1st under the new regulations So in terms of how well the reason I want to talk about this is one I wanted to I guess vent about that and I'm really unhappy that we don't already have medical and one of the reasons I wanted to have medical was because I wanted to have medical because our community made it very clear That's one of our values and we wanted to offer people pain relief in our community and we're really disappointed it hasn't opened Even though we've given out four letters Two is that we're really just I'm really disappointed that we haven't done it because then we haven't seen any of the Grammifications and so people being worried about things that have or have not come to fruition Because none of them have opened although one of them is making substantial progress So we still don't have much to go on beyond theoretical stuff at this point I believe mr. Bachman can speak to what town council did say in terms of If someone comes forward to us as we've heard may be happening with one of the organizations That's already received a letter, but is potentially looking at new ownership that there's a Suggestion from town council as to how we might handle that rather than that idea of like resending or withdrawing a letter per se so that those That there would be clear Transfer of one to the other as opposed to there being five instead of four because one of the reasons We chose that number eight which was not highly scientific, but was based to a degree on We've assumed that at some point these four would move forward because again, even though July 1st Regulations, I have no doubt will be in place given how fast the canvas control commission is moving that doesn't mean anybody's gonna open and so some of these may just Wander off and and decide to open someplace else or put their interests elsewhere And others may open as both medical and recreation Non-medical or they may just oh they may just transfer completely to the other I mean, we just don't know at this point So that's why I'm having a hard time understanding if at this point our attitude needs to be kind of whatever because there's Like really not much more to say about medical at this point Or are we trying to get at some other types of information that we hear from people before we issue another letter? Because to some extent we've learned stuff over time We've learned that in hindsight it might have been smart to issue an RFP rather than just accepting whoever showed up in whatever order They showed up in but that's what we did too late now So is there any point in belaboring this more than I already just have and we're just saying sure that that sounds good to Whoever comes in knowing that they're gonna be under whatever regulations come into place July 1st, or do we have? Something concrete we can really ask them that we feel will make a difference to our community beyond what town council suggests in terms of making clear That we've got four or not five The thing I think about is that and this is to some extent you know building off what Ms. Krueger said is that I Think at this point the intention of getting This is to get a leg up on the competition to go into non-medical use and so I think that Changes my lens relative to whether we want to do that or not in other words We have four that currently have that leg up, which is half of the eight that we've decided as a town to allow Do we want to tip the scales? More or less and the thing is is the process to go through the medical is fairly extensive You know it's it's a fairly extensive and expensive process And so we talked you know some of the conversation when we were talking about zoning is do we create a level playing field for all people who want to You know that so more people can access this business opportunity and So I have some real reservations about issuing anymore just from the standpoint of I think we've given half of the Eight kind of a head start on everybody else At the same time I'm not sure it makes that big a difference given that the amount of time between now and July 1 But anyway, so my question is how far can we go in talking about? How many legs we want up? When you know, I don't want to wander into the specifics of a request because it's not on our agenda, but I Think I'm feeling similar to what I think you said I would be just as happy to have three strictly medical Coming along and then evaluate what the other up to you know five more Looked like under the new rules of the game, which we you know We probably know about 90% of what it's gonna look like and not the rest. I don't I don't see any I think we've got ahead of ourselves, you know in some ways in trying to Have an open humanitarian view and then The rules of the game changed I'm looking at the map with the three Locations and I I have different ideas about whether that's Good or bad just like from a planning perspective of density and location and I go back and forth about it's good that they're all together It's not good Gee this corner line has all kinds of redevelopment potential that you know isn't You know wasn't realized in the application that We already had maybe it would and some other so you know Just how I feel about how I want to see this corner lot redeveloped have anything to do with whether that should be adult use marijuana by itself standalone so I You know, I don't I Don't know That can be brief. Thanks. I think you've already stated the issues all the three of you very nicely You know that the problems with the process that got us to this point and the fact I don't feel any particular urgency in granting yet another one under uncertain circumstances, so Believe it that Yeah, I'm not sure that I have much I could say that would contribute to anything that we can do tonight In questions that would come along if we did receive another request that we were acting upon is whether if we have reached the eight point by the for adult use marijuana sales facilities and then get another one that comes in for medical whether Medical that medical marijuana has any rights attached to it to expand beyond just medical and That's a hypothetical question I'd care about under those circumstances, but doesn't need to answer now and The other thing that I wonder about however is It's my understanding and this is maybe just educational question not entirely related. It's my understanding that with the medical marijuana Establishments that they're required to grow within Massachusetts under in facilities that are also licensed by the Department of Public Health Are there any similar? restrictions for other adult use marijuana production well the grow facilities are all under regulations and I Believe some of the DPH stuff is going to switch over to the CCC right, I mean it well it would have to be in Massachusetts because they can't transport across state lines and But it's not required to be vertically integrated So that's one of the things that for example GTI, which you read about in the newspaper. I'm not speaking out of school here GTI is the furthest along they're up on Meadow Street and they're building a facility in Holyoke to grow and so They have to grow it themselves under some part of GTI in order to sell it here or at any other dispensary medical once it becomes Available to the world of Massachusetts on July 1 Then recreational places will be able like a different recreational place We're not non-medical place would be able to buy from GTI If GTI wanted to sell to them as opposed to it having to all be vertically integrated within the same company So there will be a lot more choices although again You know you have to start planting stuff in order to sell it and that hasn't happened a lot of places yet That's still and we're still under 20 in terms of active Medical dispensaries in the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts Which I think is a lot slower than a lot of people expected given the county restrictions that got lifted years ago So that's part of it in terms of the eight you bring up an excellent point that we've been discussing in the That we talked about associated with the eight But also that we've been trying to clarify in our internal working group Which is that we want to make sure in terms of like retailers versus Establishments like what counts is that eight and we have never counted and we would not intend to count and we want to make Sure our definitions don't count Every medical non-medical site as to they would only count as four So if every one of the four that is currently licensed to do medical and also did non-medical It would still only count as four it would not count as eight is my understanding because otherwise Then eight wouldn't have been enough because they might have all done that and that wouldn't have solved our all the other issues Of why we said we wanted a larger number than the number that currently exists But you are exactly right that that's one of the definitions that the zoning subcommittee is looking at bringing to Town meeting it annual town meeting to make sure it's clear because mr. Also realized that after the fact that he wanted to have the differentiation between retailers establishments whatever that means to be totally clear on that so in theory if all of these places if we hadn't heard anything about anybody considering doing anything else all these places could Establish a separate non-medical arm and it would still only count as four because it would still be on the same site now If they said we want to have another location And that's the one that's going to be the non-medical and we're only going to do medical at this site Then that would count then there's still that definition question We have to be clear on to make sure Does that count as five or does that count as numerous outlets of one place? And so we want to make sure that What we thought was eight at least we all agree on what eight means in terms of how it counts Well marijuana is on the floor it might just give you a little update We've been struggling and it's come up at a couple of hearings and workshops we've been to the the cafe or social consumption aspect and Not being opposed or Non-opposed it's unclear how would work for a bunch of reasons. It's complicated and also juggling that with no smoking laws and Workplace smoke fee workplace stuff And you may have heard that the governor actually weighed in and asked the cannabis control Commission to delay that part of the regulations because Again not opposed Or not opposed It's just way more complicated, but be thinking once that gets worked out. We might have the eight licensees Plus we could have other locations for social consumption I don't know if that would how that fits with the aid or not so a whole other layer that I Mean I I think waiting probably makes sense just because we it's it's complicated And we've a lot of unanswered questions and their rollout of this is a Lot as it is the adult use part Right and just to make that a little more specifically complicated is that East Hampton is already has Somebody who's already planning to open a social consumption place Their zoning allows for it But again, how smoking gonna work because you're not supposed to be able to smoke and so then there's place in Worcester That's opened. That's a private club where you can smoke anything you want according to their website and Not clear how that works because cannabis Control Commission said that that's not ours. We didn't write any regs for that. Mm-hmm. You got you got a problem with your Smoking regulations then at that point. That's not our problem But then it's the matter of you know, we're trying to be proactive so that we don't have a place open And then we have to fight with them about whether or not they're doing What's entirely appropriate and so or in the spirit of the law versus a lawsuit So one of the things we tried to get across certainly when the hearing I was at as I said, we know people are gonna get sued We just rather not get sued first So could you please? With some more details so we don't get sued first as to how this works because Exactly because we want to try and do Things that support what our community values But we also wanted to do it with eyes wide open as to what we're allowing and not what we're and what we're not allowing And like you say social consumption would not count to the best of any of our assumptions as eight But again when we came up with that number eight We weren't really planning that social consumption was gonna be a thing right off that so we didn't have the draft We're continually I said the other thing I said is we're predicting the future as fast as we can It's been a little tricky as as to how to do that because we don't know what they're actually gonna end and they had the Cannabis control Commission has been getting immense pressure from all the quote sticks in the mud about not doing social consumption right out of the eight but So they're hearing some positives and some negatives at the hearings because we tend to two different hearings And so we know they heard both Associated with that because one of the issues is it's being treated as a social justice issue that that could potentially be a place Where people who have in the past don't have the big money to buy into creating a storefront? But social consumption is a different level of investment You don't have to have X number of dollars to back you up to get a certain kind of license so Then it seems so the reason I want to talk about this tonight was to see if there was anything we needed To think about in terms of if we do have someone come forward to us from one of these four groups Or even just a completely different group and say They want something. It's like how do we say how do we decide? I mean, I'm not saying we're deciding on the merits of that because we don't have it But what I'm saying is what questions will we even ask? Knowing what we know now versus what we knew that I don't know I mean we can ask just random questions, but that doesn't help us like necessarily Decide what that means. I mean as there are some form we talked about criteria earlier tonight associated with different kinds of things Criteria to help us decide if property surplus criteria to help us decide various things How do we even? Frame the conversation. Well, I certainly think for me anyway I think at a minimum because it is a letter relative to medical marijuana that they should have the sort of Whether they fully intend to go right, you know non medical use or not They should have their you know proverbial ducks in a row relative to medical because if you know It's it's disingenuous at a minimum to come in and say That they want to do medical but not have you know the sort of pieces in place It's like what you're you know medical plan. Do you have a medical director? Do you have you know? When we saw some relatively sophisticated plans from from our previous Requestors relative to you know delivering Marijuana in a medical environment in a in a serious way And so I'm I'm definitely going to hold them to that if that comes before us because I think if you want a letter of Non-opposition or support relative to a medical facility. You've got to be a medical facility. So I'm going to do that personally. Anyway, I Think you know at this point given that we know what we know about Non-medical use then I think we're going to ask those questions to about Do you have plans to? transition or additionally Open recreational because I think that Starts to change how you think about the location a little bit but Still evolving on what I'm thinking about these things. Mr. Simmer Very difficult because I'm not even convinced that any of these places that have gotten to The point that they're at in the process level three or whatever it's called provisional licensing Actually have to open as medical facilities in order to get their adult use license and so All of the presentation all of the good questions we asked in hindsight What do they mean Could we ask for a more intricate business plan than we did? Possibly but and would we think about that in the future possibly? Those are the kinds of things that we might think about If a criteria that we have Is that we want no more than four of the eight to be also medical In order to bring a variety a larger variety of providers into the community Then that's a principle that we ought to Test to see whether we can in fact implement it and then that should be the discussion I agree with the two preceding comments. I think it's just a lot of makes a good point I mean if we don't know what's going to happen and we obviously well maybe we do and that's going to happen But I think for the very for the sake of consistency alone It's so it's proper to ask for all the information we did for the rest I mean, otherwise we're not doing our due diligence I think and again, we did basically said we did a very detailed plans about the medical expertise the delivery the security We got down to building plans and and that's the least we can do and then as mr. Steinberg said To inquire into further prospects and to keep that number four in mind I've just been thinking I mean usually we're kind of at the front end of a process and then we see well You know, it's going to go to the ZBA or their planning board or both They're going to look at plans and what it looks like and maybe design review board It might be that before we give anything we want to really know what? Particular site is going to look like how it's going to benefit the community You know if it is that corner site for example, how does how does that work? Is that the best you know way to use that site? I mean we we can actually Use our position to maybe be be a lot more proactive about what we're going to get Just a thought Just again talking about process not any particular cases as you recall when we did have that conversation we were We made sure to raise the issues of past ownership and uses versus the potential future ownership and use without you know without saying we want to pick winners and losers or Decide what business should go where that was part of the conversation at least as a general consideration So I think we're entirely within our rights to to keep doing that You get into you get into some strange places if you want to you know So for example some of what they talked about was how they would interact with police and our police department to provide you know Security footage and the interaction with you know Care and control product and you know all that sort of stuff And so there was a certain public outreach component that they had some of them had well if I remember correctly About how they were going to you know essentially interact within the community You know it's like to what extent can we ask those questions or and perhaps that's more appropriate for a host community agreement about you know Compelling them to do certain kinds of things within our community Because we have a lot you know we've talked about this too is that you know we have a large number of relatively vulnerable You know people as far as you know that aren't quite of age or even are of age, but may not be well suited to make great decisions because you know They're still you know young And we you know we've talked about you know having a certain responsibility to to to those members our community in that regard and not to overly Parent them, but at the same time to to create circumstances where they you know make the best choices. They can I guess in some respects I don't know how much of that kind of series of questions we could impose or ask about And again, it may be a part and parcel of like a host community agreement structure that we you know sort of press them on certain you know sort of community building and Community outreach kind of things, you know in much the same way when you you know If you look at every lottery ticket, there's a thing about getting gambling help, you know There's sort of certain hooks on on some of these kinds of things So I don't know, you know, maybe again perhaps, you know a host community agreement kind of captures that or has the ability to capture some of that sort of stuff, but Anyway, yes, so so you there are a couple hypothetical suppose a new company comes in and says we want to Open a new place. So the question is is that something the board would like to entertain or Suppose a company comes in and says we want to Transfer our license to company a company was did company be is that something you want to? entertain as a board or are you Saying we're gonna wait until July 1 to see what comes out because we're it's it's we're not ready to talk about this anymore There's no I don't think there's anything that compels you to talk to people if they come in But if you get that request hypothetically What should our response be on your behalf? Thank you, I really appreciate that question and so Back to the host community for just a moment the host community agreement is Negotiated by the town manager and although of course he is gonna listen to us and all our infinite wisdom when he debates that it isn't like it gets Debated here or that it gets debated in executive session or anything like that. It's just like once it's at that point It's it's off our plate So we know he'll represent us well and get us a really good deal, but that's There's only so much we can influence for that I appreciate you saying that nothing compels us to do this because you know We're always trying to think of you know on the one hand Amherst is open for business and then another and you know We support medical happening absolutely and we even support non-medical We're just a little concerned about how the details are gonna play out But we support both and with all the things that we always talk about although I said the last time I'm not gonna tell you again all the statistics about how young our population is but that's huge for us absolutely I Think the other thing that you know becomes problematic is as we as we talked about associated with a release from 61 a earlier And I when I quite harshly said well, you know your closing deadline is not our problem But the reality is it's not and so on the one hand we want to do the right thing for people absolutely And I'm really glad that that's gonna work out for them but it's not our problem and so There is no medical place given the current situation of the four that exist That can actually start offering product as I am medical establishment prior to July 1st I would be really shocked if GTI has anything available based on their growing and so Literally no one's gonna be selling anyway as of July 1st. So then Maybe that to some extent changes the conversation to then if this was happening a year ago if a year ago So right after the regs came out when we didn't know what the timelines were For sure and there was theoretical possibility But at this point there's no longer a theoretical possibility That any of these medical places are gonna open in time as far as I can tell based on where they are in their plan And their own vertical integration because of the fact they have to grow their own so I Feel less worried that somehow economic development wise We're saying We're putting we don't want to feel like we're being unfair or that we're putting on the brakes on anyone from that standpoint And I don't that's what I'm saying is I don't think we are but I would also Be interested to hear with the rest of the board things if we would want to hear and as mr. Bachman indicated do we want to even hear from anybody associated with these things? But Make it clear that if we do want to hear from them that it's not necessarily a slam dunk When we don't want to mislead anyone But do are we willing to hear from them at all or is there a point to hearing from them at all given how we So that he knows the answer to that question Because if somebody asks you theoretically today since we haven't really sorted this out Should they bother coming before us or should they not and if they do Do we just say sure you can try? We don't know where we're going with that We don't have like this nice little checklist that you can see if you meet that and therefore you will say yes I'm inclined to let people come in and talk to us and It doesn't in being clear that that doesn't mean because they're on the agenda that you know Any we know what action we might take them just you know Looking at a lot of different alternatives, but I think to not even allow somebody to come in and talk to us Does say like we're not open for business in a certain way And I think it also makes mr. Kravitz's job very awkward where he's trying to It's gonna say cultivate But I think he's you know I And then we have the conversation recently, you know, maybe the maybe the conversation is yes, but And I hear your thing about the timeline and no one is going to be able to meet that but in general for the industry and as People come in and have something we're interested in and it's part of the eight They have certain, you know business benchmarks they need to make or they're going to walk away So maybe it's somebody you want to say yeah, hey Great come back in July or this is where we're stuck or we really like you you're offering us something Nobody else talked about before so I meant to listening I meant to going that far without creating too much expectation. I would I would suggest I would I'm in the same camp as that you know, I'm certainly Fine with with hearing people out, but making no promises about whether we'll make any decision that evening or or any other evening You know We might we might not I just don't know, you know But I think that's the clear thing we can't say is like you can come down and talk to us We may do nothing. We may do we may say no immediately. We may say yes immediately or we may Wait two weeks and say yes two weeks later or no two weeks later or whatever. I think all of those things are within the realm I think But I agree with you I think hearing them at least they like you said they may offer some They may tell us something. We haven't heard before that really strikes us in a way. That's very different than anybody else So I think that's You know worth Being open to the possibilities This is time or juice. I mean, I think the law. It's fair to say listening is we encapsulate this conversation that if there's a request for a transfer of a current medical marijuana to a new provider or a new request that We will be asking a full set of questions Going into all of the criteria that have been discussed tonight including which is mostly the criteria from before but I think that Miss Kruger is certainly articulated an additional one which is this the best and highest use of the location and the second is that We are at least at the moment disinclined to Have more than four That are selling both medical and adult use though. That's not a concrete policy. It's just Was I think we're The conversation was going before But Other than that, I agree that if somebody wants to come in the It should be entitled to Appear and for them, I don't think that that's a major expense in comparison to all the other expenses. They anticipate taking on We do want to be dazzled though I'm kidding. Is there anything else anyone wants to add on this? I wanted to just add about the questions that we ask and so we each made up those questions based on what and because you know We have to everything an open meeting that we thought were good questions to ask There is no set. I mean there might be free to us individually But there is no set questions to the vast and that's one of the things I was referencing when I said there's no checklist They can look at and say oh, well, I've I meet seven of these ten criteria I know what exactly what they're gonna they should look at our old tapes Then they'd know what we were gonna ask them, but we don't have a document We don't have a criteria document that says these are the things we're looking for and partly It's because things continue to unfold and so we're not gonna make one it doesn't sound like Before any of that happens, but but because we don't have that we also we ourselves are depending on our own knowledge Gained over the last couple years of doing this of asking those questions rather than it being Something we hand out and say These are the questions so I think it's been for me it's been productive to hear each of you and Certainly if anyone's still watching If they have comment or suggestion for us certainly write us an email because I certainly you know Don't have a monopoly on good ideas. So send those things in to us But I think we're trying to you know wrap our heads around this and and I found this productive So moving on in our agenda or sort of Proform a sort of stuff next up is committee and board appointments three appointments We have an appointment there Someone would like to offer a motion I'll make a motion and then if This crew wants to add to it because she was probably involved with the interview and knows the criteria For this committee and the various people to serve she can add to it I moved to a point Sharon Povanole to the downtown parking working group through June 30 2018 and there's a second So Seguing perfectly off what mr. Steinberg said we don't have a copy of the charge in here We should always have a copy of the charge except maybe when we're doing a whole bunch of appointments in June Maybe that's not a good time But for something like this where we did ask for specific sorts of skills and experiences in particular I think it's valuable and for us to be able to look at the balance of the committee etc We should always have the charge in here and I realize that you know staff Gets other priorities go on to but that should just be on a checklist somewhere that the charge goes in with the CAF So that we're all reminded. Oh, right. That's who's on that already and these are why and Also the date because the date I believe is because much to mr. Bags disappointment back when he was still with us I said I wanted to have this be a time-limited committee So is is that the is that the date everybody's up by 6 30? Yeah? And that's why it's got that date, which is very soon in comparison to many of our other appointments Let me just let me just add that Miss Pove and Ellie Many of you might know is one of the owners of a downtown business Hastings not a secret and Would be replacing Matt ye who was a downtown business manager, so she's sort of manager owner We have somewhat stuck with the original slots, but as we've lost people we've tried to fill in with Appropriate members rather than necessarily the letter of that if you might recall that miss Anderson was on there as a sort of parking facility You know person that's unlikely. We're going to find that so we've we've been flexible We want someone who sort of knows the issues who can who in miss Pove and Ellie's come to a number of meetings participated And has participated with the parking garage subcommittee of the downtown parking working group So she was enough up to speed that it was good because we may be finishing our two years July or may come back here and say hey give us another six months or something I still see it as a shorter turn not a standing ongoing committee But whether July one is the absolute right time to fold we're going to have that conversation in the spring so We did interview her mr. Malaya and myself and I Actually, I don't know exactly how the ball that dropped But I thought we had done this appointment a couple weeks ago And we hadn't and because we had said yep go ahead But whether I didn't put it in writing or I just didn't thought so I actually thought She'd been appointed and hadn't gotten her letter when she asked me so in a way This is a little bit of a makeup, but I I think she would be appropriate. I'm sorry You didn't have the charge, but we did look at that Yeah, I Never meant to imply that miss Pove and Ellie wasn't incredibly well qualified I know it's simply as a matter of the charge. Sure. That's what we should be doing I'm perfectly pleased you've been able to fill the slots after we belabored how to Thank you None all those in favor, please say aye She'll be very happy to get her All right, so next up on our agenda is Section seven which is licensed public way meter parking information. We have consent calendar Are there any yes edits to those please there is one of it and then I can make a motion To match to make the motion match the requests Yeah The first one which is the all alcohol beverages at a reception in the life sciences lab 320 Is what is in the application form? It's not s3 30 And with that It's I did pair it all out. I'm perfectly prepared to make a motion to approve those items listed on the consent calendar for the February Posing here 12 2018 agenda as amended Second right emotion in a second is it for the discussion? Hearing none all those I Just don't look around and then you don't have any discussion. It works out super well You're just grumbling under my breath so it's a little weird That UMass is having an alcohol reception in one of the dining commons It's a little weird given all the talk we have about alcohol use on campus But it appears and I had meant to double-check this earlier, but it appears that that's the night before spring recess starts so it's on the 10th and The 11th is one spring recess starts so Sure, I guess I mean we obviously have the chief of police look at this But it's a little strange one think the one would think they would be serving food hot sandwiches soup List of common visuals that we often request or ask for but Any other Any further discussion Hearing none all those in favor. Please say aye. All right. I oppose. All right, that's unanimous All right, so now we're in down all those Voting what not we're on to the town managers report. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So first off A couple things I want to mention one is Our cup of Joe will be Friday at share coffee and I'll be with building commissioner Rob Mora from 7 30 to 9 a.m. That's share coffee. That's this Friday Secondly I wanted to mention that I want to thank LSSE For a great winterfest. They they expanded this year from a one-day affair to a one-week affair And if you look at the number of events that they had Organized or had sort of put under their umbrella over the course of a week. It was pretty impressive and I think that Everybody other than mr. Wald's dog enjoyed enjoyed the event But it was they they really Took a chance they had a lot of energy From volunteers who want to make this happen. They received a lot of support from fraternities and sororities so Congratulations to Barb bills and her staff for being ambitious trying to get do a little bit more and good for them The Just as a follow-up if you recall a couple meetings ago You had approved the Alcoholic beverages licensed hours change for Amherst cinema subject to the police chief's Review and he has approved it. So that has been issued There is a we we talked at one point about I think last time about Safety measures that can the town can implement at voting places and at the same that same evening The police chief was meeting with the school committee about Suggested changes that to both physically for some of the spaces, but in particular one For the cracker farm school to have a police officer on duty. So today we received a letter which we will put in your packet For information. I don't think you need to take action on it necessarily It's something that we would accommodate Based on if the police chief says it's a necessity for us to have an officer and the school committee is requesting it It's something we would look at our budget to make sure that just happens Unless anybody says that's a really dumb idea, but I think that's There's a Resident who came in spoke to you as well at that at some point The went to note that Last week last meeting we gave you a litigation status update. There was a mistake on it I sent you a replacement just so everybody's aware that there is a replacement that's been Uploaded on that Next meeting Will be focused on which is in two weeks Tonight was sort of the David Zomac Sondra Aldridge showed next time will be all about a lot of DPW things and that will include the Second meter for agricultural use regulations that will be presenting to you it will include a presentation on Pavement management, which is very timely because I think if you drive around the town We I don't think it's called management anymore. I think it's just survival But you know, we have a very detailed Presentation on that so I think it'll be really interesting. We have a number of other things that involve DPW just updates as much as Sort of where we're headed on a lot of these major projects for DPW But the big one will be the second meter for agricultural use that will will have the information to you in advance and The Yes, so we're we had got as I told you we had gone out to bid for ambulance billing to as our Contracted service and we have Received numerous bids on that We are going to go into contracting out our ambulance billing we have worked through the staffing issues internally which includes some collective bargaining issues and and that will all work that will begin on March 1st and So we're in the fire department and Treasurer's collector's office are both prepared and ready to launch into this initiative We think that it will provide Take take a very important task and give it to a company that specializes it in it because there's a lot of nuances to ambulance and billing for medical services that It's really hard for our staff to stay up to speed on it because the Things change all the time and these companies are out there and they almost every very few cities and towns do their own Ambulance billing anymore. It's all contracted out So it's a good thing to do and I think we're we're pretty in pretty good space staff wise That's it's a combination the staff will have to make It'll be some there's some negative impacts for some employees But I think we've been communicating that with folks and they're okay And then I have to request if the we right before coming down here We received the final wording on the charter quest summary of the charter question from town council who Charter Commission met last week Had come up with language town council had comments on it. They were going back and forth but and I neglected to ask the chair to put this on the agenda for tonight, so I have to ask if you're willing to have a special meeting To vote to place the question the charter question on the ballot The reason it would have to be this week is that it has to be done 30 to 5 days prior to the election, which is February 20th There is an opportunity to meet at 10 30 on Friday on Thursday because two members of the board will be here for JCPC until 10 ish and then or until 10 or 10 30 and then two members from the board will be for the merit here for the marijuana working group at 11 so there's an opportunity at least three of you. I know we're gonna be in the building in that time frame And I'm not sure if the chair was going to be able to make it or not again The world's schedule, so that was It would have been nice to have had the language finished and ready for you to review tonight But really it's a according to town council. You have to take the action But it's really a ministerial action of saying yes, we want to put this on the ballot Mr.. So to click to beat that to a little more detail So we are only as a select board all we do is agree that and we in fact already agreed to this a long time ago We just didn't vote to put the question on the ballot because you were required to do that after the charter commission says We finished our work, so we have to put the question on that normally reads under MGL shall this town and Just to make things interesting the charter commission wants it to say shall Amherst as opposed to shall this town But the rest of the words are just what they say at MGL It and that's the question and then that's the thing that we say yes and then by putting that on the Charter Commission is entitled to put Their explanation and we've seen a draft of that as the entire board I'd seen a previous draft it has been changed again numerous times since then because it went back through the Charter Commission itself And then went back to town council again as you've described And so we don't get to have any say per se on what they write for their part It's kind of the equivalent of when the Galvin puts out the red book on the on the questions We might have an opinion as to how long it on You know it's already a long ballot. They're gonna have to flip over the page Hopefully I'd suggest that we talk with Ms. Burgess about making sure it starts on the front page So nobody gets confused and forgets that they have to turn it over But beyond that it really has nothing to do with us except based on our amazing wisdom over the years I had suggested to the Charter Commission that we if any of us Individually have input based on the drafts We've seen so far even though knowing they've changed if there was something that you saw that just was like wow Sure, you wanted to mention this or you didn't want to mention that you could Individually tell the chair of the Charter Commission that but as a group We don't need we don't vote on that because that's not our part our parts only the part out of MGL And they get to do the other part and we don't have to accept what they say It's just they just turn it into the town clerk and it's got nothing to do with us I mean, we're not doing it tonight, but it's not Well as I said wouldn't be a great time Just as I said before we came downtown council had made recommendations and the the chair of the Charter Commission has been granted some some leeway from his Commission to make some changes and But if anything major he would reconvene the commission and go back to them Reconvene before our deadline to vote unless it's like you see it to a comma or no We know no they don't have to reconvene before our meeting our meeting is only for our part because their summary could change Their summary they can keep changing up until the minute that Ms. Burgess says they have to turn Exactly and and the so the question was Who's authorized to tell the town clerk to put a question on the ballot and it's really just you Who has the authority to do that? We would post it tomorrow morning if we could get a quorum for that You're in both places right and so and so yes, we could do that But what I'm saying is I know that you saw a draft a previous draft It's been changed since then but if you really had a strong opinion about don't wordsmith it But if you had a really strong opinion about a concept that was or was not included Then that would be worth sharing with the chair of the Charter Commission, but it doesn't come to us We're saying 10 30 that's thinking 10 30 and 45 whatever you find easiest Turn those questions for the mantra Yes, so will we have a quorum at that point? I'll be there It's just the Charter to say yes the question goes I'll be here for JCPC I was hoping not to hang around for very long afterwards because I'm actually leaving town that night Do you want to make it 10? He doesn't want to wait till 10 30 is what I'm saying. I could come earlier It's hard to just drop everything and rush out Also, whatever's convenient when you're agenda for JCPC. Oh, I don't know, but it's like sometimes people want it So we're gonna be in the same place, right? We're gonna be in the same meeting room either this room or downstairs I'm not sure and so because I think marijuana internal working groups down there then too So if you want to make it 10 15 mr. Steinberg or even 10 o'clock and then we just We just come to water It starts late it's fine, but that way 10 o'clock quorum. It doesn't start. Yeah, that's right But that way if you Ten o'clock and then I did want to talk to you about the what it what the ballot will look like so when Ms. Burgess does the ballot she takes the ballot that has the most races on it so Precinct nine may have 16 people running for town meeting and then she Sets that up and places the question wherever it winds up underneath the Races and then for other precincts if they may only have four names She doesn't move the question the question stays where it is So you might have four four races and then a lot of white space But it's to make sure that's presented to all the voters in the same way And if it's that to say at the bottom and it might Leak over to the back the idea is to cave the question on the front so people know there's a question her fear is that People won't remember she will instruct her election workers to make sure you turn it over But people forget they forget you know they get flustered or something So her goal is to try to make sure it gets on the front at least the question itself Maybe not the summary as much of it as can be on the front, but it's going to be defined by the most contested Race up there so that's how she doesn't but we will see I will see a draft of it before it goes She's willing to show that to me It goes to the printer the printer looks at it does up a mock-up sent it back And then we can look at it and it's helpful to know why it why it's like that Yeah, so people will say why do you have all this space so you're doing you know It's because it's to treat every every precinct the same versus someone saying oh you're trying to gain the system Might have it way up at the top and then one would it would be right not right for others Place that the same in each one Next up is member reports does anyone have something I do a little bit Mr. Sandberg would you like start I'll just be really quick on three things because I know it's getting late One is on the appointment process since we just through that I wanted to sort of acknowledge that we're continuing to work along at this point with our Endless transition, but this Kruger and I have been working very effectively together really is a two-person team on it and So I really appreciate all that I've learned about the process from her one of the things that has come up and is that We've sort of begun to realize that a well-intentioned system of interviews has begun to Way down the process a lot. We've done a lot of good work with it, but We have been giving some thought and we'll come back to you with a more concrete recommendation on how we might modify the system to have it Work effectively for the greatest number of the committees and work effectively for all of the staff and volunteers Including members of this board who are involved secondly As far as sister cities is concerned I've had discussions with the chair of the kind of gisaki committee. They are just Engaging in a process Actually starting this meeting tomorrow evening About really thinking about what is some of the future goals for their committees and an issue that I had raised in the letter That I had sent to miss Johnson on behalf of the board that one has to be really thoughtful about what is the goals of the sister city process and received a Email today, which I have not had a chance to respond to ironically from the La Paz Centro committee chair Essentially saying that she wanted to talk to somebody from the select board and it sounded like it was the same kind of an issue so this is actually a good time to Sort of see where the existing sister city committees are so that I would suggest that if we Have our chair and vice chair Receive a request to add a third sister city that we wait until Probably April after the town election before we actually Take that up both to know what the form of government is going to be going forward and To make sure that we get adequate feedback From the two existing sister city committees about their status and challenges before we start taking on a third and the last thing just to report on is that I think I reported previously that I've been working with Ms. Krueger and mr. Bachman and and as is the chair of the Fire station GPW study committee when Christmas with Four people who were From mothers out front and associated groups who were involved in drafting the original net zero energy by-law about Whether we Whether we can collaboratively create some modifications to the by-law to make it more workable But with the thought that it's something that of course We've always felt was it needed to be done and that it's still work in progress and but I really wanted to Thank all of the people who were involved for coming forward and some in the actual Few additional community volunteers who've offered expertise And what it's very good process, but there's really not anything to report additional tonight Thank you other reports Sure Just to add About the looking at some ways to possibly streamline some of the committee interviews We had I had drafted and mr. Stenberg had reviewed a memo that would be essentially to mr. Bachman, but also to the select board, so We've kind of done that, but it wasn't on tonight's agenda Yeah, and I asked mr. Slaughter to consider that and decide when it would be appropriate. So I think the whole board probably has some interest in in a short discussion about how we Might change what's really a practice. It's not a rule or regulation I might become something that we add to the slipboard guidebook because that section Predates when we started doing these interviews and just in in terms of the work to revise or rewrite the Zero net energy by luck At least within our little group felt It really needed to that means the four not The collaborative discussion really felt that that by line needed to be Rewritten and that meant that would mean bringing it to town meeting Probably for the annual meeting and I just wanted to add What mr. Steinberg was talking about because we might feel that way, but it's really going to be this Board that decides that we would be sponsoring a Yet a different version of a of a zero net or called similarly by law And we would have until I think the April 2nd signing of the warrant to work on that would be sponsored by the select board So I just wanted a little chance without getting into the nuts and bolts of what we're doing It was just starting out in this collaborative process But just I wanted to know that we're thinking that and would want To know if the full board kind of agrees that we would go ahead And work on that Go we're going in that direction of drafting a new by-law and bring it to the annual town meeting Personally I'd say that's that would be all right. I think that we should if we can get it crafted in time and you know Articulate the sort of pieces that need to be there and I would say yes We should try to do that because I think that as it currently stands. It's unintentionally obstructive to certain things and and that is not that wasn't I don't think that the folks intention when they put it forward But I think it is in that in that way now. So if we can find some things that we can Find tune about it to make it more functional than that I think it's beneficial regardless of what happens in the March election and all that sort of stuff, but Strategy-wise it's hard to sit there in a in a discussion and say We think we want to do this but the week is really this body and so we that's a deliberation So along those lines just to be clear about the deadlines So yeah, we don't sign the warrant till the second, but we're supposed to look at it on March 19th and the internal warrant review where Hopefully usually legal counsel looks at it before they show up on a Friday morning and look at it for the first time with the whole Group of people because I don't consider that to be very efficient Is March 16th in terms of language? So there is some some pressure there in terms of a fast track But um push it up as we go with different versions But we know that associated with all of the kinds of articles that are coming up boiling up through things But it seems so far away, but it's really not as it turns out. It's only about a month Any other sort of member report things I can't think of anything okay, that's fine I'm not gonna talk about parking bit It's it's hard we had we were trying to sort of plow through a bunch of stuff on the day of that snowstorm and town hall was closing and we were meeting and it it felt a little disjointed and My idea for our next meeting which was looking for the date and can't find because my calendars won't synchronize To Kind of pull back and look at the six months six month goal Program the work plan and really get the group talking with each other about where they want to go because we just You know being sort of so task-focused and trying to get this done and that done and what about the street and that so I think we're just and we will have it our new member officially on and To just sort of have it be more of a working session to kind of see if we can Jail around where we're going because we are getting near Any closure on another set of recommendations and there has been Commentary from a number of people and you'll probably see this in the paper. I got a letter From mr. Vickery attorney Vickery who's the now chair of the president of the chamber board saying He had a real issue with the six to eight enforcement hours others have had that issue and Then mr. Merzbeck from the gizek called me so I think because Mr. Vickery sent it to the paper as well So there'll be something about that and that's the issue that I think the downtown parking working group But I have to get them all to agree to this we'll probably take up first to evaluate or reevaluate so you did a number of changes and the Thinking is it takes Four to six months of a change before people really learn it and are used to it So that's the general idea about we did a bunch of changes. Let's give it some time to see how it works I think we're going to front load a conversation about the six to eight enforcement hours because that seems to be The biggest area of concern and contention But we're not going to do it at our next meeting because I want that to be some space to kind of figure out and get Them to say how do you want to talk about that? maybe Two meetings out so that's just a little you know news from the front And I notice we're into puns tonight since you're talking about plowing through issues on the meeting So I'm gonna ask about parking Something that came to our tent. I know you're gonna love this but One of the things I hope that When the downtown parking working group reports back to the select board on the status of those conversations that It's we're reminded of why we did that eight o'clock to begin with because I didn't like it And I wasn't the only one that didn't like it And I really don't like it now that I'm at parking ticket to wave around Seven p.m. Is a peak seven p.m. Is a peak seven p.m. Is why right but At this point the people who are giving me feedback. I'll act like none of them wanted like no one in town wanted I'm like hmm because somebody wanted it because that's why we agreed to do it So it would be useful to remind us where that original idea originated and to make sure that They've rethought their position whoever that was so that would be helpful And the other issue is that I'm concerned about the fact that the senior center is still issuing parking stickers And in fact is advertising it on the front page of their newsletter That they're advertising parking stickers that not only are for use at the senior center Which is something we've talked about for years and there was an informal program started to make sure that both volunteers and Participants and programs had relatively easy parking. It's now being advertised as parking for use at the cinema for shopping Etc. This is like so not part of the system and we talked about this several times This is part of our conversation and and so what I'm saying is how else am I gonna get this on somebody's agenda? It's down our agenda because on our agenda. We need to hear back about that because we're getting because this is just working in Isolation you're worried about It's being excellent. I'm sure it's on your agenda list somewhere just like we have Google doc in theory of what our agenda. It's more than that. Don't worry about parking in that way I just got concerned about people being sold parking stickers. I know you're yes So thank you. I appreciate that and I you know, there's probably other things that need to be dealt with as well So thank you. I appreciate that and hearing the timing on that because obviously we're going into town meeting and everything else Going on Associated with that in terms of member reports That was I really just wanted to mention that as we knew last time because Ms. Krueger had already testified that morning I testified the next day Ms. Vetterman went with me She chose she chose not to speak the meeting that you were at the hearing You were at was much bigger than the one in Greenfield partly the size of the room kind of I think influenced that we didn't have a bunch of legislators that ours like had been at the first one We didn't end up in the newspaper. There was like zero coverage of that one So it was lucky that we hit both hearings because you never know which one's going to be the popular one And so we'll be very curious to see what comes out of the CCC from that because as we mentioned earlier in the conversation They're getting a ton of feedback from the Baker administration various assets agency saying Speaker of the house everybody saying wait, wait, wait, wait So it'll be very interesting to see what they actually take into account and what they change for their deadline I think they're planning to have it done by March 9th for March 15th And that will be more or less what the regs are so If you have any additional input on that then Ms. Krueger and I could take that into account We have another meeting on Thursday so see with that And we're also talking about tweaks to town meeting associated at town at annual town meeting to that word establishments or retailers for example That kind of thing again not getting too far ahead of ourselves because we don't know what some of the regulations We're actually gonna look like and black history month was Saturday morning And it was not horribly freezing cold like it often has been so that was really nice and it was a little and So we appreciate that flag went up previously and then was raised again at that event and for those out in the viewing public We're always looking for more people to help organize that event, but it went off without hitch So thank you for making sure. Yeah, it actually it was it was nice and one of and one of the as you all know One of the members of our Human Rights Commission so happens to be in an a cappella group So we even got to have additional entertainment that we don't normally have so that was very helpful Mr. Wolfe I feel I should talk a lot because I'm not even a 10 30 yet and not as young but Talked about black history month, so she's still half my report Another thing is that on Sunday I attended the annual meeting of the historical society which had a very interesting lecture about fashion And textile collections, but also as a presentation of the conch award for service to Amherst history to Jonathan Tucker Our former planning director and historical commission liaison. So that was a nice event I ring someone who's done a lot to support town committees and generally encourage the study of the towns past So Anything else from anyone? I just have a couple of quick things First and foremost is the ad comm is going to meet tomorrow evening Where it will take up and I will help sort of paint the picture of the second meter for agricultural use So I'll try to report back their their feedback in case they don't get an opportunity to send us a little note Or memo on that for meeting on the 26th They are still looking for members so Well, they had run into the chair Rebecca for Kay and this issue of Membership and it's a nine-member board It's you know, maybe you could also talk to them that they had an interest in and a warrant article to reduce the size of Their commission because it really has to come from them She said she just you know needed to think about it or talk about it But because we have these deadlines and you know what the deadlines are talking about them earlier I think if you could bring that information To them about what they would need to do by when and if they wanted to because There just aren't that many active farmers. That's part of the problem. That's one of the reasons and it's been very hard for them right, and I have mentioned to them in other meetings Previously about that I would check to make sure that state law didn't prohibit the fewer than nine and it does not I look Yeah, okay good So ad commissions don't have to be nine we happen to pick nine so it can be less than nine Following up on that since you did check MGL. Thank you Is that the other alternative we could do which we haven't done often but has been done for Human Rights Commission is we could lower the quorum number Without going back to do well They were created by they were created by town meeting then the most assumption is majority other than but that would be another Alternative if they thought they would suddenly have enough farmers to do it But they really only need x amount of people. That's another alternative, but it would still have to go to town meeting Right not a field That's trending although with marijuana cultivation that could change and that is actually a new pool of people But we're just not there quite there yet, right and that may be one of the topics I haven't looked at the agenda yet for for tomorrow night, so they may have that on their agenda They may not but I'm sure it will be one that they do take up before too terribly long the other thing I'll report on is the formal housing trust met We're still in process. I'm working on a policy that again as I mentioned before we're gonna the trust is going to adopt and seek adoption from Planning board select board, etc. But again, it's probably Well into March before we'll have that in a form that will come to us that then we can offer our feedback on and and that's worth thing the other thing just to East Street school as Mr. Zomek hinted at you know the Trust has been interested in that piece of property. We're we're actually we we voted authorize a small bit of spending to do a little Do diligence work on the property It's potentially very wet. It's obviously frozen right now, so we can't do the work until it gets warm out But it's Unless something really extraordinary happens. It's likely that we will have come to us an article from them for You know custody of the property with probably with both parts The disposition with the disposition but authority dispose right authority to look at it for you know for specific purposes But and also a time horizon And again, it may be one of those things where I indicated it's like let's not do this as a petition article Let's do this through the committee process and we'll work with you on that and and but the deadlines are coming up But I also said, you know if we get to a place we do the small do diligence work We realize it's not going to work. We can just dismiss it when we get to town meeting and there's no So I thought it'd be better for it to come through the formal process And so that that will come to us sooner than later because it will be something that Well, like you're saying March 19th is going to be our review of that We may so before that will we'll probably start to see hints about we had rough language at the meeting the other night It's still got a few more things to do So And those are the things I wanted to mention to you folks and So I believe unless someone has anything else we've exhausted Ourselves and the meeting agenda, so I would take a motion to adjourn it. I move to adjourn a second All in favor say aye


We have planned these sessions to be for about half an hour, and we will start with my colleagues, Mr. Mario Ludbeckin, the assistant director general and regional representative of FAO for the region of Latin America and the Caribbean, which will give us an overview of the work we have done this day. Mario, the floor is yours. Thanks, Stefanos. I will speak in Spanish. Ms. Amina Mohamed, Secretary-General of the United Nations, ladies and gentlemen, national convocers and representatives of the Latin American and the Caribbean, colleagues of the United Nations agencies who are with us. Naturally, I am pleased to address you in the closing of this intense dialogue day and the continuation of the summit of the United Nations on food systems in which we have identified a high political and institutional commitment for implementation of national route pages, fundamental actions to concrete the goals of 2030. Throughout these days and in other spaces of discussion, we have analyzed how the region has registered some progress in reducing the figures of hunger and food insecurity. According to our last estimates, it is that they record around 3 million people less in the region that suffers from hunger. It is good news, but naturally not enough because we still face important challenges and gaps linked to food systems which could make our response capacity difficult. In this context, the transformation of food systems becomes an immediate necessity and adds importance to the process of investments and the political and development agenda must be articulated to accelerate the progress of the development objectives. We have crossed a line and we all know that half of the time for 2030 so that the need to accelerate our progress is really urgent. To maintain these current trends, we will only have a very low percentage of people who will be on their way to their fulfillment and the current rate will only reach 30% of all countries on the ODS-1 on progress while hunger continues with higher figures in 2005. Yesterday, in a work session, our Secretary General, Amina Mohamed, consulted us specifically on figures, objectives and actions to continue advancing the efforts to fulfill the 2030 agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean. And we must be more concrete and tangible. In 2023, the United Nations Group for Sustainable Development defined six transitions that can generate catalyzed and multiplicative effects to accelerate the fulfillment of the 17 ODS and, of course, the food systems. From the technical assistance we have provided in close collaboration with the Food Systems Coordination Center, the Regional Work Group and the resident coordinators of the ODS who are here with us, I would like to highlight the advances that we are observing in the follow-up of the implementation of the roadmap in the countries of the region. We made a gradual progress in the definition of action plans, monitoring and assignation of resources, which is reflected in a solid commitment by the national authorities such as Intercambiaro and Dialogaro today. I highlight experiences from some countries such as Costa Rica, Guyana, Bolivia and I could name another who are already integrating the transformation of the food systems in their public policies, strengthening the governance in this framework, but we must make it a systematic and sustainable way, which is one of our great challenges. Although the needs and dynamics are unique in the countries and in the region I would like to recognize the collective agreements that are being reached by governments consolidating demands at the level of their regional groups, and that is why I could refer to SIGC, to the CARICOM, to the Amazon countries, to the CELAC. It is undisputable that the financing of SEPENI is a fundamental role in the advance of our goals. That is why we highlight the need to strengthen cooperation processes and promote greater access to the mechanism of financing available in the region, including the scope of financing of sustainable development goals for food systems. We recognize the importance of strengthening the communication between the different ecosystems of support for the scope of food systems and to promote monitoring and evaluation to measure the advances in the route. It is necessary to promote a greater incidence of multisectorial, regional and international space. This year, Latin America and the Caribbean will be the seed of multiple initiatives. We can refer to the Global Alliance against the global poverty of the G20, the plan of food security, the new plan of food security of CELAC, but that must be oriented more and more to add capacities and efforts towards the fulfillment of the goals of sustainable development. One of our risks is to be dispersed and lose the capacity of action and the result that has to be given with the multiplicity of actions. In addition, we think that in a few months, in October, we will have COP16 in Colombia. In 2025, we will have COP30 in Brazil, which allows us to connect better with the climate challenges, with the challenges and the contributions linked to the agro-food systems. In a few weeks, we will activate, for example, an active training chapter in collaboration with the Center for Food Systems of the United Nations. We are organizing a first course where young people from different countries in the region will participate, the young people in the Youth Meeting. With a look at the next summit of the future of the United Nations in September 2024. We must advance in this to contribute to the preparation of a next generation of leaders of the future committed with Latin America and the Caribbean, but also internationally committed because this region must play more and more actively in the international scenario. The responsibilities that we assume for this new period are currently greater and you have talked about it. We must address the current and future challenges in a more efficient way, with solutions that are more innovative and better coordinated. We have our support to transform the commitments in actions, effective actions that allow us to concretize the agro-food systems desired for 2030. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mario, for presenting what this region is doing and how good the UN collaboration it is. And I want to acknowledge in front of the DSG, I'm not doing this because we are in Latin America, that the cooperation between FALWFP and other agencies in this region is a benchmark for other regions. And allow me to say, Mario, but don't say this to my headquarters that it's even a benchmark for headquarters coordination. So I would like now to go to our next speaker, which is actually the core of what we are here and it's representing the group networks of the National Convenience. I mean, talking, of course, on his behalf, but you know that this meeting is happening because we want to strengthen the National Convenience. So I would like to give the floor to Mr. Fernando Vargas Perez, the Vice Minister for Agriculture of Costa Rica to pass some messages to the Deputy Secretary General. Minister of the floor is yours. Good afternoon to all of you. And to all of you, it's a pleasure to be in this activity, Mr. Stefano, Mr. Domario, Mrs. Lolan. In the name of the recent coordinators of Latin America and the Caribbean, I would like to express our greetings to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mrs. Amina Mohamed. And our thanks to the organizers of the COP and the group of the original work of food systems. Yesterday we participated in a parallel event during the regional economic forum for Latin America and the Caribbean. The event discussed how the convergence of the climate agenda and the transformation of the food systems can accelerate the implementation of the SOEs. Today we have had a very fruitful meeting with the presence of the representatives of the governments, civil society, the private sector, and the financial institutions. Today's discussion focused on areas that are related to the transformation of the food systems. This includes the update of the national route pages, the ecosystem of support, the convergence between the food systems and the climate action. The financing of the food systems is also included in the topic of the day. I would like to summarize some of the points that emerged in this meeting. Despite the many challenges faced by the region, including inequality, the effects of climate change, the efficient functioning of the food systems and the increase in the cost of healthy diets, the region has shown leadership in the transformation of its food systems. With the support of the hub of food systems and the regional work group of food systems of the UN, many countries have updated their national route pages, including the food systems within their national strategies. Many countries are also developing implementation plans and assigning resources to support the food systems through multi-actor mechanisms. We receive national invocations through the hub of convergence initiative, which takes advantage of existing mechanisms to link the route pages of the food systems and the climate action. As the objective is to complete the vision presented in the call to action carried out by the Secretary General of the United Nations in the first moment of balance of the last year. We hope with interest in implementing this initiative, which should adapt to the specific needs of each country and we trust to have the support of the UN system so that it leads to results that support the goals of the Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement. The countries of the region have informed, have informed improvements in terms of hunger reduction, however, malnutrition and obesity are mainly increasing as a result of the increase in the cost of healthy diets and the impact of climate change. The countries have shared their experiences in managing malnutrition and have emphasized the importance of addressing the corporate responsibility and the role of the private sector in supporting the transformation of the food systems as an important factor in the transformation of the minors. The countries have also talked about important issues in the region to address the transformation of the food systems and food security. In particular, the schemes to guarantee safety for the small farmers, the school food programs, the family agriculture, the local production, the public purchases, the diet and food etiquette and the reduction of the loss of the minors. The national convocations and the realization of COP 30 in Brazil as an important opportunity. Laura, point us. To maintain the momentum around the food systems and the climate. In this sense, we also applaud the Brazilian leadership of the International Alliance to share poverty and hunger that we identify as a great opportunity for the region. We emphasize the need to have platforms that involve all the actors of the food systems, in particular the civil society, the private sector, the indigenous peoples, the women, as key actors in the transformation process of the food systems. It is crucial to involve young people in the transformation agenda of the food systems with the participation of regional leaders and it is encouraging to see that COP is financing the formation of new leaders in this sense. The youth of the region are organized and coordinated, taking advantage of the existing opportunities to be included in this agenda. We receive very positive efforts that begin to be seen in terms of financing this agenda. However, the financing is still a great challenge for countries to be able to advance in the implementation of their food policies. We appreciate COP's commitment by organizing these regular meetings as an important tool to share experiences and to empower countries in the transformation of the food systems. Finally, I just want to say that we hope to continue our commitment with COP and the regional work group in the preparation for the second moment of balance in 2025, the future summit that will be held this year, COP 29 and COP 30 in Brazil. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, minister. And now with other due, I will give the floor to the UN Deputy Secretary General, Ms. Amina Mohamed, for her closing remarks. Deputy Secretary, floor is yours. Thank you very much, Stefanoz. Vice Minister, thank you so much for your leadership, but also for sharing with us some key points from the discussions that have come today on how we address hunger, malnutrition, the diets, but also the importance of involving young people at the center of this. Mario, of course, my partner in crime on food systems, thank you for the combined efforts that you've shown on your leadership for the UN system, but in particular, the Rome-based agencies who made a promise to accompany countries on this journey of the food systems, thank you so much. Excellencies, food system, national conveners, dear colleagues, this is my first meeting of national conveners on the food systems, and it is a great honor, and I'm very excited about being here in Latin America and the Caribbean in the meeting that is being held in Chile. Important because it was this region that gave us the most interaction, an interrogation of these pathways when we had the summit three years ago. It benefited by raising the ambition, but also making us understand the reality on the ground and that transformations had already started in Latin America and the Caribbean long before we were talking about the summit, so thank you to this region for that. At the Food Systems Summit, many of you also showed exemplary leadership, and that was at the stock take for food systems transformation in your countries. The success of the stock taking moment was an indication of the global recognition of the urgency to transform food systems for the acceleration of the SDGs. It showed that countries have upscaled the food system transformation agenda in their national sustainable development plans, and we saw tangible action. Yet we also know that there are many gaps as we heard today from the two speakers before me. During the last two months, the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub, thank you Stephanos, has convened regional meetings for collaboration and exchanges, and this is from Beirut to Geneva, and today here in Santiago, meetings also in Addis Ababa and Bangkok that will follow. These gatherings are pivotal in shaping our collective vision for more sustainable, equitable, healthier and resilient food systems. It is an indication of the acceleration that we need to make with the SDGs by 2030. The network of national conveners is growing. It is also getting stronger, and it is the best asset that we have for the Food Systems Summit process, ensuring the implementation of all the national pathways. It is also imperative that this really is done with the collective support that you have from the UN at headquarters, but also our Rome-based agencies and our resident coordinators who provide the support to country teams at the country level. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, you've all demonstrated resilience and determination in advancing this agenda. I'm aware that throughout the day that you've also discussed many important issues from the pathways to climate action and financing, and again here, this region is holding the leadership for the G20, but will also be holding the leadership for COP30, and we're excited about that and what it portends for the ambition of connecting financing to food systems. I know that the region has also demonstrated the stories of innovation, resilience and collaboration. From grass-root initiatives, indigenous people to sub-regional partnerships, the momentum of the change is palpable. However, we still have much work to do. We have to build on this momentum and redouble our efforts to drive change. It has to be more than the meetings that we hold and more about the investments that government can make, that government can leverage from the finance sector, the private sector, to make sure that we reach the ambitions of the pathways. As the Secretary General called for action on the food systems, we must strengthen governance systems, harness the power of science technology and innovation and ensure access to finance.  Financing and investments at scale are essential to food systems transformation, and I underscore here investments. This is not charity. This is in building a better tomorrow with everyone included. And it's important for this region that houses the inequalities that we see around the world, the greatest of here in this region. Today, only half of the governments who submitted voluntary progress reports on their national pathways indicated progress in assessing finance gaps for food systems, and very few embarked on costing their national pathways. Without these, it will be difficult to succeed. Without these, we do not know where the financing gaps are or where to scale up. It is the same message that I've been giving for baseline data that is so essential on the SDGs for knowing where we're coming from, where the gaps are, and what we need to do in the next six years. We must also ensure collaboration with international financial institutions and set up public private investments for food systems transformation. I had the privilege of speaking to the private sector here in Chile, and I believe they have some good ideas on how we can bring this full value chain to fruition for the systems transformation. Finally, we must act on the links between food systems, climate, and other transitions for the acceleration of the SDGs, some of that coming from the digital and the connectivity that is required for us to make best use of first skills that are needed. Extension work today in agriculture and livestock does not need to be in the presence of one another. It can be used on the electronic platforms we have for women to interact with the markets, financial services on a phone. These are digital initiatives and solutions to bring women closer to the market. And of course, we see that e-commerce is a very big platform for now and for the future. I believe it is in Latin America that we saw this work most successfully during COVID. We must also use the opportunities coming out of the momentum that was created in COP28 with the UAE declaration on sustainable agriculture, resilient food and systems, and climate action. The UN Food Systems Coordination Hub, ably led by Stefanos, will continue its work on supporting you to accelerate the implementation of your pathways. You can count on our full support and that of the Secretary General. In doing so, the coordination with our RCs and the UNCTs in your country with the support of the regional assets of the UN system will be crucial. Together, we do have the power to shape the future of food systems and create a world where no one goes hungry, where farmers and indigenous people, women and youth thrive, and where the planet flourishes. It is important to reflect on the journey and progress that the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have made in transforming their food systems and encouraging the engagement of the region in our global village, the world. Ladies and gentlemen, the next stock take will be in 2025, possibly in a country in the south ahead of the important milestones for the SDGs. In 2025, it's also a big year, where we will see the fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, which will be hosted by Spain. Member States have also agreed to convene the World's Social Summit. In 2025 will also be a year when countries, including those in this room, will be asked to submit their updated NDCs, the National Determine Contributions, to be economy-wide ahead of COP30 in Brazil at the end of the year. At this junction, let me just congratulate everyone and look forward to working with a sense of urgency to use the opportunities to create a brighter future for everyone. Gracias. Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Secretary-General. I would like also at this moment to acknowledge the online participation of a number of colleagues, and I thank them that they have stayed with us. Some of them are also connected from other time zones. And I would like DSG to kindly ask you if you could do a last favor for us, together with Ms. Lola Castro, Minister Vargas Perez and Mario, if you could go at the center of the room and we can have a photo with the conveners. Thank you, thank you.