all right all good 5:30 yeah okay sweet good evening and welcome to the 5:30 meeting of the bylaw Review Committee and so this evening we have members of the committee we have Ralph Paige we have Rich fero Jim Liden I'm ex officio
as the council president Conor OA we have Mark did you say Manas manakis and then we have George Kingston uh two other members of the committee that aren't present we have Timothy Manning and we have Ryan quinby as well so the first item is to just introduce
ourselves so we said who everyone's name is and I think most of us know each other right maybe aside from Mark if you just W to yeah give us everyone a little bit of background so we know who you are yeah yeah of course so um I moved from
wam five years ago this August um so back in wam I was on the finance committee and the Personnel Advisory Board um this should be my second thing in this I had a brief s when I moved on the rec commission and then I dropped off that to try to start up a
fundraising arm of the rec department um the East Long medal Foundation couldn't really get much traction there but um I come from a family with a long history being involved in the communities um so looking to continue that here great well welcome aboard yeah thank you good to be
here so then I think our second thing was to elect a chair or a co-chair depending on how the committee felt they wanted to do that is there anyone interested I would be interested in a co-chair um if someone else would like
to step up and do the chair I just have a lot on my plate coming up and I wouldn't want to take on something that I can't fulfill 100% yeah that makesense I'd be more than willing to to help and do whatever I can to keep everything moving
along if no one else was interested I did ask Ryan and he was open to co-chairing as well I will not stand in his why someone want to make a motion and make a motion nominate Brian as a
co-chair great I'll second that okay made and seconded any further discussion okay seeing none all those in favor please say I any opposed congratulations to our co-chairs well I I actually why don't we just say Ryan's
the chair and help him out as that way there there's no confusion why don't we make you Vice chair okay I can do that that way if he's not here you can run the meeting okay so I nominate Ralph for vice chair second
second okay motion made and seconded to uh make Ralph the vice chair any other discussion seeing none all those in favor please say I opposed congratulations Vice chair uh it's up to you but I think the only two other things that we had as this
first kickoff meeting was just to go over the kind of the background of what the committee is tasked with and then to set the meeting schedule for how the committee wants to proceed going forward um I think you also I did send out a
little memo just on some overview of the the committee so there's a couple notes in there I mean one of course is that we're reviewing all of the bylaws in town including zoning but we were lucky enough to get a grant that will help us with the zoning piece of that so as we
get closer to that section we can engage with the town manager's office to somehow I never got your email okay I will try to re forward it to you okay um just a question on the grant sure um what does the grant entail what
does it Encompass um I I read what it sounds like but it sounds like it's there um as a back up however we want to use it are we going to we're going to hire a consultant to help us with it or can we use it because I believe that
Charter says that we have to do this under the watchful eye I guess basically of our attorney so can we use it to pay for him to do all of the the work I I just am not sure what it really honestly
me either we will definitely have to if we if we can cover some of the cost of the attorney reviewing all of this I think that would be great too sounds like we need to look at the application we put in yeah so I reached out I sent an email to Tom um truthfully I haven't
checked my emails responded I also mentioned maybe getting an administrative assistant to take notes and kind of keep us focused and on that also having someone here during our meetings so we could freely discuss Al one of us having to take
notes so one thing I'd love to see um George is probably very familiar with it is the Denver rule um we keep meetings roughly to an hour um and that way there no one is losing track and losing thought process so just keep them
focused do what we need to get done and on to the next subject I would second that like no that's a good idea and it would also help because then you could say like there's a couple defined things you're G to talk about it right of like we're reviewing 50 bylaws
and can can we this may jumping ahead but can we get a copy of the bylaws in editable form in Google Docs or something like that so that we can all mark it up and uh then discuss
it so I know we can get it all in like a word form for um that I know is is possible I wasn't sure if anyone wants an actual hard copy I'm I'm kind of oldfashioned I'd like a hard I would also like a hard copy but I I know that
when we did the bylaws and the charter um having a single copy like in uh Google Docs yeah where we can um mark it up and each person then their markup is
identified with them so that uh we're sharing our thoughts that way and uh I think that's legal to do that um it makes it a lot easier than having somebody trying to say you
know is there any quum issues with that any issues with that like I know I know committies can do votes sometimes through email or not but I wasn't sure but if it's a live document that can be public then I think it gets kind of tricky I
think if you're maybe flagging things as like comments that you want to discuss or using it as like a working document in the meeting but I think if there starts to be deliberation outside of the meeting through the document that would be you can't deliberate but I you can mark it up and then deliberate on the
markups at the meeting yeah just say I want to discuss this instead of having a conversation of comments yeah yeah yeah yeah we can definitely look into to seeing if we can get them all into one but yeah I would like a hard copy because I don't like sitting in front of screens same way I like a hot carpet
much rather sit in a nice comfortable chair a coffee I would have mind a hard coffee as well what can we get one for everybody Conor yeah I don't that's a lot of prin though I don't need one we already have
memor would be great so also be good to get a copy of the charter for everybody that's fairly short but we want to make sure that anything we do or recommend I should say is consistent with the charter
okay yeah that sounds good I'll add that to the to-do list what was the thing you mentioned too oh asking more about the grant just so that we know what it entails the application will tell you what we ask the town asks for and
usually you have to spend the money the way you said you're going to do it in the application y right yeah that sounds good then I think let's see I think there were just a couple things
um two about then the process so the report has to be submitted to the council by March 15th of next year and then the council has 90 days to vote on whatever was recommended from the committee but everyone on the committee
is appointed through the end of that fiscal year so you know the majority of the work should be done by March but if we found that hey there's some follow-up things or we didn't get through everything there is the possibility that we could do some followup workout after the March time frame and will we be
getting an appointment letter I can send you an official one too yeah so just we have it and we go down and get sworn in usual stuff sounds like you've done this before jge far too many
times keep trying to retire and it doesn't work I know the feeling and then I also listed a few things to consider but certainly there's many more things to to review through the bylaws but just some things to keep in mind like there's the aspect of
recodification so whether we're just going to reformat or Shuffle things around or reum things or rename things but of course then do we add language do we remove language do we change what's already there another thing that I thought was a consistent theme since Ralph introduced
the fee fine and penalty schedule as we go through all of them if we can make sure that everything's either there or that they're consistent between the two places um and then other references to things whether it's our own bylaws Mass general laws or other random uh state regulations or something
if are they still valid or so most of those should be valid because ecode actually did all of that they had their attorneys yeah correspond but it doesn't hurt to double check Y and certainly any any changes we recommend we need to make
sure that they're consistent right all that good stuff right techically we are we like basically going Page by Page in this book is that what we're going to do that our format I mean it's up to you guys in terms of how you want to tackle it but at some point they all have to be
reviewed whether you want to work from front to back and say I'm a leral guy so it makes sense start page one yeah good because I already found errors I was actually we've spent so many hours on this you would think that
everything was pretty much worked out and um when I started in the table of contents trying to find the building department and it's not listed um it's not listed one of our departments it's tucked in under planning and Community Development but
it should be in the table of contents under them little things like that that this is why you have multiple sets of eyes on it everyone will pick up on something yeah agreed and and certainly too as the process goes
along doesn't have to just be the committee looking at everything other people can provide input to whether it's the department heads or even the council and planning board and I'm sure everyone over the years we have our own little lists of oh yeah we should remember to look at that next time we look at them
so I'm sure everyone will have something to I me certainly anything on planning we need to run by the director of planning absolutely yeah so I know this is just from or organizational meeting but that would be one thing I would suggest at our first meeting is pick out sections and say
okay this is a planning at least have them review that to see if there's anything they would like to see changed um as we start going through it and you know health department and all the different departments have them look it over um yeah that makes good sense we
want to make decisions that might affect the department when they know better than we we may at the time right right I like it may be language too I mean simple little things oh we call it this now instead of this I didn't know that yeah I think the more collaborative we
can be the better off will be yeah great so that was my general overview unless anyone had any other so thoughts or comments the bylaws are basically broken into two groups the general bylaws and then the
zoning it would be my suggestion that we start with General bylaws because it's the easiest but it also gives us a chance to say to the planning department we will be reviewing down the road the zoning please give us your suggestions on adjustments changes you want to make
because it's going to take them the longest the zoning is just as long as the general bylaws so essentially not get too far ahead we could be reviewing the bylaws and send out the zoning PL to them while we're doing two things at ex
yeah yeah if you're always kind of like a couple meetings ahead like oh two meetings from now we're going to look at this department send it off to them ahead of time and four months from zoning so how do we get hard copies do we stop by the clerk's office I'll ask
jeie tomorrow and see how we can get all the different copies of everything I mean it's easy I I can I'm down in town hall all the time the library so if they've got copies I can just stop in if she you tell her that we're authorized to get them yeah gonna have to make them it's gonna take a
while it's a few pages to print she going to be like you want what I know but rather use your your ink and toner than mind a lot of PAG we want to set like a goal for next
meeting for like what the first B we review are they want to get through I'm thinking the first meeting we've got to get all the hard copies we got to get a people so that way there at least you can flip through and get a general feel and then at the first meeting you know we could probably just
start and say hey let's quickly go through like the table of contents yeah well I guess what I'm hearing that a goal for that next meeting would be H copies of of the bylaws and you said the charter cor right George and then you want Ryan could set up the Google Docs
document I'm sure correct Ryan could do that um we should review the application at that the agenda item on the first meeting revie the application correct yeah that would be a good idea yeah and then then move from there and I know we have to give Genie
time to make all those copies too so probably looking maybe off two or three weeks so how many C we making you already have one one two Mark I would just suggest yeah making I'll check with Ryan he generally doesn't want the but I think
everybody else will probably want one minus him and Ralph if already has so at least five I would say right do we want to think about what the general meeting schedule might look like I like I like R what we call the
Denver law once you meet you're only meeting for an hour yeah I like that one hour yeah the hour is good do we have like a particular like I mean it's up to you guys but if there's a particular day of the week or time or yeah or if it's different Tuesdays are not
good yeah okay let's break that out um Thursdays are pretty good except for the first Thursday of the month Wednesdays work for me I'm good Wednesdays too yeah Wednesdays and Thursdays are good for me yeah I'll be good with
Wednesdays in two or three weeks but Thursdays are Thursdays are fine for now okay work yeah yeah and I think Ryan was good with most yeah he said but I think Tuesday something I so we could always shoot for
Thursday for the next one and then if it needs to bounce between Wednesdays and Thursdays as time goes on that's yeah timing good what times work still like a 5:30 or a six or for me the earlier the better but you know I'm with charge I
think our age would us earlier than I mean right now it doesn't matter to me but once season start April and all yeah if we keep it to an hour 5:30 to 6:30 works for me you know even seven but I
don't want to go much later than that six o'clock be okay yeah six should work okay six would work yeah it works for me okay six to seven yeah um we'll have to check and
see what's going to be available and how often are we looking at um the library is always open at that time I don't know if that helps at all no Thursdays it's not don't they close at 9 on Thursdays is it Thursday yeah no it's Tuesday and
Wednesday that they close at 9: Thursday they close early you do okay it seems like generally this was available this time on Thursdays but unless they have a random event don't you two have access do L
anyway yeah we do it's just whether or not it's being used for something oh conference room here which is small conference big enough for the this group and there is the yeah I guess there's like four rooms in here there's the auditorium there's this there's the other conference room and then there's the rec conference
room yeah I mean we always have here the the small conference room at the new building true that's usually avelable especially that would be available um we would just have to you have spot each of the first meetings that's that what we
like the same spot all the time in the past I've gone to the wrong building this is at the school for this NOP that's a Council of Aging and so there is the the superintendent meeting room with the school
also I think they've somewhat stopped using it only with the high school construction because there's no way to get into it from the back for like public access at the moment yeah yeah go find a place yeah I'll connect with Genie tomorrow about the the hard
copies and stuff and depending on how long that takes we can always play in the next meeting whether it's a week or two weeks from now depending on the lead time for all of that that's good yeah when do you how much like bi-weekly weekly monthly what are you
thinking that's at least every other week maybe want to keep some momentum once we start yeah but works well I think we could get as much done as possible before the summer right yeah I would highly suggest by weekly and then
if all of a sudden we're getting into you know December January we may have to adjust accordingly but um we come in and hit it hard for one hour get that done we we should be able
to if we do our homework it's going to go real quickly I think because I of it is going to be fine just the way it is and it's going to be a few issues that we're going to focus in on that going to take time yeah I know there's stuff in zoning
that probably needs to be addressed and probably conservation if it was up to the planning department we would rewrite the entire zoning portion rewrite the entire zoning portion but that's more than we we are ready to
do and again it's one of those you want to try and get it as accurate as possible especially on the zoning aspect there's a lot of a lot of changes that could be made um and again we'll see once we get to it yeah I mean zoning
though it's a very sensitive issue it affects everybody any change you propose you're going to hear about from everybody like as we know and as you know from sitting on the most recent one but even Small Things yeah uh and like
anything zoning in particular you change one thing it affects 10 other things right so you got to be really gentle about that and potentially too you know maybe you don't always have to in the report that's submitted to the council
like actually have a whole ton of zoning changes you know all in form of adoption but you could at least recommend to the council maybe we should take a further look at these things as time goes on exactly we can always take that up over the coming years too yeah I think that's something for this committee to decide
there'll be small changes that we can do that won't ruffle any feathers or anything be good the larger ones you may just keep a tally on a separate sheet yeah suggestions but we don't have the language for IT Major
Chang you know I mean like the whole battery storage thing yeah not addressed in in zoning at all yep and that's that's a it could become a big issue depending on what happens in town right
for solar isace what for solar yeah solar yeah yeah or or anything when the having a lot of fires at these these battery storage places you know you can't put them out that's the
problem yeah yeah they start and they just keep going either you got to try and foam or you cover them with the blanket and um or it takes so much water to to actually D some yeah but you you got to make sure you've got separation between that and schools and houses and
things you know great so we'll start every other week yeah what night did we choose Thursday I already forgot um I'll wait my email Conor sure if I could be so bald is maybe the it's it's nice to set the
agenda for the next meeting ending this meeting so I give you what I think would be our agenda I guess first would be the distribution of the hard copies of the bylaws and chatter all we can pick them up as George says sure the second thing is we have to review the application I
would think Y and and then third would be um process that we're going to follow but two weeks from now is the first Thursday and I can't do that because I've got another meeting at
night that's tired this this is not town this is the this is the the uh veterans the workan legion which I've been going to and I need to coordinate some things between them and the
town I think we give Genie time to make all those copies too so yeah we can always through email figure out the next exact time once once we get an idea on how long that might take to print them all up um so yeah for next meeting it would be hard copies reviewing the Grant
application figuring out the process you want to follow and maybe the only other thing is if there's you know a bylaw or two section that you want to send it like refer to a department if you're going to get to it you know sooner than later oh you may
want to put down Ryan um um setting up the Google Docs uh line can I look at that is there a link on there is if you go to the town's Main page the like button all the way to the right side says to code and that'll
bring you ites like say zoning wow yeah zoning chapter 450 it's a lot again ecode when we did it yeah did a really good job breaking a lot of this down and separating it out and uh
correcting a lot of the errors under master General law and stuff but um like I said we picked out um certain situations where you know we're suggesting a $100 fine and it's a bylaw violation well in the bylaws it says it
should be a $200 fine and it's like which one do you go with yeah um items like that will have to be discussed and but now we have a fee schedule so we put them right into it yeah or do we even want the fees in the bylaws themselves or just say see the fee schedule
whatever yeah that way you don't have to change every B every time you change the fee schedule right yeah the nice thing was the little bit of language that we came up with when we change the fee schedule and amend any portion of the bylaw so
affected by this let EOD do that all right if there's nothing else I'll take a motion to adjourn so moved second motion made in second and to adjourn any other discussion okay seeing none all those in favor please stay hi
hi all right we are returned at 556 thank you excellent