WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=JLrxrZuMM2g

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: JLrxrZuMM2g):
- 00:00:05: Start of Select Board Meeting; Boxing Glove Entrance
- 00:01:54: Agenda Review: Community Input to Library Renovation
- 00:03:34: Public Comment: Christina on Code of Conduct
- 00:04:07: Public Comment: John Valentine on Town Meeting Communication
- 00:06:29: Public Comment: Scott Triola, Town Meeting & Retirements
- 00:09:24: Commendations for Retiring Board Members, Part 1
- 00:11:32: Commendations for Retiring Board Members, Part 2
- 00:15:57: Presentation of Plaques and Thank You Speeches
- 00:20:59: Moving On: Committee Charters Review Begins
- 00:21:15: Trails Committee Charter: Membership and Future Plans
- 00:27:56: Building Committee Charters and Cemetery Committee
- 00:31:34: FY25 Financial Statement Audit Exit Conference Begins
- 00:33:59: Audit Deliverables, Governance Letter, Financial Statements
- 00:39:35: Key Financial Results, Unassigned Fund Balance, and Gazsby
- 00:44:46: Summary and Questions on Financial Audit Report
- 00:51:23: Discussion of Potential Special Town Meeting
- 00:57:37: Intermunicipal Agreement with Lincoln for Building Services
- 01:06:18: Gleon Public Library Renovation Project Financing Review
- 01:17:49: Review & Approval of Updated Personnel Policies
- 01:32:38: Code of Conduct Discussion & Review; Public Input
- 02:05:32: Review Warrants and Minutes; Liaison Reports
- 02:09:52: Community Input & Adjournment Motion


Part: 1

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Oh my goodness. Don't hurt yourself. >> Oh my goodness. >> All right, we're here. >> Wow. So >> now you're ready to fight. Town meeting's over. We needed this a week ago. >> It worked out great.

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>> Wow. >> Yeah. Well, that was worth the wait. >> Hopefully that came across at home. >> Yes, >> we didn't zoom in. >> Oh, well, we can only do so much. >> Very funny.

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>> I'm disappointed they're not sitting to the meeting that way. >> Are they coming back is my question I >> guess we had a quorum. We can we can move on. >> Maybe that was just the meeting right there. I thought they were going to stay at the meeting in that in the >> Yeah,

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>> in those costumes. That would be great. >> We could have used that at some other meetings. >> Yes, >> the boxing gloves. >> Mhm. >> That's great. >> And the sweatb bands. >> So, you can tell they're very um sad to

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be rolling off this whiteboard. And now we wait for the Costume change. That's a a full change. >> Yeah. >> Wow. Well done. Well done. >> Best last entrance. Yeah. I don't I that might be unprecedented. I'm not sure

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>> we've had entrances like that. >> All right. >> Okay. >> So, let's get rolling. Uh so, welcome to the select board uh meeting of Tuesday, May 26, 2026. Um this is the final meeting of this

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select board session with elections set for Monday. So >> Tuesday >> or t is it Tuesday? >> Yeah, >> it's Tuesday. Sorry. Get my face off. So please uh tell your friends and neighbors to go out and vote uh both for the um elected positions and for the >> vote. Is there early voting? Do you

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know? >> Yes, there is. >> Right now you could show up. >> Good. I'm great. >> And vote. Yep. >> Let me quickly run through the agenda. We're going to start with community inputs, then appointments, review of a few committee charters. Um then we're going to get a the FY25 financial

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statement audit exit conference with CBiz. We're going to um have an initial discussion about the potential for a special town meeting, if you can believe that. Um then we're going to discuss the intermunicipal agreement with the town of Lincoln for shared building

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commissioner services. Um 8:25 item six, we're going to review uh edits to the personnel policies and uh hopefully vote on some or all of those and then also revisit the code of conduct um that we discussed at the last meeting and hopefully uh vote on that. Um then we're

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going to do a review of the Gleon Public Library renovation project financing and donation acceptance uh review of warrants and minutes, leazison reports, community input, and then adjournment. And then I'm expecting a big exit too. Yeah. So, um, so with that, let's, um, oh,

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let's do a, a roll call vote. Travis will not be attending tonight, but let's do a roll call just for old time. So, >> Arnold here. >> Modell here. >> Steven's here. >> Triola here. All right, >> Christina has her hand up. I'm not sure why. >> Christina, do you Well, let's let's let me just open up community input. So, uh,

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let's begin with community input. I see um you're both here for the trails committee, correct? Uh, so people online with a comment. Christina, I see your hand up, so if you want to go ahead. >> Hi, thank you. Yes, I was a little ahead of the ahead of the game. Y uh Christina

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Christolo Hemlock Hill Road. Um, I actually have two comments regarding the code of conduct and I don't know if you'd prefer me to um give them now or to wait when you're discussing that. Either way is fine. >> Why don't we do that when we when we discuss it? I'll just make a note to um

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acknowledge you there and we'll we can get those comments. >> Thank you. >> And then uh Yep. John. >> So I just want to first of all thank >> Say your name, please. Sorry. >> John Valentine, 268 Pisk Street. And I just want to thank you all for all the

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work that was necessary to pull off today's last week's town meeting. And I know you and finance committee worked very hard on it. And uh the other thing that I did was I went back and looked at the 2009

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um Bincom letter that actually Dave Modell wrote which basically this was just after the school project had been approved outlined all the challenges that were ahead. And I guess the comment I have is I think and I mentioned this

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to Barney today is the town meeting is a chance to communicate to the town the longer term challenges which you are very aware of of what we're facing with the the new building projects and taxes and I just think and I know Wayne tries to kind of make sure we kind of get

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through the warrant and everything else but somehow taking the time and that you as as the select board can say yes we know what these are and we know what these challenges are we're addressing and you know and again Dave can remember what he went through in 2009 when he was

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on the pincom. I just think that's a very helpful moment when we're at town meeting and say hey this is a big deal what we're doing and what we're passing is a big deal and we're going to wrestle with these issues so that and so maybe we'll have a a sort of a debrief with Wayne of

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town meeting and with a new select board of how things go. We do have I will mention that >> thank you. >> We're meeting Thursday to wrap up our final report. So in the new session >> there will be a debrief session most likely. >> Schedule a debrief yet. >> I think it's going to be June 23rd.

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We've already had >> Okay. >> conversations because I know Wayne's not available on the 9th. So >> Okay. I'm not available on the 9th. >> That is >> You're not on the 23rd either, are you? >> Not on the board anymore. >> I know, but I would present as part of >> Okay. >> But you were gone else. I thought 23rd.

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I might be able to call into that one >> from Vietnam. >> No, >> Philippines. >> They do have internet. >> Um, >> but anyway, thank you for everything that you're doing. >> Thank you. Um, I actually wanted to make

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a few points under community and put myself. So, Scott Triola 109 Hart Farm. Um I wanted to acknowledge that this meeting one um just in terms of where we are in the year and and just comment on town meeting which um I thought was was very successful. We saw all all articles

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pass and I think that's really a testament to the quality of work that was done by um the town volunteers and town staff uh to bring those articles to the town floor to explain them. Um a lot of work goes into them. uh what what's

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presented at at town meeting is the final product of countless hours um of volunteer and staff coordination and um you know we we often say we approve all these things and we don't deliberate them much but there is a lot of deliberation and a lot of that deliberation happens ahead of time so I

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just wanted to thank everyone involved in all the various articles uh for all the work they did and um I think the the results of town meeting kind of show that the town appreciates and and has confidence in the processes Um, I also wanted to acknowledge uh

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yesterday's Memorial Day ceremony which was very well attended um and was meaningful as always um it was a real pleasure to have Scott Evans recognized. Um and

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overall for those who haven't attended that um I think if you attend one you'll you'll see why it's a special event and it really is meaningful and it means a lot to the u the veterans and to the families and I think overall for our community it's a really really positive

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event. So thank you to the uh veterans and celebrations committee for pulling that together and then all the volunteers um who were involved in that. And then looking at that's this week and then on Saturday is the high school graduation. Um both Christine and I have

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daughters who are graduating. So I just wanted to extend a congratulations to um all the high school seniors and the families who I've kind of come to the end of this process. I've had kids in school for 15 years and this marks the end of >> of that. So um

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>> my son is also graduating Saturday. >> Oh >> that's another one. So >> end of an era. >> End of an era. daughter's picture was she's a amazing looking I remember her when she was just a little >> they grow up um but you know again we

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talk about budgets and things but when you see >> what what this class is accomplishing it's it's really impressive for both communities so I wanted to extend uh congratulations to them um and then obviously uh this is something we'll touch on a little later in the evening

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but um this will be the last select board meeting of uh David Modell and Barney Arnold, if you didn't get the sense from the entrance, they're going out fighting. Um, but we will acknowledge that this evening. Um, in fact,

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right on Q. Why don't we just proceed with that? So, um, again, this is the last select board meeting for for David and Barney. uh both of them are among if not the most

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uh generous and and impactful contributors to our community. I mean when I came into town uh in 2011 I got involved. David, you were already well involved. I think you were on you were on the school committee at that point. You had already served on FINCOM, right? >> Yet to serve on select board. So you've

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been >> engaged since I've been here for 15 years. >> 21 years. Barney, you were teaching kindergarten when my daughters came in. >> Um, and I >> I was on CCF before that. Yep. >> And I remember like doing lunch duty and all the, you know, getting to recycle

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all that stuff and just I knew you through the school community first and it's been a real pleasure uh to work alongside of you on the select board and as vice chair getting the benefit of all of your knowledge and history and perspective. Um, it brings so much to

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me. It's it's brought so much value to the select board. I've said it before, there's no way we can replace both of you. The depth of your experience and and the institutional knowledge you both have is really, I think, unprecedented. So, >> thank you.

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>> Um, David, I know you've already volunteered to remain involved in different capacities and Barney, I'm sure you will remain engaged and involved um even though it might be on the other side of the border, but >> hold on anytime. we know where to find you. But um on behalf of myself and the

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select board, I wanted to extend um my thanks. Um Travis, who can't be here tonight, uh wanted to send along um his comments. Um he wanted me to thank you for their extensive service. And he says they you've been exemplary members of the select board have at various times

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mentored him in how to think through difficult decisions and work together to ensure that government functions in a way that all residents can be proud of. um that you're thoughtful, good citizens, and he's grateful for for your service and your thoughtful approach. Um

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and so he sends his well wishes. Um and if we want to invite up Representative Catalo, >> thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um so I was actually a little nervous to come here tonight because like what do you say about two people who have just done so

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much for a town? Um, and you said it so well, Scott. Uh, you know, and I think the way that what you two represent in terms of an educator and a businessman and exemplifying what two people can

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contribute to community. I thought, you know, the the main point that I wanted to make that may be less than obvious even for people who know you and work have worked very closely with you is how hard it is to be a rural municipality

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right now >> in in particular in the last 10 five years during this inflationary period and the way that this town has been run under your leadership is just incredible. Um, the state that this town

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is in right now is a completely unlike, not to a difference of kind, not a difference of degree, than the communities that my colleagues are representing in in the existential challenges that they're going through, these communities similar to Carile.

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That is not happening here in that way because of the leadership and because of your stewardship. Um, so I wanted to make sure that that was on the record. Uh, and you know, there's many different facets of what's gone into that. Obviously, careful attention to

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finances, making sure you're listening, uh, to the community, making sure you know what's uh, coming ahead. U, making sure that you're prioritizing. Uh, and all that has happened, you have also brought in incredibly talented people to work at the town of Carlile. And uh to

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be able to attract that level of talent at a time where it's hard to get really great municipal employees is something that that that's just squarely on the select board in its leadership. And then lastly, you know, we're dealing, you know, we're here at a time where it's

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really hard to get people to dedicate their time as volunteers in town government. and you two have done such a wonderful job, but I think you deserve a lot of credit for the degree of talent

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and aptitude and dedication that has come and to to fill these roles since you've been on the select board uh with the three members that you now share this board and you had to fill Kate Reed's seat and now you've got more

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people running for the select board than number of seats even with two being open in a small town like this. You know, this is really rare. It's really rare and I think it's it is squarely due to your leadership. So, you've been friends and mentors to me. I'm very grateful to

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that. And, you know, I know I share in that with so many people who um are in the community and work in the community. And so, it's really an honor to present these legislative citations. I feel like I always come here to do like a sad legislative citation. First, Kate and

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now you two. Um but uh here I'll stand to do this in a little more formal. Um the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the House of Representatives, be it hereby known to all that the Massachusetts House of Representatives offers its sincerest congratulations to Barney Arnold and Dave Modell. Uh uh well

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actually they're a little bit different uh for your dedication as currently the vice chair of the Carl >> quickly added and you know amazing costumes. missed their entrance. So, I am I'm so so honored to uh present these

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legislative citations to >> yours. And Scott, you want to get in? >> Why don't you do one? >> Do one or just the three of you? >> Oh, yeah. Well, then we'll come in. >> There we go. in the middle. >> Absolutely. No problem. >> No, no, no. I am definitely not in the

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middle. >> No, you're in the middle of this. >> All right. >> All right. >> All right. First one, two, three. All right. >> Okay. >> Okay.

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>> You can you can be Travis. There. >> I can be ready. >> Yeah. No one will know. >> One, two, three. >> All right. >> One, two, three. >> Thank you, Simon. >> Thank you so much for

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>> Thank you, Simon. I appreciate you coming. >> Congratulations on getting on the ballot. I just read that yesterday. >> Yeah. Yeah. But wait, there's more. We got through these little uh

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>> Oh, wow. Look at that. Isn't that awesome? Remember >> Yeah. >> little wood engravings, laser engravings. >> Oh, thank you. >> That's very nice. >> That's really nice. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you guys. >> Just quickly, I just want to say for

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>> I guess you did or I took I took or David took it. >> Oh, I took it. No, you can remain standing the rest of >> um just I just wanted to um say for me personally, it's just been a

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really rewarding experience and sure there are a few things I'll remember that weren't so rewarding. But honestly, um just a wonderful opportunity for me to give something back to this town that, you know, I love so much. you've been

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here a long time, but also working with both really talented um elected officials, but also the staff, as you mentioned, Simon. I mean, we just have a top-notch staff that has been >> just a pleasure to bring in and see, you

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know, how the the inside of town hall works, which a lot of people don't really see, but that's huge. And then, of course, just being able to um help our town. >> Yeah. Um it's been a terrific experience for me and um you know very very

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important at this stage of my life. So I thank everyone. >> Yeah, me too. I to just reflect on Simon's comments. I'd say yeah first of all and I've done it my business too. Just hire people smarter than you. you know, hired good people, kind of let

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them give them the room to work. And uh certainly starting with Ryan and then the people he's brought >> like Aubrey, it's just been, you know, fantastic and transformative. Um I got involved in small town government probably for similar reasons that Simon did, although he's at a higher level

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now. But you got to go down to a more elemental level. There's so much wrong with the federal government and the political winds that push it around and the way people make politically oriented decisions and play party politics. It's

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just gotten so you know broken in a way I guess some of which has to do simply with scale. There's lots of factors but one is scale. It's just a very big country and a very diverse country and it's very hard to reach consensus. And as you break it down into smaller

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elements, you get back to the core of what really to me governing is about. And at the town level and in a little town, you know, you really can do things. >> Yeah. >> If you do it right, I appreciate what Simon said. So if we we have the

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opportunity here to do it right, and I appreciate what you said that we're in a different class, but partly we're in a different class because we have this economic means. I mean, it's a completely different situation when you don't have any money, but we have a responsibility. We have the money and we

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have the scale. And it's bad on us if we don't do it right. And and I've always felt, you know, I people say like it's an elitist view, but we are leaders and we're breeding leaders. I mean, we have to we're the affluent. We're going to be leaders and our kids

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are leaders and you have to show them that what is leadership. Leadership is not just affluence, right? it's actually getting in and doing it. And uh you know, I appreciate all the town has done for me and given the opportunity to give

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back is the is great. And yes, more volunteering is absolutely the core of what would make keeps Carl's fabric. So thank you to all. I appreciate the time. >> Thank you both. >> Okay. Yes. Absolutely. And thanks for

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these >> remembrances. All right. Now, are we really way behind schedule? >> That's okay. We built it in. Um, >> well, it's hard to move on from that, but we will because we have business to get done. Um, and it's important that we

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continue to do that, especially in this the final meeting of of this particular select board. Um, so we are not going to do um the appointment uh for the CPC. That is going to happen on June 9th um with our other appointments. Uh so we're

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going to move to the review of the committee charters and we're going to start with the trails committee charter and we have a couple members of the trail committee there here if if we have questions but uh long story short um there just just to put context here um

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they had requested um an adjustment of the membership to ensure um just to to redefine the the number and the terms um and in doing so we realized or we couldn't find the actual charter. So, uh, the goal tonight was to review and

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approve the charter, um, that the trails committee needs. So, that was included in the packet. Um, I don't know if anyone had any questions or comments they wanted to bring forward. >> I just wanted to say I appreciated seeing the minutes from the uh, 2000 the

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1985 meeting. Oh my gosh. >> David Modell was chair. Yeah, but and some of the names you still recognize, but a bunch of them you don't. But anyway, that's great. And um and I thought your charter looked great

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to me. >> Yeah, I don't have any comments or questions. And >> is there anything you you you want to say about the trails committee while you have the floor? And if you do, just say your name and and address. And >> uh Steve Tobin Partridge Lane. I'm the chair of the committee. Um we've been

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around for a while. We don't have any regulatory power whatsoever. We are totally a service organization. We try to do what we can for the town and I think it's probably the most fun committee in town. Um we have a lot of people like to help us out with us,

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right? >> Yep. Um so part of the reason for the charter change is we would like to be able to include more people as part of the committee. We don't want to turn anybody away. Um we recently had five openings, two voting members and three

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associates. and we had nine applications come in for those five spots. So, we want to, you know, make sure we get everybody into the 10. >> Yeah. >> Um, also some of us are getting up in age on the trails committee and we want to make sure we did >> you notice

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some of us >> and we want to make sure we've got uh, you know, a bench coming up behind us. We want this work to continue and that's important. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> So, I did read through the charter. I thought it was great. The 1985 version was also amusing. I also like that they

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got through a select board meeting in like two hours for no even less. Um, so Alan and Steve, what new trails do you have planned? That was part of the charter. And then what I would be interested in hearing an articulation of what do you see are the biggest issues

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with our trails. >> Um, >> oh, sorry. Could you would you mind just sitting up here so the microphone picks you up a little bit better? Sometimes it does sometimes. Ellen, you want to >> come on up, Ellen? >> Yeah. >> You guys made the trip.

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>> So, I don't know that we have new trails that we know about coming up. Kind of a function of when the town acquires land, we try to supply trails. Um, we're working on the Woodward property right now, trying to get those trails nailed down. That's been kind of a process. So,

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um, yeah, I think that's probably about it. Um >> yeah, it's mostly we've been looking at doing improvements and repairs. Um I don't think I said my name, so I'm Alan Anchor. I'm with Carl Trolls Committee, Fezant Hill. Um we've got a couple of

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boardwalks planned in the works that we're running through the Conscom regulatory process and we're got an ongoing process on two rod road, which is a multi-year project that we've been doing for a couple of years. We're just doing it a bite at a time. Um and yeah,

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as Steve said, new trails are essentially um function of opportunity. When when something presents itself, we'll try to get a trail in there. But you can't just go around saying, "Let's let's put a trail here because it's probably somebody's land."

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>> Well, just for my part, I'll say I think the trails committee over the years, you know, I've been here since 87. you you has done just a fantastic job taking care of our trails, spending so little money, right, just for materials, all

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volunteer labor. I mean, it's and then adding some things like the benches that now we're seeing on different >> nice spots on trails. So, just >> it's great. >> Congratulations to all of you going back many years. Steve, are you the longest serving

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committee member? >> 41 years or something >> in in town. >> Yeah, >> I think so. >> Oh, I don't know. >> How long was um in KCOM? Uh >> oh, Silia. >> Silia. How long? >> Well, she was my administrator. >> Scott Evans was was 42.

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>> Down. So, you have a chance. >> You have to stay on there. >> Stick it out another year. >> Yeah. I did have a question on does the select board appoint um all members of the trails committee. I'm trying to find the wording on that. I wasn't >> well the voting members and the

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associate members >> both. >> Right. Okay. >> The way it's always worked is that >> um we will at our meetings we'll discuss who we'd like to recommend for you to appoint and we send a recommendation but it's uh the select board that makes the

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official appointments. >> Okay. It's under membership bullet number three. >> Well, yeah, I saw the bullet procedures of >> the way that it's written. I just wasn't clear on um if this Okay, so it's

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members to be appointed by the select board for three-year staggered terms following standard procedures of the town. But I didn't know if that meant to be um just the voting members or if it was >> well the the the two items before are full members, associate members, and

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then this just says members. So >> Okay. >> Yep. Yep. Just wanted to >> That's a good anticedent. Yes, that's true. >> Okay. >> Without using too many words. >> Yes. >> Does someone >> I'd like to make a motion to um accept

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the uh charter of the trails committee as submitted this evening. I'll second that. >> Any further discussion or deliberation? >> Seeing none, we'll do a voice vote. All in favor? >> I opposed. >> Motion carries. Congratulations. Keep

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doing what you're doing. >> After all these years, you got to be >> you exist officially. >> I always feel like maybe we should just leave things alone though. >> Thank you very much for everything >> and for the reporting of this meeting.

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if you want to encourage people to check out the trails committee and volunteer. Um, >> absolutely. >> It's a great way to be involved. Um, >> and it's online if you want to see what the trails are. >> Yeah, changeable. >> Okay. >> All right. Now, we have um the building committee charters. And the only change to this one, and it it wasn't clear in

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the PDF, but if you look at the word doc, it's just to the wording um under five voting members. >> Which which one are we on? The first police and fire or >> Yeah, it's the same change to all three. >> Oh, okay. Um so the change is for one

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member it's the original language is one member from the municipal facilities committee that the requested change is to one member appointed by the municipal facilities committee and I believe this is >> but this says two >> two members appointed

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>> you're looking at this >> I'm sorry yep okay yeah >> okay >> one yeah so it's appointed so what this is requesting is that those seats aren't reserved for actual city municipal facilities committee members. It provides them the flexibility to appoint someone and I think that has to do with

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>> specific contributors. >> Yeah, >> that's fine. >> Yeah. >> Um so it's the same change. Yeah. The number of members is is different >> but the >> I think we can do this all in one motion if no one has any objections. >> Okay. >> And it's so it's for uh police, fire and

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cemetery. >> Police, fire and it's just police. >> Just police and fire. >> I think it's just police and fire. There are other things different. Yeah, cemetery is. >> So, um I move that we um accept the revision of the police station building

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renovation committee and the fire station building renovation committee charters as presented tonight. >> Okay. Any further discussion or deliberation? >> So, I have a question like is the police station building renovation committee even a thing anymore?

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>> Yeah, till completion it will be. >> Okay. I don't think it's it's going to be completed soon, but it's still active. >> Okay. >> Okay. All right. Let's do a voice. >> Second. I >> We got a second. >> Okay. >> Let's do a voice vote. All in favor?

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>> I opposed. >> Motion carries. And then we have the cemetery committee. I don't necessarily have the context for this one, but I know we went from five down to three and now they're requesting going back to five. So, I assume there's someone interested or do we know why this

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>> likely a response to interest? >> Okay. This one I I did not have a chance to talk to anyone about this change. Um I'm fine with it. I'm assuming it came from the cemetery committee. Do you have any idea? >> Not on top of my head, but yeah, Gretchen put this forward. So, this would have come from

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>> I've spoken with the cemetery committee before and they did comment that um they were looking for more volunteers of the three that were there. um you know one for various reasons wasn't able to contribute fully and then uh they did

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have a problem that you know when the two get together you already had a quorum and you know they just want to discuss maybe that's what they're trying to do. I don't have confirmation on that from one of them though. >> And the other thing I think maybe they're doing here is um

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>> the rest of the language >> improving Carile's cemetery grounds and burial operations. So I think remember it was originally we were talking about the green cemetery only. Yeah. >> But I think it's great to make it clear it's for all of the >> but I think that was previous language.

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Was it already in there? Only change I have the three to five and it was originally five. We put it down to three. So >> I mean I I'm fine with it. We're going to have the appointments um coming up. So okay, I guess if it's not, we can change it back. But

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>> All right. So I move I move that we accept the um cemetery committee uh revised charter as included in the packet this evening. >> Second. Second.

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>> Any further discussion or deliberation? Seeing none, we'll do a voice vote. All in favor? >> I opposed. >> Motion carries. All right. Excellent. So, we are on to I believe that's it for that. So, we're on to item three, the FY25 financial statement audit exit

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conference. And I assume we have someone online for this. >> Yes, Scott is here. and and can you just say your name for the record, please? >> Sure. My name is Scott McIntyre. I'm the partner or managing director from CBiz

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in charge of the audit in Carlile. >> Great. Thank you for joining us tonight. >> Thanks for having me. >> I appreciate the opportunity. Kelly, I see you're you're on. Was should I just begin or maybe that should be directed to the chair or >> uh you can proceed as as appropriate.

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So, um I'm fine with with whatever approach you want to take. >> Wonderful. And um I I put together a very brief uh PowerPoint presentation. So as I get started um if I need to be given permission to share a screen if that could take place it would be

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wonderful. Thank you very much. Okay. >> Um again Scott McIntyre the partner in charge of of the audit and see biz. Appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening. Um our staff did meet with um some of the folks from Carlilele several weeks ago and gave a fairly

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in-depth overview of the the audit process, the financial statements um in our what I'll call our GA gagas or generally accepted government auditing standards letter. Uh tonight I'm going to give a brief summary of of that of that meeting and certainly if there are questions I can get into a little bit

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more de detail. Um I'm seeing something come in. Um, let me try to share my screen here. Okay, I think my PowerPoint is up. Just a quick quick introductory slide there. >> Yep. >> So, what what I'm going to walk through

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tonight are the what I would call the deliverables. Uh, the the first deliverable is our opinion on your financial statements. Uh, we also issued a governance letter. I'll explain what that more what that is in just a minute. We also issued a report on your internal controls over financial reporting that

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are required by generally accepted government auditing standards and we also issued a report on uniform guidance um as a recipient of federal awards. Uh we are required to review your schedule of expenditures of federal awards and test certain programs up to certain

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thresholds. Um the page reference numbers that you see here on this slide match the packet that was available online. They are not meant to be the uh print page uh print pages of the various documents. They are meant to coincide

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with uh your packet that was available online. Quick quick minute about the audit process. The an audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and the disclosures in in your financial statements. We give an opinion on those

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amounts in the disclosures. However, we do not give an opinion uh no no opinion is expressed on the effectiveness of the town's internal control. However, we do obtain an understanding of the checks and balances, a different another way of saying the internal controls that are

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present in the in the in the town, excuse me, and we perform walkthroughs of transactions and um as well as reperform transactions. So, the first deliverable that I'll talk about tonight is our our governance letter. And after that, I have TWW, TCWG.

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And that's just a little bit of an acronym the audit profession uses for those charged with governance. We call it a governance letter because our professional standards require that we report and we report certain information to those charged with governance. And quite honestly, I think the profession

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has just shortened it. Rather than having a long statement called those charged with governance, we simply refer to it as the governance letter. It outlines our responsibility under uh generally accepted auditing standards in the United States as well as auditing standards promulgated by um the

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generally accepted government auditing standards. This letter goes through a lot of the qualitative aspects of of the audit. I've listed out some key ones here and this, you know, I encourage you to review the governance letter in its entirety, but here are some of the key key items that are in there. Um, we

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found the books and records to be in good working order. In other words, key key accounts were reconciled on a regular and timely basis. Um, and then and as a result of those two things, we did not need to propose any significant audit entries as a result of our work.

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The letter goes on to discuss certain key key estimates that are in there. the largest of which deal with your net pension liability and related accounts and your net OPED liability and those related accounts. The the letter letter further goes on to say that there were

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no disagreements between management and Carlile and our firm in in apply in how in understanding how to apply generally accepted accounting principles. And lastly, this was a new addition to the pardon me the governance letter a year

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ago, a couple of years ago actually. It deals with independence. We are independent from the from the town of Carlilele. Uh but we are required to disclose to you that we did perform what we refer to as a nonattest or non- audit service. And that is we assisted the

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town in compiling the financial statements from the books and records that are maintained in in town hall. If CBZiz does 400 audits in New England, I bet you we prepare that. We assist with the preparation of the financial statements in 395 of them. It's really a

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client service issue that exists here in in really in the New England region of our country. A quick overview of the financial statements. Um it include they include our auditor's report which are unmodified opinions. Sometimes those are thought of as clean opinions and it's

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not it's not incorrect to think of them as clean opinions. Uh technically they are just referred to as unmodified opinions. there are no modifications to what to our opinion is the way that uh should be interpreted. Then following that is management's discussion and analysis. It's a great resource to go

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back to at a later point in time to understand why certain key accounts may have changed during fis the fiscal year. Following that are the actual number pages of your basic financial statements. The current model is uh both it's thought of as a dual perspective

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financial statement reporting model. There's the governmentwide financial statements which are a long-term perspective, fund financial statements which are a short-term perspective. Following that are your notes and in fiscal year notes to the financial statements in the required supplementary information. In fiscal year 25 uh for

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for the town, you had the same major funds as the the major funds for FY25 are the same as the prior year, but ARPA or the rescue plan which was previously a major fund dropped off in fiscal year 25 dropped off in majority of our clients the way it dropped off in

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Carlile as well. um usually just like to touch base with those charged with governance about some of the new things that are out there uh in Gazsby or the governmental accounting standards board uh for fiscal year 26 and beyond. Uh Gazsby 105 is a couple years away, but

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for fiscal year 26, Gazsby 103 and 104 are effective. Um really there's you're going to without an enterprise without enterprise funds in carile you won't see too many changes with those but it's certainly something to to be aware of.

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Uh now some of the key financial results uh in your general fund uh the unassigned fund balance which I often say is the first place that almost all readers of your financial statements will turn uh it had a balance at June 3025 of $6.3 million a decrease of about

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$1,000. say showed stayed essentially the same. The $6.3 million in that unassigned fund balance. Just want to point out that it includes about 1.4 million in what is referred to as your general stabilization. You you have a capital stabilization. You also have a

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general stabilization meaning that the spending uh constraints on it haven't been assigned yet. So uh and the the stable uh operating results keeping an assigned fund balance of 6 point of at a sectionally at essentially unchanged uh

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that results from u budgetary results of operations which are on print page 59 of about positive budgetary results of about 1.5 million less the fact that the town used about 1.4 million in free cash during during the year. So really it's a

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it's a kind of a wash between positive operating results and the use of free cash uh which is essentially what kept your unassigned fund balance unchanged over the prior year. MDNA that's the management's discussion and analysis. If you were to look back on print page nine

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you would really see the trends of and the percentages of some of the key key numbers that I just pointed out. Also, I just want to point out as part of your general fund total fund balance, I mentioned earlier you have a committed fund balance of about $2.4 million. Uh

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that's class for for your capital stabilization that's classified on the face of the balance sheet as committed. In other words, those dollars are committed to capital where the other dollars they haven't been committed to a particular expenditure purpose yet. On the long-term financial statements, for

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the most part in local governments, it it really comes down to pension and OPED. you are a contributing member of the Middle Sex retirement system. That pension system is about 58% funded and currently uses a discount rate of about 7.1 of 7.15.

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Would point out to the to the listeners and the readers that the current funding schedule that's been approved by PARK, the state o oversight agency shows past service costs being fully funded at June 30 of 2036. Another way of saying that is you keep doing what you're doing for

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another another 10 10 years and that pension uh funding percentage um uh would would reach 100%. Assuming all the assumptions hold hold true. OPE oped is just an acronym for other po postemployment benefits. It's really referring to retiree health care. You're

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about 30% funded using a discount rate of just over six and a half%. Collectively for a town this the size of Carlilele the funding percentages of of a combined pension and OPED are are are better than most is the way I would categorize it. Um I do want to point out

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that one of the key assumptions in your OPED valuation is that starting essentially 10 10 years from now your contributions are are scheduled to increase $700,000 annually. It's a fairly common assumption in in the Commonwealth what you're doing here. um

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you know and it's not coincidental that this funding assumption uh starts in 10 years when your pension matures pension liability or at least your past service cost portion of the liability uh goes away that a lot of communities are planning to essentially reprogram monies

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that are part of the retirement system assessment to helping to pay down OPE uh with with those dollars when the when the pension liability matures. Uh there are other key assumptions that other other than the uh additional funding that's going to take place uh starting

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in 2037. Those key assumptions can be found on on notes 16 and 18. And I would also encourage you to look at your uh required supplementary information. There's a lot of trend information in there. Um one of the other reports we are required to uh uh to to issue is a

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report in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. This report defines the two terms that you see there that defines a significant deficiency and a material weakness. Those are two classifications of of internal control weaknesses. Very happy

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to report to the town that we did not identify any material weaknesses in internal control. I often get this question so I'll go ahead and try to answer it before it comes and that is well did you find any significant deficiencies? Um the reason we say we

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did not identify any material weaknesses and not the other one is because our professional standards re require us to plan and perform the audit to identify material weaknesses. They do not require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain to to detect

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all significant deficiencies. So we can say we did not identify any material weaknesses. I will tell you we didn't identify any significant deficiencies but I can't tell you that there aren't aren't any. So um my last slide is very

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simply a a a a catchall. Um it's um you know this is a very brief presentation of the overall audit process and the results. U I would encourage the board uh and the listeners to uh have a complete read of the financial statements in conjunction with this

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quick presentation. And with that, I'll turn it back to the chair to try to address any questions that the group may have. >> And um thank you very much. Uh Kelly, did you have anything to add just in terms of your perspective in the results of this audit relative to past audits or

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relative to um your perspective? Um yeah, I can say that in comparison to past audits um not last year but the year before when CBIZ um had actually started our audit um after we had

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transition from CLA um you know we had a management letter we had several well I don't know if several is a great word but we had a handful of findings some related to um policies and procedures and you know really documenting the work that we're that we're doing um and a lot

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of all of that has been cleared up. Um so we have worked to get all those policies and procedures as you know because you have to approve them. Also um you know in place to really close down any any potential risk of issue in the audit.

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>> David, you were involved. Well, I would say, yeah, first of all, congratulations to Kelly and Sandy and Ryan and Aubrey because they did tackle those outdated procedures along a lot like the personnel. I mean, things that had just

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not been uh updated in a long time and they inherited a little bit of a mess. You know, there were several changes to the finance director that they inherited and stuff and they really systematically sifted through corrected the physical the actual things, right? the actual

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accounting, but also the policies and procedures are much tighter. So, that's good. I would point out two things, I guess. One is, and you'll see in report if you really want to go into it, but we generated a lot of free cash. We unders we overbudgeted is maybe not the right word, but we we were conservative in our

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budget and we were conservative in our spending, so we threw off like an extra million and a half of free cash, but we also spent it. So it goes back to the same old issue is, yeah, we're pretty good stewards of, you know, budgets and maintaining and

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generating cash, but we're also using a lot of cash. So we just have to be aware of that. I want to correct one thing that he said. I think we don't have any control over the Middle Sex Pension Board. I mean, yeah, it's great. It'll pay off in 10 years or whatever, but that's completely out of our control.

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They're managing that. The OPED doesn't look as good, but it's fine because we are paying as you go anyway. We're not actually tapping it at all, right? We're paying all current the current population of retirees, all their OPET type benefits,

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we pay out of our budget and we contribute to the fund for the future. So, >> as long as we keep doing that, we're going to be just fine. So I think you know we are good stewards and all that stuff is humming along pretty well and

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the balance sheets are reflective of a improving situation but you know we're going to have a lot of big expenditures and I think uh we just have to keep an eye on those metrics as we go forward but from a control standpoint it's good very good.

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>> Any other questions or comments from this committee? >> Uh you know I'll just ask a few. I'm Christine Stevens. I'm still uh serving my first year as a select board member. Were there any areas that concerned you, even if they didn't rise to the level of a finding?

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>> Um, no, there there really weren't. Um, we we think we did a really good job of planning this audit. We met with with Kelly and Ryan on a couple of occasions. we uh we understood the the projects that were going on uh in in in town and

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um really there were no surprises that came up dur during the process. One of the things that I did mean to to touch base on uh was that um during fiscal year uh during the fiscal year 25 the town like every like all local

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governments in the commonwealth you had did have to implement uh Gatsby statement number 103 uh which changed the definition of a compensated absence you know sick leave buyback and those types of things and um you know it was uh we've had some real challenges with

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it uh with um getting information from from from clients sometimes on a timely basis and even the implementation of that new accounting standard went went very well. >> Good. I'm glad to hear it. And just looking ahead then, are there any what I'll call a yellow flag, something that we should be monitoring or keeping our

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eye on for the next one to three years? Kelly mentioned that, you know, we had a some findings in the past, but is there anything that we should be looking at going forward? Well, I I did point out those three new Gazsbies that that are out there, but again, they're probably not a heavy lift

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uh for for the town of Carlilele. It's a much bigger lift if you have enterprise funds. Um cyber security remains a real big issue in local governments right now. Uh I can't stress that that enough. um that that's

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I've seen too many times over the course of my career obviously it's just been in the latter part of it uh where where cyber security issues have have come up so keep vigilant about that keep very vigilant about that >> thank you for that >> anything else from this board

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just um again to to echo David's sentiments I know Kelly and Sandy do an excellent job Um, and we appreciate all your efforts um, past and present and future to get us to this point. I know a lot of improvements been made and a lot of the policies that have come across

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our our desk have been a result of your work. So, thank you again and of course keep us keep us up to date, keep us current and uh, let's stay ahead of this. >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you both. >> And Sandy,

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>> right? And we don't need to do anything. It's it's just to hear the report. Correct. We don't need to accept it or do anything like that. >> Okay. And thank you, David, for participating in that process. >> Um all right, let's move on to a

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discussion of special town meeting. So, um previously we've talked about the potential for a special town meeting and identified the dates of October 18th, which is a Sunday, or October 19th, which is a Monday. Um, part of the

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reason we wanted to have a brief agenda item on this tonight is to um, one remind people of those potential dates because with those dates, if you back up >> um, >> in terms of when things need to be

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ready, bylaws, all that. Um, you're really looking at the beginning of September. um which means work needs to be done in over the summer which is historically a difficult time to do that. We also wanted to um briefly talk about this coming out of town meeting

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just to see where things were at. Um and I'll just offer my perspective. I'm generally um unless there's a a very time-sensitive urgent need, I'm not necessarily in favor of a fall town meeting. Uh I think coming out of this town meeting certainly the the number of

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projects were approved to move forward. So I think those won't need a fall town meeting the ones we know that are out there and and we want to solicit if anyone has anything that they're contemplating for fall town meeting. We need to we need to be aware of that. But right now, the demo review bylaw,

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>> y >> um I don't believe there was the wetland bylaw, which I'm not sure >> they're looking at for fall. And then there's the cluster housing, which I heard about, which I don't >> I don't know if they're >> those were the three. Yeah. >> Um

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>> as we sit here tonight, >> those to me don't warrant >> a fall town meeting, but we're not looking to make a decision tonight. Um, I don't think there's anything to suggest we would say we definitely want a fall town meeting tonight, but I think at the future meeting either the 9th or the 23rd, we need to make a final call.

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So, I would encourage anyone that is contemplating an article to to make us known and we should reach out to our >> our different committees to see if there's anything out there. The other one is the um Ferns, which may need a town meeting approval depending on how the septic goes,

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>> right? We could do a what Ryan calls the pop-up town meeting if they need something like that, which is a smaller scale kind of oneoff, >> which I think would would be >> How does that work? You still get a quorum, you have one issue, quickly go through. >> Yeah, I think it's it's you you turn that around. I think it's in two weeks. You have to give notice and you just do

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a one issue. I I think it has the same I don't know if it has the same quorum requirements. I'm assuming it does, but that would be kind of a >> It's quick. Yeah, it's quick. >> It's a quick and it doesn't have all the >> And people want it to get done. So I would say I just was reviewing over the weekend our draft final report for town

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meeting study committee and you may recall that the governance committee um had recommended that we institutionalized fall town meeting theory being you could stuff all the budgetary stuff in the spring and you can do all the policy stuff in the fall.

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the consensus from our side in our recommendation we don't do that because um for a couple reasons but one I think Wayne articulated it's um it's the summertime you know people aren't really focused on it then to your point they're getting back kids are getting back to

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schooling all of a sudden well what are we going to do >> and yeah if we really have to and we should do it we shouldn't we shouldn't not do it just because we don't want two meetings but if you can push it to the right and get everything done. And we've

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demonstrated, I think, and we continue, you know, my recommendation is we we need to continue to push for meeting efficiency. Um, but I'm proud of the fact that we do our research. We tackle some hard issues and we get through it in, you

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know, four hours. I mean, four hours once a year is not too much for people to devote to, uh, you know, analyze. And if you get too much, so I I'm with you. I would say um you know if it's really urgent then let's do it but if it's not

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then let's try to hold off because it's the timing is not great >> and it's >> spring is the best time to have a meeting >> and it's costly >> going through it last time >> staff time >> it took I know for this select board it it took a lot of time it takes a lot of attention and a lot of agenda time that you >> right and you could be doing other things

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>> you can do other things so there not to say you don't do it but there is an opportunity cost to doing there is a cost of time and effort >> right to do those small town meetings. Um, and it's a very condensed time frame when you factor in the summer, >> right? So, >> um, >> okay. >> And I just second what you were saying,

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Scott, about Oop, sorry. Go ahead. >> Well, I was just going to second what and I guess Aubrey, maybe you can help publicize this and we can have um >> Gretchen send something out to all the committee chairs and maybe the nonprofit groups in town that won't necessarily

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get a committee chair mailing, right? that to say blackboard's making a decision in June about the fall and so needs to hear back immediately um if you have something significant that you want to bring forward in the fall rather than wait till the spring.

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>> Absolutely. >> You'd ask my position. I agree with you entirely. Unless there's something pressing, uh, it just introduces a, you know, everyone needs to get their act together over the summer and it's expensive,

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right? You know, it's a lot of expense over something that, you know, if it can't wait until spring, um, fine. But if if it can, let's just do the one per year. >> Yeah. >> Good with that. >> So, that's how we're leaning. Let's get the word out. Um, I think there'll be a bit of a burden of proof to have a fall

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town meeting. So, um, >> let's if if again if people have something that they feel needs to be in fall town meeting, please make it known. Um, and I think we would look to make this decision either June 9th or June 23rd because quite frankly, it has to be made at that point because we're almost

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there, >> right? >> It's hard to believe. Um, okay. And then I think that will work well with that timing would work well if it's coordinated with the reported out. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Very good. All right, let's move on to item number

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five, which is the intermunicipal agreement with the town of Lincoln for shared building commissioner >> services. And there he is. >> Hey, everyone. >> Hello, Ryan. >> He's might get loud, so I apologize.

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>> Nope, >> we hear you loud and clear. >> Perfect timing. >> Sorry I couldn't be there tonight. uh obviously would have enjoyed uh the celebration of Barney and David, but uh I know I've said both to both what I think and and the appreciation I

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have for you. So, congratulations on your last meeting. >> Thank you. >> Well, thank you for your service and for taking this time out and >> yeah, >> be at Fort Drum and do your training. >> Yeah, there's a lot of mosquitoes, but it's fine. >> All right, so tonight I'm talking to you

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about Thanks. Thanks for >> Thanks. Um here to talk to you tonight about our regional building commissioner agreement with Lincoln. So this is up for your approval tonight. We've been working with the town of Lincoln to share a familiar name, John Mativier, who used to be our building commissioner, but essentially this would

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have us have a three-year agreement with Lincoln in order to create a sustainable situation for our building commissioner and champion our our office. So the reason for entertaining a regional agreement in addition to it being one of the select board goals is the idea that

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building commissioners are really difficult to find right now. We would have to pay more than what we would need to pay and pay higher service delivery in order to hire an independent commissioner. And I mean rather than paying 30 hours a week, which is approximately what we might need for a

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commissioner and an inspector, we'd have to pay 35 or 40 hours a week at the going market rate, which would greatly increase our costs. So combining with a town like Lincoln who was able to share some of their services with us reduces the long-term costs and locks us into an

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agreement that I think would be good for the town. So, in discussion and negotiation with Lincoln, we uh came to an agreement that we're putting before you tonight for a uh $55,000 a year agreement for building

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commissioner services. This would mostly be remote, but it would give us access to the building commissioner, zoning enforcement decisions, and the agreement does say that anything that needs to be covered in Carlile would be with the expectation that it would be about 10 hours a week. If you combine this with

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our regional agreement that we've already signed with Actton for plumbing services and our current payments for wire inspection and what we would need to add for building inspection, it actually comes in lower than what we've budgeted for FY27. At the high end, it

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would be 142,000. We budgeted just over 142,000 for FY27, but we do think there's the possibility of savings if we don't need all of the inspection services. And like I said, this does lower the bottom line cost because we

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would have to pay more than this because we have to provide commissioner services. So although it's not a massive regional saving, it does reset our market and it does reset our service level to what's appropriate to Carile. >> Great. Thank you, Ryan.

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Comments from the board. >> Um I think it's great. I got a one question. So, there's a six-month trial and then you decide if you want to continue. Who's the decider? Is that you, uh, Ryan? >> So, this is for both sides. >> Yeah.

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>> Um, Lincoln has a little bit of leverage here in that they already have the services. They're deciding to share their services. Something we're, you know, asking of our even our own departments, which can be difficult. So, it would be a decision between us and them. If neither one is happy with the agreement or it needs to be

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renegotiated, that's what that six-month clause is for. Okay. But it's at the daytime government site at that point, right? >> Yes. Of course, we would bring that to you though for your consideration. >> Okay. >> And did I hear you say we know the

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person in the position now? >> John Mativ. >> John Mativier. Okay. I thought that's what I heard you say. Great. >> There's a benefit there. >> What a plus. Yeah. Okay. So the way the way I would look at it is u because John's so familiar with Carile, he'll not only be be able to step in

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immediately and assist us with this, but also identify what needs to be what needs to be for when he's no longer in the position in the future. >> So he could not only be a current service, but a bridge to whatever is after >> this initial three-year agreement, which I hope is a continued shared agreement,

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but we would have to talk with that. And you know, John has said he wants to to do to do three more years, so we'd be happy to have him for that. >> Great. >> Great. >> Great. >> Ryan, I did have a question as well. Also totally in support of great idea,

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not only because you know, John Mativier is known to us, but you know, just the cost reduction aspect of it is huge. But um similar to David's question, who determines the annual adjustment? It says the cap is 6%. Um, is it within that range or is it always going to be

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6% every year? Because I got to say that seems pretty rich if it's 6% each and every year escalation. >> Did that come through? Okay. >> Yep. Sorry, I was muted there. >> I'm just looking for the exact provision here. >> Section six.

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>> Yes. So, we did negotiate a six a 6% increase, which like you said is high, but that lowered the initial investment. >> So, long-term um rather than pay what they wanted, which was closer to 65,000, we agreed to an adjustment that would

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allow us to get there over three years. So that was a negotiated um inflationary adjustment which reduced the initial investment of the 55,000. >> Correct. And got us under our FY27

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projection. >> Okay. >> So is it I mean maybe we just uh renegotiate that 6% after three years. I mean that seems again that's still that's pretty steep. >> You don't know. What do you think inflation's going to be in two years? Would you bet your house that it won't

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be 6%. >> Well, would we would we essentially be caught up after the three years and so it probably would return to whatever the >> it's a negotiation. Y >> got it. Yeah, it's a negotiation. >> It's got to work for both sides. >> Thank you, Ryan. Yeah, >> the the reason why it's a this is fine

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being public is they they have the leverage. So, they have the employee and the time. >> So, we are making sure that they can sell it to their community and we can sell it to ours. I think in a successor agreement um it would the benefits of it would show and we would be able to negotiate on more even terms.

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>> Got it. Okay. >> Good. >> I can literally see the mosquitoes from here over Zoom and that's not a good sign. >> Yeah. Gosh, >> they're not good. >> Where are you outside in? You look like you are. I hope that's not >> I hope he's not inside.

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>> Yeah, I'm in the middle of a field in uh >> Okay. >> Oh. Um, >> deb blur. You can't deblur the background. They'd probably cut the feed, >> right? >> And I don't want you to see what my soldiers are trying to make me laugh, do I? >> All right. Shall I make the motion?

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>> Yeah, if if you want to make the motion. >> I move to endorse the intermunicipal agreement, IMA, with the town of Lincoln for building commissioner services and authorize the town administrator to review with town council and execute the contract as included in the packet.

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Second. >> Any further discussion or deliberation? Seeing none, we will do a voice vote. All in favor say I. I. >> Opposed. Ryan, >> the eyes have it. >> Thank you, Ryan. >> Have a safe and productive rest of your

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training and we'll see you back here next week. >> Yeah, two days. I'll be back in Massachusetts. Uh, I am going to drop off the rest of the call, but I'm available. And thank you for accommodating me being remote. And thanks again to David and Barney. And I really do appreciate. I don't think he's there, but Simon coming in and talking. So, that was great.

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>> We did, too. >> All right. >> Yep. That was great. Thank you, Ryan. Thanks for uh helping out with that. >> Bye. >> Thanks, everyone. >> All right. >> Byebye. >> See, you're all caught up, Scott. >> We're ahead of the schedule. >> This was padded. Anyway, >> now we go into the um uh I guess a quick

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question. Is the review of the Gleon, is that an administrative thing? I believe it is, isn't it? >> Yes. I think we had asked though to um >> Do we want to do that later? I just didn't know if we wanted to get that done right now. >> You you could. Um Kelly is available. Um >> would be nice.

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>> Yeah. >> Kelly, are you you you here for that one? >> I am. >> Let's let's do we're going to go ahead and chair's discretion. I'm going to move item up item eight up to now uh 810 so that we can get that done uh before we get into personnel policies and code

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of conduct policies. So, let's let's move on to item eight, which is a review of the Gleon public library renovation project financing and donation acceptance. So, if you just want to give us some context, Kelly, and what you're looking for from the select board. >> Um, sure. So, I guess the the primary

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goal uh for this agenda item was to get the select board's acceptance for the endowment funds that are now being turned over to the town for the library project. um the total amount of the of donations, well, there's two chunks of money that

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the endowment had voted to um put toward the project and then they also collected over $800,000 in donations uh toward the library project. So, the total is $989,000 $682 um that we we would be depositing into

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the town accounts held in a separate gift account specific for this project. Um, so that becomes one of the funding sources for the the project overall. >> Um, so I guess that that's the primary goal of the agenda item. It kind of

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morphed into a um also a brief information session on what funding sources are available for the project. So if you'd like to go into that, I I can I can dive a little deeper. >> Yeah, >> sure. And I know we and I at the high

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level we have >> CPC funding this and then >> yeah if you just want to give us a quick overview I know we've we have discussed this a little bit leading up to town meeting. >> Yeah. Um would it be possible to share my screen? I can pull up just the the summary I have here.

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>> No problem. Let me uh make you a co-host real quick. >> Thanks. >> I know. That's long way 190 in the packet packet numbers. >> 190. >> That's because there's endless personnel policies. >> Well, and we also had

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>> you should be all set if you try. >> There it is. >> What page is it on? >> 190. >> 190. >> Okay. You see what I see? >> Yeah. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. Um, so this should also be in the

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packet. It probably arrived late to you um today, but um the the funding sources from um highest to lowest in some some respects are CPA funds totaling $1.2

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million. Um I split those out in the little table there mainly because they have two different uh grant agreements associated with them with some slightly different parameters on how they can be spent. Um, so I wanted that to be

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isolated. Um, the endowment funds, as I mentioned, those are the donations that, um, we're asking you to accept this evening. There's also the b borrowing authorization out there for the library fan coils. Um, that was approved at a prior town meeting. Um, they have trust

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funds. The Malone and Hollis trust fund are two sources of funding that they have been utilizing for um, like the architectural fees. um and those types of things that are have already started. The mass de mass development grant, this

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is a grant that we're receiving in a couple of phases. So, the first phase is already um in our account and it's already been um partially spent as well. Um and then MFC funds. So MFC over a couple of uh warrant cycle uh town

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meeting cycles has allocated certain portions of their free cash allocation to help with this library project with the mechanical room um with again with the fan coils. Um so that's all

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inclusive of what's been officially approved and and known. Um, so I understand there may be some other grant opportunities that might be out there that they're still exploring. I can't really speak to that. That's a better question for the library. Um, but the

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the idea is that once the donation is accepted, it becomes tracked in a separate account similar to these other accounts. Everything you see in this list is in a in a separate account. So, it really makes this project a little more exciting on the accounting end. Um, so

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this is this is kind of the baseline of where we're at right now. >> And Kelly, does it fall on on you and Sandy as like the invoices come in to make sure the correct thing is being paid out of the correct account because I know all these different funds have

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different restrictions on what they can be used for. So we have to be careful about that. >> Yes. Uh, we definitely have to be careful. So Martha and I have been working pretty closely. We have a couple of worksheets going, you know, simultaneously to make sure that her and I are on the same page with how things

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are flowing in what order. Um, similarly working with CPC with Barney right now, but you know, the future of CPC, there'll be someone else to to hold our hand through this. but um for what's eligible for CPA because I expect we may

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start getting invoices when we when it's time to utilize the CPA funds and there may be three line items that are CPA eligible and the rest may not be. Um so making sure that we we are using a magnifying glass on a lot of this as it as it comes through.

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>> Does the OPM help at all with this or No, >> not on that part. On that part, I wouldn't trust them even if they offered serious. No, you need somebody with Kelly's brain to like keep it. >> Yeah. And the other question I had is with with this being accepted tonight

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and those funds being available, are they ready to execute the uh agreement with the with the selected? >> That is the qu. Yeah. I mean, is that 3.5 million? Is that where it's coming in? >> Like, is this thing ready to >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay.

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>> For the actual construction contract. >> Yeah. Do you know? Um, >> oh well >> that I that may be a Martha and Orion question. Um, because they have been given the authority to, you know, execute the contract. I know on behalf of the trustees. Um, I believe they've

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delegated that to Martha and Ryan to be able to do that. But I don't know for sure where that stands. >> But this would be the last thing we have to accept. Correct. All these other funds are available. All these other buckets are ready to go. >> Yeah, these funds are all available. They are still fun. There were a number

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of grants as Kelly mentioned that the project had to be like literally shovel ready before you could submit your application. >> And then Kelly to your question or uh in in response to uh Scott's question, I don't feel like um

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yeah, I don't I think that the um it's a matter of just working it through with Martha, I guess. Yeah. The order in which things are going to be spent the the bids came in at like 1.6 6 1.7 but that's only for the renovation right there's still

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>> furniture it doesn't include the fan coil >> that's why they have to sort out each category >> right contingency just given the age of the building foundation is not super secure it's a lot of things can go left >> anyway yes

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>> so is the endowment the donations that people gave what is the endowment okay >> that's correct >> and the majority >> and where has that been collected now up till now >> we have the I shouldn't say we as trustee for seven years kind assume that identity. Um there are four endowment

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funds and then there are also um uh yes so when people would make a donation >> and it's not to the friends it would be to the library and >> the friends are not contributing >> the the f it is probably their donation is captured under one of these um

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>> so since we just came off this audit and even though it wasn't actually this audit it's other audits where we look at but it's reported in package. Um, you know, how we invest our money, it's a Kelly, I should know this, but as we

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collect these funds and maybe CPA is the same too, like are they managed under our general investment policy? Like where does CPA money get invested while it's sitting around waiting to be deployed? Who does that?

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>> Um, so CPA is partially held um Bartholomew is our um investment company. It's partially held in Bartholomew, partially held in our, you know, general fund which is, um, I think primarily money market accounts, right? >> Um, but Bartholomew follows the same

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logistics as our other trust funds. Okay. >> The library trust funds are invested with Grimes and Company. >> Okay. So as you move towards as you said shovel ready did the investor investment advisors move things more to say the money fund side so it's ready at the

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amount you need or >> um yeah that's something we monitor um right now the balance is is pretty safe with what's active projectwise but Sandy and I review that at least probably quarterly twice a year to make sure that there's no there's no risk there.

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>> Okay. All right. Thanks. Okay. So, this will be exciting for you. >> You you thought ARPA was uh maybe required a lot. Well, now that ARPA's >> that was one bucket, just a lot of projects. Now, you have one project and a lot of buckets.

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>> Yeah, I know. There there will come a day when we have a Carile project that has less than three funding sources. There has to be. We're very creative and you know, the work gets done, but it's it's it's always interesting seeing it at this

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level. And then you layer on grants that require you to be shovel ready to apply for them on a different time frame. So >> yeah, >> well, thank you again for to the trustees and everyone who's done work on this and for your continued work on this. Um, as I said earlier in the

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evening, so much goes into getting these projects to this point and to keep these things going. So much much thanks to the staff and the volunteers. >> Thank you. >> All right, I want to make a motion. >> Sure. I'll move to accept the $989,682

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gift from the Gleon Public Library Endowment for the Gleon Public Library Renovation Project and establish a Gleon Public Library renovation gift account under the provisions of Massachusetts General Law Chapter 44 section 53A as

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requested by the endowment to support the libraryies renovation plans. >> Second. >> Second that. Any further discussion or deliberation? Seeing none, we'll do a voice vote. All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> All opposed. Motion passes. Great.

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>> Thank you, Kelly. >> Thank you. Thanks for moving me up. >> All right. Appreciate it. All right, let's move on to item number six, personnel policies. And I think Aubrey, you can >> walk us through that.

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>> Absolutely. I know there's a lot of text. >> Yes. >> Um and maybe just start at the high level of what we're looking at here today. >> Absolutely. So, uh what this version shows are all the policies that the

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select board has approved going all the way back to the military leave policy that we did probably two years ago at this point. Um, and this adds all those changes changes in and then it was submitted for review to legal counsel. And so they just edited any of those

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changes that made more sense. Um, they did do some typo changes for other parts, but we made sure that there was nothing that was substitent like substantiated, you know, makes a huge change. So no additional poly policy change um, beyond what was already

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approved. Um, so do you want to just kind of go through? >> I'm not sure how to I mean it's so much text. >> There's a lot of text >> and also since we've already gone through all of these and approved them and to legal and they've approved the

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substance with a few, >> you know, minor >> language changes. Mh. >> Um, I would think we could >> Yeah, I mean again with policies we can always they could be something comes up we can always >> So there was some it looked like mark

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text it was very faint. >> The the PDF is not showing the track. >> The PDF did not try >> the word doc in the folder is is >> the packet one um the one drive gives more >> that up. We reviewed these you already reviewed all this with us before right?

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>> Absolutely. And then, you know, some of these are just, you know, removing the personnel board, right? Because that doesn't exist anymore. >> And on the revision list, it said, I think it said the last time these were revised was 2021. So, all the stuff we've been talking about, nothing's been actually, we've kind of said we we've informally approved it, but I feel like

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we've approved a lot of stuff. >> Officially put it into personnel, >> but it's been five years. >> So, it had not yet been incorporated. Is that what you're saying? >> Correct. Officially, this is just incorporating everything that has been >> Feel like we voted on some stuff. >> We did. We voted on all of these changes chunks here and there.

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>> They weren't >> it never got to the into the manual. >> Anything since 2021 has not >> all that stuff we were doing never got so like the new hire of like last month would get a manual from 2021. >> Correct. >> Wow. >> So that's why this is the next version.

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Very important. That's why we we are presenting to have it approved tonight. So then it'll be effective of May 26, 2026. And I would just have to, you know, accept all the changes, you know, make that new version, make the num, make sure the um numbering's correct,

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the page numbers. Um, and then I don't think there's anything that would make any immediate. >> So, from a practice standpoint, we shouldn't do that anymore. Like, shouldn't there be just rev changes? And do they need to be voted? I guess they do. We shouldn't be waiting years to make changes to accumulate all these

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changes, right? >> Change one-off policies going forward. I mean because there are there are a few policies that are >> Yeah. I feel like >> we have to revisit. >> Sure. >> Didn't we change some things in the Kate Reed era? Like you and Kate work pretty closely together in a whole pile of things. >> Well, there were other

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>> change any personnel policies during this. >> She was part of policies. >> She was an active part from my understanding of the 2021 revisions. >> Okay. >> Um one of one of the things is that you know we can just continue just every time there's a policy change have a

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different revision approved. But does it require a select word vote? Every every time you change a comma, you got to come back if you want to >> Well, I mean, we typically I know in other things we approve and allow make an allowance for legal nons. >> Oh, that maybe not a comma, but let's

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say the drug policy needs to add a new drug that we don't know of today that has to get in there for something. And that would you incorporate language you come back to select board if you wanted to make a a substantive

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>> a revision that is approved >> by the car select board. So that's why I'm bringing >> no I mean I'm asking more like I think we're going to approve it tonight and you'll get cleaned up but >> I don't want to wait 5 years for the next rev. >> No and that's that's the plan is that this was a big overhaul of making sure a lot of policies were cleaned up but the

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goal is is an annual basis for you. So then there it can be an annual revision. Absolutely. And I think that even even in these conversations, I think there's already conversations of what that next revision will also include. But this this right now will make it so it's clearer for the finance team. It's clear

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and you know making sure there's just there's policies in place that can help employees now. >> Right. Good. So and then high level question if you go to the table of contents. >> Sure. Um, if if you go from whatever one all

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the way down to 40 40-3, I know I know in our discussions there's still a few policies that we kind of tabled or said we're not going to change or we need needs more consideration, >> but for the most part one through 40, are these are there any major sections

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that you would cons still consider like out of date or would be a focus next year that or does this kind of cover aside from the few policies we talked about? Do you feel like this revision were kind of caught up and now it's those annual kind of smaller revisions or

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>> Yes, it would be annual small smaller revisions. >> So there's no big buckets where like yeah, next year we really got to tackle like sections 25. >> Nothing super glaring. I think it's just making sure everything's as modernized as possible. But I think that that you know the biggest thing was just making sure that these policies that have been approved are now in this revision. It's

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clear going forward. It makes it just clear for all the things that staff need to make sure um we can implement any policies, you know, especially when it comes to time off um certain leave that we talked about and everything. >> And if if Ryan were here, I would, you

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know, just confirm with him that he's obviously supports and is familiar with all these changes. >> Yes, absolutely. >> So, I I assume that. you know, one of the topics will be, you know, supplying a space for um, you know, breastfeeding and all those things, but I think that

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that will be part of that bigger conversation we're already having. >> And we I know because I know there were other Yeah, there were policies that we didn't we didn't change, but we recognize we may have to re >> So, I think hopefully this starting this uh summer, we'll be just starting the conversation again.

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>> Okay. So, Aubrey, um, just operationally speaking, when an employee starts working for the town and, you know, they get their, you know, supposed copy of the town personnel policies and they get updated,

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they know they should be beholden to whatever the current policy is that's posted online. Correct. >> Yes. And we actually have everybody acknowledge annually they have read the personnel policies. >> I see. Okay. So, and they'll get a there'll be a push out when this >> Oh, absolutely. Once there's a push out,

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I'll be sending it to everybody and making sure um across the town is aware of the changes, identifying the changes for folks. >> Are you planning a information session for your employees? >> I can. Yeah, that's a that's a great idea just to make sure they're all clear. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I think you know putting together

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a presentation of the kind of key substantive changes >> a lot of it too. It's been a lot of conversations over the last year or so with these same folks. So they have actively been part of these conversations. >> Um such as with the DPW overtime, they were paying attention. They followed up

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and we changed that. Right. So um >> and they're familiar with the decisions that we made. As David said, we kind of approved a lot of stuff, right? >> I'm assuming it's not a black box. These are all public. >> I've been asked a lot of questions of when will this take effect, when will this take effect. So this is a great opportunity to say, "All right, it's all

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in effect as of the 26th." Um just to make it clear for everybody >> and part of the delay I know we were looking to get this done earlier combination of agenda time and then the legal review took >> yeah I mean sure but I >> but to your point yeah we should be

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doing this more >> years is a long time >> more peace meal then >> we had a lot of it ready and we didn't roll it out we're lucky that we didn't need it but you know when you need it you want to be able to >> yeah so that's >> you want to be able to refer to it when you need it >> now that we have my position as as well in place and now we can make this just part of the annual Right. Annual um

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>> there's only like five revisions in 23 years. It's like >> well I'm looking at the social media and stuff. I mean that's stuff that's pretty relevant. >> Yeah. >> But yeah >> probably change quite a bit in five years. So >> be updated annually like just >> well also from the train training standpoint like

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>> you point out in the policies like you know your subject open meeting like everything you do is subject to open meeting kind of so to some to some people or public record. I shouldn't say open meeting public record. I will say we're ahead of a lot of towns, right?

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Hard copies that are barely legible. So I I have to put a lot of credit to everybody who put this together beforehand, too. So that it was a lot easier to build off of this rather than having to start from something else. >> I see. I noticed the 9-year gap from 2012, >> right? >> Aubrey, you've done a great job just

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getting this all pulled together and getting those policies in front of us and getting us to this point. So >> yeah, >> great book. >> When we heard from the auditor, he said his a number one biggest recommendation is keep on top of cyber security.

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>> Is there any part of our policy that deals with employees in cyber security? I didn't actually catch >> top of my head. I don't think so, but I think that's a good thing to update that that's not part of it. Right. Because >> absolutely that is a very very high >> I notice I mean in your email section

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you're discouraging the use of personal email for town business which I agree >> but then the flip side is do you have two factor and all that stuff you must have that in there right for town for town um emails >> you get on a town website >> yes on top of my head so we're we're

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we've been updating what that looks like but you can't get on the network without two factor you you know they are implementing more and more um protective systems. >> I mean, you're going to a new IT provider anyway, right? And so hopefully they'll >> pay more attention, but yeah, >> exactly.

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>> I think to that point like making sure whatever the appropriate policy is like, >> don't you know, don't leave your pass your password on a sticky on >> Well, again, we're sort of there's a gray area between um personnel policies.

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>> Yeah, I don't know where that Well, >> right. Just think about it though for because we run in same in like my business. So you have a handbook you, you know, as this does lay out >> how you handle email, how you handle social media, da da da, be careful, you know, town business is separate and personal, blah, blah, blah. And then the

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IT side has all this other stuff where you need to step for that, but and somehow you got to there is a section probably in both, but particularly in the personnel manual because that's where they go >> that probably gets a little more technical when you start getting into

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cyber like you must not leave your, you know, password. you don't write your password down. Don't leave your screen like leave a lock function. I mean, there's a whole bunch of things now. And and since I come from the government security side and we're going through these ginormous audits now, like it's

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very top of mind. Like there's so many controls out there that you can put in. >> I think that's a great idea to tie in all the training we are having everybody do on basis including the cyber security training, >> right? And a lot of it's common sense, right? You know. >> Well, yeah. >> Yeah. So,

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>> but I mean one thing just again just because we're going through it now. If you >> if are people using their personal um personal phones for town business when they're not in town or are they only using >> depends on who it is, right? I do. Um Ryan does. Um but only if that's necessary.

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>> Okay. I mean, you're Yeah. Restricting because one of the features we have now is a wipe. Like if your phone gets lost and you are one of those people >> that the there's software that goes in, it'll only wipe the town business. H. >> It won't wipe your personal business. >> Okay. >> But it can go in there no matter who has

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the phone and go and uh it's gone or locked. >> Incredible. >> It's pretty cool. >> Okay. What could possibly go wrong? >> Well, lots can go wrong, but >> but yeah, we you got to know do these things >> what's out there and Yeah. >> Okay. So,

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>> okay. >> Do you want to make this >> one of my last motions? I move uh that the select board approve the personnel policies as presented this evening in the packet with an

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effective date of May 26th, 2026. >> Second. >> And is that the appropriate effective date? >> We didn't discuss it. Is that does that work? >> Yep. Okay. >> That's when it was approved. I'd add an editorial comment that with formatting

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changes and as Aubrey pointed out, you know, there may be some numbering changes. You say as presented, but >> ah okay. Um >> so maybe amend that. >> Maybe I should say uh move to approve the personnel policies as presented

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uh with an effective date of uh May 26, 2026. um and approve any minor formatting or grammatical changes as >> necessary.

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>> Necessary. >> Second. >> Any further discussion or deliberation? Seeing none, we'll do a voice vote. All in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Opposed. >> Motion carries. There you go. That's a big one. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. It's a lot of uh

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>> a lot of work. >> I No, I'm not going to be on the board, but I do want to mention that we have talked off and on about the uh parental paid parental leave, >> and that's something that we when we had the conversation a couple of months ago, we said

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>> that's one that should be on the agenda, you know, over the next year um to try to figure out. >> Yes, definitely. >> Thank you. You're always Well, as long as you're in Carlile, you're welcome to make public comments.

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>> That's right. And I'm here probably till September. >> Okay. >> So, thank you. That's right. You'll see me on the other >> As soon as you move though, forget it. No one will be recognized once you're in conquered. >> I'll have to sit right at town meeting

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and be in the non- voting section. >> We'll have to vet your residency requirements. >> Right. Right. >> All right. We're moving on to item number seven, the code of conduct. Um, and >> Christina, you have

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>> also um Gretchen was gonna Wasn't she gonna Yeah, there's Gretchen. >> Hi, Gretchen. >> I'll Hi, Gretchen. >> And I will um Christina, if you have a a a comment you want to make, if you want to make that at the outset. >> Uh, sure. Thank you. Um, yeah, I

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actually have two brief comments. Um and um they're both in section A that was discussed last meeting. >> Yep. >> Um one is um on bullet number three um

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um the personal and um business um were um um eliminated. Um >> right. However, um I think the personal um benefit um there can be personal

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benefit without being financial benefit. Um so um um I'll I'll give an example. I want to stress this is purely hypothetical, but for instance, somebody who is on a committee who can determine the use of a

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town-owned parcel, which could benefit that individual um regarding say convenience or what how they want to use that parcel, but may not um but it might impede uh another use which would be more beneficial for

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the town as a whole. Um and so I think personal is different than financial and perhaps should be included >> bullet the third bullet. >> Yeah. And I know in our discussion on that there >> where it says a code of conduct. >> We you know we said not to not to

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benefit personally. You know our comment was well we all kind of benefit personally from >> I see >> from serving. So I I think I think I I mean I certainly understand the point you're making. I think we we removed those words because they were so broadly

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defined that um it was encompassing >> well it's clear it's clear you shouldn't benefit financially and so there a lot of controls on that >> and we did I mean I was having that discussion with Travis whenever it seems like a meeting or two ago long ago

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>> it's last meeting >> so um I mean foram I the example I gave Christina was I I in my own company. I run uh we run a training session that uh

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has to do with social emotional intelligence and we have an outside trainer and in discussions with Aubrey and Ryan I felt they might benefit from that and in order to make it more affordable for the town

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and also because I thought it would be an interesting interchange between my employees and the town employees we invited town people who wanted to get that training to come to my workplace and we had four training sessions and it was pretty good. People liked it and I benefited and my company benefited. We

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didn't benefit financially. In fact, you know, possibly we helped the town financially, but we certainly didn't benefit. But did I benefit professionally from that interchange? Yeah, sure I did. So, you know, it's very difficult to write it in such a way you wouldn't get tangled up in your underwear and

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>> understood. It's not it's not the professional, it's the personal. >> Well, that could be personal, though. gets so blurry. And so the question is what what problem are you trying to solve? Because >> and I also think the what's what sits on top this is a policy. What sits on top of all of this is ethics and conflict of

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interest statutes which is law. And so if if I'm benefiting from uh the use of a land and it's, you know, it's like a lot of that would be covered through conflict of interest. Like I can't I I'm not allowed to.

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>> What happens Christina if you if you through your town service you meet people in town other people in town and you later end up doing some business with them. Is that did you benefit from that because you volunteered and they volunteered and

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that's how you met? >> Yeah. >> It's a very slippery slope. So we really have to rely on the character of the people who volunteer not to you know >> take advantage. I think this is a policy. >> My approach was more from uh somebody

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getting onto a committee to influence an outcome of something that benefits them personally. as opposed to necess you know as opposed to something that might be you know going against something that

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might benefit the town as Let's say you you own a piece of agricultural land and because you got so concerned with the way the uh what's the land stewardship committee is handling you know those matters you got involved and as a result

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of getting involved you decided to join that committee and you volunteered and you were accepted and you have a passion for a certain point of view and you're bringing that point of view to the committee and that happens to maybe benefit you personally but the reason you're got involved in the committee is

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you got passion involved. I mean, where do you draw that line? >> I get it. >> No. And I I think and I just just for context, I mean, this is this is a a policy that we're requesting, but not requiring people to >> sign. And it's this isn't law. There is

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clear conflict of interest and and ethics law that that people have to adhere to. This is really again a policy to to just set an expectation. And I think on this one, it was very broadly defined. we weren't comfortable with the limits of the words personally and

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professionally. Um, financially was one where we felt comfortable saying yes, you should not be doing that. So, it's not to say we don't acknowledge there could be issues there, but I think for terms of this policy, we just wanted to keep that bullet pretty strictly defined to financial benefit. >> Okay, I get it. Yep.

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>> Um, and then the second one is um a bullet that was eliminated also in section A. Um, and uh, I'm like completely paraphrasing now because I didn't catch capture the um, language that was eliminated, but uh, the need to obtain all information before making a

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decision. Um, >> and this can be um, important because again um, there could be one predetermined outcome um, but may it may not be the best outcome for um, the town as a whole. Um

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and but if if all the work is just on this one predetermined outcome without factoring in or at least considering um other options um it could be not necessarily the best thing for the town.

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>> Was that in section I'm I think that was in a different >> it's in the B section. I think >> it was repeated. We got rid of one of them and combined >> in section B >> bullet >> four

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>> four. >> Um, you combined those ideas with refrain from making statements or promises as to how you will vote on matters that will be that will come before the public body until you've had an opportunity to hear the pros and cons of the issue in a public meeting. >> Right.

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>> Okay. >> Does that cover it, Christina? >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. Yep. No, I remember we we I I do remember that discussion and um >> I do too. >> Um I think a lot of our edits were to >> kind of condense and consolidate some repeating language and and and what was

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some unrealistic language of like how can you you know >> um Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Well, thank you for your time. >> Oh, no. Well, thank you. I appreciate the the feedback >> reading. Somebody's reading. >> Yeah. >> I said no. Somebody's reading the policies. But so we had gone through and Gretchen

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remind me I think we had stopped it just prior to section six or four. >> Yes. You you had you had gotten through everything um until enforcement. What I want to do very quickly is go over what Donna approved of the questions, right?

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Um, so she was totally fine getting rid of the repetitiveness. >> So, we don't need to repeat that the anti-harassment, sexual harassment, and workplace violence prevention policies that you just approved apply to everyone. Okay. >> Um, it's in one place and the comply as

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fully as possible with all town policies and applicable laws is now just one bullet listing all of the things. >> That's in section A. >> That is in section A. Yep. Uh the last bullet there, >> comply as fully as possible. Yep. Okay. And then we list all the two, four, six,

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seven. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And then we list them all. So we list the town policies followed by the applicable um Massachusetts general laws. And this is of course including without limitation. >> So if there are other Massachusetts general laws or other policies that

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might apply in a rarer situation for whatever reason, those laws would still apply. Um, and then we're fine in section B, C, and D in part four in distribution education. Um, I changed

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this language to get to what you determined regarding um the code of conduct and volunteer applications as notice of this code of conduct shall be included in the town's volunteer application form. The form shall include a field for applicants to certify that they have read and

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understood the content. Then um the summary of all of this is that then it goes to you. You would appoint or not appoint based on their application. Generally um it would go to the town clerk when

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they get sworn in with the town clerk. They would then sign be asked to sign a statement that they have read the policy and will comply with the policy. If they choose not to sign, you are alerted. Um, but at that point, as discussed, you have no

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recourse for unappointing them um in most cases. But that is what I believe you have asked for. So that is what is is there now and then we move on to the enforcement section. So anything on those before we >> before you get there? >> Yeah, let's stick on section four.

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>> Yeah. >> So I have a shall question. My understanding is >> if you're doing something you will, right? So the clerk will note and the clerk will alert the appointing authority whereas the appointed official shall be asked to sign I guess or

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something. I mean did you do the shells and wills with uh Miss Brewer >> Donna? Yeah. >> Yeah. They typically say shall >> they typically say shall like you shall do something means that you are going. >> So when do you use will then? >> If it's you don't >> you don't >> Well, there's some wills in here too.

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So, >> okay. >> Okay. I don't know. >> Shall may mean there's a difference, but I've never >> Donna corrected some of them. So, I assume that Donna was right. >> Okay. All right. >> And just a minor grammatical thing, but

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it I think that last sentence in four that the the final phrase that fact shall be noted by the town clerk on the form. And I I think you should say and the town clerk shall

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>> alert. Why did we say alert rather than notify the appointing authority? >> Right. >> You can use whatever language you would like. So that so uh shall be noted by the town clerk on the form >> and the town clerk shall notify the appointing authority.

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>> Shall notify the appointing authority. >> Yep. >> Yeah, I think that's right. When I first read four, and again maybe this doesn't matter from a legal standpoint, but the form shall include a field for applicants to certify that they have read and understood the

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content. I read that as they need to certify that they've done that. >> Well, they >> it's just a field that you >> they will be asked. I mean, I like the but they will be asked to sign the form. They don't have to sign it. >> No, I know >> they'll be but they you must be asked like it's not an oversight. I want

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people to certify, but it >> my only thing is when I first read it, the the form shall include a field to certify or I guess it's to certify or not certify. Well, I guess it's fine. Well, I have to sign a statement. >> Well, they're just >> the the intention is for

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>> it's just a field that you check or don't check. >> I am the active one in the shell there, right? Like I need to create a form that has the field. The field shall be there, >> right? >> And they it will be there. >> Yeah. Right. Like it's it's not that Yeah.

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Like it's going to be a check a checkbox button, right? Right. >> Um that people should check off saying that they have read this thing the same way you check off the the terms of literally everything and never read it. >> And it covers it at the end where you say in the event that any member

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declines to sign the form. >> Yeah. >> That fact >> sign the form or But is that different than signing a form? Is that different than certifying that they've read an >> Yes. >> Okay. >> So, you at your last meeting, >> I got the impression that you wanted to

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separate those two things, >> right? >> Yep. Okay. >> You want to make sure they've read. >> So, like one of them is like, "Hey, by the way, you're going to be asked to sign this." >> Oh, I Okay. >> When you get sworn in, >> this is the document that you're going to be asked to sign. >> I'm slow, but I'm catching up. So, the

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first sentence is really we're asking people to at least read it and understand it. >> Then they can decide whether they want to sign it, >> right? >> But we want everyone to at least read it. >> Yes. That's why it's notice of the code of conduct sh like

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>> the notice and the check off that like, hey, I told you about this, you can't say that you were surprised. >> Okay. Gotcha. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> I'm I'm inter. >> So if they decline to sign that they've read it, >> they indicate they've read it.

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>> But if they don't, then you stop their application's incomplete, right? They don't have to sign that they'll comply, right? But they do have to sign that they read it. Yeah. Yeah. >> They haven't read it. They should not be allowed to continue. That's a DQ, right? >> I would I would think so. >> Yeah.

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>> Okay. >> I mean, it's important. You should at least read the >> It's not that long. >> Or at least check the box that you read. >> Of course, like you're doing your like you're doing everything on the internet, right? Um, I just sorry I'm I I can't find my

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the original copy where I did some yellow highlighting. So now I'm looking at the red line copy. But um sorry, but I wanted to go back to uh uh three uh no B.

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No, sorry. Uh D, conduct in relation to town staff. Mhm. >> So, uh it says the third bullet, never attempt to resolve conflict by

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publicly criticizing an individual employee or a department outside of a public meeting. So, how that's trying to say publicly so publicly critic

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publicly criticizing outside of a public meeting means like you write a letter to the mosquito or you >> I'm not sure what >> or like ma make a Facebook live video. >> Make the what? >> Facebook live video. >> Oh, whoa. Whoa. Okay. >> Or go on City in the Woods

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>> apartment outside. Oh, right. Okay. Never attempt to resolve it. Blah blah blah. But then it says, "And conforming with all applicable laws." It feels like there's a some phrase in there that's missing. >> Grammar. There's a grammar issue. >> Yeah. I think I think something got

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messy in there. >> Never attempted >> in the live edit. >> Yeah. >> Uh let well >> maybe that's just a Maya one. >> Or maybe you just leave out >> that one wasn't edited. Yeah. >> With all applicable laws. Maybe it's

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somehow it was a cut and paste thing that happened. I don't know. >> But it was in the pre-marked anyway. It should probably come out. >> Yeah. You mean don't criticize him. But then it's okay to yell at him in a public meeting. I guess so, right? >> Well, because Yeah. Somewhere else. >> I mean, it has to be

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>> somewhere else. There is stuff about that that you >> you have to be decorum, I guess. Right. You should do it. >> Um or is that in the personnel? I can't remember. That it only it can be brought to a public meeting. has to be shared at

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a public meeting with your with the relevant committee I guess. Is that in the personnel policies or is that in the I can't remember. >> Well, that doesn't apply to volunteers though. >> Something about >> Well, this is about relation to town staff.

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>> Yeah. >> It's the town staff protection. >> So, just to clarify on that one are we're striking the words and forming with all applicable laws. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. is probably with respect. >> Um

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but I guess >> through private communication >> if you go back to B says um treat all members of the public body to which you belong with respect. So that's the public body but shouldn't you also treat everybody else with respect? So in other words

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>> it it's separated again David under conduct in relation to town staff. It's the first bullet. >> Yeah. >> Oh okay. >> Yeah. >> But okay wait a minute. Oh, yeah. Okay. Right. Right. Okay. >> I mean, I think it's the spirit of the >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. Got it.

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>> All right. So, >> I'm sorry. Did you have additional >> No, that was it. >> Um, so are we okay with section four? >> I'm okay with it. Yeah. >> Because I know >> is that D? No. D >> section No, section four.

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>> Okay. Distribution, the forms. Yes. So let's let's move on to section five which we have yet to discuss and I know Travis had a couple of comments that he provided me >> to relay. Um >> you have the mark. Is there much markup? >> There's no markup because we didn't

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state it. Okay. >> Yeah. Um, most of this is changed based on like carile processes and what council requested or suggested or said, "Hey, that's legal."

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>> Okay. >> Um, so most of these changes are either that like we have a process that is in our policies like in our personnel policies or whichever policies. Um so like the answer is to follow the process

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that's already described rather than make up a new one. >> Yeah. >> Also none of you liked the phrase disinterested outside firm. So we have switched it to independent third party cuz you were all like that feels weird and was like okay. >> Um and then everything else is from

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Donna really. um especially the like that a public body or public official is not permitted to conduct an investigation and investigation can only be done um by like the independent third party or or at the direction of the town

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administrator like you as an individual can't um go conduct an investigation on your own. That's that's illegal. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> The first I have the red and blue one um

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which is not coming through on the on the PDF. >> The red and blue one. >> Yeah, the one where you can actually um >> is that in the the word doc in the folder? >> Yes. >> Okay. But there was no markup. You said

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because we hadn't marked it yet. Hold on. No, the the markup remained um in section five because you didn't change it yet, >> right? So, there's no markup yet, right? >> No red line. >> So, what were Yeah, no. Well, >> ah, thank you, Aubrey. >> No problem.

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>> Can we Yeah, can we >> there? I'm working on it. >> It's going to show up. >> Oh, I Okay, I I see it now. >> Ah, so when when did that come? We did get that phone. >> When did that Yeah. When did we do that? >> I guess you didn't do this. >> You didn't do this. Oh, this is from uh

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town council and uh you. >> Yes. So, this is from the individual conversations with you. >> Oh, gotcha. Right. Right. Right. >> Except except David and Scott who decid who told me they didn't care. >> We didn't care. And then >> I didn't say I didn't care. Please.

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>> I said I deferred to the wisdom of the >> the rest. I provided comments originally. I didn't. But um so paragraph I guess it's two of this has to do when you when you violate these very specific bad things in the process

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that's paragraph two >> but any other thing like you you know did what we said you did the YouTube what did you call that or the face yeah Facebook something or other you did something like that >> you default out of paragraph three right like something

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>> well it dep it depends on the conduct, not the form of the conduct. Does that make sense? >> No. >> So, David, if um if John Doe >> Yeah.

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>> an elected official >> um decided to make a threat to a staff person or to another elected official, >> Yeah. on the internet like on a Facebook live >> on Tik Tok whatever that is still a

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threat. It doesn't matter that it came through in a video versus a message workplace violence, right? Doesn't that go >> I'm not talking about those bad things that policy would apply. >> Yeah. I'm talking about the more mild stuff because it

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>> the third paragraph any other provision of this code of conduct. >> So and so isn't treating a staff member with respect, >> right? yelled at her yelled at yelled at her in in the market >> or just like straight up it like within a board like the board rather than

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actually discussing an issue started fighting and and uh like like insulting one another, right? Like that's also a >> code of conduct problem if you're if you're insulting one another and shouting. >> But that if one of the committees under

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us did something, it would come up to us, right? That's appointing authority. >> Yes. Yes. >> But if we yell at each other, what happens then? >> Goes to the states. >> You're against Simon. >> No, it goes to the voters. The voters need to decide that you're uh >> Okay. >> You're you're being childish and and

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could >> But most of the >> most of the stuff happens and comes to us and then if we decide >> we would go to the town administrator and decide what to do. >> Um Okay. I mean, >> so yeah, the the language under both

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sections is is almost identical. It's just that um there's more like there's slightly stronger language in in this first paragraph, >> but you have to do it in the um you can't ignore >> the new one. Yeah. The one in front of

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us. >> You can't ignore the bad stuff. You have to you have to act, >> right? >> The other one you can decide if you want to act. So I agree with that. I would just say I in paragraph two overuse of the semicolon. I think there should be

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commas >> in the first sentence. >> I will double check with with council and our English majors. Um I would agree with you but I didn't I didn't write most of that. So um

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>> one also just suggestion Ry a word to add and maybe it's not necessary but in the fourth line of that second paragraph it says um >> the TA shall follow the process described in the applicable town policy. Should we be putting in the word

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personnel policy because all that's in >> So yeah, so it's specifically those policies >> and your fraud, waste, and abuse policy isn't a personnel policy. It's a separate policy. >> Oh, I see. Okay.

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>> Yeah. So like the first three are wrapped into the personnel policies, but the fraud, waste, and abuse policy is separate because that applies to >> everybody as well. >> Okay. Got it. >> Yeah. I think it's fine. Yeah, looks fine to me. >> Looks good to me. Right. Okay. I have two comments >> and we're good with the third paragraph.

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>> I have two comments questions from Travis that I want to make sure are discussed. Um he said in he he writes uh he had a a comment to the second paragraph of section five where it says if any elected or appointed official is

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accused of violating dot dot dot >> and he asked the question of protections against false accusations there don't seem to be any mechanisms in the section for an appeal no standards for what an accusation is I don't know that >> there's a way to do that I mean anyone

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can >> so that's built in okay, >> to the process described in in the like in the policy that is being referenced, right? So, if this this is also the case if somebody fills out one of our complaint forms online, >> right?

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>> Um it is investigated. >> Through the investigation, it is determined is this legitimate or not? >> And then and then we move down the flowchart. Right. Right. So that is that

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is the solve for that. The solve for that is just because you investigate something doesn't mean that there is a like an immediate result of that uh of that investigation the way that the complainant would would like. >> Okay. But but you could still go that

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way and then there's still there's also an appeal process in those uh sub policies >> um in some of them. >> Yeah. And that's also like why this allows for an independent third party >> to do it so that it's not just on the

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town administrator, right? But that's to arbitrate all of those things. >> That's partially an answer. But an independent third party would presumably not bring a bias because they don't know the people. >> But they may still in the in the eyes of

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the defendant incorrectly reach a conclusion that there was a violation and there should be an appeal process. And you're saying there is some mechanism. >> There are there are mechanisms, but it depends. It depends what the conduct is. >> That's probably outside of this. Yeah.

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>> So like that is that is definitely outside of the realm of policy. >> Yeah. >> And it it at that point goes to council and our insurance company. >> I mean, anybody can sue anybody over anything, right? >> Right. >> Correct. >> Then you don't have to be elected, appointed, nothing. You could be walking down the street.

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>> So, okay. >> His his sorry, his comment was specific to um >> that was one comment was >> because I protection against false accusations. >> Yeah. So I maybe it doesn't get maybe it's not shouldn't be in here but then

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you have the so what so if it's made publicly the false AC accusation then it's out there right and so there's no >> but maybe that would be a select board decision or committee decision right to say okay we're going to

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>> send a letter to the mosquito or post something to say this was a false action just for the per Right. The person's reputation kind of >> I mean if if it so I mean the main one is like a violence or sexual harassment if >> if an employee came forward and said

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that person groped me >> we have to act you can't ignore it. >> Absolutely. Yeah. >> But if after interviewing the people some third party I mean we would h if it was me and I'm on select board and it's serious I'm going to go to a professional. No, no, but my point was

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different, which is >> let's say a staff person has says that happened, but they come to a public meeting and make that >> No, I'm right. I hadn't gotten finished yet, but we had an example of that. >> The independent third party if it's serious and we have to act per this,

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>> right? >> And we should, it doesn't say it, but we should hire >> like a pro who knows how to do that. Interview everybody. If at the end of all that that professional opinion is there was a misunderstanding, he slipped, I don't know, whatever.

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There's no there there. Yes. Then I mean we should as good practice say we did an investigation, >> so and so was publicly called out and it turned out not to be or at least in the eyes of the >> independent third party. Yeah. I mean that would be >> but that would just sort of be I guess

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uh situation specific. >> Yeah. And then you just, you know, you say sometimes if someone comes into a public meeting and says it, then you should just say, "Well, thank you for that input. We will investigate." And >> yes, >> I mean, you can't, >> yeah, you can't ignore it if they make a public statement, but you can determine

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hopefully quickly if there's reason to do a full-blown investigation. >> His other comment was um and I I think I know the answer to this one, but I want to I want to raise it anyway. Um the concept of uh is the enforcement section

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I'm sorry is that yeah section five language where the TA at the TA's discretion share or not share the findings. M >> um and he just I think Travis was um fine if the intention was

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um that it allowed for the TA if if if in their investigation they realized it was nothing or could be handled in a non-public way. It gives them that ability to not >> Right. >> Yeah. And that's the intent. It's it's not to require the TA to report publicly

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everything because then it >> Right. Um, so he was just he just wanted to clarify that the intention was um it allows for not everything to be put on quote trial for an accusation. >> And I think that's what that's my

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understanding of why why that language is there. >> I would say that's right. >> And we just we just have to make you know >> could a TA theoretically abuse that power? Yeah. But then that's incumbent on >> Yeah. more like I think back to Barney's point that >> if an accusation was made publicly and

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it's a serious accusation I think we do have to have closure publicly >> right >> you can't just say you can't be silent you can say >> yes >> investigation was conducted there was no finding and leave it at that unless somebody >> wants to keep prying but you can't just

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say >> not we need to be responsive >> publicly so anything in the in the paragraph two >> y stuff in the paragraph three stuff. If if we determined that that was just two people yelling at each other in the hallway, we might say, "Fine, just you

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guys cut it out, right? Don't yell at me, right? Be respectful." >> Okay. Okay. I'm good. >> I'm good. >> Any other comments? And so, are we ready to So, we made a couple of edits tonight that that are reflected in the version on the screen.

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Correct. >> Well, I don't know about script. I know. >> I'm go I'm scrolling up to the top to do it. roll slowly back down >> so we can all the way through. >> I think the idea is we can approve the um code of conduct as amended. >> Yep.

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>> Yep. All right. I move that we approve the code of conduct uh as amended tonight. >> Second. >> Second. >> Any further discussion or deliberation? >> Can Can you give me an effective date, please? >> Oh 26 26.

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>> Yeah. Effective May 26, 2026. Boom. Okay. So, it's seconded. Um, any further discussion or deliberation? Seeing none, we will do a voice vote. All in favor? >> I >> I opposed.

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>> Motion carries. >> All right. >> Wow. >> Look at that, man. >> Excellent. >> Now, I There is no Is there There's no TA report tonight, correct? >> There is not. >> Okay. >> He gave it mosquitoes. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So, uh, item nine, review of warrants and minutes. We have two

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minutes. Yes. The minutes from May 12th and the minutes from May 18th was just prior to town meeting. That was a very brief meeting. Um, folks have any comments or edits to those? If not, does someone want to make

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a motion to approve those minutes? >> I make a motion to approve the minutes from May 12th and May 18th. >> Is there a second? Second. >> Any further discussion or deliberation? Seeing none, we will do a voice vote.

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All in favor? I opposed. >> Oh, there's what? >> I haven't read them. Nem Nimble is misspelled in. >> It should be necklac. Correct. >> Nem. >> Okay. >> Gretchen, are you still there? >> No.

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>> Oh, yeah. She's there. We'll get Neml. >> Nem is any or we'll request that they change your name to comply with our minutes. AC. >> Yeah. Right. >> New England something something. I don't know. >> New England. >> Page one of 10 of the minutes. Uh,

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>> okay. >> David finding the typos to the end. >> Well, I didn't read it. >> Just scrolling. May 12th. Okay. >> All right. >> That's my last official >> liaison reports. >> I've got a quick one. >> Yes, please. >> Okay. Um

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so the uh you know the town meeting uh passed the amenities building the CPA uh recommendation to fund the amenities building for CCHS. >> Conquered had already done so. So thank you. Thank you uh Gretchen and Kelly.

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They have because we had to write a totally different kind of CPA grant agreement from the usual one. So, just to inform you that the draft we had a we had a phone discussion with the superintendent and the finance um head

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and the uh select board chair in conquered oh maybe 10 days ago. And so now we've got a draft that is going to them went to them today thanks to um Gretchen. And hopefully my goal is to

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get that signed before I'm not on the that would have the authority but if necessary somebody else will sign it. Um, so that just wanted to let you know that. And then the other is um because I will report back depending on the I'll

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report back no matter what. The recreation commission um is having a meeting tomorrow night specifically to discuss the um CPA

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approved uh grant agreement for uh the renovation or restoration of this balding field baseball field. And I won't go into the details, but that was approved at town meeting, not this year,

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but last um a year ago, year and a half ago, and it's not actually begun because of a number of issues that I won't go into. But the recreation commission is meeting tomorrow night to decide uh among

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several options. Um, and depending on what they decide, we may or may not go ahead with that grant agreement. So, just to let you know, and I will I will pass that back on to everybody after the meeting

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tomorrow night and let the rest of the and the CPC rep from RECCOM will be at the meeting tomorrow night and the CPC rep from the historic um commission commission will be on the in the meeting tomorrow night, too. >> Okay. Okay.

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>> Are you um gonna join CPA as at large? >> No. >> You're gone. >> Well, I'm I'm >> hopefully I'm out of town by September. >> Besides, we did. You're up. You're voting on Karen at at the first June meeting to be the member at large.

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>> Oh, okay. >> Oh, okay. >> She's already in the wings. Okay. Right. That's it. >> Anything else? >> All right. >> Okay. Let's do a last check for community input. Seeing none, we'll move to adjournment.

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And before we adjourn, I'd like to request that you both take your name plates with you tonight. >> Oh, the plate as well. Gretchen said we could not take the holder. >> Oh, come on, Gretchen. >> I'm just I'm just kidding. I'm just

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kidding. I'll take the holder. It's real gold. >> You want the holder and not the Oh, no. >> No, no. I don't want to hold her. >> Yeah. No, I'm teasing you. Gretchen had written this right. We could take the just the name plate. >> All right. So, >> thank you, Scott. >> Gretchen, thank you for all your work. >> Yes. Thank you, Gretchen.

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>> You write excellent minutes, I have to say. >> And codes of conduct. >> I'm going to miss you guys. >> Barney, do you want to take us out with a motion to adjurnn? >> Oh, sure. Let's adjourn. >> David, you want to second that? >> Second.

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>> All in favor? voice. >> Hi. >> Where's Rocky? >> Play the Rocky music. >> Really? Play Rocky. >> What's his exit music? >> Right. >> I don't see that. Go ahead. >> Great. >> I still >> Thank you all. >> Uh yeah, music.

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>> You can shut it down. >> And meeting for all. Goodbye. Okay.