Select Board: August 16, 2023

Transcript captured from MHTV’s Vimeo auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

2:41 Our summers are flying by. Okay, so everyone has their mics on.

2:50 Lexi, do you have your mic on? Hundred percent. Just letting you know. Hey here. Bye. It is seven o’clock and I’d like to call this meeting of Wednesday, August 16th, 2023 to order. This meeting is being recorded via Zoom. Our first item on the agenda is the approval of minutes from July 16th and July 26th of this year. So I’d like a motion. So moved. And second. Aye. All in favor?

3:23 Okay. And our second item on the agenda is actually we are, um, looks, I have a notation that this is an interview that is, um, being rescheduled. Kyle? Yes. Okay, great. So, um, our third item on the agenda is a request from Jean record. And this comes with some explanation. Uh, he has, um, he is head of the Koonin Shield Isle Island committee and has submitted request at a proposal for us to support a proposed name change of Brown, of the official, um, geographical designation of Brown Island to Crown and Shield Island. And just for those in the public,

4:10 I’ll kind of give a little bit of a background on this. It was this, um, I think covered in an article in the Marblehead current a few weeks ago. Um, but Jean and the Crown and Shield Island Committee are wishing to change the geographic name and by applying to the US board on geographic names. So this board, uh, requires, um, uh, requires the application, but it also, it’s, it, it requires emphasis of and emphasizes, uh, local use and acceptance and, um, support from the community. So there’s history here that, oh, okay. Great. Gene right here, gene, sorry, we’ve spoken on the phone, but I’ve never met you in person. So I’d like you about invite you to come to the table please so that, um,

4:58 you can better explain this than me, myself.

5:04 Yes. Thank you. Yes, I am Jean R and I, uh, would like to ask the Slack board support,

5:16 uh, in changing the name of Brown Island to Crowns Show Island. Now, many people might wonder, what are you doing? Because it is Crown Show Island. It’s very widely accepted in the community as being Crown Shield Island. But on an article charts, it’s Brown Island. And, uh, the, to make a change, uh, for a name, interestingly, you have to apply the US Board of Geographic names. And so my request for you today is to, uh, support, write a letter of support or a pass, a, a motion to support the name change. You would not be changing the name.

6:01 I would then take that and the other material, which I will cover shortly, and put a package together and send it to the US board of name change. And, uh, they are a little esoteric, but they’re there and they’re, uh, nice people and I’ve talked with them, uh, and they’re receptive to, um, getting a request. So, uh, as you mentioned, Erin, the, the US board has some factors they look at in terms of making a change. They like to see whether the community is general approach and feeling about it is they had local acceptance and, uh, what boards and committees have in their minds, uh,

6:47 in regard to this. And so I have taken, uh, an opportunity to get a letter of support from the trustees of reservations. Uh, a letter of support from the P B D Essex Museum, a letter of support from the Marblehead Museum, a letter of support from the Marble Ed Historical Commission, a vote and support from the Harbors and Waters Board. And, uh, a letter from Jenny Armini, um, our state representative. I think that if you look at a material that is, uh, generally supplied around Marblehead, you’ll see that the conservation group, uh,

7:33 identifies the island as Crown Shield Island. If you look at the, uh, zo the, um, zoning map, uh, it identifies at its Crown Shield Island. If you look at Google Earth, it identifies as it as Crownsville Island. So I’m asking if you, I could get your support in doing this. Now, the Crownsville family is important to me in this because in 1955, they gave this island to the trustees of reservations to be held in Vituity, uh, open and available to the public, uh, of citizens of Marblehead and of the North Shore. And,

8:20 uh, she also provided an endowment to make sure that she was kept undeveloped and in its natural state. And I hope if you have a chance and haven’t been out there, it’s a great place to take a picnic or walk around, but be sure and watch the tide because there have been people who’ve been stranded out there, uh, uh, having walked there and rotti low tide and gotten there in high tide. So, uh, with this in mind, I think the Crown Shields are deserving of, uh, having their name, uh, registered for this, uh, property as they have given it forever to, uh, the people of the North Shore.

9:06 I’d be delighted to answer any questions you might have or speak more. Does anybody have any questions for Mr. Record?

9:16 Just a comment. Go ahead. If I could just, uh, Jean, you’ve done a great job, a lot of, uh, um, great research into this and you’ve gotten all the right people on board, So thank you, Jim. Yeah, Thank you. Excellent. Yeah, I’d just like to say as well, Jean, congrats on mounting what, what amounts to a decades long campaign here and really, and yeah, and really putting an exclamation point with this, with this package because you really mounted the evidence and, and it’s irrefutable. I think that Louise should be so honored. So Thank you, Boless, And let’s hope second time’s the charms is, this is the second time you’ve been in, uh, in this room. It is true on this particular issue, The harbors and waters, uh, the harbor master the last time around was not in favor, and that was a significant factor as to why it didn’t get any further.

10:05 But thank you for listening to me and I appreciate, uh, your interest in this. Thank you.

10:15 Thank you. Action. So I will first ask, um, for a motion, um, in support of the proposed name change of Brown Island to Crown and Shield Island by the Crown and Shield Island Committee. So moved. Second. Okay. And I would just like to say that this is a nautical designation that we are voting, which we don’t have the authority to change it ourselves. This is just simply to reiterate a, um, a vote of support of the petition. And I noticed that there’s two, the signs and the two online mapping agencies already designated

11:01 as Crown and Shield Island. Um, the two signs both on land and on the island designated as Crown and Shield Island. So, um, anybody held up? Anybody? Any discussion in the matter before we vote? I think it’s a great presentation and thorough research. Thank you. Okay. All those in favor? A. Okay. Thank you. And so, second, I will ask for a motion to submit a letter in support of the proposed name change to the US board on geographic names. I moved. I’ll second. Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Great job. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Yeah, thanks for coming in. Very interesting. Okay, so, um, item four on our agenda is,

11:50 um, a request to revise a date of the use of the old townhouse. So the motion is to, that I’m asking for is to approve the request from old Marblehead Improvement Association to revise the previously approved date to use old townhouse to Sunday, November 19th, 2023 from one to 5:00 PM subject to the usual rules, regulations, fees, and receipt of the required certificate of insurance and liquor liability insurance. So second. All in favor.

12:24 Okay. This is just a request from the Marblehead little theater. Um, just Four point since, since we’re, uh, uh, the liquor of liability insurance. Yeah. So it is just to be safe, should we just do pull vote? Oh, it’s Liquor, right? I think you’re right. Yeah. ‘cause we’re changing the date, but the, They don’t No, because it’s a invite badge. Oh. So list. But they will have liquor there. It’s a public building. Gotcha. Okay. Okay. Thanks. Sorry. Catch.

12:59 So, um, our, uh, the next on the agenda is the request from the marli little theater for a one day liquor license. And so I, um, like a motion to approve the request from Bruce Ware Marblehead little theater for a one day liquor license for Saturday August 26th, 2023 from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM at 12 School Street for a comedy show, subject to the following conditions, delivery of and receipt of and receipt by the licensing authority of the required fee, which is $50 delivery of and receipt by the licensing authority of proof. 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, all in accordance with the requirements of general laws. Chapter 1 38,

13:46 alcohol will be purchased from Bent Water Brewery. And this requires a poll vote. So moved. Second. Okay, Ms. Singer? In favor? Mr. Murray In favor, Mr. Greater in favor? Mr. Nye in favor, Ms. No, no. I was gonna call you singer, but I’ll go with Noonan in Favor. I almost just said Aaron instead of in favor, but in favor. Um, next up we have another polled vote. Um, it is a request from the Marblehead Arts Association for one day liquor license. So I am like to, um, solicit a motion to request from Marblehead Arts Association for three one day liquor licenses at eight Hooper Street on the following dates,

14:31 times September 21st, 2023, 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM October 19th, 2023, 6:30 PM nine to 9:00 PM And November 16th, 2023. 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM subject to the following delivery of and receipt by the licensing authority of the required fee, $50 delivery of and receipt by the licensing authority of proof that the alcohol will be purchased from an authorized source. Proof the applicant can receive proper delivery, proper storage and disposal of all alcoholic beverages. Um, purchased all in accordance with the requirements of general laws. Chapter 1 38 and alcohol will be purchased from CAP’S wholesalers. So moved. Second. Mr. In favor, Mr. The grader in favor? Aye. In favor, Ms. Singer also that’s $50 each license.

15:19 Each license. Yep. Good point In favor, singer? Yeah. In favor, Ms. No In favor. Um,

15:29 item seven on our agenda is, um,

15:34 is, uh, is pursuant to, um, open meeting law. And, um, ask for a motion to adopt the town’s website of marblehead.org as the official method of posting notice and notify the Attorney General’s office of this vote. I second. All in favor? Okay. And next we have the, a request from the Counsel on Aging. And we do have Lisa Hooper here, who’s our Director of Counsel on Aging. Why don’t you come on. Thank you.

16:14 Hello. Hi, Lisa. Hi. How are you? Good, welcome. Thank you. Um, do you just wanna, um, it’s just, this is a request to transfer from the Reserve fund? It is. It’s a request to transfer for the Reserve Fund. Um, right about the time of town meeting. We, um, I went to the compensation committee and we had a part-time job made into a full-time job as the transportation coordinator. And this would be the difference. So we could, um, hire this position in fiscal 24 and it would fund the position for the rest of the year.

16:53 All right. Seems like a service a lot of people would use. We do. We, um, we provide almost 7,000 rides a year. 40% are medical appointments for out of town and in town, and 40% are nutrition. That’s Market Basket, the food pantry, the Center for Lunch, um, and things like that. The other 20% are errands in town and bringing people to the facility for fitness programs. So, um, with the coordinator, we’ll be able to expand that as well. ‘cause we’ll have one full-time person dedicated to the phones and Oh, wow. And we have four vans now, so thanks to the Shaddock Fund. That’s Great. Yeah, that’s great. That’s A lot across. And the friends of the C oa I should say. How do people through the chair, sorry. How, um, how do people reach out to you?

17:40 Mostly for like, getting services and mostly through the phone Or Mostly through the phone. We also advertise, we have a, um, council on aging@marblehooddot.org. Um, email that we put on our letterhead. We have a Facebook page, we advertise on M H T V and then word of mouth. Okay. So That’s great. Okay. So I’d like a motion to, um, approve, uh, to authorize the town administrator to appear before the finance committee to request the transfer of the sum of $31,319 from the Reserve Fund in accordance with chapter 40, section six of Mass General Laws for full-time chauffeur position. So moved. Second.

18:26 All those in favor. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Thanks, Lisa. Thank you, Lisa. Good job. Oh, you’re welcome. Were you nervous, Sharon? Not, well, I’m just, because I was doing some of the dragons.

18:41 She’s a good sport. Great. Okay, next on our agenda is a, um, is a request around a removal of shanty number seven at Fort Beach Way, which I do not know much about. So I, So let’s turn it over to Thatcher. Yeah. So, um, we, we are coming after the fact. Um, there was a shanty that was determined to be, uh, near collapse. Um, so we had our public safety folks, our health folks, uh, uh, D B W folks. We had a lot of folks go out there and look at the site. There was some concerns raised by, by neighbors as such. So, uh, a determination was made that we, we need to get that shanty, which had been moved around by the storms.

19:27 So it wasn’t even in its proper location. And it was on the, on the approaching or at least, or partly on the right of way. Um, so anyways, uh, it, it was in, in in dia shape. So some volunteer, uh, residents helped clean out, uh, and actually helped to get rid of the debris and such. So what we’re doing is completing the proper paperwork, uh, getting, this might be an outta fact getting authorization ‘cause these shanties are under the control of the select board. Uh, and then we will, you know, close out the administrative process and put, put the issue behind us. So. Okay. Great. Um, so I would ask for then a motion to approve the removal of shanty number seven

20:16 at Fort Beach Way, subject to approval from Olden Historic District Commission Moved second. Anybody have any questions or discussion? I’ll just mention that approval’s already been done in the historic district. Oh, great. So that’s already, like I said, we, we went through all the other wickets to, to get this to happen. This was the last, the one we needed. Yep. Okay. All right. All in favor.

20:43 Next we have three or four, sorry, four contracts, um, that we’re asked to vote on. Um, the, so let’s see. The first is be, I never say two beum concrete. Okay. So, um, I’ll take them one at a time. The first, uh, motion I’d like to see is a, is, um, to award a three year contract for beum minutes concrete pickup to Holcomb, N e r Inc. Of Middleton Mass in the amount of $653,220. And authorize the chair to sign on behalf of the board. So moved. Second. And then, um, I will just say that, let’s see, um,

21:30 is a multi-year contract, and so the, The Alicia and Chris are signing off on it also. Yeah. So, so when you, when you approve a a three-year contract, you just need to approve the first year, which is in the amount of $217,740 based on the bid. And then the years two and three are subject to appropriation. So as long as they’re funded in the budget, we, we fulfill it. So this is for theum minutes concrete that we go and pick up and bring to the sites as needed. Um, so when you bid out for this, these type of materials, you can bid for pickup that we go out, we pick it up, bring it ourselves at a certain price, or it gets delivered, which is an additional cost. So,

22:16 so it’s done different ways depending on different projects. So this is, uh, for, uh, supply of bituminous concrete for projects needed by D B W. Great. Okay. Um, all those in favor?

22:35 So the second contract is between the town and, um,

22:41 fuel tank and accessories project. Oh, this is an extension of time, Right? So, so, uh, no changing costs just due to weather delays. Uh, this is the replacement of our fuel system, um, replacing our fueling station. And so, um, for the contract that has, has an end date, we’re extending the end date, um, allow them to complete the project. Great. Okay. Um, so the, um, and ask for a motion to amend the contract between the town and c e s, uh, L L C for the fuel tank and accessories project by extending the contract time for performance by 90 days, and authorize the chair to sign on behalf of the board. So moved. Second.

23:26 All in favor? Um, next is a change order, um, around gutters and downspouts. So this is the Oak Coast building right at the bottom of the hill. Yeah, it’s, it started as a painting project, but as they got into it, the building building required some minor repairs and, um, you know, pulling out rotted wooded material during the course of the project, it was determined that, uh, the gutters need to be replacing is the source of a lot of the, the rotting that’s been happening. So since we have the folks out there doing the work, we want to get this done right. Um, so we added, um, the, the provision to, to, to replace the, um,

24:12 the gutter systems while they’re out there repainting and making minor repairs to the building. Okay, great. So I’ll ask for motion to amend the contract for the Ocos building, painting and repair by increasing the contract amount, not to exceed the amount of $2,750, and authorize the chair to sign the change order on behalf of the board. So moved. Second. All in favor? Okay. Um, and then this final contract for before us is, um, it relates to, looks like drain and storm sewer sewers.

24:53 I don’t know. It’s, So it’s just increasing the amount of the contract to take on additional project work, uh, for drains and capital improvements. Yep. So, and it’s funded by the articles approved the previous town meetings. Okay. So I’ll ask for a motion to amend the contract between the town and Haley Ward Inc. For engineering services by increasing the not to exceed amount for the first year by $50,000. And an authorized the chair to sign on behalf of the board. This will not extend the contract time nor increase year two, Two and three. Two and three. And not to exceed. Right. So each year has a not to exceed amount. Okay. So it’s not changing those, it’s, it’ll Not extend the contract time nor increase year two and threes not to extend

25:39 Not to exceed amount. Amount. Yep. Not to exceed amount. So Moved. Second. All on David. Okay. Um, and then we next up have a, um, letter from Candace Slimy, who has served us so well on the Marblehead task force against discrimination that she will be, um, um, stepping down and, um, no longer able to serve.

26:11 So, um, I’d ask for emotion, um, and, and recognition and gratitude of her time and dedication to the task force against discrimination. So, moved. Second. Second. All in favor

26:30 With regret? Yes. Yep. A um, so next, uh, we have a gift request, um, or, uh, from Chief King, um, to who has been, they, they’ve been offered a donation of a vehicle to be used in the performance of criminal investigation operations. And, um,

26:58 this is one of many gifts apparently that Mr. Rosenberg has given over the years. Marblehead Police Department has benefited greatly by the use of these criminal investigation, um, vehicles. And this comes at no cost or obligation to the town. And so our vote is just to accept the, um, accept the gift. So like a motion to accept as a gift to the town, a vehicle from David Rosenberg at no cost to the town, and a clear title, and to put in the care and custody of the Marblehead Police Department. So, moved second. All in any discussion? All right. All all in favor. Okay. That brings us to the, um, some more arpa, uh, funding. And we have a memo in our books from, uh,

27:47 Thatcher and two proposed, uh, votes with, uh, on the ARPA funding. Sure. So, um, two items, two more items coming from, from the list. Um, the first one is, um, in regards to the finance department to, uh, authorize the funding would allow us to hire a consultant or a c p A firm to redo the chart of accounts for, for our all our line items. Um, as, as you may recall it, I dunno if it was the last meeting or the, uh, one of the recent meetings, uh, uh, this board authorized the spending to, to, um, the cost of transferring our, uh,

28:34 financial software from the legacy system that we have into a new system. And we’re, we’re, we’re out on the street with an R F P, uh, for, for the new system. Um, it, um, it makes sense that if we’re gonna go through a process of transitioning from the old software to the new software, the vendors, whatever vendor we end up going to, what typically happens is they have a team, a data team that actually does all the hard work of moving the data over and mapping it properly and setting it up properly for us. So it makes sense for us to, before that process, is to create the new chart of accounts that’s badly needed. And what I mean by the chart of accounts,

29:21 it’s all our line items and descriptions of all of the spending items and revenue items that are set up in the accounting system. Um, I know I went through the painful process when I was building a budget manually on a spreadsheet and having to look at every single line item multiple times. Um, there, there’s just far more line items that we need or use, as well as the, the methodology that was set up for keeping track of projects based on project numbers. The software we have has a limited number that it can go to. So, and the counterpart, they have to reuse project numbers and it creates some problems with historical numbers compared to current numbers and so forth.

30:09 So we wanna take advantage of this time of doing a migration to clean up the chart of accounts. And this is joint with the schools. So this is a benefit both for the, for the town and the schools in this whole process. Um, and to get the, the clean chart of accounts, because then the vendor is the one that will, when they do the migration, will do all the mapping from the old numbers to the new numbers and make everything set up properly. So, uh, we estimated about 65,000 to get this done, and we’d like to get this started, uh, as quickly as possible. So that’s the basis of this request. Um, the second item, it’s been, uh, talked about, uh, we do, we, I gonna run a motion for both together. I, sorry, Sorry. However you wanna do it. I,

30:56 I, yeah, no, I was gonna, yeah, we can, we can do either. Um, I, I propose I, I wrote it up as if you did both together, but you can separate also either way. You, Um, well, why don’t we take them one at a time and that way we can address ‘cause they’re very different. And, um, so, okay. So, um, I have a couple questions. Maybe other people have some comments, but, um, I can make the motion, right. I, I can ask for a motion and then we can have discussion, um, in that, you know, with a second in that, in that order. Um, so I’ll ask for a motion to approve the $65,000 for a chart accounts consultant. 200, 200. Um, that’s

31:42 65,000. It’s 65,000. I guess you got, I didn’t catch the typo in your Oh, gotcha. I’m sorry. That’s a typo. This is why we need this person. I know we have a motion And a second. Um, so any questions and or discussion from the board on the, um, yeah, My, my, my only comment is, so in addition to what Thatcher Thatcher mentioned, it’s also a crucial downstream. Uh, it has a crucial downstream impact on our capacity to do zero based budgeting, which is like four years ago was completely aspirational. And so now we’re really getting to a place where we can, we can execute against that.

32:24 And, um, what is the timeframe for the consultant? Are you envisioning? Um, I’m this Like a Alicia, work with them much quicker than if we tried to do it in-house? Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I’m not sure Alicia could do it, but I, I, I’m, I’m gonna say it, it probably within a few months. It’s not six months, it’s not a year. It’s less than that. Great.

32:50 All right. Um, seeing no further comments or questions, I’d, um, like, so all for a vote. All those in favor? Okay. Hey, unanimous. Okay. Next up regarding ARPA is a request, um, from our town administrator for a hundred thousand dollars in red’s pond improvements. So, um, Red’s pond a topic that we’ve talked about here, and just my short time here and, and I know it’s been a number of stories. In fact, there was an excellent story just recently in one of the local papers that current I think had it, that really kind of described, uh, the pond and the challenges on it very, very well. Um, so,

33:37 uh, we know we need to do work. The the challenge that that, that we’ve been faced with is there’s, uh, uh, a stonewall along about three quarters of the pond, um, that, and then there was, uh, the walk path that’s had pavement over the top of the walk path that there is, uh, um, water filtration coming through the walls, bringing silt through the wall. So, so what was happening is underneath the walkway, uh, the ground underneath was eroding away into the pond. So public works, um, we had a number of people involved. Our engineering, our engineer, public works, uh, parks, and we, and cemeteries too, because of their in proximity. So we worked out a plan, uh,

34:24 public works was able to go in and reconstruct large portions of the walkway where they put in larger material and smaller material and top layer of, I think that’s reconstructed granite that’s at the top layer, just stone dust. It’s just stone dust, but it’s compacted sufficiently. So it, it’s access accessibility issues. But what we’ve done is, um, took out the pavement because what was happening, it was the ground was eroding from under the pavement, and the pavement was still there in creating a danger that sinkholes Yeah, sinkholes that somebody was gonna step in the hole and, and, and go in. So by taking out the, the asphalt, putting in the stone dust and those material as a temporary fix, what we wanna do is a more permanent fix to,

35:10 to that area of the pond to make those improvements. So, um, purpose of the funding would, would be for the, for an engineering firm to do the, uh, design work, all the permitting ‘cause it’s waterway, um, preparation for construction. So what that means is, is part of before constructing possibility of, of test pits for testing and soil testing, that things that, that may need to be done. So we cover those as well as, um, if it’s a full blown wall reconstruction that’ll take a couple years before, um, that would actually happen, we want to have some funds to be able to maintain it, to keep it safe during that interim period. Um, so what this would get us to is basically to a shovel ready project with a

35:57 good pricing based on what the, what the actual construction would be, uh, all the, all, all the work that leads up to it. We are fortunate, um, in that, uh, our state rep Jenny Armeni, was successful in getting an, an earmark, if we’re allowed to call it an earmark in the budget, um, of $25,000 as a supplement to this project. So, so this would, the a hundred thousand plus the 25,000, um, gives us a, a good conservative number, um, allows us to have a contingency, um, to make sure we can complete these actions. If there’s any funds not used, it would be the APA funds not used and we would just roll it back and, and reuse it for other purposes, right. If it comes in for, for less the cost,

36:45 but we wanna be sure that we can complete all the actions necessary and have the funds there to get through to the point where we can put it out for construction. So that’s the basis of that request. Okay.

37:01 I know you have a certain methodology of how to prioritize the projects, but I think everyone can appreciate that Red’s pond is like, is really a town treasure, really unique with part of what makes Marblehead special. And it’s, um, yeah. So, uh, it’s, it’s been an, this is a great use in my mind of one-time funding for a project so desperately in need of funds. It’s one of those things that’s hard to justify and a, you know, in a capital way, but, um, with so many ongoing operational needs. So this is a, I think to me, a really good use of these funds.

37:44 Um, so I’d like to ask for a motion, uh, to, um, approve a hundred thousand dollars in, in which is, would be in addition to the state’s budget earmark for the engineering design permitting and maintenance for improvements to red’s pond. Second, I’ll, um, any comments Just point clarification. Yeah. Um, so this will be to do the study and The engineering Yeah, yeah. The engineering study. Yeah. Um, and this is also encompassing, um, the wall construction as well. Like, that will be part of the study, like if it’s necessary or that’s, um, is it looking at like, obviously the walkable service and the wall,

38:32 um, right. So I know you mentioned that, but I couldn’t in my notes tell what you were referencing there. Right. So the, the, the main part is, is the wall itself, right? But as part of, if it’s a full reconstruction would include the whole walkway portion of it. ‘cause obviously that would have to be dug up and and replaced. So, um, what’s envisioned is the final product is a, a beautiful, wonderful walkway, permanently fixed walkway for the use of, you know, walking the, the, the, the model boat competitions. They have to, to make that space, um, permanently fixed for, for those type of activities and safe. Okay. Yeah. And that would also include it, I mean, if we’re doing a study there,

39:17 but just wanna make sure like a handicap accessibility over there as well, because that’s been one of the issues that it’s, you know, been Yep. Difficult for people to get over there. And then this funding would allow for, um, the, this is correct, just the temporary maintenance while we’re waiting Right. For that. So we keep the area safe until we can make sure we Have Right, it covers cost of keeping it Yeah. Safe and, and impassable until the construction. Right. So this isn’t gonna pay for the actual construction. Right. This will give us the price tag, the permits Yeah. Basically to use the term shovel ready Correct. To bid it out and, and move forward. So we would, you know, presumably put a capital request in at when, when this process is complete.

40:03 Okay. And just but from the location or any, is there been any grants, any other funding that could be identified once this became shovel ready? Like anything that’s come across your radar? Just curious. I mean, we always, always look for that. Yeah. But I, I, it’s, it, it’s, how do I put it? It, it’s, it’s not something that’s readily conducive to a lot of the grants that we normally deal with. Yeah. Um, and that’s, that’s been part of the challenge of funding it. It’s, yeah, it’s a big enough price tag that it’s not something that you can fit in a department’s budget. Right. And, um, there aren’t, you know, those other opportunities. So that’s why we’re taking advantage of Yeah. To get the packet Assessment to move this one forward. Perfect. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for the clarification.

40:50 Okay. So, um, I guess we’re ready to vote. So all in favor. That’s great. And I’ll just like to state, um, that the total request at this time for the board’s consideration, sorry. Right. So we, okay. Out of the total $6,144,030 in ARPA funds, that is available for Marblehead

41:18 5,175,445 had been previously approved for funding. With these projects approved, we will now have a remaining balance of 803 500 and, and 85, 800 $3,585 in the ARPA balance. Okay. Next, I think that brings us to the end of our regular business, just Yep. Um, and so next on our agenda is our continuing, um, discussion, um, around the volunteer appointment process. And I just, um, put on here on the agenda some space for, uh,

42:06 us to collectively respond to the feedback. Um, from the one we had looking at it now, we had 72 responses of volunteers participating in our, in our feedback survey. Um, I can put it up on the, on the screen, but we all have it in our packet. Um, like, I don’t know if it’s helpful for people to follow along. I put it on the screen, I don’t need to go through it, you know, too detailed, just kind of high level. Wanted to review the results, um, here.

42:45 So can I screen share it, Kyle? Yes. Okay. So share screen. Okay. Desktop, right. That, okay.

43:02 Okay. Please let me do this. Right. Okay. Okay, great. So we had 72 responses. It’s like a delay. Okay. So I thought it was kind of interesting. Um, you know, it’s kind of a shorter survey, but how, you know, how people learned of these positions. Um, seems like board members on the volunteer committees themselves are doing a really good job as well as, um, select board members of, of putting this out there in the community, that there’s roles to play in town, government, and, um, you know, notifying people when there is, um, vacancies.

43:48 I thought it was interesting. We have 12% from our town website. People hear about their, have heard about the vacancy and the local newspapers. So that’s 20%. That’s, um, that’s a great service that we’re getting from our local newspapers. Um, I don’t know, did anything stand out to anybody from this? It’s interesting. Um, looks like just going down quickly, people per people are quite content with the current, um, application of a submitting submission of a letter of interest versus a, you know, more of a form application. So, um, that was interesting. People seem pretty happy with the way that, um, that with the, you know, letter of interest format and people also seem pretty happy with the current

44:37 process for interviews was my takeaway. We had, um, let’s see, uh, 58 al, almost 59% were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied about the interview process. 37 had no opinion. Um, and so mostly overall it looks like interview processes, um, people are satisfied with, and then people would prefer they do not receive the ques that, that volunteers do not get the questions in advance by an overwhelming majority. And then, um, we had just general feedback. We don’t need to go through all of it. Um, around, um, the ways that select board could improve upon the interview process. We’ve all seen them a lot, a lot of, um,

45:25 thoughtful responses that, you know, I’m, I myself read thoroughly. I’m sure that all of us members were had who have, we’ve all had access to it. I’m sure that all of us have really taken these, um, to heart. So I, I think, um, you know, just if any, this can be kind of an informal conversation if anybody has anything that stood out to them or around, um, the, it’s like the, this would be the interview process. Um, Madam Chair. Yes, of course. Um, I generally thought this was a great, uh, feedback Yeah. Uh, opportunity, right. Especially the written comments. So, you know, there are a lot of insights. I think there’s good balance. You get kind of a flavor for where people kind of, uh, came out. I mean,

46:15 you know, after having read through it very carefully, I think there’s several things that I would be kinda like side with and, and, and other things that I’d be, you know, would, would, would flag along with the number of the commentators. And I think, you know, definitely for more information, more metrics and rub rubrics, you know, that people can see, uh, more descriptions, especially around the role of the boards, uh, you know, their governing, uh, the governing statutes in the context of their statutes. Yeah. And I think people, it’s really useful to look to know that. And also, I don’t know if we go so far as to say, you know, we should identify certain helpful, um, you know, qualifications, uh, around potential members. But I think it’s part of the, you know, communication effort. I think it’s, it’s,

47:01 it’s very useful to have more incentives and to motivate more volunteers to kind of step up to the plate and, and kind of feel comfortable doing that. I think some of the cons were kind of like, you know, we don’t really want more bureaucracy or micromanagement necessarily. Right. And, you know, or barriers to volunteerism. And, you know, I kind of, you know, there’s kind of, I think a lack of appreciation is one of those potential, uh, barriers. Uh, and I think if there’s a perspective that there’s haphazard or arbitrary decisions on each of the boards that could be viewed negatively, because I think there’s a perception that each of the boards has kind of a unique aspect to it. Um, I just think we ought to think about that. Mm-hmm. And, you know, I, I think we don’t, you know, we don’t have a surplus of volunteers in a lot of these positions.

47:49 So I think we’ve be, we gotta be cognizant of that. Um, and I think in each committee is pretty unique. Um, you know, I think we ought to have wide open doors though, to new, you know, to new volunteers, you know, um, yeah. Great. Yeah. Great point. Yep. The chair. So I had a similar takeaway to Moses on this was really, um, you know, whether someone was asking about, uh, you know, some sort of plan of succession or, um, information out there that allowed someone who was interested in the board to have, uh, you know, not from a sense of bureaucracy, but just from a sense of a point of information. Uh, you know, what would someone who would be interested in, what are some of the qualifications someone might have? What are the backgrounds someone might have at this, you know,

48:34 that would be interested in this position? I was also, uh, you know, I saw consistently, um, wanting to know what the boards and committees did, what a little background, you know, those types of things. And really, I think, um, describing, which you highlighted on as their each board and committee is its own living entity. And not necessarily about who the players, but what is the, you know, what is the consensus? What does that board do? What do they focus on? What does their purpose? And so I think that also helps with bringing in volunteers, because when you’re looking at something and you are able to have a greater understanding, it might speak to you more. It might sound that that’s something that you’re interested and willing to step up. And also, um, which we’ve talked about in here too, but just continuing to expand how we

49:21 put that information out there. How do we let people know? How do they know that these ex, you know, positions exist when the volunteer opportunities come out, how do we push that information out? Um, so yeah, that, that was kind of, kind of the takeaway that we highlighted before. And as more results came back in, that was, um, a, a consistent theme that came through most of these. And, um, you know, surprisingly, uh, you know, some of them were, you know, pretty surprising not that, and what they, they gave back in a helpful way, you know, that people supported. So I was also super thankful for everyone who took the time to get back to us in the middle of the summer and participate in this. So we, uh, had an opportunity to really hear their voices. So, but I had a very similar takeaway from what, what we were looking at here.

50:11 Great. Um,

50:16 okay. I think, yeah, that there was, um, I think something that stood out me, for me for the survey was, um, that there was majority in support of, um, moving some of these one year terms over to three year terms. Um,

50:36 and we have quite a number of committees that have one year terms task force discrimination. Um, I, I think, um, there’s a, there’s a list of them. I have, there’s a, there’s a number of them. The majority. Yeah. The majority, yeah. And, um, to my knowledge, when I did, when I did do look into the bylaws around and, and know and how, and, uh, there’s some zoning, board of appeals exam, for example, is set up by stat state statute, that’s a five-year term. Um, when I did look at the, by bylaws for a few of these one year term boards, there wasn’t any specificity around, um, the, the length of the term.

51:22 So it seems to me that it was created by the board. So it would be something that would be, you know, a simple vote of our board to change the term. That’s just my, like, look into it. Um, and so maybe something that we consider down the road is to kind of, um, maybe it, maybe it is more beneficial to move these terms, some of these terms, you know, over, um, down the road to, to three year terms. I’m chair if I could Yeah. Respond to this, but yeah, I got the sense that there were a couple of, not minding, let’s say. Yeah. But I think the additional wrinkle on this is that, you know, there each board, you know, the question is, is how do we go about changing, uh, you know, terms on respective boards? And I think, again,

52:08 this is part of kind of reaching down to the board chairs and members who are, you know, existing right now mm-hmm. And kind of really listening to what they say about, because I think some boards are better off with one year, some with three. I think some people feel like they, it’s harder to commit to a three-year term. I think that’s one of the reasons. And I think if people wanna, you know, I guess you could look at it pro and con, right? I mean, three-year terms would keep a ke keep people on longer, um, and commit longer. But we may get fewer, uh, you know, applicants people might be able to see themselves as kind of having that option to re-up for another year if it’s just a year long thing. So I don’t know whether, you know, I just don’t know whether, we don’t wanna be arbitrary about pushing, uh, a term down to boards that,

52:53 you know, you know, unless we have a compelling reason that involves a discussion with these, with the separate committees. That, that would be my suggestion. I mean, I kind of, I, I kind of saw that in some of the feedback as well. Yeah. Um, let’s see.

53:10 Um, It’s something to revisit certainly, you know. Yep. I think, uh, we could, part of that process and analysis when we do take that up is to look at the history of membership and mm-hmm. You know, there’s one year terms where I think it is, it is, it is a fair point. It does three years deter people from serving. But I also think that there is, you know, the three year term allows for, you do want people to invest to come on and kind of be, have an a year to learn the rope, you know, learn some, have the year to like learn and a mentorship and then, you know, kind of those three years of, of growth on the board, um, or the committee. So yeah, I think we look at the history of, you know, are people serving longer than one year? Generally speaking,

53:55 is everyone serving more than one year? We could probably say it’s safe to say we wouldn’t discourage people looking at that. Um, but yeah, that’s something we should definitely consider down the road. Um, seemed like, uh, most people agreed that there should be a, like a, a mix of first time newer and longer serving members. We had, um, you know, very few people act 4% only disagreed with that, or well, somewhat disagreed, nine, 9%. Um, but for the most part it seems to be, uh, that people are looking for that on a committee. Um,

54:36 and then, yeah, just more feedback on the volunteer process. Um, and I did, so I did speak with a couple chairs of, um, adjudicatory boards just on the phone, and I wanted to bring some of that feedback back to the, to the board tonight. Um, so because I, and I reached out to, um, both Charles Hibbard and his role on O O H D C, old and Historic District Commission, and Brian La Clare from, um, con Conservation Commission because, uh, it seems that these boards, you know, in my conversation with Kyle, have historically been difficult to, to fill at times in the past. They’re adjudicatory, they’re different than, um, in that way, and they’re highly professional.

55:25 And, um, so you know, Charles, um, from, who’s the chair of the O H T C, you know, he served for 10 years and, um, just, I kind of asked him about the makeup of their board and the current challenges and what their feedback was. So, um, just, um, he served for 10 years. The secretary on the O HT C is the second longest serving. He’s, um, served for six, about six years. And everyone else has been on the commission for under five years. Um, three of them joined within the last two years, maybe three. Mm-hmm. He says the current challenges on O H G C, um, that he sees are the uptick in development pressure over the last five years. People wanting to develop properties in ways that may or may not align with historical appropriateness. Um, and also, you know, he did mention,

56:13 uh, very recent, um, challenges. Obviously there’s a lot of work with the building department and our building department. We’re going through a little bit of a transition with that. So, um, so I thought that was interesting. Um, he, his recommendations was, you know, he thought, you know, it might be helpful for O H D C members to get notified when interviews are gonna be held so they can encourage people that, um, are interested to talk to them and reach out to them with contact information. You know, he’s felt that when applicants are able to connect with current members, they’re able to give them a full picture of what they’re signing up for. And he also thinks it’s important that both full-time and alternate members understand that they’re expected to be at all meetings possible as, and because everyone really needs to be up to speed on current,

56:59 the current issues and challenges. Maybe it’s, you know, might be, um, you know, issues around, um, you know, net zero and, and, and, um, you know, heat pumps or say in, in the district. And there’s an ongoing conversation that repeats and it’s good for, um, members on the committee and even alternates to be able to step in and, and have an appreciation for that background and context. Uh, so he, one of his ques suggested questions for applicants when we interview them was that alternates, um, you know, to basically say that alternates are expected to show up. And is that your understanding and are you willing to commit to that as an alternate if we’re filling those seats? He said the time commitment has been greater in the last five years because they’re now running about two meetings a month.

57:45 So that was just something he observed. Um, you know, they’re interacting with the select board, the building department, O H T C, um, obviously sometimes legal counsel. So, um, it is a, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a commitment. Um, he thinks, you know, it could be beneficial for O H D C members to provide, to be provided town email addresses. So they have an email account dedicated to O H D C businesses that their business there. Um, he thinks it conveys a level of professionalism and transparency for the work. Um, he, he emphasized that the community wants to feel and trust that they’re acting professionally. Um, people are talking about people’s homes, money projects, all of that. And um, uh,

58:31 and also having the email address would allow prospective volunteers to reach out to current members easier, um, for better understanding. And he also had mentioned, and then I asked Brian how he felt about it, but he had brought it up and I thought it was interesting. Um, he thought if the board could put on open meeting law training on a maybe annual basis or bi-annually, I don’t know, you know, may, whether we do it, um, in-house or have we intend. Okay, that’d be great. Yeah, he had met, yeah, he just thought that would be really beneficial because some members have been on there longer serving and it’s been a while since they’ve been, you know, and, and there’s changes in the law, so always. So, um, and then, um, Brian for his feedback from the conservation commission, you know,

59:18 he’s been on the Conservation Commission for 18 years and he had, um, he’s, he’s stepping down. He wants to spend more time on a sailboat. Um, they meet the second Thursday of every month, sometimes meet twice a month. And he said that in storms and weather, they get a rush of people who need to do repairs, and that affects con com. So, um, recent challenges he said is that, uh, you know, if there could be more PR around, um, recent challenges he’s seeing is wetland, reg regulations. And so if there is a way which, um, you can get a minor activity permit and you don’t have to get hit with the enforcement, you just get a minor activity permit, which people seem to not be so aware of, he is not quite sure how we can better publicize that maybe through for the building department or the website. Um, but because, um,

1:00:06 then they, they don’t get this little minor permit, then they’re hit with the enforcement and, and they don’t even know that they could just, so, um, yeah. So let’s see. Oh, another thing that he, that, that he mentioned, which might be unique to kind of these adjudicatory boards that he said that it happened once when he was on there, but there’s state, the state ethic laws around conflict of interest may be precluding some professionals that work in town, um, from, from volunteering, uh, because of the, um, rule that you can’t appear before. Another board, he, he said it, you know, when he’s been on there, he’s seen it happen where somebody, you know, was on and had to step off or, and he’s thinking it may be, it could possibly be deterring volunteerism if there is a struggle

1:00:55 to find volunteers to serve the role. And he suggests maybe we consider, you know, designating some of these, you know, board special town employee, uh, ‘cause there’s a lot of like local landscape architects or, you know, arc, um, engineers, attorneys, consultants that work in town that would wanna volunteer their specialized services, but, um, you know, may have a conflict of interest. So, uh, he thinks that longevity has institutional value, you know, obviously, um, oh, and he did recommend that, um, there’s a certain grouping of skill sets that he finds useful to the, to the conservation commission. And it’s, he said it’s extremely useful to have an architect,

1:01:41 which they don’t have right now, an engineer, which they do have. And it’s extremely useful to have a landscape architect and people in the environmental field. So, um,

1:01:53 I think the takeaway from that was just that there’s certain things that, you know, those are the, that’s the kinda the cohort that’s extremely valuable. And if we’re deciding and, and interviewing people for an application to sit on that committee and maybe one’s, one’s a landscape architect and one’s an engineer, and there’s a real need on the committee for, you know, um, we could, we should reach out to them before we, you know, if when possible that the board board members should reach out, um, around that. And he su he, he suggested that in the past he had been invited to submit questions as a chair of the conservation commission. Um, or that, um, when he interviewed the chair of the conservation Commission was invited

1:02:39 and asked questions of the applicants. And he thought that was interesting. Um, and he also agreed that the open meeting law training would be valuable. That’s all. I just wanted to share that

1:02:54 Madam Chair. Yeah, of course. Yeah. I, I think the one thing we just have to remember is this, this is a multi-layer, you know, process. And this is, you know, you have the one layer, which is ours, you know, how are we gonna go about the appointment, you know, and reappointment process. And then I think the next layer, because Mr. Gray was saying, getting more, you know, getting to the committees and getting their feedback. And, and again, as you reached out to those to find out what specific individuals with expertise, ‘cause one of the quotes I saw in here, it said, required experience, expertise in the subject matter of the boards and committees, and not just, you know, interest. And I actually had numerous people come up to me and say, you, you have no applicants. Somebody applied, you appointed them. Mm, that’s true. And so they said that we,

1:03:41 they would’ve rather seen that role go unfulfilled for that volunteer than point somebody just because there was interest. And so I think that right now, the next step is for us to, to do that process. After that it’s to dig down into these committees so that they can work their own due diligence in their own processes to help us understand what they need. And then again, we can just certain determine whether we need the three-year terms, obviously, you know, like the task force discrimination. We may need to do one year term for the students wanna serve, but maybe three years for the non-student members, you know, because again, you know, they’re gonna be graduating. They’re usually typically juniors or seniors, you know. So, um, so I, I, you know, I was really quite pleased with the process and I just wanna add my comments in addition to what, you know, Ms. Singer, you and Mr. Greater had also said.

1:04:30 Okay. Um, so are we, so I, I did submit a, a, a revised draft based on feedback from our last meeting. Um, I’m not, it’s a little clunky to craft policy in this way,

1:04:50 but is there any, um, I don’t know if, do people wanna go, just, I’m imagining people have edits that they’re, they’d like to propose for consideration. Um, is that correct? Mm-hmm. Okay, perfect. So yes. Yeah, just the, yes. So, um, and we can have this convers, we can kind of dispense what the formalities of through the chair for now. Now please, we can, um, have this conversation, um, more informally. So, um, I guess maybe I’ll just go through it by section, by section, if that makes sense. Um, does any, so you have section one as the purpose. Does anybody have any, um,

1:05:36 anybody have any comments around this or, or disagreements with the way this is worded? Okay. Here. Okay. So, um, goals for appointment, I, I did change, um, the di the diverse membership, Jim, based on what you had said for what I thought. Um, and, and, you know, I did, does anybody, how do people feel about this language and this section? Yes. Okay. Uh, just I have some, uh, concern on B and C, just the word ensure. Okay. Uh, not the drink, but the Ensure. Yeah. Ensure. So when you look it up, it’s to make sure Sure. And make certain, and guarantee Okay. My concern, uh,

1:06:23 with the word ensure, um, particularly on number C, to ensure that boards are made up of a mix of first time newer and more experienced volunteers, in part to ensure appropriate succession and turnover. Sounds good. In theory is, so if we have, uh, two people going for a position, one person, she’s been on the board for six years, and then a new member comes in. Mm-hmm. The six year board member is fire and away superior. Yes. Brand new person, no experience, no knowledge, no professional. But by ensuring that we have a first time member, that we don’t have any other first time members,

1:07:08 we’ll have to pick that person that’s not qualified. I think that’s a very valid, so I would say, what would you like to propose? Well, I, I either strive or endeavor Sure. Or endeavor to seek. Endeavor. Exactly. Okay. Because I think we need to make this right. We spend a lot of time on Google trying to find the right word. Okay. So what if I change? Um, so Instead of insure, just even Endeavor or Strive, How about I’m gonna be to strive to create boards that have a diverse membership to strive to create boards. Is That better? You can just, you could replace, you could replace insurer with Endeavor to seek, you know, to endeavor, to seek that. Boards have a diverse membership to endeavor, to seek that. Boards are made up of Never to seek. Okay. Mm-hmm. And that’s a good point.

1:07:56 Um, just don’t wanna lock ourselves into something that you Yep. That, um, again, for the appointment process, it, it, uh, Differ. You don’t want it to be too narrow in scope that we take away. I agree. All of our, um, thoughts. Okay. Um, and experiences. Okay. So I’ve made those changes to en to Endeavor to seek, to create boards mm-hmm. That have a diverse membership. And then, and then to endeavor, to seek

1:08:36 That board, that boards are To endeavor, to seek That boards or made up a okay. Mix. Okay. Okay. Changes have been made. Um, and then anything else around goals. Okay. How about criteria for appointment? This I added because I realized we didn’t have it in there. It’s new. You haven’t seen it before. That’s why I highlighted it. Um, so I thought, ‘cause this came up once since I’ve been here. Someone was asking, do you have to be a resident to serve on a board? I don’t, you know, we like, what do we think? You know, I, I, that’s why let in the, in the spirit of being less prescriptive, I, I crafted it as barring special circumstances member must be residents of

1:09:22 Marblehead. Do people feel that as a good, I wouldn’t even know what special circumstances. I know. I just, I’m like, unless you were, if you were a business owner in town, or a specialist that we wanted to bring in from like a neighboring community or something, but I mean, should Be a town resident. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that was my initial, my opinion. Okay. I’m, I’m hap I’m fine to, because Professional, like Becky for instance, doesn’t live in town, but she’s a professional in town, so she can be on these committees, but she’s not appointed A volunteer. Right. Yeah. So, I mean, my initial instinct was that volunteers should be residents, or at least I couldn’t think of a situation where there Are other towns that had, like, if you have a special interest in the town, either you’re, you have a business or pay taxes or,

1:10:08 um, a special, uh, yeah, I’m fine with keep just staying. You should be a member of the town of Resident to be a, a town, a resident of the town of Marblehead to be a volunteer member. Does that. Yeah, we can always, sounds good to me. You Can always change it. And Statutorily, I don’t think we’re Barr from any of that In your last No, Your last paragraph is the board may modify this policy. Exactly. So it gives us leeway if, if we do run into that situation. Okay. And then B um, I’ll review this ‘cause it’s, new candidates must be aware of the regular schedule as well as willing and able to devote the time and energy necessary to fulfill their responsibilities. C members shall disclose any conflict of interest and recuse themselves as warranted. D Oh, Madam. Just on c I mean,

1:10:53 I think in some ways the question is what does that mean? You know, does it, does it, you know, does it need to be reviewed by the State Ethics commission? Or, and I, and I know, you know, conflict of interest. I understand the spirit of what you’re saying here. Yeah. I mean, I think, I think it’s necessary, but it’s like, uh, you know, it can deter volunteers to some extent. If we’re, um, I guess to what extent do we ask them to volunteer that information if they perceive a conflict of interest? And if they do, do they need to, do they need to kind of prove, you know, I’m talking, I’m thinking about the interview process, right? I see what you’re saying’s kind like. Okay. Because it’s far, you have a conflict or, or in a letter, do you have a conflict of interest? Right. And so the question is Existing conflict. How about existing conflicts of interest? Or, or is it just an appearance of conflict? You know, I mean, or is it, or is it a conflict that they have to vet with the state ethics commission?

1:11:41 You know, at the end of the day, you know what I mean? I, I think that’s a big barrier to entry. I’m just, I’m raising the question only because, um, you know, you’re saying members shall disclose any conflict they have to comply with. So instead of shell members, It’s not thinking like in the interview process. Like if somebody is a contractor on a job or something and they’re Yeah, totally. They’re, they haven’t taken the oath. They haven’t, you know, this, it’s coming from, um, also coming from like, other examples of similar policies. And it seems like I can understand, you know, that, that it, you know, we sh that we, we should a, maybe it’s just an interview question we ask a few. I think we Usually do. Mm-hmm. Maybe we should just be more steadfast in asking interview questions, especially for these adjudicatory boards. So can we generalize it to something along the

1:12:28 Lines of, you know, Members shall comply with? Well, we already, I mean, we’re, they, we’re expecting ‘em to comply. This is more like criteria for appointment. It’s more like you can’t be appointed if you’ve got a big project you’re working on that’s gonna come before the board, you’re sitting on, you know of it and like, you know, or like you’re inform themselves, maybe we don’t need it. We, we delete it. And it’s just something we ask in our interviews. Yeah. Well, I think that gives us a little more flexibility. ‘cause I think what happens if you put it, if we put it down here and someone expresses that they think they have a conflict of interest, now we’re adjudicating that. Right. And, and kind of like on what basis, uh, does it become Yeah. You know? Yeah. I, it’s, uh, I’m okay with deleting it. Yeah. Okay. I think that And do other people, or if you fine with that, I think it’s something we can definitely,

1:13:17 I think it’s, it’s a question that de depending on the board, we should probably be asking in interviews. Like, I think that’s, It’s kind of tough. I just, I worry ab I, if somebody’s appointed and they, they have to go to the town clerk and they have to get the conflict of interest. Yeah. Material. They have to watch the videos, Then they’re beholden to it, and then they’re beholden. That’s already said. Then they have to, Then they have to do it before they’re officially appointed. What I just worry about is if they start coming out and saying, I may have this, right? Yeah. And then We open ourselves up to some legalities. How about I delete it? I turn your hat here. Exactly. Right. And it’s just, it’s, it’s similar. Like when you have a mother coming up, you’re not gonna say to her, you know, you may be pregnant. You know, you don’t, or, you know, do you have time? You do, there’s certain things you don’t wanna ask. During the interview process, it could open you up. And that might be one of them that now it’s on the record. And, um, okay.

1:14:03 So let’s take it out if everyone’s cool with that. Um, and then the next, I put this in here because it just allows kind of that like differentiation of the, the, that we, that there, that the select board would be looking for certain skill sets with regard to these adjudicatory boards. Not that it’s, you know, it just said it’s highly desirable. ‘cause it’s under criteria. Yeah. This goes back to my earlier comment about the different layers. I think this, this process about how we appoint, but I think the next step in this process is to now get those chairs and those committees to come up with their own, how they operate and what they view. And then we can, we can then infer that into our interview process, you know?

1:14:49 But I think we need to go down. So I think there’s a general, how do we solicit, how do we vote? You know, the dates we do it, but then the next layer is specifically for that individual board. And I think that’s where we’re gonna have to have the liaisons here work with those chairs to develop that criteria to help them and understand them better to come back here. So I think this is, there’s one layer of our policy. The next layer is those individuals. I mean, I’d be fine if you wanna use that as kind of an example, but I just don’t know if that’s quite needed at this point. Okay. We, But I, but again, I’ll hear other People. No, I think, I think you’re, I think you’re, I think you’re, you’re, you’re right. You’re right on. Um, I think the, you know, there’s other committees as well. Like, like, uh, yes. Like, like fin com Right. That We would I know I have this thought. Yeah. Yeah. They’re not adjudicatory per se. And I am not sure whether there’s a legal

1:15:34 Distinc, but obviously you’re looking for a certain, you know, for certain, yeah. For, for c certain nu numeracy, you know, stuff like that. Yeah. My notes on this were either adjusted or like, I have a couple things that I have like including but not limited to. Yeah. You know, um, language. Yep. That would be Better. Okay. It just gives that, Why don’t we just make, or You could take out the section that’s being specific and generalize it like so either or. Those were just the two notes I have. What if I delete it? Okay. And we have the criteria. I’m gonna think of something. The criteria for appointment is you have to be a resident in the marblehead. Yep. And you have to be aware of the schedule and willing and able to devote the time and energy necessary to fill the responsibilities. Let’s keep it, I think That’s good. Okay. I think I needs it open.

1:16:20 All right. Um, the current vacancy procedure, we didn’t know. I didn’t, I don’t think I heard anybody at our last time around object to this, um, language. It’s kind of what it’s what we’re doing now. Exactly. Yeah. I have something on B. Are we okay? Sure. Go ahead. Yeah. Okay. I have something on B, Solicitation of interest A. Oh, all right. Go notice of vacancy. He goes first. So the only thing I would say is, you know, at the reorganization where you put me meeting in June, I guess the question’s gonna be for this board is do we want June to be the date? Right. Correct. Or do we wanna move that? So I, I mean, I’m fine with everything, but I just think that that’s something we may need to come back to is Well, So the meeting we, so we, it’s, I think

1:17:11 now that’s a step, that’s a, that’s a vacancies throughout the year. I e at the re Well, so the term A, so we reappoint the vote happens to reappoint in June. I think what we were talking about was whether when we,

1:17:29 when we hear from people we were moving that time, like from, like we were talking about, no, we’re talking about moving the vote to June. Right? Not everybody. And some people wanted to,

1:17:42 it was more about earlier. I’m sorry, Can I offer a suggestion? No, go ahead. I’m sorry. Um, what if you just take out in June at the reorganization, reappointment meeting Perfect. Take out And whenever in June, resignations are received throughout the year. Exactly. That gives you more flexibility. You’re not being boxed into that. Okay.

1:18:04 Okay. For section B, I had, um, this is just in line with all the volunteer feedback too. And whether you wanna put it in the beginning, um, under, for the vacancy shall advertise or after when fees or where feasible notice of vacancy should also be published in local media. The second to last sentence, if there’s, uh, you know, if we can adjust that to just add something along the lines of, you know, where feasible notice of vacancy should also be published. Um, you know, but not limited to local media. So that gives us options to, you know, some of the other suggestions. Like, let’s say, you know, we bring back, um, and, you know, increase like the other, like social media platforms or any of the things initiatives we’ve taken in the

1:18:49 past. This allows us to, the way I read this language now, it would prevent that. Whereas we might decide to, um, want those other, I think it would prevent it, but it doesn’t encourage it. Right? Yeah. So when feasible notice of vacancy should also be published in

1:19:08 Published, like, you know, but not limited to local media in, but not limited to, To local media. Okay. It just allows for, um, you know, if Thatcher has some creative idea, he wants to Okay. Throw out there, give you the space Where feasible notice of vacancy should also be published in comma, but not limited to local media. We can banner to for you. Okay. Application

1:19:40 process, everyone’s cool interview process, vote notice of appointment. Just stop me if anybody has any, like, suggestions, alternate members. Okay. Now we’ve come to the reappointment process. Um, so I, um, okay. So the dates are new. So by April 1st was the date I s I’m suggesting this is for the board’s decision, um, based on, I felt like that, you know, trying to front load this a little bit or push this back a little bit. Um, go ahead. No, when you’re done. When you’re

1:20:25 Done. No, I go ahead. I, I’m, Okay. Ready. So I just had a couple little things. Um, one thing that stuck out to me, and, you know, everybody can jump in and tell me what you think. Um, section D uh, generally if a member seeks for your appointment has been in the position for six years or more of the select board, the should, um, that I would love to hear feedback, but my suggestion is that change is to a may. I Agree. Yeah. I almost put that myself. So I’m fine to make, I mean, I’m okay with making that change. Okay. If anybody else has any, no, and I think that’s objection to that, but I just, the, it just gives the option to address that differently. Um, section A with the, you know, in regards to the date,

1:21:13 um, I think that, uh, you know, having space prior to town meeting, um, as you’re ending the, you know, ending the, you know, you’re coming up on the warrant hearing, but you’re ending the fiscal year. It’s, you know, in line with Tom meeting, you know, um, coming, coming within that cycle. So to me, around that time period seems an appropriate time. If you are someone who is, uh, newly joined the board in June of the prior year, you would’ve gone through, you know, an entire, entire cycle. Many months to be mm-hmm. Really familiar with the process. And, uh, you know, similar to what I was referencing earlier, you know, the, the select board, just like all the other boards and committees, functions as a living entity.

1:22:01 So whether whoever sits here, we’re still continuing that process, but that allows whoever is in the position at that moment in time, anyone who’s there at that snapshot in time would have the ability to all be educated at a pretty high level to make those decisions. And then that could carry over. Obviously it would still run in line with doing the appointments in line with the fiscal year, um, but it would provide that, that time to make that decision. So it’s not in coming up against an election cycle. And it’s well before the election cycle begins as well. So there, those are the two things that jump up. If, I’m trying to think of a time, which has been one of the discussions that we’ve had here, you know, through the last like two years, is when is the time, you know, like, when,

1:22:47 when, when is the space? So those are the things I thought about. Time meeting the election cycle, enough time for someone to educate themselves. And that the select board itself is a living entity. So it allows it to give that space. So,

1:23:03 go ahead. Yeah. Manager. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I, I guess I don’t disagree with timing issue, but what I would per perhaps offer kind of a, you know, reposition this a little bit differently, I’m wondering rather than just having, you know, the, you know, Kyle send out, uh, uh, you know, questions to members as to whether they wanna re-up or not. Perhaps we have a process that I fits that I think kind of fits the first tier, second tier approach that we, that we’re thinking about here, which is, you know, perhaps there’s a way for the, you know, the town administrator, the chair of the select board and, and administrative aid, Kyle, to reach out to the, uh, chairs of the committee and basically talk about the status vis-a-vis

1:23:51 the members and to identify any potential additional need. And also to see if there’s anybody that might be coming off. Okay. And I think what that does, it kind, you know, it kind of makes the reappointment, it gives us better visibility into the reappointment framework mm-hmm. And gets the, you know, the chairs to kind of also Im, you know, do some input into that. You know, that’s 0.1. You know, so they, they’re kind of have input into the likely candidates who might come off. You see, I think that’s part of the thing. I mean, no one knows better who’s contributing to the committees than chairs. And they may have a way to kind of suggest that maybe hey, you know, you kind of tired and like, you know, move on or whatever. And you’re doing it in a more, you know, in a kind of more subtle,

1:24:38 decentralized way. But having to your point, you know, having a way, having kind of this requirement that we do it every year, and that, and that we ultimately get briefed. And, and I think Mo in most committees, it can be a relatively simple process, short conversation, but there are others where it might, you know, so I think what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to source openings in kind of a, you know, how to put it in a Yes. In a way that’s more, uh, diplomatic and, and kind of, you know, uh, shows appreciation for people. Yeah. That’s just an idea. And it’s, it’s A logical kind of stop point in our cycle as we’re coming up against. So I guess what I’m basically saying, instead of Kyle just reaching out and kind of canvassing kind of like from a, as our designee kind of going out there, perhaps involve a more important discussion. I,

1:25:24 I don’t think it’s gonna be burdensome, you know, I mean, I think it’s something you can, you can kind of achieve. And, and it involves the, you know, the chair that, that’s point, that’s point. If I could make another point, I just, I want to kind of throw something kind of wild out there, and I don’t know, calm down. I know, I know. I’m getting all excited. Well, what about, what about a continuous open solicitation of positions? Okay. So even though we have a full board, why not continue to solicitate ress so that we have a backlog? You know, that would be great. Have a backlog of interested people who want to take up a role and then kind of manage that list. So every year, so what you’re doing is you’re creating, uh, some pressure on the chair of the committee to kind of say, Hey,

1:26:14 you know, we’ve got a really interested bet. You know, are you, are you guys, are you, are you tired of doing this now? You haven’t, you haven’t, you know, you’ve only shown up for half the meetings. You know, we’ve got others that are willing to step up. Does that, is that gonna make, you know, I think it gives a tool and it also gives a graceful accent. And, you know, and I think the challenge is gonna be managing that list, you know, so that, um, you know, so that whenever, so, so you’re, you’re keeping an eye out, out for an opening. So when that happens, you gotta go back to all the, you know, to all the people on that list and basically say, are you still available? And then they become part of the interview process. You see what I’m saying? Yeah. So, so we’re kind of frontloading the, the supply. That would be wonderful if we could know who’s interested in specific committees and the, you know, instead of having to go out kinda last minute as well.

1:27:01 And I think that, you know, I know just in, you know, my, my time here, I’ve seen many of the applicants who write and they’re applying for one position, but they’ll say, I’m interested in X, but I’m also interested in Y That’s right. And they might only be there for X. And it always runs through my hand mind of like, how do we, you know, record that? So, you know, there is some sort of in a way that now the next board is up, and then I come back and you say, oh, you, you expressed interest in both. We want To, right. I think that’s right. Have you back on this that we are capturing, I mean, it would be great population, right? It would be great to have kind of a backlog of, of fo of interest that you can see and visualize. And I think it encourages everybody to kind of take this, Hey, you know, we got people that wanna serve. Uh, you know, maybe it’s your time to step down. You make it voluntary.

1:27:46 And maybe there’s also a way to kind of encourage people who step off to help mentor new people coming in. Right. And that was one of the things I saw too, that that was really that, um, highlight of wanting that kind of succession plan of Yes. Of exactly what you’re saying. And I think sometimes you stay on a board when there’s an absence of that knowledge that maybe you’re on the fence, maybe you’re ready. But at the same time, I think that’s right. You have a commitment, you cherish the work that you’re doing, and if you’re not sure that there’s anyone to step up, you also don’t wanna let down the rest of your committee members. And so having that, you know, if, if someone could come to me and say, Hey, we’re looking, you know, this position is open, we know there’s five other really qualified people, then I might say, at this point in my life, you know, whatever board I was sitting on, I might say, okay, that’s super helpful because now I, I know I can right.

1:28:34 Turn this over, leave it in good hands and, and allow someone else to step in. I think that’s right. I think it engenders commitment. I know we have a lot of people in town who do a really good job before they want to go on a committee. They basically hang out and they, around the board, they learn a lot about the board stuff. And that’s the traditional kind of way it’s done. I get, or the way it has been done. I think that’s how, frankly, a lot of people get selected. ‘cause they, they’re hanging around the hoop, right? But why not have kind of a more formal list that we manage, and so we can clearly see, and I think it allows the chair to kinda look and, and the committee members to say, oh, well look at this. Look at this talent we have in the pipeline. Sure. No, I, I was gonna say, I agree with that because it’s just as easy for Kyle just to say, well, these people applied last time. ‘cause the thing is, you know, having appointed everybody, uh, on this table right now as appointed people to numerous boards of commissions,

1:29:20 sometimes you see the same person come two or three times row, not because they were bad the first one or two times, it was just that many good candidates were, were up. And so sometimes they just might not be paying attention. So it’s just a little bit of a pushout for us. And, and, and to your point was, is the reason why I agree with this. If you take a look back at the analysis, you know, 26.4 where current, you know, you know, a current board or committee member told them about it, um, you knows, select board member was another 13.9% that reached out to them. Former select board, a sliver, uh, and then, you know, town, you know, just a friend. I mean, that’s almost 50% right there from, again, word of mouth. Whereas, you know, putting aside the town website and local newspaper. So it’s, it’s outreach, it’s communication, it’s person to person contact. So I, I think it’s gonna ruin your server bill. And I know we have, uh, that issue,

1:30:07 but, you know, but I think, no, but I think sorting that, whether we decide to do it for a couple years or just until the next appointment process a year, I don’t know. I mean, but that’s, I think that’s a good idea. I just wanna give Kyle an opportunity to weigh in about like that, like the record keeping around the interest and like Moses’ idea around, uh, a database. Um, how long do you keep these letters? Do we, do you go through the file and remind them As you’re talking? You know, I think we could just design even on the website a little differently. Instead of that, it’s just the vacancies we have now. It could be a general letter from the board of all the boards and commissions and how you appoint everything and to

1:30:54 encourage people to, to here is the current vacancy. But we encourage you to please submit your resume for us to keep on file for res for download. I generally, we have had the few people who will write four com four committees on there. Yeah. So we kind of narrow them down. They come in. But I think all of you in the past have, you’ve kind of gone out there and reached out to them and said, Hey, I think you would actually be to the same person on this committee. And they come back and end up getting on it. Um, so I think that’s definitely doable. I think it’s just doing more of a, a formal letter of, you know, uh, uh, what you do that will be on the website with the vacancies, but we’re always looking for your letters. It, it’s certainly easy to keep all of that on file. I have probably two,

1:31:42 maybe now that are on file, maybe three. Um, my one other thing that I thought of looking at this in, in, um, the spirit of not locking you Yep. Into things. Is it possible and a instead of by April 1st Yep. Maybe it’s early April. Early April, you know, The, the chair and the town administrator would, you know, the, the office will reach out however, but I, I think instead of locking it is the incredibly busy time of year. That was my next Thought. Early April. Just grab Off the, by April, I mean, we should kind of take away as many of these dates as we can, You know. Well, the reason was to allow enough time so that Okay. So that Kyle can, what’s happening? Kyle can reach out. Yeah. ‘cause at some point we, she does have, she does actually ask the individual,

1:32:31 um, member, are you seeking reappointment? You know, and then they think about it, get back, confirm they are or not. And if they’re not, we can schedule vacancies to see the next term. If they are can certainly start earlier. Yeah. I’ve can go in later. Like literally. But if we just moved it all up, yeah. It’s Go through the chairs. I email ‘em an email back. I think early April gives, we could start a month earlier. I can certainly start a month earlier. Yeah. But, um, because then that just allows you to, if, if you do wanna hold interviews before seating the new term, and if you’re, you know, you’ve got four people in interested in a seat and it’s, is maybe like a committee that you know, has a lot of longer serving mem members, you wanna allow time to maybe,

1:33:21 um, um, you know, get, submit more information from the person’s willing, you know, who’s interested in reappointment, what, you know, like the every application form, which is in number C, which I kind of took from the feedback, which was in favorable from the, um, from the survey that we could, that would allow that time for us to hear, to look at, you know, consider alongside in this situation where, you know, there may be a person seeking reappointment and, but there’s like new interest involved. And maybe the board decides we, let’s, let’s take a look at it. Yeah. I just say not, not, um, getting into, So if I just change it to early, in, early April,

1:34:06 prior to the expiration of a member’s term, the administrative aide shall contact each member and determine if they are interested in seeking reappointment with res. Um, and I, I just Get rid of that committees and shares, or Yeah. Do we, do we wanna en do we wanna engage that or no? Yeah, I think might on vacation. I, I exactly what, what Brett was saying, if you just just say, you know, get rid of by April, anything just prior to the expiration of the member’s term, blah, blah, blah, all this, uh, if they aren’t interested in seeking reappointment, not with the responses doing within two weeks, if they don’t respond in, in a timely manner, they’re not a manner,

1:34:53 they’re not interested and you’re gone. Right. So just again, she can do it six months before, and this goes back to the, to the boards themselves and the, and the chair. They know what’s happening. If, if somebody’s not showing up for whatever reason, maybe they have a family emergency, medical issues, whatever. So they’ll know, you know, that so and so is, is not being a, an engaged member. And so they’re not gonna get reappointed or they’re not gonna wanna be reappointed. So, so what if I said, so for, to Moses’s point and Jim Sweat, what if the first, first a what if a was, um, you know, um, in Jan, like, like, like that, that we’re,

1:35:39 that the town administrator will reach out to the chairs of the boards or solicit for Yeah. I mean that’s really, I think, I think you, you guys should weigh in on that. I mean, I think it’s useful to engage the chair in some capacity as our designee. So you reach out to ‘em, how are things going? What’s the Status? Do think we should put it into, into specifically put it in the policy or like put it in there? I think that’s maybe where you were going, but I just, I just wanna make sure that, that, uh, that it works. Right? So, and I think practicality how it, how it works, again, the, the timing of the action of the board is at the discretion of the chair. I mean, the primary role of the chair is to set the agenda. And so as a chair, you would say, okay,

1:36:26 I intend to do these appointments at this time. And then that would prompt probably a conversation to sit down, okay, here’s what I’m looking to take action. How much time do you need to do this? How much time? Okay, then we know we need to start our part of the process this far out knowing when the chair is intending to, to do the, the board action. And that, that’s kind of how it, it works out Anyways. So what if it was just, you know, prior, prior to the expiration? Prior to the reappointment date, the reappointment date, um, the chair will coordinate with the town administrator to reach out to the relevant committees, the chairs of the relevant committees. No,

1:37:13 Even, you Know, prior to, prior to exploration members, I have something else Out. Yeah. I mean, that’s kind Like somewhat just, um, on the next page. Well, um, is it relevant to this? Yeah. It, it is. Dot i in the event no other candidate applies for the position of select board may reappoint the member in conjunction with its annual appointment in late June. So you have it listed here that, that that vote will happen in late June.

1:37:40 So just take out June every place in late June. Yeah. Basically in this whole doc. Yeah. Okay. Otherwise it’s, I mean, it is nice for people to know that we don’t do this in May we do it in June, or, you know, well, I think that Goes back to the original conversation. Well, I think we were always gonna do it in expire. Well, I guess we could do it in May. Yeah. We don’t do it in like October, like Right. But it says June. So it’s like, if you’re gonna do it may, it should say May or it should say nothing. I mean, I’m fine with what Jim’s saying. Like either you leave it open and then you set the, you know, set the vote and the agenda in May to do the vote when you have the information from Kyle and Thatcher, which is fine, but it can’t say June and then not Right. It happened in May due June or April, and then it happened in May. Yeah.

1:38:26 Like the same thing with taking out April. Mm-hmm. Like either we, either we set a time in a day and we say, this is when we’re gonna do it. Or we say we’re going to give the flexibility. Maybe, you know, ion I mean obviously the doc chair at the destruction of the chair, obviously, because the, the document says that has the op it has the ability for flexibility and change, which is what we’re looking for. But we also don’t wanna have to create a situation where we’re having to come back and revote things unnecessarily. So I could say in May or June. Exactly. I mean, going back to Jim’s point, Just don’t, just with its annual appointments Okay. Period. And just, all right. Stop. Don’t, don’t lock yourself into something. Okay.

1:39:07 So on a date at the top of the reapp. So what if, uh, prior to the expiration of a member’s of prior to the expiration, or I’ll just say prior to the reappointment? No, Just prior to the expiration? No, the re prior to the reappointment. Um, prior to the annual appointment, reappointment the town ministry, because it’s not specific to any person prior to the annual, um, Reapp Appointment Reappointment. Yeah. Appointment reapp or appointment Someone to have on the first page. Yeah. The, um, the, the town, the chair will coordinate with the town

1:39:53 administrator, The committee chair.

1:39:59 She don’t want it to be the select chair. Well, I think it, because you were saying that I, like the select board chair would work with the town administrator to reach out for him to, or for the committee chairs to reach out to. Right. I think, I think that works. ‘cause it fits with the chair’s ability to make, to determine the timeframe Administrator. Yeah. The select board will coordinate with the administrative aid and the committee chair. At the end of the day, you’re look, you’re looking, you know, the chair’s looking for a report, you know, basically a report on the status of the, of the committee. Yeah. Basically. And it can happen pretty efficiently Around. Um, And just to note in section B, same thing in being consistent. There’s language there. One, One second. Sorry. I know I’m

1:40:52 Okay. Prior to the annual reappointment appointment process, the chair will coordinate with the town administrator around connecting with the volunteer board chairs themselves or, Mm-hmm. Okay. Then in early April, prior to the expiration of a member’s term, the administrative age will contact such me, such member and determine if they’re interested in seeking reappointment with response to, within a reasonable time. Do you wanna say a reasonable time? Two weeks. Why? Why do you even have a response again, if they don’t respond, They’re not interested. Okay. So, perfect. Okay. Um, and then if they’re not interested, it will nstitute a vacancy under this policy. So you are putting April in there. Yeah, because that’s typically when, no, early April, she said,

1:41:39 I think we, I thought we, I mean one of one if the one, if the board is prior, you know, it’s really up to the board when they wanna speak about it prior to annual reappointments. Yeah. It’s just prior, I guess I just wanted to signal to people that like, ‘cause if you’re looking at the policy and you’re considering applying, it’s like this all happens guys. Like in, you know, may and June, not like in October. That’s the only reason it wasn’t to. How about on or about too specific? Like on Or about April, uh, of each year or at the discretion of the chair. Okay, there you go. Or the discretion chair. I like that.

1:42:12 On or about April

1:42:17 of each year prior. That’s great. Okay. Or At the discretion of, Or on, or you wanna have the flexibility on or about? Yeah. On or about April of April of each year. Or at the discretion of the board Or at the, oh, or The, or at the discretion of the, of the chair. The select board.

1:42:38 Or at a time at the discretion of the chair.

1:42:47 Is that good, Jim? Very good. It’s a real team effort here, guys. All right. On or about April each year or at a time at the discretion of the chair. And prior to the expiration of a member’s term, the administrator A will contact such member, blah, blah, blah, C, B, B. Did you edit B? That’s what I meant. Oh, yeah, because, sorry. ‘cause I made a, sorry, I made a, sorry. Old A is now B because new A is prior to the annual reappointment. I can put this on screen too, too. It’s, no, it’s fine’s. Fine. Final one next time. So new a new C, you’re gonna send out a new kind of thing to us. Yeah, yeah. Right. And new C just take out in late June. Well, yes. Done.

1:43:35 I think B and C go together. Right. Okay. Kind of because we’re, we’re implying that there’s, the question is, I guess how comfortable are people with kind of this six year concept, given that we’re introducing, you know, a lot of new ways to communicate with the committees and to kind of get people to, to encourage people to move on. Now, I, I guess I don’t mind, you know, b per se, right? At six years and after six years, we, we do a special, you know, scrub of, of, of that person perhaps. But I’m just wondering whether resubmitting another application form is not a, you know, I’m, I’m,

1:44:21 I’m not crazy about that idea that they have to do that. Well, I, if you Look at the feedback though, from the volunteers, everyone was, it was well over 50% right? That they were in support like that. I mean, that was some of the feedback that I read, that people actually, six Years is a long time. Like Yeah. It’s two full terms. If it’s three or Term. And I think the language below it says that we may Yeah. It gives us the flexibility to, Well, I guess to Address it or not address it. Yeah. I mean, it’s fine. I mean, look, I’m, all I’m saying is maybe you can just, you know, again, go through the process with the chairs to determine whether it’s a Yeah. You know, three year, six year, whatever term, as well as, you know, how you kind of want to handle the Yeah. The, how to put it, the, the vetting process. It’s really the, the, you know, I’m, I’m, I,

1:45:08 I picked up a different message a little bit. Alexa, I picked up that, you know, some people wanted the application process to, and the appointment process to be separate from the reappointment process, right? So there’s kind of like that separate Yeah, I agree. There is that kind of separation. So, okay. That’s, you know, and I’m just saying, you know, when you, when you use the term reapplication, maybe that’s, maybe that’s what’s being said. I just wanna make sure that we’re not kind of, you know Yeah. Having, having to, having to put these people through an interview process along with the, with the appointees the first time appointees. I just think that’s kind of, that’s not, Yeah. Strike. I don’t think that would, yeah, I, I don’t know whether that’s great. I mean, I, I, I picked up on that. Yeah. I, you know, I don’t know. I, I guess, um, So looking back exactly, 50% of respondents supported the idea that appointees seeking

1:45:58 reappointment should periodically reapply. It said, for example, six years. But, um, It wasn’t, okay. I guess, I guess what does that Mean? Support a reappointment application form 62% That after two terms, if there’s other people that are interested Yeah. In the thing that we have the discretion to Yeah. Have them apply alongside new interested applicants. Yeah. So you File, you’re creating a speed bump. I guess. I guess the question is what’s the reapplication? If it’s just a reapp or, uh, you’re forcing them to re-express interest again? Oh, yeah, no, I was thinking so that like a, there’d be like a form, so Okay. On some of just looking at other accounts that have this, it’s very simple. It’d be like one page name, like board, it’d be like, you know, um,

1:46:45 okay, what are, what is, what is the, the, you know, like a summary of, you know, accomplishments of your right committee since you’ve been on there, what are your goals and objectives for in seeking? Right. You know, so, and just like, you know, a short form answer, like why they wanna stay on, like what they’re working on. And this goes to, this is submitted to Kyle, yes. To us. And then it’s part of, is it part of the discussion with the chairs in terms of what the, you know, uh, Would say it would go to Chairs first. So, So then Like internal And it’s Probably part of, part of partial of like, conversation with Yeah. I mean, down the road with, that’s, That’s pretty innocuous. I don’t think that’s, I, I agree With, well, I think it also provides an opportunity for kind of what we did in the survey is

1:47:31 allows that mechanism to stop and say, Hey, what are we working on? Right? Right. What maybe, maybe here, here are my thoughts on what I think we should be working on. And maybe I might be the only person you know, who thinks that, but at least they’re able to bring that forward into the discussion mechanism. And maybe it’s something that you say, great, that’s not something we’re gonna do right now, but that’s a good topic to come back and circle on. It’s just a pause. And that’s how I see it’s, I Think that’s right. And, and it’s not kind of like a public display that they have to kind of march through again. I think That’s great. No, no, I think it’s an internally pause. I mean, I think that with a back order of potential interested people wanting to come onto the committees is, you know, a great setup, I think for getting what we all want, which I think is a lot of volunteers combined with people who kind of reasonably

1:48:18 step off when, you know, when they’re not as interested anymore. It’s just a way to stop the grind to say, what are, what are our goals? What are we working on? What, what do you guys think we should be working on? You know, and have that, normally It’s a conscientious, active Conversation. ‘cause that typically doesn’t happen. But to your point, and Without creating that space for it to happen, I think that’s right. And then to, that’s right when we added what you had said about making sure that there’s a process in place where you know, that there’s, that there’s coordination with the chair offline. Right. You know, so we add that, plus we’re getting a form. I would see it as what, you know, like say the chair of the, of the select board, you know, down the road would say, okay, so we’ve got, you know, Kyle said, okay, so we’ve got like three letters of interest.

1:49:05 We also have this reapply application. Um, you know, is it the willow of the board Yeah. To proceed with interviews. And then it’s the decision of the board whether or not they wanna see the interview, see the app, the interested, see the perspective, uh, interest people interview or not. Yeah. I think it also provides an opportunity for committees to bring some of those things to the board in an organized way too. Like maybe, you know, if I’m just thinking of something like maybe fin com or something like that, where they’re like, okay, we have the, this, these thoughts or these ideas. And so you’re getting an opportunity for them to bring that forward in a way that, uh, is an organized pattern to say, Hey, you guys might not have thought about this or thought about that,

1:49:51 but we collectively might have identified something that, you know, we might not have seen. And so I think it just, it’s provides space for that that normally doesn’t happen. And then part, and then what is here is now C but it’s probably B to you guys. No, it is, it is just sort of a, um, you know, just kind of that presumptive reappointment that you get after your first term. Like the, like the presumption is we would reappoint you if you’re interested after the first term. Like, it’s more just like after two terms, you know, what does the board look? Let’s stop. What does this board look like? Yeah. Who’s interested in it? Well, I’ll tell you. I mean, I think as, as the, you know, as chair, as a chair of one of these committees, you know, I felt that the pressure was getting folks to populate your board. I mean,

1:50:37 that was your biggest, you know, concern. So any help you can get from, you know, from the select board to do that is, is, is, is really, uh, welcome. And I, and I think, you know, I think what you’re, what you’re describing here with the re reapplication form is pretty, pretty innocuous. And, you know, maybe it does prompt, uh, you know, some introspection on the members, you know, systematically so they can, you know, figure out whether they wanna move on or not. Right. So, um, so yeah, I did just put, you know, the forum would provide a space for the member to ident briefly describe the work of the board during their tenure and add their goals and reasons for wanting to continue. It could be something that, you know, we create that just Kyle just forwards along to those people. Mm-hmm.

1:51:22 Um, uh, I then I just add, so I changed from what Alexa said, so we may solicit interest. Um, and then I, I highlighted, um, part four, I can’t remember if I added or not, but maybe I just kind of put it in there as this recognition that, you know, for certain boards, there is some, there’s is a, like, real value to longer serving me, you know, tenures that, that the select board should consider when looking at this policy and when looking at reappointments that, you know, there are demanding schedules and oversight and multi-year projects that, you know, maybe like you said, each board’s different and there’s, you know, there are certain situations where boards are going to naturally have longer

1:52:11 serving members. Just a quick thing, just to go back to, um, the highlight one. Just wanna make sure we pulled out the date. Yes. Okay. That’s my first thing. And then second thing, I, I think for what you’re saying about the highlighted, this goes back to what we discussed from the volunteer feedback and that type of thing too, that we, um, work to kind of get that information out, um, consistently for all of our boards. So as people are looking to apply, they have an understanding of what the commitment is, what they’re getting into, um, commitment, responsibilities, those types of things. So Wouldn’t you think a lot of this, it, it baffles me that, that somebody would come for appointment to the board and never been to a board meeting or never talked to somebody on that committee. I think that’s just part of the homework. Can’t require it.

1:52:58 But as long as I’ve been here, somebody said something, go to a committee meeting, see what they do, and then talk to somebody on that board. If that’s something you want to do, then pursue it. If not, you know, I, I guess I, I, I’ve never been here a long time, too long, but, um, I’ve never had somebody like, uh, geez, I, I don’t never been to a meeting, don’t know what they do, but I just want to be involved. That’s the,

1:53:31 that pushes people into it. But I’ve never had somebody sit at the table saying no idea what they do. Just want to help, you know, just wanna be a team player, which is a great, uh, enthusiastic response. But you really have to, again, it baffles me that, that we have to put this in, you know, that, that you have the time commitment. Yes. You know, that’s why they’re coming here, you know, even my, even my kids are grown or whatever. Um, yeah, yeah, I know. But You know, the more we put in here, you know, basically everything that we’ve been doing in the past, this is what’s in here. The more we put in here, it just handcuffs us more and more. Um, yeah, it’s, it, it just, it,

1:54:19 it just seems like a lot to say, you know, the, the time commitment and, you know, they know what is, you know, the finance committee, you know, basically from, from November to to May, you’re out straight, you know, and then a little bit the rest of it, you know, that’s part of the, um, uh, exploratory process. So, yeah. Okay. Can I, so Jim, I just want, just if you can, is the concern, I don’t have a strong opinion on this, but is the concern on we’re putting it in our policies, because I guess based on what you’re saying is like when someone, by the time someone gets here to an interview, but I’m thinking about this, I’m thinking about it as I am thinking about volunteering, I’m trying to educate, think about what my skillset is. How do I volunteer?

1:55:07 How do I take what, you know, what the knowledge I have and how do I give back to the town? So then I go to what, what does that resource look like? And so maybe I’m looking and I’m thinking, oh, I live in the old and historic. That sounds interesting to me. I’d like to participate, but what, what is the time commitment? Maybe I’m trying to think about getting that information. And maybe they have a meeting, but it’s not for three more weeks. And I’m interested in getting that information now that where is that place, you know, that I can go and start pulling that data from? So whether to me it’s in here or it’s on the website, or it, I, I don’t think it necessarily matters, but I, I guess for me, this isn’t about when someone gets here, it’s kind of that step before. So I guess that goes back to my question.

1:55:53 Is it about we don’t need to put the information out or you just don’t think it needs to be in here? Doesn’t that need to be in here? Okay. It’s on the town website. So, so in your scenario, gee, you know, I’m in the old and historic, really want to be interested. You’ve probably gone before the old and historic for something on your house. So you know somebody on that. So you call that person, you know, g gee, Ms. Smith, um, what do you think? Uh, blah, blah, blah. You know, what’s the time commitment? You know, just a little bit of research. Again, I’m, I’m baffled. It almost seems like just people are first knocking down the doors to come and volunteer. Whereas usually, you know, up till last year, we’ve ne we haven’t had a full finance committee for seven or eight years. And, um, you know, just begging people to, to come forward. And,

1:56:42 um, yeah, I mean it’s just, it’s just a rant, I guess. Uh, it’s just my observations. But you know, the more we put in the policy, um, again, it’s, it’s things we’re already doing. You know, it’s all on the website, you know, it lists all the committees, all the boards, who the members are, you know, so you, so you look at that and it’s, you know, whatever it is, you know, I know him or I know, or I know her, or I know her on the Board of Selectmen. People come to me all the time, you know, I have, I have a finance degree. Where do you think would be a good place for me to volunteer? You know, and said, you know, just become involved if you’re brand new to the town. You know, you just kinda look around. It’s, it’s just, it’s just the way, you know, we, we should be more folksy,

1:57:27 not so regimented in my opinion. Well, I think when I read this statement, it’s not really a, um, you should or shall or, you know, it’s really just a statement. So, you know, whether we’re including this information here, whether we’re including, I mean, I don’t, I think, I think it’s important to include that information. ‘cause I think we need to be open to all ways that people source information. And it might be, I might be someone that, that’s my style. I look at someone’s name and I reach out. But that’s not everyone. I might also be someone who says, you know what? I’m not comfortable reaching out unless I’ve really educated myself on the position. I’ve read about it, I’ve educated myself, then I’ll make a connection. So I also wanna be respectful of those people as well. Because, you know,

1:58:15 someone else might function in a way where they’re like, I’m not comfortable calling Moses to ask about finance unless I’ve really wrapped my head around about what this commitment is. And I know what questions I would ask a chair on the finance committee, you know, when you were serving at that place. I would reach out to you after I really knew what questions do I need answered. And so without a mechanism to get me that information, I might say, well, I’m not volunteering. ‘cause I don’t, there’s no, there’s no way for me to get those. Well, Jim is Suggesting you could go to the meetings. I Mean, that’s the traditional, yeah. All the meetings Are open, but I think we’re down the road of making policy. Yeah. Right. I’m gonna say that it’s, well, we’ve been having this conversation for a while. Yeah. I mean, we’re making the policy. I think there’s reasons that we have policies in here. Whether you think it works orally, traditionally, the way it’s been doing is fine. I think we have, we’re going through a process of making codified policies that, you know,

1:59:01 everybody has access to. You know, I don’t think, I think it’s okay that we’re expecting people to understand the time requirements when they’re applying to the board. Um, I can we move on to section six? And then If I could, uh, Madam Chair, if I could, I, I mean, I just amplify your point. I, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with writing stuff down. You know, it’s helpful. I think we’re having a great discussion right now because we’re basically trying to evaluate whether it’s hamstringing us, you know, how much, how little, so, you know, and I think that’s, that’s very useful. Um, you know, I think the area that I practically have a, an issue with is Section D. Okay. Uh, you know, and one, you know, one through four, uh, nu small Roman numerate numerals, uh, one through four.

1:59:47 What’s the title of it? Sorry, re Sorry. This is the reappointment process D. Okay. Now, Is that generally if a member Yeah. Generally it’s, Now it’s, it’s now A position through advertisement something. Okay. So let’s just assume for a moment that we have a, that we do deploy a continuous solicitation process. Right. Let’s just, oh, Wait, you’re on B For, oh, I’m sorry. Yeah, yeah. On page four. Yeah. Oh, okay. I Just make sure I’m place jump. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, I’m with you. So, let’s just assume that we do implement a continuous solicitation process in section, uh, four B. Okay. Where we basically are reaching out continuously for people interested in the board, and we tell them, look, solicit your interest, and when a vacancy comes up,

2:00:33 we will make sure you get into the interview process. Right. I mean, I think that, I think that’s a very useful way to go. And we might wanna specify it in the solicitation of interest. Okay. But, so let’s, let’s jump to page four now, D uh, one, right? Mm-hmm. We’re basically, you know, how are we handling reappointments, right? In a, let’s just assume there’s a bench of people that want to come onto FinCon, and we only, and, and, and one vacancy appears, right? Mm-hmm. Or no, one vacancy doesn’t appear. We have someone who hits the six year term, right? And they submit their reapply reapplication form. Yeah. They do a little introspection, and they say, you know what? I wanna stay on the FinCon. Now what do we do? Right. Because, you know, are we going to then say, well, you know, based on our discretion,

2:01:23 we’re gonna put you into the interview process with the other candidates. See, that’s, that’s a place I’d prefer not to go. I, I just don’t know that it’s, what I would prefer, what I would hope would happen is that there would be a discussion with the chair of the fin there, with the, with the town administrator, with the administrator, and where you basically say, Hey, you know, you’ve been there for six years. We have a bench of some really, you know, are you, are you still fully committed? You know, uh, are you ready to move on? And then just keep it like that so they’re not appearing before us, along with a slate of people that, that would happen. That’s a real deleterious process. What’s that? So I think that, that, that conversation would happen. Yeah. But in the event that that conversation happens, and Yeah, I know there’s Still, so I think having the policy there is just like that further kind of like

2:02:11 emphasis on, you know, the conversation. I guess if you, but like it, but you’re welcome too. But this is what it’s gonna look like, you know? Yeah. Well, I mean, it’s the hammer and then that’s the, It’s it’s totally in their choice. Well, It’s to do that. Well, it’s, it’s the hammer though, right? It’s the hammer. So you, you, you’re basically saying to them, you know what? You’ve been selected, you’ve gotta go through the interview process, um, and with the rest of the new people coming on that you can see, um, But I, I mean, but you think there’s, but I think the interest when the weighing of those interests, right? Which is what the select board needs to do, the weighing of those interests is not about, we have to consider Yeah. Like the, what’s good for the board, and if it’s good for the board that we solicit new interests, and we, and then we give other people an opportunity, then we’re, then we allow that space where that person can reapply. But we’re also,

2:02:58 you know, whereas we’re, I feel like you might be balancing the interest of that one reappointment person higher than Yeah. The overall functioning of the board and the three or four people in the wings waiting to join in. Right? All I’m saying is what’s my experience as someone who’s been on for six years. I’m a very valuable member of the committee. I’m the vice chair I’ve made, I made vice chair last year, right? And then I come up against this, you know, this six year term. And I know that there’s four or five people that are really interested in taking my spot. Right? I’m sitting here, okay, what, you know what, if I write, then I submit my, uh, you know, my reapplication form, right? Yeah. And I say, I’m the, I’m the vice chair. I need to hang in there. Um, but we’re basically saying to them, well, no,

2:03:43 actually you have to go through an interview process with the rest of the new, No, not necessarily. ‘cause remember in the other one it is, it’s, it’s that they, that the board may have them interview. It’s not that they’re going to, we don’t have to, it’s a decision. Like the board can say, you know, do we wanna reappoint or do we wanna go forward with the interviews? You know, it’s sort of like, if someone’s been doing a great job, I mean, if the board, the board doesn’t need to waste anybody’s time having them interview. If we, if, if it’s the board’s desire to Sure. Reappoint somebody who’s been there for a, for a third or fourth term, who’s rocking it, then the, in these policies under, um, whatever changed from, um, okay. May have, may solicit interest and may ask them to reapply. Well,

2:04:29 It’s a very weighty decision, I guess, for the select board, right? Because, you know, someone’s a, a vi Yeah. I’m just trying to think of the experience of someone who’s made it to less. It’s great. It’s a great example actually. ‘cause it happens all the time. Then they get the vice chair in their fourth year. Yep. Whatever, right? And, and they’re basically, you know, and They’re taking care of the schools, Taking care of No, that, yeah. That was typically senior. Your Members are taking care of the schools. You start, and so now all of a sudden, that person May be gone, is required. See, I think I just, I just, yeah. I’m just, You know, these are important Is required. Well, the question, and then, and then what are we, what then, then what are we communicating to other people who want the position? Right. Um, so, you know, so anyway, I’m just, I’m just throwing that out Practically speaking, like in a practical terms,

2:05:14 the way the policies are written allows for, uh, whatever, whoever, like, whatever the, the board is at the time to like, receive interest from somebody who’s wants to be reappointed for a third three year term or five year term or whatever it is, um, allows them to get together at the board table and say, so-and-so’s interested in reapplying or even the chair to kind of do it and then talk with, um, And so we have the ability, We have the ability to say, To say, we’re not gonna have interviews. We’re just gonna Yes, exactly. That was why we ch that’s why it says May, right? Yeah. But it just gives you that thing. Like we’re not, we’re, we’re not just like indefinitely reapp. It, there’s, it’s, we have a policy. You’re, that’s like, I know what you’re saying. I know what you’re saying. So,

2:06:00 but yeah, if someone’s rocking it on the volunteer board and they’re applying for a third year, then, and they’ve submitted a reapplication form and they’ve got goals they wanna complete, I then the board at that time does not need to hold interviews. I guess what I’m basically saying, there’s gotta be a better way to fire people. You know? That’s what I’m basically saying. And that’s what you’re doing. That’s what you’re doing. It’s, it’s, you know, there’s gotta be a better way to talk people. Well, I just Out to talk. It’s getting the best person on there. Well, it’s, I do, Like, it could be that person, or it could be a new person. It’s, I’m exaggerating. I know, I know the application. And once again, once, if I find out that there’s multiple people who are interested, then I might personally decide, okay, well maybe I’ll do Something. Well, we’ll see. That’s, but I think that’s, you wanna Get, that’s the conversation. Maybe you’re like, Alexa, we need somebody you live, you know, maybe I’m hoping in conservation land,

2:06:49 and you know what, you might wanna switch over here. Other, and I think it just allows, there’s Things, well, I, I think that’s, no, I think conversation, Like if there’s like four attorneys on conservation committee and there’s a need for an architect or an engineer, and that, you know, the town administrators had a conversation with the chair that like, you know, yeah. It’s, we clearly could use some new blood here. You know, like then that conversation, you know, ideally happens and should happen behind, you know, you know, offline. But then this just allows, like, in the event that somebody really wants to go forward and there’s new interest, and we really wanna see everybody by side by side after six years, it allows that opportunity. Okay. But again, it’s not holding the board to any, it’s not holding the board. I would just future board to doing that. It’s just an option. Okay.

2:07:34 I would, I would just clarify the language a little bit, because it sounds like it’s a, it’s a, you know, that optionality that the board has to keep the person after the reapplication form is, you know, that I think needs to be emphasized. So at the, you know, the board has the discretion. You’re gonna, we’re gonna require the reapplication form, let’s say, and the board has the discretion to then get back to that, uh, or Okay. Back to that member. Okay. And basically say, yeah, we’re gonna keep you, uh, but if we don’t get back. But You can’t make that it’s deliberation. I know, I know. It’s, it’s, it has to be a vote. Yeah. It has to be a vote. So I think that, I mean, this has happened offline in the past. Like, this isn’t anything new. Like these conversations have happened in historically speaking.

2:08:20 I’m sure that town administrators have stepped in, you know, in past years and said, you know, Time to move on type thing. But that’s what you, but that’s what you’d like to do. But that’s what we’re talking about here. Exactly. And this is what this is all about. So it’s like, you know, but We’re creating policy, and so you have to fill out the rubric of what goes on. So this is sort of just addressing that, this situation. Yeah, no, I bet. But what you’re, look, I mean, it’s, it’s fine. I mean, if you, if you guys, I mean, I’m, I’m just thinking, you know, you’re, what you’re doing is you’re, you know, if things go awry, it feels uncomfortable if things go, if things go awry. Right? If, if, if, we definitely want, if someone reapply, thinks they’re totally qualified, think and thinks they should be vice chair, right? And we basically say, well, no, you know what?

2:09:07 We want you to come back and interview with everybody. That’s the call. Right. Basically. And the question is, they’re not gonna, they’re pro, they’re probably not gonna be do that at all. They’re, I know if I were in that shoes, I would be insulted. So It’s kind of like the, I, I don’t know. I’m just saying, it’s, it’s, it’s All gonna be situational though, because I mean, that person could be on with a bunch of one or two year long members. You’re not gonna take somebody that’s got six years off, you know, with people that what the other three or four have one or two years. Yeah. Because it’s not fair to the town. You wanna have that balance that goes back to the diversity, not just in terms of color and and ethnicity, but it’s, it’s also your, your skillset. And, and that’s a, to me, that’s a, that’s a diverse skill is, is if you have that, that just goes, you, you wanna be balanced. But, but you could have the reverse that we might need some newer people because the

2:09:56 older people might be coming off soon, and you don’t want those newer people to have a whole board with a bunch of new people. So there’s, there’s, it’s, it’s all gonna be situational based upon who’s in there, you know, like Aaron said, is it a bunch of attorneys? But we need to get a, you know, an engineer, or we need to get somebody environmental, you know, it’s, it’s all about balance. And I think it’s, it’s all gonna be on, on a board by board basis. And that goes to that next layer of what do the boards want? And then that’s gonna allow the chair and, and Kyle and the town administrator to look at the, who’s, who’s in the, to make a recommendation to us in an open meeting saying, Hey, I think we should do this. And then we as a committee can vote yes or no. And We Wanna open it. Be open it. Yeah. I get it. I get it. Look, I mean, I’m, I’m hoping, I was hoping, and you know, that, you know, to separate the appointment process from the reappointment process would be gr would, would be, you know, my preferred tack.

2:10:46 But at the end of the day, I think what this section does is it basically says, look, after six years at the discretion of the board, we, we, we can invite some candidates to come back and, and have to go through the, the interview process. Right? Potentially. Potentially. But I think if we decide that that is, that is effectively a kind of a termination notice, right? Because we have the ability to reappoint without putting that person through the interview process. Yeah. They can come through and we can reappoint them. That’s not gonna happen. Right. ‘cause we have the option to reappoint them without going through the process. But we may wanna see the people until you see the people and hear them. And true enough, a meeting. So some of us might not know everybody who’s coming in front of us, and, but I, I can almost guarantee that no one’s gonna submit themselves to that process

2:11:33 mean, And they could withdraw and they could they have that ability. Well, No, that’s right. No, you’re, you’re in, you’re, So somebody can say, I don’t know if Yeah, you’re incentivizing that. That’s right. I mean, we’ve had That, we’ve had people say, I don’t know who’s gonna run. I’m gonna throw my name in. And then they saw people running, oh, I’m gonna resend my, and you don’t always do that. So Can we, um, just, I just wanna be mindful of the time. Ab like, the rest of this is, um, elected board vacancies, oath of office recall removal. And then I just added this language that, you know, as is true with all policies, um, any of this can be modified or waived in the, by any future board by a majority vote.

2:12:12 So it seems that if nobody has, okay, So I’m, I’m still gonna be a pain in the neck. I’m sorry. Um, yeah. You know, so look, I mean, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, let’s just assume, let’s just assume that in section, uh, d let for the sake of reading this policy, right? Mm-hmm. Let’s just assume that there’s a back order of people who are interested in the position, right? Not if a vacancy apply, let’s assume that there’s always gonna be people who are applying for the position, right? Okay. If we assume that does the select board, I think the select board, regardless of whether there are other candidates or not, may reappoint the member, not just if there’s a vacancy. Yes, that’s true. Okay. That’s true. Okay, that’s fine. Then let’s do that Where In, in section, um, D one on page four. Page four,

2:13:02 right? So in the event, in, in, that’s not, we should just, in, in any case, I think you just basically, yeah. In any case, the select board may reappoint the member in conjunction with its So, because, um, should I, should I pull it out from this then?

2:13:17 Or I’ll just leave it? Yeah. Well, I think you need it in there, right? Because I, I think it’s, Um, ‘cause that is true. So, um, yeah, regardless, or just select board may reappoint the member in conjunction with the annual appointment period. Yeah, That’s Fine. Right? Yes. Yes. Okay. That, that makes it more, yes, Yes. Sorry, that Yes. No, that makes, that makes it, that makes that option, that optionality clear. True. Okay.

2:13:44 Okay. ‘cause this is under reappointment. Okay. All right. So I’ve made these changes,

2:13:55 um, as we’ve been going,

2:13:59 I can print them off, I can send them out for everybody to vote on at next meeting. We could vote them. Should we have, should we all take a shot at, um, tweaking the document one-on-one with you, just tweaking or reviewing or reading? Um, Or do you wanna do Well, why don’t look at the draft one? Yeah. Why don’t just look, we’ll look at the draft one. So let’s, so we’ll, so we will, yeah. Look at the draft and, and then this Is the final version taking everybody’s sort of said their piece about it. But just in the, in Kate, if you read through it again, notice something and wanna bring it up for our next meeting, I think August 30th, we have a date. Um, but we should be able to vote it then. But yeah, It would be good to differentiate between the things that we saw from the notes that were, things that are, these are like actionable items of executing, like,

2:14:49 you know, those kind of summaries. Adding, you know, maybe additional notes on the website, those types of things versus the things that are in the policies. Like just, Yeah, that would be like a different matter. This is just about this policy. I’m sayingm pulling out those things that aren’t relevant to the policy discussion, So, okay. Okay. So the, the thing that I may, we, you know, we don’t need to do it now, but it’s way too late. But, you know, in terms of the, the solicitation of interest mm-hmm. I think that we ought to think about a way, right. To make, to make that continuous, you know, uh, and to kind of have, Instead of when a vacancy curves just No, don’t, we don’t wanna just advertise when there’s a vacancy. We, we wanna be, we wanna be proactive out ahead of the curve, continuously solicitate, you know, soliciting for people right before the vacancies arise.

2:15:36 So we know we have a, you know, we have a stable of people that are interested and ready to do interviews when a vacancy arises. Yeah. All right. So that would be the change that I can Okay. I can make that change for the final thing before I send it out. Idea. Okay. Always solicit. Okay. Okay. So I, I just, Yes, of course. Um, I don’t know how everyone else feels about this, so I’m gonna throw this out there. But, um, I mean, I, I think for me, I’m far enough in the process, but, so, um, I’m gonna put out a motion to reconsider the vote we made on July 12th to, for the holdover appointments for September 13th in order to potentially

2:16:22 bring a volunteer appointments to a vote today. Okay. Um, um, second. I’ll second it. Okay. Okay. Um, So motion is to, uh, reconsider the holdover vote of our meeting in July, and then also to reappoint all of those. Well, I’m happy to, I would be willing to make a separate motion to, Okay. So First, I mean, but I mean, in order to do this Okay. Properly, we would need to Right. Talk about the reconsideration before, I mean, I’m happy to make a secondary motion as well, but we need to motion To reconsider you made the motion to reconsider the holdover through September.

2:17:10 I second that. Any discussion? Yeah. Again, just the reason. Yeah. So for me, I would like to, uh, you know, I would like to make a motion to reappoint all of our volunteers seeking Reappointments that we listed on the June 28th original appointment process at this time, you know, for me, I, you know, what I wanted was the space to have this conversation and to make sure we address some of those things. And that was really what I was looking for personally. So at this point, I’m, you know, I don’t, I don’t see an, you know, a need to, if everyone else feels that we’ve gotten far enough in the process to wait until that September 13th. And I think what I heard, um, was really that concern over not, uh, lingering in the process any longer than necessary. So it, you know,

2:17:56 presented any concerns for our volunteers, thinking that, you know, we, we weren’t doing, you know, our due diligence to get this through quickly. And so for me, if we can get this to a place where, um, we feel as a board we’ve gotten the information that we need in order to make this vote in August, I would, I would rather let them know sooner rather than later. You know, I think it’s, um, if we’ve gotten this far. So that’s, that’s my, uh, I don’t know how everyone else, So again, the goal is to vote of soon this passes, then right after we we’re gonna just reappoint everybody. Right? That’s my, that’s my intention. I mean, I don’t know what that’s, that’s my most Wanna reappoint tonight, right? I mean, Yes. That’s my, that’s, that’s What she’s saying. Like I said, I don’t know if everyone agrees.

2:18:42 I’m, it’s, I’m just trying to be clear. Yeah, I think it’s, I mean, I, I agree. I, I think that this has been a really thorough process. I think each and every single member of this board contributed to creating this policy in a really valuable and meaningful way. I think it’s August 16th, and we’ve come really, really close to the end. So I’m comfortable with, um, going forward and, and doing that. I think Okay, that the pause was important, but, um, yeah, So, So listen, I mean, I think we formulated policy. We haven’t finalized it. Uh, and it’s clear that we’re not gonna apply this policy that we’re writing to the appointments this year since we’re, you know, we haven’t gone through everything we’re recommending. So, but we’re just gonna respect basically the past

2:19:28 appointment recommendation. We’re gonna vote tonight, and this policy will come into effect next year. Well, it, it will come in and when we come up later, this, well, That’s right. Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. When I next, It’s not gonna, It’s effective one, The fiscal 24 appointments, but it will affect the fiscal 25, which could occur with the five bus. That’s correct. Well, and I mean, it’s effective when we vote it. So if we vote it next, me next at our next meeting, it’ll have to take place. Every interview we do, we will, you know, this will, the policy will be underlying it. Um, you know, a regular vacancy. We have a vacancy for starting, um, you know, with task force against discrimination, we’ve got a lot of vacancies. So, um,

2:20:14 I think it’s a smart thing to do. Yeah. Okay. And I do, I think, um, to me, it, uh, meant a lot to get the, what I really was looking like. What does everyone else think? What do our boards think? What, like, let’s give everyone the space to provide that information. And then I personally have the information for me that I need to think that we’ve done our due diligence and, and run through this process in a way that we can let our, you know, thank our volunteers for holding that, you know, holding that space, allowing us to do the work, but also recognize that they, you know, they wanna know as well that we’ve landed somewhere. So I just out of respect for them, if we can do this earlier, I would be happy and like, like to do that. So I will call for a vote on the re your motion to reconsider all those in

2:20:59 favor. Okay. The motion passes. Um, so I’ll make a motion that, uh, we reappoint all of our volunteers seeking reappointment listed on the June 28th committee appointment process for volunteer board and committees that will hold. Okay, gimme a second. Second. All in favor? Motion passes. Alright. Okay. So they have to go to the clerk’s office, get sworn in, and So it’s a labor of love. We did it. So, um, well almost there. Almost there. Almost there. Okay. Um,

2:21:33 so next we have public comment. And, um, if anybody in the audience would like to make public comment, please come and state your name and address for the record. If you’re online, please raise your hand and Kyle will let me know. And thank you to the public commenters for their patience in letting us get through that important business. Kyle, is that mic on? Yes. The green light. Yeah, The light on. Nope, Green light’s on. Hear it. Oh, I won’t hear it. They’ll hear it. That’s better.

2:22:07 Uh, Dan Albert, 58 Lister Road. Uh, I’ve had us all sorted out. And then, uh, select woman singer kind of ruined it by appointing everybody. Um, so I, I think I’m reappointed, but anyway, that’s not what this was about. I also also bef I want to talk about appointments from Reappointments a little bit. First, I just wanted to, um, call out, um, select Manai and, uh, say how much I appreciated your, um, forceful rebuke might be too strong a word, but of a man who stood up here at this microphone and kind of masked his hate speech as befuddlement regarding the, uh, painted sidewalk in front of the, um,

2:22:52 information booth. I know that, uh, all of you were trying to sort of figure out what was going on and trying to take him through the process, but I think, uh, uh, select Manai really said simply, yep. We, we voted that it was the right vote, and we stand behind it. And I really, really, really appreciated that. Um, so, uh,

2:23:17 I, I also wanted to say I, I’ve been here a while, why not another hour, um, that, as I understand it, by the end of the week, we’re gonna have two new, um, uh, shoulder lines. These create what are called bicycle accommodations, but they’re really just wider shoulders. These are gonna be six foot shoulders, and I think we’re getting them by the end of the week, maybe next week, hopefully before school. Crosswalks are my first crosswalks, first crosswalks today. I, I was under the impression we were, um, getting it by the end of the week, certainly before school starts. These are gonna run in front of Glover’s School. And I want to mention ‘em because, um, this was required by the planning board in 2012

2:24:03 when they approved the new school. Nobody checked up in response to a public records request. I found out these belong there. And I also wanna say that I know you all just voted to approve the website as the official place to post, uh, meetings. That is the result of an open meeting law complaint. I followed, filed, I didn’t say to the, you know, attorney General come attack Marblehead and so forth. I said, I found this out thanks to the, uh, lawyerly response. I got to my open meeting law complaint, and I told, uh, Robin Michoud the clerk, and now it’s fixed. And so I think that’s great.

2:24:49 I think the more people know about what goes on in government, the better. The reason I said this was kind of screwed up by, uh, selectman Singer here, is that apparently the Complete Streets Committee membership also has to be appointed by, uh, the select board. At least that’s what the, uh, town administrator told the press. Um, keys are also noted how the Complete Streets Committee is appointed and governed by the Select Board. And that was news to me. I was under the impression that Jason Silva had invited specific individuals to be members of this board. Uh, I spoke with Felix Tall Hoffen, who is on the board and is listed as the bicycle community

2:25:36 representative, which I don’t think it’s exactly racist, but he’s Dutch. And so I guess that counts. He told me he’d never heard of that. He, he didn’t wanna be listed as the, uh, bicycle community representative. He doesn’t represent anybody but Felix Tall Hoffen. And so, um, I’m excited that this is gonna go forward. I’m not sure if this will happen in November or later. I still hold out, um, hope that my other earlier recommendation that the Complete Streets Committee be completely dissolved and eliminated, um, be be honored, um, as I’ve tried to do many times over the past year, uh, several months. Anyway, um,

2:26:22 I’d like to have this board engage with the Complete Streets policy with what Complete Streets is about, and ultimately with creating a proper mobility system that’s sustainable, safe, equitable, and healthful for everybody in Marblehead. We just don’t have that. We have, we haven’t done a transportation plan since 19 70, 19 70 cars were getting 10 miles a gallon. All right. So please take seriously the request that you begin to think comprehensively about transportation and mobility. That should include not only the roads that we’ve, uh, put up,

2:27:08 12 and a half million dollars in debt to repave, but also the rail trail that we just used, $1.43 million in ARPA funding to, um, improve. And, and I should also thank, uh, selecting Greater for engaging with the Town Planner on the issue of the servicing. Um, I think that’s really important. And a lot of people have said to me subsequently, ‘cause I don’t know, I seem to have a reputation for having an interest in these things. Why didn’t they do anything about the mud, uh, here and there and so forth? And I explained, um, kind of how this works, but they also didn’t understand that $1.43 million is

2:27:54 federal money, and the town doesn’t really yet have a plan for maintaining that $1.43 million new investment. We’re required to maintain the 11 foot wide a d a, uh, uh, American with Disabilities Act compliant surface right now. As I think, uh, uh, Amy knows, I think we’re borrowing, that’s what I was told. Anyway. We’re borrowing the mower from the health department to mow the path a couple times a year. And that’s not really sufficient. So I just encourage you to all, uh, think about that seriously.

2:28:39 One last thing. Uh, with regard to appointments. The, um, number of people involved with the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee have, uh, been engaged with the Marblehead Disabilities Commission on the problem of people parking on the sidewalks. And you may have noticed outside the fire station, now we have a flashing sign that says, don’t park on the sidewalks and stepped up police enforcement $25 fine. Um, that was a very useful engagement with Lori Blazedale the, uh, chairwoman. But at the meeting, the last meeting where we discussed this, she said, you know, I’ve been, she, she brought up this whole issue of reappointment. She said, I’ve been in charge here for 22 years, and now they just kind of want to show me the door. And, you know,

2:29:26 she was miffed. And, um, just, I hope it’s helpful to say, you know, to someone like that, or someone in that position, I should say. Um, the, the message should be, no, we’re not trying to get rid of anybody. We’re trying to formalize the way these boards operate. Because as terrific as she’s been, she also needs to kind of modernize the way that board operates. And she can do that. But somebody needs to, to tell her how. I hope that, uh, makes some sense. Thank you. Um,

2:30:04 um, anybody online? Oh, okay. There’s somebody in the audience. Would you like to come up to the microphone?

2:30:15 Good evening. Um, Albert Jordan Roosevelt Avenue. Um, there’s a dumpster on in front of the rip tide. I don’t wanna single ‘em out, but I just did. Um, on the road, we’ve freshly repainted the road. That section not too long ago in the stream Heat, it was put there a couple weeks ago. Um, I saw two kids yesterday. I almost get hit by a car walking out behind it. It’s right before a real busy intersection with traffic lights to cross. A lot of people don’t use the traffic lights. Um, and there was just a fatality with a six year old girl in a scooter, um, in another town at a crosswalk that a delivery truck didn’t see. And she had the red possession light on. So you never wanna put a dumpster right before a crosswalk because it’s

2:31:03 just common sense. It blocks the visibility. So I, I don’t know who the public safety people are on Marblehead. Um, and I think there should maybe be a fee on these things. Um, on West Shore Drive, last year, someone put two pods that were moving into a house and they thought they were gonna leave ‘em there three or four months. Um, after a couple weeks, I think they had a lot of complaints and they got ‘em out of there. Uh, there was just one left a pod, um, on, uh, prospect Street at Washington Street. It’s not a busy area, but it sat there a whole month. There’s no plates on these things. There’s no lights on these things. Um, if someone hits one of these things, liability the town, I think maybe you should charge $25 a day and then they’ll get it out. You know, I don’t mind if someone’s doing some work, they need to put it there for three or four days because they got no place else

2:31:50 to put it. But I don’t how long this one’s gonna stay in front of the riptide, but I don’t want to see someone get killed walking out behind it. Because like I say, you do not block the visibility. The whole point of having a crosswalk in an intersection, you wanna focus on the lights. You see this big red thing on the side of the road. So it’s a real danger. Someone finally put a barrel in front of it. But these pods aren’t registered and they just drop ‘em off in the middle of the street. Um, in the olden days when the Selectmen met, but you’re not here every week, they used to have to get permission if they were gonna block the sidewalk, the selectmen, or if they were gonna do something in the street. And the selectmen would, would always back then when they had five member board say, how long is it gonna be here? ‘cause we don’t want to hear for weeks. We understand people have to do work.

2:32:35 So maybe a safety committee can look into that before someone gets hurt. Thank you. And the next thing is, um, I’m very, very upset. You didn’t meet for a couple weeks, um, of being a resident of Marblehead and going outta town and having a lot of people come up to me in this town and out of town that are taxpayers about the school department. You read all the letters in the paper. And I’ve lived here 63 years and I’ve never seen so many letters in the local paper. And then the way the situation was handled, I don’t know what’s going on up the school department, but I’m paying taxes. Okay? And, um, you know, we’re paying a police officer a couple hundred thousand dollars a year. They say that it’s gonna be coming to an end pretty quick.

2:33:22 Now we’ve given someone else a couple hundred thou. We’ve lost a real good employee as far as I’m concerned. The superintendent of schools. Uh, most people I know in this town that have had dealings with them were most people. ‘cause you’re never gonna satisfy everyone. Um, the guy was around on weekends. He, one of the few department heads that lived in this town seemed to take an interest in this town. Um, he seemed to get along with most of the people, um, that he didi to work with, which is a real difficult job. And I want to compliment how you people got together tonight on what you just voted on, your new, uh, business there that you’re trying to, and you reappointed the other people. It was nothing against the people, but let’s leave that out of there. But it’s very good to see that you people,

2:34:10 a couple months ago when you started this, there was a lot of friction about that. And it seems how you, people got together tonight and all had comments and you had your say and you put your heads together. It’s not like the board of health. It’s not like the school committee. What’s going on. Uh, emails are being sent out. I mean, it’s a disgrace to live in this town, this town, not because we don’t like what someone says. We put people on these boards for the best interest of the town and the taxpayers and represent the people. We are not putting people on these boards to fight and come in and cause trouble. So, alls I’m saying to you, um, the school department, they’re gonna be doing the school teachers this year.

2:34:57 A lot of towns are going on, on strike. We’re in a real pickle now. And I’ll be holding my sign next year for no override again. ‘cause I’m not happy that you just throwing all this money away that I have to pay for and other people that are in this town. We gotta get this stuff out of under control. But it’s very great to see that you people tonight seem to be working. So maybe we can pass some of that on to some of these other boards to start getting along and think of the taxpayer and the people that work for the town and support them. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jordan. Um, just wanted to encourage you to share your feedback with the school committee, which just to clarify is, as you know, a separately elected board. I understand.

2:35:43 Okay. But I know a lot of people went up there, um, and they were, they really feel that they couldn’t even say the piece. But I mean, I’m disgusted to see what was in the paper. Never see that in my life out.

2:35:57 Hey, Thank you. Wait, so, um,

2:36:03 is there somebody we could follow up with on the dumpster? Who would be, who would you think? Yeah, that’s okay. All right. Is there anyone on line?

2:36:11 Maybe they can make a pause. It’s just because more and more, and then monkey see, monkey do. I worked the state. When you start letting these people, all of us sudden big problem, you know? Right. Thank you for your point about the dumpster. Mr. Geezer will, um, look into it. I’m sorry, I’m not having Seen anyone else. No, but when you see two kids almost get hit by a car, it was a little upsetting. Yeah. Okay. Do we have anybody else online? No. Okay. So then we have, um, do we have a town administrator update? Oh, yes. You’ve been quiet tonight. I know it. Um, I forgot what I was gonna say. No, I have two items, uh, to point out. One, um, uh, in regard to our fin, the folks in our finance department, we have three key players that have been,

2:36:59 uh, in Amherst, mass this week. Uh, Alicia Benjamin, our C f o, Cammy, and, and Orelli, who’s our assistant treasure collector. And, and Rachel Blaisdell, who is our treasure collector for, um, finance training. And I, I like pointing this out because this is, this is important. Um, uh, Alicia and Cammie are doing the, um, collector track while Rachel does the treasurer track, and getting very specific technical knowledge as to the functions of their job and responsibilities and the, and the laws that apply. Um, and, and my conversations with, with Alicia, uh, the ta, the to-do list, the task list is already in place,

2:37:48 uh, for all of them. So, um, I, I, I wanna point out here ‘cause it’s really important that folks do professional development, that they get out of town hall for a while and, and, and, and interact with their peers and with other professionals who, who do training and, and professional development in that sense. So, uh, well worth, uh, well worth the time that, that they, they’ve been out. Um, the other item to update on, uh, we now have, uh, working with the Collins Center, uh, they’ve delivered the a d a transition plan. Uh, so we have that, it’s by design. It’s a, it’s a living working document, um, that will be continuously be up updated, but they, they’ve done the,

2:38:36 the brunt of the work. Now they’ve handed it off to us. So they’re complete, uh, on their actions, though. They will always be available for questions and, and, and additional input. Our intent is, uh, to take that plan is to first present it to the disability commission, get them familiarized with the whole plan, and then, uh, get that feedback and then come here and do a presentation as to what’s in the plan. It, it is a very large document. It includes, um, an inventory of all our buildings, an assessment of our website, uh, for, for accessibility compliance and such. And actually somewhat pretty favorable on, on those things.

2:39:21 Um, I say it’s a living document in the sense that especially in, in some policy areas and in our physical plant, there’s work to be done. Lots of work to be done. The intent of an a d a plan is it provides the master list and then what we will be doing, we, the professional staff sitting down and prioritizing the actions that need to be taken in order to fulfill all the compliance requirements that are identified in that document. So, um, we’ll do the presentation to the disability commission, and then we’ll do more public sharing of the whole document, making it available. And like I said, it’s, it’s a lot of information, a lot of good feedback. The Collin Center, I think did a great job for,

2:40:07 for Marblehead, uh, to put that together, give us some really great guidance and a path to follow, to meet, to meet the requirements, um, to be full one, to, to do all the things that are required in that document. It’s, it’s money, uh, that we have a lot of buildings and we have, you know, requirements that, that we need to be working on and upgrading. The part of the, the strategy will be in prioritizing is how do we, how do we make significant pro pros progress, um, and do it in, you know, bite-sized chunks that, that we can manage financially and as, as projects, um, going forward. So that’s what I have for screen updates pending.

2:40:52 Any questions you may have?

2:40:57 Sounds good. Good debrief. Great. Any, um, select board announcements from board?

2:41:05 Um, sure. Um, I would like to, uh, publicly thank Dr. Jung Bucky for his three years of service to the town. Dr. Bucky was always professional and a pleasure to work with, and, um, and I wish him glad. Speed going forward. Thank you. Thank you. Um,

2:41:25 I’m, I’m gonna go ahead, I’m sure if I may. Yeah, question. I mean, I, I don’t think there’s kind of like a consensus as to why Dr. Bucky was let go either on the school committee or in town, frankly. So kinda left with kind of guesses and I, and, and unfortunately kind of a negative insinuation about, about the causes of his departure. But I just wanted, so I, I kind of feel obligated. Yeah. You know, having known him and worked closely with him that, uh, you know, to say that in my experience, you know, Dr. Bucky was, you know, has been more than professional. Uh, he had an open mind and he, you know, he worked closely with the town to develop, uh, you know, some of our long-term plans that we, that we valued a great deal, like improvement in our tech. Uh, and he supported the drive toward more technology and also, you know, budget accountability. So these are issues that were important to me. They’ve always been friction point with the schools,

2:42:12 but he was very open about it. And I think generally he created an environment of respectful discourse. So, you know, wish him godspeed as well.

2:42:22 Um, yeah, I’d, I’d like to say that I, I, uh, I also wanted to, um, express gratitude for Dr. Bucky’s service to the town, and, um, definitely sure. Had passion for the job, um, here and, uh, made himself really a nice part of the community. So, um, and I think with, just to speak to, you know, I think all of us have probably received some pressure to weigh in on the situation. I think that, I just wanted to speak for me, I think that there’s this understood kind of, um, rule decorum among, um, or,

2:43:08 or within local government and politics that I think is well suited to not weigh in or act really be reserved in terms of, you know, elected officials weighing in on other elected boards, elected officials during times of upheaval and, and, and turmoil. And I think, um, you know, that was just, that’s just been in my mind. And, um, so I think, you know, there, there’s been plenty of people to express, um, their emotions around the situation. Um, but I do, uh, absolutely. Um, I think we all are grateful to Dr. Bucky for his service to this town. Um, and then one last thing I just wanted to say was, I was really disheartened when I was listening to the Board of Health meeting,

2:43:55 I think it was last week, to hear that. And, and, and I was also thankful to the director, Andrew Petty, for bringing it to the attention of the public that, um, you know, we’ve, everyone’s gone through a lot of, um, emotions post covid. There’s a lot of mental health crisis and, um, we have access to instantaneous information. Uh, people have stress on their lives like we’ve never had before. And, but, um, but that said, people really need to remember to treat people that work for the town and, and our, and others in our community with basic decency and respect. And this comes on the, um, heels of several, uh,

2:44:42 employees down at the transfer station who have been, you know, were, were harassed around a parking sticker, and it’s just been an uptick in a level of, um, sort of real disrespect and incivility directed towards town employees trying to do their job. We’re lucky to have them show up every day to this place of work. And, um, you know, that was the board of health, but I’m sure the highway department experiences this, and I’m sure that our road crews out on the road experienced, you know, people in the community frustrated. And I feels like the tenor and the tone around community has, um, kind of been very negative. And I just wanna remind people that this is our home, this is our community. And, and in more like we used to have after nine 11, it would, you know,

2:45:29 that if you say, if you see something, say something, you know, if you see somebody behaving really rude, you know, it’s like I tell my kid, you step in and remind people of how, you know, sometimes people need reminders about, you know, treating people with respect and how to behave. So that’s just my p s a Madam chair. I think at some point, you know, I think we should use the retreat that we’re about to have to talk a little bit about civic virtue and how the select board models that, and, you know, how we can, you know, perhaps encourage that more broadly. Yeah. Yeah. Great. There’s nothing wrong with disagreement or having opinion, Right. You just have to do it respectfully And above board. And above board. Yeah. And, and so I, I agree with the comments about civility

2:46:17 Among ourselves and, and absolutely with the people who are showing up every day to do hard jobs.

2:46:27 Anybody else? Okay. I just wanna reiterate once again, for everyone who participated in the process, especially everyone that the volunteers that took the time to, to jump in and really share their comments and just be involved and just kind of recognize the, the six and seven weeks that they, they gave us the time to do this, and also that they took the time to participate in the process, not just in the work that we’ve done here, but throughout the many, many years that we’ve had the participation that we have. So, just wanna reiterate the importance of that. So thanks. Great. All right. So, um, I guess I’d just like ask for a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. All In favor? Aye. Alright. Good meeting. Thank you.