Speaker 1: Welcome to the February 19th select board meeting. I'd like to call the meeting to order at six 30 please. And before we go to announcements, could I ask that all of you in the room who, who are able to stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance and observe a moment of silence for those who are serving our country? Speaker 2: Pledge Speaker 3: Pledge Allegiance, beautiful of the United of America and to the Republic, which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Speaker 1: Thank you. First, a couple of announcements. Natick's.
First World Interfaith Harmony Week starts Wednesday, February 26th, and runs through March 4th. There are numerous events for members of all and no faiths. Please see the schedule of events@natickisunited.com slash events. Natick. My 360 app for water usage monitoring is now available for all residents. It's a new water meter, water meter reading system that's capable of daily meter reads. It'll enable custom alerts to trigger notifications based on spikes in water use and more.
So use the FAQ content to learn more about this feature. And if you go to natick ma.gov, at the top of the page is a link to register bird flu. We've all bought eggs anytime in the last couple of weeks. You know that bird flu is spreading. And there's a report out from the Health department with a link for you to report. If you see dead, domestic, or wild animals, songbirds are not at risk for now.
So if you go to the health department, if you, if you see sick or dead domestic ducks, chickens, turkeys, game birds, pigeons, wild swans, you can go there and report them. The 2025 spring annual town meeting warrant closes tomorrow at five o'clock. Any citizens petitions must be submitted by then to be included on the warrant for the spring annual town meeting. The select board's Natick 1 0 1 session will be held on Thursday, February 27th, in this room from six 30 to eight, it'll be broadcast via the Pegasus YouTube channel with the opportunity to submit questions in
advance or during the session. If you go to the town's homepage and scroll down for community events, there's a a link where you can link into the Pegasus channel and, and submit anonymous questions. The NATA Community Organic Farm is hosting a Farm Discovery Day this Saturday from eight 30 to one. Again, if you go to the community events calendar on the homepage for the town, you, there's more details about activities. The select board will have office hours at the community senior center tomorrow from nine to 10:00 AM
and again on March 8th at the Natick Farmer's Market from 10 to 12. And wishing a Ramadan Mubarak or Ramadan Kareem for our Muslim neighbors and residents as they embark on the holy month of Ramadan beginning sundown on Friday, February 28th. And that's all for announcements. Does any anyone else on the board have announcements? Ms. Pope, Speaker 4: I just wanted to give a thanks to the DPW and all those who've been cleaning up the, the storms
that have happened. These have been some intense storms. I personally look outside and looks like a glacier everywhere. And so we just wanna appreciate the DPW for helping to keep us safe. Yes, thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you, Ms. Pope. At this time, we'll enter into the part of the meeting called Public Speak. Any individual may raise an issue that is not included on tonight's agenda, and it'll be taken under advisement by the board. There'll be no opportunity for debate during this portion of the meeting. Due to the requirements of open meeting law, this section
of the agenda is limited to 10 minutes, and any individual addressing the board during this section of the agenda shall be limited to three minutes while the select board endeavors to ensure that all interested persons have the opportunity to address the select board due to time constraints that may not be possible. In cases where there is intense public interest in a particular topic, the board may schedule a future meeting to allow for further public input. Is there anyone in the room who would wishes to address the board in public speak? Mr. Joseph? Speaker 5: Thank you, chair Coughlin. Good evening. Members of the board. My name is Paul Joseph. I'm currently the chair of the exec,
the Economic Development Committee. I'm actually here with regard to a matter I think might have been brought up in concerns in the past or in discussion. To be honest with you, I couldn't find it on the Select board archives, but as the community knows, there's a project going on to replace the bridge at Route nine and 27 in Natick. It's substantially underway. A $99 million contract was awarded by mas.to do this work, and they've recently removed some of the vegetation as, as the beginning of that work. I've, I've had two inquiries literally in the last week,
and I don't know if it's because the project has bubbled up on social media, one of which was an individual that couldn't make a previous economic development committee meeting. But concerns have been raised about the economic impact of the project in general. We in the past with the EDC, have talked about the impacts and how can we best communicate what those impacts are going to be. But what what has come up on a couple of occasions, and I've never heard an answer to where two aspects of the project, one, whether or not the project has undertaken what some claim
to be a required MEPA review, Massachusetts EPA review. And the reason for this is that there's questions about whether this new design qualifies as just a replacement versus a substantial new redesign. And I think common sense looks like a major redesign to me, which would automatically trigger a MEPA review, add their presentation to the community in November, a mass dot said they would get back to us in terms of the status of whether or not it needed a mepa review. To my knowledge, no one has heard back from them on this question, which has been raised multiple times. The other question that came up was, gi,
given this environmental impact, it's also an a budding and, and impacts in economic justice block in the community as well. So there are two kind of triggering questions that come up with regard to this project. Bluntly, as a citizen private taxpayer, I question the need for that size of a project given alternatives that were explored. And I understand, given the public process for that, that there were alternative designs reviewed. I'm not a traffic expert and with due respect to everyone who's done the work, I'm just relaying messages that have been relayed to me
and in one case by an individual that did not wanna be made known publicly reached out to me personally. And another from engaging a town meeting member starting on Facebook, but then privately engaging as well. So I guess the outstanding question to the board, and I'm contemplating writing a letter myself, was does this warrant a board review and potential communication to our legislative delegation and mass.to get answers to some of these questions, especially in light of, you know, high risk projects going on in the commonwealth with federal funding being in question. I love the design. I think it's a beautiful design
and I think it, it's, it's a appropriate for a future of the town and a future of the Commonwealth that may or may not be on our trajectory right now. And within our financial means is the Commonwealth. So I think it warrants an exploration and certainly at minimum, the Mepa question needs to be answered. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you Mr. Joseph. Mr. Joseph, could I ask you to forward those questions to the board and Mr. Walsh, could I ask you to put that, the issue of the 9 27 interchange on the agenda for March 5th? Is there anyone else in the room who wishes to speak during this portion of the meeting? Is there anyone on Zoom not seeing any others?
We'll move to discussion and decision. The first item on the agenda is the appointment of Reserve police officers, chief Hicks. Speaker 6: Good evening, Madam Chair and members of the board. I'm James Hicks, chief of Police here in the great town of Natick. I'm, I'm here in front of you. As I always say, it's a great opportunity when you, you get to appoint new individuals and officers to serve the town and especially recognize those who have a desire to serve the town and move forward in the process. And I do have three individuals here today that I respectfully request that you, the Board of Selectmen
Select board as appointed authorities appoint these officers or these candidates as permanent reserve officers. Do As a little caveat, I, I think I put it in the memo. As this board is aware, we are leaving civil service effective March 1st. That's been confirmed through civil service in the Human Resource division. This will be the final appointment that you will make under the civil service system. They'll be appointed reserves. I will be back to you when they are made permanent, but they will be considered civil service
status as we move forward. So these will be the last three that you will be appointed as at, at as this status of civil service. Just a little added information for you and I will present to them you here tonight. The first up I wanted to present is Alec Barman. Mr. Barman is a 23 years of age and currently resides in in Natick with his father, Eric and his brother Scott, who both are here tonight to be here with him. Mr. Barman graduated from Natick High School in 2019, where he played hockey and lacrosse after high school.
Mr. Barman enrolled in criminal justice program at Merrimack College. While at Merrimack, Mr. Barman worked part-time as a shuttle van driver for the college picking up and dropping off students at different areas of campus. When asked how he felt, have felt his supervisors would describe him in this position, it's always interesting to ask that question. No, he, he stated that now daily, we describe him as very responsive, was flexible, rarely caught out sick, and he understood the job. He's also employed as a camp counselor for the Natick Recreation and Parks Departments for several years, from 2019 to 2024,
and as an after school counselor at Longfellow Health Club. During his interview, the committee described him as performing well, demonstrating composure, maturity, and a genuine passion for law enforcement. Next, I'll present to you John Carr. Say again. I I stay here. Not yet. Stay there. We practiced this before Mr. Carr's 25 years of age and currently resides in Brewster, Massachusetts. But until recently has been a lifelong resident of Natick where he lived with his mother, Heather.
He's here tonight. Heather's here tonight to support him as well as his grandparents. Mr. Carr graduated from Natick High School in 2018. He attended Mass Bay Community College from 2018 to 2019, and then enrolled in Pulse University in Connecticut. He earned credits towards his bachelor's degree, which I'm sure he's gonna continue. Yes, yes. Just to have that conversation. Yes. Mr. Carr currently is employed as a full-time police officer with the town of Truro on Cape Cod. He is graduate of the 75th recruit officers class at the Municipal Police Training Committee's Academy
in Plymouth, Massachusetts. When speaking to the chief in Truro, chief Lesi, he was particularly said, he stated he was a particularly good worker, is punctual and does not call out sick, and does his job just great from a chief to be able to say that in this day. He was employed from June of 2022 to August, 2023 as public safety dispatcher with the town of Sudbury Police Department. When spoke speaking to the supervisor over there, Sergeant Corey, he describes him as mature for his age, was easy to get along with and was not the subject of any other disciplinary issues.
During his interview, the committee reports out that he exhibited excellent interpersonal skills while highlighting his reliability and moral character. Next up is Gavin Wilson. Mr. Wilson is 22 years of age and also a lifelong resident of Natick living here with his mother, Megan, who's here tonight to support him. He grades a graduate of Keith Tech High School in 2021 with a concentration in plumbing. We spoke to the Sergeant Jay Ball over there, who's a school resource officer and also the hockey coach. And Sergeant Ball said, and who knows, Natick very well said he wouldn't have no
concerns with Mr. Wilson becoming a Natick police officer. Also spoke to the vice principal there, Kevin Collins. And he was also Dean of students. And this is what was reported in the, in the background quote, happy to report unquote that Mr. Wilson had no disciplinary records of file. And he was a good kid who played hockey and followed the rules. He's currently employed at Desk Associated Club Elevate, which is a fitness facility, and his supervisor there describing him as nice and a kind person and mature for his age and has been talking about a career in law enforcement for quite some time. Our investigators al also spoke to Adam Mitchell,
who's the owner of Day Square Plumbing and described Mr. Described him as Mr. Wilson as super reliable and he has no disciplinary issues according in including no drug or alcohol use, and was on time and had a willingness to learn. And during his interview with the committee, one thing that that stuck with the committee is that he stated he, in his young life, he start he surrounded himself with positive role models and peers. And he made it a point to state that to the committee. And that made an impact on the committee. Madam Chair members, the board. I I, I recommend these three candidates
with the understanding that their appointments would be effective on February 28th and all appointments contingent upon satisfactory completion of a medical examination, psychological examination, physical abilities, tests, and any other requirements necessary to successfully successful certification with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Human Resource Division and a Peace Officer Standards and training Pulse commission. Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker 7: You hand that to me and so I can do the motion. Speaker 1: Mr. Evans, Mr. Sidney has the motion. Speaker 7: Well, you're always a step ahead, but
Speaker 6: He reached out first. Speaker 1: Thank you Chief Hicks. Mr. Sidney. Speaker 8: Thank you Madam Chair. Move to appoint the following candidates as permanent reserve police officers, Alan Bauman, John Carr, and Gavin Wilson. The appointment of these candidates will be effective February 28th, 2025, contingent upon satisfactory completion of a medical examination, psychological examination, physical, physical abilities test, and any other requirements necessary for successful certification with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Human Resource Division and Peace Officer standards and trainings post commission.
Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you Mr. Sidney. Thank you for that. Second, Mr. Evans All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Nope. The motion passes 5 0 0. Mr. Evans, do comments? Yes, please. Speaker 7: Yeah. Thank you very much. I'm, I'm really pleased to have three young men with, with such great qualifications here. And welcome back to Natick. We're glad you're back here. And you guys already have two thirds of the line for the hockey team. You guys are ready to roll. So thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you Mr. Evans. Ms. Slager,
Speaker 9: I'm delighted to see the three of you here. You know, Arna background, it's wonderful to get hometown men on our police force. And I am just thrilled with the qualifications that the chief read out. I mean, you're all very impressive and I think that bodes very well for the future of the department. And, and thank you for joining us. Speaker 1: Thank you, Ms. Slager. Mr. Sidney? Yeah. Speaker 8: I am also thrilled to see three Natick residents coming to work for the town, work for the police department, bringing the knowledge of the town so that you understand the people you're gonna be policing.
I think this is a great thing. Speaker 1: Thank you Mr. Sidney. I ditto my colleagues. That's our way of keeping the meetings short. Not that we, not that we don't have any more heartfelt Yes, miss Pop. Speaker 4: No, I, yes. Dilling my comments of the, of the board except for I, I will just tweak something necessarily policing people but protecting and serving people. I'm grateful that you are on the force. Thank you Chief. Speaker 1: Thanks so much, chief. Congratulations. Speaker 10: Welcome back. Welcome. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Yeah, right
Speaker 4: To meet you. Speaker 10: Thank you. Welcome. Congratulations and welcome. Thank you so much. Congratulations and welcome board. Thank you. Speaker 1: Next on our agenda, our water and sewer abatement appeals to the public and to the board. Ms. Norcross appeal has been continued to the meeting of March 5th. So we will begin with the water and sewer abatement appeal for Christopher Cor. So Mr. Cor, if you could briefly tell the board, we do have your application and the, and the materials, but if you could briefly introduce yourself and just tell us what, what occurred.
Speaker 11: I'm Chris Corre. I am from Cottage Street. Have been there really forever and we've had me truncate this down to about four sentences. And I, in addition to that, like to thank the board for taking the time to hear me and do this, this is the first time for me I thought at the DPW it was gonna get taken care of and it was like, oh no, you're gonna go see the board. It's like, okay, so here's the story. Our garden hose split during the hot September
and there was an uncontrolled release of water outside the outside hose leading to my raised bed garden. Water timing had split. I didn't realize this obviously until I did the release of water was outside and therefore I'm asking to be not charged for the sewer portion because it didn't go down the sewer. And the only note past that is I won't be gardening 'cause those are some very expensive tomatoes. So again, thank you for hearing me and,
and hopefully you will see it in my favor. Thank you very much. Thank. Speaker 1: Should I turn over to you Mr. Marshall or to the board? First to the board. Questions, comments? Mr. Marshall? Speaker 12: Thank you. So for the board I had for your consideration regarding this request, I had done a calculation looking at the prior, prior quarter for the previous three years. We take a look at what is the high use for that period of time. And that came in at 15 units.
So I did a recalculation of 15 units looking at 19 units in excess, which would be dropped down to the lowest tier and then recalculated, recalculated what the bill would be in that case and came up with an abatement amount of $270 and 24 cents for the board's consideration. Speaker 1: Yes, Mr. Evans Speaker 7: Move to abate the bill, I guess in the amount of $270 and 24 cents.
Second Speaker 1: Move by Mr. Evans, second by Ms. Wolfer. Any comments debate Mr. Evans? Speaker 7: My comment is a pitch for my 360 app. It's a, now that it's available town wide, it's a great app. It's free, it's easy to use, it gives you indicators when you go over a threshold that you set. And I don't know if this is a new feature or I'm just unobservant, it also has a kind of while you are on, while you're on vacation setting,
where you can say, I'm gonna be away for the next month, let's say. So if it goes above that threshold, send me a text or send me an email. Which I think is great because a lot of times what'll happen, somebody's away for a month, the hose splits or something like that, the spigot breaks and you know, they're hit with a several thousand dollars bill 'cause they don't know it and they come back and then they see the problem. You know, particularly if you're on an isolated street and the spigot, it might be in your backyard
so your neighbors wouldn't notice. It would just go right into the ground. So that's my pitch. It's free, it, it's very helpful. Speaker 1: And you can find that if you go to natick ma.gov and you scroll down, it's one of the first announcements. There's a link you can sign up. It's painless. And I get an alert three or four times a month because I just tend to go over my, my, the budget I've set for myself. So it, it does work. It's very helpful. Ms. Slager, Speaker 9: Just wanna clarify 'cause Mr.
Cory asked us to rebate the sewer, to rebate the sewer charges. We don't typically do that because we still have to pay that. What we do is, what Mr. Marshall described is we look at your previous usage over the past three years and then charge at the lowest tier level because as you use more water, it gets more expensive. So that's, that's how we calculated the rebate. Speaker 1: Thank you Ms. Wolf Slager. So we have a motion, a second. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Passes five zero.
And that will be for an abatement of $270 and 24 cents. Mr. Marshall's office will be in touch with you about next steps. Speaker 10: Thank you very much. Speaker 1: Next water and sewer abatement appeal is Boston Johnson, I mean David Boston. Sorry about that, Mr. Boston. That's Speaker 10: All right. I can, Speaker 13: Good evening. I'm David Boston. This is my wife Erica. We're new residents of Natick. Just moved into 34 Everett Street. Yeah, we're here today to just ask for further grace. First I wanna just say we appreciate the efforts
of Donna Donovan and John Marshall to this point. To give you a little background, we just moved here from Chicago. We actually happened very quickly. We were looking at several cities, several states to move and on while vacationing in Duxbury, we got a realtor and viewed some properties in Natick. Fell in love with the property at 34 Everett. And 30 days later, you know, we had the property and we're looking to move. And so, you know, in mid-November, November 14th, I left town for work. And then the week
after I went to Chicago to pick up Erica, to move her to Natick for the first time. 'cause she was waiting for her medical credentials to be transferred from Illinois to Massachusetts. And so after the 17 hour drive, we arrived here on November 23rd, about 1:00 AM basically the lights, all the power was off, tried to flip the switches, went down to where, opened the door to go to the basement. And we had five and a half feet of standing water in our basement. Subsequently our, you know, power, all of our circuits, everything was, you know, submerged our hvac.
And so it was caused from a pipe, leading from the interior basement to our sprinkler system. Failed while we were outta town. You know, currently I've been given some grace by Mr. Marshall. And, you know, we're here today just to ask for any additional help because obviously the damages are, the whole house needs to be rewired, new hvac, all new appliances, like it's a pretty catastrophic damage and any little bit helps. So thank you for your consideration. Speaker 1: Thank you so much Mr. Boston. I'm really sorry for your loss. Was it new construction?
Speaker 13: Oh no, very old construction. Okay. That's why we like it. It's, the original house was built near early 18 hundreds and there's been several additions. Speaker 1: Thank you. Just curious comments, questions by the board. Ms. Schlager, Speaker 9: Just a story as a Chicago native, as is also Kristen Pope, welcome to Natick. And I can completely sympathize because when I was selling my parents' house in Chicago, I came from a trip to a basement with standing water twice. So I appreciate your pain.
I hope that is an indicative of your, your luck here in, in town. And you know, I hope you'll have many happy years once all this is over with. So I just wanted to say that, that I can relate and, you know, and welcome from a fellow Chicago person. Speaker 1: Thank you Mr. Wilger. Ms. Mr. Ms. Ms. Pope Pope, Speaker 4: Same welcome. You can welcome from Chicago. Yes. I, I was warned by that and I was thinking the same thing. Was your house new? Because if it were, I would, you know, absolutely wanna know if the builder was res, you know, took any responsibility for the wiring issue.
And I'm just, I read your story and I was just like, man, that is rough. And I'm so sorry that that happened to you all. But very happy that you're here and I hope you'll stay. Oh, Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker 13: This the plan. This is our forever. Hum. I, so we're very excited to be here, Speaker 1: Mr. Evans. Speaker 7: Thank you Madam Chair. I'll, I'll ditto that. I think all of us, I have a hundred year old plus home myself. And I've had, luckily it's not a finished basement, but I've had not quite five and a half feet, but I've had about four feet once.
And this was the days before they had really good wet vacs. So I was literally hauling barrels of water out to the catch basin in, I think it was, it must be a thing with November. 'cause I think it was November. So I'm spilling water on myself as I'm doing it and I'm freezing. So you have my complete sympathy and we'll see what we can do to help you. Speaker 13: Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. I too have suffered from catastrophic. This Speaker 8: Is like alcoholics anonymous.
Speaker 1: I not quite as catastrophic as that, but two in, in 10 years where kitchen and bathroom had to be gutted to the studs. So I feel your pain. Welcome to Natick. It's a great community to live in. If there are no more comments from the board or tales of woe. Oh, Mr. Sidney. Speaker 8: Yeah. And I have a motion as soon as I finish. I just want, I haven't had the water problems, thank God. Oh, I also live in a a hundred plus year old home, but my entire neighborhood is a French drain, so water never creeps in. So, but I wanted to specifically welcome you guys to Natick.
We live in a great town. We care about each other a lot. And we just, I'm, I'm glad to see people moving in and I'm hoping that you have a much better future than you do now. And Madam Chair, if I may, you may, I'd like to move to ABATE $2,205 and 92 cents. Second Speaker 1: We have a motion. And second, any discussion on the motion? Mr. Marshall, could you talk about how we've arrived with that number? Speaker 12: Sure. So a couple of things. I've had some, a number of conversations,
and again, I apologize as well for the situation that you encountered. But I had, this is kind of unique. Typically with an irrigation system, we're not really sure where the water goes in this one. It was actually pretty clear cut. So I felt that I could actually look at this and approve this because the water was clearly in the basement, you know, based on the reports and everything that we had. The unique thing with this specific request is there was no prior history. So it was a new owner, the owner prior, we did kind of
that look back looking at the prior three years. I was able to find history at 14 units. So there were two kind of scenarios that I provided today to the board. One was looking at the charge for the 14 units plus everything in excess at the lowest tier. And then it was actually kind of earlier today I came up with another idea of, because there was no history potentially moving everything to the lowest tier and just charging all of the units at the lowest tier. So it's a little bit more of a bump than I had shared with
the Bostons earlier. But, you know, something I wanted to share with the board for obviously Speaker 1: Your consideration Speaker 4: Question, is it the same number? Does it still the same number that Mr. Sidney gave in the, Speaker 8: I gave the larger number. Okay. The Speaker 4: Larger, thank you. Speaker 8: Yeah. And just to be clear, you have to pay for the water. It's just at which rate you pay for the water. Speaker 1: Thank you. So all in favor Mr. Evans? Speaker 7: I just wanted to thank Mr. Marshall for yes, being creative and, and looking at the best possible scenario that we could offer. Speaker 1: Likewise. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'll take a vote.
All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the abatement passes. Mr. Marshall's office will be in touch with you on next steps. Thank you very much everybody. Thank you. Appreciate it. Speaker 8: Welcome to na. Welcome. Speaker 7: Welcome. Speaker 1: Next item on the agenda, Mr. Clerk. Speaker 8: The select board will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, February 19th, 2025 at 6:30 PM upon the application for a change in category of Mjo, Inc. DBA Zing Z's of Natick. Dominic Rau, manager of record, Z's of Natick. Last approved license category was wine
and malt beverages with cordials liquors. This, the requested new license category is all alcohol bev beverages. The hearing will be held in the Delo meeting Room 13 East Central Street, as well as remotely anyone wishing to be heard in this matter can participate in person or through zoom. Login instructions will be published on the February 19th, 2025 select board agenda. All persons interested in this application may appear and be heard at the time and place mentioned above or may submit written comments to the select board at 13 East Central Street, Natick, mass oh 1 7 6 oh select board@natickma.org
by February 18th, 2025. And I move to open the public hearing. Speaker 1: Second, seconded by Mr. Evans. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Public hearing is open. Speaker 14: Good evening everyone. How you doing tonight? Speaker 1: Can you make sure your mic is on? Yep. Can Speaker 14: You hear me? Yep. Okay. Good evening. Thank you for the time for to speak tonight. My name's Dominic Rando. I own Z d's here in Natick. We're in our 16th year of business now here in the town. I wanna thank everyone for all your help in filing our permits and thank you Natick PD for keeping the town safe.
When we first opened, way back when we were allowed to serve beer and wine, and then you allowed us to add the service bar, which has been a big hit. And then we added cordials. So, you know, thank you for that. We still have some guests in town that were unable to provide them with some of the drinks that they like, like a bloody Mary or a gin and tonic. So, you know, we take the responsibility of serving at our place very seriously. We haven't had any issues over the years. And I'm here to ask that you grant us permission
to have a full liquor license here in town. Maybe we'll stay here another 15 years. Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Mr. Rando. Speaker 8: Madam? Sure. Yes. I just wanna point out that there were three residents, neighbors of Z's that sent in letters to me, which I forwarded. And they are posted to Novus in support of this application. Speaker 1: Thank you Mr. Sidney. Comments, questions from the board? Mr. Evans? Speaker 7: I don't really have a comment. I have a compliment. Just kind of like a comment. And that comment is to thank publicly the chair and Mr. Joseph for their roles in modifying the alcohol policy.
Z's is the poster restaurant for eliminate or for eliminating. The seat requirement for it was a hundred seats, which there aren't that many restaurants that have 100 seats. To qualify for an all alcohol license, you have to have a minimum of a hundred seats. That has been changed by a new alcohol policy. And I think it will be helpful in attracting and retaining new restaurants. So thank,
Speaker 14: Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you Mr. Evans. Any questions or comments for the applicant? I just wanna say, I know this has been a long time coming and I deeply appreciate your patience in, in waiting for that special act to get approved. Speaker 14: Yeah. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. So I'm very happy to make the motion to approve this license. Second. Speaker 7: Second. Speaker 1: And we have multiple seconds. Mr. Sidney is seconded. The chair rarely makes motions, but in this case, I feel like I've waited deserved about two years for this to happen. Speaker 7: You deserve to make Speaker 1: All in favor, please say aye.
Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Speaker 14: Thank you very much. Be Speaker 1: In touch with Ms. Donovan. Congratulations. Thank Speaker 8: You very much. Move close the public hearing. Second, Speaker 1: Move close Public hearing. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the public hearing is closed. Moving at a rapid clip. We are, we need a motion to open a public hearing. No, Speaker 8: These are not, these are not public hearings, are they? They're just hearings. Okay. Speaker 1: Yep. This hearing is alcohol license violation. Natick Lodge number 1 4 2 5 BPOE of USA Inc.
Deputy Chief. Speaker 15: Thank you Madam Chair. Members of the board of select, the select board of, as the chief said, this great community. So here with me tonight is Mr. Sanford. He's the manager of record of the Elks in question. We've had an opportunity to caucus before this meeting. He's here, it's my opinion. He'll, he's accepting responsibility for what you're going to hear tonight is a violation of the liquor license of that establishment. Also, here is Lieutenant dte. After I give you a brief synopsis, he's going to give you a,
a little bit more synopsis of the investigation at hand. Okay. If that's okay with you? Yes, please. So, on Saturday, October 19th, 2024, approximately 0 1 23 hours 1:23 AM officers of the Natick Police Department dispatched at the Natick Elks, located at 95 Speed Street for a female party who was 34 years of age, who had not returned home from work for over two hours prior to their arrival. They were informed of the identity of this female party and of her vehicle.
Upon arrival, they were able to locate the vehicle in the parking lot and they made contact, contact with the worker of the Elks and asked if the female was there. They were informed that she had worked an event upstairs and she would go grab, they would go grab her and bring her to them. Two workers from the Elks then carried her out of the building as she was highly intoxicated and un unable to walk on her own. One of the workers stated that they would drive her home as she resided very close by and was escorted by the officers to her residence
and reunited with her boyfriend, who took care of her at that home and stayed with her. After receiving this information the following day, through our report review process, which is done by another lieutenant on day shift, this was brought to my attention. This was immediately assigned to Lieutenant Dete to investigate. And I'm gonna ask him to just come up and if it's okay with you, and give a brief, brief synopsis. Speaker 16: Madam Chair, members of the board. Good evening. Lieutenant Kevin Delehanty with the Natick Police Department. As the deputy said, we became aware of the incident involving the,
the Elks infractions, at which point I started an investigation. I went down and talked to Mr. Sanford, who immediately told me that he took full responsibility and that this incident was an ugly incident for his establishment and he took full responsibility for it. As part of the investigation, he gave Mrs. Sanford a request for information, which included statements from bartenders, video evidence in names of individuals that were in the club that night. Mr. Sanford promptly returned all the information
that I needed, at which point I started to conduct my investigation. We looked at many hours of video evidence. At first. We had a problem with the video machine. Sergeant Sutherland was involved. He went down and got new video. We still had a problem getting some of the video prior to midnight. But in my opinion, the most important part of this was the after midnight activities that were in, you know, committing the violations. After reviewing the video, I have to say
that Mr. Sanford was a hundred percent right. This wasn't ugly incident. After midnight, there were two people invited who were non-members and non-employees. They were invited by one of the bartenders, Kerry Beatz, to help her clean up. They sat at the bar, the first part of the video, I saw them just after 12 o'clock. They were still drinking from alcoholic drinks at that point. They were served many more drinks after that. And their last drink was at two 10 in the morning that they were served by Ms. Beads. She was the bartender that invited them in.
Tony Manzel was another bartender there that worked on the second floor that evening. Along with Chris Crystal Carson, who was the involved intoxicated female that we in that we went down to that night and brought home. After looking at the video, I could see that she was served anywhere from three to four drinks during the time, about midnight till about 1239, which was a short period of time. There was one drink that was not on video that was served to her, but I got through bartender statements that she had.
Mr. Manzel said that he went down and they had had drinks prior to midnight a shot. Most of the drinks that were served were shots of fire and ice, which is McGill Cudi in Fireball. So they were pretty potent drinks that were served. I could see through the video that prior to her last drink, crystal Carson was showing signs of intoxication on the video, which is part of the charge of serving to an intoxicated person. You have to understand that they're intoxicated prior to serving. It was clear from the video to me that she was stumbling at
that point, that there was some, you know, her stability was compromised at that point. Just after drinking the last drink, her last drink at 1239, she arrived at the bar and sat down at the front of the bar and she stumbled into the stool, was seated at the bar, and then quickly passed out at the bar. At that point, approximately 15 minutes later, she started to vomit. At which point Carrie Beatz the bartender ran around and tried to grab her 'cause she was falling off the stool. They both fell to the floor,
she vomited on the floor and Ms. Beatz pulled her into a recovery position and pulled her away from the bar where she had just thrown up. She laid there on the floor for approximately 24 minutes while the other workers were still continuing to work. At that point, the Natick Police Department did receive a call from a family member that she was two hours overdue and we went down to the Elks and at which point she was carried out. I did forward still images of the events. So you could look at the still images that go with I,
I basically depicted the times and the events in my report and then provided still images of each event. So you could see that the alcohol was served, that they did consume the alcohol. So, you know, at this time there are several, three charges total. One charge for over serving, a second charge for operating after hours was well after 12 o'clock. The last drink served at 2:10 AM and a third charge was for nonmember non, yeah,
two non-members drinking at the bar past hours of service. And I'll be happy to entertain any questions you may have. Speaker 1: Questions from the board. No, no comments at this time. I just wanna get questions out there. I have a couple questions. Sure. Were you able to discern from the video whether the shots were paid for? Speaker 16: I asked Mr. Sanford that, and he said they were paid for, but I never saw any transactions I of money being given to the bartender or taken from the bartender. So in my opinion there was no, no drinks were paid for that I could see.
Speaker 1: So that would be a fourth violation. That'd be a violation of Mass General Law. Speaker 17: Yes, it would. Yep. Speaker 1: Just point of information for the board. The Elks has not had a violation in a lookback period going back to 2013 so far beyond our five year lookback period. So, Speaker 16: And members of the board, I'd just like to say Mr. Sanford was upfront with me in the very beginning, took full responsibility of this, and he was very cooperative with the investigation and providing video and other documentation that I needed.
Speaker 1: That's very appreciated. Thank you Ms. Slager. Speaker 9: I'd like to hear from Mr. Sanford about what changes have been put in place to ensure that this won't happen again. Speaker 18: First of all, before, oh, sorry. Speaker 4: I wanna ask a question and then I don't wanna interrupt him for the question. Can I just ask this one question? Yes. Based on your story, officer, and was she, was, was the, the female party given help? It sounds like she said she was on the floor for 24 or 20. Speaker 16: Yes, and my conversation with Kerry Beads, who was the bartender at that time in the bar,
she was sloped over the bar for about 15 minutes, at which time she started to vomit. Ms. Beads ran around the bar because she started to slide off the bar as well. And she was bringing a barrel around. At that point, Ms. Beads tried to stop her from falling and they both landed on the floor, at which point Ms. Carson vomited on the floor. And in my conversation with Ms. Beads, my interview with Ms. Beads, I said, why did you move her? And she said, I put her in a recovery position, which was a side position so that if she did vomit anymore,
it would, you know, she wouldn't regurgitate it and swallow it back down again. Speaker 4: Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you Ms. Wilger. Speaker 18: Excuse me. First of all, what happened that night was totally unacceptable. I personally apologize. I I, at the time I was, I was surprised myself. Since then, all the employees were reprimanded. I went through and I did individual training with everybody of what's expected from our standpoint, town standpoint and Massachusetts standpoint. But I can tell you this will not happen again. That doesn't make it any better that it did happen. And again, I mean, I've been there 10 years,
we've never had an issue, so Speaker 1: Thank you Mr. Sydney. Speaker 8: Yeah. This is sort of a logistical question. Can we require that people take fresh tips training as part of, that'd be great. Okay. I just wanted to make sure Speaker 1: We can require it to be in person. Speaker 8: Yeah. I just wanna make sure I understand what is possible here. Yes, Speaker 18: Everybody actually, they are all TIPS certified, but if you need them, do it again. I will absolutely. I'll have everybody do it again. Speaker 1: Do you have a follow up? Do you wanna, what is the impact of a reprimand in an employee's folder?
When you say they're reprimanded, is there a written reprimand? Is there a period after which two reprimands are fired or three, three Speaker 18: Or there's nothing written. I sat down with each one of them in individually and they all know if they do anything wrong, again they are, they're going to be fired. Speaker 1: Okay. Deputy chief, you said that you had had a recommendation. Speaker 15: So yes. Thank you again, Madam Chair and members of the select board. As part of the team that relooked at our alcohol regulations for the community, we tiered an approach of first offense, second offense, third offense.
And one of the inputs that I had was, that's great, but there are certain cases that that really warrant a much sterner approach. IEA suspension of a license, even if they, a place hasn't had a, an offense since 2013. So in speaking with Smiths to Stanford, Sanford, we've recommended a period of suspension of the license to include at least one weekday and one weekend day for this event.
The number we came up with to propose to you, and again, this is your responsibility, but was two day suspension, one day on a, on a Sunday, and one day on a Monday, Mr. Sanford has looked at the schedule for events, which doesn't have great bearing, but there are certain things like a wedding that's scheduled to take place. So three, two and three three were like days that we had in mind. Again, it's up to the board to make those decisions, but we present that. Speaker 1: Thank you deputy chief. So here's some of my concerns about this event,
and we don't need to belabor the ugliness of the event, but the fact that two colleagues allowed someone to lie on the floor unconscious without calling for medical aid is distressing. Secondly, tip certification. Yes. It teaches you not to overserve and how to watch. Two of the bartenders said that she was goofy, she was fine one minute, the next minute she was passed out at the bar. That concerns me. It is very rare for somebody to go from fine, especially somebody you know and you work with to being passed out and vomiting and not calling the, the, the fact
that five shots were consumed within an hour when the bo the liver can only metabolize one shot one, 1.5 ounces. I do have a question. Were those nips that were served or they were pores. Pores. Okay. So we don't know that they were in fact 1.5 ounces or a hundred milliliters, or I'm sorry, 50 milliliters. So the liver can only metabolize, depending on how large this person is. Women metabolize slower, one drink per hour, five drinks in one hour should have been a clear sign that this person was at risk for acute alcohol poisoning. So I'm, I'm concerned about the, the public safety impact.
I'm concerned, I'm, I'm glad that she gave her keys to somebody to drive her home before she had her fourth shot because she knew she might not be. And in her words, she thought she would be okay, but she didn't wanna risk. It shows profoundly bad judgment. So those were my comments Mr. Sidney. Speaker 8: Yeah, I have similar concerns. I'm also very concerned about the after hours drinking. Last call was called a little late actually that night. It was, it looks like according to the report, it was about five minutes late. It should have been at 1130 and it was a little after that.
So I'm concerned that the bartenders aren't following procedures all the way across. I'm concerned that they continued to serve somebody. I'm concerned that they served until 2:00 AM when people should have been cleaning up and getting out of there. I don't, you know, it's, it's not really known whether she actually had any drinks upstairs. I'm concerned about the fact that they may or may not have paid for those drinks after hours. We don't know that. And I, you know, I'm concerned about the quality of their attention given
that they are theoretically tip strained. You know, I, you know, ELFS is a pretty good citizen of our town as a, as an organization. Yes. But this, I mean, you know, things, things degrade slowly and then suddenly they come to a head. So I am also concerned that activities like this might have been going on that we don't know about because there was no medical emergency. So I, you know, when we're ready, I actually have a motion, but I know we're not ready yet. Speaker 1: Thank you Mr. Sidney. Ms. Slager,
Speaker 9: Ditto my colleagues and I think ugly is really soft pedaling this. I, it it, that's very distressing to hear about this incident. And for me it's the number of people involved. It's not just one person, it's not just a bartender. It's multiple people. And it, it just speaks to, in my mind, you know, to what's going on in the organization. And as my colleague said, I mean, do we know that this hasn't happened previously? That's my concern. You know, if if it,
it's very disturbing. We've got three, possibly four violations all in one. And you know, I appreciate that you've spoken to the people involved and have reprimanded them. But, you know, is it just them? Is it everyone? I mean, I really wonder if the whole organization needs a, a little reboot there. So Speaker 1: Mr. Evans, Speaker 7: Thank you Madam Chair. I, I concur with, with, with what Ms. Slager just said. I, I think the entire organization needs
to get another round of tips training, honestly. And I, I think that should be a requirement if we're not going to, this is a first violation, but it's a pretty egregious one and I think we have to take it very seriously. So that's my 2 cents, Speaker 1: Ms. Pope, Speaker 4: I, I did to my colleagues and I, I think from where I stand, I'm, I'm reading this report and thinking about a woman and the danger, the environment that was created that was really dangerous for this woman and for everyone else involved. And that concerns me is the lack of protection
and just a very dangerous environment for her and for everybody who was involved. Yeah. Speaker 1: So I I just had a few, well, one other comment we would not have known about this, but for a, a minor worried about the location of her mother. So this could have gone un unknown. Yeah, it could have gone unnoticed. One thing we haven't discussed, or no one's mentioned is that under the policy that was in place when the violations occurred, there are mitigating factors for discipline
that's imposed by this board. And one of them is acceptance of responsibility as shown by substantial involuntary assistance offered in the investigation, which has been demonstrated and attested to public acknowledgement of responsibility, which has happened both in writing and in the, and in this meeting agreement to participate in training programs, which the applicant has or the licensee has indicated. He would be amenable to a prompt notice of decision not to contest the charge, an agreement to propose recommended resolution,
which happened earlier tonight with the deputy chief. So given these mitigating factors, which we've had applicants who've come before us who haven't done all five of these things, I, I just wanted to, to note those things. If we, if we, if we count four violations, three of them are base violations as we define them. One is a violation of mass general law or a potential violation because there's not proof of payment. I'll, I'll take motions and I, and I put that out plu 'cause I assume that we may all have different ideas about how to proceed. Mr. Sidney,
Speaker 8: I'd like to recommend five days suspension held in advance through December 31st and require tips training for every employee or every temporary employee be redone. And of course if there's another violation, we'll impose the five days. Speaker 1: So Mr. Sidney, you're saying all five days to be held in a abeyance and mandatory tip screening? Yes. Are there other motions? I Speaker 9: Have another motion. Speaker 1: Ms. Slager, Speaker 9: I propose to accept, Speaker 1: Oh, I'm sorry. Can I get a second on this one just for point of discussion? Yeah, I'll
Speaker 7: Do Speaker 1: Seconded by Mr. Evans for purposes of discussion. I apologize Ms. Wilger, I didn't mean to cut you off. Speaker 9: No problem. I propose to accept the two day suspension that has been suggested and and agree to by the Deputy chief and Mr. Sanford and also require the tips training for all all employees. Do Speaker 7: You accept a friendly amendment, which is for the dates of March, March 2nd and third? Speaker 9: Yes. March 2nd and third. Speaker 1: Second is for pur. Second. Second by Ms. Pope for purposes of discussion.
Is there any other motion? So I move a five day suspension with three day days held in abeyance, two days to be served on March 2nd or March 3rd, and require mandatory tips training in person within 90 days. Speaker 8: I'll second that Speaker 1: Within 90 days of the, the date of this decision. That'll give him an opportunity, give the licensee an opportunity to stagger training and so that it's not a hardship. Speaker 9: I'll take that as a friendly amendment to my motion. Wonderful. Speaker 8: Well actually I, I go with that too, so we can So move, collapse all of this down to that motion. Move,
Speaker 1: Move by Ms. Slager, seconded by Mr. Sidney. So to repeat, a five day suspension to be two days to be served on March 2nd and March 3rd, three days held in abeyance for one year from the date of this meeting. And those will only be required to be served if there's another violation and require tips training in person within 90 days of the date of this decision. Speaker 8: And I'll withdraw my original motion and with the approval of the seconder, Speaker 7: Absolutely. Second say Speaker 1: Everybody's all we're we're all over it. Okay. We're all, we are all over this. Speaker 8: I'm just, I'm just taking, doing
the parliamentary stuff now. Thank Speaker 1: You Mr. Parliamentarian. So we have a motion, a second. Is there any other discussion on this matter? Speaker 8: And I think we've got on the main motion we got Linda and me seconding, Linda moving and, and me seconding. That Speaker 1: Is correct. Would, would the licensee wish to speak to this or is there anything that you would, I mean, you have apologized profusely. I'm not asking for that. I just, and I don't wanna put you on the spot Speaker 18: Again, I, whatever your decision is, I'm not gonna argue. I appreciate, you know, what, what you have come up with and really whatever I need to do
to make it right, make it right. Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Deeply appreciate that. Speaker 8: And if I may, it's largely because you are a good club citizen of the town that I am not dropping bigger hammers. Speaker 1: Deputy chief, Speaker 15: Just in closing, I want to thank the select board, Madam Chair, for the seriousness that they, and the thoughtfulness that they take in these hearings and the decisions that they make as a result of them. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you Deputy chief. I'll take a vote now.
All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Let's take a five minute break and we're back from our break. The next item on the agenda is a hearing for California Pizza Kitchen for non-compliance MS Block. I see you're online and unmuted. Could you? Thank you. Could you speak to the violation? Speaker 19: Yes, ma'am. Thank you for asking members of the board in town of Natick. Thank you for making time to speak with me today. My name is Cindy Block. I am the vice president of a company called liquor license.com. Liquor license.com is a national consulting firm
that specializes in the procurement of liquor licenses as well as application process. We have been engaged by California Pizza Kitchen to assist them with their licensing matters. At the time that the application in question was submitted, we had an employee who was, who is no longer employed with us. We had entrusted that employee to complete the officer update and a manager update. And at the time of his departure, his file is marked
complete, which I have to take full responsibility for because he is my employee. And unfortunately, by trusting the work that was stated as complete and not complete, I was not aware that the work that was required needed to be completed until we received the notice on the 7th of February. At the time that we received the notice, I immediately reached out to Donna Donovan as well as to Catherine Coughlin to let them know
how very shocked I was and how very sorry I am. I take the work that my company does very seriously. I am not happy that the circumstances are what they are and I am doing everything that I can to correct the wrongdoing that was done. I have already prepared and circulated applications, quarry forms change of officers and manager documentation to the corporate office for California Pizza Kitchen. They in turn are already circulating those documents
for the signature of the required officers and directors as well as the manager. As soon as those documents are returned to us, I will begin the submittal process to ensure that this is finished to the utmost correctness that I am capable of doing and to ensure that it is completed in a timely and effective manner. I had let Ms. Coughlin know not only by email, but by telephone that this is not the work
that my company nor myself feel really pleased about. I don't know a better word than pleased. I'm sorry that it happened. I trusted and employ and that I have to own. I have to be the responsible party for that. And I believe that I am taking all the correct steps to ensure that this does not fall through the cracks and is completed timely. Speaker 1: Thank you, Ms. Block. At this time I will open up questions from the board. Could Speaker 8: We hear from Ms. Donovan about status? Speaker 1: The status is the application has not been submitted yet.
Speaker 8: That's good. Thank you. Speaker 1: Questions for the licensee or the representative of the licensee? Ms. Slager, Speaker 9: Thank you for the summary. MS. Block, can you give an estimate of when you expect to be able to complete all the paperwork and submit your application and everything that you need to get done? Speaker 19: Thank you for the question. We are three quarters of the way through. I have two directors that live outside my jurisdiction. They are in receipt of their applications and I anticipate having them returned. I don't, I anticipate having them returned within the,
within a week, I will then prepare the application for submittal and its totality. So I, looking at a calendar, if I give these directors, I'm gonna, I'm gonna hyper state this, but let's say I give these directors till the 28th of February to get their forms back to me. I would suspect by March 3rd, the fourth at the latest, that Ms. Donovan would be in receipt of a full application. Speaker 9: Thank you. Speaker 1: Any other questions
for the licensees representative? Mr. Evans? Speaker 7: So this is just a question, Madam Chair for, for you, this is an existing licensee, right? Speaker 1: That is correct. Speaker 7: And what type of license do they have? Speaker 1: They have an all alcohol on-premise license. Speaker 7: Okay. Thank you Speaker 1: Ms. Pope. Speaker 4: Because of this violation, have they been in any kind of suspension or had to suspend selling or serving or anything like that? Speaker 1: No. Nope. There's been no disciplinary action. Speaker 4: Why? Speaker 1: Because Ms. Donovan has worked extraordinarily
hard to keep asking for this documentation. As you see in the memo, there's at least five notations where there were phone calls made. And in December when there was a, in December when licenses were up for renewal, I became aware of this and I asked Ms. Donovan to schedule them for a non-compliance hearing. Speaker 4: Okay. Speaker 1: So this is the first non-compliance or violation that they've had in the five year look back. Speaker 4: Okay. Thank you. Speaker 1: Mr. Evans. Speaker 7: Just a question, and I'm
throwing out a hypothetical motion, I guess, which is to suspended, suspend the license, but hold it in abeyance until mid-March, at which time we expect to have all the paperwork in. Is that a possible thing? Speaker 1: Since that's a hypothetical, what I would say is why don't we continue the hearing until March 5th, which is our next hearing at our next regular meeting, and then exactly Speaker 7: What I was gonna suggest. And then if Speaker 1: Much better materials are not in, then we can proceed with disciplinary action. Ms. Slager, Speaker 7: That's why you get the big, Speaker 9: I have a question that,
you know, hopefully someone can answer. I mean, I see that more than a year ago, that the A BCC returned the application. Does that mean that they don't have a current application with the A BCC? Speaker 1: That is correct, because we don't have it. So they wouldn't have it. It'll come to us first and we forward it on to the A, B, CC. Speaker 9: Alright. So they haven't had a valid application for over a year. Speaker 1: Well, they have a, they have a valid license. They haven't had a valid manager of record. Right. And needed to change the manager, change of officers and directors, managers,
and then the issuance transfer of stock. So the, the license needed to be changed. The record needed to be changed with the A BCC. Speaker 9: Okay. Right. But it, but it said that they returned it. So I'm just wondering what the status with the A BCC is since I don't think anything has happened since January 29th of last year. Speaker 1: No, no, nothing has happened since then. Or January 24 before that. So the fall of 2023. So nothing has happened. In other words. So when the, when the multiple amendment application was sent to the A, B, CC, there were several different things that needed to be checked off because the change of officers
and directors did not match that of the Secretary of State. That's why it was returned with no action or RNA. Since then, there have been attempts to remedy this, and that's where we are today. Speaker 8: So basically the, as I understand it, the A BCC still has an application on file. It's just incorrect. Speaker 1: No, they've sent back the application. They have the wrong manager of record and since then, out of compliance, they're out of compliance. That is correct. So what I would suggest then is an OR would entertain a motion
to continue this till March 5th. So moved. I'm one of the, Speaker 20: Excuse Speaker 1: Me, Catherine, early, Speaker 20: We all have headaches. We go Speaker 1: Home. Yes. Time waits for no one. Speaker 20: Excuse me, Catherine. All her Speaker 1: Homework. Yes, Ms. Ms. Donovan, Speaker 20: I'm sorry. I was just looking for some emails. We did notify them January 29th, 2024, Jacqueline Rus and Crystal, which they had already received the non-compliant, the RNA from the A PC. And then I followed up with an email and they confirmed that they received it, and then we not notified them again in addition to phone calls by email this past December 18th,
that they still needed to get into compliance even though that their license was renewed. Speaker 1: Thank you, Ms. Donovan. So my, my concern, MS Block, since we, since we spoke, I think it was about almost three weeks ago, and we still need to wait another two weeks. I'm wondering if this is the most efficient way for California Pizza, pizza Kit Kitchen to renew their license if it, if it takes this long. Speaker 19: So excuse me for interrupting you and I spoke, I received the letter
via email on the seventh. You and I spoke on the seventh. We have circulated the application that went out to everyone in Preparance. We circulated that application. I wanna say on the 17th. I have three quarters of it back. I'm only waiting on two directors to give me their Cory forms. Okay. I should, I should have, I have the manager's application. It is complete. I have gone to the Secretary of State at the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
I have ensured that the information on the change of manager matches the Massachusetts Secretary of State. I have corporate minutes, I have officers. What I don't have are the two directors. Okay? Those two directors have been notified of the importance of this. And I will ensure if I get the application before March 3rd, fourth, if I get the application tomorrow, I'll submit the application tomorrow. As soon as the two quarry forms, which is all
that I am waiting on, arrives in my hands, I will submit, I I am three, probably more than three quarters ready to go. I just don't feel that it is, I can't submit an incomplete application that would, that would serve no purpose and make not only myself, but the California Pizza Kitchen look incompetent, which I'm not trying to do. And California Pizza Kitchen has and remains a, a good business in Natick. They are not a bar.
They don't overserve, they don't have infractions. This mistake is my mistake. I entrusted employees to do something and I have to take the responsibility of it. But I am asking for some grace just to allow these two directors to get me their signatures. That's all I'm missing. Speaker 1: So, so to that end, when, when you and I spoke on the seventh, I did indicate that this is a much less, this is a, a less serious violation than say others that have come
before us because it doesn't impact pub impact public health. You're not over serving, you're not serving mine or CCPK is not serving minors. The concern I have is that we, we run a really super tight lean staff in the Administ town administration. And when one person who's in charge of licensing, I don't know many licenses, we have 58 60, something like that, and she has to run around and follow up on this and it's not her full-time job and she needs to support town administration and she needs to support this board. That, that is my primary concern. But, but since you've spoken of Grace, that's what I'm,
I'm asking the board for a motion to continue this matter and not, not make a finding until the next meeting. March 5th, Speaker 19: We have that motion Speaker 7: Shade and when the Speaker 1: Second, okay, so we have that motion in a second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. We'll see you back on March 5th. Fifth, Ms. Block, thank you so much. Thank Speaker 19: You kindly for your kindness. I Speaker 1: Appreciate it. Next item is potential select board sponsored warrant articles for 2025 springtown meeting. Mr. Marshall, Speaker 12: Thank you members of the board this time of year with warrant getting closer to being finalized.
We're adding this in as a placeholder from meeting to meeting. Should the board have anything that they want to review or if there are any articles that the board would want sponsored to be included on the warrant Speaker 9: Since it closes tomorrow? Does it give us a lot of time? Correct. Speaker 1: Mr. Evans? Speaker 7: Yeah, I just wanted to ask a question. One of the things that I had talked with Mr. Henderson about is the state law changed for the property tax work off program, and I think it was raised from either a thousand to 2000 or 1500 to 2000,
but I wanted to see that put on as a warrant article so a town meeting could vote on it. Speaker 12: My understanding with Mr. Harris Henderson, sorry, is that the board of assessors is sponsoring that. Speaker 7: Awesome. Thank you Speaker 1: Mr. Sidney. Speaker 8: Yeah. One of the things we talked about when we were talking about potential future commitments was creating an override stabilization fund. Speaker 1: We're not there yet. We're still on. No, let me finish, please. Oh, I'm so sorry. I apologize. So I Speaker 8: Apologize. So I, I wonder, and, and it might be, you know,
I was wondering if it was worth us sponsoring that on the spring warrant. We can always know action it and delay it to the fall, but if as we go through our process, it might be worth having it there just to be able to have the discussion and, and also show, show some commitment to the town. Speaker 7: Like to weigh in on that if I could. Speaker 1: Okay. Mr. Evans and then Ms. Wilger. Speaker 7: Yeah, well, to me that, that, you know, we are putting the override vote out to the voters on March 25th.
To me, voting to put something on the warrant that establishes an override stabilization fund seems to me a little bit cart before the horse. And it also seems to me to be presumptive. I prefer to wait till the fall to see how the override vote goes. And there, there's no rush for us to do this. Speaker 1: Ms. Ger? Speaker 9: Yeah, I I would not be in favor of that for spring. I'd wanna do a lot more research into this. You know, I know that various towns have a whole bunch of other funds. They don't have the same funds that we do.
And, you know, just because a town has an override fund doesn't mean that maybe they don't have a general stabilization fund or maybe they don't have an operational stabilization fund. So I think, you know, I think before we go ahead and do a new stabilization fund, that we really ought to understand what's out there and what makes sense and, and talk that over with ton administration. So, you know, at the last minute, given that the warrant closes tomorrow at five, this isn't something that I think we're, we're ready to do. Now that said, you know, I, I have no problem looking into it further and if it does make sense,
then putting something on in the fall. But I, I, you know, I think just putting something on as a placeholder and not be ready to be in discussions with the finance committee and not have done our research just doesn't make sense to me. Yeah. Speaker 8: Yeah. I just thought I'd bring it up as a possible idea. I'm not Speaker 1: Thank you. And I'm sorry I cut you off. Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, I wasn't trying to have the conversation about whether it was right or not. It was just Speaker 1: Throw it out there. Speaker 8: Yeah. Speaker 1: Well, thank you for that thought. Let's move on to select board future financial commitments, which is as brought to my attention, maybe a little awkwardly phrased.
So for people at home who are wondering what exactly this agenda item is, this was an opportunity for the board to review. We have some items on Novus agenda that have been circulated to the board for us to look at. And what I wanted to do tonight was just to open the conversation to see if there are other documents that other members of the board would want us to put on the three five agenda for us to look and begin a discussion in earnest about developing a list of
commitments from the select board to the, to the residents in the context of the pot, in the context of the potential for an override of $7 million. What we have posted are the financial management principles, which were adopted by this board in 2016. There I have looked at two tax recap policies. We don't have a formal recap policy, although there is a recap process and procedures, a policy would set forth
what the select board, the, the values and what, what we thought we wanna see in that process. So that was my contribution. Mr. Fos sent a letter on January 12th with the number of suggestions. Mr. Evans raised the issue of the select board and or town administration putting together an override commitment letter somewhat like Arlington's and the DLS report, which was, that's the Department of Local Services did a, an, an audit of our financial service, financial policies and procedures.
Many of their recommendations have already been put in place. Some aren't necessarily, let's say Speaker 8: Some are still in progress, Speaker 1: Yes, summers still in progress, but some we ne we might not adopt, they may not be appropriate for Nat. So I, I would like us to talk about these things as a board. And I'm wondering are there other items that the select board would want us to add to these things to begin that discussion on March 5th at Ms. Slager? Speaker 9: I'd also like to see, you know, I know we do this on a irregular basis,
but I'd also like to see a document that describes what we would like to see on a quarterly basis for a financial review. Okay. We had, we have gotten them from town administration. I don't think we've gotten them every quarter, but I think that feeds into some of these things that are in here. You know, what is it that we are going to be looking at as a board and paying attention to, from our, from our financial standpoint. And I, and I know that our finance department has put together, you know, a pretty good report, but is it, does it have everything that we as a board think we need to hear? Speaker 1: That's a great question. It's Speaker 9: Been, it's been a report that's been presented to us,
but not defined by us. So I think that that's something that we ought to look at. Speaker 1: Ms. Pope. Speaker 4: I agree. Ms. Wolfer and I also would like to know what we are doing, what we are doing to be clear of, you know, the things that are in place, whether they're things that have, we haven't done based on the, the DLS recommendation or, but what we are doing to let the public know and be clear and like where, what are, what's the baseline that we're leaping off from?
Speaker 1: Okay. So if I could, in Speaker 4: Terms of financial principles, Speaker 1: Okay. So Speaker 4: In our own financial department, Speaker 1: Okay, so the financial management principles are ours, the select board that we send to the finance department. If, if I rephrase, and I don't, correct me if I'm wrong, are you saying that you want to know what we've, what we've adopted from the DLS recommendations and what's, what we have not yet and what we don't intend to Those three buckets? Yes. Okay. Speaker 7: May I ask Speaker 1: A follow up? Yes. Speaker 7: Which is, and I don't remember exactly when this was, but Mr. Townsend
or Mr. Erickson gave us an overview of where they were, I wanna say about a year ago. And that might be a presentation that we use as a launching pad for the discussion, I think. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 8: One of the things that I would like to have on the list is, and one of the things that I want to, like, I'd like to be able to make a commitment that we are going to do everything we can to avoid an operational override
before 2030, you know, and, and with whatever tools we can come up with. And, you know, for example, are we parking money in the right places for, you know, so essentially how can we, how can we make what, what, what tools can we come up with and what policies can we come up with to assure the general public that we're doing everything we can to avoid the next, you know, avoid another operational override. I think we need to make that commitment. I, I don't think we can commit to avoiding it. I think we have to commit to doing everything we can.
Speaker 1: I agree. I think we need to commit to doing everything we know to do, barring catastrophic, there are things that we can't predict. Speaker 8: Of course. Yeah. I mean, black swan events happen, but let's see if we can't come up with, we're gonna commit to avoid it, and by the way, here's how we're going to do it. Speaker 1: And I would encourage the board to think about things at a very high level. Yeah. So in other words, not say, so here's an example. Ask town administration to commit to looking at places that we can outsource or privatize services
or positions so that we don't add positions with the pension liability or add additional obligations. Leaving it at a very high level as opposed to saying, look to privatize our trash pickup or look to privatize some other, it's Speaker 8: Not a broad policy initiative. No, Speaker 1: I'm, what I'm looking for are principles, commitments. We're not looking, I'm not looking for the board to develop between now and the override broad policy initiatives. But what I'd like to, for the purposes of commitments have
broad, high level commitments that indicate to the public that, and we can even give examples of what some of the things might be. What I do not want to do in the next month, four weeks, four weeks in the next four or five weeks, is to hamstring the town administration and remember the schools, which are 70% of our budget. So we have to be partners with the schools. And that's why I think that having high level commitments, looking for synergies between the town and the school, additional ones and
Speaker 4: Opportunities to regionalize, Speaker 1: Opportunities to regionalize and, and, you know, we'll see how this shakes out. But, but in the meantime, what I'd like to do is ask, I'll, I will send these items to the entire board with what we just discussed and ask you to between now and then be prepared for discussion that will be kind of in depth about what we can take up on March 5th. Speaker 21: Sounds good. Speaker 4: When you say what we can take Speaker 1: Up, meaning what the, the scope of the conversation. Okay. So in other words, we'll, we'll come back with some things.
If there are things that occur to you between now and the end of the week, let me know. Just send me an email and I'll make a master sheet. What I, what I'd like to do is have like a focused conversation on what, what we think we can do and what we can't do. Ms. Lauger's suggestion about the quarterly financial review. I think that's a very good point. So actually the finance department has been very good about making sure that every quarter we get a, we get a, a presentation. And the same thing with, for example, the dam. We've asked for quarterly updates on the dam. There's a schedule for the agenda throughout
that goes out throughout the year. But her question is more salient and that is, what is it, what information do we need to be developing broad PO policy principles and to, to reassure the public that we are involved and not mere bystanders. Speaker 8: Yeah. And I would point out that we've had some very full agendas and we may have missed a presentation as a result because it became, you know, something else was, Speaker 1: It may have been put off a month, but I know, I mean
Speaker 8: Yeah. No, but that's my point. Yes, that's my point. We've had very full agendas, so we may not have gotten a quarterly right. On the quarter because we've been busy with other things. So it's not that we're ignoring it, it's that we're dealing with what's in front of us. Speaker 1: Well we need to prioritize that. Yeah, I think we need to prioritize that. And if that means, I mean, I'm looking at our agenda tonight. There's, this was a a, a short meeting, but there isn't anything on here that we would carry over onto the next, but we, we did, we did a lot of policy work in the fall. We did 16 policies and rescinded six.
So those might be things that we push off and say, okay, the use of the common policy needs to be moved because we need to prioritize the financial report. Yeah. So thank you for that observation Mr. Speaker 8: Sidney. Yeah, and, and I just, I wanted to make it clear also to the public that we're not ignoring this stuff, but we are doing what we have to do with as volunteers that we can only do in open set sessions when we have meetings Speaker 1: And responding to numerous emails about frozen sidewalks or parking lots or, yeah. So yes, there's that. I will, Mr.
Clerk, if you wanna move into the consent agenda. Speaker 8: Sure. We have two items on the consent agenda. Item A approved Dave and Buster's of Massachusetts application for a change of hours for an S 12 all alcohol license application for the public. That's from midnight to 1:00 AM on SAT Fridays and Saturdays. Item B approve amended math work scholarship policy. Does anybody wanna pull anything? I move items A and B second. Speaker 1: Seconded by Ms. Wolf. Schlager. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? A and B are passed Town administrator. Mr. Marshall, would you like to speak? Thank you.
Speaker 12: I just wanted to ditto Ms. Pope's comments from earlier with our public works department and the work that they did with the storms. I actually, as a resident in town, I actually saw them out and about when I was up early doing the work myself and their dedication in their effort. You know, not only the storm of when it actually ended falling from the sky, but the work that they did in the days following that, trying to do the best they can. I think this was a particularly challenging storm with the turnover and we're still experiencing it.
They're their own self critics. I know a number of them are taking kind of how things look personally. Yes. And it's not for lack of effort. So I just wanna kind of echo the kudos to their hard work on that. And I just also want to thank the team in general for their work. Kind of on the uncertainty of this conversation around the override. I think our staff is handling it extremely well. I know with some of the, the pauses that we've put on hirings that it does have a ripple effect. It means more work for our staff and they're doing the best they can to handle it.
I will say that it does put a stress on the team, the additional work and trying to cover additional workload. But the team is handling it, in my opinion, with Grace and doing the best they can for the residents in town. So I think sometimes we don't communicate well in terms of the impacts with less employees and, and what that actually means. And we are seeing some stresses, but we're seeing that I think internally and not necessarily externally. So I gotta give the team credit for the extra effort that everyone's putting in to try to get the work done.
Speaker 4: And we thank you all for that, as duly noted. We thank you all for that. Speaker 1: There's a ps I would also like to remind the public that there are a number of vacancies that are not filled that are high priority ones. So in addition to vacancies that are high priority that are not filled, there's also the hiring freeze. And so it's kind of a double whammy. So thank you. And, and for all of our town employees who work really hard, it's much appreciated. Yes. And noticed for select board updates, I have two.
Was that all John? I'm sorry, I have two updates. I spoke with Senator s Spiller's office with regard to hybrid meetings and was assured that it's highly likely that the legislation will be passed, adopted, adopted and signed so that there'll be a permanent hybrid, you know, hybrid meeting right. To do hybrid right. To do hybrid meetings and zoom meetings, which will be of great comfort to our fin com. And Mr. Jacobs reached out to me to ask if I could follow up on that. So there's a, a strong
consensus on, at the, at the State house on both this house and Senate side to get that done. So thank you Mr. Sidney for putting together the, the, the policies for us to look at in case we had to as an emergency. It looks like we might not need to. Mr. Evans Speaker 7: Just a comment on the, just the, the hybrid that, that's excellent news first of all. And second of all, one, two of the things I guess we can call it, one thing is to, to, to facilitate
that is, is a capital expenditure for the community senior center and the library to utilize those as I'll call 'em Zoom hybrid locations, which we cannot do today. We can only televise via Pegasus. And to do that we need a upgrade of the systems at both the library and the community senior center. So kudos to Mr. Marshall for getting that in the capital plan. Speaker 8: Yeah. If I may, we might also want to consider one
of the school, one of the school auditoriums for larger meetings as well. I'd also like to suggest that if that does pass that we schedule on the, on some consent agenda subsequent to revoke the current policy that's in play. We have a policy about hybrid meetings and it is from 2012 and it's based on the pre covid rules that if the legislature does not pass this new rule, we will re, we will fall back to, but if they do pass it, we should re you know, it's just consented.
Just let's revoke it and not worry about it. Thank Speaker 1: You Mr. Sidney for that reminder. And then I have one other update. This is something that I haven't updated the board about since last November. In the last session of the legislature, there was a, a truck safety law passed and the, it passed the legislature signed into law by the government and it's been left to mass DOT to craft the regulations for the, for 55 40 CMR 4.0. And that is re referenced to chapter 90, section 70.
So why is this relevant to na? Because it's an unfunded mandate. It's going to require a number of expensive alterations to our trucks. And I've been working with Dennis and Senator KO's office to find out when Mass DOT is going to craft those regulations and what is and how they're going to fund them for the town because it essentially is an unfunded mandate and we need not get into a debate about regulations. But this is a, a bean in my bonnet.
I've been working with the Mass Municipal Associations, public Works and Transportation Committee for lobbying and we've not been able to move mass DOT to a place because they know if they write the regulations, it's an unfunded mandate and we have to go to the legislature to actually get the funds to do this. And if they don't and they just sit quietly on it, then that allows the legislators to say, oh look, I passed truck safety regulations. That's my cynical view of that. In any, in any event, those are the only updates I have. Does anyone else on the board have an update? I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. I moved. Okay.
Moved by Mr. Sidney. Seconded by Mr. Evans. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. 8:12 PM A new record, 8:12 PM Thank you so much. And goodnight.