##VIDEO ID:vyEcrGOSc_w## [Music] [Music] hi it's Brandon from cran Appliance since 1983 our goal as a family-owned company has been simple to give our neighbors on the cap and Islands a great shopping experience rest easy knowing our professional team will listen to your needs and help you pick the perfect appliances for your home at crane Appliance we know how difficult Appliance shopping can be our team is here for you crane Appliance we call the cap and Island's home Carlson printing 508 548 7303 our email address is Carlson printing aol.com Carlson printing for all your printing needs needs John's Liquor Store 729 Main Street fouth 508-5474 um we are having a work sh meeting with a presenter today and I'd like to begin the meeting by um asking you to join me for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to stands na God indivisible withy Justice for All what did I say Monday sit oh nice Sunday hey that will live in for me I've been corrected it is Saturday all right at your um at your seats you should have a couple of documents um you should have a case study um a copy of the the Falmouth committee handbook with appendix D the leaon policy you should have the code of conduct and you should have two org charts um in preparation for this meeting you had a cop copy of the Massachusetts select board handbook sent to you and you had a uh a copy of our presenter Bill cot's biography so I would like to introduce Bill sinot and welcome him here to Falmouth and ask him to take it away thank you Nancy yeah good morning everybody morning relax this will be a very casual uh discussion uh I welcome feedback don't wait for a question portion of the uh of the program because you won't find one the entire program is interactive so you know please uh feel free to to chime in or ask a question or or make a statement uh the whole idea of this presentation is to uh make you better Selectmen uh not through what I'm going to instruct you uh you know there was a a famous English satirist in the 18th century named Samuel Johnson and he said something that's stood the test of time he says uh uh people at the time he said men uh don't need so much to be instructed as they do to be reminded uh and a lot of what we're going to be covering uh today are are are things in fact most of it will be things that you're familiar with that you have knowledge of but you need to be reminded of it and one of those things is the value of Public Service let me just uh tell you if you look at my bio your first reaction is going to be this guy can't hold it job uh you know I mean I've done a lot of lot of different things I've been very fortunate and blessed uh to have some great bosses and some some great opportunities uh but what the um biography uh does not tell you uh on by the way I'm obliged to uh uh give you this disclaimer that anything I say to you today is not attorney client uh uh privileged uh and we do not have an attorney client relationship this is for training purposes only uh and and this next one should come with a trigger warning um before you have to look at that picture uh but you're stuck with it for a moment at least uh what isn't in my bio is I'm a Boston Irish kid I mean I grew up in uh uh the city of Boston uh I I live two houses away from the house I grew up in uh you know where my mom and dad were you know until they passed away uh some time ago but my four little girls had Nan and POA 90 ft away uh and that's about as Boston Irish as you can get but when I was growing up uh we were surrounded by politics my dad was the press secretary for John Collins a two-term mayor of Boston in the early uh 60s he was the last of the city sensors he was the abandoned Boston guy uh and uh it was not uncommon for my friends to want to go up to my father's office because he had autographed photographs of some of the uh uh world famous strippers that would perform at the old Howard Lounge uh like an Coro and Angela the upside down girl I'll leave that to your own imagination as you get that name uh but uh you know it was it it was a different era and uh uh politics just kind of embraced us uh you know my house like so many houses had the shrine the photo of JFK and and sometimes JFK and Jackie uh and that was typically in a you know the front hall or a how place in in in the house uh and uh you know JFK was was a presence uh for for all of us uh and uh the cardinal sin in my household was not voting my mother and father would bring us uh little ones into the voting booth uh I don't even know if you can still do that I I hope you can because it made such an impression on my three brothers and I that this was important you know and when that you know when that curtain Shut uh you felt like you were doing something very momentous very significant uh and we were and and and my folks were uh and you you hope that that at least that feeling carries on uh not with everybody but with a lot of people because you want people to understand that it's important and you want them to understand it's important important because you want them to participate um I um I joined the the Marine Corps because I felt that that call to service and and I had a you know Wonderful three decades of active and and reserved Service uh and uh you know felt like it was uh it was something uh important uh I I then got off active duty state in the reserves and I uh was an assistant district attorney in in Nori County a guy named Bill delahunt was my da back in in the day in the U in the uh late uh mid 80s uh I would say 1985 to 1990 uh and then I became an assistant us attorney and uh prosecuted organized crime and uh drug trafficking cases and you know that was about as much fun as a lawyer can have uh you know we had great cases great opponents uh you know some real dog fights but you understood that uh you were part of the system you appreciated the fact that the folks on the other side were playing an important role in the system and and I think nowadays we don't have enough appreciation for how that advocacy role whether it's in government or in the court system is so important you know you may not I may not have liked the uh uh things that a particular defendant did but I always saw myself as a professional I always tried to teach the defend treat the defendants with courtesy y to treat their families with courtesy uh and to treat their lawyers with courtesy because that's makes the system better at at some point I in fact I remember it I came back from military duty overseas I think i' been in R to Spain for three weeks uh on a reserve assignment came back got a phone call from a couple of friends of mine uh who were very experienced politicos and they said uh Bill uh I know you love your job at us attorney's office but uh Joe moley just passed away while you were gone uh and uh U they're going to have a special election to to fill a seat you should run for it I said you know I said I I was thinking about running for da at some point but they said well you know you've been an anonymous fed for years this will get your name out there and and you know be a good experience for you and it was it was the only congressional election in the country because it was a a special uh and uh uh and Joe for those of you that are familiar with him Joe moley he was a a family friend but just an iconic figure South Boston uh uh Democrat uh lied uh to uh joined the Navy at the age of 16 uh and served in the Pacific uh you know the old breed then came back and was a state it was a State Rep a state senator and then a congressman he knew how to play hard ball but he also knew how to build consensus and bring people together uh that federal courthouse in Boston is a monument to him uh it's the moley Courthouse but it's also a monument to his influence because every brick in that courthouse and it's a brick Courthouse which you don't see very often was put in there by the unions the Bricklayers Union that had supported Joe uh throughout his career um so you know I said let me let me give it some thought you know and then I I said said you know I'm going to do it I'm going to run I left the US attorney's office on shorter notice than I would have loved because I would have loved to have you know had the proper Pass Downs of my files and all of that uh but I I left and I jumped into what at that point was a nine-week special election for the ninth the ninth congressional district as it was then it's no longer uh the ninth with redistricting and and the whole district has changed a little bit it was fascinating you know because we're the only election going on we had uh 20 televised debates uh and uh you know lots of attention lots of press and and I was completely clueless you know they'd ask a question of myself and there were I think seven Republicans and including uh uh Democrats including four state senators uh and there were another three or four Republicans running but they were they'd combine these debates so there'd typically be about 10 of us at these debates and they'd ask me a question where I'd have a minute and a half to answer and I'd give a very direct honest answer in 25 seconds and then I'd stop and the other candidates would look at me and then they'd jump in and start giving their stump speeches and I learned after a couple of these debates that's what you did you give your stump speech you know no matter what the question was you talk about what you want to talk about after a perfunctory uh you know uh addressing of the the particular question um but enjoyed it immensely uh you know great experience became good friends with the eventual winner uh I mean I was the ultimate long shot in this thing I think I came in fifth behind the four state senators uh but uh enjoyed it uh and uh uh thought you know this is this is something special um and uh as we headed towards election day U I knew that you know I wasn't going to get elected but I you know I wanted to do things the right way so I voted On That September morning uh and I came back to my Headquarters A couple of my folks were there and uh I called up a city counselor that was a high school classmate of mine and I said Steve uh what do I do now and he says well you go to the polling places and and you shake hands of the people that are coming in I said okay I said you know any particular place he said yeah go to the places where you most likely to get votes because you want to you know you really want to turn them out and those are the people who seeing you is is is going to remind them who you are and they're going to say I maybe I'll give Senate a vote instead of Lynch or instead of uh you know this this state senator or this other individual so I was about to leave to go to the uh uh the first location which was formerly my Elementary School uh now now an archives when the woman in the Whey uh office next to us came in and said did you guys hear said what are you driving some idiot just drove his plane into the World Trade Center so we turned on the TV and uh you know grainy black and white and and we say oh my God what a knucklehead and then we saw another one get hit and everybody just went quiet you know at that point there were probably four or five of us in in in the office uh and everybody was stunned I mean you know the the election for the 9th took a distant back seat to what was going through everybody's mind uh and the word came that the Secretary of State uh you know Bill Galvin sometimes known as the Prince of Darkness um would uh cancel that election because you know it was just going to be uh so difficult to do that with the mental state that everybody was in but uh so you know we had probably an hour there we weren't sure what was going to happen so I did what every Boston Irish Catholic does I went to mass you know and it was full of people that just wouldn't typically be there at 8:00 on a Tuesday morning because I think people just didn't know what to do uh and I left there and I went to the hemway school uh and uh the Lynch's guy was was an old friend of mine his kids went to the uh parochial school that my kids went to and that my wife was was principal of so Tony and I had a you know great conversation and you can imagine what most of the talk was about turnout was supposed to be very low that day it ended up being higher than expected but it was just an incredible scene where we're standing by the the side entrance of the Hemingway school what used to be the Hemingway school and people are driving up and you can hear the radios and all the radios in the cars are playing the same thing World Trade Centers have been attacked uh Pentagon has been attacked where is the next next attack going to come from uh and uh people were getting out of their cars and they just had you know I mean a lot of them were were pale and and and distra but most of them had a look of determination and and I suspect a lot of people came up and voted that wouldn't have in a you know special election that day because they just wanted to do something and at one point I said to Tony I said Tony I said I can't believe this I just got this this remembrance this this memory of when I was in second grade and I was sitting in the classroom over on that side of the building Mr cesso was my my teacher and the principal walked in and whispered something in her ear and she just crying sobbing and then she said the president has been shot President Kennedy has been shot of course you know we five six years old we you know we we knew who the president was I knew who he was CU I looked at his picture every time I came through my my door but we weren't sure what what that really meant and I can remember walking out that same door that Tony and I were standing at walking towards my home which was just a 5 minute walk away and hearing the transistor radios playing out of people's windows and passing people that were dist crying sobbing uh or angry uh and I I said to Tony I I said this just these are two parts of my life coming together in in a way that I I would never have wanted them to but uh I I said there's there's this tragic symmetry to all of that um you know most of you have seen this photograph of John John saluting at his father's funeral procession uh you know tragic tragic moment you know for those of us of of of a certain generation uh that's one of those things that you'll always remember where you were you'll always remember uh how you felt much like 911 um I remember standing there watching the TV my mom sitting on the coffee table crying I'm the same age as him yeah yeah well I'm I'm almost 67 and uh you know I mean I'll never forget it and I'll never forget that moment in my headquarters watching that second tower uh get hit um but the Symmetry continues because Kennedy um you know for all the you know the Scandal that's been revealed and Affairs and things like that he was an inspirational leader he knew how to make people feel like government was important that that patriotism was important that there was a mission to be performed um and one of the things he said you know you've heard him his quote of you know uh ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country another quote he made that's relevant to you guys is he says government is not a spectator sport uh it it requires your participation but this quote has always resonated with me especially as I think about you know those two bookended uh tragic events to whom much is given uh much is required and he didn't originate that uh I think it first appeared in the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament U and and you know it wasn't exactly those words but it was pretty close to it but it's got a Biblical origin and uh JFK knew a uh a moment phrase uh when he heard it and he regularly would would say this and of course he was a child of of privilege uh and uh uh he understood that that was going to be something that people would reference so you know he made a virtue of necessity uh and and used that as a tagline for for how he felt not only he and his family should conduct themselves but how Americans should conduct themselves um you know and and as I think about that that expression uh you know calls into me things that that you should be feeling and that maybe you don't need to be instructed on but you need to be reminded in the words of Samuel Johnson that what you're doing is very special and it's very difficult nowadays because there's a lot of conflicting forces at work and you guys experience them on probably a regular basis during meetings and and outside of meetings where uh there's an anger there's a division that is is not an easy thing to be a leader uh in in that environment uh but you need to understand you got you're doing something special you should have pride in that uh but there's also responsibility that comes with that you know much is is required uh and there needs to be an awareness of how to best do your job and we'll talk more about that later uh but that awareness of where you fit into the governmental structure of Select boards in general but governance uh in in in uh on a larger scale is critical because what you do is very very important um and I've got this here because what I'd like to do is just you know you've heard my too long uh origin story about my interest in in uh in public service but you know as part of reminding you um you know of of what you do I'd like to ask uh each of you and I'll begin with Nancy you know what's what brought you into public service and and if I could just follow that up by saying you know what about public service inspires you and what frustrates the hell out of you okay to put you on the spot yeah I guess no pointing the finger at anybody in the room so my background was um in education I retired as a superintendent of schools um which in itself is a bit of a political difficult job in serving a board um and I thought gez well what will what will I do next and I and I thought well I'd like to get into government I'd like to continue to serve Falmouth and so that was sort of inspiring and getting out there and talking to people and finding out what their concerns about the town were um and I thought oh I can do this the frustrating part A I had no idea what I was getting into and B um trying to make any sort of change is really difficult um because you you know it's different from being a superintendent because you you work with the board you have to have the community's interests like right here all the time and they're varying interests and varying needs in this town and so trying to move things along can be really difficult yeah okay Heather you're the Newbie but I'm the Newbie um you've got the Battle Scars already I'm sure um okay uh trying to keep the origin story brief um but I'll still I'll still go a ways back um both my parents were Educators my father was in um public media um my husband and I both of our careers his his side of the family his mom was a teacher his father um was career Civil Service um and so I think um both of our careers have been entirely in a nonprofit sector so some aspect of of public service has been very much um a part of our lives for both of us our entire lives and your story about taking kids into the booth I can tell you you can still take kids into the voting booth because um my youngest is 12 um and since we don't vote in the schools anymore he doesn't make with anymore since he's at school but but they've all done that um and um I was in in journalism started in science was in journalism and and the whole reason I went into science originally was um in not understanding what you're getting into I went into science because I was inspired by people like Shoto and Jane Goodall and I wanted to save the oceans and save the environment and got into science and went on them just study it they don't save it all right I'll do journalism I'll tell these stories I'll try to get people activated and I was doing that and I was learning a lot but didn't necessarily feel like that was connecting to actually doing something and so um left journalism to work at a nonprofit that works on climate issues um and then first step into um public service and found was actually friends ask me to run for the school committee um I have three kids in the district have been doing PTO all that damn kids drag us into everything don't they well the thing was I got there and I wasn't sure how it would feel because my dad having been in public media and having been in journalism my entire life I'd been a voter um absolutely um but had never been allowed to voice political opinions at all no signs no stickers no donations no yeah nothing wow um and so it was a real jump um and I got onto the school committee and loved it and realized that where my um I have a personal passion for for education but where more of my expertise is I thought could be of use to the whole town so excellent what what inspires you about what you're doing now uh for the the town and what frustrates you um two sides of the same coin and Nancy to your point change is hard but I've only been on the board six months and I feel like maybe it's the like being new um and not entirely knowing what to expect um I'm able to celebrate the small steps and I do see opportunities for Change and progress um but they're small ones it's incremental but they're wins right little winds and so it's the you know it's it's frustrating and also there there is opportunity for for wins there yeah that's progress there good good speaking of battlecars town manager's office uh has a lot of them uh why don't you tell us how how you got into government sure um so the the Kennedy quote definitely resonates with me um to whom much is given much is required so I grew up very comfortably um but my parents did not my father's a holocaust Survivor my mother's a second generation Greek immigrant and so it was sort of part of our our culture was very much a work hard culture and and a real awareness of the privilege that we had because our family hadn't had it for long um and then it was sort of reinforced as an undergrad because I went to college in a a conservative you know early 80s where most of the students were you know I went to Cornell's and most of the students were about make you know making as much money as they could and I'm a contrarian so of course I wanted to do the opposite of that yeah and found a you know a group of of like-minded folks who had that same mindset um so that's what that's what brought me here um and yeah I mean I I I love the fact that every day I'm going to work and it's not for me it's not for corporate profit it's for the entire Community yeah um it's not always as glamorous as it sounds at a high level it can be very frustrating and slow um but at this you know in this sort of time that we are in it's I feel a bit like we're in the breach and defending something really important um that's really threatened by the you know the lack of cility and Trust in government yeah I think you got to keep that vision of why you're doing it Forefront because it's easy to lose it in in the midst of hostility and Division and sometimes out antagonism yeah all right great thanks Doug so um I'm a single child of a single parent my my dad was a career Marine but he was a bit of a hard ass and when my parents got divorced at three he went to Florida never came back my mom passed when I was 16 I ended up going to the Navy CU I had nothing else to go in for me uh when I came back I traveled first I traveled a little bit then I came back and I worked at the diner cuz my background had been in restaurants when I was a kid my mom was a school teacher and also a waitress so I get the job dishwasher so uh I started a business I I worked in construction for a few years and then I started my business in 1985 I got married in ' 87 had a daughter in 88 and when I when my daughter was growing up I started to volunteer in coaching with the reckle softball and basketball and that was the first time I started to really become involved in community as I never really paid attention so uh after a few years of being more involved I started to pay attention to stuff and we um formulated the East family with Village Association in 2003 and we had some stuff that we wanted to do and one of those was getting sidewalks from seast Shores to kenyons because a lot of people were walking and sending their kids to go get milk and bread and eggs there was no sidewalk it was very dangerous so I was coming into the select Board office and leaving notes and letters for the select board we need help we want sidewalks and they weren't paying any attention and I was getting kind of mad so finally we did a petition and we put a petition we said we the people of East fouth want a sidewalk and we just put it at the uh cumbin farms kenyons and one other store the old uh 7-Eleven tesis or whatever it is and we got like 780 signatures in a weekend because the timeline was coming down the contract was already awarded to Lawrence and Lynch and they were going to do this repaving project with no sidewalk so we faxed I faxed the uh petition over to Bernard mccort at the Taunton DPW the highway department the mass Highway and he acknowledged it right away and he goes I have your petition here and I want you to know we're going to take it seriously and I said okay good so within like a week they sent the DPW Highway Department crew down to look at it and I got in the truck with the Lawrence Lynch guy Kip uh Kip Diggs who is a State Rep now he worked at Lawrence and Lynch at the time so he and I drive that one mile trip and he go says you know what we do need a sidewalk here and they all agree So within like three weeks the highway department said we agree with you we're going to add it it was a million dollars for the curb the repaving project was only a million and they added a million dollars to a million dollar project and we were like you know we can get stuff done if we really stick together so that started to make me start to pay more attention to town stuff and but not really get involved but just pay more attention and then when they repaved Main Street they did that big project where they did the bump outs and moved the telephone poles behind the stores I started paying attention to that because I'm in construction and I noticed that I I I said it looks like they're not going to take out the curbs and the curbs as we know are all too low so I went into Peter boer's office and I said who's in charge of that road project and he says I am I said well those curbs are too low aren't they he goes well that's not in the contract and I I said well you better at it and he was like what who are you what are you talking about and I was like I'm just a guy that lives in East found but I see that this is something that you should be fixing and it never got fixed and also that contractor uh was supposed to put in sandone concrete on those sidewalks and he got out of that too because he said there was too much utilities under the sidewalk but when you do a utility when you do a sidewalk project you own what's under there so I saw these things happening and I wasn't happy with it and I saw they put the blue stone Shale it was all crooked and it's always been a problem ever since so I started to get involved and I I volunteered to be on the town building committee thinking that I was going to have some purview over all kinds of stuff but we've had a very limited purview over certain projects that was frustrating then I got on to town meeting and I started to pay more attention to everything and then little by little I got involved I went in the Housing Trust and I did more and more but I felt like I was always not quite being able to really make an impact so then somebody asked me to join the planning board so I ran for planning board and I got on I found that really interesting and I probably would have stayed there forever except that we had uh a select board we had a planning board member who ran for a select board and he got elected and as soon as he got elected his for well I don't know who but somebody was uh harassing him and doing all kinds of crazy stuff going in his yard at night making videos and really making threatening messages creating a fake Facebook profile claiming out I'm so and so and I live in mashby but I pretend to live in fman so I can be a selectboard member and the poor guy's wife was so freaked out she asked him to resign because she felt nervous about her own safety what a shame so I said I'm not going to let that get you know be a successful strategy for getting on the board so I ran even though I didn't have plans to run just to prevent somebody else from getting on the board and I found out that actually I enjoyed it so good staying with it what what do you like most about the select board when your service on the select board I like the fact that we kind of set the tone for the town that respectful tone you know I've always appreciated town meeting when we go to town meeting we can disagree with the person next to us but we all at the end of it get along and a break even though we just finished arguing we still have a cup of coffee yeah that's the way fou is so and what frustrates you nothing lately okay good all right I'm not going to poke the bear we love oh B my fellow councel hopefully if they gang up us on us lawyers we can uh come right back atam but uh what brought you into public service well um certainly your your story about uh the Kennedy assassination I was a few years older than you I was in seventh grade uh at a you know small Catholic School run by nuns uh and the only lay teacher was my seventh grade teacher and this kid who was always an idiot found it somehow amusing that the assassination had had happened and the teacher just went after this kid and beat the heck out of him to be quite honest with you uh and that's one of my lasting memories of uh you know and he didn't and you know in those days the teacher didn't get in all that much was this a nun no it was it was the only lay teacher in the school he was my basketball coach I've had some tough NS I I looked up as have I so uh um and um so um and Kennedy you always inspired me even to the point when I uh I had my interview to go to St John's law school and the dean asked me you know so you know what lawyer inspired you you know uh on your uh on your path and I said well you know Jack Kennedy he said well you know don't take this the wrong way but he was never a lawyer which you know he never was a lawyer he studied but he was never a lawyer but I still got into law school somehow uh so um anyway I practiced law and in uh 1997 I kind of hit a Crossroads in my my career and I ended up being appointed uh by Governor Pataki is managing attorney for the New York State Office of mental retardation and developmental disability and uh I was there for 12 years uh I was appointed as a political favor to someone quite honestly and I was fired for the same reason on on the other side so uh but but those 12 years that I spent working for the state of New York were the most rewarding even to this point uh in my career because I felt that I was doing something for the public good sure uh made me feel good and I thought I was uh you know helping accomplish something uh when we moved to Falmouth fulltime in 2016 you know I thought about getting involved and I was involved in a couple of uh Comm committees and whatnot and an opening presented itself uh in 2023 and I ran uh was elected I you know somewhat of a newcomer and a Outsider so I felt that that was a you know a bit of a of a of a you know something that was important in the town for that Viewpoint to be uh you know to be accepted so um we're glad to be uh GL to be on the board uh I had run once before in 1993 in New York and like you unsuccessfully at at that time so um uh as far as you know what inspires me uh certainly you know having people come up to me and say you know the board's doing a good job or you know you guys work very well together it's you know it's certainly good good to hear that and for the most part I think that's been the uh been the reaction I mean obvious not everybody's happy but but for the most part just just to know that you know we're we're accepted and respected for what we're doing and I think everyone in town understands that and appreciates that and that that inspires me um what frustrates me a little as as an attorney um you know I'm used to you know trying to make things work and you know unfortunately uh you know in today's environment and with you know some of the open been meeting law requirements and you know some of the other you know ways some people deal with things it's a little hard I think to to to try and really get things moving I'm think in some instances there's listen I understand the open meeting law and I understand how important it is uh but but by the same token I think sometimes there's a um you know an overcompensation for for what's really required and maybe we're going to talk a a little bit bit about that I I think sometimes there's a a concern that um that we shouldn't be collaborating or talking to you know developers or you know people that want to have some business with the town to try and you know move things you know along you know and uh get it to a point where the select board you know has to make a decision but yeah that is frustrating for me all right good thank you yeah uh another uh member of the Navy fraternity Scott right um so five I think zinsky have been here for five generations migrated from um Pennsylvania down through Ptown and up the cape and I mean a boatload we ended up in fman um and I look at you I went in the Navy in 84 and I remember remember when I came back in 99 I saw how much the town had changed and I saw I mean if you drive through town Town Fair Tire is where my grandmother's house was CVS is where my great grandmother's house was across the street was the old um uh post office we're glad all my family and I saw how much it changed and and I saw a lot grown up I never knew we were poor I never knew that we were a blue callar working class family cuz we always had Christmas we always had birthday we always had all of them but our mother was home so we had somebody guiding us and all of that and I watched her she was a Canadian uh immigrant didn't get her citizenship till she was 76 and I watched her thirst to try to understand how the town works and how government worked and my father was hardcore uh Union equipment operator and this is the way it was and that's the way it's going to be and and I watched her try to understand how things work and help people so when I went the Navy in ' 84 um I served eight years and I couldn't stand being away from problem so when I came home um your life's still in the way you're trying to make money you're trying to you know build your house you're trying to do all of this and I saw all of our property getting sucked up all the agricultural property all of and I didn't know why um we put a development in at our house uh to give our kid a um uh a lot for her for her house and it ended up costing me $660,000 because of the Tilt some people were having with my mother politically and somebody who's long gone for camp and it quite frankly it pissed me off so I got on the zoning board because I was sick of standing on the sidewalk something I didn't understand I guess that's the point of how it happened um and then I got on the zoning board and realized I led this Z for I loved it was intricate and it helped me to understand how things worked and then I started to see how the town worked and I just wanted to know a little bit more about it and I was encouraged by people family friends of family all that they said you know you do a great job on the zoning board you say what's on your mind um and and and that's good in politics somebody should really say no matter what hill you die on if that's how you really feel or your constituency feels that way somebody's got to be able to say it unfiltered yeah um is that a good technique I don't know but I never I never thought of myself as a long-term politician I still don't I I feel like if I can come in help with something I'm a big I'm a big if you can't do the simple things right you have no business trying to do intricate things right until you perfect the simple things and that's what frustrates me that's the part we can't do if we can't settle our our simple things how can we even pretend to know how to intricately solve these big you know Cosmic problems that we talk about yeah and the little things are falling through the crack so that's what I try to help with um I try to be the voice on on this board that sometimes says what everybody else is thinking and may not may have more C than me um but that's who I am and that's that's the people that love me and respect me respect about me and that's what I think I bring to this board good bad or different um and I love this town I mean you know I'm I'm sitting here with guy people I went to school with new people I've met and and and it does it takes a whole lot of different kind of people to uh to run a town and I'm finding that out yeah is it frustrating absolutely sure but but obviously there's some satisfactions in it for you as well it it is when you have somebody that comes up at a at a public meeting and let's just say Waits all week maybe to make a two-minute statement for public comment and then leaves and doesn't see how the rest of the process takes place or what goes into it or ask pertinent questions to understand why they're mad in the first place um that's frustrating yeah but just quite recently we've started to see people that come in and sit for the whole meeting and you sit there what are they doing here they learn they're coming to learn because we're so we're so used to looking out into the crowd I know why that one's here I know why that one's here oh I know why that one's here and then you see people that you don't recognize interacting and taking notes and thinking immediately think oh my God why are they here they just want like me they wanted to know more yeah and hopefully people like that people like me who's not college educated but worked the trades been in the military law enforcement all of that that reach plans it will inspire other people that have those ancillary skills that can help a five member board because there are times I'll look to other board members for their expertise and trust them and know that they know more about that subject than I do yeah and do I trust what they're saying do I think and that's what sometimes that's what you have to go on yeah to be a collaborative board and it's taken me three years to get to that point to to not feel like my opinion is the only one that counts some people never get to that point well I mean I'm glad I me unfortunately but but it's true but yeah I I mean you know everybody's bringing a different background different biases different qualities experiences skill sets and if you're willing to give a respectful listening to their perspective and have some empathy and understanding of where their Viewpoint is coming from you can learn you know if you just shut it out and and you feel like you're representing an issue or you're representing a particular mindset you know you're probably not going to convince anybody else uh because they they're going to feel like you don't give a what we say right so you know why should we listen to you so I mean that's one of the the the beautiful things about select boards um you know one of my clients was the um in addition to the mayor and all the cabinet heads and the Departments the Boston city council and of course Boston city council was in the news yesterday because one of the counselors was arrested for a kickback scheme uh and and mail fraud uh uh and um you know the public sees things like that and they get very jaundice and they get very cynical and the cynicism is not limited to the Boston city council and there are some terrific counselors some of whom I represented when I was Corporation counsel for the city um but all it takes is one one knucklehead uh you know it's like you know um as a litigator you know when I when I was a oh when I was a a prosecutor you know most people in the jury pool as you put the jury pool together you know and you're going back and forth with your your peremptory challenges and uh as a prosecutor typically if you know you have the judge asked the question you know there'll be police officers or federal agents testifying do you have any um biases or predisposed views of that and probably 80% n maybe 90% of them would say well you know I've got a cop in the family that uh you know uh I respect greatly I might give a little bit more attention to that or they might say you know I'm going to listen to everybody the same every now and then you get that one guy or gal and you know it kind of takes you by surprise who says uh hey if there's a police officer or a trooper or an agent testifying uh you know I I you know I don't like cops uh and you know judge if you want me to because you're a sidebar with the judge I'll I'll tell you why and of course you want to hear why and what I would hear sometimes is you know when I was you know uh a young father uh you know my wife and I were taking the kids down the cape uh and we got pulled over for speeding and you know yeah I was probably five miles over the the speed limit uh and you know I was willing to pay the ticket but the trooper was abusive the trooper humiliated me in front of My Wife and Kids this snarky sarcastic at attitude every time I try to say something to him and I was being very polite he would talk over me you know and and and and and he was belittling me and just I don't think I could listen to your Witnesses or the prosecutors Witnesses without thinking about that and you know it's you know all of us we bring those experiences we bring those skill sets but we also bring some trauma with us uh as well and that trauma can result in in in in biases and sometimes it's a matter of being honest enough to work through those biases uh and uh you know I just you know that one you know and that Troopa might have had a bad day you know I mean I think about it and and you know that Trooper might have just come from you know a fatal accident uh you know the day before or earlier that morning uh or or something along those lines but people focus on their own experience expences you know and and and those interactions good or bad can stay with them forever so you know one of the things you'll be hearing about from me later on is is just you know your attitude is on display you guys are under a microscope okay whether you want to be or not and sometimes it gets pathological you know talking about that that uh uh new selectman who who was hounded out of the job uh because of this this cycle um but people are looking to see how you conduct yourselves they're looking to see are you prepared uh for the meetings are you collaborative with each other do you show courtesy and Grace with each other and most importantly to the public as they're sitting out there wondering you know should I get involved in this discussion or what what's my takeaway from this thing how do you treat others out there even if it's not them resona and can stick with them and and you know I think the good public servants understand that you don't always get it you I can remember as a young Ada when you thought you know you were Master of the Universe six months out of law school you suddenly had all this power and it was easy to you know say to you know the defense attorney uh hey screw you a guy you know I mean I'm not going to give him a break you know he beat up his wife uh you know he's uh you know he's he's he's a drunk this and that and then after a while you learn that's waste of time it's not professional it doesn't Advance the ball makes you feel good for a fleeting moment uh to to say that but it's not making the system better and the better system is this lawyer is not the one that beat up the wife this lawyer is trying to do his job treat him with courtesy and for that matter don't presume that you know what's going through the mind of of of every defendant there because if you get into you know an argument you shouldn't be doing this anyway uh people in the courtroom are going to look and say that Senate he's a hotthead you know watch out for that guy and they're not going to work with you they're not going to collaborate with you uh they're not going to try to come to a consensus whether it's on a case or on some Courthouse project or something like that uh but uh you know great great comments Mike so uh why wow so Bill thank you for doing this because I've been working with this group for well Heather not too long but 18 months I've been here and uh and I've been in local government for 32 years and this is the first time that you know the origin stories kind of gives me the context and a perspective that I again in 32 years working in local governments um I've not had a facilitator kind of opening up like this so as I'm listening thank you all for sharing and thank you for doing this sure so uh so public service has kind of been my DNA um I grew up up in Detroit um in the 60s um my dad was a police officer um uh oldest of two two two boys um so I kind of the leadership and guidance I kind of that's kind of where I picked up leading my little brother along in his journey growing up um joined the Navy in ' 86 I was in for six years um when I got out in ' 92 I just gravitated towards again that wanting to to make a difference in my community is kind of um was instilled in me through my father um so uh joined the uh police department out in Arizona uh worked for as a cop for about 8 years 9 years um whereabouts in Arizona Glendale Arizona oh sure just outside of Phoenix West West Valley um so uh love that job um I left in July of 2001 U just a couple few months prior to to 911 um decided to get out of law enforcement I had a mentor in my Graduate Studies that um was a city manager and uh he kind of I that seed and and told me you know that you're going to be um faced with a lot of challenges a lot of challenging frustrating days but in terms of making a difference and being able to pull levers and uh leverage different resources and make a difference in the community um that's the job that he would recommend for me and uh so that's why decided to get out of law enforcement although I Lov the career um wanted to do something different um so I got into a um a job that was so unique and to this day I I it took me a year to describe to people exactly what I did it was neighborhood neighborhood Outreach coordinator was my title for the city of Mesa Arizona large city yeah um and and basically um it was meeting with neighborhood groups kind of look learning about their issues and their problems and their struggles and their challenges at the Grassroots level at the neighborhood level um and then bringing different city resources to Bear uh DPW code enforcement Police Department um so again learning um at that level how to um leverage and uh utilize different resources in the city uh to bring Focus that uh all in one you know direction to uh to to make a difference to solve a problem so problem solving has always been kind of an emphasis of mine um what um what inspires me I I so my pet I'll start with this my pet peeve is you know we do this because we've always done it this way and uh and you know why why Rock the boats um so Innovation so Innovation Innovation and change is always inspired me you know the ability to you know come into a situation and whether there's background or you know the ability to listen to other people um and their different perspectives to change something's something could be done more efficiently more effectively how do we how do we move the organization in that direction um and you in developing that kind of spirit and mindset in other people around me you I'm I'm blessed to have a lot of great staff around me and uh and just sometimes I think in local government again having done it for 32 years you get into this you show up in the mornings and you do your job and you go home at the end of the day and you don't really maybe focus on those things that you know with a little bit of tweaking and a little bit of change could could you know you could really make a positive difference so being able to instill that Spirit um in in other people is an inspiration um the frustrating part um like Bob sometimes they get frustrated even after all these decades um process yeah slows you down right you have to whether it's the open meetings or um I'm new to New England so this whole notion of annual Town meetings and and having you know that process of having to kind of look forward six months to and in in in and kind of develop the foundation the framework the stuff that you're going to need um I'm used to just being able to a little bit more instantaneously right react this is a little bit more a planning and thoughtful process which is great um but sometimes that process is frustrating it's uh you know like everybody knows government local or state or federal Wheels sometimes turn slowly um so trying to speed those up or grease those Wheels um is something that always is is a challenge for me looking for ways that we can kind of make things more efficient more effective and move them along the way yeah I wanted to use the term grease but I didn't but thank you I'm glad you did anyway and Bill you reminded me what frustrates me and it's people that don't do their work and don't respect their own position that they have and abuse it yeah um and can I just make one quick comment um just listening to everybody I I've worked probably with Doug the longest um I've known Scott the longest but I heard things about each of you today that I never knew even Doug who I who I've worked with for the long time so I I really appreciate that I think it's very um important to hear it and also it's kind of I think it's healthy just being able to share those stories amongst each other in a public forum shows that we trust each other and we don't get this opportunity I mean I'm an outsider but that was fascinating I mean you guys are all coming from different backgrounds I mean too many sailors in the room let's let's put that out there we run a tight ship yeah I mean there must be something about Falmouth that just attracts him I can see you leaving Detroit you know I mean because anywhere right right right but um just very a collectic backgrounds um you know yeah the kids brought a lot of us into into different milus and and and and and surroundings but you know frustration you know the cardinal sin of of government of Voters being feeling like they're ignored who not acknowledge you know the the passion that that that creates you know the the the frustration of wanting to work through um you know the structures uh and and and how to do that and you know some of that is is built in some of it's you know I mean we've had town government for 400 years here in the the Commonwealth um so you know we're a slow-moving Battleship you know we don't we don't turn on a on a dime but change is made particularly when you got people like we have in this room that have I mean that's you know that's the the overarching theme in this room is as you would talk about things that brought you into public service or things that inspire you the the passion that everybody in this room has for and you better have that passion because otherwise you're going to be miserable because you're not in it for the money um you're not in it for the glamour you're not in it for the great press because you don't get any of those things you in it to make a difference and Heather was talking about you know the the baby steps the small increments but that's progress you know and and and sometimes that the incremental progress or steps are the setup for something that's that's you a real change agent you know you know a policy or a protocol uh an order that's going to benefit people's lives benefit our kids education uh benefit the quality of life life in the city uh benefit the environment I mean what you folks bring collectively to this process is just invaluable and it's you know to those to much is given much is is required um you guys understand that you know and and and you're giving back that passion you're giving back expertise you're giving back your your your experiences and found is lucky to have that I one of the things I forgot to mention is being in the Navy I think I've been to and the security uh world I've been to I believe it's 33 different countries now and seeing the wide uh um the WID spread dysfunction corruption in some places the underprivileged aspects and forgetting how lucky we are and and and given that context it it allows you to help put things in the perspective that some things are really fixable and some things aren't seeing what you've seen in jibuti Africa or Karachi Pakistan or things like that so that added and I forgot to say that but without the Navy I wouldn't have been able to get that historical knowledge or life perspective of being able to compare other things to what we have in front of us no it's invaluable Scott um somebody asked me the other day at a at a meeting um you know what was your uh favorite Christmas and I didn't have time to think about it I said well I said you know sometimes I'd come back from a deployment you know six months eight months a year uh and uh I I'd missed the holidays but I remember coming back from peacekeeping Duty in Bosnia in 1998 and you know just tragic destruction trauma there um you know surrounded by people that had had been victimized and uh I was based in Saro and Saro they you know they still left even three years after the war had ended some of the buildings that had been damaged just as a reminder um you know you could tour where the the the snipers uh in the mountains would shoot at ordinary citizens you know that the the Romeo and julieet Bridge with the you know with the the the Muslim uh man and and the uh uh uh I think it was a cowat uh you know Catholic girl were shot to death as they were trying to meet uh you know just so much destruction so much sadness uh and after being away from my four little girls and my wife for 10 months you know I got back end of November or early December and it was just one big holiday season because I appreciated what I had all the more because I'd seen what so many other people don't have uh and that's you know that's a perspective you know you bring that doesn't ever we came back from overseas we went to PO poar in Boston and my mother said what do you want I said I want a real glass of milk cuz we had had powdered milk for the last you know you know things that we appreciate that are just tiny y but I think if we bring it back to this group i i two things I want to comment on one is I'm a big picture person just get it done Heather is like a stepbystep knows that you have to do all these steps before you can get it done so I feel like some of our strengths balance each other out and I know Doug I've talked to Doug a million times I've know Scott a million times and Bob same kind of thing his perspective has a tendency at times to be larger so that when I talk to him it adds something to my view that I hadn't seen before and just like Heather going but you know you got to celebrate the Little Steps because I sometimes I forget that because I just want to get it done yeah I don't I don't want I'm impatient with the steps so I think we balance each other out in a lot of ways in this group and I think that's really important to being an effective boy board yeah there's a Synergy that comes with those complimentary skill sets and tendencies and backgrounds uh you know my wife is a great big picture person she's a professor ABS uh and she uh she loves to put together a plan uh when it comes to the details she knows enough to delegate it to somebody else to you know take a look at this particular piece of it or that particular piece of it but she's like you know that's her superpower is is doing things like that but she'd be the first to tell you don't ask me to execute you know I I mean you know ask ask me to come up with a concept to come up with a plan and I can do it but I'm not the one that's going to say how uh you know of course as managers know you know the board shouldn't be telling them how you know you want to take advantage of their expertise uh and experience that they know best how these things happen and sometimes as we'll talk about one of the toughest things is even as you're got that Synergy and and those complimentary backgrounds and skills and insights sometimes the toughest thing is staying in your lane when it comes to the execution part so we'll talk more about that in a second but that was that was fascinating I I I really uh enjoyed that and I appreciate everybody being so candid um Here's the the the program we've already done the welcome uh and you know we're going to cover things on on here you know everything's not going to be equal you know some of these things were going to hit in passing there are some things that I think are more important than than other other things particularly the the public service mindset some of the background uh you know the legal underpinnings uh you know Bob and I might you know get excited and have to go out and have a cigarette after talking about some of those things the rest of you you're probably going to roll your eyes and say what do we really have to know okay so we're going to hit some of those things in in passing uh but you know we'll talk about you know what we're going to cover what we won't cover um the resource documents that you should always have at the ready and and uh Nancy has put some of those together uh for you uh at this meeting and prior to this meeting uh and and what we're hoping to come away with from this uh and we'll get to that in just a moment uh Central role of Select boards in Massachusetts Government I mean they've been around since you know there was the United States they've been around since the 16 19 20s uh and uh town government uh and town government in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has been the leader it wasn't the the Commonwealth government it wasn't the colonial government uh it was town government that that that's what people had the most experience with that's what made the most difference in their lives and that's carried through uh the these centuries later um you know I if I could just interrupt I I had referenced this selman's handbook many times on particular issues I never really read the Preamble and the history so it was good to actually sit and read through it yeah well I'll be quoting from it heavily during this presentation because it's a good piece of gear as we would say in the the the military um that handbook you know i' used it before in Prior iterations uh but it's actually kind of inspiring when you when you look at it and it it's got a good pers perspective on things uh and uh you know well you know I'll just tell you one right now one of the end products that that I think we'd like to see from this is Falmouth to have its own handbook you know a lot of it you know incorporating things from the the mass the U Mass Municipal Association handbook but also things that are specific to uh the town and we're going to be asking you guys at the end of this meeting and after this meeting um particularly if you have a chance to look at the the Lexington uh one which is a little dated um I think it's 2010 or something like that uh yeah everybody's still a select man man or select men rude I'm sure nobody noticed that uh of course I did and I and you'll see it on top of my some of my notes yes you know I I remember the Uproar over some of the old guard male um uh government people oh why we why do we want to change that and you know it's you know who cares and all that and then it was changed I think at least 180 had had uh gone to select boards uh by the end of 2022 and it was like nothing it was it was seamless you know and everybody said geez that was that was easy uh but uh but you know take a look at that um when you can uh I think you got a link from Nancy yesterday uh if you haven't seen it before um so that'll be one of the deliverables we'll be looking for um then uh we'll we'll kind of do a whirlwind uh background um tour of the history legal underpin underpinnings and general duties and that's going to be pretty quick then we'll talk about the town of Falmouth select board now I don't pretend to be an expert on the town of Falmouth uh government uh you know I'm not a resident uh you know my primary contact with Falmouth is uh you know parking uh on the edge of your lawn as I walk over to the Lawrence School to get on a yellow bus in mid August uh you know going to Woods Hole and and and uh you know running from the village to the Heights and spending the whole time cursing those supposedly you know gentle Hills for the first three or four miles and then really cursing out loud that final hill before the heights uh and and and the uh you know the sun beating down on you along surf Drive uh and then you hit that final stretch and uh you're gliding down to the finish line and then you go to the greatest reunion in in running and as you can tell I'm a runner uh as I talk about this with with some passion the ball field where you know you lie about how magnificent you were out there on the course and how you ran just according to your plan and but you know you're lying to you know willing Coke consp it is who are doing the same thing um seeing people that the only time you ever see them is on that ball field after the Falmouth Road Race that's kind of the extent of my contact here but you know there's a a lot you know and obviously I've read everything I I I could leading up to this um so I have an appreciation for it but a lot of what fouth does uh is um uh you know resonant of what happens in most other towns uh and uh uh you know a lot of those principles have been uh honed and and and uh refined over hundreds of years um so you know we don't have to when we talk about this handbook reinvent the wheel but there are some things specific to fet that we want to include and we want to tap into your experiences and and and and insights and viewpoints on this as as we do this and try to be careful about it uh but we'll talk about the organization ational Authority you know in that packet that you got you know your eyes probably glazed over when you open it up and you saw you know the the the the U the charter you know and you've got that uh you know that old old print uh you know you've got some Arcane language that survived uh in in these things for for decades and decades um but they're good things to have is we'll we we'll talk about as a resource tool um we'll talk about the purpose and mission statement for from your website It's always important to remind yourself what what your public face is uh for your your uh your purpose and and and for your mission statement um then we'll move into the the public service mindset a lot of these items will be covered leading up to that in fact we've already covered uh some of them uh staying in your lane and and you know Collective government you know government by committee but we'll talk a little bit about more about those uh in the public service mindset and and then you know probably the best item in my view from that packet of uh Falmouth uh uh select board uh materials is the code of conduct because the code of conduct deals with you know five different Dynamics you know four of them by every uh select person one of them by the chair you know duties but in the course of looking at those duties there are some caveats and and and perspectives that that we're going to talk about once again you know you've probably seen this before but good to be reminded of it um so we'll go through those uh and then we've got a you know a case study a scenario uh and you're going to look at that you're going to say oh this this fictitious selectman is uh a select person is a train wreck uh but that's the whole idea is you know we want to throw some things out there and and and get some discussion uh you know very casual discussion um that hopefully will reinforce some of the things we've talked about uh and uh and and any other problems and and discussions beyond the handbook that that come up as well uh and then you know we'll have uh some closing remarks you know our our hope is for this to go two and a half to three hours or or until I feel like you know we've either covered every everything in in passing or I'm losing you you know because it's it's a Saturday morning uh you guys have been working all week and and you hear as a labor of love and and Civic Service uh for this um this training um but you know I'm I'm I'm mindful of that as well but you know my estimate is that we'll be going till approximately 10:30 uh you know perhaps to to 11 I I think is there uh coffee or something later on or uh we were going to do lunch but we didn't because we're going to we're hoping to end between 10:30 and 11 so uh so lunch on your own yes Nancy promised me an 8 course asan Buffet is why thanks a lot uh this wasn't the way I wanted to find out I'd been had um but uh but you know this is as I said at the outset this is interactive this this is for your benefit but also for my benefit um you know and and and I'm sure for the the chair and and co-chair for for you know their meeting responsibilities and the things that you've said already about your origin stories I I think are already helpful to everybody in in the room um uh but I think that you know additional discussion is just going to make that that much better so let's let's first talk about scope uh and uh products of the U of this Workshop um what will cover as I said what we won't uh important resource documents uh and end products so what we'll cover is in in a nutshell uh how you can maximize the effectiveness of the board Itself by understanding and properly executing Your Role so you know a lot of these things are are things we're going to speak about in in different fashion uh you know without trying to beat you to death with them what we won't be covering is the mechanics of municipal government open meeting Law Public Records request things of that nature we we can cover them in passing and if you've got a question by all means you know hey Bill uh you know if if we get an open meeting request if we get a public records request uh that's looking for this type of information do we have to give it you know we except feel free to to to ask that you know we don't want to get into anything that's being deliberated currently by the board but if you got some general questions of things that have happened in the past what that you think might happen in the future then you know by all means come in but that's not the purpose today the purpose today is that mindset that we want you to have that public service mindset be informed about the the the powers and limitations of the select board and of individual members um so you know those things might be uh covered in passing but that's not our Focus resource documents um once again the mass uh uh Municipal Association select board handbook Great Piece of gear uh the town of Sal Falmouth select board packet including the last bullet on there the the code of conduct but some other things that we'll talk about as well including the organizational charts things of that nature um and uh the end products that we're looking for better better informed and collaborative members you can already I can already see you guys work well together um uh the most effective board that we can have and and this is a dynamic process you're never going to be most effective if you if you don't continue to improve uh then you're going to regress you've always got to be looking to um to find better ways of doing things to achieve U consensus and collaboration and and uh to uh to have that public service mindset uh you know driving you towards what ever the vision is that you set um so you want it to be the most effective at that time as you can be knowing that you've got to keep going you know the movie Annie shark Annie Hall where uh Woody Allen turns to Diane Keaton you know as they're about to break up it says you know love is kind of like a a shark a shark's got to keep moving uh because if it stops moving then it drowns I think what we've got here is a dead shark uh and you don't want a dead shark for for a a board that's stagnated that's not moving forward that's not Dynamic you got to you got to keep that process going uh and then as we just said uh another deliverable uh is a t of fouth Select board handbook which incorporates and builds upon today's uh discussions and feedback let's talk a little bit about history of uh the boards and we're going to go through this in in relatively um rapid fashion um pure at An Origin you know going back to the 1620s uh of uh town government uh and uh select boards uh select boards you know in in in their Origins uh were U uh persons that were of prominence or expertise that at the town meeting would be selected and they were typically you know I think universally men uh back then so the name Selectmen was referring to these people that were that were selected and it would be you know anywhere from you know three Selectmen to a dozen or or more um so you know the the the at at the town meeting when budgets and laws would be approved they they'd periodically select uh these people uh to carry out the business of of the uh town meeting after the town meeting um so these individuals these select um members of the community select men had authority over administrative areas of town government uh and then as we got into the late 1600s uh the Commonwealth became more involved uh in kind of uh formalizing some of these these functions but before they did I just kind of props to uh City of Boston even though it wasn't the city of Boston at the time um what was then the town of Dorchester uh had one of the first U uh formalized select boards it was 12 people 12 men uh from the community uh and and this was a designated body and and and they operated well uh this is before Test's incorporation into the city of Boston uh but that kind of set the the tone as a goar as an example for other towns in the Commonwealth so by the the mid portion of the 1600s into the late the uh the general court the legislature uh started to U uh Define what the responsibility should be of these local uh Boards of select men authority over finances care of the poor uh you know it was it we didn't have welfare or food stamps or anything like that back then and and uh uh and the poor were uh Reliant upon alms and and and the the good willll of others uh and the Commonwealth said we've got to you know come up with a better way of of addressing uh poverty schools you know so many of us um participated in in in government uh as members of school bodies I was a School site council member and chairman and and uh you know it's kind of uh great prep for bodies like this when you see how people who are very passionate about something their kids and their kids' education um interact uh and how the administrations interact and you learn some good things and and you witness some bad things in in that environment hakok Senate what's that went to the hakok Senate my last year of high school I went to Oliver RS yeah because I went and lived with an uncle who had a place up there yeah the hakok Senate yeah yeah is that what it was called introduced it Bill call uh to break up Belle Mell yeah and all my fellow classmates were like that'll never happen it didn't even make it to the debate that hakok Senate was very precient yeah what was it they used to say Mell doesn't care because she doesn't have to that's Lily to yeah yeah um so um and and just as some of these other ones uh new residents coming into the town roads and Public Works very big big deal uh because uh you know travel relied upon the roads they didn't have train systems uh and unless you were near a body of water that wasn't going to help you um so Commerce depended upon the the roads and public and Public Works in general land regulation um uh local defense uh appointment of other Town officials uh uh Not Elected by the town meeting and then uh adop adoption of gender neutal neutral titles began you know in the last few decades uh as we talked about earlier where uh they're now um select boards so that's just a whirlwind uhu uh history tour uh legal underpinnings uh from the uh general laws um 3 to five uh is the standard uh uh set by the U the um legislature uh on an at large basis terms of one to three years uh and typically and almost universally done for staggered terms so that everybody isn't learning the job all at the same time everybody isn't leaving uh You' got some continuity uh that uh uh makes it a a more effective uh body in the long run uh greater responsibilities and authority over time uh however um the there's also been kind of a specialization of uh uh offices and Boards entrusted with specialized functions independent of Select board uh control um you know School uh committees and and uh and and housing commissions and things of that nature um so the uh select boards the uh principal elected executive board uh and they share executive power with these other boards that have been created such as school committees planning board Board of Health some of you have had experiences with those those bodies and and you know that uh when done when run well they do some very important work um and no single um uh office has comprehensive control of all executive branch uh Town functions um and then the general duties of Massachusetts select boards set policy and strategic Direction these are just a few of the uh the most prominent coordinate the activities of other boards uh hear appeals resolve problems not settled at lower levels and if there's an administrator the select board members should work through that person uh uh to uh to execute all right um now let's talk about organizational Authority and and you know just very quickly you know these are the the nine articles uh in the charter the home Rule Charter um some of these are more relevant to your duties than others you know uh to the point where I said keep them handy because they can be kind of a foundational reference point when when an issue comes up that's going going to be deliberated or was deliberated sometimes you want to kind of go back to the town roots and see what they said in the charter uh and what the Commonwealth's uh influence might be on that um as far as the powers of of of the government and the powers uh of uh of town government specifically um same thing for for uh uh looking at those origins of town meetings and it's not all historical I mean some of the I mean it's supposed to be updated and current but you can you can you know see what uh what has been encapsulated in in that uh that document uh as being the the um the powers and the responsibilities but you know most importantly article three the select board I would take a look at that uh because that's with stood the T the the test of time uh I'm not going to get into them uh uh today but uh you you've got a copy of those um so I would uh take a look at that uh and I would also look at um other elected Town boards and offices and Article 5 the town manager and and what how that is uh conceptualized uh and the the stain your lane roles that are conceptualized in that um and and the other U four items I I would look at they're relevant but not the most relevant uh to today's uh uh presentation uh unless one of you is facing a recall and I don't think that's the uh the case uh but uh but they are helpful uh even though they are uh of historical origin um and finally as you can see in that that final uh sentence there um uh and and you've been you've been uh given uh copies of at least one of the organizational charts um that's a h that's a a very useful and handy thing to have um with you uh even if you've been involved in Falmouth government for a long time because you know gives you an idea of the the chain of command the lines of authority you know including dotted line Authority for some of these things there two of these um that you would look at you know one that's uh uh focused on um elected and appointed officials uh and the other one on the departmental U uh organization those are good things to have because they they give you a reference point uh that I think is helpful in in dealing with the public but also in in figure out where you're going to go on a particular issue all right let's yes question Heather um you know one of your uh stated responsibilities um of the select board is the coordination of um activities across uh various committees and Boards of the town and and one thing that's always stood out to me about this or chart right is that um there are a number of those elected positions that are are sitting there is like disconnected Standalone boxes right which um yeah from an Effectiveness and coordination standpoint um seems like a a potential liability and so I would love your thoughts on the role of the select board staying in the select board Lane and at the same you know whe or or whether there's some other place for that responsibility to kind of try to ensure coordination yeah I think mine's here yeah no uh yeah just um yeah I I I mean the um what I noticed is in that that Top Line you've got uh you know the aster there that shows that they're elected officials it's not an aster than U they they are appointed um you know obvious viously the select board's responsibilities here are are pretty clear uh but you know I think the the common thread for most of this is even though it's not uh a line of authority the town manager's office has to have visibility on on everything I think even though there's not lines of authority I think the select board has to have visibility and awareness on on all of these things um so yeah I I I mean it I I suppose uh uh you know it looks like some of these things like the planning board and housing authority and moderator uh Town Clerk or or Islands but uh um you know you'd have a better idea Nancy as far as what the interaction is for those things than I would but I I don't think that's the end of the story you know just because there's not a but it does feel like they're different silos yeah it feels like they're they're all separate and I think what I hear you saying Heather is how do we interact with them in a way I mean like the school commit it almost feels like it's hands off because they are their own board they run the schools but the it's still Town money and that question has come up a couple of times about H how much can we ask does their budget go through you there go ahead yeah so um bottom line you know I think our proc C is very similar to most other towns it's not a Regional School it is you know it is a Falmouth School so both budgets go through the finance committee and town meeting formally that's that's where it lies and that's what's sort of it's confusing and challenging you know to to see that the select board is supposed to have a role coordinating all these elected boards not I mean there's no authority to do that right like the select board and this and this comes up from time to time the select board cannot dictate to the school committee or the or the planning board um what they should be doing we can coordinate we can arrange joint meetings and promote dialogue but it's not it's not an authority right it's an opportunity to communicate and collaborate and a lot of that does happen through the town manager's office um so coming back to the budget we do meet with the school superintendent you know so it's not at select board school committee level per se but the school superintendent meets with us and we have a very good you know Rapport and culture where there's good communication there so when the town manager puts his budget forward it does include the Topline school department number based on that communication yeah um I just wanted to sort of put up a sort of a caution flag there's you know there's some implication of coordination among those elected bodies that's somehow the the select board is the chief policy setting board but the ability to really um to shape that and do that is is actually pretty limited it's it's informal power I guess is what it is the day-to-day stuff to stay in your lane right it always has been traditionally I mean it's that's what it feels like like I'm going to go to yeah exactly I'm going to go to dou and the Bob I think it's uh it's so it shows that it's up to us to invite them to talk and to work collaboratively towards those goals we have to pay attention to their local comprehensive plan they need to look at our strategic plan we all need to pay attention to what each body is doing and work collaboratively and then it's up to the voters to pay attention if we're not doing that oh yeah you know if anybody on the school committee is truculent combative they probably won't get reelected you know if they're not willing to work collaboratively towards our shared goals I I think one of the confusing pieces to Residents because this has come up to me a couple of times is about the money you know ju like like let's just take the schools well that's our money and you the select board you're representing us they they don't understand that there is a separation and it can get very sticky and very weird because they look to us to hold that we hold responsibility and that we need to be accountable for what is happening and that isn't really quite how it works and trying the school the school I'm just saying this I'm picking the school department because I know it well but but when it comes down to the money and how it's being spent we don't have a say but that doesn't resonate with people and so trying to explain that a little bit is is tricky MH you know as you know I mean I've I've asked about you know more oversight side or at least some idea of what's goes on with the school committee because as we saw with you know one of the Cities here in the you know Boston area you know the school committee dropped the ball and and the town or the city and that had to step up and we don't want to be in that in that position I understand and trust Mike and and Peter you know working with the school B uh school committee and coming up with the budget but uh I do sometimes get concerned about you know making sure that uh you know that that things are running the right way and that we know if a problem's coming down the down the road the other thing I'll say is and I think Heather may have brought it to my attention but I think the code requires us we're supposed to meet with the planning board yes twice a year yes and we I mean as far as as long as I've been on other than we when we just appointed a a new member we have not done that and I certainly think Visa the you know the changes to the Mr Cod and the short-term rental uh and adus I think we really need to uh to try and get that going so that we are actually meeting with the planning board we don't dictate to them we don't control them but I think it good for us to to to collaborate and in that same vein um you could say the same thing with the zoning board and so we've already sort of are working on setting that up to meet to bring the zoning board so not that we have any right you know but we need to know um how that works and what's so we do have that on our list to bring it in it's difficult to do it during our regular business meeting so I have to actually extend to make that happen like I want to do with the zoning board we talked about that um maybe a couple weeks ago to start getting that done I'd like to do the same thing with the planning board maybe just meet a little earlier on that's what I'm saying I'm not saying create a new day we I I know we can't do that but to back it up as long as I don't have an executive session we'd have to start much earlier now does that happen by way of liaison request or interaction with Lea on is that how it absolutely could yeah it absolutely could and because it's in the charter we it should be somewhat triggered each year sounds like a great item for the town of Falmouth select board handbook that's under construction um just to be able both as a process of going through and defining what responsibilities are what the relationship is um but also so that everybody sees how the the board views it uh and you know it might prompt the board to do you know letter of understanding or memorandum of understanding with the zoning board or or some you know school committee just defining that relationship um because it's all well and good to say the power of the purse you know is is going to uh you know give some some control even if you wanted the control you know it's Boston city council had and has authority over the the school committee's bud you know a multi-billion dollar budget uh they don't have the authority to go in there and you know say who the superintendent's going to be to say what the curriculum should be to say you know what schools should be closed and and not closed that's the school committee and the mayor's office function you know granted you know having a a strong mayor for of government it's a different Dynamic but but I I I think this handbook is a good opportunity to kind of you know as I hear these questions there's some ambiguity here and everything works great until it doesn't you know until somebody uh on these uh zoning boards says you're not the boss of us you know no we're not going to talk to you about that you know or yeah we'll come to the meeting but don't try to tell us what to do or whatever you know it it's helpful if particularly if you've gotten buyin or at least visibility uh from these other organizations that Heather pointed out on that that org chart so everybody is is singing from the same sheet of music um and and if there are things that can't be agreed upon then you figure out a way to to characterized uh and I think it's in the approach of the invitation as well yeah what is the purpose and it's important I question I find it challenging we have a lot of uh committees assignments and each committee has a different way of doing things it's hard to know what level of interaction we can have with those committees and what I sometimes I find myself mired in what can I say what can I request what what level of participation am I responsible for because some of these committees expect you to be somewhat part of that that committee which I I feel like we're not but if we I don't know what that level of participation is I mean one one of the things that I I don't know if anybody else that I included in in your resources and and that I've asked Bill to sort of speak to is our leaz on policy and what what your responsibility is and what you are not supposed to do so so recently as it lay us on to the CPC one of the U one of the members uh you know contact me and you know prefaced it by saying as as our representative to the select board you should da da da and I wrote back to him and said you know you need turn and this was a smart guy I mean not you know not you know I I said you know you have to understand I'm not the representative you know from the CPC to the select board I'm the here as leaz on I'm here to listen I'm here to you know be a coordination point of contact but as far as actually being you know advocating for your position or what's going on there that's not my responsibility yeah and I think that's the right answer you you know you're first and foremost a conduit for information you're taking things back to the board giving situational awareness of what's going on with a particular Department uh or other body uh to the your fellow Selectmen I mean you know we've all been in that position where you know you're you're in a department or a committee whatever and you're looking for every bit of help you can get you know and if they think you've got the juice and they can get you on board then they want you lobbying for them and that's perfectly understandable but that's not that's not your rule and you don't work for that committee yeah the committee to which you Lea you do not work for them and you do not in any way shape or form and I think it it it can be tricky you do not participate in any deliberation ations and that's hard when you're sitting there like at a school committee meeting I might want to say you that's not my role well correct something yeah um let me ju Bob I'll go to you and then Peter had his hand up so I just want to make sure I mean that that being said early on in one of my uh one of my appointments I was uh contacted one of the groups that I'm on uh Leia on and I said you know could we meet because I'd like to know you know what's what's been going on and kind of the the answer back was somehow I was I was overstepping my my bounds and even asking for that you know uh that kind of background meeting so by that Committee Member by by someone on that committee yeah so I mean it's it's over done with but that's why I don't think there's a clear understanding even on the part of the the Committees that's my point I I I agree you know as to what the responsibility we do have this but I think also adding this to our handbook so that committees understand what we understand but go ahead Peter let me just go to you and then Doug and then Heather go ahead yeah I just wanted to go back to the you know this question about how the select board relates to all of the other elected bodies and you know one of our roles in the town manager's office is you know we know how much work there is to do and how much the select board is asked to do and and our off office as well so we always have to look through sort of a lens of triage right and what's important and what can we do and in that vein I guess I want to push back a little bit on spending a lot of time communicating with these boards about how's our relationship supposed to work and what is our expectation of what you're going to do and what we're going to do because there isn't Authority behind it and it could take a lot of I mean that's a very gray area could take a lot of time to get to any consensus which could dissolve as the members of those two bodies change so I would rather see us let's let's Identify some significant issues and just address those issues right I completely agree I think there are some things with with the zoning V board and some changes that we need to bring forward the charter says planning board but I I in no way hope I did not say that all these other there's just no way that we can do it and I think part of your your issue or the town Management's issue is you have to prioritize because otherwise you know you do tend to to drown you have to prioritize on the other hand the select Board needs to be able to address the questions that come up um and that's a big one so when we attend these committee meetings many times they're not sure how government will work in a particular situation so it's up to us to offer and if we don't know we find out and then and I think we do we won't advocate for their position but we need to make the select board aware of what these committees are working on if there's something important that's coming our way we're the conduit we the informance so and that's our main role right yeah I guess kind of piggybacking on that and responding uh Scott to something you said earlier about not correcting information in the course of deliberations and I guess I would would see a liaison role as being a two-way flow of information that is if there is information you know correcting information if there is information that we as le as have because of our participation on the select board to offer that information not an opinion not as deliberation but if there's information that can be offered about you know a recent select board conversation or something like that that can contribute to those deliberations and also process because what I find out from from th those particular meetings is that sometimes they're unclear about the process and I'm I'm hesitant to give any sort of opinion unless it was otherwise stated publicly at a select board meeting um what I find mostly comes up is process yeah like what is you know you're telling us this but how does that How does it go from a to d what you know and I have no issue speaking on process I'm more careful about any sort of opinion any sort of thought that is just I don't go there unless it's a select board agreement or statement that's been publicly made then I'll repeat it because it's the whole board it's not my opinion it's the five member board's opinion and it came out publicly otherwise I'm I'm very careful umt I just I just think that as we draft and or amend our handbook the committee handbook should be brought up to speed so they have the same information on responsibilities that we do so the interpret so we have something refer to when we're there if you look at your committee handbook you'll see right here where blah blah blah blah blah so they're not because it is difficult different boards are different it is um some people don't need you for anything and you know what I mean and see you next time the other ones are looking to you at every subject for your input and you're like just a quick point on this um so it's something I've noticed and I've talked to Nancy before so in our strategic plan um s board's got a really I think robust 5year strategic plan under organizational Effectiveness there is a specific actionable goal that talks about and I took I always have taken this as the town manager's office shall host a meeting with committee chairs to discuss annual schedule and how the board in the capital B can support the Committees in their work I mean that's that's in the current strategic plan um in the 18 months I've been here I've not done that um and and I don't know maybe as we take this and kind of refine and focus uh through this uh policy guide maybe that will be something that that the town manager's office takes on an annual meeting uh you know semiannual meeting with the committee chairs to discuss how the board can support the Committees in their work I'm just throwing that out because right now it's again it's it's not being and I don't know Peter you've been here for for six seven years we haven't done that no the plan is is relatively few years old it was an emphasis when this was adopted so again it may help kind of coordinate yeah and I think it may have pre you may have been the only one on the board it sounds like a um something that would have been brought forward you know four or five years ago or more yeah five yeah maybe five to seven years ago um and there was there was at that time definitely an emphasis on better communication with the various Town boards and committees um I don't want to blame everything on Co but it did throw a curveball our way you know we used to have those annual potluck dinners and we had a lot more coordination a lot more social interaction with committees and Boards Co kind of threw us a curveball and I don't think we've ever really come back fully from that yeah and I and I think that you know social Gathering of the Committees I think there was some real benefit to that um this meeting meeting that's in the Strategic plan strikes me as a little bit unwieldy I don't know you know how are we going to have a meaningful conversation with 20 boards and 40 boards at the same time 50 people and all the pitch fors and and torches yeah remember we had the one at fet Academy where we had a conglomeration of boards was I the only one that was there it was a big meeting it was a multi- board we had zba planning board Housing Trust and whatnot you're talking about expectations well so yeah we may want to revisit that and again what I'm hearing is that you know the importance then and now of having that dialogue and the channel communication and right now I think that's maybe a missing piece I don't know the best way honestly to do that yeah I mean I I do agree and I think we've surfaced here that different committees are operating differently and and my experience in and I have reached out and talked with the chairs of most of the Committees I'm AAS onto and haven't experience that kind of you know push back to to that idea um uh but they definitely seem to be operating differently seem to have different understandings of what the liaison role is and what that relationship is and so I I don't know if it's you know necessarily a meeting to to discuss the relationship but maybe there's a more regular essentially training you know something level setting so that the Committees are are functioning more similarly and do have um it'll it'll never be perfect because you have no people are different you know some people that chair committees are at type A and they want to get things done and they'll try to get you to do stuff and others are just like can you help us but maybe one of the roles of liaison could be here's the liaison policy to the chair not sure how it's worked in the past but this is my understanding of this liaison policy I think that could really help cuz we're talking about staying in Lanes there you go big Lane with no God rail we create that God rail for that lane by doing just this that's a good idea now see Heather with that very innocent question rolled a hand grenade into the middle of the room but you know this is absolutely in a very nice obviously this a very substantive issue that that should be addressed and it's going to make your job easier and these you know other stakeholders jobs easier if you can put some definition to it and you know some cases you can't some cases you don't want to over certain things but you want to be in control of what you do even if it's you we've decided not to do nothing or not to make a statement on this or you know we think we can throw something out there that talks to motives and and need to cooperate and things like that or we want a line of authority you know or we want something direct and specific uh and this is our our reference for it but at least you know you understand this you got the opportunity to do that through the handbook and through the process that might accompany that Handbook of of of talking to these folks and and and finding out what's the best way to move forward it's also our responsibility to model what this liazon policy says for our subcommittees that's our job right as as select board members and as leaon to com to subcommittees it's our job to model this policy and and I think that also with giving them the written policy to the chair is really important go ahead Peter I apologize for dragging this out a little further but I I didn't want to miss this opportunity I was reading the charter recently and came upon the appointment section and there's a provision in the charter that talks about Consulting with the chair of the committee when there's an appointment to be made which we have not been good in the town manager's office in about facilitating it it hasn't happened to my knowledge regularly in the eight years I've been here um and I think it could be really valuable so I just wanted to sort of bring that to our attention and see if it's something that we might want to uh to make a point of doing yeah great okay all let's do one more uh slide and then take a break uh and and this is U this is from your website um and you know I've I've added a lovely photo of the old uh Town Hall uh on there uh you know I'm assuming it's a photo one of those old style photos but uh yeah we got some real history here it's better than this one is that the school I've been building looks you know it looks like what it is that is what it is yeah okay it's a gorgeous building that's what it's going to look like when we never you go back there my father was born in the house right next to that building no kidding really oh moved it across the street yeah all right so you know the importance of of my putting the purpose and the mission statement here is both as a reminder but also because mission statements and purposes that accompany them are a symbol of a body's values and priorities and it's important that you look at these and I'm not going to go through them but you know I would encourage you to take a look at these at these priorities these values that the select board has said will be our you know guiding principles and see if they're still relevant see are there other ones you know but you know this is what you look at when you when you talk about you know managing or leading change one of the things you look at is how does the mission statement guide the mindset that that that follows strategic planning you know you know should make reference uh to the and I think the Strategic the 5year Strategic plan that found has is terrific I mean I I I think uh there's some great substance there great goals and Milestones there uh and we'll briefly talk about um the vision thing and the the the planning thing but this is supposed to be kind of the the the underlying basis the the priorities the principles that are guiding the Strategic plan and guiding your operations as a select boort we just through a six-month process bill um to and the the select board adopted a a a uh Mission Vision and core value statement I don't even know where you found this yeah this is not our statement necessarily yeah so so I'm on the website right now and I'm sure it's there but that's my so again um so Peter and I kind just looking foress the staff and and and it does not align with that so so not to myself we got to go back and I look by so our website pasted from um the website probably two or three weeks I'm not doubting it's there on a page I'm just searching for it is you're talking to where this come from good well we can we can update just just you've already updated that's f with main yeah yeah no I see it it's right it's right at the bottom of the select board page I haven't come AC so it's yes it's a so thanks for bringing that to our attention we need we spent months uh working on a brand new M Mission Vision value statement right but so this is a mission statement for the select board specifically as opposed to a mission or for the organization town and the organization as a whole that's a good point if they should be the same or different kind of that's good point it is to say there's nothing wrong with it yeah these are our responsibilities right it's not the town's mission statement good point um we can take a f minute break but we have a lot of work to do yeah we do when we come back we'll we'll we'll talk about public service mindset but yeah let's take what do you want five or 10 only five five minutes okay if we want to get out by 11: gas all right the chair is cracking the whip all right not a minute over five okay we're going to we took a short recess and we're going to come back to order and continue with our presentation all right thanks we'll try to pick up a little bit of speed here a lot of the things that we've already covered are going to inform us on these things so that's that's very doable but let's let's start talking about that mindset uh uh and and the things we're going to talk about are staying in your lane Collective action strategic responsibilities leadership and Community engagement and one more media relations although we're going to not get into the Weeds on on that uh and a lot of that falls on on your chair uh but uh but let's talk about uh the first one um I contacted a friend of mine who's uh a former president of the Massachusetts Municipal Lawyers Association mmla uh and uh I said uh uh Henry what do you think the most important thing for a select uh board member to know and he got back to me and he said stay in your lane he said that's the most important thing whether it's a city councelor or or a select board remember he said the problems come about when somebody either doesn't know what their Lane is or doesn't care what their Lane is uh and Chaos uh can uh ensue um you know quick anecdote in uh 200 five I had uh just come back from Iraq uh I was asked to speak at a Veterans Day ceremony in Milton they asked me to wear my Blues because even a homely guy like me looks good in Marine Corp dress blues uh so I wore my blues and I spoke to couple hundred uh people and I was on the front page of the Milton times uh while I had been in Iraq uh my private practice had imploded so I was looking for jobs I had uh U you know I was talking to a a big firm I was talking to some midsize firms some general counsel offices but uh I get a phone call a couple days after the the Veterans Day ceremony uh from a member of Governor Romney's office uh and he said uh uh sir you kept calling me sir and and Colonel so you know I knew he had to be a veteran U sir uh the governor and I were looking at uh uh the Milton times and and I told him that uh uh I knew you uh and I thought you'd be a good person to put on the board of Mass Maritime uh Academy and uh I said well that's very kind of you uh I I said' do we know each other he saidwell sir you don't remember but you reenlisted me 20 years ago when I was a Corporal and I was stuck in Boston on on family leave and I I couldn't find anybody and people said go talk to Bill sinate at the US attorney's office he'll sway you in so I brought this Gentleman Jack kleene was his name with the c into the US attorney's office and instead of just me I had about 25 of my colleagues in the press room with the flags behind us uh and he got a nice round of applause as I administered the oath uh to him uh and he didn't forget about it and he saw this photo of me and uh and and Romney had Governor Romney had said yeah absolutely let's see if we can get him on board uh and he said I don't know if you're aware of what's going on but there's chaos down there right now the board and the administration uh the Admiral uh down there is the president um uh have had a falling out for some time now and uh they uh the board fired the Admiral but turns out they had deliberated in violation of the open meeting laws so they had to reinstate them and and that that has just made things worse and the governor and I are hoping you can get on there and kind of U smooth things over and get them back focused and and we've got a an Air Force uh General that we've asked that'll be starting the same day as you Jimmy Dishner was the name just a lovely human being uh so I you know he said you want to think about it I said I don't have to think about it I went to you know school with Mass Maritime graduates you know that are still friends it's a great institution uh sign me up so within a couple of weeks I was down there for the next meeting and I immediately saw what the problem was um the Admiral was sitting there and you you know I getting icy stairs from the U uh board members or some of the board members um and you know a couple board members started talking about really in the weeds things that they were unhappy with the administration doing you know disciplinary issues involving one or two students you know you know why was that done that shouldn't have been handled like that and of course I did the Columbo routine I stood up and I said hey guys forgive me I I mean I'm I'm the new guy and I I you know I may not know  so you know you can ignore me if if if you want but why the hell is the board getting involved in a disciplinary issue everybody kind of leaned forward I said isn't that something that you got to leave up to the administration because they're in the best position to get the facts and talk to people and and and have the experience to to know how to how to execute on those things they kind of looked around and I could see the Admiral sitting there in the in the first row going like this you know with trying to suppress a smile on his face but they had gotten so you know it started with a personality conflict and I I ended up being great friends over the next five years with these these board members and with the Admiral um but you know the personality difference is you know and he was a little Tong deaf you know as we told him at different times about things that would push their buttons um you know he had a you know the Navy mindset of of you know my way of the highway you know I'm the commander of this ship uh and when you're responding when you're answering to a board you're not but by the same token they had gotten over involved in the things that they shouldn't have been you know we should have been setting the policy we should have been dealing with the budget we should have been carrying car out the you know the Strategic plan that was being you know you know formulated uh and Dishner and I said uh General auditioner and I said look guys why don't you take a long-term view of this and and judge the Admiral and his administration on their body of work uh let's make part of the Strategic plan to be their performance so you took the passion out of it it was a dispassionate relationship from then on by and Marge where there were quantifiable items in that uh um strategic plan that you know by uh 2022 uh the academy will uh increase its U Dei representation uh by uh uh 5% you know something like that so that if it didn't happen or there was a regression on on on those numbers that the administration would be judged on those things so rather than having this this back and forth interaction you had you know this definition of roles that I I think work to the benefit of the of the academy and we brought in this expert on on on setting up these types of systems and he was he was terrific I forget his name but I would I would hire him again for a similar type situation in in a minute but they weren't staying in their Lane and and they as result were you know like a dog chasing his tail around they were getting distracted and and tied up in things that really weren't weren't the types of things that uh uh they needed to be doing so staying in your lane uh you know I can tell you a u couple of things that uh Henry uh my My Pal the former uh president uh of mmla said uh uh he said if uh staying in the in your own lane includes that if Authority is exceeded any action taken would be null and void um so you can't exceed your lawful Authority the or it's null and void uh the board is empowered not individuals if you're acting on your own if you're freelancing you're in the shoes of a private citizen you don't enjoy the protections of of a board uh and you don't you don't U assume the the powers of the board um I ask you a question on that sure Scott how how would you what's your advice on handling constituency concerns is it better to refer them to town management or in the past I've been caught up I'm sure others have in taking the concern to the town manager or the town office and and then following up with the constituent how yeah it's it's a great question Scott I think the reality is that you've got to be accessible you know I mean to pretend that that you can just dish things off when people you know you're a member of the community you're going to interact with people at the coffee shop on the street uh as as well as at at at meetings and government functions uh and sometimes people want to be hurt you know and and and you know can drive you crazy at times you know you're trying trying to get to you know your granddaughter's recital uh and somebody wants to talk to you about a crosswalk uh and you you know but that's as I see it that's part of your job uh is is to listen now I think you got to make plain you know look this is something that the board and the administrator uh would have to have power over I don't have any say in it but I will communicate your concerns to the the the board as a potential agender IEM but also to the administrator but I don't have the power to do this you know make sure they understand what your your role is but I you know I I think one of the great things about town government is that accessibility um you know people want to be heard people want to feel like they they're being acknowledged and and and uh and taken seriously and I think each of you in this this room uh is part of that Dynamic Fel is very territorial so there are East fouth guys there are Woods Hole people there are Uptown people that they think they're the only you're the only one that they can go to cuz you're from that you know what I mean and trying to get them convinced that maybe a different perspective or this that but I found that I've run into uh they think you're the only one that can handle this and I've adopted a practice of now calling the office probably driving your butt crazy but this one is going to be calling you about this cuz that's where we've directed him so we don't waste I don't waste my time in that vicious circle of who told who what went yeah I think the important thing Scott is that you pass it on to everybody y um you know so that the the the board as a whole has visibility uh on it and the town manager has visibility on on and anything like that um and and you've done your job you know and then and then the board can decide uh you know whether this becomes an agenda item uh you know and and and you know I'm sure you know Nancy can give a lot of feedback on that but at least the person's been uh acknowledged uh you know and and and that's worth something and you get back to the person say you know I passed it along uh let we we'll see what happens you know and they'll say hey thanks so much you know i' I've been heard you I think 90 for me 90% of it is people just misunder understand why the heck is the town doing this and often times I can just say it's actually not like like that it's like this and they're like oh wow thanks yeah yeah all right so uh yeah Henry had some uh well one one more uh bullet here uh coordinate the activities uh of of other boards uh as as part of uh staying in your lane as a body uh but uh Henry said uh if the board itself or a member interfered in an area beyond the scope of the board's Authority there would likely be friction hell there would sure as be open Warfare between the select board and the other public body the board whose Turf the select board is infringing on getting back to Heather's hand grenade in the room uh and and and and why having an understanding is so uh so important and then he said and that goes double um for any member of the board who uh is going rogue and I I don't imagine you've seen that here but I've seen it you know with the you know the um the cautionary tale of all deliberate bodies the Boston city council where you know members go so Rogue sometimes they're indicted um but but also where you know they they've lost the bubble on their Collective responsibility you know they they're out for their own interests you know redistricting um discussions you know where you had um District counselors trying to pack their um their District with a particular uh racial demographic because you know it's going to guarantee that they they can be a couns forever um whereas that's going to have a an effect where it's going to take some of those numbers out of another District you know it's like that that balloon that gets gets squeezed uh but they want what's good for them and and you know the board uh and and any responsible deliberative body has to even as it acknowledges those concerns it's got to do what's what's good for everybody uh let me just see uh oh yeah and uh he reminded me of one issue where one of the counselors um decided that she was going to individually hold meetings with the public on Boston Public School's property you know to hear their concerns and and uh uh we had to tell her that she had no authority to do this um you know those that's a city resource uh you know if you do it you've got to do it with the authorization of the city council uh you got to take it to the the city council you know sometime through a board I mean they've got like through a committee they must have you know 25 different committees um you know every everybody's got their own fom there but you can't freelance on these things um so I thought Henry had some some good advice there um FD can I go can you just go back staying in your lane I think think the the um last two bullets are really important work through the town administrator or the yeah and then the last one is we have to acknowledge what is daytoday management and what is policy so I and I think we've all Gotten Trapped in that at some point that's a real hard one and I think for the the management to be able to manage the town in an effective responsible way the Board needs to stay out of what you do dayto day yeah you're not administrators right you're you're policy makers um and it's it's a difficult thing I mean every board runs into these these issues and the next slide that we'll talk about with you know Harry Truman's uh lovely uh Visage uh greeting us uh is is just a a follow-up to that uh Collective action so there's uh Truman who took office when FDR uh uh passed away in office um but um he said the leaders who work most effectively it seems to me never say I and that's not because they have trained themselves not to say I they don't think I they think we they think team most importantly they understand their job is to make the team function they accept responsibility and don't sidestep it but we gets the credit so in in in speaking about uh Collective action you're talking about government by committee um so uh legal Authority requires a properly called and posted meeting with the majority with the Quorum uh a majority must vote for or against it's you know once again it's not one individual and it doesn't require a unanimity although unanimity is is is always nice in conveying the the the U perspective of of the board um individual members must work with other board and committee members and big part of that is courtesy and compromise it's it's what you guys will modeling in that first discussion today about origin stories you know the the the the courtesy to understand someone else's perspective and the willingness you know even on issues that you feel passionate about to a the validity of what you're hearing from their positions and to compromise you know in in government and in politics compromise is not a dirty word uh and uh you know we've got a representative democracy and a select board as representativ I mean you know you've got town meeting uh but you know the real work gets done and the decision making gets done at this level um 2012 we had occupy Boston take over Dewey Square on the greenway uh and you know they had these encampments all over the country on Wall Street Oakland where somebody got killed um when the police interceded uh uh I mean it was it looked like it was going to be this you know incredible phenomenon and for about a month or six weeks it was uh and you know because my boss Tom minino was a 20year incumbent really wasn't all that concerned about losing his office so he could be a little bit more patient than others but that's the approach we took uh we went to court and we brought in a uh instead of treating this as a Law Enforcement issue which most other towns did we treated it as a public safety issue we brought in the fire marshal we had blown up photographs of um bailes of hay inside uh tents and the Bales were there to insulate uh but we also you know had candles on top of the bales of hay we had guidelines running from these tents across the pathways there and we right next to the the expressway the a ramp for the tunnel leading to the expressway so the Fire Marshall talked about the the danger of a a fire or configration uh there that that could kill dozens talked about the Stampede that would result as that would result from that type of an action uh and issues of people jumping into traffic things like that by the time he finished the judge was uh so shaken she said uh you you guys have made a convincing case um take it down whenever you think it's appropriate so we you know we waited a couple of days and then went in at midnight uh and at that point there were just 40 die hards who insisted on being arrested uh and the BPD obliged them but part of the problem with occupy was we couldn't make a decision um we would go to them and and say you know we'd like to propose that U uh that we have uh you know regular meetings um uh each evening at you know 6 o'clock and we talk about the next day's activities well they didn't have representative Mark they had have everybody be part of this decision so you'd have sometimes 500 people uh called upon to make a decision and as you can imagine 500 people are incapable of making a decision in a setting like that uh you know monito said to me he said you know Billy he says if if they had been smarter they would have been a real force uh for change but he said because they had you know this this structure they got hijacked by every far-left issue that came up you know one day they're marching to the uh to the federal courthouse in support of uh somebody who'd been charged with Terror terrorism uh you know American citizen who'd been uh uh doing propaganda films for Isis uh you know the next day the you know some um Marxist group uh you know had the march on the Federal Reserve you know and and they just kind of lost everybody because you know they they didn't really have that structure that would ensure that that they could get things done and they certainly didn't have the ability to have courtesy and and compromise it was it was you know it was it it was just a mob uh some some delightful people you know I mean some of these folks were were were wonderful uh you know the police got to be friends with some of them you know Billy Evans who later became commissioner said to me once he says Billy you wouldn't believe what happened he says I'm I'm standing there and this uh this guy who's got you know hair down to here and a long beard comes and says hey soup superintendent uh look you didn't hear from me but there's a guy in that tent over in the corner who's been selling heroin uh I think he's got some hot bags somebody's going to get hurt uh but I just want to let you know and then Evans said to him all right I didn't hear it from you but they went into that tent uh and and they arrested a guy that had a you know a lot of heroin and and a long record of drug distribution and and other things but um you know how a government or body a structed you can really dictate its Effectiveness and for all those constraints that all of you feel at times working within the system there's some value to it as well it's it's it's a matter of of nuance I and um let's talk about strategic responsibilities and and of course that chart on there means absolutely nothing but I you know I wanted to find some stock photo of strategy and Bill I'm watching our time Y and I'm hoping we can get to slide 21 and work through some of that and also be able to give the board an opportunity to ask you qu is 21 the U code of contuct great all right so let's Breeze through these uh you know just you know some of those things here got to have a Clear Vision uh uh strategic plan we talked about that that earlier you can Inspire the public and set goals and Milestones lead positive change uh that's a photo of me after the last Falmouth Road Race uh uh effective leaders uh make decisions based on fact data and logic even when unpopular and and you guys have already experienced that you've probably experienced it just in in your relatively short time how they sometimes you make people unhappy but you got to do it you know you you you you trying to make a decision for the good uh of of the entire Community the quality of life of the entire Community but you got to demonstrate empathy and understanding as as a leader you can't be dismissive um good leaders own their mistakes and and and learn from them uh and they set the tone for the community with integrity cander empathy uh courtesy Community engagement uh good Community engagement includes once again respectful dialogue accessibility what Scott was asking about earlier in-person telephonic virtual meetings and Communications uh you know covid really did throw everybody for a loop there's been some great things as a result of it but there's also been a certain Detachment that's come with you know meeting people on a little square on a on a screen uh and and we lose something if if that's the only accessibility that the public has and and you know I know you've got uh inperson meetings but you know be aware of that uh need for uh accessibility uh awareness uh represent everybody responsiveness uh to uh inquiries uh and complaints uh media relations we'll cover this real quick um seek authorization from the chair or the board before speaking with the Press um it's a mindfield you know I mean this is something that can cause problems for you and cause problems for the board um if you are authorized to speak don't ever a lie better to say I don't know or I really can't get into that because if you lose credibility with the Press by lying it will dog you I I you know I know reporters I know some great reporters I know some snakes uh but none of them should be lied to because it'll follow you around and it'll be bad for the uh for the board don't ever discuss uh board deliberations or positions and this doesn't just go for the media this goes for everybody you know don't be the one that's saying well you know we're you know we're we're three to two right now I think but you know that could change at the next uh mean don't don't get into that or you know don't say uh you know uh that particular member is is a problem on an issue uh it's not fair to your your fellow members you don't want them talking about you like that next time when you're you're in the U minority uh and don't discuss employee Personnel or disciplinary issues I saw this so many times where uh a counselor was being overly helpful and the next thing you know they were on a witness list for an employment action you know or an mcad action um don't uh don't get into to those things you know particularly if it looks like you're badmouthing an employee you know or or revealing information that disciplinary information that may be uh confidential or at least not in the public eye uh speak clearly and understandably with minimal jargon or board speake uh you know I mean this is something I saw uh with the uh the military all the time um if I had more time i' I'd give you an anecdote that on that uh but uh you know you got to make sure that everybody understands what you're saying you know the at the highest level as well as the execute level of the employee uh so that there's no misunderstanding uh and finally uh treat the Press with respect and understand that reporters have a job to do okay uh now let's get into the uh the code of conduct um this is gold that you know I mean before I knew you had a code of conduct some something I was going to recommend to you um and and you know this is one that can needs to be uh fine tuned continually but this is a great pocket um uh document uh for you to have uh in how you uh carry out your your your role individually and collectively as as board members and as a board and you know and number five how the chair uh conducts uh uh her uh uh her business so let's just talk about uh the first one your relationship with the community just going to U some of these we've talked about but they they're worth reminding you of and and emphasizing because as Nancy says this is you know this is important policy not Administration that's your your relationship with the community we've talked about a lot of this you know being accessible you should be being empathetic you need to be uh but also uh making sure that uh you're not getting out of your lane uh be a good teammate uh you know I mean the support I've seen in in this room uh already uh just you know demonstrates to me that this is this is a team you know you all have have some differences I'm sure you got some priorities that may be different or some styles that may be different but you know that's a good team takes advantage and learns how to how to leverage those different perspectives and backgrounds and and everything like that what the chair was talking about earlier uh I think during the break uh about you know some of the the backgrounds and skills that that each of you bring that others may not have that might be enlightening um I think B is like one of the most important things that we do because it sets the example for all the other committees because you know we always always don't always get our way but once the board makes a decision we do all stand behind it yeah and that kind of leadership is important for other groups because they all have that same thing they don't one person doesn't get their way and if they're going around the coffee shop saying oh those other people don't understand you know that just doesn't work yeah Doug I think you exemplify that more than any of us I think it it's an admirable trait that you have oh thanks yeah and you know that's not just a lesson for this board or for town government that's a lesson for society right you know you can't always get your way way and and and and sometimes you know you got to be a Community member uh and and acknowledge that you know I didn't get my way but you know for the good of the community it's time to move forward and out of respect for the body that you're part of and you and you do have a voice and your voice is through your vote right right and even when you lose the major vote right because maybe I voted no and everyone else voted yes that's that's still okay that's my voice once that decision's made you get behind the and when we go to a meeting and somebody says you know what's the board's position on that you don't say well I felt like this but they said that you just say the board voted this that's what it is yeah because you lose legitimacy if they think you're a fractured board right um they think well you know I I didn't get my way but it sounds like you know at least you know some people were on my side I'm going to dig my heels in right you know and and maybe they'll come around to me you know because I'm the only one that's right yeah because I'm right yeah um stay informed of your role and avoid issues you know you want the the um Community uh to believe that as you do and I can see already just how conversent you are in these issues uh this is important and and you're not just walking into a a meeting and looking at uh you know the agenda for the first time or or you know having no idea what the the the key issues are that are going to be uh discussed or that there's going to be comment on um stay informed of your role and and of the issues and represent the entire Community not segments you know you don't have District um uh members uh uh but you know just based on my experience with Boston city council it it creates a friction that becomes you very difficult to to deal with you know of course City Council you've got you know 13 uh people who think they're auditioning to be mayor of the city of Boston unfortunately yeah unfortunately some of them were auditioning for a prison suit uh as we've seen over the last couple days and and finally uh be an ethical leader um you know model good ethics avoid conflicts of interest avoid even the appearance of impropriety all right so um your relationship with the town man manager we we've talked about some of this but uh you know understand the board's role as policy maker and the manager's role as administrator um you know it's it's it's very easy to get out of your lane uh and and and not just as select board members but anybody in in town government uh it's not helpful to the process you know and and you can accomplish the same things by acting as as a good teammate and and acting collectively uh and and bringing your your your teammates your fellow board members uh into a discussion uh that you think is is is worth uh worth pursuing stay your lane observed the chain of command and allow the manager to discharge his responsibilities I mean and and I don't know what the the dynamic is is here but I know not just from that Mass Maritime example I gave you but from you know my familiarity with with other uh boards and and with the uh uh with the city that you got to let the people that are uh uh not only uh empowered with duties but obliged by those duties to carry out th those uh uh responsibilities and obligations um don't directly provide instruction to department heads work through the board and the manager it drives department heads crazy because they're caught in the middle they know that you guys are in many respects you know the boss of them but they also know that the the town manager is the one that's that's um administering them so you put them in a tough position you put the town manager in a tough position uh and and it's not for the good of the board and this is something that I think needs to be um highlighted with other committees as well yeah that committees do not go to town department heads they go through the man and that has been a little bit of an issue as well it's an interesting thing though that whenever we do the town manager evaluation no matter what template you find it says how well does a town manager interact with department heads and we really don't know that and me we can go and just talk to them and say you know how's things going you know do you feel like you're supported do you have a good solid budget that's you know support and you can ask those kind of questions but it's a little uncomfortable for the the department head and I don't really do it I feel like I know the town well enough that I don't really have to do that and I can read the budget and I understand but how would that work you're also not giving them Direction no it's only asking if the you know if things are going well if they think that that you know I think that's fine but I think I think it's got to be transparent you know it's got to be something that the board has made aware of that the Town manager is made aware of look you know I you know I'd love to talk to some people uh because part of our duty is to to you know assess your your interaction not going to interfere with it you got the ball Town manager uh I think that the key uh Doug is to come up with the best way to do that so nobody feels especially these guys that there's been an end around on them because that just makes their job that much more difficult but you know I think there were processing that you can put in place um you know whether they're in person or or U written uh processes uh but something that that's fair to everybody but where you know you're you know you can carry out your your duties to to see if that relationship is you know a good one it's a tricky part yeah uh I just want to throw something out from my perspective again I I have worked for some boards over 32 years that uh that have gotten into the weeds and have gotten into giving direction to department heads and line level staff um after 18 months I can say that's not been the case here honestly I think what what Nancy said earlier about um I think the focus and the emphasis needs to be on perhaps some of the boards and committees um and I honestly as we sit here I don't know the best way to do that um but so I have not from my from my experience had an issue any of the five select board members interfering day-to-day operations it's more the issues and challenges and struggles I've had as the manager is you know perhaps the boards and committees doing right having that and look I'm all for um accessibility and and and dialogue and channels lines of communication but when when I have committee folks telling staff department heads do this do that that's when I have an issue with because it it it makes Peter's in mind job more difficult right because I think Peter alluded to it earlier you know we have we're supposed to have a better sense of in terms of workload and and priorities you know I answer and Peter to the five select board members so it's our job to kind of triage those St use when an when not an outside when a Committee Member board person starts directing day-to-day Affairs and actions of department heads and other folks that starts to break down the the that's unfair to the department head too because they don't know where it's coming from they don't know Bill said Bill said it puts them in a bad situation because they they want to be respectful and and over decades have good working relationships with these uh boards and committees and I that's great but we just have to do a better job my office delineating and explaining to these board and committee folks what their responsibilities are and and where that line is now my understanding is there is a committee handbook and isn't that drafted by the select board or under the opic in this case it was Judy fenwick's idea and she offered to do the editing and Peter and I and Judy collaborated and we periodically bring it to the board for review and consideration and suggestions I think would be a great thing to highlight that relationship right you know you know do not go directly to department heads uh you know but have something in that handbook if there isn't already and I don't recall if there is I took that has to be direct correlation with whatever our handbook is so the same language yeah well maybe the thing to do is just to we clarify the policy is that you know you work through your select board liaison and your select board and your committee and you know there they don't have a direct line to you know working with department heads and so forth maybe your department heads that's that with their responses you need to work through your Le that's another piece have you gone through and use the handbook right and make reference because there it is so you've had notice right again not wanting to get into the weeds but I but I do think uh that that are if there are those types of issues uh that that it would be helpful for the select board as a body to know if that if there is an issue with respect to something that might be going on with one committee or another so that we're aware of of that in case we get questioned by someone out there hey what's going on so list I appreciate how hard the job is and and all that's going on in the town manager's office but um I I think sometimes uh you know i' and I've expressed this as you know since I've been on the board and sometimes we hear things you know read them in the newspaper hear things uh and and I think there there needs to be a little bit more information that may need to come to the select board not on everything and certainly not on the weeds of of anything but just to know you know what's what what may be going on that may become you know an issue of some import I'd love to be able to talk and maybe this will be a topic of another conversation kind of the mechanics of that Bo because I agree I mean the communication and I know exactly you know the the the topic you're referring to um you know my struggle with that and again it's 20 years you know as a city or accy manager how to you know relay that information so that it doesn't become subject to you know a records how do how do I get that information out to you I'll disseminate that information so it could be I'm a big proponent of you know what one of you gets everybody gets so I try to do that but when we have issues like this um let's talk about the mechanics yeah I mean I I I I understand the constraints we have an isue right now we have a big issue right now that we need to yeah but again it's how you get it to people it it's uh Scott and then Heather I we're running out of time media we we generally don't have counterarguments with the media but we've all experienced probably the media has one one one approach to this and that's it and there's no way to rebut it so that's the only information that the town folks are getting and I think that's all convoluted I don't know if it's only through the media but that's I didn't say only yeah I said but you made reference I didn't make reference to the media I didn't say just did you hear stuff through the media no you did you said you you said sometimes we hear things about for the first time through the media oh yeah that I said that's what I'm saying yeah that that I said could be totally off base right so trying to bridge that Gap is what I'm trying to get to how do we do that and there are a whole lot of layers right oh and I and I don't want this board that I report directly to and responsible to to ever be blindsided and and again going back to so so um that's something that needs to be worked on um that's all I just want to throw it out there because I think it's something we need to work on and I but but I at the same token understand the constraints you know public meeting and public records and and a lot of other things was timing too some of that some some of what was released um you know was I just wanted to get it out there as as something I think is an issue that's all but I I I think this go ahead Heather did you have something you want um I thought I saw your hand yes a little bit different so if there's what I was going to say is I mean this sounds like something where you're in need of a process you know uh whether it's a carve out of time for iners look these things are going on or you know something that you know could very well be a public records request so you want to be careful about it um you know you could carve out a time at a at a um a regular meeting but you know that that's going to all be public uh if it's something that's an executive session thing it it it's got a different Dynamic to it it's a little bit easier to do it but you know not knowing the specifics of this thing I I've had colleagues that and maybe this is a solution we'll talk again we'll run out of time but colleagues of mine have suggested um because we talk uh managers um that you know you have one-on-one meetings you know periodically by by weekly meetings yeah it's a lot of time it's a lot of your time it's a lot of my time Peterson but having those one-on-one meetings again allows the information to get out there um there's no Liberation just a thought exchanging I can't tell you how many times I've almost picked up the phone to ask for a meeting and then I said now he's got too much going on done that effectively so that's something we can talk about okay that's good to know Heather um maybe kind of nitty-gritty but um when we were talking about uh committees and um committees being one source of this you know kind of going directly to staff members the the thing that came up for me is well each of those committees um has a staff member assigned to it right and is is that creating some of that confusion that not all no not all but many but many of them do um so I actually pulled up the committee handbook um and there's not a lot of guidance on that except that in one place it says request assistance from town staff only through the staff person assigned to the committee so maybe there's some clar clarification there um in the committee handbook about that that relationship and the right channels to go through in terms of the the part of the struggle for me is when a committee person calls Peter mcconnery because they have something that we and they want the DPW involved tomorrow and this is what you need to do and that is completely inappropriate and it puts the the department head and I'm just picking Peter out of a hat but it puts the department head in a position where he doesn't want to say no I no um or but it makes a really really difficult position because what it does is it goes around your office goes right to one of your department heads the department head doesn't want to you know necessarily kick back or say no but the department head needs to have language to say no this is not how it works the process is you go through another office or or through you the the um the town person that works for that that board but that hasn't there are a couple of U committees that are not doing that and it is has created a mess is it appropriate for us as leaon to question whether the the committee has read their handbooks oh sure and to require that I I suggest that you refer to your handbook and you may find the answer you're asking right there through the chair you know as part of I mean is that appropriate I think to always refer back to something that's in writing that has been distributed is always appropriate to all right anything else all right so um next item uh is your relationship with fellow board members we've talked about some of these before it's government by committee not by individual don't prejudge your Vote or position until hearing comment and deliberation it's very easy to pontificate uh outside of a meeting uh or in a meeting before information has come in that that is going to inform you on on your Vote or deliberations um don't violate the confidentiality of executive sessions Um this can get you in hot water don't discuss the position of a select board uh or individual member without authorization we've talked about that and finally uh treat other members in the differing positions with respect I mean seems like that's pretty uh evident to each of you all right um Town staff um treat staff with professionalism Clarity and honesty um you know once again the whole world is watching uh how you treat staff uh they deserve to be treated with uh professionalism uh and with cander um work through the board and the town's chain of command and seeking information uh and keep the manager informed don't criticize individual employees in public uh these take on life of their own you know and all of a sudden you or the board are being badmouthed in places that you never knew existed uh or things get taken out of context because you made an off-hand comment that was misconstrued uh you got to be very careful um all staff support requests should go through the manager and finally share Communications from staff members with the entire select board and then uh finally uh the chair's relationship with the public the board and town staff um draft nany's uh responsibility probably the primary one is drafting meeting agenda based on the charter the Strategic plan and the bylaws in other words they grounded uh in the rules uh be respons being responsive to requests from other board members for information and and you know request for uh something to be an agenda item uh being consistent and fair and conducting and leading the meeting uh you don't want uh one particular uh board member or member of the public or uh committee uh member uh to feel like uh they're not getting the same uh courtesy or attention as as someone else does uh and then uh finally uh serve as the spokesperson on behalf of of the board unless it's delegated to someone else but you know the the overall thing you should take away from these is that Beyond planning and overseeing the board's meetings the chair does not have special Authority or power uh but obviously this is a very important responsibility or series of responsibilities uh you know especially on the on the meeting side but also um uh the acting as spokesperson uh with the the media and with the uh public uh but um you know Nancy is uh you know the same as as every other member when it comes to her power uh on the board all right so any questions on the code of conduct do that also include the thermostat yeah no I totally control the temperature of the I thought that was very authoritarian on her part you know you know my theory Reas reasonable this microphone isn't working or You' hear my teeth chattering you wait till the end of the meeting to complain I'm only kidding so here is your opportunity to ask any questions bring up any issues that we need to talk about any further direction that we need we do have a a a handout um I don't know if you want to spend the time to do that now or that's the um the case study yeah I think we do we have our own case study is there anything brewing that we need to talk about as a group no no deliberations Brewing them with respect to what just in terms of of anything we want to ask Bill any direction that we need based on what you've learned today how do we move forward creating our own handbook I know one thing we we stay busy I mean there is a lot a lot going onh and and every two weeks comes seems like every week now you you know what I mean there's that much going on around here and it's hard that right there adds its own level of of anxiety because all the overlapping things that are out of our control are all happening at the same time you know what I mean so I don't know how to get around that you can't cut back on time we would never get anything done I think the only thing I think is BR I mean it's just a busy busy gig it's busy gig I think we're uh actually in a good place right now I think when I came on in 2016 we had a lot of critics and we had a lot lot of complainers and I don't see as much of that and I think we're accomplishing a lot I think turning the thermostat down may have something to do with that Peter would you please everybody's complaining except for me I'm like perfectly comfortable I'm not compl you worked outside your whole life I'm not complaining I I just took note of that Authority that is the one thing I can control I thought it was very comfortable temperature I can't even do that yeah uh but yeah you guys have your hands full I mean this this board is uh strikingly um capable competent um collaborative in your dealings with each other you know well diverse backgrounds um you know I mean you know in my neighborhood if uh if if an Irishman married an Italian it would considered a mixed marriage so you know diversity has different different levels uh but but um yeah diverse backgrounds and perspectives if you can make that work you'll be a stronger body um just we've grown our Public Safety you know we've grown our fire department significantly with significant support from the public yeah know we had to go for two overrides in a row because we didn't really quite have the first one figured out uh we're coming up on probably having to consider an override for a police station uh or a a dead explosion for a police station and potentially an override for police Staffing because I mean when we really get it figured out I think we're going to realize we need quite a bit more but I think that because of the respect we have for each other and the way that we've been managing things financially I think the voters will still support that yeah these are transformative changes you're talking about right with respect to the quality of life in Falmouth I these are Big deals you know I mean this is um this is important stuff and the role that each of you you play in the in the discussion of these things in the vetting of these things the deliberation of this deliberative body is critical uh and and and the and you know the interactions you have with the the town manager and and and his staff and with these committees uh all of this you know it may not be pretty you may feel like it's making sausage sometimes but it's important and and it's effective even on those you know little pieces that that hether was talking about early above you know you know the interaction with the town manager so uh if I and have send Mike a a an email right you know with respect to an issue or a question that may have been presented to me by a constituent or that I came up with myself you know should I share that with with other board members is it proper to I mean I'm just kind of wondering if you know if if the person's looking for you to do something or for Action to be taken I you know I think that's something you want to share if it's just somebody saying this town sucks you know I I I've had it you know I mean people want to get things off their chest uh and you may not even remember some of those comments because you you guys become a verbal impact area because of your visibility because of your role you become the one that somebody's going to unload on uh or commiserate with um you know and some of that stuff you know particularly when it's family members that are doing the the the the bitching and whining you know are things you don't really want to bring you know into the public sphere but if you get an element of trust you among each other you know or you think that the board might benefit from hearing some of these things because they may not be made in isolation then by all means share it but being careful about how the board responds go ahead I think that's the point that's the issue I I don't think the issue is getting the information out to everybody the the the issue is you know responding in a way that violates the open meeting law I think even even the oneway transmission can be a problem it is it 100% is if it's geared towards deliberation if it's geared towards bringing somebody over to a particular thing I mean the best thing is to to go to the chair uh and and say look this is this is what I've heard um leave it up to you whether we make this an agenda item or make this an issue with others I don't feel comfortable uh you know talking to the other select board members because someone might construe that as being my attempt to get them on board a particular uh um position on this thing so what do you think and I think this board um some members may be more comfortable than others doing but but do pick up the phone they'll pick up the phone and I take the information and then I bring it to Mike on Wednesdays I you know the other thing is if um if you do send Mike an email about something you want on the agenda if you would just include me because what I have to make sure that I do I'm always afraid I'm going to drop something like I'm going to drop your issue you you told me three weeks ago about something and so I I make sure that I copy those emails I make sure we we I bring them in we go through every one of them to make sure that I don't drop may not get on the very next week that you know after we discussed it but I try not to drop your concerns and my my policy is always if I need something I always send it to Mike and Nancy if it's something I think Peter might have knowledge of or be of interest to him I'll include him but I don't do it every time and I really don't ever bring it to all board members because it's just even if I'm just bringing up an issue it sounds as if I'm pushing for it right and it's tempting to hit reply all you know that there is that Temptation it's just automatic that you I want Bob to know what I think about it but in this Ro we can't it becomes exhibit we can't do it right yeah well you you heard my example of the open meeting law I mean that that of Mass Maritime Academy that's what got gave the Admiral a Lifeline is the board had uh in in a non- meeting had participated in what could be construed as deliberation about his tenure there uh and because it was not uh appr appropriately posted uh um it was overturned so things can be you know orders can be thrown out as a result of of violations of the open meeting law including email uh deliberations just to be clear and this just you when you keep bringing up Mass Maritime um some of you know that Eric is a board member on Mass Maritime Academy but I did not get to Bill through Eric so I want to be really clear that you were not recommended to me by a board member of Mass Maritime um I got the recommendation through a a legal firm in Boston that I know really well yeah my question is why didn't you get it through Mass Maritime obviously they didn't think much of me I oh okay there are entities out there that look solely for process mistakes or proc absolutely as ratory we've been caught in that before a lot I mean yes yeah I mean I think I think we have way you know what I mean I think the only safe way to avoid that violation is is the board does not email each other email the entire board you can copy you know one member can copy the chair but I I think our guidance has been the only safe way to assure we don't violate the open meeting laws board members simply never email a quorum of the board and remember with the open meeting law with public records requests good intentions are irrelevant yeah you have to be careful will say that when people ask me for stuff in public I always refer them to just say hey send it the letter to select Bo F ma.gov because then we all see it we're all aware of it and we're all you know have an opportunity to consider if it's something we want answering within 24 hours of we've received your yeah that goes out automatically but I I agree Doug I think it's if you put it back on the person who has the issue and they send a letter to the whole board becomes part of the record everybody sees the same information absolutely and then we we talk about it and I think that makes perfect sense CU a lot of times people say should I go talk to the town manager and I said no he's busy just send an email and we'll take it up I don't I said sure go open the door the open his door and while you're at it give him a message from me while you're at it give him a message from Heather go ahead um just in terms of agenda setting one thing I really appreciated in the Lexington select board handbook that you asked us to take a look at was um the schedule for the year that's laid out in that in terms of like month by month what are the responsibilities and topics that the select Board needs to to take up um which I thought could be really useful um we actually have and we do have that we have that calendar is it we'll send it to you we do have it is it on the website well it doesn't show the topics but there are topics are designated because they're timely yes that's that's the one that we there is one that you there is one that that you have because they're time sensitive you have to do them this month this month this month actually names the Committees that are be likely to be presenting and so forth it's not always 100% but it and it doesn't have every any every agenda item on it because it can't fluid I mean the agenda is fluid I mean I think both in terms of um a resource for the board to have but also as a public facing resource so that folks have a sense of you know these are these are the things that we know that we have to take on and win is that not on the website we talked about Peter and I recently have had a conversation about which calendar was that right we were talking to Town Council recently about dialogue with Town Council was it the H not the H the not the select board meeting agenda or meeting schedule with the holidays in it that's the only one that I was Diane has it because she's the one who know which committees are going to be presenting exactly so we could I I have no issue with I think it for the transparency and the public facing yeah it makes sense good to also show them that we actually know what we're doing in six months and that you have to do it get ready to vote on it so yeah and then the other thing that we have that is sort of goes on concurrently with that is we work every Wednesday on projecting out not just those things that are time sensitive but don't forget for future me meetings we have these 15 items and we so that we can then figure out how we put those items into the schedule that works with the one that we published so there is a lot that goes on I think and um I guess I didn't know anything about this and till Doug was chair and I was the vice chair and I thought I had no idea that all of that projecting outward was H was happening you just don't know that if you're not but anyway I don't ever remember being the vice chair having any extra time on a Wednesday it gets filled I mean you get there at 8 8:15 and it's already going you're staff meeting I got to go I got to go on my staff me and hours M any okay so let's talk about moving forward we need to think about creating our own handbook and how do we want to do that who wants to take that on I will you will wow okay so with everything we've done today and all the resources Bob you will try that would be awesome and then at some point present it and we can that would be great well I like I like Lexington so I think that's a good starting it is a good start and and we have our our own you know you can take things from here we have our code of conduct we okay what about the committee one what about the committee I know we talk about coalescing the information or at least cross cross referencing some you can use it as a kind of a template for form yeah but but you also as you want to be consistent between the two documents be information at the same yeah I was just going to suggest once you know once the selectboard handbook is finalized then let's cross reference the two and see what clarifications Chang enforce policy if you don't adverti it right so great yeah anything else from the board anything else that you want from Bill I want would we would we utilize Bill to review the handbook happy to in a position I mean is that something we might consider doing and I think we did talk about that lawyer I always have business cards with me but yeah don't hesitate to get a hold of me and get a sanity check yeah thank you yeah I think that's a great idea for outside thank you Bill hi this is final slide here um is a bouquet uh and uh you know I I think it I I liked it so much I quoted at verbatim there were other things I quoted at verbatim that I probably could have made more clear but uh making a difference is is what you do here uh uh and and I won't read it to you but I think way what I've heard from you folks from start to finish in this Workshop just you know vindicates this whole concept uh you know you're the face of leadership in the community the face of of governance uh in the community people are looking at you um but you treat each other with respect you treat the public with respect you understand the import of what you're doing what you're trying to achieve uh and you help shape the future by doing that and and you know the things that you were talking about Doug are important game-changing things for for the town of Falmouth uh and you guys are essential to that U so as a board and as uh uh town uh management uh you know this is important stuff you know you deserve the admiration of the public you don't always get it you certainly have have mine I'm very impressed with you I'm I'm I think impressed with the knowledge and experience you bring but I'm especially impressed with the collegiality uh and the willingness to listen to each other uh and and to provide that acknowledgement and empathy that we talked about earlier so thanks for having me uh it was a a pleasure talking to you and good luck thank you thank you very much it's an honor and a privilege to be here lucky I think it's really important to I think that I think it's off right we're not oh I'll entertain a motion to adjourn okay I have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the boards seeing none all those in favor thank you [Music]