We're going to call the meeting to order. First order of business as always is public comment. Is there anybody in attendance who wishes to make a comment on any issues concerning this? Seeing no one, is there anybody online, Eric? No, no one online. OK, brings us to the next item. Fiscal year 25 budget revote planning and work session. Sarah, you're here. Thank you. I'm wondering if you will take you first so that you can adjourn. I've been invited, Sarah, in the helpful board of the logistics discussion at your dates and ballot areas. Sarah's the expert behind the scenes for the elections. Well, a little bit. So I guess basically there's a few two different options, which I sort of put in front of you if you want to go with a ballot that is read by a tabulator or one that is done by a hand count. So the sample that most people are used to seeing is like this. It's got the ticker tapes around it, which is made by somebody else. And it is read by the tabulator. Is this OK? Yeah. The other option is that you make your own ballot. And then we count them by hand that evening. And the timeline, let me move over. Great, great, I'll just. I'm always watching people like, get on the microphone. So the two different scenarios are those two. Would be kind of the first thing to decide if people think that a tabulator will be much easier. You'll have an instant answer that evening, then that is one route to go. The other answer, like I had shown, is going to be having one that we make, we count. It's going to take a little longer, but we'll still be done that evening. It just won't be an instantaneous tape that comes out of the tabulator. Some drawbacks to going with the tabulator route is that that is really going to put a crunch on the timeline. Because if nothing's going to be sort of decided until maybe the 18th, which I think is the Thursday after the 16th, turnaround on this is a problem. Because my proof wouldn't even get to them until, I mean, at best Friday morning. And then it's a few 40 hours to get that back. And then your 7 to 10 days of getting your ballots and your memory cards back will start. So that puts you right into the very, very end of April or almost the beginning of May, which, if anyone is shooting for a May 7th day, that's really just not going to happen. The flip side being if we went with a hand count and in-house made ballot, those can be ready the morning of the 19th, and we can be ready to just hit the ground running. So those are kind of the two different scenarios that I sort of laid out here as kind of what we probably need to decide first, the two different routes and those being the big decisions. One being very expensive. This is not cheap. Getting that many ballots and memory cards and paying the shipping for all that to get up here is thousands of dollars. This is just going to be the cost of paper, really. We're paying postage either way, so that part doesn't really matter. It's just literally the cost of getting this done. And on a yes-no question, lots of people that I've been talking to on my list serve and everybody else at small town is like hand counts the way to go. It's actually faster. If you remember the recount for the Select Board last year, we were done in, I think, less than an hour, maybe. The tabulator only reads 300 an hour. So it's definitely maybe not the best way you want to spend a night after being there all day, but I think a couple of hours at best with two teams of eight or whatever we had last time. We should be able to power through that pretty easily. So let's see. Those are sort of my major points on the difference between the two. Does anybody have any questions on any of that just yet about how it would actually work or different drawbacks or pros or cons?  Even with that expense, it's still a lot cheaper to do that. Oh, I thought you were being funny, because it's going to be all of us. And if you want to get paid, I can. And if not, I thought it went on general election. I do pay election workers that come and work the check-in tables. And then most some BC members do get paid. A few said that they would rather not be paid, because you see it as part of your job. So this is going to fall into a little bit of a gray zone. Like if we're going to take this on and we want to do it, I certainly can pay BCA members to be there for two hours. And that's not a huge expense compared to what it would cost us to go the other route. So yes. And again, it doesn't have to just be BCA members. I can have other people help, like we did for the recount. But I would plan on working. So hopefully, people are around whichever date it can come and be helpful to get that done. But I'll certainly have others to get us to, like I said, two teams of eight works really well. Other question that I think was. So any other questions on that part? When we did the recount, roughly how many ballots did we have? I was thinking back to that, Terry. That was like an average town meeting turnout, or kind of high average, because it was kind of a fun one. I would say it was like 1,700 in there. And that, like I said, so I think we'll be in the same ballpark. I don't see this turnout being anywhere near like it was March 5th, which was pretty high. So I don't think it's anything we couldn't handle. I think, like I said, average town meeting is 15, 16, 1,700. So I'm just trying to picture it like in my head. I'm kind of picturing 15 piles of 100 ballots. It's not that bad for people to tackle in their teams of two and get them into piles of 25 and count and sign off and then trade with your partner. So South Burlington did hand count for their school one last week and Holly said they were done in less than an hour and they've got five precincts that do it. So if they can do it, I have a feeling that we'll be able to. I wouldn't let that scare anybody.  We'll be there till midnight. It shouldn't be that bad. So my other question was the day of the week. I'm pretty adamant that it stays a Tuesday. I think voters are just creatures of habit and if you try to use Wednesday, Thursday, Friday of any given week, I think it's going to be really confusing. Again, to go back to South Burlington, their vote was held on a Thursday and in a raging snowstorm didn't help, but people were confused. I think that they had to field a lot of questions about that and also selfishly on my end, which actually their clerk pointed out, when you don't have a weekend butting up to like a Tuesday, it was really hard. She had 400 people vote early the day before because that's what people love to do. Like they just don't want to go that day, so it would be before. So I would be a little scared of getting hammered really badly on like a Wednesday or a Thursday if it was not on a Tuesday. So again, just the optics and the habits of voters, I think is something to really consider that they are used to a certain format and how it looks. This will be enough of a difference to handle that this doesn't look like a ballot that they're used to, but I think that's, we can get over that hurdle, especially if I put in some kind of note that goes with your ballot, which I often do with people that vote by mail. I often will put in a reminder, like return this by this date, return this in the Dropbox and do not forget to sign this. So I think there'll be plenty of messaging to make them understand why this looks different than a tabulated ballot. So Tuesday I would say is important to me and I think it's important in general. So that's just my one plug for the seventh or 14th or 21st or whatever the Tuesdays are that fall in that next range there. And we checked and the armory in the school are generally available, but we have the sixth and the third that we're talking about. So that we hold those dates before thinking about options there and when you want to make it. I'm a creature and have it. Me too. Me too. So do you just want the consensus from us then basically like hand or tabulated or ballot and then? I mean, I don't need that this minute. I think my role here was just to give you a little bit of the background of what the two different scenarios are and the price tag and the timeline of waiting on LHS to do that and mail memory cards and sort of be at their mercy of when that actually gets here. And the day of being the Tuesday thing. So those were my two major points. The timeline will be a little shorter. People are used to a full 20 days but we don't have to follow that as a special warrant election as opposed to town meeting and even a federal elections 45 days of early voting and then it's 20. So this will be shorter than that but still doable. As far as the ones that have to go out by mail, the good news is that I have just about everybody in what's called a date range request. So if you have opted for any ballot to come by mail, you're already in there. So once we have an answer of where we're going, I will have, those people are in my hopper already, it's a matter of printing 500 labels and then getting things folded and stuffed and that'll take Jen and I two full days at least and then maybe I'll call in some help but that part as far as the mail and the turnaround was a little discussion that we had sort of had about people do need enough time to get them and get them back but I think that either of those dates that window is dealable especially since I can get them out, you know, PDQ once we have an answer to some of our open ended logistical things that are out there. But again, now it's a great answer question. I don't need an answer right now. You guys can certainly talk about it all during your evening. I can, you know, Eric will let me know. I'll hear it eventually. And then we will be able to go from there just looking at any other notes that I may have written down. I am hearing that if we go with this ballot we probably have to come off of the May 7th. Right, yes. I would say that's the big takeaway.  So yeah, people don't understand that this does the election costs a lot of money like that. The bill from them from March is a lot, let alone what I paid people and this is a double we have a November election this year. So. Right, and like that stuff was all budgeted for. I don't budget for your votes. This definitely doesn't, this is new sort of territory. So this will just be coming out of somewhere. But that's, no, they are expensive. So the more times we do it, the more we're spending. So I've mailed 603 and I have 307 back for next Tuesday just to give everybody kind of an idea of where people are at with that. Anything else? Anybody? I guess appealing this ballot is easier for you, correct? I whipped that up today, Mike, right out of nowhere. So yeah, no, that'll be, like I said, they have to print and I got to get envelopes ready. And you know, worst case scenario, if I was in a pinch, I can, I could use a local printer, but then again, we're getting into costs that I try to just do everything myself. And that's just how I like to do things. So yeah, all righty. So sounds, I'll just stay tuned. Okay. Okay, Sarah. Thank you. Yep. So brings us to the actual assumptions of the budget. Eric, did you have introductory thoughts? Sure. Yeah, I can just kind of walk the board through what I've distributed to last week. After your last discussion, put the feedback, recalibrated our spreadsheet here. The basis was working off of that two cent target tax rating freeze and then working on the expense side of the budget for that $300,000 range. So essentially, when you move from the four cent increase to the two cent increase on the revenue side, it's a $425,000 swing. So we use that as the target throughout here. So cleaned up this list of possible expense reductions from the last meeting, including taking, removing some things from this list that the board had consensus to keep in the budget like the police 18th sworn position and then the tasers. This is the removal list to be clear. HR director, that's been taken out. We left $10,000 for HR consulting. So that's why that's reflected within that number. Fund balance additional is built into this as well. So when, and I can answer any questions that the board has on individual items here, but when you get to the bottom line, trying to go for that $425,000 net target between revenue and expense reductions. Right now it's about 24th and thousand and change short. So the question for the board is you work through the numbers and the target you want to reach here is you want to do some more reductions? Do you want to use a little more fund balance? Where do you want to land on the target? Where it is right now, it's about a two percent expense reduction, which is about 7.62% increase from FY 24. It has that target two cent tax rate in it. If you were to say decrease this than another $24,000, it kind of lands at that seven and a half percent increase FY 24 number. The other piece, I left from the remaining list. I struck the fireworks after that discussion, but I left the other possible budget changes that I just had on the list in general. Environmental Reserve Fund, Community Organization Funds, Flower Planting, Left Orphan Alastal List. Essentially if you chose to use a little bit more fund balance at this point, if it was $10,000 or something like that, it's not a huge piece of the fund balance. You're trying to hit this target and think of ways to get there. That's essentially where we are right now. Numbers-wise with that tax rate if we're using our kind of comparative benchmarks here. Two cents additional on the rate, the estimate's about $20 more per 100,000 of assessment. With that median home at 300,000, that means about $60 more per year, about $5 per month. That's half of where it was at town. I'm happy to go into these items more detail. Any questions the board has? I'm going to decide where you want to land here. I know everybody's been going over everything here. I look at all the budget and a lot of things. I don't understand very well. Thank you for explaining the impact piece to me earlier. I was looking up page 143 of the roll maintenance. You had a description of overtime. You had a large, you know, you had to increase an overtime in the proposed year end budget. Sorry. I don't sit in the center of the table very often. I think that's the problem. Keep getting closer and closer to Jean. Yeah, keep moving this way. I know you have to just, you know, I think that's just your, you know, that is just your estimated what it's going to cost. Correct? Sorry, Mike, I'm just pulling up the budget here. What page did you say? On page 143, on overtime, description, overtime. Sure, yeah, I'll probably have you. I just go through, you know, I just went through all the budget, all the lines. I just look for anything that looked like an increase. Well, Mike, what I do with that particular line item is I look at three years by each person of pay rate in the budget. So that $50,000 number you're looking at. That overtime is usually for snow removal? I mean, in the winter? Primarily it's snow removal. Once in a while they may help with water break, the public works guys may help with things like that in the summertime, but it's mostly snow removal. It's not gonna snow next winter. I hope so. I don't wanna listen to you, Mike, I wanna know. Does that help? Yes, the three-year average. As in what we asked them to do as far as coming up with the reductions and they look reasonable to me, the only concern I have is the 24,000 and change that we need to address to make it a balanced budget. And I think that should come out of the out of the fund balance. It's a wider amount. I have a question about the reduction. A lot of these say defer for a year, like the police fleet replacement capital and most everything under public works. I guess I just wanna make sure that we're not, the assumption is not that we're absolutely gonna put these all in the budget next year, like double them up, right? I mean, this could be the other thing if I have to slide a little bit next year, right? Yeah, that'd be the intention. Like I talked to Bruce about the path paving, the sidewalk replacement. So we can get by with kind of moving that timeline on things. The intent would be to double those up. We felt we could zero those lines out for a year and kind of just move things. Because we're also, like the, when we're talking about like one time things, like fixing the, not one time, but it's not like we're hiring somebody, right? So this is something if the option tax come in better than budget, we can go ahead and do those, right? Make those kind of decisions on the fly because it's not like you're committing to a whole position that follows into the next budget and you're now committed, but it does take this down. That's from the budget though, so if you put it back in next year's budget, it's an increase again. Yep, great. That's correct. Yeah, and with the police cruisers funds, we brought up a little to 50 from 45 as we were working with these numbers and it's thinking about, we try to replace two to three cruisers a year, try to get that life out of them, but given where we are, we feel comfortable in deferring if we only did two next year instead. The pricing is certainly escalating or is hearing their stats down out of the event in Massachusetts and talking to some vendors today and one of the vendors there said the price for just the cruise, you have to get the car and then we have to upfit it. We're able to move our equipment along the time, which is why we try to get the same model and so we can make the equipment last longer of the electronics, but they're saying today, like the price of this one model had gone up $8,000 last year and it's going up $10,000 this year just to get the car. So those costs will continue to go up like we see everywhere, but I'm just thinking of ways to defer and it's not gonna be a, it's something we're comfortable with just decreasing that for now, but we'll have to keep replacing and we've monitored that replacement schedule kind of based on use and mileage not necessarily tied to the vehicle itself because they can have different mileage and wear and tear. This is kind of a knit, but if you're looking for 24,000, you know, so we have a grounds person who now is freed up 10 hours a week all summer long and I was just noticing that we still have, we still pay for mowing at the fire station or painting at the fire station, you know, so maybe just take another look through and see if there's something productive we can do with that gal or guy who's now doesn't have to paint the lines on the field anymore, so they can, you know, not gonna ask them to go, you know, do the books for Shirley, but certainly something, you know, they might be freed up into something that's related since we're looking for 24,000. So Terry said staff, it is instructed and the 24,000 does not come in through sales tax or cut something I suppose as we go. I think we do want the number to be, we want the budget to balance with that 24 out, so budget-wise we'll say fund balance. Exactly. Okay. Yeah, they'll be the revenue in. Every revenue, yeah. It's balanced right now as it's presented, but this would get to that targeted amount of that. Sorry. That would be my purpose. Yeah. Relying on the local options tax is tough, difficult. Yeah. And just to remind the board, we bumped it up quite a bit in this budget based on the last two years and always being under. I think we have it at, increased about a half million. That's helping absorb the revenue for the added expenses for a good chunk here. Halfway through this year, we were at 2 million in receipts. We've budgeted 4.1 million for this budget you're looking at right now. Be closer than in prior years, but trying to true that up more as the reflect of the revenue. It's spending a lot of quality time with how Swazan means YouTube videos right now. And I think in general, there's a real concern about the property values of commercial buildings not going up the way that people are thinking that everything else is going up. And that that's true. We could be facing some real challenges down the road. Yeah, so the effect on the grand list and keeping an eye on that. Right. So what is the board's pleasure? Do we give our blessing? Do you have more instruction? Go to the final line, are there specifics of people on the cover? I think I agree with everyone. I think we set that target of 4.25 and like to meet it. And if that means taking as much as it pains me to say even to take that additional 24,000 on the fund balance, then this is the year to do that. This is the rainy day of fund. And as I think Jean said last week, it's raining. So yeah, it's time to do that. Is the, what was the next step? Did we vote in a public hearing last time? Yeah, this next week. We did, we did vote on it. Yeah. I do not read this, it's been a whole week. I hear you. Given the deadline for the observer, I put a notice and earlier this week's they'll be published tomorrow. And I left it without final numbers, but saying the board had targeted over 300 inexpensive decreases and cutting the rate project increase in half. And it notifies folks that staff will post a draft budget online by Friday. So then they can consult that for the hearing. Due to display add to, so it would be a little bigger than in the legal section of the paper. And we'll, we'll show that in other ways too, this week, once we get these numbers all updated in the larger budget document. Had some people comment, they had a hard time finding it on our website, finding the budget last time. So anything you can do to make it easier, more accessible would be good. Sure. You're gonna have Aaron just put a link on the homepage. Yeah, we try with the news brief and a picture. We can make the picture bigger. You are best there. Sounds like we should probably have a motion. For public hearing. No. Or for this. Well, that would come after the public hearing to finalize the number. Okay. We don't need any formal Roberts-Rolls type action. No. To be able to have this go forward next week. No. All right. How about picking the date? Is that something we wanna do? Or we didn't actually warn that we were gonna do it, but. Up to you tonight. What I was thinking is to make sure there'd be at least a majority of the board available on the 18th. You know, after the meeting on the 16th, close the public hearing or can make any final changes at that point after the public feedback. And then staff would get everything prepared to adopt the warning, probably on the 18th. So give us the data to make sure things are in order. And then when that warning's adopted, you'll have to certainly have the date at that point. You can either decide that tonight for the date or you could wait until, you know, when you approve your warning next Thursday. And I know there's another vote next Tuesday if that factors into that thinking as well as waiting to see what happens there. Toilet up to the board. It probably is when you want to set it for logistics, including Sarah, who decided tonight. Yeah, I mean, I think the more, and for, you know, the sake of publicizing when it's gonna be, the longer, the more notice we can give people. Please show up on this date. The better. Okay. Perhaps just like we've sort of soft-blessed the numbers in the budget, we were soft-blessing the date too. Yeah. So it could be publicized as that. I mean, I guess it could be discussed as well. But I'm not sure a lot of people got to show up to argue for the 14th. Yeah. I feel the board wants to make that decision on the date. Probably want to stick with it, because I'll, I'd just like to kind of get it out there as it were. The other thing we should try to make that official. May 14th is what people are thinking. Oh, I was thinking the 7th. The 7th, yes. Yeah. I mean, personally. I feel, yes, pretty strongly about that. That's a Tuesday. Yep. Yeah. Is that, we have consensus on that? Yep. Then the, while we're here. Oh. Like, can that's something we can decide tonight as well? Well, I think we kind of have to, if we say the 7th, we, this one's out. Yeah. Yeah. And just monetarily, I mean. Yeah, why spend money? Right. Hand count. Hand count. Hand count, right here. I was, go ahead. Oh, no, I was just, having participated in the, the recount too. It wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it was going to be. And so, you know, yeah. I was on the board of civil authority in Richmond in 1986 when it was Leahy versus Snelling for the U.S. Senate. And you're out of there about two hours. Yeah. Mashed them up? Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Okay, all right, so. So, we'll plan on May 7th at the Armory. We'll plan May 6th, public information hearing at the school auditorium at seven o'clock. We just haven't had locations and routine. You have a select board meeting usually scheduled for May 7th and soon we won't have a select board meeting that night. Do you want to have a select board meeting another night that week or wait until May 21st for the next select board meeting or somewhere else in the future? I don't think that we do something I want for it. It depends on if there's anything pressing, I guess, so. There's nothing that couldn't wait until the 21st. We have to do a public hearing on the Home Act amendments but it has to happen by April. So, we made that on May 21st. That would be fine for that. We have a, yeah. There's certainly business that needs to be covered but I don't think it's correct. We need to do our enterprise fund budgets on the 21st as well. It's always sister custody of their budget. Maybe at earlier start. Maybe at six o'clock start on the 21st. So, you may have a busier agenda. Yeah. That night will be the trade off. Jean's going to buy some new tabs for her binder. I will. And 32, I'll get the 32 packs this time. But yeah, I mean I think even at earlier start time if there's going to be that busy in her agenda would be a good compromise between missing meetings. Six PM. Yeah. Six PM on the 21st. Okay, I think that's all my fund logistics right now. I think that takes us to the agenda. Yeah. No, very efficient. Management report, other business helpers. Yes, I didn't even bring my binder today. That's shorter one. Eric, do we have anything under management? I just wanted to recognize our staff's work for the eclipse. We didn't know exactly what the impacts would be on town services. And I just thought our staff did it out of the park with our police and fire and public works and admin staff. We had extra people on for fire and police to work. We held over all our public work staff. We had the crew actually split.  A lot of thought and contingencies went into this planning over the last three months. Aaron Dickinson led that coordination from the manager's office and had a good, we were monitoring ways for traffic. We were figured out a way we could always make sure we had cell phone service with a program that's out there for government. So it was a good exercise for the staff and I think we've built a good playbook for things. This is an unpredictable event. So they were all here. So in 2044 we're gonna be completely ready. We're ready. But they were all here watching the eclipse as town staff and just being available to support the community during that event. So just want to make sure that goes right. That's very, everybody was. That's all I have to say again. Okay. Other business? Is there any other business? I have a catering permit. May the third, a wedding at Isham Family Barn. It's from 802 Cocktails. Staff has no objections. That's made about 75 people at the wedding. What's the date of that one? May third. I don't think we have a wedding scheduled May third. Yeah. Oh, yep. You're right. Fundraising event for steps. Just fundraiser. Yep. That's all right. I assumed it was a wedding. Yeah. Don't scare me like that. Yeah. Fundraising event. Are you worried, Mike? Yeah. Wedding? What? So staff has no objections? No. Okay. So is there a motion? I'll move to approve. For a second? Second. Is there a discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. The other side. Okay. Final thoughts on the, any agenda items from this meeting? Hearing nothing, then I will declare that we are adjourned. All right.


We get into our deep dive it's me Phil Perry in for trendy kids Eric excuse me trendy Casey That's throwback on the name big-time throwback old habits die hard throwback here mark the beetle Bertrand 98 by the sports hub Beetle is this it for Bill Belichick. Will we ever see him coach another game now that the Falcons have passed? I think it gets harder a year from now Based on the fact that he didn't get an opening and there were seven other openings in addition to the Patriots opening Which obviously he was not gonna get so I think a year removed it doesn't become easier It becomes harder and so if I had to say, you know, you have to make Prediction on this he's closer to not having another job Then he is having another job again because once you get out of it And you're out of it for a period of time and you're now in your 70s inching toward your mid 70s I think it becomes harder and harder to get a job And I think it's just so unpredictable in terms of which jobs will be available at this time next year Will there be eight openings again next year? I would say that's probably unlikely I also wonder what his desire will be to get back into the pool not to coach He might have it somewhere in the back of his mind even after this process. I still want to get back in I still would love to break that record, but to get back into the pool understanding It's no guarantee that you get a job. Does he feel as though his legacies taken a bit of a hit here Is there any level of embarrassment here where you interview twice for the Falcons and everybody knows it? Usually this guy controls the message to the umpteenth degree And now everyone knows the Falcons have chosen Raheem Morris instead. Okay, so six teams have filled their head coaching vacancies Only Jim Harbaugh, would you call established and he's been out of the NFL for a decade Raheem Morris has some experience But hasn't won drawn bail Dave Canalis Brian Callahan all rookie head coaches Meanwhile, Belichick unemployed despite his 333 career wins And with that we bring in Patriots legend former Bill Belichick pupil James White James. Thanks for entering the conversation here Are you surprised that Bill Belichick has gone through this process at least with the Falcons We'll see what lies ahead if there's a mystery team number two But are you surprised that he got through this process two interviews with the Falcons and he still doesn't have a job It's not a huge surprise. I thought there would only be about two teams He would actually be interested in coaching They have to be the right organization the right roster that can win right away And obviously he's a coach who's done it a certain way for 20 plus years He's gonna want to have it the same way within that organization So you never knew of any organization that had a job opening right now was going to be open to him having that type of control I think his legacy is already hit it's already set And no matter what he's done these last two three seasons And I know it hasn't had as much success over the last three years But you nobody's gonna replicate those 20 plus years success I feel like that's gonna be really tough for any franchise to try and do that James when you say you think he would want to be in the right situation What do you think it was about Atlanta that in his mind made that the right situation for him? What's a young football roster they have a solid and young defense some good backs there The biggest piece that's missing in that situation is the quarterback So I feel like if he would have went to that place It would have been just a quarterback that he needed in order to take them to the next step You know the type of discipline the type of structure that was going to be set there That's been missing from there from the last several seasons after you know a certain game that happened You know a few years ago and he'd be the type of guy that could help get them right Which I think Raheem Morris is a great hire He's the guy who's been in you know the coaching candidate interviews over the last several seasons So you knew his name will be hot right here. He's going back to a place where he coach I thought that'd been a perfect fit for bill to fit right there in Atlanta if they decided to go that direction James you're the perfect person to ask having been a lot of bill bellow check locker rooms But I think a lot of people looking at this from afar They look at the record lately since tom brady Maybe how some of the younger players have panned out here in new england even our own tom caron the other day Said he got a text message from a current player who used to be here Saying boy bill ends up in atlanta. You might have some guys asking for trades in your opinion How well does bill bellow check relate to the new generation of player that's in the game today in 2024 I think he still relates well obviously at the You know bringing the certain type of player with to within your organization Not everybody's going to be willing and able to accept that type of coaching But trust me is it's not i'm sure he coached very differently when he first got to new england versus You know when I left new england you got to adjust to the players that are within your roster And I think he has the preparation is going to be there I was there two years ago. The preparation is the same is all about No guys buying in bringing in the right players that you can develop and put them in the right situation to succeed Over the last few years it hasn't been that you know been that way especially offensively defensively They've been solid and that's just been the big issue Which i'm sure from you know most people outside looking in is why isn't the offense going out there scoring points and helping the defense Yeah, I think you're bringing up the point about the last few years And I wonder and i'm curious to get your thoughts Is this the league looking at bill and saying we're going a little bit younger We're going a little bit more offensive minded, although that's not the case with raheem morris But we can't overlook the way the patriots looked over the last few seasons. Is that catching up with bill right now? I think so, I mean Everybody's starting to go young you're seeing you know Obviously male youngest coach in the league a lot of these coaches are under 40 years old the game's changing You know more organizations are trying to be more about you know Fun and like all this other stuff which we have fun within our organization when I was playing It's just a different type of fun We're gonna you be coached hard and you're gonna win football games And you're gonna have fun with your teammates everybody's going through the same grind, you know putting in the work I think he is still you know a very good football coach No matter whether you're 30 years old, you know 70 plus years old It's which bill is as long as you get to buy in from the players That's all that matters and I think it starts by bringing the right type of players within your building If you don't have those guys and you bring it a bunch of guys that aren't willing to take your coaching Yeah, it's gonna be very tough to win football games It's really interesting morris even though he's a defensive coach has a lot of links to a great offensive mind in Shaw McVeigh because he worked under McVeigh. He knows a lot of those assistants are really interesting part of the whole equation Some interesting tweets that we wanted to get to with you here at james This is from Brett jukes who's one of arthur blanks executives works In the operation down there in atlanta. He was in all of those falcons coaches interviews and provided insight from the room He calls morris's first interview quote-unquote electric in his second interview even better james Can you picture bill bellachic walking into a room and being quote-unquote? Electric, how do you think he presented himself in those situations sitting down with ownership there in atlanta? It definitely wouldn't be electric. I think he's gonna let his resume speak for itself It's just like look. This is what I've done. You know, I've had this much success where I was I know the last three years haven't been great. But if you let me do this this this this You know, I could help this team get to the right direction. It definitely wasn't electric We know he's not you know, he doesn't have the electric personality But he knows the game of football inside and out He knows how to tap into players and to unlock their potential And that's the type of things that he's going to share with any organ organization or any owner James wanted to pivot a little bit here and ask you about the offensive coordinator situation Here in new england, um, you know, they've got a lot of names On the list right now. We're looking at them here. Nick kaley Assistant obviously with the rims assistant long time here in new england was an assistant on staffs that you played for james And there's thomas brown another former mcvay assistant coordinator for the panthers draught johnson quarterbacks coach For the texans worked in minnesota previously.  I think they're taking their time making sure they find the right guy trying to figure out what system they're trying to implement Maybe they're trying to figure out You know, which rookie are they truly like even though they're not going to know Which guy is going to be there at pick three unless they trade up to number one and decide that way But you're just going to you know cross cross cross your cross your t's dot all your eyes Just make sure everything's correct. Make sure you bring in the right guy Because obviously this is going to be something that's going to be a big question mark going in the next season What this offense is going to look like as far as the offense coordinator quarterback Offense as a whole So you want to bring the right guy is going to develop and really build a scheme No, not not only around the quarterback But offense aligned and the whole entire skill groups that's there I think that's what's the most important thing no matter You know what team this this coach is coming from whether shah mcvay or you know one of these other You know flashy schemes You still have to build the offense around the guys that are in that organization So james put yourself in jurad mayo's shoes Which style of offense would you want to use for the patriots? And i know that it's hard to answer because you don't know the personnel But assuming you're building this offense, what should they want to be in 2024 and beyond? Well, you got remandre stevens are coming back. So I think it's run play action And that's that's the thing that shah mcvay does you're gonna get runs gonna get play action easy access throws Like kyle shanahan, they'll throw bubble screens until you stop But they'll throw balls across the middle of the field until you stop He's just you set the defense up and then when they think they got to figure out that you throw something else at them So I think that's what it's all about I know when I was there with josh mcdames, that's what we did. We found the defense's weaknesses We tried to exploit them as much as possible or we figure out what they don't do as well And that's what we're gonna try and attack. I think that's what it's all about You want to attack defensive weaknesses? You can't go into a game just running the same thing you ran all year long Of course teams are gonna be prepared and ready for that But at the same time you got to have the guys, you know that can go out there and execute your plan Be dominant Willing to accept their role and just execute every sunday monday thursday saturday whatever day you play James you mentioned josh mcdaniels. He's available. Should the patriots be open to bringing him back? Should they bring him back and can his offense work in today's game? We saw how it worked out there in vegas when he was there Bumpy to say the least and I understand you get a great quarterback It can make everybody look a little bit better But does his style of offense still work and should the patriots want it? I think he's a valid candidate. I mean you saw what he did with with mac jones in his rookie season You know, maybe if he had him these last two seasons, we probably have different results from mac jones I think his offense still works Is like I said, it's all about having the right guys that you can build that system around You got to have smart tough dependable guys Not everybody is built for that system Like I said, I've never played within any other system besides from a josh mcdaniels system So I don't know, you know anything other than that But you've got to have guys that are bought in or smart can learn a lot and learn at a high rate Because he coaches fast and he coaches hard and not everybody can play in that type of system How excited would you be as a patriots follower for that fast and hard coaching from josh mcdaniels back with the Patriots offense in 2012? I think it would be more of the same and I like josh mcdaniels And I've always said I think josh mcdaniels is a great offensive coordinator But if you're going to fire bill bellichick, which is what I believe happened here You've got to make some some pretty significant changes and use it as an opportunity to mix in a lot of new things And for me that would mean changing what the team does from an offensive scheme I think it's time this this feels like the appropriate time They have to add so much from a talent perspective that if you're going to make a change This would seem to be that sort of fork in the road where you decide to go in that direction


It's going to be a winter boot kind of day. We've gotten a little more snow this year than last year, and it's still coming down. This is an afternoon problem though. An evening problem. We'll worry about all this snow later. Wonderful. I left a little later than usual today. I've been waiting out the storm, waiting for the sun to come up for better visibility for the winds to die down. Seems like a lot of other people are doing the same. The Timmy's drive through is empty. How strange. Well, looks like we might get a snow day. I have to be quiet. Britt's still sleeping. It's her day off, so I'm going to let her sleep as long as she wants. I got the boys out here. I got them all fed so she doesn't have to wake up and feed them. And I may go in a little bit, but for now the weather outside is up to zero visibility on the highways. What we've been told and all the major highways are closed. So we're going to see if they open them back up in an hour or two here. And I'll probably do my canora run tomorrow then, because it'll be too late by the time things open up. But there may be some other things they need me to get done. So my direction for now is just stay homes, sit tight and wait. Snow day. Sort of like when you're in school, right? Get a snow day. Except snow days aren't just fun now because you don't get paid for snow days.  But nowadays you don't want to do that. You don't want to do that.  What do you mean you're sick? Maybe you should go get tested. But nope.  It doesn't really look that bad from here. But everything is so close by in town. Those trees back there are maybe an eighth of a mile away. And the wind is kind of blocked in town as well. Apparently once you get out on the highways, it's a lot worse. gusts of wind up to 80 kilometers an hour, 50 miles an hour. She's sleeping in the other room right there. She should be up soon though, but I don't want to wake her up. So we'll talk later. There we go. Okay, I've been trying to get this to work. Starting my new farm sim. I guess I've got to pick up my characters here. Okay, that's how we go down. All right, let's get the right hairstyle here. There we go. Gotta get this guy to look like me. So I bought this game for PS4 now. This is what I'm recording this on. I'm so excited. I actually bought it with the money I got as a gift for hitting my million miles at work. I bought farming simulator 22. I was playing it on my computer and it was getting so frustrated because it was lagging. My computer couldn't keep up with it. So now I have it on PS4 and I'm screen recording it here with you right now, which is awesome. So I don't know what all the controls are yet. I'm just making my avatar here. Gotta get the right facial hair. I'm gonna go with that. Whatever. Whatever. Oh, the mustache is next. That's why. Okay. Yes. Yes. Look at that. Okay, maybe not. There we go. Something like that. That's something like me, right? Okay. We're gonna close to be one on this guy. Yes. Why is that an optional? Oh, oh, there you go. I think I'm just gonna stick with this. Yeah, check it. I like that. Jeans. Yeah, boots. Yeah, those are good. Hat. That's good. Yeah. No. No. There we go. Gloves. Not bare hands. Yeah, I like those aviators too. Okay, there's my avatar. You guys think that's me. Let's do it. Okay, so here I am. I've got to get used to these controls in here. So on the computer, I've already bought this land. So I'm gonna have to start all over from fresh. That's okay, because I didn't get very far. This is a newer game. So I didn't get very far on the computer anyway. So I'm gonna go ahead and get everything set up here and get some equipment and check in with you from there. And maybe I can continue putting more of this kind of content on my TGV gaming channel. You guys can check it out there if you want. All right, so I've sort of gotten myself a little more familiar with the game now and with the controls that I'm still learning. It's so different playing on ps4 from the computer. But I've made my way over here to clever motors, which is the store in town. And I've bought my first tractor. I'm actually kind of excited to come and see it and run over to it. John Deere spec right out. So it's a John Deere 7R 360, which cost me in the game $289,000. I'm very excited to pick it up and start my farming life here. Get on in here, start her up. It's good around here. Looks very nice. Kind of screams all over. Okay, a little passenger seat there for the kids. So let's bring this thing back to the farm, shall we? It's still very different than playing on the computer. Excuse me, I'm all over the place. Okay, here we go. Gonna have to get used to this, that's for sure. I'm used to having a steering wheel in front of me too. Okay, this steering is way too sensitive. So we're going to get to the farm and turn that sensitivity down just a little bit. It's going to go through town here. Am I speeding? What's the speed limit in town here? Whoop, whoop, whoop, I didn't do that on purpose. I promise. I'm going to get this guy over to my farm and then we're going to go change that steering sensitivity. That's going to drive me nuts. Oh, you know what? I should have stayed at the store because I'm going to have to buy and implement right away. Okay, we're going to turn around. This is my farm here anyways. I'll show you the farm. We've got to change the steering sensitivity too. Now we're going to park it in the barn while we work on it, in my barn. Let's go and figure out how we can change this steering sensitivity because that drives me nuts. Sort of back up. We're going to have to go and buy another implement. Totally forgot while I was there. Still seems kind of, still a little bit touchy for when you're going fast. Okay, I think I'm going to quickly go and see if I can, oh, let's turn right down to 50. Okay, you don't want to be too slow, right? Just got to be careful when you're moving fast.  I'm going to have to go in here and buy some more things. They've actually hired a worker right now to plow this field for me. Now we're just trying to get these fields going. We're going to jump in with our worker here. He lets us in, ride along with them. I could have left the sunflowers there, but I didn't plant them, because I don't want them. They're not mine. They were there when I bought the farm. So the next thing I'm going to have to do is I'm going to have to buy a, what is it called, a rock puller or a rock cover? See all those little dots in the field though? All of the side there and everything. These are all little stones, and you've got to pick those stones out of there or it could damage your equipment. For that, you have to get a special machine. I'm just going to wait for this guy to finish plowing this field, and then we'll pick it up from the store. I didn't want to put it down. Come on. Hold plow. Okay. Detach. Oh, there we go. Oh, no. That's not what I wanted to do. Come back to me. Oh, great. I'm going to fix this. Why did it do that? I'm going to flip this back around here. Oh, whoa. Okay. I just want to detach you. Don't fall all over the place, man. Don't take plow. Lower plow. Okay. There we go. See, there. See, that's all I wanted to do to the store. I got to get a rock picker. You get a rock picker. It's a trailer, a stone picker. That's what they're called. I'd like to have the good one. These ones take so long, and this one I can really use it on my other field. I'm just going to bite the bullet by this one, $52,000. Okay, so it should be waiting for us by our tractor. There it is. So that picks up all the stones, gets them out of the field, and get a better yield that way. These kind of games are very interesting. I could spend hours and hours and days and days building my empire in there. I like the American Truck Simulator. It's one of my favorite games. The farming simulator online or on my computer. I like to play my Sim City. Some of them I've always liked those kind of videos the best. This is my field right off here to the left. I'm going to wait for that car for us here. Okay, hold the stones and throw them into the back there. This is the detail they put into these things. I've hired a guy to do this for me now, so they'll drive while I show you. I don't know who that guy is there, but kicks them all up into this thing here. No, I'm a very boring guy. This is what I find joy in. And welcome to my day off. My snow day, what I do in my free time when I don't have much other things to do. That doesn't happen often, but when it does happen, I turn into a farmer. Now you know my secret. Now you know my farm too. Ha! I just start all over. It is so much easier. Like I've been playing in here. Let's turn the lights on in here so you can see Chevy's been helping me out. Been playing in here, right? And got it all hooked up through my PS4. So much better experience for me to play it on the PS4 than on the computer. Just the only problem I have is that the controls, it's taken me so long to get used to the new controls with a new controller, but we'll get there. Anyways, that's a little bit of a snippet of what I do on my TJV gaming channel. Sometimes we go trucking, sometimes we go farming on there. If you guys are interested in that, I have a second channel. I'll link it down below in the description. It was a snow day today, so not much going on. So I figured I'd give you a little preview of that channel. That was me just messing around, just messing around. I'm going to build that whole farm up into some kind of big empire yet eventually. And you know, you can follow that on my other channel. If not, my regular vlogs will be here on this channel. Regular vlog tomorrow again. Thanks for putting up with this one. We'll see you tomorrow.