Good morning everyone This is public meeting 258 that I am calling to order first up on the agenda is the approval of the minutes commissioner Stebbins Madam chair. I moved the Commission approved the minutes from the December 20th 2018 meetings subject to any correction for typographical areas And any other non-material changes We have a second any further discussion All in favor hi not in favor 40 Moving on to the administrative update Executive director Progerosian Good morning commissioners. Thank you. Welcome to our first meeting of 2019 Today's agenda has several items related to our region a licensee You may remember We had established early on in our process of proceeding on parallel paths with our region a licensee was in the best interest of the Commonwealth that meant while The suitability review was ongoing the encore property continued to be built and was getting ready for a 2019 opening While staff has dedicated resources in our investigations and enforcement bureau who have been working on the review We have at the same time with other staff Unconnected to the review been working with encore personnel on opening preparations in this Agenda actually reflects that parallel path First on the suitability review You're going to hear from our general counsel general counsel blue sitting next to me and our outside lawyers a public update about the litigation Nevada That briefing will be limited to Process of the litigation and public information At the end of our meeting you'll have an opportunity to then go into executive session for a discussion about litigation strategy General counsel blue will provide you more detailed information leads to agenda items The second portion of the parallel paths. I talked about the preparation for the property opening is related to my Presentation when we were in Springfield last month. I hope you took from that presentation That the ability to have a smooth opening Resulted from a lot of preparation at staff level As I have said earlier staff has been working with on core on Preparations and not dissimilar to what we did in Springfield time has come for issues that require both Senior staff and commission attention to appropriately be prepared for an anticipated opening Namely service employee exemptions Consistent with what we did at MGM Springfield and budget Authorization for our new gaming agents and public safety personnel at the encore property Our agenda also has other important items. I don't want to discount them in a quarterly update from encore and a number of racing items So with that that actually would cover My items a and b I'd like to turn to the service employee exemptions And to join me with that is Bill Curtis our licensing manager and Abby Horgan and Abby I apologize your assistant general counsel. I want to make sure I get your title, right corporate counsel Okay So You may remember Commissioners the whole process we went through To get a statutory change To give the commission the discretion to exempt certain service employees from the registration process And that was connected primarily at that time with the opening of MGM Springfield and just for Re-educating Some members of the public of people watching on TV TV the internet everything's TV the Potential benefit was These employees no longer had to register and be subject to certain automatic disqualifiers in certain criminal convictions and Hopefully provided for employment operations Connected with that though The Commission went through an analysis with staff about what issues of what items would be important to Grant those types of waivers whether people would truly have access to the game floor sensitive information and Based on that Staff working with our licensees came up with lists of employees who we believe were sufficiently Disconnected from the gaming side of the property operations and were food and beverage cooks hotel staff Valets and stuff like that We we doing a risk-based analysis felt comfortable having those ploys go through a corporate background which the our Licensees still do so what you will see reflected is a recommendation that we have for the Win service employee. I'm sorry not win but encore service employees That are similar to the MGM Service employees now part of the analysis is based on two different types of properties on course a different property than MGM is So we've gone through that analysis and there are actually a couple positions Which we have some questions on we want to go back and do a little more due diligence on them and bill I'll just ask you in a second to remind me what those I think there are three positions what those three positions are So if you have any questions Please feel free to ask that the second issue I would ask Your consideration on today in addition to voting approval for these is Whether you consider delegating to me the discretion in Situations in which there are changes to previously approved service employee exemptions that we might consider Ministerial or administrative For example, we have a situation of PPC where one of the vendors one of the food and beverage vendors is changing From one type of burger establishment to another type of burger establishment The employees the positions are staying the exact same. It's just literally the name of the vendor We'd already gotten approval for the previous vendor. I would consider that a ministerial change So that such that we could bring it back in front of the Commission certainly but for efficiency purposes I would ask you to consider whether delegating to me the authority to Re-approved those ministerial changes would be appropriate. So And thank you for listening bill those three positions are that be under the sound and video department It would be the manager the supervisor and the technician So that's the group that we want to defer on right now So we're asking you to consider approving the rest of the list apps and those positions We want to go back and I think do some double-checking on The access level those people have that's consistent with I think something we had reexamined with MGM spring field So build those three positions that you mentioned are in the memo listed here somewhere Yes, commissioner. It's on page on four at the very top. It'd be on sound and video It'd be the top three the manager the supervisor and the technician Bill just a quick question on some of the other positions And I thank you for not filling up the rest of our binder, which would have been the detailed exemption applications, but Some positions just a quick question on digital marketing Folks on the top of the first page any access to Databases anything like that not from the job description or the exemption. Okay You also have You and on-court have listed the public area porters. I know we went through this conversation before with MGM they were looking to Exempt some porter positions, but they were porters that they couldn't necessarily Divide duties these are strictly gonna be porters in the non-gaming areas of the resort So yes, we Could you please introduce yourself for the record? I'm so sorry My name is Abby Horrigan and I am Corporate counsel for on the core of Boston Harbor welcome. Thank you So for the PAD positions The exemptions that we have applied for are folks who will not have access to the gaming floor Which is why most of our PAD positions. We did not seek exemptions on because Scheduling difficulties to say you can't you're restricted to stay away from this specific area That creates some scheduling challenges. So that's why we didn't seek more exemptions for PAD To go a little bit further commissioner the three positions for the public area porters They don't have access to the floor. They're like they take care of scheduling the people call up and say there was a spill or there was an issue of Something was dirty or something like that. They would talk to the porter and send the porter out there. Okay But the the porters are all will all be registered With a public area or casino Because they do some of their jobs will overlap. Oh Okay, got it Quick question bill we've had four months of Regulating up at MGM with similar exceptions. Is there any position that you found that you wanted to rethink? I mean, I know the new positions here with video, but is there any other position that for some reason you think? Possibly we should take a closer look or is there anything that's happened that would Make what you're doing moving forward a similar list change We might revisit some of the ones that we granted For MGM we're gonna take a closer look at maybe one of two positions, but that's about it But that doesn't impact this list at all. No, ma'am Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you So I'd ask if there are no more questions I'd ask that you vote on two issues one the list and to that delegation authority if you think it's appropriate Can we we didn't really talk about the delegation as a vote in the agenda? We okay to do that Madam chair, I'd move that the Commission approve the Scer positions for exempted For gaming service employees at on-court Boston Harbor is provided in the packet with the Exception of the three sound and video positions as well as grant The executive director authority to make some of the ministerial changes and exemptions going forward whether it's just a Change in name of the business Any further discussion All in favor I Not favor for zero Good work. Thank you very much for taking the time. Thank you Thank you end of my administrative Before we leave the update if I may Just go back a little bit to Your remarks on item B I think it's it's it's very appropriate that we continue with these kind of activities We did have a good discussion last time in With MGM relative to how things had gone and and the clear insight from that was that advanced planning and Teamwork were critical to the to the smooth opening. So I think it's very relevant that we're doing and in fact I went back and looked at some of the Meetings we've had a year ago. We were doing advanced planning for an opening That was going to take place in August So you're right at a senior staff level where we are probably slightly behind where we were with MGM We started those meetings a little earlier. I would say the offset to that is The context MGM was opening our first category one property and the learning curve was a lot higher We've now smoothed off that learning curve So I am confident that if we do engage with our current learning curve and staff We'd be a good shape, but it is something that needs to happen, right? I think as you as you point out that these notion of the parallels parallel tracks Advanced preparation does not in any way Prejudge the outcome of the investigation, right? But I would submit that if we didn't we would probably begin to prejudge it if we didn't it will not Repair it for what would be, you know a date coming. Okay. Thank you Next we have General counsel blue the legal division and a litigation update with their outside counsel here as well Good morning Good morning. Good morning commissioners Item number four on today's agenda is an update on the litigation in Nevada The litigation referred to as Steven win versus win resorts the Massachusetts gaming Commission and Karen Wells With me today are attorney Melissa Allison an attorney Dave Mackey of Anderson and Krieger who represent the Commission in this case The Commission is also represented by Mike Rawlins of Smith and Shapiro as Nevada local counsel Mr. Rawlins is not here with us today Miss Allison and Mr. Mackey are going to explain the process that took place in front of Judge Gonzales over the last few weeks and The judge's order that we expect to see from that process As the Commission knows and has been reported in the press the litigation in Nevada Involves claims made by Steve win that certain information Provided to the IEB by win resorts as part of the IEB's investigation was information that was protected by the attorney client privilege Either because it involved communications between Steve win and his lawyers or because lawyers for Steve win and lawyers for win Resorts were working together under what is known as the common defense or common interest privilege as Has also been reported the judge in Nevada will be issuing a written decision Written order, excuse me explaining her decision in compliance with the court's order while Miss Allison and Mr. Mackey Will be explaining what has taken place in the case They will not be able to discuss substantive material that the judge has deemed to be covered by the attorney client privilege And thus covered by the court's order It is also important to understand that because the commissioners were not involved in any aspect of the investigation and have not seen the Investigative report there will be no discussion of any substantive information from the investigation or the report Today's presentation will be about the process that took place in Nevada and any future process in that litigation To help in understanding some of the legal process I'd like to define for those watching us a couple of legal terms You will hear our attorneys refer to the attorney client privilege this privilege covers Communications between a client and the lawyer their lawyer the lawyer cannot share these communications with any third party without the client's consent You will hear our attorneys refer to the common defense or common interest doctrine This is a doctrine that says that multiple clients each with their own attorneys can work together on a matter and Any communications between a client and their attorney may be shared with the other attorneys working on the matter on behalf of their clients Without sharing of those communications being considered to be a waiver of the attorney client privilege Our attorneys will talk about something called the TRO a temporary restraining order Which is a temporary order issued by a judge preventing a party from taking a certain action Our attorneys will talk about a PI a preliminary injunction Which is an order issued by a judge that prevents a party from taking a certain action pending the outcome of the litigation Item number 10 on the agenda is an executive session to discuss litigation strategy in the Steven win versus win resorts mass gaming and Karen Wells matter the open meeting law allows an executive session in this situation to provide the Commissioners with the opportunity to ask miss Allison and mr. Mackie for legal advice on the legal strategy regarding next steps in this litigation as Is the case with this presentation because the commissioners have not been involved in the investigation and have not seen the investigative report There will be no discussion regarding substantive matters from the investigation or the report during the executive session only matters regarding litigation strategy I'd like to ask miss Allison mr. Mackie to address the commission There we go. Sorry about that. Good morning again. Good morning. As general counsel blue described I'm going to give you an overview of the of the case known as win versus wells pending in Nevada Or at least the portions of the case that the court there would permit us to discuss in public a Little bit of background first the dispute first arose as the IEB was nearing the completion of its report regarding win resorts following Publications in the Wall Street Journal of allegations of sexual misconduct by mr. Wynn At at the time the dispute arose it's in the fall of 2018 the IEB had already interviewed dozens of witnesses in the course of its investigation and Received a significant number of documents from win resorts win resorts was cooperating in the investigation and win resorts was not asserting its own Company attorney client privilege with respect to the to the information that it was providing documents with this isn't and so forth on October 15th 2018 mr. Wynn's lawyer wrote to director Wells informing her of his claim that win resorts had improperly provided to the IEB certain material protected By what general counsel blue referenced a common interest agreement between Win resorts and mr. Wynn regarding certain matters that they had been involved in That were relevant to the IEB's investigation And in a general counsel blue described the common interest agreement can be formed when when two parties here Win resorts and mr. Wynn personally Worked together on a legal matter You know and their lawyers could share information without there being a waiver of the attorney client privilege and it typically happens when a When an individual sues two defendants those two defendants can share information without without it being available to the to the rest of the world Mr. Wynn's claim that was made in this letter was initially based on Certain documents that Wynn resorts had provided to the IEB relating to a particular legal legal proceeding that had taken place back in 2014 We did not believe that the documents were protected by a common interest agreement and Win resorts Represented to the IEB that it did not believe the documents were protected by a common interest agreement But in the interest of trying to resolve the matter short of the litigation that we've ended up in we did provide mr. Wynn's Mr. Wynn's lawyer Access to this material So that he had a full opportunity to try to justify on a document by document basis Why they might be covered by this common interest agreement? Mr. Wynn's lawyer did come in and reviewed the documents on October 25th, and he Wrote a letter the next day October 26th regarding his view of of Mr. Wynn's attorney client privilege and his letter Responded that he believed all of the documents were subject to a privilege And that they could not be used in any way or relied upon in any way by the Commission On top of that mr. Wynn made some additional claims in this same letter Regarding certain interviews that director Wells had conducted of Lawyers in Nevada who were involved in some of the other matters that were relevant to the IEB's investigation And I'm sorry that I'm being so vague referring to certain matters and certain people But I'm just constrained to be that way by the by the nature of these proceedings So mr. Wynn then demanded that in addition to The Commission or the IEB not being able to rely on these documents that I described he Demanded a copy of all of these interviews of these witnesses he Requested a copy of the IEB's report before it was made public copies of all of the documents that Wynn resorts had produced to the IEB and transcripts of all of the interviews that director Wells had done of all of Wynn resorts employees and officers and so forth We Respectfully declined those demands and on November 7th 2018 mr. Wynn Filed this lawsuit Wynn B. Wells in Nevada State Court His lawsuit named as defendants Wynn resorts the alleged other party to the common interest agreement Which he alleged they breached it also named the the gaming Commission and it named director Wells both in her official capacity as director of the IEB but also in her individual capacity isn't isn't is an individual and specifically The complaint alleged that Wynn resort that mr. Wynn and Wynn resorts had entered into a common interest agreement with regard to certain matters that are Relevant to the IEB's proceedings They're relevant to the IEB's investigation including this 2014 matter that I referenced And that the Commission and director Wells had intentionally interfered with this common interest agreement between Wynn resorts and Steve Wynn To quote from mr. Wynn's complaint He alleged that the Commission and director Wells had flagrantly invaded this common interest agreement between himself and Wynn resorts and that she had done so When the IEB obtained the documents that I've referenced and conducted the interviews of these witnesses that I've I've described the complaint sought Compensatory damages and punitive damages. I shouldn't say sought seeks compensatory and punitive damages From the Commission from director Wells in her official capacity and director Wells in her individual capacity And it also seeks an injunction against the Commissioner director Wells from from using any of the material that Wynn resorts provided to the IEB that mr. Wynn was Alleging was protected by this common interest agreement I do want to make Our perspective on on one issue clear today and as we've publicly argued we Absolutely do not believe that mr. Wynn's allegation that director Wells somehow flagrantly invaded the common interest privilege is Supported by the facts here To put that in context that allegation of his involves In large measure the interviews of these lawyers. I've described interviewed it involved in certain of the matters relevant to the IEB's investigation these were Lawyers who were familiar with the issues at stake they were among the most well as we understand it the most well-respected members of the Nevada bar They themselves were represented at those interviews by experienced counsel Council for Wynn resorts also attended those interviews These witnesses were advised clearly by director Wells that Wynn resorts the company had Waved its privilege and was cooperating but that mr. Wynn had not waived his privilege and That if the witness had any concerns at all about these boundaries of an attorney client privilege They should feel free to consult with their counsel leave the room have a discussion and that they should only Answer the question if they felt like they could In fact the witnesses did on occasion raise privilege issues and director Wells fully respected that and moved on to other questions, so In our view We do not believe the facts support mr. Wynn statement that director Wells flagrantly invaded the privilege here After the lawsuit was filed mr. Wynn sought what John counsel blew to find is a temporary restraining order as she described that it's it's an emergency order with very little notice And in this case it was brought to stop director Wells reliance on any of the allegedly privileged materials provided to her by Wynn resorts With the assistance of our local lawyer in Nevada We submitted papers to the court to oppose that motion and we appeared in court to argue That motion in opposition to that motion on November 19th, and and we argued three matters First that it was not appropriate as a legal matter for A state court in Nevada to exercise any power over a governmental entity in Massachusetts And I'll I digress here with a little bit of legal ease, but in 1979 the United States Supreme Court held in fact that state courts do have Power to hear claims that are brought against sister states But that there was something called a presumption of comedy and I say comedy COM ITY Which provided that? States courts even though they have the power to hear these claims and should decline to do so and Insist that the case be heard in the courts of the defendant state which in this case would be Massachusetts As a footnote and some of you may have seen this in the papers today There was a case argued yesterday in the United States Supreme Court Hyatt versus California tax board Which would in fact strip the question presented is whether state courts should be stripped of the power to hear claims Against sister states, you know, for example here whether a state court in Nevada should have the power To exercise jurisdiction over over yourselves And as it turns out when versus wells was referenced by the lawyer for the state of California in that case as a poster child for why state courts should not have the power to hear claims against sister states Unclear when we'll have a decision in that case or precisely how it's going to come out But it's an interesting footnote to the proceedings in Nevada So we did argue to the Nevada court that she Should not hear the case against the the gaming commissioner director Wells and that the case should be brought by mr. Wynn here in Massachusetts Second we argued of course that in our view none of these materials were subject to an attorney-client privilege or a common interest agreement and third we argued that Mr. Wynn when he sought before this commission to be D designated as a qualifier Represented to this commission that he had no control or influence whatsoever over win resorts and that This lawsuit in Nevada was kind of an attempt to have it both ways because he's Attempting to a search control over when resorts cooperation with the commission When resorts also, they're also a defendant they appeared represented by very Good and well experienced counsel out in Nevada They appeared and argued primarily in their view the materials were not privileged The judge conducted the hearing on November 19th and notwithstanding our arguments immediately Granted the temporary restraining order sought by mr. Wynn preventing us from relying on the The allegedly privileged materials including material related to this 2014 proceeding that I've referenced Following the entry of that order the parties exchanged some information engaged in discovery deposition discovery to try to clarify what some of the issues were and Based on that discovery mr. Wynn then proceeded to Obtain a second order in the form of a preliminary injunction and again John counsel blues described that that's an order that would last for the duration of the lawsuit It's not a permanent order, but it's an order that would last for the duration of the lawsuit out there again Regarding the use of the documents and testimony that I I've referenced This all happened in fairly Quick order at a hearing right before the holidays the judge ordered that this motion for a preliminary injunction And our opposition be filed simultaneously on December 31st And it's scheduled argument on the matter for January 3rd and 4th in Nevada And this time mr. Wynn's motion was somewhat more specific It did reference very particular documents and testimony that he felt should be off limits to director Wells and commission We filed our opposition materials on December 31st and then Flew out to Nevada on January 2nd the judge issued a preliminary ruling Granting mr. Wynn's request that certain of these documents and this material interviews be off limits She did give the parties then an opportunity the hearings on January 3rd and 4th to Discuss and and make objections to her preliminary rulings We argued out there miss Allison myself for the gaming commission and director Wells and her official capacity director Wells I should also say has a retained a lawyer Who is representing her in her individual capacity out there lawyer named Joe Ganley? And he argued for her in her individual capacity and then Wynn resorts had two different lawyers argue Largely on the privilege issues that that in Wynn resorts view these materials were not privileged As the judge had done on the hearing on the temporary restraining order Six weeks previously. She immediately ruled at the conclusion of the hearing that certain material was off limits Either as a result of mr. Wynn's attorney client privilege or as a result of certain other rights that Mr. Wynn alleged he had regarding this information that this order was issued by the court orally at the conclusion of the hearing and She will issue a written order confirming what she did orally and we should expect that we Will have that within within the next several days, which will you know, no doubt confirm what happened in court In the meantime the case is going to continue in Trial court there in Nevada. We will have the opportunity to file motions to dismiss in the case Scheduled has not yet been set for that And you know, we are going to continue to do everything we can do to defend the commission and director Wells Both officially and individually as it is aggressively as we can Again, this is just a preliminary ruling. It's not a permanent order We're going to have the chance to ask the judge to revisit her conclusions as the case proceeds So that that in a nutshell is where we are now questions You at liberty to say in this setting what the other bases were Yeah, so we we argued Publicly in court a couple of the other bases related to a Right, Mr. Wynn asserted in the confidentiality of the in his alleged confidentiality in the proceedings that happened in 2014 Independent of the attorney-client privilege and then with respect to some personal information. He asserted was covered by HIPAA and other alleged privacy rights that he had I Have a question that did you know? The Nevada control gaming control board The other jurisdiction in which Wynn resorts has a license to operate is conducting a similar investigation And I I'm assuming received similar documents from The corporation, but yet they're not being sued. Do you have a rationale for that? I Don't I could I could conjecture, but I Not confident enough about it to say publicly what that rationale might be But you're correct. They have not taken any steps to to try to claw this material back from the regulator in the back Thank you Again to the extent that you can comment on these you mentioned that There was an oral the discussion out there relative to material that was deemed privileged or and Will be expecting the written decision in the next few days Is it possible to then take that written decision and for the IEB to go back and Take that information whatever that may be out of the report. I think we're we're gonna review carefully the the specifics of the order and you know based on on You know what we see the judge's ordered is off limits You know review what impact that would have on the draft report and And make a decision about that Even though So you will only make we will only be able to make a decision until we see the written decision Even though we have heard at least orally what the scope we have a more general sense of what she's gonna order but You know there are you know very specific for example lines of transcript and particular documents I I think we want to see it confirmed in writing before we proceed too far down the road in terms of assessing its impact on on what Director Wells is prepared understood I Also wanted to ask In your very early remarks You mentioned because you were talking about the past the September or you know prior dates That the company when resorts was cooperating with investigation with Iswell's Investigation etc Is that Has that changed can we assume that they continue to cooperate with that the company Continues to cooperate with the investigation you were with right with With respect to this this lawsuit and we're we're co-defendants with win resorts in this lawsuit It it has you know supported the the positions that we've taken in court that It it does not believe these materials are protected and it's had its lawyers You know very effectively argue those positions in court So yes from I think from the the litigators perspective. Absolutely. They've been cooperative with us okay, I'm In sure I think part of what I can say is I think the context of was is a reflection of The fact that our investigation up to that point Was complete? So they were cooperating till it was done now I don't want to say that the process that is happening now will also be part of the report in the Things that you end up evaluating, but I think was was just a historical context to where we were at the time Not a determination of something has changed Thank you. So it's fair to say then that the investigation has been concluded Yes with the caveat that quite frankly some of the stuff that's happening now may be an additional portion of The evidence that you need to consider at an adjugatory hearing But yes, I mean in terms of where we were at the time when the litigation happened We were at an ending point Thank you. Any further questions? Just one quick question Upon the release of this written order from the judge is there any opportunity for the plaintiff in this case to look at That list that comes out with the order and have an opportunity to go back and add to it Or is this kind of the definitive list of of documents? I think we you know we We'd like to think this is the definitive list. They've had access to material here I think sufficient to enable them to determine what what is problematic from their perspective and what's not but it's you know, it's certainly possible that could happen that the Additional materials could could be an issue Well, I have a lot of what next questions, but I know that they will be they will most likely touch on legal strategy So I'll save them for the executive session. Thank you Anything further? Thank you for that update. I think next we have on Budsman's yambo with the encore quarterly report We will take a five-minute break first. Thank you. We'll resume the meeting at this time on Budsman's yambo Thank you. Good morning commissioners. Good morning Today encore Boston Harbor will present its quarterly report for the third quarter of 2018 ending on September 30th 2018 it's fourth quarter report and the fourth quarter reports for MGM Springfield in Plain Ridge Park Will be presented in likely in February or early March In addition of the third quarter report on core Boston Harbor will provide an update on the status of the design of the proposed Pedestrian bridge across Mystic River and they'll also provide an update regarding the city of Everett's update to its Urban renewal plan for lower Broadway With that as a background. I will turn it to Bob DiSalvio on core Boston Harbor president Jackie Crumb on core Boston Harbor General Counsel and Peter Campo director of construction. Thank you Thank you John Madam chair and commissioners. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for giving us an opportunity to present our update As John mentioned Bob DiSalvio. I'm here with Jackie Crumb and Peter Campo before we turn this over to Peter I did want to update you on two items actually The first is that our last meeting you had asked about keeping track of how we're doing with the dealer school so I'm very pleased to report that first of all the Relationship and operations of the school with Cambridge College has been going excellently They've been a really good partner in the process. So all things good from an administrative side in the first round we had 146 dealers go through the program and Graduated or prepared for work at the property And I'm also pleased to report that in the second wave which begins next Monday the 14th We have now 179 additional dealers that are signed up for our new program which begins on Monday And if you recall one of our goals from the first wave was to see if we could increase the number That came from the host and surrounding communities and so for this wave We're at 53% of this wave is coming from host and surrounding community So we are we worked hard on that the recruitment team and the gaming operations folks to make sure that they got the word out Amongst the local communities to see if we could get as many dealers as possible So great news on the front and it's going extremely well with Cambridge College on that was the first item and then second before we turn it over to Peter, you know, we've done a lot of work over the last year and Jackie helped us put together a Compilation of our time-lapse to kind of show you where we are in the last 12 months So we wanted to roll that before we get into construction. It's just a short video I actually take no credit for this at all somebody else So there you have one year of Peter Campos life in 35 seconds Good job Peter just from the outside apparently. Yes. Yeah, we the inside is we're keeping that pretty close to the vest As it's an important aspect of how we want to unveil the property in the future But as you can see it's going great from the outside. So with that I am gonna now turn it over to Peter to give the full construction report Good morning. Good morning It's great to be here. It's hard to believe that I'm finding out this morning that I have the easy part of this entire process We are on schedule We're about 90% complete. We have exactly a hundred and sixty four days to opening in five months to our temporary certificate of occupancy Suffolk continues to do a great job as a construction manager their trade partners are working with them We're averaging about 1,100 workers on site and we have we still have a lot to do but we have a pathway to success in every area We have our challenges, but we are on schedule to succeed Sort of run through the different areas The site work is essentially complete Exceptful of planning's we've planted over 600 trees that are over 20 feet tall just to give you a sense Got about a hundred of those left to go But all the sub paving all the utilities all that work is complete that as you can see the docks have been installed Actually performing punch lists on a lot of that and so we have an area out in front of the Always the front entrance the first place you need if everyone needs to enter this is the last place you finish But we have a plan in place to finish that up this spring and we think that's all achievable It's all weather dependent the winters upon us So we but we have enough time we believe as long as the winter doesn't extend beyond April 1st We should be in good shape Never knowing when right A few different images of the site The garage we're on schedule to turn over the lower two floors in the next several weeks We're actually keeping B2 for storage and B1 is getting very close to completion also So the garage is an excellent shape and there's really no No issues there The podium we actually received a temporary certificate of occupancy for the central utility plant That included the fire command center. It includes all the life safety systems like emergency generator Cogen all of that has been tested fire alarm system So that's really a tremendous accomplishment and puts us in an excellent place to continue to turn space over as we as we go along so Peter the prior date that you mentioned the temporary certificate of occupancy. That's for the for the whole Area the entire facility facility and was that June 10th June 10? Thank you. In gaming Where if you walk through the space you can see that we've got carpet down actually more than 10% now probably 25% We're on schedule to start the slot bases the end of next week And then slot machines will follow several weeks later and we have a plan to get all 45 other 4500 of those in over the next four months But that that looks great if you walk out there You'll see the finishes are being installed in all the restaurants that surround the gaming area, and we're progressing fairly smoothly The convention area is actually ahead of schedule and we see no issue with finishing that on time and with installing finishes in the convention area also a Few more images to the site. That's an old photo. That's all planet now a little more recent and Then the tower we are fit on the tower We're actually have turned floors the floors over through the 12th floor and installing furniture And we're essentially finishing a floor per week, and we're on schedule to complete the tower With no issue. We don't believe any issue at all And and that looks really really terrific So it overall the entire project is on schedule like I think I said we have our daily challenges But we're working through those and the teams just continue to make it happen So don't there's any particular questions I can answer but that's the overall Questions Yeah, I was just gonna ask So where would you say in you know broadly or or in high level is currently the critical path for you to Meet these it's finishes It finishes getting kitchens turned on getting all the approvals you need all the systems associated with those But it's just normal course of business. There's nothing that's out of the ordinary one good piece of news Is that we turned over I should have mentioned this the data center almost six months early So all of the low voltage is way ahead of schedule. That's one of the things that's usually a big struggle at the end So that looks really good. So it's just finishes and as we talked earlier in the past getting it the number of finishes Quality craftsman that we need is proven to be a challenge, but we you know, we're making it happen. So right any of those activities that might actually Require commission staff inspection, etc. Please make sure you coordinate with it Sure, because that's at the crux of where I think and there were some early actually in the process There were some areas in particular that Bruce Band was interested in and he came over With Joe's assistance and and they took a look at some of those areas Proper protections around the cages and those kinds of early things that were early in the construction And one of the area we finished as part of our TCO the commission's offices were also can be occupied So that makes it easier for you to staff and get in there ahead of time Great Jackie if we could just Advance up to the off-sites Great Thank You Peter. I wanted to talk for a minute about the process that we're Proceeding with in terms of the off-site improvements Just so that we double back and remind everyone what are the areas that we're working on It's Wellington Circle in Medford a major project obviously in Sullivan Square Santilli Circle in Everett sweeter in Everett and then of course lower Broadway I'm going to ask let's flip to the next slide because the picture tells even a better story. We were extremely Lucky with a really good fall in terms of moving and advancing some of the road work even further Than what we had hoped originally and this is a great shot that shows you an overhead of lower Broadway And it shows you the road already widened out It shows you the large new sidewalks that I'm put in the ADA and handicap ramps the Landscaping work that was done out in the facility the new marquee out in the front of the building and I have to tell you ever since we were able to pave and open both north and southbound lanes Which was fairly late in the process. It has certainly helped in terms of traffic flow As you recall we told you early on that the summer was going to be the worst of it and it was it was a very challenging because we had to Narrow the streets down while we created the lanes, but ever since we've opened it Right now the only point of constriction is the work that's continuing on the Alfred Street bridge They're redacking that but they've made some very good progress and that contractor has committed to getting that work done prior to our opening So really good progress. The next slide is a little bit more of a close-up and again You can see the crosswalks. You can also see here the new lighting scheme beautiful new live lighting scheme up and down lower Broadway and Really starting to look very good out there But that yes that curve in the sidewalk. Is that for some kind of a? A bus stop actually. Oh, we have on both sides of the street MBTA bus stops right in front of the property And so where they have a curb cut to create an area where the bus can pull off and traffic We built a new little shelter there great The next slide shows you the The entry archway one of them the second one will go up fairly soon Peter probably in the next month or so Within the next two weeks. Okay, so we're almost done out in that front Entryway and again, you see the beautiful landscaping as part of the trees that we added and the complete entry intersection The next slide shows a shot heading north on Broadway. And again, it gives you the Gives you the idea of the the depth and also the fact that we've got these new Center islands that we're putting in we have not landscaped them yet But we'll do that work in the spring when we do our finishing work But it'll give lower Broadway a really a really nice finished look The next slide is in Sullivan Square, and it shows you the reconfiguration Our our work in Sullivan Square has really advanced over the last three and four months, so that's not only a slide of the one of the intersections, but on the left-hand side is a New sidewalk that whole stretch was almost completely without a sidewalk prior to this construction project So again, we were very cognizant of pedestrian and bicycle issues in and around Sullivan Square And that shows you one of the new sidewalks the next slide This is if you were looking towards the The bus, you know, there's a bus arrival departure there. It's a very active MBTA stop We completely redid The in-and-the-out Sequence for the bussing to make that operate smoother in conjunction with the new traffic signals and the timing So that's part of that project The next slide also is another shot Showing you again the new sidewalks Going in for pedestrian purposes and the next one is kind of an overview slide That we took this was taken I believe on top of the Shraff Center and then looking down over the entire Sullivan Square some of the the features the parking lot was redone at the bus terminal And also we have not gotten to do yet the final landscaping work But if you remember one of the commitments was That had been pretty well neglected that whole center section in Sullivan Square So that will all be part of our spring planting as we go out and do cleanup in that area Is that equipment part of that landscaping effort or is that for the project that that Equipment is actually our construction team actually still out there working So we use what we do is we use that center as our lay down and work area And then at the very end of the job we pull everything out of there and then do the landscaping So the equipment will not remain No, no, it's a well But it's associated yeah work. Yes, it's actually shows progress This is a Santilli With that's actually this particular project is almost Peter. I think this one's almost done 99. Yeah They've really done just about everything there There's another example of new sidewalks new crossings to aid pedestrians in what what it was and is a very busy circle Also the as somebody who drives this multiple times a day The fact that this, you know, you think of something as simple as lane restriping and organizing traffic It has made actually a very big deal in this particular Intersection so again that project is virtually done And then the next one I'm not going to take you through these but the next four slides are the detailed Scheduling Diagrams for those projects. I will give you just a general update Again, we're farther along than where we thought and that was because we got lucky with weather We do have a number of projects to finish in the spring It's about a six week Concentrated period that will be working on one of the biggest projects. We got to do the Binder course for the streets Robin and Dexter, which are the truck route that goes through Everett That particular job was interesting. It was a full depth Reconstruction rather than a mill and overlay. So that one was more complicated But we got to do the heavy lifting this fall and then we'll come back with the wearing course in the spring and then finish up The work on Robin and Dexter As I mentioned Broadway is pretty much done all the way Throughout the whole north and southbound sections. So right now there's Nothing that we see in the schedule that would prevent us from finishing all the appropriate road work on time So good news on that front. The team did a great job. I wanted to spend a minute to talk about our Diversity program. This is a great story to tell we're exceeding in all of our areas In particular, you know where we are at and I know I mentioned this earlier at other meetings We're at the tail end of the design phase But there was some trailing work that needed to be done and the only area where we were behind was in WBE on design and we've actually brought that up nicely over the last couple quarters So from a MBE perspective our goal was seven point nine percent of the work and we came in about eight point five So we exceeded that goal for WBEs It was ten percent and we're now gotten that up to eight point eight Which was a vast improvement from where we were before and on the veteran side a goal of one percent and we Far exceeded that at six point three, but overall on the design phase We had a goal of eighteen point nine percent of the work and we came in at twenty three point six percent About fifteen million dollars worth of work. So we felt really good about that I'm going to now what divert for a second off of diversity and talk about some of the items that John mentioned This is lower Broadway related. The city of Everett did recently get a MEPA certificate for What work that they're doing, which is the lower Broadway community parking facility what that is is the Replacement of the area where we are doing our construction parking now, which is unpaved and gravel with actually paved lots and lighting so that they look appropriate and proper also it includes a Setting back the parking away from Broadway and that was done for the purpose of Any potential future expansion of Broadway, you know Everett has been Extremely progressive in getting the bus rapid transit lanes through the community and the mayor has eyes on Actually trying to expand that network further and so we did we didn't want to do anything that would get in the way of any future Potentials and that's been a Real transportation highlight in the city of Everett. So again, they received the certificate One particular note on that project and something we've talked to Ombudsman Zambo about and I think a couple commissioners have actually brought up and that was pedestrian crossing in that particular area That is something that we will Number one We're going to set up some meetings with BTD because as you know the front of our building actually kind of spans Multiple intersections our main site drive is of course in the city of Everett and so that You know that will operate as normally performed However, when we do get busy We do now and we will continue to use outside resources mainly the Everett police department If we need special details, whether it's during construction or on busy days or special events Same thing will hold true with the intersection of where Dexter Intersects on Broadway that particular intersection is actually in the city of Boston and so through discussions with John We want to make sure that we are watching that intersection for appropriate pedestrian crossing We will have eyes on that through camera systems. We will also post Some of our transportation folks to be able to look at any of the outside areas including our traffic flow And if need be we will order Additional police details to make sure that we're doing that especially During the grand opening period as you know and you saw that I'm sure from MGM You get a major surge of traffic and we'll be coming to the commission later on with our Kind of an opening plan, but the idea is to pay particular attention to that intersection John suggested it. We thought it was a great idea We'll set up meetings with the BTD and make sure that we keep our eyes on that And the other thing I wanted to talk about we have a slide of this later Was the pedestrian bridge? I think we've oh great. There it is. Thanks We are proceeding with our design and permitting for the bridge as you know We mentioned earlier that is the longest lead on a project like that is not the actual construction of the bridge It's a fairly it's a relatively simple structure that can be Put together in a lot of pieces off-site and then brought to the site and installed But as you can imagine the permitting for getting something like that done I think we estimated originally about 18 months. So we are continuing that process We have not made any formal commitments in terms of construction because as you know There were other components that we were interested in and this would work together as a coordinated project and the other two are the construction of the new draw seven park in summerville that DCR is working on And that project from what we understand is actually moving forward at a pretty good clip And so we think that's important so that if there ever was a pedestrian and bicycle bridge across the river You want it to land in something nice on the other end and then the other piece of that the Commission was involved with which was a potential expansion of the head house at the MBTA station and The Commission previously approved a grant for the cities of Everett and summerville And that was to get a design and study work done for a possible headhouse expansion So that what we are hoping for is someday those three projects come together to form a new Transportation link that would give us direct access to not only draw seven part But directly connect us to an MBTA orange line stop So I wanted to let you know that work at least from our end the work that we can do For the long lead items we are doing and paying for ourselves as part of that process and what do you do you have a date Design permitting might be tricky, you know Chris Gordon is actually working on that I think there's 15 16 17 different permits I would say it's too preliminary to give you a date of Maybe we'd be able to update you at the next quarterly meeting as to kind of progress of where Chris is in that process Thank you, but we are moving it ahead And hoping that all three of those projects might come together Because I think this would be a wonderful link for the future Great So you don't have any questions on Bob's portion. Oh, well, there's a few more on the diversity slides Let me just I'll just close those up and then I'm going to turn this over to Jackie Next is on the construction contracts. We're doing extremely well on this portion For the MBE portion our goal is five percent We're currently at six percent and that's seventy nine million dollars worth of work on the WBE front The goal was four point five percent. We're at eleven point five percent and that's a hundred and fifty one or almost 152 million dollars worth of work and on the veteran VBE portion of the job a goal of one percent It looks like we're coming in about two and a half percent or thirty three million dollars. So in total On our eleven point four percent goal. We're currently running about eighteen percent But that is an incredible two hundred and thirty four million dollars worth of work So really strong results there and then the next slide Also, we're doing equally well on construction workforce We had a goal of fifteen point three percent for minority workers on the job We're currently at twenty five point one percent and that's over fifteen hundred workers on the Female side a very aggressive goal of six point nine and we're actually currently beating that at seven point one with over 423 female workers and we believe the most of any job in the Commonwealth in terms of percentage of females on the job And then on the veteran front We had a goal of three percent and we're currently at five point eight percent and almost three hundred workers for that Shout out to Peter the construction team and Suffolk for everybody pitching in on that But really good results in terms of the diversity program for the construction workforce Bob The the workforce participation goals and we've obviously been able to kind of track that with your team through the AOC Meaning of keeping them keeping in mind Minority and female goals were prescribed in the statute But early on we had a number of stakeholder organizations that you've worked with that came and said We should have a goal of 33% based on you know the population of the area I Would expect some of those groups would be pretty happy that you hit a high goal as you yeah Yeah, this is really a great result and again through the efforts of a lot of folks Can I can I just go back to the? The parking project sure and I mentioned this to I'm Budsman Ziemba I'm interested and maybe you can address it at the point where you've talked about your transportation plan and managing transportation issues and Is a lead-up to your target date? Are you worried about the fact and I appreciate the work you've done I appreciate how this fits in with the city's urban renewal plan But drawing more people up Broadway who think now that there's more parking available. They can maybe Forgo using You know the bus routes are using one of the you know t-stops knowing that this added parking is now being made available You know a couple things on the parking first and foremost is it's going to be run Managed and run by the city of Everett and they will hire an outside operator through I'm sure an RFP process to do that the fact that it's Replacing what's out there today, which is really a construction parking lot the mere addition of Spaces does not generate traffic what generates traffic is in fact the amenities And the actual features of the building. I also want to point out that there were Significant businesses where those lots currently are that were very high traffic generators I'll give you two really good examples LTI limo used to be located right on that spot They have I think over a hundred vehicles and in talking to the owner of the company because we use their service They're a great company He said he did I think over 200 runs a day in and out of that facility right across the street from us he wound up moving to Chelsea to be a little closer to the airport and Along with that that traffic went with it Right next to them used to be a freight liner dealership, which used to get very significant traffic That business relocated to another part of Everett and has reopened Again traffic gone from that facility Where our entry was was a very busy gas station convenience store dunking donuts that have all left The area and so what's happening is there's a rebalancing of lower Broadway where there were a lot of businesses that were traffic generators that have left Obviously we come on the scene and create additional traffic But we've had our engineers our traffic consultants and everybody look at this at the end of the day We certainly respect the fact that it will take a while for the mode splits to really develop as we open As you know, we're going to be promoting alternate transportation through the use of the water shuttle Through the use of our connections at Wellington and Malden Center to the tee to our premium park and ride Operation neighborhood shuttles so all of those things that we committed to in our MEPA filings Will be up and running but at the end of the day no matter what anyone says or does The general public has to get used to the kind of figuring out their best way to get in and out of the property We're hoping that a lot of them choose some of those mass transit alternatives Because it will be better and they will be able to Get to the property quicker if you're willing to use them I think our timing is perfect with the orange line and red line redo that the MBTA is currently in the middle of Those new cars and new signaling will not only improve the headways But by I think it's 2023 when that project is fully complete and all the new cars are online You're gonna see a I think a much higher quality service on the tee and we're hoping that Folks will be encouraged to use that. I think when they see our water shuttles, they're gonna be blown away It's nothing like that's currently on the water today. They're gonna be really exceptional We're getting all new buses for the premium park and ride service. They are gorgeous And so what we're trying to do is present Really high quality alternatives for people to use other than their vehicles and But I have to tell you it'll take some time before that sorts itself out But I think we're in a good place I think John brought up very good points about monitoring, you know We'll be doing traffic monitoring anyway as part of the plan But in particular we'll keep our eyes on that whole entry Arrival sequence, but thank you the great question And and we haven't changed any of our commitments that we made in the MEPA documents in terms of the mode split So as you know, we've committed to significant monitoring after opening and we'll be reporting back on that And that may all one day include a pedestrian bridge as I hope so boy, do I hope that happens But I have a question on the just the reporting on the Minority These are great numbers as that has been in the past you've been able to maintain them and increase them in some cases It'd be really good to at a future report also include the count of firms that have Benefited from sure, you know the the the millions of dollars are very Significant and that's really worthwhile But the the scope of the breadth of that all those dollars are also good, too We can add that we'll do that at our next update I know we have it but it's embedded in the detail of these which I don't have on hand with We'll do that at our next update for sure. Thank you. It is a lot of companies though I saw the list and it's pretty extensive Thank you, I Would agree the numbers are very strong and I I know what a concerted effort it was to to bring more women in And I know you were part of those efforts as it took a whole group to make that happen But that's we're seeing the benefits there now So and that all that benefit will carry on through many other projects past hours because now you've got Some of these incredible women in the trades and they'll move on to the next job and hopefully bring more of their friends and family Good work great. Thank you Jackie So you'll see why I'm eager to skip ahead This was this is probably my most favorite part of our job and again I can't take credit for it I want to give credit to our community relations team our events team and our freedom beverage team and Of course the 273 employees that we currently have on staff who have put in over 4,000 volunteer hours to date So feel like a huge accomplishment there The first two events that we participated in we just want to highlight a couple of our Events were through the Mystic River watershed association One was the removal of water chestnuts from the Mystic River, which is a big problem for the Mystic River and Two was the removal of bittersweet, which I actually had to Google but it turns out it's a weed that is poisonous What is it? It's a poisonous weed. I am I also had to do a little research I think on Budsman's the ember for assisting me with this, but I also was not familiar with Bittersweet bittersweet. Yes Another fun event that we had unfortunately the weather wasn't too great, but and I say we I don't run but a lot of our team members do and they had a phenomenal event to for the disabled American veterans Raising money for health care disability employment education and financial benefits. It was a run on a castle island over Thanksgiving we did a Community event with United Way where we had our employees pack foods for 6,500 families in 15 communities in Massachusetts They also participated in the distribution of the food Holidays for heroes we did with the American Red Cross where we packed and distributed 500 comfort kits to benefit veterans And in our host community of Everett we did a Christmas pantry With the Everett Grace food pantry where we gave up 12,000 pounds of fresh food to 700 people in local communities one of I think the events that we were most proud of this year was an event that we We held with the New England Center for Arts and Technology. So the New England Center for Arts and Technology is a non-profit collaboration between public and private partners and They work very closely with employment partners to provide industry specific job skills Training career directed education and placement assistance targeted to the practical needs of the workplace our particular role with them has been to put in a culinary program in the city of Everett High School and So to record to do more to support this relationship We organized a fundraiser on giving Tuesday right after Thanksgiving and we were so We exceeded our goal and we raised 372,500 dollars to support me cat Our employees were did a phenomenal job of putting this together It was actually a really fun event and it's hopefully something that we can do in years to come as well So I just have a short video. I'd like to show you About me cats and our partnership with them Me cat prepares chronically unemployed or underemployed adults for careers in the food services industry A year ago. I didn't know where I was going. So me cat was my foundation as far as changing my life over from where I was to where I am now To work and stay off the streets. They need a purpose and that's what we're here to do Help them discover for themselves that their past does not need to define their future Okay, so when we were talking about your quiz your final you will be given the spice you absolutely are allowed to taste them When I was in class starting out it was kind of scary Because I didn't know the ordinary terms I listened I observed I took it to heart This is going to be another classic Central american and middle eastern spice. This is coriander. It's very unique for an organization or a company like Encore to really put their sort of money where their mouth is We got a grant from the gaming commission Which has allowed us to start training individuals who live in the area of the casino So to have encore say to us We're not only willing to help we're going to give them jobs and we're going to help you raise the money So that you can do the important work you need to do There's no one like that who's stepped up to the plate for knee-cat like Encore has I ended up graduating back in april I work as an event cook and concessions at the boston garden. They called me in To give me an all-star ploy of the mono ward and and that was kind of mind-blowing When you have someone who has never experienced success once in their life See what's possible for themselves and you see the transformation that takes place There's nothing like it Looking at where I'm at and what I'm doing. Yeah, I I feel great I feel great So we're pleased that our first 16 week culinary arts training program has concluded and we are about to start our second round On january 22nd. We're enrolling. Well, I should say knee-cats enrolling right now Just a couple of other highlights We received a environmental merit award by the epa which we were very proud of To do with the remediation of the site We also received an award from the disabled american veterans department of massachusetts As as you've seen probably in the newspapers. We've committed to 10 million In donations to nonprofits working with the conas family office Over the next four years and have made Exceeding we've made really good progress meeting with a number of organizations And look forward to moving forward with that quickly And I think I will conclude there Any questions commissioners? That's a very impressive effort. I'm curious how um, how large is your community relations staff for how many people are involved? Our community relations leader john taco And he has hired a very energetic and engaged woman whose name is wendy fam and she's just been fantastic So team of two supported by uh, as I said our events team has been great and our food and beverage team has really stepped up Great effort Any further questions for the team Thank you. All right. Thanks for the time. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes my report Can we just take another quick break while we get the Racing team up there. Yeah five minutes be great. Okay. We'll be on break for five minutes We'll resume the meeting at this time with our racing division. Dr. Leipel Good morning commissioners. Good morning. Today. I have with me Uh, chad bork our senior financial analyst. He's going to deal with our first issue and with the local quarterly aid payment And also today, uh, jessica bachette the vice president of marketing Percific downs is here in chip titles place if you have any questions. Good morning. Good morning. Now, I'll turn it over to chat Good morning commissioners. Good morning. Good morning. So in accordance with section 18 d of chapter 58 The local aid is payable to each city in town where racing activities are conducted The amounts are calculated at 0.35 percent times the handle from the quarter ending six months prior to payment The local aid payment for the quarter ending december 31 2018 is in the amount of 252,364 dollars and 99 cents This amount does reflect the handle From april may and june of 2018 And on the second page, you'll see The breakdown of the handles as well as the distributions To those cities and towns Remind me, uh, dr. Leibbaum, um, how's the handle being behaving in plain reach? over the last Few quarters a few years Um, i don't know if jazz got figures? Yeah, just roughly, you know, is it stabilizing? Is it been increasing? Yeah There's some stabilization Yeah, so overall year over year there was a an uptick about five percent across all tracks Um, I believe plain ridge Um Is is up right around four four percent So it's it's in line of um with the other tracks So year after year about a five percent increase for a local aid. Yeah, so local aid, which means Um, so last year, uh, or this year we paid out These are rough numbers, uh, roughly 872,000 versus last year, which was 831,000. So about an increase of 41,000 and that's all of the facilities. That's correct. So the same the five percent in in the handle increase What do what do we attribute that to just a little bit uptick in interest? Yeah, um, a little bit of the the change in the number of live racing days Right that would account for um, that would account for You know plain ridge but but the other tracks, I guess I was rather the other facilities that carry signals I was uh, the five percent racing it doesn't make a difference, but um with suffix, you know, they went from six to eight days Okay, so it is the actual live racing days And you know, perhaps indirectly at the Racehorse Development Fund, right? Right. Definitely, you know, because if there is better prices in better person, right? Correct. There is there is a great interest. Yes Mm-hmm Well, this issue, uh This item on the agenda requires a vote. Do we have a motion? Madam chair, I move that the commission approve the local eight quarterly payment Through december 31st 2018 is provided in the packet Second Further discussion All in favor aye. Not in favor Four zero. Thank you very much So the next item is the return of unclaimed tickets to individual patrons The patrons have a year to cash their tickets and then after that year has gone by Any unclaimed tickets go, you know, we turn the outs gets Put into the person counts eventually So what we do first is if there's any patrons that had a ticket that there was a question about and now They know it has not been cashed during that previous year Our financial analyst meets with jimmy alcott the pair mutual director at suffoc And verifies them. So this year there were two of them for a total of two hundred and seventeen Dollars and sixty three cents And this does require a vote. Um as you were talking about trends It's been around pretty much consistent at suffoc in 2016. There were four for four hundred for four hundred dollars and then 2015 there were three for four hundred and seventy one So it's just and the other tracks don't have any of these We see And we verify that they are legitimate tickets Yes, that's correct Very good. Um this item also requires a vote Uh, madam chair, I'll uh, I'll move that the commissioner approve the disbursement of Um and payment of the outs of the unclaimed Uh tickets for several pounds as presented here in the packet second Having a second any further discussion All in favor Four zero, thank you. Thank you. Thank you We will move on to the fine finance division As soon as they get a chance to get seated Good afternoon, madam chairwoman and commissioners. Good afternoon. Yeah, almost a good morning. Not quite. Good morning. Thank you Update that Um joined by agnes bolier our budget and finance manager and douglas o'Donnell our revenue manager And we're here to present to you the mid-year A fiscal year 19 mid-year budget update for the gaming control fund Massachusetts gaming commission approved an fyi 19 budget for the gaming control fund of 33.4 million dollars Composed of 22.6 and regulatory costs and 10.79 Million and statutorily required costs the gaming control fund required an initial assessment of 28.3 million on licensees Um at the end of fyi 18 revenue exceeded expenses by 947,000 which resulted in initial fyi 19 Assessment being reduced by that much In this correspondence staff is recommending that 3.25 million an additional cost be added to the fyi 19 approved budget Which would result in a very advised budget of 36.6 million for the gaming control fund The increased cost would be partially offset by 861 thousand and revenue that has exceeded the initial fyi 19 projections The combined effect of budget increase and additional revenue would result in an increase to licensees assessment of 2.39 million And after accounting for the carry forward of 947 Would result in the initial fyi 19 assessment of 28.3 million on licensees increasing to 29.7 million so it's actually After you take all of that into effect of 1.4 million dollar increase on the assessment, but the 947 was covered in the first update Um as a reminder and you'll see it throughout the set memorandum our licensees bear the full cost of our budgets as we are 100 process 100 percent assessed on the industry This mid-year update is composed of two portions The cost necessary to be ready to regulate a category one facility in everett And then the other mid-year items that we'd like to address the table on page one of the memorandum summarizes those two components Starting with the cost necessary to be ready to regulate a category one facility as explained on page two of the memo The commission is looking for one quarter of the year of salaries for 10 additional positions within the gaming agents division 19 new members of the gaming enforcement unit, which is the same number as we have in springfield Game sense startup costs and technology costs to both approve the gaming systems Installed at the everett facility as well as cost for outfitting an mgc office at the facility Next is the other mid-year. Do i'm going to stop and take questions on any of those now or keep going through the presentation and take them at the end I can do it yet. Okay Next is the other mid-year costs when the commission approved the fy 19 budget We did it by funding our litigation costs at the bare minimum required by our insurance policy As the commissioners are well aware We have experienced over the last few years significant litigation In the amount requested here in this memorandum would pay for our current bills We're also looking for an additional funding for the gaming enforcement unit in springfield for five months of three additional fte's To help reduce the level of overtime and staff burnout at that facility Finally, we're asking for funding to migrate our it backbone from the eot she had services model up to the cloud With the opening of an everett location as well as a free refresh cycle coming up for our it department Which is closed all of our equipment is closed up to five years old and either at the end or pass the end of a useful life cycle Now is the time that we feel we should migrate to avoid duplicative costs While we are experiencing additional cost pressures, there are some positives to be noted on the revenue side Currently we are exceeding revenue projections by 861 thousand This comes in the form of 185 thousand and additional licensing fees 57 thousand and insurance settlement payment as well as 614 thousand and reimbursable costs associated with the win ongoing suitability investigation This revenue will be used to offset the additional spending in this memo and Result an additional assessment on licensees The last piece for this discussion today is the assessment as noted in the memo 205 cm 121 Paragraph four allows the commission to bill for additional costs through the assessment process However, something we have not dealt with is revising the proportional distribution of the assessment across licensees in the middle of a year 205 cm 121.01 paragraph 3b allows the commission to adjust the assessment At any time to reflect the actual number of positions at a gaming facility As described in the memo on page four the mgm springfield facility opened in august of 2018 The budget for this year was passed in july of 2018 And used estimated gaming positions of 3600 for the mgm Which gave them a proportional share of 39 of the 28.3 million dollar initial assessment If you revise their gaming position numbers for today Their proportion share would decrease to 36.77 percent, which is a significant amount of 28 million dollars Further complicating this issue is the fact that when the commission approved the initial applications an average of six seats or gaming positions per table Game was used staff is recommending revising that figure to more accurately reflect actual positions per game based on the table in the memo on page four And this would only become for when facilities became operational In addition staff is recommending that if the commission exercises the authority to let licensees revise their actual count of gaming positions It should only be once a year This is just for simplicity's sake and it should not be retroactive, but rather for one half the year's assessments That's our position not necessarily the licensees Um At this point if the commission would like to ask any questions add comments or provide us with discussion on some of the points that we raised Um, be much appreciated. And if I could before you ask a question just insert some comments first I'd like to thank cfa allen and and his staff um For the mid-year budget review, which I also Have um Worked on um, and then I also thanks uh, commissioner zunigan and his capacities as uh, treasurer we've sat Probably more times than he wants Um, um to go over never enough never enough um to go over this and uh Initially I had thought about presenting it and asking for a vote and then obviously given that the character and our previous process Which has always been um to put it out for public comment and give our licensees a specific opportunity um to talk to Mr. Lennon myself We haven't done that yet. So this is just right now an introductory To this and I'm still happy to answer questions But we'll ask that we'll put it out for public comment for two weeks And I've already started the discussion with our licensees which I am pretty sure will continue great Yeah, thank you for that. I do um, maybe want to start in reverse order and start with Distribution the allocation So are we being asked to revise essentially now? Now for mgm based on the existing Gaming positions Which would be the difference between bringing them from a 38.99 percent to a 36.77 percent Yes, um, which of course comes from the others Correct, um, because it's a it's a zero sum game essentially correct um And that's part of the That's perhaps part of the conversation Relationship between slot assessment gaming positions When the commission has authority during a a physical year to review those and then I think there's a Ask to sort of historically true up the number. That's again a conversation issue, right? well on that because of that nature that there may be a You know historical or retroactive or as of when these new Proportionality takes place I would at least like to table that piece of that conversation for now or at least Agree that we might assess yearly or reassess yearly or something to that effect Totally within commission's discretion, but we just want to raise the issue And I suspect That at the next meeting when we will ask you to vote We'll have some licensee input slash representation there right and for perhaps context of other commissioners. I think one of the One of the topics or issues that we thought about prior to the operations being opened was to try to prevent the notion of People just submitting a different number and getting a different assessment from year to year Because they were all projected Gaming positions That's no longer the case that now, you know, what was an initial submission in the rfa2 And when a revised number for mgm a revised number on their meba certificate And a final number to their opening Of the tables of opening of the of the facility Now we have a more, you know date certain Number certain because of what's What's existing? I actually might just caveat that there might be times in the future on an opening on an open facility where the number changes Because they will continue to to to change the mix of tables to slots and that has for example that has a Consequential difference in case in gaming positions But it will not be as significant as as this time around was for mgm resulting in this kind of But it sounds like you're agreeing that once a year is the appropriate time frame in which to take a look Yes, I would I would agree. It's it's once a year. We should we should just pick one time Prior to or during the budget discussion setting the budget occurs to me that that would be a good time to do it But it's all up to the staff and how how we better deal with it Yeah, and I think we'll get some input on that there I would wouldn't be surprised if they said You know, could you have a mid-year review on this or something like that? We'll see I mean it'd be interesting to see historically in based on other properties How what's the delta? How much would could something change in six months or not change? And then we'll present that and you guys can make the determination. Okay, we'll do a mid-year reviewer You know what? It's such a Municipal number. We'll just do it once a year Yeah, I I would echo what commissioner zuniga said, you know, it's I think he gave a great description in terms of how maybe these numbers have moved since the times of the rfa2 to actually opening day You know, certainly you don't want to see a mid-year revision Be retroactive. I'd rather see us just set it once At the beginning of the fiscal year and work through it knowing that Our other source of revenue from our licensees is assessments, which could also fluctuate, obviously Depending on what what comes up during the middle of the year, but trying to have that revenue source be Set in stone almost from the beginning of the year, but Makes us to hear what our Licensees have to say about this as well. Yeah, I would also I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but I In this case, I would not Want to consider a retroactive nature You know to I know that's part of the ask from from mgm I say we pick a date as early as as whenever and then reflect that going going forward But again, let's see what they say in this topic I I have other Comments back to the The cost items And I would just like to highlight At least three numbers that I want to at this point treat as provisional. I think it's The overall Assessment and recommendation. I'm in agreement with But I again for the benefit of of everybody here Just talk about the nature two of those numbers. I think should come a little bit less But one of those is is probably going to come higher Based on a number of things that are going to happen from now on And there will be at least an offset. So I'm okay with With the with the overall assessment, but I do want to mention that In the case of gaming agents We have talked about in the past About a total of 30 across facilities And and now the request is higher than that. I know there is A number of things that go into play the scheduling The flexibility to cover in case somebody is out sick and whatnot and and and I just I said I mentioned to Executive director but the drosion that I will be personally diving into understanding more about those dynamics So that I get comfortable with you know, what is currently something higher that we had previously Um agreed upon at the as as as an overall Taking into account for example that there's a central monitoring system And that's the time that I'm going back to When when we approved a very Sophisticated and costly system There was an assumption that There would be savings in the amount of oversight that we would have to do Because the system will be doing a lot of that for us Now there's a lot of oversight that we still need to do respond to patron complaints and and and so on But I Again, just personally I want to get a little bit more comfortable with with with that ask and at at least for now Because the ask is higher I want to treat as provisional and come back to it at a later time Yeah, I actually agree with that. I think it was more than an assumption. It was it was an assertion That these numbers would be lower because of these because of what the system is able to do, right? So, right And I know it's it's it's a lot more complicated than what I just described in terms of, you know duality of responsibilities and coordination among Properties, but again, it's something that I just told a director band as well that I will be understanding a little better Or or seeking to understand better Um The other number that I want to mention is the game sense number. I think that number might actually come down There was but I want to explain the context of why that number is here During the The approval of the budget for the public health trust fund Um, there was an initial ask overall an assumption about game sense having to have some resources some monetary resources to to Ramp up for encore I mean in that setting in that public health trust fund we decreased that number by 144 thousand dollars, which is the number that you see here Um, the reality is that That also assumed that there would be an earlier ramp up than what we will now need And I also want to reconcile it with what that body does for us with with my presence there relative to budget approval. So Again, I want to treat us preliminary I suspect that number will come down, but we'll be back in a future Commission meeting to true these up Those those two numbers in my mind Bring the overall ask here slightly down But we should recognize That the litigation number is perhaps tight because those bills will continue to accrue As director Lennon Suggested these catches us up with a lot of what costs we already know to have But a lot of those costs costs even a projection of those costs Is really undetermined at this point. We might be back to this In this setting to ask for an additional Request, so i'm comfortable with with this number at this point Understanding that we will be back and is perhaps as soon as the third at the end of the third quarter To reevaluate that number as well Yeah, I agree that those those were the three numbers gaming agents game sense And legal costs I mean, uh, you know and and so I think it's it's it's well put this this memo and effort is really well put together By the way in in in short order because I know we we started thinking about these Just in the last in the last few weeks and they're appropriate and To start thinking about hiring gaming agents because we will have additional hiring I think the infrastructure Costs is is is is really now a really good time to do them. We You reminded me that we've had Asks from the it department in the past relative to replacement of the of the of equipment that we have really put off And if we are transitioning to the notion of the cloud Which I believe is to be a good recommendation This is a good time as good as any to do it rather than spending money to later retrofit Something that that we only use for the short term Thank you. I would like to also report that I that I had a more in-depth meeting As did commissioner o'brien with the public safety costs and Frankly, they did justify to me the need for those additional costs But we will be continually continually monitoring What those services should be and what those costs will be I also I also had some similar concerns. Obviously, you know, we talked about the prescribed rate. My other two areas are concerned. I think commissioner zuna get touched on those is with respect to Gaming agents and there's a I guess a quick Clarification I have in the memo For on-court. Is it seven gaming agents or five gaming agents five gaming agents? So four supervisors for five gaming agents. I I guess Maybe I won't delve into it or dive into as much as I know you're interested, but I I do have some questions about You know the ramp up of you know, the hiring for the gaming agents Um Yeah, and at the effort site and what we're hopeful on that is um You brought that to mind. I got a chance to have a quick discussion What we're hopeful on that is that at these bigger facilities, you won't just see five gaming agents Maybe you see some pulled from right a smaller slot parlor and brought there It's just a number of openings we have right now Compared to the relative workforce okay and But important important discussions arise out of these relative to coverage For example, it's it's it's important to have presence At most of the time in the day In the 24-hour day But invariably there will be somebody who's out sick or whatnot And in in my view at least from a just management theory perspective If there's a flexibility to cover in one, you know from one facility to the other That brings a lot more Flexibility to respond to those situations rather than always staff up to a certain level per The property and those are some of the things that I think we should examine Now it's a lot easier said than done Which is why I want to delve into the the schedules and where are the The stressors in terms of you know required presence versus ideal presence and whatnot and and and inspections or you know Etc etc all very important discussions really really critical I and just to finish up, you know, I I appreciate you know some of the additional Staff being added out in Springfield again to kind of help us with you know, what was Traumatic use of of OT as we opened up MGM and obviously had a lot of backup help to make sure that opened on time Uh, you know, it's going to be my hope that As we move into more functional functional and mature years The cost of overtime will go down I mean, I know plane some plane rich folks We're helping getting some OT to help out with the opening MGM, but at some point that's all got a level itself off So, uh, you know, I agree, you know We're potentially heading is as we've talked about on these parallel tracks to make sure we have Staff and resources needed to Prepare for that, you know our reach and a licensee But my hope is gradually over time this that number will stabilize Understanding. Yeah, I think it's kind of a fiscal year that right the opening year. I think you'll highlight a good issue which is The stressors of opening the property on staff and overtime Versus what I'm looking towards a horizon of a steady state operation Which is, you know, there's a lot more knowns in steady state versus the openings Um, in which, you know, we're really trying to do our best to make sure that we have a smooth opening for licensing people inspecting You know getting a lot of really Um Big assets valuable assets onto the property and stuff like that But, you know, once that is done, that's a one time Event once that is done, you're right. We and it's a it's a very valuable discussion to have about What does it all look like in steady state? Well, and what's important along with what does it look like is, you know, a data driven analysis With public safety with our gaming agents Um Yes, I mean really we will continue to ask for a more sophisticated level of data driven analysis, which will Uh go hand in hand with what the staffing needs are So that's something we've committed to already to our licensees as well. Um, if you remember when we opened up the gaming enforcement unit Out in Springfield, we started off at a number People had disagreements and we agreed to a one-year look back. Um, and I know our licensees are Looking forward to that as well anti-had conversations with each one of them Because budget season's coming up right upon us. Um, so that's something we've already committed to and As as I said at the beginning our licensees pay for our budget. So they hold us Highly accountable as well Yeah, and and perhaps I'm repeating an initial point but Because this is now the last, um, the third of three major efforts in in, um, at least for now in In hiring or in, uh, staffing up. Maybe some of these numbers look small relative to, um The overall budget That's only because there's only a third of a year in some cases A fourth of a year Many of these costs in my view, um Well, some of them are up front for infrastructure and that's that's fine this one time But a lot of the other costs become fixed costs in our budget And that's something that I've always Try to really keep an eye on towards how Expensive we get because of everything that we are that we are trying to do And um one of the guiding principles has always been to be as efficient and cost effective as possible Without compromising anything of of the work that we have to do and that's The interest that I have now at this point in relative to looking at gaming agents in particular Yep, thank you. So as I said our request was to raise this have this type of discussion Um, and then we put it out for public comment and Derek and I would Uh, it specifically engage our licensees. Um, I you know, I will Within some discretion I have actually start to get some agents or one particular agent over to Encore because I think you heard uh, you say in our mgm property It was critically important to have someone on property as as early as possible I think I can do that in our existing budget. Um, but we'll bring this back with the anticipated Uh request for action on the next at the next meeting Do you have a sense just you raising good point? Obviously they're anticipating taking delivery of slot machines is The technology purchase is going to be something that can be Aligned with the delivery of slot machines making sure the technology can be fitted out appropriately So that so that is what our cio is working on aligning those two Deadline she's been having meetings with their technology team for Three or four months now to make sure that we are in a situation where it's aligned appropriately As slot machines come on if we want to start testing in february, which is You know when they start putting some of them in we would actually have our cms lines hooked up And we could get the independent results back and we'd have work stations for anyone sitting over there um So that is that is the goal that is um why we're coming to you now saying Any any further delays kind of push those dates out which then push deadlines um of the potential operator out We did this meeting in november for the opening of um Mgm which happened in august so we really held off hoping that we could get the Um the license review done ahead of time, but anything right now any further delay really pushes And and would sacrifice a date of the 25th I think we're aware of that in support of of moving forward on a parallel track. Yeah As I said, I think we also have that learning curve Which is we can we can jump right in and we don't have to spend a few minutes waiting to figure out how to swim We know how to swim. Yes, great. Well said anything further for the finance team So there's no no uh vote required or if you're okay with it We'll put it out for public comment for two weeks talk to our licensees and uh revisit this With a requested vote at the next public meeting. Thank you very much And I just want to thank doug and agnes for doing all the legwork Once again, I get to come up here and take the bow, but all the real work is done by doug agnes and the directors Pulling this information together so that we can actually present something Coherent to you. Yeah, where it's a team effort and we appreciate it. Thank you Thank you Moving on on the agenda. We're up to commission. Oh, sure Okay, well we are recording and we can upload the video. Yes Okay, well Fortunately, we're very close to the end of our meeting here So I think most of the materials were covered while it was up So we will just continue on and finish The meeting at this point Okay, so we're up to commissioner updates. Do we have any updates at this point? Okay, hearing none this meeting will move on any other business that we was not reserved. I do that's next 10 so We'll move on then to item 10, which is the executive session and i'm just going to Um You know explain the rules of engagement which we've been through before The commission will now go into executive session pursuant to mgl chapter 30a section 21a 3 for the purpose of discussing Litigation strategy in the case of steven a win versus caron wells the massachusetts gaming commission win resorts at all and When a discussion in an open setting would be detrimental have a detrimental effect on the litigation Then we will go into executive session The commission will not reconvene in open session at the end of the executive session Do I have a motion to go into executive session? Madam chair, I move that we the commission moves to executive session second Moved in a second. I would like to take a roll call vote of the commission to go into executive session commissioner stephans yes Commissioner zuniga. Hi commissioner o'brien And I the interim chair vote. Yes as well um Thank you. The executive session is now in session all members of the public and any staff members not involved in the matter To be discussed must leave the room I ask that all live audio and video recording and live stream be shut off and the doors to the room be closed Thank you very much