Good evening. I'm calling to order the meeting of the honest and select board for Monday, February 7 2022. This is select board chair Steve DeCorsi. Permit me to confirm that all members in persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. Members when I call your name please respond in the affirmative. Diane. Yes. John heard. Yes. Len Diggins. Yes. Eric Helmuth. Yes. Staff when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Adam chapter lane. Yes. Doug Heim. Yes. And board administrator Ashley Maris participating remotely. Tonight's meeting of the honest and select board is being conducted remotely consistent with an act signed into law on June 16 2021 that extends certain COVID-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency. The act includes an extension until April 1 2022 of the remote meeting provision provisions of Governor Baker's March 12 2020 executive order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law. The public can follow along with the deliberations of the meeting before we begin permit me to offer a few notes. First, this meeting is being conducted via zoom is being recorded and it's also being simultaneously broadcast on ACMI. Persons wishing to join the meeting by zoom may find information on how to do so on the town's website. Persons participating by zoom are reminded that they may be visible to others and that if you wish to participate, you are asked to provide your full name in the interest of developing a record of the meeting. All participants are advised that people may be listening who do not provide comment and those persons are not required to identify themselves. Both zoom participants and persons watching on ACMI can follow the posted agenda materials also found on the town's website using the novice agenda platform. Finally, each vote tonight will be taken by roll call. We have 17 items on the board's agenda this evening. Let's see how much of the town's business we can get done tonight. I'll now turn to the next item on the agenda item two to review and approve bond issue bond anticipation note and related matters. Comes in three parts Part A determination of maximum useful life of capital asset to be financed award sale of the $82,445,000 general obligation municipal purpose loan of 2022 bonds dated February 24, 2022 to JPMorgan LLC at the net interest rate of the 2.416% and see all related documents required to execute the sale. Joining us for this agenda item is our town treasurer Phyllis Marshall. Good evening, Miss Marshall. Good evening. Thank you. I want to start by pointing out that we had the triple a bond rating reaffirmed again. And so it's a great moment for us and appreciate the teamwork that went into getting that affirmation. We sold the bonds and there were seven bids. They were all very, very close. The winning bid was a rate of 2.416. And the range of bid, the highest bid was 2.639. So they're very, very tight. And that's always a good indicator that you have a good market and a good competitive bid. The, this issue includes 75 million for the next step of the high school, and as well as 11.2 million for the DPW facility. We borrowed 21.5 last time for the DPW. So there are also some other projects that were included in the annual town meeting vote last year. Those included the engineering study for buildings in the school district. School bus, when more park improvements and a dump truck for the DPW, which you're going to vote on next. And also for the department or exterior improvements. So I, if you have any questions of me, that'd be great. I'd like to hear them. And I would ask for your favorable consideration of this sale bond. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Marshall. I'll turn it to the board for any questions or comments. And I'll start with Mr. Diggins. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to move approval of the sale of the bonds. And I have one quick question for the Treasury through you. And that is, we will see something similar next year at this time, right? Yes. So I'll save my question for next year. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. Mr. Helmut. Thank you. I happily second that thing. Appreciate as always the fine work by our finance department and leadership for, for that bond rating, which is so important to making this feasible for us. Thanks for your good work. No questions. Thank you. Mrs. Mahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just one quick question. I'd like to ask Ms. Marshall if she knows. Is this down? Yeah, it's down. Oh my Lord. Is the town still on track for a fully funding contributory retirement by 2035? Yes, I believe so. I think that was. Sorry, go ahead. Yes. That was shared with the standard and course when we spoke with them. And we have till 2040 to do it. So we're still on track for finishing five years early. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Yes. Thank you, Mrs. Mahan. Mr. Hurt. I'm happy to support it. No questions. Let's just say that, you know, it's nice to drive by the new high school and every time you drive by seems to be huge chunks of it. It's done. There wasn't that before. So this is one. We can turn me drive down the street and see the benefits of what we're going to appreciate that. Thank you. Mr. Marshall for all your work. Thank you, Mr. Hurt. And yeah, I also will support this and I do want to congratulate you on the AAA bond rating congratulate the town manager and the entire team for that. Great news. Just a question for you or for attorney hind. Is it just one vote that we have to take to approve the sale we have the motion to approve the sale of the bonds is that there any other motions that we need on this one. Okay. All right, so just the one motion so on a motion by Mr. Diggins, seconded by Mr. Helmeth attorney hind. Just to be clear for the record for anybody. This is indicating no and I agree with that assessment. Okay, on the motion. Mr. Hurd. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helmeth. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. DeCoursey. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Marshall. Thank you. I appreciate it very much. And the team, the finance team. Thanks. Okay. Item three this evening is the fiscal 2022. Second quarter financial report. Sandy cooler deputy town manager. Eda Cody. Comptroller. They should both be joining us. See Mr. Poole. Good evening, Mr. Poole. Hello everybody. Thank you for having me and Eda here tonight. I will be presenting the second quarter report. Eda and I have gotten into a little rhythm here where we switch off, which of us actually does the presentation last time it was Eda. So she gets the odd quarters and I get the even quarters. See what we can do with that. All right. So we were halfway through the year, but I think we're all in line. We should be at spending and. Revenue rates at 50%. Overall, I would just say that. You don't have. Any. Budgetary problems with their spending. I think we're all in line. Some of the. The departments have spent over 50%. And it's consistent with their operations in previous years. Some of our revenue. Most of our revenue is at or above 50%. And there are some that are slightly lagging that, but again, it's consistent with what we've seen in the past. In this memo. Eda and I outline. And, and call out expenses that are at or above. 60% of budget to date. In other words, when there's more than a 10% variance from. Where we should be this time of year. And you can see these all listed in the memo. I think unlike in the past, I don't think I'll go through each one, except to say. That overall, there have been. Faster expenses from some departments because of the way they do business, such as encumbering. Large costs and IT or DPW for their software or for their trash collections at the beginning of the year. Same thing for facilities as they encumber a lot of their utility and repair accounts. And then the other thing that we'll go through. And then the other thing we'll go through is the health department. Where it's expended 70% of this. It's budget. Some of that comes from prepay and it's mosquito control expenses, but a lot of it. Comes from. The department having a substantial number of COVID related expenses. That will be reimbursed by various sources. Some of which we've undertaken as reimbursing health department for things like FEMA reimbursement. It is one of the few departments that still has substantial COVID expenses in its operating budget on the general fund side. So that's why I wanted to call that one out. And then finding council on aging. They made a rent payment upfront in beginning of the year. So that was why that's higher. Our other expenses. We have a lot of debt. Our minute man assessments pension and our insurance. Again, all fall. When those costs are due. That we traditionally sold a lot of our debt in. December's years past. We now sell most of it in February. But from our old debt, a lot of it still shows up in the first half of the year. The minute man payment. We have a lot of debt in the first half of the year. By this time of year, we have to have paid out 60% of what we owe. Pensions. We always get the beginning of the year and liability insurance. We pay a lot of that upfront too. That's the expense side. On the. Revenue side. Our collections are still strong. We're just under 50% in taxes, but we're still under 50% in taxes. The first two real estate taxes are estimated bills, the second two are actual bills, and they tend to come up a little higher. When we finally have the actuals. Motor vehicle excise is actually a little higher this year than it has been other years. We still have not put out our biggest motor vehicle excise tax bill. And we'll expect to see that in the third quarter. We'll expect to see that in the fourth quarter. We'll expect to see that in the third quarter. We'll expect to see that in the fourth quarter. Our. Our biggest. Local receipt after motor vehicle excise or licensing permits. And we've already collected 93% of those. Our hotel tax is coming in at 110% of what we estimated. So we find that positive and meals. Taxes are coming in strong. Both hotel and motel tax. We still have lower than usual estimates from previous years. So we're looking at that. We're looking at that. And our tax is at 72%. That's been a strong. Collection rate for us. It's a nice new source of revenue. So we're welcoming in that. Investment on earnings are down below. Where we'd like to see them right now. We have 25% of our estimated revenue. And part of that is because we don't have November, December's interest in yet. So we're looking at that. We're looking at that. We're looking at that. We're looking at that. The bank accounts come in and then the treasurer's office has to distribute those. Investment earnings out to various funds. I would say overall, this is something that we're keeping a close eye on because. It is even accounting for that. Shortfall in November and December. I think that they are falling behind what they've been in previous years. I'm going to move on to the enterprise funds. We have a lot of revenue. We have a lot of revenue. We've spent a lot of money on our, we've expended 57% of the budget and collected 54% of our revenue. This has been a wet year. So people have used less water. So we are, we are lagging in our revenue. So it will be important as we go into the next revenue year to make sure that we get. Those rates filed. And enacted on a timely basis. And then we're going to move on to the next revenue year. We have a lot of revenue. We have a lot of revenue. We've spent a lot of money on the water and sewer funds. So I'm not worried about. It's overall performance, but it is just notable that our collection is lagging a little bit. The other funds are doing well. A YCC is spending and collecting about. People rates. So a transportation is. Also not. But they've got a lot of revenue. And I would expect that rebound once it does open, but on a financial basis they're doing well. The rank has expended 68% of its budget and collected 31%. I've looked back on several past years. This is a normal collection rate because they collect a lot of, Connelly, the rent director about it. I think they're on target and I'm not worried about that. In a similar way, the recreation budget as this sort of funny phenomenon where it spends a lot of money in the summer to covering summer programs where the revenue from that came in in the previous year in the spring. So we always have upfront a lot of spending, revenue tends to come in during the year and then have a big revenue hit in the spring as we collect summer revenues. So again, we've looked at this comparing it to previous years. I've talked to Joe Connelly about it. He does his own forecasts and we've compared notes. And so I think the recreation fund will be in good shape. They've certainly been very active this year. And so I think we've been happy with that. I think those are the major things we've seen in the budget. You can see the numbers. We do produce this every quarter for the select board and send it to the finance committee. These are the numbers department by department for spending. The next group down are the big others. They're transfers, reserve fund assessments. Next are warrant articles. And I put in the budgets here. The original budgets as voted at town meeting without the sort of carryover that we usually allow, which you will see on the UNIS report. We allow the warrant articles to kind of carry over two years of budget at a time because they are run by citizens. And as I said before, sometimes it takes them a little while to process their payments. But I think we're certainly on track for all of that. And then you'll see the numbers for our revenue. And again, everything is pretty much on track there. And then finally, you just see the summation of the numbers for the enterprise funds. And you see the total expenses and encumbrances, which we then total together for the percent used. We break down revenue into direct revenue from fees and then any transfers, such as in the water fund, the $1.8 million in subsidy from that general fund. This will be the last year you're going to see that. That all goes away in accordance with the policy that the board voted. But again, I think we feel pretty comfortable about all of our numbers. So having said all that, if there are questions, I'd be happy to answer them or even be happy to answer any questions that anybody has. I would just ask you if there's anything at this point you would like to add. Hi, good evening. Oops. No, not much to add. Actually, Sandy covered everything. Just two things I want to mention. The interest, like Sandy said, we haven't posted it yet because we had a bank takeover. Eastern took over centuries. So the Treasury wanted to make sure that all accounts are unbalanced before they post the interest. So we need to do a thorough reconciliation before we post this two months. Also, we still have about $135,000 in health and human services that are related to a vaccine and testing. And we're hoping to recoup this amounts from FEMA and from ARPA. And finally, we received the last tranche of CARES money and that completes the CARES allocation from the state. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Poole. Thank you, Ms. Cody. And before I turn to board members, I want to congratulate Ms. Cody. Mrs. Mahan and I are on the audit committee and we attended a meeting I think since the last time that we saw you and the audit for last year's financial statements came back with a clean opinion and really strong comments from the outside auditors. So congratulations to you and your team and to the whole finance team for that. That was great news for us to receive. So I will start with board members and I will turn to Mr. Helmuth. Thank you. You know, I should know this is my second one, but do we do a motion for receipt on these? Yes. Then I will happily move receipt. I thought that was such a fantastic presentation and I have no questions. Thanks for your good work. Thank you, Mr. Helmuth. Mrs. Mahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will definitely second my colleague, Mr. Helmuth's motion to receive. And the only question I have pretty much has been answered, but it was on the earnings on investments. My question was, you know, why haven't we posted November, December and Ms. Cody along with Mr. Poole's report just explained the change in banks and wanting to take the time. Little trouble hearing you, Mrs. Mahan, with the connection. I think we've lost her. She's frozen. Okay. Yeah, I'll return to Mrs. Mahan in a moment. We lost her connection and I'll turn to Mr. Herd. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, Ms. Cody and Mr. Poole. I do always enjoy these presentations. I'm glad we were able to institute this as a regular occurrence quarterly. Seems like they come up a lot more than quarterly, but I guess we look forward to them so much. But we have a lot of budgets to go through tonight, but I want to thank you for your presentation, all your continued work. Thank you, Mr. Herd. I'll return to, I think we have Mrs. Mahan back, so I'll return to Mrs. Mahan. Actually, I'm going to follow up with Mr. Poole or Ms. Cody tomorrow on my questions. Okay. All right. Thank you. Mr. Diggins. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I just need some really short questions because every time we go through this, I just see new things. Or sometimes they are apparent to me because of conversations that I've had with some residents. I mean, display of flags. I see that we haven't spent anything. Is that because of the pandemic? Do we normally spend money on flags about this time of year? Or the other part of the question is, is that kind of back loaded meaning like we start spending them around Patriots Day? It's in the warrant articles. I'm fairly, if I may, Mr. Chair, I'm fairly certain from conversations I've had with Mr. Chunglow that most of those expenditures come around Memorial Day. So I believe that's when you'll start to see expenditures from that fund. Got you. I'm a little concerned about ACAC. So I mean, I didn't look at the meaning part. So you mentioned that you allow some of the entities to have two years meet, not roll one year into the next. I mean, so I hope they're not in as much trouble as it looks like from 94%. Oh, I don't think they're in trouble. Which one were you looking at there? Are the Commission on Arts and Culture? No, I think it's just there. I've shown the original budget at $30,000 because that's what you're used to seeing in the warrant. But the spending could be both from that $30,000 from this year and some other money from the previous year. Okay. So I think they're fine. All right. I just want to add that typically we look at when they get the appropriation and if the money is not spent within two years, then it has to go back to the free cash.  So I don't think I've asked this question before. What's reclassification? There's an article that when people have their positions change, in other words, they move from one position to another. They are reclassed and that requires a vote of town meeting. There's an initial appropriation with that article at the time that people are changing their positions. And then we incorporate those dollar changes into the department's budgets going forward. So if I ask this question again, just tell me, go back and look at the video. Okay. And the last question is on the fees. I mean, they are high. You said the highs in 10 years. Just from your experience, are those a predictor or anything you think? I mean, you said that they are associated with building permits and all. Do you think they are predictive of anything? I think the inspections department has been doing a very good job of doing their fundamental work. They've also instituted a policy of requiring contractors to sign affidavits affirming the true cost of projects. And I think that this probably made the fees that we take in be a little bit higher because the numbers are more accurate. I remember that from last time. So I think Mr. Jamison will be pleased. So thank you very much. All done, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. And thank you again for the presentation this evening. Just a quick question. You touched on it on the reimbursements for COVID expenses and you mentioned several departments. I know it's a health department. What other departments might see reimbursement, whether it's a CARES Act theme or ARPA funding? Some of the department, we have some expenses that we have already classed in the school department. We also had in the some capital projects that we reclassified. We had in Council on Aging and some expenses and recreation as well. And we also, in the town manager, we had some reimbursements for Zoom calls, for example, for the Zoom membership. Okay. That level of detail is all in the backup materials and there's a line in each department for COVID expenses. But Eda had it exactly right as the post departments where they're likely to find them. Great. Great. Thank you very much again for the presentation. We look forward to seeing you after the third quarter. And so on a motion by Mr. Helmuth to receive seconded by Mrs. Mahan, Attorney Hine. Mr. Herd. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helmuth. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. Corsi. Yes. Thank you. Thank you both. Moving on, Item 4, Fiscal Year 2023, Town Manager's Budget Presentation. I'll turn it over to Mr. Chaplain for that presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll keep Sandy here as he may be able to assist me with any questions the board may have. And I have a quick slide deck that I'll run through. But I want to start by thanking Sandy, Julie Wayman, the whole financial team, and really all the department heads and staff for helping us put together this budget. It is a long, very team-oriented process. And we're lucky to work with a good team. And specifically this year, I want to call out that Sandy made the decision to empower Julie Wayman, the management analyst in our office, to really be the leader of developing this budget. Working with department heads, developing all the documents. So everything you see in the documents is a credit to Julie and the good work that she's been doing for the organization. So I wanted to publicly share that so everybody knew what an important role Julie was playing. With that, I'm going to share my screen. Okay. Can everybody see that? Yes. Thank you. So I want to take this opportunity, hopefully take about 10 minutes or so, to talk a little bit about the fiscal 2023 budget proposal, which was submitted to the board and to the finance committee on January 15th per the town manager act. And then we'll start being heard by the finance committee in late up the town meeting over the course of the next several months. Let's see if I can get this to advance. So in overview of what I'm going to talk about, I want to highlight the process that we go through both internally and then externally to both develop and request consideration and hopefully approval of the budget. I want to give an overview of both projected revenues and expenditures or budget expenditures for the FY 23 budget. I want to share some highlights talking about the board continuing to maintain its commitments as part of this four year long range plan that we're currently in. And really highlight that this is a level services budget with very few with a handful of targeted investments. Talk a little bit about the continuing long term outlook of the town's finances and then next steps for this budget. So to talk a little bit about the budget process, it's really a year round process. For those who don't know, the town's fiscal year begins every year on July 1st. So our fiscal year is July 1 to June 30. So you can see that's when we start our budget year. Fast forwarding to September, we send out a memorandum in August asking that capital budget requests be sent into the town manager's office in September. In November, we expect the same of the operating budgets. And on top of that, we have those requests submitted and then we meet with each individual department to go over their budget requests as we formulate the actual budget proposal. As I mentioned, in January on the 15th, we provide the budget books to the Select Board and the Finance Committee. Starting in late January or into February all the way through April, the Finance Committee holds public hearings on the budget. In March, the town manager's office produces the financial plan and share that with the Select Board and Finance Committee. Usually by the end of March, that's the more robust document that carries both performance metrics, goals and objectives for each department's organizational charts as well as proposed budgetary figures. Next in April, the Finance Committee report is submitted to town meeting for consideration at the annual town meeting. In May, if we're fortunate, town meeting will adopt the operating and capital budgets. And then the fiscal year closes on June 30 and it all starts again. So as I said, it's really a 12-month cycle of preparing and managing the budget throughout the year. So let's talk a little bit about what the FY23 budget looks like from, again, a revenue projection point of view and then an expenditure projection point of view. So what you see on the screen right here are our revenue projections. And this is really a snapshot of what I think most of you have seen also in the town's long-range planning document where we conservatively budget revenues and then control our expenditures as best possible with spending caps on our discretionary expenditure areas. So this year, you see between FY22 and 23 an increase of property tax going up by about 1.5%. Normally, it grows between about two and a half and 3%, but this year is the last year that we're reducing the MWRA debt shift, as Sandy mentioned earlier. And that's why when that 1.8 million is taken out of the tax levy, you don't see the same year over year growth as you might expect. Local receipts, that's, again, this is great lead-in with Sandy's presentation, that those are all the non-tax revenues we collect, motor vehicle size, building permit fees and everything else you described. You see a projected growth of $352,000, about 4%. That's a little more than we budget on an ongoing basis for an increase, but we're still catching up from where we saw revenue slide during the pandemic. So as we see revenues rebound, we're budgeting that rebound accordingly. State aid, primarily what's in that state aid line is Chapter 70, which is education aid from the state, as well as unrestricted general government aid or UGA, which frankly feels ridiculous to say, but that's the acronym chosen by the state. The budget that you all had submitted to you showed just about a 1% growth in state aid. However, after the budget submission on January 15th, the governor released his budget, in which there were larger increases to both Chapter 70 than what we had budgeted, as well as larger increases to unrestricted general government aid. We're going to continue to advocate with our state legislators for even larger increases, especially for UGA, but for right now, we've updated figures to represent the governor's budget. Below that, you see ARPA funds budgeted. As I believe we've mentioned at several past select board meetings, changes in the federal rules are going to allow us to use up to $10 million total for revenue loss from the town's ARPA allocation. So we've planned to program $5 million of that as a revenue in FY23, and then in future documents, you would see another $5 million for FY24. Below that, you see free cash. Free cash, as we often joke, is neither free nor cash. It's really the town's operating surplus at the end of every year. Whatever we collect in excess revenue or don't spend from budgeted amounts, rolls into the town's free cash, and the town's long-standing financial policy has been to use 50% of the prior year's certified free cash as an operating revenue. So that $5.5 million figure you see is exactly half of the free cash as was certified this year. Other funds, that $400,000 amount is actually overlay surplus. So each year we ask the assessors to identify what they can give back to the town from their overlay account. And for this year, we are budgeting the same as last year, $400,000.  At the start of our long-range plans, we're making deposits into the override stabilization fund. At the end of long-range plans, we're making withdrawals from the override stabilization fund. So you can see in this instance, both last year in FY22, again in FY23, we're making a withdrawal from the override stabilization fund. Perfectly within the plan and what we expected to happen when the long-range plan was set in place back in FY19. And then one more thing I'll note. Below that, you see what's called transfers and offsets. Those are the funds that we take from the enterprise funds to offset general fund costs associated with the work that general fund departments put forth in supporting those enterprise funds. Moving forward for expenditures, you can see we have broken it down to a number of categories. Municipal departments, we have, I believe there's incorporated in there the elections. What am I looking at there? Oh, excuse me, sorry. See, municipal department's appropriations offset by that same figure of the water sewer offset costs for a municipal department's total of just about $40 million growing at 3% for FY23. Previously as part of the long-range plan, we were allowed to grow at three and a quarter percent, but we have limited growth this year to 3% as we try to best prepare for the override, which is still to be considered for FY24 and beyond. For the school department, after a long series of discussions with the long-range planning committee, which includes school committee members and members of the school administration, we are proposing in this budget a 5.42% increase in the school department. We have taken a look at enrollment over the past couple of years. We've tracked both enrollment increases and now enrollment decreases. And after resetting the base based on the school department's actual enrollment, funding the strategic plan that's been set forth by the school committee, funding COVID remediation funds, increasing general, excuse me, general education spending by 3.5%, special education by 7%. We reach a cumulative year-over-year increase for the school department of 5.42%, which when you're limited by proposition 2.5 is a very robust increase for the school department budget for FY23. Below that, we see the Minuteman School going up by a very significant percentage. That's really driven by two factors. One is increases in the debt service associated with the new building that is still rolling on, as well as larger than previously expected enrollment figures for Arlington students at the Minuteman School. Pensions in health care are next. You see that's collectively going up by 6.25% next year. You see the capital budget, which includes debt service, even exempt debt service for the high school and other debt-excluded projects. You see the MWRA debt shift being zeroed out. You see the warrant articles of which the lion's share of that are the funds that we deposit into the OPEB or the Retiree Health Care Trust Fund. You see our Operating Reserve Fund, which we mostly set aside to cover snow and ice cost overages that aren't budgeted within the DPW budget. And then you see the override stabilization fund deposit, which again, this year, we're not projecting an FY23 to make a deposit. Question? I want to just quickly note, actually, I'll go back. You see a deposit there into the override stabilization fund. Those are actually funds that we set aside last year in case school enrollment rebounded far beyond levels that we expected. It has not. So those funds that we set aside at this upcoming Springtown meeting, we'll be asking to put into the override stabilization fund so that they can drive the budget in years ahead. So I've mentioned that I wanted to touch on maintaining the board's override commitments. There's a series of commitments that I know board members are aware of when the override was put on a ballot a number of years ago. I think they're all maintained. I know they're all maintained through the recommendation of this budget. We're continuing to exercise fiscal discipline while maintaining services across all departments. The budget maintains the investments that we're committed to as part of building Arlington's future. Those are the high school project, the strategic plan funded by the school committee, $200,000 a year being put towards mobility and $50,000 a year being put towards senior transportation. There's separate actions that this board has taken to try to minimize the impact of the tax rate on seniors. So it's not part of this budget, but it is an ongoing process. And many of the actions that have been adopted by town meeting are now in effect. And also, this budget maintains the board's commitment of keeping at least and it's actually significantly beyond a 5% financial reserve for the duration of the four-year plan. So what's contained in this budget? Like I said before, this is almost entirely level services budget. We received a significant amount of requests from departments, which I think is an honest reflection of need that they see in the community. But because of our desire to control costs and stay within the lines of the long-range plan, we really were only able to fund very targeted investments. The first one and the biggest one was being able to sign a three-year extension for our recycling and trash contract. There's been years of concern as recycling markets have sort of been topsy-turvy with the recycling market in China collapsing a number of years ago that we could have a very, very significant increase in our recycling and trash costs when we renew. We were seeing, we currently pay $0 per ton of recycling. We were seeing communities such as even Boston agreeing to contracts paying over $100 a ton for recycling. And we generally produce about 6,500 tons of recycling a year. So just orders of magnitude, we were we were girding for what could have been a half a million dollar or more budgetary impact when we renewed. Fortunately, due to the real excellent diligence of Charlotte Mellan, the recycling coordinator, and DPW director Mike Rademacher, they've been able to they've been able to negotiate a renewal with Jerem again for three years. The first year grows at 9%, which is not insignificant, but far smaller than the figures we were concerned it would grow by during those more tumultuous times in the recycling market. And then in years two and three grow by two and a half percent, which is very manageable within the confines of the long-range plan. We're also planning to make an investment in DPW modernization through the establishment of a systems analyst GIS director position in the DPW department. It'll be a position very similar to the one once filled by Adam Krawski. But that position in IT has been transitioned to a project manager position. So we've now decided to program that position in DPW to really give them the tools they need to begin modernizing some of their systems. We're making a targeted investment in accessibility. What we've proposed to do is enhance the existing DEI administrative assistant position to serve as a full ADA coordinator to both work with Jill Harvey as the director of DEI and work with the disability commission to advance accessibility initiatives across town. And then finally we've proposed making an investment in regulatory support by enhancing the existing ZBA staff position to create a full-time position as opposed to a part-time position that can really meet both the technical and administrative needs of both the zoning board of appeals and the Arlington Historical Commission. So where does that leave us looking forward? We have maintained the four-year plan. The override, which was in 2009, went into effect in FY20, projects to last through FY23, as had been planned. So there are early discussions about what a potential override would look like in FY24 already occurring at the Long Range Planning Committee. In this budget, we continue to invest in both our pension and OPEB liabilities, as Mrs. Mahan actually asked during the prior presentation. We continue to monitor enrollment in the school department. As mentioned earlier, it has dipped in past years, but is projecting to rebound. So we want to make sure that this plan acknowledges that or the Long Range Planning acknowledges that, and it does. And we're going to continue to need to advocate for new and varied revenue sources from the state, whether it be our home road, petition for a DSEC-sized fee, for increased UGA increase chapter 70, or maybe even in the future, some local option taxes for consideration. We think if there's any chance of us minimizing our structural deficit, we're going to need to continue that advocacy. So where do we go from here? We have further Long Range Planning meetings and a budget revenue task force scheduled for February and March. Hearings with the Finance Committee, actually beginning, I believe, tonight. So we're very timely in that regard. The Group Insurance Commission is going to set its rates at its March 3rd meeting, and once we get those rates, we'll be able to finalize our health insurance spending for next year. And then all of these figures will be updated in coordination with the Finance Committee in preparation for town meeting and presentation of a budget in April. So with that, I think I went a little longer than I probably expected, but I'll close my presentation and we'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you, Mr. Chapter Lane. I'll turn it over to board members for questions. I'll start with Mrs. Mahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think I heard from the town manager a motion to approve the town's budget submission or just receive? I think receive is appropriate at this point. Okay. All right. Move receipt first off. Thank you. And a lot of my questions, I've had the opportunity to underline planning as well as looking forward to the budget revenue task force that the chairman will be. If I still have a cable connection in terms of the, I don't know if it was 1.4 or 1.6 under enrollment that the manager spoke about, is that something that can be done at the regular town meeting or a special town? So I actually spoke with town council. And so just to be clear, you're asking about the enrollment set aside, moving that back into the overhead state position. So I actually talked to the town council about that today. And we did agree we should be able to do that within the annual town meeting. Thank you, Mr. Chapter Lane. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mrs. Mahan. Mr. Heard. Thank you. Happy to second that. Thank you for the presentation. You did touch on a number of my questions during the presentation. You mentioned the senior circuit breaker and increased eligibility for the property tax deferral program. Have we seen the past year or so increase in participation or has it leveled off? Does it seem like the war is getting out there to seniors that these programs are available to them? So, you know, if Phyllis was still here, I would actually ask her what she has seen for deferrals. Sandy, do you have a sense? Do you mind, Mr. Chair, if I pitch to Sandy, to see if it has a sense? Yeah, that's no problem. And I certainly can follow up if you don't have the answer in front of you. I'm just sort of generally to see if, I mean, we're doing our job to let people know that that is out there. I know that they have implemented the new hire tax deferral numbers. I don't know what the participation levels are. We can certainly find that out for you. And the circuit breaker is still, has not been implemented because there was some concerns about its interaction with what the state was doing. I think the state just moved to increase the circuit breaker amount. All right. Thank you. And then we talked a little bit about the enrollment growth. Mr. Chaplain, has it been steady over the past, I assume, last year is when you saw the major drop off? Has it increased at all, or is it still steady from where it was in 2020? So, as you said, there was a significant drop off the first year of the pandemic. Yeah. And then for this school year, there was a rebound, but they did not even rebound to the level of the pre-pandemic. There's still 189, is that the right number, Sandy? 189 students less than they were before the pandemic. Okay. I assume it will go up. I'm just curious to see if there's a more lasting effect where some people transferred out and liked where they were. And it would level off a little bit, but only time will tell about that. Then are the projections for revenue for the hotel meals, tax, where are those relative to pre-COVID projections? As far as a percentage, I know with each year over the past couple, we put them down. We set it lower and we're increasing it bit by bit, but are we still 50% below pre-COVID, 25%, 75%? I think we're getting back to almost full pre-COVID budgets with our increase of that, catching back up with that $350,000 amount. But Sandy, it appears as though you're looking at something Sandy on your screen. I'm looking at a spreadsheet here. So, over the past five years, we've averaged about $430,000 in meals, taxes, and we set our meals, tax, revenue forecast at 410 for this year. Over the last few five years, we've averaged $354,000 in hotel tax. That has lagged more this year and last year, so we set the budgeted amount at $170,000 for this year. It's just the hotel tax. It's just taking a while to come back. Thank you. All right. And then the only last question I had is, in the budget book that I had for fiscal year 2023, it had a contribution from the stabilization fund of $4.2 million. You know, it looked like in the presentation it was $3.1 million. Is that relative to the school set aside? I think that's relative to the state aid change. So, because state aid went up as a revenue, we didn't need to take as much out of the override stabilization fund to balance the budget. Okay. Thank you. That's all the questions I had. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Heard. Mr. Diggins. Sorry about that. I just needed to cough. I think you all wanted to hear that. So, first off, I want to say that elevating Ms. Wayman needs good position of control in this process. This was called a no-brainer. I mean, she is just so good. He had a chance to work with her at the first virtual town meeting. Her level of confidence is just really stellar. So, I just kind of figured she was highly involved anyways. But congratulations to her on that. And also, I appreciate the town manager pointing out the great work that Ms. Milan and Mr. Radamaka did on the recycling. Because when I was running and sitting, had the ability to sit in on the long-range planning meetings, which unfortunately, when you get elected, you can't do it because it has an open meeting law issue. But those are really great meetings. And I became aware of that problem then. And it's just one of those awful situations where you want to recycle, but then we're seemingly penalized for it. I use that word loosely. So, I'm really happy that they were able to help out with that. And I'll say to Mr. Herd's question about the furrows. I mean, it was at one of our civic engagement group meetings. I mean, one of the participants said he, and this is Aunt Goudal. He just said that a lot of seniors that he knows that don't do the furrows. It's not like they don't know about it. They just don't want to do it because they want to pass along as much value to their property, to their kids. So, it may be more than just people not knowing and that we may need, well, maybe more. I don't know what to say beyond that. And third, I want to say, or maybe his fourth meeting on the workflow to the end is that I applaud the spending on schools. I mean, it was higher than the three and a half percent or whatever we try to aim for. But taking care of the kids and educating the kids is the most important thing that we do. I mean, and having more kids mean in order to have, just to help the species mean is one of the things to do and necessary. I don't have kids, but I love kids. I mean, and every time I work or do something with all 18 kids, I just feel so good. And that's particularly case because I'm working with some on the study committee me for the youth and adult advisory group. So anything that we can do as a community, to educate and provide more support for our kids, I really applaud. And lastly, it's a question. And that is, where is it that we can find on the website the list of requests from the departments? So I don't have that published, but I can I can produce that. And we could we could put that into a postable format. Okay. Only if it doesn't take too much effort and at your convenience. So thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. Mr. Helen. Thank you. Just a couple of things. One is just a detail. If you happen to have this off the top of your head, if you don't, that's fine. But you mentioned that the renewal that we got from JRM, the first year was a 9% increase, which is a lot better. Do you have a rough dollar figure for what that represents up against the increase we were afraid of? So that is approximately, I can just punch some quick numbers into here. That's approximately $225,000 overall increase, which is probably only about $180,000 more than we expected, because we would have expected a two or two and a half percent increase anyways. So it's probably, you know, in a good best mid case scenario, a third of the impact that we had feared. Great. Yeah. I'm considering the recycling market. That's some wizardry in that part of Ms. Milan and Mr. Ronamaker, the rest of the team. So that's a big win. My second question is, so I saw that the $5 million from ARPA for the general fund is in there. Where is that plugging in? I think specifically, you know, I don't see any obvious places where, you know, we're not changing or putting into the overall stabilization fund or that doesn't appear to be changing what we're withdrawing from it. At this point, do you see that $5 million having a direct or an indirect effect on the long-range plan and specifically the duration of our current four-year plan? So I would say two primary things in response to that. One, directly to your question, it is extending, it's not extending the life of the long-range plan. It is decreasing the size of a future override. Okay. Because it is not, it's not enough. Well, I shouldn't say, I shouldn't say that. There's a, there's a chance, depending on how the budgets go, that an override wouldn't be absolutely necessary in FY24. And these funds are mostly the reason why that that would be the case. But as the town considered last time, part of the long-term math of an override is collecting it over a certain number of years because it's the, it's sort of, it's the number of years at which you collect an override amount that really is what drives or powers a long-range plan's longevity. So at least in terms of how I would say the long-range plan, long-range planning committee has been thinking about it, it would, the 5 million in FY23 and using the 5 million in FY24 would be primarily used to reduce the amount of a future override. And then the second thing I would say is that when Sandy has run numbers based on federal treasury's model of how to calculate revenue replacement, when you look at from the start of the pandemic to the end of the ARPA period, and I know he's been sort of noodling with this model, we've lost about 10.4 million dollars. So to some degree, our argument would be, is that if the pandemic had never happened, we would have collected some portion of these monies anyways. So I only share that as an argument for why in general, we wouldn't want to use one time funds for operating costs, but these are called revenue replacement costs for a reason because it is literally replacing revenue that we would have otherwise collected if the pandemic didn't occur. Yeah. Yeah, thank you. That's, I'm glad I asked. That's very illuminating. And finally, I'll just pile on, you're absolutely smart to put Julie in the lead of this project, because I have also worked with her a lot as well. And we have a lot of talent in the town, and she certainly comes to mind on a short list there. So well done. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Helmuth. Again, I want to thank you again, Ms. Chaplin, for the budget presentation. And for the public's benefit, there is a detailed budget message and detailed budget report within the town manager's website. And he goes through each one of the commitments that were made in fiscal 19, where we stand. And the breakdown of how the school budget, at least in his budget, has grown or the projection for next year, because it is a combination of general education, special education, and the cumulative effect of enrollment. So thank you for that. And for those who want to look more, it's there. And there's more detail. We've made different references to commitments. And there's a checklist in terms of how we're doing on the commitments within that. And I find it very helpful to see that. And just briefly on Mr. Helmuth's point on the what's happened with the $5 million. And when we go back to fiscal 19, when we had the override, the five-year plan that was in place at that time showed a significant deficit in fiscal 24. With this last rendition and changes that Mr. Poole and Mr. Chaplin have made to the numbers based on state aid estimates, there is now no deficit in fiscal 24. We may have to go out in fiscal 23, as Mr. Chaplin said, to get ahead for fiscal 25. But there's no deficit. The deficit begins in fiscal 25. I just want to also say, Mr. Chaplin had referenced going forward, we will have a meeting of the budget and revenue task force. And I think Mrs. Mahan may be the only member of this board who has attended a budget and revenue task force meeting as a member of the select board. Mr. Herd may have early in his tenure, but I know Mr. Diggins, Mr. Helmuth, and I haven't. That's an opportunity for us to meet with our legislative delegation with the school committee, with finance committee. And we're looking to do that either the last week of February or first week of March. And Mr. Chaplin is going to work on that. We may do it before a select board meeting, but we may do it during the day as well. But we do want to talk about what's happening with local aid and the numbers that we see in the budget now or what the governor proposed. It doesn't mean that the House or Senate couldn't increase that. And we may want to bring that up at the meeting. But that's the type of thing we'll be doing going forward. Long range planning will be meeting afterwards. And I just want to thank Mr. Chaplin, Mr. Pooler, for the work that they're doing. Mrs. Mahan and I and other members of the Long Range Planning, because there's a lot that has gone on these past couple months and there's still a lot of activity and a lot of things that we're going to have to react to and project as we move forward. And we appreciate their presentations on that. So no questions for me, a lot of comments, but thank you for the presentation tonight. So an emotion to receive by Mrs. Mahan, seconded by Mr. Herd, Attorney Hyde. Mr. Herd? Mr. Herd? Mr. Diggins? Yes. Mr. Elma? Yes. Mrs. Mahan? Yes. Mr. D'Corsi? Yes. So unanimous vote. Thank you, Mr. Pooler. Mr. Chaplin. All right, moving on to item five, a discussion and vote on polling locations. And I believe our town clerk, Ms. Brazil, is going to be joining us for that discussion before we have our internal discussion vote, internal public discussion. Good evening, Ms. Brazil. Little earlier tonight. Doing all right. So I wanted to let you know that there's been some confusion. Attorney Hyde and I have been trying to sort this out. There was a special act language passed that sort of supplants the standard process for a select board designating polling locations. And it sort of was an outgrowth of a lot of people, a lot of communities making changes during the pandemic. And so, but it basically now what I need, what we need to do tonight is I get a preliminary vote of what the select board would like for all of the polling locations. I'll need to do a very detailed site study to evaluate accessibility and send in the report and pictures to the elections division for any new space that we are interested in using. And then when that has been okayed, we will, we may need to take a final vote. And prior to that, they seem to be asking for a report, just a statement from the board indicating that they've looked at it. And there, the chain, any change that we're making to a current location wouldn't have a disparate adverse impact on access to the polls on the basis of race, national origin, disability, income, or age. So I have some sample language. I would be happy to draft that for the board. But that's sort of the process the state seems to have. I don't know if attorney Heim wants to add anything to that. It's been a very confusing week trying to sort this out. Attorney Heim? The only thing that I'd add is that you know, the way that a special act is read in Congress with a general law can sometimes be prone to some conflicting interpretation. But at the end of the day, the secretary of state's office is sort of asking us to do something or informing us that we have to do something that I didn't necessarily anticipate given my reading of that special act. I think what's critical is what's pretty apparent on its face, which is that Arlington is well positioned to make sure that folks have access to the polls. We've already got a lot of data that affirms that. I still think that in order to avoid any concern about the legitimacy of polling locations, the board should take a preliminary vote tonight to say this is where we think these polling locations should be. And then using the data that we gathered for the purposes of both the precinct thing and just other common sense data. I believe the clerk and I were talking about this earlier, hoping we're not reiterating a point that you already made. But you know, we have 11 polling locations in five and a half square miles. In theory, we could have only one. In theory, we could also have polling locations outside the boundaries of Arlington. So I think that there's a lot of sort of prima facie evidence that we basically satisfy these tests. But I think the board should take its vote tonight and that we should submit a report in abundance of respect for the secretary's interpretation of the special act and make sure that there's no, you know, uncertainty or clouds hanging over our polling locations. Thank you. Thank you, Attorney Hyme. I don't know if you wanted to add anything further before I okay, good. All right. Thank you. And I want to thank you both both you and Attorney Hyme. If we had some conversations in the past week and there's been a fair amount of dialogue with the elections division and we thought at least at a minimum, whether we call it a preliminary vote or a contingent vote tonight, it was important for us to designate the polling locations that that we would like to put in place beginning with the annual town election. And then there may be some further follow up, as you mentioned, that we have to come back to have a confirmatory vote afterwards after some of the research is done. But I wanted to turn it over to board members for comment discussion and then the ultimate vote. And I'll start with Mr. Heard. I didn't want to start on this one. So if we look, are you looking for a motion right now or just discussion? If you'd like to have discussion first and then we could, we can go to a vote that's fine too. If there's any particular concerns you have. Or in particular polling. I mean, I think we've seen a good amount and I appreciate all the work that the clerk and staff has done on trying to identify for us locations that make sense with the current precinct map. And I think a lot of locations do make sense. My thoughts, there was a proposal about high school, which I mean certainly could work. But I think some uncertainties make that kind of not an ideal location for the precincts are being proposed there. And there's been a lot of discussion about precinct 10 or a lot of correspondence that were received about precinct 10. And the vast majority of it has been individuals that want to remain at town hall. And I think it's good, it's a noble cause to try to spread out some of the resources to make sure that we're not overloading any locations. But I do think town hall can handle a certain if it ends up that we put a few more precincts in town hall, then we need to that location should be able to handle that. So I would lean towards leaving precinct 10 at town hall. But I don't know what further comment you look for, Mr. Chair, if that's just kind of general thought as to what we've seen. Yeah, I think maybe just the way this is going to go, maybe what we do is get comments from members in terms of particular concerns they may have or issues. And if you want to comment, the other suggestion you mentioned in the high school, the other suggestion that had come up is the Gibbs school. I don't know if you have any. I think the Gibbs school is a great location for the suggested precincts. And we've had some correspondence in favor of that. Where I think now that that's under the town's control and we've newly renovated building that should certainly be one of the locations that we consider. So I think that the Gibbs school is definitely the location and I'm on board with putting the close by precincts at Gibbs. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Hurd. Mr. Diggins. Well, I was expecting, well, thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, I was expecting the clerk to give us a recommended set of polling locations. I mean, I have this spreadsheet that I had kind of discussed with the clerk. And so if you have that handy, Mr. Brazil, me, could you pull it up? Otherwise, I can ask you to take someone else, Mr. Chair. And I'll pull it up. I'll tell you sharing. I mean, on my screen could be a little bit of an issue. Okay. All right. This is the recommendation that you're referring to from the Election Modernization Committee that we had at our meeting on the 24th. Well, it's kind of based on that. And then it's based on some input that we got from residents. I mean, it certainly used the Gibbs School. It kept six at Hardy. It kept eight and 10 at Town Hall. It brought nine over Town Hall. It kept 17 at Pierce. It took five and seven. And so it took five from Thompson and put it over at Gibbs. And everything else remained the same. So I think I recalled it correctly. So in my discussion with the clerk, we were kind of leading towards that one. I mean, I had initially advocated for taking nine, putting nine and seven at Gibbs and keeping five at Thompson. But I think the clerk made a good case for taking nine over to the high school. And we would then keep eight and 10 at, I'm sorry, take nine over to Town Hall. I'm going to probably say high school. When I say high school, I mean Town Hall. Please forgive me. And eight and 10 at Town Hall. So I like that one. And so I was expecting the town clerk to present that one or the one with the high school. So was that clear, folks? Ms. Bruseau, do you have that sheet that just lays out? Because maybe that's the best way to go. We can comment on any particular concern of what we agree with on that sheet on our schedules. Yeah. I can do that. I mean, one of the issues is it's now eight different presentations. That's the four we talked about before plus the two suggestions from residents that I threw in and then two scenarios that Mr. Diggins provided. But if it's helpful to put it up there, I'm happy to do that. Well, yeah, I don't know if it's helpful to have eight different versions. But what I'd almost like to do just for the board's benefit is maybe even if we went back and talked about change, I'd just like to see something that lays out what we have right now. And maybe the eight schedules is the best way to do it. Just to help the discussion here in terms of where we go. Because I think we're going to come down to four or five locations that we really need to focus in on. And yeah. So the current is here. Right. Okay. And then, you know, that's a question of, you know, if we're not using the high school, then, you know, that changes that changes things.  Which precincts go into the Gibbs? Do you, you know, and that's just sort of that's the part where it's really up to the board to determine, you know, how many polling locations at once. There are a bunch of scenarios that end up leaving us with one precinct in the location, which isn't as efficient, you know. So, you know, it's difficult. You know, there are a lot of variables. This has the where we are now. Mr. Diggins, maybe if I could suggest this, and Mr. Hurd had made comments on the high school and on Gibbs. And I think you have talked about Gibbs, supporting Gibbs. Maybe you could, if you have any issues with the high school or whether you support having locations there, and we can try to frame the discussion that way. And I'll try to pull it together once every member talks. I'm sorry. I didn't, I got confused when you mentioned the high school part, because the one I was favoring was the one with Gibbs, not the high school. Okay. So what I was asking for is what your position was on the high school. So if you don't favor having any polling locations at the high school, that will be a second member now who would prefer not to have something at the high school, at least for this year. Yeah. Sorry about that. It was a little noisy. So I heard you. I just want you to be interrupted by a silence. Yes. I mean, I'm very much in favor of Gibbs and not using the high school. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. I'll give you Diggins 10 at Town Hall. Okay. All right. And I believe you said nine at Town Hall as well? Nine at Town Hall as well.  On one of the renditions, it goes to Stratton. So, all right. So why don't we, I'll hear from every member and then we'll try to pull it together as I, as I said, and I'll turn to Mr. Hellman. Thank you. Yeah. So I think I definitely favor the Gibbs. I think there's sounds like there's some consensus on that. I also think there's been a good case maybe for moving to nine to Town Hall. So I like eight, nine and 10 at Town Hall. I think with the high school, I don't mind using the high school. I think the superintendent thinks that that's feasible. I know that I talked to one school board member and they pointed out that we vaccinated 1,200 students in one day plus the parents of 2,400 people went through in one day. They managed signage and the construction fine. But I don't know what the accessibility situation is there. And I think that's something that, you know, we have to look very, very closely. Yeah. But, you know, I think, I think some of my colleagues here in the board are more familiar with the high school layout and plan than I am. So, you know, I gladly cede to that wisdom there. I do think, you know, I like long term after this year, after more of the high schools completed, I really like the idea of high school as a location. I think that that solves a couple of problems that we have with locations now. So I'd like to really look at that. And, you know, I don't mind looking at this year as a bit of a transition, particularly if we think that the high school is kind of a goal, you know, and, you know, maybe we don't have a perfect solution this coming year. I also don't mind some inefficiency in that regard. You know, we don't want to be profligate with our expenses, but I think it's more important to make it easy for people to vote. It's not, you know, it's not hundreds of thousands of dollars of difference. So, you know, I would lean towards finding a workable solution even if we think of it as something short term here. And, you know, I think there are some problems to be solved at Bishop and Pierce. I don't have strong feelings about those. I think my one question I would offer is like, do we need to solve this year or do we look at it? Do we look at taking a whack at that next year when we may have more clear consensus from this body to use the high school? So, those are just some questions. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Helmuth. Mrs. Mahan. Okay. I'm hearing the consensus, which I agree with. Five and seven gives, making one and three at Thompson, two, four, six at Hardy, seven, eight, I'm sorry, eight, nine, 10 at the town hall. Everything else remains the same for now. I don't think we should even look at the high school for at least two years. I'd like to see 17 go there. I'm not 100% sold, but also adding 14, I think just 17. But that's not even on the table for tonight because maybe two, three years down the road when high school is finalized. So that's where I'm at, which I think is where I think I'm hearing consensus on. And I understand that the town clerk will now take this and do her due diligence. And it's not the final vote tonight. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mrs. Mahan. And thank you for running down the list. I have a list here in front of me. And I think that captures a couple of comments. I agree for two, four and six that that should remain at Hardy. I like five and seven at the Gibbs. I think two, four and six works well. I agree on eight through 10 seems like this consensus on that. I think at some point in the future, just as other members have said, the high school may be appropriate, but just too early to be talking about that while it's under construction and some of the unknowns and some of the demands, frankly, on the red gym right now during the spring. So I mentioned 10, mentioned nine at Town Hall, 12 and 14 at Brackett, 13 and 15 at Stratton. One issue, I think it's an issue because I've heard two different things from members. I personally would be in favor of keeping Precinct 11 at Bishop for this year because there's a lot of change in the precincts. I do think it makes sense to have only one precinct there. I spoke with Mrs. Kruppalka earlier today about this issue and more than one precinct at Bishop has been a problem historically. So again, for this year, given the change that we're already making in the number of precincts and the way things have been reconfigured, I think if we can provide some certainty to Precinct 11 at Bishop, that makes sense to me. And I think for Precinct 17, again, for consistency, putting it at Pierce, I know the parking is an ideal up there, but for this year, 17, 19 and 21 at Pierce seems to make the most sense for me. So unless there's any questions on, you know, there was some discussion on Gibbs, whether or another precinct would be included there or not. But I see Mr. Hurd's hand up, so I'll go back to him for any further comments. But I think we're narrowing in on reaching a consensus here. Yeah, I'll just take a second crack at that now that I have the, I'm not flying blind. So in addition to what I said before, I think what I said about Town Hall conforms with what most of the members have said. And as far as Bishop, we've had some correspondence from members of Precinct 9, which includes some elderly buildings that the Bishop School would just be overly burdensome for them to get to the school. So I agree that Town Hall is a location, is the appropriate location for Precinct 9. And then like I agree with what the chair just mentioned that at least for this year, why not at least utilize the Bishop School? So if we could put one precinct in Bishop, I think that makes sense. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Hurd. Does anybody else have any comments? Because I'm going to read down a list here. But Mr. Dickens, did you want to say something? Yeah, I guess my only concern about Bishop is that I think, you know, I know that the number of election workers is really based more on the number of precincts, but I think we're going to have some challenges getting election workers. So I think everybody that we can not have to get the better. And that is not really, please believe me, I'm not trying to minimize the number of locations for money is really just a matter of staffing. But I hear you. So there's no upset if we keep Bishop open. It's just another little thing to take into account. I'm more than happy to go on what I think is the consensus. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Dickens. Mr. Helen? Thank you. Just a quick question. So under, I think I liked what I was hearing the chair lay out, but where was Precinct 5 again in that and your suggestion? At kids. Okay. Yeah. I like that too. And I would concur that, you know, I like none of us know that none of us think that Bishop is ideal, but I think the chair's point of kind of minimizing disruption right now would be a helpful thing. And, you know, I think we're all, seem to be consensus that we're looking kind of a realignment once we have the resource of the high school. So I'd be comfortable with that. Okay. Thank you, Ms. Talman. So I'm going to read, Ms. Brazil, did you want to say something in response to? Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that the board, I forwarded all of the comments I got. There were, there was a comment from Precinct 5 indicating that some people in Precinct 5 were concerned that there was more, there was not enough parking at the Gibbs. I was more parking at the Thompson. So, you know, and it is, it is possible to not change five and just add seven to the Gibbs.  Their parking is not an issue on a Saturday. And, you know, I, it's, I just wanted to, I just wanted to toss that out there as, as just one thought. I agree, seven, you know, seven is very well served at the Gibbs. After that, it's really a question of what the board thinks makes sense. Yeah, I, I thank, thank, thank you for those comments. I, I had actually received some comments from people in Precinct 5 who, who liked Gibbs. So, I, so let, let me do this. Let me read down this list. Okay. And if we have a consensus, I'll ask for a promotion. I think we do. So, what we have, and I'll go right down the order, one and three at Thompson, two, four and six at Hardy, five and seven at Gibbs, eight, nine and 10 at Town Hall, 11 at Bishop, 12 and 14 at Bracket, 13 and 15 at Stratton, 16, 18 and 20 at Dallin, and 17, 19 and 21 at Pierce. Okay. If that's what the board is comfortable with, I'd ask for a motion on that or any further comment, if there's any further discussion that people want to have. I'll move. Okay. Second. Okay. Any further comments from Mr. Hurd or Mr. Helmick? Seeing none. Okay. So on a motion by Mrs. Mahan, seconded by Mr. Diggins, attorney Hein. Hurd. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helmick. Thanks to the chair for pulling that together. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. DeCorsi. Yes. It's unanimous vote. Okay. Great. Thank you, Mr. Brazil. And we will be back for the confirmatory vote and we will coordinate with you before then. Thank you very much. Really. Thank you. Now moving to the consent agenda, item six, seven and eight. Item six, minutes of meetings, January 10th, 2022, and January 24th, 2022. Item seven, for approval of the leads together banners. Item eight, acceptance of funds received from various entities. On the consent agenda, Mr. Diggins. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I motion to approve the consent agenda. Thank you. Mr. Helmick. Second. Thank you. Mrs. Mahan. No questions. Thank you. Mr. Hurd. No questions. Thank you. Okay. And just one quick thing. I believe we mentioned it to Ms. Marv. There's just one small administrative change on the 24th on the subcommittee for the signs. It's Mr. Hurd and Mr. Diggins, but that will be reflected in the actual minutes. So if the vote is to that effect, we're good to go. If you don't mind that, Mr. Diggins, as a slight amendment on those minutes. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's fine. Okay. All right. It's one of motion by Mr. Diggins, seconded by Mr. Helmick, the turning time. Mr. Hurd. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helmick. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. Corsi. Yes. So now let's vote. Thank you. Item 9 for approval, Arlington Education Foundation 5K Race on May 15th, 2022. Laura Fuller from the Arlington Education Foundation. Is Ms. Fuller with us this evening? Yes, she is, Mr. Chair. I just promoted her to panelist. Good evening, Ms. Fuller. Yes, I'm here. That's great. Yeah, why don't you tell us a little bit about the race and the approval that you're seeking for that date? Certainly. I would also like to note that I have online today Judy Geyer, who is the president of the Arlington Education Foundation, and Siobhan Hanley, who is also working with me on organizing the race. For any questions that you have, I think you are all familiar with the Arlington Education Foundation. We are an Arlington nonprofit, and we work to support and advance public education here in Arlington. We, as an organization, we like to engage the Arlington community to share awareness of our work and also find creative ways to fundraise. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic over the last two years, we've been unable to hold our traditional events, which in the fall is a grant showcase where we bring in all the grants we've awarded, or a good number of the grants we've awarded in the past year. We invite community members to come and celebrate those and learn more about what we are, the innovation that's happening in our school. Then in the spring, and I think many of you are involved in this, is our annual trivia bee, which we hold at Tone Hall. That's really just a fun event to bring community members together and to share some of the wisdom that our fifth graders know, and then also the adults in our community. We've been moving forward as we can during the pandemic, and we've been seeking other outdoor opportunities to bring the community together during these times. I think, for example, in October, we quickly put together an event to welcome Dr. Liz Holman to Arlington, and that was just a wonderful event in the Town Hall Garden, so we appreciate being able to do that. But as we're seeking another opportunity, we became aware that other education foundations in neighboring towns have actually used 5K events to bring community together and to create awareness of their organization, and so we have been looking at this and talking to other race organizers in the area. For this event, which we are proposing on May 15th, which is a Sunday morning in the spring, we proposed to start at about 8am. We are planning to partner with Arlington Community Education, which coordinates through their after-school programs several running clubs for children in town here in our public schools. So, for example, the Fifth Girls program, which is for fourth and fifth graders across most elementary schools, boys in motions for boys in the elementary schools, and then there are running clubs across Gibbs and the Odyssey, and there are actually running clubs at the high school as well, so we are hoping to work with them for volunteers for this event. And our plan is, so many of those programs, those kids work to building up the endurance to run a 5K, and then at the end of the program, they all sign up together and run the 5K together. So, it would just be really great to host that event in Arlington where you get all these Arlington kids, maybe their parents, maybe their teachers, running together here in town. So, our proposal is, again, as I said, a May 15th race, which is a Sunday morning, hopefully starting at 8am, and we have been working with Joe Connolly at the Recreation Department and the Rink to set that up to begin and end at Hills Hill Field, which is right there in the Ed Burns Arena complex. Our plan is to hopefully have about a maximum of 600 participants, we believe with full participation of all those running programs, about half of that, those participants will come from those running programs and affiliates of those running programs, and then that would open it up for another 300 participants from our community, hopefully. And the route, as I said, is going to start and end on Hills Hill Field. Our plan is to use the Bike Path, the Minuteman Bike Way, to start the race, head east on the Bike Path all the way to Water Street, take a quick jog from Water Street to Mass Ave, and then head west all the way to Lowell Street, which gets you to the Bike Path via Fraser Street. And ideally, we would propose that we close the Bike Path for this race. We did learn from Mr. Connolly that the Town Day race that was held actually in 2021 without Town Day, they did get some traffic from bikers interfering with runners, and that made it difficult. So he advised if we could to close the Bike Path, if not, our backup plan is actually to create some signage, get it out there a couple of weeks in advance, and then to use any public notices in town here to make the public aware that there will be a race that will be held on the Bike Path on that Sunday morning. And hopefully, if it starts at 8, it will be completed by 9.30. And hopefully, at that point, most of the traffic will be missed. And to follow up as well, we plan to follow all CDC guidelines in our conversations with the Board of Health. They are happy with us having an outdoor event. But I think, you know, following CDC guidelines as they evolve in May is our plan to do that. And that involves just keeping what we're offering to participants to water. And then we are proposing just offering some sort of food because there are so many kids participating in the race. So perhaps like a granola bar or something that one of our sponsors can supply. And then finally, we're going to engage with following approval by the Board. We will engage further with the Police Department. We have talked to them briefly about this. And they are on Board given your approval just to ensure that we have proper details at road crossings and for the safety of all participants. And if anybody has any questions, we are happy to answer them. Thank you, Ms. Fuller. I'll turn to the Board now. Mrs. Mahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to move approval. This is happening on this date. Hopefully, all sunshine with maybe a little bit of clouds. And I see there's no rain date. So that's it. This is one of my questions. And I think definitely once this Board approves that speaking with Officer Rato and others with the Police Department, as well as maybe Attorney Hime, if the town actually can close the Minuteman Trail, if not either way, if we can or cannot do that, definitely signage getting up at least a week before just to let people know. And I think, you know, having done Town Day for so many years, it really will give the event organizers as well as out into Police Department a little more. If we can't close off the Minuteman Trail, if signage is gone up, it kind of helps with the 1% of people, persons that are just going to want to argue the points that if we can say this has been up for a week, you know about it. So, and I do appreciate Ms. Fuller and Skyer. You know, my roots started in PTO and didn't have anything like COVID, no pandemic and barely an endemic back then. And what you all have done to, you know, continue on fundraising and more importantly, get the message out in the tie-in between our children and our adults here in Allenton. I'm very appreciative of that. So God bless you and I'll pray for good weather and let us know what else the Board can do to help. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mrs. Mahan, Mr. Herd. Thank you. Happy to support the motion. I always look forward to the 5Ks in Town and I think it's, we've had a few over the years, some that are on an annual basis and some one offs that come into town for various reasons. So I think it's a fun event for everyone that's involved and it's a good safe event to conduct right now. I am on a little bit of a health and wellness kick, so maybe I'll suit up for the race. We'll see where I am in a few months. But again, you guys do so much for the town of Allenton and the kids, I have kids in the schools, so I certainly appreciate that. I've mentioned, I do miss the trivia bee. In March 2020, myself, the chair and our former colleague, Mr. Curl, had an all-star team that was locked and ready to go for the trivia bee that was supposed to be at the end of March and the never was. So we'll look forward to when we can have it again and see who we can put together from the board at that time. So again, happy to support it and thank you for all your work. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We were well prepared. Mr. Diggins. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the folks who use the bike paths, what alternative do they have when it's closed? Mr. Chappell, I mean streets, I think they may have to go to Mass Ave or look for, depending where they're getting off, this would start right at the rink there, right next to the rink. So from there down to Mill Street, that would be the detour. It would be about a mile and a half of the bike path. It would go from Frazier Street, which is right near Lowell Street, all the way to Water Street. So yes, we would suggest that they use Mass Ave around there, or Summer Street. Got you. So this is, I think, to Town Council. So what is potentially the barrier to closing the bike path? I'll have to look at this a little bit more closely, Mr. Diggins. I appreciate Ms. Mahan's concern. The bike path is basically given to Arlington to run by agreement by the MBTA. I presume, but I'm not 100% positive that we can close it for limited periods of time for an event, but I'd have to look into it. I frankly don't know the answer up top of my head, and I wouldn't want to mislead anybody. Again, it's Arlington's to essentially operate by agreement with the MBTA. And I don't, off the top of my head, believe it's that different than a street closure for an event or purpose for some other reason or a parade or something like that. So I think it's fine, but I'll double check and make sure. I appreciate. So I definitely think it's safer to close the bike path to me, but I guess it's just my prejudice. I have an easier time closing a street to cars than I do closing the bike path to the cyclists in pedestrians, because I guess I guess my concern is that we put the cyclists, I mean, in more jeopardy by shifting them on to the streets, I mean, than we do by just having the cars overt onto another street. I'm not concerned so much about a slippery slope where everyone will come asking us for this, but it's just my kind of hesitancy to just kind of go, okay, well, let's close the bike path and have the race me. But it's a good cause. I mean, I just had to state that overall concern, and so now you've heard it, and I'm happy to move on and move forward. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. I just want to clarify something. It's actually Mill Street. It's Water Street. So a little further down, and then coming back, Frazier Street is a little bit deep just at the, where Lowell Street splits from Mass Ave. That's the side street there. So thank you for your comments, and Mr. Helmuth. Thank you. Thanks to the ADF folks. I enjoyed being able to come to this past summer's event, by welcoming Dr. Helman. It was really well done. It was a great event, and you know, it's good to see you, and see you out there. Just a question for you, I'm looking at the permit. You mentioned closing the bikeway, your proposal for a couple different time frames. In one place it says 8.30, 10 a.m., and 1.30, 1.30, 7.30 to 9. Did you, do you have a sense for which one of those you are landing on right now? 7.30 to 9 is more appropriate at this point. We, and the history of that is that we originally suggested 9.00 a.m. is the race start, and then we were given the advice that we should go earlier, just so it doesn't conflict with church services and the population getting out there to exercise. So we did move the race to 8.00. So we are proposing for the race to begin at 8.00, so we would like the bike path to be closed from 7.30 to 9.00. Hopefully, I would say 9.00 or 9.30 at this point. Thank you. And will you talk, and I apologize if you address this in this, is this a staggered start or is this kind of an all at once? Currently, we are thinking all at once, and I think that will depend on the number of registrants and the CDC guidelines at the time. So the big concern is leaving Hills Hill Field and getting onto the bike path. There might be a bottleneck there. And if that is the case, I think what we would do is start the kids race, all the kids running for all the programs would start earlier, and then after a 10-minute delay, we would start everybody else. Okay. All right. Yeah, thanks. So to my colleagues, I actually have some real reservations about closing the bike path, and I don't, I think just because, I mean, I'm open to the wisdom, greater wisdom of my colleagues, but I think we should be aware, you know, it's the minimum commuter bikeway. It's not just a recreational resource. There are people who rely on it for transit and plan on having it available. Now, that's a good time of day. I think I'm happier with the earlier timeframe of that. And I understand, you know, we have to, I understand there are safety concerns, and I care about those. I don't know if a solution can be made to keep the bike path open, but to somehow restrict a lane of that for the road race, for instance. But my question, I guess, is to maybe, and I'm not sure who this is too, Mr. Chair, you can direct it. Is the closure of the bike path something that the select board would determine in this vote, or are we approving the larger permit and, you know, the town manager essentially would direct that decision? Well, finally. Well, I may ask Attorney Hyman that my understanding is that would be part of our vote, that those were part of that time. But I think, believe Mrs. Mahan said in her comments, work with the police department. And if there are issues that come up, there may be, have to be a sharing of the bikeway. It's not ideal, but I think this is a approval understands that there may be more dialogue with the police department, and perhaps with Attorney Hyman researching the extent of our authority there too, but that we'd like to see this go forward if there are serious reservations after further discussion with Officer Roteau or Attorney Hyman finds anything. It may have to be more of a shared experience on the bikeway. Yeah, sure. Hyman, did you want to add anything to that? I just, thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, our, as you may recall, we set the hours for when the bikeway is allowed to be open. So I do think that you can approve subject to conditions, but if the board is not inclined to close the bike path, I think just on its own merits, it can certainly make that decision. You basically have to modify the proposal that's in front of you in order to approve the proposal but not approve that. So in my mind, the board should be voting on, does it want to basically grant the permit subject to confirmation that the bikeway can be closed or it should be approving it, you know, with the idea that there will be some concrete alternate plan that's required in order to gain approval? Yeah, so that's awful. Mr. Chair, I think Mr. Chaplin had his hand up. You want to? Yes, Mr. Chaplin, did you want to add? I'm sorry to interject. I just thought this might be a good time. I'm happy to further coordinate with the police department and any other appropriate departments and I would add, and I think a number of people on the screen have probably done the same. I've run a number of the Council on Aging Arlington for all ages, road races, which uses a portion of the bike path down in East Arlington over the years and it's never been closed and has operated without incident as far as I'm aware. So I think it's doable. You know, there is more width on the sides of the bike path in East Arlington than there is in the Heights but I don't think it's an entirely different construct. So I think I don't want to dismiss what Joe Connolly said about there being some conflicts with the Moynihan race but I think based on past precedent it is something we can work for. Thank you. I think Mr. Biggins struck the note that really doesn't have any kind of concern and that is I mean safety for the race matters. This is a great race. I want to support it but shuttling people who may need to use the bike path for for community purposes onto the streets given especially this is the long closure of the bike path. That concerns me. I'm not sure I want to support that. But I'll see how my colleagues want to do. I think I might offer an amendment to Ms. Mahan's motion that we would approve with the modification of not closing the bike way but finding an acceptable solution but that'll be up to Ms. Mahan if that's an acceptable amendment or Mr. Chair, you can figure out how to handle that. Certainly I want to respect my colleagues' preference. Thank you Ms. Standliff. Before I'd like to Mr. Herd had his hand up so I'd like to ask him if he wants to add anything to the discussion here and then we can talk about a potential amendment. Yep. So I say one thing I a couple of years ago ran some of our road race, the Somerville Homeless Coalition road race and that used a portion of the bike path. That did and when we did that we lived down Mass Ave and we just came one way down the bike path and I'm not aware that it was closed and it was fine in that once everyone starts together but very few people run at the same pace so you sort over a 5k you sort of just run out but I mean again you know we can look at the safety concerns and leave it to the police department to review the safety concerns. I mean I wouldn't I don't want to discount that nobody can commute on a Sunday but I mean this is a Sunday morning so I think the vast majority of the people using that are going to be recreational users and I think the concern with kids in the Somerville road race was mostly adults where we have kids is that you know 97% of the people that the cyclists on the bike path use it in a safe and you know prudent way I think the concern is the 3% that come down at 40 miles an hour and don't really want to slow down for anybody on the bike path and you know I've been on the bike path just on normal days with the kids where I think to myself it's not really good place for kids to be just because there's people that aren't really concerned about the wayward paths that kids take sometimes as as they move about the universe so I mean I think if there's a way that we can leave it for further investigation that's fine but I mean I don't think it's overly onerous to ask some recreational cyclists that for a couple hours to you know maybe drive down to Lexington and use that portion of the bike path or so I mean those are my thoughts. Okay thank you Mr. Heard. Mr. Helmut did you want to offer an amendment? I don't think I will. I think Mr. Heard makes a decent point. And I will say and think I do think Mrs. Mahan's motion will capture that if it can't be done and it has to be some sort of shared use after consultation with the police and why don't we include the town manager in that as as well then then I think Ms. Fuller and Ms. Geier if that's acceptable we may have to adjust as as further research is done but we want to at least give you the the permit and then talk about the scope of the the bikeway use as as as further consultation. Okay all right okay all right so on a motion by Mrs. Mahan that is seconded by Mr. Heard. Attorney Hine. Mr. Heard. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helmut. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. DeCorsi. Yes. Tiana. Thank you both. Thank you for your time. Item 10 for approval Arlington Public Art Youth Banner Initiative on Massachusetts Avenue and Arlington Center from April 1 2022 through May 31 2022 Sarah Gurney Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture. Ms. Gurney and she's here with us this evening. Good evening Ms. Gurney. Hi I'm Sarah Gurney I'm the new youth banner coordinator and we would like to propose to permit to install 22 banners this year on 11 light poles in April and May and I submitted a presentation I don't know if I can share it here I'm going to try to do that. Can you see that okay? Yes we can. Okay great I'm just going to go through the slideshow this is all of the work that has been selected for the banners the theme this year is color and we had over 100 applicants and we selected 20 and three of those will be getting scholarships too. We had six art jurors in December we had Mr. Helmut and was one of the jurors and we had police chief Fajrati and three art teachers and a local artist. And the period here is April 1 through May 31 on the request is that correct? I believe so yes. Right while we were showing this maybe I unless you want to add anything I may turn to the board for any confidence in emotion okay and I'll start with our juror Mr. Helmut. Thank you I'm glad we're I'm glad we're seeing those this was this was a real pleasure I appreciate being included it was a joy to do this with Chief Fajrati and and the art teachers who are outstanding these students showed just a high level of talent all the way from the middle school up to the high school it was really tough we had a lot of high quality submissions and I'll be really proud to see these 100 flight pools so thank you and I do do you want to make a motion on oh yes yeah in fact I do I'd like to move approval thank you Mr. Chair thank you uh Mrs. Mahan second thank you no questions okay Mr. Hurd happy to support this it went through the artwork you know there are some beautiful artwork that I think will really enhance the visibility amounts have um I love the theme this year is very appropriate for a student art contest which is color which leads to some really interesting work which I look forward to well thank you Mr. Helmut for for serving on the juror committee and give a shout out to Ms. Greenland the much beloved Dallin art teacher as well so thank you thank you Mr. Hurd Mr. Diggins thank you Mr. Chair I mean the art is really right up my alley I mean I love that abstract impressionistic in kind of art and I'm sorry I wasn't able to participate but I think that day I had like three meetings in uh uh and so I just couldn't couldn't do it uh so a couple of questions you know one um two um is um I'm sorry Ms. Gurney um um is it possible for us to see the other artwork online or something oh everything that was submitted yes uh we we gave everything back I think except for what was selected the answer is no that's fine um uh and the second is that you know you have two months you know which is a pretty long amount of time me to um to to have the polls which is fine but I was just thinking maybe next year if we need to do two months again to me maybe we could have like more art be like one month for one set of panels and another one for another set of panels for you know so just put it out there's an idea okay so but happy sport this thank you there were some great really great applicants um and I can I add one one um detail is the reason we want an extra light pole this year is we're going to be adding two banners um one at each end with signage that was the last slide that was shown there um it was designed by Adria Arch and um usually I guess I've done the text on the actual artwork so this year we thought it was best to separate that signage thank you anything further mr. Diggins no I'm not fine mr. chair thank you okay great yeah and I'm happy to support this as well and I want to thank you for bringing this forward to us and thank mr. Helmuth for his participation and and uh looks like excellent choices as part of the overall group so on a motion by mr. Helmuth seconded by mrs. Mahan attorney high sir yes mr. Diggins yes mr. Helmuth yes this is Mahan yes mr. yeah mr. Corsi yes it's unanimous vote okay thank you for joining us tonight um it's 9 15 now before I move on to open forum with members like a five minutes break we'll take a break now come back at 9 20 yes please okay okay good all right well welcome back uh next on the agenda is open forum except in unusual circumstances any matter presented for consideration of the board shall neither be acted upon nor a decision made the night of the presentation in accordance with the policy under which the open forum was established it should be noted that there is a three-minute time limit to present a concern or request mr. chaplain I ask if there are any anyone who wishes to be heard uh for open forum right now there's one hand raised carl wagner good evening mr. wagner let me go a little closer is that any better yes let me see if I can adjust the uh audio seems to be automatic oh it says automatically just anyway I'll try to speak loudly I just wanted to reach out to the select board following my letter to this party uh cutter hill road blasting this plan for uh february or march did any of you get a chance to see that or read that I didn't see it on the list of of materials selected for select board tonight from the public and this is the first meeting I believe where you've had a chance to uh receive materials like that well the purpose of the of my letter to you and also to uh a couple of the boards in Arlington was that uh some private work is going to be done on a property that goes up between cutter hill just where the fish shop is at the end of mill street there and if any of you have driven there you'd be aware that cutter hill road has a very strange bottleneck that's unusual to streets in Arlington it's the private way unfortunately it um it's an opportunity while blasting is happening to perhaps make that bottleneck into a much bigger thoroughfare currently there's no way for pedestrians to walk no sidewalk there's not even a second lane for two lanes of traffic there's only one lane and it's uh it's not the only place in Arlington like that but is a big safety hazard and it's always been something that we as a town couldn't do anything about well since the private owner of Property Bear is going to be blasting perhaps you and the select board and the powers to be in the town could find a way to at least make maybe one sidewalk or enough space so that children and users of the road could be a little bit safer including driving vehicles that see each other better so um please take a look if you can the place where summer street and mill street end there's a sort of semi-dirt road there at cutter hill road and it really needs improvement I would also point out that there are a lot of trees in the tree canopy on that property it's not currently developed at all and I hope that people will take a look at how many trees are there and find a way to work with the owner to save as many as possible and possibly go allow the owner to not save the ones right at the edge so pedestrian uh thoroughfares could be improved thank you very much thank you on Mr Wagner for your comments and for the for the email that you sent us as well uh anybody else Mr Chapelle no there is not okay we're moving on uh item 11 under traffic rules in orders and other business item 11 presentation remote participation study committee interim report Mr. Helmuth is a member of that committee but okay do we have do we have someone from the yeah Mustafa should be joining us there here he is hello um is my audio coming through yes it is good evening well thank you for giving us the time um I have two other um people that are probably online that may be um helpful in answering any questions that come up uh Vice Chair Jennifer Seuss and um Alex Bagnall who are on the remote participation study committee um I just wanted to let um um let let uh let you know before we get going um so I'm here on behalf of the remote participation study committee um this was a committee formed in the previous town meeting in 2022 and our remit was to study um and understand the methods and ways of bringing the benefits of remote access that we've in some sense enjoyed in the pandemic on one of the one of the benefits of the pandemic um to have these new ways of working and to um see how they may be applicable after the pandemic is over and and see if they can be incorporated into um hybrid meetings um in the future hybrid meetings just to find out front being meetings where people are assembled in one place physically and other people join in remotely and in this new age with video and audio so we have some slides if you don't mind um do you want me to put them up or um can you put them up what's the best way here if you have I believe you may have capabilities to share is that I think that might be interesting yeah here we go and is that showing up well yes it is great thank you um so I'll um go through a short presentation we we understand we have about 10 minutes and um see how busy your agenda is so um as I said we were we were charged to um understand and and sort of how we may implement um or make study how we may the benefits and how to implement these types of meetings so the article um and also excuse me more specifically um as part of our remit we are we we submitted a report to the select board that you received in your documents um that's an interim report our we will have a much more comprehensive report um presented detailing these charges here um to the town meeting this year and our commission so to speak goes until next year the April 2023 town meeting so this is the first interim report um to show kind of share where we're headed and what we learned so briefly we were charged with um understanding the benefits and challenges of hybrid meetings um it was sort of broken down you know which bodies would we want to provide would we propose that remote participation be a part of which portions of the meetings should be um counter should be available for these um hybrid access or remote access there was a remit um to look at um what local rules or any changes we may need to the current rules to um for remote participation of course the big one that everybody raises the cost and the the technical feasibility of these with hybrid remote participation and then you know one of the benefits of high I mean remote access in principle is accessibility enhancement to to let more people in but we want to look at that more rigorously than just the what we all thought and what was added as uh sort of later on in the discussion was a way of understanding how public bodies provide information back to the public about um their work and so those are the seven charges um that we were um tasked with we started on um September 30 we were formed on September 30 so it's been a very quick autumn um and we um we what we did is we wanted to gather information before we started making any recommendations so in this period we've um developed and um conducted and analyzed and written two reports which are in your meeting materials we examined um the town we asked the opinions of the members of the town boards committees and commissions there are 64 of these. Mustafa I'm sorry Mustafa I think that your slides are not um advancing and you you're probably doing it on your end can you give that a quick try because I know I know it's in the deck. Oh okay um excuse me your screen sharing is paused I don't know why my screen sharing is paused let me try this again thank you for telling me well this illustrates one of the challenges of hybrid meetings. Yes and um embarrassing and informatively we have had our own challenges um in our remote participation study committee remote meetings um as you may imagine so um are we on the information gathering what we did slide in your world? Okay I see heads nodding so so this is what I was speaking to we conducted the two surveys and as I mentioned we did the uh the town meeting boards commissions and committees and of the 64 bodies we received responses from 60 of these um and we received 144 individual responses so we are obtaining you know more than one person per committee giving us their feedback um we didn't um we we we followed up a few times we also wanted to hear what the people attending meetings um in general these would be most recently remote participants but also in-person participants so we built a different survey for them and um and that received 354 responses and then the next slide or two I'll kind of go over what those were. We also had an interesting presentation by researcher Max Palmer who works with Katie Einstein who um especially Katie and um and with Max Palmer they study a lot of uh civic engagement issues and one of the things that they um saw um from their from their studies is that well we all like to think that remote access may level the playing field for broader um spectrum of society and a more diverse set of people coming to meetings what was interesting was that it in general um brought basically much the same demographic that comes to in-person meetings which tends to um skew towards um home owners homeowners which sort of skews towards wealthier um and more established um residents of the town as opposed to maybe younger renters um and then more diverse populations so that's something that was an interesting piece of information. Well we took away from these surveys and and we didn't break it down by survey we just broke it down what people saw as the benefits and concerns because mostly both the boards and commissions that were the members of those that responded and the people that in the public that attend these meetings I essentially saw the same things from from either side of this divide not divide but you know either side of the uh table um so a lot of people raise the fact that in meetings such as this they can tune in for the part that they care about um you know from the comfort of their home they don't need to attend a meeting for three hours when they're concerned about 20 minutes of it um and the board members said that that's also beneficial and that it gets people speaking to specific issues that they are concerned about so it helps getting input into the boards um so it was those um positive both sides um it removes the physical space requirement or limitations in many ways if the room is too small um you know a lot more people can attend if they want to there's sort of unlimited space in that sense and this topic that's been raised a lot um it came in a lot of different flavors but essentially it removes other obstacles to attending um child care came up a lot um traveling and whether the people otherwise wouldn't travel for for something you know as I said earlier if they had a short period they cared about they might not want to travel in certain situations people that are actually traveling out of town but are interested in town business residents um couldn't attend and of course physical accessibility um and and disability constraints um these would help overcome those um I think there was actually more unity on the concerns um and the top two really came out strong the technical complexity as you just saw um I'm fairly experienced at zoom and I wasn't sharing my screen despite thinking I was sharing my screen this came up obviously audio came up the quality of audio um and people really want to not have those problems um and then the other one more on up um let's say um from a meeting management and um and style or um perspective people really want to have parity of experience and opportunity so they they're concerned that you know the remote folks won't be recognized the people in in person may not be able to share their opinions as well um and then they just wanted equity and parity in in treatment um and then on a practical manner um there's a thought that it's very challenging to manage um a meeting and people coming in and out and the audio video and any challenges so there really is um some way of identifying either um staff people that are present in meetings already or volunteers that may take this um this burden up within smaller boards and commissions to make this work and then um this one came up a few times you know people enjoy gathering and people enjoy meeting people with like-minded interests um or people that they've seen at similar meetings and there is a real feeling that that would be lost with this remote participation aspect so these were the and again the details of these and much more are in the um in the survey reports that haven't submitted to you so you know our charge is to make right ranked recommendations um and we broken the recommendations into two i two um broad sections sort of on the policy side and on the implementation side so on the policy side um the select board and the school committee we encourage we ask the select board and school committee authorize encourage and support hybrid participation in meetings and to just give a little bit of background um and it's actually I just thought at the end of this it's it's a dent it's an addendum or an attachment to your this current select board meeting the legislation currently authorizes remote access and remote quorum um in this format that we're all in um when we weren't in a remote environment the select board I believe at some point has authorized remote access to in-person meetings and in the old days that was you know a telephone dial-in number and that's something in the open meeting law there needs to be explicit authorization by the executive body of the town whether it's the mayor or the select board or whatever else it may be to provide this authorization um so that would be something when we return when the state legislation that we are currently operating under is over I would expect that we would continue as has been authorized in the past but that is something in the select board's control and so we'd ask for that authorization um to continue no no change but it's it's a requirement beyond that authorization we would really enjoy and and hope to have the encouragement and support to conduct hybrid meetings after um the legislation ends this um this is more for our recommendation to ourselves but we would like to um develop guidelines for different hybrid participation models there are a wide variety of meetings uh this format with a board at the front and people coming to it formats where people sit around in a large table small table you know small groups and so on so we would like to um build some hybrid participation models to sort of address several broad swaths of meetings and we'd also like to give some guidelines and again these are not rules or or strict you know certainly not laws um but just guidelines on how people should start to think about what will happen when you have technical failure and allow the boards and commissions to um to make their own choices and then we would ask that the town um commit to active outreach um to raise awareness of meetings with a broader population um and we're trying very hard to not put this on the DEI director explicitly so we're looking and hoping to find other opportunities or options that can help do that um because that's that's too easy an answer and that may just not be the best answer it may overburden someone that's already busy so on the implementation um we ask this this comes to the select board to invest in location and technologies to pilot some hybrid meetings and we selected these meetings based on the feedback from the especially the public's survey results and from conversations with various members of these boards that they are willing to be the pilot for these for this type of meeting the obviously the select board and school committee are already set up to run hybrid meetings they have um you both you and the school committee have rooms with their appropriate technology so that's a somewhat easier lift um it'll be more challenging for the other groups on this list these were the highest-ranked risk groups and so we like to do that to put this in perspective currently the legislation ends at the beginning of April and um we expect it to be expanded extended till July there's some legislation going around so these pilots wouldn't start until the legislation until we end our current all remote access and that's something we would work towards trying to help get rolling we also um in terms of identifying locations suitable for hybrid meetings the select board chambers um with some improvements in technology are actually very well equipped and for periods when the select board is not in use for the select board we would ask that there be allow um remote participation in this space if these changes can be made to it um and right now I know that the ECMI folks have been instrumental in keeping things running and in when it's in hybrid format to keep things running so that would be some some technical changes would have to be made we um would like to identify ways to do um to conflict training and support for members of the board's commissions and committees how to run the meetings because it may be good to share some best practices and then we've identified a few places in the in our report our interim report one or two additional spaces these baby rooms in the town hall annex the lion's room and maybe rooms in the community center we're asking for a lot at this time just a one or two to allow these pilots to start and um this process to begin to be in some maybe smaller rooms in some larger room like a smaller room and a larger room um in those spaces our last slide is looking to the future so this looks to the coming town hall meeting and beyond that um we towards the coming town hall meeting we need to um really be more definitive about the technology and um and then in these guidelines that we're proposing for um for these meetings um we'd like to find a second wave of meetings the goal would be eventually to make this opportunity available to all boards and commissions that want to do this or feel it be you know or if the attending members want them to do it but we'd like to do this in a somewhat staggered pattern manner um and then in this time probably after town hall meeting based on when the legislation will realistically allow hybrid meetings to start happening um we'd like to gather information on what's working what is um what needs and you know what can be improved and share that um and then as part of our other commission that we already started talking about is um how can public bodies provide information back to the um public on what they're doing and one thing this kind of the at the end of um not the end but it was an it was an issue raised by many people on the surveys some people really like having um remote access and aren't really that keen on hybrid so that would require a legislative change to maintain remote access quorum for boards that gather and maybe obviously maybe not for the select board but you could picture some much smaller committees that don't often have guests or um or um other people coming in and they um and they may want to be able to meet remotely instead of in person especially if the weather's terrible or somebody's traveling so that would require um that's that's under discussion but we're considering how you may we may and other people may have to advocate for a legislative change for that so that's um that's it I'd like to thank um everybody on the committee it has been an intense three four months of work we met every two weeks um since October pretty much we did take some time off around Thanksgiving and Christmas but otherwise we've been going and I'd like to thank the select board for their um attention and support great thank you very much Mustafa and thank you to the members of the committee who are here this tonight Jennifer Seuss and Alexander Bagnell and Mr. Helmuth um so I'll turn to board members for for questions or comments and uh start with Mr. Diggins thank you Mr. Chair and um I'd like to move receipt of the report and uh and um yeah I'll say I especially like the last bullet point on here and my understanding too is that he is on the governor's desk now to um sign legislation that will allow all remote um access going through the middle of July I mean so we have some more time with respect to what's currently in the current limit you know is April 1st it does allow it also allows for me not only these meetings need to be remote access but also for us to do virtual town meeting so fortunately the legislature has moved in time so that we're not going to be scrambling me come you know the in the March um uh and yeah I noticed a survey I thought was excellent me really good survey really good questions me it did seem to me in the survey from what I recall that the hybrid was kind of like the least um desirable of of the respondents um and so I'm all for pilots me and so so we'll learn something from doing the pilot and hopefully the pilot will be constructed in a way that we can get a decent sense of how many people from the public actually care to show up in person um versus doing um the remote uh I know that when the select board did its hybrid I thought it was very good to have a select person you know in the virtual room to experience what the people who weren't you know in the physical room were experiencing because you know it is different you know I found it okay but certainly on a technical realm in a technical area you can have some audio problems and if there isn't someone monitoring what's going on in the virtual room then you could have a not unequal experience because they won't be equal but but certainly an inadequate experience but that can be handled by the the tech um uh my my biggest criticism I mean about this report though is the um if you're back on your first slide is the um where we talk you mentioned the report or the paper by um Einstein um Palmer and I forget the third name it starts with G and um I have a lot of problems with paper I mean I read the paper I mean first problem is that the especially with its application to what we're dealing with here is that they are really focused on housing I mean all their research is on housing meetings I mean and we are dealing with a much broader spectrum I deal a lot in the transportation transit world and I'd like to see research being that that you look at the participation and type of participation you know in that realm because you can make the argument that homeowners are a smaller set of the population being when you come to transportation you generally have a broader segment of the population involved so so I think before we say we that the hybrid or or remote we doesn't increase participation or diversity in participation we need to broaden it out from research that focus solely on housing which is what theirs does in and as I read through the paper me to be there were I thought in certain sections being conflation of of concepts being in order to try to make this point you know and some some outdated sources me one that talked about the online participation not increasing or online access not participate increase participation that was referenced in 1995 I mean almost 30 years ago so I dare say we're in a different world fortunately the salvation for the paper I thought was at the end me where they say well me a lot of this research is based on on policies that are or or projects that were in play me before the pandemic started so it might be an element of well we're just kind of playing out especially in the housing stuff me we're playing out engagement based on policies or projects me that we're in the pipeline for the pandemic and it might be different once we get to projects that that have emerged me since the online access has started and they also said that the we might be able to do things or get more participation if we actively mean work on it so so I um so I don't know to be the report is what the report is you know but I I'm uncomfortable it's again with with the reference of the paper there I if anything I'd love to have a discussion with the authors because I'm making this argument without them there to defend it but if anyone from your group you know wants to respond to my my concerns I'm all ears but um that's it thank you okay thank you Mr. Diggins um Seuss did you want to say something you know part of this maybe is is better um at a separate time but I want to give you an opportunity to respond to what Mr. Diggins said yeah I mean I think um you know many of Mr. Diggins uh the criticisms are are legitimate in that um this paper was only looking at certain types of meetings um we did hear some information from some of the committees that in their experience in Arlington that their own meetings were did not have the diversity that they'd hoped so for example at park and rec when they redid the park at Thompson which is in you know in an area with lots of diversity and renters and stuff um they said they they had felt that they tried everything to try to get a wider group of people coming to the meetings and weren't successful in it so I I don't think it I don't think that the um the what we should get out of this is that is is impossible to get a diverse representation at meetings in a hybrid or remote setting I think we should just understand that we still have challenges that are not solved by the hybrid or remote meeting but that is just not enough you know you still have to do all the other things that you we've always needed to do thank thank you uh Mr. Hurd thank you I'll uh second Mr. Diggins motion um I'll say Mr. Diggins if we're still on zoom in July I think my head might explode so I I think we can get on a quicker track than that particularly since our board is already set up for this um I want to thank the committee for all their work um I think remote participation during the pandemic has been something that emerges as a huge benefit for people to participate in the public um comment portions of our meetings and certainly for everyone under the circumstances and you know I think going forward it will all our means will always have an aspect of remote participation where I see it at least for our board is that we have remote participation for public comment periods like open forum for when we have hearings and then otherwise we operate just generally like our boards have before particularly for members because our meetings just have always worked more efficiently I've been in meetings before the pandemic and after the pandemic and when we have meetings in the chamber where we're looking at each other having a discussion we're looking at people that are addressing concerns to us in the face I always felt like it was about a conversation so I am looking forward to getting back to that sort of structure where we're all together in the same room but again with the caveat that we developed the technologies so where people want to address the board through open forum or through public hearings that we open up the remote participation portal for that portion of the hearing um but it's an ongoing process and we'll look at the feasibility of a lot of the suggestions um I myself have no problem opening up the slot board chambers if we're going to make a significant financial investment into just a few locations I think it is efficient to have as many meetings in each individual location as we can and I agree with the idea that we need some such as the lion's hearing room wired up as well because you know it doesn't happen as much in our meetings but certainly the redevelopment board and the zoning board of appeals have had meetings that have had 50 to 100 people at the meeting where they've needed access in larger places so I think that's something that we definitely need to look at but I mean I think this is going to be a work in progress and I look forward to the further work of the of the working group and um having discussions with the public and my colleagues about where we go from here thank you mr chair thank you mr herd uh mrs mahan um thank you and uh thank you for god bless you meeting every two weeks um sort of like a select board meeting minus the warrant on our plans but um one of the things moving forward and sova touched on this is um come july um some of the decisions may be made for us in terms of what it is well we can or cannot do in terms of remote hybrid or other um so I guess if for some reason it's not extended after july um within two to four weeks before that either the town manager or town council could advise the select board as the I guess executive body executive branch um whether we're under the current laws or anything else that's applicable can we say um this is how you know we want to do hybrid remote whatever um and still not run afoul of uh open meeting laws or or anything else or something would need to be done that the um select board could do that after our discussion and um the majority if not um unanimous vote uh from the select board um I don't want to put town council on the spot but it might if I could ask an easy question for you mr chair to town council am I overthinking that um or is that something we need to really look into if come july board is not extended it's not something you can just do uh as the executive body branch um turning thank you thank you mrs mahan uh madam vice chair yeah that's correct so right now the board has authorized remote participation and under the current law the board can set more restrictive measures for remote participation but it can expand remote participation beyond what's allowed under the uh regulations of the open meeting law uh promulgated by the attorney general's office so it'll be important to see what that legislation allows the only other vehicle that you could pursue um to to change that would be special legislation but you know as folks know generally speaking they want to have a certain amount of uniformity when it comes to uh uh certain things like um public transparency and stuff like that so I think you've got it right we'll need to see what that legislation says because the default of the open meeting law is much more restrictive than the current uh special circumstances that we're in and it kind of allows you to be more restrictive it doesn't allow you to be more generous if you think there's certain bodies and there's an important exception with the disabilities commission but I think you've summarized well okay and then um since we sort of have an in on the MMA um if for some reason um it goes to July does not get extended I assume other cities and towns will sort of be faced with the same dilemma of go back to all in person or explore something else so perhaps our town manager who's the president of MMA or president of something of MMA I don't know if they started having these discussions or if you anticipate in the future that it's not extended after July that either cities and towns individually or through the MMA might have some um combination of speaking with the voice I can ask Mr. Chaplin here yeah thank you Mrs. Bond so I I am no longer the president of the MMA I'm just a rank a rank and file member no but I am I am aware that they have been lobbying and advocating quite hard for t