e e e e e e e all right guys um calling select board meeting to order just going to go over the agenda real quick we have public comment in a few minutes select board leison and town manager reports oh sorry we're being televised on um Comcast and Verizon Rob is helping us in that small little room over there and at select board ladies on Town manager reports we have AR day Proclamation with Chris Cole and then we have a presentation sorry I don't have your name from uh for Community diversity equity and inclusion assessment uh along with the board of Library so let me know if you need to call if you need to order when we get there and uh and then we're going to have a discussion and vote on volunteer appointments for Board of Health and the Retirement Board uh Karen and I had the interviews earlier and then um you know depending on the time we have discuss and vote on um hiring an independent investigator uh it's a long one but uh to statements made and actions taken surrounding the resignation of Jackie McCarthy and then we have a discussion and vote on modification to community preservation act CPA study committee uh to replace ex official member of affordable housing trust committee with an ex official member of the reading housing authority and then future agendas and meeting minutes so um if if anyone didn't sign in yet that's okay but we'd like you to sign in if you're going to speak so we're gonna have public comment uh in the room and then on Zoom so if anybody would like to speak um please come up to the podium and uh thank you Nancy and then we'll uh you know try to keep it in two minutes please uh Nancy Dr uh 371 corl Street um Precinct one meeting member I did want to address what's on the agenda later tonight for the Board of Health um appointments I actually have not been able to keep up with how many appointments and reappointments you've made of Kevin Saxon to the Board of Health but what I have kept up with is the number of qualified applicants and resumés that you've actually rejected and have dismissed in order to keep a realer On The Board of Health um you know there was a subject matter expert then there was a physician there were nurses uh Stellar Al you know Allied health professionals um most recently Chris and Jackie vasque you reappointed a realtor over a master's prepared epidemiologist with 30 years experience during the pandemic Mr Saxon is a very nice man I don't think anyone would disagree and he certainly would like to volunteer he seems like he has a very good attendance to the meetings but Mr Saxon also when he was a member of this board made it very difficult for the Board of Health to pass tobacco regulations because it was bad for business and when Mr Saxon was a voting member of the Board of Health he decided to eliminate all of the financial fines for um health and food violations because it was bad for business it seems like these are things that are bad for health now I'm actually going to ask Advocate that you not reappoint Mr Saxon you thank him for his interest and perhaps find a better board for him given his background maybe zoning um I think for most boards having an interest in volunteering is quite sufficient but I think everybody would agree the Board of Health is very different in fact your appointments to the Board of Health I believe are the most important appointments that you make now I believe that our Board of Health should be with the most qualified individuals and it actually could have been if it wasn't for this board reappointing a realtor now I actually think what you should be doing is looking through all those applications and resumes which are all public record by the way anyone can look at the Stellar applicants you've had and I think you should use some mopus and reach out to those individuals you might have to put your tail between your legs because most of the if they didn't know they now know that they were rejected for a realtor for the Board of Health positions you might be doing some mental gymnastics right now thinking how can you figure out reappointing a realator maybe making them associate and a non- voting member and I'll tell you that's probably not a good idea you WRA it up wrap it up please because your reputation your reputations are on the line and what you're really going to do is speed up the charter change that people have already been talking about to remove the Board of Health appointments from this board and make an election the way most communities do thank you thank you anyone else Melissa good evening Melissa Murphy uh 97 bin nordon road to meeting m just two quick points first I'm hoping to see um a discussion about water rates on an agenda in the near future um I would like you guys to examine the percentages between each tear also as a town meeting member we um voted and agreed to look at um Mr Zeke's instructional motion um when it comes to the inequity of the tiered system for condo complexes and multif family houses second I'm hoping to see the select board um organize some sort of community session to help residents understand the substantial tax implications that could be coming their way with all the projects um that members of this board are trying to push forward um residents need to know what those numbers are going to look like um we have Simon's way we have the senior center we have killum we want to join CPA we have to remember that kilum is the only project that is on a fixed timeline and if we don't get a supporting vote for that project we lose multi-millions of dollars in reimbursement from msba msba I think transparency is key when discussing all these projects so residents can make informed decisions when it comes time to vote thank you thanks anyone like to speak do I have to come all the way up yes please yes sorry Laura Stella 347 Char Street um it's really just a request I've been trying to attend the senior center meetings and the Simon Way committee meeting and the killum meetings and um they're overlapping on nights so I didn't know it's a request I didn't know if it would be possible if the committee members talk to each other in iard a calendar so that residents can attend all those meetings since to piggy back after on to what was just said there's a huge impact and a lot of activity in one particular area of town and I just don't think it's I feel like we're at a disadvantage if we can't attend all the meetings and see what's put put forth so it's just a request thank anyone else in the room like to speak John Arina uh good evening John Arena Precinct one 26 Francis Drive I know the board will take up later this evening the matter of the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the departure of one of your members I did want to take each of you back time briefly reflecting on your own candidacy and your own appointment to this board when you pledged commitment to the town's Charter and bylaws and in doing so to obvious transparency and accountability and all that's done by this board as a former member of this board I know those words carry meaning and I know however that the delivery against those is usually a political or another event such as the one in front of you tonight it's antithetical for board members who previously proclaimed Fidelity to transparency and accountability to say or suggest that the group should pause should defer should wait or that it's not worth the money this problem has cost this town already we know have a special election with it costs we have almost lost a wonderful town manager candidate but for the actions of the remainder of this board there's something wrong here and if recent news in the last days has truth it runs through this board the voters are owed an answer this is not about you it's about us 12,000 or so voters in this town we're owed result we're owed the findings the facts and the determinations discovered independently um and the cost to fix it is irrelevant compared to the other factors that this town will spend money on I can think of only one personal motivation that would cause any member of this board to oppose an investigation and it's not a pleasant contemplation it'll be easy for all of us to see as voters what transpired and to take note of what changes are necessary but that'll only happen if this board remains true to the goals of transparency and accountability thank you would anyone else in the room like to speak see none last call okay Caitlyn anyone on Zoom no one raising their hand all right thank you on to uh liaison and Tom manager Chris thanks Carla [Music] um um I know we all uh had the lecture of um attending the pickle ball event uh the other day over at reading Memorial High School um I know Jackie was there uh taking lessons Mark you were there Carlo was given lessons people were teaching me a lesson there um it's but the point is that everybody was came together on a soldout kind of event like that and got exercise and there was all different age groups represented so it's good to see something like that bring in the community together um and then the school committee met they had their meeting uh they try to meet once a year at Medco headquarters down in Boston um and reading residents ended up going some Boston residents obviously were there as well uh Curtis Martin gave a presentation and update um in Meo program that he's running here um is being used as a model for other communities to uh to kind of piggy back on so kudos to all them for doing that um and I think that's pretty much it thank you Mark thanks Carlo um so the there's a lot of activity surrounding discussions about the senior center um both the Council on Aging and the group called recal that reports into the select board have been meeting um seems about just about weekly and I think it is just about Weekly right now what's happening is we have identified three sites we're reviewing all the information on the sites and now some estimated costs that have come in um the progress that we've made is to develop some site evaluation criteria that was done in conjunction with the consultant who shared with us what other communities use as a way to evaluate um sites we're not evaluating the inside per se it's which is the right site to to move forward with right now um we've also uh started to speak with the permanent building committee so that we can get some of their input before a site would be selected to make sure that they've had their their say on things also um there's a meeting tomorrow night of recal um to move ahead voting on the criteria um that we would be using to kind of finalize what those will be and in addition there are a lot of meetings taking place with community members all the meetings are open to the public of course but also there are some Community member meetings in specific specifically some abutter meetings so that we can understand what the concerns are and then let the consultant and and all of us kind of understand what those are and decide what we need to do to better address the concerns that have been raised um a lot of the information is getting channeled back to the consultant for further consideration and perhaps even further studies that may need to be done before we we progress with that the activities going forward um we will hopefully be at town meeting with a table outside of the room so in the Performing Arts Center but outside of there to show what these proposals are looking like and again to encourage more public input into into that process there are no decisions that have been taken yet town meeting is not having any discussion about it uh at this time the process ideally is going to happen over the summer that a site gets selected um or excuse me gets recommended and that's brought back to the board for a discussion and then we'll see where it goes from there recal is scheduled to Sun set at the end of June so there's a little bit of a fire to to move ahead on on that activity uh Andor the board may want to consider changing that date that's the other option that's going on and that's the key activity right now thank you and and is the meet where was the meeting tomorrow night it's here I know where exactly it's probably in the conference room but I'm not 100% sure that and then there's a tour of kilum on Thursday as well yeah so there a tour Thursday yeah and then also the 27th the Saturday there's another a tour of the senior center tour of the Pleasant Street Center take oh I'm sorry sorry yeah Pleasant Street Center that's right yep do those first yeah so there's a chance to see kind of what's going on at the center now U members of the Council on agent can take you through the building to see what's happening understand the the needs that we're not able to meet right now and why it's so important that we um with priority get on to a senior center a new Senior Community Center we're actually calling a center for active living that was the ch that the select board created to start thank you thank you camon sure um so uh the kilum school building committee uh did meet last night and and the project is really ramping up and I would encourage everyone to come to Kellum tomorrow night at 7M if you have never seen the interior of Kellum and some of the concerns that the the school department and the Educators and parents have had um tours will be offered at 6:30 um so definitely this is tomorrow night um they will be showing site plans and potential uh potential drawings of buildings and where they could be cited on the property and um we'll also touch upon how a full uh school districtwide prek might fit there or not so um definitely looking for Community feedback and engagement and parking is coming up every single Community um discussion so again you'll see options for alleviating some of the traffic issues that people have been experiencing for years so definitely encourage you all to come tomorrow evening at I'm sorry Thursday evening at kilum at 7 or 6:30 for a tour um so you know one of the things that um this board and other um boards need to start thinking about as or be aware of is that the kilum school building committee has asked msba if we will be in danger of losing our project reimbursement if we don't pass MBTA Community communities and and I don't really think anyone can give us a clear answer and we've not gotten a clear answer it's too early but it's not too early for us to make sure that we are paying attention um and aware of this so um you know that would that would be devastating so we still have time between now and the end of the year to get all this sorted out but the question has been asked and there's no definitive yes or no and you know certainly if we get an answer we we'll let you know but I don't know that we will um anytime soon um okay so the next big makeig milestone I just want to let folks know um I understand we're starting to get some cost estimates out of the feasibility study for the senior center we're going to start getting some cost big picture high level cost estimates for potential kilum school um configurations um we will have a submission due for the msba on May 20th so um you know things are things are definitely moving around and we'll get a a bigger picture of you know what that is going to mean to the community um I was in touch with Seth Molt's office um they have been planning some District visits um uh rep Molton of course helped us with um a major contribution to the m M VP um solution at Mallet SS Morgans um his office has proposed May 20th um they would love to meet with Matt and meet with us and um anybody else um so if we can get that scheduled we can get back to them and um so they would definitely love to come for I don't know when we'll have a celebration or an opening of that project so they threw out May 20 but if that's not the right date we'll find another one but certainly yeah sure I'll follow um and then I just wanted to mention I don't think we've met since we had the last um inclusive Gathering that was put together by many members of the community was it last Monday you know after the bomb threat um and I just want to say again what a wonderful wonderful um last minute you know uh event was put together with not a lot of time and amazing performers and thoughtful thoughtful discussion and presentation and I really enjoyed it and I just want to thank everybody for doing that again it was um it was a very positive evening you know after a long week of um stress so thank you thank you um yeah Echo uh camera sentiments uh I stopped by and U everyone came out in the cold wasn't the best weather but it was a really nice event um and to to Chris's comments um I had the pleasure of volunteering again for the pickle ball fundraiser event for the reading pickleball Players Association that was held to the high school it was sold out there was two sessions of lessons uh Mark didn't want me as instructor so I acquiesced and uh those were full and we had open play uh for two sessions as well it was a long day 8:30 to 4: and then we had a nice celebration afterwards at peruchi and it was a great day um a lot of fun a lot of fun hopefully um we'll have it again next year and and uh Simon's way exploratory committee we're pretty much done at the last meeting with Jackie's help we've finalized our slide deck um with all the final input from the members just a few tweaks that was just our final look and uh we're all wrapped up so we'll be presenting to this board uh in the coming months and uh you know sunsetting that committee and um I think that's it for me over you Matt yeah so the recal meeting I check marked in it 6:30 in the burger room Burger room so the small room down there so and I too attended the rainbow rally in the common it was a great event thanks to Elbert who was here tonight that put that together and and his team um I also attended the the pickle ball Community Day um and was able to draw the winning raffle ticket which was which was an honor for me and it was a great event too A lot of people participating I'd never really seen pickle ball before but it was good to see how it was played and I just want to mention there's several jobs on our town webs site we've posted several jobs over the last few weeks so um some of them are assistant Town manager tax collector two planners including the economic development planner in several DPW positions so we have a great team here at Town Hall and if you know anybody or you want to come and join our team please go to the website feel free and um and send in your applications so we really want to hire those important positions so and I think that's all I have for for tonight so thank you though thank you all right moving on next oh sorry sorry um Matt real quick for um just maybe for next meeting or unless you know now what is the the deal with all the potholes when do the DPW start actually filling these things you know um fairly soon I know Chris we're out there every day Chris so it's actively going on it's because I know that there's only a time in month that you can do stuff or something like that we holes all winter really out there every day Okie doie if you know specific po holes but us sow put one in right now see fix yeah it's just that time of season we see more of them opening up so well that rain didn't help no rain and freeze and and then do we have an ETA on Verizon going on the water tank um I I'll check with I'll check with Ryan on that um I I think we're all set in terms of the Contracting I'm not sure when they're going to install the apparatus though so I can check on that y thanks car all right thanks uh Chris now we have an arbor day uh Proclamation from our um tpw director Chris Co sure Proclamation sorry Proclamation how does the board going to read it or do you want me to read it or what what would you like me to do I have the proclamation okay you can stand at the CHR you feel comfortable Chris goad sorry sorry uh Proclamation Arbor Day whereas in 1872 J Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees and that this holiday called ARB day was the first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska and Arbor is now observed throughout the nation and the world and whereas trees reduce the erosion of precious top soil by wind water cut Heating and Cooling costs uh moderate the temperature clean the air produce oxygen and provide habitat for wildlife and whereas trees are renewable resource giving us paper wood for our homes fuel for our fires and countless other wood products and whereas trees in our town increase property values and enhance the economic Vitality of businesses business areas beautify our community and whatever they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal and whereas reading has been recognized as Tree City USA by the national ARB Day Foundation for the 39th consecutive year and desire to continue a tree planting ways now therefore we the select Board of the town of Reading Massachusetts do hereby Proclaim April 26 2024 as Arbor Day in the town of reading and urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and plant trees to Gladden the heart and promote the well-being of this and future Generations the select water brother thank you Chris D no like trees no thank you and uh I apologize I I you know I forget this from last year I know we do it every year and um thanks for coming oh no problem do we get anything for the 40th anniversary I not sure yet so we'll see next year yeah so kind of tre related I I went into uh truck tone today and the pollinator Garden uh has been seated I don't want to say planted but seated over a casine so it's going to take a few years but that was good to hear that um that got planted by a resident by the way uh all by himself so Kudos and um so we'll see that bear fruit in in a couple years or less and actually while you're here um I have been down to the town forest and like the walkway looks amazing like everything's coming along the parking I can't I can't wait like great and so now there's actually going to be a safe place to walk along to get to the town Forest so good job glad to see that happening great just thanks all right exting now or I don't have the the you have to move to accept the proclamation and then have a vote on it okay sure move to accept the proclamation as presented second second any discussion no person all those in favor 4 zero thank you okay thank you and we'll have that sign okay thanks right now we have um I wasn't able to open it earlier but we have a presentation from I don't know who it's uh Dr Iris bonil and she is here to present our community needs assessment actually Albert may be coming up to introduce her to Albert good evening it's good to be before you again um again good evening for the select board members in res reading residents um my name is Albert CL director of theis conclusion year for the town of reading um I'm excited to introduce our Consultants that have been working with us for our first Ren's first Dei assessment um over the past year um or correctly last nine months um before I introduce them I want to give a big thanks uh to you the select board um our town manager um for your support and encouragement as I've been boarded myself for the last six months so it's feels like it's a went by pretty quickly so thank you for support around that um you know as I mentioned uh when I came before you in October um of last of of last year um supporting this work was going to take bold leadership um and that's been provided I've seen that and that's really good to see um I also want to give a big thanks to our community members those who are here those who are virtually um for the enthusiastic support for our work that we've been doing um particularly through our work and pair Partners in inclusive reading um and other community initiatives you referenced the work that we were doing last week which unfortunate we had to pull that event together but that just shows the how we're going to come together and read um if any one of our members are harmed in any kind of way um so this work that is going to be coming for you for our Consultants was commissioned about uh a year ago through some funding from the previous Town manager and the previous DDI director um along with the libraryies funds um there were no just to just to be clear there were no public funds the reading tax funds that supported this work um this assessment work um again thanks all um that was involved in this um you know this assessment and this findings that you're going to hear shortly as just the first step um in some long-term commitment that reading is making you know that we're going to make in regards to making us uh the most inclusively and socially just town that we can be um as our Consultants will show you with their recommendations um and they're broad um it's up to us in Reading to to prioritize those um recommendations and to apply them so that's the work so it's kind of teeing us up for the work that we're going to do next um so I hope you join me in getting behind this work again it's going to take a team effort um and again I believe we can do it I've seen in short period of times what we can do with less time so with the runway clear for us there nothing we can't do um opportunity Consultants works at this intersection between Community policy and research their mission is to Foster Equity um and Improvement through education Workforce and Community Services as calers for transformational change they collaborate with schools Su systems um municipalities like ours organizations and philanthropist at the national state and local levels to address systematic barriers in accessing high quality education and economic opportunities they work together to drive impactful transformational um transformation through Equity assessments like the one we did here strategic planning program design and implementation and advocacy and are all rooted in a collaborative approach that prioritize the stakehold engagement which they've done through this project you hear some of that in the methodology um and through diverse Partnerships and inclusive strategies um in the bidding process their proposal beat out a very impressive list of potential Consultants okay I've talked a lot um so um I want to bring up our um the CEO of of opportunity Consultants Iris Bon Gil to give you our recomend finds and recommendations from my de say thank you thank you good evening good evening everyone um good evening members of the select board uh Town manager members of the public uh both here and watching from home my name is Iris Bon Gill and I'm CEO of opportunity Consulting and it has been a privilege to work with the town of reading over the last um eight or nine months so uh I'm here today to present to you um about the project which was this community community needs assessment and share with you the findings and recommendations and then of course take any questions that you might have um so is it okay if I say next slide yes we'll do that awesome um first let me introduce opportunity Consulting and I think Albert already did a great job we um as he said we work with um uh communities like this municipalities around the country uh and we do this work from a very research based standpoint um my name is Iris Von Gilligan and I am really glad that I had the opportunity to lead this project as the Project Director and as CEO of opportunity Consulting but I would be remiss not to mention that it's actually a team of people behind me that really carried out this work um and so David Cully um Dr nardos gabri Mady Ortiz and Anana Sharma uh were really responsible in large parts for carrying out the qualitative and quantitative research that went into this work as well as the quality assurance and project management we do have a report that will be um out by by the end of the month I believe and and however you all do it on your website Etc so um what I'm going to do is sort of present um an overview but the report will provide many more details next L um so our work um we like to say we have a bias to action and so when we think about these Community needs assessments we really go into it with the lens of how do we create actionable recommendations so really try to get a bearing and understand the work we um work with municipalities around the country um and public agencies this is just a few a sampling of a few we wanted to share that we've done some work in Massachusetts we did the community needs assessment in the town of Arlington um also in um Burlington and wusi in Vermont so kind of the New England um but also around the country as well so we have California DC and Austin Public Schools on the list next slide and before I get started I did just want to thank the um the folks who really uh from a a perspective of a community needs assessment uh of course you need to hear from the community and so we had that a lot here um in the town of reading uh so before we go into the methodology I did just want to stop and say thank you to um the select board for the support to the town manager the past and present um and to the Dei director and to Amy and the library for all of the work that they've done to facilitate this meeting assessment um we often times say we have expertise in the process of this work but you all are the experts in the context of your town and so without you we certainly could not do this work um and then also you know you saw that we do this work around the country but and these are issues that municipalities really grapple with all over the country but not every municipality takes the courageous step of commissioning a study like this so I do want to commend the community commend the select board for the work that you did to open up up your town ask a third party to come in and provide findings and recommendations like this so next slide uh in terms of an overview for the project we were asked when we um initially came on to think about how can the community um create events and services that are more accessible and um Equitable to the public and so that was really the lens and the kind of research question we used um when we came into work and then I'll describe the methodology we took and then move into the findings and recommendations next slide um before I get into the methodology and this is a part of our methodology in some ways it's really about our approach to the work um one one way to think about and illustrate a principle that we use when we think about this work is that Equity is not a zero sum game so to us when we think about this work if if one person has something that's equitable it doesn't mean someone else has less really it's sort of an expansion of Justice if you will and so the curve cut effect really uh illustrates this and exemplifies it in many ways um about 50 years ago in the 1970s there weren't a lot of curb Cuts there wasn't an ADA Compliant situation and so um Disability Advocates came in and said we really need to think about how to make sidewalks and streets more accessible and through that work they created the Ada and curb Cuts but what we we know about curve Cuts is that it didn't just help the disability Community it helped everybody and so the idea is that when you design at the margins when you design for those who are most marginalized everyone benefits and that's a principle that we bring into this work that if we do this work well and we design it well the whole Community benefits and so it's not a zero sum gain so people with strollers and bicycles and folks who have a hard time lifting a leg all benefit from curve Cuts even though it was designed for the dispill community so just wanted to share that all right now we'll move into our methodology and how we approach the research next slide um we use a proprietary um method that we developed called the outcom Le Equity approach and so what we what we do with outcom L Equity is we start with data and we really ground ourselves in the data of your town we say where are the gaps where do that exist who's represented in the data who's not and we do a deep dive into into that data as a startup Point um we emphasize local context and stakeholder engagement all of our work we really think those who are experiencing the challenges should architect the solutions and so all of our work really centers around how do we hear from those who may not normally have a seat at the table and we work really hard to um to set that table and allow people to come in and share their perspectives and experiences um next it's to focus on the possible this isn't always easy work it's certainly not easy to think all all the time about gaps and problems and things like that but we really bring a lens that um through this work Improvement is possible and so it's it excites us we're optimistic about it and I think that's part of our approach as well and then finally how do we ensure that everything we do and we are researchers but we want to make data accessible to the public and to the community and that's that's at the Forefront of how we think about the work next slide all right this might be a little small but what I'm going to do is walk you through a little bit of our road map just so you have a sense of um how we approached the work here in the town of reading um so we started with demographic and historical context and data from the US Census um from a town employee survey uh and from a general town of running survey uh that Community survey was open for about five weeks and we received close to 700 responses uh from town residents and community members we also had a Workforce engagement survey um that received 141 responses and that was from the town Workforce so folks who um work uh work in the town of reading and then we did interviews and these interviews were with Community leaders um community- based organizations that work very directly with the community and um members of the team who were in leadership roles the the former Town manager took part um so we did about 19 interviews and then we held four focus groups and those focus groups were um one group was with uh residents that identify as black latino uh indigenous and other people of color um one was with older older um adults or seniors another was with reading high school students um they were students of color some were met co- students some were not and a group that we called an intersectional Group which was um basically anybody who wanted to take part in this group that may come from a marginalized background either maybe a faith-based or disability or um lgbtq plus Etc so sort of a intersectional Community Focus Group um as well so those were four focus groups that we had in addition to the 19 interviews and a lot of surveying and Community data um additionally we had bi-weekly engagement and meetings with um Amy and Albert and the team to ensure that we were always touching base again you all are the experts in your context so you know doing research reading keeping a breast with your your news watching your select board meetings but also touching base with them and then we worked with the pair group and an implementation committee which was what we called it um which were members of um leadership roles in the town Workforce and so we kind of had different touch points with different groups um the implementation committee meeting that was monthly the pair meeting I think we met three times over the the project and then bi-weekly with the project team next slide all right so this the part you all want to know what did we learn so what we learned may not be a surprise to many of you who've lived here and and work here and um are here all the time but um we think it's worth putting out and of course this provides you all data that you need as well um so our first three findings on the screen here uh really high three key areas the need for more affordable housing uh a desire for diverse representation in town leadership and the community is concerned about accessibility and inclusivity of public infrastructure um and events space uh so for the first housing options prices and cost of living um particularly from what we heard for seniors and for Town employees is too costly uh and so we heard this from um 66% of respondents for the Workforce survey indicated that they do not live in the town of ring and a huge reason for that was cost um and this was not only young employees only 25% of the 25 to 45 year old age group that work in the town live in the town of reading but also 55 and older age group of um Town employees also said they don't live here um and so that was uh also a lot attributed to cost um we also heard that seniors and older adults face um infrastructural limitations in terms of housing options and their ability to um age in their in their homes um and we'll talk a little bit more about this when we do recommendations as well uh in terms of finding two This was um a lot of conversation with residents and um including some metco students who experienced diminished trust in um in town leadership uh to create changes and to address racial um ableist and religious violence that may make them feel more vulnerable uh so we heard school um parents and residents talk about the need for more meaningful followup in the aftermath of discriminatory incidents in the town um and there was a lot of talk around including raising awareness and some educational strategies uh for finding three the town leadership boards um meetings committees and town Workforce are not diverse to say we we know that to be the case um and yet diversity is necessary for representative government and so this came up in almost every conversation in some way the conversation around um more diversity in decision-making roles and so um there was a lot of appreciation for uh the office of equity and social justice and for the role the Dei director role but that this representative voice could not just be in one role so how do we um step back and Ensure that we have more diversity in our leadership next slide then we have four more findings and these final four findings findings four through seven I'll walk through these um the finding number four is public infrastructure and location of town events are not easily accessible to all residents uh this particularly came up in the case of seniors and individuals with reduced Mobility um that were concerns that a lack of public infrastructure in the town and during events to support people with limited Mobility um a limited reliable public transportation this also came up with Meco students who said we can't always participate in events and activities because of limited Transportation options that have to take us back and um and oftentimes we heard that this prevents broader Community Building um and support in um public events finding number five uh community events might not reflect diverse groups there was conversation about certain events that took place over the course of the year um juneth and there were uh there was pride parade and some other events that people felt really good about and um people did talk about wanting more diverse um events that reflect their uh their community that reflect their cultural background and um how finding ways that the events that take place actually do reflect those groups in the community for finding number six communication on town events and services um we did see that the town has fostered dedicated efforts to improve Communications channels particularly through renewed website and reaching out to people who may not have digital communication means um and yet we also know that communication is complex right and not everyone um is uh accessing information the same way and so this is just an area to continue to think about out um that residents did talk about the desire to have a more centralized communication uh available to them and even communication that could be um that could come through some of the community- based organizations that they participate with and uh I think that was the end oh and finally the seven finding is is more about the town Workforce and that there's limited exposure to diversity and accessibility um and in the town Workforce so um on the really positive side and this isn't something you see every day in the survey 87% of respondents agreed they had the resources they needed to do their work and 70% said they felt that their background and experience were valued by the town um and yet there was a feeling that um people want to learn more about what it means to work with different people in different diverse uh contexts and so that was something they felt like they didn't have a lot of exposure to next slide I won't make you read these on the screen but when we deliver our report we will have some quotes and things like that but for the most part voices from our focus groups did emphasize the challenges that they face from housing accessibility um particularly for seniors uh proactive stance against discrimination and these insights really underly how we thought about the recommendations next slide um so one thing that we do in our in all of our community needs assessments work and all of our needs assessments work is that we really try to recognize that oftentimes what we hear when we go out are more symptoms of issues right and so what we do is we want to dig in deeper and we want to understand what the underlying causes of some of those problems are and they may be shared underlying problems so we may have come out with a list of 11 findings initially and then kind of tailored it down down to the seven um so many of you may have heard Albert Einstein saying if I need to solve a problem and you give me an hour to do it I'll spend the first 55 minutes understanding the problem and then the five minutes on the solution so that's really our thinking here is like how do we deeply understand the problem and the findings so that we can move into recommendations we did a workshop with uh community members in pair and we also did another workshop with the implementation committee and we kind of used a protocol to go through and and get to those underlying root causes and what we heard from those root causes were kind of a few themes that came out you don't have to look at them all there but they were themes around trust leadership communication and housing and so that's really what underlied how we thought of our recommendations next um so in terms of recommendations um I just want to say broadly these are and Albert said it as well research-based recommendations and they're broad recommendations so they're not the intent is not for you to vote on recommendations or to um take them wholesale and adopt them the the intent is for you to really have a conversation around okay this is something that works in this town or this is something that is being used in the neighboring Community is this something we could do does this meet our context does this meet our financial constraints and all the different things our opportunities that may already exist that we can tack on to and so how we think of recommendations is these are some research-based recommendations we're going to lay those out in the report for you all and then the next step is for you all to think what meets our needs in the short term and long term and how do we sort of think about building a strategy around this so this is not a strategic plan but it is some broad recommendations so the first um recommendation is to initiate feedback loops in the town services to create a direct line of communication so we often times think of communication as one way and so I I said there was some challenges with communication communication is complex and the town has done a lot to build websites and to build um ways to get information out what we're suggesting is that there be a feedback loop so that communication comes back to the town from communities so that communities can hear um so that for instance you may want to have um the way some communities do this is they might have an Advisory Board and The Advisory Board may be Community m that often times aren't in other meetings right and so before you put something out publicly you can send something to them and say what do you all think you can get their feedback and it creates a loop for for um for communication it also builds trust it builds transparency and it builds buyin so um we talk a lot about that in the report as a a potential way to think about communication a little differently next slide um another we talked about how there were um issues with uh accessibility and um so we wanted to spend a little time talking about ADA compliance and and how to think about this maybe um one is to look at following an ADA self-evaluation plan a lot of communities do that I think you all have um some some part of that in the works as well um that would allow you to uh evaluate yourselves your buildings Etc on this um on a kind of thinking about limited Mobility and cognitive needs uh and then another area that we talk a little bit about is this idea of light touch density um and that light touch density and there's a picture that that that illustrates that a bit um light touch density is an example of how you can use existing structures and existing land to build um mixed kind of use housing so that you do have um some some additional density but not um high density so you still have single family homes but you also um have a varied housing stock and that varied housing stock is um both current single family family homes but also um a higher density as well um and this would also help reading comply with the state's multif family zoning requirements um in a way that we also heard people you know had concerns about too much density so um light touch density is something we go into in the report and something uh the town may want to explore next um so this one might be tough we understand there are structural barriers to how much you can diversify um your boards your meetings your um commissions but this did come up we know that um that if you have if you want to reflect diversity you oftentimes need the people who are making decisions to be diverse and this could also come up in that feedback loop even if the the Committees are not diverse necessarily right now if you have a feedback Loop that could also help but we did want to acknowledge that there are strategies and targeted recruitment campaigns Etc that other places utilize to um build a more diverse pipeline we also heard that potentially people are reluctant to lift their heads and volunteer if they feel that that will make them into a Target and that there are situations that have maybe made people feel reluctant in that way um so you know again there's some targeted Outreach strategies diverse recruitment strategies and ways to think about that although we recognize the structural limitations of you know the the current demographic makeup of the Town being the pipeline into um into your leadership roles next slide all right uh so this next one is about um setting up a Supplier Diversity Program so uh as we think about events that reflect the community and we think about who's putting on different events we also thought about um the fact that when we have more diverse suppliers that is also an opportunity to have people who may reflect the community may come from those communities and also a way to um ensure that you have more a more resilient supply chain within your town um there's a there's a number of groups that we can think of when we talk about Supplier Diversity that other neighboring towns um and cities have uh thought through and so we believe that this may be something that could help the town of reading diversify ify your pool and pipeline of um of vendors um so the next recommendation is around enhancing the role of community- based organizations in town events uh so we did have the privilege of talking to a number of leaders of community- based organizations in our 19 interviews that we did uh and we know that many times those community- based organizations already have the trust of the community right they represent various communities they have deep ties and connections to communities so one of our recommendations is to think about um how to bring community- based organizations into partnership as you're thinking about planning events hosting um events and doing other um Service delivery models uh these community- based organizations other places think about public private Partnerships Etc um again can enhance trusted relationships and Trust was one of those root causes so it's one of the things that we have on the Forefront of our minds as we're thinking about um the town of reading and how you might move uh forward in some recommendations uh there's two left so stay with me the next is uh to conduct a deeper dive into the state's Town Workforce so we say that because this was really a community needs assessment and most of the work we did was externally focused and Community Focus and so we did not want to draw large assumptions from one survey with Town employees we thought there were some great tidbits and some ideas that came out of it but we do recommend that if um the town of ring really wants to understand how to think about and build a diverse Pipeline and recruitment strategies that there be a more um Deep dive into the town Workforce and thinking about that work further there are you know assessments that can go directly into that there are additional surveys and tools that that could used and so we thought that would be um a good strategy and recommendation for you all and then we did have one final recommendation also focused on Town Workforce and that was to um you know we know that that there's been a lot of and appreciate hearing the town manager talk about positions tonight that could be filled and in a very um open way you know having uh heard from HR um and other groups to say we know there are a lot of strategies you all are already using we do think that maybe the idea of co-ops and internships and maybe even thinking about Partnerships with the Community College could bring you more diverse pipelines so we did offer some recommendations for that in the report um and this is again how do you build a diverse pool of candidates so that you can select the best candidate but your your opportunity to get a diverse candidate out of that pool uh increases certainly so that's the lens that we brought to thinking about your Workforce uh for diversity and to to conclude you can you can move on to conclude I wanted to just say again this is you know Albert said it one step in a in a larger process for the town um and so the next step is the report will be I think releas it'll be on the website and everyone will have a copy of it where there are a lot more details around these recommendations uh and um we hope that that'll be an opportunity for us to you know have additional conversation with you all at that time but um I am happy to answer questions that you might have I'll go to the next slide I think is it's my contact information so um if if anybody any member of the public or anyone wants to reach out and and have any additional questions that don't get answered tonight um I welcome that and you can um reach me at my email or you can uh look at our LinkedIn or our Instagram so thank you very much again for your time tonight um I look forward to hopefully engaging with you in a conversation that's really what this is about is having Dialogue on how to best uh move forward your work and your goals so thank you thank you any questions from the board or comments thanks car so thanks for the the presentation I'm um wondering what is kind of best pract Albert thanks for coming up here too perfect timing how do we how do we think about a next step is it starting some more Community conversations how do we take some of these ideas and kind of spread them out into the community further I'm not asking you for the full plan but I'm just wondering what the next steps might be to get it started yeah and I jum I think Iris kind of spoke to it we I think I opened up with I think that we already have some good things in motion right so some good stuff happening I think this community engagement piece I think is where we want to really lean into so I think pair is really positioned well for that in terms of saying hey we have to lean into pair these are these 71 members right now of pair that have a pulse of the community in terms of what you know really how can we engage them to really be a part of the F so I think that's something we're being strategically focused on that you know I think we're doing some um strategic thinking around that I think we're going to have to really as as um IIs said we're gonna have to really do a little digging with the workforce side I think we're gonna have to just really get a better sense of you know what we can do internally to kind of move some of those recommendations to action so this is where I was shing with Amy this morning or yesterday at some point one about 15,000 me is that we were talking about the like we're going to have to be very strategic over these next few months this is for me a window of an opportunity right now for us to really do some amazing work but we have to do it strategically and not just think about like let's do that the kind of the Band-Aid approach right let's not just do that so we can kind of feel good let's just do the Deep analysis I think we got folks on board I think we're kind of ready I think all the the major players are on board I think and that's that's always a good thing and I would say that's not always the case again I Just sh 30 seconds is that I'm with my colleagues twice a month across the state a lot of towns have not moved to this place yet in terms of saying let's move to action like a lot of towns are still kind of putting their toe on the water so I would just say we have an opportunity now sorry Sor to be long-winded with that I I would offer some other ideas as well I think those are 1,000% right um I think there's also some uh data here that you all have and in the report there's going to be a lot more so we don't have charts and graphs and all that maps and all that but we will in the report but I think that um if you think about the recommendations you could have Community conversations focused on each of those topics if you if you thought about like how do we chunk this work um pair could be a great place to start for something like that but it could also be a way that you're structuring a conversation around a topic and then um you're allowing people to come into that conversation right maybe you're presenting here's some of the data that we received and here's some of the thoughts about how do we move forward with some maybe some structured conversation that can happen around what Gathering people's Insight so um it could be a way to bucket the conversations with community members as you think about how do we get this information out um and then there's also you know ways that we talked a little bit about how to think about this work from the lens of it's all of our work so when you think about the town and there's indicators in here of findings and areas you may want to um to kind of um incorporate into the work that you're already doing so we talked about Communications there's some HR practices but there's there's lots of other places that you could incorporate this into the work that you're doing and so um taking a a pretty strategic view of that is there lwh hanging fruit is there work already happening that we can just kind of back on to with some of the findings I think might be a way to think about it next great any other questions or comments that was terrific appreciate this looking forward to getting started thank you thank you thank you thank you right folks moving on uh we are to our uh volunteer appointment agenda item uh Karen and I had the pleasure of interviewing six candidates for two different boards three for each one of them being the Board of Health and the other one being the Retirement Board and um you know met with them virtually they'll explain to us why they want to be in that border committee and uh some of them are already on that border of committee as Associates so especially the Board of Health so um you know Karen and I um I the two of us it's it's a board vote the four of us but we on the board of health we kind of agreed Ken's okay if I speak to that one so Karen and I agreed to uh make Kevin and Joan Wetzel Kevin seon and Joan Wetzel uh full voting members and Jerry Who's on associate associate member now to remain an associate member and I I guess we learned uh over the course of three interviews that this would be a one-year appointment and a two-year appointment um for uh uh Kevin and Joan as the full voting member so we kind of got that information after some of the interviews so we really didn't ask a preference so I don't know um so I'll leave that one there and discuss that and then um we you speak to the Retirement Board candidates okay sure we also had three candidates three great um two employees and one retiree appreciate um the stepping up they're all writing residents um we don't appoint to the Retirement Board very often we've actually had to learn more about it um we do have one appointment and um traditionally the select board has kept it at a three-year term although technically a term isn't required but I think that just helps us stay in communication with um whomever we appoint um Sharon angstrom is always always an official member and then the rest of the members um are elected somehow by the the retirees themselves I I might be messing has tied up so um yeah three really good candidates um um I I sort of know where my preference lies and I think Carla wanted to take a little more time to think about it before we met tonight so um I wouldn't necessarily have a recommendation right unless how how do you want to handle this yeah I I think uh yeah Karen Karen said it well I uh we we didn't uh fully coales on uh it's it's one appointment for um one spot open for three candidates so um and they all were aware of that so we kind of didn't really formalize anything to present um to you guys so um hopefully you looked at the resumés and and I've looked at the applications and um you know we can discuss on who you may want um if you agree with us on the board of health and not agree with us or um and the Retirement Board as well um it's tough always for me uh you know saying no to people that step up and apply I know we've all mentioned that in the past so we were able to work the Board of Health where all three got appointed to something and we can't do that for the Retirement Board unfortunately so um I know we're a board of four but we can pick one tonight um or we can not pick one tonight and and wait till the election unfortunately so um I I'll I'll open it up to discussion um on either topic why don't I um you know what may I suggest you and I go first we did have that luxury of interviewing them great great interviews um I appreciate all of the investment in the community these folks have made and um so so my topic was um for our library director Amy Lon to join the Retirement Board um and and not in the least because she came up with like all this enthusiasm and she's like ready to go and um that was adorable and I know you got all a in college so but um you know she's been the library director was significant budget responsibilities and I do think that as uh very relevant for the Retirement Board um um there is we learned there's significant there's about 20 hours of Education that each member is required to go through so all the candidates were willing to do that um you know we talked a lot about diversity tonight so the position that's open was held by some Carolyn I don't know her last name long time um Roberts thank you so she's stepping down that would leave us if if right now that leaves us with um men and one woman I would very much like to see the diversity remain on the board um and by you pointing Amy we can certainly make a good step in that direction and um it also and I say diversity in a couple of ways and Amy was good enough to point this out to Carlo and I that we have this Retirement Board serves Union and non-union employees So So currently um we do have three other members who represent specifically police and fire unions so again getting to diverse um of perspectives and being able to weigh in on and whatever um advice and guidance they need to give the two employees um I appreciate um that Amy recognizes that you know we have these non-union employees and we want to make sure that um somebody is wearing a hat you know during these conversations to be able to make good decisions so so those are the reasons that I would love to put our library director forward for this position thank you so um they all had great interviews and um so we have uh Amy lenon our current Library director we had Lieutenant Rich abadi um police officer grew up in reading and we have uh Michael Holmes a retired fired fighter also a longtime reading resident um and and it did a lot of service for the town so my my my thought process was that there must be a reason that the majority of the board are retired um not retired are police in Fire and I I just came to that assumption that they're the biggest pool of of of people that um are on that board that have been on that board for a number of years and not just keep keep status quo but um all three are qualified all three committed um to the to the once a month meeting in the 20 hours so I I was just weighing between um rich and Michael uh with not a definitive um pick so that that was my kind of thought process and we discussed that briefly but didn't come to a consensus so that's what we're bringing to you guys um so thanks um I think that I I appreciate the the discussion in kind of both both perspectives I think that having kind of broad representation of kind of retirees would make sense here I think was Carol Roberts was she involved in HR she was the HR Director she was the HR Director in town before yeah so kind of representing um diverse interests working with with Union non-union um I think that that that really makes sense I think that um I'm also sensitive I think it would make sense to have another woman on the board frankly um I think that you know I would support Amy to go into that role I think that that's the right representation for the community um and that I would I would support any you talk about Board of Health now since you're talking um oh you want to do one at a time Ian well maybe make your comments on on either one and then have a broader discussion um it sounds like you folks kind of came to some consensus in a recommendation hearing right the one to be clear and I think you made it clear but just to reiterate um one of the current Associates has a demanding job with some travel often Zooms in remotely and and would not mind remaining an associate so she did make our life a little bit easier jurry yes right got right she was very it's great so we are expanding the board by another person and they'll have a bigger quum yeah I'm I'm comfortable with the recommendation thank you Chris thanks Carlo um that was going to be my thing as well with with Jerry fin out why she was not going to remain so um that makes sense um I just I understand the whole um diversity comment Karen and Mark um with replacing a female with another female Etc but uh we just had the town manager search come back with four guys and I didn't hear that mentioned once by anybody why not and here we are we're going to just mention it now because I I just want to let you know I was saying it a lot in the background how disappointed I was at the lack of diversity all right you didn't hear me it's I didn't hear you and it's it's it's different when you come out public definitely disappointed we could have had a more diverse pool it is what it is I love using is it is what it is comments um I just I was hoping that you would come to a consensus so we didn't have to make the decision yeah well we did we get you get 50% there because between all three of them it's like 125 years in town like you you can't separate these three people based off like anything because it's 5050 and like 25 so um so what is the current makeup of the Retirement Board as it stands now now who is represented how many people are there five all together yeah Sharon Two Fire and one police one police and two fire there's a few there's a couple of non-residents in there they were employees you don't have to be a resident to be on this board it is right now it is Sharon and all um safety Public Safety so there's no you know what I mean that's it's kind of narrowly focused but and with um what was her name did just retire Carol so she she did she did bring in some diversity from a couple perspectives and making sure that non outside of those two unions there was some representation nonunion and um you know so if if we goad police and fire are represented on the re three positions yeah y because to me to to bring so it's four people so right now we have Sharon amstr um David jeld Robert Beck and firefighter right and William Sweeney and I know David gentel is I believe fir fighter and um Robert Beck as well yeah I'm not sure what his background is so is police represented or not yeah I believe he's it's fire police I I spoke to Carol and she went through with me I didn't I didn't write it all down but she just went through all the mbers and how we um because that's that's going to the point that I'm getting at is that uh taking uh the diversity aspect out of it to me if police and fire are already represented then yes it would make sense for Amy to to be on the Retirement Board in my opinion because that is that the diversity not because she's a she that that is the diversity that would happen here okay but if William if William Sweeney is not police then my interpretation is going to change so someone has to figure out if anyone knows Amy can help Amy yeah I just like to point out that the that I think William SW is what they call the fifth member and the fifth member is not an employee or re ah thank you used formally before Mr swy um was Mr so that so it is on purpose a specific thing called the fifth member that must not be a retire must cannot be an employee a fifth voting member correct that's why when that's what makes makes up the board thank you so so so police is not represented on the board and he was a never a former employee just oh oh never an employee okay no employee gotcha got then but I'm not sure that that means that he's not police then for me I would want all right police represented on the board because they're a significant portion compared to anybody else of it time all right well if you don't want to vote on it tonight we can s certain circle back on that find out what Michael Sweeney did in his we're not not working for reading yeah we to Cameron's comment we don't have have to appoint tonight and me we it it was requested um out of all the boards and committees that have been waiting that you know retirement want us to appoint someone but if we're split we're split you know we're not going to you know go around in circles um I my my my recommendation would be for Mr RAR as well so if if I'm taking a pulse to the board clearly divided unless someone wants to change their mind um so we could you know make a different motion for that one and maybe um if we're all in agreement on the board of health um we could do that motion first and maybe have a little more discussion or no discussion on um the Retirement Board but I'm I'm open to if you guys are okay to a motion uh to appoint uh the Board of Health I just yeah thanks car um I just want to speak to the to the comments made about Kevin ston earlier this happened last year it happened this time it's going to happen next time Etc in the future um knocking somebody because they're a realtor On The Board of Health is the opposite of lowering the temperature in the room and all the other analogies that people want to make and sit here and claim and reading and then completely do the opposite it's it's him and the other four members or not Associates whatever scenario got us through Co Point Blank end of story put the time in they put the energy and the effort in and to knock any of them is is unacceptable it was Co we're all sitting here we're all happy gol lucky yay we're out of it go back three years when it was going on and then tell me Kevin seon's Gonza unacceptable by by any stretch of the imagination back then it was nuts and nobody would ever want to go back there and he was there along with Dr Lopez and everyone else that was on that so I just take High exception to that once again like I did last year so I am fine with both of your recommendations thank you um I'll entertain a motion for the Board of Health please which was going oh sorry we are there's one oh yeah we didn't uh I don't know what to do on that one have a recommendation yeah on the one year two years your recommend ation you know um I you know in how about how about Jo being new give her the one year that's what I was thinking yep also we wanted to be clear that we don't want to re we're not going to reinw them in a um 30 days or what Happ you when we go through a regular cycle so this would be an appointment now to 2025 yep through a normal term so like a normal term in a couple months right that's okay Bo thank you so so Joan Wetzel for a one-year um voting member and Kevin seon as a two-year appointment voting member and Jerry is iter Kramer as an associate for um Carlo yeah you don't have to do anything with Jerry if she's just gonna stay in her current okay thank you membership when does her appointment kayn do you have in front of her when her term expires June 30th 25th okay she got another yet good very good thanks thank you thank you that helps okay you got a Chris yep uh move to appoint Joan Wetzel as a member to the Board of Health with the term beginning immediately and expiring June 30th 2025 second any discussion all those in favor 4 Z thank you next move to appoint Kevin Sexton as a member to the Board of Health with the term beginning immediately and expiring June 30th 2026 second thank you any discussion no all those in favor thank you 4 Z don't that don't need that one thank you all right so I guess just to close the Retirement Board it seems like we're not gonna have a a 3-1 or 4 Zer vote unless someone wants to well I was going to say would it be possible to to find out a bit more about Mr Sweeney that would help I think that might clarify pretty quickly y okay for for for our next meeting yep okay all right I'm okay with that okay um okay so so no motion for that so moving on to our next agenda item which is discuss and vote on hiring an independent investigator to review and report on the circumstances including statements made and actions taken surrounding the resignation of Jackie McCarthy from the select board on February 6 2024 including statements made and actions taking taken following the February 6th meeting so we we did this we did this sorry we did discuss this last meeting uh briefly and and now um you know we need to discuss it again and if we're GNA have we're going to have Matt uh hire an investigator so I will open it up to anybody wants to kick this off yeah I have some questions I would I would really like someone to walk through me whoever put this on the agenda like walk me through what um the scope and the goals of this investigation would be and any um I'd like to know whether AA gave us three options if this is criminal report it to a law enforcement if it's ethical you report it to the AG and this other option which requires um taxpayer money and so I would love someone to walk me through what actions have heard taken place so far and specific thoughts on you know what this investigation would look like and what the product would look like that I is on the zoom thank you okay um I put this on the agenda obviously with uh every's assistants um and Matt's and um I have not pursued uh the other two options formally and uh that's that's where I stand I think this is going to be the most transparent and um Deliver us something that will answer a lot of unanswered questions that are out there by having an independent investigator interview uh the board and interview anyone that Jackie brings forward uh so in my opinion I feel this is the the the most transparent way to do this for the town uh and for us us to put this behind us and um th those are my comments um so do we need we would need to define the allegation that we're investigating is that defined anywhere uh I mean it's right here in the in this Mr chair yeah um so it may be helpful um this was just the agenda item so we need to provide sufficient notice to the public of what you are talking about but I know that Carlo did work on a which goes into more depth around the scope of the investigation as um he proposes and the work product so it may help move this conversation along if um if that motion is presented or discussed Carlo just so that um the board can can understand where you're where you're thinking right thank you yeah that that really gives the details um on the the agenda item but before we do that does anyone else have any comments before before we move on to to that no all right so Chris uh has the proposed motion um that uh will be discussed should we put it on the screen uh Kaitlin do you have it on the screen motion please one moment no worries how's that look bigger bigger a little bit if you can we still have some screen there thank you I think that's good thank you yeah I was really hoping that this would have been in the packet um okay best we can can you um email me a copy of that Sure hold on one sec thank you Kaitlyn scroll up I'm done yeah a little bit more K can you scroll up a little bit there's a a few more sentences missing I think not missing but you know not sh yeah that's good that's good I would suggest anything that's lengthy included in the packet or sent to us ahead of time we don't put motions in the packet so well background information if something that of this this is a unique item it's a complicated item I would I would request that we put something in the packet and just take out the word move to or something because this requires thought and consideration and um can't even read it it's very long so anyway and I'm just waiting for it to come in all right one second that's okay appreciate it so may I ask a couple some other questions um I have not found any Authority that the select board has to really conduct an investigation in either the charter or for the bylaws or our code of conduct um so is IFA if is there any Authority that we have that I'm missing so you have General authority to look into matters involving the town so I'm not from a legal standpoint I think it's appropriate for this board from from a legal standpoint I think it's it's an action you can take but you're absolutely right you don't have authority to compel an investigation so if Jackie doesn't want to participate you can't force her to participate if there's key witnesses that are refusing to um communicate with the investigator you don't have subena power to order them to participate but from a municipal resources perspective this is something that the board could do if in its discretion it decides to do so um okay um so I'm going to ask the question again because maybe I should have directed at you Chris because I thought I heard at one of our recent meetings that you said you were concerned enough about what might have happened that you might have called the attorney general's office did I miss did I mishear this go ahead thanks Carla uh I'm going to reiterate uh what I've said multiple times that uh I will not be speaking anymore on this matter that's I will speak to the investigator um and there is the Clause right here at the end that if Jackie McCarthy does not elect to participate in the investigation the investigation shall terminate immediately without any finding of facts or conclusions so that's it she doesn't participate it's over we've spent whatever minuscule amount of money right in the in the in the jump and that's it but other than any of the the comments and everything that I made believe me I can get into so much stuff can you tell me what you said in the meeting before or do I need to go back and watch it you can go back and watch it like I said there's so many things I want to say do Etc I have no further comment GN sent me a copy thank you um so I found another um investigation that was done by the town of Hamilton and um it was a different situation it was initiated um against a select board member and it was a town member a a a staff member or a former staff member I'm a little clear on the timing made an allegation that um they were harassing them um so once that complaint from the person who felt that they were impacted by the harassment and AG grieved party made that complaint then the town investigated it and that seems logical to me um ultimately the select board member was cleared but it did cost $8,200 in 2019 what concerns me here and and again I still have to read this um is that there's been no complaint filed and so I can't really even say whether this is something that is an ethical problem or if this is actually a crime and and whether whether this in is an appropriate um action to take um since no complaint has been filed I is I I have received no notification that that our former colleague is asking for this investigation I don't know if anybody else has any information that may be the case um I think the residents are asking for an investigation I am also a resident I'm res first a volunteer second so uh Jackie just didn't up and quit Okay uh she sent a letter to the editor that contradicted what you've said multiple times that she quit for personal reasons could okay I was here in the meeting and we can go roll tape she said I'm I'm I'm resigning for personal reasons that's what she said she did not what did she say I read I read he read it last the last time two weeks ago circumstances I cannot get into quote that's what she said okay um I'm gonna take your word for it um you're clearly against the investigation and that's fine questions I came here tonight unprepared to have this discussion you guys did this work but you didn't provide these we're here to discuss it Karen we're here to discuss it I'm gonna well someone else can comment let me read because you just plunked this on my desk sure Mark go ahead thanks um so a couple things that might help to try to clarify a little bit in terms of um it talks about finds effects or conclusions are we wanting to explore potential violations of board policies and if so what we might want to do to change them to prevent this from happening in the future in my in my opinion the invest investigation is going to take us it takes us and and we as a board you know always striving to do the right thing right board's before us this current board boards in the future and we have our policies we have the town Charter sometimes we we go sideways from those right um as individuals as an entire board we commit violations um we try to be respectful sometimes we're not and that's just our human behavior but for me uh February 6 was not a good day for reading it was not a good day for reading and not a good day for this board so uh I I think this town is is owed an investigation by a third party and if it if it involves we violated policies I think we can address that as a board I am open to that um I know one of us mentioned at a prior meeting that we should revisit our select board policies and and and that's fine but uh and like I said before and and I'm gonna say nothing further something bad happened I've said it in public something bad happened she was dressed in black okay something bad happened that might be a circumstance but I don't think so so I would like to get the B to the bottom of it and I know many more people that are sitting here would like to get the bottom of it and that's just my opinion but to to answer your question yeah if it's if we have violated policies obviously nothing is Criminal and then we can address it as a board and how we can work better together does someone need to resign uh that can be on the table um I know we can't make anyone resign but to have a functioning board we have to work together as best we can and and if someone did something nefarious then that needs to be addressed and I think the investigation is a way to find that and if it finds nothing it finds nothing I I you know I don't have an answer I wasn't part of the of her resigning so NE was I that that's fine all right so Mr chair would would I've had a chance to read this a little bit um would you mind if we walk through it there's like three points and a little bit after Kaitlyn can you go um I don't have it on my screen can you start at the top of the of the motion please on the screen just scroll back a little bit good okay so I'm looking at number one and um so you know just like Miss McCarthy doesn't need to cooperate neither does any other resident um and it's specifically mentions that we're going to investigate residents and the part um in reading the last sentence individually as part of a coordin coordinated effort to influence Miss McCarthy's vote for the new town manager um the select board got eight emails today urging us to conduct an investigation those are emails from residents asking the select board members to take action so that seems that we would be opening a door to need to investigate a lot of other things um guys guys please please please sor so so on many major issues in this in this position we've received resident emails asking us to vote one way or another we received emails asking us to vote for a certain Town manager from residents so that's what you're so what I see is that number one is like a part of everyday life of being a select board member you all send us or call us or text us your in your input and um wishes and we hear it we read the emails so I'm not quite sure like this is related to the investigation when I'm going to interview people at random this is related to the investigation investigation only can you can you maybe talk about how you envisioned this happening or what you were what you were thinking well if I were an investigator if I were an investigator right I would start with Jackie that makes the most logical sense I would listen to Jackie I would take notes I would take names down and I would go interview those people and then I would come back to Jackie and say okay Mr so and so said this Mrs so and so that John Doe said this Jane Doe said that um does does it you know is it contradictory is it the same people gonna say no comment you know I'm not an investigator but if I was I would start witness number one or uh subject number one Ground Zero Jackie resigning after that Jackie might say no I don't want to comment investigation's over she says uh 10 people were involved 10 people get interviewed 20 people get interviewed I don't know that's what I would do I don't know what you would do but that's what I would do so all right so he calls her up and says we want to I'm here to investigate why you resigned I I thought I had the impression that evening that Jackie was interested in privacy and P and keeping her own reasons personal so doing this seems to be not very nice thing to do um you're and and and if she well says well that is what I said in the meeting this is personal I I don't want to share this then we've gone through this effort for nothing and and then if he starts asking questions like how many residents sent you an email encouraging you to um vote for soand so or how many residents called you and talk to you about the town manager search I mean are we going to then publish a list of residents that Mrs mccth Mrs McCarthy talked to and and are those questions going to be asked of each of the board members so that basically we have we come up with this list of 200 people and then we publish it if you read the if you read the whole thing right it's all geared towards the investigation coordinated effort influence all these words right not we're going to interview people that emails all the emails I got today demanding an investigation they all look the same it looks like a coordinated effort and it's not the first time I've seen that and and people can do that that that's a free country we've seen that many times why are we investigating this coordinated effort why aren't we investigating all coordinated efforts so I'm just trying to understand yeah it's fine listen we all have our individual opinions and you're entitled to your opinion I I think we we've been dominating this conversation I'd like to here from Mark and Chris and and if we vote tonight we vote I'm hoping we get to a vote to move forward right um and I'll stop talking sorry Chris go ahead thanks Carlo um just to reiterate what what Jackie said in her LTE the other day it says while an investigation won't change the past I'm weighing my participation in a properly scoped investigation that I feel is in the best interest of reading residents if she wanted her privacy she wouldn't have sent an LTE to the Reading Post that's the complete opposite of someone who's wanting privacy this is someone that wants to go on the record and do the right thing in the best interest of reading residents just like she said if she's not willing to participate it's over that's it there's no hundreds of residents and emails and everything else if she's willing to participate then it goes forward if she's not it's over it's as simple as that it it it it doesn't get any different for me it's to me uh she wants to do what's in the best interest of the town this board should do what's in the best interest of this town and clear the air and if at the end of the day nothing happened then nothing happened and someone is going to be apologizing but I have a feeling that GNA be I have a I I have a feeling it's some members have been accusing and making allegations against other board members so who I would love to hear about where the apologies if if it goes nowhere where the talk about the apologies that's intriguing well that's a separate matter so I'm I'm wondering if to to to listen to that point and address it yeah in in this point number one yeah to say all the things going forward are as part of a coordinated effort to unduly or inappropriately Implement M McCarthy's vote for the new town manager I'm okay with that where is that again Mar right at the end of Point number one so right was part of a coordinated effort to unduly or inappropriately influenc unduly so so I I take Karen's point the reason I bring this up is that the the reality of Politics on the board is that people are are constantly lobbying for people to do a or b right and that's frankly okay and appropriate and expected and encouraged encouraged that's how it works right I think what we're trying to understand is did something very wrong happened there are allegations that that it did correct so let's just identify it as such correct I I fully agree no no no issues with me and I I am I'm speaking for myself I'm okay with that language I don't think so I'm fine with that okay uh uh item number two so so um why what why is number two in here I mean I the big event was oh goodness we just lost a member of our board um very concerning um but why are we why are you looking for statements after and actions taken after February 6th if the point of this investigation is to understand if there was something wrong that happened that un I'll use the word that unduly put pressure on Miss McCarthy um that's number one got it but number what is number two about that's like after she made her decision Mar so um one of the reasons why I think it's important to talk about board policies and exploring potential changes and things like that is because there are a lot of things that happened here there is you know departure from the board that took place then there is kind of how we dealt with it and I think that there's a lot of learning to take place from both I agree um and I think it's important that that we talk about that it's that's part of the discussion in my view an important part of the discussion yes and and and to uh I mean again I don't I don't want to I I don't want to make statements that that will hurt the investigation but that that uh number two um was purposely put there I'll put that it was it wasn't a willy-nilly it was purposely put there to address uh and I didn't speak to Mark about it to kind of address now when Mark spoke to that uh but to to other things as well so I I still kind of I'm scratching my head because it's not like this isn't a this thing happened and there were were there some things we could have done to avoid it this is like there were statements made after the event that we need to investigate and I don't understand what that's about is there an allegation there I don't either I I I like I said good so again I'm going to come back to this question of board policies the way that we're able to to govern the town is to work by a set of policies with the charter and and our own policies and all those things we need to have the opportunity to work through those I I think that we didn't do our best after after this took place no and I think that we did violate some BO policies and I think we need to talk about that after the event oh yeah yeah yeah like what I'm every meeting every meeting after every meeting aftere of conduct is absolutely one of the policies absolutely come on let's vote can we put a pin in that one and go to number three should it's say code of conduct in there like it'll be a little more specific Mr chair yes so um as it's currently drafted point three which talks about the opinions of the investigator that the board is seeking does not currently mention the code of conduct so to the extent that this board would like that explored and evaluated by the investigator then I would advise that we add at the end of .3 and whether the boards of the select board's code of conduct um were violated um so that it's clear what you're asking the investigator to look for she's got I think we can all agree that it was violated in my opinion um you know if if if the majority of us want to add that in there then it doesn't bother me but I I I violated it and and I'm not proud of it but it it was out there it was out there I think it would help to put it in there because again whatever the findings are they are and then there'll be some things that we want to talk about as a boy I'm sure could be you know how do we use the code of conduct do we need to make changes to it correct all those different pieces this has to be learning what happened and okay now what what do we do that yeah recommendations like our presentation recommendations y so I would suggest adding it as uh as Town Council suggested mentioned three Mark is it called the code of conduct or do you refer to it is it called something different I believe it's it's on the website Let's uh I believe it's code cond we grab you don't have a copy of that did the other night you did uh I will see this is a good code of it's clear enough in the motion I just didn't in the left margin I think that's a layup but you know so I hang on fine with adding it oops there it is right there it's called word ethics and protocols okay good that's what it's called okay sorry board e ethics and protocol plural yes I think one thing that adding it does help as well is you know this is really an investigation into the board's actions and so you're you're looking at yourself and you know what were statements what statements were made by board members to Jackie before she resigned and what statements did the board made afterwards and so including this really ties ties the the thread that this is is a a a hard look at at the board itself so then I mean I I can understand looking into um board members statements and actions I'm concerned about residence I'm concerned about scope and why are you concerned about residents if they if they were part of this I ask you a legitimate question you concerned it feels like the select board is going after residence is that what you intended to be because it feels like it is no it doesn't and it feels like to me like the investigator is going to I I I can't I can't speak for a former colleague I I cannot see our former colleague giving an investigator a list of residents that she talked to and if she did how long is that list we talk to a lot of people and how much is it going to cost us to have this investigator like take notes on everybody's sort of recollection like from from over a month ago and residents don't have to participate again in my opinion I if if Jackie gives names and whatever those names are um if they're on a border committee they're also a resident number one right if they're not on a border committee most likely they're going to be a resident maybe they're not going to be a resident already that influenced or whatever the language is up there right but I am not Jackie McCarthy Jackie McCarthy given the scope of the investigation which she referred to in her letter in her own words I'm sure is going to do the right thing and only give the names that I'm not going to say forced to resign obviously she did that in her own will but led to the actions of her resigning I don't think and I hope none of us think that Jackie McCarthy is going to need 30 people just for the heck of it as a Witch Hunt I don't think she's gonna do that a lot of residents called me and had opinions about the town manager a lot of people that's not what we're talking about I'm assuming all of you also had a lot of conversations and if we're worried about board actions why are we going down a path that drags I don't understand the board and committee thing you're going to have to explain that to but why are we D dragging residents into this because they are we investigating board ac they may be part of the investigation it I didn't write this on my own you didn't no who who scoped it out I'm just talking about the scope I I would I would recommend a limited scope I don't know what we're trying to get out of this we have no Authority we don't really have any authority to do anything we don't have any teeth to do anything if there is bad behavior we could talk about you know honestly we've had discussions about breaking our own code of conduct before there's no teeth in the policy people keep doing it so just just to use your own words if Jackie names a resident the investigator should say nope I'm not GNA interview that person is that what you're saying I'm asking what you're trying to do no I want you to answer the question if Jackie names are res not the way it's written the way it's written the if I'm the investigator I'm going to go hi Miss McCarthy I'm here to talk to you about your very personal decision that you announced to the world and what you went through and and start talking and it says you know in these little bullets I need to ask you for everybody you talk to and anybody can he can p our emails our select emails that's totally fine um is he gonna what Authority do we have where would it stop phone calls maybe she's trying to remember who she talked to maybe she looks at her phone records maybe she doesn't want to go that far she has text people communicate by text how far is this going to go are we going to find out like all 500 names of people that had an opinion on the town manager search like is that an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars right because where I'm getting is that we all talk to a lot of people the other investigation I saw which was um harassment fewer people involved cost 882 $100 like what's the scope like we're we're discussing the scope right now well do you disagree that we talked to a lot of people and a lot of residents call us with opinions on any number of topics particularly this one you still didn't answer my question which question if Jackie McCarthy names a resident John Doe bullied me threatened me said this to me the investigator say pass I'm only talking to board members is that what you're saying I guess I'm thinking that I don't know are you looking for the board to be um or this investigator or somebody to be apparent because people don't always talk to us in the nicest way and none of us are perfect okay so but we're hiring an investigator to go be like oh you weren't very nice police and like like what I don't understand what you're going to get out of this it's it's it's funny that this is a one-way conversation it's just funny that you you're given all the push back you've made serious allegations I have not made any allegations I have not made any allegations and I'm surprised he even wants to participate I have made zero allegations zero you guys have made snide comments like I have made zero allegations I like I was the only this is I'm gonna quote my colleague Chris all right forget I won't do the impression thank you Chris is like I am the only one that didn't talk to Jackie McCarthy about this topic that is true you said just because you said it doesn't mean it's true and since you and I didn't talk you don't know it's true it's true missing the point we're getting off the rails we're getting off the rails we're getting off the rails we're discussing item by item we're adding we're talking we want to move forward what what let's just say let's just say I raised my hand and I was like I'm not going to quit but residents were calling me and being irate and law being hard because they wanted something I want to launch an investigation and I want you to I'm going to tell you I'm going to give you all of their names and I want you to go talk to all of them and I want you to come back and publish all of that stuff and we're going to make a moral decision as to whether they were out of line like I think this is what we're this is what this investigation is that's what it feels like to make we are elected officials all right we all got elected some of us got reelected we have to be accountable Jackie got duly elected I'm pretty sure she was going to complete her term pretty confident I don't know 100% but I'm pretty confident she was going to fulfill her three years and I think she mentioned that in her letter um I don't have it memorized but I think she mentioned that that she planned to finish out her term something happened my exact comments were something went wrong that's the only allegation I made is something went wrong that's it so you're not the aggrieved party the agreed party has not felt that this was something that um she needed to complain about and from my understanding of Investigations like that person needs to be willing to to come forward she just wrote a letter she did read she wrote a letter to the editor that's not and and that's the god-given right she can say what she wants what she didn't do was send a letter to the B board or to the attorney general or to anybody else saying we don't know what she did do you know what she did no I don't either no I know so you're making com you're putting words in I am not putting words in our mouth I'm saying what hasn't happened I'm saying what Happ how do you know what hasn't happened okay let me ask a question Matt have you received any complaints from a former colleague like in any way shape or form I don't think Matt should be put on the spot like this it is not his well he can he can not his I don't understand the question I know right so what I'm saying is you're launching an investigation for somebody who hasn't lodged that they were a complaint that they were wronged can can we work on the item ATT ask get through it and vote if you want to vote no you're entitled to vote no I think everybody needs to understand what an invasion of privacy and and and and and granted great if if the first stop for the investigator is Miss McCarthy's house and sounds like a great day and she says no thank you but thanks for stopping by we're all done yeah that would be great because that is takes the least amount of time and spends least it's in writing it's writing y okay so let me finish but this is too broad this is not an investigation of board conduct this is trying to be an investigation of Resident conduct take your guys please please please let us work through this I I I think do we have any of we added code of conduct am I right on the protocols and ethics all right can we can we move on to the bottom piece please Caitlyn can you scroll up a bit so question number three hold on Kaylin one of the things I I I thought I was hearing related to findings which is number three so it says yeah finding finding the findings of the investigations what I thought one of Karen's questions was also is that um if if the investigator doesn't find an issue with a a person particularly of the public um and probably if they chose not to speak because they don't have to then not named in the report so other words the question of of privacy is what happens so I don't have a problem with the investigator talking to people question is where what happens you know just a laundry list of names but I I if people aren't I'm I get it but I'm gonna disagree with you if Jackie names a name that name should be written down and when that person's interviewed and they say no comment that should be noted because because Jackie is part of the investigation if she cooperates so if she gives a name uh I trust her to not just name names for the sake of naming names but that's my opinion so if if a name is given John Doe John Doe 22 Main Street they go to 22 Main Street John Doe do you get a comment no comment he writes no com he or she writes no comment and end that's it I I get your point but the part of the investigation is to investigate and and that's part of the investigation um and and if everybody says no comment but Jackie that's the investigation that's that's the findings if everybody including us say I'm not saying anything I don't have to say anything then that that that's our prerogative um but you know I think has to be noted if if if I get interviewed and I say no comment that has to be noted conversely if you get interviewed and you give your your comments it could clear your name and now you're off the hook but like listen an independent investigator did the investigation in Carlo Bachi uh I spoke with him uh Jackie implicated him uh he was one of the people I spoke with him he has evidence to the contrary and we are now excluded Carlo Bachi from this and now your name is cleared which is is the opposite of I I it's I I I think the the your point is valid Mark but I think as far as the investigation goes I I I think it needs to be noted again my opinion it needs to be noted because that becomes part of the investigation well I think the investigator certainly notes it and the investigator as written is going to form an opinion at the end right but this has to be a public document not a private document obviously we can't keep this private this is going to be a public document maybe we can have the executive session first and go through what we want to do anyway Reda names Etc we we can do whatever we want I want to ask that meets one of the five criteria a did you catch that so so I'm I'm not sure what you mean by the five criteria Karen can you explain the uh there are I'm sorry the five the criteria under which we may enter into executive session oh um report findings reviewing in an executive session redacting names I think that's what we're talking about right so it's difficult without knowing exactly what the investigator is going to find what should be clear to to everyone is that emails that Jackie receives are public records and it's and it's highly unlikely that individual names can be redacted from those emails um if there is a complaint or charge against someone you can discuss that in executive session but it depends on the nature of the complaint whether or not you can redact that individual's name um under the public records law you can redact privacy um but that threshold that bar is is very high right now in the eyes of the supervisor of public records I think we should assume that everything the investigator writes will likely be a public record in this case yeah reacting is the opposite of what needs to be done yeah I do think one note I have and and um if you could scroll up Kaitlyn just so I can see point two a little bit more too um so I guess I was under the impression that the investigation was going to tie back to actions taken by select board members so I guess the question I have Carlo is under the scope if a resident um acted completely on their own without direction from select board members or other elected or appointed officials is the investigation going to include that say that again I'm sorry what so if a if an individual acted completely on their own is that part of the investigation without speaking with select board members or other Municipal officials if that person is named um I I would think so but I'm not I I I don't I I it's a hypothetical so I I don't know yeah it's hard to know because we just don't have a lot of information here without Jackie having um you know articulated to some extent what they issues are right but you know and every I don't know if you had the chance to read Jackie's letter but you know Jackie um I'm not gonna say she clearly stated but she did state that uh to Chris's comments that uh you know she'll she wants to do right by the town within a proper scoped investigation and and that's what we're going through right now so uh redacting just seems silly to me um so to me that's a non-starter but as far as if an individual act on their acted on their own I mean that's and Jackie felt threatened by that I guess Jackie could make that comment um but obviously that has no weight has no weight on uh because it didn't come from us uh but if it's tied to one of us then that's a separate matter so again I don't know the participation uh rate on this one I I I can't even imagine what it's going to be or not going to be and it's not up to me it really isn't I will comply with my interview um and that's all I can say um you know and and that's it point of order Mr chair if possible come to the podium please absolutely uh Christopher kler uh brookley street I was actually just curious that if it does in fact get into possible criminal conduct of residents how does the investigation end up attempting to protect those residents rights to privacy those residents fifth amendment's rights there other constitutional rights if it is in fact a criminal investigation that does end up taking place if mean a crime was committed if well placing undue influence and things on in uh the uh Commission of trying to convince someone to vote is technically it can technically be considered a crime I'm not an attorney so I'm going to let everybody handle that one thank you yeah I mean so this is not a criminal investigation the investigator is not a member of law enforcement this is a fact finding Mission so I think those are good questions um for each individual who's going to be participating to think about is whether or not they want to participate but this is not a criminal investigation so may come forward that may support a criminal investigation led by the proper law enforcement body but that is not what is occurring here with and Council just uh would all residents then be advised of their Fifth Amendment rights and uh rights to counsel prior to being requested uh to take part in the investigation itself no because it's not a criminal investigation there's no there's no right to counsel it's a voluntary participation they don't have to participate if the investigator asks them will you you know can do you want to give an a a statement here they say do I have to NOP she's you know the investigators will be very clear but it's not like they have a right to counsel because they don't have to participate it's not a criminal investigation it's not the same like a police officer the select board has no authority to conduct uh an investigation that involves theena or compelled Witnesses in this case as long as we are absolutely clear that there is absolutely no requirement that uh residents take part however I I just would be consider I would be wary of residents not necessarily knowing their Fifth Amendment rights before taking part in these investigations or before agreeing to take part in these investigations your comments are noted thank you so thank you and I I my assumption is would there be a vote on this tonight or would you would the board allow we were out of the point of order part I apologize that's okay it's okay thank you I appreciate it thank you did a point of order it is a point of order okay I think it is Linda snow do sir Bieber Road my point of order is just I keep hearing the word scope being said and I'm wondering what scope means is it is this going to entail public records requests of the board um because that's I'm the investigation is going to take the direction it takes that that's my comment yeah now that's not no you we're not gonna uhuh this you haven't done your job you can and not you do not have a piggy bank to go and conduct wild unlimited investigations you just don't I'm not doing the investigating you're looking to hire an investigator and you're like go off and have fun see what you can dig up that's what this says talk to anybody so can we ask a question of Town Council um if can you I know so that these don't necessarily come up all the time but how what's the best way to kind of structure scope and other things um so that so that the investigator know knows kind of what the expectation is we've got that in the outcome how about in the input so I think it's clear to the investigator that this is not going to be like a freefor all that there are paths that she's going to look at and I do think that that is conveyed with this statement here my concern with this statement is about residents and the fact that they're not tied to municip officials so usually when we look at the expenditure of funds we're looking at um whether the fund is supporting good government or if there's a public purpose at the end of all this not whether there's um you know I think I think that's what we need to keep in mind is what is the public purpose is there a government purpose here and I think investigating statements made that select board members and made that Municipal officials made for um attempts to use non on Municipal officials um in a in a way that a municipal official couldn't act themselves those types of things are clearly within the scope of what you could actually investigate I think the fact that residents themselves are being investigated um is a little bit gray so we want to make sure that we're really tying everything back to good government and making sure there's a public purpose behind the scope of this investigation thank you good good question Chris as a hypothetical the the because I always go for the loopholes and everything if we remove the resident portion that means my wife is exempt and do you think my wife should be exempt from from this entire thing of course not why should she be the same for all all uh three of you sitting up here so I I I'm I'm not okay with removing resident aspect when something like I just said it's a simple circumvented just by doing how how is your wife I'm how you don't know that she is he's we have 26,000 residents I don't have any adults we have 20,000 adults where where's the scope how far is this going to go the scope anybody raises their hand gets to talk to the investigator we have to pay for this Jackie is going to lead the investigation with the names that she gives gives she gives no names there's no investigation I I don't get it and it's over she gives zero names it's over she gives two names two people get interviewed she gives 20 it's 20 I don't know I wish I knew but I don't you're asking me us how do we know don't know let's just let's just assume the worst let's just assume um I've been here and I have been listen to public comments that were horribly um mean spirited directed at myself and we know that um the state has the state's highest court has said it we can't tell people to be nice so why would I be surprised if in the course of the interviews maybe there's some people that weren't very nice and expressing and lobbying for what they wanted to happen but so is public good then publishing more letters of people being not very nice like I'm I'm let's talk about the public good that I think what she's asking is because we could clearly Define what we're looking for I I don't your wife's not a board member I'm really I'm I don't understand why you're worried about what your wife has to say I just gave a hypothetical okay that I have I have to attribute to it to me so I don't attribute it to anybody else um I will I'll just say the scope is going to follow was Jackie McCarthy threatened to change her vote that's it it's not did she decide to go for a walk uh two times uh before she came into the meeting is your focus on board members making a threat it doesn't matter that's only four people we could do that pretty quickly it doesn't matter why would you be why residents call me up and give me nasty doings too old the difference between that in this scenario is you are still on the select board and Jackie McCarthy is at homeing if I thre to quit you're going to take call an in investigator and I get to list all these people were mean and rude to me so to keep me from quitting what is the end game you don't know the beginning and the end to being rude Karen the things that I have received this is Code of Conduct right here clear it's me it's all com back to me every time can we move on please because yes I'm we have a few more agenda items I am 100% fine with what Mark added to the changes up there and I'm ready to vote on I'd make a motion to table this because it's not ready guys this not up to you sorry it's up to us it's up to us it's not up to you guys all right uh if it was it's a different story but it's not sorry I I'm ready I am comfortable with the additions to to this and to vote tonight I I'm not comfortable you this is a very broad investigation there's no limit on this it's going after residents it's going after residents who are named it's not going after residents Willy Milly I think you are putting our for calling in an awful position and I don't think that's the kind of person she is and it's I I cannot believe you don't see that any the comments up on the screen than just for a second okay yeah Kaitlyn can you scroll back to the top of it just for a minute start the topar of grammar okay hold on Jeff hold on thank you refes can you scroll higher now please so pass number okay then yeah can you go up to the last part please keep going keep going keep going that's good good come down a bit because I think that's part of I think she separated yeah she separated sorry can you connect that number three to that again please yeah that's right okay okay good thank you perfect think she's texting sorry can you go back to number one again for a sec so I I so I think I think it needs to move forward I have a little concerned about the the resident side and kind of putting some people potentially into a into a tough position in which they may have to not respond or or respond I don't know just don't want to have that I want the as written the investigator is going to find facts and is going to then give an opinion right findings the investigations conducted and then the investig opinion on whether M McCarthy was threatened or bullied by any of these individuals in order to influence her vote I guess that should be unduly influenced or voting again to correlate number one yeah did you hear that kayn no we say that guy number three right before the word influence in the second and last line in order to unduly yeah right there I guess you want to mirror it or inappropriately unduly or inappropriately yeah so I I with the concerns taken for the residents I think it's the right B secure think it's the right stuff here no thank you uh Jeff you want Jeff had a couple typos that he caught thank you Jeff Jeff just the last bit on part three protocols were violated I saw that was coming the other question by point of information is whether if the investigation terminates due to Jackie's not wanting to be it is that the intent of the select board that the investigation under Point 2 is also immediately terminated uh my interpret would be yes but um um yeah i' gather yeah that part does not necessarily right but yeah I get your point Thank you know I I I are we ready to vote can I just fix to um Jeffrey's point so in number three the second to last word change it from was to were did I hit that right oh sorry second last word and number three ethics and protocols as singular as the documents I it is in our document is protocols it's a document singular the title of the doc is plur it's not a doc I defer it to yeah whatever I got I got be in English so I'm not gonna Point of1 South Street you've gone through all this but technically you haven't read it and seconded it so before you vote make sure you yeah thank you I'm still discussing thank you we have not read a motion yet any other comments no nope the note should reflect that I made a motion to table this item which was not seconded please kln thank you okay does she want to email this to me or am I going to read it off the screen I would just read it off the screen so we're good I'm good good move to authorize the town manager to hire an independent investigator for the following purposes one to investigate the facts and circumstances in including statements made and actions taken surrounding Jackie McCarthy's decision to resign from the reading select board on February 6 2024 including statements made and actions taken by select board members other elected and appointed officials and residents individually or as part of a coordinated effort to unduly or inappropriately influence Miss McCarthy's vote for the new town manager number two to investigate statements made and actions taken by select board members other than other sorry select board members other elected and appointed officials and in Residence immediately following the February 6th meeting that relate to her resignation in the board's response and number three to provide a written report to the select board within 60 days of the investigator's hiring date unless an extension is provided by the town manager which report shall include the findings of the investigations conducted under Parts one and two above as well as the investigator's opinion on whether Miss McCarthy was threatened or bullied by any of these individuals in order to unduly or inappropriately influence her vote and whether the select board ethics and protocols were violated and further that the town manager asked the investigator that individuals interviewed attested the truth and accuracy of any statement given and provided further that if Miss McCarthy does not elect to participate in the investigation that the investigation shall terminate immediately without any finding of facts or conclusions is there a second a second any more discussion Chris thanks car um I appreciate Mark your willingness to cooperate on this um and it is duly noted so thank you any other discussion um I would like the record to reflect that um this investigation was not initiated initiated by former select board member Jackie McCarthy okay thank you any other discussion all right um we had a second right so all those in favor three all those opposed one thank you on to the next agenda item uh why don't we take a five minute recess folks e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right we're back in session uh next agenda item isy discuss and vote on modification uh to community preservation act uh study committee membership to replace ex ex official member of affordable housing trust committee with an ex official member of reading Housing Authority touched upon this last time and uh now we have to make it official yeah that's correct so so I did reach out to the Housing Authority again um and I mentioned last time that because the director is a non- voting member they felt they should have a voice on this so I asked if we were to replace the um affordable housing trust trust member with housing authority member if that would satisfy their concerns uh the director the executive director reported back to me that she ran it by the board and they said they would um and the other issue we haven't we haven't constituted the affordable housing trust yet um because we're having right we're trying to get applications so so that change would seem to uh would seem to rectify the situation okay all right uh any any any discussion from so so just to to be clear and I'm reading it here also right now in yellow highlight um in fact can you Caitlyn could you just put it up the um the motion uh actually page 10 of the packet yeah CPA study committee please got to hyperlink it to to the numbers just jump yeah when I'm on Zoom the thing at the top locks on my um yeah go down yeah you're there function there I go oh little bit bigger if you can but we all have it on our screen it's in the packet you'll be quiet okay so right now in yellow it says affordable housing trust member what we're proposing is to change that to a member of the reading Housing Authority because the affordable housing trust doesn't yet have members right right that be voting right so it'd be in the five ex official right yeah I think I think that's what we talked about I think that's what we should do right and get it going by the way I saw today in the paper that Winchester is bringing their CPA application of town meeting um now that was in today's paper so obviously they jumped decided to to bring it forward so I'm good with this change I suggest it think it's a good idea five or six one two three four five six oh yeah five boy good thing we get you here so yeah so that's correct so we want it to be total of seven so there should be six not five yeah sorry yeah one res and then the director is a non- voting member right right that's staying correct yeah she didn't say not to she didn't ask me to take that part out so I leave that part in so the total stays seven somehow yeah oh you know why because last time we added conservation yeah right right right so K are you able to amend this or you're just taking notes I will take notes and amend it this is a PDF so I'll amend the amended tomorrow in the office all right we all okay with that we okay all right a motion there is a motion move to amend the CPA study committee membership to replace a member of the affordable housing trust fund committee with a member of the reading Housing Authority second second thank you any discussion seeing none all right ready for a vote all those in favor three all those opposed all those abstaining was that the yes to obst understanding I'm over here okay three Z zero okay all right thank you Caitlyn thank you for visiting that updated all right now we are on future agendas I'll go last have a few talking points go right ahead so I we chatted last time briefly about asking pttf to come forward with areas of Interest should we call it related to safety uh concerns Crossings in particular safety Crossings um if they could um come up with some ideas and maybe even priorities um to share with the board and is it so pttf is a is a large committee would it be delegation of pttf or how no I think representatives represent represent representative PTF okay so it be they talk about it and then Representatives yeah I I think kind of uh I'm sure they talk about it all the time okay Public Safety and crosswalks but I I think given um you know what has been going on and you know to make like I think there should be a crosswalk personally at Memorial Park M okay I think that's get done yeah there is one no it's getting moved or something else is happening I went over this yes is something in town meeting or something we where we did because I went over a resident specifically wanted it moved and they're doing I think a study to see if it can be so but we'll have them answer that when they get yeah okay anything else um that's really the only one I had no okay so May 21st um that would be an opportunity for the kill project team owners project manager designers to come to selectboard and tell us what the numbers are looking like specifically and talk to us about other concerns like MBT communities scheduling cost um they going to talk about M MBT communities no confirm what I shared with you you asked questions about you know whether having it in place is going to put our project in Jeopardy and happy they're happy to talk about the timeline as well okay and and they'll be ready you like yeah so they're making this submission on May 20th so May 21st is perfect because at that point they can say we've submitted it to the msba and here's what we submitted so can I suggest another agenda item sure um we should talk about how we want to coordinate um some of the activities going on because if you look at May 21st it also has recal update presentation yeah so I think maybe we need to think about how we want to coordinate things first and then talk about what's the best way to kind of cycle them through um discussions I'm not sure we want to do both on the same day necessarily but to we also I think can't ignore the fact as we've been already talking about you want to talk this was um on the 7th could could recap be ready earlier because like we don't that doesn't make sense um so Mark just for I just put it on the 21st because you said to put it on a future meeting it's not there for any specific reason yeah so so the the intent was to put it so my intent was to put it on the second May meeting yeah that's what we that's what that's we that was the spot right to give them enough time so is our is our next meeting May 7th yes yes so could we move that hearing out has it already been published the hearing for the classified and compensation schedules um no you can't move that yeah it's already advertised well sorry it's not advert guys but it needs to be done by a certain time I mean I can double check with Sean but um he had me put this on the agenda a while ago CH meeting how about we pull in can you scroll up to May 7th real quick just so we can see that too so we're not a full board on the seventh yeah want to change a meaning what's the other dat like 7th is just not a good day four so I don't think that things can be ready for the seventh okay maybe what we could do is coordinate between the 21st and the 4th of June maybe the four the fourth of June is two weeks later but maybe that's a possible for one or the other but I see SWS there too we already have a PTF update schedule for the fourth we can't wait uh we need to talk we need to these two projects are on a collision course and um we need to we need to get updates and we need to talk about how we want to deal this to deal with this so are we getting a full presentation or a microcosm of the of the what do you think they could discuss they can remind you of the timeline and our timeline the timeline is that for is rigid um I really it's an opportunity for you all to ask questions as well they will present exactly what was submitted at this point to the msba for consideration and and the next deadline is coming up in late June I think um again you the owners's project manager and the design will be here maybe the owner's project manager would be more important to just ask whatever questions that you haven't had a chance to ask about what this is going to mean is there anything we can move from the 21st to the 7th that is not time sensitive I was going to say not National Public Works week Proclamation maybe we could do it early can we do it early I mean that only takes five minutes though so but what if you move the discussion of the water rate off a meeting oh it's a discuss only not yeah right yeah discussion I'm okay with that that's just a quickie you're going to vote on that June 4 you're GNA vote on June 4th right oh we vote that early on that oh my God that's why we have to do it on the four we can't we're voting on the 4th no no discuss on the 4th but he said vote on June 4th so that's two meetings oh to revolutionize the water soing May 7 the deadline for voting on the water rates like July one yeah because it's the next um year I actually we had a meeting with the with Matt today on the water rates um but it could it could move I I did dis I did say that it was on for the fourth um he said it could be earlier it could be later um but I wouldn't go too long because you know we have to get bills ready and whatnot so right so should we move the discuss to the sth yes of May yeah sure okay and I'll check with is that okay you think Matt yeah I I'll check with Matt as well to make sure he can have everything ready by then is Andrew stuck on May 21st for the parking kiosk update could that go earlier I was going to suggest that the parking up Kos up they go to the seventh too would it make sense for us to talk on the seventh about how we want to um coordinate projects in two ways one is from a kind of a a priority and all taking funds point of view um and the other is how do we kind of sequence events so the the presentation on on schools I assume relates to staying on track and because here's where we are on questioning yeah right the um other the recal presentation would focus on a recommended site to move forward with and if the board agreed they would then um go into a feasibility study which is already for that one right so the we don't want to push that out too far because that anything else down the line agree and I think um so on to that note yeah the kiosk so I I I did a uh my own focus group today um walked around to a few small businesses in town and just because uh I learned from that that you know I felt like Paul rier the kios are coming and um they are coming uh and the and the and the the vendor is anxious to install them like they want to you know finalize it so unless something's changed I think they're gonna be installed in June that was June so I and when I went around today um you know given that p Care's left there's been no communication and not that they needed to be but I asked every business owner hey is anyone reach sell to to let you know the kios are finally coming and they said no so I think a discussion by us on the 7th coupled with an email town is going to send the town is going to send to let them know so they can make their own literature right for their customers and hopefully the new economic person can make flyers and start putting them on cars and start you know uh promoting this so so soon is actually better yeah soon is better for the kios discussion I just update or let to know the public that it's coming um and then obviously uh that was on there the building committee for the C Center is not no that was on for the 7th and that got moved right the building committee part um yes that's on June now right that's June right so yeah can scroll up again because I have an older version of this for the I didn't print off this for the seventh so we're adding um water res sewer rates we're adding just a you know five minute discussion the kiosk are coming I'll win my P be hat and then um Paul reading H yeah and then I I would like to get on a on a agenda item soon is uh go back to what we did in uh honor the Eagle Scouts uh because I know um just from social media that one of the projects was I think on Trails or conservation so I I think you know among other than that they all need to be recognized but I think when they do stuff for projects for us they definitely should be recognized um as far as Eagle Scout because it's a big deal so I'd like that in the next uh couple of meetings and you know we can figure that out because I have to coordinate that um some of them are college students now some are aren't so I I I I started that process and the the recent Eagle Scouts um are six so I'd like for all of them and their families to be here if possible I we'll just go with the majority right we're not going to just I can make it I can't make it I can make it I can't make it I I you know we'll get a consensus on that um and that was my addition for the Eagle Scouts parking kiosk kill them we already talked about um so is the 21st still too busy to so if if recal is going to be a big discussion I want to I want to give us a you know enough time for that and that we we expect a big public presence for that too hopefully to um so I don't know what what what you've been presented how long you know what you envision or is it just an update from the the owner project manager I you know what let's say 30 minutes high high level like where we're at as I said they're going to have numbers and we have a different audience um and can we move National Public Works week is that correlated to the week of the 21st or is that just in May if we could find I think it was just the closest to it but I'm assuming we could do it a little early yeah I want it to make sense you know I think we all do so maybe ask Chris yeah I'll ask Chris when exactly it is and um yeah that's five minutes so that that's just you know opens up a line and I'm assuming you gonna try to get the Eagle Scouts on the seven too that probably going to be too soon I don't know I'm I'm that's pretty quick that's pretty quick um so I'm gonna see who's in college and who isn't this is a month away that's the no no right I know it's a month away but again I I I I'd like to honor all six if possible right if it's two it's two uh if if kids are are are in college and they're gonna go get a job or going to Europe that's a I gotta find that out and um that's all I had that's all I have for future attendance right now oh to Mark's Point yeah we need a financial Forum yes we definitely need a financial Forum probably in June so I I brought this up to the chair um several weeks ago but with town meeting being the focus it was like a right after town meeting sounds like a great idea but nothing formal other than yeah yeah good idea I I saw I think we'll have to coate with finance committee and school committee and and and find a so we don't have to I mean I've kind of brought it up too we don't really have to wait should we start putting dates out there and just send it to them I mean dates for what final for financial Forum well so actually hcom kind of runs it so I think yeah we should suggest to them the timing I have and you have and I I don't want to wait any what was what was the feedback when you suggested it they said yes the idea is yes the timing hasn't really been thought through but soon I mean soon after town meeting I think was the so it was just an informal discussion I had with the chair on that and we'll talk to Ed and we'll we'll we'll get that going right but I I I think so that wouldn't be one of on one of our meetings no no no I just marks points coordinating some of these to to you know have a have a broader discussion of all these projects and I wonder if we could have a um maybe it's not an agenda item but it's it's a to-do um in terms of coordinating um swack recal um and what are the pieces that should have formal discussions yeah I I think where do I have SW now on the 20 I think it's it's the June June June 4th yeah but that's kind of where I had it and so that that's a slide slide deck that I'm going to present you know presentation wise you know 15 minutes and then discussion and I think that will I don't want to say answer a lot of questions a lot of things are going to be obvious um but I think that's a we were shooting for May but I think June is is more appropriate so we don't May 21st is just too busy um so June 4th um is fine for that and and I think that that kind of will help as far as because we do mention active Living Center in that recommendations we do mention so that kind of yeah kind of incorporates that so all right any other items I think I think we're good I I'll tighten this up with with Matt we got a month so at least we got we got time and some other things might come up um you know yeah and we'll address it but that's good the minutes has everyone had a chance to look at the minutes have I just read these so many times that I feel like we already did did this one did this the one we missed we go again this the one we missed this one yeah Caitlyn did not there's a lot of similar minute I like I'll them up because I had a few um Karen sent me just a few small edits that yeah we can go through them real quick yeah yeah this is the one from last time it was a yeah I forgot about these ones sorry yeah yes okay yeah it just felt like I've read this a lot yeah yeah this is that Saturday meeting oh jeffre we still here can you help raise your hand and help get that Financial Forum scheduled sorry the cheriff income all right so is this what we're starting with Karen's oh sorry yeah if you want Karen was the only edits I received so um this is the first one right here in red a little bit bigger please except for Mark except for Mark a little bit bigger good thanks so right below that you have Dockers instead yeah Dockers opinion thank you Jeffrey pants or shoes yeah are they still in business thank you not touching that my only input on this is I think Town Council should be on its own next line I had the same crit oh actually yeah I'm sorry Karen did say that too y we agree Karen okay that's good right everyone good that's good next please okay next one was right here did say before yeah I don't know what it said before is that just an addition ended at concerns from the public so she okay great great agreed again it's two in a row I mean I changed it you may not agree to me anymore but you know this is why I was asking the question but this is what has changed too right yeah so yeah read twice on oh good next okay and last one right here so there is a cross out for what it said and then what it changed to I'm fine with that I did mention the shorter contract as well but it is I don't need to put it in there are we good this is Cameron's edit or mark because Mark has mentioned okay but yeah Mark started the sentence okay all right I'm fine with that any more that was it thank you all right good yeah we're good move to approve the meeting minutes of February 17 2024 as amended second second Mark second any discussion no all those in favor 4 z um one more item of business motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second second second Karen seconded all those in favor 4 Z thank you everyone for