calling the February 10th select board meeting to order. We are being broadcast uh via RCTV on Xfinity channel 9, FIOS channel 31, Zoom, and live on RCTV's YouTube channel. Um I'll have everyone stand for the pledge of allegiance,
please. 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. >> Thank you. We have all five members here
present tonight. Um, just a reminder that under Mass open law, uh, meeting laws, anyone who wishes to make a recording, audio, or video of town meetings must notify the chair advance of a meeting. I'm going to view the agenda. We'll have public comment for
any items not included on the agenda tonight. That will be limited to two minutes. Realize my thing is on. We'll have town med uh, manager report, community spotlight at 7:20. 725 will have the town manager ethics disclosure. Consider
and vote on town managers GLC 268A section 19B1 disclosure of financial interest form pertaining to the FY2027 budget process. At 7:30, we'll hold a public hearing to discuss and vote on an alteration of premises application for
an annual allcohol restaurant license for PRC Park Restaurant Group LLC DVA Post 1917 located at 136 Haven Street, Union 2. 740, Presentation by the Ad Hawk Committee Preservation Act Study
Committee. 8:10 discuss and vote on sending a letter to the Massachusetts Municipal Association, MMA, regarding the resolution supporting a strengthened fiscal partnership between municipal and state governments in fiscal 2027 and beyond and actions taken at the MMA's
business meeting on January 24th, 2026 on behalf of the town of Reading. A copy of the resolution may be found on the MMA's website, which is www.mmma.org/connect. or back slashconnect351 business meeting slash 825 discuss and
vote on potential resolution to censure select board member Karen Gaitley Herrick for voting at the MMA's business meeting on January 24, 2026 on the resolution supporting a strengthened fiscal partnership between municipal and state governments in fiscal 2027 and
beyond on behalf of the town of writing without proper authorization. 8:40 discuss town manager review results. 9:40 leazison reports. 9:45 future agenda items. 9:50 will enter executive session. First executive
session purpose two to conduct strategy session in preparation for negotiations with non-UN personnel inclusive of discussion on whether to extend a new contract for town manager Matthew Corellis. And following executive session purpose seven, approve and
review for release the minutes. I'm sorry. Approve and review for release the minutes of the January 6, 2026 executive session meeting compliance with GLC 30A section 22. Um, all right. Let's start with public
comment if anyone wants to raise their hand. Yep. Just please keep it to two minutes. And Jane, I think is timing correct? >> And Maddie as well online. >> And Maddie is well online. Thank you. >> Nancy doctor Pearl Street uh precinct one meeting member. This is my
second third time now coming before this board to request that you consider Robert rules of order. The very fact that um the chair uh rebuffed a request from a select board member because of
what seemingly is some petty personal grievance to putting this on the agenda item is just so dysfunctional. If I wanted to watch this crap, I'd turn on reality TV, not the Reading Select Board. Petty personal
grievances are not town business. So once again, I'm going to request that you put that in on an agenda item and that you consider restoring some function to this board. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Nancy. Does anyone else want to speak? Yep. Just please keep it to two minutes. >> I I sing in writing community singers and we have rehearsal tonight. So I apologize for speaking on a agenda item. >> That's fine. No problem. Is that microphone on?
>> Hello. Okay. Um >> name and address please. >> Jeff Deetsz 10 Orchard Park Drive. Um, the Massachusetts Municipal Association is a professional trade association for municipal officials of Massachusetts that bring local leaders together to
develop and advocate for shared policy goals, share information and best practices, and work together to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of municipal service delivery that I think we're all interested in. In short, the MMA is the voice of the cities and towns
of Massachusetts. They have policy committees in the areas of energy and the environment, fiscal affairs, municipal and regional administration, personnel and labor relations, public works, transportation, and public utilities. I want to thank and applaud
Karen Heric for participating and seizing the opportunity to learn what other towns and cities are doing to address the challenges they face in these areas. No performative outrage, no wearing of petty grievances, no person smear campaigns, just serving
constituents. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Yep. Just keep it to two minutes and name and address, please. >> Angela Vendo, Orchard Park Drive. I would like to speak on Mr. Haley's weaponization of select board agendas, his abuse of authority, and his lack of
commitment to deal with important issues facing the town. The April 20th, 2021st select board meeting was Mr. Haley's first meeting as a new select board member. It was also the day Miss Heric was elected chair of the select board. Select board rules regarding agendas
state that the agenda shall be approved by the chair in consultation with town manager and it should contain any discussion item requested by two or more board members as soon as practical in the official minutes of the meeting for Miss Heric's year as chair. There are
two references to times Mr. Haley requested items be placed on the agenda. After both requests, Miss Heric the items on the very next agenda at the following meeting. Miss Herrick and Miss Gillis kindly requested an agenda item
quote to discuss the communication and responsibility official announcements by town manager's office last November in writing. Three months have passed even and Mr. Haley has still not put the requested item on the agenda even though he's obligated to do so. Perhaps he
should be censured for violating select board rules once again. Perhaps Mr. Haley does not want to have a discussion on communication and official announcements as he has been criticized for posting town news and communications which he receives as select board chair
on his personal blog, The Reading Recap, before other town officials have been informed of the information. They say all politics is local, and Mr. Haley sure makes that true. Using a selected agenda to your grievances, exact
revenge, waste town resources, and delay real select good work. How long might it be before we all come to town hall for meeting and see that the building has been renamed the Christopher Haley Reading Town Hall? >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Does anyone else want to speak? >> I just have a procedural question. >> Can you just come here, please? Thank you. >> Just a procedural question. Will public comment be allowed before each agenda item later on this evening? >> After each agenda item? >> Okay. In that case, I'd like to speak. >> I'm sorry. I said that.
>> In that case, I'd like to speak now. >> Yes. No problem. >> Just name address two minutes, please. >> Vanessa Silverado, Mount Vernon Street. Uh, Chair Chris Haley and member Carlo Boti have a long and aggressive history of attacking Karen Hook. We've seen this for policy disagreements, which should
be handled professionally, but aren't. Uh, but also for personal grudges. They attack people for simply existing on this board. From typing too loudly to clicking open a pen, nothing is too petty for them to complain about. That
Chris has chosen to attack Karen tonight isn't a surprise given it's a local election season. He's abusing his power as chair to criticize Karen since she is up for re-election on April 7th. By the way, for those of you watching at home, do mark your calendars. So, what did
Karen Carrick do that was so egregious? She participated in a state level discussion on a policy issue. She followed proper protocols. She asked for permission from that state level committee to vote and they approved of her participation. Chris is throwing a
tantrum because he disagrees with Karen on a policy issue. But instead of debating the issue itself, he is using his significant power as chair to attack her in an effort to smear her before she's at re-election. This is the drama and theatrics we've come to expect from
press and we have seen how speaks to Karen in meetings. His hatred of her is no secret. Melissa, in your campaign announcement, you said, and I quote, "I have promoted moderation to restore balance in our select board by encouraging common sense thinking and a
willingness to listen and comprehend." End quote. So, I ask, are you going to to participate in this ridiculous agenda item? Or can this community count on you as you claim to put your personal feelings aside and focus on what this
town really needs, which is mature, thoughtful leaders who focus on the issues residents actually care about and not on personal. I hope your actions tonight align with what you promised this community. Thank
>> Thank you, Vanessa. Anyone else like to speak in the room? Maddie, do we have anyone online? That's no >> I don't see any hands raised on Zoom. >> Great. Thank you. We are going to move on to our town manager report, please. >> Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, some
quick updates on the major projects in town. Um, some really good news. So, Kllum is now at 90% design. Uh, we submitted the design to the MSBA for feedback, which is our requirement to do that. We look forward to their feedback on the design. Um, and we are still
substantially under budget on this project. So, we're on time, under budget, 90% uh designed. Uh so, making great progress there. The other major project going on is Recal. Construction bids came in just last week. Um very
favorable, about $3 million under budget, which is another great sign. Things are maybe starting to turn in our direction on some of these prices. Um the project remains on time, and so both major projects in town, on time, under budget at this time. We want to keep it
that way because that's the way we like it. Um, home rule petitions. Um, as you know, town meeting passed a home rule petition or passed a charter changes um and senior tax exemption changes and you um passed instruction to have me draft
and submit to the legislature home petitions which is the next step in that process. I have done that. That's been submitted to the legislature on both issues. Um, I've been in contact with the legislative uh representatives. They're going to keep me informed on the progress. I I think they should go well.
They're relatively um usual measures that they deal with all the time, but if anything changes, I will certainly let you know. As I mentioned last meeting, um we had a financial policy workshop coming up. We've now had that policy workshop. Um
that was with the Division of Local Services. Um it was we actually hosted that at the Reading Memorial Library, the Reading Public Library, sorry. Um just about a week or so ago. We had a very good turnout, not just from Reading, but from other towns as well.
Uh the state led the discussion. I think it was very informative. I think one of the big takeaways is that we we do have a big head start with a lot of our policies. There's obviously room for improvement and changes. So we're going to regarding town staff in in fincom to
look through some of their draft policies, some of the templates they shared and see if there's anything we could do better or different. Um I think it's a good thing to look at those policies every few years and also hear what other towns are doing, what works. And so there was a good discussion
there. A lot of the board members were there. So a good discussion of of what goes on in other towns and how we we stay in um in goodstead with the state. And a lot of you know also I filed a letter back in September with the MWR
advisory board um executive committee regarding our entrance fee reimbursement. Um we had another meeting with them this week. Um currently they are not taking our requests favorably. Um I got a letter today you know saying that that they voted against it at this
point. So we are going to go continue the fight and the discussion. Um I I think at a future selective meeting we'll be discussing it again. I've already discussed it with town council and let her know what's going on and she's working on a few avenues for us. We'll have more of that coming in the
future. So it is disappointed disappointing but we really did give it um quite an effort throughout this process and we'll continue to do that um because we really feel that it's unfair uh with what they were driving us in and other towns. sort of got a free pass.
And that's what I have for update. >> Great. Jane, do you have anything you wanted to add? >> Um, thank you, Madam Chair. Just briefly, um, Katie Gabriella and I have been on our fantastic, highly unraining road show um
to all of the boards, committees, and commissions. Not all, but a number of them. So, so far we've been to historical um housing authority, school committee, council on aging, recreation committee, CPDC, and the finance committee. Last night we had council on aging recreation and CBDC all the same
night. So, it was the marathon session. Um we're getting a lot of great feedback from the boards, committees, and commissions. And as I've said to all of them, I'll repeat again, uh there is no monopoly on good ideas. So, we're uh launching also a survey and so the public can give us their feedback as
well. And then we'll bring that back to you. um with more information. >> Thank you, >> Matt. Do we have a community spotlight? >> I do. I do. Um thank you, Madam Chair. So, I wanted to spotlight two employees tonight that will be retiring,
long-standing employees with the fire department. Um first, Lieutenant David Roisho. Uh he transferred to Reading back in August of 1994. So, he's been with us about 31 years. Um he served a total of 33 years in the fire service.
He had been somewhere before but made the choice to come to reading and stuck with it for over 30 years. Um he serves as our fire uh prevention lieutenant which is big shoes to fill. He'll be retiring in March. Um he's very well respected among his peers. When there's
discussion around about great firefighters that we have in Reading, Dave's name is always part of that discussion and conversation. So, I wish him good luck and he'll be sorely missed. And we have another firefighter retiring as well, Tom McCarthy. Um,
prior to working working in Reading, he was hired by Lexington. Um, but he grew up in Reading. And so, when it came time to come home, he did and he's been with us since 2003. Um, he's retiring with 22 years of service to the department. And one very
notable thing about him is he was one of the founding groups of paramedics that started our advanced life support program which is what we run and we're known for throughout the state. Uh the success of that program is due in part to his dedication and his effort um
while he grew that program with the department. So that's big loss as well. But I wanted to thank both firefighters, wish them a happy, safe and long retirement on behalf of the town. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, we're going to move on to
town manager ethics disclosure. Um, we need to consider and vote the town manager's GLC 268A subsection 19B1 disclosure of financial interest form pertaining to the FY2027 budget process.
>> Yeah, I can I can speak to that. Yeah. So, it it it sounds a little it sounds a little strange because I participated in the budget process all along, as long as I've been here and and before that at other places. There's been some changes, I guess, at the ethics commission. Um,
town council thought because my contract and my salary for FY27 is not yet set, the safest thing to do was to file this disclosure um to say that I have a I think everybody that works here has a financial interest in the budget, but
specifically me because I guess I'm in a management role. So, the disclosure is just that I'll be working impartially on the budget no matter what happens with the contract. And you know, I I think that that it's really just pro- former.
So, um with that, I think the the vote would be to uh accept I have it as part of the packet standard disclosure form. Accept that disclosure. Uh either the chair or co-chair could sign that and we'd be off and running with the budget. So,
do any board members have any comments or on that? >> Karen, thank you. Um, so that's great. Um, this is a new I've never seen this before, but it makes sense and and I appreciate you bringing it to our attention.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Okay. All right. We have a um does is there any comments from the public on this? >> Okay. Do we have a motion? >> We do. Move to vote that the town
manager's financial interest in the budget process is not so substantial that it would likely affect the integrity of his services, which the town may expect from him and authorize us to sign the town manager section 191
disclosure form presented here tonight. >> Seconded by Karen Herrick. Um all those in favor by Zara. >> Becky. >> Yeah. Thank you. Um 7:30 we're going to open public hearing to discuss and vote on an alteration of premises application for
an annual all alcohol restaurant license for Park Restaurant Group LLC DBA post 1917 located at 136 Haven Street unit 2. I think you have a motion Karen for the public hearing. >> I do.
So many to the inhabitants of the town of Reading. Please take notice that the select board of the town of Reading will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, February 10th, 2026 at 7 p.m. in the select board meeting room at Town Hall 16 LOL Street Reading Mass or also available remotely on Zoom to act on an
alteration of premises application for an annual all alcohol restaurant license located at 136 Haven Street, Unit 2, Freddy Mass for Park Restaurant Group LLC, DBA Post 1917. A copy of the proposed documents regarding this topic
will be in the select word packet on the website at www.writingma.gov. All interested parties are invited to attend the hearing in person or remotely via Zoom or may submit their comments in writing or by email prior to 6 pm on February 10th, 2026 to town manager at
learningmma.gov by order of Matthew aelis choir town manager. >> Great Jason, you want to come up to podium? Good evening board. Jason Karen, 113 High Street in Reading. Thank you.
>> So, uh, we are adding the space next door, 144 Haven Street, was Debbiosi's office while they were um building and then real estate and then kind of through construction. We're adding two private dining rooms which I think that
was just saying now reading can stay in reading anything can come to us you know we can go to the parties I'm very excited about that um we're cutting through so there's multiple exits entrances it's very easy and you know
we're very excited about >> that's great any board members have any questions or comments for Jason >> Carlo >> so well You said private. Will it be overflow for >> on on certain holidays and Saturdays?
Yeah. Larger parties just to make it easier for our dining rooms a little smaller. >> What do you expect the capacity to be for the >> I think it is uh 56 total. >> And will there be a bar in that side? >> Just bar staying where it is. Uh just
dining. >> Yeah. >> Great. Anyone else? Karen, >> nice to see you again here. You just sold a house across the street from me. Nice job. I saw your name on it. I said I know her.
>> Um, so I'm going to say that I'm going to interpret that that means business is good and I appreciate your investment and your continued nice and writing and um, thank you. >> I appreciate that. Thank you, >> Chris. >> Thanks, Melissa. Uh, and thank you,
Jason. Um, thank you for expanding Next Door. like you mentioned the increase in business and people can actually stay in reading. Um I guess my question for this is uh somewhat related to that. If uh
you're going to be selling a lot more extra food obviously next door, >> correct? Do you have a take on a potential increase in the mails tax if you uh how do you feel about that in your new customers that would be going
there? I mean if it's necessary and and needed I was having a conversation outside. I would I would love to see where that goes. Uh but I I'm not really opposed to it. It's a small increase. I think it's smart to do small increases. So, I think we would be able to adjust
and I don't think it would be a big noticeable item. >> Thank you. >> Well, thank you, Jason. I love the post and um I am I It's great how successful you guys have at spot and it's great
that you're able to expand. So, >> thank you. >> So, I think we need to close the hearing >> and then I can ask for public comment. Move to close the public hearing regarding the alteration of premises application for an annual all alcohol restaurant liquifer license for Park
Restaurant Group LLC DBA DBA post 1917. Seconded by Karen Heric. All those in favor of closing 50. Um I'm going to open it to public comment. If anyone has a comment here in the room, they can come up to the
podium. Or anyone online, Mandy? >> Nobody online. >> Great. So, do we have a motion for >> move to approve the alteration of premises application for an annual all alcohol restaurant liquor license for Park Restaurant Group LLC DPA Post 1917
located at 136 Haven Street Unit? >> Second. >> Seconded by Chris Haley. And all those in favor? >> Uh, any discussion? I'm sorry. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I apologize. I thought you already spoke.
>> I forgot what I want. I wanted to ask um this is a procedural question. Uh this stops here. It doesn't go to the ABCC. Correct. We approve this. It's done. I believe it is. There may be a filing just to let
the ABC have notice, but I think we're the governing body on the liquor license. So, the the authoritative uh response is through us. They may need notice of it. There may be some notice requirement. >> You don't need approval from them, I don't think. No, I just we you approve of that. We just pay a filing fee.
>> All right. Thanks. >> Any other discussion? >> Okay, we have a um >> it already got seconded. >> Oh, Chris seconded. Um all those in favor zero. Thank you. >> Thank you. Can I ask one question or do I have to leave? Um, last time we a
while back we talked about valet and I know that it's a hot topic, but now with this increase, if I could do the valet, take those 15 to 25 cars off the street and park them, it would be helpful to other businesses at that time. So, I
don't know what the process is. I know we we had spoke I don't know if we get together with you that um >> Matt you can comment. >> Yes. So, we are working on some regulations that would allow it. So, there were a couple paths that we could take. We sought some advice from town
council and I consulted with the chair and I think the best way to proceed is through regulations. So, we're drafting those currently. You'll have some input. It'll be a public process obviously, but that that seemed to be the way to go. So, hopefully in the coming weeks you'll see something. >> Yeah, that's great. All right.
Appreciate you guys. >> Thank you. Have a great night. >> And it's not just for Jason, it's for anybody. Exactly. It's the whole town. >> All right. Um 7:40 presentation by the ad hoc community preservation act study
committee. >> I think we have >> uh Hello. Thank you. Um so we um I believe I actually need to call the uh CPA study committee to order. Um uh honey, do we have um I guess the people who could be on Zoom would be uh there's
no one in that case. Um so yes, we have around we have Carlo, Sarah, Martha, um Sandy, and myself are here from the CPA study committee. So um thanks for having us here.
So let's uh let's get started. Um so uh this is a refresher for you all. you, you know, convened our our committee, you know something about what the CPA is. For anyone who is unfamiliar, it is a Massachusetts law that permits uh communities to levy a small property tax
charge that can only be used for specific community preservation related topics. Um so and uh 201 of the 301 towns and cities in Massachusetts have chosen to adopt the CPA writing. So we
begin the question. Next slide, please. So, just introducing the committee here. Five of us are here. We also have um uh Kate from recreation and Margaret from housing authority and then Katie from the housing authority director is also a non- voting member. Um next slide,
please. So, uh you all wrote this uh together with us, but this was the charge of our committee um to study the CPA and to report back to you. Here we are.
Uh let's go on. Um Sarah, do you want to talk about what we've been up to? >> Sure, I'd love to. Um so, one of the things that we uh all wanted to do immediately was we figured out of all the commissions in Reading who would
benefit from the community preservation um dollars coming in. So, we tried to meet with pretty much every single one. And so, we got a lot of good information that way. And we also learned a lot um just going back to the CPA database um how other talents have have worked with
different groups as well. Um we had people from peer communities who had recently adopted specifically NATIC and Winchester come and talk to us about the process which was really helpful and they were very um happy to talk back and forth about when we had some questions
about that as well. Um, we met with the original 2002 CPA committee who is >> they're all still alive even it was in 2002. And um that was really helpful too. It's hard to imagine a time when Reading was trying to accomplish a piece
of legislation without Facebook, social media and the internet. It was only the newspaper. But there was quite a lot of information also in the Reading Chronicle archives um that we uh we were able to even learn even more information. Um let's see. And we also
reached out to two private preservation organizations. That would be the antiquarian society and >> uh Running Open Land Trust. >> Running Open Land Trust. Yes. Next slide. Okay. So we already we looked into the
history of the CPA in Reading and how and why other peer communities had adopted it. We spent a lot of time studying the data on search charge rates. The search charge can be from 0.5 to 3% and um um there can be exemptions
that you can put in there. The the exemptions are um you take a certain amount of the property value off of your >> can only be $100,000. >> Oh, it is only $100,000. Okay. $100,000 off the value of your property and then see what the tax assessment would be and
then use that as the base number for getting your 1%. Um, so if you had a house that was valued at 900, you would look at what the taxes would be for 800,000 and 1% of that would be $80. So then we looked at how Yeah. our finance
person here went through all of the town data for went back a few years as well. >> Your stats on this later too. >> Okay. Yeah. So, I'm going into too much information. Keep moving. Keep moving. >> Yeah. >> We can let people read this. >> You want to do another slide? >> I I'll um uh Yes. So,
>> wait. I have this room. >> Well, it doesn't matter because we're not going to read the slides to people. >> I just had a couple of notes on the community preservation act will help build and protect weddings, open spaces, parks, and recreational areas for current and future generations. Uh these
funds can be used to preserve our natural land, to improve our trails, to upgrade playgrounds, support environmental sustainability. If we can go to um actually the next slide as well, right? Or is that? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Um investing in recreation supports our
public health. Um it makes writing a more desirable community. It improves our well-being. Well-maintained open spaces increase property values, attract families, and make writing a very vibrant place to live. Reading has existing youth sports
booster organizations and an open land trust that can partner with CPA to either well the land trust that can anyway be a legal partner and expand them expand meeting the needs of our residents concerning parks recreation land acquisition and trails.
You want to do the next one? >> Um you have notes on >> Okay, what are we doing now? There we go. Historic preservation. The Community Preservation Act provides a dedicated funding source to restore and protect Reading's historic buildings, which we have several our landmarks and cultural
sites. Preserving these assets strengthens our community identity, honors our local heritage, and maintains the unique New England charm and character of Reading that we all love and came here for. The CPA funds can support restoration, accessibility
upgrades, long-term maintenance of historic properties such as this one that we're in right now and that might otherwise be lost. Historic preservation also boosts local pride by providing a stronger sense of place and enhances economic growth by making writing more attractive to residents and visitors
alike. Next slide. The Community Preservation Act would provide a stable local funding source to create and manage affordable housing for Reading residents. This includes our seniors and lowincome households.
CPA funds can be used to build new units, rehabilitate existing units, develop partnerships with nonprofit housing organizations to uh and also f also allows us to partner with other finance financing options such as
matching funds, federal funds, state funds, and grant monies that we're currently not able to access. Building affordable housing through CPA funds will help residents stay in the community where they grew up in, preventing displacement. And for employees to live in the communities
where they work, strong affordable housing supports our local employers, it strengthens the local economy and keeps spreading a diverse welcoming town. >> Next slide, please. So, um, uh, Sarah was alluding to this a
moment ago, but one of the, um, uh, things that we did was to try to look into the actual numbers. Um, how much money would adopting the CPA raise for reading and how much would it cost the taxpayers? So uh with respect to that first question um our town assessor uh
Victor graciously provided me with spreadsheets the complete property values for the entire town uh which I was able to use to compute what the uh CPA uh search charge and revenue would have been uh using fiscal year 25 property values and assuming a CPA
search charge rate of 1% which is what we were going to recommend uh and with the exemption for the first $100,000 of property value that Sarah mentioned. I'm going to preempt your question. By the way, the the law that created the CBA establishes that $100,000 option. Uh we can't make anything different. Um
$100,000 was a significant fraction of a house's value in 2002 and it is not such a significant fraction now. Um feel free to take that up with our state delegation when you get the chance. Um so yes, and the state uh match there based on the I think I might have
actually extended this to last 10 years based on the dice. last five years is actually more favorable 27% average but wanted to do a more representative 10ear sample there. So as you can see it raised about a million dollars counting the uh the 25 state match. Um basically
all of that would come from residential property because we don't have very much commercial and industrial property in running. Um the difference between including commercial and not is just about $64,000 including the match. Next slide. Uh how much would it cost? Um, again,
that's single family residential. This is looking at single family residential homes. It's not looking at commercial properties. It's not looking at apartments or anything like that. Um, but uh you can see what the current tax uh interest 25 was for each of these properties. the average, the top and
bottom 10 percent. Those are both good ones to pay attention to because some people want to know what's the most it could cost. Also, some people want to know how it will affect uh you know uh the people who have the least valuable properties to start with for whom it's probably going to be more of a challenge to afford.
Uh next slide please. So in terms of process um so the um uh as you may have already seen if you've in the packet we have a um or looked at the report we have a warrant article that we are going to ask you to put on
the warrant for town meeting. Um if approved by town meeting in April it would go to the voters in November. If approved by the voters, uh, town meeting would need to set up the community preservation committee whose job is to screen applications and make recommendations to town meeting about
how the money should be spent. Uh, final authority though, however, on actually spending the money rests with the town meeting. So in um, April 2028, town meeting would have its first chance to vote on how to allocate CPA funds based on the recommendations of that committee. And then it would be uh July
of 2028 would be the first time that any of these funds could actually be used or distributed. Next slide. So what do we recommend? Um as maybe not a surprise since we spent almost two years studying we do recommend adoption
of the CPA. Uh I mentioned the 1% search charge. Um one very very important point I want to make. Uh we looked at historic spending on projects that would have been CPA eligible in reading which came out to um look at the 10ear period I
looked at ending in fiscal 26 um uh we spent about $10 million on projects that appear to be CPA eligible uh over that period which would average to about a million dollars a year which is why we're recommending a search charge that aligns with the amount that reading actually already spends on community
preservation. Um, it is also in line with peer communities. Winchester did adopt one and a half percent. They're a little of an outlier. Most communities that have adopted CPA recently, especially this among our peers, adopted a 1% search charge. And then um another big one uh we are recommending uh
adopting the exemption for commercial investment properties so that this would not impact you know our downtown local businesses at all. >> Economic growth. >> Um yes, we uh um you know really do not want to put an additional burden on them. uh for this. Um and then there are
also exemptions that we can offer for low-income residents and for low and medium income seniors. We recommend all of them. Uh we do not want to see this negatively impacting people who cannot afford it. Uh next slide. The Community Preservation Act lets
Reading protect what we value using local control and state matching funds, allowing Reading to spend less of our operating budget, free cash, on projects we would already fund or to fund additional projects without having to spend more. And this is I would just say this is
Community Preservation Act light. the the report that you all got in your package that's 46 pages that really gets into a lot more details and if you go to the website communitypreservation.org or and click on database. You can find the
answer to any question you might have and you can look back. They have all 24 years of data. You can look up every single town that's there. You can see what they've done with it. You can see what matches they got from state grant. I mean, it's really fascinating. They've
done an amazing job. So, >> and next slide, please. So um we do uh present to you a uh we submit a draft warrant article uh to place on the warrant for the 2026 annual town meeting. This is in line with
section uh 2.13 of the charter in which you know any order committee in the town can present uh an article and ask the select board to place it on the warrant. Um, so we included draft text is draft because we have not, you know, had the chance to consult directly with town council. And of course, we would like
them to review anything before it went into a town meeting. And with that, I think we are ready for questions. Uh, yes, you don't need to present what it says. Uh, maybe actually, uh, Matt, if you don't mind going back to the summary slide that uh, Sarah, there we go. I
think that's a I'm gonna leave something up there. That would be a good one to leave. Thank you. Does anyone have questions or comments? Car make one quick uh clarification that I was at the meeting. I'm on the committee so I go to every meeting but I
was at the meeting when we discussed the commercial exemption and I did not participate nor vote in that part of the discussion. >> That is correct. >> Okay. Thank you. And I can just add to that that um if down the road Reading says, "You know what? We have this
booming industrial area down there in Walker's Brook Drive. Let's get some money out of them. We can you can change that. You can have town meeting." >> No, it would be um actually changing exemptions is does require going to the voters, >> right? >> Yeah. >> It would be town meeting to put it in
front of the voters. Yes. >> So anyway, >> go ahead. Have any questions here? Karen Rouge Gillis, >> I just wanted to say thank you very much for your time. I saw a lot of the presentations and thank you for including all the details in our packet
because some of the questions I had I've already answered, but I'm really looking forward to this getting in place and taking money from operating and putting it over here. And I think it's great. Thank you so much for your work. >> It's thank thankless
>> Karen. Thank you. I also like to say you guys have done an amazing job. Um I've been hoping that we could bring this to writing since I was on the finance committee in the mid teens and
and Mark Doxer as well. And um I can't tell you how much I appreciate the depth and the effort that you've put into this and it's very well and very clearly presented and and and you guys have been literally all over town. So um thank you so much for taking this on. Um I'm
wondering if do you have any idea what kind of contribution we're losing um by not including commercial and industrial? Have you >> I think it was 63,000 up there. >> Yes. So it's by contribution. Do you
mean the amount of funds raised amount of state match that we would be missing out on? >> I guess. >> Okay. Yes. Uh go back couple slides. >> Oh, I missed it. I'm sorry. >> Yeah, it's it's all good. We'll put it up real quick. One more, please. >> I knew that. I was just gonna test it. >> The middle row there.
>> So, it would be a collection at the 1%. >> I see. Thank you. >> And we've exempting >> here I assumed exempting the first $100,000 of commercial property value as well. Hypothetical. >> Okay. >> So, that's where that came from. >> Okay. Well, I'm looking forward to, you know, having a a discussion. Um, it's
spring town meeting, right? So, yeah, that would be great. And thank you again for all this hard work, the entire community. Amazing. Thank you, Carla. Thanks, Melissa. And thanks, Joe. And um Sarah. Um I know that um Maddie, if you
could just put back page 93 real quick, the summary at the end. I know that as soon as I mention that to you, you're going to know exactly what I'm going to focus on on this slide. in the very misleading text that is written up there. There is no state matching
funds because if we're getting a million, they're not giving us a million. Correct. >> Oh, this is an interesting discussion. Somebody else was saying how they assume matching means dollar to dollar. It's a it's a match, but it's like I guess it's
a contribution. >> So, it's not really a full match. It's a portion percentage. is a match which varies yeartoear. The percentage uh has not been 100% since the first since like the sixth or seventh year of the CPA um
early on when there were very few communities in the CPA. The money was split far fewer ways. Um at this point adding more communities doesn't really spread it further. There's not a big difference between 196 and 201. Um but yes uh the matching funds are collected
from a dedicated source which is a a fee that's collected for every transaction at the registry of deeds and that is um uh that varies based on the number of real estate transactions in a given year which in turn tracks interest rates pretty closely. So a couple years ago
when interest rates were unbelievably low um the match was I think north of was like 40%. And 39% at least and then um uh two years ago oh I think even this past year they were in the mid- teens
because there has been significantly less real estate activity as anyone in the business is probably uncomfortably aware um uh with higher experiences. I just think for the future just clarifying that a little bit better because that's how I interpret it and
I'm sure as Sarah just mentioned I'm not going to be the only one. Um but >> of course >> um so another way that they get funds I think five times so far you guys can make that up if the state has excess
funds at the end of the year they add it back. So they put in at 1.43 43 million 24 million and that's why if you look at the history in that um report that you have Joe made a column of the history from the last 10 years the times when it goes up is because the state had put in
extra money. So that's kind of and um they've actually um recently hired somebody new to be lobbying in the state house to find another source for um boosting that number up a little more. So just so you know because it's kind of important to know that
>> there is another source. Go ahead. >> Yeah. So, um, I'm still the same that I was a couple years back when this was presented. And you know that I've said multiple times, regardless of any taxes
or any scenarios that have ever been proposed here, is that I know for me I'm going to be able to afford it, but I am not everybody else in in reading and I have to represent everybody in in various uh viewpoints.
So, um, for me, this sounds fantastic. Like, I I like free money in even though it's technically not free. And I, um, you know, I I appreciate that it is, you
know, the 1% amount might seem not a lot because you could have went up to what, 3% or whatever. So, it's it's good that you cited on the lower end. It's just more along the lines of uh how Karen had mentioned this was done 20 years ago. Everybody would have been in
Florida and I know that they weren't and that's why it didn't pass um by a handful of votes or whatever it ended up being. But we all know that it's currently the wrong time to be proposing this. You devoted countless hours to
your various CPA meetings discussing the issues with the override on this, discussing the issues with the select board and whether or not uh we could potentially block this if we disagreed with it. But we all know it's the wrong
time for this. And for me, my my strong feeling on this is any item that jeopardizes the potential of an override in the next year is a problem for me because I want to see whatever override on the horizon just the first time
because if it doesn't, just like before, there's going to be positions that are going to have to be cut. police fire, um, uh, library, high school, whatever scenarios are going to get asked because of it, and nobody wants to see that. So,
my take on this is it is the wrong time, and I know you've put a lot of time, effort, and energy in this. Um, you've had a significant amount of meetings, but I think you also know that it's the wrong time, but you're doing what what
you were tasked with. Um, I I would just say that if the my my overall question this is if the select board votes to not support it in whatever manner that we end up doing
that and the finance committee also votes to not support it, are you going to move ahead and still put it on the warrant regardless of both of those votes? Should we take a vote? >> Just your opinion, Joe, or Sarah. I know
it's not the will of the committee. >> I have I have I have I have an answer that's that's that's technical, which is even better, which is that um uh by the time the finance committee votes on the warrant, you all will have closed the warrant. So, there won't be I mean, I
suppose that you know, as a as several meeting members, including me, we could move to indefinitely postpone this as soon as it came to the floor. that would be a possibility. Um, but I don't uh let's let's cross that bridge when we come to it. Um,
>> I think more along the lines is there is still time to get a formal vote of the finance committee on the record on this just as there is for us. >> This is as with all finance related uh warrant articles. The finance committee will uh vote a recommendation on this one. I believe it will be our meeting on
the uh likely uh likely February 11th, I think. Is it right? >> When's tomorrow? >> No, sorry. March. March 10th. I apologize. >> When does the war close, Matt? >> It closes on March 10th. So, >> the day after >> uh day before, right?
>> The day before. >> Yeah. Before. >> Yeah. No, the the uh the idea is the science committee votes on the warrant after it's been closed. We've we've had to call meeting in the past in order to be able to do so because the warrant wasn't closed yet or had been reopened. I just think that all the other various
boards of committees that have voted on this given you feedback, I know it was prevented presented to finance committee back in like November or something like that. Um I think it would behoove you to take a a vote on this to see how it would shake out with the finance
committee because hypothetically you being here it goes 18 or something. uh you know like I don't see that happening but I I think that it is it would be rather telling to see how they feel as
well the financial uh outcome on the horizon here already because like I said I want the override to pass the first time around. Does this jeopardize it a yes or no question? And the answer is yes. How much so? Who knows? But that's
that's my take on this. I I >> what's important here is just to get this on the warrant because it's just a handful of people in this room, a handful of us talking with different ideas and and when you um I really think that the responsible thing to do is to let the people vote, let the people
decide and I don't we haven't seen this as something that is um detrimental to an override because as time goes on having access to these uh partnerships for financing like for the affordable housing for with uh historical we're
talking about hopefully renovating the Pleasant Street Center which is under preservation restriction for which we could get a 50% grant match from what is it mass is that >> just just be clear this is a match in the um in the sense of the word that you were using the mass uh uh preservation
projects fund uh matches at 100%. Uh so the 50% would be >> either side contribution is 50% because that's how 100% matching works. >> Yeah. And we don't know if another opportunity could prevent it present itself again like those lots. We had a chance to buy the community preservation fund. We could have bought those lots.
We could have done something really valuable for people and and and and just last year the cemetery which believe it or not is part of our historical inventory Laurel Hill because it goes back to Civil War um people. They they reached out to the historical commission because they had um the granite pavers
were falling over and they needed to do this. They needed to repave and they wondered if we had funds for that. No, I believe that had to come out of free cash. Am I right? There was quite a bit of work done there. >> Curving curving. >> Yes. >> I don't know where else it would come from.
>> There's been other things too that that come up like things will come up with this building and that there won't be planned for. And the beauty of the cons of the of the pres community preservation act is that there will be three funds in that the town gets. Um,
so if we get a million dollars, we get to divvy it up between three of these accounts. The minimum is 10%. You could do 10 1080, you could do 30, 30, 40, but that's a guaranteed money that comes in to those accounts. And then the people and town staff that are on the committee
and and any person would be able to submit an application for a community preservation act project, like the moms who wanted a splash pad years ago that were circulating thing, they could put in a thing and the funds are there. And these are the things that people want. These are the things that cause a lot of
disgruntled feelings. You know, I don't think we know that there may likely be an override, but it won't be for anything that community preservation act will be paying for. It always seems that those items are, you know, at the bottom
of the list. They're deferred. They're deferred. They're deferred. The maintenance of our recreational areas, our trails, our getting rid of invasive species in the forest. It's very stressful for people and these people work very hard in these committees that we talk to and they to to have some sort
of uh funding source they could depend on to really grow what they offer to the residents is really important. So I personally don't feel I'm not going to speak for the committee. I don't see that as not a good idea with a a an override looming. I think it'll also
prevent the next override can be pushed off down the road because there'll be money going for other things allowing it to be used for the the schools, the fire, the police. So that's I just wanted to say I got feedback from the committee
about a couple slides that linked into the appendix and I'm looking for whether or not I should present them because they came up. Um, if you could go to the bar chart slides in the appendex. Needless to say, we we did anticipate this question and um I'm
uh yeah, the one after this one, of course, the one we're talking about here. >> Yes. So uh just so now disclaimer as I understand the process it is a select board that decides to put forward an override and
so if the CPA were on the ballot the select board could put on as large an override as it otherwise would have. However, uh given that Reading spends about a million dollars a year, typically right now from the capital, u
part of the operating budget, uh on projects that would be CPA eligible, um it we could as a community choose to adopt the CPA and a smaller override at the same time, in which case we the taxpayers will be paying so this is a
hypothetical $5 million override. I know enough from FINCOM to know that it might be more than that, but work with me here because nice round numbers. Um uh and yes, so then it's a question of do the taxpayers pay 55 million or the taxpayers pay 4.8 million and the state
pays 200,000. Um it's not a huge difference, but I would certainly take it as a taxpayer. Um, so it does not have to be on top of it can be in concert with an override if that is what the select chooses to do.
>> I think that that that putting it together uh is is if you want something to fail, that is the quickest way for that option to happen. But that's my opinion and I could be wrong. Um uh going back to Sarah's prior point about the
um stemming off the next override, I agree with you that that a lot of this money would be spent on other things that would um prevent that from happening in in the future. Not completely, but to a point. Um sorry, I
agree with that. I I just know that the uh the fastest way for something is how you mentioned that um the the best option is to just go ahead and and and put on the ballot and let everybody decide. And that is the
same thing that we did the finance committee and every single other boarding committee in this town did for the Kiliman recal project. And not a single person said anything regarding to how are we going to pay for the operating budget for those. Nobody said it. And we still don't know what the
number is going to be for those. And we put ourselves in a position that I don't want to see us putting ourselves in further positions. So that's my take on why I would be um if given the opportunity voting against this. But as you clearly outlined that
uh it does not matter that I'm against it. it's going on regardless. I just think it would behoove you to take an official vote um uh of the selector as well as the finance committee and just see and perhaps you could know finance committee
and so be it. So that's my feedback. >> Thank you guys. I appreciate it. Um I appreciate the presentation tonight and all the hard work you've put into this. I know it's been um a long time coming and you know I've done a lot of research on the CPA when I was running for election and wanted to learn more about
it. So you know I really dug in a little bit on it and when it started in 2000 it was a fantastic program. It was a 100% match. I mean anyone that jumped in at that time really made out well those communities. I am concerned that we're piggybacking
on two debt exclusions, the looming override. Um, I mean, the debt exclusions, I think on an average house, both will cost about $1,000 to an average homeowner. I did quick math. I think if we were looking at a $5 million
override, we're looking at about another thousand per homeowner. And I understand that we're saying average is about $98. They are just crushing people. I think and that's my biggest concern. I think it is a great program.
I just don't know that it's right now for reading, unfortunately. Um I do. So I did have a quick question. Can we go back to Maddie? Do you mind pulling up the um the chart that had the mat on it? I don't know what page it is. I apologize. Actually, I might
>> that that's >> back one more or >> that was back two more. >> There you go. So, the state match there is 24.9% but I know that you said that was an average correct. >> So, the current match right now is 16
9% I believe. Yes, it has gone all the way from 39% is the highest in the last 10 years and I think uh I should know this off the top of my head whether it's 14 or 16, but it's in the mid 14. >> Yeah, I I it's 16.9 for FY26.
>> Yeah. >> So, I mean that's lower than 195,000. Um >> you do the math. It's 16 is about is 2/3 of 24. So, you're looking at twothirds of that number which would beundred and you're gonna get something.
>> So, thank you. >> About 130 thou. It's about $130,000 instead of $200,000. >> And um so, and you know, so my concern is is that yes, it would be not really nice to have
this money for the smaller projects that definitely get pushed down on the capital budget. And these those projects are the more like wants versus needs. But we also heard and I listened to your BCOM meeting, got the recap from that um
DLS meeting and that was one of the things they praised writing about so much is that we do such a good job with planning appropriately for capital projects. Um and those are the needs. So right now I think we need to focus on the needs when we have two debt
exclusions, an override coming that I'm just afraid this is a want and not a need. And I'm not saying we don't bring it to the voters and let them decide. I know you guys have put a lot of work into this. I just don't think it's something I can support right now just because I feel like we're piling on and
we're hearing people can't afford it. People can't afford it. People can't afford it. And I'm just worried we're going to crush our seniors. We're going to crush the, you know, younger generation that wants to move into town and they just can't afford it. So that's my biggest concern on this. But I do appreciate all the hard work. I do think
it is good like program. I just don't know that it's the right time. Yeah. >> Sorry. >> No, no, no. Thank you. No, I just want to commend my six fellow committee members on the amount of work that they
did. Uh I was maybe a relief pitcher, so to speak, in a lot of the meetings. I >> we really did appreciate your contributions. For the record, >> did the best I could. Thank you. And what I did push back on was what Chris mentioned earlier is on state matching funds. State matching funds. We don't
want to mislead anybody. Um and and I most of the report it shouldn't say state matching funds. Um but I did reform the committee at our last meeting just last week that I couldn't have said it better than Melissa that I support
the program but I was wearing two hats the whole time on these almost two years. and my my my and my my CPA hat. It's a great program, but my select board hat for the the reasons I'm not going to repeat that
Melissa just said and Chris just said, I just can't support it right now. I I commend the work. Um but 100 bucks may not sound like a lot. 50 may not sound a lot more expensive homes
or more valued homes, but I I I just think timing is everything and um so I I share with them in advance. I don't want to catch them off guard and so if it was come to a vote before us, I would vote unfortunately no um as of what my vote.
Thank you. >> Thank you. Go ahead. One more um one more suggestion for um this town meeting discussion. What bothers me um is that Reading has contributed so much to this fund over
the years and all of these other 191 communities. They have benefited from all of it. So not only are we paying our high taxes, but we're also sending money out of the community and it's not coming back. So for discussion purposes um
among town meeting members, it could be really helpful and you probably already have it and I missed it in the packet. Um how much have we sent out of our community that we've paid to the registry? Did we I don't know if you >> I don't want to off top my head, but I know that I computed it and put it in the report.
>> Um so I have to look at the report again to to remember what it was. Yeah, it would be and and you know we could look at it going since the origination of the program it's going to be millions that's painful and going forward what is the opportunity cost um and and I don't
disagree with my colleagues we have to look at it in the larger context and um thank you as well for for keeping that in mind and bringing it forward from that perspective >> anyone else I'll open it to public comment now if
anyone wants to add name, please. Name, address. >> You're on the committee. You You wouldn't even have to wait for this part if you didn't want to. >> Um Martha Moore, uh me, vice chair of the conservation commission, and that's
my role on the committee, and uh 102 Sambborn Lane. Um I heard Melissa at least and maybe some other people talking about how seniors can't afford it. And um on one of the slides it shows what the exemptions are and it's very
clear that lowincome residents and low and moderate income seniors are exempted from this excess tax altogether this um search charge. So, if you're looking at a senior who
can't afford it, they won't be paying it because they would be in that category of low and moderate income seniors, which is up to 100% of average income. >> Yeah. Less than that number, I think, is also in the report,
>> right? Yeah. So, you know, I'm a senior. um I may or may not qualify for that exemption, but seniors who can't afford it certainly would qualify for that exemption because they'd be in that um
low and moderate senior category. So, um I just think it's really important to keep that in mind that this warrant article, if it were to go to vote, um exempts the most fragile people
in the community. Thank you. >> Thank you. Does anyone else want to have a comment? Yep. Sandy, >> please podium name and address. >> I'm just going to read a sentence from the report. My name is Sandy Mats
Conwell Road also a member of the committee here uh and the resident at large representative. Um, had Reading adopted CPA in 2002 when it was first proposed and lost by a couple of percentage,
our town would have raised over $20 million since that point in time, including state matching funds, matching funds contribution percentage totaling in in excess of 3.7 million. So there's never a good time in connection. As you
as I think some of you might remember in 2002, also on the ballot in the front of town meeting at the time was the high school renovation override um or debt exclusion. uh and for that reason
similar sentiments prevail and CPA was not adopted because there was something else um if you will that was riding um riding riding in the forefront. So that's always the case I think throughout our history. It is the case
presently. We fully recognize that, but we think that the timing considerations actually for reasons illustrated on the override slide uh indicate that this actually makes at least a small contribution
uh to helping out uh in savings to the town in tight times. In other words, the town has control over how they use that sync contribution share and whether or not it goes into CPA projects or whether
or not it can be used to uh contribute to savings in the operating budget. >> Thank you. Thank you, Sandy. Sorry about that. >> Can I just ask one clarifying question? Um, Martha brought up the exemption for the seniors. If that were if this was
voted in and obviously we would accept that exemption, um, would it shift the more cost to other homeowners or does it just still stay at their value? So, this is a good and I think this is in this is a great question because that
is one thing that I couldn't model with public data, okay? is the value the appraised value of everyone's house is public information. >> Everyone's income is very much not. >> Yeah. >> So, um uh the information from the community preservation coalition at community
preservation.org suggests that communities that adopt the um the low-inccome exemptions that we are proposing, it typically reduces the amount of revenue raised by just about 1%. >> Okay. um which seems small until you realize we're talking about the people who would have the probably the lowest
value properties to start with. Um you know if you uh if you have one of those top 10% houses you are not eligible for this exemption and that's you know um I think that all makes sense to everyone involved. >> Um so yeah about 1% typically. So so go
ahead and take the you know take another 10,000 off of those numbers. >> But it just takes it off. It doesn't like shift compared to other. >> It's not like the property tax 2 and a half% thing where um you know the amount goes up by a certain amount and then it shifts around if things are removed from the tax or something. No. Okay.
>> If it's not on the tax we just don't get the number. >> All right. Great. Thanks for that answer. Does anyone else have any comments Vanessa? Oh, sorry. >> Name address. Two minutes please. >> Vanessa Venom Street. I have a question for the committee. There was a um I
think there was a slide that showed all the different types of projects that this funding could be used for. Do you is it possible to put that back on the screen? I just have a question about it. >> I don't >> No. Um, >> what where I'm going is I'm trying to understand the types of projects that
this type that these funds could go to because if they're projects that the town needs either way, then if we don't get a CPA, then the residents are on the hook for all of the funds. But if we do pass the CPA, then the state covers a
little portion of it or a significant portion of it depending on where it is. So I was trying to understand the types of projects like do we have specific examples or is that going to be a town meeting? >> I just gave you some. >> Yeah, there were some. >> So there were there were a handful of slides in the presentation and then the
report um if you you know need some bedtime reading um 46 pages and all that um has many detailed examples but yes this is exactly it. So and we did a we put up a we collected a a mixture of past and possible future projects. Um I
think both are instructive because you know they speak to what does this town already prioritize. Um things like the Grove Street lots which I mentioned that's actually how I personally learned about CPA was when it came up in the discussion at town meeting of the Grove Street lots. Uh and then uh you know
we've been funding uh with species control and regional deadlines. Those are not hypothetical. We've been town meeting has voted um strongly to do these things. Um uh but they cost money um fair amount of money. And then some of these others like pog camps and you know we're expanding trails. I know we
spend some money on trails and I know that they keep coming back to this board every year trying to get more funding um because there's you know lot of demand and that's a powerful library. Um Birch Meadow it's a huge couple of projects that we've already done and there is a phase three that you know many people
would like to see. Um, so and then Sarah mentioned the splash. There's many many examples of things we've actually done and things we've talked about doing but haven't done on account of money. >> Um, do you guys have a sense of whether that um the tennis courts at Barrows
tennis courts big rusty cage like those poor kids are playing on that? Any sense of whether that would be on there? Uh >> I imagine at this point it can't be >> it would have to be a birch meadow style like replacement. It couldn't be a
repair per se, but it could be it is >> I have >> I think we have a picture of a similar case basketball courts that are >> the report includes a picture of the basketball courts that are moved at Birch Meadow Phase 2 because they are in
>> arrows are in theory very >> poor tennis courts. I'm a parasite student. It's >> It's pretty gross. >> Our kids in a prison over there. Sorry. >> I just had one thought I've been thinking while Joe was speaking, but if you I'd like to say take a perspective and you think like we all knew we were
going to get a a big boom boost or whatever on our tax bill because we're getting a worldclass school. That's amazing. Like nothing I've ever seen. I'm an old mom. And then we're going to get the senior center which I get to use which is amazing and it's has so many
things for everybody in the community. So it's like we know we're getting something amazing. So I I I feel that this community preservation act works in tandem. It's very small. It's like a little brook compared to the the school and the senior center. But this
community preservation act is going to help balance out the wonderful schools wonderful senior center. And we're also going to keep it up the other part because otherwise you're going to get people that might come here for the schools and then go somewhere else because there's not a lot of fun things
to do right in my own town or doesn't have that feeling that you get when you see a town that's prepared for. Go ahead, >> Karen. Go ahead. >> I think the language that um is missing is that this kind of funding is more for the quality of life in Reading as
opposed to the needs of Reading. the needs are never going to go away and are never going to get smaller. And I think um when I was running last year, I had comments from a lot of people about the quality of life, whether it be just a bench someplace or a tree or something. It doesn't have to be super elaborate
like March meadow complex, but sometimes these little things in increments make a huge difference for us as as residents. So I' I'd like to keep that in mind. >> Thank you, Chris. >> Thanks, Melissa. Uh just two quick
follow-ups on on this slide. My fear is that the town is going to still do all of this as well as CPA. Not offset that CPA would have done this and then all of this money really didn't actually take place. My fear is they're going to do it
anyway. And that's me sitting up here saying they're going to do it anyway. Um and then my other followup is with Martha's question about the senior exemption. So on that slide with the percentages that um with the 24% match scenario
um yes so the 790 309 does that take into consideration Martha's scenario that you mentioned or is there another slide that does that meaning does the 790 if we adopt the exemptions you mentioned go down to 750 or
>> that was that was a question um um from uh uh Melissa about the impact on this and the um that uh so we we can't estimate this in advance without knowing what everyone in town makes which is none of my business. Um however the experience of other communities that
have adopted this exemption is that it typically reduces the amount raised by about 1%. >> Just 1%. >> Yes. Um it turns out that the people the low-income residents are not the ones paying uh taxes on the most valuable properties. Um uh also they are least
likely to be uh you know owners of single family homes in the first place. Um so um but yeah so the impact is usually about 1%. So you could take take 10,000 off of a million or take you know 8,000 off of 800,000 or however you want to look at it.
>> Thanks. >> Um anyone for public comment? Thank you, Mr. Mo. Madam moderator, sorry. >> No problem. >> Tony, excuse me. Tony Dzo, 130 John Street. I like others was concerned
about a the potential for an override and the CPA being a bit too much. But then it was explained to me that if you are doing an override, you can reduce the override amount by the increase in the CPA. so that you would not be have
the override for as much. I also wanted to point out and nobody has brought it up that there these are funds which means we can save them yeartoyear which means we can create a nest egg and use those funds for a larger project which we don't have to borrow for saving us
even more money because now we're no longer paying the interest. So if you are doing this appropriately for the right of accounting features or functionality, you can actually save more money than even what you're getting back from the state. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Yes, I don't think we mentioned that you can actually uh take out bonds on >> that's correct. So Sarah Sarah's bringing up a point that I would say is complimentary to Tony's, which is that uh if you are interested in funding a
large project now and you are not by the interest, uh it is possible to borrow against CPA funds. So you can go in both directions here. You can save the money. There are communities that have uh you know they have not spent anything on affordable housing in the 20 years that they had CPA and finally did a big
project is they just been banking that money. Um but you can there are other communities which have borrowed against it and so now a chunk of their CPA revenue in future years will you know go to paying off that that borrowing um you have to do it either way and it's up to
town meeting to decide which of these sorts of approaches is best for writing >> and also in the datab bank on that website they um you can see they the details for each town like with their three accounts how much interest those accounts have made some of those
accounts make you know 2030 $30,000 of interest which is even which is even in addition to the match. >> Okay. Um any more public comment? >> Yep. Go ahead in the back. I just need you to come up to the podium name,
address, and you got two minutes. >> Yeah. I'm a Will F1 Mil Street. Um, I was helping with the the um CPA project when it came up whenever it was 10, 20 years ago. Um, >> a little more than 10, but go on.
>> That only lost by 75 votes. Um, and as previous speakers said, there was a a debt exclusion for the highest on the same ballots. It was close. Um, and as Sandy Mathia said previously,
there's never the ideal time to do this. Um, but I really feel that the town's people deserve the right to vote on this and I really appreciate the support that the select board has has given the CPA this time around more
so than we got the last time. We felt like we just, you know, abandoned almost um by the by the town government. Um we didn't get a lot of help. Um and even so, we're getting very
close to passing it. Um and I pe people vote based, you know, if it comes to, you know, referendum people vote on on their what they feel
for each particular issue. and and I don't see it as an either or um issue. Um, so I really encourage you all to support. He's given the town a chance to weigh in on this. Um,
and u, yeah, and as previously said that, you know, if we're going to do some of these projects anyways, as I believe Chris was saying, we might as well get a a certain match for that work. Um, so all right.
Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Angela, >> Angela Bend to Orchard Park Drive. Um, I have a question. If it comes to town meeting, are the things that you made decisions about, could they be changed
on the floor of town meeting? Because we've had questions about that. So, so things like I don't remember I don't remember. somebody wants to have commercial pay or >> but yeah like if somebody said you know what I'm okay with it I do have a question as to why that was left out and
how many towns other towns have it in but if that you know if it were if that was stickler for some people or I'm just thinking back at the last town meeting how that went and issues of whether
that's in scope or out of scope. So if somebody I I don't know the number that you put up, but if somebody said, "Well, I'd like it a little higher, a little lower." You know, I would say maybe even speak to Mr. FS about that in advance and let people know whether or not what
types of things would be considered in and out the the exemption for commercial properties or the percentage just so that you know Tom meeting might have a feel as to what the rules are before you get there and you might be able to
anticipate what people might not like but maybe amendable to change it a little bit or or is it a up or Thank you. >> Do you know how many other towns have that exemption?
>> So, I'll um >> I think we're the I was looking at the data unless I misread it. Uh I think we are the only ones that have completely exempted commercial, aren't we? >> We're not the only ones. It is it is uh relatively unusual to exempt commercial property entirely. I mean, I'm spreading
is also kind of an outlier in terms of having a very small fraction of property be commercial. Um, so >> our group, we all we live here. We know our downtown is struggling and we just could not we just couldn't levy an additional hardship on that. Well, we're
in the middle of trying. Our economic development seems to be making some progress now. We got a lot of businesses coming in. So, um, but we could we town meeting could say, "Oh, do the $100,000 deductible for commercial." Right. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. If they wanted to do that. >> So, to to answer the initial question, the um warrant article which limits what time you can vote on does not specify the exemptions or rate. Um we have a suggested motion which does so but motions are what can be amended not the
warrant article. So yes uh >> they have to be within scope. >> Yes, that's that's the the warrant article I believe is structured that way. And if it's not, then I would suggest that we make sure that it is submitted and and and um that the version final version that does end up in the warrant does permit uh the
meeting to you know weigh in on the search charge amount and the exemptions if it chooses to do so. >> Okay. >> Perfect. All right. >> Thank you. >> That just repeating that microphone for anyone on Zoom or TV. Um Martha from the
committee was pointing out that the um uh the answer to the question in terms of what the warrant article and proposed look like are in the report. >> And how many towns have done >> Oh, and how many towns? That's true. We actually have Do we have that? Oh, wow. That's in the report. I know it's definitely available on Federation.org, but apparently it's in the report, too.
It's long enough that I am forgetting things in it. So, but >> I think there's 200 currently. >> Yeah, 200 20. It's It's cute. That page has like one little town off in the margin because anyway. >> Okay. Anyone else here in the room or anyone online? Maddie.
>> No one on Zoom. >> All right. Thank you guys. I appreciate it so much. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> All right. We are moving on. We are going to discuss and vote on sending a letter to the Massachusetts Municipal Association. MMA regarding the
resolution supporting a strengthened strengthened fiscal partnership between municipal and state governments in fiscal 2027 and beyond and actions taken at the MMA's business meeting on January 24th, 2026. On behalf of the town of
Reading, a copy of the resolution may be found on the MMA's website. >> Do we have anything that we're starting with on this or is it just in the packet? >> No, just in the packet on page 99. I do. All right. So, we have a letter
that was drafted um I believe by town council. >> No, by me and every reviewed it. >> Okay. Do you want to give a little um feedback on this because I did not
have anything I did not draft this book. >> Yeah. So, I spoke with um somebody over at the MMA um regarding this entire scenario. Uh David Hoffman, who is noted
at the top of this um and you know, he went over the scenario with me. I went over it with him as well and he apologized on behalf of the M MMA and obviously fell on his sword as I um would have expected him to do. Um, but this is essentially just putting it in
writing that we are sending our vote. It should not have been cast during that meeting. >> Um, and this is just our formal way of uh doing that. >> Okay. >> Does anyone
I apologize for the interruption, but yes, um, several people have not simultaneously realized that uh, we failed to adjourn the community preservation study committee. I apologize for that oversight. Thank you to everyone who pointed that out. So yeah, we are adjourned. >> All right, no worries. Thank you.
>> Now you can >> um Does anyone here have any comments or car? >> Yeah, I'd like to excuse me. I'd like to put up the resolution that was voted on at the 2026 MMA resolution so we can
just kind of go through it. This is a nice opportunity. Um my statement is in the packet. Um there was no intention on my part to um speak on that behalf of the entire select board. I am one select board member. I
have been attending these um conferences for four or five years starting in 2021. I also spend a lot of time attending trainings um uh leveraging the website information
um professional practices and I also um have been serving with Dave on the Mass Municipal Fiscal Policy Committee. So Dave is the legislative professional that we hire to work with the towns including Boston,
including Wakefield, including Reading and I think there are 30 members of this fiscal policy committee. So we depend on Dave and some of the other professional staff at the MMA to talk us through um
this resolution every year. So, um, I'd like to go through this resolution with the the select board members. I don't know that, um, Karen attended this year, her first year. I don't know that any of you have ever attended or have ever had a chance to look at one of these resolutions. >> I have I did read this. Um,
>> I'm not sure if the other members do and if we need to go through the whole thing, but >> I think we should. I think we should talk about it because I think we should talk about what's so disturbing. >> I think we're getting a little bit off. So, wait a minute. So I don't get to speak either.
>> I'm just saying can we please stick to the agenda item which is about this >> really about the vote. >> It's about this. >> It's about the vote. >> It's about this resolution. >> I would like to talk I have my the
dignity index there which was also handed out at the MMA um conference. I would like to talk about what it is that was or or or you can ask me questions. I I'm not sure that the audience understands that these
resolutions, including the folks at home that are wondering why we're talking about this tonight, these resolutions are um delivered from this organization, which is composed of all 351 communities. All of the select board members are automatically members.
finance members can go or that is a member. Everybody's a member and the reason we join this and the reason we're active is to share best practices, network our peers, solve common problems and um leverage our collective voices to
advise the governor and the legislature on the help that we need. So the and you'll notice the word partnership. So if we take a look at these individual items, they're about what are the things that the Massachusetts communities large and
small need. Well, they need money. So every year this fiscal resolution says, "Please give us more money for roads. Please give us more money for schools. And please give us more for what's
called aa um un un thank you unrestricted government aid which has by the way been shrinking and shrinking every year which is why we find ourselves in this challenge of needing an override. Um so six uh 12
times a year we meet with Dave all of these folks and we discuss this and this is we talk about not only this resolution which is put together in the fall but also um items that we've talked about tonight um changing the business
um exemption to make it more user friendly I have brought up in this committee and what else did we talk about specifically? Oh, so I made a couple notes and going back to this fiscal policy committee. Let's talk about asking for changes for the CPA program.
Let's talk about that 100K. I'm going to ask you again stay on agenda or I'm going to call you out of order. I'm asking you to stay on the agenda which is >> Let me finish my sentence and then I will >> No, Karen, I'm the chair and you can I'm asking you to stay on the agenda. That's
all I'm doing. just please stay on the topic of the agenda item. That's it. We don't have to talk about the past. I appreciate all the stuff that you've done with the MMA, but we need to stay on topic, please. Okay. So, let's let's talk about this
this letter, which is incorrect. I did not vote on behalf of the reading selection board. I followed the protocol. There is a statement in our very large packet explaining how for the past few years. No chair has attended
this conference. You must attend the conference in person. This business meeting has been going on for years. It's well known by anyone who bothers to pay attention. So, I have um been attending and I have
politely asked three years in a row for the chair to designate or nominate me to attend the meeting and vote as a representative of the town of Reading. Um so when Carlo was chair he was not unable or unable to attend and explained
what we were doing and why we're doing this and why this is good for reading and um he quickly sent an email when Mark Der was the chair explained what we were doing why it was good for reading why it's so important and um Mark Der Der also did this um when I I politely
reached out to this chair he asked me to send him a copy of the resolution which I did Um, and then he said, "I don't agree with this resolution." Now, again, this resolution by the time we shared it with Chris, had been discussed for months, approved by a membership of
about 30, and then approved by the MMA board of directors. I made clear to him it's a non-binding resolution. I made clear to him that it asked for money for reading or or I don't know, I didn't have to go into that much detail because it was a couple of times he read it for himself. So what the only thing I was
asking Chris for was permission to represent reading at the U business meeting and our select board policies one.12 chair specifically says that it is responsibility of the chair to
nominate board members to represent the select board at appropriate functions events and meetings. This is I don't understand why this is a big deal. I don't understand why this was problematic for the chair. Um, but he indicated he didn't agree with a resolution that he hadn't worked on. And
um, and what I needed from him and what I asked him to do was to please send an email to the MMA representative. And as I noted in my statement in the packet, the next morning when I got up and it was 8 degrees and and Matt was there and Jane was there and other staff members
were there, we were all in Boston on our day off on Saturday. um after a three-day conference and I I checked into the business meeting. Even if you're not voting, you're going to the business meeting. Um Manz Jane and many other um um local
local employees were there as well as elected officials who were there to vote. So checked in with the um people at the front, asked if an email had come in designating me as a representative reading. I was told no. And I said, and
he said, it didn't matter. Just go ahead. You're here. You're the only one here. You're in person. And and proceed into the room and vote. This resolution was passed unanimously. Sometimes the business meeting has other
things on the agenda. This year, the only thing on the agenda was a resolution urging a partnership and urging um consideration of the Municipal Empowerment Act. And and so I just this this
email, this mail to Dave serves no purpose other than to take up our time at an important meeting when the residents have asked us to work on the business of the town and asked us to solve problems like affordability. That that letter is incorrect. The
letter is incorrect. I am always an individual select board member. I am never representing the entire select board. I've said that multiple times in all kinds of meetings. I say it to town meeting. That email is not correct. But I ask you to consider what purpose does
it serve? And that is why I'd asked you bring up the actual resolution so that we could discuss it because one of the things the chair suggested was I'd like this in the future to be discussed by the board. And I don't have a problem
with that. Um um let's let's be curious, not furious. Let's let's regulate and debate. That's this is about the dignity index. But that's a great idea. So the timing for that would be uh next November or December. and at that time we could have a formal discussion about
is the chair going to be able to attend and do this. We could do this in a more orderly fashion. We haven't had that agenda item before. So for the past few years um when I was here I was there. I participated I was the chair. Not a big deal. And when Jackie was on board, she
went and participated at this year. But since you don't know who's going until you get there because we don't have an agenda item, you know, I have to ask at the last minute. But again, it's a simple email, you know, from the chair who was supposed to have gotten heads up
of this resolution in January, but I don't have access to email. Maybe you didn't get it. So, so that's all I have to say on this. This is I don't I don't see the purpose of this. I want to work I'm here to work for the residents and I don't see how this helps anything and it's inaccurate
and incorrect and it's not going to be a good look for reading. Thank you for listening. Does anyone Karen? >> So, um I I appreciate all the work that Karen does for MMA. It's um we get emails all the
time about things. Um I agree with her assessment that this is something that we as a board earlier in the year, so it's not a surprise and it seems as if um personally I have no problem with her voting on behalf of the of of the select
board. Um, I don't agree with the letter. I think that it doesn't look good for reading. As Karen said, I think that we can take it as a lesson moving forward that um, we need to take the resolutions more seriously than we do. I think more board
members would benefit or the town would benefit more if more board members were involved with MMA. I'm I'm trying to get involved. They have a lot of meetings. Um, but it's very very important. I think Karen's contribution to the board in
general on this topic is incredibly valuable because the in-depth knowledge has regarding that um doesn't come easily. It comes after years and years of work and I don't see any of us picking that up >> and it's a big heavy lift. So I think of
anything I think this is a good lesson for us to be more planning when it comes to resolutions as such as this. This one was a non-binding one, which I can kind of it doesn't make it moot, but I think
it's it's a good point of um becoming more involved on that level as a board and not relying on our town staff to bring to us what could potentially be happening. Um that's all I have to say. >> Thank you. Anyone else, Chris?
>> Thanks, Melissa. Um and and I do want to clarify that what in what is in this letter is completely and 100% accurate. What was stated earlier that I disagreed with the resolution is uh demonstrabably
false and proven otherwise in the text messages between Karen and myself in the packet. I was not against this resolution which is 17 pages that Karen just wanted to read right now. I was specifically and only and I called it out to parents that I am against the
Municipal Empowerment Act section in here because after I did my homework instead of reading about this that I discovered that you know they call it uh various avenues and tools and everything to raise revenues which is a tax. They
want to increase the meals tax, the lodging tax, which doesn't apply to us, and create a new um state excise tax up to 5% on the the tax you're already paying you on your vehicle, which is a tax on a tax. That
is what I was in disagreement with. Uh there are claims about uh a senior tax exemption being in here and um the uh low-income housing. That's the only parts that have been mentioned last
time as well as this time. Not mentioning the part of all the new taxes that um are being proposed in this. That is what I was against. It is crystal clear that that is what I was against. Not against Karen, not against the
entire thing, just that one spot in there. And I made that abundantly clear. So, like I said, in all eight paragraphs of Karen's statement, as well as um what you just mentioned, Carol, she completely avoided saying outright that she voted on behalf of Reading. But she
actually did. There were only 351 votes and you cast a vote. You went specifically to a table and mentioned did the chair send something when you had text messages saying otherwise. You didn't need to see about an email coming in because the physical policy committee
members have no vote at the business meeting. This thank you uh have no vote at the business meeting and you know that and that is why you asked yet you let the Daily Times chronicle and the public believe otherwise. I value your
committee work and I've said that multiple times here not just on this but other items that have come up but bypassing the MMA bylaws by casting an unauthorized vote risk their credibility which absolutely is affected by this uh
and such a bad precedent for this board. So, under MMA bylaws as select board chair, I have the authority to delegate reading's voting rights at the annual business meeting to another select board member or the town manager in writing. I was unable to attend because my
daughter's field hockey was finally more important than the business of the town. Um, so I didn't delegate readings vote to you because the resolution backs the municipal empowerment act which would let towns impose new local taxes and fees. Even though it's nonbinding,
endorsing it would signal that we're fine with higher taxes as an answer to our budget problems. Something I wouldn't do for residents without a full board discussion, which is also referenced in our text messages together. So, I I agree that it would be nice to
have these things come before the board in the future, absolutely 100%. But getting a text message less than 24 hours before you wanted to vote on something. I did my homework and this is the end result. You voted and you did not own up to it and you're still not no
not owning up to it. >> Um, yeah. I I just I just hope I'll keep it really simple because I wasn't involved in this and and and if any one of us are okay with someone else voting
then you shouldn't be on this board on the on our behalf. We all have each we all have an individual vote. If we're going to speak somewhere and they want to get your opinion, that's your opinion. But this was a formal
vote. I read the packet. There was a request. The request was denied and Karen voted. It's as simple as that. Could have been that I voted. It could have been that Karen Rose voted. It doesn't matter who voted. It was the
process. So, if any one of us are okay with this, then you shouldn't be on this board because I don't how is the town going to trust us if we can just vote for all five of us? This is it's just as simple it's as simple as that. So, I'll leave it there.
Karen, >> I agree. The technicalities of it are there, but I also don't agree with Chris. I think he should have been advised about this a long time ago. It's not something that just crept up. And so for him to be informed the day before, I
think is a failure on his part of the chair because I think you said I'm not saying an egregious failure, but we shouldn't have to be calling you the day before an event to talk about something that that we should have been advised about. And so I'm I'm I'm also disagree
with your deciding that you're going to vote on behalf of all of us. So I think it's very important to realize that in this instance, this should have been addressed a long time ago and it shouldn't have come to this. So, I don't really feel comfortable censoring her because of something that
we failed to do in advance. >> We're just going to talk about the letter right now at the second agenda item. Whether we agree to sign this letter, >> I'm just going to go for a second if you don't mind. >> First off, I want to thank Karen for all
her work on the MMA because she is since I've been on the board the one person that consistently goes to many, many meetings. So, I do thank you for that. Um to Karen Rose Gillis's point, yes, you're right. And so I I am a little naive to how some of these committees
work with the M um MMA. So I've done a lot of research in the past week and being a member of that fiscal policy committee. I actually think it's car Karen should have been bringing information back to us so we could have discussed it as a
board. That's how the MMA sees it. She's the liazison for our town to the committee. So in the future, I think that we need to have more agenda items to discuss. So not only can Karen bring or whoever may be on that policy or that committee is bringing information back
to our full board. So then we discuss as a full board and then she can bring information back to the committee and that's really how it's supposed to work. Um according to their guidelines um she's the liaison in between our town
and them. So that information wasn't being shared. Um, and so I think that for me, this is just strictly procedural. Like the MMA's policy limits voting rules authority to chair or designate.
Karen asked for permission. The permission was denied via text Friday evening. It's in the packet. She shouldn't have voted. And that's laid out not only in our procedures here for the flight board, but the MMAs. So for
me, it's just very black and white. It was she didn't have the permission to vote. That's it. Carol, >> um so with all due respect, I have been recording on my meetings with MMA every
month, month after month after month and my liazison reports. >> Have you ever asked us for feedback? I don't that's not the role of the leazison reports but I would welcome questions please don't >> you should according to MMA's guidelines you are the leazison it took too
>> I was reporting and if anyone had any questions I would have been happy to answer them you never had any questions >> fair it's fair question >> so you can't it's not please don't tell me that oh I've disappointed you by not acting as a liazison I have been doing my job okay so that's just a point of
disagreement um the chair has the responsibility to nominate board members to um represent board appropriate functions events and meetings whether it's Memorial Day whether it's you know whether it's Veterans Day you know that
is a responsibility of the chair so refusing to do that I I I don't think it's okay that that you three I assume think that's fine that he just decided to not do his job that concerns me I would like to see that never happen
again from any chair. We have a responsibility to the voters to be there. And since Chris brought up his concerns with the Municipal Empowerment Act, I would just like to clarify that the Municipal Empower Empowerment Act, which is under consideration right now,
has never automatically raised taxes for local municipalities. It has never done that. Um it um it provides local options. We adopted the means tax a long time ago. It may provide a local option for us to discuss as part of our
override discussions. Are there alternatives to overrides? So that's the option there. If we had a hotel, if other communities have hotels, this this empower this resol this empowerment act is for all 351 communities. So, you
know, part of being a good citizen in the Commonwealth is supporting our neighboring communities. Um, so I just want to clear up any kind of misconception. The Municipal Perm Act, I'm sorry, you probably need to go back and read it again. It does not raise
taxes automatically. That is not the point. The point is to give us local control and that's a good thing. I think local control is a really good thing. If we had local control of our water system like we used to, we wouldn't be wasting time with the MW right now. And um, so
there's that. But it does create new property tax exemptions for seniors. Not every community has the exemptions we've put into place and and so um that is a good thing to help other communities get there perhaps more quickly than we did
or or and it does also um consider adding a cost of living because I'm talking to seniors during my office hours at the Pleasant Street Center and they're telling me that is not enough. You qualify for one year, you don't qualify for the next year. you got the assistance and you're bumped out of the
income. So, that's really important. It um it is the Minnesota Empowerment Act is talking about establishing a new OPED commission other postemployment benefits something that Reading has been struggling to fund for 15 years and and
and it is something I asked the finance committee to really let's dive in to see if this is real or not. They are going to this annunities need to be worried about this this um doomsday they're predicting. We are spending $500,000 on your budget every
year to fund this liability that never seems to come to fruition. If we had that $500,000 something else that would change the look of our override as well. So that's important. allows for the creation of regional boards of assessors. Well,
we're a little ahead of the curve here. We're kind of already doing that. >> Please point of order. >> Yes. >> No, no. Chris brought up a point of order. Yes. Go ahead. >> We're just getting off topic. >> No, we're not. Okay. Thank >> We're discussing the letter. >> I I agree. And I was just about to speak up. We are discussing the letter. We're
not discussing the contents of >> empowerment act. >> Yes. Do for the vote. >> You correctly brought it up >> for the vote. It's not we're not discussing the contents and I'm not ar I don't know that we're in we're not arguing whether the contents of that
municipal uh fiscal partnership is good or bad. That's not what we're talking about now. We're talking about procedure and it was whether you had permission to vote on it as a representative of reading and you brought up the in our
select board uh policies and procedures that the se select board chair gets to nominate or appropriate functions for this board. You ripped his head off when he did that
for our trash contract. So there's you're it's a little hypocritical right now. You're being >> referring to >> when Chris was trying to help negotiate a better price for our town for the trash contract. You ripped his head off. So it's just a little hypocritical that
you want to follow this procedure. Now >> talk about getting off topic. How is that relative to this? >> Because I don't think I ripped his head off and I don't even know what you're talking about. How does this nominating >> argue that at functions, events, and meetings that whatever you're talking
about wasn't a function or event or a meeting. This was an event. >> This was an event. >> It was a meeting that I'm talking about. >> I think we have a motion, please. We have a motion, please. >> I don't think you can do that. >> We're not going to do that just yet. We're going to give everyone a chance to
speak if they want to speak. >> Do you have anything else you'd like to add, Car? And then public hear. >> Thank you, Melissa. Uh just one quick followup. Uh it's been said multiple times that I have misrepresented um what the municip municipal
empowerment act is. I very clearly said uh in multiple >> please don't talk about the letter. >> Multiple variations that I am not >> just ask Karen not to talk about the letter. We need to stick to the procedures of what we're voting on. We're voting on whether Karen had the
permission to vote at the MMA. That is it. We're not talking about what was voted on. >> Karen or go. >> So, if we can just move on to the letter and the language of the letter, I think >> the letter that um is drafted that we're
going to write to. Yes. Thank you. Okay. So if you want to redirect ourselves letter >> um >> I would like to see the letter refrain from any reference to anybody breaking the rules was unauorized. >> Put it back up on
>> we have to submit a letter which you know Maddie if we could put it up on the screen please that would be great. >> Sorry >> that's okay. Um I just don't because it wasn't the whole board that just discussed this. It was just two of them. I think that we need to take the
reference of the board out of it because we never had enough. >> I'm sorry. >> The last sentence of the first paragraph, >> the last such action was unauthorized. I don't want to say it's reflective of the board's collective position because we don't know what the board's collective position was. >> And that's fair. I'd be happy. I'm I
would support taking out and not reflective of the board's collective position, but keeping in as such action was unauthorized. I'm okay with that. Um I think that again in the second paragraph, it's
similar to the town did not align with policy or procedures. I I I think it should be short and sweet. I don't think that it needs to be a a I'm trying to >> fashion kind of letter if you're going to send a letter.
>> Can you read exactly please K what you're referring to? >> Well, I'm thinking at the same time um >> second paragraphs second line and her represent representation of voting authority or commitment from the town did not align with work unless you're approved procedures. I just think that
we can take that out. We actually, in my opinion, and this probably needs to be voted on by all of us, in my opinion, you don't even have to say board policy. It's actually MMA policy. >> Well, that's why the board policy shouldn't >> Yeah. So, we could put in MMA policy
because it's actually their policy that um but we're not talking about their policy. We're just talking about that the bottom line is you're saying that she voted without authorization. That really should just be the message. But it is >> it it's the MMA policy that I read
earlier that it was it it is in our policy but it was the MM the MMA's policy is the MMA's policy limits voting rules authority to the chair or design in writing and that was not given. So that's
>> that's why I put approved procedures in there at the end. And then at the end of that sense as well is how I said the the official position remains undetermined. Not my position just the position in general is undetermined. We don't
support it. We don't we do we don't support it or we do. >> We don't know. So I don't >> exactly. So that's why I put it in there as undetermined because it's not up to me to say one way or the other. So that's why it's in there. So if the board is okay, we can strike
um and not reflective of the board's conductive position in the first paragraph >> or you can say was unauthorized per MMA policy >> is that in this in that paragraph replaces that of not reflective of the board's connected position
as as such action was unoff put the MMA thing in the end of the first paragraph. >> I guess I guess what I'm really trying to say is I I I don't think that it needs to be as complicated as it is. I think you just need to pull the vote back if that's
what you're looking to do and just state that. And I don't that's all if if if that one particular vote cuz we're not addressing what we feel as as a board. We're just trying to pull back a vote because she
didn't follow MMA procedures according to >> their written procedures. So I don't think we need to get into all the nitty-gritty details of why. >> I don't disagree. That's fine. I'm fine with that if the rest of the board um has any input. So, a point of
clarification. I just don't understand why we keep saying I didn't follow procedures. It's an MMA's conference. It was an MMA staff member who said, "No, I didn't receive it from your chair, but it's okay. Go ahead and vote." Um, but you did receive a text from Chris.
>> I did not ask him for a text. I asked him for an email. And he could have changed his mind the next morning. And that's why I made the explicit step to check in the meeting and check if he changed his mind. Some people make better decisions after sleeping on
things. So at that time I was informed no he hadn't sent the email. I said okay and they said it's okay here. So again I followed our protocols. I followed the MMA's protocols. They decided to make an
exception. So why are you sending this email, >> Karen? Chris's text to you specifically. >> Wait, that's another thing. >> Blackboard members publishing each other's text without permission on social media. >> I didn't publish your text on social
media, Karen. I >> picture it. >> Oh, he quoted two seconds. >> Yes. Don't laugh. He's being serious. >> I am being serious because I >> person's going to speak at a time and Karen was speaking. So, let Karen finish and then it's your turn. Right. So, my
point is that the MMA staff leader made an exception. Now that Dave's got a call, he's going to go down and slap his wrist and say, "H, can't do that." And there's a select board chair who's upset. But I did not v violate policies. They made an exception to their policy
in the interest of the stated objective of the organization. And so I just ask you to consider that because I that's why this this email is not correct in this way as well. >> Chris, >> thanks Melissa. Um their bylaws are
crystal clear Karen that they needed in writing from the chair. you were putting the blame on the MMA because they allowed you to vote and knowing that you had text from me going the other way as well as an email from me also quoting
that you you weren't delegated to vote with my reasoning in there which is which people can read for themselves. >> You've been over this before. >> We have. >> Please don't interrupt. But um once again your text with me we were going to
reference during this meeting 100%. And they have to go in the packet that is the rules for uh open meeting law. So that is why they are in there and quoting two sentences out of everything between us is publishing private text. I
wholeheartedly disagree with you. Um, >> Madame Vice Chair, is there ever going to be a conversation tonight where Chris is not allowed to have the last word? It's really unfortunate and it doesn't seem like a collaborative situation when
he's just allowed to have the last word. I mean, >> where's your list of being kind and >> So, I didn't attack him. I didn't attack him. I didn't attack you. So, what what is your issue with my lack of kind behavior? It's just you're just being
>> I'm just being I'm just defending myself. I'm just defending yourself. Karen, you're >> Does anyone else have any input on the letter to the MMA? Carlo, >> I I I don't think we can get through the night and uh to try to
reddraft this letter. So, I'm okay with if Karen Rose Gillis wants to reddraft the letter, minimize it, and then we vote at the next meeting because we've been at this for a half hour now, and we're going in circles. Like I like I state like I
stated before, this is strictly procedural. I do not want anyone voting on my behalf ever for anything. Insert name here. It doesn't matter whose name it is. It happens to be Karen's. Yes, some of us are at odds on this board.
That's pretty evident. But this is strictly procedural. Just like listening, black and white. So if you want to take some text out, I'm okay with that. Whatever to move this forward, this letter is going to them in one shape or form. If it can be narrowed down and be more specific, I'm okay with
that. But this is strictly procedural. It was it was clear and and and that's all I you know we can be here all night debating this. Are you okay with that Karen Rose Gillis? >> I agree. >> I'm okay. >> I don't disagree with Carlo because I think we are going to be here all night
if we try to reddraft this letter here. Um I like I said I agree with Carlo and um it it's strictly procedural. has nothing to do with the resolution that was made and whether you know we're not arguing whether we agree on it or don't
it that it it's the MMA rules like you needed to have permission she didn't have permission she voted >> Chris >> so real quick on the letter I'm um I I don't want to bring this up at a following meeting so we can just rehash
all of this again but I am in agreement that if Karen Rose Gillis wants rewrite it and then Matt um that we can authorize her to do it and um I'm not sure that we can without
circulating it and still sign it without it still being in a meeting but I'm yes I'm fine with whatever version Karen Rose decides to come up with I'm uh in agreement with so the the the point like she had mentioned it's just putting on
on record that we weren't okay with this and here's our formal thing getting sent over. And if it's one paragraph, then so be it. >> Okay? >> And if you want to do one paragraph right now and only have it be the first one, let's call it a day or the first
one and second one. I mean, first and third, just something and just be done with it because we can't bring this up at another meeting and then vote on minutes for it and all the other ridiculousness. That's my opinion. Is anyone okay with it just being the first
paragraph? >> I believe >> or maybe the first and third. >> Maybe the first and third. >> Let's go with the first and third. >> I'm fine with the first and third. >> I'm okay with that. >> We have to vote on that if we have a
motion. >> It's a public. >> Oh, yes. I will open a public comment. Two minutes, please. >> Yep. Angela. >> Angela been Orchard Park Drive. Um, I'm looking at the packet and in the packet is the MMA annual business meeting and
it says voting at the business meeting in early January. The MMA will reach out to chief municipal officials in each community about voting procedures. I don't think Miss Herrick is the chief municipal official for the town of
Reading. Maybe Mr. Kronelis is. Maybe uh Mr. uh Haley is. Did the MMA reach out to you in early January as they listed in their things and about voting procedures? Did did the MMA reach out to
you? >> I ask questions during public comment given public comment. >> Okay. So, all that this does is to increase a toolbox. Mr. Haley posted new taxes coming in 26. No new taxes are
coming in 26. He misrepresented what this is online and he also said we wouldn't want the town to think that we're okay with raising taxes. Well, the gentleman from uh post 1917 was here and you asked him how do you feel about
increase in males tax. He said okay. And we just had a discussion for about 45 minutes about a group that was put together by the select board about raising a tax for CPA. So I think it uh
is incorrect that this town doesn't have that that the statement that the town doesn't have an appetite to increase taxes if necessary. But okay, you won't let me ask the question. I hope somebody else asks the question. what mun
municipal official was reached out to in early January from the MMA according to what you posted on your own in the past. >> Thank you. Does anyone else have any comments or questions? Is there anyone over
two minutes name and address please? >> She already spoke on this Mount Vernon Street. I spoke about this during public comment, but for those watching at home, just a reminder that this is election season. Karen is up for re-election. Two members have a strong history of
speaking aggressively against Karen Herrick for all of the work that she does on this board. This is simply an attempt to defame her, to make her look bad, to abuse the power of the chair, to try and hurt political opponent during an election cycle. I think this is
appalling behavior. This has been a waste of time when we have so many more important issues that affect residents, especially around affordability and taxes. And you're here trying to stop one board member that has attended these meetings discussing state level finances
that could help our town and you're attacking her. Shame on all. >> Thank you. Anyone else for public comment? Anyone online? >> Nobody online. All right, let's vote on Do we have a motion, Karen?
>> Move to approve the letter as amended before the board and authorize the town manager to send such letter to the Massachusetts Municipal Association, MMA. >> Second. >> Seconded by Carla Bachi. All those in favor? >> Discussion.
>> Oh, discussion. Sorry. Yes. I thought we talked enough. >> Just saying. Thank you, Melissa. Um uh my my vote on this is going to be reflective of the um next item as well.
So if um this ends up passing unanimously and I will ask to table the next agenda item and that's it. >> All right. All those in favor? >> I have a question. >> Oh, sorry. >> Okay. When you say you're going to table
it, does that mean it goes without saying or it's just not going to go >> and call it a day? >> Okay, >> we ready to vote? Anyone else have any comment or input? All right. All those in favor of the motion.
>> Well, >> with the amendment, >> with the edits that you made, >> but I'm not interested in the censor part. No, we're >> you're waving it. >> We're voting on this. >> I I had mentioned that I would be willing to table it if this vote was
unanimous because I >> and if I could I think that it would send a message enough knowing that Karen is agreeing with this >> and that's it for me. >> Thank you. >> All right, we're going to vote again.
All those in favor of sending the letter to the MMA as amended. 5 Z. All right, we are moving on. We are >> You need a motion to skip this next one. >> Uh a motion to skip the next agenda
item. Karen, if you want to wing it, you know, I love >> I know. Sorry. Uh move to ignore >> table a resolution to censure selected by member Karen Gate. >> Second
>> secondly by Chris Haley. Um any discussion? All those in favor? 5. All right. You're moving on to 8:40. Discuss town manager review results. All righty.
>> Um sure. We are going to take a fiveminute recess. Sorry for all those that have been waiting. We'll be right back. What do we do? >> All right, we're back in session. Um, we are going to discuss the town manager re view results. Um, I assume everyone here
got a chance to sit and talk with Matt and reviews. >> So, it looks like >> Oh, town hall. We're out of focus on the select board room. Who knows? >> So Kevin is successfully here to fix this
>> pres. That's the other one. >> Oh, wow. >> Perfect. >> Thank you. It >> was probably my fault, not Kevin's. >> Oh, not your fault. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, go through the town
manager review results. Like I said, everyone got to meet with Matt at some point of time. Okay, great. Matt, you were >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Can we just open up? >> Yeah, please. >> So, so that's true. Everybody got a chance to meet. I got a chance to meet with everybody. I really do appreciate it. I think I've said early on I wanted
to be more of a conversation and and not something more formal or certainly not adversarial. So, um I appreciate that and I did get to meet with everybody. I I did as part of the process like I do every year a self assessment. So, that's um in the packet. I think Maddie could
put it up if you want to look at it. It's on page 114. I highlighted a lot of the goals, accomplishments, um some achieved, some still working on. I won't go through it all tonight in the interest of time and it's there. I hope
that people read it and um and if there's questions afterwards, please let me know. Um I did bring it to I think all the meetings I've had with you. Um and there were some good questions and followup which I appreciated. Um as part of the review, we did the 360 review. A
lot of the department heads are here uh tonight. Um it's good to see them. I I I'm happy that they participated because it's not an easy thing to do a review of somebody that you report to. So you know how that feels. So, um, I think it was pretty positive. I hope you've read that
as well. Um, and you take that into consideration. I think it shows that my leadership style is working. What I'm doing here is working, and it's appreciated by not only the the staff here, department heads, but I think the
public at large as well. Um, so, you know, I just wanted to put that out there first. Obviously, there's um there's room for improvement. I see that. I appreciated a lot of the comments that we had. We were together one-on-one about that. Um, I think
communication with the select board was a big goal from last year and something that I did improve upon and I I want to continue that. Um, and I'm open to suggestions there. So, uh, any sort any more communications between me, you, and
each other, I really want to try to facilitate this next year, next few years. Um, again, I'm open to constructive feedback. I think, you know, we can talk about things later, but I know later you're going to talk about possibility of an extension.
That's something that I I do I would like. I think that given what we've done here, not just in the last two years, but in the last 10 plus years that I've been here, as a leader in Reading, um it it shows that I want to stay I want to
go and do good things for the people of Reading. And to do that, I'm going to need more time, obviously. But we've had we've come a long way. I'm very proud of the accomplishments, but again, open to criticism, open to um any sort of constructive feedback that you have. um
and can take it from there. And I'll I'll probably speak again at the end before we go into executive session. >> Sure. Absolutely. >> And I'm happy to answer any questions while we're here. So, >> thank you. >> Thank you, >> board members. Anyone have any Karen Gills? >> Uh thank you, Matt. I'm not going to
repeat anything that I said in my written review. And I did have the foresight to type out what I wanted to say because I knew I'd be very tired right about now. >> Me, too. >> And I didn't want to lose my train of thought. So, I apologize for reading from a script. Um, first I really wanted
to thank you to town staff for your time and your valuable input into the town manager evaluation process. Your insight into Matt's day in the life work performance is a critical part of this analysis and review process. You provided thoughtful, thorough, and honest comments, which I greatly
appreciated. The select board may technically be Matt's boss, but we cannot possibly understand the day-to-day activities that take place in town hall, and your insight is probably the most important voice in the evaluation process. So, thank you very much and thank you for staying so late today. Um, I Googled the job description
of a town manager and uh you as you know are the CEO of the town and the town manager runs the town while the elected officials set the vision and the policies. And um some of the core responsibilities for a town manager are implement policies, oversee daily
operations, budget and financial management, personnel management, strategic planning, and communications and public relations. Uh the purpose of the role of the town manager. I'm sure this is not new to you, but >> Oh, that's fine. I'm happy to hear it. >> Hear myself, you know. um ensure
professional nonpartisan administrations, provide continu continuity as elected officials change, and increase efficiency and accountability in government operations. Um it's my opinion and that of others who I have spoken with that Matt does all of
these things and more. I believe Matt strikes a terrific balance in this position, allowing his staff to work at what they do best without micromanaging, without having to diminish their accomplishments in order to raise his visibility in town. Um, I do want to point out that um, a lot of the key
words that stood out for me from the town staff evaluations were teamwork, partnership, collaborative, outstanding, professional, ethical, calm demeanor, friendly, strong leadership, does not micromanage, high level of efficiency,
trust in support, and easy to work with. And those are all things that I think are incredibly valuable and important to run the town. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you for mentioning that. Appreciate it. >> Thank you, Karen. >> That's all I got to say.
>> Anyone else have comments or feedback? Karen, >> I'm just gonna take the easy way out and echo a lot of the things you said. Thank you for taking the time to write it down. Um we have accomplished a lot of great things um this year under your leadership. So, thank you. And um it is
clear that um you have a team behind you and um um I was just thinking that um you know I I I I feel comfortable um when we go
into meetings that I can I can count on you to have a calm um objective presence which is often needed and most of the meetings we've been going to lately are um needed. So, um I I really appreciate about you and thank you very much for um
your support in this written evaluation. >> Thank you, >> Chris. >> Thanks, Melissa. Uh and thanks, Matt. Um so, obviously, I'm not going to go over everything else that I have uh noted in here. Um I did re meet obviously with
Matt as well and went over things. Um, it's it's a little bit harder to put stuff in print without context and you know what I mean? Like just kind of just speaking together one-on-one and really getting a
feel for stuff beyond what the public sees on a day-to-day kind of basis. Like everybody sees that Matt's here. Obviously, that's, you know, it's his job, but he is at um on other events um in town and
he does live in Mthun, so it's not like, you know, it's not like he's in North Reading or something. So, it it um that is part of his his job um as well. So, it's just more along the lines of um what Matt and I have discussed in our
meetings. He knows what um areas have to be worked on in general. Um, and it's not just for his benefit, it's for everybody's essentially. Um, I'm not asking not asking Matt I referenced this I
think previously that I'm not asking him to be me from 2021 where my wife didn't order pizza. I mean, I had my wife ordering pizza for me all the time and everybody now is just like, "That dude doesn't order pizza. He won't shut up." And like, it's it's different when you
end up um sitting up here as soon as you walk through the door. Everything that I wanted to say is completely the opposite and nobody will ever realize that other than the five of us up here and and a couple other people um along the line,
but everything goes out the window. It doesn't matter how well you prepare to speak like Karen have just mentioned. Um just like I'm doing right now. I had no clue what I was going to say, but it's more along the lines of Brat knows that there is a lot of work that needs to be
done. And um you know, it's not always rainbows and butterflies, but you know, there's a lot of rainbows and some butterflies. So, I'll leave it at that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. You want to add Carl?
>> Thanks. I met with Matt several weeks ago and then I had a good conversation when I was chair over a year ago about town manager goals and town manager how he's doing as a town manager and the one thing that
unfortunately stuck out with me is that I think it it it impacted negative for me then it is a positive but it impacted me that that the assistant town manager manager was more the front person um of
the town than the town manager. So, uh that has been the case for me individually on what I've seen. Matt is here every day, does his job, doesn't do a bad job, but I'm just looking for more
looking for more forward thinking and um just a I mean I'm not not proactive is the right word, but I appreciate all the town staff here. appreciate whoever did the evaluations. Um, it's difficult. It's difficult being in this chair right now uh for me being a volunteer, but I
just feel that uh we always can do better. Obviously, I can do better. All of us can do better, but um as a CEO of a town, I'm just expecting a little bit more. Thank you. >> Thank you, Kyla. Um thank you. Thank you
to all the department heads that um did the evaluation because I think that is helpful for us because we don't know some of the day-to-day things that happen in town. Um nor should we but uh I think Matt and I had a great conversation um and went through um what
was on the evaluation and you know some of his goals and you know I I think I hope he knows that you know I was trying to be um critical but in a positive way. Um, and that Matt's a great person. I,
you know, had some concerns and we spoke about those and I don't think that I need to go into those now, but um, you know, I just hope that those concerns are taken >> seriously, which I think >> they were >> you agree with that. So, I think that we
had a um, great conversation and after seeing the department head reviews, I mean, you know, you're a life guy, right, but some places. Thank you. >> Um, so does anyone else here on the board have any additional feedback
they'd like to give before I open it up to I I guess I have some department heads that would like to speak to. So, anyone here? Okay, we'll open it to public comment. >> You guys want to go up? >> Go for it.
>> Oh, I'm in trouble now, >> Kevin. I won't drop the mic. Promise. Oh, okay. >> There. I won't drop the mic, Kevin. Thank you. Um, just let you know, I've I'm on my 31st 31st year here serving the town of Reading, um, in the police department.
Matt is my fourth town manager. All right. One thing I found about this evaluation process that I really was troubled by was the fact that, and I don't know about the rest of the department heads, not one member of the select board reached out to me, asked to meet me in person. I know it I was one
of the evaluators. I'll tell you I was. I'm glad to be part of the evaluation. But the one-on-one I think all of you could have gained a lot out of if you had taken the time to meet one-on-one with these fine working men and women over here that run this now with our great boss. Secondly, what I found
disturbing was out of all the goals that were listed, the number one goal should have been employee retention, recruitment, and employee well-being. and that was just not even mentioned which I found very troubling. Third, when his leadership was talked about,
Matt is an amazing leader. We are all here on a night off well into the evening to support Matt. Matt's a great leader because he doesn't micromanage because he does not feel the need to put in stuff. He trusts his staff. He trusts us to do the right thing and he trusts
that we're going to report to him anything he needs to know. And that is great. Like I said, I've worked for three other town managers and that has not been the case. It's great to know that he has my back, but he leaves me alone to run my agency. The criticism that the assistant town manager, who is
wonderful, has been the lead on a couple projects shows a clear lack of understanding of how a leader works. How many times have you seen Deputy Chief Amandola up here in front of you and not me? How many times have you seen Lieutenant Jones up here in front of you
and not me? It's unsustainable to be at every single thing and be the lead on every single thing. It's impossible. You need to have a life outside this place. He needs to have a life outside this place. And he has put competent people
including the assistant town manager in place of projects to be there cuz he knows that she could focus on those so Matt could focus on other things. And that includes running this town. Because if he's at all these meetings and he's not in his office, nothing's getting done.
Hiring, budget work, meeting with department heads, meeting with town staff, talking to unions, none of that's getting done if he's at every single thing. And that's why a true great leader delegates and gives it off to other people. Chief Nelson will be doing the same thing with the assistant fire
chief soon. Other department heads do the same thing. So to criticize him for being a great leader and having him have the people around him, the competent people around him be the front and take the lead. First of all, it's great for morale. It shows trust and faith in the
people that work below you and it gives them a chance to shine. And secondly, it shows that he can then get other stuff done that's crucial to running this town. And that's what a great town manager does. And that's what he does. That's why all of us are here supporting him. And I really hope that you take the
evaluations to heart and really hope that you take the fact that all of us are here supporting him and do the right thing. I can also tell you part of the issue is the fact that he hasn't been given a long-term contract. I can tell you that when I was acting
chief for almost two years waiting to finally get the nod that I was getting chief was the worst time here in my job because I couldn't make long-term plans and I was so afraid to do something was I was going to mess up and get criticized and not get the job that I always wanted and that was brutal being
acting chief here for two years waiting till I officially got it. Once I officially got it and I knew I had the chief, then I could make long-term plans. Then I could start doing my staff for Matt only to get two short-term contracts. How is he supposed to plan for the future when he doesn't know what his future holds? How are we supposed to
plan and work when we don't know who our boss is going to be in another few months? It affects from the top all the way down. So we're I'm here to ask you to please 31 years of service here as a chief of police for this town and a reading resident. Please do the right
thing and not only extend him, but give him a long-term contract so he can settle in and do his job and be an amazing leader that he already is and let him let some of the other people shine. And that's what I'm asking. Thank you. >> Thank you, Chief.
>> Thank you, Chief. >> Would anyone else like to speak? >> I'd just like to say I second what he says. >> Thank you, Lara. Kevin, >> so I I thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. I knew I'd regret
it uh if I didn't say something. Uh I I've been in a very unique position as far as it relates to Matt's time here. I was a member of the uh committee that interviewed for this position. And when when Matt came in uh Bob
Lasher, he sat here for about two years with his previous position vacant to decide what he wanted to to put in that role, what he needed. Uh he was a new town manager. And so after two years, he collected all
of the I guess I call them the misfits. All of the bigger headaches. I feel comfortable saying that because technology is one of those headaches. Uh town clerk's office was another one of those headaches. That's the doorstep that typical complaints or issues show
up to the town. Um HR, that's another one of those headaches. Matt took all these responsibilities on and he handled it in a very calm, you know, uh interesting management style and one that I wasn't really accustomed to. He
gave room for people to do their job and would intervene when when it was necessary. um that's appreciated by the people that work for them and when you know my group we uh we've got
public safety here that's the first responders and uh we consider ourselves the third responders uh I don't even know if there's a second responder but we don't want to be around that uh but when co arrived we really played a more central part
and that was that was great for our group and um great to play a part in the town success. Well, I'd be checking in with Matt in the early days and he I'd say, "Matt,
where are you today?" He say, "I'm at the office." And like, "Okay, you're at the office." Couple weeks later, I'm like, "Oh, where are you, Matt?" He's at the office. And only so many times do you hear that before you realize, "What am I doing?" like I should get to the office. And so from April on, you know,
technology had a inerson presence. That wasn't Matt telling me to do that. That's because I'm I'm watching somebody lead us in a way. Um, and if Ty had been home for eight months, he would have stepped in and said, "What are you doing? Get in here." But he didn't have
to. And I think maybe that type of approach is lost if you're not witnessing it. And I just wanted to make sure that I communicated that um from where we sit, it's it's interesting to see such a difference in review. Maybe
it's because I'm not going to uh badmouth my boss in a review so public, but I don't think it was the case in going through the process. So, I just wanted to share that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Anyone? Thank you, Chief Nelson. You know, I wasn't going to say anything, but if they know me, I have to say something. Um, I hope you realize what you have here because I want to just echo one point that you made. Change in leadership at the top will
send everybody under in a spiral. It makes planning difficult. If you look around the state, how long do town managers last in other communities? I think statistically it's something like two years. You guys have a guy here
who shows up to work every day, works hard, has led his people here to a place where they're all willing to sit here late at night, has accomplished a lot of the goals under very tight conditions, and was fighting to be here for a long time to support the town. I hope you
realize that because the stability of that position creates stability at these positions, which creates stability in the town and has a resounding effect. So, I just ask you really consider if you vote no, why you vote no and consider the resounding effect that will
have because there'll be ripples. So, I ask you appreciate that. Thank you for everything you do, Matt. >> Thank you, Chief. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Maddie, do we have anyone online? >> Couple people. >> No, no hands are raised.
>> Okay, great. Thank you. Um, Matt, did you want to end because we're not voting on anything right now. >> No, no, I understand that. If you want to um invite me to at least the first part of your executive session, I could I could talk a little bit more um about,
you know, long-term long-term planning. I mean, they brought it up themselves, but you know, I I went through a couple short-term contracts, and it is very hard to do any sort of long range planning when you when you've sort of got this sort of gamma hanging over your head. And I could talk about that more.
I think it's more appropriate in executive session. Um, if you would like to do that. So, I I would only stay for about five minutes and and then >> I I think that's fair if everyone at the board >> Thank you. >> okay with that. Yeah, I think it's definitely we'll do that. >> Okay. I do appreciate that and I
appreciate everybody. I appreciate the support and I appreciate you all and your support and meeting with me um and being there for me. It's a it's a mutual relationship here and and I appreciate that as well. So, thank you. >> Thank you very much. All right, we're going to move on to liazison reports
right now. >> Karen, do you want to start? >> Thank you everyone for coming. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> Leaison reports. >> Drive carefully. >> What's today's date?
>> Up. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry, no, that was on me. I was trying to figure out how to raise my hand. Um, I apologize, but we are not um the agenda does not include negotiations
with non-union personnel. It's just strategy and preparation, I believe, Matt. Um, so unfortunately, I'm not sure it would be okay for you to enter executive session based on the way the agenda is drafted, but let me just um
Does someone have the agenda in front of them? >> I do. >> Sure. Yeah, >> it says executive session purpose two to conduct strategy session in preparation for negotiation with non-union personnel inclusive a discussion on whether to extend a new contract to manager Matthew
can manager. >> So I'm sorry Matt, but the executive session agenda item was not drafted broadly enough to include that. Um, we can, if the board feels like that type of conversation is critical, we
could talk about some options for extending the deadline um, by which we have to notify you for under the contract. Um, or we could have that conversation now in open session um, about your your reasons for wanting a longer contract.
>> Right. Well, we could do either. I mean, I think the agenda item, you know, >> I >> I I could see what your point is, you know, and I don't want to create any open meeting law issues. So, that's one. I mean, I could >> I could speak now a little bit if we're still on topic or, you know, I can I can
save it until the board votes on something and we negotiate it. Whatever you think is preferable. >> So, I mean, I obviously defer to the to the board. I think it's clear that um it's you know your desire is for a
long-term contract and we understand the reasons why uh you would would want that length of a contract. I'm not sure it's necessary to to delay, but it's up to the board obviously as to what you'd like to do. >> Okay. >> I don't think that we want to delay
having the conversation executive session. I guess I the only piece of it that I don't understand just if the board agrees to allow Matt into our executive session for a short period of time that even though it's executive session it could still be an OML.
>> So there's two Let me pull up the select board agenda. Sorry I need to see it exactly. Um >> I didn't mean to create controversy with all this. >> No no no reason. So there's two there's two ways to enter executive session. One is um strategy in regards to future
negotiations. And with that, when you have the strategy, the employees subject to those contract negotiations can't be present because it's strategy versus the actual contract negotiation. Um and I think we drafted it as strategy. It >> does say strategy.
>> So I I'm I'm just >> okay >> overly cautious here. >> There's no need to to delay it. I think you you've heard my feelings on and I what I was what I was going to say and I think it's appropriate that I say it in public too. I mean there was discussion during the budget about how much the
salary should be and what staff money to put in and that's never been the overriding goal with me at all. First of all it's to serve the town but second of all it is to have more length of time salary is something that happens. I understand but that wasn't going to be
anything that I was going to you know have a bonic intention with. It's really the security of having those three years, the stability, and it's I I've checked around other towns, three to five years is the norm right now. I I think three years would be a great place to start. Um, so I I don't think I need
to come into executive session to say that, but just so you know, that's where my heart is and my thinking is. I didn't address it during the budget meeting because it was on budget, but that was, you know, never never the real goal. The goal was long-term stability to to be
here and help the people running. So that's what I wanted to say. >> Thanks, Melissa. Um, so every is the max five years? Is that the deal? Like for a contract? We can't do like 30 years, but like is five.
>> Yeah. Yeah. >> You're kind of So >> yeah. >> Okay. Thanks. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you, >> Yeah. And again, I'm sorry, Matt. it >> that's overly conservative with this. >> Yeah. No, I I can understand that. Believe me.
>> Thanks for the clarification. >> All right, we'll move on to liaison reports. >> Leazison reports. Um January 28th, I attended the ACE meeting. They did a debrief on the MLK Junior Day events which were very well attended. Uh they
did a debrief for the first game changer series book club session. They said it was very well attended. um looking forward to the next one. And uh they discussed briefly naming opportunities, looking into what the policies are, which is something I think we need to
address. Um anyway, uh January 29th, I attended the Cub Scout 10 meeting for PAC 702 because one of their activities is my community. So, they needed to meet an elected representative. and it brought back a lot of fun memories from
when my boys were scouts and they were working on their primary cars. So, um I don't know how that went. Uh the 31st I had office hours at Pleasant Co. which was lovely. Um February 2nd, I was at the Reading Housing Authority where town staff
presented the Pleasant Street Center status and future planning presentation. Um very well received and a lot of good comments were made. Um the second I also attended a town forest committee meeting where you know I love that um planning for arbor day is in full swing. They're
working on which trees to select for planting uh strategy for location within the forest scheduled for April 25th. They're also planning for other events which are going to be education based um focused and invasive removal events which are usually very well attended. Um
they discussed potentially getting updated maps of the forest. Um they've already scheduled some invasive plant pulling dates. More to come on that topic. And um Dave Williams, our famous burer from Reading, will be hosting at least four to five forest walks, which
are always very well attended. And there was a little rumor about an evening owl walk, which I was very excited about. So Dave, if you're listening, please schedule one. Um I attended the finance committee meeting on the 4th just for fun. Um we all I
think we all attended the um MWR advisory meeting meeting on the 5th and um last night I attended the council on aging meeting which um town staff again presented the pleasing street center status and future planning presentation. They received a
lot of comments from the members great questions and suggested uses for this for the center. Um they also discussed volunteer opportunities at the center. um many hands make light work. So they're trying to work on things like bringing the gardens back out front. Um
asking COA members about assistance with staff um pickups to help out the staff from preventing them from leaving the building because there's very few staff members there. Um possible volunteers to help work at the front desk. And they discussed upcoming evening activities
that they're going to start posting um that will be a new addition to the calendar. Um there's an upcoming puzzle competition which is a multi-generational team activity through writing luck um which is going to be held tomorrow. That's that.
>> Great. Thank you. Anyone want to go next? >> Okay. >> Okay. So, um, this week I attended, um, an excellent seminar put on by the, um, Massachusetts Office of Disabilities and
co-sponsored by the Attorney General's Office. It was on best practices and, um, so we're very excited about us. Oh, sorry. Thank you. Sorry about that. Um with our new disabilities commission coming um this um seminar was emailed to
all of us who is extremely helpful because they they talked about various ways in which we will need to make our community more accessible. So that's good to get a heads up when someone has a legitimate need to attend 10 meeting remotely.
We need to accommodate that. So um there's a technical challenge Kevin's already left. Okay. I'm really excited about the grant opportunities. There are a lot of grant opportunities from the state. So, we heard talked a little bit about, you know, what needs to be done at the Pleasant Street Center. Well,
guess what? There's going to be some ADA there, then ADA needs here. You know, there there's no um limit to areas that we can improve, including um more accessible playground equipment, which we already have an accessible playground
up at Wood End. and um who knows what the status of that playground equipment is at this point. Um assisted technology for public school students, architectural improvements, just town senior centers to ensure safety and access for older adults. So, you know,
we're always looking for ways to um make up for the lack of, you know, the a municipal building fund grant program to help us with the senior center, but the um the um municipal Americans with Disabilities Act improvement grants may
be a source of um opportunity for us. I also attended the MWA advisory board. Um so um I you know, I agree with Matt's summary of it. For for those of you watching home, this board had about 8 to 10 people on it and none of them are
reading and so um you know it was a very disappointing code. The reading was asking for some relief for some overp payments that we've made and and two out of those communities thought that that would be the right thing to do and everybody else was oh no it's going to raise my costs and my thoughts were well
your costs are lower now because we paid too much. So, so you know, to Matt's point, I would like to um I'd like to select forward to see what other options we have and and a potential executive session to discuss, you know, um making our case a little more strongly, but we
do have a vote now from them. Um so, the finance committee met the other night and they had a a wonderful updated presentation on future possibilities from the for the Pleasant Street Center. I know you were online, too. and great questions and um good discussions about
keep it, lease it, sell it, just great discussions. Um and then they also talked about my next op item. Matt also mentioned the fiscal policy workshop which was led by experts from the division of local services. the select board and the finance committee had
previously um said that we'd like to take a a hard look at our policies and and you know contemplating an override and tight budgets is the absolute right time to do that and um those folks were were terrific and there was a great showing from the select board and a
great showing from the finance committee and also other communities. So again Matt, thank you for making that making that a regional event because that was really helpful for all of us. Um we don't all budget the same way. Um quick takeaways are um we need we have a
lot of policies only some are written down. They haven't been updated recently that we could even write down um what to do in the case that we want to change our policy. What is the procedure for doing that? Um, and so that is going to
be so I know Matt and and um Sharon are going to take the lead on that and then the finance committee and hopefully the select board can weigh in as well. And I it was a fascinating discussion. We don't realize how many policies we're already using and how they impact. And you know, a couple years ago when Sharon
um was surprised that we had um much higher regeneration of cash than we ever do by millions of dollars. We don't don't have a policy that says quick put that in the stabilization fund or put
that in the oped. We so we should talk about things like that. So, it's actually the process of talking through what you want to do at a very detailed level. So, it was terrific and I learned a lot about um what goes on financially and town hall that we've been living
here 30 years, you know, how do you keep how do you track receipts? How do you make sure things accounted for properly? So, that was very helpful. Um the trials committee invited me, but unfortunately they contacted the finance committee. So, I think I'm going to have to hit them next week. Unfortunat next month,
unfortunately. I am um having some select board office hours Thursday at the Pleasant Street Center from 12:00 to 1, right before the Valentine's Day lunch. Um I might be lonely because they get pretty excited about their lunches over there. Um but anyways, 12 to 1 on
Thursday, right before the Valentine's Day lunch. I'm pretty sure you needed to sign up ahead of time. And then I'm also excited, um I'm going to participate in Black History Trivia Month, and I figured I'd just give them a shout out. It is February 23rd at 6:30 um downstairs in the big community room
at the library and um I look forward to being embarrassed knowing nothing. Thank you. >> Go ahead. >> Thanks Melissa. Um yeah, the big takeaway was attending the MWR meeting
um last week. Uh unfortunately within the first two minutes I saw that it was headed sideways. Um so Matt and I had already discussed um adding a future agenda item to deal with that topic. Uh they had the
opportunity from you know the 11 million that we should have done to only 2.2 million of the water overage that they build us for that we didn't actually use. Um and
uh they decide so they voted uh three four three for it eight against it. Um so it did not pass and it's the end of the road for them but um it is not the end of the road for us. So that's all I
got. >> Thanks. Uh Karen covered uh the division of local services meeting that a few of us attended and my main takeaway similar to Karen's was they talked a lot about capital planning and policymaking. Uh I
was there for a couple of hours wasn't there for the whole thing. I figured like 10 other communities were there and as Karen said we all do things a little bit differently. Um I was also at the MWR meeting. very disappointed in that outcome and I'm happy to see we're going
to continue the conversation to see what we can get and I'm hoping what I took away from that meeting was if they gave us money it would impact everyone in the MWR and what I didn't ask and maybe someone
here knows it do they have a fund they can pull the money from like a reserve fund like we have reserve funds like if they give us money back it shouldn't impact the rest of the MWR. >> The MWR has more money than RMLD.
>> Anyway, so that's that was disappointing. Um, and then CPA met last week. Uh, we went over the slide deck that you saw tonight and, uh, they've been going around obviously the boards and committees, uh, with the same
presentation. So, and we saw ours tonight, so that was good. And then last night I attended a recreation uh committee meeting uh run-of-the-mill meeting um some sound permits
CP leazison report and some town staff was there uh going over the Pleasant Street Center and of the members that were in attendance it wasn't all maybe about eight uh there they didn't formally vote but all their inclination was keep the building that was kind of
the the tone there on the Pleasant center and then they also talked about uh recal and pretty much overwhelmingly of the members there it was you know wreck should definitely have a say in
the programming there and that building needs to generate income. So they were very supportive of working with COA and to figure that out to utilize the building as much as they can weekends nights. Um and that's TB uh TBD.
And then right after that I jumped on CPDC and I learned this I didn't know uh there's a new building proposed fourstory mixeduse building over by Bayate Physical Therapy on Main Street. >> So I don't know if that was their first or second meeting. Um, some neighbors
spoke uh about the project. I think it's going to go forward. Um, there wasn't a vote last night on it, but that was news to me. So, another proposed four-story building over there on South Main Street. And then, um, again, a presentation by town staff on the
Pleasant Street Center. And of the members that were in attendance, CPDC also favored keeping the building in our control, you know, leasing it, you know, various options, food pantry, arts, you know, whatever. Um so they also were in favor um of
keeping the building and um that's it. >> Thank you. Um conservation met um on January 28th. They have they are working on two grants. One is to do with the trail that's um going to be built behind
recal. So they're requesting $72,000 I think in a mass trails grant and that um the project the total will cost about 90,000 and that due date actually passed already. So I think we've already submitted that. And then they're also looking into a grant for a utility
vehicle purchase and that would be supported for both trails and um conservation. I think that grant split would be like 70% town or grant and then the town would pick up the rest. Um, again they discussed conservation having a budget
line item and I think they're going to come to us with that or you know which is something I've said before and I say again I think we need to do for them. Their fees go back into the general fund. It seems like a no-brainer that they get a line item. I know budget's tight but they're con they need money
for various things too. Um I do think there was a meeting on Mater Cabin with staff at some point. Do we have any update on that? >> There's a meeting scheduled for Matara. We are having it I think. Um >> I thought it was >> it's coming up.
>> Okay. No, it's on my calendar. >> Um you know, we got to help them get that back open, especially for the spring. I mean, I I I'm not pointing fingers at anyone. what happened there, but like our building department shut down, so we got to help them reopen it
and figure that out. Um because they'll lose funding for anything that they may be able to use it for in the warm weather. So, school committee met on the 29th um they are in a search for a new rise obviously as well as their superintendent. Um they have two
facility naming requests in front of them, one for the announcing booth and one for the fitness center and training room. Um I think I said this last time but the superintendent process committee has been finalized and the salary range was approved. Um, also at that meeting, Ker
Nazaro not um notified everyone that she will not be running for reelection in the spring. And I think that we all can agree that, you know, she poured her heart and soul into that school committee and over the past six years. And, you know, we need to thank her for all her work on the school committee and
also on the Kllum school building committee because I don't think we'd be where we are today without her. Um, I did attend the MW meeting and the fincom I watched back later, but that's about it.
If we want to move on to future agenda items now. >> All right, Maddie, if you want to pull up um >> page 221. >> 221. Are we ready? Um the 24th seems pretty busy.
>> Yeah, I don't have specific dates for these, but some are more urgent than others. Um it was already addressed earlier by Jason. The valley parking we need to kind of get that finalized sooner than later and given the new news
expansion. So I already had that written down. And then um Bill Brown has mentioned this more than once. I don't I don't think historic trump public safety. I don't know what can be done about those canopies over there at Pearl Street, but
you know, he's been an advocate now he's there living there and I think he mentioned it when he wasn't living there, but he's been there for several years now and he sent us a few letters, one more recently. So, I don't know if town staff has done anything already.
Well, I am working on it with historic and with with town staff first of all and then um we talked to historic commission about it. I I went out and saw it as well, so I know what he's talking about. >> Yeah. So, that's not really an agenda item, but I just No, I I'll get you an update on
>> I just I I hate for that to see someone get injured over there because of a couple feet or whatever the gap is over there. Mhm. >> Um talking that and then uh so I I sent a few emails uh to Chris Pole because we
have this project over there um the senior center and we have Burbank Ice Arena and Range Road is a paper road and and that road is going to be obviously becoming our control up to a certain
point when that building is built. And I don't know why this would have been done years ago, but I would like us to uh form a committee to honor Nelson Burbank and name that part of that road Nelson Burbank way and have a formal day to
recognize Nelson Burbank because I don't think enough of the town knows uh what he did and what his life was as a veteran, as a philanthropist, as a business owner. So, I know we have the building and then we have the Burbank Y,
but I think we need to formalize it even more because uh those two buildings are used by many of us in town and um and now we have an opportunity to, you know, that road is going to be a real road that we're going to take care
of. So, this would be the time to to rename it. And I don't know how the rifle range would feel about that. Maybe different parts of the road can be different names, I guess. Um I don't want to change Simon obviously because there's homes that live over there but um so I I suggest that we you know form
a committee to look into that and have a Nilson Burbank day and that's all I got. >> Okay. Anyone else? >> Karen. >> Okay. So, um, back in November, Karen Rose Gills and I requested an item to
discuss the communications protocol, um, specifically around official public, um, announcements, um, how how they get out there, what's what's the protocol for the select board? And, um,
let's see. I think as a followup to Carlo's comment, we should take this opportunity to put a naming policy discussion on the agenda and actually get a policy in place if we don't have one. So, let's do that and then that won't hold up that
other request. Um, I requested a couple of agenda items on January 26th. They have not been added to any agendas yet. discuss and vote to amend the select word policy manual to define Robert's rules of order as official meeting
protocol. Um the second one discuss and vote to amend select board policy manual to reflect majority majority rule change in the home charter as approved by town meeting subsequent town meeting 2025
that can be put as a placeholder in May and if we don't need it it gets crossed off. Uh, anyone else? Chris, >> thanks Melissa. Um, so I added on the um next agenda discuss snow shoveling
program scenario um only because it's currently still the winter. So it would be good to see what we can do um now for potentially in the future with that. Um, Carlo brought up the
What did you just bring up? >> Ballet parking. Yes, I agree. That that's going to go back on here somewhere. >> Um, and then what was the other item? Something else. I think
>> something that I said or you said. >> No. Well, you wrote it down, Matt, about um the MWR scenario, right? >> Yeah. So that's not on obviously this but >> um and then we can discuss if uh other items come up.
>> Okay. >> Okay. >> Um Matt, we talked about the water um advisory board a while back and I met with Paul. Um can we somehow put it on the agenda? I don't know when. hopefully
before we have to come up with water rights. But um >> discuss creation of a water. >> Yeah. Yeah. Based on our conversation and you guys were looking into some stuff, so I think it might be time for us to put it on there. >> I have one more I forgot. Um so I don't
know if staff's already working on this. Um I'd like us to to talk discuss ICE policies. Um if they come to town, are we going to coordinate with them? Are we going to support them? um what I'm hearing from colleagues um in larger cities but not too far from us that
they're starting to see grant opportunities in the area of health I believe and maybe public safety I don't have all the details that may have a checkbox that says you can't have this grant if you agree to work with ICE or you cannot use this kind of language so
these cities and towns then have a policy in place that says when this comes before us we know how we're going to respond respond as opposed to just being caught off guard. >> I've actually had some residents approach me about that. >> Okay. >> Topic.
>> Federal policies. >> Uh do we have a policy if ICE decides to come into town? What is the police department's response to it if they have one? You know, kind of just beginning the discussion. Um >> other communities are doing it,
>> right? because they're coming into different communities. They just haven't gotten here yet. But those other What were those other gentlemen who are storming town hall and kind of making people nervous? I mean, >> thank you. Those folks, we didn't have a
policy for that. I mean, we don't have a policy for what happens when people come into town that we don't do are we going to cooperate with them or not? So that and obviously the chiefs would be involved. >> Thank you. I think that's a broader
discussion for Chief Clark that should be had separately beyond our input on it because he is going to trump whatever we decide because he's the chief of police here. So, I'm sure he's already had meetings regarding whatever this
scenario is already. That's just my take on it. I got it. So again, more more of an update and I'm directing it, Matt, but I'm really talking to Chris. Where do we stand on
the master plan committee? Because that has been >> was mentioned last meeting that we didn't get the grant for it. So >> tabled until another round of funding. >> Okay. >> Maybe CPA can handle that. I'm not sure.
And I just want to ask counter Eric, I'm not asking to name a building or anything. We're the road commissioners, so I don't know what naming policy. >> Well, maybe they're not related. I think >> we need to talk about a name. We should talk about a naming policy anyway. School committee has one. We don't. >> Yeah. I just want to make sure it was a reference to what I said. Okay.
>> I thought it was, but maybe you're right. It's not. >> Or maybe we our policy says roads, buildings, parks. Let's define what we're allowed to name and what procedure. >> That would be important because I've had people ask me about that, too. So, the ACE committee and I can't remember who
else, but it's come up more than once. >> Great. >> I don't have any additions right now. I think we went through them. >> All right. >> So, we can um I think we need a motion to move into executive session.
uh move to enter executive session under executive session purpose two to conduct a strategy session in preparation for negotiations with non union personnel town manager Cornelis inclusive of a discussion on whether to extend a new contract to Mr. Cornellis and notary
executive session purpose 7 to comply with GLC 38A section 22 by approving and reviewing for release the minutes of the January 6, 2026 executive session meeting to invite town council into the executive session and to adjourn the
meeting from executive session and not to return to open session. >> Second >> uh seconded by Chris Haley. Um, all those >> roll call roll call vote. Um, Karen,
>> yes. Karen Herrick, >> yes. >> Carlos, Murphy, yes.