cern about the timing and the challenge of trying it seems like we almost caught between two projects and I'm worried about them being in competition in some way. So maybe they won't be maybe I mean the money is is being offered in a sense for free But it's also involves town resources and probably gonna involve a little bit of town money The same time we're trying to make a decision about about the jones itself So it's just a concern I have I guess about the timing So I think that's a legitimate concern. I think That's something we think about as well. I think that The anonymous donors made it clear that this is it's for this project, but not the jones project And there wasn't an intention for you know, it's not it's this this donation would not be siphoning anything from the jones library But it would be a capital project that we would be devoting staff time to and trying to Facilitate it through the permitting process and things like that. All right one of the questions I raised as this came forward to be put on the agenda was What is the policy of the town with regard to accepting gifts?  But in this case we already own this building and I really urge Not necessarily in this case But at some point that the council really considered developing a policy about gifts That are at above a certain limit And for that matter even if they might be controversial should somebody for instance want to give us money To build an offensive statue in the middle of you know the street We're not going to accept that gift at least i'm not So and this is a very standard process that higher education institutions and other institutions go through Is that they have guidelines for what gifts they will accept in they in fact on rare occasions But nevertheless do Decide that a gift is just not appropriate for their purposes having said that I think this is a wonderful and generous offer And I hope that there's other people in our town who will think about gifts for other things we might like Well, I think the bid has some ideas for how people can donate money for a lot of different projects in their Right. I have a few a few on my list Listen, thank you for saying that because I was going to bring up much of the same thing This person has been very patient and very generous. This has been perking for a while So I appreciate that they have they have stuck with it and and worked with you and you've worked out the numbers In terms of why not to accept it I I think Evan made a really excellent point there and i'm really glad to hear that we have really looked at the possible intersection designs Because this is exactly why Sometimes we don't know what future consequences will be of things that we do in case it's outside the current footprint For example the jones garden No one envisioned when that garden was created That it was going to then be used as a reason not to renovate the jones library So it just seemed like an amazing gift at the time and it has been an amazing gift But it had consequences down the line in terms of the conversations and the possibilities So knowing that we are certain that whatever we do Won't go that direction where where I think makes a really big difference The other thing I think is great is the idea of while being incredibly grateful to this donor Which we are and we're very excited about this is that we are including a public process Not just saying it meets our policy or it doesn't mean our policy that doesn't exist as to accepting a gift Because I think it will be really useful for the community to try and work through do we want a community room? Because there will be people who say and I'm not arguing this.  I mean they can get into more of the jones library They can get But if there are people who are living in that area who find that really useful to just go to the front desk That's the kind of thing we can hear from the community or we can hear from more people in the community Who say I want them to have access to a community room like you can't get in between stacks But you can be there for a community room But just getting to go and hang out at the front desk maybe isn't as compelling to people But that's how we'll find that out is by doing that community process So thank you for lining out all those steps for us Okay Are there other comments or questions at this time? Okay seeing none Then thank you. Thank you. So what I will do I will start talking about this in public um and Start to move forward with If the anonymous owner is willing to provide the funds then putting the staff time in to support this Right. Thank you. Thank you um Okay, I'm going to make a suggestion that we Deal with the next item and then Potentially go into executive session and then come back out But the next item is in fact the proposed proposal on changes to the public way regulations on lincoln av Let me preface this by saying As requested at the town council meeting on january 27th Concerning park your parking regulations on lincoln way a detailed member with various attachments Including the petition from the neighbors have been added to your packet In addition a copy of all of the other items referred Referring to past actions by the select board that were in your packet last week have been packaged And placed in your packet again are referred to in links in the memo from the town manager the bottom line is We've tried to give you a lot more information and do it in a much more orderly fashion The decision before the council tonight Is to recommend to the president to schedule a hearing on march 9th, I guess it is 2020 To consider the recommendation from the town manager So we're very clear Regarding the proposed changes in parking regulations on lincoln av This decision is based upon the evidence presented Although I will give you a caveat in that It is not based upon whether you believe we should accept reject refer Or continue the hearing based upon the recommendations from the town That is what we will do at the hearing So we're not here to debate this issue tonight We are only here to decide whether we're going to whether you're going to advise me To set up a hearing While tack has not Rendered an opinion at this time They have the opportunity to render an opinion prior to any hearing regarding this proposal And the petitioners have in fact been in touch with tack And there has been an attempt to schedule attack meeting in a timely manner so that they can do so So This is up for a discussion and the discussion is do you have enough information or what additional information Would you like to see if we go into a hearing? Alyssa so I want to leap in since I was so adamant about this last time And I think that we now have the information I was hoping we were going to get before and so I think we're in great shape And I think it would be great if we could just offer quick comments on What tiny bit of additional information we might want when it comes time for the hearing You know ideally obviously that wednesday before kind of deal so that we're not seeing it as we come in We have so much great data. I think information. We're missing our existing conditions need to be mapped The same way the proposed conditions are mapped. That's just not a habit of this town That's just how we do things and it's so much harder You all tried to do it to do it with just words rather than the map And so I'd really like a map of existing conditions that's made in the same fashion And the other thing is if we could be able to give people a sense of now these spaces are not lined But to give people a sense of what the net loss of spaces is because there already is a lot of Forbidden area along there, but being able to say to people some you know I know that we have professionals who can estimate that sort of thing without having to go out and measure the actual marked spaces The other than the other thing I wanted to add is that although I myself reviewed the motion and now I'm thinking about it again When we do the legal notice that has to go in the newspaper for this which were required to do by our own general bylaws We always use this phrasing about the public way and nobody knows what we're talking about So if we and I've already mentioned this to paul and athena if when the time comes I don't need to change the motion But if when the time comes when we do the legal notice if we could somehow include the word parking In there so it catches people's eye because public way is like what's that? Okay, any further comments about what you need to see for the hearing Mandy joe I just wanted to respond to elissa and the number of loss. So the downtown parking study Actually included lincoln avenue in the study and they had parking spot numbers and so On the proposal the permanent loss would be approximately I had to guess with how many fit within a 30 foot range But I went with 20 feet per spot because I think our current average is around 22 when we line Is approximately 47 spots and then the weekday loss would be an additional approximately 142 With a so total during the eight to five range would be approximately 190 spots lost we will add information again. I don't want to get into the details Thank you. We'll add that information for the patent. There's report the Parking report has that information. Thank you Steve So just for full disclosure I'm of a position that there should be parking on every street in amherst that there should be no Locally owned streets. I know okay. That's not the discussion tonight So really what my concern is part of the Discussion here regarding the right-of-way. So the right-of-way on lincoln. I believe is 23 feet There are streets all over amherst that are 23 foot right-of-ways by using that as an argument for having no parking on the street puts every other street in risk, which I think would have huge implications. I also think there'd be huge implications of Where do these people park? These are obviously motivated parkers That will go somewhere else. And so where exactly are they? So have Has anyone looked anywhere in the study? So one of the things that will be an option as we have a hearing Is to decide whether or not we are going to accept recommend defer our refer And one of the options is is that in fact we may refer it to a place like crc For additional consideration if I may have those kinds of implications. So I had a comment. They're also also we There are some arguments that we can't do. I you know, I don't remember exactly that some possibilities were eliminated like Two hour parking was eliminated, but there's no discussion of limiting other. This is getting into the issue. Steve This is information. I'd like like why not alternates to the side of the street parking? Why not? Parking meters why not other ways of managing? parking So I haven't seen a whole bunch of other alternates Discussed and eliminated. I've only seen one or two. Okay. Thank you Darcy Sort of along the lines of what I was bringing up previously in the meeting I am interested in finding out what what is our criteria for having a hearing on a traffic and safety issue What can I recommend to my own constituents if they want to have a public hearing on The speed limit on southeast street or the dangerous intersection in south amherst common or the dangerous Crossing in front of cracker firm school or speeding on mill lane Or the crosswalk at pot wine and 116 Can each one of those Groups because they have there are groups for each one of those Can they come to us and ask for a hearing? There's a couple different ways that the charter describes coming forward to us one is and there's various levels for petition In this case the neighbors Came forward they met with the town manager and they met with a number of other people And put it into a format that does not in fact meet the requirement for the petition Out of that the town manager did in fact go to dpw the fire and police And put together the memo. So absent Community members fulfilling the charter requirements What is the criteria that we're using to be able to give a particular group in the community A public hearing Why does one group get a public hearing and others don't So I'm just I am not leaning toward giving a public hearing To any group that comes to us with the traffic and safety concern Unless they have 150 people signing a petition on under the charter Okay Kathy I want to build on that. I think it is a separable issue and we should think through How would we set up a policy on how this would happen? But for additional information Um, you know on this situation, I think we need to think more holistically So I would like whatever memo on a preferred Solution both that have a steve said what alternatives are there and why were they less preferred But implications for neighboring streets the Small paragraph we had from tac when they first talked about it Said if they people can't park on Lincoln will they pack park on Dana? Will they park on name whatever the next street over is? And so would that goes into then Darcy will then that neighborhood group come and say Not here. So I think we need to have some way of Saying what is an approach to all of this and And I'm just asking I think it's going to take some thinking I know in the tufts neighborhood where my daughter Was living as a Worker not a student Street after street had provisions They all had provisions because the overflow from tufts was huge But it it wasn't like one street and the next street every street had a provision on it So I'm trying to think of a surrounding area as this might be the first step Not to slow this one down Because I think we did ask for a plan and we have one but that I just want to have that be The next thing we try to think through and I'm no longer sure which committee Does these issues it seems like CRC, but I don't know One of the things again that happens with the hearing Is the possibility that it is then referred One of the possibilities is that is referred with a sense of that larger look that you want Dorothy well assuming that we have a hearing there is some information that I would like And it would include how many people are using Lincoln as a direct road to umass And I know our neighboring street sunset does not have any parking same width How many accidents occur at the intersection of amity and Lincoln Last weekend was a really rather amazing thing with a flaming car and the street closed up and down There were two major crashes Also, I'd like research on what is the average speed of people going down amity Because if you're going down people kind of pick up a pace And you find you can't get through the intersection if you're going to make a right into Lincoln because there's cars on either side and park cars And you can't do You cannot make that turn if they're park cars on both sides You can't slow down Without causing an accident. I don't know. I'd love to know more details about the two accidents last weekend um, and I know that um I live nearby, uh, I there's a certain sound I hear it means two two cars have hit broadside because we have um, the people coming from the the block of Lincoln from Route nine to amity Can't make that intersection the proposal or the concept Before the council tonight is are we going to schedule a hearing based on the On the town managers memo. That's the question If after we have that hearing Should we have that hearing? You and all of this other stuff and then it goes to a committee and then we talk about it some more and it comes back Fine if we can get some of this other information That's good, and I don't I'm not just saying this to Dorothy.  We got them for you. We've said this is what the hearing would be about Now the question is are you advising me? to set the hearing Andy um Like several of you The question was initially presented What issues would we like to have develop this for information for the hearing? And I think that's taken us down a path Because I thought about questions in advance that I have Noted and highlighted in yellow and the question was about how do they get before us? Frankly, I think that they get before us at a hearing and That's what the purpose of the hearing is and that the information we ask at the hearing Is not provided There's another option in addition to what the president has mentioned that is to continue the hearing There's no reason you close a hearing at the time you have it So rather than get into Questions that I have I think I would prefer to postpone it and just get to the core issue in the core issue now is That the town manager has made a recommendation for parking Regulation changes on a particular street and Should we have a hearing about that doesn't mean Do we have the information or we what we should do After we have the hearing Or how long the hearing will be and I hope we can get to that core question Okay Additional questions or comments at this time. I'm sorry george I would authorize you to go ahead and set the hearing I think we have enough information and we will have staff present and we can ask them questions And if we need more information, we can continue the hearing But I think it's time for us to to move ahead The issue the larger issue of how this process should work Is something that gol in fact has taken on and we hope to have something to give to you to think about at some point in the near future But in the meantime, we do have a proposal And I think we should move ahead to a hearing and if you have further questions concerns That's the time to raise them and we'll have staff here present to to answer them And if we still don't have enough information, we continue the hearing or we can close the hearing and make a decision Further comment or question Alyssa So I had asked for some specific things that I hope will be included associated with the hearing And I think some of the other things we're hearing are things that people are going to want to ask at the hearing And so staff would be would be smart to write those down now And plan to answer them at the hearing rather than having to wait for us to do that And then as Andy said we can always continue the hearing if we need to And I wanted to see if anybody else was going to bring this up So I was glad that somebody did in terms of effect on neighboring streets That is definitely something I'm not saying a huge study should be done about now But we should all be thinking about as to what decision we make in terms of referral or Action plus future action etc associated with this because I will give you the exact example of when we put those lovely speed bumps on Lincoln the original proposal by Former town manager was to only put them on Lincoln And the select board said yeah, I don't think that's going to work I think that's going to have an impact on blue hills and Dana And that's why you see speed bumps on all those places So there is give and take in terms of the expertise of the staff and what we're hearing from the community and what we've seen As the patterns, but it also doesn't mean we have to get it all fixed At once But we do need to be aware of those ramifications and what the parking is around that area because exactly as with the speed bumps We don't want to just push it to the next street so that they they have to come to the same thing Are there any other comments at this time? Shall we I just want to clarify What I'm hearing is that we're going we want to go ahead with this hearing, but then And the larger question of how do we address our constituents? Problems and some of them as Darcy mentioned are really serious like here You can't really go very high speed on Lincoln because of the parking. So I'm imagining the risk Is lower versus what we've been hearing with the accidents happening in South Amher. So in our minds, there are certain areas that have really high risk and So we are waiting to have that discussion later Or should we be taking a cue from what's happening now and reach out to our residents and say come to town council and request a hearing The I just want to be clear this did not start out as a request directly to us. It started out as a discussion with actually the district counselors then a discussion with the town manager And I don't know of all the meetings that took place So it's not as if they just stood in front of us one night and said could we have a hearing on this? So it's Right Again, I would prefer that we have the 150 or 200 signatures And maybe that's a good way to go Yes, Dorothy to get that many since this is a The houses have large lots You would have to go to the Lincoln Court apartments, which are going to be demolished and ask graduate students to sign it Um, because the reason he got the signatures that could be got on the street now We could say, okay, go take go get a table at the farmers market and just get other people because There was a letter from a woman who doesn't live anywhere nearby But uses that street to get to UMass every day who said when are you going to fix that? This is just terrible accidents waiting to to happen and she did write a letter and it's in the packet So there are people beyond those who live on Lincoln or very distressed about the safety concerns The reality is that the charter requirement for signatures is that you must be a voter You can be a voter and live anyplace else in Amherst But all you have to do to sign a petition is be a voter Okay, so Yes, that person could have signed this petition pat. I call the question Okay There's no question to call it. Would you like to make the motion? I would like to make a motion if I may I would like to move that we authorize the president to call A public hearing on the date of March 9th at our next meeting to address the issue of lincoln parking and That does she share with the town manager some of the concerns, which i'm sure he's very well aware of The concerns that have been raised this evening some of the questions that staff Okay, sorry there that there's a motion written here. There's one in the packet. Yes. How nice I kind of like my motion your motion included the word parking and therefore I think Alyssa would like that motion. Um, so Move I'm going to be george for a second Go ahead that the council president schedule a march 9th 2020 legally noticed public hearing in accordance with the town general Bylaws section 3.1 for b on the proposed changes to the public way Ways regulations on lincoln avenue as presented Is there a second? I seconded Any further discussion? I thought I was pretty close. You were And you included the word parking Yes I'm thirsty. I guess I I'm probably going to vote against this just because I feel like We should have a policy and if we If if we are going to have Many many hearings about traffic and safety issues They should all fulfill the same criteria So it seems like this is being requested because The residents asked for it without having Fulfilled the requirements of the charter um And I don't think that's a good precedent Can I also add the gl has already been charged with coming up with that process? The gl has already been asked to come up with that process that you're asking for So yes, we are we're aware of that Yes, and to john so I just want to emphasize that While this has been something that we've heard a lot about from residents The actual proposal on the table has come and been generated from our own town staff And to me that's that's one of the ways we get Public ways changes presented to us Is from town staff. We've done a couple today one was A public ways easement That came from town staff But it was really request started with a request from a resident But ultimately came from town staff And so the fact that this is a town staff proposal now to me makes a bit of a difference as to why we can move forward with the public hearing shellony I really really have to just say we've exhausted this one We have but puts us Difficult position because we have been in discussion with with our constituents For a year now with very serious implications. We've had staff and all I'm saying is that I mean, what do we go back and say to them, you know, because they have we've also been having this discussion I feel we've been misled or we we've been misleading our Constituents about what the process is we were trying to handle it We got the staff involved and maybe if we have an understanding of why the staff then she is choosing this versus the other I mean, it's just that we're at a loss of Explaining to people right I understand the predicament that you're in and I also understand that this is why we've asked joel to look at it because We all have these issues pat and I have them in our district up and down the whole place So it's it's not you're not alone Okay Dorothy I do think that we don't Want to get so that we all say but I have something to we all have something we all We have been doing a great job of working together as a council And we have been all been listening to our constituents and working with our constituents and I think we really should not let ourselves be pitted against each other I think we have to think about the town Safety and As we do it we're working through the processes that we don't have and they're getting clarified as we speak Alyssa I really appreciate that go l has had this on their agenda and is certainly going to be working on it again after all this input Associated with this because we do need a process. It's absolutely true But again to really emphasize this is a staff proposal I'm sorry that staff talked to lots of people about lots of things and didn't get as far as making a proposal thus far And that can probably be addressed in the process that george is talking about for gol but This is not The link in neighbors proposal. This is a staff proposal in response to concerns They raised and there should be additional staff proposals in regard. I would argue I do not want to force every single person to go out and collect all those signatures because what that does is that forces our hand When they do that then we have to say okay now We're going to have to work on this one next because that's the squeakiest wheel And so I think that's one of the things that gol is trying to work out Is how to not have it just be based on this random squeaky wheel sort of thing But how to actually have a process that doesn't necessarily force people to just say walls Forget that. I'm just going to go and get the signatures and force them to act right Perhaps gol would like further input on all that We always welcome input from our fellow counselors And I have something to say about that later this evening, but I would welcome any kind of Obviously just to me only but I would welcome any input on this issue. We will be taking it up on wednesday Yeah, if we're lucky because we have a very very full agenda, but it is on the agenda There's a question on the council. It's been made a motion on the floor. It's been made and seconded further comments or discussion shallony Could we ask the staff to explain to us what the The process was for them to choose this over the others then Or is that not let's start with getting our policy and then figure out with the town manager the process Since our recommend our questions always go to the town manager He decides then how to bring staff in Okay Motions on the floor. It's been made and seconded any further conversation or discussion at this time all right All those in favor of the motion Which is that the town council president that the council president scheduled a march 9 2020 legally noticed public hearing in accordance with the town general bylaws section 3.14 b On the proposed changes to public ways regulations On Lincoln avenue as presented All those in favor raise your hand and say I I opposed I'm sorry What we did Show you want to do it again. Let's start over all those in favor raise your hand and say I I Opposed abstain Okay, so it is 12 Athena what Athena what was the vote? That was nine in favor and three opposed Nine in favor and three opposed. Thank you and one absent Thank you. All right We are going to break and we are going to go into executive session at this time And we will come back out of executive session I would say in approximately 20 30 minutes and continue with our agenda as presented, okay Those commissioners has an ability to adopt regulations And then they have the ability to enforce those regulations But one enforcement mechanism that they can adopt but not actually enforce On their own is a non-criminal disposition, which is fines essentially And so they can adopt a regulation And they've adopted two regulations one of which is bring your own bottle regulations and another one is Alcohol food service regulations. They can adopt them. They can say we would like to have as one of our enforcement options fines But they cannot enforce those fines unless under our bylaws The council approves the regulations at the current time so these The by ob regulations were adopted by the board of licensed commissioners on july 29th The alcohol food service regulations were adopted by the board of licensed commissioners on september 23rd I am proposing these motions to approve those regulations because I think it would be good for them to be able to enforce them in all the ways they thought Penalty wise was appropriate when they adopted the regulations including non-criminal disposition and That that's the basic behind why I'm proposing this the the bylaws Right now the reason we have to do it is the section 2.2 b That just went into effect. I am says the non-criminal method for disposition may also be used pursuant to this article for violations of any rule or regulation of Any municipal officer border department Which is subject to a specific penalty provided that the town council shall first approve by majority vote each ruler regulation to be enforced by this procedure My intention is not for us to debate the merits of the regulation. The board of licensed commissioners has already adopted them They are already in effect And these are not bylaw changes these motions Um That is there they have those abilities. It would be essentially to say yes non-criminal disposition is an allowable penalty under these regulations Okay So item d the board of licensed commissioners regulations. This is a first discussion However, you as a council have the option of Referring this To refer board of licensed commissioner regulations non-criminal disposition Pursuant to general bylaw section 2.2 b By ob bring your own bottle and alcohol food service To the g to the governance organization legislative committee With a report back to the town council on a date specified So we can either have this as a first reading And it will come back on next Um the next agenda Or we can choose tonight to go ahead and refer to go well Evan I have an opinion. Um, I Know to go well, I I don't think it's it's it's necessary. I think this is a fairly straightforward thing Right now there are regulations that are in place There is no way for them to enforce them non criminally. I Would hope that we could agree that the regulations shouldn't be enforced criminally um for things like You know violating by ob regulations. Um, I actually don't need This might be hypocritical in light of things I've said in the past Don't even think we need a first reading of this To me, this is pretty Clear cut and I look forward to someone telling me why it's not But I would be also willing to since we've already done it six other times tonight Suspend five five other times tonight Suspend rule 8.4 And and give the blc sort of the authority that they're seeking from us Okay, so your first motion is You move to suspends I would love before I make that motion to hear if there are real reasons Not to do so, but then I would happily make that motion Mandy Joe I would love for it to just Be passed tonight so it doesn't have to come back But I did not propose that because I did not know where this council stood and I Recognize we have rule 8.4 that requires a first discussion before we vote But if the council's willing to just vote tonight, that'd be fantastic Kathy I think whatever and just proposed makes total sense when I read this and when I Heard Doug talk last time. I thought we should just move this quickly through and particularly I think it Mandy wrote a very nice clear memo and if this went back to gel Mandy's on gel Would review what she wrote and said oh Likely clear consistent and actionable and then we then we get it back again So I think we don't need to refer it, you know I mean, I think we we have pretty simply worded wording here Rather than if we were writing the regulations, I would feel differently about it, but we're we're Allowing an enforcement tool All right. Is there a motion to spend? rule a procedure 8.4 with regard to item 7d I so move is there a second second Any further discussion on that this item all those in favor raise your hand and say I I opposed Abstain all right. Now. I need someone to craft the motion Okay, Mandy. Joe. So it's for Athena's purposes. It is in my memorandum on the blc Regulations memo. There are two motions in that memo And I'm just going to read the first one Moved pursuant to general bylaws section 2.2 b The town council hereby approves the amherst board of licensed commissioners by ob bring your own bottle regulations adopted by the board of licensed commissioners on july 29th 2019 Including all amendments. They're too subsequently adopted for enforcement by non criminal disposition by the board of licensed commissioners with penalties as set forth in the regulations Is there a second second? Okay Any further discussion Then all those in favor raise your hand and say I I opposed abstain 12 00 and one absent. So there's one more then And now we're going to move on to the news. There's one more motion. Yeah, the second one. Go ahead Move pursuant to general bylaw section 2.2 b The town council hereby approves the amherst board of licensed commissioners alcohol food service regulations adopted by the board of licensed commissioners on september 23rd 2019 Including all amendments. They're too subsequently adopted for enforcement by non criminal disposition by the board of licensed commissioners with penalties as set forth in the regulations Is there a second? Any further discussion All those in favor raise your hand and say I I opposed abstain 12 00 Okay The bylaw so Thank you all for doing that so quickly. Um, I am proposing an amendment to the bylaw That we just had to approve these regulations under so that in the future We do not have to approve these regulations if the board of licensed commissioners or The board of health or some other board adopts regulations and they desire to have them enforced by non criminal disposition That would happen automatically. That would not require council approval and so That bylaw amendment is on page the proposed that amendment that i'm making is on page four of the Memo that I submitted and basically I went through and and found a number of different towns Including spring west springfield westfield summerville cambridge north hampton. There's a whole bunch of them The memo indicates what most of that language generally was that corresponds to r section 2.2 b I took that language and modified our section 2.2 b accordingly, but I added Some additional language the currently existing or hereafter adopted that was in one of those cities Corresponding section it basically removes the Provided that the town council shall first approve by majority vote each ruler regulation to be enforced by this procedure And then just clarifies some of the other ones But essentially we'd be getting rid of the clause that requires us to vote to approve Each of the regulations adopted in order for them to enforce it non criminally Which would mean we don't have to keep track of when say the board of licensed commissioners adopts new regulations To then bring it back to us for approval. It would just happen automatically Is there discussion about this this is an automatic referral referral to gol because it's a bylaw So but before we send it off to gol are their discussion I just have a comment. I appreciate having local towns included for comparables I guess the only other thing is that I think it was useful for the public To understand that these regulations have happened with the board of licensed commission And so I just like to make sure that we Figure out in passing this bylaw how That's publicly communicated Because it all of a sudden they pop up and somebody says well, when did that happen? So any other discussion before it goes off to gol Alyssa, I think it gol wanted to make a recommendation based on how we have set up other new things on our town website since town councils come into existence In terms of that section that has our rules, for example If we could do a similar thing for board of health regulations Board of licensed commissioner regulations and probably want to have an even thought of But those being the main two because people do not realize If they haven't served here that they get to do what they want largely And we're further enabling that which is fine because they still largely get to do what they want But people ought to be able to find it easily. And so there might just be a way they Given our previous experience with organizing materials that might be a good recommendation to come back out Okay, anything else? Okay, that's an automatic referral. So then we're going to Move on to the affordable housing priorities policy and let me just point out that The affordable housing Amherst affordable housing trust presented a draft policy to the council. It's in your packet. It's dated july 19th 2019 After discussion among the council It was referred to CRC community resources committee and to the finance committee Both of these standing committees have held several discussions Had public comment and gone back and held even more discussions about this policy And they've prepared their reports to reflect this for tonight So i'm going to call on Mandy joe to summarize community resources And andy to summarize finance committee and then we'll move to discussion Mandy joe so The original referral was to provide feedback to the town council on their priorities plan policy And we did that in a extensive memo On November 13th 2019 After that the finance committee took up the referral and then let me know as chair that their recommendation was going to be to do a holistic sort of referral back on housing policy in general to A committee of the council and so on january 29th The CRC revisited the recommendation and the feedback And after a robust discussion we voted four to one With pat was was the one in the know to recommend that the council refer the To CRC the development of a comprehensive housing policy for the town of amherst as a priority Taking into consideration the trust's draft policy in order to make recommendations to the full council The as a priority is in there was To indicate that it should be a priority to get a housing policy back to the council So it doesn't sit on CRC's agenda The no vote pat can speak more fully to this but she believed That a delay in drafting a comprehensive policy would leave the town without an affordable housing policy in the interim And that would potentially harm development of affordable housing. And so she felt that Adopting an affordable housing policy before a comprehensive policy was vitally important and therefore disagreed with A full referral back to for a comprehensive policy development when we had a draft affordable housing policy On the table that could be continued to work on by the trust Um, okay Sir any further comment from CRC at this point? Pat anything? No, okay, andy well We've had a series of robust discussions that I have reported to you in writing on several different occasions including for this meeting and I don't want to take the time at this hour to go into Like the discussion of what the financial Implications are I think that what we basically learned is that there are um Costs that we have to be assessed each time a proposal is made to develop Some affordable housing. We've had some great successes in the town Have learned a lot from them including the fact that There could be in addition to ongoing costs Um staff costs there could also be great benefits as we sometimes find when The state Through dchd is willing to Has a grant program that would support it and each needs to be assessed on its own merits. We think that the um Council will do that and that that's what the council one of the council's responsibilities is happened on with the north hampton road discussion um so that basically We were feeling that The policy was going it was taking us in a direction that was helpful But that it really needed to have substantial additional work done About how some of those provisions are worded so that it comes out right and serves The community's interests One of the other Things that you received. I think was the december 2017 report from the planning department about all of the recent projects over that are discussed and The reason I want to point that out is that It really is a demonstration that we have done a lot. We have had great success We are not going to stop that the lack of the pot that the policy creation Isn't going to stop us from seizing opportunities that come up when we have opportunities And that the important thing is to have the right policy And I think that's basically what the basis of the recommendation is right So let me comment before we go into the discussion of the motion and that is that On several occasions this council has discussed housing They've discussed it not just from the affordable Housing perspective but also from issues like workforce housing middle class income housing Middle income housing and et cetera In in fact to the point that when we first drafted a set of goals, which we never adopted The words comprehensive housing a policy Actually appear in those goals A second thing is that regardless of what we want to do here We do need to consider the staff time Because the very same staff that would work on this Are also involved in master plan and in by law in by law review and then finally I I need to track this down further But I do want to mention that when I was at the full count kickoff thing last friday I believe it was a person from pionter valley planning commission mentioned That they had just contracted with a certain institute at the university that i'm familiar with Which I have not had a chance to track down That they are going to do a comprehensive housing study of the pionter valley So I think we need to find out about that I think we need to figure out whether there's ways that we can gain information from that study And the timing of that study So um, I just wanted to lay out those additional pieces of information for the council So the recommendation here is that we refer The community resources report the finance committee resources report And we refer all of this back to the can end the policy draft policy to the community resources committee And to develop a comprehensive housing policy And again, I don't know what kind of timeframe we want to put on that but In a later discussion, we'll be looking at the net the time Essentially the approach the proposed approach for the master plan revisions, but also After that it's bylaw. So The idea really is at this point with great appreciation for The affordable housing trust for bringing this forward is to recognize that We live this commitment every day in amherst Um to affordable housing, but we also want to look at all of our comprehensive housing issues Further discussion Darcy um, if if this were referred to the crc Does that assume That um There will be a separate housing policy Created separate from our what's being Planned put in the master plan um And are we you know, are we going to be responsive to the target numbers that the housing trust put in their proposal Because I don't see that necessarily Happening in a policy document or a master plan Um So I have those questions I think one of the reasons it would go to crc is because They're they're engaged in the conversation about the master plan and also They would have to look at it I mean it it's kind of sending it to the committee that is already looking at master plan and is looking at Um the comprehensive nature I I don't think we can answer that question completely because we're not Exactly telling them everything we want them to do but that's one of the things you would want to make sure happens Andy and large part of the concern that is expressed in the finance committee report is that Their benefits to having a concrete goal. There are also some extreme concerns about having a concrete goal And that we laid them out in the report And suggested that that's a subject that needs to be determined With a little bit of study from crc We didn't feel it was appropriate to Meet the decision or make a recommendation, but we did feel it on the bottom line But we did feel it was important that that be considered because If you have a concrete goal in the concrete in the goal drives the Decision making down the line Then their consequences that come about I think the other thing that I just would add That I did receive a Memorandum from by email today from mr. Hornick as chair of the affordable housing trust and He said that he was not going to come to tonight's meeting because he was perfectly Fine with working with CRC if that was a decision made So I feel comfortable conveying that information along Darcy I just want to go back because I think what I heard from you is you want the committee crc to look at this and In relationship to the master plan and the goals that were proposed Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out what it is the crc is going to do and um, I The master plan process is going to unfold over a period of what 10 months to a year type of thing, right? Um, so this would be integrated into that process and that would be the time frame that we might be Getting a result about this in right? Yeah, shall we I have two questions and I feel like that's something shouldn't the town council be in agreement about A where do we stand with respect to homeless people? Like do we have a policy about that and is that something crc is going to determine or is that Something the town council has to come up with like What is opposition on that? What are our goals or vision for that? And secondly in like we have limited resources and we can't provide housing for everyone who needs housing So again, is that a priority that? As a council we need to come up with like can can we have like a really strong goal that Every working fan. I'm like, you know or something like working families is upper priority and we want to provide Affordable housing we want to make sure that at least the people who are working here Have a house or is it I don't know 80 percent You know below median so is that something that the town council has to Come up with and then the crc works on how to make it happen or What I would hope it would be just the reverse because I don't think The town council is going to Sit here and actually draft a policy I think that what i'm hearing from you though is That you would like whatever they come back with to also address homelessness and also address priorities and goals Okay Other comments Okay. Yes, elissa One of the frustrations i'm i'm having here beyond just the oddity of crc referring it back to itself is The fact that this is the kind of thing that in the past we frequently would have hired someone to do And so referencing what you said about pv I don't even want to say it because i'm not happy with most of the things they provide to us so that agency and also The work we're doing on the master plan and the fact that staff and We'll have a different discussion about the master plan and how unhappy I am about that process, but I I'm not clear on How we're going to manage all this. I mean this feels like something that could literally be all of crc's time all of the time With to the exclusion of everything else in order to manage this and so I i've Been working on affordable housing for years. So it's not like I have a problem with having a policy I'm just trying to figure out Maybe what makes sense is to refer to crc so they come back to us and say what's realistic Maybe that Is why a referral would be something I could support because crc would say okay now that we've thought about this We've looked at other peoples etc. We're realizing given where we are in the master plan This is what we're going to tell town council as opposed to they're going to have a finished thing for us on such and such a date additional comments well, I would just Say that there is a long learning curve, but Everybody can't be going learning the same things at once and I'm going to the planning board the zoning subcommittee the zba the local historic district And there's one other and you know We just trying to get a picture of What amourst has what it needs where it's going and and you know shallony the workforce housing is really Something that's big on people's minds, but it's the idea of I mean obviously some Some research will have to be done, but you know, where is the town going in terms of its Who's moving in What kind of a balance are we going to have between renter and owner between family and student? Those are major topics and I I see Crc working on this policy doesn't mean that they make the policy Okay, that they're trying to put together Some kind of proposal which then the council Will spend a good deal of time on Can I um, I'm going to actually go back on something that was Suggested and that is Perhaps the motion is not for crc to develop the policy But it's to recommend an approach for the development of a policy That takes into consideration all the other things that are on the table and they may come back and say You know, we suggest that There'd be budget money put aside for this or we suggest there be a ad hoc committee for this or we suggest that This be something we face or we try to do over this period of time versus this period of time, but um, it it kind of gets at the issue of How are we going to do this just the same way we said, how are we going to do the master plan? And now we have for for as a proposal On how to approach the master plan Does that Mini Joe your your chair crc Steve's on crc Pat's on crc Andy's on crc Dorothy right Given crc's vote There I surmise there would be at least one vote against such a Change to the motion because it would delay even longer Getting to a policy if the first thing crc has to do is Come up with a process on how to develop a policy Um Andy in the crc meeting when we You know when we considered the finance committee recommendation Made the point that the council is the policymaking chief policy setter in the town um And a policy adopted by the council becomes a town policy Whereas a policy adopted by a board or committee becomes that boards or committees policy um, and so if we're seeking To create a housing policy for this town The council needs to adopt that policy and The logical place for it to be first vetted is a committee of the council um How that committee Vets or developments develops it should probably be left up to that committee That doesn't mean the committee would start from scratch um You know, I haven't as chair thought about how we might Go about figuring out how to do it if this referral comes to us to develop a comprehensive housing policy um We in crc talked about how we would absolutely need to um work with The experts in town to do so Including the housing trust Um and potentially other Places and and committees and staff to figure stuff out But we'd also probably look towards other towns to see if they have housing policies and how those look Um, and maybe start with a template from there. Um, it hasn't been thought of but to add in We can't develop the policy. We have to develop a process first seems like adding extra Work to the council's load because it has to come back to the council to approve before you can then start the policy okay dorsi so Mandy jode, do you foresee that the crc can do all of that? um on its own without like help from an outside consultant or um because You know, we have in the ecac we're going to be coming up with our climate action plan and we Now have grant money To pay a consultant to help us do that um It just seems like it's a massive amount of work and i'm just wondering if you're playing on doing it all Mandy jode So I think it I don't know is the answer um because I think it depends on what In the end crc Decides on what the policy should look like and whether it's just goals the for example ecac came up with goals With some staff support, but not the implementation the plan to implement those goals um If that's where the policy is going then that can probably be done within crc and Consulting others. Like I said, I haven't thought tremendously Extensively about how this might look within the committee. Um, if it's going to be really specific down to numbers of units and And things like that then maybe it it can't be but until CRCs looked into and talked about if it comes to crc talked about what the policy Parameters they want to present to the council are and parameters is More like when I say that the extensiveness of the policy I I can't really answer How the development of that might go the first part of the discussion would be What type of policy Where's our goal setting going, you know, is it Very general is it very specific all sorts of things like that? So Rather than spend a whole lot more time on how this is going to get done. I think the general idea is that it would go to crc And they may come back and say we like the assistance in the following way or they may say Here's the plan we're using or they may say here's the policy Yep So the motion if we have it is to refer the community resources committee report dated 24 2020 the finance committee report appendices titled finance committee housing policy report and affordable housing town support and the proposed amherst affordable housing priorities policy To the community resources committee to develop a comprehensive housing policy With report to the council on A date yet to be specified Is there A motion I would move that a second Can the date be 90 days? Sure because you have to report In 90 days. Okay. So there's a friendly amendment Okay. Yes It's a motion. It's the motion on the motion cheating and all I've done is fill out within 90 days Okay, is there any further discussion? Yes, Andy. I have a question for Athena I didn't see it was when I looked at the share point package just now. I didn't see the Finance committee report. I feel We'll make sure it's added Yeah, I think that's at this point if it's not there it needs to be added the numbering sometimes Makes things Difficult, but I'm fairly sure it's there if it's not I'll make sure it's there. Okay All right If even if it's not there the motion assumes it exists Yep, that's it. I think I've got it January 28th before you had draft on it and ddd or something this now says january 28th. It's under 7h It might have been a link Okay All right, so there's a motion on the floor. It's been made in seconded the only amendment so far to that motion is Not amendment either. It was a friendly amendment is that the council would That the CRC would report to the council within 90 days Any further discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand and say I Opposed Abstain 12-0-0. Okay, we're moving on to master plan process Mandy Joe so this is a slightly revised version of the Process that was presented. I think two meetings ago um It was revised in response to feedback that was received by the planning board by planning board members The revisions were Voted unanimously at CRC to recommend the town council adopt the process as amended at the january 29th meeting as its process for working toward adoption Of the master plan as required by charter section 9.8 The main revision the revisions are Marked in red on page 6 of the CRC report The main revision was there was concern that the phrase changes in town priorities since the approval of the master plan was very vague And could be construed very extensively And so we pulled Deleted that pulled out the climate action goals From the town adoption of plans Initiatives and goals because it was the only goal under that listing and put that in The place of the phrase that said changes in town priorities and just said the council's adoption of the climate action goals um the other big the only other change really was The six months to nine months to extend the time period for it. It is my understanding that on um Last wednesday The planning board adopted their own process for Updating the master plan. There is a Flow chart if Athena could put the flow chart up. Yeah That I created I do not know I haven't gotten updated as to whether the process that I sort of set forth In the big box that has yellow, but um, this just shows the just yep that the first one it just shows the Process we're at the first box on the top right, which is adopting this process that's in this memo and then It would then essentially forward to the town manager forward to the Planning board that we to ask this they've already adopted that they're going to update it So we're kind of already past the second box too And we're into the planning board process where the green arrows are their process is a potential Draft process is outlined there. I do not know whether that is what they're going to follow During that process they would be in Communication with CRC we would be in communication with you once they Get to a final draft of the master plan update it would come back to the council for referral to CRC And then CRC along with the council would look at those updates would make any recommended feedback Feedback any recommended changes if we have any All of that the council would vote on any of that to send back to the planning board They'd go through their process again They'd vote on the final master plan update That would then come through the town manager per the charter to the council The council would then hold the required public hearing under the charter We are in the green arrow now, which represents the required charter part And then the council would adopt the master plan After having held the public hearing at a meeting after the public hearing is held and so that Flow chart was in your packet too And hopefully that helps illustrate what this wording Kind of says okay other questions. Yes Dorothy some some of the Some of the feedback from the planning board was that they hope that The part of the beginning where you see the planning board in a green arrow going down in a green arrow Going back to the big box on the right. Is it that that's where the majority of changes would happen? They were less interested in some of the last loops of back and forth Because of stating that it was their prerogative and we did clarify what you have clarified that We don't have to adopt it for it to be the town's plan The planning board makes that the master plan, but I would say that there was general agreement with the diagram Some people were a little upset about The placement of the public hearing and you know, that's in the charter But the point is they're going to have public hearings before that and we have to do ours We'll do it, but they want public input much earlier as I'm sure we do too So I would say that they it's you've done a pretty good job of of getting A a workable plan further comments listen Never in my wildest dreams Did I imagine after six years on the comprehensive planning committee three of them as chair that we'd be talking about this at this point after 11 o'clock 10 years after the planning board adopted the master plan and never created a master plan implementation committee That we're now talking about a process where we're going to spend nearly a year Reviewing a document that's already in existence But without any additional staff help without any additional money But it's somehow going to magically be worked into Planning board meetings Additional public hearings both the required one here and the planning board trying to encourage people It's going to attract an incredibly tiny subset of people to pay attention over the next nine months Because it's not the quarter million dollar plus master plan that we wrote It's simply a revision and I appreciate that we're trying To balance all these concerns I still don't understand why we aren't simply voting to accept the master plan that we have right now And then talking to the planning board about how they're going to make revisions to the plan and how we can talk to them I think it's Crazy that we're concerned about going through and changing the words from select board to whatever That we're worried about whether or not we've included the name of every single plan In a 10 year old plan. We know that we're in the cycle every 20 years. We need to be doing this I don't understand why we're going to go to this much work And then have to redo our master plan because we are this isn't going to fix This isn't going to prevent us from needing to revise the master plan within the next 10 years So I'm just at a loss as to why this is a sensible use of staff time financial resources we don't have The reason we don't have a master planning presentation committee is because no one had time to staff it or to be on it so I I'm just not really getting What this accomplishes for us I feel like we could easily have just voted to adopt the master plan that exists and then started having crc Talk to the planning board about hey, I really think we should work on the housing section Or I really think we need to work on the the sustainability section And then we would be making progress toward updating the master plan itself Rather than this sort of halfway revision that takes longer than a month Dorothy Well, I think that the last discussion at the planning board Includes a lot of the things that you're talking about There was definitely a desire which grew as they talked to form An implementation committee and to be thinking of it They used an image of a basket when they came to something that was Not as simple not immediate, but really necessary that wouldn't but would not be included in what we call the necessary and obvious Update they would put it in this basket, but it doesn't mean that the basket just sits there Okay, that they would be starting to work on the areas that were longer and more involved Because I think I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I think we were supposed to be looking at updates every five years And obviously we haven't done that So I would say that the planning board Is More or less on with the with this project of a limited update While they are getting themselves Going on thinking about the next you know the the real update that's going to have to happen within what the next five years Is it yeah No 10 You have to do it every 40 every 20 years and we're halfway through Other comments at this time So yes evan maybe I missed this But I'm having trouble reconciling The fact that we're looking at small updates that are Necessary Which I support With the nine month time period And I understand that planning board has a lot on their plate their meetings have been running Sometimes almost as long as our meetings have been running And and so I I understand that but I think From an optics perspective saying we're not doing a major overhaul. We're just doing minor updates And then saying and it's going to take us nine months. It's it's hard to reconcile those two things So I'd love to hear a little bit more I have They set himself a schedule in which they Set aside meetings where they would take Maybe an hour or maybe more than that a good a good part of the meeting On different sections of the master plan and there were so many sections of the master plan and they did That's how they got that nine months So they're building in carrying on their regular load, which is heavy And putting in study sessions where where this town staff will help them and it seems to me everyone was on board with that Mandy Joe The other concern was six months was that would put us in the middle of summer And they were really concerned about holding many of the public hearings In the middle of summer and all the public outreach potentially in the middle of summer So that nine months while It's there There's a recognition that it might not actually take that long there could be potential time where it's done But sitting to try and get some public outreach So it's not done when no one's here or it's not done in the middle of budget season From our point of view or something like that where there's To try and schedule those hearings At a more appropriate time during the course of the Year And so it's it's not all a it's going to take us nine months to get this to you It there's a hope that it's not going to it's part of their timing themselves not necessarily that's extensive It's just it needs to fit into their schedule But also they're not they're also as long as we probably would be hesitant calling a public hearing on the master plan in the middle of july Um One other thing to take into consideration is the charter requirement that we have a forum every year on the master plan We did do that in 2019 on september 28th And so the full timing of trying to get up to the next public forum for that would also be consistent Um, there's a motion. I'm gonna read it. Let's see whether we're willing to go ahead And it's to adopt the process for updating and adopting the master plan As set forth in the document titled crc proposed master planning pro plan process 2020 dash zero two dash four As recommended by the community resources committee As presented Excuse me as presented is there Emotion So move is there a second Is there further discussion? garcy I guess my reaction to this is um that you know considering the the the responsibility for Coming up with a master plan resides in the planning board this um I I can understand why the planning board had um, at least some members had a reaction of wondering why We were Trying to control the process so much um And I I am wondering the same thing um Is it that we don't trust the planning board to do the job? um I guess it feels it feels very um Unnecessary to me the this process or this whole flow chart Dorothy Well, what what happened was the crc was having sessions on the master plan And we have a lot of other things to do too So now we're not going to be having sessions month chapter by chapter on the master plan But the planning board is doing it. So I would say that the planning board when they saw the original plan Said the master plan is ours. Okay. We understand that the council has to Well has to adopt it. Well it has to accept it. That's what it is but they they feel now that they're in charge of the Um revision and we will have input as you will have input Yes Indeed joe. Sorry This all stems from the fact that the charter that green section at the bottom of this flow chart is required We as a town council must adopt the master plan Per the charter The planning board has to approve a master plan per the charter CRC There's there's some fine arguments for just adopting it without amendment crc when starting with that question Made a recommendation to say no, that's not what we would recommend to the council Hence this process But so if the council has to adopt what the mat what the planning board approves the whole point of Getting to this flow chart essentially Um was to figure out how That process could go as smooth as possible because there was concern that if There's no communication between the planning board and the council while the planning board is making changes to the master plan That when it comes to us under the green box Suddenly the council may say well I want to amend it here and I want to amend it here and I want to amend it here And then you've adopted and then you make those amendments and the council's adopted something that the planning board didn't pass And that under state law creates many many problems so the goal of this flow chart and the process is to Get to the green section So that when you get to the green section when you get to the Point where the planning board has adopted the master plan and it comes to the council The planning board has approved the master plan it comes to the council for adoption per the charter that that goes as smoothly as possible And the way to do that from the point of view of crc Hence this recommendation is to have those conversations in that feedback loop Prior to the planning board actually approving the master plan I actually want to refer people to 9.8 section 9.8 of the charter Which is about the master plan And it it lineates back and forth between whose responsibility is what this chart is consistent With that as best as I can judge that and it also seems to be laid forth in a spirit of cooperation with each other And um So Again, we have a motion on the floor. The motion is To adopt the process for updating and And adopting the master plan As set forth in the document titled crc proposed master plan process 2020 is a dash zero two dash four is recommended by the community resources committee as presented And I want to point out that in fact we have to adopt the master plan not just accept it There's a difference. Yes, elissa. Yes, and adopt the master plan is what it says And it doesn't say anything about how we can't adopt what we have right now And I appreciate that you referenced that earlier I think the biggest problem we have that this chart is trying to address Is the phrase that's in the charter 9.8 b which says with or without amendments Which makes no sense because the planning board is responsible for the master plan So the fact that this is written This way is what is causing us to be all bollocksed up like this because we wouldn't have to worry about the town council wanting to amend it If we didn't have the choice about amending it So that's what you're trying to address by making us talk it through because The charter says with or without amendments which implies that town council could sit here and try and make amendments No matter how many public hearings the planning board had about this further discussion Darson I and and you I think we might have already covered this the the planning board Has agreed to this process also because obviously They need to agree to do it I believe they did I mean So bandy joe do you have so the planning board About two weeks. Well, it says february january 15th agreed to undertake the Updating the master plan for necessary and obvious revisions They have as of I believe last wednesday adopted their own process their internal process for how they're going to undertake that Dorothy alluded to some of it the process that has the box that has some yellow in it is one of the Variations they've talked about. I do not know which one they actually adopted. I had a couple of different charts for it But In that They have seen The process outlined in the memo that the motion refers to multiple times And they have given their feedback to it And so we did not ask them to adopt that because this Part is mostly our part if you look at it We did not say how the planning board is going to do theirs We said this is when they're at certain stages of their process Here's how we as a council are going to deal with ours That's what the purpose of this process is Is how when they're at certain stages, what are we doing? Hence the green arrows are nothing that really applies to us. That's that's what the planning board sets the blue arrows are sort of meant for what we said The second page is with the flowchart is the Planning the draft planning board process is the draft is the full draft planning board process and so We would come in Before that after that at certain stages of that Okay Are there other questions at this time? All right, so there's been motions been made and seconded any further conversation All those in favor raise your hand and say I I opposed abstain So we are 11 members of which we have Would you give me the final vote please? Eight in favor one opposed and two abstentions. Okay. Thank you and two absent Okay We're going on to Standing committees. This is not the full proposal This is merely a look at and a suggested change of the jcpc charge and the bcg charge And I believe that George this is yours Yes, it is my committee Has voted to Present these to you changes to jcpc and bcg. We met on January 29th And both of these were voted jcpc was five zero and bcg was four zero with one absent And you have in your packet I think it's items 7k1 and 7k2 Are the two charges with red lines? So you can see what changes have been made In the geo geo well report Which Is also in your packet. I give you a very brief Discussion of the just what we talked about in terms of the two changes. So these are here for you to Approve I hope but at least you this is our recommendation for these two charges I don't think the changes are that dramatic But that's just maybe I've been looking at it too long But we could start with jcpc if that's appropriate whatever So the jcpc as far as I can see is changing of the wording Assuming that anybody who's a member of the town council is also current Mm-hmm And the only other thing is to reinforce No more than two and I believe that was to be consistent with what the finance committee charge says Is that correct? Yeah in the report the We observed that this the number of The membership on jpc is three was a compromise some counselors won four There was concern from the committee that having four counselors in the body Would be overwhelming to the other members So we felt three was a reasonable compromise right and if you have three finance committee members of five That means every time you have a meeting you have a quorum of the finance committee All right. Is there any questions about these recommended changes mostly of which are words? Yes, alissa. I'm confused about bcg as I have been since the day. We're doing jcpc. Okay good. Okay Anything else on jcpc? I Why are you crossing out current? Because if you're a member of the school committee, you are current So it doesn't it mean a past member could not be on it then that's correct So it was just redundant. That's it. Yes, it's a bit clearer. Yeah, right Yes, kathy. I don't really have a question on the jcpc wording But when I compare it to the bcg wording Why in one do we say Two council members designated by the council Ex designated by the whatever which is bcg and then jcpc. Just do we care whether we You know The appointing authority is listed above it. They're just they they're written in a different way and I didn't know whether There was A strong reason for that and I think they say the same thing. It's just You know one makes it One is clear that the council's picking whomever is going and school committee's picking and the other doesn't but If you you go into all the effort of rewriting subtle wording, why are they wordy differently? Mandi job So the bcg wording is taking pretty much from the charter the charter when it talks about bcg talks about Designated buys designated buys designated buys whereas the charter when it mentions jcpc Doesn't use the word designated by The appointing authority that we're using in the jcpc charge is through a town attorney opinion that said even though that wording wasn't used in the charter that the It used the word. I think representatives of Those three bodies and the town attorney opinion that came through sometime last year Said that meant that the town council appoints That those representatives of the town council. So it's it's simply trying to just mirror some of the charter wording I just want to recognize we are going back and doing council liaisons. I'm sorry to have skipped that You probably didn't even notice I did I figured you're just prioritizing. Oh, okay So they're on the jcpc charge. Is there any further discussion? Could I have a motion george? Yep, it's on the motion sheet Okay, mandi. Joe go ahead move to amend the jcpc charge as set forth in the document titled jcpc charge GOL voted 2020 0129 as recommended by the two 10 2020 governance organization legislation committee report as presented Is there second any further discussion? All those in favor raise your hand and say aye opposed abstain Okay, now we're going to go on to bcg and then we'll come back to council liaisons Excuse me.  Hopefully with the red line and As we just pointed out managed just pointed out the first change was to bring the charge into conformity with the legal opinion that we got in terms of the reporting authority It was noted that we were just well that I think is just an observation We're talking about a committee that's required by the charter, but actually is met only once And at that meeting all three bodies were present But the changes are there in front of you And I have nothing to say Say hi to question Alyssa I don't think my question can be solved. I think it's just a bad section of the charter But it's associated with the idea that the bcg develops coordinated budget guidelines I bring this up literally every time we talk about bcg. It's not an appropriate task for them to take It is however in the charter. So what's our interpretation of what they're actually practically going to do? Associated with that. I mean what are we sending people off to because they've met once obviously they are not Doing that they're doing the calendaring thing. They're doing the other thing I have to agree with you when I read this in the charter. I'm going e I don't think so, but uh, we did we did this this year by having a full meeting of all three bodies And it was when we did our financial indicators Someone has suggested to me at the point at which budgets get tight That this is when this group has often been used in the past and um Other than that. I have no other observation Mandy joe I think the wording the under the purpose the ensures that information is shared amongst those entities as the town manager Develops the budget is one of the things that's being added to try and clarify what they might do in Tight budget situations where the manager? Obviously the manager is probably talking to the library director and the school superintendent too, but This body at a smaller one instead of calling joint meetings of all three committees Could be the way to funnel that information Through to each of the elected bodies Okay Kathy Really have a problem with the rewording this Do we just ignore the fact that it doesn't really exist as a functioning entity? I mean, I'm just saying this because I was I was sort of In theory on this, but I was not on it in terms of it But but you did show up for its one meeting I did show up, but but we didn't it wasn't even officially called by That group it was everybody on the council and everybody on these other committees So I understand the charter said this will exist Do we write all these functions and just Ignore the fact that it kind of isn't doing most of these I think what we do is At least what I would propose we do Is continue to have finance due any or all of these and in the process Next time we do the financial indicators We convene all three boards and we also call it bcg I this is One of those puzzles Said I we you could almost tell me any wording on this because I don't think It's an entity that actually didn't know your chair Right. There's no chair No one school committee has never designated a member to it All right. Well, let's let's do this. Let's go on to the motion for this And man to Joe To amend the bcg charge as set forth in the document titled bcg charge gol voted 2021 29 as recommended by the february 10th 2020 governance organization legislation committee report as presented Is there a second second any further discussion All those in favor raise your hand to say aye Aye All those opposed There are none and there are up abstain one abstent. No I'm sorry Okay Do you think that we could figure out what is remaining in our agenda that's critical So that we don't have to go on until 1 a.m Um, I'd certainly like to do that However, we have now been asked by at least One committee to get liaisons moving forward And so I'd like to address that Item in the agenda Okay We've only delayed it three times. Yeah, although I might have uh, well So so You have a report in your packet. You've had this report for well over a month now So hopefully you've had time to read it and reread it at your leisure. Um So oko was tasked, um With essentially dealing with liaisons and we saw that as sort of uh, three different responsibilities one deciding um Why a certain committee should get a liaison while another maybe shouldn't Two coming up with a list of committees that we believe should have liaisons and three Actually recommending appointments to those committees. We have done tasks one and two Did these back in december So We had a discussion about what criteria we might want to use To decide whether a committee should have a liaison with the understanding that not every committee Will or should have a liaison and that also An important understanding to this that not necessarily every counselor needs to be a liaison We didn't want to say okay. We have to come up with 13 committees so that every counselor has a liaison. We didn't want to let that cloud of our judgment We had agreement that any committee that regularly submit to the council policies proposals bylaws Um, and regularly is the keyword there, which is why I emphasized it Should have a liaison There were two other bullet points that are in there that we didn't necessarily come to consensus around but just said Sure, um, one was if they promulgate regulations that have a significant impact on the town or the community Regardless necessarily of whether we ever have to approve them And then the other one was the idea that if they distribute funds that are sourced from local tax dollars They would be useful We then said about applying that criteria to all of the existing committees And also trying to work in there the voting we had At our council retreat We came up with nine Yes nine committees Um What is interesting about those nine committees is you will notice that they don't all conform to the criteria that I just explained to you And in fact some don't at all um, and so What ended up emerging were there were some committees that were very clearly checked One two or three of those boxes. There were a few committees, uh, that oca felt that Even though they don't check those boxes because they deal with populations residents communities that are often Marginalized that are often underrepresented That it would be useful to have a liaison to elevate the concerns of that community And so you have the nine in here uh I am open to hearing suggestions about Whether you feel like that is inappropriate nine Whether there are ones that you think should be in there and shouldn't be With the understanding that you already read the report and are not just going to throw out your pet committees Without having read the reasons why they were not included, which I went to careful detail to explain to you The other side of this that I want to add because as Lynn mentioned of prioritizing this is um You could tell us tonight These are the nine committees you want liaisons to Oca has not decided how it will go about actually recommending appointments And oca does not view that as a priority at this moment. There are other things that we need to do First and so uh while I understand there may be town committees who are Just begging for liaisons Um regardless of the conversation we have tonight. I don't want to pour cold water on that But there will be no recommendations for liaison appointments at least within the next two council meetings So one of the options is to um Suspend the rules Go with the go with the memo and the recommendation And then at the very end you suggest that we use the kind of polling process I've used In the past and then the council would select from among those interested, right? So It's a way of short cutting through this, but we're open to suggestions mentia So I Nine given hour Already busy schedules almost seems like a lot to me um But I don't know what to do with it. Um, but I do have a suggestion for the zoning subcommittee recommendation and As chair of crc In working with trying to come up with the master plan process and all of that I had a lot of conversations with the chair of the planning board Um, so if there's going to be a liaison there's already requests from the planning board for during this planning process that The crc designate a representative to attend the meetings That the planning board is talking about the updates at so I I and crc has that on an agenda to talk about which would be in some sense separate from liaisons and I explained to them The chair of the planning board Our discussions on liaisons and what liaisons are set to do and what they're asking for a crc representative to do is completely different, um, but But having Talked with the planning board chair in doing some of this. I'm concerned that A zoning subcommittee liaison to the zoning subcommittee Would be yet another person for people on the planning board to liais with Along with the crc chair and then possibly during this nine month process yet another person So I I don't know what to do about that other than maybe consider For that particular committee given how crc interacts closely with the planning board anyway To maybe designate either the chair or the vice chair of crc And i'm not one that even when we i'm going to say this now. I did not request A a liaisonship to the planning board I don't think I did to the zoning subcommittee when we did this back at the last retreat But from From the chair's point of view from my point of view as chair of crc I think it would make sense if you're going to designate a liaison to the subcommittee To some sort of planning board subcommittee or planning board itself that it be either the chair or the vice chair of crc by default Any further discussion on that issue evan Sure, I mean, I think that the conversation we need to have first is are these the correct nine before we Right, because I think you could make a similar argument for a few of these that there should be a certain person One thing I I want to make I said this in the report I want to make sure I stress because it speaks to the workload is um a reminder that your expectation as a liaison is that you will receive agendas and perhaps skim minutes And keep in some type of regular communication with the chair of the body in order to be a conduit of information There is absolutely no expectation that as a liaison that you are regularly attending these meetings. And so I want to make sure we understand that as we're having that conversation because I don't want anyone to hear Oh being a liaison means I have to go to all the meetings and that's a huge workload And there's no way we can get nine counselors on to this it's I view it almost as a An additional document you have to read for a packet and that's about it um I have a slightly off cycle question and it's to ask gl whether you will be coming forth For the next agenda with the recommended changes to committees That's my hope okay so if we Bring that forth next time and move on it and we take this next time and move on it Then I would be polling For a lot of things all at once, but it also makes putting the puzzle together Though a little complicated it makes it somewhat easier Yes I can we will bring I hope a proposal, but I can't obviously guarantee that it'll Pass monster That one way or the other we got to move on. I agree. Yeah, okay So, um, is there any further discussion on the nine Committees that have been listed here. Yes, George. Just a quick question for Mandy I wonder what she's describing as what the planning board wants from crc Doesn't seem to match what we think liaisons are supposed to do So maybe the simplest thing here would be just to take this off the board Um, because it sounds like you having establishing a relationship with planning Or would you say no, it's not going to be a problem It sounds like what a liaison supposed to do is not exactly what The planning board is looking for from crc I'll explain a little more What the planning board has asked of crc for the master plan update process Is for a representative of crc to attend the meetings of the planning board where that Where those updates are being discussed In order to participate in the discussion of those updates And I have told the planning board chair that that Would be in conflict with the Council's idea of a liaison Hence the idea that crc now has on its agenda on wednesday A discussion of Designating a representative because I don't think it is compatible with The potential designation of a liaison One other thing I wanted to say though with liaisons for planning board and all With the council's vote that CRC be the joint holder of hearings for By-law changes to the zoning by-law that requires a coordination between chairs Or or between chair of the subcommittee and chair of the CRC in order to to already sort of coordinate stuff like that, which is almost a liaison shift So it goes back to what I was saying before so here's what I'm going to suggest We not vote on this tonight. Okay We bring it back next week I'll move it earlier in the agenda so that we're not dealing with it at this hour And we either decide at that point to add or eliminate from this list And move forward. Okay Any further? Yes. Kathy. I like that idea a lot and I would just like one page with the list I don't want to have to read the memo again I mean, I don't I mean, I know I have the memo. I just we'll focus on it We have to include the memo only because of the items in it. But yes, thank you The list is on the first page. So yeah Any further discussion? Yes, Alyssa. I'm sorry. So if people I wish you hadn't said if we're going to just add or delete based on what Evan said earlier So if anybody wants to add or delete anything to this list, then I think you need to talk to Evan Before the next meeting not bring it up on At the next meeting. It's very in hopes that perhaps ocho will have time to discuss that before the next meeting Please don't do it on the fly And you meet on the monday morning before our next council meeting on the 24th Okay Any further discussion on that? All right, we're moving on to appointments by the town manager I Does anybody see any reason why we can't go through all three of them and do a consensus vote No Okay, all right You want me to go ahead move them individually as part of one motion just move them all Different motions, right? Okay different motions Okay, so first I will say that ocho recommended approval of all of these appointments unanimously good cool So I move to approve the following town manager appointments to the council on aging effective immediately As recommended by the two ten twenty twenty outreach communications and appointments committee report For three-year term to expire june 30th 2022 jacklund smith crooks for a one-year term to expire june 30th 2020 Greg bascom Timothy neal is there second second all those in any discussion All those in favor raise your hand and say aye I oppose Abstained moving to the next one Okay, so I'm going to move to approve the following town manager's appointment to the The Participatory budgeting commission Effective immediately as recommended by the two ten twenty twenty outreach communications and appointments committee report For a term to expire on december 1st 2020 or such additional time as necessary to complete the charge outlined in the charter jonathan mccabe Is there a second second Any discussion All those in favor raise your hand and say aye Aye opposed Abstained Okay, next one. So I'm going to move to approve the following town manager appointments to the cultural council effective immediately as recommended by the Two ten twenty twenty outreach communications and appointments committee report For a three-year term to expire june 30th 2022 arthur perot For a two-year term to expire june 30th 2021 Nicholas graver michel for a one-year term to expire june 30th 2020 rachel wang Is there a second Any further discussion yes Alyssa I'm hoping i'm not stealing evan's thunder by saying this In future we are probably not going to bring forward appointments with saying how many years the term is Because in case anybody wonders that just before midnight that one year is not the end of june It just sounds funny to do it that way So we're just going to use dates in future was our thought this morning when we were just good We also mentioned it to the town manager and we all thought hey, that's a good idea We don't have to say one year two year three years. So don't be freaked out if you see it without the years It will definitely have dates Thank you. Any further discussion? Motion's been made in the second all those in favor raise your hand and say I opposed abstain all right um I did polling for both finance committee and jcpc on the finance committee First of all, we would like to thank shallony for her year plus of service But she is just not to be on the finance committee again The people uh appointed to the finance committee are andy steinberg Dorothy Pam linn greasmer pat de angeles and kathy shane Moving on jcpc. I also polled for this um There were really only three people who asked to be on jcpc I forwarded those names to you Excuse me. They are in fact Mandy joe hannacky kathy shane and andy steinberg. This is a vote of the council not the presidents I only do this as a service to get their names out there. So um, there is a motion to appoint mandy joe hannacky kathy shane andy steinberg Or others If nominated and elected by the council to the joint capital planning committee effective immediately Is there a motion? I so move second second all those in favor All right, so further discussion all those in favor. I all the polls. Hey Upsame for done minutes Excuse me We have three we have two sets of minutes one is for our regular meeting which was two weeks ago The other is for the four towns meeting, which was just this past No, I guess it was saturday a week ago and The are there any changes or corrections to either set? Okay, then Could I have a motion to approve the minutes of january 27th to 2020 town council meeting in february 1st 2024 towns meeting as presented till moved Is there a second? Any further discussion? All those in favor raise your hand and say aye. Aye opposed Stain, okay Town managers Report I have four things one is reminder a cup of joe on friday at brugers with our new principal assessor Second is we'd already talked about the early voting that will be at umass at the end of february third There was a site visit at 132 north hampton road today three members of the council were there as well as neighbors And staff as well as the state and the proponents or the applicants and fourth I sent to you just before the meeting Announcement that they're we have a partial agreement on the strategic partnership agreement with the university Where they will provide $185,000 to the To our to the town for use by the schools Divided between the regional school district a minor amount But the most of it being in our elementary schools that number will be included in the superintendent's budget Which will be presented to these Regional to the school committee tomorrow night So that's a partial agreement that we have reached for three years the current fiscal year f y 21 and f y 22 We have a ways to go for the rest of it But because of the status of the school department's budget We thought it was important to get this piece out of the way And approved and we appreciate the university stepping up and agreeing to make this announcement with us tonight Okay, yes I think I remember there was a deficit in the proposed school budget. How does this affect it? Well, the School budget will be balanced is because that's what the superintendent does They had some well the good news with our health insurance that coming in at 1.89 was the major proponent of that reason for it Okay Is there any Quickly committee reports anything further from crc? Nope anything further from finance Just one thing uh supplementing what was just said I've been in contact with other communities and with the Chair of the regional school committee We now have an agreement on both the budget and the method for Regional assessment for next year Excellent Well, I'm sorry. Can we get an idea of what that agreement is? Yes Andy It's the 45 percent because the Dollar amount of the budget went down for some of the reasons that paul had indicated That enabled all four towns to to come to agreement that that was unacceptable For the one year and and one of those was the Very low insurance rate Any further question on that? all right GOL I just want to thank those counselors who sent us written comments related to the committee restructuring proposal Um, those were discussed and and appreciated. I also got excellent comments today from members of oca And so i'm optimistic that we can bring to you a proposal next time for discussion That I think they're going to be issues about what happens to appointments and to how long oca whether oca should be dissolved or not But I think there was a general consensus at least about taking crc and dividing it into two And again any comments that you want to add are welcome We'll have a discussion on wednesday Taking into consideration in particular comments we've gotten today from oca okay, oca no further report And a percent for art kathy i'm just going to buy i'm going to bypass that if you don't mind and just say On our agenda on the 24th will be The first reading of the percent for art bylaw okay I just want to tell you that for all of those who just like to get things in advance We'll probably be able to post all those materials within the next day or two So it'll be two weeks in advance the meeting I mean that they're all done So there will be a collection of documents Okay, there's no topics is reasonably expressed No additional topics. Is there a motion to adjourn? Yes Alyssa do you have actually an additional 48 less than 48 hours. I'm sorry. I'm so tired I have no idea what I'm even saying anymore and I had a couple of suggestions for next time wonder I'll just save till next time But actually one is that we have executive session at the beginning of the night Not the middle of the night not the end of the night, but we start early We've done this previous iterations of life and I know it's hard to change your schedule But wow that would help anyway my my unanticipated item is the Project eligibility letter associated with 132 north Hampton road We are in a different position the select board was as an executive body The select board was the one who actually Had the cover letter that had all the attachments that were everybody's comments that we sent off to dhcd We're not in that position under the charter. That's the town manager now But we as a town council should have a position On what's going into dhcd, which means we need to know what their criteria is which we have that information available to us but we haven't Had a discussion and I didn't know if that's on our agenda for the 24th because we're almost out of time It's not the comment period does not end until the 29th And I would assume if we're going to look at what the Town manager is forwarding. That's what we would also then look at for us was you thinking we're going to have a separate statement I'm thinking the town manager can't get all that done with By the 24th and it's not up to us to approve his package It's that we would have a letter from the town council in there as well as opposed to because otherwise There's no reason for 13 individuals not to write in and that doesn't really make any sense to dhcd to have 13 individuals writing it So I feel like we have to have a town council position I will say the same thing when it comes time for the zba hearing But as the chief elected officials in the community who've heard tons about this I can't see that we wouldn't write something Again, there are there are clear criteria. I'm not telling we're not going to make it up out of our heads There are criteria as to what they what they want addressed in the letter. That's Easily available, but that does mean someone would have to write it And we're nearly out of time right um Let me come up with a way for without breaking open meeting law for consultation on that and bring forward a draft that you get to see In advance, okay Great Is there a motion to adjourn? Yes, a second. Yes all those in favor I