first item on the agenda is the 11th there is sorry no comments for me no r okay i move the meeting minutes for March 11th 2025 all those in favor i review and discuss the vendor and pay
warrants the next item on the agenda any comments or questions on [Music] those public comment don't look like we have anybody's available public chairs in here just to
remind you if you happen to be watching we do invite you for comment uh up to three minutes per person on items not on agenda so if you have things that you really want to talk about and here come on in and talk uh new
business boards and committees uh first item is to discuss and vote to appoint and Jane I hope I'm getting the last name correct Jane the board of assessors
then essentially looking assessment processes the process and Jenny's resignation which is effective at the end of the month the board discussed the [Music] potential take that seat
18 signature sheet from and turn it in by April it was it's an April date I think it's April 20th or so talk to the clerk okay and if she were
to get herself over to their transfer station 20 signatures in like 20 minutes i'm just saying yeah that's true i'm just trying to make sure you have all the information you need to to be successful so I would be happy to um
move to appoint Jane the Heres to the board of assessors for favor 55 all right next item to review discuss and vote to appoint all objections to the housing committee
meeting some of the housing committee and apparently after we last discussed it publicly Paula stepped up and said she was interested so they will be meeting this Thursday
great she has some on some other committees or she served on something her name is really familiar and I don't know um I wonder if he's wonder that doesn't matter which
is public offices yes which which we also have to understand let me just say out loud the cultural council is a great way to huge time commitment
[Music] i'll second that next presentation given by Pete proposed amendment to the Franklin Regional Council of Government Charter gonna
give over so the the Franklin regional council referencing proposing or has proposed amendments [Music] charter within the population so this being brought over
to 30 here and um there is it is already included in the draft [Music] warrant overview
[Music] presentation for council I think gives like a The file was created because the county government structure was abolished in the 1990s under Governor WS that then
allowed for the ability for council governments to then be created um that led to the although we don't have the council structure the council of governments is essentially a new charter it was adopted in 1996 by all 26 towns
and the very next year the fur hog was created state legislation allows for the formation and creation of the burden that since its adoption in 1996 question what is the difference between the county government and Frank
region council Simply counties the county structure is primarily utilized so that mean that is governance is there for the governance and county in Massachusetts
um county government other service that we will do because a lot of the students or they create [Music] smaller but essentially the county
structure isn't as necessary Eastern western minor [Music] which is very different it functions significantly different than the rest of milk does but only because they are some
of their seasonal but yeah and if I can provide more advisory expertise on subjects that are not not big enough for state involvement
ment but through big free individual task to have its own it's it's not a legislated law making body and our our also acts as the regional pending agency
um you have to have under agencies that I register some funding mechanisms and some oversight franklin regional is the um RPA for county whereas
[Music] in Hampshire County [Music] Oh by Now as I mentioned there have been no charter changes in the 25 plus years it's a very strong document
um and to make charter changes is really significant process because it requires not just the cog but then all the membership or two3 majority of the membership to agree with and then um the idea here is to ensure that there
is appropriate succession and that the box Why is that succession planning such that when some of the executives do retire that operation um there's a three-step process first
the executive committee has to agree to the charter change then twothirds of the council has to agree and then twothirds of the membership we the audit already we did
step one and two so we're step three there was a special committee that was created um with staff as well as uh the council and their planning board and you can see the names
here sorry um uh that those changes changes were then presented to the cops executive committee the council and the regional planning board that amends the
uh then it will then be filed with the state to go through the legislature process there will be quick engagement uh campaigns to explain those changes and then also when city
all references to the initial formation [Music] of charter tenseization in language assistance the Franklin board name the The advisory
[Music] board for select board chief administrative official municipal finance [Music] official defining respective
[Music] They needed the refers to finance the retirement board that's because the retirement system transitioned to a regional retirement system which many different
[Music] onre section 14 of chapter 40B was removed because chapter 40 is the legislation that created the RPA section 14 only relates to southeastern region
economic [Music] P3 statewide incorrectly referenced it this thing is so bad in the in article three which um deals with the legislative body of the council
they combined some of the section structure and eligibility and expanded the municipal rules that can serve on the council so now it allows select board members the CAO or a municipal finance official to serve on the council
several towns already appoint administrators i currently serve on the council um so they just wanted to make sure that what's been practiced is now reflected in each chart they amended 316 which has to do with the voting they
eliminated the financial 1% vote for the planning board membership and added a 1% vote to the region since the training board they felt that it should be and then defined what clarifies forum
council members require a simple majority financials require a simple majority in though it's in four in the charter deals with the executive committee um they amended one
proposition so regional recommended two members be the same so it adds a bit more flexibility to the council and the planning advisory board appointments previously all five members need to be from different
towns just they amended 412 the terms and vacancies they added a language to allow executive committee to request a new council or planning board appointment to be in the event that they have excused
absences this is a standard function that you always want to in your governing documents they also allowing every board member to be an employee of the town [Music]
oh sure understand the lens our PA member to be an employee of the town and then the Y says remove residency requirement why does that follow i mean I understand all
employ but removing residency requirements is very different from removing the Denver police of town so does that mean remove
[Music] resive committee members shall be residents and registered voters of member municipalities the landing So it's although it says removes residency it's saying only for that one
correct and it's saying you can either be a resident or an employee but you can't you have to meet one you only have to be one and that's just for them that it's not more generally speaking the residency requirement right okay so this
is just abbreviated yes more than my Thanks um yeah so the next grouping of women compensation organization forum they clarify that executive committee members
are ineligible for benefits they changed the meetings from the priority monthly to regular meeting someone um they verify language be present in voting
members can't see the your power and [Music] They deleted those two references to the director of finance and director of funding and development um other director level positions are hired by a
new executive director that change makes the hiring process consistent across all positions and allows management structure to change without change so the [Music] financing they added and changed the
eligibility language the existing charter allows outside [Music] [Music] Say you are [Music] outside not function
the amended 77 withdrawal from membership similarly the change would require that a town withdrawing from the club pursue special legislation and also withdraw from the perp it's just basically nothing
they changed the date that the department must submit budget to move their towns from February 1st to February 15th they changed from being due to invoices sent on the first day of each quarter
um then in fiscal procedures it gives the fur two more weeks to get budget numbers and budget complete for council review in the RPA article the entire article has been rewritten the existing section was
repetitive how compliance with current state of the law was confusing using the RPA and the pending advisory board rules and it included specific that are placed in the fur cog or the pending advisory board by
operating procedures so they just did a read of the article the new article clarifies that the bird hog is the designated RPA for the county and correctly references the legislation that allows for that it updated the purpose of the RPA function it updated
the rule purpose and composition of the planning advisory board reduce some detail that wasn't needed in the chart of the collected purpose reduce the size of the planning advisory board and references procedures for more specifics
to verify the charter procedure there's a one word [Music] change of town meetings future changes will only require a simple majority vote of 23 so essentially what this is saying is
that in April this article will require 23 of agree to it but in the future there's a bunch of change um and then the bylaw adoption procedures they extended the time frame for the council to override the
executive committee disapproval of bylaw changes from 30 to 60 days article 10 deals with transitional provisions um they essentially got rid of sections 10.2 through 10 through 5 those sections were specific to the
original transition from county to transition there's no sense yeah that's normally do this is like an overall explanation but there'll be a paragraph
there is a sheet put together she's going to meet you how many of those people are You never know be surprised well I'm not
saying I'm just saying there's a reason the school does not be upset there people complain about not getting back saying you have the Yes very true he's at a conference right
she either one i feel like she discussed more than me she just gave me a pamphlet that has a sample of the box if you'd like to review discuss and vote on the request of the town clerk to install a ballot box uh it's the drop box outside
so essentially [Music] the Amy would like uh a physical um secure dropbox outside the town hall for
early voting and mailing voting to be done so that residents who don't want to be the same exact function is here um but because the select has property she wanted to get
[Music] through it's already in the budget so there's a couple points that she put in her letter first is that the there is a reimbursement allowance through the state for one ballot box dropbox she's obviously reimbursement so she would
intend to put it in her FY27 budget so that she had to have the money up front and [Music] then I know that my bones Here's fine bye to discuss and vote on the appointment
of animal from May 1st 2025 to April it's kind of a funny thing so MDAR's appointment schedule is different than uh the towns mar is the
mass resources they're the ones that See more expressions and all [Music] that 30th schedule so as far as
[Music] position April so you just need to read out her May 1st 5 to April 30th 2026 [Music] it's okay
that the board storm the queenage all those in favor i personel items to review discuss and vote sounds familiar as interim treasuring 31st position
oh until we opened yeah but the idea is that she would start March 31st so that she would have two weeks over yeah um so she'd start two weeks before each class day and she would she would do up to 20
hours a week true available march 31st second all those in favor I next item on the agenda is select quickly go first office and person that I met is
Jessica and I just want to say that I'm pleased to report that everybody Oh um I've not had we've not had a blue meeting we're going to have one soon for this senior center we can't remember what day next week it is but it's on my
calendar so that the ESS committee is still we're tragic we've got a a general bylaw and a zoning bylaw that we would want to get passed together we're unlikely to make
the deadline for this year's town meeting um even if it gets extended into May not going to make that but we're making steady progress we're getting there but um it's um it's a it's it's a lot it's a lot to
small waiting for Western to get back to us i'm just having [Music] superbody page on the website available where they can fill out the application
we received a number of applications for both roles so far um we'll start with you april
[Music] 30% so we'll be bringing like maybe it's not the same somebody's there for two weeks and then they're there for four weeks and hope this person never show up it's like
a lot of that was it that same so we have to lift that curse yeah it's been a curse it's been a curse on that something fingers crossed i mean I'm happy that the
equivalent for the patient [Music] it's just um our meetings so based on the current budget process it looks like the deadlines for the April 29th meeting are going to be
very difficult for us to meet [Music] uh 8 to late May or early to mid June um I also suggest that we keep the
single item special town meeting to the April 29th date or the end of April since we need to get those um outstanding invoices paid for yeah
um and with my suggestion moving this year's town meeting the history of town meetings in May I'd also recommend that [Music] [Music] just about being it was I think
difficult and it spent a lot of um over time and time le get it in and done and I don't know if things have gotten more complicated over the years or we're just trying to
do a better job i don't know if that makes sense um but uh the first time we didn't have Ableton meeting was for the pandmic because we couldn't we knew we couldn't really get ready and we knew we had to do it outdoors so we waited till
June and that people liked it we kept doing it in June until last year and then at least one person did well you know that's true didn't happen to be hot on that same date previous
year um so I mean June June 10th might be hot are we true are we willing to take the heat i'm willing to take the heat um but uh I think generally having a little bit later is probably going to be best for
putting together a good one you know it takes that takes a little pressure off the pling board when they've got a full plate to get their hearings and that can be done to make for good filings i I like
the idea i'm not sure the last Tuesday in May will be a good idea time because almost it's many many times that's going to be the two stand yes and yeah that I think this year it
is so why not the second date well there is that gives us two more weeks two weeks that's only two weeks let's see so you really want four weeks yeah i I worry about that second week in
June though who's got elections right and graduation is around time so either the first or the third the third is is a little like it's late
[Music] be the week before Memorial Day 14 oh sorry that's the end april yeah yeah april's got something
right oh I could be very flexible if we wanted to change there will be people who say and maybe it's
up there well at any maybe I I maybe it's not really those informal people bring but it's like an all day meeting and I really like that our time
two to three hours we get our stuff done because we've got it prepared and that's what the extra time is is being really well prepared we should be prepared for some push back things are just getting budgets and we can do our last
Wednesday in May and so none of the Tuesdays available for you uh none of the Tuesdays that we have so far discussed 20 i could do the 20 may we are we talking about simply changing
the date or both sort of I think we don't want Tuesday 17th um Oh yeah 27th is I'm not going to bother to explain anything it's bad it's bad but
the 10th would be okay for you the 10th would be okay the 24th would be okay as would the 4th the 11th the 10th of June is not good for the town the 10th is election day and 9th from 11th
yes first week first week of June june 3rd okay i know yeah looks like it works yep tuesday wednesday tuesday that's a
Tuesday also [Music] because we can change the date whenever we exercise that put it in the war i think that's why
residents will know that it's not So we were going to also discuss the special temp however it does seem that it may change there was in April so Oh I see yeah is that special tone
is everything already posted there [Music] okay oh then that means I think We're definitely moving yeah I I already moved on my calendar
but except I did keep the 29th on Tuesday because I you know I actually I did get that bar and So I'm going to move it down right the special
and our meetings so our meetings are the third and we don't have one in between we have two Friday and the
kids all right okay the two neighbors are in immigrant places we agreed to say that makes sense to make that we should let the
moderator move and we should let the any senior center Oh yeah okay
um then the last update that I had was on the solar project here at the town office um we did receive updated designs for that EV installation for the office erica has scheduled the working group to
review that yeah um we'll review those designs so finally moving so we want to get this in and purchase before anything
else happens so but it is the [Music] divine but because we the other the generator and the there's a bunch of reasons why
it might be in the future we do want some battery storage but the wasn't able to serve that particular need that we have here and it seemed to be better for us to get more solar so we get more credits it will help us more on
our energy bills any items not anticipated is there a motion all those in favor you The buddy