##VIDEO ID:https://videoplayer.telvue.com/player/994DtmGEsi0VDYK3jJI2BJ72GfgNIpU2/media/930063?autostart=false&showtabssearch=true&fullscreen=false## <v Speaker 1>So it's seven oh one.</v> Let's call the meeting to order. Chris Weisman <v Speaker 2>Here on Zoom.</v> <v Speaker 1>Harriet Berkowitz here on Zoom. Paul Connolly.</v> Yeah. Donna McKenzie <v Speaker 2>Here.</v> Participating remotely. <v Speaker 1>And Paul Greaser also here, participating remotely.</v> Okay. Okay. So the first item on the agenda after the roll call is Citizens Concerns. Anyone. By the way, is this meeting being recorded, Chris? On Pegasus? <v Speaker 2>Yes, Pegasus is.</v> <v Speaker 1>Oh, okay. It's very good.</v> So this meeting is being recorded on Pegasus. The next item on the agenda is Citizens' Concerns. Is there anyone who wants to talk to the committee about something that's not on our agenda? It is kind of like the auction going once, giving people a chance to unmute themselves, going twice, going three times, seeing none, there's no one for Citizens concerns. The third item on the agenda is the update on the special Act status. Chris, do you want to give a report on that? 'cause I think you were the, we, we know that the select board voted 5 0 0 back in December to send it to Representative Linsky, and that was apparently transmitted. And I think, Chris, you had some follow up. <v Speaker 2>Yes, yes.</v> So I, I texted Representative Linsky early in January, and at that time, right after the first of the year, he hadn't filed things yet and told me to check in with him in approximately, you know, seven to 10 days. Both Paul G and I were aware, or had been told of certain deadlines when the Special Act legislation had to be filed for it to be considered in this legislative session. So I checked back in with David on January 13th. That was a Monday because I was worried that the deadline was coming up quickly, and David let me know that the legislation was filed the week before, so at least by January 10th. And that there were just a number of procedures that had to take place in the legislature. You know, they, they were all sworn in on the, on the first, and then there's just a series of actions that the legislature needs to take. They need to set their rules, they need to set their committees. So everything that's been filed is just waiting for those rules to be set. And so at the time, the bill didn't have a bill number, he also told me that we didn't need to have a Senate sponsor, that it was sufficient that he filed the legislation. So I mean, I, I think at this point, well I'll, I'll defer to Paul if he wants to update as to whether that, you know, whether we did anything with that with, with special counsel Duris. But right now the timeline is that at some point in February we'll be given a bill number and assigned a committee and potentially, you know, sometime in the march April range, there would be a committee hearing and we would be called to testify or someone would be called to testify. So, you know, we're really just waiting on the procedures of the legislature to formalize their action plan, you know, for this legislative year. And then we can, you know, proceed ahead with, you know, the things that we need to do to support this. I have checked periodically, you know, on the legislative docket to see if there's any bill numbers yet, and they haven't, I haven't seen anything yet, so I haven't checked probably since the middle of last week. But, you know, I'll, I, you know, at least once a week I've been checking on that. So, you know, at this point it's in the legislature's hands. <v Speaker 1>Okay. Any questions from any of the members</v> or any anyone in the public? Seeing none, I guess we can move on. We had, at our last meeting on November 21st, we had kind of divvied up some assignments as to who was gonna try and follow up with different officers or boards or committees of the town on various bylaws that might affect them. And I thought the most efficient way to do this might be to take it by person to, and then go through, each person can kind kind of give a report on what they found and whether or not there's been a request for any change under the bylaws. Is that acceptable? Is that way that we proceed through these reports from the members. So Harriet, you were first on the list the last time near, first up this time you had Council on Aging and Audit Advisory where you were gonna be doing some follow up. It was in process, I think the last time. And I, my notes also said that you were gonna take Article 41, which was contracts town contracts, town property property, and the regulations of town boards <v Speaker 3>And 27 the Info</v> Information Systems advisory board. <v Speaker 1>Okay. I thought that was Paul Conley.</v> But you can go ahead, go ahead and give the report and then Paul can chime in. <v Speaker 3>He, if, if he has a report, it's better</v> because the person never got back to me. <v Speaker 1>Okay.</v> <v Speaker 3>When we start</v> in with the 23 A with the audit advisory, I emailed Richard Sidney who got back to me and said there was, he sees no reason to change anything on the Council on Aging. When I looked at it, I did not get to the new directors, but there is one area that needs to be changed on section one second sentence where it says there shall be a Council on Aging consisting of not less than three, no more than 11 members. The three needs to be changed to six. They have a rules of governance. And the rules of governance says that you have to have six members to vote. So it, to me it means that you have to have six members in order to be able to function. And I would like to see the three change to six. <v Speaker 1>Okay. All right.</v> Anything on town contracts? <v Speaker 3>Yes.</v> <v Speaker 1>Okay.</v> <v Speaker 3>The agent, and I cannot remember his name though.</v> He, Brian Leblanc LeBlanc, <v Speaker 1>Brian Leblanc.</v> <v Speaker 3>He said most of the changes had been made the last</v> time we had done that. But when it came through, when he sent me the list of what he wanted, there were a couple of things that were added and subtracted. If you have the Article 41 in front of you, <v Speaker 1>I can get to it.</v> <v Speaker 3>I think it would be helpful.</v> <v Speaker 1>Okay.</v> <v Speaker 3>Okay.</v> He, on the first area with the section on contracts he wanted added nothing here on nothing. Herein, however, shall affect the ability of the Chief Pro Pro procurement officer to exercise the duties of said office as defined by Mass General Law Chapter 30 B. So he wanted to add that one sentence. <v Speaker 1>Did they have a particular place in section one</v> where that would go at <v Speaker 3>The end?</v> At the end of section one. <v Speaker 1>Okay, so can you Well,</v> <v Speaker 3>It was like a new paragraph</v> <v Speaker 1>New.</v> Okay. Can you email the language? <v Speaker 3>I will email the whole thing that he sent me.</v> <v Speaker 1>Okay.</v> <v Speaker 3>But I'm just indicating the parts that are new so</v> that you will know when you see it On section two, there were no changes on section three, there were no changes. Four and five and six, four and five were also no changes. On section six, he wanted to add in parentheses for more precise requirements on such sales, see Mass General laws chapter six, sections 37 dash 84 A or successor legislation, or as said laws may hereon be amended. I think he's just trying to protect himself along the way, and I think it makes sense along the way. <v Speaker 1>Right. Okay.</v> <v Speaker 3>On section seven, were remained the same.</v> Section eight remained the same. Section nine was deleted, <v Speaker 1>He wants it deleted.</v> <v Speaker 3>That's, he did not include it in his deal</v> authorization for the expenditure of funds. Wait a minute, the town, oh no. What he did was delete the, the second sentence, the town controller shall exercise all duties imposed by state, including without limitation those specified in Mass General Laws 41, section 56, or any other successor? No. Okay. What he did was eliminated the first sentence and only left the second sentence. <v Speaker 1>Okay. We should at some point follow up</v> with the comptroller and see whether she agrees. Okay. Yeah. But on continuing on that Article 41. <v Speaker 3>Okay. And then everything else</v> on the town regulations, I think that, think that that remained exactly the same. <v Speaker 1>Okay. All right.</v> <v Speaker 3>And I told him that we would get back to him</v> sending him the copy of what we're, we're making, any of the changes so that he would know and that everybody, everything would work out the way it was supposed to. <v Speaker 1>Okay. Yeah.</v> So if you could, one of the things I don't want to jump ahead to on the agenda, but we're, we're gonna need a meeting probably next week to just to deal with warrant articles. Okay. And so if you, you can, <v Speaker 3>I'll send it off to you tonight</v> <v Speaker 1>And I'll just, and I'll try put,</v> I'll incorporate it into a, a warrant article. <v Speaker 3>Okay.</v> <v Speaker 1>Okay.</v> <v Speaker 3>So that takes care of the first three.</v> The first three, the only one, the information system advisory board. I had a hard time number one finding out who was the chair. When I did find out who was the chair, I sent him off an email. And if you heard from him, you're better off than I am because I have not heard from him. I had a, I when it was listed on the, when I went into the town website to find the listing, it did not give you either email addresses or phone numbers. So I had to go through John Marshall to ask for the email address, which took almost a week. And then by the time I sent it off, it's been two weeks and I have not heard from the person. <v Speaker 1>Okay. Well the,</v> at this point in time, I don't know that we'll be, if, if there is something that needed to be changed that it would make, make a warrant article for the spring. So <v Speaker 3>The person who's now the head of the finance</v> finance committee, whose name escapes me, oh, Todd. Todd, when he was chair of the information systems things, he didn't think there needed to be any changes. So I'm not that concerned that we have not heard from <v Speaker 1>Him.</v> Okay. Alright. The, the next person that I just had on my list, Chris, I think you had the personnel board revolving funds and it was unclear if you were also gonna talk to the town administrator. I kind of wrote my note. Yeah, <v Speaker 2>I was, and I did have a quick question for Harriet about</v> <v Speaker 1>Oh sure, go ahead.</v> <v Speaker 2>Can I ask that too? So Harriet,</v> do you think, given that we're, you know, looking to make that change from, you know, the three member needs to six member, that we just would want them to come to a meeting at some point or, you know, or like you're making that assessment based on your experience, but do we need to circle back with them? <v Speaker 3>I will, I will give them a call tomorrow.</v> I, I apologize that because there's a new person who's in charge of that, I'm not even sure she will have looked at the rules of governance. And the person who's the overall person that replaced Susan Ramsey is relatively new and Right. I don't know has paid much attention to it, but the laws of governance is, has been approved by the board of select bo, the select board. And so I figured that that was the deal. I also figured that Mr. Dures would look at it and see whether or not it was a state law that it had to say three, but based on the rules that the COA works under, it would be six. <v Speaker 2>No, that makes, that makes total sense.</v> I, I guess the other question that I have for you then is, is, so then is there quorum four, right? <v Speaker 3>Or the quorum is six</v> because it's met 11 members of the board. You must have six in order to work. <v Speaker 2>Okay. Okay.</v> <v Speaker 3>So that's the quorum.</v> <v Speaker 1>So, but it's you but you, you want it change, I thought</v> to consisting of not less than six and or more than 11 members, right? <v Speaker 3>Correct.</v> <v Speaker 1>Correct.</v> Because they usually like a, because usually the minimum number and the maximum number are all odd numbers. <v Speaker 3>Well, 11 is the quarter max,</v> and so six would be what you would need to function. <v Speaker 1>Right. But it, the, it's if it, this, the way it's worded,</v> they could, in theory only a three people as few as three, but no more than 11, we're gonna change that or seek to change it to no more than six nor less than 11. <v Speaker 3>Right,</v> <v Speaker 1>Okay.</v> <v Speaker 3>Because if, if you only have five</v> people, you can't function. <v Speaker 1>Right. Okay.</v> Okay. <v Speaker 2>So I apologize</v> because I haven't done the revolving fund yet. So that's on me. But I will follow up with them. I did communicate with the town administrator and he does have a few things that could change, you know, within the account administrator bylaws, but it's not really pressing. So I think that given everything that's going on, he, he would just assume focus on that at a later point. <v Speaker 1>Okay. One of the things that</v> I will raise on, well, you know, Chris, why don't you give your report first on everything and then I'll circle back. I have a comment on Article 20, <v Speaker 2>But you said I had town administrator, personnel board,</v> <v Speaker 1>Board, right?</v> <v Speaker 2>Yeah. And I, I don't have anything to report on that.</v> <v Speaker 1>Okay. Is that open or no changes?</v> <v Speaker 2>They just, they've never gotten back to me and,</v> and I kind of circled through Jamie on that and he didn't say he had any changes. <v Speaker 1>Okay. Alright.</v> On the town administrator bylaw, one of the things that we have for the, one of, one of the things that we have in section three, which is the required fiscal documents And when we, so one of the things that I think we could be, we could be looking at a change to what's listed there. And I'll give, just give you a sense as to, you know, what the, what the issue is just based on some of the work on the board of assessors within the last couple of weeks. The, one of the, the schedules that, one of the pieces of information that might be a good thing to consider adding is essentially an accounts receivable aging of back taxes, at least by, not by individual taxpayer, but how much as of the, you know, as of the end of fiscal 24 was unpaid for fiscal 24, how much is unpaid as of the end of fiscal 24, but due from 23, how much was due for, still due from 22, how much is still due, you know, year, you know, going kind of like back, you know, several years and to understand how much of any back tax information has been put into collectible tax title. And the, the reason for all of this is that there is this thing called the overlay account, which is basically an offset to uncollected taxes and it ha that account has to be large enough to cover, cover uncollected back taxes plus, you know, current year exemptions and abatements and appellate tax board cases. But if you, if the back tax receivables have been placed into tax title, you don't need the overlay. And the, there's the, the, the numbers we're talking about here are currently significant is the only way that I would, you know, would put this. They're, they're, they're, they're significant. And I don't want to take this meeting into a discussion of that because we're not really posted for that. But I just think that there is information that I think that the citizens of the town and the town meeting members should know because it's, you know, it's important information. The, what we have listed are eight items under section three A and we have the previous balances of the overlay and how much might be declared surplus. That's a, you know, there, there's, there's a little bit more to it than that. And that, you know, sub bullet might be augmented, this may be something that we have to work on during the spring and potentially bring forward in the fall. I don't wanna necessarily keep our committee hanging around for the fall, but it's, it's a, it's a, it's an item to put forward. And then the other is, if you look in section four, I'm sorry, it's section five. The procedure for, you know, appointing a town administrator is that there needs to be a screening committee. And if you read the, right now, the screening committee consists of nine members, you know, the planning each of the following get to sit pick somebody, the planning board, the school committee, the finance committee, and the town, you know, moderator and the personnel board. And then the balance of them are all picked by the select board and they can, you know, put citizens at large on there. It, it seems to me that the, having the personnel board sit on a screening committee to pick a town administrator is, is a bit backwards. You know, the personnel is a, you know, is obviously an important function of the town administrator, but the town administrator appoints everybody who's on the personnel board. So this is like, you know, I'm on a screening committee to pick my boss if I'm on the personnel board. And I don't know that that's necessarily good. Maybe it needs to be, you know, some other, you know, some other, you know, board or just the select board get an additional pick. Harriet, <v Speaker 3>Did we make any changes to the charter</v> that affects these committees? <v Speaker 1>We, the, there will be in the special legislation,</v> a, the removal of the charter requirement that makes the personnel board the COAD administrator of the entire personnel pay plan and personnel department. It hasn't functioned that way in a very long time. But the way the charter is currently worded is the, per the town administrator in conjunction with the personnel board administers all matters related to personnel other than the school department. And you know, that's, I believe that when the charter was originally written, that was designed to have a citizen committee even essentially f help focus as the personnel department. And so you only had a town manager, or I'm sorry, a town administrator. You didn't have an HR director or an HR assistant. Right. You didn't have these other po you know, positions that we now have. But in the, but the language in the charter is, is town administrator in conjunction with personnel board runs, personnel run basically runs the personnel function of the town. Hasn't functioned that way in a long time, but that's what our charter says. <v Speaker 3>So what you're basically saying we can't change anything</v> until the charter is passed? No. So the next committee will be doing this? <v Speaker 1>No, we could take the,</v> the town meeting could take this out because on, what is it, section five of Article 20, that's just who gets appointed to the screening committee to do the interviews for potential town administrator candidates. And what I'm saying is, you know, so that the issue in the charter is separate, the, you know, the charter is, is, you know, the in conjunction piece is separate. The town administrator is the only person who appoints people to the personnel board. So this is like having the appointee be on the screening, you know, committee to pick their next boss. <v Speaker 2>Do you want me to follow up with the select board</v> to see if they want to change that and have an additional pick? <v Speaker 1>Have an additional pick</v> or, you know, you've got other elected boards in town that are not represented there, <v Speaker 3>But I the one Oh</v> yeah, nevermind. <v Speaker 1>And you know, I'm not gonna get into the,</v> I already alluded to, you know, a, an issue with, you know, some of the financial information that I said is significant. You know, not that I would ever want to do it. I'm on the board of assessors, but there are knowledgeable people on that board who would be better served to be part of a screening process than someone who is on the personnel board. It's a pretty important financial function in the town. And if you look at the people who are on the screening committee, the current composition of the screening committee and the bylaw is the planning board. Somebody from the finance committee, the personnel board, and the town moderator, and then the rest of the select board. Just because you're on the finance committee doesn't mean you know, the ins and outs of town finance. You know, we, you know, you you might also think that you know some that well, but running the finance function is an important aspect of the job of of, of a town administrator. So, but I think that that, I'm just making a comment that I think we should need to look at section five and section, what is it to section three. <v Speaker 2>Okay.</v> <v Speaker 1>Okay.</v> <v Speaker 2>Yeah.</v> <v Speaker 1>And I know that the,</v> yeah, I think section three three A rather three B is fine, except they didn't do all of it last fall. So anyway, the next up on the list that I, Chris, are you done or, and does anybody else have anything? Anybody else have anything? Personnel, board, town administrator or revolving funds? The next up I had was solve for the historic district commission for the, for licenses and for for licenses and delinquent taxpayers. So, but he isn't here so <v Speaker 2>No, and I, I, his phone number</v> that I have is only his house phone. I can't text him. <v Speaker 1>Okay. So we'll just have to, you know,</v> pull, get past that. Paul Conley, I had your next, I had you for information systems and also for cable advisory. Did I have that? That's what I had on my list <v Speaker 4>And that was the original assignment that I was given.</v> Yes. And I worked very much to try to get people to talk to a year ago. Okay. <v Speaker 1>And that,</v> <v Speaker 4>That did not work out very well at all.</v> I continued with the attempt most recently, I don't think we wanna go to do anything in here. I was able to draw conclusions from the lack of information, the lack of calling meetings, the lack of actually doing anything. I noticed the fact that there was considerable sweeping of people off the cable advisory board and I was very surprised at that particular thing. I also noted that the, according to the, the list of people who are assigned in positions, that the new person that was the chair of one of the things, maybe it was the information systems advisory board was in fact as new as, as possibly that they got. But somehow that was the one who was now the chair of the thing with no prior experience that I could see. And I'm saying this is this, there's something going on here. And I was not able to actually do a particular thing. What I did note is most of the minutes, typically all these two boards were al always when they met the same time of course 'cause they were in the same place and they were becoming very limited in what they had to tell us what they had been doing. I had the impression that they weren't doing anything. And the other thing I noted is there was a new position in the town salaried position that was involved in these two areas as well. So it seems like these boards and we're kind of, I I think it was con considerable up in the air about what the status is now. And I didn't think trying to, like Harriet tried to do to get someone to talk to was gonna get me any place at all. So I'm basically suggesting that we not do anything with that because we don't have anybody on if, if some of those things are actually functioning, which I doubt that was the case, Sue, that that is a, a negative report. And you might say, well if you had really worked hard, you would've been able to get something that was positive. I didn't think it was possible. <v Speaker 1>I actually thought that that was a very positive report.</v> Meaning that there's nothing so urgent that we have to change. And they, whether they are capable of indicating that or just failed to indicate that the, the, their, their their report and or lack of thereof is actually a well that tells me that there's no pressing urgent issue to change something. I agree <v Speaker 5>With your conclusion.</v> <v Speaker 1>So I think an excellent job</v> <v Speaker 5>Sir. Make a comment Paul.</v> <v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah. But yeah, one second.</v> I think you did an excellent job, Mr. Conley. So I wish they were all the bylaws were like that. Dom, you had a <v Speaker 5>Question?</v> Yeah, just a note for you. The reason on the information services committee may be, there's been a major reorganization of the information services department in the town in the last year. And I would suggest if you have questions in that matter, you talk to Jamie, there's been a major reorganization on how that, that functions and the people involved. <v Speaker 1>Well do you know anything about it?</v> <v Speaker 5>Oh yeah.</v> <v Speaker 1>Well can you,</v> can you give us a two or three minute report? <v Speaker 5>Well, I can tell you what happened.</v> We have one, we used to have a schools and a municipal information services manager and they both reported to that Information services advisors report. When the municipal manager retired, a decision was made by the town to combine the two functions into one person. So the, which I is probably a good idea, the information service director now is Dennis Roach, who used to be the school department IT director and they've a, a couple of staff people also retired about the same time. So they've replaced a bunch of those people and they're functioning now across the both organizations. So I do not know how the Information Systems advisory board works now in this new function. I really don't have a clue. I haven't been to an information services advisory board meeting in a couple of years. But nonetheless, I would suggest if you have questions in that matter, you would like to dis you probably wanna discuss them with Jamie. Okay. And go that way because decision, the decision's been made, it's been implemented, it's underway. In fact, I was in their office today doing some work 'cause you know, you see me hanging around there Paul, when you are hanging around there. <v Speaker 1>Okay. Okay. So</v> <v Speaker 5>They have a new organ.</v> The, the information services in town has a new organization and I don't know how they function with the advisory board now under the current situation. And that's something that you'd have to get that from the town manager. <v Speaker 1>Okay. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Alright,</v> <v Speaker 4>Just ask a question.</v> What's this Information services board? <v Speaker 5>Originally it was to advise the town on</v> IT SY systems and because there were two different IT groups, they both provided information to that board. The board actually was supposed to be like policy making and assisting them with deciding things that needed to done be done like audits, et cetera. It wasn't intended at any point for that advisory board to actually do anything in the function. There were two people that were the town hired to run those functions. <v Speaker 4>Right. It, it was my thinking</v> of when I was reading that particular, particular things that these people, those two boards of which they had quite a number on their boards were there primarily so that the select board could actually go and talk to someone other, other than the people who were actually filling positions in, in the town on that particular stuff. And I hadn't, that was my idea of what those boards were for. <v Speaker 5>Okay. Well I'll tell you that the last time I went</v> to an information advisory board meeting, there was nobody from the representing the select board there. <v Speaker 1>Okay.</v> <v Speaker 5>If that'll help answer that question.</v> <v Speaker 4>I, I kind of thought that they were spending the,</v> the select board was basically pushing to their appointed people in the positions and I don't think they really were going to these other boards to get information. Right. <v Speaker 5>I think the cable advisory board probably</v> I've sat in out meeting once and that has more authority because it, it basically is responsible for issuing cable licenses for the town and, you know, setting up that process. But the information systems board was strictly for internal use only activities. Okay. <v Speaker 1>Yeah. Okay.</v> Okay. The, we also, Bob Awkward was gonna do articles, bylaw articles 80 through 84, which was basically the board of health and the health department. He's not here this evening, so we're gonna have to skip that or defer until when he comes in. And Saul was going to do the historic district licenses and tax title, the payment agreements and licenses for delinquent taxpayers. So we'll have to wait for that if Saul comes in or it'll have to wait till a future meeting. I had the, I had Article 44, which was conflict between town agencies and the assignment of council. And one of the things that I saw in Article 44, and I'm not even really sure who to talk to on, on this. There is the, the whole idea behind Article 44 is if one town agency decides that it's gotta take a legal proceeding against another town agency, that the town administrator needs to be notified and the select board needs to do mediation before anything can move forward. And no, but there's a provision that which that, that mediation is what makes sense. But there's a provision that says no authorization for the expenditure of town funds for legal counsel in one of these in-house kind of conflicts between one board and another shall be valid unless that mediation conference has been held. And it struck me as that's a very good provision except when you're dealing with something where time is of the essence and nobody gets a meeting fast enough. And the first thing that, that I can think of there is, is the planning board. So by state law, you know, all planning boards have the authority, the ability to, and they have absolute legal standing to appeal and challenge any variance that is issued in their community. And any variance that's issued in, I think it's an adjoining community or an adjoining community on a budding property. But once the variance is issued, they have 20 days and then after that nobody can do the appeal. So it would, you know, it would, I was gonna talk to town council about language that that time limit, you know, doesn't apply if somebody has to act under time of the essence in order to preserve their rights. And that conference needs to be held like within a reasonable amount of time, like 30 days. You can't just have people fail to have this mediation conference be it be, you know, within, you know, for like six months. So the, that was something that, you know, that I was thinking of looking at, but I haven't spoken with town council on that. And I do need yet to, to speak with the Building Inspector on building regulations, which is, I believe is Article 72. I don't believe that there is an issue that would change there based on other conversations I've had with the, with the building inspector. But we do want to make sure that that is something that the building department wants to weigh in on. And that's the only one that I had in the property regulation group. Two things were the sewer assessments and the public and the wetlands protection storm water management were, which were 79 and 79 A, were both completely redone by the con com at recent fall, at recent town meetings fall and spring. So, okay. Bob, you're up. Yes. Do you have anything on the health insure health department rather <v Speaker 6>Met with the health director</v> and by the way of meeting with him, the fire chief who was also part of the Article 81, he's, he's opined in on it and basically says I don't need to be on it at all because of the fire code laws. I've got plenty of regulatory authority to do what I need to do. I don't need, need to be on this article. Okay. And the health director basically wants to add propane. It says that this bylaw shall apply to underground fuel or chemical storage tanks. He wants to add propane as well to that. Which <v Speaker 1>Ar which article is that?</v> <v Speaker 6>It's Article 81.</v> <v Speaker 1>Okay.</v> <v Speaker 6>And that's, that, that's about it on that on Article 80.</v> I have nothing. Article 82 should really be the Conservation Commission, not the building commission. And I have asked Claire Rundel, I think at least twice by email to gimme feedback to which he has not responded. Article 83 is okay. Article 84 is, okay. So I'm gonna see what I can do to get her to respond because I, I actually asked her to look at something on this article 82 as well that I felt was a little bit in her domain for her comment. 'cause they are listed as part of the group of folks who have some oversight. No, I'm close to being able to propose something formally to the committee. Okay. Once I nail down those couple of people. <v Speaker 1>Alright, if you can you send me an email with the language</v> for where, what section the health director wants propane added. Yep. And then, then we're gonna need a meeting, I think next week where we just sponsor warrant articles including the standard, you know, committee report, you know, type of thing. Okay. That's it on the, on the list. 'cause we don't have Saul here this evening. I don't have anything else in terms of bylaws that we're gonna have reports in on. <v Speaker 6>Talk about being on time. Right.</v> <v Speaker 1>So did I miss anything?</v> If not, we'll move on to special counsel invoice. My mistake, I I, I think I neglected to send it out last December. So I, I sent it today. It's, <v Speaker 2>You want me to share the screen or?</v> <v Speaker 1>Yeah, well I, I, I emailed it around to everybody and</v> <v Speaker 6>Yeah, I saw the email, but I didn't look at the invoice.</v> <v Speaker 1>So if, you know, there are two invoices there.</v> One is for December and one was for November. The November invoice was $7,386 and seven seven $7,389. Excuse me, 15 cents. There were expenses in that and I, I know that they did a, they did a fair amount of work helping us, you know, at right after the, the, the town meeting to, you know, start to pull the, the, the special act together. One of the things you, you'll notice there when they did some proofreading and the, the proofreading was actually done, if you look at the last page of that invoice was not done by a paralegal. It was, you know, Gregory Morera, you know, spent, you know, 10.65 hours. He's actually a full lawyer. He's actually more expensive than Mr. Duris. And the, they, he's 3 95 an hour. Mr. Duris is 2 85. So I've been meaning to talk to Mr. Duris about, you know, you know that one because, but he did say, you know, he, you know what it was, it was gonna be two people, two paralegals working on it and he didn't have, and neither one of them could get it done in time to be able to like then get it to Caras so that Caras could get it to the select board. So we did all this work, the, the proofreading process on, so just to refresh everyone's memory that the, we had all of the articles from fall of 23. All of the, all of the motions from fall of 23, all of the motions from spring special 24 and the couple of motions from fall 24, they were all separately voted the special assistant to the town clerk, did the minutes for all of that and did the vote search and proved those. Then Chris worked with the special assistant to the town clerk and together they proved them. And then the NCES law firm proved the minutes into the vote certs. And, and then, you know, I noticed that the deletion language, it was missing from all of the vote certs, like delete this section and replace it with the following. Everything was just add this, add this, add this. So I I I proof this stuff. And then all of that stuff, you know, got changed. So it went through multiple layers of proofread. Everybody was like, kind of like working like weekends and under pike deadlines, which is why Duren has used a full lawyer instead of a paralegal to do this. 'cause the, we didn't have the luxury of a week to 10 days. We, we do all this work to get it into Caris who, and like it got to her on like a Wednesday afternoon all completed through these multiple letters, levels of proofreading, including into this consolidated form of the special act that had to be proofread as well. And 'cause the whole, all of those motions for were different parts of the charter. And if you remember it says change things in their numerical sequence and we might have a motion that changed Article four section one and also changed article six and also changed article three of the charter. You had to drop the article three stuff in the article three section. The four stuff in the four section and the six stuff in the six section that all had to get straightened out. So all this effort was made to proofread this stuff got to Caris who then informed everybody the next morning, oh I'm, I'm going on vacation for two weeks. I won't be back until after Thanksgiving. Like, and so the good news is everybody pushed hard and it got done and which made her job very easy getting back. But we might not have, we, we might have been able to use paralegals if we knew we weren't under the deadline that we thought we were under. So I just wanna point that out. I don't have a problem paying the, the rate. They did the work and it was one person instead of two paralegals. So <v Speaker 2>There is, you know, there is some charge</v> for paralegal work, but the average of the paralegal and there are other lawyers lower than the duris rate. So you know there's, <v Speaker 1>Okay, that's true.</v> <v Speaker 3>Can I ask the question?</v> How much do we have left after this? <v Speaker 1>That's a good question, Chris, do you know?</v> <v Speaker 2>Yes, I can tell you. So this invoice that is included</v> for both of them is for $9,901 and 10 cents. And the net balance of our special council fund after we pay that is $56,311. <v Speaker 3>Okay. I just want to make sure there was enough to get</v> through whenever we need. <v Speaker 2>We, we are doing well.</v> <v Speaker 3>Okay. Thank you.</v> <v Speaker 1>So anyone wanna make a motion?</v> <v Speaker 3>I move that we accept the invoice for the special counsel</v> <v Speaker 1>To approve the amount.</v> To approve the approve the amount. $9,901 and 10 cents <v Speaker 3>As as stated by Mr.</v> Ner. <v Speaker 1>Thank you. Okay. Moved by Harriet,</v> seconded by Bob and Donna. All, both at the same time. Are there any other motions? We'll vote this by roll call Harriet? <v Speaker 3>Yes.</v> <v Speaker 1>Bob?</v> <v Speaker 6>Yes.</v> <v Speaker 1>Donna? Yes. Paul Conley?</v> <v Speaker 3>Yes.</v> <v Speaker 1>Chris?</v> <v Speaker 2>Yes.</v> <v Speaker 1>And I'm a Yes.</v> Okay, we're done with the special counsel invoice, ongoing meeting schedule. Do people have the ability to meet next Tuesday? I just wanna double check my calendar. I I want to get a meeting for warrant articles in before the warrant closes. So what are you <v Speaker 6>Taught on Tuesday?</v> <v Speaker 1>What I thought Wednesday, Wednesdays this spring.</v> <v Speaker 6>Gotcha. That's the fourth.</v> <v Speaker 1>That is February 4th. Yep, I'm good.</v> <v Speaker 3>I think that works for,</v> <v Speaker 2>Yes, I can make that work.</v> <v Speaker 1>Alright, so Paul, can you make that work?</v> You think it's a week from tonight? <v Speaker 3>I week from tonight,</v> which is the fourth? <v Speaker 1>Yes sir.</v> <v Speaker 3>That should be okay.</v> <v Speaker 1>Okay, so the, the emails Harriet</v> and Bob, that if you could send the stuff that would have the text so I can pro, you know, propose I'll draft up like a warrant article and I'll try and do it all in one warrant article. So we have like multiple sections as opposed to like 10 by, you know, charter and bylaw review articles. And then we'll need, you know, time for motions in front of the fin com. I think the fin comm's gonna be pretty busy. The budget hasn't been submitted. There may or may not be an override request. They're gonna have to hear the budgets, they're gonna have to hear the override request if the, if the select board decides to call it. And the fin com is yet to have a meeting at 25. So I I I think, I think the budget's due like, like Monday or something, so of next week. So we'll have to, there's <v Speaker 7>A joint meeting of the select board</v> and school committee on Monday to present the budget. The budget will be available over the weekend though. <v Speaker 1>Okay. Alright.</v> Do we, thank you Donna, do we have minutes Chris? <v Speaker 2>Yes. I sent meeting</v> minutes to the committee at least a week or more ago for Wednesday, November 6th. The Wednesday November 6th meeting and draft minutes for Thursday, November 21st meeting. Is anybody ready to vote that or do you guys need more time to review them? <v Speaker 1>People wanna do those next week. Wanna</v> <v Speaker 2>Do them next week?</v> <v Speaker 3>I think so.</v> <v Speaker 1>Okay, so why don't we I'll do</v> <v Speaker 3>That or everybody's frozen.</v> <v Speaker 1>No, Bob, don't freeze again that night.</v> Remember you froze on the internet. Right, right. No, don't do that. Bob. The, you actually, you froze at the spot where you actually kind of leaned back in your chair, close your eyes to think and it looked like you would just lean back in your chair and like, like we were like, wake up Bob, <v Speaker 2>Be right.</v> <v Speaker 1>No, but he's fine. He's back in action. Right.</v> The we, we need to take that up with the cable advisory board rep provides the internet service no more freezes, right? Yeah. Right. Okay. With that can I, <v Speaker 2>Can Chris, go ahead.</v> Can I ask a question about the next meeting then? So obviously we have the standard things in our agenda. We'll, we'll have reports there in case anybody has any additional reports and saws available. And then warrant articles. <v Speaker 1>Warrant articles in minutes.</v> And I'd put the update on the special act because by, if by next meeting there's a bill number we'll share it with people. <v Speaker 2>Do you think we'll have an</v> invoice by the end of the month? Should I put that on too? <v Speaker 1>We, he didn't do any work in the month of January.</v> <v Speaker 2>Okay.</v> <v Speaker 1>Or at least not, I'm not, not that I'm aware of.</v> Right. Okay. We took the month, we took the month of December, half the second half of December and the month of January up through today. That's the 28th. Took it off, so, <v Speaker 2>Okay.</v> Alright, ill Yeah, and I won't, I probably won't have minutes from today, but you never know if it 20. Excuse me. Thank you. <v Speaker 1>Okay,</v> Ms. Berkowitz, for what purpose do you seek the floor? <v Speaker 3>I move to adjourn</v> <v Speaker 1>Back yet Moved by Harriet.</v> Seconded by Donna. We'll vote this by roll call Harriet. <v Speaker 3>Yes.</v> <v Speaker 1>Donna?</v> <v Speaker 2>Yes.</v> <v Speaker 1>Paul Connolly.</v> <v Speaker 3>Yes.</v> <v Speaker 1>Bob Awkward.</v> Yes. Chris Weisman? <v Speaker 2>Yes.</v> <v Speaker 1>And I am a yes.</v> That is 6 0 0. We are adjourned. And this meeting has lasted a grand total of 58 minutes.