We're here with a big dead Fino. Hi. Hi. Hello. So who are you? I'm car. Nice to meet you guys And this is your tent right here. Yeah. Yeah, so can you show? Yes, okay? I'll show you how to replace it this Open it will be in the back. Oh, and I was quick. Yeah, very quick This is a two in one the power and when you get the only one to use it must close the boss one Then use this power 10 seconds That's really cool So is this your design, yeah, this is our pattern item pattern either. What is the name you call it picked at Fino tent? Yeah, you know incredible incredible It's solid you can push it with the guy like you can do what we have full guy like this we have the full guy like the Staker Nice, we have four guy like the staker you can push it with here The guy like and nobody else do this design is in China this one only we do now. Yeah We have our logo quarter in short and you If you take our logo MOQ is 100 pieces and the price is $34 If people want to have their logo they need how many pieces? Oh, yeah, all the MOQ is 300 pieces Let's say 300 so you have a big factory. Oh, yes, we have a big factory in Dongguan No, no to Shenzhen. Do you do other products also? Yeah, we have What is this? What is this stuff? This is the air pillow air pillow. Maybe there's a little same design. How does it work? Yeah, this is for release You have to blow it with your mouth to fill it up or you can do it with machine also This is let's touch here. Oh The edge No need mouth no need mouth only make the best press here to add air how many times you have to push to fill it up about About 15 seconds one five seconds Boom and then you have a comfortable flight. Yeah one layer on air on ten on always read very good Nice for many clothes here What kind of price do you need to talk about this? This is, our local MOK is $100 and $2.7 Do you have other cool stuff? Yes, maybe the other one is almost the same It has a different color, right? No, different color, they are different like this one Same, but come with an eye mask If somebody needs an eye mask too less And also this one This one is the same size, but different fibers This is VIP, this is a... This is a novella First class and economy class Yes, maybe this is a boss, this is an aqua So this is what? This is a novella Is it cheaper or more expensive? Expensive, a little expensive than this one $2.85 Oh my god, $0.15 more, it's amazing This is $2.7, this is $2.85 And what do we see on the wall? Is that a bunch of new different things? We also have a pillow Pillow? Yes, a pillow And also have a sleeping pillow, like 11 And it's also the same? Yes, same Cool, comfortable pillow? Yes, comfortable pillow, like packing is like this Nice Yes, a pillow, a sleeping pillow How many inflatable things do you manufacture every month? Every month We at least If different, they are producing different Maybe this one Every month we can produce about $20,000 $20,000 $20,000 and a tent? The tent may be less, because the tent is more cumbersome They are very big and about... $3,000 to $5,000 And how many people in the factory? Our factory is about 50 to 100% Because some things we hire part-time workers Are you the CEO? No, I'm the sales manager And the company is old? Our company functions for about 20 years But we sell the outdoor items for about 7 years We have shown in Central Hachang North And before we sell the tech cable We sell the charger We sell the case But you know, that one is very, very... If somebody wants to make a different design for the tent You can consider it If they want to change something like the shape and everything Your engineer can make a new design Yeah, you can ask your design Then we can make a sample for you But at first you need to make a design for us Right


And in business needs to transform lives and inspire hopes across the continent, the European Union has launched a campaign to underline its long-standing partnership with Africa. The campaign tag we see Africa run simultaneously in Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, and built on a previous one conducted across seven other African countries from 2020 to 2021.  Meanwhile, young Nigerians whose journeys have been captured by the European Union share their thoughts on how they can inspire other Africans. Nigeria is a key actor, and not only in Europe, and we will continue to develop our partnership in all possible fields. This is what we are doing. Last year, we launched a political dialogue, we have now a concrete road map, a plan with priorities, shared priorities on which we continue to work together, and these priorities almost cover everything. We also launched earlier this year, as you know very well, the new cooperation program, which will run until 2027, with 500 million euros until 2024, and which covers three main pillars. We need to teach young people about agriculture, bring them back, remind them that. Apart from the job opportunities that they have at the sustainability, how about helping our economy. Instead of always importing, importing, importing, we actually can produce these things here. Nigeria is a country of about 200 million people. Am I wrong or right? Around 200 million people. There's capacity, there's human force, there's workforce, and we have good soil to grow these things. So what is the problem? Education, educating people, helping them, giving them the support, and creating an environment that they can actually thrive in? I think it's very important that young people get involved when it comes to systems of organization, as well as not just social media, but to be in places where they can actually have influence, influence decisions, and be change makers beyond social media. And I think it's very important, and once again it's very innovative of the European Union to involve young people. And so you can hear from us and actually know what we feel and what we think, and that we can implement in our communities and society. And we work with phase of the pyramid women from Shikha, where these tomatoes are farmed. So we actually work with more income farmers and train them in how to farm properly, uptake the tomatoes and other vegetables that they produce and process them into short life foods that we can actually sell in supermarkets and retail stores nationwide. Because we need all to the foreign demand. In fact, I encourage our youth, let them call, skill is very important in one's life. I am a graduate, but yet I choose not to be working with anyone. And therefore I say, how do you start up my own business? How do I do it? When I came back from my studies, they were like, how do you a graduate come in to join Schumaking? I say, I am more seeing this thing just like a Schumaking. I am seeing factory.


t we welcome the opportunity for you to come in and explain your rationale as you did today and and perhaps some of those decisions we won't need public discussion on it and then others we will but I do think we think you have to look back at the initial promises what you know the conditions attached to your license and think about that I'm pleased that your slot machines are doing well I'm just at right now at this point okay as commissioner maybe it's commissioner soon again saying are you going to maybe do some kind of a another option you know for poker and maybe a more limited fashion sorry someone someone came in and so I when I was shaking my head no it was not at you it was don't come in no I'm so used to that jacket didn't even notice it don't come in but you know what we welcome all household co-workers I don't know if you're at home today or in your office but including every pet as part of our discussion but that you know so that's where I'm thinking is where there are changes you know perhaps director Wells we can establish some kind of a nothing that's going to create so much obstruction that's not efficient but perhaps coordinated notice and I know that Bruce hears season hears a lot and I know we get information through Joe but perhaps that's a coordinated front so that we are aware when changes are occurring I know and Todd you've you've informed me of this long before I join the commission but changes were made with respect to the promise those you know early promises in the application we understand the business will be evolving we also understand you haven't had well I don't think you've had a full year yet of 12 months of continued opening so we understand it's fluid we also understand that poker players may be more vocal than other players I I don't know but I think that's intelligence that we're going to listen to and also put it in the proper perspective but from my perspective today I think this is an important discussion for us to have so that you know somehow changes are are made too readily without our further consideration I also think it's an important stat and Joe I think you have this or maybe it's Bruce you Jack you have like more table games on the floor than your initial commitment if I understand correct that's correct and if I could just address your point about jobs for a second because I think that's a very important point part of the issue that we're facing right now is we have the jobs and we can't get people to fulfill the job so it's that's part of the consideration frankly as well yes and and I think that we're hearing that so widely and and I and and that is part of why you're coming in today and giving the full rationale was so important Jackie to rest to hear commissioners I gave my thoughts I want to give you another round of questions or comments that you want to make Commissioner O'Brien able do you want to share comment oh the the two issues I think have been discussed pretty substantially from my perspective which is the I mean the offerings particularly when you care when you compare to particular states you know I'm sure goes into the factor in terms of the amenities offered but the jobs implications in terms of not having an entire category of games what that could mean you know addressing that you're having trouble hiring people may be more of a safer outreach to offering retraining incentives to get these poker dealers retrained if it is a question of meeting bodies on the floor maybe that's something to look at and then I'm questioning whether we should have some sort of status for this topic because we have a stretch now about five months or so between the original estimate in terms of where you're coming from and if there's an uptick in queries to us on the topic I think maybe it might be better to sort of calendar this to have a check-in with Encore and MGM so that this is not something coming out in the press that then comes back to us that maybe I think we should be a little more proactive about checking in on this rather than the December timeline we initially talked about that's very helpful. Commissioner Cameron did you have additional comments or inquiries? No I think I understand both sides to this issue and I agree that we should continue to to certainly monitor did Mr. Band have a little more information? Yes I was going to go back I think that it's really important for Chris to comment on the lay of the land because I think poker is in flux correct Chris? Yes I can kind of tell you what's going on around the country. Rhode Island their over rooms are closed Connecticut both of them are open in Maine their over rooms closed New Hampshire which are card rooms all nine are open in New York three of the seven are open New Jersey three of the ten are open in Delaware one of the two are open Pennsylvania seven of the 11 are open in Maryland all four of them are open North Carolina they have one open Georgia one of the two are open Florida 25 the 27 are open in Arizona seven of the 12 are open Arkansas their one poker room is open in a moment here to turn the page in California 37 of the 48 are open Colorado for the five are open Illinois for the eight are open Indiana for the seven are open in Iowa for the nine are open in Kansas all three are open Louisiana five of 11 are open Michigan six of the eight are open in Minnesota three of six are open in Mississippi six of eight are open in Missouri four of six are open in Nevada 28 of 43 are open in New Mexico two of five are open in Ohio all six are open Oklahoma 10 of 12 are open Oregon 11 or 14 are open South Dakota three of six are open Texas all 35 are open Washington 14 of 20 are open West Virginia two of five are open and in Wisconsin one or four are open a lot of poker across the country I'll tell you that any other questions with that or very comprehensive Bruce thank you very helpful it does show though that it's not 100 across the country but there is a lot of poker still being played and it would be fascinating and I don't think we'll be able to get to build down on this but I wonder how much the the workforce shortage is playing into this or if it is a matter of what where poker is in as a favorable game right now so we can stay tuned and watch that Lorena and Bruce and and get the input from our the licensees Enrique, Commissioner Zuniga do you have more questions or comments for thank you just to reiterate perhaps the emerging conclusion that we'd love to hear about this as a matter of public interest in the future I'll reiterate the point I made before that I attribute a great difference when it comes to operational issues certainly on gaming who are for licensees and I think they've heard loud and clear the interest out there if we're getting a lot of inquiries and statements as Bruce says I know for sure that anchor is hearing them as well and taking them in consideration with everything else they hear including the rest of their operations so I look forward to more on this but for now I thank both Jackie for her initial remarks and Todd for you know the great framework for our authority which I think is broad but continue to think that you know difference here is the operating board and Bruce for all that great research on what's going on in the country before we break Chief Delaney do you have anything you wish to add or are you all set well I think I'm all set I think Todd incorporated my my my comments in with his as well so I think I'm all set excellent so Jackie thank you for first off your initial presentation and and then of course for responding to our you know request for this update we'll check in with you on some further updates on this and and just really you know I view it as somewhat just monitoring the ramping up efforts as as hopefully public health trends continue favorably in Massachusetts I know it's a difficult time right now but it's all knock on wood and and hope that you can continue to ramp up the business and also that these challenges around workforce will start to shift because it's really tough thank you and we'll continue to provide you with updates as requested or you know we can do that anytime yeah and and we know that so again we really appreciate you coming in we appreciate your transparency and frankness truly and it gives us the opportunity to to make sure we're doing our jobs as well so thank you okay all set commissioners Jackie can go talk to whoever was trying to to speak to her earlier okay excellent then if we could go on for item number six do folks feeling need a break now okay we'll go on to did I read that right I was agreeing on the break but I'm happy to be persuaded otherwise that I would love to go for a couple more items and then if we need to take a little bit of a short break for a bite but not much break if that's possible it is you know we are working toward a one o'clock finish so okay so Chief Skinner I'm looking for you there you are you always have a beautiful background thank you this is on MGM's beverage license thank you very much Nikisha sorry thank you good morning or good afternoon now since it's noon chair and commissioners for your review and consideration today is a request for approval of MGM Springfield's gaming beverage license renewal and their current license expires on August 15th at 2021 the renewal application was timely submitted on July 1st 2021 in accordance with the regulation which requires that the application be submitted 45 days before the current license expires the application was deemed administratively complete on July 27th just worked out some final details and documents that were owed but you have a copy of the full application in your packet with the exception of the certificate of insurance that didn't make it to the packet but I'm happy to circulate it after the meeting for anyone that deemed it necessary the renewal consists of MGM's master license which includes 24 licensed areas and I won't take precious time reading the names of all of them but you also have in your packet the appendix which details each of the areas including the floor plans a description of how the alcoholic beverages will be stored and secured it talks about whether bottle services offered at each of the venues hours of service and capacity and that's all the information required to be contained in the application I do want to call your attention to licensed area number 17 for an adjustment 17 is space previously occupied by a vendor crystal candle a crystal candle did not renew its contract with MGM and the space is currently vacant so we're not seeking license renewal for that area today there are two licensed areas that involve jointly responsible persons one is wall burgers just recently licensed and the other is regal cinema who was part of the initial license um or actually that I don't want to misspeak I don't know if they were part of the initial license because I wasn't on board but they were previously licensed is a better way to say that all the other licensed areas are operated by MGM and if approved this will be MGM second renewal I understand that MGM has a good record of compliance overall but I'm turning it over to IEB to speak to that and to report out their findings relative to compliance Loretta I don't know if you want to yeah I'm sorry I was on on mute for that um uh you know there has been a strong history of compliance um uh with no significant matters to of concern to note um you know Bruce I don't know if in the recent past you wanted to note anything like during these months of the um you know these past challenging months oh 17 months uh but feel free to uh to jump in on that uh Angela has full report on that oh awesome I uh of course I should have known I apologize Angela go right ahead oh yeah I prepared a brief statement touching on the three aspects of the team's audits and inspections relating to the noted areas detailed in the appendix of the gaming beverage license renewal application and after my my statement I'll be happy to answer any questions first with regards to storage and security of alcohol outlets listed in the application the IEB conducts routine inspections we complete physical inspections such as ensuring beer taps and our locked in alcohol storage areas are secured we also complete audits reviews and investigations using the surveillance system located in the state office the surveillance system enhances our ability to ensure compliance to state regulations and laws relating to alcohol by allowing reviews and investigations to be performed both proactively during our routine audits and through reviews and in follow up to any incidents that may occur on the floor when incidents do occur we continue to have good communications with MGM surveillance team and our gaming enforcement unit relating to all incidents related to compliance concerns the IEB routinely conducts reviews using the surveillance system if an incident does involve possible over service the IEB will review the patron's time on property the number of alcoholic beverage beverages served and which food and beverage employees serve the alcohol through these inspections and reviews the IEB has recorded minimal instances of alcohol related to non-compliance issues our observations both positive feedback and concerns are discussed with MGM compliance and are followed up with additional training or coaching for their employees if applicable lastly the IEB and MGM maintain a relationship with the alcohol beverage control control commission the ABCC routinely conducts unannounced onsite inspections reporting minimal issues to date in closing MGM has been very receptive to our findings and maintains exceptional compliance with regards to alcohol service and storage with that said the IEB recommends the renewal of MGM's liquor license for all related out all requested outlets and please let me know if you have any questions thank you Mikesha so as Angela you know stated it's also my recommendation that the commission approve MGM's gaming beverage renewal application I I do believe as part of the vote and I'm happy to take questions as well but as part of the vote there needs we need to make some amendment for that to account for the licensed area 17 the elimination of that from from your consideration questions for Mikesha and the IEB too thank you Mikesha you mentioned that cringled cringled is it cringled candle it might be cringled candle I'm sorry I've been saying crystal candle it might be okay no just I mentioned that only to clarify the it's the old church space right yeah and so it's your recommendation or part of the analysis that that area won't be licensed until there's another tenant that's right or I see that the tenant cringled it's not no longer licensed but the license from the space remains licensed I'm wondering of a couple of things you mean if it can be automatically transferred to a new tenant or or or remain or keep the area licensed without that tenant I have a couple of scenarios first I wonder if MGM would ever want to use it for special events like they what they have in the in the armory for example or if we can license that that area in short order as soon as they have another tenant it occur to me that I mean I'm sure we could do that second scenario but I know that that might be a having that license if you will might be a good asset towards occupying that space from a subsequent tenant are they okay with that at this point that's right commissioner a couple of things crystal kit the area is vacant and and cringle candle has not renewed so they will not be back as I understand it MGM doesn't have a definitive plan with respect to the space they are having internal discussions right now as to how to you know repurpose it but I think that they do plan to operate it themselves and not lease it out again discussions are still happening so they haven't made any final plans the example you gave about the armory and utilizing this space for special events in the same way that's definitely up for consideration MGM spoke specifically to that they also talked about potentially using the space as a cafe type area and so I think while there's while MGM is still trying to figure out what they're going to do exactly to that property I think that we we should defer any consideration you should defer any consideration to license the space until you know the the licensing division and IEB has an opportunity to sit and understand exactly how MGM it intends to utilize the space so that we can properly inform you as to that so I would not recommend licensing that space as a vacant space just understanding that we we don't know what will ultimately go there fair enough so I suppose that does answer my question relative to we could react in short order if they get a tenant or a plan for that space or they decide to operate themselves in a particular way and come back to a future meeting and approve that space I think Commissioner Bryan was chiming in yes well it's funny so I had a question in my head so I went to 17 and the thing that absolutely makes me agree that we should hold office sort of alcohol distribution area TBD and so without knowing that distribution area of course you know IEB has to go into and make sure not only that the storage is secure but are the cameras sufficient for you know security all that sort of thing so it would seem to me that I think we can move in short order when they come back with the plan it would be isolated and very easy to amend this but until you know where that area is going to be in security etc I think it is the appropriate approach that she's recommending that we just take 17 out at this point unless and until they decide what they want to do with it fair enough thank you yeah and and I think that that if there is another use I think you point out Commissioner Zuniga we we can be responsive quickly correct Chief Skinner that's correct Chair and Commissioner Zuniga we just recently licensed wall burgers for MGM what would be a similar process whereby they're speaking in amendment their master license so they we could get it done in short order fair enough thank you Mikesha Commissioner Zuniga and I were out at a visit MGM Springfield with a few others we did see that right now the Commonwealth Bar is being used for space for spot machines I think they have plans for the future of bringing that back as a bar does is that it is that did that come up at all but I'm not even sure if they're running it as a bar now and like it didn't look like they would have a bar going but does that impact the analysis at all I am not aware that that space is not being utilized we're not serving alcoholic beverages I don't know if if Bruce or Angela has any insight there I think there I'm sorry but my understanding there are cocktail servers now so alcohol is being served at least do the cocktail servers but Angela if you can shed any more light on that but the cocktail service continues in that area Angela I'm so sorry I can't hear you you'll have to get close to my phone can you hear me better now I can thank you okay so just a follow-up on Loretta's comment the alcohol service continues in there through the beverage servers and the the bar area which was active when it was a lounge is is a slot you know on a bar top slot machines they're being used but there's no bartender behind that bank of bar top machines does it is the um this is probably a question I should know the answer to by now and I'm embarrassed to ask does the license cover both serving on into the area or is it that there's a bar in liquor being dispensed in the area you know or is it both it it it's both so we would need even if they didn't have the bar going it would be the same certificate if they're bringing the drinks to patrons who are playing at the slot machine yeah that's my understanding um as well uh yes nakisha is that your understanding it is I'm looking at we're talking about is it is it area six that you're referring to chair I I don't have the number for me it's the commonwealth lounge that's right yes so commonwealth lounge it is it is my understanding that that that that space will operate exactly as it as it did under the as it does under the current license I'm not aware that there are any changes to that that sounds like the only change is there is no active bartender service which there had been up until they decided to suspend that during COVID right it was suspended by require it was required you know when bar service was eliminated for COVID reasons and you know when efforts made to reutilize that space transition to the beverage servers the bar has not been reopened we did have some discussions with MGM probably about a month ago they are working on plans tentatively around the fall to reopen the space with slightly different modeling than it was previously but more more of a lounge atmosphere I they haven't finalized their plan so I don't want to get ahead of ahead of myself yet but as of about a month ago the conversation was they intended to reopen to a lounge atmosphere a little bit different than it had been before but more of the full lounge atmosphere as opposed to the slots and no bar service that has been going on for you know during this period post COVID matter I'm thinking this and though Todd there wouldn't be any impact to if they don't have it going if we still go ahead and license correct or is that problematic no I think it's okay and I just wanted to also point out that the Commonwealth bar I believe is included as part of the gaming area so would as for service purposes is covered under the gaming beverage license which is under a different that's what I thought thank you so I think they're covered to serve alcoholic beverages and they're from the gaming floor so that takes care of those cocktail servers who are coming in with the drinks what I understand is that the certificate that we're going to issue today that's being recommended is for the actual bar operation for that bar and just to for folks we should know it's right now it's not operating as a bar and I guess my question is is there any danger in including it as in the certificate if it's not operating or should if their intention we believe is to open it up it is right now it's you know it's used for spot machines not just the ones at the bar but yeah I think Bruce has a comment yeah thank you please that the cocktail waitresses worked out from behind the bar which is part of it is where they get a lot of their drinks am I correct Angela oh okay that's helpful to know yes so they don't actually work over the bar but they do mix drinks and stuff that serve the floor out of there so it is and with all the machines and everything you're you still have the surveillance you need to be able to watch that correct excellent and chair and commissioners I apologize for not being prepared for this portion of the discussion I was not aware that there were or some changes in in the in sort of the configuration of the space so no apologies needed you know just sorting it out but it doesn't sound like it affects your analysis at all on the key show you know given that that Bruce has confirmed that the bar is still operating there I agree and they're keeping alcohol there it sounds like so we we need we need to monitor it as a as a bar okay helpful right commissioners right okay um this is a no the bar section that is being operated on the smart bars so the cocktail servers use the you know the the machines to mix the drinks rather than you know like a traditional bartender would prepare the drinks in front of it's it's a smart bar behind is that behind well it's it's it right and back of the bar it's it's if you look at section six it's just behind there it's part of the bar makeup itself the smart bar so on our tour I got to see one Bruce I asked I did ask so okay it wasn't that one it was a different one yes they are they are located all over the floor so much yeah any further questions for Nikisha it's not a question I guess just to clarify that as requested and as proposed that we approve it allows MGM to go back to having a bartender without having to come back to us correct correct okay that's correct but they would have to come back to us with respect to the church space correct right so Nikisha you need from the commission today authorization through a vote are there any further questions that we need Nikisha to address if if not are we prepared to vote today okay misha brian certainly madam chair I move the commission renew the gaming beverage license issue to MGM springfield including all license areas described and depicted in the application with the exception of space number 17 formally occupied by kringle candle contained in the commissioner's packet and reviewed today incorporating all terms and conditions described in chapter 23k 205 cmr and included in the submitted applications for a term of three years ending august 15th 2024 in accordance with 205 cmr 136.061 thank you any further questions or comments for Nikisha or without us Keith okay roll call vote commission camera hi commissioner brian hi commissioner zunica hi night vote yes um the vn you shifted four zero thank you and Nikisha thank you so much um there are there's a lot of fluid parts right now because of covid and i think we just had the advantage of the tour to see that so um thank you very comprehensive and comprehensive memory and then packet all set thank you chair and and thank you also to my my i e b team and thank you and lisa i see you i didn't want you to think i hadn't noticed your beautiful background thank you okay and angela thank you so much for the report all right then i think we can um um 1225 um we could move on to director well so should we take a 10 minute break now to get a quick something um the goal of course again is uh to um think mary in that we might be able to be closer to monica will look like we're getting close do we need a perfect break okay um i'm going to suggest that we then reconvene gosh i can't read my watch time um so it's 1230 now how about 20 of one okay okay thank you okay 40 austin thank you i'll check in and make sure we're all here again uh commissioner cameron i am here commissioner o'brien yep thank you commission sorry i finished it back great commissioners and again here okay we're all set to reconvene again um public meeting number 350 so um you think uh if you just get her again for uh the work on the mgm beverage license and we're moving on now to uh you executive director wells on um on the mgc annual salary review yes thank you very much uh so madam chair and commissioners i'm pleased to request uh that in recognition of just the outstanding work that's been accomplished during this really trying year uh and acknowledging that uh during f y 21 the mgc did not give agency wide raises due to the uncertainty of the pandemic and the closures of the casinos uh derek lenin and i the cfo and i have been working on the budget and we were asking that uh the commission approve salary adjustments for the employees here at the mgc um we uh the commission voted on the f y 22 budget on june 14 2021 which allowed for 287 800 uh dollars in compensation adjustments so as far as uh how that's used we are recommending that we do use that amount and that would be a four percent increase to all employees base salary which accounts for both arrays and a cost of living adjustment or cola for f y 21 and f y 22 and then uh there's a small amount of money we could use for a one-time covid bonus you know we do recognize there's uh employee service during the pandemic but and one thing in particular that came up when we were doing some briefings on this was uh the racing employees that some of those in particular seasonal employees because of the shortened season that it impacted them uh in uh an economic way so we wanted to bring that to the commission's attention and bring that up as a potential for raises uh derek is on for uh you know any further explanation on where we got to the uh the cola and the raise increase but it's a combination of both and we're recognizing there has been a custom cost of living adjustment and we also recognize uh just the outstanding work and the performance that has gone on in the past during really trying times and there and there have been employees for example that have uh gone back to uh face-to-face interacts like racing gaming agents during during the pandemic time so that that's the uh that's the framework uh for the uh the recommendation is the four percent and then i think there may be some uh opportunity for discussion on what to do with the the bonus school and how that would be dispersed so that's so where we're starting right now commissioners who would like to ask Karen some questions and thank you for that report thank you commission brian um i don't i don't really have a lot of questions other than i really i wanted to sort of reiterate what i had expressed to karen and derek during the briefing which is um you know my my general support for the recommendation um when it comes to the bonuses i had a one concern in terms of timing right now because you know as we just heard our licensees are coming out of covid and trying to do open amenities etc i don't know what the financial impact is overall of sort of flat bonuses to everybody um it sounds like it's something we can handle but i was you know wanting to be mindful of the economic situation that we're in in terms of the timing doing the cola and the bonuses simultaneously as terms of the bonuses and the distribution and the sizes um i've said this before and i reiterated in this forum which is covid and that experience for all of us has been taxing and trying i do think there are certain categories of our employees who bore more of the brunt of the financial impact and took more of the hazard risk in terms of front facing than some of us did and i think course rate is the first one that comes to mind in terms of bearing the biggest economic impact and the the seasonal employees losing months of their season in 2020 um and relying on unemployment and not having full employment status like the rest of our employees did and then from day one in the end of june getting ready to be open in july they were front facing with the public in a way that none of our other employees were asked to be in a continued to be so to me i'd rather see a tearing of the bonus in terms of i'd like to acknowledge um whether you call it hazard pay or acknowledgement of sort of the excessive risk and impact that some of those employees had um i do think that to some extent gaming agents were the next category down in terms of that front facing risk so i would like to have a conversation about the bonuses being adjusted to some way rather than flat to everybody to recognize what was an increased economic hit and front facing risk that those racing employees to some extent gaming agents took all right could i add to that i i happen to be in the same briefing with uh commissioner brian and we did we did discuss uh all the employees and their uh the work that they've done during this time and i i totally agree with um commissioner brian and racing in particular did two reasons right they have been pretty much back the whole time and then they did have a an economic hardship where they were not working at all since they are seasonal because we started that racing season later i believe it was july rather than april or at the end of june so um for the and then boom they've been hard at it ever since in a in a forward facing in a hazardous kind of a situation so i i really very much agree with that uh first of all i i totally agree with the four percent for everybody all of our staff is deserving the rationale was sound to me when it was explained by karen and derrick i am supportive of that and as far as bonuses go i i kind of like the tiered approach as well racing having more of a hardship and then and then gaming uh agents would be next because they did um also go in and be in the office at a time when uh or rather go in and be in the casinos when a time when many of us were not doing that so i i think that they can they deserve that consideration as well commissioner karen could you explain and what you mean by tiered well you know we talked about numbers and the numbers that we came up but we thought about in just this limited briefing was maybe a thousand dollars to our racing employees because of the additional um the longer responsibility and the fact that they were impacted by not being called back to the work for a couple of months and then maybe gaming agents say five hundred dollars because they in fact did come back early and and have responsibilities on the floor as well but they were not impacted financially we were able to keep them all on um unlike the racing employees so those are the discussions we had that made a lot of sense to me during the briefing and so there would be no bonus for the other no i well i think the four percent absolutely is well deserving for all the other employees within the mgc but the bonus is um so you're saying a thousand for racing and something for g e u and not a bonus for other correct okay and commissioner brian does that reflect your discussion as well or your thoughts your recommendation commissioner zinica thank you um i i can see that that rationale and that um thought process um i guess i was initially of the mindset of um a lot of other people whose situation we don't know about because of their home environment or their childcare duties or um you know any number of variables um that may also have or merit some consideration which would be very difficult to get into um and uh you know in that context i was i was in agreement with the recommendation of a flat bonus to everybody i recognize that these particular two categories especially the license racing um is you know perhaps stands separately that merits you know some consideration but i'm i'm thinking of you know recognizing the the reality of everybody which by the way the four percent does indeed partially do that in addition with keeping up with some of the inflation and you know um recognizing the the past year which which we didn't do anything but when it came to the bonus i i came with that with that perspective about again a number of people that we may know little about in terms of their personal situation that may warrant a little um a little recognition um but i'm happy to um you know do the most we can within the confines of whatever we already have budgeted for and if that means some additional discretion to um director wells i'm i'm happy to do that um or whatever the case may be so um i'll give my initial thoughts and then we can we can have Karen elaborate um you know in in terms of the research i've done and and the um some work i've done with respect to charitable organizations which i have some leadership positions um it is not unusual to recognize that this has been an extraordinary year and and and compensating for covid um costs have been addressed so i'm very comfortable separating the four percent cost of living from a discussion around um a covid bonus if you will um i um i feel strongly that this team performed their duties from their home throughout the time there was no pause we went from shutting down our offices on march 14th of 2020 and um because of the work of many much the it but with everyone's training everyone's uh input all in getting their equipment from it doing everything they can to meet with their managers we were able to continue our work seamlessly so we acknowledge all along the way that working from home did in many ways create a safer environment because we weren't exposed to covid at the same time working from home also um meant using resources like your bandwidth paying for your electricity tending to some of you went ahead and bought new equipment so you could be even more efficient for us it all was because you are all on the team it is no secret that when we sent dr. Liebaum to the first horse races i know i was choked up and i was worried and very concerned about our teams being out in the public and this felt the same way with respect to being at the casino floors once they started open for our g e u and for our gaming agents but i have to say i worried equally about those who were at home some were isolated than others who would have liked to have been in a different environment than what they were in to perform their job it wasn't i'm not going to the office so it's fun and games we were holding um you know managers were holding regular meetings and there was accountability there was productivity and we've been able to have more than the meetings we wanted because our team demanded them of us including today's full agenda so i um i i understand hearing karen and i think this is like maybe a follow-up question yeah that um that that we have funding to do a bonus i think there's some discretion to make up for the the racing division because you know we i think we just learned that their salaries took ahead because of the shortened season if we could exercise some discretion around that piece i would recommend um that all of the team receive this the same amount with that discretion around racing and i suspect that our entire team would feel real comfortable with that because you know what you all were in it together you all supported each other and we asked that of you and i mean we haven't been able to be together in a room but there have been many times where i felt that all of you were supporting each other across departments and you knew that some of you were confined in home situations that weren't perfect you had to do your job from that others were going up to the casino and you all had the same worries and concerns for each other's health and well-being and so for that i think i'm really i'm comfortable with advocating that um if there is money that is that was part of our funding and i am sensitive to the um um licensees like commissioner um over and pointed out i i think this is a very good time as we continue to face uncertainties to say thank you across the board i don't think any of us are saying that every employee isn't valued and every employee isn't worthy i i'm certainly no i but with a limited pool which is what my understanding was we were trying to come up with something and and knowing that we were in agreement that four percent was absolutely wanted we were trying to come up with some ideas that did value that public facing pieces in the organization that hazard this piece of the organization and that was our thought process now what i don't know is if there's if there's consideration and ability to say give every team member a certain amount because absolutely but then that was my question for Karen commission yeah that was my question for Karen yeah right but then then recognize those maybe additionally who have had a financial hardship and um i do think their consideration for gaming agents as well who have been out there is uh is worthy of a discussions as part of this okay so um uh to uh uh commissioner brine's initial question i think there is and i'll defer to our cfo to for the exact numbers i think there is money in the budget to do this sort of tiered approach what i'm hearing is you know i'm hearing uh you know two very valid points of view on how to do this but we could uh work it out so there is sort of a three-tiered approach and split the money up that way i think always recognizing we'd be within our budget um and derrick i think there is sufficient to do that um with this sort of 1500 and maybe you know split up the rest for the rest of the employees something like that and that way you recognize the folks that have been forward-facing or or have had financial hardship and and i realized you know from my perspective the most important thing i think you've all acknowledged is this this four percent that's the big that's the big chunk this is a nominal appreciation fee you know our amount and so this is is that jeff's share that just is a tangible way to say look we recognize this was a really hard year so that um you know and actually it's not nearly as this as important as the as the four percent which i sense yeah and karen maybe it maybe it's helpful to give the range of what the bonus would be so that everyone understands did you say it already well i thought uh the math right karen is you're saying yeah so hypothetical third tier is right so we'd have to go back on the numbers because what we ran was the four percent first that got us about 250 000 and increased um salaries annually then that left us 36 000 and change um for what was built into the budget so that was the $500 evenly distributed now racing is a different animal because racing is funded by their trust fund and they had some extra money rolling into this year which you'll see in their annual report because their season was shortened but they have such high numbers coming in through their call-in bets i apologize i have someone in the hospital so i've got the text i have a family number even surgery so i've text flying in um so um racing they have the money for the thousand dollars i've already gone over that with um with chad and with alex and on the gaming side the 500 would be even so it's just rerunning the numbers as what do you want to put as a frontline position you know and as you start going through those um discussion points maybe you add a few other positions too which we contemplated right like there are some people in licensing that were actual taking prints right forward facing rather than some of us who are just going into the office where no one else is in there um so you know there's there's that consideration i think as well um and look at i i think the main point that you bring up is if it's a four percent raise and for an agency that got zero last year that's a huge raise um you know so i think that's very great and anything that can be given out on top of that is is is really nice because normally we would have taken that additional money and put it back to the licensees so um you know i think i think it's a great i think it's a great message i think it's a great message to employees that they're valued and no matter what comes out of it it's i mean the racing piece to be honest the commissioners i hadn't even contemplated the um shortness of the season so so that was brought up and that's a real impact that's a real financial impact to them um so you know i think the more you talk about this the better clarity you get around the real impacts to people right so we're talking require more conversation with directors and you Karen in terms of you know we've set out two general categories of front-facing but to Derek's point you know there may be an individual who would also qualify something so i don't know if it's if you need to go back and do the numbers or you right want discretion to be that other category of front-facing that didn't fall into you know resting and well i think that you need to have um a vote today is that right um i think we were you thinking of going back commissioner of ryan is that we were just whether we could absolutely i mean it's there's clearly unanimity on the four percent yeah and so that's clear to me and then a vote would effectuate that for them as soon as they can the question is is there a further vote today with general parameters or is it cleaner um to go back and take a better look at making sure we don't forget any forward facing employee that we haven't contemplated gaming agents before giving and or do we give you some sort of parameters to go ahead and have the discretion to deal with those people as well like the people that took the prince and stuff right and the uh you know it's outlined the men of the plan for the if should the commission approve the um raise and the bonus was to um implement i think it's the second pay period is september but retroactive for the full fiscal year so they get it back until you know starting um july 1st so that that was the plan so either way would work for our operations we have time to do that so i don't know Derek i don't have any strong feeling either way no i mean uh so if we if we voted on the four percent now that gives troop d and the team plenty of time to get that into hrcms and then for the one time bonuses whether you get it in that same you may want to spread it out so you don't get taxed as heavy um because they tax per pay period so if you did the one time bonus in another pay period you wouldn't jump up to the highest tax category and so um i think what i'm hearing is we could vote today on the four percent and then we come back i'm hearing um that maybe uh commissioners in aga are you um do you wish to have the tiered approach or would you be comfortable with the um you know with the discretion being given to on the horse racing and then have everyone receive the same well i was um it's a mix i was um persuaded on on on the tiered approach but uh comfortable with the given that the you know Karen the discretion Karen and eric to um you know to with as commissioner brian says to with some parameters you know tiered accordingly um as long as the third category was not zero meaning that everybody gets something within the company you're proposing to have karen make the decision commissioner brian is that what i'm hearing that's one of the actions it was more what commissioner karen and i had talked about with the thousand for the horse racing 500 for the gaming agents and then you would have to go back and determine what less than the 500 would be available for everyone else but there may be an individual who we weren't thinking of like the person in licensing who had to take fingerprints etc who was front-facing that should maybe fall somewhere in between the 500 and what everyone else is getting i'm comfortable giving that discretion for that handful of people to karen and derrick in communication with their supervisors but i don't know if everyone else is so that is that it's only the it's only the um the the folks that horse racing and the gaming agents and somebody else that maybe is outward facing and then no bonuses for the other people is that what i'm hearing no a lesser bonus a lesser bonus then there may be this fourth category of people that are forward facing that we haven't contemplated in the gaming agents of horse racing that may merit getting something other than what everyone else is getting something slightly elevated but less than g e1 horse racing and i think the the new information here is that racing does can support the thousand dollars within their own budget which leaves the bigger chunk of that 36 for the entire team so i that that's that's a win-win as far as i can right so it may work out through the numbers that the forward-facing people might get more than 500 and we could and i want to know i'm i want to note that i i again am uncomfortable suggesting that people didn't have other challenges while at home and so you know i i'm hearing us going like oh you know if you're more forward-facing that that means you get a bigger bonus but not as much and so i just want i'm going to put it on the record i'm uncomfortable with this not because i don't appreciate the dangers that they encountered in the hardship of it what i don't know is what the people who are at home were facing we don't know the conditions that every one of our colleagues worked on and and i am reiterating um one of our CEOs said it to me and i'm that's why i'm repeating it here i have to repeat to our entire team frequently that they don't know what is going on in the home place and so you know i'm hearing what is what we know we know about the forward-facing we don't know what all of our team encountered working in the at home where they could not go to the office we told them they could not but that's what and they had also to provide their equipment and their their electricity and their bandwidth and so i just want to i want to just you know note my observation that we want to be very careful not to assume anything about what our team was encountering i don't think anyone is assuming anything madam chair that's what the bonus is and i think what we do know are requirements for front-facing mandated by people's positions at the mgc and so to me that merits amplifying the bonus because we know their day-to-day job duties mandated they go out forward-facing in these circumstances in a way everyone had challenges at home and my point yeah my point commissure brine is we mandated people to stay at home but we didn't mandate to go out into public and no but we mandated them to stay at home i think we i think we can all say that we recognize everyone and we value everyone it's just that i think we have a consensus that the forward-facing folks are are in our opinion in worthy worthy is not even the right word but we just want to value that because we know the hazard that they faced we know that we understand that we value that's okay and commissioners and again the error in agreement with that because i want to make sure our consensus yeah i know i i i recognize your point to fully uh chair i i do think that in the spirit of consensus as i mentioned earlier as long as the third tier is not zero which nobody's talking about everybody's talking maybe whatever it comes out to be 400 or you know 600 400 whatever it is and that's why i think we should we should recognize we should keep that discretion or we can come back if you want for a future vote as long as there is you know some recognition for that third category of people who were mandated to stay home for the for the interest of of everyone and that that accomplishes that recognition those uncertainties of what you know those things that we don't know those those things that you speak on whatever additional accommodation or or equipment or or what have you i should also say maybe this goes without saying i think karen mentioned this this is really in the in the gesture category you know 400 or 200 to 500 it's not going to break the bank on anybody it's not going to make the big difference i think it's really just going to recognize you know the the realities of of i guess different situations and as long as we're all in agreement that you know everyone else who had to stay home did encounter hardships of their own and that whatever it is goes to at least acknowledge that i'm in agreement with it again with the consensus that seems to be emerging okay um so i'm hearing that there's three who would like the tier approach karen why don't you come up with what the numbers are and it sounds as though there would be discretion for you and derek to come up with how you want to award that again i'm on the record to saying that for unity purposes i would have loved to have seen it be a bonus across the board because i in my heart of hearts think that's really of the culture of our organization with the understanding that some jobs are public um uh and forward facing and others have been you know using their bandwidth and doing their jobs at home and and and tending to all the that comes with the challenges of working from home um so i want to be on the record that doesn't mean in any way i minimize the dangers and i think i'm on the record clearly over this period um stating that i i um i don't think we probably need to revisit this i i am hearing derek suggest that maybe it should be done over pay different payrolls but karen you can um you know unless everybody wants to come down it is not a large amount um but it is a very meaningful amount you know in other words i don't want to minimize it it's very meaningful and and could cover some important costs particularly because i don't think the four percent probably covers all of what we're facing now in cost of living but it is as derek points out a very nice and generous um salary boost karen and congratulations on that i think that it's excellent um and we had hoped that that might be the recommendation today and it's nice to see that that is it does that make sense everyone does she need to come back to us to say no no yeah yeah and i'm confident given this guidance derek and i can work that out i understand what the commission's saying and i think you're all valuing everybody i see that hundred percent i don't think anyone is suggesting otherwise yeah okay all right then let's move on um doing we don't do we need to take a formal vote commissioner brian do you have um a motion if we need a formal vote i can i i can give you the language um madam chair i move that the commission adopt the recommendation proposed by the executive director and chief financial and accounting officer and approve a four percent increase to all commission employees based salaries as well as a one-time bonus described in the memorandum included in the commissioner's packet and as further detailed and discussed today second any questions okay commissioner um karen hi michelle brian hi commission zuniga hi and i felt yes four zero thanks um we will um then go on to item number eight kate i haven't seen kate yet good morning and and uh director lilios if we want to if you want to frame this out please sure and good afternoon again and this item the ip is bringing forward a qualifier for the plane ridge park casino license in important position where this qualifier miss felicia hendrix was appointed earlier this year as chief financial officer for the parent company and kate can present the results of the i eb's investigation the company and the qualifier are aware that we are proceeding on presenting this matter to you today so with with that i will turn it over to kate thank you good afternoon chair and commissioners as loretta stated the qualifier for your consideration today is felicia hendrix the cfo and also executive vice president um a qualifier for plane ridge park the investigative team and this matter was trooper john morris of the state police gaming enforcement unit and financial investigator david okay they're joining me on the call today should you have any questions after the presentation of the investigative report should be noted that miss hendrix has submitted all of the required forms and complied with all of the i eb's requests for supplemental and updated information and the i eb was able to conduct a complete protocol for suitability casino qualifiers and confirmed financial stability and integrity reviewed litigation history searched criminal history verified that no prohibited political contributions were made in massachusetts and also conducted checks of open the law enforcement databases on may 25th the investigative team of trooper morris and a financial investigator mckay were able to interview miss hendrix using virtual technology and it was noted during this time that miss hendrix was cooperative and forthcoming in all aspects of the investigation and during the interview miss hendrix provided her personal history and career path she graduated from the university of virginia in 1991 and went to work in new york city as a paralegal she did contemplate a career in the law however after working for two years as a paralegal miss hendrix left that position and returned to the university of virginia to the dartin school of business where she earned her mba in 1995 after earning her mba miss hendrix took a job doing institutional sales with needham and company out located back in new york she worked there from 1995 until april of 1997 needham and company is an independent investment bank and asset management firm after leaving the firm miss hendrix took a position with the investment banking firm of gerard claire madsen in april of 1997 where she remained in the role of research associate in gaming and leisure products until april of 1998 this was miss hendrix introduction into the gaming industry later in 1998 miss hendrix departed her position at gerard claire madsen and went to work at leeman brothers while employed at leeman brothers miss hendrix was promoted to the title of senior equity analyst this occurred in 2000 leeman brothers was then purchased by barkley's in 2008 miss hendrix remained in her role as a senior analyst now with barkley's and continued to focus on the gaming lodging and leisure sector she worked at barkley's from 2008 all the way until 2021 where she joined pen national gaming first as executive advisor to ceo j snowden and then that was February of 2021 and approximately one month into her tenure in that role she took her current position as executive vice vice president and chief financial officer at national gaming miss hendrix described her current role at pen as being the senior executive responsible for managing the financial actions of pngi she will oversee accounting treasury procurement and indirectly internal audit in this role and will also act as a strategic advisor reporting directly to mr snowden at present miss hendrix is currently licensed in many jurisdictions pursuant to this role these include the texas recent commission and the florida division of peri mutual redring who have granted her credentials and most recently she was licensed by the new mexico gaming control board an inquiry was made into the jurisdictions where miss hendrix holds the potential and no derogatory information was surfaced miss hendrix has demonstrated to the ieb by clear convincing evidence that she is suitable and the ieb recommends that the commission vote to find her suitable as a qualifier for plain rich park and if commissioners have any questions i'm happy to entertain them with the help of the investigative team as is typical for us of late this this qualifier is is uh it's a very clean report well done report there are no issues of concern as far as i'm concerned i'm concerned and i'm happy to support this recommendation thank you commissioners thank you i'll add a comment in in addition to um to the perspective from commission or camera that i'm familiar with miss hendrix from her work as an analyst to the licensees i often listen in or um read the transcripts for the analyst's call and in her role as as an analyst as as an analyst for barkleys she's often called upon to ask some of the tougher questions of the gaming operators and that includes in our case all all all gaming um licenses that we have because all three are all the companies so um i'm sure she will do very well in her role and it's also great to see some additional uh women at very high any further questions for kate commission or brian you're all set kate excellent report um you do need a vote today i do yes uh madam chair i'm happy to move uh that the commission issue a positive determination of suitability to felicia ray hendrix and her capacity is executive vice president and chief financial officer depend national gaming second okay okay commission camera hi commissioner o'brien hi commission is in a go hi night vote yes 40 thanks vivian um dr lightbound elix are you on okay can you hear me now i can i can hear you but unfortunately i can't see you today huh yeah yeah unfortunately i had um some computer problems i've been keeping the it environment very busy today so i apologize for that are you wearing no i'm at plain ridge but um i'm um yeah so that um it could meet me at plain ridge and and um uh take care of my computer for me so thanks thanks i appreciate them but thank you yes exactly you can operate without them exactly so um you have um item number nine and i know that chad's gonna gonna help you i do see chad and alex it was great seeing you on on sunday no yeah was it yeah sunday sunday right um it was great seeing you uh and appreciated uh the uh the many introductions you made and also i was learned a whole lot from you so thank you so um how do you want to go about this from the phone just yeah so um if i could briefly acknowledge the races on sunday that would be great and then i'll turn it over to Todd i mean to chad sorry oh yeah we had a great uh spirit of mass day and we wanted to thank um the commissioners and executive director for coming down um steve and his racing staff did an excellent job um with putting on the performance and the horseman did a wonderful job as well it's definitely a um group effort if everyone pitching in and um i wanted to acknowledge our mgc racing staff who um once again um you know there's a lot of licensing that day and a lot of other things that go into it and um we hope to talk about it more on our august um meeting on the with the commission at that point and with that i'll turn it over to chad and that's when ppc will be doing its quarterly report correct no that was today so they you're gonna do they they didn't really do the details today so right next okay that would be great yeah we'll have steve o tool come in oh okay thank you all right chad yes thanks alex and good afternoon madam chair and commissioners um so today is uh we have the quarterly local aid ending june 30th and again local aid is payable to each city in town where racing operations are conducted um the rate is is determined or the amount is determined by um using a rate of 0.35 percent times the handle from the quarter that ended six months prior to the payable date um so with that said using handles from october november in december of 2020 um the city of boston would receive 126 845 dollars and 91 cents the town of plainville 29 133 and four cents town of random 21 304 and 63 cents and the city of revere would receive 63 422 dollars and one cent the grand total is 240 705 dollars and 59 cents and the the breakdown and details are are in the packet and this does ask for a vote thank you any questions for chad or for alex as always very organized chad um thank you so much i'm commissioner karen yes i'm happy to move i think you may have frozen you should authorize the local aid quarterly distribution payments to can you hear you're freezing a little bit you're freezing a little bit gail can you hear me now yeah okay so i i moved that the commission authorized the local aid quarterly distribution payments to the city of boston the town of plainville the town of random and the city of revere and the amounts reflected in the memorandum included in the commissioners package and it's discussed today second okay any questions i'll set commission all right commissioner cameron i commissioner o'brien i commissioner zuniga i vote yes four zero vivian thank you okay alex you're all set then i've wanted i needed you to speak so i could find you thank you um thank you and thanks again on sunday looking forward to that report next meeting and now um director griffin can i give us an update thank you yes this is a short update but um i i hope alex will stay around it's really to celebrate the good news the hb 3976 an act extending simulcasting and horse racing authorization was signed by the governor on tuesday so as you all know um you know the live racing season at plainridge park casino can continue and simulcasting at plainridge suffictowns wonderland and rainham will also continue and this saves many jobs associated with all those industries so we can all celebrate and um then the other update um oh and i know i want to acknowledge all the work that the commissioners did to support and follow this bill along the way um you know as you remember the commissioners signed on to and and we sent several letters along the way to to let the legislatures know that this was important to us and to the industry and then the other update regarding sports betting a lot of this was in the news but the house passed hb 3993 and that's the house version of the sports wagering bill and that was passed last thursday and then grossed on the 23rd and this is the redrafted version of representative k-hills bill that was reported out favorably by the joint committee on economic development and emerging technologies and further changed by the house ways and means committee there were 12 amendments to the bill and um we're digging in and and following those um this bill has been sent to and received by the senate ways and means committee on monday of this week um additionally the um joint committee on economic development and emerging technologies um also reported out um the senate the senate version of the bill which is senator lessers bill s 269 to the senate and this was referred to the senate committee on ways and means right now there's no timeline on when the senate will debate their bill but ultimately we expect a single product from a conference committee when the house and senate sit down to to agree on a single bill so that is my brief debate and we'll continue to watch these developments play out so thank you questions for jill that was good news jill um and uh and timely and and smooth and easy and a lot had to do with yours and and crystal's shepherding that and of course todd and team um and they don't making sure that we were um addressing the the issues so thank you um it was just as it should work it was it was so nice to be able to report good news the signing came right before this meeting so well thank the governor for that as well all right um so that's the last item um um i have one item that falls under either the chair didn't reasonably expect to um address or a commissioner update uh so i need a couple minutes for that is there um do any of you have an update well i was just gonna mention um one aspect of um the bill that was passed by the house and i already alerted the staff and they were already working on these and and i i guess jill already alluded to this one amendment creates a limited slot machine license um and for veterans organizations and i think it's incumbent upon us to do some research and explain that potentially to to the to the legislature especially on just the number of um organizations that may qualify for this as they take it up and either reconcile it or incorporate it in the senate version and what that may mean for for the market and um you know and uh for the logistics of you know monitoring that those those slot machines if they wish to um go further with this aspect but that was my my comment okay karen i'll have you follow up with commission zuniga and jill on that okay and see how you want to coordinate that okay my update is this um uh as as as people are aware uh commissioner cameron has been um involved more deeply than than all of us but there is a plan to have an international gaming conference arrive um in boston uh week of september 12th around there um we did have some requests that uh from the organization to use some of our internal resources and with that um the um the contact of the ethics commission and we did receive some guidance from the ethics commission um i'm uh i'm just giving my notes um one second um todd and and karen have been apprised of this um the issue at hand is whether or not we can use state resources to um to support this important conference that's coming in and um that includes time used by staff and uh time used if we were to uh include um when i say time used by staff are the incidental things we would do as one would always do as a host agency for this kind of a industry conference to support them either boots on the ground the day of the conference or the days of the conference or supporting communications delivery deliverables or um any any sort of um support we use including doing presentations so that's and and if and if we did more by supplying um more formally services and we did receive some guidance on that from the ethics commission todd's aware of it and the reason why i'm bringing it up today is that if we are going to go further um and do that it's my understanding todd you can correct me if i'm wrong that we would need to ascertain a determination from our appointing officials if we are going to use um um state resources uh i'm afraid if we don't address this in today's meeting and this is why i've brought it up that time is going to keep on ticking and um um we we we may it may become harder to properly support this organization i want to be clear too that karen will be sending around and email sorts but she does need to recuse herself in these matters because she is the proud member of afforded directors of one of the organizations that's part of um that's coming forward so um we we we have some decision making to do as a commission and i thought todd we put it on today maybe a figure out at wednesday's agenda setting meeting that um whether we need to convene an additional meeting uh to address this need for appointing official or if there could be documentation prepared for our review we we might want to discuss i just don't know um if the you know the commissioners all would want to proceed but i think we do need to have todd you you give the commissioners some guidance and that they anticipate that you're going to um to provide that guidance i the reason why i really thought about this for today's meeting is that they asked for a promotional video and uh to promote they need some time in advance of the of the event and so it occurred to me we probably need to resolve this sooner than later in order to um to to be able to help them on any kind of promotional activities that they want um and um i also know that there was there were some other issues that need to be resolved on this so i'm asking todd and i asked commissioner brian to sort of support uh figuring this out there's also going to be some questions around or resolution needed around the attendance and all of that but with respect to the ethics guidance i i wondered if commissioner brian and commissioner and general counsel grossman could could take these initial steps so that really it's it's a matter of timing i want to make sure that the conference that we you know that we are helpful to the conference and that time doesn't take five commissioner uh cameron um this all kind of came to this and we really discussed this late yesterday so i thought i would take the um the opportunity to mention it today any questions todd are you all set then yes i'll certainly uh circulate the advice and reach out to each commissioner individually coordinate with commissioner brian um on this one right it's my understanding that they are looking for support sooner than later so um if we're going to if we do need in fact to get that clearance from our pointing officials that's a little bit of a delay so there's a little bit of an urgency um as to next steps okay that's my matter yeah i look forward to hearing how it applies to me individually from from todd um given my current oh i think it's on the use of the commission's resources state resources whether we can we can author i think that's how i read it as opposed to an individual conflict just if um can we use state state resources and if i'm reading it correctly and i may have misread it um todd that's why we need your guidance what steps need to be taken in order to you know um you know if we want if if if there was a suggestion that maybe we hire an independent contractor to help support the separate and that may all make sense but we might need to uh address some initial ethics thresholds so it's commission assets that's why i'm wondering if we need to reconvene at a future meeting for a quick vote which we know we can do we're nimble and we want to make you know we want to be helpful so um i'm raising it and maybe that we don't um need to but i just thought that um that was a threshold issue and it might require us to reconvene even if it's a very short meeting understood that makes sense okay yes yeah i don't think individually uh commissioners and against it's it's it's like unless um yet i don't think i saw those concerns for us todd does that make sense and then yeah i i oh sorry go ahead go ahead no i was just going to say we're you know we we received the advice recently we're still making sure to review it very carefully and we'll be in touch very shortly yeah and the urgency is i woke up in the middle of the night saying that they're looking for their promotional um material and they don't necessarily know that um we have a hold on that pending resolution of this of these um questions so um we want we want to help them promote but we want to just do it in accordance with whatever requirements i don't think they're taxing requirements okay all right so um maybe by wednesday we'll have a little bit more clarity on that and whether or not we have to set up a meeting or something for our agenda setting all right um anything else i just want to point out that we do have people to celebrate their honors um and that includes commissioner zuniga uh who is recently honored we are looking forward to doing that at our next public meeting when um director vandalin is back from his big bike ride okay anything else i think so okay do i have a motion to adjourn i move to adjourn second thank you commissioner cameron i commissioner o bryan hi commissioner zuniga hi and i vote yes four zero excellent meeting today thank you and again there's an akisha thank you so much and jill um it was fun vetting you we're looking forward to what day is the town hall caron that was sorry next friday the sixth Friday the sixth excellent thanks so much everyone thanks hi thank you


Good day, fellow investors. Will there be a crash? Will there be a recession? Of course, there will be. But in this video, I will show you how it doesn't really matter for your investing, for your portfolio and that you should focus not so much on the stock market news that the media produces, but on real fundamental data. In this video, we'll discuss politics and economics versus business news. Earnings are the key, not economics. Market valuations, how those impact long term returns. Will there be a crash? How to take advantage of that? How to focus on earnings and take advantage of volatility and then invest when you are happy with the business earnings? Over the past few years, I've been making videos, articles on macroeconomics, on GDP, housing economy, Europe, Japan, everything that is very interesting from an intellectual perspective. But as time goes, I see more and more, okay, it doesn't really add value to my investing perspective, to my investment returns. And even recently, I'm subscribed to Wall Street Journal newsletter. And in the last two weeks, there were four headlines about US housing, about the US housing market. Two were extremely positive growing and two were extremely negative. And then when I see all those news, I said, okay, I have to make a video about for people how to differentiate between the news, the noise, something not important and the real deal. And I will give you five things that five steps that will help you deal with the news, differentiate from the noise and focus really on the things that matter for your portfolio. For example, the SAP 500 has been flat since January 2018. But the fact is that nobody could have predicted where the SAP 500 could have gone. It could have been up 20%, down 30%. Nobody could know that. And that is something that the news, the media, they are focused on the short term and you see that volatility over the last few years, over the last year and a half. But you cannot predict that. And therefore, you should not focus that much on the macro, on economics, on GDP, but you should focus on the businesses because a lot of businesses did really well over the last year. And that is what we have to focus on. So I'll take this opportunity to discuss the real news and the news that could be important for your portfolio. And I'll go through five steps that will indicate, okay, how am I going to tackle the news versus the long-term businesses? The first piece of information extremely important is that your long-term investment returns are driven by earnings. In 1999, SAP 500 earnings were 58.55 points. Today, we are at 130 points. That is an increase of 122%. Consequently, how did the market do? Well, the SAP 500 was at 1282 points in 1999. And now it is at 2757. That is 115% up. So we have 122% and 115%. Therefore, investment returns are perfectly correlated with the long-term earnings growth that stocks will deliver. And over the past 20 years, we have had a dot com crash. We have had a great recession. We have had a commodity crash, boom and bust. But still, companies, businesses kept doing well. So over the next 20 years, businesses will probably grow, earnings will probably grow. And therefore, that's what you can expect. Will there be market crashes? Will there be recessions? Yes, yes, yes and yes. But will those things impact your long-term returns? If you focus on investing in businesses, a margin of safety value investing, then you don't have to worry about stocks crashing or recessions because those in the long term actually improve your returns. The second key thing is to keep an eye on valuations because the market is extremely differentiated and valuations are also the driver of your returns. In 1999, the S&P 500 was at 1282 points with earnings of 58.55 that leads to price earnings ratio of 22. Thus, the earnings yield was approximately 4.5%. 4.5% yearly earnings yield compounded over 20 years leads to 3091 points. There have been some dividends. So again, we are there. So if you look at the valuation that the market offers, that is what you can expect over the long term to be your long-term investment return. The current market valuation is similar 21.1. So you can expect long-term investing returns of around 4.5% as it was the case over the last 20 years. That can be a little bit higher, a little bit lower depending on future valuations. But the businesses, the dividend yield of around 2% is what will deliver your long-term returns. However, in the meantime, can stock crash and what should you do? Well, yes, of course those will definitely crash sooner or later. Stock market is always volatile. But if you keep that long-term fundamental earnings yield perspective on stocks and we later discuss how you can get even more than 4.5%, then okay, this is my return line when it is below the stock prices of what I buy are below. I buy more. I reinvest the dividend. When it is higher, I buy something else. And that's how you can really take advantage of those crashes and not worry about them, but be happy about them because those are opportunities. Further, the market is extremely differentiated and volatile. So learn about the business because that is the key to understand when it comes to investing. If I look at the top 10 positions of the SAP 500, the PE ratios vary extremely and I can tell you that returns will also vary extremely over the next 20 years. Forward price earnings ratios of the top 10 SAP 500 go from 10.6 from JPM, 15 for Apple, to 60 for Amazon. Of course, Amazon is growing much faster. But if you understand that business, you can understand the long-term fundamental burn business yields and shift your focus from the news to those fundamentals. And those will enable you to understand the long-term earnings yield and invest accordingly. What's very interesting to see is that if we take a look at these SAP 500 holdings from 20 years ago, only two companies that were there are still in the top 10. That's Microsoft and Exxon. All the others have been removed by other companies. Therefore, it's extremely important to look and to try to understand your investment. Where will it be over the next 20 years? This doesn't mean that if a company falls out of the top 10, it will be a bad investment. You just have to understand the business earnings, the potential dividends, the cash flows and that's why it's very important to follow a business over a longer period of time. When you follow a business over a longer period of time, you understand the business much better than 99% of anybody else and you understand it better than the media. You understand it better than the short-term news that impacts stock prices. We have seen Apple drop. We have seen Facebook drop significantly. So when you understand that long term business trajectory compared to all the media noise, that gives you an advantage. So again, you forget about the media, what Trump will do, trade wars, etc. And you focus on the earnings yield. It will be volatile but not as much as the stock price, which again gives you an opportunity. So as I mentioned, how to take advantage of volatility, the easiest way to take advantage of volatility is to rebalance your position in relation to the earnings yield that position offers. For example, Apple was at the high of 232 just six months ago, then it went to a low of 142 and now we are back to 173. So the problem is that Apple's earnings and business weren't impacted. Earnings didn't crash 50% as the stock price did. So the market focuses on the short-term, on the noise, on the earnings, but on the short-term earnings. But if you look at the long-term earning power, how a stock works, how a stock moves over a few years, you understand the cycles of its products, etc. Then you can really easily understand what happens, what will happen, how to invest, and you will not worry about stocks crashing. In this case, Apple from 232 to 142, that's a big stock market crash. And here you have it, a crash. So don't worry about it, just invest in line with what is the business doing. I didn't buy Apple, but in the summer of 2018 I, for example, invested a bit in Brazil, because I did find an interesting business there, and I was happy with the dividend and with the earnings yield. The stock did really good, so I'm now in a, let's say, positive position, nice position to think about what to do and compare it to the rest of portfolio. But the stock market will always be volatile, earnings didn't change at all, the stock price is just up 50-60%. So when you understand the long-term business, when you understand how to follow it, the economy, what will people do, no matter what, no matter what happens in the news, then you can take advantage of that volatility. And finally, number five, it's crucial that you are a business owner. You don't care about the stock market, you don't care about the news, you don't care about the noise, you focus, okay, am I happy as a business owner of that business? When you start thinking as a business owner, everything is easy, really easy, because okay, I, if you even can think that there is no stock market, that there is no quote that goes up and down every day, and you invest in the business and you expect your returns to come from the business, everything gets easy. For example, if you invest now in the S&P 500 over the next 20-30 years, you can expect a return of around 4.5%. So you can buy that and forget about it. If you want 7%, you have to buy good businesses when their price earnings ratios are around 14. And we have seen Apple close to that level just a few months ago. 10%, you have to do the same, but you have to buy at the P ratio of 10, or higher ratios, but with future expected growth. So you have to be able to calculate to know the business to understand what's going on and where will it lead in the long term. 15%, you have to look at great businesses in distressed sectors, value investments, cyclical investments and take advantage of the market's short-term focus. This implies a lot of work, but it is possible still to find such opportunities even in this market. To summarize, forget about the news, focus on business reality, long-term reality, earnings are the drivers of your investment returns, be a business owner, focus on earnings, and that will allow you to take advantage of the market's irrationality, or better to say, volatility. News, Trump, trade wars, Mexico, Canada, whatever was the main topic of discussion over the last few years doesn't really matter for your portfolio. So if you want to focus on business, to be a business owner, please subscribe to this channel. Looking forward to your comments, thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video.


cannot give that one to you. It says, how do you stay make and humble when you receive many compliments from others? What's a proper response, especially when the person is doing it in a genuine way? Well, when I read the excellent wife book, this one I started getting invited to come places and I went to John MacArthur's church and I was scared to death, but I did a conference and then a lot of ladies had begun to read the excellent wife book and they came up and thanked me for it. Well, my friend Mary Beth was with me. She had flown from Atlanta to LA to be with me and so I was very uncomfortable with that. I wasn't expecting it. I just didn't like it. I just didn't like it. And so on the way home, on the plane, I told Mary Beth, I said, I'm not gonna do any more conferences. And she said, why not? And I said, because I just want it to be about the Lord. I don't want it to be about me. And she said, well, if you had read a book by a Christian author and Lord had used that to help you, wouldn't you want to thank the author? And I said, well, yes. And she said, so get over it. But I didn't get over it. I still struggled with it. And I just remember thinking about it and praying. And then just telling the Lord, when somebody says thank you for one of your books or something, and I'm just gonna say, you're welcome. I'm not gonna go in a 20 minute talk when they say thank you. But Lord, this is a sacrifice of praise to you. And so anyway, I did get over myself.  And I wasn't, I didn't know what I didn't I was I didn't know what to do. So