 to our public hearing and public meeting from Massachusetts Gaming Commission. This meeting is being held virtually in accordance with the open meeting law where virtual connectivity has been extended to allow us to, permission for virtual connectivity has been extended, allowing us to continue to meet on this platform. We're grateful for that. I wanna take a roll call because we are meeting virtually for the commissioners, Commissioner O'Brien. Good afternoon, I am here. Good afternoon, Commissioner Hill. I'm here. Great, and Commissioner Skinner. I'm here and good afternoon. I said morning earlier. Yes. Okay, and we're gonna get started but just a little bit of housekeeping. We have right now on our list three individuals who have asked to speak. We're hoping to keep comments to three to five minutes but we could always revisit someone if they really need to speak further but we only have three. This hearing will stay open until 2 p.m. Regardless of whether or not we have any other speakers join us. There may be folks who join us in the public meeting and do wish to speak. And if they do, we're going to remind them to end Crystal and Dave and Mills. You can help me on this. You could be keeping track of anyone who joins. Remind folks to send an email to mgccommentsatmassgaming.gov. And if that doesn't work for you for any reason and you're online, you can simply give us a shout out and we will make sure that you're heard during this forum. The trick to being heard is if because when you come in you're likely to be muted will be to engage star six. But the best way to connect with us if you haven't already is via email mgccommentsatmassgaming.gov. So we're going to get started with call to order. Today is Tuesday, July 26th and this is a meeting for public input on an application for a license to hold or conduct a racing meeting. And this would be an application for a new racing meeting as opposed to the application for a renewal. We have with us members of the MGC staff including of course, Dr. Lightbound our racing director and the commissioners and we'll get started with IC. We have this young Chris Pamela, a young Chris, are you calling in? I don't see your name. If so, you could engage star six Pamela young Chris. Let's give her a second to see if she can disengage. Otherwise we're going to go with Barbara Kellogg and I see Ms. Kellogg that you are on. So if you wish to engage your video you're welcome to do that and unmute. So we'll go ahead and Ms. Kellogg. Chris, what do you think we're having? Oh, thanks, yeah. No, there's Ms. Kellogg. Thanks. Okay, I'll just have a few comments to make. Thank you. First, this new application process that you're contemplating as you know is inconsistent with 128A section two which requires that an application be filed in one year for racing in the following calendar year. And the statute is clear that it must be filed in one year for the next year. I know the gaming commission has proposed legislation giving it the ability to award multi-year licenses but the legislature has not yet seen fit to give you that discretion. Secondly, in your proposed application process you don't have any absolute minimums that you're requiring at the time of the initial application. You're contemplating that likely the request is going to be to race on what is now an empty lot that would take years to build. So you're not requiring that any part of the application be specific in order to apply for a license. So you could conceivably have three separate applications filed on October one, each with answers to different sets of questions with the rest being to be determined. So I think what you need to do is you need to have some minimum requirements for submittal of the application and certain enumerated questions that require an answer at a minimum section 4.1 which is the local approval under 128A section 13A. That should be a requirement and the requirement should be that you have an attested copy of the actual approval itself. I know that last year, Sturbridge filed an application saying with just a letter that they had approval but nothing about the conditions that were attached to that approval. Also, in the interest of integrity and fairness and openness of the process, I think that the applicant should be required to list any and all promises that the applicant or any principal or attorney or agent of the applicant has made to the local municipality, especially promises made in order to receive that local approval. Those promises should be listed and made a condition of the license. And in any case where any such promises contrary to federal state or local law or preempted by federal state or local law and especially any provision of 128A, 128C or 23K, that inconsistency should require an automatic denial of the license. Another requirement for the submittal of an application should be specific engineered plans for all facilities and tracks, including all the amenities and the grading shape and size of any track. In your section 4.4 of other laws and approvals required, that should be one of the enumerated requirements for the initial application. And it should include evidence that all of the facilities are consistent with local zoning. You should require detail of the system of manure management that is being proposed and the plans to ensure the welfare of horses on site and their aftercare. And those are notably absent from the application process. And then in section 2, 2.2 should require detailed plans for parking of not only automobiles, but trucks, horse trailers and RVs and what areas are gonna have 20% of the parking lot have 24 hour parking. The system of waste management should be a requirement. The 2.5, the construction timeline should be a requirement, 2.6 traffic studies, 2.7 capital investment, 2.8 financing structure, 2.9 budget and 2.10 economic impact or development studies. And that should include studies of all of the proposed activities, racing, simulcasting, how the purses are gonna be funded, especially if the resource development fund is terminated. And it should include an analysis of all the costs and revenue, not only to the local municipality, but to the abutting communities. 2.11 feasibility studies should be required part of the initial application. And then section 3, the schedule of the proposed race days, that's a requirement under 128A. It requires any application for a license to state the race days and hours. And that's really just the beginning. I think that the commissioners at the beginning of this discussion. And I think you really need a lot more time to flesh this out. Thank you. Ms. Kellogg, you've had extensive comments and I extend my appreciation. Would you be willing to submit or memorialize them in writing for us and submit them? Yes, yes, I would. And the best address would probably be to go to our general counsel. Todd, can you give her your email address, please? Is that on your website? Is email? I don't know. Mine is, you can use mine, but I just soon haven't got it. I can send it directly because Barbara did email us. Okay, we'll coordinate with Crystal. Okay, thanks, Ms. Kellogg. And I appreciate your comments. Commissioners, do you have questions at this time for Ms. Kellogg? I see a note from, sorry. Commissioner Skinner. No questions. Mr. Hill. All set, okay. And Commissioner O'Brien, all set. Yeah, you've given us a lot to think about and we appreciate it. So if you could send those comments to Crystal, that would be perfect. Excellent. And thank you for participating and thank you for taking a very close look at this matter. I'm just gonna go back before I go to Ms. Holdsworth just to see if Pamela Young-Quist has joined us by phone. Crystal, have you received an email from her that she's having any difficulty joining? I'm right here now. I was having a problem. I apologize. Oh, that's Ms. Holdsworth. I guess I'm looking for Ms. Young-Quist. Oh, I'm sorry. No, no problem. I'm gonna turn to you in one second. Okay, well, we're gonna wait for Ms. Young-Quist then again and good afternoon, Ms. Holdsworth. Thank you for joining today. If you would like, you could use the video if you don't wish to, that's fine too. Mine is actually not working right now. Okay, okay, good afternoon. Good afternoon. I echo a lot of Barbara Kellogg's sentiments regarding this application. I'm not going to repeat them because I don't, for the sake of saving time and not being redundant. But I do want to echo, however, that this really does feel as if it's sort of this application process seems like it's an end round around chapter 128A section two and section three. And I find that disconcerting. It concerns me also as I'm looking at this that we have a sports gambling piece of legislation that may or may not make it this year. And that may make a racetrack license more valuable. It may be to just simply having that license may permit that sports betting to begin, which leads me to wonder if the license is granted and construction begins, the grandstand may be developed first for the purpose of sports gambling. And I also want to bring to your attention, I'm sure you're very aware of historic horse racing, historic race racing machines that are used extensively in other states. They haven't been yet, Massachusetts is the best of my knowledge, but I do know that they are very popular in Kentucky and have been the target of, well, not target, but the subject of extensive litigation that has gone on for several years. And I do worry that that is going to be something that could allow a facility to again come in and sort of do their end run around the rules and build a part of their facility first to start generating the income through historic horse racing, which they would argue is paramutual betting, and perhaps through sports gambling. And then eventually build the racetrack, maybe the racetrack never comes to fruition. It seems to me there needs to be some sort of, if this is going to proceed as it appears it may, there needs to be a real solid timeframe and identification as to what's going to be done when and suspension of licenses. If people aren't hitting their targets, I'm sorry, my dog is laying in right now. We don't mind dogs. Oh, good. Take your time. Thank you. Thank you. I do apologize. So those are the biggest concerns I see. Oh, I also really do want to echo promises made to the public to induce community support. That I think is enormous. And I think that anyone trying to get a license needs to be accountable for the promises they make. And those promises should be part of subject to your scrutiny, obviously. And they should be required to deliver those promises. Come here, sis. No, stop. Pardon me. She's a happy girl. And so that I've been dealing with the plummet application or application to be or whatever it might be at this point in time. And there are an awful lot of promises being made and a lot of secrets it seems being kept. And it's really important, I think, if anyone's going to go through town to a community and say, this is what we want to build and so what we want to do that needs to be transparency. And that so far, I've not seen. And I think that that's part of what you folks are trying to encourage through this application. And I hope that maybe it'll be tightened up so that it can be allowed for more community transparency so that any kind of community approval is actually approval of what was promised to not approval of what it becomes. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Thank you, Ms. Holdsworth. We appreciate your comments and your willingness to participate today. Commissioners, do you have any questions or any comments? Commissioner O'Brien, all set? Commissioner Hill. I'm all set. Thank you. Commissioner Skinner. No questions, Chair. Thank you. Thank you so much for your time and we are all listening carefully and we appreciate your participation in this public hearing. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, and again, Ms. Young-Quist did sign up for comments. Have we heard from her? No, okay. No, we have three, it looks like we have three individuals who have joined so far today. Again, this public meeting will stay open through 2 p.m. Is there anybody who's in attendance currently listening that wishes to offer any kind of a comment? Okay, so before we even go, we'll go to item three. Crystal, it's indicating my internet connection is unstable, is there a problem? No? Okay, good. Great, so before we go to other business, we'll do that at the conclusion at round two, but as I understand it, commissioners, while the public hearing remains open, we can video out and mute ourselves and do what work we want to do during this period. Just stay vigilant around the screen to know if we should be rejoining and there'll be a, is there gonna be a screensaver? Crystal, I believe that Dave has one for the, yes, I can toss one up here. I'm getting that ready as we speak. Okay, and again, I'm going to repeat for anyone who may be on the streaming, if you wish to speak, please send an email to mgccommentsatmassgaming.gov. This is again, as we consider an application that has been developed to address a need for a, we did not have an application that was written appropriately for a new application for either thoroughbred or standard red horse racing. That's what's being discussed and we welcome any further public input and appreciate both Ms. Callagham as holds for your comments so far. And we'll be staying up until 2 p.m. Is there anything that I've missed, commissioners, or that you wish to add by missing? Also that, okay. Okay, then, thank you everyone for your time. We'll keep our window open and just a reminder that we will have a separate public meeting that's been separately posted that begin at 2.30 to deal with other operational matters. Okay, thanks everyone. Dave, I think we can take down the screen, sir. Please. Thank you. All good. Great, thank you. Soon as, yeah. Once I heard Barbara has her dog, I have mine right next to me now. That was very sweet. You know, that's the one thing the pandemic has taught us, how our pets have been part of our lives all along. We never got to share them before. He has my pal for sure. Yeah, I had a meeting yesterday with Loretta and I guess it was Friday from home and the pet popped up and she said, but I never see him, so no. He usually stays low and quiet. Mine's right at my feet. Ready your feet? Nice, good comfort. Yep. So it's about, it's just five minutes to two. I think I've got all four of us out of an abundance of caution, even though we didn't really leave the meeting, I'll just confirm that we are all here. Commissioner O'Brien. I am here. Commissioner Hill. Present. Commissioner Skinner. I'm here. Okay, I see that we have now one individual who is joining us by phone. I wanna offer that individual the opportunity to join if he or she wished to provide any public commentary. It would be the requirement to try star six to unmute. We have not received any additional emails from any other members of the public who wish to provide comment. I should note however, and it's noted in our public packet that we did receive a number of comments from the public in writing and we appreciate that input and we have reviewed those in advance of today's hearing. So I am thinking that we'll be able to close out at two. I see that both Ms. Holtzworth and Ms. Kellogg are still here. Thank you again for your contributions, commissioners. I don't think we have necessarily any other business. We do have our next public meeting in a half an hour. Is there anything I'm missing that you would like to comment on before we close out? I see shaking of heads. No, from commissioner O'Brien, commissioner Hill and commissioner Skinner. Are you all set? Okay, everyone's all set. Todd, I'm turning to you now. Is there anything else that we need to do before we close out this public hearing? No, I think we're all set on this one. We can close the meeting in the ordinary course. Okay. Again, the only person we didn't hear from and I hope it wasn't a technical problem was from Ms. Yanquist who had submitted an email that she intended to contribute. Certainly if there was some kind of a technical problem we would receive her comments in writing now if she wished to submit them. Okay, holding up for two minutes. Yes, because that's who we are. I think just in the event family Yanquist were to come in. Again, I don't see Dr. Lightbound on, she had a very busy day yesterday with the spirit of Massachusetts. So maybe we'll get an update at our next meeting in a half an hour on that. Crystal, I've got everything covered. Okay. Excellent. All right, then we will simply close out the meeting now with a motion to adjourn if somebody wants to provide it. We're moved. Okay, 1059, so. Do we need to move? Oh, that's what I'm wondering. Do we just close out? I think we just close out, right? This is actually marked as a public meeting as well. So I think you should actually. Oh, okay, two seconds. Did somebody move? I read it. Oh, thank you. Patricia Hill and with a second from a Christian O'Brien. All right, then this would conclude the public hearing and we had preserved public meeting in the event when we had any questions from the commissioners. Commissioner O'Brien? Aye. Commissioner Hill? Aye. Commissioner Skinner? Aye. And I vote yes for zero. Thank you, Todd. And thank you, Crystal. We will see you in a half an hour for our next public meeting. And thank you again, Ms. Holdsworth and Ms. Kellogg. Have a good day.