discussion Paul you have your hand up yeah I have yep one quick question uh thank you so that are
referenced in uh in the document Um how regularly are exercises conducted? So kind of a dry run, right? Um yes, there are many levels of exercises uh starting with tabletops which are just sitting around
talking through an issue through um several different kinds of uh smaller functional exercises and then a large multi- uh departmental uh functional exercise. At the moment we are working
on uh minimal exercises. Uh we only have so many staff members and uh we're developing new plans while we're trying to exercise older plans. So this year we are planning on doing a tabletop in the
next couple of weeks uh regarding uh hazardous materials specifically lithium ion batteries and how we will manage issues uh with those across departments in town. And uh later this year we'll be planning a tabletop
exercise to uh discuss mass care uh plans including sheltering um and family reunification similar items. Have we ever done a cross departmental full-fledged exercise?
The Office of Emergency Management has not uh done conducted a full-fledged uh cross-dep departmental exercise at this time. Uh recently, I believe last winter, the police and fire departments
uh did some uh functional exercises at Baker School uh regarding uh active shooter response. Um but that participation was limited to um the public safety uh departments and the
schools. Yeah. I just my my you know my view on this is until you actually conduct an exercise it's all paper. Um and you know we tonight we heard from our director of communications,
social media, etc. Um you know we I would just encourage that we start working on the planning for a full exercise cross make it a tornado whatever it is that's going to test and test everybody from the select board
town administrator uh through all the departments uh you know we social media how we're going to communicate how we're going to reach out to the press etc. Um otherwise this is just you know it's paper. Um understood and and emergency
management really has changed a great deal over the last decade or so. Um our previous comprehensive emergency management plan was multiple uh binders worth 4 inch binders of of paper that
nobody really read or or uh understood. Uh the great part of how we're creating our emergency management plans at this time is that we are making them as brief and succinct as possible. Everything
that is the framework is in this base plan and that allows the annexes and other other uh documents such as uh standard operational procedures to be uh very small. uh additional plans that are
being worked on right now. The annexes uh are coming in somewhere between 12 and 15 pages each. They are meant to be pulled off a shelf when needed and quickly uh understood and give the institutional knowledge and background
that um someone would need to be able to manage that part of an emergency specifically. Um, and uh, one of the things that I would caution against is trying to plan a an exercise
when people don't know what the plan is. So although emergency management is a constant cycle of planning, response, recovery, mitigation, planning, response, recovering, and mitigation, and obviously training throughout all of
those. Uh what we don't want to do is try and hold an exercise where nobody understands what the plan is. We want people to have the plan in front of them. Then we exercise that plan. Then we do a hot wash or an afteraction
report to understand what did and didn't work. And then we do additional uh training and changes to the plan. Okay. So you just heard my my only feedback was it'd be great to plan a more broad exercise.
That's my feedback. I would very much like to myself. Thank you. Or you know my my feedback is how about a a narrow plan? Meaning you know it's unlikely that we're going to have a tsunami in in Brooklyn or a tornado or earthquake I
think. Right. But uh an active shooter situation unfortunately is you know a possibility. Um it's a significant event. Yes, it's a very significant event. Um we don't need to, you know, do a big tabletop exercise, but you know, maybe, you know, the select board needs
to know you what what they should do and what they should not do. um you know, we shouldn't run out to the scene in order to um I don't know, talk to people and uh or maybe we should, but you know, things like that, you know, so that uh
we have a checklist of of things that sort of guide us when when when a situation occurs because it's going to be chaos in in so many ways. Understood. And one of the things that we will be doing in those annexes is
providing checklists for people to follow. Um, uh, the extreme heat emergency, uh, SOP that was recently, um, uh, used for the extreme heat emergency
earlier this week is one example of that. We used the standard operating procedure which has just been finalized. uh had the emergency, several things happened, not least of which that the senior center lost air conditioning
during the heat emergency. So then we have to go, okay, so in this case, we have to be ready to transport people from a cooling center that may lose power or air conditioning to another cooling center. And so we now have a
plan for how to deal with that. So, it's a combination of both exercising and real world events that will go into the constant updating of these plans. Great. Any uh further questions? Oh, David, is
that your answer? I have a question. So, throughout this uh plan, there are references to procedures and I'm hearing uh the term checklists. Where will these procedures and checklists be kept? How is that decided? I mean, some of it would be
self-explanatory depending on the nature of the emergency, but overall, how does one access the more specific step-by-step process for addressing a calamity that could occur? Uh, and also,
how does one navigate through jurisdictional questions? And what I mean by jurisdiction is not just federal, state, local uh but also between departments and between public and private. So to provide a concrete example uh near me maybe a few months
ago, some trees caught fire from a power line and there was some initial confusion about what could town officials touch, what did Eversource need to address, and I'm sure it was all eventually sorted out. But those types
of questions I can see cropping up and I just provided a real life example of one. So who would be in possession of that type of information? How would it be disseminated? So that's actually uh an example of the kind of institutional knowledge that we
are attempting to capture in the uh plan annexes that are being developed. Uh we are looking at the processes, looking at lessons learned from other communities, uh looking at lessons learned uh at the
federal level and trying to understand how we will manage specific uh activities in the midst of an emergency. And so obviously we can't make this all uh appear out of thin air.
Unfortunately, it takes a time to develop these plans, uh, socialize them throughout the town via the emergency management team meetings and conversations and to make sure that everybody is in agreement on who is
responsible for each type of activity, whether it's uh, communicating with private entities like Eversource or communicating across town boundaries with Boston or Newton uh for uh
situations that might uh occur cross boundary or even uh communicating with MIMA andor FEMA. Great. Thank you. Any further questions? Uh seeing none, David, no one's raising
their hands. Okay. So, uh, I will move approval of the, uh, town's comprehensive emergency management plan, which is a base plan. Um, uh, all in favor, please indicate by
saying I. John Vancoyak, I, Paul Warren, I, David Pearlman, I, Michael Rubenstein, I, and chair both. Thank you, Cheryl. Thank you very much.
Uh, next, boards and commissions reappoints. By the way, I have to say that this meeting went along a lot smoother than I thought it would with me being uh remote here. Um, except my coffee. I apologize. But,
but any rate, um, okay, question of appointing Kenneth Lewis to the economic development advisory board. Um any uh questions or comments regarding this appointment? Is that your hand raised, Michael? No.
Oh, okay. Sorry. Um why don't we do these together? Um because I don't think there'll be any questions regarding any of them, but you know, we ask question of reappointing Leroy and actually uh Kenneth Lewis was a reappoint.
Uh, next is reappointing Leroy Watkins as a member of the Small Business Development Committee. Any questions or comments regarding this appointment or reappointment? And finally, question of reappointing Pamela Harvey as a member of the
conservation commission. Any questions regarding her? Okay. Okay. And I move approval of uh the reappointments of of various people to various boards. Kenneth Lewis, the economic development advisory boards,
Leroy Watkins, uh Small Business Development Committee, and Pamela Harvey, uh Conservation Commission. All in favor, please indicate by saying I. John Vancoyak, I uh Paul Warren, I.
David Pearlman, I. Michael Rubenstein. Hi. That wasn't me messing up your name. It was me coughing. Okay. And chair votes eye. Um Okay. Finally, the final item on our agenda, unless
there's someone in the audience who would like to give a public comment at our at the end of this meeting is the fall town meeting dates. Melissa, I assume that you're going to enlighten us on on this matter. Yeah.
Yes. Uh you should have in your packet a draft schedule for the upcoming town meeting uh in November. So we are looking for an opening of the warrant date of August 7th which is a Thursday and then a closing on September 4th
which is also a Thursday um at noon. And so given those opening and closing dates 75 days from that would bring us to a town meeting date of November 18th. And so the schedule would go um the 18th, 19th, and 20th. We if we needed
additional dates, we would skip over the week of Thanksgiving and then we would look to uh reconvene on the December 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Um these dates have been uh run by both the moderator and the uh town clerk to make sure that they're available to cover it. Um and
you know, we'll put out the notices once the board sets the dates. Okay. Um, Michael has a I just have one quick question. It It's typical that there are six dates. So, I had five and Neil suggested I add a six. So, okay. I don't
know what he sees coming at us, but just in case. Just in case. Okay. Uh, any further questions about the town meeting schedule? Time move approval of uh schedule for the town meeting um fall
2025. All in favor please indicate by saying I. John Vancoyak I. David uh Paul Warren I. David Pearlman I. Michael Rubenstein I and chair votes I. And that
is the end of our agenda. Um let me just say that um I want to let people know in the audience as well as on the select board although I I assume people know this that uh we will not be meeting next Thursday or next Tuesday July 8th our
next meeting is July uh 15. Um, so unless any public comment that has been waiting for the end of this meeting is there, uh, Charlie, it looks like Regina would like to
speak. Okay, you'll have three minutes. We don't need three minutes, but thank you. Regina Frolley from South Brooklyn. um as you do policies that have to do with communication with your constituents, which is the entire town. I know it's hard for you to believe, but
there are people right in my neighborhood who do not have access to the internet. So, as you do this, maybe there's another way to add that component. I don't have a magic wand, but factor it in as something you have
to deal with and find a way to do it because they really do want to know what's going on, but they don't for any number of reasons do not have computers. So, I just want to call that to your attention. And when it comes to anything to do with transportation, please
remember there's no drivers committee in town. There's pedestrians, there's bicycles, there's all kinds of other committees, but nothing for the drivers. So, they are um it's become very prominent lately that they don't really factor into most discussion because
they're not notified or involved in a organized kind of way. Thank you. An interesting comment. Thank you, Regina. Uh there are 13 folks online. If anyone would like to speak, they can raise their hand now.
Uh we have 13 participants Bernard and no one is indicating their desire to speak. Okay. Uh with that I will end the meeting. Thank you everyone. Have a nice evening. Thanks. All right.