e e e e e e e I can hear ifan all right it's 602 let's get started uh hi this is Shah Manan member and vice chair of I call the meeting to order this meeting of the H SCH is being H un the video conference platform zo uh we have a hybrid meeting today select board members Muriel Kramer chair and myself will be participating remotely and all other members of the select board are present for this meeting at town hall room 25216 in person at this time I will ensure that the select board members participating remotely can hear and be hard um Can someone confirm heard and actually I did not hear anything oh we can hear you yeah we can we can hear you um I'm not sure that Muriel is on the zoom Muriel if you're on the zoom can you raise your hand so we know okay it so did Ben see that it is her okay yeah I see Mel um can you hear us and can you speak so we can confirm that we can hear you Mariel you're muted can you hear me yes yes okay great thank you thank you uh do we need to roll call for the members in the room Amy R present finest R present Mary Jo present thank you at this time um 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 the first item on the agenda agenda is Pledge of Allegiance just do you can all rise aliance to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you uh now we'll open for public forum please note that each person will have up to 2 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 yes please come forward Scott oer 17 Fawn Ridge Road on March 6th 2024 former officer pad O'Brian came before you to share his thoughts surrounding two events concerning police chief Bennett he said the reason he was there was to provide clarification for the board since he knew you had an executive session that night to discuss placing Chief Bennett on administrative leave first he shared his strong views including things he hoped this board had already done people people he hoped you had already spoken with and stating things he hoped the select board had already looked into before making your decision in in addition he stated reasons he thought you should keep Chief Bennett in charge at least through the date of this year's Marathon April 15th the board allowed Pat o'ban 3 minutes and 52 seconds to speak uninterrupted his feedback and opinions went uninterrupted until he was done speaking he wasn't once told he was nearing the 2-minute Mark or over 2 minutes or needs to wrap it up I feel a need to point this out because any other resident that comes before you during open Forum especially anyone who shares their feedback on the police chief is interrupted before the 2-minute mark and continually thereafter this shows some clear bias for whose comments you will listen to and is another deterrent to keep our community from coming before you during a Time when everyone should feel welcome to speak and expected to be treated fairly lastly i' would like to be sure you do realize that Pat o'biden didn't say that the police chief shouldn't be terminated for his poor performance just that he shouldn't be the only one held accountable for violating a victim's rights and should be kept on through the marathon thank you thank you sir thank you hi Kelly depalo 6 Hoy way I am also here to comment on Pat O'Brien's suggestion that the select board should keep Chief Bennett in charge at least through the marathon Pat felt that someon with the chief's institutional knowledge and expertise should be overseeing the smooth operations of our Town's Public Safety officers in order to protect the thousands of lives of both police and civilians who attend andun the marathon and Pat's right for this highly sensitive International Event an event we learned is classified to have the same level of security as the Super Bowl and the presidential election in an event that already has been the location of a terrorist attack the board absolutely needs a seasoned knowledgeable thorough and effective leader in HPD running the show for us luckily the chief has done this before in fact your Chief the guy you want to keep in charge to get us safely through one of the world's most vulnerable international events drafts and circulates a handbook for all the HPD officers to study in advance of the marathon it contains essential information for them to know should anything bad happen as we have seen in the past one of those essential pieces of information is a list of contacts from those other police agencies so that HPD officers can reach them in the event of a threat you likely saw this handbook in the past I happened to see a copy of it from last year's April 17th 2023 Marathon there's one page in here where the chief listed the names and contact info of the Massachusetts State Police Troopers whom HPD officers should call if something bad happens which it has something that if they need assistance or they need to give the Troopers a heads up or something or anything of the sort using public sources only I searched those Troopers names each and every one of them to see if they in fact were using were working the marathon that day the list proved to be grossly outdated thank you thank you nothing to do anyone else in the room Karen Crum 12 Joseph Road um as you just heard one critical resource provided in the chief's Marathon handbook is a list of names and contact information from the Massachusetts State Police Troopers who PO hington officers should call in the event of a threat one might assume that Chief Bennett takes precautions each year to be sure these contacts are prepared for these calls however here are the results that were found when looking into this handbook to verify if in fact these troopers were working on Marathon day in 2023 brace yourselves there's a list of 14 contacts actually 13 the chief's 2023 list began with Captain Mike mno he had retired a month prior Lieutenant Dave bule looks like he retired about the same time just before the marathon Lieutenant Deborah Ryan and DET detective Lieutenant Mary Senate both had retired in September of 2022 so it wasn't new information Captain Brian Moran nope he wasn't working that day either he retired in 2021 Captain John Mill he had also retired as a major not a captain so the chief was using such outdated information that he even had the guys rank wrong in fact four of these contacts at outdated ranks Captain James oir Lieutenant Michael weaton and Captain Brian Moore all had retired in the first quarter of 2020 so this is our 2023 Marathon handbook case of emergency Lieutenant Walter Hanley Lieutenant Charlie mcfa and Captain Christopher Wilcox he can almost say it with me they retired too the last one on the chief's list of Massachusetts state troopers to call in case of emergency was Lieutenant Daniel Griffin Al also retired September 2020 and then indicted for financial crimes in December of 2020 so he obviously wasn't working that day so all the Troopers that the chief listed in his safety precaution plan they were all wrong that means he basically lied to all public safety officials working at the 2023 marathon in hopkington this is a really big deal I mean imagine what that means if there had been another bombing God forbid and your officers would have been calling the wrong people they would have wasted time going down that list and they would have put lives at stake and now you want to keep this Chief in the position at least through the marathon to protect people so that would that would be quite a lawsuit so Pat O'Brien was exactly right we do need good leadership for the marathon and you've had the time to put necessary leadership in place and chosen not to thank you thank you sh there is one hand raised on Zoom or two hands now yeah actually I see two I I know team boin was first so team do you want to go first well I think we still have people in the room that want to speak yes oh okay let's finish the people who are waiting in the room first yeah please go ahead is he ready y s sa here one Woody Island for nine weeks now concerned residents have been providing the board during open Forum in and emails with facts about Chief Bennett's Troublesome actions and his inability to perform that um and honestly you as the chief's boss should have already known these facts that have been affect that have been affecting him and affecting you supervising him as Muriel recently professed you all should have known about and should have insisted upon seeing the letter of no confidence in the chief that several police sergeants had produced long ago as his boss when you're asking the chief to do something it should be an expectation and followed up on it's not just about the chief's inability to be effective in his role anymore but this also sheds more light on the ineffectiveness of you as his boss and as our talent leaders it's highly concerning and it should be concerning to our hopkington residents and to the police officers who put themselves out there that the select board has allowed the chief to stay in his role after you have become aware of so many failures on his part the information you just heard is yet another failure to add to Muriel's already dismal review of the chief's performance as well as to the ober's March 11th meticulous stepbystep analysis of his self-review which could be found on Hop news hopkington residents should be asking you the select to explain why you have kept the chief in command throughout a lengthy time frame of well documented poor performance why have you decided to give the chief an extra two weeks to respond to the performance feedback given at his review how can the majority of this board still confidently stand behind your recent decisions as what this is being best for our town and most shockingly how you the board can continue to deem Chief Bennett to be be the right person to protect thousands and thousands of people from around the world that will be descending upon Hoppington for the marathon in closing I hope truly hope for the safety of our of the thousands of people in attendance at the marathon and the future safety of our town that what you heard tonight and in recent weeks will cause each of you to self-reflect on your lack of Effectiveness as his boss your lack of accountability to make sure he is actually doing his job and to examine the information within any of the chief's handbooks especially the ones regarding department policies and given the timing we the town's people should be praying that you all now feel a sudden sense of urgency to check the hopkington PD's 2024 Marathon handbook to make sure that the chief has not once again risked the lives of either neglecting or lazily copying pasting outdated security information into that resource guide as we have heard tonight way over few minutes but thank you thank you anyone else in the room there's one more in the room one more Peter please come for Peter legoy 21 Hayden no Street speaking here as chair of the trails coordination and management committee or Trails committee um on two topics the first topic is that I understand the upper Charles Trail committee is meeting tomorrow night to start their process of reviewing their charge um I urge the board to also have a public session once they've had some time to work through some of their issues I would say that as a reminder that the trails committee was not involved in any way in the development of the articles for Town Meeting those were put forward by Citizen petitioners and those citizen petitioners should have a voice in the process of moving forward um the second topic is just a thank you um to Ben Joyce for his work on constructing Trails for our committee um he constructed a section of bridge down behind the center tra the center school and Elmwood farm that is an important link sort of re he rebuilt the bridge there's an important link on the cranberry bog Trail down there so we we thank him for his effort and I understand he's before you tonight so thank you thank you if there's no other um present in the room I would request Tim boin from Zoom to speak up yes can you hear me yeah okay um my I have questions Tim Timothy boan 41 Pine Crest Village uh my first question did the Northwestern Ada asked the board to suspend the midyear review or just ask you to not conduct your own investigation into the release of the Survivor and her children's personal identifying information until their investigation had concluded can you clarify that for us speak yeah um the uh the da did not ask us to suspend our um midyear performance review we are planning on continuing that uh in the in the next week or two and that hearing is supposed to be held in in public right yes so why was the decision to suspend the review not debated in a public meeting given that the discussion was tabled 3 weeks ago so the chief could give himself time to prepare answers to the chair's several other questions about its performance I can't answer that I can okay please scheduling of a matter before the board is an administrative measure and that was discussed outside the Open Session as an administrative met uh well I'm confused because you told the public um that it would be discussed at last week's meeting so I I I don't understand why that wasn't uh something that the board was involved in making that decision that doesn't seem administrative to me the review was already in process you are correct at the meeting in which the board discussed the chief's performance evaluation there was a public announcement as to when that discussion will be continued unfortunately due to scheduling constraints that was no longer possible uh yes it was possible but whatever so given that the chief is under investigation why hasn't he been suspended until the investigation is completed as was the precedent setting the John Porter and Sergeant Timothy Brennan cases I'm not going to answer that right now I'm sorry this not an interactive session um if you want to complete your statement uh you have about 40 seconds left I this isn't a question and answer period just for everybody's sake it's a public it's a it's it's an opportunity for you to speak I don't know if you've noticed but we're taking notes as to everything that you guys say that we are going to take up need to take a notes but this is not this is not a question and answer uh session we're giving you the opportunity to speak answer uh I I disagree with you because I've been to several of these meetings and the chair has said that this was an opportunity to ask the board question so I'm asking the question that's fine you can ask the question and we'll take it no it's not we're taking it but we are not making it an interactive session that's not how we operate the public forum it's more questions another 20 seconds or so do you want to had an opportunity to discuss it when we put it on the agenda you'll get your answers it will be on the agenda so we're going to discuss it and then we'll also bring up the questions that you asked and uh discuss and response in that se you yeah okay my last statement is you probably need to restructure how what you say the public forum allows because you're not allowing questions um I I you know yeah and that's fine take it under advisement but I you know uh that's not how I was that was I was under the impression based on instructions that were given at the start of each meeting that you would be able to ask the board questions thank you thank you thank you and online on Zoom P do you want to speak now uh good evening Mr Vice chair um and distinguished members of the select board Peter Thomas 2115 Pawn Street on February 28th 2023 then chair Amy ritterbush signed a contract renewal for the chief that runs through 2026 this contract had a few alarming Provisions one is a termination provision that would see the chief paid $140,200 without cause uh my rhetorical question to the select board is is this why you have not terminated him because you will be forced to pay him $140,000 uh and I know it's not a Q&A session so I'll just throw that out there uh secondly his contract is in fact in conflict with the town Charter his contract says that he will be treated as a strong Chief but the town Charter says that he is a weak Chief now a couple of weeks ago the town manager recommended an article which you endorsed to have the CH Charter corrected due to what you termed a scrivener's error but now it appears that this article up for consideration is actually being considered because it is in conflict with the chief's contract not because of a scrivener's error and finally the chief's contract has an indemnification clause and this is the most alarming part it puts the taxpayers on the hook for footing the bill for his lawyers for any action against him including the one the Northwest Ada may choose to file for criminal charges also by this contract the town will be forced to pay out any settlement whether it is negotiated or otherwise thank you thank you Peter that's anyone else I don't see any more online anyone else in the room all right thank you we are closing the public forum and moving on to our next item on the agenda which is the consent agenda the select board will consider the following consent agenda minutes the select board will consider approving the minutes of the February 23 and 27 2024 meetings uh B accept gift the C board will consider accepting a donation of $300 from chakradhar for bapala to be deposited in the police gift account the donation was collected via a small fundraising event at an Indian festival c y sale sign request the select board will consider approving a request from the hopkington Lions Club to place temporary signs advertising the community yard sale on 51124 within the road rights of way of East Main Street Main Street Sedar Street West Main Street Wood Street South Street and Hayden row 50 to 60 signs are anticipated to be placed on corners and sides of Roads signs will be 18 by 24 two-sided with 10 by 15 wi Stakes signs would be placed on or around April 11 and would be removed the evening of May 11 zoning by law section 210 to 178f states that signs may be displaced in the rights of way of East Main Street Main Street Sedar Street West Main Street Wood Street South Street and Hayden row if authorized by the select board maximum size in 20 square ft um is there any questions or comments or anyone wants to separate anything from the consent agenda no I I'd move the motion as written second second we do a call vot um am finest yes am Rush yes J yes Buel Kramer yes yes motion passes uh the next item we have is the troop for Eagle Scouts the select board will consider honoring Eagle Scouts benj Sean tapa and Dawson Mary guys come on up [Applause] and I'm going to invite the parents to come sit in the front row it's your moment too that's where we want you that's what we call the hot seat thank you and U I don't have the details uh on the um overall Awards and the description of each of the achievements but I would just congratulate uh to all of you for your wonderful work and uh the great uh community service that you have put together and all the hard work that you have um done and achieved through uh the years today is a great way to um uh honor them and we are thankful and certainly I want to congratulate you on your achievement and your a words and I want to also extend my thanks and appreciation of the parents of the teachers and leaders in Scouts uh who has coached and uh groomed you throughout the years it's everyone's achievement it's a great day and congratulations to you all and I would let uh ifan and Norman if you can elaborate on the details of each of the um e Scouts achievements and backgrounds could we maybe have each of the scouts describe their project um first yeah absolutely I was going to ask each of them to tell us yeah could you tell us a little bit about your project Pro um my name is Sean fappa um I first want to say thank you for taking the time to have us here I really appreciate it um my project was a story walk for the Hopkinson public library and its main objective was to promote um healthy outdoor activity could you move that a a little closer it's not quite loud enough okay is this okay y That's better better um so uh again my project was the story walk for the Hopkinson public library and its main objective was to promote healthy outdoor activity while encouraging love over reading for children um and it took about one year to complete and it's still in use today they switch out a uh picture books for children to walk along and read uh at the same time with their parents awesome thank you my name is Ben Joyce um thank you for recognizing us again for our projects uh so my project as Mr said previously uh I repaired a a previous Eagle Scouts bridge over on cranberry Trail and um it took me about 6 months and and it's still in use today can you tell me like the logistics and and and restoring it yeah so um I started out um um organizing uh with Mr legoy he helped me a lot with it getting the supplies and um um The Help From The Troop also uh it led the boys to um clear a trail as well and uh remove the old boards that were all rotted and uh put on the new ones yeah excellent that's uh that's quite defeat and uh Dawson uh my name is Dawson Mary um my Eagle Scout project was repairing um or cleaning veterans gravestones at um East hopkington cemetery on Clinton Street um I did that is like um you know if you fought for our country you don't you deserve like a clean gravestone not um not a dirty one so it's to like honor you know what they did to serve our country and like they deserve like a clean gravestone and um you know the the planning was kind of tedious you know like it took a lot longer than like the actual project but um you know I was really proud of myself and I got it done so I mean that's really all that matters so tell me a bit about uh the the tediousness of of getting of the preparation I mean you just have to like email like an adult leader like um there's a whole bunch of like paperwork um it's just like I don't know it's kind of overwhelming but then um doing the actual project is like fun um the paperwork the planning is [Laughter] not um I'm would be curious to know from all three you um if you can talk about something that might have gone wrong and how you learned from it which I think is a skill you're going to use you know later in life as well I mean for me um you know the solution I used to like clean the gravestones um it looked like for the first like couple months that I like wasn't working um initially I thought it was going to like work instantly but um it took about like 4 months or something um and you know uh I should have like researched before um how long it's actually going to take so that I wasn't like disappointed after a week by not seeing any results um so I mean that was that definitely sounds like a yeah that was definitely a big um something difficult about my project in the planning and execution thank you Joe he's ask him for three you're all going to say something so okay so um the most challenging part of my project was uh when I was taking off the board since the the whole Bridge was so rotted the um the screws broke off and all of that so um it took me a while to uh take them all off but I learned how to do carpentry my dad taught me and um yeah I learned a lot from it thank you SE uh some of the challenges that I encountered with my project um was one there was some piping and infastructure in the ground where I was installing the signs for the story walk so I actually had to take a step back and design two uh prototypes one that could be uh installed into the ground and one that could be uh hung and would stay um attached to a nearby railing um then another issue was um the number of the signs that I had to produce it was um 18 + one with my own like uh plaque on it and this number uh was a challenge because there would be mistakes CU I was doing all these by hand and um yeah just making sure that everything was uh as close to perfect as possible um without making any waste thank you I know this was uh these are your projects but did you have any kind of team uh parental assistance other other Scouts uh that kind of thing working on the projects also um for me I had a lot of help with uh getting the projects sort of into my hands um a parent and uh um support in the troop and in my life um Amanda loada uh reached out to the library and asked like if they need any uh kids to help out with projects they said yes and I stepped into the role um then from there um I spoke with the library and the beneficiaries and they helped me with their idea of what they needed and then and um most of the uh project was done during like quarantine so it was really only me and my dad working on these signs um we could have had uh some other uh Scouts help but it was pretty um precise work and we were using some um inp Machinery so it was just us to for the most part I had some help with from my brother as well and some moral support from my mother but that was about it and so yeah a lot of help from my father good dad so my project needed help from people at all times so uh it started with Mr legoy who helped me get approval for the project with the trails committee and uh he he gave me links to Hopkinson Lumber which is where I got um discounted wood and all my supplies from and they they really helped me out with that and um building the actual Bridge uh my troop four a lot of people I think I had like around 20 helping me at once and uh leading them all together went well I couldn't have done it without them thank you um for me I mean I kept mine kind of lowkey it was just um me and my Dad working on the cemetery um on the gravestones it's like I could have um recruited other Scouts for my troop to help but um you know I thought maybe they'd be like running around they could like knock over a gravestone I thought I'd keep it like lowkey and respectful but just me and my dad it's just an easy enough project I didn't need much help um I just kept it calm kept it simple I uh I I'm really excited about these particular projects they're a little different than ones that have been brought before us and they show Innovation on your Pat and uh I really want to commend that I also have always said it t It Takes a Family to build an eagle scout and your fathers have been involved and I'm sure your mothers are at least is involved at home so uh I it's just very encouraging you're great yeah this is amazing I'm as I'm hearing I mean it's so heart feeling and uh so uh encouraging that uh at such a young age you have achieved so much and gone through the challenges learned and worked together and took help and coaching from your parents your leaders and uh achieved something and given something to the community I really uh wish you all the best and I'm sure you'll grow more as your in your leadership and continue to give back to the community I just wanted to ask um quickly if each of you can tell what would you say your biggest learning through the years and through these projects um in one sentence if you may uh don't quit don't give up because you'll be proud of yourself in the end um so being a previous SPL I really learned how to lead and I think that that Translate uh to the rest of my life pretty well great I'd say for me um uh not being afraid to ask for help uh is one big thing that I learned and putting my trust in others to help me along the way there's not really weakness in that that's like probably like the greatest strength that I would say that I have after that ordeal excellent very well said I'm um we all learning and we all learning from you as well so thank you U three you miss share oh sorry please go ahead yeah no I'm sorry I can't be there tonight it's one of my favorite things to do is to recognize um young people and their achievements Scouts being uh one of them primarily I just want to make sure I congratulate you all um I know what it takes to uh to advance through all the scouting ranks um these are learnings I love loved hearing about your learnings and the your overcoming challenges and these are learnings you will take with you your whole life and they're learnings that people will recognize when they see this on your resume they'll recognize your ability at a very young age to organize to work through challenges and to lead others so congratulations and I wish I could be there tonight and my apologize apologies for missing it take care so um the vice chair who's shairing this meeting uh had to sign off so I'm going to take over if the board members are all okay with that so um I just want to say to all three of you you know it's not just a project that you did it's a lot more it's a learning lesson It's A Life Lesson and how to get things done and the frustrations are part of it learning how to navigate through the the frustrating aspects and the difficult parts that's part of of the whole thing and when you succeed it makes it that much sweeter this is something that you're going to keep with you for your entire life when you're applying for jobs you're going to say you're an eagle scout and we know what that means we know how hard you worked and the dedication that you did um and that you served your community and that means in awful lot so you should all be very proud of yourselves thank you than you get a picture pictures proclamations you want to come up gentlemen parents parents parents we we wouldn't be able to they wouldn't be getting the picture without you guys here so this is great thank you congratulations guys great work great thank you very much [Music] you take them back what's that why do we take them back they're not signed by everybody oh everybody yeah okay so the next item on our agenda is a new police officer the select board will uh interview and consider appointing Kyle quinzani as a police officer in the town of Hopkinson Mr calu and chief chief B good evening everybody um so little closer thank you all right thank you it's a wonderful day when we can bring forward a new police officer um as you know and as I've stated before a lot of work goes into bringing forward a police officer and Mr Merill will outline a little bit of that but uh I think I probably would like to start with the process of how we get here if you'd be willing to cover that and then I I can discuss a little bit about Kyle and introduce you to him absolutely th so through the chair um the process started with a posting on December 12th of 2023 um we had a priority deadline of January 2nd and we received 33 applications cover letters and resumés for the posting um we identified 10 initially that had qualifications uh according to our posting metrics to be interviewed and um we conducted first round interviews on January 18th uh we saw nine candidates at that time and um we interviewed um those nine candidates with the assistance of Officer Matt Santoro officer Cody Normandin and myself um from there um we put forth um six officers to be interviewed uh by Chief Bennett detective Sergeant Ben ralton and Jessica lence of HR on January 24th um additionally we interviewed a candidate on February 7th who had been actively deployed um so we waited for their return and then interviewed that individual um so from that posting We have identified six officers um at very they're all in various stages of the pre-employment process right now um Kyle was the first to complete uh the pre-employment process he he is um graduating from the miramac uh Academy on April 12th um and um we'll be ready to start uh within days thereafter um so that was our process um so um right from the beginning when I met Kyle in the interview I was very impressed with his responses they were thorough and uh he showed a level of care and compassion that we look for in in our police officers as you've all experienced um Kyle is going to graduate with his master's degree and his uh Academy class so he's going to hit the ground running um I'd like to personally thank everybody that goes into the work of bringing Kyle forward Human Resources police officers doing interviews detective Sergeant van ralton working with Christian on all the backgrounds and setting up the testing and phys physical um and psychological testing that we put that we put candidates through it's a very rigorous process and quite honest with you we don't we don't not everybody makes it through even once they have a conditional offer so um I'm proud to sit here with you Kyle and uh as a matter of what will happen next uh hopefully if you if you decide to hire him is he'll be passed on to the field training team uh tonight uh shanon Bin is here she is going to be his lead field trainer uh she came in from her time off to to be here tonight and in support Kyle and uh be happy to discuss what that looks like after if you meet Kyle and after you consider him you can talk right into the mic excellent Kyle would you like to uh introduce yourself yeah of course as Chief said I'm Kyle 22 right now I'm from Millis um I'm a student officer in the Marat College Police Academy how that works is once you finish your undergrad you can apply to the program it's a dual program so I have to do my Master's Degree and the police academy at the same time so it's been very busy but um yeah I've want I've known I want to be a police officer since before high school um it's really it's starting to feel real now I'm really excited and um just happy to be here right now excellent I'm gonna let the other board members to start I just want to say I think that's really great that you're getting your Masters at the same time I think you you'll never regret thought that you just got that out of the way at the beginning although I'm sure you're really busy with it right now but um so the town of hopkington has adopted the pledge principles and actions on systemic racism in our community and other communities and that pledge reaffirms Hopkin's ongoing commitment to address systemic racism social and Justice and inequity in our governance and provision of services to happing in residents and businesses and so in what ways as a police officer can you support that pledge yeah I think a police officer is like the perfect spot where you should be supporting that pledge um I think treating everyone that I come in contact to the way I'd want to be treated by a police officer the way I'd want a police officer to treat my parents or my siblings um you know I think police work it's based off factual information integrity and respect there's no room for bias racism systemic race anything and just to you know uphold The Pledge obviously if I ever saw something that made me feel the wrong way I'd report it to someone higher up and just as I would do that I would expect another officer to do that if I were ever to do something wrong so I think just myself to that high standard um I think that would go a long way for that pledge thank you of course okay uh if we were to hire you in the Harington Police Department what steps would you take personally uh to help build trust in camaraderie and legitimacy among the rank and file of the police department um yeah I Community yeah absolutely I think for the fellow police officers just always being ready to back them up for anything they ever need help with but also just becoming like a friend to them you know end of the shift if they need someone to talk to I want them to feel comfortable come to me to talk just to you know talk about whatever need uh same with the community you know I just treat everyone with respect go to community events whether I'm on duty or off um say like any action no matter how small know how big it is I think people remember how the police treat them so if I can treat someone right they're going to remember that forever it might change their whole view of police in general so I think that would help my my um it's my reputation in town so what is it about Hopkinson that interest interests you in this position you know what are your long-term goals career goals and uh how does this position in this community fit within those goals yeah so I wanted to work somewhere kind of close to home like I'm from Millis only two towns over um I wanted to work somewhere where the Comm the uh Community was one of the primary like the uh what the police were spending their most of their attention on I think I think I'm a people person I think I'll fit right in here at Hopkinson because off what Chief has told me of the other officers that are here supporting me it's a very community-driven Department um I think I'll fit right in and I've always had some good personal memories here in town I used to play baseball here all summer and then come downtown and get pizza so I've never had a bad memory in Hopkinson so you are a rival try League what about your career goals a career goals I mean I've always just had my heart set on becoming a police officer I've never really looked further like I guess just become the best police officer I can be and see where it takes me um one thing I've always had interest in I don't know if you guys do that in hopkington would be always want to have a k9 so if I could ever do that that would be that would be an awesome goal of mine but other than that just you know becoming the best police officer I can and just leave a meaningful impact on a lot of people excellent Mariel I think she stepped off she oh no she's still still alive I saw yeah hi thank you um I apologize that I I can't be there tonight um uh I guess uh I would just like to know what you think you and other officers might do um programmatically or through interactions and so forth in the Community to encourage young people to think about uh being a police officer as a career goal and instill a positive sort of um uh opinion in their in their minds about this as a as a potential career for themselves uh that's a great question I think um the first thing I'd have to do is just interact with as many young kids as possible not only leave a good impression on them but also say you know this is what it's like to be a police officer and tell them all the good things about it how um I think you know I haven't worked as a police officer yet but I think this career really gives you a lot of opportunity that no other career in the world can give you and I think um I know some kids hate police officers some kids are scared of them but I think someone look at them as superheroes and you know I'd want to turn more kids to look at them like that thank you I one one follow-up question um um so a lot of people don't think about the ways that uh it's unpredictable and difficult to be a police officer even in a in a you know nice safe Community like hopkington what do you do um to balance the stress of the job and take care of yourself in social work I'm a social worker we call it self-care what do you do to balance your work stress uh one thing I've done through the academy and my masters is I always make time every day to out get my mind off things um have a great great relationship with my parents who are here they support me through everything I always talk to them whenever I need it same with my friends um you know obviously end of the day I have to go home write reports write papers more than I wish I ever had to but um I always just try to make a little time each day just to get my mind off the academy just you know do things I would do before the academy whether it's go fishing go out in the woods going a hike hang out with my dogs um anything really just just get a little space from what my mind has been at all day so I think those things all help me it's good thing to do it's my go to get out in the woods I just want to say that it it's nice and and I hope you get to know them we have four or five officers in in the room for support and they will support you and uh I I always appreciate their presence here too so get to know everybody absolutely I think it says a lot about the department that they're here supporting me before I'm even part of the team yeah all right I I'm move to appoint Kyle quani as police officer in the town of hopkington second second do we uh Mr Cal do we still need to do roll call Vote or can we just yeah oh cuz still not okay we'll do a roll call vote um yes yes yes and her finest R is a yes as well congratulations M have a [Applause] [Music] CA [Music] [Music] [Applause] EXC conratulations thank you chrisan congratulations Chief congratulations yeah certainly seems like we got a good run I'm just going to wait for Mary Joe to get back and did you Connor told me we're not doing a library trustee tonight because they forgot to post their meeting okay but we do still need the next time okay so it's it's getting kicked back what's that it's getting kicked to the next meeting yeah well we're doing the special time meeting we but not the library right right okay and you'll tell me feels kind of weird speaking to an empty room but the next item on our agenda [Laughter] sorry but since when do you speak uh so the next item on our agenda is the special town meeting uh May 6 2024 annual town meeting the select board will consider calling a special town meeting within the 2024 annual town meeting um and the select board will consider reviewing the draft anual town meeting warant Mr yes um following up on a discussion held at the last select board meeting uh tonight we're respectfully requesting the board uh consider uh calling a special town meeting within the 20124 annual town meeting we included a proposed timeline um for the actions that are associated with calling a special town meeting March 19th 2024 the board calls a special town meeting and sets the date and time at a public meeting March 21st the town publishes a notice to a local news medium and sends a notice to all boards and committees April 4th articles are due to select boid by Clause of business on the 10th business day following the publication uh April 4th to the 12th we work on preparing the warrant for the special town meeting and then the week of April ail 15th the select board votes to sign the warrant at a public meeting April 23rd we post the warrant at the town hall post office Library Senior Center and at least one public safety building at least 14 days before the special town meeting date and then Tuesday May 7th special town meeting that's my question and our agenda it said May 6th but in the here it says May 7th are we specifically doing it on Tuesday rather than one second I believe so there must be a reason yeah it could be either day I think yes um give me one second um probably should been the six only because it might go over couple days could go over two days could go over one day oh Connor is on the zoom you ask Conor oh yeah okay is it that's the special town meeting is on the 7th is that within the annual yes that's within the annual um [Music] oh preferably I think Tuesday may may may make sense it's the second day of of town meeting want the de yes it's the second day yeah that's right so it's town meeting is May 6 then special is within the annual on May 7th that's kind of the way we've done it Connor is live Ed up now Connor does it make a difference to you whether it's the sixth or the seventh so is this for the um special for the special within the annual yeah yeah um let me just so is it just a question of whether the two the two dates whether the 6th or the 7th are preferable right okay so I mean I would say when it comes to these because we don't know how long they're going to last I usually suggest and we've done it in the past where we hold it on the sixth and we basically complete the business of the uh of the special especially if it's just going to be one article um then we just get that all done before we close up uh before we really start up on the business of the annual uh I mean that that would probably be the most efficient way to do it and that way if we do start to get a real rhythm going we're not stopping everything to take care of it on a second night um Mr Calo is it can we just amend the uh um timeline so that corner knows I'm actually counting the 14 days about yeah I'm counting the 14 days just to make sure that the 60 will work okay if that's the okay yeah go for it yes has to be May 7th okay it has to be the 7th then then it has to be the 7th um so we can do I mean I don't know how much electronic voting is going to do for the amount of Articles we have but realistically it's not um I mean it we don't know if it's going to decrease it into just a a one nighter anyway so I mean I would it's definitely feasible to then just say we'll do it as kind of the first thing to take under consideration before we reopen the annual night two um assuming we go to a night two I mean I definitely think it's would be a good idea to Loop in the moderator if not already just to make sure that she's aware of uh of this as well okay so I me to make a motion then so yeah I would make a motion to call a special Aton meeting on Tuesday May 7th at 7 pm second okay we have a motions been seconded any discussion hearing none we'll take a roll call vote am Bush yes M fer yesus R yes juriel Kramer yes okay thank you sure thank you okay so that moves us to Liaison reports oh no I guess the library is at the end sorry library is at the end yeah well in case anybody is waiting for the uh joint meeting with the board of Library trustees um we will not be having that meeting I think the U the board of Library trustees uh was unable to post it in time on their agenda there was a posting Challenge and they are now looking for a date that would work for the trustees okay and the select board so with that um Lea on reports all of us attended the ifar last Friday at the Islamic mazine in hopkington which is very nice and welcoming there a lot of people Fai there it was nice I I was there also it was great except chasing around that little muskrat of mine it's easy for those who have toddlers uh I went to the um opening Marathon YMCA breakfast in in Framingham and that was really really nice they did a few things in memory of the hits and they had a number of good speakers and uh just everybody having to do with the marathon pretty much was there and it was a great uh it was a great event and this morning I went to the Chamber of breakfast in which uh the governor was here last week and uh hington has been made a platinum community and they felt the state and uh everybody that is there it's it's a real honor to be to be named that because there's very few towns in the state that are it and it has to do with our our permitting and our planning on on right now on South Street making room for biotech and uh the Board of Health was there because their inspections were great the zoning board was brought out because they're they're good to deal with the planning board um they just Hoppington is just a great town to deal with for these growing Industries and uh they appreciate it so the governor and uh the the people in the chamber have uh made us a platinum community in the state we're very one of very few so it's it's quite an honor really it's great the other thing I was going to mention too that I think probably the two hottest topics for town meeting this year are the MBTA communities act and I know the planning board and Zoning Board have been having a lot of discussions in public about that so I would encourage everybody to watch those on hcam watch the replays so they understand both that article and then the Hopkins school the um addition I know they've been doing a lot of communication forums about that so I'd really encourage the public to watch those on H cam to um get all their questions answered having been an assessor in it always said Harington grew late uh as a community so by the time growth started coming out we were still farm land and and then there were big acreage to go and land became very expensive so it was a 5 to1 ratio to build and that's one of the reasons Hoppington has so many big houses and very few uh subdivision of ranches capes and and smaller homes which Holliston and Ashland and Medway the other communities That Grew faster or earlier have but now what I'm seeing and it's the reason why we had to build the new schools and everything because we just grew and uh but what I'm seeing now is that the towns east of us the first ones to grow natic firmingham uh bigger towns are going up they're growing big condominium complexes is and and they're they're going up and that's what's coming this way and that now I know ni's building new schools um framingham's looking at them and they're running into almost the same problem we had only I was as a spread out you know problem and so we're going to have to keep an eye on on growth because uh and watch what's happening to the east we want to stay a nice Community like we are I mean a lot of that's going to be driven by the planning board too so and then we want to do some developing and and economic development here in in the center of the town which would be good for people absolutely okay uh future board agenda items um so I mean I think we've kind of gone through all these and um so we will be so some of the future board board agenda items are the proposed approach to changes to the charge membership and work of the upper Char Trails committee uh we're waiting for the committee to meet to provide some feedback tomorrow great yeah and they're meeting tomorrow um select board will also uh consider forming a town economic de development advisory Council um that's something that Mr Manan is working on um Mr Manan is also working on the LG plant oversight in advisory committee and oh the dogs discussion point I think we really should wait till after town meeting because the trails committee did put a dog article on the warrant so I don't I think we should wait and see how that goes okay sounds good we can let the uh it's after town meeting so we'll we'll let the chair know and she can schedule she's paying attention okay sorry Mariel that's okay the ominous voice in the screen uh all right um well with that I will accept a motion to adjourn second have a second second all right um any discussion we'll take a roll call vote am yes Mar Jo yes yes Muriel Kramer yes thank you all thank you everyone thank you muel thank you marriel I thought muel was going to vote no she's in Memphis I think