You see the light, what so proudly we hailed, At the twilight's last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the poor the ramparts we watched, Were so gallantly streaming, And the rocket's red bursting in air, O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave. Raise your right hand. I will participate fairly and will fully evaluate all matters before town meeting. And vote in the best interests of the town. I support free speech and will treat others with mutual respect and will conduct myself in a civil manner that is becoming of an elected town meeting member. I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully and partially perform the duties incumbent upon me as a town meeting member of the town of Arlington. In accordance with the bylaws of town manager act and the general laws of the Commonwealth, so help me God. Thank you very much, Mr. Byrne. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. It is requested that members of the board of selectmen and elected officials of the town, town manager, department heads of the town and staff, superintendent of schools and staff, committees, commissions and boards of the town, county man regional vocational technical school district committee and superintendent. Members of the electronic voting committee and staff, members of the general court representing Arlington. And also any consultants who have been retained to work for the town relative to articles to be acted on by this meeting. Representatives of interested parties of article one and representatives of news media be permitted to sit within the special town meeting enclosure. All in favor? Aye. We're doing this because we're now in the special town meeting. We're not going to do it every night just to wonder what we're doing. Constable's return. Madam clerk, do you have reason to believe that this was appropriately called by the board of selectmen and that the constable made a return of the service on the warrant in accordance with the laws? Yes, she does. Mr. Byrne. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. It is moved that if all the business of the meeting as set forth in the warrant for special town meeting is not disposed of at this session when the meeting adjourns, it adjourns to Monday, May 5th, 2014, at 8pm. All in favor? Aye. Okay. I have an announcement or two. Any precincts that we're supposed to organize at 745 that have not please try and organize at the break. We have precincts one and two outside the clerk's office, three and four, the corridor next to the parking lot, five, the corridor next to the town garden, six, the lobby outside the front auditorium, and seven in the corridor next to the town garden. So if you guys get together and organize that, it'd be appreciated. Turn your sheets into this Luccarelli when you're done. Remember on Monday night, Mr. Dice got to rise up with a point of order saying that his clicker wasn't working, it wasn't showing a yes or no vote. It's true. We didn't capture any data on his clicker. We think the problem was, was that he voted too soon. So what'll happen is when I confirm with Mr. Flynn that the voting computer's ready, some people were starting to vote at that point. Now what happens when I, when I press the clock, he actually starts the computer and that erases any votes that were pressed on the clicker before I called for the vote and started the clock. So I don't know if that was actually Mr. Dice's problem or not. Yeah. Yeah. Did it have the data? Yeah, it didn't show a vote. It was a blank data box. So if you go back and look, on Mr. Dier's amendment, you had no data. So we didn't capture it. So we think we, by voting too soon, your vote gets lost. It just gets zeroed out.  The vote, me saying vote now or vote or something of that nature is the go to go ahead and start voting. We don't want to lose anybody's vote by that happenstance again. So let's kind of, we're going to work this out. We're getting it down well. Yes, sir? No, no, only the votes that are early. You could, I can say Mr. Flynn is the computer ready. He says yes. And I say, okay, we're ready. Now I didn't say vote yet and I haven't pressed the clock, but you could be jumping the gun and pressing one. And then not press it again. When he hits the button, it's going to zero out all the boxes and your vote will not be counted. You have to only vote after I say go and hit the clock. So at 20 second voting, we go. Vote early and often. Not early, just vote often. Yes, sir. I'm going to refine the way we're going to work it. I'm going to go a little slower. I may have been too fast. Sometimes I do go fast. I'm going to slow down a little and explain how we're voting and then make sure everybody gets it. So we have the smooth. Community Preservation Act folks put something on the back table. They wanted to put it on your chairs. I said, no, that's for motions only, but they wanted me to point out there. There are information back there and don't forget to go pick them up.  The person brought it home. We tracked her down and she brought it tonight. So everybody remember to throw it into the box. Turn your phone off. And let's get going. Article one. Are there any reports of committees? Any announcements or resolutions? Reports of committees. Yes, sir. Ms. Howard has a resolution or announcement. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Jane Howard from Precinct 10 and a member of Vision 2020's public art committee. On Sunday, there is a program at Monotomy Rocks Park right in the front field that you enter from Jason Street called Art Rocks Monotomy. Sunday will be the opening reception for this sculpture and installation. And it will be from three to five and we'd like you all to come. There will be music and goodies as well as the artists who have made the installations and will walk about with you to explain their work. It will be up until the 26th of May. So it starts on Sunday with a reception from three to five and it will be open every day. Another public art project that will have its third year is cheerful as you sit. One takes and repurposes a chair and we try to sell it. And this year it will occur in only one place. It will be on the Jefferson Cutter Green. It will be from Friday, July 18th to Sunday, July 20th, just three days. And we hope you will all come and consider repurposing a chair. Last year we had 76 and it creates money for the public art committee. Thank you very much. Thank you, Howard. Not yet, Mr. Byrne. Announcement? Well, three people have announcements. Okay. Yes. I just want to remind you. Name, address. Sorry. Annie LaCorte, 48 Chatham Street, Arlington, Mass. Precinct 15. I just want to remind you about the event that I put all the flyers on your chairs about on Monday night, which is the tech initiative showcase at the high school this coming Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. It is an event sponsored jointly by the Arlington Public Schools and the Arlington Education Foundation to showcase all the exciting things happening in the schools, both in terms of students learning things like programming and how to use technology and also teachers using technology effectively for pedagogical efforts in order to enhance the kids learning in the schools. And there will be a lot of demonstrations of how new technologies are being used by teachers and of the kinds of technology the kids are learning. The Arlington Education Foundation is specifically started an initiative to raise money to support these efforts in the schools. We raised $50,000 for a lab at the high school so that programming could be offered for the first time in a long time. And we're now working on $50,000 for similar efforts to put tools into the Odyssey Middle School. So I'd love you all to come if you can and get excited and hopefully consider contributing to the effort. Thank you. Thank you. Pam. Yep. White shirt. Yep. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Sherry Barron, Precinct 7 and a member of the Human Rights Commission. We passed out a pink flyer on Monday night and there's some in the back tonight. And we want to invite you to the Wintermoor-Robbins House on Sunday where we're going to be celebrating the 10th anniversary of marriage equality in Massachusetts. The reception is from two to four. We're going to show a brief clip of a film that Glenn Koenig took 10 years ago and on the steps and inside of Town Hall. And we're going to have two speakers, both of whom got their licenses that day and subsequently married. And a question and answer period and light refreshments. So we hope you can all make it. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Barron. Sir. Good evening. Christian Klein, Precinct 10 and a board member of the Friends of Robbins Farm Park. This Saturday, the May 3rd at 9 a.m., we are having a park clean. We do this every spring and every fall to go around the park, repair things that need repair, tidy things up. We encourage everyone to bring what I refer to as an article of an aquarium revolt, a fork or a rake or a shovel or something. And come out and help us clean. We'll have refreshments. And as a bonus in the spring, any family that comes out and helps clean, we will give a free kite. And Saturday afternoon, we have a kite day at the park. So if you can't make the clean for some reason, come out and fly a kite in the afternoon. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Any other nonsense resolutions? Mr. Tosti. I just want to make an announcement about Minuteman. As you are aware, the superintendent of Minuteman has to reach 16 different towns and their town meetings. So we've scheduled next Wednesday, May 7th. We will be taking both Minuteman, the Minuteman article on the amendments and the Minuteman budget up next Wednesday. And we will emphasize that he needs to have his report out to us next Monday for us to review. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mr. O'Connor. Although the moderator, James O'Connor, precinct 19, your assistant moderator, Mr. Leone did speak on Monday night about the email listserv. There seems to still be some confusion. Even the moderator tried to send through some links today. They went through tonight because some people have more than one address that is connected to the email listserv. The way to go about getting on the listserv is to go to the town website, go to the town meeting section. There's a section that says add yourself to the list. You can then include yourself. You list your precinct number and your name. And then once I check it on the list, because that gives you then the privilege of being able to post to the list. I then moderate the item and submit it through. There have been some posts that have not been on your chairs yet. There was some very good information last fall when the manager submitted some requests to post about the town plan. There was this spring some information from the principal's office, the high school about tours that was before town meetings started. And already there has been information provided by Karen Cove about the position reclassification. That article will come up later at town meeting, but in order to be able to review it ahead of time, pursue any questions you might have an increase, it gives you a chance. It also gives you a chance, as those of you that have seen, Mr. Harrington produced on Friday some very healthy information for us about the FINCOM report. In addition to that, there was some substitution article motions. So that please add yourself to the list. To date we have about 165 members. It's very simple. It's not for debate. There was an item that I did reject earlier this week because it suggested that we might want to have three minutes to vote rather than the 20 seconds. Because that would come up in article 11 during the meeting itself that was not posted. But anything that is short and sweet to the point about emotion, that's what the purpose is so that we're all aware ahead of time of what's going on. Thank you for your consideration. Mr. Hanner? Mr. Helmuth, did you have an announcement or resolution? Eric Helmuth, precinct 12 and chair of the electronic voting study committee. Just a quick addition to the moderator's admonishment about voting early. If you do accidentally vote early and jump the gun, once the moderator says vote, you can vote after that. So you can press your handset. You're not locked out from voting. Early and often. Just not early. Okay, any other announcements or resolutions? Okay, have any reports or committees? Mr. Byrne? I move that the board of second support be received. Okay, thank you. Mr. Tosti? I move that the report of the finance committee, which was in your original orange booklet, be received. Second, okay. Any other reports? Al, you're supposed to move that the recommended votes contained in respective reports and boards before the meeting without further motion. Do you make that motion? Move that the recommended votes contained in the respective reports of the finance committee and the board of selectmen be before the meeting without further motion. All in favor, please say yes. Opposed? Yes. It is so these reports are now before us. Move that article three be laid upon the table. All we have to article three. Article one reports and boards. Article one be laid upon the table. Okay, that brings us to article two. Homeland legislation request for license of all alcohol licenses. Mr. Byrne? Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Steve Byrne, voter selectmen. So tonight we are requesting that you support this warrant. Currently the board has 15 all alcohol licenses and we have given all of them out. So we are requesting five more. As many of you know, Arlington's restaurants have really flourished over the past several years. And I think that allowing us to give out five more will really help their continued success as well as the success of all of the other businesses in our business district. If this warrant does pass, it will then go to the legislature as home rule legislation. And then we'll replace upon the ballot for the residents to vote on. Thank you. And I hope you will join us in supporting it. Mr. Leonard? Thank you, Mr. Moderator. John Leonard, precinct 17. Mr. Moderator, at this time, I want to be possible to ask Chief Ryan to join me up here, so I might be able to ask him for some comments and get to a question, please. Well, you asked the question and I asked who I want to answer. Love clock. So you got a few minutes extra free seconds from. Go ahead, ask your question. The question I have, Mr. Moderator, is lately we have seen in certain situations that I'll just come right out and say it, when an individual has been stopped from drinking alcohol and driving, that individual, I guess, can be brought back or questioned in regards to where was the last place you were at as if to keep further the investigation. I guess what I'm curious about is, is this something within the state and I wanted to have the Chief elaborate on it for a couple of minutes in regards to, is this something we might face in the town of Allenton? Is it in place all across the state? How does this mechanism work? And basically to inform town meeting that with the granting of these licenses over and over again, it's something that we might face later on down the road that these establishments might be called upon to answer questions in regards to the individual who just left you. Okay, Chief Ryan, can you address the authority of the police to question a suspected drunk driver where they got intoxicated? Yes, thank you. Good evening, Mr. Moderator. Good evening, town meeting. That happens upon conviction. The judge who's overseeing the disposition of a criminal conviction for drunk driving will ask the offender where they consumed their last drink of alcohol, whether it was at a private residence or a licensed establishment. If, in fact, it was a licensed establishment, it causes the court to notify the licensing authority, which in Allenton, as you know, is the board of selectmen. And then the selectmen, along with the police department, can then watch to see if there are any trends with any licensed establishments and if there are, take some preventative measures. I'm happy to report thus far we've not seen any trends with our licensed establishments. Thank you, Chief. Thank you. That ends your question, sir. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Mr. Steve Harrington. Stephen Harrington, Precinct 13. I just have a question on the, I've seen in the treasuries report before, the amount of money that we collect from, I guess, a meals tax. And the reason to get five new licenses is to expand the restaurant business in town. And I'm wondering if anyone, Mr. Moderator, could answer whether or not we've seen an increase in the tax revenue over some time period from opening all these restaurants. At some point, we'll probably just be taking business away from different restaurants, but I'm just curious if we're actually seeing some economic activity from all these licenses that we're doing. Mr. Gilligan, can you answer that question? Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Stephen Gilligan, Town Treasurer. The specific answer to Mr. Harrington's question is yes. We have seen an increase in both meals and lodgings tax in the town. The meals tax does include the consumption of alcohol. The Town Manager's Fiscal Year 2014 report has that information in it. I actually, in trying to be prepared for certain questions, brought copies of certain pages. That was not one of the pages I brought this evening. My apologies. But yes, we have seen an increase every single year since cities and towns have been getting those taxes turned into local communities. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Yes, sir. Mr. Fisher. Andrew. Yes. Mr. Fitzgerald, did you have a position point? Tom Fitzgerald, precinct 11. I'm just curious. It wasn't that long ago that we didn't have restaurants with liquor in them. And the other night, we're wondering whether we're going to put in marijuana dispensaries. When's enough enough? I mean, it seems to me 15 restaurants in the town, Allington-Size, with full liquor permits is enough. But I'm curious to know, Mr. Moderator, how many alcohol-related incidents we've had in the past year and how many marijuana-related incidents we've had? Could anybody give me an answer to that? Chief Ryan, can you come up with a quick answer on that? Frederick Ryan, Chief of Police, good evening, Fitz. I don't have that data exact. I can tell you from reading all of the police reports and sort of my anecdotal sense of the situation is it has not been problematic. Most of the restaurants are serving the people dining and having a fine meal, and we have not had any hot spot problems at any of our licensed liquor establishments. And part of that goes to our Health and Human Services and the Police Department work to train and be preventative with the alcohol service. Thank you, Chief. Thank you, sir. Mr. Carmen. Mr. Berger. No, Mr. Helmuth. Sorry. Eric Helmuth, Precinct 12. My question relates to alcohol outlet density, which is a public health principle. And my question is, does the local or state public health authority have a recommendation for the number of alcohol outlets that is, well, for lack of a better word, healthy for a population of the size of a ton of Arlington? And if so, would the proposed increase fall within that recommended limit? Would you know that, Ms. Planning Director? Carol, would you know that answer? No. OK. Eric? Christine? Where's Christine? She's hiding. Christine, do you have that answer? No. I don't know if anyone actually knows. No, no. I just wanted to know. Well, I don't know. Steve, can we give that a shot? I apologize. This is a good example of a question you should ask in advance and to give them some time to prepare. The chairman has a question. By the ABCC, I believe it is 61 for Arlington's density. 61 would be the maximum cap? Yes. For outlets, and this would bring us to? This will bring us to 20. Plus the stores, which is? This is just for all alcohol restaurant licenses. Thank you very much. Ms. Mahan? Diane Mahan, town meeting member, precinct 14, also a member of the Board of Select. And just for my colleagues here on town meeting certification, I just want to let you know that one of the motivating factors for this was in the beginning of 2014, I want to say in January, the Board received a piece of correspondence from an Arlington resident. I can see his name, but I don't want to say it in case I am not remembering correctly. But he's an Arlington resident. He is a chef currently in Somerville in Boston, who inquired that he was looking at a property in Arlington that he would like to open a restaurant. That was sort of, as I said before, the motivating factor that we discussed. Is this something we could allow? That's when we realized we're maxed out at 15. Going with ABCC practices, which I worked for years ago with the Mayor's Office of Consumer Affairs in Boston and ABCC, we usually go in increments of five. The Chairman previously stated by density how many were allowed. So besides the fact that we have no more to give out at 15, and we're going for an additional five, we do have a request from an Arlington resident who is a chef that would like to have this as an adjunct to a future possible business here in Arlington. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Wagner? Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Carl Wagner, Precinct 11. I came to this meeting tonight from the wonderful Teriah Restaurant, where I had a large sake, which was great. And I had it with my dinner, which also was great. And since I grew up in this town, it was a dry town then. I think one of the reasons restaurants succeed here now is that many of them have liquor licenses. However, I'm concerned that I don't go back to my college days of just having bars in Arlington. So Mr. Moderator, is there anybody who can say, does Arlington now allow the opening of bars? Would this sort of thing we're expanding upon or are we still basically keeping to restaurants with liquor? Well, I've got three people raising their hands. Doug, can you answer that? Doug Heim, Town Council. I hope everybody can hear me tonight. The answer is that this is a very limited expansion. It doesn't affect that in any way, shape or form. It's only limited not only to all alcohol licenses at restaurants but all the other regulations still exist that you have to have a convic in order to serve this type of alcohol in that type of setting. Mr. Moderator, might I ask to the appropriate person, could I open a bar tomorrow in Arlington with appropriate licensing if I wanted to? No. No. Doug, you have to speak right into the mic. You're tall. No. Thank you. Thank you. I guess I support the idea that restaurants that serve dinners or lunches in Arlington should have the right to have alcohol on their tables. Thank you. Thank you. Sean, have anything? Sean? Sean Arlington, precinct 15. From what I'm reading, to make sure I have this correct, Mr. Moderator, this isn't about us saying that we want five more restaurants to be able to have liquor. We don't want to be able to have a discussion on it or be able to have the residents decide for themselves. So we're not actually choosing to, let's go ahead with it right now. We're basically furthering the debate, am I correct? We're not granting them tonight. We're just going to put it on the ballot for the folks to vote on. So basically right now with the concerns some people have, I would say right now all we're doing is furthering the debate. We're making sure that we can have a discussion on it. I know that some of my neighbors were concerned about this. So being concerned, I said, you know, it allows for us to talk about it as a town and see whether or not we want to go ahead with this. I mean, to quote 1776, I've never heard of something so controversial it couldn't be talked about. So I'd say if you do have concerns about it, that's great. Let's vote on the ballot for this. Let's have all the residents have a say on it. It's worth the discussion and it'll be a healthy one. Thank you. Thank you, sir. John Warden. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. John Warden, precinct 8. Well, as a couple previous speakers have referenced, those have been around for a while. Remember a time when you couldn't get a drink in Arlington unless you got invited to the Legion or the Knights of Columbus or somewhere like that where you could. But some very enterprising members of our community, one of whom Ms. Barron spoke earlier this evening was Roger Barnaby, had the idea of promoting licenses for wine and beer and that was the alternative. Under the state law, you can have one such facility for every thousand people so that would have been, you know, we could have 40 places in Arlington which would be a few too many. But they had this idea of the wine and beer licenses and that worked very well. That is what brought the restaurant industry to Arlington is we had all these restaurants opened up. They could serve wine and beer which, frankly, I think is all you need with a meal. And then they liberalized the law, or this meeting did, so that you didn't have to have 50 seats. You could have, you know, wine and beer at the three table restaurant theoretically. So that's really what got the restaurant thing going. Then somebody said, well, we got to have the hard stuff too. And so we started with five. And then we got 10. And now we got 15. And so, you know, and now they're asking for 20. You know, that's half as many as we have if we had just adopted the state law which we used to have to vote on every year in the ballot and we always turned it down. So I suggest that maybe enough already. We have, you know, the gentleman early asked the question, could I open a bar room? And the answer was legally no. Well, I was in a restaurant, one of Arlington's many fine restaurants, 15 fine restaurants that have all alcohol licenses, I might say. And I won't say which one the other night. And there's only a couple of us at tables because it was late. But there were quite a jolly crowd sitting around the bar. Now, I don't know that they were all having a late dinner. It seemed to me it was a pretty liquid meal. But be that as it may, I would say, you know, if you could, if they would promise this chef this nice fella from Somerville wants to open a restaurant, I mean, he could, this Arlington resident who wants to open a restaurant. I mean, he could serve wine and beer and it seems to me that would get him going. But if somebody would undertake to open one that had, you know, maybe reasonable prices and enough lights he could read the menu and a noise level that was somewhat below a leaf blower at 10 feet, then maybe I could be persuaded. But otherwise, I think, you know, let's sort of stop at this point. And the other point is these 15 people who have set up these restaurants and are serving this alcohol with meals, of course, you know, should, is it fair to them to bring in more competition? You know, they've set up here, they've invested a lot of money building their facilities and, you know, they're trying to, they're trying to make living. Suddenly you're going to, you're going to increase the competition by 30%. That doesn't seem entirely fair to me. So I would suggest that we don't take this additional step. Thank you. Mr. Deist. John. John Deist, precinct 13. I, my wife and family were here and I were here when there was no liquor or beer in any restaurant in the town. The town was like a desert. It was truly sad. And when Ms. Baron and Roger Barnaby finally were able to prevail in town meetings so that we did have wine and liquor in the town, this enormous business flourished here. We are known now for our restaurants. Now, the previous speaker spoke of competition. There's nothing better than a competition to make for good restaurants in the town. Look at New York City. There's gigantic competition in New York City. I think myself that the selectmen have done an excellent job so far of managing this process. And I think we should put it before the voters and let the voters look at what's happened to the town and I'd be willing to bet that it's a prevailing yes. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir, Mr. Corbett. Right there in the back, too, from the back. Isn't that you?   Hey, dude, do you want to speak? Yeah. Yep. Did you have your hand up? Yeah. Yeah, you're up. Mike McCabe. I'm sorry, Mike. Michael McCabe, precinct 2. I stand to terminate all debate on article 2 and all matters before it. Okay, we have a motion to terminate debate on article 2 and all matters before it. All in favor, please say yes. Really, let's try this again. All in favor, please say yes. Yes. Opposed, say no. No. My opinion is a two-thirds vote. We have now the force to recommend a vote of the board of selectmen on article 2 and a special town meeting. All in favor, please say yes. Yes. Opposed? No. Mike? No. You want to use the click? We have four people vote. What's that? Okay. Doug wants to get a recommended vote. All right. So, Mr. Flynn, are you ready with your machine? Now, again, we're recommended vote of the board of selectmen. Once I say vote, you can vote. Number one is yes. Number two is no. Three is abstained. I just got into old habits voting yes and no. Okay. So, vote. Vote. Okay. Here we go. Lock it down. 187 in the affirmative. 22 in the negative. The article passes. That's a positive vote. And I so declare it. That brings us to article 3. Recommended vote of finance. Amendments of 2014 budgets. We have a recommended vote of the finance committee for $15,000 for AYCC. $43,000 for the Edburn arena. Anyone want to address this? Or anyone have any questions about this article? Okay. Now, since no one does, let's just take a voice vote. All in favor, please say yes. Yes. Opposed? It's unanimous vote. And I so declare it. That closes article 4. It brings us to article 3. It brings us to article 4. Appropriation 2014 collective bargaining. A recommended vote of the finance committee for 2.75% general wage increase $89,000. Mr. Carmen. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Dean Carmen precinct 20. A few questions. So the article says it's a 2.75% general wage increase for the patrolmen. And then in the comment it says with this wage action, all unions are now under contract due to June 30, 2015. So what's the increase for just 2.75 one year, two years, 2.75 each year? Mr. Chapter Lane as the bargaining official. Adam chapter Lane town manager. So the vote tonight is for the FY 14 piece of the contract. This contract though extends the patrolmen to be uniform with all the other units that were voted on last year. So it does represent a 2.75% increase as of July 1, 2013, as well as a 2.75% increase as of July 1, 2014. And then the contract will expire on June 30, 2015. And then just as a refresher, when we say all unions are now under contract, I think we voted on a lot of these last year. Correct. So what was the general wage approval last year? Do you remember like the range of settlements? They were all that figure. 2.75. Okay. And then when you say all unions this includes the school? It does not. It does not. In terms of that figure. Well, no, when you say all unions are now under contract, does the school under contract? The school is under contract through the same duration. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, if you just indulge me for one second, I asked those questions because and I'm going to try to stay within the scope of the article, but I will wonder slightly on this one. It was a small bit of what I'm going to call a setup question. Later on tonight and later on this in town meeting, we are going to vote on the FY 2015 budget. If you go to your FY 2015 budget, we are going to be entering the year after the three-year plan. So year four after the plan.  Oh, I'm so sorry. Page D1. D1? D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. D1. 4%, you're doing something else besides bringing back all the people. But that is a discussion that we're going to have later on in this meeting. But I wanted to point it out tonight, because one of the things I think becomes very difficult is we have all of these numbers and all of these articles, and they're flowing back and forth, and it's very difficult to keep your head wrapped around what's going on. So I just wanted to point out that when we get to that later on, I'm probably going to reference that. I just wanted to, in a few nights, lay it at my basis. Thank you. Mr. Jamison. Thank you, Mr. moderator. Gordon Jamison, precinct 12, while we're on that subject, the 2.75, am I correct, that does not include reclassifications, steps, and longevity? Mr. Chaplain. Adam Chaplain, town manager, that is correct. Okay. So that's part of the difference. The second part of the difference is I happen to go through the budget before coming to the meeting tonight, because we are going to get to it pretty soon, and I, as long-term members know, I pay attention to these things like Mr. Karman. There are a few places where modest staffed increases have been made, and I found that most of those to be very appropriate for the services we're being provided. That's all. Bye. Thank you very much, Mr. Deist. John Deist, precinct 13, and a member of the Finance Committee. I'm here to support Dean Karman and what he said just a moment ago, and on, again, on page D1, you go far off to the right column, which is called FY 2020. You see at the bottom there, $12,834,792 in parentheses. That's a negative number. That's what we're going to have to go for in terms of an override at about that time. So along with Dean and a number of, and probably most of the rest of the Finance Committee, we are fretting about the fact that we are consistently going well beyond the 2.5% that is allowed by law year after year after year. I don't know what the answer is, but we're going to have to address it somehow. Thank you very much. Mr. Tosti. I agree with the comments that both of my colleagues on the Finance Committee made, and this goes up to 2015. I just want to remind you that at that last five years of contracts, two of them had 0%.  But starting next year, especially with the low inflation, the manager and the superintendent and school committee are going to have to bargain very tough on that to maintain reasonable personnel costs. But I just want you to look at the whole last five years as opposed to just one year. Thank you, sir. Mr. Harrington, Stephen? Stephen Harrington, Precinct 13. I didn't know this was going to come up tonight, so, but I'm glad it did. Because if you look down at the same page, D1, you look at items C and D, pensions and insurance, that's pensions and healthcare. So those are the benefits. So we just heard about salaries, but now look at the benefits line, 5.92%, 4.5%. When you look at the costs of employees, and you see these are costs that are what I call forever costs. And so when you see an increase in a forever cost, you really have to pay attention. So the cost of our employees isn't just the personnel costs at 4%, 40% more of the costs of those employees are in their pension and healthcare costs. And you're seeing not 4% increases, you're seeing almost 6% increases. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Thank you, sir. Mr. Wagner? Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Carl Wagner, Precinct 11. I move the question and all associated matters. We have a motion to debate on the article and all matters underneath it. For our two-third vote, all in favor, please say yes. Yes. Opposed? No. In my opinion, it is a two-third vote. Well, everybody seems to like the clicker, so we're going to use it again. Mr. Flynn? Ready? Okay. Go ahead and vote. We already terminated the debate. We already voted that. We were voting on the article. Did you all not understand that? You got three seconds left to vote. Quickly vote on the article. Time's up. Did you all understand we were voting on the article? Yes. Okay. Okay. I thought since I terminated the debate, but I'll do that next time. We have 194 in the positive, 17 in the negative. It's a positive vote on the article, and I so declare it, that's article 4. Now we're moving on to article 5. Mr. Tosti? We had originally recommended no action on this article because we were going to take care of this in the capital budget and the annual town meeting. However, because of a number of factors with the sub-bids coming in, we might have to take action on this, but we won't know about it until May 8th when the final bids come in on the contract. Therefore, in order to have the most flexibility, I'm going to recommend to you that we table this article, and then when we get to the end of the special town meeting, I'm going to ask that we adjourn the special town meeting rather than dissolve it, adjourn it to May 12th when we will have the final numbers on the bids, and we can determine whether we're going to vote no action on this or we're going to have an amount of money in this. So at this point, I make a motion to table this article 5. I have a motion to table. In favor, please say yes. Yes. Opposed? Okay. The motion, it is tabled. That would bring us to article 6, appropriation of peer school elementary school repair. The finance committee recommend to vote for $25,863 as stated. So seeing if anyone up front wants to address it. No, Mr. Leonard, you have Mr. Leonard, you are recognized. Thank you, Mr. moderator, John Leonard, precinct 17. Mr. moderator, I wonder, my first question would be for the benefit of the town meeting, could we have the nuts and bolts of an explanation of what the actual municipal building insurance fund is and does? We have insurance on our buildings, but we have a deductible. I believe it's $100,000 deductible. So the building insurance fund is for us to cover all the deductibles if they take place. So in this case, the $25,863 falls below that deductible. It's our responsibility. So we're asking to transfer the money from the building insurance fund to fund these repairs. Is there any kind of legislation or hearing or movement going on as of right now as to an investigation of the cause and action to be taken in regards to the pipes and the damage done to the school? Is it under any kind of discussion, legislation wise? Adam, you still want anybody? Adam chapter lane town manager. So the cause of the problem was a faulty drive on the heating system and that faulty drive and the connection to the larger HVAC system. It's since been repaired. The problem was identified, repaired. There was no one we could go after and there was no warranty that we could go after, but we did identify the source of the problem and repair it. According to an article in the advocate dated the 16th of January this year, a comment was made that, and I quote, we're looking at it now to see why it failed, but it's in the software system. Is that a contradiction to what you just might have said, Adam, or this article dated in January's edition is claiming it was in the software? Adam chapter lane town manager. I'm not positive that it was in the software, but it could have been the software connected to the drive that failed. But it was, if it was the software, the software caused the drive to fail and cause the damage. Could I ask whatever kind of guarantees if at all not being computer literate that we have for software in the system, especially in other parts of the schools? Is there any guarantees of software failing? We have any kind of maintenance, any coverage, anything at all? I'm unclear. Guarantees in regards to just ongoing performance of the software? Well, as I say, the article states that the software was in question. The software was there when the school was built. So I guess that the present person handling the software is saying you can't blame us. So I'm just wondering was there any possibility of just to be blunt blaming the original person who put the software at any kind of guarantees? We're basically saying software fails. That's it. You can't do anything about it. I don't think we could go back to the original installer of the software. I suppose if anybody was to blame, it could be the current, it could be the maintenance of the software and making sure that it was working properly. But I don't think there's anybody we can go back after in terms of a guarantee from the software company. So my last question would be then that as we're taking this $25,000 out of the insurance fund due to the fact that there's no litigation going on, there's no reimbursement coming down the road to put it back into the insurance fund for this. We just eat the $25,000. That would be the case, correct? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. You're welcome. Anyone else wish to address this article? Sir. William Burke, precinct 17. We seem to be running into this situation all the time. We just rebuilt the school and then we find that the software doesn't work or we have a freeze-up because of something. Now this reflects back to our beautiful place department building. And look at the mess that is. Millions and millions of dollars to correct it. There's something wrong with how we're letting out our bids. There's something wrong with how we're building things. Here you got a school that is nearly 100 years old, the old Russell Elementary School, and it's still in fine shape because it was built better. And yet we knocked down schools that are 40 years old and oh, we'll start all over and build a new one. Oh, we've got so doggone much money we can do this all the time. There should be a way that we can go back after the contractor, the architect, or someone who is responsible for this system. And I think we're a bunch of done fools if we don't. This is getting out of hand. We're going to have to rebuild the high school and then we've got the Minuteman and we've got another elementary school that we've got to work on and we've got to really look at how we're putting out the bids. Mr. Burke, want to reel it into the scope of the article a little bit there, 25 grand? Yeah. Okay. I think that we should investigate this very, very hard and see if we can't find someone who's responsible for this $25,000 worth of damage. Thank you. Thank you. We are not the English Parliament. Anyone else wish to address this article? Sir? Mr. Fuller. Hello, Mr. James. Peter Fuller, precinct 20, just a footnote to this whole issue. As I understand it, a lot of the water damage came from a burst pipe above the school library, ruined a lot of their books, and a bunch of fifth graders at Pierce stepped up and did some fundraising and got a bunch of donations and basically restocked the whole place at no cost to the town. So I think they deserve our thanks for stepping up and doing a shining example of community service. Thank you. Mr. Jamison. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Gordon Jamison, precinct 12, another footnote. One of the brightest moments every year at town meeting is getting the report from the Permanent Town Building Committee, who routinely year after year brings projects in on time and under budget. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anyone else wish to address this article? Seeing none. All right. We're going to take a recommended vote on this article. Mr. Flynn. We're ready. Oh, darn it. See, that's the problem. It's a simple majority. All in favor, please say yes. Opposed? Okay. It is a positive vote and I so declared it's an anonymous vote. Sorry, Steve. That brings us to article seven, which is a two-thirds vote transfer fund stabilization fund. The, I'm going to play with this for a second, because they recommended $500,000 appropriating and transferred to special education stabilization fund. Does anyone want to address this article? Because this is a two-thirds vote, we are going to use our machines. What's that? Oh, Mr. Fuller, I'm sorry. Peter Fuller from Precinct 20. I couldn't find it in the reports. I just wondered what is the present balance of this special education stabilization fund before we make this transfer? Mr. Tosti. $500,000. So once we empty it, is it still going to be on the books and can money go back into it in the future at some point? Leave those decisions up to the controller. What happened? Just a little background. This fund was created last year and it was from a transfer from the school budget at the end of last year into this fund to help in cases of sharp increases in special education costs. And I think as the superintendent and school committee has mentioned many times, often these special education costs go up and down very drastically without warning. And unfortunately, this is one of the year the special education costs went up fairly drastically. So they're requesting this transfer, which last year came from their own budget. So it will wipe out the account. Thank you. That's clear. Vote yes. Thank you. Anyone else wish to address the article? Okay. We're going to vote on the recommended vote of the finance committee. Mr. Flynn. See someone? Okay. We're ready to go. Everybody can go ahead and vote. Okay. It is 209 in the positive, one, two in the negative. The vote is a positive vote and I sort of clear it. That brings us back to article 5, which was tabled. So we want to postpone the rest of the meeting. As I mentioned to you before, on the reason for this, I ask that the special town meeting be adjourned to Monday, May 12th. We have a motion to adjourn to special town meeting to Monday, May 12th. We have a second. All in favor? Yes, sir. Oh, a motion. All in favor, please say yes. Yes. Opposed? It is adjourned. It's a reconsideration on the special town meeting. Seeing none. Okay. That brings us back to the regular town meeting, article 12. We are in the middle of it. As you recall, article 12 was Mr. Harrington's substitute motion. We're basically, we're seeking to establish parking fines for inside the Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Okay, Mr. Deist, I got you. $25.50 and some other dollar amount thereafter. We're not talking about the condition of the roads. We're not talking about people cutting through. We're talking about giving the police the authority to issue $25 fines. None of those other things, we kind of go off topic the other night. So let's kind of keep it in that realm, in that scope. The first on the list from the other night was Mr. John Maher.  Thank you, Mr. Maher. John Maher, precinct 14. Mr. Jameson, you will be getting a report from the Perman Town Building Committee from our esteemed chair. And we take great pride in our projects coming on time under budget. Unfortunately, one project that has not been on time as a community safety building repair. And I think that has exacerbated the parking issue over by Mount Pleasant Cemetery. That project is coming to a close. And I fully expect that the parking of cars there by various contractors will be abated very soon. So that's my comment. I do have a question, though. Fred Ryan's office is the corner office at community safety building. He has a very direct view. He is our chief enforcement officer. And I would like to ask him most respectfully for his perspective and whether or not he has any suggestions as the solution does to the problem of parking at Mount Pleasant. Thank you, Mr. moderator. Thank you, Mr. Maher. I apologize if I created any confusion the other night or I didn't clearly answer the question. Please accept my apology. I think this warrant article is a blunt instrument to try to address an alleged parking problem of about 100 or 150 feet in a very large cemetery in Arlington. The photos that were put up here the other night were intentionally inflammatory and taken at sort of extreme moments during construction or other events going on around the building. What's important to us is that we get back to some sense of normalcy around the community safety building, get the construction of the building done, get National Grid to complete their utility work on Mystic Street, and then study the problem to see what exactly is the problem. What Tom Meading is being asked to do here pursuant to this article is to fix a problem that we haven't clearly identified yet. And I think the cart is before the horse. Furthermore, to my knowledge and I may stand corrected, I don't know of any instance where we've legislated parking policy and I don't know of any municipality that legislates parking policy. And I think it's a dangerous precedent for this time meeting in their wisdom to begin to legislate each and every parking issue within the town of Arlington because our warrant is going to fill next year with parking requests for legislative action to fix special interest parking problems around town. We have a community room in the community safety building. It's widely used by Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and other little league and other children's groups. I don't see me directing Arlington police officers to say to Mav or to the cemetery to issue parking tickets to our nonprofit groups that use that community safety building and sometimes have to rely on that parking. And lastly, I'll just say that I question the enforceability if you were to pass this. That's a very large cemetery. I've happened upon artists who were taking artist renderings of the foliage and they would be subject to fine under this foreign article. So again, I asked Tom eating and you wisdom not the legislative parking policy to allow us to get back to some sense of normalcy. We'll evaluate the parking situation and take corrective action as needed. The infrastructure issues that Mr. Chapter Lane mentioned the other night are going to move forward. There will be no parking on graves because the infrastructure simply won't allow it. Thank you for listening. I strongly urge you to vote no on this article. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Monterita. Leanne Fitzgerald, Precinct 21. I'm standing in support of this article. My mother is buried at Mount Pleasant. I'm a frequent visitor and I happen to be down there today and noticed several Winchester policemen parked on that street doing a detail. So with all due respect, Chief Lyon, I feel like this is a way to have town staff not penalized. So if you could speak to that, I would appreciate it. Chief, can you answer her question? Thank you, Mr. Monterita, Frederick Ryan, Chief of Police. I'm sorry, could you repeat the question? Well, I noticed a lot of Winchester policemen parked there today doing details on Mystic Street. And my sense is that you don't want this to be legislated because the people that would be most affected by it would be actual town personnel or civic, civil personnel. Well, again, well, that's not true. The folks that live at the corner of Sageham and Mystic Street also park along there and their guest park along there. So that's not entirely true. But again, there was a major detour today with that national with that national grid project, and it consumes all of our on-street parking. And so to try to identify the scope of a problem during a major utility construction project, excuse the results. I don't know what the problem is until we get all that construction complete, get the construction complete at the Community Safety Building, and then try to evaluate what, if any, problem there is. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. I disagree that this can't be rectified sooner. I'm very upset about the state of the cemetery. I feel completely disrespected whenever I go down there. And I'm just asking for the support on this article. Thank you. John Dunn, did you have your hand up the other day? No. Did someone next to you? No. No, it wasn't you, Peter. I'll have you later. Mr. Ruderman. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Michael Ruderman, Precinct 9. We've heard our chief of police tell us on a number of occasions when questions have been referred to him in his official capacity and expertise. How would you go about enforcing this? How will your officers handle a particular change in the bylaws or the enforcement of something that's been proposed? And he has invariably come back to us with an argument for reason and discretion. That he and his officers are trained to exercise reason and discretion in all things. And that we needn't fear the unreasonable and rampant enforcement to the nth degree of something that might be technically in violation and yet really isn't harming anyone. So I'm sure this question of what would fall into the scope of parking for cemetery purposes would be handled with that same reason and discretion that if someone were there to admire the nature artistically, if someone were there to meditate contemplatively, if someone were there simply to visit the statuary and the sculptures, I'm sure that he and his officers would recognize that someone parked for those cemetery purposes was in legitimate use and exercise reason and discretion. So I don't believe a word of anyone saying that this is the beginning of some sort of slippery slope into legislating parking in special instances all over town. I would say that this is not about any one particular front, although it certainly brings it to the attention of the membership here, and that's a good thing. I think we pulled the membership, most of us, nearly all of us would raise our hands and saying that there was something that really upset us at first and caused us to run for town meeting to have a say about something. We all got angry about something at some point and decided that we wanted to do something about it. So here we are. The Cemetery Commission has been saying in their own comments and notes and minutes and meetings for at least as far back as seven years and probably more than that, they can't get a handle on what they perceive as a problem. Shall we defer to their expertise? They are entrusted by us through their appointments by the select bin to be the custodians. And they say there's a problem. And they say they haven't been able to get a handle on it. And I think having something intermediate between ignoring what's happening now, which includes not just parking during a temporary construction situation, but commuter parking and resident parking and cut through parking and all manner of parking by anyone who has the nerve to know that that no parking sign really doesn't mean no parking because all they really can do is tow the car and nobody's going to really tow the car, are they? Well, we need something intermediate between ignoring the fact that there's a problem and towing the car. It's a ticket. It really sounds simple to me. It's simple to you. Please vote in favor. About the substitute motion. Thank you. Thank you. Peter, now it's your turn. Peter Fiori. Peter Fiori, precinct two. It seems to me it's a parking problem. Everything I've heard may be resolved if there was a time limit. And I'm not prepared to introduce a substitute motion or amend this, but I don't know why anybody would be on any kind of business in the cemetery more than a couple of hours. If they have to park there, nobody should be parking there 24 hours. So I don't know how I'm not going to try to amend it, but it seems to me that's the solution rather than something really heavy-handed and that penalizes artists and everybody else, but there ought to be time limits. I've got you, man. You're on the list. Yep. Carl Wagner was next. Oh, do you want to get on there? Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Carl Wagner, precinct 11. I move to terminate debate on the question. We have a motion to terminate debate on the question and all matters before it. Let's do this one by clicker. Mr. Flynn. Okay, it's a two-thirds vote to terminate. Yes, we're going to turn. This is a two-thirds vote to terminate debate. We're just waiting on our wonderful machine. Okay, go ahead and start voting to terminate debate. One is yes, two is no. Okay, time's up. Let's see what our count is. 127 to 87. The debate is not terminated. 82. It's not a two-thirds vote. It's failed. Next on the list is Mr. Chappett. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Roland Chappett, precinct 12. I rise to ask that you defeat the substitute motion. Give me a couple of reasons why. The cemetery is open all the time. There were no gates on there. And, quote honestly, I've used the cemetery as a birder. Somebody who goes out there and looks and watches for seagulls and hawks and ravens and writing. I'm sure there are other members in town meeting that have done the same thing. In fact, one day I watched a mink catching fish in the brook. Fascinating. But I was essentially not there for burial purposes, obviously. So I'd like to make a couple of suggestions. Number one, vote the substitute motion down. Number two, commend Mr. Harrington for bringing up this issue. It is a serious problem and it needs to be resolved. And so, personally, you don't have to do this on your... Well, do it on your own, of course. But I can tell him that you appreciate the fact that he brought up this issue and it needs to be reviewed and some action taken on it. And thirdly, ask the town manager to have some new signs put up and the new signs would say, okay, to use the cemetery for non-burial purposes for two hours. Just two hours. I never spend two hours watching birds down there and I'm sure the other folks who are wandering around or walking in the cemetery probably would be able to make it within two hours. So, give it some thought. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mr. Smith? Pass. Mr. Hainer? Bill Hainer, precinct two. Ellington has a need for parking. No question about that. The largest parking lot we have is 100, 200 yards down the road. This is a town that prides itself on being healthy. Take a little walk. That's all I'm suggesting. And as far as the construction vehicles and police details and stuff like that, the town has the authority to quadrant off a piece of that parking lot for those people and walk back up the street. It's not that far. Thank you. New guy, right in front. Right there, looking at his machine. Yep, you. Carefully waiting my turn. Christopher Moore from precinct 14. Playing with your thing. You're not supposed too bad. Name the precinct. Christopher Moore, precinct 14. We are a legislative body here and we have an enforcement problem. But it's not enforced for some reason or other. I'm concerned that we are adding a regulation that may also not be enforced. So I'm wondering if I could ask through the moderator who might enforce this regulation and if they're willing to do it. The police enforce it. Are they willing to? Well, they have to enforce all the bylaws of the town. I don't think they have a choice. But Mr. Doug is Mr. Heim wants to address that. I think he had your hand up there. Oh, okay, fine. And is anyone willing or able to answer the question of how we might improve enforcement of the existing regulation if we do not adopt this. Chief. Thank you, Mr. moderator Frederick Ryan. Chief, please. Good evening. So the existing condition. I noticed some confusion on that the other night. I hope I can bring some clarity to that. Under the existing condition. The Board of Selectment has not through the traffic rules and orders made this a no parking zone which they have the authority to do. Which is why we typically don't legislate parking issues. The Cemetery Commission has determined it to be a no parking area. So under article seven of the town bylaws as well as a handful of chapter 90 mass general law for motor vehicle law we could tow violators or site them for motor vehicle trespass which is obviously a drastic measure and something that we would use rarely and we try to get the vehicle moved before we tow anybody and cause all that expense. But, you know, to that point and further than Mr. Ruderman's point you know, if we enact this even if we choose not to enforce it for the bird watcher or the artist or whoever it gives a police officer the authority to stop and detain and further investigate and perhaps impose in somebody's freedom temporarily and is that something you know we want going on in our cemetery. Again the foot section of a huge cemetery I think that through the good work of the manager and the DPW director we fix the infrastructure issues and the curbing issues to prevent damage to any of the cemeteries nobody agrees that they should be damaged and then we evaluate the problem and all the construction is gone. Thank you. Did I answer your question? Generally yes. Thank you sir. So it sounds that the Board of Selectmen would be responsible typically for creating and regulating this as a no parking zone. Is that correct? Yes sir. It's correct. And in the Board of Selectmen's report they say quote this article proposes to codify parking regulations in Mount Pleasant Cemetery into the bylaws but they argue then that this is not really necessary because it's kind of already done but I think what we've heard tonight and last night was that it's not really quite done it seems that either we have to do it or the Board of Selectmen has to do it and I'm not entirely sure which is the right way to do it we've heard some arguments on both sides so I'm not sure what I'm doing on this one but anyway thank you. Thank you sir. Joe Curran it's your turn finally even though your arm keeps going like that Joe Curran, precinct 13 and I'd like to thank Town Meeting for listening to me tonight and I also want to remind everybody today's National Honesty Day so I'm sure everybody up here is telling the truth This subject is near and dear to a lot of people but I just want to make it simple it's a sacred ground burial grounds it's wherever you go throughout the country the condition of that cemetery isn't what it should be I know I'm trying to stay on scope here but my feeling is that I just went through this when you have elderly parents you have to pay for cemetery plots and so on and so forth and you pay for something called perpetual care perpetual care means that property is going to be maintained for your loved one for the rest of eternity supposedly and there's funds for that and for all the veterans and all the people that paid them sacrificed their lives for us and for us not to acknowledge that and take care of sacred territory like that it kind of hurts me in a separate way plus I have loved ones that are in there years ago when I was a kid they used to close the gates to the cemetery on one side and on the Sajim Street side there was a chain where the cemetery began if that chain went up and only authorized people that have to access and work in the cemetery had access to that that would relieve a lot of the parking there wouldn't have to be an enforcement because people couldn't get in that way I don't think it creates a public safety issue unless we have to have police cars and fire apparatus rip through those small streets to get somewhere fast so I think it's kind of just segregates it in such a way that it can be maintained by the town by town workers it can be accessed at appropriate times and we're not infringing upon anybody's rights we're not infringing upon the neighbors and it's pretty simple if it's for cemetery business it should be for cemetery business go in pay homage to your loved ones respected us in their own way and maintain it properly that's all I have to say about that it's pretty simple you go in there to pay your respects you take good care of it you turn around you go out and if we could put the gates and stop the gates at 7 o'clock or 8 whatever they deem responsible there is an issue it can be resolved this way if people want to put their heads together you put a chain up done and there's no there's no real wiggle room then and you can go in and do your business and take care of who you have to take care of and hopefully that I hope people could take a look at that as a resolution thank you for listening to me Mr. O'Connor is going to be the next speaker on the list do you want to take your break now or after Mr. O'Connor now okay we come back Mr. O'Connor has the list we're going to go for a 7 minute break we'll see you in 7 minutes another 10 minutes