WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 2
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=JzwtL8_Lxrw
Video-2: youtube.com/watch?v=kGZ4yJksTHk

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: JzwtL8_Lxrw):
- 00:00:00: Meeting Call to Order and Approval of Minutes
- 00:00:48: Budget Update: Revolving Funds and City Requests
- 00:10:52: Budget Impact on Staff, Wishlists, Personnel Changes
- 00:15:57: Vacancy Savings, Pre-K Revolving, Summer Budget Work
- 00:17:41: Challenges: Hiring Staff, State Level Declining Population
- 00:22:31: Maintaining Programs, Building Closures, Rainy Day Funds
- 00:27:59: Balancing School and Extracurricular Activities
- 00:28:47: Long-Term Financial Consequences and Sustainability
- 00:32:12: Revenue Generation, School Choice Advertisement and Recruitment
- 00:33:52: Reopening Inner School Choice Boundaries Discussion
- 00:37:04: Budget-Related Question: Spending Per Pupil Calculation
- 00:39:22: Power Surge Incident and Stephanie Dlo's Public Comment
- 00:41:59: Public Comment: Concerns About Special Ed Transportation
- 00:46:46: Transportation: Homeless Students, Vento Reimbursement and Gas Prices
- 00:51:00: Future Meeting Agenda Items and Adjournment

Part 2 (Video ID: kGZ4yJksTHk):
- 00:00:00: Meeting Call to Order and Roll Call
- 00:00:53: Open Forum for Public Comment Begins
- 00:03:40: Public Comment: Concerns About Resolutions & Vetting
- 00:06:20: Public Comment: Left-Leaning Council, Taxpayer Concerns
- 00:08:58: Council Discussion: Resolution on Rent Control and Tenant Protections
- 00:12:21: Discussion: Financial Impact & Concerns on City Endorsement
- 00:13:57: Discussion: Election Laws, Bill vs. Ballot Initiative
- 00:15:59: Discussion: Rent Control Skepticism, Nationwide Data Concerns
- 00:18:12: Discussion: Rent Control as Anti-Displacement Tool
- 00:21:58: Discussion: State Law Review, Dire Housing Level
- 00:26:32: Discussion: Local Control Benefits & Ballot Concerns
- 00:31:39: Discussion: The Message and the Information Source
- 00:33:07: Discussion and Vote on Resolution - Tabled till Later
- 00:35:20: Discussion: Civic Engagement, Flyers, and Website
- 00:36:12: Discussion: Councillor Tik Tok Channel Ideas
- 00:37:26: Defining Civic Engagement and Approachability
- 00:39:21: Democratic Institute Civic Education Program Guide
- 00:41:47: Discussing Precision Meetings and Inclusivity
- 00:43:56: Discussion: Committee Fair, Engagement Opportunities
- 00:45:37: Catchup on the Citizen Academy and benefits
- 00:47:59: Committee Fair Idea from a Neighboring Town
- 00:51:59: Discussion: Vertical Video Content Potential
- 00:54:55: Discussion: Low Attendance Concerns, Event Linking
- 00:58:11: Discussion: Timing, Vertical Videos for Board Awareness
- 01:00:17: Website Handbook Goal, Remove Counselor Addresses
- 01:03:00: Checking Staff Contacts, Bradville Best Practices
- 01:05:59: Civic Engagement Documents - Closing Discussion
- 01:06:17: Youth Internship Discussion Begins
- 01:08:59: Youthworks State Funding Opportunities
- 01:09:45: Discussing Student Government at Greenville Highschool
- 01:11:05: School Committee Members - Youth Commission Discussion
- 01:12:12: City Councillor Giving History Talks to the Elderly
- 01:13:17: Drafting Council Opinions for the Mayor's Office
- 01:15:18: Youth Internship Oversight and Supervisor Discussion
- 01:16:58: Finding the Youth Commission and Inquiring for Details
- 01:18:11: Mass Hire Contacting Progress for the Youth Internship
- 01:21:38: Formalizing What the Councillor Would Like
- 01:24:08: Discuss Potential Internship Tasks
- 01:26:02: Discussion: Addressing Meeting Minutes Accessibility
- 01:29:46: Creative Solutions - Emails and Transparency for All
- 01:32:01: Unhoused Recommendations and Council Changes
- 01:33:46: Meeting Minutes, Social Templates, and Advertising
- 01:35:57: Closing Discussion and Adjournment


Part: 1

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--------- Um it is May 18th at 11:30 in the morning. I suppose I should say the year 2026 and this is the budget finance and warrant subcommittee subcommittee meeting. Chair statement. This meeting is being recorded by the budget finance and warrant subcommittee. If any other

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persons present are also recording, you must notify the chairperson at this time. Um call to order. Roll call for members. Member Webb >> here. >> Member Goodwin >> here. Member Childs, I am here. Public comment. We have no members of the

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public present, but if someone shows up later, we can always reopen public comment. Um, next, approval of the May 5th, 2026 draft subcommittee minutes. >> So, move. >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I. >> I.

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>> We are unanimous. Okay. Now to the fun part. Budget update and disc. Okay. now like why is it doing this? >> It knows we're talking money. >> Okay. Participants was what we wanted

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open so that if someone shows up we'll see. Okay. Sorry about that. Roland >> passed out in front of you is something we've obviously been working on here and I've talked to you members of the school committee. One of the things we've heard

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a lot is and from many many of you as school committee members and the public is reserve accounts that the school department has had whether it's vacancy savings prek or preschool started transportation spent tuition circuit

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breaker school choice etc that those accounts have additional dollars in them. Sometimes they've been carried over year to year. Also, just as an FYI, you're probably aware of, but just for the sake of people hearing, some school districts

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actually have rainy day accounts where they actually take some of these monies and put them in some, not saying a lot, but it is done out there. And you've seen probably some municipalities do that as well, too. Sometimes they're called a rainy day account. Sometimes they're called END, excess and deficiency.

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Probably some different names that Andy would know as well. on some of those we do not. So that's why you'll see money acrue in some of these revolving or different types of accounts that we have here. So we've we've heard that right we

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have and these are rough numbers that I've put in front of you but the two numbers that are not rough the school committee budget is true numbers there to the dollar there the 25465 283 right the level services and I'm I'm rounding for the sake of the conversations here

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but was about 1.7 over so we're not mincing to the dollar here so we can just talk about that the mayor's budget which was in the budget booklet and proposed and everything was 24147 803.

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She did add I say she the mayor $450,000 towards I guess you'd say our budget in that sense towards that delta right the difference of the 1.7 which was level services carried over to this year that

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left right a remainder of about and these are about issues but we will fine-tune this for you 1.25 million. You uh the school committee have voted to already use 500,000 from the

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prechool. Am I correct? Is that the title? Not prek. The preschool, right? >> PreK. >> Oh, prek revolving. So preschool prek revolving. We've also looked at our numbers in our vacancy savings and

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we're suggesting we take $600,000 out of that and then an additional 125ish out of transportation. That would leave us with zero additional dollars needed to be asked for by

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us to either ourselves and or the city because I know that um actually tomorrow night we'll be going to Ways and Means talking about that and they're doing some scheduled meetings throughout the next actually the next month, right? Having different departments go in. Um I

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did watch a little of last week's meeting where they had some public services there. I think police and fire maybe some others don't quote me on that. Uh and people talk about right everybody has opinions on everything right where we should spend all of our money but some of the comments that came

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up too were talking about oh just more money for the schools in that sense in just generic terms if you have watched some of their public comments during that meeting and while schools are going to need more money everybody's going to need more money we know the police and fire and DPW and

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>> the wreck department >> the wreck department and senior citizens that maybe the wrong technical title but you know what I mean the council on aging or something. Everybody needs more and I think we need to do our part, right? We'll also get down and obviously start combing

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through. We've been combing through different accounts, right? Making sure that we can fine-tune what's going on in there. But in general terms, what we're presenting to you here would be if we used those re some of those revolving housing and/or savings, we

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would not ask the city for any additional funds. >> That's wonderful. I know it is a tough budget year for the city. additional me. >> Um, for those of you watching since it's off cam, Mel just went and shook hands

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with Roland for what he's managed to do. >> So, this is this is not just, you know, we all know, right? I speak sometimes. Sometimes the others speak as well too, but this is done with everybody, right? with our administrators, with our business manager, Andy, with Stephen Sullivan,

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our assistant superintendent, with our Vera, our assistant, with lots of other people. So, yeah, while I sit here and maybe sometimes you take the good and the bad, and I don't know if this is good or bad, right? But you do this, I'm presenting this to you. And uh and we

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know that in the future because I don't just do this today to take care of today's problems because I don't want to create problems for our future superintendent, right? Or future anybody who works here, whether they're different department heads and

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everything like that. It doesn't look like next year's budget will get that much better. But in life, things are cyclical. So, we know someday at some time, right, there do get to be rides, right? We we know it's going to happen.

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If we could all predict it, we'd all be geniuses in the stock market, right? And um and financial gurus, but we're not. But we also do know that things things definitely, right? Gas prices go up, they do come down sometimes. They take a little longer, right? >> But they but they do.

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>> They do, right? Last summer I think we were all paying 230 240 at the pump and now we're you know 440 right so it's amazing how quickly it changed in 8 n 10 months it will drop slower in the future

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but it will the crisis right some years state revenue we follow Andy and I talk about this a lot following money coming in revenues to the state right whether it's through millionaires taxes casinos cannabis you name it right they eb and flow new buildings in the state, that

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type of scenario. So, we right we're at a down deal. It will at some point get better and there will be times where maybe we can put more money I don't want to say away but accumulate some others as well. I think doing this this does leave us

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still with some potential uses for even the following year next year should you be well but you will be some of you may or may not be but sitting here next year in the sense of on the subcommittee doing this next spring again where there

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still might be some avenues to potentially dip into for example transportation has roughly and I'm using rough terms here for you 800 or we project I should Andy does a great job

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of projecting here try to the end of this year be June 30th coming up pretty soon >> so that's not including the 125 taken out of transportation >> correct okay >> so 800 minus 125 so you're going to be left with about about 675

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>> in that one your special ed tuition account has about and I'm using these just for >> general term 400,000 or will I shouldn't say does but will by concert have that that's something you really we

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really shouldn't tap into >> at all but people see it and they think it's a lot of money and and it is for all of us as homeowners right um in that sense but should not be tapped into because that's there for moveins etc different needs that arise

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circuit breaker roughly 900,000 in there similarly should not be really be tapped into. Um Andy, what's that saying about using this year's money? >> Yeah. Receipts are current. >> Yes.

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To carry over receipt. >> So leave our ear for >> right. So you don't want to write issues for that. And um school choice has a 250,000 projected to be at the end of

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the year for that. And some of those can obviously hit next year should you have expenses, right? Similar to being a homeowner life, you want to have something. We don't want to zero out a lot of these accounts in case

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something happens, right? whether it's things that aren't physical repairs to our building. Who knows other expenses that have to be done. So, this is what we're kind of presenting to you. Would love to hear any types of comments or questions or feedbacks. Um,

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welcome Andy back. obviously couldn't be with us at the last meeting, but he has a lot of he has a lot of the history here that um I cannot answer in terms of I can give general terms, but in terms of specifics possibly and Stephen obviously is here as well.

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>> So, uh just rip the band-aid right off. So, our staff with this budget, are they all set and secured? >> Yeah. >> Are we adding additional staff with this budget or this is just status quo? We still do have those two onel.

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>> Okay. >> That's up for discussion. >> I I just asked because I mean we didn't see each principal or department like wish list I'm going to call it. I mean we all have wish list for what they

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wanted for spending. So, I didn't know if that included like an extra IIA over at Federal Street or replacing an IIA that maybe got cut out of a budget line years ago based on the position being vacant that never got filled.

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>> Yes. A lot of the IAS speaking to you specifically for that if their values were required via an IEP, right? We don't have choices in terms of adding some of those in there. If therefore wants sometimes versus needs, maybe we will readjust and move from one building

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to another. I don't mean the physical person, but if it is a person possibly, but a lot of times they're vacancies and move the vacancy over in the next month. The way we would project this going out would be obviously talking to Ways and Means tomorrow night. I'm seeing you at

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school committee meeting again in June. And then the city council would be the week after us in June where they would approve the budget the entire city budget at that point in the next month still working with she's mentioned

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member web the principal is working on their scenario and fine-tuning all of this but shifting dollars versus adding what I'm tell right working within this the realm of this concept of the dollar amount >> so like thanks So

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shifting so you know can a principal I'm just going to ask this because so if a principal decides they're desperate for three paras I mean can they

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lose a teaching position to get the paras or I mean how how big a shift are we? >> Yeah. So >> I mean because that's my shifting world. Yeah, politely shifting their shift thing would be requesting let me put it that way. They I mean this with all due respect to

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>> sure >> the important job that they have in their building they don't get a free range okay >> on doing this this would come through the appropriate channels whether it's special education director facilities maintenance curriculum here business in myself yeah

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they would not just be able to turn a position into others or do different things >> none of Okay, >> this >> and I have talked with the incoming superintendent about this as well too. And obviously

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during the summertime there may be some moves that would have to be made but we wouldn't be adding to the budget. It would be moves made within that budget. >> Is there still unknowns? Like I always

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say once we I think back to me as mayor do you have a number? So we now have there's still unknown numbers out there.

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So we spend as a say for all intents and purposes the summer work is going to be scratch you know in a sense with knowing the mayor's number the final approved number we'll start to get more information >> potential personnel changes that occur

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over the summer and outs and stuff so you know there is that work that results in rebuilding a budget I usually say from scratch not really from scratch But there are still a lot of unknowns, >> right, >> that are a key factor to our programs

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here, particularly grants, >> you you probably will not get a state budget until after July 1st generally, >> right? So >> probably this current political agenda

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that probably be less later than that. >> Yes, I think we're still recording. >> I think we're still recording and the meeting should still be going. Okay. Okay, good. >> So hopefully the sound continued. I'm pretty sure it does when the screen

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dies. >> Okay. >> So what I mean I'm new to this obviously, but we would need to like approve the transfer from the vacancy savings. That's

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>> okay. >> Less school choice, less of a spent tuition. Then those monies would be in those accounts for us to then use >> after July. >> Correct. >> All right. And then my next question is what does that leave in preschool

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revolving? And what does that leave in vacancy savings? >> Or does that like zero those two out? >> Vacancy savings. actually save in a sense would be reallocated so that we would use less of we plan on

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using in6 $600,000 of choice. We won't use $600,000 in choice now that will stay there and therefore that zeros out that vacancy. >> Okay. So your vacancy zero then your

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prek when you took 500 left 65. Okay, that was Thank you. >> to me. >> There's nothing saying also that and Roland mentioned it. You know, I just took that 500 from prek because the mayor mentioned there's nothing saying when we redo this summer that we maybe

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we take 250 out of the prek and take an additional 250 out, >> you know, as long as we get that done to some extent. We come back to you and show you this is how we did it. Everything still balances. It makes sense, but it's also sad

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because that 600 represents people we didn't hire because we couldn't find them or people who left midy year. Um, and >> and some of those go quick as as you mentioned, you know, been in the business. >> Good one.

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>> Um, but while it's a lot and we know it's a lot, >> it goes quick. I mean, if we were to equate that 600 at professional positions at possibly 100 each with benefits, right, and all >> your own still a lot at six, right? So,

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yes, it's something that >> we've had a tough time, right? I was I was fortunate to meet with last just on Friday the other day, the new secretary of education came to Northampton at CES. So all the Hampshire and Franklin County

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superintendents it was Dr. Reich who used to be the receiver you may heard that name in Holio. >> Yeah. >> And now he was the superintendent in Salem and has just been appointed >> secretary of ed which encompasses everything different than our

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commissioner. Right. Our commissioner is Pedro Martinez for Desi and secondary the secretary of education does everything from early childhood to college in charge of that whole gamut there. And one of the things that was talked about was I'll use the word my

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words maybe not his loosening the regulations for certification for people to come into teaching loosening slightly just for this one was just for the communication literacy test if people had different career pathways that might transition not not nothing to do with

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the subject matter test they would still have to do that >> but we talked about in Hampshire and Franklin County and all of us have had these discussions prior too. The the number of just human beings who live here, right? And while I was in

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Northampton on Friday, big the big dog down in Hampshire County and I jokingly say we're the big big boy up here in Franklin County. We're the big dog here at 17,000 18,000 people. They're the big one at 34, right? One

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more step down to Springfield at 150. Like this the scale just goes bang bang bang, right? I mean your suburbs of Springfield maybe not the right term but your smaller cities even a chicken 55,000 right like >> there's just a lot of human beings

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>> who work there and albeit not the end of the world for a drive from 91 Springfield here 40 45 minutes >> if people can find things closer to their home for quality of life they do it just for time of commuting >> and price of gas >> and price of gas and not being away from

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their families right etc >> in that scenario So, I've always said um to many of you that Greenfield is is a great place. I've enjoyed being here. I I did a little stint two years ago. >> Back. Thank you for having me back. I like the people. I like the quality of

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life up here. I grew up my whole life skiing at Birkshire East, right? Um in this area, >> I don't think it's for lack of you're you're not doing anything wrong. Just there's not as many human beings >> location >> up here. And um and that's a battle right now. Demographics in life. the

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number of the population declines, right, of student aid students in America, you know, so adults, that's something you're grappling with. You we're seeing that the entire county grappling with that, whether it's with regionalizing, you know, one of one of

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our speakers on Friday talked about how the state giving years ago incentives to regionalize, >> and and doing some of that again, too. One of our superintendents made a great point about how about giving some incentives to closed buildings, etc. in that sense because people see

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regionalization as like end all beall. Well, it's not really because people a lot of times people don't want to regionalize because they move to a particular place because they like that place or that town. And if they wanted their kids to go to school in the other town, you know, I said other, but we all

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know what I mean. >> They would have moved to that. >> So, it is there's more snow days when you regionalize when you've got >> and when I don't say not necessarily. Yeah, I can agree with you. Not necessarily, but some people who do have the means, moving is school choice for them,

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>> right? Not everybody has the means, and I understand that concept of choice, but others do have the means and do it. Um, but the point being in terms of they give money, the MSBA to build new schools, right? They're basically saying, how about giving some money to

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or some incentive to the districts to close schools? That's right. >> And help with the closure and combining of schools. In that sense, those types of conversations obviously right down the road in that scenario. But yeah, these are kind of some of the

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things we're bringing before you today. So that you still will have some dollars in some of these accounts. They're not the vacancy would be zeroed out >> because what I love about this is that we're not losing staff. We're not losing

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programs that we currently have. Yes, we all everybody always wants more and I'm just as guilty if I could I would have 50 reading specialists like zooming on our elementary schools right now. Um

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but we have we our future is dealing with keeping those programs, keeping that staff and letting go of the building concept that because that's where we can save big money. And that's where we can

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still keep our schools alive and well. um by just realizing and accepting that we can get this down to fewer buildings and then the city can either turn that into housing which everybody's desperate

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for um and make money off it and we might get a cut back to the schools. You know, we can work our deals. Just what I'm saying, >> right? Exactly. So, I just think that is a future source of making sure this

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stays um maybe another rainy day fund. >> Yeah. And and exactly what you just said, you mentioned I just wrote that down, right? No staff loss, no program loss, right? We're not we're not coming with you and and I mean nitpicking, don't get me wrong. At times we're going, I'll have to but we're not saying

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you have a choice to make. Um do you want me to have strings for kids next year for $25,000? Right? We're not putting that in front of you. We've seen I've seen my colleagues do that in other cities and towns in the area who are going for overrides, etc. who are throwing out things like unfortunately

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in South Hadley saying putting on the table, no sports, right? No ban. >> Yeah. >> I talked to the frontier superintendent last week. Minute in South Adley said no sports next year. In three days, he got 30 applications for school choice of kids wanting to leave South Adley bang

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go to deer right frontier. Right. In that sense, so we're not scaring, I don't mean that in a bad way, but scaring people >> in that sense saying, "No, we can still run the things that you enjoy here, right? The music program, the composting, the band, right? The sports,

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all that, all that type of stuff >> that gets the kids to actually show up at school." >> Yeah. Because the clubs, I say it all the time. This was one of my pitches. I may have said it when I was interviewing with you last year that people would talk about extracurricular activities. I don't. I

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always say co-curricular activities. They are part of the curriculum. They're the reason many children come to school. We know they come to school to learn for six hours a day, right? And kids have to adj. But there are other reasons students

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want to be there as well too. And these co-curricular part of the curriculum activities help them keep them coming. I think we do a lot of as someone who is in in the trenches as I like to call it or at in the halls I see a lot of

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activities happening like we went to the science fair you know and I didn't see Mohawk there I didn't see Frontier there I didn't see Pioneer there I did not see Turner's Falls there you know and it was

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you know it was great to you know we went to the UMass basketball game with Newton and I know Newton I know our field trip money, we're over budget, fully aware of that. But I would rather be giving these kids reasons to come to school and experiences and you know, if

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next year we're talking, okay, now we're going to start asking families for a $5 donation for field trips, >> you know, like you don't have to, but you know, that might be something we want to budget in. I'm not saying they have to, Mel. That wasn't what I was suggesting.

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stuff. Sorry. I was in I went to the band concert and I was so joyful. >> Oh, that's back to the experiences. They went to Six Flags and you know like >> I just the number of children has grown.

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um the jazz band. I would pay if they want to play at Starbucks or something. I would like pay to to see them. And I and I wish that those seniors who graduated will continue to play. And you know, um and it was great to see

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children who I bought them drumsticks for the pandemic up on stage, you know. So I think but there were so many people there and we're getting back to where it was standing room only. I mean I feel like we sort of faded away and I really

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the honor um Hannah for the work that she has done to make our band come alive again. And I think that was I know one of the pushes when I decided to step up for school committee was what's

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happening with music? what's happening with band. Um, >> it's been a conscious rebuild actually. >> It has. I mean, and it's been a conscious like push. >> Now, we got to rebuild theater. >> Yeah. Drama, man. We used to have plays in each school. >> It was fun to dress them up as frog and toad. There are kids who will never

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forget being dressed up as a frog. Um, so I think that those pieces kind of after the pandemic didn't come back and maybe were the swimming lessons. I mean, that was a big deal. And we still we still do and I know you know this but we

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still have theater right and what you're doing is gets to be competing with our students which our student numbers are going down >> and I always tell parents right yeah it's tough there's always you have >> so many hours >> you have choices to make a kid can't be on this this field playing this sport

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and be at practice unfortunately in life we all have choices to make we all can't be everywhere at once and you do it maybe right increasing the number some point you'll have discussions I know with facilities committees, right? Who knows if the seventh grade goes into that school? I'm not pushing, I'm just

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saying, right? Um, >> every other school in Franklin County has that seven of 12 where they can draw numbers down into those activities at that school. There's lots of things that'll be on your plate. Never enough never going to be not any work for you in the future. Know that.

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>> Well, thank you for this because this I really honor you for this. We're all very appreciative that in a time when our neighbor districts are cutting positions, we've managed to preserve, but I do want to talk about the long-term picture a bit more because

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it sounds like next year we will be okay. But far >> Andy's nodding his head for people listening. But further down the line, um I I want to know what our long-term consequences, as much as we can

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reasonably predict, would be because clearly we can't spend down forever. >> I mean, it'll empty out eventually. >> Yep. It's been going on forever, >> right? So, and you know, as much as we do trend analysis, I hate to say that is

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a trend analysis that has occurred here, which again, I know nobody likes how we've done it, >> but it is a reality of the situation that we are able to sustain, maintain on the facts primarily with

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those vacancy savings. And also sometimes I think we build these budgets a year in advance and then things change and an outcome that allowed us to sustain ourselves and I give I've said it before I get great field credits. They use their Easter money in the right

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way, which is very little if any personnel and use it for one-time expenses and then even when those onetime expenses were able to then offload some other operating but then therefore build up go back and look at all the webinars regarding

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funding and one thing that they said the district should be doing building up their reserves go away and that's exactly what we did. I know people don't like to hear that, but that is exactly what we did. >> So, you know, does it mean that, you

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know, we can buy oursel 29? I hate to say it, you know, if the trends on the vacancy savings continue. >> Well, we have 17 vacant seats right now and that doesn't include 20 substitutes. >> So, that's the challenge, you know. So,

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it's not a it's not a hardcore, you know, source and quite honestly, we don't want it. >> No. state. >> No, I'd love to see all 17 plus plus maybe at least 10 of these substitute positions filled. >> So, and then those other things really just depends on what

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if we got a program that a surrounding district wants to send us to. We ask police for then we do that you know and then same with transportation >> that double sword and do we have the drivers and the vehicles you know but in doing what it is that R has proposed

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here it does leave us a balance as was discussed regarding a potential you know maintenance or repair vehicle schedule whether or not we choose to use >> is there enough to purchase >> we could but you know like uh like Rachel Lubree mentioned you know in

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report, you know, leasing could be a very viable option to consider. We did that with the first fleet of vans when Mr. Member Cow and Mr. Bud at the time decided to build this room, >> you know. So, you know, there are those options, but those are revenue generating. We open up more seats for

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choice if we have the so there are all those things that, you know, the cliche helps. >> We have an advertisement going out in the newspaper. I guess it was last weekend and I missed it. But on school choice, >> um we we will have and try to fill more

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of those seats. I I did get one the other day. Somebody who try to keep it vague, right? Lives in a different town. Uh sometimes they say to West County, I guess that they use that term here, right? Look at I'm starting to be uh >> western mad county.

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>> West County like a Birkshire. No, I'll hear I'll hear the superintendents talk. I'm telling you, >> West Franklin County, they'll distinguish between where they are like on this side or this. >> Okay, I got it.

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>> So, no, they'll use that. So, one of them, right, saying that, but >> one of something, Roland. >> Yeah. One of a kind, right? Don't do you forget. But we we'll be taking somebody from West County, right? who's choosing to come here versus there as a high

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school student. So if we can keep doing that like you you many of you the school committee members gave me thank you permission last summer to take additionals where I thought we had you and I talked with our principles obviously right we have a give and take

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space where I thought that they were very limited last year in terms of the numbers you are leading out massive numbers and we're taking in limiting those coming in let's bring them in they want to Um, that's great.

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>> Um, I don't think this is the right time because I never asked these, but I know that you and I have discussed re reopening inner choice. >> Yeah, that's that politely. Um, we've talked about this is something I don't

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believe is my purview. The committee had set >> parameters for people living in >> these I'll use the word districts, but for lack of a better word, >> neighborhoods. neighborhoods. We call them >> bounds, right? You live in these just bounds that are have been drawn

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>> on there. Um committee did that. I enforce >> I know that I have had people come to me with like special >> requests such as and I'm going to use one person family I know example. You know, the family was going to Newton.

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They had a niece who was going to be going to Federal Street. the niece they wanted to put at Newton and they were not allowed to. So we lost three kids because that didn't happen. So I just want to

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you know you talk about the bleeding of out of school choice. So what happened was this family couldn't enter school choice. So therefore they out of school choice together as a unit. So like >> yeah we're going to see that right now then it gets >> I mean I don't want to see that. No, we're going to see. If you don't want to

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see it, then it gets to be then just let them go where they want. I'm kind of I'm joking. This may not be this budget purview. But for the quick point is if you're going to let the superintendent then decide and then everybody's going to come forward and they're all going to want to

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go where they want to go in that sense. So then you don't even need the lines. And I don't mean everybody, but there's going to be many those who are, let's say, savvy enough to do it. And you're negotiating on where kids go. Okay, I'm going to pull my kids. Okay. I mean, it's not

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>> I mean, that's how we had it prior. >> Yeah. This is something that >> I mean, you were like it was it was like you went to this school unless you requested to go to another school, but you couldn't go to the other school unless there was space available. >> Correct. >> And space was always first given to out of school students and then to inner

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school students. No, the space was always given to siblings first. >> Then >> so if a sibling was >> it used to work out mathematically >> really well, which always fascinated me as a math person, you know that you'd

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have a kindergarten class of 60 or however many. Um we used to have 200 and some parents and they would have to put their request in writing. Um, and they were always told if there was a sibling in the school to put that first

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>> and we would put them all in this room on a table and everybody who had a sibling was put on there. Um, and then we built it and it always came out okay. One or two off and then it was a principal's choice. Do you want to go

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ahead and take the extra three or you know and yes, because I'm going to lose some, you know, so why not? I've got chairs. That's all that really matters. Um, I think we've probably covered the financial aspect of this and I don't want to get into the weeds of it because

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that would be outside of the scope of the subcommittee. >> But I do I do have a question that's actually budget related. Do we know how much >> we would be spending per pupil with this budget? >> That makes sense.

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>> Sometimes I don't. I'm I'm >> Andy. >> Come on, Andy. You got this. >> Divide it. >> Depends on. >> No, I'm just categorizing everyone. I'm not saying like, oh, how much are we spending on a one to one? But

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>> sure, amuse me. I'm just like how much on this budget season was what I was asking would we be spending per people >> spend above foundation budget >> absolutely okay no I'm aware of that

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>> that's come up so I would not be able >> I said the word if this may not be proper Can you please jump in? If you just took the school committee budget, that 25 plus, >> that's what I'm looking for. >> Divided it by 1339, >> you're at 19 19018.

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>> 19 gram per. >> That's just like that is napkin now, right? >> Yeah, sounds okay with that. >> That's higher than I thought it was. the opinion because if you have your

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sped tuition, if you're residential that may be costing 400,000 for one kid, that would change those companies for Um, it would still be recording because the recording was Zoom server side.

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>> Yes. Uh, sorry, we had a power surge in the building. We're getting everything back up and running. We did pause the meeting and have only actually been talking about the power surge and the technology. So, sorry about that. We should be back momentarily.

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needs to get the tech all up and running. >> I don't where I live one time. We've been in our house for 14 years. Only once we lost power >> the first one >> and it was in the dead of summer. There was one year we lost our power at Newton

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a lot. Transformer on the corner. >> Yeah, >> I got the flashlight. I guess everything was out but the generator all white and then everything. >> Um Oh, I'm

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not able to see the >> Okay. Yep. >> A >> small. >> Okay, we're getting the Smartboard computery thing all up here. >> Maybe a Federal Street thing.

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>> Yeah, >> that's how you know. I am going to just leave my phone on as just in case. Oh, I think it's your laptop I was hearing. So, I was like, "Oh, no." >> No, it's not. >> It's Is it

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muted? your mic feedback. >> Except I've got the mic turned off. Okay, I'll leave. >> Looks like you have the mic turned off, but you're still getting feedback. >> Okay, I've left it with my cell phone. I believe we're here. Recording is still in progress.

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>> Hear us? >> Yes, Stephanie. Are you able to hear us? >> Yes, I am. >> Wonderful. Thank you. Sorry about that. Uh, >> did they want to make public? >> No worries. There was some I think there was some sort of fire, brush fire or something on federal might have caused I

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don't know, but just speculating. >> Yes. Well, while while we've got you um talking to us, do you have a public comment you'd like to make because we'd be happy to jump backwards in the agenda to accommodate. >> Thank you, Ann. Um I actually have been

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listening to, you know, bits and pieces of it. Um, some excellent >> before you get too deep in the weeds. >> Yes. Stephanie Dlo, Chapman Street, Greenfield. Does that help? >> Um, I did um when my kids were choiced out of school,

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the transportation was on me. So if I because my kids were enrolled in Greenfield and when I uh transferred my son over to Turner's um they did not provide transportation for me to I I had to you know look at car pooling and

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other um ways to get my son over to Turners. So I'm not 100% sure when all of that changed. Uh I did have concern about transportation. So >> not that we're supposed to interrupt you Stephanie but it has not changed. We talk about

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>> it's just the special ed transport. >> Transportation. We're talking about special ed transportation. >> Yeah. I heard some concerning things that we were like transporting kids still in out to Holio and um out of district. So I I you know I'm a little curious about how all of that

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works and how it all followed under the umbrella of the special needs. Do we not have any programs that you know are closer than Holy Oak that would fall under that category? I'm just concerned about traveling to Holy Oak with students.

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>> That that's pretty much all you know I'm I'm just really listening but thank you for allowing me to speak a little bit. >> Well, thank you for commenting and member Goodwin has an answer for you. So, >> we will we will answer your question. So there are there are definitely um over

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the years and I can say this is I as a principal I used to have to visit all of the out of district placements that my students were at and many of them have closed down. Um I think of Bright Side. I think of all the different places and

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so yes we do transport kids to programs in Hoyok because they're the only ones offering those type of services. Um and parents also have a voice in the program and whether the program fits the needs of children. But one of the things um I

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discovered with the thanks of our superintendent and the head of transportation is they make a lot of efforts to try to cover the cost of that transportation by working with the other districts

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surrounding us to if there are other children in Turner's Falls or on the way to Holio that we can stop and pick up and um get a fee. We do that which I

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think is above and beyond. Um and I'm pretty proud of our district for doing that. And it's really transportation people um in our small area all talking together. So like we have a child who goes to Bradboro, but on the way there

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are other children that the driver stops and picks up who are also going to Bradboro and we receive money for picking up those children to help cover the cost of taking that child to Bradboro. >> And and just to go off what member Webb

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said, the reason the child is going to Bradboro is not because the family says we don't want to be in Greenfield. It's because we special program. It's for a special program that we do not offer in Greenfield. And we do offer some programming in Greenfield. We have the seeds program at Newton. We have um

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transitions at Federal Street and we have the ACES program at four corners. And we do meet a lot of our elementary needs at that level. But sometimes we have students that we are just unable to make accommodations for. Another transportation thing could be we have a

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child who is in DCF custody who or a homeless family that is displaced for example um and we need to transport that child still into our school district because we have made that commitment to that family and that child and it's

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really important to keep um a continuous is that the word I want to use like to you know to keep it status quo for the child and not cause anymore >> educational continuity. >> Yes. >> Can I ask a question in regards to that? >> Sure.

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>> So, how once they are um if they're the homeless children that are being transported out, do we do we continue that? >> Well, they're not being transported out. They're displaced and we have a responsibility to provide

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education to them. No, I >> we are their home school. >> So, at what point in time does the homeschool actually become where they're living? >> I do not have that answer. That would be maybe Roland or Stephen I'm looking at

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or Andy may know >> this exemptions and things but typically it's through the remainder of the current school year that we provide that service. And at that point, if they even if they're still displaced,

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they can enroll in the district that they are now residing. >> But some families I do know who have been displaced for a few I'm going to say this, a couple years. Um they were displaced out of Greenfield for a year and then they ended up moving back into Greenfield. And I know that Greenfield

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did provide transportation that entire time to that student and it has made a world of a difference in that child's life. Yeah, because you don't want a kid who's constantly being pulled from this district plucked in that one in a single school year. >> Yeah. And like I said, that what I said

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was the general rule, but there are exceptions and exemptions of opportunities. >> I mean, I think as a >> I think as a district, we are always looking to put our students and our teachers first.

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And often and any will speak to this but oftent times these situations that we're talking about aren't coming out of the school just because Vento the other places would reimburse

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50% >> and that would be why we have money in transportation >> for over a year. So, >> so I do have a transportation question. Uh, with these gas prices being double what they used to be, could we run into

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trouble in our transportation fund spending money faster than anticipated? >> Um, yes. We're close to the end of the school. >> Even the yellow bus contract has a fuel

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adjustment clause in. So that's a when some lose some when the prices are lower, we get a credit when they're experiencing potentially once they do their final reconciliation, they come up and that pay for that adjustment.

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>> Is that contract still good or is it coming up? >> We got three more years. >> Okay, good. >> Okay. And we've got enough padding for this year and next year for that in our budget that We do not have a slice on hand. We don't

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have a money in the backyard. >> Contingency. >> Yes. >> Available that we won't run ourselves into trouble. >> Yes. So, strike the word padding from the record and replace with contingencies. >> No money tree and no money tree.

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>> We haven't figured that one out yet. >> Okay. That was my last >> Oh, you're very welcome. And thank you for paying attention to what's going on and being involved. >> I think we enjoy having more of a I always call it like a town h town hall

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style. >> Well, it's a subcommittee of three. We can afford to be informal and get people answers >> as best we can. >> I'm usually the only one that files those motions anyways with the city. >> Truth. >> Okay.

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>> All right. Are we good? work. >> So, uh, members of the subcommittee, do we have any other questions? >> I not about it. >> Not about the budget update in discussion. I do have some questions for our next meeting, but that's it. >> Okay. Well, email me the agenda items

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because I'm going to be getting a scheduling email out to you guys soon because we've got our warrants meeting coming up. >> I just wanted to know if we could have the transportation director Okay.

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>> For the next our next meeting. >> So, we will I think it' be nice that in the scheduling email >> to see if we can >> um Well, not for >> not right now. >> Not for today, but for next meeting. Yeah. >> Okay. So, I'll send that scheduling

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email soon and looking at because the warrants has to be the week before the meeting of the full committee. you'll be able to see if it's feasible to have her then and if not we can schedule a different meeting. >> I think it'd be nice to have I mean we I just had the reinvisioning meeting

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before this one and um Mike was able to come in and just talk about some stuff which was great but I think from like a budget standpoint if we could either and I know this is like passed we can't change what's happening but see the building budgets that was asked for and

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what they're getting possibly at the next meeting or what they asked for. >> Okay. >> We did not make any reductions or anything at all to what the streets >> asked for. So that's where I was coming from. So then if they asked for

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>> got put in it, >> it got put in there. Okay. So Roland shaking it said no. And you're saying yes. >> Oh, I know. That's what I'm >> They ask and then you pay me to >> tell them no.

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>> Some decisions. >> I pay you to We We pay you to tell them no. That's what I >> Well, I make decisions that if it deserves a no, it's a no. And I think that's Yes. I'm recommending a yes. Right. >> Yeah. >> Okay.

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>> It's all good. It's all good. I was just asking. >> I was just gonna say gratitude is the the word of the day here because >> I mean we're maintaining at a time everyone else is cutting. >> I think that's that's a great way to say it and we're maintaining right there's a

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lot of wants. We all have wants. >> Yeah. >> Myself included right in our own personal lives. I think >> but the fact that we're not >> cutting we're not removing that type of scenario. We're not setting up the future superintendent or other brand new

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principal, right? Etc. coming in for any types of I'll say tough times. Yes, they're going to have to work, don't get me wrong, and be doing this again every year in the future, right? Um, >> but at least it's they're not coming into a bombshell blow up, you know.

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>> Yes. So, you know, me everything you want on the next agenda. >> Why we have Roland here? I have one question that's sort of budget. Well, ask the question and then we'll see if it's pleasure to >> always on TV and ask it after.

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>> Okay. Well, in that case, are we all satisfied and done? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, would someone like to make a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I We are unanimous. Um, we are now

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adjourned. Let me turn off our recording.

Part: 2

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The time is 6:13. Um, call to order. This meeting is being recorded by the community relations committee. If any other persons present are doing the

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same, you must notify the chairperson. At this time, we'll do a roll call of members. So, councelor Brown here. Councelor Bulldock not here yet. Councelor Citizen Alves here. Councelor Minhas not

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attending. Councelor Dylan >> here. >> Great. So today on our agenda, approval of minutes. We don't have any minutes or truth at this time. And now

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we'll have public comment. So, if there's anyone who would like to give public comment, feel free to come off mute or put your name in the chat or however you'd like to give public comment. Okay.

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Um, hearing no need for public comment at this time. Just put your name in the chat after this period if you'd like. Um so first we can take the agenda as

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written. The first motion is resolution in support of an act enabling cities and towns to stabilize rents and protect tenants and an initiative petition to protect tenants by limiting rent increases. So

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um can wait I think to discuss it there needs to be a motion. Yes. >> That's okay. We're just getting started

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and I was just so I'll just That's late too. I'm trying not to be, but I'm like driving and I didn't want to text. Oh god. >> So, councelor Bulldock has arrived. It's

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6:16. So, the first thing on our agenda was that we were going to this motion. Does anybody want to read the motion in the I can you can read it from here if you want or Oh, you have it up. >> I have it. Yeah. Um, you want me to read it?

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>> Yes. that the Greenfield City Council approves the attached resolution titled a resolution in support of an act enabling cities and towns to stabilize rents and protect tenants and an initiative petition to protect tenants by limiting rent increases.

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>> So I will second that and then um we can discuss it unless is that the motion or is that just Yeah. Is that how it works? No. I think. >> But yeah, >> floor is open for discussion if you

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would like to. >> Oh, does she need to be in the meeting? >> Um, welcome to the meeting. We're just getting started. So, if you'd like to give public comment, you're welcome to come off mute or put your name in the chat. Um, yeah, feel free to Yeah, feel free

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to get public comment. >> Stephanie, do you Sorry, it took me a second to get out of it. Um, I do have concerns about um some of the resolutions tonight and I'm

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wondering where they initiated from. Um, you know, is there going to be a vote being presented at council regarding the rent control resolution stuff?

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And I'm I'm wondering how you guys are vetting the endorsement of an entire city on a on a resolution. Um I mean do we have any other opinions that have been presented to the contrary

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to the resolution? Has any of that been you know has there been any outreach? because it working in housing I understand what the limitations are that you know when we cap rents like say

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through HUD the amount that we can charge obviously can't be above the 30% threshold but when we're capped on the other end it really puts strain on maintenance departments because they don't take it from the CEOs or the upper management

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when they start squeeze freezing budgets, they take it from the bottom up. So they def, you know, underfund maintenance departments, which then leads to poor quality of life for the for the tenants. So, I

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think there's a whole bunch that needs to be looked at before we present it to, you know, as endorsed as is um as a city because, you know, given the makeup of the current city council, I I I feel

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like there really isn't any opposition in representation on the council. I mean, several of you, if not all, ran unopposed or were appointed. And that's not a true reflection of, you know, all of the people. I mean, there are

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stakeholders in these matters. And I'm hoping that when you guys make decisions on these things at the city council level that you have reached out to all stakeholders, including landlords and maintenance departments and people who may be directly affected by those caps. Thank you.

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>> Thank you. anyone else like to give public comment. All right. Um Oh, >> thank you. Yeah, to chime in. >> I I would kind of just like to echo that. I just like we have so many zoning

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changes right lately and all this stuff that's being changed lately, but we have to be frank, we have like only a left-leaning council right now and it's no one is represented except for one one demographic of way of thinking and a lot

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of this is done on ideologies and stuff like that. Like I don't even think that we ever even look into the financial side of how this harms the city or the impacts and stuff. And just when you guys keep doing resolution after resolution, there's so much to pay attention and so much zoning changes and

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ordinances changes all the time. And then the meetings are barely accessible to get into. Half of them don't have clickable links. Like I just went to a meeting that I had to it wasn't a clickable link like this one. So even if somebody wanted to, they'd have to have the forethought and knowledge on how to

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get into the meeting. And then when you go in and it's not a clickable link, then you got to go like you city councilors do to log in and do all this crazy stuff to log in. Who are we really hearing from? Because most of you guys are in activist groups also. So you're hearing from your little activist groups

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because you're getting outreach from them. But there's no outreach to anyone else in this community with a different view. It's me and Stephanie all the time saying the same thing. Who do you think we represent? Only the view and thoughts of ourselves? No, we represent the view and thoughts of people who constantly

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talk to us in the streets about what's going on in this town, but don't have the time or know how to access this stuff because they're not activists. They're just taxpaying citizens. When is the taxpayer represented? We have homeless coalitions. We have all these coalitions and all this stuff. Never do

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I hear any of you go, "Hey, how can we really make it easier for the taxpayers? It's always a homeless person, a nonprofit agency coming in, how to make it easier for them to get into zoning and stuff like this. It's never ever in concern of the people actually paying the bills. And when you guys put in

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these new laws and stuff, can you please consider sometimes the people that are paying the bills that keep this town functioning? That's all. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, that completes public comment and we can resume discussing this motion

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on the floor. Um, yeah, I I could start because I um submitted it. Um so this was brought forward um in coordination with

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the keep mass home campaign which is a statewide coalition of different organizations including locally Springfield known leaves which um works on preventing displacement and um fighting evictions

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as well as many other um things as well but around housing justice. Um and the intention of bringing this forward is to bring tenant protections as an important piece

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of housing, not just increasing housing supply um as a way of creating more affordable housing, but also um protecting tenants. So, um, this resolution would cap this, this

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resolution we it's since 1994, um, state law has banned there's been a prohibition on rent control. So, um, there's a couple cities and towns that have tried to pass home rule petitions for rent control. Um, currently East

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Hampton is working on one, Somerville has, Boston passed one a couple years ago, but none of those can go into effect while the prohibition on rent control stands. So there is currently an act a bill for rent stabilization and

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that one is a local opt-in. So then if that passed, the ban would be overturned and then municipalities could decide whether they want to opt in. And then the other one is the ballot initiative which is voters will vote on in November

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and that is to um enact it statewide. Both of them have exemptions. So if it's occupied by the landlord and four units and under um public housing is exempt and the first five or 10 years of new

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construction is exempt from the certificate of occupancy. I'm not remembering right now. I think the ballot is for 10 years and the bill is for five years, but I would have to double check that I'm getting those right. Um, and the goal of that is so

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that it's not um stalling new housing production. There isn't evidence that rent control stalls housing production, even though that's like a frequently cited argument. Um, in some ways it can actually make investing in new housing

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more profitable. Um and yes and so I think the land and landlord occupied is exempt in an attempt to not target small landlords and people who are responsibly

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um managing their homes. So yes, housing is >> May I speak? >> Um sure. Um, so as a city, what you're asking is the

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city to endorse a ballot initiative and bill at the state house in our community relations meeting as as our as our city counselor because you support the initiative, but have you provided any financial

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impact statements, any potential opposing studies? I mean a good study always looks at the opposite side as well, right? So I can tell you right now there's a podcaster called Mike Urban who has gone he owns a real

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estate company out in the Boston area. I think he has like seven branches. He's been doing real estate podcasts out of that Boston area for several years now, but has has kind of grown on his YouTube channel. But he has provided a lot of

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the cautionary tales that he hears from developers and landlords or potential landlords and and there there there are studies out there. So before we start endorsing this at a city level, I want to officially object

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to you know unless you're providing a bunch of research in the contrary and letting people make this decision. And I think this is just a political uh platform and that's not what community relations is supposed to be about in our city council. It isn't to

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forward support for the ballot measures. You can do that on your own. >> Thank you. Um, so yeah, I wondering if folks want to chime in for

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discussion on this um on this measure before the council. >> Yes. My only concern would be that this might violate um election laws because we're elected officials. We might not be legally

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allowed to endorse something that's on a ballot. >> Okay. Um I assume that the city attorney reviews everything that goes before the council. So I I I assume that it had been

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checked, but I think that that's something to >> Can you think of another Sorry. Yeah. Well, I'm reading the page right now. There's like it's sections one's from Bible apply to going through it >> while we're thinking about it, but I just wanted to voice that before we get to Yeah. Sorry. Can you clarify the two

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separate pieces because there's Yeah. >> Yeah. Which one are we voting on? >> So, this resolution is in support of both, but if it's not against electioneering laws, which we should definitely I I didn't anticipate, but um this is for the act. Unfortunately, the

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bill >> is getting sent to committee for study and it's dies. >> Well, it's be only because we actually receive the pennies that we get from the city. We're technically considered special employees >> of the city. >> So, because we were employed by the city

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legally speaking, that prohibits us from having a political >> like an election related activity like that. I see. >> Which is why I would recommend maybe like being cautious with that. >> Can you do you want to read it? >> I'm looking I'm there's I'm literally scrolling it so long. I am I'm digging.

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or anything you want to pull out of it that relevant. >> I mean, if it's an issue, we can always amend it to just be about the bill and not the um the ballot initiative because that is really standard

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procedure to that's community relations um makes recommendations on resolutions for state law all the time. >> Yeah. Um, yeah, I don't know much of the background about the or organization putting this forward. I'm a rent control

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skeptic. Um, just because the data nationwide seems to show that even though in the short term, rent control reduces um, renter costs. >> Yeah, >> it tends to have long-term consequences that are overall negative for like the

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larger housing market. um I think studies in Cambridge and San Francisco like there was those were two cities that had rent control and then they stopped it and so researchers were researchers were able to look at the impacts of that change. Yeah. And they

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found things like um rent control uh disincentivized housing maintenance um just because landlords didn't weren't able to get costs or weren't able to get very much revenue out of their property

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and so didn't have the money to put back into maintenance. Um and also it incentivized conversion of rental units into condos so that the landlords were just getting out of the business altogether. Um, it also tended to

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keep renters in place. It would cause it like mismatches because if you're if you've got a great uh rent like in New York, you're less likely to move. And so, you tend to stay in your unit maybe longer than you would otherwise. So,

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maybe you've outgrown your unit, but yet you don't want to move. or maybe you're uh you know your kids have gone, you've got a three-bedroom unit and it's just you, but you don't want to give up give it up. So, it it reduces the like the housing shifts that would more naturally

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occur in the community. Um, so, so yeah, I'm I'm even though it sounds like a great idea, there might be better avenues because I agree that that renters are being squeezed and that um there isn't an adequate supply of rental

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units in most communities at this point across the country. But there might be better ways to address the issue than through rent control, which yeah, over time seems like even though it may seem like a good idea, the long-term

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consequences maybe aren't worth it. Yes, I um I hear the concerns about repair, condo conversion, and mobility. And I um disagree based on research I've done

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>> because I think that rent control is a tool that's part of an ecosystem. It's an anti-displacement tool. It's not to say that other things aren't needed. A rental registry helps with repairs. Having loan funds helps with repairs.

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Um, if landlords are treating housing as a business, they should be able to use the collateral and and take out a loan against the property like there are systems in place. So to leave rent as completely unregulated and unfettered

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greed is cruel and inhumane and results in evictions result in homelessness. Like there's truly like there's a gaping like hemorrhaging um issue that yes, we need a whole spectrum of housing

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justice tools and rent control is not going to solve housing repairs. It's not going to solve supply. It's a specific tool to solve a specific problem and it needs to be in combination with a whole

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set of tools is how I like even with condo conversion. It's like we can put a law into place that other um communities have done where it's like if a landlord is converting it into a condo then tenants get the right of first refusal

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if they would like to organize and take that on. So there's I think there's ways of shifting I think the point of this is to shift more power into for tenants um because at the end of the

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day um tenants can't even advocate for the repairs they need because maybe their rent will get jacked up. So the experience that people have is like it's so desperate that um

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I like this is sort of a blunt tool to be like okay yes it's 5% like that's a pretty blunt tool but because it's such a crisis I think that this is something that is necessary and it's also a modern um rent control policy and a lot of

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studies looking at other examples of rent control in other cities are outdated and maybe they weren't applied evenly and there were exemp exemptions. So then it created weird mobility around people staying in certain units because it didn't apply to other units. So I

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think that there are benefits of this being like a modern best practices statewide policy. And um I would say that it's also rent control is something that you probably know more but like historically

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um if this is actually like it's I don't I don't know this history myself that well but like since 1920s like rent control has been a thing and this gap of from 1994 to like now this is the longest that we haven't been able to

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have rent control. So, we're truly just saying that um capitalism will just take care of itself if we don't have any regulation on um landlords increasing rent between years.

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I mean you it's totally I think there's nuance like what is the rate like is it 5% is it 10% is it like what are all the exemptions like is there a rent control board that like is could oversee what

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the exemptions are like I think there um the issue with something like this is that it's a really blunt tool and there isn't that nuance but at the same time I think like the desperation that people have like It makes it the tradeoff is

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unfortunately I think it's just is worth it at this time because people are suffering. >> Yeah. Oh god, good news. Um yes, we are allowed to in our in our official capacity which isn't

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technically defined by a strict law. um unless it's defined by the city and the charter. Um it is within our purview to have those kinds of considerations. And one of the examples they use is having a school committee um discuss a school committee related or a school systems related ballot question initiative. And

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they actually are they are allowed by the state law to take a position as a school committee on such measures. And likewise a city council would be allowed to have a position formally on upcoming state ballots because it would apply to the entire city >> which is our purview.

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>> Okay. So, let's There's that. >> Thanks for checking so we can vote. >> Yeah, I I want to say something about the the dire level I think that we're at right now. Um, just that, you know,

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everything is getting more expensive and real estate is um, uh, you know, it's getting more expensive. property taxes, insurance, maintenance. So, we're seeing these these things like in specific ways

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affecting property hold or people that own property. Um um but I don't think that this means that the tenants should be expected to absorb these costs like at a disproportionate rate. And um

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at the end of the day, who has more protections, tenants or landlords? Landlords have their equity and tenants have no such safety net. And I've heard stories locally of

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landlords raising rent 30% overnight. I don't think that this should be legal. Um, I think that the cost of inflation up to 5% clause of this bill will be enough for tenants to share the burden of this

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cost of properties going up. Um, it might not in one year, but if you do this incrementally every year for a few years, it it if if you actually if the landlord really is raising their rent every year

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around 3 4%, it I think it's enough. Um, it's fair. And, um, I also really like that this law won't affect new construction for the first 10 years. I think that is the that is the bill and um

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I don't think that there is a way for us to know for sure like how this will affect Massachusetts property um uh over over time. There's a lot of mixed

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research, but I um I think it's it is possible that we'll see some significant changes and then it's it's possible that we won't see that much change. Um overall, I do see these arguments against rent stabilization

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as excuses by people with more economic and political power to not give tenants the protections that they deserve. All properties are covered under the HUD tenant protection laws. So if people are

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being charged 30% they need to go to a housing lawyer and fight for their rights. It's already protected. >> It's already protected. >> Thank you. I think we're we've ended public comment, but feel free to email um we can exchange resour.

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Thank you. Thanks. I also think it's a little bit stronger for us to support those two bills that allow for um opt-in because each community has its own guidelines that like we know what Greenfield needs better than we know what Turners needs. I think having that ability especially

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with the divide between East, Central, and Western Mass that each community has that opportunity. Um, so I think if this if this resolution helps at all to generate a greater calling at the state level for that, then then refill really should be one of

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those communities that supports the greater county by actually saying, "Hey, this is not something that we want anymore. This is not acceptable. Let's, you know, let's these little communities in Franklin County are actually saying no to those communities outside of the less affluent areas, the rich, you

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know, these rich communities out east that we're not going to we're not going to sit by and have people who don't live here and who don't know what's going on, you know, have like a blanket to just do whatever they want. Um, but I would also caution that the one the the ballot initiative as a universal cut off. I

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worry that that's a little too much because similarly there's another measure going through uh about demolition delays. And I know it's not in remotely the same category, but uh we at the historical commission are concerned that by raising some communities with nothing up, you force a

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mandatory minimum bar or ceiling for them, but communities with more advanced and complicated language, you bring them down to have that universal level that it might it might it might be too blunt of a tool, but I think the opt-in in

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particular would be really really strong for us to support. Um, what do you mean by it would bring subcomunities down because nobody has rent control right now? >> I think that

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it's too much of a divide at the moment. Like I agree 100% that it's necessary, but we need to have this conversation. And the thing is, we're all affected equally, right? you know, we're not I'm not saying that these rich people who go golfing seven days a week, you know, are

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going to be exempt, but the fact that the universal law applies in a blanket, it's going to be cut up. It's going to be modified. It's going to go through all kinds of committees and things like that. And I think having that option to have individualized legislation is is a lot more stronger.

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It's a stronger position to take because it will end up with a with more outcomes in a different way for each community rather than having a universal blanket that might not fit each community. Because if a community has more affordable housing versus a community that has more rich apartments, you know,

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those kinds of buildings, the maintenance, all those every quality of that community is is different. And having a universal a universal bar, I think is dangerous. Do I as personally I support that initiative because I think we need it for the public, but on a legislative

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level I would caution having such a blanket. Yeah. >> Um and so I don't you know I'm not going to say no if if if we do vote on this today because I think that together we're stronger. But I would caution that something so universal like I said it

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might have unintended consequences that something individualized I think would be a much better solution. So, I I would prefer that the language only be for those two bills. But again, I personally when I go to the to the polls, I'll probably be voting yes on that initiative. But that's my personal

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opinion. And I think legislatively, as I said, there's a distinction between one community vocalizing for everyone and then one community vocalizing for everyone, you have options. >> Yeah. But, you know, that's respect. >> Thanks.

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Um, I would say with respect to that that like in some ways a universal or blanket approach could be really beneficial because if it's here in Greenfield and it's not in Turner's Falls then that's

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creating a weird artificially skewed yeah economic system. So um, so I think that >> the same 5% is not the same 5% community to community. is kind of what I'm getting at. Like I agree there should be

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a minimum or like a you know like a it's hard to to really verbalize the idea but like I the same 5% that counts in like Waltham or Salem is not going to be the 5% that we get here as far as the value for tenants because there's just different economic factors and different kinds of buildings and all that

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different kind of thing. >> Yeah. >> Do I support it? Absolutely. But I think it deserves to be examined rigorously when it goes to the legislation because it I think it could be damaging in ways that I you know this is a good intent but is it going to be strong enough

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legislatively that it's quite concern? Yeah, I think that um the ballot initiative remains to be written like nonprofits are exempt from it and um

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I think there could I I'm not sure the nuance that can happen later. >> Um but if this is still just like a floor or a ceiling or whatever the heck you were calling it like >> it could it's it could be both depending on the command. >> Yeah. Yeah.

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But yeah, it's it is interesting. I mean >> I think >> a message for sure. Definitely a message. >> Yeah, I mean what we have now is not working. >> So like it's not that any there's no one panacea like oh this is going to solve.

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No, that's not possible. Um but I do think that this is an important one. >> I agree. Just to clarify too that it's it's not 5%, it's inflation the whatever

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inflation is up to 5%. >> So it's probably like less than five right now. I think it's >> the thing too I I haven't looked deeply enough into it to you know where do they get that information? Is it on the statewide level? Is it on a federal

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level? >> It's also >> those are the kinds of you know >> Yeah. And it's the rent rate from January 1st, 2026. So, it's not like this can be voted on and then landlords can see that and then be like, I'm bringing the rent up. It's it's retroactive to what it was.

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Yeah. Um, well, I would do folks want to give another round of comments or responses and I feel like if you

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welcome >> I think it's great to be Yeah. >> Yeah. Go ahead. I was going to say I still feel like I need more information to be able to decide which which way to vote just because everything I've ever read is

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that rent control seems like a good idea, but it's really not. There's other ways that are better. So, especially for this, yeah, I don't I mean, maybe there's best practices and this could be tailored in a way that wouldn't have the same impacts that it seems to have

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always had before in the past. But, >> but yeah, I feel like I I would feel more comfortable seeing more of that research and having a better understanding of what's going on. Yeah. Before being able to make a decision, >> which table it comes back out next month, right?

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>> Um, is it still going to go? I think in Wednesday. I'm pretty sure it's still on Wednesday. I'm I'm I you're welcome to abstain. I would >> I think that that's Yeah. Or whatever you want to vote, but I think it's on the council agenda for

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Wednesday. I don't know how that can be undone. Yeah. So, are there other discussion? I think I'm just going to This is the

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motion and we can roll call vote and um Yeah. So, councelor Brown. Yes. Um let's What's the order we're in? Councelor Bald. >> Yes. >> Councelor Citizen. >> Yes.

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>> Councelor Dylan. >> Abstate. >> Cool. So, I will record that. We that will be yeah we will relay that on um on Wednesday. Um

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the next agenda topic all right is the civic engagement and then youth internship and and house recommendations. So, civic engagement,

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my update on that is that um Jonathan Weber sent the um style guide for color palette and fonts and contrast and visual whatever that it's called for accessibility. Um so, that's something

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that we can use. He also said he could create a flyer template for us. So he's still happy to post content if and work with us on content. He also said that vertical videos are tends to be the most popular more than a flyer. So if someone even wanted to be like a counselor

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downtown like >> I was thinking that we could make it like a Tik Tok channel because there are um I've seen other city counselors around the country like on YouTube and Tik Tok with those short form videos and I think that would be very very cool. Like I know counselor has the newsletter that goes out and it's got readers, but

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I think it would be very interesting to get >> people being, you know, going around downtown being like, "Hey, it's counselor so and so." And >> yeah, I think that'd be fun. >> And it's good to think about with the precinct meetings coming up as well that I mean, they're not coming up because

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they're not scheduled, but it's in our work. >> It's our perview after budget season. We'll start trying to schedule them and that will be something um one of the promotion outlets we can use. Um yeah,

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sorry. This is the civic engagement is like for us to make different kinds of like flyers like community relations or council or what is the

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>> truly any like accessibility like that if we were to update the city website about like oh what how does the local government work like what how does the budget work like I think civic engagement is just that entire category of um what are we doing

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to bring people in to what's happening and and making more connections especially folks who might not otherwise be participating. So um so Jonathan has basically offered that if if any counselor wants to create something like

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to put on the website or this or a flyer for something or I don't to engage people civically um that that we would create the content and then run it by him and then he would potentially post it. Is that kind of

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what's >> Yeah, I think so. I'm not sure if he wants to film it or whatever. Basically, it has to be politically neutral, right? >> So that's >> Yeah. >> Okay. All right. Just wanted to >> So it could be like this is what's on the agenda, but not like this is my opinion about the agenda.

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>> Yeah, >> I think that's reasonable. We could actually could have somebody rotating within the committee doing each video so that number one, each of us gets air time so that our faces get recognized and we become more familiar to the public, but also that >> each of us would have a different spin on what's more relevant. Especially

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where there's committee chairs could be like this is what's going to happen at the committee meeting and then one of us could you know why are you a city counselor all those different things I think could be could be really valuable especially with different counselors kind of giving you different thoughts and opinions on what's going on. >> Yeah.

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>> I just I get excited. >> I'm a little nerd. >> I have no social media presence so >> neither do I. I actually had all my stuff deleted. Yeah. Yeah. Had all my stuff erased. So hopefully there's not. >> But yeah, but I definitely support more

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communication to the general public. I mean, before stepping up, yeah, to fill this vacancy, like I had no like I didn't know anything about city council, didn't think to reach out, didn't know how to reach out. So the more we can, you know, start doing that and just get

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more people involved in this really important thing, which is, you know, bringing your community, that would be great. Yeah. Is there any thing you want to share about the papers you got there? >> Well, it's related, but it's not directly related to Jonathan. So, so I

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was like looking through and making sure I was ready to launch. >> Okay. But I am related civic engagement and education >> two things I have here on my plate. Um, and actually this one is the bigger one despite the lack of papers to go with it, believe it or not. So, I spent a little bit of time. I thought this one would be interesting to just pass

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around. You could I'll go research it and pull it up. It's I think 32 pages. Um RP my printer. >> Um but this is actually the uh Democratic Institute publishes a civic education program guide on how to

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basically get municipalities teaching about how civics works and how things like that kind of work. And what we can actually do is even if we didn't do it in person, like as a class, because that's a commitment for a lot of different people, but we could film videos like that that basically like, hey, I'm sitting here with so and so,

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the director of finance or the the commission of such and such, you know, and basically like this is who your legislators are. This is how you get a hold of us. We could produce that kind of content even if we don't do it ourselves as a teaching institution. But they do strongly recommend educational

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and hands-on learning because that's how people really get to, you know, retain that information. Um, and I was I was rather pleased to discover that in 2018 the state legislature made it so that um, civics

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is taught now as often as possible several times a year um, in schools. But that means that anybody prior to 2018 did not have that opportunity. I didn't have that opportunity. you didn't have that opportunity. And so I still think there's a strong case to be made for going out and having at least like once

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or twice a year like, hey, this is who your city counselors are. This is the kinds of things that we do and this is how you can contact us and get involved. >> And I think like once or twice a year is not that big of an ask, but we also have to worry about like forum and that kind of a thing. >> Um, when we do that kind of stuff. Um,

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are you picturing this like in a like as part of the precinct meetings potentially or >> maybe not necessarily because I think what we want to do is have us be as approachable as possible and if we have it only at precinct meetings I think that that might lead people to believe

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that it's only for like god forbid right like it should be as inclusive as possible and have people from all over the city come and talk to each other. Um, like one of the things that I found working with the precinct 7 neighbors network is that they are encouraging and empowering other people

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in different communities. So like I believe counselor web is working on one in precinct 9. Um, and those kind of homegrown groups really could be something that we talk to people about and say, "Hey, this is how you can get involved and this is what you can do together that we would love to help support on the legislative level." Like

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it I think it having those conversations directly with people on the ground is super important. And we have the gorgeous space in the library that we can have and we could fill with people who are interested in learning and it will take time. I think it's one of those things where we have to have a pilot and kind of see how it goes and

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test it out. But I actually have I didn't know if that idea would take so I haven't started formally working on anything yet but I had this idea for things that we could do but we would need definitely a structure you know where are the gaps that people want to learn and if we start talking about what is the constitution we're going to have

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blank guys and people are going to zone out right away. So, it has to be about Greenfield, about the community, and how they can directly affect what's around them because that's what people want to know. Like, who do you who do you call when there's a pothole that's been eating your car for 6 weeks? You know, do you call DPW? Do you email the

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mayor's office? Like, those are the kinds of things that I think people want to know and have more face to face contact. And it almost would partner with like the citizens academy, but it's more like >> in case you didn't know, here's what you could do as a citizen, you know, to really get people thinking about their

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own power in their own communities. >> So, um, but that's I didn't know if this was going to be food for thought, so I I thought I'd bring this up, but there's some really good strong ideas. Um, and this was just one of the things, and this was the smallest one I could find. So, >> um, yeah. and they have all their it's

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the Democratic Democratic Institute. It's a non it's a nonpartisan uh nonprofits and there's guides like that all over online from different organizations from all over the country that I thought you know if we had an amalgamation of something that would be a really strong introduction to

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people who have been out of school for a long long time or who have been angry about things that are going on around the state of the country and like even around town. I think that's, you know, community relations. Talk about being booze on the ground with that. I think >> I hate to commit more of my precious

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expressionist free time that I don't have, but I think it's important that, you know, in a day and age like ours where everyone's kind of chronically online that we have that physical presence >> and we actually go out and we say, "Hey, I am a representative of say precinct 7, but I also vote for the entirety of

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Greenfield when I vote on large issues. So, I represent all of Greenfield >> and these are things that you can come to me or to your counselor number six blah blah blah blah and like >> kind of really get people to kind of engage more on their with their

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own hesitancy. Not necessarily even if it does if it doesn't result in them coming to us and being more engaged. I think breaking that hesitancy down I think is a huge first step. And I think it's up to us really as like with the elected officials to have that I don't want to call it an olive branch, but definitely reaching out and being like,

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hey, these are the kinds of things that we're hearing. And when I began running, I was in the same boat. And only through that experience have I learned. So I know that there's a gap and I want to reach out. Um, and it would take a lot of work. And so I wanted to see if the

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community was even on board with that whole topic before we even opened that can of course works. Can you catch me up real quick on the citizens academy? Like who does Greenfield have one? >> We did. We just had our very first one and we were >> highly recommend.

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>> So who who runs it? >> Oh yeah. >> Aaron runs it. >> Oh okay. >> So there's a waiting list I think for the second one. >> City counselors should take it. I wonder if she'll add like bump the room. >> Okay. It was we went around and

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basically um we went to all the different city departments and it was really dark so I'm really bummed but we even went to like the wastewater treatment plant you know which was that was I was like so excited to see cuz I'm like I'm like I said I'm a super nerd right and so those are the kinds of things that like people really putting

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that face to the DPW like oh this is director Paul Newell oh I remember him I saw him like you can actually appreciate that you get that small town feel while having the the knowledge that you know this is what tax are we going to this is who you can speak to when you have a problem which is a huge help not only

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for us being as you know legislators like like it helps us to realize like hey um you know we're working on that dark sky initiative that I haven't seen the draft yet but >> um this is going to affect things like the DDW and you know public safety and all those kinds of different things these are people that you can reach out

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to you know them so you yourself feel much less of that hesitancy >> you know so this the citizens academy was kind of the insp inspiration for me researching this because I think the legislature should stay out of the executive branch's decisions but this is

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like you know civic education is like the law like what do you serve on a board or a commission you know this is what your city council is empowered to do this is what we cannot do this is why we cannot do it this is why we can do things like >> people are really struggling right now with that lack of knowledge because

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there there are many many people who feel like when things happen it happens to them not with And I think is it a pain because we're all working full-time and like having lives and everything. Yes. But I think being there in person and saying, "Hey, I am a representative. I want to hear

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from you." Is is like the critical thing that we can be doing right now. Um but again, uh that's not a small stack of paper. So you know, and that's just a guide, right? And so this whole thing require a lot of logistics and a lot of different things like that. Um, one of the subsets, the alternative was, um, I

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work in Brown and so randomly on one of I'm scrolling Facebook and one does, and I see that their town manager had something called a committee fair, >> which is uh, you know, shout out to Brad, I guess, but um, learn how you can take part in your local government

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during Bradboro's second committee fair. >> Um, the select board basically had they're basically saying, "Hey, we have new boards and new committees. We want to appoint a bunch of people here they are. Come talk to them. Learn about what they do. Learn how to get involved. Um, and from from my perspective, I started

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doing it all of this because of the historical commission, which is my pride and joy of my sweet little baby that needs to grow up, but don't put that in the paper. Um, and I think that a board and a commission like those are they're they're very noninvasive in your life.

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Like it's an hour a month, right? And I think these are really good ways for people to really target areas that they care about like environment or parking or you know um different planning conservation. Um like my sister joins the licensing board. Um and now she's like I'm talking about the conservation

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commission. I love me some wetland. She says it was her exact quote and I I love that for her because you know there are a lot of people who feel like they don't even know what half the community is doing. I feel like if we could talk to the staff outreach and be like, "Hey, you know, we don't need all 51 boards

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and commissions, but we if even if we had 15 or 20, I think that would be huge, especially the ones with vacancies, you know, to really get people involved and be like, hey, this is not an elitist institution. We are not here to try and, you know, tower

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over everyone. We're just people." And I think lowering that threshold to to where many many people feel like not only that they can reach out but that they can participate. Something like this I think would be really big. But again logistics and those kind of

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things. In fact um what I was going to propose that if we if we decided that we'd like this I was going to email the staff contacts for each of the boards and commissions but because there are there's a good number of us is still on the committee. We should put ourselves

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on their agendas like one counselor at a time with a unified message because then we can go in person and we don't have to go through that email back and forth and they can we'd be very clear >> much sooner because if we're going to do this, it's going to take like six months to get it to get it rolling and you've got like August vacation, you've got

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September school starts, what about child care? Um, and so those are the kinds of considerations where I thought if we went in person to one of those meetings, each of us had like one or two that we went to. um uh that it would actually it would be a lot faster to exchange that information

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and see if they're even interested or >> to you know once we're on their agenda we're on their radar to give them the information and then they can decide who we are what we do what we want to present they can make their own thing all we have to do is like get a room at the library and say hey here's the time

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here's the place and then from our perspective as the legislature I think that we really could do strongly as well and say hey we are not a border commission But the boards or commissions do a lot of what we do. They advise the city on different they advise the city on different topics. They basically have

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regulations about like parking and they make changes in the city that we very similarly do. And I think that, you know, we could provote we could provide information on like open meeting law, um, like Robert's rules, like these are the kinds of things that you may or may not encounter in your committee from the legislative kind of language. You

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basically made that a lot more approachable because one of the things that stopped me from kind of looking at the city council for a long time was Robert's rules is about this thick and it was very intimidating for me. Like is it something that's necessary? Is it something that's really going to be a huge to do? And I think, you know,

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basically just make it spread everything out and really layman's terms. This is what we want. We want the citizenry and we want to make it as accessible as possible. But again, those are those are couple of huge to-dos. So, >> told you I was coming with a stack of papers. So,

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>> I love the committee fair. >> Yeah, me too. >> Yeah. Very fun. I don't I mean it would be more than just a few that we if if we wanted to promote it because there's how many boards and commissions? >> 51 I think. >> So if there's five of us we would be

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going to like 10 each. >> Yeah. Well, see I can cover I can cover at least three just off the top of my head. >> I would love if it was um an email and a tableabling and it could happen like in September when it's still warm or something. I don't know.

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>> That's the thing. We could do it at the library in September or the library then it could be indoors. Yeah. >> And that's you know that was my consideration like in August are people on vacation with their families. You know the kids going back to school does that mean that you have to change your entire schedule >> to get the kids to the after school

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programs and things like that? Like I really don't know off the top of my head cuz I don't have any kids. I don't have I'm >> one of those people um >> what would really work best for the broader public. And in fact we may have to do like two. We could have one in the fall and maybe one in the spring, you know, because what we could

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>> I know it's a lot of work, but that's there they'd be months and months and months apart. And I what I want to do by having basically going to these meetings and suggesting that would be basically cutting down on the email chains where things could get lost. People are like, "What day is this? What time did you say we were doing this?" 4:30.

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Oh, 4:30. I It's um And again, I understand that's a commitment. So that was just a suggestion, but we could also do it, you know, the staff contacts. We could trim that down because the staff contacts do multiple boards about the decision like the planning the planning

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department um has multiple boards and we could just meet with those directors as well and that would be a lot easier to do. Um but the boards inevitably will have questions because what is a good conversation without a million questions? And um so we should also prepare material like you know I have a

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list of questions like these are things that people are going to ask you. What do you do? Why do you do it? How do you do it? Um and basically things like what are the last couple things you've worked on as a committee? What are your strongest strengths? You know what are you looking for in new members? And if I

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am not allowed to fill a seat even as an alternate, should I pay attention anyway? Like what are my options to be engaged as a citizen? Like do you have volunteer opportunities? Are you looking for people to help you with certain tasks and things like that? You know those like there's an opportunity for just about everyone I think but again

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logistically it's a nightmare. >> This sounds like good vertical video content. Like everybody gets that those questions and then it's just like oh this week gets the store permission, next week gets that. Like it could just >> it's possible. Yeah, something else >> video of the different someone from a

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different commission like, "Oh, who wants to do a little >> I think it'd be really cool." But again, I just threw these I've been researching this for a little while and I thought the committee fair in particular would be very exciting because there's a lot of vacancies >> and the believe it or not, the boards

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and committees actually have quite a bit of power over what happens because >> if they send something to us, >> we're not going to say no. I mean, we might. We're going to look at it, right? We're going to do our due diligence. But, you know, the fact remains that I'm not a a planning expert. You know, my

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I'm I don't even have a college degree. Like, I'm not historically educated, but I'm on the historical commission and I've researched Greenfield history enough to become a de facto kind of expert on that. But each of us has our unique abilities to provide to the city. And when the historical commission made up of professional amateurs says, "Hey,

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this building actually has >> a use and these are things that we'd like to see happen," the city actually turns its ear and at least lists. >> And that's something that can't be said for a lot of communities that really don't have a lot of opportunity to be represented like that. So, you know, those are the kinds of things that I think

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short of the city council. I feel like a board of commission is like to come volunteer. Um, they're all very chill. It's my again like I want I don't want to use my sister as like a big example but like I am I'm so proud of her for you know and I I didn't force her to do

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that. I didn't ask her to do any of that. And it's just one of those things where it's like you know she said that seeing somebody like me who she's grown up with I'm just like a normal person. Like seeing the things that I've been able to do inspired her to be to Right. And so that's the thing is like I want other people to realize that it's not

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this inaccessible high bar, you know, that we're all just normal people trying to have a community together and we really need to emphasize that together part because we have vacancies. >> Like come sit at our table with us like let's talk, you know, that's the that's the biggest thing I would I would stress.

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>> Yeah. I feel like a fair would be great and fun and I'm also like there's vacancies. Like what if there's just like really low attendance? I feel like a big thing that happens at events in Greenfield is like there's more vendors than there are participants in the or there's more people at the t

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tableabling than there are folks milling about. So like if it's outdoors and then it's like folks can accidentally be like whatever there's ice cream like if there's something like there's a bra there's pizza >> common. >> Yeah. If there's on if it's on the common I or if it's like linked up to

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another event like it's 5:30 >> next to Fest. >> Exactly. Right next to Bfest. 5:30 to 6:30 before the council meeting whatever something >> where it's like >> could >> that's a >> keep on momentum of something else and

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also I went to the fest this weekend and I was inspired by the cranky fest because I was like there the scroll you know where they have like I was like we should have one for like what's going on with local government what how's the budget work like I feel like how fun would that be I mean it would be really

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nerdy and silly but like I feel like tapping into like arts community around making some of this stuff more engaging. >> I think so too. And especially where like the cultural crossroads district like that's something that people can volunteer and help with too. And like I had no idea. I had no idea that was a

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thing until Bella who was on that board you know was telling me. I was like oh my god like I didn't even know and I'm doing this thing >> for a living. But you know that's the whole point. I didn't even know like how much of this happens that people don't even know about. Right. >> And even if we get low attendance, I

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think if we consider it more like a pilot, like Brown has only done their second one. And I think they wouldn't put it out on Facebook and things like that if they weren't at least receptive to the idea that it's in its infancy. Like they want people to pay attention to it. Um, and I just think that's a fun

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time. But >> they do theirs. >> They did theirs on the 13th. >> But what is it inside outside? What's the >> Oh, they say you could do it with the farmers market. I don't know. Figure out something. Totally. >> Oh, it was at the library.

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>> Okay. >> Which is a pretty cool library if you ever been. >> But um yeah, I just think that I don't know what time of year will be best particularly where we have this contentious election coming up in November with everything going on like the midterms and >> so maybe November wouldn't be great and

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you got the holidays. September, kids are going back to school. It's end of summer. >> It's it's this is a hard time of year to really do anything if it's not like Fourth of July. It's Halloween. It's too late. So, and that's why I'm thinking this is going to take some months to plan. So, we might even be looking at the spring. Yeah. You know, and that

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gives us an even longer window to really get it right the first time. >> Sounds good. >> So, we could we could do it in April or something like that. You know, people are feeling like they want to move and get the road salt off of their cars. And >> hopefully this winter is not as bad as

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the last one, but >> I think that'd be really exciting. >> Yeah. And I like the idea of the vertical videos as like a lead up. Oh yeah. Yeah. Each person just giving a short little seal and then >> I mean we could >> Yeah. And then it's like oh this piques

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your interest. You can come and find out more in person. >> Yeah. They're doing that cute series right now about like visit Greenfield and people are film. >> Yeah. Three things you like about Greenfield. Yeah. I was afraid that all

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my stuff would be really nerdy. >> I haven't made it yet. Yeah. I mean, I will say that the precinct meetings are like um the ordinances require us to do it and that's already like kind of a lift. Yeah. >> So, like if we if we're like, okay,

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that's our events that we required to do and then we can and then Yeah. And then like >> this is great and they can make the idea longer. We can also publish something that we hand out related to like the civic engagement at meetings and people could take that and digest it on their

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own. >> Totally. You know, and then we could kind of if we're going to have an event, we could do the committee fair if that seems more exciting to people. >> I would love as a goal this year to have put together like I mean I already have that draft, but like that website and

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whatever like a little web pages and a hand a little handbook. I feel like we have that content. We just need to >> work it and finalize it and make it whatever. But I I do feel like that would be a good goal for >> us this year. What about the agenda for

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next month? >> Yeah, I mean I it's sort of civic engagement, but yeah, it's like a sub I could put it on specifically to make sure it happens. The handbook web page. So, >> did you get a hold of that photographer that you were talking about? >> Well, that idea was actually vetoed by

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Jonathan. >> Oh, no. I don't want to say quite vetoed, but more just like he said that it was like possibly more annoyingly complex because of just the the website formatting and and whatnot turnover

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>> and then requiring maintenance and >> you should just take a picture of all of us at the next council meeting. >> Yeah, that's true. >> We have all our faces. True. Yeah. Left to right. >> No, no, that's that's the thing. we were going to take pictures of of each of us

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and you know basically so that if you not that you want to be encountered at the grocery store and be like okay but but like again like the the idea of like lowering that intimidation threshold and like really becoming personable we had thought to get like photographs and like little bios and stuff about who your city counselors are and like you know

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>> um even currently that's not cool enough or even if it just links out it's like oh okay like Maxwood has a a newsletter or Marian has a Facebook like just whatever it links links. I don't know, maybe that's a lower bar where it's like, oh, if you want to just like click around, that's

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>> or if you have nothing for anyone to link to. >> If you have nothing, then that's fine, too. And I also think our addresses should be removed from the city website. >> That's creepy. I know for anyway, that's another topic.

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>> I wonder why it must be the state legislature must require it. >> No, it's not. It's other councils don't have it. It's truly like Greenfield's doing it. >> Oh, Greenfield, come on. So, I want to email him. >> Yeah, we should we should end that. >> I I know. I've had two people tell me

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that is the reason why they don't want to run or something. >> Oh my god. Oh god. >> Which makes no sense because the commissions I can't even get in touch with anybody if I wanted to. There's no emails besides contact. I'm like, trust me, they're they're not accessible.

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>> Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. Well, I will note to self and and about the addresses. Um, if we're into this idea, what I'll do is I'll start poking out feelers. Um, and I'll see if the staff contacts are

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like, "Yeah, this is a great idea." Or like, "Oh my god, you're insane. Stop talking to me." >> Um, hopefully more informative than the latter, but we'll see. I've been told that I have a lot of energy. I don't understand. But yeah, that seems like a good first step and a more efficient way of doing

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it since the staff contacts are already charged with being there at those meetings and they're already familiar with those actual committee members. >> It's easy to mass I think >> but still get like a personal connection. >> Yeah, exactly. Plus, I also know I you

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know I appreciate that we're all you know we only get like $2,000 a year. we do get something but like this is essentially volunteer you know and we're all if any you're on other boards and commissions like you know it's a volunteer thing and so um I want to be respectful of people's time and their their other you know their busy lives

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and that kind of stuff and so it's one of those things where the farther you reach out the better up to a point because then you it becomes an like that's not a real date. Um, >> but yeah, I think what I can do is reach out and see if they're interested in in

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that kind of an idea. And I might actually because I I work in Braville anyway, I might reach out to their town manager, be like, "Hey, >> tell me your secrets, right?" >> Yeah, that'd be great. >> Um, because I really, not to be like, "Oh, the stage coach, but having worked on the stage coach, um, which came from

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Brad, I >> the similarities between Greenfield and Brad are actually quite something." And so I have actually considered going to their their town meetings and things like that like listening to the things that they're talking about because very similar they they're on the river like we are they have the industry disappearing like we do

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>> just it's I think local communities like that who used to have stronger ties we could we could find out what they're doing right they can find out what we're doing right I think it's a good exchange of information so and I just I happen to work in Brad so it's not it's not a it's

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not a hard ask for me sounds Anything else on civic engagement or anything we want to like boil into concrete steps other than you'll ask around about to like brattle town manager and reach out to different >> I've said too much already. If I keep

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talking we're never going to leave. >> Well, are there any other like takeaway next steps from this or like anything other thoughts? >> Do we want me to keep looking into that kind of stuff? Like even if we just make a little handout. >> Do you mind sending a digital one?

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>> Yeah. For it. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Send it to send it to Kathy, right? >> Tammy. Yeah. Or Kathy, whatever. I guess I think >> it's easier digitally, but I just, you know, just in case anybody's I like to do things on paper to highlight them and

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then I'll do it on the computer. It's like it never happened. >> Otherwise, let's move on. youth internship. I see you got some papers yourself here. >> I did uh my homework and uh I stopped by

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Mass Hire uh today. >> Thanks. >> And they um they were really excited about the idea actually. Yeah. >> Sorry. What is the idea? >> Okay. Well, what is the idea? Do you want to anyone else want to

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>> Where's Council Minhas? >> Where is Council Minhas? Well, I'll just say that I uh councelor Minhas the idea of um basically the the council or like

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community relations committee having an intern that would help us with outreach and community engagement. >> Okay. >> Yeah. about how the kids can produce virtual content >> in like five minutes. >> Yeah. >> Would this be a paid internship?

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>> Unpaid. >> Okay. >> Or unpaid >> externally funded. Yeah. Right. Like >> sometimes people through their colleges have or like a grant or something like that. Yeah. Um,

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we did learn from uh uh Chair Ston last month that it would complicate matters quite a bit to have the um the individual be under the age of 18

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because liability. So >> Cy Cory Jackson >> Corey checks. Yeah, really pretty >> transportation. >> Pretty pretty serious. um uh hoops to jump through. So

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potentially this is maybe somebody 18 or over or you know that would want some experience learning about local government and um yeah so

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I she asked me a few questions about what we were looking for. You know, I gave her pretty vague, pretty broad answers as we're in an exploratory phase of this and she was excited and she said that she would get back to me soon. >> Oh my gosh. >> Yeah, >> that's exciting.

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>> So, I'll I can That's great. >> Oh, and how how could I and and sorry. >> Um, Mass Hire has a youth works program. Um, so it's possible that this could

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work with this. Youthworks is a state funded program designed to support youth. I didn't even read I haven't even read this yet. I didn't even see it was state funded. >> Designed to support youth employment, assisting teens and young adults in acquiring the skills and experience necessary to secure and maintain jobs.

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So it's this is 16 to 24. >> Oh, cool. >> Um and yeah, >> that's like a home. >> That's amazing. >> Yeah, >> that's Yeah, like that's like the I think anybody's had all day.

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And then are there also maybe opportunities to talk to some of the local schools like that might have um communications programs or social media programs? I don't know. Madison, did you go to school around here for >> I went to school down in Virginia.

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>> Oh, okay. Um but yeah, so that might have students who would be really interested in in getting >> I was going to talk about there's the seniors that have um there some kind of media program that they were doing or >> I don't I don't remember that.

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>> I don't remember but I feel like there was some kind of program with like the the older kids. I'm gonna have to watch the footage back. But I I feel like the Greenville High School um was a strong candidate for that. No, they had some kind of Oh, you know

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what it was? They have a student government. They have a student government. And so their student government might be interested in the actual town government because they already they already demonstrate um the like interest in in civics and engagement based. That's what

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it was. Okay. >> Yeah. I remember. But that's the the Greenville High School, I think, would be a really great place to do that if we can get an opportunity like that. But not we have to contact the state for that like did they say that they would take next steps on that

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>> the my center >> for that did they when when they gave you that information did they say they would reach out >> they are going to reach out directly to me >> that's so exciting I love that >> so stay tuned >> also going back to committees

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commissions boards um I feel like sustainable green field implement ation committee for a while. They were like, "Oh, what if we had like a youth rep on the committee?" And school committee also was like, "What if we had a youth rep?" Like, >> there's no age limit there. There's no age.

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>> Even if they're not like a voting member, they can still be like, "Oh, like they can still be an active participant and we could even >> I don't know. It's something to consider with council like >> if they discussed issues that we were also discussing or if there was whatever. I'm not sure." Well, correct

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me if I'm wrong, but um the human rights commission chair Nate Goodard >> is 18. Is he still in school? >> I think he graduated. I'm not >> But he was young enough that he was in school when he was serving. So that's not a that's not a gate. That's not like

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a far. >> No. >> So that's we should kind of >> get some kids on the board. >> I didn't put it to you like this. I have started going to the arbors uh in P7 um and giving talks about local history um and then they found out that I was a

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city counselor that I represented them and they were like oh we don't feel represented no one ever talks to us >> here are all of our political thoughts and opinions and likewise I feel like >> the younger people like the school like school age people you know they see what's happening around them and I remember when I was in high school I was

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like frothing at the mouths to be like why are people doing the kinds of things that they're um these are two broad demographics that we really could >> go in and have outreach and be like, "Hey, >> we hear that you don't feel represented. Let's talk." Um, so you know, older people, you have older people and

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younger like the the mobility getting around like those are they share a lot of similar It's I'm just talking out loud now, but it's incredible like those are kinds of they share a lot of similar >> issues and concerns and the restraints of getting to meetings and like accessibility and things like that. I

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feel like younger people would be really interested to see on these different boards. I feel like there's a lot of people who don't feel like older people are like in the way and like you know they want to have access to those conversations and older people want to participate as well. So I think >> I'm talking out my mouth right now but I

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think that's a fantastic idea. >> So is there any way we can reach out to chair section and see if that's >> like I I don't even know how we would go about that. It might not really be the council's purview might be more like the >> mayor and board and the mayor like I

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feel like Dame Greenfield like I think even the master plan even mentioned something about a youth >> well we could could we draft something and have it voted as a like a the opinion of the council is that the mayor's office should aim to do this this and this by like 2028.

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That could I I think that that could work, but I feel like it's more just a matter of like like oh who's the sustainability club um staff person for the schools like Kyle Boston like he would want to do that like who would he recommend? I don't know. I feel like it's more just like those relationships

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like I feel like it's not that anyone doesn't >> it's I'm not it's not even the proclam proclamation. I feel like it's more like the implementation of like >> that's well what I was I was kind of getting like if we had a declaration or whatever like that would put them the ball of action into the court of the

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executive branch rather than like the legislative branch. >> Yeah. >> Because it's not really it's not really our perview to be doing all of that. And so I don't want to give them like a suggestion that it's like >> it's a suggestion and it goes into the box and it comes out a bunch of shredded paper. But not that that's what happens.

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But like you know everything everything is there's so much to do all the time, right? Like what is the incentive to remember that we want this to happen? >> Yeah. You know, >> maybe we can find other good examples. Like I don't personally I haven't like been in a town that had like a youth like reps and whatever, but what would

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that even look like? Maybe even just pulling up some examples of what seemed like >> that's Yeah, that's actually that's not a bad idea. It's a good place to start. Yeah. Um I feel like we had other next. >> Well, yeah. I think the main the the

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concern here, the glaring concern is that who supervised this >> exactly >> this intern. Um, and yeah, that's uh, so I don't really, you know, when when

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they come and they want to ask me questions about, well, >> yeah, what am I how do I answer that? >> Well, possibly Jonathan, possibly us, possibly clerk like combo. I don't know if it's ultimate. >> That's the thing. Even if we would all

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have to pay out of population for a Cy, which I can imagine is terribly expensive, but >> No, this is this would this person would likely be over 17. >> Oh, good. Okay. >> Yeah. So, we wouldn't have to do that >> then. I mean, we could The thing is like we don't want them

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just wandering around places. Um, they could come to us with the meetings. >> If they're going to be if they're going to be an intern, they should be with us. Yeah, I would talk with Jonathan and clerks. I feel like we can't I'm I'm

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guessing that we can't officially supervise something like >> that we're not staff like >> Yeah. And I mean, we did talk to them >> and they weren't like >> so keen. >> They're not so keen on the idea, >> but >> of adding more work to their because

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this is not a this person would >> Yeah. like me at dial in the specifics of what that means. >> Yeah. Youth commission. >> We do. >> Apparently, it's on the city's website, but the page is 100% blank. 100%. >> So, maybe that's something.

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>> So, I think it exists somewhere in the archives. >> Okay. Well, let's find out more what's going on with the youth commission. Bring that 52. >> No, we need to reduce the amount of commissions. We did consolidate. It's

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too many. Yeah. I mean, Jonathan was willing to come back to another meeting. Yeah. >> And we can also like approach him during the day and whatever. >> Okay. >> Yeah. It's funny because that youth

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commission doesn't even show up on the bar on the side of the website. So, that's like Google pulled it up. Yeah. So, it it exists, but it's >> not even >> not valid. >> Yeah. >> I'd be interested to learn more about that. And Sarah, I think you were mentioning reaching out to G GCC

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workforce development. >> Yes, I did not. >> That's okay. >> I got >> You did a lot of important post. >> Yeah, but I didn't do the thing I was supposed to do. So that's, you know, that's does look >> that's how that's Yeah,

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>> this is good progress and this more to go off of >> Well, I remember this is one of the things I said I was going to do and I knew I that to me was like a one of my babies and I was like I want to make sure that this gets done but um yeah >> and I also wanted to see if if Mass Hire was even into that because if we can if we can get a grant from Mass Hire then

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we might not even necessarily have to go through GCC. >> That's true. >> But um I have to contact GCC anyway. um for GCTV. So it's not hard. I can do that right now. Cool. Um get a reminder.

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Any other youth internships? Oh, I want to add one more thing that I heard that there was currently an internship that's about to begin with the finance department. >> So that's cool. City's doing an

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internship current or about to be. >> I don't really know the details. Yeah, we should figure out I think asking her about the details of that would be perfect or >> who who is this person? >> Yeah, how is Yeah,

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>> I think it's a state program. >> Um Jenny mentioned it very briefly. I had a quick meeting with her and she was like and here's another thing that we're doing. Oh, okay. It's like in the works and >> that's how it happened. Like you find out all this stuff and you're like, "Oh

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my god, when do you have time to like eat dinner?" >> Yeah. >> So yeah, I don't know too much about it except that >> Yeah. >> Like is that >> Yeah. Is that specifically finance? Like what else could it be for it? I feel it's worth figuring out what's how that's set up.

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>> Yeah. I think it was specifically the finance. >> Perfect. >> I don't know if it's like a finance program or if that's >> that's just what they had chosen. Right. That's what I'm hearing. >> Other things could be added or chosen. >> Didn't they say there was

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>> Who is >> I guess a good question to ask would be who is um >> supervising that person. >> Assuming Steven >> and how that decision was made. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I think she said that they had

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thought about it before but the city wasn't in a position to actually do it. maybe because of the supervisory concerns and so this time around they had like got their ducks in a row and were able to >> yeah to take advantage of it. I'd be I'd be curious too because of the chain of

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command. I I think I don't think Aaron is his direct supervisor. I think it would directly be Jinny, but then for the council, it would put the the onus I think on the clerk's office. So pro maybe even Tammy as more directly the the city council liaison.

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>> So that would be conversation we're having. I think once we find out more, you know, to make sure that it's not something that's totally unrealistic. >> Yeah. Also, hi Tammy. Thanks for writing down notes with us. >> Let us know what you think when you get to this. That's the thing is like we

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don't >> Having an intern is great, but having an intern is also a form of work. So, >> that's right. I did talk I did I did um talk with Kathy and Jonathan like um maybe I don't know a month or two ago

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about about this idea and they seemed stressed out by it >> was before the budget came out >> it was yeah um but yeah it doesn't it yeah they also

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they didn't definitely didn't say No, I was I think before we even get into that, we really should formalize what we would want specifically because we I mean I hear a lot of ideas, but specifically >> what do we want this intern to do? How

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would we structure their hours? Like what? >> Yeah. What if the intern made those like two-minute videos for the different commissions, boards, and committees? Like that's some type of thing that they could do. One of the I mean I don't when I say this know that I'm not suggesting

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that we do exactly this but um on GCTV we're looking for u more board members um particularly you know those in in like finance with any kind of finance background. So what I did was kind of get like a nonprofit job application that then we can put out as like a hey

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here's a good volunteer opportunity things like that. really it it gave me this impression of like you know asking your heart like what is required, what is the commitment, what are the hours, what are you going to be doing? Um and so those are the kinds of things like we really if we gave them like a job

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description quote unquote you know this is what we would want that person to do. Is this sustainable? Is this feasible? And then you know once we hand them that they don't have to ask those questions themselves and it makes the process go that much faster. >> Yeah. We're definitely going to need to to do that. >> Yeah.

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Like I don't like and I don't mean like a hardline job application but like >> I think that's something that we would need to >> how many hours >> with Jonathan or >> or Tammy if they were open to this and it's not >> then

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>> yeah pardon the record but >> and I also think well I think too even even before we approach them officially like it helps to have like an outline of what we want because then they can shape it to their to their needs rather than being like are you interested? And then they go kind of and it's like me handing

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you a stack of papers and being like this great idea that I had it. >> Yeah. >> You know, would you want to like if you I feel like if you want to >> I could draft something >> draft something and bring that to the next

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>> if you send it to all of us or something. So other than this committee, do we have expectations that you know they would go to the council meetings and also do like 10 minutes to the council meeting because Tammy does minutes and stuff like that. So like what else would we have them do besides make Tik Tok videos of the city council?

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Um I think I was thinking they would help could help develop the handbook and the web pages that we would want about civic education 101. Maybe they could help host an event if they could help host a committee fair or some sort of

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precinct meetings. I don't know. I'm not sure. Event support some way. Events, social media, website content, and um those probably would be the main things

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I think of. >> Newsletters. Do we want Do we still like the idea of like doing a newsletter? Um, maybe we could have like when the mayor is doing her quarterly message, maybe we could have like a I I wouldn't want to lock us into something that

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needs to be maintained every time, but it's like, oh, if the mayor's doing it, then it's like, oh, also here's a little like council corner. Um, what about like the committee chairs? like because that happens before the council meeting and it's more of like an advanced warning that people

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have that this issue is being talked about in this meeting which is happening at this time and then the full council meeting is on this day at this time. We can have like them summarize quickly the committee chairs meeting and being like this is what's going to go on to this is this is what's happening over the course

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of the next month. >> Yeah, that seems great. Yeah. Again, you know, you if you're concerned about having something needing to be regularly updated, that is why I'm like, do we are we sure? Like I don't I don't want to >> if it's a social media post. That's

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Yeah. >> Yeah. Short, quick, and to the point, but then only have to just watch the videos. >> I mean, really, if you wanted to come up with like a list of potential things they could do. >> Yeah. We can always discuss it. >> I'm very good at research. That's all.

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>> That's how I got my That's I'm a research person. >> Yeah. >> I mean, also maybe something about the meeting minutes because I feel like that's sort of a little bit of a disaster thing. What about the >> like just how they're not uploaded and I think that that's really timeconuming

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for staff and so I'm like if >> there's some way where they could have more like I personally feel like I think we could just move to like a Google Drive folder where it's like I've seen like East Hampton has that because then it's just like oh it's in the folder and then nobody has to change anything. Do

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we have that software? Is that what it is or is it >> Yeah, like that the agenda center that we probably so like we >> like like Northampton and Ammer have that but like we I don't know even if there was some way where they could do like something repetitive of like

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uploading minutes that staff is currently >> Yeah. Um I'm guilty of that. Um I I haven't given the meeting minutes for the third commission in a couple months. >> Yeah. Or like nudging commission secretaries. >> That would be Yeah. I think that's huge. It's come up repeatedly that people

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really want the minutes. >> Yeah. >> Which is fascinating >> because like people half the people know that there are minutes and half people don't and then the people that do need minutes they're never there and it's just like I the narrative for transparency I think it's only going to be benefited by

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>> by having those minutes. Yeah. So maybe we should I don't know if this is something that we're allowed to do, but we should also consider maybe looking into I'm going to do that to see if there's like a limit on how long the law from what I understand it says a reasonable amount of time which 30 days,

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60 days, 90 days like you know um I understand council minutes are different because they're so long but a committee a tiny committee like licensing board or a historic commission we really should be able to do that within like a month. >> Yeah. Well, or two because you have to

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vote on it at the next month. But you you get what I'm saying if we can do that to speed up how yeah things are made more accessible. >> I mean, not to dwell too long, but I do feel like even the fact that the minutes are posted like two months later, I'm like it's sort of useless to me at that

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point. I'm just like I would rather see an unapproved minutes sooner and just have it marked as like unapproved because I'm like I don't know what's going on. Like it's just like then you can just read it with a caveat of like this might be totally inaccurate, but like >> but just having that

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>> I mean it could I could definitely see that creating some like public narrative disasters of like oh this said something wrong and like now people really ran with it and now it's >> but but I do feel like >> that is a less arm than the fact that people just don't know what's going on

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like that's a risk is like >> and that's the thing. So, if we were going to get an intern, if we wanted it to if we wanted to like depending on how much money they got and how much of a salary and how many hours, we could even go so far as to basically be like, could you summarize what's going on with these boards and commissions because they don't all meet at the same time. So,

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they're going to have 15 minutes, 50 meetings to watch, they could do that as well under the community relations in an effort for like public transparency, >> you know, we could kind of like fold that into the umbrella. >> Yeah, that's a that's a big

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oversight jobs. >> That is Yeah. Yeah. >> For >> and that's the thing like you know then you're talking into working with different staff members like the planning department and all those kinds of >> you know who's who and what's what. But those short form videos are incredibly

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popular and if we can post something like that faster than unapproved minutes. >> Yeah. >> It might be >> or meetings could minutes could just be approved asynchronously over email and like it's not that big a deal. It doesn't need like it's there's never a

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discussion about it basically like send you can send amendments over email. I don't know. I'm just like if we just >> that might be like state law. >> Is that I would be curious to find out because I just feel like the system is that that feels so archaic.

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>> It's like we have ways of dealing this. >> It is state law. >> Thank you. That's I'm I'm curious too because especially um if emails about official business are like public we could also

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just like you know the if we all talk about something on an email even in a board of permission it becomes subject to the open law. So we can just you know assume that by doing that if we allow that chain of emails to be published in the minutes >> that would comply with the law maybe.

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I'd be curious. >> Okay. That would be >> I mean like I'm curious to see if that's something that we could impact. >> It's not like everyone would be talking in a quorum. It's like you would just say it to the contact the chair or the whatever right like for me as the secretary of the circle maybe like go

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out and here is the minutes for such and such time blah blah blah and then put those responses in with the formal you know the finalized draft. >> Yeah. >> To the city. You know what I mean? If you were really being, you know, creative, it it would be it could be collaborative

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editing that everyone as long as that link was public always for that meeting. >> Like >> I follow you, but I don't follow you because I mean if we're on a Google doc together, that would have to be live all the time and we'd have to go the same document every time.

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>> Yeah. Like just like a continuous running meeting notes. I don't know. I mean I it's not like something I'm seeing happen so I don't think it's necessarily like >> I like the idea like also not to throw people under the bus but like some of the people don't all >> that's true people don't know how to use suggested

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>> edit that might be a little inaccessible to some of the people >> yeah maybe in 50 years we'll be thinking about how we are doing it and then >> um I feel like let's get out of here by eight um I well actually are people good

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on I I actually don't have much to add on the unhoused recommendations. So I that's actually it for me like it's same status quo. The bridge is now in economic development committee and um and then it's going to planning board on

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the June 4th. So that is in discussion. It's not just bridge but whatever that's what I'm calling it. Um, and the other recommendations are just um I yeah, I want to revisit them, but

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there hasn't been progress. >> Did you get that confusing email um about there was something about somebody in a flood plane? >> Yeah, that's actually the person who was on the committee with me who I am in

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close contact with. >> Okay. Well, so as long as as long as like the committee as it stands is like aware of that because I was like, "Oh, I don't even know how I don't the first thing about dealing with that." But I feel like that would be a great committee to hopefully that she's >> I'm Yeah,

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>> good. Yeah. >> Great. Yeah, >> we have productive. >> Okay, cool. Well, I rushed us and now it's like we have time. But I guess yeah, there's any anything else on these

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things? I don't think so. Um, you don't happen to know would it cost a lot of money to publish something for the council in the paper? Like would there be a fee for that? Because I would contact Anthony and he would just do it really. But I don't think he was supposed to do that.

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I don't know. We keep advertising church separation of church and state completely different department. >> Did you know council has an advertising budget for 4,000? I believe I I think it's purely just like the public hearing

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notices and the reporter that are like mandated. >> But I feel like I don't even I don't get the print reporter so I never see that. I just have the like newsletters. So I feel like yeah even just how we are advertising public hearings could be more than >> and that well that's the thing like

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avenue >> if let's say we get to the point where the committee fairy comes the thing like I would totally want something in the paper to become like to number one to lead up to it but then number two like hey we're having this we would if if the council was present in enough to have a

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porum we'd have to record it would be an official meeting >> so and those are the kinds of things like it would be treated as less like a public hearing, you know what I mean? >> You don't need to have an advertisement. You could somebody could just write a press release or write a they could just cost. I don't know what >> it would be. It could be free like

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somebody would just like say come to this, you know, like you could be an editorial or even just an article like >> Yeah. >> language of a a press release or a my would be free, but

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Yes. >> Yeah. I mean, maybe we could ask Jonathan if cuz he was like, "Oh, I can make templates for flyers." Like maybe one of the templates is public hearings so that way like it always gets like doubly posted. >> Isn't that to you or is there like a

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drive that we can access to? >> No, he said he he was like offered to do that with with the style guide which has like those three greens the >> the Greenfield wave for the street. have to we'd have to vote as a committee to send something to him and then have him publish it

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>> or I don't think we even would maybe it would just be automatic that like anytime there's a public hearing it's posted in the reporter. I don't know if that's in our ordinances or charter you thinking >> I think it is. Yeah, because we legally have to have >> public law notice law. So

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>> I mean like any content that we like the vertical videos and stuff like that. Um, >> but maybe the public notice law could also apply. Like there could just be like a social media template that also it gets doubly posted. >> That's the thing. Like if we're going to be producing content if like let's say

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all all five of us, you know, produce content and then we all upload something and we all say something different like we should have a uniform message and agree when something like should go out and because obviously we have to submit it to Jonathan and he could be like, "Oh, this is a little too hot." or you

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know, whatever you would say. But um I think that we shouldn't just be producing content and then being like, "Hey, I sent it to Jonathan. Did you guys see it?" Because then we risk losing coherence as a group, which is risky in of itself, but then it becomes like individual counselors promoting

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>> themselves and like you you risk like that kind of a thing. So we should when it when we do use those materials, I think we should meet as a group to discuss what we want to say and whether or not the videos are too up to snuff, you know. >> Yeah. >> So not as much as I would love to go and

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make a video and be like things I love about Greenfield, but um those because we're the council and because of those kinds of things, we have to submit it to Jonathan for approval. We really should do it as a committee and not just individuals. I think this >> I haven't had dinner. You can tell.

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>> Yeah. Stuff to figure out. >> Oh, yeah. I My brain is dumb. >> Okay. I'm I'm good also. I'm also >> sorry. >> Okay. That's not the official adjournment. >> My brain is motioned. I'm good. Um Okay.

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So, >> I heard a motion. >> Yeah. That was essentially a motion to >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Wait, who was the first? Is that me? >> Yeah. >> Okay, great. >> Um, all favor.

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>> Great. Meeting is at 7:51.