Thank you everybody and welcome to the Arlington Select Board meeting for Monday, April 11, 2022. I am Select Board Chair Leonard Diggins. 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. Ms. Mahan, I can't hear you. Sorry, here. I'm on muted now. Sorry. Okay. Hear you now. I mean, I'm Mr. Hard. Yeah. Mr. Helmuth. Yes. So, of course, he will not rejoin us tonight. Saf, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Mr. Taftalane. Yes. Mr. Heim. Yes. And so, Like Board Administrator Ashley Meyer is participating, but not as a panelist. Tonight's meeting of the Arlington Select Board is being conducted remotely consistent with an act signed into law of February 15, 2022 that extends certain COVID-19 measures. That includes an extension until July 15, 2022 of the remote meeting provisions of Governor Baker's March 12, 2020 executive order, suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law. The Governor's order, which is for reference with agenda materials on the town's website for this meeting, allows public bodies to meet entirely remotely, so long as reasonable public access is afforded so that public can follow along with the deliberations of the meeting. Before we begin, permit me to offer a few notes. First, this meeting is being conducted via Zoom. It is being recorded and is also being simultaneously broadcast on ACMI. Persons wishing to join the meeting by Zoom may find information on how to do so on the town's website. Persons participating by Zoom are reminded that you may be visible to others and that if you wish to participate, you are asked to provide your full name in the interest of developing a record of the meeting. All participants are advised that people may be listening who do not provide comment, and those persons are not required to identify themselves. Zoom participants and persons watching ACMI can follow the posted agenda materials, also found on the town's website using the Novus agenda platform. And finally, each vote tonight will be taken by roll call. So without short agenda, I'm confident we'll get all the town's business done tonight, and I'll now turn to the next item on the agenda, which is item two, land acknowledgment. I would like to read the land acknowledgment that the Board supported last spring in town meeting approved through resolution, which is also contained on the town's website. We acknowledge that the town of Arlington is located on the ancestral lands of the Massachusetts tribe, the tribe of indigenous people from whom the colony province and Commonwealth had taken their names. We pay our respects to the ancestral bloodline of the Massachusetts tribe and their descendants who still inhabit historic Massachusetts territories today. And I'll turn to item three on tonight's agenda, and that is a consent agenda. So I will start with Mr. Helmuth for a motion and or comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair, I move approval. And Mr. Herd? Second, just for people watching, you might want to just read what's on the consent agenda. Thank you, Mr. Herd. I appreciate that. So on the consent agenda, we have the minutes from from three meetings, March 21st, March 28th and April 4th. So so now that we know, Mr. Herd, you seconded, right? Thank you. This is behind. No questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And no questions or comments from me. So we'll ask Mr. Heim to take roll call. Mr. Herd. Yes, Mr. Helmuth. Yes, Mrs. Mahan. Yeah, Mr. Diggins. Yes, the four zero. OK, and next on the agenda.  So we have discussion and approval of the draft select board report to town meeting in and for that, we turn to Mr. Heim. Thank you, Mr. Chair. What's before you is a draft select report that reflects the votes and comments that you've already entered. We got into the practice of doing this, just as providing one final opportunity for the board to review its votes and comments before they get submitted to town meeting this year. It's a little bit more straightforward because we don't have any change in members of the board for any reason, which are all happy about. I do want to draw your attention to one vote that we received some feedback on and one vote and comment that wasn't finalized in previous versions. So if you'll turn your attention to Article 16, by law amendment to noise by law regarding gas powered leaf blowers after your vote and your approval of the vote in common, Deputy Council Cunningham and I received a little bit of feedback and input from the resident petitioners who were hoping that something could be clarified. Neither Mr. Cunningham or I thought Attorney Cunningham or I thought was a substantive change. If you if you allow it, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to give Mr. Cunningham an opportunity since he's here with us to explain what's highlighted in yellow. You'll basically see two very similar versions of the same paragraph under the changes to Section 3D daytime only proposed in the vote. And I'll let Attorney Cunningham explain what the sort of issue was as the resident petitioners saw it. We think it's consistent with your previous vote, but we want to make sure. Obviously, if you want to stay with the language that we had originally proved, that's fine. But it's something that they felt was clearer with some relatively modest modifications. So Mr. Chair, I can turn it over to Deputy Council Cunningham. That'd be terrific. Yes, please do. Mr. Cunningham. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, to his attorney, I'm outlined. We had a conversation with the group, the components of this article. And in particular, if you look at Section Article 16, number two, I put the proposed new text in yellow, which is directly below the original text that was last before this board. Essentially, the change amounts to a difference between for commercial users, they would be allowed to use the gas-powered leaf blowers during the transition phase from May 31st, as you can see there, instead of June 15th. And then there's also some clarification in the next paragraph on the following page that I think was just consistent with what the board approved previously, but it's a little bit more clear, I think. In my view, I think the changes regarding the dates for commercial users during the phase out period are not substantive changes and are consistent with the board's direction to this office regarding what you wanted to see. So but I would defer to any questions or concerns about those changes. I don't I don't think that they changed what you voted on the last time I was here talking about this issue, but I'll leave that to the board to decide. Thank you, Mr. Hanukka, let's sorry. Thank you, Mr. Cunningham. Anything else, Mr. Heim? Yes. So in addition to that, I just wanted to note that you'll see highlighted in your draft report the revolving funds. I just needed the updated numbers for the revolving funds. I will update those along with the board office. They're highlighted just to show what it looks like in the select board vote, but I haven't yet received the updated table. So as soon as I get the updated table, I will make sure that the figures for the balance ending in 2021 is reflected. And then finally, Article 77, you may recall, was the last part of a sort of trio of measures that the board approved with respect to Rodenticides in Arlington. I tried to take the proponents warrant articles and some of the materials they'd submitted to me previously and translate it into a resolution. It's fairly straightforward. It essentially urges the town to continue to develop its current work and to develop and implement an integrated pest management policy wherever possible for town owned properties as the board is aware.  This resolution is essentially encouraging all Arlington municipal landowners, the school department, the town manager, conservation, parks and rec to use integrated pest management and not to use second generation anti-colleging. Rodenticides, which to my understanding, we are not using or not using unless it's absolutely the last resort as of now anyway. So if the board would like to vote to approve what we've put in front of you, that would cover Article 77, depending on how the board feels about it. The changes that we talked about to Article 16 and you should just know that will include some of the appendix materials that are referenced and update those revolving front tables. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Heim. And so do you recommend that we vote once, meaning on the whole report or that we vote three times based on the changes that you've made? I would say once in the well, the board can make whatever motion wants, but but I would say that voting once is is is sufficient for our purposes. And obviously, if there's any other tweaks or changes that members of the board would like to see made to the report, that's part of why we provided it to you to make sure that it reflects accurately to all the votes and comments that we previously submitted. Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you. I just figured I'd help out, Mr. Mr. Heard, to whom I'm going to turn now for the motion and our comments. Mr. Heard. So just looking at this leaf below a language and I just again, I mean, I think we went through this last time and the language that's so now I'm reading this language that says during the transition period, May 31st to of twenty twenty two commercial users cannot use gas power leaf blowers during certain portions of the year. Is that what it's saying now? Because we've gone through this the last meeting and my understanding was until during the transition period, there's really no change in when they can use the gas power leaf blowers. Is that is that what the language is still saying? Mr. Chair, may I respond? Yes, please. Yeah, Mr. Mr. Heard, I believe there's a prohibition period with the restrictions that are outlined in Section A. So during the phase out, they would be permitted to use the gas power leaf blowers but subject to the restrictions that are listed in Section 2A. I think the big change that the proponents were asking us to make, which I don't think is a huge change, but it was regarding the the prohibition from May 31st to June 15th that that day change was the that's really the crux of what we changed there. So during the so say in twenty twenty two, once this gets enacted after June 15th, they cannot use the leaf blowers like in July, they can't use the leaf blowers. This is correct. So this is I mean, that's the part of the discussion that we had in the last meeting. And I was assured that that until twenty twenty five that there were no restrictions on the months. I just I mean, I have to change my vote on this one because I think that's too quick to as of June 15th. They have to figure out how to rework their businesses for the summer months. My understanding based on the discussion that we had at our last meeting was that during the phase out period that they could use the leaf blowers at any point. There weren't any blackout months. And I thought that's what was confirmed. And this seems to be pretty dramatically different than my understanding. So I mean, I'll listen to what my colleagues have to say. But I'm just saying that the language that I see here is pretty dramatically different than what I was understanding it from before. And maybe I was just misunderstanding. But that was the point of what I was trying to get out. And the last meeting when we discussed this was that I thought at the time was represented that there were no blackout months for the use of these. And that's what my original concern was that with the language that was originally proposed by the proponents. It was, you know, we're months away from landscapers having to to readjust how they do their work. And I mean, I just don't agree with it with the idea that they don't use them in the summer or they don't need them in the summer. They only use them during spring and fall cleanups. So this is I'm just saying this is pretty dramatically different from what I had understood this just at all last meeting. OK, thank you, Sir. Ms. Mohan. Excuse me. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You can hear me, right? Yes, thank you. Sorry, it doesn't say on my phone if I'm muted or not. I agree, Mr. Hart, it was my understanding at the last meeting. It was talking about transition and dates and commercial use. And it was 2023. Then it was agreed that it would run parallel to the Lexington proposal, which is 2025. And that is Mr. Hurd stated that that would give enough time for commercial landscapers or any commercial business that's using them time to transition. So if I could, through you, Mr. Chair, ask attorney Cunningham if we choose not to adopt the proposed language, which means that defaults back to what is before us in my correct that that's what the case would be. The date of 2023 gets changed to 2025 and commercial landscapers have until then. Mr. Cunningham. Hey, Mr. Chair, thank you, Ms. Mohan. I think that the original, my understanding of what the original discussion was from the proponents and what was before this board previously was that the dates of prohibition were designed to allow commercial users and residents, but commercial users on one last year to use gas powered leaf blowers during spring and fall cleanup. So that's what the May 31st stage versus June 15th. Originally, what I understood before the board with the board vote on originally was that they were going to prohibit the use of gas powered leaf blowers essentially during the summer season when commercial users and most people don't use them anyway. But that they would allow for during the transition phase for commercial users to use them up through June 15th was what we originally talked about. And then the proponents were the ones who reached out and asked to they thought they felt it was within the spirit with the board voted to move that back to May 31st. So commercial user, for instance, right now could continue to use a gas powered leaf blower up through May 31st to do their spring cleanup. And then again, after September 15th to conduct their fall cleanup. But if the board thinks that's if I didn't properly explain that I apologize last time or if that was unclear and that's my fault, we'll deal with that as the board sees fit. Thank you, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, please. I saw Mr. Heim's hand up, but I will. No, I'll go to Tony Heim. Thank you, Mr. Chair. No problem. Thank you, Mr. Heim. I just wanted to make clear that when we if you look at the there's two paragraph twos so you can see what the original language and amendment proposed to the board would look like the use of gas powered leaf blowers prohibited between June 15th and September 15th, except in accordance with the transition in phase out schedule as set forth below. And then the phase out schedule is set forth below, which basically talks about commercial and municipal users transition period, and it highlights that during the transition period from May 31st, 2022 through March 15th to 2025, gas powered leaf blowers may be operated by commercial landscape companies and the town during the following times. So that was what we originally proposed to you. The major thing that was sort of changed is there was a little bit more detail put in basically a single bullet point. So just so you can compare and contrast the revised language with the original proposed amendment. So I just want to be clear that those two things are there for you to compare if it's useful. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Heim. Is it behind? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess with that understanding, I would my preference would be to not adopt the amendment by the proponents, which further limits the time out timeline posed in the bylaw. From June back to May, I'd like to stick with the original language and I'd be interested to hear from all my colleagues, including Mr. Heard, and I'd like to just state on the record, what I'm hearing is that commercial landscapers have until 2025 to ultimately be in conformance with the bylaw, but that the original language, and I'm just doing this from memory because I tried to print and I couldn't. Basically, the difference between the language and time of hours is that for homeowner residents, there are some Sunday hours and we are a little more gracious with residents by perhaps about two hours versus commercial landscapers. So I guess where I am right now is I'd like to stick with the original language with the understanding that the landscapers have until 2025 for the pental permit date for the transition. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. behind. So Mr. Helmuth. Yeah, thank you. Mr. Chair, through you, I'd like to ask if any of my colleagues, either of our legal counsel, are aware of the Lexington bylaw, which was not only passed, but affirmed by by the public and referendum. Did it also contain an immediate prohibition of gas-powered leaf blowers during the summer months outside of the cleanup season? So, well, one of our attorneys raised their hands for this one of Mr. Honeyham. Thank you. Sorry, Mr. Chair, I couldn't unmute myself. I don't have it in front of me, Mr. Helmuth, but I believe it did. I think this is substantially similar to the language contained in the Lexington bylaw that was passed last fall and approved by their voters this spring. Thank you. Yeah, that's my recollection as well. And I thought that was my understanding of what we were doing. I think the ambiguity is just in stating the prohibition and then saying that there are exceptions. And I think maybe there's just some understandable confusion. It's good that we're having this discussion now, obviously, so that we know our own minds that there is a phase-out period in the transition period. But the transition period is really, if I'm understanding this correctly, from being able to use gaspider leaf blowers, but only outside the cleanup time, which I think the intent of that was when they're really most needed and used. And that they would need to use, if they used blowers at all in the summer months, that they would need to use electric ones. Is that kind of currently, whether or not we go with the amended language, the amended date, I should say? That's kind of what was originally before us in the last couple versions of this we saw for the last version. That's only just one version. Excuse me, was that a question? Yeah, yeah, I guess it's just kind of confirming my understanding that that's correct, that the change in the date being proposed now and the highlight doesn't really change the substance of this. Mr. Cunningham, they asked us a better way.  The other highlight that we have on the date change, is that adding a prohibition of gaspider leaf blowers during the summer months? Or was that already there? And what's the question? Is the date? So I think that was addressed to Mr. Cunningham. Mr. Chairman? Yes. Yes, that's correct, Mr. Helmut. That essentially sets back the clock two weeks, which I think the original language that the board saw did prohibit the use of gaspower leaf blowers during the summer months, but just had the summer starting on June 15th, instead of May 31st. Okay, you think that's helpful. That was much better than I tried to formulate it earlier on. Yeah, so I think that was my understanding as well. I think we may need to have a discussion about whether all of us are still there or not. I'm still, I think, basically comfortable with that, just because in the summer months the need for these devices is not as severe. And I think also my interest in this was making this as parallel with what is going to, what will be in effect in Lexington imminently upon AG review, because I think that has an industry-wide effect, many, not all, but there's certainly overlap in the contractors. And also know that the town of Arlington itself is requiring use of electric equipment anyway. So I guess I'm somewhat less concerned because of all that, but certainly respectful of my colleagues for the views. And Mr. Chair, I think right now we're discussing leaf blowers. I just wanted to, if we're going to do this kind of all in one vote, and that may change, I had one small addition to another article. I just want to kind of bookmark. I can either do that one now or we'll kind of hold off if we want to kind of keep talking about this one. Yeah. So if we could hold off, Mr. you know, I'd appreciate that. And I saw Mr. Himes and go out and do it. Do you still want to say something, Mr. Himes? Yes, please. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to clarify. And again, I think that this is a healthy thing, obviously the way that we had envisioned the vote created some competing interpretations of it. So that's part of I think why the proponents wanted us to come back with a different language. And I think it's part of why members of the board are expressing some concern about what was voted on. But I do want to make it clear and we don't, Arlington certainly doesn't have to do what Lexington does at all. But what Lexington did has already been approved by the Attorney General's office. And it essentially restricts use of gas power leaf blowers from March 15th to May 31st. And again, from September 15th to December 30th. And that is effective May 31st, 2022. So that is the Lexington, I think, I think where there's a little bit of disconnect is that there may be some disconnect on whether or not Arlington was following the Lexington model or not. So obviously this is up to the board. And I apologize for having it be a little bit ambiguous as to what was being captured by the first vote in common. Thank you. Mr. Chair, may I? Yes. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Attorney, that's very helpful. I think, did you mean to say for Lexington, and I realized that you were town council for Arlington and not Lexington? So that their prohibition starts in March or in May for the front of that season. Their prohibition starts, goes from March 15th to May 31st and September 15th to December 30th, is my understanding. And it's effective May 31st, which is a rule. Okay, I see. So it means that this summer it would not apply. It would also be true for any action. Arlington has to take because obviously the Attorney General's office won't render a decision until September. So the summer prohibition were to stand in a town meeting were to approve that. It couldn't apply this summer anyway. So there would be at least be a year if for a company that wanted to use this during the summer period, they would have at least a year to provide for that equipment. Correct. Because of the cycle. I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, may I? Yes, just please. Correct. It would not apply until it was approved by the Attorney General's office. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's all my comments and questions on this article. So if we can have a chance to return to the other instead, it would be great. Sure. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Helmuth. So back to you, Mr. Heard. I mean, I guess I'll apologize for just not understanding the language. I thought my question was clear at the last meeting, but apparently I wasn't. And my question was is that it was to confirm that there was no blackout months until the 2025. And I must not have asked it correctly because we got an affirmative answer at that time. So it is what it is. We already voted on it. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel over it. I think having this, regardless of the Attorney General's timeframe, I think if Tom Meading passes this, it's going to be a nightmare for the Arlington Police Department who are going to get a lot of calls over the summer because which residents really know when the Attorney General approves a bylaw amendment. I think a lot of residents are going to be calling on contractors because they know that it was passed at Tom Meading. So it's my fault for not understanding. I'll take the heat for that and move on, I guess. I just mean just for the sake of thoroughness, I want to circle back to Mrs. Mohan. You haven't raised your hand. Do you want to add any more? No, thank you, Mr. Jed. Just that I think ultimately when we get to Tom Meading, I'm guessing there's going to be a few substitute motions that speak to different possibilities. So I agree with Mr. Herb's comments, but I also agree with my colleagues' sentiments to get this before Tom Meading and have the very active and lively discussion and debate that we'll have and see what we end up with in the end. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mrs. Mohan. So in continuing our discussion about the draft final report, Mr. Herb, I'm sorry. I got off to a bad start in the last meeting. I think this might persist. I consider that an honor and an upgrade personally, referred to as Mr. Herb, one of our more thoughtful and collegial members. I just want to say on the last item, I think the confusion is just baked right in. It's not our attorney's fault at all. I think that the complicated way of approaching this engenders that confusion. I agree with Mrs. Mohan. Ultimately, this is for Tom Meading to sort out and I'm also comfortable. I mean, I want my colleagues to feel like they know what they're running on and everything, but I think if we have consensus to get this done and let Tom Meading sort it out, and I agree that there's probably going to be some suggestions for some changes and tweaks to this, let the action be there. These are really small things, but on the resolution for the IPM strategy and thank you very much to our attorneys for writing that up and all the other work. They had a lot of writing to do this year, much more than usual and they did a fine job. Because IPM integrated pest management is not really the same as organic pest control or farming, which is something I know more of myself, I might suggest striking the word organic and I might further suggest striking the word natural, simply because it doesn't have any legal meaning as far as I'm concerned in agriculture and in these practices and that because IPM has a defined meaning by standards in industry, I think that might stand on its own, just fine to just go with that. The other thing and that's just a suggestion is back on article 19 on the proposal for Maliazzi Boulevard and I cleared this with Mr. Herd privately. I'd like to request the addition of the minority viewpoint on the boat just as follows after the majority's position is explained saying the minority believes that the novel nature of this proposal warrants a variance from past practice. So I'd like to suggest that if my colleagues are comfortable with that. So then I will see what was the rotation here. I'll go to Mr. Herd, you know, see how you feel about Mr. Helmets. Well, he consulted. I guess you're fine with it. I'm all good with everything Mr. Helmets said. Okay. All right. Ms. Mohan. I must have bad reception. I have to keep getting 650 times. I guess I'll agree with both my colleagues, Herd, I mean Helmets, and fine with that. And I guess on article 16, the leaf blower for an article, my, if I made a motion, well, I'd like to make a motion and then have my colleagues discuss it. Excuse me. Move approval subject to the amendments by our council, Mr. Helmets. Probably Mr. Helmets now making him an attorney. There we go. As well as an article 16, just because it seems like every time you change it, there's more confusion. I'd like to stick with the original language that we discussed. Again, recognize and it'll probably get changed to town meeting. So I'd like to move approval of the 2022 select board report to town meeting as amended by attorney Heim and Cunningham with the exception of article 16. I'm not adopting that language right now, to keep it the way it was that we discussed last week. As well as the amendment by Mr. Helmets, and or I would be over to if our chair or anyone else has some changes, but I'd like to put that motion on the table. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Mohan. Second. Thank you, Mr. Herd. Any comments, Mr. Helmets? Sounds good to me. Thank you very much. Yes, well, you know, the great part about this one is that my colleagues have pretty much set everything. And so I've taken it all in. I really have nothing to add to the discussion. I see where everyone is coming from, with the discussion on the leaf brawlers and with the recommended amendment to the resolution regarding striking organic, meaning natural. I'm blanking out on the last one. Mr. Helmets, what was that? That was adding the minority point of view on the article 19. Yeah, definitely, definitely. We definitely favor that. So with the motion by Mrs. Mohan, and the second by Mr. Herd. Mr. Heim, can you take the roll call? Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to members of the board for your patience and understanding as we try to cultivate these votes together. Mr. Herd. Yes. Mr. Helmets. Yes. This is Mohan. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Dickens. Yes. It's a four zero. Thank you. Thank you. And now we'll move on to the next item on the agenda. Item number five, which is the discussion in pension vote authorization of virtual town meeting. We will hear from town moderator, Mr. Cristiana. Hi, Mr. Chair and select board. Thanks for having me here tonight. Greg Cristiana, town moderator. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak with the select board tonight and my capacity as town moderator. I'd like to summarize how I arrived at my decision to request a remote meeting. I'm then happy to take any questions that you might have. Last week I consulted with the town manager, town council and the director of health and human services and others about our options for how to convene town meeting this year. Some options that we discussed included town hall, other large indoor venues like one of the gyms at the Arlington High School, the Arlington High School football field, and remote participation using the virtual town meeting platform that we've used twice during the pandemic. Town council can speak to the legal criterion for me as moderator to make a request to the select board for town meeting to be held remotely, but to summarize, I would have to determine that it's not possible to safely assemble in person for town meeting. And that's my determination based on the conversations that I had last week based on increasing COVID cases locally and leading indicators that are trending in the wrong direction, lack of indoor spaces large enough to allow sufficient distancing and poor ventilation at town hall, which is difficult to remedy. I've asked Ms. Bonjorno, the director of health and human services to attend tonight to weigh in on the input that she gave me in our meetings last week so that you can hear her insights unfiltered. I ask that you approve my request so that we can continue planning for virtual town meeting to provide a safe venue for all participants in this very fluid and unpredictable situation. I'm happy to take any questions that you might have. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Moderator. So are you saying that you would like for us to hear from Ms. Bonjorno now or just if we have questions? That's up to you. Okay. Well, I would say if we have questions and then we will bring her in. If she wants to speak, maybe she can signal that in the chat and the town manager can let us know if that's the case. We'll be happy to bring her in. So I will start with Ms. Mohan. Excuse me. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I could, I would like to ask the health and human services director to provide an explanation of what she also explained to our town moderator and that am I correct that while we considered alternate sites such as the gymnasiums at the high school, that's really not available to us for the special and regular town meeting. And then my second question would be through the chair, either through the chair, through the chair, either to the town moderator and or town council, just because I've gotten some questions on it. There has been discussion that did the board vote with the moderator, which I am going to do for the 2022 regular and special town meeting if there is one to be conducted remotely. There has been discussion that the first night of town meeting, that town meeting members would need to take a vote whether to support with that, agree with that. And if they choose not to, then how do we proceed from there? So I'd like to hear from Ms. Van Journal. I'd like everybody else to ruminate on my question. A, is that something that town meeting members will take up as the first order of business? If so, if there is a vote not to do this remotely, how we proceed from there, is there a default that even if there is a vote to come back to town hall since it's not safe to do that, does that mean the default is we still have to be remote anyway? So I guess maybe if it's okay with you, Mr. Chair, to hear from Ms. Van Journal and then whomever you want to direct that second part of question to, and I apologize if it's confusing, so because I'm a little confused and I'd like to get clarity. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Ms. Van Journal. Sure, thank you. So I met with the new town moderator, the town manager and town council last week to inform them that the cases that we're seeing here in town, both the documented cases that we're seeing, the lab reported cases through the state as well as the sewage data that we review daily shows that there's an increase in cases in this region. So we are seeing an increase in COVID. So I think that's the information I did provide to the town moderator to help inform his decision on whether or not to move forward with the in-person versus remote town meeting. So that's really all I wanted to, I don't know if Adam wanted to expand on that. So Mr. Manager, Mr. Chapterley, does your hand go up? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to be responsive to the other part of Ms. Mahan's question about the red gym and we did inquire about both the gym and what would be the new auditorium. The new auditorium's audio visual equipment won't be ready in time for town meeting and the red gym unfortunately has a series of volleyball games that conflicted with town meeting dates. The athletic director and the superintendent were willing to think about rescheduling one game or two, but rescheduling a whole series of games was too far a bridge to cross to be able to access the red gym. Thank you, Mr. Manager. So Mr. Heim, did you want to refer to the question regarding what happens in if town meeting members do not want to vote not to do a BTM? Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a good question, an important question. So if the board were to agree with the moderator that town meeting should be conducted virtually or remotely, the first order of business that would happen. And by the way, there are other procedure requirements. The board would issue a notice, there are certain things the town clerk would do. We have to make sure that it's people within members of the public who are not town meeting members who want to watch town meeting. They send a note to the moderator 48 hours before town meeting begins. We have to be able to make sure we give them access to follow along. We always make sure that it's broadcast on ACMI, all that kind of stuff. But the first order of business at the town meeting will be to take a vote of those members present about whether or not they will essentially agree to conduct town meeting virtually if they do agree that the meeting proceeds. They don't agree there are really two options. One option is to reconvene town meeting in a physical location, which is to say that because the warrant was initially noticed and we did this with intent to make sure that town meeting had maximum flexibility, because the warrant does provide a location, and the town meeting could vote to essentially begin its deliberations at town hall despite the risks that have been stated by the moderator and presumably the select board if we're getting to this point. The other option is essentially to dissolve town meeting and to post town meeting at a new location. The most likely scenario in that event, if it doesn't seem safe to proceed with town meeting, would be a version of town meeting that's somewhat similar to what we did in 2020, which is essentially a town meeting that's highly compact and condensed on the football field and takes care of the essential business that needs to be concluded before June 30. So those are the two options. One would be to sort of forge ahead despite the assessment of risk being apprised to town meeting members. And the other option would essentially be to dissolve the town meeting and re-notice it for some location like the football field for what would probably have to be a highly truncated version of town meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Heim. So, Mr. Heim, are you satisfied? Yes, I am. And I'd like to make a motion to move approval of the request of town moderator to conduct the regular and special 2022 town meeting through VTM virtually. Thank you, Mr. Mohan. Mr. Heim? Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Oh, boy, here. No, it's my turn. Perhaps that was deserved, if unintentional. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Congratulations, Mr. Moderator, on your election. And welcome to the big chair. This is where it gets real. I'd like to second the motion from a colleague, Mrs. Mohan. This is a hard decision. I don't think it's a decision anyone takes any pleasure in making. I like town meeting in person a lot. And I think that the reason I support this is just from the information that our Health and Human Services Chair just provided. And then that is in the moderator that the trends are going up. And, you know, I think that just you don't have to be a scientist to just notice and observe that when the wastewater data, when the seven-day weighted average of positivity rises and the case reports rise and all those things are happening right now, that those have preceded surges. And we know from other parts of the world and other parts, you know, cities, Philadelphia, just reinstated its mask main date that it seems to me, it's a guessing game. None of us know for sure what will happen, including the experts, but that it seems likely that in two or three weeks, it's going to be more clear that this was a good call. You know, we don't know. We could find in two or three weeks that things are about the same. And then, you know, I think our problem is that we have to make a decision now because there's preparations to make it. It's going to be tight as it is, so we don't have the luxury of waiting to find out. And my concern is participation. I think even though we're very fortunate that we have more treatments for COVID and that many infections are not serious, that people still have to quarantine. So if we have, you know, a number of town meeting members, even a modest number who can't attend in person because they're quarantined, even if they're not in any serious danger, I have concerns about that just from a democratic participation point of view. When we have the option, when the state legislature has provided us the option to meet remotely while we can. So, you know, I wouldn't say my agreement is reluctant, I think only with regard to the circumstances. I want to make it clear that I don't love this idea. I'm not sure anybody on the screen does. So that's just kind of my thinking and, you know, I just urge all of the town meeting members will absolutely have the voice. There's a legal reason why they need to make this decision. But whatever the decision they do, you know, I hope that we can unite around our moderator and each other and, you know, get through this hopefully for the last time as best we can and get it back to a more even keel if the pandemic receives once again. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Ms. Helmets. Mr. Heim, I'm sorry, Angela. I don't want to interrupt members of the board first. I just wanted to note that if the board was warm to it, there was a second piece that I was hoping I could recommend respectfully that we add on to the motion regarding a notice to be issued by the board. Okay. All right. I understand. So it seems kind of, what seems like it's just a detail that doesn't really affect me, the tenor of the conversation. So we'll come back to that. So Mr. Heard. Well, so I won't talk too long, I guess, because I can see where the board's voting, but I mean, I'm just, I'm hard on voting to approve the remote town meeting. I think the past couple of years it's just been a nightmare. I think a lot of people have left town meeting because of the experience they've had. I think it takes longer. And I mean, I'm never going to be the one that tells someone not to, if they are, have a fear of the virus, not to tell them that they're wrong or kind of push them in somewhere that they're not comfortable with. But I think we're two years into this. I think, you know, at the beginning we always said follow the science. And when we see an uptake, unless I'm misreading these figures that I'm getting online, the uptake is about just under 2% of positivity rate to now. It's 3% of positivity rates or 3% of people tested and tested positive. There's 240 hospitalizations, which right now, which I calculated to be .00036 of the population.  I've been to Bruins games. I've been to high school hockey games. The kids, there was similar arguments when we're taking the mass off the kids and I haven't seen any. As far as I know from my kids school and people that I know that there hasn't been any outbreaks. For me, I would just much prefer the human interaction of being in person with somebody. And I think we can figure out a way to make people comfortable. People can, they can be areas of town meeting where people are comfortable that they can sit closer to each other than the seats for people that have more fear or more hesitation about being in a public place near each other. People can wear a mask if they want to. So I mean, for me, I just, the idea of enduring another full town meeting through the virtual platform is just too overwhelming for me to vote to support it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Heard. So, Mr. Heim, I think now it's time to entertain that detail modification amendment to the motion. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Diggins. It's not an amendment. It's as much as a, if the board is inclined to move towards authorizing remote, meaning that the board would also approve that its office in consultation with the legal department would issue a notice regarding the change of venue from in person to a virtual town meeting consistent with Chapter 22, the acts of 2022. Thank you. All right. Thank you. So it doesn't affect the motion. So this is just a point of knowledge, a point of information. I'm just asking that the board, if the board approves, then it also authorize and direct your office to send a notice to all town meeting members that basically it's attested to by the clerk and includes the moderator's letter. Thank you, sir. Gotcha. I understand. Thank you. Thanks for the repetition of it. Well, I guess since Mr. Helm has said everyone here would prefer in person, I feel that I need to come out and say, not me. So if I let that sit, then people go, yeah, when we also wanted it to be in person because that's preference. I can make arguments for what I think BTM is better. One of them is the fact that we have more attendance regardless of how people feel about it, at least they're there and they're voting 20% more. And I hesitate to talk about the science, but it's not really clear that we are getting good numbers on the infection rate. And so I'm a little hesitant to say that things aren't worse than they looked from the numbers. But as Mr. Helm has said though, if people test positive, then they're out. They're not going to be allowed in the meeting. And if the meeting is only in person, then they're out of town meeting. And given that we do have an alternative meeting that will allow them to participate fully in the process, that'll be the reason that I'll vote for it in regards to how I feel personally about town meeting. Because I will defer me to the way the majority wants to meet as I will on this board to meet up. And so I'm not going to dictate me and how we meet. It's really going to be a matter of how most of us want to meet. But if there's a safety issue involved, as I said repeatedly, I'm going to be conservative about that. So that's it for me. And I see Mr. Chritianna's hand back up. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to add that there are plenty of reasons for preferring in person, plenty of reasons for preferring remote, for convenience, like you mentioned. I just wanted to be clear that my decision was based on satisfying the legal criteria and answering that question as far as being able to safely assemble. But there's plenty of other reasons to prefer one format versus the other. But that did not really factor into my decision here. Thank you for making that clear. I appreciate that. Mr. Helmeth? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to offer my apology for my rhetorical excess. It is dangerous to say nobody in this room sees this differently because of course people do. And I should have realized that and I did not mean to try to box you in, Mr. Chair. I respect your points of view and your preferences. And in fact, something I want to say is I was an early aider and a better to virtual town meeting, as most of you know, and I think the platform does work. And I think it is democratic. And I like the participation that we've seen. It is long and it's hard. Somehow it's long and hard to sit in your own chair than it is the same amount of time at town meeting, it just is. Some of us like the social connection. But it's not bad. And I think that we've seen that being town meeting members, even those for whom the technology is not native and comfortable, have been able to participate and have a full voice. So I want the residents in town to understand, I don't think this is the second best thing. I mean, it's not my personal preference. And I think I hear that from some of my colleagues that it's more enjoyable and a better experience for some people, for many people in person. I think that the virtual town meeting environment as it's set up, we're better at it now, we're practiced at it. And I have confidence having started working kind of in a preliminary fashion with our moderator and understanding the system that he will guide us and lead us in a way to have a good experience. And it won't be as happy as experiences for many people, including some of my colleagues. But I think that we can get it done. And I just wanted to add those thoughts and my appreciation to all of you for a good discussion. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Helmets.  Sorry, just very briefly, I just wanted to point out to Mr. Helmets point that in discussions about planning for this year's time meeting, because obviously we've had to get started with the planning for virtual already, because there wouldn't be time to wait for the decision side by the select board. So we speculate they have been moving forward with planning. And I've been looking to make changes to some of how we're conducting a virtual time meeting to give a better feel than we might have gotten in past years, based on kind of the experience that we've had with the last two virtual town meetings. For instance, being able to have participants who are able to show their videos if they choose to opt into that so we could actually see people as their participants, like time meeting members, as they're speaking, as opposed to just like the, you know, a static image of them. So hopefully those sorts of effort will help also optimizations in kind of transitions between speakers and how things like the Consent Agenda are handled. So it has been pretty bumpy the last two times because we're doing it new. And so we have a lot of material to learn from. And I've been spending a lot of time studying how things have gone, kind of doing like my own sort of postmortem on the last two virtual time meetings to try to learn from those so we can kind of smooth out a lot of rough edges, which hopefully helped out with the experience. I hope that's effective. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Christiana. Mr. Hyde. I'm sorry to keep interrupting the board's discourse. Mr. Chair, I just wanted to note just for the public's edification, it's in the moderator's letter. The proposal is to have the town meeting on a combination of the ZeePato platform. It's the same platform that we used last year alongside essentially the Zoom software. So it would be identical to the way that previous, I shouldn't say identical, should be very similar to the way that previous virtual town meetings were conducted. And it's just important to make that known for folks. It's in the moderator's letter. It'll be as part of the notice as well. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hyde. And so I'm not seeing any desire for any more discussion on emotion means to authorize a virtual town meeting made by Mrs. Mohan and seconded by Mr. Helmuth and Mr. Hyde. Can you take a vote? Take the roll call. Mr. Hurd. Mr. Helmuth. Yes. Mrs. Mohan. Yeah. Mr. Diggins. Yes. It's a 3-1 vote. Mr. DeCorsi was non-president. Thank you, Mr. Hyde. And once again, the psych board office will do as you suggested or are you directed being a few minutes ago. So thank you, Mr. Christiana. And I think at this point we'll move on to the next item on the agenda, which is discussion of a potential date for virtual town date. No, just out date. So Mr. Hurd. Yep, let me pull it up. I mean, this is really one of only two days that it can be. It's whatever the board prefers, but it is sort in September. It'll be Saturday. I'm sure I'm in the right spot here. All right. So again, it would either be the 17th or the 24th. My preference is the 17th just because it's the third Saturday in September, which I think is generally when we schedule town date. So I put that to the board to have town day on September 17, 2022. Hopefully this should be an easier discussion. I think so. So then you put that to the board as a motion? Um, I guess, yeah, I'll move that we have our town day, annual town day on September 17, 2022. All right. And Ms. Mahan. Can someone, these are the chair, Mr. Hurd, or someone else, just remind me when Rasha Shana and Yam Kapoor is? Well, Ms. Mahan, I don't know the dates, you know, exactly, but I do know that that those dates mean both dates are completely clear of that period because when we were having early discussions about this, I looked to see if there would be any conflict with either those dates or the range between those days. And there was no conflict between the 17th and the 24th. But I think in this time period, Mr. Chaffin Lane has gotten the answer. So thank you, Mr. Chairman. Rasha Shana begins on Monday, September 26. And I'm not seeing, and Yam Kapoor begins on Wednesday, October 5. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll second Mr. Hurd's motion. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mahan. Mr. Talbot. Thank you to Mr. Hurd for seizing the initiative and for your work. And happy to support this. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. And yeah, Mr. Hurd. And I was just going to say another reason to not do the 24th is I don't want to take the thunder away from your birthday, Mr. Helmuth. It's very kind of you, Mr. Hurd. Well, what would be better than having talent day on your birthday? I can think of some things that would be better than that. Oh, man. I mean, well, not this talent day. I mean, this talent day is going to be something else. So you want to see it. We don't know what that something else is going to be, but it's going to be worth seeing. So yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It is going to be something else. Even Mr. Hurd and I will figure it out. And yeah, let's see what world we're in being come the end of September. Man, I mean, things just have a way of changing almost like every 30 days here in a different world. So so so I am yeah, I'll be happy to support this. I mean, so on a motion to have Town Day on September 17 by Mr. Hurd and seconded by Mr. Han, Mr. Han. Mr. Hurd. Yes, Mr. Helmuth. Yes, Mrs. Mohan. Yes, thank you. Mr. DeCorsi. I mean, Jesus, Mr. Diggins. Sorry. No problem. So now I'm not I'm wiser. Yes, definitely. Pages. So so I think we're we're moving on to item number seven, correspondence received. And that would be petition, the petition signatures in support of the Mass Ave Vision Zero campaign in Arlington. It was a letter submitted by Phil Goff, Mr. Goff and Mr. Gibson, co-chairs of everywhere Arlington, liberal streets coalition. And so I will recommend that that be taken up by the town manager. And I would like to work with him in consulting with the petitioners. And anyone else that is interested in the issue, the issues are raised. Hoover, refer this to the town manager. Second that. Thank you. And so I don't need to take a vote on this, right? I do. Okay, thank you. So so so I was moved by by Mr. Hurd and seconded by Mr. Helmuth. Mr. Han. Mr. Hurd. Yes, Mr. Helmuth. Yes. Mr. Han. Yeah, Mr. Diggins. Yes. Thank you. So I think this is going to be it for the meeting because I didn't put new business on the agenda. Can we can we do that anyways, Mr. Mr. Han? Yes, as long as there's not a deliberation taking place. All right. So so great. So then let's start with Mr. Helmuth. Thank you, Mr. Chair. No new business. Mr. Hurd. No new business. This is behind. Yes, very briefly. And it'll save myself a call to the manager. Could I through you, Mr. Chair, or make the request to you to oversee if the town manager, I think at the last meeting or the meeting before that under new business. So briefly about Congresswoman Clark's visit to I guess to Arlington, as well as the designation of some federal opera funds. And I believe he stated that the town of Arlington would sort of be the overseer auditor of those funds. So my request would be if the board could be provided with a couple of paragraphs of exactly all the information we need to know because I do see that one of our colleagues in Lexington has submitted a request on behalf of I believe it might, but it might not apply to the money that the Congresswoman has gotten for federal opera funding for their lease flowing. That may be something separate. So I'd like an explanation so that we all know what these funds are. I just want to register that I think it was a major oversight. I had spoken with the Congresswoman's office that I did let them know the board was not aware that Congresswoman Clark was coming to Arlington. So it wasn't a collect board sort of snub. And I'd like to make sure that that doesn't happen in the future. And I'll leave it at that. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Ms. Mahan. So potential new business is that we, I know that the previous chair had brought up that we might look at some articles made that the development board wanted us to chime in on me. And so that wasn't on today's agenda, but I am considering putting that on the agenda for for the 20th. And then we will make it won't be in our report me, but we will somehow communicate in what we determine, you know, at that meeting to tell meeting. So that's at this point I see Mr. Heim not in his head approving approving. So, okay, you know, so yeah, Mr. Mr. Helmets. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm at the chair discretion. Oftentimes when new business we invite the Tom Adger if he hasn't has any new business to offer. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Helmets. No, I don't have any new business tonight, but thank you very much. I appreciate that. Thank you. And so I think we're ready for a motion to adjourn. Thank you, Mr. Herd, second. Mr. Helmets. Thank you, Mr. Helmets. So Mr. Heim. Mr. Herd. Yes. Mr. Helmets. Yes. This is Von. Yeah. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Adams. Good night. Thanks, everybody. Thank you.


Some of our fellows are a little bit late, but before I begin, any questions on the procedures? This is very important, ladies and gentlemen. Let me emphasize once again what's important here. All of these procedures should exist at the same time. If one is impaired, we do not call that system modern political democracy. All right? So all of these are sine qua nonnes, olmazsa olmaz. Sine qua nonnes of a modern political system or modern political democracy. Yes, I have a question over there. The first two, the first two are... Democracy, okay. So you find competition to be so central to all of those, all of the others. So these are more like infrastructural in that respect, and the rest are dominated by the procedure of competition. So of course competition is so central to this kind of a system. But you're right in emphasizing the importance of competition. Competition is so crucial, is so key in the system, without which none of it is meaningful. But don't forget, cooperation is also very important. You should be able to cooperate, to be able to compete. Right? Democracy is not a one-man show. Democracy is about groups, collectivities, voicing interests, articulating needs of one group or in one group against other groups in society. And conflict is a structural component of human life. As long as conflict exists, and it will always exist, because we're all human beings, competition is very important, but so is cooperation. Just imagine a world in which everyone would love one single color and that would be red. All of us would love and want red everywhere, but that doesn't exist, does it? Yes, please. So we said that cooperation is also important. See the reality in the term you get. When the majority is aware of its power of itself, I'd like to cooperate or... It doesn't like you to be there. Absolutely, so when a majority is self-perpetuating, it will not want to compete. That's so true, right?  Who wants to compete against one another? No one would. In order to seize power, in order to maintain wealth, of course you wouldn't want to compete. Be it an individual, be it a household, be it a firm, be it a voter, be it a ruler. Of course no one would like to compete.  If there's one intention or inclination in human nature, you want to shut off competition.  They wouldn't want to compete. They would want to shut off competition, but that's exactly why all of these should exist, according to Shemitra and Carl and others who emphasize the rules of the game, who emphasize that there should be procedures, component procedures of a modern political democracy. But you're right in emphasizing that in human nature we don't like competition, especially if and when we seize power, we seize adequate wealth. We won't want to compete. We want to monopolize. We want to cartilize. We like oligopolies. We like duopolies. We want to concentrate wealth, concentrate power in the hands of the few, if and when we're powerful. If and when we want to react, oppose, undermine, then we want to compete. Yes, please. That's a good point. So if people are satisfied with what they have, is that what you're asking? Did I get it right? If there's more competition or if everything is there for people, that won't be in kind of state or just in machines and stuff. So it's like democracy actually is a chaotic way of competition. Competition? Absolutely. So if every one of us would be satisfied with what we have, why compete? Why would we be competing? If everyone is happy, if everyone is content, if everyone is satisfied, then we wouldn't need to compete. But we know that for fact the empirical world is much more conflictual. Reality is much more different. Therefore, we can compete against one another because of the structural conflict or structural conflicts. We have different identities. We have different interests. We have different tastes for that matter. We have different needs. We have different voices. So all of these mean that there is conflict built into the structure of a political system. And that means we will compete against one another. So competition is key, but competition is regulated. There are rules and regulations regulating competition. And there should always be cooperation. You should always be able to cooperate to be able to compete. And the rules of the game have to be fair and honest, honestly coded. And it would be clear to everyone. Everyone should know the rules of the game in this political system. Okay. Schmitter and Karl based their approach on a very influential political scientist who wrote a very influential book titled, Polyarchy. Does anyone remember who the author is of Polyarchy? Robert Dahl, 1971. Dahl says about 20 years ago, 20 years before Schmitter and Karl wrote this seminal article, someone says there are procedurally minimal conditions, preconditions for a democracy to exist and also to endure. There should be control over policy by elected officials. So control should be constitutionally vested in the elected officials. There should be naturally free and fair elections. Condition number three, all adults should have the right to vote. Condition number four, all adults should have the right to be able to run for office. Condition number five, there should be freedom of election insured in the system. Citizens should have rights to express themselves freely and collectively, which has something to do with condition number seven. Citizens should have the right to form associations. And going back to condition number five and voice their interests, express their needs. Condition number six, there should be alternative sources of information available in the system. The role of media here, the role of media independent of the state. Citizens should have the right to seek alternative sources of information. These alternative sources of information should exist and should be protected by law. So all of these procedures, all of these minimal conditions should exist. And Schmitter and Karl add two more to these. They argue that elected officials should be able to exercise power without being subjected to appointed or unelected officials such as military bureaucracies or such as bureaucracies or civil servants, retarding, blocking, vetoing what the elected officials wish to carry out. And finally, the polity, the state structure should be autonomous. It should be in that respect self-governing. It should not be a satellite state, that is. It should not be under a predominant system, a political system of influence. A democracy can exist unless it is free of a hegemonic block, unless it doesn't come under the influence of hegemonic alliances or unless it is independent of spheres of influence. So in that respect, polities must be autonomous, independent. And for example, the polity must be autonomous, independent so that there should also be no mechanisms of neocolonialism, let alone classic forms of colonialism, but also neocolonial pressures should not be prevalent in a country for that country to be characterized by a modern political system of democracy. So all of these, in fact, are subsumed under the seven procedures that Schmitzer and Karl describe. From here, let me continue with different other forms of democracy which we sometimes call democracy or authoritarianism. We'll talk about varieties and versions of authoritarianism in political science 304. But let me briefly talk to you about or signal to you what we mean by qualified forms of democracy, not modern political democracy, but qualified forms of democracy. But before that, I have a question here, please. In the system, yes? You mean is there an absolute freedom, a perfect freedom of expression? Of course, human beings are constrained by habit, tradition, custom, norms, culture, right? Identities? Can there ever be fully free expression? In that respect, my answer is just like yours. There isn't. But as long as you can express your needs, your voice, as long as there are channels of representing those that we call a democracy, and those channels are constitutionally protected. And not only constitutionally protected, but also socially sanctioned. As long as they exist, they're predictable, they're knowable, we all know that those channels exist, those instruments exist, as long as this is the case and all others are existing, then we call this modern political democracy. But you're absolutely right. There cannot be a full freedom, 100% freedom of expression. Of course, we're tied up by norms, by culture, by identity, by era, by our own identities, by group think, by all other kinds of norms and habits and traditions and customs. Very good point. And also ideologies for that matter, please. By unelected officials, that's okay, that's a good question. By unelected officials, they mean, well, we all mean appointed officials. Of course, elected officials exercise powers being subjected to interest associations, social movements, civil society organizations, and their expressions of interest, voice, need. But Schmitter and Karl are talking about unelected officials. In that respect, they talk about appointees, political appointees. For example, military bureaucrats or state bureaucrats who want to, for example, veto or retard or slow down a reform process. They say a legislation has been passed in a parliament. It is now time for the street level bureaucrats to implement it. But those bureaucrats may come together and decide not to implement it. Or they say, we're not implementing it today. We'll see whether we implement it tomorrow. And tomorrow comes, they may say, we're not implementing it today. Excuse me. So what they warn against is the existence of unelected officials, i.e. appointed officials, i.e. bureaucrats in that respect. And they should not be able to exercise powers beyond, above and beyond, those who are elected in the first place. All right, is that clear? Very good. Any other questions, ladies and gentlemen? Very nice. Okay. Then comes different types of, well, whether it's tricky to call these systems democracy. O'Donnell, Guillermo O'Donnell called or coined the term illiberal democracy. We know that the liberal democracy is all about political participation and civil rights. Illiberal democracy is or exists when a formal establishment of democratic electoral process exists. Okay? So elections exist. But there are shortcomings in terms of constitutional liberties and freedoms. And there are limits on arbitrary exercise of executive power. Yes, there are, you know, there are some elements of democracy of those procedures. Most of them exist, but some are deficient. O'Donnell presents this as illiberal democracy is more democratic than authoritarian regimes, but less liberal than representative democracy, or is more democratic than representative democracy, I'm sorry, but less liberal than representative democracy. It has a strongly majoritarian bent. It is inclining towards majoritarianism. Therefore it is strongly majoritarian and consists in constituting through clean elections in majority, produces a clean majority that empowers someone to become for a given number of years the embodiment of, I'm sorry, the embodiment and interpreter of high interests of the nation. So I am elected. I represent the high interests of the nation. I embody the high interests of the nation. And in this system of illiberal democracy, O'Donnell argues, after, I mean, when the elections take place, the elections are done, voters are expected to become passive, but cheering audience of what the executive does. So these are hybrid systems which O'Donnell calls illiberal democracy. They're in between authoritarianism and democracy. We generally call them democracies, but we call them illiberal or impaired democracies. Another term that was invented much more, that was conceptualized much more recently, is what's called competitive authoritarianism. If we do this like this, competitive authoritarianism. It slides more toward authoritarianism, but there is the competitive element. The term was invented by Stephen Levitsky, Harvard political scientist, and Lucan Wei. They wrote this very influential text a few years ago with the same title, competitive authoritarianism. And in this system, the government appropriates state resources for partisan distribution. The government appropriates state resources for partisan distribution, distributing the goodies to as partisans, to those who are affiliated, who vote for the same political party. The state staffs or PACs, state institutions with loyal citizens or loyalist citizens, and it carries out this task in a systematic way. The government in general in these systems controls the media and provides only limited opportunities to opposition parties. And all of these, I'm sorry, the government controls the media and provides only limited opportunities to opposition parties. In Whitehall culture, in Britain you mean, that maybe, we'll see. The government controls all British media, can you say that? The government controls all British media. There are no alternative sources of access. The government may control, sure, the government's worldwide control, well, wants to control the media, right? Who wouldn't want to control the media? But it's a matter of degree. The extent to which control increases, then we slide towards competitive authoritarianism. The reason why I didn't want to emphasize competitive authoritarianism is that it is more authoritarian than illiberal democracy. So, illiberal democracies are still democracies, but impaired democracies. Competitive authoritarian systems are somewhere in between democracies and complete authoritarian systems. But I wish to share with you some of the ideas that also come to discussions when we talk about democracy, democratization, forms of democracy, types of democracy, and sometimes models of democracy. Yes, please. That's a very good question. Elections exist. Yes, they're freely carried out and honestly conducted, honestly counted. But my point here is, I mean, the point I want to make here is that, remember all of these? Only when all of these exist at the same time we call this modern political democracy. If otherwise we call these systems illiberal democracies are competitive authoritarian systems. Having just elections is not enough, right? All of these other instruments, other procedures have to coexist for us as political scientists or comparative political scientists to be able to call that system or categorize this system to classify this system as modern political democracy. Any questions? Please. Check some balances in a way, yes, but what we want to do is that we want to get rid of competition, right? So once again, competition is a key or has to be a key structural characteristic of modern political democracy. Just as it is in the system of capitalism, which we can talk about in another class, in another course on international political economy next term. Any other questions? I think I'm quite done with democracy, procedures, and all others. I want to do a quick start to models of democracy if there are no questions. We're all done, okay? But you can always ask questions next class. Sometimes it takes some time for our categories to sync, okay? So it takes time to digest some information, some knowledge. So please have a look at your notes and please do the readings. The readings are, the articles are very straightforwardly written. These are seminal articles which we sometimes ask about in graduate committees. For example, when we do a master's committee, when we want to recruit master's students or PhD students, we ask about, you know, what are the, you know, give us a definition of democracy or modern political democracy? Or do you know, or can you count some, you know, what are the approaches to democracy? How does, I mean, how do scholars approach democracy? How do they conceptualize democracy? What are the constituent component procedures in a democracy? Or if I, I sometimes ask, if I, if I give you a set of procedures such as competition, cooperation, public realm, rulers, accountability, this, that, and the other, which of the two approaches am I talking about, the procedure approach or the outcome approach? Wouldn't these be good questions in a graduate exam? Okay, so, so, so my point here is that this is some basic, fundamental, basic, but in that respect, isn't it? Fundamental information that I'd like you to remember. And of course, these, these will come across in other classes that complement or that build upon or on this course, okay? We shall also be talking about the same thing. Touch upon democracy when we do political science 304. Because for us to be able to define authoritarianism or varieties of authoritarianism, we should have an idea about what we should also remind ourselves what democracy is. And mind you, the title of the article is What Democracy Is and Is Not, okay? So, so I'd like you to, to remember this. I saw a hand, but I don't remember who was, please, yes. Can you ask me what democracy is? I will tell you the... Okay. Okay. The so-present, poor guy, authoritarianism, power. Okay, power, by demos, okay? Capitalism and democracy cannot coexist, yes. There's a huge debate on this. So, don't you think we need a new ideology, with new precautions against the possibilities? This was, this was, this was the name of the, this was the name of the debate about 900 years ago when Churchill said very infamously, does anyone, anyone remember what Churchill said about democracy? Democracy is... No, he says it's the worst system. It's the worst system, as long as we don't count the others. So, democracy is treacherous, democracy is, it has its faults, but it has some of its virtues too, given the alternatives. So, so, and the procedural approach really touches down upon, I mean, really takes all these elements as constituent, constitutive elements of what a modern political system should look like. But there are others who argue that democracy exists only at the outcome approach, only when it guarantees those outcomes. So, you may, you may want to, you may wish to side with, with those guys. Well, sure. No, I'm done, of course I understand, and I sympathize to a certain extent. No, of course, of course. And in vain, that they, they don't, they don't mean anything. Please. Dictatorship of capital. That may be one, one alternative thinking about democracy, right? Lenin's ideas, you know, it's the, it's the bourgeoisie, which basically is the ruler in the system. And it's a structure of exploitation. It's a structure of subordination. So, so there are many, many, many approaches to democracy. Most of us like democracy. Some of us do not like democracy.   So, now let's see what type of democracy exists. I'll continue discussing this next class. But I wanted to show you a preview of, of Leiphardt's model. Aren't Leiphardt a Dutch political scientist? Very influential political scientists. And, and he says that there are two ideal typical models of democracy. By ideal typical, he means they do not exist in the real empirical world. These are polar opposites. I use them as heuristic devices to, to, to make a point. There are some real world approximations. But the majoritarian model, neither the majoritarian model nor the consensual model really exists in reality 100%. Leiphardt says that these two models exist. But he says that when we talk about democracy and he was talking about democracy back in the late 1980s, early 1990s, he was saying, when we all refer to democracy, we generally refer to one type or one model of democracy, which is the majoritarian model, which he says is misleading. So we shouldn't, when we talk about democracy, we shouldn't really center our discussion on the majoritarian model and the majoritarian model only. There are other models which really exist in reality, which can be termed as consociational or consensus models. And that, perhaps, this model is more democratic in essence, more than in a name. So next class on Friday will be talking about the distinction between the majoritarian system and the consensual, consensus or consociational system. So please complete your reading of Schmittur and Karl and also have a look at Leiphardt's very small article that you can access through Moodle. And we'll discuss details on Friday. Thank you so much and I'll see you on Friday.


Hi guys, it's Monica. I know you know that right because you're here watching but if you're new here you might not know So yes, it's Monica and if you are new here and you haven't subscribed Please consider hitting the subscribe tab below and the notification tab I would truly appreciate your support today. I'm going to talk about Anti-aging your hands using retina does a retina really work To anti-age. Is there such a thing as anti-aging your hands? Can you actually keep your hands young?  I think that's the first thing because people time to look At you when you're talking and then your hands. So Let me tell you my hand story Back in 2016 Early 2016 I had decided to change the setting to my wedding band And I had been shopping for a band at a jewelry store that had created my wedding band originally So this is someone that I know someone that I trust Explicitly and so I had been shopping with her I had given her a bunch of my little diamonds and I wanted her to put them in a band I wanted some of my I wanted my original stones. I didn't want to have a bunch of new stones So I had enough stones to be able to create the band. I wanted I took a photo of my ring And I sent it to my mom and I was like on cloud nine because it was just what I envisioned The the only thing that I don't have is the second band the third band I should say so when you look at this picture You'll see my ring that I wear all the time, but with two bands the one band I don't have on my finger. I'm going to stop wearing that but anyways long story shot So I was like super happy because I had I really liked the ring. I all my diamonds fit I didn't have to buy new diamonds, you know, they all worked really well in the band So I sent a photo to my mother So that she could see what the band looked like I'd sent it in a direct message on Facebook and she I'll never forget it I'll never forget it, but she sent me a message back and she said your ring is beautiful Too bad. It's on such old-looking hands. I didn't even know what to say because I never even noticed my hands I I just looked at my ring. I was just focusing on my ring It made me feel so self-conscious that for a while, you know When you get a new piece of jewelry, you like to you know, flash it. You like to go whatever, you know but so for a while I was like hiding my hands instead of flashing my hands because I Just I just remembered her words. It's too bad. It's on such old-looking hands And it was it hurt me, but it was also in my opinion the truth, you know My mother is my mother.  She won't mince words. She won't sugarcoat She thinks I look fat. She tells me if she thinks my hair is a mess She tells me if she thinks I'm wearing too much makeup She tells me so my mother is brutally honest and when she said that about my old-looking Old-looking hands. I went holy macro so in early 2016 I Started to be very diligent about putting sunblock on my hands. I Really really I looked at this picture. I'm gonna insert it here.  That's how I interpret the words So I never thought I'd publish it, but it serves as a good reminder because yeah This is what my hands are, you know, and they are old. I am 65 years old So from that point on I started to really be very diligent with Sunblock now every time I will I will admit that every time I put Anything on, you know, like Sunblock on my face I was just always do the the extra stuff, you know on my body I would just always put it on my hands, but it wasn't super super good with it I wasn't religious with it. So when my mother told me that I looked at my hands and I said Holy macro. I said, how do I? You know, how do I how do I show my ring? How do I feel comfortable with my hands if they look so old? So and they still look old. They're not they're not better, but the journey that I'm on Anti-aging my hands using retin A many of you have asked what am I doing? So in 2016 I started to take a plastic bag And I would take Nevea cream and I would put the Nevea Nevea cream Nevea cream all over my hands and I always got the one in the tube that my mother would get me actually from Germany I still use this to this day. This is the hand cream. I use to this day. It is very thick. It is very I'm gonna take a look at this white It's heavy in consistency But this is what I use to this day on my hands So anyways, I would put the cream on my hands at night and I would put my hands in plastic bag for a little bit Sometimes I would try to sleep with them, but it never really worked. I always ended up taking it off. I didn't like it so when I started to do the retin A I had bought the weakest retin A point zero point two five and I had bought a bottle of Kakao oil and What I was doing at that point in time is I would take my retin A and I would put a good glava Good glava a good drop now you can see how much I have here And then I would take my Kakao oil and I would mix it Into this I would do a drop or two and I would go up I'm putting this on my neck and I really shouldn't right now But I hate to waste it and I'm not going out, but I would go on my neck and down into my Declotage Declate and then of course I would go on the tops of my hands And that's what I would do So I started to do that in 2016 when I started my retin A with Kakao oil Retin A every day that I every night that I put it on my face to put it on my hands And I would do that and I would literally did that In Sunblock every single day, but I did that until I was reached I was actually hand MD had reached out to me to test their product And then I used the hand MD which has a retinol product and a cream on one side is the pump You put it, you know, it's one side whoops, I still have some in there. I'm surprised. Well, anyways, I was putting that on my hands and I did that I don't know the whole time until I thought it was empty and I didn't really notice any kind of dramatic Improvement, but I thought it was an unfair test in a way because I've been using the retin A and On my hands. I stopped when this was done. I stopped and I immediately went back to my retin A and Once if my first bottle I should say this once my first bottle of the Kakao oil ran out I bought rose hip seed oil first I bought it in TJ Maxx organic cold press rose hip seed oil and then I started to buy it from the ordinary I really like the a rose hip seed oil and for me anyways Now I know other people might say completely the opposite of what I'm gonna say But for me, I never noticed a difference between the rose hip seed oil in the Kakao the way I was using it mixed with my retin A on my neck and chest and hands I never saw any kind of a difference in it. So since the two products even though The people that love the Kakao will say it's better the people love the rose hip seed oil will say it's better I'm just gonna tell you I didn't see a difference between the two the only difference I ever saw between the two is the price So I continue to use the rose hip seed oil to this day is what I'm using on my neck on my chest on my hands Mixed with now. I don't have any more of the zero point two five percent So I am mixing it with the zero point zero five so I've gone up and I do that every night that I use the retin A which is about four sometimes five nights I also treat my neck my chest my hands my neck my chest my hands with a big drop after I've done my face I take my my zero point zero five put a big drop on here mix it with a couple of drops of The rose hip seed oil and we should all together and a massage my neck and my chest And then I do the tops of my hands really really good. So I really like that Then at one point at the end of the night.  It doesn't smell. I grew up with it. So all my mother ever used so I grew up with it and Then I also have these I Ordered these not too long ago. So I've only been using this gosh a month But this is just a preventive. These are the driving the sunblock driving gloves because I figured this season I Am gonna be serious about trying to get rid of my age spot So I have a couple of age spots age spots that I have been working on I Also every now and then we'll use my hypoquinone on those spots But I'm very careful with that So I have a couple of age spots that I'm trying to work on for my hands So during the day when I'm driving especially in the summer, this is what I've been wearing These are actually normally in my car in my glove box. So when I get in I just put them on The other thing that I like for my hands Now I told you that I would stick my hands in baggies, which I did But I got this and I will try to link The company for you. I actually got this from Bolano Alonzo handbag company. I know I always put you that name too Anyways, I got this from them and this was in one of my bags And I got this right before we went to Vegas in March for our convention. It was in that pack I love these gloves. These are really really kind of funky. They're like these big mitts and Let me take one out. It's like really cool. They're really heavy. There's two of them in here They're really heavy.  So since I got these I Don't use them that often. I want to say that maybe Once or twice a week is what I've been doing with these But they really really make your hands feel super super nice But and I know we're all different Between the retin-a the rose hip seed oil and this cream is really what makes my hands Super feel super good. And I think is what's helping my hands Kind of improve a little bit from the way they were when I sent that picture to my mom Also, the other thing is water water water if there's one secret that every single one of you can do And I know you probably I'll know this is a drink a ton of water The more hydrated you are the better your skin looks not only on your face and neck But in your hands so the more hydrated you are the better it looks. So anyways, that's my hand update I know many of you ask I get often get comments on my hands.  It's on such old-looking hands and and this was like 2016 so it wasn't all that long ago. I don't think my hands are dramatically improved I think they're better. I think the retin-a has helped them a little bit. I think the cream the water Being hydrated and most importantly the sunblock and now hopefully these sun gloves Will continue to help my hands Kind of slow down that aging process at 65. I don't expect them to be baby soft Or go back to looking like they did when I was young But I think there's an improvement and and these gloves I think Julie Mimosa had talked about this a linker channel again This is I had bought them when she talked about them and I used her her Amazon link So I'll give you that information But for cheap money can go a long way and your fingers come out So they're very they're very comfortable as far as driving They're also very easy to get on and off. I don't find them hot at all. They're not hot and sweaty They're kind of like, you know Cool-looking I think kind of stylish Stylin' anyways Yeah, that's my retin-a update for my hands anyways So do you think what do you guys do? How do you keep your hands young-looking?  Nothing that justified the money for me anyway, so Yeah, so if you're if you're loving what you're doing, let me know I really really would like to Help my hands look better. So my mother never says those words to me again I'd like to get rid of those words. They still I Still hear them every time I look at my hands. I hear them So let me know you a secret so thanks so much for watching guys appreciate every single one of you And I will see you in my next video. Bye guys


Hey y'all, welcome to What Chelsea Eats. Thank you so much for joining me. My name is Chelsea Knudsen and I am a certified holistic health coach and I coach women on how to heal naturally from female related issues. The purpose of this video is to invite you to my next free webinar. It's going to be on 10 tips to help you kick sugar for women's health. If you struggle with any women's health issues such as fibroids, heavy menstrual cycle, PCOS, endometriosis, ovarian cyst, you name it. This webinar is for you. All you have to do is put your name and email address in the boxes provided or if you're watching this from YouTube you can click the link below and it'll take you to the page where you can sign up for the webinar or if you're on Facebook you can see the link in the description above or beneath depending on where you see the video. But all you have to do is put your information in and I will send you the information so you can be a part of the webinar. Thank you so much for watching and I will talk to you soon. Take care.


Hello everyone. I am Sanjay Gupta. I welcome you on Sanjay Gupta Tech School. In this video I'm going to demonstrate a scenario based on screen flow. Let's understand the screen flow scenario. So the scenario says we need to create a contact with optional file attachment. And this I need to implement with the help of flow. And after creation of the flow, I need to place the screen flow on either home page or app page. So I will be placing the flow on both the pages. So let's first jump to developer org and let's create this screen flow. So I'm just going to search for flows, creating new flow. So from this list, you need to select the screen flow, then click on create. Now I'm going to create one screen where I will be receiving inputs related to contact. So I just clicked on plus then I am selecting the screen. The label off screen will be contact information. Now from here I'm just picking this text. So it will be receiving the first name. Then one more text. It will be receiving last name and I'm making it required because to create a contact record, you need to have last name populated on the contact record. So that's why I'm making it required. Then to receive phone. I'm just using phone field. Or you can say phone component. So here I'm writing it as phone. And again, I'm using text so that I can receive email. And then I'm using a checkbox. So this checkbox I will be using to ask. Do you want to attach a file? So this is the label. So if this checkbox is checked, then only that file upload screen will be available. Otherwise not. So this way I created the screen where these options are available. Now I'm clicking on done after the screen. I just need to create a contact, right? So for that, I'm going to use this element. Contact. Now use separate resources and literal values and how many records to create one. So from here I'm going to select the contact. Now I just need to map all the fields. So on contact, whatever fields available, they are available here at left hand side and the on the screen, whatever components you have created, they will be available at right inside. So here I'm searching first name so you can see it is a screen component, then adding one more field that is last name. So I'm searching last name here as well. Then I need to match phone. So I'm matching it with mobile phone. So phone dot value. If you create it as a text, so you can directly use it, but we created a phone component. So that's why we are using phone dot value. And then email. So here we need to search for email, right, and enable this checkbox so that after creation of this contact record, you can store that contact record ID in a variable. So click on new resource, create a variable, name it as contact ID and done. Sorry, you need to select the data type as well. I'm selecting text and done. So this I will be using on the screen where I will be attaching the file. So this way these two elements are available here. Now, based on this checkbox, I just need to check whether it is enabled or not like user checked or unchecked. So I just need to apply. Sorry, I need to apply decision element here. So if it is checked. I need to check this. So if it is equals true. So this is one outcome. I'm having one more outcome that is unchecked. So do you want to attach a file equals. No, right. So if it is checked, so it will be true if it is unchecked, then it will be false. So this way I created two outcomes. Now here I'm going to implement the further elements. So if it is checked, it means we need to upload a file. So here I'm going to use a screen and I'm searching for file upload. Okay, so API name should be this. This will be the label upload a file which will display here you can see. And if you want to link this file with the contact, so you need to put contact ID here in the related record ID. So the contact that you created in the previous screen and element so that ID will be mapped with this newly attached file automatically. So we need to provide the label so file upload screen. And I'm clicking on done and if it is unchecked. So let me just end this right. So if it is checked or unchecked, right. So, like file upload checkbox is checked then file will be uploaded if that is unchecked then we will come here. So I just want to have one common screen like I want to show a thank masses like your contact is created and thank you for providing your information like that. This is thank you screen and here I am searching for display text and dragging and dropping it display masses. Thank you for providing your information contact record is created successfully right this message will display and I'm clicking on that right so this is common message if you upload file so it will go to upload file and then come here. So if file is file upload is not required then it will come here and this masses will be displayed. So this way I implemented this flow. Now I'm going to save it. Save. Now I'm going to activate it. So moving to the user interface so let me just open any application. I'm just going to open sales application. So now here you can see we have a homepage so first of all I'm going to place it on the homepage so I'm going to edit the page and at left hand side you can see we have a flow or if you don't find you can search it will be available you can drag and drop it. Now from the list you need to select the flow. So I'm selecting create contact with or without file right and clicking on save. It is asking for activation. So I'm going to activate it for a sign as of default clicking on save. Moving back. So on homepage you can see this is your flow. So it is asking for a name. So let's say I'm providing Sanjay Gupta phone number. I'm providing dummy phone number. So let's say this one email ID. So this is my email ID I'm providing so right now I'm checking this checkbox and clicking on next. So you will see upload file option will be available. So if I click on this. And if I upload any file and click on done. Next. So you can see this thank you message is available now I'm clicking on finish. Right. Now if I move to contacts. So here you can see it is created right now. And if you want to make sure. So here you can see file is also attached. Right. So this way. I demonstrated you how we can place your flow on the homepage. Now if you have any app page so they're also in the similar way you can place your flow. So I'm going to do that and in that app page I won't be selecting this checkbox and you will see without asking for file upload or contact will be created. Okay, so let me just search for the pages so I'm searching for lightning app builder and let me see whether we have any app page or not so we don't have any app page. So I'm going to create new app page. So you can select this option click on next. So demo app page clicking on next. So you can choose any option from this then click on finish. So your page will be created and simply drag and drop your flow. Select the name of the flow that you want to show and save. It will ask for activation. So you just need to select the application. So I'm selecting sales application. So after home page this page will be available. So I'm just clicking on save and moving back. Now going to the application and doing a refresh. So here you can see demo app pages available if I click on this.  So this time I'm creating one more contact and this time I'm leaving it as as is unchecked and clicking on next. So you can see without asking file upload it is showing the thank you masses and I'm clicking on finish. So here you can see this contact is available. And if we go to related list so there is no file uploaded. So this way you can implement your flow through which you can upload a file just after record creation and I just demonstrated you like how you can place your flow on home page and app page. Real time projects. Sometimes it is required like instead of placing your flow on record page you need to place your flow on app page or homepage.