Select Board: May 18, 2022

Transcript machine-generated with Whisper speech recognition (the source video has no caption track). No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:00 Good evening, everyone. I’m calling the meeting to order. We need to… Don’t need to roll. Don’t need to roll. I’m calling the meeting to order. It’s Wednesday, May 18, 2022, 7 o’clock. And this meeting is being recorded, videotaped via Zoom. And all the members of the board are participating. And I’d like to say welcome back to Avonall. Wow. Really wonderful. So first I’d like to introduce the members of the screening committee, which all of whom are here tonight, Becky Cunningham, our town planner, Tony Sasso, former town administrator, Aaron Noonan, member of the board, John McGinn, interim town administrator, and me. So first on our agenda, we’re very excited to have an interview with Patrick Keeser. We always thought that we would be bringing multiple candidates forward to have a full board interview. But we were excited to bring them forward, but we lost two of the candidates. And to be clear, the remaining person we are about to hire, or not hire, interview first,

1:32 is a highly confident, experienced municipal manager. He was unanimously favored by the screening committee to bring forward to the full select board. I’m trying to say not select board. So without further ado, welcome and join us at the table, please.

2:01 So we have some questions for you. This is your second round of interviews here. So there are different questions than you’ve heard people. But we’re going to go around the table twice. Okay. So, Alexa, you’re on. Hi. Thanks for being here. Thanks for being here. I just want to see if you might go just in general describe how, you know, your experience has prepared you for this. So as I discussed in the screening committee, I simultaneously have two careers. One civilian career, working with a number of municipalities, a number of organizations that work with municipal government. So my first kind of the teeth was in Salisbury when I came back from college, getting appointed to the finance committee. I was told at that time to just sit there and keep my mouth shut for three years, and see some animals going on. Six months later, I was chaired and took on a structural deficit and fought the battle. So that was my first experience. The next significant experience was working with the Mass Municipal Association. So I started my first position was managing the town manager’s professional association. So I had the pleasure and opportunity to work with all

3:34 professionals in Mass Municipal Association that do this type of work. I then moved into the legislative division, where I was on Beacon Hill advocating for municipal government up at the state house. So I was feeling involved in meeting public policies. A few other significant positions, I was hired by the mayor of Beverly to be the director of purchasing contract administration. That was my first in-city city hall experience, you know, in the building experience. And then a year and a half of that, then I was elected mayor. And so I had eight years experience of managing and leading the city of Kingsbury. As a lead mayor, I managed Davens, which is a redevelopment authority with all the powers of urban municipality. We had unique challenges, and unique opportunities, but unique challenges. So it was a great experience to deal with pure economic development issues. And then I applied for, recruited for a position as chief operating officer of the city of Framingham. And what attracted me to there, they changed their form of government from a town to a city and elected their first ever mayor. And the position I was appointed to was the top administrative position, chief operating officer. So everyone in the city

5:07 actually reported to me, and then I reported to the mayor. So I was responsible for all the operations of that city. So that’s, you know, sort of a run through the civilian side, the military side. Five years I’ve been through the Air Force, 30, how many years in the Air National Guard, enlisted information. The takeaway from that is one, all the professional leadership training in the Air Force, whenever you’re promoted to a certain rank, you are merely enrolled into training in schools as such to prepare for the next rank. And so I always utilize that experience, that training for all these experiences in local government. That’s a nice job. Awesome. Just a follow up, just on that, just one of the things you said from Salisbury, when you originally got into the finance committee, just not curious, like what motivated you way back when, it’s like, what was your driving force? While I was in college, I actually got a job as a staff member to the Massachusetts Special Commission and Taxicel, and really got to see government in the words. And that really pushed me. The other experience that got me, reason I took the path is when I was active doing the Air Force, I played soccer for the Air Force, I traveled over here, had the opportunity in 1983 to go to Berlin, see the Berlin Wall,

6:44 see the division with that wall represented of not just countries, but a city and people were just literally cut in half. And made a decision there that I wanted to do something in government that fixes that problem. The police split communities back together. So Salisbury was the first opportunity, I mean, as college students went back home, where do I go? A friend of the family got elected to voice selected. And he had me appointed, and like I said, my orders were to sit there, and there were just too many challenges to not take it on. Thanks, thanks for sharing. Dr. Patrick, it’s a pleasure meeting you. Thank you for coming through this ruling process and coming for us today. I was going to ask you kind of a more generic question about budgeting capital planning, but with the indulgence of the chair, I’d like to kind of having looked at your resume, ask a more nuanced question about budget. And I see the experience of the Collins Center that you know, you’re wide ranging financing and budgeting experience. And you also have experienced a strategic planning. So I think that’s a combination of skills that is very, very interesting. As you probably know, we’re coming up on an override. And one of our

8:15 real priorities in the last two years was to really sharpen our saw so that before the town, we would have you would be prepared and have credibility to ask taxpayers for additional money, you know, with clarity and direction. So we engaged the Collins Center, Mike Edwards over there.

8:37 And we received a qualified award for the GFOA. So we do have that budget document. And in one way, it, you know, it sets up an underlying budgeting process, which is very rigorous. And on the other hand, it, it attaches strategic directives to the numbers, so that the taxpayers can kind of contextualize what they’re, you know, what they’re getting from their money. So I think it’s, it’s a very useful way forward for the town. And I just want to ask you, you know, based on your experience, you know, could you describe your direct involvement in budgeting and capital planning and strategic planning that lend weight in continuing the GFOA process? So, thanks for the nuance question. Longer than the question.

9:30 So let me go back to the Salzburg experience. The first one, I was the first one actually brought an Apple, what is it, Mac plus, what do they call it at the time? But I was the first one to bring a computer and build with a spreadsheet. And build the spreadsheet from the books. And what I was able to analyze was the fact that at the time of 12 million dollar operating budget, it had too many structural doubts. There are all kinds of funny things going on to just roll it from you to you. And, you know, not sustainable. And so it solves, we also face that challenge of we need to address it. We either make significant cuts and over, do an override, which was attended many times over and solved, we didn’t fail every time. And I would say the short answer is what you’ve already put up. You have to have credibility in the public’s eye to say, this is necessary. And so one of the ways we approached it, one, as chair of the finance committee and finance committee said, we’re not doing any overrides. We are going to develop a true budget, true balance budget. We were cutting two million dollars out of it, it’s called read an old budget. It was ugly. And I remember saying to the finance committee members, after making a series of cuts, all right, reach in with your root cage, take your heart out,

11:02 throw it aside and get back to cutting. Just, you know, no old spot. We had to do it. And so we made some serious recommendations of cuts. My bird, police and fire, take significant cuts, schools, a whole bunch of them. And what I was consistent on is we are owning this budget. We’re putting it, that’s the budget on the table. So that, and then let’s talk about override. People started demanding it. Then we set criteria of limits of what we’re going to do. And the agreement was no more than a dollar on the tax rate. And we are going to have individualized items to restore these things that were cut. And then we brought the advocates for each of those constituencies and said, all for one, one for all. You are not going to go out and campaign for yours and not support the others. We’re not going to divide and conquer. And those are the basic tests we moved forward on and everyone from the bachelor alone. And it was necessary to resolve them to kind of restructure. What solves we did in the base year, approximately two and a half, when everybody else was trying to push up the numbers to lock in that base number, it solved it the other way. And so they created that structural, it was a true structural test. And we had to fix it and we did. And once we fixed it, we then could start

12:35 dealing with longer term structural changes to address. So rather than having to take immediate address, like those, you know, let’s think long term, let’s do a strategy long term. So that was the first branch of the game. Wow. Okay. So that was pretty astonishing. Now you’ll have, you’ve started the GFOA process and you’ll have time to kind of come in and understand what Marblehead and the other is specifically. Yeah, it is an important process and one that needs to be. So credibility is the only one. My question is not announced. Are you a detail oriented person or something, someone who looks at the big picture? It depends. So my, so I guess the same question, what’s your management side? And especially like explaining the city of Frankingham, I have 12 division heads reporting directly to me. We have a lot going on. It’s a big city. One of the approaches I’ve taken, I need reference to it in my letter, is I developed a program major called AIMSAT, which I received the power award for innovation in government. And I did a AIMSAT, and it’s a data driven decision making process. Now I have to confess, when I go to my military job,

14:07 every time, and I would explain what I was doing, municipal government and stand up meetings and the people reporting, PowerPoint, all this stuff, my military colleagues go, yeah, that’s just a commander stand up. I know, but in the municipal side, they think I’m a genius. But the answer, the question, the whole idea is having a standardized set of information that’s flowing about the operations for everyone. For those areas and functions that are going well, you’re getting a check in, you’re getting the green light, everything’s fine, as long as you work. The areas that have a flashing yellow or bright red, then it’s diving into the details. So if it’s green and running fine, it’s hands off, going the right direction, doing the right thing. If things are not looking good, that’s what we spend our time. Bring it back so it fits. Thank you. Excellent. Very nice to meet you. Thanks for coming. How do you view the relationship between the town administrator and the select board? And then what are your expectations of this board? So far, so good. We appreciate it. Yes, the HCS-inversal.

15:35 So having been around what we’ve done for a long time and working at the MMA, the Column Center, those experiences where you’re doing projects and work, looking at and understanding the structures of municipal government Massachusetts and different types. So I am very clear on what the role of the town administrator is versus the town manager versus executive secretary versus a mayor versus chief operator. There are differences. A lot of similarities, a lot of differences. And so in this form of government and in the size of the community, the select board sets the policy and has a significant role in the operations of the town. The town administrator, I see as the professional whose job it is to bring to the board the facts as they are, what is good and what needs to be fixed. And to give the board all the information and insight that it needs to make the right decisions of which way things should go. So I understand what that role is. I played different roles in different communities and had to adjust as well. One of the things when I was interviewing for chief operating officer working for mayor Framingham, and my

17:10 concern was, part of the interview was, having been a former mayor, having been the person, fully in charge of everything, how that relationship would work. And I said to her, I really understand what it means to be an elected official sitting in that seat in the public making decisions. And I know exactly what that means. I also fully understand the value of having the staff that you can rely on to do their job to help choose the team and what those roles are. You know, and I said, it is not a job to be the mayor. I will not be the mayor. I will give my advice. I will argue my case differently. But I also understand once the elected official makes the decision, that’s the decision and the administration implements. It’s a concept in the military, it’s a concept in local government. Excellent. Thank you. Hi, again. It’s good to see you. My question is, what is your attitude on the topic of change, both with our changing cultural movement in terms of rising to the nation and of, you know, promoting diversity and inclusion, as well as operational change? What is your attitude in

18:40 having to develop changing things from the way you find them? So there was a chart I had years ago in the military position where we were going from change a lot. Our missions were changed. So real-life organizations, changing jobs, all that. And somebody got a chart with the happy and sad and angry faces. And the bottom line is, change is stressful. No matter what change you’re talking about, change is stress. And you have to recognize that. Change is necessary to get from where you are to where you should be. And so, you know, what’s key, I believe, to manage the stress of change is to know where you should be. And so, you know, whether it’s organizational change or it’s cultural change, it’s, you know, dealing with the diversity, equity, inclusion issues, which is change in the way organizations meet, think, and act, recruit, and operate. And so, one of the best ways to address the stress of change is information, collaboration, communication. It’s talking to people. It’s listening to people. But I would say one of the first important steps and opinion of that process is to know where are we going. What’s that endpoint

20:18 that we’re trying to get to? And then we’re going to figure out how all of us together can get there. And, you know, you’ll never get rid of the stress, you’ll never get rid of the resistance. That never goes away. Never goes to zero. But you manage and mitigate some points so you can achieve what it is you’re going to achieve. Thank you. Very high-level question. You did. You did. Yeah, it’s part was like, and you could have gone on for the wrong way about that. That was great. Back to Nick. So, my next one is more like a scenario-based question. So, background aviation. I love scenario-based. So, let’s say you get notified that one of your department has just been heard screaming at an employee in that department, and then subsequently you get a call from the union, president complaining essentially that the behavior of the department had, you know, they’re upset about it, asking, you know, what do you intend to do about this? And so, this is happening. What actions would you take? What are your thoughts on that scenario? So, one is whether it’s filed as a full agreement, which then the process is pretty well dictated collective bargaining agreement. And if it’s not yet, in fact, ideally you have a relationship with the collective bargaining units that when there are problems, can we talk? Can we sit down? We got a

21:52 problem. And we’ll try to work it out as full process as possible. So, there are sort of bring dictates of how the relationship is to the collective bargaining. And it’s also the way managers and employees in general should treat each other. You know, there should be an expectation of how that’s done. So, when there’s deviation from that, you know, you can sit down and have a conversation and hopefully the folks involved can recognize, you know, this is the standard. This is what we expect. Here’s what happened. So, I don’t really hope to change that. So, a lot of times problems, you want to fix them at the lowest and most informal level as you can. Sometimes that’s not an option. Depending on what’s going on. But I always try, especially talking about collective bargaining units, they have a good working relationship. There are, you know, negotiations to be had and those sometimes get contentious and heated. But you try to get through them and get over them. I’ll just stand up. In an instance in in Eastbury, I’ll pick up on my firefighter friends. Somebody who fired, did something and I should get why. Which was a problem.

23:26 I called the union president. He was on vacation in Florida. And I said, hey, this is what one of your guys said. What? No. I said, do you want me to handle it or are you going to handle it? Nope. And the union president, nope, let me take care of it. And that was the end of it. And that’s the way I prefer. That the relationship is strong enough and that everybody knows what the expectations are throughout that these things can self-correct the lowest most important. Thank you. Patrick, as you know, we have a very strong participatory government in Marblehead with distribution of power and across, you know, many departments, commissions, committees, interest groups. It’s a fabulous form of government that’s based probably on a suspicion of concentration of power. But I’m going to ask you a specific question about what is your approach to dealing with the public business community, the school department, and the other non-select board departments that report separately to other elected boards and. So again, it’s building relationships. And we’re all in the same industry. And so hopefully we all have sort of the same general goals and objective what we’re trying to do for the community. And so it’s trying to find that common ground for a common path

25:05 and build on that relationship. And that’s not always possible. And there’s always conflict in that. But again, it goes back to, I always say governments run our relationships. But even when we disagree, we can still work together and respect the various roles that we play. What I get frustrated with is folks getting out of their own lane and trying to get in other people’s lanes. And so, you know, those are some of the issues of here’s our role and responsibility here’s Jaws over here. We need to stay in our lanes, but together, you know, organizationally, we’re all trying to change the same thing. It’s service to the community. That’s why we exist. So it’s always just trying to find ways to get everybody sort of facing the same direction. Yeah, in some ways I like it to get to be a strong diplomat as well. It is in the community. And I think you make a very good point about the lanes and trying to define those and get diplomatically moving forward with specific problems. So in the military, people assume they go to the Hollywood version of, you just spark orders and people follow. No, in fact, I threw out my 33 years as

26:38 commission officer. I can pray kind of one hand when I’ve given a direct order and use this because everything else is failed. And when you’re managing, you know, high tech unit of people with master’s degrees and engineering degrees and what, you know, and you’re managing them, you know, black orders. It doesn’t work that way. And so even, you know, in those type of organizations, it’s about the relationships, focus on what the mission is, how do we all get there together? Right. I’m sure you were aware that this position can be very stressful. What do you do to handle stress and talk about it? The only way I try to handle stress is I play as much hockey as I can. Truly, that’s a stress release. My other stress release is I’m in a pretty good size yard. And like Vlad was saying, I live in the community and work in the community. There was something wonderful about getting on a noisy lawnmower and putting the internet protectors on and driving on the highway. What do you do to bother you? And that was peace. But it’s a really stressful line of business.

28:04 It’s something I look at based on all my experiences. This is something I train for. I know it all along. When you’re in the public and you have a public responsibility and you have all kinds of people yelling at you, as I would often say, when I was married, whenever I made a decision, no matter what decision I made, something’s going to yell at me. So I’d rather get yelled at for doing my job than not doing my job. And so I’ve never had problems making decisions and getting yelled at. I fail okay. If I’m getting yelled at because I didn’t do something or I failed to do something, that just is a meow. I try to do a point of that. The other thing I would say, like to my staff at that time, is when people are coming to the office, mayor’s office, and they’re just hair on fire, screaming yell. I would say our job is not to react to the aim or the blossom. Our job is to let the noise fly by and try to figure out what’s the source of the anger. And often the person yelling at you, they don’t know what it is that’s upsetting them. They think it’s upsetting them. Something’s not right. They’re not quite sure what it is. And so it’s allowing the noise to go by and try to zero in. What’s the problem? Okay, I think we can

29:34 fix that. Backyards getting flooded, every rainstorm. Yep. What’s putting this up, right? Yeah, you know, the screaming yell is going to be about everything else in the world. But when you really go back and forth with them, you find out, okay, there’s the stress point. Let’s see if we can fix that. And that’s what I was trying to do. Right. Thank you. And then you go play hockey. Can I play hockey? Thank you. What is your approach to mentoring the department heads in providing the support for these departmental managers? So departmental managers, they’re the leaders of their business. And that’s sort of a general project. And so part of my job, supervising various departments and divisions is helping them to have the resources and tools to succeed at what they’re doing. You know, I’ve always in a leadership role, most of my job is making sure that people who are actually getting the work done can get the work done. So part of it is understanding and knowing what their challenges and resources and things are so that we can address whatever shortfalls. Training and professional development are really important. One of my interesting experiences in A-SUR, when I was developing the

31:07 SAT process, which is really getting a lot of data about the operations. And I had a phenomenal chief of staff. Really, the drug worth putting together. So for a period of time, we were doing all the data collecting and crunching within the mayor’s office. And then, you know, we made the decision, we need to farm it up because it’s quite the workbook. So let’s start farming it out. And what was required was a lot of spreadsheets. And spreadsheets worked. And when we started pushing it out to the department, it’s okay, you’re not going to respond to doing this. There are people who had to update the spreadsheet. Nobody had any experience in Excel. And so looking at it was, I’m trying to understand why is it that nobody, hardly anybody, knows how to use Excel. Because it’s never been asked. It’s never been a requirement. It’s never been suggested, hey, we would like you to develop, have these spreadsheets populate them, feed into our system so we know what’s going on. And the response was amazing. And I can’t tell you how many folks, staff, level, right? So the years of experience that we’ve been doing, they came in and are taking courses in Excel, spending it, and they want to do it. They want to learn. But you have to ask them. Or put the requirement, hey, we want you to develop

32:40 this skill set so we can use this tool so we can operate that. And until you ask them, there’s no need for them to take the time to develop those skills. So one of the things that we need to do is, what are those skills that we want people to act that makes everything work better? Thank you. So if you are going to point to the position, what would be your focus priorities during your first 90 days? As I mentioned this before, when I walked in the needs for you to set that first meeting, and I said, I want everybody to keep doing things the way you’re doing it. I’m the only change. I’m the only new face. Keep doing it. Because I want to see and analyze how things are done. I’m not going to come in and be a little bit changed for the sake of making change. Because I don’t want to blow something up that’s working perfectly well. And so the first part is getting to know the people, getting to know the operations, sort of kind of the land and be a listener for a good product. The other thing, one, get a copy of all the collective bargaining agreements and read those through in detail. And going through, you know, generally like the own, they have, you know, three years of budget

34:16 in my head. And the other documents, the key documents, master plan, there’s a strategic plan, and the master plan being the land use master plan. Any and all sort of the strategic thinking documents. What I do is create my library and create my green list to know sort of what the general idea, most of the information comes talking to people, listening to people. I look at it’s like looking at a sandbox. I can tell it’s on the surface. It’s finding out it’s buried underneath. It’s more interesting. And that it takes time and dating to see what’s under the scene. And that’s what would be the objective in the first many days. Thank you.

35:15 Yes. Okay. So do you have any questions of us?

35:23 I don’t know. I came here to do an interview and see what happens. Thank you. Thank you. So what I do is it’s huge. So we’re fine. I know. We’ll break. I’m fine. Thanks. I’ll turn you out. We’ll look it up. I’ll do my way back. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Thank you. We’re coming in. OK. That’s good. Here are my thoughts. It would be, it would have been unfair to the candidate people for us to pull the plug on him just because he’s the only candidate. We really, I think, don’t want to lose him. He was always going to be a violinist. The other two candidates both withdrew before their names became public. It was not what we had anticipated, but we’re lucky to have a stellar candidate before us. We felt at one point in the process that we had three municipal managers with extensive experience. Nineteen people applied through the common center. Several needed out immediately because they didn’t have the requisite experience that we were looking for. The screening committee did its job and quickly, too, thank you again for everything that you did for us.

37:00 We ran into this situation four years ago when people dropped out at the last minute. And this round, one person ultimately decided to stay put and withdraw as a finalist. The second person who withdrew just over this past weekend also decided to stay put, those of whom are staying in their administrative positions. So I think we are lucky to have a stellar candidate before us tonight. I agree. As also on the search process, we did a blind survey, totally blind. And what was great about it was we come to the table and all of us, all five of us, picked the same five candidates to bring in frustrating interviews. So of course, some of those had already withdrawn, and the hiring process for these types of roles right now in municipal government is very competitive. And so as you have experienced before, this is an uncommon. And I feel fortunate that we have a candidate who unanimously, as Jackie had said, we all had felt strongly about fully capable and qualified. The roles has an extensive municipal background experience, has worn many hats,

38:36 understands the role of how an administrator has been both mayor and work for a mayor. So, you know, in the fact that there’s not another candidate to interview tonight, I don’t want that to dim the light of this candidate at all. So I think sometimes I’m a big believer in things working out for a reason, and I think that that’s very much the situation tonight. So, you know, I just offer that and more discussion. Yeah, I mean, it sounds like there was a very robust pipeline or funnel, you know, to the final three and a lot of unanimity around who the top candidates were, which is fantastic. And I’m always surprised that people actually will come to the final interviews because it really involves putting themselves out there, you know, publicly, and it can affect what their jobs are doing. So, you know, it’s to me, as long as they were able to screen, they made it to the final interview process, it seems to me. So, you know, it’s not, it doesn’t in any way diminish as can as you can’t even see it in my mind. And we did agonize a bit over, you know, it’s not ideal to just spring forth, you know, one candidate, but that said, candidates to go. Well, I think just speaking to the process in general, that this process started a while ago,

40:10 and you looked at where we started with a fallen center, we started an organization that this is their specialty. And then you moved to the screening committee, which was a diverse group. You had lots of different expertise, lots of really qualified people coming in to get their feedback, analyzing, you know, much of these candidates. So I think there’s the process in general, there was several layers of expertise that led to this point. And just to echo a little bit of what most of you were saying, by the time you get to those three candidates, you know, you’ve gone through all of that. And so, you know, there is a reliance as well on the expertise of that, the process that we’ve gone through to get here, and also what the committee has done, understanding that there’s so many hours that were put into analyzing these candidates, looking at their backgrounds, really trying to find the right fit for a marble head base on that. So I just, as I look at it with the lens of starting from where we began, and all of the work that went into bringing someone forward, there’s also the right place at the right time. And that’s really what you’re looking for is when you’re interviewing someone, who is, who are you bringing forward that’s going to qualify for the situation that you’re bringing them into, and what is their background and expertise, and how are they going to be the best qualified person. So whether you’re interviewing time or one, it’s also, is that person appropriate for what you’re doing?

41:41 Thank you. I just had a kind of question, Madam Chair, the idea of going kind of, canceling this process and then going back out, did you, that seems like a… We talked about that, but it probably wouldn’t have been able to happen until the fall, because we would have to start all over again, and there’s no guarantee that there would be somebody better who could have chosen. Or the ones that showed up, this one, coming back. Yeah, most definitely you would lose those. Yeah, it wasn’t good enough the first time. Right. I really appreciate all the work that the committee did. And our Japanese, and particularly our first time administrator, who actually made the… I broke a moment. And then, and then John, too, just right up there, and we worked together for so long on top of that. So really appreciate it. It was a good opportunity to meet Thatcher. Today is the first time that any of the three of us have met. Thatcher had good answers, but the committee becomes strongly recommended. I’m curious if there are any things to add to the three of you. I’m curious if anything’s to add to the three of you, or if there are any things that you’d like to add to the three of you. About his long-occasion thinking. Well, the thing that stood out to me, I’ll speak to that,

43:14 is what’s actually the question that I asked. My follow-up question was, really looking at this type of work, and you’re doing it as an occupation, but also where is that passion? And I was really impressed with that straight out of college. That’s not what most people are thinking of at that point in their life. And that really spoke to me, someone who at such a young age looks at something and says, well, I had this passion, I had this exposure in my life, and I wanted to do something meaningful, and this was a way that I could reach out and do that. And I think that speaks a lot to the character of someone. And, you know, I mean, there’s all the qualifications and the expertise, but that, to me, was very meaningful. I think Aaron is just such a seasoned pitcher, and I love his answer to your question, Madam Chair, about… I dive into detail depending. It was such a mature answer, obviously, but it’s very… So, yeah, he’s impressed me. Yeah, you certainly seem just about heavy. Both his professional career, military career, city, town, he’s seen a lot. So, we don’t get fazed every day, but it’s going to be very hard to surprise him. Yeah, I agree with that.

44:46 And I think the willingness to listen when people are frustrated and upset, and I think that is being able to understand that you’re really trying to get to the heart of the problem. And sometimes it takes a while to get there for all of us, even when you are upset and feeling animated to get to the point of, okay, where is the crux of the problem? And then how do we start to find the solution for that? And the fact that he spoke to that, I think it’s really important, and also part of doing this work, that’s important, the willingness to be able to allow people this space to share that just frustration. And then sometimes you can fix it, sometimes you can’t, but a lot of times that’s one of the most important things, is the opportunity to be heard. So, speaking to that, I thought it was very important. And I feel that his second interview was even better than his first. He was calm, composed, he seemed like… Yeah, I mean he had a really good first interview, but I thought it was much more into what he was really like. Yeah, I was really impressed with his answers. One of the things he definitely emphasized during his screening interview was his data-driven decision-making approach. That was something that came up during the screening interview,

46:17 as well as he was experienced with addressing structural deficit in Salisbury and just being flexible in terms of going through when he was in Framingham. They did have a total change-up from a city council, they went to Mayork, that’s a big bureaucratic shift. So, not the big part, I’m sure. And then, of course, there were things that came up during his screening interview, because we went into much depth and we were interviewing for at least an hour. So, some of the things we didn’t get touched on, but he did speak to an experience on work in housing at Devons and three different other communities. And just wanted to mention that, because it was time to recreate a whole hour and a half interview or whatever it was. But there was a lot of feedback on the communication with the department heads and talking about collecting bargaining and really just performing that relationship and being respectful of that relationship. Just a few little of that work. Anything else, sir? Are we ready for a motion? I think so. We need a motion to appoint natural W.E.T.s for town and administrative and successful contract negotiations. One second.

47:48 Is this a poll? Yes. It’s Jay and Aysen. Right here. Mrs. Sanders. Mrs. Newliffe. In favor. Mr. Gray. In favor. Mr. Nye. In favor. In favor. Yes, please. And thank you again, all committee members. This is us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Matthew. I’m successful.

48:35 Congratulations, Greg.

48:49 Thanks. So thank you. We. In touch. Okay. Okay. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. So much. Congratulations. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. Congratulations. Five minutes and six. That’s not too bad. Enjoyed. Thank you. I’ve About it. Okay. We in front. In person. It’s very happy to talk to all the people. You can’t look them in the eye, etc. It’s all good. And Memorial Day is back on crack. We made a note saying it. That’s an empty day. So, TOA and the hosting of Veterans Breakfast, you don’t have the time. It’s not going to be a…I left that off. It’s sponsored by the MACE gathering.

50:22 No many veterans would like to go. They’d be called the TOA. I know there’s a general crew that comes. They come every year. It’s a nice gathering. The city plays a spilt. It’s nice. It’s a nice music. That’s on Friday. Saturday we have the traditional flag of the grave of Wandsack. Star on the sea, I know the crew. We do pride as a couple of gentlemen who will bury the pill every year. So, this is why I need to take care of that. That’s always a nice event for the whole town. The little comments gets a few flags. It doesn’t matter how old. That’s a great turnout. Great family. Really. Sunday is a service at the Star of the Sea Sanitation. At 1 o’clock in the afternoon. It’s a small gathering, but every year it might get a little bigger. One senior maroon will be there from the Star of the Sea. It’s a nice little event. And Monday, we’re back to the traditional Monday Memorial Day. The high school van leads a group down to Clackman, State Street, War priority.

51:55 A short service down there with the Club of Regiment. We’re going to be farming those little lots of the sea in any war, including merchant ferris. They did a lot, especially World War II. Even what they’re doing today. It’s going to be a nice event down in Mohert Park. It’s going to be a little special if you have. And it’s going to be here a little bit towards Vietnam. And it’s going to be a little special in the back. This was extended by the beacon, Johnny Ray at the Beacon in the whole cinema. On Sunday morning, it’s going to be a 10am showing of the new Top Gun. That’s great Jack. That’s amazing. That’s great. So, you know, it’s not a huge theater, but it’s first come, first served. So I thought that was a nice touch. That’s great. That’s fun. And reschedule it just in time where we can get up to Saturday, see some time. Basically, that’s it. We hope that for good weather and for good turnout, maybe our new town administrator

53:25 will come and work. Hopefully so. Yeah. Thank you, David. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next on our agenda, we have a public hearing. This is an advertised public hearing for the transfer of all alcohol and packaged store licenses in the pledge of inventory. The transfer is all alcohol and packaged store licenses in the pledge of inventory. 112 Washington Street, looking east at Mumford. Good evening. Hello. LLC, formerly, and Public Marketing. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Sean. Yeah, that’s right. And Latisha. Nice to meet you both. This is your opportunity to present to us. Okay. So as you said, we’re applying to the customer flight zones. We opened up the East Cafe, which is right next door to Harry’s side. Three years ago, and it’s been successful. That’s far. And now we’re excited since we shared this space to move over into a new opportunity. We’re going crazy for some of our meetings. But I’m ready. It’s a great opportunity to come in and follow up.

54:57 Yeah. So it’s been a lot of hard work, a lot of fun. And yeah, it’s just the opportunity to continue to provide quality service for all of us. It’s a good opportunity. We don’t plan on going anywhere for a while. Okay. Thank you. So is there anyone here who wishes to speak in opposition to the application? Okay. And is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor of the application? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. John Kelly, 22 Merritt Street. Hey. And I’ll be brief, but Haley’s was started by a relative. 105 Washington Street 1912. And in 110 years we’ve made it across the street. That’s about it, I guess. And for all those 110 years, the Haley’s or the family’s hit two other businesses. One I have mentioned is the Coast Stories. But for all those 110 years, a family member has been in business downtown. So this is something I don’t take lightly, this cycle of business. John and Patricia, they’ve done a great job of who keeps people alone. They’ve been really good tenants. And I must say they’ve become very good friends with mine. So I guess this is a really good choice.

56:29 Thank you. Thanks, John. Thank you. Thank you. So I’m going to close the hearing at this point. We can ask if there are any questions from the board. No questions. You’re passing the baton. You might have had some trouble. It’s for the change. Thank you so much. So we need a vote. We will. But is it a vote? We need a motion, please. Let’s see. License transfer motion to approve the transfer of all alcoholic package store license and pledge of inventory from Haley’s public market Inc. to Mookie’s at Mumford LLC doing business as Haley’s wine and spirits hours of operation Monday through Saturday 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays 12 noon to 6 p.m. subject to approval from the ABCC, core approval, receipt of all applicable inspection sign offs and all needs paid. I’ll second. Mrs. Sanger. Okay. Mrs. Noemann. In favor. Mr. Greater. In favor. In favor. Mrs. D’Algroff. In favor. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have our votes. Minutes. We need no questions to approve the minutes of April 27, 2022.

57:59 And next we have the motion to approve the minutes of April 27, 2022. And May 11, 2022. So. Mr. Sanger. In favor. Mrs. Noemann. In favor. Mrs. Noemann. Mrs. Greater. In favor. Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you. And the next we have a request from Reese Salver, member of Marvel head pride 2022 committee, to hold a 2022 pride flag raising event in Abbott Hall on Sunday, June 5, 2022 at 2 p.m. Rain Day, Sunday, June 12, 2022 subject to the usual rules, regulations and fees. Custodial fee will be $150 paid for by 6. Mr. So moved. I’ll second. Mr. Sanger. In favor. Mrs. Noemann. In favor. Mr. Noemann. In favor. Mrs. Bell In favor. Thank you. Can’t we just, can’t we just, I know we’ve been doing this for a long time. I think we can switch over for this. Yes, you can. This is from Eline New Manhattan, playing music pieces for cello and electronics.

59:33 Jadelin will be playing a cycle of songs written for electronics. We need a motion to a request from Eline New Manhattan to use Abbott Hall on Saturday, August 20, 2022 from 12 noon to 6 p.m. for a concert and video screenings subject to the usual rules, regulations, fees and the site receipt of the required certificate of insurance. Second. Second. All those in favor. Second. Save our voice for the matter. And next we have a request from Connie DeBover. The schedule of ranging Sunday June 12, 2022 for the previously approved charter school fund run on Sunday, June 5, 2022 subject to the approval of the Marblehead Police and Reckon Park receipt of the required certificate of insurance, naming the town’s Marblehead as additionally insured and police appealed. No permanent market shall be made on the streets and any temporary markings shall be removed at the conclusion of this event. Second. All those in favor. Next we have a license agreement or private connection to a town to town drainage. Do you want to say anything about that? These are standard books. As I explained, it’s a now that the crime is underlined.

1:01:05 Okay. The license agreement or private connection to town drainage system as presented between the town and 45 to 49 Pleasant Street, LLC, of 96 Swamps that Road, Salem, Mass, 49 Pleasant Street. So moved. Second. This is all set. No? Okay. Almost in favor. And then we have a second one. The license agreement or private connection to town drainage system as presented between the town and Pleasant Street, LLC, and 96 Swamps that Road, Salem, Mass, 11th, are Harris Street. So moved. Okay. All those in favor. Next one’s called. We need a motion to approve the request from Chris Johnston, chairman historical commission for one day liquor license for the opening reception on July 8, 2022 at the old townhouse five to 8 p.m. Subject to the following conditions. Liquor liability insurance, no alcohol is to be stored on premise at the old townhouse. Wine will be deleted. This is for the forthcoming exhibit mapping Marblehead in 20th century. So moved. Second. Mrs. Sanger. Second. Mrs. Noonan. In favor. Mr. Grader. In favor. Mr. Narrow. In favor. In favor. In favor. Thank you. And two reasons requesting two one-day liquor licenses

1:02:41 for wine tasting events from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 2nd, 2022, and Thursday, June 23rd, 2022. Under the tent at 18 Atlantic Avenue, subject to the following conditions. Delivery of and receipt by the licensing authority of the required fee, $50 each. Delivery of and receipt by the licensing authority of proof that the alcohol will be purchased from an authorized source. Proof that the applicant can receive proper delivery, provide proper storage and disposal of all alcoholic beverages. Purchased on accordance with the requirements of General Lock Chapter 138. I’ll second. Mrs. Sanger. Second. Mrs. Moonan. In favor. Mr. Grader. In favor. Mr. Nye. In favor. Mrs. Delcrest. In favor. Thank you. And I think we’ve missed, I guess we want to leave it in the letter of interest to be on the Design Review Board by Henry Selly and Henry Ward. Put that into the record. Thank you. We’re going to go around and take it. I should go on the round of take it. Madam Chair, if I could, on the letter of interest from Henry Selly, they are that board, so how the bank is there. Oh, good. So we did. If they kind of slam board, like to schedule. Schedule. And interview with Mr. Selly.

1:04:11 What are you doing next week? You have to set a deadline for right before your next well. Usually we allow for more applications. So we should be saving the week out for the next meeting. June 8th. What’s the date count? June 8th. I believe it’s June 8th. Okay. Thank you. June 8th. Thank you. So we want to go around and take more time. Sure. So I’ve had a bunch of questions, as I’m sure we all have, about the gas, backpack, the boat work. Stopping from memorial day to labor day. So there’s some things we have to do with the state. All actions of town meeting that have been the town’s bylaws must be reviewed. And approved by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office before they can take effect. The town clerk has 30 days from when town meeting ends to submit any actions to the town meeting, of the town meeting to the Attorney General’s Office. Once the Attorney General’s Office receives the changes, they have 90 days to respond to the town. They can also extend this 90 day period. If they workload, on their workload, if they have other matters.

1:05:43 The reality is this approval process will likely make it impossible for the leaf blower band to be implemented this summer. One of the challenges with the motion of the past town meeting was that no penalty or fines was authorized for individuals who violate the bylaw. Only town meeting can establish fines. That’s not up to the Board of Sile from this town meeting. Without a fine or penalty to act as a deterrent, enforcement of the bylaw would be very difficult. The only fine structure could be addressed as at the next town meeting. Thank you. I’ve been saying that to many people. At this point, I’ll put that out there. Thank you. Again, nothing except drill with our new town administrator. Likewise, I think as well. It’s an exciting time of year. As we come up on Memorial Day, I would just ask everybody to remember all those service members that are overseas right now. There’s a lot of them serving their country under the radar without a lot of coverage. Just wanted to plug the Service and Harvest Marver Plan working group, which is up, I think, now on the website. The Planning Board has put together the – Emily has from MAPC. When it says Marver Land Harbor, it includes really all the Marver Head waterfront from the harbor around Crown and Shield Island.

1:07:15 We call it grounds, all the way from Naugas Head to like land mills. Keep that in mind when filling out the survey. I just wanted to add, I think it seems – we started this conversation last – I think it was August about trying to set up this room to be able to have the screen and get the equipment. There was a lot of work with members of the board and the community town administrator and the coordination to try to make this happen. I know it was a priority for members of the board and priority also for the public to have access. So for everyone who’s home, great to see you. I hope you guys are enjoying it. It’s great to be in the room and also to be able to allow people to access who aren’t able to attend. Great to see it all working. Thank you for Kyle, who’s making the magic happen. Jen, Jen is a huge part in John. No, no. What I wanted to add just for everybody to be aware is that it is working and it’s great. But it’s not fully installed. When there’s a sound, there are wireless mics that will be added there here, but the board that needs to go with that is back on and it won’t be installed until December. So the sound will even be better when that all – September will be – I did say December. I just spoke. It’s September.

1:08:46 But right now it all works both the sound and video. Can I ask one question? So like when John Kelly was speaking, could it – Yeah, they should be able to hear it. The sound is great. We walked all around the room and spoke. Yeah, we can have sex after a minute. It probably hurt everything in the hallway with people leaving. I’ll listen to that because it’s picking up a lot of people. It’s like looking out the activity. The other point I want to make about the sound is right now MHTV picks up this and uses it for their broadcast. When the wireless mics are installed, it will be one thing, but the cameras that MHTV has will also be able to be used. Right now, the only camera we can use is the one that comes with this. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, what’s great? We have an executive session, but before that, we’re looking for a public comment. Is there anybody who wishes to address the board? Next hour, 159, Miami Avenue. I’m going to express my continuing dissatisfaction of performance with the current council. I know that you’re a similar – a detailed model, if you will, of what transpired over the last two years, all orchestrated by the current council. But at the past year, performance has not improved. Excuse me. Now, I’m setting out another process of what I feel would be a short premise.

1:10:18 Now, Mr. Heather pointed out that stress is – change is stressful. That change is also good. And it may be time for us to change forces in terms of the current council. It’s remarkable that we have a current council. We don’t have a contract, but it’s something. And I think it’s time that we should open up. That position is probably part of the receipt that took out. But I think these items are great work for approval. Thank you. Anyone else wish to – yes? There’s some assistance in that. I agree with Alan here. I spoke about the town meeting regarding the town council. We’re out today, so totally agree with him. A couple of other things I want to comment on. One was still trying to work with the town. IT is nice to see that we have a screen and camera. We’re slowly getting there. We’re still a couple of decades behind it. Two million talks behind it. But I know I’m talking with you once again and trying to get some more information. But why did I run the wrong course? Basically, information I’ve seen before and the feedback that I provided to Mr. again already, totally run the wrong course there. I’ve been out offered many times to Mr. Silver previously. Never heard that. So hopefully we can hear that feedback on that. Lastly, I heard you had to go away. I was just on the Zoom and then try to get down here as quick as possible. It’s great that you’re telling the illustrator it’s awesome to do the veteran. I’m worried that we didn’t have enough desperation.

1:11:51 We had one candidate that made it to the final year. A little bit of his career, a quick glance at LinkedIn and reviewing him. Phenomenal, a military career, became a mayor. He regressed to working for a mayor. Then he applied for a town manager’s job and did make a cut there. He’s the final guy here and he initially appointed him. I’m concerned that we didn’t really look that hard. I understand we have 19 candidates, but I hired many jobs. I wait years to find the right candidate. I really can’t wait years. But what I did was I totally felt like an act of desperation. I get what you’re getting at. Anyone else wish to address the point? Jack, after 67th Street, Aaron reminded me that we also have a survey of access to the polling units. I know it’s on the town website, which is very important to find the limited supply of housing in our communities and I can’t see this momentous night. I thank John for being back. I’m very fortunate that John will come to us, especially if you’re a champion. Congratulations on finding it. Thank you. Anyone else wish to address the board?

1:13:22 I don’t see anybody. I just want to make sure they knew they could ask. I don’t see any hands. Okay. Thank you. So we need a motion to go into executive session on the general law chapter 38 for the purposes of contract negotiations. The public discussion on the same day. The board will not be in session. This is. This is. Great. Thank you. Thank you.