##VIDEO ID:jQjpXoMekKI## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good evening I'm Bernard Green chair of the Brookline select board and this is the regular meeting of the select board for January 28th 2025 uh first item on the agenda is going into executive session um I move that the select board go into executive session for the purpose of approving executive session session minutes and discussing strategy related to a litigation matter Jeffrey Miner versus the town of Brookline which must be be discussed in executive session because an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigation position of the town and the chair meaning me so declares an executive session therefore to be necessary all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak hi Michael Sandman I Paul Warren hi and chair votes I um that's it we'll reconvene an open session after our executive session [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] in [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is the regular meeting of the select board for January 28th 2025 let's start off with any um announcements from select board members John just a few recognitions I'll try to go through them quickly um uh I think people sometimes lose sight of the fact that that the the real work of the Town often happens you know out of view and not at these select board meetings and we have a few people this week who in typical fashion um were were asked for some help with some information and responded quickly and responded thoroughly I'll mention um them quickly uh Amy Engles in the transportation department um was asked some questions about an unfortunate couple of incidents of people sliding cars sliding out of control um at the Davis and Cyprus um intersection with damage to you know some property and so on um and I saw that you know in in very thorough fashion she addressed um all of the concerns about those two incidents the possible cause what the appropriate response for the T from the town should be Etc how we can improve safety of that intersection um our head of uh DPW Aaron shu um stepped in when there was a constituent um actually who had called me initially and wanted a lot of answers to a lot of questions about the uh changes in the sanitation pickup the trash and and recycling removals um and implications in terms of the use of the transfer station implications in terms of the rates um implications in terms of how much if any of the service is paid for off the tax rate um did this constituent get a thorough answer from Aaron CH and that's great uh Seagal ree provided a lot of information about the um current uh state of our efforts to um keep keep under control the the rat population in the town um and then there's one person who isn't actually um an official of the town or or an employee of the town but has done great service to the town and there was a nice little ceremony for her um this morning uh ABA Taylor who has been the executive director of the community Brooklyn Community Foundation uh for several years now and is moving to a very good position um as the executive director of what's called now the YW um people may remember it as the YWCA but this is the Boston YW so there was a nice sendoff for Abba this morning but she's been a very important part of Brook Line's adoption of um uh more and more um um widespread sort of funding sources for Community Services but also partnership with between town hall and the Brooklyn Community Foundation in um expanding the availability of U community services so those are the four four people I wanted to mention very very deserving of it I think thank you John these are uh things that people do that don't make the headlines in the news are the globe of course so it's it's important to give recognition when we can any other comments from the select board no couple not Chaz yeah um thanks um I just wanted to um note to the uh Community we are obviously aware of the issues regarding uh executive orders issued around Federal funding um as of late this afternoon uh that executive order was placed on an administrative Hole by a federal judge in Washington um however the issue is continuing um I want to just reassure everyone who has asked and we appreciate your Outreach and your support um we have been preparing for these eventualities we have a full understanding of the potential impacts to pauses and federal funding and what they will and will not do um we are aware of how best we are aware in our how best to respond to these situations on a case-by Case basis on a department by Department basis but I just did want folks to know um do not anticipate any interruption in Services we do not anticipate any interruption in any of the things that we provide um as uh uh as civil servants uh in response to this um we will be uh continuing to monitor the situation closely and respond as appropriately um we are um grateful that there is a administrative pause placed on this and we will continue to monitor the situation we believe the state will be filing a lawsuit seeking an injunction in New York City probably as early as tomorrow so we will continue monitoring that situation ensuring that no Town operations are impacted by these uh executive orders um the other news I just wanted to pass along um from this afternoon uh sorry to announce uh the passing of retired police officer John McDonald um officer McDonald actually began his career in Brooklyn in 1953 um one of four new offic yes 1953 what did I say 18 185 not that early uh 1953 1953 and he served until 1997 44 years of service then served as a crossing guard um until 2020 until 2013 um so um officer mdon numerous commendations both as an officer and a Crossing guard um just an excellent credit to the force and to the community as a whole so uh we want to extend our condolences to his family uh and as uh details of services become available we'll share those with the community so thank you thank you unless there are any other comments I we'll go to public comment Tiffany lay out the rules yes thank you for joining us for public comment this is an opportunity for us to hear your perspective on the issues in Brook line 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 to a question but are more likely to work with staff to get a more thorough answer and respond over email we'll let you know when you have 30 seconds remaining and when your time is up please conclude your remarks at that time if you have more to say you 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 and either their Brookline precinct number or street address the board encourages but does not require that remote users turn their video on when commenting the first Speaker we had signed up to speak tonight is Barbara Brown who's in the room I'm bar Brown I live at 44 Waverly Street Street quite proudly because it's in been in my husband's family since 1923 that that's how long the family members have been living in this house um I come here because I'm uh founded hidden Brooklyn 19 years ago and um we've just launched a new project um called speaking from the Heart A diversity of stories one of the things that I've learned in uh leading walking tours probably about 70 of them over the years is that what really is most important for people is if you can grab them in the heart grabbing them in the head is one thing but when you've got their heart it sinks in or as Byron rushing once said he said I hear from a lot of white people who tell me you know Byron it's really it's really terrible what happened with slavery and he says and they say it with a head I'm waiting for them to say with a heart and what and so we have a series of five um residents different residents from around Brooklyn um the first one is Janelle Vasquez uh the second one is Eric uh hayatt the third one is Chris um China silicate and the fourth one is Felina silver and the fifth one is Byron Russian himself who's going to round up thing he is clearly not a uh Brookline resident but he's a renowned civil rights lead leader and so it'll be um on Saturdays one Saturday month um starting this Saturday uh February 1st at 2:00 at the library and um it's not to learn about that type of person it's to hear from somebody who has some of that experience so that we can become more connected so we can become more of a community and I think you have a slide to show of what one moment of our [Music] um of our flyer and our flyer has gone out to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people and it got delivered personally to everybody's uh um all the select board members correct or two of them two of them yeah so Janelle Vasquez is the first Speaker they're all good speakers and I look forward to every single one of them the second speaker is Eric and he's going to talk about scenes from a Brookline childhood um and um I encourage you to come have 30 seconds encourage you to invite tell other people about it to come any questions any comments I'll make a quick comment I think we can make Byron rushing an honorary bookline Citizen's I would love to he actually was the speaker at um our first Memorial plaque the plaque that is at the cemetery to honor the enslaved people who are buried there and if you all want a real treat go downstairs and this is how I start my walking tour I started with Mar that concludes your time sorry that concludes the three minutes good thank you very much I don't want to keep anybody else from speaking okay so long uh the next speaker is Arthur Conquest who I believe is in the room as well good evening everyone good evening Arthur Conquest uh 116 taen street town meeting member 36 happy New Year um I had something planned to say in writing I have it in my pocket but I at the last minute decided that I wouldn't because I want to be able to uh present whatever I have here uh in writing to you rather than say it in public so you'll you'll hear from me in the next couple of days okay um and I have my reasons for it um for not mentioning it in public um and uh I just I don't mean to be a kudin all right I'm terribly committed uh to social justice okay and I've come from from the bottom I know and I live in Brooklyn right one of the wealthiest communities and my goal is to share okay with other people that are coming behind me all right so thank you you'll hear from me and uh I look forward to making continued progress in Brooklyn thank you great thank you Mr Conquest the next speaker is Andrew torney toy and if you could just state your name for the record um to make sure I've captured that correctly uh it's uh yeah Andrew Tumi okay and you can pull the mic up so you don't have to lean down sorry can you hear me okay thank you um I'm actually the sanitation inspector for the town of Brook line um currently filling in for the foreman um I just wanted to bring up some points that I understood there was a vote last meeting um we we're under the impression that there was going to be a vote next month so that's why we weren't here to present these but um we'll just try to give some quick counterpoints to what was presented to you guys because I don't think you guys got the full pcture um I understand that they were saying there's a lot of uh disinterest and stuff like that with the motivation going with working on sanitation it's not accurate um I know in Staffing wise um certain things how do I phrase this um were removed like a motivation the early quit and that so that cost people um about five or six people just gave up on the job um so also too is on the highway side of it they were already experiencing some people leaving and whatnot um so to say sanitation just outright sank the whole thing for everyone is not an accurate statement um there are people that are willing to do it um and would get it back up to that full staff level and they're already here but um those vacant spots were presented to them as that so uh when it comes to the age of the fleet uh the oldest truck we have is 11 years old you can probably get another nine years out of that one Packer because it's roughly about 20 years um the youngest one is about four years old so and then the other ones are about six or seven you have 30 seconds um shoot um oh um sorry uh yeah no um all right oh sorry uh I just wanted to raise those concerns I don't think everything was presented to you guys in the whole thing I understand there's other costs and whatnot that go into you factoring that but um and that concludes your time all right thank you thank you thank you okay that concludes the speaker who speakers who signed up in advance of the meeting um if there are uh folks who would like to speak during public comment online please raise your hand using the raise the hand feature if there's anyone else in the room who wishes to comment at this time please make yourself known okay there is one speaker online and that is Don oats Don I'm promoting you now hi I did sign up in advance and got a confirmation thank you apologies um my name's Don oats I live in Precinct one I'm here to strongly advocate for the appointment of Thomas rankies to the planning board I've never met Mr rankies but I've seen his resume and his professional qualifications a master's degree in urban planning legal background and a demonstrated commitment to inclusivity that they make him the ideal candidate to address the pressing challenges in our Town's planning processes during his interview he showcased not only technical expertise but also a clear dedication to equity evidenced by his proactive offer to serve as the planning board Lea on to the disability commission it's concerning that this important commitment went unacknowledged during the interview process this missed opportunity emphasizes why we need leaders like Mr rankies who prioritize accessibility and inclusivity for all members of our community his leadership is particularly necessary in light of the recent irregularities in the permitting process for Robert shon's property former candidate who I understand has stepped down from this role uh from candidacy despite clear directives from preservation staff the property underwent author unauthorized modifications that disregarded preservation Demolition and zoning bylaws even more troubling the original approved plans disappeared from the building jacket replaced by revised plans dated later that reflected the unauthorized changes these actions highlight significant gaps in oversight recordkeeping and enforcement that undermine the public public trust in our Town's governance furthermore I want to address procedural issues with the board at the last two meetings I was interrupted and warned while giving testimony creating an environment that's hostile to open open public participation additionally my written submissions including those explicitly requested for inclusion in the public packet remain missing from the official record this disregard for transparency and public input violates our community's principles of good governance finally the rumors surrounding Miss shon's withdrawal raised serious concerns about potential violations of public meeting laws if deliberations occurred outside of public view or if his withdrawal was an attempt to avoid SC scrutiny that I've raised of his of his property's permitting issues the select board must investigate thoroughly these con concerns cannot be swept under the rug simply because Mr shown is no longer a candidate for the planning board our town deserves leaders who exemplify professionalism transparency and accountability with his qualifications and commitment to equity Mr rankies is uniquely positioned to address these challenges and rebuild trust in our planning process I urge you to vote in favor of Mr rank 30s and to and to ensure that the Integrity of our government our governance is upheld thank you thank you there is no one else raising their hand to speak at this time and there are um 30 folks online and approximately 10 in the room thank you I do just want to make one note for for the record which is that public comments submitted in writing to the board are given to the board the board reads them they are presented to them in a packet they are not however historically included in the public record they are Transmissions to the board obviously they are a public record if people want to see them they can but unless there is a matter of public interest on which a public hearing is being held for example on um we've done this for some of the big construction projects or for the MBTA communities act we don't historically put some Transmissions from the public in the public record this is because not everybody wants to have those messages made immediately public um sometimes they're transmitting information to the board that they feel is for the board's eyes only knowing that those are still things that could be subject to a Freedom of Information law request so that's why as a matter of practice absent a hearing on a major public issue the board does not traditionally put public comments in the public packet thank you okay uh first I'd like to uh move approval of the minutes for um January 14 2025 and the revised minutes from September 177 2024 uh the language with respect to our vote onar Anderson ice rank was apparently not as clear as it should have been so any um comments or other Corrections okay I'm over approval of the minutes of January 14 2025 and September 17 2024 all in favor please indicate by saying I John Van skak I um Michael Sandman I Paul Warren I David prman I and chair vot I next I'm going to announce the review of the board's executive session minutes and our determination through town counil of those minutes to be um released and those minutes to be withheld okay a list of eight August 20th 2024 we're going to withhold those September 10 2024 we're going to release page one and withhold page two September 24th 2024 we're going to withhold them October 1st 2024 we're going to release them October 15 2024 we're going to withhold them them November 12th 2024 we're going to withhold them December 3rd 2024 we're going to release page one and withhold page two and December 17 2024 we're going to withhold um we don't need to vote on that that's just an announcement right that's right yeah so no vote guys uh okay next I'd like to move in um Omnibus fashion items 6 C through 6s unless someone would like to pull something else and discuss it separately uh David I just have a question regarding 6C the Grant I just like to know are there any uh hidden requirements on our end if we accept the grant no this is all above board this is a traditional uasi grant that we use for example in um for the it strengthening and so forth so is there are no hidden requirements there thank you okay any other questions or anything okay I move of approval of item 6C through 6s all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak I Michael sanman I Paul Warren I David Perman I and chair votes I okay next we have boards and commissions annual reports first of all uh actually the only one is a presentation of the zero emission Advisory Board is anyone here for that or are we going to yes and Nick Caramelo and Alexander V are here okay great a very detailed and thorough report so yes if you want to come approach the podium and I am pulling this up for you you can come to here you can also have okay thanks okay good evening um i' would like to do the zabs zerion advisory boards anual report to the select board U we want to go through this this is the agenda introduction the progress for the last 12 months the challenges we faced some future goals and initiatives and discussion sorry Nick can you move the mic yeah a little bit like this I don't think you introduced yourself oh my name is Nick Caramelo okay and I know that Tiffany mention your name but officially you need to yeah I'm Nick carelo I'm the as of this year the uh the chair of Zab and I joined Zab last year um so introduction um the members of the board this year we had uh Wendy stal who is the chair for the last couple of years I guess um she resigned and she uh left the board in September and I took over the chairmanship chairpersonship um we have Kathleen scanland Walo and vicam agrawal who are also on the board we were joined this year by Alexander Veo uh who is the new director of sustainability and natural resources who is splitting her time as director of parks and open space and I believe Alexander joined us in May of 2024 um and also this year we had another change John Van skak was our select board L on until about October I'm not sure of the exact date and Paul Warren took over in October so our progress for the year um under the leadership of Wendy sty we introduced warrant article 14 which was a uh zoning change for energy saving devices and side yard setback specifically targeted at uh air source heat pumps um mainly targeted air source heat pumps we worked on the renegotiation and execution of the Brookline green energy contract uh which came up and we got some that started in beginning in December of 2024 it'll be active for three years um we worked on statements for the select board for p p geothermal um in support of the grand s he PS for Pierce um we put together a strategic emissions reduction plan which is the precursor to The Climate action and resiliency plan which is a lengthy document which summarizes probably the last five years of different activities that Zab and its predecessors went through um and and prioritizes them that prioritization went out to community groups including cab and R out front and that will be an input into the carp process this year we worked with Paul wor and Alexander veu to update the Zab mission statement to better reflect um the the mission to date the current Mission um which has really changed with the new director of sustainability national resources and we also participated and advised in the climate action and resiliency plan vendor selection process I have more but to does anyone want to comment or discuss before I move on um we supported we sent we were in support of a letter we had the town support letter to legisl legislature to Outlaw predatory electricity suppliers uh that did not pass I don't think last year but it might pass this year um we worked on a mass save grant for renters and um we have an ongoing collaboration with the preservation commission and staff to address Energy Efficiency and clean energy retrofill I don't know if that's everything for the light of the year but that's most of the things we worked on this year our challenges um for the last is really the lack of the sustainability director um both the lack generally over the last couple of years but also specifically that although Alexandra started in May uh she's splitting her time between two positions and that's obviously a challenge both for her and for Brookline in general um and the timeline for the the the carp is late 2025 it's probably several years behind where we should be um and as a consequence one of the things we have to we're going to struggle with or we have been struggling with is what do we do between now and the completion of the carp so future goals and initiatives um we have the completion and implementation of the climate action and resiliency plan I believe that will complete sometime towards Q3 Q4 of this year November um we selected a vendor in December of last year and we kicked off the project this year I think the initial outreaches will start in February and March we have also created we're working on creating developing some working groups we have three working groups that we've identified um the first is a town working group that's really an internal internal to town consist Town staff and it's led by Alexander AO we have a residents working group focused on to uh Town residents uh including both homeowners and renters the um the residents working group is really ongoing work from things that we've been doing in the past um it'll be working largely with cab mothers out front and other groups but also try and bring in some new blood and some new New Perspectives and we're trying to create a commercial working group which targets commercial interest in the town so that's commercial and residential landlords developers contractors uh there's the open question of utilities and how they fit into that um that's certainly something that is going to be harder for us to start there may be less um inclination for participation but we're certainly going to try that since most of the things that we need to do will be driven by those commercial interests in some way or form that's it discussion and questions well yeah so uh whoa that was loud um I uh wanted to just say thank you to Nick um he welcomed me with open arms when I uh when I joined as liaison um he's been a great partner um he provides great leadership uh for the board um and has really you know pushed the the the board um Zab to uh really move things forward organizing them around uh working groups which I think has been really important um he dropped a few acronyms uh pretty quick I just I C so cab as everybody probably knows the public is climate action Brook line um and then karp is a fish but it's also the climate action and resiliency plan um is what the carb is and the naming of that is Alexandra V's fault yeah uh but there was oh we forgive her but there was there was one thing that was done too I think it was the U na up right there was a grant that uh that you helped work on as well Nick I don't was that in the present that's in there that's the uh the there was a um it's actually worked on I think by mother's out front I don't actually know the detail the full details of it but we had a grant we worked with renters um there was a presentation made yeah it was a successful activity but but just recently we got some great funding for a position to help us with we did I was going to include that in the update for next year okay because it wasn't done last not happened yet it hasn't happened yet but okay thank you m um later on in our agenda is um a question of whether to expand the uh expand the membership of Zab I wonder if you wanted to comment on that uh sure uh I don't have a very strong opinion either way I think there are some uh active and engaged U members of the community who want to participate in the board I think we should welcome those members um I don't know enough frankly about how boards work to say whether seven or five is a better number um so I'm in favor of it uh based upon the feedback I've had from other members of Zab and in talking with Paul okay thank you David I have a question regarding your work with outlying predatory electricity suppliers I don't know if you're likely aware but this is very topical in today's Boston Globe there was an article addressing thirdparty uh competitive suppliers and how apparently they have overbilled by $73 million between uh July 20123 and June of 2024 uh and so I'm wondering what work you've done in that area to make sure that our residents aren't falling prey to that so that's that is the The Bu in front of the legislature to the state legislature um to to Outlaw reg suppliers um I think the I mean we're very much in support of outla of Bing them specifically competitive suppliers to Residents it would still be available to commercial entities who are sophisticated and are able to you know make good decisions I think the the the primary issues that we've seen with it has being that they've been targeting low-income uh residents going door too and also I don't know probably everyone in Brookline has received flyers and and marketing and whatnot and um based upon our experience and the experience of other towns it's basically impossible for the town to directly compete with those commercial interests like we don't have the resources the funding to compete with them directly so we're we Zab is very much in favor of of the the state outlawing um competitive suppliers to Residents and yeah thank you um Nick thank you so much for stepping into to you know the chair of that of Zab uh uh I I have have such a high opinion of Wendy and I keep thinking boy that's a tall order to be her successor um I'm gonna mention something that Zab uh and Wendy and I were involved in um just just you know sort of tangentially because it's an example of how having Zab in place giving a high-profile file to brookline's efforts when it comes to emissions reduction um has benefits and um it enabled us to uh get involved in the planning for the US Open that came to Brooklyn and to I think make a credible case you know For Those Behind the US Open to do their absolute best to um minimize uh uh emissions and and greenhouse gas emissions and so on and fossil fuel use um as part of the US Open I won't claim that we had a net zero US Open by any means but it raised awareness and um people might not realize that um raising awareness is still very much a part of the game and I think Zab is playing a huge role there I really do want uh I'm GNA just keep um as much as I can uh urging for Alexandra Veo to um finally be able to be you know our full-time uh sustainability director um thumbs up right yeah um I will say that if anybody can do a really good job as sustainability director even while juggling the other responsibilities that she's juggling right now it's it's Alexander I I I think she's extraordinary and um uh so I I look forward to the benefit you're going to get from having her as a full-time sustainability director I wanted to ask ask you specifically about this thing known as Berto um b r do o You're nodding your head so I I I don't have to um say anything more about Berto to you I do want to say to people who are watching it stands for building emissions reduction and disclosure ordinance um it's an approach that is being taken by some of our neighboring communities to um reach Beyond um the the immediate uh the the people that were already reaching with incentives to convert um from fossil fuel use to electrification of of their let's say new construction or if you do you know a remodel reach beyond that to inventory where where are the emissions coming from what buildings in Brookline say um are are the ones that are the most impactful in terms of emissions that might be reached and incentivized to um convert to electrification what what are what are zab's views on on Berto as an option for Brookline to pursue um I think we're certainly I'm I'm personally uh in favor it was brought up at the last Zab meeting we should discuss I think it's going to be on the agenda for the next c meeting which is February the 5th um we did a bit of pre preliminary preliminary analysis of um the larger buildings in Brooklyn based upon the uhu of the property database and it looks like we do have a credible number of buildings that would actually be something that could be reported on um so in terms of our uh Target buildings they certainly exist I think there's something that's just passed in the state legislature that will actually affect us so one of the things we're going to spend some some time doing before February 5th is looking into that to understand whether Brooklyn actually needs to do anything at all or whether the state has handled it for us but if the state hasn't handled it for us it's something we'd look to move forward if we can sorry to have to say this but the way things are going I wouldn't be surprised if one of these days Trump issues an anti- Berto you know edict that says you know they're not going to support Berto efforts at the community level but it's a I'm so glad that you're that Zab is is looking into it um I don't want anybody hearing this for the first time to be alarmed um the Berto ordinances that are being gradually introduced in some neighboring community ities um for the most part are being introduced very cautiously very carefully nothing is instantaneous nothing is Draconian um but there are things that can be done to help people um you know who are in charge of large properties with a lot of emissions to reduce those emissions and and that that's the aim of a you know I think a well-written Berto ordinance but anyway thank you for your answer and I I would like to point out one thing that that certainly Berto would be considered as part of the climate action resiliency plan that we're going through so this thing is just going to be dropped out of the air right there's a process that we're going through so um no one should get too excited yet so it would also be part of if we have the once the commercial working group gets up that's a perfect place for us to Target it um although I think we'd also want to have carrots as well as sticks if s thanks Nick okay any other questions thank thank you but let me just make one comment um really great report looked beautiful but you can't print it without just running out of a lot of ink um and that that sort of it um inconvenience with certain of our uh residents like me who likes to print stuff out and read it you know from the 20th century I read stuff on paper but so that A Min a minor comment but when I was put together I asked the question is there a format that this should be in and there should be a town format that we can use that is accessible everyone and then everyone I thought we had one coming soon coming soon sooner than you sooner than you know okay thank you thank you uh next Beacon Street Bridal path um and uh Jaz could you you update us on the uh status of our federal money well I think commissioner Sho Who's online uh has done some research on that I'll let her answer since she she did the Frantic digging on this thank you uh good evening uh eron Chu Commissioner of Public Works I believe that we also have uh Bill Smith uh here who is our construction project manager uh and also our director of engineering and transportation d Murphy but uh this evening the Department of Public Works respectfully request the select board's approval to award and execute a $3 million uh design and Engineering contract with tool design the initiative aims to transform the historic Beacon Street Bridal pass into a two-way multi-use path enhancing safety and accessibility for pedestrians cyclists micr Mobility users along the 2.3 M stretch of Beacon Street that is within Brookline uh the contract is in direct response to the findings and recommendations of a 2-year feasibility study uh developed through a robust public engagement process that commenced in 2020 uh the feasibility study was actually um requested and partially funded through town meeting uh and then partially funded through uh some uh State grant funding so this contract will advance the project to a 75% designed submission with Massachusetts Department of Transportation as part of the transportation Improvement program or tip process it will also develop detailed engineering and construction bid documents and uh engage in robust public participation uh to ensure Community alignment and we've already had a lot of public uh participation leading up to this point so the project is funded through a $2 million earmark that was secured by representative aen Claus that earmark uh required a $1 million uh Town match which is being uh allocated from the capital streets and roadway funding just as a reminder for the board on October 29th um the SL board approved the common wealth of Massachusetts standard contract form for the 2 million in the federal funding for this project that then enabled them to administer and convey the federal earmark uh to the town specifically for this project um and uh there was a question about the executive order whether the funds were vulnerable um and according to mass doot These funds have been set up in their system for payment uh it's an earmark it requires Congressional approval which uh was already received uh not similar to a grant agreement typical Grant agreement through the federal government um so the funding per our understanding is secure um so with that if uh there are any questions or anything else that my team would like to add uh we're really excited to advance this project to the town well that answers my question thank you Michael so uh I I appreciate that the funding for this is in place U and very helpful to I have had a member of Congress to to to secure it but um the the actual construction of the project will take substantially one3 million and in all probab in all probability would require uh an injection of funds from um from the state and a lot of the State Transportation funds of course come through Federal uh through the federal government and I realized that the um U the the length of time it takes to do a study of the sort that is going to be done now and then the length of time that it takes to do planning for the next step uh is substantial and it might very well take the full four years of the current Administration um which hopefully would be replaced by one that had a little different attitude about these things but I I do want to make sure that we're spending money on something that we'll actually be able to utilize without some very long delay uh as a consequence of change in in federal policy you're asking for a guarantee no no there's no guarantee but we're putting a million dollars of our money into this oh yeah yeah and and the question is how long you so how long will the study take what's The Next Step Beyond that what's the what's the timeline sorry I thought it was a statement I didn't realize it was a question so definitely a question okay um we're projecting about four years right now to move this uh to that 75% uh design submitt kind of coming through the um the full ear Mark and this is working through the tip process um you know I think that the tip um there's there's already some excitement about this as a project um it's a good fit for the tip um and and I I do think that is the best mechanism for the town for a project like this which I think has a lot of um Regional support and support from our partners um in the surrounding communities including Boston um but you know there is no guarantee we don't know what Transportation dollars will look like in the future but regardless we are going to need an engineer's estimate and Full Construction bid documents if we are ever to complete all of this or some of this and so so this is not wasted dollars or time for the town okay the the the four-year more or less timeline to get to 75% is actually encouraging yeah in spite of the fact it's a long time the fact that you know at that point we'll have a much better sense of what's going to go on with Federal funding in the future thank you yeah oh yeah it's a great question Mike thank you um and thank you Aon um just a quick question about how this project um will intersect with uh the mbta's reconfiguration of uh consolidation of stations and expansion of some stations and how uh those that project and this project overlap or will be impacted yeah so um when the feasibility study was underway which was a two-year um Community engagement process we were working we meaning the Department of Public Works was working with what was then called The Green Line transformation team the Green Line transformation team um was sort of in its infancy about thinking about um the future of the green line about the upcoming d10 trains about all of this sort of station consolidation accessibility all of the needs they um had our feasibility study uh they overlaid um those concepts with their early Concepts that then um was transferred over to this new team uh that is working on the um Federal mandate and project for full accessibility of um these te platforms uh on the sea line and um we are in full coordination so they have our feasibility study what I I will say if we have good base plans but as we get into this project now um we need to update all of our um engineering and Survey information which is really going to let us get to the Pres precis decision point that we need to in terms of how these projects work together T has committed that they um will work with us I feel like we have a little bit of catching up to do we want to get that survey started so that um we can make sure that the you know what we had is the feasibility study um now uh really make sure that that works um as we and they move into uh construction bid docs they're in a process right now they're conceptual as well um certainly further along but they have a contract out for design build so um we really want to get our survey work and um work with their team who will be on board for them this spring okay so this really is the right time to be doing this uh together okay thank you yes yeah I did yeah yeah yeah thanks um thank you so much um uh eron for for the presentation um I I I am increasingly you know these days thinking about big projects and how they um evolve and how projects that involve Partnerships um between Brookline and the state and federal government with funding participation on all on the part of all three um how those projects how we can avoid situations where those projects um the more that we get the deeper we get into them the the more there is the argument well we've already spent you know a million dollars on this surely we have to keep going but I don't hear any guarantee nor do I think there can be any guarantee offered that we're going to get all the way to the end of the road with this project and it makes me wonder do we have based on experience with past projects any kind of a cut off point um in mind whereby we evaluate the cost benefit of continued investment versus the odds that we'll ever actually see this happen because um I I I I I wish that you I would like you to actually verify how much Brookline has already invested in this project I I think by my you know calculations it's at at least a million um and might be more and um have have we ever done an evaluation of what the net benefit to Brookline is of Investments against the odds that they might produce something or they might not um I know it sounds like a tricky question but it is the kind of question that keeps me awake at night it's a great question I don't I don't think I have a great answer for you uh this evening except that it it depends it's going to depend on the size and the scale and the importance and the sort of criticality of the project um I actually feel that the town has spent very little comparatively um on the Beacon Street Bridal path to date and has received incredible support starting with Peter F who sort of kicked off the work with a Northeastern project that didn't cost anything the town probably paid about 60% of the cost of the feasibility study and now we're paying a third of the cost for design for engineering and construction bid documents which to me um is very good value for the town we know that we need to do U that Beacon Street has a renovation coming up and now is the time to figure out whether it's going to include this Bridal path that town meeting and others have asked us um to include or not so um I I feel like the residents have spoken in terms of what they they want us to do and we are doing our best to pull together the funding to try to um to make that a reality for the community so I don't think did I get the number right though is it a million plus at this point I I would have to look at the feasibility study so what we're asking for now for you to approve is a million dollars that would be the town match that frankly the former Town Administrator already committed to um for the project um so I would have to go look at at the feasibility study um Po and I don't know if bill has that or if that is the point that you're really looking for in terms of the sense um but I can take a look for that yeah I feel like those are numbers we need to have um I I saw um brooklyn.new good for them they did a piece about this but they referred to the towns million dollars as being paid through arpa funds so um I didn't hear that tonight so uh again it's hard for me to kind of figure out exactly how much is Brookline already in invested in this project and how much more will we be invested in the future phases of it before we have any sure guarantee that it's actually going to result in you know uh shovels in the ground I mean just to resp to the thing about arpa um yeah well you when you updated our our arpa you select board updated the arpa allocations over the course of the Fall into the winter kind of going into the last rounds of arpa one of the things we did there was we actually swapped this project out of arpa into General obligation funds and use those arpa funds for other DPW projects and related projects because of the concerns about timeline the concerns about obligating federal funds for the additional federal funds for matches to this Project Ara came with Hoops to jump through and we decided we will because at the end of the day money is fungible right we said let's find something that we can use the arpa dollars for and then that frees up General obligation funding or Capital funding for this project so that's how we structured this so yes at $1. a million dollar of of arpa funds was directly earmarked for this project but we actually Ed that money to pay for other things in order to free up the capital budget to pay for this quick comment and then I'll just step aside um I mean I think this is a really good example of what I'm talking about because when I see in the newspaper that oh you know yeah the kicking in a million dollars but it's arpa funds I take you know one attitude toward it which is well not even coming out of our own pocket so let's keep this going a little bit more but then it turns out well no actually it's I know that money is fungible but it's you know it's real money it's it's money out of our revenues um and we're going to be working hard to figure out how we can um build revenues and replace revenues and when it's a million dollars of revenues that has a different impact on my thinking about the project than hearing that it's a million dollars of arpa funds so I think I think it's a real question to continue to ask you know how much of this is real money that we won't be able to spend on other things that we usually fund through our revenues um and and not federal funds that we then used for this or state funds that we then used for this like let David go first oh I'm sorry my question's on a somewhat different topic so I don't know if Mike was going to continue on this well I yeah I am thank you um if that's okay yeah thank you so um the first uh time that I was involved in town government was as a member of the citizens advisory committee uh on be on the Reconstruction of Beacon Street I think in 198 1998 1999 something in that time frame um and at the time uh a bike path uh along the whole length of Beacon Street was considered and uh due to some State restrictions on uh on the way uh Vehicles could Vehicles needed to have parked vehicles at at an angle needed to have a backup uh a backup Lane to to get into and so forth um that was dropped and I think at the time I was concerned that it was dropped for not any not without really thinking about um what could have been done to uh accommodate it um this is something that has been kicked around for uh therefore for uh for 25 plus uh years and if we are indeed going to consider reconstruction or we do need in fact to Recon reconstruction of Beacon stre which typically means changing some intersections and curve Cuts curved lines and so forth um then it's really very sensible to take another look at this using the funds that uh that are available whether we then go forward with it is then again a question of have to look at this and see how it how it fits into the overall plan through reconstruct be stre David so I have a question about the scope of services for the professional technical consultant in the agreement with tool Design Group in reading the agreement it refers to an exhibit B to discuss the scope of services but exhibit B at least in the U paperwork those to me is blank so I just like to have a better I just like to have a better understanding of what is the scope of services for the professional technical consultant so I do have that but I actually want to defer to my staff who I think are in the room but I can't see I can't see screen but they are there and I just um want them to be able to get up and answer this question since they've taken the time to be there yeah the the professional technical Services price proposal and Tech proposals sorry idy yourself oh I my name is Bill Smith I'm an architect and uh the project manager for the uh Beacon Street Bridal path project and uh both the price proposal and the technical proposal provided by Tool design uh are integrated as exhibits into the contract they weren't provided in your package because of their uh sheer size to be honest so so uh they are available but what's captured in the technical proposal is their scope as well as the price proposal but the scope will include all the necessary design engineering public process and um survey required to both uh prepare a 25% design that is submitted to mass do for their review and comment and then we respond to that and a 75% design set of U engineered plans is developed so I I think it's a a rather um broad scope but significant um for for that for the money and and would this if you'd like to see that I'm happy to to get that to actually that should have been in our packet we can't vote on something we don't know what the scope of you services are right i' want to know exactly what it is we're voting on as well but uh beyond that I get the idea from your explanation so I appreciate that does the three million cover both the 25% threshold as well as a 75% yes it does yeah and David if I could just add a little bit um because I was taking a look at the um at the scope earlier today so it's the project man management project development engineering environmental review and impact functional design report which is required by U mot um a public justification workbook also part of their process um public hearing public engagement it gets us both the 25 and 75% um ultimately 75% final design um for that uh threshold the right of way review which is um an extensive uh review and then geotechnical design so those those are all the components that uh are included to get us um again those three components it's the design engineering public process and 75% submittal for mot and the multiple layers of coordination which would also include the section 106 which is Preservation and in addition to the environmental what you did mention and then relatedly uh to be very precise in section 1111 there is mention that the professional technical consultant will not be responsible for any errors or omissions by the contractor with respect to drawings and other record documents uh do you envision having this agreement signed in parallel with an identified contractor or would the contractor come later I'm just a little bit worried about leaving that floating in the air and in terms of who's responsible for accuracy the contractor would come later and would actually be a contractor with mass doot it'll be an entirely new contract at that time all right and people making record drawings right you're talking about engineers whose licenses you know they have to stamp the drawings so there's there's protection there about the liability for any mistakes in those drawings correct okay any other questions um well I just have a question for my my peers are we are we asking to wait until we see uh attachment B um or are we prepared to move forward without without seeing the detailed scope that's because what you raised um and do we have enough of an understanding of the project so that we can have a sense of what the scope of services are going to be um I mean I I I feel we have a sense of it from the explanation we were given but certainly in the future I think it would be beneficial uh to at least maybe have a link to it so that if we want to look into the very specific punctilious details we can do so yeah yeah absolutely and I do want to make just one comment but I think relating to John's question about you know moving forward and risk of not completing it um you know do we actually need this um this project certainly has brought support it was support of the meeting um you know quite a bit of work had gone into uh advocacy and and we've gotten some help from Tommy and others um you know this is a remarkable uh project for Brookline uh its Vision to be able to you know have this uh utilization of the bridal path um for for safely uh navigating Beacon Street uh by something other than a car um is is is is going to be a tremendous asset to the community um and you know any of these projects Washington Street uh kete Street design um any of these types of projects the pure school we have to invest money to move things forward and there's never a guarantee um but if you don't take the the minimal risk of of you know going forward with a design we would never make any progress um on on seeing major projects come through so um I'm I'm excited that this uh this Project's before us um that we have an opportunity to go get it started with with the design and Engineering work so that we can uh you know figure out what's the best way to proceed and also get funding for it so I'm I'm I'm prepared to vote for it tonight unless someone feels strongly that they need more information go well I just so that people um follow along with this um the referen is to exhibit B and I give enormous credit to David for catching this um you know don't just appear in one paragraph they appear in several paragraphs um and I'll just give you a little bit of the language that goes around this reference to be um you know the scope of services uh uh uh include any which may be provided when requested in writing by the professional technical consultant described in exhibit B um updated technical proposal then it goes on to say um supplemental services are detailed in exhibit B which we don't have they are beyond the scope of basic scope of services and when requested in writing by the owner shall entail additional compensation either on the hourly basis stated in Exhibit C or on the basis of a negotiated sum so we're talking about exhibit B telling us what are the scope of services that might be subject to additional compensation when requested by the owner and we don't even know what they are so I I just don't think we're ready to vote tonight um Mike ver so I I think John would you it's not possible to know what additional it wouldn't it's it's not going to be an exhibit B if there was not if if it was understood what else we were going to be asking for it would be an exhibit B which is ask no but we would know from from what set of services might there be requests for addition okay that that that's a fair comment and but I I honestly I think it's a bit of a red herring um well then we might as well not even vote okay where's my hammer so I think as a as we we have contracts that come before us all the time they're voluminous contracts I I you have to rely and I do rely on staff for looking at those contracts in detail that's what they're paid to do and if you really want to read a a huge contract and try to understand it um honestly I think you'll struggle uh and I would struggle with uh with really getting a grasp on the the technical details of what's being requested um I I think we do have to uh rely on the professional help that we have on uh on our staff for getting into the uh really into the excruciating details of these things you know I agree with that but I think that you when you're when you're asking a public body to vote on a contract uh it's really incumbent upon you know person presenting the contract to give us at least a sense of what what we're being what we're being asked to vote on and it doesn't have to include all the um documents the AIA documents for example which are voluminous and very difficult to understand but they need to if at least give us a summary or some something that we can hang our our hat on um and and I think that you not having anything you know is kind of a red not a red herring a red flag okay but you know I I agree with you that you know to some degree we have to you know depend on our our professional staff but David I agree with both of you in part I think uh as Mike said we do need to rely on our trained staff and they're saying that uh they are comfortable with this contract and they provided some verbal answers to my question regarding scope and I've have no reason to believe that they're not being accurate in their representations about scope um so I feel that based on their verbal answers I would be comfortable proceeding uh but obviously there are five of us here and it depends how others want to yeah I'm comfortable proceeding too with the you know caveat that in the future we need something not a blank piece of paper right I hope that message gets across I think I bet it does I bet it does yes cloud and clear and that uh is an omission we have the full packet and so um you know unfortunately uh bill came in he has been he's on grand jury duty and um you know it's I am sure that this was an oversight that isn't going to happen again I I do want to add though for the for the sort of board's edification we can actually email it tonight it'll be part of a connect of a it'll be linkable for the select boards packet we also just so you know we had a competitive bid process um with a you know full internal team it was reviewed by a third party um it was reviewed by mass do um which really took six months of back and forth and it's been approved by Town Council so we are very um we are uh certain that we have done our due diligence around this contract and then it will give you exactly what I outlined um for slep board uh for the slep board this evening okay with uh John I'm just going to say one more just to explain my vote on this I will be voting for it um because I I I the last two answers uh persuaded me but um I hope people understand this isn't just any contract yes it's true we do vote contracts without like reading every line uh and making sure that every I is dotted and every T is crossed but we do not routinely vote on $3 million contracts and this is a million dollar of as we have heard clearly tonight um Town funds that are going to go in planning documents for a future project which we pray will happen uh but that's a million dollars that we won't have to fix you know a sidewalk or fix a street that we could be fixing in the next six months or the next year um and so that's the consequence of all of these votes and and I don't think we should take lightly you know an item with this much money attached which is lacking in um promised exhibits B Etc okay with that I'd like to uh move let's see what I'm moving like move approval of the question of approving contract PW 26-6 with tool Design Group LLC in the amount of $3 million for project development design and Engineering Services for the Beacon Street Bridal path all in favor please indicate by saying I John V skak hi Michael samon hi Paul Warren hi David pran I and chair oai thank you thank you thank you have a good evening thanks David if I may just a little further on this idea about having access to exhibits and knowing the scope of services as a general matter not just with this particular project uh I think what would be helpful moving forward is if we had a link to the totality of the language and then also maybe a cliff notes onepage version basically saying here's what it essentially is and that way we're informed when we have these votes and in most cases that's the that's the process we follow we try and have a a covering memo this is what we're asking you to vote on this is why it is and here here it is um and yeah we take we obviously take your your request and and your guidance to heart on this I just sent an email to all department heads saying the Future Let's uh make sure this goes forward I just wonder how many of us read all of the documents that went into uh the contracts related to pierce well that that's why we have this cover sheet that David right talked about in you know voluminous documents like that because even if we had those documents if we read them we wouldn't understand them that's my point you know you know Construction contract documents are extremely complex convoluted and difficult to understand even by experts right I'm okay with a cover sheet I'm just saying we should have something yeah y oh that's fair enough I I don't disagree with that just to add to add to to my com comment because you know again I I always worry that people are going to listen to these discussions and draw conclusions like uh oh apparently they never even read this stuff and they don't know what is you know they don't understand construction they don't have any they're out of their depth Etc we have a building commission and the building commission went through the Pierce contracts line by line by line by line I'm talking hundreds of lines okay and they know their stuff they really do and so we trust on the you know we trust the building commission to help us and if the building commission has vetted something thoroughly that's fine you know and and that's why we don't need to know um what they know on the building commission they're a really good building commission and and I might might add that you know Pierce building commiss committee and other public bodies like this do read those voluminous documents do um may not fully understand them but you know they they they have an opportunity to ask questions and and get a a sufficient sense of what you know is in the documents to be able to vote on it uh it's not as if you know we we we we weren't saying that but not as if um you know we don't we don't take this stuff very seriously and try to understand to extent possible but as a practical matter we need that type of sort of crutch um to help us identify what's important and what we need to know so so thank you the Town Administrator for fing off from that yeah okay okay uh we just voted right yeah okay yeah diversity hiring update I see uh Miss Broger is in the audience and is Dr jelo online yes this is an update on the town of Brook Lin's diversity and hiring experience over the past uh per or year I guess and um good evening my name is Ann brag I'm the HR Director for the town of Brookline um we have for you the 2024 employment report and we um on the line is uh Lloyd gelano the chief diversity officer and he will be able to provide um additional input as we go forward so the first slide I'm providing is the clear company applicants our applicant tracking system does not require for applicants to um identify race gender um and other protected classes but for those that have um it is a fairly even split between um male female and um not answered and then um for race we have um about a third that still doesn't um participate in answering those questions which they are not required to do um fulltime hires from January 1st through December 31st of 2024 and these are folks who are still in our employment um 94 hires across 16 departments 43 females 49 males and two identified as non-binary which included um six firefighters and 11 police officers our mid managers um was a hiring of 20 employees with five being um from the bipo community So 20% of our mid manager technical professionals four department heads three um dispatchers and uh a note for John ven coak who asked for this information in a previous report 18.8% of our employees as well as about the same number of our new hires um reside in Brooklyn um and can I um this is a sort of irritant of mine uh bipar covers up who we're talking about so non nonwhite of all varieties we we I will I will get into the detailed numbers on the next slid I mean no one uses that term except for a certain group of people okay well I that's just my issue okay okay um any other questions on this slide before I move on okay um our new higher backgrounds by race and employee group um and these are um after they're hired um we did see a reduction in the um percentage of uh White new hires um as well as uh a little bit of a shift between black or African-American Asian Hispanic um categories between the previous year and I'll have some of that information um um as we move forward as well the employee group are the the types of uh employees so department heads asme Teamsters police and fire um non-union and um uh SE that and department heads for new and former employees so one of the things I started last year was providing you a profile of employees who were new to the town of Brookline um in the last 12 months as well as uh employees who have left town service um and this goes through uh based on on gender and race um we had 97 new hires in 2024 compared to 92 in 23 we had 99 exits in 24 and I'll I'll send you the slide deck that that'll you'll be able to look at um more clearly um so we had about a 10 um a 10 person swing or an increase between 23 and 24 the change that is reflective of this um between the two years is that in 2024 asme added their part-time non-benefited employees as um represented individuals so those numbers uh are identified as part of that that um a part of that change and here you will see a um an increase in the um hiring of black and African-American employees as well as um Hispanic employees relative to their exit or Town employment and this is overall on the town side one of the other questions that was asked by the board is around why are people leaving so this is 2024 data and you can see we have um they had a new opportunity in another Community or they were moving far enough away that they couldn't commute to Brookline um 18% retired we had 13 who were discharged 13% who were discharged and then other reasons um were 3% overall demographics for Town employees that are benefit eligible or represented by the unions broke down to between 23 and 24 we saw a an increase in the uh relative um an improvement in the relative imbalance between male and female employees um and we saw an increase in uh Asian population for employment and a slight increase in Hispanic population and a slight decrease in black or African-American population the average age for employees um is 44 years old that is consistent between the two years years and then two areas and I'm going back in time um for those who have been around and part of the process uh the uh employment diversity committee that used to be a part of cdic um used to ask for particular emphasis in looking at analytics on department heads and mid manager technical professionals so our higher paying um higher skilled positions um so I've provided that information between 2023 and 2024 in the two populations um our number of department heads that are currently employed has stayed the same um but we have um while it looks like a slight shift as far as numbers go as far as percentage um uh a closer male to female ratio um and we do have um fairly consistent numbers um on the Asian population with uh more significant change on as far as percentage goes as far as um white versus uh Hispanic and other um populations for um Mid manager technical professionals a slight increase in the number of employees hired so we went from 108 in 2023 um to 115 in 2024 and in this case we saw a we see that um in the overall mid manager technical professionals um for the first time at least in in the history of of I've been tracking it um the number of women outnumbers uh the number of men in the mmtp category we have a significant change in um an increase in the percentage as far as the Asian population um a slight reduction in the African-American or black population and an overall reduction in um the white population as far as met participants in the mmtp category with our highest increase coming in the Hispanic [Music] um overall population um going from 2.8% to 7% of the mmtps so we are seeing some improvement in diversity um across the mmtps um it's fairly [Music] um less less of a variance um in department heads quitting in job openings well we've seen some stability in the area of folks quitting without having other positions um ready um we still have uh job openings increasing um the value for employment um has evolved to be more than just financial compensation and job openings generally are taking longer to fill and requiring M multiple postings um and even with contracted recruitment for hardto fill positions we are seeing fewer people apply to um positions in the town um we are on our as an example we are on our third recruitment for a leave disability specialist and I know that it it took five recruitments to fill the database administrator position um continuing activities include review of job descriptions using a variety of recruitment tools um advertising on specialty sites and socials um and we have been trying to work with departments to manage recruiting so that it is done on a more timely basis so we don't have as long a time to hire um encouraging networking with professional organizations and Affinity groups as well as having individuals post on their socials for job openings as um it is more likely for folks to apply for a position when they see a colleague of theirs posting it as opposed to seeing the Brookline townsite um and so that is something that we are continuing to um promote as well as partnering with colleges and universities um and looking at recruiting passive applicants as well as um expanding and um providing a value ad for the a diverse hiring and interview team and that can be both um demographically diverse as well as the perspectives or the Lend that the folks are going to bring to the uh screening process and that is all that I have um I'll take questions and then for whatever U comments Lloyd would like to add um what should we do first my comments are U want to go to questions first okay uh I think Paul has thanks an just a two quick questions um first question is what's our uh employee turn over rate um it's about 133% 133% uh up down consistent across multiple years so so that's in and out okay um that's interesting um thank you and then um for the percentage 18.8% of the employees live in town correct is that number going up is it going down is um in the last two years it's been consistent it's been consistent and and before that so I haven't looked be prior to 2023 okay so 2023 and 2024 had both um new applicants so new hires in the calendar year of 23 and the new hires in 24 had 18.7% living in town with 18.8% across the whole active employee population for the year being uh residents of the town for both years so that hasn't moved okay um it's it's just that'd be a number we'd love to get up right if we could increase it David looking at the employee exit uh data I notice had 133% left for discharge is that number staying consistent uh compared to Prior years and also how does that compar to other municipalities uh I haven't compared it to other municipalities and this is a relatively new ask from the board as far as the reasons um the dischar charge um number is um I can't really say whether whether it's a pattern whether it's consistent or not I'd have to go back and look in your experience is 133% normal is that about right or would you want to see that lower ideally I I would love to see it lower um but where we're discharging people we're discharging people for a variety of different reasons it could be that they whatever injured status they might be in does not allow them to return to work and we do provide an option for them to resign in Lee of being terminated or separated from service um and then there are others that are employees who are um not meeting our expectations or violating policy um and so you also noted that uh values have evolved to more than financial yes could you elaborate on that so the employee value proposition postco has changed significantly where people will decide beyond their their pocketbook on what reason they are going to spend time away from their family um and that can be less money but a more flexible work environment so you know the town has implemented a a permanent work from home policy that is a recruiting tool that we use it's also a retention tool for folks to be able to to um not have to drive in through the traffic um to get into Brookline while it's next to Boston it's not easy to get to um so there's that there is the um more detailed questions that we've received on the value of health insurance and the fact that Brookline um employees only pay 17% towards their health insurance and we have very good coverage through the GIC um as opposed to having high deductible plans where they have to spend $5,000 a person before they have no charges when they um go to a doctor's office or have to go for outpa outpatient procedures or testing um and so um those kind of things those extrinsic things that were sort of a nice to have in the past are really um becoming a higher level of scrutiny for our um potential new hires given this broad array of incentives for uh potential employ to what do you attribute jobs taking a longer time to fill people being more Discerning and the fact that we have more jobs than we have qualified applicants um either in the area or in the broader sort of Wider Circle um they they tend to be um the ones that are easier to fill are the ones with um less specific skills go thanks very much thanks an i i really uh I love the getting into numbers like this and I think you've done a really good job of collecting relevant numbers and and putting them on these slides um as always I have a couple of basic questions is an e an eligible employee is that what that's just employee it's a that's that's just employee just employee so in the in the shorthand for for uh Human Resources e is employee and ER is employer oky do uh but uh the number 749 um employees for 2024 um that's not like an FTE number that's like bodies on the payroll what that is more than half timee what what is that 749 is um full-time benefit eligible employees plus part-time newly um as new asme employees in libraries okay um and so that's 749 compared to 690 I believe in 2023 yeah um and and the difference as I said between those two years is that asme um part-time Library employees were um are now represented Library part-time employees are now represented by asme whereas in 2023 they were not okay and just to be absolutely certain that those following at home um understand this these are all non-school right correct right this does not include any school numbers that is correct um well it's not really the the central focus of this presentation but I couldn't help but notice um that we've gone from 690 um employees to 749 employees in one year and and I'm sure there must be some stories to tell there in terms of areas where we were under where we had a lot of budgeted positions that hadn't been filled for a while and now they're filled um and I'm just going to sort of put a pin on for our future budget discussions I would love um from Our Town Administrator and from our staff our very competent staff some information about um among those 60 added nearly 60 um you know can we give a little bit more background as to where they're being added um and um uh how the how the numbers having added 60 employees how the number of budgeted positions compares to the number of filled positions sure yeah but that's not necessarily your department approximately 40 of those positions are those part-time um Library employees and we can get you the details but um the bulk of the the differential between 23 and 24 okay but but these are benefit eligible they're not but because they're represented by asme and they didn't used to be okay I have added them um so that they are accounted for okay so I'm sure we'll learn more about that in the near future one other um bit of data that I just think would be helpful um to add to the presentation uh next year um is uh let's remind everybody of what the breakdown of these populations is in the Brooklyn general population okay so that we can compare you know how are we doing compared to Brooklyn's general population in terms of how much of that same population shows up in our in our hiring okay great thanks I'd like to sort of amend that I mean in addition we should show the number in each category in the metropolitan area because that's where where we're recruiting from we're not from um we'll we'll have to have a follow-up conversation on what parameters you for the metropolitan area yeah okay yeah yeah because it can be very large and it can be but but when you say that Boston adjacent when you're trying to compare black employment for example to the black population in Brookline you can get a much lower number than the actual numbers that we have and and you know that's because we're recruiting from you broader than just Brookline um so one of the things I can um look at to to do part of that is in doing the ZIP code um analysis and the the municipality analysis is to outside of Brookline identify where are say top three or five communities that folks are living yeah for example yeah and and you know this doesn't have to be precise but we just want to make sure people know that you know there's a broader area that we're recruiting from the other the other issue I have we going back to the bipo thing um you know what what that doesn't tell us in your summary slide is the number the uh percent is for Asian um employees and you know since the Asian population is so significant in Brooklyn that that needs to be um you know sort of highlighted even in the summary page I mean it's in the later you know details right but but um in in the initial summary page is where you know it should be clear that you know bip doesn't doesn't capture you know the Asian population or the individual Black and Hispanic populations which which you know was really what we're looking at and and the the number that that I referenced there was of the um Mid manager technical professionals how many of them were um of that um that met that that category so it was it's five people so the breakdown of that um we tend not to get into individual like single person numbers so where there's five people those those folks would be individually identified in that way so that's why it was more generalist couple categories in the details where you can identify the individual people where there's one for example uh person who's you know a particular category you know who that is okay right I'm sorry Mike um so uh I appreciate the first of all you've had some good questions that that that uh and I appreciate those especially uh David's comments about you know like why are we having difficulty getting new employees and and uh but more broadly um we look at you look at a a big box of data big box of numbers um and sometimes uh you have to step back and saywell what does this all mean uh and uh for example we have an annual report from the police department that talks about crime in Brooklyn and uh it you know the numbers themselves don't really the individual numbers themselves um uh and looking at them all as little columns and rows and so forth sometimes it obscures the the drift the direction of things um and I wonder if you could comment on the overall direction of things uh how um how things have changed since you've been here and also I'd like to ask the same question of Lloyd in terms of whether you're you feel like uh gee this is we you know moving the needle takes a long time uh have we been moving the needle uh as rapidly as we could uh towards a more balanced uh Workforce and I agree with Bernard that we need to measure ourselves against whatever we Define the metropolitan area to be not against Brookline that that doesn't make any sense um but uh are we how how are we doing are you comfortable with the uh changes that you made and the progress that you've seen and again I would like to hear from Lloyd as well I'm gonna let Lloyd take this one yeah um thank you um I've been with the town of Brooklyn L Jolo a chief diversity officer for the town of Brooklyn I've been with the town for uh in July it would be 19 years um I can tell you from um sort of anotal uh perspective that we're light years away from where we were um we do have waxings and wantings in terms of the diversity and broader sense with um our department heads at one point we had four uh department heads at once who were would be considered um you know um uh from marginalized groups um that number has gone down uh Minal management has increased in terms of um diversity of in particular racial diversity over the years again again it waxes a way but from the um the net result is we're making really positive um gains in making sure that the work force is diverse um so I also want to say that we do have a benchmark that was set set for us at town meeting I'm going to say at least seven or eight years ago using the Metropolitan statistical area as a reference for that um and with some key groups I do think that we're we're actually exceeding um those benchmarks in in particular when it would be the black African-American um po um um employees in in Brooklyn um uh we're we're exceeding um in that in that area as well as um let's see um no I we're exceeding with with black Americans but um Asians were still below but when I'm saying that though too we have been seeing increase in in both those populations I think sometimes when the um different groups change that percentage may look smaller but we actually have more more employees um in those categories so overall I do think that we're making um um some great gains um some of the um uh the interventions that we put in place I think have been successful clear company is a clear has been clearly a success for us I remember when I first started taking data on uh for the um uh for uh recruiting efforts I used to maybe get like 20 cards a year um with clear company we've been getting well you saw their numbers and we've been actually exceeding that number um every single year since they have been on board I do think that um that applicant pool has become more diverse um so uh Michael um I just want to make sure I answered your question so I think we have some great gains um still a lot work to do but we made some great gains right okay thank you I appreciate the perspective and 19 years certainly gives you a lot of very good perspective um there just one other comment that I want to make which is I really I you put up a list of things that you're doing and it's a good list a very good list the targeted recruiting of passive applicants is absolutely what you should be doing poaching people from other communities is a great idea uh except when they poach from us which that happens regularly um we try not to poach too many from the same place same place apologize to the town of hover right yeah right um the other thing is uh having um uh diversity in your interview committees is really important and I ABS I'm very pleased to see that uh because people who come for an interview are reassured when they see people who look like them uh and that's really great so that's I think listening to this and and looking at the de both the details and ly's comments um I I think this is a pretty good report thank you more than a pretty good report it's a good report thank you um I would like to touch upon one thing that um that Ann said that um about the value um employees see what the value is in in working for the town I would take like to take that one step further rather than just selling the job that we actually sell the town um Brookline has a lot to offer not just for people who live here but actually employees too and I think I I think that that is less known to people and so if we find ways that we say hey Brooklyn is a great place to work you got great people to work with you learn a lot you meet interesting people all that stuff I think has value for people and and I think it's an incentive for them to know least explore Brooklyn as a place to work yep good thank you any other questions or discussion okay thank you an and Lloyd thank you thank you both next uh marijuana retail establishment license violation a public hearing I apologize for running over is scheduled for 7 p.m. now 10 minutes to 8 um but that happens so who is going to be in the uh in the box there I got I got it I got it okay hey this is a public is everyone ready okay Mr Allen and Mr uh Town Council this is a public hearing to determine whether the select board as the licensing Authority for the town of Brooklyn should modify suspend revoke cancel decline to renew were set conditions Pro proceeding to the renewal of the Cannabis retailer license of the mission ma comma Inc doing business as Mission Brookline uh cannabis store based on the charge that mission violated local bylaws and its host Community agreement with the town as Mission never obtained permission of the select board prior to nor after its cessation of operations on August 11th 2024 so before we get to the hearing um uh attorney Allen I understand that you wish to be heard first Mr chairman members of the board nice to be back at a public meeting with if you could speak into the mic with there people actually in the room right um I come before you introduce yourself for a VAST TV audience VAST TV I thought you were just interested Jeffrey Allen I represent the l e um as we prepared for this hearing it became apparent to us that there were certain concerns about this issue being judged by the select board given some of and everybody worked up to this point with the best of intentions but as the items came to fruition there was a vote by this board on September 24th to take back the license uh it was a mistakenly assumed it was voluntary that vote has still stood the test of time and is still there so it the license according to your vote is in your hands right now there was also a vote uh it also the website says that uh your town website says that the license is in your possession and is open for applicants having said that it became concerned at having this board uh make the decision ISS tonight on on whether or not to revoke or suspend or otherwise affect the license was not really appropriate and certainly didn't have the perception of being appropriate I say that with all due respect and as I said these actions sort of played out and it was nobody's intent to end up where we are so over the last day I've had some very constructive conversations with Town Council and what I am suggesting tonight is that the town the select board uh appoint a hearing officer who will be mutually agreed upon between Town Council and my and myself to hear this case uh someone uh outside of the select outside of the town's employee and that person would render a a decision on all aspects of the matter before you and that would be done at the town's expense and then you would have the option of either accepting or rejecting that person's uh findings but that way uh sort of a middle of the road it wouldn't be an arbitration where it was final but it would be an arbitration on all aspects uh of of the matter and then would come back to you and you could vote to accept that that or not I think that that would take a giant step forward to making this process give this process some finality and not need to bring outside uh forces into uh an extending this we want to do this in an expeditious fashion uh preferably we'd like to have this arbitration within the next month uh and uh so that's what we would propose to uh satisfy Our concern of a perception of uh this not being the appropriate board to hear this given the recent history on this issue thank you um Mike yeah I ask for a clarification uh I read your letter of course um and it sounded to me like you were conceding that the license um is now held by the town reverted to the town I want to want to find out whether that's the case all but I'm what I'm conceding I'm I'm not sure which letter you're referring to I don't think I've written one well um I'm you're not I'm not suggesting you say that in the letter but your comments here sounded like no I'm saying that there's that percept because you say you have the license your website says you have the license so it's hard pressed to have you to be judge and jury of a matter you think you have so it just makes more sense to have the input we we have deferred to giving you final we we haven't insisted that the arbitrator should be final M wa you know that's a point we discussed at length Town Council and I and uh he felt very strongly that the board could defer the hearing of the matter and so forth or but not the final decision and and we reluctantly gave in on that point now you're using the term arbitration and hearing officer are those two terms interchangeable I mean what we've tried to do here is follow our standard procedures here which is the I think the only difference is the appointment of an outside neutral typically when we appoint a hearing on officer for internal affairs we appoint someone inside who's not the board who renders a determination in this instance in order to reach a negotiated solution what we said with the with mission is that in if there was appetite on the board for this to be heard by a hearing officer it would be someone outside it would be someone independent however it would still follow your regular policies and procedures which is the recommendation of the hearing officer we presented to you if you found that the conclusions were reasonable you would adopt them if not you'd have the opportunity to revisit the matter but that's the that would that's the structure am I correct there I think that's very well said better than I did so as a Layman not an attorney I'm uh concerned that the term arbitrator is not the same as a hearing officer at least in my understanding a hearing officer provides a report an arbitrator has decision Authority the arbitrator would make a decision but you'd have the right to accept or reject that decision arbitrator why are we using the term arbitrator well because the companies where you get these are usually arbitration arbitrators but I mean you what we're looking for is someone maybe a retired judge or someone you can call them whatever they want you want and and if it's a term of art but I mean that they would render a decision and then but the final say would be with this board you could reject that decision accept that decision or modify that decision all right uh Paul yeah and and thank you um attorney Allen so I just want to make sure I'm understanding so um we're B you're saying that because we took a prior vote on September 24th um under information that we believed to be true at the time which was that the the license was being offered to be returned which clearly that wasn't what what your uh your client was doing um we voted and because of that vote and because the the license is on our website saying it's available you feel that that we it would be better to have a third party be the hearing officer for this um hold the public hearing be the hearing officer and then uh make a recommendation that we would then it would come back to us is that those are the key facts those the that the votes still in effect I I I I'm just trying to get I'm trying to get my my head around it I'm trying to be uh diplomatic thank you yes it's a you're doing well I don't do on a regular basis so I have I did not I did not say shock yes I did not want to say that but I do recognize how diplomatic you Council has sedated me actually um well we're again we're very appreciative of the willingness to discuss this I will say Obviously the town you you also voted in December to extend their license which I think would have the Practical impact of again this is where this is where the parties disagree and this is where a neutral finder of fact will make recommendations as to what occurred what's going on and all of that so parties don't agree on the the timeline here but we do we we wanted to present the the petitioner the the liy asked to be heard on this and so we tried to structure something that if it was in the board if the board wants to do this this is the structure for yeah um any further discussion I'd like to move that we accept the um the proposal um I I just want to make sure that we that it's understood in writing that um that uh whoever the third party is is not an arbitrator in the sense that they have decision-making Authority they're hearing hearing officer why don't we just use the term hearing officer I think that's great okay so I I move uh um acceptance of the proposal to uh appoint a hearing officer outside the town's employee and at the town's expense um to um to consider uh the uh the the issues raised by the mission cannabis license revocation that uh good good explanation okay all in favor please indicate by saying I John vak hi Michael samon hi Paul Warren hi David Perman hi and chair vot s you do have you do have one more vote I would like you to take on this which is extending the conditional renewal of missions license which would otherwise expire to one week following your opportunity to review the hearing officer's final decision extend to to when to what one week following the your your review of the hearing decision so that you have that when that comes back before you you have the opportunity to review it if you need to make modifications and come back to it you have a week's grace period to do that but in that way you've you've what you've been doing while this has been pending is conditionally is holding the license open conditionally renewing it I don't want any argument being that there's a there was a deao forfeiture of the license at some point while this was pending so right um okay okay so so we would get the report and it' be in our packet Friday we would review it on the following Tuesday and then make our decision the following Tuesday right okay so can we maybe can we make it two weeks that's fine two week two week two weeks in case we wanted two weeks following the board's initial consideration of the hearing officer report yeah okay um I am yeah Council a friendly Amendment and Town Council um that it would be two weeks after the board's final conclusion not initial in case you do have that opportunity that you want more information from uh the l e that we would get the hearing officer's recommendation it would be regularly scheduled uh your next meeting and then you have time but if you want to continue the hearing that allows you to continue so it would be a conditional renewal until two weeks after the board's conclusion of their consideration the hearing officer's report final conclusion okay um I move uh in addition I move that we extend the license of mission uh Brookline um until two weeks after uh the select board's final conclusion um with respect to the hearing officer's uh report um that clear okay all in favor please indicate by saying I John V skak hi Mike sammon hi Paul Warren hi David Broman hi and chair vot I thank you very much thank you okay oh I hope the next one can go as fast is this this yeah yeah lodging house inh holder audit presentation of information related to lodging houses and inh holders in the town of Brookline and who do we have that would be me you okay yes and and for our VAST TV audience um I'm Tiffany Oliva assistant Town Administrator for operations um I oversee licensing uh with the wonderful help of Tiffany Souza and ran Morrison um and uh before I begin just want to give a big thanks to um police especially Lieutenant Thorton who's uh stuck it out in the room with us today um Town Council DPW health and fire who helped to put together all of the data for this presentation um and helped us arrive at some of the conclusions that I'll offer so as you all know each year is a part of the regular license approval renewal process lodging houses and holders are inspected and renewal applications are reviewed by various departments uh this year at the request of the select board a more thorough audit was conducted of the 42 lodging houses and five end holders in the town which totals 47 subject life IES really quickly just wanted to overview our annual process of course those are submitted to the select board's office where the licensing team reviews the paperwork um of lodging houses and in holders and confirms that the application is filled out properly and that required backup documents are submitted and that um those materials are then sent to departments for review each department has its own specific areas for which they spent I won't uh inspect I won't read those out to you but they are available here on the screen and also in the memo that we provided in advance as as I mentioned um we this year looked worked together with police fire DPW and health to review uh three additional areas which were raised by neighbors and select board members as areas to investigate or more concrete ways that we can review some of the concerns and those data we looked at were dispatch code violations and also um compliance with our resident agent policy so in looking at just the annual renewal process as we noted during the December annual renewal vote several lodging houses at that time had not submitted or fully completed their 2025 lodging house renewal application as of today three properties have still not completed their application those are 1876 Beacon which is keratos communities 58 Manchester which is Zeta beta toal fraternity house and 259 St Paul which is Epsilon Theta house um the first one katas communities we've been in communication with them this week um they're actually coming into the office on Thursday to resolve this issue uh the final two we've been in communication with the government Affairs office of um the Massachusetts Institute of Technology um while these are technically not their houses they are campus related so they're helping facilitate the conclusion of that process and as of a couple of hours ago um Epsilon Theta house reach out to me to let me know they submitted the last form um so we'll be hopefully bringing those to a conclusion here shortly at the time of the December licensing renewal hearing uh the police department lodging house um inspections were also still underway a new memo from Lieutenant Charles Thorton who's in the room was included in your packet in some all properties that were inspected were found to be in compliance with their policies and any changes that were found were updated in our records uh Lieutenant Thorton did identify in his memo some of the same concerns you heard from Neighbors during the December licensing hearing and then the last thing I wanted to highlight on the annual process was that uh Lieutenant for Thorton found that all inh holders were found compliant with the human trafficking by law which was also raised by um some residents uh just asking questions about if if we checked for that and so we have and we've confirmed that um everyone is in compliance then as far as our audit findings goes um we looked at our inh holders we found that call for service complaints um and violations um in terms of DPW and health code uh related to inh Holders were consistent across the five inh holders and low um we looked at lodging house calls and we found that there were two owner entities that were identified for higher 911 call volume um those were Pin Street in properties and keratos communities properties um we found that those were pred uh predominantly due to Medical calls um this was unsurprised ing to the nature of both of these nonprofit nonprofit services to the community um 5153 5557 FS had the highest number of medical calls amongst lodging houses um we did look at those Med medically designated calls through dispatch um and only one dis one dispatch required the use of Narcan there so uh zero dispatches were categorized as intoxicated persons and so in other words um they did not appear to be related to antisocial Behavior um as far as DPW Health um complaints and violations goes related to lodging houses uh we reviewed those and found that um there were three properties we identified with higher total complaint and or um violation volume so it's important to note that not all complaints result in a violation uh those three properties were 107 Beacon 89 Marion and 1043 1045 Beacon um you'll note in the memo that um we do have a strong history of professional enforcement and tiered um issuance of uh fines related to um related to trash um and other health code violations and then the last component we looked at in the audit was resident agent compliance we always look to see if our properties have resident agents at the lodging houses this year we just um worked even harder to confirm whether or not that was the case and so Lieutenant Thorton visited all the properties um we found that there was only one resident agent or one property this year that lacked a resident agent um and that was 1017 Beacon at Pin Street in um his memo did note a higher number I just want to point out that um that was due to the way um properties are cataloged on the police system um and it was counting for 51 53 and 5557 Beals which we hired or Pin Street in hired a resident agent in December and that was counted as two separate properties so now there is just one property that um does not have a resident agent on site um and while they didn't have a a resident agent on site they did provide a manager of record and contacts in accordance with our lodging house guidel guidelines so um conclusions the inh holder and lodging house audit uh provided us with some valuable operation information about the operations of these license types in Brookline um it revealed that most lodging houses and in holders are compliant with limited to no criminal activity complaints and violations occurring um I do want to note that my predecessor Devon Fields um did regularly meet with the neighbors around some of the properties that were brought to your attention in December um I've continued to meet a few times with those neighbors as well they noted for me um there have been some serious issues around these properties especially amid the pandemic and there was limitations on how we could respond um to some some of those incidences because of federal and state policy um but now moving beyond that and since some of those policies have changed they've been able to respond to some of those issues um and the neighbors have noted for me that the severity of the issues has decreased um in their eyes so while neighbor tensions continue um and we do want to continue to take those uh concerns with those neighbors very seriously um we came up with some um possible solutions that probably won't address all of the neighbors concerns but hopefully will help us um continue to improve neighbor relations uh so first is uh Pine Street in uh as a result of the December hearing and listening and on that worked on a revised contact sheet for the Neighbors um the previous contact sheet um contained at least 10 different contacts that neighbors could reach out to and those were often in leadership at Pin Street in um not always the best way to get an immediate response and so uh we've worked with Pine Street in to develop a contact card which they intend to um hand out to the neighbors door Todo and also to provide them at neighborhood meetings which they hold and I also will be sending that contact card to the neighbors that have been in communication with me directing them to an on call service um the other suggestion or recommendation is that we connect with the owners of 1043 45 Beacon which is Pine Street in and also 89 Maran to discuss some of those ongoing trash violations um and determine an appropriate solution in collaboration with DPW now that we're aware that that is a kind of upscaling issue uh we want to continue to work obviously with owners that I mentioned who still haven't renewed their 2025 license since they're technically operating without an a license right now um to bring those to a resolution if not resolved by the end of this month I would suggest a public hearing be scheduled before the select board in February and then finally an option for you all is to issue a warning letter to all lodging houses lacking a resident agent to request compliance by March um those lodging houses not found in compliance uh could be scheduled for a public hearing before the board um at this time as I mentioned there is only one property without a resident agent and Pine in did inform me last week that they have a candidate on slate that they hope to bring forward to you next month so that concludes my presentation I won't go over all of the data included in your appendix but happy to answer any questions okay so um just to repeat uh 58 Manchester 259 St Paul in 1876 speaking we expect that by the end of the month they will be yes complet that is my hope and if not I think we should bring that back as a matter in February uh Paul yeah I have thank you for for the work on go no go ahead okay you're you're you're closer to the to the heart of the matter go ahead um first thank you uh great work on this um I had so we have a couple we have one uh lodging house that does not have a resident agent and they're bringing someone in within 30 days is they have a contingent offer out and so they're waiting for the candidate to accept the offer once that done is done and and the checks are done their Corey checks are done they'll be brought before you for approval and then uh related to that do we um I'm sorry I didn't ask this before just dawned on me look at the data do we we track for the 12-month period how long uh how many days or weeks uh or months um a lodging house has not had a resident agent so while we're compliant right now right was you know of for the past prior 12 months could they have been without a resident agent for six of those months yes so 107 Beacon has lacked a resident agent since mid to late 2023 um I did not look at the other properties in ter since they all had resident agents on site to see what vacancy might be there it is my understanding that um some of the other lodging houses has have also lacked resident agents for periods of time but I haven't compared um the length of time there okay I think if if we do this on a regular basis I think being able to actually see over the 12-month period what where were the gaps that would be really helpful because I think that contributes a lot to uh the type of uh um concerns that you hear from from uh from neighborhoods yeah a related question um Tiffany thank you this is a good really good summary I like the presentation but um what's the do you have a sense of the responsiveness uh of management whether it's sort of management at the at the um lodging house level or management at the administrative level what's the responsiveness in is has of hin Street in particular because they're the ones that have really been um uh the subject of most of the complaints by neighbors um and is there a change can you perceive that there's and can the neighbors perceive that there's some progress being made um there's kind of two questions there one is responsiveness to the town and also responsiveness to the neighbors yeah um I do think this doesn't exactly answer your question but the on call service will help to track some of that responsiveness to neighbors um since there'll be accountability in that system to see what's coming in and how long it's taking to respond and what the resolutions will be um in terms of my interactions with Pine Street in specifically um since May they have been very responsive every time a neighbor contacts me with a specific concern to provide me with information about what they're going to do or how they're going to address the issue um it might actually be helpful if it's okay to call Lieutenant Thorton up because he's also um U been interacting with the neighbors a great deal and has also been very responsive to their qu to their request and um has been interacting with pin streeten as well okay great well especially since Lieutenant spent you spent all this time giv him a chance to speak I would absolutely want to hear from you schedule sorry uh Lieutenant Charles storton brookly Police um yeah I don't I don't have nothing prepared to say but if you have any questions let me know I think what like I think PID St is very responsible I mostly deal with security issues so Brian Nolan is the head of security always responsive gets back me right away and uh he's you know he's told me some of the things they've done I'm always I think the um the key question or the key issue that that some of the neighbors had um there were sort of uh they were concerned about panhandling around on on Lower Beacon Street and folks on be Street were concerned about some of the residents getting um pretty noisy at odd hours and uh disturbing the neighborhood um any sense of how that that's changed I think a lot of those calls have gone down the last couple years this year especially is probably the lowest it's been um at least two years i' I've only looked back two years but uh yeah haven't had many noise complaints and least beel Street lower Beacon Street's are a little different it's right on the Boston line so it's there's people coming you know it's just a a different uh right not not necessarily the the Panhandle is not necessarily living in those lgic right here comment okay thank you um yeah and and and and thank you thank you for being so patient it's good to see you but you were here for a long time um and I you know I live on Lower Beacon Street um the the pan handlers are fine they're actually lovely people they don't bother anybody um you know that but there has been and I'm glad you brought up kind of the the proximity to Boston it's a Boston issue it's a you know but there has been some activity um and I think that that's especially in the alleyway and we've had some incidents in the Monmouth Street Park um we've had some incidents uh on Monmouth Street with uh you know residents are seeing an increase in interactions no I I have no idea the correlation between that and in lodging houses but is there been some increase activity down there that uh are you sensing or I don't think I couldn't tell there's an increase right right around Thanksgiving there was a couple serious burglaries right commercial and residential burglaries very serious we don't there's still open investigations right nothing leads us right but I mean correlating that to to lodging houses it's it's it's difficult to do that unless you have proof so um but you know there's there's what I'm hearing is again whether this is lodging house related or not that there's there's some activity that's going on in in that area uh that is alarming uh for for uh some of the residents especially that have young children um is that has that been your experience couple residents down there I think it's still I put it in that I'm not going to say they're minor crimes but not whole lot of complaints maybe two specific people um that have been complained about have been kind of nuisances you know but okay I can take a deeper look into that for you I just yeah okay right thank you I also want to thank you for a great really comprehensive reports and Graphics that he put together did they use too much ink the one point I was goingon to make though is for uh perhaps in future iterations if there could maybe be uh the number of residents served by each lodging house because that might put the numbers into context in terms of number of calls and we do have that information so we can provide that as a follow-up just so you have it but definitely can include it in future audits all right thank you um I'd love to have a mechanism for getting uh I think well love to have a mechanism for getting comments from residents around the uh uh the lodging houses and get their sense of uh how things have moved one way or the other or uh particularly in the place in Beals and and lower Beacon um and you mentioned the mechanism for beginning to to take to track calls um that's a little bit different than what I'm I'm talking about which is a sort of a subjective is it better is it worse is it um more a more of a concern for you um and I realize you know that's just it's just a statement it's not an open-ended question I'm not asking for asking for a particular action but it would be helpful to get some sense a feeling and I do think one of the things here that's just that kind of underpins all of this that we've talked about in various contexts is the subjective and objective problem which is we can solve for violations we can solve for crimes we can solve for uh um trash issues or noise disturbances we you know we solve for those things that are in the law um and sometimes someone's perception of something may not be something that we can solve for necessarily but what we want to do is still be responsive to that and think about where we can provide for example this increase in communication I'm really hopeful that one of the things one of the common themes that we heard during the license renewal hearing was this idea that the loop wasn't being closed right that a complaint was being made and on deaf ears and for what you know again maybe maybe that wasn't the experience on say Pin Street side of it but it was definitely The Experience on the neighbor's side of it and so by creating this streamlined system that Tiffany really did a great work with them to make happen having a one having one number having something on call having trackable data that they can then go back to is going to be really important in demonstrating how we can be more responsive to the neighborhood's issues and still you know respect the work that is being done in these in these you know Supportive Housing facilities so this is sort of Brook online for lodging houses well I wouldn't go that far um it's a call it's it's it's a it's a onetop it's a call right it's place it's a place call um it is at least a central reposit it's one number as opposed to 10 which is really a big okay well and I and I do think um the data may prove this out it's not it's not in front of us but the having the resident agent on site there's a there's there's probably a correlation between the resident agent not there and complaints going up um you know it's just we know that when there's a resident agent one there's someone that the neighbors can actually talk to and two they usually keep things yeah you know in check um and I just think that's really we need to always Focus um that's why it' be good if we can start you know tracking when do they have to inform us when they don't have a resident agent yes they do they so so we have that we have that information yes we do I just don't have it pulled for no that's okay um and I think that's important for us to to look at because just because they're compliant at at this point in time they may have let as you said there's at least one one location that's been a year and a half without AR resonation all right okay um thank you appreciate it no action that we have to take on this so and and I I second everyone's um view that an excellent report very very helpful uh giving us information that uh will be useful uh going forward thank you next uh zero emissions Advisory Board uh first membership and then appointments um so the question is is whether we expand the membership of the zero emissions of Dary board from five to seven members um PA I think this originated with you or at least you brought it to the Bo's attention uh you want to yeah sure let me I give some justification give you a little bit of background so uh you know the the work with uh Zab um has been ongoing it first started with us kind of you know adjusting the uh their their charge to bring it more in line with uh with um with the new director of sustainability um that's been completed um the the membership uh is is currently it's a five person committee um there is one opening right now so there's been four people uh and you know it's it's actually a small group if you go participate um it it is a small group um they uh as Nick had alluded uh to during his presentation that in addition to working to do help facilitate the the creation of the climate action resiliency plan they also have a a model of working groups um and uh you know Nick had mentioned uh three working groups Town working group residence working group and a a commercial working group um you know focused on larger buildings uh in in in apartment buildings and such and so you know the working group model you need you need a little more hands and some expertise um and so um in the course of uh looking at the opportunity to fill the one position we got some amazing additional applicants uh that came in and so uh that could speak directly to uh mobility and Transportation uh speak to uh residential electrification and also speak to large commercial and uh large building uh electrification um emissions issues so uh the Nick and I spoke and I spoke with the director of uh of sustainability and we agreed that expanding the membership from five to S would create opportunities for um uh you know the additional uh members of the public uh to join the board um I will mention that EAB which is uh our Economic Development Advisory board that advises us they're they have 12 members um the housing Advisory board has 10 members um and there are other advisory boards that you know go beyond five so it's not out of the realm of reasonable this uh to expand it uh by two so um you know tonight um I'm I'm asking the board um and you heard confirmation from Nick and Alexander ve have also agreed to uh expand the board from five members to seven members any um discussion okay I move approval of expanding the zero admissions Advisory Board uh from five members to seven members all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak hi Sandman hi Paul Warren hi David Perman hi chair votes I next we have some appointments to the board and and and uh we have three openings one um you know that that was there before this vote and two that we added um by this vote uh and we have four candidates so uh what I'd like to do um is to propose a slate um of Patricia Korea Bill heinan Alan Levon and um you may remember or note that I am not including Jules o oer um who is a recent Resident uh young very enthusiastic person who uh we definitely do not want to lose in terms of uh working on climate issues so I reached out to uh John Harris uh and so urged him to uh work with her and get her involved in some of the um activities around climate issues that we have here in Brooklyn so that we can in certain sense train and groom her to you know take a leading role because she has a lot of energy a lot of good ideas and and um not appointing her to the committee I don't want to lose her okay right so that that's what I propose um I think you know we all know the uh other candidates and and and their backgrounds and all so unless someone wants to discuss that I'd like to just move that that um that um Fleet any any discussion seeing none I move uh Patricia kareah um uh Bill Hinman and Alan Leviton uh to uh membership on the Zero commissions Advisory board on favor please indicate by saying I John V skak hi Michael sanman hi Paul Warren hi David Pro I chair votes I okay so you have your members go and do good continue to do good yes I'm sorry continue to do good that's what I meant to say okay we have appointments to the zoning board of appeals also uh the one applicant is Stephen Brooks um on in favor of appointing Steven Brooks to the zoning board of appeals uh please indicate by saying I John vanak hi Michael Simon hi Paul Warren hi David Perman I there votes I the planning board we have two openings there right no we have one opening on the planning board and these are your two candidates for consideration pardon me and these are your two candidates for consideration two candidates Brian lad and Thomas rinks um how do you want to deal with this them I I know but I would I I Thomas ranks just stood out as in his interview to me at least okay any other discussions I just would like to make a brief comment is sure yeah great um you know we in Brookline are frequently lucky to have really really qualified people um apply for our boards and commissions and believe you me some of them you know require a fair degree of knowledge um uh and and these this is volunteer work not paid um and part of the process is um you know you have to come before this board be interviewed and voted on um and I do want to say that I thought we had three qualified and and we were very fortunate to have them three three good people three good qualified people who applied for the planning board position it's too bad that in in this instance we're only filling one position um and I think a a lot of people have looked at Thomas rankus and come to the conclusion that um he he kind of you know Rises a little bit above um the field just because um of the level of his applicable um uh experience and so I'm going to vote very happily for Mr rankis but I do want it to make it clear that I was very pleased and proud to um see the three the candidates that came forward any other discussion so would you like to make a motion for uh Thomas ranks I'm happy to okay yeah I move that we approve Thomas Franks as the appointee to the planning board he all in favor John Van scoer hi Michael Sandman hi um Paul Warren hi David Perman hi and CH I too okay that's it one one rather it for that not not that's it for the meeting right okay um he next uh Town administrative appointment and employment agreement contract so uh there are two parts to this item first appointing the Town Administrator which we are required to do under chapter 41 uh and second the contract which outlines the terms under which the Town Administrator will work uh the process of negotiating a contract began in July when the town administer had told us that he'd like to continue working um that the select board in August considered that and decided to accept uh his offer to continue work and to commence negotiations on a new contract um so beginning in September I met with Town Administrator Town Council and the HR Director to discuss the terms of contract um the negotiations were not protracted because we had we just had were not protracted because we just had to make changes to the existing contract to update and correct address a couple of issues that the Town Administrator wanted um so we met as a select board on January 15th in executive session reviewed the contract as um as as um as amended by uh the Town Administrator and town councel and and HR Director um and agreed to present it agreed to accept it and present it for vote today uh so that's what we're doing so I'd like to First MO the appointment of Charles kry as Town Administrator for a three-year term commencing September 15th I believe right uh 2025 all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak hi Michael Simon hi Paul Warren hi David crowman I and chair votes I second I move approval and execution of the renewal Employment contract with Charles KY that is in the board packet uh all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak I Michael sanman I Paul Warren I David Perman I and chair votes I so that's it congratulations congratulations congratulations and we note that you in the contract you do not have to carry a body camera do not yes do not are what body camera oh body camera do you want to say anything uh Mr Town Administrator for years it's it's late but I I will just say thank you very much to all of you to the staff here to the entire ire Community um it's been an incredible you know two and change years here I'm looking forward to the next three what a great community and what a great opportunity thank you all very much for your support thank you well the um the excitement that you've experienced in and Brook line did not start with your arrival it's always like this and I tell very brief story from this morning yes there's only one right answer to that question well it just happens I the right answer you may you may regret it uh no but by coincidence there was a farewell earlier today for a very talented uh individual ABA tayor who served the Brooklyn Community Foundation and I think she I may to I think you and two ABA worked together very well um and I walked into the room not knowing you know all the people in the room knowing a few of them and one of them that I didn't know struck up a conversation with me first thing I know I'm talking to someone who's on the board of directors there and I said to her um you made a mistake and she said what I said you should have signed her to a longer term you know so um that's kind of how I feel we have to do threeyear terms but um you know I'm I feel like if we could we ought to be signing you know for a longer term it's it's been a good three years thank you very much okay I I uh I I agree you know Chaz came in uh from the outside and and very quickly figured out book Line's history and and it's the skeletons in its closets and and uh how we do things which is not you know the regular normal way in many respects uh so we've been very lucky that um been able to step in and and and get running real fast so I appreciate that okay all right that ends the meeting thank you hi okay I'm gonna show you e e e