Just a reminder to everyone attending this meeting is being recorded. I'll take a roll call before I get started Commissioner Cameron. Good morning. I'm here. Good morning, Commissioner O'Brien. Good morning. I'm here. Thank you and Commissioner Zinica. I'm here. Good morning, everyone. Great. Thank you. A reminder to folks who are attending that we are able to use our virtual platform because Governor Baker issued an executive order back in March of 2019 that gives some relief to public bodies like ours from the open meeting law. And we've been able to take advantage of this remote platform since now on March 14th of 2020. I'm going to get started on a busy day February 11th. It's now 10.02. It is public meeting number hard to believe 335. Look, it started with the approval of minutes and Commissioner Cameron, I know I see your smile because it's probably hard for you to believe that you're at that number. And I suspect exactly right. Almost a year's worth of meeting every day. Wow. I know. Isn't that true? And smiling as well. Yeah, exactly. All right. We'll get started with the minutes. Commissioner O'Brien, please October 8th. I think it's your first step. Yep. Madam Chair, I would move that commission approved the meeting minutes from October 8th 2020 subject any correction for typographical errors or any other non-material matters. Second. Thank you, Commissioner. Any edits or corrections you'd like to make? I see everyone's had a chance to review. Okay, we'll go ahead with the vote. Commissioner Cameron. I. Commissioner O'Brien. I. Commissioner Zunica. I. And I vote yes. Vivian 40. And thank you Vivian for your assistance today. Moving on to the next. Yep. The next set. I would move the commission approved the meeting minutes from October 22nd 2020. Again, subject to correction for any typographical errors or any other non-material matters. Second. Thank you. Any edits on these? Questions? Okay. Commissioner. Thank you, Commissioner O'Brien. Commissioner Cameron. I. Commissioner O'Brien. I. I. Commissioner Zunica. I. And I vote yes. 40. Thank you, Vivian. Thank you, Commissioner O'Brien. I'll set. And moving on to item number three. Executive Director Wells. Why do I not see her right now? Let me just see. Okay. I'm wondering, I know that she is at the office today. I'm wondering if she's having a, just a tech issue. Let me just see. I think she had a board meeting at some point. Not sure when that was. I don't think that's today. I think she anticipates being with us. Okay. I just, I'm wondering if she's just having a little bit of a tech issue joining us. I can try to reach out to her. Her board meeting. Was he? I'm here. I'm just trying to get her out a little bit. I got distracted reading something. Great. Do you want to, Karen, do you want to put your video on? Yeah, I'm just trying. There we go. I'm looking in the wrong direction here. I'm just going to move my screen. There. Thank you. And you can all see that Karen is in the office safely working today from the luxury of a full blown office desk. So thank you. You want to get started with the item number three, a Karen, please. So as a preliminary matter, getting into the, we get into this specific agenda items for the administrative update. I did want to note for you that upon the recommendation of our licensing chief, Mckisha Skinner, and consistent with the authority that was granted to the executive director back in January 2019 to approve administrative or ministerial changes to exempt positions. I wanted to let you know I have approved two additional positions for Encore Boston Harbor as exempt from the registration requirement. Encore requested an exemption for their resort support ambassador position. It's a new position. However, it is identical to the security ambassador position the commission exempted on November 5th, 2020. The position is responsible for welcoming guests, distributing PPE and taking thermal temperature scans. That change is that instead of reporting to security, they will report to front desk services. So in fact, Encore intends to transition the existing security ambassador position over to resort support ambassador. So given those circumstances, I did approve that position as exempt. Similarly, Encore is seeking an exemption for their uniform control supervisor position. That's also a new position, but its job responsibilities are identical to the uniform control assistant manager position exempted by the commission in January 2019. It supervises day to day uniform operations, including quality monitoring, fittings and stock, and Encore intends to eliminate the assistant manager role in favor of the supervisor position. So given that these were technical and administrative changes, I went ahead and did that. The commission has any concerns or wants to address that further. I'm certainly open to that, but that's consistent with the commission's position. And I see Nakisha is available too. Yes, so she's here. And as a reminder, each of these positions has no connection to the gaming floor, other security areas, and no access to confidential or sensitive information. And that will continue to be the case under these provides titles. Any questions? No questions. Sounds completely appropriate to me. Those decisions. Okay. Thank you. So for the next item under the administrative updates, as we have been doing in the past, I'm going to turn it over to Director Murielson, Assistant Director Van from the IED to go over the onsite casino updates, what's been going on at the properties, particularly given the COVID situation that we have going on right now. So I'll turn it over to Arendra first. Thanks, Karen. Good morning, Chair. Good morning, commissioners. Since your last public meeting on January 28th, the big piece is that the 25% capacity limit has expired. And for us, this means that technically we are able to return to the formula that the commission adopted back in June for determining maximum reduced capacity at each casino. Remember, the formula was based in part on the number of gaming positions and takes into account the number of employees onsite and the allowable number in the casino's amenity businesses. So back in June and for reopening in July, the calculation under the formula put each of the properties in the 40% range of building capacity, of building capacity. Actually, the number put encore in the high 40% range, but encore agreed to self-impose a maximum number that brought it in line with the other two at 40%. So now with the expiration of the 25% cap, we've worked with each of the three properties to update their respective numbers, taking into account the addition of gaming positions that they've gradually added since reopening in July. So what we've ended up with are some updated numbers strictly going by the formula. Some of those numbers exceed the 40% capacity. So for each of them, they have agreed to utilize the 40% capacity limit that is in keeping with the governor's recent order for other businesses. So they will be monitoring to the 40% number and we will be monitoring to that number as well. So this is a long-winded way of saying they're basically returning to their reopening numbers, which were 40%. All of the other COVID measures remain in full force. The masking requirement, distancing requirements, the heightened standardization, the signage, the prohibition on eating on the casino floor, the restrictions on beverages, the plexiglass throughout the properties, and the limits to the table game seating capacity. For practical purposes, I wanted to mention that over recent weeks, as you know, they've been capped at the 25%. And none of them in those weeks were in any indication of exceeding the 25% number. This does mean, though, that they will be able to bring folks and have brought folks back from furlough. It's meant the reopening of the hotel at Encore and the anticipated reopening of the MGM Hotel on a limited basis next month. So essentially, that is the update around the capacity numbers. I'm happy to try to answer any more specific questions. And of course, Mr. Band is here as well. Commissioner Zinica? Thank you, maybe I just, I just omitted myself first. Thank you. Maybe you were going to get into this, Loreta, but there was also the 930 curfew restriction, I guess, since we last met, I believe, that was lifted by the governor's orders. Will you be giving an update on that? That was actually previously lifted, so they have been authorized to return to the 24-7 number, and they have been doing that. And I thought we reported on that was too... That's right. As you mentioned, you refresh my memory. You're right. And you know what? It's fair, what we're trying to remember, Commissioner Zinica. So I just want to remind, given that memory, it's hard to keep it all in check, with that came for Encore, the reopening of the hotel, correct, Loreta? That's right. So that happened a couple weeks ago. You're exactly right with the return to the 24-7. And Commissioner Zinica, with that came, if I remember correctly, it was reported a good number of employees brought back from Toronto. Yes, that's correct. And thank you for that. Great. Other questions and reminders for us, because it is hard to keep all of the timeline straight. Any other questions? I do, yeah. Loreta, can you just go back? My memory is that even prior to the curfew and the limitation of 25 percent, that none of the licensees were really consistently approaching that 40 percent? Is that correct? That's exactly right. In fact, they were under the 25 percent. It's not as if they were over 25 percent and then went back to under 25 percent. That even holds up to today. Nobody's gone over the 25 percent. Okay, great. Thank you, Bruce. And we'll be monitoring those numbers closely, Commissioner Bryan, I think, right? Yes. Because as the numbers grow, and particularly as if the health trends go, continue to go in the right direction, and we know that there's a lot of variables in that trend. Additional resources, et cetera, may be needed. So I think to that point, Karen, it will be important for Loreta and Bruce to continue to keep us apprised on a regular cadence every two weeks, right? I think so, too. Commissioner Zunica, did you want to comment? Yeah, yeah. Is it fair to say that now with 24-hour in operation now for a few weeks and this history that you have of observing the crowds hovering around 25 percent or thereabouts, is it fair to say that now there's less risk of those congregations at certain critical times, especially when they were closing at 9.30 before? Have you observed any kind of variations in that occupancy, or exiting, or congregating, accessing the casino? Bruce, do you want to do that one? Yeah. It doesn't seem to be the problem that we were having at around the 9, 9.30 hours before that's been eliminated pretty much. Only time that we've come close to that is when they have a car giveaway or something like that, and they've actually worked out how to do that by placing monitors around the casino floor that shows the same thing so you don't have to congregate in one area where the giveaway is. So they've worked their way around that. And is it fair to say that those giveaways are, like they were before the pandemic, meant to bring in people at times that it's usually less crowded? They don't do those giveaways necessarily on weekends, for example. Right. And Loretta, maybe this is a good time to update us on the status of gatherings, the governor's requirements around inside and outside gatherings. It's still at 10 and 25. That's right. That's still 10 and 25. So I don't think that was adjusted upwards with the recent 40%, with the recent lifting of the 25% cap. And then the hotel requirements stay the same too, correct? Correct. So really it's just a restoration of where we were right before the most recent restrictions. It is. Any further questions, comments? Commissioner Cameron, anything concerned about? No, thank you for the report, but I don't have any additional questions. Okay, excellent. All right. Then moving on, Karen, to human resources division. Yes. So similar to what we had been doing in the past, before the pandemic, we started a practice of the administrative update, having some of the divisions come before the commission. Just give a briefing on some of the things that are going on. So we restarted that last meeting with the information and technology services division. So right now, because we've got some of the things going on with our HR department, Tripti is going to give you a little bit of an update of some of the things that are going on internally at the office just to give you a flavor of some of the work that's been done by that division. So I'll turn that over to Tripti. Hi there. Hi. Good morning, Madam Chair and commissioners. I would like to provide you an update on some of the human resources initiatives during the last 10 months of remote operations. The efforts focus on the area of virtual culture, performance, professional development and diversity. The HR team includes Natasha Martin and Jacqueline Connect. Some of our HR efforts, we are working to build on and strengthen at the MGC or our virtual community and as well as some of the following items that I'd want to share with you in that area. We had conducted an employee survey to have a better understanding where staff is and how we can support them. One of the things that came out of it, the survey was social distractions, periodic emails, sharing information about various topics intended to create a conversation and build community among staff. We also have HR office hours and books group to create a virtual water cooler type of an environment where HR is holding weekly office hours open to all staff as well as smaller group meetings to discuss some targeted topics. We currently have focus groups meeting to discuss social activities, hobbies, apartment dwellers and working environments. Also working closely with the executive director on frequent town hall meetings and updating staff regularly because we're remote and getting an opportunity to bring everyone together. We're also ensuring employee safety. We have developed some detailed COVID guidelines and line with the CDC and the DPH and safety measures for the MGC staff on site and continuing to monitor that to see if there are any shifts or changes that need to be made to offer continued support. Looking at what return to the office may look like following the guidance from the governor's directive as we as an agency are in phase four. We do have some folks on site but what that may look like. In the area of professional development and training, we have offered some diversity training. We had a speaker who joined our town hall recently. We also have launched a supervisor training program, a monthly topic on online trainings followed by small group meetings. As far as development piece, we're also working on the employee handbook. Revisiting our policies and guidelines to ensure their current and continues for our staff. We're also doing some work within diversity, equity and inclusion. As you know, we have a small diversity and equity inclusion group, a small subgroup where we are developing some ideas in the area of culture. We're working in that area to bring some programming to the staff, which includes some newsletters, further developing our intranet and some cultural activities. We're working to improve and streamline some of our job descriptions and working closely with Jill on diversity outreach for recruiting, as well as continuing to do some recruiting work for the chief enforcement council. We're looking at a couple of positions within IT and getting ready to kick off our 2021 racing season. So we'll start that soon and this season typically starts late March, early April with pre-qualifiers. So that is some of the stuff that we have happening in human resources. It's excellent questions for Chupti, a lot going on and evidence that as we've all noted, all four of us how this team continues to fulfill not only all the regular obligations of our gaming commission, but also addressing the overlay of COVID-19 responsibilities. Questions and comments? Good question, Madam Chair. Chupti, thank you. All those programs, you know, you covered a gamut and they all seem very worthwhile. And I was interested, a couple of them I was not aware of. So I'm really happy to hear about that. But overall, how would you assess, it appears to me by the number of our folks that come into our public meetings or attend the town halls that folks remain engaged and, you know, healthy. But how would you assess overall, you know, are there any challenges we should be aware of or are things running as smoothly as they can be from my perspective? So I think that, you know, we always have to keep an eye on folks who may be having a difficult time, right? And we're trying to create a culture with these open, couple of these open environments and in small group check-ins and to see how folks are doing, where we can have some casual conversations, say, hey, how's it going, take the break, maybe taking some time off, although there may not, you know, it's difficult to walk away because your home and work is also home and home is work, kind of a thing. So I actually had a conversation with Commissioner Zuniga yesterday, because he did come to our office hour and we are looking at maybe more one-on-one check-ins that we are doing with staff or maybe in small group capacity for conversations that may not be ideal for a larger forum like a town hall or a commission meeting or something like that to touch base. Thank you. Thank you. Let me just build on that comment, which was one point that I wanted to make. I was able to talk to Drifty Natasha and Jacqueline yesterday on one of the office hours and just want to mention that, you know, Drifty just gave a very brief summary of all the activities and all the thought that they put into this matter, but the efforts are really significant and worthwhile. I encourage people to think about, do a checking with themselves first and say and look at some of the resources available. The disarrangement that we have, you know, because of this pandemic, this remote arrangement is okay, but it's really not quite the same and it's now being, you know, extended for some period of time and that may mean that people may need, you know, some kind of accommodation and or again an individual checking and that is really important to, you know, to contemplate if needed. Supervisors have a role, HR has a role and the point is that there's many ways in which we, they, Drifty and others have thought about continuing support given this arrangement and I encourage people to think about if they need to, but seek and consider those alternatives of support. Other comments for Drifty? I would like to add in that you, I agree with Commissioner Cameron, we appreciate you really covering a very high level today, all of the work that your division is doing. I do know that the training that you described, the supervisor training, I think at one point and Drifty, correct me if I'm wrong, you really were looking at, you know, focusing on our gaming agent division and then out of it, the, really it's vital to, to extend more widely throughout the organization and that folks were really excited about this opportunity. Is that, is that right Drifty? Yes, that's correct. Initially we, you know, identified that there was a need within our supervisory team within the gaming agent group but we also felt, as we thought about it further, that this could be a great way for training across the entire agency for all of our supervisor at varying levels and a great opportunity for, you know, folks to stay in touch with one another and recognize that although they may be in different departments, some of the challenges or opportunities to develop are one in the same and rather than having a one-off training program, we, with Natasha and Jacqueline's help, we developed a training for the entire year that happens on a, that will happen on a monthly basis. So there's some flexibility in being able to take the training on online on their own time but then walking away from that training with a couple of, you know, thoughts and sharing them during the follow-up meetings which are intended to just be a learning opportunity but also an opportunity to create a community and connections with other supervisors and folks across the agency. So Bruce Bann, thank you for sharing that program more widely. I know you were excited about the opportunity for this development for your team and it's been an office-wide benefit. Yeah, it's great for the staff and even myself I'm enjoying it as well. Great. So and again to Commissioner Zuniga's point, these professional development opportunities are also great opportunities for the connections that we are missing during this period. So thank you. That was just one that I, that you listed among all of them. I'm really excited about the cultural opportunities. A little preview because I'm going to put Trupty on the spot but we're really hoping for a cooking class that initiates with Trupty. So thank you. Any other questions for Trupty at this time or for Karen? And of course we want to thank Jacqueline and Natasha and Derek. So thank you for the, to the entire team. I also want to thank Jamie for continuing to coordinate our schedules, Commissioner, so that we get to have individual meetings with the different divisions I, you know, got to meet with the community mitigation fund folks. I think maybe, Commissioner O'Brien, you met with the communications team this month. It's an opportunity, I say selfishly it really is for me because I wouldn't be seeing these groups as easily without all the coordination that Jamie's giving us. So thank you and thank you to all the divisions for, for meeting with us. We all miss you. So thank you. All right. Karen, anything? Oh, I am, I would like to go back to item 3A. Yes. Just for some clarification. As Lorena, if you could update us on one matter that we, we hadn't gotten an update on, which was there was a particular restaurant that decided to close at a certain point. And it's my understanding we've gotten a briefing from you on a couple of issues and there's an update that you hadn't shared with us. So. You're muted, Freda. Well, frustrating. You're referring to Mystique at Encore. They had closed after a troublesome gathering there where they took a very robust response to that and on their own initiative closed. They have reopened. I thought I had updated at our last meeting, but perhaps not in the type of detail that you're looking for. We had said at the time of their closure that any reopening would be subject to approval by the IEB. And I'm going to turn it over to Bruce to let you know they have reopened. I'll let you know. I'll let Bruce tell you exactly what it is that has been approved. Yes, they are open Thursdays through the weekend. We did a complete inspection and continue to inspect to make sure that it stays that way. We measured the seating and the distancing in the restaurant, along with the owners. And they were 100% cooperative with us and they continued to maintain the restaurant with proper distancing. So everything's worked out rather well for us. Commissioner Bryan? Yeah, I have a memory that some of the high top seating in the area troubled somebody. Some people on the IEB in terms of they need to look more like a bar than a restaurant given what's allowed right now. Do they still have high top seats or did they change that? They still have the highest top seats, but the distancing between them is fine. They don't have as many seats at the table and so on. Did that satisfy the concerns that? I know we're not even going to press some concern in that regard. Are you satisfied with the layout? I am. I had been concerned about it. They have made, I think, appropriate adjustments and as well as just the overall monitoring. They really got the message that was not an intentional situation on their part, what had happened. So relying on what I've seen and what Bruce's team has reported, I feel comfortable with the adjustments that they've made. They did close a long high top table that was there all together with it. So that might have been the one you were talking about in particular. Great, thank you. So we thank them for being responsive. We do know it was that their response was full sum at the time and now it sounds as though you're satisfied. So thank you for that update. All right, Karen, anything else? No, that's it. I just want to thank TripD and the whole HR team for all their good work and the update. And if the commission is interested in these kinds of updates from the team, we'll continue those because I think it is helpful to see that the amount of work that's been going on behind the scenes. Always interesting. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we're going to move now to item number four. We'll next hear an update from the Independent Monitor Alejandro Montenegro Almonte, the commission appointed the Independent Monitor to fulfill a condition of our decision in the matter of Windmass LLC, which was issued on April 30th, 2019 relative to the suitability status of the holder of the Region A license. In that decision, the condition is set forth in detail in section 6B2. In our packet of materials for today's meeting, we include the Independent Monitor's PowerPoint that will be presented today. Immediately following that PowerPoint, you will find also a response from the company. The Independent Monitor offered the company the opportunity to review the report in advance for factual corrections. And in turn, we offered the company the chance to respond to the full report. So I wanted to note that to make sure that those attending today's meeting did see the company's response. I think you'll also find, after that response, the full version of the Independent Monitor's final report with the appropriate redactions. Again, those materials are all available in our packet. So let's get started, Ms. Montenegro Almonte. Would you first begin by introducing your colleagues and then sharing the PowerPoint? Yes, of course. Good morning, Madam Chair. Good morning, commissioners. It's a pleasure to see you all. I thought when we met in May, we'd be maybe meeting in person this time, but here we are again. I do have with us our team who are all very familiar to you. We'll start with Preston Pugh who's here joining us today, Ann Salton, Katherine Pappas, and Nicole Gokchabai. And if you will like to share here. Thank you. Can everyone see that? Excellent. Okay. I see heads shaking. Thank you. So this presentation is a summary of what we've called the Phase Two Assessment Report, which is a follow-up to the baseline recommendations that we made earlier this year. Just a general overview of what we plan to cover with you today is one, just a reminder of what our goals were in the second phase. And of course, we'd be remiss not to talk about the general impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, both on the operations and on our exercise. We'll go over a summary of our review and the testing activities that we were able to accomplish, and then close with just some overall observations of where we perceive the company is now and its enhancement of its HRCP of its Human Resources Compliance Program, and specifically the recommendations made in our baseline. We'll go findings by the different compliance hallmarks. We'll review those briefly just to ground us again and what it is that we're looking at here and conclude with some observations. And of course, always welcome a question and answer to keep the conversation moving and dynamic and of course, to make sure that we're addressing any specific questions and concerns that the Commission has. The goal of the phase two review was first of all to really focus on the company's implementation of our baseline assessment. We made a number of recommendations in our baseline review and the focus of this piece was to both test how the company had progressed vis-a-vis those recommendations, but also of course to continue our ongoing review and assessment of all key elements of the company's HR Compliance Program, which we lay out here just by way of recollection of course, critically important culture of compliance and conduct at the top, proper authority oversight and independence, policy procedures, third party relationships, training and guidance, internal reporting and investigation, incentives and discipline, risk-based reviews, monitoring and testing and controls environment. So we'll go not recommendation by recommendation, I'm aware we have an hour and a half, but really just the key takeaways under each of these hallmarks. Starting with the general impact, I mean it really I think for anybody is hard to overstate the impact that COVID-19 has had on all of us, particularly on the company and its operations. We'll recall our first report was issued shortly after the pandemic hit. This was at a time when both Encore Boston and Win Las Vegas has ceased operations for that time, undefined period of time. During the coming months we saw personnel turnover, including at senior levels of the company for a variety of reasons of course, employee furloughs, which were mentioned earlier during the session, and you know resources that were already you know stretched relatively thin had to be diverted and deployed to ensuring the health and safety of when employees and to stabilizing the company's operations. That truly was an extraordinary circumstance that none of us could have predicted coming into this second phase of the monitor ship. It inevitably had some impact on the monitor ship itself. We did see and we anticipated to see some delay in implementation of certain recommendations, particularly those that required the operations to be up and running, interaction with employees. We were however able to test, we were able to conduct some of our testing remotely, and and I must say and I do want to you know take a pause here, it provided a really unique opportunity for us as a monitor team to view the company dealing and responding to an unprecedented crisis at the same time that it continued to address the critical events that brought us here as a monitor team. And it's it's important for us to note that even though the efforts that the company undertook to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic were outside of the scope of our review, we really do commend the company for emerging as a leader in Vegas and Boston, particularly as it responded to its employees, which is you know tangentially related to some of the issues that we look at. And what we saw there was the company organically creating a self-standing COVID-19 response program that had so many of the elements that we are evaluating in the context of the HRCP and we saw them work in that context tremendously well. And I'm speaking there from you know tone at the top, we saw the CEO of WEN Resorts immediately emerge as a leader for his organization backed by the board of directors messaging his absolute commitment to putting his employees first that included continuing pay, which included continuing tips. It included launching a white paper about how to effectively mitigate the risks related to COVID-19 and what we saw on a day-to-day basis as we worked with the company during the monitor ship was that message and that commitment cascaded down through all levels of the organization. We saw engagement, ownership, a real sense of independence and autonomy of all the folk functions that were involved in mitigating this risk. We saw communication with employees on a regular basis. We saw communication with third parties on a regular basis. And what inspired us is that to see the company pivot with very little time to respond to that crisis, we're hopeful that it uses that experience to translate some of the creativity and resources that it deployed in the COVID-19 context to continuing to address issues of sexual harassment and discrimination. And by no means am I equating a global pandemic to the issues of this monitor ship, but they can become a crisis to the company, of course, if not adequately addressed. So we do commend the company and are encouraged that really provides a playbook that can be adapted for other aspects of compliance. So what did we do since we last spoke in May? I will say despite the extraordinary circumstances the company found itself under, we continued to see a high degree of cooperation from the company with our requests and there were many. We were able to review over 200 documents that were produced by the company. There was no limitation in what we were able to see. We requested both publicly available and also as we had in the last phase, some confidential documentation always made available to us appropriately. We were able to interview 32 interviewees across the company from board of directors to executive management on down. All interviews, of course, because of COVID were conducted via video. Everyone made themselves available. We had ample time and opportunity to speak to people that we wanted to speak to. What we were not able to do was conduct onsite testing. We had noted in our work plan for this phase that we did not anticipate to conduct any focus groups during this time period as we had in the first phase, mainly because we wanted to have given the opportunity for the company to actually roll out and implement the recommendations and test them once they had actually taken root. Nevertheless, we do hope in the near-nearish future we'll be able to resume those onsite activities but again, feel very comfortable with what we were able to see and again thank the company for that collaboration. Overall observations, the company continues to express a general commitment to enhance its HRCP. When we spoke to executive management, we spoke to the board of directors, we heard some of the same comments that we heard in our first phase. I think where the company is right now, it's really still developing and kind of translating that expression of commitment to the operationalizing of that commitment and we'll continue to monitor that closely in this phase and that really is where the challenges for most companies right is how do we cement the commitment that we have in a way that is meaningful and sustainable and one of the areas of course that we focus there on is policies and procedures and formalization of governance practices which we'll talk about in other areas of this presentation but again cooperation over remains quite strong. So starting with culture of compliance, you know, I do want to go back to this, to this what we witnessed in the COVID-19 pandemic because it really reflects what we're hoping to see from the company in the context of HR related issues. One of our greatest folks, one of the clearest ways a company demonstrates culture and commitment is by communication at its highest levels. It's important of course to have it throughout the organization but what we saw resoundingly in our baseline review was that employees really want to hear from executive management that they are committed to addressing harassment and discrimination that they, you know as I recall, employees in our focus group said they want to know that they have their backs. The recommendations focus on helping the company develop a strategic communication plan that allows these types of communication to occur in an ongoing basis in a very organic way. Finding opportunities where the CEO members of executive management will be front-facing employees to find those opportunities to inject messaging around HR compliance and the absence of that strategic plan I think became a little helpable in the context of COVID-19 where you know we didn't see engagement on by executive management by leadership on HR issues in large part of course because they were dealing with COVID-19 and that of course distracts but when you have a strategic communication plan in place it doesn't even have to be something that you have that you have to remember to do for lack of a better phrase right it's something that could have continued and been sustained notwithstanding the emergence of an unexpected crisis. So when we talked about in the baseline assessment and in other in our prior communication about the importance of embedding compliance into the DNA of the company that's what we're talking about here and you know we did see some one some communication coming from at the property level that we'll talk about in a few moments but critically important to have an actual plan that can can be sustained throughout the throughout the company's operations. The other way that we test culture and culture of compliance is by the degree of resources that management dedicates and allocates to compliance. Here we focus largely on the filling of senior leadership roles that touch HRCP compliance. Earlier on in our in this phase we saw a vacancy at the chief global compliance officer position and also at the senior vice president human resources position. Those two roles have been filled and you know we're pleased to have seen that they're critical roles to the success of this HRCP. There are however three other roles that we consider to be critical that have not yet been filled. One is the director of executive compensation and benefits that role was instrumental in the company's plans last phase to develop a robust performance management program. We continue to view that as critical to compliance particularly given that the plan included as it should criteria related to compliance and living the values as part of an employee's annual performance evaluation cycle. The other position is the director of DNI diversity and inclusion initiatives. That position will be filled. We understand in the relative future we're excited to see that happen. Many of the initiatives that were being developed by the then director of DNI have been stalled and we expect to see that continue again in the near term. And the last position that we're interested in seeing filled as well is the council for employment at EVH. Prior to even our baseline report that position was vacated. It's a critical role provides a significant deal of support and expertise on these issues at EVH. We continue to view it as critical and are hopeful that the company will move forward and back filling that role as well. I want to go back to the SVP role of HR for a moment. That role was when we first reviewed it in our baseline report. It was a corporate level position that reported into executive management first to the CEO then to the CFO of the company. That position has been restructured in that now it reports to the president of when Las Vegas. While still holding a senior VP title, it's no longer if we were to view an org chart at the same level as some of the other executive management positions. Which is again something we review when testing whether or not executive management is truly demonstrating its commitment to compliance. This is one where we don't want to focus too much on form over substance. But we do view reporting lines to be meaningful with respect to the stature that a personnel is given at a company and the respect that that role and the authority that that role is perceived to have within an organization. The company has explained that there are practical reasons for the reporting lines to be structured as they are now but that the intent is that the new senior vice president will continue to operate at a company-wide level and will effectively be a corporate role. So we'll be very closely looking at that function to ensure that it reflects a global HRCP strategy for the company and not just one that is focused on Las Vegas. That brings us to the next element which is proper authority oversight and independence which of course is dovetails to what you know we were just discussing. There is we observed both during the baseline and I think it became again quite noticeable during this phase two report. The need for the company to truly clarify and segregate if you will the various functions that touch on human resources compliance and that would be the chief global compliance officer, the general counsel and the SVP of HR and then of course the organizations that cascade below them. The reason being without scope definition there cannot be true accountability and independence. This played out in our phase two report where it became clear that there was a lack of clarity amongst the different functions of really who was owning what part of the recommendations that we had rolled out and you know we think with that clarification and delineation those sorts of ambiguities that lead to certain issues falling potentially falling through the cracks can be mitigated. The company you know had an opportunity while those roles were vacated to define where one stops and one starts and where there's overlap how that can be reviewed. Their position is you know their view was that it was best to fill those roles and evaluate once the new personnel were in their seats to define what those roles are so we will continue to work with the company to review ultimately have that delineation pans out. We discussed in our baseline report also the ongoing need to strengthen the compliance committee with an additional member that has significant HR subject matter expertise and I think I said this before but you know I'll say this again that is not at all an indication that we view the experience of the current compliance committee members as overall deficient. It's a very it's a tremendously qualified group of individuals sincere commitment to compliance including HR compliance but don't have that depth of HR experience that would be of value to the company given that it's an advisory function on how to bridge that gap that I spoke to earlier between the expression of commitment and the operationalizing of commitment. We think someone with that level of focused subject matter expertise would be a tremendous tool for the company to be able to figure out how to practically and meaningfully implement the various elements of the HR program that that their attack test to enhance. Policies and procedures we saw you know we saw some limited progress we made a number of recommendations in our baseline report on how the company can continue to enhance its policies and procedures. They've made some headway even before we came in we identified additional opportunities you know policies really are the bedrock of a compliance program they serve to communicate to define expectations more importantly they help to they help the company hold employees accountable to the conduct that they expect and we saw some some progress in modifying and implementing some of our recommendations there is still work to be done. We received drafts towards the end of our drafting phase and that will be reflected in the report demonstrating that you know we received some drafts due to timing we weren't able to fully evaluate how those drafts align with our expectations and will continue to provide observations to the company in short order but this is an area where we do encourage the company to think critically about a culture shift. The company is relatively at an executive level a small group and not you know companies generally feel that policies and procedures can be administratively burdensome and there's you know a balance there to be drawn between going to that administrative burdensome extreme but also ensuring that you have clearly defined governance structures and I'm referring to governance when it comes to HR compliance again monitoring and implementation and that I do think will require a bit of an internal culture shift to move towards the procedures that are being followed right now less formally because we do see procedures being followed but truly documented so that they can be assessed and evaluated to ensure that they are designed to address risks that we identified in our first report and continue to observe as we continue through the monitoring. Senior management has expressed a commitment to move in this direction and we encourage the company to communicate to encourage management to communicate that commitment and to hold personnel accountable to delivering on on the enhancements to its policy universe. Third party relationships you know traditionally refers to third parties consultants advisors we looked of course at that at those relationships within when you'll recall in the baseline report we spent a good amount of time though focusing on patrons and guests and noted the really the highest risk of harassment and discrimination for the company and you know certainly didn't come as as as a surprise was from its patron and guest population. We encouraged the company and made recommendations that would focus communication to employees particularly to cocktail servers, hotel attendants, hotel room attendants, spa attendants that are faced with one-on-one interactions with patrons that have led themselves to face inappropriate behavior. Critically in our baseline report we encouraged the company to communicate their lack of tolerance for that behavior to make it clear that there is no gray area right and again just to reiterate there was never a question that the company would permit any sort of touching. It was verbal harassment discrimination that was reflected in the groups that we in the focus groups that we saw where employees felt patrons crossed the line and because it you know fell fell short of conduct that is truly offensive some focus groups participants indicated they viewed the company as sometimes having a double standard if there was a VIP guest involved or just having a lack of uniformity and to have that conduct was tolerated. The company updated its policy on employee interactions with third-party guests and addresses that point in that policy. The company makes it clear in its opening statements that it does not tolerate any form of harassment or discrimination that the policy applies to everyone and guides employees in telling them that they must feel empowered to stop service that they have an obligation and this is important that they have an obligation to report guest misconduct to managers and critically also that includes a section that instructs managers and supervisors who might be on the floor and how to respond to these incidents and requires immediate reporting to HR so we feel that's that's a significant step forward in communicating again these commitments and expectations to the employees who are most vulnerable to harassment and discrimination. It can't stop there and we are you know still one of the recommendations that followed from from the changes to the policy was requiring a focused training on managers and supervisors to ensure that they understood exactly how they were to behave under this policy what those expectations were that we expect will be completed in the coming months and we have a should pause here in where we have seen recommendations that were not completed or were not fully satisfied we've reissued them this time with a deadline just to incentivize given everything the company is is facing a move forward to completion. We have seen and we'll talk about this in training also some campaigns focused property campaigns reinforcing the obligation of employees to speak out against harassment and discrimination which of course is important where we've not seen progress is in communication directed at patrons and we understand that can be challenging but we've also seen the company in the last year engage in effective and direct communication with its patrons with signage with intervention if someone is not wearing a mask or violating the six-foot rule we reiterate that the company really should look back at what successes it has had in those efforts and find ways to implement that to third-party conduct when it comes to harassment and discrimination we've encouraged the company to think about ways that it can do this so that it feels that you're you know encouraging a standard of behavior as opposed to telling someone you know don't harass or don't discriminate my employees which feels to the company and you know we've heard this from from other organizations as well it's something that people should know and something you shouldn't say you know but we have seen signage at the building for example that you know says no weapons no illegal drugs right no wear shoes I mean it really there are opportunities there that the company I think can continue to to explore we did have an opportunity in this phase to review investigation files that related to patron misconduct importantly we were we were given access to security investigation files we selected those on a randomized sample and really so I think a cross-section of the types of incidents that the company faces we reviewed those files with a critical eye towards identifying one the types of misconduct that the company that employees encounter and of course also looking at how at least the file reflected the incidents were addressed we focused on whether there were any indicators that VIP guests based on you know where the incidents occurred we could somewhat tell where there were VIP guests involved whether they were treated any differently than guests who perhaps were not considered VIP in the sampling that we received we saw no indication of any double standard if you will but this is something that we will continue to monitor very closely training and guidance critical you have your policies and procedures and we have to communicate to employees what they all mean the company has been has continued it's our HRCP policy and procedure training the annual training that we had seen before continued during the pandemic in safe ways of course we were really pleased to see that the company trained a new board member that joined in and I should have noted this before but we were able to observe the onboarding of the newest board member of one resorts and noted I mean from the criteria that the board was looking to add to the board we met with him we had a great conversation with him we're happy to see that part of the criteria for selection included integrity included a commitment to diversity and inclusion they were looking for diverse candidates as well to bring in different voices and perspectives to the board and we're really quite impressed with the new board member has a demonstrated commitment to diversity and inclusion really understands the issues that we are dealing with here and you know we're confident we'll continue to you know further enhance the the the windboard we did um ask whether he had been you know whether in the interviews right some of those criteria that were reflected on paper had been touched on confirmed that yes you know the board members and executive management were very interested in understanding his commitment to these issues and experience related to these issues and even though he joined after the board training um had been conducted the company had one-on-one training with him on hrcp policies and we were quite pleased to hear that the compliance committee also received the training that we recommended an opportunity that was identified for us there was the comply the the trainings of the board and compliance committee really focused on las vegas on nevada law we've encouraged the company and made recommendations that future trainings ensure that they include massachusetts applicable massachusetts employment law the both the board and the compliance committee of course are tasked with oversight of both properties and it's important for them to understand the legal landscape of the states in which those entities operate even more important where there might be some divergence in what the laws require what expectations are that those be highlighted both to the board and to the compliance committee the company is in the process also of developing function specific training um you know we see so many different functions that intersect with hr issues and that intersect with harassment and discrimination that must address it that it's important to have you know short it doesn't have to be you know too long but short focused trainings to help you know cocktail server versus a spa attendant right or you know a manager on the casino floor versus a manager in the spa how to handle the very different situations that they and their employers are employees are going to face also important to continue to train corporate security on issues related to harassment and discrimination we did see um i think it's called win win university but it's it's a long it's a five-day program for security personnel that has you know number of modules which i'm sure you're familiar with that touches on sexual assault we did not see um any specific training sessions on sexual harassment and discrimination and perhaps how to address um how to address those situations when security is brought in which is very different than you know than an assault security academy is what is what it's called they will we recommend that they that the company develop a module that focuses on these particular issues as well we've also understand that there has been some training on unconscious bias for security we haven't seen that so we'll be either confirming that it has occurred and that it continued to occur and if not we'll be just previewing there uh recommending that that training occur we think it's important that um you know again to ensure uniformity and consistency in how issues are addressed that um unconscious bias training occur and we of course um reissued a recommendation requiring that the company develop methods for testing the effectiveness of training programs you know whether it be you know a poll at the end of the of a live training session or a little survey at the end of an online training session uh or a quiz if you will to ensure that trainings aren't only that people aren't just participating in the trainings but that they're also really understanding what it is that they're hearing and this came from focus groups where you know we asked people about the training and there were you know there were some recall of things that were said and you know maybe perhaps hypotheticals that really stood out but there was a sense that we the company should be testing just really how much those messages are sticking to ensure it also serves the way of reinforcing the training itself internal reporting and investigation of course a critical area of focus for us um given the uh the events that that brought us here the company has made for us a large focus was updating its investigations policy to ensure that the entire reporting and investigation process works as it should and that included from intake to routing of an allegation so that we're precluding the risk of people who might be named in an allegation in a complaint receiving a complaint from ensuring that you've got subject matter experts involved in an investigation so that it's thoroughly reviewed ensuring that both the complainant whether they be anonymous or not are appropriately communicated with both at intake and throughout the life of the case that the person who's the target also is appropriately communicated with the dressed that where there is a need for retaining documentation or accessing cell phones that there's guidance within the policy and of course we do not expect a policy to anticipate every situation but certainly to provide the guardrails that we know to be a best practice in how to conduct and manage an internal investigation particularly important given the events that brought us here that the policy and procedures reflect guidance on how to respond to allegations made against senior or executive management we've seen a draft of the policy that addresses some of our concerns and will continue to give that that's one of the policies that we saw we had some high level comments in the report but we'll have a deeper dive with the company on our observations we think it's also important that the policy include guidance for er and hr on conducting interviews and ensuring that they're looking at all aspects of the allegations or new information that might come up in the context of an investigation and also that the resolution and the closeout of an investigation is thorough and clear we had the opportunity again in this um in this phase to review sample investigation files and we had the opportunity to review you'll recall monthly reports that are escalated to the gc and quarterly reports that are escalated to the compliance committee on harassment discrimination from those we selected sample files our samples included allegations across both properties and against all level of personnel including senior management and we've made some observations in a report along those lines that inform our further emphasis on the company enhancing its internal investigations procedure so that there are no missteps of the kind that were you know seen a couple of years ago we also um saw training which was critically important um the company took advantage during the first months of quarantine while everyone was home to require er employees and other and and other functions who are related in investigations to attend a several great day training conducted by an external firm to really walk through all aspects of an investigation now that training was focused on general practices the investigation policy had not yet been updated when the training occurred by all accounts the training was incredibly well received we spoke to people who participated in it and we heard words that we rarely hear which is we want more of it which shows demonstrates that you know there there is a desire to learn to do these better so we we continue to recommend that the company has these trainings on an ongoing basis and more importantly once its policies and procedures are finalized that they train specifically to those policies and procedures so that they are clear to all personnel tasked with following them whoops we had um based on focus group feedback made a recommendation on the importance of ensuring that employee relations is available to employees at during a longer period of time as issues arise now we noted in our baseline report that employee relations works around the clock very often they'll come in to interview employees in the graveyard shift if they have to as part of an investigation what our recommendation went to is to have ER present for that counseling side that comes up unexpectedly so we had managers and supervisors and focus groups tell us you know I have a complaint from somebody on the floor at 1 a.m. on a Saturday and I don't have anyone in ER that I can turn to right away and sometimes I can't access them for another couple of days when it's my next shift those are lost opportunities for training and guidance and ensuring that investigations are effectively responded to when they come in um allegations the company in part because of covid because operations were were limited to begin with um and also because prior to our coming in there had been a longer period of office hours for ER that the company felt was not utilized in a way that made it valuable for the company to maintain these hours of operation for ER a recommendation was that they do a test run for a period of time but that to ensure that employees knew those hours were there that there also be a communication campaign around the fact that the hours were going to be extended we continue we reissue that recommendation given the um theme that emerged across both properties and our prior focus groups and employees desiring that access incentives and discipline um you know important you know you've heard me talk about accountability and the importance of polyp having written policies and procedures that's the company can look to to hold its employees accountable um for compliance the most significant area for us of course was the development of an annual and formal performance evaluation program which you know because again of the vacancy in that role has stalled we do view that as just an important for every organization to have a formal compliant a formal evaluation program across its operations to ensure compliance but here what you know even before we we'd asked the the director at the time already anticipated bringing in elements of compliance into a person's performance evaluation right how does this person live our values how does this person demonstrate a commitment to compliance and so for example a manager can be rated quite highly if they are consistently using pre shifts for example to message the importance of compliance or is being very vocal about the urgency that you know her team attend a training within you know the the required period of time we also recommended identifying other ways of incentivizing and rewarding behavior consistent with HR CP values and we encourage the company to leverage um programs that it already has in place like employee of the month right um which could very easily you know I think be adapted to situations related to HR so for example if um a cocktail server is faced with a difficult harassing harassment situation and is a is assisted by a security guard who just really handles it well and makes her feel supported and makes her feel safe that cocktail server should have the opportunity to commend her colleague for the way that he intervened with the situation those sorts of examples are what you know we're hoping the company can can relate to and you know we've seen it actually we've seen the company do this during covid you know we understand the security team has faced truly difficult months in in both properties and the company has held different events to think security and has recognized personnel for really going above and beyond so we know that there's a there's a framework there that can be leveraged for these issues risk based reviews this really speaks to both looking back and looking forward in the compliance program right and it's ensuring that what's reflecting and understanding that risks are dynamic in an organization and that a compliance program that is designed today for the risks that are identified will not necessarily be fit for purpose three years down from three years from today when the risk profile of a company might change so we recommended that the company develop a risk assessment process folk procedure focused on harassment discrimination risk i have to say this is an area that the company went above and beyond our recommendation our recommendation had been that the company leverage existing internal audit procedures and that it include areas focused on hr what we received was a standalone hr risk assessment procedure that had all of the elements of the risk assessment procedures that a company would have as part of its just overall erm process processes identifying applicable government regulations so it includes eoc guidance it includes doj guidance it includes applicable state law guidance on hr related issues it identifies the types of documentation and data and information that internal audit will use to test the effect of the design and effectiveness of the compliance program it includes interviews with personnel in charge of elements of the hr program most critically it reflects a bottom up approach in identifying risk so really goes through active employee position by active employee position to assess where there might be hr risk and risk rates them and that is the type of data that the company should leverage as it periodically monitors the effectiveness of its compliance program right or however you know the top category of risk profiles do our policies and procedures speak to them right do our trainings speak to those particularized risks the risk assessment procedure also creates an hr sub p steering committee which is a cross functional group of hr facing functions or hrcp facing functions that will work together both through with internal audit through the risk assessment process but more importantly will also help in the implementation of any corrective action that comes out of the risk assessment procedure so at the out at the you know the output will be a report by internal audit that will go to the compliance committee the audit committee of the board and the steering committee reflecting where the hrcp might need some modification and enhancement that's the type of sustainability that we look for and truly commend the company and particularly the internal audit function for this lift will be evaluating the implementation of it of course you know the procedures look wonderful and will be of course testing how they ultimately are implemented particularly that output of reporting up to the compliance committee and to the audit and to the audit committee and how those areas of improvement are actioned this is a close cousin to monitoring and testing of course which the company continues to monitor sexual harassment and discrimination through allegations that are reported through the company's various reporting channels and we'd recommended in our baseline report that the company review if you'll recall the gc receives all harassment discrimination claims on a weekly basis and on a quarterly basis all of those are reported up to the compliance committee into the audit committee of the board based on our interviews in the baseline phase it seemed unsustainable to keep that level of attention case by case coming to the gc every week and while we certainly encourage that level of transparency it's equally important that the company be able to focus on key trends and aggregated data right not just on what's happening on each case the company engaged in discussions internally and then engaged in discussions with us and really does continue to see value in the level of detail that the gc and the audit committee and compliance committee receive and we've you know we agree with that based on follow-up interviews it seems the administrative burden has already decreased but more importantly will continue to decrease because the company is in the very short term going to be rolling out a new internal reporting channel that will allow the company to both keep its detail reporting that is currently occurring but also generate higher level reports that will reflect these trends that we think are important for the company to pay attention to so we've withdrawn that recommendation for now based on the company's just really sincere feeling that they add value and we've seen that value reflected in communications that we have even with the compliance committee they they like that level of transparency and we certainly will not be encouraging less transparency and we will of course and and we're hopeful that through these risk assessment procedures and this cross functional hrcp steering committee the company can also develop monitoring and testing methods for other aspects of the program as well not just on reports of um harassment and discrimination as we're seeing so far and by that I mean completion rates for hr trainings effectiveness of hr trainings right to give an example or effectiveness of communication by senior management um frequency of communication by mid-level management controls environment um we focus here on really the areas that were highlighted in the mgc's decision in order which were one engagement of external counsel specifically ensuring that external counsel are engaged with attention to conflicts of interests that might arise from dual representation the mgc's decision in order don't have to refresh your recollection but of course focused on company counsel also representing the then ceo and matters that were adverse to the company um the the there was I think some confusion by what we meant in our recommendation that has now been clarified um so we expect to see progress in those procedures coming forward um and expect that they will be a well documented policy and procedure that lays out um how engagement will occur and what criteria of review will be um included similarly we focus on the initiation review and approval of settlements related to harassment and discrimination um there again you know we need to see more uh specific guidance on how settlements related to harassment discrimination will be reviewed and approved particularly um with respect to claims that might be made against senior management or executive management we've recommended that consistent with some procedures the company already has those be treated as higher risk and require dual approval not just um you know approval by by legal or um otherwise and we did by the way see sample harassment and discrimination um agreements that were entered into over the course of our monitor ship we look specifically for language related to confidentiality provisions to ensure that confidentiality presidents weren't over weren't overly burdensome that they didn't amount to um unlawful restrictions or gag um clauses we didn't we didn't see anything of that nature um so we don't have concerns based on on the settlements that we reviewed that there is any over burdening of of complainants when it comes to confidentiality obligations we looked also at um mandatory and binding arbitration provisions which were of course enumerated in the commission's uh decision and order there we did see um some use of of mandatory and binding arbitration provisions that need clarification particularly with their applicability to harassment and discrimination claims and we've made recommendations in our report to ensure that the mandatory and binding arbitration provisions do not apply to title seven um specifically harassment discrimination claims so that leads us to our concluding observations um you know again given the events of the last now almost a year um you know we did see a company that was forced to divert attention away from the development of hrcp um you know we we do think that of course is understandable but just further reinforces the need to have a strong independent embedded program that can be sustained and can continue to operate in all of its through all of its elements despite other crises that the operation might might face we continue again to see um expressions of commitment to the hrcp we will continue to test how that commitment is operationalized as we look forward um and you know we're we're looking forward I think all to to a new year um where we are able to engage on a continuous basis with the company at all levels on these issues and hope to see some some real progress moving forward and here here's our team in case not everyone can see them so I'm happy to yeah questions thank you all 100 yeah if we can restore the screen um thank you for the thorough report um I want to give opportunity for my fellow commissioners to ask questions who would like to go first and you can of course ask one now and return later commissioner Cameron sure uh first of all thank you very thorough um report uh on on the on the work that you've done means some positives certainly the sincere engagement you mentioned that several times um you know the active monitoring of sexual harassment the new system that will go in place those are all very positive the one concern not concerned but thought that I had while I was reading the report was how many uh policy deadlines are upcoming very quickly actually and is there is there a was there any conversation about the uh capability to update all of those policies within the next couple of months that's a great question um commissioner Cameron and it is something we were reflective on given that the pandemic is not over and the company does still continue to feel the impact of it we were able to um run those deadlines past the company and have received no no pushback um we did on on one and we were able to actually bump that deadline back because it was it was unrealistic it was with respect to the code of conduct which you know requires more than just changing language but they want to redesign it it requires approval by the board um so where we sit here today we understand that the timelines are aggressive if you will but I should also note those drafts are already underway so we're not asking the company to start anything from scratch between now and you know I think the first deadline is the end of March it's incorporating which gets here faster than than we can count um which will then give them time to reflect our pointed and direct feedback and these are just to clarify right these are recommendations that were made back in in May so we're just helping ref refocus okay thank you of course other questions can I share a cynical yeah let me um let me mention uh thank you again for the very thorough report and presentation um you know I um if I may you you characterize well the context of this last year that credit should be given you know to the unprecedented circumstances in which we're all operating or they're operating even the covid pandemic you also mentioned um you know earlier in your presentation that there is this gap between the expression of commitment to to certain things in general and the operationalizing of of that commitment um and as I read as I read your your report it's um it has a lot of um recommendations that you have reissued as you as you call them um and uh uh you know given the context it occurs to me that if they were to start or to to pick some of the um most important ones let's say to to to manage with the resources that they have available in addition to the deadlines that that that you were mentioning and Commissioner Cameron was mentioning would it be fair to say that um perhaps some of the top priorities would be relative to progress towards communicating with patrons in in addition to everything that they're doing internally with their operations procedures that one area is really around patron interaction yes that is that is a core area focus and something that we would encourage the company to prioritize and you know I would say it's both to patrons but also to continue to engage with employees themselves on the company's expectation because so much of what we heard in the focus groups was there's an emphasis by the company on service right on providing five star service and that's so ingrained in employees that to really help employees and I will say the the third party policy the employee interaction with third party policy that I referenced starts that conversation right and it and it actually says we pride ourselves in our service but that doesn't mean you have to tolerate this behavior so I think commissioners when you go for it to really be effective they have to focus on on both populations and that you know if we if you can give me two priorities right I think it does really focus um the other one really would be on continuing to enhance its internal reporting and investigation procedures right I mean and you can see why those two really have to overlap at all levels and you know we will continue to be looking with a critical eye at how investigations are opened responded to investigated and closed out thank you um this I had another minor uh but but I but I figured let me let me ask it um I think the recommendation you say relative to quoting Massachusetts employment law is very important it should be important for us but I did wonder if you see that there's some differences between the two states that may be you know of particular relevance to these conversations so there are some some some nuanced differences um that would apply and you know I I do have to I think you might have heard me to say before right I'm not the council I'm not the company's lawyer I'm not their legal counsel so I have to make sure I stand on on the right side of that line and answering that question and you know suffice to say we do note nuances that we think are worth highlighting particularly to the bodies that are tasked with oversight of compliance with those laws right thank you commissioner brian thank you madam chair um just to reiterate a thank you to you and your team for the report um trying to for both you guys as well trying to keep up with the monitoring in addition to what the company is going through and I first wanted to also reiterate um from where I was sitting on this end in terms of their the company's leadership in terms of their COVID response and how impressive it's been and I take sort of some positive signs from that and then also some frustration from that because I do think that they are capable of doing tremendous things when they put their minds to it then there's a couple areas in here that even notwithstanding the COVID to me I certainly hope they listen to you and the report and to this commission in terms of a couple areas that were highlighted in the decision that are still areas for improvement one of which I think is what I just commented on which was what seems to be a repetitive oversight or disregard for a distinction in massachusetts in terms of law applicability etc and I really hope that there is attention drawn to that going forward you highlighted some of the examples in terms of mass law and cd requirements pregnancy related issues not just pregnancy that sort of thing yeah um I am also the also concerned about the um the conflict of interest the concept um their embrace of it I would also certainly hope that that is something that's emphasized going forward with the company as they go forward um we are hopefully crawling out of COVID-19 um and I hope that the leadership that they've shown in getting through it will evidence is their ability to turn attention to that and very quickly catch up with the deadlines they've talked with you guys about as being reasonable etc so I would hope that the next time those areas have had some substantial progress because I do think as you state they've done a tremendous amount of work um protecting their employees and the public in these circumstances I would hope it would continue when some of those burdens are lifted and I again thank you to everyone on your team for all that you've done those circumstances as well thank you for those comments commissioner brian particularly and your gratitude to the team we are 100 aligned with your observations and the criticality of the areas that you've noted and we'll continue to honor our mandate and focusing on those two core areas as well commissioners uh thank you commission brian uh you've all touched on a few um areas that I noted as well but I just have a couple of additional comments I'll share my uh a few and then and perhaps you'll have a chance to reflect us on whether you have additional questions or comments for Alejandra uh first again to reiterate what you've heard how thankful we are um to all of you for fulfilling your significant responsibility uh this was a significant condition uh to our decision and you've been able to manage this remotely and um I know that at least one child has been born during this time and and we congratulate the family on that and uh so you've done it um again using uh having to pivot yourselves and for that we thank you and also of course thank you for the thoroughness the thoughtfulness and particularly the tone of your report and it was very important to start with a recognition for the company's leadership um as it um addressed COVID-19 really early on and and uh and and as you know they have been uh we've been very very lucky to have such a cooperative relationship with them and and really benefit from their expertise and leadership in that area I thought Commissioner Zuniga brought up the good point of the communication strategy I think um I think that's an easy one for the company to to address as you point out they are exceptional in terms of their ability to communicate and what I like most is that this is not this is probably um an area where you would have as the independent monitor raised this as an important component but what I like most is that you're hearing that directly from their employees and because I know they care so much about creating um uh safe uh and and welcoming uh and supportive culture for their employees I see that as something that is is easy for them to to work on I also really like the idea that um with respect to performance incentives I loved how you framed the idea that you intentionally um it's with intentionality that you encourage uh compliance and you know the compliance can have kind of a negative connotation I like the idea that you're supporting the priorities around sexual harassment and the the HR issues and the example of where perhaps the security guard may support one of his colleagues or her colleagues when they observe something and that there's an opportunity to to reward that and create incentives for really everyone uh getting behind the important work that you've outlined um I am also just want I think that we've addressed the the report of policies and procedures and again when readers look at how detailed your report is they may get lost and well this is so much and there's so much best practice and I guess that what I like is that this is a framework where so much of it is so doable and and it will in fact just launch this organization into a place of leadership around these these areas that that came from a crisis just like they are doing with COVID-19 I thought a big takeaway in a compliment that you gave the organization was on the internal audit work and if I understand correctly that's a big roadmap for them to now say all right these are your risks these policies and procedures need to be put into place this training needs to be done in order to support it and the fact that you congratulated them on that work being in place you know given this really difficult year then again hopefully as Commissioner Bryan says we're starting to crawl out of that that bad time and and they can now really make sure those internal control metrics are addressed so I thank you for the so much positive even though you've highlighted that there's work to be done a lot of the work for me seems to be clear and straightforward one point I would say then and Commissioner Bryan noted it you know the two of us are both lawyers so perhaps it jumps out of us but I I I appreciate that you've said or suggested that perhaps the recommendation was confusing to them and now that's been clarified I am looking forward to that issue being addressed because I do think it's so it was so critical in our in our decisions I'm looking forward to that being addressed sooner than later those are those are my observations I want to return back to my fellow commissioners for other observations you may have also that Commissioner Bryan, Commissioner Zuniga, Commissioner Cameron before before we we say thank you more formally thank you to all of you and and again I do want I want to give Preston the opportunity to chime in Preston is in a little bit of a different role as a subcontractor because he shifted for many good reasons his his work to another firm Preston did you want to weigh in on anything that you'd like to highlight for us? Commissioner Zuniga, thank you for that opportunity I would just very briefly say that like you and and like Commissioner Bryan also this whole Monty I look forward to seeing their progress in the investigations areas in the places where we noted I think that there's a sincere commitment and we need to match with the level of action that we've seen in some of the other areas that we've discussed this is a different time you know we all hope that we'll be out of this time right soon we don't know so there you know a number of institutions on court being one of them may have to figure out a way to improve its processes even though we are in the middle of a pandemic because we don't know you know how long this thing is going to last so I would I would I would leave it at that I you know I know we've had additional discussions and I'm available to you at any time thank you so again to the entire team um Nicole Catherine and Anne of course and Alejandra and Preston thank you so much thank you for your attentiveness and for today's presentation and for the the strong power point commissioners would you like to close out other than am I reiterating your thanks sufficiently yes thank you very very informative and it's it's really good for us to track this progress thank you all so much for the opportunity no no I can say thank you again right everybody wants to yeah well and again stay safe and stay well and just on the dog front we know that Alejandra has a new beagle in her house so in addition to a baby who's keeping a family up awake I know Alejandra's got the new popular lots of developments this past year but I will say Charlie Catherine's son has been a ray of sunshine for all of us in this year he turns one next week which is hard to day today today oh my goodness happy birthday Charlie Charlie wow great name and and uh it seems to me that we should be excusing Catherine so she can go that that little one right get some snuggles yeah so thank you all so much thank you thank you so much we appreciate it before we turn on to um item our next item on our agenda I just want to also highlight again as I mentioned that the company did have the opportunity to respond and it's a two-page document um I took a look at it I'm sure my fellow colleagues uh commissioners did and they did note um the the pride that they have in their what they refer to as the Herculean efforts of the entire team during this this COVID-19 period I wanted to just point out one one line that I thought reflects the tone of the independent monitor and I think the tone of the company and it was with respect to the recommendation that the company hasn't had yet hasn't yet been able to implement the quote is that uh the company we remain committed to implementing them even though we remain operating in a challenging environment we know that the recommendations are made with the view of assisting us in enhancing what we believe is an enviable work environment and I think that's a good place to close this discussion that they recognize it's a collaborative effort that in fact the work of the independent monitor is intended to be helpful and intentional and so with that again that is included in a very large packet right after the PowerPoint so all right so I think um uh the team of the independent monitors we can formally dismiss you um and we're going to go on to um the matters of our budget you're you're welcome to stay for that if you would like thank you so much have a wonderful day everyone thank you bye bye okay um so I think before we have our break we've intended to go forward with the the the finances everybody's still okay commissioners Zuniga I turn to you first are we all set still and then have a break after the budget okay yeah I'll set commissioner brian okay and commissioner Cameron yes that's right so I'm going to turn then to um uh the the finance division and um our very own Eric Lennon our chief of financial and accounting officer and his team thank you thank you good afternoon madam chair and commissioners good morning good morning every still seven minutes seven minutes just seven more minutes and Derek if you could just sit a little bit closer so we can hear you it might be my older ears right now or my zoom ears thanks if it's not working I can put in my headphones too no that's good that's good now thank you um so good morning madam chair and commissioners good morning I'm joined by Agnes Bolier and Douglas O'Donnell and we're here to present the second FY 21 quarterly budget I just want to say that Catherine's son is sharing a birthday with my wife so I'm looking to end up this rather and get off to some festivities as well towards the later half of the afternoon happy birthday to her as well thank you thank you um it's a good day it is a good day yes um the Massachusetts gaming commission approved an FY 21 budget for the gaming control fund of 32.42 million composed of 26.9 million of regulatory costs and 5.52 million in statutorily required costs after balance forwards from the FY 20 um from FY 20 the assessment was reduced from 29 million down to 27.61 million and the commission approved an additional five million dollar assessment for the public health trust fund just as a reminder um that that five million dollars was split with 3.75 of it being um billed starting in September and then the final assessment coming at the end of June of 1.25 million and that was um all part of a discussion to try and ease some of the burden during the initial um pandemic because the casinos were closed for three months leading into the fiscal year for this quarterly update the finance office is recommending an increase of 172 thousand to the gaming control fund um and this composed of decreases in payroll fringe and travel budgets an increase in the independent monitoring fees and litigation costs uh a main thing to remember is the increase in um independent monitoring fees will be offset with a corresponding increase in um our revenue assessments so the the actual net impact is a 23 thousand dollar 22 thousand dollar decrease to the um to the gaming control fund budget through this time period um we're also recommending an administrative budget for the community mitigation fund and finally um as is uh customary we're recommending adjustments to the licensee share of the second year um half the assessment so um a little more detail following through the memo when the budget approved the FY 21 gaming control fund budget we were mainly watching two items um litigation costs which we funded at the bare minimum required by our insurance policy as well as the massachusetts state police overtime uh as of this review we're requesting an additional 300 thousand in the litigation budget on top of the minimum required by our insurance policy and we're um for the massachusetts state police overtime budget i'm pleased to announce we're not going to require any additional funding um while the ot is up by a little bit we've actually seen attrition in that um unit so the attrition is actually more than offsetting the um small amount that the overtime was up and you know there's a lot of we're getting a lot of reports from msp on the overtime um i know that the facilities were closed for you know closing earlier for a amount of time but we've also had some health issues hit at the facilities so we've had to use overtime to fill some regular shifts um so i think they're doing an excellent job of managing that right now and the reporting is very transparent and clear so if any of you would like an update on that Brian's reports are excellent at this at this point um we'd initially included in our budget a turnover savings projection of 250 000 we're also pleased to report we've met that figure and for this report we're projecting an additional 50 000 in overtime uh turnover savings um we are recommending shifting 227 000 in salaries fringing indirect costs from the gaming control fund to the community mitigation fund which i'll touch on a little later in the memo um as i stated earlier we're increasing spending for bills paid between 10 one and 12 31 2020 for the independent monitor by 195 000 well all we've also increased our revenue projections by that 195 000 because that gets billed directly to the licensees so that's basically a wash 205 cmr 121 describes how the commission shall assess its operational costs on casino licensing including any increases or decreasing the result of over or under spending um the commission has determined that once a year on or about january one and this year we use the actual date of january one it'll revise a number of gaming positions utilize for determining licensees proportional share of the assessment and use that percentage for the billing of the second half of the annual assessment the tables on pages two and three of the memorandum walk through those changes and Doug is here um in case we have any questions to follow up on that uh he has worked with the licensees to be sure that this year we are 100 in agreement of the numbers for the casinos and then we'll be working with them to make sure we don't overbuild as you can remember was a problem last year with all the changing numbers um so that is the report on the gaming control fund before i move away from that i'll pause if there are any questions or if you want me to just run right through i can go into the community mitigation fund any questions for maybe for Doug on the gaming positions are we all set it looks like we're all set Doug thank you great great work but stay tuned right thank you um in a public meeting on December 27th 2020 the commission approved regulations for the community mitigation fund um it was 205 cmr 153 205 cmr 153 paragraph 5 allows the commission to expend funds for the administration of the program the general requirements that that um the administration costs do not exceed 10% of the amount available in that fiscal year the precise amount be set at a public meeting and that the costs be directly related to the administration of the program so to meet all those things we're requesting a budget of 337,000 made up of staff from the community affairs division um which only work on this program as well as funding for a database for the program applies and in-state travel reimbursements for the program um the the staff are uh are composed of half of the chief of the community affairs division and then 75% of the two employees in that division's time so there's still a component of that community affairs that is paid for by the game control fund but this is the approximate amounts that we can estimate will be um the mitigation fund matters for the for this personnel the 100,000 is a is a swag I'm going to be honest um we think it may be done cheaper in-house working with Katrina's team but we um would rather go a little higher um and not have to come back to you before the end of the year the funds and then just have that revert back um we brought in in excess of seven million dollars if you take a look at the time period of the grant run through we brought in excess of seven million it was closer to eight million dollars just from gross gaming revenue in the community mitigation fund from January 1 through December 30 of 2020 so the 337,000 falls well below that 10% of money of new money that came in never mind what's available from previous years for expended training for the year so we we believe that we have met all the requirements um of this of the administration of the program we are looking for it to be retroactive to July one um you know I had requested this in the budget memo at the beginning of the year and then we had put it through the regulation process just to make sure that no one disagreed on the administration side of being eligible against the community mitigation fund we discussed it with all the local advisory committees um so I'll pause here if there are any questions regarding the community mitigation fund request thank you Derek for reminding us that the of the full process of the regulatory process and the fact that there was lots of input sought on on this some new funding mechanism commissioner Zunica do you have anything you want to comment on yeah thank you I I'll just comment that I think it's the recommendation is very appropriate I'm on board with how you calculate the amounts I think the reality is that you know probably there's a little bit more time by by the staff being charged spent on on the actual community mitigation but that's okay you know there's a retroactive nature of these that maybe offsets that a little bit and we had already discussed going back to the beginning of the year anyway I'm particularly glad to see that we're now going to have a you know an amount of carve out if you will for a database I think that's that's a need that had been identified before that is going to allow us to to manage the program a lot more efficiently which is you know a big reason to you know to to charge some of those costs to that fund anyway so I'd like the recommendation and I think as as as chairs just mentioned I think it's also good to highlight the process that we've had up until now for this for this part other questions for Derek on the community mitigation fund piece or for the report Madam Chair I just had one comment and it is something that certainly I've paid attention to over the years and that is the state police overtime and I know we have tasked Captain Connors with really being very hands-on when it comes to that overtime and I do commend him as as Derek just pointed out for really being very transparent about the process and what happens there's always attention in policing about full-time positions versus fewer positions and filling in with overtime but it sounds like much of that overtime is due to individuals not only attrition but individuals who have been out and unable to work for a variety of reasons so I think that you know what they're doing what they're tasked with doing they're doing it very very well under these trying conditions and if they meet the standard of approval from our CFAO when it comes to how well they're managing the overtime I'm sure it's done and not surprisingly it's done very well so thank you and just a point on that I want to remind everyone that that overtime number was flat from last year where the casinos were closed for three months so it was an aspirational number to begin with and Brian and the team have really taken this on head on so really impressed with it thank you commissioner Cameron for for raising that I had hoped you would captain captain Connors has been a great team player on on this difficult issue I think commissioner is O'Brien and commissioner Cameron I believe that captain Connors met with the licensees to to make sure that they understood the process and methodology on overtime then of course during this period now the state police have had to do a lot of pivoting often we they've borrowed from our unit during these times so there's been a lot of coordination so the fact that it came out flat is is all pretty astonishing and again representative of his careful captain Connors careful work but I do know cap commissioners O'Brien and commissioners Cameron we both have um have worked on this issue so we appreciate it any other comments or and Derek do you need do you want to close out um before we ask for final questions doing this as well so if there are any questions around the community mitigation fund he did have a hand in helping us develop this um you know I wanted to make sure that when he didn't see it for the first time when we were sitting in front of you and having to ask him a question I don't know what you're talking about um so if you have any questions regarding additional requests for the community mitigation fund or where we may be heading with that Joe has also joined us and if not um you know I'd just like to say thank you to all of the this is a big pull together you know we have a lot of moving parts on this so I want to say thank you to everyone on the finance team as well as all the um as well as all the directors and chiefs for spending the time every month to sit down review the nation um get us updates so that we can pivot I mean we have costs of 300,000 going up in litigation and we're not pushing any of that back on an assessment um that's really instrumental in people sitting down and figuring out where they can trim um being team players and not looking at their budgets is just theirs so you know I just want to say thank you to the team thank you to Agnes and her restored role for running the payroll numbers and uh and ask for your approval to increase the litigation by 300,000 the litigation budget by 300,000 and allow us to um do the community mitigation budget for the first time should ask Todd if he wants to chime in I know Todd you're navigating the issues around litigation we thank you for all the good work that you've done to keep us fully apprised you've been working with Derek on this budget and you're in agreement yes we discussed it carefully obviously difficult to project uh legal fees for the rest of the year but that was what we thought was a fair estimate just to be on the conservative side thank you well if I if I may madam chair I would move that the commission approve um the budget adjustments um an assessment recommended by um by the cfao lennon in his memo second any final questions for Derek and team or edits okay I seen all shaking heads commissioner Cameron aye commissioner O'Brien aye and commissioner Zinnega aye and I vote yes so thank you uh four zero Vivian and um I guess that concludes uh this this item and I I feel now before we go into the quarterly reports that we should take our lunch break um it's 12 10 does that make sense to everybody still as we had planned all right then um it's an odd an odd number but should we say well maybe we should say 1245 or is that work or no wait that would not be good math 12 yeah no 1240 it's 1210 not 1220 so 1245 we'll come back uh as long as our guests will be ready uh I Karen I think we'll be all ready for people to start at 1245 and Joe I see there Joe everyone will be all set for 1245 yeah I think that makes sense I told them that initially we were at one but you know always keep your eyes on the meeting because you never know when things might move ahead or behind I see um at least ppc is on and they're saying yes so if um I think they're there in order in second but we could always reverse let's plan on 1245 we'll reconvene this um meeting number 335 and thank you north thank you nice to see you thank you thank you all right thanks so much so we'll reconvene um our meeting number 335 and we're now turning to our next item on the agenda I'll turn it over to chief of our community affairs division Joe Delaney oh maybe we should do a roll call right commissioner Cameron I am here thanks thank you commissioner O'Brien yep I'm here commissioner Zunica here and I'm here so Vivian we're all here now I'll turn it over officially to uh chief Delaney thank you thank you madam chair and commissioners uh so today before you we have uh two quarterly reports for the fourth quarter of 2020 um first up will be on core uh Boston Harbor and then we'll have plain rich park casino after that and I think I saw Jackie on there she is sorry I had to unmute yes hi everyone hi Jackie so I'll turn it over to Jackie for on cores uh fourth quarter report great uh good afternoon and I also uh wanted to introduce my colleague who's joining me uh Juliana are you on I am she is I have been wanting to introduce you to Juliana in person and I kept thinking I'd bring her to a meeting and then I decided finally she needed to just join us this way um thank you for the opportunity to uh to present to you today um I'm going to try if I can to share the power points we see still the slides if you want the full screen I don't know if you know how to do that we see the uh the vertical with slides on the left does that is that better there there we go okay so our quarterly report for the fourth quarter of 2020 whoops very sensitive okay I'll given uh for our gaming revenue in taxes as you know um in accordance with Governor Baker's COVID-19 order 53 uh we ceased operations at 9 p.m. on November 6 and at that point we started our daily routine of operating from uh 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. um and as a result of the sort of operational hurdles uh that uh that accompanied that we also closed the hotel on November 2nd for the remainder of the 2nd the fourth quarter so I think the decline in total gaming revenue that you see and the the state taxes is reflected um accordingly so moving over year over year uh despite some uh problematic challenges this past year I think we we've actually been pretty uh we feel pretty good about our results uh year over year lottery sales continued to be strong we actually didn't see too much of a decline year over year so uh for October November and December our total was 632,000 and just as by way of comparison from last year it was up quite substantially uh but you'll see that the the third and fourth quarters look very much like on the workforce as you know we have goals for minorities veterans and women employees uh people for minorities 3% for veterans and 50% for women we'll continue to show um to to exceed uh our goal for minority uh workforce employees we have hit the 3% for veterans and we are slightly below 42% for women so we'll continue to focus on that as we uh bring people back from furlough and hopefully as things improve to continue to hire uh we we're still strong in uh employing people from our local hosts in surrounding communities and Massachusetts residents with about 89% and I'm going to turn it over to Juliana good afternoon Madam Chair, Commissioners, nice to be lovely to meet you all um I've dealt with Joe very frequently of the past couple year and a half or so but um I haven't had the opportunity to um deal with the rest of you directly so it's a pleasure um Jackie do you want to keep control of the PowerPoint? That's fine I'm sure um so our operating spend for uh the fourth quarter of 2020 um all these figures are based on our entire discretionary spend for the quarter which was around $14,000,000 um Q4 we actually did great in terms of minority business enterprise spend if you can see there it's 23% of the Q4 spend was allocated towards minority business enterprise in that category um we're still working on upping the veterans business enterprise spend and also the women's however for the quarter our our total diverse spend was up to 30% um which we're quite proud of um our relief is broken down here by surrounding communities and also the state as a whole um if you couldn't see during Q4 um it's it's semi-percentage here so 14% of our spend was allocated toward businesses in Boston um the state of Massachusetts as a whole is up 50% um for the year about $8 million so it's a generous amount of our total discretionary spend for the quarter um and just to highlight something of one of the vendors that we've been working closely with Universal Screening Studio is located in Everett uh we've worked very hard with them over the last year or so I believe in order to be able to get them to a place where we can place larger orders um and during Q4 we would be relatively large order for some of our promotional merchandise they do screen printing and embroidery and stuff like that um so we're very happy to be able to to have that vendor be someone that we can count on for those for those needs and and if I could just interrupt briefly here this is a vendor that we've been working with for about seven years uh you know in little projects when we first started I think uh this vendor first did our Everett United uh caps but uh it's it's a wonderful opportunity to be able to take a vendor that we were with it in very small amounts and to be able to increase the uh increase the spend with this vendor dramatically. And I'm moving on to is the Q4 result of the miners prevented from gaming report um it's it's of note that there were no miners intercepted consuming alcohol at all during Q4 and the numbers are very low in terms of miners intercepted gaming or prevented from gaming um you can see the average length of time was 41 minutes the longest was an hour and two minutes in the the shortest length of time and then just a quick update on our special events there was in terms of promotions with the early closing um it is not as robust as usual as I'm sure you can anticipate however um we did have the opening of wind sports during the fourth quarter um if you remember this is what used to be uh more allocated towards wind men is now sort of sports oriented so we sell hats um other sports gear sweatshirts from everyone's favorite teams um people are excited about that um the other item that we were we were happy to highlight is the gold star family tree that was located at the top of the curved escalators um coming out of the lobby um so this is a tree where people put messages to uh loved ones um during the holiday season you can see the the close-up there is some of the messages left by by by individuals um another holiday event employee makes it to benefit the pine street in a few of our chefs highlight their sort of specialties um sort of in a competitive holiday spirit and we're able to raise um I think it's nearly six thousand dollars for the pine street and including the wind foundation match so that was nice during the holiday season and with that we'll open up to questions Jackie would you mind if we had the full screen again please you can take thanks so much commissioners uh I know you have the uh the the slides in your packet too uh but we can bring up any slide that you'd like to look at in more detail commissioner Cameron well that was a speed power point a lot of interesting facts um a couple of things obviously really strong with minorities in the both with numbers and with the spend do you um do you have an idea in particular with the spend why that number was so strong is there something new that happened in the fourth quarter I don't think there was anything new I know it's something our team works on constantly so for each um each package that we build we always try to include a minority or a veteran or a woman owned business and I think it's just been a consistent effort and uh is is really starting to pay off right okay thanks and also universal interesting to hear that you worked with them does that mean you encourage them to um to really hire more staff up so that they could take the larger contract to that mean more equipment was needed when you say work with them what was that so we've been as I said we've been doing business with them for a long time they've been asking us for additional work and you know in the past we were typically getting a lot of this work done in Las Vegas so we we helped them develop the kind of quality that we were looking for we told them we worked with them to let them know what would work for us and they were really ramped up I know that the gaming commission's also spoken to them it's a really little business and they've they've been able to rise to the occasion wow okay excellent that's that's a really good story and I'm just curious about the lottery with so few patrons those numbers were so strong any any thoughts on that is just your real regulars that are going to come are also lottery players is that you know we've I think that's right and I think over the holiday season and you know you typically do see increase in lottery purchases um but I do think when we look at our player base that's returned we're seeing about 60 percent of our regular players have returned and I'm assuming that's probably the same for the uh the same for the lottery okay all right thanks I'll let someone else to ask a couple of questions here uh commissioner brine do you want to have questions for the encore team the only thing I'm wondering is we there's usually a reference to sort of compliance with under each drinking and access to the floor and I'm not seeing that maybe I'm just maybe it's not highlighted and it's in the deeper report but do you have the I do it's at the power point as well it's that one big chart yeah it's right I think I'm scared past it as I'm going through it again so I think that they focused on the gaming but it is the end of compliance okay yeah because prevented from gaming but it is also so if you go to compliance uh commissioner brian yeah okay I see you know the good news intercepted it looks like zero but then there's some others on it's really on the gaming otherwise yeah no I mean I guess my only question is whether with the COVID measures and compliance whether that's helped or hindered it seems to obviously be tighter controls on getting on the floor and they're definitely tighter controls in terms of getting on the floor uh you know because of the mass check and the temperature check as well so I think the lines are slower and probably more attention has is paid right um but and also the service of alcohol on the floor is much slower right right okay great thank you commissioner sunica yeah if I may um could we check it could we go to the revenues uh slide where you do the comparison uh year over year I just want to talk a little bit about it you know offer some comments perhaps and put in some context sure we went over the presentation that's a second slide yeah yeah it's perhaps the slide right after what you're doing the comparison year over year here we go there we go um so remind us um back in 2019 when you were still operating uh full capacity I suppose um the the quarter quarter four um was that the one I guess it was quarter three um you were you were really ramping up you were in the you know in in a you know in your first eight months I guess that's right because you're open in June you were beginning to see some trends of some steady visitation and now you're comparing those quarters of growth towards this sort of stagnant and you know reduced hours in this in this case um can can you offer any more insights relative to uh to those comparisons um I know there's there was a shift in in in the mix between slots and tables um as as you know as one would imagine a slot play is a lot more conducive to being isolated right and so um is there anything else that you can offer in terms of insights relative to those comparisons sure you know in last year obviously we're continuing to ramp up build our customer base we uh I think our customers were also making a decision about whether they want to continue relationships with our competitors or come to our casino so I think that probably factored into some of that as well uh as you know we opened up very strong with slots when we reopened and we definitely saw a change there we also spent a large part of the time that we had often covered redesigning the slots uh for us to be new products and really kind of maximize the game selection uh in recent in recent months what we're seeing now is a research in tables uh the table games uh business is going exponentially again which is great so we're starting to see some of the old players come back that's great and are you um are you referring more more recently as in you know the January and February or it's really only been January and February yeah you know on the Saturday night we we can't get enough dealers in right yeah right good to hear thank you thank you any other questions on the uh presentation I um there are many moments when I regret that I can't visit Uncle or Boston Harbor which felt to be close to my home when I saw the bake sale it said I was feeling like I wish I was employed somewhere else because it looked really wonderful and a nice gesture and great for the pine street and so thank you Uncle always does things so nicely so thank you um that actually was an employee initiated uh bake sales so our food and beverage department came up with that idea on their own and the chefs from each of the uh restaurants designed their own dessert and employees got to go back to the house and purchase what they wanted for the holidays so nice so also the employees I wondered if patrons um if it were available to patrons I couldn't tell that so it's only for the employees to purchase it was only for employees and then um as Juliana mentioned we have um a foundation that if any of our employees donate any money to a um uh non-profits the foundation will match that donation so when we were able to donate the money to Pine Street and the foundation kicked in a full match well that's uh so it really brought it up to over 10,000 about almost close to 12,000 right really significant for the Palm Street and the Pine Street and then of course the Gold Star uh this tree was so lovely so you know during all of the challenges of COVID you know you've you've continued to be all-star community members so thank you I have no further questions thanks for the clear presentation and for keeping us surprised on our developments I am looking forward to women being able to get back in the workforce I'm assuming that the decline might also be attributed to COVID factors where they're not able to work as easily because of children being at home so I'm hoping that trying to the good news for our business model is because we offer um different shifts at different times we have actually seen women who've requested changes in their shifts to accommodate their child's child kids so that they could have someone at home while they're able to come into work so we're hoping to continue working with with women to make sure that they can get back into the workplace excellent excellent we'll look for the next quarter and see hopefully that trend turn so thank you so much commissioner Cameron just one last comment I'm pleased to see that you uh you recognize that Boston would be much more interested in sports apparel than menswear it only took us great observation yes thank you uh any further questions are we all set uh okay thank you jackie nice to meet you juliana even though it's virtual we'll see you soon in person we hope nice to meet you as well thank you uh joe do we want to go on to our next presentation yes thanks jackie and juliana um so next up we have the plain ridge park casino fourth quarter report so I will turn that over to north and his team oh if somebody's speaking they're on mute uh good afternoon north good afternoon hi nice to see you um you guys able to see our screen at this point great wonderful thank you um now that I've got everything working uh good afternoon madam chair good afternoon commissioners we appreciate the opportunity to provide you with our q4 2020 report 2020 was a challenging year on many fronts we're pleased to report strong results both q4 and the full year the team will provide additional details and their portions of the presentation but I'd like to highlight a few points first in 2020 25 percent of our qualified spend was with diverse suppliers which exceeded our goal of 21 qualified spend additionally the overperformance of the goal occurred across all three areas of diverse spend rather than a sharp increase in only one category the second front compliance side we are pleased to report that in q4 we had zero instances of underage or minor guests reaching the gaming floor zero instances of underage or minor guests gambling gambling zero instances of underage or minor guests lastly with regards to our workforce we far exceeded our goals for diverse and veteran representation diverse team members made up 27 percent of our workforce on the goal of 15 percent and veterans comprised 5 percent of our workforce on a goal of 2 percent we're also pleased to see a similar representation of diverse veteran and women and team members at the supervisor so those are the highlights from our update with that i'm going to pass it over nana and talk a little bit about our finances nana thank you nori good afternoon madam chair commissioners it's nice to see you again this afternoon it's nice to see you i'll start with our revenue and taxes slide two there's a lot of information on this slide for comparison purposes but i'll draw your eyes to the bottom of the chart in the fourth quarter plain generated just under 27 million in revenue with total taxes paid to the commonwealth coming in at over 13 million ending the year of 2020 ppc generated over 40 million in tax revenue coming from 82 million in slot revenue the year over year revenue decline is due to the ongoing impact of the next slide is lottery sales again a lot of information on this slide but for the fourth quarter plain ridge sold over 350 000 dollars in lottery tickets which is down 55 percent from prior year for 2020 the property generated over 1.3 million dollars in lottery sales increase of 36 percent from the third quarter to the fourth quarter is partly due to the addition of a new member promotion that we had someone new came to the property and signed up for a player's card for the first time they had the choice of a gift card or a lottery ticket the which was pretty well received by our new customers up next is our spend by state for the fourth quarter in-state spend was 629 000 or 50 percent of qualified spend while the percentage of spend from in-state decreased from the third quarter of 67 percent total dollars spent in-state increased by 260 000 dollars primary drivers of the increase in in-state spend quarter over quarter vendors primarily for building repairs and building systems our next slide is a look at overall spend by state for all of 2020 pastachusetts spend came in at 1.5 million or 43 percent and the remaining spend for the year is split amongst the states on the right overall qualified spend for 2020 was 3.4 million whereas 2019 qualified spend was 6.4 next slide is local spend then state versus surrounding community spend for the third quarter shows an increase or for the fourth quarter shows an increase over the third quarter third quarter came in at 21 000 or 5 percent with the fourth quarter at 135 000 or 18 percent this is in line with our total 2020 spend which i'll go through on the next slide our total 2020 local spend came in at 255 000 or 15 percent i'm pretty proud of this figure despite the challenges that all licensees had in 2020 we were able to increase our percentage of local spend year over year so 2020 came in at 15 percent and 2019 closed at 9 percent moving on to vendor diversity the fourth quarter diverse spend shows that we exceeded our global minority spend but that we're under in our other categories this is due to the timing of some large invoices that increased our overall qualified spend for the quarter impacting percentages on the start however we're as north mentioned we're pleased with our 2020 results which i'll go through next for 2020 we exceeded our goals in all categories closing the year at 25 percent total diverse spend 14 percent women owned 9 percent minority owned and 4 percent veteran owned our procurement team continues to develop and maintain the relationships we've built with our diverse suppliers with some of our COVID-19 specific spend coming from diverse and and suppliers some of the examples of those items include hand sanitizer PPE sanitizing wipes and dispensers cleaning supplies and signage relating to the last slide that i have for you today is the data behind our diversity spend in the fourth quarter as i mentioned previously some large invoices were paid during the quarter that increased our overall qualified spend but as you can see total diverse spend declined only 5 000 or 2.6 percent from the third quarter if there's no questions relating to financials then i'll pass them on to Kathy Lucas to discuss compliance and employment commissioners do you want to do the first part now do you want to wait till the conclusion i can ask a question about the financials now if that's okay sure um you know just a similar uh you know similar question to the anchor of people your comparison year over year and quarter over quarter um in terms of revenues is pretty strong considering there's a a lot less a lot more constraints um can you speak a little bit more about um whether you've continued to update the product for example or or do other kinds of promotions or free play or anything like that um or have you seen uh you know offer other any other insights relative to um to this look back if you will absolutely so our marketing team took a great look at when our players were coming in and shifted a lot of our promotions during our our time period where we had a curfew into earlier hours in the day to to try to offer that um when we had the time and the availability while also spreading it out over a longer period in the day so we could maintain social distancing um but we also are constantly looking at reinvestment on our floor and continuing to offer the product that our players most actively want to play uh so that is an ongoing project for us year round but north if you have anything additional you'd like to add I think that there's a lot of noise coming through Zeneca and Q4 with curfews being imposed and um then lifting um being modified throughout the quarter in addition to um what happened in surrounding states with regards to their curfews so generally I would say that we were pleased with the trends as the board is December and some of those restrictions started uh looking a little bit a little bit differently um as we came into the first part of the year we've also been pleased with with those results so I think that what we will continue to see as the world becomes a little bit more normal um we'll have a few more players come back if you'll have to give me um for those of you who are not presenting if you could just remember to mute because we're having a little bit more background noise than normal thank you so much it just makes it easier to hear um thanks Commissioner Zeneca is that helpful yeah thank you no um uh that's that's very helpful any final yeah madam chair I just had one question as well um and this may have been answered in the past I'm not sure but rent them is such a large part of the of the local spend is there one or two vendors that really drives that number or yeah we have a great it's a great question Mr Cameron we have a fantastic partner and a vendor that's based out of rent them um that does a lot of work in our facility in terms of repairs maintenance uh minor construction and the like so that does drive up our local spend okay great thank you but as I understood that though the the big takeaway on that was that was it on the local spend yeah on the local spend you went from from 9 percent 2019 to 15 percent is that right yes you're correct very good isn't it it's something that I'm quite proud of yes any tricks you want to share you know what it was just partly able to leverage some of our local surrounding community suppliers for COVID-19 related supplies but it's also the impact of you know some of our functions being shut down and less spend going to other vendors given the closures and restrictions I see I see so that I understand well um perhaps so this is this will create an opportunity going forward that's sustainable so thank you absolutely okay uh commissioner brian are you all set right now yeah yeah straight forward I'm all set great thank you then we'll go on to the the next next part of the presentation thank you greetings madam commissioner and commissioners uh just turning your attention to compliance during q4 ppc prevented 643 individuals from entering the gaming establishment of which 620 had expired invalid or no IDs nine were minors and 14 were underaged during the fourth quarter like nor