Okay. >> Okay. Thank you so much for coming in. >> I'd like to say it was enjoyable, but it wasn't. >> I understand. >> I am just uh starting up the uh Zoom. >> Okay. Thank you so much for coming in.
>> You say it was enjoyable. >> I'm trying to log them up here. >> Okay, we're now back out. uh open session. I think the others might want to come in. So, do we want to know that we're back in? Uh before we start, I just want to say please be advised that
this meeting is being recorded and broadcasted live on YouTube. The file is later shared with the various public access channels throughout Plymouth County for further potential rebroadcasting. Uh all right. So, we'll wait until others come in.
>> Um chair, do you need me for anything further in the meeting? Uh, I don't think I don't believe so, but thank you so much. >> I I have a question if I could through you, Madam Chair. Um, at what point would it be appropriate in in this open session to transmit the action in executive session?
>> Yeah, as soon as you uh want to, you can just say that um the commissioners have voted to deny the grievance um available for Jones and report that the administrator will send a letter to the union notifying them of the same. >> Okay. >> Okay. Great. Thank you so much.
>> All right. Thank you guys. >> Bye. Thank you, Shannon. >> Okay, so we're back. Um the outcome of the grievance is that commissioners uh less Mr. uh Commissioner Hanley uh have
denied the grievance and um we have we're going to have our town administrator uh send a letter to the union. Thank you. Okay. So, do I I'd like to entertain uh a motion for uh the minutes acceptance February 5th.
>> Motion second. >> Um all in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Motion uh vote to accept and approve CPS forms. >> Motion to approve Megan motion step increase per CBA to JG15-2.
>> Second. >> Okay. Motion by Commissioner Handley, second by Commissioner Valenzola. All in favor? >> I uh motion to vote and accept and approve uh vendor vouchers. >> So move. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion by Commissioner Hanley and
second by Commissioner Valenzola. All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Motion to vote and accept uh uh motion uh to vote Plymouth County retirement assessments. >> Um chair, you missed accept and approved payroll vouchers. I'll make a motion to
approve. >> Okay. for the acceptance of payroll. Okay. >> Okay. Second. >> Second. >> Okay. Uh motion by Commissioner Valenzola, second by uh Commissioner Handley. All in favor? I. >> I. >> Okay. Now we're going to go to the
motion to vote Plymouth County retirement assessments. Madam chair at a meeting of the Plymouth County Commission is held in Plymouth from the 26th day of February AD 2026 forwarded in accordance with the provisions of general laws chapter 32 section 22 paragraph 7 C as amended that the time
assessments be paid from the treasury of the county of Plymouth and from treasuries of the several towns districts etc as listed below for the fiscal period of July 1, 2026 through July excuse me June 30th 2027.
Second. >> Okay. Motion made by Commissioner Hanley and second by Commissioner Valenzola. All in favor? I >> Okay. Motion uh to vote and amend pricing for 2026 model year vehicles for um PCC vehicle procurement contract for
Honda vehicles with Colonial Import South uh Dodge Chrysler vehicle and Colonial South Auto Ford vehicles with Colonial Ford and Nissan vehicles with Colonial Nissan and Medford. >> Madam Chair, a regular meeting of the county commission is holding on Plymouth
on the 26th day of February 2026 AD. voted to approve 2026 model year pricing of the following vehicles manufactured by the Dodge Chrysler Jeep Motor Company to the current Plymouth County vehicle Dodge Chrysler Jeep number 2023-2026
awarded to Colonial South Florida Automotive Inc. DBA, Colonial, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, 42 State Road, Dmond, Massachusetts. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion by Commissioner Hanley, second by Commissioner Valenzola. All in favor?
>> I Okay. U there's a couple that are all lumped together. >> Oh, they're all lumped together. Okay. >> Thank the regular meeting of the county commissioners holding at PLC on the 26th day of February, 2026 AD. Voted to approve the 2026 model year pricing of
the following vehicles manufactured by Ford Motor Company to the current Plymouth County Municipal Group. Excuse me. Municipal bid 4- number 2023-2026 awarded to Colonial Municipal Group 11
Pilgrim Hill Road, Massachusetts. >> Second >> motion by Commissioner Handley. Uh second by Commissioner Valenzola. All in favor? >> I. Madam Chair, a regular meeting of the county commission is holding at Plymouth on the 26th day of February 2026 AD.
Voted to approve the 2026 model year pricing of the following vehicles manufactured by the Nissan Motor Company to the current Plymouth County Municipal Vehicle Bid Nissan number 2023-2026 awarded to Colonial Nissan of Medford,
Inc. 104 Mystic Avenue, Medford, Mass. Second >> motion by Commissioner Hanley, second by Commissioner Valenzola. All in favor? >> I >> next to the next agenda item for Liberty Chevrolet. We just have separate.
>> Okay. >> A regular meeting of the county commission held on Plymouth on the 26th day of February 2026 AD. Voted to approve the 2026 aftermarket equipment and accessory pricing to the current Plymouth County Municipal Vehicle Bid
Chevrolet number 2023 2026 ordered to Liberty Chevrolet Inc. 90 Bay State Roadfield, Massachusetts. >> Second. Okay. Motion made by Commissioner Hanley, second by Commissioner Valenzo. All in favor?
>> I just one more. And I swear that's it. >> That's it. You sure? >> We're playing catchup. At a regular meeting of the county commission's holding at Plymouth on the 26th day of February, 2026 AD, voted to
approve the addition and pricing of the following aerial devices and options to the current Plymouth County Municipal Vehicle Bid Chevrolet 2023-2026 awarded to Liberty Chevrolet Inc. 90 with me.
>> Second motion made by Commissioner Hanley, second by Commissioner Alenola. All in favor? >> Okay. Was that also included in the uh the go to amend pricing? Okay. So that was all taken care of. >> Okay. Very good
that already. Okay. Okay. So, next on the agenda is um future of meeting time, future meeting time and schedule. Uh I know that we have two meetings a month. Uh I was looking for some feedback from my two
commissioners and making uh or amending our time to an earlier time uh according to the what their schedule would be. I know that uh you know it's sometimes it's a hardship
for different people to stay later. Uh I also had you know we've been bringing up the fact about flex time. Uh I would like to see an uh earlier meeting during the week instead of at 5:30. I guess this would be for discussion and uh
probably a vote on it. Um, do we have any discussions amongst >> um, all due respect, Madame Chair, I believe that, um, we owe it to the public uh, to be here at 5:30 p.m. Um, for those that are working traditional nine-to-five jobs, um, those who may
want to attend our meetings, those who may want to express ideas at our meetings or participate in our agenda items, uh, moving the meetings any earlier than 5:30 would cut out a significant segment of the population, uh, who may want to attend our
proceedings. And, uh, I believe that, uh, the Thursdays at 5:30 p.m., uh, have worked well for 5 years. Um, I'm a firm believer and if it's not broke, don't fix it. Uh, we meet every other Thursday. It isn't necessarily twice a month. Sometimes it's three times a
month. And I believe that it would be uh disrespectful to the taxpayers who candidly pay us to be here uh to then move the meeting to the middle of the day and deny them the opportunity uh to be participatory in our proceeding
should they so choose. Commissioner, Madam Chair, I would support moving the um the times around to different u times to accommodate staffing. And as far as uh what other
counties do um most counties have their meetings in the morning, so you know, I wouldn't be adverse to uh doing morning meetings or uh as chair, the meetings are subject to the call of the chair. I think it's reasonable to not overburden
and tax our employees beyond an eight hour day. uh notwithstanding the public's right uh to participate uh even at 5:30 you can see we have a huge audience here of the public people uh and you know with the advent of uh our
YouTube capabilities uh and our website I think we are more than transparent on the things that uh can happen in a meeting and if it would if someone had a request request of the chair that wanted to speak on a
particular item. I'm sure they could call the chair and the chair would call that to make it um agreeable to someone's time that actually wants to participate in government. So, uh I would support um the chair's um
authority to call the meetings when uh she so means and to strike a balance between um our employees and uh the public. uh through the chair to uh the respective employees that may be
affected. Um Mr. Basler, in your years or at least in the evening meetings, have you felt uh that you have been in any way stretched by the evening meeting schedule? >> If I may, chair. Sure.
>> Um we're here to serve the commissioners and whatever works for you guys will work for us. But have you felt 5:30 p.m. has been an issue? Or >> if I could bake more hours into any day,
that would be fantastic. But uh whether we do work beforehand or afterhand or uh that the time start is inconsequential to the staff. >> I think it's also fair to argue that moving to the middle of the day uh would interrupt uh the staff during their
daytoday work. Uh, and that would um would cause them if they're in the middle of something that they need to stop what they're doing, come here and and do um and do a meeting. Uh, frankly, when I examine select board schedules
across the county, I don't know of a single town that has uh any meetings. Uh, some of them are at six, but uh, none of them are really before that. And I believe when we had originally set the meeting date uh which was I believe when chairman Wright was chairman before she
was fully in favor of every other Thursday at 5:30 and had made a recent commitment that that schedule would remain. So um I believe every other Thursday at 5:30 is appropriate uh for staff uh in order to not interrupt their day so that they can remain focused
within the hours that they're here to do their daily work. It's respectful to the folks who pay our salary. While Commissioner Hanley may note that there isn't much attendance, I will again point out it's 4 PM and we started at 4 PM. So, we are in the middle of a
regular workday. There was also a blizzard the other day that may preclude people from being here. Um, and again, we're going to create a situation of confusion where uh the chair may begin moving meetings at just the simple request of the constituent, which is
admirable and should be done if necessary, but not having a consistent schedule and moving meetings around will then create inconsistency and confusion. And I personally believe that uh that's just disrespectful to the people who pay us
to be here, which is the taxpayers. 5:30 every other Thursday isn't too much of an ask. The meetings generally are an hour. They're not uh they're not marathon sessions. And um I think the folks that this may affect uh were
cognizant and aware of the fact uh when they took the job, just as any town administrator uh would be aware when they took the job, that they are going to have to work nights uh five nights a week sometimes, not only just select board meetings, but finance committee meetings, school committee meetings, and every other meeting. So, I would again
say that 5:30 twice a month for an hour is considerably less burdensome. Um, appreciative of the fact that we're on YouTube. I'm glad that uh when I was chair I made that decision. It has certainly uh given folks the opportunity
to view and and review our proceedings uh further uh should they not be able to be here physically, but it's disrespectful to the to the voters and the taxpayers uh to move these meetings in the middle of the day. And I don't care what other counties do. I I don't
live in those counties. I don't pay taxes in those counties. And I'm not elected as a commissioner in those counties. I'm an elected commissioner here. And I believe that it would serve the taxpayers and the voters of Plymouth County that we continue to have our meetings outside the normal private sector working hours to avail
constituents uh to come here. >> Thank you so much, Commissioner Valenzo. Um I also want to take into consideration that even though we have two or three, as you said, uh meetings in a month, that uh we also go out a lot
during the the evening to different towns. And I think that that would uh also be acceptable in our role in what we do. I don't think that people are expecting us to be here at 5:30 uh in the evening. I don't really think they
care when we have our meetings. Um so I respectfully, you know, uh thank you for your uh input, but I think in my leadership going forward, I would like to see some changes. Uh I would like to be very sensitive to the people who work
during the day and and have to stay later in the evening. They're entitled to get home to their families. Uh if we have to have an emergency meeting, then that's different. I am concerned about the flex time. I am concerned about it financ.
>> So no. Uh so anyways, I think that we're going to um >> we had said we would take a vote. So I will take a vote on probably changing the time uh to an earlier time.
>> I believe >> your ability and your authority as a chair allows you the discretion to plan the meetings when you see fit. Um, and that I can tell you uh there was an inflexible policy previously and I
understand standardization of start times but when meetings were scheduled when commissioners had conflicts there was no flexibility and therefore we weren't able to participate. Fortunately several times we participated remotely but if we're going to earn our pay it
should be here in the office when we have the resources in front of us. I think you have the authority and no one else has the authority to set the agenda and to set the time. So standardization worked for a small part of time. Uh and
now as you said you're the new administrator and we're moving forward. Um no one can take that right away from you. So the fact that you allowed us to have this discussion uh is a big change. before it was my way or the highway and
now you're soliciting input and I think the debate has been civil. Uh I think all parties have been heard from and I don't think there's a vote that's necessary when you have to you're you're the authority on setting the agenda in the meeting times.
Um, all due respect to Commissioner Hanley through the chair, um, anytime uh, there was an ask or a request to move uh, these meetings, those requests were honored. Um there was an effort made every January to send the
anticipated schedule uh out um all due respect whether folks cared to read or put that schedule in their phone uh and plan their vacations around that. Uh notwithstanding um I was more than flexible when asked.
As a matter of fact, you had a charitable event that we moved a meeting for as I recall. Um but I am unaware of any other requests that had come in uh for flexibility. Uh certainly in this day and age of being able to participate remotely uh should you have had a
vacation or some other commitments that you both had planned that that you decided uh to take uh even though the schedule had been put out well in advance again there was never any request made. So I find your statement
uh unfortunate uh as it's not based in any reality. I do have a question for the chair. You keep mentioning something called flex time and that was an item on our agenda that was not acted on and I don't see it on the agenda now. So I'm
curious uh why that is what what you're mentioning there relative to this and and what one has to do with the other. If you could elaborate on that. Um >> I had a slight discussion with um the administrator uh about flex time and you
know uh telling him or showing him uh what I thought about that and obviously uh being sensitive to the people who come here and stay late later than their scheduled workday. Uh I also feel that
it's very important in the the way that I'm going down uh is meeting with our towns more often. Uh whether it's two or three times a week maybe most of their meetings are Monday Tuesday nights that gives us the opportunity to go out to
our towns and uh be available to our community more so than what we have been. We always went during the day uh most of the time to present checks or uh go to other things which the towns had um that we needed to be at. But I think
that it's more important that we show up at the selectman meetings and be available to them and show them that um what our commitment is uh to them. So it's not something that I'm uh going to change next meeting. Uh but I did want to throw it out there. I wanted to get
your opinion. I certainly will ask uh all the people that are involved uh in their work here how it will affect them, if it will interfere with their work during the day, but uh I just wanted to have the common courtesy to bring it to my two commissioners and see what they
thought. Uh I will have the ultimate decision of when the meetings will be set and what time they'll be set. So I just wanted the input from my two commissioners. Uh if I may >> I don't know if Commissioner Balenzola was available. Do you have this in front of you?
>> We just got them. I >> I do. So on page 19 is where they talk about the flex policy after the twice being on the agenda and not being heard. So how this is even before us. I think the question was when prior to the meeting when we were all sitting here
and we weren't here and not saying anything bad about that, but we had a discussion about that flex policy. So that's probably how and why that factored into her discussion. >> Oh, I understand. >> Page 19. >> So you discussed that before the meeting? I'm sorry. I was in the bathroom. >> I had Yeah, I had
you discussed it last time before the meeting. >> Okay. >> So anyways, I will uh you know meet with uh different different ones that are affected by it. Uh even our department heads uh and and see how it fits into
their schedule. Uh it's not written in stone right now, but um it is something to consider and think about and um I would greatly uh appreciate the support of my two commissioners. I certainly will try to work around your schedule and your work. I know that it's not easy
for you to or you're not as flexible as what uh some of us others are. So uh I will take that into consideration. So >> I appreciate that. the people of Plymouth County elected me to do a job and I will always maintain my 100% attendance here. So,
>> you name the time, you name the date, I will be here. I've said my piece, but again, I think >> and I greatly appreciate Thank you for your input. I greatly appreciate that. >> Okay, so we had uh we I guess we don't have to vote on that tonight until we um
find out uh exactly how it affects everybody else uh in the departments. So, thank you for listening to me. I greatly appreciate it. And now we'll go on to the American Recovery Plan Act updates and distribution votes. Oh, we don't have any. >> Um, I can give you an update, but you
have no votes. >> Oh, okay. It's on the agenda. Okay. >> Nothing to read. Treasure. >> Well, I do if you want something. I don't know what your agenda is like. Uh, discussion. >> Molly was here. Did she leave? Uh, I don't know if she left or not.
>> Haley, did you want an update? >> I would like an update. That's through the chair. Yes. That's a lot. >> Treasurer Brian, >> thank you very much. There's always one if you want one, so just ask. Um, I was very glad that Whitman was here because
you guys got to see a community that uh understood the value of partnership and working with us. They ran into that challenge uh and the administrator came up with some options which we were able to put through. That's a real credit to our team. uh you guys get to see the high level, but sometimes these efforts
are lots of meetings, lots of Zoom meetings, lots of input from the auditors. How are we going to make this work? So, you know, it sounded like a simple process, but I would say, you know, it was literally tens of hours of time, and I want to thank uh my my special assistant who retired recently
who was on top of that. Uh, and I know that uh, Jack is not going to pick up that ball because the communities are faced with this big huge piece of federal legislation that they don't know and they don't understand and they shouldn't uh, which we can help them with. So, this is not going to be the
first. There are others going to look to pivot and just want you to know we're doing our best to hold their hand, get them through the process. Um, some choose not to accept that assistance. Uh, but we're always there to help if they need us. We are on track, as I mentioned, to to utilize all of our
resources. Um, we still have most of our communities that have unspent funds and those are monies that already have to them. They're waiting for the projects to finish. We may be in a position where they don't use all the money. When that happens, I just want you to understand the process. They have to return it to
us. That way, the US Treasury doesn't get their fingers on it, for lack of a better cliche. Uh and then we review uh their outstanding obligations. If there's something that works for them, goes back to that unit. If not, we go to
a pool and we still have 10% uh uh allocation for some communities that have put in projects over their original aotment. So we have so our timeline here is to get as much money of this spend as we can uh through April and May and it
June if there are any resources. Remember the deadline is December 31st, 2026 spent then with another six months of extra after that. So there's still a sizable amount out in our communities that they're they're spending and we're
on top of them to spend it down as much as possible. Just so you know what the special assistant in my office will be spending a lot of his time on is is staying on top of what's going to be touching base with them every day because we don't want this to fall through the back. I have a lot of things on their court >> and we don't want to give any money
back. >> We do not want to give any money back. I I will say this is a lot harder than CARES on that front. The real uh intelligent move we made at the beginning of CARES credit to the entire team was doing that fully as a reimbursement. So we knew the money had
been spent. There wasn't this possibility. In fact, that's why the Commonwealth found themselves in a bit of a challenge and some of the other folks that they did advancements and then the money wasn't spent. They had to turn it back. That's how we avoided that. Here it's a little bit more challenging. I worry because I think
other governmental entities, not necessarily here in Massachusetts, but didn't anticipate this opportunity of returning funds. So, if no other previously obligated money, she had to obligate it two years ago. So, people hadn't thought that through. We did here in Pun County, we have that ability to
pivot, put that money out. That's how we're going to avoid sending a penny pack. And I think we will be one of a handful uh that will be able to do that. uh if all goes according to an open according to plan. >> You madam chair to the treasur
>> Tom when it comes to those communities that have to return the money we voted as a group to approve communities that had shovel ready projects. uh in the event that there is money returned, is there a prioritization of projects in a
pecking order or is it a matter of what funding comes back to possibly do 100% of one program versus, you know, if it's a small return and doesn't hit your number one priority in value, does it
make sense to help the community that we 100% cover or 5% of a community that has a greater need? I don't know how we've decided to >> these have been decisions that were put in front of you. Recall this has already happened once, >> right? >> We had a reallocation of money last
June. Um and the shovel ready projects to use your phrase. I call it obligated projects uh you agreed to fund 50% of those. So as opposed to picking and choosing particular projects which I recommend against you said let's fun half of all the projects out there. So
you still have that other half. I would recommend you do it the same way. we have enough money so that it funds 25% of those projects, 30% of those projects. You do it as a percentage of the projects that we not see these blank papers. >> Just to play out a scenario, how many um projects do we have in the queue that
could be ready? Just ballpark >> ballpark to say ready. We have projects that are otherwise publications in the statute. I would say about 202 and if a community returned $100,000,
okay, what would be the distribution of that money? Would it go across those 22 100,000 divided by 22 or would we look at a single project that could do more benefit? So, so that's what I would get. >> Yeah. So, it's a it's a complicated answer. The first thing would be to see
if that community has any space in obligated first. Yeah. >> Because it's their money under the original. >> Y >> Exactly. So, >> but if they don't have space and now it falls into a pot, it's not going to be the only money in the pot. So, what I'm
>> going to do is collect the total monies, tell you what that money is, >> and then say, do you want to do it as a percentage baser ones in their entirety, leave some of the bigger ones. Again, I'm not sure I would recommend that. >> You set a deadline for those projects
that are being audited for compliance and, you know, through CLA. So here's our problem. The deadline under the federal statute is December 31st, 2026. So I technically have no authority to require that they spend it before that date. However, because of the
relationship we have with them, they are understanding my deadline of June 30th. >> So if we use that as a snapshot of what's returned, you could then calculate if they're willing to, you know, turn that money back because
like you said, they can repurpose it. They only have what six months to try to find a project within their own community that's a new project. >> Not a new one, but related like this one here had a million dollars in extra projects that were tied to the force
main. >> No, I understand >> to to Whitman. Well, it's important to get this distinction to Whitman's benefit. Their project cost more than they submitted before. >> So when they had money left over, it could go to that project which has already been approved. >> Correct. So what I don't want people to
think about this conversation is that they can come up with a new project. >> If it wasn't approved by December 31st, 2024, it's not eligible. >> It can just be an extension to the project that they had. Correct. >> Only if there's funding >> available to it. >> Only if there's funding available in
that they didn't cover the cost. >> Right. So needless to say, we have to come up with a process and I think a June 30th deadline to get a snapshot of where we stand. >> Just to let you know, we'll have a snapshot after March 31st because we have that quarterly reporting which I'll
present to you guys in mid April, maybe the third week in April. Uh and we'll get an update then. I can tell you that right now there's roughly 11.7 million out there unspent. >> It sounds like a big number, but it's not. when you know a couple of them are
1.7 1.4. These are monies we fully expect to be spent on projects that we have every expectation they will spend but we're tracking it and we're tracking it to the penny. Uh and that's really why the law gave us the ability to continue to charge to do these things by
covering the cost administratively for us and for CLA for audit function and for function. Yeah. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> Thank you.
Extension service. >> Good evening. >> Good evening. I see everybody here made it out of the store. Um I >> bar late. >> Yes, I have not even been over to the greenhouse yet to see how that fared, but uh perhaps it was still late. I will
go over there shortly. Um, we've already had some damage in the past from wind and I'm not sure what the storm may or may not have done, but we'll get there. Uh, we have some big programs coming up. We do have a small one starting this weekend, so been some scrambling today and I'm sure tomorrow morning to make
sure that that goes off without a hitch. Uh, we had a bunch of school programs canceled this week. We will look forward to rescheduling those. Although some schools are opening for tomorrow, which is good news. Kathy and Charl will be out um doing a dog adaptation program.
Other than that, we're just waiting for spring. >> Ready to roll. >> Waiting. >> Yep. Ready. >> So, and we are going to have a 4 youth speaker for a day this year. We're in the process of um finalizing who that lucky contestant will be. We're hoping
it's a P County 4er of course, but we'll let you know probably at the next meeting right before a day who was chosen. Awesome. Will any of them be coming in and presenting to us or >> uh we could arrange that for another advisory board meeting or another time? >> That would be nice. >> Yep.
>> Absolutely. Thank you, >> Madam Chair. Through you, city director. Um my understanding is that Daniel Potta Greenhouse was assembled by Mr. Pott and if I recall, he gave a lifetime
guarantee on his work. So, in the event you have some sort of trouble, I have this personal phone to call. >> Thank you, Commissioner Gentley. So far, the issues have been minor, but hopefully this form was not too bad. >> Thank you, Mom.
>> Very good. >> You know, I was joking. >> Thank you. >> Okay, the registr. >> Welcome, Mr. Buckley. >> I don't usually see I don't usually see you without a suit on. It's nice to see you in casual
>> the snow day. >> Yes. >> Um, so we all survived the 26. >> Um, we've had some difficulties with it. We had a roof leak at the registry as Frank probably knows. So, the fact that
we're doing the roof study um is extremely important. It's a 20-year roof. I know Frank has gone out to bid for a roof contractor and the faster the better. Um we did have some plowing
issues um over the last couple storms. Uh this one in particular um our walkway in Plymouth was plowed in. People have to walk around the sides. Yeah, >> they could do that, but um
less than uh perfect. Um real estate remains about the same stable. Um rates are coming down a little bit, but only impacting refies so far. Until we build more housing, there's not going to be
much change in my opinion. And um I was intrigued by the last item on your agenda unfortunately for me because then I have to stay for the whole meeting about your interest in generating
revenue opportunities and that's the primary purpose of my coming to see you at >> Thank you so much. >> Thanks for having me. >> Thank you. >> So now we have Are you gonna the treasurer. I I thought he gave his report. No, that was the that was the
opera. I'm sorry. I apologize. I went right over you. >> I just wanted to give a quick update on uh global integrated health. Uh we had a very good meeting this afternoon with the team from Beth Leakness and from Brewster uh talking about a press event
uh for the program. The first purpose was to get an update as to the status of the program. Uh since December we've seen 277 individuals in their home. So the report is going very well. I'm excited because the doctor in charge, Dr. Tree Carter,
uh is very excited about the program, very supportive of the program, recognizes that it's unique in a pilot program that they want to keep going. Um Method has their own test team, if you will, that's a little more robust than
ours. uh and so they seem to be worried about the nuances of a precedent where we tend to already know how to do a good uh event. So we put our heads together and are planning something in early April as we get those details flushed out, let you know. Uh Mr. Bre was on the
call and uh letting them know how grateful we are for the partnership, but I think she got to see too how much they appreciate our involvement with them because they wouldn't be able to see as many people and extend the program. What we're hoping to be able to do with the press event is generate a little bit more community interest to figure out
the next steps. And so, uh, we're hoping that Plymouth sees the value. We'll be reaching out to their team, uh, and make sure that they are value add as part of this because right now it's really the catchment area. Um, we believe we've found a program
that works. Now, we just need to to make sure it could be sustainable if we want it. know if you want to add anything. >> I know that they mentioned today about the numbers being down. Uh again, it's because of probably the weather that
we've had, but is that uh normal for around this time of year? Uh will it uh come up a bit? And when is there uh uh stronger months that they see uh >> Yeah. So, it is normal uh this time of
year. And when they said down, the numbers are actually very strong. We're we were we're tracking to try and get uh 150 a month. So at 277 over two months were really close. So when they said that's what they were referring to. But
as Mr. Cabona mentioned in that meeting with the holidays in December with the storms we've had to big February storms um that that probably has made that delta. We do know that usage is much bigger in April, May and June. Uh just
from our experience on Mayflower uh last year alone we had more people use our services in May and June together combined than they have in the entire previous part of the year. So we expect some pickup then uh want to be seen in the home in the spring as opposed to in
the middle of the winter. Um but yeah, as long as we hit that benchmark uh we're where we need to be. the hospital doesn't want to have fewer than that average because it'll mean in their minds that we may have overpaid. Um, but as long as we're close, we're still
getting and we're still doing it at approximately $225 a visit, which is a lot less than the 2,000 to 3,000 4,000 cost. And I think when once this rolls out, people are going to see the significance
of uh the patients going home and being in their homes and recovering faster and better. And I think that's one of the like I said, the focus that you know should be there is uh getting these people home uh and with their families uh to recover faster.
One of the things we're excited about at the press event is attracting about one or two testimonials that have benefit from the service of getting them sign off on that. But um you know I was very pleased to
see I was worried given the storms that we'd be way behind in some of the numbers and that maybe we got off to a rockier start but uh it's it's moving right where we expect. Very >> good. Any questions? Thank you so much. Sorry I forgot you.
Okay. So, now we have the maintenance which uh I believe administrator is going to cover and uh your report. >> Uh thank you, Madam Chair. Uh I do want to uh give a special thanks and shout out to our maintenance team. Uh
Superintendent Wedge has been uh still out uh on medieave uh but will be uh returning soon thankfully. Uh Bob uh Spear has been doing a great job stepping up and assisting. Uh we had uh quite a uh few couple days since the
storm. Uh the team, a lot of the team all reported even though they could barely get out of their driveways, uh we were able to shovel out uh the courouses and our buildings uh faster than any other county. We were ready to open on
uh on uh Wednesday morning. uh even though the uh buildings had no power. So uh the delays had to be pushed uh and all the courouses opened up this morning. That was a call of the courthouse themselves. Uh even though as
I said our buildings were ready to go. Uh the good news is we had minor uh damages during the storm. Uh we actually blew a tagline in Hangingham which caused electrical problems which we were able to work with Hangingham Municipal
Light. I will be sending them a thank you note uh from the county because they were uh uh they answered uh yesterday afternoon at 3:00. They answered the call, got me an engineer to talk to within five minutes and were on site
within 20 minutes. Uh just a phenomenal service. Uh, and uh, I just want to call out those two members that gave us that uh, that great help in getting uh, Hangingham open for this morning. Um, I just want to address the registry uh,
the register's concerns uh, with um, uh, his parking lot uh, the registry of deeds parking lot rather. Um so that path uh which is in the middle of the park the first tier of parking uh uh was
used as a landing zone. Uh when you get uh this amount of snow, you can't just plow it. We actually had uh a front end loader, a gigantic front end loader moving the piles around. And that Senate area was the only area deep enough uh to
house a piling of the snow. Um I was actually on site shoveling with the team. Uh Cam and Tyler were amazing doing uh amazing job with their snowblowers. Drifts were over four and five feet tall. That area uh ended up well over
six feet and it was solid repacked snow from the front end loader. So it was my call. They wanted to try to attach it. I did not think that was safe for the team. It was safer to make sure that people walked the additional maybe 25 or 50 feet around it as opposed to putting
our team at risk and uh shoveling out over six foot high packed condensed snow uh for 25 ft of length. Um, instead we opened up all the safety uh access and egress areas, all the uh the main
entries, the back entries, shoveled all the mailboxes uh and the uh dumpsters. Uh so the guys had uh put in quite a bit of work. And again, as you know, um if you have a uh snowblower, you only can
do about 24 to 30 inches in height. This was well over that with the drifts. So, we had to break down the drifts and then use a snowb blower in the lower area. So, I stand by my decision not to have that plowed out. I'm hoping uh God takes
care of uh knocking that down quick with some uh 40 and 50°ree days and as soon as we can when it's a little lower, we will reopen that at the earliest convenience uh when it's can be safely done. Um, we actually had heavy
equipment and all of the uh plows. Our contractors did an amazing job keeping as far ahead of it as they can. Our lots were cleared way before streets and uh and any of the local communities were done. So again, it just shows to the
quality of the team that we have uh both from the contractor side and from our personal uh team. Uh as far as um other news and maintenance, we are just finishing up the light and
sailing improvement project at Wearham and uh the judge Shakansky and his team are overly thrilled uh on how beautiful it's come out. Uh I will have finished product uh pictures for you at the next meeting. Um we're just doing some
touch-up painting. Uh and it really looks amazing. Uh almost to the point where the other portions phase two and three again recalling that the state wasn't able to get us any money for these projects. But um so we had to do
this over a a phase approach. Uh we will do the next phase in fiscal 27. uh but they're already clamoring and begging to have it done earlier. But um we have other projects that are higher priority. Um so that we are uh looking at that in
the capital plan of 27 for the administrator's report. Uh we do have um an update on the Verizon Plymouth Tower. Uh we received $76,450 uh from uh Verizon uh uh for the tower
for the uh forfeite of the Plymouth Tower. We are additionally making $7,510 per month uh in added penalized rent because they are not uh vacated the the uh tower with their equipment yet. Uh
they're still waiting on access and work plan. will receive will continue to receive that 7510 per month uh until they are totally vacated off it. The documents were just sent over to us today. Uh we do have some other work
that needs to be done including a light project on the top of the uh tower. So, we'll be working with uh AT&T. I've negotiated with AT&T uh for them to cover that light project. It's all federal uh FAA rules and regulations
that require a a a strobe to be put on the top of the tower and to be maintained. AT&T uh as good partners as they are have uh volunteered to pay for that. Uh for the municipal municipal vehicle bid update, um I just want to
call out uh Nancy and her amazing work on this. Uh our FY26 budget is $325,000. Thus far through seven months of the year, we've collected $320,000. So we are way ahead of uh way ahead of
budget. Um we have over $35,000 in uh sign up uh fees and $285,000 in admin admin administrative fees. I'll be working with the treasurer to update our revenue uh on uh one of our next uh
uh budget updates. Um, additionally um uh we are working we we are we have the contract uh vehicle bid uh procured through FY27. Uh we'll be working with our uh
contractor um consultant uh and our new team administrative team to get that ready for bid uh and working with the IG. So uh we'll continue these revenues. um we have become the biggest player in the state on according to our
dealerships on um on vehicle procurement and that includes uh the state and the uh GBPC which is uh which is the um MAPC affiliate. So uh again uh it just goes to show that when a program is done
properly like opera and cares uh people recognize it, they understand the benefit that we're bringing and they uh vote with their dollars and their fees. Um I'm going to say one more one other update and then I'm going to pass over
to our new assistant administrator Theresa Veresour for an update on the food resilience MVP grant. I do want to just pass out uh an update on courthouse rent. So uh we've finished uh Tia uh did
an amaz Tia Quinn did an amazing job on uh courthouse rent. Um in years past where we average $2.5 million uh in approved um expenditures. Uh this year
uh we are submitting $3.241 million. So almost uh $700,000 in incremental uh revenues that'll be uh reimbursed by the state. We have still have to go through our audit which will
be uh in the upcoming months. But uh uh Tia's work in collecting everything and taking over from where Tammy left off along with your approvals of some major funding projects uh and the ability of the treasur's department to help fund those projects to figure out where to
get the funding will allow us to uh recoup $3.241 $241 million from the state in investments not only in our people but in major projects um like heat upgrades, ceiling upgrades, cosmetic upgrades, and structural
upgrades that were greatly needed in our buildings. Uh so u more to come from this, but I did just want to kind of give you a quick update. Uh the treasurer and I just signed the courthouse rent update and sent that in a couple weeks ago, but it is a
tremendous amount of work by the team uh to get that uh get those numbers in and uh we were able to work with Chris and Teresa uh through the process. So, they're well um uh uh brought up to speed on the process. And again, um we
anticipate that number being higher uh again in the future uh because of all the ceiling re uh renovations and the other uh projects that we're now uh working in investing in uh that will be paid for by the state. on that, Madam Chair, if I may, real
quick. >> Um, we've received several letters the last couple of years on >> from the trial court and and a lot of the judges on on you, Frank, and I just want to really tip my cap and thank you and compliment you and the team, Chris
and Teresa, of course, coming on board, but Doug and everybody else that that are in these buildings. um as I've been regailed with uh some of the tales of county past uh the relationship with the state wasn't always quite like this and I think that you and and the team have
been a major lynch pin in that. So, I really want to thank you for your effort in getting us to this point because it can't be understated enough that it it I think it took a considerable amount of effort and just candidly trust building and and in the past of course with the treasur's office and others um perhaps
that wasn't there, but I I want to thank you um for your work and your effort as well as everyone else in our office, Tia, Tammy before her um for getting us to this point because I think that that story needs to be told that it wasn't always like this and um it's good to see
that the state is is a willing and able partner with us in maintaining good buildings and maintaining good workplace obviously for for their employees for our employees and of course the general public that needs to conduct judicial business there. So, thank you.
>> On behalf of the team, I I accept the the Thanks. >> I go to the team. I >> No, you can't. I I just can't reemphasize that all of us work every day to give better customer service. >> Sure. >> And it's Nancy on the phone with the team getting the supplies we need. It's
Tia making sure that they get all the the products. And Doug and Bob Spear are doing amazing work. Um, so, uh, Teresa is now spearheading, uh, uh, the LA as chief leaison with the maintenance team and, uh, we've been out in the
buildings, uh, several times. We were out there this morning fixing the time clock and, um, you know, working with the team. So, uh, we appreciate the support more so uh, from you because without your funding approvals, we wouldn't be able to do the work and get
the tools for the team that they need to do the work. So, thank you. Oh, over the many years they've come a big long ways with uh getting the tools that they needed. So, thank you. Uh, one question I >> I'm sorry. >> One question I had was uh I guess the
the roof over at the registry, where was that on the um agenda as far as getting that done that, you know, and are we have any risk of any more damage in in the roof? >> So, we're always at risk with damages in in an older roof. The good news is the
commissioners approved $75,000 for a study. Uh I don't think the study will cost that much. Um I think it'll end up probably in the 30 to 35 $40,000 range and with the additional money we'll be able to do some shortterm repairs uh
that are highlighted. Um both Chris and Teresa have been doing a phenomenal job on RFPs that we've wanted to do the last couple years but haven't had the horsepower to do. Um uh we actually have all the specs um uh and and contact uh
uh developed to put out the RFP for the study. Um we're also replacing all the light poles which have been uh concerned about safety because of the uh 20 plus years of salt air uh and we've lost a couple already. So, we're not only
upgrading them to LED, uh we were actually over in the registry last week where we're looking at a FY27 early uh project to replace and upgrade all the uh lighting to more efficient LEDs. And that'll be done with a project that can
be financed through the power company and reimbured to us by or paid by us by the savings uh as we go out. So, we're doing all these kind of projects. We have great partners uh in our our our contractors in uh uh energy conservation
code. Chris Collins and his team uh doing all this procurement through 25A which gives us much more latitude in the ability to work with uh vendors that have been uh very uh good partners for the county as opposed to going all
always to the lowest bid. 25A allows us to work with uh approved utility and state uh vendors uh to do these projects and the proof is in the pudding. The projects are coming out great. >> Very good.
>> Um first of all, I want to echo the sentiments of commission. You know, I saw the Saber wrapping by the new administrator. We got an amazing letter from you. Um maybe cooling temperature down a little bit and what
it was directly through your approach with your team. Appreciate you know that um style of management. While you're on this subject matter um because I was involved in the procurement on the diesel generator was a failure in terms
of uh fuel response over at the registry for diesel. >> Uh nope. We actually had them out there this morning. So, uh uh we are good. We were good. We did not run out of fuel. Right. >> Right. >> So, >> and the license that you were on all time.
>> Yeah. Okay. So, with respect to the alarm though is I guess when it hits a certain level in the tank, there's supposed to be an automatic fill. And I understand with the the storm, we we lost power. So, that may have been it. So, just we put that and paid extra
money for that feature. needed whoever our prevailing fuel vendor is tied into that if you weren't aware. >> Yeah. >> So this would prevent any kind of >> We did uh so Williams Oil is our diesel uh provider and because we use the
generators so infrequently um and because this last run was so long. Uh that's why we got lower than we anticipated. Um but uh we got uh they turned it around quick. It's nothing on
them. Uh it's it's on us on uh just better managing the the fuel burn. >> Um and um when after that last 24in storm uh we were I had talked to the team uh we were
scheduling it and that was going to happen. It just this other storm kind of snuck up on us. Um we thought it was blowing out and never anticipated it being uh it basically was um what 72 hours of straight running over there that burned a lot more fuel than we
anticipated. But both have topped off both our 400gallon tank here and our thousandgalon tank next door both topped off and they're good. >> So you mentioned something that they don't get used off of them. Do they get exercise but then >> every week? They do. So there's a period
of time for an hour at that time. Every week uh we set a time and it runs for one hour. Uh we have preventative maintenance uh agreements uh with our contractors that give a minor and a major repair. The minor repair is
that um and just six months apart. The major repair is full oil uh changing uh full uh testing uh analysis. So with respect to the alarming, but is there a notice that gets sent or do we
is that the kind of guess when we get a re? >> So we guess uh and something came out of um the storm. Uh our team member over there told me actually when we were on site uh when I asked him where we were on fuel level, he said, "Well, I don't
know. I have to check with a stick. The fuel gauge doesn't work." So there was a that was a good education moment that when something doesn't work, we need to know about it because we did not know about that and that would alleviate any future problems. >> And but there is the alarm system is
still intact and operating. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Great. Okay. And were you going to have Teresa come up and talk to us? >> Good evening, Madam Chair. Commissioners, um I wanted to provide you an update on the regional food
system initiative that's being led by the um Old Colony Planning Council in partnership with Public County and Marian Institute. It's a regional effort to strengthen our regional and local food system. We're working with the residents, businesses, farms, food
providers, and the community organization to better understand the region's food related challenges and identify practical solutions. Our goal is to build a stronger, more resilient, and locally rooted food system that supports families, farms, food
businesses, and communities across Plymouth County and surrounding areas. Um part of the community engagement piece right now is um the food survey that was just released uh where we're inviting residents and food related businesses read a short five to five to
10 minute survey to help identify the community priorities and guide actions over the next 5 to 10 years that will be part of our food action plan. The survey responses will directly contribute to the regional food service action plan, including recommendations on the support
of the local agricultural and fisheries, strengthen food related businesses and jobs, improve access to healthy, affordable, and culturally appropriate food, and to increase prepared preparedness for supply disruptions and extreme weather. Um, I'm just going to
pass out a copy of the survey that was posted a week ago now. Um, Madam Chair, thank you. Sorry. And that copy. The top is just one of the U public releases that we sent out.
>> As of Tuesday morning, we've had over 200 responses. 240 to be exact. Um they were mostly from Plymouth, Kingston, Brockton and Whitman. And we also received 31 responses from businesses which is they were very proud about. Uh we also
released just recently um the option of having the survey in Spanish, English, um Haitian Creole, and Cape Verian Creole. Um, as you'll see, um, as you answer the
questions on the survey, it's a quick survey and by the time you get to question four, it kind of passed off into you different directions. If you're a resident, it will send you to a different set of questions. And if you own a business, um, if you, you know,
you're in that type of part of the survey, it sends you to a different set of questions. And the um the plan will guide um those community engagement parts of the survey will help
the plan guide um us to direct a 5 to 10 year food system action plan um with recommendations that directly come from the responses of that survey. Any questions? I may madam chair. >> Yes. Go ahead. >> More more a comment. I want to thank you
Teresa for the update on this. This was something um Mr. Basler and I a couple of years ago when this was presented as an opportunity to the county. Um it's sort of an interesting journey that got us to this point. We we first met with the sheriff of all people, right? And why would anybody think that the sheriff
would be involved in food security, but one of the things that his office was able to bring to bear for us was the Marian Institute and so many others that have brought us to this point. This is something that uh we received a grant on. I'm really proud of that. um August of 24, correct? Or 25? 24. 24. Thank
you. Um on this. So um sometimes doing these things, you know, aren't necessarily glamorous at first, but it takes a lot of work and a lot of effort. I want to thank you for for continuing to spearhead this. This is something that myself personally uh I was very
passionate about. I thought it was an interesting uh space that the county could be in that allowed us to be a vehicle for something good. It's just something that you we're doing the right thing to help people in Plymouth County and uh it doesn't really cost us
anything. It only cost us a little bit of money to then get that grant or the money became more than a wash. We got that grant in. Um and it's taken some manpower, but I think it's the type of outside the box thinking that that was employed that got us to this point. and I'm really just over the moon at at how
this has turned out and to see this continue going on. I really appreciate it. I know this was something um that you were passionate about um which is what intrigued intrigued me during the hiring process admittedly um because it was something that I was passionate about. So, I I really I'm really
grateful for for the work and the update and I look forward to continuing to see this uh blossom and continue to be a fruitful endeavor uh for the county and for our partners and again an instance where uh again outside the box, but
Plymouth County was used as a vehicle uh but a good vehicle to really start diving into doing some great work and partnering with people and again showing the value that the county brings whether it's administering those federal dollars for being able um to help collaborate and bring different resources to bear.
So, I really want to thank you for the update uh in the effort in this. This is something that I've I've personally been very passionate about for the last couple of years. >> Thank you. >> I think this is a great program and uh thank you for all your efforts in putting into this. I see though uh a lot
of this would come under 4. Uh are you also >> we're very involved both me and myself many of the meetings through and we're helping to distribute the survey and a lot of other pieces. >> Oh good awesome thank you. >> Yeah that that's what I wanted to mention chair. Um so number one Lisa's
passion and her experience work experience is phenomenal fit with this project. Um, and it it's been Molly and Me Riley have been unbelievable in um in in their assistance in this in their expertise and their relationships with
agriculture and um animal uh animal >> so the best part about it is the recognition of the internal group for our extension services and the expertises they have uh and how um you
know Molly's always been a go-to is as department head but Meg is now being talked about all the time and oh gez we should run this by Megan and you know what is what does she think of this it highle stuff and with the connections uh
not only at the state uh UMass but through the different farmers groups um you know I know you had a a connection with the farmers groups so all these connections and relationships are really starting to pay dividends in furthering this project and um and
Teresa is is doing a phenomenal job with >> great growing all the time. Good positive things. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Did you have anything that you wanted to >> Oh, I just love the fact that they're producing work and putting time in to
solve some problems. >> Okay. Uh did we do are you all done with your report? >> That's that's Thank you. Well, very good. So, I'm going to come up with Colleen here and a couple of things that I want to one
thing I uh want to read to you and I think a lot of what our meeting tonight uh we discussed is going forward and uh what we really need to how we need to participate with our communities. And so
something that I want to adopt uh and discuss maybe at a later meeting but I will read what I wrote down and hopefully that this is the direction in which uh Plymouth County will be going and this would be our our dis say our creed. Uh Plymouth County Commissioners
our commitment to our member communities. We, the Plymouth County Commissioners, believe that our member communities deserve leadership defined by strength, decisive action, and measurable results. We recognize that leadership is not a position held, but
trust firm through daily service and unwavering in integrity. We believe in the following uh three thing uh three principles. A standard service presence. We commit to showing up when it matters most. ensuring that the voice of the
county is present in the moments that define our future, our integrity. We place the interests of our communities above all else. Uh processing the courage to make uh difficult decisions and discipline to remain focused on our
shared priorities, honesty. Uh we pledge to listen with intent and speak with transparency, fostering a culture of open communication and mutual respect. A promise of progress, accountability. We hold ourselves to a standard of relentless work, moving beyond
meaningful progress to deliver consistent, high quality outcomes. Resilience. We tackle challenges head on, refusing to let hesitation dictate our path. We prefer that we prefer the clarity of action over comfort of the status quo. Vision. We understand that
strong communities do not stand still. We are committed to laying a groundwork uh for sustainable growth and long-term stability. Our covenant to the county, we lead with strength. We act with transparency. We deliver with focus. Our dedication to Plymouth County is
absolute. And our vision for its future is bold. We do not just occupy these seats. We use them to build a legacy of uh excellence, but every community we serve. This is signed in determination of gratitude. Thank you. county
commissioners. And um so one of the things uh or a couple of things that I probably would direct our administrator uh is to first put out a survey as we spoke earlier about that. Find out what are maybe some of the things that uh possibilities the towns uh might give up
in their programming in partner with county. I think that's a first step in knowing where do we stand? How can we help our communities? And we have to be available to them. have to be able to be out there in the communities uh and offering these services to them. Also,
uh if we can get a um geographic uh geographic of uh for the three commissioners, I think we did it before. I think we still probably have the uh towns that we were once involved in. if you could bring that up again or bring it out. And I think I would ask my
commissioners to let the administrator know what town you best uh uh serve in and you want to be a part of. I'm open to anything that might be left over that you don't want to go to. Uh so I think going forward and I think um you know I
have always been somebody who is about uh public safety and education uh and you know if we're not trained properly it just opens us up for a lot of mistakes and really no matter what we do uh we have to be a little bit knowledgeable open to a lot of things
otherwise we just make mistakes and we're just spinning our wheels. So, uh, I don't know if either one of my I know last time we'd said about maybe programs that we could come up with, uh, that we thought about doing. Uh, I don't know if either one of my commissioners have any ideas or thoughts and what they would
like to do. So, I guess I would open it up to them to, uh, let me know, uh, if there is something that they would like to see go forward and and what kind of help that they need from either Teresa or from Chris. So either one of my
commissioners want to open up or do you have a program that you might be interested in knowing? >> Are we on the agenda item income generation programs and opportunities and we started Jared first? >> I will um No, I'll note for Robert's
rules and parliamentary procedure that the chair has been vacated. So I will address commissioner right through chair prom Hanley as she has stepped down from chair to the podium. Um the only thing I'll just start with is just a clarification through you Mr. Chair Prom
to Commissioner Wright relative to the letter that was just read which was eloquent and nicely done but I would like to see that >> um before >> for discussion and you knowward yeah I would just like to see that before I co-sign onto it. Um >> Oh absolutely >> the the there was a lot of lot of nice
words in there and it was very really well written but um again I want to examine it further. Um, sticking to the agenda item as it stated, income generation program and opportunities. Um, personally, there have been things that I've worked on for five years that
I've been personally proud of uh and proud of the collaboration uh with uh Commissioner Hanley and Commissioner Wright on them. I just waxed poetic about the food resiliency program, which a lot of folks uh were were detractors of. I think a lot of people weren't
fully aware or thought that that was going to go anywhere and um we now see that that is is just blossoming into a a wonderful program uh that I know is going to help serve uh the folks of Plymouth County uh sticking to income generation. Um when I was elected, I had
examined that there was a piece of property that we owned that's now currently under lease and has generated close to half a million dollars in revenue and rent. I'm optimistic, although we haven't had an update in a while, and perhaps the chair will uh get us an update um on where that that
development stands. That's real money that's been generated. Uh in doing that, uh it was discovered that uh the cell phone towers were woefully uh undermarket and uh with administrator Basler and Treasurer O'Brien, again, I was pleased to uh negotiate what
quintupling of both of them at one point. And now of course we're in we're in limbo with Verizon but may be acquiring AT&T. So uh myself personally I I hit the ground running in 2021. I I didn't uh I didn't wait and uh I worked
within the parameters of the things that we had uh available for us to leverage and utilize to generate income uh or create programs that didn't cost us anything or maybe again I think it was $30,000 for that MVP grant. Um thank you
Frank is nodding. I'm looking at him for clarification. That generated a grant of over a quarter of a million dollars. Correct. So, um, sometimes, uh, sometimes it's not a linear thing. Sometimes finding these programs and opportunities isn't a matter of of
throwing things at the wall. Uh, it's a matter of figuring out where we can fit the county in in a positive way. And myself personally, I I hate using the term I because we are we are a team.
We're three equally elected individuals. Um, but I personally have been really proud of what I've been able to do through my my own efforts, but obviously with the support of this full board uh for the last five years, and I will uh continue doing that work on behalf of uh
the people of Plymouth County that that's all I have to say for now. >> So, thank you so much, uh, Commissioner Brown. Uh, and I know that that was, you know, past and what we have done so far. I think I'm looking more for, you know, what are we going into for the future
and uh bringing in revenue. Uh I know that there's a lot of ideas. I know uh a lot of our communities, even speaking some of the communities, they've come up with already a few things, uh they uh Whitman said trash they'd like to get
rid of on uh from their budget and other people have come up with dog or uh what was the other one? you know, water. I guess these are all, you know, uh things throughout the community that they're uh
really uh problemed with and and they like to see us or uh intervene or help or do something. And whatever means that, you know, every town is different. Uh no two towns are alike. So, obviously, I think with the survey that
might give us an idea of um what they're looking to partner with us. you know, before it was always a no no. Uh they weren't going to give up any mapping. Today it's a different story with what they have in their budgets and uh the burden that they have and um the
overrides that they're facing. So I think this is probably good time for us to uh hit the towns and just uh partner with them in whatever way we possibly can. >> If I may, um just I want to clarify the
the points I made. All due respect, Commissioner Wright, those aren't the past. Those are in the present and in the future as we just got an update from Miss Vanazaro on the resiliency project. So, those aren't uh things and and we got an update on the cell tower. So, those weren't those weren't uh projects
or undertakings that happened. They're done. They're buttoned up and we've moved on. Those are those are continuing. Those are ongoing and those are generating those are generating revenue. Um >> well even we can bring up uh and we haven't had uh any update on Boston
South where where do we stand on that you know we're not uh are we going forward with it or you know what there's a lot of things that we need to address even further I agree we can do 100% uh so it's just a thought you know uh for
all of us to take under our own u and just uh and I think once we get our nine towns, it'll be easier and better to go out to those nine towns and >> uh you know what their needs are. So,
and I appreciate everybody in Thank you. >> Yeah. Just one more thing on that. Um so, you just said the nine towns. >> Yes. >> We had before I think Dan was here. >> That wasn't me, >> right? So, we had we uh three of us had
nine towns each. >> Okay. And um we focused in on those nine towns because it counts such so large and like I said I think that he still has a geographic uh towns uh for each one of us but we've all moved to
different towns and other towns. So that's why I said if you have some towns that want to focus in that's commission also. So he will uh get that for us. I think my town >> yeah I can give you that answer now. all
27. Um I am I wasn't elected to serve onethird of the county or focus on one third of the county. I was elected to serve all 27 communities. Personally, uh again, I hate using the term I, um but I've personally built uh considerable relationships. As I look over
Commissioner Hanley's shoulder at our county map, I have built, cultivated, and maintained strong relationships with elected select board members. Now, managers, uh, administrators and others across all 27 communities and um, other parts of the country, their
commissioners are elected in districts. We're not. We're elected countywide from Hall to Matapoid. So, I mean, you both are obviously free to to serve in your role as commissioners as as you deem fit or as you deem within your bandwidth. Um, I was elected by the entire county.
I was elected by all 27 communities >> as we all were. And >> correct. If I may >> Yeah, if I may, if I may finish, I was elected as we all were by all 27 communities. I personally have never had
an issue uh going from Hull to Matapois or everywhere in between. Uh I I do it for work. I've done it for uh this role. That's what this role demands. Uh it is a big county, but again, I've been able to build and maintain those relationships. Um, and I think that
again it's it's just a little disrespectful to the other voters and taxpayers in the 18 other towns that you're saying, "Well, I don't have the time or the county is too big." If if if either one of my colleagues feel the
county is too big, you're not under any obligation to continue serving as a commissioner. I personally have no problem uh with the size of the county and I've never had a problem with it. So Frank, I'll I'll give you my list. It's Abington to Whitman and it's all 25
towns and I'm sorry, 24 towns in our one city in between. >> Yeah, if you'd like to sit down here, you're welcome to. U Thank you, Madam Chair. Um I'm going to go back to my first year on this board. Um, we were
brought in after the election and Tom brought us down to the Noel fire department where we had a conversation with the three uh commissioners and at the time we had a $750,000 structural deficit. We had a couple of commissioners that wanted to close the
county. There was a charter commission established to talk about that. and all the things that folk uh Dan Potter and I ran on that year uh were set aside because of what we didn't know. And so
from that point on till now, we've had many challenges. And um I think uh to Commissioner Balenola's point about you know I I I you know when you're coaching a team many hands make for light work
and there's no I in team so I just heard your comments and I must have mentioned I about 25 times on what you've done in the past which is fine. Uh that's your time. It's your space to talk about. But I want to applaud the chair for uh
attempting to do uh something that many hands make for light work. If you want to take on all 27 communities, I think uh that's admirable. I think uh she was keeping our time in in check in in saying we'd like to have some meaningful
drill down opportunities with nine communities a piece. feel free to join me on on uh any kind of program that you want to do at any time. Why I am uh also applauding the chair is because we're within 14 15
months of ending OPA and unsuccessfully over the years we've been unable to petition the governor in the legislature for our share or fair share of deeds excise and we've filed what four or five uh bills on that and have all been
declined and so with the end of APA means the end of Redlin in terms of what we're doing right now for compliance and it has been sustaining us and allowing us to hire additional personnel. But I think the chair is right to have a an eye towards the future on what are the
revenue streams that we're going to do right out of the gate through you, Madam Chair, and I'm looking at the treasur because he's our chief guy when it comes to the legislature and our delegation. You know, I I would um recommend that we
pursue Plymouth County uh an opportunity to get our share of deeds excited because in the county commissioners association, we have delegated certain authority to certain members of the legislature of other counties to file
bills that when the push came to shove, multiple bills were filed and it wasn't unison. You know the ones I'm talking about. So, is there any um push back on us as Plymouth County looking through our delegation to filing a petition
based on our performance of cares recognized by Congress with a 1% overhead, lowest in the nation and we're on the same trend for OPA uh on the program with all the counties. So, with an eye towards what are we going to do next so we don't fall back into the
problems that we had early in my tenure. I've been here 13 years. She's been here 16 years. Jared, are you six? >> Five. >> Five. Five years. So, I think all of us, you know, well, two of us experienced the bad times, Jared. And I think the
bad times are on the horizon. We don't work cooperatively in a team spirit to try to come up with revenue generating options. Back then, we were tasked with coming up with our own revenue generating programs because we were
facing the lawsuit of uh the retirement board. Uh we were able to fight the legislature to get deeds excised to pay the legacy costs that were left behind on the takeover of the jail that would would have saddled the inhabitants of
Plymouth County with that. But we were skillfully able to navigate independent of everyone else. But the benefit granted to all the other counties that were taken over by the jails was because of the efforts of Pim County and you led that delegation. So we solved that
problem. We checked then we were allowed and asked by I think then Jim and Pada to come up with the same exact request of revenue generating uh programs that would be outside of taxation, outside of assessment. Okay. And what did we come
up with? We came up with countywide trash. Okay, $10 million base project with tipping fees in a 20-year contract. Okay, 20 years, $10 million plus tipping fees. Then we went out and successfully
contracted Plymouth County Energy. That was with the Select Energy for Solar and that was a $20 million promise. Now both projects after contract subsequently failed because there was regulatory issues with the uh transfer station and
then there was a change of the bylaw um in the SREX for hookup for the soul. But those were efforts that were undertaken by the individual commissioners outside of the the taxation government to to sustain us. We're what within a million
dollars, Tom? With 13 years on this board. The the budget I started with then was around 10 million and we're just a little bit over that now. I mean, we haven't been able to without the benefit of CARES and OPA be able to provide what we've been able to provide
without those programs moving forward and repairing the reality that Plymouth County Council can do the job despite what the governor said when we took care. that is where we are. So if we're not properly planning for the future, for me
specifically under this agenda item, uh I'm going to explore anorobic digest and it's a result of what came out of the transatlantic uh uh energy alliance and it was a conference we held over at Bridgewater State. We had Clinton
Palfrey come and talk to us where the federal government was restricting those types of programs that the mass com had set aside money for technologies uh that were green in nature. In anorobic digestion under commissioner Pada when
we actually would have gone into the trash contract and at the trash transfer station he proposed a campus a green campus and it was ahead of its time. So during our uh deliberations in the conference uh there's a company over in Freetown where the stop and shop
warehouse facilities are that take the produce uh that you know spoils and they capture it in the energy creating anorobic digesture with methane gas that powers 100,000 square foot with
electricity on that. how when I was up in Drake as the town manager, I was negotiating the Republic uh trash contract and I was looking to go beyond the three-year norm and was uh looking for a three with two one-year
extensions. They would not guarantee uh that two years because at the time and still current DP is considering taking food waste out of the stream. Now, they had done this when I was in another jurisdiction with textiles. They put it
on the cities and towns to remove um mattresses and textiles to curbside, okay? And left every community to fend for themselves. And what you saw was people just throwing their mattresses on the side of the road and they overt
taxed their DPW. And that was an unfunded mandate. So to get ahead of that and before there's a deliberation with the available money available at the state in the collaboration of our fellow counties because all of the counties join the transatlantic energy
alliance and we specifically talk about this as a pathway for revenue for the county. Every single community of the 27 that we represent has a school system. Every single community has a cafeteria program. And what would you do if D said
to your vendor, Republic or whoever your troop or any other hall is that you can no longer pick that up and it's going to be at your expense? So why not look at this opportunity with all the grant money available with the collaboration of all the counties, why can't we make
this if it can't be a a this is a gubanatorial year, let's put it on the campaign trail and let them discuss it and see if it's worthy of doing. Uh so that would be something that I would u see just the way I saw it uh countywide trash and countywide sold, you know. So
cost aggregation and reduction in power that can still go back on. We we talked about that last year, but the program once Frank had um done his due diligence was no longer available. So we we we had to saddle that RFP which you graciously
gave me permission to do. So for me uh if we don't prepare for post opera you know I believe this county has earned the right administratively through all the things all the programs MI think about it forward thinking right
we're talking about potential E911 you know things like that um these are all things that if we don't address it collectively as the five counties that four counties that are involved with APA And if we have to go in alone, then we
should go in alone. And I would say that we stop with the legislature in with the with the accolades and now the expertise that the county has provided administratively, we filed that petition to give at least county a better bite at
the apple because we've delivered the services. And if we brought our uh electeds and our executives together in support of that with our delegation, how could they say no? You know, we're doing it just a little bit better. >> Yes. Go ahead.
>> Yes. Treasure O'Brien. >> The ruling of the chair. She is not recognizing me. So, >> lot there. There were three questions. I'm going to try and answer them and if you touch on I do the best to retain them all and take notes. So, hopefully I
hit them. We'll start with your point about legislation. um having been there for 10 years and seen the work that we put in uh to get them to recognize the uh unfairness of the equation as exists today for the
extent counties. I think pulling ourselves out and trying to do it just for us will be even worse. Uh, one of the biggest challenges we have is while we have five contiguous counties that share the same problem and we've been able to articulate that, it's getting the rest of the state to appreciate that
challenge and to share revenue. I think if we were to try and do it on our own, it would be exponentially harder. Uh, and so I would actually advise against that. Uh, I don't think pulling ourselves out, even though we certainly have a lot to point to as our successes, I don't think that lends to building the
bridges we need to get that legislation passed. I think it's going to take continued long-term efforts and collaboration. But I think it's going to happen in two years, no, four years, no. But I do believe over time, I really do believe over time, the value ad of regional services will allow the
legislature to see the dollar value ad allowing us to keep the needs excise we should have had based on the original legislation. And again, remember the needs excise was originally intended to be split 5050. >> We're only getting 10.625.
We're not being greedy when we ask for 30%. Um, and I I believe keeping that consistent message is going to be the win long term. And I believe that's a long-term effort. The challenge we all have collectively is convincing our fellow counties to stay the course, not
deviate from the message, not come up with other pieces of legislation. This is the quickest, easiest way to get to that. Um, it's interesting that you mentioned the success we had uh when the legislature took over the operations of county correctional facilities. that
success and I appreciate your recognition of my involvement uh largely because we had a good relationship with the legislature. You had mentioned the lawsuit uh with the retirement board. Um that was really a mechanism to get attention. It was our partnership with the legislature that solved that
problem. Uh and we were able to get special legislation passed that allowed us to convince Commonwealth of Massachusetts that this was their obligation. if they wanted their employees, they needed to take that cost of the employees over. Uh
they couldn't leave it behind. We were successful in that. So much so that the other counties eventually followed suit were able to to get the same type of legislation we got passed to reference of folks that had relationships on. This hearkens back to the comments that I
made at our collective meeting with other counties. I believe the direction the best direction for the government and I know we're all very well intentioned. It's going to be a focus at the federal level. I believe that the more involved I get at NATO and I know that Commissioner Valenzola has had
numerous conversations with folks at NATO and has developed some relationships and understanding. I think that's a resource we've underutilized. I think they really recognize uh the powers of the county and can be a voice for us uh up at the federal level. One
of the thoughts I had that I shared and we'll share here because I think it's important for people to hear our advocates here when the federal government passes a funding bill that funding bill comes out to the states in rest of the country there are portions of that bill then directed to counties
we need to collectively figure out a way to get the portion of those funding directed to this county. We've shown we can do the work. We've shown that it it benefits the towns that we serve and the residents that we serve and that it is the best way to get the funding resources to the people that the
Congress wants to take fun. In fact, the message that I hear collectively from our legislators up on Capitol Hill, our senators and our congressmen is we really appreciate what the county has done particularly with Carappa because for the first time in our 10 or 15 years
up there, we get to see where the rubber hits the road. We get to see projects we're voting on when they vote for care when they vote for our they come to our presentations and see oh yeah 29,000 to Whitman or 10 million to Brockton or 2,000 to they come to these events they
get to see it they don't get to see that often so I believe we have a real opportunity and my humble suggestion to the commissioners I'm sure there will be a lot of good ideas and if you want my opinion I will always share them I won't unless I'm asked is that instead of focusing on some of the things towns
might think they want us to because one of the lessons I've learned is towns will want to ask us to do things that they can't afford to do and don't generate revenue. Um, that's just the nature of the beast. And so if we were to ask them what we could do for them, they're going to give us things
that we might be able to do, but we don't have the funding to do. And you made a point. This is a simple question. I want to hit this. Our budget is roughly the same as it was when you started. I actually think that's a point of pride. >> Absolutely. um because it's shown that
it can really do more with less. I I really I smile at my colleagues at the national level and at the state level when they say oh we've got to grow our budget five six seven 8%. Instead of saying that say what again we look at not only haven't we our budget we're
doing 20 30 40 50% more. So what the exact example that you can do more if you focus your resources intelligently and direct to uh where they best can be utilized. Um
so I think we need to focus in on uh our budget carry and and I don't think the other point you made too about cares in ARPA our budget hasn't grown because of carp and I think that's again credit to us. This wasn't a a program to make us
robust. It was a program we said with our limited budget, we're going to manage a $200 billion resource from the federal government for our 27 communities. You think about that. Someday I really want to write a book because this is truly the David versus Goliath story. You had states, you had
the federal government that didn't do it nearly as well as >> and so that's where I think the focus your focus is. you're talking about revenue in the future. It needs to be at the federal level. Again, just having this experience that I've had at the local level, you've now developed these
relationships which are key and we need to keep and we keep them by continuing to meet with them at the meetings we had last March. you should I think you should schedule those again and talk to those people in those rooms, listen to their ideas, but they'll come up with
some good ideas. If we don't have the resources to do what they want to develop those programs, it's just going to be spinning our wheels. We got to be careful. >> And if I may, and thank you, Tom. >> I had one more thing. Go ahead. >> Okay, go ahead. Well, I wanted to close
the circuit and recognize that we've got some real talent here. And I think before we begin to reach out, we should reach in and talk to the folks we have here, pick their brains, utilize 4 and see what they have for ideas. Talk to Mr. Buckley, see what he has for ideas.
Talk to my office. Talk to, you know, we have some new talent that's coming in in my office and in the commission's office. They're out there. Let's see what they think, too. uh because that's a that's a good resource that we underutilize sometime our own people. Um so what I'm excited about the future is
the federal level. I just think there's opportunity there uh and if we focus our efforts collectively each and every one of us on that we're going to have some real success that's going to bring us revenue because think of this we get the federal government every time they pass a piece of legislation that sends money
to the commonwealth of Massachusetts and we get a piece of that that's how you sustain. >> Absolutely. And again, thank you for your presentation and reinforcing the history. You know, I have to applaud the chair for thinking forward because we
knew what it was like to have the back and we sold property to balance the budget. You know, those days are way behind us and she wasn't far removed. She was in the middle of that fire and then when Dian and I came on, we started building these relationships where we solved those problems systemically, one
at a time. You know, it was an 800 pound gorilla. we created one budget. So I think what she's asking us to do is to work as a team to go out and identify in our member communities and Jared's going to do all 27. I welcome them to come to the nine that I'm going to focus on
because I want to do that created ethic. Uh and I'll give you a federal program veterans agent. Okay. There's regionalization of veterans agents going on. Northark County was a uh a test of a countywide um veterans agent. U when I
before I left Hullber we put together a region with Avon Hullberrook and Brainry with Brainree as the the mothership and these are the types of things like weights and measures animal control. These are all areas that if we were to
collaborate and ask for what we did previously for uh what was it? We were asking for communities to pay a portion of salaries. So, if you're not paying a 100% of a dog officer's pay and you've got a five town group that's willing to
share one dog officer, they all put in 20%. That gets 100% of that value. Now, you'd probably need more people, but the idea is rather than them paying the full ticket on benefits to that individual because each town has one, right? Each
town has a veterans. And I think um in speaking to um the chair about her idea on you know picking up where she left off on the gun range and I don't know if you revealed that yet but she's talking to the federal people about doing she
spoke to u education earlier uh in a concept that I'm not going to steal up on I'll let her reveal it when she does but it's on a federal level and it's around the idea of revenue and servicing our communities. So, um, my last thought
and then I'll I'll sit down because you guys are in the middle of your conversation. You're correct that in order to deal with some of the programs, towns need to dedicate resources, they're already spending. What is amazing to me is that even though you can give them prima evidence that the
program will save them money, they don't want to do it because they lose control. So, all those things you mentioned, I'll keep veteran agents out of that because there's stats involved. We shouldn't really be chatting about that. these other programs. It is clear that we could do it for
for a cost savings that would save them money. But even when we show them that have that discussion with them, they don't want to participate in the program because they lose control in their minds. Now, it had been my hope and expectation that the goodwill we generated with our administration
lessened some of that recalcitrance on their part to give these programs up or to let us participate. I will tell you that hasn't happened yet. My thought and again please you know I support whatever we can Plymouth guy and blue. So whatever it takes, we're going to do
what we need to do. But I will say this that the towns won't contribute uh to these programs even though you can see and show them that they'll save money. They will
participate in a program if you've got a federal resource that then evidences their need. And I believe as the financial structures and we're reading it, right? every everything you need now without financial challenges or challenge they're facing that is when they're going to realize that they can't
continue to do the services on their own and that's when we realize separate from any outreach we may or may not do that's when they're hopefully going to come to us say we need help but until that time the rest of it and I've been at this for
a while is hugely challenging and likely answer this >> I'll just leave you with this one thought I agree with you 100% on the recount calc pie. But remember when that occurred, it's when we were in the first phase of our time together and solving the crisis at the time and then saying
to the state, we'd like to do more if you could give us more through deeds excise. But what happened in between was APA and CARES. Okay. And then our reputation changed. If you look back to 2020 and what the Commonwealth thought our ability to do the job was,
>> you have to remind me I was in the middle of it. >> Exactly. and and we're all in that foxhole together. So all I'm saying is we've earned what we've earned and I think if we repackaged what we did previously where there was recalcitrance I think you've earned the respect of the
member communities especially the administration facing override concerns that we can do program on a regional basis of bring economies of scale and savings without laying people off without losing a service that a
community has because they can't afford it. So we I think we could do it better. >> The only thing I'd like to point out, you would think that would make sense. I will point out, however, that since our brain cares and since we've had additional community engagement, we've proposed two programs, one in particular
that would require community payment involvement to save them money. >> The water we talking about the water? >> We cannot get them to contribute. We can show them that it would save I don't want to mention any. don't save one $75,000 to contribute $5,000 to us. They do not
want to do it. They we have to hear this message until they need to do it. And the same is toward the state level. The state doesn't come to share anything with us until they need to do it. And so while you are correct, our reputation has been improved dramatically. And and
I'd love to talk about this at another time. It was the fortitude of the commissioner sticking to a budgeted agenda that we collaboratively put together many years ago that got us where we are today. It wasn't any revenue agenda program. It was sticking to a good
budget. That's what did it. So, you know, again, I'm not trying to do anything other than keep us focused on what I see is the likeliest chance for big success and I think that's at the federal level. excited to hear any programs that we're thinking about.
Let's check and see if we can do it at the federal level because doing it at the state and doing at the local level is is just not going to be as helpful as doing it at the federal level. >> I agree,
>> O'Brien. Um, I often think, especially when I'm trying to go to sleep at night, where would we be today if we didn't do cares and opera? Uh, you know, financially, where would we where would we be? Probably still the $10 million
that we started out with, but we have to start thinking of um ways to bring in revenue down the road. And I I know you say federally, but um what do you suggest fed? what programs are there that you see that we could focus in on?
>> So, two things. Um, not just the federal, but I lost your original point about what we're doing, but federally, I can't identify the program right now. What we need to do is get our federal
uh representatives to change the language when they pass a bill to say the portion of this bill that is dedicated to 521,000 people from the county comes to the county. That's what I'm suggesting. um that that is where our effort needs to be and to focus in
and to get our state reps and state senators to support us in that effort because they then see the value of that money coming here instead of going into the state's coffers because candidly the state will spend most of those monies in large population areas >> just the nature of the beast and the
reason it works so successfully parts of the country is because it's broken down by county so if you're a smaller county then you get your portion of the money I question on one where would we be without candidly we'd be here the same I would say our budget would be almost
ident we haven't grown our budget largely because of car it remains close to what it was start what we've improved is our reputation we've shown people what we do right that's the difference it's not money we tend to think oh we got what happened with chos
>> no we didn't >> nothing >> it's going to be the same we're back where we started but but chaos harbor didn't improve our budget it's the same budget Well, I'll take the question on that, Mr. You know, the interest income generated gave you over $6 million.
>> So, one time monies would >> That's right. But but for us to deliver those services and recoup those monies was because of the programming that we did. Had we not adopted it, you wouldn't have been able to put that money in the bank. And then I have no problem with the way we distributed one-time monies
for, you know, I mean, we we are very strong. I'm I I'm guessing we got a AAA bond rating by now. I mean, by the things >> we don't get rated by bond agencies, but if we did, >> but if we needed to borrow to build, >> we would we would definitely have the highest. >> That's right.
>> But I'm what I'm trying to dispel is the myth that cares and ARPA improved our budget situation. It did in only one way. It took some of our long time long-term liabilities. were able to pay some of those off one time, but our
budget remains largely the same. >> But would we have retired the debt of the Plymouth County Hospital over the legacy costs over there had we not had those up one time? would have that. But to your point, we would not have been able to put a couple extra million
dollars of prepay or build up $3.5 million. >> But we would be doing that because that's separate from the federal government that have endured to our ability to reduce our liability all on our own. We
need the federal government. We actually get the way to do it. We forget the innovations we have here in public. We don't take them credit for them. We found this health group. Uh you know the programs that we're doing health those are regional programs that the rest of
the country can learn from. >> That's my but it's it's I'm just saying the course of action is top down not bottom. >> I agree and I think that's what the chair is proposing. >> I know Commissioner Valenzola had wanted
to say something. Well, thank you, Madam Chair. Just on one of the treasurer's points that I think he made that's important. Um, it's maintaining the reputation. Again, CARES and ARPA demonstrated that the county not only is
a good and faithful steward, but it's an effective, efficient steward. And while there is a desire to do more programs, we all equally share in that passion. There is nothing that will do greater
damage to the county than attempting to launch something or do something that can't be fully followed through on or executed upon. Uh and the treasurer makes a great point as I have conversations with multiple leaders across the county. Some uh are in very
difficult uh positions uh in in their communities. Uh can't even get five grand out of a town that would save 75. I would give $5,000 to get $75,000. I'll do it right now if that's available to me personally. Um, so I think that's important to remember to recall. I did
want to just quickly touch on something Commissioner Hanley said relative to my initial remarks. Um, I don't use the term I we are a team. I was very clear in stating that everything that has been accomplished as it relates to the revenue generating programs that I
personally as a commissioner participated on were ones that I was personally involved just as Commissioner Wright, I'm sorry, Chairman Wright has been personally participatory of MAH and yourself with the with the transatlantic uh climate initiative. So, um I don't
take credit for either one of those. I look to both of you for updates on those. Those were your personal projects which I think uh hopefully will will net something. I did want to also just ask because I was um Commissioner Hanley said something about the gun range and
you said that that you didn't want to steal Chairman Wright's thunder on it. So I know I haven't seen that on the agenda. So I know that we haven't had a discussion amongst the board but it sounds like that Commissioner Haley may have been updated. So, I guess I do have some questions about the gun range
because again, we're talking about the reputational maintenance of the county. I mean, where are we going to put something like that? I believe the last time an RFP was done or a study was done >> I was mentioning in when it came to this item on the agenda on
>> right a field of dreams. >> Yeah. And I just have some questions on it if I >> I don't think she's put it forward yet and I apologize because and I >> Okay. Well, the way you'd stated it made it seem like >> and I said I wasn't going to steal of thunder. So, developed, but neither is my anorobic digest. I haven't heard
anything that you're working on that is thinking that >> I laid several out that are still forward thinking that will continue into the future. >> She's asking for new projects, new revenue. Have you have you have any projects that you have? >> So, I know >> or could you bring them to the next meeting? >> Yeah. I mean, maybe you know you you Oh,
I don't misunderstand the agenda at all, Commissioner Hanley. Maybe you're insecure that the things you've worked on didn't uh materialize as the things I've worked on did and have generated uh money as well as making the tough decisions to keep the budget uh under control. So I apologize if you feel
insecure that you haven't been able with it comes to the digestion and some of the other legal issues that presented themselves with some of the other projects that you had worked on um that weren't able to come to fruition. I'm certainly all ears on all of these things. I'm just going to ask uh some very basic and simple questions again
when it comes to an anorobic digesture. Why did it die on the vine? Why have it? We've you've talked about that now for a couple of years. >> On the vine, >> but you've talked about it. >> If I may just ask the question, you've talked about it. >> Okay. You've talked about it for a couple of years. That's fine. Where are we putting something?
>> Is the transatlantic climate alliance started this year in May. Shannon Pada maybe you weren't listening was the one that suggested an anorobic digestion with a executed contract for trash transfer station. >> Yeah, I'm just asking where where would
in your field of dreams uh world where are we putting an anorobic digesture? >> This is the beginning of it Jared. we were asked to bring these programs together and then once it's brought out and made public, I understand that um
the assistant administrator uh is got a a white paper for me on anorobic digestion in anticipation of something that I previously suggested. So now that our chair has asked for us individually to come up with revenue generation uh
projects okay from this point forward not what we did in the past but what is brand new erase the board you've done a very good job at doing what you've done in terms of generating revenue under >> continue in some cases that's fine she's asking for new revenue generation
>> how much would the anorobic digesttor generate in revenue and uh what is the revenue source >> so you I guess you don't understand. So the by >> No, I I understand it. Are the towns going to pay us to take the trash >> to begin the process? Okay. That means we have to do our due diligence
>> by whom? >> By me as the project, >> but I'm saying communities have >> you to project manage your project of revenue generation. And I still haven't seen anything you put forward that's new. She's asking for new streams of >> it's early. We'll be asking, but he's
he's going down the path which he always does. And I will say I want to thank the chair because honestly Jared, wouldn't you agree this was the most civil u conversation we've had with her in the middle as opposed to you being the chair and allowing access? >> Your tone is your tone has been your
tone has been aggravated and >> tangent. Let's be kind to one another. >> I still have a right to ask questions. So I I'm just wondering where where are we putting an anorobic digtor? >> Well, I think that's something >> we have to do. >> Are we putting it on the piece of property we own in Bridgewater? I would
be that you you're welcome to join my committee. That's a great suggest. >> No, because then that's an open meeting law violation. You can't have committees, they'll be posted. When I have committee meetings, they'll be posted. >> And that's something also that I thought that, you know, even though we're not having evening meetings, we may have evening meetings with committees every
night. Who knows? It depends on what we're doing, where we're at. So by having our meetings in the daytime, I thought our nights would be open for committee meetings and going out and visiting the towns the select. >> Well, but these are the committee meetings chairman. >> That was my whole idea. Yeah,
>> we can't I'm not sure what our statutory authority is to create subcommittees of candidly a board of three. I mean it's not like we're a five, 10 or 100 member body. It's three of us. I think it would become cumbersome to be constantly posting open meetings for for things
that just vetting these out possibly. >> I think I I think I have a right to ask to ask ask questions and and I will always ask questions because I again believe in in maintaining the reputation of Plymouth County uh and making sure that that Plymouth County as an entity,
as a government entity, uh stays rooted in first what we're able to do. Uh, and I I believe that everybody here is capable of of doing a thousand times better than the state and a million times better than the federal
government. So, by no means does asking any questions, of course, I guess it upsets some people when basic questions get asked and that's fine. Um, because things sound nice when they're being said, but when it gets into the actual details of it, I don't know why those are upsetting to just ask those
questions, put those out there for the discussion. This is the forum where those questions get asked, where those discussion points are had. Uh, and I will ask those questions, but I will always uh and sometimes it may not be easy. Uh, but I will always do the right
thing by the people of Plymouth County and I will always ask the necessary questions that I feel are appropriate. Uh, when it comes to again putting something that as I was reading it, as you know, Commissioner Hanley, I give you a lot of credit. you're a wonderful
speaker and a great aator. Um, but by and large it's a lot of the same stuff. So, I did a little bit of reading. I think it releases methane gas into the air. I think that the people >> it becomes energy. >> I think right I >> and it powers vehicles. >> I think that the people of Plymouth
County want to know or have a right if this is something that's being discussed. You've mentioned it. I don't know. It's 2026. I'll say it's a year. I think it's been longer, but you say it's a year. I'll take your word for it. I think the people of Plymouth County have a right to hear our discussion on where that may go and maybe that community
might not want to host uh something like that. I I know Commissioner Wright has talked about a gun range for years. Personally, I certainly believe in supporting our public safety. I'm I I I firm believer in trying to provide resources to help them. I think Commissioner Hanley, you worked on uh
the dispatch uh the last couple of years um the the technology upgrade, right? And I believe we did some funding for that as well. But again, where are we putting a gun range? I believe the last cost that was acquired, it was close to $40 million. How are we paying for that?
And let me just I'll end with this and this is more of a question. Uh how does something like that generate revenue? Do we ask the towns to pay us to use it or >> Well, the towns already, if you might, if I may. >> Well, you're the chair. >> I just You don't have to ask.
>> Well, what I may is I interrupted you. I'm sorry. >> No, I was I was done. So each town, you know, from what I understand, each town pays uh $250, might be even more, maybe $300, 300 uh a year for each police officer go
out and train. So that right there is revenue and they don't have anywhere to go and train right now. They cannot use the sand pits anymore because of the lead bullets, right? >> Uh so there is something that we need to accommodate them with. Uh I think that
this is definitely something federally that um is needed and uh they would absolutely support it. Uh everybody that I've spoken to so far and I've only gone like the first level. I haven't gone up to second or third levels
>> uh of uh what they would be able to do for us. But >> this is something that could uh generate lots and lots of money. And yes, it is. we, you know, it is going to cost us a big bundle of money to um build it, but uh it's worth looking at. I'm sure that
there's many grant tons of grants out there for safety. Uh and that's something that, you know, we're going to need to look into is grants. You know, there there's there's grants for everything uh from uh clothing to uh
shooting for I mean just it goes there's a huge list. is a whole book I think on on safety. So I think that that's something that we really need to look into is grants uh for the uh for safety. >> Yeah. >> And uh so many other things that we you know when we get into uh further
details. >> Yeah. And I guess the last two things I'll say and then then I'm I'm done. I appreciate um your leadership. I appreciate you asking us to do this. Uh Commissioner Hanley has made it seem like you're tasking us. Um, I I've been
doing it. I think we all have been in our own ways. Some, uh, of the projects that we have spearheaded, we've punched them over the finish line. We've we've gotten those sustained revenue sources. Some have not. Some may be worth reexploring. Some may die on the
vine. Um, but I I I want to be uh careful. We're all equal. I appreciate the chairman's enthusiasm. I will certainly always continue to keep my eyes open. Again, the the food resiliency grant netted us, sorry, the food resiliency program netted us a grant. So, I'll
always keep my eyes open to funding opportunities for the county, but um I don't again I take my my tasks from the people of Plymouth County. Um and and just to the point of Commissioner Hanley's statement about decorum, um these meetings have always been
respectful on my end. I have the utmost respect for my colleagues. I have never once made a motion to adjourn a meeting in the middle of business when I have felt like I may not be getting my way. I've accepted the outcome of a vote. I've never threatened bodily harm on
either one of my colleagues uh when something may not have gone my way. Um I am a firm believer in Robert's rules of parliamentary procedure and following those to a tea. I believe uh that people want to see fruitful and productive conversations and meetings as this has been as we had plenty in the past. what
I didn't believe in in the past, still don't, but you know, I don't have the gavvel anymore, is uh is a is a continual uh filibuster, per se. So, I just wanted that point uh to be clarified. And I mean, I will continue
uh doing what I believe is right uh for the county and I will always continue my efforts. I will say my because and you both say my you're both working on things that I don't know anything about and if I'm curious about them I'll I'll ask the chair to put them on the agenda
for an update. I'm very curious about anorobic digestion. I'm very curious for that to be on the agenda for an update on that. I'm very curious to see that fleshed out. So let's see it fleshed out. I'm curious about the gun range. Let's see it fleshed out. In all due respect, these sound like nice ideas,
but I will ask the questions that need to be asked and I will for the benefit of of the viewing public and those that are our bosses, which are the half a million inhabitants of Plymouth County, make sure I get the answers that I I need in order to be comfortable with
whatever my vote may be down the road. Madam Chair, in closing, just to address the filibustering that just came out of his mouth. >> I don't think you understood the purpose of the agenda item tonight. I believe the challenge to us was to identify
projects that we would project manage. Okay. So that means this is a starting point. We're announcing that speaking. I'm sorry that with respect to that you know it manag control.
>> Yeah please let him speak. >> Um you know this can be a cooperative thing. Uh I think we have to uh not anticipate we have to participate and this is the beginning. This is the starting line of an announcement that Commissioner Hanley is going to work on
anorobic digestion, answering the call of the agenda item to bring revenue generating ideas such as we did successfully with trash and solar. Now, this thing is my baby. You're welcome to join me, but when I have something to
present to you, I'm just announcing we haven't started the process. So for you to ask questions, they're premature because we haven't started the process. Now, this forum came out of the transatlantic energy uh conference and I wasn't allowed to have access to the
agenda. Well, under this uh well to do what I wanted to do in terms of revenue generation, I could have started that back uh in in August. >> You never asked. >> I wasn't allowed. So, I'm not going to get to the >> Always ask, >> but understand what the challenge was
tonight. You were to bring something that was a revenue generating project that is brand new with a windshield and not with a rear view mirror looking behind on your past accomplishments. We're looking to solve the crisis of revenue. And the idea is that each
commissioners has we're getting a wide birth to project management. And if it means we give updates to our colleagues, we do to the level you want to participate. You're welcome. But I'm gonna take the the chair's challenge and I'm presenting this because I've already
had a little bit of sweat on it. Now, I'd like to formalize it and and put a task force together to see if this can be done. And then it what what's to lose but my time and and energy, right? If we're able to get lucky like we did with
some talent uh get uh contracted programs that would have generated revenue that didn't generate revenue for things that had nothing to do with account. We had done it. We checked the box and we wouldn't even be talking about revenue generation had those two projects gone forward as contracted. But
there were things that were beyond our control and you know the money was there. We wouldn't be even having this conversation. If I could just say or add to that, uh what I'd like to see is uh speakers committee uh to reinforce, you
know, what you're saying. So, as uh Commissioner Don Zola says, he has questions. You know, maybe they could answer some of the questions and where we go, how do we do it, and what the revenue uh sources would be. So, that's something down the road. I don't think that's something right now that we're
ready to bring somebody in. Uh I have a lot of people that have come in and talked to us about um a gun range. Uh so uh but I I still think it's a little bit early. >> That's why I didn't want to stay. >> No, I know. I know. Uh anyways, uh if there's not anything else that we need
to discuss or we need to uh talk about, um I do I hear a motion to >> make a motion to adjurnn. >> Okay. Second. All >> in favor? I >> thank you. Thank you for coming.