all right with the time being 5:35 um I now call a meeting of the appointments Committee of the Garden City council Tuesday April 1st 2025 the order the record should reflect that all members of the committee are present chair Heath councelor heglin and
councelor kinus uh announcement of open meeting recording is anyone recording today's meeting besides staff there is none we of minutes of prime meetings there is
none all right interview of the following appointees all right item number 11474 a measure confirming the mayor's appointment of Lori WIA to the possession of Zoning Board
member please come on hello hello you can oh boy and the owl's recording this you just have to speak louder I can hear you yes I am not soft okay all right would you uh let us know more about you sure
I'm Lori weda I live in Garder on a street I have much experience with zoning boards and peel through my position with the town of Temple um I have been on the gardener Zoning
Board of appeal for approximately 6 months and I think that with myself and the additional person we have actually created a really decent
team so it's been interesting um C HG you have any questions sure thank you for being here appreciate it um and your interest in serving as well on one of our committees um so I know you you referenced that you've been on for 6 months so far how's it been what are your thoughts anything
you want to highlight or you've learned along the way or well I think that the original board members are really a good resource um they've been very kind and
welcoming and I think that they enjoy having a couple other members it's interesting to see what people come forward for for variances and special permits and decisions um I think there's probably a
lot of work to do out there and like any other town you take it as it comes and you said you were had experience in templon I do yeah how's that been or what do you do what was your experience I know way back when we talked about it but just for in Templeton I'm actually
the director of development services so what that in tals is I oversee planning zoning agriculture um building Board of Health so there there's a lot that I see
and I've been there almost 20 years your real housee though little bit perfect thank you that's it for me thank you I was going to ask F about your experience in Templeton how long it's been and the counsel me me to it so um I
really appreciate your service and what you brought to the zoning board so far I think it's really important as the mayor had noted in the writeups that he submitted that we do stagger these appointments so that it's not all in and out at once and there's experience there
um so I do appreciate you having us you know bring this up so we can extend you out an extra year if possible um but I don't have any questions just thank you thank you all right um well thank you for everything that you
do um both here and Templeton that's that's amazing uh 20 years experience uh six here um you know uh the mayor speaks very highly of you um and again I I understand the stying of the appointments has there been any
challenges in your six month tenture that you can talk about well and maybe how you overcame it or oh no everything has been fairly decent I mean it it it's it's a contentious type of thing anyway
when people want something special that they're not necessarily going to get so you you kind of have to weigh a lot of different things when you're making decisions but yes is not always going to be the
answer so you know but no it's been fine it's been fine yep awesome awesome um do uh thank you thank you Mr chairman and report from the mayor
please thank you very much uh I've been very happy with Miss we's work on the uh zoning board of appeals over the last year um I've watched the meetings after they've done and the conversations and the points that have been brought up have always been very thoughtful um and to the point that she just made
um understanding in the way that the response is given back and I say that as a way that you know that you're going to make someone you you won't make their day with every comment that you make on the zoning board and every vote that you take and that's just something that happens when you work in any position in government and the way that that's
communicated across the applicant as to why the votes are being taken the way she's voted what her thoughts are what's Driven her to her vote has always been clear uh and understanding in a way that respects that someone's going to feel upset the way they're going to feel but explains why and I think that that also
helps with someone at ease at the same time and I've been really happy um to see the way that she's taken the role and really made it her own and run with it um again the only reason she's here right now is just so that we can get the Staggering of the terms the way it's supposed to be in the ordinance too um but when we have it so that we have so
many vacancies all at once sometimes you got to get creative with stuff like this in order to be able to continue move it forward so that's why uh she's back here again A year later but um I'm more than happy to have her for that extra year at the end if this is able to go through thank
you thank you and um thank you for your time thank you thank you all right item number 11476 a measure confirming the mayor's appointment of Eric Flint to the position of planning board member good afternoon good afternoon rep
from the mayor thank you Mr chairman uh Mr Flint reached out to my office back in November uh and said as someone who you know recently moved to Garder settled in and wanted to get involved in the community more um and reached out and asked if there were any openings on the planning board which we had um
during the day uh Mr Flint is a conservation planner for the city of uh city of Worcester uh so he understands how the operations of city government work he understands the role and its complexities but also the way it cooperates with our city staff uh with our other boards and commissions how the meetings are supposed to run the
workload uh and if you look at the resume that's included in your packet uh that he sent as well as his original letter of interest for the position he's more than qualified for the job in my opinion uh through the um through just background education training experience and everything in
between he's really the full package for the job um I'm really happy with seeing how he's performed in this first uh temporary appointment to the uh position that he's been in on the planning board um for uh Mr flint and um Mr Sumer Hayes who you have later on on your agenda uh
the vacancies on those boards and the votes that they had to take uh made it so so that I gave them a 60-day temporary appointment so that they could start voting on those and we wouldn't have any Quorum issues on uh the Conservation Commission or the planning board uh and this is for the full three-year appointment that's listed in the ordinances that's there um I've been
really happy with the work that he's done during that uh 60-day probationary period and I'm happy to put them forward um it's not often we have people I say it's not often we have people reach out and uh express interest in these positions on a whim without knowing that there's even an opening but we have three of those tonight um so it's great
to see that people are taking an interest in the community that way uh and I'm really you know Eric from the conversation that we had in our office before the appointment even went up it just it sounded like a perfect fit for the position and it's proven to be true um would you like to tell us sure
yeah absolutely so my name's Eric Flint I've lived in Gardner for just over two years now moved here with my wife in October uh 22 live on chadam Street uh we have a 2 and a half-year-old daughter who keeps us very busy um did my
bachelor's at um ammer in economics Masters at the University of Copenhagen and Forest and nature management Uh current role with the city of Worcester as the conservation planner um over I'm responsible for overseeing uh Wetland protection act and city of Wester W
protection ordinance across the city also day-to-day uh Land Management planning for the conservation land across the city um also longrange planning initiatives uh that the plan division for the city overtakes um before that I was
conservation agent in Marshfield for about a year um and prior to that I had some experience uh in the private sector as well so like mayor Nicholson said I reached out uh wanting to do something to contribute to the community that we're calling home now um and I felt like getting involved with a board like
the planning board would be a good way to do that and that I'd be able to uh bring value to that especially um with my background reviewing uh engineered site plans and storm water drainage stuff so happy to be here thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak
tonight thank you ccil consus you any questions comments um well thank you again for reaching out and um wanting to be part of the planning board uh it's we have a lot of councils commissions committees as I'm sure as you know from being in Wester and um part of the
reason that the appointments committee sub Committee of the council was formed was because we had so many need to fill and want to do thorough job um and so uh you always want to look for people that are qualified and it's nice when they find you so thank you for doing that I
know that's probably a big relief to the mayor put have somebody so calleded into the position uh I quite frankly I don't have any questions we have your resume we have the write up like it's all pretty clear you know the mayor gave in and you spoke and I I really don't I I
look forward to seeing you know the work that continue to do on on the planning board I I'll support the and um just thank you again for for stepping up and want to be part of the community and give your skills um and
your time to our thank you um nice to meet you thank you so much as well um this really was incredible to have all the information right at our fingertips um really really appreciate it I don't know if you're Glon for punishment like the rest of us but we're happy you are so um but this
is fantastic I I thought reading the um the mayor's review too for us I was glad you sort of asked why not Conservation Commission but I also totally understand you don't want to take your work home with you and live it all day long um so I think choose two easy ones while
listening how's the 60-day temporary EV so far and then I'm always really curious sort of where someone with your experience sort of finds the line between like favoring growth and conservation where are those two things mean and what your philosophy might be
sure so for the the first question it's been good so far I've had two meetings um relatively light agendas um but productive discussions and the other board members um been getting along well with them so far I attended the cptc
conference with the chair of the board um took some intro level planning board stuff um to get a little more background on some of the like laws behind what the planning board oversees uh which was helpful kind of you know working tangent to it uh in the playing division but never actually dealing with it it was
good to get kind of that base of knowledge at that conference um as it relates to conservation versus growth I don't think there are two things that are necessarily mutually exclusive I think you could have Smart growth in a way that protects sensitive natural resource areas um you know in my
day-to-day job um you know I when I look at an application that comes across my desk I'm reviewing it for Regulatory Compliance right like I might not personally like every single object that I see but if it's something that complies with all applicable regulations that's something that I would recommend
approvable for um so I I see it as more of a not a not not a conflicting issue but one that can be kind of worked out cohesively together that's great thank you so much thank you for your your input and your experience and your interest and we really appreciate it
thank you thank you okay Mr thank you Mr chairman one thing I forgot to mention is uh as the city's currently undertaking our first master plan creation uh the the economic development subcommittee has a letter for me that you uh they should be seeing soon Mr flinton is going to be on the committee to oversee um some of the master plan
working there too there's a committee that has to be assigned to just review what the Consultants are doing um there's representatives from the planning board which I've asked Mr Flint if he would mind doing and he's agreed to do that there's some other representatives there it's a committee of seven um so the the letter before the echod dev committee breaks down why the
seven were chosen for that uh just so that the council can see that since those are positions that are exempt from Council uh confirmation but since he agreed to be on the committee I figured that was also worth noting there too since it comes into that answer to that question as well it's awesome awes
listen um I I feel like you're the gift that just keeps giving um the more and more speaks is just it's thank you you know what I mean I I was sitting here and I was reading your uh resume and I I seen that you been out Marshfield
Denmark you know W now me um it's awesome and I think the city of Gardner would be happy to have you um and I think uh we need you so I definitely will be supporting this um thank you Mr Mayor thank you um that's
it thank you for your ATT all right thank you very much item 1151 a measure confirming the mayor's appointment of Nicholas sures to position of conservation commission hello I have a call from the mayor thank you Mr chairman uh Mr sumr Hayes is also
someone who reached out to my office expressing interest in being appointed uh to the Conservation Commission uh through his previous work with the United States Army Reserves uh excuse me Army National Guard um he worked with his unit to coordinate all of the training that took place around the WUSA Reservoir where that's a very highly
sensitive area all of the different uh regulations had to be taken into effect uh and into consideration when it came through um making sure everything was done the proper way and that's really what our local Conservation Commission adjacently does for the different projects that we have in the city is make sure that everything's done the right way following the right
regulations uh and making sure that our uh natural resources are protected uh in the way that they're supposed to be protected um again because of the vacancies that already existed on the Conservation Commission I did give Mr summer Hayes a 60-day temporary appointment that he's currently been serving he's had a couple meetings uh
under that appointment uh and I've been very happy with again the questions the comments the votes uh and not not the votes for the way he voted but for the explanations he gave for why he voted that way um I feel like it's a very thoughtful process that goes into the
work that's been done and I've been very happy um with the uh way that the job has been performed uh over the last 60 days I think he's a great fit for the Conservation Commission uh and again it's I'd like I I keep wanting to say say it's not often we get residents who
are expressing interests out of genuine interest um without us having to advertise saying we have these openings and um Nick did that uh through the process that we have here and I'm really happy to be able to put them forward thank you uh Mr sumes would you
like to introduce yourself sure uh my name is Nicholas sumes I've been a gardener resident since 2016 um got pretty interested in local politics in the past few years um and that eventually led me to a position
where I wanted to help the city that I live in and that's what caused me to have the interest to reach out to the mayor for this appointment I do feel that while I might be a little bit green no pun intended on conservation commissions um I also work
as an IT project manager specifically in Government Contracting a lot of the work that I do involves going through robust documentation understanding compliance that has to be applied to the workforce that I work in um I think think that I have really good Advantage with that experience and that's something that I can consistently apply to the
Conservation Commission awesome awesome uh thank you uh Council Hein you have any questions um so I I will say I've had the pleasure of getting to know Nick over the last year or so um and I was also thrilled and surprised to see that
he reached out about this I think the theme tonight is sort of this need experience we're finding and this interest of like newer residents and fresh perspectives so I'm really excited to see what you'll bring to the role um I guess similarly as other questions
how's it been so far um and then sort of how do you also look at that blend of Economic Development and conservation and so I think so far it's been great uh there was a little bit of learning curve at my first couple meetings uh I've attended three at this time but I found
that I really could digest all the information that was being presented to me and then learn how to bring that to each future meeting that I've been to um your second question about can you please repeat Economic Development conservation where you find those lines
growth um I mean they they consistently coincide right uh a lot of different projects throughout the city apply with both of those whether it's the bike path we're looking on Redevelopment um near Crystal Lake with the pool um there has
to be a fine line where we do what's best for the for the city and then also protect our Waters our wetlands and they they consistently meet there but it doesn't mean that we can't provide better things for the city and growth and I think that's important so thank
you so much said apprciate questions comments thank you Mr chair um thank you for expressing your interest as well it's really refreshing to have everyone here expressing their interest to want to be part of these things um I think it's a a good Testament to your own character but
as well as what we do in the city where people actually want to be involved in in what we do and um you know that is definitely something that you you have to want to to do this because um as we've talked about in this case and also in the other appointments you don't
necessarily deliver the have to deliver the best information to the people who are before you for the different projects that are going to hopefully smart grow from the community because it has to align with what the values are for the community it seems like you've picked up on that and you have really good experience clearly in the past but in your current position I was going to
ask what your what you do um but uh having the um the not only the project manager background that you have but also happen to be Government Contracting isn't the worst thing in the world um um it's actually really good for what you
um decisions and things that you could have to make when it comes to conservation um and so I think that's really applicable I don't really have any other questions um beyond that but I'm glad to have all the information um that you've given us this evening and
I'm certainly just you so thank you thank you thank you counselor um I just want to say thank you um uh Council he went ahead and make a comment about bringing more experience in things and such which is is great uh I didn't know some of the background that you said you
know the other work that you do and things like that um that just makes you even more excited with this right here so thank you thank you for your interest um um again this is definitely another appointment that I would definitely be supporting so thank you for your time
thank you so much item 11508 a measure confirming the mayor's appointment of Emma chatton to the position of Board of Health member there thank you Mr chairman uh this is our third one of a resident who reached
out and has a ton of experience in the field reaching out to just give back to the community um if you look at the letter uh of interest uh that was submitted um you see that Emma has a over 9 years of experience
in um in healthcare work um M uh M chatton had was currently a project manager at a Cancer Center at Mass general prum um has had you know experiences working at hospitals and private uh physician practices um and the line that stood out to me in the
letter of interest was finding the connection between policy and delivery and I feel like that's something that we often don't hear about as often with people who are either one interested in roles like these not just in Garden but across you know the public
sector and people who make policy decisions and are working in a policy field is finding that connection on how is this going going to be implemented how can this best be done in a way that it can be actually be successful off paper and not just sound good in the words that are typed on a page uh and that's something I feel like is
beneficial to the city it's not saying that we have those issues now but might as well prevent them from happening in the future too or have that type of perspective um this is also one of the uh this appointment is also the first that I've submitted under the new ordinances that were approved in
December uh that have the flexibility and the number of members for our boards and commissions um right now in the previous ordinances the Board of Health was capped at three uh this uh current version of the ordinances that was recently adopted extends that up to potentially five uh and I feel like having that broader
perspective especially in the realm of Health Health Care Health policy is something we've seen more recently in recent years but also just in general it's good to have that extra perspective it's good to have that extra background it's good to have something to be able to build off of and just get a fresh set
of eyes on and uh fresh opinions on uh so when m and submitted her uh letter of interest for the position I thought it was uh exactly what we were looking for and where our goals are to see the city move forward in the future and I'm happy to submit her appointment moving forward
awesome awesome um Miss CH if you want to go ahead yeah absolutely so I'm Emma nice to see all see you and meet you um thank you for having me so yes um as the mayor said I am a practice manager at Mass General Brigham of one of the the
Cancer Centers there in the community um and then I also was a senior practice manager at Haywood here in Gardner for a couple of years um and I just really want to continue working in the community in some capacity though my current role um professionally is not
here um I think I really appreciate something that you highlighted so my experience is really rooted in operations so it's it's my day-to-day job to make sure that any policy or budget related constraints that I have to work with actually get off the ground
and become successful within our team um and then another thing that I'm just really passionate about and I hope to bring to the board is uh I've specifically done a lot of work around access which I know is really important for this community in terms of Health Access um and I'm continuing to do that
more broadly across the state in my role uh with Mass General now um so I hope to continue to bring some of that back to the residence um with fellow board members here awesome thank you Council H you have two questions thank you um so yeah
I've had the chance to also coincidentally meet Emma here and there over the last year or so um and again uniquely qualified I think it's really great to have this experience it sounds like it would kind of round out the Board of Health nicely I think with some of the other different members we have
in their experiences um and then really up our qualifications on that um that group I was just curious you mentioned it and I had thought it but do you have any examples of access and how you've worked in that realm and cuz it is like you said we have food deserts and we have insecurity up here yeah absolutely
so one um project that I recently completed um at my current practice so we are in a community practice in conquered um and so we often lose a lot of patients um to our Boston location because it's so well known um but it's
really important to us and to the people that I work uh with to keep patients as close to home for their kid care as possible um so I work to develop a new patient access team that's a combination of administrative and clinical staff um it reduced workload for the physicians
in my practice but also improved access throughout our health system to get patients care back where they live um which I think is is a huge I hope life changing experience especially for people who are receiving cancer
treatment so long term um so was great to sort of build that over the last six months and it's been really successful great thank you apprciate thank you ka ka cons gu any questions comments thank you for stepping up and putting yourself out
there to be part of our Board of Health I really appreciate I think it's really is a great time um just from the board going from three to five people uh because I think you know you want to have quality and the people you know just want to fill the board to fill the board so uh you definitely have that EXP
experience and I really appreciate that piece of it uh my only question really just has to do with um your time with uh Haywood so if CU Heywood being a community hospital obviously it seems like the work that you have now is very
Community Centric as well um trying to keep patients closer to their care which I think is really important especially for this area as I'm sure you're well aware Haywood being like an apple being incredible access and you know us having it here it's just it's such a huge resource um
for the people who live here and it would be a big problem if we had transportation is who was getting people to and from care that they needed um so I guess my question is just your time with with Haywood um did you have a
specific experience addressing that crtical critical access piece but I'm just really interested because I think it's I think you bring a lot to the Board of Health so I'm just just wanted to know thank you um so I was at Haywood during like probably the most challenging time in the our history so
our resources were really limited throughout that time um so I became a leader right when right around when the chapter 11 restructuring announcement came out um and so we really had not a lot of resources I guess to work with at
that time but we still had to make sure that our patients got what they needed um so despite I guess that challenge um I was working in the largest multip Specialty Clinic we had and so there was
shared access um for patients out in AOL as well as here in Gardener to make sure that they were able to see their specialists in either location um but also in terms of um procedural access that was another thing we worked on and so I partnered a lot with our social work department and case management
departments to make sure that patients who you know might not have the resources to go to appal if there was a procedure only offered there um to ensure that they they had those resources to get there to get the care they needed great thank you question
that's it well thank you counselor um again another great appointment again another overqualified appointment and I'm really excited to go ahead and see what your background
brings to the Board of Health as well so um that's really all I want to say thank you thank you all right thank you uh Mr chairman if I could just add on a logistic um side of things um I want to say this earlier because I want to make sure that Emma had a moment where she
could talk about herself too this does put the membership of the Board of Health at four if this appointment is confirmed um the way that Roberts rules operates which is what the Board of Health operates on for their meetings is if there is ever an instance of a tie in which two vote Yes and two vote no a tie
vote is considered a no vote um so there aren't any concerns at least on my end of having at least for now until we find a fifth person for the Board of Health an even number of membership on the board it'd be the same as if we had a five- member board and someone resigned um that uh you know the even number uh
is taken care of the ties are addressed through the rules process of those that have already been addressed with that one um and anything that's a you know a 2/3 vote would just be three out of the four so the numbers on that one aren't a concern to me um but I just want to make sure that was clear in case those questions get asked at a later
time Mr chair um I was going to ask if you had someone in mind for the fifth seat so you answered that question uh and then them following you know Robert's Rules everyone should be clear on how the procedures are um and I don't want to take away from this appointment I
just that had sparked another question is with all of the changes um pertaining to the different committees commissions and all the the membership numbers um I'm assuming that stuff will apply there as well in terms of like Robert's Rules they all have that so just for any
public watching because again that just happens we we're filling these seats and trying to do that but as long as everyone's you know well aware and I'm sure Emma's brought up to speed going on to the board but um I just think it's important for people to know that we do prepare for things like that when we
make huge administrative changes yeah thank you yeah thank you thank you thank you [Applause] discuss resonations uh we have um there was a resignation at the library and one of the staff members there um uh so
Marita the director over there is working on uh coming up with a plan forward for that one where that was someone who only worked 10 hours a week she's actually trying to see if the job duties can be redistributed in a way um to increase efficiencies that are there uh so that's uh some that's new but also an evolving situation right now um and
then Cheryl slack one of our Animal Control Officers has submitted her retirement notice uh so she will be retiring at the end of April she gave us a 30-day notice this past week uh and um we'll be moving on for the city after almost 20 years of service in the animal Control Department uh so that's uh those
are the two resignations that we've uh received was that I'm Excuse um was um Miss was that an expected we we planed for that we we we we we figured it was coming soon yeah she's we
didn't know when she wanted to but we knew she was around the time that she could retire okay and I think she just decided that it was just time for her a well have you reti I know her I know she we just read yeah but that's why I I thought I
thought they were going to plan for that yeah she uh went you know when she delivered her letter it was one of those she was like she loves the job and she she loves being able to work with animals but that doesn't mean there's not hard situations she deals with with animals because she's so passionate about the animals too and I think there
are a couple calls recently where she was like you know I just maybe this is my time to just step back and enjoy she she bought a brand new golden retriever puppy the day after she gave us a notice to so she's enjoying the fun side of animals rather than digging cats out of thorn bushes um it's one of those
things heart can't take it anymore so um discussion of Pointes item 1474 measure confirming the mayor's appointment of Laura wi to the position of Zoning Board member for term expiring January 22nd 2028 I Mr chairman
I make a motion to recommend confirmation of the mayor's appointment to the full Council seconded all right uh motion made by Council um Sorry councel kinska seconded by Council Hein to recommend the mayor's appointment any
discussion all those in favor say I I all right those of V say no motion passes item 11476 a measure confirming the mayor's appointment of Eric Flynn to the position of planning board member for
term expiring January 7th 2028 Mr chair I make a motion to recommend to the full Council confirmation of the mayor's appointment of er second uh motion made by Council kazinski seconded by councel hgin to
recommend the mayor's appointment is there any discussion no I was favor say I I close say passes item 11501 a measure confirming the mayor's appointment of Nicholas sumes to the position of conservation
permission member of a term expiring February 13th 2028 Mr chairman I'll move to recommend to the full Council that the appointment be confirmed second all right uh motion made by councilor heglin second my councel kinus to recommend the may as
appointment is there any discussion nope all those in favor say I I those say no I'm sorry those yes those who oppos say no motion passes item 11508 measure for May's
appointment of Emma chanton to the position of Board of Health member for the term expiring February 27th 2028 Mr chairman I'll move to recommend to the full Council the appointment be confirmed second motion made by councelor heglin
second by councelor kinus to recommend their mayor's appointment is there any discussion no all those in favor say I I all supposed to know passes like to entertain a motion to adjourn
second motion by by councelor kazin second by councel hgin all those in favor I those opposed motion passes we say