So, it's uh 6 o'clock and we're going to call the meeting to order. Um, tonight we have um let's see, Mr. Kimell is here. It's a problem at the Somebody calling in from I'm sorry,
Mr. O'Neal is here and myself. Um, we have uh appointments, resignations, and I'm sorry, call and pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. um reappointments for boards and uh committee members terms ending June 30th.
Mr. Mr. And I'll make a a motion to appoint to the alternate transportation committee Denny Goodbridge, Kathleen Egret Zabowski, and Vietta Schmidt to
return to expire in 2025. Second 2028. I'll second. All in favor? I I Mr. Chairman, I make a motion we approve to the board of health natis Batistio
Batista uh for a term to end in 2028. I'll second. All in favor? I I chairman, I'll make a motion to approve uh the cemetery commission. This is Joyce Baniano. I'll
second. All in favor? I I Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve uh Ellen Martins to the Council on Aging, Joan D Costa, Bruce Schneider.
Um I'll second. All in favor? I I the last person that's asked not to be appointed. Okay. Uh, cultural council Katherine Eden in 2028.
I'll second. All in favor? I. Go committee is Mr. William Novick and Donna Ross. Second. All in favor? I I motion to appoint the historic district commission Peter Pawes. Uh, Nancy
Pedici. Second. All in favor? I I Historical Commission uh Joyce Marshall and Stephanie Brefini. Second. All in favor? I I Economic
Development Commission. Uh Renee Dailyaly and Maggie Canella. Second. All in favor? I I to the permanent building committee, Mr. Kevin O'Neal. I'll second.
All in favor? You better. I um Jenna or Mike, could you change the type to engineer on there instead of licensed builder just for me on the sheet? I do have an engineering degree. So, yes. Traffic safety committee. We have um Mr.
Jason Robbins, Miss Christine Hatfield, Keith Silver. Second. All in favor? I I only board of appeals. We have Nicholas Ferguson. Second. All in favor? I I I think that's
it. Mr. Chairman. Yes. So, um chairman will be filling the engineer spot that um Mark is uh resigning from. So, if there's a licensed builder out there that wants to be on uh the permanent building committee, they should send the
name in. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. We're not going We're going to go over the uh minutes um since uh Mr. Rich is in here tonight to approve um license and permits. Um
announcements, Mr. Kimble. Uh just a couple of fast announcements. As you can see from my uh official wardrobe tonight, the carnival has now started here in Norton. Unfortunately, weather doesn't look like it's going to cooperate for the next few minutes, but
uh that is tonight. The uh Veterans Council is having the car conno checked tonight 6:00 to 10:00. Tomorrow night, Friday will be 6:00 to 10:00. Saturday be from 12:00 until after the fireworks are completed. And on Sunday will be 12 to 6. So, we encourage everyone to come
down. Uh there's a lot of new rides this year. It's a bigger bigger celebration than we've had in the past. So uh we hope you'll be able to make it. And it's a um it's great. A lot more children's rise this year than we've had in the past also. So we encourage you to come on down. Um on Monday at noon time here
at town hall, we're going to have a lunch for Mr. Ununit who's retiring. And we would encourage everyone who would like to come down to please come and join us. uh the select what are going to put together some sandwiches and cake and a few other things. But if anyone is interested, we'll be here at the town
hall at 12:00. So come on by and give Mike a a welcome retirement and uh and thank him for all he's done for us. Which which day again? Monday. Thank you. The um final announcement is uh we would
like to uh announce the addition to the Marson family is Theodore Jacob Marson who was born last week and congratulations granddad for that one. You've been getting improved and increased our population. So I thank you
for that. uh from Sandy allhead. We received a letter at at a meeting when Janelle presented about uh sponsorship opportunities for the rail trail. You have asked that we let you know when we go live with the dog station sponsorship
and could be announced at a sweepboard meeting. So she's excited to launch a sponsorship initiative that celebrates the pets we love while helping to keep our community real clean and welcoming. For a donation of $500, you can sponsor a customdesigned plaque displayed on one
of eight dog stations along the Northern Trail. Each sponsorship lasts for 3 years with the option to renew at the end of the term. If not renewed, the opportunity will become available to a new sponsor. Each product will be printed on durable outdoor vinyl and fixed to a 12x6 aluminum sign promptly
installed on the dock station. Design your own tribute. Responsors may select from a limited number of beautiful full color design templates and each plaque will include an image of the pet, the pet's name, and a short dedication message. This is a wonderful way to
honor a beloved pet while supporting a cleaner, friendlier trail for everyone. Only a sponsorships are available. Reserve yours before they gone. You can email them at info@w2tra, which is one word wwwrailtra.org
if you're interested. and they will be at the Norton Founders uh day this Saturday if you'd like to stop by. I think that's it. Thank you. Any uh new business uh topics not
reasonably anticipated in the last 48 hours? Seeing none, um we have a update by the town manager search committee chair. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Dian O'Brien
and I've been chairing the town manager search committee and I'm here to summarize the committee's work for the select board and community this evening. On March 20th, the town manager search committee held its first meeting as outlined in the town charter having 150
days to complete its work and present no less than three and no more than five names to the select board for consideration. The committee has completed its work. I would first like to acknowledge the committee members as set out in the
charter. Alec Rich representing the select board. Audrey Michella representing the school committee. Tim Griffin representing the planning board. Rick Dorney representing the board of assessors. Zach Tillis representing the finance
committee. and the four town moderator appointments, Sharon Rice, Joe Fernandees, Carol Brat, and myself. I must say we all had perfect attendance for our meeting, so we want a pin.
I would also like to acknowledge Jill Seepa, Norton Town Clerk, who was instrumental in serving as the clerk for the committee and without whom the work could not have been accomplished. Stella Young in the town clerk's office, who also provided support. Michelle Brown,
assistant to the town manager who managed the ad placement in Maya the publication the beacon and on Indeed and she deserves a medal for that. And James Pulo, town accountant for his financial expertise and advice. You can see this
was indeed a team effort. A brief overview of the committee process. We established an aggressive bi-weekly and then weekly schedule. Our first task was to develop an advertisement and post
the position. Our second task was to develop a ranking system for applicant evaluation and assessment. Simultaneously, we were given information on the open meeting law, rules for meeting in executive session,
and we conducted a workshop with town council on the legalities of the process, confidentiality of information concerning candidates, how to set up intercommunic intra intra committee communications and
resource sharing, background checks for applicants, and conducting conducting the actual interviews from a field of 162. 18 were selected for the first interviews held March
15th, 22nd, and 29th. May 15th, 22nd, and 29th. Each committee member asked questions, a sample of which you have been provided. The field of candidates was then narrowed to nine, two of which withdrew.
Second round interviews were held June 5th and 10th. Candidates were asked to submit a writing sample, do an oral presentation complete with PowerPoint on an issue facing Norton, and participate in follow-up Q&A.
The candidates were notified and background checks have been conducted by Creative Services, Inc. of Mansfield. All checks have come back positively. The four names being put forward this evening are in alphabetical order Lisa
Green of Whitman, Mark Gould of North Attleboroough, Dave Kery of Menden, and Michael Moresco of Marshfield. Select board members have been given a complete packet on each candidate. If there are any questions, comments, or
concerns that I might be able to answer on behalf of the committee, I am more than happy to try. On behalf of the entire committee, I would like to thank thank the town it for its charter and confidence for allowing us all to participate in this process.
Does anybody have any questions? First, thank you Dina very much. you're getting good at this selecting the OPM process and in this I'm sure a lot about that the committee did a great job from what Alec had mentioned in the uh timeline. Um could
you explain the the scoring system the rating and how everything was ranked in? Yes. I don't think we've received um the questionnaire on how they were ranked. I mean you have mentioned that we have the questionnaires. You you received the
questions that were asked. Do we have that somewhere? I didn't see that. Anybody else see that? Yeah. I haven't gone through it all yet. Okay. Yeah. I know. I had sent it to uh Chairman Rich and you have for distribution. I'll check my emails. Okay. Thank you. Um Tim
Griffin developed a ranking system that we went through. It was a three-point system based on educational requirements, experience. I'm so glad you asked me for the third one.
Um it might have been the interview, the actual interview itself. No, there were there were three that we went through when we were ranking the 162 just to make sure they met the minimum requirements. Um, education, experience. Hold on.
Keep keep talking amongst yourselves. Um, I have it filed here somewhere. Um but we did uh use that ranking system for going through the candidates. At each one of our meetings, we um prior
to the first interviews, we went through each one of the candidates. We had set up a Dropbox and um the candidates um put their applications into a website that only I had access to. I would
forward each application out to each member of the committee. Each member of the committee individually ranked them and then when we got back together, we went through each name, saw where we each ranked them. And if there were
seven positive um votes to move the candidate to the next to the level of interviews, then the candidates moved forward. But it had to be um more of a consensus.
I am almost there. And then after we did that, we started um developing questions that each person um in their areas of expertise and their concern would ask the candidates during
uh the interviews. The questions were always the same. so that we were asking everybody the exact we were getting the exact same information and um I must admit that we were um
dedicated enough they they were asked in the same order. Um it was it was very good. I think I've got Tim's thing here now. Hold on. No, I don't. Trust me, there were three. I'm having a
very senior moment. That's fine. right now. Okay. Um, one other question. The the um the 18 first round interviews Mhm. at that point, how much weight was placed on the interview process itself
after you screened based on basic qualifications to move the from the 18 to the four? It has to be unanimous consensus. Was the criteria from from the 18 down to the four solely based on the interview? Yes. Okay. It was solely
based on the interview and um there was no reverting back to the resume or the qualifications at that point. Well, at that point the questions that were asked the candidates were based upon the resume. Okay. So, no, we went didn't go back and I mean I mean during general
discussion somebody would say you know, oh look, he likes to wear a red shirt on Wednesdays, you know, or something that he would pull up from the interview, but no. Um, gotcha. And it had to be 100% consensus to move forward. Great. Thank
you. And just a fast question. I know we asked when we done the select board select man the interview we scored. We use a scoring uh mechanism that would allow us to when we asked the question depending
on how we like the area would answer. We would rate it one to five. Did you guys do something like that on our first? Okay. On the first, that was how we ranked the three. Three. Yeah. We had the three whether they got a high score on that. Okay. Thank you.
And I'm still looking. So, this could be tomorrow, but I'll send you an email. Well, D, I just uh also I want to thank you for uh all the hard work that you and the whole committee has put in. This is uh been a lot of work in a short
amount of time and I appreciate everything that you've done to help help the town out. For sure. I will tell you I think we all speaking for the committee. We all enjoyed it very much. It was interesting to uh to meet new people and to try to think of new ideas and I think you'll enjoy your interviews
with the candidates. I look forward to it and I can tell you that there were times that um I was coming into the building coming to a meeting and you folks were meeting and I left after our meeting and you folks were still meeting. So I know we had a couple of 10:30 evenings. I know you put in a lot
of time. I appreciate all the effort you guys put in. So thank you so much. Thank you. One last question. Mr. Chair, you had mentioned that the goal was to to come down to get down to three to five finalists. Is there any reason why you chose four? Was there a big drop off
after four or was it just an average? That was where we came up. That's where the charter limit us no less than three, no more than five and the committee arrived at four. Did they arrive at four because of the quality of the applicants or just because it was between three and
five? Well, it had to be between three and five, right? I guess. Um, and the reason we went forward with four was the quality of the applicants during the final second interview. Gotcha. So, there is a a recognizable drop off from
number four to five, it sounds like. Yes, it was. Okay. Thank you, D. Mhm. I look forward to uh interviewing the candidate myself. Thank you. Thank you. I just echo the appreciation. You know, those long days, many days in a row
sometimes, so appreciate it. Thank you. [Music] So the uh next item is to discuss and a vote to hire Chief Brian Clark as the Athens town manager. Anybody have any uh discussion points or questions?
Chairman, I I would just say that uh I know we we reached out to some of our other key department heads too to see if there's any interest and um been working with Brian for many many years and I'm more than confident that Ryan could do
the job and get the job done for us on the interim. Um 20 years ago, uh Ryan's predecessor, Penny Keane, actually served for a short period of time. And part of the part of the reasons why we we went inhouse was because we're
required to for the most part. If we can't some find somebody in-house, then we have to go outside. And we've done both in the past. But I think uh I'm very confident Brian's the most candid uh professional candidate we can find at this time. And I would encourage you all
to give it a consideration. Um I would like to say that I have all the confidence in the world in Brian as well. I'm I'm sure that uh the town will be in good hands um in an interim basis while we are uh getting the next town manager to come on
board. So uh thank you Brian for stepping up saying you would uh fill this position. Um I would entertain a motion to uh um accept Brian and uh Clark as the acting town manager um subject to
signing of the contract. effective effective July 1st. July 1st. I'll make that motion. Second. All in favor? I I uh let's do a roll call on this just to be safe just to be sure.
Yes. M. Yes. Miss Luchiano? Yes. Mr. Kimble? Yes. And I am also Yes. So, thank you again, Ryan. Thank you, Chief. Thank you. Um, and good luck. You have a question. I think it go I found it.
You got to come back to the microphone. We meeting again in two weeks just in case. No, the uh the first consider we looked at education, municipal experience. That's what it was. other work skills.
And then we honed in on communication skills, attitude, adaptability, work ethic, teamwork, leadership potential, emotional intelligence, intangibles, and then we write them. Perfectly. Thank you. Search is a
wonderful item. Uh tell managers you put you have anything? No. So um like While we're under time management report, I would just uh like to say this is uh your probably your I think your last uh
um select board meeting that you're going to be participating in. And uh I would like to personally thank you for everything you've done for not just this past group of uh select board members that are here, but for all the select
board members that you have uh helped in the past. and I really appreciate all all of the service you've given the town. So, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. In addition to that, Mike, I'd like to thank you. Obviously, we served together for a long time. Had a break down the
middle there for a while. Uh but, uh I was actually on the hiring team the first time when we when we hired you the last time. So, I came with a lot of qualifications, came as a uh administrator, first job as a town manager. And if we look back through the
record in the last 14 years, uh you can see many many accomplishments that Mike has done for the town uh very successfully. I think we're sitting in one right here now with this new town hall for sure. In addition, the community building that was uh built
during that period of time, but we've gone through some very very difficult struggles up and down over the years, mostly financial. I think that was the biggest uh obstacle we had for many many years. Uh but you managed to pull
through everything and do a very professional job of it. And uh I just want to say uh thank you. I've enjoyed working with you and uh I hope you get uh get to do a lot of time in the cape in your retirement. Thank you. I would just echo the same. I hope you
enjoy this next chapter. Um and uh hopefully you're able to relax and have fun. Yeah, it's been a pleasure, Mike. I haven't worked with you more than 2 months on this board, but um when you started, you joined the uh the the high school building committee as a town
manager, of course. And um that's when I first met you. And I I don't remember if your name is on the plaque there or not. At the high school, I think so. And it's on these two buildings as well. So, you're not going to be forgotten. and my sense is that you're the type of guy that I'd like to play around of golf
with and have have a couple of beers and I'm hoping in September we can do that. So, but nice knowing you. Thanks. Hey, Mr. Chairman, I want to remind everyone again if you'd like to come by and say uh make uh make your last uh meeting of
Mike on Monday at noon time. Uh we would encourage everyone to do so. Come on by and say thanks and good wishes and all that stuff. So hope I can make it. Okay. So report. Anybody have anything?
Um Alec will sign the warrants. Um our next uh meeting um I'm going to uh set our meeting for uh July 12th, which is a Saturday, and when we'll be interviewing the uh candidates for select vote. Um,
I don't have uh I don't know if we we might need a meeting before then, but I don't have anything that I know of before then. So, um, so we'll say July 12th at noon time for as our next meeting. Mr. J, I think we should uh probably get make sure all the members
get a copy of the questions were asked during the screening so we can come up with our own structure and our own questions. It may be the same, you know, because we haven't interviewed these folks either. So, uh, but it might be, uh, helpful if everyone gets a copy of
that so we can, uh, look at it. We might want to modify or add or make changes to it prior to that July 12th meeting. And, Mr. Chair, as well as see see the ratings that the screening committee had come up with with for the four
applicants just to if that's we'll get uh, we'll get any information we can from the selection committee. We'll have we'll see if we can get a hold of all of that before we have our next meeting on this board. Great. Obviously, we're going to do our own evaluation with these final four, but it'll be good to
see how they how we got to where we are. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Got it. Thank you. Anything else? Motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor? I. Thank you, Mike. Thank you.
So what I would like to do