Good morning, everyone. Good morning. This is public meeting 255 that I am calling to order. At first up will be approval of the minutes. Commissioner Stevens. Sure. Thank you, Madam Chair. In your packet, you have the minutes from the October 25th, 2018 meeting. I move the commission to approve those minutes subject to any corrections for typographical errors or any other nonmaterial matters. Any further discussion on the minutes? All in favor. Aye. 4-0. Okay, typically now we'll have an administrative update, but Executive Director Bedrosian is working on a matter and he will be here a little later to give that review. Our General Counsel is here though. I am and Mr. Bedrosian will join us later in the meeting, so he advised that we can proceed with the agenda as it stands. Yeah, we'll do it. Very good. Thank you. On Budsman, John Ziemba is up next with the Plain Ridge Park Casino Quarterly Report. Welcome to the team from Plain Ridge. Thank you. Good morning, commissioners. So today we hear from Plain Ridge Park regarding their third quarter report ending September 30th of this year. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to turn it over to Lance George, General Manager for Plain Ridge Park, Michelle Collins, Vice President of Marketing for Plain Ridge Park, and Kim Rigo, Vice President of Human Resources. Morning, commissioners. Good morning. It's been a few months I think. I tend to work quickly, so please feel free to stop me, but I'll go fairly rapidly through this. Gaming revenues and taxes for Q3. Actually, we've got some numbers up there. A lot of numbers. We've got it broken down by quarter 417 and then again for 418. And so revenue and tax all in for the third quarter of 2018. Combination of taxes paid and fees paid to the horsemen at 49% totaled approximately 22 million, just under 22 million, 21976. Gaming revenues just under 45 million. Successful quarter with net win per unit at 397 in the month of August. So all in good story for us. Lance, is it fair to say that there's a bit of an upward trend to finish the year a little higher than last? I mean, of course, there's third quarter, fourth quarter still missing, but is there anything that you can talk about that? Yeah, so of course, as you guys well know, competition opened around us, both at Tiverton, which is I think 150 yards over the Massachusetts border as well as MGM, which is farther away about an hour and 15 hour and a half from us. Tiverton is about 40 minutes. And so as that relates to the impact on revenue, I think it's a bit of a wait and see. Public numbers show that we were down about 4% year over year in September. Public numbers in October will come out or for October will come out on the 14th. And so it's a bit of a wait and see. We did see a bit of a decline in September. And so we're certainly curious to see what happens in the last three months of this year. Thank you. 150 yards, is that right? I think it's 150 yards. Wow. Yeah. Actually, if you're coming from Rhode Island to get to the Tiverton Casino, there's a, do you enter Massachusetts for just a little bit on exit to get back into Rhode Island? Very close. Very close. Is it? A lot of resales, again, a good story. Similar format to the previous slide. Details by quarter for 17 and 18. Encouraging year over year trend sells up by just over 5% for Q3. 5.24%. Increase is largely organic. No material change to our relationship or in the approach. Spending by state on the procurement side, 78% of the eligible spend for Q3 was spent in Massachusetts. Reminder is split among several other states. Purchasing team continues to produce positive results. We're certainly encouraged by these numbers, and we have been all along. Local spend, let's back up a little bit. So digging a little deeper into procurement for Q3 provided a breakdown of local spending. Approximately 110,000 of our procurement spend occurred with local businesses, with the majority occurring in the town of Plainville, followed by Mansfield and North Adelboro. Good story. On the vendor diversity side, overall encouraging results. With that said, the property continues to pursue opportunities in each of these areas. Across the board for WBEs, VBEs and MBEs, Plain Ridge is above target, and we continue to be pleased with these results. No significant red flags to report. Continued assistance by Jill Griffin and Commissioner Stevens, including earlier this week to discuss procurement and veteran diversity. Greatly appreciated and certainly valuable for the property. Compliance. Good work by the team in the area of compliance. Property continues to be diligent, and you can see from the number of ID checks and turnaways. One individual who did make it onto the gaming floor was identified within minutes and properly escorted from the facility. Continued coordination and cooperation between the property. Commissioned agents and MSP continues to be a big positive for the property. Good to hear. Lance, similar question. I think these numbers are very positive as you say, but any reason to think that some of the people trying to enter, that there's any kind of trends or repeat instances or any other intelligence, if you will. Yes, it's a there's certainly a percentage on each side of people who just truly didn't know because in Rhode Island it is 18 and above. And then the other half of that is folks who didn't know who are trying to skirt around the rules. I don't know if that's 5050, but you do have a mix of both. I'll turn it over to Kim. Thank you, Lance. Good morning. Good morning. So at the end of the quarter, our total employees was 467. We were down 10 people over Q2. Our turnover went up just slightly during Q3. Again, with a little bit of competition, we lost a few employees. Our full time employees are 305. Our part time is 162. The percentage 65% full time and 34.7% part time. Diversity. So our numbers remain largely the same here. Diversity is down 1 percentage point. Veterans is 5%. Massachusetts at 64%. Local hires for our host and surrounding communities are at 34%. And our male female breakdown is 51% and 49%. This is the highest female percentage that we've had. It's up 2 percentage points over Q2. We continue to focus on our in state hiring. During the quarter, we attended Adelborough Career Fair as well as an August Veterans Fair. We did have a meeting last week with Jill Griffin and Commissioner Stevens. Thank you for also attending. So we renewed our relationship with Mass Hire. So a great ideas came out of this meeting that we look forward to implementing. We also have already heard from Norwood and Taunton inviting us to some of their career fairs that are coming up in Q4. So we're excited about that. Next, just to give you an update about women leading at Penn. So we had our women's Expo on September 28th. Thank you again, Gail, for being our keynote speaker. The feedback has been wonderful. It was a huge success. We're looking forward to planning another one in year two. So next year, we had 20 vendors that had tables from the local community. Some of them included Adelborough Kitchen and Bath, Isagenix and Patriots Subaru. We had 100 attendees, so all from the local community. So we're very excited that we had that attendee amount. Another topic that we did in Q3 for women leading at Penn was navigating the workplace and gender bias. So we talked about four different types of patterns of behavior. We talked about strategies as to how to deal with them and help give this group of women the skills to be able to handle that. Pictured on the slide to the bottom left is the group of our women leading at Penn at Plain Ridge. So we're excited that they were mostly all able to attend. In Q4, we're looking forward to doing a leadership courage session. It will be a virtual session, facilitated by Anne Simmons, who is a board member and secretary for Global Gaming Women. And she's also the CEO and president of Simmons Group. And then we'll also have a negotiation skills session, and that's still to be determined. If I can jump in here. This group was outstanding. I did have a chance to chat with this group of aspiring women leaders and to hear their stories and hear where they started and how they now are acquiring the skills and the confidence, which is a really important piece, the confidence to try to achieve more than where they are now. So that was the best part of the day for me was not hearing my own stories, but listening to these women and how encouraged they are by the program, how pleased they are to be in this program and part of it. And really, their ideas about wanting to be leaders in the company. So I just think that this is a really good program. And to hear some of their stories was really a nice thing. And it's a win-win, right? Yes, I'd like to have more women leaders, and they are aspiring to be those women leaders. Thank you. I'm going to turn it over to Michelle. Actually, can I have a question that actually connects the last two slides? You know, the point that Commissioner Cameron is making with the prior one. You did mention turnover a little bit. I know that's, you know, something that happens in every industry, certainly for a 24-7 operation. Is there, do you know if there's any trends relative to whether your more people are turning over on a particular group, like, let's say, women or minority or local, which could then make the occasion of having programs like this one even that much more relevant? During the quarter, I would say that definitely didn't affect females because our females are actually up two percentage points over Q2. In terms of the trending turnover, most of the turnover that we had in Q3 was related to competition. So having the skills in the gaming industry were very attractive to Tiberton and to MGM, and we did lose 2% to those two facilities. So I think that's where most of the turnover was in Q3. And I was done this early. Thank you for that answer, but I wasn't necessarily talking about just the quarter. To the extent that you continue looking at your hiring and your turnover. I would just encourage you to look at, you know, yellow flags relative to whether you're losing more than one particular group or not. Yeah, I think that's a fair point. I think typically for us, maybe myopically, we look at it by department and where we're experiencing challenges by department. I don't think we've ever gone the extra mile to look at it by gender, by age, but your points well taken. I want to take a minute because I do want to compliment Kim. She played a great host to not only ourselves, but folks from the skills cabinet, folks from the new kind of rebranded mass hire career centers from around the region. One of the interesting statistics that you pulled up that Jill and I had a chance to talk about is you've had since you've opened, you've had over 40 transfers to other properties to other pen property. I mean, which is 300 promotions and internal transfers within Plain Ridge since opening, which is great. And one of the community college people was like, they already bark up the transfers talk about the ability to land locally, but still have an opportunity to pursue a career and that you're various other locations around the country. I think what was also great about the discussion I think it highlights a problem John and I have had a conversation about is the region is looking for help. You guys have positions available, Patriot Place has positions available and trying to find the transit connections or the transportation connections to get people either to come south or to come north from the Fall River New Bedford or Attleboro area to take advantage of the job openings that are available. So good discussion around those topics the other day too. And something I know John is keeping an eye on as well. Thank you. All right, moving into local community. As always, we continue to support various areas, specifically what we were excited about this past quarter was relay for life. We picked a perfect season to support the Red Sox winning Wednesdays. So we had 17 wins. So for every Wednesday when we gave $777 to relay for life, which we were excited about. In addition to that, we did a school supply drive, which we had over 400 customers participate in. In the picture you can see in that slide shows all of the donations that the community brought in. Q3 sponsorships, we kept many of our sponsorships we typically do such as Nessin and the Red Sox. Two that we are excited that we added include Patriots. We were able to partner with them. And one of the pieces that we're very excited about is they are at fluties every Monday night for Monday night Patriots. So they do that show live from the restaurant, which is an exciting addition to something we haven't been able to do in the past. We're also going to be able to send a guest to their flyaway trip in Pittsburgh, which is another great opportunity that we've never been able to take part in before. Is this tickets to the game or something? Yeah, so it's a Pittsburgh game. It's a flyaway. They go on the team plane, team hotel, everything. So it's a great experience that's once in a lifetime and it's something we're excited to be able to offer one of our guests. Terrific. In addition to that, we partnered with TPC Boston. So it's a golf package that allows us to take our players to the golf course or any other TPC PGA golf course across the country. So it's another great opportunity to utilize our partnerships with the community and to, you know, create more benefits for players that they may not be able to get other places. And for Q3 highlights, we partnered with the lottery again on our winning Wednesday promotion. So customers that came in would receive a free lottery ticket. We typically see about 600 responders per Wednesday. We had Responsible Gaming Education Week in August. Dinner with Doug, where Doug Floody was actually at Floody's and we did a contest over the quarter where a customer won the opportunity to have Dinner with Doug and five other of their friends. And then Murphy's Boxing Event, we had another event in September in the racing area. So those are the Q3 highlights. What was the contest that gave way to the Dinner with Doug? So if you, if you dined at Floody's, you would receive a ballot and you just put it in the drum. So over the course of two and a half months, anytime you dined, you could put the ballot in and then we just did the drawing. So that's the group there that had Dinner with Doug. It looks like he has his Boston College hat on, I see. Yes, he always wears that whenever he comes. Oftentimes he has us replay that game in Floody's as well. He does. So we get to see the Hail Mary pass again. Very nice. Looks good. We were down for a racing event last week and then we had a hearing and there were so many Red Sox and Patriots jerseys, both on the gaming and racing side of the house. So good time for these events. Absolutely. All set? Any? Look we're good. We're not sure yet. Do we have any more questions? Can you go back to slide three? No. Good work. Short, but very good. Obviously, everything looks great. The numbers, the work you're doing, the leadership program. So keep up the good work and it's nice to see you all. Good to see you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes my report. Thanks. Okay, next we'll have a director Griffin with the workforce supplier diversity development and the Western Mass folks. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Everyone, everyone ready? Yeah. Okay. The commission's request some weeks ago, we have Jeffrey Hayden, vice president of business and community services from Holyoke Community College to my far right. And next to him, we have Matt Skatella, Zatella, Matt Zatella, who was a student in the Massachusetts, the MCCTI line cook training program and is a current employee of MGM. So we thank them both for coming all this way. And we're looking forward to getting an update regarding all the workforce training programs, including the gaming school, the line cook training, adult basic education, and accelerated high school credentialing and career readiness. So I'm going to turn it over to Jeff. Good morning commissioners. It's a pleasure to see you all again. You as well. Microphone Jeff. The button at the bottom. I do have a college degree. Good morning to everyone. And it's a pleasure to be before you again, and to give you an update on what we're doing in terms of workforce development training in Western Massachusetts. As you know, when we say workforce training in Western Massachusetts is a partnership of thousands, we have not only the regional employment boards, the mass hire Hamden County workforce board, the Franklin Hampshire workforce board, the career centers at all three locations. The three community colleges are engaged as well as numerous employers. And so the network that many of you dreamed about when this endeavor began in 2011 actually has transpired and we're excited about that. And through the mitigation funding that was made available last year, we actually took programs that were separate and then began to work together. And I think that has also yielded significant results for us because in addition to knowing what we do in terms of line cook training or or dealer training, we now know what some of the challenges are with the Springfield public schools and with high set training and and college readiness, workplace readiness as well. The same thing with the Hamden partnership that Springfield Technical Community College is leading. And so that integration has fostered different types of discussions. And so things like contextualized culinary in ESOL smooth pathways from Springfield public schools to workforce training programs that the community colleges or to credit programs that the colleges has taken place. And so it's moving along in a way that many of you envisioned and I think moving in such a way that there's more and more creativity, more and more activity happening on a regular basis. So Mike, if I could have the next slide. Oh, is this it here? Yeah, here we go. So just very quickly, you know, as you all know, the this collective that's been formed, it's these four programs ahead of the game, which is led by Springfield public schools with primarily helping individuals get a high school credential and and career readiness preparation. It's aimed at adults. The gaming school scholarships, which is helping folks who are looking for employment, primarily folks who are unemployed or underemployed have been in that program. And we've had great success with those numbers and I'll share those in a little bit. And then with with Hampton Prep, which is a partnership with Springfield Technical Community College. It's a high school credential, but also college readiness and and trying to broaden that net of creating that funnel of people who who need basic education and get them toward workplace skills and eventually towards the more education or the education that they're looking for. And and then lastly, the line cook training, which has a different slice. It's looking at folks who have experience in the culinary field and trying to advance those skills. And soon Matt will tell his story, which I think is a great example of it doing exactly that. And then in in terms of the impact that we've been having ahead of the game has enrolled a hundred and ninety six people. And you can see on the far right that there are numerous outcomes on most of those folks have received some kind of case management, which includes career counseling. They've done a skill smart profile, which many of you are familiar with. They've been enrolled in achieve three thousand and have obtained a certificate there. They're enrolled in ESOL or high set classes. And so far we have eight who have reached their high school equivalency and sixty four folks who have passed at least one exam of the high set process. The high set has five exams. And so, you know, over seventy people have progressed in terms of their high school equivalency with the program from ahead of the game. And most of those successes are related to the first year of funding. And so the second year numbers will start to see more of the enrollment includes this year. But it doesn't really have any outcomes yet because students are in the midst of classes. For the gaming scholarship program in the gaming school, we've enrolled two hundred and seventy two people. One hundred and seventy four have completed. Again, there's seventy who are currently in the program. So that's why the in terms of completion, it's a little bit off of term in terms of the total enrollment through the scholarship program. We've awarded one hundred and eleven scholarships and in terms of job placement for those who complete the program, we've got eighty one percent job placement. And every day we hear a story of one more that gets added. So that's probably about eighty three percent at this point. So we're happy about that. And and as I mentioned before, most of the folks in the receiving the gaming school scholarships are coming from the unemployment roles. And so it's certainly creating new opportunities for for people who have not been in the labor pool. And then Hamden Prep has enrolled fifty five folks. Forty nine have completed seven have their high set in a very similar story to ahead of the game. There there are many of those students are still enrolled and still trying to to get that high set completion. At the same time, there's been a number of unique career related activities that they've done, which is the whole connection to college readiness. And lastly with a line cook, as you know, we started it at Hoya Community College as a pilot. We ran two cohorts with 30 people. The first cohort we had eight complete and the second cohort we had 14 complete. We learned a little bit about what success takes for an incumbent worker and and we're happy to say that you know of the 22 who completed the program all are inactive either employment or search for employment. And so we're hoping that that number of 22 will be 22 higher and you know it's been a very successful process for us. So the totals 553 enrolled 339 completed 193 in placed in a job or advancing in a job and so that reflects some of the incumbent workers and then 176 currently enrolled. I'm happy to say that that job placement or advancement number actually should be somewhere around 215 at this point. It just we just got the word yesterday of an additional 20 plus who have been offered positions and so that number continues to grow for us and you know in terms of a job placement rate with that new 210 number we're at about 65% job placement and and I would tell you that in reality you know we we're looking at somewhere probably at the end of the day of a placement rate between 80 and 85% and so you know in terms of those who have either not completed or who have dropped out or haven't been able to complete a particular program. It's a relatively small percentage given the circumstances that life throws at them in terms of coming to us and looking for work. So with all that said I think you know the important thing to do is to really start to tell the story and the story is not from the colleges it's not from the regional employment boards or any of the it's from the people who participate and so there's a very short video clip that 58 seconds that has some of the students talking and then I'll let Matt take it from there so it's a six week course but the hours are very flexible to have time while being active in the community one. It's fun to get to know a lot of people I see like all the how it's possible to live in this stuff and that's where I want to be. I was in the army I came back home I worked there for a little bit and once this casino opened up I wanted to go here this is a great opportunity for everyone. I want to be part of this movement that MGM has had expected you know when I walked in from the manager put yourself downstairs and we will walk up here MGM like it's not only a job I can move, I can advise them So there's a couple snippets of folks who participated in the various training programs and I tell you the the best part of having a two hour drive in this morning was that Matt Satella was in the passenger seat and hearing him talk about his life story and the things that these types of training programs are helping to do for him is really inspiring and it reminds me of why we do what we do So with that Matt, you're on. Good morning. Good morning. Again my name is Matthew Satella I'm 32 years old and I just recently completed the MGM HEC culinary arts program about three months ago a little under three months This program has brought forth a great opportunity for my family and I one that just about a year ago I didn't think would be possible again even though as a child I had certain passion for cooking I chose a different path for a long time and worked in the construction field working big jobs such as rebuilding excuse me rebuilding the months in police station after the microburst a few years ago at the time that it was I thought my lifelong career would be I even started my own company called MC Hammers I'm Matt and my friend Chris Hammers Construction is our own LLC basically overnight a lot of things in my life changed about a year ago I had a heart attack although the doctors couldn't really pinpoint the cause of it they told me that working in construction wouldn't be best for my future any longer and they said I should think about something else I was this old person working in my household which consists of a now two year old daughter and my girlfriend of ten years was a shock to our household obviously and my shining star of a girlfriend stood strong and took a running start to jump in and help take care of our family she enrolled in the pharmacy type program which is also at HTC that they have there and recently got nationally credited and is now working in a growing field while attending class she came across a pamphlet for a line cook training program offered by MGM and HTC and knowing that I had a passion for cooking she mentioned it and told me to give it a try after speaking with someone about the program I finally started having hope again and I knew that if I tried my hardest and used all my resources to the fullest that this program provided I could be back on track with my life and provide for them like I should little did I know it would totally supersede any of my expectations Chef Warren Lee my MGM HTC culinary instructor gave me the tools and knowledge needed to be the very best line cook I could be also taught me skills that re-sparked my passion for cooking while in the program we learned to make you know many sauces from scratch you know bechamel and espagnol and tomato sauces things that I've never learned working before in culinary also various methods of cooking different proteins and precision knife cuts which takes certain finesse not only did that program provide design experience we also had academics and it pushed me to learn chef's match which is a whole new world in mathematics really it's got it's own little world to it which consists of like different ways to convert gallons to pint ratios and also methods that break down the pricing of food and all each ingredient that it takes to cause a creative recipe the wealth of information was truly endless and I used it all to enter a new chapter of success for myself prior to the graduation of my course chef Lee helped me to attain a job in the fine dining establishment as well make connections for me to acquire a position at the marvelous new MGM Springfield which I now have been at for just under three months and due to the training that I received when I had my two month evaluation they revealed to me that I am one of MGM's most valuable assets and I'm versatile and can work any of the seven restaurants that make up the south end market at MGM and I really feel that I would never have rocketed off in such a fashion if it wasn't for this program and now because that I'm being considered and now because of that I'm even being considered for management this program has been nothing shy of remarkable I intend to save up and continue my schooling with the program at MGM and HCC culinary arts institute and one of their two year programs that they have as well the possibilities that this is brought forth are truly endless and from the bottom of my heart I would like to thank anyone who had part in making this program possible I got another chance at license and basically me and my family couldn't be happier thank you great story Matt really great story thank you so you're working at all the restaurants? every week it seems like they put me in a new place and they said after my two month evaluation they said that because of my versatility that I've become such a great asset to them and what will you study when you go back? I'm going to go for the accreditation program and hopefully become a certified certified chef you'll have my certifications and you'll have opportunities to move up? yes absolutely and then with that it becomes greater responsibilities and as well more financial stability great great story can I also ask a couple of questions some of the things that we deal with are things like the cost of the training we've awarded scholarships but there's also a number of things that go into the mix of making sure that people are committed do you have you seen others either the time or the cost acts as a barrier in some way can you tell us a little bit about those things? not that I've experienced myself or I do work with about five of the other candidates from the MGM HCC program and from what I know that hasn't been any kind of issue for them you also if I might so this particular program is at no cost to the participants yes yes in terms of time and schedule managing their current employment that kind of thing but there is no cost to it and frankly for the rest of the coming year we plan four more cohorts at the same model great thank you for that certification and the other thing is cook is also or the restaurant business is also a physical job that obviously was not an issue for you with what you mentioned I have a cardiac therapist and I had told her that I used to cook and she gave me the green light to go ahead and cook and I actually got a job at one of the franchises UNOS the area here but I worked out of Pizzeria just making minimum wage and then that's where my girlfriend knowing that I do like to cook I found the pamphlet and saw a training culinary program that I could get into for free as well as he was mentioning and now I'm well above minimum wage and I'm on the fast track to a promotion which is shooting me up to they said anywhere between 50 and 60 and it's great and finally how would you describe the culture the atmosphere at MGM it's very diverse we get all kinds of crowds we get a lot of people coming in from down south and even a couple of people from the west coast I've seen come in from California it's a great experience to meet new people and make contacts from not only the customers but other employees that work there because a lot of people came from MGM Las Vegas and they're over training and doing different programs so I was granted the opportunity to also be trained by a few of the chefs that have been masters in their trade for so many years that I can only just wish to sponge up all of that from them and I was given more free lessons that I can use and utilize in my life in the future as well that's great congratulations Jeff you mentioned a few lessons learned you've tweaked some things could you have a couple of examples yes I do you want to talk to them but I've got to in terms of the lesson learned okay I'm sorry the one thing that we're very keenly aware of is the intake process and so working with individuals who have been unemployed or underemployed individuals who have perhaps low educational attainment and those types of things we need to make sure that we have them working with the right program and the right people and so having four partners or four programs that are options for folks helps us make sure that we're directing people in that area and so if someone is looking for a high set then we know how to connect them and so that integration of in the intake process is important we do have folks who are doing intake specifically and they do that also they do the job placement so it's the full continuum is what their role is and so that makes a huge difference so for the culinary program there specifically were folks who were coaching and helping and then also working on the back end in terms of placement they also are the same ones who are integrated with the employers and so although this particular line cook program is addressing the very real and specific need that NGN Springfield has it also is a need that exists in the Pioneer Valley and so we're working with other employers as well the the second piece and it's a little bit off of that first piece of the intake process is to make sure that there's career counseling components as well as case management components life gets in the way and you know in Matt's case life got in the way before he came to the program but for many of our participants it actually happens while they're in the program and you know in things that we might not routinely think our issues why aren't you here today I had a flat tire okay well I don't have the money to fix the flat tire I don't have the money to buy a new tire when I had the flat tire my registration was expired and therefore that became an issue all those types of things of life that hit folks who are really struggling to get on a pathway towards success and stability the third thing I think that was really important for us is the third orientation to make sure that we're talking about the employer expectations of what they're looking for you know Matt and I were sharing on the way that in terms of attendance and what that means to be at work every day and I can remember an employer of mine saying no call no show you don't get any you do it once, buy don't even bother coming in so although that's not the environment that many employers have today and not the environment that MGM has it certainly is something that we need to make sure that folks seeking employment are aware of we also need to make sure that there are expectations about compensation about benefits and all those types of things are realistic you know I take this training that I start as the head of the company tomorrow no and so really having a thorough orientation the other piece I think that we've learned is the whole guided pathway piece and the gaming school actually has been the best example of that we know that in terms of entry level positions and first positions so individuals who do not have experience that pairing the classes blackjack and say carnival games together and saying that's what you're going to take so it's not me walking in and saying oh I can take one of six games you know for you as an entry level person that your best option is this it helps us in terms of the timing and scheduling of it it helps us in terms of having a cohort that goes all the way through so that guided pathway of coaching yes you want to be a dealer okay so here's where you start you know not the typical thing that we think of we're a college and we have 95 degree in certificate programs you know we don't want folks heads to spend having that guided approach it also enables us with a guided pathway approach to make sure that they're getting hands on experience either in the training classroom or with employers while the training programs are going on so it's a precursor to folks getting employed and being offered jobs and lastly especially in terms of incumbent workers experience matters and trying to coach individuals and say you know you might have had the greatest experience at a previous employer or it might have been a long time ago you might not remember all kinds of things but you know to get them to treasure and value their experience because that's what employers build on and so to be able to as Matt was describing an interesting in culinary some work experience at various places you know in the valley and then going away from it and then coming back the fact that he had that experience was the right platform for us to use for him to get the skills training he needed so those are some of the things that we've learned from this process and we're hopeful that you know as we work with more individuals that will continue to refine and develop the model our model's not static it changes often with the needs of the people that are involved and with that that's our presentation Any last questions? Just one quick one Gaming school a lot of people pay for it on their own we also I think stepped up with your foundation or HCCC's foundation and STCC's offer some scholarships a difference in the completion rate between scholarship recipients and paying for the class themselves 81% on total have been hired and placed into jobs 86% of those who get scholarships have been placed into jobs which in some senses is counterintuitive if I spend my own money I'm going to see it through to the end but in the case of the scholarships there's actually more individuals who are getting the scholarships are getting employed and so it's a tremendous benefit I had hoped it would go that way I didn't have the crystal ball to predict that but it is working and it's meeting more folks who are getting jobs and it also seems like you have a role in it with the pathway guided pathway that you talk about on the orientation if we're targeting the right people and helping them along the way that's probably a big factor is my and we know from a college point of view that the more student support that's available the more success there is and the scholarship connection piece making improving the access for individuals has made a huge difference we're an open access institution and so the ability to offer these scholarships through the community mitigation fund has really been significant just following up on one of the points Commissioner Stevens made while they don't have to pay tuition for this program you talked about some of the real life financial and time cost getting in the way is there any access to or thought of giving access to stipends for short term needs for someone if they have to dial back their other job or they run into some sort of mechanical issue or other transportation issue we have not been able to develop that mechanism yet we are working on it it also requires the employers to be connected to us on that and so I think as we now after a year we start to look at what are where the gaps are for folks that stipends as one of those there are several state training programs that have tried to do that mechanism and it becomes tricky in terms of with a stipend did they become a community college employee all those kinds of legal bureaucratic things you know my friends the lawyers think up in the back room you know it's that kind of stuff that we're working through but it makes ultimate sense to be able to say to someone you're spending 30-40 hours a week on training here's a stipend to help you get through that and as Matt said he started to get a part time job in a local restaurant was going to school full time and then searching for employment with MGM so all that going on at once that's the best thing is that you are learning from trying to improve your numbers are getting better so that's the the work you're doing on lessons learned, incorporating that it's always nice to hear stories from folks like Matt you know your enthusiasm is apparent too that would impress any employer to be honest your really positive attitude so thank you for coming and sharing with us thank you for having me thank you both thank you so we'll take a five minute break before we get into racing thanks Jill we have one more so we'll finish you and then we'll take a break thank you so I'm here again to talk about an RFP that we have that the commission has released and it's called the hospitality sector pipeline workforce grant program catchy huh so the grant program is designed to support and place unemployed and underemployed Massachusetts residents into quality jobs in the hospitality sector designed to establish career ladders leading to living wages so by investing in the development of and the expansion on the quality of well-defined career pathways that match training education and the supportive services needs to youth and adults and we talk about the wraparound supports that enable the individual to thrive as they pursue career advancement so I'm here because we really want to let folks know about this RFP so that we get maximum interest but we have $100,000 and we anticipate giving individual awards of up to $50,000 so on November 13th very soon we're having an information session here at the commission that's at 2 o'clock at 101 Federal Street so anyone who's interested can come in and ask questions about the RFP we will take questions in writing and the deadline for those questions is November 14th and we'll post the responses and finally the deadline for submission is November 28th at 3 o'clock so I would just add further that the goal of this grant program is for collaborative not individual responses but collaborations to come in together we're not asking for match funding to be provided but we're asking the individual programs to provide services and so we're excited about the potential to be able to support the hospitality sector in the state the other thing I would mention is a portion of the funding could be used to support disconnected youth so young people who are neither in school or employed so any questions yeah Jill about the schedule are we making this grant known today or has it been posted with some anticipation actually it has been posted previously but we didn't we obviously wanted to use another mechanism to let folks know so the RFP is posted in combines and so those who are registered in combines would have been alerted great because I always like to have plenty of time for people to respond and the response time here is short and it goes through Thanksgiving but to the extent that people know that this was coming or it has already been posted and I know you have a number of groups and vendor advisory groups and whatnot I've been doing a little speaking tour so we had a meeting the day before yesterday and there were 25 or 30 individuals workforce training providers and we have been talking this up for a while so you think you will have an abundance of applications or at least hopefully a handful of really good ones sounds terrific another way of reaching people and providing that training right so we encourage folks to reach out to us via email or on our website and come to the information session we could also post on our website to the extent that we have not yet actually it has been posted on our website it's been thanks to Mike it's been great to have you on social media great thank you thanks for letting us know about it no problem thank you very much any questions? no this is great this is not the first time we're doing something similar right remind us you will soon see in the annual report we've had great results in small grant programs like these I'll just add that we the commission puts out a large number of dollars through the community mitigation fund and we've found that by putting out smaller dollars that often we have maybe more grassroots or smaller programs that respond and given the great need in both regions for workforce training we find that this works really well and collaboratively great thank you so much thanks Joe I think now we'll take that five minute break we'll reconvene the meeting at this time Dr. Leibow good morning microphone good morning today our first item on the agenda is the the new racing applications for the 2019 racing season today with me is Jason Savestano the mutual manager for Plain Ridge Steve O'Toole had a previous engagement and then Bruce Barnett with Suffolk Downs legal counsel and Chip Tuttle had a previous engagement also so the commission received two applications for racing in 2019 the Plain Ridge race course one was for 108 planning April 8 and going to the end of November and the Suffolk Downs one for May 18th and 19th and June 15th and 16th with the possibility of coming back in adding days there's criteria spelled out in Chapter 128A I won't read through the criteria most of you have seen it before and it's in the memo and in order to make a decision on these applications the commission determines if that criteria has been met they consider the materials that the applicants have submitted to you already and then we also had testimony at open meetings in each town for these licenses Plainville meets the requirements of Chapter 128A Section 3 I and they're the only facility that applied for harness racing and with the 108 days of racing they will also satisfy the requirements for simulcasting I outlined some of the the amount of days they had raced in the past for three years that was legislated through the gaming act and they did meet those requirements as you know last year the number of days came in front of the commission and they are on track to complete that they do have some changes to their schedule this year they're going to try some different things out in agreement with the horsemen the horsemen have asked for to have some weekend racing days to allow owners who are busy during the week working to be able to see their horses racing so they're going to try that I'm a little nervous about the Sundays going against football but you know it's good to see them trying some they're also going to do some more extensive Friday racing so we'll see how that goes also Dr. Leipan when you say you're nervous I think you mean traffic wise yes traffic wise and also historically it's been difficult to we usually see a little bit of a tail off when the football season starts and there's a big interest in football but on the other hand it will give the owners the local owners a chance to see their horses race and with them we'll see what other incentives they come up with to entice them to come are the Sundays going to be throughout the year or at a particular time there's a couple that are in different places and then most of them are in September and that's why they compete with football yep the head to head with the Patriots that might be tough right exactly it's only every other week because they do well so right and it could be a Monday night game a Sunday night game so right the schedule is not out yet so right so there's a couple of recommendations that they'll have an independent expert review on the track surface we've been doing this for the past several years and it has proved valuable to have somebody from the outside come in they've always gotten good reviews and sometimes these experts have a few little different things for them to try or do and then they will need to provide their purse agreement it's up at the end of the year and they're currently in negotiations with their horsemen so I don't anticipate any problem obtaining that this does require a vote of the commission do we have any questions here before we go ahead we'll take the application separately right we'll do one vote at a time questions of either came all the way here anything to say no I'm good you're good yeah we were I guess three commissioners were at the hearing in Plainville a couple of weeks ago as you say things have been going well for the past few years very much in accordance with what was anticipated the police chief testified the fire chief testified there's nothing but support over there so I think it's great it sounds like the horsemen and the track are in agreement with the number of days at least at least in the number and they will figure out the purse agreement going forward so I think it's a great application I will move that the commission approve the application for racing at Plainville as presented and discussed here today further discussion all in favor aye okay 40 passes have another good racing season thank you for coming in thank you very much we'll move on to the application from Suffolk Downs okay so Suffolk meets the requirements of 128a section 3i it's the only facility that is approved for racing for thoroughbred racing for next year they've outlined a general plan to ensure compliance with our regulations as the property is developed and I just want to say that's going to be an ongoing procedure with Chip Tuttle and I and others that we may be necessary to bring in to make sure that the requirements are still met our executive director had a great idea when Chip and I met to discuss this for the first time we had Joe Delaney our project manager construction project manager come also and he had some interesting comments which was good to have that as well so that's an ongoing discussion that we'll be having with the board with the change in the legislation they will also meet their number of days required for simulcasting with the four days of racing it's 1 to 50 now and that falls in that general vicinity again the recommendations the conditions we have are similar to what we've done in the past have an independent expert review we've done that without any problem in the last several years we'll have them request before each weekend how much money they want from the resource development fund for the purse money and then if they're going to add more days to the program we ask that they notify us 30 days ahead of time so that we can schedule staff and be sure we're prepared for that and also we're in the middle of their purse agreement negotiations with their horsemen so once that done we'll get that Alex I would just pick it you know I know when we were having here on the application as I think about the conditions obviously there might be an opportunity Bruce to race out in Great Barrington this year we're still a year away from that is there any prospect for that in the future I don't think there's a plan for that for 2019 obviously if there is we know you'd be back in front of us I would just it would also require a change in the legislation because that would be an off track betting situation if they want to race in Great Barrington and Simulcast in Suffolk County the condition I would attach to this Alex and I think you talked about it is you know there is some plans for construction maybe some demolition maybe some reconstruction in the in the back of house area I would you know suggest we had a condition saying once those plans are finalized that they'd be shared commission obviously something like Joe would be great to work those over but also Bruce if there could be some sign off by the local building inspector depending on kind of which side of the property line it's on that they also provide a report or review that you know the work that's ongoing won't be of any risk to racing or any risk to the other use to the other facilities in that area and obviously important to us is the impact on our space in the back where whether it's the test barn what have you but kind of building that in as a condition commissioner my only hesitation with the way you phrase that is I'm not sure that the Revere building the work that's being done in the barn areas all in Revere the demolition there okay the building inspector will provide a demolition permit as required by law before that happens I'm not sure the building inspector would be in a position to opine that the work that they're doing wouldn't affect the animals for example it's just not his bail that way well okay certainly we're anticipating already you know sharing the plans with the commission with Alex with Joe if that makes sense it sounds like it does to make sure I think just I don't know exactly how you managed it when Plain Ridge did all the work they had much more extensive construction going on throughout their whole racing meet we've got a couple of weekends going on he was on the side let me bring up a larger issue or a larger comment of which this would be perhaps a subset I am generally not in favor of this application I think it doesn't quite meet the criteria that stipulated here there's there was a time when when it first came before us you know there was a special legislation about conducting one between one and 50 days of live racing in order to grant the simulcasting license and I always thought that was perhaps and at the time reasonable to assume that there would be a good number of race days the bargain between the number of race days and the simulcasting was always to the tune and historically around 100 days in fact when the gaming act was passed the requirement to increase those days was what you just talked about written into law the plane bridge was required to increase to 115, 125 and so on the number of race days for the past few years is been really minimal we've had and I think and I voted for approving those applications because there was a sense that something could be in the works and maybe a sense that there will be more people coming back perhaps increase race days this is clearly not the sense that I get with this application which only goes to half a year I don't see where there's maximization of the revenues to the commonwealth which is a key criteria here I also because of all the construction and commissioner you weren't here for the hearing but there's a lot of construction that's happening we saw the lease amendments meaning the militia that will happen there's people that are going to be using for the johnnies who are going to come in for those race days there's a question in our mind as to how our own people are going to be being able to regulate and whatnot and and additionally in all the communications in the last few years Mr. Panred and Mr. Tull seem to imply that they really don't need our approval because they have the ability to simulcast by simply conducting one day of racing which may be technically okay but I know that that has not been our interpretation so I say you know if they want to go ahead and simulcast conduct the one day of racing try that I would rather and I know we're not voting on this today but I would rather not voting on the request for Perz money that is going to come with this application because while they might think that they don't need our approval for the application they certainly need our disbursement of the money from the race cost development fund in order to conduct those races those monies it is my view that they have been of some benefit mostly to Suffolk Downs to a few people who have raced in Suffolk Downs historically but have not to have the intention of the legislation of having the benefit go to the jobs of the people that groom and train and see the horses because those horses come in for just a little bit and then they shuttle away so this one year is also a partial year I think it's getting in my opinion to the point of is it really worth it if I'm at least able to convince one of my commissioners here maybe this doesn't pass and it would be a great message hopefully to the legislature something that we've been trying to send and for many reasons it hasn't hasn't gotten any traction to try to work on a fix for this sooner rather than later and I know they're not in session currently but I'd rather not be in the same situation that we have been in before end of July waiting for the expiration of this and not knowing whether there will be any certainty here we seem to have now some real certainty it's not absolute that the trap will be closed after July so July 1st as per the amended lease they tell us they could amend it further but the reality is that the owners have other plans and this sublease is only getting to the last few months of what they could do there so if at least with this vote which I will be voting against we could at least signal to the legislature that there's much better use perhaps for the money for persons that will be requested from this application which could be the racing industry don't get me wrong it could be accrued so that if the version that we've advanced with the legislature of the racing statute for 2020 AD that would give us the flexibility to really help this industry there would have to be a commercially feasible plan but in my view some of the purse money that could be going to live races this half year perhaps could be better used to a feasibility study one that we have been asking to fund because we have felt that we don't have the authority and other people don't have the money either some of the horsemen's groups so that's the reason I will be voting against this certainly when the purse money request comes if this passes I will make the same argument essentially I think there's better uses for the money that will go towards merely four days of racing I don't think that brings the economic impact that the legislation envisioned look at how for the same number of purses other tracks are able to run a number of many, many more days the traditional bargain in the horse racing industry was that the track gets more and more and more and more the simulcast which is the profitable piece of the operation but in return they have to conduct a number of races because that's what really brings economic development this has been really in my view not worth it they continue the simulcast marginal at best and this year is even more so thank you other comments I would agree with you that this is not an ideal operation that I think we were all hopeful that there would be a move or a group or someone that could have the wherewithal and the right the ability to build a new track so that thoroughbred racing could be sustained and the reason we have agreed to this less than ideal plan every year is really for the benefit of those in the racing community those and there are a number of folks in the racing community you know that are trying to hang on breeding and the folks that work at the track that train and the grooms and the jockey so there are a number of people and I think for those reasons we have been in my mind this was very limited and not ideal but but it kept it going a little bit here so I am still hopeful that we hear about a number of groups still working to have a better thoroughbred racing program in the Commonwealth so I am hopeful that that can happen and we continue to work with all those groups and listen and take meetings but I still think that this is although not ideal better than not having any racing so I think and we know that there is certainty that the track will be closing so again I remain hopeful that some other opportunity which is a better opportunity will come to fruition but I am concerned about we have the track inspection every year and that's really important for the jockeys, for the horses but the health and welfare of patrons and employees is important as well so I would be interested and I think you were trying to get to this Commissioner Stebbins, some kind of a condition where during construction we make sure everybody is safe at that property and I go out every year I was out there with our Executive Director this year one of the days for racing and the property is continues to age and I don't think it's the care that it would be if it was utilized more often than a few days a year so I am concerned about that and making sure everyone is safe I know there's barns being removed there's soil in the parking lot there's different things that are planned for these four days and I'm just I want us to make sure that we are fulfilling our responsibility to make sure everybody is safe out there the horses of course but also all folks so however we can incorporate not only a safety check for the track but just assurances and I know you're each having meetings to understand this plan as it evolves but that would be important to me that everyone out there is in a position where they are safe for those four days yeah so first let me apologize for not being here on time specifically on this issue of sort of safety I would think about two categories one is obviously tremendously important public safety some of the employees safety our employees safety you know the jockeys and all the folks who would be at the track so I would want that to be a condition precedent which I think is a combination of you know building inspector saying the building is still safe sort of also common sense of looking at the place and saying jeez if there's tractors in big construction vehicles all over the place we'd want to consider that the second thing I would suggest is I'd want to hear you know a week ahead of time from director I've found that she is confident that our staff can fulfill their regulatory duties which might go above and beyond just actual safety I mean if they have to test horses and do all those things there's got to be sufficient place for that to happen and staff's got to be capable of doing that so I think there are sort of two preconditions one is this general overall safety and the other is regulatory capabilities so we can fulfill our regulatory capabilities in the current environment as it will exist at the time of racing which I don't think we know right now but you know if approved with those conditions director Lightbound could certainly and I think she would be involved in what's happening but a week ahead of time understand the environment on the ground and say yes we're you know given these modifications whatever we need we can do it and let me mention that because I have I was trying to articulate essentially the opposite side of the same coin while we could place a condition I think there's enough uncertainty as to whether operations as we have previously you know knew that they're going to be present first of all it's half a year it's not the same as any other year and I did vote and I mentioned this commissioner for prior applications to try to help the racing industry I believe that most of those benefits have only gone to a very small handful of people and that is really the nature of that market and I really think and hope that by withholding or eventually not dispersing those persons that could be yet another tool again provided that we are able to call attention to the need to really address the situation at the legislature for us to really help them more in a longer term these help in my view is at best really very short term at a time when we have half a year dwindling race days enough uncertainty as to the operation because there will be demolition as per the lease the owner can put in a lot of dirt on the parking lot so there's enough questions into how that operation is going to be we could place conditions but my point is there's enough certainty when we add all those other factors it might be that time it's just to say not worth it that's the position I'm advocating for and call attention to this and let all the groups that will certainly say what do you mean there's not even four days this year to start advocating for a real long term solution to this legislation that has been quite frankly in limbo for the past four years, three and a half years well I I don't think much has changed I know that time is going on and you're correct there hasn't been movement towards something more permanent but this is a very very passionate group and one of their which is also divided by the way which is divided I would agree there is not there's not one group in solidarity moving in one direction I would agree with that I do think there are folks with jobs and local folks who do look forward to this every year and are working towards something more permanent and we're all hopeful that that can happen and I believe that our team has the ability to assess if we were to approve this conditionally and the conditions would have to be met and that would give us another opportunity to make sure that folks are safe and before we go ahead and have the meet so I think our ability to assess I think our ability to change things dramatically sort of dwindles if we approve this application I think and I'll remind I'll mention this for the benefit of Commissioner O'Brien because when we conducted the hearing for the first time the one that came before us for three days at the time if I remember correctly there were a number of people who were effectively saying a lot of what I'm saying they were saying it's not worth it this industry might be better off letting the monies that come out of this and I think I think it's important that this course development fund that are at least identified for the thoroughbreds accrue for what could be a longer-term solution and again I did vote for those at the time it seemed the reasonable thing to do I am now to the discomfort that I had at least on the divided group of horsemen who were essentially saying I don't think it's worth it something is better than nothing my hope is that at least we could also signal not just save what we will eventually disperse for these days but signal to the legislature that this is really now needs to be addressed I don't want to address it there might be even better uses for that money that belongs to the commonwealth to be at least some efforts in the past they haven't done it there is still at least in my opinion by some the wish to make this industry continue and again with the flexibility that the legislation that we filed would bring this commission it is my hope to be in a better position to save the industry or help the industry, not save it unnecessarily at least try to help them in a more longer term anything else? do you have anything to add? well, first of all we do get a lot of money from the budget and the budget and you will see it in our annual reports handle I should know the figures but probably more than plain rich does and the income that we get from them is significant even though you may say the four days or the eight days with the simulcasting and the account wagering it is huge it is a big impact on us and we do not want to do it initially very in the passing if things that they only have to conduct one day of racing to continue simulcasting the same thing accrues to the commonwealth because they continue to simulcast I am assuming that they would do that why wouldn't they? and let the money that comes from simulcasting accrue to the commonwealth and that will be that when we only think about how much we are going to disperse for the life racing days that is the cost-benefit analysis that I am trying to articulate here that is really not worth that is one of the criteria about maximizing state revenues I think it is costing the commonwealth in the end and it is costing the industry maybe not in the short term I understand the argument that it is a powerful one because some people have already made plans but it is a unique year and I think we find ourselves I am just at the point of it is in my opinion it is quite simply not worth it I think with Suffolk Downs or not Suffolk Downs with the new landlord knocking down barns I think it is going to be very clear to people it is not going to be continuing on and that something needs to be done for thoroughbred racing and we have all been through this journey for several years now where it was not the intent that thoroughbred racing would be limited at the most eight days and it was seen as a bridge and I think we are getting to that point where it is not going to be at Suffolk from the regulatory standpoint it is a great idea to put a requirement in that we work with Suffolk to make sure everything is safe and that we can regulate the parts that are going to be taken down are on the backside at this point so I have been assured that our office in the grand stand will still be there there will be some inconvenience with the parking but we are still going to have our offices there and so that will be fully functional the test barn area is left alone so that will also be there so again we do a pre-meet inspection every year anyway to go over things but it looks like that part of it won't be different from any other year what will be different is the barn area and the things like the port of bodies things like that and I have already had some discussions with Chip on that and some of the other issues that it brings up so I think we can probably manage that for four days and again it's not an ideal situation I know the horsemen that do get that purse money are really happy that they do get that purse money and we do see quite a few locals that are getting it I just want to I want to get back to the condition I had suggested and there are some details there about what role a local building inspector might play but I do want to pick up on Commissioner Zuniga's comments because I think all of this has been frustrated by the lack of movement we've been stuck in this slow grind to unfortunate conclusion and we have not been able to find a way to bring parties together to get the interest of the legislature to figure this out and try to find a long-term solution and a lot of those stakeholders need to be at the table so I certainly agree with your frustration I sent your frustration I would just not feel that the way to get the legislature's attention if I'm listening to you correctly would be to vote down an application that essentially to the extent it does comply with the law I think the bigger message is going to be sent that when Suffolk closes their doors and then what becomes next for the Massachusetts thoroughbred industry and as Commissioner Cameron pointed out there have been interested parties that have been poking around and looking at different proposals I would like to see that be the motivation to get all of us back to the table and think about the legislation that we have filed year after year that usually gets set aside for an extension but we're going to be back at this next year with either an application for thoroughbred racing in front of us or not so I'm not necessarily supportive of the idea of and again if I'm misreading you to reject the application because we know it's not ideal it's never been ideal but I would like to try to find a different way to send a message to the legislature that we need their attention and their partnership on this rather than to have a vote and reject the application I think the message might not come from us the message in my view will come from the people who were expecting to race albeit only four days to say now we cannot even raise the four days and I know there's benefits this is why it's a bit of a great judgment called situation it's half a year something we've never done before there will be certainty when the track closes that's for sure but I don't think it will be us necessarily with this discussion knocking on the getting the attention of the legislature it would be people who are now saying this closure is for real to the extent to the point that the commission felt uncomfortable at least that's where I am in approving a partial too little to the point of not worth the application which is what's before us I see a lot of merit and what commissioners have said particularly when you look at the cost benefit analysis for the come off in maximizing the revenue my hesitation in voting now with this juncture is the timing, is the impact it would have to the industry in having any leverage I feel like the leverage in existing ongoing industry might have to go to the legislature and say not only can we not have what we had last year which is have it expire with no action and have to do special session to have things renewed we need certainty and to not have it at all in the context of thoroughbred racing I think cuts their legs up from underneath them and while I hear you in wanting to ring the bell to make the legislature understand enough is enough I'm newer to this than you are but my study of what's happened in the decline since the changes have gone into effect it is not sustainable I also think as a practical matter this is it to your point with the facility undergoing the transformation that is undergoing and the current state of the legislature in terms of what they did last year what they say they will do this year to me if a condition is added to this that this approval is conditional upon further approval by this commission in both the suitability of the track for the participants and the attendees and the employees of the gaming commission and that that approval be renewed 7 to 15 days prior to the racing sessions I am comfortable voting for it in this circumstance while I hear everything that you're saying and I think it is time to look at it I do think it's draconian to say no to the application so I would vote to approve it under the adding that fifth condition sounds good I mean your position is your position I think that we were always in the position of approving or not the time frame of the application deadlines and the approvals was always yearly it was always at least conceivable that any one application will not be approved for the next calendar year come November November 15 is the deadline so that was the only thing that I would just opine is different it's not necessarily cutting the feed from under them this was at least legislatively always a possibility just to clarify I say that just in the current context as well to say that at a time when there is no facility versus now when that facility will be gone that's the comment I understand again we're taking the same factor and just interpreting it differently the fact that there's now all these certain demolition to come questions about the safety and accessibility and the purpose of the property in my view is again goes on the column of not worth it let's let's just save some of the money that will be requested for this application this application comes with a very important provision which is those requests for purse monies again I'm going to be voting you know when it comes to that but it's just too little to in my opinion not worth it are we ready for a motion? sure I would move that the commission approve the application for racing in 2019 by Sterling Suffolk Racecourse LLC with the conditions outlined in the packet hopefully if I can word this correctly the addition of a fifth condition which is any construction development or demolition plans be shared with the commission and a review by a local building inspector obviously the person issuing any demolition or work permits and subject to review by the commission again with the ultimate ability or authority resting with us to decide whether racing is allowed or not depending on those conditions I would move to further amend that recommendation to just make it clear that that would be subject to further commission approval based on the criterion you set for condition 5 based on that and then I would second that motion further discussion all in favor? aye we did, we had a second those opposed? nay we have three to one vote to approve this license with the conditions as outlined thank you thank you very much capital improvement next yes our agenda is the subject down to request for capital improvement funds today I have with us Chad Bork our senior financial analyst I want to thank Doug O'Donnell who was our financial analyst for years he's been great in sharing his expertise with Chad jumped right in and hopefully leave some of the work that Doug's been doing so I'll leave it to Chad now good morning good morning commissioners thank you very much so throughout the billing cycle we collect funds to be held in the capital improvement trust fund monies from the trust fund are paid out upon the commissioners for approval of both a request for consideration for which will allow them to move forward with a project and then also a request for reimbursement which will provide payment for the work or purchase completed this item we have today is a request for consideration from Suffolk Downs in the amount of 94,046 dollars and 17 cents this amount reflects project numbers 2017 01 through 16 and we are asking for the commission's vote on this item questions? I'll refrain from making my usual comments about the capital improvement trust fund but Chad is there any reason that there's no 2017-15 project? yes that is they do not have the backup work for that yet and they said it is in the pipeline it appears to me that all the appropriate approvals are accompanying each of these requests you've had a chance to review all those documents yes I've went through all the documents and calculated the numbers for each item great Madam Chair I move the commission approve the request for consideration of the Suffolk Downs capital improvement trust fund projects as outlined in the packet further discussion? all in favor? I think I heard everyone say aye so it's a 4-0 vote here for the capital improvement moving on to the quarterly local aid payments yes in accordance with section 18D of chapter 58 local aid is payable for each city in town within which racing activities are conducted the amounts are computed at 0.35% times the amount wagered during the quarter and at six months prior to payment the total amount for local aid for this quarter is in the amount of $175,321 and $0.72 and this amount reflects the total handle for January February and March of 2018 on the second page you will see a breakdown of the handles for the quarter as well as the distributions to each city in town we are asking for the commission vote on this item questions? do we have a motion? Madam Chair I move the commission approve the local aid quarterly payments through September 30, 2018 included in the packet further discussion all in favor aye 4-0 thank you very much thank you we missed our Executive Director's update his administrative update because he was tied up with an important matter but our Executive Director is here now I believe ready to give us an update I am since it's close to noon I'm just going to go with good afternoon I do want to update you on a recent development in our investigation late yesterday our outside council learned that Steve Wynn filed a lawsuit in Nevada against the Director of the Investigations Enforcement Bureau, the commission and Wynn Resorts this new lawsuit among other things seeks to prevent the release of the investigation enforcement bureau's investigatory report our legal council is reviewing the complaint we are not surprised by this development in fact we had already retained local council in Nevada to help us litigate these issues as quickly as possible so we don't delay finishing the report and then having an appropriate adjudicatory hearing a thing but it's a brief update and all I can tell you is when I have more information on this I will update you what does this mean towards our ability to see the report at this juncture you will not be able to see the report until these issues are resolved we need to resolve these issues to make sure that the report is the report that you will use in the adjudicatory hearing that's my best yes at this point and the complaint was filed in Nevada in Nevada in Las Vegas yes and we have outside council assisting us there we do and it's too soon to know how long any process would take there when I say this report just got filed I literally mean 4.30 Las Vegas time yesterday so it's the old term hot off the presses would be appropriate and are you as well as our legal council reviewing the complaint as we speak I suspect one of the reasons I was not here right on time this morning thank you other questions it's clearly it's something that you'll have to look into with the good help of general council blue and our outside council you mentioned that the company is also party to this lawsuit the company is the company win resorts yeah any word to to them only to both acknowledge that the complaint exists that's it we appreciate the update and we will look forward to further updates here and our recommendation is to how to proceed thank you anything else with your update no that's it thank you we'll move on to our commissioner updates I just have one I want to thank director Griffin and Crystal Howard for a great event that they organized and put on here in our commission space on Monday they invited all of our licensees a number of different associated veterans groups and organizations that support veterans to try to gin up interest for veterans to have an opportunity to do business with one of our licensees so we had a number of kind of exhibit booths from various organizations we had over 40 people easily filling the room and we were happy to be joined by the secretary of veteran services secretary Raina who came and not only spoke about Massachusetts veterans but about the good partnership we've forged with his office but the feedback from everybody that came was excellent networking opportunity and certainly want to do the best we can this is actually national small veteran business awareness week so the event was timely and again as we saw with Plain Ridge's report the goals were kind of based not on a lot of information but we certainly want to work with our licensees to make sure that their goals are the floor not the ceiling and that they can surpass those numbers so great thank you to all of our licensees for showing up thank you for your leadership in this area commissioner this is important important and good work thanks anything else we have a motion move to adjourn all in favor meeting is adjourned thank you thank you


Okay.   Do I have any takers, buck for every soil micro, what is it, five, 10, maybe cost you a 20 spot? No. Turns out, if you take that bet, a dollar for every soil microbe in this soil, if you would give me that, I guess I would turn around and hand it right back to the U.S. government because that would eliminate the entire national debt by giving me a dollar for every soil microbe in the shovel full of soil. And I think the national debt is up around $15 trillion or so and increasing, and so whenever I do this demonstration, I have to keep getting a bigger and bigger shovel full of soil. So I hope that someone will give me a buck for every microbe in this shovel of soil pretty soon, otherwise I'll need a bigger shovel to cover the national debt. But what I want to talk to you about is the microbes that are in the soil and how diversity begets a diversity of microbes and why you should care about that. And it really comes down to managing your workforce.  You may think of them as your labor force, 15 trillion laborers, and they're your laborers and what you need to do is treat them so they can do their job. And then you have the teenagers, you know, you got to get them a summer job, right? You know, and they're working at Burger King or something, they're hanging out by the plants. Plants are leaking all these sugars and organic acids and these youngsters, they don't have a lot of skills yet, but they sure know how to gobble up this sugar.