tap to load the tape · nothing plays until you doDuring the Brookline Select Board meeting on March 10, 2026, various topics were discussed including preparations for upcoming events, community development projects, and budget concerns related to housing and public services. There was a notable focus on efforts to modernize the green line program and improve accessibility at train stations. The board also reviewed grant proposals and the implications of potential zoning changes in the Chestnut Hill commercial area. Additionally, the town discussed plans to enhance community engagement in budgetary matters and streamlined communications with residents about town projects. The meeting concluded with plans to continue these discussions in future sessions. For further details, timestamps range from [17:35] to [422:54] in the transcript.
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1:53 Hey,
2:02 hey, hey.
7:55 Hey.
8:54 I'll be back.
9:11 Hey,
9:20 hey,
9:23 hey.
16:07 Heat.
16:11 Hey, Heat.
16:40 Okay.
16:49 Oh,
16:51 let me know and I'll start recording.
16:53 I'm ready.
16:54 I didn't get the I didn't get the other
16:56 half of the
16:56 recording in progress.
16:59 We're live in five, four, three, two,
17:03 one.
17:04 Good evening. I'm Bernard Green, chair
17:06 of the Brooklyn Select Board, and this
17:07 is the regular meeting of the Select
17:09 Board for March 10, 2026.
17:14 First item on this agenda is that I move
17:17 that the select board go into executive
17:19 session for the purpose of approving
17:22 executive session minutes and discussing
17:25 strategy related to a litigation matter.
17:28 The litigation matter must be discussed
17:30 in executive session because an open
17:32 meeting may have a detrimental effect on
17:35 the litigation position of the town and
17:37 the chair so declares an executive
17:40 session therefore to be necessary. So
17:43 all in favor please indicate by say
17:45 saying I. Uh John Vancoyak
17:48 I.
17:48 Paul Warren
17:49 I.
17:49 David Pearlman
17:50 I.
17:50 Michael Rubenstein
17:52 I
17:52 and chair votes I. The select board will
17:54 reconvene an open session following
17:57 following the executive session.
18:05 Recording stopped.
20:06 Heat. Heat.
30:07 Hey,
30:19 hey, hey.
36:27 Hey,
36:32 hey, hey.
37:40 Yeah.
38:58 Heat. Heat.
52:51 Hey.
57:56 Hey,
58:06 heat. Hey.
58:57 Heat. Heat.
1:10:13 energy.
1:12:46 Recording in progress.
1:12:48 We're live in 5 4 3 2 1.
1:12:53 Good evening. I'm Bernard Green, chair
1:12:54 of the Brookline Select Board, and this
1:12:56 is the regular meeting of the Select
1:12:59 Board for March 10, 2026.
1:13:06 Let's start off with announcements and
1:13:08 updates from the select board. I'd like
1:13:10 to make a couple announcements myself
1:13:13 and um and then Michael Rubes is going
1:13:16 to read one of our proclamations
1:13:19 um and then other people can can make
1:13:21 comments. So, I'd like to congratulate
1:13:24 Debbie Hatel Left Heritis. Aren't you
1:13:27 impressed by the fact I can say her
1:13:29 name? um for the Black and Latino
1:13:32 Legislative Caucuses 2026 Blacks
1:13:36 Excellence on the Hill Award that she
1:13:38 received. And I might add in n in 2023 I
1:13:43 received that reward award. Um it was
1:13:46 during COVID, however, I didn't have I
1:13:50 didn't have the opportunity to do all of
1:13:52 the festivities that uh associated with
1:13:54 it. Uh we're going to prepare a
1:13:56 proclamation for next meeting as she's
1:13:59 out of the country right now. Um but
1:14:02 congratulations to Debbie uh Hats as
1:14:05 she's called. Um a very important uh
1:14:10 town resident who is the first black
1:14:14 female uh member of the police
1:14:16 department.
1:14:18 Second, um where is my plaque?
1:14:25 Brookline Klein got this. Um, on
1:14:29 Saturday on was it Sunday?
1:14:32 Was it Saturday or Sunday? Anyway, this
1:14:35 weekend uh I represented the town of
1:14:38 Brooklyn at a Boston 250 event at the uh
1:14:41 Unitarian Universalist uh urban ministry
1:14:45 in Roxbury. Uh it was a really nice
1:14:48 program commemorating the uh uh 1776
1:14:54 um effort by uh Henry Knox who you may
1:14:58 know of as the person that Fort Knox was
1:15:01 named after. Uh used to be Secretary of
1:15:04 Treasury. Uh but in 1776 he took a band
1:15:08 of folks revolutionaries to Fort
1:15:11 Ticonderoga to to to uh recover cannons
1:15:16 and other ordinance that the British had
1:15:18 abandoned and brought them I think it's
1:15:21 like 300 miles in the dead of winter um
1:15:25 over um difficult terrain without modern
1:15:29 highways of course um and over frozen
1:15:33 lakes and and rivers.
1:15:35 to Cambridge and then Roxbury and uh
1:15:39 Dorchester. And those cannons were used
1:15:42 to repel the British and and drive them
1:15:45 out of uh uh Boston. And as a result, we
1:15:49 have the Massachusetts holiday called
1:15:51 Evacuation Day, uh repres uh
1:15:54 commemorating the evacuation of Boston
1:15:56 by the British. Now, what does Brooklyn
1:15:58 have to do with that? Well, they came
1:16:02 whatever route they came to Cambridge
1:16:04 and to get to Roxbury without running
1:16:08 into the British, they had to go back to
1:16:09 Watertown and through Brooklyn into
1:16:12 Roxbury. So, because we were a stop on
1:16:16 on this uh trip or or we uh they had to
1:16:20 go through Brooklyn uh to get to their
1:16:23 their ult their um final destination. We
1:16:28 are recognized as having played an
1:16:31 important part in this very important um
1:16:36 um event that was uh very significant in
1:16:41 the American Revolution. Without running
1:16:44 the British out of Boston, things would
1:16:46 have been much much different to the
1:16:49 worst for for the Americans.
1:16:52 Thirdly, so that that's the plaque that
1:16:56 we have
1:16:58 and we'll find some place probably in
1:16:59 town hall uh to display it and uh I hope
1:17:03 we can put together some uh other events
1:17:06 during this year to commemorate the
1:17:08 250th
1:17:10 um anniversary of the beginning of the
1:17:13 revolution.
1:17:15 So, finally, um Tommy Vlo, our state
1:17:20 representative, uh told me about a visit
1:17:22 by two mayors from Ireland who are in
1:17:26 Boston for St. Patrick's Day and will be
1:17:28 meeting with local Irish-American
1:17:30 residents at Hamilton's on Thursday and
1:17:33 other non-Irishamean residents like me,
1:17:36 hopefully. Um uh and we have a
1:17:40 proclamation which is intended to
1:17:42 welcome them to Brooklyn and note the
1:17:46 connections between Brooklyn and Ireland
1:17:49 which are very significant and very
1:17:52 educational in that Ireland and this
1:17:55 city, these two cities in particular are
1:17:57 dealing with many of the same issues
1:17:59 that we are here in Brooklyn. uh issues
1:18:02 of housing, uh environmental issues, um
1:18:06 what they call diverse, uh they called
1:18:09 um EDI, uh equity, diversity and
1:18:12 inclusion um related to the immigrants
1:18:16 that are coming to Ireland from various
1:18:19 parts of the world are being
1:18:21 successfully integrated in many cases
1:18:23 into their uh society. So this is
1:18:27 Sorry, we we don't have we don't have
1:18:28 sound. I'm sorry. Can you give us a
1:18:29 second?
1:18:30 Oh my god. Can I repeat that?
1:18:32 They missed a lot of eloquence there.
1:18:35 I see Janet Khan is in the audience.
1:18:38 She'll remember everything I said.
1:18:49 you looking at?
1:18:50 You have to go back pretty far.
1:18:53 Just testing this now.
1:18:57 Yeah. Just see what we can do here.
1:19:00 I don't know if it's a problem with Zoom
1:19:02 or what. Um,
1:19:07 sorry. Give us one second.
1:19:12 Can I see the plaque you're giving to
1:19:15 the uh the visitors?
1:19:16 No, no, no. This is our plaque given to
1:19:18 us by Boston.
1:19:20 Oh, okay.
1:19:21 Where are we going to put it?
1:19:22 Uh, well, I I think we should uh set up
1:19:24 a display case in the first floor for
1:19:26 historical stuff related to the
1:19:28 revolution because there are a lot of
1:19:29 things that
1:19:32 No, there used to be one um
1:19:34 just gone too.
1:19:45 So,
1:19:50 Okay. Something else.
1:19:54 Turn this off.
1:19:58 Okay.
1:20:00 Turn that back on.
1:20:03 Does that work?
1:20:10 So,
1:20:12 um,
1:20:14 it's not the same computer. So, Andrea
1:20:17 was
1:20:19 fixing this one before. So, the
1:20:21 microphone for this one is
1:20:24 same system, whichever that means.
1:20:29 Should we just try the
1:20:34 turn it off?
1:20:48 So, do we want to try this one?
1:20:51 No. Okay,
1:20:52 that one seems to be working. That one
1:20:54 seems
1:21:00 Let's see.
1:21:04 Oh, shoot.
1:21:06 Are we getting an echo?
1:21:11 Can you guys test your mics? I'm sorry.
1:21:13 Thank you. Testing.
1:21:16 Okay. Um,
1:21:18 captions working.
1:21:19 Captions are working. People are picking
1:21:21 it up online. Okay.
1:21:23 Apologies folks watching at home. Um,
1:21:26 good news is the the sound in the room
1:21:28 was captured on big so you don't have to
1:21:30 repeat everything. Um, it is recorded
1:21:32 and presented elsewhere. Um, captioned
1:21:36 appropriately and so forth. So you can
1:21:37 pick up where you left off. Chair. Um,
1:21:41 we just need the we need the camera in
1:21:43 the uh in the room. So, we don't know I
1:21:45 don't know which one of ours which one
1:21:47 of those.
1:21:51 There we go.
1:21:55 Okay. Sorry for the delay.
1:21:59 Hold on one second.
1:22:06 How's that Regina? Can you hear? Is that
1:22:08 So, is that working? No. Okay. Can I Can
1:22:11 I see it?
1:22:21 Yeah. So, I don't know if that's it's
1:22:23 might be a I don't know what channel
1:22:25 it's on.
1:22:37 I love technology.
1:22:42 Not this technology that my my daughter
1:22:44 was waving to me on the radio.
1:22:46 Yeah. Um
1:22:48 that's good technology.
1:22:54 Yes. It's not it's not on there.
1:23:50 Testing, testing, testing.
1:24:09 Testing
1:24:11 the
1:24:20 This is the podium mic. We're testing it
1:24:23 now.
1:25:12 Test test test
1:25:15 Test test test.
1:25:25 Okay.
1:25:28 Well, good news, bad news. Uh, it seems
1:25:38 Wes, can you actually hear me as a
1:25:41 remote participant?
1:25:44 Okay, he can hear.
1:25:46 So, I think we're back.
1:25:47 Perfect. So, we're just waiting for
1:26:14 Christmas.
1:26:29 Yes, sir.
1:26:59 Okay, Now I'm trying the microphone. I'm
1:27:01 trying this. Can you hear that through
1:27:03 there? No.
1:27:35 Test one, two, three.
1:27:37 Test test test.
1:27:50 One drive where this is stored.
1:27:52 Okay. Test test test.
1:27:57 speaking from the microphone here. Test.
1:28:03 Yeah, this is it. Test test test.
1:28:07 Go. Sorry. Go back.
1:28:13 Okay. So, go
1:28:20 see that. You can share it with
1:28:22 that will email it to her and you can
1:28:24 change your permissions here.
1:28:28 Okay.
1:28:33 Oops.
1:28:37 And then if you go to this icon,
1:28:39 no luck.
1:28:40 And then it can show you what she can
1:28:42 do.
1:28:47 Uh yeah, she'll get email. Yeah. Okay.
1:28:53 Thank you.
1:28:58 Apologies for the technical delay. Um,
1:29:01 we are back and you can keep going.
1:29:02 Sorry.
1:29:03 How far back do we have to go?
1:29:04 You don't have to go back. The big was
1:29:06 picking it up on the broadcast. So,
1:29:07 that's you're it's it's it's in the
1:29:10 record.
1:29:11 Okay.
1:29:17 So, where we are now, um, let me find
1:29:20 it.
1:29:38 Okay, I was mentioning the visit to
1:29:41 Brooklyn of the two Irish mayors um who
1:29:46 will be in Boston for the St. Patrick's
1:29:49 Day uh festivities. uh on the 17th. Um
1:29:54 and on Thursday, we'll be uh here in
1:29:57 Brooklyn to meet with local
1:30:00 Irish-American dignitaries as well as
1:30:02 other residents at Hamilton's Bar uh on
1:30:06 Beacon Street.
1:30:10 So, in in in order to welcome them to
1:30:13 Brooklyn, uh we prepared a proclamation
1:30:17 and I'd like to read the proclamation.
1:30:19 It says proclamation of the Brooklyn
1:30:21 Select Board. The Brooklyn Select Board
1:30:24 welcomes Mayor Seamus Ryan of Waterford,
1:30:27 Ireland, and Mayor Mike Cubert of the of
1:30:30 Goway, Ireland. Oh, thank you. Oops.
1:30:34 Okay. For St. Patrick's Day celebrations
1:30:38 and events
1:30:41 and I have a Irish welcome statement and
1:30:47 I don't have the pronunciation right in
1:30:50 front of me so I'm going to reme try to
1:30:52 remember
1:30:54 yes right mele f which means a 100,000
1:31:01 welcomes so whereas the month of March
1:31:04 is designated as Irish American American
1:31:06 Heritage Month, a time to honor the
1:31:08 indelible contributions, vibrant
1:31:11 culture, and enduring spirit of Irish
1:31:13 immigrants and their descendants who
1:31:15 have shaped the fabric of American life.
1:31:19 And whereas the greater Boston area
1:31:21 proudly holds one of the nation's
1:31:23 deepest concentrations of Irish
1:31:25 heritage, a legacy rooted in the 19th
1:31:28 century when many sought refuge in
1:31:30 Brooklyn following the great Irish
1:31:32 famine. And whereas though these early
1:31:36 residents faced significant adversity
1:31:38 and hardships, they met every challenge
1:31:41 with resilience and faith, eventually
1:31:44 rising to positions of political and
1:31:46 economic leadership and integrating
1:31:48 their traditions into the very soul of
1:31:50 our town. And whereas the legacy is
1:31:53 anchored by enduring institutions such
1:31:55 as St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic
1:31:57 Church, which has served as a spiritual
1:32:00 and communal pillar for generations of
1:32:03 Brooklyn families. And whereas Brooklyn
1:32:05 remains a global center for Irish
1:32:08 scholarship through Boston College's
1:32:10 Center for Irish programs and Boston
1:32:13 University's Institute for the Study of
1:32:15 Irish Culture, ensuring that the history
1:32:17 and contemporary issues of Ireland
1:32:19 continue to be studied and celebrated.
1:32:22 And whereas the town of Brooklyn was the
1:32:24 childhood home of John Fitzgerald
1:32:27 Kennedy, the 35th president of the
1:32:29 United States, whose life and leadership
1:32:33 uh started at 83 Beal Street and remains
1:32:37 a powerful symbol of Irish-American, the
1:32:40 Irish-American journey from immigrant
1:32:42 roots to the highest office of the land.
1:32:44 Whereas the spirit of Irish hospitality
1:32:47 continues to thrive in our local
1:32:49 gathering places including grano meles
1:32:52 and Hamiltons which serve as modern-day
1:32:55 her hearths where stories are shared and
1:32:57 community bonds are strengthened. And
1:33:00 whereas on March 12, we are privileged
1:33:02 to extend a warm Brookline welcome to
1:33:04 Mayor Seamus Ryan of Waterford and Mayor
1:33:07 Mike Cubard of Goway, whose visit
1:33:10 reinforces the living bridge between our
1:33:13 town and
1:33:16 the ancestral homelands of many of our
1:33:19 residents. Now therefore, in
1:33:21 consideration of the foregoing on this
1:33:23 10th day of March, 2026, the Brookline
1:33:26 Select Board on behalf of the residents
1:33:28 of Brooklyn hereby welcomes Mayor Seamus
1:33:32 Ryan of Waterford and Mike Cupard of
1:33:35 Goway. And if we may use the Irish Gaic
1:33:39 phrase, we say kad mele f a 100,000
1:33:45 welcomes to our friends from Gowway and
1:33:47 Water for uh to be signed by the
1:33:49 Brookline Select Board. So
1:33:53 any other comments? I uh Michael.
1:33:56 Sure.
1:33:57 Um so uh I also have a proclamation to
1:34:01 read uh on behalf of the Brooklyn Select
1:34:04 Board. Uh, the Brooklyn Select Board
1:34:07 recognizes and congratulates the 2026
1:34:11 Brooklyn Women of the Year, Gabrielle
1:34:15 Abby Dean, Alicia Su, and Linda Olsen
1:34:20 Pelky.
1:34:22 Whereas the United Nations officially
1:34:24 recognized March 8th as International
1:34:26 Women's Day in 1975
1:34:29 and since 1977
1:34:32 has invited member states to proclaim
1:34:34 March 8th as the United Nations Day for
1:34:37 Women's Rights and World Peace, honoring
1:34:40 the historic and ongoing struggles of
1:34:42 women around the world for equality,
1:34:45 justice, and opportunity. And whereas
1:34:48 the Brooklyn Commission for Women was
1:34:50 established by Brooklyn Town Meeting
1:34:52 with a mission to promote equity and
1:34:55 justice for all women and girls,
1:34:57 including all who identify as female.
1:35:01 And whereas for 21 years, the Brooklyn
1:35:04 Commission for Women has recognized
1:35:06 outstanding women in our community
1:35:08 through its annual Brooklyn Women of the
1:35:11 Year Award, honoring women who live and
1:35:14 work in Brooklyn and who have dedicated
1:35:16 their time, resources, and efforts to
1:35:19 bringing significant and positive impact
1:35:21 to our community. And whereas the
1:35:24 Brooklyn Commission for Women has
1:35:26 selected longtime Brooklyn residents
1:35:28 Abby Dean, Alicia Su, and Linda Olsen
1:35:32 Pelky as the 2026 Brooklyn Women of the
1:35:36 Year. And whereas Abby Dean is a deeply
1:35:40 respected public health leader and
1:35:42 licensed clinical social worker who has
1:35:45 devoted more than 30 years to Brooklyn
1:35:47 in her current role as the behavioral
1:35:50 health intervention and prevention
1:35:52 program coordinator for Brooklyn Public
1:35:54 Health and as a counselor at Brooklyn
1:35:57 High School. She provides critical
1:35:59 mental health support to students,
1:36:02 staff, families while mentoring the next
1:36:05 generation of professionals. And whereas
1:36:08 through her statewide leadership on the
1:36:10 opioid recovery and remediation fund
1:36:12 board and her direction of programs
1:36:15 supporting mothers and children impacted
1:36:18 by addiction, she exemplifies
1:36:21 compassionate leadership and an
1:36:23 unwavering dedication to prevention,
1:36:26 equity, and the well-being of the entire
1:36:28 community. And whereas Alicia Su is a
1:36:32 retired teacher of the public schools of
1:36:34 Brooklyn who spent three decades
1:36:37 teaching primarily at the Amos A.
1:36:39 Lawrence School and was awarded the
1:36:42 Earnest R Cav Cavverly Award for
1:36:45 Excellence in Teaching from the Brooklyn
1:36:48 Education Foundation in 2008. And
1:36:51 whereas Alicia Shu is a co-founder and
1:36:54 steering committee member of the
1:36:56 Brooklyn Asian-American Family Network
1:36:58 and is a member of the planning
1:37:00 committee with the Office of Diversity,
1:37:02 Equity, Inclusion, and Community
1:37:04 Relations for the Town of Brooklyn,
1:37:07 where she co-leads the annual AAPI
1:37:10 Heritage Month Festival Celebration in
1:37:13 May. And whereas Alicia Shu is a has
1:37:17 been a tireless advocate for the
1:37:19 Asian-American and Pacific Islander
1:37:21 community in Brooklyn and is widely
1:37:24 recognized as a fierce advocate and
1:37:26 loving supporter of educators.
1:37:29 And whereas Linda Olsen Pelky is an
1:37:31 urban planner, civic leader, and
1:37:33 longtime volunteer whose work has had a
1:37:36 lasting impact on the town of Brookline
1:37:39 over more than two decades of public
1:37:41 service focused on planning
1:37:43 sustainability, open space, and
1:37:46 neighborhood engagement. And whereas
1:37:48 Linda Olsen Pelky has served as a town
1:37:50 meeting member since 2009,
1:37:53 currently serves on the advisory
1:37:55 committee and has served on several
1:37:57 other town committees. And whereas Linda
1:37:59 Olsen Pelky is the founder and president
1:38:02 of the Friends of the Mino Rose Garden,
1:38:05 serves on the board of the Brooklyn
1:38:07 Greenspace Alliance, previously served
1:38:09 on the board of the Brooklyn Community
1:38:11 Foundation, and is the author of
1:38:14 Exploring the Paths of Brooklyn, a guide
1:38:16 to the town's historic pedestrian paths.
1:38:19 And whereas through her leadership,
1:38:21 scholarship, and tireless volunteer
1:38:24 service, Linda Olsen Pelky has made a
1:38:26 significant and enduring contribution to
1:38:29 Brooklyn civic life. Now, therefore, in
1:38:33 consideration of the foregoing, on this
1:38:36 10th day of March, 2026, the Brooklyn
1:38:39 Select Board on behalf of the town of
1:38:41 Brooklyn hereby recognizes,
1:38:43 congratulates, and expresses its deepest
1:38:46 appreciation to Gabrielle Abby Dean,
1:38:50 Alicia Su, and Linda Olsen Pelky, the
1:38:54 2026 Brooklyn Women of the Year, for
1:38:57 their outstanding and sustained
1:38:59 contributions to the town of Brooklyn
1:39:01 and its residents and extends its
1:39:03 warmest congratulations on the occasion
1:39:06 of their recognition at the Brooklyn
1:39:08 Women of the Year celebration on March
1:39:11 11th, 2026
1:39:14 signed by the Brooklyn Select Board.
1:39:17 Thank you, Michael. Any other
1:39:20 announcements or updates
1:39:25 members that want to go first?
1:39:27 Not me.
1:39:28 Oh,
1:39:29 okay. I have two quick announcements.
1:39:32 Um, first, uh, the budget 101 series
1:39:35 continues next week at the Florida Ruff
1:39:38 and Ridley School at 6:30 p.m. Uh, we
1:39:41 invite all members of the community to
1:39:42 come be a part of that. This will be our
1:39:44 sixth presentation. We've previously had
1:39:46 presentations um at U the BHA
1:39:50 residences, at the Arthur O'Shea
1:39:52 residences at 61 Pine Street, um, at the
1:39:55 Baker School, uh, at Potterham Library,
1:39:57 uh, and online. Um, and it's been a
1:40:01 wonderful experience so far and we've
1:40:03 had really great questions uh and
1:40:05 incisive uh conversations with the
1:40:07 community. So again, next week, next
1:40:09 Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. at Florida Ruff and
1:40:12 Ridley School, the auditorium. Uh, come
1:40:14 one, come all. We look forward to seeing
1:40:16 you there. And on a particularly happy
1:40:18 note, I'm very excited to announce that
1:40:20 the second annual election sticker
1:40:23 contest has opened. The finalists are
1:40:26 online. You can vote for one from each
1:40:29 of the three age groups. Uh they are all
1:40:32 excellent and I wish they could all win.
1:40:35 Um but we will select from those three
1:40:37 finalists. Uh and they each of them will
1:40:40 have their sticker printed and then you
1:40:41 can pick up your Brookline I voted
1:40:44 sticker when you go to vote. Um you can
1:40:46 pick up more than one. Uh you can't vote
1:40:48 more than once. That's illegal. Um but
1:40:51 you can get more than one sticker if you
1:40:53 really really want. Um, so please do
1:40:56 come out and vote. Please do vote for
1:40:58 the stickers, then come out and vote in
1:41:00 the election and get a sticker for
1:41:02 voting in the election. That's it.
1:41:04 Thank you.
1:41:06 Any other
1:41:09 comments or updates? Okay, let's move on
1:41:12 to public comment. Melanie, please
1:41:15 introduce the rules.
1:41:21 Thank you for joining us for public
1:41:22 comment. This is an opportunity for us
1:41:24 to hear your perspective on the issues
1:41:26 in Brookline that matter to you. Each
1:41:28 person speaking tonight is limited to
1:41:30 three minutes. You don't need to use the
1:41:32 entire time, but you may if you like.
1:41:34 Once 15 minutes has been met, there is
1:41:36 an opportunity at the conclusion of the
1:41:38 select board's business for additional
1:41:40 comments. Members of the public
1:41:42 sometimes raise questions during public
1:41:44 comment. We may be able to provide a
1:41:46 quick answer to a question, but are more
1:41:47 likely to work with staff to get a more
1:41:49 thorough answer and respond over email.
1:41:52 The on-screen timer will flash orange
1:41:54 when you have one minute remaining and
1:41:55 red when your time is nearly up. Please
1:41:58 conclude your remarks at that time. If
1:42:00 you have more to say, you're welcome to
1:42:01 send an email to board members
1:42:03 expressing your thoughts in greater
1:42:04 detail. Any person wishing to speak must
1:42:07 begin their comment by identifying
1:42:08 themselves with their full name, either
1:42:10 their Brookline precinct number or
1:42:12 street address, and the specific topic
1:42:14 on which they wish to speak. The board
1:42:16 encourages but does not require that
1:42:18 remote users turn their video on when
1:42:20 commenting.
1:42:22 We did not have anybody sign up for
1:42:24 public comment prior. Is there anybody
1:42:26 in the room that would like to make a
1:42:28 public comment?
1:42:31 Hey, Janet.
1:42:35 Good evening. I'm Janice Khan, town
1:42:38 meeting member from precinct 15, a
1:42:40 member of the town's advisory committee.
1:42:43 I'm also on the comprehensive plan
1:42:45 steering committee and most relevant to
1:42:47 the discussion of the special town
1:42:49 meeting later this evening, a community
1:42:51 member of the Chestnut Hill commercial
1:42:54 area study group. So, in other words, I
1:42:57 take both a neighborhood and a broad
1:42:59 townwide perspective into consideration
1:43:02 when I look at issues. The Chestnut Hill
1:43:05 commercial area study was intended to
1:43:07 look carefully at the commercial area
1:43:09 along Route 9 West in Chestnut Hill and
1:43:12 to create an overlay zoning to
1:43:15 incentivize commercial and mixeduse
1:43:17 development in the entire commercial
1:43:20 area. And I want to spe to emphasize
1:43:22 entire commercial area. To date, that
1:43:25 hasn't happened. Instead, what has
1:43:26 happened is the creation of zoning to
1:43:29 incentivize development for one
1:43:31 developer in one part of the commercial
1:43:33 area. The community advisory group never
1:43:35 heard from any other developer,
1:43:37 including the only other developer in
1:43:39 the Chestnut Hill commercial 4 um zero
1:43:43 district who owns enough property to
1:43:45 create significant development along the
1:43:47 corridor. The fact is that the community
1:43:50 advisory group never heard from any
1:43:52 other property owners and potential
1:43:54 developers in the commercial areas other
1:43:56 three districts. The Chestnut Hill
1:43:58 commercial 3.0, the neighborhood mixed
1:44:01 use on the both on the south side of
1:44:03 Route 9 and the transit oriented
1:44:05 mixeduse on the north side of Route 9
1:44:07 which is in Brooklyn. It abutstar market
1:44:11 and um which is in Newton. So it's right
1:44:13 on the border.
1:44:15 So the reason I wanted to speak tonight
1:44:17 is that um I want to just urge you to
1:44:23 sorry I'm
1:44:23 to defer this
1:44:26 special town meeting
1:44:29 to the fall. So what looks neat on paper
1:44:34 may in fact have realworld
1:44:36 unintended consequences of creating
1:44:39 disincentives for development in a part
1:44:42 of town that could measurably benefit
1:44:45 Brooklyn's commercial tax base.
1:44:48 So I urge you to defer this special town
1:44:50 meeting to a time in the fall. Let's get
1:44:52 the Chestnut Hill commercial area study
1:44:55 community advisory group to finish the
1:44:57 work it was set up to do. and let's get
1:45:00 this zoning right for Brooklyn. Thank
1:45:02 you.
1:45:07 Okay, any other comments from the
1:45:10 audience?
1:45:13 Okay, seeing none, we'll close public
1:45:14 comment uh and move on to our
1:45:17 miscellaneous calendar. Uh first item is
1:45:20 question of approving the meeting
1:45:21 minutes from February 24, 202.6.
1:45:25 Any edits, corrections from the select
1:45:28 board? No. I move approval of the
1:45:31 meeting minutes from February 24, 2026.
1:45:34 All in favor, please indicate by saying
1:45:36 I. John Vancoyak,
1:45:37 I.
1:45:38 Paul Warren,
1:45:38 I.
1:45:39 David Pearlman,
1:45:40 I.
1:45:40 Michael Rubenstein,
1:45:41 I.
1:45:42 And chair votes I.
1:45:44 Next,
1:45:46 I would like to take items 6B to 6P in
1:45:51 omnibus fashion. uh unless someone would
1:45:54 like to pull out anything for uh further
1:45:57 discussion and I'd like to pull out 6P
1:46:01 um relative to the Brookline uh um
1:46:07 community development corporation
1:46:09 um matter because I see that David
1:46:12 Cavell who's the interim executive
1:46:15 director is in the audience. If any
1:46:17 select board member would like to ask
1:46:19 him a question before we vote.
1:46:22 Yes.
1:46:22 Well, I'm confused because 6P on what we
1:46:26 have in front of us is the uh
1:46:28 6 I.
1:46:29 Oh, okay. 6 I. Okay. Is that If I
1:46:32 miserved you, I apologize.
1:46:33 Question of voting to affirm the housing
1:46:35 advisory board's February 4th vote to
1:46:37 recommend with conditions and that's the
1:46:40 key here. housing trust funding in the
1:46:42 amount of $822,764
1:46:47 for the Brooklyn Community Development
1:46:48 Corporation's renovation project at 154
1:46:52 through 156 Boilson Street. The select
1:46:55 board vote would carry the same
1:46:57 conditions as the HAB vote uh which are
1:47:00 subject to a satisfactory written report
1:47:03 on the solar installation from the
1:47:05 structural engineer to subject to
1:47:08 inquiring into having insurance for the
1:47:12 roof as a result of the solar uh panel
1:47:15 installation.
1:47:17 Three, subject to delegated approval by
1:47:20 Brookline staff. I think that's Steve
1:47:23 Hiken, Roger Blood, Pam
1:47:30 Goodman.
1:47:32 Oh, I'm sorry, Pam Goodman.
1:47:34 and excuse me for deferral of overhead
1:47:38 fee until completion of the project. So
1:47:40 those are the condition conditions that
1:47:42 the housing advisory board imposed on
1:47:45 this um uh this recommendation for uh
1:47:49 paying the amount to this amount to the
1:47:52 housing the community development
1:47:55 corporation to do some really critically
1:47:57 important and needed renovations to
1:48:00 their properties.
1:48:01 Excuse me. Would the chair please come
1:48:03 closer to the microphone? It's really
1:48:05 hard to hear you.
1:48:07 Sorry.
1:48:12 So, those were conditions imposed by the
1:48:14 housing advisory board on um the funding
1:48:17 of this critically important renovation
1:48:20 of uh the u uh community development
1:48:24 corporation's housings on on uh Boston
1:48:26 Street. Um, and I just wanted to give
1:48:29 the select board an opportunity to ask
1:48:32 any questions or raise any issues before
1:48:35 we vote.
1:48:37 Paul,
1:48:37 I had one one question. David, thank
1:48:40 you.
1:48:47 First, congratulations on your new role.
1:48:49 Thank you very much.
1:48:50 Welcome back to town.
1:48:51 It's good Well, I would say it's good to
1:48:53 be here. It's good to be here when it's
1:48:54 not snowing.
1:48:56 Uh just a quick question. Um so the
1:48:58 money is coming out of the housing
1:49:00 trust.
1:49:01 Um have you also applied for any CPA
1:49:04 funds?
1:49:05 Yes. And we've received some for this
1:49:07 project.
1:49:08 Can you tell us about that? How much?
1:49:10 Sure. So um I can get you the exact uh
1:49:13 exact figure. It's in the I believe it's
1:49:17 uh
1:49:18 1.1 million.
1:49:20 Okay.
1:49:20 Roughly.
1:49:21 Okay. And is this between the 1.1 and
1:49:23 this money is this covering you for the
1:49:25 the project? Is it
1:49:27 correctly funding or other sources of
1:49:29 funds?
1:49:30 Yeah, that's accurate. And I'm happy to
1:49:31 submit to the select board the um the
1:49:34 range of sources and uses for this
1:49:36 project uh which we discussed at the uh
1:49:38 at the HAB meeting. Um but that's
1:49:40 accurate. We have a range of sources for
1:49:42 the project. There's uh American Rescue
1:49:44 Plant funds. Um there's Community
1:49:47 Preservation Act funds. Uh and then this
1:49:49 is the uh supplemental request after the
1:49:52 discovery uh of the damage that led to
1:49:54 this request.
1:49:55 Okay, great. Thank you.
1:49:56 Could you tell us a little bit about
1:49:57 what that damage was?
1:49:59 Sure. Um thank you, Mr. Chair. Um the
1:50:02 this project we discovered um
1:50:04 significant termite damage to the
1:50:06 property after the contractors had
1:50:08 removed the building's envelope um to
1:50:11 investigate and insulate the building um
1:50:14 to make it more climate friendly uh
1:50:16 which is part of the the point of the
1:50:18 project. Uh and so after reviewing that
1:50:21 uh that damage and proposing various
1:50:23 methods uh that we reviewed with with uh
1:50:26 our contractors and with the housing
1:50:27 advisory board uh in our meeting with
1:50:29 them. Um the this we came up with this
1:50:32 proposal in addition to other work that
1:50:35 needed to be done as the project has
1:50:37 advanced to complete the the
1:50:40 preservation of the structure and the um
1:50:43 and the investment of of funds. so that
1:50:46 this will be a an a property that people
1:50:48 can enjoy living in for for hopefully
1:50:50 many decades to come.
1:50:52 Great. Thank you, David.
1:50:56 Okay. So, I'm sorry, you have another
1:50:58 Oh, okay. I sorry. I just want to ask a
1:51:01 procedural question. You know, I I'll
1:51:04 admit I'm a little surprised that this
1:51:05 is on our miscellaneous agenda. Um, this
1:51:08 is this is a um I'll have to say
1:51:10 extraordinary amount of money when when
1:51:12 you consider that we're combining the
1:51:15 community preservation act funds to the
1:51:17 tune of more than a million dollars with
1:51:19 $822,764
1:51:22 from the affordable housing trust. And
1:51:25 you know, I fully trust um the community
1:51:29 preservation act committee to determine
1:51:31 the use of those funds and the housing
1:51:34 advisory board to determine the use of
1:51:36 housing advisory board funds. But when
1:51:39 the two come together, you know, on one
1:51:41 project, um uh I feel as though the
1:51:44 select board should have this as a item
1:51:47 not on the miscellaneous agenda but on
1:51:49 our regular agenda. I apologize for not
1:51:51 saying this until just now. Um so that
1:51:55 we can sort of take a
1:51:57 you know big picture look at if we're
1:52:00 going to be you know net combining this
1:52:03 many funds from the community
1:52:04 preservation act with this many funds
1:52:07 from the affordable housing trust u for
1:52:10 one building um you know on boilson
1:52:12 street it's an important building um it
1:52:15 you know it needs to be the problems
1:52:17 with the building need to be addressed
1:52:19 for the sake of the tenants um of that
1:52:22 property
1:52:23 But it we're in the in the range now of
1:52:26 having to question how much do we spend
1:52:29 um per unit to um not add to affordable
1:52:34 housing in Brooklyn but simply maintain
1:52:36 existing affordable housing in Brooklyn.
1:52:39 I don't know what my personal limit is
1:52:42 but because we've never had that
1:52:43 discussion. Um and I think it's a
1:52:46 discussion we're going to have to have
1:52:48 because we're going to be facing
1:52:49 situations like this more than once in
1:52:52 the future. And we can't end up making a
1:52:54 decision one way on, you know, on one uh
1:52:58 request um because we might think that's
1:53:00 an extraordinary amount of money to
1:53:02 spend per unit and then come around and,
1:53:05 you know, make a different decision um
1:53:07 in the opposite direction uh e even
1:53:11 though there might not be that that much
1:53:14 difference when you compare the two
1:53:16 decisions a as to how much being is
1:53:18 being spent per unit because I I don't
1:53:21 know what our limit is on how much we
1:53:23 spend per unit, but I do know that the
1:53:26 more we spend per unit, the fewer the
1:53:29 number of units we are able to provide
1:53:32 as subsidized housing. So, it's an
1:53:34 important question and I'm a little
1:53:36 uncomfortable having to vote on this as
1:53:37 a miscellaneous item tonight.
1:53:40 Uh, Michael,
1:53:41 um,
1:53:43 hello David.
1:53:44 Hello.
1:53:44 Can you tell us how many units, dwelling
1:53:48 units are in this building that are
1:53:50 being saved?
1:53:52 Uh, absolutely. So, this is a six-unit
1:53:55 property at 154 uh 156 Boilston. It's
1:53:59 roughly 23 people. Um, so there's a
1:54:01 number of children, there's a number of
1:54:03 seniors uh who are in this property.
1:54:05 Okay. And do you have any sense of what
1:54:08 the typical replacement cost is for a
1:54:11 unit such as these in Brooklyn?
1:54:14 It's fairly high as you as I think as I
1:54:17 think you're aware. Um the this and
1:54:20 actually this was something that was
1:54:21 reviewed um in our submission to the HAB
1:54:24 and was reviewed extensively um when we
1:54:26 presented uh at their February meeting
1:54:29 um which is where this this approval was
1:54:31 made. Um the cost of for example doing a
1:54:35 tear down and rebuild would have been I
1:54:38 don't recall the exact calculation
1:54:39 significantly higher than the cost uh of
1:54:42 of this uh renovation project has been.
1:54:45 Um, and uh I don't I can get you that
1:54:48 that figure. I can review the uh the
1:54:50 submission.
1:54:51 Okay.
1:54:53 Okay. Um I think we can can vote on this
1:54:58 tonight. I mean, it's you we're just
1:55:00 approving a um an amount that the HAB is
1:55:04 uh providing to this um to this uh
1:55:07 project.
1:55:08 Yeah.
1:55:08 And you know, I agree. Maybe it should
1:55:11 have been on the regular calendar, but
1:55:13 that's why I pulled it out so that we
1:55:15 could have, you know, whatever
1:55:16 discussion um you
1:55:18 Yeah. And I app I appreciate that. Um um
1:55:20 I I I don't have the answer as to
1:55:23 whether the CPA committee took under
1:55:26 consideration that HAB would be putting
1:55:29 in $800,000. I don't know if HAB took
1:55:32 under consideration that's a committee
1:55:34 is putting in you know one point but
1:55:36 that but but you know if any one um
1:55:40 review is going to look at the question
1:55:42 of well then if we're combining those
1:55:44 two funding sources in in one project
1:55:48 for six units of housing what does that
1:55:51 work out to per unit of housing and is
1:55:53 that what we customarily are okay with
1:55:55 spending per unit of housing you know
1:55:58 with our our affordable housing funding
1:56:01 is kind of hard to come by
1:56:03 and sometimes it can yield great results
1:56:05 in terms of multiples
1:56:08 on the investment and I'm not sure we're
1:56:11 getting one of those great results um in
1:56:13 this case in terms of the multiple um on
1:56:15 the investment.
1:56:16 Okay, Michael.
1:56:17 Um I did you have an answer to his his
1:56:21 question?
1:56:21 Well, I I do I also um am aware that uh
1:56:24 that Roger Blood is is is uh raising his
1:56:27 hand and trying to participate online. I
1:56:28 think he's he's trying to to jump in um
1:56:31 to to say basically what what I what I
1:56:34 was going to get out as well. So I want
1:56:36 to give him an opportunity to
1:56:37 participate if that's if that's allowed.
1:56:39 I but I do want to um to respond
1:56:41 directly to the question. Good. This was
1:56:43 a um I think you've raised a a very
1:56:46 important point. Um, and this was uh the
1:56:49 subject of a number of meetings going
1:56:51 back to January um with both the CPAC um
1:56:56 and the HAB um and the result of many um
1:56:59 negotiations between the two of them to
1:57:00 to decide and determine how to
1:57:02 appropriately fund this request. So the
1:57:06 um the fund it's a very actually
1:57:07 interesting structure of the funding
1:57:09 agreement which Roger can speak more to
1:57:11 but your concerns are are certainly
1:57:13 noted um and were uh I think addressed
1:57:17 uh fairly comprehensively by the HAB and
1:57:19 the CPAC in this um in this process over
1:57:22 the past couple months.
1:57:24 Yeah, thanks a
1:57:26 can we u um
1:57:30 Pardon me.
1:57:31 Yeah, could we listen to um Roger Blood?
1:57:35 Do you um
1:57:41 Roger, are you unmuted?
1:57:43 Um I I think I'm on. Can you hear me?
1:57:46 Yep. Yep.
1:57:47 Yeah. Um John Slickman Venoyak's
1:57:50 question is a is a good one. Um and um
1:57:53 normally the uh the trust funds as uh as
1:57:56 you know are used um uh and produce u uh
1:57:59 per per unit cost for u a unit of
1:58:03 affordable housing in the 100 plus
1:58:06 thousand range. And um that's because
1:58:08 there's so many leverage state and
1:58:10 federal funds that come in on new
1:58:12 project developments. Um this is a a
1:58:15 renovation project. The total cost is
1:58:17 somewhere north of $2 million.
1:58:20 uh I I think uh perhaps as much as 2.4
1:58:23 million. There's several other sources
1:58:25 of funding of relatively small amounts.
1:58:28 And so that would be around $400,000
1:58:31 uh a unit to create uh six units of um
1:58:35 spacious family housing, but uh in a
1:58:38 100-y old building. Um the the CPA
1:58:41 committee um took this on and made a 1.2
1:58:44 million uh commitment. Um and then the
1:58:49 um there was a need for more funds for
1:58:51 things that were only discovered after
1:58:53 the building was opened up and a lot
1:58:55 more detail at that point was um
1:58:57 originally taken back to the CPA uh
1:59:00 committee which I think was going to be
1:59:02 willing to fund it but with an annual
1:59:04 cycle uh the timing wasn't going to
1:59:08 allow the continuation of the project
1:59:10 that had tenants involved and was open
1:59:12 in the middle of the winter. So, um the
1:59:15 trust um um volunteered to hear the
1:59:18 presentation and um made the commitment
1:59:21 of the uh you know the vote to ask you
1:59:24 to approve the $823,000
1:59:27 um with an understanding that um the uh
1:59:30 the CPA u will uh effectively refund um
1:59:34 effectively it's not going to be direct
1:59:36 uh uh 400,000 of that um uh from from
1:59:40 their uh fund. Um but um when we
1:59:43 received it um it was already partway
1:59:46 through and the costs were the costs. It
1:59:48 was the reality on the ground uh with um
1:59:52 with a project that was partway through
1:59:54 and needed to needs to get completed.
1:59:56 Uh, and the cost per unit was something
1:59:59 we were very aware of. And several HAB
2:00:01 members, you know, asked the question,
2:00:03 if we were getting this from scratch,
2:00:05 would we do a project um for your
2:00:07 question uh with at a cost of 400,000
2:00:10 per unit from local funds? And um
2:00:13 probably probably not, but we weren't in
2:00:16 in that position to be looking at it
2:00:18 from that standpoint. So, we're
2:00:20 recommending it because there will be a
2:00:22 good outcome. Uh I think as Dave
2:00:24 mentioned uh I know they did provide
2:00:26 data to the HAB that the cost of
2:00:28 producing six new family units would be
2:00:31 substantially greater um than the total
2:00:34 cost than what we were faced with to
2:00:36 complete this project. So that's the
2:00:38 basis for for our recommendation which
2:00:40 which was unanimous.
2:00:43 Yeah. Um Paul.
2:00:44 Yep. Thanks Bernard and thank you thank
2:00:46 you Roger for that explanation and I I
2:00:48 really appreciate John's uh two points
2:00:50 which I think I heard. One was these
2:00:52 larger amounts should probably be
2:00:53 outside of the consent agenda and I
2:00:55 appreciate Bernard um you know pulling
2:00:58 it out and two having us better
2:01:00 understand the threshold and decision-m
2:01:02 around the allocation of funds the total
2:01:05 allocation when we're pulling from
2:01:07 multiple buckets. But I just I did want
2:01:09 to say that um that
2:01:13 there's 23 people living in this
2:01:14 building and maintaining the the best
2:01:17 use of our funds honestly is to make
2:01:19 sure that we don't lose affordable
2:01:21 housing. Um and this is uh this is I
2:01:24 think that situation where um it's not
2:01:26 only losing it, how what would be the
2:01:28 timeline to be able to bundle money in
2:01:31 order to create six more units of
2:01:32 affordable housing? It would be an
2:01:34 extensive period of time. Um, but I I do
2:01:36 I really do appreciate uh the questions
2:01:39 that you raised, but I'm supportive of
2:01:41 uh of the request to reinforce and
2:01:43 approve what the HAB has already
2:01:44 approved.
2:01:47 Okay. May I just sort of state my point
2:01:49 one more time just because I don't want
2:01:51 people to think that I'm you know um
2:01:53 insensitive to the fact that there are
2:01:55 people who you know live in those units
2:01:56 and and this is going to be for the sake
2:01:59 of excuse me um you know preser
2:02:02 preserving their um units of housing. Um
2:02:06 but uh at some point um I just want us
2:02:10 to all acknowledge that the the money
2:02:13 can be used for this and that's all well
2:02:16 and good. um or or
2:02:19 another example of how we use affordable
2:02:21 housing subsidies
2:02:23 uh is represented by 108 center street
2:02:26 which you know had their um ribbon
2:02:28 cutting just within the past year and
2:02:30 offers 54 units of house housing excuse
2:02:34 me
2:02:35 and the subsidy there was about 74,000
2:02:38 per unit. So, you know, you can make you
2:02:42 have to make choices
2:02:43 uh in this life and you can either
2:02:45 choose to take $4 million and use it to
2:02:49 create 54 units of housing um at $74,000
2:02:53 per unit um or you know, or you can take
2:02:57 uh approaching $2 million worth of money
2:03:00 to preserve six units of housing um and
2:03:03 and you know, do the math there. I think
2:03:05 Roger said it comes out to about
2:03:06 $400,000 per unit. Um, so
2:03:11 I, you know, I would, I would sure like
2:03:14 to see us get, uh, 54 units of housing
2:03:16 for $74,000 per unit the next time. Um,
2:03:20 and and I think I've made my point about
2:03:23 having to have some kind of a metric
2:03:25 when when we start using money to
2:03:27 subsidize units of affordable housing.
2:03:30 Yeah. Very.
2:03:30 And we can do both. Um, and you know,
2:03:32 one of the problems is we have this
2:03:35 these these properties on Boilson Street
2:03:39 um that uh we can either allow to run
2:03:41 down or fix them and maintain them as
2:03:44 affordable housing for the 23 people who
2:03:47 live there. Um, we can't take that money
2:03:50 and find another site for six units,
2:03:54 right? Because there aren't any other
2:03:55 sites that are easily found here in
2:03:57 Brooklyn. So this is is is a very I
2:04:01 think it's good to to uh support uh this
2:04:04 this uh housing uh project uh because
2:04:09 you know it's something that we have and
2:04:10 we need to preserve. So
2:04:13 well we have we haven't even talked
2:04:15 about the alternatives which would be if
2:04:16 you could find affordable housing units
2:04:18 at $74,000 per unit for these families
2:04:22 and then do something else with this
2:04:24 property. Um, you know, we're
2:04:25 discovering that this is a property that
2:04:27 just it's it's a money pit um in terms
2:04:29 of how much money it's costing just to
2:04:31 keep it habitable and and and we're, you
2:04:34 know, into extraordinary amounts of
2:04:36 money now
2:04:37 that we could have been using for a
2:04:38 different purpose um under a different
2:04:40 way of handling all of this.
2:04:43 David
2:04:44 John, when you say it's been a money
2:04:45 pit, do you uh do you know roughly what
2:04:48 the numbers have been? How much has been
2:04:49 spent over
2:04:50 Well, you heard it period of time.
2:04:51 You heard it tonight. I mean, it's going
2:04:53 to cost us over $2 million just to make
2:04:56 keep this habitable,
2:04:57 but in terms of past allocations.
2:05:00 Oh, I'm not speaking to past
2:05:02 allocations, just this one. But thank
2:05:04 you for asking. It's a good question.
2:05:06 I just we have an answer to that maybe.
2:05:08 Sorry. Sorry.
2:05:08 In terms of past allocations to this
2:05:10 property, past investments.
2:05:13 So that I am hearing another source of
2:05:16 audio. Roger, I'm sorry. Could you could
2:05:17 you mute your audio? Roger.
2:05:22 Roger, could you mute your your audio?
2:05:25 We think we're hearing a TV or
2:05:26 something.
2:05:27 And
2:05:29 there you go.
2:05:29 Thank you.
2:05:30 Okay.
2:05:31 Yes. I don't hear anything else. Okay.
2:05:32 Yes. Um
2:05:33 trying to figure out what this echo is.
2:05:36 Keep working on it.
2:05:37 Uh but so that's a good question and
2:05:40 thank you. Thank you so much uh for
2:05:42 asking. I I think there's a number of of
2:05:47 uh comments that I'd make, but just in
2:05:49 the simplest respect, I I've certainly
2:05:52 never seen a calculation that for
2:05:54 substantially less than this investment
2:05:57 here, we could build many many more
2:05:58 units of affordable housing. Indeed, the
2:06:01 um th this project that BCDC is
2:06:04 currently undergoing on the the property
2:06:06 at 154 156 Boilston, that is the product
2:06:10 of decades of deferred maintenance. um
2:06:12 that were necessary and and and uh and
2:06:16 had not been performed. Um it's also a
2:06:19 result of a deep energy retrofit. The
2:06:21 the funding for which to replace the
2:06:23 heating and cooling systems came from
2:06:25 the Biden administration um and was a
2:06:27 one-time opportunity um that BCDC took
2:06:29 advantage of. So the total cost of the
2:06:33 preservation and rehabilitation of these
2:06:35 units is higher as a result of removal
2:06:38 of the prior heating systems and the
2:06:40 installation of heat pumps uh new
2:06:42 insulating windows uh and the rest of it
2:06:45 which is funded by um by clean energy
2:06:48 programs. So it's I would say it's the
2:06:51 number one the calculation that we
2:06:53 presented to the housing advisory board
2:06:54 and reviewed with with Roger Roger and I
2:06:57 I think spent I'm not going to guess
2:06:59 Roger but somewhere somewhere north of
2:07:02 four hours on the phone um over the over
2:07:05 the the past couple months um and uh and
2:07:08 talked extensively about the ways to do
2:07:11 this project and and and um and mindful
2:07:14 of course of the of the increased costs.
2:07:16 But I would just note that this project
2:07:17 is not si a simple re renovation project
2:07:21 uh as such for an affordable unit. It's
2:07:24 it also is overlaid with the additional
2:07:27 onetime availability of climate funding.
2:07:32 Y did you want to follow up?
2:07:34 No, no, no. I said Dave Dave made a good
2:07:35 point.
2:07:36 Um I just I I want to just affirm what
2:07:39 what John is saying, right? when when
2:07:41 things like this come to us um it would
2:07:43 be really helpful for us to get a number
2:07:46 of pieces of information including how
2:07:49 much what's the total cost of the
2:07:50 project you know where's the money
2:07:52 coming from how much is from CIP and
2:07:55 other sources and then what is the total
2:07:57 cost per unit that it is costing
2:08:00 Brookline all money uh versus whatever
2:08:04 the benchmark is that we try to guide
2:08:06 these decisions by I think I think it's
2:08:07 a really valid point John I'm glad you
2:08:09 raised it
2:08:09 thank Thank you.
2:08:12 Okay. U unless there are any other
2:08:14 comments or questions, I'd like to move
2:08:16 approval of items 6B through 6P. David,
2:08:20 I have I have questions on other items.
2:08:23 Uh it's brief though. So on six,
2:08:26 by the way, David, thank you.
2:08:28 Thank you.
2:08:29 Thank you very much.
2:08:30 Thank you. So on 6D and 6E, which are
2:08:34 both uh sidewalk repairs, I noticed that
2:08:37 the bids came back in very wide ranges
2:08:40 where for 6D, and this can be found in
2:08:44 page 25 of our materials, the lowest bid
2:08:47 was 448,000,
2:08:49 the highest was almost 814,000,
2:08:53 and then for 6E, the range was 710,000
2:08:58 all the way up to almost 1.1 million.
2:09:00 And I'm just wondering is there any
2:09:03 qualitative difference between these
2:09:06 bids because this is a very wide range
2:09:09 Dan maybe you want to take that.
2:09:12 Thank you
2:09:15 in our packets.
2:09:20 Hi Dan Murphy, director of engineering
2:09:22 transportation. Uh we often see pretty
2:09:25 wide ranges and it depends on the
2:09:27 contractor how hungry they are.
2:09:29 Sometimes they'll put in bids that just
2:09:30 are higher and if they get lucky they
2:09:31 might get it. Um but it's fairly normal
2:09:34 to see that and we see that among a lot
2:09:36 of our bidding. Um sometimes they'll get
2:09:38 sometimes it depends. Sometimes you'll
2:09:40 see some tight ones but a lot of times
2:09:41 there there's a big range.
2:09:42 But in terms of project scope these bids
2:09:45 were identical.
2:09:46 Oh yeah. I mean it's it's a bid it's a
2:09:48 spec. So they're bidden all all been the
2:09:50 same thing.
2:09:50 All right.
2:09:51 And in terms of the uh reputation of the
2:09:55 companies that place bids, they were all
2:09:57 reasonable.
2:09:58 Yeah. We always check to make sure that
2:10:00 you know it's always biders we wouldn't
2:10:01 if we found a bidder that we didn't know
2:10:03 checked and didn't find did good work
2:10:05 and check their references but we always
2:10:07 check and most of them are always uh
2:10:09 contractors what we worked with.
2:10:11 Okay. Thank you.
2:10:12 Welcome.
2:10:13 Thank you.
2:10:15 Okay. Can we vote?
2:10:17 Yeah. Are we voting um on all together?
2:10:20 Yeah. Okay.
2:10:21 Including the two proclamations that
2:10:23 were read earlier. All right.
2:10:24 So all in favor of items 6B through 6P.
2:10:27 Is it P? Yes. Uh, please indicate by
2:10:30 saying I. John Vancoyak.
2:10:31 Hi.
2:10:32 Paul Warren.
2:10:32 Hi.
2:10:33 David Pearlman.
2:10:33 I.
2:10:34 Michael Rubenstein.
2:10:35 I.
2:10:35 Chair votes I.
2:10:36 Okay. Next we have a boards and
2:10:40 commissions interview. Um, and that is
2:10:44 an interview of uh for the Brookline
2:10:47 Commission on Disability. Enga Fermenti.
2:10:50 Is she online or or she's in the
2:10:53 audience? Please come up and talk to us.
2:10:57 So, as I've you know said many times in
2:10:59 the past, what what we're looking for uh
2:11:02 when we're interviewing candidates is
2:11:04 things like does the applicant have the
2:11:06 skills and background that's required to
2:11:08 be successful on uh in this case the
2:11:10 disabilities commission. Does the uh
2:11:13 applicant um have good ideas and
2:11:16 perspectives on the work of the
2:11:18 commission? Does the applicant bring
2:11:21 Wherever you'd like you can
2:11:23 that's okay. You can you could you could
2:11:25 sit here if you prefer or you can stand
2:11:26 at the podium.
2:11:28 Does the applicant bring bring relevant
2:11:31 diversity to the public body to ensure
2:11:33 that all communities and perspectives
2:11:36 are represented in the work of the
2:11:37 public body? And I think most
2:11:40 importantly, can the applicant work
2:11:42 effectively and respectfully with other
2:11:45 members of the public body and with town
2:11:48 staff that will be working with the
2:11:50 public body. So with that u um sort of
2:11:53 preface uh please introduce yourself and
2:11:56 tell us why you're interested in being a
2:11:57 member of the disabilities commission.
2:12:00 Uh my name is Eningga
2:12:02 again.
2:12:03 It's not you, it's me.
2:12:04 Oh,
2:12:06 we've been having a lot of problems
2:12:07 today.
2:12:08 So exciting. Um my name is Eningga
2:12:11 Forment. I moved to Brooklyn
2:12:14 three years and three months ago.
2:12:18 um from North Carolina, from Kentucky,
2:12:21 from California, from Ohio, from
2:12:23 Michigan. So, I'm pretty familiar with
2:12:26 how they do it in many places. Um
2:12:31 I've had a really miscellaneous career.
2:12:33 I started as a librarian for the State
2:12:36 Library of Michigan, which also included
2:12:38 at the time the um National Library
2:12:41 Services for the Blind and Physically
2:12:43 Handicapped. I think at the time it was
2:12:44 just the National Library Services for
2:12:46 the Blind.
2:12:48 Now it's the National Library Services
2:12:49 for the Blind and Print Disabled. So
2:12:52 progress has been made. Um
2:12:55 from there I moved to California as part
2:12:57 of my family life and ended up working
2:13:02 for Huelet Packard as a librarian. Um,
2:13:05 as part of that, I became actually one
2:13:08 of the founding members of the company's
2:13:12 managers of disabled employees group and
2:13:15 helped work on the
2:13:18 post post offer pre-employment physical
2:13:21 process. Um, at the time HP had 140,000
2:13:26 employees, about 40,000 of them in the
2:13:28 California Bay Area and probably another
2:13:31 30,000 in the rest of the country. Um,
2:13:35 from there, thanks to Silicon Valley
2:13:37 Economy, I ended up in Kentucky where I
2:13:41 worked for 10 years for the American
2:13:43 Printing House for the Blind. Um, I did
2:13:46 a number of things there. I was my
2:13:48 primary one. I was part of the 800
2:13:50 number. I did information and referral,
2:13:53 which I was very proud of.
2:13:56 Sorry, I was just talking about the
2:13:57 other day to someone and one of the
2:14:00 things, one of the questions I got often
2:14:02 than I would like is I would get calls
2:14:04 from parents of children who had brain
2:14:06 tumors. And many times brain tumors in
2:14:10 children affect the optic nerves or the
2:14:12 function of the optical centers of the
2:14:14 brain. And it would be my
2:14:17 excuse me responsibility to welcome
2:14:20 welcome them if you can call it
2:14:22 welcoming to yet another system the
2:14:25 blindness system and hopefully get some
2:14:28 useful information to them some
2:14:31 educational materials for as long as
2:14:33 their child was able to participate in
2:14:34 the school system and so forth. Um
2:14:40 I also worked with what you might call
2:14:43 celebrities. They're I'm sure you know
2:14:45 who they are. Um, blind performance
2:14:48 celebrities out there and they would
2:14:50 call us for materials because we were
2:14:52 the central we're in and are the central
2:14:53 clearing house for braille and large
2:14:57 print materials in the United States. We
2:14:59 have a database had a database called
2:15:00 the Louisie database which is still
2:15:02 there which is free for the public to
2:15:04 use to find materials that have been
2:15:08 produced in various accessible formats.
2:15:11 Um, now there's an electronic format as
2:15:13 well, which is excellent. Um, let's see.
2:15:18 Then
2:15:20 after I retired, we ended up in North
2:15:22 Carolina. Uh, Louisville, Kentucky is
2:15:25 kind of a squirrely place to live. Let's
2:15:26 just say quality of life was declining
2:15:28 as they kept paving more and more of the
2:15:30 city to less and less good effect. And
2:15:33 um, there I was a pole worker for eight
2:15:39 years. I came here. I'm a pole worker
2:15:41 again. I'm also a member of the as John
2:15:45 Vincecoyak knows
2:15:48 the age friendly cities group. And um
2:15:53 I'm relatively late in life to
2:15:55 disability myself. My husband of almost
2:15:58 30 years was blind from birth and I was
2:16:01 active in blindness
2:16:05 issues
2:16:06 during his lifetime of various sorts. um
2:16:10 and
2:16:12 sort of overlapping with age friendly
2:16:14 cities, a number of the issues that were
2:16:16 coming up. Well, yes, there's a
2:16:18 designation this is an age friendly
2:16:20 business, but I use
2:16:23 many of those businesses. Some of them
2:16:25 are old favorites of mine, but they may
2:16:29 be age friendly, but they're not
2:16:30 necessarily disability friendly.
2:16:33 And
2:16:35 knowing that Brooklyn was a town that
2:16:37 did things unlike other places I lived,
2:16:40 I just wanted to be part of that. And I
2:16:43 think it was the MBTA actually coughing
2:16:46 up money to make the the tea stations
2:16:48 accessible that got me really interested
2:16:50 because before it was like, yeah, if I'm
2:16:52 going somewhere, I look on the map, I
2:16:55 say, what's the closest tea station? My
2:16:57 next question is, is that tea station
2:16:58 accessible? Which many of them weren't?
2:17:02 And as a result, I've never been to
2:17:03 Cleveland Circle or any of the
2:17:04 businesses around there because it's
2:17:06 such a pain in the butt on the tea and
2:17:07 there's no bus.
2:17:09 Okay,
2:17:12 let us ask you a few questions.
2:17:13 Sure.
2:17:14 To get a sense of, you know, what you
2:17:15 would like to bring to the Disabilities
2:17:17 Commission. Um, I see you've been in a
2:17:20 lot of states in the country. I mean, is
2:17:22 there anything that you've learned from
2:17:23 what they do or what what people do in
2:17:26 in other states that would be helpful
2:17:28 here in Brooklyn? ideas that you can
2:17:31 sort of steal from them and and and give
2:17:33 to us.
2:17:34 Well, one thing I've learned, it's a
2:17:36 negative thing, and I'm sure you're
2:17:37 familiar with the phenomenon, is nothing
2:17:39 is done until something awful happens.
2:17:43 And um I would like not to see anything
2:17:46 awful happen. And one thing that a new
2:17:48 story you may, how could you not
2:17:50 remember? A few months ago, a a w an
2:17:53 elderly woman was thrown off a bus
2:17:56 basically in Boston because she happened
2:17:58 to have a a a shopping cart, but she
2:18:03 could have just as been well have been
2:18:04 me with my walker because there is an
2:18:07 issue on the tea. The tea has been
2:18:09 working its butt off and doing a pretty
2:18:11 good job of becoming accessible.
2:18:13 But everybody has been ignoring the real
2:18:16 elephant in the room, which is shopping
2:18:18 carts, which I brought up at the meeting
2:18:20 today, John. And nobody really realizes
2:18:24 what a freaking traffic jam you can have
2:18:27 on the 66 bus when you have four people
2:18:30 uh with big shopping carts and one or
2:18:33 two people with walkers or even a
2:18:34 wheelchair just trying to get off or on
2:18:37 the bus.
2:18:39 And when she was thrown when the woman
2:18:42 in Boston was thrown off the bus, I was
2:18:44 like, "Yeah,
2:18:46 I've seen crowds be very accepting and
2:18:50 pleasant. I've also seen crowds be
2:18:52 somewhat hostile. And I've seen crowds
2:18:54 be pretty hostile to someone who's
2:18:56 blocking the way. And
2:19:00 so that's an example of how not to deal
2:19:03 with things essentially. But Brooklyn
2:19:07 offers forums the likes of which I have
2:19:10 never seen any place I've ever lived.
2:19:11 And part of it is because of the way
2:19:13 Massachusetts does its governance.
2:19:16 If this were in
2:19:18 Orange County, North Carolina,
2:19:21 you would have Orange County,
2:19:24 you would have Chapel Hill or you would
2:19:26 have the Chapel Hill and Carro School
2:19:28 District,
2:19:30 etc. So, there are all sorts of layers
2:19:32 of governance here. It's all in one
2:19:34 spot, which just blew the socks off me
2:19:37 when I first moved here. I go, "What
2:19:39 about the county?"
2:19:40 Okay.
2:19:41 I don't want to talk about the county.
2:19:43 Yeah. It's like, yeah.
2:19:44 Okay. And in Kentucky, it was the same
2:19:47 way, only different. So that I think is
2:19:48 is one of the strengths Brookline has is
2:19:51 it's one-stop shopping essentially. And
2:19:54 the but not only that, but the
2:19:56 departments talk to each other.
2:19:58 Could can let's ask or allow other
2:20:01 select board members to ask questions.
2:20:02 So
2:20:03 Sure.
2:20:04 Okay. Michael,
2:20:06 um thank you very much and thank you for
2:20:08 your application. Um I'm I'm
2:20:11 particularly intrigued by your uh the
2:20:14 work that you've done on the age
2:20:15 friendly cities and and the the
2:20:19 commonalities that you have identified
2:20:21 between the needs of that community and
2:20:23 the needs of the disab disability
2:20:25 community. Um, so I'm wondering, you
2:20:28 know, in this era of um always looking
2:20:31 for uh more efficient forms of
2:20:34 government and uh things that we can do
2:20:36 that help multiple constituencies.
2:20:39 Whether um you see your role um on those
2:20:43 two bodies being in any way
2:20:45 complimentary or uh you that there are
2:20:48 opportunities to bring those two groups
2:20:50 together for more effective advocacy or
2:20:54 or outcomes.
2:20:56 I was
2:20:58 a little surprised at the beginning
2:21:00 because there wasn't much overlapping
2:21:02 because of the issues that were on the
2:21:04 table. But as time has gone on,
2:21:07 what that group does is they bring in
2:21:09 other departments to talk about things
2:21:11 like sidewalk repairs. And was it last
2:21:13 month or the month before they were
2:21:15 talking about there's a new technology
2:21:17 for dealing with the irregular the the
2:21:19 sidewalks that aren't level where they
2:21:21 basically saw one off and give a rather
2:21:23 comfortable
2:21:25 mound as opposed to before where they
2:21:27 just kept adding asphalt and adding
2:21:29 asphalt and you had this little mountain
2:21:31 you had to navigate over. And that was
2:21:33 you know that was very relevant to all
2:21:35 of us. And when they talk about um parks
2:21:37 and recreation comes in and gives a talk
2:21:39 about an event, they will address issues
2:21:42 like is there going to be a lot of
2:21:44 handicap parking? Is there going to be a
2:21:45 place for the the Ubers and the lifts to
2:21:48 drop people off and things like that. So
2:21:51 they are already bringing people in in
2:21:54 response to issues.
2:21:56 Thank you, David. I noticed on your
2:22:00 resume that you also worked in business
2:22:02 security systems and that makes me
2:22:05 curious. Do you look at the purview of
2:22:08 being on the disability commission as
2:22:11 more of a physical accessibility issue
2:22:15 or do you see do you have a more
2:22:17 expanded vision about anything really
2:22:20 that can impact that population whether
2:22:23 it's physical or something from the
2:22:25 virtual world?
2:22:26 Well, as as a person who's using this
2:22:29 and will probably eventually end up in a
2:22:30 wheelchair. The physical access is super
2:22:33 important. I mean that's pure quality of
2:22:35 life. However, as a librarian who was
2:22:37 also an information and referral person
2:22:40 and who also did databases, information
2:22:42 is vital, especially in today's world.
2:22:45 There's accessible technology that
2:22:47 people could be unaware of. There are
2:22:50 systems relating to certain things like
2:22:53 rehabilitation
2:22:55 um and whatnot that many people don't
2:22:57 know about. Um there's funding. For
2:23:00 instance, uh the laws are different now
2:23:03 and I haven't dealt with it, but in my
2:23:06 daughter's time, there was um a disabled
2:23:10 child, depending on the disability, of
2:23:12 course, could receive SSI and
2:23:15 potentially Medicare, depending on
2:23:17 family funding,
2:23:19 from birth,
2:23:21 which a lot of people don't know when
2:23:23 they struggle when they have a special
2:23:24 needs child to get what they need to
2:23:29 give the
2:23:30 a chance to grow and develop and have a
2:23:32 normal life.
2:23:34 And um
2:23:37 I don't know, having not directly had
2:23:39 someone involved, how the school system
2:23:42 and the social workers handle that in
2:23:44 Brookline. It sounds like they're doing
2:23:46 a pretty good job, but there's always
2:23:47 room for improvement there because
2:23:50 systems overlap, technologies overlap.
2:23:54 Um they're all distinct systems, but
2:23:56 you've got to know how to to work them
2:23:58 in order to maximize your benefits.
2:24:02 Thank you. Uh any other questions?
2:24:05 John?
2:24:05 Well, I just want to make uh the comment
2:24:07 as someone who has had the pleasure um
2:24:10 and the privilege of serving on a uh the
2:24:13 Council on Aging, but also on the age
2:24:16 friendly cities committee where um
2:24:17 Eningga is a member. Um,
2:24:21 uh, I think you said you've been here
2:24:23 four four years in Brooklyn, right? I
2:24:25 mean, you're
2:24:26 three three years, three books.
2:24:27 Yeah. You're She's such an outstanding
2:24:29 example of someone who, you know, comes
2:24:32 to a place that's new to her and then
2:24:34 immediately plunges into showing up at
2:24:37 the Council on Aging, showing up at the
2:24:39 age friendly cities committee and always
2:24:42 with something to contribute, you know,
2:24:44 as we all witnessed tonight. So, I'm not
2:24:46 going to I don't want it to go to your
2:24:48 head and uh
2:24:49 you know, so I'll stop there, but um uh
2:24:54 thank you for for what you're what
2:24:55 you're doing. As you know, to to some of
2:24:58 us like me to have been here for only
2:25:00 three years still feels like you're a
2:25:02 newcomer, but you you sure have plunged
2:25:04 into a lot of activity in Brooklyn and
2:25:06 that's a great thing.
2:25:07 Oh, Brookline feels like home.
2:25:09 Good.
2:25:09 And I want to keep it that way for as
2:25:11 many people as I can.
2:25:12 Good. Good.
2:25:13 Okay. Thank you, Jeff. Okay, we will uh
2:25:16 be making the appointments to uh the
2:25:19 disabilities commission at a later
2:25:21 meeting, but I appreciate your
2:25:23 application and u your very informative
2:25:27 uh discussion before the board here
2:25:28 tonight.
2:25:29 Thank you.
2:25:36 Okay, next uh MWR sewer bond. um
2:25:41 question of approving the MWR financial
2:25:43 assistance and loan agreement package to
2:25:46 fund the town's water and sewer system
2:25:49 and authorizing the town administrator
2:25:51 and director of finance to sign and
2:25:53 execute the agreement on behalf of the
2:25:55 town. But before we start, I want to say
2:25:58 that each select board member should
2:26:00 have read through the bond documents,
2:26:02 particularly the certificate for the
2:26:04 $773,000
2:26:06 bond and for the $2 million bond in
2:26:09 which we certify various things related
2:26:12 to the bonds. And uh Lincoln provided us
2:26:15 with a memo listing the facts that we
2:26:19 are certifying and certifying to us that
2:26:22 those facts are all true. And uh I think
2:26:25 it's important for us to know that and
2:26:27 to also know that we can we can and we
2:26:29 do rely on that certification by Lincoln
2:26:34 and that we can reasonably rely on the
2:26:36 expertise that the treasurer and others
2:26:38 represent in putting the bonds together
2:26:41 in compliance with all applicable laws
2:26:43 and regulations. Um, reasonable reliance
2:26:47 requires, however, among other things
2:26:49 that we have read and asked questions
2:26:52 about anything that we don't understand,
2:26:54 which, you know, we should do here at at
2:26:56 uh tonight's meeting. Um, and I think
2:26:59 that's important because, you know,
2:27:00 we're signing our lives away in a
2:27:03 certain sense or we're signing uh
2:27:05 certifying very very important and um
2:27:09 significant things and we can't do it
2:27:11 without uh really understanding what it
2:27:14 is we're certifying to and and whether
2:27:16 you have to know ourselves uh you know
2:27:20 the particular facts or whether we can
2:27:22 rely on other people the experts uh in
2:27:24 our town departments and others. So with
2:27:27 that, Lincoln, tell us what
2:27:29 Thank you, Chair Green. Yeah. No, and
2:27:31 thank you for bringing that up. As you
2:27:32 say, these are important things that we
2:27:35 are certifying to and I I I appreciate
2:27:37 you bringing everybody's attention to it
2:27:38 and obviously very happy to answer any
2:27:41 questions that the board may have about
2:27:43 what you're certifying and what you're
2:27:45 attesting to. Um so uh what uh as as
2:27:50 Chair Green mentioned, what what what
2:27:52 you have before you is um the what has
2:27:56 become the town's annual borrowing.
2:27:58 We've we've consolidated it to do both
2:28:00 the water and sewer borrowing from the
2:28:01 MWA at the same night each evening for
2:28:04 efficiency sake. Um and what is before
2:28:08 you are those two borrowings. One uh for
2:28:11 the sewer system in particular to reduce
2:28:14 inflow and infiltration in in the town
2:28:17 sewer system. As Chair Green mentioned,
2:28:20 this is a $3.1 million award of which uh
2:28:24 75% $2.3 million is a grant and the
2:28:28 remaining $773,000
2:28:30 is a no interest loan. Um and then the
2:28:34 remaining the the other $2 million uh
2:28:37 proposed borrowing is um for the town's
2:28:40 water system to to remove um uh the
2:28:45 remaining lead service lines within the
2:28:47 10 the town's water system the the
2:28:49 service lines between the water main and
2:28:53 um businesses and homes. Um the uh as um
2:28:59 so as the chair said uh there are a
2:29:02 series of documents that you're signing
2:29:04 and and of which two of them are
2:29:06 certifications with this list of
2:29:07 certifications of facts that myself uh
2:29:11 the board and where appropriate the town
2:29:13 clerk are attesting to. So happy to
2:29:16 answer any questions about that or uh I
2:29:18 know um the water and sewer division uh
2:29:22 uh lead Jay Hershey's online to answer
2:29:25 any specific uh questions about the
2:29:27 projects. Great.
2:29:28 David, do you have
2:29:29 Yes, I have a couple questions. So, not
2:29:31 to uh knock the proverbial gift horse in
2:29:34 the mouth, I'm I'm a little curious
2:29:36 about the uh generous terms as he put it
2:29:40 in the memo. What is the MWR getting out
2:29:42 of that?
2:29:44 Well, I think so. I know J Jay may have
2:29:47 more to say on it, but but certainly
2:29:49 with the inflow and infiltration um a
2:29:51 reduction in um the amount of material
2:29:55 that's going through its its plant out
2:29:57 at Deer Island. Um you know, and I think
2:30:00 that's in the interest of of the whole
2:30:02 system. And I don't know if Jay, you
2:30:03 want to add anything as to to that
2:30:06 question.
2:30:18 He should be able to co-host.
2:30:26 Could you try to speak louder?
2:30:27 Is there any way to turn him up? Is that
2:30:29 us or him?
2:30:30 Or turn up your mic.
2:30:35 No, barely.
2:30:44 Okay, we'll we'll be quiet and listen.
2:30:47 Read the transcript.
2:30:48 Oh, that's an idea.
2:31:08 As you mentioned,
2:31:31 You can't get a better deal than that.
2:31:33 Um,
2:31:34 so I hope that answers your question and
2:31:35 hopefully you can hear me.
2:31:37 Yep.
2:31:37 Much better all of a sudden.
2:31:39 Yes. Thank you. Another question I have,
2:31:41 it's bit specific, but section 18, the
2:31:45 equal employment opportunity. I'm just
2:31:47 curious about how these benchmarks were
2:31:50 determined in terms of the uh minority
2:31:54 workforce
2:31:55 hour goal of 15.3% and for a female
2:31:59 6.9%.
2:32:01 Are those just common numbers for
2:32:05 categories in these types of agreements
2:32:07 or how is that determined?
2:32:09 Uh that's a good question and I I think
2:32:11 that's in all of the MWA
2:32:14 loan applications. So, it's something
2:32:16 that they set and we're required when we
2:32:18 put it out to bid to make sure it's
2:32:20 clear to the prospective biders that
2:32:21 they're going to have to abide to those
2:32:23 conditions.
2:32:25 All right. Thank you,
2:32:28 Michael.
2:32:29 Um, I have a question uh about something
2:32:33 you said earlier. Um, that this was
2:32:35 something that we do annually. Um, and I
2:32:37 realize that these are 10-year bonds, so
2:32:40 with equal amounts over 10 years. Have
2:32:42 we been doing this for more than 10
2:32:44 years? So, are there other bonds that
2:32:46 are rolling off as these are rolling on?
2:32:51 Yes, they they do come off, you know,
2:32:53 after we pay them in full. And this
2:32:56 program, at least on the sewer side, is
2:32:59 part of a 16-year program, and we
2:33:01 anticipate wrapping it up in 2032. So,
2:33:06 you know, roughly halfway through the
2:33:07 program. So, some of the money that we
2:33:09 have been borrowing is coming off, but
2:33:11 yeah, we continue to to acrue some debt,
2:33:14 but it's so worth it in the long run.
2:33:17 You know, we're going to get a tight
2:33:18 system. Not only is it a tight system,
2:33:20 but it's also protecting the asset. Um,
2:33:23 lining and sealing the manholes just
2:33:25 extends the the life of the asset um
2:33:29 much longer than you would by not doing
2:33:31 any preventative maintenance or rehab
2:33:33 work.
2:33:36 Thank you.
2:33:38 Okay. Any other questions?
2:33:43 Well, seeing none, we can move to our
2:33:45 votes.
2:33:48 Ready?
2:33:49 Okay. Um, I'm not going to read the
2:33:51 entirety of the vote language in our
2:33:53 packet, but the uh operative bond
2:33:56 operative parts and if bond council, who
2:33:58 I assume is listening in, objects, they
2:34:01 can say so. Um but uh you know the uh
2:34:06 total language is in our packet in the
2:34:08 materials in our packet if you want to
2:34:11 read them in more detail and the things
2:34:13 I'm leaving out are basically the
2:34:15 numbers uh you know the annual payments
2:34:18 um that that we're going to be making
2:34:20 under the bonds. So, first I move
2:34:22 approval of the sale of the 773,000
2:34:26 sewer bond of the town dated March 16,
2:34:30 2026 to the Massachusetts Water
2:34:32 Resources Authority payable in the
2:34:35 principal amounts and in the years
2:34:37 stated in the vote language in the
2:34:39 select board's publicly available packet
2:34:41 of materials for this meeting. Um, and
2:34:44 we're going to actually sign the bond uh
2:34:47 later on this evening. So all in favor
2:34:49 please indicate by saying I. John
2:34:51 Vanscoyak
2:34:52 I.
2:34:53 Paul Warren
2:34:53 I.
2:34:54 David Pearlman
2:34:54 I.
2:34:55 Michael Rubenstein
2:34:56 I.
2:34:56 Uh and chair votes I.
2:34:59 Um okay. Next I move approval
2:35:02 very briefly. Yes. Just a friendly just
2:35:04 a friendly reminder to everyone to
2:35:05 please sign on on your way out to make
2:35:07 sure we can get these to um the
2:35:09 appropriate parties tomorrow. Thank you.
2:35:11 Sorry to interrupt now. And these are
2:35:13 promisory notes. not our not us
2:35:16 promising but the town promising you
2:35:19 know payment uh you with bonds.
2:35:22 Uh so next I move approval of the sale
2:35:26 of the $2 million water bond of the town
2:35:29 dated March 16, 2026.
2:35:32 um to be payable without interest on
2:35:35 February 15 of the years and in the
2:35:38 principal amounts stated in the vote
2:35:41 language in the select board's publicly
2:35:43 available packet of materials for this
2:35:45 meeting. Uh any questions I guess not
2:35:49 all in favor please indicate by saying
2:35:51 I. John Dean Skoyak
2:35:52 I.
2:35:52 Paul Warren I
2:35:54 David Pearlman
2:35:54 I.
2:35:55 Michael Rubenstein
2:35:56 I chair votes I. Next, I move that the
2:36:00 select board authorize the town
2:36:02 treasurer or other appropriate town
2:36:05 official to execute on behalf of the
2:36:07 town a loan agreement and a financial
2:36:10 assistance agreement with the
2:36:12 Massachusetts W Water Resources
2:36:14 Authority with respect to each of the
2:36:16 foregoing bonds. Um, unless there any
2:36:20 questions, all in favor, please indicate
2:36:22 by saying I.
2:36:24 John Vancoyak,
2:36:25 I.
2:36:25 Paul Warren,
2:36:26 hi. David Pearlman.
2:36:28 I,
2:36:28 Michael Rubenstein,
2:36:29 I,
2:36:29 and chair votes I. Finally,
2:36:33 I move approval of the following in
2:36:36 accordance with the vote language in the
2:36:38 select board's publicly available packet
2:36:40 of materials for this meeting. One, that
2:36:43 any certificates or documents relating
2:36:46 to bonds may be executed in several
2:36:49 counterparts, each of which shall be
2:36:51 regarded as an original and all of which
2:36:54 shall constitute one and the same
2:36:56 document. Two, that all action taken to
2:36:59 date by the town and its officers and
2:37:02 agents to carry out this financing,
2:37:05 including the execution of any
2:37:07 applicable agreement by the treasurer or
2:37:10 other town, I'm sorry, or any other
2:37:14 official of the town are hereby
2:37:16 ratified, approved, and confirmed. And
2:37:20 three, that each member of the select
2:37:22 board, the town clerk, and the town
2:37:25 treasurer be and hereby are authorized
2:37:28 to take any and all actions and execute
2:37:31 and deliver such certificates, receipts,
2:37:34 or other documents as may be determined
2:37:36 by them or any of them to be necessary
2:37:39 or convenient to carry out or to carry
2:37:42 into effect the provisions of the
2:37:44 foregoing votes. All in favor, please
2:37:47 indicate by or any questions about that.
2:37:52 Okay. All in favor, please indicate by
2:37:54 saying I. John Benoyak,
2:37:55 I.
2:37:55 Paul Warren,
2:37:56 hi.
2:37:56 David Pearlman,
2:37:57 I.
2:37:58 Michael Rubenstein,
2:37:59 I.
2:37:59 Chair votes I.
2:38:01 And those are our votes. We have
2:38:03 approved the bonds and we will sign
2:38:05 them.
2:38:05 Thank you.
2:38:06 Later on tonight. Thank you.
2:38:07 I have one I have one question, chair.
2:38:09 Um there's also a grant
2:38:12 uh as part as part of this arrangement.
2:38:15 Are we going to accept that grant at a
2:38:17 later point or we have we already done
2:38:19 that or do we need to do that?
2:38:21 You're you're accepting the grant uh as
2:38:24 part of the award in the award document?
2:38:27 I see. Okay.
2:38:28 Yeah.
2:38:28 Thank you.
2:38:31 Thank you. Okay.
2:38:34 Next, boards and commissions annual
2:38:36 reports presentation of the zero
2:38:38 emissions advisory board. Uh their
2:38:41 annual report to the select board.
2:38:44 who is going to be doing that. Okay,
2:38:49 come up, introduce yourself and uh tell
2:38:52 us about Zap.
2:38:55 Okay,
2:38:59 we need we need need a bigger podium.
2:39:01 Let's see if this works. Something's
2:39:04 going to fall. Uh, good evening. I'm
2:39:06 Nick Caramelo.
2:39:07 Right into the mic.
2:39:08 Okay, thanks, Nick.
2:39:10 Good morning. I'm Nick. Good Good
2:39:12 evening. I'm Nick Carmelo, uh chair of
2:39:14 ZAB, and I'm here to do the uh annual
2:39:16 report for the Zero Emissions Advisory
2:39:18 Board.
2:39:19 Great. Thank you.
2:39:20 More into the microphone.
2:39:21 Yeah, real close. Yeah,
2:39:23 I'm too tall.
2:39:25 Yeah.
2:39:27 Um do you have a question?
2:39:28 Can you put your computer on top of
2:39:30 whatever else is there?
2:39:32 Well, it's more just his closest to the
2:39:34 mic. He can't
2:39:34 Well, yeah. If you put the computer down
2:39:37 on the
2:39:38 bottom,
2:39:39 you may be able to
2:39:40 He has slides. You don't
2:39:41 I I sent the slides in.
2:39:45 Actually, Alexander sent them in
2:39:46 in the packet.
2:39:47 The packet.
2:39:48 Yes.
2:39:53 Because they weren't separated. It's not
2:39:55 voted on that laptop. He can't share his
2:39:57 laptop.
2:39:57 Okay, that's fine. But you have access
2:39:59 to it. Can you walk
2:40:00 lift it up?
2:40:01 No.
2:40:02 Hold on. Let me
2:40:04 I could try to share it
2:40:06 here. I can
2:40:07 It's It's in the packet.
2:40:09 I can pull it up on the presentation
2:40:11 station.
2:40:12 Page 145. Your packet.
2:40:17 I've got it.
2:40:19 I can share it.
2:40:24 Thank you.
2:40:25 Okay.
2:40:25 As always,
2:40:28 share my screen.
2:40:32 You want Could you promote me? Sure.
2:40:35 Sorry.
2:40:37 All
2:40:56 right.
2:41:04 Okay.
2:41:06 Go ahead.
2:41:07 Okay. Thank you. Um, so if you can move
2:41:09 to the agenda slide, please.
2:41:11 Sure.
2:41:13 Um, we're just going to go through the
2:41:14 this is the agenda for today just to go
2:41:16 through some uh our status, major
2:41:18 initiatives, policy achievements, some
2:41:20 challenges, and just looking ahead and
2:41:22 we'll have some time for questions at
2:41:24 the end if you would like. Let's move
2:41:27 into the um status slide. Um so um last
2:41:32 year we uh welcomed three new members uh
2:41:35 Bill Heinman, Patricia Korea and uh Alan
2:41:38 Levton uh who brought you know valuable
2:41:40 focus uh in transportation, municipal
2:41:42 law and regulatory matters and
2:41:44 engineering respectively.
2:41:47 Yes, I'll try. Um the sustainability
2:41:50 division um also welcomes some new
2:41:52 members. uh Shelley Dean who's just
2:41:54 started in June of 2025 as deputy
2:41:57 director, program manager Katie Weather
2:42:00 seat seat who started in September 2025
2:42:03 and we also um welcomed I think Caroline
2:42:06 Stout is that right? um in December as a
2:42:10 community first partnership. Um so it
2:42:13 was a year of growth for both the
2:42:15 sustainability division and also for ZAB
2:42:17 and it's really important for us because
2:42:19 um I think we had struggled in past
2:42:21 years to make progress without staff
2:42:23 support. It's been very helpful to have
2:42:25 additional members on the board.
2:42:29 Next slide.
2:42:32 our major initiatives for last year. Um
2:42:35 uh we went through a large process for
2:42:38 the climate action and resiliency plan.
2:42:41 Um the resiliency portion of this is not
2:42:44 really a ZAB focus but we participated
2:42:46 in the whole process. Uh there was
2:42:48 substantial outreach to the community um
2:42:53 which was le led by the sustainability
2:42:55 division. Zab's role was largely a
2:42:58 advisory role. We helped develop a uh
2:43:01 prioritization framework um which has
2:43:03 been used to prioritize the
2:43:07 goals, strategies and actions in the KRP
2:43:09 which is now in draft format and um
2:43:12 which has been transitioned to the
2:43:14 sustainability division for their
2:43:16 ownership so that they can take it from
2:43:17 here and use that framework to uh
2:43:21 prioritize both current init current
2:43:24 efforts but also future efforts as the
2:43:26 the uh sort of zero emission
2:43:29 uh
2:43:34 arena changes which is changing quite
2:43:36 quickly. Um the other big effort for
2:43:40 this last year was um we presented last
2:43:42 year that we were going to focus on two
2:43:43 things as initiatives. One which one of
2:43:45 which was municipal solar and the second
2:43:48 thing was um Berto the municipal solar
2:43:51 initiative um was an interesting and as
2:43:56 a roller coaster for last year. Um, it
2:43:58 started as a a uh ZAB initiative where
2:44:01 we looked at and analyzed municipal
2:44:03 solar and how it could be an effective
2:44:06 uh tool for both reducing our greenhouse
2:44:09 gas emissions but also a uh a tool for
2:44:14 um making the town money through the
2:44:17 year with a lot of advocacy from
2:44:19 specifically Sergio Modilani. Um and
2:44:22 then at the end of the year as part of
2:44:24 the futures subcommittee to the
2:44:26 expenditures and revenue committee um we
2:44:30 managed to move the solar initiative
2:44:33 from a very theoretical thing to a
2:44:36 um a plan which the sustainability
2:44:38 division um and DTPW put together which
2:44:42 has two tracks a near-term ITC capture
2:44:45 track. So the ITC is going away um very
2:44:48 soon u by December 2027 and we will be
2:44:52 able to ideally capture some portion of
2:44:54 the ITC that will help pay for the solar
2:44:56 that we'll put in our roofs which will
2:44:58 in turn help pay for electricity in the
2:45:01 town of Brooklyn. Um it will also
2:45:04 obviously help us with our zero
2:45:06 emissions goals. There's a second track
2:45:08 which is a longerterm expansion.
2:45:09 Excuse me. Um I don't like uh acronyms.
2:45:14 ITC means investment tax credit.
2:45:16 Investment tax credit. Yes, that's
2:45:18 right.
2:45:18 I was gonna say
2:45:21 um and if I'm speaking too quickly, let
2:45:24 me know. I just don't want to take up
2:45:25 more than five minutes. Um there's a
2:45:27 long-term expansion. So, as part of this
2:45:29 effort, this plan that Tampa put
2:45:31 together, uh we're looking at planning
2:45:33 and sequencing for 17 additional sites.
2:45:36 Um and that's something that will be
2:45:38 happening next or starting now but going
2:45:41 into next year. Um I think
2:45:47 we had some working groups established.
2:45:48 So we were planned to establish a
2:45:50 residential working group and a
2:45:52 commercial working group. We
2:45:53 successfully established the uh
2:45:55 residential working group although we
2:45:56 had to wait for the the community first
2:45:58 energy advocate to join. Um so we really
2:46:01 had the first meeting of that in January
2:46:04 of this year. We established a Berdo
2:46:07 working group which is a precursor to
2:46:08 the commercial working group for deep
2:46:10 analysis of Berdo and to look into that
2:46:12 to determine whether or not that was
2:46:14 something that the town should do.
2:46:18 Uh next slide policy achievements and
2:46:20 key votes. Um some policy achievements
2:46:23 and to be clear these are mainly driven
2:46:25 by the uh the sustainability division.
2:46:28 We have a municipal decarbonization
2:46:30 roadmap adopted. Zero emissions vehicle
2:46:32 policy adopted. Washington Street
2:46:34 complete streets supported and climate
2:46:36 leaders application submitted.
2:46:39 I don't know if we've heard yet. We have
2:46:41 not. Um we had 10 key votes. 10
2:46:44 substantive votes were taken, six
2:46:46 directed towards the select board.
2:46:50 Next slide. Challenges and lessons
2:46:52 learned. Um we one of the votes we
2:46:56 directed towards the site board was not
2:46:58 taken up by the slight board. Um
2:46:59 principally because it was not a
2:47:01 townspecific policy. It was more of a
2:47:03 state policy. Um we should probably not
2:47:07 have made that vote. Um we have since
2:47:09 then I have since then established uh
2:47:12 regular communication with Tommy Bull to
2:47:14 just kind of check in on state
2:47:16 initiatives and policies to make sure
2:47:17 that we're we have some coordination.
2:47:20 Um the um
2:47:23 mass safe programs face legislative
2:47:25 challenges and we and we uh we had a
2:47:28 vote go forward on that and we had a
2:47:31 challenge with the their December GEP
2:47:33 vote which required a special board
2:47:35 meeting of the slight board on December
2:47:37 23rd which we thank you for. Apologies
2:47:39 that we did not have better visibility
2:47:42 into that. Um the other challenge was
2:47:45 Berto complexity. Um just there was some
2:47:49 concern from the community. There was a
2:47:51 lot of complexity around Berto and it
2:47:54 was a great learning but it was a
2:47:55 challenge.
2:47:56 Nick, can you take a couple seconds to
2:47:58 explain what Berto is?
2:48:00 Yes. So
2:48:00 thank you.
2:48:01 Berto is the building emission reduction
2:48:05 ordinance
2:48:06 um that is has been implemented by
2:48:09 principally Boston Cambridge.
2:48:12 um also additionally by Newton in a
2:48:14 lesser form and some other
2:48:15 municipalities.
2:48:17 The goal of Berdo is to um have a
2:48:24 alternative compliance payment for uh
2:48:27 buildings that do not meet environmental
2:48:30 standards. And the there are sort of
2:48:33 three categories of buildings that are
2:48:36 generally looked at. one of which is
2:48:37 commercial buildings, one of which is
2:48:39 large uh residential buildings and then
2:48:42 kind of everything else. And each town
2:48:45 has taken a different approach. Each
2:48:46 town and city has taken a different
2:48:48 approach to those. And so what we did in
2:48:49 the burden analysis is we looked at what
2:48:51 was appropriate for a town like
2:48:53 Brooklyn, what might be politically
2:48:56 acceptable, what the impact would be
2:48:58 from an environmental perspective, what
2:48:59 the costs might be. And we use that
2:49:02 initiative as a
2:49:04 template for the prioritization
2:49:06 framework to better understand how that
2:49:07 could be applied to other initiatives.
2:49:11 Is that helpful? Okay. Um and then the
2:49:15 final challenge is a very obvious one
2:49:16 which is the uh should say
2:49:21 the investment tax credits are expiring.
2:49:24 uh we are trying to take what advantage
2:49:25 we can and again we thank the
2:49:27 sustainability division and the DPW for
2:49:29 working with us on the municipal solar
2:49:31 initiative.
2:49:33 Looking ahead to 2026 um we are looking
2:49:36 at the carp finalization and adoption.
2:49:38 We had a
2:49:40 um a draft sent out recently and it's in
2:49:45 good shape I think. Um once that is out
2:49:48 we'll obviously be working on those carp
2:49:50 goals, strategies and actions. I would
2:49:53 note it's a 10-year plan. We have three
2:49:55 different uh tiers of goal, strategy,
2:49:59 and actions. Uh the intention is over
2:50:01 the next 10 years that we should be able
2:50:03 to hit all three. Uh so all of the items
2:50:08 in there, but we're trying to prioritize
2:50:10 those that we can hit first because
2:50:13 they're more important based upon the
2:50:14 framework. But we also recognize that we
2:50:16 might not be able to get to some of
2:50:17 them. So we may in fact start picking
2:50:19 things from tier two or tier three as
2:50:21 appropriate.
2:50:22 Um the other things we'll be focusing on
2:50:24 are the municipal solar implementation
2:50:26 although that's mainly in the hands of
2:50:28 the sustainability division and DPW and
2:50:32 probably more looking at the track to
2:50:33 municipal solar planning and community
2:50:35 engagement.
2:50:37 Um we'll also be continuing to work on
2:50:39 the residents working group and try and
2:50:41 evolve the commercial working group into
2:50:44 um try and start the commercial working
2:50:45 group uh evolving from the Berto working
2:50:48 group
2:50:49 and then we can go to discussions and
2:50:51 questions. Before any discussion or
2:50:54 questions I do have a very long
2:50:56 narrative which I've put together which
2:50:58 I didn't send out with the packet but I
2:51:00 will be sending out if anyone wants to
2:51:01 read it. So if any of your questions are
2:51:03 not answered they will probably be
2:51:05 answered in that packet.
2:51:07 So, thank you,
2:51:09 David.
2:51:10 So, you talked about uh that one of the
2:51:12 goals was to take full advantage of the
2:51:14 inflation reduction act incentives. Now,
2:51:17 my understanding is that originally uh
2:51:20 so that included a 30% residential tax
2:51:23 credit on solar. It was initially set to
2:51:26 expire in 2032.
2:51:28 when the uh big beautiful bill as it's
2:51:31 called passed that moved the expiration
2:51:34 date to December 31st 2025. So we're
2:51:38 already past that expiration date. So
2:51:40 were there additional grants that were
2:51:43 sought
2:51:44 that was for residential. So we're
2:51:45 looking at I think for the town we have
2:51:47 two dates. We have um any uh project
2:51:52 placed in service by July 3rd or or
2:51:56 something of this year would be
2:51:58 eligible. Okay.
2:51:59 I don't think we're going to hit that
2:52:00 date.
2:52:01 Um being placed not placed in service uh
2:52:03 where the project has started. So that
2:52:05 would include basically making a
2:52:06 commitment to someone who is going to do
2:52:09 the project, a financial commitment or
2:52:12 projects which completed by December
2:52:14 31st, 2027 will be eligible for between
2:52:17 30 and 40% depending upon the source of
2:52:19 the solar panels
2:52:21 and that's specific to commercial.
2:52:24 Um it's it the town can take advantage
2:52:27 of it.
2:52:27 The town
2:52:28 is the important part.
2:52:29 All right.
2:52:31 And that is part of the plan that the
2:52:33 sustainability division put together um
2:52:36 for
2:52:39 this year that this the phase one and
2:52:40 phase two. This is they're phase one is
2:52:42 trying to take advantage of those
2:52:43 credits and save the town some money,
2:52:45 get some federal funding.
2:52:46 Okay.
2:52:49 Any other questions?
2:52:52 Can I just
2:52:52 Sure.
2:52:53 Just uh Nick, first thank you so much.
2:52:55 Um is this your first or second time in
2:52:57 front of us? Second time.
2:52:58 It's my second time. It's
2:52:58 your second time. Well done. Very
2:53:00 efficient. Um, so just to be clear, we
2:53:03 started Berto investigated and then
2:53:05 we're we're not going to pursue it. Is
2:53:07 that my read of this?
2:53:09 Um, I think it's unfortunately.
2:53:11 Yes.
2:53:12 A bit a bit more complicated than that.
2:53:14 Uh, Berto turned out to be uh priority
2:53:16 two. So it's not in the top tier of
2:53:19 things that we would focus on.
2:53:20 Okay.
2:53:20 This is a 10-year plan where we hope to
2:53:22 hit everything in the carp, which would
2:53:25 include Berto.
2:53:26 Yeah. Um when the city of Boston started
2:53:29 their Berto initiative, it took years
2:53:31 for them to get it moving forward. So
2:53:33 it's not an overnight thing. It's not
2:53:35 like something we we switch on.
2:53:37 Um if we look at out 10 years and we try
2:53:40 and you know kind of work back from that
2:53:41 10-year period and we say we want to
2:53:43 have something like Berto in place,
2:53:45 it is likely that we need to start
2:53:46 working on the next couple of years in
2:53:49 some form.
2:53:49 And to be clear what Berto I know you
2:53:51 explained it, but in simple terms, Berto
2:53:54 places a requirement on large buildings
2:53:57 either large commercial
2:53:58 Yep. or
2:53:59 or large and or large residential or
2:54:01 everyone
2:54:01 and they have and they have to measure
2:54:03 their energy consumption and at some
2:54:04 point they start getting dinged for not
2:54:07 reducing their energy consumption.
2:54:08 Correct. Essentially
2:54:09 that that is a flavor of it. Yes. So um
2:54:12 I think what ZAB determined was that um
2:54:15 we would probably recommend we would
2:54:18 likely recommend something which focused
2:54:19 on commercial buildings first because
2:54:21 that's what everyone else has done. And
2:54:23 we also were looking at uh ways to
2:54:29 trying to look at ways to incentivize
2:54:31 people to do things in other ways.
2:54:32 We don't need to dig into I just want to
2:54:33 make sure that it's kind of it's a tier
2:54:35 two. So it's
2:54:35 it is a tier two.
2:54:36 Okay. Thank you.
2:54:40 Okay. No other questions. Thank you Nick
2:54:42 for presentation. It's very formative.
2:54:46 We need to know what ZF's doing. Thank
2:54:48 you. I I will send out the longer
2:54:50 narrative and if you want to get to
2:54:52 sleep, you can read it.
2:54:53 Thank you.
2:54:54 We will need it. Thank you.
2:54:56 Okay.
2:54:58 Next, uh we have grant of location, a a
2:55:01 grant of location for the MBTA.
2:55:04 Um
2:55:06 and I have to read some stuff.
2:55:10 The next items on tonight's agenda
2:55:12 relate to the MBTA Green Line C branch
2:55:15 accessibility project along Beacon
2:55:18 Street. The MBTA is working to upgrade
2:55:22 several stations in Brooklyn to meet ADA
2:55:24 accessibility requirements. Mhm.
2:55:26 The select board approved amended grants
2:55:29 of location for two stations earlier
2:55:31 this fall and tonight we are considering
2:55:34 the remaining five stations that require
2:55:36 amended grants of location in order to
2:55:39 construct the accessible platforms and
2:55:42 related improvements.
2:55:45 The board received a full project
2:55:48 presentation from the MBTA on February
2:55:50 24th and the transportation board
2:55:53 reviewed the plans on February 25th and
2:55:57 voted in support of the parking and lane
2:55:59 reduction required for the project.
2:56:03 This evening, the select board will
2:56:05 consider three related items.
2:56:10 We will have a public hearing and
2:56:13 possible vote on the amended grants of
2:56:15 location.
2:56:17 Uh we will also address supporting
2:56:19 transportation board direction to staff
2:56:22 regarding the U-turn movement near Hall
2:56:25 Street
2:56:27 and we will discuss a memorandum of
2:56:29 understanding between the MBTA and the
2:56:32 town.
2:56:36 So let's start off with the first item
2:56:40 uh which is the public hearing on the
2:56:41 MBTA's request for amended grants
2:56:44 location for
2:56:46 um following station Hall Street St.
2:56:49 Paul Street Summit Avenue
2:56:52 Brandon Hall Fairbanks and Dean Road.
2:56:56 And we'll start with a presentation from
2:56:58 the MBTA describing the requested grants
2:57:01 of location.
2:57:06 Who wrote this?
2:57:26 Good evening. Like to thank the select
2:57:28 board for having the MTA again. Um I'm
2:57:30 joined by Gwen Dun Levy, deputy chief of
2:57:32 integrated transit programs, who is
2:57:34 leading the green line program in this
2:57:36 project's construction. Uh it's very
2:57:38 exciting to be here this evening for a
2:57:39 critical milestone uh to get the seabs
2:57:41 fully accessible.
2:57:45 Tonight we're seeking an amendment to
2:57:47 the grant of location. As was discussed,
2:57:49 this is a grant of location that dates
2:57:51 back to 1897
2:57:53 and allows for the C branch to operate
2:57:55 today and will allow us to modernize the
2:57:57 C branch going forward. We'll cover the
2:57:59 stations that are being improved, the
2:58:01 timeline, and provide a recap of our
2:58:04 recent work with Brooklyn's various
2:58:05 boards and committees.
2:58:07 Excuse me. And could you identify
2:58:09 yourself for the record?
2:58:11 Thank you. Got ahead of myself. My name
2:58:12 is Matt Conover. I happen to also be a
2:58:15 resident
2:58:16 and do work for the MBTA.
2:58:18 Maybe I'll walk home tonight because
2:58:19 it's a pretty nice night.
2:58:22 Uh so, as I was saying, tonight we will
2:58:24 uh seek that amendment to the grant of
2:58:26 location. We'll cover the stations that
2:58:27 are being improved, the timeline, and
2:58:29 provide a recap of our recent work with
2:58:31 Brookline's various boards and
2:58:32 committees. We'll conclude by detailing
2:58:34 a specific a specific amendment to that
2:58:36 grant of location.
2:58:39 So, currently there are nine
2:58:41 inaccessible stations on the C branch.
2:58:43 This project will upgrade all of those
2:58:45 stations by widening and raising the
2:58:47 platforms to accommodate mobility
2:58:49 devices by removing platform
2:58:50 obstructions, installing platform
2:58:52 lighting and signage, and upgrade
2:58:54 pedestrian crossings to the platforms.
2:58:56 As part of this project, we will combine
2:58:58 Brandon Hall and Fairbank Street into a
2:59:00 single station that will accommodate the
2:59:01 new type 10 trains and can serve will
2:59:03 allow them to serve all the stations
2:59:05 along the line. We will also close Kent
2:59:07 Street station due to its proximity to
2:59:09 Haw Street.
2:59:20 Pardon me. So those uh issues that I
2:59:22 described on the stations are shown here
2:59:24 on the screen. You can see that there's
2:59:25 limited protection from traffic.
2:59:27 Stations are overcrowded, platforms are
2:59:29 narrow, uh we have limited way finding
2:59:31 and steep slopes. There are also various
2:59:34 issues with obstacles in the way such as
2:59:36 poles and trees and then a lack of
2:59:38 lighting. And as I mentioned, we would
2:59:39 address those.
2:59:46 I feel like this is the wrong deck here.
2:59:50 Excuse me. I apologize to the board.
2:59:51 This is the incorrect deck.
2:59:54 I can give that one again, but it is
2:59:55 pretty long.
3:00:09 This is not the right item.
3:00:11 We can do it without a deck, too. It's
3:00:13 going to be harder for your part.
3:00:15 I don't think so.
3:00:21 We have the deck in our packet.
3:00:24 We have your
3:00:30 Oh, see I'd be the last without Gwen.
3:00:32 Thank you.
3:00:36 Is the screen sharing here though? No.
3:00:50 want to use a lifeline or
3:00:52 definitely
3:00:56 always stay humble when it comes to
3:00:57 technology. I saw the audio stuff. I
3:00:59 didn't say anything.
3:01:08 All right. Here we go. Now we're on
3:01:10 track.
3:01:12 So, this project is the result of
3:01:13 extensive collaboration between the MBTA
3:01:16 and the town of Brooklyn. Through
3:01:17 numerous engagements with residents,
3:01:18 elected officials, and stakeholders,
3:01:20 we've developed a project that will
3:01:22 deliver significant improvements and
3:01:23 minimize impacts. Over the last few
3:01:26 weeks, we've secured feedback and
3:01:28 support from the tree planting
3:01:29 committee, the commission on
3:01:30 accessibility, the transportation board,
3:01:32 the select board, and the public as we
3:01:34 finalized the project design plans. We
3:01:37 will return to Brookline in April for a
3:01:39 pre-construction meeting at which time
3:01:41 we will describe the actual construction
3:01:42 details and plans. Construction will
3:01:45 start shortly after the marathon in late
3:01:47 April.
3:01:52 With the received approval from the tree
3:01:53 planting committee and the select board,
3:01:56 this project will remove 50 young trees
3:01:58 and 46 mature trees. This includes the
3:02:00 construction of two ramps at Brandon
3:02:02 Hall which is required for equal access
3:02:05 and compliance with accessibility laws.
3:02:08 The MBTA has set aside dedicated funding
3:02:10 which with which will use to replant 98
3:02:13 trees along the Beacon Street corridor.
3:02:15 Any remaining funds that are available
3:02:17 will be used for additional trees at the
3:02:19 town's discretion.
3:02:23 With the received approval from the
3:02:25 transportation board, the project will
3:02:26 update five crosswalks, 11 track
3:02:28 crossings. We will retain all existing
3:02:31 accessible parking spaces, but we will
3:02:33 remove 22 parking spaces, two angled
3:02:35 spaces, and 20 parallel spaces. And
3:02:38 along Beacon Street eastbound, one lane
3:02:40 will be removed at Haw Street to
3:02:42 accommodate the new station and the
3:02:43 accessible curb. At the direction of the
3:02:46 transportation board, Brooklyn Town
3:02:48 staff will conduct a traffic analysis to
3:02:50 investigate the best use of the
3:02:51 remaining lanes and how to provide
3:02:53 access in that area. So, with that
3:02:55 summary, I will provide
3:02:58 the technology to Gwen, who is obviously
3:03:00 much better at it than
3:03:04 Thank you, Matt. Uh, my name is Gwen
3:03:06 Dunvy. I'm the deputy chief of
3:03:08 integrated transit programs. I oversee
3:03:10 the green line transformation group
3:03:11 which uh manages a holistic group of
3:03:13 projects modernizing the green line. I'm
3:03:17 sure I'm familiar to a lot of you
3:03:19 already as I've done a few of these
3:03:20 presentations. Um but we're going to go
3:03:22 through and look at the details of the
3:03:24 different grants locations at the
3:03:25 various stations uh that we're
3:03:27 discussing today. Starting with Dean
3:03:29 Road.
3:03:31 As Matt mentioned, the existing grant
3:03:32 location dates back 130 years to 1897
3:03:37 when it was signed. Um that grant
3:03:39 allocation was um pretty simple. It
3:03:42 granted the MBTA 20 ft of space in the
3:03:45 center of Beacon Street to run the
3:03:47 trains back and forth. It encompasses
3:03:49 basically just the tracks. Uh it has not
3:03:52 been amended since then. So all of the
3:03:53 stations that currently exist are not in
3:03:56 a grant of location. Um shown on this
3:03:59 slide we have that 20 foot strip uh in
3:04:02 purple which is labeled here as well as
3:04:05 the locations of the existing platforms
3:04:07 and their sizes. Uh the other thing that
3:04:10 we highlight here is the existing
3:04:12 shelter at a number of stations
3:04:15 including this one. They're existing uh
3:04:17 similar to bus style shelters uh that
3:04:19 are going to be removed by this project
3:04:21 and new shelters will be added to the
3:04:23 various platforms uh with this project.
3:04:27 Uh moving on to the uh proposed
3:04:30 additions to the grant location shown
3:04:32 here blue. Um we will be asking for
3:04:34 grants location at the two new station
3:04:36 platforms west of Dean Road um both for
3:04:40 the inbound and outbound. Um both of
3:04:42 these are about 2,000 square feet, a
3:04:44 little less um and encompass the station
3:04:47 platforms and their walkways.
3:04:51 Uh moving to our last slide on Dean
3:04:53 Road, we highlight both those same grant
3:04:56 locations with the existing in purple
3:04:57 and the amended grant location in blue.
3:05:00 Along with pointing out the four
3:05:02 walkways leaving the station platforms
3:05:04 in both directions and the two station
3:05:06 platforms. Um one thing people may
3:05:09 notice looking at this is that the
3:05:11 platform widths are different at
3:05:13 different stations. Uh there are two
3:05:15 main reasons for this. The first is some
3:05:17 platforms do have uh catinary poles.
3:05:19 Those are the poles that hold the power
3:05:21 wires uh for the powering the trains. Um
3:05:26 and those cause the platforms to shift a
3:05:28 little bit in width. The other is that
3:05:30 the tracks are not exactly 20 ft wide.
3:05:32 So parts of the grants location in some
3:05:35 cases are including part of the platform
3:05:38 and in some cases the tracks are very
3:05:40 very close to the edges of that those
3:05:42 grants location. the platforms appear a
3:05:44 little wider and that is why there's a
3:05:46 little variability in platform widths
3:05:48 between these different stations.
3:05:52 Uh the next up is Fairbanks Street
3:05:55 Brandon Hall consolidated station and
3:05:57 that will be in the location of roughly
3:06:00 the current Brandon Hall station a
3:06:01 little west of that. Um here we have our
3:06:04 existing grant location again in purple
3:06:06 that 20 foot wide strip where the tracks
3:06:07 are located as well as the two existing
3:06:10 platforms um and the locations of the
3:06:13 existing shelters in this area.
3:06:17 Looking at our future grants locations,
3:06:19 we have the two new platforms uh located
3:06:22 close to where Brandon Hall is now, as
3:06:25 well as grants locations for the two
3:06:26 accessible ramps that are being added to
3:06:28 on the slopes for people with
3:06:31 accessibility needs to be able to make
3:06:33 their way down um from Beacon Street
3:06:35 westbound to Beacon Street eastbound and
3:06:37 where the station platforms are. Um this
3:06:40 is because we need to provide equal
3:06:42 access for everyone. Uh and as there are
3:06:44 two stairs to make your way down um to
3:06:47 the lower side of Beacon Street, we are
3:06:49 adding those two ramps.
3:06:52 Um similar to before, we highlight the
3:06:55 exact location of those platforms as
3:06:57 well as showing the ramps uh with the
3:06:59 new grant amended granted location we
3:07:02 are requesting in blue and the existing
3:07:04 granted location in purple.
3:07:09 Next up, we have Summit A. again with
3:07:11 that 20 foot strip of purple that is the
3:07:13 existing grant of location uh and
3:07:16 highlighting the existing shelter and
3:07:18 the two existing track platforms uh for
3:07:21 the inbound and outbound sides on Beacon
3:07:24 Street eastbound and westbound. Um in
3:07:27 this location uh the platform will be
3:07:29 shifting slightly to the west. uh
3:07:32 specifically the outbound platform will
3:07:34 be while the inbound platform will
3:07:36 remain in roughly the same location all
3:07:38 will be although it will be shortened uh
3:07:40 a bit.
3:07:42 Um here we show the updated grant to
3:07:45 location that we are requesting with
3:07:47 those two platforms just east of Marian
3:07:50 Street. Um these are roughly 2500 square
3:07:55 square feet and 2,000 square feet uh for
3:07:57 the westbound and eastbound respectively
3:08:01 highlighted in blue.
3:08:03 And the final configuration showing the
3:08:07 platform width as well as the walkways
3:08:11 that will be uh included uh platforms in
3:08:14 blue again and the existing grant
3:08:16 location in purple.
3:08:20 Next is St. Paul Street. Uh again
3:08:22 showing the existing condition with that
3:08:25 20 foot grant to location in purple and
3:08:27 the existing platform locations with the
3:08:30 existing inbound platform to the west of
3:08:33 St. Paul Street and the existing
3:08:35 outbound platform to the east as well as
3:08:39 the existing shelter.
3:08:43 Uh in the future configuration, both
3:08:45 platforms will be to the east of St.
3:08:47 Paul Street. um a outbound about 1,400
3:08:50 square feet, the inbound about 1,800
3:08:53 square feet, and those are shown in
3:08:55 blue.
3:08:57 Uh and then moving to our final St. Paul
3:08:59 Street slide, we highlight those two
3:09:02 platforms as well as the walkways that
3:09:04 are included in that grantification of
3:09:06 longer walkways.
3:09:10 Uh Kent Street is a little different as
3:09:12 Matt had mentioned. Uh this station will
3:09:14 be closed uh due to its proximity to Haw
3:09:17 and St. Paul. Um, so the existing grant
3:09:19 location as I had mentioned earlier does
3:09:21 not include the existing platform. So
3:09:23 there will be no change to the grant
3:09:24 location. But at this location and all
3:09:27 the other places where we are moving
3:09:29 platforms and we will be leaving behind
3:09:31 an area where a platform used to be and
3:09:32 there will be no new platform. Um, we
3:09:35 will be removing the asphalt of the
3:09:37 platform so that trees can be planted,
3:09:39 grass can grow. Um, and we will not be
3:09:41 making any changes to the grants
3:09:43 location in those places as there's no
3:09:44 nothing existing. There's nothing to
3:09:46 really change at those locations.
3:09:51 Lastly, we have Haw Street highlighting
3:09:53 again that 20 foot strip that is our
3:09:55 existing granted location and the two
3:09:58 current track platforms as well as the
3:10:00 existing shelters at this location.
3:10:03 Um, moving to our requested granted
3:10:05 location in blue, we have the inbound
3:10:09 and outbound platforms both around 1900
3:10:11 square feet. Um and the final
3:10:14 configuration highlighting the four
3:10:16 walkways to exit the platform and the
3:10:18 those two platforms themselves uh all to
3:10:22 the west of Paw Street.
3:10:27 Um to summarize where where this all
3:10:31 ends up, we have the total square
3:10:33 footage of the granted location for each
3:10:35 of the seven stations as well as Kent
3:10:39 Street, uh which will not be asking for
3:10:42 an amended granted location totaling in
3:10:44 about 30,000 square feet total for all
3:10:48 seven of those stations.
3:10:51 And with that, like to open it up to any
3:10:53 questions anyone may have.
3:10:55 Okay, any questions from the board?
3:11:01 I knew you'd have a question.
3:11:02 I actually don't have a question. I have
3:11:03 a compliment.
3:11:04 Oh, okay.
3:11:05 Would that be okay?
3:11:05 Yes, that's fine.
3:11:06 Am I authorized to give a compliment?
3:11:08 Always authorized.
3:11:09 Um, so Michael and I have had uh the
3:11:12 pleasure. It's usually been a pleasure
3:11:14 to work with the MBTA and staff and, you
3:11:18 know, committees and Brian. Um, and I
3:11:22 was skeptical going into it. I admit
3:11:24 working with the MBTA when I was asked
3:11:26 to participate like what am I getting
3:11:27 myself into? Um but I will say it's been
3:11:30 a pleasure. Um the willingness of the
3:11:32 MBTA to partner. Um I know it it's it's
3:11:36 probably it wasn't seen publicly because
3:11:38 the public wasn't behind the scenes kind
3:11:40 of seeing these things. But you did make
3:11:43 a lot of concessions and you were
3:11:45 cooperative. Um you sometimes
3:11:47 begrudgingly made changes, but you made
3:11:49 the changes. Um I think to the benefit
3:11:51 of our community, certainly for the
3:11:53 benefit of our community, we had a
3:11:54 interview tonight for the disabilities
3:11:56 commission who raised issues of
3:11:58 accessibility. Um and uh it's so
3:12:02 important for our community to have
3:12:04 accessible transportation and access to
3:12:06 the tea. But this is coming at a high
3:12:08 cost. Um you know, we don't discount the
3:12:11 loss of mature trees, uh the tree
3:12:14 canopy. um we are making significant
3:12:16 sacrifices uh to partner with you to
3:12:19 grant this location. Um but I personally
3:12:22 think it's it's worth it. Um I look
3:12:24 forward to the trees growing back and
3:12:26 getting bigger and hopefully we'll leave
3:12:27 enough room for them to grow and not
3:12:29 have to uh impede the tracks like they
3:12:32 have in the past. But I just want to say
3:12:33 thank you to everybody who's been
3:12:35 involved. Um it was a tremendous amount
3:12:39 of work to have this uh have this get to
3:12:42 this point. Um, I just want to assure
3:12:44 you, um, and it's I' I've really enjoyed
3:12:46 being part of it. So, thank you so much.
3:12:50 Okay. Any other questions?
3:12:52 We're we're just discussing 11A at this
3:12:55 point.
3:12:55 Yep.
3:12:55 Yeah. Okay.
3:12:59 Okay. If there are no other questions
3:13:00 from the select board, let's open up the
3:13:02 meeting or the uh public comment period.
3:13:05 So, we have Alyssa P has signed up. I
3:13:08 don't see her online.
3:13:10 She's right.
3:13:12 You have two hands online.
3:13:14 Um, Alisa Plazanja, precinct 8. Uh, two
3:13:17 weeks ago, you received a petition from
3:13:20 176 Brookline residents asking you to
3:13:23 take action on three items related to
3:13:25 this project um for the seaine. You
3:13:29 declined to act on Brandon Hall
3:13:30 Fairbanks, but you didn't respond to the
3:13:33 other two issues raised in the petition.
3:13:36 So, I'm here tonight to ask you to
3:13:38 respond to them, please. The first was
3:13:41 um will you commit to more comprehensive
3:13:45 ecological restoration? So this is above
3:13:47 and beyond the replanting that the MBTA
3:13:50 will be um providing. So there are spots
3:13:53 along the way that are currently barren.
3:13:54 So to the extent that the tea is really
3:13:56 just replacing what might be lost, would
3:13:59 you will the town of Brookline look to
3:14:02 expand the plantings beyond what the
3:14:05 MBTA is doing? The second question is,
3:14:08 will you ask the MBTA for their
3:14:09 commitment that they will not harm any
3:14:12 wildlife during this work? This question
3:14:14 may be an issue of just clarifying
3:14:16 terminology as the MBTA has stated on
3:14:19 the record that they will comply with
3:14:21 all state and federal environmental
3:14:23 regulations, but it's my understanding
3:14:26 that state and federal law does not
3:14:28 protect common species such as squirrels
3:14:31 and non-migratory birds such as house
3:14:34 sparrows and starings. Since there are
3:14:36 55 mature trees slated for removal,
3:14:39 that's including the other two stations
3:14:41 that you've already approved. It
3:14:43 certainly seems quite possible, given
3:14:46 that we're entering nesting season and
3:14:47 that the work here isn't going to begin
3:14:49 until April that some of these trees may
3:14:52 contain nests with baby sparrows,
3:14:54 starings, or baby squirrels. And as a
3:14:57 result, merely complying with the law
3:14:59 could lead to baby animals being killed
3:15:00 if the tree in which their nest is
3:15:02 located is removed. Now, I would hope
3:15:05 that neither the select board nor the
3:15:07 MBTA would want any innocent baby
3:15:09 animals to be harmed as a result of this
3:15:11 project. So, will you ask the MBTA for
3:15:14 their explicit commitment that no
3:15:16 nesting animals of any kind will be
3:15:18 displaced or harmed as a result of this
3:15:20 work as we asked you in the petition?
3:15:22 Thank you.
3:15:30 There's nothing we can do tonight
3:15:33 in response to that. So,
3:15:36 yes.
3:15:39 Okay. Who's next?
3:15:40 Um, we have Sean Lynn Jones online.
3:15:50 Hello. Can you hear me?
3:15:52 Yes, we can.
3:15:54 Well, I I I know there are some issues
3:15:57 with microphones and uh I hope I can be
3:16:01 heard or at least the transcript can be
3:16:03 read. I'm Sean Lynn Jones and uh I am
3:16:07 president of the Brooklyn Greenspace
3:16:09 Alliance and um I'm also a town meeting
3:16:12 member from Precinct 1. I live at 53
3:16:14 Mona Street.
3:16:16 Um it has been difficult to follow this
3:16:19 meeting through the multiple means. I'm
3:16:21 trying to follow it. But I do want to
3:16:23 offer a couple of comments. First, um,
3:16:26 thank you to, uh, the MBTA for their
3:16:30 patience, their presentations, and thank
3:16:32 you to all the town staff who've been
3:16:34 working on this for well over a year
3:16:37 now. Uh, I've been particularly
3:16:39 concerned about tree loss associated
3:16:41 with this project. And um I think in
3:16:44 every case except for Fairbanks and
3:16:46 Brandon Hall, there's been a good
3:16:48 compromise to preserve trees, provide
3:16:51 the accessibility we need, and improve
3:16:53 these stations in in many ways. Uh I
3:16:56 just want to make a couple of points
3:16:58 tonight. I know that item 11 C on the
3:17:02 agenda calls for a memorandum of
3:17:03 understanding. I don't know in that what
3:17:07 that would look like. It doesn't seem to
3:17:08 be posted on the website, but I recall
3:17:11 when the select board previously voted
3:17:13 on grass locations for the Anglewood and
3:17:17 um tapen stations, uh John Vansko
3:17:20 suggested that there be a condition that
3:17:22 basically called upon the MBTA to uh
3:17:26 adhere to its commitments in return for
3:17:28 the town granting the locations. I hope
3:17:30 that in theouou that could be included
3:17:33 uh as well as perhaps some of the
3:17:35 provisions that the previous speaker
3:17:36 mentioned regarding the overall
3:17:38 ecological restoration here. Uh this is
3:17:41 going to be a complicated project with
3:17:43 many dimensions. I hope that the trees
3:17:45 can be protected where they need to be
3:17:47 protected, replanted where they need to
3:17:49 be replanted and additional steps will
3:17:52 be taken uh to manage this from an
3:17:55 environmental standpoint. There'll
3:17:57 obviously be a lot of uh transit and
3:17:59 traffic and parking impacts during the
3:18:01 construction project which would be
3:18:03 covered by theou.
3:18:05 Now I'm not sure uh to what extent this
3:18:08 is also a public hearing on the question
3:18:10 of the hall street design which is also
3:18:13 on the agenda for this meeting as item
3:18:15 11b. Um, I attended the transportation
3:18:19 board uh meeting, I believe on February
3:18:21 25th, and there was a very productive
3:18:23 discussion of how to retain that U-turn,
3:18:27 inbound U-turn at Hall Street for the
3:18:30 benefit not only of the neighbors, but
3:18:31 for other users who uh needed to turn
3:18:35 around without having to go well out of
3:18:37 their way. Um, I came away encouraged
3:18:40 that the U-turn would be maintained.
3:18:43 It's right in my neighborhood and I hope
3:18:45 that that will be possible um through
3:18:48 staff work to come up with the design
3:18:50 that uh preserves trees, modernizes the
3:18:54 station, makes it ADA compliant and
3:18:56 keeps that um inbound uh U-turn in a
3:19:00 fairly functional way. Uh so those are
3:19:03 my only comments at this point. I've
3:19:05 spoken previously, but again, I would
3:19:07 like to thank everyone who's worked on
3:19:09 this for so long, and I hope that we can
3:19:12 still make a little progress on some of
3:19:15 the issues that the other speakers have
3:19:16 raised and nail everything down in theou
3:19:20 so that commitments are clear and
3:19:22 commitments are respected as this goes
3:19:25 forward. And I look forward to seeing
3:19:27 the conclusion of this project and the
3:19:30 final result. Thank you very much.
3:19:35 Next is Cara Peterson.
3:19:39 Hello. Um, do you need to have my video
3:19:41 on or is it okay if I stay off video?
3:19:44 It's fine to stay off.
3:19:46 Okay, thank you. Um, so I'm Cara
3:19:49 Peterson. I'm a Beacon Street resident
3:19:51 uh who lives between Brandon Hall and
3:19:53 Summit Stations. Um, I've also spoken
3:19:55 previously, specifically at the last
3:19:57 meeting. Um, and I want to state my
3:19:59 support for Shaun's points, um, and
3:20:01 Elisa's request for more specific
3:20:04 wildlife protections and to ask the
3:20:06 board to protect existing and nesting
3:20:09 wildlife at Brandon Hall and Fairbanks.
3:20:11 Specifically,
3:20:13 Alisa asked that you respond to her
3:20:15 queries. So, I'd like to ask that you
3:20:17 also right now tonight respond
3:20:19 specifically to her queries as long as
3:20:23 well as to local residents petition that
3:20:26 we circulated. got quite a few
3:20:28 signatures on and I have not heard
3:20:30 addressed by the board. I would really
3:20:32 like to hear your thoughts about that
3:20:34 and points um that you can consider and
3:20:39 advance
3:20:41 um the cause of environmental
3:20:44 protections for those specific stations.
3:20:47 Um, and also the petition concerns
3:20:51 local unhappiness with the removal of
3:20:54 the trees at Brandon Hall and Fairbank
3:20:56 Station. Um, I agree that the MBTA has
3:20:59 made concessions. Um, but I have not
3:21:02 heard from the board um any points about
3:21:05 the things that we have raised. Um,
3:21:07 that's a little disappointing. as a
3:21:09 local resident, I would like to hear
3:21:11 from um the local officials about what
3:21:15 else can be done to enhance these
3:21:17 protections. So, thank you very much. I
3:21:19 appreciate being heard.
3:21:22 Okay. The uh board as a board will not
3:21:25 uh respond or or make um commitments.
3:21:28 However, individual board members can
3:21:30 express their opinions on variety of
3:21:33 subjects as they want.
3:21:35 I can't hear you at all.
3:21:36 Well, pardon me.
3:21:38 I can't hear you at all.
3:21:42 What's going on here?
3:21:43 We We're having audio issues on the
3:21:46 Zoom. We encourage folks if you're
3:21:47 having trouble hearing on the Zoom. Um
3:21:50 you can go to B.I.'s YouTube stream. Uh
3:21:53 that should be that should have audio
3:21:55 functioning. Um but again, we're we're
3:21:58 trying to speak into our microphones and
3:21:59 be as loud as possible here. Um, and we
3:22:02 will do our best to keep up the volume
3:22:04 in this room. But if you are having
3:22:06 trouble hearing on the Zoom broadcast,
3:22:08 please tune in uh either on your cable
3:22:10 channels, if you have cable to B.I.
3:22:13 Brookline Interactive Group, or on
3:22:14 YouTube. Uh, regardless of where you
3:22:16 are, uh, you can access the live stream.
3:22:18 Uh, and that has audio that is
3:22:20 functioning normally, and you should be
3:22:21 able to hear the proceedings as they go
3:22:22 on. Thank you.
3:22:25 Can you hear me now?
3:22:26 Well, now we've moved on from the
3:22:27 speaker.
3:22:28 Okay.
3:22:30 Um, I see Brian Kaine had his hand
3:22:32 raised.
3:22:34 Please go go to the podium.
3:22:39 Thank you very much. Uh, Brian Kaine, I
3:22:41 have the great honor to chair the
3:22:42 transportation board and work with some
3:22:43 amazing uh, DPW transportation
3:22:46 officials. Um, and uh, due respect, uh,
3:22:50 you're pretty persuasive when you need
3:22:52 to be. Uh, and so I think a lot of the
3:22:55 um the concessions that were made are
3:22:58 due in large part to to to what you uh
3:23:01 yourself and Michael put forward, Paul.
3:23:03 So, thank you for that. Um, as as I
3:23:06 mentioned the last time we did this, um,
3:23:08 Brookline has won these negotiations and
3:23:11 it's really important that we not lose
3:23:13 sight of what this is at the end of the
3:23:15 day. This is an accessibility project. I
3:23:17 mentioned at the last transportation
3:23:19 board meeting that I actually wrote my
3:23:20 graduate school application about making
3:23:22 the sealine accessible and that was 20
3:23:24 years ago. I was with a group of folks
3:23:26 uh some of them were in wheelchairs,
3:23:28 some of them weren't and and we were
3:23:29 trying to get ourselves back from
3:23:30 Washington Square to their hotel. It was
3:23:32 a holiday in at the time. Not sure what
3:23:33 it's called now. And uh we had to wait
3:23:35 so long to individually crank up that
3:23:38 ramp for every single person that a
3:23:40 couple of the folks couldn't make it and
3:23:42 had some accidents. And it was it was
3:23:44 really robbed them of their dignity. And
3:23:46 um you know I I sort of decided then and
3:23:49 there that this is something that we
3:23:50 needed to do as a society. I had didn't
3:23:52 live in Brook light at the time. I I had
3:23:54 no idea I'd be doing this. But look at
3:23:56 the end of the day this is an
3:23:57 accessibility project. We're going to
3:23:58 make each of these stations accessible.
3:24:00 Moving towards having the tea being 100%
3:24:02 accessible uh hopefully in the next
3:24:04 decade. It it'll be a first for a major
3:24:06 transportation public transportation
3:24:08 system in the country. and the the the
3:24:10 steps that this town is going through to
3:24:12 to do its part are incredible and are
3:24:15 very important and I really am grateful
3:24:17 to each of you um on the dis tonight for
3:24:20 for doing that and and for taking the
3:24:22 time to do that. Um unfortunately I have
3:24:24 a 9:00 meeting for my day job so I I
3:24:27 won't be around for the next part. So
3:24:28 let me just say real quick about Haw
3:24:30 Street. You you you saw the language of
3:24:33 our vote. Um, we have every intention of
3:24:35 retaining the U-turn at Haw Street as
3:24:38 long as it is safe to do so. We have
3:24:40 directed staff to look at every single
3:24:42 traffic study and do everything that
3:24:44 they can they can think of in terms of
3:24:46 signaling, in terms of smart signaling,
3:24:47 and in terms of infrastructure to retain
3:24:49 that U-turn. And if it is possible to do
3:24:52 in a safe way, we will do it. That is
3:24:54 the intent. And I think the the vote
3:24:56 language is really clear on that. So,
3:24:58 that is a commitment I'm happy to make
3:25:00 tonight to you folks. we will retain it
3:25:02 if it is at all physically safely
3:25:04 possible to do so. Uh with that again uh
3:25:08 Paul just want to echo your comments.
3:25:10 This was a a long process but it was a
3:25:12 good process and I am very grateful to
3:25:14 the folks uh behind me from the tea. Uh
3:25:16 some of whom I see far too often in
3:25:18 other public meetings for this.
3:25:19 Brookline does things in a unique and
3:25:21 special way but I think we ultimately
3:25:23 get a better product for it and I think
3:25:25 this is a great example of that. So
3:25:27 thank you very much folks.
3:25:29 Thank you. We have another raised hand.
3:25:31 Okay.
3:25:32 Jocelyn Murphy.
3:25:36 Thank you. This is Jocelyn Murphy. I'm a
3:25:38 precinct 16 town meeting member and a
3:25:40 member of the advisory committee.
3:25:42 Speaking for myself,
3:25:44 um I I would like to reiterate it's very
3:25:46 difficult to hear. Um and of course if
3:25:49 turning big on doesn't really repair the
3:25:51 problem because then there's an echo. So
3:25:54 um it has been very hard to hear folks.
3:25:56 But I I really just want to echo and
3:26:00 support what Alisa Pongja and Cara and
3:26:03 Sean said about trees in general, but
3:26:07 also about nesting
3:26:10 um animals in particular um owls and
3:26:14 squirrels and the other creatures that
3:26:16 live in these trees. It's a tremendous
3:26:18 number of trees that are being removed.
3:26:20 I 100% support accessibility on the tea,
3:26:24 but my concern is that a number of
3:26:27 citizens have asked meeting after
3:26:29 meeting
3:26:31 whether the MBTA will take steps to
3:26:34 support the animals that are likely
3:26:36 nesting in these trees and really never
3:26:38 got an answer. So, I respectfully
3:26:40 disagree that there's nothing the select
3:26:42 board can do. You can, this is a public
3:26:45 hearing and there are MBTA folks here
3:26:47 and you can ask them what steps they
3:26:50 plan to take to support the wildlife
3:26:52 that reside in the trees that are about
3:26:55 to be or will be soon cut down. Thank
3:26:57 you.
3:27:06 Okay. Any any more?
3:27:08 Okay. And as I said, we will not as a
3:27:11 board uh make a commitment uh but
3:27:14 individual board members of course can
3:27:16 can ask questions and uh uh seek uh uh
3:27:20 answers from the MBTA or others. So
3:27:25 um
3:27:25 thank you chair. I I hope someone on the
3:27:27 board will ask that question.
3:27:28 Okay. Well, we'll see if switch over to
3:27:30 big so I can hear you. Thank you.
3:27:32 Someone will
3:27:35 uh Okay. Wait. Um, anyone else wanting
3:27:38 to speak? May I'll close I will close
3:27:42 the public hearing and uh u ask the
3:27:46 board if there are any further comments.
3:27:48 I see John had his hand up first. Yes.
3:27:52 Well, I think everybody heard the
3:27:53 question that Joselyn asked, so I put
3:27:55 that to our MBTA representatives. Uh,
3:27:58 what is your response to that question?
3:28:02 Well, there were two to fairness there
3:28:04 was two questions. Well, you you Paul,
3:28:07 you go ahead and enumerate them.
3:28:09 Well, so one was the the question about
3:28:10 wildlife and then there was also a
3:28:12 question about I think some other, you
3:28:14 know, green space that could be enhanced
3:28:16 and I I believe we probably have a plan
3:28:18 for that with some extra tree plantings
3:28:20 that we might be able to speak to. But
3:28:21 this this issue of nesting animals, has
3:28:24 this been brought to your attention? I
3:28:26 do you have a
3:28:27 We certainly saw we received a copy also
3:28:29 I believe the select board the the
3:28:31 petition that was mentioned uh as the
3:28:32 MBTA has stated and was stated here
3:28:34 tonight. We do follow all the
3:28:35 environmental regulations that we are
3:28:37 required to do. So we worked with MASDOT
3:28:39 and had an environmental biologist come
3:28:40 out, assess the situation, give us best
3:28:42 practices, tell us what we need to do,
3:28:44 and then we will also have um an
3:28:47 environmental individual from the MBTA
3:28:49 will be on site during all this. Now,
3:28:51 can the MBTA guarantee no animal will be
3:28:53 harmed in this? We absolutely cannot. I
3:28:55 think it's unreasonable to expect that.
3:28:56 In fact, I not to be facitious, but
3:28:58 honestly, people will say we need pest
3:29:00 control because of rats whenever we do
3:29:02 work. And so we treat and we know that
3:29:03 that has a tendency to harm wildlife
3:29:06 too. Birds eat the dead rats and then
3:29:07 that has a perpetual impact. So we're
3:29:09 being realistic here that we are going
3:29:11 to do construction but we have best
3:29:12 practices in place. We have treatments
3:29:14 that uh mitigate that that reduce those
3:29:16 impacts but we cannot make the
3:29:18 commitment that no wildlife will be
3:29:19 harmed but we can make the commitment
3:29:20 that we will work handinand with the
3:29:22 experts to do it the right way and do it
3:29:24 the safest way possible.
3:29:26 Right. Thank you.
3:29:27 The the shrubs I'm sorry I'm calling
3:29:29 them shrubs. I shouldn't jump to that
3:29:30 thing. But we have committed to the
3:29:32 town. we have uh funding available. If
3:29:34 those funds remain after doing the tree
3:29:36 planting along Beacon Street that was
3:29:38 described, we are happy to plant where
3:29:40 the the town directs us to do so. Okay,
3:29:43 Michael.
3:29:44 Um, just following up on the tree
3:29:47 question, um, I I know that there's
3:29:50 particular concern about nesting
3:29:52 periods, and I'm wondering whether you
3:29:54 can speak to the schedule, um, of the
3:29:58 projects to understand when the trees
3:30:01 would be coming down in the course of
3:30:03 the projects.
3:30:04 Yeah, it's our understanding and again,
3:30:06 the environmental experts have uh, let
3:30:07 us know that the springtime is the peak
3:30:09 nesting time. As I mentioned, we would
3:30:11 start in that late April period, but I
3:30:13 don't mean we're going into full
3:30:14 construction at that point in time.
3:30:15 We're starting to do some early work.
3:30:17 We're doing some site assessments. We're
3:30:18 doing some cings. We're figuring out
3:30:19 exactly everything that's going on. And
3:30:21 so, under their guidance, those trees
3:30:23 will not come down until later in the
3:30:24 project. Now, there may be some trees,
3:30:25 small trees without nest in them that
3:30:26 certainly can come down, but we will not
3:30:28 take those larger trees with those nest
3:30:30 until the environmental regulators tell
3:30:31 us that that is safe to do.
3:30:33 Thank you, Paul.
3:30:36 And I know the thanks for the answer.
3:30:38 That's very helpful. And I'm not an
3:30:40 environmental specialist. Neither are
3:30:43 you and I don't think they're here. But
3:30:44 do you have a sense at all about what
3:30:46 what is the the regulations or the
3:30:49 guidance with respect to let's say
3:30:50 there's a nesting sparrow uh in a tree
3:30:52 that you need need to take down? Would
3:30:54 you not take that tree down if there was
3:30:56 a nest? Do you wait until it's empty? Do
3:30:58 we do we have that understanding of the
3:31:00 details? I
3:31:01 I don't have those details. As I said,
3:31:02 they they have a a window and I think,
3:31:04 you know, they're trying to to solve a
3:31:06 very large complex problem by giving us
3:31:08 parameters that say that if you do it
3:31:10 within this zone, this window in this
3:31:13 time, you're highly unlikely to disturb
3:31:15 anything. And so that's what we target.
3:31:17 But we can't see every tree, every limb,
3:31:19 every branch, some nest are hidden. So
3:31:21 it is impractical. I'm sure that
3:31:23 certainly if we observed one, we would
3:31:24 do whatever we could. But the int but
3:31:26 the intent of of the guidance or the
3:31:29 regulations is to uh minimize or um you
3:31:34 know um not have harm happen.
3:31:36 Correct.
3:31:37 You're not just you're not just taking
3:31:38 the tree down without checking and Okay.
3:31:41 All right. Thank you,
3:31:43 John. Uh I'm curious about something and
3:31:45 I apologize for not having asked this
3:31:47 question earlier in the process, but I
3:31:50 visited uh those two stops uh just
3:31:53 within the past week or so and at each
3:31:55 stop where there is a stair there is an
3:31:58 MBTA there's a there's a lift for um to
3:32:03 make it handicapped accessible but it's
3:32:05 obvious that in each case the lift has
3:32:08 been neglected severely over the years
3:32:11 and is in you know complete state of
3:32:13 disuse and uh and probably need of total
3:32:17 replacement. Are lifts no longer
3:32:19 acceptable under the ADA as uh uh
3:32:24 providing access?
3:32:26 So those lifts uh actually came up in my
3:32:28 very first meeting when I started
3:32:29 working on this project and those are uh
3:32:31 actually town assets. So I don't have
3:32:33 any information about the lifts or when
3:32:35 they quit working, but you're correct.
3:32:36 They have not worked since I moved here
3:32:37 over seven years ago.
3:32:38 They're town assets.
3:32:40 Correct. As are the stairs.
3:32:42 Yeah. But no, the the those lifts, those
3:32:44 styles are not considered uh compliant
3:32:46 for ADA purposes simply because they do
3:32:48 fail too often. They break down. So
3:32:50 that's why the ramps are required.
3:32:52 Elevators are allowable, but elevators
3:32:54 are much more disruptive uh and would
3:32:56 require more significant construction
3:32:57 and tree loss than the ramps do.
3:32:59 Do you have any stations where there are
3:33:00 lifts these days?
3:33:02 No.
3:33:03 No. Okay. Interesting.
3:33:06 I mean, just in case people are
3:33:08 wondering about lifts, we've had one at
3:33:10 my church which has been usable for 20
3:33:12 years. Um, I'm not sure why, you know,
3:33:15 they can't be usable. I if they're not
3:33:17 comply if they don't if they don't
3:33:18 comply, I mean, they don't comply, but
3:33:21 um, you know, the these were not usable,
3:33:23 I assume, long before there was a change
3:33:25 in the compliance rules because u, you
3:33:27 know, they're just all rusted out and
3:33:29 you know, uh, and you know, m mechanical
3:33:33 junk at this point.
3:33:36 Okay,
3:33:37 Bernard. Sarah's raising her hand
3:33:39 online.
3:33:39 Okay, Sarah,
3:33:44 is she promoted?
3:33:46 Yes.
3:33:49 Hello. Um, I'm the town's ADA
3:33:52 coordinator, community relations
3:33:53 specialist. I'm also a person who uses a
3:33:55 wheelchair. And I can tell you
3:33:57 personally, John, that those lifts are
3:34:02 not reliable.
3:34:04 and also very embarrassing to use.
3:34:08 People take pictures of me when I in
3:34:10 those lifts. They um and then also like
3:34:14 you have to train staff and new staff
3:34:16 come on all the time and people don't
3:34:18 know how to use them and is I've been
3:34:21 stuck in those lifts before. They're not
3:34:23 reliable ways to get on and off the tea.
3:34:28 Yeah. Thank you. Uh yeah, and and I I I
3:34:31 didn't mean to imply that they should be
3:34:32 used if they're no longer sufficient for
3:34:34 compliance. Um you know, on the other
3:34:37 hand, I think um they're their their
3:34:40 evidence of how what was once deemed,
3:34:42 you know, a solution uh is no longer a
3:34:45 solution and and in fact, they haven't
3:34:47 even been maintained. So,
3:34:51 okay.
3:34:53 Anything else?
3:34:55 So, I have a proposed vote. Actually,
3:35:00 it's more of a statement. So, I'm going
3:35:01 to try to create a vote out of it. I'll
3:35:05 read the statement first. Uh to deem
3:35:08 that public necessity and convenience
3:35:10 require granting the MBTA an amended
3:35:12 location on Beacon Street in the areas
3:35:15 of Hall Street, St. Hall Street, Summit
3:35:18 Avenue, Brandon Hall Fairbanks, and Dean
3:35:21 Road stations for the purpose of
3:35:23 operating operating the so-called C
3:35:25 branch of the green line and approved
3:35:29 conditioned on the asurances the MBTA
3:35:31 has provided the town during development
3:35:34 of the C branch accessibility project.
3:35:36 An amended grant of location
3:35:38 substantially is shown in the plans and
3:35:41 documents provided by the MBTA and filed
3:35:44 herewith. with the final plan and
3:35:47 language of the location to be developed
3:35:49 by the MBTA and approved by the town
3:35:52 administrator and that this amended
3:35:54 location so shall supersede prior grants
3:35:57 of location in substantially the same
3:36:00 area of Beacon Street for substantially
3:36:02 the same purpose. So um let me turn that
3:36:07 into a motion. Uh I move approval of the
3:36:10 grants of location uh as described by
3:36:13 the MBTA in its presentation here uh and
3:36:17 as motivated by the uh prior uh
3:36:20 statement uh at Hall Street, St. Paul
3:36:23 Street, Summit Avenue, Brandon Hall
3:36:26 Fairbanks and Dean Road
3:36:30 and Yes.
3:36:30 And does that include the statement you
3:36:32 read earlier conditioned conditioned on
3:36:34 with the asurances?
3:36:36 Yeah.
3:36:36 At the end. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay.
3:36:39 All in favor, please indicate by saying
3:36:40 I. John Vancoyak.
3:36:42 I.
3:36:42 Paul Warren.
3:36:43 I.
3:36:43 David Pearlman.
3:36:44 I.
3:36:45 Michael Rubenstein.
3:36:46 I.
3:36:46 And and chair votai.
3:36:50 Erin Jude, commissioner of public works.
3:36:52 Just wanted to ensure that that includes
3:36:54 authorizing the town administrator to
3:36:57 sign on behalf of the select board.
3:36:59 Uh, is is that in here? Yes,
3:37:01 it was in the motion. It was in what you
3:37:02 read.
3:37:02 Yeah. Yeah.
3:37:04 So, I'm incorporating that statement
3:37:07 into the vote.
3:37:09 Excuse me.
3:37:10 Okay. Um, next we'll consider the uh
3:37:14 Hall Street U-turn discussion and a
3:37:17 possible vote there also.
3:37:21 Is that you, Erin? Commissioner Chu.
3:37:25 Good evening. Erin Chute, Commissioner
3:37:27 of Public Works. So, we have uh our
3:37:30 sustainable transportation engineer Dan
3:37:32 Martin online if you would like him to
3:37:35 review the HA U-turn with you and the
3:37:39 analysis that the town will do. If you
3:37:42 heard enough from uh chairman Brian
3:37:45 Kaine in terms of the transportation
3:37:48 board's vote and uh the actions that
3:37:50 we're going to take and their
3:37:52 commitment, then um we're we're open for
3:37:56 questions. I I know that you have other
3:37:58 items on your agenda tonight. So, um
3:38:01 open to your direction. If you'd like a
3:38:03 few slides for us to talk about haz,
3:38:05 we're prepared to do that. Um if you're
3:38:08 comfortable with uh the transportation
3:38:11 board's uh vote, uh that those are the
3:38:15 actions that we'll be taking.
3:38:16 Well, what people want to do, but I'd
3:38:19 like to hear I'd like to see your slide.
3:38:21 Okay.
3:38:22 All right. Uh so we have Dan Dan Martin
3:38:25 will share his screen
3:38:27 and um he's staffed from our engineering
3:38:30 and transportation division
3:38:36 and Dan will have to make sure
3:38:37 board members um so just to go over the
3:38:40 transportation board directed us at
3:38:41 their last meeting um to look at the
3:38:45 Beacon Street Hod Street station
3:38:47 particularly the eastbound lane
3:38:49 configuration and they wanted us to um
3:38:52 make a commitment to maintain the U-turn
3:38:54 movement by looking at um these
3:38:57 configurations. And some of them may
3:38:59 include a Beacon Street Eastban has a
3:39:01 shared through U-turn lane and then one
3:39:04 through lane. Or another option could be
3:39:06 a Beacon Street exclusive um U-turn lane
3:39:09 and one through lane or maybe moving the
3:39:12 left turn lane to another intersection
3:39:14 like a Kent Street. And what we're going
3:39:16 to do is look at those options and then
3:39:19 um present back to the transportation
3:39:21 board in the neighborhood the um
3:39:23 operational changes and the impacts
3:39:25 these might have and we'll select the
3:39:27 preferred solution. And then just to
3:39:30 kind of outline what this looks like,
3:39:31 this is what the current proposed um
3:39:34 plan looks like. There's two through
3:39:36 lanes and the U-turn is restricted.
3:39:39 And then for the option, we're going to
3:39:41 look at if it's um a through and left
3:39:45 turn lane with a through lane.
3:39:48 And then another option could be an
3:39:50 exclusive turn lane, but only one
3:39:51 through lane.
3:39:53 And then this would be an option to
3:39:55 relocate a left turn at Kent and Powell.
3:40:01 And if you have any questions, I'm here
3:40:03 to answer them. And
3:40:06 any questions from uh Paul?
3:40:08 I just have one. I just want to I have
3:40:09 one comment. I know this came up late uh
3:40:11 as a result of the public comment
3:40:13 period. Um and we heard quite a bit
3:40:16 during that time from a couple of
3:40:17 speakers and also um in response to uh
3:40:20 the heranging I got from folks that live
3:40:23 in the neighborhood of Amory and Cottage
3:40:25 Farm uh limiting access. So, I just want
3:40:27 to thank you for uh for this and also
3:40:30 for uh for the transportation board
3:40:32 approving uh you know a review of the
3:40:35 options uh to see if we can maintain uh
3:40:39 simplified access to that neighborhood.
3:40:40 So, I I thank you for doing that.
3:40:44 Okay. Uh Michael,
3:40:46 um I just have one question in terms of
3:40:49 timing. um the
3:40:52 given the grant of location and the
3:40:54 schedule of the T I'm just wondering
3:40:56 what the timing is uh within DPW or the
3:41:00 transportation board in terms of doing
3:41:02 that evaluation and what the process
3:41:04 will be for making a determination and
3:41:08 then acting on that determination.
3:41:13 We're going to be um working with our
3:41:15 traffic consultant VHP and um presenting
3:41:18 those options. We expect that analysis
3:41:20 take about 2 months. And then um we're
3:41:23 hoping once the um preferred lanes are
3:41:27 picked, we'll try and work that into the
3:41:29 lane configuration, the pave markings,
3:41:31 the signage required, and have that in
3:41:33 place before the project's completed.
3:41:38 Okay,
3:41:40 any other questions?
3:41:44 And this is not a hearing.
3:41:47 Okay. Um,
3:41:51 are we ready to vote?
3:41:53 Seems like it.
3:41:54 Okay. So, um, I move that the select
3:41:58 board by its vote, uh, concur with the
3:42:01 transportation board's instruction to
3:42:03 DPW transportation staff to provide new
3:42:06 cross-section lane arrangement options
3:42:10 before project completion for eastbound
3:42:13 Beacon Street at Haw so that the
3:42:16 transportation board may consider
3:42:17 retaining a U-turn option.
3:42:21 That clear?
3:42:25 All in favor, please indicate by saying
3:42:27 I. John Vancoyak,
3:42:28 I.
3:42:29 Um Paul Warren,
3:42:30 hi.
3:42:31 David Pearlman,
3:42:32 I.
3:42:32 Michael Rubenstein,
3:42:33 I.
3:42:34 Chair votes I. Thank you. And finally,
3:42:40 item 11 C, memorandum of understanding
3:42:43 with the MBTA. The final item relates to
3:42:46 a memorandum of understanding between
3:42:48 the MBTA and the town of Brooklyn.
3:42:51 Because Beacon Street includes shared
3:42:53 right-of-way areas and overlapping
3:42:56 infrastructure responsibilities, the
3:42:58 town and the MBTA have been working to
3:43:01 clarify responsibilities related to
3:43:04 maintenance and operations along this
3:43:06 corridor. This agreement established
3:43:09 establishes clearer expectations
3:43:12 regarding responsibilities for trees and
3:43:15 landscaping,
3:43:16 street lights and parking meters,
3:43:19 sidewalks, and related infrastructure,
3:43:22 snow removal responsibilities at
3:43:24 stations, platforms, and within the
3:43:27 right away. The goal is to ensure that
3:43:30 both the MBTA and the town have clear
3:43:33 operational responsibilities and access
3:43:37 for maintenance moving forward. So any
3:43:40 uh discussion
3:43:43 of this item
3:43:46 that's going to be entered into
3:43:50 commissioner you want to talk a little
3:43:51 bit about thank you uh Erin Chute
3:43:54 Commissioner of Public Works. Um, so as
3:43:57 the board knows, the MBTA operates uh
3:44:00 the green line within the public's right
3:44:02 ofway under a grant of location and
3:44:04 areas around the stations and platforms
3:44:07 um where uh our responsibilities
3:44:09 naturally meet. Uh over the course of
3:44:12 this project, DPW staff have been
3:44:14 working closely with the MBTA's C branch
3:44:18 right of way and operations teams to
3:44:20 improve coordination and day-to-day
3:44:22 operations.
3:44:24 Theou is intended to capture those
3:44:26 working understandings in writing so
3:44:28 that both organizations and future staff
3:44:31 have clear guidance moving forward. At a
3:44:34 high level, the agreement will clarify
3:44:36 that the MBTA is responsible for
3:44:39 operation and maintenance of its
3:44:40 stations, platforms, track beds,
3:44:43 associated station infrastructure, while
3:44:45 the town remains responsible for the
3:44:47 roadway, sidewalks, drainage trees,
3:44:50 traffic infrastructure, and other
3:44:52 municipal assets, parking meters within
3:44:54 the public right ofway. Uh, one area
3:44:57 we're looking to uh clarify is snow
3:45:00 removal. uh snow operations occur
3:45:03 simultaneously across all MBTA and town
3:45:05 assets and the agreement will outline
3:45:08 which organization clears u platforms,
3:45:11 ramps, track crossings, public
3:45:13 sidewalks, roadway crossings and
3:45:15 connections to the broader pedestrian
3:45:17 network and bus stops. And the the
3:45:19 intent is to ensure that both
3:45:20 organizations can maintain their
3:45:22 infrastructure efficiently
3:45:24 and the public experiences a continuous
3:45:26 and safe accessible path during winter
3:45:29 operations. So theus is intended to me
3:45:32 memorialize certain operational
3:45:34 commitments also associated with the
3:45:36 construction of the accessible platforms
3:45:39 as that project moves forward. The
3:45:41 language of theou is currently being
3:45:44 refined by town staff working with town
3:45:46 council and the MBTA. What we're asking
3:45:49 the board to authorize this evening is
3:45:51 the ability for the town administrator
3:45:53 in consultation with DPW and town
3:45:55 council to finalize and execute that
3:45:58 operational agreements once the language
3:46:00 is complete. And this is really intended
3:46:03 to be an operational agreement between
3:46:05 the two organizations so that our staff
3:46:07 on both sides can continue to coordinate
3:46:10 efficiently and maintain both the town
3:46:12 and the MBTA infrastructure uh in a
3:46:15 clear and consistent way going forward.
3:46:17 There have been a lot of improvements in
3:46:19 communication, a lot of it brought about
3:46:22 because of this project. And so it's
3:46:26 really an opportunity for us to put that
3:46:28 in writing for clarity uh for the
3:46:31 future.
3:46:34 Great. Thank you. Any questions?
3:46:38 Are we ready to vote?
3:46:39 Michael,
3:46:40 a couple of questions. Um the first ju
3:46:42 just to clarify um does thisou
3:46:45 cover the sea line specifically or is it
3:46:49 broader through the town given that we
3:46:52 have other lines and bus stops etc.
3:46:54 So this the sea line is unique in um
3:46:58 that it's our asset with this um grant
3:47:01 of location sort of down the the spine.
3:47:04 So theou is intended to cover the sea
3:47:07 line specifically with the caveat that
3:47:10 snow removal will be clarified across
3:47:12 town.
3:47:13 Okay. Um and the second question I have
3:47:15 is um in those cases where for whatever
3:47:20 reason the the MBTA needs to um replace
3:47:25 the sealine with bus service along
3:47:27 Beacon Street. um are those conditions
3:47:30 also covered in theou so so so that
3:47:34 responsibility for maintaining those a
3:47:37 alternative bus stops are maintained in
3:47:40 those cases
3:47:41 so the contacts and the communication
3:47:45 will be outlined in theou but we work
3:47:48 very closely with the MBTA when they
3:47:50 have alternate alternate service and we
3:47:52 will continue to do that
3:47:54 okay thank you
3:47:57 Okay, I think we're ready to vote. So,
3:48:00 I'd like to move that the select board
3:48:03 authorize the town administrator
3:48:07 to finalize and execute the memorandum
3:48:09 of understanding with the MBTA regarding
3:48:12 maintenance, construction, and
3:48:14 operational responsibilities
3:48:16 within the Beacon Street Green Line
3:48:19 Corridor in consultation with town
3:48:21 council and the commissioner of public
3:48:23 works. All in favor, please indicate by
3:48:26 saying I. John Vancoyak
3:48:28 I
3:48:28 Paul Warren
3:48:29 hi
3:48:29 David Pearlman
3:48:30 I
3:48:31 Michael Rubenstein
3:48:32 I
3:48:32 and chair votes I thank you everyone
3:48:35 thank you very much and it's one sort of
3:48:38 brief and final comment I really want to
3:48:41 acknowledge the tremendous work that has
3:48:43 gone in for well over a year from the
3:48:45 department of public works staff you
3:48:48 have staff um that are here tonight you
3:48:50 have staff online incredibly committed
3:48:53 to trying to get this right and
3:48:57 understand the complexity of all of the
3:48:58 issues. I want to thank the select board
3:49:01 um both Michael and Paul for your
3:49:03 participation as we talked through um
3:49:05 the various issues and also for um our
3:49:10 chair uh Brian Kaine of the
3:49:12 transportation board. And I want to
3:49:14 recognize the MBTA staff um for the time
3:49:17 and care that they've taken to engage
3:49:20 with the community here in Brooklyn.
3:49:22 Working through a public process along a
3:49:24 corridor as visible and historic as
3:49:27 Beacon Street is not easy, and their
3:49:28 team has put in a great deal of effort
3:49:30 to listen, respond, and refine the
3:49:32 project. It has been a really careful
3:49:35 balance with really thoughtful people
3:49:37 for an important project for Brookline.
3:49:40 So, I thank you for um working through
3:49:43 this significant project with us and I
3:49:46 want to thank staff from public works
3:49:48 and from the MBTA. They are all truly
3:49:51 remarkable professionals in what they
3:49:52 do.
3:49:53 Thank you.
3:49:54 All right. Thank you.
3:49:55 Thank you.
3:49:57 Okay. I'd like to propose a five minute
3:49:59 break.
3:50:00 How about 10?
3:50:02 Or 10?
3:50:03 Oh, no.
3:50:04 Five.
3:50:06 Thank you everyone.
3:50:06 Five should do it.
3:50:09 Five minutes.
3:50:11 Okay. Wait,
3:50:12 you can be late.
3:50:14 We'll wait for you.
3:50:19 Yes.
3:50:20 Yeah.
3:50:21 I really kind of don't like this. I'd
3:50:24 like to see if you can
3:52:43 Hey,
3:52:55 bang.
3:58:22 So that was the
3:58:29 It happens.
3:58:32 I think so. But we're going to we're
3:58:34 going to see.
3:58:37 Yes. So So now now this is
3:58:39 Yeah. I'm sorry folks for you're hearing
3:58:41 overhearing our testing here. We'll go
3:58:42 off mute in a second.
3:58:46 See now I've got them both on DVS
3:58:48 receive one.
3:58:50 So now let me try
4:01:34 ready.
4:01:38 We're ready in live in five, four,
4:01:41 three, two, one.
4:01:44 Okay, we're back
4:01:46 and uh continuation of our meeting. Uh
4:01:49 next item on the agenda is the
4:01:51 department budget reviews. Um
4:01:56 select board members uh have received a
4:01:58 memo um that uh is what was sent to
4:02:02 departments to guide their presentations
4:02:06 um and is essentially uh what we should
4:02:08 use in guiding our questions. Um
4:02:14 so and we've used this in past years.
4:02:17 So, um, we're starting off with the
4:02:20 select board and I see Charlie Young is
4:02:25 on the screen there.
4:02:28 So,
4:02:29 good evening, Bernard.
4:02:31 Yes. Thank you, Chair Green. And, um,
4:02:33 thank you, Select Board members and
4:02:35 folks online for bearing with us through
4:02:37 the audio troubles tonight. It's
4:02:38 wonderful to finally hear your voices
4:02:41 um, loud and clear. I'm going to try to
4:02:44 be brief tonight. So, I'm Charlie Young.
4:02:46 I'm the assistant town administrator for
4:02:48 finance and I have the pleasure tonight
4:02:49 of representing the uh select board's
4:02:53 office uh budget for FY27.
4:02:59 So, um hopefully you are all seeing my
4:03:02 screen and what you're looking at here
4:03:04 is the budget by the numbers for the
4:03:06 select board's office. Um in FY27 the
4:03:09 budget is just over a million dollars.
4:03:11 Uh most of which is in salaries is in
4:03:14 personnel. Uh the personnel line is
4:03:16 increasing with steps. Uh but not shown
4:03:19 here is that we are losing our ARPA
4:03:21 budget staff and support by the end of
4:03:23 FY27.
4:03:24 We are taking a reduction in our outside
4:03:27 services line item here. Um that is
4:03:30 pretty substantial. That is to meet the
4:03:32 to help meet the town deficit. Um there
4:03:35 is a slight increase built in here for
4:03:37 our boards and commission software going
4:03:39 up. Uh supplies are level funded in
4:03:41 FY27. We do find ourselves transferring
4:03:44 money into these accounts out of
4:03:46 personnel or other lines that have
4:03:47 surplus um to meet increasing costs
4:03:50 there, but we're holding it steady. Uh
4:03:52 notably, the the other category is
4:03:55 remaining level as well. Um this is uh
4:03:58 notable because we're able to retain the
4:04:00 Mass Cultural Council Arts Grant
4:04:02 matching funds that were added there as
4:04:05 PA part of the last override cycle. Um
4:04:08 finally the capital uh category is
4:04:10 increasing just to u meet the cost of
4:04:13 leased computer equipment. So overall a
4:04:16 very uh modest increase of.3%.
4:04:22 Great. Thank you. Any question? Yeah. Go
4:04:25 ahead.
4:04:26 I'll I'll I'll take questions at the
4:04:27 end. We'll we'll
4:04:28 Oh, no. I I interrupted you. Why don't
4:04:30 you continue?
4:04:31 Sure. Thanks. Um so uh the the guidance
4:04:34 sent out to departments talked about our
4:04:36 uh a few accomplishments from the
4:04:38 current fiscal year. Uh since around the
4:04:40 beginning of summertime, we've been
4:04:42 working with the select board to develop
4:04:43 their roadmap um which is a series of
4:04:47 goals and strategies for uh for
4:04:49 accomplishing policy objectives over the
4:04:51 next uh few years in town that will be
4:04:53 coming together in the next month. U
4:04:55 we've also been administering the
4:04:57 expenditures and revenue study committee
4:04:59 whose work is concluding very shortly.
4:05:02 um which has you know been a a
4:05:03 significant hall for the office and I
4:05:05 think um a good accomplishment. Um and
4:05:08 finally this hangs uh mostly on
4:05:11 Christina Metaf's shoulders. The
4:05:13 recognition that we received from the
4:05:14 Mass Municipal Association for our annu
4:05:16 our exemplary annual report. We thank
4:05:19 Christina for her work on that. So a few
4:05:22 goals for FY27. Um we you know namely
4:05:26 this office will be working on
4:05:28 implementing the goals and strategies
4:05:29 within the select board's road roadmap
4:05:31 and so we can talk about our long-term
4:05:33 goals all we like but most of those are
4:05:35 going to be defined by what comes out of
4:05:37 that work product. Um and so we'll we'll
4:05:39 be spending a lot of time on that. We'll
4:05:41 be closing out our our ARPA spending as
4:05:44 of December. Um all of that spending
4:05:47 needs to be complete and those projects
4:05:48 need to be complete. Um we'll be
4:05:50 wrapping up uh what was $40 million and
4:05:53 over 120 projects internal and external
4:05:56 um in ARPA funding. Um finally, we're
4:05:59 going to continue our efforts to
4:06:00 digitize and streamline the licensing
4:06:02 process, but I want to highlight here
4:06:03 that the road map itself discusses
4:06:06 looking for efficiencies. And so, not
4:06:08 only in the area of licensing, but I
4:06:10 think we'll be looking for other areas
4:06:12 we can create uh efficiencies and
4:06:14 streamline things for staff and
4:06:16 residents um and board and committee
4:06:18 members. So, there's just a few of the
4:06:21 of the um stats we're going to use to
4:06:23 track our our streamlining of licensing.
4:06:26 We just implemented those this year and
4:06:28 so hopefully next year we'll start
4:06:29 having actual data we can report out to
4:06:32 the board.
4:06:34 Continuing right along, the office has
4:06:37 nine total FTEEs. And what we're showing
4:06:39 you here on this pie chart is that we
4:06:41 really don't have any groups of
4:06:42 employees. We're mostly a a group of
4:06:44 several specialized folks that are each
4:06:47 doing each working in their own areas.
4:06:49 Um we're a very lean staff. Um we are
4:06:53 losing our ARPA funded grant
4:06:54 administrator at the end of FY27. Um so
4:06:58 no plans to change staffing at this
4:07:00 point. you know, referencing the
4:07:02 guidance that was sent out to
4:07:03 departments, we no plans to change
4:07:05 staffing at this point, but we are
4:07:06 losing that position. Um, and digitizing
4:07:09 licensing is one of those examples of
4:07:11 trying to provide efficiencies without
4:07:13 needing to add staff in order to achieve
4:07:16 those. So, that's something that that
4:07:17 the the guidance mentioned as well, you
4:07:20 know, talking about where we're we're
4:07:21 looking to create efficiencies. And we
4:07:23 think that we're we're making good
4:07:24 progress there.
4:07:27 And so, um, finally, um, not to breeze
4:07:31 through everything too quickly, uh, the
4:07:33 board asked about a couple of things or
4:07:35 perennially asked about a couple of
4:07:36 things, which was increasing demands and
4:07:38 what we would do without budget
4:07:39 constraints. And so, the the highest
4:07:42 increase in demand that we have seen is
4:07:44 really in fiscal oversight. The uh, the
4:07:47 last fiscal year close was was a
4:07:49 difficult one with a couple of
4:07:50 significant overtime deficits in public
4:07:52 safety. Um this year we have a
4:07:55 significant snow and ice deficit. We've
4:07:57 had the issue with the transfer station
4:07:59 floor. We're talking about potentially,
4:08:01 you know, we'll obviously have another
4:08:02 fire overtime deficit. Um and so these
4:08:05 these fiscal years are requiring more
4:08:07 and more um effort and work at least
4:08:09 from our end of the office, Melissa and
4:08:11 I's end of the office and monitoring
4:08:13 deficits, monitoring spending issues and
4:08:15 concerns. Um utilities are also a
4:08:18 concern this year. we're seeing, you
4:08:20 know, as a result of geopolitical
4:08:22 conflicts, rising costs. Um, and then
4:08:24 we're we're also getting this feedback
4:08:26 that, um, board and committee support is
4:08:28 an area that we're seeing increased
4:08:30 demand. Um, and and I I also list
4:08:33 communications here. This is partly ADA
4:08:35 compliance and and and partly community
4:08:38 outreach demand, but you know, more of
4:08:40 our time and maybe that is we're victims
4:08:42 of our own success in that in that um
4:08:44 situation, but more of our time is going
4:08:46 to to outreach and and communications.
4:08:50 So, uh without budget constraints, what
4:08:52 would we do in our office? Would our
4:08:54 priorities change? Um my sense is that
4:08:56 we wouldn't change our priorities, but
4:08:58 we could significantly expand our
4:09:00 capacity. You know, I mentioned earlier
4:09:01 that the department has several
4:09:03 specialized folks. Each of those, in my
4:09:06 opinion, could be its own division. You
4:09:07 could have a division of community
4:09:09 engagement. You could have a division
4:09:10 that's dedicated to finance, that's
4:09:12 dedicated to budget projections. Um, you
4:09:15 know, and of course, we would expand on
4:09:17 professional development. We could we
4:09:19 could really expand on what we do with
4:09:20 department heads on a quarterly basis to
4:09:22 provide training to the department and
4:09:24 division heads. And of course, we could
4:09:25 ramp up resident services to the to to
4:09:28 the levels I think that people really
4:09:30 idealistically would like to see. Um,
4:09:32 and so that is the select board's budget
4:09:35 for FY27. I want to take a moment to
4:09:38 shout out um our office staff, Kate,
4:09:40 Michelle, Nicole, Christina, Tyler,
4:09:42 Jillian, Melanie, Melissa, and Chaz um
4:09:45 who all make it a great place to work
4:09:47 and who all uh come to work um as highly
4:09:51 professional public servants um ready to
4:09:54 work hard for the town of Brooklyn. And
4:09:55 so I truly appreciate them all. And
4:09:57 Chaz, if you have anything you'd like to
4:09:59 add here, um please feel free. But I
4:10:03 will leave this screen up for a minute
4:10:04 and I will be glad to take any
4:10:06 questions.
4:10:08 Just want to echo Charlie's thanks to
4:10:10 the staff, the whole team. Um it's a
4:10:13 really great team. Uh we're we're
4:10:14 incredibly lucky to have all these
4:10:16 folks. Um folks who have been here for a
4:10:19 long time, folks who are new to us.
4:10:21 Welcome Ellie. Um and um it's you know
4:10:26 folks who who are you know here in in
4:10:28 meetings front and center but you know
4:10:29 folks like Michelle too and and Kate who
4:10:32 are not often seen um but do a huge
4:10:34 amount of work. Um and so I just want to
4:10:36 thank everyone um really just a great
4:10:38 great group of people.
4:10:40 Great. Uh David.
4:10:42 So I have a few questions regarding
4:10:44 specific line items and this is not to
4:10:46 critique it's just more curiosity. So, I
4:10:49 see that there's one line under salaries
4:10:51 for uh clothing uniform allowance, and
4:10:55 I'm just curious who in the select board
4:10:57 office has uniforms and if you could
4:10:58 just elaborate on that.
4:11:00 That is a uh a collectively bargained
4:11:03 line that I think um is going to the
4:11:06 whatever clerical whoever is cler class
4:11:09 is cler clerical in our office. Um, I'd
4:11:12 have to I'd have to look at who that is
4:11:14 specifically, but um, it's a, you know,
4:11:16 it's a small dollar amount and this is
4:11:18 something you'll see in virtually every
4:11:19 department budget that has clerical
4:11:20 staff.
4:11:21 All right. And I see that's being cut in
4:11:23 half. It it it so last year fiscal year
4:11:26 1,100 that's going down to 550. And then
4:11:29 some other examples of significant drops
4:11:31 that I noticed, uh, printing services
4:11:34 going from 3,518
4:11:37 to 500. So, a seven-fold decrease.
4:11:41 Subscriptions from about $8,400 to just
4:11:46 over $100. And then, uh, tech service
4:11:50 basically cut in half, a little more
4:11:52 than half, 47,000 down to 20,000. Uh so
4:11:55 in terms of these changes, were there
4:11:58 any significant modifications from a uh
4:12:03 service provision perspective that the
4:12:05 select board needed to take in order to
4:12:07 make these reductions?
4:12:09 So this really reduces uh what will
4:12:12 happen as a result of this uh David and
4:12:14 this is a great question. So thank you
4:12:15 for asking. Um is really a reduction in
4:12:18 our flexibility in these line items. So
4:12:21 in other words, one of the the the
4:12:22 professional technical services align
4:12:24 item is often used for department head
4:12:26 recruitment. Um you know, printing
4:12:28 services is when you know we need
4:12:30 something in excess of what our in-house
4:12:32 printing um office can provide. Uh and
4:12:35 so it we we aren't going to see an
4:12:37 immediate service reduction as a result
4:12:39 of these things. But I do think you may
4:12:41 hear from us asking for transfers more
4:12:43 often, looking for money more often in
4:12:46 in especially in the case that we had to
4:12:48 do multiple department head recruitments
4:12:49 in a year. Um, you know, this it's
4:12:52 really what this comes down to is a loss
4:12:54 of flexibility in the department. And I
4:12:56 can say from experience that we're we're
4:12:58 already basically strapped as as hard as
4:13:01 we can be. um you know getting requests
4:13:04 from Christina to be able to do you know
4:13:07 something interesting for for example
4:13:09 for a town event and we don't have the
4:13:11 money to do that. Um and so that's
4:13:14 really what these lines are impacting.
4:13:16 All right because for example with
4:13:18 printing services and I I had this issue
4:13:20 just last night both of my uh at home
4:13:23 office printers decided to malfunction
4:13:25 were giving me a hard time. I checked
4:13:27 with uh Kinko Staples how much it would
4:13:30 cost and they wanted 80 cents a page and
4:13:32 I had to print quite a voluminous
4:13:35 amount. So I said forget it. I'll stick
4:13:36 it out and just stay up longer and try
4:13:38 to figure out what's going on with my
4:13:39 printers. But I see that for the entire
4:13:41 select board office $500 for the whole
4:13:44 year that's really going to cover it.
4:13:47 Well, um it's a good question, David.
4:13:50 The answer is yes, we'll make it work,
4:13:52 right? Um and I think the the longer
4:13:56 answer is um that line item may have
4:13:58 been a little bit stale. We may actually
4:14:00 have been been spending more out of
4:14:02 professional technical services. Way the
4:14:04 budget is voted all of the services line
4:14:06 items. Everything under the category of
4:14:08 services rolls up to one number. Um and
4:14:11 so uh printing services I think probably
4:14:14 is our is maybe our copier contract. Um,
4:14:17 and so we're probably cutting out a
4:14:19 surplus that we had there that was being
4:14:21 used for professional technical
4:14:22 services. I mean, if I if I just pull up
4:14:24 my sc the slideshow for one second
4:14:27 again, I don't want to take up too much
4:14:28 time. Um, you know, you'll notice that
4:14:30 out of the services line item, we had
4:14:33 66,000 in spend last year. I mean, and
4:14:35 that is largely due to Brookline
4:14:38 Interactive hybrid services we were
4:14:40 paying out of this line item that are
4:14:41 coming out of ARPA this year. Uh but but
4:14:45 for example that's you know that's the
4:14:47 kind of thing that's happening here
4:14:48 where we may have spent less on printing
4:14:49 and may have spent more on professional
4:14:52 technical services for example. So yeah
4:14:54 so the the short answer is we'll make it
4:14:56 work.
4:14:57 Are there any important subscriptions
4:14:58 we're losing going from $8,388
4:15:02 worth of subscriptions to 125?
4:15:06 We uh not off the top of my head. David,
4:15:09 I think that we are phasing out um some
4:15:12 memberships um but not as a but not as
4:15:16 as a result of this cut. So I I can't
4:15:18 think of any off the top of my head.
4:15:19 And the reason if you can remember
4:15:22 the reason I ask that I understand that
4:15:24 we're talking about relatively low
4:15:25 dollar amounts compare in comparison to
4:15:28 the entirety of our budget. But to the
4:15:30 extent that some of these line items
4:15:33 have broader financial impacts in terms
4:15:36 of efficiency of completing certain
4:15:39 other services, I I just want to make
4:15:41 sure that we're not being uh pennywise
4:15:44 pound foolish with some of these.
4:15:46 Yeah, I understand that. I think that
4:15:48 maybe this is state house news.
4:15:51 This is state house news. You know, it's
4:15:53 Massachusetts newswire service for state
4:15:55 material.
4:15:56 I found I find it helpful. I find it
4:15:58 useful. But I also find that when news
4:16:01 needs to reach me from the state house,
4:16:02 I can there are other ways for me to
4:16:04 reach it. Like it's it's nice to have.
4:16:06 It's nice to be able to stay on top of
4:16:08 things, but in this scarce environment,
4:16:11 I'm you know, it's it's a nice to have,
4:16:13 so I'm cutting it.
4:16:17 Michael,
4:16:18 um thank you very much, Charlie. Um I
4:16:21 have a couple of questions. Um the first
4:16:23 question is um
4:16:26 given that we are losing the grant
4:16:28 administrator
4:16:29 um can you give us any sense of what the
4:16:32 grant revenue is that that person was
4:16:35 responsible for bringing in um so that
4:16:38 we understand sort of what the cost is
4:16:41 versus what the revenue is that that
4:16:43 person was generating.
4:16:45 Yeah, that that's a great question,
4:16:46 Michael. So this position was created in
4:16:48 order to administer the American Rescue
4:16:51 Plan Act. Sharpa funds um that came
4:16:54 through as a result of COVID right from
4:16:56 the federal government. So um that was a
4:16:59 you know 40 plus million I think 42 to
4:17:01 $43 million
4:17:03 um that they didn't necessarily bring in
4:17:05 we would have received it either way and
4:17:07 they their task was to ensure that that
4:17:09 money was spent correctly and to
4:17:11 basically act as the administrator of
4:17:13 the money for subreients. So t you know
4:17:16 um Tyler Balile in our office um who's
4:17:19 been excellent with ARPA um has I think
4:17:22 also served as a as a contact when
4:17:24 needed for questions around using you
4:17:26 know SAM accounts and federal you know
4:17:29 doing federal grant applications. I
4:17:31 can't say off the top of my head how
4:17:32 many additional grants Tyler actually
4:17:34 brought in if any. Um I think he's been
4:17:37 pretty busy with the 43 million in ARPA.
4:17:40 Now, with that said, um Michael, you
4:17:43 rais a good point and a good question.
4:17:45 Um you know, I've talked with Tyler a
4:17:47 lot about whether or not we should or
4:17:49 could have a grant position in town and
4:17:51 what that would look like or even just a
4:17:53 grants process because it's fairly
4:17:55 decentralized at this point and we think
4:17:57 there's capacity for it. Um but um but
4:18:01 unfortunately, yeah, Tyler himself
4:18:03 didn't bring any additional revenue over
4:18:05 or above AR ARPA. I just I just briefly
4:18:08 add to that. Um
4:18:10 um when we talked to the expenditures
4:18:11 and revenue study committee and we we
4:18:13 were asked you know we asked all the
4:18:14 departments if money was no object what
4:18:16 are your top three things? One of my top
4:18:18 three things was bringing on a permanent
4:18:20 grants administrator. Um and um the ra
4:18:24 the reason for that is as Charlie said
4:18:26 our process is decentralized. Some
4:18:27 departments are very good at hunting
4:18:29 down grants and funding themselves and
4:18:31 some of them don't have the capacity to
4:18:32 do it um and need a helping hand. I also
4:18:35 need to have insight into our overall
4:18:38 long range strategy for pursuing grants
4:18:40 and prioritizing them. You know, right
4:18:42 now I file all the earmark applications
4:18:45 for federal dollars myself, you know, I
4:18:47 ask the department heads, what do you
4:18:48 need? And then I stay up late and I put
4:18:49 them together. Um, you know, that's not
4:18:52 an efficient use of my time. Um, and
4:18:54 given the amount of money that people
4:18:56 could be getting for those, you know, if
4:18:58 we were if we were really strong at
4:19:01 developing that grant function, I think
4:19:02 it is a worthwhile investment in the
4:19:04 long run. But it's something that has to
4:19:06 come after this override cycle. Um,
4:19:09 again, it would be really nice and I
4:19:12 think it would ultimately be a money
4:19:13 maker for the town to have centralized
4:19:15 grant support operations. And I want to
4:19:17 be clear, you know, I'm not saying to
4:19:19 those departments who do good job. We're
4:19:21 going to take that function away from
4:19:22 them. We want to be able to coordinate
4:19:24 with them and ensure that we're all
4:19:25 everyone is is able to function at that
4:19:27 kind of high level. Um, but right now we
4:19:30 just we don't have the capacity. Um, and
4:19:33 you know, I don't want to be in a
4:19:34 position of saying, you know, I'd like
4:19:36 to add a staff, a permanent staff member
4:19:38 when we're asking other departments to
4:19:39 make cuts. So, that's where we are.
4:19:42 So, this financial plan is based on a no
4:19:45 override scenario.
4:19:47 Yes.
4:19:48 Correct.
4:19:49 If the override does pass, I don't
4:19:51 recall that this position is recovered.
4:19:54 No, it is not.
4:19:55 Though, as you said, uh, it it generates
4:19:58 a huge amount of money or could generate
4:20:00 a large amount of money. It could. Yeah,
4:20:02 it's it's right. It's it's theoretical
4:20:04 and as always, you know, we we we don't
4:20:06 budget in soft money into the hard money
4:20:08 budget for for good reasons. Um, so it
4:20:10 is something that's that's difficult to
4:20:12 quantify and can be ephemeral in ways,
4:20:14 but we, you know, we obviously track our
4:20:16 grant funded things. We try and, you
4:20:18 know, make sure that people understand,
4:20:20 you know, what's on the budget versus
4:20:21 what's, you know, what's what's on the
4:20:23 what's in the operating budget versus
4:20:24 what's out of it. Um, we try and do all
4:20:27 of that and I think we're successful at
4:20:28 it. Um but again we think about the
4:20:31 priorities of the community, the
4:20:33 priorities that have been said to us in
4:20:34 expenditures and revenues. You know, our
4:20:36 goal to try and keep the town override
4:20:38 number at the same or lower than the ask
4:20:41 was in 2023 and the large amount of
4:20:45 needs in other departments. You know,
4:20:46 between, you know, fire, police, and
4:20:49 DPW, that's pretty much it. That's the
4:20:50 ball game. You know, a couple of other
4:20:52 departments are getting small numbers,
4:20:53 but you know, I was just, you know,
4:20:55 talking to the health director and kind
4:20:56 of lamenting, you know, there was space
4:20:59 in this override. Yes, I would give more
4:21:01 money to public health, but the
4:21:03 prioritization is what it is. Um, and
4:21:05 you know, we're kind of in the same boat
4:21:06 there. Um, you know, we we do what we
4:21:09 can with what we have.
4:21:12 Sean,
4:21:13 well, um, we've arrived at what I've
4:21:15 wanted to ask about, and I think it's a
4:21:17 very important point. As we go through
4:21:18 not just this budget but all the budgets
4:21:22 we have to keep in mind um that uh what
4:21:26 we're looking at is a budget that is
4:21:28 part of an overall balanced budget and
4:21:31 that does not include uh the assumption
4:21:33 of any override monies. Right.
4:21:36 Correct.
4:21:36 Right. So, um, one of the questions to
4:21:39 be asked, I think, with each and every
4:21:41 budget is, uh, okay, so that that's what
4:21:44 you've got, um, short of an override,
4:21:48 uh, is your department, um, is this
4:21:50 budget, um, in line to receive, uh, fund
4:21:53 additional funds, in the event of an
4:21:56 override, and if so, what would you need
4:21:58 them for, and what would you use them
4:22:00 for? Um, it turns out in this case, this
4:22:04 is not a department that's in line for
4:22:05 any additional money through the
4:22:07 override, but there are going to be
4:22:09 departments that we address soon that
4:22:11 will be. And I think we need to know the
4:22:14 difference between what we're looking at
4:22:15 and what we would be looking at if there
4:22:17 had been if there were an override uh
4:22:20 developed and what what additional
4:22:22 monies would flow into department X, Y,
4:22:25 or Z. As a result,
4:22:27 we might see a small increase in the
4:22:28 professional technical services as
4:22:30 Oh, in this in this department. Okay.
4:22:32 Because as Charlie said, you know, we
4:22:33 were really
4:22:34 we're down to our last dollar now. And
4:22:36 you know, for example, we we had, you
4:22:38 know, last last year we were able to use
4:22:40 funds, salary savings, other funds that
4:22:42 we had to fund the CLA report when we
4:22:44 needed to do that quickly. We couldn't
4:22:46 do that this year.
4:22:47 Want to have that flexibility and
4:22:49 capacity to do that work. One of the
4:22:51 other things that department heads have
4:22:52 also asked of us is we run the um
4:22:54 quarterly department division head
4:22:56 trainings. We do these trainings and
4:22:58 we've been trying to to work with HR to
4:23:01 do um employee appreciation uh at least
4:23:03 once a year um which we would like to
4:23:05 include both a you know thank you for
4:23:07 the service that you do but also a
4:23:09 functional aspect of it like a training
4:23:11 component to it so that people could in
4:23:13 other communities you know they they can
4:23:15 do trainings where they take you know
4:23:17 some departments will take half a day
4:23:18 off and do an off-site training of some
4:23:20 kind you know that we would love to be
4:23:22 able to invest in that uh and so
4:23:25 restoring a little bit of money into
4:23:26 that budget to give us more flexibility
4:23:28 to do that work is kind of what we would
4:23:30 in a in a if in the current override
4:23:33 scenario some of the professional
4:23:34 technical money but not all of it would
4:23:36 flow back.
4:23:39 Well, um John, thanks for raising that
4:23:42 question. It was um something I hadn't
4:23:45 thought of.
4:23:46 Kind of makes you think,
4:23:47 huh?
4:23:47 It kind of makes you think.
4:23:48 Makes you think. Um,
4:23:52 so as we go through this process, we may
4:23:55 we may not have time to review every
4:24:00 departmental budget before we get to
4:24:02 this discussion about the override. Will
4:24:05 each department and how much money they
4:24:07 would get be listed and how it would be
4:24:10 used for as we start talking about the
4:24:12 override?
4:24:12 Yes. So all all the override line items
4:24:14 are keyed in by department and if it
4:24:16 says multiple departments I have the
4:24:18 information about how that splits out.
4:24:20 Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. But if
4:24:22 one I'm sorry Bernard but as John said
4:24:24 if as the departments present if we
4:24:27 could also have it as part of those that
4:24:30 discussion I think it to provide context
4:24:32 would be really helpful.
4:24:32 Got it.
4:24:33 Okay. Thanks
4:24:34 John. I'm sorry Michael.
4:24:36 Um I have one other question for you
4:24:38 Charlie. you mentioned something uh work
4:24:41 about community engagement and how you
4:24:44 would um uh that would be one of your
4:24:46 priorities if money wow object um and
4:24:48 I'm just wondering given that we also
4:24:50 have a department that has community
4:24:53 relations in its name um how those two
4:24:59 um functions either coordinate or
4:25:02 overlap or um uh talk to each other to
4:25:07 to understand the kinds of work that
4:25:09 they do.
4:25:11 Sure. I think that they are different
4:25:13 functions. Um I think that what we're
4:25:15 doing on the sixth floor is more in the
4:25:18 in the realm of disseminating
4:25:20 information in the realm of keeping
4:25:23 ensuring we're getting information out
4:25:25 in the right places in the right ways um
4:25:27 and doing it coherently with a with a
4:25:29 unified message. Um to to be honest with
4:25:33 you, I can't speak to, you know,
4:25:36 necessarily what they're doing in ODICR.
4:25:38 Maybe Chaz could could jump in here. Um
4:25:42 but when I say when I talk about
4:25:44 expanding that effort, you know, right
4:25:45 now we have an ARPA funded agreement
4:25:47 with Capital Strategic Solutions who is
4:25:49 um helping us with PR, right? Um and so,
4:25:53 you know, you could you could easily
4:25:55 have additional staff in our department
4:25:56 whose job it is to work with Christina
4:25:58 on all the projects she's working on.
4:26:01 um and expand upon that. I think um
4:26:04 tenfold. I think that right now um we're
4:26:07 doing a lot with a little put it that
4:26:09 way. So, and I don't know if anybody
4:26:11 else wants to jump in here and throw me
4:26:12 a lifeline on.
4:26:15 I'll just say when when I came on board,
4:26:17 one of the things that we did was we
4:26:19 moved a communications officer position
4:26:21 out of ODICR into the select board
4:26:23 office. And the purpose of that was to
4:26:25 give to centralize that function and to
4:26:29 in the same way that we talk about
4:26:30 centralizing grant administration. Some
4:26:32 departments are very good at
4:26:32 communication. Some departments don't
4:26:34 have any communication at all. But when
4:26:36 we did that, we expressly said that a
4:26:38 part of that role that part of that job
4:26:40 is to work with ODICR to target outreach
4:26:43 and to target communication particularly
4:26:45 with harderto-reach parts of our
4:26:47 community. And that is some of the work
4:26:49 that Christine has been doing. And ODICR
4:26:51 has also been, you know, taking the lead
4:26:53 in terms of thinking about how do we
4:26:56 reach people who are disconnected from
4:26:59 the community but who live here and, you
4:27:02 know, rely on the and could benefit in
4:27:04 from the services that we provide. And
4:27:06 so that question is out there. You know,
4:27:08 we're always thinking about how we how
4:27:10 we communicate, not just broadly with
4:27:13 the general public, but specifically
4:27:15 with parts of the community that have
4:27:16 been unrepresented or are are otherwise
4:27:19 disconnected or or, you know, um not,
4:27:22 you know, don't feel themselves to be a
4:27:24 part of the community as it stands. So,
4:27:27 um there is a joint role for ODICR and
4:27:30 the communications officer position to
4:27:32 play in that targeted outreach. Um but I
4:27:35 think on the whole moving communications
4:27:37 into the select board office and having
4:27:39 that sit there has been a success in
4:27:43 terms of how we've been able to broaden
4:27:45 our messaging out to the public.
4:27:48 And the the U diversity office does its
4:27:51 own communication with respect to
4:27:52 various programs that that it uh
4:27:55 supports or runs. So
4:27:59 they're not out of the game in that
4:28:01 regard. They do a very good job of that.
4:28:03 Right. I'm I I I'm mostly asking this
4:28:05 question as an organizational structure
4:28:07 question, not a question of like are
4:28:10 these different uh departments doing
4:28:15 good work or important work or work that
4:28:16 needs to be done. It's just is the
4:28:19 organizational structure optimized for
4:28:21 getting all of this done in the right
4:28:23 percentages.
4:28:24 So um
4:28:27 OD
4:28:29 O DICR will be um on our is on our
4:28:33 agenda for later on. So those are
4:28:35 questions that we can raise with them.
4:28:39 Okay. Any other questions for chair?
4:28:42 I don't have a question about this one,
4:28:43 but I wanted to make it just a quick
4:28:45 query about timing. Um
4:28:47 yeah.
4:28:48 Uh I don't want to be I don't I I don't
4:28:50 want to pop the good time bubble here,
4:28:52 but you know, this was a half hour on
4:28:55 one.
4:28:56 Okay. Uh, and I
4:28:58 Yeah, we're going to be here till
4:28:59 midnight or 1:00.
4:29:00 Shorter presentations,
4:29:02 fewer questions maybe.
4:29:04 Yeah, we should time block. We should
4:29:05 time block how much time we want to
4:29:06 spend on each distance.
4:29:09 So, Melanie, give us five minutes
4:29:13 going forward.
4:29:14 Okay.
4:29:16 All right. Thank you.
4:29:17 Five minutes.
4:29:18 Thank you, Charlie.
4:29:18 Thank you, Charlie. Thank you.
4:29:21 Next. Town council.
4:29:26 So, you have no more than 10 minutes.
4:29:28 Uh, Joe.
4:29:31 All right.
4:29:32 Can you see my screen?
4:29:36 Yes.
4:29:38 All right.
4:29:38 I'm getting a little feedback. So, you
4:29:40 maybe turn if there's a speaker, turn it
4:29:42 down a tiny bit.
4:29:45 All right. Um,
4:29:48 I'll talk uh more softly up. Um, but uh
4:29:52 I'm Joe Callahan, town council. Uh, and
4:29:55 here's my budget presentation, and I'll
4:29:57 try to keep it short, but I'm happy to
4:29:58 answer any questions. So, we are uh you
4:30:02 see me frequently, but there's many of
4:30:04 us. There's seven other other of us in
4:30:06 town council's office, five attorneys,
4:30:08 and uh three support staff. Uh John, who
4:30:12 counts our FTEEs. Uh in years past we
4:30:14 had an FTE count of 8.7. Um that was an
4:30:18 addition of an investigator that has
4:30:20 since moved over to HR. That position
4:30:23 wasn't filled but the year that the
4:30:25 investigator went over to HR we added a
4:30:28 half an FTE which are paid interns. So
4:30:31 that makes up our office which is
4:30:32 usually about 10 people.
4:30:35 Uh this is a change in the budget from
4:30:37 last year over this year. um it
4:30:40 represents a 1% decrease and that's
4:30:42 again in a no override situation. Um the
4:30:45 big decrease or big change is $30,000
4:30:48 reduction in downside services. There's
4:30:51 a an increase in salaries, but that's
4:30:53 just steps of our uh employees who are
4:30:56 not at the top step and an increase in
4:30:58 our cost of uh computers.
4:31:02 So I want to talk about two of our
4:31:04 accomplishments. Um, this is along the
4:31:07 lines of how we measure our
4:31:10 accomplishments as opposed to, you know,
4:31:12 the town council's office doesn't
4:31:14 produce a building or, you know, produce
4:31:16 a comprehensive plan. But we do work
4:31:18 with those other departments who do
4:31:20 those things to make sure they're done
4:31:22 legally and, you know, as best we can.
4:31:25 But how but there's two metrics that I
4:31:27 try to track that are specifically
4:31:29 related to legal and that is our
4:31:30 spending on outside counsel. And you've
4:31:32 heard this in years past. This is a
4:31:34 comparison of the last 12 years. Um,
4:31:37 four the last four years are ones I'm
4:31:39 responsible for because I've now been
4:31:41 with Brookline since March of 2022. So,
4:31:44 four years. But we went back another
4:31:47 eight years to uh, you know, compare our
4:31:49 outside spending costs versus what uh,
4:31:52 we've been spending on outside council
4:31:54 since I got here. You heard examples,
4:31:57 but actually there's another example of
4:31:59 why we don't need outside counsel. For
4:32:02 example, you heard many times uh many
4:32:05 many many nights about the negotiations
4:32:07 that we've had with the MBTA.
4:32:10 Um in my 11 years at the MB at the uh
4:32:12 state, I worked on a lot of railroad
4:32:15 title case. Um in the three years I was
4:32:18 in private practice, I represented the
4:32:20 MBTA 15 years ago. I had several trials
4:32:24 over the state of railroad title. I'm
4:32:26 one of the few attorneys that know about
4:32:28 railroad title. So when Aaron came to me
4:32:30 and said the MDTA is telling her we have
4:32:34 to accept what they want to do on their
4:32:36 you know sea line I said well if it's
4:32:39 within their granted location they're
4:32:40 right but is everything within their
4:32:42 granted location and we realized the
4:32:44 grant of location hadn't changed since
4:32:46 the 19th century even though the MBTA
4:32:50 property did and that gave us the
4:32:51 leverage to negotiate thatou that Aaron
4:32:54 was talking about otherwise I can assure
4:32:57 you I represented a community before
4:32:59 that was in the MDK area. The MDA would
4:33:02 have treated us differently, but we had
4:33:06 something that they needed, an amended
4:33:08 grant of location, and we then were able
4:33:11 to use what they needed from us to get
4:33:13 what we wanted from them. And that's
4:33:15 theou that's concessions on trees.
4:33:18 That's a lot of concessions that the
4:33:19 MBTA, you guys understand, just agreed
4:33:22 to. But because of my experience with
4:33:25 railroad title, I didn't need to go to
4:33:27 outside council. Instead, what I did is
4:33:29 have Susan Harris in my office learn
4:33:32 about railroad title. I know about it.
4:33:34 I've worked on it multiple times, but I
4:33:36 passed on my knowledge to other
4:33:38 attorneys in the office. So, that's what
4:33:40 we're trying to do with um the money
4:33:43 that we get. So, instead of spending
4:33:46 money on outside lawyers, we increased
4:33:48 our subscription to West Law. We got a
4:33:50 sub a membership in the social law
4:33:53 library. So it's a it's a law library
4:33:55 where you can get resources that aren't
4:33:57 online. Uh if you're looking for the
4:33:59 ward commission reports from the 60s
4:34:01 that's not on Wesla but it is in social
4:34:03 law library. You heard about you know
4:34:05 needs for professional development. What
4:34:07 we did was increase the money that we
4:34:10 spent through bar associations through
4:34:12 mass um Massachusetts continuing legal
4:34:14 education. All my attorneys can get
4:34:17 training if they want it. If you look in
4:34:19 um fiscal year 24 and 25, that's
4:34:22 spending that we we had on an outside
4:34:25 lawyer to train our new labor and
4:34:27 employment lawyer. We spent about um
4:34:29 $10,000 for him to do 40 hours of
4:34:32 training. But what he did was power he
4:34:35 recorded PowerPoint presentations. So
4:34:37 when he was training Elena Ben David,
4:34:41 our new labor employment lawyer, Elena
4:34:44 has left in the past year. All of Jack
4:34:47 Collins's videos are now available for
4:34:50 Barry Freedelland who replaced the link.
4:34:52 So even though we spent money on an
4:34:54 outside council, we got that money back
4:34:57 by the way we were able to use that
4:34:59 outside council. The last uh blip on
4:35:02 this for outside council is um to hire
4:35:05 August and Epstein. So you uh you know
4:35:08 are familiar with our Comcast
4:35:09 negotiations that
4:35:13 we lost. Oops.
4:35:16 Okay, looks like we lost you,
4:35:18 Joe. We lost you there.
4:35:21 Oh, okay.
4:35:23 But, um,
4:35:23 there we go.
4:35:24 Okay. So, so this has been our history
4:35:28 with outside spending. So, what I also
4:35:31 want to talk about is another
4:35:32 accomplishment of ours, which is claim
4:35:34 handling. And we on average here about
4:35:38 one or claims about 100 personal injury
4:35:41 or property damage. a motor vehicle uh
4:35:44 case where a cruiser or a fire engine
4:35:46 hit a car, a pothole claim, where
4:35:49 someone slipped on a sidewalk or in a in
4:35:51 a town building. On average, that's
4:35:53 about $350,000 a year people are looking
4:35:56 from the town. Now, we've had a similar
4:35:59 number. This here was an eight-year look
4:36:01 back. Um we have similar number of
4:36:03 claims, although the amount of money has
4:36:05 increased, but we've also settled more
4:36:08 cases than denied more cases in years
4:36:11 past. but we pay out each year the same
4:36:14 amount. And how we're able to do that is
4:36:17 by settling for lower amounts of money.
4:36:20 We spend the time negotiating with
4:36:21 outside counsel on, you know, you're
4:36:24 looking for, you know, a lot of money.
4:36:26 We're willing to settle for a little
4:36:27 money. So, those are a lot of words.
4:36:29 Here are the numbers. Again, this is a
4:36:31 comparison of 15 quarters versus 16
4:36:33 quarters. So, the numbers should be
4:36:34 about 6% less. Um, but you know, we're
4:36:38 about the same number of claims. The
4:36:40 amount of money claimed in all those
4:36:42 claims has doubled in part because of
4:36:44 inflation 25% over these last eight
4:36:47 years. But we pay out less or you know
4:36:50 approximately 5% less.
4:36:52 But how we do that is we used to settle
4:36:55 about 25% of the amount claimed. Now we
4:36:58 settle 11% of what's claimed. So there's
4:37:00 a 44% reduction in how much we pay out
4:37:04 even though we pay out close to 20% more
4:37:07 claims. So this is the hard work that we
4:37:10 do when we get a claim in and we
4:37:12 negotiate it and protect the taxpayers
4:37:14 uh you know uh tax dollars and we don't
4:37:17 just pay what opposing council is
4:37:20 willing to take. So, those are, you
4:37:23 know, two accomplishments that I want
4:37:24 to, you know, talk about. But you may
4:37:26 say like, "Oh, wait a second. We pay
4:37:27 lots of money for, you know, you know,
4:37:29 million-dollar claims. Those are the
4:37:32 ones that you hear about, but you don't
4:37:34 hear about the hundreds that aren't, you
4:37:37 know, in the news." And and those, you
4:37:40 know, the ones that I just talked about
4:37:41 are ones that we can pay within our
4:37:42 $75,000 settlement line item. If we
4:37:45 can't pay that, then we have to go to
4:37:46 the liability.
4:37:48 And here's the uh you know again
4:37:51 eight-year look back what we paid in the
4:37:53 liability fund. Now Alustin wasn't in
4:37:57 paid out of the liability fund. It was
4:37:58 bonded. So Alustin got $8 million but
4:38:02 the to the taxpayer is more because we
4:38:05 bonded it. However, the last two uh
4:38:08 payments what we've done is paid them
4:38:10 out of the liability fund. So even
4:38:12 though one of them was $1.8 8 million
4:38:15 because of the way it's structured in
4:38:17 the time value of money that's only
4:38:18 really worth $1.5 million because we're
4:38:21 basically borrowing against future free
4:38:24 cash as opposed to going out into the
4:38:26 market and having to pay interest. And
4:38:28 that's the same case with the um the
4:38:30 case of the teacher sex abuse. So again,
4:38:32 it's being paid out over term of years
4:38:35 through the liability fund. So we don't
4:38:36 have to borrow it and pay interest.
4:38:38 We're essentially the interest is coming
4:38:40 from ourselves. So, those are the two
4:38:43 accomplishments I wanted to talk about.
4:38:45 Um, I'll give you, you know, just kind
4:38:47 of a snapshot of what pending claims are
4:38:50 we have. We have 36 at the moment. Last
4:38:52 year at this time, we had 37. And this
4:38:54 kind of spreads it out into which
4:38:56 courts. Uh, but the matters are, and
4:38:58 this is pretty typical, you know, our
4:39:00 our litigation case load, but in I can
4:39:03 assure you none of these cases pose any
4:39:05 significant potential for financial
4:39:07 liability. There's probably two that we
4:39:08 might be liable, but again, it's
4:39:10 unlikely. And it's unlikely that that'd
4:39:12 be more than you know a couple hundred
4:39:14 thousand dollars. So you're not going to
4:39:15 see something like you've seen in the
4:39:17 last two uh you know settlements that
4:39:20 we've had. So otherwise I'm happy to
4:39:22 answer any questions either now or
4:39:24 later. You guys know my number. I give
4:39:26 it out. 617308-1525.
4:39:29 That is my cell phone number. I could
4:39:31 call whenever you want.
4:39:33 Thank you. Exactly
4:39:36 10 minutes
4:39:38 David.
4:39:39 Yes. Just a couple quick questions. So,
4:39:41 I noticed that there is a graphic where
4:39:45 for each year there's an estimated
4:39:47 number of lawsuits and active cla of
4:39:51 active claims compared to the actual
4:39:53 number and each year the actual number
4:39:57 exceeds the estimated number. So, for
4:40:00 example, for this uh current year 91
4:40:03 verse 55, how do you estimate
4:40:08 active cases?
4:40:11 So, it's a little hard, you know, it's
4:40:12 it's a lot easier to keep track of
4:40:14 what's pending as opposed to what's
4:40:17 going to be filed in August or September
4:40:18 of next year. Um, so so my staff uh you
4:40:22 know comes up with those um those uh
4:40:27 you know metrics that uh come from AC
4:40:29 and you know what I try to keep track of
4:40:31 is uh outside council spending,
4:40:34 settlement spending and pending matters.
4:40:36 All right.
4:40:37 Those are the metrics that I kind of
4:40:38 measure things. Yeah.
4:40:40 Okay. And then also you list out uh
4:40:43 pending matters by court and I notice
4:40:46 that uh there are several matters in
4:40:48 land court, six of which are tax lean
4:40:52 collection cases.
4:40:53 Do we have any judgment lean cases?
4:40:57 The tax leans um we don't go to
4:41:00 judgments. Um we try to use the tax lean
4:41:02 foreclosure proceedings to collect the
4:41:04 money. So they're more collections
4:41:06 actions. Um and and acting perk line is
4:41:09 very good at at this. And again, it's
4:41:10 something that we do where most
4:41:12 municipalities contract that out. Um but
4:41:14 it's really more of a collections effort
4:41:16 as opposed to seeking a judgment that
4:41:19 forecloses and the town takes title. Um
4:41:22 you know, and if if you're familiar with
4:41:23 it, you know, Tommy Blo is, you know, a
4:41:26 big advocate against equity theft.
4:41:28 That's not what we do. We use a tax
4:41:30 foreclosure for collections purposes.
4:41:33 All right.
4:41:36 And also we don't we don't sell we don't
4:41:38 sell our tax lans to private investors.
4:41:40 That's another thing that municipalities
4:41:41 do. We don't
4:41:43 Hey, Michael.
4:41:44 Uh I just have one question. Um have you
4:41:48 considered how uh AI will impact your
4:41:51 future workload?
4:41:54 Um I'm on the uh international municipal
4:41:56 lawyer and technology committee. Uh yes.
4:41:59 Um but you know the problem is um
4:42:04 you know to rely on that for the type of
4:42:07 writing that we need. Okay. So um I'll
4:42:11 admit I use uh you know AI when I have
4:42:14 trouble kind of explaining things that
4:42:16 are what a lawyer kind of understands.
4:42:18 Oh that's due process. You know you
4:42:20 can't do that. That's due process. How
4:42:22 do I explain that to someone who isn't a
4:42:24 lawyer? Okay that's that's a good use of
4:42:26 AI. I'll admit that it is not a good use
4:42:29 and I and I and I collect cases for my
4:42:31 students at UMass, you know, like it is
4:42:34 not a good resource to rely on to file
4:42:36 in courts. Um, you know, so if you're
4:42:39 looking for brainstorming ideas, um, you
4:42:42 know, how else can I explain this? Um,
4:42:45 you know, I have an example. Give me two
4:42:47 more. That's a that's an effective use
4:42:49 of the AI that I found. It is not an
4:42:51 effective use for what is the law on
4:42:54 this
4:42:55 and here are some facts and what should
4:42:57 I do? Sorry it's not there yet.
4:43:00 Thank you
4:43:01 uh Paul.
4:43:02 Thank you Bernard. Uh thank you Joe for
4:43:04 your your presentation. I and I
4:43:06 appreciated the emphasis on h how you're
4:43:08 adding value and you're thinking kind of
4:43:10 like a business lawyer I guess business.
4:43:13 Um, so Chaz, maybe this is for you or
4:43:16 for Joe, if for in the in the override
4:43:19 scenario, what is there going to be
4:43:21 money added to this budget and what
4:43:22 would it be for?
4:43:24 So there's a little um there's uh a
4:43:26 potential cut on the town council side.
4:43:28 We're talking about maybe reducing the
4:43:29 legal intern budget or the settlement
4:43:30 budget. We're still in final discussions
4:43:32 about where that would be, but in a if
4:43:34 there was a yes override scenario, we
4:43:36 would not make that reduction, but
4:43:38 the budget So the budget would stay the
4:43:39 same.
4:43:39 Yes. Okay. Thank you. Any
4:43:44 other questions? We have one minute four
4:43:47 seconds left.
4:43:49 Take it back.
4:43:49 Or actually the
4:43:53 second.
4:43:53 Okay. We were very disciplined as a
4:43:55 select board. Good. This time,
4:43:58 thank you, Joe.
4:44:00 My pleasure.
4:44:01 Thanks, Joe.
4:44:03 Next, uh, HR, I'm sorry, Office of
4:44:07 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and
4:44:09 Community Relations.
4:44:13 I see Lloyd Gelano is uh on the screen.
4:44:18 Good evening. Um um my name is Lloyd
4:44:21 Gelano. I'm um the chief diversity
4:44:23 officer um and director of the um office
4:44:27 of diversity, equity, and community
4:44:29 relations. Uh with me tonight is Caitlyn
4:44:32 Star, the assistant director, and I
4:44:34 believe Sarah Kaplan's online as well.
4:44:37 Um, so I I have permission to share my
4:44:40 screen so we can start the presentation
4:44:47 find the right one.
4:44:56 Okay. Um, can you see my screen?
4:44:59 Yep.
4:45:00 Okay.
4:45:02 So, like I said, we're the um office of
4:45:05 diversity, equity, and um inclusion and
4:45:07 community relations. Um
4:45:11 you know, we have a team of um four um
4:45:13 staff members. Um and I, uh before we
4:45:17 move forward, I just want to say that
4:45:19 we, you know, we have um a small staff
4:45:23 compromise of four uh four staff, but we
4:45:25 do have a small budget of $3,000
4:45:28 um for stipens for three interns per
4:45:30 year.
4:45:32 Um at this time I just want to
4:45:34 acknowledge the ODICR team. Um uh their
4:45:38 expertise uh expertise, dedication and
4:45:41 work ethic is highly valued by the
4:45:43 community and town staff. Um they're a
4:45:46 great smart team and we are very
4:45:48 fortunate to have them in the town's uh
4:45:50 workforce. I just want to take this time
4:45:53 just to thank them for their service.
4:45:59 Our office um promotes community uh
4:46:02 driven events and activities that aid
4:46:04 Brooklyn uh Brooklyn's community to
4:46:06 become more culturally competent and to
4:46:09 to be informed of the achievements and
4:46:11 barriers faced by our protected classes.
4:46:13 It continues to work with community
4:46:15 entities to examine quality of life
4:46:17 barriers due to racial inequities or
4:46:19 discrimination based on protected class
4:46:21 status and to help create strategies to
4:46:24 mitigate those be uh those barriers.
4:46:30 Uh we work with a very modest budget. Uh
4:46:33 as with other departments, we do have um
4:46:36 most of the funds goes towards
4:46:38 personnel. Um but the office this year
4:46:41 um the budget is decreased by $24,000
4:46:44 which is 5% u a decrease of 5% in the
4:46:48 fiscal year 2027.
4:46:50 Um the total reduction is compromised of
4:46:52 a $3,2657
4:46:56 increase in salaries to staff
4:46:57 compensation.
4:46:59 Um a $360
4:47:01 increase in lease uh computer equipment
4:47:04 and a reduction of $28,000 to the
4:47:07 professional tech services um a line
4:47:09 item. Um be specifically that's going to
4:47:12 be directed towards language access. Um,
4:47:15 currently staffing levels remained at at
4:47:17 3.72 FTEES.
4:47:25 Accomplishments. Um, overall, I just
4:47:27 want to note that we work with town
4:47:29 departments and community organizations
4:47:31 in their endeavors to promote and uh and
4:47:34 provide resources to the Brooklyn
4:47:36 community, including marginalized
4:47:38 groups. Um some of the highlights here
4:47:41 um you know collecting collected and
4:47:43 analy data on demographics of town
4:47:45 boards and commissions. Um these um this
4:47:49 data um and graphs can be looked um can
4:47:52 be seen on um our web page.
4:47:57 Um the office provided logistical
4:47:59 assistance to plan and host an annual
4:48:01 indigenous people's day celebration and
4:48:03 the LLK day event and all other
4:48:06 associated programs for these
4:48:08 communities. Um the office also provided
4:48:11 logistical and staff support to the um
4:48:14 Ahapi
4:48:16 heritage event festival Junth. Um I'm
4:48:20 not going to go all Jewish heritage
4:48:22 months pride month activities. Um um as
4:48:25 you see we do a lot of coordinate
4:48:27 collaboration coordination with um town
4:48:29 entities. Uh we finalized the language
4:48:32 access and effective communication plan
4:48:35 securing interpreting devices for all
4:48:37 departments through a state earmark and
4:48:39 assisted town departments in their
4:48:41 understanding of how to secure language
4:48:43 translation interpretation services.
4:48:46 Um we provided consultation for
4:48:48 revisions for the town's EO policy. Um
4:48:51 we completed one one of potentially
4:48:55 three Hidden Brooklyn welcome tours
4:48:57 video working with um Barbara Brown in
4:48:59 Hidden Brooklyn. Um provided
4:49:02 consultation and support to various
4:49:03 public health initiatives such as CHIP
4:49:05 and the community health champions
4:49:07 program. Um, I won't go into any more of
4:49:10 this because I just want to say we do
4:49:12 for a small staff, um, we do get a lot
4:49:15 done and so it's one of those things I'm
4:49:17 really proud of, um, a staff being able
4:49:19 to accomplish as much as they they they
4:49:22 do.
4:49:25 Key achievements for physical year 2028
4:49:28 uh, 26
4:49:30 uh, continue implementation of the
4:49:31 language access and effective commission
4:49:33 plan across all departments. completed
4:49:35 the hidden Brooklyn walking tour,
4:49:38 provided consultation services to town
4:49:40 departments and community entities
4:49:42 entities regarding ADA compliance and
4:49:44 pro program referrals for those in need
4:49:47 of disability services.
4:49:50 uh again collaborated with the public
4:49:51 health and human services and women
4:49:53 thriving inc to develop and launch the
4:49:55 health champions program and translation
4:49:58 and distribution of updated know your
4:50:00 rights pamphlets in addition to hosting
4:50:02 workshops, bystander trainings, and free
4:50:05 legal claims for staff and community
4:50:06 members.
4:50:10 key goals for um FY 26 27. Um the ones
4:50:15 involved are the ones that actually are
4:50:17 consistent with uh the select board's um
4:50:20 initiatives and objectives. Um assist
4:50:23 departments in locating and inviting a
4:50:25 diverse representation of community
4:50:27 members to participate in p public
4:50:29 meetings and to engage in public
4:50:32 processes.
4:50:34 um provide information to the public
4:50:36 regarding significant plans, town plans
4:50:38 that may impact quality of life at ODR
4:50:41 at our ODICR events and activities.
4:50:45 And again, uh collaborate with
4:50:47 departments to ensure changes in fees
4:50:49 and fine structures are equitable and
4:50:51 are known to the community, particularly
4:50:53 to marginalized groups and limited
4:50:55 English-speaking individuals.
4:50:57 and then work with the appropriate town
4:50:59 departments to develop culturally
4:51:00 relevant programs, events, and
4:51:02 institutions that would entice people to
4:51:04 consider living in Brooklyn.
4:51:10 Long-term objectives um increase growth
4:51:12 opportunities for individual and
4:51:15 families of low income residing in
4:51:16 Brooklyn.
4:51:19 Increase civic engagement by decreasing
4:51:21 structural barriers to participation
4:51:24 uh by various mobilized groups. um
4:51:27 communities.
4:51:29 Three, to eliminate barriers of all
4:51:31 individuals that prevent reasonable
4:51:33 communication and access to town
4:51:35 facilities and processes
4:51:41 and and again this how how are your
4:51:43 operations further the select both goals
4:51:45 and objectives for the past fiscal year.
4:51:47 Uh the office through collaboration with
4:51:49 community entities, boards and
4:51:51 commission
4:51:53 and town departments work together uh
4:51:56 towards achieving the select growth goal
4:51:58 by delivering and implementing and
4:52:00 language access policy and plan for
4:52:03 approval by the select board.
4:52:05 participate in the supply diversity
4:52:07 disparity study and update and move the
4:52:10 diverse and inclusive business directory
4:52:12 to the quality part platform and then
4:52:15 collaborate and participate in the
4:52:16 health department's human services
4:52:18 assessment assessment and gap analysis
4:52:20 reports.
4:52:22 So what if the question is um if I had
4:52:25 an unlimited budget um the three things
4:52:29 I think are uh really important would be
4:52:32 some kind of employee housing subsidy
4:52:34 programed
4:52:36 community event or center and work
4:52:40 sponsorship programs for non-citizens
4:52:46 and so um how will these objectives set
4:52:49 um be consistent with the um select
4:52:51 boards uh mission in this coming year.
4:52:54 The office seeks to improve voter
4:52:56 turnout for underrepresented groups to
4:52:58 increase participation of
4:53:00 underrepresented groups in Brooklyn's
4:53:01 town boards and commissions. Identify
4:53:04 strategies to increase minority owned
4:53:07 businesses, specifically black and brown
4:53:09 enterprises. The office also seeks to
4:53:12 increase access to vital documents for
4:53:14 um LOE individuals in their own
4:53:16 languages and to monitor the language
4:53:19 access needs of the Brooklyn community.
4:53:21 These are consistent with the select
4:53:23 board's diversity inclusion goals
4:53:27 and that is the end of my presentation.
4:53:32 So if you have any questions please
4:53:38 any questions from Michael? Um, so I'll
4:53:42 ask you the same question I asked um
4:53:44 Charlie Young um about your thoughts on
4:53:48 the communication role and the community
4:53:51 relation role in your office and the uh
4:53:54 communications role um that is now
4:53:56 resident in the select board office and
4:53:58 whether there are opportunities for
4:54:01 coordination
4:54:02 or
4:54:03 uh yes we do I'm sorry Michael I jumped
4:54:05 in on where you finished your sentence.
4:54:07 Um there is um um coordination between
4:54:11 certain projects with uh with Christina
4:54:14 um Christina um we actually uh
4:54:17 collaborated on two I believe this year
4:54:19 both dealing with the schools um
4:54:25 um but the going to the question about
4:54:27 community relations um and then
4:54:29 community engagement. Um, we I sort of
4:54:32 look at community um community um excuse
4:54:38 me.
4:54:41 I look at community um relations as sort
4:54:45 of making sure that the relationships
4:54:48 that already exist are strengthening and
4:54:50 we we are able to do collaboration.
4:54:52 community um um engagement. It's it's a
4:54:56 bit different. Um that tends to be more
4:54:59 focused on things that the town will
4:55:02 would want to do and that we're actually
4:55:04 doing the outreach to those uh groups
4:55:07 that may not be aware or know they're
4:55:10 empowered to help make the town make
4:55:13 decisions. So, we go out and seek people
4:55:15 out for a specific project. let's say
4:55:17 it's a road project or um that we go out
4:55:21 and find folks who um anything that we
4:55:23 do may impact their lives whether
4:55:26 positively or negatively and we try to
4:55:28 work in to mitigate those um um bad
4:55:31 things from happening. So, um that's my
4:55:35 distinction between the two and I do
4:55:36 think that um you know we'll probably
4:55:38 tighten our relationship with Christina
4:55:40 as the years go on, but we do have a
4:55:42 working relationship.
4:55:45 Thank you.
4:55:46 Oh
4:55:47 uh same question Jazz I asked for the
4:55:49 others override impact.
4:55:51 Um in this case as Lloyd mentioned the
4:55:53 big impact here is to language access.
4:55:55 We would have to pretty dramatically
4:55:57 reduce our language access budget. We
4:55:58 and that's what's reflected in here. If
4:56:00 we if the override were to succeed that
4:56:02 would be restored.
4:56:02 Okay.
4:56:10 Thank you Lloyd.
4:56:11 You're welcome.
4:56:12 You have two minutes 35 seconds left. if
4:56:14 you want to say anything to and
4:56:17 no thank you for the opportunity for
4:56:19 sharing what our office does and um no I
4:56:24 I just want to say it just my staff uh
4:56:26 the staff is just remarkable and you
4:56:28 know I think most of you have worked
4:56:30 with with them in one way or another so
4:56:33 um got a good team here thank you okay
4:56:36 thank you
4:56:36 next
4:56:38 we have um
4:56:42 HR
4:56:45 I can find it in my book. Yep. HR. I I
4:56:48 take it Anne Braga is
4:56:50 and it's online.
4:56:51 It's online and uh is ready to speak.
4:57:10 Good evening. and Braa, HR director for
4:57:12 the town.
4:57:15 I am going to share my screen.
4:58:08 Okay. So, um,
4:58:11 good evening. I'm here to present both
4:58:14 the HR budget and in collaboration with
4:58:16 Melissa Goff, the personnel benefits,
4:58:19 um, components for fiscal 27.
4:58:23 Um fiscal 26 we have been busier than
4:58:27 ever um with classification
4:58:31 um job reclassification position review
4:58:33 committee. So, um, in anticipation of
4:58:37 our, um, challenges for budget moving
4:58:42 forward, um, with Melissa, um, we review
4:58:47 all positions that are requested by
4:58:50 departments for authorizations to hire
4:58:52 that go to the select board. Um, and we
4:58:55 have a conversation with the department
4:58:57 heads about what the um what the role is
4:59:00 doing, how long it's been vacant. Um,
4:59:03 are there other opportunities for the
4:59:06 work to be done in a different way um
4:59:09 before the ATHs go to the select board
4:59:12 for um a vote and approval um and
4:59:16 continuing investigations,
4:59:18 coaching and counseling managers. Um we
4:59:21 have hosted a few um gatherings
4:59:24 including a popcorn um afternoon break.
4:59:27 Uh we did a winter coffee break with um
4:59:30 baked goods and coffee and cocoa. Um we
4:59:33 continue to work on the ask me class and
4:59:35 pay plan and public safety hirings and
4:59:39 promotions. We sit on the interview team
4:59:41 and work with them on their new um
4:59:44 subscriptions for police um new hires
4:59:48 and promotions. Um through our
4:59:53 online learning platform, we
4:59:56 had employees complete
4:59:59 uh 9800 trainings last year. Um in
5:00:03 fiscal 27, we look to redistribute
5:00:06 learning and development, develop a
5:00:08 regular cadence of training so that
5:00:10 we're not doing once a year where
5:00:13 there's three hours of training. Um it's
5:00:15 a it's a burden on staff to be able to
5:00:18 to commit that amount of time especially
5:00:20 if the folks are not um computer facing
5:00:24 um and we will have um adjusted response
5:00:28 times due to um staffing changes um in
5:00:32 the department. We hope to review and
5:00:34 streamline new hiring and offboarding,
5:00:37 continued review of policy and benefits
5:00:40 and collective bargaining. So for fiscal
5:00:44 27, we have the last year of police and
5:00:46 fire and we have five other contracts
5:00:49 that are currently as of July 1st will
5:00:51 be a year um out of um
5:00:56 an active contract.
5:00:59 This is our budget at a glance. um
5:01:02 you'll you'll see a 10% reduction in
5:01:05 personnel. That is um due to the
5:01:08 reduction and elimination of the
5:01:11 position of learning and development
5:01:12 coordinator. Um we did take out the $550
5:01:16 for the um clothing and um
5:01:20 and uh uniform stipend. Um the biggest
5:01:26 uh reduction outside of personnel is
5:01:30 $55,000 or a 43% reduction in our legal
5:01:34 services account. Um while the legal
5:01:38 services account um has funded outside
5:01:41 attorneys to do investigations,
5:01:44 um it also funds arbitrations and um
5:01:49 settlements that are on the HR end of
5:01:52 things. So, um we hope that with the
5:01:55 addition of um an uh the latest um labor
5:02:00 and employment attorney um that um we
5:02:04 don't need that um amount for um outside
5:02:08 investigations in collaboration with our
5:02:11 new
5:02:12 um
5:02:14 position that came over from legal which
5:02:16 is the generalist investigator. Um we
5:02:20 hope that we don't need to access those
5:02:22 funds. Um there's an increase in our
5:02:25 professional technical services as the
5:02:28 HR budget will host the funding for
5:02:32 um new hires and promotion costs for
5:02:36 assessment centers at fire and police
5:02:38 and also the new hire contract with get
5:02:41 badged which does our online portal for
5:02:43 new hires for police officers. A slight
5:02:46 reduction in office supplies. Um we
5:02:48 don't we do as much you know through
5:02:52 technology as we can um and um a slight
5:02:56 increase in our capital computers and
5:02:58 equipment for the cost of um
5:03:02 computers and updates with an overall
5:03:05 reduction of 10% at $81,359.
5:03:11 Um, as you see, most of our our funds
5:03:14 are spent in salaries and then services
5:03:17 and supplies and and the other um cuts
5:03:20 and ends.
5:03:23 What's different for fiscal 27? As I
5:03:26 said before, a $50,000 reduction in
5:03:28 legal services, the learning and
5:03:30 development coordinator was eliminated.
5:03:33 Um and the work will be absorbed by
5:03:36 other staff and then the centralized
5:03:38 funding for public safety hiring and
5:03:41 promotions.
5:03:42 And what have we been up to? Um this is
5:03:45 oh um this is a
5:03:49 short list. Um I'm not going to read all
5:03:51 of it but just highlight um looking at
5:03:55 comparison analysis um and providing
5:03:58 support to expenditures and revenues on
5:04:01 some of the HR related costs and
5:04:03 expenses. Um continued labor management
5:04:06 meetings with unions. Um HR labor
5:04:10 meetings continue with the new labor and
5:04:11 employment council. Um
5:04:14 and um we spend a significant amount of
5:04:18 time on coaching and consulting with
5:04:21 departments both um mid managers and
5:04:25 department heads on employees management
5:04:28 department and organizational issues as
5:04:30 well as discipline and um compliance
5:04:34 issues, employee training and
5:04:36 development. Um we've covered um
5:04:39 harassment and other policies,
5:04:41 compliance issues around drugs and
5:04:43 alcohol ethics, well-being related
5:04:45 topics, supervisor training. Um in the
5:04:48 last year we did first aid, CPR and um
5:04:53 uh electronic defibrillator training as
5:04:55 well as stop the bleed and our continued
5:05:00 um position review. Update leave time
5:05:03 and alcohol and drug and Corey policies.
5:05:06 update class and pay and create a new
5:05:08 recruiting and hiring guide.
5:05:12 And I'd like to thank Leslia, Jennifer,
5:05:15 Kayla, Kimi, and Jim for all that they
5:05:18 do. Um I will say that um there aren't
5:05:23 too many upsides for um the current
5:05:27 state of affairs at the federal level.
5:05:30 However, we have been able to um secure
5:05:34 believe in disability specialist with 32
5:05:36 years of experience both at the state
5:05:38 and federal level to work on our um IOD
5:05:42 workers comp and FMLA. And our labor and
5:05:46 employment council comes to us from from
5:05:48 HUD at the federal level. So, um we have
5:05:52 benefited by getting experienced um
5:05:56 individuals um into some key positions
5:05:58 and and
5:06:00 If we're able to do that moving forward,
5:06:02 it will um benefit the town.
5:06:05 And I don't know if you want to take
5:06:07 questions before we go to personnel
5:06:09 benefits.
5:06:12 Uh questions from the board.
5:06:15 I I have a question. Um so you seems to
5:06:19 have unilaterally eliminated the uh um
5:06:24 uniform budget.
5:06:27 Yes, we have we have no union employees.
5:06:31 So why
5:06:32 and um there are no uniforms.
5:06:34 Okay. I guess I wonder why uh uniforms
5:06:38 appear in other budgets. Uh is it always
5:06:41 because they have union employees who
5:06:44 are required to wear uniforms or is it
5:06:46 just a carryover from
5:06:49 I believe it's a carryover from the ask
5:06:51 me contract and that where we have
5:06:54 non-UN clerical positions um that the
5:06:57 benefit was was part of the budget. Um
5:07:00 but it's a tight fiscal year and um
5:07:05 it's not something
5:07:09 Okay. Okay. that um is a priority.
5:07:11 Yeah.
5:07:12 Well, it's a good question. Do we
5:07:14 provide uniforms for anybody? Why is it
5:07:16 a
5:07:16 Yes. Yes. For there are certain
5:07:18 positions for whom we do provide
5:07:19 uniforms. Um
5:07:20 for instance, other than police
5:07:22 officers,
5:07:22 DPW
5:07:24 Okay. But within the within
5:07:29 within the office, the office staff,
5:07:31 right?
5:07:32 Is there any line items for departments
5:07:34 that don't have
5:07:36 people
5:07:38 like you know allowances in pay parody
5:07:40 for example right like sometimes we you
5:07:42 know we have clerical staff that are in
5:07:44 the union clerical staff that are not in
5:07:46 the union and some of the clerical staff
5:07:47 that are in the union get that benefit
5:07:49 get this get the get the $500 for or
5:07:53 $550 for a union benefit as a union
5:07:56 benefit and so to avoid having a
5:07:58 situation where we have a non-un person
5:08:00 making in the same role in the same
5:08:02 title making less money than a union
5:08:04 person or vice versa we try and balance
5:08:06 that
5:08:08 Okay.
5:08:09 And the the uniform money has been used
5:08:12 as a way to supplement um general wage
5:08:15 increases over past contracts is as a
5:08:18 way to be able to give basically a
5:08:20 stipend um to add to compensation, but
5:08:23 it is not pensionable and um
5:08:27 so that's why.
5:08:28 Okay, let's move on. I'm sorry, Michael.
5:08:32 Yeah. Um I I'm not sure if this is the
5:08:35 right time to ask this. Um um Paul, you
5:08:39 didn't ask the uh override versus no
5:08:41 override question, so maybe that's also
5:08:44 relevant. But you mentioned that the pol
5:08:47 the police and union contracts are
5:08:49 coming up. And I'm wondering in terms of
5:08:54 the negotiation process for those
5:08:57 contracts,
5:08:58 how the decisions that we make around
5:09:01 the override will affect your your
5:09:05 negotiation capacity
5:09:08 for those contracts.
5:09:11 So, police and fire expire at the end of
5:09:14 fiscal 27. Um I don't know that our um
5:09:20 the provisions of the override um
5:09:22 include expanded capacity for subsequent
5:09:26 year negotiations for police and fire.
5:09:29 Um we have money to in the override to
5:09:32 cover um the tail for the fire contract
5:09:36 in which there um are several other
5:09:38 provisions that kick in on the last day
5:09:41 of fiscal 27. Um, but other than that,
5:09:46 um, I don't believe that there's a chunk
5:09:48 of money that's set aside for police and
5:09:51 fire collective bargaining as part of
5:09:52 the ask for the, uh, override. So, at
5:09:57 least what's been discussed,
5:09:58 there's $350,000 that goes into the
5:10:00 collective bargaining reserve if an
5:10:01 override in the current town proposal if
5:10:04 that passes. Um, so there is money in
5:10:07 the in the override uh, uh, for that. Um
5:10:12 and we're trying to um uh you know
5:10:16 maximize that wherever we can um in
5:10:18 terms of where that goes. But um for
5:10:20 example, we've had we have settled
5:10:22 contracts with police and fire. You
5:10:24 know, they're ending at the end of this
5:10:25 fiscal year. Um we don't have a settled
5:10:27 contract with ASME. Um we've actually we
5:10:30 have a couple of you know um uh bridge
5:10:33 one-year contracts that we've settled
5:10:35 with them. Um but you know um we've been
5:10:38 working towards trying to implement a
5:10:40 contract that deals with the paying
5:10:42 class study in DPW and that's going to
5:10:44 be an expensive lift um to try and deal
5:10:47 with that and the subsequent ripple
5:10:49 effects but we are trying to make that
5:10:51 happen. Um and so that money and the
5:10:53 override is really targeted towards
5:10:56 those efforts and then we need to think
5:10:58 about you know what the what the future
5:11:01 years are going to look like. We budget
5:11:02 money every year for collective
5:11:04 bargaining increases for the cost of
5:11:06 living. So that's baked into the budget
5:11:08 anyway. Um and we have target numbers
5:11:10 for those and that's what we will be
5:11:13 telling the unions and non-UN staff
5:11:15 alike as we move into negotiations for
5:11:17 the next few fiscal years what those
5:11:19 numbers are.
5:11:21 Okay. Uh let's move on to Melissa and
5:11:24 benefits.
5:11:26 Sure. So, uh, we covered a lot of this
5:11:29 when we, uh, originally presented the
5:11:31 financial plan. So, I will, uh, try and
5:11:33 be as speedy as I can be. Uh, for group
5:11:36 health, um, the financial plan had an
5:11:40 increase of almost $6 million projected.
5:11:43 Uh, the GIC has come out with new rates.
5:11:46 Um, we are still waiting for the final
5:11:48 rate sheets from the GIC and, um, they
5:11:51 are slightly better than what we had uh,
5:11:53 estimated in the budget. We had
5:11:55 estimated a 12% rate increase. Um it's
5:11:58 closer to eight. Um some of the plans
5:12:00 vary though, so we're waiting for those
5:12:02 final sheets. Um then we have our group
5:12:05 life budget which is going up by 3%. Our
5:12:08 Medicare coverage which is going up 4%
5:12:10 that's generally tied to wages. Our
5:12:12 pension uh funding is going up uh about
5:12:15 8% and that is based on our current
5:12:18 funding schedule. We will have a new
5:12:20 funding schedule probably sometime this
5:12:22 summer. Um we have a a schedule that
5:12:24 resets every two years. So we'll be
5:12:26 looking to see kind of based on market
5:12:28 performance and um kind of activity in
5:12:30 the fund uh what that might look like
5:12:32 and hope that we can still stick with
5:12:34 our 2030 timeline. Um and then the last
5:12:37 few groupings are uh transfers that we
5:12:39 make to certain trust funds. So we have
5:12:41 a trust fund for the public safety IOD
5:12:44 medical expenses. At this point the fund
5:12:46 has a healthy fund balance. So, we're
5:12:48 not recommending an appropriation uh
5:12:50 which is why you see the drop of
5:12:51 350,000.
5:12:53 We, as you all know, we are level
5:12:54 funding our contributions towards OPED.
5:12:56 So, that is uh flat for fiscal 27.
5:12:59 Unemployment compensation, we're
5:13:01 boosting by 500,000. I am keeping an eye
5:13:03 on this one because I am also concerned
5:13:05 given the staffing reductions that might
5:13:07 be implemented in fiscal 27 um that that
5:13:10 might need some additional funding. Uh I
5:13:12 do acknowledge that there likely would
5:13:14 be be some savings in group health that
5:13:16 likely would need to slide into
5:13:17 unemployment um in a no override
5:13:19 scenario. So we're we're keeping an eye
5:13:21 on both of those budgets. And then we
5:13:23 have a $200,000 increase in uh workers
5:13:26 compensation. Uh so for overall uh n
5:13:30 $9.5 million um obviously that will be
5:13:33 reset when we readjust the group health
5:13:35 budget. Hoping to get you that
5:13:37 information uh within the next week or
5:13:38 so.
5:13:42 Thank you, Melissa. Any questions?
5:13:52 Okay, let's move on. Thank you, Melissa.
5:13:54 Thank you, Ann.
5:13:56 Thank you. Have a good night.
5:13:57 Thanks, Ann.
5:13:59 Next, we have uh four warrant articles.
5:14:02 First public and these are public
5:14:04 hearings. Uh so uh first is appointment
5:14:08 of measures of wooden bark.
5:14:12 Melissa, are you going to tell us about
5:14:15 that item?
5:14:17 Sure. Uh you are all familiar that this
5:14:19 is a requirement measures of wood and
5:14:21 bark be the first um item on the docket
5:14:24 for the annual town meeting and it
5:14:26 requires that the select board appoint
5:14:27 and we do that when we do our annual
5:14:29 appointments in June.
5:14:32 Okay. Um, let's open the public hearing.
5:14:36 Public hearing is open on measures of
5:14:39 wooden bark.
5:14:46 Nobody's raising their hand.
5:14:47 Okay, let's close the public hearing.
5:14:49 Any discussion? Who are we appointing?
5:14:54 Uh, good question, Melissa.
5:14:56 Well, currently it's Elmont Henderson
5:14:59 and uh Bill McGrody, but given Bill's
5:15:01 retirement, we are likely going to need
5:15:03 to find a new measurer.
5:15:05 All right. We'll have that for you in
5:15:07 June.
5:15:08 Okay. We're setting the number at two.
5:15:10 That That's
5:15:13 uh Okay. So, we've closed the public
5:15:15 hearing. I I see no questions from the
5:15:18 select board. So, let's move on to uh
5:15:22 next item, which next warrant article,
5:15:24 annual authorization compensating
5:15:26 balance agreements. Um,
5:15:28 Bernard, before you move on to article
5:15:30 three, um, if you wanted to vote on
5:15:32 article one.
5:15:33 Oh, I'm sorry.
5:15:34 That would be great.
5:15:35 Why don't we do that?
5:15:37 Um, I move I move favorable action on
5:15:40 more article one, appointment of
5:15:43 measurers of wooden bark. All in favor?
5:15:46 John Vancoyak.
5:15:47 I Warren.
5:15:48 Hi,
5:15:48 David Pearlman.
5:15:49 I,
5:15:49 Michael Rubenstein.
5:15:50 I chair votes I. Thank you uh Melissa
5:15:53 for reminding me. Um next uh annual
5:15:57 authorization of compensating balance
5:15:59 agreements. Uh is that you or is Lincoln
5:16:03 gonna handle that?
5:16:05 Lincoln's here. I I wish that I had
5:16:06 known he was coming. I would have told
5:16:07 him I could cover it for him, but since
5:16:09 I'm here, I'll let him do it.
5:16:10 Thank you, Melissa. I'll be very brief.
5:16:13 So, as the board, as at least four
5:16:16 members of the board may recall from
5:16:17 previous years, the law um requires that
5:16:21 if the town is to have compensating
5:16:23 balance agreements, that is to say,
5:16:24 agreements with banks, that um rather
5:16:27 than we pay rather than the town
5:16:29 directly paying for services from those
5:16:31 banks, we would instead agree to uh keep
5:16:35 uh a minimum balance there. Um the law
5:16:39 requires that if the town is to have
5:16:41 those agreements, it needs to be
5:16:42 authorized annually by town meeting. Um
5:16:45 and so it would be good to have this
5:16:47 flexibility. We do not currently have
5:16:48 any compensating balance agreements, but
5:16:50 um it would be good to have this
5:16:52 flexibility particular continue to have
5:16:53 this flexibility continue particularly
5:16:56 in the context of the variable uh
5:16:58 interest rates that we've been
5:17:00 experiencing that we've all been
5:17:01 experiencing.
5:17:03 Okay, any questions?
5:17:06 Public hearing.
5:17:08 I'm getting there.
5:17:10 Let's open the public hearing and see if
5:17:13 anyone would like to talk about uh or qu
5:17:16 ask questions about compensating
5:17:18 balances. Okay, seeing none, I'll close
5:17:21 the public hearing. Um
5:17:23 are we ready to vote?
5:17:25 Yes, please.
5:17:26 We can vote on this one. I move by I
5:17:29 move favorable action on warrant article
5:17:31 3 annual authorization of compensating
5:17:34 balance agreements. All in favor, please
5:17:36 indicate by saying I. John Vancoyak,
5:17:38 I.
5:17:38 Paul Warren,
5:17:39 hi.
5:17:39 David Pearlman,
5:17:40 I.
5:17:41 Michael Rubenstein,
5:17:42 I.
5:17:42 Chair votes. I
5:17:44 Okay, next. Probably not as quick. Um,
5:17:46 article seven, establish an overrise,
5:17:49 I'm sorry, override stabilization fund.
5:17:52 Is that going to be you, Chaz?
5:17:54 Sure. Um, so as you know, one
5:17:57 possibility uh for a structure of an
5:17:59 override would be involving a situation
5:18:02 where you uh raise the tax levy and then
5:18:06 t and then tax more money than you spend
5:18:09 in a given year and put some of that
5:18:11 money aside in an override reserve fund.
5:18:13 And the purpose of that reserve fund
5:18:15 would be to cover operating deficits in
5:18:17 the out years of the override cycle. Um
5:18:20 the concept of this being that you would
5:18:23 if you a little more upfront, you have
5:18:26 to tax less over the course of the cycle
5:18:28 and then the assumption would be that by
5:18:30 the end of the cycle. Um there would be
5:18:33 changes in the financial uh situation of
5:18:35 the town such that there would be a more
5:18:38 it would be more advantageous to the
5:18:39 taxpayers to take uh a larger amount of
5:18:44 money uh up to take a larger tax
5:18:47 increase up front um but ultimately pay
5:18:49 less in taxes overall over the
5:18:51 three-year period. Now the expenditures
5:18:53 and revenue study committee is still
5:18:54 talking about this. It is not set in
5:18:57 stone that this is going to be part of
5:18:58 their recommendation to you and is not
5:19:00 set in stone that you have to uh move
5:19:02 forward on this at all. Um but in order
5:19:06 to give you the optionality that if
5:19:08 that's the decision you make in terms of
5:19:10 how an override is structured, we ask
5:19:12 that this question be put on the
5:19:14 warrant. Um if ultimately you decide not
5:19:16 to go in that direction, then you just
5:19:18 simply don't have to you don't have to
5:19:19 move it.
5:19:21 A question that was asked in
5:19:22 expenditures and revenues is can this
5:19:24 money be appropriated by anyone? You
5:19:26 know, is this a is you know are we
5:19:28 worried about this being a slush fund?
5:19:30 The answer is yes. It can be
5:19:32 appropriated for the purposes that it's
5:19:33 stated for. Um and so we want to be want
5:19:37 to have firm policies in place about how
5:19:39 we use this money and when. Um and but
5:19:42 that's part of the structure of any
5:19:44 given override. Uh if that's the
5:19:46 structure you decide to go with. The
5:19:48 other question we got was can the
5:19:49 purpose of the fund change? For example,
5:19:52 if things go better than expected and
5:19:54 there is a balance left in this account
5:19:56 at the end of the three-year override
5:19:58 can be spent for other purposes. And the
5:20:00 answer is yes. By a two-thirds vote of
5:20:02 town meeting, you can change the purpose
5:20:04 of the fund. Um or you can continue to
5:20:06 spend it on operating expenses. Um
5:20:08 because the way the fund is designated
5:20:10 is for operating expenses and because
5:20:13 those categories of money are fungeible.
5:20:15 for example, you could fund you you
5:20:17 could fund certain operating expenses
5:20:19 out of the fund and then use the savings
5:20:21 from that to fund a capital project, for
5:20:23 example. So, um it's it's easy to use
5:20:29 anything that's extra in the fund for a
5:20:31 different purpose, but we wouldn't be
5:20:34 we're not thinking about it in those
5:20:35 terms. We're thinking about it in terms
5:20:36 of stabilizing the during the three-year
5:20:40 period of any of any potential override
5:20:43 um so that the overall tax burden on the
5:20:45 voter is lessened.
5:20:48 Paul,
5:20:48 so is this so this is our article?
5:20:50 Yes.
5:20:51 Okay. It's our article. So it's already
5:20:52 on the warrant.
5:20:53 Yes.
5:20:54 And um if if we choose not to
5:21:00 do this
5:21:01 Y
5:21:02 um we just wouldn't move it.
5:21:03 Correct. Um or we could move it even if
5:21:06 we choose not to do it. And we could we
5:21:08 put money into it like million and a
5:21:11 half from the housing trust fund that
5:21:13 we're putting towards that which there's
5:21:15 other ways for them to get money. We
5:21:16 could could we start seeding this?
5:21:18 Yes.
5:21:19 With money from other sources or does it
5:21:20 have to be from the tax?
5:21:22 No, it's you could seed it with money
5:21:23 from other sources. Lincoln, I believe
5:21:24 that's right. Right.
5:21:27 Correct. Yeah.
5:21:28 And then one one more question. Um, and
5:21:31 maybe that this is for later when we
5:21:33 start debating this about the how to
5:21:36 structure the override, but is there any
5:21:38 discussion about
5:21:40 is it a disincentive for some folks to
5:21:42 vote for an operating override if they
5:21:44 know they're not going to be here in
5:21:45 three years, so they're paying
5:21:46 everything up front, right? And then
5:21:49 they find out, you know, in a year or
5:21:50 two they're going to be gone. If they're
5:21:52 not, there's some uncertainty. Would
5:21:53 they say, "I'd rather not, you know,
5:21:56 vote for that because I may not be
5:21:57 here." Possibly, but again, I don't
5:21:59 know. You know,
5:22:01 just a scenario.
5:22:02 It's not. Yeah, I I I have to admit I
5:22:04 didn't consider that possibility. Okay.
5:22:06 That is that is a possibility.
5:22:07 Interesting.
5:22:08 Okay.
5:22:08 Thanks,
5:22:10 Michael.
5:22:10 Um, can you just clarify who the
5:22:13 dispersing authority who has dispersing
5:22:16 authority over the fund?
5:22:17 Town meeting.
5:22:18 Town meeting. Town meeting makes makes
5:22:20 can make appropriations from the fund.
5:22:23 It would be part of the budget vote as
5:22:24 well. We would it would be a line item
5:22:26 within the budget that we would need
5:22:27 time meeting to go out,
5:22:28 right? So there would be conditions of
5:22:29 appropriation similar to everything
5:22:30 else, you know, so it would be
5:22:32 appropriated as, you know, x amount of
5:22:34 dollars from this fund to the operating
5:22:36 budget subject to the same conditions as
5:22:38 the operating budget. Um,
5:22:43 okay. Any further discussion?
5:22:47 I think it'd be good, just my opinion, I
5:22:50 think it'd be uh good if uh we hold this
5:22:53 so that people opportunity to really try
5:22:55 to understand it. It's not it's not a
5:22:57 simple concept and the funding of it
5:23:00 comes from you know an override that is
5:23:04 frontloaded
5:23:05 um you know year one but that
5:23:08 front-loaded amount continues in
5:23:11 perpetuity
5:23:13 right I mean if you know if if uh year
5:23:16 one override is let's say up to makes
5:23:20 makes the levy 100 that 100 plus 2 and a
5:23:24 half plus new um new um uh new
5:23:28 construction
5:23:30 plus any subsequent overrides or etc
5:23:33 would continue into perpetuity.
5:23:35 Yeah. Um do you want to open the public
5:23:37 hearing?
5:23:38 Uh yes.
5:23:39 Okay.
5:23:40 Public hearing is open. Um
5:23:45 anyone online or in the audience who
5:23:48 would like to speak, please uh speak up
5:23:51 now. raise your hand
5:23:54 or just stand up in the audience.
5:23:56 Is getting short.
5:23:57 Raise your hand.
5:23:59 Okay. Uh seeing no one, I'll close the
5:24:02 public hearing and uh we'll take this up
5:24:06 at a future select board meeting.
5:24:08 Could I ask one question about the
5:24:09 future? So, would it make sense to take
5:24:11 this up after we've had a discussion
5:24:13 about the
5:24:14 Yes.
5:24:15 Okay.
5:24:15 Yeah. Just to we put it out here now.
5:24:18 It's an it's an easy one to put out
5:24:19 there and then there's a conversation
5:24:20 but we would vote on it after we figure
5:24:22 out the
5:24:22 yes probably after after this month.
5:24:24 Thank you.
5:24:26 Okay. And we will receive the
5:24:27 recommendation of the expenditure and
5:24:29 revenue committee at next meeting. Um
5:24:33 and uh we will have at least two
5:24:36 meetings to discuss it.
5:24:40 If we don't get it done in two meetings,
5:24:42 we have until 11:59 on March 31st to do
5:24:46 it.
5:24:47 Please do not do that.
5:24:50 Okay. Next, uh, article 21, resolution
5:24:53 expressing support for the Massachusetts
5:24:55 Medicare for all legislation.
5:24:58 Um,
5:24:59 is there someone?
5:25:01 Yes.
5:25:02 Yes. Oh, I'm online. I mean, I was um
5:25:06 there in person until about 20 minutes
5:25:09 ago. Um, so my name is Francis Lang
5:25:13 Laby. Uh this is my first time at um as
5:25:18 a petitioner at the select board and um
5:25:26 several other people were present um who
5:25:29 had to leave who were also in support of
5:25:32 this. I should say that this is a
5:25:35 resolution simply to put support for
5:25:39 Medicare for all on the ballot. Um,
5:25:44 so I will say that
5:25:48 the Wait, hold on just one second. I'm
5:25:50 so sorry.
5:25:54 The the United States is really
5:25:57 virtually the only Western country that
5:26:01 does not have a publicly funded
5:26:04 universal health care system. Um, it's
5:26:08 not a good distinction. And
5:26:11 Massachusetts has actually been in the
5:26:14 forefront of progressive
5:26:18 equitable movements in affordability and
5:26:21 health care.
5:26:24 Also, at this time, there's a whole
5:26:27 bunch of resolutions being um presented
5:26:32 in other towns in Massachusetts.
5:26:36 Having listened to a lot of the
5:26:39 discussion about um budget problems, I
5:26:44 want to say that um
5:26:48 Brooklyn would save it's been estimated
5:26:51 that through the um municipal calculator
5:26:54 and um with a lot of thinking about
5:26:56 this, Brooklyn would save about $30.5
5:27:01 million in 2027 with this um with
5:27:05 Medicare for all and there's a very
5:27:08 compelling study by the University of
5:27:10 Massachusetts which shows how much money
5:27:13 would be saved throughout the state. Um
5:27:18 it is not only however the savings that
5:27:21 Brookline and other towns would make.
5:27:24 I'm very aware of how many people with
5:27:30 our private health care system now
5:27:33 simply do not get health insurance. And
5:27:37 I'm thinking of young people in
5:27:39 particular who are locked into jobs
5:27:43 purely to get the health care benefits
5:27:47 um and are not able to do things that
5:27:50 would be valuable and that they want to
5:27:52 do. And this is true not only for young
5:27:54 people obviously um and
5:27:59 employers, including very much the town
5:28:02 of Brooklyn, um
5:28:05 spend huge amounts of money on health
5:28:09 care premiums for their employees. Money
5:28:13 that could be spent so much more um
5:28:16 beneficially in other ways. Um I'm not
5:28:20 an economist so I cannot go into detail
5:28:24 about the savings. Um but I do know a
5:28:28 number of pe many people including
5:28:31 myself um who are
5:28:35 not done well by by private insurance
5:28:39 companies. Anyway, I certainly think
5:28:42 that this should be put on the ballot.
5:28:44 It doesn't commit. It just that would
5:28:47 simply allow Brooklyn residents to vote
5:28:50 on it. And um really that's all I have
5:28:53 to say. I think it's kind of a nobrainer
5:28:57 to put this on the ballot. Um and I'm
5:29:00 sorry not to be there in person and I'm
5:29:02 sorry that the other individuals who
5:29:04 were going to be um speaking to this are
5:29:08 also not able to be here now.
5:29:12 Thank you.
5:29:12 Oh. Oh wait. Maybe maybe Alec who is
5:29:16 there I can see um might like to say
5:29:18 something.
5:29:21 See you Alec.
5:29:23 No Alec Le is is he a co-etitioner?
5:29:28 I am not a co-itioner but I would like
5:29:30 to speak during the public hearing
5:29:31 portion.
5:29:31 Okay.
5:29:33 Okay. Any questions before we open
5:29:35 public hearing?
5:29:37 I I just want to I just want to make a
5:29:39 clarification for the petitioner. She
5:29:41 mentioned a couple of times that this
5:29:43 has something to do with a ballot. Um,
5:29:46 I'm reading the language of the
5:29:47 the warrant. The warrant.
5:29:48 The warrant.
5:29:49 Yes, that's what I meant.
5:29:51 Okay. Thank you.
5:29:53 Okay. With that, let's open the public
5:29:56 hearing.
5:29:59 There anyone who would like to speak? I
5:30:00 see Alec Levitz has his hand up and
5:30:03 Regina Crowley. Uh, so let's go with
5:30:05 Alec first.
5:30:07 Yes. Thank you very much, Chair Green.
5:30:08 And I'll try to be very brief. Um, I I I
5:30:11 agree with Francis and I I strongly
5:30:14 support this article. Um, as you heard
5:30:16 from Francis, um, Brookline would stand
5:30:19 to save substantially on healthcare
5:30:21 costs, um, should the state move to a
5:30:23 singlepayer model. Um, the financing
5:30:26 mechanism that has been proposed in the
5:30:28 legislation that this Warren article
5:30:29 endorses, um, would replace GIC rates
5:30:32 for Brookline with an 8% payroll tax on
5:30:36 our total salary line item. Um, as
5:30:39 Francis mentioned, that would save the
5:30:41 town, based on the FY27 financial plan,
5:30:44 $30.5 million in that fiscal year. We'd
5:30:47 be talking about going from spending
5:30:49 almost $50 million on group health
5:30:51 benefits um to slightly more than 17.
5:30:54 Um, as as we've heard earlier this
5:30:57 evening, and this is, I think, a very
5:30:58 opportune moment to take this article up
5:31:00 after having just heard the benefits
5:31:02 budget, um, healthcare cost increases
5:31:05 are are really reaching a crisis level
5:31:06 for municipalities. Um and I think it's
5:31:09 important to note that one of the
5:31:11 advantages of a singlepayer system in
5:31:12 addition to um providing savings through
5:31:15 just a change in the financing mechanism
5:31:18 for group health benefits would also be
5:31:20 that the state would have substantially
5:31:22 greater ability um to negotiate and
5:31:26 contain the cost of health care growth
5:31:28 over time. Um, and that would prevent
5:31:31 Brookline from facing single-year
5:31:33 healthc care cost shocks such as what
5:31:36 we've seen this year with a group health
5:31:37 rate increase of 14%. Um, and and I
5:31:41 think finally, as Francis also touched
5:31:42 on, uh, I I think this idea very much
5:31:45 fits within the community values of
5:31:47 Brookline and Massachusetts, uh, and I
5:31:50 think really seeks to continue
5:31:51 Massachusetts leading role in setting
5:31:54 healthcare policy across the country and
5:31:56 really envisioning how, um, concerted
5:31:59 state efforts can can drive um, national
5:32:02 health care policy conversations and
5:32:04 reform. Um, you know, we did that
5:32:07 already, uh, with the Affordable Care
5:32:08 Act. That model was pioneered in
5:32:10 Massachusetts and expanded nationally.
5:32:13 Um, and as to this date, no state has
5:32:15 implemented a state level singlepayer
5:32:17 system. Um, some have tried and failed.
5:32:20 U, no state has succeeded at this point.
5:32:23 And I think Massachusetts, for a number
5:32:24 of reasons, is uniquely situated to
5:32:27 succeed where some of those previous
5:32:28 efforts have failed. And I think the
5:32:30 implications for that in addition to
5:32:32 being a gamecher for our municipal
5:32:35 budget um and for the residents of the
5:32:37 Commonwealth, many of whom are either
5:32:38 uninsured or underinsured um it also has
5:32:41 the potential to drive a really critical
5:32:43 national healthcare conversation
5:32:44 forward. Um so I'm a strong supporter of
5:32:46 this Warren article. Uh I thank Francis
5:32:49 for bringing it forward and I would
5:32:51 encourage uh the select board to
5:32:52 consider voting favorable action. Thank
5:32:54 you.
5:32:56 Okay, Regina.
5:33:02 Thank you, Regina Frolley from precin
5:33:05 16.
5:33:07 I'm not understanding how this would get
5:33:09 paid. Um, as somebody who worked till I
5:33:13 was 72 to qualify for Medicare. Um, it
5:33:17 seems like it wants to save money for
5:33:19 the town, but it's going to shift it to
5:33:21 someplace else. And I don't, if I heard
5:33:24 him correctly, he's talking only about
5:33:26 those who work. it would be on their
5:33:28 their um uh taxes somehow or other. I
5:33:32 I'm not clear, but that's kind of the
5:33:35 point. I doubt that you are clear either
5:33:38 and you shouldn't be supporting anything
5:33:40 you don't have a real rigorous
5:33:42 understanding just because gee it sounds
5:33:45 great and gee everybody all the young
5:33:47 people will have it. I think this is
5:33:50 rigorously important and I think that
5:33:52 that I would like to hear rigor on the
5:33:55 discussion here. Thank you.
5:34:00 Okay. Any other uh comments from the
5:34:03 public?
5:34:08 Okay. Any questions from the select
5:34:09 board? Paul.
5:34:10 Yep. I I have one um for the petitioner.
5:34:13 Thanks for Is she still on?
5:34:16 Yes.
5:34:16 Oh, there you are. um
5:34:19 uh for the uh the two I think you
5:34:22 referenced two bills in your the
5:34:24 legislation in your article in your
5:34:26 whereas clauses or maybe in um in your
5:34:29 resolution.
5:34:30 Um could have you provided the text of
5:34:33 those
5:34:35 um
5:34:38 bills?
5:34:39 It would be helpful if if they're not to
5:34:41 to to send them uh
5:34:43 okay
5:34:43 send them to the board. I uh I I did a
5:34:46 quick Google and I I may be tired and
5:34:48 it's late, but I couldn't find them. So,
5:34:50 um it would be helpful to be able to
5:34:52 read uh the various legislation that
5:34:54 you're referencing because basically I
5:34:55 assume you're asking,
5:34:58 you know, should the resolution pass,
5:34:59 are we
5:35:01 would we transmit a letter to the
5:35:02 legislature? That's what we would do.
5:35:04 Yeah. So, it be really helpful to make
5:35:05 sure that
5:35:06 that we understand the legislation that
5:35:08 we're actually suggesting we
5:35:10 I will I will I will do that. Um Yeah.
5:35:15 Okay. Any other
5:35:18 uh questions from the uh select board or
5:35:20 the office or the audience?
5:35:24 Did I close this? I'm sorry. I guess I
5:35:26 didn't close the hearing.
5:35:28 Let me just um say one additional thing.
5:35:32 I appreciate what the woman just asked
5:35:35 and what she brought up and I had
5:35:37 anticipated that this might be a
5:35:40 question and actually Alec um sent me a
5:35:44 very useful email in response and if if
5:35:47 he's still here he could speak to this.
5:35:50 Um yes, just very briefly what I had
5:35:52 referenced was the the main finance
5:35:55 mechanism in the bill that this warrant
5:35:57 article would endorse um is replacing
5:36:00 what is currently municipal direct
5:36:03 contributions from Brookline to the GIC
5:36:06 um with an assessed 8% tax on our total
5:36:10 salary line item. So essentially a 7%
5:36:13 state payroll tax. Um while that may
5:36:17 sound like a lot or excuse me, it's
5:36:19 actually an 8% tax. Um, that may sound
5:36:21 like a lot in a vacuum, but as I
5:36:23 mentioned, that actually represents a
5:36:25 substantial reduction in the town's
5:36:27 requested contribution um, for group
5:36:30 health benefits. And Regina is right.
5:36:33 Some costs will shift through the
5:36:35 economy. That is true. That's part of, I
5:36:38 think, um, the point of the healthc care
5:36:40 financing reform that's trying to be
5:36:42 advanced in this bill. Um but I think
5:36:44 the important thing to emphasize with
5:36:46 along with that is that the total cost
5:36:49 of health care um will be reduced and
5:36:52 the counterfactual relative difference
5:36:55 in how much health care cost will grow
5:36:57 over time will reduce will make the
5:36:59 reduction even more substantial. Um, so
5:37:02 while who pays what amount may shift
5:37:05 somewhat, most people including small
5:37:08 businesses, including municipalities,
5:37:10 and I would argue I believe most
5:37:12 residents um will pay less overall. So I
5:37:15 just would add that.
5:37:20 Okay. Uh David,
5:37:22 so just a question about you uh cited
5:37:24 substantial savings for the town. Do you
5:37:26 have some kind of estimate based on
5:37:28 current numbers?
5:37:30 Yeah. So what for FY27 uh we've
5:37:33 forecasted 47.6 million in group health
5:37:36 benefits under the status quo. Um with
5:37:39 an 8% tax assessed on our payroll that
5:37:42 would be 17.1 million roughly. So that's
5:37:45 the difference of 30.5 million that we
5:37:47 referenced uh earlier.
5:37:49 Okay. Thank you.
5:37:51 Yeah, I was just going to add that um
5:37:53 you know, Alex referenced the fact that
5:37:56 overall health care would be less and
5:37:58 that's true because the uh there's
5:38:01 tremendous inefficiency within the
5:38:03 system uh because of because of the
5:38:05 for-profit
5:38:07 health insurance companies. Um in my my
5:38:10 wife's practice, she's a physician. Um
5:38:12 they have several people that are
5:38:14 dedicated to do nothing but chase
5:38:16 insurance companies, right? just to get
5:38:18 them to pay because automatic there's a
5:38:19 rejection and they you know they put you
5:38:21 through hoops um just just for the
5:38:23 healthcare provider to get paid um so
5:38:26 there's tremendous inefficiency and if
5:38:28 you cut out that efficiency there'd be
5:38:30 tremendous savings
5:38:32 thought I'd add that
5:38:35 okay I'm sorry Michael
5:38:36 I mean I mean I'm I'm just bringing up
5:38:39 one of one of the links um and it talks
5:38:41 about um there is an employer payroll
5:38:44 tax there's also an employee E tax based
5:38:48 on AGI. There's also a 10% tax on
5:38:52 unearned income and a 10% tax for
5:38:55 self-employed individuals and an
5:38:57 exemption. So that I mean the taxing
5:39:00 structure seems relatively complicated
5:39:03 and I'm not sure that I understand it
5:39:05 all. Um, I don't understand, for
5:39:07 example, the effect on seniors and fixed
5:39:10 incomes who are getting Medicare now,
5:39:13 which is generally much less expensive
5:39:15 than private insurance because it seems
5:39:18 like the cost is shifting from basically
5:39:21 paying based on your health care needs
5:39:24 to pay paying based on your incomes. So,
5:39:28 so that there is a lot of there is a lot
5:39:30 of shifting going on.
5:39:31 Yeah.
5:39:32 Can I ask a question? I mean, I'm sure
5:39:35 you know the answer. Alex does. Um,
5:39:37 Medicare doesn't pay all your hospital
5:39:39 costs or I'm sorry, all of your medical
5:39:41 costs. So,
5:39:44 given given that um is uh your estimates
5:39:48 of uh the savings that would would come
5:39:52 from such a system um
5:39:56 totally accurate or
5:39:59 able to be deter assessed?
5:40:03 I mean, I have Medicare, but I also have
5:40:06 insurance through the GIC.
5:40:09 So, I mean, a Medicare for all is going
5:40:11 to give people Medicare, but not GIC
5:40:14 insurance. And that or something
5:40:16 comparable.
5:40:18 So, so respond very
5:40:21 um so I one one thing I I do want to
5:40:24 stress and and you know I I work in
5:40:26 health policy so happy to get wonky on
5:40:27 this if people are interested but um a
5:40:30 singlepayer state level system will not
5:40:32 actually be Medicare for all because
5:40:34 Medicare for all is a federally
5:40:35 administered pro or Medicare rather
5:40:37 excuse me is a federally administered
5:40:39 program. The state has no ability to
5:40:41 directly administer Medicare. how the
5:40:44 states can have some influence um over
5:40:47 how Medicare is administered and also
5:40:49 how Medicaid is administered on the
5:40:52 state level is through um the
5:40:54 negotiation of waiverss with the federal
5:40:56 government. Um that allows states to to
5:41:00 customize some of these programs and how
5:41:02 they operate within state borders. Um
5:41:05 what has been a staple of previous
5:41:08 proposals and um Vermont's uh attempted
5:41:12 move to a state level singlepayer system
5:41:14 has been um alongside
5:41:17 the establishment of a state level
5:41:19 financing system, what Michael alluded
5:41:21 to, um and a state level um insurance
5:41:25 coverage system that covers non-Medicare
5:41:28 eligible people and people who are
5:41:30 currently on Medicaid. Um, it typically
5:41:33 involves trying to use your waiver
5:41:35 authority to customize the way Medicare
5:41:38 and Medicaid are implemented in
5:41:40 Massachusetts to fill in the gaps
5:41:43 essentially for where we would need
5:41:45 federal support. Um so even though uh
5:41:49 you know uh we would ensure say dual
5:41:51 eligible seniors could receive coverage
5:41:54 under a state singlepayer system, if you
5:41:57 only currently receive Medicare
5:41:59 coverage, um it's highly likely that you
5:42:02 would just continue to receive Medicare
5:42:04 coverage with potentially the state
5:42:06 offering supplemental coverage um to
5:42:08 address the coverage gaps in Medicare
5:42:10 that you referenced earlier, Bernard.
5:42:12 Thank you. Uh, John.
5:42:15 Um, I I must confess that when, you
5:42:18 know, resolutions such as this come
5:42:20 along, I I quite I I don't quite know
5:42:22 what to do. Excuse me. Because, um, I
5:42:26 mean, you know,
5:42:29 we've heard Alex tonight, you know,
5:42:31 present the case for it. the numbers
5:42:33 seem, you know, themselves to be,
5:42:37 you know, I don't know how to explain
5:42:40 that just by magically calling it
5:42:43 Medicare for all. Um, and by imposing a
5:42:47 tax, which will only raise a certain
5:42:51 amount of money, the difference between
5:42:53 that amount of money and the amount of
5:42:54 money we're spending now on, you know,
5:42:56 healthare equals how much we'll be
5:42:58 saving on healthcare. Well, maybe we'll
5:43:00 be getting like one-third the health
5:43:01 care for one-third the money. I, you
5:43:04 know, for us to delve into this
5:43:07 seriously, and I think it's a very
5:43:09 serious topic, but the fact of the
5:43:11 matter is there hasn't been a successful
5:43:12 singlepayer health care system in any
5:43:14 state in the country as so far. Vermont
5:43:17 tried it and abandoned it. Um, so we at
5:43:21 Brooklyn Town Meeting will take on in
5:43:24 the middle of everything else we're
5:43:25 trying to do, the debate over, you know,
5:43:28 what What would a singlepayer health
5:43:31 care system look like even though we
5:43:32 can't adopt a singlepayer health care
5:43:35 system uh in at the town level? Um and
5:43:38 and what are we supposed to do? Call in
5:43:40 um experts on healthcare finance from
5:43:42 all over the country to testify on this
5:43:44 that the other aspects of it. And at the
5:43:46 end of the day, for what purpose? I
5:43:48 mean, we we could try to settle the
5:43:51 debate over whether singlepayer health
5:43:53 care would be a better system than the
5:43:54 system we have um at the floor of town
5:43:58 Brooklyn town meeting, but it wouldn't
5:44:00 have any effect in terms of resulting in
5:44:02 there being a singlepayer healthcare
5:44:04 system. Um so I'm I'm just not sure how
5:44:07 much time we want to spend on this.
5:44:08 Yeah.
5:44:09 Can I just say one thing because I do
5:44:11 not I'm not an expert in the finances of
5:44:14 it.
5:44:15 Nor am I.
5:44:16 Okay. I wasn't trying to pretend to be.
5:44:19 But really, what we're talking about is
5:44:22 making health care accessible for
5:44:25 everyone. This is a step along the way.
5:44:29 All of these um questions,
5:44:32 financial questions need to be worked
5:44:34 out. But really what we're saying is the
5:44:36 system that we have now is so burdensome
5:44:40 and excludes so many individuals and
5:44:44 families. It's not working. And I I feel
5:44:48 as if it wouldn't only be Brooklyn in
5:44:52 any case because there's a lot of other
5:44:53 towns that are voting on this or
5:44:55 hopefully will be voting on it. Um it's
5:44:59 just expressing in a way a commitment to
5:45:04 um a less not a profit driven but an um
5:45:09 a more equitable approach to healthcare.
5:45:12 That's a good thing. Yeah, that that's a
5:45:15 good thing. We all agree with that. But
5:45:17 let me just throw out one concern I
5:45:19 have. Medicare, this is not Medicare for
5:45:22 all as as Alex described and I should
5:45:25 have known that because Medicare is a
5:45:27 federal program and we're talking about
5:45:29 a state program. So I mean that the
5:45:31 Warren article is kind of confusing and
5:45:33 it's going to confuse town meeting and
5:45:34 we're going to get bogged down in trying
5:45:36 to
5:45:37 say Medicare for all, right? Yeah, it
5:45:38 says Medicare for all, but that does
5:45:40 that means nothing. And we can get
5:45:42 bogged down in trying to unravel, you
5:45:46 know, what we're really talking about.
5:45:48 And it seems to me it's going to be
5:45:50 real, you know, what show.
5:45:51 Did you just want to flag? It's 11
5:45:52 o'clock.
5:45:53 So, just so just I just I want to just
5:45:55 suggest something to the petitioner,
5:45:57 maybe to Alec. Um, and it is based on
5:45:59 what you just said and and John kind of
5:46:02 triggered this thought for me. Um
5:46:04 there's going to have to be a
5:46:05 significant effort to educate town
5:46:07 meeting as to what this is. What what
5:46:10 the what the uh you're you're actually
5:46:13 asking town meeting to resolve for two
5:46:16 specific bills. Um there's we have to
5:46:20 town meeting will need to understand
5:46:21 what those bills are, what the economics
5:46:23 of those bills, what are the trade-offs.
5:46:25 There's a huge heavy lift here because
5:46:27 you're um because you're referencing
5:46:31 something very specific. I don't know if
5:46:33 the resolution can be modified so it's
5:46:35 not so specific, but if you're going to
5:46:36 get that specific, there has to be a lot
5:46:38 of education, I think, at town meeting
5:46:41 um for for the town meeting to approve
5:46:43 it and then for the board to be able to,
5:46:45 you know, get behind um and and send a
5:46:48 letter.
5:46:50 Make a suggestion, which is the first
5:46:52 thing we'd have to do is get a ruling
5:46:53 from the moderator, is can you take a
5:46:56 resolution, which is titled Medicare for
5:46:58 all, and instead say, well, it's not
5:47:00 really a debate about Medicare for all.
5:47:01 is made about a singlepayer health and
5:47:03 I'm like okay what I don't know it's not
5:47:07 a scriven
5:47:07 it was introduced as being me for
5:47:09 Medicare for all
5:47:10 yeah I mean let's try to wrap this up
5:47:13 so first I I don't know I don't know if
5:47:16 we're going to be taking a vote tonight
5:47:17 it sounds like
5:47:19 um but to to to Paul's point um you know
5:47:24 there is a obviously a lot of education
5:47:26 um I think that the the way the
5:47:29 resolution is worded
5:47:31 the details actually do matter. Um
5:47:34 because what the petitioners are asking
5:47:38 town meeting to do and asking the select
5:47:40 board to make a recommendation on is
5:47:43 support of a as you say a specific set
5:47:46 of of bills um that have specific
5:47:51 mechanisms in there for accomplishing a
5:47:54 specific goal around healthcare. Um and
5:47:59 and I'm just I'm just really concerned
5:48:03 not about not about the overall
5:48:05 objective but about the details and the
5:48:09 specifics, the follow-on impacts, the
5:48:12 economic analysis,
5:48:14 um the tax consequences. You know, all
5:48:17 of those things have to really be well
5:48:19 understood for all the various
5:48:22 populations who are all going to be
5:48:23 affected in different ways.
5:48:26 You know, let me just say as the
5:48:29 petitioner, these are all
5:48:32 um really important points. I'm very
5:48:34 glad that you have mentioned them. I'm
5:48:35 glad that you're not going to vote on it
5:48:37 tonight, it sounds like. And um so I
5:48:41 appreciate this response.
5:48:43 Okay. Thank you. Uh I'll close the
5:48:46 public hearing if I haven't already
5:48:47 closed it. And u we're not going to take
5:48:49 this up tonight. So let's move on to the
5:48:52 next and final item. hopefully the final
5:48:55 item um which is pardon me
5:49:00 thank you for for hanging for sticking
5:49:03 around Meredith
5:49:04 of course
5:49:06 um question of calling a special town
5:49:08 meeting on Tuesday May 26 at 7:30 p.m.
5:49:12 at the high school auditorium and Zoom
5:49:14 remote meeting to wave requirements of
5:49:16 section 2.1.2 through 2.1.4 four of the
5:49:19 town's bylaws to open and then close the
5:49:23 warrant and to insert in said warrant
5:49:25 two articles.
5:49:27 Um I just Melissa was going to talk
5:49:29 briefly about the mechanics of this and
5:49:31 Mary talk about the substance.
5:49:32 Okay, great.
5:49:34 Yeah. So um the the board essentially is
5:49:37 looking uh we had talked a couple weeks
5:49:39 ago about the board uh using the special
5:49:42 town meeting and scheduling that within
5:49:44 the annual town meeting. Um the way that
5:49:46 you're doing that is by essentially
5:49:48 scheduling it for 7:30. The annual town
5:49:50 meeting will start at 7. Um this will
5:49:53 open up at 7:30 and then you'll schedule
5:49:55 it according to what fits the rest of
5:49:57 the town meeting schedule. Um so I my
5:50:00 memo provides the mechanism for you to
5:50:02 be able to do that. Um just don't forget
5:50:04 that the very last page of my memo after
5:50:06 the articles um you you also need to
5:50:08 execute the warrant. So I after I will
5:50:11 uh toss it over to Meredith to describe
5:50:13 the articles that uh that will be filed
5:50:15 if the board chooses to call this
5:50:16 special town.
5:50:18 Thank you.
5:50:18 We have to execute the warrant today.
5:50:21 Yes.
5:50:22 Okay. Do we have that? It's it's it's
5:50:24 back. It's back in your conference room.
5:50:25 Okay. Ready to go if you want if you
5:50:27 want to sign it.
5:50:28 Okay.
5:50:32 So go ahead.
5:50:33 I thought it would be helpful just to
5:50:34 sort of recap what brought us to this
5:50:36 moment. Um back in
5:50:40 February 3rd, Economic Development
5:50:42 Division presented our recommendations
5:50:43 for the Chestnut Hill commercial area
5:50:45 study, which is a study that's been
5:50:47 underway since 2024.
5:50:49 Um, and included amongst those
5:50:52 recommendations was a proposal for um an
5:50:54 overlay zoning district. Uh, the select
5:50:57 board opted to hold a public hearing
5:50:58 regarding those recommendations on
5:51:00 February 10th. On February 24th, we were
5:51:03 given direction from the select board to
5:51:05 move forward with um submitting for the
5:51:07 select board's consideration uh a
5:51:09 package of warrant articles addressing
5:51:11 the overlay zoning as well as a package
5:51:13 of protections in the form of a
5:51:15 memorandum of agreement and tax
5:51:17 certainty agreement with city realy the
5:51:19 owner of the Chesn Hill office park at
5:51:20 1280 and 13:30 Boilston Street. So that
5:51:24 is what we have um submitted this
5:51:26 evening. There are the two warrant
5:51:27 articles. There's the set of proposed
5:51:29 zoning bylaw amendments to incorporate
5:51:31 the overlay districts, the Chesnut Hill
5:51:33 commercial overlay district. Um, as well
5:51:35 as a separate warrant article that would
5:51:37 authorize the select board to enter into
5:51:39 an MOA and tax certainty agreement with
5:51:41 City Realy. Um, so updates to the zoning
5:51:44 since uh the you saw the draft zoning in
5:51:47 your packet for February 3rd, there has
5:51:49 been some adjustments um primarily in
5:51:53 response to conversations we had with
5:51:54 the planning board. We had a
5:51:56 presentation and then a workshop with
5:51:58 the planning board and then a follow-up
5:51:59 discussion. So, we've incorporated some
5:52:01 of those changes that they requested in
5:52:03 terms of setbacks and height limitations
5:52:05 in certain areas um of the district. And
5:52:09 um we have also removed four properties
5:52:11 that are on the national register from
5:52:13 the eastern most part of um the
5:52:15 district. So, along Dunster Road. Um so,
5:52:18 the study boundaries have changed
5:52:20 slightly on the eastern side. There were
5:52:22 a couple of other follow items follow-up
5:52:24 items and requests that were um brought
5:52:27 up at the February 3rd meeting. Uh one
5:52:29 regarding sort of the transportation
5:52:31 board having the opportunity to weigh in
5:52:33 on the anticipated traffic impacts
5:52:35 associated with this upzoning. So we did
5:52:39 receive the future capacity analysis
5:52:41 from our transportation consultant. The
5:52:43 TA board is going to be reviewing that.
5:52:45 They're going to receive a presentation
5:52:46 from the consultant and then uh some
5:52:48 feedback from our transportation
5:52:50 engineering division staff with sort of
5:52:51 their technical assessment of um KDson's
5:52:54 work and recommendations and that's
5:52:56 going to be at their March 18th meeting
5:52:58 next week. And then finally, there was
5:53:01 uh the request that uh we circle back
5:53:04 with Newton. We've been in touch with
5:53:06 our counterparts in the Newton planning
5:53:07 department as well as the transportation
5:53:10 um planning staff regarding the study
5:53:13 process. However, with the benefit of
5:53:15 the study recommendations finalized and
5:53:18 um us finalizing the zoning, uh we have
5:53:20 been in more recent communication just
5:53:22 to update them on where things have
5:53:23 landed. Um and then, you know, giving
5:53:25 them the talking points that they need
5:53:27 to answer questions from Newton city
5:53:29 councilors and and leadership. Um we
5:53:31 also participated in a meeting with town
5:53:33 administrator Jazz Kerry and uh the
5:53:35 Newton mayor um mayor Laredo regarding
5:53:38 this proposal as well. Um, so that's
5:53:42 sort of our our update and where things
5:53:43 stand.
5:53:44 Just to follow up on that and thank you,
5:53:45 Meredith. Um, I met with uh the planning
5:53:48 the planning staff and I went out went
5:53:50 out to Newton and had a staff to staff
5:53:51 meeting. We also so I spoke to the
5:53:53 mayor. I spoke to councelor Liar B Lyall
5:53:56 Baker who came here to speak to you with
5:53:58 his concerns about the site uh and the
5:54:00 proposed resoning. I also then spoke to
5:54:03 uh on Monday night um with the uh city
5:54:07 Newton city council's uh committee on
5:54:09 planning um and zoning. Um they raised
5:54:13 similar concerns. Their two concerns
5:54:15 remain primarily um how traffic will be
5:54:17 handled at the intersection of Route 9
5:54:19 and Hammond Street. Uh and about the
5:54:21 parcel north of Route 9 um where the
5:54:24 Star Market parking lot is. They
5:54:26 continue to be concerned about the
5:54:28 potential of that being reszoned in such
5:54:29 a way that disincentivizes keeping the
5:54:32 parking there. They're very concerned
5:54:33 about the parking for that supermarket.
5:54:35 Um we've talked about how because of the
5:54:37 interrelated nature of the special
5:54:39 permit that Newton issued for that
5:54:41 supermarket that and the fact that the
5:54:43 owner of the supermarket also owns the
5:54:45 parking lot across the line in Brooklyn.
5:54:48 The parking lots in Brooklyn, the
5:54:49 supermarkets in Newton. Um it would be
5:54:52 very hard for them to get rid of that
5:54:53 parking. um ba basically impossible like
5:54:56 they would have to they would replace it
5:54:57 theoretically with underground parking
5:54:59 or structured parking but they can't get
5:55:01 rid of it um because of this because
5:55:03 they would have to change the use of the
5:55:05 entire space and then they would have to
5:55:07 go through resoning in Newton you know a
5:55:10 new special permit or reasonzoning in
5:55:11 Newton along with here um so you know
5:55:15 we're trying to assuage that we we
5:55:17 talked we talked about about how at a
5:55:19 staffto staff level we're setting up a
5:55:21 task force to deal with these issues we
5:55:23 talked about how Route 9 is a concern
5:55:25 for us, not just for these projects, but
5:55:27 in general um that traffic is increasing
5:55:31 uh and we need to be working on
5:55:32 mitigation and pedestrian safety along
5:55:35 with uh driver safety. So, it was a good
5:55:37 it was a positive conversation. and you
5:55:39 saw the letter from councelor Baker that
5:55:41 was sent today in your note in in your
5:55:44 uh packets reiterating those concerns
5:55:46 but also indicating that you know the
5:55:49 the thanking us for being in good
5:55:51 dialogue with them and continuing the
5:55:53 conversation. So I think on the whole
5:55:56 positive steps in our conversations with
5:55:58 Newton they have concerns and we're
5:56:00 working to address them.
5:56:03 Cool.
5:56:04 Yeah. I just I had a a quick question
5:56:06 this so I just wanted to make sure you
5:56:09 um you spoke as to what the directive
5:56:11 was from the board for you to do um and
5:56:14 I think you left out the 12story
5:56:17 um amendment right there's a whole
5:56:18 another whole package
5:56:21 um of stuff that the board had asked
5:56:24 planning to do right
5:56:25 yes so thank you I did omit that so
5:56:29 there were three steps it was submit
5:56:31 this warrant article proposal with the
5:56:33 14 story maximum height.
5:56:35 Yeah.
5:56:35 Uh consolidate the study recommendations
5:56:38 in a report format that people have the
5:56:40 benefit of referring to as they're going
5:56:41 through the warrant article review
5:56:43 process. And then finally to prepare an
5:56:44 amendment with a maximum height of 12
5:56:46 stories.
5:56:46 Okay. So u just a follow up on that
5:56:48 Bernard real quick. So I um I had a
5:56:51 Michael and had I had a good
5:56:53 conversation yesterday about this whole
5:56:54 project and its its life and vitality
5:56:57 and ups and downs. Um, and and I I
5:57:02 shared concerns that I have with Michael
5:57:04 about the possibility of this thing
5:57:06 passing or not passing, but we talked
5:57:08 about the 12 stories and you asked me to
5:57:10 do something
5:57:12 um to reach out to um the five town
5:57:16 meeting members that serve on the um the
5:57:20 advisory group. Um and I and I did that.
5:57:24 So last night in this in most of the day
5:57:27 today I spoke I did reach out and have
5:57:29 conversations with each and every one of
5:57:31 them um over the phone personally it
5:57:33 wasn't through email um and I the the
5:57:38 each one of them said um that they won't
5:57:42 support 12 stories.
5:57:44 So I actually want they won't support 12
5:57:47 stories. So bringing bringing the thing
5:57:48 forward is it at this time maybe at some
5:57:51 other time but right now there's not
5:57:52 enough time to adjudicate 12 stories um
5:57:57 in a way that would be uh would be
5:57:59 effective. So, I actually would like to
5:58:02 strongly recommend that um planning not
5:58:07 waste their time developing amendments
5:58:11 for 12 stories negotiating
5:58:14 with uh because we'd have to do all that
5:58:17 work again um with uh city realy because
5:58:20 I don't think it's going to make amount
5:58:22 to a hella beans. There's not support
5:58:23 for it at this time. It could be in the
5:58:25 future, but at this time uh that that
5:58:27 combination won't happen. So, I wanted
5:58:29 to report back at least to Michael um
5:58:33 that this uh there's it's a non-starter
5:58:36 at 12 stories. So, I don't think we
5:58:39 should waste our time on it.
5:58:41 Okay.
5:58:42 I agree. Let's not waste our time.
5:58:44 Um
5:58:45 Michael, what do you think?
5:58:47 A couple of things. First of all, thank
5:58:48 you um both for the conversation.
5:58:50 I had hoped for a bit of ok, but um and
5:58:52 thank you thank you for reaching out. Um
5:58:55 and um
5:58:58 so so
5:59:01 one of the things that I had looked
5:59:03 looked at in terms of of sort of the
5:59:06 challenge of the moment um is that I
5:59:08 went back and looked actually at the
5:59:10 MBTA Communities Act um process um and
5:59:14 one of the things that I noticed was
5:59:16 that the agreement that was that you
5:59:19 ultimately shephered through um to uh 83
5:59:23 84% % of town meetings vote uh actually
5:59:27 occurred about less than 30 days around
5:59:30 30 days from the time that the
5:59:35 um that town meeting began. Um and it
5:59:38 was a set of amendments to
5:59:42 to the warrant articles that were
5:59:44 ultimately filed. Um and um as I have
5:59:48 said uh repeatedly um that I am
5:59:54 uh still hopeful um and I believe that
5:59:57 there are trade-offs and negotiations to
5:59:59 be considered um and am uh looking
6:00:03 forward to those conversations. Um I
6:00:06 want to respect the multiple years of
6:00:10 effort um that have been put together by
6:00:13 uh the planning department um the
6:00:15 community advisory group um the number
6:00:18 of uh other stakeholders who have been
6:00:20 involved um and as you and I discussed
6:00:24 uh yesterday um this process is in some
6:00:29 ways more complex than other processes
6:00:32 because we have not only the town and
6:00:35 the community and the neighborhoods and
6:00:36 people who who are expressing those set
6:00:39 of interests. But we are also concerned
6:00:42 about uh the economic viability and
6:00:45 because we have a project in place um we
6:00:50 have more uh
6:00:54 more present uh uh expressions of what
6:00:58 would be economically viable or not. And
6:01:01 it is my hope that over the course of
6:01:03 this um examination that those
6:01:07 considerations of economic viability um
6:01:10 are continue to be reviewed and examined
6:01:13 and uh thoroughly vetted. Um but um
6:01:17 first of all I want to thank Meredith, I
6:01:20 want to thank um Carara, the rest of the
6:01:22 staff um Mike Sandman and the rest of
6:01:24 the community advisory group again for
6:01:27 their continued engagement and work on
6:01:29 this and raising a number of critical
6:01:31 questions that have continued to be uh
6:01:35 incorporated into this body of work. Um
6:01:38 I'm very uh excited about this. I think
6:01:42 it represents both a vision um for the
6:01:45 entire study area as well as a project
6:01:47 which will deliver significant benefits
6:01:50 to the town um as I have mentioned in
6:01:53 the past um and I am ready to take the
6:01:57 next steps and continue to move forward
6:01:59 with all parties engaged.
6:02:02 Okay. Uh John,
6:02:03 well I I just want to ask Michael um
6:02:06 just help me understand.
6:02:08 So, you're still uh aiming at the May 26
6:02:12 special town meeting. Is that is that
6:02:14 That is at this point. That is correct.
6:02:16 Yeah. Okay. Uh and I um Oh, I'm sorry. I
6:02:21 I wasn't finished. Yeah. Um so,
6:02:24 something came to my attention and I,
6:02:26 you know, it was actually today. Um and
6:02:29 yet it's something that, you know, maybe
6:02:31 should have been part of these
6:02:32 discussions uh for for some time now. Um
6:02:37 you know there's always been this kind
6:02:38 of question hanging over this whole
6:02:40 process that that it's aimed at an
6:02:42 entire you know district which you know
6:02:45 in incorporates many many other
6:02:47 properties in addition to the properties
6:02:49 owned by uh uh city realy um where
6:02:53 there's this 14127
6:02:55 uh proposal um a and it's been kind of a
6:02:59 mystery like well if we reszone you know
6:03:03 the entire district uh what other
6:03:05 developments might be possible in the
6:03:09 the other parts of the district. And
6:03:11 then I found out today that there's um
6:03:14 you know there's I I just happen not to
6:03:16 have had a conversation with this person
6:03:18 until today. Uh there's a very
6:03:21 significant owner there um and and his
6:03:24 company is called Growth Companies and
6:03:26 he happens to have the immediately
6:03:27 adjacent uh uh parcel uh to the west of
6:03:32 Tully Street um which is currently a
6:03:34 parking area but he also happens to have
6:03:37 uh commercial properties
6:03:39 uh on to the east side of Tully Street
6:03:43 and he happens to have an interest in
6:03:46 possibly purchasing some uh residential
6:03:48 properties.
6:03:49 that are adjacent to his property on the
6:03:52 east side of Tully Street. And he is in
6:03:55 a position of um from his p perspective
6:03:58 of having presented to um the town a
6:04:03 plausible plan under which he too would
6:04:06 become a developer through this zoning
6:04:10 that we're proposing to do for the area.
6:04:13 um if only he could get um you know a
6:04:16 little bit of um uh agreement to uh some
6:04:20 some special circumstances that would
6:04:23 have to be met for him to be able to do
6:04:25 the development that he um would propose
6:04:29 to do. but he he kind of feels like he's
6:04:32 just been getting the cold shoulder and
6:04:35 um no one seems to be interested in
6:04:38 paving the way for him to do a
6:04:40 development and um you know I'm not
6:04:43 going to judge whether that's an
6:04:45 accurate description. That's his
6:04:46 description of what's going on here. But
6:04:50 um as soon as we open the door to the
6:04:53 possibility of there being more than one
6:04:56 developer who would like to do
6:04:57 development um in this district, I mean
6:05:00 first of all that's kind of what we
6:05:01 wanted to happen. So you would think we
6:05:04 would do everything we can to encourage
6:05:06 this person. Um and then second of all,
6:05:09 you have to then begin a discussion
6:05:11 which we haven't yet yet had, which is
6:05:16 how much development can this whole area
6:05:19 sustain.
6:05:20 And if we're only talking to one
6:05:22 developer about one part of the uh
6:05:25 reszoned area
6:05:28 and if that developer um uses up a lot
6:05:31 of the capacity to absorb excuse me
6:05:34 additional units of well let's say
6:05:36 additional units of housing a whole
6:05:38 bunch of units of housing, a hotel, some
6:05:40 some retail, some office. Um uh it
6:05:44 impacts what might be allowable for the
6:05:47 next person who wants to develop because
6:05:50 now we've already you know said yes to a
6:05:54 whole bunch of activity happening at one
6:05:57 happening at one end of this whole area
6:06:00 without um um you know introducing the
6:06:03 possibility that other developers might
6:06:06 want to do their thing and they might
6:06:08 not have the same opportunity to do
6:06:11 development if if for example there has
6:06:14 been a additional burden on
6:06:15 transportation created by the westmost
6:06:18 development.
6:06:20 So, I don't know what we're going to do
6:06:23 if we do this special town meeting at
6:06:25 May 26 and this particular developer,
6:06:28 you know, shows up and says, "I, you
6:06:31 know, I can't seem to get anywhere uh
6:06:33 with the the people at town hall. I've
6:06:36 got a plan. I'd like to do some
6:06:37 development. How are we going to justify
6:06:40 only sort of paving the way for one
6:06:42 development when there's another
6:06:44 credible owner who says he's not getting
6:06:48 similar treatment?" I hope we haven't I
6:06:49 haven't mischaracterized what he's been
6:06:51 saying, but that's a big concern for me
6:06:53 and I just want people to know that.
6:06:56 Um, you want to respond or fill in
6:07:01 information?
6:07:02 Yes, thank you. So, growth companies,
6:07:07 we've been engaged with growth companies
6:07:09 since before we launched the study
6:07:11 process. Um,
6:07:14 we've had a lot of individual meetings
6:07:17 with them. They participated in almost
6:07:19 every community advisory group meeting
6:07:21 in 2025. They've attended almost every
6:07:23 economic development advisory board
6:07:25 subcommittee meeting and discussion.
6:07:27 Growth Companies has been very involved
6:07:29 and engaged in this process and
6:07:31 conversations about development
6:07:32 opportunities in this area.
6:07:35 Throughout much of that time, there was
6:07:37 not a specific development concept that
6:07:40 Growth Companies was able to share with
6:07:42 us to help us better understand where
6:07:46 their concerns and pain points might be
6:07:48 within the proposed zoning in the draft
6:07:51 format. Um so on the day of the warrant
6:07:55 article filing deadline we did receive
6:07:57 that proposal or a concept um that it's
6:08:00 still sort of there are question marks
6:08:01 about the extent to which that even
6:08:03 would conform to the existing zoning.
6:08:06 Um you know of course we're happy to
6:08:09 continue those conversations. You know
6:08:11 we included growth companies in the east
6:08:13 block in the Chesn Hill 4.0. um you know
6:08:17 in recognition of sort of uh development
6:08:20 potential that exists on that block and
6:08:23 um giving parody with uh the city realy
6:08:25 proposal. We also understand you know um
6:08:27 and have contemplated in the zoning the
6:08:31 challenges of their teley street parking
6:08:33 lot and what it will be what will be
6:08:35 required in order to redevelop that. We
6:08:37 don't want it to be a gap tooth in the
6:08:38 study area.
6:08:40 So, um I I I was forwarded the the
6:08:43 letter in the communication and so I did
6:08:45 just want to state that, you know, we
6:08:47 have included in the zoning that in the
6:08:50 4.0 you can submit a project proposal
6:08:52 for non-ontiguous lots only in that
6:08:55 subdist. And that was specifically
6:08:56 contemplating the the Tully Street
6:08:58 parking lot and the situation that
6:08:59 Growth Companies is in um and what they
6:09:02 would need in order to redevelop that.
6:09:04 Um,
6:09:06 and you know, I I'd be happy to walk you
6:09:09 through different aspects of the zoning
6:09:10 where we were, you know, thinking
6:09:12 specifically about growth companies and
6:09:13 issues that they had raised with us in
6:09:15 conversations with the economic
6:09:16 development advisory board subcommittee.
6:09:18 Um, and I,
6:09:22 you know,
6:09:23 um, would happy to continue that
6:09:26 conversation. Another suggestion that um
6:09:29 I think could be helpful um would be um
6:09:34 sort of reaching out to the economic
6:09:35 development advisory board for their
6:09:37 feedback about the extent to which you
6:09:39 know we feel like all developers
6:09:41 interests and opportunities have been
6:09:43 appropriately reflected in the zoning
6:09:44 proposal.
6:09:45 Okay. Uh David,
6:09:46 so I shared John's concern. We received
6:09:49 this letter from growth companies just
6:09:52 today and that letter essentially says
6:09:56 that the zoning as currently drafted
6:09:59 would not be economically viable for
6:10:01 them and they are the only other uh
6:10:05 ownership present on the uh 4.0
6:10:09 portion of this resoning. So
6:10:13 when we are thinking about economic
6:10:15 viability which was raised uh earlier by
6:10:18 Michael and all of us care about
6:10:20 economic viability of course I think we
6:10:22 need to reach consensus about what that
6:10:25 means for the entirety of the stretch
6:10:29 not just one portion uh and I appreciate
6:10:33 what Meredith has just said about
6:10:35 ongoing conversations and I'm sure
6:10:36 that'll happen but I'm a little worried
6:10:39 that we are putting way too much work on
6:10:43 you and Carara and on others to be able
6:10:45 to work all of this out by May 26th. and
6:10:48 even growth companies aside. You
6:10:50 mentioned that uh transportation boards
6:10:54 meeting on March 18th to formally uh
6:10:58 address the traffic plan and we don't
6:11:01 know specifically what they might uh
6:11:04 recommend from that and what uh changes
6:11:08 or modifications might need to be made
6:11:10 in furtherance of their suggestions if
6:11:13 any. Uh also it sounds like the meetings
6:11:17 with Newton that are are at a
6:11:20 preliminary stage. Uh in terms of other
6:11:23 developers who are involved in other
6:11:25 portions of this uh Route 9 district for
6:11:28 Cheson Hill West, there's also WS. Uh
6:11:32 it's not clear whether uh their vision
6:11:36 is achieved by this zoning. Also there
6:11:40 is uh Salvatore owns another portion.
6:11:43 Now, I say this not because I'm
6:11:45 suggesting that we abandon everything
6:11:48 we've done. That's not what I'm saying
6:11:50 at all. And but I do think that we're
6:11:53 being a bit unrealistic to hold this
6:11:56 special town meeting on May 26 because
6:11:59 it sounds like there's still a fairly
6:12:02 significant amount of work that needs to
6:12:03 be done. And I want to see
6:12:07 whatever we do end up uh having at town
6:12:10 meeting pass. I want this to be
6:12:12 successful. And if town meeting hears
6:12:15 that there are other developers who feel
6:12:17 that this zoning does not address their
6:12:20 needs, that's going to be problematic in
6:12:22 terms of achieving passage. I would like
6:12:25 to see buyin from everybody if it's
6:12:27 possible. Maybe it's not possible and
6:12:29 then we ultimately vote on it anyway.
6:12:31 But I would like to see these other
6:12:33 parties given the opportunity at least
6:12:36 to come together to make sure that all
6:12:39 of their needs are being addressed so
6:12:40 that we could achieve that 84% like the
6:12:44 uh MBTCA consensus plan.
6:12:48 I I just I I think
6:12:50 his hand was ready.
6:12:52 It's been up for a while.
6:12:53 It's really up there. I I I think
6:12:56 Meredith may be too diplomatic to say
6:12:58 this.
6:13:00 Growth companies send you a letter the
6:13:02 day you are debating this after over a
6:13:04 year of process on this in which they
6:13:07 have been deeply involved. It's a two
6:13:09 not even a two-page letter that says we
6:13:12 have concerns. Of course, we have other
6:13:13 concerns.
6:13:15 Growth companies and city realy are
6:13:16 competitors.
6:13:18 They there is an ulterior motive to this
6:13:22 letter. a clear ulterior motive to this
6:13:25 letter.
6:13:26 It's it's not it's not even particularly
6:13:29 subtle, right? It's we you know, we see
6:13:33 now that this is that that what we
6:13:35 thought was theoretical is now becoming
6:13:38 reality. And even though the town has
6:13:42 been begging them, please give us
6:13:44 something that so that we can do we can
6:13:46 build something that to your point David
6:13:48 conforms to this vision, they've said
6:13:51 they haven't done it. And then when they
6:13:53 did it on the deadline, it wasn't it
6:13:56 didn't seem to be workable. And so they
6:14:00 do what any good competitor will do in
6:14:02 these situations,
6:14:03 try and sink it. Um this is a letter
6:14:06 that's trying to sink this process.
6:14:09 Whoa. Whoa. Chess, I think you're going
6:14:11 a little too far with with with, you
6:14:15 know, with that assumption. I can
6:14:17 understand you having a concern about it
6:14:19 coming in for last minute, but I don't
6:14:21 see I don't see a property owner trying
6:14:24 to sink something. I see a property
6:14:26 owner saying um we'd like to have some
6:14:30 more time so that the so that I'm going
6:14:33 to read it as as we would not be able to
6:14:35 partake in the ability to develop our
6:14:36 properties while having to put up uh
6:14:38 with the increased traffic zoning to the
6:14:41 area. We have no choice but to state our
6:14:43 position against the proposed zoning
6:14:45 amendment. We hope at the very least the
6:14:47 proposed zoning can be delayed until
6:14:49 more time has been put into this effort
6:14:52 that
6:14:52 How much more time do they need? Can I
6:14:55 finish?
6:14:55 I'm sorry. You're I understand you're
6:14:57 upset.
6:14:59 No, it's not upset. I mean, I think he's
6:15:00 he's accurately stating,
6:15:02 you know,
6:15:03 so in this letter,
6:15:04 so I I want to speak about on on this
6:15:08 subject in general.
6:15:10 Um, so
6:15:13 and I conveyed this to Mike. We had a
6:15:14 good conversation about this. I am
6:15:17 really concerned about this not passing,
6:15:20 right? this this to achieve a twothirds
6:15:24 vote with the number of issues that are
6:15:27 unresolved. There's a number of them. I
6:15:29 could list them, but there's a number of
6:15:30 them. I just wrote them down as you were
6:15:31 talking. Um
6:15:34 the
6:15:37 the town wants a solution. City realy
6:15:40 wants a solution. The neighborhood wants
6:15:43 a solution. Um, nobody is saying that we
6:15:47 don't want to redevelop Chestnut Hill
6:15:50 West. Um, I think what what they're
6:15:54 saying is we need a little more time. My
6:15:58 fear is that we go to town meeting with
6:16:03 this proposal
6:16:05 and we roll the dice on it and you don't
6:16:07 achieve a twothirds vote and then it's
6:16:10 dead.
6:16:11 Um, I think with a little more time,
6:16:15 taking a step back to get parties
6:16:17 together to address the issues with
6:16:19 traffic with the Department of
6:16:21 Transportation, figure out these
6:16:23 U-turns, you know, a little more a
6:16:26 little more work with Newton to get that
6:16:28 settled down. Um, I know that Cara has
6:16:31 suggested uh doing some due diligence um
6:16:34 on on the actual uh pro-forma signing an
6:16:38 NDA, which we've done with every other
6:16:40 project of this magnitude uh to get a
6:16:43 good sense of whether it's viable,
6:16:45 they're viable, what they're proposing.
6:16:47 Um I do think we need to get a little
6:16:51 more input from growth companies. Um,
6:16:54 and most importantly, we need to bring
6:16:58 South Brooklyn into the fold here.
6:17:00 They're all saying no. So, that coupled
6:17:04 with, and I dare I say it, BBD also sent
6:17:08 us a letter that said we don't support
6:17:10 it. There's not going to be a two-thirds
6:17:12 vote for this. So, I I would like to
6:17:16 make a suggestion. Um, and this and and
6:17:19 and I'll make the suggestion, and I'm
6:17:20 willing to put time in to try to help
6:17:22 with this. Um, we need this project to
6:17:25 be successful. I just don't know if it's
6:17:27 exactly this proposal, but we need a
6:17:31 plan to redevelop Chestn West. I think
6:17:34 it can be found with a little more time.
6:17:37 There's the economy is not great.
6:17:40 Interest rates are high. Oil's through
6:17:42 the roof. You know, this thing they're
6:17:44 not going to start digging September 1,
6:17:47 right? We don't need to rush this. Um,
6:17:50 I'm not suggesting that we kick it way
6:17:52 out, but I think scheduling this special
6:17:55 town meeting for September.
6:17:58 Let let's get through the summer having
6:18:00 these conversations, having a deadline,
6:18:04 I would suggest September 30th is the
6:18:05 special town meeting. We march to that
6:18:08 to work towards a consensus solution.
6:18:11 And whatever that solution is by March
6:18:14 30th, if by September 30th, if if we
6:18:17 can't come to agreement with parties and
6:18:20 it this comes back on, you have a much
6:18:23 better way of selling that at town
6:18:25 meeting to say, "You said you weren't
6:18:27 involved. We didn't listen. You had a
6:18:30 lot of concerns. You had the opportunity
6:18:32 over the summer to raise your concerns.
6:18:34 We're working together to find consensus
6:18:37 between the neighborhood, South
6:18:38 Brooklyn, uh, city realy and, uh, growth
6:18:42 companies and the town for that matter.
6:18:46 Um, and we bring that solution to town
6:18:48 meeting in September.
6:18:50 Okay.
6:18:50 A focused one second, Bernard. A focused
6:18:53 special town meeting that there's
6:18:55 nothing else on the agenda. There's not
6:18:56 a budget. We're not scrambling around
6:18:58 with other stuff. It's only this. I
6:19:00 think this is important enough to have
6:19:03 that focus and a little bit more time to
6:19:05 develop it. So, I would strongly suggest
6:19:07 that we schedule this special town
6:19:09 meeting for September 30th.
6:19:11 Okay. Um I'd like to move the question
6:19:14 on the on the agenda and that is the May
6:19:17 26th uh town meeting. Um uh and if we
6:19:21 decide to not move the articles at that
6:19:24 town meeting, we can do that. uh if you
6:19:26 know if it seems like um you know more
6:19:29 time would enable us to get an agreement
6:19:33 that uh is workable but I I don't want
6:19:35 to stand here and and and spend all
6:19:38 night talking about sort of a
6:19:40 hypothetical alternative way of doing
6:19:42 this. I think
6:19:44 well I I don't think it's
6:19:46 hypothetical.
6:19:47 Yeah, I don't think it's hypothetical.
6:19:48 That was a very specific proposal.
6:19:50 Well well in ter in terms of ability to
6:19:52 pull together an agreement with all the
6:19:55 parties.
6:19:56 Yeah, that would work. So there's a
6:19:58 perception and I'm hearing it's not the
6:20:00 reality, but there's a perception that
6:20:02 all the parties haven't been heard from.
6:20:05 And as Paul just said, if we spend a
6:20:07 little more time meeting with everybody
6:20:10 and they're still saying the same thing
6:20:11 in September, then that's they're not
6:20:14 going to have credibility before a town
6:20:16 meeting. But if they go if we go full
6:20:19 steam ahead for May 26 with all these
6:20:23 issues still hanging in the air and then
6:20:26 these same entities come forward at town
6:20:28 meeting and say we weren't heard from
6:20:31 the process was improper. What about our
6:20:34 parcels? That's going to sway votes. It
6:20:37 will. And we all want this to pass and
6:20:39 it needs a twothirds majority. Now I
6:20:42 want to be clear. I'm not saying abandon
6:20:45 14127.
6:20:47 I'm saying let's take seriously the
6:20:50 letters that we're receiving from these
6:20:52 groups. The growth company's letter
6:20:53 didn't say abandon 14127.
6:20:57 Didn't say that. It said if you can do
6:21:00 follow these specific steps, we would
6:21:03 appreciate it. Can we have further
6:21:05 discussions about it? And it might be
6:21:07 compatible with the 14127. their asks
6:21:10 were not height related per se or they
6:21:13 weren't detailed around height and I
6:21:16 don't see any harm to increasing the
6:21:19 probability of passage which we all want
6:21:22 by having a slight delay. Now I don't
6:21:25 know if I agree with Paul about
6:21:26 September 30th. I think maybe a little
6:21:28 early in September a little earlier in
6:21:30 September uh might be better. Uh but I
6:21:34 think buying more buying a little more
6:21:36 time just a little May 26 is what is
6:21:39 being proposed here on the agenda and if
6:21:44 it's say a mid late September date
6:21:46 that's basically just three more months.
6:21:48 That's not a super long delay. And in
6:21:51 that time, it would be very difficult
6:21:53 for growth companies, Salvatore, WS, uh,
6:21:57 South Brooklyn, Chestnut Hill, uh, the
6:21:59 neighbors to say that they still haven't
6:22:01 been heard from if we're committing to
6:22:03 giving them that time to craft something
6:22:05 that works for everybody. And if it
6:22:07 doesn't work for everybody, we we have
6:22:09 this 14127. I would be prepared to vote
6:22:13 the uh the current plan as what we place
6:22:18 for a September special town meeting and
6:22:22 if there's an amendment before then then
6:22:24 so be it. But hopefully it would be a
6:22:26 vetted amendment.
6:22:28 I mean September town meeting you can
6:22:30 get a sort of selected group of people
6:22:33 and I'm not sure that that's a good way
6:22:34 of going forward with this type of
6:22:36 proposal.
6:22:37 What's you mean a selected group of
6:22:39 not
6:22:41 un un it's a irregular
6:22:44 date for town meeting and you there'll
6:22:48 be
6:22:48 kind of in February in the middle of
6:22:50 winter to
6:22:51 and we have a we have a different a
6:22:53 different audience or a different town
6:22:55 meeting than we do regular town meetings
6:22:58 and that's just my my view of things.
6:23:01 Well,
6:23:02 so what? So you're say Okay.
6:23:04 Well, you moved that. Well, you you you
6:23:06 made a motion for
6:23:08 We'll see if it passes. And I Well, and
6:23:09 I Well, I'd like to amend your motion.
6:23:12 So, I want to amend
6:23:13 another date.
6:23:14 I'm going to change the date.
6:23:15 So, I'd like I mean, I I think September
6:23:18 30th gives you remember, we get we need
6:23:20 time for whatever gets developed and
6:23:22 agreed to. It still would need to go
6:23:23 through advisory um because it's going
6:23:26 to be a new it would be an amended
6:23:27 article. So I I think September 30th is
6:23:30 gets everybody back from school.
6:23:32 Okay. Let's let's that's that's okay.
6:23:33 That
6:23:34 in order in order to do that,
6:23:36 you would have to amend the contents as
6:23:39 well because the contents reference the
6:23:43 special town meeting May 30th.
6:23:45 Okay.
6:23:46 So it's not it's not just
6:23:48 okay
6:23:49 the special town meeting.
6:23:50 So we'll we'll make it we'll make we'll
6:23:53 make the amend the changes to the
6:23:54 article to make it a September 30th
6:23:56 special town meeting. So I I so I'm
6:23:59 offering I look I I first I want to get
6:24:01 my motion on the table. My a I would
6:24:04 like to amend the special town meeting
6:24:06 instead of being May 26th. I'd like to
6:24:09 offer uh September 30th um and direct
6:24:14 staff to make the adjustments to the
6:24:16 articles and materials to reference uh
6:24:19 September 30th special town meeting
6:24:21 versus instead of the May 2. So, I just
6:24:24 I if you if you're going to do that
6:24:26 procedurally, you got to check with the
6:24:28 town clerk and the moderator first to
6:24:30 see if it's possible. We got to figure
6:24:31 out if we can get the high school and so
6:24:32 forth. What I would suggest is that you
6:24:37 take that you direct us to go check and
6:24:39 see if that's feasible, if an end of
6:24:41 September date is feasible, and then we
6:24:43 can bring that back to you.
6:24:44 Well, take that vote.
6:24:45 Okay. So, so I I I appreciate that
6:24:47 advice. I'd like to take the vote. Um,
6:24:50 you know, if we want to say contingent
6:24:51 upon
6:24:53 you know, uh, the availability of town
6:24:55 of of the high school, but I would like
6:24:58 to have the vote.
6:24:59 Okay. So, so just just so just so I'm
6:25:04 clear about what you're asking,
6:25:07 what what you are proposing is that the
6:25:11 feedback that all of these people have
6:25:13 given us for the last two years
6:25:16 can potentially change not in the next
6:25:19 80 days but in the next uh 170 days
6:25:24 roughly right to the end of September.
6:25:27 And you think that the difference
6:25:28 between that 80day window and the 170
6:25:31 day window will change either what
6:25:35 growth companies does or what what uh
6:25:39 the members of South Brook line who are
6:25:41 on the C.
6:25:42 I think what it will change is what town
6:25:43 meeting does. You keep losing sight of
6:25:46 the goal here. The goal is twothirds
6:25:48 vote. You do not have a twothirds vote.
6:25:50 It will not pass.
6:25:51 Wait, Bernard. Bernard,
6:25:53 you keep saying we do not have two vote
6:25:56 and we have not had the Bernard. I'm
6:25:58 saying that the like I'm saying the like
6:26:00 guessing that
6:26:01 I'm saying the likelihood of a twothirds
6:26:03 vote is very very low and all these
6:26:06 issues that have been raised need a
6:26:09 little bit more time. So
6:26:12 So and you do not believe that the 80
6:26:14 days between now and town meeting is
6:26:16 sufficient time?
6:26:16 I don't believe so.
6:26:17 Okay. So So you have an amendment to my
6:26:20 uh motion on the floor. Let's Let's just
6:26:22 vote on that.
6:26:23 Do So, we're going to vote. What?
6:26:26 Michael, where?
6:26:27 Wait. No. No. Go ahead.
6:26:29 I I want to know what the amendment is
6:26:31 to to change the special town meeting
6:26:33 from May 26th, whatever's in in in the
6:26:36 here to September 30th.
6:26:38 Conditional on it being practical
6:26:41 or being need to know if the dates.
6:26:43 You bas you basically we can't like
6:26:45 there's language in here that reflects a
6:26:47 May date. So, we in the articles. So, we
6:26:49 would need you would basically what your
6:26:52 amendment is is you're directing us to
6:26:53 bring back to you a package for a
6:26:55 September 30th town meeting for you to
6:26:57 open because then the formal votes that
6:26:59 you have to take about opening and
6:27:00 closing the warrant and so forth
6:27:03 are are things that can't be undone and
6:27:05 then you run you run that you know MBTA
6:27:08 Communities Act issue where we had a
6:27:10 bunch of special town meetings that we
6:27:11 had to call and then uncall. So rather
6:27:14 than doing that here,
6:27:16 I would suggest that the motion be that
6:27:18 you direct us to prepare for September
6:27:22 30th special town meeting and that we
6:27:24 come back to you with the revised
6:27:26 documentation that says September 30th
6:27:28 is the date or as close there too as
6:27:30 possible if they
6:27:31 Okay.
6:27:32 Can I just add one more thing too?
6:27:34 Sorry. Um you wouldn't need to wave the
6:27:36 notice provisions if you were calling it
6:27:37 in September because you have the 755
6:27:39 days. So um
6:27:42 That's that's another reason why you've
6:27:44 got a little bit more time if that's
6:27:45 what you choose to do.
6:27:48 I will I will note um
6:27:52 the the city realy proposal is roughly
6:27:56 five acres.
6:27:58 The uh growth company's proposal is
6:28:01 roughly
6:28:03 somewhere between an acre and a quarter
6:28:06 to an acre and a half. Um,
6:28:09 every delay of a month costs the town
6:28:14 roughly
6:28:15 somewhere between 350 to $525,000.
6:28:20 Well, how do you how do you how do you
6:28:22 determine that?
6:28:23 Um, based on the the stability tax, the
6:28:28 stability the calculation that we made
6:28:31 for what the net fiscal impact is. Yeah.
6:28:34 of this project. It's between
6:28:38 4.3
6:28:40 million per year and I'm 4.2 million and
6:28:43 6.3 million a year.
6:28:45 I I am just telling pointing out the
6:28:48 trade-offs.
6:28:49 So I I I just I
6:28:50 and and your assertion that as Bernard
6:28:55 said that we don't have a twothirds vote
6:28:59 is true because we don't we haven't had
6:29:02 town meeting yet. And I know that you
6:29:04 don't believe that we can get there,
6:29:08 but but
6:29:10 so Michael, I just want you may I
6:29:11 respond to Michael's your assertion
6:29:13 about this this cost, this lost revenue
6:29:16 potential cost.
6:29:17 Yes.
6:29:18 Everything about about the net fiscal
6:29:21 impact is a gueststimate.
6:29:24 Okay. There's a whole bunch of
6:29:25 assumptions there. We there's no
6:29:27 guarantee that that uh city realy is
6:29:31 going to be able to start when they
6:29:33 think they're going to start for for the
6:29:34 first building. There's no guarant
6:29:36 there's actually nothing that forces
6:29:37 them to create the second building,
6:29:40 right? There's there's some there's they
6:29:42 up to five years. I mean, there there's
6:29:45 there's no guarantee
6:29:47 for you to be able to assign what a few
6:29:50 months of trying to get this right.
6:29:54 Um, and trying to tie a revenue to some
6:29:55 of that is is is an absolute guess. Um,
6:30:00 and it's just it's not it's it's not
6:30:02 convincing.
6:30:02 There'll be some cost. Maybe you don't
6:30:04 know exactly what it is, but it's going
6:30:06 to be
6:30:07 it's going to be a cost, David. But I
6:30:09 think the cost analysis is a little more
6:30:10 complex than that because if it's if
6:30:12 it's true that the uh growth company's
6:30:17 parcel can't be effectively developed
6:30:19 under the current zoning and if it's
6:30:22 true that WS might not be able to do
6:30:24 what they want and Salvatore might not
6:30:26 be able to do what they want and a
6:30:27 traffic suggestion that might or might
6:30:31 not come on March 18th impacts projects
6:30:34 in some ways. We also need to analyze
6:30:37 those potential numbers because if we
6:30:39 have zoning that works for the entire
6:30:42 stretch, then presumably we would have
6:30:45 development that is providing an even
6:30:47 larger net fiscal benefit than we would
6:30:51 if we try to push something through that
6:30:54 even if successful and I I share Paul's
6:30:56 concern get to a twothirds majority now
6:31:00 might be less. So I I don't know that we
6:31:03 really have that data yet,
6:31:04 but we also have the option
6:31:07 if this passes and city realy continues
6:31:12 to move forward with their project to
6:31:15 continue conversations with growth
6:31:17 companies and
6:31:19 WS development etc. And as we've done
6:31:22 with other other zoning issues like ADUs
6:31:26 and so forth, go back and make changes.
6:31:29 But if we don't do this, then we will
6:31:33 definitely be delaying city realy. And
6:31:36 we haven't even talked to them about the
6:31:39 impact of what a three-month delay would
6:31:41 be. Well, again, this in part of this
6:31:46 discussion
6:31:47 about how much we're we're we're we're
6:31:51 tailoring our actions
6:31:54 to city realy. I mean, they're
6:31:55 reinforcing the point that actually the
6:31:58 the other property owner made in their
6:32:02 letter to us that they're not being
6:32:04 considered at all. Um
6:32:06 Meredith
6:32:10 in trying to interpret from the staff
6:32:12 perspective about policy direction in
6:32:15 this discussion. What I'm hearing is
6:32:17 that the select board unless there is a
6:32:19 specific developer and development
6:32:21 proposal for near-term redevelopment on
6:32:24 the table. You're not comfortable moving
6:32:26 forward with that. And so I I just but
6:32:29 so just to I'm looking for
6:32:31 clarification,
6:32:32 David. You know, the the idea of
6:32:36 not moving forward until WS has made a
6:32:39 public statement saying we support this
6:32:42 zoning. If they don't have a specific
6:32:44 project proposal, it's going to be very
6:32:46 challenging that for them to come out
6:32:48 and make that statement publicly. Um and
6:32:51 you know even in terms of assessing you
6:32:53 know the financial feasibility if
6:32:55 they're going to say we might be
6:32:56 interested in a boutique hotel 10 years
6:32:59 from now assessing the financial
6:33:00 feasibility of that hotel based on
6:33:03 current day is going to be very
6:33:04 challenging. So I'm struggling at the
6:33:06 staff perspective to understand what I
6:33:08 can do as follow-up items that are going
6:33:10 to make you feel more comfortable with
6:33:11 moving forward with this proposal. I
6:33:13 would also say going back to the study
6:33:16 objectives and incentivizing creating
6:33:19 strategies and proposals to incentivize
6:33:21 significant net new commercial tax
6:33:22 growth.
6:33:24 You know, part of that and when we set
6:33:26 out in this project and before City
6:33:27 Realy entered the picture as the new
6:33:29 owner of the Chesn Hill Office Park was,
6:33:31 you know, we're supposed to be creating
6:33:32 zoning that's going to get developers to
6:33:35 think more critically about what they
6:33:37 can do under this upzoning opportunity.
6:33:39 um that's going to bring additional
6:33:40 commercial revenue for the town and to
6:33:42 establish a planning framework for the
6:33:44 study area. So that's what we put in
6:33:46 front of you today. Um and then I think
6:33:49 the benefit of you know the city realy
6:33:52 being involved in the conversation is
6:33:53 like we have a very clear picture from
6:33:55 one particular part of the study based
6:33:57 on near-term redevelopment in a specific
6:33:58 proposal what that's going to translate
6:34:00 to in terms of net fiscal impact. Um, so
6:34:04 you know, and I think um it would be
6:34:07 helpful for the economic development
6:34:08 advisory board to maybe fill in some of
6:34:10 the additional gaps about, you know, the
6:34:12 the value of the incentives that we're
6:34:14 providing in the rest of the study area.
6:34:16 But I I would like clarification about
6:34:18 if you are going to be postponing this,
6:34:20 what specifically do you need in order
6:34:23 to feel more comfortable with moving
6:34:24 forward? So specifically for me, I would
6:34:28 like to see the growth companies WS
6:34:33 Salvador
6:34:34 specifically approached about their
6:34:37 thoughts on the zoning. That doesn't
6:34:38 mean cave to it, but have a full
6:34:42 understanding of what they're asking
6:34:44 for, why they're asking for it, whether
6:34:47 those tweaks could be made to the
6:34:50 current zoning or it would require
6:34:52 abandoning everything. I'm not looking
6:34:55 everything. I am looking at trying to
6:34:57 get the zoning to a point where
6:35:01 everybody can or almost everybody can be
6:35:04 on board with it where we can have the
6:35:06 84% type support at town meeting where
6:35:09 it passes because what's going to happen
6:35:11 is if we don't get a twothirds majority
6:35:14 at town meeting the threemonth delay
6:35:16 you're talking about will be more it
6:35:18 could be a never or it could be a much
6:35:20 longer delay until the next town meeting
6:35:23 with a totally different proposal. And I
6:35:25 think what'll happen is if this fails,
6:35:28 city realy will probably come back with
6:35:31 a uh housing choice under the housing
6:35:34 choice statute proposal for housing only
6:35:37 and that would only require 50% at town
6:35:41 meeting and maybe they'd have to vote
6:35:43 for that. That would be uh that would
6:35:46 not be good for the neighborhood. It
6:35:47 would be even worse for the town from a
6:35:49 fiscal perspective. Of course, certain
6:35:51 housing goals will be met, but from a
6:35:52 fiscal perspective for a corridor that
6:35:55 we want to see robust commercial, it
6:35:57 would really be a lost opportunity. And
6:36:00 if they don't go that route, if we wait
6:36:03 maybe a year and a half or so, we're
6:36:05 going to be under the 10% safe harbor
6:36:07 threshold. And then there will be not
6:36:09 one but actually two 40Bs because the
6:36:13 owner of the 40B uh 40 the approved 40B
6:36:17 project for Sheath and Hammond has
6:36:19 already stated that he would build a
6:36:22 hotel if some kind of zoning uh akin to
6:36:26 what's being proposed today passes. Uh
6:36:30 so if this fails, we end up with either
6:36:34 housing choice or we end up with 240bs.
6:36:37 We have lost opportunity for net new
6:36:40 revenue. It would be financially
6:36:42 disastrous for the town. So, I
6:36:44 understand that where you're coming
6:36:46 from, Michael, you're saying given that
6:36:47 I'm saying we should be supporting this
6:36:49 now. I I don't think it's going to pass
6:36:51 now. Not with a developer saying this
6:36:54 doesn't work and that they won't be able
6:36:56 to uh add to the net new revenue and
6:37:00 without really having uh WS on record,
6:37:04 some of the other owners on record. I
6:37:07 this to pass. I don't want it to fail. I
6:37:09 don't want us to be in that position
6:37:10 where the three month delay turns into a
6:37:12 never uh or we end up with 240bs.
6:37:16 We can do a lot better than that for
6:37:18 this corridor, which is not to say uh
6:37:22 let's throw out the proverbial baby with
6:37:24 the bathwater. I'm totally fine with
6:37:26 putting the 14127. I'm just saying let's
6:37:31 do it in September to have a little more
6:37:33 time so that all these groups that are
6:37:36 that they haven't been sufficiently
6:37:39 included or that their concerns haven't
6:37:40 been sufficiently addressed get a very
6:37:43 public opportunity to do that. And if
6:37:45 they don't exercise that opportunity
6:37:48 we're giving them with this extension,
6:37:50 then that's on them.
6:37:52 Okay?
6:37:52 And then we go to town meeting in
6:37:54 September, town meeting will hear that
6:37:56 narrative and we'll act accordingly.
6:37:59 Chair, you have your hand up.
6:38:02 just I mean just briefly I mean
6:38:05 the other thing you have to consider
6:38:07 here is the impact of this decision with
6:38:10 the overlay on any potential decision
6:38:11 you make on an override question right
6:38:15 um what is the narrative you send out to
6:38:18 the public if you put an override
6:38:19 question on the ballot what are you
6:38:21 asking of them for how much and what
6:38:24 else are we doing to deal with the
6:38:26 issues of property taxes so I think if
6:38:30 you're gonna
6:38:31 think about doing this a different way.
6:38:35 You have to think about how to tailor
6:38:36 that narrative accordingly. Um because
6:38:41 it's,
6:38:43 you know, the question that I get asked
6:38:44 at these budget 101 meetings is what are
6:38:47 you doing besides raising my property
6:38:49 taxes? Um and I think you got to make a
6:38:52 strong case that to your point, David,
6:38:55 what you're doing is you're trying to
6:38:57 get something passed and you're trying
6:38:58 to get it you're trying to get it
6:38:59 through.
6:39:01 Because you know the the story that's
6:39:04 going to come out of this is here it is
6:39:07 another delay. You know a bombshell
6:39:09 letter on the last at the 11th hour from
6:39:12 a developer who has been to every single
6:39:15 meeting. Every single meeting.
6:39:17 What's just wait let him finish. Okay.
6:39:22 I mean you jump in too much.
6:39:24 No it's and I I jumped in on Paul
6:39:26 earlier so I apologize.
6:39:28 Raising my hands. you know, like,
6:39:32 you know, we, you know, it's it's it's
6:39:36 chum in the water. It's it's it's a it's
6:39:40 it's such a I'm I'm not going to say
6:39:43 publicly what I think it is. Um because
6:39:45 I worry it would have a dilitterious
6:39:48 impact on the town's bargaining
6:39:49 position.
6:39:53 If we're going to let every last minute
6:39:57 11th hour thing throw a wrench in the
6:39:58 proceedings and go chasing after it as
6:40:01 opposed to at some point putting our
6:40:03 foot down and saying, you know what,
6:40:04 we're going to take take the chance. Um,
6:40:08 then we need to have a really good
6:40:10 narrative for why we're doing what we're
6:40:11 doing. And so I I I I hear what your
6:40:14 narrative is and it makes perfect
6:40:15 intuitive sense to me. I know the end
6:40:17 goal here is twothirds vote. So they
6:40:19 pass this town meeting. I get it. And I
6:40:22 also think,
6:40:24 you know, to your point, David, about,
6:40:26 you know, how making sure these people
6:40:27 have been heard, these people have been
6:40:29 heard. This this this objector in
6:40:32 particular has been heard. So to
6:40:35 demonstrate to them that there is a
6:40:37 reward for continuing to assert that you
6:40:39 have not been heard when that is not
6:40:41 true,
6:40:43 what what message are we sending? that
6:40:45 you can continue to throw that other
6:40:47 people can continue to throw objections
6:40:48 that are untrue into the process and
6:40:50 have a result to Meredith's point that
6:40:53 people you say you want WS and Salvatore
6:40:55 involved. They don't want to take a
6:40:57 public position on this and then that's
6:40:58 going to be used against us um if we try
6:41:01 and if we try and make this this point
6:41:03 go forward. So I I I hear what you're
6:41:06 saying and I I know that the aim of this
6:41:08 is true. I would just say think about
6:41:11 think about shoring up that narrative
6:41:13 and shoring up that process on a really
6:41:15 meaningful way because
6:41:18 the the optics of it from another
6:41:21 perspective don't look good. So it's
6:41:23 it's not just the last minute letter
6:41:26 from growth companies. It's that key
6:41:29 boards transportation board hasn't even
6:41:31 approved the traffic plan yet and
6:41:33 they're they haven't they're not even
6:41:35 meeting on this until the 18th. We don't
6:41:37 know what recommendations they're going
6:41:38 to make. There are still a lot of other
6:41:41 pieces in the air. And it's even unfair
6:41:44 to staff, frankly, to expect that they
6:41:46 can come up with all this and make all
6:41:48 these pivots in such a short time frame.
6:41:51 This gives everyone a little more time
6:41:54 to try to achieve consensus. And I think
6:41:56 that in anything we do as a town, we
6:41:59 should be trying to achieve consensus.
6:42:01 So, it's not just about the developer. I
6:42:04 I trust what you're saying. I'm not
6:42:05 challenging what you're saying, but the
6:42:08 perception could end up being otherwise
6:42:10 depending on what others might claim at
6:42:13 town meeting. And I want this to
6:42:15 succeed. I don't want us to lose this
6:42:16 opportunity because the alternatives
6:42:19 that will likely come in its place will
6:42:21 be much worse.
6:42:24 U Michael,
6:42:25 um by the way, let me just add
6:42:27 something. you know, um the sub the
6:42:29 what's called the future subcommittee of
6:42:31 the extension and revenue committee um
6:42:34 has a draft of a economic development
6:42:36 commercial development uh paper and one
6:42:39 of the things they said is that one of
6:42:40 the problems we have in Brooklyn is that
6:42:42 we always put something in the way of
6:42:45 getting things done and you know I'm not
6:42:48 suggesting that this is exactly what's
6:42:50 happening now but you know
6:42:53 um
6:42:55 it it looks like Brookline again
6:42:59 get getting itself in the way of a
6:43:02 project and success. So
6:43:06 Meredith, can you speak to the
6:43:09 transportation board's engagement with
6:43:12 this process thus far and their review
6:43:14 of plans because it sounds like David
6:43:17 and potentially Paul are not up to speed
6:43:20 on those points. So the transportation
6:43:22 board, the transportation study that we
6:43:24 conducted as part of this had three
6:43:26 phases. Existing conditions, conceptual
6:43:29 improvements, and then there was a third
6:43:30 phase where we're going to sort of
6:43:31 pressure test the capacity of the
6:43:33 existing infrastructure to support the
6:43:35 increased density with this upzoning.
6:43:37 So, the transportation board um was
6:43:40 presented with reviewed the conceptual
6:43:42 improvement plans that we talked about
6:43:44 here in the presentation on February 3rd
6:43:47 and adopted those as a planning document
6:43:50 for staff to continue to work on and
6:43:52 develop those plans. So, TA board has
6:43:55 already sort of um reviewed the scope
6:43:58 and said, you know, move forward with
6:44:00 exploring these options for conceptual
6:44:02 improvements.
6:44:04 Um the third phase is what they're going
6:44:06 to be presented with um on Wednesday. I
6:44:10 apologize it's it's late. Um
6:44:11 we're going in the second day by the
6:44:13 way.
6:44:14 So um
6:44:17 so they'll be receiving a presentation
6:44:19 from our consultant about sort of the
6:44:21 capacity testing for the area. So it is,
6:44:25 you know, based on a very conservative
6:44:26 set of assumptions about the level of
6:44:29 development and the types of development
6:44:30 that we could potentially expect under
6:44:32 this zoning and, you know, how the
6:44:34 existing infrastructure would fare and
6:44:36 how if you implemented some of the
6:44:37 conceptual improvements that we'd
6:44:39 identified, how that could be um
6:44:41 beneficial in mitigating the impacts of
6:44:43 the increased trip generation. So TA
6:44:46 board is going to receive a presentation
6:44:47 about this from the consultant. our
6:44:49 staff has the technical expertise to
6:44:51 sort of you know give commentary about
6:44:53 sort of the quality and the conclusions
6:44:54 of KDson's analysis and the TA board
6:44:56 will be in a position to provide comment
6:44:58 and have a discussion about that um you
6:45:01 know and provide some um additional
6:45:03 thoughts about appropriate next steps
6:45:04 given the conclusions of that analysis
6:45:07 but it sounds like those next steps
6:45:08 could impact zoning in the form of
6:45:10 certain tweaks that are made
6:45:12 potentially I mean ultimately we're
6:45:14 talking about um so you know
6:45:17 intersection redesign design at Boilston
6:45:19 Street in Hammond that would, you know,
6:45:21 help in in mitigating the impacts of
6:45:23 increased trip generation. That's
6:45:24 controlled by Mass DOT. In order to move
6:45:27 any of those concepts forward, we're
6:45:28 going to really need to engage with City
6:45:30 of Newton and Mass DOT to keep pushing
6:45:32 on and creating a sense of urgency about
6:45:34 how do we move these improvements
6:45:35 forward. So, in theory, yes. Um, but I I
6:45:40 really don't see how the outcome is
6:45:41 going to be any different on the other
6:45:43 side of that T-board meeting.
6:45:47 Okay. How do we wrap this up?
6:45:50 Wednesday.
6:45:51 Is this hour tonight the last chance we
6:45:53 have to put these articles on the
6:45:56 warrant?
6:45:58 Good question.
6:45:59 Okay. So, what why don't we put it off?
6:46:02 I'm not sure how we would determine what
6:46:04 when we do it and what we do. Well, I I
6:46:07 I you know, whatever that deadline is,
6:46:09 if it's a week from now or 10 days from
6:46:11 now, um you know, I I think one of the
6:46:15 things we are, you know, really
6:46:18 wrestling with here is um yeah, there's
6:46:21 a possible scenario where this other
6:46:23 developer is just basically trying to
6:46:25 step in and throw a monkey wrench into
6:46:27 the works and he doesn't have sincere
6:46:29 intentions. And um if we could use the
6:46:33 next seven or 10 days just to have, you
6:46:36 know, some kind of a, you know, clear uh
6:46:42 meeting with with this person where we
6:46:44 demand certain things, you know, if
6:46:47 you're serious about looking for some
6:46:50 kind of path to doing a de development,
6:46:53 you know, prove it. And um, you know,
6:46:56 and then I think we would at least have
6:46:59 a better understanding the next time we
6:47:01 take a vote.
6:47:03 Are do we have someone who actually move
6:47:05 upon the total amount of development
6:47:08 that we're trying to get in this zone or
6:47:11 don't we? And I think it's worth a shot.
6:47:15 Okay, Michael.
6:47:16 Okay. So, just to respond to to your
6:47:18 point. So, as Meredith mentioned, on
6:47:21 February 25th, we got a proposal from
6:47:24 them in terms of what they would like to
6:47:26 do to redevelopment to redevelop. Um and
6:47:29 it
6:47:31 it it basically consisted of uh them
6:47:35 redeveloping the the six houses that
6:47:37 they would acquire into housing plus
6:47:40 parking and redeveloping the Tully
6:47:42 Street lot into medical office plus
6:47:44 parking and leaving the other three
6:47:45 units be because those units are cash
6:47:48 cows and and they can do wonderful
6:47:50 things. Um, we could certainly go
6:47:53 through and identify all the loc all the
6:47:56 places staff could do this. I believe
6:48:00 that this proposal is either unclear
6:48:05 or fails to meet the requirements of the
6:48:09 zoning whether it's in you know
6:48:11 sufficient commercial percentage, open
6:48:13 space requirements, setbacks, etc. And
6:48:16 we could have that list. Um, and you
6:48:18 know, we could negotiate on that list,
6:48:21 which is something that we could do now
6:48:24 or in 3 months or six months or whenever
6:48:28 because they still have to acquire
6:48:30 properties in order to to get this done.
6:48:33 So, so they're actually
6:48:37 they're not under the same kind of time
6:48:39 pressure.
6:48:40 Yeah. you know, which is just another
6:48:41 point of the job. But to your question,
6:48:44 we could go through that exercise and
6:48:46 and get an answer to the difference. Now
6:48:50 if you ask me whether we could negotiate
6:48:52 in seven days across all those
6:48:54 differences and then for example go back
6:48:57 to EDAB and go back to the planning
6:48:58 board you know to make sure that the
6:49:01 conceptual framework that we and the
6:49:04 vision that we have is still maintained
6:49:06 in light of those modifications and also
6:49:09 of course go back to the neighborhood
6:49:10 because some of those neighbor some of
6:49:12 those things for example might impact
6:49:15 the character of Heath Street which is a
6:49:17 big neighborhood concern. So it might it
6:49:20 you know you could you could take a step
6:49:22 back in that direction. So so you know
6:49:26 those are things that we could do but we
6:49:29 can do those things whether this is on
6:49:30 the warrant or not.
6:49:32 All I'm looking for is is there a way
6:49:33 that um you know either after seven or
6:49:36 10 days, whatever it is, you come back
6:49:38 with um now we have a second developer
6:49:42 who also says this, you know, this is
6:49:44 good and and we should be going forward
6:49:46 with with development for the area. Um
6:49:50 and and he also is interested in
6:49:53 participating in addition to the first
6:49:54 developer. Or you could come back and
6:49:57 say we gave this person a chance to show
6:49:59 their bonafide and it
6:50:02 This is a
6:50:03 so so so the I believe this is my
6:50:07 opinion and please Meredith I would be
6:50:09 interested in your opinion as well that
6:50:11 in seven to 10 days we could not get an
6:50:14 agreement from this person. One of the
6:50:17 reasons is there is a risk of what Chaz
6:50:19 mentioned that they're really just
6:50:21 throwing chum in the water. They would
6:50:22 never come to an agreement. But the
6:50:24 other reason and you know which I think
6:50:26 is more substantive is that in order to
6:50:29 come to that agreement we would have to
6:50:32 make a number of changes to the zoning
6:50:36 that would
6:50:38 you know be reflected in the sort of
6:50:41 overall con construct of that zone
6:50:46 and and it should properly then go back
6:50:50 to the other boards and commissions that
6:50:52 have weighed in on those those
6:50:57 uh the aspects of the zoning that have
6:51:01 created that vision.
6:51:02 Okay. I'd like
6:51:03 I don't think it's possible.
6:51:04 Hold on. I'd like to put this on the
6:51:08 agenda for a future meeting. Can you say
6:51:10 that that's possible?
6:51:11 We're running short, very short on time.
6:51:13 I know, but we're not going to get
6:51:14 anywhere tonight. Paul.
6:51:15 Yeah. So I just I I just I want to make
6:51:17 a a couple of comments because I
6:51:22 a quick comment.
6:51:24 Okay. Quick comment.
6:51:25 Yeah.
6:51:27 This is important.
6:51:30 So um I first want to say that
6:51:35 what is the problem?
6:51:37 You can't take a vote without holding a
6:51:39 p a public hearing. Number one. Number
6:51:41 two, when you look at the agenda, sit
6:51:44 down, please. This is not a public
6:51:45 comment. I'm sorry.
6:51:46 It's so hard for me to talk tonight.
6:51:48 Even Regina's interrupting me. So, so
6:51:52 Michael, this narrative that you know
6:51:54 they're they're inserting something at
6:51:56 the last minute to blow it up, right? Um
6:51:59 you we talked about this yesterday. You
6:52:01 received a note from them a week ago,
6:52:05 two weeks ago.
6:52:06 You mean the the the thing on the 25th?
6:52:08 Well, I I don't know what the date was.
6:52:11 Janice Khan was copied. She was the
6:52:13 February.
6:52:15 and they said the zoning isn't working
6:52:16 for us, right? Basically, it's not
6:52:19 working for us. Um and and so but
6:52:23 this idea that they're trying to tank it
6:52:25 at the last minute. Um I I just I think
6:52:28 it's I don't think it's fair because
6:52:29 they did communicate with you. You
6:52:31 didn't communicate with us that there
6:52:33 was another property owner that had an
6:52:34 issue. So by rights in reality, you
6:52:38 should have brought it to our attention
6:52:39 when this thing uh was raised by them
6:52:41 and and you chose not to. So I I let me
6:52:44 just you I haven't talked. I've kept my
6:52:47 mouth shut. Okay, this isn't just about
6:52:50 one property owner. Okay, city realy.
6:52:53 It's also about other property owners.
6:52:55 But the reason for the for suggesting
6:52:57 that we give this more time is it's not
6:52:59 just about that property owner. There's
6:53:01 no support from South Brooklyn 14, 15,
6:53:04 and 16 said they're not voting for this.
6:53:07 Okay, they're not. So we don't have
6:53:09 cons. We don't have near consensus to
6:53:11 get this thing to a third two-thirds
6:53:13 vote. You and I talked about this,
6:53:15 right? Your line of sight isn't there.
6:53:17 So, I I really want to strongly
6:53:20 encourage us to do what Chaz suggested,
6:53:24 what Bernard started with the with the
6:53:26 uh the motion is to instruct staff to
6:53:30 come back next week with a package for a
6:53:34 special town meeting in September,
6:53:36 either the 15th or 30. find a date in
6:53:38 the in September, ideally in the second
6:53:41 half and with the amended articles so
6:53:42 that we can settle this and put create
6:53:44 the special town meeting and get it
6:53:46 settled. Um, that's what I'd like to
6:53:48 make a motion to vote on tonight.
6:53:50 Um, maybe it'll pass, maybe it won't,
6:53:52 but that's I think what
6:53:53 Okay,
6:53:54 I'd like to make that motion.
6:53:56 Okay, Paul,
6:53:57 anybody second?
6:53:58 I'll second.
6:53:59 Meredith, you want to say no?
6:54:02 Or I'm sorry, Cara. Oh, you just come up
6:54:05 to get a better view of the slack board.
6:54:09 Thank you. And uh good morning. I just
6:54:11 wanted to say that um Meredith and I
6:54:13 were just comparing notes about some of
6:54:14 the deadlines that we need to follow for
6:54:16 planning board
6:54:18 procedures process. If you still wanted
6:54:21 for some reason things were to come
6:54:23 together, if you still wanted to do the
6:54:25 Mtown meeting, we would probably need to
6:54:27 we are planning to advertise a week from
6:54:30 yesterday um this coming Tuesday. So it
6:54:34 probably if it if you want to go to
6:54:36 Maytown meeting, we would probably need
6:54:37 that warrant open and closed and
6:54:40 executed by Tuesday during your open
6:54:43 work session. But I'm hearing majority
6:54:45 of you wanting to shift to the fall
6:54:48 no matter what. We don't know if it's a
6:54:49 majority.
6:54:50 Okay.
6:54:50 We're going to take a vote. We'll find
6:54:51 out.
6:54:52 Okay.
6:54:54 So, I made a motion to
6:54:55 Okay. Motion to amend my motion um to uh
6:55:00 push out the date to September or
6:55:02 something. Um so, we'll take a vote on
6:55:05 the mot.
6:55:13 There's not Well, there's not clarity. I
6:55:14 just want to make clarity. Bernard, you
6:55:15 had moved actually the special town
6:55:17 meeting. Chaz made a case that we
6:55:19 actually can't do the special town
6:55:20 meeting tonight. So what he suggested so
6:55:24 you you can't do you can't do a special
6:55:25 town meeting for a different date,
6:55:27 right? You we we we need to go back to
6:55:29 the drawing board and figure that out.
6:55:31 So he suggest So what Chaz suggested was
6:55:33 that we that we vote to direct staff to
6:55:40 investigate what date in September would
6:55:42 work. Find the date that works. Um and
6:55:46 put of the package of the zoning and
6:55:49 other materials that need to go into
6:55:51 that because some dates are going to
6:55:53 change.
6:55:53 Okay, that's an amendment to my motion,
6:55:56 which is
6:55:58 to um approve the special town meeting
6:56:02 um for September 26th.
6:56:05 For May 26th,
6:56:06 I'm sorry. May 26th.
6:56:08 Y
6:56:09 um okay. So, we'll vote
6:56:10 the point of order.
6:56:12 No, you may not make it. You are not
6:56:14 You have to respect the point of order.
6:56:15 No, you may. No, you do not.
6:56:17 Ma'am, sit down.
6:56:18 You cannot take a vote on a warrant
6:56:20 article without holding a public
6:56:22 hearing.
6:56:22 This is not a warrant article. This is a
6:56:24 warrant. Sit down, please. You are out
6:56:26 of order.
6:56:27 No, you are out of order. Sit down,
6:56:29 please. You are out of order.
6:56:31 We don't have to yell at her. Regina,
6:56:33 we're not voting on a warrant article. I
6:56:34 sure am.
6:56:36 We're not voting on a warrant article. I
6:56:38 promise.
6:56:40 Okay. Thank you.
6:56:41 Okay. I have a request.
6:56:44 Paul, you had said earlier that you had
6:56:46 a list of issues that you thought were
6:56:48 of concern between now.
6:56:50 I am asking if you would be willing to
6:56:52 share that list with the select board
6:56:54 and the staff so that we can review that
6:56:57 list and understand combination. They
6:56:59 were all mentioned tonight. David talked
6:57:01 about the transportation. Um he talked
6:57:04 about uh the issue with growth
6:57:06 companies. Um
6:57:10 there it's been mentioned that we want
6:57:11 to do due diligence on um hire someone
6:57:14 to actually be able to sign an NDA with
6:57:18 uh with city realy and and check the
6:57:21 financials and make sure that what
6:57:22 they're saying is true
6:57:24 but we've done it with every other
6:57:25 project. Um
6:57:26 okay wait just just give me your your mo
6:57:29 your amendment and let's vote on that.
6:57:31 We're taking up way too much time. Okay,
6:57:33 I agree with you question Michael just I
6:57:37 know but
6:57:38 I I I apologize
6:57:39 barking
6:57:41 I'm
6:57:41 not barking
6:57:42 you are a little bit but it's it's late
6:57:44 okay so I made my amendment so
6:57:48 so repeat it
6:57:49 so so so the so the proposed motion or
6:57:52 amendment is that we direct staff
6:57:56 to come back with a special town meeting
6:58:01 package for September they'd have to
6:58:03 figure out when town hall when uh the
6:58:06 high school is available and the
6:58:08 associated warrant article whatever
6:58:11 would go into it um if we need it at
6:58:14 that time uh for for September
6:58:18 for
6:58:22 okay um everyone understand that all in
6:58:25 favor please indicate by saying I John
6:58:27 Vansco
6:58:29 uh
6:58:31 is the alternative that we can just lay
6:58:33 this to rest for a week and come back.
6:58:36 Well, the alternative was going to be um
6:58:38 the May 26 warrant article or May 26 uh
6:58:42 town meeting, but if you want to propose
6:58:45 that um
6:58:47 well why don't we why don't we say this?
6:58:49 I'm sorry. I know there's a motion on
6:58:50 the table, but just to try and satisfy
6:58:52 everyone.
6:58:52 Yeah.
6:58:53 Why don't we come back and update you on
6:58:54 where we are in a week? Why don't we
6:58:56 come to your work session and say we've
6:58:59 identifi here's how far we've gotten on
6:59:00 September. that would be the last
6:59:02 possible day to decide whether or not
6:59:04 you move forward on this. So, you have
6:59:06 an escape valve there, but we will be
6:59:08 operating under the assumption that it's
6:59:09 September. Um, and then we will tell you
6:59:12 how far we've gotten
6:59:13 and then if you want to make a motion
6:59:15 to, you know, call it on call it in May,
6:59:18 then okay. But our assumption would be
6:59:20 to go forward in September. But that's
6:59:22 what gets us that's what gets everyone
6:59:24 satisfied and gets us out of
6:59:25 we but we have all the information if we
6:59:27 want to call it for May. We don't need
6:59:28 to do any other work.
6:59:30 No. So, right. So that's if that's what
6:59:32 what John is suggesting is can you you
6:59:34 know how late can you keep this May
6:59:35 option on the table? The answer is to
6:59:37 next week. So
6:59:38 what is the additional what's the
6:59:40 additional information you need for us
6:59:42 to decide whether we want May or not? I
6:59:44 mean does the board already have the
6:59:47 I I mean I I I think some questions have
6:59:49 been raised about whether we're being
6:59:51 played.
6:59:52 Yeah.
6:59:53 And I I think we we need to figure try
6:59:55 to figure that out. It's not an easy
6:59:57 thing to figure out. You know, it
6:59:59 depends on conversations you have with
7:00:01 these individuals and whether you think
7:00:03 that they're being straight with you or
7:00:05 not being straight with you or, you
7:00:06 know, what their motivation is and so
7:00:08 on. And and you know, I I I can't say
7:00:12 for sure that I know what's going on
7:00:14 here tonight. I want to know what's
7:00:16 going on here and you know at least have
7:00:18 a better understanding of what's going
7:00:20 on here as to what our options are and
7:00:22 you know because I don't want to be part
7:00:25 of delaying this till September and then
7:00:28 find out
7:00:30 he wasn't serious about that development
7:00:32 proposal and furthermore it hinged on
7:00:34 four houses he said he was going to buy
7:00:36 that he has no way of buying you know so
7:00:39 we we need to know a little bit more
7:00:41 about this this idea that's
7:00:45 raised that uh there that that there was
7:00:48 not an opportunity given to another
7:00:50 developer who was you know credible and
7:00:52 who had a credible plan
7:00:55 and I can't swear that it's that I know
7:00:58 the answer to that question. I I don't
7:01:00 know if
7:01:00 how would you determine whether the guys
7:01:03 So Chad says that they can come back
7:01:05 next week and and and
7:01:08 and uh give us guidance as to where we
7:01:10 go next.
7:01:12 We're not getting anywhere by continuing
7:01:15 this discussion. So, I'd like to end
7:01:17 this meeting in the second day of it.
7:01:20 Um, and uh, you know, wait for uh, what
7:01:23 Chaz and staff bring back next week.
7:01:27 So, John, are you happy waiting till
7:01:28 next week?
7:01:30 Yeah, that's what I'm I'm trying to
7:01:32 Well, that's what I'm trying to
7:01:33 understand.
7:01:33 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
7:01:35 Okay. So, with that said, I'm going to
7:01:39 end the meeting.
7:01:39 You have public comments. public
7:01:41 comment.
7:01:41 Regina wants to make that comment. And
7:01:43 Regina, I um I apologize for being cross
7:01:46 with you. That was it was not
7:01:48 appropriate.
7:01:48 Get out on me and your frustration. It's
7:01:50 late for me too.
7:01:51 I understand. I
7:01:52 And I haven't been rude.
7:01:54 I apologize that there is a bylaw.
7:01:57 If you are going to take
7:01:59 Excuse me. I now have the floor for
7:02:01 public comment. You don't get to
7:02:03 interrupt.
7:02:04 I do.
7:02:04 No, you don't.
7:02:05 Town council is the one that gives us
7:02:08 legal guidance. and don't try to
7:02:12 push your way into saying that. Now, you
7:02:13 can make your comment, but we listen to
7:02:16 town council.
7:02:16 That's what a point of order is. And and
7:02:19 Sandy Gatsby was very clear that if you
7:02:21 don't raise it before there's a vote,
7:02:23 you lose your opportunity. So, I'm I
7:02:26 rose before what could have been a vote
7:02:30 and it's down as on the agenda as if it
7:02:32 would be a vote. So, I I had to use
7:02:35 parliamentary procedure. Regina, can I
7:02:38 make one one quick point? You don't have
7:02:40 standing to make uh you don't have
7:02:42 standing in this meeting to to call a
7:02:45 point of order
7:02:46 if you're doing a warrant article. I do.
7:02:48 No, no, you you do not in in you do not
7:02:51 have standing to make a point for you do
7:02:52 in town meeting. Well, all town meeting
7:02:54 members do, but in this body, you in
7:02:57 this room, you do not have
7:02:58 because you do run by parliamentary
7:03:00 procedure. And if you advertise a public
7:03:03 hearing which is on the agenda,
7:03:06 maker comments,
7:03:08 if if I may, the the vote, had we taken
7:03:10 it tonight, was about whether to put
7:03:12 something on the warrant, not our
7:03:14 substantive position.
7:03:15 I understand that was the final result,
7:03:17 but that wasn't clear that it would be
7:03:19 the final result. That's the point.
7:03:22 Well, that's what was in the agenda.
7:03:24 So, I still have public comment.
7:03:26 Yep. Go ahead.
7:03:27 Yes. Yes.
7:03:29 Do acquaint yourself with the kind of
7:03:34 public procedure that is not rude, that
7:03:39 is inclusive. I sat here all night. I've
7:03:41 been here since 5:30. There is
7:03:44 absolutely no reason why you should
7:03:46 speak to anybody, let alone somebody who
7:03:48 invests their time, that gets no
7:03:50 remuneration for it. I don't have a pony
7:03:53 in that race as far as the names of the
7:03:56 companies. What I do care about is the
7:03:59 fact that I see
7:04:02 proposals for zoning change decade after
7:04:05 decade where you guys are reactive. You
7:04:08 are not the leaders. You don't say what
7:04:10 is the comprehensive plan for Brookline
7:04:14 that in this case would have included
7:04:15 this other these other parcels you were
7:04:17 talking about with I think you said
7:04:20 globes I don't know who these people are
7:04:22 there should be one heck of a process
7:04:24 and it should come out of a consensus of
7:04:27 the people and you people should not be
7:04:30 making the final decisions town meeting
7:04:32 should but you should be giving us all
7:04:34 the resources we need to understand what
7:04:37 the options are. We've done that in the
7:04:40 past for the B2. We've done it at other
7:04:43 times. We just town meetings should be
7:04:46 educated with the kinds of skills that
7:04:48 our planning department has and the
7:04:51 rigor of questions. That does include
7:04:53 public rigor as well. We need a grand
7:04:56 plan for that whole section. We've been
7:04:58 wanting that section developed for a
7:05:00 long time. Nobody I know is against it.
7:05:03 It's the question of how does it do it
7:05:05 and how does it serve the public in the
7:05:07 end at large and all of the the
7:05:09 stakeholders including the abutters. So
7:05:12 the process, if you can do something
7:05:15 over the summer, if that ends up being
7:05:16 how it is handled, you need to do an
7:05:19 extraordinary outreach to the neighbors
7:05:21 as well as townwide to come to every
7:05:24 meeting so that we do hear every single
7:05:26 proposal. And we make a judgment at at
7:05:30 those meetings as to how good faith the
7:05:33 players are. So I don't know who these
7:05:36 globals are. I don't know who city is,
7:05:38 but I want to make that judgment by
7:05:40 seeing them in action. And this is quite
7:05:42 a curveball thrown into the mix. I grant
7:05:46 you because I don't know any why it
7:05:48 waited this long. I don't know who these
7:05:50 people are. Maybe they're last minute 11
7:05:52 hour planners. Maybe they didn't have
7:05:54 their funding for some of the plan
7:05:56 they're thinking of. They needed the
7:05:58 bank to to back it. I don't know any of
7:06:00 those things. and all of those things,
7:06:02 but it should be something that is
7:06:03 discussed by the public in front of the
7:06:06 public with the public for the public.
7:06:08 Thank you.
7:06:11 Thank you. Okay, with that, the meeting
7:06:13 is over.
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