Select Board: August 12, 2026

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.

0:03 Right there, sir. Good evening. Just announce your name and your address, would appreciate it. Good evening. My name is Steve Elliott. I live on Turner Road, and I was born right across the street from the school. I’m very familiar with what happens over there. And I came tonight for a couple of reasons. At the previous meeting, when they discussed the Coffin School, it seemed very asinine to me that we’re not allowed to make public comments except at the beginning of the meeting. So I had to wait two weeks to make the comments that I want to make. And I looked at the agenda, and I didn’t see the Coffin School, yet at that previous meeting, you said in a couple of weeks Brandon was going to have a preliminary RFP. So putting that aside, couple of things I’d like to mention. It’d be really nice if we could get the highway department to go in and clear the parking lot. There’s a lot of small rocks. It’s just ammunition for kids to keep breaking the windows out, and we don’t need it. The other thing that would be good is in the wintertime, if we plowed that small lot for off-street parking, it would be wonderful because we need off-street. I have plenty for myself, and even my kid parks his giant RV there. I’ve got no problem parking. But other people, it’d be a good thing for the town to do. As far as what should happen with the property over there, I’m all in favor of fencing off a portion for a dog

1:35 park, and I’m in favor of fencing off the existing playing field so the kids can keep the dogs out of it. And I think if we did that, the playing field, I went and taped it all out, it’s about 33,700 square feet of where the playing field and the little benches are for it. The dog park portion, it’s really about 21,000 square feet from what I taped off. It could be beneficial if they do do a bench there to take in about 40 feet into the hot tub that’s there, there’s some basketball hoops. If they ran the bench there, get the town to bring up a couple of truckloads of bark and mulch. We have tons of chips up there, spread them around, and it would make it a little bit nicer park. Then as far as long-term, I’d like to see the annex get demo’d, and then I’d like to see the main building get made into 10 or 12 small studio apartments, and have the town rent, not the housing authority, similar to the Sewall School building. Then we could have more ability to restrict who could stay there. It’d be an ideal spot for senior citizens or veterans in Marblehead. If we can’t do all of that, I’d like it to go back to the original plan from the ’30s, which I brought a copy to one of the meetings before. There was like 12 house lots laid out there through geoducks. That’s what I’d like. But I did hear, I believe, at the last meeting when you discussed it, there was an opinion that people didn’t want single-family houses.

3:07 That’s not what I hear, and I’ve been to every single meeting and I’ve talked to many neighbors. But that’s basically what I have to say. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you waiting and coming. Good evening, folks. Nick Ward, 6 Ralston Road. I wanted to submit public comment on two topics. Think first of the Coffin School RFP. Obviously shared some thoughts with you all in writing, not going to rehash the whole thing. It’d take too long, for a start. But the points that I did want to come down and reemphasize in person were really around some of the restrictions or some of the potential pre-emptions that are getting discussed prior to the issuing of an RFP. Just to state my position clearly, I think you would be much better off with the most wide of an RFP possible. Specifically on this idea of hiving off some of the Coffin School land for a public space amenity, whether it’s a dog park, whether it’s a playing field, whatever it might be. I just want us to all be very clear that if you do decide to do that, that would be in direct contravention of undertakings made by members of this board to the town in the context of the override, right? Because rather than maximizing revenues and sort of controlling costs, it would be the exact opposite. It’d be minimizing revenues and increasing costs because there would be a capital outlay to construct whatever the open space amenity might be, and then there would be ongoing maintenance or operating expense, whatever you want to call it, to maintain that amenity.

4:37 And candidly, at the moment, I can think of lots of public spaces where we’re frankly under-resourced and we could use a lot more revenue to better maintain them. So that’s one potential pre-emptive restriction I wanted to come to speak in opposition to. The other is this idea, and I hear this all over Marblehead, I hear it all over the Commonwealth, is this idea that what we’re going to do is we are going to prioritize housing on some kind of identity basis. Below market rate, veterans, seniors, you know, NORADs. I just do not agree with the idea of carving America up or carving Marblehead up or carving the Commonwealth of Massachusetts up into groups of people, some of whom we consider more virtuous and some of whom we consider less virtuous. Because in that list, for example, that I just mentioned, doesn’t include family, right? Just as a town. And I just don’t agree with the idea of we’re going to have some people who are happy to move to the front of the line in the midst of a housing crisis, and we have other people who are happy to move to the back of the line. If we’re going to do that, at least many people own the fact that that’s the fact of what they’re implying. So yeah, look, I’m not here to harangue you about housing. People know what background I’m in. You know I like housing. It’s sort of my job to persuade the community, run candidates who support housing, blah, blah, blah. But with respect to pre-emptions and criteria that you might use in the RFP I just wanted to express that there are real trade-offs there, particularly when it comes to the tax override, and I’m going to make sure

6:08 that those are on the table when we think through any preemptive move that you might make to celebrate some of the money. The second was very quick. There may or may not be a answer here available, and if not, that’s totally fine. I’ll follow up separately with the town staff. But my question was about budgeting for the use of town council and other legal services for the upcoming financial year. In particular, how much did we budget exactly? The Excel file I found online was, I think, 276,000. And if we know what the allocation is amongst the various boards and bodies within the town, what that allocation is. As I said, the answer may not be available offhand. That’s fine. I can follow up. But that was the question I wanted. We’ll get you that answer. Okay. That’s good. Sure thing. Thank you. I’m happy. Thank you. Anybody else like to speak? Nope. Nope. She beat you to it. So I just wanted to- Please speak. I’m sorry. If you say your name and- Pam. Hey, Pam. So I just wanted to make two points. Number one was that I hope that the board will return to the discussion as it was introduced in the July meeting, that the town treat the Coppin School property like the Derby School. In doing this, setting aside and taking control over a section of the property for public space before it’s sold. If this isn’t done, the land may start as open space, but it’s not guaranteed to stay that way.

7:38 One example is the dog park on Lime Street, which does not now have any safe access. Also, in the July meeting, there was a discussion about waiting until town meeting next year in order to change the zoning. If this happens, it will be crystal clear to me what is preferred to be developed on this property. And lastly, in the neighborhood, whether you’re young or old, we all live where we live because we love our homes, we love our neighborhood, and we’ve all worked really hard to be where we are. And I just hope that that’s respected. Thank you. Kim. Bonnie Gary, 24 Shepherd Street. I just want to know, is the people from this dog park committee here? Because I think they should talk to that young fellow, wherever he is. I don’t know if you left, but the guy in the green shirt. But they said they had money to help with the cost of building the new dog park. And with the seniors living there, the animals are longevity for older people, and it should be for the people that were here, the people that voted for the new school. They should be for veterans. They should be for the elderly people or the people who are getting out of their apartment because their house is being sold, and they don’t have a house. It should be for the

9:11 people, all the people, but it should be for our elders and our veterans because they deserve it. Thanks, Bonnie.

9:25 Albert Jordan, Roosevelt Avenue. I’ve been to all the meetings that I know about, but I wasn’t privy to some of them. So the Coppin School, where they’re talking about putting the dog park is all solid ledge up on a barricade. So they’re not going to build anything unless they get rid of all that ledge over there. That would be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Where the playing field is now, there’s a drain that runs through Susan Road that comes over. It’s in the middle of the property, so I’m not aware if you can build on top of that or not, or they could move it someplace else, I guess. But the Park and Rec came in here, and I don’t see them here tonight. They told you that they were interested, and then… I don’t have any dogs. My brother has two dogs. Dogs need to get off a leash and run around. And there’s really no place in town that you can drive a car to anymore. And the kids really enjoy playing over there. And I just don’t want to see some big, huge complex. I would like to see it develop. And think of the neighbors that live particularly across the street from it. I don’t want it to seem like the Landfall Apartments. If they build 12 units over there or they build 30 units over there, it’s not going to solve the housing in Marblehead. Okay? It’s not going to. They have these lotteries all the time that they’re building these buildings in other cities and towns, and there’s very few that get

10:55 accepted to them to get a reduced rate. There’s more people looking, obviously, than that’s available. So I think if a town has some use to it, you should really consider that the neighbors that live in the neighborhood, they shouldn’t dictate that in that area that we put up a big skyscraper. Thank you. Thanks, Al. Anybody else? Anything by online, Kyle? No. We have no entries. Okay. Let’s move on to town administrator update. All right. Thanks, Darren. I have the memo in the packet. I am first letting the board know that at some meeting, I’m looking to submit a flexible workplace policy. There are real two driving reasons for why we need to move forward on this. In my sense, one, we have the upcoming Mariani building project, construction project. It’s going to be major disruptions in that building, construction going on in that building. We’re going to have to move employees around During the course of that construction, and then that project’s looking at about a year to year and a half long project. And it’ll be done in phases of different waves, lower level, upper level, move around. So,

12:27 much like what the town went through when COVID came in, where everybody had to disperse, the town had a policy set up there on how to manage the requirements and conditions for the employees for flexible workspace. So, I have a draft policy. I’ll have it out to the board in advance. And basically, the purpose of the policy is to establish a controlled framework for allowing employees, when appropriate, and with management approval, to perform certain duties from an alternative work location. The other reason why this is really an issue that we need to address is as we’re out trying to recruit, especially for critical positions, and the recent example is for the town treasurer. One, it is in the workplace, it is a question asked by every applicant. What’s our policy? And we’ve had some very highly qualified applicants inquired, and when we respond that we do not have any policy in place, have gone other places. So, in order to keep us competitive in the workplace, we need to establish some type of policy. The key components is the policy does not create an entitlement or broadly change

13:59 how town government operates. And the policy includes a methodology of having individual agreements with the employees and the department heads as to the parameters of when and how and where they would operate from other locations. So again, more details hopefully. Yeah, I’ll just put- Yep … in a first question is, how is that applied across an employee base? There’s some jobs that lend themselves to telework and other don’t. Yeah, that is a challenge. That there are positions that are just not conducive. And also in the policy, the key component is there may be employees who it may not be a conducive work environment for them, for whatever reasons. So, it’ll be an individual employee, employee positions that it makes sense for, that there’s a benefit to the town for doing it. Right. And that there’s clear parameters of how this would be engaged, and it can be revoked, recalled, at any time. Thank you. No problem. And may I ask, in the question of in the recruiting, generally speaking, are people looking for a day or two? Are they looking for to be completely remote, or is it all over the place there? Yeah.

15:29 Probably the range. Yeah. I would say as per position I can think of, we would not be interested in totally remote. Yeah. It is benefit, but it seems to me in the marketplace of having some flexibility, be it one day, two day type of arrangements. But again, it would have to work for the benefit of the town. Here’s an example, especially for the customer-facing functions, and let’s say multiple people have some type of agreement. That office has to be open and staffed every day- Yeah … so that there’s someone there when residents or others come in. So, any agreements would be designed to make sure there’s always coverage all the time. Yeah. My general thing is it’d be a very narrow group of people. Yeah. Jason is not going to have– You can’t work from home as a firefighter or a kindergarten teacher and… And some of the departments are so small that you might be a back-room person that needs to be up front every day. Yep. So, anyway. Good. We’ll hear more about it. Yeah. And I think maybe some of the managers may need some support in how to manage those conversations because that can get complicated fast. Yes. And like I said, Bubblehead had done it during the COVID. I was in frame meeting with him at that time, and we had to learn through the process of how to manage employees like that, so. Yep. So board fall meeting. Next,

17:00 Kaufman School RFP. So we are finalizing the request for proposals for the property. We’ve been taking input, and I know the board members have all had the opportunity and solicited inputs on it. So we’re finalizing the RFP. And again, key component is that in an RFP process, you define the criteria in which we are going to evaluate any of the proposals. And so through the criteria, and based on the input from public and the board members, in the RFP, folks submitting proposals are going to have to respond to all the criteria categories. Maximized value, the open space issue, energy efficiencies, all the criteria that have been discussed and deemed important. So, we will finalize the RFP. It’ll go back to legal for a final review before it goes out. And- My intent is to have a review committee established. The review committee that I’m looking at would be two members from the select board, a member from the planning board,

18:32 the town administrator, he’d still be here through this process, and the community development planning director. And the purpose of the screening committee is taking the proposals. First thing you do, you determine all those proposals that qualify, meaning they meet all the requirements of an RFP submittal, and then is to evaluate, based on the criteria in the submittals, evaluate the comparisons between the proposals in order to recommend to the select board, I put in here, one or more finalists. So it depends. There may be one proposal that comes back as clear stand out. That’s what we would be looking for. Or there may be one or two other proposals. In the proposals, maybe one’s really strong in one part of the criteria that people really want, and another one is different. But then, by having a final say, it could be weighed out. What happens then is, once there is a finalist selected proposal, if any, the board also has the opportunity to just reject all and decide what course to take from that point. If you select a finalist, then you’re able to engage in negotiations for an agreement that would specify the parameters of the development project.

20:04 It has to meet the scope of what was put out there, but there would be a negotiation to nail down the particulars of a development agreement with the selected developer for the project. So, wrap up the RFP, legal review, and bring together a screening committee to review the proposals. Yeah. The only thing I’d like to just add and reiterate, it would be a failure to get a non-bid that’s acceptable. So, we’ve been through six or seven just in the last few years. We’ve been highly successful across the board. So we know the formula. I don’t say formula, but I think presenting a framework which really reasonably consistent that everybody can kind of track to, so that when they’re developing a proposal, they understand the value proposition of the town and the marketing, and it’s super important that that be relatively consistent, so we’re comparing apples to apples when we see that proposal. So again, there may be a zone-in, and should we commit to doing a 40B with an important criteria of 25% affordability or higher, meaning gets a better rating if we commit to putting a proposal out there without kind of defining the affordability

21:35 component. I’m not sure if it’s a great move. I’m obviously in favor, and we’ve done this pretty much in all our other bids. We have separated out a portion for public use. If there is a good public use, it makes a lot of sense, and by the way, the town still owns it and can dispose of it in any way it wants in the future. So you’re not losing an asset. But I think to get a revenue-optimizing proposal from market-based players, we need to be pretty clear about what they can and cannot do and what they need. And I think that needs to be defined pretty well in the criteria. Now, I get we want to keep it open for negotiation, but I think there are some a priori framework criteria that I think we should be able to decide and evaluate now. So I just lay that out there again. I guess we had this conversation last time. I think we should keep it as broad as possible till we get to go into negotiations so that we can– There might be something out there we don’t know about. We can’t commit to a 40B right now. If somebody wants to come with something else, it’s not up to us to decide that anyway. It’ll be for them to decide. I think that we should keep it broad in our criteria, and we do have what’s important to us, which is open space, maximize our revenue. I think we have to put weights on each of those-

23:06 Right … and what is important to us, and too, we don’t have to take any. We can go back out if we don’t like what we have. So, I think that when you said that we want to get as many people as possible, I think the way to do that is to keep it as broad as possible so that we do open it up to the general market. You might have people just coming for market rate. You might have people coming for affordable. We don’t know what’s out there, depending on different funding sources they have. So I would like to see it as broad as possible, and we can make that decision once we see the bids. I’m not– At the end of the day, I think we can agree on the objective. I would have thought that that kind of broader kind of bid request, it would be in an RFI. A request for interest would be an appropriate place to do the broader scoping. My only concern for going for an RFP, I think we could get proposals that are so different, and that may be good and may not be. I don’t think it’s a value-maximizing way to approach it. So part of the process is if there are some ambiguities and proposers are not clear, there is a process, and we use our OpenGov module to manage all this. Yeah. Is they would submit questions And would be as part of the website, the OpenGov, in which everybody would have visibility. All the proposals. Anybody who takes a package to fill out, they

24:36 register, and so we have their contact information built in. So they would ask a question, we would generate an answer that then gets posted back. So it would go out to anybody who’s pulled a package would have that information. And then if we need to submit an addendum to our RP, we can do that through the system, and then that gets pushed out to anybody who’s pulled the package. So there is, built into the process and the software that we’ve engaged with, to allow for clarifications, more information, and it’s designed to make sure everybody sees everybody too. Well, is there a density limit? Is there any… Because at the end of the day- Well, the density limit right now is a zone, right? Right. So if they come in, to me, that’s where you’re starting with. Right. If somebody wants to come in and propose to do more, we’ll have to look at that. So your density limit right now is that single families only, which allows, I think it’s either 10 or 12. I know you said that there was a- Exactly, yeah. So that’s a single family only there. Right. So anything outside of that- Right … would have to either be possibly through special permanent variance, although, or something that the planning board would have to be on board, which is why I think Thad would like to have some of the planning board on there- Right … if you need to do some kind of zone change. Sure. I think if you’re saying, is there a density limit by right? There is. No, I understand that. Right? Yeah, I get that. So I think that that’s what we’re going to have to look at and decide on the

26:08 possibilities- Mm-hmm … and see that. Right. And I think we’ve got to all work together. And the nice thing here- Right … at the end of the day, if we want to do something outside of single family housing here, you have to have the planning board on board- Sure … and the town. Right. So it takes a lot of the deci- even the decision making that we had to get, or that this board had to get to school- Right … was a lot more broad because of the, I’m on the sort of a free zone that exists over there. Got it. We’re here. So I think that by living, by seeing all these different ideas, it can open up some different discussions, and also you’re going to have multiple boards involved with this one, including possibly at the end of the day, town meeting. Okay. My thought. Listen, my only bid is to, we should have been in this, in my opinion, we should have been in a discovery process where we’re kind of seeking feedback from the town to kind of narrow down those basic questions around affordability, around continuance of public ownership of land for non-pri- yeah, for public use as opposed to integrated into a private open space concept. So that’s, I think the way we’re going here, we’re baking it into the RFP. Now listen, if in the RFP we basically say, “Look, the town has the right to reduce the footprint of the developable land, and that the town may take what, 30,000 feet, square feet for a dog park and a playground.” If that’s included in our RFP, then so be it.

27:38 But I think what it does is just limits the capacity of people to come to the existing things. Yeah. Right. And so I’m just making the point- Right. So the open, for example, the open space, it’s not defined how much open space. It’s up to the developers. That’s one of the criteria. Okay. How much open space and what you would do with it. And so because it’s broad, if we select- Right … right, a developer, because there’s no predefined parameters, then we can negotiate in the final design- Sure … as to how much that is, based on- How much they’re open … how much open space, based on their proposal of we can do this or this. So it leaves those options open. Yeah. And then there is language in there that even allows someone to propose a development project that does not meet the zoning, but they have to identify what would be the zoning change required so that, say somebody has just the whiz bang proposal that requires zoning, then that would give the town the option to say, “We like this one. We will need to take it to town meeting for a zoning change, but we have a proposal and a concept that we can present as part of the zoning change if we choose to take that path.” No, I think that happens right then. Well, I’m not saying that. I guess the key thing is, it’s obvious if you’re trying to maximize the value of your development, you’re going to minimize your open space.

29:09 You’re going to minimize your open space. So you’re automatically in the private sector hands. One of the reasons we’ve always done this, pretty much, Margaret, I’m not saying it’s the right way. I’m just saying, the reason we’ve taken a look at public land and decided on the disposition of it on a public-private basis first is because that use is public use, and it’s treated very differently than a private sector player justifiably would. So the private player’s not going to maximize- If they want to be chosen, they’re going to have to present it with something like that- Well, that’s it … is what I say. So I think that- Sure. It’s a fine balance. So then we’re going to take them. I think at this point- Then our revenue, we’re not optimizing. We’re going to have to balance those. But it’s fine. So I think that that first draft that came out was a great start. So do you have a timeline in terms of a target date to kind of finalize so we can get to the next- I’m trying to… I’d like to say by next week, and then make sure we get the legal review. So then by like September. September 1st, and leave it open for 30 days. Correct? Yeah. It’s a- There is a, it has to be on the street for 30 days. There is a, we have to submit, I think it goes under the central register, so there’s a submit it to central register, and then that gets posted either Wednesday or Thursday if we get Rich- Of the following week. So- And then 30 days once you have the- You have to add some submittal time, and then after the 30 days,

30:41 take down the proposals and start the processing review. And so this committee that you’re talking… Which I think is a great idea, to have this mix of different people on the committee. Is that something that happens in October? Like, is that- I’m probably- Or sorry, October- Yeah. We said September, would be probably in the mid-October timeframe. Thereabouts. And then how will that play out? Like I got, just a review in terms of how it’s selected or… We end up planning, obviously- The screening committee, and the consensus of the screening committee based on the evaluations. And again, we have the option of coming with one proposal, two proposals. It’s a judgment call. And I find the reason for doing the RFP process is to be able to make qualitative judgments about the proposals, because there will be sort of competing criteria interests that you’re going to weigh. Some will have a higher value, some will have more open space, some will have more suitable housing for whatever. The screening committee’s sort of the evaluating group. Oh, yeah. No, my question was, how is the screening committee- Selected … selected? Yeah. The members of it. The members of it. So, the select board would select two members amongst themselves and then- Okay. I guess then I would put the motion was on that. Okay. Yeah. So just while you mention that, we’re going to have basically three

32:14 different groups in the near future, with selection committees. One for town administrator, one to replace Alicia, and one for this. So we can decide. Decide that over the coming weeks as we get there. Okay. Yeah. Fine. Yeah. And I just wanted to say a couple things. I would hope the screening committee would come with, if there was eight potential bidders, that a fairly thorough rundown, not just say, “This is the winner,” like the Academy Awards or something like that. And then the other thing I wanted to say, to Moses’ point, the RFP does feel a little bit like an RFI. But we did try an RFI, and the responses were fairly limited. Brenda did get UConn to sort of get us more information, but I think we’re just in that place that there are so many different options that, and different opinions in town, what should be done. So, anyway. All right. Next, organizational review. So if you recall from the select board retreat, one of the goals for this year, one of the action items was to seek a consultant to take, do an organizational assessment of the town government. So to report that, we are out seeking quotes for this process.

33:46 And again, the review will evaluate the town’s current organizational structure and operations, including departmental responsibility, staffing, reporting relationships, opportunities for greater coordination and efficiency, and roles of town boards, committees, and commissions. I’ll stress, it’s going to map out the committees and commissions, but the recommendations of any potential changes of that are to the select boards, appointed boards, and committees. So the other boards need not too concerned. And compare Marblehead’s structure and governance with similar municipalities and develop prioritized recommendations and an implementation roadmap for the town’s consideration. So proposals are due August 17th and with the expected completion assessment by November 30th. So out of the conversations from the retreat, it was my goal to have this process happen while I’m still here. To sort of guide the process, but my ideal is to provide a roadmap to whoever the successor is. Have a clear roadmap going forward. And I think you had mentioned, I don’t know if you mentioned it all at last sort of meeting, but that you are already talking to people about grants to pay for this. Yeah. Correct? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. In the compact. Okay. Very compact. Great. And do we have a sense what studies like this cost or what kind of grant we’d be looking at? Forget the numbers. When we had them, it’s like-

35:17 It was a range depending on how deep you went. Yeah … Okay. But it would be potential grants- Yeah … granted for all of it? Community compact, yeah. That’d be great. Community compact does fund these type of studies. Mm-hmm. And I think that I’ve seen- And they move that quick to make the awards if- Yeah. The community compact is pretty… It’s not like once a year apply. Okay. Yeah. It’s managed through ELS. So- Grant that’s good. Yeah. And finally, I want to give recognition, as everyone knows and read about the recent incident, the boat on the rocks. Yeah. And what I want to just highlight here, is to recognize the outstanding response by our first responders, responding to the boat incident. So we had the Marblehead Harbormaster’s office, police, fire department, and Oakport Ambulance serves Marblehead, all respond. Our dispatches played a key role, and then we had our mutual aid partners, the other communities involved. And the highlight for me is, one, if you were to ask any of those first responders to give them recognition for the doing this, they’d say, “We’re just doing our job.” And they were, and they did it well. From my perspective, the key was the coordination, the

36:48 response time, and it was an unusual incident. It’s not a rescue or a response that you get every day. But the way everything was coordinated and flowed together, and the different components, our first respondents blended together very well to respond very quickly and very professionally to the whole incident. So I just want to take this to recognize all of them. This is why we have training and professional development and preparation and planning. This is when it matters. And so I just want to call out for all those that participated, for the board to know and the public to know it was an outstanding response by all the segments of our first responding force. And I believe, and Jason can correct me, Marblehead resident and Salem Harbor Master Bill McHugh was also involved in very much of it. The phrase I use, it was all hands on deck. Yeah. Pun intended. Great. Well, thank you. Good update. We will move on to charter committee. Amy, one more walk down the aisle here. The final walk. You’ve sat at this table many hours. Evening. Good evening. Thank- Thank you for coming. And before you even start, thank you for all of your time on this. I know it’s been exhaustive, at times

38:20 frustrating. But what you guys have achieved, and a couple members at this table, or everyone except for me, actually, have been part of this process. Yeah. So thank you. Yeah. Thank you for your time. You’re welcome. Thank you, Amy. I thank you for fitting us on the agenda. I have notes that take two minutes because I timed it. Is that- Go for it. Good. Yeah. All is efficient. Waste of time. Well, I don’t want to have up until now counted in my two minutes, so I’m going to start now on my two- Tell me, hold my hand, and when my hand drops, you’re good. Okay. I’m just here to confirm that the charter committee has submitted materials to you, including a working draft C and an executive summary memo with four appendices, including organization charts, potential recall language, public forum PowerPoints and notes, and alignment memos one through five. I want to really make the point that draft C is a working draft. It is not a final draft of a charter. It’s 32 pages long, and it may serve as a baseline for further charter development. The executive summary includes suggested next steps and a timeline for your consideration if and when you decide to move forward with the charter initiative. And I request that these materials be posted on the charter webpage, and I’m happy to work with Kyle to make sure that happens. I’d like to thank the 11 members of the Town Charter Committee, both

39:51 current and previous. Current members are Ron Grenier, Seamus Horrigan, Tom Masaro, Caleb Miller, Victor Wilde, and me as chair. Former members include Rosanna Ferrante as vice chair, Shawn Casey, Bill Conley, Amy Danforth, and Jim Zisson. I’d like to thank the town boards, committees, and officials who met with the charter committee to answer questions about their respective responsibilities and department affiliations. Thank you to Thatcher Kezer for his thoughts and perspectives as a non-voting member of the committee. And many thanks to Kyle Wiley for her patience and assistance to the committee. Thank you to the Collins Center for its assistance and to Lisa Mead, Marblehead Town Council, for her review of draft charter language and answers to the committee’s questions. At its last meeting on July 28th, the charter committee asked me to relay to you that it considers its work completed and all members would like to be excused from further service on the charter committee. If you have questions in the future that you’d like any of us to come back and answer, we’d be happy to do so. That’s the end of my remarks. Two minutes exactly. I had it in my head. Nice. Well, thank you. I think that we should spend some time on this, discussing how we move forward at a future date. Sure. Yeah. And really take some time to look through what you all went through. Because I’ve seen all the different drafts and the notes, and it’s well beyond something that I could do.

41:22 So most of us, and I know Shawn had a lot to do with that, you had a lot to do with it- Yes … all the members. So, what I would recommend is that we post on the website as discussed, and then at a future meeting, discuss our next steps in this, what we as a board want to do with it. Yes. Does that sound- That sounds good … good? So, with that, I would like to make a motion, or ask for a motion to accept the draft charter as presented from Amy Drinkard, chair of Town Charter Committee, and to dissolve the Town Charter Committee. So moved. Second. All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. And thank you- Yeah … David.

42:04 And I just did want to say, after serving on the committee and meeting some new people, I truly have to say it was an outstanding group of people. I mean, really smart, dedicated people that were willing to listen to each other. No one really carrying an agenda. It was a real pleasure, and I’m glad those people became part of my life. And, I’ll see them around town as well in other capacities. So it was really something. Yeah, no, the work was tremendous, and I think that no matter what happens in terms of… I think that work will serve a purpose for something, right? So I think that that time and effort was not wasted at all. What it turns into, we’ll see, but- Certainly up for further discussion I think we all learned a lot about the town- Yeah … and things that existed that we might not have known about before. Exactly. That somebody knew about hundreds of years ago. That’s great. So let’s move on Disabilities Commission, Ms. Leal. And if you notice, I didn’t pronounce your first name because I’m going to let you pronounce it for me. That’s okay. Actually, if you could come sit down here, that’d be great. How do you pronounce your first name? Yeah. Okay. How do you pronounce your name? Aseriani. Yeah. That’s definitely assuming. Well, thank you for coming. We appreciate it. If you just want to tell us a little bit about yourself and why you’d like to be a member of the commission. Sure. Okay. So my name is Aseriani Leal. I am a Marblehead resident for over a decade. I am a mother of two adults with disabilities.

43:37 Professionally, I work for Federation for Children with Special Needs for a few years. And in my life, I not only lived the experience with my own children with disabilities, but also I work in helping families, assisting them access supports, information, community connections, and having the family engagement support throughout. I’m also a licensed community health worker, which is where I bring the other perspectives in terms of making the community as a place for people to connect. So it’s not just for… I guess what I’m trying to achieve is that the disability is not just for the adult or the adult age to actually be able to access the community. As young as they are a part of the family as children, they are part of the community. So in summary, is trying to bring the connection for all the families within the community. Great. Thank you. Okay. All right. Have any questions? Thank you very much for volunteering- Mm … to help other Marbleheaders and other families. Thank you. You very welcome. Yeah, I think you’d be a wonderful addition.

45:10 Thank you. Yeah, I can’t think of a better person who’s dedicated their life to it and adding their experiences. So if I could have a motion to appoint Aseriani Leal to Disabilities Commission with a term to expire on June 2029. So moved. Second. All in favor? Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much. So you will need to be sworn in as well. So Kyle will be in touch with you about getting sworn in. Okay. Thank you for your volunteering. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Next up, licenses. License Cafe Vesuvius is here for common vic. Mr. Pell, you want to come on up? How are you? Good. How are you? Hello. Hello. Thank you for waiting. Nice to meet you guys. So it looks like you’re just applying for a common vic license. Yes.

46:02 Wait for board to make any questions anyone? No. All right. All right. Made you wait for all that. Thank you. Motion to approve application from Goga Mahara. Thank you. Thank. Yep. DBA Cafe Vesuvius- Yes … at 18 Bessom Street for a common victual license. Excellent. Manager. Help me out. Manager here. Filip Endel. Mr. Pell? Yeah. That’s right. Thank you. Hours of operation are Saturday through Thursday, 10:30 AM to 9:00 PM. Friday, 10:30 AM to 9:30 PM. Excellent. Seating capacity looks like for 12. Yes. Excellent. Great. So I move. I second. Look a second? Second. All right. All in favor? Thank you. Thank you. I just ordered pizza there for my daughters for tonight, so thank you. Wonderful. Yeah. Thank you, sir. All right. Next, we are going to move on to an OPED presentation. Parker and Alicia? Yeah. Thank you for coming. I just know Parker drove up here from Connecticut for this. We probably- Thank you … next time we’ll put you first so you can beat the traffic coming home. I guess you guys already have a copy of this, but if not, here. Parker, here you go. Thank you. Well, thanks for helping me out. Yeah, this is the role forward year. So this is the year when we don’t have any demographic activity. It’s really assets and interest rates. So there’s not a lot of stuff in that regard. We’ll talk a little bit about funding and trying to reduce the liability long-term. I think that’s probably what we’ll try and focus on. So we’ll skip the About Us thing. We’ve did this stuff for a long time, and while I like our team, I don’t think you guys really care that much about it, so we’ll skip over that. Why do we need an OPED report? I know we’ve talked about this in the past.

47:34 It’s basically accrual accounting, simple as that. The idea is that we have to have comparability of financial statements. If we can’t have everybody doing their own thing, we have those standards to use it. Everybody go onto accrual accounting. So we book the expenses when they’re incurred, not when they’re paid. Basic Accounting 101. So that’s really what this is all about. In terms of the results, your liabilities went up. But again, it’s not a huge surprise because interest rates went down. Interest rates went down because you’re based on the municipal bond interest rate, which drives a lot of your guys’ liability. And as I said in past meetings, ultimately, I would rather have lower interest rates, which means higher liabilities, but it means your borrowing costs are lower. One is actual cash out the door, one is a number on a financial statement. I would always rather save cash out the door. So that said. But as you begin to fund and do more funding, that interest rate then become disconnected from the municipal bond interest rate, and therefore it gives you a long-term rate of return. So once you get to that stage, then you’re no longer subject to the whims of the market quite as much, at least on the bond side of the equation. But you still have the equity side, and that is what it is. But again, you’re about 3.4% funded, slightly better than last year, but a long way to go. We’re not going to sugarcoat them. It’s a long way to go, you and everybody else. In terms of the income statement side of things, again, the financial statement expense went from 4.3 million to 5.2 million. But again, we’re down to earnings per share here. So, it’s not really a big deal. I mean, the cash out the door cost for the retiree benefits actually went down

49:08 modestly, about 6.9 million to 6.6 million, which I know with all things around health insurance, it seems odd your cash out the door costs would actually go down. It’s just a quirk in the way the demographics work. I mean, if you have few retirees, but that’s a short-run thing, not a long-run thing. That population will spike back up. So don’t plan on your payments going down by 5% a year. That is not a sustainable pattern. So I’m going to say thank you for one year, but I wouldn’t plan on that continuing. As far as, the only thing that really happened on the liability side is interest rates went down, liabilities went up by $4.4 million. Again, that’s an assumption change. The cost of the underlying plan didn’t change by a penny. The premiums are the premiums. The people are the people. Cost are the costs. This is just how we account for it and value it. The assumptions I know we’ve spoken about in past years. There’s a lot of things going on. The interest rate we spoke about, that came down. That’s really based on municipal bond interest rates in your case, or at least largely is. Determination rates, how long do people stay employed? Certain ages, people are more likely to retire or terminate employment than not. And then when are they going to retire? 55, 56, 57, and so on. What’s the probability they’ll look to cover themselves, cover a spouse? And then the all-important healthcare cost inflation. What are healthcare costs going to be from now until the end of time? Short answer is likely higher, likely a lot higher than we would like. I will tell you that nationwide for next year, the 27 preliminary rate rules are coming around 14% is what insurance companies are asking

50:40 for. And that by itself sounds bad, but honestly, the bigger worry is not so much the 14% number, as bad as that is. It’s the underlying raw number, which is the forgetting about all the other stuff, it’s the actual raw healthcare expenses themselves went from 8% to 10%. So, that’s a two point change. So it’s not just utilization, it’s the cost of the actual services are going up. So it’s not just GLP-1s, it’s not just doctor visits, it’s not everything else, it’s the combined thing. So there’s a lot of pieces going on here. So the healthcare inflation fever hasn’t broken yet. Hopefully that will happen soon, but as of yet, not so much. As far as the offerings, it’s the same things you guys have had for a long time. You have comprehensive medical and $1,000 of group term life. The medicals were 99% plus of the liability is group term life is not relevant for purposes of the liability equation. So it’s really all about the comprehensive medical. Plans are expensive. You guys geographically are in a bad spot. You’re north of Boston, increases your costs. If you guys were in doing a plan this morning in Alabama, their costs are much less. Ideal plans down in the border in Texas, plans are much less. So geographically, you guys are in an expensive area. That means you have higher liabilities. That just kind of is what it is. In terms of, if you’ve seen our emails, we do an OPEB trend

52:11 report every year. We released it, a month or two ago, whatever it is at this point. 90% of our clients are now pre-funding to some extent. Now, the amount of that funding varies quite a bit, but 35% of our clients are at least 20% funded. Now, you guys are at 3% change, so you’re well below that. But you have plenty of people that are in that two, three, 4%, so you’re not alone. And we did 422 of these valuations last year. We’ll probably be about 475 or so of these valuations this year, so we do quite a few of them. And the all-important how do I stack up? So you guys are about 3.4% or thereabouts on the town side, puts you in the 25th percentile. So you’re better than 25% of your peers. So you’re not at the bottom, but you got a long way to get to the top. Utilities, not surprisingly, do far better than everybody else because they can build it into their rates. They don’t have to raise taxes and say, “Hey, by the way, I want to raise your taxes to pay for my OPEB.” They go, “Hey, we’re changing the water flow rate from one penny to 1.2 cents,” and magically, OPEB gets taken care of. So, it’s pretty easy there. Now, cities generally are much less funded. That’s a whole different story in terms of their funding methodology. And then again, who we decide to compare yourself against, we come up with some random towns we think are either geographically close or demographically close. Again, comparatively,

53:42 your funded ratio is, you’re better than Newburyport, you’re comparable to Saugus, you’re well behind Oxford and Topsfield. But again, every town has different levy structures, tax authority, and so on. So I have certain towns that are just very wealthy and have no problem funding at all, and I have other towns that they go, “We can maybe do $5,000.” So, every town is different. The question I always get is how much should we fund? And my answer is always going, it depends. My answer is always going to be more. But with that said, you have a lot of things to do as a town. OPEB is one of those things. It’s often the biggest or second biggest item on your balance sheet. However, if you have a well-funded OPEB plan but can’t have school buses to get your kids to school, or the boiler doesn’t work and the kids freeze in school, maybe the OPEB wasn’t the right place to put your money. So it’s one of many priorities. I always say we want a seat at the capital table, but we don’t expect to get the number one seat. Just want to be thought of when the capital allocations are going down, because ultimately, this is a liability that’s going to go on for another 50, 60, 70 years. And so you could say, “Hey, listen, the taxpayers of the ’50s stuck us with this liability,” and that’s true, but that doesn’t mean you should do the same thing to people 40, 50, 60 years from now. But being responsible is never any fun. Tell that to any teenager, and those us who were teenagers, that ain’t always much fun. So, with that said,

55:13 the service cost, that’s the benefits being earned during the year by an active employee. So in your guys’ case, about $4,800 per employee. Think about it as you make $50,000 a year, they’re earning about $4,800 a year in deferred comp, payable in the form of medical benefits in retirement. So again, it’s a big number, and it’s hard. Listen, there’s not a whole lot of ways to easily cut this. Now, we have one town right now that’s, we’re doing a unique thing on the prescription drug. It shows us and the retirees have the chance to save a lot of money, but it’s one town. So we’re going to implement it on 1/1 of ‘27. I’m going to be curious to see how it works. Right now, it looks like we can save 40, 50% of our cost. But what it looks like in the lab and what it looks like in the real world, time will tell us. So if it works the way we hope, a year, year and a half from now, I maybe some ideas about a really significantly tighter OPEB. We show you at your current plan, your current model. In the short run, you guys are taking a step back from funding in material sense, but hopefully in ‘28, you’re going to get back to a $250,000 level. Under that model, basically 30 years from now– I mean, 60 years from now, my bad, you guys are about 31% funded. So, 60 years of doing that, and you’re still a long way to go. And working with Alicia, sh- uh, with Dr. Herbot, basically going to a, we call a post-pension funding model.

56:44 And the idea here is at some point in time, the pension system should be fully funded. Right now, it’s around 2037 is the projection. Keep in mind, PERAC is asking retirement boards to fund beyond 100%. So they want them to fund to 110, 115, 120%. So in other words, the windfall that maybe you thought you might’ve seen in 2037 or 2038 is unlikely to happen. That’s more like a 2041, 2042, where those funds will get freed up. So when we’ve done this model here, we’ve assumed the funds don’t become available till 2041. We say 60% of what frees up and deploy that to OPEB, then by about 2071, you reach full funding. Now, it’s not as good as 2035, I grant you that. But the reality is, at some point in time, the liabilities need to be addressed. Again, you can always stick it on future taxpayers, but ultimately, to try and share that windfall that arises in about 15 years, some of it to address the long-term liability and some of it for whatever else the town at that time needs, is probably a responsible path. Again, your guys call, you’re the board, I’m not. But that’s what we’d certainly recommend. Yeah. I’m just going to jump in on that one. Yeah. So with the funding plan that I gave, everyone will propose, it shows the dollar values, the years, the percentage, and the savings. And the reason for the 60% and not full 100% is to give some capacity.

58:14 So when we get into our in-year plan, I’m jumping ahead, we have some debt service falling off in 2032, additional falling off in 2035. And then if the pension is, even though he’s stating that they may push us forward, but as of right now, 2036. If that did fall off, only 60%, we leave some capacity to go back towards the budget. That’s the 4.499. Well, we use 4.4. Although there’s another about 2.7 or so that we’re not using. Got it. It’d be the whole for the top quarter. Sure. Yeah.

58:52 And then beyond that, obviously, just got a couple of resources if you guys are so inclined from our OPEB University YouTube channel. We have a bunch of articles, trend reports, white papers, you name it. If you care about pensions and OPEB, we have tons and tons of material about it. And that’s really what I’ve got. I know Alicia’s got much more important stuff than what I got, but questions, comments? Dave, do you have a phone? No. Is there any… Yeah. Sure. It’d be helpful if we could do kind of a sensitivity around kind of different amounts if you started to pay off earlier, what that would do in terms of the funding date. Are you talking the- On, um- 250 numbers? In terms of the 250, yeah. Yeah. Maybe it’s not a- Yeah, I mean, it’s 250, unless you’re going to go up, I guess- Significantly … yeah, tell material you want to go. If you tell me you’re going to go to 1.5 million, then yeah, that’s going to start making a material impact. But if you tell me you want 275 or 300- 6,000 … it’s not going to do a whole lot for you. But I think once we hit the 5%, or if we want to go higher on the reserve of the operating, because now we have that recurring capital. Yeah. I think once you have that, anything above that, maybe we want to start maybe kicking in towards OPEB. The discretion board. Yeah. Well, I guess we’ll see as we accept it the wrong way. It’s a quote-unquote of, of- Yeah, there’s not really a right answer to it. The one thing I will tell you is S&P, back in September of ‘24, changed their ratings model. Got it. To give pension and OPEB a higher weight. And so as of yet, you’ve not started to get penalized yet for not funding. But I expect in a certain period of time, maybe the

1:00:24 next three, four, five years, we’ll see some differentiation in the market between those who are funding and those who are not when it comes to the ratings. Interest bond rates. Yeah. I mean, that’s my opinion. I have no data to support that, but I s- Would it also be, is it your opinion that the state will come out with some guidelines on this as well? Similar once the pension isn’t, is it 20- 2040 is the law for it … or something like that, yeah. Like, when’s that ex- We’re planning 20– Our plan is 2036. Our plan is 2036 because we’re going to beat that, but- But in terms of state law, I mean- Politics is politics. I mean, you could argue either side of that. I mean, in one sense, you have a prop two and a half world, and where’s the money going to come from? On the other hand- Sure … you have a large population that wants to be CR benefits be secured. Yeah. So what the legislature’s going to do in 2040- It’s a fair response. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I mean, it’s shocking to see by keeping the 250 that in 2075 we would owe, I think it’s, costs are greater. I mean, we’re owing 518 million versus staying to the 60% model gets us to 100% and owing zero. Yeah. I mean, it just keeps growing and growing. It’s like a credit card. Now, the one thing that I would encourage you to look at is the right-hand side of it in present value terms- Yeah … because you can get terrified by the nominal numbers. I mean, in the present value terms, it goes from 155, to 156 in 2075. Yeah. But as a percentage of your budget, the liability is going to stay pretty much the same over- Yes … 30, 40, 50 years. Yeah. And that might change. Yeah.

1:01:54 You’re using that 3% rate. 3% discount. Yeah. Yeah. I have a question- Yeah … this is sort of key. Yeah. Why do different towns have different discount rates? It’s all based on how much they fund and how they invest their money. How they invest their money. Yeah, I mean, there’s really five factors that go into your discount rate, your municipal bond rate- Yeah … your current level of assets, your expected future benefit payments by year, how much money you’re going to set aside each year, and then how do you invest the money. Gotcha. So if you’re looking to maximize your discount rate, forgetting about fiduciary logic or responsibility, the optimal thing to do is put yourself in the most aggressive asset possible. Think penny stocks- Sure … think whatever. That’s the thing you should put all your money in, 100%. Yeah. Now, I would not do that, but if the goal was to simply minimize the number on the balance sheet- Yeah … that’s what you would do. Yeah. Now, I will tell you, we do have a couple of clients that are 100% S&P 500, and they’ve been having a lovely ride over the last six, seven years. Yeah. Now, at some point that may end, but if you can accept the volatility for a long period of time, that’s worked out very well for them. But I have other clients who, they get hung up on the concept of book value, about how much money they put in, and then they go, “Well, now we’re spending earnings.” And they’re, “Guys, once the money goes in, it belongs to the plan. There is no differentiation.” You know, think about the casino. Once you win at the table, it’s your money. It’s not the casino’s money anymore. And so the same thing there is that we have some towns who wait till they get a certain threshold before they become more aggressive investing.

1:03:28 And my argument’s always been when you’re poorly funded, it’s when you should be the most aggressive. When you get closer to 100%, start taking money off the table to, as I say, you spent many years climbing the mountain. What I don’t want to see is you go slide back down the mountain when you’re so close to the top. Or you can stand the volatility of a 50 year- Yeah … asset. Exactly. So you’re recommending- What are we in now? Oh, sorry. Yeah, no, go. What are we in now? Yeah, what are we in? What kind of- No, I’ll tell you … what are we sitting in? That’s your portfolio right now. And your portfolio now, you’re about 43% domestic large cap, 5% small cap, about 7% international developed, about two and a half percent emerging market, 25% domestic, 28% domestic fixed. There you go. And then a little bit of international fixed, 5% alternatives, 12% real estate, and about four and a half percent in cash. So we’re 60- About 64, yeah. So given where we are on that mountain, do you like that split? I mean, I’m not your investment advisor. We have an investment advisor. Yeah. Yeah. One person. Yeah. So our investment advisor, so we had it in a state pool. Yeah. We’ve worked with the investment advisor. We had them do a computation till we- Okay … get to the difference, and we’re actually doing better with the investment advisor. So they’re closely, and they give us quarterly updates- Right … on how our OPEB is.

1:04:59 Okay. All right. So Alicia, your recommendation is that when we beginning in fifth year 2080, doing the 250, again, when we’ve completely paid down, why are we doing it in 2041 if we’re going to be paid down in 2036? Because what he’s projecting, he projected 2041. The state is pushing, Eric is pushing for us to go beyond 100% funding. Yeah. I mean, I guess the policy from my standpoint is as soon as it’s available, you want it there. Yeah. But my argument is, I don’t want to overpromise and go, “Look, if you have all this money,” and you go- Yeah … “Where’s the money?” Sure. So I’d rather f*****g be conservative than what I’m showing you in terms of- Okay, five years. Yeah. No, that makes sense. Yeah.

1:05:43 This is super helpful. Yeah. Thank you. And to be clear, the question I get all the time is the people always go, “I don’t want to commit a future board to anything.” And I always tell them, “You can’t commit a future board. They can undo your policy next week if they want.” Right. Yeah. So, I mean, don’t ever let that get in the way. But what it does is that, you may not have noticed in the presentation, when you change that policy, one of the reasons your liability goes down is your discount rate goes up. By virtue of promising to allocate those funds- Yeah … that, because you mentioned why the discount rates are different, now it will reflect that expectation of money coming in, therefore the discount rate goes up. That makes sense. I mean, it feels fiscally responsible thing to do. I mean, the sooner we can do it, the better, I would say. And I like the 60%, and we can always decide to do more, but that’s a minimum. Right. Depending on where we are at that time. All right? And also sort of parlaying what you said about the, if we hit that 5% based on our MOU, and once we hit that 5%, we can make those decisions to prepay more. Got it. We can push that off. It won’t affect the tax rate. No. No. No. I mean, it’s the same within what we’re spending right now, projecting out. Yeah. That’s the 10 cents. Does it make any sense for… Huh, forget it. They don’t help. Withdraw. Okay. Any other comment? Well, thank you for driving up from Connecticut. Yeah. Appreciate it. That’s why we’re here.

1:07:14 Yeah. Get some coffee before I know. I’m on the road. On the road. 200 days a year, so I’m used to it. I hear you. Thanks, Parker. Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot, Parker. Of course. Appreciate you. Thanks, Alicia. So at least you can just stay because you’re up next as well. Yep. Do people feel comfortable voting on this tonight? This policy? Yeah. I mean, it feels like it’s setting a tone more than anything moving forward. Can we clear your visit? So if I get a motion to approve the OPED funding plan of 60% as provided by the chief financial officer, effective fiscal year 2028. I’ll move. Second. All in favor? All right, unanimous. All right, Alicia? Yeah. You are up for your 10-year financial forecast. I know this is something that you gave to us at our retreat. Yeah. We just thought that not many people were watching the retreat, so it might be good to get this out in the public as well. So is it online yet, or? It will be. It will be, great. So at least given a preview version of it. It’s- Great. How is this needed for that? Slide please. All right. Change slide, please. So on our 10-year financial plan, financial strategy, funding operations for the tier three override,

1:08:44 providing $1 million annually for our recurring capital instead of free cash, which now will be directly back towards the stabilization fund or the finance policy. Creating a capital stabilization fund to reduce future borrowings. Next slide. And the concept is once we hit our 5%, to do that. Yes. Okay. What are we finding? Here we just think like one, two, three. That’s the only one. Is that right? Okay. Yeah. On fiscal ‘27, the $15 million tier three override funds got passed, only pulling the 4.2 off the levy as per the memorandum of agreement that was signed. $2.3 million trash funding secures the trash collection through fiscal year ‘31. So even though it was three years, he actually factored it in so it covers a full five years, which is good for the town. The capital stabilization will capture any unused capital appropriation, so this is the first year of our recurring capital. So any money that doesn’t get spent on the next warrant would be put creation of a capital stabilization fund and to direct those remaining funds into that fund. That way, residents can see that that capital is being used for capital reasons and capital costs. The three articles that are recurring on the warrant will remain. They’ll just be funded instead of free cash with this recurring capital in the levy. So that transparency will remain as well for the residents of Marblehead. Fiscal year ‘28, the town settled with the PEC, the

1:10:15 Public Employee Committee for health insurance. We put in a health insurance opt-out incentive, 4,000 for an individual and 8,000 for a family plan. That’s going to be done during open enrollment in the spring. So we’ll be having an update then to what those savings are. So we still will budget in total because we won’t know until that opt out, which is after the fact occurs. We will continue the MOU levy drawdowns with quarterly reporting. In fiscal year ‘29, the final override year, deferred maintenances will be reduced and we will have our reserve strengthened. Next slide. So for fiscal year ‘30, operations are stabilized, improved ability to absorb inflation. Fiscal year ‘31, we are still good with our trash factored in to, go out five years. ‘20, ‘32, a million dollars in debt service payments expire. This debt matures and will fall off. And so that will affect the rate. Again, in fiscal year ‘35, I did a large borrowing for the 2022 authorization this year. The majority of it will be falling off in 2035, which is going to free up another $2.4 million in additional debt service off the tax rate. And then in fiscal year ‘36, the pension being fully funded with the recommendation of the OPED funding plan you approved for the 60% going to OPED.

1:11:43 So Marblehead has a very good strategic plan right now. Next slide. Long-term benefits. Dedicated operating capital funding now for the town. Reduced reliance on free cash for annual capital articles, so now it can go towards funding of the stabilization. Growing our stabilization reserves, lowering our future borrowing needs, greater flexibility as debt obligations expire, and improved long-term funding of retiree healthcare liabilities. Next slide. This one shows our debt service. So you can see where we were starting back in 2024, and then you can see as the debt service is trying to decline in 2032, and again, big dip in 2035. So we’re going to look at projects as they come based off of need and how critical they are and what you want to factor in, and how much do you want to impact this, and how much it will it affect the rate so that it’s not as- Real … big. I think with the override, when we did the 10 cents per 1,000 effect, you’re going to see that’s coming right off because a lot of your rate are debt exclusions because residents are so diligent about funding capital in the town of Marblehead that that really needs to be factored in. So I think as much as people are worried about their tax bills growing, they aren’t going to greatly decline as- Can you remind us what our goal is or our policy on where we want to keep our total debt? I think that we have sort of a- I think what you were going to talk about is kind of our debt service.

1:13:15 Debt service. It’s roughly between 12 and 15%. 11- That’s what it was. 12 to 15. Yes. Yeah. So as our- We’re under that. Yeah, we’re- We keep- So that’s our levy growth- Right … and as we actually decrease that service, we’re really getting down to a lower level. And- But we always had that to pad. Correct. And with the new maintenance budget now, that 450,000, that’s a part of the override. Mm-hmm. That’s now going to just preserve your assets longer, so you’re not going to need to go and borrow and replace them as fast. So now you have a dedicated not only capital, but your dedicated maintenance budget. Sure. Next slide, please. So our key risk and conclusion. Our plan is expected to avoid another operational override through fiscal year 2036 if annual health insurance inflation remains around or below 10%. Sustained health insurance inflation above 10% could require additional revenue measures. Hope it doesn’t happen, especially because they have eliminated the GLP-1s, which they said were driving the costs. So I’m hoping to see that for next year. And our overall strategy provides a sustainable long-term fiscal roadmap for the town.

1:14:25 Great. I think that’s a great way to end your, well, this was your final thing. We should have- It’s a capstone. We should have done the reserves from transfer fund and ended with the boom there. But thank you. I think it’s great to see beyond, and obviously our goal is to go much further than we agreed in the MOU, and you have laid out a good plan for us. Yeah. Thank you. And I mean, the MOU is three years, but- Right … Alicia’s… I’m always going to be quoting you. Alicia said 10 years. She promised the cabinet for the fire Oh, no. Depending on health insurance. 10 years. Yeah, health insurance obviously is a biggie there. Yeah. But even that, that has a generous 10% or below, so that’s quite a point too. So… Great. Well, Alicia, it’s hard to believe this is going to be probably your last meeting, right? Yes. Definitely our last. 24th. I know. Well, we’re going to be sad and going to miss you, and it’s been wonderful working with you over this. You’ve been a- Yeah … a real asset. Great. A positive force in the town, so thank you. And Moses is going to visit the second week of July. Yeah. I love to see you all again. Hold on, hold on. Let’s not say goodbye to her yet. No. So let’s go on to the next thing she’s doing. She now reserves fund transfers before we dismiss her. Okay? And then you can- Well, we have- Then you can cue the bows. Sorry, guys. So if you want… It’s okay. I know you’re excited to say goodbye to her. Well, I’m- So if you want to move on to the reserve fund transfers. Yep. We have two reserve fund transfers.

1:15:56 The first one is 41,000 for the retirement of our town administrator in December. That’s for 41,000 that was approved on Monday night by the finance committee. And so just to be clear, that 41,000 is sick and vacation days? Yeah. Yeah. Just vacation. Just vacation. Thank you. Yeah, it is vacation. Okay. So these are unused vacation- Hopewell is the only community I have seen that does not pay for sick, and it’s a big benefit to the town. Okay. Yep, and that’s why we’re going to go 10 years without it, right? Yeah. Union employees do have a provision- Okay … that they get a sick buy-out, but it’s capped- Right … at a percentage of the- Okay … yeah. Okay. Mm-hmm. So sorry if I’m interrupting. Then the second reserve fund transfer is for 26,000. That’s for the executive search to replace the town administrator and the CFO. Two separate? Yeah. Yeah. And these are the first transfers of the fiscal year. Is that correct? These are the first, yes. In, what did we allocate? Like 400 and- 440,000 … 40. So, and the first one, that was Thatcher, that was in your contract. It’s getting one- It’s in the contract, and- Yeah … if I take more vacation days, the number goes down. Yeah, got it. You don’t need to. Okay. So if Thatcher’s taking the rest of the year off on vacation. Yeah. Any other questions on these?

1:17:26 No. No, okay. Great. So we’re going to do these as two separate motions. By a big motion to authorize town administrator to appear before the finance committee is to request the transfer of sum of $41,000.00. And the reserve fund according to this Chapter 40, Section 56 of the Massachusetts General Laws for pending retirement. I’ll move. Second. Second. All in favor? Yeah. Okay. I have a motion to authorize town administrator appear before the finance committee to request transfer of sum of $26,000.00, and the reserve fund in accordance with Chapter 40, Section 6 of the Massachusetts General Laws to compensate for recruitment for town administrator and CFO. So moved. Second. All in favor? Great. Thank you, Alicia. Thank you. And now we can say goodbye. Okay. I thought everything went well. No, no. And we’ll say goodbye. We have a couple weeks. I’m not saying goodbye yet. Yeah. But great. Thank you so much. That’s true. Her last day’s the 24th. So is ours. In two sides. All right. Well, since my math isn’t great. Next up, we just have a discussion of the Lynnway Multimodal Corridor projects discussion. Moses, you know what we’re talking about? Yeah. Okay, great. He’s in. So … Yeah. The Lynnway, I mean, what’s going on over there? I’m having a side conversation. My apologies. And I know it’s not right. Let me know when you’re done. Yeah. So Lynnway Multimodal Corridor project discussion. We’ve talked about this before a couple times with this board. Aaron and I had a conversation with Swampscott and Nahant select board members a couple weeks ago, and we would like to put together a joint letter just

1:18:58 basically expressing our concerns about the impact on commuters, and just to make sure that they are really considering mitigation during the construction as well as after. Because we do have a lot of our constituents who already have to sit in traffic, and- Combined with this, at the same time they’re also going to be replacing the bridge at the Len Way and doing the construction of the Revere High School. So we’d like to support, working with these two other towns, to send a letter to the lieutenant governor as well as the MBTA. Petra and I sat with MBTA, and Brendan, MBTA advisory today and got an update, expressed our concern with them. Brendan came up with a great idea, but possibly could they– One of the issues with people driving in and not being able to take the commuter rail is parking. Maybe they could ask for possibly a bus that goes directly to commuter rails during this time. So they’re going to come back to us on that. Okay. So what I am looking for is a motion for the chair to sign a letter in conjunction with Swampscott and Hahn, expressing our concerns about the traffic and asking them to come up with a plan for mitigation in the future. Yeah, so moved. Second. All in favor? Yeah. Great. Obviously, is our key focus on the roads themselves in terms of traffic ability or- Yeah. Really, at some point, they are taking away one lane, right? Yeah To the robot lane. But during that construction as well, I think a lot of

1:20:32 it’s going to be shut down- Yeah … while they’re doing that. So it’s both, the timing with that- Okay … sort of, as well as everything else. As someone that’s taken the Len Way for 40 years- Right … the General Edward Bridges under construction is called Essex Street to 107. Yeah. So- So we just want them to- Be thinking about- … think about beyond just Len, which they’re trying to accommodate here. Right. The other communities that are highly impacted. And a lot of people move to Marblehead for the relatively easy commute. Right. So, yeah. So it’s like, pushes traffic out to other areas- Right … which has an impact on, for example, emergency services, mutually response when the other lanes are going to have much heavier traffic on this end of the structure. So there are sort of other impacts because of the project that extend out to the surrounding communities. Great. Next up, Flash Vote survey. So we would like to get out our first Flash Vote survey. I know Brendan’s been working with them as well. So we just want to discuss what we thought the first one might be. I was thinking, Moses, when you were speaking before, or not to go ahead, but I would ask them and I’ll take one else that’s been here as well. Yeah. Discussing the, does it make sense to put out a survey on a coffin school, for instance? And we could- It’s a timely- I think it’s a timely issue. They do recommend doing something of significance on the first one. And obviously, I know Jim, you want to

1:22:05 talk to them as well about some of the data and all that they did present at our last meeting. But what I would recommend is that we– This is a pure discussion. I would like to see Brendan and his team put together, work with Flash Vote to put together a survey. Yeah. I would like to see that. My only two questions is, have they verified that they have a representative demographic yet? And then the other thing is, once we issue a competitive RFP, I assume we want to do that survey before we issue a competitive RFP. Yeah. I just, I consider doing a survey while a competitive RFP is out there- Exactly … would be very dangerous. Oh, yeah. I think we want to get that done before. We don’t want tampering. Yeah. Yep. So- They have over 200 people already. No, but what the distribution is. Right. Okay. But what I’m saying is they’re working on that. So I think we’re pretty close to being able to launch the survey. Why don’t we- No, I know, but I’m just wondering how distributed it is across the county. Well, how- The whole thing is they were saying it was going to be distributed across different precincts and different graph- Well, we can verify that now. I think- Yeah, I’d like to see that. So why don’t we- Because some people will never sign up for it. Sure. So anyhow, just like- Well, they have a methodology that- No, I’d like to see that … that selection bias. Yeah. And yeah, I think basically boiled it down to the people that are most likely to vote above the ones that would- No, but they seem to say they could see it like we’ve got people in-

1:23:37 Open areas, yeah … precincts and yeah. I think there’s actually- Yeah. Why don’t we do this? Why don’t, if it’s good with everybody, have Brendan and his team- Yeah … work with Flash Vote, put together. Yeah. And when they believe that they have the correct demographics and distribution to issue it, if we can not get the Flash Vote out, which basically could go out for 48 hours before the… Oh. Uh-oh. I’m just going to say- Whoa … a week. Whoa. I’ve never- Just step up … I’ve never seen you move like this … let me just step up then. So they’re creating like a panel, right? Yeah. So we’ve advertised to the town- Yeah … to sign up to be- Yeah … a part of the Flash Vote panel- Mm-hmm … which is the members of the community. And so once that is complete, then we issue it only to those people. Exactly. Okay. I wasn’t sure if it was a chair if that was- No, but I want to see the distribution of the panel because- Well, it’s- I literally only know two people that have signed up, but- It- It’s not going to be– The Flash Vote is in the Coppper School neighborhood. They can sign up and be part of it. No, that’s not what I’m saying. They can- No. That’s all right. They said it would be at, they would verify across the town it’s a homogeneous demographic- Okay … of some sort. This is what I would recommend, that if, why don’t we follow up with that? Yeah. What? If we feel comfortable, and Flash Vote, who we’ve hired to be the professionals here- Yeah. Work with them … are ready to move forward. Yeah. So- They’ll create the questions. Yep. We can let those with you guys. You’re going to have some– Right. Of course, they’re going to create the questions that aren’t biased and all that. Whatever way they want to know what we’re working on.

1:25:07 Well, will the select board have a chance to see the questionnaire beforehand? I mean, well, Aaron and I are working with them. Aaron would see that. Yeah. Okay. Can we get it to the rest of the board? Sure. We can share those with the board. That would be best. So that’s the- But don’t we want to make sure that there’s– I guess my concern here is that we don’t have bias. I think maybe the select board could say, like, “We want to make sure.” Well, maybe we can do it up front. Maybe we can– Well, in some ways- We have the capacity to formulate questions that we think are topical. So I think that we can take a priority, right? And some of the discussions that we’ve had here would be, I guess, right? So for- Space, right? So for instance, for hints. Yes. Right. Whether it be public or private. Yep. Yeah. I think that the goal here is to get input on all that. Right. Yeah. We’re not just going to just close ears. Well- Yeah … I’m just saying- Yes. No, I agree … it matters. No. Yeah. With no question. Well, without question, that’s why we’ve hired these guys, because they know that. We could find that we have any questions, we play- 8.5 It’s 500 or 5.0. Yeah. It’s like, I think that’s all been great, but maybe more. It’s not- It’s supposed to be like a two-minute survey Yeah. It is the whole point of that. So, all right. So it feels like- Sorry, I jumped … we got consensus. Thanks, Brian. Thanks, Brian. Good job. Appreciate it. Thank you. Strobe light or… Yeah, yeah, exactly. Just to see. Apparently you didn’t trust leaving it back there. You were sitting there with. Yeah. So let’s move on. Green Marbleheads Committee request for donation account.

1:26:38 Sorry, I’m on the wrong one. Did I go to the wrong one? Green Marblehead- Green Marbletown is- Yeah … with Aaron. Hold on. Do I have a different… I have a different- Okay. Well, I have in this agenda a little different request for donation. So I have a different- It’s an L right. Am I in the wrong place? Yeah. Was you- What are you saying, they checking am I reading the wrong one? No, I’m wondering Marblehead… Yeah, but that one said request for donation- Yeah, it’s the five … account. Oh, these are two different things? Yeah. One is a- Okay. No, I’m all good. I just wanted to make sure that I… Yeah, I see that one, and then… Okay, so we’re not looking for a donation account. Correct? In Facebook. Okay, thank you. All right, so if I have motion to appoint Aaron M. Noonan as select board representative for Green Marblehead Committee. So moved. Second. All in favor? Yeah, we have a couple reappointments to do that we missed, unfortunately, and it was just purely clerical. For reappointments 2026, if I have a motion to accept the following appointments in accordance with Mass General law and town bylaws. By laws. Fort Sill Oversight Committee, Larry Sands, expiring 2027. Registered voters, Democrat, Margaret Hare, expiring 2029. And these were just missed. It was an administrative error. So moved. Or do we need to? Yep. Second. Okay. All in favor? Great. We are going to move on to number 14,

1:28:08 lobster fishing shanties. Just so we know, the previous user of the shanty did not wish to renew for 2026, ‘27. And Jake Porter was the next eligible applicant in line to the shanty. So if I get a motion to approve the farm across these premises owned by the town of Marblehead on Front Street at Little Harbor, commonly known as Turner Land, subject to receipt, proper application, current fishing license, and all taxes paid to the town for Jake Porter, shanty number six. So moved. Second. All in favor? Unanimous. Historical commission, here we go. We just combined them. Thank you. It looks like the historical commission wants to set up a donation account. This looks like it was from a point from the Harris Street oversight. They’ve been awarded funding through the Shattuck Funds, and they just need us to be able to set up an account in order to accept that. So I have a motion to approve the request from Pam Peterson, Historical Commission, to establish a donation account for the Harris Street cemeteries under the Historical Commission funds. So moved. Second. Second. All in favor? Consent agenda items. Motion to approve the following consent agenda items subject to legal rules by your town. Let’s just start that over. Could I get a motion to approve the following consent agenda items? Minutes of March 25th, 2026, March 27th, ‘26, July 22nd, ‘26, and July 24th, ‘26. So moved. Second. Second.

1:29:40 All right, all in favor? Thank you. And then we do have some contracts. The first one is an on-call engineering transportation services. This will be funded through Article 11, correct? Yeah. And this is just basically so that we can use engineering tasks related to their transportation network. If I could have motion to approve contract 27-07 on-call transportation engineering services between the town and Environmental Partners amount of $100,000 authorize the terrace on behalf of the board. So- Second. Yeah. Do we have a little just discussion on them? Sure. Is this a service we presently use or is this new? So it’s for the inspection projects. It has the ability as we go into, take a boy to the neighborhood, you have to have some design work done to keep the project moving. They’re on the call. Okay. It’s having, rather than bidding each item individually- Yeah … we have the on-call services available for- Is this a service we haven’t had prior? Where you don’t- I think we’ve had in some form, Amy or manually. We have a- It’s typical service- We do … usability for this. Yeah. It sounds a little bit like- Yeah … yeah. So I think based on some other things we’ve done- Yeah … it’s good to have someone there to draw plans. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely.

1:31:10 All in favor? Yeah. Great. Thanks. The next one is for Abbot Hall Attic Exam Project, amount of $30,000. Consult services for the Marblehead Museum for the Attic of Abbot Hall. This funding source is coming from Historical Commission and our other professional technical services. If I could have a motion to approve contract 27-08, Abbot Hall Attic Exam Project, not to exceed $30,000 between the town and Hilltop 20 LC, and authorize Ferris on behalf of the board. So moved Second. All in favor? And this last one is– or second to last one. So, this is a change order to our contract. This is being funded through our maintenance budget, and this is to take down, basically, the bridge over at Mary Alley. Yeah. Between– that connects the two buildings. Okay. The medical building. Which, on the medical building side, they’ve sealed that off. Yep. So, this is just a deteriorating structure. Got a really good bid. So, the contractor that’s doing it is the one that’s doing the Mary Alley project, the HVAC project. And we’re getting a really good price because they’re already there and deployed. I think the next highest bidder was, like, 250,000 to take this out. So, it’s a opportunity for a really low cost and take that structure out. Yeah, save those funds, do it now- Do it now … versus in the future.

1:32:41 Tie it into anything else we’re doing. So, if I could have a motion to approve change order number one for contract 26-58, Mary Alley HVAC and ADA building renovations for $99,002 between the town and Campbell Construction Group LLC. Authorize the chair to sign on behalf of the board. So moved. Second. All in favor? This last one, Patrick, you want to explain anything? And we have Amy on the line if you’d like to get it from- And we have pictures. Yes. We have them. Also- So if you talk- Amy, do you want to take this? Oh, so Amy. Yes, it is. No. With that. Amy’s got it, so that’s hand wave. Whatever. All finished. Is this the loader? Yeah, give us a little explanation. Can you hear us? Sorry, I don’t have the agenda. Is this the loader? Yeah. So this is for your loader. Yeah. If you could tell us a little bit about the lease and the need for it. So, the town has two loaders. One’s a 2002, one’s a 2005. The 2005 actually has a center pin, which is going to be $50,000 to repair. It also has some other major repairs. So, due to the fact that we did not have that loader for snow all last year, we really are in dire need of having that two loaders, so we do have one for backup. We were able to work with Caterpillar to get a loader, which

1:34:15 also has a larger hydraulic engine. It’s a 938, and that is going to give us the attachment of a snowblower. So we will also have a backup snowblower similar to the 1978 snowblower that you saw come out this year. She looks like a dinosaur going down the street, but it did do its job. But it was broken every time we took it out, so it did have major repairs to do in between any kind of that large snow blowing, snow removal. So, this piece of equipment is going to be able to do two things in the winter, and then in the summer, it will assist us with all of our asphalt work that we’re going to be doing, or any kind of excavation. Also, does the beach parking lot, our dirt roads. So, is a really key piece of equipment for the DPW. We were able to trade that loader in, and that loader will take the first year of the five-year payments. So there will be no cost to the town the first year. It’s also done under a source boat contract, which is a government contract, so it fits the procurement. It’s gone through Allison, and it’s gone by Finance, and Alicia, who will be able to put it on the lease for town meeting during– with the override that had the capital, it will be part of that capital investment. Great. Any questions? Great. All right. Thank you, Amy. If I could have a motion to approve entering into a five-year lease between the town and Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation of

1:35:48 2120 West End Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee, 37203, for one new Caterpillar Model 938 wheel loader, subject to review and approval from town council, and authorize the chair to sign the lease on behalf of the board. So moved. Second. All in favor? Looks like last, we have a one-day liquor license for Marblehead Little Theater. I think we’ve done a few for these guys before. If I could have a motion to approve the application for the following one-day liquor license from Marblehead Little Theater, September 19th, 2026, from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. Beer and wine only at Abbot Hall, 188 Washington Street. Subject to the following conditions, delivery of and receipt by licensing authority of the acquired fee. Delivery of and receipt by the licensing authority of proof that the alcohol will be purchased from an authorized source. Proof that the applicant can receive proper delivery, provide proper storage, and dispose of all alcoholic beverages purchased all in accordance with the requirements of GLC 138. Liquor liability insurance. No alcohol is allowed to remain on premises unattended overnight. Alcohol will be purchased from Cappy’s Employment Distribution. So moved. Second. It has to be a poll vote. Ms. Fonte? In favor. Mr. Zisson? In favor. Mr. Calderon? In favor. Mr. Fox? In favor. All right, any select board announcements? That hearing- Great, thank you. Could I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. All right, all in favor? Oh, hold on.

1:37:18 Oh, I did. Hold on. What? Oh, guys, hold on. We didn’t totally vote yet. My hand wasn’t all the way up. Obviously, this is Alicia’s last select board meeting, which Moe just took my– you know, took it on. And, we do have a vacancy on FinCom, so if anybody wants to put their application in, we are going to keep applications open until September 4th and do interviews on the ninth. And now, all in favor of adjourning? In favor? Thank you. Well done. Thanks.