Good evening. I call the meeting to order. This meeting of the Hopkin Select Board is being held both in person and remotely using the video conference platform Zoom. Select board member Brian Her will be participating remotely and all other
members of the select board are present for this meeting at town hall room 215 216 in person. At this time, I will ensure that the select board member participating remotely can hear and be heard. Brian, can you hear us? Brian, can you hear us?
Uh >> oh. There we go. >> Ryan, can you hear us? Hello. Can you hear me? All right. >> Yeah, we can hear you now. Thank you for joining. >> The public has the option of attending in person here at town hall or via Zoom
using the link posted in the meeting's agenda. This meeting is being recorded. All votes will be taken by roll call vote. Uh the first item on the agenda, pledge of allegiance. >> [clears throat] >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. to um say a few words um on the passing of Charles Chuck Moore. It is with heavy
heart that the Department of Public Works and the Town of Hopkin and the select board shares the news of the passing of Charles Chuck Moore. Chuck was one of the town's longest serving employees with over 37 years of service starting with the town when he was 18
years old. Chuck was a heavy equipment operator in the highway department, but he served in a larger role as leadsman for the cemeteries for decades. Chuck worked hand in hand with the cemetery commission, the veterans graves officer,
the board of health, monument companies, and funeral homes to provide respectful and supportive burial services to the people of Hopkin and their grieving families. He was a thoughtful and dependable man who could always be
counted on by the DPW team. He will be deeply missed. And we would do a 30-cond silence on his in his memory. Thank you. We'll move to our first item on the agenda which is the public forum.
Each person will have up to two minutes to speak at public forum. And please start by stating your name and address. Is there anyone present in the meeting room who would like to speak at public forum? And uh one other reminder just as usual which is we'll entertain the
public forum up to uh our meeting time which is 6:15 p.m. And if there are more speakers we'll entertain them towards the end of the meeting. Uh please come over Amy. >> I'm Amy Groves. to College Street and I'm here to talk about flock. A lot of
concern has been expressed over the use of flock cameras by law enforcement. The concerns are over fourth amendment rights, privacy, data security, and the possibility that data captured might be shared with ICE. As a result, various communities have suspended their use. There are two flock cameras deployed in
Hopkin with plans to install two more. All that having been said, I think that we should look specifically at our Hopkin cameras in deployment and not try to solve problems that exist elsewhere. The cameras deployed here are Falcon models, so they're reading license plates and vehicle information. They're
capturing still images only, not video, and they're not using AI to zero in on people's faces and then use facial recognition. According to the HPD, the cameras are funded through the Commonwealth and not through the town. Still, I was concerned that these cameras had been deployed seemingly
without anyone's knowledge. My concerns with the Hopington deployment are as follows. First, the select board should be made aware of any camera deployments or surveillance technology to make sure these deployments don't put the town at increased legal risk. Second, under the direction of the select board, the town
should review our Hopkin deployment, including the following four things. Number one, the data privacy agreement with Flock Security, including the section that mentions that all our data is fully accessible by Flock Security, a private company. The pages on the Flock Security website are not sufficient. you
need the DPA. Number two, the status of these 60 plus security defects that have been logged against Flock. We should make sure that none of these high priority or critical defects affect our particular deployment. Flock's response to these uh defects logged publicly has
been dismissive. Number three, querying Flock security about why they're claiming endto-end data encryption on their license plate readers but demonstrabably are not encrypting it on the newer cameras. This is suspicious to me. And for and here I'll finish. Um, the documented audit procedure
established by the HPD should be reviewed and to whom the audit responsibility is assigned. The audit is to track all searches by Hopkinon police to make sure the searches are legit. I say this because police officers elsewhere have been arrested for using flock data for personal reasons. If
flock can't pass the scrutiny, then maybe another vendor could be considered for next year. Thank you for taking my comment. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone? >> Hello. Good evening. >> Good evening. Shenan Krishna, one
Fairview path. [snorts] There's a future agenda item added on February 3rd titled ICE activity in Massachusetts. I'd like to know when it will make it onto the agenda. The recent killings in New England and Houston have shaken us again.
Shortly after this item was added, then chair Joe Clark said it was a very dividing thing to discuss. Who does it divide? It divides the people who support that from the rest of us. For example, Ashley Fog called it harmful
and toxic when someone spoke about spoke out about how immigrants are treated. Here's what harm looks like. The widow of Joan Sebastian Guerrero said that Monday afternoon was supposed to be her day with papa, but he never came home.
And now my daughter asked for papa. I don't have the strength to tell her he isn't coming. That she can't hug him anymore or tell him, "Poppy, I love you." So, I understand that the anti-immigrant bullies don't want you to discuss it. I
urge you to listen to two of history's great leaders. Dr. Martin Luther King said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." President Lincoln said, "I'm not bound to win, but I'm bound to be true. I'm not bound to succeed, but I'm bound to live up to the light that I have.
Every meeting you pledge one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." So I ask you plainly, does your all include all? If so, I request you to kindly put that item on the agenda and tell us where you stand. Thank you so much for your time
and your service. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else uh in the room? >> I actually do. I don't mind getting up, but I want to make sure nobody else does. >> Oh, please. >> Do you mind if I stay here? >> Uh, I don't.
>> All right. Thank you for entertaining. So, Matt Kisner, but I promise for less than two minutes as an actual public citizen. 21 Curtis Road. I just wanted to take the opportunity to recognize just about anyone and everyone who was involved in our Fourth of July parade. I cannot think of an event that I have had
a better time in in town besides the marathon itself. I think that really reminded me more of what I liked about the community. It was an event that was for everybody. I walked in the parade as your sitting selectman. My 5-year-old walked behind me and rang the bell all
through town. He's still talking about it. I'm still thinking about the lawn that had the inflatable Uncle Sam dinosaur on it. It was a parade full of joy through the streets of Hopington. Everywhere I went,
somebody was smiling. Candy was being passed out. It felt like I was watching a movie. I know that day wasn't easy. So, thank you to everyone who is involved in putting it together, for the groups for putting their differences aside to create a magical day. And again, just for everyone involved for
giving me, my family, and I hope you all had a similar experience, the chance to be part of something that was awesome. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. [snorts] >> Seeing none, do we have anyone online who wants to speak?
>> There are three people online, but there are no hands raised. >> I'm so sorry. We should check before I win. >> All right. Hearing none, I think we'll move on to our next item on the agenda, which is [snorts] our consent agenda. The select board will consider the
following consent agenda minutes. The select board will consider approving the minutes of the June 2 and June 16, 2026 meetings. New employees. The select board will consider confirming the town manager's appointment of Mary Callo, Arin Fulton, Natasha McKiva, and Josh
Wilston Home as substitute library assistance. Accept gifts. The select board will consider accepting the following gifts. $50 donation from Joe and Anne Roberts in memory of Anne Duis. $100 donation in memory of Arty Pine
from Barry and Darlene Haynes. and $1,000 donation from Albert and Karen Arvine to the Hopkin Fire Department. $50 donation from Susan Allen to the police department. Fiscal year 2026 end of year transfers. The select board will
consider authorizing budget line item transfers for FY2026. The line item transfers of 218,468 in total are transferred from accounting, town hall, police, highway, insurance, and employee benefits to
other general government. Celebrations, historical commission, and facilities. The appropriation committee voted on the transfers at a meeting on June 30. Approval [snorts] of both boards is required. The transfers cover unforeseen
and or unbudgeted expenses. Parid permit application annual Michael's run 5K. The select board will consider approving a parrot permit application submitted by Ricardo Barza on behalf of the Michael Lisno Respite Center for the annual
Michael's 5K run. The event is to be held on October 17, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. The starting point of the race will be Ash Street and the ending point will be the town common. There are road closures requested on Ash Street starting at
Central School to The Heights Road, Blueberry Lane, and The Heights Ash Street Corner. Request for expenditure from friends of the common donation account. The select board will consider approving a request from the parks and recreation department to use $7,650
from the friends of the common donation account to install four landscape lights to illuminate three monuments located on the town common. This project has been requested by members of the community including the veterans committee who has expressed a strong interest in having
these important monuments properly illuminated. Installing the lighting will enhance the visibility and recognition of these memorials while providing a more respectful and dignified presentation during evening hours. The current account balance is $10,000
$61330. Uh there are supporting exhibits. Is everyone okay with uh keeping the consent it the items on this consent agenda or want to pull out anyone? I'd like to pull out item F, the friends of the common expenditure.
>> Um, do we have to move a motion? >> So, I think we can say I move to approve the consent agendas item A through E as submitted. [clears throat] Second. >> Thank you. We have a motion and a second. All those in uh we'll go to
voting. All those in favor of approving the call. >> Uh, we will do a roll call votes. Thank you. Um, Amy Ritter Bush. >> Amy Ritter Bush. Yes. >> Matt Kizner, yes. >> Joe Clark, yes. >> Brian her. >> Brian her. Yes. >> Shel Manan. Yes. Thank you. Now we'll go
to the one that we separated. Do we have a motion for the request for expenditure from friends of the Hopkin donation account? Um, approval item. >> I move to approve item F as submitted or item F of the consent agenda as
submitted. >> We have a second. second. Do you have discussions? >> I think we can discuss. >> Yes, I I would not approve it as written, but um so I guess so first of all, I wanted to refresh my memory about the friends of the common donation account. Is this what was left over from the gazebo
project? Like a group, a local group >> 2008 time frame. >> 2008 time frame, they raised funds to could replace the gazebo and then there was leftover money and now the select board controls it, [clears throat] right? There were some uh the board approved some uh funds from this account a few years ago as well for additional I
believe um vegetation on the >> Okay. And so this request does not come before the historic district commission yet and they would um nor normally review um anything like this include before somebody would purchase landscape lights to eliminate the monuments. So, I
would either want us to have a condition that this would go through a restored district commission approval first be before we approve it or we could make it conditional on that or um I mean because the chance there's a slight chance you know that they would want a different model and it might cost this amount but
I guess if it didn't they could come back >> in in the interest of moving it then I'm comfortable with conditional approval as you've described it Amy if it if it meets that so they can move forward without having to come back to us but if it doesn't then I your take. So it comes back and we get to discuss again. >> Yeah.
>> Mr. Clark. >> And then I think the motion would need to read up to this amount, not exactly this amount since in case they would have to change. >> I'm I'm friendly to an amendment by you. >> Okay. So um if we can add those two
conditions, that would be up to that amount and that it would require approval by all relevant town bodies including the district. So all approvals and uh permits are received including a certificate from the historic district commission. >> Okay. >> Okay. So we already have that or you're outlining what
>> that's what the motion could have not applied for >> then I like the way suggested >> moving the motion as amended. >> I'll second. >> Someone has to move it first. >> I took you saying that. I apologize.
>> We're new to this folks. It's the summer. >> So you moved it, right? Yep. So, I'll move the motion as amended. >> Second. [snorts] [clears throat] >> All right. We'll go to uh any other comments, Mr. Clark? >> Nope. I'm good. >> Uh Mr. Her, >> I'm good as amended. I'm a little
surprised it came to us before historic district, but I'm fine as amended. >> Thank you. I'm fine as well. So, I'll put it on vote and we'll start with Mr. Her. >> Ryan her. Yes. >> Mr. Clark. >> Joe Clark. Yes. >> Mr. Ker.
>> Matt Kney. Yes. Yes, inash. Yes. >> Manan. Yes. The motion moves. Uh passes. The next item on the agenda is 2026 state primary election warrant. The select board will review and consider signing the September 1, 2026 state
primary election warrant. Do we need to discuss? I'll open for discussion. Anyone has any comments? Are there any concerns I suppose from town staff, town clerk? Anything we should be aware of?
>> No, he's giving me the stink eye. I think that was a note. >> U town clerk is here. Do you want to make any comments on this? >> Pretty straightforward. All right. >> And could I note for the public, too,
this is just um an overview of what will be on the ballot. Well, >> it doesn't list all the ballot questions. It doesn't look like Right. It's just an overview or the candidates. It's just >> primary. >> Just the Oh, they're through they're the primary. Okay, great. >> But it doesn't list the candidates names. I guess it's just what topics
will be on the ballot. >> We need a motion for the warrant. >> I move to sign the September 1st, 2026 state primary election warrant. >> Second. >> We'll start with Miss Rebush. >> Amy Rabbush. Yes.
>> Matt Kisner. Yes. >> Joe Clark. Yes. >> Brian her. Yes, >> man. Yes. Next item on the agenda, annual appointments board and committee members. The select board will consider appointing members to several town boards and committees including capital
improvement committee, commission on disability, cultural council, marathon committee, and woodville historic district commission. So we'll start with capital improvements committee. So
>> are we going to go one by one? >> Could I note all of these are uncontested positions? >> Yeah. Although we do have a new um a new applicant in the room who might want to introduce herself if or >> we can do if everyone agrees we can do in one motion for everyone. Let's at le
>> Yeah, but she's saying if there's you're saying someone new is in the room and we always like to give them the chance to come up and talk about why I agree with Amy. >> Can you help us break out Amy? Which one we should break out and then can I suggest we move the other uncontested and then we can have the conversation >> on disability and I'll just check the
Zoom. There might be people on Zoom too. Paul Larter is also on Zoom. Is he a he's a new member? Reappoint. >> Re reappoint. Okay. >> Do we have anyone in the room who's a applicant here? Oh, please come on over.
>> I'm just moral support. >> Thank you. >> Please state your name and um position and your interest. >> My name is um Jenny O'Neal. I have lived in Hopkins for 29 years. I have worked
at CVS for about 10 years. also worked at Kella's for 16 years. Been work volunteering at the senior center weekly for 12 years.
When possible, I volunteer at the Hopkin Center for Arts. Michael Lesnell Respit Center brought me here to live in Hopkin. I am very happy here. I am ready
to take on a new challenge. Volunteer for the community of disability. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Great. [clears throat] Thank you. Thank you for stepping forward. Uh any board member has any comments or >> uh [laughter]
no questions but Jenny, thank you so much for applying. We need we need as many volunteers as we can get in this town. So I think it's a wonderful thing applying for this commission. So thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Mr. >> I think this is a great opportunity for the community. Thanks Jenny for stepping
forward. >> I'll just add that Jenny came to our last commission on disability meeting. So it was really nice to to meet her and I think she'll be a great asset to the committee. >> I'll save the air. It was better said. >> Thank you again for stepping forward and
welcome. U so will anyone else online or in the room who wants to who's a candidate and want to speak. All right. I move to appoint the following individuals to the boards and committees listed to the terms identified. Dan Eversol and Mhammed her to the capital
Improvement Committee to a term expiring 30 June 2029. Jennifer O'Neal to the Commission on Disability to a term expiring on June 30, 2029. Dina Bryan to the cultural council to a term expiring on June 30, 2029. Robert Magcguire, Bob Levenson, and Dorothy Frier, Fariturk,
excuse me, Wallace to the Marathon Committee to terms expiring on 30 June 2029. Scott Ben Walton, Matthew McNeel, Gity Dohy, Scott Jurassic, Tim Pson, Mike Maner, and John Lutis as department leazison to the Marathon Committee to terms expiring on June 30, 2027. Paul
Larter to the Woodville Historic District Commission to a term expiring on June 30, 2029. >> Second. >> We'll go roll call vote. Mr. Her. >> Brian her. Yes. >> Joe Clark. Yes. >> Misner. Yes. >> Amy Orbush. Yes.
>> Ederman. Yes. Thank you all for stepping forward and all the best. Our next item on the agenda is mass. RAP reimbursement FY26 snow and ice control deficit. The select board will consider deciding between two
options for funds received pursuant to Mass DOT's winter recovery assistance program RAP reimbursement for the FY26 snow ice removal deficit. Options are number one use the funds for allowable
expenditures including storm preparation, snow clearing and plowing and storm related repairs in FY27 or number two funds are deposited in the general fund and become part of the certified free crash. The town will
receive $39,36.61. If option one is selected, the funds would need to be appropriated at a special town meeting. So with that, I'll ask Elaine to help um explain these a little bit and then we'll go for a round
of discussions. >> Sure. Um and there's no wrong answer to this question. So it's uh either way the town gets the funds. Um and this year because we are planning to have a special town meeting, we do have the option of of appropriating that to uh
the current fiscal year for storm use. Normally we don't plan a special town meeting. So we don't have that that option. Um the benefits of uh using it in this current fiscal year is it will defay our costs that we definitely will have for storm um related expenses. Um
the advantage to um putting it aside as free cash is we will spend it the following year. >> Thank you. We'll hear from the board members. Mr. Clark. >> Yeah. I mean I I don't feel too strongly
either way. I think you know getting it this year gives us more flexibility. I like that. You know I like keeping free cash alone and being able to work with this as is. So I would probably lean towards that option. Mr. Kzner.
>> Yeah, I'm of two minds here. If we weren't having the special town meeting already, this one would be pretty clear for me. And perhaps that's how I should feel about this. I don't like the idea of needing to come back to the town for a supplemental expenditure when we ultimately know that when it comes to funding for snow and ice, we're always
allowed to spend the money and then recover it after the fact. I think I'm on that it makes more sense to put it in free cash knowing that we're going to spend it and we can ultimately allocate as needed. >> So, you're leaning towards number two? >> Yep. >> Thank you, Mr. Rush.
>> Um, I think either option would be okay, but I would lean towards option one, the because we're having the special town meeting and then we could go ahead and use it now for the purposes you the winter recovery for the purposes of what it was given to us for. Um, but if we hadn't been having a special town
meeting, it probably would be easier to go the other way. So, >> thank you, Mr. Hart. >> Oh, can I ask is this this is a new program or they offer it sometimes? I because I don't remember making this decision before. >> Yeah, it's not always. >> It's not always. Okay. >> Sorry. Good question.
>> You're good. >> Uh, Mr. Hart, >> I would prefer that we defer it to the next fiscal year. We have a balanced budget set for this year. We can uh overspend if need be. if we have a you know difficult winter and then we could always make it up in the following year
but I'd rather leave the fiscal discipline in place that we have a budget it passed if we need something we'll have to come back next year and talk about it again so I would air on or I would side with number two >> thank you Mr.
uh hearing all I don't have a strong position but I'm also leaning towards uh option two for the same reason that uh it gives us uh you know less one less work in the next town meeting and less
interruption on the balance budget. Uh so I would I would go for option two. Can >> can I clarify though that if we do option two it doesn't have to be used for winter recovery. It can be used for anything in the general fund. Anything that's listed. Oh, for you mean if it's free cash? Yeah, >> if it's free cash, it could be for
anything. >> Okay, great. >> To follow the thought though, Amy, my my rationale here, just to play it out for the public, is because we are always allowed to take supplemental funding to cover snow and ice expenditures. We always know that we're going to be able to provide services. Those of you who
are Celtics fans, the phrase of the year is optionality. >> Thank you. Any other comments? Um, with the poll, it seems 32. Should I put it on vote or >> No, just have someone make a motion.
>> Make a motion. Yeah. >> Uh, anyone want to make a motion? >> I move to deposit the wrap reimbursement as general fund revenue. Parenthesis option two. >> Second. >> Mr. Dush.
>> Abush. Yes. >> Mattisner. Yes. >> Joe Clark. Yes. >> Mr. Hart. >> Brian her. Yes. >> Shaz [snorts] manan. Yes. Uh thank you. We'll move to the next one which is police chief search process update. The
select board will consider hearing a brief update on the police chief search process. We'll hear from our Mr. Matt Kisman. >> Hi infamous for being brief. And Lance, please jump in as you see fit here for color commentary. So let me let me give
you an update on where we are folks. So the team had the opportunity to meet for the first time last week. It is a rowdy group as I believe this group intended it to be. So I can give you some top level facts. We had 20 applicants ultimately submit and make it through
the initial screen. One of which is withdrawn. Candidate five. I never knew you. So we're looking at the other 19. Last week the team group, however you want to hear us, met and started looking at the first 10 résumés. We are looking at anonymized rums. We have no idea who
these people are. We are purely looking right now on do they meet the minimum job requirements as set forth by human resources and then we're asking ourselves based on the resume and the person that we think we see are we interested in learning more. We are nowhere near is this person the
preferred candidate to be the police chief of Hopkin. So right now we've done the first 10. We're going to do the next 10. Once we've finished that listing, those that we've given a rose to are going to then move on to the written and the oral portion. So, how can you all be
involved? As a board, I've already reached out to the board to ask for their direct feedback about what sort of questions you'd like us bringing into the search. I actually have a note here to mention that we're including ICE response as part of our hypotheticals. I don't want to miss Robin's comment earlier. So please to the community and
to the board always as well as Lance and Elaine, we want to know what your questions and priorities are as this process moves on. So right now initial screening, I believe it's going well. We made it through half the resumes in the first meeting. I would anticipate us making our way through half the resumes.
The group is very diverse. They are focused on a wide array of things. We have someone in the group who is frustrated that only one candidate read the instructions well enough to note that the resumes were supposed to be addressed to Miss Lazarus. And we had to talk that person into accepting other candidates. We have a few people who are
wildly focused on the technical qualifications. They're looking at whether or not we have detective work on there, what the actual investigative experience has been, and we have people who are talking about optics, communityf facing work, and whether or not this person actually has policed in the 21st
century. I hope it sounds like that is a wide- ranging disperate and how could those people possibly be connected group. That is the exact group that the select board tried to put together. So as always I try and put a little bit of a humorous spin on it. But what I hope you hear the story as the 14 of us plus
Lance and Jessica from HR who I really want to recognize for her excellence and support here have gotten together along with our consultant and have started reviewing the resumeumés. Once we're through that and our pref and our first round of candidates are selected, we'll go through written questions and oral
questions before ultimately choosing the candidates that will move on to the next portions of the process. I'd be happy to detail that, but I think I should probably take a breath and see if my peers here have any other questions or insights they would like. >> Thank you, Mr. Ker. Uh, we'll start with
Mr. Her. >> Uh, no comments. Sounds like it's off and running, which is great. Thank you, Mr. Cler. >> Um, awesome. Thank you for the update, Matt. So, as far as next steps, you said the next meeting is to do the other half of the applicants, just the screening
portion. And I know we had talked about originally, but what's kind of the plan for the numbers that are going into that kind of like interview process? >> Sure. Great question, Joe. So right now coming out of the oral and written the committee will get back together and I
would imagine we're going to be shooting for a grouping somewhere between two and five. I think it would be probably a pretty happy problem if it was bigger than that. I think it would be a sad problem if it was smaller than 2 to five. Although convenient for the five of us. >> Uh sorry let me clarify. So um for the
oral portion are you guys planning to interview all 19 of them? No. >> Cuz I think we had talked about possibly interviewing 10. We're not planning on interviewing all 19. So, we've got the first 19. We're going through and essentially choosing who do we want to do written and oral with. Coming out of
that, the committee will then do a second cut. The the remaining group will meet with senior staff, which would be Elaine, superintendent, and the fire chief. They will also go through something that is called assessment center. >> So, assessment center is where it's detailed specific scenarios, some of
which may include ice, other community-f facing events. Because of the marathon, I've absolutely tried to include some sort of response to a national level event. So that's where our group gets a little more engaged. We'll start having some visibility to the candidates. We would be interfacing with them. I would
imagine them coming to meet with us around this period of time as well. We're also going to do a final survey of the police department itself before it comes back for our executive decision. I'm targeting being through the first phase of this, meaning we're getting into oral and written by the end of this
week. I'm targeting having the candidates for us for the executive portion of the process by the end of August. >> Okay. Awesome. But so is that group for the oral and written 10, 8, 12 is I know you don't usually put a hard number on these things in screening. It's based
off of what like what the screening committee looks at, but rough and tough. I think that's what we had talked about originally. So, I just want to know >> and I feel like we're largely on track for that. We've had we've had some that we outright were not interested in and we've had a few that were either did not meet minimum job requirements or were so
far out of state that correlation of something like post was an obstacle. Gotcha. >> So, no, we did not let everyone through and I do not expect everyone to go through, but Lance is here and I'm sure he's catching the feedback. We're looking for a group of somewhere between 8 to 12, 8 to 13 to be moving through.
>> Perfect. Thank you. But thank you for reminding us, >> Mr. Hush. >> Yeah. I wondered when your deadline was for receiving question. You sent the question asking other questions if we wanted added and I had a couple of ideas, but I haven't emailed you yet. >> Perfect. Thank you for that. It's like we set it up this way, folks. So,
originally we actually had a survey that we sent out and had opened up. I've been working with Lance and HR to actually reopen that survey. We'll be republishing that link on town channels after this. We would love to continue to get your questions unless the board feels differently. I'm going to suggest
that we actually leave that survey open for the duration of the process. So you have a direct way to communicate into the committee at least while we're going through the portion that's public facing. You can always get your updates here please. I'm sorry. >> Sorry, just a follow up on that. If you keep it open then how are we going to
review it on a weekly basis or what's the plan? I think as we make decisions, we will ultimately be looking. Right now, we are looking for your feedback on what issues, what questions, and ultimately what aspects of your next police chief are critical to you. No boundary on when you send us that
feedback because it's always going to be useful for the five of us when we make this important decision. >> Thank you. >> Anything else, Mr. D? >> No, nothing else. >> No, happy to hear the progress and thank you um uh to you and to all the members of the committee. This is a very
important critical job >> and uh we are looking forward to having our next wonderful uh police chief. One question um I kind of know the answer but if you kind of lay out the timeline >> and the milestones for everyone's
awareness again. Yep. >> Reminder. >> Sure. So next milestone this week team meets on Thursday. By the end of this week we should expect to have Joe's bucket of what do the 8 to13 look like who we're moving through to phase two of the process. meaning written in oral.
I'm targeting to have that portion then subscreened out by the end of August. I'll have a better sense of that once we start getting responses in and the consultant can tell me just how fast they're receiving them. So let's say end of August, midepptember at the latest. That's then when the final round of
candidates would be introduced to us would start to go through assessment center which is very police specific focused scenario training. That's actually somewhere they go to for the day. will obviously have some visibility to that because it's meant to inform our decision- making. So, I'm still
targeting end of September, early October. I think late October is when you should start to be worried if I don't have an answer for you. Obviously, things can slip, but I'm trying to move with as much speed as I can while ensuring that we're still giving everyone the time to be heard. Tough balance, but thank you for the
opportunity. >> Thank you. That all sounds great. We look forward to it. Any other questions, comments from anyone? All right. Thank you. Great update. Appreciate it, Mr. Kisner. We'll move to our next um agenda item, charter review
committee update. The select board will consider hearing an update from the charter review committee, including a special town meeting timeline. We have the chair, Mr. Connor Digan. Good evening, everyone. Connor Degan, uh, the chair of the charter review
committee. Thank you for your time having me tonight. So, I just wanted to h take this opportunity to go over a few of the things that we've discussed, some of which we've leaned more into. Uh, a lot of it is based on feedback we
received from town staff and, uh, and boards and committees across town. And then we took that information and put it into public survey to get people's feedback on some of those proposed changes. Uh and then also compared to a lot of of
similar communities and their charters as well. So really the goal of this evening is to kind of give you a brief [snorts] uh let the community get an idea of what we've been talking about but also get your feedback a bit because we've kind
of agreed as a whole that any of the changes that we're proposing if they're not ones that you as the chief executive of the community are comfortable with. It's a harder cell to to really pursue something that you aren't interested in having as part of
the charter as our elected representatives. So, I'm going to go through a couple of them as well as things that we've heard from feedback that we might not have the ability to do right now, but I'm sure you've also heard a lot of it.
So starting with uh there was a lot of interest around making changes to certain elected and appointed offices. Um namely we had the a change in the number of members around the board of
health and planning board. uh in our public survey uh we had for the board of health 69% of app of respondents uh agreed with the concept of changing it from a 3 to five member board. Um this
is one where it was in the strategic plan set out by the health department to pursue this policy change but I know currently the the active board of health has not voted in support of this this specific issue. So it's kind of a weird
limbo space of how we want to go forward with it. So again, love you to kind of think about it a bit. For planning board, it would be looking at going from 9 to seven members, we had 72% of respondents show an interest in that. Um we are
compared to every community of similar size, we are we have a very large planning board. Um, I know it can make it kind of unruly for for town staff as well as for applicants. Um, so the
thought being that perhaps slimming it down a little bit brings us more into line with what other communities are doing as well. Uh, so one of the other big ones that we kind of were starting with was aiming towards more general consistency across
the charter as a whole when it comes to reporting structures. So currently we have a number of individuals who are appointed by uh elected boards or committees other than yourselves uh your appointees obviously
and their reporting structure is a little difficult to to manage from a perspective of fairness and how they end up getting their um the reviews done every year. how they are uh how they're
held accountable to to the public and the organization as a whole. Uh that's not saying anything about the individuals who are currently in the positions, but as I've even said to each of those people that are currently serving in and namely those are uh the
parks and rec director, the health director, and the library director. They're all doing a wonderful job, but we can't create policies around good personalities currently sitting in those positions. So, this is just looking at
how do we create better reporting structures and management practices that create general consistency and better working relationships across the organization. Another one to note on there is the conservation administrator as well which
is appointed by the conservation commission. The concept that we had discussed and again none of it set in stone would be to have these positions instead appointed by the town manager
but then have required affirmation process of those elected boards that currently have the appointment process. And then also to have the supervisory aspect where there might be a review done by the elected board that instead
would be performed by the town manager or their design with input from each of those boards to be able to proceed with it. Uh the goal here is to maintain a policy level approach for these elected boards and give them the oversight that
they need in those departments, but still allow for an easier process when it comes to actually managing how the departments are run. Then a really minor one, those were all kind of heavier, but a very minor one was there was some interest from the
appropriations committee to change their title from appropriations committee to finance committee, which I think for their sake, they just think it would be clearer. There's a lot of towns that have that. It's really the same thing namewise. So it doesn't really have any
impact. It's just a case of I think they think it might be easier to understand for the the lay person. [clears throat] Uh another one that we heard a lot of feedback on relating to the town manager appointments and this is one that
impacts you directly. Uh the majority I shouldn't say majority every single town manager appointment is required to come through the select board for an affirmation. There was significant amount of interest across the boards and committees in town
as well as the uh department heads and other town staff who were in involved including HR about decreasing the number of affirmations the select board performs for just kind of average staff like administrative staff. Uh we we've
seen how many times you guys have had to do dishwashers and approvals for those. Uh there's basically two different versions that we've kind of talked about of this change and it would be to either have all of them just go over to the
town manager for appointment and that's it. But the more popular one that we've seen with the public so far has been to have certain positions still come to the select board for affirmation. Uh you know and that's one that we'd really like your input on on what things you'd
like to have still come before you if we go that route. Uh a lot of communities do it with the case of certain financial positions still have to have select board review and affirmation. Um there was some interest in our surveys about making it so department heads so the
ones that would be still brought before the committee the select board for that. Another aspect is we have an entire section in the executive branch article of the charter for the department of public works. So part of that would be
to move that section to the administrative article near the end. uh we found it to be slightly inappropriate, maybe confusing to be in the section regarding uh the executive branch and instead to uh to shift it
over there and then in doing so look at some things like [clears throat] reviewing the director's position in order to again create some more consistency across how the position works the same as other department heads. currently it's somewhat unique in
how it's outlined in the charter and we'd love to see things that both again create some consistency but also give a little bit of additional uh flexibility to the town manager's office when it comes to actually administering [clears throat] how some of these things work. There are
certain aspects that in our discussions with town council that they are not really necessary to be in the charter and it potentially could also just be done as administrative you know functions of the town manager's office with the department.
Um [snorts] the other piece was and there was surprising amount of interest around this to consider either uh dissolving or transferring uh or seeking some other appointment
process for the cemetery commission. uh the interest around that was I think primarily around some of their they've had some difficulty with getting quorum and having their meetings going over the past couple years and getting new
members. And most people don't realize how how many functions they have that are actually time-sensitive that involve people's burial plots. And uh currently majority of the administrative function is already being done by the department
of public works. So part of it would be to look at potentially consolidating this under the director or designate thereof the same as we've done with water, sewer, and highways. Um and then the the last kind of big one
that we I was going to talk about with you is potential changes to our recall provision. So, we've talked about a few, but we have not voted on any of them yet. So, I'm just giving you kind of the 30,000 foot of a few things we've seen that are potential ways that we could uh could
amend this to [clears throat] just kind of change functionally how it works. Uh so I think we saw as we uh remember there was a an actual test of the recall provision and how well it works and how well it it potentially
prevents frivolous attempts at recalling public officials recently when there was an attempt to recall the entire select board at the time. So, we looked at that and saw that there was for the statement of the recall, which is just before you
can get the petition, it's a nearly impossible threshold. But just decreasing that threshold doesn't solve any problems. We're not looking to make it easier to do a recall. However, it would make better sense in some of our
discussions to make it more realistic to actually have a section added referred to as grounds for recall, which a few towns have done. This would then allow the uh the town to have requirements for what offense an official might have
committed in order to be eligible for a recall. Uh this includes things like while in office they were convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor or they've admitted to the facts of the case of a felony or misdemeanor uh all while
serving in office. they violated a uh the ethics laws while in office or there are a few other things like we could do it around their uh their attendance in that case and there was a lot of feedback around how can we make
it easier to dislodge anyone who gets elected to a board and never shows up. Uh the few of the versions that we looked at also included ways to do that for uh elected positions that work as well and made it so that in the lie of
where you don't have a percentage of meetings that the individual attends that there be a requirement on the minimum number of hours without cause that the individual has to work in a week on average for an average pay period. Um, and I think that, you know,
personally, just speaking as a private citizen on that, I like the idea of being able to have the the clerk's position as well held accountable through something like that. Um, so that was really the the those are the biggest things we've discussed at this point. Uh
[clears throat] before I open up to questions, I just want to really say real quick because I know we've had a lot of people asking about things like form of government. The there are limitations and real limitations to what we can do with a charter committee, a review committee. Um we don't have the
same authority as an elected charter commission. So we do not have the ability to change the form of government, the power and manner of selection for the select board as the chief executive and the same for town meeting. So we cannot review potentially
shifting to a uh to a representative town meeting or a town or city council form of government. This is something that if you know if there is continued interest in something like this, the select board might want to consider either reviewing such a thing through
some form of additional surveying or secondary committee or potentially considering a charter review commission if that's something deemed that is worth pursuing. Um, there are also a number of other changes that I'd like to be able to share with
you either now or at some point in the future that may require more of a a bylaw change or something else more simple regulatory changes uh that wouldn't actually require a charter change. It might not be appropriate for
the charter. Uh just you know quick note on that is even something as simple as there was a number of folks who recommended that we include in the charter the rotation of board and committee chairs. Um but we also got
plenty of reasons why that's not necessarily a good idea to codify in the charter and it might be something that's more worth looking at for the uh the charges of boards and committees that you folks appoint. Um, the only other
thing I'll note just because it I slipped my mind, I apologize, was that the other piece was to potentially remove a section of the charter which is uh the housing authority where the housing authority section in the charter
is out of compliance with the current state statute. In the last time that we did review the charter 10 years ago, it had not changed from the original charter, but the law changed in that time. At the time that we submitted the
charter in 2017, the attorney general did in fact tell us that it was not technically in compliance. However, because it didn't change from the last charter, they're not allowed to make any review on it. And so, it stood. So this
would just make the change essentially it would default back to the state statute which requires instead of having four elected atlarge members from the community and one governor's appointment it'll instead one of those elected at
large will turn into an elected tenant member of the housing authority. And with that I'm open to any questions or thoughts and then after that we can talk about town meeting. >> Thank you Mr. Connor. We'll open up for questions. One thing I wanted to also
add um in the beginning, if you can um help write down some of these and send an email or in some form to us to Elaine, it would be helpful for us to process it further. It's a lot and very interesting. So, thank you again for all
the work and bringing it up here. I'll open up for questions starting with Mr. Her. I think that was a very thorough review of different ideas uh not having attended or seen some of the feedback, but a lot of interesting stuff there. Uh
some things jump out at me right away. I really like the idea of the finance committee. Um I I like the idea of the recall first step. Uh Conor, you described I don't know what you called it, but I think that makes a lot of sense. Uh I don't like the idea of
mandatory changing of chairs uh for elected boards for different reasons primarily the sort of experience and historical perspective that time can bring for some. Um but in general I think you guys are off to a great start or not even a great start well down the
path with a lot of really great ideas. [clears throat] I look forward to how it plays out. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Mr. Clark. Um thank you Connor. That was a lot in a few minutes. It was very helpful. In [clears throat] general, I'm supportive of a lot of these things. You know, board of health, planning board
going from 3 to 5 and 9 to 7. I think both those are good ideas. Um, the reporting structure consistency. I think, you know, I I would want the town manager feedback on this first, but in general, I like the idea of, you know, giving more responsibility to our department heads and to our into our
leaders in town as opposed to every position coming in front of the select board. I think that's worth looking into. appropriations to finance is great. Um, uh, you know, I see some of these things. I'd have to learn more about the DPW in the executive branch section. Um,
so I can't really give an opinion on that. Um, sim similar to the cemetery commission piece, right? You know, I know we have had vacancies in that. So I I certainly understand the challenges there. the recall thing I think is a great idea. More accountability for board members um
to at least put that in the hands of the down town residents. So overall, I think this is you guys are doing an extremely productive job considering it's only been a couple months, right? >> Yep. >> Thank you very much. [clears throat] >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Clark. Uh Mr. Ker,
>> thank you. Is this how I make people feel where like it's just an avalanche of information and there isn't a break and you have to process where you want to go first? I >> But I'll revisit anything you have to. I owe some apologies to know a number of you and I I just Connor, thank you so much. I really appreciate how deliberate the analysis was today and what I think
I enjoyed most was how clear it is that you two are hurting a disperate group. There's lots of different things being discussed and it's really clear to me you're taking it from all sides. Just quickly, I'm in favor of the adjustments to board sizes that you were advertising as well, but I did want to know for
planning board, I thought that had just grown to nine. there had just been like a recomposition and reconstitution of that. So, just highlight, maybe I'm wrong there, but uh appropriations to finance. I'm definitely going to be on my own island there, but I like that it's appropriations because it is the appropriation of the operational
expenses for the town. It makes sense to me. If I were on CIC, I would ask what you think I do if it's not finance, but I'm the former chair. This was always going to be a thing for me. I have a slightly different view as I expected as well around what comes to the board level. So I agree not everything needs
to come here. We should not be in the weeds of the cooks. Minimally I think any department head transition should be here. The standard I would want to set for my peers here is anyone we have a chance to routinely interface with. And to me the routine interface is department head or their immediate
delegate. When you go on vacation I'm writing an email to who in the DPW? Hi Jed, you're on vacation. I'm not writing to you. [snorts] So I did want to suggest though for deputies. I don't know that they necessarily need to come here and I'm using the term deputy broadly. Let's hear that as the person you would designate a second in command
in your department. Maybe a blue slip process or something like that for us where the liaison of the department kind of gives a check mark to it in the background and it doesn't have to come here if we can handle it that way. I could then or you whoever it is could update as part of the liaison report. So
we can still satisfy reporting it out from an open meeting structure, but it's still a way for us to be involved and have a little bit of a thumb on the scale, but not necessarily being an obstruction. So just as a point of thought there, recalls, I think we should be able to be recalled
at pretty much a moment's notice. Um, if you can get enough signatures and you're passionate about it and you want to go to war, I mean, that's what politics is and that's what our job is. It's public expression. I do want to highlight to you, Connor, and this is my last point. I view a very strong difference between
job abandonment and job discontentment. You not showing up to the board is very different than discovering you have a semi malcontent on your board and that he's going to be there for a while. I'm a semi malcontent. I'm going to be here for a while. That is very different than abandonment. I'd love to see some
interface where truly not coming to meetings for a period of time that having some sort of fast path. I want to draw a distinction between a board member as perhaps not being as collaborative or community-minded. I think we have to allow that to play out through the public forum. And again,
just thank you for the update. I appreciate your dedication here. Let us know after this if there's more feedback you would like. >> Thank you, Mr. Ker. Mr. Dush. >> Yeah, thank you for bringing this to us and like um I can't someone else said this too. It would be nice to have it in writing when you have a chance because
um it was a lot of information. Um, and I'm glad to I've been curious how it was playing out. Um, I agree with you. Change of the title from appropriation committee to finance committee. And it's appropriation singular not with an a that's one reason I think it needs to be changed. Nobody gets it right.
[sighs and gasps] Um, and I think other towns do call it finance committee. And I do like the idea of decre decreasing the number of appointments a select board does appointments and affirmations. So, I'm not sure exactly what level it should be, but I'm thinking directors and department heads, I think we should
still need to meet in a a firm, but entry level positions and um I think we it's probably not necessary. Those can go through the through the department head and HR um cemetery commission. I've heard about quorum issues and I understand the
reason for that uh change there. And then let's see. And so, I didn't know this. I I want to clarify the you're a charter review committee but we could elect a charter review commission which would be the one that would consider changing form of government.
>> So yes, the only ones who are authorized to change the charter for the sake of form of government including anything regarding the executive branch and legislative branch is a an elected charter commission. That's a separate part under the statute. Uh charter
review committee isn't in the statute. It is just a a method that we have in our charter for reviewing it on a regular basis. >> Yeah. And so definitely like to see the housing authority um get into compliance with the state law. So if you if we can write it in a way that it will always
stay current with state law, I think that's a good idea. And yeah, I've definitely been on committees where uh the attendance issue, you know, affects the whole committee's work if somebody can't attend. So I like having that as a something that we could point to and have some specifics. Um but if somebody
can't attend an easier way to remove them >> if I may just address a couple of the things that were asked said so that you at least have that info for the next few weeks. Um, so with the the recall possible changes,
the one of the troubles with the removal of anyone from an elected office is unless they become no longer qualified to do it, a recall is pretty much the only method. So, this is kind of a way to make it so that there is a an easier
path to recalling an official who's actually done something wrong or actually not like to your point, Mr. Ker abandoned their duties uh and to remove the fact that any person who is a volunteer representing their neighbors
is going to be uh attempted to be removed because someone didn't like how they [clears throat] voted once. Uh you or they didn't like they think that they're a pain and just don't want to see them on a board or committee anymore. Uh the goal of that concept is
to look at making it so that it's more of an attainable goal to recall an official who's actually doing something wrong or may be of serious harm to the town as a whole if they continue in that role. >> Just to clarify, I have other questions
but while we are on this point, who decides that >> the electorate has to make that decision? >> You mean the select board or that particular body of um or the committee? So if a if a recall occurs then the
people who are making the recall statement would have to put in the statement what part of the violation that is specifically outlined as reasons in the charter for the the causes and the reasons for the recall. And they
have to outline why. And then we would have town council review it and see that it does in fact meet the standard that is set in the charter and then we would issue them petitions to start collecting signatures to actually get it onto a
ballot. >> Right? But going into little detail and it's in the works so it's important to understand. So the town council is the first filter. If the town council says yes, this qualifies, then it goes to
who? >> So if it if it's deemed that it qualifies, then it's on to the people who have made the recall statement. So this is entirely in the hands a recall provision when you set these up, they're
not in the hands of any any of us in the positions of of authority necessarily. It's the position of the voters and the and they if they want to remove someone for the sake of again like we were saying if they the individual committed a crime and has actually been found guilty of committing a crime during
their their term of office and at the same time the voters might also choose that they don't want to recall somebody who might have committed a crime. It's up to the voters to make that decision but we don't necessarily after that get to make any any choice on it. we're then
bound by if they can get enough signatures to meet the thresholds required then we move forward with a recall election in that case. So it just gets reviewed by council to see essentially that it fits the
requirements of the [snorts] charter and then from there it moves on to the actual petition and then once the petition signatures have been verified it would go to a to a vote. >> Yeah, that'll be interesting. I think
>> ballot vote of the of the whole town >> because currently it doesn't have any reason. Anyone can just >> anyone can just I mean that's what we saw the last time is there was there wasn't a reason for why and there was no requirement of a reason in the recall statement the last time that a recall
was attempted of members of the select board. It was just we're going to try to get enough signatures to recall the select board members. Um, and yeah, there's other instances that we've seen of attempts at recalls that have never
really made it that far even. But I the kind of discussion, again, this is not set in stone by any means. This is just kind of an early discussion, is that we are we have a very high bar. And it's
one thing to have a high bar that it's only used in serious situations. But it's another that when it's serious, but only but you need more the people than are even tertiarily involved in the community to get it up onto a ballot for
a vote. Uh you don't want to make it so this is easy where it's going to be wasting taxpayer dollars, but you want to make it so that if there's someone who's actually a problem for the community, there's a method. >> No, thank you for clarifying. uh appreciate that. I'll just add few of my
comments and questions. Uh starting with the recall, I think uh it'll be interesting and again I I would like to understand a little more on the details as you have explained. I I want to make sure you know uh that um we don't codify too much that also conflicts with the
individual liberty and our democratic process and framework but at the same time as you were mentioning not to waste and um you know have something that's too flexible and way too low bar. Uh so balancing that would be critical.
Another thought on that is that would it make sense that after collecting the signatures we do the legal review. Uh that is the uh cuz there is a you know generally speaking there is a scenario where it may look like that the whoever
is the town administration or body has a opportunity to intervene at a very early stage. But again there are great arguments on both sides and uh let the best you know process come out. Uh quick uh comments on the others board of
health I won't comment. My wife is serving there and uh planning board and board of health in general have you uh consulted with all the bodies both um uh the both the boards about the possibility of the changes that are
being proposed? We had very initial conversations with the department heads and I was trying to then come and speak to you on this one and I'm going to be making visits to the individual boards over the next month um to actually talk
with them about it. We were hoping to do some invites to the act to our committee meetings um but there's been a whole lot of scheduling craziness with the summer. So >> yeah, thank you. I think that would be a good exercise to have and I appreciate
that. I totally agree with the uh notion that we need to rightsize all the boards as we have learned through the years uh what's most effective where we are seeing the pain points and on that I don't know if uh you have that
discussion that do we have boards or committees where we don't see the need for it anymore where we had it for a particular reason has having evolved has that come to discussion It it has we've we've talked uh pretty
extensively about it and in those conversations we kind of tempered them when we got a lot of public feedback around some of it. Uh the the other piece that's a reality we have to deal with on the
committee is that whatever we recommend we have to at least feel is is passible enough that it won't cause the whole thing to get torpedoed at the end of it all. Um, we had the only one in our
public surveys that really got feedback to potentially, you know, either get rid of or appoint and kind of change how its duties work is cemetery commission. Um, we had others, all of our elected
positions were listed on there, but the majority in all of those cases were around keeping things the same. Um, and so there is some thought that it's, you know, it's best to kind of remain cautious if there's really no interest
in potentially doing that. And there's only a handful of other boards that are currently elected that really have all that much, you know, additional authority or anything to potentially look at either changing into a professional position or shifting their
responsibilities. But we did talk about it extensively nonetheless. >> Yeah. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure you have taken that angle as well. Of course, uh appropriations to finance fully supported. I when I was serving for 7 years, any person who is not um
familiar with would would be surprised and asking what does it mean and had to explain and say oh it's a finance committee. So I think that's the natural um nomen uh naming for that uh committee for the positions and approvals. I agree
with the you know uh notion and what my colleagues were saying. One thing I'm just thinking do we need to codify that or is it just something as a select board we can discuss and frame it? Um what are the pros and cons? So
the appropriations committee is the only appointed committee listed in our charter specifically and how it functions. Uh so that's one that it would need to first change the name in the charter to change where it gets its
functional authority from. Similar to how when we changed from board of selectman to select board, it had to be a change in the charter to create the functional difference in it as a legal entity. Um, but the other piece to that is then that
will require looking at where does appropriations committee appear in the bylaws and changing things like that. >> I'm sorry. >> And that's something that would be for you to look at. >> No, thank you. Thank you for clarifying. I um I should have explained I moved
from appropriations finance naming to the approval of the positions by select board. um that one I was thinking that it's not codified today and it was a select board decision to frame it in a way and select board always you know if
we fail we can frame it differently and I like the ideas of creating a threshold creating a particular category or criteria what we look at and whatnot I'm just thinking is codifying it in the charter a good option or not a good option >> so that bit is actually currently
codified there's a separate piece that's select board policy that is around approving hosting of new openings. But the part that is codified in the charter itself is that the it states that any position not
specifically outlined in this charter for the appointment you know appointment structure or election who's elected or points uh will go to the town manager for appointment following affirmation by the select board. Uh the issue that that
has often seen is it slows down the hiring process for a lot of you know various different positions that again might have minimal interfacing with the select board and and others. >> Thank you. Yep. I remember that
codification I was thinking if there is a slice in that. So we are planning uh the proposal is to add a little more slice and clarity on on that. Okay. >> Exactly. >> Thank you. Uh outside that I think uh you're of course doing a very meticulous
and closer look on all of these. I appreciate that. And uh one general question is do you see any major item requiring you know longer term uh discussion or what is the timeline we are looking at? Do you think we can catch the next special town meeting for
this? So, the goal is that this special town meeting that's upcoming will be called with the primary purpose of passing a charter draft. Um, we are trying to work aggressively in our schedule in order to have a draft a
final draft ready by the time of a town meeting possibly in October. Um, which is you know the next part of the discussion on this as well. But, uh, that is the goal. The goal is to have a charter ready to go by the end of the
year because then there will be a 90day window where the attorney general has to review the town meeting approved one before it can go onto the ballot in May. >> Got it. Thank you. Then I think you're tracking to that time it seems like. I
appreciate that. Uh I don't have any other question but thank you again. Thanks to the committee for the wonderful work and dedication. This is a very important and u milestone work. So I appreciate all the hard work. Any other question from anyone comments?
>> Also just say before we go into the town meeting part of it. Uh the committee itself I'm I'm very fortunate to have the folks that I do working with me on this who are as driven and with [clears throat] such attention to detail to be able to help work through all
this. And like we were saying as well, a variety of perspectives which helps to make sure we're capturing as much as we possibly can. Uh I will also just add that if you do at any point between now and your next meeting at which point I I would really love if we could revisit and continue the conversation. Uh I
would love if you have questions or thoughts about any of the things that we have talked about and follow-up information that I'll I'll provide to you. If you reach out, I'm happy to fill in blanks or or take feedback. so that I can then bring it back to the the ch
rest of the committee and we can refine anything as well. Um, and with that just the the conversation I don't know if Elaine or Lance wants to start on on the idea of the town meeting the special, but uh do you want or do you want me to
take it away? I think um in speaking with um finance folks um if we want to also consider uh finance articles which we will we should be looking at uh the first or second week in October >> mid October >> for that special town meeting >> right
>> and then part of it is a question of if you'd want to have it on a a Saturday as well still or another day because it's special. You don't necessarily have to do it on a on a a Saturday. You can assign it to whichever day you would
like. Um I know the first Saturday in October, the moderator has expressed a a conflict. So that's something to keep in mind. And the second Saturday is Columbus Day weekend. That's also something to keep in mind
>> to the chair. First, there's always a conflict. Second, perhaps I have just been out of the seat for too long. Why are we doing a special town meeting? My last recollection of the topic of special town meeting is that we loathe and resent them because they cost money and they cost time and they entrench our bureaucrats with having to do extra
work. I'm looking at you sitting in front of me explaining that you want a special town meeting which I generally understand to be the thing you want the least. Why are we advocating for something that costs us money and you're usually against? >> So happy to explain that. The the
reality of it is is that whenever we have done a charter review, we have always had a special to save more money by avoiding a special town election, which is far more costly than a special town meeting. So, the goal of this is to
have a special town meeting earlier on so that we can then get everything timed appropriately to land on the ballot in May. And then that saves us from having to have a special town election just to approve a single question charter.
>> I I we've been here long anyway, but I would like to better understand Kyla, maybe we can talk offline what the other financial articles might be cuz that strongly influences how I feel about this. I understand that this is important, but it sounds like I'm spending money to update paperwork and I don't love spending money to update paperwork
>> through through the chair. Or we could just decide collectively. We'd have to discuss it, but we just won't accept financial articles this year or we won't recommend them. >> Yeah. And I want to be >> always make that with town meeting. We give the board's opinion on what we're looking for. We do that with special
town meeting. Doesn't mean they can't a department can't submit it. But if we make the expectation, >> I would be so, not to be in a back and forth here, I would be much more interested in the concept of a special town meeting if Kylo was coming and talking to us about say like adjustments
to healthcare forecasting based on getting new numbers from the state so we have a more accurate budget. That feels a lot more palatable to me and I understand where that is in cycle versus we've decided that we're going to change the number of people on the board. Please spend $30,000 and host a special town meeting. I struggle with that.
>> Thank you, Mr. Yeah, >> if I could jump in there, I I I do think that we're going to often have financial articles that we need to do in the fall because the budget in the spring is an estimate and we know more numbers by the fall. So, I definitely would not recommend not allowing financial articles in the fall. Um, but anyway,
>> yeah, we ended up way off topic here. I I'm for those. I just think it sounds better if we get them. We've been here a while. >> Let's hear from everyone and then um we'll come back to it. Anything else, Mr. Dush? I guess I'm supportive of having the fall town meeting so that we can get the charter process going and like >> generally your
>> Yeah, but it is a little challenging the beginning of October because there's that long weekend that with indigenous people's day. Um so finding the the best day could be a challenge but >> thank you. Uh Mr. Her, do you want to comment on that? >> I don't have a
>> Yeah, I don't have a strong opinion on the timing of the town meeting or the need necessarily. I think the charter does or the charter review does create a couple of uh unique obstacles every few years or every 10 years, whatever it is. Um, as far as the the date though, like
you know when early October is going to be tough. So Elaine, we just got to back out, you know, as far kind of backdate as much as we can and figure out when we could do it. But I think those first two weekends would be very difficult if we do it on a Saturday. I think the Monday evening thing for a special would not be
unreasonable. Thanks. >> Thank you. Uh, Mr. Ker, anything else you want to say? >> Yeah, I was going to pass it to you as a slick note, but uh, my tongue only semi and cheek here. Why not on family day? >> Thank you. >> Um, if if I may, just to answer some of
the questions and concerns that I'm hearing as well, you know, we specifically looked at October for the pure purpose of financial articles discussed with Elaine and Kyla. Um, I don't know the extent of those. I'm sure they'll be able to fill you in more, but
that was why we picked that time frame. >> I think what I would propose is we'll bring it back for discussion and hear from Kyla Connor and and Ela administration and the board and collectively decide. I do think that for
this round I'm uh in favor of having it if nothing else for the charter as uh it's looming. But we can have that discussion and would love to uh hear more from everyone. Thank you Connor again. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate everyone's time. >> Thank you Connor.
>> Yeah great discussion. We a little bit over time but it was um it was worth it I'm sure because of the urgency and importance of the topic. Next topic is uh probably equally heavier uh which is financial management policies. The
select board will consider approving changes to the financial management policies which have been reviewed by town staff appropriation committee and capital improvement committee. Uh we have Kyla and please carry carry away.
>> Sure. So I'll make it short and sweet knowing everyone has the information. Um we went through the financial management policies policies that were originally established in 2012. They were revised um in 2022. So we took fresh eyes and um
revised them once again. There were seven key changes that were made to the policy. The first is we add us added a certified free cash target policy. And the reason why we did this and Shahadul, this is something that you requested is
because we've been all over the board with our free cash over the last eight years. In um fiscal year of 19, we had a 1.8% balance in free cash compared to our operating budget. And then we blossomed
up to 13.28% 28% in FY26. So over that 8-year period, we've averaged about a 5.6% balance in free cash compared to our operating expense. So the recommended
target of 5% seems pretty in line with where we should be. Um the Department of Revenue does recommend that we have a 5 to 7% um free cash balance compared to our
operating budget. And for comparable towns, we're seeing anywhere between 2 and 10% of our cities and towns in Massachusetts. So the second thing we deleted a section on annual c capital contribution and I
don't know if anyone's familiar with this but there's a section in there that says that we will contribute to our capital fund for capital expenditures so we don't have to go out for debt. So something like a police cruiser we would
contribute um whatever um $20,000 over three years. So we would have a balance in the account to fund a new vehicle instead of going out for debt. We haven't done that in the few years that I've been here. So it's best to delete it from our financial policy
because we're not adhering to it. So the third is we added language to resend excess capital that has been borrowed back to town meeting for further appropriation. So if in fact we do not
spend our capital that has been appropriated instead of the department head spending it on projects that are associated with that they have to come back to town meeting to have it reappropriated so for transparency from
the town. Um, we added language for sweep accounts uh with Intrify and added language for prudent investor. So that's something that we've talked about in depth with CJ. Um, do you want to expand on those two?
>> Yeah, I can just a little bit. Um, so sweeps accounts with Intrify were never in the financial articles um or our financial management policies mostly because it wasn't something that um was offered regularly by uh banks um and it
wasn't necessarily something the town needed to protect their deposits. Um Uni Bank is our biggest operating bank. That's where we keep a lot of our cash reserves. um they had a diff um which is the additional insurance above 250,000
FDIC coverage. So when they lost that uh a bunch of banks did kind of at the same time just from growth over COVID and mortgages and etc. Um they started offering a pro uh an account called a sweeps account. Um, and what that does
is all of the money is held with Uni Bank, but they uh it's a service that basically moves the money to other banks. So all of your money is insured under the FDIC, 250,000 because anything above that 250,000 is
moved to bank A and then to bank B, to bank C, bank D. And so basically if Muni Bank had collapsed at some point, you would collect your money from all those different various banks except for the 250 that they had. You'd have to put in insurance for that um and get that from
um the government. Um Prudent Investor was an article approved at town meeting um in 24. So we were just adding that to stay in line with what we've changed. Um so obviously that wasn't in the policy before, but makes sense to be in it now.
And then six, we added a financial policy for water and sewer enterprise funds. We want to make sure that the enterprise funds are treated similar to our operating budgets and the fact that they don't go negative. Um, so Matt and
I and the water sewer advisory board and Kerry etc. have been working on this for a while and the goal is to keep rate retained earnings to maintain a balance equal to 10% of the operating expenses and 20% of capital expenditures. So
while we may not be there yet, the goal is to get there um in 27 and 28 to make sure that we maintain minimum balances. And the final thing is added a policy to review all of our financial partners on an annual basis. And this was near and
dear to the appropriation committee to make sure that we are conducting those thorough reviews. So we wanted to make sure we added it into the overall policies. >> And I can discuss this a little bit. So um while most of our banking partners don't charge us fees. Um, I do still
think it's important for us to meet with them on at least an annual basis to kind of go over our services, what our interest rates are, um, you know, what the town is benefiting from them just to compare, >> right? Different technology, there's so many different things that even though
we're not paying fees for these services, um, it's still important to review them. >> And that was summary. >> Thank you. Thank you for the summary and the work. Uh certainly bringing it up to date and in a timely fashion is very
important. So I appreciate all the work you are doing. I'll open it up for the board's comments starting with Mr. Ker. I know Mr. Kizner worked on it closely as well. >> So I'm going to be professional about this, but please know I'm doing the equivalent of cheerleading right now. Uh I want to thank everybody involved here.
So Miss Lapierre noted the strong partnership in the water and advisory board, multiple meetings, multiple email change. Also want to recognize director Reid's leadership. I have been critical previously, but she has been a great partner here and spent quite a bit of time working directly with the water and store advisory board as well as Abrams,
myself, and Kyla to actually work these numbers out. So, I'm excited about item number six because we've been working on that for a while, but there's obviously more here. I appreciate the executive summary. If anyone else is watching this and you're going to come present to us, that's what it looks like. Uh, just quickly, annual cap contribution cleanup
makes sense to me. I love that you're thinking about how we resend excess capital. I really appreciated your articulation of sweeps aka bank shell game to reduce our town fiduciary risk. I thought that was kind of cool. So, thank you for explaining that in terms we could understand and I love that you were talking about reviewing our
partners annually and I hope people hear the distance between those two things I just tried to speed by. Right. One of them is the technical and financial acumen to be thinking about how to shell game your finances to minimize your risk and to maximize the value that we are
obtaining for your money. And on the other side, hey, we should probably talk to these people once a year and just think about what's going on. To me, I hear that is a department that is both being really strategic but is well grounded in what I would consider to be common sense partnership. I'm so excited by the work that you have done on this.
I'll stop blow hearting, but truly, thank you so much. And CJ, I'm really sorry about the wall I broke when I was drawing a chart on this. Sorry. >> Thank you, Mr. Dush. >> Yeah, I wanted to get clarification on the stabilization fund. We're getting rid of references to the capital reserve
stabilization fund, but we're keeping but we're leaving references to capitalization or to capital stabilization fund. Is that correct? >> Yeah, the name in the original document was incorrect. Okay. >> I just updated it to what is actually on our accounting. >> Okay. But we are still having a cap a
capital stabilization fund. Okay. All right. Then I the question I had emailed and I appreciate you sending some more information about it about the um changing to a 5% um target for this the um the free cash every year. Um I was a little worried like so what happens I
was a little worried that that might be too low and why why have a limit? Um so what happens if we have more than that free cash? Sometimes we have unexpected free cash like something that we really thought we were going to be able to buy that year but or or we get >> it's a guideline. >> It's just a guideline.
>> Yeah. It's if we have excess free cash, it means we're probably not budgeting correctly, >> right? But sometimes it's an abatement that we're waiting that we have to kind of hold >> possibly, but that usually goes into an overlay which doesn't usually go into free cash unless we settle the abatement
or the litigation, >> right? Um, so this year for 27, we tried to budget much more closely to what our actuals are. So I'm not expecting free cash in the 13% like we had in FY26.
So the better off we budget to our real numbers, the closer that we're going to get to less free cash and less waste in the town. >> Okay. So it's just a guideline though. If we happen to go over, it doesn't doesn't trigger an underwrite or anything like that. Doesn't >> trigger anything.
>> Okay. I guess seeing that the uh do recommends a range of 5 to 7% I was wondering if we'd be comfortable changing it to say that our guideline is 5 to 7% rather than a 5% but otherwise the changes um made sense. I appreciate
them. >> Thank you uh Mr. K. >> Um so thank you. This was a very nice summary. Um I like knowing that the uh certified free cash is just a target. Like to her point, I don't think we need to change anything though. Like we don't need to change it to a range because we
can have flexibility in there. Um I think number six is one of the most important ones like Mr. Ker shared. Uh my only question is because I'm fully in support of this knowing how many water and sewer projects we have coming up over the years. Is this you talked like 2027 2028 is this feasible to get to
this point and maintain it? >> Yes. Because this is debt service. It's not total debt being borrowed. So, it's just the service. So, the payment. >> Gotcha. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I had a dream. I had a dream, Joe. And Kyle explained to me that my dream was
folly and we came to debt service instead. >> Okay. No, that's very helpful because again, I think this is this is very important for the town to maintain. Um, but I just wanted to clarify. >> I'm good. I'm good. >> Thank you, >> Mr. I think you dropped.
>> Oh, yeah. Um Brian did mention we'll jer at uh 7:20. Uh so from my end I don't have any other particular question. I think all the um you know brilliant minds have put in a lot of effort. So thank you uh Kyla CJ appropriations. I
know uh Matt worked closely. Thank you Matt. And um I do see my key points are reflected and again this is a policy. This is more of our uh northstar but it's not binding legally or anyways. So
I think this will help with our fiscal discipline and uh which is very much uh something we always practice but very much needed going forward as well. So thank you again. I appreciate all the good work. >> I move to adopt the revised financial management policies as presented. >> Second.
>> All those in uh we'll do roll call still. >> Do we need to do roll call with Brian? You don't have to. We're good cuz Brian's gone. Okay. Uh all those are in favor. >> I I >> I uh any nays hearing none the motion carries. Thank you.
>> Next item water annual report municipal drinking water quality drought related water restriction enforcement. The select board will review and discuss the annual water report with Kerry Reed uh director of public works. The board will review issues including municipal
drinking water quality and enforcement of drought related restrictions. K is here. That's taller than me. >> Hi Krie. >> Hi everyone. >> Welcome. >> Um so Ben might be able to bring up some
slides I pres I had for talking points. >> All right. >> Um but there's a lot of information in your packets. Not. That's all right, too. We can talk. >> Ben, is there an earlier slide? >> We can see it. >> Uh, yeah, we can see it. >> No, we're starting with this one now. >> Okay, we're starting with this one.
>> Um, so the first slide is um just a an overview um just to remind everybody how big and complicated our water system is. Um, so I like a lot of metrics, but um, you know, approximately 65% of the town is supplied by our water supply system,
our public water supply system, including all the schools and municipal buildings like the one we're in right now. Um, we have approximately 76 miles of water main pipe. So if anybody had seen um the recent um, water mane break
that we had on Clack Place, that's 0.1 mile. So all that effort, little tiny bit, we have over 76 miles of pipe. Uh we have eight wells, we have three water storage tanks. We currently have as of yesterday morning 4,431 water customers.
Um which is a 45% increase over the past decade. Um which has been a significant growth in the water clients and customers. Um, and then you know our current staff that whole all that system
is managed by essentially five full-time and the water and sewer manager and the water and sewer assistant manager. So, it's a lot. So, I just wanted to remind everybody of how big the system was and how complicated it is. Uh, our next slide, I can only see there. Oh, there you go. So, what we're talking today in
your agenda is the annual water quality report. Um, it is sent out every year. It is sent out to every single resident. We send it out as an insert to Hopkin Independent because that goes to every mailbox and every residents because we want to make sure that the people that are using the water get the report, not just the property owners, which is
really important for like renters and tenants and things like that. Um, it is also available downstairs in the town hall. I put some up front if anybody needs a hard copy. Uh, library, senior center, DPW on our website. So, we try to make it available in lots of different means so that everybody has
access to it. And this provides a overview again of the water quality. So if you haven't inside, it's got everything. The last page, this is all in your packets too, has a presentation of all of our sampling results. Um, if
you look, you know, one of the things I think people are concerned about, it says violation. It says no. So I want to make sure that everybody understands very clearly that our water system is in compliance. Um, but I did make a note in here that that's not always going to be true. The regulations are changing. The
water quality is not changing. The regulations are changing. So, the PAS has been in there. It's just that the regulations are dropping and dropping to what is acceptable to distribute in the public water system. Um, same thing with manganesees, lead and copper, and other things. Um, but our treatment system has
been the same. It's been the same last year. And again, we are in compliance with all the regulations. And if anybody is a real um has any real interest, it has all the information in here for both our system, our groundwater wells and the Ashlin system because we get from
both. Um but it goes into real detail about those sampling results. It's not the my favorite format um because the state requires a lot of stuff that needs to be in here, but it's also got some great information about water conservation tips, which we want to
focus on. Um health information, lead and copper, all that good stuff. Um do you all have any questions or want to discuss this anymore before we go to drought discussions? >> Let's check quickly. [clears throat]
>> I'm good. Thank you, >> Mr. Lush. Uh, no. I got it in the mail. I appreciated it. >> It's a good one. >> I'm torn here because I don't want to ask you any questions that you and I haven't discussed because it is not fair to ambush you. But I will be honest that water quality aside from police chief
detective sergeant is the thing I get the most texts about. I one of my neighbors likes to routinely send me pictures of the whole house water filter he has and I get a message that says, "Kisner, when are you going to fix this?" I don't have an answer for you, Chad. Stop asking. It's a real example of something that
people are actually worried about. As always, I'm going to be a little facicious about it. But I guess I do want to highlight for a lot of people there is still a perception report or not that the water quality in town is not fully safe. And because water routinely comes out of the taps and does
not look like what you perceive safe water to be, it is very visually reinforcing. So I guess I want to ask you, what can we do? How can we help? What would you want to draw our attention to? Is I can appreciate the report. I can appreciate the science, but this is where politics walks right
up to science and says, "No, thank you. I'm still going to get texts from my neighbors about the fact that the water filters look brown. What can we do?" >> That's an excellent question. Um, so one of the things I want to highlight is uh outreach and conservation efforts. So that's the number one thing that we can
do is inform people so they understand, right? So, a lot of the texts that we get are from people that don't fully understand what's going on or they're surprised. So, any public outreach that we can do is great. We got a grant. We did a lot of public outreach. Um, as a result of the grant,
we have flyers and trying to make them as colorful and easy to understand because it's a very big and complicated thing and it's scary, right? Because people are scared that the water is. So, we have a lot of information that we have out. We've got freebies because everybody loves some freebies.
One's for the kiddos, one's for like practical ones. Um, so [clears throat] helping spread the message is the best. Um, as I said, we were lucky to get a grant for that water conservation effort. It got people talking, but we also saw the consumption rates go down and that was the goal, right? So, people
are hearing and listening. The other thing is to continue to support the program and the budgets because that funds the projects that we need to do in order to address some of these issues. They're big, they're complicated. Um, we're working on it.
>> Um, so that will help. So the water main replacement projects will help. Um, if we can get staffed up so that we can support the workforce that we need to do some of the proactive management, that's going to help a lot too. Um, but the best thing is just letting folks know. Most of the time when we're getting the
brown water reports, it's because something happened. There's been a water main break. There's been unauthorized use of water. Um, the more we know, the better that we can do to protect the system, give people a heads up, and get it back to working the way we wanted to. >> I really appreciate that, Carrie, and I appreciate that you took the time to
advocate for increased staff. I like that you were actually pushing back and telling us what we could be doing, especially from a budgetary perspective. I want to hear more of that, not just from you, but from other department heads this cycle as well. We don't know. We don't know. But it's a lot easier for me to tell my neighbor if he doesn't want so much brown water, we're going to
raise his taxes a little bit, and here's why. This is how the conversation goes. Obviously, as usual, I'm being facitious. I have one more question, then I'll stop chewing. Carrie, from your perspective, a lot of the issues that were highlighted in the report, fair to say over time, if we were to make a transition to an MWR or another
water source that these would be mitigated or it would be less of a concern for you? >> Yes, absolutely. So, the water quality from the MWA and the Guantanity actually is superior to what we have. It's great water quality and you'll even you can see directly in here the comparison from
Hopington to Ashlin. astronaut also surprisingly has I shouldn't say surprisingly the water that comes out of the water treatment plant um because it has a higher level of treatment and it has a more protected water source is um a better quality than what we're seeing out of our groundwater wells. >> So I'll emphasize that and then I'll
end. Thank you for the generosity here. Mr. Chair, I think it's important to hear what you just said out loud. I will emphasize superior water quality that not only addresses some of the issues that we're highlighting here playfully the brown water but also the actual PAS and increasing heavy metals and other
contaminants or additives in the water. There is a reason it might cost more folks and it's not just because it's safer. It's because it's actually better. So I appreciate you taking the time to highlight that as well. There is a real bridge and a path forward here. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Ker. Um I don't have any
other question right now. One thing I'll probably ask at the end is if we become non-compliant because of the standard changes, what does that obligate us to do immediately? >> Um, that is a big question because I
don't know what all the regulatory requirements will be. Um, generally they will have very specific things we need to do, treatment that we need to do and a timeline in which we need to do it. So I can't tell you what would need to be done immediately or not because the regulations haven't come out. Um
>> it will become mandatory for us to act. >> It will become mandatory. We will have to do improvements. They will cost money. We will have to be done in a certain amount of time. Um hopefully the regulators give us enough time to develop a plan to adjust and um and we're also dealing with federal
regulations and state regulations and based on the political climate those timelines can be very different. But um >> no thank you. We just have to track and be aware of uh of that and be cognizant. Hopefully nothing you know big suddenly
comes at us. Um thank you Krie. You had another part. Right. >> Right. So on your agenda you were also asking about drought. So um I provided Oh good. You see it um for those who are not aware you know the current drought status is um we're a level three
critical drought. We have been in a drought status from August 2025. The town has had a mandatory state of water supply conservation effective since last April because of the drought status that has continued. It is not it's not new. It's been a continuation. We um still
are less. So if you can see the map, but the bright or the brightest orange is the highest level. Um the northeast region regions get all kind of funky, but Hopkin is within that. So, we're in there with the Northeast in this most critical drought situation. So, based
off of the state regulations and based off of the water management act, the WMA permit that Hopkin holds for a public water supply and based on our local town bylaws, we are required to do water conservation and this ban on non-essential water use, non-essential
outdoor water use. And we're also required to do outreach to encourage people to conserve water. Additionally, so this is a regional issue. It's a statewide issue. It is mandatory. It is state driven by law. Um, so we just want
to re-emphasize all of that. Um, and then leave it at that. The MWA, if we were connect, has a separate permit. It has separate drop restrictions, that separate plan. It is much more resilient because they have a larger supply. Um, so that's another benefit connecting to
CMWA. >> Thank you. Um good explanation and hopefully everyone will uh who are listening will tell others and everyone will abide by the restrictions we have. That's very critical. Any other
questions, comments for Kerry? >> Yes. >> Be remiss if I didn't ask because I got so much sass for being the pool guy who wanted to give tickets out for people who filled their pools and I learned all about how we fill and drain pools in this town. But I'd be remiss if I did not ask. Carrie, have we issued any
enforcement fines? >> No. >> I am struggling with the notion that we have been in critical drought since August of 2025. It is the year of our Lord. July 2026, that is 11 and 1/2, 11 and 3/4 months. I'm not great at math. I'm having a hard time believing in our
community there has not been any drought violations in over a year. People are only going to take it as seriously as we make it serious for them. Chief's sitting right back there. It's broken windows. This is broken windows for me. We can come here. We can talk about it,
but unless there's going to be a stick, this is a broken window. And people are going to keep driving by it because they like their pools, they like their gardens, and they like their lawns. And they're wrong and they're short-sighted and there is impact to this. But it's not going to change. I think we need to have a mature, open, and serious
conversation about what enforcement looks like. You have our meters. You absolutely know who is using water. You can see if it is residential. It is very obvious why we would be using the volumes of water we're using. There is a difference between people taking showers
and people watering their entire yards. I don't know that that is purely on you or that it is fair to ask you, but I think to Elaine Lance and the entire town administration, we need to have a conversation about this because God ain't making any more rain. It's getting hotter. We're not getting any more
water. This problem is not going away. I worry we look toothless and feckless. Can I if I could add to that? >> We us by the way. Sorry Carrie, not you. We us. >> So in I believe in in the packet there's a lot of water information but I leave I
believe part of it was that um residents who were who are you consuming too much were sent a letter sometimes entire neighborhoods sometimes targeted residences and that the result of that was that and they were given tips on how to avoid using so much water and then the result of that was that they actually started using less water. Is
that cor am I summarizing that correctly? I >> or overall >> I would say that that's an overall good a summary. So those letters and that outreach was um as part of that grant program. Um it I don't know if those would be
enforcable as per the bylaw for the fines, but it did have the intended effect of having people talk of having people notice of consumption going down. Um and we were trying to take this um you know the carrot of the stick, right? So, we're trying to take this community
approach. We're all in this together. We're all having in the drought together. We all need water. Let's all work together because we also have 40% of people on private wells, same aquifers. So, we're trying to and we don't have a bylaw that restricts that. So, we're trying to increase education,
outreach, and see this as a community issue and a community solution. Um, so that's what we've been focusing on. We've seen that as a more costbeneficial aspect of chasing down the fines. we physically have to have somebody out there seeing somebody as they're um
sprinkling, paying people overtime to drive around town. And you know, maybe we get a handful of it the time they're out there. But the money that we spend on outreach and education, going to community events, interacting with the people, being at the library, the senior center, we feel like that's making a bigger impact and that's where we would
like to spend our our time and efforts. >> Thank you. Any other comments, Mr. Clark? >> Nope. >> Anyone? >> Good. Thank you again, Carrie. Um, [clears throat] keep up the good work. >> All right, so I left a bunch of um freebies out in the hallway for you all,
including I forgot rain gauges, which I'm very excited about. Oh, CJ's not here. He's very excited to see those, too. Um, and hopefully, you know, our plan is to be at some more events like Family Day, um, to try to get word out. So, if you want to help, >> hand the stuff out, hand the things out,
um, engage, >> people know. >> Yep. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Oh, I'm here for the next one, too. >> And Rooney's um Paul's also here from the water and supervisory board. >> Yeah. I want to recognize Paul who's the chair of water advisory board. Paul, do you want to say a few words?
>> Um >> just in general, >> I was here for doing a great job. uh and uh the solution to a lot of the problems with quality and quantity is the MW
alternative for with continued hopefully increased draw for hashtag to keep the cost down. Uh but moving that project ahead quickly is uh strategically the most important thing we can do. >> Excellent. Thank you. Thank you for your comments and support and great that
you're all working um together for solving one of the biggest problems in town. Thank you. Thank you, K. The next topic uh is again uh yes, Kerry, you need to stay on intermunicipal agreement waste disposal contract negotiations. The
select board will consider approving the town's participation in a multi- town consortium via an intermunicipal agreement for the purpose of negotiating a contract with wind west waste in Innovations incorporated formerly willer
for solid waste disposal. Uh do you want to give us a overview first and then we can dive in >> just in general? So, we have two contracts for trash um and recite. Well, trash um one with Eel Harvey for the
curbside pickup, literally the trucks that come around and grab it and bring it out. And then we have a contract with Wheeler for it's an incinerator in the library to actually dispose of the trash. And so, we pay for it by we have a contract, I believe it was a 20 or 25 year contract. It's beginning ready to
expire. It was done with this consortium of several towns and communities. And um I highly recommend that we continue this approach working together. We're getting better rates. We're getting a good contract. It's much beneficial. It's very beneficial for the town for all of us to work together. We have a lot more
negotiating power. Uh the Wallpole they're I think it was their health administrator has volunteered and literally volunteered. They're spending their time um being like the voice and the coordination for this um cons. It's not consortium. might remember committee
whatever the group of the towns um the city of Worcester has also taken a large role in that so it's giving us a lot of negotiating power and so I highly recommend that we move forward with this IMA um I think it will benefit us all as we're going through we have this
contract coming up and then in two years the yellow Harvey contract currently for the curbside is coming up and those are large costs that continue to increase year-to-year so it is in our best benefit to get a good rate >> thank Thank you. Any questions for Kerry on that topic, Mr. Clark?
>> Um, as far as as far as this one, this IMA, I think it makes a ton of sense. I agree with you. Um, with the Eel Harvey one, that's a town specific though. Correct. >> Town specific. That's coming up next. But I just wanted to clarify that they're two separate contracts. Um, because trash service everybody kind of
thinks >> Nope. I totally understand that. My only question is if we, you know, commit to this IMA now, do we lose any leverage in that negotiation in a year or two? Whatever the time frame is. >> I don't think we do. >> Okay.
>> Thank you, Mr. Ker. >> Yeah, thank you, Joe. Uh, Mr. Clark, sorry. I had I had a similar concern as well. It felt a little bit like negotiating against ourselves in public, but this is also the exact definition of what we are consistently asking department heads to do. go out, become part of larger community efforts and
negotiate for savings and increased bargaining power. It sounds like that's exactly what you've done. So, while I do share the concern there, it sounds like this is a big enough group that it's going to be hard to bully. >> Thank you, uh, Miss Bush. >> Yep. I appreciate the distinction
between this is for the disposal of the waste rather than the um the collecting of the w collecting on the trucks. Um, so I guess the concern I hear in the community a lot though too is they they definitely don't want um our collection to decrease that that we will still um
have you trash every week and recycling. People would love to have it more than have it every week too which I know is probably cost prohibitive but this is this doesn't relate to that. This is only during this this is the disposal of the trash. It's not how often it gets picked up >> or how how large the barrels are or not
compost or anything. >> Right. No, it's it's not it's just the actual disposal of waste. So, the less waste that we dis that goes out, the less we pay. So, um there has been some interest in the from the sustainable green committee in trying to find additional incentives to reduce say food
waste in our trash because it would reduce the volume that reduce the cost. But that is part of the contract and negotiations because there's different categories of costs based on what the waste is consistent of. Um contamination
and rates like that. It applies more to recycling than to trash. Um but I think our opportunities for the things that folks are concerned about like the frequency, the size of the bins, um swap, recycling, all those different things are in the other contract that we have.
>> They're in the other contract. Okay. and we have another two years on the current contract. >> Okay. I'm just the last two summers we've rented a vacation home in the UK and they have cred curbside um composting and you know it was a rental of you know for one week we had to follow those guidelines and they took all the food not just the vegetables and
the the things that don't smell any kind of food waste they took it all and picked it up every week. >> Thank you. I think he's little ahead on that. U Thank you Carrie. I had for everyone's information, how many um
towns are participating in this? >> Currently, there are 35 that are interested and it seems like 30 that are very committed to joining consortium, which is about the same amount that was in it last time when we negotiated it. And it's spread out, you know, in size
and um geographically. >> Okay. And is it going to cost us the same or more? Do you know that >> the contract? >> Yeah. Based on >> it will cost us more because the cost has gone up. Um I don't know how much
yet. But >> we'll find out during budget season. >> Yeah. There's there's no I I don't think there's any way that we could negotiate a better price than we did 20 25 years ago um because the cost has gone up. that there's a lot of um value especially in negotiations [clears throat] like fuel prices have
been the ones that fluctuate which affects the travel travel time um the cost of things but >> understood and I totally agree I think this is the right path forward I'm just cautioning we'll see the impact on budget a little bit but that's expected
and we'll be ready for it thank you again I don't uh >> any other question >> oh go ahead make a motion then okay I move to authorize the chair to sign the interpunal agreement for waste disposal negotiations and to designate the town manager as the town representative. >> Second.
>> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. Any nays? >> Any hearing? None. Motion carries. Thank you, Gary. >> Thank you. >> Next. >> Thank you. >> Do I have none? >> Next item on the agenda, use of flock cameras. The select board will consider
reviewing the use of flock cameras in Hopkin. We'll start with uh Glen giving a little bit of overview. and we have our u interim police chief and detective surgeon to uh help us understand and uh give us more information as needed. Uh
this is again uh for I would say kind of a warm-up discussion on this hearing our resident's voice and hearing some concerns. I wanted to make sure we pay the right attention and hear the uh full story from all the authorities or everyone's involved. Uh so there is you
know no confusion and full transparency and full understanding. This is giving that opportunity. We're not going to have any vote or anything. Um today uh we're going to also hear from the board about their perspective their uh point of view on this. So that is the goal of today's scope and goal of today's
discussion. So with that, Elaine, um do you want to give a quick overview of um or we should hear from the police chief, however you want to do it. >> Best to hear from our from our police department, but you know, the board has received some questions and comments from the public and that's why it's on the agenda this evening.
>> Sure. Yeah. Thank you for coming. >> Welcome. >> Um yeah, do you want to give a little bit of an overview background and uh addressing some of the concerns that you have heard or we have heard? Sure. So, uh, approximately about a year and a
half ago, um, in the interest of expanding our ability to investigate crimes, uh, stay ahead of technology, uh, that is used, um, the flock system had been around for
approximately 10 years. Um, other agencies have picked up on it, primarily Rhode Island, the larger cities. And um so we began discussions with a flock representative for our area. Um we met with them. I brought in um our detective
sergeant to uh discuss locations. Um and those locations were primarily mapped out for uh volume of traffic and known flock cameras in neighboring communities. So, if a neighboring community had a camera that we knew
about, uh, that we wouldn't necessarily need to cover that side because we would know that there was something on that on that side of town. Uh, so we worked out a mapping system. Um we identified four areas that we thought would cover the
greatest coverage area for our town and uh identified that uh we have uh monies in asset forfeite um which Detective Dbor has um been a part of with um our federal partners in Haida and has
brought back uh upwards of [snorts] $350,000 over a seven eightyear period. Um so we had identified that that would be a good use of some of those assets to pay for this service. Um in uh the national and
local uh discussions obviously there's concern over um what's captured, how long it's captured, who has access to it. Uh so we developed a policy. We have a policy um that is directly related to uh license plate
readers. uh we uh brought that uh the flock software in, sat down, discussed the parameters, who we were sharing it with, who we were receiving information from, um and then who would have access
uh to it. So, uh we are, I would argue, in the early stages, uh our cameras have been up for approximately four months up and running. um we have two cameras and we are slated to um have an additional two but we are going through um the
process of land owner permissions and and things of that nature. So um we feel as though we have a um robust policy that would address any malfeasants amongst our users. Um, we feel as though
the audit system that, uh, our system puts out is, um, I don't want to say foolproof, but it's pretty close to foolproof. In order to do a search, uh, for a vehicle, you need to basically
spell out reasonable suspicion, um, which is a threshold for any subpoena that we would ask for from, for instance, um, easy pass. If we had a indication that a vehicle had been on the pike and we wanted to get information from Easyypass, we would
supply them with a subpoena. They would give us whatever records they have um for that vehicle. This system, although online, and I could do it on my phone, requires me to fill in those fields, plug in my dates, what I'm looking for, and then it would spit out um anything
that would be my search parameters. uh then with what it spits out is a vehicle um or the license plate. So there is an AI driven um search within the program
that allows me to put in um I'm looking for a truck with a ladder on it and it would spit out every truck that it identified with a ladder. Um and then I would take that information, run the registration and it would help identify
that truck or the owner of that truck. Um, we had used Flock um before we had it from another agency like we had reached out and known that another agency had it had asked them, could you just run this through your cameras? We think the vehicle went through your
town. Um, and that's kind of how we got a feel for how the system works. Um, since we brought it on board, uh, we only share our information with Massachusetts communities that have a flock agreement. We do not share with
private entities, federal government, or any out ofstate law enforcement um, organizations. >> Thank you. U, I'll have my um, colleagues go first. And I think um in general our approach is of
course that we want to public safety is of our biggest um you know focus on this and um this is certainly serving with examples that you have given a great purpose but at the same time we want to make sure that we do not interfere with
individuals privacy, liberty and individuals u uh security and preference in any way that can be perceived as a violation of uh individual's privacy. And on that note, I heard from the town
council as well as from your notes that the information is only limited to uh license plate number, the color and uh visuals of the vehicle which can be most of it can be or I don't know all of it
can be uh available on public uh DMV or RMV sites. So from that end it's not uh taking any identifying information of the driver or any passenger or anyone.
No facial recognition involved. No direct identification or picture taking except for the vehicle's uh identifier. Is that correct? >> That is correct. So, it requires us um so on our um transparency portal that we
have through Flock at the bottom of the page, you'll see some success stories that we've had with it, some investigations that we've had with it. uh spoke with the detective sergeant about those specific investigations and I think we're in agreement that we could have reached the same conclusion without
using the flock system, but it saved us hundreds of hours of investigative work to get to that result. Um, so things like, um, child abduction, um, a missing elderly, um, Alzheimer's patient, um,
those things, we could put out Amber alerts or silver alerts. We could run it through our system and see if the vehicle passed a location, if it did, what direction it was heading in. It would tell us what time that vehicle came through. Um, the other thing that our system does uh provide is
a um, traffic counter. So for instance, the one that we have on Hayden Row uh by Sunnyside Gardens, we could use that to identify how many cars are traveling on Hayden Row at a certain given time. So as the new school opens up, we could say like the new school impacted traffic by
X amount because we know what the what the numbers were prior. Um so there are town values to it aside from investigative side. Um, but I've always looked at this as an investigative tool. Um, we have a
number of tools that we use from um, doing computer searches, record searches, looking into backgrounds, whether it's for an officer, an employee, a criminal. Um, all those services we have are is a tool that we use to help
and assist in our investigations. And that's all that we look at this flock system has. >> Thank you. And I think actually to get to your point is this tells us what a vehicle is. It doesn't tell us who's operating the
vehicle. So in the event that a as the chief said an Alzheimer patient went missing, we don't know. We might have a description that a blue Toyota would he could be operating, but we don't have a picture of the operator that that is associated with that. It's
strictly on the um the demographics of the vehicle. It has nothing to do with the operator. Thank you. Questions from the board or comments? Mush? >> Sure. Yeah. No, I appreciate all this information and we've been getting a lot of questions from the public both in
email and just kind of casually from friends. Um, so I guess it it just kind of came as a surprise to all of us that we didn't know it had been happening and um so we're wanting to get more information now. And so obviously there's a lot of good uses for this equipment, but the concern is if there's
misuse um and and the policy so the select board I guess had no role in the policy or setting up the contracts with the the sites that host the cameras. Is that right? >> Correct. It was it again when this was in its infant stages, we looked at it as
an investigative tool. Um the town had cameras all across town that is accessible to the public, accessible to us. um that are constantly live feeds. Um we felt as though this was so far
less than any live view um and accessible to anybody that um it was again just another tool that um our investigators could use. >> Okay. So I think we might have more questions over the coming months too. Um
and then the asset forfeite money, what if we use that? We I assume we get that every year. No. Oh, no. >> We only get it on cases that the detective works on and we get a portion of whatever seizure. So, if it's a really good one, $50,000. If it's an
okay one, couple thousand. Um, so, uh, for instance, u, the vehicle that he's currently driving, um, is an asset forfeite vehicle that was part of a case he worked and, uh, we paid I $2,500, I
think, for that car. Um, and it's now a town vehicle that is used for his undercover work, his transportation. Um, and the asset forfeite money that comes from those investigations, um, is narrow in scope for law
enforcement purposes. So, um, trainings, equipment, we've bought shields with it. Uh we've bought um subscriptions to other um investigative tools, >> rifles. >> Um we've boughten patrol rifles to upgrade our patrol rifles as they were
aging out. Um so those are all things that we use that money for to not incur the budget or come before capital and request an expenditure for. >> So these don't show up in our overall budget. I guess it comes out it's it's accounted for separately. Is that
correct? Would is it like in the annual town report under the police department section or would that be a place the public could know about it? >> Know if it shows up as a in the balance sheet or not? >> We have to ask the okay just I think yeah the public would just kind of like to know and understand more I think and
um and then so so requesting the data like the images of the license plates that's not subject to public records law is it right that would just be for a law enforcement purpose. We need a law enforcement purpose to >> the public can't just go request, you know, to look up a an ex-girlfriend that
they want to follow. They can't do that. >> Right. Okay. Well, people are worried about that sort of thing. >> Yeah. And then um and then you keep logs of how who in the police department looks things up and they have it to write the specific purpose for why they are looking up. >> Correct.
>> That particular vehicle or >> public facing portal that we have, you can see how many searches have been done. It's I don't want redacted to the point where you don't know what searches were done, but you can see the number. We can
actually see what like I can get into the administrative side of the portal and see who ran the search for what case, for what purpose, when they did it. >> Okay. And so, you know, we hope this would never happen, but if somebody in our department were looking up something about um something personal, we would
have a record of that that they that that person had looked up some >> and we would deal with it swiftly. Yes. >> Okay. >> Okay. I think that's that's all I have for now and I appreciate all the explanations and responses to questions that we've been getting and you know, more questions may come up, but I really appreciate you guys providing all this
information. >> Giza, >> hi. Nice to see you, Chief Detective Sergeant. So, I got a bunch of bullets here. I'm just going to go in order. So, first I won't name the individual's name, but I think it's worth noting that this issue was actually first brought to the select board's collective attention
from a rising senior in Hopington High School who wrote to us to ask about this. So, lest you believe that your emails go into the aether, your email has resulted in the detective sergeant and the chief of police in your community sitting in front of your executive function. Here we are. The government works. With that said, I
really want to underscore to people my note here is no cop bad. Sorry, the police haven't done anything wrong, right? There is a policy. The police have followed the policy. We're going to have our opinions about how we feel about that in the longer term. Should we have been more involved, but I think
it's important to underscore rules are followed here and your taxpayer money was not used to do this unless you were involved in the asset forfeite. And I got no sympathy for you there. So, with that said, I do think we need a little more line of sight to this, right? The feedback in the community at large has been you have to know about this and we
have to be able to discuss it here. I think there is a real reflex fear around this one. And the way I would describe it to you is the detective sergeant in the 1990s was sitting on a police corner. Maybe not you particularly handsome gentleman was sitting on a police corner and he was looking at license plates but he wasn't writing
down every license plate that went by. He had to see a nip come out the window. He had to see a swerve. He had to see a little too much speed coming down the window. There was cause. His humanity was involved and an execution of his discretion was required. There is no
discretion required from a machine which is why we are not supposed to make them in human image here. I'm really concerned about the loss of autonomy and privacy this represents in the community. There is a reasonable expectation that I can walk around in this town and when I'm not committing a crime, I exist anonymously. I don't
think that is something that I should have to request and I think it is something that we are dangerously at risk of taking for granted. Folks, this is a little bit like Amazon Prime. I subscribe and every time I do, my wife and I joke that we are triggering a chain of human suffering in which a warehouse worker is abused and then a
delivery worker is abused. But darn it, if I still don't use it, because I've decided that convenience matters more to me than the ill feeling. I don't love that about myself, but I can admit it in the light of day. I need you all to tell me how you feel about the convenience versus the ill feeling here. I think the
chief has made a compelling and reasonable point about why these things have been put in the places that they are and why they want to use them. I'm going to look at you and say that all sounds legitimate to me. On the other side, this is an evil data AI company. I don't trust them with anything. And just because they have an agreement with you
today does not mean they're not going to sell the data in the background. We have watched tech companies scrape the entire internet to train the AI and they're never going to jail. They're on yachts. They're on islands. They have animals spliced together. The concepts of fairness don't exist in this space. It's
the technology space. Chief, it's moving faster than you guys are and it's always going to move faster than you guys are. I have no judgment or ill will here about you using the tools. I think you've done so for novel purposes and for taxpayer benefit. The community absolutely has to let us know where
their pallet is on this one. Based on where we are right now, the pallet is strong concern. I don't think there is a lot of trust of the company, but I want to emphasize and I really hope you and the force are hearing me. Lack of trust in flock is not lack of trust in the
HPD. I am concerned about where my data goes and how this technology will be used. I am not concerned about you or the decisions you have made. I hope the community understands the difference. Thank you, >> Mr. [clears throat] Thank you. Uh, thank you both for coming tonight and you
know, kind of like they both said, I really appreciate the outreach from the residents. You know, we got the first email probably five to six weeks ago. I had never even heard of flot cameras, so it was I needed some research on my own. Um, and I think a lot of good things were brought up in both the questions from the residents, the responses from
the department. Um, I think as you guys listed, uh, you know, from the policy perspective, you talked about, um, like a lot of things that I think keep it in check. You talked about transparency um like who has access to it and you you referenced like a public facing portal.
Is both the policy and the portal easily accessible through like the HPD website if residents want to >> the link to that portal is not on our website but it's certainly something that can be taken care of by end of day. >> Yeah. I just think it would help. We talk about
>> it is um I've shared it with the board. Um I've shared it with the the town manager's office. I think um it gives some indication as to what we have. Um the cameras are not secret and they're
they're visible. Um if you drive through Milford, I think Milford has seven or eight of them. Um so, uh Frammingham had 22. Um so there's they're they're out there um for different purposes. Uh for instance, I left Lowe's in Westbrove the
other day and Lowe's has one. Um, and it's obviously for their their crime prevention side. We don't have access to it. I looked in our system to see if I could see what Lowe's has. None of those private companies, Lowe's, Home Depot, Walmart share their information. Um, I
would suspect, not that we have Lowe's, but I would suspect that if they had an issue, their crime prevention team would use it and they would then hand the report to the police department. Police department would prosecute the case. Um so yeah that the forward facing um
portal that we have um I think gives some additional information. Um it shares what our activity is on it. Um it shares some of the success stories that we've had using it and um the value in having it. I appreciate um Mr. Kner's
concerns about tracking and everything else. Um, I I equate this to basically exactly what EasyPass does. Easyyp Pass collects your license plate, charges you a toll, and you get a monthly bill. That data
sits somewhere um and is accessible to law enforcement by a simple subpoena. Um, this system is basically the same thing aside from we can access it without a subpoena, but that's why we have an audit trail. And I I think that
um we will never stay ahead of technology as much as the law will never stay with technology. We're always dealing with law after something has occurred. Um, so I can respect the, you
know, the concerns of the residents. I can only ask that you trust our ability to use it correctly and if for some reason one of our officers does not use it correctly, we will take measures to to address that. Um, just like we would
address any other um, discipline issue that arises within the agency. >> Yeah. No, I I agree with that and I just think it goes, you know, kind kind of as Amy said, like they've been out for a few months, like you guys are fair to say an evaluation process, right? You
know, for I mean, a couple months seems quick to me. So as we go through that, I think having the link very easily accessible so people that have concerns can go on and see the public facing piece, having the policy easily accessible so that you know, as we've talked a lot about transparency in town,
keeping that up there so people can see everything that we talked about tonight because I think they're very important pieces should be accessible. Um uh and then you know I I I think the the biggest biggest concern I had that was brought up and you know I can't personally speak to the validity of this
but sounds like there's some security concerns on the flock side that that to me is a concern that I' I'd love for all of us to get more information around. Right. This was kind of like you initial factf finding like let's talk about it in public. Um, but anytime I hear about like overall security concerns, you
know, everything that's in that policy goes out the window if there if there are concern security concerns. So, if we could like um look into that a little bit more and come back, I think, you know, we talk about this in the future and understand more and more what's going on. But, you know, at the end of the day, I think Mr. Manan said it well,
like this is a tool that you guys use for public safety. I think about, you know, missing children, missing seniors, like those are important things that that happen, right? and any tool that can help, you know, come to a conclusion quicker is is better. So, I appreciate
all the information tonight. I think we'll probably talk about it again at some point. >> I mean, they do they do have on their own website the different and I don't know what what any of it means, but the different encryption software and it's numbers and letters and dashes. I got no idea what it means. Um, and again, I'm
taking that on face value because I not only don't know what it means, but I'm trusting that what they're the product they're putting out is protected. >> Yeah. >> Um, >> Yep. But >> nope. Again, I thought it was a legitimate concern that, you know, we we
as a community think about, talk about, communicate, and, you know, we want to make sure everyone's comfortable in the community, right? That's all of our goal. So, I'm good. Thank you both. >> Yeah, exactly. [snorts] I I like the discussions we are having. That's exactly the purpose of today's um uh
agenda item and having it forward. Uh couple of things I won't repeat or biligar what we discussed. I like the answers and um information that you have provided and how you know we have seen some of the success stories with those.
Uh and at the same time I also appreciate you know some of the questions that are coming out and this is to be continued with more information and better understanding. Two things I wanted to bring up. One is that our agreement with Flock and Flock's
disclosures. I would like to have this reviewed with by our legal council if it hasn't been done so or done yet. Um and usually uh in in uh corporate we do a
BAA business associates uh agreement which covers the liability and uh you know the data protection uh the privacy protection all those clauses and should there be any um violation or what are
the you know obligation of the software providers it's pretty standard I I would be surprised if we don't have one um so those are some of the things I would like to explore a little bit and have our legal kind of look at it and that usually also covers the encryption and
all the good things that you mentioned and I uh think you have dug some of those like the data is retained only 30 days and it's deleted after that the access is very limited to three individuals uh in the staff and all those what would be so that's my ask uh
one for a little more understanding and second is and I'm on the fence because it's also a security and you know police matter which is all the information that you have provided so far. If we can create like a FAQ summary sheet and put
it um for transparency that would be ideal but I also want to be on the caution side that we don't want to compromise any information that could deter your effectiveness or performance using this tool. Uh so I'll leave it to
you. I do assume the answers and everything that you have provided are you know super transparent as I have seen it and it is okay to share those. So I would also uh request to have a summary sheet of some kind have an FAQ and put it out for public's um review
and consumption. That's all I have and again thank you so much for all the work you do and very insightful discussion and information that you have provided. Uh should there be need ongoing conversation on this. Thank you. >> Sorry, Mr. Chair. Very quickly, when you
next come back on this topic, can we talk a little bit about your take on mass mosaic law as well? So, I didn't want to get into the weeds here. You've used easy pass as an example. Two two quick points. One, I consent. I have an easy pass. We can't set the threshold of I'm driving in Hopington, but I'm not there on that one. I
apologize. Excuse me. I lost my train of thought. I'll come back to it if it's relevant. [snorts] >> Right. >> Ah, mass mosaic. See, it was relevant. So flaw cameras are pointing downward. Mosaic states that we're not supposed to have a camera that's possible to look into someone's house or capable of
detecting their movements. I think there is a reasonable fear that an AI camera presents an interesting legal construct as to whether or not we are violating Mass Mosaic. Again, as Mr. Clark noted, this is an evolving place where the law and the technology are intersecting. I
just want to highlight again to you the privacy concern. This isn't just me being a hippie liberal, although I kind of am being a little bit of one here. I'm also truly thinking about the town's legal exposure. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you. >> Thank you again. >> Thank you. >> Thank you both.
>> All right. Uh we'll move to our next agenda item. Property acquisition portion of 89 Saddle Hill Road. The sele will consider purchasing 2.93 acre portion of 89 Saddle Hill Road Kasuchi uh property for 29,300
pursuant to the vote under article 25 of the May 5, 2025 annual town meeting. The parcel will be under the care custody and control of the open space preservation commission. The board will further authorize the chair to execute
and enter into any and all documents necessary to effectuate the acquisition of the property. The land would be purchased with Community Preservation Act funds. Um Elaine, do you want to elaborate or give any more context? >> As you mentioned, the town voted to
purchase the property in 2025. Um and since then, I've done a property survey and worked with the owner. Uh, turns out there was more land than um we knew in the lot. So, the town is purchasing more than the 2.5 acres it originally intended to. Um, and the CPC has
reviewed and is fine with the price. Um, and it's all ready to uh to come to a closing. >> Great. Thank you. Uh, questions, comments from the board? Mr. Clark? >> Nope. I'm good. >> Mr. Kizner? >> Oh, approved. I'm ready to go. >> Mr. Deush? >> No. Ready for the motion?
>> I don't have anything either. Uh, if I can get a motion. >> Pursuant to article 26 of the '05 May 25 Hopkins annual town meeting. I hereby move the select board purchase approximately 2.93 acres of land shown as parcel B on a plan entitled plan of land in Hopton MA prepared for town of Hopington Cara board of select scale 1
in equals 50 ft. Date May 7 2026 prepared by JD Markant Land Surveying and Engineering 34 Hayden Rose Street Hopington MA01748 for the sum of 29,300 US to be held under the care custody and control of the open space preservation commission and further to authorize the
chair Shahul Man to execute and enter into any and all documents necessary to effectuate the acquisition of said property. >> Second. >> Thank you. All those who are in favor say I. >> I. Any nays? Hearing none, the motion carries. Thank you. Next item, Franklin
Road solar pilot agreement. The select board will consider voting to approve and execute the payment in lie of taxes pilot agreement between the town of Hopkinington and Franklin Road Solar LLC for personal property at 69 Franklin Road pursuant to the affirmative vote
under article 12 of the 2026 annual town meeting warrant. This is another town meeting follow-up item. Uh town meeting voted to authorize the select board to uh enter into the solar pilot agreement. The agreement uh that the board would be signing is
identical to the one presented to town meeting with the exception of updating the dates and names in the of the of the board members in the document. >> Thank you. Questions, comments, Mr. Deush? >> No. Ready for a vote. >> Let's roll.
>> Nope. I move to approve and execute the payment in lie of taxes pilot agreement between the town of Hopin and Franklin Road Solar LLC for personal property at 69 Franklin Road. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any nays? Hearing none. Motion carries. Thank you. The next is town manager
report. Ela, take it away. >> Um >> uh first um just a brief Main Street corridor project update. We've seen the work that's been happening along Main Street at the sidewalk areas. Um so this week, Amarella is continuing to work on that. Um what they're doing is
installing a subrain in part of that to eliminate the cracking that occurred um over the last year. Um and that work should be completed in about two weeks. Um and so that that should resolve the drainage issue that identifies the area.
Um with respect to an update on the MW project, um on June 2nd, uh the representatives of each town met. Um the chair uh accompanied us to oh no, Amy accompanied us to that meeting and um so
the outcome of that was we'll continue to work on the IMA and we'll uh form a subgroup um to work on the financial aspect of that and that will involve uh Lance and Kyla and Carrie on that subgroup. Um, with regard to the Elmwood school
study, one of the things that we talked about at a previous meeting was whether there uh might be an interest in a um a committee to assist the town in its decision- making on the future of Elwood School. So, we put out a a survey and we
did have response for 29 people responded that they were we would be interested. Obviously, a committee wouldn't be 29 people, but certainly a good subset of people who would express interest. So, we can talk about that some more at a future meeting. Just an update on that. >> That's great.
>> Um, and, uh, finally, um, just looking for, um, approval to, uh, fill some town position vacancies. One is the youth service supervisor at the library, and the second is a police officer. Uh, in the library's case, um, Amanda Landry
has resigned and, uh, is vacating that position and so looking to backfill that. Uh this is a budgeted position uh this fiscal year. Uh also a uh police officer Eva Ken is relocating out of state and so that opens up a position at the police department. So looking to
fill that vacancy. >> Do you need any motion for that? >> Yes, >> I got it here. I was looking to see if we were any concern or discussion. >> Any comments, discussions? I move to o authorize the posting of a youth services supervisor position for the public library and the posting of a
police officer position for the police department. >> Second. >> All those [clears throat] in favor say I. I. >> I. >> Any nays? >> Um we have three eyes and one abstain. Any nays hearing?
None. The motion carries. The next item is we are towards the end which is leazo reports. The board will consider reviewing and approving its FY27 leazo assignments. Um I think we
pretty much everyone expressed interest of keeping the same portfolio. Uh any questions, comments? Mr. Kizner had some >> Yep. I had one I wanted to just discuss an open meeting. So Mr. Clark, you and I have non-strategically and non-deliberately discussed this previously in your tenure as chair, but
I wanted to ask if you'd be interested in swapping DPW for police, just given the role that I have right now and sort of the responsibility over there. I wanted the proximity to it, and I know you and I had talked DPW previously. I'm also happy to keep it. Carrie is not a chip to be traded. She's in the back.
>> Yeah. And I thought one of the reasons to like have you be the liazison to this committee was to keep that separation. >> Interesting. I'm thinking about the longevity of it long [music] term. So for me, I own an extra piece of this
decision. The five of us will uniquely make it, but I've certainly had more of a hand in the groceries and the meal prep than everybody else. I wanted the chance to maintain that proximity after the process. If you'd like to wait until after the process, I'm happy to entertain the discussion then, but I would like to push for the opportunity
to have the I want to push for the opportunity to be the leadership interface over there given the decision I'm making and the role I'm playing over there right now. >> Yeah, I I respect that. I would prefer to keep it and keep some consistency in place like we've had. >> But at some point then, if you don't
change and I don't change, the assignments don't change and we've had all of us here. I don't have to force the issue now, but I made it clear to you when you took this as chair last year that I was not comfortable with you having both fire and police. I remain uncomfortable with you having both fire and police. I now think I have a really
legitimate reason in the broader interest of the board to be interested in that liaison. But you and I should have a background conversation. We do not have to argue in public about this. This was not an immediate easy yes. Let's continue the debate. I don't want to force it here at all. >> Thank you, Mr. is uh and appreciate u
the exchange and uh candid and open public communication and conversation on this. So I would suggest let's um and sounds like Mr. Kizner you are okay with it let's go with it for now if you are okay with that um or we can have more
discussion or vote on this but if you want to talk offline with Mr. um Mr. clerk >> and then should anything changes we can bring it back in the next meeting except for >> that's the approach I would like to take please I understand it would have to
come back to the broader forum for actionability I just don't think we have to make the sausage here I'm comfortable leaving the assignment for now Joe is fully capable of executing this this has nothing to do with the way he's handling the responsibility >> I appreciate that so I think we'll continue with u the current board
assignments as is um do we need any motion or anything and Brian also expressed the same interest. So >> he's not here today. U I I would look for the board's um board's uh consent,
but seems like we can move ahead. >> Yeah. And before you uh move to a motion, there are four uh positions that are voting members of groups. So I just want to confirm that. Uh so for the open taste preservation commission, um Joe was the person before. Um,
>> yeah, I've had it the last two years >> and unless someone would like to do it, I'm I'm happy to keep it. It's certainly hard to make the additional meetings as a voting member, but I'm happy to do it. >> Okay. And then for affordable housing trust fund board, it be met.
>> Yep. But I should note I've never technically been invited to a meeting. We'll make sure connect with the chair and make sure >> uh and then for MAPC as a three-year term and Amy you were the representative before.
>> Yeah, I've done it twice before. I'm happy to continue unless someone else wants it. And then this the Metro West Regional Trade Authority. >> Yep, I'm good with that. >> Okay, great. That's a one-year term. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> All right.
uh and Bran didn't have any um anything like that. So, >> okay. So, I would move to approve the FY27 leazison on list and to appoint the following Joe Clark to the open space preservation committee to a term expiring June 30th, 2031.
Nisser to the affordable housing trust fund board to a term expiring June 30th, 2028. Amy Rotobrush is a select board representative of the metropolitan area planning council to a three-year term. And should I duel the metro? Yep. >> Shan to the Metro West Transit Authority
Advisory Board to your term. >> Second. >> All those who are in favor say I. >> I. >> Any nays? Hearing none. Motion carries. Thank you. And with that, we can move to our future board agenda items. Actually,
one one thing I wanted to um just bring up as the leazer. Oh, we haven't done le report. We we'll do um if there is anything else you want to share time from your previous assignments or just in general on town uh events or others.
Mr. Clark, >> um I I I think just one quick one. Um congratulations to Patrick Gross on his retirement from the fire department. Um I think they did his ride home. Is it last weekend? I forget, but within the last week or so. So congratulations on a long career.
>> That's awesome. Um 35 years is it? It sounds right. >> Yeah, it's it's been a while. >> Congratulations, Patrick. Thank you for your service. Uh, Mr. Ker, uh, more from me next time. My first wave of second FY one-on-one starts next month with parks
and wreck and I'll be hitting Carrie and the rest of my leasons over the next month or two. >> Thank you, Mr. Rush. >> Um, yep. I was going to add um, oh, I just wanted to recognize I think Mr. Kushner already did the July 4th parade was great and we all participated. So that was great to see. And then also the
pride parade. Several more than one of us went to the pride parade uh since our last meeting too which was well done. And the commission on disability is super excited that the railing at the library and the main street entrance is up now. >> Yeah. >> And um but right then now the sidewalk is under construction. So when the
sidewalk is finished we the new cement is placed. Then we're going to go take a picture of the railing. right now you can't stand there, but they're very excited about that. Um, and then let's see. Okay, my other things are future D items.
>> Great. Anything else? >> Uh, sorry, just just a call out and kind of moving back. It's I think it's more of just like a mistake, but um I just noticed I was listed as the parks and wreck commission as well, but I think it was Matt. We're both we're both selected
on it in the spreadsheet. Y >> and it looks like the public library has both Matt and Shadu. >> Yep. And I think I own both of those. Public library and parks and wreck. >> Let's correct. >> Make that correction. >> Thank you. Good point.
>> Under lean or sorry reports and board invites. Um the firefighter Sunday was a about a month ago and um I heard that select was listed on the program but none of us were there. So, I don't know if we can work on that for next year to make >> which event was that >> the firefighter Sunday. The fire
department has like um a quick out at the firehouse. >> So, I I've attended that the last couple of years. >> Yeah. And I've attended it once, too. >> Yeah. And I was out of town that weekend and Gary knew that. I'm not sure why we were on the agenda. >> Oh, it wasn't that way. >> But when I I was in town, I could have
gone, but I didn't think about it since >> Yeah, it wasn't like communicated like that. >> I thought that maybe that was the case. Do we have anything coming up we should be discussing here now? >> We haven't received anything but if any of you receive something just forward it to us. You don't receive everything.
>> I was >> Yeah, I remember you you went to the last few years. >> Um I just wanted to add one other which is for the LNG. We had a good meeting with Eversource. Thank you uh Ela for organizing that and representative James
Tirosa also was gracious and joined the conversation. So, we had a conversation about the legislation and um uh Representative D. Rosa is going to take it up to our um Congressman Jim McGovern
for escalating some of the uh regulatory gap that has been there for what 25 years and kind of meeting with you. But at the town level we uh had some good update and overview and we can have another session probably formalize that
that's also on the agenda. Quickly, um, since our last public forum, which is about 3 years ago, time flies, they have spent about 180 million to upgrade the liquifification um process and equipments and that has
added to the safety and security that was perceived as a gap like we used to see flames and others. So those are now mitigated uh and it's a big amount and they're also planning to invest another 100 million for some of the other items
[clears throat] they had for fortifying the safety and security of the plan. So more to come I think when we have it on the agenda we can analyze and discuss. One thing I wanted to bring up to the attention which is they had requested to review the Wilson Street location and if
there is any option and uh thoughts around you know routing it around uh it's just one of the things that they thought uh and they probably have talked about it in the past. So what I proposed is that I'll bring it to the board and
maybe we will arrange for a visit site visit to understand the matter without any commitments or anything just to understand what the uh you know pros and cons of the proposal is. Essentially Wilson Street goes through as we all know and people use it uh going through
from legacy farm to the 85 and going through two uh you know tanks in a free way is you know a little bit >> posing risk uh on many fronts. So something to think about and uh if you
all want to be part of the um site tour I'll ask them to give us some dates and we can talk about that in future. >> Love it. hard hat tour all day. >> All right, that's all I have. Now we can move to the any other thoughts,
questions. >> So are are we informally into future board and agenda items here? Uh yeah, as an action I'll get some dates and when we have the future board agenda item >> uh we can discuss further and also finalize the date to your or if you want
I can circulate the dates by email and we can decide that with the proper notification of >> I think Matt's saying is this the point where we should add our future agenda items >> or discuss >> closing them out. Yeah, >> I know we have a long list. >> Okay, >> because we've actually closed a couple items tonight.
>> Uh that's a good point. So, going to the next one. I was looking at the first one and I thought it's on the agenda item, but >> uh and thank you for carrying that action in my absence, Mr. Chair. I appreciate it. >> Yeah. No, no problem. >> I I wanted to suggest to you to the chair that item D, we just approved the
financial management policy. Thank you again to everybody. So, I think it's safe to say we have completed that. And then, while we did hear on items J and K tonight, I would like to propose leaving item J, the drought and water response open. I think I made my point about our
enforcement question needing further discussion. But item K, I do want to suggest we close out. We had the water report from Kerry. We are in compliance. We are below alert levels and we have been made aware of what the long-term action is. It's the MWR connection. [snorts]
>> All right. Thank you. Any other items we can close or add? >> I had a couple possible additions. Um since so it sounds like um there's enough members of the public that might want to do an Elwood school study uh committee. I would also like to make
sure we have on here two retired defunct committees. We do have a few committees still on the books that haven't met in years like the Irvine Tarial Property Advisory Group some and the um platform >> uh yes >> master plan group and some of those
people have moved out of town years ago. I I just feel like we should um close out those committees if they're not needed. Um and there might be a few others on the list, but anyway, before we create the Elwood study committee, I'm hoping we can um cross a few others off the list. >> Alen, can we ask you Lance and Vassuda
to take a swing at bringing us a list of potentially stagnant committees? >> Sure. >> Yeah. Link Maspan Dam Advisory Group had votes on the the dam itself, but not even asked this committee to get together and give us an opinion. Those are the three that pop to my mind.
>> They are active. They're advisory to the DPW. >> Oh, but they don't post public meetings or >> they do. >> Okay. But we've never received like a recommendation when we when we have an article about the dam that we don't even say the committee met and agrees. >> So, they do actually meet.
>> Okay. >> Because some of them I don't think anymore. >> Okay. >> But we'll look into all of them. >> Okay. That'd be great. And then um this sort of I guess it's not really trying to think we'll talk about the
town meeting um survey results next time so we can talk about it then. But I just I I think I mentioned this last time that um a group of towns is getting together and putting an idea um forward to the state where they would do a home rule petition to let let them have remote uh town meeting or people to
participate remotely at their open town meeting. And we don't know if this will ever go through with the state or if it would be allowed, but I thought we should learn more and see if that was something we wanted to also piggyback on and submit a request for the state to come up with some way we could do a remote town meeting. And I'm not even
sure it's a good idea, but it's things something people ask about all the time. So, I would like to know more. >> Sorry. Well, we're bouncing back towards Joe. I think we talked about it, but I would love to have a public forum or public meeting around the flock issue so that we can physically invite the town
in to give us that feedback. Yep. >> Sorry, Joe. >> So, we'll bring it back in the agenda and discuss about >> but specifically as a public meeting. So, >> allow people to ask questions >> to allow the public to come and ask questions and to give us feedback. I
think we got the technical discussion from the from the acting chief tonight. >> Is that something that could be set up as just a public forum uh but not at a select board meeting? That that might be easier if there's >> Jewish choice. I would thoroughly yield
to your expertise about what the right way to get the feedback is. I'm just dead set that I want to purposefully request the feedback from the community and let them know that we have >> we could do it more than one more than one venue. >> Let's work on it then. >> Thank you, sir.
>> Thank you. Is that it? Okay. All right. Anyone want to move the motion for executive session? >> I got you. Uh I move to convene an executive session pursuant to MGLC 3821A purpose 2 to consider strategy with respect to negotiation with non-union
personnel fire chief pursuant to MGLC 3821A purpose 3 to discuss strategy with respect to PAS related multi-dist litigation because an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the board to approve executive session minutes from 16 June 26 to allow Elaine Lazareth and
Lance Del Priori to participate in executive session and not to convene in open session at the conclusion of executive session. Second. >> All those who are favor in favor say I. >> I. >> Amy roll. We got a roll. Yeah. >> Amy, yes. >> Mattis, yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you.
>> Thanks everybody. Enjoy the summer.