My name is Ben Stewart. Um, and I'm here with our current select board candidates, Mr. David Gavin and Mr. Jeff Swamberg. You guys, >> thank you for having us. Appreciate it. >> All right. And, uh, let's just get started. Um, so who are you guys and
what are you like just are you guys? >> A little bit about yourselves. Yeah. >> Go ahead, David. >> All right. Uh, my name is David Gavin. I am a member of the select board. Have been I'm finishing up now my 18th year
as a member of the select board. >> Um and I was I grew up in in actton neighboring actton. Yeah. >> So I've been uh familiar with Maynard for a long time. I was the youngest of five siblings and upon graduation from college after my wife and I got married.
we moved to Maynard and uh have raised two wonderful children, both of whom went through Maynard High School, one of whom is graduating from college uh in just about three or two weeks. Um so I'
we've seen, you know, what Maynard has to offer from an educational standpoint. Um but anyway, um so yeah, I've uh I've grown to know and love Maynard and have known Maynard for many, many years and I'm proud to serve man. Um, so I don't
know if you want me to go into why I'm running for reelection, but I will I will do that. And basically just to say, you know, many people volunteer for for various things in their life, whether it's as coach of a baseball team, for the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, or whatever. And, uh, I started as a member
of the finance committee back about 20 years ago, and uh, learned about um, the way that our budget works and in the process or whatever. I had I had studied political science in college and uh so I
had the interest in politics per se and at the time uh it was right when an opportunity came up for the select board and since that time I have uh grown to love it. Uh I believe that I have worked well as a member of the select board and
I hope to continue that as we go along. I've been lucky to work with a tremendous uh group of people along the way, not only as town administrator, but other members of the board and um other volunteers in town. And it's a it's
really a great community to live in and I'm happy to serve and uh I'm pleased and really happy for the town that that Jeff has chosen to not only join the board and and given his talents to us, but that he's running for reelection. So with that, I'll turn it
over to Jeff. >> Thank you, David. So yeah, uh my name is Jeff Swanberg. Um I also grew up in Massachusetts, a little further west in in Holden, Massachusetts. Um and then uh for my career, I went away to school and came back to Massachusetts. Uh and I'm a scientist. So that's that's my day job.
Um I I work in pharmaceutical manufacturing and I'm on the biologic side of that. So we engineer cells and the cells make drugs and the drugs can be used for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and more and more so um we're looking
into neurodeenerative diseases so uh things like Alzheimer's and the such and so yeah yeah it is cool um very proud of that work. I yet um have kind of shifted in my career as I've gone through being on the select board and uh moved from being a scientist myself to managing an
operations team. And so we take care of all the uh scientific equipment. We take care of the budgets. I take care of a number of HR concerns uh and um I help uh run um my function supports a team of 250 scientists uh in my company. So
that's that's a bit about what I do in my day job. Um, I moved to Maynard about a decade ago now. I've been in town. Uh, and so I absolutely love it here. It's a fantastic community. Um, just just love all the interesting people you get to meet. Love living in a town where you
can walk uh from anywhere in town to the downtown area and there's just so much energy uh and vitality and events. Uh, and I got my start um I went down to the farmers market the first week I was here in town and um I was signed up and joined the cultural council. Yeah.
>> And eventually became the treasurer and then chaired the cultural council and then started getting involved a bit in in state politics as well. And then decided to run for the select board and that was now six years ago. I'm finishing up my second term and running for the third and um just very
interested to help bring some data uh from my scientific background and bring that to bear to some of the conversations. And then as you can see in my kind of day job, I like to bring the human elements to the scientists as well. And so that's a bit about who I am and how I got here and I'm I'm sure we'll have some time to talk about the
rest. >> Yeah. So I think yeah, we've already covered why you guys are um running or I don't know if you had anything else you want to say. >> All right. And um so what what do you guys like do on
this? What's your >> that's a question a lot of people ask. >> Yeah. Um I'll start Jeeoff and um the select board is essentially um >> we're a five member team. >> Yeah, we're not individuals. Um we are individuals but we're not we don't act
as individuals. We work as a five member team and we give direction to the town administrator. >> Okay. >> And um by direction that means giving sort of an idea of what we believe the community wants and what direction we want to go in. they, you know, the town
administrator of course gives us his or her opinion as to where we should go, but we are the guiding light and in essence we're the boss of the town administrator, but it's not really that way. Um, but um and we as a board have
the opportunity to um to select various leadership within the community. for example, the chief of police and the fire chief and uh other members of the staff that we appoint. Uh but really our main function is we're the executive
board of the community. And it's important to realize that the legislative end of the community is town meeting. So we have that's our connection with town meeting. We're the legislative branch or the senate and uh rather the presidential branch and the
the community the town meeting members are the senate and the house essentially when it comes when you're looking at makeup of of of government. So we do a lot within that framework but
that's the general framework of what we are and what our role is as members of the selection board. I'll turn it over to Jeff so he can give a little bit more insight into that probably the more we >> Yeah, I'll I'll point out I really like the way David said that we operate as a team because I I do spend time talking
to other select boards in Massachusetts and and we're we're lucky that we especially right now in our our current configuration we are acting as a team and that it's not true of all select boards at all times. I will tell you that and and politics can be that way sometime. I always find it's it's
important to me to have a group of five people who can disagree in a healthy way. And I think right now the select board is absolutely doing that and I'll actually extend that out to the finance committee and the school committee. So um in democracy you're going to have disagreements and it's important you don't bury those but you rather have them in a in a very productive manner.
And I think we're we're doing well um because you need to be able to do that in order to confront the very real challenges a community like Maynard has. Uh but but going back to your initial question, what do we actually do? Um you know, when when I joined the board, there was a thick book on on I forget
what it was called, but it's like the the select boards guide, but it's basically how to be a select board member. And the list of individual responsibilities is is huge. We are the police commissioners. We are the water commissioners. We recommend a budget to town meeting. Um there's a whole bunch of other responsibilities. There's one
archaic one where we have to actually go around, I think once a decade and walk the boundaries of town and things like that. So I I remember that's a that's a fun one. I don't know that all all select board members do that in every town, but we we definitely went out and during the pandemic went to each of the posts on the corners and and painted the
mayor sign. So um but the point is you have to be in in many ways a generalist across all the different things a town does and and therefore you also have to know how to go deep when it is called for. uh and you have to be able to work with the subject matter experts, whether
that's in the police department or in the DPW department or or in the finance team and and kind of get the information you need and bring it back up and and help the town move forward and make the decision. So, you're doing a lot of of bringing together, you know, deep expertise from those fields with the
community needs. Um I I I think healthy select boards and and municipal governments are bringing a lot of data to bear so that you're you're building your your decisions and the moral um complications or the moral conversations that you're having on on top of a good foundation of of kind of truth in terms
of where we're going whether that's a a budget or or traffic safety data or any of of many other forms of data that we look at. >> Um >> and then we're in some ways air traffic controllers, right? There's a lot of different areas where we can put our focus at any one time, but you have to
you have to make sure you're prioritizing what's most important both at the moment and in the long run for the town. >> We rely a lot uh as select board members on the expertise of others within our government. For example, we're water commissioners, but I'm not a water and
sewer expert, but we have to make decisions that affect our water and sewer programs. And for that we rely upon the expertise that we get not only from our director within that department but also we bring in consultants that that give advice etc. And that includes
future rate increases that we may have to consider how we how we want to approach various things as we move forward. Um same is true when we have issues uh of public safety whether it's police or fire. We're not firemen. We're not police officers. We listen to what
their recommendations are from the police and fire chief and others in the community that might have expertise in that area and then we gather all that information. And I think as as Jeff has alluded to, we as our group uh work strongly together as a team in order to
come up with uh with you know good decisions and and approaches to go forward. Don't get me wrong, we don't agree and I think Jeff will all say this too. We don't agree on everything all the time, >> but we always have uh productive and u
you know respectful conversations that end out getting us to where we need to be to move forward and then we move on to the next issue. Um and I think though the one thing that we all have in common with one another is desire to see Maynard succeed and move forward uh in a
productive way that enhances our community for its residents. All right. Um, yeah. So, is there anything that you wish more people knew about um just town government as a whole
or um what your role specifically? >> I will say that um Manard runs my line is always, you know, they say America runs on Duncan. >> Manard runs on volunteers. >> Yeah. And we need people to be willing
to step up and volunteer for a lot of opportunity within our community. Um we have a boatload of volunteers in the community as it is. >> We can always welcome more and I think we do welcome more. that opens people's eyes up to a lot of issues that we're
facing and it also gives us various perspectives that we otherwise wouldn't get if we we oftentimes do find ourselves having the same volunteers come forward all the time. That's not necessarily healthy because we want to get as many perspectives as as we want
to in order to go forward. So if there's anything that I would express to residents of the community and I think I think they understand the majority of the people understand that we're not in this alone. We need help and we welcome
any help that can get there and we're open for it. We're not uh we're not a standoffish group. I think you know in in our in our conversation before we started this interview uh you heard that you know we joke around and and we're we're open and welcome to people and I
think Jeff and I have both served as chair of the committee and we both are welcome to hearing opinions and thoughts of people come come in to our meetings and express concerns and express thoughts and welcome that and that's part of a healthy uh government locally
that's for sure. >> Yeah. I'll agree to everything David said. I think we already talked about the sheer diversity of of topics that that we as individual select board members or we as a team have to deal with and I think that's that's one thing I I would impress to people. Um just
picking up on on what David said about we're we would we'd love to have that conversation. I get the feeling that a lot of people are more afraid than they used to even when I started on the select board six years ago to have some of the conversations and that is sometimes because a lot of their
experiences looking at the online conversation and the social media conversation has been degrading over you know since its inception but certainly over the last decade more and so I I think there is a an assumption people come in that everything is much more vitriolic than it actually is if you
come in and talk to us and have a conversation and so very open to having that that the Facebook conversation is not reflective of the conversation and and what we're talking about or how you will be received if you come in and talk to us at a select board meeting or or grab a set at Market Basket or or
wherever your your preference is. Um uh and so yeah, that's that's one thing I'll I'll point out is that we're we're completely open to hearing that. And there's been a number of times where, you know, I'll be chairing a meeting or I'll be sitting on the board and somebody will come up to make an open comment. they'll be incredibly
frustrated and I will be equally frustrated on their behalf, right? And and sometimes it is within our control and sometimes it's not within our control. Sometimes it's within our control, but it might be another full one-year funding cycle before we can do something about it. And so we're we are
incredibly empathetic to those things and we are trying to figure out what we can do to make the best use of the resources the town has to to solve those problems and make this a flourishing community. And we do care about and that's you know
I think we all probably follow social media uh to a certain degree but we but I think we're good at not reacting to social media as being the guide because that's it's a small group that's on social media but we we hear those
comments and we express concern when we see something and sometimes questions are do evolve from something that might have been seen on social media. I do want to comment Jeff alluded to the fact that you know within the last decade um how things have changed with social media and with your generation and the
generation of the students that would be watching this presentation 20 years ago when I started social media or you know I think Facebook was just brand new essentially it was but social media was something we really didn't understand didn't know how it was going to affect
us and it's evolved over time and unfortunately over the last decade It it evolved first intoformational. It was informational and it was a different type of of media experience. >> Yeah. >> Over the last decade
>> and I think we've seen this especially on the national politics but even so it's now trickled down to the local level it's become negative and it's become dangerous in many ways because there's things that are out there. Combine that with AI and you see things
that aren't real and people expect, you know, they don't know if it's real and not real. You get fake information, fake news, as they say. Uh, and at the local level, especially here in Maynard, where we don't have a local newspaper that can advertise the truth or broadcast the
truth. Um, people make assumptions based on what they see >> in on social media. And we need to find a way to defeat that. And that's part of the challenge I think that we face as members of the board. >> I think one people and and we all know this but we don't intuitively realize it
but if if you're taking a look at your social media feed and what's putting out there it is completely different from what your neighbor is seeing which is different from what their neighbor is seeing because it's now so microtargeted that it's no longer a single conversation anymore. And and we see that when different people come in with very different fact sets on on the same
issue. So that's that's just one dimension right there. But it's important. I I I love the work of of groups like the main voice to have have, you know, uh longer format kind of articles digging into some of these things. Um and we're working to bring um
you know, people together before key votes and decisions. So, we had a nice meeting in the library last year um in advance of the override conversation. We're bringing more uh contextual information to warrant articles to town meeting at a regular basis. And so we're we're figuring out different ways and
experimenting with with communication patterns to to react to some of the things that David and I have talked about. >> All right. >> I don't even remember what was the original question. We got off track a little bit. So >> I think it was what >> you mentioned volunteering earlier. Um >> one one question I have is how would
more like residents do how how should residents find out about volunteer opportunities? >> Well, it's it comes down to communication in many ways that we have a burden upon ourselves. But we have a website here. We have a website here in town that everything is broadcast. Uh
but a quick stop in at town hall to inquire as to hey what's available? They have lists. There are opportunities again on the website. They if somebody is interested they can ask any member of uh of our elected board or school committee as well about what might be
available within the schools or within the town for opportunities. We are always looking for volunteers. There's committees that have and and you can you can imagine anything and there's a committee that that covers it one way or
another whether it be from um from safe safe walking streets and how to make our streets safer for pedestrians up to you the finance committee. Now, of course, the finance committee is more detailed on what they're focused on. It may not be for everybody, but essentially u if
somebody wants to volunteer, they should ask and make a phone call to town hall and just ask the town clerk, hey, what's available for volunteer? And and uh they find out in a moment's notice as to what's as to what's out there. And we have online an intake form where you can
kind of list, you know, who you are a little bit about your background, your education background, what your interests are and we can take a look at that and and maybe um an opening comes on a particular committee that might match for somebody 3 months or six months down the road and we can say, "Oh, that would be a good fit." And and
we do take a look at that um from time to time to to match people up with their interests and their experience with where the committees are um needing volunteers. But like I said a few minutes ago, I went down to the farmers market the first weekend I was here in Maynard after Id moved into my house and
you know by the end of that conversation I was helping to volunteer for the cultural council, right? And so talking to people, friends and neighbors is a great way to do it. Um another good way is to go to town meeting if if you're not already attending town meeting and just listen to the discussion, participate in
that. uh and and you'll hear what issues are out there, what's on people's mind. And then we often have um booths and tables set up or different groups will um to to inform people about uh upcoming issues, whether that's uh the schools are usually present with uh items there.
Our DPW director is usually present with things there. Um but we've had playground reuse committees and things like that there as well. So there's there's a number of different ways to to learn about the different opportunities to serve. >> And for people that are that are specifically interested in various things, I think it's important to point
out the the one committee that the select board really doesn't have any control over at all is the finance committee. Yeah. because that's appointed by our town moderator and that's intentional because the finance committee is meant to be the review for
the legislative body of town meeting which is just as I mentioned at the outset you know where the executive and then there's the legislative body the finance committee is specifically identified as the review board for the legislative committee because the
moderator is the head of the legislature per U as controlling the meeting, he appoints um members of the finance committee. >> So the finance committee in that metaphor would be the judicial branch.
>> No, they're they're the review of the of the >> for the legislature. They they make recommendations to the legislative body of town meeting. There's no um judicial >> say the attorney general's office would be a judicial branch. >> So So they are they're not a third
branch. They're part of the legislative branch, but they are the eyes and ears and you know, basically they are the ones that have the opportunity to sit down and really dig into what's going on, what's coming to town meeting so they can make a recommendation to the
legislative body and they do they make a recommendation on every article that comes before town meeting and town meeting gives it the credence that they wish and can still ask questions. Um but finance committee is not an appointee of
the uh of the select board. Similarly, there are others that the that our charter gives directly to the town administrator as well. >> The school committee is an independently elected body. If if David implies otherwise, he's going to get emails on Monday. >> That's true. The school committee is is an elected board independent of us, but
it's outside of the the basic uh framework of uh governance outside of education. Yeah. All right. So, I guess we'll move on to our next question. Um, what would you say are some of the
town's like major issues that we're looking at right now? >> Anticipate what Jeff's going to say. >> I mean, we say it together at this point. It's it's I mean, water and sewer is has been what we've been talking about um as the primary driver uh really
since I joined the board about six years ago. and and we've um been working with our DPW director on both kind of short-term fixes and the long-term planning needs to move forward and and water and sewer both. And so it's both getting clean water into houses and getting the dirty water out and treated
and properly back in. Um and so anything you want to add or you can we could we could have another twoour session on this alone? talk for hours on water and sewer and and as you probably aware you you know you hear about people complaining about dirty water or
whatever. Um and it's not ignored. It's not missed. It's known about and it's we have a we have developed over the last five years or so a long-term plan relative to how we can address that. It's expensive.
>> It's time consuming. It's complex. But we're working at it and have been for quite some time in order to get man on the track so that we can get that issue behind us. And it's important >> because without not only having portable
water of course that people can drink or whatever, we have an issue with capacity of water where we don't have enough water available to us to pull in order to >> to give people the water that they need. So yeah, >> our our statistics show that on certain
days and it's rare, but on certain days of maximum use, we may not have enough water for everybody. >> So and that's it's rare. It might be one day a year, but one day a year when you turn on the faucet and nothing comes out, that's bad news, you know. Yeah. >> So we're working on that as well. And we
have various approaches to to address that. But it's complex also. It's important because for economic development for our community, we can't grow. We can't invite. We would have difficulty inviting a bigger business or a big housing development or anything like that that draw a lot of water which
would help if we were able to get that would help our tax burden because it would relieve some burden on the current residents and extend it off to either new residents or to business uh tax base. We can't do it unless we have the capacity to handle the water. So we're
aware of that. We're working on it. focus of ours and have been now for the last five or six years. >> The other answer I'll kind of give to your question is is to move from short and then like one year after another planning cycles to longer and longer planning cycles and that encompasses the
water sewer issue, but also a lot of the other factors that we're looking at. And it doesn't mean you can fully lock in a five-year plan and then stick to it because there's always going to be events that happen until you get there. But anytime that you're you're making a one-year decision, can you you know push that context out in which you're making that decision to two years to three
years to five years to 10 years and can you keep with that? And so that at every level, whether that's the broad town meeting or the select board or or the capital planning committee or the individual um committees that we work with, are are they expanding that range
uh of foresight in which they're looking when they're making those decisions? And so that that encompasses both the water and sewer issue and then many of the other topics that we've already talked about today. I think another issue uh for me in particular u of of ultra
concern and focus is the affordability of living in Maine and making sure that we can um retain the current residents and as people age we don't want them to be forced out of our community because they are they're now on fixed income or
whatever and but uh government costs money >> and so we have to be aware that with continued expenses and not only expenses for the community, but we've got expenses that are increasing for just
average everyday living. Look at the cost of gas. Look at the cost of energy for your home. Look at the cost of of of uh of groceries. Everything is expanding. You know, medical treatment is is gone up outrageous. People are on
any type of uh of medication. Um, and we've got our water and sewer bills, we've got our tax bills, we've got this. So affordability for the community for me uh is a focus that I have to keep an eye on from my perspective that we all
should keep an eye on but we have to be cognizant of the fact that government costs money and uh so we have to balance it and make sure that we're meeting the needs of education and public safety
while at the same time monitoring how we're impacting our residents. And I'll I'll add on there. You asked what the most important was, and it might have sound like water, sewer, and affordability, and long-term planning are are three different answers, but they're very much linked. They're very much the same conversation is is one
point I'll make. And then the other thing I'll note is those cost factors that David identified are the same ones that are impacting our household budgets are what's impacting the government budgets. The the rise of health care costs, rise of energy. Um, and in particular Massachusetts, the shortage
of housing has uh upward uh pressure on on the cost to just hire individuals. And and that's true for the services that we might go out and buy as individual residents when when we go to the grocery store or the coffee shop or to a restaurant. It's also true as a government as we look to hire teachers
and police officers and firefighters and and people for um managing our water and sewer plants and contractors and individuals who build our schools. um the biggest cost for for most of those folks are the same as as probably for most uh of us um in time government. It's it's housing and and our mortgages
and our rents and things like that. So they're they're very much linked conversations. >> All right. Um so next up we have um you know what's what are your thoughts on um how you
would introduce um you know your thoughts on like uh a balance for the municipal budget. How you guys uh keep rates reasonable and still provide like good good services for you guys personally.
>> It's a pretty direct segue to the conversation we were having. So go ahead. >> Yeah. Um well, first off, it's important to recognize that um state government requires every municipality to have a balanced budget. >> So we go into each um each fiscal year
with the understanding that we have to have a balanced budget. >> So we have it's a math problem at that point. We have we have a certain amount and then >> we're restricted by Proposition 2 and a half >> um without an override. We were restricted by how much we can raise
taxes from the previous year. Basically two and a half percent plus what they call new growth and I go into it but I won't as to what that what that means. Um but that's restricted. So each year we know how much we can add to our tax
base to our to the taxpayer and we have to work within that within that um framework and often times as Jeff alluded to you know with the rising costs of various things of governments not only within the uh the town side but we're also respons responsible for
giving the school budget uh we give the the school department their budget they then can work it as to how they fit it But their costs are rising just as the town's costs are rising. So everything becomes a problem because you now have
various factions pulling from various desires and needs and uh you might say wants but we don't really have that luxury of giving wants. We have uh we have needs that we must fulfill whether they're contractual or otherwise. Um,
and then on a good year, we might have wants that we can fill in when we get a good year of free cash to be able to uh to get some money out there for non-recurring costs. But, um, so yeah, it's um it's a tough it's a tough
juggling act and we need to and we do a great job. Jeff's the are you the chair currently of the uh of the budget sub? >> No, Mike. Mike took that over from me earlier. Jeff years was the chairman of the budget subcommittee um which is a group that um made up of various members
of the select board, the school committee, finance committee, the town administrator sits in and gives his guidance as to where things are at. And this discussion about where we can go, what our needs are from each of each department, what the uh the thought
process is from the finance committee, from the legislative side. And then from that, we use that discussion to build upon where we're going to go with our budget. I don't want to steal all of Jeff's thunder. He's uh he's in on the
budget subcommittee conversation uh on a weekly bi-weekly basis. So, we can fill you in on more >> and we just met on Wednesday on on a whole host of topics including uh right before town meeting which is coming up in May. Um but >> going back to your question about you know it's it's it's a balancing act.
That's the key part of that on on as costs rise, do you, you know, raise taxes to meet that cost? Do you cut services? Do you do both in a blend? Often it's a mix of the two. What you have to figure out um communication is important. David pointed out the budget subcommittee which brings together the
school committee, the finance committee, select board, and often the capital planning committee comes and joins that conversation too. And and that group I think has really developed a lot over the last uh at least since I've been on it. um which has been six years now in in terms of uh making sure that we get
ahead of any issues or or disagreements between the boards and and we can figure out where everybody stands before we actually have to um take a vote and make the decision. So, it just spreads out the timeline so that we can have the conversations and get all the facts on the table early enough. uh like I said
last year before a critical year where we might be going for an override and especially for an operational override which is a little different than one that might be attached to a fire station or a school. Um but we'll we'll have ways to have broader community conversations. So last year we had a
forum uh in the library. It was is quite well attended both in person and online. And and what David and I both said we wanted going into that is to have, you know, only, you know, a quarter or a third of the time spent with the town administrator, the superintendent talking about the plans and the dominant
bulk of time, 2/3 to threequarters of it. we did listening to the public, answering questions, taking comments, uh taking feedback, and so that we could then incorporate that when we got back into the select board session, uh and still have uh a couple months to to figure out where we wanted to go for the
final presentation of that override package, the town meeting. Um and so it's it's bringing those stakeholders together. Um and it's just it's knowing where the numbers are going. So this year the big conversation health care costs are um 10% or more for almost
every community in Massachusetts. In fact, we're relatively lucky. Uh but it's it's kind of crazy to say that we're lucky that we are only having a 10% increase because other towns are having a 15% increase. >> But some of those factors you read about on the news, if it's um hospital closures and the consolidation, which
can raise prices, or nursing shortages, some of which stem still from the pandemic, those do show up in our bottom line. and we have to make tough decisions as a town as mayor on how we're going to pay for those services when those healthcare costs go up. So, it's it's a lot of communication and
looking at numbers and then just making sure that we have the facts on the table and and everybody is aware of what the baseline facts are as we make those decisions going forward as a community. >> All right. Um, so how would you Oh, we've already
gone over volunteering. So, what um What do you guys do to make sure um that everyone's voices are heard when it comes to your decisions? >> Uh listen, >> listen.
>> Um be open to hear other thoughts. um and communicate and understand what the issues are so that we can then when people either complain
or support we can explain why we feel the way we feel. um and lead the conversation and explain why we might be making a decision that we're making, not back away from it, be consistent. Um,
those are my ideas and thoughts about how we can lead the the town forward and make and help in uh I don't want to say convince >> because that's not the right word, but help in get in getting their support at
town meeting for what we need for votes to approve things so we can continue to move ourselves forward. >> Yeah. I mean, we talked about earlier it's it's harder because you know, so many people are self- selecting out of talking about these issues online and so they they're feeling there are fewer and
fewer places to go. I think creating an environment um certainly in the select board chambers for open comment or even at town meeting for questions to come on to to make as as informative of a session as we can. Um, but also to let
people know that they're they're welcome to make the comment and then sometimes we're not going to respond because we're trying to synthesize that with 10 other comments. And that's something that that we're doing constantly is figuring that out. I think some of the strongest forms of advocacy I've seen are um individuals
who come in. Ellen Dugen does this uh quite well. She's been involved in a lot of different municipal um um boards and committees and discussions, but she came in the other day and and gave a talk about um partially related to 6163 Summer Street, but connected to um the
water infrastructure and our needs that we've already talked about there, but just a very well organized here's the facts, here's why I'm thinking about this way, and here's what I want you to do. Um and then then, you know, she'll be back and she'll bring that again for the next issue as well. And so you're
absolutely free to do that. And and I I find the well-prepared remarks like that can have the most impact on on my internal thinking about where I might go. Not necessarily there in the moment, but in the coming 6 months to a year or longer. Uh and so feel free to just drop
us a note without an ask that says, "Hey, this is what I see and and this is where I think you guys should be putting more of your focus." And and I don't think I think people feel they need to have some sort of ask. And it's okay that the ask is put more focus on this area. That's what I want you to do as as a select board member.
>> Yeah. And no idea is a bad idea in many ways. You know, um we're open to hear. It doesn't necessarily mean we're going to approve everything. >> Um but it could be a new perspective, a new thought, a new idea that we hadn't thought of before.
>> Um nobody's going to be yelled at. Nobody's going to be um shunned away. Um, we I think we do a great job of respecting everyone's thoughts when they come before the board and we welcome it.
First thing on our agenda essentially every meeting is public comments and we say the board wants to hear your comments. We might not be able to act on them because of regulatory requirements or statutory requirements that prevent us from taking up something that's not
on our agenda. Um, but we listen and if necessary, we'll put it on an agenda for the future. So again, I think that um our residents should feel comfortable in coming forward and expressing concerns, positive, negative. I mean, I get I get
people who stop me in the supermarket and complain to me all the time, and that's okay. That's part of the role. >> You're talking about me. >> No. Uh, and they complain about taxes. They complain about why did you why did you guys do this on uh on whatever issue it
might be and uh and again that's okay and you know what too is uh those people end up being people I respect I think they respect me and it builds a great relationship with people starting many
of my friends now from years ago when I first started in this role um many of my friends were people that my first uh interaction with was not a good one because it was a complaint and it's developed into a mutual respect and friendship. Uh and we might see things
on a grand scale politically completely different but we're friendly and respectful and you know our communications about the Red Sox and the Bruins and the Celtics and the Patriots are all friendly. We just don't want to go you know to Washington. So
>> yeah. And and I'll just pick up on a couple things because Um, sometimes we do get yelled at and and I think one of the things I had to learn about um is when you're being yelled at and over the six years of my time on the select board, how to take that energy and and not to project it back out and how to
how to calm and bring down the energy of the room, but not bring it down to zero, but bring it down to where you can then bring the facts back out and and pick out what the true core argument of the person or what they're trying to express and then turn that into a productive way going forward. And that's that's a
difficult thing to do under pressure, but we we've, you know, you we've we've heard it a lot of it before and and we're very open to, you know, the productive forms of that um and and figuring out how to how to work with you to get an answer to what your question is. So, um yeah, don't don't be afraid
to come up and and just give a polite statement. We are we are more than happy to to either answer your question or simply to take take kind of feedback on on what you see going around town and and where you might think priorities should be shifted.
>> All right. Um, and then so now we have our scenario question. Um, let's just imagine the town's facing a very controversial decision, maybe a large development, budget override, school funding issue. Um, and people are
disagreeing. Um, how do you approach that from your position on the select board? >> I don't think we have not a hypothetical. Yeah, that's uh that's something that we've en encountered all of those within certainly within the time that I've been on the board. Big
developments, uh school issues, um whatever else was on the list with overrides and everything else. Each and every one of those things along the way has been something that I've dealt with as a member of the select board and Jeff has too um as well. And it really again
comes down to communication and it comes down to understanding the impact, positive and negative, that a particular issue will have on our community as we move forward. Something as simple as the development of our elementary school, which I give Jeff a boatload of credit
for. Um, I worked alongside of him, but I think he was he was the lead voice in in relative to how we would energize, for lack of a better phrase, that that building. Not not the energy towards moving towards a new school, but actually how we would power the new
school >> and because it's going to be more expensive to build what we are building. But in the long run, we are saving the community a lot in the future um because of how things will evolve as we move forward from an energy perspective
getting away from fossil fuels and not only will it help us uh help the you know the world but it will also help us from a financial standpoint. And there were a lot of people who had difficulty grasping that and I was on board because
I understood that yeah, it's going to be upfront cost and it's also going to cost us more money early, but in the long run, I am convinced that over the 50-year time, and I'm not here, I won't be here in 50 years, but there will be people that are here in 50 years. and
the building that we that we have approved and we uh were able to get support for through the community through much of Jeff's efforts um uh is one that will serve us well and save the community money uh and will you really
be a uh a positive for our community that was controversial >> and we got through it and we educated and we got support and we were able to get it successfully passed and I was in the building this week and it's remarkable and we can't wait to see it
open and it's going to be great for the kids coming forward. That's no and I appreciate that um because I would have brought up that example too and that that was a controversial decision but same things that we've talked about before getting facts out um on the table and then having those discussions having more
iterative discussions um uh during that conversation certainly spent time talking with subject matter experts uh from around the state who had worked on other projects from from neighboring towns and their select boards and how they think about things to bring that experience making sure that we're having
a productive conversation here uh within Maynard. Um and then just taking the energy out of the room when you're being yelled at sometimes and and putting that back out and say, "Okay, that's fine, but here's the facts and here's the decisions we need to make." Uh I think in these last couple weeks in particular when we're looking at incredibly
volatile energy prices to have um much more on-site energy generation for that school through the geothermal and solar systems is is even wiser sounding decision today than it was at the time that we made that. So that was good. Um the the other conversation you asked
very much about school funding and overrides and last year leading up to that override conversation it was a it was a multi-art party negotiation right so we were looking at increased um healthc care costs it was another year with 10% and and there was um negotiation with the town unions on on
how healthcare plans be designed and how we could ease that impact for them and I really appreciate um all of our unions and the great work they do and and their willingness to to work with us and and plot a fiscal path path that made sense. Um there were uh senior residents who wanted everything from a new
construction um for a new senior center to to what we ended up which is a rental which was uh something that I thought met the the right um uh scale in terms of what we're able to afford and get implemented in in a shorter time frame. um also borrowing from the example of
other towns uh around the neighborhood and I thought that focus group did a good job at looking at different options that different communities had done and identifying the most successful path forward and then there was the school conversation as well and so we were having multiple and then I'll point out
iterative so we you know we had a lot of meetings where we said all right let's um what I did and I was chair that year I said all right here's a proposal for an override package and and we would go around the room and and the schools might say we want to go this and senior center focus group might want to go another way and and the unions would
want to go another way or the town administration or people from the public. And we said, "Okay, we'll take all that feedback and we would come back in a couple weeks and say, here's another version and different special interest groups and we we brought versions of that to the broader public um uh in a couple of different
sessions." And so uh we went oh and earlier in that one we had solid waste and recycling actually was one of the proposals and and that did not pull well at all, I will say. So that ended up getting dropped and and we'll uh talk about the implications of that at this upcoming town meeting in just a month or so. Um but the point is um a lot of
iterative conversations to take that heat out and and just make small steps from a proposal to something that you can get everybody on board with as opposed to just kind of doing a fuzzy and then at the end you have to put some numbers in together before a town meeting. But I think last time putting
putting something on the table for people to react against in terms of proposal or early in the process and then iteratively taking feedback from those different groups until we could get something at town meeting that u the broad community could support and I think we were around 70% for that vote. Um that that's one of the key things
there is is not to go from 0 to 60 but to go from 0 to 10 to 20 and then work your way up to I would say also we need to give a lot of credit to the school committee for last year especially on the override vote. They compromised and it was difficult for them to compromise
but we you know we from the perspective we look at it globally because we're not only thinking of the educational aspect we're looking at all of our residents. school committee is a little bit more focused in on what's best or what is necessary. I shouldn't say what's best, what's necessary from the school's perspective. We we as members of the
select board have to look at it from a more global perspective. And so there were people who were we weren't necessarily going to get the votes to help the school if we couldn't compromise on a number that was more palatable for more people. So we were able to work it. they were able to
compromise with us and we were able to get to a to a number that did pass again and about 70% of the of the public supported it and remarkable for a community that you know we're not necessarily wealthy but we're not we're not poor either. Uh we are a
you know progressive community that's moving forward and uh we are working our way towards making improvements that are necessary to move our community forward for the next decade and a half. >> Yeah. I I don't think anybody from the start of that conversation to the finish got exactly what they wanted, but
everybody was willing to come to the table, hear everybody else out and was willing to kind of compromise, not kind of, was willing to compromise in a way. Um, going back to what I said, what I'm I'm very proud that we've been able to develop in this community is not to bury the disagreements, but to get them out very publicly and have healthy
disagreements. And that's that's just cornerstone of the democratic process. And so I I feel good to be in that position because there are certainly challenges coming up in the future where we're going to need to lean on on those skill sets and continue to have those healthy disagreements about how we spend
limited resources within the town to make sure we're charting the best course forward. >> All right. And um so you all are up for reelection May 5th. Is that right? >> That's correct.
>> And So, with that in mind, is there any any final thoughts you have that people any misunderstandings people might have? Um, any anything we haven't talked about that you think people really need to know?
>> Uh, I think that residents should um recognize that our town is currently, I think, in really good shape. >> Um, we're in good shape financially for the most part. We do have challenges, but we have right at the ship and a lot of problems that if we hadn't had a
group that works together so well, we're we're really um I'm proud to work with the group of the five people that we have on our board right now. I think is is a great group of people who are all rowing together. May not agree on everything all the time, but we row
together and make it work. And so I think by having Jeff and I return to the board um is beneficial to the community because we uh we all know one another well enough to know what makes us tick and what makes us you know move forward
where we might be able to compromise in a manner and I think that's healthy. I think also um Jeff and I both have the experience now that allows us to take advantage of the friendships that we've developed with our legislative friends
at the state level. Um I'm I'm very close with Representative Hogan. I'm friendly with um with Senator Eldridge. Jeff has the same type of a relationship from what I gather with uh with our representatives as well. And that's
important because they listen to us and they can help us and we aren't hesitant to go to them and ask them for hey you may they may not be able to help us directly but they can give us direction as to where to head and they have done that. So, we're very, not only are we
lucky, I think, to have the board that we have now, we're extremely lucky to have the legislative delegation that we have at the state house. And and I think Jeff and I especially are tied in um in a way that perhaps a person without that
experience may not be. And that's beneficial to our community. And I think it's it's come forward. We've g we've gotten a lot of grant opportunities from our delegation that we wouldn't have gotten. And a lot of that is due to the fact that we've developed those relationships over time.
>> Thank you, David. I I appreciate working with David and I've learned a lot from him over the last six years um as we've gotten the chance to work together. Um I'll I'll reinforce some of the themes we've talked about, but um I'm very proud of how well the different groups
within this community are working together. Um not even when they agree, but especially when they disagree. Um because they're disagreeing in a healthy way. And I think that's necessary for the very real challenges we have. And so I want to make sure we're we're continuing um especially in high pressure moments to take the pressure
out of the room, but leave the the facts and the very difficult challenges on the table so that we can work together to figure out uh common sense solutions and and compromise solutions that that can meet as many of of the requirements for the problem at hand. Um, I'm also very
proud that that over the last six years since I've been on, we've been able to take these planning cycles in wherever they are, um, extend them from one year to two year to five years to 10 years. And and as I continue on the board, um, I'm I'm excited to extend those further because that's where a lot of the cost
savings come from. They don't come from the one-year decisions. They come from the decisions we're making now that can help us out five and 10. And so communities that figure out how to make those longer term decisions and longer term planning cycles are the ones who can evolve into ones that are making
even better decisions with resourcing. And so I'm I'm looking forward to continuing that process as we go through. Um but it's I I think the other thing is every single member of the select board feels that way. It's an honor to serve the community. We put our all into it. Um we put a lot of time
into it. We're we're spending if you're looking at the select board meetings, we're spending a lot more time you don't see researching into the different facts and listening to folks and synthesizing all those things into the conversations that you might see a bit more public facing and and we all take that job very seriously. But it's a it's an incredible
honor to serve this community and and we're very grateful for the opportunity. >> And before we close, I want to congratulate you not only on this forum that you put together, but on your graduation from high school. Um, one of
the things that I am proud of of this community is the uh group of students every year that we uh that we graduate from Mayard High School. And the fact that we have such a small community at our school, yet we have such success
coming from the community as from our high school is a tremendous testament to the education that you're getting here at Maynard High School. And uh I think our residents should be proud not only of May High School students but of our school committee, of our faculty, of our
administration at the schools, all of whom are leading to people like yourself that are taking advantage of your opportunity and I wish you a lot of luck next year at mass. >> Yeah, thanks. Um yeah, thanks for coming out. Thanks for having me. Um I guess we'll call it there.
>> Thank you, Ben. >> Thank you, man. Uh, think that's it. >> Hold on.