##VIDEO ID:ntihWrZKdFs## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e I am going to call the December 17th Board of selectman meeting to order it being 602 on my laptop um and we will begin with the pledge and then Jingle Bells iedge to the flag flag the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all are you waiting nervously for the sing along all right we have a few announcements to make um this meeting is recorded by the local scene um anyone intending to make an audio or video recording of this meeting should notify the chair at this time we have nobody online and the chief in the audience um financial assistance applications are available on the town's website or by calling the selectman's office for anyone interested in volunteering there are several vacancies on various committees and boards to see a complete list of the openings please visit our website at Kingston ma.gov I just mentioned more specifics for that just for yeah go ahead so some of the ones that have come up in recent meetings Capital planning has two openings wage and personnel has one um they are only a three member board so having being down a member is obviously difficult um finance committee I believe also has a couple of appointments so there are more but just wanted to call a couple by name um and please also check the website for any additional events or notices at www. Kingston ma.gov um more importantly next week we have uh Christmas Eve week so the hours for Christmas Eve the townhouse will close at 12:00 p.m. noon Council and aging at the same time 12:00 noon transfer station again at 12:00 noon highway department will close at 11:00 a.m. and the library will close at 1:30 p.m. um it's now time for open Forum but there's nobody here or online can I ask a question for the following week um do we have early closures for New Year's Eve as well no okay and closed Christmas Day and New Year's Day but otherwise open the follow the Thursday Friday following business hours y okay thank you you okay any other announcements from other members no okay and nobody's here for open Forum um so we will head right into um appointments which we don't it's just additional items right all right so we have uh approval of annual license renewals um includ included in our materials was a summary of all the annual license renewals that have been submitted by Kingston businesses um summary summary also included the type of licenses that have been applied for by each business uh did anybody have any questions or a potential motion to make anyone want to make a motion I move the board of Selectmen approve the annual licenses as printed in the agenda addendum do I have a second second all right all those in favor I that's unanimous all right moving on we have um review of the proposed town meeting timeline um included in our materials was a draft town meeting uh timeline for the annual town meeting um at the December 3rd meeting uh we voted to hold the annual town meeting on April 26 remember that was a little bit earlier than originally um the timeline has been modified to reflect the April 26th date and town clerk uh Paul Gallagher is recommending the annual election be held on Saturday May 17th um are there any questions on um the timeline that was presented to us I just had a quick question we don't typically see the committee meetings on here I'm not opposed to knowing when their meetings are that's helpful just knowing those could change I don't know if we want to put a little asteris saying sure we can certainly do that I I you know I think I did it more selfishly for me to to be able to track the different meetings that need people need to be at that um sure but uh yeah we added added a few things there just to maybe be a little more thorough with it um and I think finance committee and capital planning we going almost every other week um just so that in case you or the treasurer need to have that I don't think it needs to necessarily be added um my hesitation was only making sure people understand those could move where some of these dates don't well we'll put a note before we post on the website um on the to meeting to to just say that these dates could change based on um you know weather or or just changes in in the uh boards or committees SCH and I think just you know a note to for people to check the the town website because that calendar is accurate yep absolutely yep all right um would anybody like to make a motion I move the board of selectman accept the proposed town meeting timeline as presented this evening second all those in favor i i i that is unanimous all right moving right along uh acceptance of donation Library animal shelter and the veterans departments all received the following donations and are requesting the board of Selectmen accept I'll let whoever reads a motion actually read the the donations I move the board of Selectmen accept the following donations $1,000 donation made to the Kingston public library for books from leonise Freeman a $10,000 donation made to the Kingston Animal Shelter From the sour Family Foundation to provide essential Animal Welfare Services a $100 donation made of grocery gift cards to the veterans department from Janet Holmes and a $1,100 donation made of grocery gift cards to the veterans department from an anonymous donor second all right all those in favor thank you so much for those generous donations that's that's very generous all right annual appointment of special officers and matrons uh we have uh annual appointments of of special police officers and matrons uh Chief home sent a memo um with the information um so um I think under the matrons we have Michelle Beck and Taylor O'Neal and then um special police officers we have Darren Martin Marx brener Jr and Shan Percy uh did anybody have any questions or chief did you have anything to add you don't need to it's up to you just briefly we'll be increasing the number and at the next scheduled meeting I'll be requesting the board authorize me to call for a list of permanent intimate and Civil Service part-timers uh there's a functional difference between that and special police offices and I'll be happy to explain that uh prior to and on the the evening that I request that okay and any questions for the chief would anyone like to make a motion thank you okay um I move the board selectman appoint the following individuals to the position of police matron for the Kingston Police Department the term of the appointment shall be from January 1st 2025 through December 31st 2025 Michelle E Beck Taylor a O'Neal second all those in favor I I I next uh I move the board of selectman appoint the following individuals to the position of special police officer for the Kingston Police Department the term of the appointment shall be from January 1st 2025 through December 31st 2025 Darren J Martin Marx J brener Jr and Shan Percy second all those in favor I I all right thank thank you Chief thanks for that explanation all right um the next one is the appointment of the veterans agent um we we had a recent uh vacancy in the veteran veterans agent position after the recruitment process the town administrators is requesting the appointment of s lanzing to the position and we did receive a um a memo today um explaining that so um the request here is that she would be hired um to a scheduled D5 step 7 um exempt position as part of the wage and Personnel bylaw with an anticipated start date of February 3rd consistent with the terms of the offer letter um does anybody have any questions before we move on or comments I mean I watched the wage and Personnel meeting last night they had some concerns about the step before us which I believe is addressed in the memo that Mr hickey sent to some extent um they are a two- member board so one person voted in favor of supporting A Step Above step three one person voted against it which means the motion failed so according to the wage and Personnel bylaws there I'm not going to read them but there there's language in there that the the Town Administrator and HR manager have to go before the wage and Personnel Board if they want to recommend the higher above a step three um and then in a different section I think it's section five it talks about how there may be times where the Town Administrator in conjunction with wage and Personnel Board may come to the board selectman requesting above a step three I guess my question to the board is if it's not supported by the wage and Personnel Board I get that we're the hiring Authority so at the end of the day we can hire people at whatever step we think is appropriate they're The Advisory Board they try to create I'm not saying the town Administration doesn't do this but they try to create fairness across the grades and steps it's the reason we did this wage study right so that we could compare job functions and experience and make sure that we were doing this fairly um I I can't support a step seven given the information that we have before us this evening and what was discussed last night at the board meeting but that's where I'm I'm at tonight my question is going to be probably not a popular question but for either actually for anybody um but the question is going to be it started off like this it came to the um wait personnel as a as a step nine it's gone down to a step seven what I mean how long because are we missing our next meeting is that the our next meeting is January is in January so my my my question would be in a perfect world would be kick it kick it back to wag and Personnel now that things have been slightly renegotiated to see if there's a if there's a change in in vote sure but I don't know how I mean how much that complicates things and that's so that would be a question for you sure so um it would just be a matter of of wage and Personnel being willing willing to to hold a special meeting we can reach out to them tomorrow um so our likelihood be sometime early next week um the challenge I guess if you want to call it that is um we've been fortunate enough to have our two part-time veterans admins downstairs and who came back after they retired once um one is looking very much forward to walking away um as quickly as they can the other said that they'll be you know by February 1 they they want to um no longer be require obligated to come in um which you know has been fantastic that they've stepped up the way they have right so the concern I guess is um would the is the board willing to have a special meeting after wage and Personnel to consider um this uh requested hire if you want to hear from from wag and Personnel um another option would be a joint meeting so they could vote and we could vote sure at the same time potentially potentially we could do something you know simple or I'm just trying to whether it's a special process yeah yeah no I I get it so a great idea so I mean we can certain if if wage a Personnel is available amendable to a meeting next week we could certainly do that um next week is going to be it is what it is we there are five of us we don't always have to be at every meeting that's why the Quorum is three right well for me Monday Thursday or Friday Tuesday is going to be well Tuesday's Christmas Eve yeah I know I mean also if it's if it's the only thing on the docket it can be remote and very quick yeah absolutely so can I ask one other question too you said that sorry um you said that the the position wouldn't be eligible for a step until July of 2026 but they would be eligible for Cola correct if Cola was was yes if if was on the table if Cola was on the table they would get they would get the caller adjustment July July of 25 yes okay I just wanted to make sure yep no question sorry so um does anybody I mean that certainly makes sense to me I mean I I would make myself available uh again we could we could most likely do this as a remote a zoom meeting um so I don't think that that'll be an issue and if we could just get them on board there's two of them and five of BU so if we aimed for Monday I'm not sure what people's availability even during the day so I I don't care I I just uh if if school's out on Monday I have no idea if it is or people have some flexibility during the day if we could open up the wage of personnel and say sometime you know from noon time on it might make it easier for everybody to get together so uh just trying to get a sense from from the board what their availability would be so when we reach to moners finish typing right now uh to to the wage of personnel committee ask and then we can let them know you know that it could be done in the afternoon is there anybody who's not available Monday afternoon I don't know what time it will be but I have a what is it called when you sorry when you uh look in the belly for the baby ultrasound oh Lord I'd love that that's on camera s s sorry my beautiful wife Maya that's what I I remember what that's called so anyways I don't know what time I'm done I don't think that's going to matter right now she doesn't watch what about what about Monday what about Monday morning make Monday Monday afternoon later afternoon or evening would probably be better for me but I I'm one person I I'm available all day Monday I'll make time to do a remote yeah I can do whenever Monday I'm try as long as it's remote I can do it whenever also to be fair sometimes it's worse when the kids are out of school SCH I can hide mine older so we'll figure it out I'm looking right now all right so if that doesn't work then then obviously we send a text message or you know reach out and yeah we'll let everybody know tomorrow when um you know Monday works and if it doesn't we'll okay anytime afternoon for me yep all right piece of cake that works so I don't think we need to make a motion nope all right all right the next item is a reappointment to the cultural Council uh Miss Milan's appointment expired in June of 24 and she's requesting her reappointment to the committee for the bylaw there should be no more than two consecutive terms for the cultural Council this would be Miss millikan's fifth consecutive term there are multiple vacancies with the cultural Council and currently the office has not received any requests for appointments to those vacancies um I for one certainly am in favor of appointing somebody who's willing to make the time for something like this especially when there's no other interest uh any questions or a motion from anyone I move the board of selectman Appo Corina Milan to the cultural Council effective immediately through June 30th 2028 second all those in favor I all right um okay so here here we are getting back to the next Port selectman meeting so the next regularly scheduled meetings are New Year's Eve then January 14th we had talked about this the last meeting um we were talking about moving the December 31st meeting to January 6th and then meet every two weeks from January 6th or just retain the existing schedule and um not meet again until January 4 14th so that's almost a month now keep in mind at any time if we need a if we need a full meeting we can schedule one and if we need an um an emergency or a remote meeting we can set one up at any time so my suggestion is that we just not change the whole schedule and just skip the December 31st meeting and not meet again until January 14th and room 200 and the local scenes are available for both options so um if anybody like to do the I just want to look at the town meeting schedule that we just approved to make sure that that doesn't put us in a position that makes our lives more difficult um now but I mean I think we had talked last week that that it shouldn't impact anything but definitely look yeah I mean we're going to have conflicts no matter when you do it you know and what we've done in the past is we've just rearranged or post post meetings you know it it seems to happen about once or twice a year I say that having been on the board for a year and a half well the town meeting schedule has Keith presenting to us on the 14th so I guess that's my recommendation to go with the meeting on the 14th all right so do we um any problem with that if something if something serious pops up we can like you said we can always do emergency meeting or we can schedule something out of something so I would I would do the second option in making that motion if that's what we're on meeting on the 14th I move the board of selectman schedule their meetings every other Tuesday evening beginning on January 14th second all right all those in favor I I all right meeting minutes uh we have appr approval of the December 3rd uh meeting minutes does anybody have any addendums any changes or a motion good I move the board of selectman approve the open session meeting minutes of December 3rdd 2024 second all those in favor I I and we are coming to the conclusion of our meeting this is interesting so Town Administrator report you're up thank you sir uh just to let everybody know unfortunately um the assessing Department collector department and accounting departments are working on our property tax bills uh so I apologize for that we hope that have those property tax bills out next week um the town of Halifax was is uh applied for and was awarded a community compact Grant to look at the options and impacts of regionalizing the entire uh school department because they were concerned um about potentially losing the grant which I don't think they would have uh because they they did not support the MBTA zoning um I spoke to the Town Administrator Halifax who asked me to uh see if the town Kingston would willing to accept that Grant and and have the state transferred to Kingston so we didn't lose that Grant uh I said to be to do that the state submitted all the paperwork to me we got everything signed and um so now the town of Kingston is the happy owner of of our community compact Grant um there's a there's a joint meeting on the 16th of January and I've asked the superintendent of the schools to add a discussion on the on the joint agenda on how people want to proceed with the study that's uh that's going to be performed over the next few months uh the sewer department was notified last week that they were they are receiving um a credit towards their $7 million leeching field uh loan uh of $373,900 uh which is uh fantastic congratulations to them what they what the state will do is reduce uh the 300 their annual payment by a total of $373,000 and uh so uh it'll be reflected on the annual payments uh the the big job Valerie Mard just finished up was updating his only bylaw that's uh through the 2024 uh town meeting it does not include the MBTA zoning or the sunsetting of the residential phasing that was approved at the fall town meeting uh but that information is on the website and and is finally up to date and Paul gallager has finished uh the codification of Kingston's bylaws and general legislation that updated information is also available on the town website under bylaws and regulations Tab and the entire document is is searchable by by key words if you're interested in finding something specific uh the flashing school zone lights have been received uh they will be installed next week on the 26th and 27th of December weather permitting uh the school zone will be operational and all the necessary lighting will be up and and running by the end of the calendar year so that's good news um just to make sure the board's aware of this the our Public Works working group group met on December 11th uh to continue discussions because the wage and Personnel uh bylaw deadline for submission of new information is December 23rd uh I asked the working group at our last meeting if we could submit a proposed job description for a public works director before the 23rd of December uh to have a placeholder there in case that was a recommendation moving forward um so if you see something uh it was it was blessed by the the working group before doing do that uh you've already mentioned the the timelines for the town buildings for for Christmas um one last thing the uh the Council on Aging held their annual Christmas lunch last week on the 12th they served over a 100 over 100 meals everyone of the attendant seemed really really pleased had a great time uh Holly uh Nigi uh the acting director and her staff did a tremendous job uh as did Santa Claus um at the event everybody think had a great time ate well laughed um and it was it was nice to see so nice job um for for them thank you any questions i' be happy to answer any any questions no but I was going to say we should probably also thank everybody for the Santa ride through town did we talk about that at all yeah was great really nice yeah yeah Santa pelted me with some Hershey Kisses but I you know take that as a friendly gesture uh but no they did such a great job so thank you to the K Police Department king and the fire department for everything they do for that and all the donations from the residents for Toys for Tots was pretty amazing yeah absolutely the kids loved it I know my kids loved it it was awesome if we have any um photos from the luncheon I can use it for the newsletter on Sunday all right I'll reach out to to Holly tomorrow and um see I can find actually you know what I I don't have all the details does somebody have the details on The Luminaries luminaries luminar Saturday roads close at 5 m starts 530 CL 430 okay okay um parking remind me where people parking we put it out on the map but we said Town Hall bring a flashlight to walk through Evergreen Park um three Community Building Bailey bring a flashlight if you're going to park at Landing Road off Landing Road walk through there um and that's can you park over by the water department that side you can walk up that hill y okay y okay and then um I think that's it because a lot of people park at St Joe's but then that road gets closed so you're there for the night if you're going to park there until the roads open 8:30 I'm making that up I don't remember the check the website for details I might do maybe I'll do the newsletter on Friday night so it's yeah good idea one more notification about luminaries Y and there is an event on Facebook that the rec department put out and they have been there too so all right any other announcements from anyone else oh yeah oh this is about waging Personnel trying to think I mean other than wishing everyone happy holidays that's really it uh so waging Personnel is asking what time on Monday they're available I'm available well I'm available all day long I don't care I can make whatever work afternoon anytime afternoon for for me so it sounds like afternoon is better okay uh late afternoon later the later is probably the better 3:00 should I just say 3:00 yeah yes freaking out about baby pictures the thing in the belly belly pictures yeah probably Mak decision yeah if not you don't get a vote that's fine it's probably better off yeah I I think I can do three I'm just Kidd I know and I guess the only other thing Kim reminded me is to um wish everybody a very happy holidays um have a very safe um holiday spend time with your loved ones um anything else no budget discussion January 14th so everyone can look forward to that there we go that's the time we start getting our bills for um all the Christmas exactly exactly and taxes excellent all right and our next regular meeting is uh as of now January 14th so um happy New Year M happy New Year see you guys next year do I have a motion to U adjourn move to adjourn second all those in favor Eric I I roll call I Mar doing 6:28 p.m. e