Madam President, ladies, gentlemen, and colleagues, by celebrating the exceptional oeuvre of Professor Howard Goldblatt here today, we not only pay homage to his achievements, but we also call attention to the school's longstanding tradition of excellence in both the study and the practice of literary translation. Many of us who teach literature have considered it to be our professional duty from time to time to publish translations into English or other European languages of work from the areas we study. In many cases, such translations are research outputs in their own right. More recently, many of us have also been inspired by the theoretical turn in translation studies, calling attention to the social, historical, and cultural contexts in which translations appear, and the underlying reasons for translators to make specific choices in the process of rendering creative writing from one language into another language. As Howard Goldblatt himself has pointed out, the question of why certain translation choices are made is even more crucial when translating from Chinese into English than when translating into English from, say, French or Spanish. This is because there are no etymological links between Chinese and English words. Therefore, the translator has different options available for literally every single word that is translated, and the likelihood that the resulting English translation could be translated back into exactly the same Chinese text is virtually zero. Howard Goldblatt has been engaged in making these difficult choices and publishing the outcome since the 1970s. Recent interviews with him mention that he has published over 30 book-length translations of Chinese fiction. By my count, the number is more likely to be around 50. He is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most prolific and successful translator of modern Chinese literature into any European language. He has translated almost every major contemporary Chinese novelists, as well as a number of outstanding writers from Taiwan and elsewhere in the signophone world. So influential is his oeuvre that it, in turn, has become the object of scholarship in the field of translation studies. In 2011, the Chinese scholar Lumin Hong devoted an entire monograph to a neurological analysis of Goldblatt's translations. Growing up in California, where he went to college in the late 1950s, the young Howard Goldblatt could in no way have foreseen how his later career would turn out. In recent interviews, he has confessed to having been a less than stellar undergraduate. He walked out of a class where the teacher wrote a Chinese character on the blackboard because he considered it an unsensical waste of time. Everything changed when he joined the US Navy and was sent out to Taiwan, where he ended up spending a number of years acquiring admirable fluency in Chinese, while at the same time reading widely in literature from around the world. When he returned to the US, he went to graduate school, obtaining an MA from San Francisco State University in 1971, and a PhD from Indiana University in 1974. The monograph that came out of his PhD thesis on the female author Xiaohong is still required reading for students of modern Chinese literature. His discovery of Xiaohong predated the rediscovery of her work by Chinese scholars by almost a decade. She is now widely recognized as one of modern China's best novelists. Later in his academic career, which saw him teaching at San Francisco State before taking up a chair at the University of Colorado at Boulder, followed by a spell as research professor at the University of Notre Dame, Howard Goldblatt increasingly focused on translation. His style of translation, firmly focused on the needs of his readership, constituted a breakthrough in sinological translation conventions. His remarkable ability to discover Chinese literary talent and his willingness to represent them if necessary in negotiations with Western publishers saw him combine the roles of scholar, critic, translator, editor, and agent in a way that had never been done before. In addition to translating a large part of what is now considered the canon of contemporary Chinese fiction, he was also responsible for the Columbia anthology of modern Chinese literature, which he co-edited with Joseph Lau, and which is the standard textbook for the modern Chinese literature course at SOAS and at many other universities. Howard Goldblatt's proudest moment prior to today, of course, came in 2012 when the Chinese writer Mo Yan, whom he had discovered in the late 1980s and whose novels he has been translating ever since, was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Many in our field, myself included, feel that the honor bestowed on Mo Yan was as much the recognition of the author's brilliance as of his English translator's unrivaled ability to produce great literature. Madam President, it is my privilege now to present Howard Goldblatt for the award of Doctor of Letters and to invite him to address this assembly. Madam President, Director Webley, distinguished colleagues, graduating students, ladies and gentlemen, Dajah Hall. Nearly half a century ago, in June 1966, the great British translator of Asian literature, Arthur Whaley, died in the city. Within weeks, a young American gadabout sat down for his first lesson in the Chinese language in far off Taiwan. In the view of some, that was a mere coincidence. It remains an open question. At the time, young Goldblatt did not know just how profoundly that providential connection would affect his life in the years to come. But Whaley's brilliance, his instincts, his understated passion, and his nose for choosing the right thing to translate proved to be the brightest light on the young man's personal journey as a mediator of writing in two diverse and beautiful languages and literary arts. Whaley once wrote about finding a work so exciting that he would be haunted day and night by the urge to put it into English and remain in a state of restlessness and fret until he did. To my good fortune, I found one of those in the very first novel I ever translated by an unheralded manchurian-born woman who would die in Hong Kong at the age of 30. Hulan He-Dran, Tales of Hulan River, is still in print, and Xiao Hong has earned the status in China of national treasure. Since that early effort, I have encountered other fine works, but only once or twice have I again felt that frisson. I think Whaley would have understood, for he was as demanding as I, or I as he. That quest is what keeps us going, the idea that as midwives, we can, on occasion, find a literary masterpiece and turn it into a world classic. Translation exists in the interstice between creator and recreator. It is a precarious position, easily misunderstood, but ignored at one's peril. Maybe that's why many of us do it. We are risk takers for every choice we make from what to translate to how to replicate the qualities that drew us to the work. Creating a beautiful and faithful literary doppelganger is a challenge. That knowledge must have been what motivated Borges to write, and I quote, perhaps the translator's work is more subtle, more civilized than that of the writer. The translator clearly comes after the writer. Translation is a more advanced stage of civilization. That remains my all-time favorite quotation, of course. The honor of being bestowed here is humbling, the ceremony one of the most memorable in my professional life. The day, of course, as well as the future, belonged to you.  And those of you who seek secret pleasures and anonymity go translate a novel. Thank you.


s that are extremely contentious and there is nobody on that committee with any expertise with regard to number one the economics of being a landlord the laws that we already have in place from from the town the state and the federal government and the commission against discrimination federal and state that these people know nothing about that we have to pass anyway so you really need for that and also the huge article on zoning they have no clue whatsoever about land use so what planning board a zoning board did and they've been told by those two boards that they don't know what they're talking about and that's the reason you need the public comment and the public interaction because committees are going ahead writing 44 and 45 page documents about which they know nothing and so i'm trying to be a little bit less angry about this now that i'm hearing a consensus and i will pass the mic on to somebody else thank you for joining us held on Lenora brick hi everybody um i i want to i i echo everything everyone's already said but i want to point out a little bit of an irony tonight of how we had Mindy and Joe here and you know wasn't it great aren't they awesome how they invite participation how congenial and atmosphere how mutually respectful like i've talked with them i've been at their meetings that's one of the things we love about our you know dynamic mod squad that we've sent to the state house and part of why that is is because they get it they get that more of us is better even though more of us is messier and not efficient and not all they but they get how much intelligence and heart there is in the greater room and and you like that i saw how much the counselors love that you know and so let's just let's be that in Amherst let's let's not you know the town's morale is really down you know that you know that we're feeling disconnected and polarized and this is definitely not the way to unite us and so i think we should be doing everything we can to increase public participation to increase morale to and to and to unite us to to bring more um mutual respect i do get that you guys work really hard too hard too much um your job is too hard and maybe the amendments that need to happen in the charter need to be in other things like like maybe you need more counselors you know to spread it out more maybe you need more outside expertise in some formal way to be introduced maybe you need to have uh maybe we need conversations with a different format that isn't just the the town council meetings i don't know i'm sure there's ways to figure out we don't want you burning out we don't want to burn out we care about each other we we serve each other like let's make this work for everybody the other thing that um just the i think the last two comments oh first of all we shouldn't be comparing our second third of all we shouldn't be comparing ourselves to towns that have less participation shame on them don't even look at that that's that's ridiculous um but and and i do agree that that what's best for amherst what's best for each town each town has to decide but part of those decision makers are the public you know we're all in this together we all are invested um and and it would be really lovely to create a friendlier way to um to participate so i i thank you for your good work i really do i know how how hard it is um and i and i hope that you can not have these midnight meetings but do this in a different way thank you thank you for joining us lanor jannah keller please enter the room state your name and where you live jannah keller i live at 120 pulpit hill road and um i just want to say that you're making the rules that will govern the way we and our families live and whether we'll thrive in our community for a long long time so of course we have really strong feelings about um these things and we want the reassurance that you've um taken our lives into consideration um and we want to see that in the preparation and um so i'm with those who who are saying please please keep the democratic more democratic process and inclusionary process public comment doesn't take much time unless there's a really big issue and then we need to take the time to thresh the issues out um and i want to agree that more upfront work on threshing out the real core of these proposals not not the legal details but but what it's about and what the problem is that it's supposed to solve and how it will solve it um um and how it relates to the underlying conditions and the benefits to folks lives um i think that would help a lot um and finally um the preparatory meetings that some of these are discussed in um i have to note that there are at times that are that close lots of people out i can go to them so i'm not complaining about myself but um people who have to be at work and taking care of their kids can't can't come to these daytime meetings so thanks for hearing us out um and uh i appreciate all the work you've done and um appreciate that that you did um give us time to be heard tonight thanks thank you janet anita sorrow please enter the room state your name and where you live um thank you um my name is Anita sarrow i live on chapel road in district five i won't repeat what i put in my letter or or many of the really good comments that i heard from both the council members and and from the speakers um but i do want to comment i was struck by the comment that this proposal was brought forward um out of the need to start the conversation and i'm confused and a little troubled by what was the conversation that needed to start if the conversation is about increasing the efficiency of council meetings or generally the work of the council then why focus on limiting public comment um so i will ask you that when this goes back to gol for reconsideration that it be put in a larger context it be put in the context of making your lives a little bit easier by being able to get you know on with your lives before midnight um because i do appreciate how hard you work but instead of focusing on one aspect of your agenda one way of of doing your work to broaden that conversation and and to hear some of the really good comments that one of the speakers just a little while ago had or that people have written to you and as far as listening to what other towns are doing i was reminded of my junior high experience asking my mom could i stay out after 10 because my friends were and the comment always was if they're going to jump off a cliff or you're gonna follow them so we are independent speakers in this town and i do hope we continue to do that thank you for all you do thank you Anita thank you for your comment julian hines please enter the room state your name and where you live hi there um my name is julian hines i live at 41 pine grove in district five um and i would just like to echo echo some of the other speakers concerns about this um and also would like to thank lin for giving us the time to speak today and add that unfortunately if we were to implement the changes that seem to be proposed or something similar to them after 10 comments pushing off the rest of the comments to the end of the meeting which on controversial issues sometimes go to till midnight 1 even 2 a.m um would not be feasible for many youth like myself we have school at eight nine a.m in the morning and to make our bus routes we have to get up at six or seven a.m in the morning so it's not feasible to end up making a comment at one or two a.m because that's when the end of the council meeting is so you're going to be driving out youth voices if you make um a policy such as this and you're also going to be driving out the voices of teachers and dpw workers and other folks in town whose work day starts at that same time so um those would be my two comments and i would urge you to vote uh against this proposal or at least revise it to uh allow youth and town staff and other folks in town to have more access not less town government thank you very much julian thanks for joining us fill up a villa please enter the room state your name and where you hi can you hear me we can hi my name is fill up a villa i live in district two and i will just say that i am in disagreement with the proposals that have been made so just want to echo a little bit of what everybody has said but i do want to focus on why this conversation was brought up like what is the reason for it and i think as um counselor tops put it if it's not broken why try and fix it so if the reason is not to fix it then what is the reason for this type of conversation to limit public comment from my recollection of the past six months probably a little bit more i think the public comments periods that's gone over 30 minutes have been on racial issues education environmental and policing i think all those topics we can all agree deserve more than 30 minutes of public comment for people to weigh in their opinion on it as residents of this town so what's the reason for this conversation in my mind i think it's a manipulation technique brought by the person that has put forward this type of discussion last i think that this person who brought this conversation up should reflect on her implicit bias and her promotion of structural racism that she often walks back in the public eye yet still works behind back channels to move that agenda forward i hope that the residents of this town are paying attention and voice their opinion come this november when it's time to vote out people who silence marginalized communities thank you thanks for joining us philip briana uh i briana oh and i think please enter the room state your name and where you live and you need to unmute briana you're now unmuted can you hear us yes i can hear you can you all hear me we can hear you yes okay my name is briana and i live in north amherst i want to emphasize well first i want to thank you all for your time as counselors meetings are really long and i get that and with that you all should be receiving a reasonable wage that aligns with this huge job in my experience joining town meetings the times that public comment is the longest is when people are being represented the least i think it's critical for each of you to hear different perspectives from different people living in different districts i also want to harp on the fact that this is a huge equity issue and although i'm a broken record reminding you all of the 2020 resolution to dismantle white supremacy in amherst i'm doing it again the council is a white space even for me right now it gives me anxiety to speak if i went in person it would be even worse but public comment over zoom gives me a way to participate in big decisions and to have my voice heard i'm very concerned and i hope to see you all start to lean on the cfs jc this group has a skill set that note this this group has a skill set that the council does not and it pains me that they're not being utilized as a key component as their charge is representing underrepresented residents and promoting inclusivity to all residents in amherst those who may be affected most by this we're not northampton we're not holiope we are amherst and this is a channel for people in the community to participate in a government in a way they didn't before over zoom and over public comment please stop making it hard to engage with with government leaders it is not only upholding but promoting white supremacy as the council has such minimal diversity public comment provides an opportunity for different views to be heard please don't destroy democracy in amherst ryan thank you for joining us darcy demont please enter the room state your name and where you live good evening my name is darcy demont and i live in south amherst i'm commenting tonight on mandy joe hannoky's proposed council rules change limiting public comment to 30 minutes i wanted first thank dorothy in particular for her comments and and many of the other counselors i'm unhappy that you've made me and others wait until 9 30 to give our comments when we thought we were going to be giving them at 6 30 i'm sure some left because of the weight i firmly believe that public comment should be at the beginning of meetings actually disadvantages people to have special public comment periods later in the meeting this is not a good look for amherst to limit the time for public comment when many of the meetings that have gone long on public comment have been regarding issues around racial equity the look is particularly bad first it looks like the council seemed to slip these changes through by not adequately labeling them on the agenda there's no way that a member of the public simply looking at the agenda would know that this was going to be discussed putting the rule changes on the consent agenda is also not transparent my understanding is that items on the consent agenda are those that would reasonably be assumed to be unanimously agreed to does someone think that this rule change would not be controversial please discuss the use of the consent agenda at your upcoming retreat the council also put councillor hannoky's controversial zoning bylaw proposal on the consent agenda though it was later removed how a referral of a zoning bylaw proposal could ever be on a consent agenda is beyond me in particular when zoning proposals under state law require a much higher degree of support for referral based on automatically needing to be referred to the planning board and automatically required to provide a public hearing within 14 days doing seemingly sneaky stuff like this erodes trust in the council I understand that the council needs to limit the time spent in council meetings but there are more creative and people-friendly ways to do that than limit the public comment period to 30 minutes curtailing public comment appears partisan to those attempting to get their views across one example of wasting the council's time in my opinion is reviewing the council rules annually required by the g.o.l charge which was written by hannoky after five years an annual review is unnecessary and just an invitation to partisan tinkering thank you thank you for your comment Darcy I see no more hands therefore concludes public comment pat you have your hand up yes I I'm having a lot of trouble with attacking um Mandy Joe is definitely not a perfect person and I am definitely not a perfect person nor is anyone else on this council or anyone in our community I am tired of us us the community using where Mandy lives what she thinks what she does um I don't know what underwear she wears so I can't comment on that um and I'm not trying to be facetious we have real problems in this town and I want to take responsibility for making a mistake as chair of g.o.l because Mandy proposed a conversation with the committee and somehow or other I allowed a motion to be created so I want each one of us every one of us here and everyone in the community to think about what they're saying and if you want somebody to change what you consider their racist or attitude or their privileged attitude or their rich attitude then how can you engage with them so they can hear you how can we do that together it I'm sorry I'm taking a lot of time patty when you were complimented by Joe and Mindy that was wonderful and it made me look at myself because I get irritated by you frequently and I'm saying that not to be silly but because I can be dismissive don't dismiss opportunities to argue to fight to talk about what's real but don't miss opportunities to collaborate to see each other for our strengths as well as our weaknesses to see each other across our differences stop attacking each other I'm going to leave the room for a minute totally understand are there any other counselor comments at this time then I'm going to move that this be referred back to CRC and look GOL GOL I'm sorry thank you not not CRC GOL and I'll be looking for a second a second it okay are there other comments at this time Dorothy you know the minutiae of the rules is not an area where you're going to find me leading but is there no way that we could have a vote and say vote yes or no and support these rules or does it have to go back to committee and then come back to us for another vote or can it be killed in committee I want to know how much more time will we need to spend on this issue so as in the past emotions been made it was seconded and if you don't agree with that then you vote no and you can make a counter motion okay and the counter motion could be that we could I mean would or would we be allowed to vote it up or down now in this meeting that would be we have to bring the first motion to the floor okay and then if we vote to refer back and it passes then that's the end but if not another vote could be taken and it could be a vote to yes or no on this okay because we certainly have a conversation we have definitely had a conversation okay any question Dorothy on that yeah I think I get it thank you okay um Mandy Joe um since the chair of GOL has stepped away to answer Dorothy's question we have a whole list at GOL of proposed revisions that many counselors have submitted we're working our way through it some of the list has GOL has voted not to make the change and so you haven't seen those so um I guess what I'm saying to Dorothy is sending this back to GOL could result in it never coming back here as a change or could result in a different proposal coming back but it that's what we've been doing and working through the rules that were proposed what does GOL recommend be changed or what does GOL say no we don't recommend the proposed changes that came to GOL okay Dorothy does that is that clear for you yes it is that's kind of clear yeah okay so the motion that's been made in second it is to refer this back to GOL obviously with the knowledge of this conversation the many emails we've received etc um is there any other comment Shalini um and I think what I'm also hearing is that one of the reasons we want this to go back is to have a further discussion on ways to reduce the time that I mean reduce the time console time including Andy's you know recommendation or other strategies because I think that was the core purpose of this conversation being initiated and I don't think we've come to a resolution how we want to do that so I look forward to hearing what GOL will be discussing further okay Jennifer I guess it's seeming to me a little like apples and oranges I mean if if GOL is going to address how to make our meetings flow more efficiently that's to me very different than whether we're going to reduce public comment I mean I'm inclined to want to see a vote on these up or down on these recommendations and then GOL can continue to have a conversation about more efficient meetings or it might be something we want to take up at our retreat but I don't see that limiting public comment or changing public comment really has a lot to do with the efficiency of our meetings so I just you know want to say that I think they're two completely different issues are there other comments from counselors right there is a motion on the floor Pam quick question so aren't we discussing streamlining our meeting process as part of a retreat is that part of what we plan to do as a full discussion there I thank you for that comment and question Pam we're in the process of developing a list of those issues and you sent some earlier today as well and Michelle is not here for the rest of this meeting but we actually have a meeting tomorrow to talk about planning the retreat and I'll talk about that a little bit in a moment so the only reason I brought it up is that is that we can focus on the changes that we apparently didn't want on this maybe separate from the whole conversation of the streamlining effort yes I hear that Athena I just wanted to add something very quickly we can't hear you Athena I wanted to add quickly that there you counselors do have a the ability to make a motion to postpone something indefinitely which effectively kills a motion that's on the floor but I what I understand your the intent of your motion what that would do is kill everything that's in the proposal from go well so if counselors want some of those things to go back to go well and then come back to the council then a motion to refer would would be the way to do that so I think what Athena is doing is is providing the options okay the options are we're back to go well so they look at it in the entire context of the rules that they're looking at at this point and the other is the option to postpone indefinitely a vote on this the second option means it remains to be brought back up but in the meantime gol may come back with a dish with different changes a vote to postpone indefinitely is a vote to not take it up again how about taking up a change a different change I think referring back to gol would be the best way to do that right yeah that's okay I just want to make sure people understand the options okay all right so referring back to gol clearly that's the motion that's on the floor that's been made and seconded that gives gol the opportunity to look at in the context of the larger issue as well as the possibility that that's part of how we one of the issues we discuss at our retreat the other option is a postponement indefinitely which means it's basically done so are there any questions okay the motion on the floor is refer back to gol that's been made and seconded all right we're going to begin the vote with Pat D'Angelo's yeah this is the referral back to gol that's the motion on the floor okay on Devon got here I Lynn Grismers and I Mandy Jo Hanneke I Anika Lopes Michelle Miller is absent I'm sorry Pam Dorothy Pam no Pam Rooney I Kathy Shane no Andy Steinberg hi Jennifer Tobbe no Alicia Walker no uh Shalini Balmillan yes the motion passes with eight in favor four opposed no abstentions and one absent is that how you confer thank you we're going on to the next it's a conversation it is not a vote it is regarding the town council meeting format although we what we learned this evening is that it appears that there will be an extension of the present format coming from both the house and the senate but they have not acted on that yet so with that I'm going to call on Athena who put together a memo in your packet and she has a slide or two to go with this thanks I'm going to quickly um just review some of the things that you you need to speak into your mic again I'm sorry honey I'm going to give a quick summary of what I put in my memo and raise a couple other points that I think should be helpful for your discussion so the current status that will expire on March 31st allows meetings with the provided adequate alternative means of access so that means fully virtual public meetings and they could be held with less than a quorum so we're all used to this this is what we're doing now what happens after March 31st if there isn't legislation passed public bodies are subject to all the open meeting law requires requirements as of April 1st if there is new legislation public bodies may continue to meet virtually without a quorum physically present if there's a gap between what we have currently and new legislation which which we saw happen the last time there was an expiration date then in the interim public bodies would need to meet in accordance with all the provisions in the open meeting law we plan to give the council timely updates about that legislation and what's going on but I want to raise a couple of issues meetings that are planned for after April 1st may have deadlines that are before the expiration date and maybe before we hear about what the legislation is doing so for example on March 24 we have a public forum on a debt authorization for the school I'm sorry that's happening on later in April but the deadline to post it is March 24 so that's something that we need to be aware of the council has a meeting on April 3rd the deadline to post that is before the expiration date finance committee and CRC are meeting the first week of April so I'm just reminding chairs to take that into consideration when you're planning your meetings we need to think about where those meetings are happening and what's going on with the current legislation like Lynn and Mandy and Joe said the legislation is underway so far the house has passed a supplemental budget bill that extends that would extend it to March 31st we need to hear from the senate and the governor before that will go into effect so for meetings after April 1st like I said public bodies should be prepared to meet in person if there is no expiration if there is no extension before April 1st members may participate remotely but they need to request that from the chair and then the town has a remote participation policy that regulates use of remote remote participation at public meetings I strongly encourage counselors to review the remote participation policy there were links to it in my memo a quorum would need to be physically present and I think it's going to be worthwhile for the council to consider what will happen if the chair or the president has too many requests to allow a meeting to be held do we cancel that meeting how do we give preference to which counselors I think there are some issues of equity there that could be worth considering for the council that threshold would be six counselors more than six counselors requesting remote participation and then it's much smaller thresholds for committees so CRC, GOL and TSO are three and five members for finance we agree with what Mindy and Joe said that virtual public participation works and we're committed to continuing that forever Paul for as long as we're doing this for as long as we can and upcoming decision points for the council if the council determines that they want to change the format for committee meetings I think we're planning on having an agenda item at the next council meeting and we can take that up then and I also wanted to mention that the planning board met recently in person and they just used the one camera rather than everyone having devices so it could be worth considering when we're having a discussion about committee meeting format if that's going to be an option that committees are more comfortable with that would be slightly less labor intensive in terms of managing the meeting and and maybe committee chairs would be able to manage that themselves and people wouldn't have to bring their laptops if they didn't want to and so on I before we move on Andy I I'd like to ask for clarification so you said they used one camera right so this this camera up here that shows the wide angle of the room you can see on zoom with my name there was we had a table set up in the middle of the room and all the members were seated around the table there was still room for attendees in the room and on zoom and they didn't have their individual cameras on it was just that one camera that was on did they take public comment through zoom I don't know so they did do a hybrid meeting right it was hybrid but okay just with one the one camera rather than everyone having their cameras and when they did that did they have an IT person backing up the meeting okay that's that's where the problem lies for council and council committees we we always have a minute taker um it would be up to chairs whether or not they're willing to take on that task but um I'm committed to making sure that this will work the hybrid meetings will work if committees decide to go hybrid so I feel confident that I can work between myself and other staff members that support council committees we can make that work okay um it okay Andy go ahead yeah actually it's just follow up on where we were so um you spoke into council and council committees but our form of government is loaded with lots of boards and committees of all kinds and all are subject to the open meeting law do we have the capacity to do anything other than uh in-person meetings for the large number of committees that are exist mr. Brockman not at the level that we support the council committees the council and its committees um we we are looking to outfit several rooms that can make it as um to make them more accessible um but many times we have more than the three rooms or four rooms that we have available for public meetings so um our default would be to be in-person um with the ability trying to expand the ability for people to at least watch uh remotely okay Andy did you have further questions okay um I just want to speak to the council and the council committees but separately I want to really emphasize what Athena has said all along we have been committed to continuing the hybrid mode so that people can attend meetings either by being in the room or attend virtually and in both instances can make public comment and I personally see no reason to change that in fact I was quite surprised to recently realize that neighboring towns haven't even gone as far as we have that they've just continued to meet virtually and I mean their town councils so we've been in this mode for a year plus probably 14 months or so uh 15 months and personally I love it when people and counselors have continued to come back in the room um I think it makes for a much better meeting but I also think that we've learned that the public really does participate more if we provide zoom um access either participate by making public comment or it's just another way of watching when it comes to committees I'm going to be very interested to hear from various committee chairs about that because in the past when we explored that it was almost like we needed to have one of the committee members being able to manage zoom and some of us have gotten better at that until we have a hiccup and then we're not so good at it so I that's I think another another consideration however I do absolutely want to speak to April 3rd is a critical meeting for this council we have to have a quorum planned to be in this room and the person presiding has to be in this room because we did have a huge gap in there and as Athena just said we have to post that meeting by the 24th so uh because we have a public forum at that meeting about the school bond uh motion so those are just some things and um other than that I let's move on to other people's uh comments Dorothy um well I want to look at this um as somebody who is trained in the theater and um I want to get something cleared the picture that we're seeing now of the town room um I'm just a member of the public looking at it I can't even tell if those are people sitting there um I have no sense of that so I there's nothing to watch there's no people there's no facial expressions um I didn't even know Mindy and Joe were sitting there until you asked them to turn around it's just blobs to me and supposedly my eyes are normal although zoom does stress them out a lot so I just see that as a really boring thing for the public to watch um because you're saying that we're going to cut down the technology because the because right now I see you because each one of you has on your own laptop in front of you and you're looking into uh its camera and somebody is coordinating that um I got to tell you production values really matter and I don't see people being happy um looking at that room and thinking that they're at the meeting or seeing the meeting I don't um so I don't quite know how we're going to do it but um today is in the world today we don't go to lower levels of technical proficiency we keep going to higher levels and people are used to being able to see things and whatever and I think you'll find that people don't like going back to that even though it might be easier on lots of other people you know our staff and whatever so Athena I don't think you were suggesting for council that it be any different than we see it today is that correct no I wasn't suggesting that change for council meetings yeah so we would all remain on camera um on individual cameras Paul you have your hand up yeah the key point here is that this is not a choice if the legislature doesn't act by March 31st it's not a choice for us the law allowing us to do this way fall goes away and then we have to go back to the pre-covid times where everybody has to be in the room this is not a choice that we're presenting it's Athena was trying to lay out what could happen if the legislature fails to act by March 31st so and and we are trying to be prepared for that eventuality because they don't often and they didn't act by March 31st last time they they went well into the next two weeks I think so we will have this time period where we have to figure out what we're allowed to do legally so the meetings can be considered legal meetings right so Athena and Paul I have another clarification before we move on to the next one and that is can we still have public comment by zoom if they don't act yeah yes we can thank you we can we can have meetings like we have been we just need to have the chair and the president in the room and a quorum in the room okay thank you I just wanted to make sure that we all understood that side of it and if I can clarify my suggestion for the the one camera was for committees to make it easier for council committees who would be if there's no legislation before March 31st required to meet in person and that was a suggestion just for discussion I'm not pushing that either way got that Pam you had your hand it was it was kind of a stupid question and that is why does it matter if the if the state hasn't passed it we still hold our meetings they still get recorded do we get fined if we you know do it like that yeah okay I'm the crashing at the door and the meeting wouldn't be considered a legal meeting so any actions taken at that meeting would not be considered anybody could challenge that action that was taken by that committee we would be considered in violation of open meeting law okay Kathy it just to um since when when we first ran the first couple years this absent but present rule you had to file out a piece of paper I mean they it was an online piece of paper and then the chair because I at or the presiding officer had to agree to have you not be there accept on remote you know so it's a pain in the neck is is when you know we could as long there's seven of us here we can keep meeting but the old rule was you actually had to say in advance you weren't going to be there in person and this is how you wanted to be there in remote at least remote's easy now the old remote was you called in on a phone number and it was horrible it was really horrible I feel I remember shallony was one time not able to be here and was phoning in and I think we lost connection with her three or four times so um this this is the preferred remote participation yeah yeah if if I can um speak to what Kathy just mentioned it is cumbersome to have to file that piece of paper when you're doing remote participation but it's really important when you need a quorum in the room to to make sure that it's okay with the chair yeah no I was just saying it's the there's that extra step it's not hard it's just an extra step right well and there is a strong suggestion that except an emergency it be filed 48 hours in advance so right because then a chair will know if they have a quorum right I mean it and you know that little email I send out to you that says will you be in person or virtual you're you're going to start getting terrible reminders if you don't answer because I need to know I've got a quorum in the room um Kathy anything else that's okay Mandy Jo so to I guess get back to where we are I support staying with how we've been doing this if the law doesn't get passed seven of us have to show up right as a council to answer Athena's question as a chair um if we have to go in person um as a chair I would want to be able to access the screen um I don't know which camera or figure out I know we used to be able to do that and there were some issues with it and all because at least for CRC we we've gotten really we do it in GL a lot too and it was a lot more cumbersome pre-zoom but we do a lot of sharing of so everyone can see it so it would be really important for someone in in the room to be able to access the screen and also whatever's going out on zoom to be able to see that screen too and um so that that would sort of be the one request you know we'd need three people in the room so it would be really important for people to have to submit those forms so that we knew we had the three on the other request from Athena you know in terms of if a chair got as a committee chair if I got three requests for remote and I needed to hold the meeting because it was a public hearing say as CRC sometimes does I I would probably without further discussion unless we discuss differently would start with those who I would start with seeing if there are ones that of people who are not in town for the meeting and would probably think to approve them first and not necessarily approve for remote the ones that are sitting in the town um but that would be my first initial instinct but I'd love to hear from counselors if that happens do we cancel a meeting or how do we choose who to approve remote or not right and one of the things is the between now and the 20 the 20th when we meet again I believe every committee has a committee meeting whether it was posted on your agenda or not may be a different issue I'm thinking about finance particularly um and you know you may want to have a discussion among your members um regarding that so we're not voting tonight one way or the other on this and even if we vote on the 25th we may not be voting with any knowledge of what the legislature's going to do okay are there other questions or comments or other chairs of committees or just counselors that went away in on committee meetings okay then I you're done with that and we'll move on to appointments there's none committee reports uh CRC mainly Joe um we started the hearing um it got on the the duplex and other bylaw proposal it got continued till April 5th 6th what's the Thursday 6th until until April 6th at 435 um and we will be we've got a meeting next week and a meeting on the 30th and those will mostly be on rental registration again um we're starting the appointment process for finding appointments and candidates for recommending appointments and finding candidates for the ZBA and the planning board so start putting your feelers out the next meeting um CRC will be approving the bulletin board posting to go up on the bulletin board so make sure people don't fill out anything until that bulletin board posting goes up approximately a week and a half from now okay um Kathy elementary school building nothing to report okay uh Andy finance finance committee uh I we submitted a report so I think that I at this point principally of course if somebody raises their hand um we'll ask that they be recognized to in committee will respond to questions that are asked um committee is meeting tomorrow is going to be a one of our different meetings because the major major items include some annual requirements that are very different one is to review the audit with the auditor and the other is to remove review an op have document with the actuary who uh uh did an update of um the analysis that's required to be done every other year on where we stand as far as what our other post employment benefits requirements are third item that is on the agenda and I don't know how much time we'll have for discussing it but it's because of the deadline we do want to start it as the referral from the last meeting about counselor compensation um it has not been discussed in the committee because it was referred to the day before um and we couldn't notice that so it is on the agenda for this meeting as I transition from are there any questions for finance as I transition from finance to gol am I correct that the finance non voting residents we might have one vacancy coming up and when does that get done gets done by gol and it gets done in the spring so we've got to get that scheduled okay uh pat gol well there's not a lot to say um I do uh we are going to be continuing our work with the rules of procedure uh on the 15th and then our meetings now start at 9 30 what I do want to say is sponsors of resolutions and proclamations need to get to me by the friday before which is the 10th a clean copy of their proclamation or resolution if it's only a date change fine but if there are any additions or changes I need that clean copy sent to me directly and then I will make sure it gets in the packet friday by five o'clock friday by 4 30 okay thank you oh and that's for the arbor day uh jewish heritage and I believe I don't know if anything is really going to happen with the women's history so the folks working on the jewish heritage um I have to have it on friday okay and arbor day in the third one what was the third one okay all right um um any questions for gol um and stated earlier gol continues to work on all of the many suggestions around rules of procedure um jcpc kathy our meeting thursday i'm just trying to figure out exactly we have schools on it and planning it's the last meeting where we're going over the proposals so next week we start talking about what we've heard um putting together what our recommendations are and then we continue that and at some point we write our report and and just so everyone remembers we the report is a recommendation to the town manager um from the original proposals we have so uh that's the schedule I just checked Sean has not posed posted yet the documents for this thursday but it will be schools and planning um for anyone who wants to come and listen thank you any questions jones library anika we have not met since the last meeting tso anika okay so we met uh this past thursday and uh we had the bulk of the meeting went to conversation around the proposed bylaw for refuse collection and recyclable material so we had a informative update from paul and the expert our expert with this susan white and um that discussion was carried out by sponsor leader shallon our next meeting will be this thursday march ninth and upcoming agenda items are the surveillance use policy and street police policy thank you any questions for tso any liaison reports including not really liaison it's ahra but uh michelle is not here pam sorry question for tso can you tell me the status of the snow and ice bylaw joel oh is it joel now so you'd like to ask joel that question i'd like to ask joel that question okay joel doesn't want to answer um right now i'm waiting for uh information from the tree warden um so we're it's on hold it should come up at the next meeting but if i don't have more information from him about what he needs i've gotten some information from uh the director of gilford mooring but it doesn't quite jive with the letter that they send out so i have to figure that out with the warden and that'll be coming up so there's still chance to insert a word or two of course okay uh send it to me uh that would be helpful okay um any liaison reports ham you have your hand up but i think it's from before okay uh seeing none town manager i'm sorry dorthy um this is going back to pat um my brain wandered uh i have a couple of emails that i've gotten recently about the snow shoveling are you saying that that questions that people have sent me on that i should send to you yes okay thank you because i really do want to have a response i didn't have any answer so i will be sending two things later tonight thank you okay are there other questions or comments regarding committee reports liaison reports all right then we're going to move to town manager report uh there's a written town manager report and paul sure i do have a few things i'd like to report on um we are scheduling march 24th as a cup of joe with kathy shane and sean megano to talk about the schools have another opportunity for people in a more informal setting just to come and talk about the school the new elementary school building and um concerns or anything that people want to share with that um also to let you know the town hall will be closed on thursday uh this thursday from it will open at one o'clock we are trying to take four mornings a year to do professional development for all of our staff what we have found when we've tried to do that in the past and try to keep um some of the keep the offices open and that some people were disadvantaged and they didn't have the opportunity to join and uh it was it just created some friction so town hall used to be closed every thursday morning um in years past um and we we kept we opened it um but this is one opportunity for our staff to be able to get some professional development we're focused on dei training at this one um the third thing i want to mention was the um we do have the big night which is where the salamanders move across the road and do their thing um this we're working with the hitchcock center because it's a it's a very popular thing in amherst they tend to be on henry street and north amherst we will probably on the night that it actually happens it's it always happens on a warm night in march or april when it's above 40 degrees in rainy um and that's when they go to do their mating ritual um and a lot of people are on the road trying to protect them as they cross the road if they don't use the little tunnels that are built on that night uh we will probably close henry street to protect the people most like in in the salamanders and detour people around we will have signs up alerting people that this may happen in advance uh we usually you know the forecast and the scientists know when it will happen but we just think that talking with police and fire and dpw they felt the safest thing to do is to detour people around that section of henry street so that will you'll notice that at some point i do mention um grease in a town report town managers report it's an important thing for us because it's really the the impact of grease going down drains especially from our restaurants is really damaging our wastewater system so um i can tell you as much as you want about that but our we have a really an interdisciplinary team from wastewater from dpw from health the board of health our our inspectors all working together on that um the um we've been hearing a lot about the condition of our roads and we do have a bid going out um in the near future um and we don't know what the um how much is going to cost to do the roads because there are only three companies that really are participating and who can do um road construction um and all the cities and towns and the state are all vying for these contractors so we're we have our bid going out we hope we hope that we get a good attractive bid on it um and we get as many roads paved as we can and we continue to looking for options to develop you get more funds to help address the really bad condition of many of our roads in town there's a lot of roads i mean attention the um on tuesday andy mentioned that the finance committee will be here receiving the audit this will be uh sonia aldrich's second spawn song her last day of work was friday thank you to the counselors who were able to come in and wish her good luck she was going to be um helping us on certain projects and helping sean on certain things but this will be her last sort of formal meeting in terms of because we really wanted her to present the audit because it's such a terrific audit um so kudos to her along the same lines you all saw that uh chief livingstone police chief livingstone has announced his retirement um so 46 years of service to one community is just remarkable um he's a he's an amazing leader and has really guided that department through some really challenging times with with just enlightened progressive leadership so he's going to be hard to to replace i will be sharing with you some ideas on how to involve the community and how to move forward on that search process it's a very very very important position i recognize that and i know the community will want to weigh in and talk about what kinds of characteristics they would like to see in the next chief so it um it will be the follower normal department head that where the town manager appoints the council will have the ability to either approve or disapprove the appointment and that will go through the normal process um the last thing is we had the event on saturday and um it was um it was much worse than it had been prior years um typically it's more of a police event where we're managing crowds which is what we did and we're well prepared for that with multiple people multiple agencies helping us um the largest gatherings were at townhouse in north amherst and on south whitney street off of main street there were lots of other parties as well um we had hoped that the weather was going to be in our favor because there was a parking band the night before there was snow on the ground it was seen as a challenge and uh make it even more fun i think by many of the people participating people participating we think were primarily they were all student aged but there was a large contingent that came from out of town so there it became more of a destination party for many people it's a this is a party that starts at people start drinking at 6 37 8 o'clock in the morning and then go throughout the day so we had our normal contingent of officers from the state police and our other agencies plus the crest department was available you mass police we have five we usually go to five communities northampton belgertown chicopee um there's a couple i forget all the names of them and that and that worked and that that worked well as i said but what's different this year is the huge number of uh transports for medical calls um which has not been the case it has not been a medical event in the past and that this was different we had 38 total ems calls for afd for amherst fire department 25 for transports to coulee dickinson um of those 38 28 were alcohol related um we had our four paramedic ambulances staffed plus two paramedic level engines plus another engine all in duty uh we had our normal mutual aid communities that were helping us sending an ambulance belgertown hadley northampton south hadley south county ems there were so many calls from 11 to three basically that one o'clock um with a call spiking we called for a regional ems task force which gets triggered through mema which then is a statewide call and it sort of was misleading because it to the people who were listening like the press they thought it was a mass casualty event which is what usually you make one of these calls when there's a lot you need a whole bunch of ambulances um but we had um the task force responded with ambulances from agarwalam chickabee long meadow ludlow west springfield and westfield this is a huge draw on resources from the entire region which means those ambulances are in the town of amherst they're not in circulation in their own communities we we have not heard of anybody who did not get served in any of the communities that that participated but it's still a huge drain um coley dickinson reported that they had 46 patients um aged between 18 and 25 that reported that so that's our 30 our 28 plus others who went on their own um and that was the largest um day they've ever had in their emergency department um so and we also on top of that we had 82 calls of service for police support so super busy day as i said in the email i wrote to you you would not have you couldn't have been prouder of the how your staff responded managed the crowds at one point they decided they needed to break up the crowd at south whitney because it was so large several thousand people it was blocking the road they had to just move them and um there you have a lot of uh young adults who are have a lot of alcohol in them but the police incredible restraint uh just engaged in them and and help them move start to move and um because at certain points the crowds get so big they feel like they have to address that um so there were two arrests by the amherst police department and two arrests by the umass police department um both for uh i don't know nothing major to sort of alcohol um by possession by a minor or something like that they tried not to arrest that's really not the business there and they're trying to help people enjoy themselves but to be safe that's the whole mantra that the police use um so the the big thing you might have heard is it's called the borg you know blackout rage gallon which is um a gallon of of um container of water that has water and vodka typically and other flavorings and pedia light and things like that so uh it was a challenging day um and so there was a pretty long meeting today with the the primary responders having a debrief we will have a debrief on our end um we will debrief with the university the university is having its own debrief after after action report uh the cooling tickets and has asked for a meeting for us with us to talk of this through as well so we are concerned about next year but more importantly we're concerned about this spring because with the universities uh usually there by the end of april they're pretty much done but this year they've extended that to memorial day so there's four more warm weekends that we are um conscious of and we'll have to prepare for and it won't be as easy because these one day a year things where we get lots of our partners to send officers um they can't do that every weekend because they all get busy as well so it becomes a real challenge for the department at that time we have no time off policy for our police officers which is already you know we have a lot of vacancies for police and fire so it's going to be a stressful spring I fear um we have really good people who will step up but um it's it's going to take its toll um we didn't care all we had some complaints from neighbors some people some mostly I think the neighbors or the people in the community were appalled at what they saw but I don't think and I think that we didn't have a whole lot of noise complaints or anything like that so um but you may have heard more that you might want to share but it was a big event for us um it got a lot of coverage um and continues to get coverage as well there's a new article in the globe today about mostly focused on the new drinking thing so if you have any questions I'm happy to answer them okay uh we have several hands up Anna I'm fine if other folks have questions specifically about the this event mine's not related okay are there questions about this event Dorothy um let me just start actually Mandy Joe you raised your hand yeah um one about this event and one not um but first a thank you to everyone who responded um alcohol's a dangerous thing and to have to transport so many and and deal with all of that so thank you to all of our first responders um a couple questions related that which is does UMass contribute to the costs of managing this event I don't know whether we have first you know like um mutual aid costs but also with all of the overtime our own officers in our own crests and our own fire AFD have to do do we see some financial contributions from UMass for this every year and have you had a chance related to this but other things to talk to or meet or have a discussion with the incoming chancellor and what will be on those discussions related to this and maybe some other things on a non-related one so I don't have to take the mic again um you've had in your report a couple times a flagpole policy and the language changed this week I think from the last time where you said you were developing it to this time where it's out to an attorney when is the council going to see that because I would assume it's a council thing that has to be adopted since it's mostly on public ways and we're the keeper of the public ways all right um so I the only time I met the new in the incoming chancellor is when he was here for interviews and that was just I was part of a group that was part of that interview so nothing other than a hi how are you a type thing in terms of charging the university pays for all the overtime from the police departments that come to town um the mutual aid is just seen as mutual aid those each of those communities absorbs those costs um we absorb the cost of the our Amherst police department that's working overtime um and because most of the events are on townland you know it's not on the university property in terms of the flag policy it is being reviewed um by Pamela Nolan Young wrote it she did a really terrific job um the question the town attorney had was whose policy is it because and the differential so we have some flags that are on the town building which is a town manager typically this would be a select board policy which equates to the executive but there are the our two main flag calls are on the town common so they're looking at the charter and how and who controls what so that's that's their what they're working on are there are other questions about this past weekend Dorothy uh no Shalini I think you're next and then Dorothy so in the past uh I think UMass organized concerts to keep the students busy and I wonder if they did that or will they be doing it in the you were saying the other events coming up in spring so there aren't other events it's just warm weekends when people tend to gather in large parties um they did not do any counter program that I'm aware of this last on Saturday uh Dorothy well at a community and campus coalition meeting we they talked about this and had said had been getting quieter and quieter the last few years they weren't anticipating knock on wood anything more I did say that I you know I I still teach as you know felt a great urge amongst young people to get together again and that I said I hope you'd have a lot of exciting things happening on campus um I did see driving down from Sunderland uh on I guess it was Friday night that there was something on campus with a lot of people coming with those big the borgs right but you know in terms of what happened um on Saturday night it was quiet on on my street but on the upper ends on Fearing Street and North Prospect Street um it was not um I tell you besides I think Mandy Joe's question about the money was one that was very big on my mind which is I don't see why the town of Amherst is paying the overtime for the Amherst police I don't see that and all these towns who lend their ambulances do we ever have a chance to pay back by um does or are they all are we going to always be in their debt um do they call upon us does our ambulance go and help them um and that the last question is about the pictures that were in the paper were up but I guess um the townhouses the brick townhouses and they had the um wrought iron fences which I believe had been put there as a way of crowd control and when you mentioned the crowd of the big crowd of students I just had this horrible thing says you know this I guess it was Korea um bunch of kids got it was at a concert or something and they got crushed to death um I think in the street and I'm just thinking maybe it's time to rethink that big wrought iron fence um because it didn't work and you could get crushed to death on it I mean the big crowds to me are terrifying so those are the questions and comments I have there so uh to go backwards is that that was a very strong they had a lot of conversation back and forth with the fire department police department and um the owners of the property about whether that fence they have gates on the fence whether the gates should be open or not they had that they were had pre-planned when they would open those gates because that concentration of people inside in the fear of there being people trying to escape all at the same time through the same location was was very real so they were alert to that um so um the the um so and just rethinking the the gates were put up at the request of the our community service officer thinking that that would hold people out the only way you could get into that bite was going through someone's apartment um so but that was still the location um in terms of the I forget what the other ones were the ambulance and mutual aid yeah so a mutual aid yeah so that's there's a whole system throughout the state so there's the mutual aids where we have all the people that we call on and they can call on us and we if someone says we need somebody we send an ambulance we do that quite often actually and most often to Northampton or to Belcher town depending on what is going on in their communities we tend to be a a recipient more than a than an offer but we do have a pretty robust system um that where we can send uh resources to other communities especially the smallest towns when they have anything going on um for fire or fire especially for fire apparatus um and so it and then there's a broader statewide system which is what we this task force thing where like there was the um fire and the Brockton hospital and they put out a call they needed dozens of ambulances and everybody sort of sends sends an ambulance there there is a lot of communication and support too because nobody can step up for the worst eventuality there has to be this mutual support um Anna all right I'm going to pivot us a little bit Paul um in your town manager report you gave an update on the community choice aggregation uh and I'm trying to figure out if the jce is is stalled right now you're working on it um which would be great to kind of keep moving and that doesn't impact community choice aggregation is what's stalling cca like why where are we is it not stalled why it feels like we haven't had a big move on it anytime recently and I'm trying to figure out where the sticking spot is yeah I'd have to get more details from Stephanie on it um I think what she has done is pulled them apart and said the jpe right jpe isn't moving quickly but she didn't want to hold back the the community choice option so I think she thinks that we can disentangle the two and move forward on the on the one I'm not sure much more than if it's possible I'd love to get an update on that at a future meeting thank you she has told me I just don't no worries it's it's totally thank you and when you send the response just cc the pro council um so paul I do have one more question that is for all these people that are transported by ambulance is their insurance cover that do we get reimbursed for that yeah so we for all all the people no one was held overnight according to coley dickinson so they're all processed um which indicates something I guess yes we bill almost everybody has insurance especially if you're a student you have to have insurance so we do probably do bill them and we'll collect from them okay we had a somebody asked that question in a email earlier today are there any other questions for the town manager for the his report okay seeing none uh then we're going to go on to town council comments um I did get you a president's report are there any questions with regard to the president's report ana thanks um could you please go into a little bit of detail about the amherst media contract and the representatives from the inspector general's office um specifically when is the could you remind us and I apologize for not knowing when the contract is up and the interpretate sort of what what's being discussed in that and as as you see fit yeah I I mentioned it my my report paul actually is much more involved but so I'm going to look to you to answer the question uh that ana's asked yeah so the contract between comcast so there's two contracts one between the town and comcast which is a license agreement and that expires in 2026 but the um ascertainment process starts about 14 months prior to that so that'll be it could just start a little bit before then uh as comcast is going to give us a schedule for when they are going to file for their relicensing agreement the um contract between the town and amherst media is concurrent with that but that usually happens after we've gotten the agreement with comcast so we know what kind of money is coming in then we negotiate the contract with uh amherst media right now there's a matter of interpretation about how we can use certain funds capital funds specifically because they are in a rental property that is privately owned and um so there's just some procurement issues that we've had and they've had prior explanations from the inspector general's office um and so we had a meeting with the inspector and it was different than how we were interpreting the uniform procurement law and so I think we just sort of said let's get the inspector general in and ask the question and we pose the question as a group and give them some written documentation and then the inspector general will come back to us and tell us what they think and they also offered to talk to the attorney general's office too to help us with our interpretation right thank you any other questions um then also let me mention um that WHMP is going to begin a segment where they do counselor comments uh where they interview counselors and so um I was Andy's known the person that's doing this for a long time we both got an email and I'm meeting with him to talk about what that might look like but over time it does seem that it's not just something where these are this is counselors all over the valley okay all it's all of western mass but there may be you know maybe individual chairs and committees might be interviewed at some point or a certain topic or something like that but it's only once a month but I just wanted to mention that I had just recently gotten that contact um and trying to still sort through what um that means for us and how we do that let me just mention I did talk with Michelle earlier today uh we are looking at we are meeting tomorrow for the retreat the um we've gone through a whole process of looking for facilitators and have come up with the fact that Pamela Young will be our facilitator and then we also we're looking for how best to deal with having somebody who is not a counselor who knows our rules of procedure and our charter and state law and um Athena has stepped to the plate so the team for our meeting Paul will be there but the team for the meeting if you will is um Athena and Pamela and we're looking at sometime early this week you will be sent your reading assignment which is going to be to reread the charter and to reread our current rules of procedure and some identified summary of roberts rules and then we aren't going to require that you read all of roberts rules then we're also going to collect from you questions so that we can collect do those so the beginning of the meeting will be clarify questions you might have then we get to g during gol there's already a starting of a list of what might be the topics related to this that would get discussed in the meeting and um it's called the cheat sheet at this point which is not a good term at all but it's the kind of the list of topics okay and Pam you mentioned one today specifically and that will go on the list the third portion of the meeting will be around priorities and I need each of the committee chairs to send me an email I'll send you a reminder what are the open issues that your committee has on your agendas or anything that is still there because as those of us who are on the council as we ended our first term we now need to be starting to consider what are we reasonably going to be able to get done and there needs to be some level of status about how each of those things are disposed of are not carried over to the next term so that and that will form the basis for a discussion about priorities I don't have a whole lot more detail than that because the group that's planning this which is Michelle and myself and Athena and Pam have not met yet okay and Pam will but if you um have this burning need to join us please let me know Pam you have a question I do and we have been carrying in the CRC a list of leftover items that have carried over from first council right none of which have been voted on by current council none of which have been endorsed by current council we've never really had a conversation about do we even want to see them and so I periodically say can we please just take those off when we're providing an agenda we don't really want to be reminded of all this bird this baggage from last council but I've said it in a nicer way than that so yes I'm aware of the list do we have time before a retreat on the 25th to have a committee meeting to have a committee discussion and even get to those items to even come up with a consensus of what our committee feels is a priority to carry over and this would be a GOL yes CRC we GOL has items too it may be that we're not going to resolve all of this even on the 25th just to know yeah I hear there's a few on that TSO even has a few that got carried over huh yeah um so I don't have a satisfactory answer for you at this point um Shalini it's a related um question to what Pam just that just asked um family on Dr no sorry what am I saying okay anyways I'm really brain dead but I do need to get this said so regarding priorities I've always been saying what is a criteria for priorities and so that kind of talks to the question that and I feel like as a council again what are the criteria we're using within committees to prioritize and then I feel there's some input that's needed from Paul from the staff side in terms of timing costs you know what according to the what the staff knows is the priority so like can we create some way that we do that because again as I've said earlier committees that while I appreciate and I think it's really important for counselors to propose um bylaws and policies but there has to be a way that committees can discuss and I think that's what Andy was also alluding to that there needs to be a process or set of criteria that we agree upon how do we prioritize as committees and as council as a whole so maybe that's the first part of the discussion on priorities yes criteria yeah no I hear you um thank you are there any other comments or questions Pam you have your hand up still okay any other counselor comments in general I want to note we're going to make it before 11 o'clock I'm sorry Dorothy your question just a quick comment to Paul to thank all of our staff our police our crests our fire for dealing with this weekend um because nothing nobody died okay um and that's well that's important nowadays it really is terrible things happening everywhere so just let them know that we appreciate what they did we really appreciate it thank you that's we all we all agree with that one thank you Dorothy seeing no other hands the meeting is adjourned and it is 10 49 thank you


Get this and get it straight. Crime is a sucker's road and those who travel it wind up in the gutter the prison of the grave There's no other end, but they never learn From the pen of Raymond Chandler outspending author of prime fiction comes his most famous character in the adventures of Philip Marlowe With Gerald Moore starred as Philip Marlowe. We bring you tonight's exciting story the long way home The valley floor gave off the kind of heat that ate into you stayed. I Wondered why some 800,000 people voluntarily made the San Fernando Valley their home That was their problem My problem at the moment was to make a right turn off Riverside Drive and I did Four or five blocks north. I saw the name on the redwood post by the driveway Mr. And Mrs. Enos Hopper Yeah, this was it. I Drove in the drive into the cool oasis and orderly wilderness of pepper trees palms evergreens Everything else I'd ever seen grown in Southern California The house sat well back on the lot very neat also redwood to match the post by the driveway I Got out of the car and walked across the grass toward the slightly stoop figure clipping their heads on the Far side of the lot. I didn't hear you coming. I'm sorry. Hope I didn't frighten you. I'm Philip Marlowe Mr. Hopper. Oh, yes. Yes indeed. Mr. Marlowe. I'm glad you're here. Here. I'll pull up this chair That's all right. I'll get it. It's all right. I've got it now Yeah, sit down, Mr. Marlowe. Oh, how about you? Well, if you don't mind I'll keep on clipping the hedge here while we talk Feel better doing something, you know. Oh, sure. We could go into the house. I guess if you'd rather I I Well, it bothers me to be in there now. Yeah, I expect it does How long has she been gone, Mr. Hopper? Since Monday morning. Oh, about nine o'clock. I guess it was She got the laundry together. She was going to the laundry mat and That's the last time I saw her Monday. That's two days ago. Let's take the car. No, Amy doesn't drive I offered a driver the laundry mat's about five blocks from here in that little community center on Riverside You probably passed it. Oh, yeah, and she said no Not the walk would do her good and she hasn't called or anything since no Nothing. Well, how about friends relative? Well, I've been quiet around the neighborhood. You see we have lived here Long as tomorrow. We're not really what you call well acquainted with anyone here. You mean the valley Well in California We're from the Jersey came out here right after the first year Amy always wanted to live in California We moved out. Yeah, but about those relatives. You didn't say why I I had none living Amy does have a cousin out here a cousin Beatrice. That's all I've ever heard a call Beatrice. She lives in Burbank I've never met her seems like I've always been busy when Amy's gone over there It cousin Ray here usually picks Amy up. That's a cousin Beatrice's husband. Have you called this and say me the spirit? Oh, yes. Yes a number of times, but There's been no answer That's odd too. How odd Cousin Beatrice is an invalid Amy says that's why she's never come to call on this Well, perhaps they were out when I called maybe so Tell me mr. Hopper you and Amy have you been happy together? I mean you haven't quarreled right? Oh, no, mr. Maro Amy and I have never raised our voices to one another We've been very happy Yeah Well, it isn't much to go on By the way to check the hospital, you know, there could have been an accident. I thought of that first. Yes, I called them No No one fitting Amy's description. Oh, that's a point about that description You have a recent picture of your wife. Oh, yes. Yes, of course. Oh, would you come in the house, mr. Maro? I'll get one for you. Okay, sure Amy loved it here, mr. Maro flowers Big trees all those plants you see Amy cared for them wanted cultivated. Yeah This is her garden, mr. Maro. I'm just trying to keep it nice for her He turned finally a slight little gray man Led the way into the house. I Felt sorry for him didn't take much to figure that his Amy was his whole life And in his mild gentle way His heart was broken Inside the house is neat and well kept as Enos Harper himself. I Got the first real shock of the day Because the Amy I'd pictured in my mind as Enos spoke of her Was nothing at all like the portrait he handed me from the mantle She's beautiful, isn't she mr. Maro? Yeah Yes, she is She's young too much much younger than I yeah much I'm a very lucky man, mr. Maro Well about this picture. Do you have a smaller one one I can take with me? Well, yes One of these on the desk should be about right size. I should think I Hadn't spotted the gallery on the desk across the room until Enos started for it a Quick count and I came up with seven pictures of Amy carefully arranged along the top ledge of the desk all different all beautiful a Sensational to better word I think The tinted ones showed the hair to be ash blonde the eyes large and brown in the mouth Oh This was mr. Maro, I believe it's Amy's favorite. Oh, thanks. That's a little fine. I Wanted back later. Oh sure sure you bet now then is there anything more anything else that might be helpful Now let's see. Oh, yeah That cousin Beatrice cousin Ray their address and phone and Burbank, huh? And if they have a last name that would help I don't have their address, but I imagine it's in the book named Quinlan when the Ray Quinlan bourbon, okay? And by the way, you said the laundromat your wife patronized is in the community center on Riverside On the north side of the street just a few doors east of where you turn to come up here. All right. I I'll be waiting tomorrow If you find out anything Anything oh sure right away a Little community had no name, but it had everything else a Series of one of each shops and services All the way from health foods to a branch bank Well, I parked on the street in front of the laundromat and studied the picture of Amy Harper again tried to figure her with a laundry bundle and couldn't tried to figure her with Enos and Decided to go back to the laundry bundle made more sense I went inside never smelled anything so clean Yeah, I'm trying to get a line on someone a mrs. Hopper do you know Mrs. Harper Mrs. Enos hopper. Oh here. Look at this. She looks like this. Oh Amy sure Yeah, well when's the last time you saw Well, let's see a day or so ago. I guess Let me check the bundles here that and tell us Oh Yeah, here we are Monday Monday morning, I think yeah, well what I'd like me but my daughter's double parked out in front Can I pick up my laundry you can't have you got the right ticket? Oh, yeah, here it is Banning I just washed with it mrs. Vanning no ironing. It is wash Here we go 62 cents Thank you, can I take it out for you mrs. Vanning? Oh, thank you. No, no, no, I can manage. Oh, and Thank you for letting me bargey him. Oh, thank nothing of it You're trying to get a line on Amy. Oh, well just that anyone ever come in with her No, can't remember anyone. Well, can you remember if you noticed anything special about it when she came in Monday? Yeah Why? You got her picture Yeah, I mean beside that No, she was just Amy You want to pick up her laundry? I don't have her ticket I Was doing great, huh? Enos had told me Amy went to the laundromat on Monday morning and now I knew as much as he did Now I took a picture with me into all the transportation offices around bus train plane car rental Everyone liked the picture, but no one had sold her a ticket on anything The supermarket and the drugstore were every good. It's helpful. And then I Remembered her green thumb. Well, I must say I've seen her many times many times with mr. Harper, of course Well, do you think you might have seen her Monday? No, not that mrs. Harper I do believe mr. Harper within Monday though seems to me It was about his zinniers. Yeah, well what was it is aster's I really couldn't say I believe it was Of course, it really doesn't matter too much. They're the same family, you know Zinniers not the same family Compositor, you know, that's the family name. I'm impressed. But look, I want to tell you can you imagine they used to be called Star Wars Star Wars what a nasty little name for an after have you got a Burbank phone directory? No, I think part of Burbank phone directory. Oh, I thought we were talking about the Harper's I thought we were too Molo investigating the possible disappearance of Amy hopper Amy Thanks, I Understand that she's your wife's cousin, but oh It was yeah, oh, thanks Enos hired you. Yeah, that's right. He says he's tried to call here several times. No answer How long has Amy been missing since Monday morning put some laundry to the laundromat and that's all anybody knows Have you seen it since then heard from her? No, no, I sure haven't I We halfway expected to hear from Amy Monday, too Usually do but didn't Well, how about your wife? Can I talk to her Beatrice isn't here. She I took her to the hospital this morning They're gonna operate later today. Oh, I hope it does it right. Yeah, so do we Well, that's right. You know says she's a she's an invalid. Yeah, that's right about Amy I that's all you know just that she left for the laundromat and got there. That's about it Crazy Amy wouldn't just disappear wouldn't she no No, I don't think she would Yeah, well, I'm in the book. Mr. Quinlan central directory if you get any ideas call me. Yeah. Yeah, I will oh Well, by the way, what are you happy together the hopper? Yes, or as I know The late afternoon Sun was just at eye level as I headed west again on Riverside Drive Cousin Ray was a brown solid man not fat, but husky not too tall 510 maybe must be about 35 or so Enos wasn't home when I got back to Amy's natural habitat, so on a hunch nothing more. I checked with the next-door neighbor Mrs. Brownley her name was was spooning her yogurt straight and propelling her patio glider like she was closing in on the finish line of the Honolulu yacht races Well, I saw her coming out of the laundromat and offered her a ride home Monday was just real warm. You may remember Lulu Yes, you might put it that way Anyway, I told her I was driving right after I picked up some wheat germ and some black strap molasses I'd be going home and that she was welcome to ride with me Uh-huh and she gave me that nice smile of hers and says no thanks, Miss Brownley the walk would do me good Now just why a walk in the hot sun and do anyone any good beyond me But I'm not one to push myself on other people and the ride was there. She could take it or leave it Yeah, tell me did you see her after that? Yeah. Yes. I did this time from across the street But there's no mistake in her for anyone else, you know, I don't suppose there is well there She was going into plenty just a minute just a minute. Pliny the camera shop Pliny Branstetter's place focus focus out of focus Mr. Brownley But then they're in the lodge together, you know, yeah That makes all the difference No, she wasn't not you see Pliny's not here. He had to go to Hollywood for supplies I don't work here on his wife. Yeah, but if Mrs. Harper left some pictures here or picks them up there'd be a record of it, wouldn't there? Yes, I suppose they would Just left the door open to keep cool. We're really supposed to be closed. Yeah, I realized this Well, I I just thought for a member of the lodge, you know, Pliny might be willing to Why didn't you say so? Well left your emblem on your other suit. I'll bet Pliny does it all the time. You man. That's right. I'm in the auxiliary. Well, now let's have a look here Amy That'll be 73 cents including cash 73 cents, Mr. Harper. Oh Yeah, well, I want to tell you two things. I think Mrs. Harper would want to pick these up herself and I'm not Mr. Harper Slowed to a walk around the corner got in my car and thought about what I'd seen a Cozy selection of pictures taken at the beach of Amy mostly But one or two of cousin Ray lifting weights yet and one of Amy and Ray together Who took it? Enos cousin Beatrice. I don't think so I was almost dark now as I eased the car into Enos's driveway And when I got there it was dark The sky above still held the afterglow of early evening But the web of compact trees and shrubs that surrounded the Harper house made patches of blackness all around me. I Got out of the car and I saw a light somewhere in the back of the house And back there to a faint sound I couldn't distinguish There was a sudden movement from the head behind In just a moment we will return to the second act of Philip Marlowe But first a crossword puzzle traps a criminal tonight and most of these same stations when CBS radio brings you gang busters This latest gang busters thriller titled the case of the Missouri puzzle is law enforcement at its cleverest Tonight on CBS radio your court will invite her to sit in as an armchair sleuth and enjoy the case confronting gang busters And now with our star Gerald Moore the second act of Philip Marlowe and tonight's story the long way home There was a shop not a pain at the top of my spine But the bulldozer who jumped me from behind wouldn't settle for that My face smashed into the dew-soaked grass and I inhaled a lung full of wet vigor Oh, well someone with the strength of 10 flailed away at my back Why I wanted to turn over and take it head on I'll never know I kept trying to turn I Slipped it instead slid along the wet grass with a vice on my back a vice with a voice that kept hounding me Out of it Marlowe Hopper you had it Marlowe hopper hopper my property now go on get over here. Hey hopper Mr. Marlowe slept at me. Oh, I don't understand. What what happened? Who was it? Three guesses. What do you mean skip it? What do you better come into the house? Is it loud enough for you to hear out back? London. Oh, yes, I came running didn't I? Hey should come along now. I'll take care of you Someone beat you to it inus Should I Hey Inus You like the beach Well Amy never cared for the beach, so we never went And what do you ask I don't know Why do you ask anything? Hey, mr. Marlowe? I know you've been through a lot I I wouldn't blame you if you'd want to give up looking for Amy if you get it inus I'll give up anything Well so far the case added up to a stiff back and I had wrapped in a tight band of steel with built-in hammer You quick blasts at the pint and the glove to pop and help not at all But something drove the car to stop at the hospital in Burbank could have been for personal reasons The attendant at the main floor desk looked real surprised when I asked what floor cousin Beatrice was on Nearly 9 30 visiting hours are over at 8 30. Oh, well. I lost track of time I guess can you tell me where she is anyway? I'll come back tomorrow What did you say the name was Quinlan, mrs. Ray or mrs. Beatrice could be I don't Know Quinlan list you sure I just look are you sure? No matter a fact or not Thanks for asking me. Oh Marlowe, come in. Yeah, I will You look all in I'm fine.  You shouldn't have gone to tell Enos about him There's a lot he don't know Amy doesn't want to hurt the old guy. We've been trying to figure out how to tell him You got any leads on it not any real ones you Hey, wait a minute You really don't know where she is I Knew I'd be with it. Tell me how'd you meet her at a bar over on Riverside near where she lives Yeah, she'd already invented cousin Beatrice all by herself to give her some place to go How we we liked it being together Got kind of brave about it after a while Sometimes I go right up to a door for the rest of the time we have a regular corner where I took her up this corner Is it near a house? Not far. I was supposed to pick her up Monday, but She didn't show up Yeah Hey, you know, it's funny I'm gonna set the beach ahead flat when I came in All of a sudden I don't feel like When I got back to the car, I thought my head would cave in Every inch of me screamed with pain and sometimes you got to give in to these things. I Tried for home, but I only made it to a motel on Riverside. I Was out before the light was I Found a barbershop and black coffee the next morning in the community center near Harper's It was a thick fuzzy 10 o'clock when I reeled out onto the street and headed toward my car That's the wrong time Are you there wait a minute me? Yeah, are you sure honey? I'm sure all right. What's the trouble? I do something wrong with this planning on anything so tell him well posing as a large brother when you're not as pretty serious Mr. I don't like that. Well, I don't think much of it myself now that I think of it But we'll skip that what I want to know is what's the deal with those pictures of Mrs. Harper's no deal Why everybody's looking at him nobody's picking them up for paying wait a minute wait a minute do that slow First Mrs. Harper comes in there Monday it was Monday, and they're not ready yet. She says she'll pick them up later that day She don't come back a guy does though. He just looks at them smiles and says she'll get who is he do you know? Well, I don't know me a young guy brown hair got a tan Well, well in about an hour another guy comes in and he looks but he don't buy then last evening You wait a minute that second guy plenty. He's older small man gray about 60. Yeah Now here's my problem who wants those pictures not your problem plenty. Oh boy. It's mine The house was open. So I walked in Enos was out in the back pouring something out of a sack onto a flower bed along the back fence Then working it into a soil around the flowers. I Looked around and found a bedroom that had to be Amy's Everything was neat in order. I Turned and started out of the room and then I saw it sticking out from under a cologne bottle on a dressing table. I Picked it up And as I turned to go out Free matched pieces of luggage pointed an accusing finger And then I found my way back into the garden Good morning, Mr. Marlow. Have you found out anything? Yeah, I think I have This laundry ticketing us. I found it in Amy's room. Oh Why didn't you tell me the truth in the first place? I don't know what Amy was here after she left for the laundromat the ticket proves it You found out about cousin Ray it in genus You looked at the pictures in the camera shop. Maybe you suspected for a long time in this synch to it So you picked her up on the corner instead of Ray and you came home, mr.  Didn't you?  You want to back on you right? I give anything to have a breakfast tomorrow. I love it Yeah, I know In this I looked through Amy's closet. It's pretty full of clothes. Our luggage is still there. Yes Amy has a lot of clothes She she wears them well, too Amy didn't go very far in it No The man in the garden shop says you're the gardener around here Not Amy did it That sack of lime is almost empty, you know 50 pounds is a lot for garden isn't it? Depends on what use you put it too much tomorrow.  To keep her I did She wanted to leave me Go away with him I couldn't stand that Did you think I wouldn't figure it out? I didn't know But I had to find out Didn't I miss tomorrow? He came with me quietly Everything about him was quiet and neat and gray He was the mildest gentlest man I ever met and yet He'd killed the thing he loved most his Amy The oldest reason in the world She wasn't his anymore What was it the old man said? I had to find out didn't I miss the Marlowe? Yeah Curiosity killed the cat It also killed Amy The adventures of Philip Marlowe bringing you Raymond Chandler's most famous character star Gerald Moore Are produced and directed by Norman McDonnell and written for radio by Kathleen height Featured in the cast were Bill Johnstone, Azenis Harper and Jack Moyles as Ray Quinlan with Mary Lansing, Sam Edwards, Junius Matthews, Vivi Janus and Peter Leed Gerald Moore may currently be seen in the Santana production, Siraco The special music for Philip Marlowe is composed by Pierre Garaganc and conducted by Wilbur Hatch Be sure to listen again next week at the same time when Philip Marlowe says This time Napoli was divorced to kidnapping the black male And everybody was a wise guy that damed the racket boss in the private eye But the wisest guy of them all turned out to be an eight-year-old kid What a combination for Tin Pan Alley Pan Steve Allen is emcee his vocalists this week are Peggy Lee and Johnny Desmond Song publisher JJ Robbins band representative Mark Hannah and composer Mitchell Parrish are the judges There will be four brand new songs for sale tonight on CBS radio on most of the same CBS station Roy Rowan speaking This is the CBS radio network