Good evening. This meeting of the Arlington Select Board for Monday, March 8, 2021 is being called to order. As a preliminary matter, this is John Heard, the Select Board Chair. Permit me to confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. Members, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Diane Mahan? Yes, thank you. Steve DeCorsi? Yes. Len Diggins? Yes. Dan Dunn? Yes. And staff, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Adam Chapter Lane? Yes. Doug Heim? Yes. And Board Administrator Ashley Maher is participating remotely. Good evening. This open meeting of the Arlington Select Board is being conducted remotely consistent with Governor Baker's executive order of March 12, 2020, due to the current state of emergency in the Commonwealth given the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. In order to mitigate the transmission of the virus and reduce risk of COVID-19 illness, we have been advised and directed by the Commonwealth to suspend public gatherings and, as such, the Governor's order suspends the requirement of the open meeting law to have all meetings in a publicly accessible physical location. Further, all members of public bodies are allowed and encouraged to participate remotely. The order which you can find posted with the agenda materials for this meeting allows public bodies to meet entirely remotely so long as reasonable public access is afforded so that the public can follow along with the deliberations of the meeting. Ensuring public access does not ensure public participation unless such participation is required by law. This meeting will feature public comment. Even if members of the public do not provide comments, participants are advised that people may be listening who do not provide comment. And those persons are not required to identify themselves. For this meeting, the Select Board is convening by Zoom as posted on the town's website identifying how the public may join. Please note that this meeting is being recorded and that some attendees are participating by video conference. Accordingly, please be aware that other folks may be able to see you and take care to not screen share your computer. Anything you broadcast may be captured by the recording. Please also take care to adjust your screen or device name if you would like to speak in order for us to recognize speakers appropriately and develop accurate minutes is helpful for our participants to see your full first and last name when calling upon your rather than nickname. All the meeting materials for this meeting except any executive session materials are available on the Novus Agenda dashboard. We recommend the members in the public follow the agenda as posted on Novus unless the chair notes otherwise. We now turn to the first item on the agenda before we do so, permit me to cover some ground rules for effective and clear conduct of our business and to ensure accurate meeting minutes. I'll introduce each speaker on the agenda. After they conclude their remarks, the chair will go down the line of members inviting each by name to provide any comments, questions or motions. Please hold until your name is called. Further, please remember to mute your phone or computer when you're not speaking. Please remember to speak clearly and in a way that helps generate accurate minutes. For any response, please wait until the chair yields the floor to you and state your name before speaking. If members which wish to engage in colloquy with other members, please do so through the chair taking care to identify yourself. This meeting will feature opportunities for public comment on certain items. After members have spoken, I as the chair will afford public comment opportunities as follows. First, I'll ask members of the public who wish to speak to identify their names and addresses only. Once the chair has a list of all public commentators, I will call on each by name and afford three minutes for any comments. Please keep in mind that all participants and members of the public must be recognized by the chair before speaking. Finally, each vote tonight will be conducted by roll call vote. All right, and that takes us to the next item on our agenda. Discussion and approval fiscal year 2022 water store rates, Mr. Chaplain. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I will ask Mr. Rademacher and Mr. Puehler to give a more in depth presentation, but I want to start with an introduction to just describe to the board what we'll be asking the board to do tonight. In broad strokes, we'll be asking the board to consider voting favorably for rate increases for both water and sewer rates. The board will likely recall that this year will be the second year in what is a three-part or three-year strategy to reduce what we call the MWRA debt shift, which is money that was raised on the tax rate but used to subsidize or reduce water and sewer rates. Going back a few years with the elimination or excuse me, the cap of the federal, state, and local tax deduction, keeping that MWRA debt shift in place became much less beneficial to Arlington taxpayers and ratepayers. So the board started several years ago asking myself, Mr. Rademacher and Mr. Puehler to develop a plan for the board's consideration of how to reduce and eventually eliminate that debt shift. Ultimately, the board settled on a three-year strategy so that there wouldn't be rate shock or dramatic rate impacts in any one given year, and the ultimate plan was decided upon to do it over the course of three years. And again, this is the second year as part of that three-year plan. One last thing I want to point out before asking Mike to provide a little further detail is that though the percentage increases that Mike will detail are undoubtedly large, the water sewer budget proposed for FY22 only represents a 2.7% increase in expenses. So for anybody listening at home, the increases that we're asking the board to vote tonight are not based on increased expenses for operating the water and sewer budget, but again, rather they're based on the way we are collecting. So not arguably, we will be collecting more water and sewer dollars, but less impact on the tax rate. So this is not more or new money being asked to be raised, but shifting how we're collecting a set amount of money. So with that said, Mike, would you like to walk through in any greater detail that you think is necessary to explain the memo you've provided? Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chapter Lane, Mike Rademacher, Director of Public Works. Good evening, select board. Adam hit pretty very well, summed up where we're at and where we're heading with this. And as the memo stated, the increases are entirely the majority of increases is based upon the shifting or the elimination of the shift of tax dollars to the Enterprise Fund. I'm sure you've all read the memo, but just as a summary, we're looking to increase the water rates by 12.75% and the sewer rates by just under 12%. And those values were calculated based on expected expenses and offsetting that with a necessary rate revenue. Anything additional before I go to the board? Sandy, do you have anything going on? Mr. Corsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, first of all, I'll move approval of the of the rates contained in the memorandum and just a couple of additional comments. And thank you, Mr. Chapter Lane, for discussing what really is a shift of how revenue is earned in the Water and Sower Enterprise Fund. And for those of you who've been following this the past couple of years, through fiscal 20, there was about $5.5 million that was a subsidy from real estate taxes to the Water and Sower Enterprise Fund. That went down to $3.6 million for fiscal 21. It's going down to $1.8 million for fiscal 22. And you see it in rates because this amount is a greater percentage of the revenues for the Water and Sower Fund than it is as a percentage of total real estate taxes. But for the members of the board, if you remember back in December when Mr. Tierney came in to talk about the tax rate and had us vote and approve the tax rate, we approved the tax rate of $11.34 for this past year. If we hadn't shifted additional or we hadn't decreased the shift from the real estate taxes to the Water and Sower Enterprise Fund, that rate would have been about $11.50. So that's where you see it in the difference. It's in the tax rate. You're going to see higher Water and Sower rates. But as Mr. Chapterland and Mr. Rademacher have indicated, it's only a 2.7% increase in the total expenses of the Water and Sower Enterprise Fund. It's just a difference in how it's collected. And we feel that this is a better way to present what's actually being paid for Water and Sower. It's more open and transparent. And it's the ratepayers that are paying this rather than the taxpayers subsidizing these costs. And there are some ratepayers that don't pay real estate taxes, exempt organizations, for example, that will be participating fully.  So thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Nunn. Thank you, Mr. Heard. So I am happy to second this. I'm happy to support it. And I think I'm going to say it in a slightly different way, which is I actually think that these rate changes are about fairness. And the reason we're moving it off the tax rate and onto the water bill is because it is related to your water usage. And so the more water you use, the more you pay. And that wasn't true as exactly in the old system. It is now closer to true and it'll be even closer yet next year. And on the subject of fairness, we also I received an email afforded from the board's office just this afternoon, and I'm not sure that everyone will have had a chance to read it. But there was a resident who was upset that I think is the correct word that they're charged for sewage rates, even though they're just watering their lawn. And the argument goes, you know, I'm not I'm not paying for sewage treatment for this water that I'm using to water my lawn. Why? Why are you charging me a sewer rate? And on the face of it, that makes a lot of sense. You say, Okay, why you're right, we shouldn't figure we shouldn't be charging you for the sewer rate. But the thing is, is that in the end, it is coming that does come out to a closer number about fairness. And the reason is, is because a lot of the cost of building our water infrastructure is built, a lot of the cost is needing to provide water during peak usage. And it is particularly about things like watering your lawn. And so while the label is wrong, we shouldn't necessarily call it a sewage rate. I really have no problem with charging people significantly for watering their lawn. It's a it's a luxury. It is not a necessity. And it is something that shouldn't be born by your neighbors. If you're the person, if you want to water your lawn, you should be paying for it, not your neighbors. And so I'm going to, I look forward to the day where we have more flexibility in our how we charge and calculate our sewage water and sewer rates, such that we can have more better understand what our peak is and perhaps charge people as a fraction of their peak usage and things like that. But until then, I'm comfortable that even though we're charging sewage rates on lawn watering, we are in fact charging a closer to fair rate with this change than we ever have before. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Mrs. Mohan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I'm going to assume in Mr. to course these motion seconded by Mr. Dunn. And I was just wondering, maybe Mr. Rademacher or someone else would speak to this that inherent in that is that pending the future projections sort of remaining the course, if they don't, that this will come back up for review. That's my first question. Mike Rademacher, Director of Public Works, I am assuming you're talking about the assumptions we made in the in the rate calculation. And those are conservative. If anything, if anything holds true, I feel that we would be able to bring them down and not necessarily up. So if, if, if for some reason we find we can be a little more advantageous, we could come to the board with that. Okay. And my second question would be still unmuted. Good. This is a three year projection. And sort of a outlook into a fourth, if just taking the worst possible case scenario that come that fourth year, that it's really skewed radically in terms of having to make larger increases. What steps are we contemplating? If that should be the case? My assumption is we're taking that what we're seeing over the course of these three years will continue on in year four, five, and six, if it doesn't. Go ahead. I was going to take a shot at that. That's okay. Yeah, Mike. I mean, I think the two major variables that we contend with in the water sewer budget are the MWRA assessments. That's the dramatic lion share of what we what we have to pay for. I might can speak better to what the long range outlook is, but my understanding is they've been managing their debt and their expenses quite well. So shocks in terms of our MWRA assessment is probably limited risk. The other side of risk for us is if usage was to go way down, we would likely still have much of that fixed cost from the MWRA because it's based much more on the debt they're paying for Deer Island and the water system than it is for the actual water. The water that we're receiving are still where that we're giving. But if our usage went down for any number of reasons, that could impact as negatively in terms of total collected and then mean that rates would have to go higher to be able to pay the bills. I don't know and Mike, you could speak to this a little more. If this pandemic in the resulting economic impact hasn't dramatically seen usage come down, I'm not sure that we there's a high risk for usage to come down, although you can't rule anything out. So I think we're in fairly good position to be able to stick somewhere in the vicinity of Mike's estimates. But Mike, if you want, if I missed anything on that, please feel free. No, you explain that very well. I do feel the MWRA is doing a very good job, especially under the oversight of the MWRA Executive Committee, keeping them on their toes. The Executive Committee is made up of member communities, which comments and and makes recommendations on MWRA rates and has the community's interests at heart. So the MWRA and the advisory board have been very good at trying to reduce the assessment increases year over year and have been bringing those down. But Adam is also correct that so aside from that, our biggest unknown is use in a in a year of drought. People use more water and in a wet year, they use less water and not too much we can do about that. But other than just ride those peaks and valleys and try to average them out over the year. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Niggans. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And just a couple of small things, you know, respect that letter. I thought the premise was interesting. And that was that keeping the long green helps property values and does the service of the town by doing that. Yeah, I see the argument, but I think I think maybe it should make us think about changing our mindset about that being because water being we should conserve water. And we're fortunate most years where we don't have a drought, but certainly when it's a drought, excuse me, a drought is severe than people are urged not to water their lawns and they turn brown and brown's okay. You know, but like I said, I understand no supremacy of it. The second thing is just requests. I mean, humble, respectful requests to those who do our visual presentations on that graph. For the community charge comparisons. I assume the blue is for water. That would make sense. And the yellow is for sewer. That's okay. I didn't see it labeled. And that might be oversight of mine. But the more important thing is, is whereas it's easy for me to compare the rates mean on the blue because they're all starting from zero, and going to the right being for the yellow is hard for me to compare them because mean the bases are the same. And so you can kind of gauge which one is larger than the other. But but if there's like a numerical value in those who helped me to compare them, I know we have the tables mean but a lot of times I see these charts and I'm not able to say anything because well, I'm just not in a position to say something. But this one, this case, I am so I just humbly request that that we maybe format those a little differently. So it's easier for people like me to read freedom. Thank you. That's it. Thank you. And just one question then one comment. So we're the rates a little the request is a little lower than projected because of reduction the MWRA assessment due to COVID. Is that a permanent adjustment? Or should we assume that that assessment will be readjusted next year? They, they that's kind of like the new bar. So it will just they I don't I don't expect them to jump back up. That's then the new benchmark and it'll it'll grow from there. So we think that our requests for an increase next year might be a little lower than projected as well. No, I would the future increases are built upon growing this assessment currently. Okay. All right. And then to whatever extent we can have, I mean, this is an excellent synopsis of why we're asking for this rate increase. And we discussed this at length about a year ago when we talked about the debt shift in a year before that when we talked about the debt shift and so on. So if we could put this together in some sort of press release that is available to people, I think that'd be helpful because we certainly know we're going to as soon as this hits, there's going to be talk about how this like board increase your water rates by 12%. And I think to have this information available would be really helpful to help spread to people to show why we're doing it in the benefit that they're getting. Mr. Chair, we can absolutely do that. So question. Yep. All right. So with that, we have a motion to approve by Mr. DeCorsi, second by Mr. Dunn, Attorney Heine. Mr. Chair, I forget. Is this a public hearing or no? Okay. Thank you. Attorney Heine. Mrs. Mahal. Yes. Mr. DeCorsi. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Dunn. Yes. Mr. Yes. Yeah, that's fine. Thank you. All right. And that takes us to our consent agenda. Item number three, request contract to drain layer license, Rafale Construction Corp. Gerardo A. Rafale 233 Borrow Street, Swamp Scott, Massachusetts 01907. And for approval, ACAC Utility Box Painting Project, Adria Ach, Commission for Arts and Culture and Laurie Bogdan, Commission for Arts and Culture. Ms. Chaplin, do we have anyone to speak on the ACAC Utility Box Painting Project? I see Adria and Laurie here. Would you like me to ask them if they'd like to say a few words? Yep. Hi, everybody. Thanks so much for hearing us. There we go. And yeah, we're into our, I think it's the fifth year of doing Utility Box or Switch Box Paintings, which we're calling a Mutility Boxes now. So I wanted to introduce Laurie Bogdan, who's a new member of our Erelington Public Guard and Erelington Commission for Arts and Culture Group. And Laurie is going to take over running this project with my help this year. So we are going to, I'm going to let her talk. Laurie, you're on. So here we are in the next phase of this project. We have identified several boxes that we're interested in working on this year. And that's going forth to the next level of approval. And we have started reaching out to the arts community to go through the jury process to choose designs for this year's boxes. And we are open for any questions if you have them. All right. And I'll go to the board for any comments. Mr. Maan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, Adria. And now Laurie, for signing on to this. This has been one of the projects that if you look at it in totality, it's a small microcosm of the town. But I can tell you how many people have commented on how much they appreciate the art. And that is just distributed throughout the town. Erelington, the center and the heights. So and the other thing that I know people have expressed to me was that you have. And I assume Laurie will continue to incorporate all of the different groups, you know, starting with our youth groups, moving on up to participate in this project. So I want to thank you, Adria and now Laurie for continuing this really. I know when you're standing walking by a mass av or waiting for a bus or talking to a neighbor or getting ready to go to church, this this artwork is definitely appreciated. So with that, Mr. Chair, I'd like to move approval on the consent agenda. Thank you. And Ms. Diggins. I will second it. And I really loved the boxes too. And I went to the webpage, looking at the utility boxes. I saw a bunch of pictures, but I did not see this one. Oh, that's actually not a part of this particular project though. That was commissioned separately by friends of Magnolia Park. Oh, that's interesting. That's interesting. So are there any others that aren't part of the other program? That's only that's the only one. Interesting. I did happen to meet that artist. And I was at the time thinking I was still going to be doing my art in Arlington series. And that's how I met you, Adria, but, but, you know, things just got really busy. And now I just don't have time for it. But I will come back to that series. But, but these are great, you know, whoever does them, they're great. And it is good to see this kind of art around town. And actually have some ideas about me, maybe ways that we can integrate this into some fun projects. And because you know, I enjoy working with you, let's touch base sometime and talk about them. So yeah, cool. And I know I've been talking to Adria Arch, Adria, Laurie, you know, but I look forward to meeting you in person sometime and or virtually and working through some ideas, hashing them out. All right. That's great. Okay, cool. Mr. Duff. I'm great program, happy to support. Thank you, Mr. Corsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And yeah, thank you, Adria and Laurie. It can really, this program has really made a big difference. And I had some people comment to me, the box on Brooks Ave was just replaced with a new box. And people noticed the, the old artwork there is no longer there with the removal of the box. But you can tell people really notice it. And just one comment looks like you may have some landscaping work you need to do on and on Appleton in Florence. So good, good luck with that in addition to the art. Thanks. Yeah, and of course, I'm happy to support this. Arlington, I think is known for public art in general. And this is one of the events that I really enjoy. I have a box right across from my office in the center. And it's always interesting to see what people come up with. And you're always surprised and always amazed. So happy to support this again. And thank you both for coming and explaining the program to us. With that, with that, Attorney Heim, we have a motion to approve by Mrs. Mahan, seconded by Mr. Diggins. Mrs. Mahan. Yes, thank you. Mr. Dacorsi. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Dunn. Yes. Mr. Hurd. Yes. Thank you both. Thank you so much. We really appreciate your support. Definitely. Thank you. Great. And that takes us to item number five on our agenda for approval, food vendor license, Fatouche, 142 Massachusetts Avenue, Karam T. Tuma. Mr. Tuma with us. Your attorney Heim. Attorney Leone. Good evening. I'm here with Tony. Should I be promoting Tony? Yes, he goes by Tony. Thank you. I'm here with Karam Tuma, Tony, as we know him. He's wanting to, he's going to be right with us in a second. I see Tony can unmute. Yeah. So we're looking to get Tony licensed for a little restaurant down in East Darlington next to where he's going to be doing takeout Mediterranean and American food, strictly takeout, no eat-in dining. And he's really excited about it. You've seen his menu and he's going to be outfitting that place from scratch. So it's going to be a nice new clean place and he's wanting to get approval. No alcohol, just food. All right. If you have any questions, we'll be glad to answer them. All right, Mr. Gorsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I'll move approval subject to the conditions. I have no questions. I just want to wish you the best of luck with the new venture. Mr. Diggins? I will be thrilled to approve it. I did look at the menu, you know, and, and I just recently discovered jalapeno hummus, and, and I just can't get enough of it. And some bobbin loose, a little bobbin loose mixed in. It's really just, I've been having it every day that I come home from work lately, and I like the rest of the menu. I want you to think about pricing out this. A wrap with falafel hummus. I know it's a little redundant, you know, and some beef shawarma, because you know, I know your food is good. But if I also like it, I will be in there very regularly ordering something like that. So just price it out. So that when I order it, they'll know what to what to charge me. So welcome to these stars that I live very close by. You actually see my roof from your place. So thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I so Tony, there's a long tradition held by a former select board member from my name, Kevin Greeley, who says, Welcome to Arlington. Thank you for choosing our town. Did you bring any samples? And I'm reminded of that, as I was reflect reminded earlier, from an earlier water sewer rate, that we all managed to make it to that discussion while saying debt shift correctly, which is another really ism of significant difficulty. But all joking aside, Tony, thank you for choosing Arlington. Welcome. Very glad to have you. Is it mine? I'll say dinner to my colleagues remarks. And as far as the jalapeno hummus, my grandsons are half Nepalese. And I'm amazed that there are two of them at ages three plus. And they're all about the jalapeno hummus. So I look forward to your menu. And as Mr. Dunn said, and my other colleagues, you know, thank you for choosing Arlington. We wish you nothing but success. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Well, I've never tried jalapeno hummus, but it sounds good. And I'll always try anything once. So I look forward to coming in there and checking out here in your location once you're finished. And with that, we have a motion to approve Mr. DeCorsi, seconded by Mr. Diggins. This is Mahan. Yes, thank you. Mr. DeCorsi. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Dunn. Yes. Mr. Hurd. Yes. Jean-Anne Spove. Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Pima. Thank you all very much. We appreciate it. Yep. And that brings us to item number six on the agenda, traffic rules and order on our business for discussion, approval, metro, fire, mutual aid agreements. Mr. Chaplin. Mr. Chair, I'm actually going to ask Attorney Heim to give a brief description and then I'll assist in answering any questions the board might have. Thank you, Mr. Chair.  The nature of the agreement is relatively self-explanatory. Under chapter 48, section 59A, a select board is supposed to approve the mutual aid agreement. It's a little bit fuzzy under our town manager. The town manager tends to sign and execute most of our mutual aid agreements because he's authorized to introduce, to enter into contracts and agreements on behalf of the town. So this is a little bit of an opportunity to discuss one of the board and managers shared goals of ensuring cooperation and mutual aid with other communities. But it's also an important approval to just sort of make sure that we've dotted eyes and crossed peas and given the manager the authority that want to make sure he has for such an important contract. Are there any questions substantively? This agreement has more or less been hammered out between all of the chiefs in the agreement. So it's kind of hard to make substantive changes. We can bring it back, but hopefully the board is satisfied with what's been constructed and we'll approve it as it is. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Dunn. Move approval. No comment. Thank you, Mrs. Mahan. I'll second Mr. Dunn's. Approval and just two quick questions, I hope. Under this mutual aid agreement, does this now bring up our conglomeration of participating cities and towns to approximately 35? Or am I reading that wrong? I have to apologize. I did not do account on it. It's 35. Yeah, I believe that is the right number. It is 35. Okay. And then just last two questions. Just where we're bringing this on and I'm anticipating in terms of liability. When any city or town is participating in mutual aid, if an Arlington town employee suffers any kind of injury or anything that would result in the liability in another city or town or vice versa, somebody is responding to an Arlington response and suffers some sort of injury, whether personal or vehicular or something else, how does that work out? Just really short term answer. So thank you. That's an excellent question. Mr. Mahan, under section three, Part B, it outlines that essentially the municipality rendering aid is responsible for operation of its equipment and basically remains subject to the limits of liability. We all sort of essentially absorb liability for our folks in rendering aid because we all benefit from the sort of equal provision of these services. So our firefighters are taken care of. That's the most important thing, they're taken care of by Arlington. But the same thing is true if somebody comes to the aid of Arlington and somebody else's firefighters are hurt, they're taken care of by their respective municipalities. Okay, and my last quick question would be, in light of Arlington's small, short-lived, successful COVID-19 vaccine program down at the Arlington High School through the board of health and others, including the town manager's secretary, is there any relief through this now 35 city and town mutual aid agreement that I know the governor stopped Arlington individually as being able to give out the COVID vaccine that somehow we could join with the other 34 communities to become a collaboration that can do 750 vaccines a day, or is that just un-reaching? That's another really good question. I actually think that our mutual aid agreement with respect to health services and an agreement that we run for basically our, I believe it's Is it NEMA, Mr. Chapter Lane? Yes, it is. Might be better equipped to service for some of those leverage points. It's a great question. I don't think our fire departments would do it, but it is possible that we have some resources through our mutual aid partners in health and emergency management that might have better occasion or jurisdiction, if you will, for that kind of purpose. Does that make sense, Mr. Chapter Lane? Would you agree with that? It does make sense, but I would add even further that we are part of a group that's a smaller subset of, I think communities that are entirely included on that list, also working with the Cambridge Health Alliance and Tufts University to submit requests for approval from the state for regional vaccination clinic. They haven't said no yet, but they haven't said yes yet either. My suspicion is they're not going to start approving any more regional startups until vaccine supply increases, which could be in the next two to three weeks. So I'm still hopeful that they will once again let us start to do vaccination locally, but it's still a waiting game right now. I guess my final comment question would be to the town manager, I know, Richard McKinnon, who's a president of the firefighters, professional firefighters here in Massachusetts. He and his union met with the Health and Human Services Secretary, Mary Lou Sutters today, to talk about having firefighters in different cities and towns. And some of the larger ones are contained in this 35. Now, if this is a proof city and town consortium, if we could follow up on that because Richard McKinnon, who I know, and others do as well in the PFFM and the Fire Union definitely have the expertise as well as fire stations in our cities and towns that can do that. So I'd like if it's appropriate to have our town manager, who's probably already on top of this follow up on those conversations today that were had with Secretary Sutters, the way I was getting communications from Richard McKinnon, it seemed like this was a possibility versus, you know, pie in the sky. And again, with this mutual aid fire department agreements, that would be something, again, it's just centered around teachers, I'd like to expand it if it's something that can happen, but it's something that was discussed today. And I kind of feel like, you know, the first few cities and towns that receive the information and get there on the ground floor will be more well suited or suited to take advantage of this program. Thank you. Mr. Corsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just briefly, this performance to Dunn's motion. And I do note of the 35 communities, each one of our direct neighboring communities as part of the mutual aid agreement. So I think that's important. And thank you for bringing this forward to us. Mr. Diggins. Mr. Chair, you know, so I'm reading it mentioned that there was an operational plan appended onto the agreement. Did I miss that? I mean, I don't think it was attached. And that's okay if it wasn't. I'm just kind of curious. Do you think there's anything worth that would be interesting to members of the board in reading that? I guess I didn't direct that to anyone. I guess I should direct that to Mr. Heim. I'm sorry, Adam, if you wanted to speak on it, that's fine. I was going to say, I could ask Chief Kelly for that operational plan to share with the board. My understanding is that it details the tactical and operational planning that fire departments do to be able to put their manpower together to respond to mutual aid requests. But I don't have immediate access to it, but I can certainly provide it. I'll be getting it. I mean, my suspicion is that it probably wouldn't be of interest to the board. If I missed it, then I was going to ask to be pointed to it. But if it wasn't included, then it's probably for good reason and I'm fine with that. So the last agreement was in place for how long? I believe that the last agreement was executed in November of 2001. Okay, so roughly 20 years.  I don't have those statistics, though. I know it is very regularly on both sides of that coin. And most regularly mutual aid manifests in providing backup to a community while that community's frontline is responding. So I mean, if the chief were here, I would think he would say it maybe isn't is on a weekly basis where, you know, Somerville engines roll and we provide some backup there. The next night, Arlington engines roll and a Somerville engine provides backup Lexington, you know, so forth. So actually fighting large fires in mutual aid, I think is much more rare because large fires are much more rare. But we certainly received mutual aid with that large garage fire on Warren Street, the very large fire in Arizona Terrace a number of years ago. And I know we've also provided we've also provided mutual aid for large fires in neighboring communities. So it is, again, it's more rare by virtue of the fact that fires are more rare. But but I think it you see the benefit of this mutual aid agreement on a very regular basis with that backup being provided. So it is necessary and in that that's good change. So I'm all for these regional approaches to things, as you know. So I'm happy supported to thank you. Yeah, yeah, my only comment that kind of goes along the lines with what Miss Diggins was saying is that I don't know if that's true, but I did speak with a firefighter one time about staffing and he had mentioned to me that any time there's a fire in Arlington, every person, every firefighter that's on duty, no matter what station they're at, at the time has a role to some sort of role to play in that fire. And that's where we see the benefit of these agreements, whereas with one fire, we need somebody to be on on call for a second fire or third fire. And you know, it's good to see that we have this in place with our neighboring communities to make sure that that that we are protected in those instances. So happy to support it. With that, we have a motion to approve by Mr. Dunn, seconded by Mrs. Mahan, Attorney Han. Mrs. Mahan. Yes, thank you. Mr. DeCorsi. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Dunn. Yes. Mr. Hurd. Yes. To unanimous vote. All right. Thank you. Takes us to our warrant article hearings, articles for review. First article that we have is article eight bylaw amendment canine control fees in fines. This is inserted the request of the town clerk. Ms. Chaplin, do you know who's speaking on this? Ms. Brazil is here. I just promoted her. Ms. Brazil. Hi. Yes, I'm here. Good evening. So I know that this was presented last March. I was in the room, March 9, the last hearing in person. And at the time, the clerk's office was recommending a just a simple reduction in the fines. I agree with that. I think we should cut the fine in half. We have a we have a harder time collecting a fifty dollar fine for making a mistake. Missing a deadline and it will be very much easier to enforce the rules if we can collect a twenty five dollar fine. People argue about that a lot less. So the in addition, though, in order to make this easier to understand and to enforce, I've proposed some simple changes just to clean up the language, clarify the language in the bylaw. I've summarized it in a memo, but the critical talking points are that I want to reassure that it's clear in writing and a way that people can read it, that all dogs have to be registered. The deadline to register is January. Dogs and new dogs that move into town should register within 30 days of moving to town puppies register when they're six months old. And I've worded the bylaw in such a way that I hope it's fairly clear that that those dates establish deadlines and for each deadline, there's a forty five day grace period that runs and then that grace period runs out on the next Thursday at the end of the forty five days. And we picked a Thursday so because we're open except until seven p.m. in the clerk's office and we want to be sure we make it as easy as possible for people to make that very, very last deadline. So, you know, if you have more questions, I'm happy to answer them. I don't want to read an entire bylaw in this hearing. Ms. Priscilla, do you want to also present on Article 24 while we have you up here so we can get you in and out? Sure. Yeah. Do you want me to do that now or do you want to ask questions about eight first? So you can present on Article 24 as well, that then the board can roll through any questions that they have on either. OK, so Article 24. I've already talked to the finance committee, and I'm pretty sure that they voted 14 to two to support it. The concept is, I think we should, as a community, go ahead and study. When and how, if we want to convert the clerk's office from an elected to appointed position. When I was a town meeting member, as a town meeting member, I'm still a town meeting member. I supported converting the treasurer's position. I found it very helpful. There was a thoughtful process. We didn't rush into it in any way. There was the DOR report, which gave us a sort of a roadmap. Pretty sure we created a couple of study groups internally that presented back, and I think we should follow a similar process and look at converting the clerk's office. I talked to the town manager and he thinks we could probably hire a consultant if we decide to do that for no more than $10,000. That's basically it. I certainly wanted to catch the select board up because although the finance committee gets to weigh in on the appropriations, there's a lot going on anytime we set up an attempt to study something like this. The finance committee asked a couple of questions whether we could save the money and go ahead and set up an internal study group, and I'm certainly open to that. I think it's important. A lot of towns hire outside consultants to bring in that fresh perspective. They even bring in outside people for the hiring committees. This is an important thing that you're considering. I want to be sure that we're doing it thoughtfully. I think it's important. So my recommendation is that we bring somebody in, but I'm happy obviously always to discuss it with you guys. Great. I will go to the board for any questions, comments or motions on 8 in 24. Mr. I am very happy to support both. I think that the changes in the language in the eight are really important. And I think that's something that's really important. And I think that is a good, I'm predisposed to think that we should move to an appointed clerk, but I also know that it's something that's not taken lightly. And I think that they're taking a closer look at it first, make sense. But I think that the treasurer's office really benefited from having a. The treasurer's office really benefited from, I think the employees when the, within the office stopped being so siloed and got to interact with other departments a lot better and became a lot, opened up a lot of cross like interdepartmental across the mental, departmental career advancement that I think is really powerful for the town. And I think that we also benefit from. With the offices like that, I don't, I actually, I just don't think that the elections were serving it. There were always serving us that well, where sometimes we would get a really great treasurer and sometimes we weren't getting a great treasurer. And I certainly think that Julie's a great treasurer, but she's not going to be here for, excuse me, Julie's a great town clerk, but she's not going to be here forever. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Corsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Second, Mr. Dunn's motion. I do have a few questions that may lead to a friendly. Amendment, but just on the annual renewal. And I'm just wondering if, if that had been consistent over the years. I think it has. It's because it's easier to. Print a dog tag with the year on it. And have that be, you know, you can change the color and obviously the year printed on the tag itself changes so that it's visually obvious. It's just easier to do it on a calendar year for the renewals. Okay. And I'm just going to suggest a change on paragraph two. I know you say there must be renewed every January. I wonder if we can put. They must be renewed on or before. January 31st of each of each year, just so that we, we have a deadline and, and it also leads to my next question on what the intention was on the grace period. Was it 45 days after the renewal? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what the intention was on what the intention was on. What the intention was on the grace period was it 45 days after January 31st or 45 days after January one. When the obligation first arose. Pretty sure if you do the math. In March, 45 days from. So the deadline this year is March 11th. Okay. All right. So, so it's after the deadline rather than I, you know, I, I, I almost prefer to put dates rather than, than, than the days. And I know the grace period of pot applies both to the annual renewal. Right. And dogs moving into town. So I, I, I get that. So I'm just wondering, and maybe attorney. I'm again, this is more of a friendly amendment rather than maybe 45 days after each deadline. The grace period ends. Sorry about that. So the friendly amendment would be. So that it reads. Failure to satisfy requirements before the third. First Thursday. Following. 45 business days to the date of your licensing. Is that the provision that you're talking about, Mr. Decorsi? I'm sorry, just inserting language that it's. The deadline 45 business days after the, the respective deadline. As opposed to the date, the obligation arises. I'm sorry to get people bogged down on this, but I mean, I just feel like that, that. The way it's, you're looking at January 31 as a deadline, you're going 45 days after that. And then during the year, you're going to have different deadlines depending on when families with dogs move into town. Sure. I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, if I may. Yes. So Mr.  Yeah, set forth, set forth, I'll figure out which sections it should explicitly reference. Okay. Thank you. And just one last thing. And on the waiver of fees and this, this seems to be a change. And I don't know if this is an enforcement type thing, but for the service animal in for an owner age 70 or over, we're waiving the regular fees. I'm a little uncomfortable charging them a late fee if they come in. I mean, obviously you want them to come in, but I, I, I'd be more comfortable with there being no fee. And they come in here unless I, unless there's a strong reason for, for charging a late fee for a, for a, again, for a license that we're not charging anything for. Um, Okay. It's harder to enforce if you don't charge the $25 fine from, for being really, really late. I mean, we've, we've waived the fee forever and that's not, that's not, that's not what we're doing. That's not what we're doing. That's not what we're doing. I support that. Um, so I would be in favor, but obviously, um, I'm, of keeping the fine. Um, For people who can't. Um, do the paperwork on time. I think Mrs. Of course with. The reason for the fine is. It's correct. And for it from runs to incentivize people because they want their dogs to be licensed. Correct. Um, I don't know if it's, I don't know if it's, I don't know if it's worth the fine. They just wouldn't license the dogs. Yeah. I get that for the people who are paying the annual fee, but for the people that an elderly person or a person who has a service dog. Where we're not charging the fee. And I understand, you know, maybe no one comes in at that point, but it's. Um, I just. It sounds like the rest of the board doesn't really want to do anything on that. I'm a little uncomfortable with that, but that's. I mean, the bylaws, it stands now, we charge them the full $50 fine. Um, So. Yeah. Yeah. Although I thought late fees apply. Is new language for both the service animal and owner age 70 and over category. I wanted it to be clear. Okay. We do charge it. Okay. But I wanted it to be clear. Okay. All right. And just briefly, Mr. Chairman on article 24, I support that. Um, and I, and I understand the primary motion will be the finance committees. Motion on this because it will require an appropriation. Um, just a question on who will the consultant report to, uh, with the, the final work product. Or who will be presented to. So that's one of the reasons for talking to you tonight. So, um, I think it's important to put this in order to make sure that we, you know, as a collective team, um, we will need to to think about that. Um, Uh, I think it's, I think each town sets it up. The way that's comfortable and make sense for them. Um, So I'm, I'm open to suggestions about how we, how we structure that. Um, Thank you. Yeah, I thank you, Mr. Chair. I think what what I would recommend as a default unless the board is uncomfortable is that, you know, as the chief executive body, regardless of whether or not the board opposite take a position would seem like the most natural fit for the board to receive the report. So in addition, the way that the board was was one of the places where the treasurer office conversion was discussed it wasn't necessarily true that all members of the board supported conversion. But it seems like the best place since the treasurer. I mean, gosh, the clerk doesn't have regular public meetings of some kind, the election modernization committee would be the other possibility. And since this is, you know, an established body that looks at some of the issues that influence the town clerk, but, but ultimately I think the select board would have to be would have to report on the conversion issue at some point or another. Even if it's, you know, only in the town meeting season under a warrant article, I think it will still have to come before the board eventually. So I'm just saying what's the odds that I get a call on next. Easy, easy thing for us article eight. I'm definitely in support of no questions. Thank you to my colleagues for sort of mulling that out. Article 24. I'm not in favor of. And I say that especially with the town clerk, and having gone through the town treasurer experience for years I oppose that. The only reason I acquiesced to it was that a Dean Common was coming in and be there were representations from town. The administration school administration, and my colleagues on the school side that with this, taking this position away from the voters to be appointed by the town manager that there would be a agreement between town and school that the deputy town manager along with the deputy town manager vis-a-vis town manager would work with the school side to ensure that there was duplicity in terms of general accounting ledger of how the town budget and school budget operates in terms of transparency and reporting and basic general ledger one on one, and that did not happen. It fell to the politics again. My opinion, schools were given a pass. Don't get me started on special ed. Don't get me started on long range planning meetings that we've had, which Mr. Decorsi chairs. Very open and transparent conversations from the town side and on the school side it's just been in my personal opinion not speaking for Mr. Decorsi or anyone else on that committee school side is just totally again a wall. Unfortunately politics played into that in a played out. So I wish I hadn't dropped my stance on treasure. Because the promises that were made did not come true. And so my concern on the town clerk which I will not be voting for so if we can take two separate votes if that's okay with Mr. Don and Mr. Decorsi will not be in favor of that. We are a town if we want to move to a city and give everything to the city manager to a point, then someone should embark on a charter commission, but especially around the town clerk. I know one, one of my colleagues said, you know, thank goodness we have Ms. Brazil, but we might not have her in the future, but unless someone can point to a previous town clerk. That was a disaster. Throughout her whole tendency, not accounting for maybe a few months. That that process has worked and I don't think politics should get involved with the town clerk's office because I've seen nothing good come of it I'm so disappointed. Not by Mrs. Mrs. Mrs. Martin. She's a great treasurer, but the reason we went down that path which is kind of what I'm hearing here we want to do the right thing and make sure it's fair. I don't think it's the right way to go so I will vote yes on eight and no on article 24, and I think it's a waste of money. The town clerk's office wants to take a study amongst itself that doesn't cost any money, but it doesn't sound like that so that's my position. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, respect to aid me understand where the course is coming from about putting a fine me when there's no charge but I definitely agree with Mr. Brazil me that you do need to have an incentive made up for people to do the registration so don't break me by not having to pay for it but if they don't do it mean there really needs to be some incentive so I'm in favor keeping the fine on that one respect to 24. You know, I understand the how treasurer is kind of different than clerk because clerk runs the elections me so we do have to be careful about that. When I think about where we are more likely to end up being with a ineffective or let's rephrase that. A bad clerk, you know, I have my opinions on that, but this isn't the time for it, because I am all in favor of studying the issue, you know, because we went. When it studied it may come back to us that because we are town. It may not be a good idea me to to a point one. We may get arguments for it so so I'm all for study me with respect to who does it. I think it's probably better to have an outside party do it once again because it is an elected position and we do want to have me at least the same ones of neutrality normally I'm all for having it done internally because I like to have those skill sets or build those skill sets inside but it would be one case for going outside so so like I said I have my my my thoughts about whether should but like I said it is this is in place for it so you'll see how I'm going to vote whenever. Thank you. Yep, and I think everything in article eight makes sense. It made sense before and still does. And article 24, you know, so much when Mr. Dickens said, you know, I don't think there's any harm in studying take position at this time as as to whether or not it should be appointed versus elected, but I think if we can present, options as to what it would the conversion would look like and how the structure I think it helps make the decision. And it might, like you said, make it look like maybe we don't want that structure. Maybe we do, but I think you at least knowing what we're in for is a good thing. So this is a public hearing. So if any members of the public would like to speak on either article eight or article 24 please use the raise hand function and use your application now. And with that, we will close public comment. And turning time. We have any motion to approve. Article eight just so I can clarify this article eight is with the friendly amendment with respect to the articulation of deadlines is that correct. Mr. Corsi or Mr. Don. Yes, happy to. Okay, Mrs. Mon. Yes, Mr. D'Corsi. Yes, Mr. Dickens. Yes, Mr. Don. Yes, Mr. Her. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mouch, Mr. D'Corsi. Thank you. And a motion to approve article 24. Mrs. Mon. In light of the 2023 18 million dollar possible override and we need to trim, I say no, Mr. Mr. D'Corsi. Mr. Dunn in the light of the fact that this is about the town clerk's office and not the schools. I vote yes Mr. Herd yes Okay, it is a four to one vote All right, thank you Ms. Brazil Thank you Article 9 bylaw amendment display of noticed fines. Mr. Chaplin Mr. Chaplin, do you want me to yeah, please please mr. Thank you, mr. Chair. This is very very quick. This is basically a cleanup to a previous revision to the bylaws where we updated the Last time we updated the signed bylaws because we removed its association with the outdoor advertising General law provisions we could not assess as high of a penalty and The Attorney General's office essentially says the penalty has to be $300 instead of $500. So that's the correct state You all right, Mr. Dickens That's an easy one for me. I'll move positive action. I have nothing to add. So I thank you Second This is done No comment. Thank you. This is mine Since it has nothing to do with the schools no comment. Thank you. Okay This is a public hearing if any members of the public would like to speak please use the raise hand function on your zoom application Not anticipating any public comments on this one. We'll close public comments Turn your hand to the motion for positive action. This is my heart Yes, thank you. Mr. DeCorsi. Yes, you're done. Yes. I'm sorry. Mr. Dickens, that's okay. That's quite all right. Yes, Mr. Hurd. Yes Yeah, it's your name spoke. Thank you All right, that takes us to article 10 by law amendment spree performance definition Such a chapter Mr. Hurd if you I'm happy to handle it This has been requested to be polled to my understanding. So There's a motion for no action if the board less the board would like to take up the issue again This is of course Yeah, move no action Mr. DeCorsi I'll second that There's none No comment. This is mine No comment. Thank you This is a public hearing if any members of the public would like to speak on this use the raise hand function use my application down Wonderful way to conduct warrant article hearings Ernie I am we have a motion for No action Mrs. Mon Yes, thank you. Mr. DeCorsi. Yes, mr. Diggins. Yes, mr. Dunn Yes, mr. Hurd. Yes, so now I spoke All right, that takes us to article 17 vote establishment of the youth and young adult advisory board commission or committee studying community Mr. Diggins, you want to take this one? Yeah, thank you. I mean, so As you all may know, I mean, I ran on the notion of creating something like this And I think given the hard time that we gave people came to the board with the resolutions that we felt well, you know Me why do we need to do this me? Why can't me why we need to have this resolution when we can we have the means to do this? and Yes, the select board could create one I could ask you all to Create one and if everyone or most of us agree to it we would be but I Don't I feel it would be better if something like this were not a If it didn't continue because of the makeup of the board And I want it to have a life of its own I mean, I also want town meeting to own it, you know, because I think The the youth and young adult are part of the entire community And I think the creation of something like this should be done by the entire community, you know, and the reason for studying it as opposed to wanting to create it right away was I did some work for the rainbow commission and that led me to check out all 21 websites to me, you know the news felonies and in towns and I did see some interesting takes being on this concept me and so I would like to see us explore that More intensely and and also I tend to be the deliberative type Me so I and and the collaborative type me. So I would like to have a bunch of people in The room the virtual room Discussing this and the better the best part about that too is that it would be open to the public So regardless of the makeup of the study committee, it would be open for lots more input from the community so So that's my rationale for asking for the study committee. So Any questions comments? I turn it back over to the chair and move approval And wait for all the board members I don't is it right for me to move approval of my own? I Again, okay. Yes. Yes. So I I move approval on it. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Dunn Uh, I'm happy to second it. Um, I read it and I gave it and I I think it's an interesting study My one thought and I'm curious what other Board members think is that We should we should I think we should find a way to make sure that we're getting some diversity equity inclusion voice on This group and so I'm not exactly sure what the best way to do that is one option might be to actually even to move the seat from the lbgd q To have something more Broad or maybe to add another seat And I don't know if it makes sense to maybe add Someone from the black students union early like a designee from the high school or if there is maybe another Oh, shoot. I forget someone from the I forget. I know the the title of the woman Changed the diversity. It was diversity coordinator, but I think it's her title changed and I don't remember DEI director dei director. Thank you. I apologize for not recalling the appropriate title But anyway, I think that I think that the committee could be improved through that through an addition of that type But but in general, I'm very supportive Yeah, mr. Corson Thank you, mr. Jimmy. I also support the motion by mr. Diggins and You're perhaps for the final vote that there can be something worked on to to address mr Done suggestions, which I think are very good This is mine um Ditto, mr. DeCorses comments All right I'll support as well. You know, I think it's an innovative idea and we'll Excited to see what we can come up with All right, this is a public hearing many members of the public would like to speak on this item Please use the raise hand function in your zoom application now All right that closes public hearing Attorney, I'm we have a motion to approve uh Mr chairman. Yep. Uh, can I um proposed I was I was wondering if we're going to get any voices from the crowd that gave the saw a path I I would like to propose a friendly amendment to mr. Diggins motion That includes uh, the the draft that we see next like for final approval includes some form of a dei Representative and I leave that to um, mr. Diggins and that in the chair and the town council to Fit into the draft All right, mr. Diggins Yeah, I yeah, I fully support that and I certainly have some ideas about how to do that Yeah, and and I also want to emphasize me that that of the The the study committee itself me does not have the diversity. You mean that the the committee it's Commission or board whatever um results will have the whole purpose will be to study how to get that You know and so so um, so yeah, um, very happy to support that amendment And I asked for a clarification of one thing, mr. Chair. Yes So are we um, is the amendment to create a new an additional member? um specifically um My I didn't want to bind you in that tightly dug if you find a way to figure it out without a member do it And if you want to add a member and it solves it do it that would be Got it. All right, attorney. Hi Mrs. Mohan Yes, thank you. Mr. D'Corsi. Yes, mr. Diggins. Yes, mr. Dunn. Yes, mr. Herd. Yes This unanimous vote Thank you Is this your article 19 vote establishment of the town committee on residential development? We have mr. Apresi with us Mr. Priest can you hear us? Yes, I got to turn everything on Okay, there we go. Say your name Can you see me and him? Yep. Yep. Um, thank you very much. Hello everyone. I uh This statement in this warrant article was presented last year and to carry over because of the delay So thereby there's a statement that I made last year that's in the reference material It's not too long and explains the basis and summary of this warrant article pretty well So as such, I'm going to just try to be very brief And hit the highlights here. And if you have any questions and so forth, I'd be happy to try to answer them I'm certainly a longtime resident of allington and so I've been watching the residential development that goes on here Uh over the last five or ten years And I'm trying to address some of the concerns that residents have that perhaps have not been addressed yet And don't seem to be coming up on anyone's agenda Some of these issues were raised as far back as 2016 at town meetings and at various board Meetings including the ARB meetings Um, and it would be good if we were able to look at this from the viewpoint of existing residents And the impacts of development on their neighborhoods and their quality of life Well, we have largely had very positive developments throughout towns and all those owning districts Uh from time to time because of such a the increased activity Some things are not coming out probably as well as existing residents May wish and they may have some negative impacts on these people so Last year I had drafted this and the idea is to get a resident majority committee of residents that are not affiliated with the town or its governance and not affiliated with the Building and development and real estate industries Uh so that we could periodically meet Raise concerns identify issues of concern and bring them up to the appropriate boards in town Essentially a way to elevate some of these issues Now one of the things that had gone forward as a result of town meeting was a good neighbor agreement But its implementation is still kind of spotty from what I understand and remains an issue quality of life issues Certainly remain when developments are inappropriate in neighborhoods such as loss of sunlight loss of Sightlines loss of privacy and all of these kinds of things are actually exasperated much more on areas and that are budding non-conforming lots where a non-conforming butter exists these Negative or potential negative effects are greatly exaggerated And I've heard no discussion about non-conforming lots and how they fit into all the development plans in the town especially when we have significant issues going on Some of the other issues that were mentioned were certainly environmental public health impacts that need to always be elevated For instance rock removal, excavation, noise and debris that's generated on construction sites So very briefly no one Group seems to represent just the residents in town and these issues Some way some ways always getting submerged or less Visibility than they should so that's a very brief overview of the issues and We're back again because covet didn't allow us to fully address this last year at town meeting And hopefully it can get addressed here. So I'd be happy to try to answer any questions you may have and That's about it Thank you And mrs. Mahan Thank you, mr. Chair. Um I don't know that I have a question Um, or if it is a question, but I'm still unsure with this committee. It's No less than five no more than nine Um the membership Speaks to a quorum that's appointed um So I don't know if that means Five are appointed by the town mod moderator. I'm not sure where the other four come from and um I do know that, you know, the redevelopment board and planning board are the boards that um If anything were to come from this committee would have the authority to present to town meeting um I'm trying to be mindful of that some other board of commission isn't setting up a um, you know, uh We don't feel we have enough time with the select board or unheard enough or Something else. So we're going to set up a study group that we're not doing the same thing to our colleagues On the redevelopment and planning board. So, um, I guess my question two questions to mr. Paris and then from that maybe A comment or question after that. Is it five or nine members? Um five are appointed. Where do we get the other four and it seems as though With all due respect that um the option of um residents Organized or not going before the planning Department or redevelopment board just don't want to do this anymore. I want to set up a committee um As far as the five to nine, I had written it With my minimal understanding of town procedures and so forth that the town moderator could appoint all of the members The difference was we were specifying that at least five Would be residents with no affiliations as I briefly discussed before So that we would be getting resident opinions strictly based on Their experiences as town residents and living in the neighborhoods and experiencing what's going on The other four certainly could have some affiliations with the town and so forth But it'd be a resident oriented committee If there's a better way to structure it, I'm certainly open to that If there's a better way to get residents together To get these opinions in a more formal manner and then be able to follow them to the town I'm open to that The object of this is to try to take into account the variety of things that are going on in neighborhoods That may not always be visible, but many residents are concerned about Okay, did I did I miss your second question? uh, no, no, um, it was I think I already know about Perhaps your feelings of um using the rote of the planning to poured planning board and redevelopment Authority meetings, which is where I think this should be properly addressed as well as we have a an exemplary tree warden Regarding the tree canopy issues. So um, I guess I'll wait to hear from my colleagues This is something I'm just not inclined to support because it's just Not defined well enough for me as well as I'll leave it at that Mr. Crosy Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Parish for bringing this forward. I I do share of mrs. Mahan's concerns in terms of I I agree this these issues. I think are more properly before the Redevelopment Board and and I think it's important to raise the issues, but I'm hesitant to support the creation of a committee at this point Mr. Niggans Thank you, mr. Chair. Um, you know My inclination would be that the you maybe need to work on figuring out what the committee will do um, how we structured and especially how you can get a A wide array mean of of um residents means so that You don't end up being with a very small group of people who think the same way be so so I can look I um Part of the reason I went the route was with my request being for Setting up a study committee for using young adults to us to figure out how to do this, you know And and I think you could maybe stand to have me some time to figure out how to do it in and and and if you aren't willing to change it to uh committee to study how to do this be that maybe spend me some more time working with um People who care about these issues too. I mean, I I care. I mean, I'm a little concerned about the bandwidth that I have But I I would certainly you know I mean, I'm interested in trying to figure out how to approach this and even if um, we don't Decide to do positive action on this or we don't amend it to a study committee, you know, so Uh, that's where I'm I'm leaning towards maybe doing a study committee on how to do it But I'll I'll wait to before I'm chiming in on how I'm gonna vote. Thank you Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Parisi for bringing it forward I do appreciate the discussion because I think one of the points that you make that comes through loud and clear is that there are um, there's definitely several many people in the town who aren't satisfied with the progress on our revisions to our zoning bylaws and But I and I actually think that that but I think one of the things that I I guess I hear is that Not specifically from you, but I know from other conversations that Some people think we aren't going You know, there's a lot of disagreement on which direction we should be going let alone how fast we should be going and I Unfortunately, I but I continue to believe that these discussions are best held within the committees that we already have Meaning the the ARB the zoning bylaw review and so on and I don't think that creating an additional committee will Provide us any additional clarity or help us move forward with any additional velocity. So I'm well, I greatly appreciate the conversation. I greatly appreciate you bringing it forward. I'm going to respectfully Move a recommendation of no action All right And again, thank you, mr. Parisi for the presentation I don't want to reiterate what all my colleagues have said other than you know, this is a discussion that I think starts in and around the redevelopment board since they're the Board that has the authority over the zoning changes. So I think, you know This is certainly a an issue that we hear often and people are concerned about but I think there's other avenues within the I think residents have other avenues to voice their concerns and try to push for changes in these areas As currently structured Um, so we do have a motion for no action. Do we have a second before we turn to public comment second Of course, this is a public hearing if any members of the public wish to speak to this article We have one raised hand It's chaplain you can promote winnell evans Miss evans if you can just say your name for the record There we go. Can you hear me now winnell evans orchard place? Yes, we can Um, I I would like to speak in support of this article I I hear and understand the concerns that people have about How this would be structured and what the specific purposes might be But I do believe there's a need for it. Um To my understanding there is not currently a committee or a board that would address the kind of issues that mr Parise is talking about To my understanding the zba is really more of a reactive board They deal with issues having to do with specific properties that come before them, but they are not proactively designing bylaws or or other kinds of actions that would deal with some of these issues And the arb is dealing with somewhat larger scale projects And I think what mr. Parise is talking about are individual instances in neighborhoods Um, very briefly. I was a member of the residential study group And when it was disbanded we had Several items on our docket That we didn't get to and that really have not had the kind of follow-up that they deserve The issue of rock removal is going to only become more and more of an issue because basically the You know the level easy lots are gone And and when redevelopment takes place now the likelihood that it will be on lots that require significant rock removal is is only growing Um, we had planned to do a follow-up of enforcement on the good neighbor agreement to see how residents ideas And reactions to development had changed after it had been in place for a while and we did not Have an opportunity to do that We uh, we're definitely going to talk about the potential impacts of accessory dwelling units On butters that will probably be handled through the the redevelopment board Um, but I think the perennial issue that comes up is that of tear downs And this began uh in in my memory with lynn cardin's 2016 Moratorium there is now another moratorium article proposed And there there's obviously something that is not being addressed in terms of how people feel about what's going on in their neighborhoods They see these smaller older homes demolished And replaced with much larger and much more expensive homes So there there are ripple effects from what's going on here So I think a study group to to talk about What's happening in neighborhoods? How it impacts butters and and other neighbors? um And to think about maybe how we can address What people see as as these issues um They're an awful lot of incredibly smart people in arlington. I am humbled every time I attend a committee or a board meeting And I think a group of residents could get together and maybe do Um a much better job than I'm doing right now about really delineating the issue and thinking about ways to address it Thank you for letting me speak And we have miss hankin Precinct six. Um, I wanted to speak against this this seems like a formalization of a lot of like homeowners association NIMBY kind of things that I worry would simply try to further push affordable housing out of arlington um I feel like this is if you have problems in your neighborhood the important people to be talking to should be your town meeting member Should be members of the redevelopment board I just don't think that a handful of people who are You just want Their area to look slightly nicer Is Really an important thing for the town to have I think that this is something that de democratizes Getting information about what housing and residential needs are in the town Yeah, that's really all I had to say. Thank you. Thank you We had a hand Which has now gone down So that will close the public comment portion of this article All right without any additional comments We have a motion for no action by mr. Dunn seconded by mr. Corsi turn your hand Mr. Mahan Yes, thank you. Mr. Corsi. Yes, mr. Diggins. Yes Mr. Dunn. Yes, mr. Herd. Yes Thank you. Thank you, mr. Fries Thank you The next article that we have is article 23 vote provision of town email addresses for town meeting members We have Ms. Henkin up again Nice to see you all again So my warrant article 23 is meant to mandate that the town provide official town email addresses for each town meeting member as their primary form of contact The intent is that this email address would provide town meeting members with Addresses that are easy to reach don't expose their personal email addresses to malicious actors and improve transparency overall in the town Um, it's a fairly simple ask But it addresses a lot of kind of complex problems that occur in trying to communicate with town government in Arlington um Official town email addresses make it a lot easier for constituents to contact town meeting members and better communication makes for better town government Um, having an official email address would provide a smooth standardized and reliable method of contact And a lot of town member meeting town meeting member emails currently aren't listed or go to defunct inboxes Having all of the incoming contact goes through an official town email provides accountability and transparency which improves trust between the community and the town government Emails that come into an official town email are discoverable by an FOIA Request and this is a positive thing. It represents a commitment to the integrity of our town governance um In fact, a town meeting member who couldn't be here tonight was So adamant about this point that he actually sent me a quote that he wanted me to read in support of it Adam McNeill the town meeting member from precinct four He said that good constituent engagement and therefore completes fulfillment of the spirit of representative's office requires active work and effort This is especially true of the town meeting level where formal polling doesn't exist and issues usually have a very high impact on daily life to general populace excitement ratio However, we're lucky to have constituents that occasionally initiate engagement and valuable feedback Thoughts and information, but we should work to make this So-called easy part of constituent engagement as low or hurdle as possible for the engagement Obviously the town can't mandate that a time meeting member actively check their inboxes just like they can't mandate that they Vote at town meeting in the first place But supplying the inboxes is an easy way to provide a tool for engagement and facilitate a culture of constituent engagement Providing town emails rather than personal emails is much safer for town meeting members and adds an additional barrier to both harassment and spam Protecting the privacy of timing members is important. You shouldn't have to expose yourself to online harassment or privacy reaches to serve in town government Um, the town IT infrastructure is much more capable than individual town meeting members to protect against phishing scams spam and other malicious actors having your personal email attached to identifying information like your street address and your name are won't immediately Allow identity stuff, but the more pieces of personal identifying information you have together Especially because a lot of those personal emails are what people then use to log into a lot of their online accounts Increases their chance of having a privacy breach um, and it also allows many of them to be Contacted by online trolls and be the subject of harassment um And if you're working local government earns you the intention of these online harassers It's a lot harder to close off your personal email Which is connected to a lot of other accounts to avoid them than it is for the town IT to move you to another official address Especially when we're moving on from the position and retiring um The article only mandates that these email addresses be the primary listed contact by the town in place of the current emails The law doesn't allow us to mandate and this article doesn't dictate the timing members use this as For all town member related business simply that the town provides it as a primary contact It's easy to therefore answer incoming emails from what are inbox works best Mail forwarding and that also allows for town meeting members who can't or do not want to Use email at all to set up what is basically used for a lot of out of office Emails where it just bounces back and it can send someone a phone number and hours to haul if that's how they want to be contacted Um, this should all be in line with the town's acceptable use policy for their email Um having a provided separate inbox makes it easier to find town business related emails Rather than searching one's own personal inbox Especially around the time of town meeting when you're getting a lot of notifications from the town from other town meeting members and from your constituents Uh, that just makes it a lot easier to know Where your stuff is and make sure you're not missing important emails regarding the town Adding users to an already existing email system is a fairly straightforward and not outrageously expensive endeavor It's the kind of thing that the high school has to do every year when they get a new crop of freshmen Um I talked to sandy pooler and the cost per user for the microsoft governmental email license that the town uses is 90 per user per year resulting in a total cost of about $22,000 a year for all 252 town meeting members However, several town meeting members actually have and have listed Their town emails as their main contact information, which would not add to the cost or workload on boarding Um, it's not a super outrageous cost to the town There's no listed specific line item in the publicly available town financials for The sum total of the town's email hosting um, but from looking at the expenses under the it department $22,000 represents less than four percent of the current half million expenses listed under the it department And we give town meeting which doesn't have any expenses currently listed Expenses on par with those listed for the select board, which is also around $22,000 Um, it's a really worthwhile expense to increase the effectiveness of communication and improve privacy and securities for town meeting members Um, sending inquiries From these official emails will also make it easier for other town offices to recognize and prioritize town meeting members Um, who often serve on committees other volunteer positions or carrying messages from their constituents to those town offices Um, it just makes the operation You can just wrap it up. Yeah, I just have another and you've written up a couple questions Town government isn't just a hobby you and the town meeting members do important work that impacts the lives and Wideliness of the people who live in this town The choices that are voted on in town meeting are a really great responsibility And it's important that we don't just support that on kind of a personal level, but logistically And systematically It's important that constituents can reach town meeting members in a reliable official capacity and town meeting members have a reliable safe way to be contacted It also reduces work for the town clerk when compiling contact information, which is an extra bonus Thank you and I will turn to the board for any questions comments or motions. Mr. Dunn Thank you, mr. Chair. Um, thank you miss hankin for the presentation that you definitely covered quite a bit in there One of the things um, I'm curious Did your exploration take you into uh tech support about what the what like estimates about that and what the What that would look like I tried to get An estimate from the ike department. Um, they said that they don't entirely know what Tech support would look like and there's no Unfortunately, there's no line item in the publicly available financials on the town website For tech support and how much it generally costs for other departments that exist But adding users is probably the work of A week or two um I guess so my thought um It's an interesting idea and I had and I I was I was thinking it over a little bit and I guess one of my concerns is the Is that tech support aspect of it because so like the goals you've got about the About increased participation increased accessibility. I certainly am in favor of those I'm I definitely have some concerns that that putting the email addresses up there as you as you definitely Pointed out is different from someone actually reading them and responding to them And uh, it's been my experience that so that a lot of town meeting members aren't always the most technologically Savvy they you know, there's a there's a very there's a high variation in the technical skills of town meeting members and uh, I thought and I thought about the high school example And uh, like it exists, you know that freshman class of high school They are they're digital natives and for them a login and a password is you know, they've had they've literally had them since they were born Uh, whereas a bunch of our I can think of at least um one town meeting member who I correspond with whose email address They're both town meeting members, but they share their it's a married couple that shares the same email address and uh, you know like figuring through all the accommodations for things like that it's a It's a it's a like it's a There there's definitely administrative overhead. So you there's you talk about a savings for the town clerk, but there's a there's a lot more on the other side Thank you for answering my question. I'm going to keep listening for a bit before I come to a final thought Mrs. Mann I was hoping I'd be last on this um When we had the great town email debate for uh members of the select board um I voted in I think I was the only person who voted no um, but of course when it went through um I agreed to have the town email for four years. I got nothing um, wasn't able to access it because everything came through a spam um, and then uh the fifth year uh that were remedied but then um one of my concerns was that my town email I would not be the person overseeing it and controlling it Uh, it would be taken out of my hands and I was told I shouldn't worry about that. Well, what happened was uh through my town email The town was contacted and I know the town manager is aware of this in the select board's office that an email came in to um stop my direct deposits of 111 and 63 cents a month as my payment for being a member of the select board and um to Stop the direct mail and to send it to a different and uh the town notified me that they were aware of that and they weren't going to pay attention to that and but guess what they did uh, and then when I inquired with payroll who the change had been made from this scam email But it went to my town email account. I instead of just saying we'll ignore that and you all agree that Me and it was a scam email and I was informed of it from the town after I uh made inquiry No, I had to go through all the machinations of uh Going back to the bank setting up a direct deposit. So I don't have great faith In the town email So, um, I would not recommend favorable action on this because that control was taken away from me It's a small thing. It's 111 dollars and 63 cents a month. Oh, no not 111. Sorry 11 dollars and 63 cents a month But I also worry about what other parts of my private life through my town email account Uh, could be compromised with identity identity theft in the left in the like So I I can't a good conscience move favorable action on this What was anything done at the town it level to Remedy that from happening again that sounds like a pretty big deal for town operations Since everyone needs to have emails No, I just know that the Change was made from a fraudulent email to my town account that I had no uh control over So I I didn't investigate it any further. I took about three weeks of steps to remedy that so um I would listen to my colleagues, but from my standpoint it would be to move no action until we can kind of firm up those um security measures before we open 252 people more to that experience All right and mr. Corsi Thank you, mr. Chairman I'll second mrs. Mahan's motion for for discussion and I want to thank miss hankin for Bringing this forward. Um, I as mr. Dunn said, I think it's an interesting Proposal I I'm going to look back on my experience as a town meeting member which which is over a long period of time and I am one of the town meeting members at that Over the years it's provided any mail address and and and a phone number and any that I personally preferred that when I was a town meeting member But I I think this is one of those ones where I'd probably be inclined For purposes of our vote to support no action But I would be curious to see what town meeting members think at at town meeting if there is a substitute motion, but I um There is a contact list that gets published on the town's website And I do understand that there are some town meeting members who will put confidential for both their Phone number in their email address and they may be uncomfortable giving it But they the vast majority town meetings members provide one or the other are both and and um, You know just based on on that experience that I've had Um, I'm inclined to support her motion, but I thank you for raising the issue Mr. Viggins Yeah, um, so I I wondered me know A while ago whether it's possible to set up some aliases Me know so that you could get a standardized Format for the email address me the mail would not be hosted by the town It would just be a pass through me. So I think that would be one Possible remedy if it's technically possible being I think the question is me Yeah, I mean it's um, I haven't tried Setting up something like that. I mean, I know that With technology you can do pretty much whatever you want to do It's just really a matter of whether you have access to do it that way. Um And I'm just thinking of like solutions to the things that you brought up with respect to me separating your Personal email me from your town meeting business. You can always set up an alternative account me I mean, I know what you're going for is a standard format and and I appreciate that Yeah, um, I don't have anything more to say at this point. Thank you And thank you again for the detail presentation I mean This is actually an article that I don't have strong feelings either way because it's really one of these articles that town meeting should weigh in on Because it comes down to whether or not the expense is worth it as if our town meeting members think that they would rather have um town email addresses versus just listing their Their own personal email addresses. I can say I personally from experience haven't had experiences like mrs. Mahan, but you know, I still log in Just like I did when I was in college I log in with my email address and password to get my town emails and generally the turnaround time and response is a little More difficult than I know when people Really need to get in touch with me. They'll either text me or email me to my work account So with that, I mean, I would think to some extent a lot of town meeting members Want to just keep the email addresses they have and having a separate email account for town emails Just creates another You know Like another account that they might not check regularly. I know there's ways to fuse the two that are beyond my experience but again, you know, I I think it's fine if it passes and town meeting wants to weigh in on it And again, I have no strong feelings either way on this one So this is a public hearing We do have one hand that's raised two hands that's raised. So if you have mr. Kaminsky Hello, can you hear me? Yep. Can you just say your name for the record? Yep. My name is Jonathan Kaminsky I only recently moved to Arlington though. I've lived in the area for a number of years I've wanted to speak strongly in favor of this proposal or something very much like it While I respect the logistical concerns What that basically boils down to is an excuse to avoid being contactable at all Now for the last two years, I lived in New Jersey and if you want to see what Opaque uncontactable politics looks like you should spend some time in New Jersey Because it was almost impossible to get a hold of anyone Who had any decision-making ability over things that directly affected my life Until a group of us campaigned at a county board meeting loudly and insistently That they put up at least some contact information for everyone So even if the logistics of giving everyone a town inbox aren't in play the fact that there isn't a requirement that they have some means of public contact the fact that they can list confidential for both their number and their email Is I mean it's basically just not acceptable Um so if not having Giving everyone a town managed email account at least giving them a mandate to have contact and offering the Then the ability to get a town email account if they don't want to put forward a personal one seems like Well minimal public service if I'm being totally honest and thank you, mr Kaminsky and Ms. Garber Hello, I'm jr. Garber master's avenue. Um, I'm strongly in support of this warrant article I think it's a common sense policy that would uh encourage also More people to run for town meeting if uh privacy concerns are a barrier, which I actually have heard from a couple people that expressed interest in running for town meeting, but were nervous about giving out their personal information Um, and also like the previous commenter said to be able to have people more easily contact their town meeting member um I'm also interested like the the foya concerns are also Concerning to me as someone who is Running for upcoming town meeting It seems prudent to have your town and personal email accounts separate if someone Could use foya to Look at all your personal emails um, but I also definitely hear um, miss mahan and Others about some of the difficulties in setting up town emails as well and for people who might not might prefer to use their personal emails as mr. Dick Corsi said so potentially I would be in favor of and also because of the the cost of giving an email account to everyone I would potentially be in favor of providing an option for all town meeting members who want A town email address to give them that option Or for those who don't want that option to be able to put their Personal email on their contact sheet. Um, thank you so much Thank you And that will close the public commentation commenting comments on this warrant article um, miss dickens be Would it be possible to Table this Until we can maybe talk to someone From it about the possibility of setting up aliases you know because that that to me is the the thing that The only compelling thing about this is the standard format for the email addresses because he is I said earlier You can create another account and that takes care of the the separation from your personal account in and The the foyer aspect of it in and with respect to Um personal safety. I understand that concern. I mean one thing though is that I think people have to have their addresses listed So so they are reachable that way and that is also another way that they can be reached to me I know we don't think about us PS mail as a way of communicating people people but it is there Me and so they can always be you know Send them a letter me. So they are reachable uh that way. So it's really the standard email format that Is the thing that is compelling for me and if it could explain The possibility just setting up an alias that doesn't really be required an email address That would be good. Uh, if that's not possible me. I hear you mr. Hurd. It means like, you know Um, you can send it to tom eating see how they feel about it I'll just add to that. I know that There are some tom eating members who feel that they are just there to do tom eating You know, they Well, they don't feel as if they need to do more than that And I would say to residents who feel that that's not acceptable Don't vote for them again. Uh, so That's all I have to say. Thank you Mr. Dunn, Mr. Chair. Oh, mr. Dunn. Sorry. Uh, thank you, mr. Chairman So just a couple opportunity to respond to a couple of thoughts That are points well taken from some of the speakers, but so foyer is a federal law and actually doesn't apply What we've got in massachusetts is the open meeting law Uh, and the open meeting law is actually really very specifically written to not encompass town meeting So like this member this select board, we can't speak to each other outside of this about business With very limited exceptions, but town meeting actually the open meeting law doesn't apply So people don't have to worry about requests to see their personal email For being in town meeting that no such legal right exists that that isn't something and it is it is an interesting idea And town council raised in the memo that he sent to us is that if we do this That actually might hypothetically change because that town email address does become perhaps open to open meeting law Review but that Will be a whole new lawsuit all by itself I think because you'd have to figure out whether town meeting applied or the town email property applied So I guess I don't I don't want anyone to not run because they're worried about someone going into their personal email It's not going to happen Uh, my second thought is about whether or not we're providing an open and transparent government I agree that if someone isn't sharing a way to contact them then They probably are not a great representative and I would say that I would encourage But I think the solution to that is the ballot box I don't think the solution to that is to put up an email address that they're just not going to pay any attention to Anyway, if we've got if you have a town meeting member who's not responsive and not interested in soliciting any input or receiving any input I just don't think that you know the the way to fix that is is to vote them out It isn't to just put it up with something for them on the website I do think that what they're what part of what this is getting at that it is true is that that we uh We can do better on our town website about how to How to get the town meeting members in for we can do better about collecting town meetings Information members information we can do better about how to distribute it And we can do better ways to manage the privacy concerns of some town meeting members Um I'm uh, I'm definitely leaning against it because of the cost aspects I don't think that the cost is worth it and I think there are other solutions But uh, I'm hesitating to actually make a motion to see where it goes. Thank you. Mr. Chairman Mr. Chair we have a motion. Ms. Mahan Mrs. Mahan um I don't think we have a motion. I think mr. Dunn said he was hesitant. I'd move no action So I thought you did move no action. This is a course in second, but we can do it if that's what happened Then that's fine. I'll stand by that This is a course he was that might was that my understanding that's that's I seconded what I thought Not even the late part of the motion. So I'll second it again All right, do you have any additional comments? I leave the motion for no action by mrs. Mahan seconded by mr. Corsi 29 This is Mahan Yes, thank you. Mr. DeCorsi Yes, mr. Dunn. I'm sorry mr. Diggins Mr. Diggins Sorry, I was muted and sometimes it's a little hard to unmute myself. Oh I do want to see this go to Tom meeting you know I'm sorry, you know I'm gonna say no Mr. Dunn. Yeah, sorry. Can I clarify mr. Diggins? Are you voting for no action for? I'm voting I guess no action. Okay, mr. Dunn. Yes Mr. Herd. Yes Vote is four to one Thank you, miss hankin. Thank you. All right That takes us to article 26 home rule legislation ranked choice voting Mr. Dennis mr. Chairman make a brief statement. Yes I just want to note for the select board and members of the public that Mr. Dennis and I believe mr. Foster contacted me to make it clear that the my explanation For how the ranked choice voting would work in a multi seat race Was inaccurate. So I'll look forward to them providing you a little bit More clarification on that. I apologize for getting that wrong to the election modernization committee the board and any members of the public that I may have Confused All right, mr. Dennis Yeah, thank you So as you may recall so just to reiterate some of the comments I sent to the board At last year's special town meeting The election modernization committee placed three articles in the warrant And we were grateful to receive the select board's unanimous endorsement of all three For a number of reasons The complexity of the online town meeting format being among them. We changed our recommended vote to no action With the intention of postponing The rank choice voting article We changed just the third article the rank choice voting article to no action With the intention of postponing it for this regular april town meeting So as promised, we brought it back for consideration By the board and by town meeting We used the additional months to study Some of the nuances of the application of rank choice voting to arlington town elections in greater depth We worked with the vendor To look more deeply into the actual mechanics And we made one substantive change to the proposal which was to require it appear before the voters On a townwide ballot in the same way That it changed from an appointed to an elected town treasurer And maybe the appointed to elected town clerk would appear before the ballot That was something we anticipated would be required by the legislature anyway So we felt might as well and there was an amendment to that effect last year We thought might as well bake that into the language of the motion Our reasons for Putting forth rank choice voting for town elections hasn't changed Substantially from the reasons we articulated And our report to town meeting last year The goals of encouraging more candidates to run Thereby boosting voter turnout Ensuring majoritarian outcomes Promoting diverse representation removing some strategic voting incentives And fostering civil campaigns are the primary ones With that so you know as I said one of the things we did in the interim was to work with the voting machine vendor In a more in-depth way to get some of the precise mechanics of the implementation get a stronger Hold on what those would be One of the great things is that our voting machines already are used for rank choice voting elections in jurisdictions around the country And the vendor sent us some sample ballots. I'll show one Some sample physical ballots. I'll show that on the screen here You can see first choice second choice third choice and bubbled columns with the candidates down left hand side And the voter is tasked with Marking their first choice in the first column and then if they would like their second choice in the second column And if they have a third choice of their choice in the third column and so on And those instructions don't change Uh regardless of how many seats are being elected those instructions the same if we're in a single seat race or a two-seat race or a three-seat race I have um an example tally. We set we filled out 60 of these ballots by hand sent them to the vendor They did a tally for us and I have that to share if you'd like to see how that looks And um, I'm happy to answer any other questions about the proposal. Thank you. Mr. Corsi Thank you, mr. Chairman and Thank you, mr. Dennis. I gave first of all for all the work that you and the committee have done Since you began on on on various issues and I know you've been busy had a lot of meetings and um Really impressed by the fact that uh, you know, you're posting your minutes. They did the detailed discussions are there and you really can see um, what's going on and um, I do have some questions and and I want to thank attorney hind for the Clarification I was a little confused Or not because I knew that it was it wasn't the right thing It just I've been having a little trouble following this as well because This has really evolved since she came before us Last spring it at that time it seemed like there was a a simpler Bylaw changed and and and what's here now and um, you know, we've had the experience in in november with wallow linkedin overwhelmingly supported ranked choice voting across the commonwealth. It wasn't supported, but um, I just had a question for you in terms of um We had an experience last year with the clerks race that had ranked choice voting Been in place it would have been applied because miss brazil won with 39 percent of the vote um, and As I look back on that election And and how it ended I didn't see a lot of people um Talking about okay, I wish we had ranked choice voting to to see what would have happened. So I I've got some Questions about this. I I appreciate the intent here, but um, I'd like to hear from from some of the others But maybe if you could just talk a little bit about What how the recommended vote has changed since you had your disguise fall, which I think A lot of that surrounded Two-seat two-seat races where how how that gets divided up Yeah, um, actually the the recommendation hasn't changed But I think there wasn't a lot of focus the last time around on how this is applied to multi-seat elections and We've just had a lot more discussions about that. The only substantive change we made in the proposal Was to require this go before the voters Uh, there was another question in there. Uh, so with respect to the clerks race Um, actually we I heard a good number of people saying Oh, I wish I had ranked choice voting in the clerks race that I had preferences among those three that I wasn't able to express Uh, there was a candidate. Maybe I didn't like Strongly didn't like and I had two I kind of liked one a little bit more than the other and I wasn't able to indicate that nuance and It could be that one candidate in the race might play a spoiler and spoil the chances of my first choice so, um I did hear interest in ranked choice voting in that election and one of the other phenomenons is that often people I've heard from candidates that have chosen not to run Because they are afraid they might split the vote or were told do not run because you will split the vote And that's one of the key things we're looking to fix as well Yes, we're trying to get to the right outcome when you have three candidates or four candidates in a race But we also want to have more races like that and sometimes people choose not to run at all because they might face this vote splitting situation And and just a question on outreach and I think from your meetings in the fall one of the Um concerns that you had in pulling the the article from the special town meeting was because we're in covid You really didn't have an opportunity for public outreach and and unfortunately we may still have those issues So do you have concerns? About the amount of outreach that can be done and and I'm not trying to get you to push things off But I'm just wondering if if how you've addressed that situation if at all Yeah, we have less concerns this time around uh last time around, you know We had three articles and so when we met at precinct meetings and when we talked to different groups We had to talk about all three articles and now we have one article in the warrant So it's easier for us to focus and hone in on just this one We had a meeting with the uh, we had a meeting with fincom already and we didn't have a meeting with fincom last time around we've talked to You know one of the proponents of the of an amendment last time around was adam oster And he had proposed an amendment And we had sort of a I was able to briefly talk to him before town meeting last time around But this time around we were able to invite him to our meeting and hear him out and discuss his concerns And talk through what we saw as the pros and cons of the different approaches And then I also think at town meeting itself um That members are more will be more adjusted to the online format and we'll have the kind of robust discussion that we need to be able to Hear this out and come to a educated decision so um For those reasons, I think I think we can make it happen this time and and Uh have the kind of discussion we need Okay, and just in terms of timing you talked about A proposal to go back to the voters So if you can just lay it out as as you're proposing you go to town meeting this spring When when would it go to the voters if it was successful at town meeting? So if it was successful at town meeting, um You know barring a special election For any reason then the soonest it would go before the voters is probably april of 2022 And hopefully by then the state legislature has approved the home rule petition And so the first election under rank choice on that timeline would be um, April 2023 Thank you. This is mine Thank you, mr. Chair. I'd like to move approval. Uh, first of all Is mr. Dennis greg but mr. Dennis has pointed out in the election modernization committee There has been At least two years um discussion investigation and Provided on this one of the other things that was sort of um A positive point for me was that along with the legislature Taking action is the voters of allington Also having to say on this And since I have the bully pulpit pulpit, I'd like to take advantage of Having mr. Dennis and others from the election modernization committee or other allington residents when this was um On the state ballot before And this is just an fyi use this information not as a criticism, but just Coming from me I received probably 50 to 70 Through the mail snail mail Or in person with the phone number attached mostly from Long time in some new time allington residents who were 72 plus That were confused by ranked choice voting And um said to me well, can I still just vote or do I have to do this ranked choice thing? And what I found out was after I did follow up with them weeks later Instead of answering the initial question, which for those voters There's some people that just want to vote one way and that's it and they see ranked choice voting is taking away that opportunity um for if we could somehow get the message out you can still just vote one person um The answers they were getting was will your vote won't count because you can vote one two three four five Which they got the message that you can't if you're confused by voting Five different candidates and ranking them your vote won't count So if we can somehow get the message out especially to that community that You can still vote the way you did if you don't want to do ranked choice voting But this is you know another way to vote that that's just something that I observed Including with my own parents who are 82 and 84 because what they said to me is I'm 58 years old, but they call me baby D. They're like baby D We know nothing about politics. Just tell us when we we should vote for you and you know Sorry to say that it looks like my parents just bullet me since I've ran Since 97 didn't win till 99, but they don't get involved in politics and they're from that generation So I definitely move favor election and I just want to pass that along since you are a captured audience That that that's been my experience. Thank you. That is helpful. No, thank you Mr. Diggins I will second the motion, you know, and I um appreciate all the um the links that you've sent me. Um, miss Dennis Me and I appreciate the argument that increases, you know the diversity uh in those who are running I was a little um um I was a little surprised that on the negative be that a the long term increase in turnout at least in one of the papers was only A two seven percent. I would have hoped it would be larger than that, but hey, we'll take anything but um that um You you you said that you have an example for us, you know, can we see? Yeah, I can I can show you an example with the permission that I can share my screen and show It looks like I have the option available to me here Okay, so I showed the ballot earlier Here is a sample ballot. Let me That has been scanned by the tabulator machine So it works very much the same way you see the ballot in the scanner This is the information it scanned Three musketeers is this voter's first choice. I'll enjoy their second choice Werner were their originals third choice junior men's fourth choice peppermint patty fifth choice Declined to indicate a sixth seventh or eighth choice, which would have been right ends if they wanted to Again you can as to mrs. Mahan's point you can rank just your first choice and leave the rest blank if you so choose Or for just first and second This was they prepared for me a Five a three seat race with five candidates a two seat race with two candidates with four candidates, excuse me and a one seat race with two candidates So in this case it doesn't trigger rank choice voting because there's not enough candidates running in a one seat race You would have to have at least three candidates So this is how it is scanned by the machine And this is the data that it produced if you can see that on your screen. So I know we don't have a district town councilor seat, but this is the vendor made up the names of the offices So it scanned that information in this format And this information is stored in the voting machines and then when the voting machines go back to town hall That information is uploaded and tabulated. So the prot which is The same process we follow today. So that process is all the same I think people here if they're familiar with how it's counted are probably familiar with the single seat case What I have here is um An example of how we elect multiple people using it and it does become admittedly a little bit more complicated When you elect multiple people what I've simulated here with is 60 ballots and You try to create a situation in which A majority of the public about 60 percent of the public Um Doesn't like mint flavored candies. They like almond joy three musketeers and where there's original But they don't like junior mince or peppermint patty But a significant minority the rest really like mint flavored candies. So we can see how that would look Um in a normal in a single seat ranked as voting race You would be required to win 50 percent of the vote. So with 60 ballots You would need at least 31 30 plus one 31 votes to win Well, that threshold is too high if you're if you want three people to win So the threshold the number of votes you need is lowered to basically just mathematically The the amount at which you're guaranteed a seat so it's 60 votes Three seats if you do the math, you'll realize that once one candidate gets 16 votes They are guaranteed a seat it becomes impossible for a fourth candidate to get 16 votes So once a candidate reaches 16 votes, they have one In the tabulation starts by just counting the first choices on the ballots And if we just look at the first choices almond joy has 20 first choices junior min 7 three musketeers 12 and so on Almond joy has more than 16 votes and wins right away in the first round 33 percent of the vote now They have more than enough votes than they need to win And this is the difference between the multi seat and the single seat not only the reduced threshold, but They have four more votes almond joy has four more votes than they need to win And we don't want those four votes to be wasted We want to maximize that voters voice And these voters had second choices on their ballots and almond joy didn't need all 20 votes in order to win Now if this were Cambridge what Cambridge would do is an old-fashioned way of doing it Which is they would take four of these ballots at random And count them to their second choices instead Well, that's not entirely fair. It's approximately fair, but it's not entirely fair because Those votes go to whichever four lucky people Get their ballots chosen is counting towards their second choice so What is done instead the modern way of doing it Is instead you take a fraction of every single almond joy ballot from all of those winners ballots So almond joy doesn't need you can take away a a fifth Of every one of almond joys votes and to leave them exactly at 16 and count that fifth of a vote Towards the second choices So if you look at almond joys votes of those 21 had junior men's second 13 and three musketeers second Three edward. There's original second land pepper and patty second and two had nobody second So you can count these each at a fifth of a value To to eliminate and to transfer four of almond joys votes in junior mix point picks up point to a vote three musketeers picks up 2.6 votes where those original picks up 0.6 votes And then you look to see if anybody has crossed the threshold of 16 votes No one has And if no one's no one's crossed the threshold And you still haven't filled up all the seats Then you go back to the familiar thing from the single seat case of eliminating the lowest vote getter Which is the right-in candidate And everybody that voted for this candidate, which was one person Has their vote counted towards their second choice that one ballot had worthers original seconds So that goes to where this original Still nobody is above the 16. So eliminate the next lowest vote getter, which is junior mince Which currently has 7.2 votes Those get transferred to those second choices And now peppermint patty is above the threshold 21.2 votes wins the second seat And again when somebody wins you take their excess votes And their surplus votes and distribute them according to the second choice votes on those ballots those get distributed And now three musketeers wins the third seat So a majority of the public about 60 of the public Didn't like mince And they won that majority won two of the three seats available. They won i'll enjoy one and three musketeers won uh, but The the mint voters was formed. They had a significant minority of the vote and they were able to pick up one of the three seats And so when you do it this way And this uh, when you do the multi-seat election in this way the tabulation tally Yes, is a little complicated But what it gets at is representing the diversity of the views of the voters So the majority of people wanted one thing they got a majority of seats But there was a significant minority viewpoint that was able to win one of the three seats so That's it played out and it's full glory there Is that is that helpful mr. Diggins? Yes. Yes, me. I like seeing all the rounds to be calculated And you get a sense of how the the fractional voting, you know comes in to play All I can say is um Good luck explaining it. Uh, and you know, um, uh, I mean and How How do you imagine or how have recounts been handled in these situations? um They've been I mean, there's Places have recounted these and you know, you There's a couple different ways you can do it, but you can follow Um The standard tally just by hand. So you sort the ballots by their first choices and you see You know, who's ever above if that pile is above the number of votes they need that candidate has won and if not, then You look at what their surplus is and you calculate the The fraction that you have to transfer and so it's it's doable Cities and towns do it I don't know if that's yeah, I mean essentially I mean they can they can they can do it by hand in an efficient way So that sort of for people who you just have to have a hand Recount it can be done. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, and it's different Because this is not following the Cambridge model the Cambridge model Requires that all the ballots stay in the precise order that they were originally and so you have the round in the same order right The fractional surplus approach, although it's you know more You know, there's sort of like some math involved, right which can scare people although that's true It means that you don't have to keep the ballots in order. It's right and precise and exact Yeah, you know, I prefer the I prefer this this way, you know, so the task for the voter though So you put the tally aside, right the task for the voter is Tell us your first choice candidate Do you have a second choice tell us your second choice? Do you have a third tell us your third you can stop whenever you want so What is What is incumbent upon the voter is relatively straightforward? Who's your first choice? Who's your second choice? That's it I think it is very important to have clear explanations of How the tally works particularly in the multi-seat case where it's more involved And there's a lot of different tutorials and videos and things like that for people who want to dig into it But for the average voter, it's not you don't have to know that you just have to know Was my second choice, you know, do I have one and that's it? Yeah, thank you very much Appreciate it. That's all for me. Thank you That's what example Uh, I definitely have questions But I also see that adam master is in the audience and has his hand raised and so i'm gonna wait until I hear more from him I can stop sharing whenever you would like me to Get in confused Yes So my only comments, I mean I've been impressed by all the presentations we've had on ranked choice voting and I certainly understand the The benefits of it in getting You know more voices to people that might not otherwise be able to get elected to an office I think you know It came forward at The the special Tommy in the fall and he got pulled back because of a lack of understanding And I think to me we change the way people are elected I think we'll ultimately This will be The way we elect officials in Arlington because I think it is beneficial I would like to see us Wait, maybe until to see if we had A special Tommy in the fall or a Tommy next year where we can have post coven some real Informational sessions that people that you know might want to attend in person or a little more dissemination of information about it where I think When it comes to electing officials We should educate both You know us as the board who are voting on this town meeting members But also just the public at large So before town meeting votes We give the residents and voters in Arlington an understanding of ranked choice voting and give them the opportunity to inform their town meeting members of how they would like to How they would like their town being members of what we just talked about an article where we talked about discuss The accessibility of town meeting members So again, you know, I like everything I hear about it And I think it's it's good for the town I just think we're you know, we're still in this COVID bubble where it's hard to To get people in a room and this we don't know How many people are able to or even willing to attend virtual base informational sessions where I think if we could push this out and Make sure before this goes to town I mean that everyone in town is able to fully understand what it is their town meeting members who they elect are voting on But you know, it's certainly here From the board a lot of support for this as well And I know we've always been impressed by the presentations on on this particular issue, but I'll also Look for the public comments that we that we get Emissive as if you can stop so I only have you on my screen. It's like we're having a conversation Sorry, that's all right There's a very intimate conversation on a ornamental hearing all right, so With that we'll open up the public comment section of this hearing and first up is mr. Schlickman Uh, thank you very much. I'd like to share my screen as well Mr. Chaplin So let me see. I'm hoping it's more cat pictures paul Uh, no, I didn't I'm sorry. I didn't get a cat picture in here. Uh, I I will If I'd known I would have put one in I'm looking for the share screen button. Is is it enabled? Oh, there it is I'd like to urge you to take no action on article 26 because no action is the right choice On when this ranked choice voting is before us Ranked choice voting has a history in massachusetts as you know that in 2020 Mr. Dennis proposed statewide ranked choice voting and there were a couple of commitments that were made At the time in the campaign and if we go back and take a look at the initiative petition Ranked choice voting would be used in primary and general elections for all massachusetts statewide offices It would not apply to local offices So when people were receiving a lot of information about ranked choice voting, they were told it would not apply to local offices So nobody thought about it locally At least during the campaign The other thing that was made uh public and was very prominent in the description That was sent out by the secretary of the state is ranked choice voting would only be used in races Where a single candidate is to be declared the winner And not in races where more than one person is elected And that's very important to note Because ranked for choice voting in races where more than one person is elected Takes votes away from voters The presentation you saw where almond joy won That was nuts by the way Um took votes away from voters So let's look at an election for three members of the hogwarts board of wizards Under our current system in races where more than one person is elected voters have the same number of votes as seats to be filled This ballot under a Conventional method the way we use Council votes for three candidates So ron weasley gets a vote Hermione granger gets a vote harry potter gets a vote And voldemort does not In ranked choice voting where there's more than one person elected voters have only one vote one vote not three one vote But they can rank their preferences And this is a sample ranked choice ballot If hermione granger is not the fourth place finisher after the first count This ballot will count for hermione granger and only for hermione granger If hermione granger is the fourth place finisher after the first count This ballot will be transferred to ron weasley and will count for only ron weasley Why does this matter? Because if hogwarts has twice as many wizards as death eaters Under our current voting system in a race to elect three candidates The wizards generally will use all three votes to support three candidates The death eaters will bullet vote using only one of their votes for voldemort And you'd end up with results something like this you'd have Weasley granger and harry potter winning And voldemort trailing badly he'd be defeated And life is good But if hogwarts has twice as many wizards as death eaters under ranked choice voting in a race to elect three candidates The wizards will generally split their votes among the three candidates And the death eaters will cast their first choice Vote for voldemort And you could end up with voting results out like this after the first round Weasley 3332 granger 337 potter 335 in voldemort 502 and weasley is defeated And voldemort granger and potter are elected So Ron Weasley's campaign message under the current system right now is please give me one of your three votes And it's a friendly message Under ranked choice voting Ron has to be more aggressive. He can't say give me one of your three votes He says please make me your first choice vote Because the candidate can only rely upon the vote If it's the first place vote because instead of having three votes The voter only has one Ranked choice voting doesn't remove strategic voting It just changes the strategy Ranked choice voting doesn't foster civil campaigns Instead of sharing one of three votes Candidates have to be more competitive and more aggressive looking to get one vote and the top preference Ranked choice voting doesn't ensure majoritarian elections because voldemort wins without majority support And our new voting equipment can run ranked choice voting, but just because we can do it Doesn't mean we should do it So we want to make sure that election returns are aligned to election problems Take a look at the issues that people have and the desires that they have To make elections better And we need to make sure that election reforms do not create new problems No action is the right choice for article 26 and emerging you to vote no action on this article. Thank you Thank you. Mr. Schleckman And m