##VIDEO ID:kh-lSD1q5j8## e e e e e e e e e e e e okay uh good evening everyone and welcome to the January 8th select board meeting um before we begin our pledge of alleges we just take a moment of silence to recognize our 39th president Mr Jimmy Carter okay thank you and if you please we are being recorded and we are being recorded um if you could please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance IED to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay so um please accept our apologies for being a couple minutes late we were in executive session um and so we are going to start our meeting uh with public comment if there's anyone here that has a public comment please step up to the mic and state your name and address or if there's anybody online nobody online okay nobody online so we will move to the town administrator's report Mr cresa sir thank you mayor alen I am pleased to be able to offer the following report on programs and initiatives that are ongoing in the town of swamp Scot as well as some updates on a variety of things that have happened since my last report Kings Beach the water and in and Su infrastructure advisory committee we coincidentally meeting tonight at the same time voted to support a $15,000 investment to the city of Lynn to secure a 3-month rental of a portable UV treatment system system however the committee is aware that this vote was only a recommendation and that the select board would have to approve the issuance of the funds I've had several conversations with the Lynn mayor and his staff most recently last Friday mayor Nicholson is looking for swamp Scot's fin financial support for the UV pilot program to treat the two outfalls at Kings Beach for elementary estimates uh that the three-month pilot program which would from June through September June through August excuse me would cost $500,000 which we be responsible for half if we agree to do so kleinfelder who is currently working for Linn not swans at this time is firming up that number and before uh I can reach that subject with you guys I'll have to have a firm number they're very well aware of that so like to add that to a future agenda that's okay the Glover an ACC and idenification agreement was signed by the athenus family in the town over the weekend this will allow structures North New England Landmark distinctly New England properties and real estate the town of Swampscott and emry construction to access the property Monday structures North was on the pro inside of the building we were delayed Tuesday Public Works were supposed to be there we ended up getting in there today the trees are down spoke with emry construction they will be on site tomorrow to top the building hopefully we'll finish tomorrow maybe not they'll finish up on Friday all right Finance I use the amies here APPA funds were reallocated earlier this week to take overages and projects that we either don't have signed contracts for or contracts that came in at less than they were originally funded through Opa $120,000 was reallocated to the Pine Street acquisition and the remainder of the 23,000 to the SW infrastructure repairs with a concentration on Kings and fisherman Beach Senior sener hosted a fabulous Winter Festival this year to celebrate as well as educate and share traditions around Hanukkah Christmas Quanza and the winter solace the friends were extremely supportive of this event and covered all the costs it's real nice moving on human resources HR is very busy completing their reorganization ation of files so they they are easy to ACC access Human Resources making final edits to a potential new handle new employee handbook which we'll talk about in a second and lastly they are making salary comparisons for Town employees facilities facilities is busy having new water filling stations installed around town most recently Town Hall Police Department I met with Detective Doyle and detective Chandler early to discuss the reopening of the unsolved murder of Henry Brad that took place here in Swampscott 50 years ago 50 years ago it's hard to believe I was a young boy at that time of the murder and recall the impact it had on the community personally I'd love to see that murder resolved and finally bring closure to the badad family Public Works I received the invoice from angren son for the S Forceman on thean Street and Lynn $98,000 plus dollars right now the unforeseen bill is being paid through Opa funds all right I attended a Marshall Street outfall progress meeting construction on the M seat project granice has been busy repairing sewer Mains on Fuller ABS Ceda Hill Terrace and Aspen Road and most recently today they're on Millet Road I attended a phase 2A biding construction project meeting for the Stacy's Brook sewer infrastructure improvements an invitation the bid was sent out on January 2nd bids are back due on January 30th the estimated cost of that project including the base bid in alternate $2.7 million all right continue get a little bit more that wasn't in the packet oh bonus making up for all the lost time that I've been skipped over last few meetings all right so we've had some uh meetings with Town Hall currently working with staff to be more efficient and residently Resident friendly for 2025 we plan on adding four hours of operation to the town hall for the residents of swamp Scot this will be accomplished without adding additional hours to town hall employees starting in February all department heads will return to working on Fridays from 8:00 a.m. to 12 p.m. all department heads will now work Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 400 P p.m. so they're still going to be working 36 hours it's just given the town an additional 4 hours of coverage Without Really impacting the budget support staff will keep their current hours which are right now 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Monday Tuesday and Thursday and Friday 8:00 a.m. to 7 p.m. customer service we have one sta member will work the new hours and the other staff member will work the new hours that we're proposing met with a lot of staff at then not surprised well I should say surprising very receptive you know they're excited to be able to leave an hour earlyer on Monday Tuesday three hours earlier on Wednesday and Friday and work the four hours on Friday well it's looking good I think it's a good idea I'm usually there anyways and did you know that was like H kind of half half people work one schedule and half a different yeah the department heads are going to work the 8 to 4 Monday Tuesday and Thursday and uh Wednesday excuse me and then Friday they'll work 8 to 12 support staff which is non- department heads will work current schedule of Monday Tuesday Thursday 8 to 5 Wednesday 8 to 7 so keeps the town hall all open longer without really impacting the budget bottom line maryan mcmas and I cently meeting one-on-one with department heads and rolling out some 2025 expectations all meetings will be completed by the end of next week each department head will be responsible for reporting weekly via email a report of what their Department accomplished in the previous week what the department goals are for the current week and any problems SL solutions that they have ENC counted this information will be used for future ta reports uh We've also worked with my team to create a tracking sheet for Flex comp time to properly uh track comp time as I said I'm not implying that comp compensatory time has been abused over the years but I do know that it wasn't properly being tracked Maran created a form the new form must be completed by employees prior to the comp time I'll approve it and then they'll be able to bank that time or they can use flex time what I've worked out with the department heads is each one of our contracts says we're expected to work a reasonable amount of over time so we all agree that two hours is a reasonable amount of work overtime so if department has had a meeting and then after two hours that's basically on them anything over they're entitled to comp time or Flex time comp time meaning they can Bank it to take a day off in the future Flex time is if it's a late meeting they want to come in an hour late if it was an hour they can come in late the next day once again it's been pretty receptive with the employees we're also looking to have a new employee handbook published soon it is currently being edit edited one last time and when then we'll go out to Town Council before it is published this handbook will cover many personnel polities that may not have been previously covered we do have an employee we do not have an employee here handbook just a Personnel policy that was last updated in 2022 all right and then I just want to add you know that these changes are in no way meant to criticize any former Tas or people that were in charge before I would consider these changes nothing more than a difference in management style so and happy that they've been received very well all right then one final part of my report is I've asked the chair Miss Fletcher to please add to the next agenda a discussion and possible vote on a financial transition audit this type of audit is not an annual audit of the books and Records nor is it a forensic audit transition audit is traditionally done by an independent CPA firm by conducting certain tests or reviews or either of either the finances of the organization or organ organizational review during that conversation the board can discuss and Herman whether there are any Financial risks for the incoming Town Administrator the the review would need to be an independent in nature by hiring an outside firm and the results of the audit would be public document so hoping to have that on the next agenda you so please we tell Diane right did that Diane we ask Diane I'll have to look at the transcripts because somebody just texted me and said that the teams wasn't working right at the beginning of the meeting and ask if we could do public comment yes right after the right after the TA report we'll do public comment does anybody have any David yep uh yeah Gino few things um so you mentioned in the public works uh sewer Force main repair on the hot Street yes for 98,3 73 and you said you used arpa funds that's right Y how does that how is didn't we vote ARA funds at our at our last meeting how how do how is how does that work so I think was shifted some of the money around pre it was the $2.5 million Kings Beach Opa funds it wasn't the 4.5 time Opa funds you can use the you can use the 4.5 arpa funds because at our last meeting the language is water and sewer infrastructure right but the concern was that was already accounted for most of it wasn't it I'm not really sure I just know that you have a pretty Wide Window because you're going to have more than just one 1.8 over at fisherman you're going to have to go into the into the loans so either way Water and Sewer so should still be able to so once so once these arpa funds are gone how how do we how do we pay for something breaking in the future in 20 in in in 25 or sewer Enterprise fund and there are sufficient funds right now there's not we all know that but going forward there will be by the time we exhaust the OPA funds I'm very confident we're going to have funds in that account fortunately the rates are going to Skyrocket this year sure Skyrocket how how much I don't well we haven't done anything yet we just know that there's a negative balance right now and we're going to have to account for that plus paying off the loans for well I think we have to you have to look into everything and I don't I'm not sure that we have a a real drop dead number on that right yeah so it's got to do a little bit of research there okay so we have a so we have a deficit in the in the sewer no I don't know that for a fact I'm I'm hearing there's a possibility of a deficit I don't know I mean I'm hearing from one individual that there's a deficit I'm hearing from another individual that there's not a deficit so one of the reasons we're asking for transition audit will help make these really clear okay and then wait Amy Amy Amy you go ahead and comment hi um so we do not currently have a deposit we are projected to if we continue on the trend that we are for the upcoming and future year so we are going to have to a rate increase we're currently working on dropping that recommendation right now um and part of the transition audit will also look at the user charges RS that we have and make recommendations to see if the way that we're doing them is you know sufficient or if they recommend as an independent third party if those rat should be increased more than what we've been doing I can help you on that all right thank you Amy and and I just had another question uh just about the uh Kings Beach about the UV pilot program yes just where would this be located in swamp Scott or located in Lynn the pilot would be located in Swampscott okay and would the pilot would the pilot measure you know would it would it be for Beach season or would it do we have do we have an idea of timing genome yes so if we go through with the pilot it's going to be from June 1st through the end of August okay so so Beach season Beach season exactly okay okay I had heard I had heard rumors that it was going to be at a different time I just it wouldn't make sense okay great thank you I have a couple questions to follow up on that so when would we need to um what's the 15K the 15K is for the three-month rental right well it's the deposit on the three-month rental it's a deposit okay that's okay all right that's okay so so when would we need to vote on that roughly in the next month or so so Lynn has put down the 30 $30,000 deposit with the understand that we may gotcha support a it gotta with no promises correct so the issue here is and I had reported back on I reported on this about six weeks ago when um mayor Nicholson is requesting that we participate but it made it very clear to the mayor that we will not be participating without all of the information presented to us as of today we still don't have all of the information so we're waiting on that um you know I am concerned that the water and sewer is supporting 15K without even knowing what all the information is looking like well they we do they do I was at the meeting when they voted on it they do have most of the information the only thing they really don't know is the final cost you know the 500,000 is it 500,000 is it 600,000 but client Feld is confident it's in the ballp okay so they have okay go ahead I'm probably going to go the same place you are so let's just say are we going to even go one step further let's just say we put in a pilot yep put in a pilot a pilot looks like it's successful we still have to have a serious convers ation of where this um Machinery is going to go and that that's a very serious issue here in Swampscott which the mayor and um the state representative have been made aware of so I agree is that conversation being had at the water and sewer infrastructure meetings uh not necessarily but I have forwarded that information to Mayor Nicholson directly okay we're going to probably have it I don't want to speak for anybody that may have be an issue with where they desire to put that right now the location right now they're thinking about putting a permanent facility Cent publ recommendation was three new ocean and that's a small lot that they can squeeze it in there but I we need to discuss that whether we want to put that in swamps not or is there another location okay Doug um I guess so I'm not even super clear about even the super preliminary results you know kind of I think uh Liz came in here and did a brief oral um so but that we would have that type of little mini package before we have to vote on the 15 because the 15 is really kind of voting on The 500 right right exactly right so we're going to just need an some type of an e ta I mean yep so we meet every Friday anybody wants to be part of that meeting can I ask a follow yeah do you feel if do you feel that the city of ly is so confident in making the pilot happen that if we chose not to participate they would figure out a way to still do it potentially that funny yeah kind of yeah yeah they go they know they're going forward right now without a firm commitment from the W okay what are there are there any are there funds that are you know I I know there's I know there's been there's been consultants and kind of oral agreements uh back and forth between town of swamp Scot city of Lynn are there um are there funds that are owed to swamp Scott from the city of Lynn and and vice versa are those documented and memorialized they are are yep okay so there's two sets of expenditures one they've agreed half and the other one we're still going to have to work on a little bit so I think the problem is let's let's be let's be real clear yep the problem is um the Town Administrator had uh made an offer to Lynn that we would do the entire um what do you call that what do you want to call that study the study study the steing committee study to the tune of I think it was 183 or 187 187 okay um and according to Lynn Our Town Administrator committed to paying the whole thing according in a conversation I've had with our Town Administrator um that they were going to be paying for half of it that there was a conversation so now Gino is in the situation of having to work this out and find something agreeable between both parties uh the one concern that I have is that that study was paid for out of the Enterprise fund and that needs to be looked into paid out of the was that paid out of the 2.5 ARA no it's paid out of the Enterprise fund can we next time or send around or whatever just a summary of that yes um because I you know even like a little bit like this 98,000 too um I don't think we copies of the invoices no no no I don't mean that I I just mean like I don't think I don't remember being aware that we were going to use arpa for this $98,000 and so I believe that it should come back through here if we're going to make kind of major adjustments in the way that we're spending the 2.5 okay yeah so it'd be good to have an update about what what we're now seeing for that 2.5 all makes sense in the context if we're going to have to do another 250,000 for the UV right that all kind of fits together um I have a I have a question on following up on the uh on the do you know where we are with the srf loans yes uh actually Liz made the phone call we should have an answer within the next couple of weeks we've applied part it right and they're reviewing them as we speak the state and we should have an answer within two weeks and can we also get um get on the calendar how the srf loans with the what the application dates are for not just this one but for the future future ones so that we can keep uh rolling that in and my other question is on the uh construction with granice on the Fuller ra Cedar Hill teris and Aspen Road once that's uh once that's worked on how do we turn around and test to see if that's made a difference in anything what's the procedure there so once they finish all the work as part of the 1.7 we're going to test the lall and see if their results have improved my guess is the answer is definitely going to be they're going to be improved but are they going to get to that 104 number we'll find out they have to improve because we found broken pipes all over the area what do we do we test incrementally like during different you know during at different manhole covers or oh yeah okay yep got it yep the big one is the manhole cover right behind 400 Humphrey Street which is getting a high hit okay and then my last um request is can you just uh just work on where what are we doing as far as rodent control especially off of bany um what is what is the Board of Health actually doing what are the actions going in there okay okay um now because we had an issue with we had an issue with um we had a technical issue we're just going to go back to resident comment for a second of people with mind so em you can speak you can unmute yourself that that's mik oh Mike you can talk okay well we can come back later um let's now move to um our joint meeting with the Housing Authority um if the Housing Authority wants to open your meeting uh hi my name is Charles Patos I'm the chair of the swamp Squad housing authority and also the governor's appointee to the hous authority Mr Patos um could you call your meeting to order and then have a vote of your board to open up your meeting well I'm sorry you said that I uh so I'd like to entertain a motion open the meeting call you ordered the meeting have to push this ttin can you hear me yes okay I move that we open the meeting of the Housing Authority so everyone's fav okay so the meeting is open a second he second it okay all in favor I there you go um so we're here this evening thank you for the invitation we appreciate the the opportunity to meet with the select board thank you um we received uh some time ago a resignation of one of the members on the housing authority and it's uh um our responsibility to collectively come up with a recommendation a nomin if you will that we present to the select board and the select board then decides if they' like to confirm that recommendation of the Housing Authority so we are here this evening to accomplish that um the uh nominee that we're bringing forth is Deb Nutter and the um opportunity that we have this evening is to have you guys maybe ask some questions or whatever it is that that formally you would like to do to confirm our recommendation to the swamp Scot select board to seat uh Deb so um Miss n would you like to come up and say a few words or you could be there oh right there there comfortable I mean hi um I recently retired I've been in the affordable housing industry for 45 years my dad and I started working together back in July of 1979 on the private side we did a lot of development in Maine and Massachusetts mostly affordable and then in 1992 he and my mother and I formed a nonprofit called the Caleb foundation and the Caleb Foundation now serves over 5,000 residents throughout New England from Bangor out to North Adams down to Waterbury Connecticut and so I don't know public housing obviously as well because I've been on the private side but I'm looking forward to a crash course and ready to help in any way I can sounds like we're really lucky to have you so um does anybody have any questions notter I just have I just have a few comments um you know Deb I think we're incredibly lucky to have you uh you know have a you know share your your knowledge and your expertise uh around housing uh with um you know with the swamp Scot Housing Authority I think it's um it's certainly something that you know we're we're we've had discussions for probably the last year about moving forward with a feasibility study to potentially redevelop uh so I think that your skill set you know really uh you know really will fit in uh well with those uh with those initiatives and um I'm incredibly suppor of of of your addition to the uh to the swamp Scott housing authority and welcome thank you I'm also at the senior center thanks to my sister once a week helping people with housing questions oh good awesome all right does anybody have any other questions for M Nutter or the Housing Authority okay so can I have a motion to um accept Debbie notter as the next member of the Housing Authority so moved second second all in favor thank you Debbie than you and I'll entertain a motion meeting sure might make a motion to close the Housing Authority do you have to make a motion to accept Miss Nutter we we did that we had done that previously PR yeah okay so I make a motion to close our meeting do we have a second anybody they're beautiful all those in favor all wonderful thank you thank you thank you um is still hanging on thank you everyone thank you okay so we're going to try resident comment one more time um Mr mclung should be all set okay Diane is he is he allowed to to unmute he can as far as I know he should just be able to unmute himself I have him unmuted Amy can you help sorry Mike keeps putting his hand up and down that part we can see mik you oh I can see thank you oh thank you appreciate uh getting a technical difficulty sorted I'm sure it was just an innocent issue uh Madam chair Madam Vice chair members of the board residents Town staff my name is Michael mclung 64 poab uh tonight I am appearing in my offici as the town moderator uh first I would like to um underscore Gino's comments uh the the the trauma of learning of hen n's murder is a middle school was definitely something that I think we'd all like to put behind us but tonight I'd like to share some concerns I've been hearing from several town meeting members about slot board first of all the public heard absolutely nothing from this board about the citizens filed in early December with over 200 signatures verified by the town clerk in hopes of avoiding a special Town meetings last minute and disorganized is the one we just held i' hope for some sort of discussion by this board regarding sting a date under Mass General Law chapter 39 section 10 a special town meeting should already have been held to hear this petition said there's been zero discussion by this board not even a public acknowledgement of the receipt of the petition we can only assume you've taken the unprecedented decision to ignore it entirely this remedy of petition two time eting is one of the most important safeguards of our democracy predating even the Declaration of Independence I am not sure was gained by turning a deaf ear to more than 200 of your constituents moreover I believe it runs the risk of perpetuating a pattern of disrespect by this board toward our town bodies town meeting most particularly secondly several town meeting members have inquired of the sub departure of the Town Administrator according to the Lin item article December 3rd the Town Administrator resigned more than a month ago yet to date residents heard nothing from the select board not even an acknowledgement that he' actually ear it the day that news broke I sent an official mail to email to the select board finance committee and school committee regarding the next steps required under our town Charter to select a new Town Administrator specifically the creation of a selection committee under which you the finance committee and school committee each had an appointee I've heard back from the other two bodies but I've heard nothing from you it's also concerning that spel board has waited until tonight to post an agenda item for discussion a possible vote on an interim administrator shouldn't that discussion and appointment have occurred in the hours following the town administrator's departure not a month later who has officially been running the town since then in short I am not sure what is driving support's complete lack of communication and transparency with town meeting Town officials and the public but your credibility our credibility is suffering as a result I thank you for taking these remarks in the spirit of constructive prism for our shared goals thank you thank you Mr moderator Michael mclan um next on the agenda so wait so why why aren't we talking about this citizens petition we can talk about we're we're at resident comment I'm not going to be addressing the citizens petition is actually on the next agenda is is already on the next agenda I mean we have 200 certified signatures opinions opinions matter we all we want to hear everyone's opinion but you know we're going to we're we're going to we're going to disregard the the opinions of 200 residents as as it as it pertains to this matter this is not on the agenda so we're not we're not in a position when we can talk about I mean right now we have a select board that's gone against the wishes of town meeting it's gone against the actual RFP gone against the RFP process gone against the veterans Mr gone against thefw leadership and now we're going against Mass General law thank you Mr Gman next on our agenda is the planning board um proposed bylaw changes thank you Mr Julie hello hello thanks for me here tonight um I wanted to have this meeting with you all um in an effort to uh as the planning board gets ready for our annual town meeting this spring um to update this board as do the initiatives that we're hoping to prioritize over the next four months to bring to town meeting to adjust our zoning bylaws um the thought process is we want to make sure that this board is comfortable with the initiatives that we've outlined as being a priority for us um so that the the next few months we can spend diligently working on bylaws that we'll be confident we'll make the the town meeting warrant in May um Diane I believe I sent you a powerpoint today oh thank you there we go uh you can advance to the next slide so uh tonight I'll go through some of the priorities that that our board has uh discussed um for this annual town meeting in in May and also two uh longer term priorities that we think deserve uh a little bit more Runway that we'd like to pursue for annual town meeting in 2026 as well um so my hope here tonight as I mentioned is to update you on what we're looking at now and then initiatives we'd be looking to pursue uh next year um so we can have some your Buy in and then begin some of the community engagement process uh for what I believe are going to be some lengthy conversations with the town uh next slide please so the first um zoning bylaw update that we're looking to make is to the flood plane of wetland protections and Coastal flood overlay districts uh the background on this is uh the Federal Emergency Management agency is expected to update their flood insurance rate maps in 2025 as a result of those updates since we uh participate in the National flood insurance program we also will have to update our zoning bylaws and our flood maps to match the ones issued by FEMA um so the State Department of Conservation and Recreation uh works with municipalities across the state to uh draft bylaws to make us in compliance with the the FEMA flood map so I know Mary and Marissa from uh Community develop office have already been working with DCR um to look at uh the draft bylaws that they have and in essence the the only efforts we have here are to ensure that our local bylaw and flood maps are in compliance with the state and federal Maps uh some additional efforts we hope to undertake as part of this is also to work to ensure the language that we have in these two zoning bylaw Provisions are consistent among the two bylaws and consistent with the language used in the state and federal Maps um and state and federal flood insurance programs some of the language we use is is not consistent uh with some of the federal language so we've had conversations already with the Conservation Commission uh to ensure that they're bought in on this process and they're involved so that all of our efforts can be um working towards a shared goal is there any questions on this before I advance to the next uh bylaw yes hey Ted um is there something about how even the the flood insurance rate maps and flood insurance study are kind of like a a floor in terms of what we would we have to do in terms of our Coastal flood overlay District do we have authority to go is I may be getting this wrong is that is that like a very conservative version that comes out of that compared to like what so the maps for my understanding are what the national flood insurance program covers so you know for the anybody so the image on the right obviously shows the the 2014 maps that the town has adopted and it kind of cuts off the Marblehead side but it goes further up in the uh loget AV area as well so the updates that we'd be doing here will just to be ensuring that the maps that we're using for the most part the updates are just to ensure the maps that we're using are matching the federal maps in terms of some of the addition other zoning restrictions uh that we have um for construction in a flood zone those I believe we enacted a few years ago at town meeting um we're not changing any of the updates that were made at I believe this 2021 town meeting want to say yes yeah so we're not going to make any adjustments to the you know the elevation levels that we require construction um to be had in those areas it's just strictly language consistent to ensure we're in compliance with the state and federal language and then the maps to ensure the maps are in line all of the other protections and provisions of the zoning in those areas we're not touching those are relatively recent as of the last few years generally speaking Doug um when it comes to local zoning regulations versus those that are that are imposed by the state if a municipality wants to further restrict what the state already protects there are circumstances under which we can do so but not unreasonably regulated so um you know if we wanted to put something forward it would have to get further approved by the Attorney General as does all of our zoning changes to the bylaw post town meeting um but again it can't be unreasonable most of the standards for the flood overlay zones are based on the State Building Code as well um and then there are separate to the zoning bylaws there are going to be stricter standards as far as the Conservation Commission is concerned with how they deal with construction in flood um flood plane areas they call it land subject to Coastal storm Flowage uh D really didn't have any standards for construction in those areas and they will be coming out with additional standards or with brand new standards that didn't exist prior so conservation might have a greater enforcement Authority um or regulatory Authority in construction flood plane versus uh planning or zoning so and we don't know exactly what these maps are yet is that correct they haven't been released yet no so is it theoretically possible that they would force us to change what our zoning is because of the the flooding it it's ju the the districts will change I don't think we're going to be less prone to flooding in 2025 uh so the districts will change what our zoning requires in those districts will not change for example in the coastal floods area overlay zones if I were to build a new new construction home utilities for example have to be elevated above uh the average base flood elevation exactly um so that requirement would be consistent in the proposed or would be consistent next year just the size and the area of the overlay Zone would change to match the flood maps okay thank you yes couple things uh thank you Ted um y so how how much had so one question is how much has the has the map actually changed since since the last since the last revision I I would just I'm just I'm just interested we don't need that tonight but yeah I would be interested to to to compare and contrast and then other than that like in our in our packet what's being presented here on page 41 42 are is this the Asis yes everything you have in your packets are is the Asis language for the provision for the parts of the zoning bylaws that we are going to be revisiting we're too early in the process to have anything more than a concept of here's what we're looking to look at there's no language that I have to present to you yet that's what the next few months would be uh proposed to be be doing excellent yeah I just wanted to I just wanted to make sure that this that this was the existing and then we'll see deadline thank Y and that's consistent for the next few Provisions that I'll go through tonight thank you for clarifying then one last little question uh will we know the FEMA new maps before town meeting that is our hope okay we wouldn't up we wouldn't be able to update these until the new maps are out but we're planning on the new maps being released I think they said sometime in February is what they were projecting but we're relying on guidance from DCR for most of this and they work with most of the towns across the Commonwealth we subject to uh wetlands and Coastal flood if there's no other questions on this I will move on to next exciting zoning bylaw update uh accessory dwelling units uh as most of you know swamp scut adopted an accessory dwelling unit bylaw at Springtown meeting in 2023 uh section 5.2.0 point0 uh however in August of this past year Governor Healey uh signed into law the affordable homes act and part of the affordable homes act amended uh the Statewide zoning acts to allow accessory dwelling units up to 900 S ft to be built by right in any District that is Zone single family um so what we are proposing to do here is to amend our local uh accessory dwelling unit bylaw to be uh in complete compliance with what the Statewide um regulations are with this new law which goes into effect on February 8th to be clear the state law will supersede what our zoning says regardless of what we do um however we want to make sure that our bylaw locally matches the state bylaw so that we're in unison and there's no potential for any confusion between state law and our zoning bylaw um to the right you can see examples of adus um and on the next page highlight some differences between what our existing local bylaw um allows and what the new state regulations uh might change um so our current bylaw only allows one accessory dwelling unit per lot uh the new regulations allow can allow for more than that as long as they're approved by special permit from the zoning board of appeals so we'll be making that change our current bylaw allows um or restricts adus to require the owner occupy either the accessory unit or the primary dwelling on the property um the new Statewide regulations will uh prohibit us doing that so we'll be striking that provision uh oneof Street Parking Spot requirement will remain for any Adu that is not within half a mile of the the transit station so that's the NTA commuter rail and regulations are still coming out in the next few weeks to say whether that also means bus stations um but again we'd be in compliance with that as well bus stops excuse me um and then no reduction in perious areas what our current bylaw requires and we cannot impose any uh design standards on an Adu that are not not also imposed on uh single family home so we would be matching again the state requirements there and same for removal of trees or any Shrubbery um we would be uh matching the state law which would be ensuring Adu has essentially the same requirements as a single family home uh in terms of design standards the one other piece of this uh that is not listed here is municipalities are allowed some small control um over adus in terms of restricting short-term rentals in the access reunit that is something that the planning board at least in our preliminary conversations uh is in favor of restricting uh to ensure that adus are um meant for at least in swamp Scott Meant For What the goal of the uh legislation that the governor signed um was which was to provide more uh housing opportunities and aging in place and for other needs um so that's something that we at least in our preliminary conversations would like to have in this bylaw is exerting that local control to prohibit short-term rentals of the accessory dwelling units before I move on is there any questions on the Adu section oh David yep uh yeah Ted can you can you just kind of walk us through this the state change uh which may allow more than one uh Adu per lot through special permit like in What scenario would that so if you owned a so there's several occurrences where that could happen let's say you owned a home with a 1200t carriage house that you're using right now as an accessory dwelling unit um that's pre-existing non-conforming quote unquote that accessory dwelling unit is always going to be pre-existing not conforming since this law is just going into effect in February you could build a 900 square foot or yeah 899 foot Adu in your backyard by right as long as it met all the regulations in our current zoning bylaws U from a dimensional perspective um if you wanted to build two accessory dwelling units you could get a special permit from uh the zoning board of appeals to have two 900 foot adus on one residential property so you could have one in your basement you could build a freestanding one for example as long as you got a special permit from the zoning board to do so um additionally um no that's it right that would be pretty much it yeah yeah you know in case you want your parents and your in-laws to live with you guys on your property all together you'd be a saint if you wanted that so yeah somebody technically could have two adus on a property but any any additional one beyond the first need is subject to a special perent from the zoning board of appeals thank you any other questions on adus sounds like uh good progress yes and glad swamp was ahead of the curve on that one so and I'm glad swamp Scott's being urged to go a little further yes yes uh next is site plan special permits um so our current zoning bylaws uh Grant the planning board authority to issue a site plan special permit under Section 5.4.0 point0 which is required for many development and Redevelopment projects in town essentially what it does is if you're building an addition of greater than 800 square F feet onto your home or you're tearing down a structure buying an empty lot and building a house in ex uh in excess of 3,000 square feet you have to come before the planning board and get a site plan special permit in addition to any other permit you might need to get uh or relief you might need to get from the zoning board that's how it's currently written and what the planning board is looking to do is to amend the uh the triggers that require someone to get a site plan special permit so we would we have not come down on what size and what the square footage number is going to be um but we've discussed anything from reducing these Square square footage for new construction in half to Elimina it entirely um to ensure that there is a more Equitable opportunity for uh public participation in some of the uh design reviews that go through uh some of these processes as you can imagine someone being able to build an 800 squ foot addition on their house 81 foot Edition on their house and needing a site plan special permit but somebody down the street who's building a 2,999 foot house and they don't need a special permit creates um the appearance of something that might not make sense um so this is designed entirely to create some equity and to give the community and neighbors a greater sense of uh participation in some of the projects that are going on in town with that being said new construction in swamp Scott is not something we for single family homes not something we see a lot two projects a year maybe three projects a year for single or two family new construction um and this would only apply to residential uh residential so any commercial structures Etc we wouldn't make any changes to those those predominately come before us no matter what happens for a site plan special permit so it would strictly look at really the single family residential single and two family residential can I just ask in 2024 approximately how many um site plan special permits you guys reviewed 233 Puritan 40 Eastman aex Street was that beginning of I believe that was 2023 it might have spilled into the beginning of I think it was January three 35 Street Bo Street was 2023 that was 2023 okay so at Le three I would say some years we have a lot my first few years on the planning board I think I looked at site plan special permits every month non-stop other years we don't have quite as many or we have really big projects that take up a lot of time and need site plan special permits and 19,000 other pieces of relief for permits but um predominantly it's a handful year that we get and of those three that we just mentioned only one of them was single family residential construction that was 233 pittin the other two were 8 unit uh multif family developments okay so those at any rate would come before the planning board we actually we had the prospect to have U 900 squ footing right so yep that was an addition so four four or so this past year did you mention Essex Essex 29 oh you did y yeah yep yep so not a ton but enough to uh to allow for some greater uh oversight before I move on to the next item are there any other questions on site plan special permit amendments all right so the next two are uh zoning bylaw Provisions that we we look to engage on now for uh review at annual town meeting in 2026 the first one is a short-term rental bylaw many towns in the Commonwealth have bylaws either through their General bylaws or their zoning bylaws that offer a regulatory framework for short-term rentals this is something swamp Scott's planning board has looked at on and off ever since I've been a member for four years now um with varying levels of interest and a whole lot of research that has gone into it not only from Marissa from your you know ever since you joined to Molly o Conor when she was our town planner and and I believe Pete did some as well when he was here working um we feel that given some of the attention um swamp Scott is getting short-term rentals are not going to decrease in this town um and they're likely to only increase in years to come so we would like to provide a little bit more of a framework for how those are regulated uh here in town um there's a difference in uh process in many towns for how these are regulated Salem for example regulates their short-term rentals through their zoning bylaws other towns pursue it through General uh General bylaws parts and some to pursue it through both um we feel as though the zoning bylaws is appropriate way to regulate short-term rentals that allow us triggers to for example have the Building Commissioner and his office regulate licenses and give inspections to ensure um they are constructed and they are being operated in a safe and uh in a way that's compliant and continually compliant with uh Mass State Building Code um and it also allows us to should the board want to and should town meeting approve um create districts that allow for short-term rentals and districts that prohibit short-term rentals our board does not have any uh predisposed ideas of how we would want to regulate this yet we're still in the research in investigation phase in conversation phase um but we do feel this is something that the needs to uh be in the driver's seat on regulating and to ensure that we have a process so that if there are neighbor complaints if there are any complaints um that we have a way to regulate these and ensure fairness not only to the property owners who are looking to exercise their property rights but also to the neighbors and the community at large so I'm here to uh suggest um that our board start looking into this and I believe this is going to require a significant amount of community engagement um I think a lot of us have used airbnbs before I know my family uses airbnbs in swamp Scot when they visit they're a great thing we have a lot of folks in town who use this for income which is a great great tool and a great resource for them so we really want to ensure that we have Community engagement on this topic before we dive into drafting language so um that's why this is something that we're hoping to discuss now so that come spring next year we have uh a bylaw that really has uh some Community consensus around it especially from not only our board but your board and some of the other land use boards in town any thoughts questions on this yeah I applaud the public engagement because it seems like we would have both opinions in town the folks who use it for out of town guests or um you know like my parents are out of town they come in they might use an Airbnb and then so they find a benefit to it but then also neighbors habitual turnover of their neighbors and might find an issue there um but then also residents who um have passive income from from that so um it will be interesting to see sort of where the majority lands uh right and I think at the very least this is at least supposed to give people an opportunity to find ways to if there is a property that there is a problem with and their neighbor they have an Avenue to have their voice heard I was uh I had a neighbor who was a short-term renter uh who had a short-term rental and I went to town hall two months after I moved in and there was not much recourse that could be done and I didn't feel that that was that was very comforting um to feel like there was no Avenue for that so this is in my mind um a way to help guide conversation a way to help guide regulation but a way to give people input that they can feel if there's a problem there a way to be heard and if it's a good thing to leave some guard rails for the community in terms of what the expectations are ab and if the town requires a license which many towns do it's another good little income boost for the town good point do we have an idea of how many shortterm rentals we have in town one and then two are and I don't know the answer to this is are these are these short-term rentals taxed as commercial properties and if if not do we have the ability to tax them as as as commercial properties just just spitballing here your first first question how many are in swamp Scott I could inv venture to guess how many I know there's at least half uh at least two dozen you know I've looked at them all the time um you I family that visits a lot and there like oh go look at this one go look at that one um between VRBO air Airbnb and all the other apps and programs and everything um there's a fair amount so I wouldn't want to guess but I'd say you know couple dozen at least okay in terms of the tax rate that's something way over my pay grade um so that's something I would ask our town rental income I would ask our town treasure or town account not if they're if they have the ability to reclassify um as a commercial property under commercial tax rate and that was the the question was the ability to reclass as a as a commercial property rather than a residential property uh not sure as far as the future but I just know right now we have we do bring in um income on our airbnbs but there I don't think they would be classified as commercial I don't think the classification changes I think that they just take out a license and then they pay the 6% hotel motel I don't know if the hotel Motel tax is uh equal with airbnbs and short-term rentals as it is with a hotel motel room in terms of the property classification that's I think what you're getting at can we tax it at the the same rate that commercial properties are versus the residential and that's uh yeah like I said way over my pig rate Fair do are you saying do we change the entire I'm just I'm asking so at at um we Chang the rate on the uh the hotel rate back I think I don't know maybe I don't know when it was but we changed the rate and I do remember that there was a resident who got up who did have um airbnbs and wanted to just reflect on that that would changing that rate would be a a burden so I remember that y any other questions on short-term rentals before I move on and the final uh 2026 bylaw that I want to uh raise for conversation is our signage bylaw um our zoning bylaws currently um regulate uh signs in section 3.2.0 point0 and that's anything from residential real estate signs to sandwich boards um to commercial signs and that commercial signs include awnings um lighted displays window decals um to uh the barbershop poles etc etc our our board has looked at and has revised the signage bylaw at least one time since I've been on the board um but it has not ultimately made the town meeting warrant we've Revisited it time and time again and it's something that our board feels strongly that over the next couple years it's something that we would like to revisit and the reason why I'm bringing it up now is because obviously this impacts a lot of our commercial businesses along Humphrey Street and in vinen square um so we believe it would re require a fair bit of working with uh the office of Community Development to work with our local business owners to get feedback on what our current bylaw is uh to get Buy in and to get their feedback as we draft a new bylaw um in order to have them be um participants and obviously their members of our community as well so we want to ensure that they have a voice in this um there our current bylaw does have a number of restrictions um that are not followed currently um along any of our our commercial zones for example um lighted signs which I'm sure you can drive down any of our streets and see are completely prohibited uh in our zoning bylaws um so we would want to make sure that any comp if we do pursue this that we can alert business owners what signage they might out currently that is not in compliance with their zoning bylaws give them a opportunity to to review that and um look at at their own uh advertising and ensure that they have the ability to to communicate with with us whether they you know as we go through this process you know their needs so we really want to be responsive to the community needs and that includes some of the commercial uh business owners in town um but also we we do feel strongly that our zoning bylaws um should be followed and that we need to craft one that has Community Buy in so we have more compliance in terms of um businesses adher businesses and and Residential Properties adhering to our zoning bylaws in terms of signage so we'd like to start that process now I I know it's going to take a long time to kind of get that Community engaged M that we feel is important as we as we look at these processes and look at these regulations so that's something we'd look at starting after immediately after this uh town meeting to kind of start the ball rolling um on the community engagement front especially with our business owners any questions all right well thank you Ted all I got for you thank you you that was very good you thank you okay next on our agenda is uh the re board updates if I move to the middle we appreciate it we do we gonna have to make that a requirement Bob's not um I'm actually going to jump uh as Bob's very accustomed to me doing in our meetings I'm just going to have you give me two minutes um comments uh made about the the select board I just would like to take this opportunity as the chairman of the retirement board uh to tell you what a difference and I'm not trying to butter people up but what a difference we have seen in the last several years um from the board um to have the chairperson as a liaison who I know reports back to at our meetings um we're lucky because I know that keeps you updated uh we've had a bit of an antagonistic relationship not with the board members but it is what it is uh and to that end I'd like to actually tell you that hopefully the new acting uh and I have uh lunch on Friday to talk about the Retirement Board uh first ever and um you all have my phone number and we really you know really appreciate it but I also want to give a big shout out to Eric Hartman I never seen a chairperson of a finance committee come to our meetings sit down and go over numbers explain he has a lot of input too in terms of you know his understanding which is light years ahead of where we've ever been so I just want people in swamp Scot to know because we are such a big budget item that it's been great working with all of you and I know every one of you has my cell phone number and always will feel free to call me on anything now to the brains of the board B power the answer is still no we I think you D you have the presentation yeah okay I hope so Bob all right uh so just by way of background um Bob Powell chair of the Council on Aging co-chair of the swam Scott for all ages a member of the swam Scot Retirement Board member of the 2035 master plan member of the Community Life Center task force and has more time and uh and I and I might be blamed for having Town Hall reopen on Friday you know I walked in on Friday morning at 8 o'clock to bump into Gino and uh he said' whatat are you doing here I said uh I don't know really I thought the place was open and he said well maybe um so my purpose today I think is mostly informational I'm not here to ask for a vote I'm not ask really um to go beyond what I'm going to describe tonight um a little bit of history about the uh Cola base for the um for the retirees and would be retirees of swamp Scott uh in March of 2021 the Retirement Board voted unanimously to increase the cola base from 13,000 to 14,000 and that would be effective July 1 2021 and we submitted an article uh for the May the town meeting and uh prior to that we had met with the fincom and uh we have asked for a cola base increase for many years and uh had never really got Beyond uh that meeting had never really had a warrant presented to my recollection no we've we've gone we've increased it twice right but the last time before we increased it in March of 2021 was 2012 so almost a decade before we had increased it from from the level of um from 12,000 to 13,000 and uh and what we did when at the time in 2021 was to meet with the thcom to come up with um metrics by which we would ask for a cola base increase and at the time what we did was we agreed that there would be three triggers that would trigger us coming to fincom and coming to the select board and then going ultimately to town meeting to request a cola base increase and those triggers were an improvement in the funded ratio of the retirement fund a uh a look at how the swamp Scott Cola base was performing relative to inflation and then lastly what was the um I'm sorry what the col base was relative other Retirement Systems and then what was the purchasing power relative to u to CPI so trigger one uh and and I'm here now to say that all these triggers have been met and we will likely be coming to fincom and select board in the future to ask for a Col base increase what that col base increase is or will be is yet unknown uh what the cost of the town will be is yet unknown uh what what the um uh what the impact on the funding schedule will be is yet unknown so none of that information I have today we'll have a better sense of that maybe after January when our actu when seagull comes back Actuarial numbers just on so they've done a preliminary estimate but on two-year-old data we have that but it's not worth sharing with anyone at the moment um and so but come January we'll have new data we'll ask them to conduct a new review and then we'll come before you with the analysis of that so just by way of uh background um trigger one is the funded ratio it's increased 31% since 2017 and now uh is just five points away from the state average so in 2017 it was 53.46 per. meaning that we were like really underfunded 50% of the fund was underfunded and now we're 75% funded so 25% away from being fully funded by the way our funding schedule calls for us to be fully funded by 2031 and uh I'll have a better sense of where that new funded ratio is come January trigger two was how is the cola base relative to the state average of the 104 Retirement Systems in Massachusetts and uh we are at 14,000 now the cola base for the um for the 104 Retirement Systems in Massachusetts is now 15371 so we're 1,371 below the cola base for for that for that trigger and then lastly uh we looked at uh retirees who are at the cola base in fy22 at $144,000 and what they would be at now if they were just getting their 3% colab uh increase as we've um voted on over the past uh three years and so someone who was at uh 14,000 in 2021 and getting a 3% Cola base would be at now at 15,26 um but if you look at that same 14,000 and apply CPI to it they would need 16,100 to maintain the same standard of living that they had uh back in 14 back in 2021 so they are behind the curve so all these three triggers um have been met uh the last thing I'll mention is as 11:30 2024 there are 56 retirees who are at the 14,000 col uh col Basin below and then there are 188 retirees who are earning more than 14,000 of the 56 retirees who are earning 14,000 or less 2third were full-time employees and one3 were part-time uh it's also important to note that I'm going to get stuck on numbers here when we say part-time and retirement words there's a minimum that they have to work which is 20 20 or yeah yeah so that that part-time there's a it's not just working a couple hours we so we have uh by our within the general laws chapter 32 and our own bylaws um we set the the amount of time they have to work to be able to contribute to the retirement system so for me the next steps would be come January we'll get our um our new report from seagull uh we will make a request to have them evaluate the effect of increase in the cola base uh on the funding schedule and the unfunded liability uh both at 3% and at 5% and then we'll present those findings to the select board in fincom and then hopefully we'll pres the warrant in May of 2025 I miss anything um no there's only one thing that I think the last time you saw us um we were here uh with the state under General L chapter 32 the most unusual move by the legislature ever that you needed to approve an additional 2% one-time Coler increase um so that um we there's only 10 communities in the state of Massachusetts that voted it down you are one of 10 um so thus you always have to remember that all of our numbers we're presenting to you um you know 10 90 you know percent of the boards have included that our numbers don't include that because we weren't granted that so it's not here to say you know whatever I'm just telling you that you always have to remember that we're not working on numbers that include that one time 2% and which was based on incredible inflation based on the post Co covid there was a failing amongst the state including the State Retirement Board for all the state employees approved it that like all people uh many people in their jobs um received some type of benefit or consideration of what the country was going through in our our economy postco that was the reason for the 2% request and again so our numbers you always have to remember that we're working on numbers that most towns and cities um had an extra 2% for a year not all of us voted against that just quiet you know we got to live with the board's vote uh that's you know that's just out of there but that is a little caveat to our numbers that we always would like to make sure we have but uh I do look forward to having U not only the relationship with this boort but again I reemphasize that you know whether it be Geno whoever you do hire as your um as your Town Administrator I would ask it essential that they at least come in and know that that we working closely with us because it's such a big budget I think that for I want say hundreds of years but forever we're the mystery budget item and we're the mystery board I mean we are an independent board but there's no it's such an unusual situation where you have an independent board so related to the town's budget and I think dependency on the administration within our town government and open dialogue and working together uh in opposing I mean clearly it's not always going to be perfect um and the only other shout out I want to give is we we really enjoy enjoy having Amy SAR is our fifth member um we traditionally haven't had as much input and she's very good at letting us know kind of what's going on in the in the finance of the town which has been great import she's done a great job too for us great so I do have a question do you have a a timeline that you're going to be working once you have the actuary because the actuary will be in within the next two weeks right we hope yeah I would say you know we say January and if it's the first week of February what I'm my plan is to get that before us in a meeting or a monthly meeting uh or if I need to call a special meeting do that and then you know I think at that point you know on the phone with Eric saying let's get in squeeze Us in so we can get the the process a little earlier than than we would usually okay because we've we have an issue with the process right now because we're working on the budgets right now so I just think that um I do know from being on the finance committee there are many many times the Retirement Board didn't come forward with what their requests were and I think it was often a timing issue yes yeah the only thing I can say is traditionally and some if we're looking at our old numbers which we said we are IR relevant but we suspect that any Coler increase would probably not affect correct so the fund the funding schedule currently um would would be is the good funding schedule schedual probably going into that there's not going to significant increase to the to the town's contribution this year um that's what I've always seen in the cola numbers I can't guarantee that but it's it's usually not a significant increase so I think I know that Eric's probably working I would guess he's working with last year's number and in his head knows what increase that would be because it's on the funding schedule now so it's not going to be a huge change for this year anything that would affect the budget and you might from that meeting where our actuary came in was they back-ended the the cola increase so all those numbers were sort of On Target except in the final year right I just my concern is just making sure that we have really good communication that we don't end up getting to the end line and then all of a sudden you guys didn't get a shot in there and we didn't I just want to make sure that we're it like those numbers really the number they have on our funding schedule that is good numbers will there's no anticipation there'd be any change or what would already be due from the town which they have that funding schedule and that's the number that they're working on and last year you did a a pretty lengthy um I don't you want to call it a clinic or a seminar on on retirement and I asked Nancy to send that link out to all the select board members did any did you folks get that I'll double check I'll double check where that link is I'll make sure tomorrow so so she's watching social media okay so there's a link so there's a link um that if you could just in your free time just look at that link and then you'll get a better education of retirement and cola and how things work yeah and I'll just say Mariel my my goal I think ever since 2021 when we established these this these metrics right was to work more hand in glove versus coming to the fincom at the last minute to say hey can we have a cola increase that was just insane to my way of thinking and uh it's hard to get what you want if you don't have sort of the justification for it so why brought you on then the the other question was there's always an issue as far as Town employees not benefiting from Social Security and so now how does this new state employees too all all federal I mean all state there's there were seven yeah states where um there was uh so for all the best example is use me right my my career starting with high school jobs through owning my own practice um the money I put into Social Security based on the old system there would be an offset so I would get um probably an eighth of what I was do or you would be do and your regular uh Social Security but the offset also was incredibly unfair to the spouse so that when the when the you know when I would you know pass because of in retirement the person like someone like Tara who's been working forever uh her benefit took us would take that almost same significant hit it's been it was passed under Ronald Reagan and that was something that for years and I'm I'm a member of and seers which is a natural and National retirement um system um we've gone down I've been to five legislative conferences in Washington DC as part of that you know we go to this hill um you we know who's in favor it was you know it was I'm not going to say it was well it was mostly Democrats but ironically you had really a great deal of interest in pushing forward of this by the by Republicans um including Senator Maine I'm having a Collins thank you she was one of the leaders of this um so it really it had a bipartisan always it just was to get it fully bipartisan and it passed more more overwhelming than probably most any bill in this last legislative uh Congress um so was almost unanimous in terms ask a question about um the funding schedule um are you all analyzing whether or not right now we're supposed to be fully funded by 2031 I is we've had past conversations about whether or not to push that out a year is that what your B basically saying here in terms of backloading it or well no backloading is just the funding schedule how it every funding schedule in every community and every system um you kind of that last couple years will be or last year last year will be be a bigger hit increase but then the next year it will just be the the normal cost of you know comes down dramatically it's not that you don't stop paying but it's it's paying for the the actual expenses of that's the way to put it so we're we're required to um increase it by 3% per year According to parak some communities are at 5% some are even higher um but the analysis that we gave was 3 to 5% and see what effect it would have on the um ADC the actual determined contribution and it will be also interesting when we do meet with the finance committee and with Eric um there was pretty much a not a line in the sand it was just an incredible amount of support within the finance Comm not to extend it they were that was one of the best things they said about our retirement system was we haven't taken hate to use in case they watch it for Marblehead Marblehead has extended it as far as they can so if we have a catastrophe economically they have no ability you know we the one thing we have is some cushion so if if Armageddon came and and hit us we we have the ability to smooth it out with many years available to push it up out where's some Marblehead and I'm not just blam saying Marble Head there's many communities that have done that I just think it's really dangerous and not with any kind of foresight to to say we will have no ability to help smooth out something like that there's a big difference between 2031 and extending it all the way out right I mean you could do 2032 oh no that's not that's not all the question absolutely but I'm saying that you know the more one of things I I found cuz I we extended it once long before you way back Way Way Back um you know the the problem is you do you know every year you do extend it out it's you know it I don't want to ever become a habit is what I've always found it when we did it the last time it was like almost a yearly request why why don't you kick it out another year why don't you kick it out another year and not that we have to listen but you started this start hearing town meeting saying why why are we trying to fund this so soon I mean real illogical St and I try to explain that to them so I mean it would be you know am I opposed to kicking it out one year that will discussion with on our board I don't think that's you know what we really want to see is what the Actuarial says yeah if they say you know boy this makes a lot of sense for you to go out a year you know that's kind of usually the lead we take and they seem to be actuarials that will say you know you can kick it out a year but here's the impact um and it's also another year that you're not going to be you're just putting out that big balloon at the end that last year say it just it just pushes out of you because one of the things about and I don't know swamp scut's plan but there some other things that keeping us funded at that date would benefit some other things that we may owe um op yeah what OPB yeah OPB so the long the shorter we can get this done um the better will be off be on addressing the I it's like it all it all plays into our famous Infamous Financial Summit um because we don't really know the pressure that we're under here we're still operating in the dark about that um and we're talking about sewer rates going up we're talking about the school right now um you know one additional there year there Smooths things out um so you know you could say wait we'll come back once we go get those numbers and ideas from our Ru are and I would say Doug you know in my mind I always sort of think that our line item in the budget is around eight or nine% of the total give or take and that I personally not speaking for the board but I would like to keep that number in range so that you can be more predictable about your finances so if we come back and do this analysis and it says that we have to increase the ADC such that it's now 10 or 11 or 12% of the budget you know I think we'd be inclined to work with you all and say let's extend the funding schedule so that we're not as big a piece percent of the total budget we try to stay consistent on that so the reason why it wasn't extended the last time it was two years ago when the Town Administrator asked to have it extended and the select board was inclined to have it extended but the finance committee and the Retirement Board did not want to extend it and they felt that the return on the investment just wasn't worth it and that as we move forward like today that there's a possibility we would have to extend it so that was that was the thinking at the time it's always a discussion think really the benefit for us to have the incredible conduit and the expertise of the finance committee which is why we a finance committee because they always tend to shed a lot of light on this that even kind of getting is a bridge to what we're we're looking to do yeah and and there's unfortunately there's a lot of unknowns with what we're doing right it we we're dependent on in market returns right and so if if our returns are higher than our discount rate things you know would be less impactful I think if they're lower than our discount rate it could be hurtful I do remember stman used to work for you guys guaranteeing something we were asking for we're going to have the best is this Market's going to soar and there's nothing that's going to happen and it was like really adamant a little bit of a discussion we were having and then Co broke out two months later three months later you just don't know right we learned from covid if that's one thing this country's learned we just don't know yeah and I'm sure they learned it into the depression too I mean it's just things you don't imagine can happen yeah I mean I would say that we're comfortable with where our discount rate is now it's it's it's close to the national average and we're really comfortable with our new investment Consultants they're um they're just of you guys know that we switched a tad frustrated with our and we've learned since we we we had a good reason he had no idea or their company had no idea that we were even thinking about this but we were really getting a feel of Disconnect and St be like well why is he advising this and so we brought in what we consider some really really expertise I mean they're all experts I guess marelen you you've seen I think a difference in the presentations and what we're talking about and a little more clear um and changing us a little right changing us because we always want to be near the top on our performance and um our our previous it was time and uh I was glad we got I think we got ahead of it yeah um just well maybe not just in time but well it wasn't it wasn't an easy decision no it took a took quite a while for Retirement Board to make that decision I I but we really dug in and found what we think's a really quality uh advisor so you paying Friday on [Laughter] me you have any other questions I'm I'm walking away without even asking chairperson I'm sorry no any other questions Danielle are you sure you don't have a question I don't no okay so expect to see us in February maybe thank you gentlemen thank you for coming we love having you okay said enough I it first on the agenda oh okay I can do that okay and next on our agenda we save the best for last is our Police and Fire Chiefs to give us an update on your departments and but specifically your hiring process first who would you like hi the chief do the police chief you your packs have his presentation dep okay okay very good thank you Sor good evening Happy New Year to the select board and everybody in swamp Scott land uh so I know David had asked about uh our Hiring Our latest round of hiring uh which was actually late October October September 23 so I've put together uh a just the facts ma'am Dragnet uh down and dirty uh presentation so our current state of affairs Just for information uh we currently have three vacancies that's the next slide uh we currently have three vacancies and two uh uh positions who that are in acting positions our R I'm sorry our recent most recent vacancy uh officer Joan Pena had just left uh last month for his own uh to work for the winr police department his hometown uh so uh that was uh that created that third vacancy I also in that past slide Diane in that past slide I put together uh potential retirements um those are not exact dates for the retirements uh we're looking at uh for uh Lieutenant Waters will have his 32 years of service uh this year uh as well as Lieutenant lock uh his total 32 years of service um uh Lieutenant Hennessy will probably have about I know he has a additional time that he had from uh previous department so uh he'll probably have close to and uh Captain cable will in 2026 he'll have approximately 26 26 and a half years of service so again uh any one of our uh they're all lieutenants any one of our leadership uh can retire um in 2025 or 2026 and currently the um uh officer Cassidy I know this was in the last select board uh officer Cassidy uh is uhr currently on military leave which is uh creating a little bit of a strain on our department in terms of um uh Staffing uh with these three vacancies and uh Lieutenant Hennessy is uh going to have a a medical procedure so he'll be out uh for a while uh in the coming months next slide Diane so we've put together just a quick uh just synopsis of those who have left us uh who have either retired resigned uh in 2019 I failed to uh mention officer Justin Nester who left in uh a August 29th 2023 and uh since my hire since uh 2022 we have hired seven officers next slide so David talking about the uh the timeline of 2023 back in September of uh 2023 we initiated the hiring Pro the hiring process uh at the time we had approximately 137 candidates uh on the list thanks to the select board back in October of that same year 2023 uh you approved the bonus which uh immensely helped our our hiring process uh the $2,500 for bonus for new officers and $10,000 bonus for lateral officers I can tell you you in the state that was uh unheard of and I had only heard of a couple maybe two or three other departments who had hiring bonuses so we were I would say we were at the Forefront of uh being leaders in that aspect so back in uh we started the process in September of 23 in September of 23 we tested we conduct after their written test uh the candidates are vetted those were the 137 candidates they are uh contacted to uh complete our physical fitness test I failed to mention officer Kevin rain is here he is part of our uh he's an integral member of our hiring team uh in charge of the the physical test and uh other portions of the testing so if you have any questions please interrupt or um we we can answer those questions afterwards so we had 28 we had probably about 40 individuals test in two different sessions for the physical fitness test uh 28 passed and 24 moved on for an oral board assessment uh I'll explain the oral board assessment but essentially is uh a interview with three two of our community members and three uh officers of different ranks in December just two months later two and a half months later uh we had nine finalist interviews with myself and the town administrator four officers were selected um which which was um officer Harold officer McGee officer lateral Officer Nick Cruz and lateral officer uh Joan Pena and uh and so they started uh paa and Cruz started immediately and about a month later uh the four officers including officer Noble started the police academy next slide so I've put together a a flowchart of our testing process I won't go over all the nuances of the of the testing process if you have any questions uh we'll be happy to answer those next slide so one of the things in uh in hiring is our Outreach what is the Outreach who are we uh marketing to who are the people that we are contacting and so uh just to give a broad understanding our Outreach includes uh posts not only internally on our swamp Scott uh an MMA uh website but also on LinkedIn uh handshake uh We've attended various job fairs uh colleges and universities uh typically with the criminal justice programs uh as well as with the vendor that we utilize uh has a session with the mpcms uh for looking for any person in the academy any candidate in the academy who is self-sponsored meaning they haven't selected a police department they're just trying to get the training to get on board with a police department also Molly Massachusetts uh Association women and law enforcement the uh Latino police officer Association uh which I'm the vice president of uh our National Organization on black law enforcement are contacted and internally the police Poli exam Services that's who we contract uh to conduct our written and testing procedure and vetting the candidates they have an uh internal website it's called get badged uh that has a member database of over 7,200 people right now and just to give you a current what since we have vacancies right now there are approximately 300 candidates um on that list mind you not every candidate wants to you know some some will say I just want to get hired I live on the South Shore I don't mind coming to swamp Scott others just have some um uh preferred departments who they want to work for but currently there's 300 uh level sorry entry level candidates on uh waiting uh 36% of which are ethnic minorities 18% females and 72% of them have a high school education or or above next next slide just some of the uh frequent frequently asked questions uh minimum minimum qualifications uh 21 years of age uh have a driver's license ability to obtain a license to carry a firearm no felony convictions and at least a high school diploma the the testing company that we contract with uh their written tests vet the candidates and one of the most important things is that it's the testing is validated to monitor uh and ensure that there's no adverse impacts to the candidates question uh regardless of of what background ethnicity uh where they're from and I I know there there was some issues this these past couple years with uh civil service and some uh Civil Service tests uh the PT tests are PT tests that we conduct mirror uh what the candidates will will see if they're selected to go to the police academy like I said the oral board assessment uh is consist of five individuals three from the police department two from our community and uh the background process is very comprehensive uh there's a com comprehensive criminal check um employment checks neighbor checks if they're already an officer uh we contact their prior Police Department or uh former Police Department uh and we check the it's called the national decertification index uh that's just toing that's part of the police reform to ensure that there's not an officer who has actually been decertified and is trying to just uh Hopscotch to another Police Department next slide I included some of the hiring costs for uh hiring a new uh officer as you can see it's not cheap it's uh uh very um it's costly for one candidate uh approximately $8,300 per candidate and uh the bottom uh chart is what we expect to pay them in their first year I mean when we send somebody to the police academy uh we have to pay for the ammunition their uniforms that they're going to wear and uh that becomes costly we've also included their mandatory training for the year for all officers uh which is uh 64 hours of training a year uh which comes down to 4 4480 a year uh in total about $7,100 per year and the last slide I've kind of put together all I know is non- civil service I grew up in a police agency that did not have Civil Service uh I can't tell you the um the benefits uh I can tell you what the cons what I believe the cons are to Civil Service uh for us if we were still in Civil Service there is no way we would have hired these four individuals like that in two months absolutely not one of the problems with being in civil service is you are on the Civil Service timeline and just um in speaking to my fellow colleagues other Chiefs uh just to have a uh the candidates are waiting two to three months to even be notified just that they passed a written test so uh I know officer Rene can probably talk a little bit more on that one of the other things uh that is a benefit of not being in civil service is our ability ability to outreach so we can start anybody can apply anybody here in the state so I know I can tell you with um specifically with officer Harold and officer McGee who were just selected uh they had not even thought about swamp Scott and we were there at the testing process uh during the written exam and it was actually Lieutenant frer who was there and and chatted them them up and said hey have you thought about coming to swamp Scott now um officer m McGee is actually from Burlington and uh officer Harold was from Franklin so very different parts of the state and they became interested just because of that personal connection that they were able to make with us uh so that's a that's a that's a huge benefit for us being out of Civil Service uh again some of the pitfalls right now with civil service there's so many rules uh there's there's there's there's so many things that are being that are currently being addressed with civil service right now there's uh the the hybrid Reformation of you can select 50% of your candidates uh externally and 50% have to be from the Civil Service list for now how right now lots of questions are being asked how does civil service enforce that um and and there there's different stul stipulations where Silver Service will say well yes you can you can hire externally but you have to have tested uh with civil service in the past year so there's there's there's uh weird nuances that have not been addressed yet through Civil Service uh and again I can tell you my fellow colleague in Danvers um when you're in civil service and maybe uh Kevin can correct me if I'm wrong you can choose two or three departments excuse me who who you would like to go to who you would like to work for uh and if your if swamp Scott is not thank you if Swampscott is not on the list we're out of luck so what happens is okay I am in civil service and I only have so many people on the list well if I don't have I may not even have enough applicants I might have four vacancies and only three people want to come to swamp Scott so that is that's one of the uh pitfalls of civil service what we're also seeing Civil Service you do have the ability of holding keeping an officer so the chief has to uh buy off on hey if I'm in a civil service department say for instance Lynn and I want to go to another civil service department Well everybody's being affected by Staffing so you have as a chief of police you're not going to allow uh you're not going to necessarily say oh sure you can leave us you know go on uh to kener pastures because now you have nobody on the service uh the Civil Service list to to to take that spot so what's happening now is officers who are in Civil Service are just resigning from that department fine you don't want to let me go I resign and then they start the new process with the new Civil Service Agency who will wave that and so there's a lot of pitfalls all I see are benefits uh um to not being in Civil Service they're so again I'm biased um but because I know that our process has worked and I I'm here we're here to address any questions if you have uh any questions uh on hiring are there any more slides or are we on question that's it uh just the facts does anybody have any questions David Chief um yes just about the three current vacancies uh that are that are in the department what's the what's the process and what are your thoughts about about getting those those positions filled I would like to get I would like to get started we have already got started on vetting we've had an open process so if you look at the our website it is open and we have received uh maybe you can discuss this a little bit more Kevin I know of of at least two or three applic who have come in uh lateral officers who are either in the academy um or want to move over to our department who are interested so we're in that process we have to obtain uh approval from the Town Administrator to start the new process again it's $3,500 um it's we have used uh police exam services for this will be the third year in a row uh we've had some um great benefits using PES so I would like to start the process especially knowing that we have three current vacancies we have a fourth who is on uh military leave and a fifth who will be out for a number of months so I think it's incumbent upon us to at least start the process and that would be a combination of of new officers or laterals or to be determined to be determined um either it really could be it depends on the candidates that are applying to our department um one of the things that we're focused on is what's predictable is preventable so we are able to predict what's going to be happening we'd like to prevent an onslaught of what we already went through um since we've left Civil Service we've had uh a variety of candidates continuously come to apply for our department and now many of the people in this industry wanting to become police officers have the knowledge that we're no longer civil service so their inquiries have been consistent um knowing that we have the ability or would like to add officers to our Force um we've continued a Rolodex to to build a roex of as what's been coming in um just to reiterate what the chief has been expressing here is to be able to take advantage of the systems that we've used in the past few years to continue the momentum that we had developing the candidates that we brought brought in um we've only gotten better at what we've done have done in the past so moving forward obtaining candidates to bring them in um in our lens is is going to be efficient effective and and smooth so we get a variety of candidates some of them are trained they could be ready to start the street just like our our previous laterals have um some of them may not and those candidates get vetted through our process some candidates get turned away for whatever reason we don't have the final say we don't understand why but we just present who we feel is eligible to be recognized to be brought in um we've expressed it before the academy takes a long time it's six months and we have a 12-week fto period once the candidate graduates from the academy becomes an officer so it's an extensive training period um the faster we can get through that the more beneficial it's going to be for the town and for the the impact on the numbers that you just saw yep yeah and going back to your question if I can predict who's going to stay who's going to be a great uh police officer I mean I would probably own my own company and hiring company so um you know we've only had one officer since since I've been here in 22 that's left um one of new of the new hires uh so we have uh a very good success rate with our hiring process thank you Chief thank you so Chief one of the issues from past select boards has always been um how efficient the police department is at reaching out and making sure you're casting a wide net and it's no secret that there's been a lot of Praise that the fire department really does an amazing job on casting a wide net so I just I hope that as you go forward that there is a a good amount of equity there as far as how you're bringing in new candidates and and how you're recruiting and doing things like that another question I have is if we're sitting here today and you have a number of vacancies you had a number of vacancies back in May and June and I'm guessing is the reason why you weren't filling at that time because you had multiple people already in the academy we had two vacancies we only had this third vacancy as of December so we had the two vacancies half part of that time was allowing those three officers Harold McGee and uh Noble to finish their field training program okay so they had to finish that extensive field training program now having three uh three officers in training is going to tap so to speak tap out our current officers who are field training officers because there has to be certified training field training officers they don't just get to ride with oh well you're tonight you're riding with so and so there is a uh a very comprehensive field training officer program that uh that we utilize it's called San Jose model and there are certain uh metrics that need to be met so if we have more than three officers uh in field training I don't even have enough I barely have enough field training officers to train those three new officers in training okay great and my last question question is on the uh bonus structure that was in place the laterals received $10,000 was that $10,000 after they completed three years correct so it was uh I believe it's after one year uh $2500 and then after year three it's 7500 okay and is this something you're going to be coming back to the board to ask for so that you could possibly get laterals or people that are coming right out of the academy is this something you're going to be coming to the board I think it would be beneficial to have a bonus structure uh now I would leave that up to the board in terms of how much uh we believe that um that is appropriate uh but $10,000 was uh very very significant uh in here in the state so that was almost unheard of uh I think maybe we can go less I'm not saying go cheaper because that's not the that's not the route but being uh fiscally judicious and what are we looking at and again back to that's back to David's question yes laterals can hit the street they can hit they can go through field training uh 12 weeks of field training and they're already out uh on the street um there are some cost savings to that but there's a risk just like our one officer who went to his hometown um he was here for a year he was fabulous but went home and that goes back to you know if I had my crystal ball are they going to stay here are they going to do they want to be part of um you know of our community and so it's hard to judge and I think it really just goes through the the hiring process of does this person have the heart to even to want to be a police officer and do they have the heart to want to be a police officer and serve in swamp Scott that's that's the million dollar question so is there a provision now for that $10,000 incentive where or is there a thought to giving or creating a provision that says you know in lie of you know for this 10,000 or 5,000 whatever it might be you will give us X years of service three years five years whatever you know not in that you will give us but if you do not meet these requirements you don't get so uh the officer the lateral officer who left to go back home he didn't receive any he forfeited the entire bonus okay so you don't you don't you don't stay you don't get it right right but he would after the first year he would have got a portion of it right correct right so instead of that right where you give them a year you give them the first year you get X so my thought is you know if you stay for three you'll get do you know what I'm saying and I mean that maybe just to kind of um give them a little more time that is reminiscent of service program and you know you can't I think legally it would be uh impossible to hold someone to that right uh if they just resign like I okay you can say you can keep me here but if I'm going to leave I'm going to leave if an officer wants to leave they're they're going to leave right um so I think it's hard to to actually have some teeth in that MH okay okay any other questions now for thank you very much thank you Chief you um good evening board uh thanks for inviting us here to discuss uh to talk and go over our hiring policies um we really appreciate it it's uh it's probably my favorite topic um um it's about my favorite part of my job um is the hiring um you know it's a it's a life-changing job it's a it's a calling and it's a tremendously rewarding job and the the process of selecting people and really getting to know them and offering you know this real great great opportunity to some new person usually a younger person uh is absolutely the the best part of uh of what I of what I do so we left the Civil Service after the town did put a lot of thought into it we had a civil service study committee um of CI um with myself and the then police chief as non voting members of that board and we kicked around a lot of um we looked at it from a lot of different angles we looked at what worked well for us under civil service and we looked at what we wanted to change um you know in the main driving Factor was um as what you said maryi Ellen was casting that wider net um you know no matter how many different ways we looked at it we couldn't get around the fact that under civil service we were not going to be able to cast that wider net uh after a few years now of um doing our own thing um it it's it's it's been a learning process um as Kevin Rene said uh the more as we do it we get better at it um we're learning to work out some of the bugs um uh but but it's it's absolutely I don't think anyone in my department would really seriously argue that it was better the way we had done it before a lot lot of our experience has been the same or very similar to the police department's experience um a lot of the um frustrations with civil service is similar to the frustrations with them and a lot of the successes we've had have been civil have been similar outside of civil service there are different resources um that the police departments that police departments have so their their testing regime is different ours is um more um local individuals for us we so we contract with a uh testing company um um you know we we we work with the school department to to use space in the in the high school and um so a lot of it a lot more falls on us so a lot of it more is an in-house sort of a uh construct and how we're putting it together but you know we've had three ex three entrance exams thus far and you know we're getting it's it's becoming more and more smooth each time we've done it um so in the time that we've left civil service we have hired uh 10 fight fighters outside of civil service and we have two um conditional offers and candidates that are going through background and vetting screening and vetting right now uh with the per accepting the retirement of Lieutenant rukus um and these and the retirement of deputy chief pots last year also these two people will they'll actually with so with the spooka gone this is the the first time in my tenure as chief that we will not have anyone on any type of a long-term sick or injury leave so I'm really excited about that and when we plug and when these two new firefighters come on we will be fully staffed so right now we have those two vacancies and two people in Q to F to fill those so that'll bring the the number of hirings we've done outside of civil service to 12 um two of those people did leave um um but still even with that it's it'll be over third of our department that we will have hired um in the post Civil Service process the process is just better under civil service if we had a vacancy we send a a requisition to civil service and they essentially they send they'll send us two names and they say you can interview them if you want to and pick one of pick one of them um we we we interview a lot more than two people for every person that we offer a job to now and we get to do a real interview I've I I think think there are there might be four or five people that work for the swans fire department that I that I wasn't an officer and that I didn't interview before they got hired um there maybe the top five people might have gotten there before I was interviewing them so I watched the process under civil service and frankly you know the candidate would come in and they would know where their position is on the Civil Service list and we'd know it and we would go through our questions but it it really almost was performative they knew they were getting the job we knew we knew we didn't have any any recourse but to give him the job um and that was it and it's it's a lot different now it's it it's now it resembles an an interview process that anyone else that that is more familiar to anyone who's interviewed for almost any type of an organization you've got to put your best foot forward we're going to really be looking under the hood we're going to try to get to know the person and if you know if it doesn't work it's if it's not going to be a good fit it's not going to be good fit and when I say we our policy as a um has as myself our Human Resources Director and a member of the union for our uh interview committee and in each of the pro each of the each of the uh rounds of hiring that we've done I've allowed the union to have an addition the union to have an additional member present um um because I value their input as well uh so um you know we've gone we've you know right from the start we've hired London Spain Dennis Barry Britney Carpenter Doo de Georgio Ariana Saro Santiago Garcia Jonathan tibo Bethany Dudley Kyrie Todd and Joshua Mara and we have office out to zor Landry and Michael deor um I I could I could go on and on but every single one of them they've been it's been it's been just great um um this you know and the the the process has worked it's been it has accomplished what we the town set out to do and what what we kind of found out is like like Su success just breeds success so when it comes to that the success that we've had in casting that wide net um I think part of what's made us successful is part of what has made us successful is the same thing that was a hindrance under civil service people didn't see themselves reflected in the workforce that they were we were asking them to apply to and now the opposite can be said to be true people do see they people do see and believe we can we can we can have the little disclaimer at the bottom of our application all you want to or an equal opportunity blah blah blah um if they didn't see it they didn't it's not real to them and they didn't necessarily internalize that and believe it now people can see who who rolls out on our trucks they see who comes to their homes and gives them service and they see who we are and and it's been made real to them and and in people that we've interviewed have told us that people have told us they took our test because they saw uh the people that that work for our for our department and they're encouraged to do to do it um you we have open houses when we're in the leadup to uh our entrance exam we'll have an open house and that's been really great um the people come in and they are shown around by our firefighters um and they they get a real sense of who we are and they get a comfort with us and it starts to demystify all our whole process and they they begin to have a comfort level before they even take the exam so um you know as as I said it's it's still a learning process um um and we're getting better and smoother at it um but the efficiency of doing it as we're doing it right now is just head and shoulders above the way it was under civil service and uh I'm I'm really happy that we've made the change great any questions yeah CH I guess we do oh you have anything or I can go do you have a question I have a comment um Chief I just want to I want to thank I want to thank you for your leadership uh certainly Chief Casada uh for his for his leadership uh as well but um you know Chief Archer you were you were here uh from you know during this you know during this process I I was I was on the board um you know the Civil Service study committee in 2020 uh was certainly something that you know town meeting established and you know we we really uh we really had to put all of our head together and work uh in a collaborative Manner and it wasn't certainly wasn't perfect um it wasn't uh but you know I I certainly want to thank you and and the members of the union and the swamp Scott fire department and the swamp Scott Police Department for continuing to move forward and continuing to to work um together on this and you know it is a little smoother every time we we we move it we move we move forward um uh and just you know I thank you both Chiefs uh and officer' for coming together and and explaining this and uh and just giving us an update on the uh on the process and I would certainly be remiss if I if I did not mention our former Town Administrator uh Shan Fitzgerald uh for uh for his efforts in uh in helping the town of swampit leave uh leave Civil Service certainly uh it certainly is uh is was a Herculean um effort and and uh I I appreciate the update um from from you Chief Archer and chief Gada so thanks again thank you thank you I have I have something oh I'm sorry that's okay it's not about the hiring process I think I say this probably every time you folks come in and it's just wonderful to see outside of the hiring process the community work that you all have been doing a special thanks to officer' I know that my son sees him all the time at school and is always very excited to chat with you about flag football and and the comfort that kids get to have with law enforcement and fire and EMT and then the sort of like anxiety and thing that gets Stripped Away because they know you you're just a Community member they can approach you they can talk to you they can um it's so important it's pivotal to you know growing future firefighters and future police officers but also just future community members who believe in what you're doing and support this town so I really appreciate thank you thank you thank you thank Youk you you're welcome coming thank you okay so next on our agenda is Town Administrator update discussion and vote on interim Town Administrator G Cresta um her our Charter when a Town Administrator chooses to go out on leave the Town Administrator um appoints a acting SL interim Town Town Administrator which was done that was the case so um when Mr Fitzgerald had taken taken a leave he did with the support of the select board uh Point Gino Cresta as the interim um now that that Mr Fitzgerald has resigned I'd like to have a motion from the board to appoint Mr Cresta as our interim Town Administrator I'd also like to point out that the reason why this is coming up tonight is because Mr Fitzgerald's resignation was not in place until 1219 our last meeting was 1218 so this is our first select board meeting um and that's why this is coming up today and not previously um so can I have a motion motion can I have a second second is there a discussion uh can I have um a vote all in favor I I motion approved um the next you want to make a speech do know I'll say thank you the um that's right we say thank you we say thank we really appreciate what you're doing Gino um I I do think we should just mention that Gino has not taken off his fully taken off the DPW hat that he is actually filling two positions currently um he does have a little bit more support with the um new hire of the assistant engineer but um that he's uh facilitating two jobs right now or one and a half however you want to say it so I just want to acknowledge that and so uh if we could you know I I agree with you on that and also um I would also want to make sure we also recognize all the town staff and DPW because everybody even um Everybody across the board is jumping in and and pitching in to help out to make everything smooth and and and make it work so it's much appreciated um the next next thing that we do have to start to talk about is the hiring process and per the charter we uh do need to discuss the entire process and I did take over the weekend I was able to reach a number of people that were on the last hiring committee um I spoke with uh I spoke with Naomi drien I spoke with um Mary glasa and I spoke with Aon D Ro peralt um Erin is actually a um she specializes in HR and she was very helpful about talking about um the process going forward and how we really should be looking at it um we are we are in a position as a select board to nominate somebody who will be our representative or which means could be one of us or we could um select somebody somebody else um we're not going to vote on it tonight we'll vote on it next week but it's something to the something to disc discuss I did have um I did have the thought that I think that H um having Aaron do ro peralt as our person might make sense because she had so much experience with it um she is HR and I just I'm I just want to throw it out there and possibly maybe other people have some recommendations um or maybe you feel that no we have have to have a member of the select board so those that's just a thought process I want to throw out there um and then we'll have even more information sent out um in the next week as to how to go along and and really to put the timing together on how we want to do this it does take it does take a little while was was Miss Miss peralt was the was the select board um appointee for this for this committee previously no I think she was from the moderator from Mike because the select board was Naomi drien mhm so select board was Naomi D drien Suzanne Wright was school committee marsy gaska was the finance committee there was a gentleman on the committee I don't uh I don't remember his name I think that was it so okay do we know who the school committee and finance committee members are I believe the moderator alluded to the fact that he does know that do we know who those members are or is that been no we do we do not know at this time so what happens is for the charter the finance committee and the school committee and then we will put our name forward um and then he will add two after that so he has the the position of being able to add the two last ones so that he can he can make the decision as to whether or not um to balance it out or right whatever you want to call it there um we're in a process of doing this right we don't have to we're not we don't have a um we don't have to drop everything and and rush through it we just have to do it right and put some thought into it so we've had a lot going on we've had the holidays and um we are where we are this is our first meeting since the town administrator's um resignation you know is it is it um you know historically I don't know the answer to this but is it um um is there an option to have some some type of community involvement here where we hear from actual residents um who we're here to represent and what their feelings or what their thought I know our CH we're we're you know we have to follow what our Charter says but you know what point or to what extent do we engage members of this community with what maybe it's a simple survey of what they'd like to see in the next town administrator or what they feel are important issues that the Town Administrator you know maybe excel at or you know hasn't delivered in the past whatever it might be what extent Do We Begin that conversation so perhaps we should add that onto we what we could do is we could add that onto one of our agendas um call for the public to come in and just give their opinion on what what we should be looking for because then what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to give our opinion right um of what we're looking for right because I certainly you know want to respect our Charter and in our process but I do not want this to turn into um a political battle of wills um where we completely forget the 15,000 people that live here and um what they've seen historically in the years that they've been here what they might have appreciated or not appreciated and you know what their what their feelings are on moving forward and I think we lose sight of that a lot of times and um so to the extent that we can explore that I think we should yeah I agree with you I can we put that on wonder if um not discouraging having it on on an agenda but I wonder if um want have a separate meeting no a survey has a little more anonymity to it so people might feel more comfortable giving more robust opinion if if it's not they don't have to get up and say it in front on a recorded abut um open meeting not everybody signs up like we do to have that's right their voice is heard in that way so we might get more feedback and more honest feedback if we do a survey or something like that so do you want uh do you want us to a ask HR to put out a survey do you want the interim Town Administrator put out a survey or do we want to do both well might as well do both yeah I I mean I think it makes sense for HR to begin you know kind of thinking about it and in um vetting what type of questions they might put on a survey you know of course we could you know certainly give our input as well and um you know and I think it's just important for us to be open to you know anything that that residents have to say and want to say right um a great idea community outreach for the last search does anybody recall well what happens is when um when the candidates are interviewing um there's a public there's a public comment and the public is involved just like the school just like the no not like the school oh the school well this is superintendent process that just happened yeah I mean less this is a little yeah that doesn't exactly go that way me less feedback about the candidates and more about no but I mean the fact that I'm sorry K just to clarify he was interviewed publicly right I think we're talking about something entirely separate from the interview process right I'm not talking about once we get to the nut and bolts of interviewing candidates I'm I'm thinking more of what what people want to see what characteristics you're looking for in candidates and why that's important to you as a community so that before we even get to here's three people which on do you like the best right we actually said well we heard you and the reason we chose three people was yeah you know because they portrayed X Y and Z characteristics which you you felt were important felt were important community members okay so you know yes you want to take that back and start working on a survey right away we'll review it yeah talk about it or at least you know who you you know talk to human resources or who those two weeks come pretty quick oh I know I just don't send it out yeah oh yeah don't send it out no and then for and then for our nominee you know you had the you had the recommendation for uh for miss peralt you have is there is there anybody else I mean I have to I'm going to go think uh as well but you know might we be able to get some information as to who that is so yeah so we can oh yeah I would like I mean I'd like to see I just want you know I just that was just my idea is to use somebody you know outside and you know the board might have said nope we don't want to do that and i' like people to right exactly David I think that's an important part which is that we sort of get to play multiple roles in this process and that's a um so if we could be able to share that yeah I think that's that would be a benefit to the process and ideally we'll know who the school committee and right finance committee have nominated so we don't nominate the same person yeah exactly yeah okay so we have that now we move to the approval of the consent agenda um before we we skipped one did we skip one did I miss that were you not doing that Ralph Cameron oh my God we we I mean I didn't know if I don't think he showed up he he did okay okay but we would like to acknowledge our new part-time Electric electrical inspector Ralph Cameron would you like to say something about Mr Cameron I've known Ralph for many years the old Lyn softball days and I think he's a great guy he's going to be a great addition does he live in swamp Scott he lives in Lyn that's okay yeah you have Marble Head with DPW I used to live right next to well close to Dave and I right next to the CVS and we used to have Rec since moved great so if he's part-time so when does he when is he around as needed yeah I think he has to be in the office two days a week I'm just not sure what those two days are okay no the pl inspector's in two he's in two okay great okay well thank you welcome Ralph Cameron and if we see you we see you um okay so now going to the consent agenda so did we say we were going to pull out um the 4th December 4 or was it December 18th 18th I don't we're not going to I don't you don't need to I think we have to we going to you what pull them out I'm just want to I just want to um make sure we're really clear on the 18th just want to pull the 18th out because I'm going to read that separate so is everyone else okay with with the meeting minutes other than the I'm I'm just leaving the 18th out to read the date separate that's read the names of the restaurants separate so I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda except for 12 the minutes of 12824 second okay um all in favor I I I motion carries so on the 18th I would just like to point out that um just want to make sure we go on record uh I would just want to reread the motion upon a motion duly made by Dave grishman second by Katie faen it was unanimous it was unanimously voted to approve the common Victors set forth in the presentation um Andreas takaria 646 Humphrey Street whoberry 160 Humphrey Street Cafe avalino 242 Humphrey Street Captain Pizza three Railroad Avenue CH Asian restaurant 435 Paradise Road chipot Mexican Grill 450 Humphrey Street Cindy superet 653 humphy Street Cookie Monster 505 Paradise Dockside 286 Humphrey Street Domino's Pizza 430 Paradise Road Duncan Donuts 980 Paradise Road Five Guys 980 Paradise Road flip the bird 450 Paradise Road G bar and restaurant 256 Humphrey Street Gourmet Garden 430 Paradise Road hawthor by the Sea 153 Humphrey Street Mike's uh Jersey Jersey Mike's Sub 425 Paradise Road Lincoln Landing 156 Humphrey Street little G 250 Humphrey Street mix AAL Cantina Grill 443 Paradise Road Nord Haven 408 Humphrey Street uh Panera Bread 433 Paradise Road parad Doo Restaurante 15 Railroad Avenue penoma Cafe 128 Humphrey Street popos hot dogs and Kels cream 168 humph Street goobe Mexican Eats 1016 Paradise Road renzil Pizza 197 Essex Starbucks 450 Paradise Road terrific by the Sea 146 humy Street Tony Lena's sandwich shop 88 Cherry Street uh trepan Smoothie Cafe 450 Paradise Road Volvo Pizza 152 Humphrey Street um okay we don't have to do and I don't know and oo frozen yogurt 136 Humphrey Street that was for the for where is the that's for common vix and then for the liquor license we have um Cafe avalino 242 Humphrey Street Kai restaurant uh 435 Paradise Road Dockside 286 Humphrey Street Gourmet Garden 430 Paradise Road hawthor by the Sea 153 humy Humphrey Street Mexicali Cantina 443 Paradise Road Mission on the bay 141 Humphrey Street nor Haven 408 Humphrey Street Paradisio 15 railroad EV terrific 146 Humphrey Street penoma 3 128 hum Street VFW Post 1240 10 new ocean Street St John's 430 Paradise Road swamp Scott Club 362 Humphrey Street swamp Scott y Club 443 Paradise Road Burl Street Liquor 205 Burl Street Vin Square Liquors 375 Paradise Road airs Express 408 Humphrey Street Richdale 444 Humphrey Street um these are the these are the liquor licenses that we had approved on the 18th and I just wanted to read those out so that people heard what their addresses were you have entertainment licenses as well I'll do entertainment license as well so entertainment license was Cafe avalino 242 Humphrey Street chai Asian Cuisine 435 Paradise Dockside Pub 286 Humphrey Street G restaurant little G 256 Humphrey Street Gourmet Garden 4030 Paradise Road C Canen and Grill 443 Paradise Road Mission on the bay 141 Humphrey Street Nork Haven 408 Humphrey Street Paradisio restaurant 15 Railroad Avenue St John the Baptist Club 40 Burpee Terrace swamp Scott Club 362 Humphrey Street swamp scoutt y Club 425 Humphrey Street VFW Post 1248 Pine Street should be 12:40 should be wew 1240 1240 right 1240 okay sorry about that Diane can you just correct that y you okay um so can I have a motion to approve the 12 18 minutes motion second second all in favor I motion carries okay so we have the consent done this done motion to address s board time oh okay so now we go to select board time Danielle um let's see first meeting of the year um thank you to ginoa um you have been a beacon in this town for a number of years in this in town hall um I applaud you for having the courage to take on this interim position it's obviously not been an easy situation um but you know I really do fail we are in good hands um with you and as as well as with the the very qualified department heads throughout Town Hall that that um were lucky enough to have work for us so um thank you I know it's it's not easy doing the job of literally two people um but I do appreciate all the time and effort you're putting in um yeah that's really all I have thank you thank you dog uh a couple things um so what what is the with our joint meeting with the school committee do we have a date yes um thought a date floated around but January 23rd January 23rd the school committee prefers to meet at their meeting here and not have a separate meeting okay okay so that will be January 23rd here at 6 o' is that our is that the financial Summit so that's two weeks from tomorrow that is financial conversation okay mhm I am not available for that meeting H I'm not available on the 23rd just FYI can you send out an invite Diane we have to post the agenda okay anyway so you have the agenda for the 23rd yeah i' let do three agendas so we get a chance okay when do we anticipate having materials to review for that meeting just I I mean I'd have to find I'll find out from Cheryl um and Amy yeah Cheryl there's been a delay um there's been a delay because staff member lost their father so but I'll let you know about that [Music] tomorrow okay um and then uh climate action committee and renewable energy committee have come together and want to come for us and propose uh combining the Committees great do they need to come before us to do that or can their liaison just make that recommendation uh I suppose that is possible too yes but they want to come see us I'm just um concerned about timing budgets and things like that sure so y uh happy to let's bring that back let's see what we can do I'll pull the agendas with Diane yeah I don't think it needs to be elaborate but can you also address um the uh how we're going forward on like the czm grants and things like that the timing and what we're going to be doing to try to get those grants or whatever it's going to take to get those grants the next time I can briefly state it now um which is you know we didn't get those grants therefore we did the $200,000 through arpa uh which is basically the content that those grants were the first half of what those grants were targeted toward and you know we basically need to play that through we you know that got bit out and uh that's going to process is going to start um so I don't think we're going to be in a position really to think what big thing that we learned is that we weren't far enough along in our knowledge of what exactly we needed to do um so we need to actually go through our process for this year uh with the $200,000 to get to a point where probably the following year we'll be in a position to say this is the type of project that we can really successfully bid on for those two types of Grants okay David yep um yeah just Mariel and you're the chair and we rely on you to set the agenda and the discussions um you know at our at our meetings and you know we really need you know things on our agenda and by not putting things on agendas we failed to communicate to the town um you know it's a problem um you know the fact that we had a meeting on the 18th of December December 30th and tonight and we're not talking about a citizen's petition that was signed by over 200 residents um you know is is is is not uh is not doing a service to the to the to those individuals you know as a board you know we've all sat and and and said we want to listen to to our residents we want to listen to neighbors you know and the fact that we have 200 plus certified signatures on a petition um should matter you know Mass General Law chapter 39 section 10 the select board shall call a special town meeting upon a request of 200 registered voters and such meeting shall be held not 45 days after the receipt of such request I think we're in VI you know we're so now you know we have a we have a select board that arguably has gone against the wishes of of our of town meeting in 2023 for the pin Street project we've gone against the actual RFP uh we've gone against the veterans and the VFW leadership's requests and now we're going against Mass General law so I I I really want a course correct I look forward to the conversation that we're going to have at our next meeting and I look forward to uh to scheduling that special town meeting ktie um do you want to talk about the meeting or want to wait next we you can okay well okay um I'm fine thank you you sure mhm um okay so I do I have had several um town meeting members come to me and ask me about some of the comments that were made by the moderator as far as not being given adequate information about um processing a special town meeting over the last eight years we've had a special town meeting on the first or second Monday of December um Our Town Administrator was aware we were going to be having a special Town town meeting I was never informed that the moderator was not informed however I did reach out to the moderator on I'd like to make sure this is really clear on October 30th so there was notice notice um for special town meeting and in my opinion I thought special town meeting went very smoothly we were in and out and we took care of business on a second note I would like to address on the petition we will be addressing that at the next meeting um we are not in viol a of uh Mass General law whatsoever but that will be a good discussion at our next meeting and finally I would like to close by at our last meeting Mr grishman you made a comment that I had um pressured Benet BR um on where to go with the development and that was very disturbing to me because it's not the first time where you have made comments towards somebody's character you you did that towards the chair of another committee where you called that chair corrupt and these comments these words do harm and I I really wish you would think before you speak because I want you to know that on the morning of the 19th I did call the CEO of Benet and I did ask her if she was aware of any comments made and she wrote to me immediately and said I hope this as well at your request I am writing to confirm that at no time in the course of the call on 12:3 with Mary David grishman or Doug Thompson did Holly Grace or Yara yerar of our staff say that the chair of the select board was applying extreme pressure related to the development it has been communicated to me that during this call the group discussed reports of neighborhood opposition to a four-story building and agreed to study an additional three-story scheme with an attached new 3,000 foot VFW which was sub subsequently determined to not be viable based on insufficient on-site parking and cost it is of course our hope that we can build unanimous support by the board in the future we are committed to working with you and the other members as well as other Town officials neighbors and stakeholders to continue to build this support as you know we are only at the beginning of this process and it will take all of us working together to ensure that we are successful in creating the equity of housing that local veterans and Swampscott citizens deserve thank you for allowing us to get started on this important effort Susan Gman I'll just note Susan was not on the call correct and that is my resident comment my select board comment so can I have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn all in favor I I thank you