Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the Board of Selectments meeting for November 23, 2015. Item one on the agenda for approval, the cause and event Arlington 2016 5K race for May 22nd. Anybody here wishing to speak on that? Please come forward for your grilling. I'm Robin Olinski. I'm one of the race directors. Last year we had our first cause and event in Arlington. It was a huge success. We sold out the race for four weeks in advance of the actual date. We are excited to bring it back for another year. We raised over $10,000 for local charities. Almost half of that money was for Arlington specific charities. We raised close to $1,000 both for Arlington eats the children's room and then up to $500 for Leslie Ellis. $1,500 for PTOs because each individual gets to pick the charity where they want half of their race registration to go. And because we sold out last year, we are looking to raise the cap of the runners up to 1,000 runners. We felt like the event went really smoothly. We had close to probably 50 volunteers who worked with us on the day along with Arlington Police Department to make sure everything went smoothly. So other than raising the cap, we want to keep all of the details of the race including the route the same for 2016. Move approval. Move approval. Is that second? Excellent job both of you. So Robin, how many did you have last year? Sorry, how many? 180 runners. 680 and this year you're going up to 1,000. Good for you. We are going to work with the police. They had some, they want to make sure that they have the details so we'll only go as high as they'll allow us based on the police detail. But we're working with them now on that. Thank you, Julie. Great. Move approval and seconded for the discussion. Anybody here running in this particular race? Come on this year. Maybe. Maybe. Absolutely. We'll send you a reminder. We have a couple of 5Kers right there. Can we crawl? Absolutely. Absolutely. Could I drive it like is there a lead car? What? If you would like to, you can. We can push you with your bike whenever. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed. Congratulations. Good luck. Thank you so much. Thanks for your good work. Under licenses and permits for discussion and adoption, cable, television, ascertainment, a young man very familiar to us in these chambers, our former town council, Mr. John Marr. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Pleased to be here today. Trying to make this presentation short. As you know, the town has three cable licenses. The Comcast license will expire in June of 2016. September, we'll see the expiration of the RCN license in the following March of 2017, the expiration of the Verizon license. State and federal law requires prior to any negotiations or extensions or new licenses that U.S. licensing authority under both federal and state law provide for an ascertainment process. The ascertainment process commenced about a little over a year ago. We're an online survey under the direction of the manager's office whereby we had about 780 people reply. Before I go any further, the ascertainment process has two goals. First, to determine the performance level for the preceding contract time for each of the cable franchises. And the second is if assuming that they have been performing satisfactory, what in general are the cable needs of the community for the new negotiation process, what should be included in the contracts? As I said, we had a survey and it was geared to those two considerations. What was the performance of the various cable companies? And by and large, there was a satisfactory level of response that the cable companies were performing generally satisfactory. There were some complaints, of course, as you might expect. But of the people that responded, about 72% to 80% believe that they were performing satisfactory. The other aspect of the survey was to determine what are the ongoing needs of the town. And that was focused really on peg access, our public educational and governmental provider, which is ACMI, Audit and Community Media. And I recognize that tonight in attendance here is Norma Cloud, who is the Executive Director. And again, what was the performance of ACMI? And overwhelmingly, the respondents indicated that they had a very high level of satisfaction with ACMI. The next aspect of the ascertainment process took place on April 15th of this year. And it was presided over by Mr. Dunn, also present with Mr. Kuro and Mr. Byrne. And we had a fairly high level of participation, as I understand it, from other communities. We had about 80 people there. And again, the inquiry is what was the level of performance of the companies and what was our needs going forward. We had 25 people who gave testimony. And it was primarily focused on the performance of ACMI. And again, we saw a very high level of satisfaction. Enthusiasm is not too strong a word to use with regard to the performance of ACMI. The last part of the ascertainment process was interviews with stakeholders, which included meeting with ACMI as Board of Directors during the studio, and meeting a couple of times with them at Town Hall, interviews with the various department heads involved. Primarily the superintendent of schools, who obviously has a vested interest with participation of students in cable production. As we know, there is a satellite office right across the high school now for ACMI, which is utilized. The police chief, fire chief, fire chief was completely totally very much concerned with double poles and what could be addressed in the upcoming license with regard to the removal of plant that is on subscribers' homes that are not generally removed in an appropriate fashion. And a lot of the plant, the equipment, the plant is left on the poles. And what can we do in the negotiation process to remove those? The principal, as you know, the cable companies give 5% of their gross revenues to the town. It is up to this Board, not me, not the manager, not ACMI, you determine where that money goes. There is no legal requirement that we have Peg Access, that we have an outside company. Obviously, I assume that you'll want to continue to do that given their very high level of performance and satisfaction indicated by the general public. But I want to stress that 5%, which has gone to ACMI in the past, you need to look at that, I think, at the appropriate time. Tonight is not the time to do it. Do you want to continue to do that? I'm not suggesting that you don't. But some communities don't give the entire 5%. Say 1% or 1.5% goes to other town needs, which must be cable related. The presentation, I go back for a second to the hearing. There was a presentation made by ACMI by Mr. McLeod and also by John Leone, the president of their board of directors. And they're really focused on high definition capabilities, getting a program guide by each of the cable companies to see what is on. When people tune in, they can see what's on, not only on the major cable channels, but what is ACMI going to provide? What is their programming? They have large capital needs. Much of their equipment is outdated, obsolete. And that is something that we should be looking at in the negotiation process. As far as the negotiation process goes, the schedule is as follows. In the next couple of weeks, we will be sending out, excuse me, through the manager's office, a RFP to each of the cable companies, primarily focusing on Comcast because their license expires first. By February 1st, we will anticipate a response from Comcast, and then negotiations will ensue. I want to stress that the manager and I in the town council are here to support you. You determine what's going to be in the licenses, or at least the negotiation position of the town. I can't, I think we need, the manager will, I'm sure, will be talking to you individually. We do have a proposed strategy. We cannot go into executive session because it would be illegal to do that. We're certainly going to have as transparent a process as possible, but as a matter of course, negotiations have strategy determinations by both sides. And we do have some highlights that we want to see included moving forward. Principally, ACMI addressing the poll situation, what are other capital expenditures perhaps for the town that a cable related would be appropriate to include. So I think that pretty much does it. I want to thank Marie's office who has, was always extremely helpful, as she always is, in helping during this ascertainment process. I want to also point out that in the past, in the negotiations, upon occasion, there's been a member of the board who's been on the negotiation team. That is solely within your discretion. Currently, we have excellent outside council, Peter Epstein, who we will introduce to the board at some point, but the negotiation team will be headed by anybody you choose to designate, but primarily the town manager. The cable advisor committee and my colleagues here are here to support you, support the manager, support the town council negotiation process. I would like to recognize the members of my, not my committee, the cable advisor committee, Dr. Michael Quinn, Joseph Wees, and David Good, who's our information technology officer. That's my presentation. I'm glad to answer here any comments. Any questions that you have, and once I hopefully have satisfactorily addressed them, or the manager in the town council, I would ask you to take a motion and I'll suggest the wording of that motion. So, the first thing I demand in the negotiations is that I no longer look older each and every meeting as we go forward here. I want makeup. Colleagues, comments, statements, yeah. Mr. Curell. Thank you very much. Thank you for your work, and thank you also to ACMI. It was clear during the hearing that it was early an outpouring of support. I don't want to go too deeply into specific issues, but I think for me, especially going through this the first time, it would be helpful as we approach the negotiations to have kind of a synopsis of the scope of our authority and these types of negotiations. I know it was stressed, for example, during the meeting that we don't really have any authority over rates per se, but we do have certain types of authorities. You already raised some issues like polls or asking for high definition capability or programming guide and things like that. It would be helpful to understand exactly what the parameters are within which we can operate. They string their polls on our streets. They're entitled to be for them to address their concerns. Primarily you derive your authority from the Cable Television Act of 1966. I think as far as the scope of your authority, you're right, Joe, that we can't talk about them about rates. We can't really talk to them about programming, but there are a lot of things that go with no cable license. At some point, either I, either town council or manager, we certainly provide you with copies of it. You can look at it and then, once you've looked at it, we can come in again and talk to you about what your concerns are, but it is limited, but it is substantial. They give us 5% and there's a lot of money. For instance, ACMI gets upwards of $900,000 a year from the town. We exact the price from the cable companies for them to do business in our town. There are a number of things that go in there, performance, very technical aspects, but I think maybe the next step to respond to you, Joe, is to get copies of each of the existing licenses to you, review them, and at some point, come in and talk to you again. I think we need individual discussions with each of you about negotiation strategies, because it would be a little premature and not really in our best interest to talk about it at this time. Sure, thank you. Is my understanding correct that the revenue share is based only on the cable portion of the Bill Not Other telecommunication services? No, it's cable revenue only. Of course, we have a concern as modern technology moves forward that the cable revenue is going to be decreasing as online streaming and so forth increases. That's something that we have to recognize used to be that the cable licenses, the companies wanted lengthy licenses. Now the trend is that they want shorter ones. So that's an issue that we'll certainly be discussing and putting together a strategy with regard to that, but the revenue license, revenue for cable, we anticipate they'll be going down and we have to recognize that and plan accordingly. All right, thank you. Mr. Dunn, Ms. Mann? Yes? Yes. One sort of long running request that the board has had, and I know it's been discussed with the town manager and Dave Goode and people from ACMI, so I just wanted to put it out there again since I have the opportunity. In terms of capital plan improvements, getting the selectments off is sort of up to speed in terms of technology. Similar to what we have on the school side. I was wondering, Dave, if it's appropriate to put that before you, if the manager had any comment or should I just keep putting it on the table? So it's not directly pertinent to the contract negotiations, but my understanding is Dave Goode has been working with Norm to plan something out for the room, so I'll get an update for the board. Okay, great. And then I'm not sure if this, when you provide the three contracts with the company, if A, there's language in there that we can negotiate around if this isn't appropriate, so I'm just going to put a case in point. It's similar to what they're going through down in New York, and it's happened here in Massachusetts a few times. Right now in New York, the cable companies are streaming at the bottom of the Yes Channel, which is the sports, I'm sure Attorney Hyman's familiar with that channel, saying, you know, you're about to be dropped, you know, negotiations, you won't receive this channel anymore, you know, please call. I'm wondering if it's appropriate, if it's in there, that there's some sort of language, and we've gone through it, and usually it's a bargaining chip, come springtime when the Yankee stop playing, right now it's just highlights of Yankee games. I'm sure they'll settle it before then, but is it appropriate to ask, is there language in there, that if something like that happens, and it's part of a package that the cable companies will reimburse the consumers versus putting on some obscure, and I love cooking shows and fishing shows, but do you know what I'm saying? Is that appropriate or is that not... I'm not sure I got the question. May I? Yes. The question is when the cable companies get into contract disputes with the channels or the actual media providers, if there's a way to get some kind of financial compensation for the loss of that... Right, people were saying, you know, I paid for that channel. It's usually sports channels or something part of a package, they upgrade, I pay for it. I don't think so. We can look. Yeah, if you can... People had asked me that. We'll certainly inquire. I mean, that's the kind of question that goes to our outside cable council. By the way, that's all he does, this individual, his firm, that's all they do is cable negotiation. They do it for about 60 communities, and if he were here, he'd respond directly to that question. I frankly don't have the answer, but I will pose it to him, and we'll get back to you on it. Thank you. Thank you. Yankee Highlights, Doug. What's that, about a minute show, do you think? Well, how does the Knicks game, too? How does the Knicks game? I would just like to say of my 27 years, I think we've just seen, in terms of government access, just steady, steady improvement. Our last meeting, we had half the meeting in this room and half the meeting in the lion's hearing room, and they covered both seamlessly. But thank you, John, for your input. Norm, would you like to say anything, sir? Of course. Please. Our director of ACMI, Norm. Thank you very much. Just like to point out one thing, a lot of folks are concerned, quite rightly, that a lot of program is going to the streaming side. And just as John mentioned, the concern in all of the access community television stations right now is where's the funding going to come in the future? My understanding of this is, I was at the State House last week, there's a Community Action Protection Act at the state level that is being voted on. That mimics and mirrors what's happening at the national level. There's another Community Action Protection Act at the, I think it's Ms. Baldwin, Senator Baldwin, who's sponsoring that. I think there's an awareness in the part of the country that, yes, community access funding may go down. But on the other hand, there's also movement of foot to create additional revenue from the stream itself through advertising. I think that the answer to this in probably five to 10 years is going to be a political answer that I don't think any of the communities want their community access television stations to disappear. So the result is that there will be pressure politically to assist if the cable funding drops that I believe is going to happen is that the internet streaming funding will start to go up. So I just want to make you aware of that. Okay. Thank you. So John, the notice that someone is, I mean, the emotion that someone's about to make. Yes, yes. If I would respectfully request that the Board as the Licensing Authority and the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 and Chapter 47 of the Cable Services Code Section 54546A adopt the draft ascertainment report as the official ascertainment report of the Licensing Authority for the town. So moved. So moved by Mr. Burns. Seconded by Mr. Currow. Further discussion? Anybody else here wishing to speak on this matter? All those in favor, please signify by saying nine. Aye. All those opposed. Thank you. Great job as always. Next up, licenses and permits for approval are revised. Notice is policy, Mr. Heim. To be brief, I think the Board recalls the discussion from the previous meeting. I made adjustments to reflect Mr. Dunn's approach that would require less affirmative or no affirmative action by the Board's office. I inserted the missing language into the missing language regarding protected speech down past the table of notice display parameters. And I think this meets what Mr. Dunn had sought in terms of the changes. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. I know that Mr. Klein is back. If you have any questions for him or want to elicit any comments from him about the changes that were made. Mr. Dunn. I'm very happy with the draft. I think it's really good. I do have one minor tweak. If you pull it up and you look at it, I emailed Doug about this beforehand. I think it will be non-controversial. If you page two, underneath the table there's a paragraph that starts notices consistent. And then the next sentence is notices in violation. And if you read that sentence, it can be a little bit ambiguous about who can remove. And so right now it says notices in violation of any of the foregoing shall be removed by the town. And I want to put a period there. And then I want to say responsible persons and or organizations may be subject to fines. Yeah. Because right now because of the end of the end of the end, it spends. It's a double. Okay. Good button. You are. Understood. So I move approval. I think it's a I'm very happy with this draft. Second. Second. Yes. Yep. I just want to say thank you to everybody who's been involved with this and has taken our comments and incorporated them. I don't know if maybe you have any comment by no last year, town meeting. This was one of those warrant articles that really kind of started to go down along track versus a short one. And there were a lot of concerns. I think we've addressed them all and address them appropriately. I'm assuming the next step will be after we adopt this. It'll be available if anybody wants to view it on the town website.  There's something that we didn't tweak. You know, feel free to let the selectman's office or manager's office. But I think we covered every point that was raised appropriately because there were about seven or eight of them that really boiled down to about three. So I do appreciate all the work that went into this because yes, it's a two page document, but it's amazing, you know, what was generated at town meeting last year. And I think we got it right with what's before us. So I want to thank everyone who worked on this. And just to add to that, Mr. Chairman, if I may, Mr. Klein developed the nice Excel spreadsheet that just shows that again, this is a relatively limited universe of things that the selectmen are saying are okay to notice, to post as temporary notices. Thank you. Anything else? Okay. All those in favor of the motion by Mr. Dunn, please signify by saying nine. Aye. Those opposed. Thank you. Is there anybody on the open forum? Anybody on the list? Marie? Is anybody here to speak on the citizens open forum? Saviour of the trip. Oh, yes. Asked to be a new member. And they told me to appear tonight. And I'm not sure if I'm in the right place doing the right thing. Hi, Sherry. How are you? Good. I know Sherry from Bracket School Days. But we're not approving you tonight. No, it's not on the agenda as all I'm saying. So could it be we approved this last meeting and you weren't able to be here? I think it's December 7th you're supposed to be here. Oh, because they told me to come tonight. So, okay. That's why I was a little confused about why I wasn't on the agenda. I was from back on December 7th. When you come back, you'll get a nice red carpet treatment. Thank you. Sorry. We normally would have resumes and other stuff in front of us. Sorry about that. But aren't you having fun at this meeting anyhow? Aren't you fascinated? Anybody else that's open forum? Did you hear she said it's nice to see Diane? She did. I didn't know that. Anything about you, Mr. Chair? That will be the last item on the 7th. Show up early. Here, Sherry. Thank you. See you. Fine. Traffic rules and orders. Request for second space on street overnight parking at 41 Palmer Street. Mr. Mackenzie. Good evening. Thank you all for your time. Yes. My name is Scott Mackenzie here to represent my request. I think you've seen for a non-street overnight parking permit at 41 Palmer. Briefly, the property does not have any parking on the property, nor does it have the ability to implement parking as it's adjacent to surrounding properties and too close to the street. So request for a second permit as one is already issued to co-resident and owner is Laura Quinn. And so thank you for hearing the request. So there isn't a driveway there? There is a driveway there that is deeded to the upstairs condominium, which is 43 Palmer. Okay. Anybody? Or members? Yeah, Mr. Dunn. So I assume you've read the recommendation against that we got from the police department? Yes. Yeah. Do you have any thoughts having, so the way I read and understand that you made a request, they take a look and they reply, did you have any particular thoughts about their reply or how that went? I didn't review it. I didn't see anything in there regarding a public safety concern or whatnot. Probably seemed to be a question around a precedent issue of, do we issue one or two or whatnot? I thought that each request would stand on its own merit. So I'd appreciate the consideration of it as it's written. Yeah, Mr. Mahon. I have read everything that we've been provided. I am going to make a motion at this time in concert with the police department that this request for the second on-street parking permit be denied recognizing the circumstances. But we have this commonly in Arlington where I have a two family myself. It goes condo. I feel it's incumbent upon the developer when he or she or the entity develops it, takes into account that, you know, if they want to sell it and want to have parking that they provide that and if they don't, then that's part of the purchase price and, you know, buyer beware. And I'm just afraid we're going to get into a slippery slope where we have an awful lot of two and three families in Arlington that go condo. This is a request for a second overnight parking permit. Sort of, you know, once you do it for one, you should do it for others if the case and points are the same. And it's, this is really just a realist, in my opinion, a real estate investment issue that we really shouldn't have any role in taking into account when we do on the very rare occasions grant overnight parking permit request. So I would recommend no action. So. Is there a second? I'll second that and I have a couple of comments too. So dealing with these issues obviously is, I think there are some of the more difficult ones that we discuss here and I know that probably isn't any soulless to you with the motion on the table. But they, a few years ago we did have a ballot question on this on overnight parking and it was handedly defeated. So basically the residents, you know, spoken said that they do not want overnight parking. That's kind of where we're in this situation now. So I, you know, going by the letter and what the police department shared with us, I don't, I agree with Ms. Mohan that it's not the right precedent to go with moving forward. So I'm not going to be supporting it. Sorry. Any other comments? I will be joining also for many of the same reasons that have already been stated. So Mr. McKenzie, you own the condominium. Laura does. Okay. I'm hesitant to, I mean, I'm, you can count. Sorry, but I'm hesitant to agree with my colleagues only from the point of view of, you know, a lot of this report is about others, not Mr. McKenzie directly. Have you checked the neighborhood in terms of other options? Have you checked other businesses, other? I'm not aware of any business nearby that's, that is, has made a practice of selling or renting spaces. You guys may know of something that I don't, but I don't know. Okay. So Mr. McKenzie. One. It's a tough one because I for one, it felt we should change overnight parking. But as Mr. Burn points out, the 21 out of 21 precincts disagree with me and want to keep the overnight parking ban. So any. So all of those on the motion by Mr. Dunn was that one? Ms. Mohan. Ms. Mohan. Seconded by Mr. Burn. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed and I abstain. But four to zero one. Sorry, Mr. McKenzie. Sorry. Thank you. Good luck. Thank you. Item five for approval, a handicapped parking sign, parking space right at 12 Lachlan Davenin. Kevin, we have to table that she called just before the meeting started to say that she could not be here tonight. Move to table. Second. To the table. Second at all. At this time of tabling for all right. OK, So moved to table and second at all those in favor, please enter five s a nine. Aye. I suppose. Forουνable, the capital square banners. Good evening. Hello. Jan Whitted from Art Beat for the capital square and with me is Neilum . who is the designer for the banners that we're proposing. So has anybody seen the lights? Yes. And then Grace. Yeah, we're so happy they look really wonderful. And so what we'd like to do is identify the Capital Square Business District by putting up banners on the lampposts once those lampposts are capable of supporting the banners, which hopefully will be soon. And this is the basic design. As you're driving or walking, you'd see this design and it would go through a sequence of colors. Starting in beginning with the trademark orange on the back, we would have the logo for Capital Square and thus identifying the district as a place that we've all come to know as Capital Square. And for how long are you recommending these banners? We would like the ability to permanently have something up there identifying Capital Square. This is the first iteration of a design. I don't know what process you might want. These are going to be vinyl banners. They're not expected to have, you know, a terrifically long life, we don't know. And there are so many lampposts now. With the ability for banners, there will be some, there will be artists designing banners through the Public Art Committee, et cetera. But we would like to, as a business district, like to always have something that delineates Capital Square. So always, is that your answer? Always. I don't know about that. Well, because you know others ask us to put up banners, obviously. Well, this is a banner meant to identify the area as a place with a name. Yes, Mr. Curran. I just wanted to ask, just as a point of information from the manager and looking at the light posts there, I believe that they accommodate banners on both sides. Is that not correct? No, so the manner in which the light posts were designed were to have the ability to have two poles for a banner and one for hanging plants on the other side. Based on some design then implementation issues, we're actually going to rotate them 180 degrees that the banners are facing in. And ultimately, I think we're going to remove the hanging plants. But they're flexible in what you can bracket to them and what you can actually put on the poles. Just a capital square, I understand you're not going to use all 34, 38 lampposts, I think I'm going to call them. I think you're going to use seven on each side, so 14. And I assume with the capital square designation, it will be within the block or two near the capital theater. What I'm thinking about is, my question would be, how did you arrive at capital square? Have most of the other businesses that will be in this area and compass that we're identifying as capital square, it's all there. Did this, you know what I mean? I'm just trying to think, I don't want to put the banners out and then have somebody say, well, we never heard anything about this. So if you could just address that. Sure, we've been branding, if you will, the business district as capital square for about six or seven years now. Okay. And it's not completely well known by every person in Arlington or in the Boston area as capital square. But we feel that it's an important way of identifying a destination for a lot of cultural activities that do take place. We have about 25 of the businesses in that several block area, that is the main part of the business district. 25 businesses that are members of the association and therefore identify as capital square. I don't know. There are some who are not members. Okay. I don't know if it's a good idea, suggestion or whatever, or if it's too cumbersome. But maybe within the one or two block, two and a half block area where the signs are going to go up. Maybe just sort of a paper copy could be offered to the business owner just to say, this is coming soon. We're going to identify this area, you know, capital square, it's all here. Just sort of a leafletting. It's just an idea. You don't have to do that. I just want to, you know, and they are vinyl banners. So, you know, we can always change and I think, as you say, with weather, you're hoping if they last the year, that's fine. And then my only other, so I just put that to you and to the town manager, I think. I don't know if I'm getting my point across as succinctly as I think I am in my head. I've had a long day in Providence. And then my last sort of, if I had my druthers on the graphics, and I understand this is in the preliminary stages. It's just because of me and I'm thinking of, you know, if anybody wanted to look at something. If I had my druthers on the capital square East Arlington panels, the way it appears to me, it looks like East and Arlington are two different fonts. Like East looks like it's more bold, more full. And Arlington looks, if I had my druthers, it would be uniform, you know, sort of the same font.  But unless it's a design thing. And then again, if I had my druthers, like if you look at the T in East and the T in Arlington, the T in East. No, I see that. I hadn't seen it before though, honestly. I'm looking at it in a crazy eye, so I apologize. I'll look at other versions. Yeah, and if you could, unless there's a different reason for it, I'd like it to be all the same font. And if there's any way you could squeeze a little more space between East and Arlington. Okay.  But I think that was also a logo that's been in use for many years. So we were adopting it to scale it up for these banners, but we can certainly do some adjustments. I just want to, you know, I'm thinking way far ahead more than I should. But I think all the same font would be great. Thanks. And Mr. Dunn and Mr. Curell. So I'd like to move approval for these banners for the area. I'd like to describe the term, perhaps something flexible, but I'd say used the word like the default. And so that if we decide that there is a different event that we want to put them up that we're not actually, I do not want to give the impression that we're giving them forever or permanent. They are the, but I definitely appreciate that they are a good choice to be up there for a long time. I think that I like the design. I am going to disagree with Mrs. Mohan and I'm going to say that I would definitely let them, I do not want to be as a board. I'm not comfortable trying to tell them what it is, what the design should be. I looked through my packet when I got it and I said, I have never had a more colorful packet from the slackness meeting. So I am really happy to support this. I think it's the type of branding that will help us in encouraging businesses in that area. Second, and I'd also like to just add to that. I agree. I think it's really important, particularly now that East Arlington is now back on the upswing. We just had the ribbon cutting for Mass Ave. It's beautiful and I think this is just kind of the icing on the cake. I understand why there might be a concern with the request for them being in perpetuity, especially if they're maintenance issues and whatnot. I might suggest that maybe we make the initial term up to a year and a half. And the reason I say that is because I know that Ms. Witted traditionally comes into us every year around May or so to ask for permission on Feast of the East. It might be an appropriate time from there on out each year to review. And then if we've noticed that they've fallen into disrepair or whatnot, it gives us an opportunity to review. I like Mr. Dunn's representation also to be flexible in case there are other events. Last thing I'd also like to say, I just want to thank Ms. Machala for the participation in this. If some of you have seen the I Am Arlington postcard campaign that's on display at the library now and it's been around town that Ms. Machala actually did all of those interviews and designed those as well. And so thank you again for helping to put us on the map. Mr. Chairman, with your permission, I'll change my motion to by default through May of 2017. May of 2017. So I really like the branding aspect of it. I think it's really important and I do like the timing of it. I'm a little, I'm kind of indifferent right now. I think that the colors are a little too bright. And I think it comes down to the style thing. And I don't know if that's really what we should, if that's really in front of us right now. But and I really, you know, I think that they're really eye catching. I kind of wish like when I look at the avenue now, it's redone. I think of it more in, I guess, you know, kind of historical terms. Like I think it's like really nice and I don't know if historic is even the right word.  And I, I guess I kind of wish that they were a bit more toned down, like maybe using like Maroon and Gray or, you know, something more along the lines with Arlington's past. So I, I think that Arlington is both a historic town and an up and coming town metro area. And I think that that's reflected in the whole public art initiative and the initiative to name a cultural corridor that reflects both the historic importance of Arlington and its present day activities. So when we think about those 38 lampposts that have the potential to have banners or some kind of visual on them, I think you'll be seeing other requests in the future that could be way different from this and perhaps even bolder, who knows. They won't say Nibbelicious, but I think that that's also, I think reflects the character of the capital score area as a distinct business district versus the other two districts. And I don't really mean versus, but there is a tradition in Arlington Center. It's the traditional town center. And I think it's really appropriate to have that look, if that's what that area seems to be like, but capital square is different. And I don't think this will be the only request that you'll see that will have colors and images, graphics that perhaps don't align completely with history and tradition. No, that's a good point. I really enjoy all of the public art initiatives that are going on. I've been happy to support them in the past and I know I will continue to. But yeah, just my gut feeling, it's my gut instinct after first viewing them. And I guess I could be sold otherwise. It's not a massive deal to me. And I really, because I do like I think the branding kind of outweighs, could outweigh it to me, but I just wish, again, that they were a little more moderate, I guess. But either way, I can see myself supporting this. So being the colorblind one here on the board, I like them.  However, I don't think it's mutually exclusive. It seems to me you could put up one that's maroon on one side and gray on the other. I mean, I don't think, but whatever, that's up to you. You're, I'm colorblind, as I said. But as I said at the ribbon cutting on Saturday for far too long, eight long years now, all the discussion about East Arlington has been over this project, which is finally completed. And it is time for us to move on and talk about vibrant businesses and the neighbors who live there and the visitors who go there. So certainly something that I would want to support. But Mrs. Mohan, something else? Just one last comment. I don't know if you've had or can have any sort of public forum for any public input from East Arlington businesses. Otherwise, the second question I would just pose to the manager, unless you've already done this. I know Ms. Rowe, sort of a quasi-designee on the Scenic Byway Committee, where we're getting funds from the federal government in Arlington, Lexington, Concord, Sudbury. And as a fifth community, maybe Carlisle, we're designating basic for Arlington. Yeah, the Scenic Byway. And I know that they have some proposals for signage sort of in concert with the designation of that naming. So what I would ask if you're okay with that, somebody will probably talk to her later in the week. If Ms. Rowe just could be given a heads up on this to make sure we're not doing anything that sort of adjunct to that. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, so I'm very familiar with the project they're working on. They have some permanent signage they're working on there and trying to get a design agreed upon by the multiple communities. I would actually think these 38 and potentially interchangeable with the 14 that you're proposing. There could come a time where we want to have six months where it's the Battle Road Scenic Byway that's up on the banners. And then another six months or two months where it's fixed to the East and then it goes back to Capital Square. I think they could probably all work together, but bringing Clarissa and the Loops a good idea. Yeah, I just wanted to, and I'm not trying to, I just know that we're making representations to get the federal grant from the government in terms of what we're going to do. Right down to the maps and what they're going to look like and the demos and all that. So I just wanted to put that as, just to be discussed. Thank you. We're also making representations of the state right now on cultural district designation and Capital Square is one anchor of that. I would, if, like Mr. Don, I feel uncomfortable with this board being kind of a design review board or whatnot, but there is an opportunity, I think the first week of December, I think probably to share these with some of the community, there have been some public involvement sessions that have been done around the public initiatives for East Arlington, the four places that were designated by this board. I went to one at the Robbins Library. There will be one at the Fox Library. It may be worthwhile to just lay out the designs and informally gather some of the feedback because those will be the folks who are really invested and care about this. And that's what the sessions are designed for as well. Just get a sense of what people feel. We did do that. We brought it up in the public meeting at the Fox. And, you know, the whole, there are so many ideas and potentials for things coming down the road. We're bringing this now because we're just very excited about having this project done and a new look. And we would love to have banners up for the holidays that say, here's Capital Square. You know, come be here with us for a bit. And again, that's not mutually exclusive to other banners. In the future, actually addressing the historical aspect of Arlington, some of the postcards that I've created and researched have all vintage images of Arlington. They would look great on some of these banners to bring a bit of that sort of history back. So it cannot be mixed up down the line. But I think we've pretty covered it thoroughly, although I'm hesitant to support it. I am hesitant to say a year and a half, to be honest. But that's your motion, Mr. Dunn, right? It is, but I'm definitely flexible on the duration. I think I was making a motion more because I like the process, or I mean, excuse me, I like the end result and I wanted to approve it. But the details of how it gets approved under, I'm definitely flexible on. Any other discussion? To that point, would you be amenable to sort of paring down the, was it May 2017 approval to a shorter duration? Sure. Also with the caveat. What would you like? Well, we recommend one year. She doesn't know when they go up, but I would be still working on that issue.  But I do want to be cognizant. We know that people ask us to put up banners all the time. So I guess, Mr. Chairman, it's hopefully to clarify that my motion is definitely not one year continuous. It is one year as default, where we may bump them for other things. Okay. Okay. Could there be some process that would be clearly laid out? For example, that a certain number of those banners could always be used to identify where you are. The name of the place and some of them would be for art purposes and some would be for special events. Because it seems to me that some kind of process needs to be available so that we all have a frame of reference. And the process is people come before us, ask to hang banners and tell us how long they'd like to hang them for and for what purpose. That's the process like you're doing tonight. So we're asking them to be permanent. I disagree with that. No, I withdraw that request. I understand what you're getting at. But where there are 38 posts and we know where they are, I'm just unclear what the process would be for anybody who wants to come and use the empty ones, take down one that's there and replace it. How does that all get looked at before us and say we'd like to hang banners on these poles for this length of time? I mean, it's what you've just done. That's the process. I appreciate that. And I'm just asking for 14 of them. And I have a map where I know which 14 they are. Is there some way of holding that space so that the next party that wants banners says, OK, I know these are now currently in use for this. These are the ones I want to use. I mean, is there an overview? That's what I'm asking. I would suggest that should the board vote favorably for the 14 tonight, for the duration that's being discussed, that you could then provide the board's office with the map of the poles that are selected. And then in the future, whether it be you, you'd already have your map, but you or another group who wanted to utilize those that had not been approved during this time period, they would know where they're starting from. They could come to the board, they'd have that starting point. And again, if someone came before the board and said, hey, we've got this big event and we want to use all 38, the board I think would want to reserve the right to say, Jan, for this two week period, we'd like to take down the capital square banners to advertise XYZ Festival or whatever it might be. And I think it would roll out like that if the board's amenable to that. Right, I agree. OK, on the motion, I missed it done. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? Nay. Nay? Yep. OK. So four to one, Maureen. Thank you. So item seven for approval, Mr. Byrne, a request letter for heavy commercial vehicle exclusion on Jason Street, sir. Yes, thank you. So this is a project I've been working on with TAC for maybe like two or three years now, for a while. And it's kind of, we came out the gate and we had a community meeting. It was very heavily attended to talk about some traffic issues up on Jason Street near Minotin Rocks Park. And one thing that we continuously heard from the residents were an issue with a lot of the delivery trucks that are going to Whole Foods, CVS, were using Jason Street as a cut-through to get back on the route, too. And while the data in the book that was collected by TAC doesn't necessarily show a very high amount of trucks, I think any are the servants. So what this letter does is kind of begin the process with the state to exclude industrial trucking from using Jason Street. And we're really out of their whim with this. I don't know the chances of it actually being put in place. But I think it's a pretty good show of effort on our part and showing that we're listening to the residents and trying to act on this. I recommend it by TAC. Yes. Second. Discussion? Well, I won't say, it's more or less recommended by the residents and TAC helped draft the letter and collect all the information for it. Mr. Dunn? So I read it and I was worried that I didn't know how to differentiate Jason from other streets in the town. So I've gotten requests from other residents at various points of time.  And I'm concerned that if we do this, you know, everybody's street is going to want to close off. You know, I can, the people are going to want to close off Park Avenue Extension. They're going to want to close off Appleton Street. They're going to want to close off Park Street. And well, I certainly don't endorse trucking on Jason Street per se. I do, I worry that we, the kids, so can you help me understand why this one should be the one? Sure, so I think it's, so this isn't the only, this is like one part of a whole project. So we're looking at a few different measures up in the Jason Street area to calm traffic.   So I think, you know, where you have to take that hard right turn, like you're to get on the bypass road. I think that's, that's why I would support it here. It's because the, like, kind of geographically, it doesn't, Jason Street just doesn't fit for him. Whereas other ones are more straight away and kind of more wired and amenable to them. Does, is there a, so for the next one that comes, how are we going to decide it? That's a good question.  But I think it's just something that we have to evaluate on a case by case basis. I don't think that there can be a kind of blanket policy for this and that we really have to look at the different individual, you know, kind of points that, that we see in each neighborhood. So I'm comfortable doing it here because I think in this instance, it makes sense just based on the road itself. Whereas in somewhere else, I'd have to, you know, think about it twice. That's all for now, thank you. Can I take a crack at it? I would be in favor of doing this with the expectation that we've kind of gone down this road some other times. I mean, I would be thrilled and pleased beyond compare if we could get everything in here from MassDOT. But I'm also seasoned enough like Mr. Byrne and others in terms of, you know, dealing with MassDOT in the past. I know we've had similar requests, especially around the heavy trucking on Route 16 that comes off into East Allenton streets. We've had people come in Cleveland Street, even on Lake Street. And when hearings have come up, when that variance is being discussed, in terms of prohibiting the trucks from coming out from Route 16, we've always in the past, when requested, said we'll certainly present the request to the necessary agency. I think for Route 16, it's not MassDOT, I'm blanking on DCR. DCR, that's right. We've never had any success, but we've always put the request in because residents have said, you know, if you live on Cleveland Street, you see those big, huge trucks coming down. So I'd like to take another crack at it this way, see if there's anything that comes out of it. Especially in light of, I mean, I have been on Jason Street a lot because, you know, if you're with any sports team, that's the route you go with the school buses. And we also do have an elementary school bus route that has several stops along this area of Jason Street. So that kind of makes it, you know, another case in point. So my thing would be, I would like to present this for myself personally, expecting nothing but being thrilled if we get anything. And then if any other similar requests come in, kind of do what we've done in the past. Route 16, banning having trucking from East Allington streets, we send something to DCR. I usually don't get away. I sort of liken this to this. And to your question about in the future, I would say what Mr. Byrne has done, you know, whatever the area is, define it. Is it DCR, is it DOT, is it some other state agency? And just advocate for the residents there. Always with the, for me, the presumption, I always say to people, you know, we've tried this before, we don't have much luck. But, you know, we'll give it a shot. I would like to try again. And then if this is the knot that cracks it, maybe we'll get some help in some of those other areas. Mr. Carroll. Thank you. I just had a question. You said the TACC had helped you to draft the letter. Did they take a position on this? No, I don't believe so. I'd have to go back and go through my notes, but I don't believe that there was an official position taking on it. There will be, before us, at some point in the, hopefully, near future, a whole set of recommendations for the whole neighborhood that they will be voting on. But this is more stemming from a working group that I've been a part of. Mr. Chapter Lane. Just on that point. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. You went by. I'm sorry. Yeah, go ahead. I did speak with both Jeff Max Tutis and Laura Wiener today on that point of tax approval, just to get some clarity, and what Laura informed me was that, you know, this had been brought based on the working group's efforts via Mr. Byrne to TACC. And in response to that request, TACC put this together. So though there was no formal vote, it certainly wasn't in the face of any objection from TACC, but procedurally, there wasn't a, you know, they didn't take the A's and the Nays. I guess I'm prepared to, on that basis, I guess I'm prepared to support the letter. I know that we've always tried to be careful to get the formal TACC recommendations, although as the last meeting proved, we don't always adhere to them. But we try to. But I do this recognizing that in doing this, we will almost certainly be pushing more truck traffic onto Pleasant Street and Highland, so. Which are built for it. Yeah, yeah, particularly. Yeah, I think the points that you've raised are well taken, but yeah. I'm also going to support it to, but I have that same hesitation with just moving them. I mean, if school buses can go down that street vertical and horizontal turns, trucks can go down the street as well. So that argument doesn't particularly convince me. And we're moving them to Pleasant Street, and we all remember the neighbors on Pleasant Street being in here complaining about trucks on Pleasant Street, especially the late night and early morning hours of trucking, so. But it's the nature of the beast, parking and traffic issues where we make a one-on-one. It affects rules, it affects the impact on others, so. But I, you know, TAC is very thorough in terms of how they go about things. And we certainly have heard from the Jason neighbors about issues such as this, so I'm going to support it. Thank you. Further discussion? Does anybody here want to speak on this? Okay, all those in favor of the motion by Mr. Burns, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? No. Okay. Item number, okay, 4-1, Maureen, am I right, 4-1, yep. For approval, CDBG reallocation request, Mr. Chapter Lane. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So before the board tonight is a request from the Planning Department that was first forwarded to the board's CDBG subcommittee. And after a little bit of feedback from one of the members decided to bring this before the board for review and approval. Basically what this is, within the planning section of CDBG funding, last year there was $50,000 approved for zoning reclassification or recodification. That's basically a process where you take zoning, you don't necessarily change it, but you take all of the addendums and amendments and you redo it into one new looking set of code. After kicking off the master plan implementation committee process with the recommendations, both the committee and with the recommendations of the planning department found that taking that on first thing out of the gate was probably not the right strategic step, but rather taking some steps to begin implementing some of the, frankly, more easy to implement pieces of the master plan and its recommendations are more appropriate. So what this request is, is to repurpose a portion of that $50,000, $8,000 towards what's called a right size parking study. What that parking study would do is look at multifamily housing in more than three units in town. See what the actual utilization is in terms of parking on site and determine whether or not zoning should be adjusted of what the parking requirements would be for multifamily housing. That was a recommendation of the master plan. And also is to allocate $25,000 from that $50,000 to the company $25,000 from the capital plan for a design and outreach to the community for a redesign of Arlington Center, both sidewalks and traffic. That's something that Mike Rademacher's been planning to do and to really do both the internal design work and the external outreach. This additional funding was necessary. That would leave a balance of $17,000 of that initial $50,000. If there wasn't another item that we'd want to bring back before the board before this end of this year, that would roll into next year's CDBG funding availability. It could not again be used on planning, which would be okay, but it could be used for public facilities and affordable housing. Which I think both Mr. Berner and Mr. Dunn would agree, we have no shortage of requests for an annual basis. So there would definitely be a use, a good use of those funds in the future. Okay, Mr. Dunn. Move approval. Second. Second discussion, Ms. Mohan. Just as a point before the town manager. There's just one sentence under the right size parking study that gives me cause for pause. And I just want to put it on the table. I'm not saying this isn't the right study, but in light of the conversation we had earlier here tonight, a developer developed a multi-family, I think it was a two-family. I don't know if he turned it into two or three condos. The sentence that says determine if we can reduce the parking requirement in the zoning bylaw for multi-family residential that gives me concern in light of the case and point scenario we had here tonight. In mixed use development and commercial corridors, I have no problem with that. They're multi-family residential zones. So I guess what I would just say is, as that's moving forward, you're certainly cognizant of that issue that we discussed here tonight. You, through the planning department, I would assume will sort of be the eyes and ears. In terms of making sure whoever is conducting that study and is correlating all the information, that it not just be square footage. And especially just around the multi-family residential side, that they also know this sort of a back story to that. And whatever way appropriate that that be factored in. Do you know what I'm saying? Absolutely. And so this is for buildings larger than three families. So tonight's matter wouldn't directly be pertinent, but regardless, your point's a good one that we don't, I mean nothing coming out of this should run this board or any other board into a problem or find itself dealing with issues that it doesn't have to deal with. But at the same time, maximizing value of developable land and making sure that you're not overbuilding parking I think is what this is focused on. And I know I'm probably going to speak beyond my expertise, but by talking with Pam Hallett from the Housing Corporation of Arlington, there's been some discussions about parking and some of their projects. And they've looked at a number of their projects, and in each one of them they have more parking than is actually utilized. And I think that's sort of a good anecdote for why this is important to make sure that we're not requiring parking beyond what people are actually utilizing today in this area with access to public transportation. And I'm just thinking of the phenomenon where my house is a good case in point. I have a house lot next to us on the corner has the house lot. My in-laws and the previous owners, the kitchens, there's a house lot in between. We both split it. And I know I've been approached by developers and they're looking at putting in, you could put in four units, four units in a, you know what I mean? So I know you're saying three families, and there sort of is this phenomena out there. I know we discussed at a town meeting about a woman who's been trying to develop her cellar house and develop it. So there are some sites in Arlington where it's perfectly legal. There's nothing wrong with that, and the developers are coming in and being able to put in four family plus units because of the land that's there. That's my concern, and it's very my new concern. I've raised it with you, obviously you'll know what's going on in the planning department. I just want to make sure that we don't open a panacea of another dimension that we don't have to. No, I think that's what we'll take. And I know small case in point, it's probably 0.5% of the development in Arlington. I don't know, but I know people, monotomy road, people who've been calling me. And I have to explain to them that, yes, a nice family lived there, but it was bought by a developer, and it can be developed that way, that's all. Other comments? Okay, on the motion by Mr. Dunn. Mr. Chairman, six votes on this one. The town manager has a vote. Right, on CDBJ, right. Thank you. I was going to let him. I apologize. No, no. On the motion by Mr. Dunn, all those in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Six oh vote. Item number nine, request for proposals, Mr. Chapter Lane. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So this is, I think, for some time awaited by the board, a draft request for proposals for a temporary lease of the property of 1207 Mass Ave, or otherwise known as the DAV. Doug did a lot of work on drafting this RFP, trying to focus on what the board's desires were coming out of that public feedback or public hearing on the property some time ago. So this would give a group who wanted to do some kind of collaborative working space, incubator space, some kind of cooperative effort to utilize the building. You know, what we look for here is you could do it a short of six months, as much time as a year, see if there is some kind of workable model, and then I think it would be up to the board to decide if they then wanted to lease again or sell, but understanding that last year's capital plan did include anticipated proceeds from the sale of this building as part of the Stratton School financing. So in the document that's provided for the board, you'll see there's some points highlighted in yellow. Most of those are dates that we will fill in when we actually issue it. A couple of them call out, you know, the 12-month period, the minimum six months, the maximum one-year period. We put in a minimum of $6 a square foot in terms of what we would be asking to lease for us, a pretty low amount compared to both market rate and even what we charge for almost all of our buildings in town. So I guess, you know, if there's any changes, we'd be happy to make them, but if the board is approved, we'll try to turn this around and get it issued ASAP. Mr. Dunn. My only question is if the time frame still makes sense. Does it still make sense in relation to Stratton and stuff? So we would be, if we were able to, you know, execute something by February or March, they did it for a year, and then we were able to, you know, be ready at the end of that year to try to move towards the sale, I think we could make it work. Yes, Mr. K. My only question is, in reading the RFP, it looks like just, if you can clarify, it is only allowing short-term leases for incubated purposes? Or does it leave open the possibility that if there are no bids received for an incubator that another communal purpose could be used? So the answer to that is multi-layered. First, you have to keep in mind that this is a real property disposition, even though it's a lease, for what constitutes a public purpose. So part of the reason it's been priced the way it has is the condition of the building. And that's basically being taken as is, is a building that, as you've all seen, is not in terrific shape. But the other purpose that derived out of this process where we got a lot of public input was economic promotion and development in Arlington. And that was the message that I believe we received loud and clear from the folks who were saying, let's not just sell this right away, let's give this an opportunity to see if we can turn this into something that's a big benefit for Arlington's business development. So if it was going to, if we don't get responsive incubator proposals, we would essentially have to put it out for bid for another purpose and we might have to reprice it, where if we were just basically putting it out to bid for general commercial purposes, we wouldn't be able to discount it under Chapter 30B. Got it. Thank you. Okay. Motion? Assembly? Move approval. Second. And second? Another discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? Item 10, call for special town meeting, Mr. Chapter Lane. So I guess the only thing I would add here is I know we've been in communication over the course of the past few months about the potential for a special town meeting in January with the really, the only driving reason that we would call this special town meeting is to put funding in place for the Stratton School Project in the appropriate time frame. Two reasons being, A, we need to get modular classrooms in place by the close of school in June. There had been a prior plan as the board is most likely aware to have a distributed model of modulars at various schools. Since then, the school committee and the PTBC have moved towards a model of having basically what you call a modular farm at Stratton. So Stratton will be at Stratton just in modulars for the course of this project. So we want to get those on site so things can be transitioned out of the building at the end of the school year. Secondly, once the architect came on board and actually started digging into the construction schedule with the goal of doing the entire renovation over the course of next school year and then getting kids back in for the following school year, being able to award the contract and to begin at the end of school. So to begin in June was also very important. And we looked at this upside down inside out and getting that contract awarded in the confines of annual town meeting was just not going to happen. So those are the two reasons why we're calling or asking the board to call this special town meeting. With it called, it will provide us opportunity to consider some other business funding the AFSCME contract which was the only remaining contract that had not been ratified at the annual town meeting earlier this year. As well as Wayland's request to be released from the Minuteman School District will need to be. There'll be some other items that we'll, we can talk about whether or not we want to include them, something in regards to Minuteman for our regional agreement change from our end. As well as I know Ms. Stamps may entertain wanting to put something on in regards to the tree bylaw. I'm not sure what the timing of that is but I know I've heard talk about that. I think that's the universe of what I'm aware of now but obviously if there's something else that the board would like to consider we can do that as well. Move approval for a special town meeting January 25th, 2016. I'm assuming that's a Monday. Yes. Second. Discussion. All those in favor please stand by by saying aye. Aye all those opposed. And for approval Marie opening the warrant what, what do we recommend? We are open the warrant, open at December 2nd. December 2nd. Yes. And to close. December 2nd also 8th and 1st to 4th in the afternoon. Okay the same day. All right. Motion. Move approval. Second. Move approval to open and close on December 2nd, 8th to 8th. Second discussion. And I'd just like to say however we can get the word out that the special town meeting is a special town meeting. We will be having the annual in April. Yeah. You know we don't want to turn this into a mini, I mean for me what was driving for me was we need to do something on Stratton, except the AFSCME contract that came outside. And if we had to do something with, whatever the town manager, I just would like to whatever way I can and I can't preclude anybody from doing anything. But that ideally for us is if we can get in this truly is a special town meeting for a handful of items that need to be dealt with right away because there are time restrictions and that's why we have to do this. And if you have something that, you know, and probably would receive more of an airing of the issue at the annual town meeting in April. So I can't tell you when not to put anything else in there, but I just wanted to put that out there. But also, am I right, we need 100 signatures for a Warren article on a special versus 10 for the regular town meeting. So we would ask people only if it's very time sensitive should they try for the special town meeting. But it's a democracy, you know what? They can do what they want. Excuse me. OK, other discussions? Yes, sir. One of the things that I'd like us to put on as a placeholder is a regional agreement, both for Minuteman. So optimistic. Yeah, OK. Because that would be time-sensitive, certainly. All right. All those in favor of the motion, Mr. Mahan or Mr. Byrne? Mr. Byrne. Are you a two-armed wrestler? And we'll see. All those in favor, like Mr. Mahan, I think, seconded by Mr. Byrne. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Correspondents received. We'll receive. Second. Second. Who wants to speak to the third? Anybody here to speak on any of the correspondence received? Yep. Please come forward. Good evening. My name is Barbara Wexler. And I had submitted a request with regards to a crosswalk near Palmer Street. There's a Dunkin' Donuts, a couple of other little stores there. And I lived nearby. And I witnessed people crossing Mass Ave. And I just fear that there could be a pedestrian killed. I know this crosswalk's further a couple of blocks one way and another block further down. But it really is. It's a wide street. I know they originally thought about putting a cement in the center there. So I just think this is an opportunity, particularly in the morning. And I see people crossing all over there. And just ask you to consider that. OK. Thank you. Yeah, Ms. Mahan. I guess I would ask for some guidance from the town manager on the three pieces of correspondence received, recognizing that TAC has a lot of stuff on their plate. So if anyone thinks something should go to TAC, please let me know. But I was envisioning, first on the request, traffic calming along Gray Street, where the resident is asking to not engage in the program that we're about to engage in there until some of those concerns. Would that be something your office or planning department would be under your purview? Yeah. So may I, Mr. Chairman, in regards to the Gray Street request, there's reference to a desire for the town to adopt a complete streets program. It already did last year at town meeting. So that's already been done. We certainly are paying attention to the state rolling out that funding. And I think that it would not be going against any existing plans we have to wait until that funding is available to be able to look at Gray Street holistically before any improvements are made. So I think that can stay in manager's engineering and respond to it, purview. OK, and then would I be correct on the request the previous speaker cited on the crosswalk for Palmer Street, near Palmer Street, and the no right on red sign at intersection of forest that that go to the police department, to the traffic division unit to assess? So the no right on red, absolutely. Yes. My concern with the crosswalk, with all due respect, is that it's in the confines of the brand new finished and designed Mass Av project. And I know there was a lot of discussions about crosswalk locations. So I strain to think that contemplating a new crosswalk at this time is appropriate. But I defer to the board's judgment. How about if my motion is that I'd like to refer traffic calming along Gray Street and the request for crosswalk near Palmer Street to the town manager and or his department heads to provide an appropriate response and look into and evaluate any recommendations if at all. And that the request no right on red sign also through the manager be referred to the police department traffic enforcement unit. Is that OK? Seconds. All those in favor please signify by saying aye. New business. Marie, Mr. Heim. As the board knows, we did receive some additional correspondence from SEB LLC with respect to the 40B application regarding the MuGar property. Just received it last week. What I want the board to understand is that mass housing worked with the developers to complete their application, regardless of how we might all feel about that. We should consider their application complete in that we essentially be waiting for mass housing's decision based on their application materials and this board's two very thorough responses in public hearing on all those related matters. We don't have a time frame, though. Get that done on your business. Mr. Chapter Lane came. Very quickly, I know it's been mentioned by, I think, several board members, but a very nice ribbon cutting this past Saturday. Thank you to the board members that attended. I thought it was a nice turnout, probably 40, 50 people on a little bit of a chilly, but still nice November and November morning. I would have said this at the end of the last meeting, but I know we were sort of late in the night and short on time and the board's already aware of this, but we have hired, and the town has hired a new deputy town manager, Sandy Pooler. He'll be starting on January 25th after he wraps up his budgetary duties in the town of Amherst. He's currently the finance director in Amherst, but the only new piece of information is he is going to plan to come before the board, to meet the board at its meeting of December 21st. So have an opportunity to meet you and vice versa on December 21st, which I think will be a nice opportunity. So his first day is also the first day of our special town meeting? His first day, I told him. I said, we're bringing you in. We're bringing in the big guns for the special town meeting. You better be ready. I didn't know if that was Quince, but anyways, yes, thank you. I started on a Thursday before the town meeting on a Monday, so I got two days warm up for deputy town manager. And that's all I have. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Brown. Nothing other than I really enjoyed the room cutting on Saturday as well. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mahal. Just very briefly, when the town manager thinks it's appropriate, perhaps in the spring, pre-spring, that I've been asked, especially by Paula Marinelli, about the thermoplastic crosswalks. I know we had a plan and we were gonna implement them. Perhaps maybe in the early spring, you could provide the board with nothing cumbersome, just to sort of, here's what we planned, here's what we did, here's what we're planning to do in the future. And then I just wanna, A, remind everybody that we all know Thanksgiving Day game, Allenton High, Allenton Catholic High School. I have a very nice marriage between the two teams, football and cheerleaders, because of my good fortune of coaching, but it's gonna be a great day. Come on down. I do wanna thank and advance the town manager.  And when I was talking with Dan Shine, we both said, and I've also been talking to him, that you know what, literally we were grabbing dads and some mums out of the stands and along with DPW just shoveling it out. So I know I've wasted, thankfully, three good conversations with the manager and a couple with Dan Shine to say, do we have a backup plan? What can we do with New Turf out there? Looks like we're not gonna need it. So please come down. It's gonna be great weather. That's why my Thanksgiving will be late because I wouldn't miss it for anything. And especially where you got a New Turf field down there, the track will be done in the spring. And it's amazing how that site has transformed through the school committee and school department, but also members of this board of select men, current and past, that we really have a pretty decent complex down there. A lot of people have said to me, when can you replicate what you've done outside inside? And I said, we're working on it. So you're all welcome to come down 10 o'clock, come down sooner actually, because I have some pre nine o'clock ceremonies for the seniors and others. So hope to see you Thanksgiving day. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Sorry, I'm ordering the thoughts. I just wanted to say that about the Mass App project, we were all talking about the ribbon cutting, but I mean, how much I enjoyed that ribbon cutting. And in particular, I just wanted to mention that about how happy I am about the, we talked a lot about the community involvement, but also the volunteer, I wanna just call it the volunteer involvement a lot, just that all the work that tacked on that, in particular Steve Smith, I think that he thought, there's so many people that we should thank and do thank, and I just wanted to mention those as being near and dear to this board's heart in terms of expertise and energy that they bring in. My second item is Minuteman, which is currently my second job. And I have done, I think two more Lincoln meetings. I've got a Sudbury meeting coming up. I did a Belmont call. I have, through the manager, we've asked Doug to put pen to paper on a draft of what I've been referring to as the Boxborough Protocol. I'm currently driving towards our next full, when I say Slackman's meeting, 16 towns of Slackman meeting on December 2nd. And I had been hoping that we were gonna have something that all 16 towns can actually say yes on. And I'm not currently feeling like we're gonna get there partly because just Lincoln's, there's just no way I can get them there fast enough, I don't think. But at the same time, I do feel like there's some positive progress being made. Happy to talk to anyone about Minuteman at length, if you wanna hear more. Or here, if people wish to get more. My last item is that this morning, we had a meeting of the Long Term Planning Committee meetings where we reviewed a series of override in debt exclusion options, talking about for 2018, for Operating Override, or 2021 for an Operating Override. We looked at some very like, back at the envelope numbers for a new high school for Arlington, should we get accepted to the MSBA in three weeks or not? Preliminary numbers for Minuteman, should we get be accepted? And we also talked some contingencies about what we would do to pay for the enrollment increases that are happening capital-wise. Like the task force that we appointed Joe and Steve to, whatever they decide is likely to cost money, how are we gonna pay that? And we also talked about, sorry? In Diane. Excuse me, Joe and Diane, I apologize. And we also talked about some numbers for the forthcoming budget because we need to give the guidance to the town manager because he starts his budget cycle next month. So I don't usually talk that much in new business, but there you go. But it was done well. I call it all work in progress, but I think, yeah, I think there was a, I would say this morning was a very productive meeting, actually. I meant your comments were done well. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll try to match them. I'm sure you will. No root business. No root business, much better. Those were better, yeah. So I would also like to thank my colleagues and so many people for the work done on that East Alton project and the ribbon cutting. And also, since our last meeting, we've had our Veterans Day service. And I think it was spectacular. I believe that I'm aware of, it's my first time in 27 years that all five members of the board of select were able to be there. And you know, Jeff Chunglow, our Veterans Officer just did an outstanding job. I felt Adam Holding Pearl was a particularly touching moment for us, especially as she went to grab the microphone. There's a star in the mic. That's the best when they guilty that age. They just want it. But the other thing I'd like to say to my colleagues is please, you know, John Marr mentioned tonight that we have in the past had a member of the board of selectmen as part of that negotiating team for the cable contract. So if any of you are interested, please let me know. Are the next meeting of the board of selectmen will be December 7th, a motion to adjourn? Just with one caveat. Is there also under the 1207 Mass Ave, the evaluation process is done by the town manager and a representative from the board? Yeah, and we will have time at a future meeting. Oh, okay. All right, so move to adjourn. Okay. Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Good night, Allenton.


That's when the 2023 Governorship Candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in Riva State, Senator Magnus Abbey, has called on Riva's people to provide an enabling environment for Governor Seminalai Fubara to bring out his best in servicing the state as governor. He further asked Riva's people to give the governor the needed time to settle down in office for people to benefit the dividends of democracy in the state. At this point, I would not rate the governorship of Seminalai Fubara in several months because I don't think it is fair to him or fair to Riva's people. I think what the governor means is an atmosphere in which he can bring out his best for people to see and I don't think that that atmosphere has been created as of this time. I think that we should, as a people, give him an opportunity to bring out his best, let him display what his capable of. There can only be one governor at a time. If those who are called to help the governor to serve the state genuinely serve the state, we will make progress. It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks or does. It's not the governor. But where people, rather than serve the state, will choose to serve an individual above the state. We can't make any progress in that kind of a concept. On the resignation of the factional speaker, Edison Ehe, from the Riva State House of Assembly, Senator Magnus Abe noted that the decision of the lawmaker may be connected to the comment by Governor Fubara over the implementation of the presidential proclamation. I support the president. I believe that we should give him an opportunity to make the country better for all of us. And I will continue to do so while I have that belief that Nigeria can be made better and he can make it better. The decision as to the party you join is your own first and foremost. But if you work in a group, people understand what group interest is. So those who are with me, who left the APC because of me, there are people who left the APC because of me. There are people who stayed in the APC. It's not all of us who left the APC. The only people who left the APC were the candidates. They were the only ones that we registered in the SDP. Others, we never registered them in SDP. You can find out. So we knew what we were doing. We planned it as politicians and were very aware of the gravity and consequences of what we were doing. So there is no law that says I must remain in any particular political party. That's not the way it works. And those who follow me always understood that we will go back to the APC at the appropriate time.


Yes, thank you so much. Let me start with a couple of preliminary observations. First, I am really grateful to the organizers of the conference and to Tony Edison in particular for having me today and for arranging the whole thing. And second, the fiscal issues in transition economies. This is a misprint, sorry. This is a huge area. And it's impossible to deal with that in 15 minutes. So I decided to concentrate on some of the conclusions in three areas. The first one is the collapse of the government that took place in transition economies. And transition economies are the economies that had central planning before. So basically these are communist and post-communist countries. These are countries like Vietnam and China and Mongolia and former Soviet Union countries and East European countries. So in these countries, there was sort of a natural experiment. In most of these countries, there was a reduction and in some of those countries there was a sharp reduction of government spending and government revenues as a percentage of GDP. And this was sort of a natural experiment and it shows us what can happen in a middle income country or in a low income country if there is a sudden and rapid reduction of government revenues and expenditure. And the second area is the government investment. Also in those countries, there was a decline in investment and the story is that it was possible to support this decline in investment by increasing government investment. The decline of private investment could have been compensated by the increase in government investment. But this did not happen in most of the countries. And the third story is the story of industrial policy. It's a separate area, but industrial policy is also related to fiscal issues. So I'm going to speculate a little bit about that. In most of the countries, except for the several countries like China, Vietnam, Central European countries, Belarus, and Uzbekistan, very different countries by their characteristics. But in those countries, there was some kind of favorable developments with regard to the three issues that I just described. But in other countries, the developments were very unfavorable and I'm just going to talk about that. Now, if you look at the dynamics of government revenues and expenditure in transition, you can see that in most countries, excluding Central European countries, where the decline in the government revenues as a share of GDP was pronounced, but not that pronounced, in other countries, in other areas, the decline in government spending in GDP in 1990s, when the transition was taking place, was very sharp. And the sharp decline resulted, in fact, in the government failure. The story of transition was very much the story of the government failure, not the story of the market failure. Most of the literature treats the outcome of the reforms, the reforms were the marketization of the economy, the transition from the central planning to market-oriented economy. Most of the literature considers the outcome of the reforms as a function of the speed of the liberalization, or as a function of other developments. But in fact, the major story of transition, somehow it was not that well described in the literature. The major story was the collapse of the government and the inability of the government to provide traditional public goods that the government is supposed to provide. Just to give you one example, this is what happened in Russia. Government spending was at a level of over 60% of GDP, and this government spending went down to 40, 30% of GDP, and 40% of GDP. Now, government spending and government revenues. To make things worse, the GDP itself went down by nearly 50%. So in real terms, the share of government spending and revenues in GDP went down two times by, it declined from 60% to 30%, and the GDP itself went down by 50%. So what happened to the real government spending was the decline by 75%. Well, actually a little bit less 66%, but this is the story. So when the government spending suddenly goes down by two thirds, then basically it's equivalent to the government collapse, where you had previously three policemen, now you have only one policeman, or you have the same three policemen, but you pay those policemen considerably less. And if you pay considerably less, they're trying to compensate the through bribes and so on. Now, in transition economies, there are basically three models of the change of government spending. One was the East European model, Poland, the other was the East Asian model, China, and Vietnam is actually here as well, and the other was former Soviet Union model. Now, not all the countries fit into the scheme, but the general scheme was this one. If you consider only the expenditure for the ordinary government, the ordinary government is everything except for those items, for the debt service, for the funds, for subsidies, and for investment. Ordinary government is the traditional government functions of providing public goods, healthcare, education, government administration, maintaining law and order, and these are sort of non-traditional functions, debt service, defense, subsidies, investment, or better to say, these are the functions that are not associated with the government capacity to provide the public goods. So if you consider the change in the total government spending and in the expenditure for the ordinary government, you see that in Poland, even though in Central Europe, even though there was decline in the total government spending, there was no decline in the spending for the ordinary government. In China, there was a decline in total government spending, but no decline in the spending for the ordinary government. And in the former USSR and in Russia, there was a decline in total government spending and a decline in the spending for the ordinary government. Now, to remind you, in China, from 1978 to 1994, the GDP increased properly four times. So the government spending increased in real terms also four times. They were growing together with the increase in GDP, but in former Soviet Union countries, there was a decline in the GDP and there was a decline in the share of government spending in GDP. So basically, the government spending in real terms declined by something like two thirds. Now, there is, I have several articles which compare the performance of the economies in transition and basically the conclusion of these articles is that the greater was the collapse of the government, the greater was the decline in the government spending as a share of GDP, the greater was the reduction of output. And I have some regressions to support it and I can just refer you to those articles. I will not go, of course, into these regressions, but basically the story was that the collapse of output, this is 1989, and the collapse of output in the former Soviet Republic and in Central Europe was of the magnitude of 50 and more than 50% during the period of nearly 10 years. For some countries, it was more than 10 years. The output was going down for more than 10 years. So this collapse of output is correlated with the reduction of government spending and government revenues in GDP, controlling for other factors, controlling for objective circumstances, for the level of development, for macroeconomic policy like inflation and so on. So this is the first story of skip regressions. This is just to show you that I have some calculations. And if you look at the social changes in the social picture in transition economies, you get pretty much the same story. The increase in crime, in mortality, in suicides, this increase was very much correlated with the government failure story. This is the chart for Russia, but in other countries, you have pretty much the same story. The increase in crime levels was two to three times. The increase in mortality and suicides was significant. So this is the first story of the collapse of the government. Now Vietnam stands out of the crowd. Vietnam, in a sense, is the outlier. Vietnam, here, the statistics starts for Vietnam. This is Vietnam, the large squares, red squares. So here, the statistics starts in 1998, but there is some statistics that is not comparable with the other. There's statistics, some for the world development indicators, but the other statistics, which is national statistics, tells the story of the increase in government spending during 1990s in Vietnam when the reforms were carried out. Vietnamese reforms started in 1986. There was a Doi Moe course, and then these were gradual reforms in 1989. Vietnam, in fact, enacted shock therapy, the regulation of all the prices and also unification of the multiple exchange rates of the Doi of the currency. So in Vietnam, there was an increase in the share of government spending during transition, and since 1998, when we have comparable statistics for Vietnam and some Asian countries, some of them are less developed like Bangladesh, some of them are more developed like China. In Vietnam, looks pretty impressive. Yes, the government spending in Vietnam were growing, and they were higher than in many countries which are more developed than Vietnam, which is typical for the socialist countries where there were greater expenditure for the social purposes and the government was playing a greater role. Now, if you compare Vietnam with the former socialist countries, basically the picture doesn't seem to be that impressive. Why? Because there are quite a number of countries with a similar level of development. I just happen to know that those countries are Moldova and Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan, and this is, I think, Uzbekistan, or maybe this one is Uzbekistan. So there is quite a number of countries that have the higher level of the government spending as compared to GDP. But anyway, Vietnam at least is not the outlier which lies below the regression line. If the regression line runs something like that, then Vietnam is doing pretty much okay. Now, yeah, these are, if somebody is interested, these are the actual numbers for the chart. And the second story, I'll spend just a couple of minutes on this story, is the story of the investment. In most of the transition economies, there was a decline in investment. Private investment declined considerably. In real terms, as a shared GDP, but in some countries, the government managed to increase the government investment and to compensate for the decline of private investment. There are papers that actually argue that there is no complete crowding out. The conventional theory would say that if the government tries to borrow in the market or tries to tax in order to get some revenue and to make some government investment, then this is something that crowds out private investment. Why? Because when the government borrows, the interest rate goes up, so private sector borrows less, so there is a crowding out. But in fact, the empirical papers, they tell us that there is no crowding out, there is no complete crowding out. So one paper, for instance, says that the crowding out is only something like from 25 cents to 50 cents if the government borrows $1, or if the government gets additional revenues through taxes in the amount of $1. And the other paper for low-income countries, thank you, five minutes is quite enough, thank you. If for low-income countries, the story is actually that there is a crowding in. So if the government's investment increase, because they build infrastructure and because they trigger the flow of private investment, it just happens that not only the government investment increase, but also the private investment increase together with the government investment. So maybe it's the case of public-private partnerships, maybe it's just the effect of government. So if the private sector is not showing any trust into the economic situation and there's not investing any money, the government through government investment can fight this trend, can create counterweights to this trend and pull the economy out of the recession. Unfortunately in most of the countries, this was not a story, but what we see for the ratio of the previous chart was the correlation between the total investment and the private investment. And here we see the correlation between the government investment and public investment. The correlation is not so strong, but there is some correlation obviously, and it is obviously the case that in countries where the government invests more, the total investment are increasing. In fact, the good policy would imply that if private investment is going down, then the government should compensate it through the public investment, and this is not the case. So there should be a negative relationship between public and private investment. This is public investment and this is private investment, but there's no negative relationship. So it seems like the government policy in this case, at least in most of the countries, is not really perfect to put it mildly. And finally, the third story, and I'll spend just one minute on this story, and this would be the end of it, this is the story of industrial policy. It's a separate area in industrial policy and it is only partly related to the fiscal issues and transition, but mostly for industrial policy you spend some money from the government budget. And since you spend some money, well, there are cases of successful industrial policy and non-successful industrial policy. And of course, everyone has an opinion of why particular industrial policies are successful or not. We have stories of dramatic successes in these days of industrial policy. We have stories of dramatic failures in industrial policy in sub-Saharan Africa, in Latin America, but the fact is that the example that I usually give people are two groups of sportsmen. One group is trying to jump over two meters and the other group is not trying to jump over two meters. Well, among those group of sportsmen that try to jump over two meters, some would be able to do it and some will never be able to do it. But among those who are not trying to do it, nobody is going to make it. So if we look at the success stories, it is true that not every industrial policy leads to success, but it is also true that virtually all, if not all, cases of success are associated with industrial policy. So the question is, what is the good industrial policy and what is the bad industrial policy? And then, well, this will take us too far away, but the fact is that Vietnam seems to be the case of successful industrial policy. If we look at the share, it's export-oriented industrial policy. If we look at the share of exports in GDP, this is not only exports, this is total merchandise trade as a percentage of GDP. There was a huge increase, pretty much like in China. Yes, during the reforms, there was a huge increase in the share of trade exports and the imports in GDP and the share of investment in GDP actually increased. Increased from below 20% to nearly to 40% and now it's at the level of about 30%. So here are the conclusions. And the conclusions are that the government failure story is the major story in the transition economies. It is possible to prove that the government failure because of the decline in government spending was the major reason for the poor performance in those countries that performed badly and there was a transformation of recession in most of the countries. Two countries that avoided the transformation of recession was Vietnam and China during transition. In China, there was an increase in the growth rates from 5% before the reforms to 10% during the reforms. In Vietnam, from 5% to about 6% to 7%, not as impressive in China, but still there was an increase in the growth rates. If you look at the non-oil industry, not agriculture, but industry, you'll denote in 1989 after 1989. There was a small decline in output in manufacturing, non-oil industry because there was an increase in oil output at that time in 1990, 1991, but the overall, there was no decline in output because the other sectors, agriculture and oil industry increased. Government investment story, it is good to support the declining investment, private investment for the government's investment, and it is also good to proceed with the industrial policy, whatever the secret of good industrial policies. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you very much, Vladimir.