Speaker 1: I have 7 0 4. We'll do this by roll call. Chris Weisman Speaker 2: Here. Present on Zoom. Speaker 1: Harriet Berkowitz. Present on Zoom. Bob. Awkward. Bob. Hi Speaker 3: Here. Speaker 1: Okay, attending. Okay. Can you hear Donna? Can you hear me? Yes, I can. We can hear you now. Thank you. Donna Mackenzie here, participating remotely. And Paul Greer here also re participating remotely. So we have five of us. So we've called the meeting to order. The next item on the agenda is Citizens' Concerns.
Is there anyone for Citizens' Concerns? Seeing none, we'll go to an update on the special act status. Do you want to give a quick report on that, Chris? Speaker 2: Yes. Oh, I got it. Forgot to pull my notes up. The bill has been filed and it has a bill number. So, and I think in a previous agenda I had actually cut and pasted into it, but I didn't do it here. I can send you guys the bill number afterwards because I'm not sure. I'm gonna be able to pull it up on my computer really fast here. But the legislature has not
even settled on their rules for the year. So it doesn't have a committee. So until the legislature settles on rules, we don't know where. I mean, it's most likely going to a municipal type committee, but at least you know, we know it has a bill number and we're just waiting for the legislative process to continue so that like right now, none of the bills are doing anything 'cause they haven't settled on the rules or any of the, you know, that who is gonna be on which committees. But if you'd like me to send you the link to the bill, I can do that after the meeting. Speaker 1: That would be great. Speaker 3: Yes. Que Paul, I have a question.
So now we're proposing some additional stuff this spring. Does that get attached to that BU bill that now sits at the State House or what happens to this stuff? Speaker 1: No, the thing that's at the State House, the thing that said filed at the legislature is just a charter. Everything that we're doing this spring. Oh, Speaker 3: This is bylaw, right? Speaker 1: This is just bylaws. So, no, they're, they're kind of separate. Speaker 3: Separate, yep. Nevermind. Speaker 1: Okay. All right. Should we get motions for warrant articles? Is next on the list? There is Chris, I don't know if you can call it up on the screen.
A motion for a, just the, A committee report. Speaker 3: Now you sent us four emails, right, Paul? Speaker 1: I, I did. Speaker 3: And they're all unique. Four unique emails. Speaker 1: Y yes, there are motions A, B, and C that have to do with the collector of taxes. There is motion D, which has to do with Article 41 of the bylaws, motion E, which has to do with Article 81 of the bylaws, which is the one you worked on, Bob.
And then motions F and G that have to do with zoning. So those were all of the bylaw changes we sponsored. This one is, that's on the screen is from a different, would be under a different warrant article, which would just be to hear our report. Speaker 4: What you just sent was to hear the report and there was some other stuff with it. Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's under a separate article. Speaker 4: Okay. How many articles did we put? Speaker 1: Two. Speaker 4: Two. Okay. Speaker 1: Two. The first one was the committee report extension or appropriation. And the only thing we've got a motion for is a committee report.
Speaker 4: Okay. Speaker 3: Which is this? Speaker 1: Yes. Speaker 3: So Mo Speaker 1: Wait, wait. We got Paul Conley coming in. Paul, are you there? Yeah, sorry, Speaker 5: But I can't see anybody 'cause my screen has dropped off the face of the earth. Speaker 1: Okay. Alright. But I've got you joining the meeting at 7 0 9. We started at 7 0 4 Speaker 5: Actually, actually I started probably 20 minutes earlier and my windows kept on being overwritten. Speaker 1: I Speaker 5: It is a disaster here. I can't even see my people. Where's my zoom?
Speaker 4: Why do I get, Speaker 5: I do you, are you showing a Speaker 2: Right now? I'm showing the document. I'm showing a document. Paul, there should be words on, Speaker 5: I'm seeing the document. Okay, Speaker 2: Good. Speaker 1: Okay, Krista, I think I forgot also to announce this meeting's being recorded. Right? I think pe guess this is recording it. So it's okay. So anyway, Paul, we're through the first three items on the agenda and we're, we have a motion that we're considering, which is as printed on the screen, which is to move that the town here vote to hear or report from us.
So we had just pulled it up on the screen when you joined. Speaker 5: I'm looking at this screen for a draft motion. Tuesday, February 18th. Speaker 1: That's it. Speaker 3: That's it. Speaker 5: And I, I, I only have it up there for about five seconds and I lose it. Speaker 4: You're a best Speaker 5: Reader. Speaker 2: I'll second the motion. Speaker 1: Alright, so that was, Speaker 5: It's still showing up on me. Speaker 1: Okay. So I lost it. Move by, moved by Bob and seconded by Chris. Are there any other motions? Speaker 5: This is the Harry report. Speaker 1: Yes. Speaker 5: Okay. It's up here for another five seconds
and then it's gonna go disappear. Speaker 1: Okay. Any discussion saying none will vote this by roll call. Bob, how do you vote? Speaker 3: Yes, Speaker 1: Chris, how do you vote? Speaker 2: Yes, Speaker 1: Harriet, how do you vote? Speaker 5: Yes, Speaker 1: Donna, how do you vote? Yes. Paul. Connolly, how do you vote? Speaker 5: Yes. Speaker 1: And I am a yes. That is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 0, 0. The next one that I would like to take up if we could,
is motion D because we're gonna lose Harriet shortly. And this was the one that Harriet had worked on. Speaker 2: Can I go to the red line part? Speaker 1: Yes. Well, I think you should go to both of them. They're, they're both in the same document, I think. Speaker 2: Right? I did make a slay correction in your document. 'cause replace was spelled wrong. Speaker 1: Oh, that would be good if it, yeah. Al Speaker 2: Yeah. Rep palace. All right. So Speaker 1: You want me to, those are gen those are genuine mistakes. Not things that I do to like, make people find them. They're just, I'm a horrible typist. Mm. Speaker 2: Now usually I do a whole Speaker 1: Check.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Usually I do a whole check, but that one just jumped out at me. Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah. Why don't you put it up on the screen. Speaker 2: Can you see it now? Speaker 1: No, not yet. Speaker 3: No. You probably have to close the one you have and then Speaker 2: Open. Okay. Lemme see. I said I was still screen, it said I was, I thought I pulled it up. So, Mo it's motion D right? Speaker 1: Motion D Speaker 2: Sorry, hang on. Speaker 3: Oh, there's Paul. Now we can see you. Speaker 1: Hi. Speaker 5: Well, you'll see me being angry at all this all I I I have stuff I any screen
that's showing up, I only have it for a few seconds and something else jumps up on it. That's the problem. Speaker 2: I'm gonna go to the red line part. Speaker 1: Sure. So Harriet, what I did is I, you know, took your, what you had sent, right, right. Which was with, with those track changes and copied and actually used that document and then copied it it above and, and accepted all of the changes that became the motion. And then this is the track changes just for informational purposes. Okay.
Speaker 4: So then it makes the finance committee happy. Speaker 1: Yes. The one thing that I did do, if you scroll to, I believe it's the end of section, the last part of section six, right there, the, the, the, the parenthetical phrase that's highlighted in blue in your original was accepted, but you had indicated at our last meeting that that was a change. So I just changed its font and underlining to blue. Speaker 4: No problem. Speaker 2: So this is new language in down below, correct?
For, for the price requirements? Speaker 1: No, it was, it, they, no, it was in the original that Harriet sent, but the original that Harriet sent had all of the, I guess they were blue lines, except that one that says parentheses for more precise had been accepted and therefore it appeared and just, you know, as if it was part of the existing text. And my notes from the last meeting are that, that was when my notes from two week meetings ago when we sponsored the Warren article was we needed to add that. So I just changed its font back to make,
to show it's a change. Speaker 4: Thank you very much. Speaker 1: You're welcome. Thank you for all the work you did with you and Brian Leblanc. Speaker 4: I didn't do it. Brian deserves thanks. When this comes up to thank him because he did all this and he did it before he went on vacation. It was like a hurry up thing. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 2: So when this goes before the finance committee, are we gonna want him to know about it and have him there if possible? Speaker 1: I think so. Or for him to write a letter of support to review it and, and support it. Speaker 4: So we have to send him this particular thing?
Speaker 1: Yes. Speaker 2: Any other thoughts? Harriet, do we need to, or are we, are we ready for a motion? Speaker 4: I think so. Speaker 1: You wanna do the honors Harriet Speaker 4: Move to accept Article 41 as presented Speaker 1: The, the motion for Article 41? Yes. Speaker 3: Second. Speaker 1: Okay. It's moved by Harriet. Seconded by Donna. Are there any other motions? Any discussion? All right. Seeing none will vote this Harriet, how do you vote? Speaker 4: Yes, Speaker 1: Donna, how do you vote?
Speaker 3: Yes. Speaker 1: Chris Weisman. Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker 1: Bob Awkward. Speaker 3: Yes. Speaker 1: Paul Connolly? Speaker 4: Yes. Speaker 1: And I am a yes as well. Paulman? That's a yes. That is 6 0 0. The next one that I'd like to take up, Bob, as yours, which is motion E. And I tried to be very faithful to what you had written, except there was one place where one or two places where it didn't seem to fit.
Speaker 3: What do you mean? It doesn't seem to, didn't seem to fit. Speaker 1: So in the Speaker 3: Language change Speaker 1: Yeah, the language change that the gentleman you were working with, if you can scroll down, Chris to the last paragraph. A the, what he had written was the, the existing bylaws says no new installation. The existing bio says no installation of underground fuel or chemical or storage tanks or systems, you know, shall be allowed within the Aquifer Protection District. And just trying to put the language into it.
The, Speaker 3: Oh, you I see what you did. I see what you did. I put Speaker 1: Yes, I put with the exception. Exception first. Speaker 3: The first, right? Yes. That's actually much better. Okay, good. I like it. I End of motion. Where's the rest of the motion? Speaker 1: No, that's it. Speaker 3: Oh, just this B Oh, here we go. Speaker 2: Do we have a red line of this today though too? Speaker 3: I, I, you took the words outta my mouth. I was gonna say, do we have a red line version? Do you want a red line version? Speaker 1: Well, I didn't prepare it because if you go to the top, Chris, yeah. And we could, I can, we can prepare one,
but if you go to the top, it says, move that the town vote to amend Article 81 of the bylaws by adding the word propane after the words underground fuel so that the section now reads. And then you be, you're seeing the, where the, it's a one word change, right? So that right. And then the next one is add the phrase with the exception of propane and that shows where it goes. Then Speaker 3: Write up I gave you. Speaker 1: Right. And then, then we have a new section nine not apply
to, you know, or, or section C of, of section nine will not apply to propane. And then we have the insertion of the words with the exception, it's kind of like when they, when it's just a word going in and then it, you're, it's showing the way that it reads. I, you know, Speaker 2: Probably for the book or whatever for, we'll have to give it for, we'll have to give, don't you think? We'll have to give it to finance committee with red lines. Speaker 1: I can create a red line for it. That's easy enough. Speaker 3: I move the motion as presented on the screen. Second Speaker 1: Move by Bob, seconded by Harriet.
Are there any other motions? Seeing none will vote this Bob, how do you vote? Speaker 3: Yes. Speaker 1: Okay. Harriet, how do you vote? Speaker 3: Yes, Speaker 1: Paul Connolly, how do you vote? Speaker 3: Yes. Speaker 1: Okay, thank you. Donna. Mackenzie, how do you vote? Speaker 3: Yes. Speaker 1: Wait a second. I just lost my thing here. Chris, how do you vote? Speaker 2: Yes, Speaker 1: And I am a yes. All agree Murphy. Yes. So that is a 6 0 0.
Alright. That takes care of motion. EI Speaker 3: Am leaving and thank you very much. Speaker 1: Okay. It is, thank Speaker 3: You for staying and voting for my, alright, well please. My pleasure. Speaker 1: Okay, take care. Okay, bye by. So we still have a quorum. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The next one that we can take up is a little bit more complicated. It's on the collector of taxes. But let me see if we've got,
where do I have that one? Speaker 2: That one's motion A, but Paul, Speaker 1: Yeah, motion A And there is A a motion B as well. So there's a motion A and A motion B if you can call it up. Speaker 2: Well, there's motion A, motion B, and motion C. There's Speaker 1: Three. Motion and motion C, correct? I'm sorry. Yeah. Motion. Yeah, there is a motion C Oh, and this one, this, this one, like all the others will go to Durant if we vote it. But I didn't want spend is time and money if, unless we think it's worth taking a look at. If you can call it up on the screen.
We currently can you see, see it now? Yeah. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 1: Yes. So we currently have a bylaw that in section six only references chapter 59 of section 57 of the Massachusetts general laws. It does not refer to chapter 60, section 62. And it does not refer to chapter 59, clause section five, clause 41 A. So the rate of interest on unpaid taxes, not in tax title and not in senior deferral is specified
in chapter 59. Section 57. Our current, our bylaw mentions chapter 59, section 57, the rate of interest on unpaid taxes for which a tax title lien has been taken is a different rate of interest. And it is spelled out in chapter 60. Section 62, the tax title is done in accordance with chapter 60, section 53. And then there are the senior exemptions,
the eligible senior exemptions that are under chapter 59, section five, clause 41 A. And those are at yet a different interest rate. And those are the, those are the senior deferrals. And so what this change would do, subject to special counsel looking at it, would have our bylaw track what the general laws say because the, you know, this, you, you, the senior deferrals in particular do not get a, the high rate of interest that other unpaid bills do.
And we don't make any mention of it. Speaker 2: It's unfortunate they even have interest, but the, but by law there is some interest they have to pay. Speaker 1: Yeah, Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay. Well I I did, I thought there was some wording that was veered, which is why there's some color on the, on the screen there. Speaker 1: Yeah, there you, the, the in that you highlighted should probably be removed Speaker 2: Because it's also that same word is also in the motion. Speaker 1: Yep. Speaker 2: So it should say bills taken in tax title. Is that correct? Speaker 1: Yes. Speaker 2: Okay. Okay. I'll just get rid of this yellow then.
But then I gotta, when we have the, Speaker 1: So I can create a red line for this, but all it's doing is inserting the new language in motion A and then motion B is a little bit more complicated. It's changing the timing, it's getting us out of the necessity of a newspaper. And it's also saying if there's a prepayment plan or an eligible exemption under 41 clause 41 A, you don't publish it. As we talked about it LA last time, you know, the, the, the publications here are they, they can be very beneficial because they can motivate collections and payments.
But the other thing that they do is they surface errors in the, you know, years ago when my wife and I first moved to town, we wound up on the list, even though we paid all of our taxes on time. And we called 'em up and said, what the bleep are you doing? And went down and so showed them the canceled checks and they were like, oh. And they had to dig into it. It turns out that somebody in the collector's office had applied our payments to some other parcel. And then back in like or something like that, the mortgage company screwed up and paid our taxes to the wrong parcel.
So Speaker 2: What happened twice to you? Speaker 1: Yeah, it's happened twice in, in 30 years. But the, nobody does the publication because there isn't a newspaper of general circulation. So anyway, that's what this one does. Speaker 2: Do we think when this comes up, that we'll need someone from the town to also come to finance committee about this? Or Speaker 1: We might, you know, I think that, you know, the, the primary reliance is gonna be on Mr. Duris and then on, you know, car North. So, Speaker 2: Well, I think it's helpful to include these extra mass general laws, especially because, you know, there are different interest rates
as you indicated, you know, the rate, Speaker 1: The rates are 14%, 16%, and 8%, they're just different. Speaker 2: So, well, you wanna be collecting that interest and charging that interest on the unpaid bills. Speaker 1: There is a, there is a provision that's unaffected by any of this, by which the collector can waive. I don't know how much of that interest, but that's not something that would be covered by bylaw. We just happen to have a bylaw that's, that fails to reference two key pieces of the mass general laws. It only references one of the three. Speaker 2: And then we've also decreased the, you know, the timing
of publishing these from 180 to 90 days at the end of the fiscal year. Speaker 1: Yep. Speaker 2: Just to get that the, and that's to have the information available to the public quicker. Speaker 1: Well, you know, and also to get it out quicker. The a hundred, the 180 days was when they were, I I remember when this was enacted, when they, it was while they were doing, still doing a lot of manual processing. Yep. And then they had to actually buy a newspaper ad proof, the newspaper ad. Right. As opposed to just, you know,
they now have Muni, they can close, they should be closed within 90 days and you know, you can check it and PDF it, you don't have to go back and forth with a newspaper. You go back and forth with a newspaper on 150 accounts. Right. Or a hundred accounts, you know, and it's like, it's a thousand dollars and 22 cents. No, it's $1,022. I mean, it's like they were going, it's the, there was a lot of fly specking that had to be worked out before you ran the ad. Speaker 2: But 120 days be better than 90.
Speaker 1: So July, August, September, that's what they, you know, so maybe it's maybe 120, give 'em three months to close the books. It shouldn't take that long. Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. I just feel like you should, like, there's always a lot of work to do when they're closing the books down at the end of the fiscal year. It just seems like, I agree, 180 seems a long time, but I, I think a hundred hundred 20, Speaker 3: I thought no, 93 months Speaker 2: Can, Speaker 3: Maybe four months. Speaker 2: Right. It just, it's just, Speaker 3: I think ninety's enough. Speaker 2: You do think so? Okay. Speaker 3: Long than three months to close the books. Speaker 2: Well, there's a, I mean there's
lots of stuff that happens. Do that. So. Hmm. I mean we definitely know it doesn't always happen in three months, so. Speaker 6: Hmm. I just wanna, I just wanna say I'm a no on the publication of this that I grew up with, this being published in the, the Metro West Daily News. And it was, honest to God, it was like the Scarlet Letter. It was a source of gossip. It was a source of shame. It was just, I understand the point, I understand the point of like even correcting errors
and getting to people to pay their tax bills, but in practice it doesn't work that way. And I, I can't be part of something that Okay. Just basically shames people. I mean, I'm, I'm not saying I think there's a story behind every delinquent tax thing and it's not simple. And do we have data on how much this gets people out of delinquency? But I, I just wanna explain why I'm not supporting the publication of it. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 2: And Donna, just so you know,
that's already within the bylaw. Like, we're not adding I know. Speaker 6: Okay. I know it, it, I know that it was in within the bylaw and you're, you're changing it. And I'm just saying I grew up in a time when it actually was published in the newspaper. Speaker 2: No, I understand what you're saying. Yeah. Speaker 6: Yeah. And I, I just, I don't know, I mean, I don't have a lot of confidence that publishing it on the town website's gonna, I mean, that could be worse. I, I don't know. I, I just, I'm not sure it will accomplish what it hopes to accomplish. Speaker 1: Okay. Any other discussion? We have two draft motions here.
So then we have a third, which is to add the add section titles. Speaker 3: All right. Not one ahead didn't have any. Speaker 1: Right. Speaker 2: Do you wanna, if you guys wanna take them motion by motion. Speaker 1: Oh yeah. You would. There might, there were separate motions. Speaker 3: Well, in this motion that Donna doesn't like, which I understand, given the, the narrative that she just shared and that Paul is proposing, do you Paul, have any data at all to suggest that the changes you make, that there's a real problem there? There's a problem there
that changes you're making is going to improve Speaker 1: The, so I have the experience of having twice been broadly included on the list. Gotcha. And that went, they, that went, they went, had to go collect it from somebody else. But we haven't published this in years. It's a, you know, it's a, it's just a, you know, because of the, you know, the newspaper, you know, piece the, the, the, the, hold on a second. I wanna call up. I want, I I have something else. I just wanna take a look at it. As of fiscal 24 year end, according to the records
of the town, the unpaid back real estate taxes, not in tax title were 4,895,000. The unpaid mo personal property taxes were 393,000. The unpaid motor vehicle is 854,000. The amounts in TA tax title were 1,000,657. And the boat excise was 5,240. Right. Grand totals around 8,209,000. The wha So, and that's not the end of the story. The unpaid real estate taxes,
not in tax title and the unpaid personal property taxes, which we're totaling about 4.9 $5.3 million. Some of it you'll, you won't collect. It's like some of it's really old personal property taxes and some of the, you know, real estate taxes as, you know, old stranded, you know, home building, you know, fragments of lots, but not all. But, but that's a, that's a only a piece of it. But that 5.4, $5.3 million ties up,
$5.3 million in overlay. You collect that stuff or, or move it into tax title, you can get an overlay release for the, so the, it's, it's literally a two for one. So call it a $10 million issue. Speaker 2: And those numbers that you're quoting don't include the interest that's due on it? Or does it include the interest due on It Speaker 1: Does not. Speaker 2: So the interest due on it makes that 10 million collection if it was all collected even fine. Speaker 1: That's correct. So we can talk about, you know, motion, motion a, I think is a relatively straightforward fix, which is to,
you know, link in all the pieces of the mass general laws, you know, motion, you know, motion B, we can, you know, vote, modify, not vote, leave it as it stands. We, you know, in other words, not vote motion B it, it's like what? It's the pleasure of the committee. Speaker 2: You mind if I pull up the tax collector, Speaker 1: The bylaw Speaker 2: Bylaw for a second? Speaker 1: Not at all. Speaker 2: I have a, I have it up but it's not letting me pull it up as a document. Let me try it now. Huh? It's funny. Speaker 1: Can you get it?
Speaker 2: No, it's not in letting me pull up pdf. It's only letting me pull up Speaker 1: Work. Lemme me see, let me see if I can get it. Speaker 2: That's weird. Yeah, it's not letting me do that. Speaker 1: Can I share mine? Yeah. Can you see mine now? Speaker 2: Yes. Is Speaker 1: Mine, mine's up. Speaker 2: Yeah. Can you just scroll down to section seven I, isn't that the one that we're talking about with the publication? Speaker 1: Well, there's section six, which is just a reference to the one part of the Mass General Laws 59. Section 57 and then nothing else.
And then the publication is here. Speaker 2: You are saying that the town hasn't published anything in quite a while because we're not using it. There is no newspaper of general circulation. Speaker 1: Right. But I think it's been a long time since this has been published. How long? I don't, but that's the way the bylaw currently reads. And then while we're here, why don't we just do this, you know, the motion C was to stick the words, you know, introduction after section one, stick the word compensation after section two, stick the words reporting
by town agencies to the Comptroller and collector as the title of section three. 'cause that's what it says. Every town, every department shall deliver to the comptroller and the collector once a month. A separate statement of amounts due. So we'd make that, the motion says remake keep section three, but add the words reporting by town agencies to the comptroller and the collector. Section four talks about uncollectible accounts and they get referred by the con, the collector to the comptroller. And then as permitted by law, they can be adjusted.
So section four, the title would be Adjustments to Uncollectible Accounts as Permitted by Law. Section five deals with the bond of the Collector and the payment of monies by the collector over to the treasurer. Section six deals with interest on unpaid charges and bills. And Section seven deals with publication of unpaid amounts. So that's all that motion was seeking to do the motion C But you wanted to keep me on, you wanted
to keep on section seven, Chris? Speaker 2: Well, yes, I mean, because I mean, we have as a committee move forward to change, you know, publication in a newspaper in the charter. And then we've made other adjustments in the bylaws to allow for the town to proceed with communicating given the absence of a newspaper in general circulation. So the fact that this is here and we already direct that to be published, it seems consistent with our practices to modify
where it's published. You know, given Donna's concerns, we could leave it vague and say the town collector shall publish in a manner determined by town administration, you know, and leave out that it would go on the website. But that does direct them to do it. It just doesn't necessarily hold them accountable. I mean, I think the fact that we haven't been publishing it, you know, could be directly connected to the fact that the numbers, the amount of uncollected taxes is pretty high at this point.
So, you know, we haven't been able to incent people, you know, to take their property out of tax title or pay their unpaid bills because no one's holding them accountable. So I understand the, you know, the shaming part of it and I, I'm not, I don't like that idea, but I, I also don't like the fact that we're not even correcting errors. Finding errors so they can be corrected. Speaker 6: I would agree to what you just said, Chris, if you wanted to modify this a little bit Speaker 2: That ask Speaker 6: What you just said
were, were, you didn't say it was a website, but he left it up to the dis how, however you just worded what you said, Speaker 2: Published in a manner to be determined by town administration is what I said. I I I think if we, if we leave motion B as it is, it's gonna be controversial and people will be fighting about, so I think we should by minimally, by, even if motion B were voted down by town meetings, I don't want it to be published. It would call attention to the fact
that we're not doing this now. So that could actually help facilitate, you know, some, some change. I just, I think we should be facilitating, we should be updating this and facilitating actions to help the community collect these taxes. But I think we should also try to word it in a way that doesn't create, you know, a lot of controversy and you know, frustration on Tom meeting floor. 'cause people are wary, their neighbors are gonna get outed. I dunno. Speaker 1: Oh, I have the wrong screen back here. I'm gonna stop sharing. So we,
Chris, you want to go back to the motion? Yeah, Speaker 2: No, I don't remember which one. It's here. Speaker 1: Motion, A, B, and C. Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Okay. Motion. A, B, and C. Okay. So, Speaker 3: Well, while Chris is looking for that, Don, you know, I hear you in the shaming thing, however, if the shaming thing worked to get people to pay the taxes they weren't paying. Recognize there's a million stories in the naked city as to why people have not including, as Paul pointed, just outright errors. If we don't do that then I mean, how is the town gonna collect this stuff?
Speaker 6: I do understand that. And I mean we're looking at the amount of the override, right? In this uncollected taxes. I, I mean I do understand it, I do understand collecting, being able to correct mistakes and I would go along with a more vague description of how it would be published as Chris just said. Speaker 3: Chris, can you remember what you said Speaker 2: It down? Because I'm gonna type it in. I Speaker 6: Should have written it down, but I didn't. Speaker 1: Yeah. Then I have a, another change. So Chris, you want to keep that at 90? I think we're gonna keep that at 90 days.
I think that you want to take that whole clause, you know, that begins pub after shall publish comma. So we have the whole thing either on the town website or in a newspaper of general circulation in the town of Natick and delete that and we'll insert a new clause in its place. Okay. Shall publish. And I think the words were in a manner determined by the town administrator, Speaker 6: That was it,
Speaker 1: The name of any entity, et cetera, who has not either has not entered into a either a payment plan and insert the words which is com comma after payment plan comma, which is not in default, comma with the collector's office, right? 'cause that was the other thing that I, I had left that one out. So the, you know, the, there are a couple ways you, you know, there are several ways to stay off the list, you know, pay the tax, enter into a payment plan or be a senior eligible to get one of the exemptions,
Speaker 3: Right? Speaker 1: Right. Speaker 3: But that's an important little parent that statement because they can enter a plan, get void being published, and then not pay the plan, not meet the payments. Speaker 1: Well, you want to get the, but the the other thing here is the, the, there we have a separate B bylaw somewhere that says if you've got a business or like a licensee, like a, you know, a restaurant gas station, what, you know, whatever it is, and it's got, you know, taxes in arrears, they're not supposed to get their licenses re re-upped if
we, if they're not paying the taxes or they're not in a payment plan. And I know that the collect, I know that the collector's office will do a, or used to do anyway payment plans because I've worked with bankrupt companies that had to go onto payment plans. Right, right. I've worked as a financial advisor years ago and they, you know, the payment plans are confidential, so, Speaker 2: Well I like this a lot better because I do feel like it gives the flexibility, but at the same time, like, you know, you could also use this as a deterrent as well.
You know, you're in default, you know, we're gonna be publishing, you know, the names of those, you know, like getting a payment plan or you're going to be, you know, on the list. Like you might be able to use that as an incentive as well. I think, I think this gives the town more flexibility and protects individuals, you know, from being shamed until it, you know, becomes an issue where they should be shamed. I like this change. Speaker 3: I can go along with that. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 3: And that red, the, the red statement that follows after that stuff that we did where it says,
said payment said amounts so published shall include blah, blah, blah. I don't know what you do with that because the publish there is referring back to the publish we just took out. Speaker 1: But it would be, well Speaker 3: Unless you're saying well you need it. So if they choose that, then this is what they need to do. But if they don't go that route, then they don't need to do, they don't need to worry about it. Speaker 1: Right. But we could take out the word and she'll list the amounts owed by year. Speaker 5: Yeah, let's take that up. Speaker 1: Just put the end it after by the town.
Speaker 3: I just wanna be transparent. Madonna, I'm gonna leave the, leave that hanging in there. Speaker 5: Thank you. I am Speaker 1: Paul. Yes, go ahead. Speaker 5: I'm, I'm a little confused about all this conversation, so to speak. Essentially, I believe it's a very good idea checking both on the town employees that they've done their job and to making the information available to the other people in the town of who are not supporting the town like they're supposed to. But on the other side, I would think
that if it cost an awful lot of money for us to basically publish all of this stuff, that's not the best thing. In a way I, I'd like to make it possible the stuff would be published or if at least is published in such a way that you got the message out that there were significant numbers, so to speak. But if you had to put everybody's name down, you know, I, I wouldn't mind, we, we have
to get the information out, but if it's gonna be a fantastic cost to write all this stuff out, I would like them to have the option to put in a way of informing the people the magnitude of what it is without having to spend a ton of money for the publication. Speaker 1: Th this won't cost a lot of money unless they choose to put it in a newspaper. Right. Speaker 5: It will not cost a lot of money unless they choose to put it in a newspaper. Speaker 1: Right. If they have to pay for an ad, it'll cost them money.
If they want to, if they wanna publish it in another manner by, hey, have it on a select board agenda and it's an attachment and it's now a public document, boom, that's cheap. Right. If they want to take it and put it in a PDF and put it on the town website, boom. That's cheap. And that's, that's, that's no cost. Yep. The cost is with, if you had to buy the app. Speaker 5: So that's, that's good that it's in there now. But who makes the decision on whether you go expensive or whether you go moderate
Speaker 1: That would, that would be the town administrator. Speaker 5: Okay. Somebody isn't responsible for doing it. Okay. I like that. Speaker 3: Yeah. Okay. I like this. This is good. That was, that was, it was good Donna, you led it to make it a much better motion. Speaker 6: Well, and thank you all. I mean I have no problems with this now. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 5: Now, now another question. I didn't catch this. Sure. Are we putting the, the, the, the titles in for the sections?
Speaker 1: Yes. Speaker 5: Okay, good, good. Just, just so that at least you kind of get a hint on what the section's about. Good. Thank you. Right. Speaker 1: Yeah. And the reason for that, Paul, and you raise a good point is, you know, if they're just there, it's like section one, you actually have to go read the whole thing to figure out what it is. Yes. If you can see what the headers are, you can go, oh, I'm interested in that one. Right. I'm interested in what the interest is. Right. You know, that kind of thing. So that, Speaker 5: That's very good reasoning. I think that's what we want. Speaker 1: Okay. So are we ready for motions here? Speaker 2: I think so. Speaker 3: I think so.
Speaker 1: Pleasure of the committee on motion. A Speaker 2: I move that we approve motion, a collector of taxes as presented on the screen. Speaker 3: Second, Speaker 1: It's moved by Chris and seconded by Bob. We'll vote this. Chris, how do you vote? Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker 1: Bob, how do you vote? Speaker 3: Yes, Speaker 1: Paul Connolly, how do you vote? Speaker 5: Yes, Speaker 1: Donna, how do you vote? Speaker 6: Yes Speaker 1: And I am a yes. That is 5 0 0. Pleasure of the committee with regard to motion B as shown in the red line section,
which will become the motion if we vote it once the red lines are accepted. Speaker 2: I believe that we approve motion B. Collector of taxes as presented and edited on the screen. Oh and all and subject to the review of attorney dur Speaker 1: Moved by Chris, seconded by Donna. We'll vote this. Chris, how do you vote? Speaker 2: Yes, Speaker 1: Donna, how do you vote? Yes. Bob, how do you vote? Speaker 3: Yes, Speaker 1: Paul Connolly, how do you vote? Yes and I'm a yes.
That is 5 0 0. And then we have motion CI Speaker 2: Move that we approve motion C section titles as presented this evening on the screen. Speaker 3: Second. Speaker 1: Okay. That's moved by Chris, seconded by Bob will vote this. Chris, how do you vote? Speaker 2: Yes, Speaker 1: Bob, your vote please? Speaker 3: Yes. Speaker 1: Paul Cony you how do you vote? Yes, Donna, how do you vote? Yes.
And I am a yes. So that is 5 0 0 that takes care of motions. A, B, and C. Chris, you'll send that to me so that I can Yeah. Clean it up. And then I'll also add the re the red lines to the other motions. Speaker 2: I'm just gonna put a footer on it before. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 2: Just to say as voted so I pull the right one up. Speaker 3: Hey Paul, why she's doing that Harriet's work. Which motion was that? Motion. D Speaker 1: Harriet's. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: Motion D Speaker 3: And it was what? Bylaw 41 originally?
Speaker 1: Yes. Speaker 3: Okay, good, good, good. A, B, C, D, E. Speaker 1: We're onto F and G. Speaker 3: F and G Speaker 2: Want F and g yet? Speaker 1: Yeah, These may take a little bit more time and people may decide, the committee might decide that we don't want to vote on them in for final form tonight, but when it's up on the screen I can walk people through it. Motion F is to add a provision to the town council bylaw
that calls for the appointment of, I'll wait till Chris makes a little bit bigger calls for the appointment of special zoning council to basically to advise the planning board, the finance committee, any committees created by town meeting to look at zoning to advise the moderator and the representative town meeting on proposed zoning bylaw changes. We've had discussion on and off since we've started as a committee on this one. And we've just noticed that there have been multiple town meet every town meeting since there's been at least
one, if not more zoning bylaw motions that come to the floor of town meeting and they're not right and they have to get reworked and then it leads to an extra night of town meeting. And the goal here would be that, you know, to try and iron all of that out and eliminate the, you know, the, the, the drafting errors in, you know, in advance of town meeting so that they don't have to get caught on town meeting floor. And so that they do get caught so that they're not, you know, if they're innocuous, that's one thing. But a lot of these have been so substantive
where they're just the, there there've been major mistakes that have been made and kind of get caught last minute, minute on town meeting floor. So the one idea that we had from over a year ago was, do we get special zoning council? And they're just dedicated to, that's what they do. And then the other was a zoning advisory committee. The town meeting, I'm sorry, the town charter has a section in it called two 11 E. And so two 11 E of the of the town charter
says the representative town meeting may by bylaw provide for the establishment of standing committees to which shall be referred to subject matter of warned articles for study review and report in advance, advance of town meeting action. Such committees can be consist of wholly persons elected as town meeting members, or a combination of town meeting members and voters. So we have the, the, we've had the ability to create a, a committee to just study zoning articles. The fin com has gone back and forth on this over the years.
They don't wanna look at zoning, they do wanna look at zoning. They do, they don't, they get things late. They, you know, they don't have time to look at it. And the idea here is to create a standing committee that will look at zoning, but the fin income will still look at everything that, that's a wor article as well. But this is going to be a special, you know, standing committee that will look, you know, its job will be to look at zoning and not to look at anything else so that they, you, the FinCon might get overwhelmed but they don't get overwhelmed.
So the idea behind motion, what, what are their numbers or letters? Again, the ideas behind motion f in motion G are to provide some belt and suspenders or if I can use the soccer analogy to provide some, you know, or the hockey analogy, some defensemen or defense persons and a goalie, right? So we, we just don't have, you know, bad zoning laws inadvertently getting into the net. But there's a lot to each of these and I think people might want to take a little bit of time to reflect on them.
And you know, these are gonna be, you know, the primary audience to circulate this one with, I think is the finance committee, possibly also the, you know, the planning board. But you know, my own position on this is this ought, we need to do something along, whether it's, you know, exactly as written or a different writing, we need to do both. We need council and we need a special standing committee because these, you know, good intentions don't create good zoning drafts, good intentions and fly spec, you know, wording create good zoning.
So Speaker 2: I have a couple questions. Speaker 1: Sure Chris, and then we'll go to others. Speaker 2: So in zone first is really a question of semantics, but in motion, a Speaker 1: F Speaker 2: It should, I'm sorry, motion F section nine. Shouldn't the wording be the select board Shall, shall annually appoint special zoning advisory council with like, shouldn't we add this word in? Speaker 1: Yes. Yep. It should be, it should be there. Speaker 2: Okay. Okay. Then my
next question has to do with motion G. And the way this is written, this, this would require zoning to have to go before two committees, correct? Speaker 1: No, because you know, the require, let's focus on the word require. It could, it could re go before two committees, but the only committee whose report and recommendation is absolutely required is the finance committees. The finance committee holds a req, you know, as a required public hearing, right?
The public hearing language is not in this zoning draft. We could add it, but the way that town meeting time works is if there is a required public hearing that has not been held, then the moderator must rule that the matter cannot come before the body. Now we, we have a bylaw that piggybacks off of that that says if the, if it's the finance committee's required public hearing town meeting by two thirds may vote to waive the requirement for a public hearing.
Right? So we don't get, so we, you know, if there was something that just couldn't get heard and it gets brought up, you know, the, the, the, the classic example where those stray eminent domain tanking to iron out the constituent rail trail that we paid $7.9 million for so we could get the $15 million of, you know, federal money to build the thing. And that was never heard by the FinCon. And you know, it was, it, it was a mess that night at town meeting. But you know, we, the, the bylaw was fixed to provide a safety valve that if you find your,
if town meeting finds itself in a bind town meeting can get out of that bind as long as it's not a public hearing required by the general laws. It's a public hearing is required by our charter. So Chris, to your point, this zoning advisory committee would not be a requirement. Right? But it could it if it were seated, right? If it was created, it would study these things and report to town meeting Speaker 2: And there's no interest in the finance committee turning zoning over to a zoning committee such that they would hear it instead of FinCo.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that depends on who's at the, on the FinCo, right? So some years they have said, let's get zoning out here and not have the fin fin com look at it. Other years they've said we need to look at everything. Then they say, we need to look at everything, but we don't have time this year, so somebody else should look at it. Or we couldn't, you know, we just got it all last minute so we don't have any recommendation. Right. It kind of goes back and forth. So the, rather than writing a hard and fast rule to pull it away from the FinCo, right,
the, the, the, if this committee were created, the FinCo could say to the zoning advisory committee, you go first when you're done, we're gonna hear from you and from the sponsors and from the planning board, we're gonna hear from everybody to make our job easier. Right. So, but we don't have a warrant article that amends the FinCon bylaw Speaker 2: Oh, okay. Speaker 1: To take it, to take it away from them. Okay. And the, and the thought here would be that, you know, you know, you want what's needed and you know, our, our whole discussion around this,
we could change it by the way. And we, we, we could put this on for the fall, but the whole discussion has been, there needs to be additional layers of review fin com planning boards one stuff, but a lot's getting through that shouldn't get through. And so you put additional layers of review on it. So we don't do bad stuff like last spring when we almost re rendered our entire special permit bylaw section of the bylaw completely moot because of a BLO one single blown cross reference.
That's just one example. So, Speaker 2: Yeah, no, so I, I guess I'd just like to add some final comments before I turn the questioning over to someone else, if that's okay. I think we really need to hold a hearing with the right parties or invite people, like maybe we do push this off to the fall, but like right after town meeting, like let's, let's have A-C-B-R-C meeting and, and invite Amanda and the planning board to come before us and talk about how are we gonna fix, you know, like put this forward and see how they react to it.
Because I feel like, like we can try to fix this but we really need all the parties to line up and agree. I, I really like motion A about offerings, you know, special zoning advisory council. I think people are gonna be worried about what the financial cost of that is gonna be because obviously special counsel could, you know, have a higher rate than, you know, what town councils pay. And so, you know, given the concerns of the budget, we might have trouble with that.
But I, I think a good start to this would be to offer zoning advisory council. So I really like a, but I really feel like actually creating the, the committee, we need input from people before we put a, Speaker 1: Just so that everybody knows last spring we had this discussion and we didn't put something forward but we, you know, we went and had the discussions and there was yes, yes, yes, something needs to be done, something needs to be done. But you know, planning board members were like, no, no, no,
we don't want anybody, you know, looking in on this. It's like, it's like it's, Speaker 2: We didn't, we only had some planning board members come to our meeting. We didn't actually invite planning board and Right, right. Speaker 1: But, but it's a messy meeting just to, you know, and then I'll go, wait, wait, it's a messy meeting because in the abstract standing by itself there's like, why would you do this? When you go through the litany of blown zoning motions that have occurred over the last 15 years, you go, oh and it's going through the litany of blown zoning motions
is is gonna be an uncomfortable meeting. But anyway, I think I have Bob and then Donna. Speaker 3: Yes. So currently don't zoning motions have to go before the planning board? Speaker 1: They do. Speaker 3: Okay. So then the zoning that's being proposed advisory committee would be another layer that would overview what the planning board has done in addition to the fin com and sometimes this select board, sometimes they rail, they
opine on these motions as well. So there definitely is a problem there. No doubt about that. That needs to be fixed. And I think the, what is it motion F we should definitely do for sure because that, just seeing how helpful it has been to have duren working with us specifically with who has specific expertise and what we're doing has been enormously helpful to our work and improve the quality of our work.
And I think therefore will have been a huge service to the town. So following that model, I think the same would work for the planning board process. I guess my concern is the idea of building in more layers slash redundancy slash time into the process and if it's only gonna be advisory and it may not happen or not, if we're gonna do it, then we should require it or we shouldn't do it. That's kind of where I've been listening about this whole discussion. It's like if we're gonna have that second layer
and it not be the finance committee, it would be the zoning committee who would serve that role that the finance committee serves, who would be required to oversee what the planning board does or not have that at all. And just have the council, which I think a lot of the stuff the council probably catch. 'cause I think how much stuff the ranchers have caught for us and, and God know how many hours we spent on this stuff and he has still caught stuff and corrected it. So I think that would help a lot. He would fix the pro a lot of the problem. Maybe not a hundred percent,
but I think it would be a huge, it would move the ball way down the field in this area and it's something we could get done now and within the scope of what we've already asked for from town meeting. Because I'm really, I don't know about anybody else, but I'm really hoping we can sunset this this spring. I'm like, Speaker 6: Or Speaker 3: You or not. And then y'all just get somebody else. But I, I think I'm gonna step off. It's like I'm, I'm like done this turned out to be much bigger process than, you know, to think, oh let's add on another, another town meeting.
Like, oh no, no, no, no, let's do something now that will help this problem now. And then let's see. And now people can look at that. If it doesn't help then we'll think about something else. But that's my, so, Speaker 1: Okay. And before we go to Donna, just so to re remind the the committee as we as the, as we weigh nothing motion F only motion F and g motion G only or any other thing that we might weigh. The last time that we had this whole discussion in front of us, we did discuss the special counsel
who advised on the marijuana zoning bylaw and who created a draft with 27 major errors. The special, the, the special councils work when they're good and the committees work with them, right. It's a, you know, and it's so, but I hear you. So Donna, Speaker 6: A thousand percent on F for special counsel for zoning. And I think it would also increase the efficiency of town meeting. There have been a lot of zoning errors
and Paul, you've actually caught many of them. But it's really like slowed down the progress of town meeting and the efficiency of town meeting. And I think most of us who are town meeting members, we're not experts in zoning. And zoning has just become more complicated and more changes are being made. So this just seems whatever cost is involved is worth it. It seems like it's its own niche, it's a specialty that we would really benefit from.
Gee, I think it's a good idea too, but I worry that I think it's so hard to get people involved on more committees and all of that. And even my own experience. I mean I never thought I'd be on the ballot for school committee really, but I couldn't get anybody to run and jamon really wanted a contested election. It, I, I tried for half a year to get somebody else to run for school committee. It is so hard to get people involved. So I'm not saying not dogie, but like maybe let's think a little bit about it
to do it in a way that we could actually get participation in it. I'm also struck that it seems like the charter and bylaw review f but not charter and bylaw review effort, the group that's trying to get, you know, the committee to str to study government, they're kind of stepping back despite what Mr. Joseph has been saying. They don't have the signatures, they don't have the will to do it. But we still have this problem of like getting people involved
and I think that's a really important thing to address because we need to be vital but a thousand percent for special counsel for zoning. 'cause we, if we could increase the efficiency of town meeting by having this kind of expertise, maybe more people wouldn't feel like they're out of their realm or as burdened to be involved in town meeting. So I, I mean I would be prepared to vote on that tonight. So thanks. Speaker 1: And maybe Tommy, you go faster so more people would,
would volunteer for it. I don't know. So Paul, we haven't heard from you any thoughts? Speaker 5: Yeah, I have some, I have some concerns about, about this, but I'll have any of you involved in town meeting remembered the fact that we used to have a committee and I forget what it was called, but they took, and they were appointed each year or I don't know how they were appointed, but they were, were looking over the basically equipment that was being purchased
by the town for, shall we say, either police, fire, public works, et cetera, that tho those, these type of vehicles, the other things that were wanted to do. And they basically had it, they basically held meetings and they did things like that and the same people were on it forever. That is a good idea to have, like in this particular case, we're talking about something that's hard to do and it, you know, and, and zoning and how you, you actually get to describe it so it's hard
to do and things like that. I think the, the committee I first was describing doesn't exist anymore, but I think what we really need is to try to get people who don't mind having a small amount of work to take a look at at zoning and issues that might be coming up on a particular thing. I'm not sure exactly how long they need to to be serving,
but the problem is that the zoning board is no good for investigating stuff coming before town meeting because they never get started on it until after the, they're told that it's gonna be under warrant. The people who need to get smart on some of these things need to get started a little bit before that so they know, you know what it is. Just because the, so that would be helpful to have a number of people that
would at least take it seriously to, to look at these things and see if there are any issues that really have to be looked at carefully. And, but it isn't something that it's going to happen just when the, the, the changes to the bylaw get published. It, it doesn't work that way. They have to get it, get onto the job Earlier the idea, I don't know exactly if we need these people
when there's nothing coming up, but I think what I heard is that, which I don't know if it's such a great idea that the, the select board would have vision in, in advance to know that we are going to need for some particular items that are coming up a, a group to basically kind of see where we are now and what changes we, we are looking for. They're basically doing a, a higher level looking and see where things have to be done. I don't know how this is supposed to work.
I, I think that I read there that it was going to be done by the select board before the end of a calendar year. The suggestion, I guess is that, that this is gonna come up either in the spring, it's probably gonna come up with the water in the spring or in the fall. I think that that's the particular case. So that's a good idea. I I think we don't have the mechanism to basically control whether the select board need to do it on any given particular time.
And I don't think it's, it's something that, you know, we wanna do that we don't have any work for them to do if we try to get the people and basically it's, I I, I think, I think the capability of doing it, and we have to basically have it done in advance probably before the thing is so that they basically have a advanced look on what the issues might have to be and should be done. And I'm not sure
if the select board is the may. Maybe it's fine for, for anybody who's thinking about it, whether they're on the planning board, whether they're on the, on a finance committee or whatever, to basically kind of say this stuff is coming up and we think it needs the special advance view from a, a select committee to do that. And they could advise the, the select board that they want it, like the finance committee could do it.
Even even people like a, a defunct committee like we have, if we are out of business, might basically offer the idea when we hear about something coming up. So I, I think it's something good to have. It should be done on a timely basis. It should not be like my, my initial thing of the people who are interested in the purchase of this, this heavy duty type equipment. 'cause they, they really just, a few people were doing it and it didn't really work that well though.
It had, its, they had a something. So anyway, I think it's a good idea. I think we have to figure out when this should be done. Maybe before the beginning of any calendar year, assuming that something's gonna be coming up in the following calendar year would be, would be a good time. And, and the select board should have the willingness to listen to anybody who basically would ask them to say, Hey, I think we really need
to look at this more carefully so that, that, that, that people, other committees, et cetera, would do the looking and tell the select board that this would be good to have. And I think it might work. That's my thing. If this plan does that, and it doesn't fall into the fact, into the trap of of, of just appointing a board, even though you don't know something's gonna come up to need it. I that would be good. And because I, I don't think I I, the, the thing that we're on now, it seems to say that, boy,
we could have done this quicker than, than we have actually done. But things came up which were kind of difficult and it turned out to a long period of time. And so having a group on some particular project for zoning, that would be helpful if they could start to think about it and they might learn something more about how the town town works. So, okay. A good idea, but we need the, we need maybe a few things to be squared up in this thing. Speaker 1: Okay. So what I'm hearing from the committee is a lot
of support for motion f and some pros and cons and some, you know about motion G Do I have that kind of right? Okay. So Chrisy, you put in the words shall appoint the special zoning advisory council. Yeah, right. There is a typo in the second paragraph of motion B or motion A. Motion BI misspoke. Motion f Such appointment shall be made by the, there is the second line is the,
in the event they take out the first the, and the purpose of this language is, you know, select board takes the lead in a, in appointing legal counsel. But if they ever fail to do it, it's like no planning board do it. If planning board doesn't, then the moderator does it because town meeting needs us Speaker 2: Ly fin. Yeah, I agree with fin Speaker 1: Town meeting and fin need it. So pleasure of the committee on motion f Speaker 2: Prepared to move that we, I move motion F amending bylaw article 22 town council as presented this evening with the edits that have already been made on the frugal
with review by special counsel. Speaker 1: Yep. Okay. Second move by Chris, seconded by Bob. Are there any other motions? Seeing none will vote this. Chris, how do you vote? Speaker 2: Yes, Speaker 1: Bob, how do you vote? Speaker 2: Yes, Speaker 1: Paul Connolly, how do you vote? Speaker 5: I vote yes. Speaker 1: Donna, how do you vote? Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker 1: And I'm a yes. So that is 5 0 0. Does the committee want a table, you know, or you know, you know, postpone consideration of motion G
take a chance to think about it. We might consider it at a future meeting. Yes. Speaker 2: Slightly. Speaker 1: Because I, I hear, I I hear we'll do that then. So we, we just won't vote. Motion g you know, this evening the, you know, one of the thoughts, you know, is the, the order bob, that which you talked about, like this would be overseeing the planning board doesn't meet, doesn't need to be right. If there's a draft, the plan board could still be hearing it and this committee could hear it. I mean the, the FinCon when I was on it went back and forth.
There were years that people said, no, no, let's have the planning board go first and then the fin com because we on the fin com don't understand zoning. Then when the fin com had a couple of people who understood zoning, we took it up first and found stuff and gave it to the planning board that improved their process. So there's no specified order of planning board fin com or standing committee. It's a, it can just be, you know, the, and I hear you about people, you know, reviewing. It's nobody, if people don't sign up for the committee, then it doesn't, it never goes operative. So, okay.
So I think that's it for motions. Well Speaker 3: Paul did I hear but I did I hear you say if we, if the zoning advisory committee was required Yeah, required IE their role would subsume the finance committee role. We could not do that in this SPRINGTOWN meeting. 'cause it exceeds the scope of what we have presented in our motion to the town. Speaker 1: Well the, it would exceed what I heard Speaker 3: You say. Speaker 1: Yeah. So to take the, to remove the,
the res the responsibility for review, for reviewing zoning to remove that responsibility from the fin is not in the scope of this warrant article. Speaker 3: Gotcha. Speaker 1: That was previously proposed by a citizen and it ran into stiff resistance, like the fin com wanted to be able to report on everything. And there were some good reasons too. You might have something that is a zoning change that has some spillover to, you know, capital and you know, the big example was the, was all the mitigation on the mall, right?
There was roadway mitigation, there was traffic and cer and sewer and water mitigation. The contribution towards the West Natick fire station, all that FAR, you know, bonus money so that, you know, there was, and, but then sometimes there's like, you know, changing whether or not the height of a building can be 32 feet versus 30. No, but you just, since you never know there was a lot of opposition years ago to taking o taking things away from the fin com. But it's not in the scope of our, our warrant article. Gotcha. And the, the idea
that we had talked about on a zoning advisory committee would be to have it be additive yet another perspective or angle of vision on zoning changes so that perhaps what one group doesn't catch, another group does. Right. And you know, but we're not gonna take it up tonight. Motion G is, you know, we'll put it off to the future. I Do you Speaker 3: Need to motion the table that, or Speaker 1: No, we'll just do it by unanimous consent. Okay. The, our next item on the agenda is
warrant articles. I'm not aware that anybody's got one drafted. Speaker 2: I I think it just left it on there from a previous, Speaker 3: I say these, these are the warrant articles we've been Speaker 1: Right. Speaker 2: I didn't know if there was any other conversation. Okay. Speaker 1: Alright. So the ongoing meeting schedule, I think for the moment we don't need a, a meeting. I, you know, will, I don't think we need to schedule one for next week, but we probably will need one in the next two weeks if we're gonna put questionnaires and motions in front of the finance committee
if we have to draft those up. But I'm also gonna send all of these motions to attorney Durso and if he comes back with anything then we'll call a meeting. Speaker 3: Okay. That seems fair. Speaker 1: Okay. Do we have any outstanding minutes, Chris? Speaker 2: We do, but well, no we don't because I haven't sent them. So including tonight there's three meeting set requirements, but I just haven't, I haven't sent them to you guys yet, so. Speaker 1: Okay. So we're on to item eight. The Harriet is not here. So who would like to make the honorary Harriet
Berkowitz motion to adjourn? Speaker 3: I so move that the meeting be adjourned. Move Speaker 1: Bob, Bob, move to adjourn second by Donna. We'll vote that. Bob, how do you vote? Speaker 3: Yes, Speaker 1: Donna, how do you vote? Speaker 3: Yes. Speaker 1: How? Paul o' Connolly, how do you vote? Yes. Chris Whiteman, how do you vote? Speaker 2: Yes Speaker 1: And I am a yes. And that's 5 0 0. And we are adjourned at 8:36 PM.