Good evening and welcome to the select board meeting March 5th, 2018 Calling to meeting to order at 633 p.m. We start first and foremost with opening remarks announcements and agenda review Is there anything on the agenda that anyone needs to? Move around a little bit. I will make a couple of announcements about it But if anybody had something in particular a couple of things I'll note Under four action discussion items letter e the person that's coming to Talk to us about that is not likely to arrive until about 845. So we'll probably rearrange in order to make that happen if we Need to The other thing is that down in our consent calendar under seven Under section to their special wine and malt licenses for top to see incorporated top of campus the the May 5th Excuse me May 10th, excuse me May 10th the 2018 we will probably pull from we will pull from from our our Approval process there because that means we need a little more information on that one So we're gonna pull that one out of the list when we get to that point. We'll pull that out I Don't believe there's anyone here from public comments since mr. Zomek's here for a different reason and And I don't think our press is going to offer public comment this evening So I think we'll head into our agenda So the first thing on our agenda tonight under action discussion items admissible property uses and disposition process policy So mr. Zomek if you would not come forward and and Walk us through the latest iteration of that a little bit and point out the things that have Been tweaked since the last time we took a look. Thank you very much Dave Zomek assistant town manager. I was last before you I believe on February 12th Where the board discussed a draft policy for the disposition of real property? I believe this is I think our third Go round and and with with edits and whatnot. I think on the 12th. There were some Suggested minor edits. I have miss Kruger's Edits in front of me. She was nice enough to provide me with a few of those I think the major edit was that we took out any reference to Establishing a diss additional policy rather we are going to establish criteria Under section under the section Policy and process for disposing on page two Instead of establish more policy was established criteria by which real property would be deemed surplus and available and then under next steps There is a typo there. I think under next steps, but we would develop those corresponding criteria We also did some minor Tweaks on page three under section five five be The assessed and or appraised value of property We made a small a small edit there Those were the main there was one other on page three Page three section six We added under six G Restrictions that may be placed upon the property prior to sale such as conservation Recreation and or historic preservation restrictions and public access and or other easements so Those were the main I would call those minor edits As I've said before I think this is a process that we're embarking on I fully expect that there will be a lot of Give and take and communication with the board obviously through this process I think we will learn things as we go and we may have to come back to this policy and say We discovered something here and and we'd like to come back to you because we need a minor tweak here or something of that sort So I'm anxious to embark on this process. I think staff is anticipating Getting going on the inventory. So look forward to working with you and the town manager in the months ahead as we Begin to do our assessment of property and and begin to bring them to the to you I Have a couple of things, but I want to ask if the other members So there's just a couple of small things I want to mention On page 200 policy and process for disposing of surplus real property the bold There's a list of five things I would swap two and three because I think you want to establish criteria before you By which real property would be deemed surplus and available for disposition You would want to establish a criteria before you identify the real property that maybe deems are plus They just think logically that makes a little more sense That's a pretty subtle sort of thing and the only other thing I would suggest and you'd already mentioned that this had been edited under G under six on page three If recreation and or historic preservation restrictions, I didn't know if we wanted to add affordable housing is another category Under that type of restriction that might be placed on a property So I'm just offering those as suggestions that We may want to Put in there or not in there I'm sorry. Mr. Slatter. So affordable housing is listed as an item under Recommendations 5e but in 6g you would like to make sure that we carry over basically what's also mentioned in 5e above And since yes, because we do parallel those in both places one is about the particular restrictions or constraints on like the deed Right and I donated for that purpose So while we're fixing that we might as well either insert the word park in G or take it out of e Yeah Yes, I agree with the Suggestion to add it to g6 What was the edit you had for e on 5? So 5e add in part what it says park and recreation already. So in 6g Oh, so at park there as well Just again because it's like we're not trying to say that there's a difference Right different stages So just to be clear I will add park and recreation for parallel structure there and then yes That's a good point. We really did not touch on g adding an affordable housing restriction under g Sure Those are good. Were there other ones mr. Slatter. Those were just my more Things This might be more It could be either for mr. Zemeck or mr. Bachmann, but just I mean, I think this has come a long way and it is just you know Every time you show it to us we'll find a word, but I think it's in pretty good shape So the title at surplus real property just policy. It's dated Will this become a document that will say you know adopted by the select board as of the state and You know, we've all encountered trying to find a guideline from 20 years ago that might exist But how do how do we take this and make it something this select board on the state? adopted this policy so It has that kind of standing because it just doesn't yet because it's not done And it's going to make sure that once we do this it has that kind of life Yeah, I mean, I think we can put this on select board letterhead and put all that kind of information Approved on you know reviewed on these dates so people can go back and look at the trans the conversations you've had on it That's a good idea. I think the problem may be that we don't have Code a codification similar to the bylaws for select board past policies And That is something that You know when it came to some of the liquor policies, so we were looking up And we couldn't find them. I think that that was the problem is we don't have a methodical compilation in public accessibility system equivalent to the bylaws We can at least going forward try to remedy. Yes Yeah, I think that You know, whatever the voters decide There will be then After the Charter's adopted or not either a select board or a council going forward and it'd be good to have this kind of a policy in place for this sort of Non-bylaw ordinance type of Policy We talked about that every Time we try and do a policy so we never have a book and we've never had one And it's never existed and the ones that miss Pupple has very carefully unearthed for us over the years Have very random sorts of history associated with them often no date. And so Yeah, I mean whatever we decide is the new thing for that Ms. O'Keefe had pulled several together before she left us and put it as part of the handbook, but Yeah, it's becoming even more evident every time we try and do something and thinking about potential transitions including a miss Pupple no longer be here to Key A capital L Lucent would it be Simple enough to just add a link on your page to the various policies that we know I mean, there's four or five we could start with this one. I'm most concerned with this one We'll start with this one This will be the new Example policy. Oh, yes associated with that. So when we Transform this on to select board letterhead and show the date and that we voted it I would recommend that we not do the next steps section even though it's very valuable context People have to go to the minutes for that one So may I make a motion, please I would like to move to adopt the municipal property Uses and disposition process policy dated March 5 2018 as amended Is there further discussion Is this one of the things because I've run earth this format before where the select board members actually sign a policy Does it matter? I have We can or we cannot I've seen it both ways You make Yes about signing after we do a policy, you know who it was later on you make a truly excellent point And that would be a worthwhile thing to attach to these it gets more complicated when it gets signed because of course It's as amended and then you have to have a separate signature page or yet Logistics that are unimportant to anyone of us at this moment and the people ten years from now But I do think that's valuable because just saying it's the date is not as helpful as the date and the names and if We want to start with just typing the names because that seems easier than having a signature page It's a little historic context more than it makes it much clearer rather than just as I have often until the most Recent open meeting law changes came out I had nagged people to say you need to say who's absent because people don't understand who the whole pool of people were That could have been at that meeting as opposed to just the people who was present Other people think it's good to have a sign these policies going forward. I think it's a good idea I think that just in the short term we may need to just print our names so that they're There's various alternatives and I think we should just Look town manager figure out the one that works whether the names are typed in one signature Something describing out who you know when it comes out of in final form, it'll have it. Yeah Okay, is there further discussion hearing none all those in favor, please say aye. I Now you have thank you very much. No, thank you happy it means a little more exciting work to do. Thank you So next on our agenda is the annual town election March 27th 2018 the warrant which we need to prove believe in our packet we had Copy of that warrant So not being the same as a town meeting warrant and all named warrant Yes, this is also true when you know, there's a payroll warrant that also has to get approved not by us, but You know, there's different kinds of warrants. So we have before us This one and I presume There's no action we take as far as what's in it Formal I believe unless someone saw something Please I'm sorry, so one of the things it's just it's just the way it's laid out. I Checked with mr. Backelman and he checked with miss Burgess So the beginning of the warrant always says on Tuesday something like as you can see the polling places on Tuesday the 27th day March 2018 from 7 a.m. To 8 p.m Which is when polling hours are according to our town government act and is written right there I have no idea why that sentence is just thrown at the bottom of page 2 in terms of cut and paste because it Doesn't seem necessary for part 3 which is the hereof fail not part We remember Ms. Burgess saying when she speaks at town meeting associate with town meeting warrants But the polls will be open from 7 a.m. To 8 p.m. Is not part of the Turner question summary It's just something that is hanging there that doesn't belong there Don't worry about it and it's not going to show up on the ballot. She assured us that it will You just did it's hanging there. It's taking there so and just so you know the ballots will have the Candidates for office on the front and then on all the ballots You have to turn over the ballot to vote on this on the question And then question will be entire question will be on the second You won't have to read the beginning of it and on the bottom it says please continue voting on the other side And then says end of voting as you would explained earlier that way each precinct is treated equally in terms of the format of the ballot because some We need all that space for candidates and some may not but they'll all have this In the same place You ready for a motion? Okay. I move to approve the warrant for the 2018 annual town election of March 27th 2018 as presented second Right, we have motion. Is there further? discussion Assuming that as presented includes the fact that that sentence has gone It's gonna say that As a man just worry. Thank you. How about a man and then everyone can wonder what the amendment was Yes, that sounds lovely. That's acceptable to the second to the motion sheet Didn't give us the option. Yes. All right. Is there further discussion other than that? Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye. Hi So we do have a version to sign On that Or later. All right, so next up is For see which is committee appointment interview process policy at we had a memo from mr. Krueger and mr. Krueger and mr. Steinberg to us And so would you Flip a coin or I'll start so We've both had a hand in the Kind of the Mechanics of the committee appointment process and For a while now we've adopted this practice of Doing interviews for committee appointments, which is has been pretty successful And positive in many ways, but it's also very time-consuming not just For the committee interviews, but the setting them up the logistics And so in order to kind of find some relief for that Mr. Backelman brought it to mr. Steinberg in my attention and we we we worked on this and we crafted This memo, which I think you saw an earlier Only very slightly different draft of it was on your desk at the last meeting And so that's what you have Yeah, I think that it is as stated that The interview process was started early by mr. Heckenblatt there and was a very good suggestion of his and added a lot to the process because it Enabled a sense of fairness to the process that people who applied felt that whether they were chosen or not that they had been heard and a chance to participate and We as Whether it be a town manager or appointment or a select board appointment whoever was making the decision was having the benefit of Meeting candidates whether it was one or more than one in order to Make sure that the person Understood and fit into Fit into the committee and Knew that we were taking the committee take committee appointments very seriously But also it's an extraordinarily Dated and so this was a matter of trying to streamline it both by trying to Divide committees and to allow some discretion on the parts of The participants in the process from the town side as to who should be involved in the interview and how the interview should be Conducted because not all committees Are in the same stance summer? have very Have decision-making and hearing roles that are very different from others that are just trying to Move a project forward like the sister city relationship So that this is a policy that tries to encapsulate all of that and make it practical No, I appreciate the board taking this into consideration. I think we talked about it at the retreat as well The process is actually quite interesting, but it is time-consuming For the candidate sometimes to logistically try to organize them all to come in at the same time so that your time and The chair of the committee that they're serving on its time is efficient and so on so Depending on the committee. I think that Sometimes these are especially if there's a lot of vacancies and we're pretty much just need people It's good to have one person would probably be at it be Adequate to have them meet with them so they understand the process and of what they're getting into but And then for major committees, we obviously I think this process actually does work really well, so I appreciate you taking this into consideration So having been committees are long before you guys had to deal with it, so thank you so much for doing this I Want to make sure it's clear to the community that interviews were frequently done with people by phone in the old days and references were Infrequently, but occasionally checked in the old days So it wasn't like we just took a bunch of pieces of paper and picked the one that fell out of the top of the stairs There was a process, but it was not nearly this thorough and it was certainly not consistent And so that's been one of the really nice things that came out of trying the new ways is the consistency that so that Everyone felt like they were being fairly dealt with Because there was also substantial differences in the past even so between town manager Appointments and select board appointments and so for example the town manager who appoints the planning board within select board has to sign off on it Unlike some newspaper articles have indicated recently or perhaps blogs The planning board appointment is made by a town manager and the town manager didn't always interview all the applicants And that made people frustrated and the select board wasn't usually involved in those interviews when they did take place And so there's been a variety of different approaches to it over the years and this one has been the most transparent I think for people and so I really appreciate that. I Think we need a little bit more. I know there's just not enough words on this page We have to go to the other side We might need a little more verbiage in terms of just my understanding or the rest of our understanding as to Specifically exactly how this will work under which committees And so as we talk more about which committees this applies to because I'm still a little unclear as to for example If we've made the decision that if it's a town manager appointment The select board is never going to be present or the select board might be present and if that varies depending on the type of committee and By not having the town manager there which I think is in many ways a very reasonable choice to make for a select board direct select board Appointment it also means that it takes the town manager out of the mix in terms of the quite kinds of questions We're asking that the town manager is hearing that those are the questions we're asking and that if people are not particularly necessarily a good fit for this committee or at this time because we have too many wonderful Applicants that maybe the town manager is thinking of some openings for another committee And so I totally appreciate what we're doing But we will lose a little bit of that as well by having to do it just because You know for reals in terms of how this time works So that was a good Good possible outcomes of what we were doing But it it makes it a little harder if we don't do it that way So if we're just super clear on which is which I think moving forward Then people will again still feel like we're they're being dealt with very fairly as long as we all understand Which ones are which? So I would make the case that rather than adding more words that and unlike the Lynn Lynn and building disposition policy This is really about sort of select board and time manager practice that we adopt this And we try it out and learn from it and they may be in a subsequent time in a couple months Take a shot at revising it if it so rather than have a cut and dried This committee shall be in this pile on this committee show that we work with this It is a little bit amorphous deliberately and then we can reevaluate it because I would say this wouldn't be at the level of a policy, but more like Kind of keeping track of practice But that's we evaluate in a bit and perhaps be more inclined to something more Specific later. We didn't put the committees in buckets deliberately yet so then Moving forward how does how do those individual decisions get made and who makes them? I think that it's in the end. It's The one or two people who are working on just running the committee appointment process if it is a select board appointed committee if it is a town manager Appointment it is very explicit that it's the town manager's decision So to play that out a little bit So I see a CAF come in a citizen activity form come in and somebody has approached me and said hey I finally turn into my citizen activity form and I say yay. That's wonderful I have no idea what to tell them is going to happen next and so who do they that's fine I don't have to be that person but what I want to know is who I send them to Because that's that's what we just need to be clear about when it was the same for everybody We could speak to it if it's not for a while if it's not going to be the same for everybody It's totally cool. I just want to be able to know who to send them to so okay It is our intention that Anyone who applies to committee they are Supposed to now be getting acknowledgement that they have applied but that Everybody will have had some contact whether it be as you pointed out earlier by a phone call essentially a phone interview or Scheduling an in-person interview with one person or a larger group and That we can't say but we can say that people will be contacted when as the Committee selection Process takes place for the committee for which they have entered a CAF and I think that's one of the differences from Long ago practice that it wasn't always consistent that people could predict that they would Right here at all. Absolutely. It's their further discussion. Shall we move? And so And I'm sure mr. Waldwood too if he was here just because we're at different phases of this having done it over the years I really really really appreciated the part in here that talked about Getting a phone call to let people know they have not been selected. So we are Not frequently but on occasion blessed with more applicants than openings And so we put all those people in potentially through the applicant process and then We tell them and it's not really clear who tells them what when and so I think that's Incredibly helpful to make sure that that's clear that they will get a phone call to let them know and then who is going to make that Phone call because we've just had some I think miscommunication in the past about what our expectations are for that Just as we've had some miscommunication where we've appointed people here and they've never gotten their letters And so it's just a matter of making super clear Who does that then but I think that is a very respectful thing to do to let people know rather than just say watch the next Select board member and meeting and see if your name It's not supposed to be the lottery We're trying not to do that and we really we recognize that that happened which is why that was added in there is because the word to people interviewed for one position on the committee and We ended up Then got onto the agenda of our meeting before Chance to contact to people who had been interviewed was made and I think that that was Unfortunate And I just say Mike the way it's been handled in practice most recently is When there's more applicants than vacancies Whoever has been involved in that process in that interview process Which under this could be as many as one person or the full Compliment after a decision is made among those people. It's decided. Well, will you Call this person and tell them yes, or will you call this person and tell them? No, we recently had that happen as Recently as last Friday and before we left the room we parceled that out so as a sign But it could be a different. It's not like always this person. It was handled As the decision was made but made sure that it was covered No, I and It is a point of I mean I think with the board members who are part of it It's it's something that comes up who's going to contact whom and Before it gets on the agenda basically, yeah I believe so yes Okay, I moved to approve the committee appointment interview process policy dated March 1 2018 as presented Is there a second second? Is there for this yes, so that conversation we just had about what policies look like this doesn't look anything like a policy This looks like a memo right which is what it's supposed to look like and it's in this sort of amorphous thing That we're not even really sure we're turning into a policy yet because if we were it would probably have more details So instead of this Delete the word prop policy to to What I'm trying to get at is like let's say this is our thing that we're gonna try for the next period of time And then we're gonna reevaluate it some time after blah blah And then that way if we did have a policy book which we don't but if we did then this wouldn't Be in it yet. This would just be a we're on our way to a power and you know if I might the motion says policy But the document does not exactly so if we amended the motion to just how about here's the thought I know it's too late. It's already been moved, but something along these lines Adopt the committee appointment interview process dated March 1st with Sunset, that's not how we call whatever we call it Okay, when we're ready all right rather than Agree in the secondary reasons to adopt the committee appointment interview process stated March 1 Yeah, okay, and then we'll tweak it as time goes by it'll even someday be a policy So we're even differentiating tonight between our policies Someday it'll graduate to the book In the big book Yep, got it gripping television Gonna write a whole article on this Is it for the discussion hearing none all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All right, and so that's been adopted Okay, we'll take a little short recess for a moment Pieces of paper so next on our agenda is actually discuss some item discussion item 4d, which is committee vacancy And it's about scheduling a meeting with the Amherst of Housing Authority to jointly elect a new member to the Housing Authority It's an unlimit untimely death of a member of the Housing Authority, and so we are in the position of needing to elect a new member to that board Timing was such that it would not have fit Appropriately on the town election on March 27th and therefore we're scheduling as we did last fall a meeting in in concert with the Housing Authority to to interview potential candidates for that spot and To then elect them And so I have here in front of me and in our packet a notice of vacancy and process to jointly elect Which is a fairly extensive document which we've had to do a number of times in the last year But I wanted to mention a couple of things And I'll just I think I'll just read it was probably the easiest way to be very very clear about this The Amherst Housing Authority has provided notice to the select board that a vacancy exists on the elected board of commissioners The vacancy will be filled by vote of a majority of the remaining members of the AHA and the Amherst Select Board and We'll serve until the next local election Currently that would be March of 2019 But depending on how our annual election this year turns out that may change Relative to changes in the charter if that were to occur One thing I will point out about the Amherst Housing Authority is it does have one position on the Housing Authority that is The board of commissioners I should say that is appointed by the governor currently that Seat is also vacant But it is not part of the elected part of the board And so we do not have authority over that unless a number of other events happen that we're gonna deal with if that comes up But not at this time So just to be explicit about when we're thinking of doing this the vacancy will be filled by a joint meeting of the select board in the reigning members of the Housing Authority board of commissioners on April 2nd 2018 The selection will take place at 645 p.m During the regularly scheduled select board meeting in the town room on the second floor of town hall And we'll be broadcast live by Amherst media on channel 17 The reason that media it's during our meetings because we typically start at 630 We'll probably do public comment, and then we'll go immediately into that joint session Here's the critical pieces for those of you interested Amherst residents interested in serving must submit a letter of interest to the select board Office no later than 12 p.m. That's noon on Thursday, March 29th 2018 That's 12 p.m. Eastern time that can be done electronically and must be present for the joint election on Monday, April 2nd 2018 and we will start that at 645 p.m So the critical dates and times for people again are noon on Thursday 29th to get your letter of interest to the select board and To be present on the joint election night of April 2nd Following the March 29th, so that's a fairly quick turnaround once the letters are in place as has been the cast It has been the case in the past. We will we will have a joint session with the housing authority will do an interview process with each of the candidates Which is outlined in our packet, and I won't go into detail. We will take a vote that evening As uncomfortable as that is voting right in front of the people who are up for the position And again that person will serve the remainder of the term that they're filling Did any of my colleagues have anything else they wanted to offer relative that yes, Mr. Simard I'm not sure where you ended up on one of the points that you brought up. I had sort of raised this issue in a Communication just to mr. Slaughter But serve until the next local election. I thought it should end after that word election because in fact Until March 27 when after the vote on March 27, we won't know and even then we won't know the date because The way the proposed charter is assuming, you know in this scenario could passing There are actually two possible election dates in the charter There's a November date if we are able to obtain special legislation Approved by the legislature and the governor or it's date. I believe in January is an alternative date. So To put any date in there would seem to be either be Unduly complicated and unnecessary or inaccurate. So I would suggest Just After the word next local election period and leave it at that. I think that's sufficient So that's one recommendation I'm assuming that the date that we're talking about April 2nd has been discussed with the housing authority board and It has okay. That's helpful. And then there was that one other thing that we had toward Preceding after 645 Yeah, that's taken can be taken care of right and that's why I Read it as during because I think technically you're correct. It is it is during the meeting right It's a delusion of work Sorry I'm sorry, I didn't catch that I made three other edits that Miss Pupple made right away when I sent them to her last week Because she wanted to get this up last week and it didn't happen. And so now we can continue to fix it So that's helpful the so it says during instead of preceding but the problem is With that first sentence mr. Steinberg is that everyone's gonna think that we're talking about the March election Because this is coming out prior to the March election They should have been uploaded last week and we'll be uploaded any minute now I'm as soon as we give the final wording to staff And so if we say we'll serve until the next local election that the next local election is March 27th So that's not the right answer. So how how do we insert a phrase that makes it clear? I would suggest perhaps we could go with until the next local election following the March 27 2018 election or something to that effect following the April 2nd appointment Right. Oh, I think the April 2nd appointment would work as well That's an interesting She wants applicants to know I want right following the April 22nd April 2nd 2018 I'm sorry. I was looking at the 2018 appointment appointment, and we'll serve until the next local election following April 2nd appointment. Yeah, that one's really confused by that. They can But otherwise because what norm because it is indeed different than what normally happens in that Normally, we've done this in November, right for somebody who's gonna serve until March and Williams is in that very position this year and for that seat, but this is confusing because The other thing I was gonna add is I asked miss Peppel and if it's I since I have you all here I hope it's okay with you too, but I asked miss Peppel when she uploaded this to she always includes a Link to the policy even though we don't have that special book But the policy on filling elected board vacancies, which is dated 2014 It has some edits that need to be done, which I promised myself. I do after the last two of these Which I haven't done yet That just makes it clearer what we do. They aren't changes, but I would bring it back to you so that we would vote it Obviously, I'm not gonna just do it on the fly. So I said this is you know, 98% of the way there go ahead and give people this information Normally don't withhold this there's no eight There has already been one response letter that said you'll find out more when it gets closer It's like this should be provided as soon as they turn in the letter and that's always been true And I don't know why it was phrased that way that they always get this information as soon as they apply And like I said, there's a little bit of tweaking to be done with it and probably once I revise it You'll be reminded of all right. Here's this other thing. I wanted to say about how we actually do it, but 98% of it's already covered in here anyway. There's just a little bit of tweaking to be done I'll point something out to you right now that I noticed under the process the fourth bullet says deadline letters of interest is yes So we need some other phrasing that allows for other deadlines. That's typically the case, but we were trying to accommodate The AHA and we were trying to look at the package as quick as we can and that sort of thing. So there may be some other Nuance the language there Right That's what I noticed off. Well, just I see this is called policy and I'm sure Mr. Brew was probably gonna just when you when you revise this this goes into that category that we did earlier this evening in the policy category where actually you know this Proceeded us, but would be amended a new a new day to prove but then amended and whatever format we start to use for the Policy documents. This is another one's would be going on that was in the book exactly We are trying we've gotten quite close and that one of the other things that's not mentioned in here in terms of Mechanics that we would want to that I'm planning to include in the edited version Which you obviously don't have before you tonight Hopefully it'll be done before the second and if it's not honestly, we'll just do what we do and we'll get there But is the idea of when people turn in their letters that information is this doesn't need to be in the announcement This is supposed to be in the policy that when we've gone over this every time. We've done it is that We don't announce those names publicly Also, we when people call up and say so how many people have applied so far. We don't tell them the answer to that either It's up to the if the person who's applied wants to tell the whole world. They've applied. That's fine That's their choice. We don't tell their names We don't say how many there are until it's closed and then it goes in the packet and that's when everybody finds out What's happening? So it's not like pulling papers down at the town clerk's office. It's not that process It's more like the CAF process. Yes, it's right. It's closer to Which was by design. Yes, so it does seem like there's some grounds for confusion if it's gonna be 12 noon Versus our policy saying 4 p.m. So I think we should align just that for this one Yeah, I think I mean I think I think the good side was the 48 hours before the meeting and making sure to process them in time to to get them into the packets and to have enough To get them into the packet and processed in that sense, which is why I think noon was Everybody scheduled. Yeah, right. So I think that was the intention by the noon time. Yes So which just goes to show that having a policy means we don't actually follow it. So Because nobody was editing the policy to reflect that Might I recommend in the meantime that we simply put a strike through on those Two lines so that we don't change the approved date, etc And then we just put it out that way rather than trying I don't have time to revise this before it goes up And there's no reason not to tell people how the process works. I would suggest that we just put the deadline at 4 p.m And just have it before p.m. It was just consistent as how it's always been. Yeah, I agree. Let's keep it at 4 p.m Okay, so we change that cover memo. Okay. Yeah, I think that's better than the in it It's the announcement itself that she was changing. We can't just strike something out of a policy until we change it. Sorry. Oh watch us We clearly were ignoring it. We're pretty free-willing around here, but I object about it. I Think four seems fairer to people too in terms of just you know, you forget and then When I first read it and saw the noon I understood the rationale behind it But I also was like oh, I thought we usually went to the end of the day We have a way to get that stuff out even if it's right and there are other stuff comes out The reality is we didn't change it Even though this policy says that and so I appreciate that you said it Eastern time because we did have this problem When somebody was traveling so we fixed this was good Should be all good So a few edits to that so there may be a The motion was this week as it is. I mean as it is as amended so to speak right does someone want to make that motion I'm not recalling It would be helpful for us to make sure we capture the three changes that you've though we've made just make sure we're all on the same page So the first change is at the end of the the first paragraph after the word elections has following the April 2nd 2018 appointment The second change is as in the second line of the second paragraph changing the word preceding to during and the third change is in the Last sentence of that for of the second paragraph changing 12 p.m. To 4 p.m But that's what the motion is Because the motion's wrong anyway, so 7 p.m. So that's That's correct. I would venture we don't need to motion this putting this on our schedule I'm not recalling whether we just seems either didn't the last three times. We've done this right It's fine that it showed up in the motion sheet, but I just said we make we came I agree with those changes We came to we agree in the process This can be uploaded we're off and running so the reality is these minutes aren't gonna probably be ready before This happens on April 2nd, and that means it doesn't really matter what the motions were We're not either as the minutes are gonna have to reflect this the minutes will eventually get done But that's not gonna change anything in terms of people's awareness So it's like we're decided, but I think we're overly motioning here Okay, I think that's perfectly fine. I think that It's really about getting by consensus the memo to the right state Which is I believe where we've arrived unless anyone has anything else to offer and is the intention then to try and get this up I know there's at least one vacation in play, but to try and get this up this week So long story short for people home There's just there's a seat available in the Amherst housing authority if you are interested Send your letter of interest in to select board office By Thursday March 29th 2018 by 4 p.m We will hold an election on April 2nd starting at 645 So is the key? takeaways From that and you must be present to play. Yes. Must be present to win That's correct All right, so next on our agenda I'm going to is actually a potential time meeting article But we'll skip that for the moment We have a person that's going to come and talk to us about that a little bit and they're coming much later in the evening So we'll move on We had at our last meeting Done our annual Tibet Day proclamation There were a couple other items that we wanted to return to and we failed to do that last time So we're going to return to those at this point and just discuss a couple of things There was a suggestion that the flag be flown for longer than a week, which is our Sort of default amount of time for that We had approved a week And there were a couple I believe other Items And so I just wanted to finish that discussion a little bit I don't know that we need to take any action, but we we should We might want to take an action. We might need to take an action So we have that option available to us if we if we wanted to So I have to find it in my packet. So You can give me a moment to So similar materials to what we had last week were there I Anyone want to offer some additional comment or suggestion regarding this I Do please so I thought about this And if you'll bear with me I Totally understand where we were at last week where we thought we were being asked or I thought we were being asked for another Resolution similar to what we had done the couple of previous years and It was brought to our attention that it was actually More more being asked one was the extended time for flying the flag Which I think we need to talk about as one issue and the other was a Request and this was made by Thunder Zering who is before us About supporting I have the You know Just like number seven in his letter Calls on the Secretary of State to fully implement the provisions of the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 and then there's another number of subsets and to support the United States Congressional bipartisan and bicameral bill there were a bunch of things. I wasn't prepared to go research those and It seemed like a lot to ask And I hadn't realized that was part of the quest but as I thought about this I remembered because So what that in? 1999 our town meeting did actually pass our annual town meeting Article 51 petition resolution to bet And it's a long thing and it includes asking Congress and our representatives to do certain things and it just happened that At the end of that year in 1999. I had an opportunity to go to India and Had spent and I spent a couple of weeks at the Central Institute for Higher Tibetan Studies There was an exchange program a five college exchange program and I was sort of a tag along But as a tag along I wanted to have some role and I thought I'll bring this Article 51 that we passed and I got to present it to In a small meeting with the Dalai Lama and I thought You know sometimes I think these political resolutions that we do a town meeting or like kind of why are we doing it? But it it seemed to have some meaning and it seemed to support What the Tibetan people had gone through and I thought you know what would have made more sense was to advise our Petitioner before us to make this something that could go to town meeting Because it went before and that seemed like an appropriate place for it You know at the end of the warrant and we do these kinds of things We didn't do that. I didn't do that. I didn't even think about it But we do have an opportunity as a select board to put this on the warrant but have the petitioner actually carry their Responsibility should they so want to of bringing this to our town meeting Which I think is the more appropriate place for it and here with the select board So I so I thought of that action and interestingly it's the same person who had done this before the 1999 town meeting and Side note. I was very pleased that after 15 minutes I could actually find this online because I'm not that good at that but Was able to find Article 51 and it was the annual town meeting of April 1999 I don't know how that literally compares with the letter that we got last week in terms of support this bill and that other action, but That's my thinking The aspect of a position we could take we could allow this to go before our town meeting for that position Or it's where I think it actually belongs. Oh last thing if I might so It's Having lunch and Looking at things online not related to this at all. I came across this quote from ilay wazale Always take sides Neutrality helps the oppressor never the victim silence encourages the tormentor never the tormented And it seemed like taking an action even if it was somewhat symbolic was appropriate Okay, so now I'll be the horrible stick in the mud horrible process person one We didn't think of telling them to I lost my mind when mr. Slaughter attempted to have the select board sponsor the indigenous peoples day article rather than having the Human Rights Commission or the students themselves Bring it forward because Why the select board in comparison to other things? it's Awkward at this point because we are short on time to If if we knew for sure that it was going to be the exact same article I hear your point if we knew it's gonna be the same article from 1990 much as we have done for example with Non-citizen voting it's pretty much the same article that we crank out every couple of years to make sure the legislature will ignore it again but we keep trying and I don't know how much more effort would have to go into this for that to happen But we're running up on the deadlines for town meeting drafting of articles Which town council then has to review etc. Etc. And that's aside from my Then feeling so that's the logistics of getting it on the warrant which is getting really tight now Even as a select board article then the other issue is Once we get there Us taking a position on it one way or another because town meeting Research etc, but I'm trying to separate that from the process at this point in terms of Haring up and I'm digging through here looking at the debt for the deadline sheet. I looked it up today. It's a technically The 13th at noon is the quoted in the the date that we need to internally get the right because they want review of motions is Like the 16th, and I think that allows the appropriate 16th doesn't sound right. That would be no, it would be the Friday, right? So the 13th would be a Tuesday Right we for tomorrow the internal reviews And so then then the so that gives a few days two and a half days to make any final edits and Conversations before the group of folks get together to go over the motions at that point So yeah, there's just a smidge more than a week basically just sort of refined language in the largest sense So did you know I was just scratching? Right does so speaking of human rights commission would be a logical sort of participant Does anyone know if they're meeting anytime soon? Maybe the next few days I Think so it it is atypical, but I think it also there's a few sort of Contributing factors that might make it not unheard of for us to put something like this on the warrant, but I Think the real critical pieces, you know in glancing sort of at the copy you had with you Friendly link me, so I don't know if we We could get well shaped in time I could offer that if we were inclined to do this then myself or somebody here would contact Mr. Soaring and say This is what we're thinking. We had the conversation at our next meeting after you were here You would need to get us something to look at and we would entertain Putting it on as our article, but understand that you would be make, you know, you or your Designate would be the presenter. I mean we'll introduce the motion, but and explain the timing and They would kind of carry the water on it. It's just it's an idea and it does seem worth pursuing at this point I know it's out of the ordinary I'm not saying anything because I don't have first of all I wasn't here last week and was not part of that conversation and Don't have Particularly strong feelings about it To the extent that I feel awkward about it is that I've been one who's been saying when Petition articles come up that are of this nature that select board of auto not even take a position to recommend or not recommend and then here we're in a position of sponsoring and There seems to be a little bit of an inconsistency in that You said that so succinctly If we did this it would we would somehow have to feel comfortable with the fact that The next person who comes to us tomorrow and says, you know, this was a really cool idea I had and you didn't I missed the deadline and would you please put it on for me? And we're gonna have to say yeah, this is different and so that's why sometimes it's easier to be like Oh, the deadline is the deadline I Do also understand that We didn't How do I phrase this we didn't really have anybody who read the original request and understood what it was asking for And I'm not sure how we could address that in future in terms of fixing that So an attempt to fix it would be to say we would have told you to go to town meeting We may or may not have taken a position on it But had the timing been different We might have thought to tell you to go to town meeting for a resolution And then we could have that other conversation about later about whether or not the select board is taking a position so we could look at it as a Faux pas on our part if we wanted to I guess that I could put it in that box and feel Okay about it. Although I think when we did get the letter It was after the deadline any way for petition articles, so we wouldn't have had that opportunity which is just many This and other things of this nature have often kind of come in without people really understanding the full process so You know to fully explore this it would have been even if we had thought of it a minute We got the letter. I think it was past the deadline. Well Monday last Monday at noon was the deadline for resolutions What was the date on the letter? So it would have been time. Yeah depending on when we actually got it No, but theoretically so okay, so then I Feel a little better. Well, it makes me feel like you know Because we weren't on top of it. I didn't I didn't really read it until that night I saw it, you know kind of a quick read through my packet. So I Think we all missed that and it and there could have been time to get back So that's my proposal I would be prepared to make a motion, but I'm not gonna make one if you think it's a terrible idea And it may not even be a motion it might be It's not dates It just go by go by the date on the thing plus two days and you still you're still in Yeah, I think we're in a bit of a pickle to say the least about this there's no elegant solution on any front I think we're in I Think it's difficult. I think I think we may create more problems for ourselves in other ways To move ahead with a with a warrant article, you know if we had You know if if it was something we could suggest to the you know the Human Rights Commission We might have a little bit of an avenue for them to potentially turn this over in a fairly quick time But I don't think we really do With that, I'm sorry I'm mumbling. I just couldn't count on them being able to right. I mean there's other complications, of course So I think it's gonna be a little difficult to do that You know to our credit, however, we did pass, you know and not pass, but we you know Made the proclamation last week. We will still, you know fly the flag For the week following on and following the 10th of March And I think we've made clear our our sympathy to the to the Folks that that reached out to us about this, you know However, I think, you know, could we have done it better? Yes, absolutely and I think that you know will potentially put that in our Things to do better next time category. I think unfortunately, I just think the complications around The precedent setting that this miss brought up is is a little bit difficult So I think it's a little Because it does put us in an odd spot because I did I you know in general agree that there are oftentimes those kind of Resolutions where I think, you know, it's fully in holy town meetings, you know, right responsibility to decide what it decides and our Opinion isn't necessary or important for that, but I guess I'm scratching me. I'm just trying to read I understand about if we do this Then it's hard to say no the next time something like this happens and I'm trying to Recall if we've done something like this in the recent past and I don't mean Before any of us right have we done something similar so indigenous people? Was that an exception? So it it turned out that that in that circumstance and it really wasn't that I was You know they asked for some advice about how to do some things and so as far as submitting the petition I actually had my name attached to it which made it a bit and I was on select board of time so it made it a little Awkward in that regard because it would have been better had had someone else petition came in it. It was just the citizen Yeah, it was just a rare citizen Remember something in the you know in the last five years where something like this came in and we made an exception because of timing or it Couldn't get on unless So No, that was the one that came to mind That doesn't mean it's not possible and then I've conveniently forgotten about it because I've tried to repress it I don't know But and and I'm just remembering the first draft warrant that had mr. Slaughter's name is the petitioner is like what? But that was most of the convenience. I signed it exact timing issue like this. It wasn't the same and But it is you know What is the select board sponsoring and some select boards don't take that responsibility very seriously and the community understands that They just put things on and other communities like ours. This particular select board is very Firm about what kinds of things we put on there and then later what kinds of positions we take so complicated What's the timeliness of? Because I have not delved into this. What's the timeliness of this issue happening this spring? But I mean I know there's a particular anniversary the 59th anniversary of the uprising But um, I don't I don't know in terms of like taking having the rest of deli you know legislative delegations Contacted to take positions. Is there something up? I don't I don't know that would I think I felt like I Wanted to bring this forward and at least give us the opportunity to consider this possibility and sort of kind of look at it In all directions, but I certainly understand the dilemma when you make an exception Because you know sort of heartfelt sympathy reason, which which you know the next thing is you know, you know Volleyball day or something that you don't care about you know that so you can't just stick up for the ones you like But I think there are some really important Principles in the material and what's being asked for however if we don't have a way to accommodate it We don't and I wish we had had more of an extended conversation with that Petitioners applicants prior before it even got to select board So I guess I would ask a question and then possibly put it into then a different frame when you looked at the article from was 1999 was the Substance of the article similar to the resolution as presented this year as far as the issues raised in the steps to be taken in support Will be actual article that was passed Or what it was it wasn't asking the select board it was it was just a direct resolution Article I Guess it's a resolution and talks about certain actions You know Supports the Committee of Juris recommendations that the People's Republic of China and then it tells the People's Republic of China what to do I mean, you know, it's it's different than Different but it's similar themes. Yeah, but it's different than the specific support this bill and support that bill that we got Which I thought we don't I don't have the Attention to go really research those and then come and say if we took this position It would mean we were supporting XYZ So it's sort of it's similar in flavor, but different Okay, no, I'd take your word for it. I can't read you now So that's I mean, I'll think The fate of the world doesn't hang in the balance on this, but it certainly points to things I would do differently Where we already had actions prior town meetings, so if there was a way to Get it on and we could have gotten it on if we had thought of it, right Right, I agree. I could have sent them on their way to get it on Timing was just bad so whichever way we decide how would we communicate that because we told the Appletent that we would take it up at a subsequent time and then let them know because they they left saying we still want We would still like you to do XYZ action, right? So unless someone offers a motion then I think One of us and it could be me since I'm the chair I can certainly reach out and let them know that that we didn't did not change our motion and nonetheless we were you know in the Since this conversation about where we were with regard to that and You sort of potential options for the future right to highlight that we would be happy to work with them next year if they Wanted to right? You know all other things being right You don't have to help with that right and and I agree that you know often You know folks that aren't in this every day don't recognize those deadlines sneak up as as early as they are in a lot of ways and so it it I think you know you think hometown means at the end of April, but yet the deadline for petition articles is The end of February two full months ahead of time, so it's a pretty long timeline ahead of times Yes, so just two things one is Although we don't typically do resolutions at fall town meeting There's nothing forbidding them and so if there is a new piece of legislation for example like an update to something here If it seems timely to the petitioners, then that would be worth pursuing something Do you feel confident there will be a town meeting in the fall where there will be we don't worry about the annual And so that could be appropriate for them as well particularly depending on how things unfold over the legislative session Which they'll know by the summer to some extent and then they'll be able to Consider what they want for the fall with still plenty of time for the deadline So you could mention that to them and then the other aspect of it is that Which we actually originally started out on and then became this much bigger issue is the 59 days We do need to do the flag. Yeah, so we need to decide about before you if you're gonna call the person These were both things we said we were gonna talk about the end of the last meeting mr. Steinberg when you weren't here And then we forgot we went home Thank you for hearing me out on this is if I hadn't had that personal experience, I probably wouldn't know So did someone want to offer a suggestion around the 59 days, what does the book say? This is going to be an ongoing people are gonna wonder why we're talking about a book I had this doesn't exist. I had this question because in thinking about it so Somebody at our last meeting said well black history month we fly the flag for a month And I'm wondering is that the only time that we do a month because I have no idea and then you know If we were gonna develop either a practice or a policy it might be And I'm just gonna throw this out maybe something like it's one week except for black history month But I don't know how many other exceptions around there Yes, so there's three flags that we typically fly one is the Tibetan flag One is the Puerto Rican flag in November, and then black history month flag in February and how long do each of those fly The black history flag is for a month Puerto Rican flag is usually November 19th. I'm not sure the duration of that It's around a week to 10 days. I think it ends up being part of the month It's been a week in the past I would like to standardize it to a week Except for black history month because we've been doing that and it's the honor of the month and that could be the one exception because say next year we have Maybe the summer we have three flag requests for different things like how do we know we're just plucking these numbers out of the And we did the POW one and that's there forever, okay That doesn't that's not our view. Okay to me a week except for the exceptions So it sounds like we knew policy for the buck But in the meantime We could say in the minutes that our practice for now is We expect our practice to be a week. We will someday draft such a thing and or and then people can ask You know if there's a special anniversary or whatever. It's not unreasonable to ask It's just that you know, but what about black history month, which we are a week other than black history month because you know It's a month. Let's call that up because that's that has been our practices to do that month Everything else is going to be equal We've had a child abuse prevention flag in the past. I mean different flags, you know, go through different cycles popularity and Attention that people pay to them. Thank you some consistency. Okay So we'll let the minutes reflect that not convey that in the message to the To the emotion or practice so we can just agree that that's our practice in the minutes. I think that How would mr. Bachman like to write that in The practice of the board is to fly a flag for a week except in the case of black history month Right and I think if we wanted to get to the place of a foreign policy It would require we prior to think a little deeper about it than than that just in case there's a set of criteria We want to apply or whatever Right, right All right, so I'll make sure to reach out to them in the next few days and sort of convey our Our conversation to them so again, we're waiting on someone to come to talk to us about For ease so we'll move on to other parts of our agenda Under committee boards appointments and reappointments we have confirmed the town manager's appointment of a couple of folks Did you want to introduce this at all in sure So there are two people who have applied to excellent people have applied for the water supply protection committee Jack jumps up sec and Christina San Franito And this is the recommendations to point them through June 30th, 2020 Jack is a currently a member of the planning board and Miss San Franny Is Professor at of hydrology at Hampshire College both really Well suited for this position these positions, and I think there's a still another vacancy on that committee No, that's it. I just in mr. Jim sick nut in addition to being a planning board member is a hydrogeologist. Yes. Yes so we'll get I was to the to at the end of her name in our motion sheet needs to come off correct Yes, it was to Was to follow her name and it ended up to you It got merged to her name. Yeah, it's a typo. See I'm franny So if someone would like to make a motion, I couldn't do that Or Sort of on behalf of mr. Bachman because he can't make motion I moved to confirm the town manager's appointment of Jack gem sick and Christine seeing See a franny to the water supply Protection Committee through June 30th 2020 second. All right, so a motion of the second is there for the discussion You're none all those in favor. Please say aye Aye And so that's unanimous And we have a vacancy on the planning board and we interviewed two people for that vacancy both high quality people and the recommendation is for David Levenstein of 100 Woodside Avenue to be appointed through June 30th, 2020 Mr. Levenstein is a attorney and The person who had been on the commit on the planning board Mr. Ross and I had been an attorney and that was a skill set that they were eager to replace and I do know that he stated that His the nature of his practice will not pose a conflict So I would like to move to confirm the town manager's appointment of David Levenstein to the planning Board through June 30, 2020 Your second second. All right. Is it for the discussion hearing none? All those in favor, please say aye If I could just add a little footnote as we've said something like this many times before but Since I was the select where person participating in these I'm again kind of astounded with the high caliber of people who we have to draw on for our committees and that they come forward and volunteer their time and that they're highly skilled and respected in their fields and It's just sometimes amazes me People like I you know, there's like I didn't know you were here and then you know They step up and it's it's really kind of inspiring Thank you So next on our agenda We'll move into section seven, which is licensed as publicly in meter parking reservations With a consent calendar, but I'm going to suggest that we pull out the res reservation meter parking for sustainability fair on April 14th 2018 for a couple of reasons one of which is I believe we received a memo maybe on our desk tonight. It was on our desk. The one on our desk night has the 22nd Or the 21st as the date and so I just want to make sure that that's Not the date And so we want to be clear on the date that we we are approving and the locations we are approving which I think are actually identified correctly Because What is the dance yeah, the memo of February 27th says the 14th and the memo of March 1st as the 22nd so clearly It's the 14th the 14th the 20s that was a cut. That's a 2017 2017 right? That's even though it's March. It's a 2017 Have on our desk tonight, right? That's why it is indeed I Needed to pull it out for other reasons I think that's from last year's that's not yes. Yeah, that's show what you did last year, right? That's why it's there. All right. It's my confusion. Oh So may I please so I sent a note to mr. Backelman that said as we have said whenever we get a parking request We need to be clear on what's different than the last time we did it. I don't care what they want per se I want to know what's different and farmers market everybody and so he went back to miss Chikarello to Staff to dig that up and that's why we all got confused when we glanced at this memo because this is like really timely except a year ago March of 2017 Talking about what they had last year at but miss Chikarello made it quite clear in the memo of March Today March 5th 2018 this afternoon. There's an email that's on the top Oh, right that she provided to us that says it's still the 21 spaces Which you can confirm by looking back at that old letter Mm-hmm, and then in addition it's the four spaces on the south side for Electric vehicle test drives this Spring Street parking lot So so having said that you still think that it should be separated from the consent motion Well, I think the main thing I want to do is make sure that we were clear on that I had misread the old know from a year ago But so it does not need to be separate from from the consent calendar I will just say once again on the microphone that the sustainability fair is April 14th And people should all come down and enjoy it. So And potentially test-drive an electric vehicle and you want to you said at the Beginning of the evening that you wanted under D to not include And May 10 2018 in the first floor that Correct, correct if you would exclude that from a motion that would be or It would be as a as amended and that would be the amendment that I would suggest that we have so everything after that Semicolon that starts with words and may 10 2018 through the end Yes, well there's no field director stays on there, but otherwise. Yes. Well, actually the way it's sort of structured is Ms. Fontaine Who does the ones who had signed the prior ones and she but I think that there's no fear I'd only signed that one Okay, that's correct. That's why it would seem to be appropriate. Yes So With that noted as what the amendment is that that particular Deletion then I move to approve the items listed on the consent calendar from March 5 2018 is amended There's a second He's there for the discussion Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye And so that takes care of that section of things so I think what we'll do now Ask the question just to verify that we have every intention of making sure the March 5th memo that we just got sectioned It ends up in the packet upload eventually So that next year it's right there when somebody goes back to look it up to tell us not me looking it up But staff tells us right that's what the difference is right. It'll be great. So I think at this time we'll move into The town managers report if you're sure you're ready to take us through so we're not so later So later tonight are we going to talk about the other we are okay The person it's coming I'm talking about the other alcohol license that we pulled out of the consent count because this is different than the other Alcohol license we pulled out of the consent calendar last So I can address that so so we did not get a member raised questions about that License and we could not get the answers to that since it's not till May 10th. There was adequate time There's adequate time for us to bring it back to you Right, sorry Thank you jump ahead So so the other thing that I will mention is that last week we pulled one out for a similar reason right And that one has subsequently been Which on withdrawn so So when we pulled out last week was withdrawn and then we've got a new one this week to pull out Of course some more detail And we'll deal with it when it comes up because there's plenty of time because there's lots of time So I was not at last six meeting. I did watch portions of it and One thing that was said during that discussion had to do with open container law and Being on the campus and community coalition this actually came up in regard to the subject of Tailgating at football games and it turns out that on campus there is no open container provisions and That was one of the issues that was Discussed because as a town we do and there seems to be some misunderstanding that people can have open containers at tailgating because it is loud on campus, but it is Not loud on town streets and people would migrate the town streets and It's the so I just thought I would throw that in to further cloud the issue To further cloud Exactly what we needed Because If you wouldn't mind mr. Slayer because in case there was something else that somebody else wanted to ask about along those exact lines So what I asked mr. Bakerman to look into was the way they were planning to as we talked about last time controlled space So how do you keep people in the tent and tell them they can't take their alcohol outside the tent? Because for example if you license a premise I know one-day liquor licenses are different, but in terms of some form of Consistency if you have it if you have a restaurant that doesn't have an outdoor license premise They can't just take it out on the sidewalk or out back or even for example in Hadley Wildwood barbecue They have a nice picnic area. It's not a licensed premise So they can't take it out of the building and so that's one issue and then of course it being an open campus Where people walk their dogs etc. How is it that it's set aside from just people wandering in and buying alcohol and wandering off? so I appreciate them wanting to use their outside, but Thinking that through a little bit would be helpful for us to understand that they've had that conversation with chief living still And it's begin the beginning of the season for commencement activities like this So I think we want to get as many of these Process through but makes it we're all on the same page on this So okay your report And I don't want to make more work for any of us, but I wonder you know we get a lot of these I've never met these people who are the managers of and the submitters of I wonder if there could be some small Face-to-face meeting where we say hey We're getting these when we get them these are the kind of questions we think of and have a conversation How how would you how were you thinking of managing this kind of outdoor event? And these are the kind of things we'd like assurance and have some exchange It's early in the season because we get these and we we kick them out and we send them back But we never have that conversation They just it doesn't have to be all of us I think that under the circumstances that we are talking about the University Which is the entity that we have a sort of unique relationship with them in any different ways The conversation with them should be a general one about how they Monitor such events and What their approval process is internally and their monitoring process, but it's a little bit Different from some of the others, which is why I think that it might be also worth asking chief Livingstone What he does For signing off on the ones that are actually on campus and a really campus events and Whether there should be somebody like in the University Police that we Check with To make sure that that's one idea, you know, that's one one possibility, but This miss Brewer helps us to develop new policies Another add-on I just feel weird we get these and in a way they're anonymous to me and we have these Conversations, I don't expect them to watch the tapes of these meetings figure it out We're at the beginning of the season and maybe there's a constructive way to have it just yeah So so I think the people who deal at the University They all funnel through one office and then they come to our office and there's a single point of contact at their end Because they manage this process and that that's a pretty they and they are checking back and forth with Miss Pupple and Miss Boyce and a lot so there there is a sort of a pretty We try to expedite it for their search for because we have three or four of these every week and so There's pretty pretty a Paved path between the two so but I think that the expectations are Goes back and forth, but you know if you wanted to meet with people or have them come to the CCC or whatever I'm not sure what is what you're really looking for for one-day liquor licenses What is our You know the alcohol task force yeah that that didn't quite turn out the way some of us expected In terms of making a difference to our everyday lives I'm sure it may it will make a difference to some of the producers of beverages But that aside in terms of what we're trying to accomplish here, right? What are what are we trying to do and I? Feel like on the one hand Sometimes treat these other just a one day who cares, but we have all these conversations at campus community coalition We have all these standards about we don't want to have signs everywhere about alcohol use But yet ironically our wonderful partners say they have to have alcohol at every fundraising event So it it's awkward for us to both care and not care To trust them and to and to not worry about it. So Yes, it's one days are different, but no one I don't believe at the state level expects us to churn out as many one days as we do with UMass That's just not what the expectation was for one-day liquor licenses So I have one of the other things we might consider exploring is when in several years ago prior to this alcohol task force coming about a Catering license became available under certain circumstances and I mentioned that to the person who now is no longer there Who was sending us who was being listed as manager and the reason they would list different managers is because they're only allowed Legally to list the same manager X number of times a year so they list different managers and it would cost them less money to get the catering license and we wouldn't have to be handling these all the time and To some extent I guess it would be out of sight out of mind if they got the catering license so You know, I'm not we're not trying to be difficult here We're just trying to you know talk about the values We say we have when we talk about all the other things we're doing and take our work seriously But you know, it's a huge amount of paperwork shuffling at this point And I'm not sure that we're getting as much that we can feel like we feel entirely confident about it Barring some conversation where we all have some great agreement as to how things are going to work I just don't know where that conversation has to happen I don't think it's gonna happen with the people whose names you see here necessarily It's these are bigger things that are if you want to have that conversation I'm not sure who we have that conversation with just Mr.. That won't really take place at a CCC meeting. I mean we say our partners. I mean the university is even more bureaucratic than the town trying to I mean There's different layers. So yeah, it's the university, but it's not the part that we're doing all this Kind of proactive work with Kind of happens, you know off-screen somewhere else Yeah, I think that one of the things that we we understand is that we have criteria that we're looking for We want to make sure that there's no service to if any kind to people who are under the age of 21 That we expect that they will have professional People involved with the sale and delivery of alcohol So that there's no underage sales and there's no sales to people who are Obviously intoxicated at the time that they're purchasing that they have some system of monitoring the establishment to make sure that purchasers of alcohol are not wantonly distributing then the Alcohol to other people that if it is a closed event by invitation it is different than an open event and That we'd like to make sure that appropriate steps are being taken I don't think we necessarily want to approve all of the steps, but it might be worth just codifying what our Expectations are and then just sending them to people who apply saying we've approved it But it is approved with your vote with your understanding that these are the policies that attach to all of our approvals I believe that comes back to the post-election conversation But also and that would actually fit in terms of the way We do other processes where for example it says Restrictions and this talks about bottles and cans which is totally out of date and no one didn't know everyone knows It's not actually true And so we could have a thing that was actually true It was what our actual expectations were and our actual rules that went with this form But we have not been willing to dive into fixing this form because in many ways It's the conversation about what to put in the rules and then have the rules and then just have that be clear we know Green to by applying well, I like I like mr. Stenberg's idea where before we do the full-blown if we ever do Rewrite or development of an alcohol policy that we just have kind of a one-pager of these are You know, this is our expectation that goes with that it's sort of the The handout and that helps clarify it Getting getting to that and maybe that does wait, you know until next month, which So can we put that on that Google doc? Future the one you revive which is is not only I know the outcome policies is surely on there already but in terms of the arguably we could Start attacking that by rather than doing the whole policy Which is gonna have a lot of different layers to it is fixing the one-day issue first Because you know, we can change it again, including attached a descriptive right that takes away Restrictions that aren't actually true and that has real things. I agree to this just like when people reserve the common I agree. I understand I may have to pay for police. I understand I have to clean up, you know, I have to do those things This should not be different than that. So if we could find a way to call that the one-day license a Vision and values agreement. It's like a compact Expectations was the word I was writing down but Or guidelines Because we could do that and that would help us figure out the bigger policy issues maybe a baby step and it would be Start getting the policy work done Cool Yes Thank You mr. Chair first I Have to acknowledge that I've accepted the resignation of Claire McGinnis who is our treasure collector She has been the treasure collector and lately a co-interim finance director since 2004 She started as the collector then continuing on as treasure collector in 2010 and then most recently after mr. Puller left was elevated along with Ms. Aldrich to be co-interim finance director In her resignation letter she said with the support and hard work of the team in my office We managed the adoption of new procedures and the use of technology to work more efficiently In billing collecting and investing the funds of the town while Contemporarily adhering to the high standards of integrity and respect established by her predecessors and peers She's been a tremendous asset for the town a Very very talented. You've seen her in action when she's made presentations to town meeting and to Boards and in here In front of you individually as well She'll be greatly missed. We have a And so I wish her really the best and she has a bright future in front of her moving forward and I've tried to offer her opportunities to stay here, but she was pretty Clear about seeking another direction in her professional career So we benefited her from her experience in her professionalism for 14 years. So we're very grateful for that And hope that she does even better in her next position and we have a Transition plan in place and Claire has been instrumental in helping us organize that existing staff will be Asked to step up as the assistant collector and the assistant treasurer will be full fulfilling their functions We're taking all the actions necessary to transition bank accounts Department of revenue signature pages things like that So and so we're moving forward on that On this position along with as you know the town clerk's position and the assistant to the town manager's position I'm holding until after the election before we move forward on that There are many opportunities available when there's so many high-level positions in play for us to conceptualize Where we want to go as a town? my goal is always to Sort of like zero-based budgeting look at do we need the positions at that level that we have and Are there the opportunities to give growth to people internally and also to combine positions where we can be more efficient for this Because we have so many vacancies on the first floor I'm thinking of bringing somebody in to really do an evaluation of our existing staffing models We have a lot of experienced people and there's going to be transition coming in the next, you know Five ten years and so I think it's really a good idea to have someone from the outside come in look at how we're laid out The kinds of activities we're doing the kind of resources we're allocating to each of these activities What's what's being internalized what we're doing internally which what could be farmed out for instance? Ms. McGinnis had already taken the step of migrating our ambulance billing systems to a third-party vendor because Our experience and my experience individually has been that that you get greater Collection rates and more efficient billing rates And we were able to do that without by utilizing vacancies in other positions so that the person who is doing that function Will is will be moving to a new new position and she is pleased with that option So we do these things With a long-term view we don't we're not just jumping to do things to do things so I think that Well, she lives a very big hole in our operations I think that there's some opportunity at all these opportunities that come with with something like this So we're thinking about it very critically I will be probably looking to bring somebody in from the outside who will really sit down with each person Who's doing the jobs and sort of listen to the types of activities in a amount of time they spend on things We have a tremendous amount of talent on the first floor that we Can tap into so I'm really pleased with that and People have been really good both within the treasure collector's office and outside the office to say will help whatever needs to be done So I'm optimistic because you know as you've heard me say many times There's a lot of talent in this town as miss Kruger said just in the volunteers But also on the staff we are an employer of choice So people who come here tend to stay and they are always looking for new opportunities and we're we're trying to accommodate that so Sad that that's happening, but wish Claire the best Her last day is March 16th, so we're moving very aggressively to get everything done that needs to be done Could you remind us of the dates on the other two? Positions that you just reminded us of which so it's for the town clerks I think it's June 30th and from his papples June 10th. It's hoping it was a little bit further Yeah. Yeah, they're there. There's Time and we have a schedule for our Sort of recruitment for those positions what once The charter and I've talked with some people about these positions and they do want to know Well, what what's your form of government and that only makes sense and so we want to know that too So we're looking forward to the answer The other Big news was the events of March 3rd Which was Saturday and? and That day went very well and from my perspective we had Large number of police officers from municipal other municipalities along with our entire contingent With a fully staffed fire and EMS service The university was staffed up. The university has taken some really tangible Strong steps that have influenced what is happening on that traditional day of parties and It's specifically. I think their Guest policy and their parking policy is very aggressive in terms of no outside visitors are permitted and no Non-U messed vehicles are permitted in their parking lots. So they That's been very important because what I think was found Last time was that it wasn't necessarily university students who were causing a lot of the Uproar there was people who were coming here for the party not students and they also Put on a concert every year and this year's the acts the entertainers that they got were high-end selected by the students in consultation with the administration and there's a lot of buzz about the three performers that they had hired to come in and that Generated a lot of interest. I think there were nearly 5,000 tickets given to university students The concert the doors open of the Mullen Center open at 11 the concert started around noon. It ended around 3 30 and when we were looking at for the reports after that most of the students who had attended that were Hungry and they went back to the tiny commons and tired and went back to the dorm So we weren't sure what would happen at that moment, but it's turned out to be Pretty well done on the town side our party registration program is a was a huge success and We had 55 parties registered I don't have all the reports on everything that happened, but Having that information in the system The operations, I mean, I just wish I wrote to you over the weekend. I wish you it could have seen the The management of captain Gunderson the police chief the organization of hundreds of people who were in In the building if you saw a lot of police cars at the middle school That's where they organize themselves first thing in the morning and then they deployed The concept was to have high visibility throughout the community with you know wearing yellow jackets and Engage with students the messaging to all the people who were who were here Was to engage the students be respectful for the students encouraged them to have fun But to also pay attention to things that might create a danger such as there were things like there are 30 people on A roof of a porch they would ask them to get down and in the students were generally compliant When there'd be a large gathering Some there was some education that had to be done of these Police officers from other communities because they would see a gathering of 50 or 100 and think oh my goodness And our officers who are pretty experienced with that said that's okay. We can we we're gonna candle more than that The way they set it up is they will have a community a group of Officers from one community and then they'll have some Amherst police officers with them. So there's some contact Communication it was really important the state Police were here They had technology that they had loaned to the town Mima had brought in communication Communications a very important thing because there's so many people on radios and being able to communicate is very important But just a level of organization the level of communication The emergency operation center our IT department was pivotal in getting everything up and running getting everybody communicating It's just really impressive and just want to thank everybody who contributed to it because it was you know It was police. It was fire DPW had extra staff on on on hand in case it was a street sweeper in case we needed that with Barricades in case we needed that PVTA was part it was available to us a lot of planning and the way they laid it out is there's a really detailed operations plan that was laid out They say their operation plan starts in September when they start to engage in students and start and start to build the relationships And then phase two is the day where they continue to engage students And so it builds on the work that was done since September And then they're also prepared in case things go the wrong way and there so they have looked at all the contingencies Just very impressive it's the value of a professional well-trained police department is just You can't under underestimate that They also have had police departments in here that they've brought in And if they if they're not on the same page as our mission They don't get invited back and they are pretty critical about that there They any police officer that's here from any community reflects on our police department So they care the chief cares a lot about that so a good day The extra costs for outside police officers is borne by the university. It does not cost the town anything there's a lot of paperwork now that comes in and That everybody's submitting their bills and things and so that all has to happen now So there's it continues to work The university sees this as a very high value to them. They want us to be at this level and they will have a debrief afterwards the Operations people and talk about what went right what went wrong and make changes to next year. So There any questions on that? It's true No, it's great report. I just I'm thinking I'm thinking out loud Sometimes our our staff and other departments don't don't feel seen or you that was quite You know a commendation that you just gave rightly so Is there some appropriate way that we could communicate our appreciation for that effort to The police it could be as simple as a note that you send and say that the select board included the select board wanted Me to let you know that you know, they recognize the good work and all the training and it could be your appreciation and ours in one kind of thing because You know town hall doesn't see what we do. Yeah thing and I think they do very very much appreciate it Good idea. Thank you so more mundane items On Friday, I'll be at Kelly's restaurant with chief Livingstone anticipating in case anything went south he'd be there Answer the questions And so It's interesting we're starting to get more and more emails this is becoming a regular thing people say Oh, I want to meet with the town manager or else I'll just show up at one of his coffees and you know if they people who have complaints about a pothole or whatever it is So it's a good thing. Yes. I want them to come At the on downtown at the roundabout you may have seen Two plywood signs and then some paper on it saying welcome to Amherst Those are not the signs that we're anticipating they look a little shabby But it was an idea for the bid put those up to sort of gauge the size Location what it would look like it was really important for and to drive around have the DPW specifically drive around the police Say are these going to obstruct views as this is the location when they do go into place There will be a wall built Going up to them the signs will be crafted utilizing the design that was Developed by the sign committee that was just but these will be Paid for by the bid and the landscaping will be maintained by the bid The bid is working on a they would like to Do a design competition for the band shell on the common and so we're starting to move forward on that They also have You know, I told you last time about them going on having sort of a retreat and having somebody come in They're the bid board was very excited about the idea. They use the word plaza. That's that's not really what they mean I think they're thinking of a somewhat larger gathering space on the North They intend to be very active participants as we start to engage the public in what the town common the North Common should look like because There are options available to create a space that makes the area More conducive to get to gatherings of people Seeding areas and trying to activate some of the spaces Including utilizing some portions of the Main Street parking lot sensitive to the loss of parking up there, but But thinking through sort of holistically that whole the whole area the Consultant they had brought in his first thing he said was you have your prime parcel in town as a parking You would think there'd be a building there or or a park or something that was that was generating activity But that's a key parking space. It's our most popular popular parking location. So we know that people like it I've also had conversations with the bid About a parking garage now they are one of the challenges I've identified is that People talk about the need for a parking garage and they fixate on a parking garage But we don't really have a shared sense of how much does a parking garage cost in this town? And so I've engaged in a conversation with them to say would you pay or maybe with the town To have a consultant come in just in a brief, you know Look at our situation say if you put a parking garage here or there What is the estimated cost? What kind of how big would it be? How much revenue would you have to generate and so we have so everybody can be on the same page because I've heard Ranges of cost of a parking garage from $6,000 to 25 or $30,000 per parking space And that's a big range in terms of whether we can afford to do it worth a private developer would want to come in and do it so Trying to create move beyond the Conversation of we need a parking garage. We need a parking garage and just that's all people are saying and then People not really hearing that and people it just seems like there's this conversation happening. That's not that's just going past each other On the social services funding if you recall town meeting appropriated $60,000 for social services funding and we went out for an RFP for Latino food security program and we've received two bids two proposals and so We are going to begin conversations with The survival center which was one of the proposals to work on this We have not signed a contract or anything like that But the the dollar amounts were the same for both proposals so in the survival center was rated higher on for that so we Looking forward to Getting that program started our health director Julie Fetterman is really high on this program. We had It's a three-member panel that reviewed the proposals and ranked them In your packet, I also have the letter from the Attorney General that has informed the time clerk that All of the articles that needed approval by the Attorney General from the November 6 2017 meeting including the marijuana articles that were approved It's being legal, which is really good On Public safety issues the I went to mention that the town of Hadley has worked reached out to us to have a follow-up conversation About ambulance Services to their community The yes, this is budget time so other communities are reaching out to us you know we provide services to leverage Shusbury and Pelham and They each of those communities pays us a stipend to provide the service in addition to the work the Receipts that we receive if we're able to bill for that. We don't recover all of our costs These stipends help us to offset the cost and it's a it's a good deal for the For the three community the three smaller communities Hadley is is 20% of our ambulance calls, and it's something that we look at pretty critically and my basic Philosophy going into the meeting with them is that the taxpayers of Amherst should not be subsidizing the taxpayers of Hadley that they need to be the town of Hadley and the cost of providing that service needs to be self-sufficient and That's our bottom line on in going to meet with them. It's a really important that That I don't feel that our taxpayers are subsidizing a neighboring community on this particular issue Especially because they went out to bid and got in the market has shown that there's a value to the service that we provide So I would again working with the fire department and EMS Our EMS folks will be talking with them about the services that we provide with the services We provide we're very proud of and it's very high-level services We we have the best ambulances. We have highly trained paramedics that show up at your door In a matter of minutes. It's again one of those things. I think the town should be rightly proud of The In your I'm not sure if I put in your packet or not We did receive the letter from the state about our chapter 90 funds, which we received at 842,339 dollars if you recall from last week's meeting Mr. Moering and the presentation from DPW said we need about two million dollars every year to try to dig in a little bit into our Road maintenance problem. There are a lot of Potholes out there we have three It's been a really rough winner Some people say not much different than previous winners. I'm not sure I haven't been here long enough and leave it to other people's judgments We have But they explained to I think pretty in pretty good detail. There are three crews on the streets I mean today there are three crews out filling potholes wherever they can there's just a lot of roads in this town And we're trying to address About ambulance Beacon communities continues to work towards gaining its permits so they can begin construction in the spring They're very organized, and I think they've gone through almost everything they need to do on this at with building commissioner So they will be having a groundbreaking relatively soon The Musanti Center again is moving forward. They're they're preparing to give some Pat some tours to people and I think you may get an invitation to one pretty soon if you haven't already to one It's later in March, I don't have the dates March. Yeah Yeah The cultural district signs there are four cultural district signs there's for two of them that are attached to buildings They're still going through the permitting process They do have the permit for one on Main Street The where the Amherst media owns the property so they're gonna we will be installing a sign there and the one on realignment Park You've already approved that one and they've gotten their permits for that Let's see the North Amherst library. I think I reported last time that there were Five proposals they interviewed three and then the committee ranked them and so I'm Coon Riddle was rated as the top Submission there so I will be negotiating with them on the top rated As the top rated candidate for for a price if we don't agree on a price on that then we go to the second rated Entity The health insurance trust this week we have a meeting with the insurance advisory committee Last time the insurance advisory committee met which was school vacation week So it must have been like February 20th or something like that There was they committee did not make a recommendation. So we have the this week as a follow-up meeting It's a critical meeting because we need direction from the committee and We hope that they'll see the wisdom of moving forward in this sort of direction I think that I've outlined before which is to consolidate our risk pool by eliminating one of the carriers by By moving to a fully insured program. So the risk is migrating from the The town to an insurance company and to do plan design changes Failure to make these changes means that we will have significant increases in our self insurance plan starting July 1 We just just not sustainable. It's not it's hard on employees, but it's really not sustainable to the town into the school district and We hope to communicate that to our insurance advisory committee From the union's point of view, it's hard to come back and recommend changes to the health plan But I think we've done fair amount of education a lot of employees come up to me and say I understand the need We've had no increases for a number of years. We've benefited from that. We get it We're hoping that the union leadership moves forward on this and if so then you will see our implementation plan We will begin a really aggressive plan to educate employees and have them re-enroll we will have Blue Cross and Maya would have people at every work site every every at school site at the DPW at the At the fire stations at the police everywhere. We are employees gather and they'll be multiple times multiple times a day Really reach out to it because health insurance is a really personal thing So when you can have a joint meeting and talk to people people can read about things But they really want to know how does this affect me? My child has this need Tell me what's covered. What's not covered? It's a it's a big change, but it's something that's important if we don't Aren't able to reach an agreement this way then there is a portion of the law that allows the employer to adopt sections what they call sections 21 to 23 which sets forth a Clock that starts ticking that allows for a negotiating process To go tonight. It's not even negotiating. It's sort of conversation. It happens with the collective bargaining units That section of the law would have to be approved by this select board by this by the select board in Pelham And by the Amherst regional school district school committee It's not a path. We want to go down If we have to we have to but it's a It's it's a law that was put into place by the state to sort of break log jams like this if it need be I'm hoping we don't have to come back because I would have to give you more education on it Obviously, so you know what you're doing If that were the case it would be something we do Later this month or early in April So that's pretty much Things I had to report to you Thank you Are there questions or comments or for the manager relative to this report or other topics? So just a couple of follow-ups. Thank you so much for giving us the sense of report and writing And I also appreciate you not reading all of it to us a Couple of things to follow up on one is on page three under major capital projects under the North and common restoration I'm not mean. I am going to tease you I guess about exactly what this wording means So there are a few parking spaces lost. So if we weren't talking about the plaza type space We were only going with what we already knew about the North Common Were we going to lose any of the parking spaces? Yes We would lose a certain number of parking spaces because the parking spaces are too narrow right now. They would not meet Current standards, okay, so there will be a certain number lost. I don't know the number anyway anyway Even if we said let's replace like for like what we're doing is like for like, okay? And then they are also being sensitive to as you referred to earlier not Many more than that As of it being such a prime location in town, right and I'm thinking I'm talking to mr. Zomac It's unlikely that we will I was pushing very hard to try to get the construction done this summer But I don't think that's likely because it will be a very involved process with lots of committees And I think public participation is gonna be very important. It's the most important piece of land in town for us So I think the public participation will be happening this spring and summer But not sure how far we'll get along this line to get it done this spring this year I mean which segues nicely into the other part of my follow-up question Which is that and this holds true for graph park as well But focus mainly on the North Common restoration since we've been talking what we've been talking about both of them for a long time But North Common we had some different outreach meetings We had some walk-arounds out there over the years as we continued to apply for grants and kept showing that we were doing public participation there's always been some Concern expressed by some of the committees involved that will eventually which I appreciate you listing out Which ones they are about when they're gonna see what and I think one of the things that would be super helpful that we've not Consistently done in the past is to you know have staff brainstorm some way of Coming up with a list of You know for example Here's an here's an outreach meeting. Let's get somebody from each of those committees To that meeting along with the public and then let's put out a schedule of it's gonna be before leisure services Commission this state It's gonna be before historical Commission this day because I think it's a mistake to assume that one Anybody can possibly keep track of all those different meetings and all their different choices of when to pipe up and Two you probably don't want to wait and I know there's already been some outreach done You don't want to wait until it's time to get the approval to go to that committee Mm-hmm You want to have set the stage with them prior to that and I know this is a huge amount of work for staff to go to all These different places in addition all the other things are already doing But we get so Much visibility associated with this and so many fussing if we don't do it What people perceive is the most effective way So maybe just think about how to do things slightly differently this time out to Make it super clear We're trying to get people together to do this because we're gonna have to go to these other boards And you're welcome to come to those and those are but whatever they are officially to get the approvals done But to get some more people on board before that I think would be super helpful I think a good model was the downtown recreation working There's a mr. Zomek hosted a major meeting 50 people in the room I think with all the committee all the committees and boards present To sort of hear from the consultant about what they were seeing I think the same kind of model will probably be followed right now. There's nothing really we know what we want But there are no plans or anything. It's we want to Really be good listeners at the beginning of this process Since miss Brewer mentioned fussing I thought I'd fuss a bit and at least as a courtesy To list the downtown parking working group as part of some touchpoint around parking This is a major parking lot here. I'm not saying they're gonna be the deciders, but please don't leave them out Thank you I appreciate that Our guests have arrived. Yes, miss before we start with our guests. Can we take a brief recess? Absolutely. Let's take about a Recess to let us See if I can stand It's gonna use that we'll roll you into the elevator later and down and roll right up to your car Yeah, so the friend of mine has a actual phone it buzzes like every 10 minutes So he stands up just because that's you're supposed to do that, right? Yeah I actually made one originally. I bought some shelving We supposedly got a desk But it's hard to stand the entire day But I've got a desk now that A couple people Too bad well, I'll I'll I'll set it. I'll lower it and sit down for an hour to switch back Yeah, you know kind of up and down a couple times throughout the course of the day. It's really it's for me It's very nice Haven't gone to originally you know even with my home angle thing that I did helped a lot I I Make her way through it Person all right, so we're all back. That's good So we'll jump back into our agenda where we Sort of skip the skipped away from a section just because we knew we had folks coming in and that they weren't gonna be available until now Excuse me So next our agenda is for e which is potential time in the article the use of East Street School for affordable housing Do you want to paint the picture? Go at the beginning of this so as you know the East Street School has been Utilized but not actively utilized for quite for a couple years now and the the trust Is express expressed interest in? Being able to have the permission to start to explore that East Street School site which includes the building plus the field the little field that's adjacent to it for affordable housing purposes and Mr. Hornick from the trust here who'd like to speak about that Just as a reminder why you get settled just please make sure to mention who you are and that for the for the folks at home watching and John Hornick chair of the Amherst Municipal Affordable Housing Trust a Resident of Amherst a member of town meeting and someone who's just delighted to be here this evening He's let it have you I Think the town manager Just summarized what the property is about as well as what our interest is We do hope if the property is Developable to be able to facilitate the building of likely family housing units on that property The main obstacles at the moment are The fact that the property is pretty wet an indication possibly that there may be some Barriers one of which would be running into wetlands regulations that would make it unbuildable The other is a significant amount of grant groundwater That could also create difficulties for building so Immediately We are planning to get an appropriate engineer over to the property as soon as it's dry for Four or five days and to look at those two issues if the property passes Then the next step would be to engage additional engineers and architects to talk about Both what we could do with the existing E Street School building is that something that we could use effectively as part of this project and second beyond that to look at What else we could build on that property again given any constraints we learn about related to wetlands or groundwater This It's the beginning of it really what is a long process if it all works out. I guess at best. We might see People moving in in two to three years So it's not something that happens overnight on the other hand The trust needs to be in a position to be free to move forward with the understanding from the town that indeed if we overcome all these hurdles to housing and we're able to Put out a request for proposals for development of the land Including what the town would support in the way of resources for developer that then the project will go forward If we don't have that assurance then it's pretty hard for us to move forward expeditiously and to be able really to work with potential developers on this project so What we are proposing is that there be a warrant article before town meeting that would in effect Deed the land to the housing trust not immediately But at such point as we have developed It's demonstrated that the property is developer and ideally that we have a developer in hand Having gone through the RFP process But I asked well, why don't you want to take it over immediately? Well again with all these obstacles There is no point in the trust taking over the property from the town if it turns out that at some point We're gonna say no we can't move forward and just have to turn the property back to the town so our goal here is to Again get a warrant article that gives us a clear path forward But that ends at a point at which That is where the property is turned over to us where indeed We have a developer in hand and can move forward and Actually town council has at least begun drafting such a warrant article Thanks to the assistance of Dave's omic and Nate beloy and so I think by town meeting we should be prepared to move forward with this You will obviously see a Draft of the warrant article before it goes to town meeting At an appropriate time. I assume in the pretty near future So that's briefly my story and I Willing to entertain questions or to refer questions to our expert consultant Rita Farrell who's also here this evening Thank you Are there questions for mr. All right again with Was thinking someone had the look of having some questions Anybody need coffee So So I want to ask actually a very simple question because I'm looking at the map a little bit and and I've not actually walked the property and I've been to the site a while ago, but not recently and not onto the back Playing fields area, but I was looking at how nearly it's contiguous But one would say just barely You know at that narrowest point sort of what's that span of space We're looking at a map here the space in here I'm just sort of curious as to Does anyone know roughly it looks like about 15 feet and if you do answer you should come up with the mic So they can hear you on on TV and you certainly we can put two chairs there. So don't hesitate. I'm just it's Just to get a frame of reference about that, you know It's like sometimes that could be 300 feet and sometimes I don't think so given what I know of the property It looks more like 15 or so, but if you would sure my name is Rita Farrell and I am Serving as a consultant to the Amherst Municipal Trust. So I started to jump the gun there because I thought you were asking What the land area was in that back playing field, which is about 1.8 acres But you are correct and then point five is the front part where the building and then some of the land that you know immediately Faces East Street. So the distance between the so you're talking about the the kind of Access area to the back of that site. I would guess it's about 25 feet. Maybe the most It's it's not it's not a wide area and certainly would be a challenge in terms of Site design and access to that back parcel, right? Okay. Just curious about that I want to be clear What We're looking at is a Warren article that would come from a select board That's in process of being written that we would review probably under the same kind of timeline. We talked about earlier and then it would become a Select word article, but with the understanding that the trust would be essentially Explaining this or I'm just trying to understand what we're being asked for tonight because we don't have any language So to follow up on that that certainly is one of the questions but because I would have assumed just based on our brief conversation and agenda setting that it's not a select board article it's a trust article and Of course, we'll be asked eventually to take a position on it and But I mean it is unusual that we're hearing about it ahead of time It's not right and that's why it didn't fall under that set of deadlines because So good so that is true and one of the things that that I Express to mr. Zomek at that point too and that I'm sure is going to be addressed, but it's really kind of hard to get our Arms around at this point when we haven't seen the draft and we're not going to have a lot of time to see the draft and so We'll see the draft war one day and then two weeks later. We will go ahead and vote that that's the warrant article and Depending on how much time we have at our meeting on the 19th whether or not we can try and pull that apart and understand what it actually means because it's an unusual warrant article and so I'm not sure that it will be Sometimes these things are rather technically written in terms of our understanding My biggest concern is that because we made a very specific point when we set up the trust to give the trust basically every power We possibly could under mass general law rather than making it tighter Which some people at some point thought we should but we instead listed out all the things basically that a trust could possibly do What I'm trying to avoid is the criticism at some point in front of town meeting That there would be the possibility that the trust would have control of this property and then decide to sell it That's what I'm trying to avoid and so how how can that be addressed in this hypothetical? Article I haven't seen because I don't that I just don't understand what the mechanisms are to prevent that from happening Given that the trust does have that power to sell property Which could be entirely appropriate in another scenario, but would not be appropriate in this scenario as I as I would understand it Right, so I think the first thing I'll just and maybe mr. Zomac can answer better than you can but I was just sort of curious Is do we have a sense of where the draft? Languages for the for the warrant article. I mean my initial Sense of it would be that the warrant article would constrain them for under certain purposes Which would help constrain How in which the the trust could dispose of the property but but perhaps mr. Zomac can paint that picture a little bit more if you've had conversations with our counsel. Yes. Thank you very much, so The as I understood it that the select board did not want to see the draft language tonight This was an informal discussion giving you an overall sense of The the request from the trust Sharon Everett from Coleman and Page has drafted Some language already that we're reviewing staff and talking with with John and Rita about in the days ahead if You decide tonight that this is something that you want to at least move forward with to that stage in terms of Again, we've had some preliminary conversations with with Sharon Everett. She then went away for a couple of weeks She's back today for the first time in a few weeks, so we'll reconnect with her My understanding is that town council will recommend that The warrant article will not include Everything it'll be rather narrowly focused and then that there will be some other additional agreement With the trust between the trust and the town That will call out Some of the specifics, but it certainly will address miss Brewers question about Resale and that is not something that my understanding is that is not something that the trust is interested in this really gives them the Opportunity to do their due diligence do the due diligence with the confidence that if that Plays out in a positive scenario That the town is willing to then move forward and it gives them that confidence to discuss Opportunities with other developers other partners, but it gives them that that confidence I'll just add to what mr. Zomek said my expectation is that the warrant article will say That the transfer is for the sole purpose of developing affordable housing It will not allow for example the circumstance that miss Brewer Appointed to in which the trust can sell the property Without For any purpose Mr. Simmer The most common Form of the these resolutions as I recall these at town meeting is actually an authorization to the select board to act is That is your understanding so The question is does that get put in at what select board level or does it get put in at the level of town meeting Or action itself and there are there arguments for doing both. I'm not pushing for one or the other But I think it's important to remember that there are two Separate actions that have to take place in sequence Again, I believe that is what Ms. Everett recommended exactly what you proposed Andy questions Comments, I wonder if the select board wants to see the language sooner rather than later Obviously Ms. Everett's just back in the office and she needs to get the feedback from staff that that they need to give her But what I'm trying to avoid is a problem later on and so Which is why I think they've made the effort to come out and see us tonight. And so If we could at least have that language distributed to us And then we could get back to mr. Rockamon with questions or whoever he wants us to get back to with questions About the language to see if it looks just like everything. Mr. Steinberg He's referenced in terms of historic stuff or if something jumps out at about us so that potentially we could have those issues Addressed before it comes back to us on March 19th as part of the draft warrant So I guess my other question is have you Developed a work plan for the project that would set up a sequence of what happens that would Sort of project when it is likely that the conveyance would actually have to finally happen at that last step And What it depends on I Don't think we have a per chart we've talked about step by step what we need to do But we haven't put a timeline on it except to say that as soon as practical We do want an analysis of the wetlands and the groundwater issue Hopefully that would be late March early April and So that's a clear significant decision point if we pass that then as I said the next Analysis would have to do with architects coming in and Engineers looking at the existing structure and looking at the property and coming back with some ideas about what we could do with it I I don't know Rita may be able to speak better to what the timeline is for that But at this point we don't have a timeline My guesstimate is that it could be done within Four to five months from now, you know if the if the wetlands delineation can get done at the end of March and then We're not looking at an intensive Architectural design but some schematic designs based on the wetlands to see How many units could be put on the site if units can be put on the site and then The probably the largest question is is what's done with the building itself because it presents some real challenges in terms of the cost of Doing any kind of conversion. I think for those of you who are around When it was when it was looked at for the LSS e Offices, you know, it's a very that that building just getting the handicapped accessibility and and dealing with some of the the the capital needs the heating plumbing Electrical all of that within the building is quite expensive and it's not a lot of floor area so You're dealing with some very Significant costs to to get the handicapped accessibility and then to to do any kind of conversion. So that's You know, that's a big nut to crack and I think We we we get the wetlands done if that looks like there's some possibility Then you get to a schematic looking at the property and then testing financial feasibility so saying given Everything that we know about number of units that the that the site could absorb and the cost of doing the Converting the school building, you know To what's the sources and uses, you know, how do we how do we make it work? Is it a combination of?  That we won't know until we Take, you know, really understand the What we're dealing with in terms of the the building and the number of units because that has a lot of bearing on how the numbers could work It's a it's a complex puzzle because there's also two other questions one is financing and We've all been observing what has happened with the beacon in North Amherst and The sequence that it took to get to where it finally thankfully is But it was but that's Out there and so is there is the conveyance necessary before the financing is lined up And you don't have to answer that right now, but eventually that we do need to know that The other thing that we need to bear in mind is making sure that Regardless of what the voters do with the charter boat on March 27 that we have a mechanism that Works for both scenarios because if we want this to happen then we want to make sure that we have that covered Couple things and Actually what miss Farrell just said triggered it one thought when we talked about restricting it for housing use only it could be That the building the existing building is usable But it might involve non-housing use uses in a housing development in the context of how like say offices for social services one of the eyes just people have talked about just When you look at the feasibility both structurally and financially So I think to be careful to not say it all has to be just housing but in Auxiliary to that or in support of if there's some historic preservation that can happen there But it might be a different use complimentary to housing so just to make sure there's an out there Miss Brewer said do we want to see the language sooner? I don't really care. I think in concept. I'm really looking forward to some the staff and the trust members and Our council working on something that will allow this to go forward. I I believe that the trust Should have a project like this to work on this site this building has been talked about well for a long time but more Specifically in the last few years by the trust as a trust Project and for all kinds of good reasons It's just taken this long to get to this point and I would really like to see us move this to the next level and I Think in terms of the timing of the conveyance There's a certain point where you will you need to assure prospective developers or Respondents to an RFP that this is free and clear and ready to go if a proposal is accepted so that Timing has to get kind of finessed around that And I'm sure there's better mine to reconfigure that out but I think at some point the the work plan or the projected timeline We may want to see that but a lot of that's I'm less concerned about the language because I think we have people who are more expert on putting that together We might find a little glitch we often do or whatever But I think we have time to do that kind of correction that our meeting in the 19th I wouldn't be opposed to seeing it earlier myself, but partly because I sit on the trust and so Advocate for it properly if necessary But I yeah, it will have to be out of the context of a meeting so we can't discuss amongst ourselves So it would be so if you get it early then Sort of set it let it set if you don't want to I think the other thing I'll just add on to a little bit that you've mentioned and it touches on a point that that Mr. Steinberg made about financing one of the ways in which you can if you look to partner with organizations that are Really in the process of doing development because the trust is not very likely to do with the full-scale development from from ground zero kind of thing so you're going to look to partner with people and they want some assurances that you have a level of control of the property and Partly so that they just don't do a bunch of work and spend their own money With no possibility