ncil on aging the conversation that occurred in OCCA this morning was a division within the community about whether the combination of the memo that was provided and the responses to the OCCA questions provided sufficient information there were some members of the committee that felt as though his responses still were insufficient given what we've been asking for specifically with regard to the question we've been asking which is don't just tell us about this person tell us how this person contributes to the success of the body so things like titles don't really matter so much to us as what are the skills that they bring to the body for it to be successful other members of the committee felt like they had sufficient information and so the vote that OCCA took in today which is why you have two motions in front of you was a 3-2 vote to recommend that the town council take no action on these appointments so as you'll remember we have three options to approve in which case they become effective immediately to reject in which case they're done or to take no action in which case they go into effect on November 14th the action that was taken in OCCA this morning was no judgment on the individuals appointed themselves in fact there was broad agreement within OCCA that these were competent qualified people who would be happy to have on the committee and no one sought to stop their appointment which is why we did not recommend rejecting their appointment this was merely a process dispute and so the recommendation that came before you today from OCCA is has no judgment on the individuals themselves but expression of a process issue that was felt by the majority of OCCA members who still wanted to see these people appointed but did not want the town council to proactively approve uh given that so if that if you have questions let me know questions Dorothy I remember reading the list and thinking they all sounded like good people but I understand the point but I do know that people will always remember that they weren't approved and therefore although I understand your reasoning um and I think you should make you want you want to make a point that this is a change you want I agree with it but I don't want to do something that um cast a shadow on some good people other comments Mandy Joe I was going to make a similar one that if we decided not to vote tonight do we actually take a vote to take no action because that seems really weird um I would say we either vote to approve or we don't take any votes at all this if that's the way we go it sets a precedent for other sort of pocket approvals is what we referred to them on on the charter commission of the council's not taking action that means they're not taking action it doesn't mean they're voting not to take action um and so I was confused by the first motion of to vote to take no action I wouldn't recommend that at all I'd either say we vote to approve or we don't do anything okay um Pat I uh actually um am disturbed by aspects of the town manager's responses um and I feel like uh he needs to address the concerns of the committee uh I know for a fact that Nate Buddington is one of the best chairs uh in the business and he's wonderful I've sat on meetings uh I don't know Stan well um Diana Stan Stein has done excellent work on the committee so it is not about the members uh the appoint the people who are being appointed but the process and I think that there's like a territorial spat here that the town manager needs to get over are there any further comments yes I have to say this or or my committee needs to get over George Steve I'm ready to make a motion which is to I'm going to move to approve the following town manager appointments to the community preservation committee effective immediately for a three-year term to expire June 30th 2022 Nate Buddington sim a cloud reappoint reappointment for a two-year term to expire June 30th 2021 Diana Stein reappointed second is there any further discussion Darcy I'm I'm concerned that there were alternative motions provided here because the majority uh of the committee recommended the first motion and um you know I would I would appreciate it if the council I mean now now we're in a uncomfortable position of having to vote against these people okay and uh you know I I think that we came to you hoping that you would help us send a message to the town manager that we really need better information on the applicants and so by bypassing that we're basically back to square one with the town manager and not getting the information and he will hear this and he'll say oh well I guess I don't have to give them good information listen since the motions are my fault I wanted to explain to both you and Mandy Jill why they're written this way there was a motion that was already on here on this motion sheet before Oka had its conversation that said to approve reject as recommended by Oka well Oka then this morning didn't recommend approve or reject so I either had to just pretend we had no motion because I was working on the motion sheet after that meeting or I needed to provide alternative language so I provided alternative language simply to show the difference between the two as opposed to the first one really being a good one because as Mandy Joe points out why vote at all except that way I could say because it wasn't effective immediately it was showing the contrast it was that it would result in appointments effective November I left that in there so everyone would understand that based on the position that we took in our split vote today that we understood that that we understood those those appointments were going to take place so even if we didn't vote to take no action that that would somehow then be reflected in the minutes even if we chose not to make that actual motion it so happens that because two motions were offered simply so I could explain what people were doing because I was doing this independently of our chair actually managing to write a report after a meeting this morning which is quite impressive I didn't know if he'd have a chance to do that and so I wanted us to have the options of motions because we know how hard it is to word Smith motions on the floor thank you there's been a motion made in second and further comments Sarah so I just want to say since Pat has sort of made everything be kind of blunt tonight I would also like to say that also while we I understand the point of if maybe people would remember that we didn't directly approve but at the same time the bulk of Oka decided today to take no action in order for us to get you more appropriate information about maybe people you're not going to know everyone we need to provide to you all of the information so that when you all look at us and say well why is this person you won't you won't like everybody so we're trying to do a service to all of you to give you the best information that we can so by taking an action you're actually I would say disrespecting or not completely supporting the the majority of Oka any further comments at this time Evan so I know we want to move on from this but I said this in the meeting this morning but it was really more appropriate for this audience which is that Oka is tasked with making recommendations about town manager appointments and we've been working really hard to figure out what that means and what our role is and what type of information we want and what information we can get but all of this is done in service to you all the council at some point and not right now but at some point maybe in a future retreat it would be really useful I think for Oka to hear some feedback from the council about are we serving the purpose that you all intended are you getting the information from us that you want how much of that is what information we're trying to get and can't get how much of that is what we're not asking but what it'd be great to get some feedback and I'm going to continually reference until I get direct feedback on it the August 19th report that was sent that include the detailed many of the conversations Oka has had including some where we have a committee that has been unable to come to consensus and so broader council feedback would be useful because I think a lot of what we're doing is navigating what we think you all want and it'd be great at some point not now to get some feedback on that. So I have a process procedural question with the motion on the floor the charter requires seven votes in favor for passage the motion is to approve and I don't know the answer to this but if for some reason eight or seven abstain and it only gets six does that mean it's been rejected? It just means it's not been approved. So it would still remain as taking no action because you could interpret a non-seven or higher vote council vote to approve if it only gets six or fewer as taking an action that was not approval and therefore the pocket approval and the charter might not apply. As I say I don't know the answer I don't know whether anyone here is equipped to potentially be able to answer that but I wanted to throw that out there as a concern that I have because I I'm getting the idea that no one on this council wants to see those appointments actually rejected. Andy? I guess my concern about that is anything that is short of actually approving them is going to have the taste of rejection. I think that I'm sorry that this is coming up at a meeting where the town manager is not present and we can't ask the assistant town manager to speak on his behalf because this involves his thinking, his intent but we are where we are. The other thing that I noticed that it was three to two which was obviously it was a close vote and I'm not asking who the three were who the two were because I don't want to get into actually knowing because this isn't about a popularity contest but it was something that obviously was debated and was not a unanimous recommendation of the committee. So for that reason I would be inclined to support the motion that is on the floor and assume that we will have an opportunity to engage with the town manager at the appropriate time about the very issue even if it's in the context of what was suggested which was a discussion about what the council is expecting the committee to have. I think that that is a obviously a matter of great interest and at some point we have to find the proper forum to take to have that discussion. Kathy. I'm agreeing that we would move forward with a motion to approve but I just want to say that I think the much stronger if the effort to not do anything and just let it slide and therefore they're appointed is to send a message. I think it's a very weak message. I would send a stronger message and say next time appointments come with insufficient information we will stop them we won't bring them to the council. Do something that's stronger saying there needs to be enough information to go by and I think this could be a time constraint that there was additional information that would have been easy to add to this and it just wasn't but in action letting it just slide is not as strong a message is direct communication on this so I don't don't think that it does what the intent was of just letting it slide and therefore they're appointed. Steve. This seems really appropriate for the town managers evaluation and completely inappropriate for three volunteers for a very important committee so they should not basically be subject to this discussion you know if they're qualified and we think that they're capable so it's perfectly legitimate for us to use this to evaluate the town manager but not to evaluate these candidate not for the evaluation of these candidates but the memo says that it's not for it but you know even proposing no action means that we're somehow protesting their qualifications. So let me just set this in context the town manager released these appointments to OCA and to the town council at that time we were still planning to have a meeting on November on October 28th we then last Friday afternoon when realizing that there was a conflict with our meeting with the League of Women voters candidates night we canceled our meeting and instead we will be meeting for our primer on the master plan at five and then at six the public forum required on the master plan and then if you care to move on to the candidates night you are free to so at that point the manager was stuck in that the fact that the memo had been released and then we come to the issue that November has this awkwardness of only one meeting and not until November 18th. I just want to also add Mr. Bachmann is not on vacation he is at a professional meeting in another part of the country that is relevant to his position so I just want to correct that for the record as well. I personally feel that we need to approve this I plan to vote to approve this I know all three of these people I have attended these meetings they the two people that are back up for reappointment are outstanding members of this committee and the third person has been written about I am sorry that this is feeling too oka like we're going against your recommendation but believe me I'm sure the town manager has heard the message tonight and so any other questions yes. Okay well actually he hasn't heard the message because we asked for this after he wrote the council on aging memo before he wrote the CPAC memo and he chose to do the same thing and so we did think along and hard about how strong of a message to send and we absolutely didn't want people to feel rejected the charter very clearly says approve reject or pocket do nothing it doesn't mean you have to be approved by the town council not going to repeat everything else everybody else said but I don't think enough of us are thinking about something I said to George earlier today which was it's not about you meaning it's not about whether or not you personally know these people and think these people are awesome this is also about the community reading this the community understanding why these people are awesome when they've never met these people when they didn't get chosen for this and they understand why those people are awesome not just because we happen to know them because they've been doing this a while and also all the people who say you don't choose from a wide enough variety of people you're not giving us all the options that's why we want more information that's why we're going to have a future conversation that's why we've been telling the town manager for months after every single memo he sends us that we don't have enough information which we do have a split vote about whether or not we have enough information because we feel those in the majority and speaking for myself say that we are not providing enough information to our community to show how amazing these people are in comparison to the global so that you don't feel bad when you don't get appointed because these people are great and you're going to be really proud to have them serving your community any further comment okay the motion has been made and seconded any further questions yes the motion was made to approve the following town manager appointments to the community preservation committee effective immediately for a three-year term to expire June 30th 2022 Nate Buddington appointment of reappointment Sam McLeod for a two-year term to expire June 30th 2021 Diana Stein reappointment the motion was made and seconded any further questions then call the question all those in favor raise your hand and say I I opposed abstain so is eight in favor of the motion for opposed and one abstention the next issue is because of a quirk of what's going on with the planning board at this point we've had a resignation on the planning board therefore we're down from seven members to six a vote of the planning board requires five votes the at this point among the six members for a certain item coming before the planning board in relationship to the Amherst College athletic fields there are two people who in one way or another and they have filed for you a conflict of interest two people have some relationship to Amherst College and the manager has written a memo about this and attached those particular conflict of disclosure statements and at this point the real question is whether or not we as a council agree that the interest the interest of these people is not substantial as to demand as as to be deemed likely to affect the integrity of the services which the municipality may expect from the planning board members and the two members in question are Maria Chow and David Levenstein and we will vote separately on those are there questions yes Alyssa so I just wanted to add since I work reworked the motions on these today to reflect not only what town council had said but also what the the law said and to use the people's names rather than just generic words like municipal employee I wanted to thank Athena for including these two things in our packet tonight this is the actual general law that it's about and this is the instruction sheet that unfortunately I don't think the town attorney gave to the people before they filled out their sheet so that would explain why one of them didn't write very much on their sheet because they didn't know that they were supposed to write a little ideally perhaps a little more than that but I have no question that based on what the town attorney has said based on my reading of these things based on things we've done in the past this doesn't come up very often but it does occasionally and when I was on select board Mr Steinberg was probably with me then too we had to do this for a particular member of the zoning board of appeals as I recollect because it just so happens you luck out sometimes and there's a project that's near you that's actually something you need to do but I wanted to make sure you had these materials as well even though you didn't really have time to read them today to understand what we were agreeing to and I made it clear that in the most in the revised motions that I prepared that it would be just for this project this is not a blanket anything it's just for this project thank you for including that additional information I think it was very helpful are there questions particularly about the issue before us Kathy um I'm not sure I understand why we would say this is an insignificant financial interest when uh both of them are butters and have received a butter interest if thinking of potential issues that could come up one way or the other I can't imagine that if you were in a butter you won't react about how is it going to affect me my housing value my neighbor's housing value when you're sitting there so it feels like it's not uh they're not owners and you know so it feels like a fairly substantial conflict of interest to me um you know thinking of the butters when the solar field went up in North Amherst um we wouldn't have put them on the planning board make a decision I mean it was definitely going to change this so um I read the attorneys uh uh sort of torturous thinking through this that you know if we had enough members on the planning board this wouldn't be an issue because these two people could recuse themselves the problem is we've got a vacancy and we don't have enough other members so isn't one of the ways we could solve this is to quickly get an appointment to the planning board um one of the ways we can solve this is to get an appointment to the planning board but however that is not quick it's not going to be quick I look to Oka for that issue Kathy I mean anything else Kathy okay Mandy Joe so I'm gonna first disclose that I lived across the street from this project at one point just over a year ago I was on Orchard Street and the athletic fields are across the street um so and my husband is also an employee of Amherst College but we're not voting on the project so um I don't see a conflict to vote on this um I want to give a little bit of description of to what this project is and what the athletic fields are to help um do something about whether this is a substantial interest in and monetary and all um I happen to know where David Levinstein lives I do not happen to know where Maria Chow lives um but the Amherst College field renovation that is proposed on the slight plan review there is essentially a four sets of fields off of Route 9 a budding Route 9 and Orchard Street um the first field if you start at Orchard Street is the football field as my understanding is there are not a single proposed change to the football field section and then you don't go down a little bit and there is what is now a field hockey field that is a astroturf field my understanding is the plan is to reastroturf that field I don't know whether that's part of this application or not um and then there is a third field that is even lower than that and farther towards University Drive farther away from where David Levinstein lives um that field is currently grass um and it is my understanding that this site plan review and proposal is to convert that into an astroturf field and probably add lights I don't know the extent of it but that's the field that is the main proposal going on here the next field down even closer to University Drive is a softball field I don't think anything's going on with that one but I don't know um so so at least for Mr. Levinstein it is essentially three plus fields away three fields away from where he lives he happens to live on Woodside not Orchard Street Woodside comes off at the diagonal and he lives close to the corner of Hitchcock Woodside in Orchard Street but not on the corner he's not the corner property um that's the project that's being proposed so it's not a lot of building going on it's resurfacing and adding up some some light stanchions is my understanding so I hope that gives a little bit of background as to what the two planning board members would make be making decisions on okay Dorothy um I I have a question really for Mr. Zomick um when I first read this I said astroturf haven't I been reading that that's not really good for the environment and that you can get those um killer staff inspections from astroturf and like wrestling mats um so I just wanted to ask that thank you for the question I don't know the specifics of the of the product they're using I know that you know if you google these kinds of projects you will get all sorts of um information and research on on the newest the newest kinds of artificial turf and you know I trust that Amherst college is well aware they have multiple uh artificial fields so I trust that they are exploring the best and safest option for their athletes and the public um for this for this field as as Mandy uh described are there other questions yes Darcy uh I'm just wondering if this is the situation where the two people in question would normally recuse themselves yes it is it is but the problem is that leaves the planning board with only four votes and so they can't approve the project to move forward until a seventh planning board member is appointed which we don't expect will happen for at least two months maybe more maybe three yes Steve yeah and I'm not sure what no action I'm sorry I did not see the attorney's letter but I'm not sure what no action would mean but wouldn't mean basically approval if it's so there has to be action taken or else there has to be action or else it's approved right we there has to be an action on the part of the council to approve the board doesn't take action I think it I'm speaking about my pay grade I think it becomes approved oh yeah it eventually does yes so that there's not a quarrel so David what you're saying is whether the planning board if they take no action the project eventually will go forward without a vote what I don't know and I apologize tonight what I don't know is is then how the review process happens with so few members of the board participating so you know the planning board often will weigh in and and help shape the project and and I just don't know this evening how that would happen without these two members participating in that process okay yes so I mentioned that in part because the town will lose its voice so this is if we don't approve at least in terms of the shaping of of the project listen so I just want to point out again in mass general law I know this is so exciting the the larger font item they've advised us of the nature and circumstances of the matter and made disclosure of their financial interest although they've both kind of made it clear that I don't really know what the impact of this is this isn't like a contract that's worth x amount of dollars or something like that and the interest is not so substantial as to be deemed likely to affect the integrity of the services so it doesn't mean there's not a financial figure involved it means that we don't believe by agreeing to these that we believe that the interest is not so substantial as to be deemed likely to affect the integrity of the services that we can expect from them as planning board members can they honestly say I can do this even though I technically live there and I will be impacted by that and I also refer you to item three which is exactly what all the UMass affiliates just did the other week which is a determination of general policy and the interest of the municipal employee or members of his immediate family is shared with substantial segment of the population of the municipality so it isn't just whether or not you think they will be affected because some bizarro thing gets built in the middle of the astroturf that I'm sure isn't actually part of the plan but it's also can they act with integrity and if they're saying that they can then I have no that's why I am able to support this because I have no reason to doubt them manager I was just going to say I I support the exemptions having lived near this field it's it's quite a large parcel which is part of the reason why at least one of these individuals is being deemed in the butter because he's definitely not within 300 feet of the actual field that's being renovated you can't even see the field that's being renovated it's just a large parcel I don't think that it can it will affect their integrity to allow them to discuss a site plan review and if we're accurate that if we don't do this and the site plan review eventually becomes approved it's definitely not going to really affect I mean a site site plan review is a by right type item it's not you know and so it it I'd rather have them discussing their concerns than not be able to be there if it's automatically going to be approved anyway okay Darcy what is the time frame of the site plan review because we you know we are talking in Oka about getting up in a new process to appoint another you know to fill the position on the planning board so is there a possibility that we could get someone appointed I don't I don't I don't see in the letter here any reference to a time frame I don't have the answer to that Steve I think it's on the next agenda okay but well it says here that it had been on the Wednesday October 16th planning board meeting okay that's so it's it's an imminent project so up so it must have been continued so it's an active live project right now and they probably continued it so because at that point they wanted to get our vote one way or the other but is there some kind of time limit on the actual project usually people submit it and then they want to start but I have no idea I mean we could try to find the documents but David I guess the clock starts starts when they file so it's been filed I don't know off the top of my head how long the planning board has to address the application but there is there is a timeline by which they must take action right I think it's 60 days but that's thank you Evan so because this is my district I know where both of these people live and I have no concerns about this because even though they are technically a butters or butters to a butters as Mandy Joe pointed out they actually are all not immediately adjacent to the property there's a fair bit of space so I'm ready to make a motion okay so I move that the town council has made a written determination under mgl chapter 260 a section 19 b that the financial interest is not so substantial as to be deemed likely to affect the integrity of the services which the municipality may expect from planning board member Maria chow and a matter of SPR 2020-02-amorous college-amorous field athletic field renovation-212 Northampton road further conversation okay then all those in favor raise your hand and say aye opposed abstain 11 voted for the motion non-opposed and to abstain the next one I'll keep going I move that the town council has made a written determination under mgl chapter 260 a section 19 b the financial interest is not so substantial as to be deemed likely to affect the integrity of the services which the municipality may expect from planning board member David Levenstein in the matter of SPR 2020-02-amorous college-athletic field renovation-212 Northampton road second any further discussion all those in favor raise say aye and raise your hand opposed abstain okay um 11 in favor of the motion no opposed no opposition and two abstentions thank you can can I just ask I just have a question for the future sure on these um when I've seen these before and this is more in the private sector or nonprofit the disclosure that the person made usually had a statement toward the bottom you say I have this interest but I don't believe it would materially affect my decision on this do we not ask the person to write that in we do you know because they don't they just say please explain the financial interests and both of them just say it and then one of them says I have no idea what the financial consequences might be but we would be helped if the if people were attesting to their decision will not be so I would just advise the town when they're collecting these to ask people to do that you know that I don't think it will material because that would help this decision to have had someone already say say that um I found this odd to read it this way it's not the way I'm used to seeing it okay and do they sign it they do sign it so now I'm just saying when I've had to do and when I've checked that I do have something and it's then I have another thing do you think this in any way will so I get to say no you know it's insubstantial whatever right all right moving on to committee reports audit anything pat okay by law review I think we've already had that uh CRC Mandy joe uh we'll have a report for the next meeting but we intend to have a feedback back from the housing priorities policy affordable housing priorities policy draft that was referred to CRC we intend to have that feedback back to this council by the 18th of November town manager and council goals we met last week and I had an initial discussion about the broad areas of the goals basically following the five broad areas that we had in the written evaluation that we reviewed and then added one more in around sustainability we did not get into the detail of those goals and we are meeting again next week finance committee finance committee is meeting tomorrow and our principal discussion tomorrow will be to talk about the financial implications of the proposed housing policy we're hoping to be able to distinguish between the financial consequences and the housing policy itself which is really a CRC issue we also have percent for arts on the agenda but Kathy will report on that committee and until the committee has a specific proposal in which we can comment on financial consequences of we really not in a position to have a finance committee discussion of it so I'll leave it at that and the third thing that we will be talking about for at least to get started on is a little bit of the regional school budget knowing that the four town meeting is coming up okay the governance organization and legislation committee hi you've heard from us a lot tonight we're working on liaisons and we'll be meeting again soon okay outreach communications and appointments committee we've been enough percent for art by law ad hoc committee Andy gave you my report we don't have anything to report back right now what we are doing and it was because of my forgetting the 48 hour rule so trying to file on Thursday afternoon for Tuesday meeting or Friday was too late we're not we didn't we would have been meeting tomorrow morning but we're starting to go through the draft taking into account the comments that have already been made by town staff and addressing one of the issues that was a major concern but we expect to be working through a major major major but we will be doing a revision and we'll be taking at least two meetings to be going through that okay thank you and I do want to say that I think the motion setting up this I'm going to forget the timeline set up on this but I'm vaguely remembering it was the end of October but you know so at our next council meeting I'll report back when I think we you'll get a full draft but I'll be able to report on where we are thank you any further committee reports no all right approval of minutes um we only have one set it is the October 7th 2019 town council regular meeting and there's a motion to prove the minutes of October 7th 2019 as presented is there a second and uh changes were made I believe and it was refiled are there any other changes corrections amendments then all those in favor raise your hand and say I I posed abstain so it was nine voted for them proving the minutes none voted against and for abstained um okay we do not I'm sorry I just pushed the wrong button we do not have a written town managers report in fact the plan was that the town manager was going to have one for next week's meeting which is not happening now so I will discuss with him as to whether or not there might be a report he would be sending out to you but David do you have a few updates you'd like to provide sure thank you I appreciate being with you tonight I recognize the lateness of the hour so I will be very brief I just um had a couple of kind of community development projects that you might see happening out there um throughout town and wanted to give you a quick quick overview of a few of them on east Adley Road I'm excited to say that our construction has begun for the extension of the multi-purpose path which will we started in 2018 from about the Hadley line um moving east or yes moving east um past the boulders and south point and the other apartment complexes and we have awarded a contract I saw them out there working today so that multi-purpose path which is between 8 and 10 feet wide will continue all the way up to the intersection at the old grist mill at 116 or or south pleasant street um our goal of course is to help um make it more accessible to reach uh our new amenities that are taking shape over at grove park so look for that construction to hopefully be done by the time the snow flies moving across the way and east over to grove park we're racing the weather a little bit if you've been down there recently they're making a lot of progress but it's gonna it's gonna come down to the wire and we're meeting weekly with our contractor uh jl construction they are doing the final uh concrete pours at the spray park and the playground uh they'll be um putting down by two minutes asphalt um as quickly as possible all of the um amenities at the uh playground are for the most part in place the last things that will be going up and vertical will be the spray park um fixtures and the goal is to at least run the spray park I know we had hoped to open it in 2019 certainly will open as soon as soon as we can in the spring early summer of 20 but the goal is to at least run the spray park so the DPW can get a sense of how everything works so look for those two projects um completing in the next four to five weeks um moving east uh even from there the dog park we are completed with design on the dog park at the uh old landfill off of belcher town road we're now just waiting we'll put this out to bid sometime in the next couple of months and that'll be based on when we think the most favorable bidding climate will be we have most of the funding uh thanks to the stand in foundation and money from CPAC or CPA funds um the the uh dog park task force is doing a significant amount of fundraising just to make sure we have enough money for that entire project um so again we'll put that out to bid in the colder months and hopefully get a favorable bid so that we come in uh early in the spring and start constructing the dog park again this is about a one and a half acre two acre in total park it's fairly small and fairly fairly simple walkways shade structures a fence a wonderful place for dogs and their owners to meet and have fun there'll be a small small dog area and a bigger dog area so it's it's pretty straightforward um i think the council is well aware that we did get the four hundred thousand dollar um park grant for kinder park kudos to the planning staff and dpw and lssc for for putting that grant forward we're now going to work with the town manager um and have discussions uh with with him about how to um come up with and and and approach what will likely be CPAC for the additional matching funds for the grant uh in total that project is about a six hundred and fifty thousand dollar uh park so we're gonna um we're gonna need some matching funds there and then lastly uh moving back west i don't have any new updates on hickory ridge we're still waiting uh the the project has received all of its state approvals the solar project at hickory um so we're simply waiting to see how things develop with the smart program as we've talked about and whether that solar project gets accepted to the smart program so uh we'll be back to you i'm sure and paul and i will with updates uh at your coming meetings so that was a quick a quick uh a tour around amherst of some exciting projects some of which will be completed this fall and then we'll roll right into 2020 with some other improvements so thank you and december 1st right now is the date on the purchase and sale for hickory ridge that is correct we've talked about that and and again um there may need to be some adjustments to that but we've been quite up front with the council as well as with uh the owners are there any questions at this time from the council okay um under town council comments just let me say i want to thank lsse and uh one of our cpo's jen for their excellent work on saturday for the fall festival and also thank both darthy and darcy for joining in those festivities and darcy made enormously good use of the time by collecting comments and engaging citizens that would not normally come out to meetings to talk about um the kinds of goals that eca seeks should be considering so i thought it was a really effective i was very impressed and uh darthy was her usual grandmother helping people get food and make their scarecrows and so forth um i had a UMass student with me the whole time yes she did a report which was really great because she was i think she you contacted some of you she wanted to interview a counselor and i had no time but i said if you want to walk with me we can talk and she really enjoyed it a lot she's a journalism and political political politics person and got a lot of new insights into the town of amherst so i would think this is not a bad thing to do you know the future is good um that anything else on the future agenda items just let me mention on the november 18th uh in addition to what we talked about earlier tonight regarding the capital projects we also are going to be receiving the presentation and the recommendations for the goals from ecac and uh we may be doing hickory ridge at that point we're not we're not sure and there's a bunch of other items it is our only scheduled council meeting but remember we have another meeting in which we will be convened as a council and that is at the four boards meeting which is on november 7th okay any other comments about future agenda items can i just have a question or one that might slot in we had a presentation of the report from the parking uh the work group um and i've received a lot of comments from residents i have a list of my own and it's not so much the report but what the parking what are some creative ideas for parking policy so i'd like to schedule a time where the council could have its own discussion and whether they get referred to crc or not to put up you know generate a list of what was missing from that report not just what do we like or not like about it because i think there was a lot that was missing um and i just want to bring this up because i believe things like the setting of rates for the meters the setting of hours for the meters how boltwood lot underground garage is or is rented out how permanent project works i think the council can be policy setters on these and a lot of these are just by regulations so it's not a bible so it's a meaty topic that we could get into if we schedule it so i just want to make sure it gets on an agenda so it doesn't just sit there here's a report and you know seven months from now we'll come back to it i think the next the appropriate time for the next discussion with the council is when the parking downtown parking committee meets and brings us their report which they did not do the night of the consultant report and so i don't know that we have a specific date as to whether they'll make it by november 18th or more likely december 16th okay great i just i think it'll require a chunk of time so it's not so much i want to slot it in right away but create a slot for it yeah okay other future agenda items yes evan the four boards meeting yes time to be determined do we we really don't have a time for it i don't think it was time to be determined um i'm sorry it's november 7th i do yeah hold on i had it listed as five o'clock but i don't know i have it as six but let me just say we'll clarify by tomorrow and send something out we want that's right it at four o'clock there is a panel on marijuana at jones library sponsored by the chamber and we are now doing the four boards meeting at six and the question is where and i think that given the fact that literally it will be as many as 13 of us six people from the school committee no i'm sorry five people from the school committee um uh six people from the library board and the regional school committee three residents from the finance committee and three residents from the finance committee those are the four boards and whether we do it in this room or we move it to bangs i think is really the question yes so we had talked about doing the budget public forum that same night is that still scheduled for that night it is so that should get on announcements yes that it will be thank you the annual budget public forum remember seven add to that remember last year in march on march 15th when we all sat in the middle school auditorium and did our first public forum from which we learned a lot and in the process it was so people could talk about ideas that they wanted to be considered in the budget for the coming year well by that point the budget had pretty much left the station so the idea is move that particular forum earlier for fy 21's budget and so it would be to have it that night okay will you do it before or after the four boards meeting and also the bcg has to meet at that point too okay let me get more detail to you on all of that further agenda items questions other councilor comments lisa just really quick referring back to what kathy said about parking so planning ahead and you may have already had this and i just overlooked it in the future agenda items so if we talk about it on the 16th for example because downtown parking working group finally gives us the recommendations we can certainly have that discussion that night but when we go to make the changes as to what hours what how those are all subject to a hearing and so there's an actual hearing process associated with that and so we'll just want to build that into our schedule sort of you know not too far apart from that whenever that is well and the other question is going to be whether or not the council wants to tackle that as a committee of the whole or whether or not we're going to have some committee tackle recommendations that we may give our suggestions to and they come back to us okay any further comments at this point all right there are two this is odd and i am i'm actually quite open to suggestions and recommendations periodically we get things in the emails and you've received two of them this week or i've received two of them in the last week or week since our last meeting one is about the net zero stretch code and the other one is about the carbon pricing legislation and they're asking for some kind of endorsement or letter or for a statement or signature of support and both of them are very important and interesting things and unfortunately the deadline is before we meet again and so the issue is we didn't send these to OKA to go well so they have not been reviewed and Mandy Joe do you want to tell me or tell us what has to happen if we want to do anything with these tonight so we just adopted changes to the rules of procedure those changes include things like this having to go to GOL before the council acts on them let me find the the what could happen is that the very first there is an ability to if the council wants to act on them tonight without seeing GOL and that acting being sort of designating or approving it as a full council versus just each individual counselor deciding on their own whether or not to sign on there is a provision in rule 8.6 of consideration of non-emergency measures prior to vote that if two-thirds of the full council waves the requirements for measure for a specific measure at a regular council meeting then it can be acted on prior to being seen by GOL so it would require a two-thirds will require nine votes in order to act tonight but that is able if the council decides it wants a motion from sort of for the whole council to support these items okay so the question I would want to have that on both of these as a separate vote and then we would actually vote on each individual item Evan you made it I'd like a little bit of clarification on the statement that the there's a deadline with these yeah the one that I did include both in your the one on the zero energy stretch code is they want you to sign on by November 5th before the hearing and the other one I thought I had it but I don't see where I have it yes Alyssa so again we're still figuring these things out as we go along so given that I'm not clear that we all agreed to this based on previous conversations we've had like sometimes we talk about something so many times that then a letter would come up and we'd be like yeah we just talked about that we totally agree with that sending this to GOL wouldn't really help in that it would just they'd be able to say if it was actionable or not which they would and so I don't know what the pros and cons of signing on to this are and GOL wouldn't be able to tell me that and so that's why that's not really the helpful part at this point unfortunately we're just not very nimble for something like this and that's just the reality andy I think that the other thing that about this particular request is that it has that when you go back to the original email and you click on the link the link gets you to is a form it's not to be filled out by the council it's to be filled out by individual counselors and so it doesn't seem to me that they're really requesting action by the council they're requesting support from individual counselors and for that reason I'm not sure how we proceed with this at all because it's not even technically as presented or a quest for council action the one that I looked at that carefully andy and one of them is for individual and then the other ones is specifically able labeled the net zero stretch code municipal support letter which in my mind would mean a body Steve yeah so this is a legitimate thing right so and it's an important thing and so it obliges to me obliges the council we can sign the letter and I might move I hope it moves the needle but it doesn't oblige us to then adopt the net zero energy stretch code but it does make it an option for us to consider because the building code is at the state level so for that reason I normally would have this whole big thing about we shouldn't sign on to things like this before they're vetted but this particular thing because I know it's a thing I would I would hope that we would support this path I also would like to see us support both and I think that the one that is being where you can to Charlie Baker etc that you can sign individually I think there is strength in us signing as a council and I would like to see us do that Dorothy I have a question for Andy is this going to I wasn't Steve made it sound like that it could we can sign it and yet it's still optional other financial implications of us as a council signing this Andy actually don't know the answer to that so is that something that I've looked into or the committee has looked into okay oh Evan so I don't know that I have any issue with the contents of either of these letters but I did find myself earlier very frustrated to see them on our agenda and that was before I knew there was a deadline so I understand that but some of the documents in there were added like three hours before the meeting and so normally GL has this process that admittedly makes things slightly less nimble but allows for some length of time for consideration for us to see things think about them have them read through I mean I don't know who I don't even know who wrote either of these letters this looks like it was written by an organization this one looks like it could have just been written by a person like you know what I mean like an average person and so I it's a little let me just say I felt obliged to bring them forward to the council because they're regarding state laws or state hearings about laws and because of the issue they're about the problem for me in both of these is when I got them and the fact that we don't didn't have time in between so I'm I'm willing to do whatever the council wants and I'm not you know pushing up a particular position or whatever but just to go with the will of the group Darcy I would just like to say that I forwarded both of those things to Lynn and I I would be you know if needed I would be willing to sponsor both of them if that helps matters I'd also really urge all Pete counselors individually to support these the stretch code sign on if Steve wanted to make a motion about that tonight I bet we could pass it and I'm guessing we could probably pass the carbon pricing too so they're both state issues that will directly affect Amherst if passed in a way that will really help us achieve our our climate action goals I just was looking at because I was busy all day and didn't have a chance to read it the one that's on the carbon pricing it's talking about funding it's talking about the state increasing money for these things what could be bad about that you know so I think that I certainly don't see any problem with that one because it's not saying that we have to spend more says the state will give money that we can apply for to do some of these things we keep talking about Steve so well on the advice of my attorney I'm going to make a motion okay the first motion we have to make is that we're willing to act and that means we have to have two thirds that we're willing to oh the first is that we are willing to act on these without the review of GL I move to do what she said manager do you want to I was going to try and form that motion um I move that the town council waive the requirements of rule 8.6 for the for the net zero stretch code municipal support letter is there a second hope that's the one you wanted to make the motion because I just picked one is there a second okay that one it needs nine votes to pass okay is there a further question on that George I'm just uncomfortable with voting on something like this not about GL it's just about having a chance to talk and think about a little bit and I hear Steve's point and he's probably right but I just what's the rush here and I'm not comfortable voting for anything when I've just I've not actually even read it and I guess I could read it quickly and I could take Steve and Darcy's word for it but I'm much more comfortable this is coming from you know a formal committee or from town staff or some right but even then I'd like to have a chance to read it and think about it and get some input so I can't support this motion because I just I don't know what to vote for I totally understand that's shall I yeah I agree with Alyssa and George that I would want to know the pros and cons what are the implications on the different stakeholders the low-income people the renters or businesses and in the town so okay okay Evan conceptually I support both of these things but I don't support being asked to make a decision based on something I just received without any analysis on it sounds like there is nothing that stops any of us from independently signing on to this letter correct which we can do we have some time to do you said the deadline was like November 5th so we have some time independently to consider and weigh these things but I you know I do intend to vote against the motion because I don't feel like I have sufficient time to really actually have a discussion about these okay any further discussion so the motion is as to whether or not we're going to proceed to vote on these and we need a two-thirds vote does that need to be a roll call okay okay nine the motion was for only one of the two documents yes would you read the motion that the town council waive the requirements of rule 8.6 for the net zero stretch cord code municipal support letter okay any questions okay all those in favor of waiving the provision raise your hand and say I opposed nay and abstain I guess that's me so we are not going to proceed with that one the bill on climate pollution pricing a similar action this one says it's asking for more money from the state didn't say Darcy to voting on it is that we don't have adequate information let's not vote tonight okay and we can even bring up the zero energy stretch code later too we don't have to vote tonight and I really urge people to sign the the zero stretch code zero energy stretch code individual letter but if people are feeling uncomfortable you know for me I feel like oh this is a no-brainer but I get that there are people who do not understand these things so but so maybe we should schedule it for another meeting the next meeting that could be on is November 18th and even though they're having hearings it doesn't mean they've had their vote so if you want to maybe help us provide more information on both that would be great okay okay Alyssa that would be helpful because yes they do usually accept testimony for some time after the hearing but I will point out it isn't that we don't understand it it's that we just got it and I have literally no idea what's in house bill 28 right right I I just we all just got it in the mail so I forwarded to Lynn and she forwarded to us so Andy and I appreciate it having been forwarded to us I think carbon pricing is an important discussion for the entire nation to have as well as the state and therefore the council but I don't want to hope we don't spend too much time on it however carbon pricing is a controversial issue because it is taxing people for the use of energy and then giving it you know it would get back to communities including ours but I hope that we find a way that the community knows we're having the discussion because we really do need to hear from the community as well as understanding it ourselves we'll look at a way to bring this up on the future agenda with additional information on both of these okay thank you I appreciate your input in this discussion it's exactly what I wanted you to do was to just say how do you want to handle this and so meantime I think it would be appropriate also to refer these to GOL okay Athena yes sorry just really quickly I just need everyone to come in and sign off on the tax classification it'll just take a couple of moments but if you can schedule a time with me I'll send an email reminder but we need to do this before the end of the week you just need to log in I have your credentials to log in check a box and that's it okay so finance committee we will be here for a 2 30 meeting tomorrow so maybe the five of us can arrive early and make that signature and then CRC is meeting on Wednesday Wednesday 8 30 to 10 30 and maybe GOL could either do that before or after and then anybody else GOL meets 10 30 on Wednesday I'm sorry GOL meets at 10 30 on Wednesday yeah you've got just about everybody in the council coming here thank you just make sure that you may have to come down here and drag them down to your office you know I'll bring candy I think that sounds like a nice yes all right any further questions or requests of us a motion to adjourn I'd move that to adjourn the October 7th no it's not October 7th the October 21st 2019 meeting of the town council is there second I second it all those in favor say I I opposed abstain it was unanimous


When I started recording this video, I came in with the intent to record a Neospatian video as we attempt to rank up into Platinum. What I didn't know, though, was that Master Duel has been infested by a new problem that is actively ruining the game as we speak. That problem is the bots. The bots are nothing new to Master Duel, but these bots are more aggravating in just about every possible way. This video contains over an hour of footage of me trying to play the game normally in ranked, and, uh, well, I guess you'll just have to see how it goes. Well, well, well, looks like our first duel is going to be up against a Wabbit, huh? And I'm, you know what? I'm in the mo- It is Wabbit season, after all. I don't know why I went first, but I did. Now, it has been a while since I played some Yu-Gi-Oh! ranks, so I am re- Nah, cuz, like, what is this hand? You know what? I'm just going to have to have faith in my cards. Yep, I'm just gonna have to have faith in my cards. I'm going to set one and pass. Damn, that was an awful turn, bro. That was a downright awful turn, but it's okay. We can turn it around. Maybe we draw a Nioh's Fusion. And then, uh, we should be fine after that. Nioh's Fusion will allow us to fuse from our deck. And Favorite Hero will allow us to get a, uh, you know, Field Spell out. Ooh! Yeah, I could see this going very, very good for us. That's all I'm gonna say. Look, all I'm gonna say is I could see this going very good for us next turn. Lay down. Uh, bro, are you there? It's been, like, four minutes, bro. Please! Why is the timer not going down? Am I crazy? This is why they need to add a chat box, bro. I need to talk to this guy. Make sure he's all right. I gotta do a personal check-in. My dearest fellow duelist, I write to you today to ensure that you are in good health and that your cards have found you well. Also, I wanted to let you know that I did have an ash blossom. So, should you have thought that you would get to have fun, I wanted to let you know you would not. Your favorite duelist. Y'all know.  Oh! No, no! Pause the copyright of music! That's a W, baby! That's a W! Connection failed! It only took 40 minutes, but I literally have no life! Don't ever try to stall me out! I will just sit here! Win and you gain a rank! Oh! Looks like I got something to play for! Yo! This guy thinks he's gonna win and gain a rank! Nah! Not on these streets! Oh! He doesn't know whether he wants to go first or go second. He's gonna let God decide. That's between me and God, he said. Oh! Dear Yu-Gi-Oh God, please let me draw a Kaiju. Opening hand, Kaiju! Draw! Damn! This hand's some garbage! This hand is bad. This hand is not great. I'll make it work. I'll make it work. Oh! This is bad, though. This is bad. This is very, very bad. Dark Magic Curtain! Oh my God! Dark Magician! Is that your turn? Do I win? And your turn! And your turn! And your turn! Literally just on your turn! Go next! Go next! Aloran! I'm asking you to... Two face-downs! He's good! He knows every aspect of setting down two cards! But I'm afraid this duel's already over. I draw! Oh my God! I drew into both of my targets! I'll activate the spell card! Miracle card... Wait, no. Wait, yes! I'll activate the spell card! Miracle contact! Allowing me to bring out Brave Neos by returning two cards in my hand to my deck. Feeling happy? I wouldn't. I'll activate the equip card, Favorite Hero. Then I'll activate Neos Fusion! Neos Fusion allows me to fuse into any Neo card in my deck. I'll choose the great and powerful Rainbow Neos. Then I'll set one Speller Trap down, but wait! It was all a trick! I won't be using that card at all. Instead, I'll be sending it to the graveyard to shuffle yours back into your deck. Once I enter battle phase, Favorite Hero will activate, allowing me to get a field card from my deck to my field. I'll choose the field card, Summon Breaker. It also allows me to get my attack point boost. AKA, go next, bro. This duel is over. No! Oh, still just enough! 100! That'll also trigger the effect of Brave Neos! And I will not use Favorite Hero. What are the odds this guy runs Caribo? No. I don't believe he does run Caribo. And even if he does, I don't think the duel's lasting at all. Rainbow Neos! Oh, that's a clean duel. This man just played two phase down and ran into a Rainbow Neos. Oh, no! We're both going to win and gain a rank. And this guy just fell asleep when he was typing up his name. Either that or it stands for something completely elaborate. Or he's a bot. Am I going up against bots? I'm first. Sengen away! Oh, this is quite the little hand. I think first I'll activate the Spell card, Reinforcement of the Army. And now I'm going to get Ash Blossom. What? I didn't get Ash Blossom? Neo Space Connector, baby. Hey, this ain't the TCG, bro. Hey, you think Anaconda's banned? Not here. Nah, we're still able to run my deck, bro. Watch this. I'll bring out the Monster Hummingbird. I always bring out Hummingbird because his effect lets me get 500 life points for each card in the hand.  Yum! 2500. You know what that pays for? My Anaconda cost. We'll just do... I'll bring out Verte Anaconda. That I'm down. Boop! Then I'll trigger his effect. You! Hey, 2000 life points. Bring out a Neo's Fusion. Ooh! Don't max seed. Don't max seed. Don't throw the game. Then I'll bring this guy out. I'll throw one of him. And then I'll throw a turtle to the grave for protection. Yep, yep. Looking good. And now a lot of people would debate this play, right? I am going to use Favorite Hero just so we can't target me. But we're gonna see, right? Because I can't go into my battle phase, so I won't get my... I won't get Necro Valley or Summonbreaker. So it's rough. But we do have max seed and we do have Ash Blossom. So we've got some good hand traps. This is a pretty decent deck to play against, you know? The Neo's, you know, they can hang out. Neo's can hang. It's gonna come down to what he drew. Or if he plays the game. I don't think he's playing the game. What is this video? Did Neo's break Master Duel? He finally drew his card. What will he do? He's looking at all of the cards in his hand, trying to make his play. What play will he make? Okay. Why, dude? Draw! Alright, so my opponent has decided to not play the game and you know what? That's fine. I'm just gonna end the duel now, dude, because like you're not even being... You're not being very fun, man. If you think I wouldn't be able to OTK him, bro. Okay, we're gonna go slow. We always go smallest to biggest here. Alright, no, no, he just... He just got... He just got mowed over, dude. I'm not sure what... So that was a bot, right? There's no way... I don't understand what's happening. We're just dueling. We just rutted it to... Bro, is this my rank up day? Is this the beginning of my popular phase? Next up, Gold Tier 1 and then next up Platinum. All I have to do is win. Oh, look at this little Moki Moki and he thinks he's gonna win and rank up. Nah, you ain't winning, Moki Moki. I can't let that happen. Not on my time. I keep going first for no real reason. I don't have a reason to go first. I got a Kaiju. I got... Oh, this is sick. I drew covert contact. It allows me to discard one Nios. Please don't ashblossom me. Oh, thank God. I can send one Nios Basian from my deck and from my hand to the grave and then draw two. It's like Pot of Greed. I drew Summon Breaker. Am I... Am I that guy? Yeah, I play Summon Breaker. Dude, I just play Summon Breaker. What could I really say? Bro, I just play Summon Breaker like that. Is that smart? No. Because I have like one play that summons three monsters. Please tell me he's here. This can't be another bot, right? Yo, Moki Moki, why are you so mad, bro? Bro, Moki Moki be downright furious. He's playing the game. I haven't seen somebody play the game in forever. Allure of Darkness. No. See the thing is, that was his first start. But just in case. No, I don't want it. No, I don't want you drawing two cards and then having to banish one. I don't think that's very fair. I don't like the deal. Destiny Hero.  Bro, did you honestly think I would let you do that? No, I don't know why he wants to destroy it so bad. But no, I don't like, I don't like that. Yeah, I don't play like that, bro. No, quite frankly, I don't like that he tried that on me. So no.  I mean, if I draw a Keeper of Dragon Magic, I guess that gets us out of this situation. Anything else? Like if I draw a Neo Space Connector. Oh, brother, I lose the duel. Oh, brother, I just flat out lose the duel. That's crazy. I need to draw a Neo's Fusion. I guess if I draw a Miracle Contact, that also works though. Miracle Contact, Neo's Fusion. Those are the cards that win us the game. He's going to destroy Summoner Breaker now anyway. So that's fine. This is a very funny card to run into. Why is Destiny Hero Celestial here ruining my day? The Jester of Despia. I really wish that I had kept Ash Blossom. I don't even know what he's playing honestly. What is this? Despia, Theater of the Branded. During your main phase, you can fusion summon one level 8 or higher fusion monster from your Extradac, using monsters from hand or field. One level 8 or higher fusion monster in your graveyard, Special Summoner. Oh, Destiny Hero Destroyer Phoenix. This is actually my first time running into Destiny Hero Destroyer Phoenix. I don't think it really matters because I have the Kaiju in my hand though, right? Yeah, I don't think Destiny Hero Destroyer Phoenix scares us all too much. Oh, Keeper of Dragon Magic, thank you. Oh, but I would have to discard him now. That's quite annoying. This is a bad situation for me. All right, so I think honestly what we do is we give him this last turn, right? That makes the most sense to me. I think that's all we can do honestly. All right, we give him one more turn. We see what happens because he'll fall for the bait and he'll want to destroy this. I think maybe it's not even really a bait. He knows it's nothing good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So yeah, we really want him to destroy his Phoenix here because all I need is one more card to draw. Oh, I think we lose. Please fall for the bait, bro. Please.  We maybe not lose. Despian, quit this. Okay, we don't lose. We lose. We might lose. We're not out of the game just yet, fellas. He's getting rid of my face down. That's fine. Understandable even. I get that. I got none. I get it. I get it. You play your game, play your game, man. I can't hate. I can't hate. The thing is, though, we would have to little little juicy player, little juicy play does not really matter. I think we give him the kaiju. Wait, what does this card do? Yeah, we can't. I mean, oh wait, no, we're fine because he can't hit level eight or higher fusion monsters. All right, then this should be this should be a okay. But who do I want to give him? I don't want him to draw a card. So I guess I'll give him this. All right, I'm getting rid of your destiny hero. He's had his fun. Enjoy this kaiju. All right, let's see if we can play our way out of this paper bag. He might also just ash blossom us and win. Keeper of dragon magic. Help me out. Oh, no. Oh, yes. We'll get the spell card neos fusion. Then we'll activate neos fusion. And normally I would not recommend, right? I would not recommend what I'm about to do here, but I don't want to leave a monster out for him to absolutely demolish. So I will do this. I'm going to summon rainbow Nils in attack mode and I'm a level 10 fusion monster. So he can't take my attack. Does not matter. I'll be sending them all back into the deck. Goodbye, keeper of dragon magic. Hello. Hello. It doesn't matter, bro. We're both fusion monsters. Real recognize real bro. Get off my field. Get off of my field. He really tried that. And the fact that he tried that makes me think he might not have anything in his. What are you doing in the graveyard? It's a little late. It's a little late for that man. Oh, no. But now he gets the special summon. Oh, no. Shit. I didn't even think of that. Damn it. I didn't even think about that. The card is so good. I guess I just lose. I didn't even think about it. I literally did not even consider that as an option. Wait, it's fine because I have the effect of Neo's fusion. He'll have to try again another turn. Do I have any more Neo's fusions in here? He's coming back now. Destroyer Phoenix enforcer is back yet again. We don't. We don't have anything. Man, if I had favorite hero right now. Wow. This is a cool fusion deck, bro. This is a door. I can't get over it. I had to get rid of this spell. Ah, no way. He fused with my monster. Who is this?  Damn. All right. Well, Gigi, shake my hand. Oh, is this another guy that's going to make me wait? I'm I'm literally it's I literally do not trust this guy to not bore me to death, bro. All right. Now, hopefully he actually plays the game. Are we looking at a real duelist?  I'm starting to get scared of this little bunny icon. Man, is everybody using rescue rabbit? Just not playing the game. See, now it's messed up because if somebody plays the game, I'm going to be scared. Okay, now I'm scared. He doesn't have much of an extra deck that doesn't scream great news to me. And honestly, I think I'm just going to go for the life points. It doesn't matter, bro. He's probably not even playing. Damn. Look at how many life points I got for real. Oh my God. Yeah. Another bot. Well, I don't I don't understand. I don't understand the point of these bots. Like I got the dynamite bots. The dynamite bots would try to win and like do it in a lazy way. But what are what is the point of these bots? Just to ruin my good time? Oh, brother. Please. This can't be another bot. It can't be. I refuse it to me. I actually refuse. It won't be another bot. Surely. Surely master dual can't be this. Okay. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I didn't even get in. I didn't even get in. That's another chance to get a real opponent. God, please master dual, please. What is this? Please. I just wanted to do a fun neo-spanian video. Finally. Finally, I am free from the bot again. Maybe I'll get a real duelist this time. I'm gold tier one and I'm going. This is, this is like aggravating to me. This is not how you rank up. This is not how duelist duel pick up your cards and duel me like a man. No. Oh wait. This is sick though. You know what? Because it's just a bot. I'm going to play my heart out. Watch this. I'm going to miracle contact into this brave news. And then I'm going to preta plant these two away and then I'm going to preta plant again. Watch this. Yep. And now watch this. I throw neos fusion away and now look at this. I would have been able to do like pool things, man. Oh wait. No, I wouldn't have. Yeah. Nevermind. That was a waste.  It's why I just have to get out of this rank. I have to get to diamond if I want to play the game now. These bots can't exist in diamond. Surely. Surely they can. A real player. Oh my God. Oh, I'll buckle up. It's a player. This guy plays the game. Oh brother. It's a player. I'm going to go first. I'm panicking. Oh my God. I forgot what it's like to duel the rush of the dual. Yes. Yes. Everybody focus. Focus. Focus. Oh my God. I break. Why dude? Why? Okay. Can't be happening. Dude. This can't be real. This literally cannot be real, dude. I'm going to have to just max see and pray. Wait.  Oh, thank God. What? Well now he knows I have a hand trap. Yeah. Draw. The flames scare him.  You know what? Fine. We're going to link something. Yeah. I link something on occasion. Why not? And why can't I? That's my thing is like, why can't I do? Yeah. How are you going to stop pre to plant birdie and a condom, bro? That's a trick question. You can't neos fusion allowing me to bring forth. Uh-oh. I completely forgot the turtles already in my graveyard. But that's that's interesting. Turtle is in my graveyard. That is not good. Okay. He's not going to. He's not going to play whatever he has face down just yet. I could. What is this? Guardian slime. I mean, I guess why it why not? Why did I not just run into it? Okay. He kind of be a he kind of be a guarding slime. I ain't going to lie. He's playing a wing dragon of raw. So I don't want to play three monsters. I don't want to have three monsters in case he has the this fear mode. All right. He plays Egyptian God slime. But does does he know ancient chant? Okay. He's he's going full wing dragon of raw here. I really wish I had max seed off the get. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. Oh, he's going to take my turtle. He's a G. Oh, I thought dude, I thought this guy was an actual genius right there.  I mean, maybe he could play around it. I don't know, but that would have been amazing. Like that would have been monster reborn to take turtle. That's a sick player right there. Let me get my one draw bro forbidden droplet.  What is he going to do summon two Egyptian God slimes? But it's such a thing even possible. Oh my God. He's good. He knows every aspect of summoning the Egyptian God slimes. Ancient chance. He's acquired the wing dragon of raw. He's tributing a monster I control with soul crossing. He's good. He knows every aspect of not being a boss. He tributed all the monsters I control to bring forth the wing dragon of raw. God damn. He left himself with 100 life points. How will I ever survive this? What he didn't know was that five turns ago, I sent a turtle to the graveyard. Your battle phase is over. You've left yourself in quite a pickle here. As long as I'm able to overcome one of your monsters, I'll be able to win this duel just fine. Shall I show you where you miscalculated? I draw. It doesn't matter what I draw though, because all I need to do is play neospace connector. By playing neospace connector, I can bring forth one neospacian from my deck. Oh, it doesn't matter what I bring, because that's not the point. I'll bring hummingbird just so I can get a bit more life points. The real point of summoning hummingbird is by acquiring three neospacian. Count them. Hummingbird, dark panther, and flame scarab. I can use the spell card miracle contact. Don't negate it. Don't negate it. This is the big part of my anime moment play where you can't do anything and I win the game. Don't banish one of my neospacians. What is he banishing? Neos? Banish neos. You've made a fundamental error, because it wasn't the neos in my grave I was targeting. It was the neos in my hand. Come forth, elemental hero, cosmic neos. When this neospacian hits the field, his effect triggers automatically, meaning that you can't play the game for the rest of the turn.  That's game. That's how you do right there, baby. That's how you really play the game. That's how you play the game right there.  Although I will say, give me a bot right now and I'll get to Platinum on this video. So you swear, fuck, that's a real player. Damn, that's a whole real player right there, man. I'm going first. I'll start my duel off with the Neo-Space connector play. Again, this just allows me to get a little Neo-Spaceian from my deck to the field. So I'm just gonna, boop, a little hummingbird play here just to get some life points to pay for my upcoming Anaconda cost, because this, you know, don't come cheap. That's all I'm gonna say is this Anaconda don't pay for itself. This Predaplant, you know, he's got to take some life points when he uses a second effect and that's exactly what he's gonna do right now. But I'll throw Neo's Fusion in my graveyard and then I will simply fuse into Brave Nios by tossing one Nios here and one Turtle here.  We are dueling against a real player now, so it's a little more touch and go, but I like my odds of surviving one turn. Let's just give it our best shot, end our phase and do what we got to do. We've seen this exact setup like eight times this video because this video has been three hours long thanks to the bots. Reinforcement of the army. I don't have Ash Blossom, you're good. What the, who, what is that? Eda the Heavenly Squire? I'm confused. The Monarch Stormfront? Oh, brother, no. Damn it. Whoa, I haven't seen this card since like 2005, dude.  Wait, I don't want him to, uh-oh. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, see, we can't let that happen. See, that is, that is something that can't happen right there. I think I might have messed up right there too. I think I should have, oh, it was, it's just a bad, it was just bad, dude. Firestorm Monarch, that's annoying. That's annoying. Damn, card advance. Are both Neos' in my graveyard? They are. Oh, yikes, dude. This is a not good situation. I, I really threw away a Neos. If I draw Miracle Contact, I'll be happy. Miracle Contact would put a smile on my face right now. I would be the happiest guy you've ever met, but I would need to draw Miracle Contact first. Adolfase?  Give us one more turn, Turtle. That's all we need. I really should have just let him take the discard. I don't know why I didn't, I, I'm just paying it. Dude, I've been dueling bots all day, bro. I've been, my eyes have glazed over in my skull. He ends his phase. All I need is Miracle Contact to win. Uh-oh, not a good situation here. I mean, I could get Neos Fusion, but what does it matter? Okay, you know what here? Get rid of Forbidden Droplet. Don't ashblossom me, man. Not in my weakest moment, please. Thank you. All right, what's this one do? I'm just gonna show him Brave Neos. Oh, thank God, man. Thank God I was able to summon. Uh, I need Miracle Contact so bad, like it's not even, it's not even funny. It's not even funny how bad I need Miracle Contact right now. Neos Fusion, get out there. Brave Neos. I'm going with Brave Neos just because I need to get this battle phase effect off. Please don't have a trap card. Please don't have a trap card. Please don't have a trap card. Thank God, man. Thank God I needed this. Thank God I needed this right now. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much. I needed it. Oh, I needed that. Oh, what is this? Oh, brother. Two tributes. Do I lose here? I might straight up lose. But it doesn't, how many Neospacians do I, just one? I can't even do, no, I have two. I have two. Oh, I'm so close to being able to make cosmic Neos, but I won't be able to. I'm not going to have the time unless I draw a Neospacian. Oh, that would be spicy. That would be spicy, dude. He plays Eda. He gets the special summon and he special summons Edos, the Underworld Squire. What is he going to tribute? He could tribute a lot here. Yeah, nothing. Battle phase. He's just taking out Predaplan, huh? I don't, I don't mind that. Predaplan served his time. Please let me draw a little Neos. If I draw a Neospacian, I'm, I'm Jaden. I'm literally Jaden. Draw! Oh, nope, I'm a scrub. All right, so I can't, I literally can't do a cool play here, which is sad. I could set it up for next turn though. All right, I'm setting it up. I'm literally setting it up, dude. I'm different. So I'm going to bring back my Neos, right? I'm bringing back Neos to play him and then we're going to Neos Fusion again. But this time, oh wait, no, we have to. If we do this, we can't go into Rainbow Dragon. Otherwise that doesn't help us at all. I mean, we could win with Rainbow Dragon. But is Rainbow Dragon really that guy? Or should I just go with the double fusion play? Because that would be cool. All right, I'm not, I don't want to lose the game. All right, get him out of here.  I don't want to see him no more. They don't have to go home, but they can't stay here, bro. Rainbow Neo said so. Bro, Lee, please. All right, thank you. Honestly, just very rude of him to not leave when I asked. All right, we're going in. Brave Neos. Oh, what is this? Oh, okay. Wait, is this game? Is that game? That's game! We're platinum duelists again, baby. We're back. We only had to falsify like hundreds of documents and wins to get here. But we're here in one video. Who would have seen it coming? Not me, because it's been an hour. But platinum tier five has been achieved. Nice. This is dumb, bro. They got to fix this bot problem. Bro, fix this game, Kudavi. It's really good, but why do these bots exist? But if you enjoyed the video and want to see more normal duels, make sure to hit the like button and subscribe. Thank you.


What do you think led to your success out there tonight? I just kind of was attacking the zone.  The changeup was actually, I got some outs on that as well. It was really good. It was kind of tough in the beginning to get feel for the fastball, just was so cold. It was hard to stay on top of the sinker. And I knew that I had good command of the breaking balls. And so that was really the key to the success tonight, was just being able to command both breaking balls. How did you get a feel for your fastball? Being the conditions were so tough. I think the first inning, as a long guy, you never know, when things start, they unravel, they unravel quick. So that kind of happened quick for Cole. I think it was a second or third or whatever it was. And so I kind of started moving around a little bit. And then it was like, hey, I need to get on the mound and start going. And so I wasn't like, I was warm, but it wasn't like, once I got a time to sit down in between innings and then go back out there for the next inning, I kind of got better feel for it. What did it mean for you to be able to contribute in this way tonight? Yeah, I think it means the world to me. A lot of work has gone into this. And to be able to get my first career win here is a very, very special moment. It's something I don't take lightly. It's just a big blessing for me. And like I said, a lot of work has gone into it. And you guys have seen the injuries and stuff like that. So to be able to come back from that and feel as good as I do right now and being able to string together some good outings early on in the season and have some success and hopefully continue to keep that going throughout the season is a blessing. And so I'm just very thankful to be able to do that tonight. What is it like to see Miguel Cabrera at the plate? Yeah, it was a special moment to be able to, especially, you know, he's chasing such a milestone. Obviously, I left that first one slip. I told him at second base, I didn't mean to hit him. It's just, he's such like a prolific character in this sport.  And so to be able to get a big strike out there was a special moment for myself. And, you know, it was cool to be able to face him and to be able to have his name on the lineup card for my first career win is a special moment for me as well. What did he say back to you?  So he was, he made some funny face to me and said, you're good, no worries. So I was happy. I didn't hurt him. How was your speech when you got the belt? It was good. It was, I told Ron, I was like, I'm more nervous, you know, I'm more nervous to do that speech than I was to even pitch. So, you know, the pitching is the easy part. That part's a little bit harder, but, you know, it was good.


These are important to your you know employees to make sure that they've actually had that work-life balance. Germany here we come. Guten tag! This is my co-host Sam and today we're going to talk about the work-life balance and I know this might surprise you but Americans are taking fewer vacations. They're working longer hours. Does this surprise you? Not at all. I saw a statistic where it said 38% of American males are working 50 hours a week or more. Also I see that Americans aren't using their PTO. In fact over half of Americans aren't. This is paid time off. It's crazy. You know what? I heard about France. I think I need to move because they kept their work week at 35 hours a week. Do you see how that would benefit you and your work-life balance 35 hours a week? You work over 50 hours a week. I do. I would love to get more sleep. And France also has about 11 to 13 national holidays. Can you imagine just getting that off? Not even touching your PTO? Also I had a roommate that was from Germany and I learned, well I learned a lot of things. Have a revising. Not enough German but I did learn they work 35 hours a week and they have 24 holidays in a year. Germany here we come. Guten tag! And Norway also works 35 hours a week and they will also rank third best when it comes to work-life balance. Emma did you know that they actually have 48 weeks of paid paternal leave? That's almost the whole year! Norway sounds like my kind of way. Babe we're moving to Norway. Yeah so here in the States I know for single moms they actually still have to work 50 hours a week. You know why that is? Yeah because there's really no federal mandate that says that you have to have paid sick time. All right Sam so what can we learn from all of this? Good question. So as a business owner it's so important to make sure you have the proper work-life balance and I can imagine it's hard to not only even balance your life but even have enough balance for your employees. Yeah be sure to unplug. Get outside and as I always promote eat well balanced meals get that exercise in and that will also help with the work-life balance. Indeed. All right so one of my favorite tips to give about work-life balance is reach out for support. That is definitely how I handle a stressful day at work is I rely on my friends.  I'm fortunate to live in sunny San Diego where the weather allows walking every day. Thank you San Diego.  You get a nature which is another important thing exercise. This will increase your tolerance to handle stress and also be sure to catch up on those Z's another way to increase that tolerance for the day-to-day activities and stresses and maybe fire alarms that head your way in the workforce. And as an entrepreneur it's important that you do offer your employees pay time off and even bring up the conversation about how important work-life balance is. Even offer them one opportunity per month as able to work remotely. These are important to your you know employees to make sure that they actually have that work-life balance. Yeah and if you're looking at your calendar and just looking at it stresses you out think about what you can do to prevent that just say no you don't need to go to every activity and take on every work task just learn to balance it out divide and conquer. Yes and another tip here don't contact your employees after work hours that's their time respect it and they'll of course respect you. You hear that boss? That's a wrap we just compared work-life balance of other countries be sure to like this video subscribe to our channel and ring that bell so you're the first to know about our next video and comment below and let us know what do you do for your work-life balance. This is The Journey. See you next time.


It's not a secret that the majority of the old generation of African leaders have failed woefully in their jobs as leaders. These leaders are weak, greedy, old and selfish men who once they get into power forget that they are in that position of power to serve the people. They are not accountable to the people and neither are they transparent in their dealings. These characters have led the African political system to become the breeding ground for corruption. If you check the list of the most corrupt countries in the world, you shouldn't be surprised to see that African countries constitute the majority.  However, this narrative is about to change because a new generation of African leaders is rising. African leaders who have pledged to fight corruption and pursue the sovereignty of their countries are being birthed forth. One such leader is the newly elected president of Senegal, Bassiro Diome Faye, who is currently the youngest elected president in the world. From his presidential campaign and his manifesto to his first public appearance as the newly elected president of Senegal, Faye has set out to distinguish himself from the older generation of African leaders. Unlike most African presidents who enter into power through electoral fraud, manipulating the Constitution or shutting down the opposition, it can rightly be said that Faye won the election fair and square. There was no record of electoral violence or manipulation of the people to vote for him. Instead, Faye's campaign under the direction of Usman Sonko was able to draw people, especially young Senegalese who were tired of the outgoing administration to them. This is despite the fact that he had just a week to conduct the campaign because he was released a week before the election from the prison where he had been for the past 11 months for charges that are believed to be politically motivated. And against all odds, Faye won 54% of the presidential vote. But there is something interesting that we can't help but take notice of. Two days before the presidential election, which was held on March 22, 2024, Faye disclosed on his Facebook page his entire wealth portfolio. This was a rare move in African politics, and to tell you how rare it is, none of the 18 presidential candidates who were also contesting for the position of the president, including the ruling party's candidate Amadou Bah, disclosed their wealth. In the publication titled, Heritage Declaration of the Candidate Basiru Diomaya Diakar Faye, Faye listed all his assets and liabilities since October 2007. According to the publication, the president elect owned only one house built on 200 mitzvahs of land in Mermoz, allocated by the tax union, and built from 2017 to 2021, partly with his own funds and partly with loans settled. He also owns two vehicles, one of which is the 2012 secondhand Focus, which he bought in 2019 for 6.5 million CFA franc, while the other is a secondhand Ford Explorer Platinum, which he bought in 2022 for 19 million CFA franc. In addition to his house and two cars, Faye also listed the total amount of money he has in his bank account. In the document, Faye stated that, as of March 19, 2024, he had money in two bank accounts. One of them had over 3 million plus CFA franc, while the other had 7 million plus CFA franc. Faye also declared his undeveloped lands, some of which include a terrain of 80 meters acquired in 2017, worth 3 million CFA franc, and an agricultural land of 4.3 hectares, which he acquired in 2022, worth 15 million CFA franc. Faye also listed his liabilities, which include a 30 million CFA franc loan taken on September 5, 2022, an 8 million CFA franc loan taken on August 22, 2022, and a 10 million CFA franc loan from a friend. This is transparency in its true form, and the amazing thing is that he did this without knowing he would win the election. According to the law, the presidential candidate is required to declare his assets after he wins the election, meaning there was no need for Faye to declare his assets before the election. But he did, proving that he is truly a transparent leader and different from those who came before him. His action was further exemplified when he declared that he would willingly submit the document to the Constitutional Court immediately after assuming office. Faye's actions have endeared him to the hearts of Senegalese as well as other Africans, because it's a well-known fact that the majority of African leaders refuse to declare their assets to the public before assuming power. And even when they do, the true amount of their wealth is not revealed, allowing them to exploit their position for their personal gain without public scrutiny. Let's take the giant of Africa, Nigeria, for example. In Nigeria, the law says that public officers should declare their assets, but there is a loophole that most Nigerian politicians have taken advantage of. Although the law says that Nigerian politicians should declare their assets, it doesn't exactly say that they must make them public. This means that even if Nigerian politicians declare their assets, Nigerians cannot access those records most of the time. In 2012, when Goodluck Jonathan was the president of Nigeria, the issue of assets declaration came up. And guess what his response was? According to Goodluck Jonathan, the issue of public asset declaration is a matter of personal principles. And since it's not his principle, he would not declare his assets no matter what anybody says and no matter the amount of criticism he gets. Imagine that. Even when the African Union called on President Goodluck and other African leaders to openly declare their assets and subject their wealth to public scrutiny, President Goodluck adamantly refused. In 2015, President Mohamedu Buhari attempted to do something different by declaring his assets to the public, although it's a well-known fact in Nigeria that he only did that in response to growing pressure on them to fulfill a major campaign promise. And even at that, the details were sketchy. And until he left office eight years later, those details were never revealed. However, this issue of politicians refusing to declare their assets is not just limited to Nigeria. It's something that has happened over time across the African continent. While politicians such as former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan believed that asset declaration is a matter of personal principle, the fact is that asset declaration is a political tool that will help fight against corruption in the government. Imagine if, by law, it were required that every politician from the president down to the last position in the government be expected to publicly declare their assets before they assume power. Without a doubt, the war against corruption would yield the desired results because with public declarations of assets, the citizens would be able to track the expansion and contraction of the wealth of public officers, including the president. This tracking will help anti-corruption bodies in the country easily find politicians who are looting public funds. However, when the true wealth of politicians is not made public, it would be very difficult to detect and track sharp increases in their net worth, which may be gotten from bribery or embezzlement of public funds. And at the end of their tenure, these leaders would leave their offices richer than before they entered without any repercussions from the law. This cycle of corruption needs to be broken if the African continent is to grow. So, unlike Goodluck, Jonathan believes asset declaration shouldn't be a matter of personal belief, but a law because a leader ought to be transparent and accountable to the people. This is what Senegal's president-elect Diome Faye has achieved, and it's important that every African leader follows in his footsteps. By declaring his assets, it will be much easier to believe Faye when during his first public appearance stated that he pledged to govern with humility and fight corruption at all levels of government. Indeed, as Faye noted, the people of Senegal have chosen to break with the past by electing him as president. What do you think about the actions of Senegal's president-elect? Let us know in the comment section below. If you are new to our channel, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share this video.