my opinion should be compensated at this point for the inadequacy of munus to to to do the financial software that they were they were hired to do I don't know what the Contra contractual uh issue the contract says but in my opinion this is a breach of contract we they sold a software that quite frankly just doesn't work as you all know there were issues with the tax bills we've had issues with the utility bills since this program was upgraded and we need help thank you Paul if I can ask you to remain as well as Mr Reynolds um so I'm aware that this issue has been um you know brought up to staff and the appearance here tonight is an elevation of sorts um what is it that you would like for us to do I think we've got to really take a hard line with munice that they need to fix this and I think we've got to look at our contract and I think we have to involve Town Council at this point because they are not honoring their obligations as you all know tax bills didn't go out on time because of munice issues our utility bills have not gone out out on time since we bought the since we upgraded this software I don't know how we can continue to pay them and not be compensated as a community this is absolutely ludicrous so I am looking for the selectman as the governing body of this town to involve Town Council to get I don't know why people from munus are not here I don't know why they're not on site we have we have hundreds of tickets in with munus we I alerted people of this issue before I had to go out for surgery before I went out for surgery I alerted IM munist to this issue they thought it was fixed it wasn't fixed and I explained the urgency to be able to generate these bills and I can't and and I don't know what to do I know Heather has is aware of the issu she has sent some some emails but the problems not being escalated to the right people and it's not being fixed and and I don't know how we continue to pay support fees and and and how this can't be a breach and we should be compensated as a community is there an alternative software I have found alternative software and prior to this upgrade um I had looked at a software called munil link which I wanted to implement um and but the problem is is it doesn't interface directly with munus it would have to be run in parallel with munus it is capable of exporting a file that would then be imported into munus um but the town the treasurer collector didn't want to run two systems in parallel which I understand um as for are there other softwares I don't know I was specifically looking for utility billing software um because obviously that's where my focus is um but it it just is not doing the job that it needs to do all right please understand well I asked call it to do this presentation but as the full support of the Sewer Commission this has been going on for seven months now just day after day after day I'm I don't I'm over there too often no daily and I I appreciate that um and it is it's demoralizing MH okay that's that's the emotional issue what but as Paul has said we're concerned that we are not going to be able to pay our bills BS by the end of the fiscal year because if we don't we're not going to get the revenue if the bills don't go out it's that simple and we have money and retains earning retain earnings but we can't access that without a town meeing so I'm looking for suggestions when it comes to that kind of thing and certainly it it's got to be escalated at munas if it isn't fixed tomorrow which is obvious tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow for 7 months now it's got to be get munice it it has to be it's as though they don't understand the severity of the situation I mean I I well it's it's a broken record at this point I just can't believe that munice released this software that cost a crazy amount of money I mean the stuff sure I have no idea and I must pay a monthly fee for support So annual annual and do you know off the top of your head uh to the town what the annual cost of un it's around 60,000 for license or support or both or uh maintenance and support annual support so can I um yeah I'm well aware of the issues um that have been going on pre um live version of the migration there were issues to during the testing and training phase we were forced to do the upgrade we were going to be unsupported if we did not um migrate to the live version meaning we wouldn't been able to issue W2s for employees um that's how um what point they put us at um at that stage and there have been continual issues that with tickets that we discuss um through email weekly at my weekly it meetings um and how many tickets there are out in what's getting resolved what they close without getting resolved as well we have to reopen new tickets um I've sent over 30 emails I looked back demanding um that this be escalated that it be resolved um there is one person that has helped Paula out um but not to the point where things Paul has to beg for help it seems like yeah I I really do for help you know Peggy once she finally stepped in um Peggy is Peggy Wile is a munist employee and once she finally stepped in she has been more amenable to assisting um but not to for example um I put the ticket in first thing this morning I started work at 7:00 a.m. put the ticket in right away and I don't think I was heard back from her until after 11: a.m. and at that point she had I had talked with someone at munus they said and this is it seems to me to a rev problem I used to do software so I know a little bit about it it seems to me to be a rev problem they will do patches and when they apply that patch any patches that they or fixes that they did previously are lost so to me it's a it's a rev problem that they're not that when they do a a new upgrade or new patch they lose whatever they did before and this may have been what happened this morning because I did finally I had put in a ticket didn't get a call back Peggy said she Joshua from munice was going to contact me never got contacted finally at about noon time I made my own calls I called Dan neski got the direct number from munice finally colle connected with a person after three different calls and I spoke with a woman named Nicole and she said well you're ready forms isn't up to date so I'm going to upgrade your ready forms and so she did that while I was on the phone and she said okay you know now run your bills and they did but it the message I had been getting was unable to generate ready form documents then I after she did the ren forms it seemed like it went it I was able to print the bills printed and it wasn't until I started folding them because I have to fold and stuff them myself and now I don't have an assistant to help um and there's a thousand bills here um so I started I started folding them and realized they didn't add up I want to turn to the board for questions or comments so I have a few comments and questions you know you all know that I was an employee here before so I'm also familiar with the issues that we've had with munus since the Inception um have we identified what the issue is yet do we know we still have seems to be a number of issues so there's um testing training and the live version when um different um when bills are generated they go go through those different phases before their actual bills are generated issues come up in all number of scenarios in each of those modules um I have requested because we do intend to meet U request a meeting with munus I've requested all the issues um from the beginning from Paula um and from other staff that have had continual issues so we can go to them with these of the the issues that we've been experiencing and how um how they should have been resolved what the action should have been taken um but we've it's I feel like a broken record too I've sent the same emails over and over um requesting that this be fixed now today like these bills should have been done uh weeks ago um month a month ago a month ago so have we identified if there's any issues on our end you know the servers everything is appropriate in terms of how it was implemented on our end according to Dan Dan was one of the people that um I asked these are mostly munist issues this is an issue with their software and okay like the forms how the programming is was ready to be released and the other thing it seems like it seems like there's no one at munus that is responsible for the whole picture right that's it's very compartmental that's been one of our complaints to we need a point person that can follow an issue all the way through and not get pointed to this department and that department and no one talk and no one it's literally like the Scarecrow and wizard of O um because it's the forms team or it's the utility billing team or it's ready forms or it's and and so you talk to different and they said oh no it's this P Department this department bottom line is there's no point person that coordinates all of the Departments to fix the issues um I will say Dan has been an advocate he's been on the phone with munice constantly one of the things that we're finding is that when they do an upgrade they'll do an upgrade in training but not an upgrade in production um they'll apply a patch and and like I said then then things revert things get broken again um so I'm I'm just at a loss and and I think John put it right it's demor demoralizing I've never looked forward to surgery in my life but I had to go out for 2 weeks I was looking forward to it because it was a break from this craziness I have one more and she looked great when she came back too Amanda if I may um do you prefer select men or select woman member for your title um selectman's fine okay select more um the town that I I've moved over to now we they implemented munus around the same time period but it's a different version it's an older version um and there are no issues we don't have any of these same issues no they've had it for a little bit a little longer um is there an opportunity for us to look at going to a different version that might not have as many bugs there are many we're in an older version actually we're in the 20 21 21 so they are newer versions out there so um and that's part of the internal discussion that uh I have had with Finance director like why aren't these patches and updates being done weekly um why were we so far behind in our version um and these patches being implemented more frequently um so we would be on the newer newest version and each time I think this is how I understand it you have to do that for each of those modules as well the training testing and but even when they do that it seems like they undo something they previously did right like the issue today was an issue that came up the last time bills right dedicated tech support someone who's actually paying attention to the full picture um CES this seems up your alley yeah I was going to ask some questions but go ahead um select first I want to thank you for your diligence and and persistence in in dealing with this I I work in for a company that provides enterprise software for Pharmaceutical in Biotech Industry hearing this makes me sick to my stomach we would never ever ever have this poor level of support when we release new versions We Fix them it sounds to me like the whole platform is is just not stable not robust you should not need a patch every week every I mean you should not have regression bugs you should not have you know you know things should be stable you should be able to update you do things on a test server before you go to production I mean this is just this the whole software sound I mean I've never seen it but just what the stories I've heard we would never ever have this kind of situation with the company I work I mean um so questions I have are are other towns having somewhere I know you mentioned conquered I wait till they upgrade they might have yeah I mean if you can't upgrade I don't know how many how many versions did we skip in the upgrade we went from 11 to 21 that's huge mhm yeah why were we on 11 for so long and why do we jump to 21 that was from coming from them I me even if we even if we haven't been updating it that frequently they should at least know that the software that they're putting out is good enough that we can make that jump so that still is make sense to me I don't know how this works but one option would be I maybe it's an option I don't know I know for us it would be to install a the the latest version and just migrate a database not not do a formal upgrade but you also won't know if the database is they change schema I don't I mean but they need to know but at this point I'm like I I don't have I have zero confidence in this software even going forward the problem is and you just hit the nail on the head is what happened at the last billing what they were conversion migration issues on some accounts and accounts were credited erroneously or not um not they were given credits for some some reason that was unknown irrigation credits which is a discount off your bill were being applied as charges there were a whole bunch of issues when they converted and when they they I worked with Peggy and she identified all of these conversion issues and so we had to go back and undo all of those conversion issues but what happened this time is it appears that I'm having the same problems again so for example and I'm not going to name anybody but this account is showing a an adjustment of $693 46 there is no adjustment for $693 this one is showing 1405 there is so I can't even trust what's in the system um so it's extremely concerning and milen and I were on the phone on and off all day today looking at various accounts trying to figure things out the problem with the 251 bills that are math is wrong is that in some cases they put the interest and in some cases they didn't but if you were to get the bill and you do the math on the bill it doesn't add up but in most cases the amount due is correct but the math is wrong so the payment is wrong or the previous balance is wrong so if you actually add it up it's it's wrong so when I talked to myen we we went through a whole bunch of them today and she said well the amount due is correct let's just send them and then she called me back and said no we can't send them because we know they're wrong we can't send them um and then as I kept going through them I had to go through every Bill one by one and which is something I did last quarter um and I haven't done the math manually which is what I did last quarter um but then we started seeing all of these adjustments and so we looked at some accounts and said we don't know where that number is coming from I it sounds like the immediate need is is to get get bills out so so you can meet your you know get your payments for this fiscal year yep and then and then it's the whole can we move away from Unice what are our options is there a manual I know this is all very manual no the manual is up here okay no there is a very old version manual and it's really bits and pieces and I and I belong to the to the um there's numerous forums and I've been checking all these forums and and to answer your question do other communities have this problem yes um and I kind of snapshot everyone every community that has a similar issue I can tell you that the city of fitzburg had a problem their bills were not adding up in fact Our Town Bill did not add up um and that we actually had the bill was less than than it should have been and so I called uh Missy in in Fitchburg I said what do you want me to pay and she said just pay what's on the bill um so I don't know what they did they must have lost Revenue because they weren't billing people accurately um I did and I know processes were were locking she said numerous times she would go home crying um but I just checked with her before I went out and she said things seem stable um so I don't know what they've done differently than we have um but I do know that they experience similar problems so is this a web- based application or is it like a standalone program it's it's a web based when they do their program their updates their patches what's actually involved in that I can't answer that that's an it question it's too technical for me yeah okay all right this is my answer they are mun servers on site yeah I I do know that okay so they are on our server I'm mun service here yes so I wonder like the real question that I'm wondering is is it an issue with theof offer that they're putting out or do is our server just not configured correctly I think it may be beneficial cuz um you know we're not going to resolve this tonight um but I think that we have uh some members of the board with relevant experience specifically uh selectman newo and selectman M and Tom Alonzo you all three of you in Tech I think it would be helpful if there was some um you know in coordination with the town manager some direct engagement um with this and then secondly you did request um I think with if the board is not in opposition uh that we Avail Town Council services to cemetery commission as soon as possible SE commission excuse me I can speak I'm not I have spoken with town counil about this um I don't want to go into contrac in case it leads to potential litigation but um then we should get an update in uh in executive session so we need to SC at our next meeting and uh I think we should extend an invitation to the Sewer Commissioners as well as the sewer business manager to be there okay everyone in agreement with that approach yeah sounds good okay all right that that sounds good again just really wanted to make you aware that we might run out of money um what happens if that happens Heather it's a defic I think I answered this question email before it's a deficit that's uh your retained earnings okay so it will come out of retained earnings and then is it fixed at a future town meeting at a special town meeting or is it just deducted uh I think it would be at the close out of the fiscal year it's what submitted to the okay okay th this has been a significant loss I mean I can tell you right now that we've lost you know 8 to 10 in demands but never mind the hours upon hours and I've lost my assistant in part because of this problem Paul I sympathize I mean it's it I I I can relate to coming to work and being frustrated when computers don't work you know I although I work for the Army for a while there were many days where we were nonfunctional because their system was down and you come in for like a week and you're like want to pull your hair out cuz you can't do your job not that I have any to pull but you know I can't even imagine months of this you know that is incredibly taxing I think demoralizing is a is probably the right word um so thank you for trooping through it but you know I hear you and I think we can we can see what the most that we can do to be of assistance okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you do we have any other Communications from other boards all right um we're going to go to our appointments this evening we have a 710 appointment application for common Vic for BKK Group LLC doing business is white Thai Cuisine located at 177 massav I'll ask the applicants uh to come forward uh we received or are they on Zoom are they on Zoom or are they in the room no they're in the room can come forward if you come forward so if you are the applicants for BKK Group LLC if you want to come to the podium and what you want to do is State your um name and address and the nature of this request kind of uh we understand that you're um looking to change the business so just give us an overview of what you're trying to do and any history you have in the restaurant industry would be helpful hey can we stop now yes okay okay uh pardon me if I have can you say your name one more time uh my name yes is Nisha you can call me Nisha Nisha okay okay uh okay pardon me if I make uh any mistake because I'm not a native speaker okay uh do you have any questions about my uh about our restaurant it would be good if you can just tell me generally what are you trying to do with this business ah okay uh we uh what do we call uh we rent the restaurant and we Chang the we going to change the name of the restaurant and uh change the business and changeing names in the restaurant the uh BKK group uh Bangkok Hill change new name in the white Ty yes were you affiliated with with Bangkok Hill or did you purchase the the business uh pardon me were you part of Bangkok Hill or did you buy the business we buy we buy company so are you changing the menu updating the menu it look like you guys were just under construction so you're remodeling as well yeah we also add the new menu and uh the old one is also including in our new menu as well okay all right so in our packet we have all the um we have all the um application stuff is everything all set in here okay any other questions any questions from the board I just have one question um it's mostly for my own curiosity your hours of operation say 11:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. 11 yes uh what days of the week 7 Days 7 okay just for my own future reference okay all right any other questions now would be a good time to expand those business hours by the way if you think that there might be an occasion in which you're going to be open at 10: you may want to ask for more hours than you actually plan on operating a lot of people who plan on being open from 11: to 10: uh are able to be open from like 10: to 11: so it's an option all right any other questions no but I will move to approve the common Vic license from BKK Group LLC doing business as white taii quisine located at 177 Massachusetts AV second thank you I do have one question when do you you open for business when when tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow okay I can open now if the application has been approved we will open now okay so for everyone listening at home former Bangkok hill located at 177 Mass AV is now going to be white Thai Cuisine I encourage you to check it out and we have a motion in a second any additional discussion all right uh all in favor please say I I those opposed no the motion passes congratulations so we will sign off on this do you usually make a copy right yes so we'll sign off on this it'll be available tomorrow morning for you to come pick it up okay thank and definitely before 11: all right thank you thank you you good night have a good night you to May rep yes I'm just going to pass this down now thanks all right we have some ratifications this evening I'll turn to the town manager for the ratifications and I didn't see if we had a town manager report today no all right and then we'll go straight to Old business thank you Mr chair there are three appointments I'm asking the board to ratify tonight two for the seasonal Cemetery lior positions and one seasonal lifeguard position so we received approximately 55 applications for the seasonal Cemetery labor positions and of those only 14 met the minimum requirements and were extended interviews the DPW director and Cemetery superintendent interviewed six of the applicants a seventh person was offered an interview but did not show up of the remaining seven five did not respond to the interview invite and two had scheduling conflicts out of those that were interviewed Peter Schmidt and Charles P were off of the position and accepted Peter Schmidt has prior experience in mowing weed whacking Leaf blowing and is looking forward to the opportunity to expand his skills his reference said that Pete was the most polite and professional student he's ever worked with and it was also said that he is a team player hardworking and will stay on task Charlie P has a number of years of experience with Landscaping he's familiar with spring and fall cleanup as well as maintenance such as planting grass weeding raking and mulching Charlie's references said that he's easygoing a go-getter has good judgment is friendly and is a good communicator so I'm asking the board if you want to take those them all together or do you want me all together all right Jared Bowser is a returning employee as a seasonal lifeguard and we're happy that he's returning for another season all right do we have a motion I move to to ratify the town manager's appointment of seasonal lifeguard Jared Bowser and seasonal Cemetery laborers Peter Schmidt and Charles P second any additional discussion all right as we as are in favor please say I I I those oppos no uh the appointments are ratified thank you you are welcome all right under old Business Review disposal of surplus property policy um has all member have members had actually members have not had the opportunity given that we have a new member I have it I looked at it this afternoon okay okay um uh I don't know if we need to Rev give an overview of what this is but it's basically we did last week how to do our Surplus property is there any other questions related to uh disposal Surplus supplies and equipment policy I don't have any is there a motion to approve I move to approve the disposal of surplus property policy as updated second any additional discussion all right as many as are in favor please say I I I those oppose no the motion passes okay thank you all right and then we're going to go quickly let's see I did shoot you an email but it was like right before we got here all right so we're going to do a A Brief Review of the tax investigative report I'm going to read off the executive summary and a couple highlights and then uh um as noted we will do a compilation in the morning and get this posted onto the town website for members to review um all members no members have had the opportunity to review this yet um so they will be hearing it for the first time this evening all right in the course of the investigation we sought to answer several questions uh we identified kind of 10 core questions and then uh we provided an executive summary I I will read tonight the exec summary um I think it's a combination of what all the questions are and the executive summary really is identifying causation so what I would ask is for all members to take the time uh once we receive the composition or the compilation tomorrow to take time to review and respond with any feedback comments things that you want to add so this is the executive summary as a note the executive summary is essentially what gets added into the annual report it's the one part of the document that becomes um our essentially our record of the whole thing although we will provide um all documentation that led to it uh and then several things that uh were reviewed but not added into the report I will seek to add them to the website there are many many documents and not all of them can be squeezed in a way that they're readable um in a PDF executive summary and I have some colorful language in here um if you can just excuse me for a second it's been out of breath minut all right 2023 started off on a bad footing for the overwhelming majority of property owners with Homes at a butt Lake whum Hickory Hills and Lake Shirley when those 429 Property Owners learned that their average tax bill increased by $3,590 64 while the 3,159 non- lakefront property owners received an average 82 Cent tax increase the select board conducted an investigation to identify the causation of the sub of the substantial tax increases on water for property owners the approximate causes for this situation are as follows one while the work that the principal assessor and board of assessors conducted to identify property values for FY 23 was technically allowable by Department of Revenue standards it was incorrect the pandemic of 2020 to 2022 dramatically changed the way that people in Massachusetts conduct business and immediately turn many homes into workspaces and offices the ability for most professionals to work from anywhere with an internet connection led to many people choosing to leave urban communities to more Suburban or rural communities a critical part of the spread of covid-19 has been proximity to others as it's a contagious disease spread through germs in the air as a result many people purchase homes outside of cities the principal assessor and board of assessors in Lunenburg should have upon identifying a 048 assessment to selles ratio for lakefront property conducted more analysis to verify the accuracy of the information they should have maximized the allowable time range to better consider that home cells during the peak of the pandemic were anomalous they did not two the assessor's office was plagued in the view of many Assessor by years of bad data they had a 27-year business relationship with rrg an outside vendor that provided Assessment Services in or around 2015 assessors began to question how well data was being collected and whether homes were being evaluated following following building permits and sales assessors questioned whether or not commercial and personal property taxes were being done correctly by rrg assessors question whether cyclical inspections were actually occurring and generally assessors believed that the quality of services rendered had dramatically decreased when the board of assessors hired a different company um to provide personal property tax assessments they realized a substantial increase in Revenue further reinforcing that they needed to change direction the board of assessors believed that hiring a staff assessor rather than a company would result in a better data collection and they work with the town manager to create a new staff role the town parted waves with rrg in about 2020 and hired Sue Burns who worked from July 2020 to September 2021 Christine Kumar worked from early September 2021 to December 2021 Reena Sweezy worked from December 2021 to March 2022 and CJ cow was hired in March of 2022 within the span of two and a half years the town had five different principal assessors principal or interim principal assessors three CJ Carroll was qualified to perform the job he was hired to perform but there were inadequate supervisory controls in place to verify that the work he was doing was correct and informed by experience young adults need jobs and they have to get experience somewhere it is acceptable for a town to hire someone with growth potential within the community and given the tight labor market hiring someone who hadn't worked as a principal assessor was not in and of itself problematic however aside from monitoring deadlines the town manager did not have nor was expected to have relevant related experience and trusted without a more formal mentorship program in place that CJ was being adequately mentored more could have been done to retain a qualified assessor to provide oversight during CJ's first year of employment as this is part of the definition of supervision and would have set the employee up for Success neither Human Resources nor the town manager nor any member of the board of assessors identify the need for more professional oversight four the board of assessors had two members that were in their first year of service and who had no relevant professional experience and one long-term member with family responsibilities that limited his engagement on the board of assessors the members of the board of assessors trusted the principal assessor to do his job correctly and provided minimal oversight while they asked probing questions they did not perceive themselves as being more or equally capable as the principal assessor five the board of assessors did not have protocols in place to catch anomalies or significant variances in data had the board of known how dramatic the tax implication would have been they likely would have paused the process to confirm an error in data and or not approve the assessed values as provided however with little fuss or questions they accepted the values provided to them and they didn't understand that their signature on the final documentation was confirmatory rather than compulsory six the fix to the problem highlights what the source of the problem ultimately was bad data the index map that groups similar properties together into like neighborhoods had not been updated in at least 15 years it should have been updated every 5 years the recognition that not all property in index one is alike and that there are in fact three tiers of property within index one greatly contributed to homeowners receiving incorrect tax valuations for fiscal year 2023 and those are the general um executive summary of the investigation uh as you read the report and I did email it and uh it can be added to the drive but there were some facts that were identified along the way uh as well as the core questions that the investigation uh that we identified early on in the process and that we sought to answer which we did get answers to them all of them for the most part were not all of them but many of them were looking at uh whether or not the assessor was qualified not qualified um but in the end I think if you take you know the the sixth and the seventh kind of seven final comments if any of them had have changed if there had been any variance to any one of those we would have got a different result um but it was the combination of all of them I I think that that greatly contributed to the situation that we were in so I know that there's a lot of interest in this um you know I think it's important to I I I know it's hard for some people to understand that you can not make a technical error but still make an error um and and that really goes back to what an assessment of value is that it is an opinion informed by data um there were several errors in the data even as you looked at index one uh in this process the homes that initially were identified as being qualified sales several of them in the end were not um it there was no substantial difference to the median assessment of sales ratio even when you remove those properties that weren't qualified but it further reinforced um that not enough was done um to get bet to get data as good as it could have um been received and I think that it also had you know in this process I think it had to account for the reality that you know someone coming into a job um roughly in March and leaving you know and then assessments are done in in roughly November December that in that limited period of time uh it's not enough to remedy all of the previous issu isues in the interview process all of the assessors that were hired prior to CJ all of them confirmed that they had concerns about the data they were they didn't think it was had been updated uh and a lot of things were missing and even in the course of the investigation when we reached out to the vendor to provide historical information that the vendor identified that he still had uh it was never provided despite repeated requests um and so we were not able to go back to the 10 year history that we had hoped um and it was more limited so as you can hear my voice is kind of losing me here so I'm going to stop talking for a bit and again I know that we will have more discussion on this at a future meeting but there any initial questions or comments no I'll wait for the full discussion all right okay next our agenda identify inperson um interviews for upcoming appointments and reappointments so this is when um every year when we go through the um we go through our upcoming appointments if there are any boards or committees um commissions that any member would like for those members to all appear in front of us let me word this differently as we look at the list of who we're going to to be appointing um we can opt to have members come meet with us we can opt to not have them come meet with us so if there's any boards or commissions on our list that members would like for all applicants to uh interview with us um please advise and I'll go through them right now we have the agricultural commission I would like for members of the Agricultural commission to come in um for a reappointment for AR architectural preservation District commission uh I would like existing members seeking reappointment to come in for an interview for the apdc Conservation Commission any requests Council in aging cultural Council green communities committee historical commission I would like me of the historical commission to come in for interview Personnel committee I would like the Personnel committee to come in pack Public Access cable and then we um we'll be correcting one term uh it looks like so I think you got those right yes okay all right we will advise do we have any minutes uh to approve today no any we do have warrants though a bit not quite here all right first is going to be an accounts payable warrant um can I use your pen sure you have an account's payable warrant in the amount of $214,950 and 72 I'm going to give to the St we have a payroll warrant in the amount of 1,775 4540 we have an accounts payable warrant in the amount of $545,500 yes um I think these are um items for future agendas one um is the budget task force um to discuss that um with the whole board uh and I actually had a question about that I have some material that I collected you know neighboring towns doing same sort of thing can I put that in the drive myself or should I send it to Annie to put in the drive send it to Annie okay um this second um agenda item I have is uh arpa um with the override passing I believe we'll be getting the orpa money back from the school yep um so I think our balance is going to be pretty significant and I know it needs to be committed by the end of the year so if we could um take a look at that absolutely I will put them on for our next agenda for the um budget task force have you um this is going to hit um you know I think the concept as previously presented is going to hit a couple different boards and committees as well y so this is just to you know kind of explain it this is an initial conversation brainstorming with the select board um composition scope that those sorts of things um I've seen there it's pretty similar composition the ones I've seen so far it varies a bit in size but um in addition to having members from other boards and like superintendent Town manager uh Town School Finance directors um some towns also include a couple members a couple residents so um and the size can VAR I've seen some fairly large which may not necessarily be a good thing there's a Spot somewhere in there um so basically just to uh get the board's input on I think it has to come from us right to form this if I understand correctly or the town manager other towns have had the town manager create this I think it would be a uh in coordination with other boards and committees I mean I've already heard of other people saying they'd be willing to volunteer um from other other boards so um do you think that you would will be able to um um create kind of just a a draft for the purpose of discussion like a draft kind of composition or scope SL charge yeah I think I can um look at the ones I found and kind of give an overview and maybe a a merger kind of a boil it down to something that resembles the picture across the board that I've seen okay I think I found I think I've found like four so far without looking too hard okay so I'll try to have something so we meet in June right so I'll try to have something couple slides or something for Amy to put in the drive all right any um other action items Community reports selectboard policy review so this again is just a reminder that you know with a um you know this is a good marker that as we've just came out of an election uh if there's Bard if there's policies that we would like to review I know that last year we kind of did a structured review of several kind of key ones um but if there's any you know please advise future meetings we can put it on the agenda um to discuss all right any other things not on the agenda that the board wishes to bring up for discussion tonight all right we have um a request uh Cesar are you available on Thursday afternoon to yes I am we have a request from a student um um and this is related to a Civic um project to do something along the lines of a um like a student um election and they provided an article from uh another community that was kind of an example I think of students voting to name a fire truck some other things um so you know given that we have a charter uh it's it's the initial concept as presented by the student is definitely going to hit a lot of elected boards um as well as staff positions so I offered to meet with the student um and another member of the board which will be San newo this Thursday afternoon uh with the intent really just to walk through their concept uh to better understand what their actual objectives are given that school is going to end well before this will be fully developed and to get a better idea of kind of what the next steps are also you know we don't run elections so it would be helpful to kind of understand kind of who will be running these things you know is there a cost associated with it what is kind of the breath of authority that they could be voting on so there's just a lot of I think brainstorming things it's a cool idea from a student um but again you know there's a bit of a there's a lot of process behind it uh to better understand how do you make any part of it uh become real I'm about at the end of my voice for the evening so um upcoming meetings we're meeting on June the 4th uh again this this will be a reorganization of the select board uh during that time and then we will have our regular June meetings on the 11th excuse me and on the 18th you have any public comments this evening starting with the town manager no I just had um a follow item actually cruise night did you or anyone respond to Mandy no uh what was the result of on the discussions we discussed it we all agreed that we should do something along the line of what we discussed um Annie reached out to me and I gave her just like a brief summary uh bullet points of uh sort of what we came to as a board and that was it I don't really know where it went it's tomorrow night why don't we add it to the agenda it's Tom it's tomorrow night no no no I know but as far as like what the prize is really going to be oh they're I think doing the prize tomorrow night yeah yeah but it's selecting for a day that's surprise but what does that look what age did we decide yeah that was the thing that we never got answered and it really depends on the age group what age what I think it could be open to all ages we can figure out who wins I think so to targeted towards them yeah that's right I mean if it's someone that's a little younger maybe we could just have them read the you know open meeting law notice in the beginning of the meeting or something so um we can respond to Mandy and let Manny know that we're on board um and that once they select the winner then we can kind of tailor it to the age group of the letter yeah I think that should be manageable all right all right okay oh no one announced it tonight but uh I think the I was going to do it at okay but I I just pulled it up no he said the override not the the override oh um it passed by to 85 votes yeah about 6% okay and I think there was some questions initially on some of the tallies um in the sense of some some positions had like 4,000 votes I think there were questions on how that was possible if only 1,500 people voted I did not see that was that on a particular the the sheets that were posted at TCP initially and the and it said unofficial tally at the top but they were posted on Facebook I was actually going to ask what the process is for checking those numbers because some of the numbers sometimes the numbers were correct but the tally was just astronom WR sometimes the numbers were wrong yeah have the official results been posted I saw that they posted it but it was still listed as unofficial gave them I did notice I noticed that there were some differences between what was initially posted so it still says unofficial was that corrected on the town website yeah she it was corrected okay but I think going I don't know what the process is I don't know how those sheets are generated if it's automatic or if somebody's spot checking but it certainly would be easy I mean it like school committee was really like 2200 votes really you just add the column and you can tell it's not going to be I mean so just to avoid you know people uh raising alarm or concern or anything even though they're unofficial I even we can do better than than what was what was posted just simple check the mouth I don't know if it's automatically generated or yeah the regist voters through the town clerk's office do that but I I mean credit has to be given where it's due um I think that the parents really um you know I know that they stepped up they heavily advocated um I think that at one point they wavered a little bit on whether or not how active of a campaign they wanted to have um but you know there really wasn't a I mean you have the the vocal oppos opposition is always the the quiet you know majority or half um that you know they don't have to be you know ostentatious in their opposition but they're there um but I think that the parents school committee uh members I think were quite effective in mobilizing parents um concerned residents and getting out the vote uh without encountering a very vocal and visible opposition um you know well it's on Facebook you're not on Facebook so maybe you just in see it I didn't see it I didn't see it um so for my in my life experience which all of us who aren't on Facebook I have a Facebook I just don't log in but all of us who aren't you know who don't actively use social media you know it wasn't very prominent in our lives um yeah well on Facebook I will say that there was a lot of debate and it did get pretty heated at times so it definitely was there so all right any other um Town manager I think we were during your public comment period we just I have no public any public comments from the public this evening Mr pios good to see you what you master are you an alumni of uh am the potty school huh I I was on the older end of the campus not in the highrises that's where all the big parties were Dave pasio 56 Whiting Street um I was approached by one of my neighbors today and I hope this doesn't feed into the conversation you had earlier this evening about munus but he is seriously concerned because he no longer has a mortgage so the mortgage uh company is not sending his tax bill directly to the town he either mails or walks his check to town hall this last tax bill he chose to mail it he is confident that he addressed it properly to the PO Box in Boston that was in early May that check has still not cleared and the town is showing him delinquent or will be delinquent uh he's already had a conversation downstairs and any uh late fees or anything will be backed out but if this has something also to do with munus with incoming tax revenue we're in deep trouble if this is going to if this continues and you know I um we're what I wanted to say was that we're constantly putting out forest fires you know the tax debacle as you gave the executive uh report today is going to repeat itself if we continue down the road we've been going down for the last year plus uh desperation hiring is what I call it well that's fine there aren't qualified people as qualified as you'd like to have so you settle for what you can get but you have to support them we've seen that we saw that a few years ago even in Parks trying to get the wreck program off the ground you know people were hired that um had some decent background but they were not supported if this continues we're just going to be chasing our tail for the next decade and uh we're going to have real serious problems thank you do we have any thank you um we do have another public comment on um Zoom looks like we have Mr Bowen can everybody hear me okay no um I heard you say can we hear you okay but you're very low can you say that again y just a little bit better hold on a second all right yep it is it is better just make sure you turn your TV down in the background yeah I have it down sorry about that it wasn't my TV it was it was my network connection in my office all right so um I just like to say that um uh just I'm just going to uh P um Mr P he's correct so i r an internet business and I just wanted okay that you cannot pack over path that is the worst thing to do sometimes it requires you spend the money on an entire Reay I will tell you that right now with plugin and so on and so forth when it comes to any kind ofun system that you have if you Passat it kicks out and then it's another Pat another patch the particular plugin doesn't do an update or it doesn't have regular updates you end up having another patch and another patch and then it has serious delays so I'm going to par uh uh Mr P if that wasn't my intention of making my public comment however I just wanted to make a clarification of that somebody that runs an internet videos so my comment is actually with regard to the pit commission meeting this past week uh Mr Rogers had made a uh significant um statement that he was looking for people and individuals in the community that he knows as well as others who would be more interested in providing more for the cemeteries of which the cemeteries admitted that they're not able to do without tax money so because my interest has been in Mr Jeff I think I asked for agenda your boy decided because I was running for office that the secetary commissioner that this would not be the appropriate time that I should get more opinion you support I agree with you but I think Mr Rocky statements that there are better method of which the secetary commission is stating that 501c3 which they're incorrect because they have what misinformation disinformation but it's coming from the commissioner uh Miss Yas inited by the robbert stamp of Dave Doran that um that 501c3 is the organization of a cemetery corporation which is not the 501c3 now for clarity if the commission would just take the time to review that they would see that there is actually valuable asset in having a cemeter corporation however the power of n was we wouldn't be able to be on the board of the cemeter corporation so we wouldn't have control and if anybody knows all they had to do is watch town meeting M wants to be in control well that's not what we elect people for what we elect people for is to find the best okay at the least cost to be able to develop the best products that we can have in a community well obviously they have $887,000 but they only have for 10 and Mr R the well I encourage Mr Rog happens to be my neighbor John Bowen 162 High Street he's over at 84 high uh we kind to fall along the same path and I think that you know this is something that should be considered uh with regard to developing ours I don't think it has to do with Staffing I don't think it has to do with work ethic I don't think it has to do with into the DBW or it was better with one guy I don't believe that it has anything to do with that I believe it has to do with a power hungry board who is interested in control and asking for more money they have asked for over $500,000 worth the money in the last year for the capital plan they have continued to act to town give me money give me money give me money but when I make a proposal that a secetary corporation would be something that would be something to be looked into they said oh well we can't look into that we can't do anything yes they can they most certainly can and the fact that they're going to parot that to the community is a disservice to every person in this community particularly the Dead who they basically say that oh we here represented this Feast of the former people of R and their family I'm sorry but that's not talk on so let's just get to the meat of the matter the meat of the matter is this well Mr Bowen I want to I do want to thank you for your comment this evening uh do you want to take another minute just to wrap it up yes I do thank you Mr Jeffers and you know I just want to say Mr Jeffers I'm sorry it's walk way is Chairman for the next year but I can understand why PR are great you know it's time for somebody to take their shoes I think you mentioned a while back that you w't be R for office again in 2025 so I think that you know uh it's a good uh it's a good opportunity for somebody else to step in and I think that it's an appropriate step for you and I commend you all that and I just wanted to say also that as far as theary concern okay if anybody has any incing that there disinformation or misinformation my email is john. J.B icloud.com and I would be able to answer all questions through Cemetery corporations under chapter 501 C13 because I have spoken to Consultants I have spoken to the Cemetary Association of Massachusetts who happens to be the lobbyist for that happens to be our former Sheriff got lotus in Worcester okay and uh there's a number of other good people there so as far as I'm concerned all saying is if you don't keep your options open and you don't find the resources we can't afford the money and that the town has been St it's not affordable well let's find other means that are affordable and I would you look into it a little more and that's it thank you Mr your time I appreciate it all right have a have a good night and um yeah this comes to the end of our agenda anyway so we're about to wish a good night to everyone um are there any final public comments from anyone from the public this evening seeing none any final public comments from the board all right uh again I want to thank everyone for their civic participation over the course of the month uh with the town meeting uh with an election I know that you know whenever there's contentious things uh people get really heated but the key is to respect the will of the majority um even if you don't agree with the majority but have respect for the Democratic process that allows the majority um to identify the path the collective path ahead is there a motion to adjourn so moved second an additional discussion all right all in favor please say I I those oppos no the time is now 8:12 we are adjourned for the evening to those at home have a wonderful evening again Memorial Day program this coming Monday at 10:00 a.m. at the Veterans Memorial Park right across from the senior uh Council of Aging uh or uh adult activities Center have a wonderful evening