uh but good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting of the lunenberg select board today is Tuesday February 18th please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge ALG 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 in accordance with the requirements of the open meeting law please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live over the lunenberg public access channel on Facebook live on the public access Facebook
page and will be uploaded to lunenberg access YouTube channel after the meeting the agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the chair votes may be taken as a result of these discussions agenda items may be taken out of order at the discretion of the
chair not all items listed May in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought out for discussion to the extent per subed by the open meeting law are there any public comments from the board hold on I I waiting for pack to join Zoom
here they had an issue before and um he's yep I see that just do the same thing just grab the ID number so the way that this one is drafted it's it's not the board so if I was going to ask if you wanted to switch
say just authoriz me to theard the join at the bottom John all the way at the bottom says join on your bre ER this meeting is being recorded okay all right great welcome to zoom all right any public comments from the
board no I do uh I just wanted to announce so I coming miss last week but the and I just checked it's not even listed but the town caucus for nominees is Monday March
10th and in order to give people enough time uh first of all there's lots of seats and I encourage people to run for all the elected seats that are available and giving people the most amount of time I wanted to announce that I will
not be running for reelection this year so if you are interested in a select board seat not that you couldn't have run against me you certainly could have but I will not be running and I hope there are candidates coming forward who are willing to take that seat thank you
Mr chair thank you any public comments from the public Glen good to see you Glenn McLoud 436 Reservoir Road uh just in light of the agenda item relative to the municipal building
design committee update one of the things that I'd um appreciate hearing more about now and in the future is just my perspective that it just seems that if lunenberg was a property management
company that they'd probably be out of business or certainly not have any any more clients so just that kind of you know with all the existing buildings uh and issues it would just be nice to hear that in in context thank you all right
thank you Glenn all right no one else in the room I see concerned resident here with their hand raised on Zoom I will remind you though concerned resident that you have to state your name and address at the beginning of your public comment yes George Burton 39 courland
Circle um wanted to raise a couple concerns and that's why I put that name there um the first concern I want to raise is I um was I wanted to join the finance committee I had a meeting tonight at 6:15 supposedly um I was was not sent the zoom details so I could not
attend the meeting it seemed a little odd um you know we were looking for individuals to volunteer I raised my hand to volunteer and not able to it was very hard honestly to get the the application originally and even to get the meeting originally going um so I find it very odd um we know what's going
on with myself in town a lot of residents do um very much concerns with my family um a couple of those things are records requests we've seen it um we've heard about an article in the newspaper resident um being called the burdens you know it's a one-sided story
why doesn't someone call us and ask us why we're raising these concerns doesn't tell that side of the story and a lot of the facts actually about the appeals that are being done at the state level are inaccurate 6 months of asking for an appeal of of a document request for 6
months it has not been and the the lunenberg lunenberg is in violations of these viol ations of of a public records request I just want to mention one of them Pac the public access cable committee I I started digging into it a little bit and looking at expenses I came across and I've asked for expenses
of of a specific company that we paid bills to of a company in New York that has violations of human rights why those are the kind of things that I'm digging into the residents of nunberg so if you want to know that's the reason why I'm digging into things doesn't seem right to me why we would do business in a town
of in in a state of New York why and it has a human rights violation doesn't make sense to me one other concern I want to raise we got a a a letter from a a concerned resident that is trying to make discourse in this
town between myself my family and the residents of Hickory Hills and I'll tell you why it was a letter that they're trying to pit my family up against those residents because we tried to look out for those residents of the taxes that were raised 110% and my taxes went down 33% % my value of my home went down
$475,000 down to $175,000 tell me how that happened tell me I I don't understand it these are the concerns we've raised and ever since then my I've been attacked like no tomorrow it's unbelievable but there's a letter sent to us that talks about some tree trimming in town and I raised a
concern about we we got charged $1800 in our HOA that we can't even see a bill of it seemed very odd and then all of a sudden I get a letter and say why don't you bring this a concern up to the town you know why they want me to bring it up so those residents will get pissed at me it's it's really unbelievable what this
town will do to cause a discourse between residents why don't we have a a nice community and get back to where lunenberg should be I'm G leave it at that for now and I'll be back next thank you Mr B are there any other public comments from the public all right seeing none moving on
to announcements we already covered that I was going to mention the caucus Communications from other boards don't see any and I don't have any either so we'll move down to appointments ratifications and resignations we have the resignation of John E Baker As
Constable effective May 2025 so I will read his letter that we received to the select Board of lunenberg from conable John E Baker I been in the service of the town of lunenberg since 1969 the last 30 plus years as your
Constable at 82 years old it is time for some young blood to fill this position it has been my honor to have served this town all these years my term ends May of 2025 respectfully John E Baker Mr chair yes I would like to
personally thank Mr Baker for all those years I I I know John throughout my years of service here I know his service with the you know the police force starting with the police force and then through a number of a number of other uh committees that he was on but most
notably of course for the last uh 25 30 years with the constables uh really loves this town really has done a lot for the town and in in serving so I want to thank him and yes you've certainly earned it at age 82 John so I I wish you
the best all right thank you I also want to thank Mr Baker for his Decades of service to the town and I want to remind Folks at home that the con is an elected position that will be on the ballot this may the conso is primarily responsible
for posting the town meeting and election warrants and if you're interested in getting on the ballot uh you can attend the citizens party caucus all right moving on to the town manager report yes thank you Mr chairman so uh
we have some uh project updates for you the uh library library teen room has now been completed um there's still a little bit of work to do but now um they will begin uh the next phase for the library
director's office once the library director physically moves out uh Town Hall chimney roof and uh replacement chimney and roof replacement obviously has been continued to be delayed by the weather um we did put out a um in uh
invitation for bids for our cleaning services um that uh will be closing on March 6th uh we are looking to align this contract in this contract we're looking to align it with the fiscal year so it's it's not quite a full three it's two in change but it'll get us on the
fiscal year cycle um and lastly um the town has entered into a contract with beta Group which is an engineering firm for design and Engineering work um to work on sidewalk plans at Northfield Road Highland Street and Chestnut streets uh specifically looking at the
sidewalks and ramp Replacements these are items that were identified in the 2020 Ada transition plan uh this contract concludes with complete construction documents so it will be bid ready um and is in the sum of $119,000
funded by chapter 90 uh some general updates for the board I am thrilled to announce that the division of local Services has informed the town that the schedule a for FY 24 has been processed and approved um for this essentially for
those that don't know this closes out our books on FY 24 and the schedule a is a statement of revenues expenditures and other financing sources and it's essentially the town's final balance sheet so thank you so much to our finance director Ezekiel aala and the entire Finance team for getting this
closed out uh a little bit more accolades as everybody is aware we had quite the long duration winter storm uh this was a very difficult storm as we had the snow followed by the severe icing um our Public Work Crews put in 33
hours straight in maintaining the roads so I know sometimes when the crews do need to get off the roads the condition for rest of course the conditions can deteriorate some and so we thank residents for staying off the roads and their patience while we um allowed the
crews to do the work I do want to say uh there was some concern about icing and potential for power outage Chief Sullivan was in pretty regular communication about the status over the weekend um and keeping me apprised of of what that what transpired there uh
congresswoman Tran held a municipal leaders conference this morning to discuss the potential impact of federal action on municipalities in the district um I logged on not much there that hasn't been reported on news but I'm happy for the engagement and I know that
we'll be able to find out what potential impacts of any um May address us as we proceed I am holding my first department head meeting tomorrow morning um with department heads I do plan to hold department heads meetings at a frequency
of about one month um one per month to start and we'll assess um that time period um after a few months amongst other updates I am going to be asking the staff uh to review if they have not already done so the municipal building design um committee uh report and that
video um there was a request for staff to provide feedback so um I know that a lot of feedback has been provided um during the process but to the extent that folks want to provide additional feedback we're asking for them to come before the board or send it to me and I'll compile it for that March 1st the
first meeting March March 4th um I met with the public safety uh team today for the first time leaving this building getting getting out from my office so I had very long meetings with both Chiefs um so that was great
got a tour of the buildings um I will also the the facilities director assistant Town manager and I are going to resume the weekly meetings that were being held with the former um Town manager I think that was a great process that started so we'll be keeping that up
and tomorrow I am going to Ritter uh to meet with the land use so getting out of the building finally so I'm thrilled about that um and then the last item on General updates is I am considering holding a staff engagement event on March 17th uh for maximum
participation I would like uh to close the resident facing offices for 2 to three hours but prior to moving forward I don't know what custom and traditions are so I wanted to get input from the board on such a thing either tonight or following this meeting um so it's a
little bit of a staff engagement event it's a little bit of a time for feedback and I know that staff um development is something that the board's looking towards doing so uh current vacancies uh we still have the assistant to the Sewer
uh business manager position um tentative offer was made this week uh little bit of an update on the police chief um there were a total of 17 applicants that submitted applications the screening panel has been asked to
evaluate the 17 applicants based on their minimum qualifications and completeness um and so we'll be going forward screening committee is going to meet a couple of times and then the uh first round of interviews will be in early March we have seasonal positions
of a lifeguard up to 40 hours per week and Beach director uh also up to 40 hours per week if folks are looking for something to do in the summer and have some time that would be great and uh the the board uh vacancies we know that
finance committee screening committee met earlier tonight so hopefully uh we'll we not have two vacancies on no vacancies after tonight after tonight and uh excellent and as we go into this process um but there remain vacancies on
a number of other boards committees Commission as always if folks are interested in learning more about those boards feel free to reach out that concludes my report for tonight all right thank you Jen and I will just say I fully support you closing the offices for a couple hours for a staff
engagement event I concur all right agree okay I figured that would be the case um any other questions for Jen um I just want to acknowledge
the uh amount of work that obviously has gone into the last week or so of you being in the job um so I just want to just acknowledge that I think that you know what you've presented here with the Staffing is is a really great idea so I don't have any questions I just want to comment that I think that all of this
seems to be moving in the right direction thank you all right let's move on to Old business then up first seller hold 56 car Avenue where are we at on this do members need any more
information my understanding from last time is that we did we are not actively seeking foreclosure that is my understanding it was filed for but uh so to clarify we' filed the
Foreclosure action um but we haven't filed the motion for General default so nothing happens now until that motion is filed right so so I I I I don't see any need to have to do any action anytime
soon I'd like I certainly if we're going to start the clock which I I'm not committed to but if we were I don't want it to be under seven Ines of ice to do an assessment on a property I would like to do it when when there's no snow so if we can put
this off till the spring then we can at least assess it that would be my feeling so can I ask do I understand correctly once we file the motion and it's ision comes down then the clock starts we have two weeks to decide whether to hold or sell is that
right once we receive the decision yes right two weeks from the decis that's when the clock starts me just pull up two weeks is pretty short so yeah totally so we really should have to have a decision before I don't know how long it takes for a decision to come down once you yeah that's actually a good question CU I mean land courts what I
here is 3 to four years right now to make decisions so what you he no but I don't know about this like what are you hearing for this so hold on just a moment if I remember correctly it's like 6 to 9 months let me pull up an email that I
have from our tax title attorney hold on just a moment but broadly Mr chair I I agree with um Mr Alonzo that it's it's really difficult to do an assessment of property this time of the year yeah it seems like we need eyes on which is no
snow and you know okay and no mud so we have a window of two weeks now no snow no ice go ahead so Mr chairman I did find the email um so the this is a quote from the from tax title
Council the court will generally take four to8 weeks from the motion being filed to issue the Judgment but it could take longer once the Judgment issues is when the uh clock starts ticking um and that's when we must notify the owners within 44 days so it's the 30 days plus
the 14 of our decision to sell or retain by certified mail right okay so all right so do we just want to table this yep until the spring yep okay that's what I my recommendation would be yeah I would also recommend that maybe
we target um first meeting in April or something mhm and I'm hearing um folks wanting to look at the property would we want to do that as a we can there's a way that we can have a meeting where you're in a meeting out at the site M or you can do it on
your own and then you can view the site on your own but I'm not really I'm not concerned about me particularly seeing the site I've seen the site in the past I'm interesting about it appraiser right yeah same all right all right sounds like we made a decision
then all right up next review draft of cannabis Control Commission host Community agreement for Bliss cannabis any remaining questions or concerns on that at this point no I have none all right I'm um I I looking through the agreement um you know I I
think I've been clear and vocalizing my concern um as it's come out not from the organization but from the guidance that we've received from the state as it refers to some of the hiring practices uh that they need to engage in um you
know I understand the intent behind some of that I just don't agree with the language so uh I certainly support Bliss cannabis um coming into our community and being able to operate uh I'm going to have a I I don't see myself signing off on this agreement because I really
don't like the language but I'm not opposed to them having a business and I understand that this is a necessary part of having a business so I'm kind of in a position where I feel a little conflicted because I I'm dep depending upon my colleagues to vote Yes but at the same time it kind of means that I
should vote Yes um but I again I really don't like the language that's in there but I don't otherwise have an issue with what's here and I do support us kind of moving forward with them one thing I did want to ask uh Jen do you want us to change this out so instead of the duly
authorized representative as Carter do you want it to be you do we have to so you don't have to I I will make that change in the document um the one thing is if there is going to be a motion tonight that within that motion you're authorizing the town manager to execute the agreement on behalf of the board
gotcha all right is there any other discussion or are we authorizing the town manager to how did you just word it again execute the agreement execute the agreement with Uma flowers lunenberg on behalf of the select board all right is there a motion so moved yeah second any
additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppose no no the motion passes 3 to one all right what's next workplace climate survey policy so we've had the redline
version for a couple weeks now same thing any questions or concerns at this point do we want to review it or have members already reviewed it this is the redline version is what we talked about right yep mhm so where
is it oh here it is I have reviewed it that that is what we talked about to the best of my recollection yeah I I trust the word merge of versions I think we just have to identify where it's going to fit um
in our policies yes do we have a potential number for this I did have that noted at some point but it's been two months and I forgot and I don't have it on me right now right um we can look real quick yeah it's probably 2.19 that's yes two
something I don't know I don't think it's 19 though I think it's a little lower than that so I think this would fall under um an um operational policy yeah um and so
that would be 2.13 right all right any disagreement to that I'm fine with that all right is there a motion to approve the policy sure I move to approve uh the workplace climate survey policy uh to be
identified as section uh 2.13 of the select board policies and procedures second any additional discussion those in favor say I I I those oppose no the motion passes unanimously you know just one comment
this highlights again we really need to get the Personnel Committee in place yeah this has been vac for far too long and I don't know how was it coming up on like eight months now right after town meet special
town meeting right was it presented didn't they present the was after this PES town meeting or was it after annual town meeting no you're talking about annual town meeting annual town meeting yeah so it's almost a year it's even longer that's what I'm saying it's like eight months nine months I agree I've tried I've talked to
several people in town with HR experience and um I think the biggest challenge too is just getting it off the ground again the fact that there's no one on it go one vacancy you know maybe it would be a little harder to fill starting from zero is just incredibly
chall one person volunteers nothing can happen you sit and wait for a second person and then finally until you get three a quorum mhm I don't know if there's any there was a person who who withdrew their application for the fincom for
tonight but on that volunteer form they indicated Personnel committee was their first choice so hopefully uh that person will get whatever it needs to be sorted sorted and can volunteer for that
and bring four people along with them let's start with one the other well HR Professionals of course are great on that committee um the other kind of natural group of folks are retirees uh from either this municipality or that have worked in
other municipalities because they've seen how it functions well and they' seen when it doesn't function well they have a really good perspective so if you're if that's you and you're watching this please uh volunteer for the Personnel committee all right what's up
next discussion on select board and to manager goal setting process we'll pick that up in March review and discussion on budget task force recommendations so we were looking to pick this back up with full board which we don't have tonight so unless
there's any discussion on this then I'm fine with tabling it um Mr chair do you remember there was something that uh and I don't I just don't recall but last week I think we had wanted um no no we we had asked SEL M what the question was
yeah it was the audit oh the audit so never mind I think nope but I started looking back at CPA the timing and oh boy I should have written this down um the timing I thought was you have
town meeting it passes and then I thought there was a you had to do it with within a certain amount of time you but I think there's actually it's you have to let a certain amount of time pass so so that the timing of annual
town meeting and town election wasn't sufficient time to do to pass that annual town meeting and to have a ballot at the Town election there wasn't sufficient time I went back to um Rebecca lry presented
what 2020 I think it was right before the world shut down um and Heather was commenting on that timing during that meeting so it's 5 years old so I don't know if the timing has changed so that makes me think we if we're going
to do a CPA it should go to fall town meeting and then Town annual Town election I don't think you can do it in the fall if I remember again I think there's regulation against that the timing seen that too yeah you have to wait a you have to wait a whole year
well we have to you have to review it I mean that the the CPA is very very strict in the guidelines of how it has to get passed there is really no rules for you know that there's no guessing it's really really
clear I don't recall it because I haven't worked on it for so long but they were clear and they were rigid so that's an action item I guess we need to yeah understand the timing and and not just the timing but also
whether it can be voted on at a special to meeting or it has to be an annual all right we can look into that it's on my to-do list but it keeps getting what is that the only thing we're at looking to do oh no there's a lot more around it right there's there's
what exemptions you want what no no no no no but I'm talking about other than the CPA yeah okay what M the reason I'm asking is that we are now you know what is today February 18th
and you know so tick tock tick tock that town I mean we have of course I know you guys talked about it last week about the the school budget and what they are projecting as deficit and again the world is blowing up and we have that and
we have the municipal building and we have the Marshall Park and now we have people asking for sear charge on the CPA and yeah you know town meeting is in two months so and the warrant closes in well two and a half months and that's another reason why I don't think this it's a
good year for the CPA you know there three things on the warrant asking for more money and I don't think adding a fourth is really beneficial to any of the causes so no but I'd like to understand and that's without even and that's without even knowing for those people who live in the water district what the water district is going to do
with the past treatment so that's another thing outside of the town but not outside of the Town residence and there's also storm water utility under discussion so so as if the list wasn't long enough
all right my apologies I'm just taking some notes Here Jam is there anything else you wanted to add on any of these items uh the only thing on the CPA that I had kind of tossed around in my head is that um where I think probably we
don't have time to do it for this mown meeting but it there also is a lot of effort that needs to go in um and and a thought that I had had is if there was a very brief presentation I know there has been past presentations um of the building bu uh
building budget task force um at town meeting but if there was a specific presentation on the CPA element to see if um we could generate some folks that want to volunteer for a exploratory
committee CPA exploratory committee that would be ad hoc to the selectboard that really could do all of this research work um it I've just just pulled up the um division of local Services guidelines there's 75 pages on just CPA so if if we
could maybe generate some interest at Town Meeting of folks that maybe would want to be on the committee that really does the Deep dive into preparing this for town meeting that might be the place where we might catch some folks who are looking to volunteer I think that's a good idea
what you guys think yeah yeah I mean my only my only concern is um you know we're struggling already with volunteers um you know obviously creating a new committee is going to be challenging you know to find those volunteers and I I'm just wondering out
loud if another committee has a charge similar enough that they would have a capability or interest in kind of taking this on your your natural kind of folks are if you pulled one person from open
space one person from affordable housing one person from Recreation and then maybe two residents and this wouldn't be a committee that would have to I mean CPA eventually want adopted if it were to be adopted you'd need a committee that would live into perpetuity but this would be a committee that just would
stand up for this purpose of advising and then be done so perhaps that that would be another those three groups plus a couple more or even may maybe just those three mhm and the last time it was brought forward it was brought forward um by the historic commission yeah it
should be something oh historic commission how yes my my apologies to the historic commission you're absolutely correct all right did you want to update on any other items no no that was really my only thought on that all right cool thank
you moving on to Municipal Building design update I just added this as an agenda item to see if there are any updates if not we can skip over it the municipal building design committee has not met since we last presented to the
select board uh our meeting is tomorrow evening at 5:30 um and the you know what we have done or you know what's happened between uh the meeting with the select board two weeks ago and today um was we started a conversation with the um Town
manager uh that was also a discussion with Bond councel um the tax collector Our Town accountant um to start working on um this is going how we're going to borrow if this passes how do we borrow the money how does this fit into the
overall picture of our debt schedule uh what is the actual ad on the immediate what is that kind of you know as you look out over the life of the um Bond you know what how much is it costing the average taxpayer so you know we we just had these conversations last week uh
where uh we did receive some preliminary information uh earlier today but I think that our expectation is that um by March that we'll have a better picture of kind of how all of that wraps in together um the municipal building design committee at our meeting tomorrow uh we will be
working on uh the presentation for the annual town meeting uh we know that there's a lot of questions that have come up um uh related to the project and and we knew that on the front end of this anyway uh that we need to really invest our energy into what this Public
Presentation is some of the ideas that are floating already uh are to have kind of Tours of some of the Town buildings to allow people to come and see what these buildings really look like um and and how they operate day-to-day um we've also had discussion about Community
meetings uh in which we you know will have um public facing although all of our meetings are but specific meetings just on uh the design so I'm expecting that coming out of our meeting tomorrow we'll have a a pretty good game plan uh we're also um beginning the work on the
Brooks house request um that came out of the Fall town meeting so at this point Point uh the update is that things are in motion and that we should have more information uh if we're on the agenda for the first meeting uh in March um or
if I can give a more detailed update at the first meeting in March uh that would be helpful great I was what I was going to ask you I will alert the board I will not be here for the first week in March I will be away you won't be either no all right well then we should push that to
probably the second week y of 11 um by the way that's looking like a very heavy meeting mhm so which we're seg into the second week mhm all right any other questions on that all right moving on to the budget Capital plan and annual town meeting I'm sorry Mr chairman I guess I
do have a question um I had earlier said that I was going to have staff provide feedback March 4th do you still want that feedback March 4th or do you want to hold that till March 11th are you talking the feedback staff staff feedback on the municipal building design yeah I mean I
think I think that at this stage any any additional feedback that we receive will be incorporated into construction document design phase um so it's not going to have an impact into this portion I thought we did a really good job with the staff but certainly there's
going to be additional comments and feedback that you know it's an Engaged process with the stakeholders until the very end um and so I do expect that staff will have additional comments questions um but I think that they will be captured really um if the project is
approved and moves forward and as we you know begin that design process again that we would incorporate it again at that time Mr chair to in response to the town manager's question I personally would like to if they so inclined I'd like to have it the same day we have the
update so yes all right budget Capital plan annual town meeting warrant articles so the town manager is going to present the budget she's looking at next Thursday the 27th right I'm hoping okay I'm [Laughter]
hoping all right any questions on that so because of what's going on with the school has is there any inclination in any direction because we keep all getting lots of emails from
residents like we did last year I just wanted to know if you know again as an open Point since we have an agenda item if is there any inclination from this board one way or another regarding how we're going to approach that I mean my personal opinion is that
it's a little too early we need to see what the budget presentation is like first and then at least for me that's when I would be comfortable moving forward with that my inclination is um I I largely agree with what the chair
just said I think what I would additionally add is that you know I I I think that the you know we're being campaign or Lobby it at this point as if we have anything to do with the bottom line of the school budget I I I I I
think you know I do respond to just what all the emails and what I say to most people or I'll call them as I'll say look you know the town budget goes up by 2 and a half% plus new growth and the general budgeting formula every year is that every Department plans for 2 and a
half% um and it's when you start getting above that that that you run into some friction um it's you know we had the comment we heard from the chair of the school committee last week was just blatantly asking for an override um you know my opinion I said it last week is
is I think that I'm not an educator but for an educator to look at the full budget and decide that the best way to find money is by cutting special education and early childhood development course teachers if an educator says that that's the best way
not to touch administrative staff not to touch the district not to go districtwide but to specifically Target special education and teachers in in Early Education that's what the educator has presented as their draft budget I it doesn't make any sense to me but I'm not
an educator um I generally support the idea that we need to provide enough funding uh to make sure that our school department is functional um but you know our role here is is not to um and I've been very vocal and publicly saying that
every Department in town um has over the last 20 years had to manage a 20% increase in customers um meaning residents whereas the school department it's not a secret has had a decrease in in in residents or in customers so to speak over that same period of time I
think that the school department has a lot to do in terms of explaining uh how we've gotten to this point I think that it's clear from what they've said so far what the what's driving this number up is is Health Care um you know just just out of school placements that they're
driving these costs up but I think I need more information so I broadly support the school's request more than I did last year um but I I really need to see how it all shakes out we also tentatively have a joint meeting with
the school committee as well which will be a really good opportunity to one have those questions answered as well and just ask any questions so when is that that planned sorry why is it plan is it scheduled not yet they're going to discuss it at their next meeting they
could decline the invitation but no so we don't even have attended a meeting we have the notion of the notion of attentative meeting sure I mean I know at the last school committee meeting when the superintendent presented the budget um
the school committee members were you know go back to the drawing board everything's on the table rethink high school schedule and everything and they haven't met since so I'm sure the superintendent's been working on the budget but y I don't know
what it looks like I guess school committee meets again next week I think not this week I know I I will just comment having not been here last week being on vacation when and that was that our next meeting after this superintendent presented the budget
to the school committee that I find it rather shocking I I was shocked last year when it came in January that they were a million dollar short and there was the whole push to
get an override I supported the override uh I also mentioned that that time that there wasn't enough time to plan a comprehensive one and this was going to be you know this was going to be using a lot of political Capital with the
citizens and everybody at Town well not everybody many people at town meeting asked if we give you this will will you be coming back next year to which the answer was the astounding we don't know so okay the Town passed it with I don't
know as the answer you would think that immediately the FY 27 bud fy2 budget would be worked on in the summer because $3.5 million deficits
don't arise out of nowhere they just don't not without a an absolute financial crisis like happened in 2008 so where were the eyes on the road who was watching the dashboard for this it
it it just amazed me as I watched the meeting that last year came in January that was a million here we come in February and it's 3.5 you know just think about the trajectory for what is next year we'll find out in April that
it's 6 million I also just want to point out too that was like the worst case scenario where we lose all federal grants and that's a sizable portion of that deficit too okay okay so what was what was it if we don't it still was sizable yeah it was more than last year
yeah two something probably right and the number that stuck in everyone's head was the 3.5 3.6 million deficit exactly exactly and and it was and and again I would love to see a fiveyear spreadsheet for the last four years and what's
projected now with a column that shows what the increases are per line item because even the people in the school committee were frustrated that there wasn't any comprehensive way of knowing where are all these increases when when the superintendent listed all the things
that they were going to be cutting out and she like well these are all facilities and of and supplies but we all know that that doesn't really amount to very much it's all in salary I'm like well if it's all in salary how come you didn't know this last year so I was very
frustrated by the fact that it came so late and there was no time to really prepare and how somewhat again some people pointing to the interim Town manager saying well they limited us to 2.5% but as the vice chair says like
yeah that happens every year because that's what we get and I remind people that last year the school got all the new money that came into the town okay there was no new money spent
in the townside of in police fire or anything in fact we gave up $50,000 of the pavement management plan to fund that budget so certainly we were trying to do what we could do uh but really the the short timeline to
the finish line of town special of town meeting annual town meeting really ties our hands I it's not a whole lot we can do it's also I think adding to what you're saying Mr Lonzo it it's you know we keep hearing and I've said this to members of the school committee we keep hearing unfunded mandates unfunded
mandates and I think what would be helpful I'll say this again is every time there's a new mandate that comes down where did it come from and who voted for it cuz if if we're getting our you know state delegation voting for these unfunded mandates we need to hold them accountable if they're coming from Desi we need to be going to the state
and saying where's the money at coming behind this stuff because you know it it seems as if globally we're not this isn't a unique problem to lunenberg um it's it's everywhere that's dealing with all of these um variables that affect
the school budget you know but again we're dealing with a decreasing student body population and it's the one Department that is growing at an exponential rate compared to everyone else that has to provide services to an increasing population and so I think that there's just yes it's a moral issue
it's an ethical issue of providing quality education to children I think we all can get behind the morals and the ethics of it but it's but the equation here is not we're holding back some funds here we're not giving the school enough that that's not what's going on
it's it's everyone is in a similar environment in which they have to justify every new dollar that they spend but again I'm not educator I personally don't understand why a Public Presentation focused on cutting special education and early childhood um
teachers unless the intent was to be make an emotional argument but and I don't understand what other rationals could there could have been to why that is the best approach given how strong the reaction is from the residents in town saying whoa whoa wo you're cutting
when the kids need it the most and like that's when they're learning how to read and and you're cutting the teachers you want to get class sizes over 30 again it's not our lane it would just be helpful to you know I want to support the schools and providing a quallege education to every child um I I'm not I
want to support that I need more data to do it so if you mentioned Mr chair that that we've extend that you've extended an invitation the school committee what are those tentative dates that we may be targeting well that's one of the complications here cuz it was the 11th
of March um so now I mean if we have all the this other stuff you know it's going to be a lot going on there so I don't know we'll have to see maybe it makes sense to move it forward to the fourth if we can I know we're not going to have a full board but I don't know because
then the unless we want to push it to the 18 can we have a special meeting just on this cuz it's going to it's going to eat some time I would be willing to do that absolutely and I just want to point out by the way just to address some of the things you said I had a conversation with a superintendent and I mentioned to her that we really do
need to educate first and foremost this board because it seems like we have these questions about unfunded mandates and all of that and they're just Perpetual questions that never get answered uh so I communicated that um and I think it's also helpful to the public too to know what are these unfunded mandates it's a buzzword that
we always use be more specific what does it look like um so that's something that I um asked her to be prepared to uh speak to if we have that meeting so a couple of things one it looks like is presenting to fincom on
March 6th so that's very soon um the other thing is school committee meets every other week and I think because of school vacation this week I think they're meeting next
week maybe we could meet on the Wednesday of their off week it closes yep right I know instead of trying to extend our meeting they meet on the 21st is the next one that's listed February
the no that's a that's like a special policy commit so that's a Friday that's not their full school committee aren't we talking February well next week is the last week of February yeah I are you guys talking in February you guys already in March well I thought you said the 21st I'm I'm
away for two weeks so um I they wouldn't have the agenda up yet for next week but they must be meeting next week because they didn't meet this week when was our last meeting you know I don't know if they do have a meeting
scheduled for next week 21st is like um if you look at if you open the agenda for that it's like some sub committee who said school committee tomorrow night okay tomorrow so they're not meeting next week I thought they weren't meeting this week
because of school vacation week sounds like they are are here they other no the 5th is it posted what is today let me look tomorrow is the 19th let me pull it up I have I don't see anything on the 19th yeah I don't all right I don't know I don't no I see no school committee on the 19th on
the on the we're going to have to coordinate with them anyway so but maybe we can have the joint meeting on their off week a Wednesday night mhm because generally Wednesdays should be you know open for them I think Wednesday's for us now the capital planning is no there's
yeah there's no cap so maybe building design on Mondays but it's only because of the holiday that we pushed yeah so Wednesdays sound like it's usually pretty open for most people I think yep
all right we can see if I don't know that we can I mean if they're presenting to finc come on March 6th they're going to have one meeting before that we won't be able to have a joint meeting not I mean not that we have to but I don't know the timing is
timing is tough all right well we'll try to see if we can get it schedule all right let's move on to the warrant so this is another challenging topic with the timeline that we really need to be prepared for uh so we need to
have our votes by March 11th so that leaves tonight don't have a full board March 4th we're not going to have a full board board uh particularly for voting on recommendations so it looks like we might have to do all of that on March
11th I haven't even aside from listening last week to the meeting where they were the Articles were discussed I haven't even seen even in yeah so just draft form what they look like the first reason I bring this up is to say that we have to do our work
and really read the warrant so that in order to make a decision and whether we support them it's not having several meetings worth of discussions it's reading it identifying what we need and being a little more proactive about that than what we normally do that's first
and foremost other than that I mean we're already talking about special meetings we could set a meeting aside just to review the warrant that's a possibility again um did you say the 18th did I hear that correctly for what I don't think I've said the 18th for
anything by the 11th 11th we have to have the warrant well I'm sorry I'm just a little confused so you said the 11th is when we need to have the votes in so that way we can have that decided prior to the
warrant closing so the warrant the timeline that we all reviewed and agreed upon we want to adjust it we can but I don't I don't I'm not disagreeing with the timeline I think I think that what is usual is that the warrant closes
everything gets submitted and then we decide what our recommendations are with the full context so I would urge that we consider the 18th as a real possibility because on the 11th a warrant can still come in is are you saying that you'd rather we take the approach of get
everything done before the warrant closes this isn't the first time we discuss this coming out a special town meeting so I'm I guess I'm confused then what are you confused about I think I was coming out of special Town me meeting we had several conversations about how we wanted to start reviewing
them and making recommendations and doing it over several meetings y we're realizing that we're not going to be able to do that given the timeline that we currently have so I'm just presenting this and letting the board be aware that with the timeline that we currently have
it's set for March 11th if we want to vote after that that's fine as long as get done as long as it gets done before it goes to the printer do we have the is the printer date on the calendar when does it it is uh April
3rd is the printer date oh okay um so I mean that doesn't really change much right in the print it's just capturing those votes um you know a lot of the articles are if you want to do it pcem mail that's I don't know what your culture or tradition is to do it whether
you're doing it as Article 1 A to Z or if you want to there's some that are standard articles that you can probably make votes on easier than others without a lot of dialogue bills from a prior fiscal year we may not like why we have bills but we still need to pay them
right the the I will I will attempt to explain some of the culture so anything that has a dollar amount that doesn't have a dollar amount we won't I don't know I don't want to speak for the rest of the board but traditionally we won't take a vote if it says a bill from a
prior year and it's a placeholder and we don't know if there's any we're not going to approve it or not so if there is a a a article that requires a number but the number hasn't been finally determined we won't take a vote so some of those are for obvious reasons
anything that doesn't anything that's policy anything that's bylaw or something like that we certainly can discuss whenever as long as the final wording is there and we usually do do it over at least two meetings sometimes three yeah but as the chair said with
people being out it's going to be tricky but if you know if we're looking at April 3rd for the printing certainly April March 18th is not out of the question to finish it that gives us last you know special town meeting it was
like it had to be in Wednesday morning and we were voting on on on Tuesday night which which caused lots of problems that's why I'm bringing it up now so we are all aware of that yeah yep usual delays are not I would say they're not from the board it's not like the board's delaying and making decision I
think that we've provided maximum flexibility to everyone submitting an article to people who do placeholders to get revised languages and that takes the longest and really what's taken the longest amount of time has come from the town manager um and and those numbers and so we don't have usually that's the
reason for the delay the board I find has been they usually roll in pretty quick as they come in and we usually discuss them as they come in um so I think there's usually visibility over what's happening so that way it's easier to make the decision um but I don't I don't see the board as a sticking point
in the process um as much as usually the and then if we want to meet with the board like the planning board if they have a link article if there's if there's an article submitted by other boards we should get them to present I was going to bring that up as well we
were looking for the fourth but now with only three members maybe we should just well you could I mean I'll watch the reest I'll watch are you guys okay with that yeah I'll watch it later I won't watch it live but so we'll stick to the fourth um but yeah we do want bring in uh someone to explain the planning and so I think it's important for the board
to understand it but presentations here is exactly is equally important for the public to be aware of for sure yep and we also have a consent calendar that we usually yeah that's another thing put together yeah we normally decide that like afterwards though so yep yeah I think she was just saying that for the
town manager yeah and helpful yeah I mean we can't vote on an article until it's in its final form so if there are some that are finalized by March 11th we can vote yep but the the warrant doesn't close until the 18th so it's possible that there are some placeholders in there the wording will change or whatnot
then we vote after but the earliest we can get even a draft in the Google drive or whatever Drive we're going to use so I we can familiarize us also with what's even there so there is a draft in last week's if you want to just kind of okay um I'll go back yeah and if we have to
have an extra meeting at the end of March I mean yeah so be it all right any other discussion on any of these items all right moving on to ARA press release so we went through this the first time last week I wanted to hold off on voting on it Tom because I wanted
to get your feedback on it too I appreciate that and I you're welcome I said that to the recording as I was listening to it thank you oh you probably didn't hear me I did not uh but yeah I reviewed it it looks fine with me yeah yeah I I don't have any word smithing or anything I know that there
was some comment about that but why you looking over here I wasn't looking over there wow you're not the one who said it I think the chair is the one who said no D the chair is the one who said it I Michael Ray said word smithing I think I called you linguistically
opinion so but anyway I think it's fine there all right I just noticed a couple of things that might be nitpicky but um on page four the munice and web deploy deployment that really should be Cloud deployment right well it's munus in the
cloud well it says munus and web deployment but um and then I think it's the last page Village of flat hill not Hills oh okay thank you I just noticed those as I
was wow even I didn't find to com like that yeah I was a little under the weather last week I feel like I'm underperforming now all right I can make those updates and send it over and we can get it out wonderful so this will go in The
Ledger yeah so we'll post it on the town Facebook page uh we can put it out to The Ledger and the town website too right you have town website um it's probably really it unless I'm missing something here that's it yeah do you want to post it like at the library and adult
Activity Center or anything like that telephone polls around town well I don't know might want to take clear that one um all right awesome do we need a vote on this I don't care if we do either way I'll move that we approve the Opera
press release with revisions as discussed second any additional discussion those in favor say I I was suppose no just for the record Mr chair why not have a vote sure why not my computer just shut off I don't know what happened so pack is still going so
that's fine but I no longer in Zoom as an can I touch something I don't know maybe no you still have power so all right moving on minutes we have four sets of minutes I believe January 15th 2025 January 21st
2025 February 4th 2025 and February 11th 2025 so Mr chairman the January 21st meeting minutes were already approved on February 4th M I was going to say recall seeing three so so it's just those three
so I need a little more time um I usually set aside time on the weekends to review uh and the minutes were not in the folder then and so if I can just get another week to take a look that would be helpful all right that's fine do we want
to just wait until next week then well till there's nothing next week or you're right the fourth my apologies that's okay all right sorry I'm multitasking here trying to get back on Zoom too and all right
cool back on here I just want to make sure I'm on here for public comment warrants we do have some warrants we have an accounts payable warrant in the amount of $ 48,8 18723 thank you and action items I did create the
action item tracker thank you and it is in the drive which we can go over in a second but are there any new action items that we want to mention um tracking the CPA so I'll add that and I think that was it that we've
discussed so far during the meeting so um can you just tell me where they're at in the drive yep so if you go to the root folder all right and it is listed as action item tracker sheet two sheet
two so just going through it board specific handbooks so it's something that I'm working on for the select board I have pretty much an out line of all the topics that I will write about uh and Jen do you want to speak to how we
want to handle this for other boards and committees I think that what we should probably do is put together um a memo to the chairs what we're seeking to accomplish I think it this is probably a long-term project that will take maybe
upwards of a year for folks to really codify all of their different policies if we're really getting granular with the plan board processes in one handbook and concom processes so but communicate what the objectives are and um get
feedback of how they would like to participate all right sounds good and then the second one is the state of the organization which Tom requested back in August it looks like yeah you want to speak to what
exactly you're looking for in that what is well there's two things that I asked for one was even earlier than August I think and and I've spoken with the town manager about this so the the organizational chart is that we have a
visible organizational chart and each of the each of the elements of the chart is a job that is tagged with a job description so that when somebody leaves or retires or whatever that we're not we know exactly what the job description is
there's no preparation you just got to post it the only preparation is just where are we going to post it and that you know we have an active current job description for everybody and who they who that position reports to Etc and that each department should do the thing
I asked for prior to that was for the HR Director in the light of some of the Exodus we saw from our town staff is to give us a report about what her recommend like what is her analysis of that why would people leaving did she
have exit exit interviews and could she summarize for the board now that's obviously kind of slowing to a crawl back to normal but it would been nice in the moment to know what that analysis
was and what potential recommendations could be provided that is what I asked for sorry I'm just capturing some of those notes well you're typing so I did um I did talk to Mr Alonzo about this over the weekend a little bit and I had a
conversation um so that I could understand what he was looking for with the um assistant Town manager today um and we had talked about she originally thought it was something a little bit different but uh I said really to to what you had just said that point and
that we should really start 2003 20 I mean 2003 2023 2024 I think much earlier than that you're going to have the data is really stale but just these past two years and to
quantify the number of people that have left the organization how many were due to retirements and then how many were due to terminations and then for the remainder that weren't due to retirement determinations to really capture from those exit interviews what the driving
factors were for separation thank you that's exactly it all right thank you Jen organize and Purge the shared drive so it's something that I've started to at least think about I'm going through all the documents that we have in there some of which are very old and just
thinking about better ways to organize that uh so that's just going to be another ongoing thing and then to follow up on this one there had been conversation about moving from the Google drive to the one drive um so we have been dropping information in both
drives and um I just wanted to see if we are ready to to cease using the Google Drive and move over to the one drive or if folks still need time to make the full transition I think we're ready on our side okay so all the Legacy will be
moved over to all the historical documents will be moved over it's already in there in that huge zip folder um the very first one when you open the one drive um I actually talked about we can just get rid of that folder and just have that live on the front and maybe pin 2025 meetings if it's possible to
the top because that's what you're mostly going in there for I would I I so I'm a rip the bandaid off kind of person so I think we should do it but as soon as it's done before you remove the Google Drive get a return receipt
requested from everybody and saying in their various things can you access this get them to reply can you access this okay all right tax investigation report where are we on that yeah this is way
overdue why don't we schedule it for the 18th of March 18th commit to getting it to the board the week before all right workplace survey questions have we been able to find any of those so I again I talked to the assistant Town
manager today I think you were looking for from what I understand just the list of questions no no the list of questions that were given out at the last the last survey no no uh there was two parts parts to this um so the the main request and it's well before January the 1st um
the main request is what were the full results so I think that you know we only received you know what we got recently those was kind of summarized View and and I think we asked for the full report so that was one thing uh the other thing
was uh I had asked what the draft questions that were presented by the company were versus the questions that were actually sent to the um to the staff and I think that um what it seems and you know there's an
opinion here is it's really challenging getting this information and it kind of goes back to Mr Alonzo's request over the summer um which I thought the state of the organization request was even before August um but I but I think that it's just it's difficult you know we
know that certain activities are happening we know that exit interviews are occurring U we know that largely that's in the town manager Lane right um but I think it's just getting some kind of summarized result from some of this stuff would be helpful and I think similarly with the workplace uh survey
questions it's understanding you know what were the you know we had questions about like as we looked at those summaries it was the use of the word leader instead of like Town manager instead of uh select board and I'm just curious as to whether that was a staff decision to remove the word Town manager
and select board and replace it with leadership um for my own information but I so I think that that's why I'm asking what were the draft questions versus what was what were asked it also would help feed into when we came up with a policy what are some of these questions that we want
to kind of remain as kind of core um but again it's the results that came out of it is really what we'd like and I mean you know this is this was done three years ago MH I believe three years ago um so it would be helpful
all right then the last one is the meeting room temperature I think that was that was resolved I don't I don't as of the last meeting we were still complaining about it no it's cold um but I I think the answer that the answer that we got was that the the building's
not on a timer um that it's just we know that there's limited insulation in these walls there's limited insulation in the attic and it's just as the night gets colder it just gets colder in here too uh so I don't know that was really an action item well we were talking about
it an action item for like three me meetings I will say that it never used to be like I mean I I don't mind this temperature right here but I know my colleagues do and it has markedly changed so the building hasn't changed in 3 years so I don't know why the
temperature has changed something has changed so um I can certainly talk to uh the fire chief about whether or not we could get some ancillary heating devices I mean I'm I am cold right now so the
temperature now isn't bad it's not bad right now it's actually it's an hour from now that's cuz that's cuz our thermals are on I'm sure no but usually my hands get really cold yeah it usually doesn't start kicking in until about 9:00 is what well and all my point was is that it never used to be like this
I've been on the board for a long time and even last year no last year I don't remember it being it just it is markedly colder this year than it was in the past and yeah I understand our January was colder but you know it's that's not what's causing this there's a reason why
it's colder right said it wasn't an action item but that was the most discussion out of all of them all right anything else you want to add all right well I mean I don't I I I think I spoke to it Caesar but I think Amanda actually brought this one up not
me and I just added on to it but oh okay all right moving on any committee reports to tonight I have I have two so prior to this meeting we held a meeting of the finance committee appointment committee
which was duly posted with the zoom link the zoom link was on the meeting uh we interviewed two people uh one was unable and we did not know why they were unable to make it but we know that the
fincom needs these seats filled and we had two two ready people so we did appoint uh Anna Lockwood and Michael rup to the fincom and we told them to you know get sworn in for their next meeting which
hopefully they'll be able to attend on Thursday second tomorrow I am meeting with uh the principal assessor uh Mr rabbit from the board of assessors Lou Franco and myself to
discuss the mechanics of implementing the uh senior tax uh abatements that was passed in legislation at the beginning of this year so they they invited Lou and I because we worked on it and so we
will be meeting start it'll be probably a series of meetings and hopefully be done by town meeting um to create a process how this will work and what seniors have to do so it can be clearly conveyed to them for next
tax year and that's NE tomorrow at uh I believe 5:30 to 6:30 M building design anybody anybody hear me we can but we I just I I know I
just want you to know that you uh actually made me host and kicked yourself out May what host I don't know what you did but you pushed some button wrong but I just wanted to interject so you could fix it well thank you but I'm not even my
computer just shut down again so I can't do anything about that I don't I would say just wield your host Powers responsibly we're almost done with the me certainly well I'm most certainly well I just thought I would give you a
fair warning all right thank you yes with with with great power comes great responsibility absolutely and just so you know I do have a public comment that comment when it's my turn all right well I don't have a committee report upcoming meetings we
are meeting March 4th and March 11th are there any public comments from the town manager I have none any public comment from the public okay now I'll unmute myself thank you Mr chair um it's John Bowen uh 162
Highland Street that was highly unusual um in any case um I just wanted to make a comment uh about uh what the federal money is that the students are getting across Massachusetts for the last fiscal year is
$2,120 per pupil now out of that $2,120 per pupil if we apply that to what we're working with here in town and there is a cost increase of which we're talking here over a million dollars
again which last year I said was going to happen we have to have some uh I guess we have to take manageability uh with maintaining the Integrity of the voting operation that
went on at town hall now I I I'm all for 100% of helping the schools but I believe that when people come in and they just pick a time when they want to vote and then they leave you know that's that or hand there clicker to somebody
else and it not being monitored is definitely an election interference issue and I think that the select board should address that and that's all I'm asking is that the select board actually address the election interference issues that happened at the last town meeting
with people handing their clickers off to other people and people just showing up for a vote on one item and not participating in the process I think our democracy only works well when people show up and participate not when they
show up for what they want that's not democracy that's fascism that's all I have to say thank you all right thank you Mr Bowen any other public comments from the public nope just so you know I see nobody on Zoom thank you Mr
Bowen any public comment from the board no none no thank you is there a motion to adjourn so moved second any additional discussion those in favor say I I I those oppose no the motion passes unanimously it is 8:19 p.m. the select
board is adjourned have a good night everyone