is on. You want the closed captioning? >> Yes, please. >> Okay. Close captioning is on. >> Thanks. >> All right, everybody. I will call the March 23rd special select board meeting to order. The first item on the agenda
is the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So, I will take a roll call for
attendance real quick because we have a member on Zoom. So, Karen Herrick >> here, >> Carla Bachi here, >> Melissa Murphy here, >> Karen Rose Gillis, and Chris Haley is here. All right, so I will go over the
uh agenda real quick. So, 705 town manager candidate interview with Jane Wellman. Um, select board members only will be uh permitted to ask questions for this item. Um, uh, we allowed the public to submit questions in advance
that we may or may not have to um, ask Jane. Um, public comment is reserved at the end for the 8:45 time slot. Uh, at 8:05 we will have a discussion of potential appointment of Jane Wellman as town manager. And then 8:30, a discussion of potential next steps for
hiring of the town manager. And then like I said 8:45 for public comment. So the first item is Jane Wellman's interview. Did you want to start, Jane?
>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, I have an opening statement I'd like to read. Yep. >> Thank you. Um, good evening to the select board and the residents of Reading. Thank you for inviting me here tonight to talk about this outstanding community and how I believe I can serve it well as your next town manager.
Reading is an exceptional place with remarkably engaged citizens. It's managed to grow while maintaining its character, attracting thriving businesses and retaining world-class staff across all our departments. I know this firsthand because for the past 10 years, I have had the privilege of
serving Reading first as business administrator, then as director of operations, and now as your assistant and also acting town manager. Public service is both my vocation and my avocation. And as a result, my work here has been defined by excellence in
serving um rather in delivery of mission critical services. From helping lead the incident command staff during the pandemic as your public information officer to renovating our award-winning website and partnering closely with our finance director uh to safeguard our AAA
bond rating. I have been at the table for nearly every major decision this town has made over the last decade. My leadership is rooted in disciplined creativity. I believe deeply in conservative budgeting, which is why I'm so proud that we are currently tracking under our construction budget for our
recal project and the pickle ball project. I also believe that responsible stewardship must be paired with innovation, especially in supporting our most vulnerable vulnerable residents through, for example, tax relief for seniors and veterans. One factor that
distinguishes me as a leader is my 360 degree perspective. In addition to my professional work here, I've also served 15 years of elected and appointed service as a select board member, a school committee member, and town moderator in another community. I have
sat on both sides of the table. I understand the weight of the decisions you make, the intricacies of the MSBA process, the ins and outs of the CIP shift and the unique responsibilities of representative town meeting. I completed
my masters in public administration at UNH's Carsey School because I believe a town manager must use data to drive sound decision making and policy. Ultimately, I lead with humanity. I look forward to mentoring our exceptional staff and providing the stability
reading needs during this pivotal moment. In a period of tight budgets, external stressors that we're seeing statewide and nationwide and worldwide, and major infrastructure shifts here in town, reading doesn't need to endure a costly and disruptive search process. It
needs steady, tested leadership that I have provided and will continue to provide as your permanent town manager. I am prepared to lead with transparency, compassion, and the professional integrity that the residents of Reading expect and deserve, and I look forward
to tonight's conversations. Thank you. >> Thanks, Shane. So, board members, real quick, did we just want to just rotate questions and go in order that way? That sounds good to everybody. >> Sure.
>> So, I will start with Karen Rose Gillis. >> Do we do one question at a time? >> Yes. Yeah, >> preferably unless you have a related followup to whatever chain, you know. >> I don't even know which one. >> Um, what do you see as your biggest
challenge moving from the number two spot to the number one spot? >> So, when I was as assistant, my I'm advising the manager. As the manager, I'm advising the board and working with all of the boards,
committees, and commissions to help you make the decisions that you need to make to drive policy in town. So, it's it's a broader level of advisement, right? So, I I work with all of our departments. I have worked with all of our departments for 10 years
because the nature of the different roles I've had have been across the silos, right? Find fire departments a silo, police department silo. So, I've always worked across all of the different departments. Um, and I have great relationships with all of our all of our department heads. Um, but in this
role, it's I have to have a little bit deeper and and broader understanding of what each department head needs versus, you know, just what's going on in the assistant town manager role. So, um, ways I've started doing that already are, um, sitting down with our
department heads, um, grabbing lunch, going over, you know, to their offices, going to them and saying, "What is it that you need? What are your priorities? What's happening for you? What do I not understand? Let's talk about what collective bargaining is going to look like um, in the coming months because
that's coming up for next year." So, it's those kinds of things, going broader and deeper into what each department is doing and being able to um bring forward the data and the information that you need to be able to make your decisions. >> Thank you. >> Thank you,
>> Melissa. >> Thank you, Jane. Do you have any thoughts or ideas on ways to alleviate some of our budget concerns over the next year? >> Sure. Sure. That's a that's an easy question. Thanks for that. Wonderful. That's a problem we're all going to have
to solve. Um, so Reading has a good tradition, right, of grant funding and we are continuing to work on grants and earmarks. That work has started will continue. Um, and we have some staff that are really tremendously talented. Andrew McNichol
in particular is tremendously talented in writing in writing grants. And I've already been talking to members of our delegation um even earlier today to talk about grant opportunities and making sure that these are the folks that are getting them and that I'm getting them. So grants help but they're not going to
solve problems. Um other ways if you were point were to appoint me some things I might be doing are restructuring um our staffing. So I'm not talking about layoffs at all. I'm talking about like right now we're currently not filling some open positions. We would
continue that. We would maybe look at attrition and not backfill certain positions. And then we would move people around strategically and do a little bit more. An example of this is when um I moved from business administrator to become uh director of operations and
took on another full-time job. That was two full-time jobs and I took all of that on. Um and so we did that with the addition of a um of an executive assistant at the time. So, um, being able to kind of do some of those things would be part of where I would go
because most of our bud our budget, our operating budget is in people. It's your government is people and so most of our budget is is tied into people. Other things that we've done already, we're working um on our health insurance right now to see if we can achieve any
savings. um we've already pressed our property and casualty insurance company to um give us greater savings that reflect our favorable loss ratios and so that resulted in 8% savings or about $178,000 off our um budget next year.
So, um those are some of the things that we're looking at. We are um there are other things that we can do as well. Um, one thing I did in in my role when I was on the school committee 150,000 years ago, um, it wasn't quite, it was was
about 2010, 2009, 2010, so it was the great recession. Um, we had realized that we were underounting our um, residents that were qualified for free and reduced lunch. So, our poverty level was artificially high. It's not
really applying here, but just to give you an a demonstration. So what we did is we incentivized parents to fill out the free and reduced lunch application because that's part of the chapter 70 formula at the time and we um entered
everybody in a contest to receive an iPad which was highly highly controversial in the moment back in 2009 2010. Um that's playing the long game. That's strategic. We did that effort. We had staff from our food services department
at those parent nights helping parents fill out forms that okay sure I'll do this you know you're not going to do it but if somebody helps you do it it's in written in micro dot you know that worked and that resulted in millions dollars millions of dollars more coming into the town through the chapter 70
formula so looking at those things and looking down the road I'm not looking six months I'm looking a year two years three years where do we see to pay off and how can we, you know, adjust those levers of government and make the system
work for us. I'm not saying that particularly application, but that isn't something that we did in Tukspray and that was very much pushing that at the time. >> Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Carlo, can I ask a followup but not my question right now?
>> As long as it's quick, I can It's quick. All right. >> Uh, thank you for that answer. sort of follow up on Melissa's question and part of your answer was we're not laying off anyone right now. Um, if an override fails,
is that an option? >> Yes, absolutely. If an override fails and we cannot fund our budget, most of your budget is in people. One thing you will learn about me if you haven't figured it out already is I will always tell you the truth and I'm not going to
sugarcoat things. And the truth is if we if we come to a point where we FY28 is the is the pinch point. We are not unique. I don't know if there's somebody going to ask an override question. I don't want to go totally down that road unless you want me to. But >> not yet. >> Yes, sir. Um so yes, in the future
layoffs may have to be a factor. I would like to avoid that because we have tremendous staff who bring a lot of institutional memory. They do really good work and I'm very proud and privileged to work with everybody I work with. That being said, um I think attrition is the ideal way to recognize
that those savings. >> Thank you for that honest answer. And now a fun question for me. >> Thank you. >> Um I've said several times over public meetings, how can we make writing a destination because we have Route 28
going through downtown? We have a great downtown. As far as I can tell, we're 100% occupied in our retail uh storefronts. But what would you do or do you have any recommendations or ideas to make make Reading more of a destination
than a cutthrough? >> Yeah, Reading is a cutthrough partly because of our fantastic location at, you know, the inter intersection of these two highways 93 and 95. um we're a destination um as an aspirational
community for people to want to live in and we need to make sure that we're always keeping that in mind. And I say this a lot in a time when your zip code determines how long you live and the life expectancy in reading is average 81 82 years old among the highest in the
country. Also that's most of northeastern Massachusetts but that's true for here. you know, we have to make sure that we're protecting that benefit that people who invest in our community are getting the services they're looking for and you know, how long you live is a
big part of that. So, I think I find that very important. It's part of like what's your shareholder value when you manage a business? What is your what is your homeowner, your resident value? Um, so renting is a destination for where people want to live. But to come and
visit, come spend your money here. I think part of that is um looking at how we have interesting and unique community events and partnering with our community organizations that help put on some of those events. So, it's not just like robust business, right? People come to
Jordans from all over the state because it's a great business and and it's unique. Um I don't know if you've heard, but Trader Joe's is also coming here soon. Maybe I heard that. >> Heard about that. Um, and so that's that's a fun exciting uh benefit for the residents in town, but a lot of residents in neighboring communities
will be coming here for that, too. So, how do we get them to come here and spend more money? You know, it's it's making it easier for businesses to start here. And we've started that work in my department um in a couple of ways. I've worked with department heads to make it
easier for permitting. We have a new building commissioner who's already working with our IT department to make our building our permit process not only easier but more in interdivisional. So if you have this kind of a project going but really the health department also
has a piece of this that that's kind of wrapped into this the system and how it's and how that workflows that's really inside baseball stuff but that's what makes it easier for businesses to just go through the process. Secondly, I've asked our economic development director to act as the go-between
between businesses and our permitting system and and working with those individuals to find out if it's starting a new business. It's hard. You don't know all the regulations. You don't know what you don't know. So, helping as an usher to to move them through the process and and keep them fully informed
and make sure that there aren't surprises. One of my ethics is no surprises. So, that's another way making it easier for businesses to come here. They talk to each other. You know, people talk, businesses talk. And you know, if Reading is an easier place to
set up a business and to feel supported by your community, that the people in town hall care about your business being successful and that the people at the top and your leadership are put in a position to support that, then more people want to do that. And then, as I said about community organizations, Fall
Street Fair brings in a lot of people. that's tremendously popular and we have done a lot to support that in in the past, you know, to to support their work there. But that's getting, you know, they have a lot of expenses related to that too and the town takes on some of those as well. So, being able to balance
that. The beer gardens we had on the common were a fun thing and brought in a lot of people. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Jane. Uh Karen, >> thank you. Um, thank you, Jane, for being willing to uh step up as acting
town manager. Um, it's doing two jobs is is is a lot. So, I I appreciate you're doing that. Um, so I'm looking at a community um who is in the process of building two major buildings. And in
fact, one of our architects said, "We're not really prepared to do this." and what he meant was staffing. And I recently met a a Southshore um town manager who said who was using an owner's project manager that we are
using that does not have a permanent occupancy permit for an elementary school after 3 years of service. So, my eyes are wide open, even though we're not even in the thick of it yet, that this these projects are not only
transformational, but they literally could break us. Um, so what I'm wondering about what you have done very well in your role has been a hugely strong assistant town manager for Matt, but there is no way that this town can
survive without a town manager and assistant town manager both being um very active and engaged and not necessarily being in the same place at the same time, but leveraging each each other's strengths.
So, I'm wondering what is your vision for if you were to be appointed by the board, how would you approach the hiring of an assistant town manager knowing that we will not be necessarily expanding staff given the fiscal
circumstances and knowing that there are two buildings, a pickle ball project, an override in any of our number of things that we haven't um accomplished yet. So, for the next town, they have a really full plate. So, >> so you need a right-hand person to help
you out. So, I'm wondering about your thoughts. >> Thank you, Karen. That's a fantastic question. I appreciate the question. Um, so when I applied for assistant town manager, it was a public search. It was a it was a fully, you know, public search and we had, I think, six or seven
people on that search uh committee doing the interviews and so forth. So it was it was a robust interdep departmental process and there were it was competitive um and I prevailed in that and I thought that that was um that was a good process to have as stressful as
it was. I would do the same thing for an assistant town manager here. Um I also would take a little bit of time to think about what skills does that assistant town manager need to have to complement mine. They should not necessarily be the same skills. So I think you're right
Karen. I agree with you. Um they should be complimentary and they should be able to fill in um areas that I don't have necessarily expertise on. And so I would think about that and I would rewrite the job description to kind of in include some of those um those areas that I'm
not a particular expert in um or where I could use uh butressing. I do intend as town manager to stay lead on these building projects. Um I would um not I've enjoyed that role. I've enjoyed the project work very much actually. Um, and
I'm grateful that Matt allowed me to to to have those those roles on those projects. Um, we aren't messing around. We're we're very serious about how we do these things. Those our OPMs know very well where I stand on issues and I hold them accountable and I call them up and
have difficult conversations. I've never had a problem having a difficult conversation. I don't like them, but I will have them. Um, and I work very well uh with our OPMs. In fact, our OPM on recal, I've worked with him. This is our third building that I've I've built cuz
he did two buildings in Tuksbury. Just happened that way. I wasn't on the search committee to find that to find that contract um to make that decision. So, it was a lucky lucky happen stance. But so to get back to your question, I would have a competitive process for um assistant town manager and I would post
that and um I would take some time and with board input as well. You know, that would be very valuable from you Karen and from all of the board members. See what would you like to see in an assistant town manager? What would be valuable? Um and then you know is there somebody if there's somebody internally
that would fit that role and rises to the top of that process is there is there a way to retool inside further and I think that there might be but we have to see what that search process brings forward. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Thanks Jane. Um so my question uh is related to recal. Um, so how would you plan to address the funding and staffing shortfall um that we've seen percolating um regarding the recal
building and the and the staffing and the budget and everything else that's going to have to go along with that? I know we've seen numerous meetings where council and aging members have come to requesting funds and in all of those um various aspects, but there is a
significant shortfall beyond $25,000 that is uh bubbling up here. So, what is your ideas to kind of address that looming issue that's on the horizon? So most of the staff, we had a
meeting actually earlier today about um part-time staff that we might need to hire for the recal center to help you know have those longer hours and enable us to have those rental those rental incomes. Um and most of those costs uh actually all of the part-time costs
would be offset by our recreation revolving fund. And so the programs that we offer will fund that staffing. So, I'm not worried about recal related staffing. Um, and we can augment some of what we're doing with volunteer costs.
The real budget um concern is how we uh how facilities funds that budget, how they how they are funded because they need um their request is for two full-time um custodians and a maintenance tech person. Plus, there'll be an increase in utility costs because
it's a larger building. And there will be um an uh uh an increase in um cleaning, overnight cleaning, and um all of the related contracts that we have. We have that support building services. So, we'll see uh those increases in
costs. Some of that will be offset with rental income, which now we're projecting highly conservatively at $211,000. So, um, so that helps, but it doesn't solve our problem. Um, going into FY28.
So, we're we're starting we've been starting the work for FY28 for recal last December. And so, we built the FY27 budget and we're looking at the FY28 budget. The the recal budget does not include right now more programming
costs. Uh, so rather programming funds for um actually that's not true. It does increase our programming funds. We have that on our budget. We're bringing this to you tomorrow. Um but it's not going to be um
everything's for free. >> You know, we're not going to be able to offer that model. We've been privileged to be able to do that through ARPA funds. Um, and you know, using one-time funds to to fund uh recurring costs is always a slippery slope because once
that funding goes away, now you've cliff funded and you're at a point where how are we going what are we going to do with this cliff and um the town's been very supportive. Other cliff funded project uh individuals we have some staffing that's been funded by ARPA and
so the town's funded those people and it like I said before people are government. your government is your people and so we can provide more by having that staffing remain. So we can go forward with the staffing we have. We can hire part-time staffing with our recreation revolving count and we can earn more money through the programs
that we offer. We have to be able to sell those programs. We have to be able to rent that space on weekends and in evenings um to augment that that cost and to help offset some of those expenses and continuing to look for savings and having those conversations.
So the numbers that you saw, that's the that's the level one budget, right? I talked at the finance committee meeting about in the past few years, we haven't really been talking about what level one budgets are, what are the department requests because we've said, gee, we
really can only we have to use this much money for free cash. We want you to come back with a 2 and a half% or 3% increase or whatever it is. So we're starting our budgeting process as department heads, you know, kind of this isn't what we're looking for. This is level funded or level service. So what you saw and what
our request is right now as we go through this process is that level one budget. And if we don't pass an override um in the future, if the select board doesn't call for one or you do and it doesn't pass um then we'll have to revise down that request. You have to
cut your garment in the shape of your cloth. I know it seems like a I'm from Maine. We have some quaint sayings. That one's PG. Um but but uh they aren't all um but yeah we have to we will cut our garment in the shape of our cloth. We
will use other innovative methods. >> And the two positions that you mentioned is any of that shared with Kellum or is it just strictly a recal for the maintenance aspect that you mentioning? >> So you know that's a great question. So the way and I've talked with um Joe Huggin extensively about his staffing
plan. Right now, facilities is managing 1.1 million square ft of uh building space and they're doing that with four maintenance tech people right now. So, that is a work order. I need something fixed. I need I need light bulbs changed. I need carpets fixed. I need,
you know, these are carpentry issues, electrical issues, certain other other um skills that have to be done inhouse. And so, being able to fill those work orders is usually and sometimes it takes a long time. So, he need he's needed another maintenance tech for a while and
the recal will push him over. Um, he may need a second maintenance tech for the killum school when it becomes operational. That's the request. >> That's the level one request. So, that may not be possible, but he's telling us the information that we need so that we
fully understand what it's going to take to run these buildings. Right now, we have a full-time custodian that sha that moves between this building, the police department, the fire department, and the Pleasant Street Center, and does all of those custodial works. And then we have evening crews that come in overnight to
do the cleaning in the public spaces. Um, the library has full-time custodian. So, Joe's model is like, this building is going to be open for, you know, long days and we need to have that coverage because we're moving rooms around. We want to make sure that we're maintaining
that building in the condition it should be maintained in. And that's his level one request, but if we don't get there, then we'll have to we'll have to conserve there. >> Thanks, Jane. Karen Rose Gillis. >> Um question is um what do you feel makes
a good town manager or better yet what makes an excellent town manager? And does administrative experience or experience working in the town make a difference? Uh yes I yes to the second part of the question I think working in in a
municipality makes a difference. Um I think there's a lot of there are a lot of laws. There are a lot of, you know, practices and regulations and your charter and and it's not it's not
for the, you know, for just an it's not an outsider who, you know, runs a local business is going to have a really big lift. It's going to be a really big fire hose they're drinking from to step into the role of a town manager. It is professional management. I believe in
professional management. Um, and I have believed in professional management since I was first elected to school committee and saw, you know, how much how much detail there is in in running schools. Um, I think an
a good town manager, an excellent town manager is a really good listener and they listen to their staff and they listen to their residents and they listen to their boards. They listen to their leaders and synthesize that information to come up with solutions
because they know how everything works inside town hall and they go to this person and say what about this can we do this what about this can we do this and that's what I try to be you know I try one of my ethics is how do I how do we get to yes how can I make this thing
happen how can we get to yes and we know what certain constraints we're dealing with and then we work through that problem you know we had a group of people that raised some money and wanted to um wanted to have a pickle ball courts and
I sat down in a meeting with the RPPA and talked with them about that and then we started that project. How can we make that happen? And with a lot of effort and donations on their part and the community believing in that project, we're going to break ground on it in a
few weeks. Um so I think you have to listen. I think you have to be curious. I think an excellent town manager is curious. Um why why why are we doing that? Why why does this make sense? If someone comes to me and says, and this is like a pet peeve, if they come to me
and say, "This is the way we've always done it." My first response is going to be, "Well, then it's probably time to change that." Um just because we've done if we were doing everything the same way we did 20, 30, 40 years ago, we would never get anywhere to do anything. We can we can do new things. We can we can
do hard things. Um, I think that excellent town managers are people who are comfortable with being uncomfortable. It's something I tell my kids all the time. It's career advice. Get uncomfortable. Do you I will tell you a secret. I used to be terrified of public
speaking. No, like terrified. Was in high school. I couldn't stand standing up in front of my class and reciting a poem. You know, this is like the stuff nightmares are made of, right? I spoke at my high school graduation. I gave I gave one of the speeches. Um, I
constantly say yes and figure it out later. This has gotten me into trouble like running for office or speaking at an MMA thing like why did I say yes to this? What am I what am I going to talk about? And this is but it's an ethic.
Say yes and figure it out later. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Um because when you're comfortable in that uncomfortable place, it's you you can do you can do things that other people find uncomfortable. Like I said, I'm happy to have a difficult conversation. You know,
look for opportunities inside the challenges. Um so I think those are some of the things. Be comfortable, say yes. How do you get to yes with reason with constraints? We know about budgets. I'm not saying that. Um be curious and
listen. Have an open door policy. Thank you. You're welcome. I can keep going. I'm a long talker, so you gota you gotta jump in. Got to jump in. >> I won't cut you off, Jane. Melissa, >> we all know that there's a lot going on in Reading with uh the building projects
and, you know, budget stuff, but what do you think the top three priorities are for Reading um over the next 6 to 12 months? >> 6 to 12 months. >> Yes. >> Okay. I thought you were going to say longer distance. Um,
top three priorities. Well, bringing in our projects on time and under budget, >> right? So, one of those projects will finish, one of our projects will finish within 12 months. One will finish a little longer than that. >> Um, and then the other one will be a year and a half. Um, keeping keeping
close control of those projects. Um, another example of that is making sure we have builder's risk. That's again inside baseball stuff, but if I'm if we're insuring the town and we're insuring our property and I want to be the policy holder on that, I want the
town to be the first paid if anything goes wrong. So, looking for things like that. Um, I think putting the select board and I've already started this work as you know, putting the select board in the best position to understand what's
coming with FY28 >> and having the data you need to make those decisions that you're going to need to make because you are I've I've sat in your seat. I understand what that's like. I want to be able to support you to make these decisions. Um, and the staff wants to support you to
make these decisions. So that's a big priority for me and that's why I requested a retreat early in May um to to I know everybody wants to have more input into what do what does our capital program look like um what are we looking
at for FY20 etc. So situ positioning the board and putting us in the right place to if if the board decides to have an override when that will be how we're going to message it. Um, and I've done this before >> in 2018 with a successful override and I
know how we how we did not how we were not successful in 2017 and I have that analysis so we can we can do it. So that's you know financial planning >> is important. Um and then the third the third priority um
is working with staff >> um to make sure that our staff is um supported. they're getting what they need. They're not working to burn out. Um I don't want I don't want our staff to do that. We have great staff. Um so
that's and if I could add a fourth, it would be um looking and I'm going to add a fourth. I'm just going to I'm just going to do that. Um it would be looking at how are all of these things we're doing over here, the building project, looking at
the budget, how is that impacting our more vulnerable residents? because they come in and sit with me and say, "I'm having difficulty paying my taxes. I don't know how to solve this problem." And as our assessor's office will know, I'll drive them nuts with, "What about this? What about this? What can we do?"
And I'll come to you for solutions as well. Can we increase the cap of um for income limits for our volunteers, for our senior tax workers? Can we can we do this? I'll support our assessor when he's going to the state looking for senior tax relief, things like that. So
that would be my fourth piece. >> Awesome. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. >> Carlo, >> thank you. Um, one's going to be like a a yes or no, a simple question. And these questions are
uh coming from my colleague Ed Ross. I thought it'd be only fair to since he was nice enough to come. >> I see how it is. >> Nothing was predetermined. Um, so on your vision board, um, did you aspire to be a town manager? That's more
of the yes or no question. >> Yes. >> Yes. Okay. >> Do you want the backstory on that? >> A little bit. A little bit of color. Color. Little color. >> A little color. All right. So, um, >> the so 10 years ago almost exactly, I started working here. It was February
29th. So, if you're technical, maybe it's only been two and a half. I don't know years. um leap leap day I started uh in reading and that was a major career shift right I was coming from being a newspaper editor >> and who bought my ink by the tractor trailer load and and wrote stories and
knew everything not everything but I understood really deeply how government works for somebody who was an outsider um through my elected service but also when you have to explain a CIP shift anyway you see how that works and um at
that time I was I had just gotten divorced and I was raising two kids and I was figuring some things out and I had the privilege of being able to start a new career here and um and a lot of encouragement from other town managers
that I knew and um I said in 10 years I want to be a town manager. That's my goal. And so over the time and through progressive responsibility um and get getting my master's degree um and putting myself in uncomfortable
positions like speaking at different things and being finalists in other communities um that was always a goal. So >> Ed good. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thanks sir. >> Thank you. Um, so I guess to
again also coming from Ed, Ed, Ed Ed submitted a lot of great questions, so I want to give him credit. Uh, what if anything you would do differently as a town manager from your from the previous town manager? >> That's a hard question because Matt and
I are very different leaders and we complimented each other. Well, um, Matt was the person in the room and I would look at him and like, "Can I go?" And he would be like, "Yes." And I would I would I would take over the meeting or I
would you let me do that. Um, because he had the knowledge and the background information. We spent a lot of time strategizing over things. Um, so and Matt was an a fantastic mentor and and gave me a lot of latitude. So, what
would I do different than Matt? Um, I uh well, I would try to be I would try to be like Matt with the way he managed our staff in a lot of ways, which was not micromanaging people and letting them succeed um and supporting them in their
roles. Um, unlike Matt, I don't love the bylaw committee stuff and the charter stuff. He loved the legal stuff. and he did that and I don't love that. I may not follow the rules, but um that's uh
that's a tough one. So, I think things like that um I'll need some support on. Um and uh I've already talked with our town clerk about continuing her work on bylaw. Um she's fantastic, but some of those things I'm not going to I'm not a
good poet, it turns out. Um, I have I did use some I did some chat GPT poetry once um on on I did put it on Facebook. People come shopping downtown. It was cute. I thought it was cute. Um, Fidel asked for that. But
>> um I I will try to lead with humor and I'm I'm kind of little bit of an extrovert. Just a little bit of an extrovert. So, um, so albe it albeit a lot of things, but I'm I'm fine jumping in front of the crowd and and and um
>> taking the mic >> maybe a little bit. You might have to take it back for me, but um no. So, >> thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh Karen, Eric, >> um thanks. Um, I'm just um thinking about some some of
the the we talked about the big picture. We've got to get an override defined. And I think this conversation tonight is starting to show us what might be the driver of an override. properly
properly financing um elder human services and our new two two new buildings for example >> um but I'm a little concerned about some I understand the staff is extremely hardworking and talented
and I and I have never thought we were overstaffed a town hall so I'm starting to be concerned with important things that are starting to get gummed up Um, we've talked extensively about Mata Cabin being closed since September and
um, we have talked about a budgeting process that ran out of programming funding for Elder Human Services 3/arters of the way through the year and um, you and I have talked about we now have green communities grants funds, but
nobody's really had a chance to actually get any projects into that project. So, um going with this, I guess. So, so how would you approach
some of those things a little differently? Um so, that's kind of when it gets back some of that is I guess my question relates to staff development. we've had um it's been a revolving door in the in the building department and
hopefully um we can get some stability there and I think that'll help. >> So, >> but the fact that Mata Cabin is still closed is really concerning and um and then when we have residents concerned because they think they're
hearing comments that maybe in other human services we don't have enough facility with strong budgeting. Um, so how do we how how would you as town manager like address like resident concerns about that things like that?
>> Okay, thank you. What what I also heard you starting to go down the road is a little of our services being affected because we don't have all of our we not fully staffed right now or we might be a little bit of that. So I heard that too. Okay.
>> Um, those are great questions. Um yes, if we don't if we if we m if we lose staff through attrition, it will affect services. So as we go forward and look at an override, that's one of the things we'll put forward to the select
board is this is how if it passes, this is what will this is what will be here. This is what will increase. If it doesn't pass, this is what we will lose. And we will have to do that analysis and bring that forward. Um,
yes, I agree with you on Mata Cabin. We now have a new building commissioner who jumped in on that project and um we have started that contract that the the board gave us some appetite for and the permanent building committee um appropriated the money for so they can
find out what's going on with Matara. We know what the problem is with Matara and just to take a a brief detour down that road. Mater Cabin was a gift to the town. Um, improvements were made to that building. The value of the improvements were about $800,000, but they were done
mostly by volunteers um and the um Northeast Metro Tech students and um for the most part and um the use of the building was never changed from residential for whatever reason. We don't know why it was never changed. Um
but when the preschool Montasuri school wanted to come in it look we had to look at the use of that building and it it the use didn't match and therefore it's not up to code and so now as a as an owner of this property we have to decide what is to code and we can't go backward
which is why the building is still not usable for the public once we know more. We have to do better and so we can't we can't unwind that. We can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. have to go forward and we make sure that we follow the code. So, so that's what's happening
with Matera. Um, we have a sense of what needs to happen. We need a budget for how much that is actually going to cost us. And I professionals don't speculate. We we do the work. We do the analysis and we come back. We're not going to spend taxpayer money without having a really good sense of, you know, what
we're what we're really needing to do. So, um, so yeah, we do have the building commissioner there. We're starting to talk about long-term staffing in that department. if they're going to be making changes as we see some retirements coming down the road. So, um so those conversations have already
begun. Um elder and human services programming money um in part ran out because ARPA funds have run out and because we haven't charged for any programming in years and um prior to prior to co I think we had $25,000 in
that department for expenses. It's at $51,000 now. Is that enough? Right now, inflation's real, you know, and programs cost money. So, we are reinstituting uh programming costs. We knew this was coming. Last year, town meeting approved
the elder and human services revolving fund um because we were looking ahead at what was coming and we understood so that we could use that revolving fund to pay our vendors um and uh and manage that process. So, so that work has has begun as well. But yeah, I mean, do we
want to fund more for elder and human services? Do we want to do more for conservation? Conservation Commission really wants to be able to do more um more of their work. Um what what's going to happen with um you know with our school department? What kind of services
they need? What are they holding back on? What what do they need to fund? Um you know, police and fire are approaching fully staffed and they have they have recruits in in themies and so forth, but they're in a really good place right now. Um, we want to be able
to maintain that because when we have people in the academy, we don't have people on the street, it drives up overtime costs and we're really trying to, you know, that's a that's that's a really big concern. Our police our police chief will be presenting um a a presentation at town meeting about
what's going on with overtime costs, but they're they're real. We have to put people on the street. We have to protect people. Um, so you know, there's a lot there's a lot of factors there, but yes, because we've been doing level services budgets for a number of years, we've been able to stretch out that 2018
override a lot longer than the, you know, 3 to 5 years it was going to last. And a lot of that is from grant funds from the from the federal government through CO, but those days are over. And we're not in the position many of our neighbors are. Winchester, you know, um,
Arlington both failed their overrides this weekend. So, you know, there are also external pressures we have to be mindful of with the cost of fuel going up that may impact a lot of our projects um that have paving. So, um you know, those are things that
we're watching very closely. We're very glad to be under budget and on time with all our projects and we keep our contingencies. We don't spend them so that we're prepared for when there are externalities that we can't predict. >> Thanks, Shane. >> I have a quick little followup.
>> Yeah. I um so so just getting back to elder services because and and >> y >> we knew Arbor was running out. >> We did approve a budget and the ball got dropped anyway. Like if
you had to just and this isn't to like point the finger at people because you know this is a real world and things happened and as long as we're fixing problems and moving forward it's not a problem. But that's that's that's a budget falling apart. Like that doesn't
happen. Like we the town manager may come back to us and the town accountant may come back to the finance committee and say we just got the health numbers or or snow is a great example. Nobody ever knows what snow is going to be. So we've been lucky. We've been lucky and
then this year completely throws our budget out of whack. That's true. But the elder human services budget just running out of money that that's that's a little different. So, um anyway, that's we certainly don't want
that happening in the future. I um are we any closer to finishing the interview process for um the senior center director? cuz maybe that was >> I mean when the budget was created like it just had a whole >> if I could Karen I think we're getting a
little off topic. It's it's a question. >> All right. So let me wrap this up then. >> Um what will we be doing with the elder and services budgets or so or what will you be doing differently so that no department ever has to um find out that
they're out of money like nine months into the the fiscal year? Thanks. Um, that's a great question. I think that with Elder and Human Services, we could have instituted paid programming earlier.
I think that's probably what we should have done. We should have done paid programming last fall and then eased into it instead of keeping it free for as long as we could and then returning to a paid program because we had it was
paid programming prior to co prior to ARPA funds. Um and so I think that that's that's probably what we should have done and the decision that we made was let's reduce the burden for as long as we can. let's keep it free for as long
as we can. And the the better answer would have been let's start the paid programming earlier. Um our projections, this isn't a surprise. We we knew this was coming. We we did communicate that through our through our council on aging
and through our um the the meetings that the two different uh the interim director and the um previous director had with the council on aging. These are, like I said, we passed the Elder and Human Services revolving fund last spring. So, I think the better way would
have been to start charging for programming earlier, but um I think our department heads generally do a very good job with their budgeting. Snow and ice is is terrible this year. That I will give you that it was and that's normal. The state doesn't want us to
fund all the way to what snow and ice could ever be. It's the only account you're allowed to run a deficit. So, >> thank you. I I do agree with you. This doesn't happen very often. Um, so it was just surprising. Thank you for that honest answer. I appreciate it. >> Thank you.
>> Thanks, Shane. Um, so my next question would be, uh, obviously one of the more significant issues that propped up last year was the MBTA turnback track scenario and how that all transpired. been, you know, it
it came as a shock to some and it might even been the prior year before that kind of thing. >> Yeah. >> It it's hard to keep track how long this has been going on. So, can you describe any lessons learned or missteps that would be beneficial for the future on
kind of related transportation projects around, you know, how that all unfolded. So, I think um we've demonstrated very clearly that state agencies aren't fabulous or really
even interested in communicating downstream to localities. We're seeing that right now with the uh the fourth lane project um on the highway. And when I happened upon that because I have a a a Google um alert for anything ready and
it came up that way and then I went back to the state and I notified our you know managers in in Wakefield in Stonem who also had not had any communication and our delegation and the board to say this is coming. We didn't know about it. can we have some conversation around this?
Can you talk with us and our public safety officials and our our engineers and so forth? So, they've been more responsive since then. Um, so I think the lesson learned is we have to watch them really closely and we have to work very closely with our legislative delegation so that they're communicating
that to us as well. Um, I'm close with uh Rich Hagerty. I've known him for a long long long time. Um, I worked for his family's company. So, um, he and I have been colleagues in the past and, uh, and I'm privileged to be able to say that he's I count him as a friend, but,
um, yeah, we have to work with our delegations. We have to keep an eye on all these agencies. We have to make sure that we're going to the things that we're supposed to be going to. Um, in my past life, I have been the chair of a regional planning agency, the chair of NIMCOG, which also allowed me to sit as
a voting member on a regional transportation agency. Our we're part of the MBTA, right? that was when I was in Trxbury that was part of the LRTA. Um, so I understand how those those systems work. Um, there's an advis NBTA advisory board meeting tomorrow. It's on my
calendar. I went to the last one. I'll go to this one. I'll continue to go to these and keep an eye on what's happening deep inside these agendas that are impenetrable. I mean, you start looking for things. It's very hard to find out what's going on unless you're, you know, you're an insider. So, um, we
met with the, um, office of the inspector general earlier this year, and I talked with him about a culture for the MBTA that is not collaborative with communities. They're broken as an agency, and they're trying to be better,
and I'm I'm glad for that. Um, but there's a lot of work to do there, and they have a they have cultural issues there, and that's that's what they're dealing with. But we're going to have to be mindful of that as we go forward and adjust our behavior appropriately.
>> I will say after you had brought that up, I did see it mentioned multiple communities after the fact. So if you are the one who truly brought that to them, I I thank you because it is all over the place now with Wilmington and Wakefield and all that. >> Yeah, we we started putting it out um on
our social media >> as well. >> Thank you, Karen Rose Gillis. >> Thank you. Um, how can the select board better support you as town manager? >> I love that. Um, I love that question.
Um, communication. I I love I I told you open door policy. Come in and talk to me. Um, or I'll come meet you, right? And I love I don't get nearly the exercise I'm supposed to, it
turns out. And um, so I love a walk and talk. I love a walking meeting. Um, and you know, the weather's getting better, so this is the time. But yeah, just you know, what's on your mind? What are what's happening with you? What are your concerns? And not save that for the
meeting. Let's have the conversation. Give me some time to maneuver. Um, I I like I've said before, I don't like surprises. We have enough surprises that come up all on their own, it turns out. and um so what we can do to control and
communicate so that I understand the board's needs, you know, and have those conversations and then be able to to work on that with staff is important and report that back to you. Um I think the conversation in the meeting is for the public benefit,
right? The public benefits from having disagreement here in this room and agreement in this room and and the discourse that happens. Um but the work doesn't happen in the meetings. this is just where we report out what we're doing. Um the work happens all the other
days. That's the day job. Um the night job is reporting out what we're doing and and being able to talk to folks. So the board being able to communicate to me what you're looking for and then I can go back and and work with you to um and then manage competing needs. Not
everybody's going to agree on everything. How do we come to consensus? What information is needed? Where do we need to engage the community? And then when we engage the community, having the board support us. I want you when we did the override in 2018 and we did all that
data, I met with every single select board member at the time and told them what my analysis was, told them what what I would be saying in public. Um, and then we had a joint meeting with the school committee and the select board and I and I told everybody what I was going to say, but the public heard it
for the first time and I showed them the data. Um, so that kind of thing. Let's sit down. Let's talk about it. let's engage the community and then having that support to know that I can speak freely that that I can um do the things that I need to do with your support and
take risks, you know, if we, you know, measured understood risk, but being able to take risks and not um and know that the board's going to be there to back me up. Um that's that's an important thing. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. So, you've sat on this side
of the aisle, I guess, and now you're on that side, but how do you think that you I know that you've already been in these positions, but how do you think you'll handle misinformation and or highly emotional public meetings? >> How will I handle misinformation and
highly >> misinformation that's, you know, in a meeting? Is there a way that you think that you could um correct the information? and when those meetings become highly emotional, which we've seen recently, how do you think it's
best to handle that? So, um, those are great questions. Those are tough meetings. Those are tough meetings. Um, as a select board member, I if I thought I was correct and or I
had um I was getting it wrong, which happens from time to time, um, I would usually look to the manager. Can you am I correct in this? Am I? So, it give the manager an opportunity to weigh in on a topic. Um, and that's a wonderful segue
to be like, well, actually, there's a little detail maybe you didn't know or maybe there's this little piece. Um, and so it's a non-confrontational way to still say what you're thinking, still say what you're feeling. Is this correct? And if the manager doesn't
know, let let me get back to you tomorrow. let me get that information and come back with you for that. Like I I don't know the answer to that. Not going to know everything. We prepare as best we can coming to the meeting, but we don't know everything. So, but having that opportunity, come back to the manager is good. Um I can interject,
you know, and say, um, Mr. Chairman, I tend to be orchairman, I tend to be pretty formal in meetings, you may have noticed, and direct my comments to the chair, >> through you, to Ms. Murphy, that kind of thing. um because that's a very good way
to keep order and just always direct the comments to the chair. The chair filters them, asks for answers and responses. Um so I can interject and interrupt which I don't love to do. Um but you know to prevent misinformation from getting out
there that's important. So that's an area to work on. Um when things are getting emotional, that's tough. Um that's really tough. Um, I think if we're communicating amongst ourselves better,
um, well, you with me, >> not violating committing law, um, but you with me, then it's easier to kind of see, oh, maybe this is this thing, right? Maybe maybe this thing is actually something that, you know, no, there's more to it than this. Let's
let's not deal with that now. Let me talk to you tomorrow or something like that. Um, if we have, you know, somebody who's here at public comment who's distraught about something, talk to me tomorrow. I'll call you tomorrow. What's your phone number? Like, let's get in touch. Let's let's deescalate. Um, and
and happy to bring the resources and and solve problems. So, >> fantastic. Thank you. Thank you, >> Carlo. Thank you. So, uh, four years ago when Fidel got hired, you know, didn't know him from a hole in the wall and he
became town manager. And one of my first conversations with him was, "How do we get Dennis to the table?" >> Market Basket. >> To the table, right? Dan >> Dennis, the owner of Market Basket. >> Thank you. >> And I know Eastern Gateway is a big
vision >> which to me is many, many, many years uh in the making. I know we're going to vote on the zoning, but but I guess that property is there. It's not fully occupied. It's underutilized.
It's a great location. What would you do or offer that property owner to get them to activate that property? >> Well, um we've engaged with Mr. Janis
previously um I met recently with other developers in our area. He's on my list. I haven't gotten to him yet in the last 3 weeks, but I will. Um he's reached out to us on other matters um most recently on Market Basket. Um so I think a part
of it is an introduction, sitting down and talking to him about what his future goals are and where he wants to be in the future. Um and what he sees as a vision for his property there. Um, and I can't speak for him or what he wants to do, but what I can do is assure him that
the town is interested in um, how we responsibly use land, how we develop land um, for the future. And we're taking a long view on Eastern Gateway. You know, we're not looking at 6 to 12 months or or 5 years. We're looking at
what is this whole region going to look like for 30, 40, 50 years. It's going to unlock all of your new growth for generations. So, we have to get it right and we have to put the time in to to work with all of these land owners
over there and be really smart about it. Can >> I just follow up on that? >> Yes. >> Thank you. No, I I those are all the right answers, but what I'm trying to get more where Eastern Gateway is so far off in the future
>> is how I mean I know you you'll meet uh with this person if appointed, but as Fidel did and then it kind of I don't want to say it fell by the wayside, but you know, both parties have to be interested. >> Both parties have to be swimming in the
right direction. So, I guess what I would like to see a new town manager try as hard as they can to bring them to the table with the planning department with economic development. Like you said, what do you need? What can we do
for you that's reasonable? Like I I you know, I don't think in the plans there was a hotel over there that's a great location for a hotel. He has the land. He has the property. It adds to our tax base. Doesn't add to our schools. doesn't add to our senior population.
So, these are things that I think >> need to be pushed aggressively as much as we can, but if they're not going to talk, they're not going to talk. Yeah. Yeah, >> but I think we have to look ways of incentivizing slash
accommodating as as best we can within our limits because I know the whole property is is being looked at, but to me that one is one property owner, a lot of acreage and let's try to get something done. >> Yeah, I concur.
>> Thanks. Uh Karen Eric still on mute. >> Yeah, sorry I had a couple of screens going. Um I guess the the other thing that we've been discussing um internally is um a thorough review of our um fiscal
policies and perhaps an expansion. And I think you alluded earlier that the select board and residents have been asking for more input into capital planning. Um so do you have any um previous experience that would be helpful for
these kind of tasks going forward for capital planning or um for bring >> policy reviews and updates? >> Well, yes and no. Um my background is in state and local public finance. So I have a degree in economics. Um I have
public and private I have public sector experience and private sector experience. Um we have done um as I said during my work during the great recession we did a lot of fiscal policy analysis in the town of Tuksbury and we made some big changes there. Um, reading
generally is considered to have some of the best fiscal policies in the state and is looked at as a leader by our pure communities. Um, an example of that is the fact that we put about 5% into our capital plan annually. That's part of
our operating costs. And a lot of other communities do that sort of in the fall with their um with their free cash and they they put money into capital projects. We do this regularly. it prevents us from having to lose funds or
um have bigger expenses due to benign neglect. So, those are good things. Um being able to open up um how we do our capital planning to the select board and to the public. Part of the reason for the retreat earlier is to get ahead of that.
So, our CFO meets twice annually with department heads to look at their capital planning. It's a 10-year plan. It moves, but everything's on it. What are we looking at? We have to replace this turf field, and we just bought this car in in five or 10 years, we're going
to have to replace that that truck or that piece of equipment. So, we understand what's our fleet. We understand what's our capital equipment. We understand, you know, with our enterprise funds which sewer pump stations we're going to have to replace. So, so we have a robust project that our
staff are very detailed, but people want to have more ideas about what that is. So, I think that's one thing. Um, another thing that I wanted to do is, and I've talked about this before, another community has it. I think it's kind of neat. They give they set aside
$25, $50,000 for um resident projects. So, the residents can come forward and say, I think we need to do this thing, this this project in my neighborhood. Um maybe it's, you know, we need park
benches or maybe it's we need to build a pavilion, we need a sha structure, a pocket park, we need to do these small things, whatever it is, and they come forward and they um they present projects and then the town can fund them with this seed money. Um and it helps with community engagement and it helps
people address needs, you know, in their backyard. So I think that's a new thing that could be talked about as a fiscal project. Um there's going to be a debate this this year about the CPA and do we adopt that and if we do adopt that and
there's that sir charges added and the reason I the one of the the gateway issues that got me involved in public service was passing the CPA in Tukbury. Um that was one of the first things I did. Um and then they asked me to run for office and I said yes and the rest
is history. So if the CPA were to pass um in reading, does that inform or change how we fund annually capital projects with a 1% search charge? Do we start thinking about well maybe it's not 5%, maybe it's 4 and a half and we take
half percent off because some of that is going to be deferred by the CPA. So that's a conversation to have. Um, and it then starts to make the CPA a little bit of a neutral impact even though there's a search charge. So, you know, how do we get to yes, well, we can be
creative and think it through. I don't know the answer to that question, but it's it's a conversation to have. Um, so I think the CPA is is a really interesting way of doing things. There's a big debate about is now the time. Um, the time has passed. We should have done
it a long time ago. Um we passed it in Tuksbury in 2006 but um we've been able to do so much with it um because it sets aside things that when budgets are tight's never passed an override when budgets are tight things that still need
to happen can happen. We have a splash pad. We have you know all kind we renovated the entire town hall which was not ADA accessible with the CPA. Um and we've done a lot a lot of other projects. So, um, so those are some of the approaches I would take to fiscal policy, but I think you're right. We
have a really good budget process. We have a really good fiscal process that we engage and we should keep that process. And I would bring back level one budgeting to start with. And I would probably start this summer so that everybody knows, you know, just like with the operations
cost for recal, this is what we're asking for in level one. What are what does the police department really need for level one? What is, you know, operations? the operations division needs um software to make our website more accessible. Um or we need to come up with another solution for that. Um
that's not funded and that is a state mandate next spring. So that's a problem we have to solve. So you know we need to start talking about the level one budget stuff. So I thank you for the question. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Thank you for that Jane. Um so my
question would be um well over the past couple years the select board um isn't quite the school committee in the uh dynamic that is up here um recently.
Um, so I've worked under um Bob briefly uh during my time uh than Fidel and Matt. And Fidel's style of handling potential controversial topics or
surprises like you had mentioned that would bubble up was to kind of reach out. I believe I never asked him specifically that he would reach out to individual board members before the meeting to make sure that you know no surprises were coming up how people are feeling so we wouldn't embarrass
ourselves uh during the meeting on things that could have been handled uh beforehand. So that was Fidel's kind of style with handling things. So, um, I only bring that up because I love the way that Fidel handled that and, um,
he's ruined me for all future town managers. Maybe not you, >> maybe >> or not. We'll see. Um, but that kind of handling things opened my eyes to, you know, a different way of of navigating the difficult dynamic where we are your boss. And obviously it's very difficult
to you know like try to say something to me kind right now without realizing am I going to lose my job or something ridiculous you know what I mean so I understand that dynamic but what is your what is your managerial style for I
don't want to say managing us but just trying to you know handle um this board dynamic as well as future board dynamics. Um, so a couple a couple of things about that. Um, if if you say that that
process worked well for you from Fidel, happy to do it. If something is successful, no reason not to repeat it, right? So happy to make those phone calls. I try to keep the board updated on a weekly basis on the things that are going on, what's going on, and invite um
everybody to the table to have a conversation about where you're feeling or what's going on. But I can also be more proactive and reach out on the specific agenda items, you know, the day before or whatever as we get closer to meetings. I think on particularly um
topics that are challenging, what I've done in the past um like with MBTA communities is we brought everybody in one by one to talk about what our plan was um and get your feedback. What about this? What do you think about this? Does this answer your questions? Is this is this answering what you're hearing in
the community? Um so that the board is fully informed. I would do the same thing for the budget process. I don't I my mentor as a manager was Richard Monttoi um and other town managers that I've worked for, but um as a select board member, he did a great job and one
of the things he did is he brought us in for the budget conversation, difficult conversations, and he sat down with the staff and we went over and we could really dig in. The meeting still happens, but meetings, it doesn't have to be four hours to talk about the budget if you already know everything that's in the budget. and then the
public benefits from the summary, right? We still put all the information out. So, um so I think that can help make meetings a little bit a little bit faster um because we put in the work outside the meeting. Um I think bringing
the two members if we have a split board I've worked a lot on split boards that's okay because the public benefits from the discourse and the commentary that conversation that happens the board but it decorum and civility matter at the
table and so if there are two folks that are on opposite sides of an issue come into my office let's talk about what do you need to get to to be able to vote. What more information do you think you need? What what's going to make you comfortable to say whatever your votes
going to be? You don't all have to be unanimous. What we understand is that we believe in the democratic process. We believe in and we take the vote, the board has spoken. And even if I'm on the on the down side of a vote, I always understood that I believe the process.
And so now we're going forward with whatever the board has decided. Um, and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but are you are you respected? Uh, did you get the information you needed? That's that's my role. Um, and um, every
board member is equal in my eyes. Everybody will get the same information, the same courtesy, the same access. Um, and because you all have been elected and you deserve that. >> Thanks, Jane. Did we want one more round
of questions and that's it? or how does every I know Karen you have 45 questions or 42 now um but I think it's you know just to move things along because it's a little past the thing so pick your best question not just you
>> lightning round question >> yes or no questions >> do you have any yes or no questions >> I do not >> okay >> no pressure >> it's a lot of pressure Um,
>> I can move on to Melissa if you want to come back. >> No, no, no. Because I'm going to lose my train of thought. Um, how do you handle accountability and performance of town staff and how can we keep retaining the excellent staff we have? >> Those are two questions. >> Well, um, that is two questions.
>> I will allow it. >> 452 questions. Um, so how do I manage accountability? um go get a phone call, you know, what's happening, what happened here, can you explain to me how we got here? Generally, there's a good
answer. Um but when when there are issues, I sit down and I have private conversation with that individual and say, "This is this is what it's looking like for you. This is the look. This isn't the look you're looking for. This is not the management I'm looking for. this is not the performance or the
cooperation or the collaboration or we insert whatever the issue is that I'm looking for. I would like to see this with my with my direct staff. Um we do a lot of goal setting. Um we're really clear. We did smart goals this year. Um
and I need to now I know I have to remind myself I got to follow up with my staff on where they are with their smart goals. Um, and I did smart goals, too. And just so you can monitor progress. Are you are you getting where you want to be? Um,
and so, you know, our goals, my goals for my staff was they need to have one personal goal. What is what do you want to do in your career? What do you how can I help you reach your career goals? Because, you know, just like when I was raising my children, I said I wasn't
wasn't wasn't raising my children. I'm raising adults. I'm not just managing staff in these roles. I'm managing the future of the organization in the enterprise. We got to build a bench. Not a lot of people are lining up to work in public sector jobs. I don't know if you
know that. Um but the bench is thin and we have people here right now. So helping people grow in their careers, are they getting the training they're looking for? Um where do they want to go? What is their career? I knew coming in the door that in 10 years I wanted to be a town manager. Not everybody's
there. So, you know, what do you want to do? Let's talk about it. So, I think it's both sides, right? Um, making sure that you you have the training and the support and that you're thinking about it. And it's okay to think about it. I know I'm doing this job right now, but I'd like to do this other job later.
Well, how do we get there? Life is life is short and you know, you have to identify those goals. But that's how you build your bench. Um, it's important to have succession plans. It's important that if number one person gets hit by a bus by the MBTA bus downtown tomorrow,
hope that doesn't happen. I hate that. Um, who's going to who's going to run the show because the town continues? You have to maintain an infinite mindset, right? 100 years from now, 500 years from now, there will be a community living here. And the way that we address that has to
be thought of every single day. What are we doing with water rights? You know, what's going to happen down the road? We have to think about that. how are we doing using land? We have to think about that. So the same thing is true with your staff. You have to plan and engage them, but you have to hold them accountable and when there are mistakes,
everybody makes mistakes. I make mistakes. You know, I want people to be able to take risks. I want them to go out on a limb because sometimes you just you get the great stuff there. But, you know, be there to support them when they fall, but also, you know, what's acceptable, what's not acceptable.
>> Thank you. You answered about three of my questions with that. So, thank you. Okay, great. Check. >> Only 40 to go. >> Melissa, >> um, thank you, Jane, for all of the answers you've given tonight. Um, I actually want to ask this question because several residents asked it. So,
I know that you touched on this a little bit, but we got several questions um from residents regarding the, you know, elder services, and I know you touched on it a little bit with um Karen, but you know, going forward,
do you have a plan of how to address that funding in those shortfalls that we're seeing for elder and human services and those tangible needs besides, you know, we've talked about it tonight, we're going to add um causebased programming, but like going
forward with the recal building, do you have a plan besides just we need an override? >> Yes. >> Okay. Yes. Um so one of the things that we're doing in the short term um is
other than pay for pay for classes is um we're going to run our um our fitness programs. It's a big that's a big issue right now. Um through our recreation division because we have access to more folks and we can help drive down that
per class cost um to our to our 60 plus community that are engaging. We have a lot of fitness programs. They're very popular and they're very important for our for wellness in in the 60 plus community. We want to we want to support that. Um so in the short term we're going to run some of those through
recreation. We've also had some conversations and they'll be coming back to this board to talk about that a little bit um to um have some have some of these instructors actually be like seasonal employees. And so if they're
seasonal employees um they actually cost us less than charging whatever they want to charge as a vendor and they can teach more. So they can actually, you know, make a little bit more money. They can reach more people. They can do day classes. they can do evening classes um
and it costs us less money. So that's one ident area uh that staff identified. Um so we talked about that actually today. So timely questions um you know other areas I'd like to touch on a lot of our um 60 plus community are just
tremendous with the the work that they've done in their life, the hobbies that they have, the skills that they have. And so one item is to have um programming from them doing some programming or leading an effort in a way and then they
can have um free programming reciprocal free programming. So if you offer something you get something and when budgets are tight and we can't get additional programming funds and we know that externalities are driving up costs in in homes that are on fixed incomes.
you know, what can we do together as a community? What can we come together as a community to do? Can we look inward um or to each other to provide opportunities for enrichment and growth? Um you know, art classes, um
you know, speech and debate, uh movie analysis, you know, our li we're partnering with our library to bring more programs in. Um we're partnering with our foods already doing that. We're partnering with our food services department to replace some of our meal contracts that we funded through ARPA.
And you know, Katherine Franetti in the school department is just an outstanding individual with a tremendous amount of energy. And so she's helping us drive down the cost of our meals. So we can still have communal meals. Um they can be less expensive or free depending what they are. Um and we aren't drawing on
elder and human services reserved funds to do that. we aren't drawing on um you know uh additional costs to burden our residents. So great. Thank you. Appreciate it, >> Carlo.
>> I don't I mean we covered a lot. You covered a lot. We covered a lot. Uh I I just want to uh thank you for wanting the job. >> I do want the job number one, >> but I didn't make that clear. >> No, no. I that's been abundantly clear. Um, and just to address, I guess, some,
you know, concerns and questions from residents over the past month or so on, you know, let's do a search, let's not do a search, why hire internal, why not hire internal, the pros and cons of either. And they're all valid questions,
but I for me, you know, I I hate to say this, but this is uh um the third goaround in six years to hire a town manager. And I consider that one of the the biggest things that we do. Um we do
a lot of things for this community, but hiring and keeping good town managers is the top of the list. >> So, I just want to, you know, thank you for applying. Um, I think you're more than qualified me personally as an individual and I look forward to the next steps.
>> So, no question. >> Oh, so no question. Okay. Okay. Because I Okay. >> Uh, Karen Herrick. >> No, thank you very much for answering all these questions, Jane. I don't have any more questions. Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> So, I have the last question. Um, >> my shocked face. Yes, >> Jane. That that that you know, that's inside baseball here, Jane. You know, I've been criticized of always wanting to get the last word in.
>> I let somebody get the last word in outside the Pleasant Street Center the other night. I did not get credit for them doing that, nor should I. >> Um, but, uh, for me, uh, can you tell me about a time when you had to make a difficult administrative decision that
impacted the community? Um, and what was the outcome and would you do anything differently here if uh it came up in running? >> Uh, so as an elected official I have >> in any either elected or when you were
on the select board or anything that sticks out to you. >> So I'll give you for instance when I was um on school committee um during the great recession. So I'm going back to the school committee because it was great recession. So it was was really tough.
It was nine C cuts in the middle of the year. We weren't going to be able to make our, you know, our teacher contracts. We were, our budget was, it was terrible. And Tukbury had no reserves. We had we had uh I think we had when our when Richard Monttori was
hired in 2010, uh we had $500,000 in stabilization and that was it. And this is a town that never passed an override. So we and we had the, you know, we had terrible class size, the third worst in the state. So, we had a lot of work to do and I knew we couldn't lay off any teachers. But this
story um was about redistricting our schools. We had neighborhood schools like Reading does, but we bust everybody in town. We didn't Nobody walked. Uh some people walk, but generally it's a bust community. And we had to redistrict
the schools in order to make the budget work. And that was painful. That was a lot of big meetings for the community. It was a lot of um parents that didn't understand why we had to do this. Kids traveling a little bit longer on the
bus, some were a little bit shorter. Um and what we did is instead of K to five in four schools, it was two schools were K to two and two schools were third and fourth grade and then they all came together in fifth and sixth grade in one
school. So people like being in their neighborhood school, right? they want to be in the same school for five years, six years, K to five, and that wasn't going to happen anymore. And that was very difficult. Um, it was not my favorite thing to do.
Parents were angry. Um, and we spent a lot of time explaining it and we worked very closely with our select board going into very contentious public meetings and my select board members were walking with us into those meetings was
incredible. That was incredible. um the support between the boards because we all understood the stakes. I mean this was this was bad times, you know, it was the great recession. People were towns were shedding teachers left and right. Class sizes were out of control. I had a
child with um uh an IEP at the time and he's all grown up now and everything's great. But um he I was like, I know what happens when you increase class sizes. know what the downside loss is and I always work to protect the downside loss, right? That's one thing you'll
learn about me. So, it was not happy. I did not enjoy it, but we made the decision. Um, and there were a lot of people who were unhappy about it. The kids were resilient. They did a great job. My daughter went through that same program with that same school system.
Um, it saved the budget another couple of years and we made other changes over the years without overrides to get to where we need to be. It's not the level of service that reading is accustomed to. >> It was doing the best we could with our back against the wall and we explained
that and empathized with it. And there were a lot of parents and the community does not want to do an override. Wouldn't even attempt it. So yeah, I'm accustomed to making difficult decisions and explaining those decisions and engage in the community. Don't want to
make those decisions. But when the time comes and we have to the explaining the consequences of what's going to happen with our budgets if we're not planning is important and I' I've been there and
so long-distance planning, engaging with other boards, being responsive to the public, that's important to avoid those kinds of things. Does that answer your question? >> Of course. Um, so yeah, uh, the last word will go to
you now. Is there anything else that you wanted to say to us or follow up on anything else before we get to, um, our other agenda items here? >> I have a closing statement, of course, >> and then I will recuse myself from your
conversation. Right. So to tonight, um, we've discussed the reading balancing act, if you will, advancing $158 million in capital projects while navigating tight operational budgets impacting, as we talked a lot about tonight, our elder and human services uh, department. Um,
my decade of experience here means I don't need a transition period. I'm already deep in the work of layering our debt as older obligations retire, protecting our AAA bond rating, ensuring our departments and services remain worldclass. I'm asking for the opportunity to finish what we've
started. I want to thank you for your time and I look forward to the work ahead. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much for tonight. >> And now I shall recuse myself. You're in charge of this bit over here. >> Oh, thank you.
>> All righty. Moving on to 805, discussion of potential appointment of Jane Wellman as town manager. Board members, any thoughts? Melissa,
um I knew it before going into tonight's interview process with Jane, but for me it's a no-brainer. Um she's the right choice for Reading. Um, not only does she have the knowledge of this town for the last 10 years, um,
she's got experience being on a school committee, a select board member, a town meeting member, and a moderator of her own town that most people don't bring to the table. And, um, I think that if we don't jump on this, someone else is going to, and she is my choice for
reading. >> Thanks, Melissa Karen Rose Gillis. So, um I agree with Melissa. I think in most situations, um it's been said that not always is the number two going to be a good fit for
number one. And I think in this instance, I'm pretty I'm very confident that I can say I think she's a perfect fit basically because of all of her prior experience being on boards, being on school committee, doing all that other stuff as part of her um incrementally coming up
to this point. So, I think um I think she transitioned really really well and I think that we're in a state right now that we cannot afford um any learning curve for a new person. I think it's just we're it would be one
thing if we hadn't voted on the projects yet and we could there'd be some time to get acclimated, but we're like in the midst of a lot of stuff and I think that she's got the knowledge and the energy to move us forward to where where we
want to go. >> Thanks Karen. Karen or Carlo. >> Karen, do you want to go? Do you want me to go? >> Sure. Um, so I'm going to say some of the same
things I said before. Um, and I do believe that uh, Jane brings a lot of strengths to this um, process and um, I think that was demonstrated this evening. And however, I am very very concerned about the select board not
breaking away from historical protocol and not doing a broader search. So um I have not changed my mind about that and I am still also concerned as I made it one of my questions about making the select board does not appoint
the assistant town manager. So, um we are, um since we're losing our assistant town manager, we are going to um trust that if we hire Jane to be the town manager that that she is going to find
an appropriate candidate and um I don't have a problem with with trust and letting people stretch. But it is a concern for me if we um but I I think we can all agree. Um, I would not like to um I would not like to
lose Jane uh in her service to the town, which has been very much appreciated. >> Thanks, Karen. Carlo, >> sure. Uh what I agree with my colleagues and what I appreciated the most about tonight
was how much she spoke about the long game and not just the short game because that's what we need. And and I'm not saying other town managers didn't have that, but that in and of itself
and knowing she's going to be uncomfortable sometimes and she was uncomfortable uncomfortable at some times in her past and just saying yes in figuring it out because we all get anxious. We're all
nervous. Um I never pictured myself in this position. This was not on my vision board nor was going for nine years on my vision board. So, I can appreciate all that, but I really appreciate the long game the most. Thank you.
Thanks, Carlo. Um, yeah, for me, uh, it's the same as what everyone else has mentioned. Um, I know Jane was uh not recently but was fi a finalist for other town managers and
other locations. Um, and uh, for obvious reason. I mean, she, as expected, completely crushed every question that we threw at her here and surprised me on multiple things with
um, her sayings that she had. I can't remember them now. I'm sure I'm going to watch back and look, but you had a couple two or three different things that, you know, really left an impression then. It's It's hard to be up here and not write things down and and
focus, but in the moment, I it's I've brought up the small things before. It's always the small things that um I pay attention to instead of the overarching large things. Um but I'll just give one other story with Jane. um regarding this
is that after the article 14 discussion from a week or two ago, it seems like it's every day at this point, but um uh she reached out to me and mentioned that, you know, she wanted to see what my thoughts were for article 14, you know, uh going into town
meeting and trying to get the buyin from the school committee as well. So, she was going to reach out to Shawn Brand and see what he could do. And that's what I'm talking about. She's reaching out to the chairs of these boards like in knowing past history.
She's still trying to to keep us afloat at town meeting to not devolve into whatever probably unfortunately is going to devolve in. But she's attempting to prevent that from happening by trying to get buy in from
um significant stakeholders here in Reading. I I don't discount, you know, other people up here as well. It's it's any one of the five of us, including uh Karen as well. But I'm just laying the foundation here that she's
she's doing something that I would have expected Fidel to do in the past and she did that right out of the gate with me. And like it's I said Fidel ruined me for everyone
going forward. fantastic guy handling the dynamics here as well as within the town and doing everything else. Trash pickup, all of that. Um, but I I don't want to say it's Fidel 2.0 because we all know how that unfortunately ended. Jane is her own strong independent voice
and she absolutely will put me in my place whenever it's needed. And for that, not just for that alone, it just I I think that she's she's going to excel here as town manager. Um, second to none
at this point. So, that's kind of uh where I'm at as well. I don't know if anyone had any follow-ups to anything anyone else had said. Karen Rose Gillis. Um, I guess I we have been contacted by residents
about why we're kind of thinking of going outside the box a little bit and not um hiring an outside search. Um, and I want to acknowledge their comments because I do think it's important. Um, but I tend to also, as Jane had
mentioned, I tend to think outside of the box as well. And I don't think that in this instance, I think going outside of the box of the normal way that we usually did it is is not um an unsafe choice. I think that it will pay out for
years and years to come. Um and we know she wants to be a town manager. So if she's it's not a if she does, she won't. You know what I mean? You know, she'd do well doing whatever she wants, but we know that that's her ultimate goal. and and I think that um
I I respect her honesty tonight and I think that um I think she'd be a perfect fit. So I just want to acknowledge that I know I thought long and hard and talked to a lot of people about the surge process and um saving the money which to me is a big thing. Um but I do
want to acknowledge that I I feel comfortable going outside the box for this. >> Thanks Karen. Anybody else? Any follow-ups? Karen Herrick, nothing. You can just
raise your hand. I It's hard to see you, but thank you. >> Okay. >> All right. Um, there's no vote on this particular aspect that is somewhat I think the next agenda item was only there if we didn't feel
um this process was appropriate or whatever. I think that's why because discussion of potential next steps for hiring t the town manager I mean the agenda is it's already set for tomorrow for us to uh discuss and vote of on
appointment of Jane Wellman as town manager. So that's kind of the next step if we weren't okay with this or we can still we're still voting tomorrow regardless of um how things transpired here today. So, did anyone else have anything to add
with that before I open it up to public comment? Um, I do agree with you, uh, Karen Rose Gillis, that it's, you know, sometimes we, and I know Jane had a she had something in there. I forget
what the word is called when you make a little quote preamble like scenario. She had something in there kind of referencing like what you just did that you know we you got to
go out there and take risk and I understand it's a town manager it's it's obviously a pretty big risk but um in this instance like usually when you hire a number two like if if Jane was to hire somebody else obviously in
like she left in two years or something happened she got hit by the MBTA bus or perhaps an asteroid that got mentioned. Why is everyone so >> stop talking about >> she brought up not me. Um but it just
is beyond ready. Beyond ready. So I mean there's some people that may or may not who knows in the future but for us to be a step skipper this is a step step skipper scenario to me. So, >> all right, public comment. Let's go.
>> So, with that, I will open it up to public comment on anything we've discussed tonight regarding any of these scenarios. Um, is there anyone in the room? First, two minutes. Name and address. Carla and then I'll open it up online.
What? >> Oh, is someone timing? Okay, Mattiey's timing. >> Good evening. I'm Carla Nazaro. Um 64 Lawrence Road. Um chair of the Kllum School Building Committee. Um I am
speaking um with my knowledge of the Kellum School Building Committee, but not for the committee. I have worked with Cha Jane on the Kellum School Building Committee for years now. She is my go-to person on the town side. Um, I
want to unequiv unequivocally um express my um my passion for her to be um our next town manager. She has helped just in in
terms of the committee. She has helped um with streamlining the process for invoicing. Her work with um procurement has helped us greatly in the past couple of months.
She has been involved with our pre-qualification process for our filed sub biders as well as our um general contractors recently. She works with issues with a butters um with parking
issues with roadway issues any intersection between the schools and the town. She's been invaluable. Um, she leads from the front. She always has an answer. Um, she is dedicated. She is
pleasant to be around and, um, she has really enhanced um, what we have done on the committee and I wholeheartedly endorse her um, for this position. I've watched her meetings with the select board. I've um seen how she's engaged
with you and helped progress you your process along um and I am grateful for her for the work that she's done for the town, for our committee, and um and for the future. So, thank you.
>> Thank you. Um Karen Janowski. >> Thank you, Chris. Karen Janowski, Aelia Circle, I want to wholeheartedly agree with everything that you have said. One of the things that Karen Rose Gillis alluded to is that's the way we've
always done it is not always the best way. And even though there's um historical policy, this is not the time. This is the time to think outside the box, to not go by what has been done in the past because we know what we're
getting with Jane. She was outstanding tonight. She blew me away. Her confidence, her willingness to I mean she knew every single question and she display and if she doesn't know an answer, she will come back and say I'll
get back to you. But I've in my role as the chair of the council on aging, she has been such a collaborator and so willing to be open and available. and we've had a few difficult meetings lately and she's been she comes with a sense of humor and a willingness to help
break you know just make things more comfortable for everyone and I was blown away by her knowledge about every aspect everything that she was everything that you threw at her and if you brought in an outside person that would be such a
you know they'd need probably 6 n 12 months to get to where Jane is and So, let's throw out the old process. It's not applicable here. It would be a waste of the town's resources, money, and especially our time. We need somebody
who can who can pick up right where she is with the knowledge that she has. And I'm so glad that the the vote seems to be wholeheartedly in support of Jane. And I appreciate all that you've done. Thank you.
>> Thank you, uh, Ed. two minutes. Name and address. Um, >> hi. Um, Ed Ross, uh, Kensington Nav. Um, so, um, I was one of the people that was, um, u kind of behind having a
process. Um, I think there's, um, you know, there's a lot of merit to be able to do that. Um, and I, and I'm by far one a charter member of Jane's fan club. Um um but that being said um um I really
think you know we would be incredibly fortunate to have Jane um as a as a town manager whether we go through a process or not. More than likely there's you're not going to find someone that's going to uh be able to impact uh Jane right away. Um my my comment is more um just
for the board. um realize how lucky we are to be in this position um and treat it appropriately going forward um in in all communications back and forth. Um I
think it's um this is this could be a turning point for the board um and and should be um how we got here. we're here. Um, and I as someone that has advocated to to getting a little bit of
transparency as far as how we got there, I still would like that at some point in time. But either way, um, we're we're at a point now with Jane, um, that this is, um, she is, you know, to to to Carlo's point, to Karen's point, to, you know, to all that's happened with the board,
um, she's she's a perfect fit. Um, and uh, but again, I think the the main thing I'd stress is just to make sure that that the board handles this with care. Thank you. Thanks, Ed. Anybody else in the room?
Maddie, anybody online? We'll give them a sec to raise hands. I don't see anyone, but >> I don't see any either. >> All right. Once, twice, three times. So, that's that. Karen Rose Gillis. Another motion.
>> Motion to adjurnn. >> Yes. >> Second. >> You're so happy. >> I never get to do that. >> Um, all right. So, roll call vote. Uh, Karen Heric, >> yes. >> Karen Gillis, Melissa Murphy, Carlo, and Chris Haley, yes. We are journed. Thank
you everyone.